Nostr notes by The History Blog (Unofficial)

Prehistoric battle axe blocked from leaving UK A prehistoric ...

2026-10-29T09:41:01Z

Prehistoric battle axe blocked from leaving UK

A prehistoric battle-axe head discovered in 1974 at Scarthingwell, near Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, has been temporarily blocked from export to give museums and local collectors a chance to buy it and keep it in the UK where it can be on public display. It is more than 4,000 years old, dating to the Bronze Age.
The battle-axe provides valuable insight into the role these objects played in expressing status, identity and changing ways of life in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain. It also has significant research potential, offering future generations an opportunity to learn more about this period of our shared national history.
Discovered by accident during construction work but only reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme in 2012, the axe head is made of diorite, a hard igneous rock with a distinctive mottled pattern. It has curved edges, a central hole for the handle and highly polished surface that emphasizes the natural pattern in the stone. It is in exceptional condition.
According to Tim Pestell, member of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA), cutting a hard stone like this into a tapered shape with a central hole and then polishing it to a bright shine would have required hundreds of hours of hard work. The emphasis on aesthetics in the production of the piece suggest it was not just a utilitarian device.
In a profound period of change, the Early Bronze Age witnessed a society previously restricted to flint tool technology adopting metalwork. Despite this, battle axes became some of the most powerful symbolic objects, labelled by one scholar as ‘blunt instruments of power’. Made of stone rather than metal, they conveyed important social, sacred and political messages.
The axe head’s outstanding connection the British history, aesthetic significance and importance to the study of artifacts like it meets the first, second and third of the Waverley criteria used by the committee to make its determination. On the recommendation of RCEWA, Heritage Minister Baroness Twycross imposed a temporary export bar on the prehistoric artefact. Potential purchasers have until December 22 to make a good faith effort to raise the funds to acquire the axe head for the recommended price of £15,000 ($16,700).

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77239

#bronzeage #prehistoricbattle #axe #northyorkshire #agebritain #earlybronze #export #objects #antiquitiesscheme #portableantiquities

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A rare surviving Suffragette Christmas card found in Mold, ...

2026-10-28T08:46:11Z

A rare surviving Suffragette Christmas card found in Mold, Flintshire, has been donated to the Victoria & Albert Museum. The card was sold by the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) around 1910 to raise money for its women’s suffrage activism. It reemerged at a WeBuyVintage roadshow event and valued at around £2,500.
Matt Case, senior antiques specialist at WeBuyVintage, said finding an original example was “incredibly exciting”.
He said: “These weren’t simply Christmas cards, they were pieces of political campaigning that helped fund one of the most significant social movements in British history.
“Because they were intended to be seasonal and disposable, very few have survived, especially in such good condition.”
Examples of this card with the original China dolls still attached are rare, and this one is a particularly fine example with the colors still vivid. A comparable card with more faded purple silk and green print and more staining on the paper sold at Bonhams London in 2024 for £2,816.
Christmas was a meaningful time for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), the women-only militant activist organization created in 1906 by Emmeline Pankhurst with the goal of employing civil disobedience, direct action, confrontation with politicians and police, even arson, sabotage and property damage in their campaign for women’s suffrage. Founded in Manchester on October 10th, they organized a march to London on December 13th, to protest Parliament’s refusal to pass legislation enfranchising women. Several WSPU members were arrested in the protest. They refused to pay fines and were sentenced to two weeks in jail. Members of the WSPU protested again on December 20th, and another five were arrested. Twenty-one WSPU suffragists in total spent that Christmas under lock and key at Holloway Prison.
That did not stop the others from continuing their work, however. When the House adjourned to celebrate the holidays with their family, the WSPU were at the door giving MPs envelopes inscribed: “What a woman really wants for a Christmas box”. Inside the envelope was a slip of paper with “A vote” written on it.
When the arrested Suffragettes were released in January, a special Christmas dinner was arranged and when the next group was released a public welcome breakfast was held at Anderton’s Hotel in London. That became a yearly tradition.
The WSPU became adept at what we today would call branding. They designed a flag in purple, white and green in 1908, and used those colors in all of their campaign materials, publications, event tickets and fundraising merchandise, Christmas cards among them.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77234

#albertmuseum #wspu #christmas #politicalunion #flintshire #mold #women #london #suffragettechristmas #bonhamslondon

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Unique Pre-Inca elite toddler burial found in Peru The has been ...

