A secret dig at the site of a new section of the A15 motorway has yielded a large Roman cemetery but no clues as to the provenance of its occupants, government roads department RWS announced this week.

Archaeologists excavate the Roman cemetery [Credit: Rijkswaterstaat]

The find, in a field at Bemmel near Zevenaar, dates from the 2nd or 3rd century AD and consists of 48 graves, some with their stone funerary urns still present.

Four of the graves were found to be more or less intact, which is a first in the Netherlands.

Tufa stone funerary casket recovered from the cemetery [Credit: Rijkswaterstaat]

The skeleton of a baby, from the same period, was also among the remains. The graves were discovered at a depth of only 50 centimetres.

According to the archaeologists, who carried out the dig in secret for fear of treasure hunters, it is obvious the remains are those of wealthy Romans but as there are no known Roman settlements close to the site, it is unclear where they lived.

Grave goods include decorated bronze vessels and expensive glassware [Credit: Rijkswaterstaat]

Among the funeral gifts were such luxury items as imported painted earthenware jars, plates and cups, and tableware consisting of glass bottles and decorated bronze jugs, cups and dishes.

Although personal items did not usually accompany their owners in death, the archaeologists found clothing pins, mirrors, a pair of scissors and even a complete perfume bottle with its contents intact, RWS says.

Artist's impression of how the cemetery might have looked [Credit: Rijkswaterstaat]

Among the more unusual items were fragments of four parchment roll holders and a stone grave monument with a depiction of a woman.

Such gifts are more typical of Roman cities like Nijmegen, or high-ranking Roman officials in Belgium, Germany or France, RWS said.


The best explanation therefore is that these were the inhabitants of a Roman villa near Bemmel, which would make it perhaps the most northerly position of a Roman villa in all of the Roman empire.

On April 27, 28 and 29 the objects will be presented to the public in Bemmel after which they will be put on show at the Valkhofmuseum in Nijmegen.

Source: Dutch News [March 10, 2018]

It was previously believed that altarpieces from the late Middle Ages were made in Germany. New research shows that several of them were made in Norway.

“The altarpieces were the most elevated elements in a church,” says Kristin Kausland. The inside of the case usually contains carved sculptures, while the inside of the doors can also have such sculptures or paintings. This altarpiece is from Kvæfjord church [Credit: Museum of Cultural History]

Altarpieces from the Middle Ages are a feature of many churches along the coast of Norway. They are often called Lübeck altarpieces, because it was assumed that the altarpieces were imported to Norway by the Hanseatics from Lübeck. Kristin Kausland's research shows that the ecclesiastical art is more Norwegian than previously thought. Major parts of the altarpieces were made in Norway, new analyses show.

Kausland is a postdoctoral fellow with the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History and the first person to earn a Ph.D. in conservation at a Norwegian university. While working on her doctoral thesis, she studied more than 60 altarpieces, most of them in Norway and Germany, but also several in Sweden and Denmark. Some of the altarpieces are in museums, others in churches along the Norwegian coast.

Searching for hidden clues

The researcher used advanced technical equipment to reveal the origins of the altarpieces. Using an infrared camera, UV camera and electron microscope, she searched for hidden clues.

"Through analyses of even the tiniest paint fragment I have sought to trace the physical prints of the craftsmen and the various production environments under which the objects were created. Call it, if you will, the craftsmen's fingerprints," says Kausland.

Revealing gold paint

Because there is no written documentation on the origins of the altarpieces the physical clues are important. Gilding, type of wood, hinges and type of paint are some of the elements that can reveal where an altarpiece was made.

"In Germany, the craftsmen were organised in guilds. There were strict rules for what was allowed. For example, there were several places where the use of materials other than real gold was not permitted. At that time, churches were very dark. The idea was that these altarpieces should radiate toward you, creating the impression of something holy. They were supposed to shine, and give light," she explains.

The altarpieces that Kausland believes were made in Norway used imitation gold instead of real gold. In the Norwegian altarpieces, several types of oak were also used. This set them apart from the Northern German altarpieces, which were made of Baltic oak.

"In Norway, it appears that people used whatever was the most accessible. Nor were there any established forms of constructional design. It was a somewhat more pragmatic and practical approach, where the craftsmen were probably not governed by guild statutes. Among other things, you could mix different grades of oak," Kausland says.

The way the altarpieces were constructed could also vary from country to country.

In the Netherlands, a particular type of hinge and design were used, whereas in Germany the altarpieces were assembled in a different way. This was regulated by the traditions of the guild association of the casemakers, she says.

Unique findings from the Netherlands

Kausland believes that around ten of the 60 altarpiece she has studied were made in the Netherlands. This is a sensational discovery because almost all the altarpieces in the Netherlands were lost during the Reformation.

This altarpiece from Austevoll Church is one of the pieces that Kausland believes was made in the Netherlands. What  indicates that the piece was made in northern Netherlands are the techniques used in its construction, gilding, sculptures, as well as in the paintings [Credit: Svein Skare, Bergen Historiske museum, Universitetet i Bergen]

During the Reformation in the Netherlands the decision was made to destroy all of the decorations in the churches. The altarpieces were demolished. The fact that several such altarpieces are located in Norway is therefore of great international importance, she says.

One of these altarpieces is located in Trondenes Church. Another is from Austevoll, and is at Bergen Museum. There is a high probability that there are more Dutch altarpieces in Norway, Kausland believes.

This opens up the possibility that many other altarpieces whose origins have been unknown, probably also came from the Netherlands. This is very important and interesting, as there are almost no such altarpieces in the rest of Europe.

A plan to exhibit one of the altarpieces in the Netherlands is in the works.

At least one of the altarpieces will be sent to an exhibition in the Netherlands in the near future so that it can be shown to a Dutch audience.

Hidden treasures

For Kausland, the work on her doctorate has been a pure treasure hunt. Many of the altarpieces are located in small churches in fishing villages along the coast.

