JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA—According to a statement released by Wits University, Bernhard Zipfel of Wits University and his colleagues made flip-flops from natural materials, similar to those worn by hunter-gatherer San people today. The researchers then wore the sandals while walking along beaches on South Africa’s Cape Coast. When they compared computerized images of their resulting footprints with photographs of human trackways dated to between 70,000 and 150,000 years ago, the researchers detected “amazing correlations,” Zipfel said. Hominins would have worn shoes to protect their feet from the very sharp rocks along the Southern Cape Coast at the time, he explained. “It makes sense that people would use footwear to protect themselves. One hundred thousand years ago, an injury to the foot could have been fatal,” he concluded.

https://www.archaeology.org/news/11877-231103-hominins-trackway-shoes

CAMPECHE, MEXICO—Newsweek reports that researchers from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) working in southern Mexico at the Maya site of El Tigre have uncovered a circular structure that may have supported a temple dedicated to Kukulcán, a serpent deity. The presence of the building supports the idea that El Tigre may be Itzamkanac, a settlement described in the late sixteenth century in the Paxbolón Maldonado Papers. The work states that the city of Itzamkanac featured temples dedicated to four deities, including Kukulcán. “This building broadens our knowledge of the late occupation of El Tigre,” said INAH’s general director, Diego Prieto. “Circular structures generally correspond to the early Postclassic period between A.D. 1000 and 1200, when the Maya zone had links with other regions in Mesoamerica,” he explained. Similar round structures have been found at the Maya sites of Edzná, Becán, Uxmal, and Chichen Itzá. 

Happy Mehregan! A new video has been published. View it online at:

https://youtu.be/dR7fGYhwiRc

https://youtube.com/shorts/ilchJbhSCjU?feature=share

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Caravanserais were roadside inns, providing shelter, food and water for caravans, pilgrims and other travellers. The routes and the locations of the caravanserais were determined by the presence of water, geographical conditions and security concerns. The fifty-four caravanserais of the property are only a small percentage of the numerous caravanserais built along the ancient roads of Iran. They are considered to be the most influential and valuable examples of the caravanserais of Iran, revealing a wide range of architectural styles, adaptation to climatic conditions, and construction materials, spread across thousands of kilometres and built over many centuries. Together, they showcase the evolution and network of caravanserais in Iran, in different historical stages.

ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT news reports that a temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphrodite was discovered at the underwater site of the city of Thonis-Heracleion in Abu Qir Bay by a team of Egyptian and French archaeologists from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology. Mostafa Waziri of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said that the temple has been dated to the fifth century B.C. Artifacts made of bronze and ceramic were found within the temple, he added. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and rising sea levels are thought to have caused much of the city of Thonis-Heracleion to sink in the second century B.C

CÓRDOBA, SPAIN—According to a statement released by the Public Library of Science, researchers from the University of Bern and the University of Córdoba examined human remains found in the Cueva de los Marmoles, which is located in southern Spain. The remains came from at least 12 individuals, and have been dated from the fifth to second millennium B.C. Some of the bones had been broken and scraped, perhaps to remove tissue and extract marrow. Other bones, including a tibia that may have been used as a tool and a cranium that might have been used as a cup, were also identified. Similarly worked bones have been found at other cave sites in the southern Iberian Peninsula, the researchers explained. The bones may have been unearthed and modified for use for symbolic purposes, they added. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE.

VALLETTVALLETTA, MALTA—The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Irving R. Newman have been recovered by maritime archaeologist Timmy Gambin of the University of Malta and his colleagues from the underwater wreckage of a B-24 Liberator bomber that crashed near Malta in May 1943, according to a Live Science report. The plane, which had been based in Libya, was hit by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing raid over Italy’s southern tip. Newman was also wounded. The aircraft then headed toward Malta, where there was an emergency landing site for Allied aircraft, but it lost power on the way. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency researchers, who confirmed the identity of the remains, said that the bomber’s nine other crew members survived the crash and were rescuedA, MALTA—The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Irving R. Newman have been recovered by maritime archaeologist Timmy Gambin of the University of Malta and his colleagues from the underwater wreckage of a B-24 Liberator bomber that crashed near Malta in May 1943, according to a Live Science report. The plane, which had been based in Libya, was hit by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing raid over Italy’s southern tip. Newman was also wounded. The aircraft then headed toward Malta, where there was an emergency landing site for Allied aircraft, but it lost power on the way. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency researchers, who confirmed the identity of the remains, said that the bomber’s nine other crew members survived the crash and were rescued

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—According to an i24 News report, Itamar Taxel of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Nitzan Amitai-Preiss of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem analyzed a collection of 400-year-old artifacts unearthed near the Red Sea in the 1990s. The site where the objects were discovered was situated near the Darb al-Hajj Road, which ran from Cairo, through the Sinai Peninsula, and into the Arabian Peninsula and the pilgrimage city of Mecca. This road was in use from about the seventh century A.D. into the nineteenth century. The artifacts include fragments of clay rattles, possible miniature votive incense altars, a figurine of a woman or goddess with raised hands, an animal figurine, and colored quartz pebbles. Taxel and Amitai-Preiss suggest that these objects originated in Egypt and were used by pilgrims to ward off the evil eye and heal diseases on their journey. This is the first time that such a large assemblage of ritual objects of this kind has been found, and it is even more unique at a temporary site and not a permanent settlement, the researchers explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World..”