2026-10-27T08:46:22Z

Unique Pre-Inca elite toddler burial found in Peru

The has been discovered at the Huaca de la Luna archaeological site in northern Peru. The tomb dates to the 6th or 7th century. It contains the skeletal remains of a small child who was no more than two years at time of death. The sex could not be determined from the initial osteological examination, but he or she was someone important.
Huaca de la Luna (Temple of the Moon) was one of two religious complexes in the ancient capital of the Moche culture, today known as Cerro Blanco, built less than three miles from the modern-day city of Trujillo and from the Pacific Coast. From the 3rd to the 9th century, Moche architects built platforms out of adobe blocks (huacas), then ritually filled them in, encased them in adobe blocks and built platforms on top of them. At least six phases of construction have been identified in the capital, using millions of adobe blocks. The increasingly enormous platforms were connected to each other by an intricate network of ramps and plazas, and smaller platforms were built next to the major huacas.
The team unearthed the tomb inside the Uhle Platform at the Huacas de Moche archaeological site in northern Peru. The Uhle Platform is a mausoleum, attached to the Huaca de la Luna temple, with a patio archaeologists call the Patio of the Serpents. Of the more than 80 burials previously uncovered there, the tomb represents the only known child to receive this sort of lavish burial.
The tomb is large and could easily have been used to bury an adult even with all the grave goods, another indicator of the high status of the child. It contains 32 ceramic objects, most of them vessels. One rare object is a sculpture of a deity with a human body and the wings and tail of a bird. He holds a shield in one hand and a goblet in the other. On each side of him is a bird attendant garbed in ceremonial clothes. It’s possible that the sculpture represents a deity in the midst of transformation rather than a human-bird mixture. Because the Moche had no written language, there is debate among scholars about whether they worshipped a pantheon of multiple gods, or a small number who were capable of multiple transformations.
Another rare find is a pair of the ceramic prisoners of war.
The two prisoner sculptures are associated with the “ritual of combat,” a common theme in Moche art. In this sort of imagery, two warriors fight each other, and the loser is stripped of his clothes and weapons, tied around the neck with a rope and offered as a human sacrifice, Rengifo-Chunga said. The prisoners depicted on these two vessels were the losing warriors, and their presence in the burial of a child is rare.
“One would normally presume that these kinds of vessels represent something related to the deceased’s life,” Rengifo-Chunga said. For example, a vessel like this might signify that the individual took part in combat.
But a toddler couldn’t have taken part in such an activity. In general, archaeologists wouldn’t expect to see elements of an adult ritual in the burial of a child. “This expands our knowledge on Moche funerary practices,” he added.
The artifacts recovered from the tomb have been transferred to the laboratories of the Santiago Uceda Castillo Museum in Peru. There they will undergo scientific analysis and study and will be conserved for eventual display.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77226

#peru #moche #uhleplatform #huaca #luna #cerroblanco #pacificcoast

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Remains of rare monumental inscription found in Spain A rare ...

2026-10-26T09:09:45Z

Remains of rare monumental inscription found in Spain

A rare monumental inscription likely dating to the Augustan era has been discovered at the site of ancient baths in Fortuna, Spain. It is a fragment, but the surviving lettering is comparatively huge: 23 cm (9 inches) high. Extrapolating from the size of the text, the original inscription would have been about 4.8 meters (15.8 feet) long when intact. Monumental inscriptions on this scale are extremely rare on the Iberian Peninsula. Only three comparable examples are known in the Region of Murcia, all of them in the major metropolis of Carthago Nova (Cartagena).
The ashlar block almost 1.2 meters (4 feet) long was discovered in the northern part of the Roman thermal complex. It was inside a wall that was not its original location, reused as building material in antiquity. Before the discovery, archaeologists thought that wall was part of the northern enclosure of the baths, but the reused stone means that it was built in a larger phase of construction.
There are two lines of text framed by decorative moldings with lettering in two sizes: the large 23 cm text on the top line and about 13 cm (5 inches) high on the line below. Text of these dimensions suggest the inscription was originally part of a large architectural feature, meant to be read from a distance.
Preliminary analysis has identified the end of a Roman name and writing characteristics that point to a chronology situated between the end of the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, possibly during the period of Augustus.
Experts suggest that it may have been a commemorative inscription related to a monumental architectural work, although its exact function still needs to be determined.
The baths of Fortuna is one of the most important thermal sites in Roman Murcia. Archaeologist from the University of Murcia have been excavating and studying the thermal complex for years. The current intervention is part of a project funded by the regional government to excavate, document and recover the baths’ ancient structures with the goal of increasing understanding of its usage in the Roman period and to conserve the remains for the long-term stability of the heritage site.
The ashlar has been raised and transferred to the Archaeological Museum of Murcia, where it will be studied, documented, and conserved.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77220

#raremonumental #monumentalinscription #spain #roman #murcia #remains #text #iberianpeninsula #fortuna #carthagonova

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1,500-year-old female shaman figure found in Japan An excavation ...