The altarpieces are hidden treasures. At first glance they may be a little dark, but when you look past the layers of grime, and down to the original expression, you see that they are quite impressive. These are beautiful objects, which have been considered rather inferior art, and not part of Norwegian history. But they are an important part of Norwegian cultural heritage, and of fairly high quality, she notes.

An altarpiece consists of several components. The inside of the case usually contains carved sculptures, while the inside of the doors can also have such sculptures or paintings. An altarpiece is therefore the creation of several craftsmen, Kausland explains:

Five different craftsmen were required. Painters, woodcarvers, casemakers, ironsmiths and so-called preparers were involved. The latter prepared and laid the foundation for the painting carried out by painters.

Not an extinct tradition

The anonymous craftsmen interest her.

We often look at fine art and forget all the other work that went into it. We concentrate on the paintings and sculptures, but forget that someone made the actual case. The "rough work", that which is not elevated art, is easily forgotten. I am interested in the anonymous craftsmen who have put their souls into an altarpiece and have tried to answer questions about origins, and how these craftsmen collaborated.

In the past, it was believed that these Norwegian craft traditions died out during the Black Death. Kristin Kausland's research shows that the traditions continued to live on.

It is also likely that there was a great deal of collaboration across national borders, by which the construction of the case was done in Bergen, while the finer wood carving art was done down on the continent, she explains.

The research continues

Before Christmas last year, Kausland was awarded a mobility grant from the Research Council of Norway. She is now working on a three-year post-doctoral project that will build on her Ph.D. research. She will work at the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the University of Cambridge for the first two years of the post-doctoral period. The postdoctoral project includes fieldwork in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, where several altarpieces will be put under the researcher's magnifying glass.

The doctorate opened up many exciting approaches. Ecclesiastical art serves as silent witnesses of the organisation of workshops, trade and collaboration. It is after all not the geographical origin that is ultimately the essence of this art, but the Catholic universe that it represents. This will be the main theme of the post-doctoral project, says Kausland.

Author: Toril Haugen | Source: University of Oslo [March 09, 2018]

A pot containing some 500 silver and gold coins was found during excavation work near the Dutch city of Vianen. The coins date from the 15th century, RTV Utrecht reports.

Credit: Astrid Pel/AD

The pot of coins was discovered by waterworks employees during excavation work for Hoef en Haag, a new town between Vianen and Hagestein. They immediately contacted Utrecht's archaeological hotline, who closed off the area and collected the pot and coins.

Initial investigation by archaeologist Peter de Boer revealed that the coins - 12 gold, the rest silver - were hidden in a simple cooking pot made of glazed earthenware. Some textiles were also found in the pot, indicating that the coins were packed in fabric bags or cloths. Most of the coins seem to date from the 1470's and 1480's. Some of the coins show King Henri VI of England, Bishop of Utrecht David of Burgundy, and Pope Paul II.

Credit: Astrid Pel/AD

De Boer is very excited about this discovery. "Actually, every coin in this treasure is a story in precious metal", he said to the broadcaster. "Every gentleman gave out his 'business card' by way of a coin, and therefore there is a lot to discover. Stories over power relations, religion and a lot of symbolism."

According to the archaeologist, little is known about life in this area after the siege and fall of medieval city Hagestein in 1405. "In this sense we now have a 'pot full of stories' and such a random find makes you as archaeologist very happy", De Boer said.

Credit: NOS/Matthijs Holtrop

The coins now belong to, among others, the waterworks company, the project developer and the owners of the land where the coins were found, according to broadcaster NOS. These owners temporarily let go of the coins so that they can be studied. Once they've been valued, the owners will decide what will happen to them.

Author: Janene Pieters | Source: NL Times [March 01, 2018]

Renovations to the gymnasium of an upper secondary school in central Turku have uncovered medieval ruins and evidence of the city's daily life during the Middle Ages. Whether or not they will be preserved for future generations is yet to be seen.

Renovation work has revealed more of Turku's past - the remains of two medieval houses and a section of street [Credit: Jouni Koutonen/Yle]

A great fire spread through the old Finnish capital of Turku (Åbo in Swedish) in September 1827, destroying 75% of the city, including the medieval Cathedral Quarter and nearly all of its mostly medieval structures.

The Cathedral School of Åbo (Katedralskolan i Åbo), founded in 1276, is today a Swedish-language upper secondary school. It is housed in a building dating from the city's reconstruction following the conflagration of 1827.

Pulling up the school's gymnasium floor during renovation work has revealed more of Turku's past - the remains of two medieval houses and a section of street.

"Once again, we see that we have our very own post-Turku fire Pompeii," says local architect Benito Casagrande.

Finding ruins under the gym floor did not come as a surprise to archaeologists. Located adjacent to the Aboa Vetus history museum, also built over medieval ruins, the plot on which the Cathedral School stands has been the site archaeological digs for the past three years.

Similar remains have been uncovered in the schoolyard.

A medieval street runs under the gymnasium [Credit: Jouni Koutonen/Yle]

It was also known from old maps that there were two upper-class stone dwellings in the area along the banks of the Aura River, just a stone's throw from the Cathedral.

"What was surprising is how well preserved these are. Traces of these were noticed by the archaeologist Juhani Rinne when the gym was built at the beginning of the 1900s, but now the picture has come into focus," says the leader of the dig team, Kari Uotila.

Along an ancient route

The section of street uncovered is part of the same thoroughfare that runs through and is displayed at the nearby Aboa Vetus museum.

"There is a paved street in the schoolyard called Luostarin jokikatu ( "Monastery River Street"). It was flanked by two extensive stone structures, the upper parts of which have now been excavated," explains Uotila.

According to Kari Uotila, this street represents one of the oldest parts of Turku.

"This pavement is from the 18th century. Below that, preserved like in a time capsule are older levels reaching back to the 14th century.

