Month: May 2010

Stirling Castle knight identified and reconstructed

Medieval

A team of forensic anthropologists have reconstructed the battle-scarred face of a 14th century knight unearthed at Stirling Castle in Scotland. You can clearly see the dent in his head from that axe wound to the skull he survived, and his not-so-great teeth.

Computer reconstructed face of Stirling Castle knight, d. 1341

The knight was found in 1997 along with other skeletons buried under the floor of the lost chapel of James IV, the oldest known building in the castle dating back to the early 1100s. It’s only recently that technology has been able to provide us with the goods on him.

Forensic analysis of his bones indicates he was raised in southern England and was in his mid-20s when he died. The team also found out that the sword blow that sliced through his nose and jaw wasn’t the most likely cause of death. Instead it was probably a Scottish arrow shot during an attack on the castle that killed him.

The most surprising find, however, is documentation that strongly points to his actual identity. Earlier speculation was that he might have been Robert Morley, killed in tournament at Stirling Castle in 1388. The fatal arrow wound doesn’t really fit the tournament death scenario, though, and the skeleton of a woman found next to him with her skull smashed in by a mace also suggests full-on ruthless assault rather than war games.

Documents uncovered by the team showed that Sir John, a Buckinghamshire lord, was a senior member of the garrison. He died on 10 October 1341 and his family line has since died out.

Prof Black said piecing together the potential identity of the knight was “absolutely unexpected”.

“When you start with something that was less than optimal, the chances of getting it back to even a possible name is much better that we could even have expected.”

However the identity of the woman buried next to him will probably never be known as women were not deemed important enough for their deaths to be recorded.

The research will go on permanent display at Stirling Castle next year. Historic Scotland, the organization that curates the castle, is also commissioning further study on the 10 skeletons found along with Sir John.

Oldest known pyramid tomb found in Chiapas

Ancient, Treasures

A team of archaeologists from Brigham Young University in the US, the Mexican National Institute of History and Anthropology, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico excavating the ruins of a pyramid in Chiapa de Corzo, southern Mexico, have uncovered an elaborate ancient burial. Pottery found buried with the remains dates the burial to 700 B.C., a thousand years before the Maya built pyramids to entomb their royalty. That makes this pyramid the oldest pyramid tomb in Mesoamerica.

The team found the burial chamber deep inside the pyramid after digging for 24 hours. This chamber held the remains of three people: a wealthy middle-aged male, a baby, and a young man. On a landing outside the chamber were the remains of a wealthy woman.

Jade jewels found in the mouth of the wealthy maleThe middle-aged man was richly adorned, his mouth was covered with a shell and his teeth were incrusted with jade. He also wore bracelets, anklets, necklaces and what the archaeologists believe to be a funerary mask with eyes made of green obsidian.

Investigators from the Archaeological Project Chiapa de Corzo say that judging by the wealth of jewellery he was buried with, he would have been of high rank.

Wealthy female buried with jewels and an iron pyrite mirrorThey said the two other bodies may have been added to the tomb to accompany the dead man to the afterworld and were possibly sacrificed.

The researchers say the position of the bones suggests the baby was carefully placed in the tomb, while the young man was possibly thrown into the burial chamber.

In an annex to the main chamber, the archaeologists found another smaller room containing the skeleton of a woman, also richly adorned with amber and pendants depicting birds and a monkey.

As far which pre-Colombian culture built the pyramid, that’s still unknown at this time. The period in question was a transitional one, and Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico on the border with Guatemala, was inhabited by a variety of peoples interacting, trading, intermarrying, fighting. The Olmec were up north near the Gulf but their influence spread far inland, the Maya were sprouting up in the south, the Zapotec were in nearby Oaxaca.

Some of the pottery in the tomb is similar in style to grave goods found in Olmec burials in La Venta, Tabasco, but they could have been traded, so we don’t know if the decedents were actually Olmec or just influenced by Olmec culture.

National Geographic has some more great pictures of the find.

Rare pics of the night Marilyn sang to JFK

Modern(ish), Multimedia

Marilyn Monroe famously sang a sultry “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to John Kennedy 48 years ago today. In honor of the anniversary, LIFE magazine has uploaded a slideshow of pictures taken that night by photographer Bill Ray. Most have never been released before.

There are some great shots in the group, and Mr. Ray comments on each picture, providing great detail on the party, the old Madison Square Garden (aka Madison Square Garden III, closed in 1967 and bulldozed in 1989), and the difficulties the press had in getting close to the event.

He had wanted to get a shot of Kennedy watching Marilyn, his reputed mistress, performing but the Secret Service wouldn’t let photographers stay in front of the stage, so he had to wander all over the Garden looking for the one spot that would give him that shot. Finally he found a nosebleed seat behind the stage that had the proper sight lines.