2026-10-25T08:43:44Z

1,500-year-old female shaman figure found in Japan

An excavation of a late 5th century burial mound in central Japan has uncovered a clay figurine representing a female shaman (miko). The figurative clay sculpture, a haniwa, is well-preserved, with its features still finely detailed and extensive surviving red paint.
Excavations at the Nishikaminomiya Site began in 2020 as part of a Tone River improvement project. Since then 11 burial mounds from the Kofun period have been discovered. The largest mound is Tumulus No. 1 at approximately 160 feet long. It is surrounded by a moat is 60 feet wide. The haniwa was discovered in this year’s excavation of the southern end of Tumulus No. 1 adjacent to the Tone River. It had rolled down a protruding section of the mound into the moat.
Haniwa were made of unglazed earthenware and placed on grave mounds as protective markers. The figural haniwa were typically sculpted on top of a simple cylinder that had been the earliest form of the statue in the 3rd century. The cylinder was buried leaving the figure above ground to mark the burial sites.
The newly-discovered example is only a torso and head (the buried base has broken off) and is about 16 inches high. It depicts a woman wearing a sash with her hair styled in the Kofun Shimada (topknot) identifying her as a shaman. The top of the head is made of clay cord, conveying with its texture the tied hair. The face, sash lower section of the garment and bracelet on her right wrist are painted red. She holds a rod-shaped object in her left hand that was used in religious rituals. Made in the second half of the 5th century, it is one the earliest anthropomorphic haniwa to have been found in the Gunwa Prefecture.
Miko were popular subjects for haniwa. In the Kofun period, miko performed religious rituals at Shinto shrines and temples, falling into ecstatic trances to relay the words of the gods to worshipers. Historians believe miko held significant religious and political authority in Kofun society, and their visibility on the tombs of the elite confirms they figures of importance and authority.
Excavation is now complete. The haniwa will go on display next week at the Gunma Prefectural Museum of History.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77215

#femaleshaman #japan #toneriver #haniwa #kofun #found #miko #excavation #kofunshimada #tumulus

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Long-lost Marie Antoinette breast bowl found The last of the four ...

2026-10-24T09:20:15Z

Long-lost Marie Antoinette breast bowl found

The last of the four jatte téton, the breast-shaped bowls made by Sèvres for Queen Marie Antoinette’s pleasure dairy at the Château de Rambouillet, has been rediscovered more than 200 years after its last known appearance. It was found during an inventory of the estate of the Galerie Meyer, a Paris art dealer in business for three generations, and is the only remaining one of the four in private hands.
King Louis XVI commissioned the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory to make an 108-piece service for the Queen to serve the fresh products of her dairy in royal finery while ensconced in her fake bucolic fantasy. Only 65 pieces were ever produced, delivered to Rambouillet in 1787 and 1788. The four breast-shaped bowls consist of a creamy pink-white bowl shaped like a breast, completely with a realistic colored nipple, on a tripod of goat heads. Goats were a symbol of fertility and apparently Marie Antoinette’s favorite animal among the stock at her dairy. The base of the tripod is decorated with black and purple with foliate scrolls and egg-and-dart friezes against an ochre-orange background.
Produced just one year before the French Revolution put an end to Marie Antoinette’s pastoral fantasy life and soon thereafter her real life, a legend sprang up that the jatte téton had been made from moulds of her own breasts. They were not made from moulds of anyone’s breasts, let alone the Queen’s. The design was inspired by the mastos, a breast-shaped drinking cup used in Greek symposia.
Three of the bowls are now in public collections. Two are held at the National Museum of Ceramics in Sèvres, one with a pale aqua background with purple decoration on the tripod and one with a lavender background with purple and black decoration. Another with a light blue background and black decoration, is in the collection of the Duca di Martina Museum in Naples. The orange background of the recently found bowl is markedly different from the pastels of its three siblings.
According to a handwritten document found with the breast bowl, it went from the Rambouillet dairy to Marie Josephe Rose, Marquise de Chanaleilles, (1784-1867), who was the sister of Marie Louise Zélie, Comtesse de Bouillé, one of the ladies-in-waiting to the Duchesse of Berry. The Marquise de Chanaleilles gave it to her grandson, General Ferdinand de Salles (1831-1925). He sold it to the Galerie Meyer in Paris.
Marie Antoinette’s rediscovered breast bowl will go up for auction at Hôtel Drouot on November 26th. The pre-sale estimate is €1,000,000–€2,000,000. Any foreign buyer will almost certainly be subject to an export bar, so I imagine there will be an effort to secure it for a French institution.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77208

#marieantoinette #breastbowl #queenmarie #found #galeriemeyer #sevres #rambouillet #sevresporcelain #mariejosephe #louisxvi

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Bronze Age Blyth Hoard has unique ingot, moulds A Bronze Age ...