Last summer excavations in the schoolyard were taken down as far as the fields that were on the site before the first habitation. Uotila expects that the same strata will be found under this section of street.

Vaults and staircases are among the finds at the site [Credit: Jouni Koutonen/Yle]

Vaults, staircases, hallways

Hundreds of cubic metres of fill have been hauled out of the dig site, revealing the walled ruins and vaulted cellars. Now down a metre and a half into the soil, the team has reach floor level in parts of dig.

According to Kari Uotila, some of the cellar vaults collapsed after the great fire of 1827.

"These are 2.5 metre high vaults that were broken during the reconstruction of the city. Right now, we've uncovered about a dozen different vault structures, as well as staircases and hallways belonging to two buildings."

To preserve or not

Excavations in the school gym are to continue for another month with the goal of exposing the old buildings' floor level.

After that, supports need to be installed to shore up the gym. Sections that do not rest on top of the medieval ruins have subsided into the surrounding soil.

Kari Uotila points out that construction plans could change, though.

There are ways to preserve the ruins and return the gym to school use, says architect Benito Casagrande [Credit: Jouni Koutonen/Yle]

"There has long been the chance that the ruins will be left here. This is why, for example, we didn't start excavating the street. That also has to be excavated before the shoring supports can be installed. We are now excavating is such a way that this could be turned into a museum, if someone, somewhere decides to do it."

The problem is that the installation of support pilings will destroy the medieval structures. Local architect Benito Casagrande says that this should not be allowed to happen. He wants to see the finds preserved.

Casagrande says that there are construction alternatives that can be used to straighten the school structure and build a floor that would not require pilings. The floor could be raised and a false ceiling in the gym removed, leaving plenty of space and air for student activities.

"This is a terrible significant find. I think all of these well preserved ruins are unbelievable treasures which should be put on public display for people to experience. Gradually, we are understanding what a large and handsome city Turku was in the 14th century," argues Casagrande.

Source: Yle [March 01, 2018]

Not too many people are able to identify birds by examining a single feather. But a number of folks need to know that sort of thing, and it can actually save lives.

Feathers from the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) aren't exactly what we fill most of our pillows with now [Credit: Einar Kongshaug]

Your pillows – if they're not synthetic – are almost certainly filled with domestic goose or duck feathers. These are the most common types of fill used for this purpose today. But our ancestors weren't always as discerning.

"Eagle-owls," says Jørgen Rosvold, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Cultural History at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) University Museum.

Rosvold is among a handful of individuals in Norway who can identify birds based solely on their feathers. He examined a pillow from a Viking grave and found feathers from Europe's largest owl in it, along with feather residues from a variety of other species.

"This shows that the Vikings valued feathers as an important resource," Rosvold says.

Sometimes all you can say for sure is that a feather came from a duck, but not what kind of duck. (These are mallards, though.) [Credit: Einar Kongshaug]

Rosvold is part of an NTNU down project (Dunprosjektet), where one of the goals is to develop methods to identify small bits of feather residue. It's not always easy to tell what species a feather comes from, especially if only small fragments of feathers remain.

"Sometimes all you can say for sure is that a feather comes from a duck," says Rosvold.

But not always what kind of duck. Some feathers are just too similar to be certain what species it comes from. You might be able to say whether a feather comes from a game bird or a sparrow, but not always much beyond that.

"It depends on how well preserved the feather is, the kind of feather and whether the species has close relatives," he says.

Large collection helpful

Rosvold can identify some feathers down to the specific species. The NTNU University Museum has a large collection, and if he's able to first determine which family the bird belongs to, he can compare it with specimens from the collection.

Miniscule barbules, the smallest branches of a feather, are examined under a microscope to identify the kind of bird. Here are two different birds. At bottom left is a rock ptarmigan, a type of game bird with rings around its barbules. At bottom right is a mallard with triangular growths at the ends of its barbules [Credit: Jørgen Rosvold, NTNU University Museum]

As a rule, the underneath, most downy parts of feathers have distinctive features that make it possible to identify the former owner. The smallest branches of a feather, called barbules, are the most useful. Their shape and distribution of different growths, tiny irregularities and the colour can provide clues.

"You can see the pigmentation really well, even after a long time," says Rosvold.For example, you can see pigmentation in feathers from early Viking times, around 800 CE. Game birds are recognizable by the rings around their barbules. Duck feathers have distinctive triangular growths.

"In some cases, if we're unable to identify a feather beyond the family level with microscopes, we can make more headway using DNA analyses. The analyses are easier when we've narrowed down the range of possible birds," says Rosvold.

But this is clearly an art for specialists. Conservator Leena Aulikki Airola at the NTNU University Museum is skilled at detecting the impression of feathers in metal, among other things. This can happen when a sword is laid on a feather pillow in a Viking grave, for example. Over the years, the sword corrodes and the feathers in the pillow become covered with the rusty metal.

Cooperation between birds and people

As part of the project, researchers are studying Swedish and Norwegian grave discoveries from the Nordic Iron Age, including the Oseberg grave, to find out which birds the feathers come from.

A well-preserved feather fragment found in a grave from the Viking era, about one centimetre long. Even after many hundreds of years you can see the colours and that this is a feather from a crow [Credit: Jørgen Rosvold, NTNU University Museum]

One of the main goals for the down project is to find out when people established eider farming on the Helgeland coast and in central Norway. These are areas along the coast where people provide nesting shelters for eider ducks to return to year after year.

Eider farmers build nesting boxes and protect the ducks, which in turn leave large amounts of down behind. But we don't yet know how long this cooperation between birds and people has existed.

"The cooperation goes way back in time. We've found a few eider feathers, but also a lot of assorted feathers," says Rosvold.

For a long time people simply took what they had available to stuff their pillows.The researchers have found feather samples that date as far back as the late Germanic Iron (or Merovingian) Age, from around 570 and through the Viking era. No earlier use of feathers in Norway has been discovered, but that doesn't mean that it didn't take place. The Romans used a lot of feathers in their pillows, for example.

