Month: March 2020

Tiny new bird dinosaur found in amber

Ancient

A new avian dinosaur has been identified from its tiny skull preserved in amber from Myanmar. The 99-million-year-old amber was discovered in 2016 and the long-beaked, big-eyed, toothy skull encased within has gotten a new name: Oculudentavis khaungraae. It is one of the smallest dinosaurs ever found the second most ancient bird after Archaeopteryx.

The entire skull is just 1.5cm (.6 inches) long. Extrapolating from that, Oculudentavis was no more than 1.6 inches long from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail, comparable in size to the bee hummingbird, the smallest bird alive today. In order to study the fossil in detail without damaging the amber, the research team used high-resolution X-ray images to create a 3D model. This creature was bird-like but not a bird, a dinosaur but not like any other known.

First of all, the skull seems to be built for strength. The bones show an unusual pattern of fusion and the skull lacks an antorbital fenestra, a small hole often found in front of the eye.

The eyes of Oculudentavis also surprised us. The shape of the bones found within the eye, the scleral ossicles, suggests that it probably had conical eyes with small pupils. This type of eye structure is especially well adapted for moving around in bright light. While daytime activity might be expected for an ancient bird from the age of dinosaurs, the shape of the ossicles is entirely distinct from any other dinosaur and resembles those of modern-day lizards.

Adding to the list of unexpected features, the upper jaw carries at least 23 small teeth. These teeth extend all the way back beneath the eye and are not set in deep pockets, an unusual arrangement for most ancient birds. The large number of teeth and their sharp cutting edges suggest that Oculudentavis was a predator that may have fed on small bugs.

The sum of these traits – a strong skull, good eyesight and a hunter’s set of teeth – suggests to us that Oculudentavis led a life previously unknown among ancient birds: it was a hummingbird-sized daytime predator.

If the research team is correct about Oculudentavis‘ age and position on the evolutionary timeline, it rewrites what we know about how and when the large reptiles transitioned into the birds that are their living descendants today. Oculudentavis predates the appearance of nectar-feeding hummingbirds by 70 million years, which means the tiny dinosaurs and the massive ones lived together at the same time.

The study has been published in the journal Nature.

Roman iron smelting plant found in Belgium

Ex Cathedra

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a Roman-era iron smelting operation in Ninove, East Flanders, Belgium. These are the first traces of Roman iron production ever found in the region.

The Doorn Nord site is being archaeologically surveyed in advance of construction of a business park. Since the investigation began 18 months ago, the team has unearthed two funerary monuments from the late Neolithic (2500-2000 B.C.) and a smattering of Bronze Age (2000-1000 B.C.) remains, but the densest concentration of ancient material dates to the late 1st and 2nd century A.D. when a Roman settlement grew at the intersection of two roads.

The settlement contains houses, streets and graves and appears to have specialized in metal craft, specifically the smelting of iron ore into iron. Archaeologists are hoping to discover how much ore was produced and what it was used to make.

The greatest number of remains are of more recent extraction: military encampments from the late 17th to the mid-18th centuries. Flanders was a hot potato that changed hands repeatedly (between France and Spain, mainly) during the Nine Years’ War and the War of the Spanish Succession. The camp features small shelters cut into the clay of the ground itself. They had staircases, benches, hearths and fireplaces and could keep six men seated and warm around a fire. No roofs have been found yet and it’s not clear how the smoke was channeled out of the small space.

In June of last year, the city recreated the 17th century encampment so people could hear what it was like to live there from a “soldier’s wife” while sitting in the reconstructed bunkers. More than 4,000 visitors enjoyed the recreations, period crafts, combat demonstrations and archaeology workshops.

Pyramid of Djoser reopens

Ancient

Egypt’s oldest pyramid, indeed, the first monumental cut stone structure ever built, has reopened to the public after years of disaster (natural and man-made) and restoration. The step pyramid of Djoser, tomb of the first pharaoh of the Old Kingdom, was built around 2,680 B.C. in Saqqara, the ancient capital of Memphis. High priest of Ra and the pharaoh’s vizier Imhotep is believed to have engineered this marvel by building a large square mastaba and then pile five more on top of it in descending size.

Underneath the pyramid is a network of tunnels, shafts and passages that create a palace for the king to enjoy in the afterlife. The burial chamber contains a massive pink granite sarcophagus. No human remains have been found in the chamber as the pyramid was hard to miss and tomb raiders pillaged it thoroughly.

In 1992, the pyramid was badly damaged in an earthquake. It was so unstable that basic steps like building scaffolding ran the risk of causing even more damage to the interior. Restoration began in 2006, and in 2011, a creative approach using large airbags to prop up the precarious ceilings and walls looked to be very promising. Then came the overthrow of Mubarak and restorations were stopped for two years.

When they picked back up in 2015, there were rumblings that some poor choices were being made and that the façade of the pyramid had been changed from its original. UNESCO experts advised restorers on how to restore the World Heritage site without making alterations that changed its iconic exterior.

The restoration is now complete. The outside of the pyramid, its internal corridors, the burial chamber, the south and east entrances are now safe for visitors. There is new lighting in the tunnels and the stunning limestone floors, walls decorated with faience and carved reliefs can be seen and photographed.

Easter Island moai damaged by truck

Medieval

One of Easter Island’s iconic monoliths was severely damaged when a pick-up truck crashed into it. The ahu (the platform the moai stood on) and the moai overlooking the Pu A Pau Bay were damaged by a truck belonging to a Chilean resident on the island. The ahu is broken up into pieces and the head, which like many of the moai was already toppled, was fractured. The driver was arrested and charged with damaging a national monument. He was released pending investigation, but is banned from getting anywhere near the archaeological and sacred areas of the island.