2026-10-23T08:05:12Z

Bronze Age Blyth Hoard has unique ingot, moulds

A Bronze Age hoard found near Blyth Bridge in the Scottish Borders contains exceptional surviving raw materials for metal work, including the first copper ingot ever discovered from Bronze Age Scotland and casting moulds used for producing decorative fittings like the ones in the Peebles Hoard.
The Blyth Hoard was discovered in 2022 just seven miles from the Peebles Hoard, the most diverse agglomeration of Bronze Age artifacts in Europe. Amazingly enough, the same metal detectorist, Mariusz Stępień, discovered both hoards, and while he is apparently a magical Bronze Age hoard magnet, he is also so archaeologically conscientious that as soon as he found a socketed axe, he stopped digging and reported it to the Treasure Trove Unit.
Because of Stępień’s scrupulousness, the Blyth hoard was professionally excavated by archeologists from National Museums Scotland. They unearthed a second socketed axe head, a large copper ingot and three fragments of clay moulds used to cast bronze objects. The hoard dates to the Late Bronze Age, 1150-800 B.C.
The copper ingot is complete and is the first of its kind from Scotland. Ingots are more common in southern Britain, particularly on the south coast, but have never been found north of the Border. It is important evidence that raw material was being imported into Scotland 3000 years ago. People weren’t simply recycling existing objects – there was a supply of fresh metal into the area.
Most of the Late Bronze Age moulds that have survived were used to produce weapons or tools. The Blyth moulds, on the other hand, are shaped and patterned to produce smaller decorative pieces. Because Peebles was found two years before the Blyth Hoard, when archaeologists examined the fragments of casting moulds, they were able to recognize the spiral and outlines of the Peebles fittings.
It is rare to find any moulds that link to specific objects from the Bronze Age. This makes the discovery at Blyth quite exceptional. Given the unique nature of the Peebles Hoard fittings, it is highly probable that whoever buried the Blyth Hoard may have been involved in making some, or all, of the Peebles Hoard fittings. This is especially striking given the presence of an ingot.
The survival of metalwork and the remains of manufacturing materials together is rare in Britain, and previously unknown in Scotland. The Blyth Hoard is an opportunity to examine some of the relationships between metal objects, production and deposition. The socketed axeheads and ingot may represent the raw material for casting into new objects, such as the Peebles-style fittings. The person (or people) who buried the Blyth Hoard may have been a metalworker, skilled at making moulds and casting objects.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77197

#bronzeage #blythhoard #peebleshoard #latebronze #agescotland #moulds #blythbridge #ingot #scottishborders #museumsscotland

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Iron Age defensive barrier found in Denmark Archaeologists have ...

2026-10-22T13:24:47Z

Iron Age defensive barrier found in Denmark

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of an Iron Age defensive barrier in West Jutland, Denmark. It dates to 500 B.C., the earliest Iron Age in Denmark, and may be evidence of a previously unknown conflict.
A team of archaeologists from the Museum Vest were investigating the site of planned road expansion when, in a field near Schæfergårde, they discovered a long stretch of closely-spaced postholes. They aren’t arranged as postholes for dwellings are. These were likely left by pointed wooden stakes that formed a defensive palisade. It crossed the Drivvejen, an ancient road that was the main artery through Western Jutland, and archaeologists hypothesize that it was built to stop an invading army coming from the north.
The road expansion route also intersects with several protected pre-historic burial mounds. In one of them, excavations revealed a 4,500-year-old battle axe. Archaeologists believe it was a grave good for a Stone Age warrior, someone of prominence who earned a tumulus burial.
The team is still excavating the hole belt. They hope to find out more about who built it and who they were fending off.
Museum Vest will continue its investigations throughout the rest of the autumn, including at a number of burial mounds where archaeologists have also found several urns. They hope that the upcoming investigations can add even more pieces to the story of the area’s prehistory.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77191

#ironage #agedefensive #defensivebarrier #denmark #stoneage #westjutland #found #museumvest #archaeologists

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Terracotta sarcophagus with unique Silenus relief found in Turkey ...