Useful for others, too

Archaeologists and biologists aren't the only ones who may be interested in these results. Identifying birds by their feathers may be important in other fields as well.

Feather residues in corroded iron from a Viking sword. Perhaps the sword was laid on a pillow? [Credit: Jørgen Rosvold, NTNU University Museum]

Any of us might be curious to find out just what kind of feather we found on our woods walk the other day.

Biologists find it useful to identify feathers from scat and pellets, which are undigested parts of food that are regurgitated by birds, to determine what they've been eating. Feathers from bird houses can tell us who lived there.

But knowing your feathers can also potentially solve crimes or save lives, such as for investigators who need to collect evidence. One specialist in the United States works primarily with feathers from birds that have collided with airplanes. Finding out what kind of bird crashed into the plane might enable you to take action to reduce the risks.Those microscopic details could end up being really important.

Source: Norwegian University of Science and Technology [February 27, 2018]

Since December, a team of archaeologists from the Museum of Copenhagen have secretly been excavating 20 skeletons discovered under City Hall Square.

Credit: Copenhagen Museum

The skeletons belong to men, women and children who are believed to have lived around 1,000 years ago, and which archaeologists believe were the first Copenhageners.

“It’s amazing. The graves with the skeletons in good condition are lying just a metre under the asphalt on the busiest square in Denmark,” Jane Jark Jensen, an archaeologist and curator with Copenhagen Museum, told Politiken newspaper.

The archaeologists believe that there are two additional layers of skeletons underneath the layer they are currently excavating.

The discovery has been kept hidden from the public in tents to prevent the site from being contaminated by curious citizens wanting to have a peek at the dig.


This became quite a challenge, particularly when the square turned into a bit of a ‘battle ground’ on New Year’s Eve, but the sites were sealed off with heavy iron plates.

The majority of the fragile skeletons have been transported to the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen for further tests.

Following that, they will be moved to the Natural History Museum of Denmark for further examination. It is expected that the tests will reveal new information about the people who helped found the Danish capital a century before Absalon built his castle there.

“This is completely new and will provide us with knowledge of a totally different calibre,” said Jensen.

Source: The Copenhagen Post [February 23, 2016]

Goat hairs have been found in a grave structure that was discovered in the 1930s in Kauhava, western Finland. These are the oldest animal hairs found in Finland. From the perspective of Finnish prehistory, the finding supports the evidence of animal husbandry practised during the Corded Ware period, while also revealing details of burial rituals.

Corded Ware sherds [Credit: Finnish National Board of Antiquities]

This is the first concrete evidence found in Finland of a goat dated back to the Neolithic Corded Ware period (in Finland ca. 2800-2300 BCE). The animal from more than four thousand years ago was identified by its fossilised hair, found in an archaeological soil sample.

The research finding tells about the mortuary practices of the Corded Ware culture. The soil sample under investigation originated in a grave structure discovered in the 1930s in Kauhava, western Finland. The grave and its perimeter were encircled by a layer of dark soil resembling the dimensions of an animal skin. Since the hairs were found in the sample collected from the feature in question, it can be assumed that they are connected with a goat skin placed in the grave.

The identification is based on images taken with a scanning electron microscope. The fibres included in these images were identified on the basis of their structure, typical to goat hair.

"Our study proves that completely new knowledge of our past can be gained by using microscopes to study organic material in advanced states of degradation. Now that we know to look for them, hairs have been found in other soil samples as well," explains Tuija Kirkinen.

An image of a fossilised goat hair (left) compared to a modern Finnish Landrace goat hair (right). Both images are taken with a scanning electron microscope [Credit: Krista Vajanto & Tuija Kirkinen]

In the light of these new findings, it is reasonable to assume that domestic animals and a herder identity have constituted a significant part of the belief system of the Corded Ware culture. This interpretation is also supported by objects made of domestic animal bones and pottery that might have been used for storing and drinking milk found in Corded Ware graves.

"Even though Corded Ware graves found elsewhere in Europe are generally better preserved, no equivalent evidence of skins placed in the grave have been found. As our findings show, the placement of the skin of an important domestic animal in the grave produces entirely new notions on the burial rituals and belief system of the Corded Ware culture," elaborates Marja Ahola.

Oldest animal hair found in Finland

From the perspective of Finnish prehistory, the finding supports the evidence of animal husbandry practised during the Corded Ware period. In the field of Finnish archaeology, it has long been assumed that people kept domestic animals also during the Corded Ware period. This conclusion is based on the fact that during the period, people often lived in meadow environments suited to animal husbandry. Milk residues have also been found in Corded Ware pottery. It has been difficult to prove the practice of animal husbandry, since in the acidic Finnish soil, unburnt bone is preserved only for about a thousand years. Therefore, Finland has little osseous material preserved from the Stone Age. The oldest domestic animal bones known here, for example, date back only to the later part of Stone Age in ca. 2200-1950 BCE.

"The hairs found in the Corded Ware grave in Kauhava are the oldest animal hairs found in Finland and the first evidence of goats. Our finding does indeed prove that goats were known already at that early period as far up north as Finland," says Krista Vajanto.

The study is published in the journal Antiquity.

Source: University of Helsinki [February 23, 2018]

Ritualised heads on stakes. Stone Age society and Stone Age people’s conception of the world were more complex than previously believed. This according to new analyses of skulls found in Motala, Sweden.

Anterior view of crania F296 showing well-preserved facial bones  [Credit: Sara Gummesson et al., 2018]

“The majority of the crania have traces of healed injuries in the same area of the head. It seems repetitive and there are differences between women and men”, Anna Kjellström says. She works at the Stockholm University Osteoarchaeological Research Laboratory and she is one of researchers who have examined the skulls.

