The ancient Romans relied on long-distance timber trading to construct their empire, according to a study published December 4, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mauro Bernabei from the National Research Council, Italy, and colleagues.
The timber requirements of ancient Rome were immense and complex, with different types of trees from various locations around the Roman Empire and beyond used for many purposes, including construction, shipbuilding and firewood. Unfortunately, the timber trade in ancient Rome is poorly understood, as little wood has been found in a state adequate for analysis. In this study, Bernabei et al successfully date and determine the origin and chronology of unusually well-preserved ancient Roman timber samples.
The twenty-four oak timber planks (Quercus species) analyzed in this study were
excavated during Metro construction in Rome during 2014-2016. They formed part of a
Roman portico in the gardens of via Sannio (belonging to what was once a lavishly
decorated and rich property). The authors measured the tree-ring widths for each plank
and ran statistical tests to determine average chronology, successfully dating thirteen of
the planks.
By comparing their dated planks to Mediterranean and central European oak reference
chronologies, the authors found that the oaks used for the Roman portico planks were
taken from the Jura mountains in eastern France, over 1700km away. Based on the
sapwood present in 8 of the thirteen samples, the authors were able to narrow the date
these oaks were felled to between 40 and 60 CE and determined that the planks all came from neighboring trees. Given the timber's dimensions and the vast distance it travelled, the authors suggest that ancient Romans (or their traders) likely floated the timber down the Saône and Rhône rivers in present-day France before transporting it over the Mediterranean Sea and then up the river Tiber to Rome, though this cannot be confirmed.
The authors note that the difficulty of obtaining these planks—which were not specially
sourced for an aesthetic function but used in the portico's foundations—suggests that the logistical organization of ancient Rome was considerable, and that their trade network was highly advanced.
Bernabei notes: “This study shows that in Roman times, wood from the near-natural
woodlands of north-eastern France was used for construction purposes in the centre of
Rome. Considering the distance, calculated to be over 1700km, the timber sizes, [and] the means of transportation with all the possible obstacles along the way, our research
emphasises the importance of wood for the Romans and the powerful logistic organisation of the Roman society.”
Read more: https://www.scientificamerican.com

ELA, SICILY—According to a report in The Local, excavation work on Sicily’s southern coast has revealed a small section of a Greek necropolis dating to the seventh century B.C. Among the burials, archaeologist Gianluca Calà has discovered the remains of a newborn and bones from a large animal in a hydria, or ceramic water jug, and a sarcophagus containing an intact skeleton.
Pottery recovered from the graves links them to the earliest Greeks from Rhodes and Crete to settle in Sicily. To read about excavations at the nearby Greek colony of Akragas, go to “Sicily’s Lost Theater.”

MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY—Montclair Magazine reports that demolition laborer Robert Kanaby discovered a message in a bottle dated July 3, 1907, while working in Montclair State University’s mission-style College Hall. He had been using a chipping hammer to break up an 18-inch-thick brick wall when he heard glass break and found the beer bottle in the brick debris. “This is to certify that this wall was built by two bricklayers from Newark, N.J., by the names of William Hanly and James Lennon, members of No. 3 of the B.M.I.U. of America,” the note read. Records from the 1920 Census indicate that a William J. Hanly, aged 33, lived in Newark and was able to write. James Lennon, born in 1875, was listed as living in Newark in the 1930 Census, along with his wife and 16-year-old daughter. The two men are thought to have been Irish immigrants. University officials plan to exhibit the bottle and the note, and they are looking for possible descendants of the two men

DEBELT, BULGARIA—Archaeology in Bulgaria reports that some 6,000 pieces of chain mail dating to sometime between the fourth and sixth centuries A.D. have been unearthed in the ancient Roman colony of Deultum, which is located near the Black Sea coast in southeastern Bulgaria. The armor, which includes two well-preserved sleeves, was found inside the colony’s fortress, against its north wall. Fragments of wood suggest the armor was stored in wooden chests. When the north wall collapsed during a fire, the armor, made up of rectangular slabs of wrought iron attached to leather garments, was crushed.

So far, analysis of the artifacts suggests the armor had been made by two or three different craftsmen. Conservation of the rare artifacts will be challenging. “This requires an incredible amount of work because every single slab has to be extracted, any corrosion needs to be cleaned up, and then the slab needs to be restored and placed on leather, the way it used to be,” explained Krasimira Kostova of the Deultum-Debelt Archaeological Preserve. Bronze coins, pins, and the bones of large guard dogs were also recovered from the fortress