2026-10-21T07:29:05Z

Terracotta sarcophagus with unique Silenus relief found in Turkey

A terracotta sarcophagus bearing a relief of a Silenus mask has been discovered at the ancient site of Attouda in western Turkey. It is the first time one of the cylindrical terracotta sarcophagi typical of Roman Anatolia has been found with a Silenus-like figure on the lid. The findings have been published in the journal CEDRUS.
Silenus was the older satyr who was teacher to the god of wine Dionysus and was said to be the wisest and drunkest of the god’s companions. He is commonly depicted on Roman funerary art as part of Dionysian processions, representing the mystery cult’s beliefs of eternal renewal and life after death. Silenus’ exaggerated features (big eyes, mouth and nose) also cast him in a protective role at time. Archaeologists believe the silene mask on the sarcophagus served an apotropaic function, a symbolic protector of the dead.
Attouda, today within the village of Hisar in Denizli Province, was a frontier settlement built of a hill bounded by steep cliffs on three sides. That made it easily defensible, an important quality for a town straddling the regions of Caria, Phrygia, and Lydia. Archaeological evidence indicate it was founded in the 7th-6th century B.C. and has been continuously occupied ever since.
In the Roman Imperial period, cylindrical terracotta sarcophagi made of local red clay were one of a variety of burial types used in the settlement and in other ancient cities in Anatolia and the Lykos Valley. The sarcophagi are believed to have been manufactured in local or regional workshops, as their weight, fragility and unwieldiness would have made them difficult to transport over long distances.
The sarcophagus was found in six fragments in a 2023 ground survey at Musalla, just south of the ancient city in the Attouda necropolis. The cylindrical terracotta sarcophagus had been damaged by later agricultural activity, breaking into six pieces that were then moved to the edge of the farmed land. The recovered pieces were moved to the Denizli Museum for conservation and study.
When intact, the sarcophagus was about 55-60 cm (ca. 22 inches) in diameter with a curved lid approximately 33-30.5 cm (ca. 13 inches) wide. In the center of the lid was a small human face with a bald, bulbous head, large eyes, broad, flat nose, thick, deeply incised lips that turn up at the corners into a smile and a short beard. These grotesque features are found on Silenus masks from the 1st century found in Attouda and other regional necropoli. An intact one from the Tralleis necropolis had three suspension holes for cords suggesting it was hung inside a tomb for apotropaic purposes. A large fragment of a very similar head was found in a tomb at Attouda, demonstrating that Silenus figures were part of the city’s funerary traditions.
Also notable on this lid is a Greek letter Beta carved into the clay next to the mask relief. It is seven cm high, so longer than the silene face itself. Letters have been found on other terracotta burial containers from the area. Archaeologists hypothesize that they were maker’s marks of the workshops or artisans who created the sarcophagus.
The dating is a challenge because the sarcophagus was not found in its original context, but stylistic comparisons suggest it was made in the 1st or 2nd century A.D.
Since the findspot lies within the Attouda necropolis, and a head fragment belonging to a Silenus figurine had previously been recovered from another tomb, the use of Silenus iconography cannot be regarded as coincidental. Rather, this evidence suggests that protective figures associated with the Dionysian cult were deliberately incorporated into the funerary architecture and burial decoration tradition of Attouda. The presence of the Dionysian cult, as documented by the city’s coinage and inscriptions, further supports this interpretation. Accordingly, the sarcophagus lid decorated with a Silenus-head relief should be regarded not merely as an isolated decorative element, but as tangible evidence reflecting the relationship between Dionysian beliefs and funerary rituals within the Attouda necropolis.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77182

#silenus #terracottasarcophagus #turkey #found #attouda #roman #romananatolia #romanimperial #denizliprovince

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One-ton antique bronze fountain stolen from Wiltshire garden An ...

2026-10-20T13:46:13Z

One-ton antique bronze fountain stolen from Wiltshire garden

An elaborate three-tier antique bronze fountain weighing approximately a ton was stolen from the garden of an estate in Fisherton de la Mere, near Warminster. The theft took place between October 8th and October 10th.
The Baroque style fountain features a cherub in an scallop shell blowing a horn as the top tier. Four cherubs dance around the central over an even larger scallop shell on the middle tier. At the base are four fantastical dolphins, fish or sea monsters with their mouths open and tails vertical against the column.
Wiltshire Police have now launched an appeal for any information about the theft — people who were in the area during the time and may have seen or heard something suspicious, anyone who sees the fountain for sale online, etc. They’re calling it unique, but It’s not. The design is still being manufactured today, and antique versions can found at auctions.
As an antique, it is worth an estimated £10,000 ($13,350), but I very much doubt anybody’s going to be offering a one-ton sculpture on Facebook Marketplace. I bet this is a scrap metal theft. People have been stealing funerary plaques and urns from cemeteries for the metal value, so the sheer quantity of bronze in a piece like this would make it attractive to very bold (and strong) thieves. The best chance of finding it is if a scrap metal dealer has scruples.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77177

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Late Roman-era house cut into bedrock found in Corsica The ...