Cranium F318 with wooden stake [Credit: Fredrik Hallgren]

The skulls come from a former lake in Motala, in eastern-central Sweden, excavated 2009–2013. Archaeologists found, among other things, remnants from at least ten people: nine adults and one infant. Two of the skulls were still mounted on stakes and at least seven had traces of healed injuries not caused by falling by incident.

These skulls, collected from the Kanaljorden burial, show signs of blunt-force trauma [Credit: Karin Berggren and Fredrik Hallgren; Antiquity 2018]

The women’s head injuries were in the back and on the right side of the head while the male skulls had injuries on the top of the head and in the face. The researchers also believe that after death the bodies were stored or buried in another place and then transported to the place where they were found.

People of importance

“The fact that so many had healed injuries suggests that these people were special in some way”, Anna Kjellström says.

A model showing the local topography at Kanaljorden. The black outline details where the excavation took place. The black dots show the burial's location in the ancient lake [Credit: Karin Berggren and Fredrik Hallgren; Antiquity 2018]

The great number of findings and their concentration to one place make the researchers believe that these people were of importance. There are no similar findings in Europe, Anna Kjellström says.

The burial was large, about 39 feet by 46 feet (12 by 14 meters). The bottom of the burial was made of large stones and wooden stakes. On top of the packed stone, Stone Age people placed the bones in a certain order. The humans (red) were in the middle, while the brown bears (blue) were south of the humans and the wild boar (yellow) were southeast of the humans [Credit: Sara Gummesson et al./Antiquity 2018]

During the Old Stone Age period, 8,000 to 7,500 years ago, humans were hunter-gatherers living in smaller groups following animals according to season. But there were places where many groups of people gathered at certain times during the year. These places were of great ceremonial importance and people could build more permanent structures there.

Complex Stone Ace society

“Our findings give a more nuanced image of the Stone Age – it was a complex society with clear signs of planning and organisation”, Anna Kjellström says. The handling of human remains allows researchers to get an idea of the large world of religious notions that existed during the Stone Age.

Cut marks on the bear's jaw that are indicative of butchery [Credit: Sara Gummesson et al.; Antiquity 2018]

“Placing heads on stakes may have been some kind of intimidation tactic to scare enemies, but the action might as well have had a different meaning for ancient people than today. In any case, it must have been a striking and spectacular view”, Anna Kjellström says.

The study was published in the journal Antiquity.

Source: Stockholm University [February 22, 2018]

The oldest Dutch work of art is a 13,500 year-old carved bison bone dredged up from the bottom of the North Sea, archaeologists write in an article published in Antiquity magazine earlier this week.

The carved bison bone was fished out of the North Sea in 2005 and dates to the last Ice Age [Credit: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden]

Late Ice Age hunter gatherers roamed the area that became the North Sea but very little evidence of their presence has been found. But sometimes the sea floor yields treasures that shed light on the period. This is a confirmation, the article says, of ‘the importance of continental shelves as archaeological archives’.

In 2005 a Dutch fishing vessel caught a bison bone in its nets on the border of the Dutch part of the continental shelf. The bone, which had a distinctive zigzag pattern carved in it, ended up in the hands of a collector who, the NRC writes, ‘had good contacts with fishermen’ and agreed to let experts at the Leiden archaeological museum take a look at it.

Carbon isotope analysis showed the bone to be 13,500 years old and part of a culture that decorated animal bones with zigzag and herringbone motives. Only three other similarly carved objects have been discovered so far: a horse’s jaw in Wales, deer antlers in Northern France and moose antlers in Poland.

Main author of the article and prehistory curator at the Leiden museum Luc Amkreutz thinks these objects were not used as tools but belong in a ritualistic context. ‘I wouldn’t know what else you would do with a decorated horse’s jaw’, he told the paper.

The 13,000-year-old skull fragment is believed to represent the oldest modern human remains found in the Netherlands [Credit: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden]

The decoration on the Dutch bone shows a typical geometrical motif of the period. According to Amkreutz the carving is ‘very precise to start with but a bit haphazard towards the end, as if the person doing the carving lost interest.’

What the carvings mean is unclear. Some have interpreted the zigzags as symbols of movement, rhythm, water or a need for symmetry. ‘But we will never really know,’ Amkreutz said.

The article also describes a piece of a human skull that was fished up from the North Sea in 2013 and which dates from roughly the same period. The parietal bone, which may have belonged to a woman, is 13,000 years old and one of the earliest examples of Homo Sapiens remains found on Dutch territory.

The scientists have also found tiny indentations which may point to anaemia or a lack of vitamins, which would lead to scurvy or rickets. The search is now on for DNA in the skull fragment so more tests can be done.

Findings from the North Sea used to be discarded because they lacked context, Amkreutz told the NRC. ‘But by careful dating and researching the material we can show that the objects are interesting in themselves.’

Source: Dutch News [February 14, 2018]

Directly following the last ice age, people from the western parts of what is now Norway were a population that had substantially different genetics from the people living in the area corresponding to present-day Sweden.

Anne-Marian Snaaijer, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology works in Trondheim's Archive Centre at Dora. The collection trays hold lots of bone discoveries [Credit: Åge Hojem, NTNU University Museum]

"We were surprised that the results showed such marked dissimilarities," says associate professor and archaeologist Birgitte Skar at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) University Museum. Skar is responsible for the museum's Stone Age and Bronze Age collections.

Scandinavia was one of the last parts of Europe to become habitable when the glaciers released their icy grip more than 10,000 years ago. The ocean's resources and the coastal archipelago attracted marine hunter-gatherers of yore to the region.

Swedish and Norwegian researchers have collaborated on analysing the DNA in 9500-year-old bone samples from the southern and western Norwegian coast and from the Swedish islands of Gotland and Stora Karlsö. This period corresponds to the Mesolithic Stone Age.

Researchers examined seven excavated individuals and compared their genetic material with samples from other parts of Europe.