“It had been a noisy place, everybody all ‘rah rah rah,'” Ray recalls. “Then boom, on comes this light. There was no sound — no sound. It was like space.” Marilyn was on the stage, taking off her white fur to reveal that scandalous dress underneath. “It was skin-colored and it was really tight. She didn’t wear anything underneath it, it was all sewn on, and those Swarovski crystals were sparkling. And she used this long pause… Then finally, she comes out with ‘Happy Biiiiirthday’ — she starts the whole breathy thing — and everybody just went into a swoon.” Ray took his shots, including this one and the iconic frame that opens this gallery. “I was praying because I had to guess at the exposure. It was a very long lens, which I had no tripod for, so I had to rest it on a pipe railing and try not to breathe.” Though he couldn’t get the Marilyn/JFK shot he’d initially wanted — “she was in such a bright spotlight and he was almost in total darkness” — Ray still came away with a winner of a picture: “I got very lucky with this,” he says.

Marilyn Monroe singing 'Happy Birthday' to JFK

Not iconic but awesome nonetheless is his backstage picture of the divine Ella Fitzgerald.

The Marilyn moment tends to eclipse everything that happened before it. But there were many stars on the bill. At some point Ray made his way backstage, where he captured a contemplative Ella Fitzgerald waiting to go on — and looking much more elegant than her surroundings, Ray says. “All of the Garden was old, and the dressing rooms back then were really tacky.”

Ella Fitzgerald far outclassing her surroundings

They almost look like mirror images or bizarro opposites, don’t they? The way they’re holding their arms; one shot from behind, one from the front; one onstage, one backstage; Marilyn in white(ish), Ella in black.

Greek police bust 2 looters with 2 ancient statues

Ancient, Looting, Treasures

Kouros statues recovered from looters, 6th c. B.C.Police in Greece busted two men in the act of loading a rare matched pair of ancient statues into a truck to smuggle them outside the country where they planned to sell them for 10 million euros ($12.43 million). The police are also looking for a third member of the gang who was going to help get the works out of Greece.

They haven’t commented yet on where the statues were headed or who was meant to be on the receiving end.

Archaeologists said Tuesday the statues are “outstanding works of art” and may have come from a temple or cemetery in a lost ancient city in the Peloponnese region in southern Greece. Both are in excellent condition, but lack sections of their lower legs and were gashed by a plow or digging machinery.

They stand 1.82 meters (5 feet 9 inches) and 1.78 meters (5 feet 8 inches) high, and were probably carved by the same sculptor out of thick-grained island marble between 550-520 B.C, at the height of the archaic period of sculpture.

“They are exactly the same, with a slight variation in hairstyle and a small difference in height,” said Nikos Kaltsas, director of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens where the finds were temporarily housed for conservation and study. “The artist may have wanted to produce two similar figures that would form part of a group.”

The statues are in the kouros style, the stiff, posed style of sculpture that preceded the Hellenistic embrace of naturalistic statuary.

Archaeologists hope to find the missing pieces of the legs since the breaks are recent, but they haven’t pinpointed the exact location where the statues were excavated. Authorities suspect the site might be lost ruins of Tenea because a similar but slightly earlier statue was found in what may be Tenea’s cemetery. Here’s hoping the men they arrested spill all the details.

For now, the kouros will remain in the National Archaeological Museum for further analysis and conservation.

Lucky 13th c. gold and silver jewelry found in India

Medieval, Treasures

I know what you’re thinking: when is finding gold and silver jewelry not lucky? Hear me out.

Construction workers leveling a site for a volleyball court at Anurag Engineering College outside of Hyderabad uncovered a pot filled with gold and silver jewelry from the Kakatiya dynasty, between 1083 and 1323 A.D.

It contained 75 gold ornaments including ear tops, mangalsutrams, beads and armlets weighing 189 grams and silver ornaments consisting of 18 anklets weighing 550 grams.

“It is a rare occurrence to discover gold and silver caches on the eve of Akshaya Tritiya,” said Prof. P. Chenna Reddy.

“These rare jewellery [sic] including beads made of semi-precious stones will be kept on display at the Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy AP State Museum on Monday to coincide with the International Museums Day celebrations,” he said.

Ashaya Tritiya is a Hindu and Jain holy day considered to bring good luck and prosperity. It’s an auspicious day to begin any business venture and any gifts you give on Ashaya Tritiya will bring many happy returns to giver and receiver, so it has become customary recently for people to give gifts of gold jewelry and gold coins in particular. This find, therefore, is crazy great luck for the college and the Department of Archaeology and Museums.

Also, the jewelry is really beautiful, lots of intricate gold work. You check out the shiny on this slideshow. Some of it looks really heavy. I’m not sure I’d wear these in my ears, for instance:

Gold 'vathulu' (earware), 13th century