2026-10-19T07:59:19Z

Late Roman-era house cut into bedrock found in Corsica

The remains of a settlement with a domestic space carved out of built into the bedrock has been discovered near the Meria marina in Cap Corse, Corsica. The settlement dates to the 4th century A.D., and is likely connected to a mooring structure from the same period found below the settlement last year.
The structure was unearthed in a preventative excavation prior to planned construction of a house on the prime location less than 100 meters (328 feet) from the shore of the beautiful blue Bay of Meria on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The peninsula is archaeologically significant, so an excavation before construction was required by law.
The masonry building has two parts and is built into the bedrock. The exposed schist rock was carved deliberately to accommodate the foundations of the new building. The builders then used the removed schist to make said foundations, carefully cutting it into square blocks. The blocks were then laid in an alternating stretcher (lengthwise blocks) and header (perpendicular blocks) pattern within the masonry wall.
The solid bedrock was integrated into the building too, as the interior facing of the masonry walls, extending past the edges of the blocks. Large monoliths of schist were used to partition the rooms, kept in place with stone wedges and wooden posts.
Several refuse pits located in the corners of the building’s various rooms contained mostly ceramic fragments related to cooking practices, glassware, iron tools, and even a grinding stone (catillus) . All these elements point to the domestic sphere and support the functional interpretation of this building as a dwelling. Finally, several postholes with stone supports are scattered throughout the building and could be the negatives for wooden supports for a tiled roof, as suggested by the presence of numerous tegulae ( roof tiles) in the abandonment layers.
Ceramic fragments from Late Antiquity found at the dwelling and from last year’s excavation of the ancient pier are rare on the Corsican archaeological record. They are imports from the Mediterranean trade networks that otherwise seemed to miss the island, so the evidence suggests that Meria had a unique position as a commercial outpost from the Roman period to the early Middle Ages. Copious metal, glass and lithic materials attest to a comparatively high level of artisanal production accessible for personal use. An earlier discovery of a white marble altar table support with an inscription dedicated to the emperor Claudius also supports the hypothesis that Meria had a larger settlement with regular interactions with the wider Roman world in Mediterranean.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77166

#corsica #meria #late #capcorse #found #lateantiquity #tyrrheniansea #mediterranean #roman

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Etruscan bronze masterpiece was intentionally blackened A new ...

2026-10-18T08:35:32Z

Etruscan bronze masterpiece was intentionally blackened

A new multidisciplinary study of a rare surviving life-sized Etruscan bronze statue has found that the black patina was intentionally created in antiquity, not the result of natural aging or a later coating. Very little is known about Etruscan art foundry methods, so this discovery advances our understanding of how ancient large bronze statues were produced.
Discovered in 1567, the hollow-cast bronze statue is now in Florence’s National Museum of Archaeology. It is known as the Arringatore (Orator) or the portrait of Aule Metli, an Etruscan senator of the Roman Republic in the late 2nd or early 1st century. He is depicted wearing a toga, calcei senatorii shoes and his right arm raised in an oratory gesture. An Etruscan language inscription on the toga names Aule Metli as the donor of this votive sculpture.
Researchers analyzed the metal composition, stratified mineral and organic material, microfragments and the manufacturing processes of the sculpture. They utilized X-ray diffraction and polarized light microscopy to examine the samples and investigate how the bronze was cast and assembled.
Tests identified a dark copper oxide called tenorite lying above a red layer of another copper oxide, cuprite. The structure appeared across several preserved areas, not merely a single stain.
The arrangement points to heating. Copper alloys typically form the reddish layer first, while the darker mineral develops under more strongly oxidizing conditions. The authors described it as “a blackish intentional patina” and said the paired layers were unlikely to form through burial alone. […]
The study also brings new details to the figure’s construction. X-ray images indicate the bronze was assembled from eight separately cast sections. Most of its hollow walls were only a few millimeters thick, evidence of considerable skill in making such a large figure.
The study has been published in the journal Heritage and can be read here in its entirety.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77162

#etruscanbronze #aulemetli #nationalmuseum #romanrepublic #copper

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Gold earrings found child’s grave in Bulgaria A pair of ...