"People from the Norwegian south and west coast were genetically similar to populations east of the Baltic Sea that came from today's Russia. People from eastern Scandinavia - present-day Sweden - were more genetically similar to populations from central and western Europe," says population geneticist Torsten Günther from Uppsala University. He is one of the main authors of the new study.

Norwegian results are key

This finding may seem strange if you just look at the geography, but it may due to multiple waves of migration to Scandinavia. About 11,500 years ago, people migrated from the south, through Germany and Denmark and then by sea to Norway. About 1000 years later, people traveled from the northeast and followed the Norwegian Atlantic coast southward.

"To understand the migration routes, it was essential to obtain data from the Norwegian individuals," explains Skar, co-author of the study. The Norwegian skeletal remains from southern Norway are also the oldest of the individuals studied.

Over time, the various migration waves led to extensive contact between the diverse populations, and this is also reflected in the genetic data.

The researchers analysed the genetic data in conjunction with other archaeological findings and new insights from climate models to increase their understand of the migration routes, settlement patterns and the first people to settle in Scandinavia as the ice retreated.

Archaeological artefacts and isotopic analysis - which can tell us something about what people ate - help to fill out the picture. The new immigrants that came from the northeast learned new boating and fishing skills to access marine resources, which offered their main source of food.

The researchers discovered that these immigrants also introduced new tools and innovative ways to produce them. This shift in material culture can now be linked to a particular migration wave.

"We expect that a migrating population comes with an entire cultural package - a knowledge of nature, ways of life, craft traditions, beliefs and other customs," says Skar. "Now we can explore more closely how the relationship between the original and new populations evolved. The original inhabitants were highly skilled and adventurous seafaring hunters, whereas the new population was originally an inland people. Archaeologists can track the processes of change in their material culture," she adds.

Light pigmentation variants may have been advantageous

People at that time were largely dependent on the ocean for food. They braved challenging climate conditions that required behavioral adaptations in the short term, and that in the longer term could lead to changes in the population's genetic composition.

"The two groups that migrated to Scandinavia at that time were genetically distinct. People from the south probably had blue eyes and dark skin, while those from the northeast had various eye colours and light skin," says population geneticist Mattias Jakobsson from Uppsala University, another of the main authors.

The genetic variation between the Mesolithic individuals from Scandinavia is surprisingly high, and greater than in the populations who lived in western and central Europe. This contrasts with the Europe of today, where the largest genetic variation is found in the south.

The lighter variations of skin and eye color that are more common in Scandinavia than in other parts of Europe also appear to have been the case at the time of the migrations. Pigmentation, now as then, tends to decrease the farther away a population group lives from the equator. We can assume this to be an indicator of climate adaptation.

Good results

The results are presented in a research article recently published in PLoS Biology. The sample quality is very high.

The remains of one of the individuals studied yielded aDNA results with the best coverage, or depth, achieved for any human being from prehistoric times. The abbreviation aDNA stands for ancient DNA and refers to the study of genetic data obtained from fossil subjects.

Source: Norwegian University of Science and Technology [February 01, 2018]

A 6,000-year-old baby with its teeth still intact and resting in the arms of a woman, believed to be its mother, has been found in a grave in the Netherlands.

The grave dates back to the Stone Age and is thought to be around 6,000 years old [Credit: Gemeente Nieuwegein]

Archaeologists said it was the oldest baby grave ever found in the Netherlands. The grave, uncovered at a site in Nieuwegein in the province of Utrecht, dates back to the Stone Age.

The discovery only came to light after four exhumed skeletons were examined by archaeological consultancy RAAP in Leiden.

Scientists noticed that the right arm of the 30-year-old woman's skeleton was bent at a strange angle. It was crooked instead of straight - the usual posture of other skeletons at the site.

Closer inspection showed bone fragments of an infant by her arm and revealed that the woman was buried cradling a baby.

"The posture of the woman's body did not conform to what we had found so far, that is, bodies whose limbs are placed parallel to the body. We then made the moving discovery that she was in fact cradling a little baby," project leader Helle Molthof told Dutch broadcaster NOS.

Left: The baby was found tucked under its mother's arm in a grave in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands. Right: An artist's impression of the grave [Credit: Gemeente Nieuwegein]

The bone fragments sent for analysis included a tiny jaw holding several baby teeth. From this, scientists concluded that the infant had died when it was just a couple of months old.

"It really makes an impression when you find little baby teeth buried in clay for 6,000 years and see how similar they are to all those milk teeth that are kept in matchboxes by parents everywhere," Molthof said.

DNA tests will reveal whether the woman was the infant's mother as well as the sex of the baby.

Archaeologists hope that the grave will inform them about the burial ceremonies of the hunter-gatherer communities who lived along the banks of the River Vecht.

"We know how they lived, what sort of food they ate, what their houses were like but we don't know very much yet about how they buried their dead and what happened to the children," Molthof said.

Author: Isabelle Gerretsen | Source: International Business Times [January 31, 2018]

Whether at a casino playing craps or engaging with family in a simple board game at home, rolling the dice introduces a bit of chance or "luck" into every game. We expect dice to be fair, where every number has equal probability of being rolled.

14th century medieval dice from the Netherlands recovered during an excavation in the 1990s [Credit: Jelmer Eerkens, UC Davis]

But a new study shows this was not always the case. In Roman times, many dice were visibly lopsided, unlike today's perfect cubes. And in early medieval times, dice were often "unbalanced" in the arrangement of numbers, where 1 appears opposite 2, 3 opposite 4, and 5 opposite 6. It did not matter what the objects were made of (metal, clay, bone, antler and ivory), or whether they were precisely symmetrical or consistent in size or shape, because, like the weather, rolls were predetermined by gods or other supernatural elements.

Renaissance brings change

All that began to change around 1450, when dice makers and players seemingly figured out that form affected function, explained Jelmer Eerkens, University of California, Davis, professor of anthropology and the lead author of a recent study on dice.