When the disaster first occurred last Sunday, the suspicion was that this was a deliberate act of vandalism. The driver claimed in his defense that it was an accident and the more recent reports state that he wasn’t driving the truck at all, let alone aiming to destroy the ahu. A relative of the driver says he had parked on top of the hill to go fishing, braking it by wedging rocks under the tires because its emergency brake was broken. When he returned, he removed the rocks and the truck slid down the wet hill, crashing into the monument. He alerted the park rangers to the crash and was given a breathalyzer test which found he had not been drinking. The possible penalties for this crime include a fine of approximately $3,000-$12,000, plus unspecified other consequences depending on what the 90-day investigation reveals.

The moai and ahu are not adjacent to the roads, so that truck must have hurtled downhill quite a ways to reach the statue. The ugly image of the sacred cultural patrimony of Rapa Nui crushed under the rimless tires of a busted Chevy might finally spur the authorities to regulate the movement of vehicles in sacred spaces.

The island’s mayor, Pedro Pablo Petero Edmunds Paoa, is calling for stricter regulations that will prohibit vehicles from driving near the 1,000-odd moai on the UNESCO World Heritage-listed island.

Edmunds Paoa tried to pass an anti-driving measure eight years ago, he told Chilean newspaper El Mercurio de Valparaíso, with no effect. He believes that this week’s accident could be the motivating factor to consider re-introducing the proposal.

“The Moai are sacred structures of religious value for the Rapa Nui people,” Rapu said. “Furthermore, [the damage of the moai] is an offense to a culture that has lived many years struggling to recover its heritage and archaeology.”

The moai are already under grave threat from erosion, organic growth, livestock grazing and overtourism. The island’s population has increased by 50% (from 8,000 to 12,000) since 2012 and as travel to the island has gotten easier and less expensive, more than 10,000 tourists visit each month. It is clearly time to revisit the traffic management of the heritage sites.

Relics of St. Eanswythe confirmed

Medieval

Bones found in a lead reliquary in a church in Folkestone, Kent, have been identified as almost certainly belonging to 7th century Anglo-Saxon princess Saint Eanswythe. The surviving remains, about half of a skeleton, were studied by a team of scientists for five days. A temporary laboratory was set up in the church which was closed to the public for the duration.

The study found that the bones all belonged to one individual, probably a woman, between 17 and 20 years old at the time of her death. The bones were healthy, showing no signs of childhood malnutrition. Radiocarbon analysis of a tooth and foot bone found the person had likely died in the middle of the 7th century.

The reliquary was rediscovered in June 1885 in the north wall of the high chancel during a renovation. Masons were removing the plaster cladding on the wall in order to install new alabaster panels when they discovered a large arched opening with a stone slab four feet long and two feet wide at the base of the arch.

Underneath the slab, workers found a cavity containing a lead coffer about 14 inches long, nine inches wide and eight inches high. The coffer was decorated with dots arranged in lozenge patterns, a motif also seen in the lead cists of Norman nobleman William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, and his wife Gundred who died in 1088 and 1085 respectively and were buried at Lewes Priory, the Cluniac monastery they had founded.

Inside the leaden coffer were skeletal remains. The location where they were laid to rest would have been the spot of highest honor in the church, the kind of place reserved for the church’s founder or its greatest patron. The chancel walls date to the 12th or 13th century. When it was first constructed, this arched space was open to the chancel. At some point it was filled with stone and walled up.

Eanswythe was born around 630, daughter of King Eadbald of Kent and his Frankish wife Emma or Ymme. They were both Christian — Eadbald was a fresh convert when they married — and their daughter was said to have founded the first women’s monastery in England, the Benedictine Folkestone Priory. Refusing offers of marriage, she lived in the community until her premature death around 650.

The Folkstone Priory was abandoned in the 10th century when the cliff upon which it was perched became so eroded by the sea that the building fell to ruin. After the Norman Conquest, a new priory was built further inland in 1137 along with the church of St. Mary and St. Eanswythe. The remains of one of its namesakes were translated to the new church on Saint Eanswythe’s day, September 12, 1138. That’s when the lead coffer was decorated with the lozenge pattern used on the de Warenne cists 40 years earlier.

The priory was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The church survived as the Folkestone Parish Church. It’s possible the chancel arch was filled with rubble at this time and the reliquary deliberately obscured for its own protection. After the rediscovery of the reliquary, Rev. M. Woodward, Vicar of Folkestone, returned it to the niche in the wall, only now it was lined with alabaster and covered with a brass grill. The grill was then covered with a door which when open would allow people to look through the grill at the lead coffer.

[Andrew Richardson, of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust] said the result of the analysis was of national significance. “It now looks probable that we have the only surviving remains of a member of the Kentish royal family, and one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon saints.

“There is more work to be done to realise the full potential of this discovery. But certainly the project represents a wonderful conjunction not only of archaeology and history, but also of a continuous living faith tradition at Folkestone from the mid-seventh century to the present day.”

Lesley Hardy, the director of the Finding Eanswythe Project at Canterbury Christ Church University, said: “Folkestone is an extremely ancient place but much of its heritage has been erased through development in the 19th and 20th centuries. Eanswythe was at the centre of the community – people would have seen her as a local hero. To bring her back into the light is something quite special.”

The bones have been returned to their niche yet again, but funds will be raised for additional scientific analyses, including DNA testing.