2026-10-17T07:59:52Z

Gold earrings found child’s grave in Bulgaria

A pair of polyhedral gold earrings and a 3rd century Roman coin have been discovered in a child’s grave in Stara Zagora, central Bulgaria.
The child’s grave is oriented with the head pointing west and the feet east. The pair of gold earrings and one coin were the only grave goods. The coin in an Antoninian of Emperor Aurelian, minted in Serdica in 274-275 A.D. The grave dates to this time.
The child’s identity and circumstances of death remain unknown. The presence of gold jewelry suggests that valuable personal possessions accompanied the burial, although it is not enough to establish the family’s social standing.
The coin raises another interesting possibility. The coin may also have held a meaning beyond its monetary value. In ancient Greek and Roman funerary traditions, coins were sometimes placed with the deceased as payment to Charon, the mythical ferryman who carried souls to the underworld. Although its purpose in this particular burial remains unknown, the coin may reflect beliefs surrounding death and the journey into the afterlife.
Evidence of human settlements in the Stara Zagora area go back 8,000 years, but the first town was founded by Philip II of Macedon in the 5th-4th century B.C. The necropolis where the child’s grave was found was in use from the late 2nd through the 5th centuries. It contains 135 burials of several different types of graves: burial pits with cremated remains, covered with tegulae (roof tiles), covered with bricks, covered with stone slabs, uncovered and more. Most of them are inhumation burials.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77158

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4,700-year-old amphorae found off coast of Turkey An underwater ...

2026-10-16T14:03:17Z

4,700-year-old amphorae found off coast of Turkey

An underwater excavation at Kekova island on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey has uncovered amphorae between 4,400 to 4,700 years old, dating back to the Early Bronze Age. Maritime archaeologists believe this is the surviving cargo of the world’s oldest shipwreck.
The wooden ship has not survived in the warm waters of the Mediterranean, but 30 of the large storage containers that held its cargo have. Some of them still contain traces of what was inside of them. The pattern of spread indicates the ship was about 10 meters (33 feet) long. Three stone anchors were also found.
Analysis of the clay in the amphorae revealed that they were manufactured in the Jordan Valley. Comparable examples have been found in Egypt, Troy and Crete, artifacts of the impressive range of the trade networks in the eastern Mediterranean.
One of the amphorae is notable for its design. The vessel has nine markings and two holes on its body. Archaeologists hypothesize that it may have been used to make cheese or churn butter. If that’s true, it suggests sailors may have made food on board ship, not just transported the finished consumer goods.
Dr Karin Sowada, an archaeologist from Macquarie University, Australia, examined the amphorae after they were recovered. Some were intact and she was surprised to see they still contained a viscous, glossy residue.
“I looked inside and nearly fainted. I could not believe how much [residue] was visible. It wasn’t just like spots…. a lot of this material was still remaining,” she said.
The team is now working to find out exactly what was being carried in the amphorae.
“It could be olive oil, it could be wine, it could be tree resins,” Sowada said.
“It’s possible that [the residue] could actually be the result of reuse of the jars. I mean, these jars are huge – they’re not things that you just ship away and then never see again. People would have emptied these jars on arrival and potentially used them for many, many, many years.”
The artifacts that have been recovered from the wreck site are now being studies and conserved. They will eventually be put on display at the new Mediterranean Underwater Archaeology Museum in Antalya which is scheduled to open to the public over the next few months.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77152

Rare early medieval boat burial found in Poland An early medieval ...

2026-10-15T11:20:20Z

Rare early medieval boat burial found in Poland

An early medieval boat burial has been discovered at Chodlik in the Lublin region of Eastern Poland. Boat burials in early medieval Slavic communities are extremely rare. They are more commonly found in Scandinavia and in the Baltic area. This is the first example found this far inland in the historical region of Lesser Poland.
A team of archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IAE PAN) discovered the remains of the boat burial between two other graves, one burial mound, one with a monument designed to look like a house. It is 1.2 meters wide at the widest point and has the shape of a dugout canoe. Cremated remains were placed in the shape, although it is not yet clear whether there was an actual boat as any wooden remains have decomposed leaving only a dark stain in the soil.
The first clue to the grave’s unusual character came from a beautifully preserved silver ornament near its upper surface. Archaeologists identified it as an early medieval temple ring, decorated with hollow beads and delicate granulation—a technique in which craftsmen attached tiny metal spheres to create intricate patterns.
As excavations continued, the team recovered more than a dozen small fragments of silver jewelry, some partially melted by fire. They also uncovered pieces of ceramic vessels, charcoal, and burned human and animal bones, suggesting that the funeral involved more than the simple deposition of cremated remains.
Among the animal remains, one discovery particularly interested the researchers: a horse tooth. Its presence is unusual in the wider context of Slavic burial traditions, although Chodlik has already produced several cremation graves containing horse remains.
Chodlik is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Lublin area. It contains the remains of an early medieval settlement was centered around a fortified stronghold built by the Slavs between the 8th and the 10th century. IAE PAN archaeologists have been excavating and surveying it for 12 years, uncovering burial mounds, a cremation cemetery, arrowheads, spears, the longitudinal rampart of the stronghold and pottery fragments. This year’s dig also uncovered the remains of the early medieval settlement outside the boundary of the fortress.
To study the boat burial in detail, archaeologists have recovered all sediment, cinerary remains and debris from the site. They will be analyzed for trace materials and to identify charcoal deposits, plant remains and any other evidence from the cremation. Human teeth that survived cremation will be subjected to stable isotope analysis, if possible, which will provide information about the geographic origin and health of the deceased.
The team is currently working on creating a comprehensive 3D reconstruction by merging digital documentation of each burial layer with records of individual artifacts. Through radiocarbon dating and expert examination, researchers hope to eventually determine when the grave was built, how it was constructed, and what the funeral circumstances were like.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77113