"A new worldview was emerging -- the Renaissance. People like Galileo and Blaise Pascal were developing ideas about chance and probability, and we know from written records in some cases they were actually consulting with gamblers," he said. "We think users of dice also adopted new ideas about fairness, and chance or probability in games."

Standardization comes into play

"Standardizing the attributes of a die, like symmetry and the arrangement of numbers, may have been one method to decrease the likelihood that an unscrupulous player had manipulated the dice to change the odds of a particular roll," Eerkens said.

Dice are not common finds in archaeological sites. They are typically found in garbage, domestic areas, or cemeteries, and frequently are recovered as lone objects in a site, Eerkens said. Many are not accurately dated.

After looking at hundreds of dice in dozens of museums and archaeological depots across the Netherlands, Eerkens and his co-author, Alex de Voogt, of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, were able to assemble and analyze a set of 110 carefully dated, cube-shaped dice. Their findings were published in the journal Acta Archaeologica in December.

The researchers found that:

- Dice made before 400, or in Roman times, are highly variable in shape, size, material and configuration of numbers.

- Dice are very rare between 400 and 1100, corresponding to the Dark Ages.

- When dice reappear around 1100 they are predominantly in the "primes" configuration, where opposite numbers tally to prime numbers (1-2; 3-4; 5-6), a numbering style that was also popular in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Early medieval dice also tend to be quite small relative to their Roman predecessors.

- Around 1450 the numbering system quickly changed to "sevens" where opposite sides add up to seven (6-1; 5-2; 3-4). Dice also became highly standardized in shape, and also were made larger again. Standardization may be, in part, a byproduct of mass production.

Eerkens said he studied dice because they are a convenient item in which to isolate the function from the style, as opposed to other artifacts found in archaeological sites, such as arrowheads, a functional item used for hunting. "A lot of artifacts we study as archaeologists conflate the two... . We know for dice they are purely stylistic."

The study also shows that dice, like many material objects, reflect a lot about people's changing worldviews, Eerkens said.

"In this case, we believe it follows changing ideas about chance and fate."

The researchers conclude in their article, "Gamblers may have seen dice throws as no longer determined by fate, but instead as randomizing objects governed by chance."

Author: Karen Nikos-Rose | Source: UC Davis [January 30, 2018]

Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) found the small medieval chess piece before Christmas during an excavation in Anders Madsens gate in Tønsberg.

The chess piece [Credit: Lars Haugesten, NIKU]

Tønsberg is Norway’s oldest city and excavations there are followed closely by historians and archaeologists.

Arabic inspired chess piece

The archaeologists found the piece in a house dating to the 13th century. But it is the Arabian pattern that fascinates the archaeologists the most.

"The design of the piece has an abstract shape, and is designed according to Islamic tradition, where no human figures are to be depicted," says project manager for the excavation in NIKU Lars Haugesten.

Chess piece made of antler

The piece is made of antler, and is cylindrical with a protruding nose on top. The height of the piece is 30 mm and the diameter is 26 mm. Lead was probably inserted in the middle of the piece when it was made, making it stand firmly on the chessboard.

The piece is richly decorated with circles on the bottom, several dotted circles on the sides and at the top. The protruding snout on the top has two dotted circles.

"No previous archaeological finds from Tønsberg have such details, which emphasizes that this chess piece is a unique object,” says Haugesten.

The excavation area in Anders Madsens gate, Tønsberg Tønsberg [Credit: Thomas Wrigglesworth, NIKU]

Chess introduced to Norway in the late Viking age

The game of chess was taken up in the Arab world after the conquest of Persia in the 7th century, and was introduced to Spain in the 10th century by the Moors. From Spain, the game spread rapidly northwards, and may have been known in Scandinavia shortly afterwards.

"The oldest find in the Nordic region is from Lund, Sweden, dating back to the last half of the 12th century. That piece is similar to the find from Tønsberg," says Haugesten.

The chess piece from Tønsberg is a knight

By looking at the ancient form of chess, shatranj, the piece from Tønsberg appears to be a horse (today known as a knight).

"In Norway, some chess pieces from the Middle Ages have been found, but few similar knights. For example, in Bergen, more than 1,000 gaming pieces have been found. Of these, there are some chess pieces but only 6 abstract knights," says Haugesten.

Their shape is similar to the piece from Tønsberg, but the size of the pieces varies. The decor on the pieces is not the same as that from Tønsberg, yet the pieces from Bergen both have dotted circles and ordinary circles.

About the excavation in Anders Madsens gate

In the Autumn of 2017, the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) performed an archaeological excavation at Anders Madsens gate 3 in the centre of Tønsberg.

The area is in the outskirts of medieval Tønsberg, dating from the 12th to the 15th century. The area is located near Slottsfjell castle, The Royal Estate and the former St. Laurence Church.

During the excavation, several houses and streets were discovered, and in addition the chess piece the archaeologists found ceramics, metal, combs, antlers and a whole range of artefacts that can be linked to the Middle Ages. And in the middle of it all – this rare chess piece.

Source: Norsk institutt for kulturminneforskning [January 30, 2018]

An international team of scientists, led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, analyzed ancient human genomes from 38 northern Europeans dating from approximately 7,500 to 500 BCE. The study, published in Nature Communications, found that Scandinavia was initially settled via a southern and a northern route and that the arrival of agriculture in northern Europe was facilitated by movements of farmers and pastoralists into the region.

Skull included in this study from Ölsund, Hälsingland, Sweden, dating to around 2,300 BCE, in the ancient DNA laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History [Credit: Alissa Mittnik]

Northern Europe could be considered a late bloomer in some aspects of human history: initial settlement by hunter-gatherers occurred only about 11,000 years ago, after the retreat of the lingering ice sheets from the Pleistocene, and while agriculture was already widespread in Central Europe 7,000 years ago, this development reached Southern Scandinavia and the Eastern Baltic only millennia later.