By Bruce Bower
SAN DIEGO- A palm-sized sandstone object found in 1991 at an Early Islamic trading
outpost in what’s now southern Jordan appears to be the oldest known chess piece.
This roughly 1,300-year-old rectangular piece of rock with two hornlike projections on top resembles several rooks, also known as castles, that have been found at other Islamic sites in the region. But those other rooks date to a century or more later, John Oleson, an archaeologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, said. He presented his analysis of the carved rock on November 21 at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
Simpler board games than chess go back roughly 4,000 years in Eurasia (SN: 11/16/18).
Surviving written accounts indicate that chess originated in India at least 1,400 years ago,
Oleson said. Merchants and diplomats probably carried the game westward. The
suspected chess piece, excavated at Humayma, located on what was once a major trade
route, dates to between 680 and 749, when an Islamic family owned and ran the site.
“Chess became very popular in the early Islamic world,” Oleson said. It also brought
together people with diverse backgrounds. Islamic texts from that time portray chess
matches between Muslims and Christians and between rich and poor players.
Rooks from southwestern Asia in the shape of two-horse chariots date to as early as the
late 700s. The two-pronged shape of early Islamic rooks may have been meant to
represent such chariots, Oleson said.
The possibly record-setting Humayma rook is now stored at the University of Victoria.
At his home nearby, Oleson noted ruefully, his 10-year-old grandson regularly beats him
at chess.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/carved-rock-found-jordan-may-be-oldest-known-

Kaveh Farrokh will be providing a comprehensive lecture on November 29, 2019 at the University of British Columbia, Civilizational Contacts Between Ancient Iran and Europa During the Classical Era,
29 November 2019, 6:30-8:30 pm, Room 120, CK Choi Building, University of British Columbia 2019.
This lecture provides a synoptic overview of the civilizational relations between Greater ancient Iran and Europa (Greco-Roman civilization as well continental Europe). The discussion is initiated with an examination of the conduits of exchange between Greater ancient Iran (the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanian dynasties of Iran as well as the role of Northern Iranian peoples), the Caucasus and Europa. The lecture then provides an overview of learning exchanges between east and west spanning the time era from the Achaemenids into the Post-Sassanian eras, followed by examples of artistic, architectural, and engineering exchanges between Greco-Roman and Iranian civilizations. Select examples of the ancient Iranian legacy influence upon the European continent are also discussed, followed (time permitting) by examples of the musical legacy of ancient Iran as well as Iranian-European exchanges in the culinary domain.

An incredible discovery in Florida of an ancient Native American tribal settlement has completely changed what was previously known about the timeline and sophistication of the tribes who lived in the modern day southeastern United States.

Thanks to research from two Florida-based academics studying the region, and the modern technology they’re using, including lasers and drones, these two men have found evidence of a past tribe that lived on the Raleigh Islands, Florida. Archaeologists had found evidence of past Native American tribes on the island back in 1990. However the technology at their disposal, almost three decades ago, was not sufficiently sophisticated to enable them to examine the ground deeply enough. That, along with the advent of lasers, drones and other gear, has changed archaeology considerably.

The researchers, Professor Ken Sassaman and anthropology PhD studentTerry Barbour,
both from the University of Florida, told the press last week that their findings are both
exciting and meaningful. “This technology is unbelievable,” Sassaman enthused to the
guardian. It “enabled penetration through the gaps” in the trees, Sassaman explained,
and that, ultimately, allowed them to create a 3D map of the region using state of the art
LIDAR technology.

There is “abundant evidence,” Sassaman continued, of a tribe of Native Americans who
lived in the area, on Raleigh Island, and flourished. They created an entire settlement
whose economy revolved around the making of beads from seashells, beads that were
then sent to other tribes in the America southeast. Almost 40 homes were revealed by the
map, another indicator that the settlement’s livelihood was thriving, as the homes’ walls
were as high as 12 feet in places — and they were made of shells. The community existed between 900 and 1200 A.D.

It has huge implications for scientific knowledge about life on America’s eastern
seaboard, Barbour told Newsweek recently. “The fact that we have evidence of bead
manufacturing at a site with equally impressive architecture to guide us in understanding
how production was organized socially, makes this place really special, and as of now the
only place like it we are aware of.” “In form, scale and purpose, the Raleigh settlement has no parallel in the archaeological record of the American southeast,” Sassaman concluded during the same interview with Newsweek. Explaining why the recovery of beads — and the stone tools that made them — was so vital, Sassaman said, “The discovery of possible bead production may provide information on past eastern societies in eastern North America — and how beads were integral to social capital.”

Objects at the sight were found during the 1999 dig, and during a subsequent excavation
in 2010. But it was the scanning ability of the drones that gave the team their first in-
depth pictures of the community. Furthermore, Sassaman and Barbour believe that the
beads were, in turn, passed to other tribes’ chiefs, for use in tribal rituals.
Hence, although the beads were not currency in the way we understand and use it today,
they were highly significant and profoundly important not only to the people who made
them, but to others across the southeastern United States.
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/11/14/florida-native-american-settlement/