“National treasure” coin identified in Mørstad Hoard As the ...

2026-10-15T10:56:21Z

“National treasure” coin identified in Mørstad Hoard

As the cataloguing of more than 5,000 coins in Norway’s largest Viking coin hoard proceeds apace, archaeologist Anne Skogsfjord has identified one of the rarest coins in the country: a silver penny issued by Olaf Haraldsson, aka Saint Olaf, patron saint of Norway. Fewer than 20 Olaf Haraldsson coins are known to survive today. There are only four of this type, three of them in Sweden. The only one discovered in Norway was found over a century ago in 1924.
The coin bears the king’s portrait facing left wearing a conical helmet. In front of the profile is a cross on three steps, known as a Golgotha cross, a symbol frequently found on Byzantine coins. The inscription reads ONLAF R+ NORMANORV (“Olaf, King of the Norwegians”). The reverse features a double cross. The inscription is worn in this example so the final letters are missing, but we know from other surviving coins struck from this die that the full inscription reads +CE DVX DOMINNVS MEI (“My leader, my lord”).
Three different issues of Olaf Haraldsson pennies are known, all of them modelled after Anglo-Saxon pennies struck under Cnut the Great around 1024–1030. This issue dates to 1024-1028, the waning years of the Viking Age. Olaf Haraldsson is credited with spreading Christianity in Norway, and as he was likely directly responsible for deciding how the coins would look, the iconographic themes and inscriptions confirm his emphasis on Christianization.
The Museum of Cultural History calls the discovery a sensation.
“This is a coin commemorating Christianisation on a grand scale. We can see how King Olaf uses the coinage to legitimise the new faith, and to legitimise himself as a Christian king of European standing,” says Gullbekk. […]
It probably changed hands several times during the 20–25 years it was in circulation before being buried at what is now the Mørstad farm in Eastern Norway. Researchers can see several traces of small cuts made with a knife on both sides of the coin. This was a way of checking the silver content during payments.
The Olaf coin will be one of the coins from the Mørstad Hoard that will be going on display for the first time in a new exhibition at the Museum of Cultural History on November 20th.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77120

Nile Delta farmer finds Ramesses II statues A farmer in the Nile ...

2026-10-15T08:17:08Z

Nile Delta farmer finds Ramesses II statues

A farmer in the Nile Delta found an inscribed granite block when digging land in front of his home which led to the discovery two heads of Ramesses II from colossal statues.
The farmer uncovered the pink granite block with hieroglyphic inscriptions at his property in Behbeit El Hagar, in the Gharbia Governorate. He reported the find and after local heritage officials confirmed it was of archaeological significance, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities arranged an emergency excavation.
The first artifact unearthed was a colossal head of Ramesses II. The pharaoh wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, but explicit confirmation of his identity came from a fragment of the dorsal pillar which was inscribed with the pharaoh’s Horus name “Horus Ka Nakht Mery Maat.” The head is 5.25 feet high, which suggests the full statue was approximately 28 feet high.
The second major discovery was a royal statue head and torso approximately 8 feet high. The pharaoh wears the traditional royal nemes headdress (the striped head cloth with front flaps and a long pony tail), symbol of pharaonic power. It is missing the legs and base and no fragments from the statue were found, but the faces of the two statues are very similar. Another block of pink granite found nearby is inscribed with hieroglyphic inscriptions naming Ramesses II as King of Upper and Lower Egypt and Son of Ra.
The finds are still being studied, and excavations are continuing. Archaeologists say further work could help establish how the statues relate to one another and to the site’s ancient buildings.
Behbeit El Hagar is already known for the remains of a major temple dedicated to Isis, as well as granite architectural blocks. The new discoveries add to evidence of the area’s importance in ancient Egypt, and began with one resident choosing to report a stone rather than leave it unnoticed.

https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/77146