Several recent studies of ancient human genomes have dealt with the prehistoric population movements that brought new technology and subsistence strategies into Europe, but how they impacted the very north of the continent has still been poorly understood.

For this study, the research team, which included scientists from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Sweden, assembled genomic data from 38 ancient northern Europeans, from mobile hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic (approximately 12,000 to 7,000 years ago) and the first Neolithic farmers in southern Sweden (approximately 6,000 to 5,300 years ago) to the metallurgists of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Baltic (approximately 1300 to 500 BCE). This allowed the researchers to uncover surprising aspects of the population dynamics of prehistoric northern Europe.

Two routes of settlement for Scandinavia

Previous analysis of ancient human genomes has revealed that two genetically differentiated groups of hunter-gatherers lived in Europe during the Mesolithic: the so-called Western Hunter-Gatherers excavated in locations from Iberia to Hungary, and the so-called Eastern Hunter-Gatherers excavated in Karelia in north-western Russia. Surprisingly, the results of the current study show that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from Lithuania appear very similar to their Western neighbors, despite their geographic proximity to Russia. The ancestry of contemporary Scandinavian hunter-gatherers, on the other hand, was comprised from both Western and Eastern Hunter-Gatherers.

Map showing locations and timeline of the samples introduced in this study [Credit: Mittnik et al. Nature Communications (2018)]

"Eastern Hunter-Gatherers were not present on the eastern Baltic coast, but a genetic component from them is present in Scandinavia. This suggests that the people carrying this genetic component took a northern route through Fennoscandia into the southern part of the Scandinavian peninsula. There they genetically mixed with Western Hunter-Gatherers who came from the South, and together they formed the Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers," explains Johannes Krause, Director of the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and senior author of the study.

Agriculture and animal herding - cultural imports by incoming people

Large-scale farming first started in southern Scandinavia around 6,000 years ago, about one millennium after it was already common in Central Europe. In the Eastern Baltic, the inhabitants relied solely on hunting, gathering and fishing for another 1000 years. Although some have argued that the use of the new subsistence strategy was a local development by foragers, possibly adopting the practices of their farming neighbors, the genetic evidence uncovered in the present study tells a different story.

The earliest farmers in Sweden are not descended from Mesolithic Scandinavians, but show a genetic profile similar to that of Central European agriculturalists. Thus it appears that Central Europeans migrated to Scandinavia and brought farming technology with them. These early Scandinavian farmers, like the Central European agriculturalists, inherited a substantial portion of their genes from Anatolian farmers, who first spread into Europe around 8,200 years ago and set in motion the cultural transition to agriculture known as the Neolithic Revolution.

Similarly, a near-total genetic turnover is seen in the Eastern Baltic with the advent of large-scale agro-pastoralism. While they did not mix genetically with Central European or Scandinavian farmers, beginning around 2,900 BCE the individuals in the Eastern Baltic derive large parts of their ancestry from nomadic pastoralists of the Pontic-Caspian steppe.

"Interestingly, we find an increase of local Eastern Baltic hunter-gatherer ancestry in this population at the onset of the Bronze Age," states Alissa Mittnik of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, lead author of the study. "The local population was not completely replaced but coexisted and eventually mixed with the newcomers."

This study emphasizes the regional differences of cultural transitions and sets the stage for more in-depth studies of later periods in northern European prehistory, such as the Iron Age and Viking Age.

Source: Max Planck Society [January 30, 2018]

Two shipwrecks, including one possibly dating back to the 14th century, have been found at the bottom of the sea as part of a project to open a new maritime museum in Stockholm.

The cog, from the 14th or 15th century [Credit: Mikael Fredholm/Swedish National Maritime Museums]

Maritime archaeologists made the discoveries just before Christmas while diving in the archipelago to take pictures and gather material for the planned museum, a spokesperson for the Swedish National Maritime Museums told The Local.

Historic vessels are a fascinating, but not unusual, discovery in the Baltic Sea's shipwreck graveyard (there are at least 100 intact ships on the Baltic seabed). The water is too brackish for shipworm, which means that a huge number of wooden ships have survived on the bottom of the sea with almost intact hulls for centuries.

Another picture of the cog [Credit: Mikael Fredholm/Swedish National Maritime Museums]

Most shipwrecks found in Stockholm are from the 17th and 18th centuries, Sweden's maritime heyday, but one of the new finds is thought to be from the 14th or 15th century. Mostly submerged in the mud on the seabed, the wrecked ship – believed to be a cog – is 23-25 metres long and seven metres wide.

"My pulse went up when I realized what we were looking at – I have never seen such well-preserved shipwrecks," said maritime archaeologist Jim Hansson in a statement.

Barrels containing osmond iron and tar [Credit: Jim Hansson/Swedish National Maritime Museums]

Onboard the other shipwreck, estimated to be from the 16th century, a whopping 20 barrels of osmond iron, kitchen utensils and tools were found. The National Maritime Museums said the extent of the iron found was "unprecedented in previous maritime findings". The exact location of the wrecks has not been revealed.

The planned maritime archaeological museum 'Treasures of the Baltic Sea' is scheduled to open in 2020 next to the Vasa Museum on Djurgården island in Stockholm. But it is unlikely that any new wrecks found will be turned into a new version of world-famous warship Vasa, which sank in 1628 and was salvaged in 1961.

A 3D image of the cog wreck [Credit: Swedish National Maritime Museums]

"There will be both authentic exhibits in the new museum such as objects found and parts of wrecks. But no whole wrecks like the Vasa ship, because the wrecks are best preserved by staying where they are now," Cecilia Eriksson, communication officer of the Swedish National Maritime Museums, explained to The Local.

"Instead, visitors will get to join dives deep into the secrets of the Baltic Sea with the help of digital technology," she said.

Author: Emma Löfgren | Source: The Local [January 28, 2018]