Month: November 2020

Pillow brick found in 13th c. clergyman’s grave

Medieval

Archaeologists have discovered the grave of a clergyman with an inscribed stone “pillow” under his skull at the Tsarevets Fortress in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.  The stone block was engraved with Bible verses in Old Bulgarian and in the middle of them an Orthodox cross, a cross with two horizontal crossbeams, the lower one slanted downwards to the right. There are seven lines quoting the first four verses of the Gospel of John.

Pillow bricks with inscriptions are rare finds in Bulgaria. The closest comparable find was bilingual in Greek and Old Bulgarian, and it was discovered by accident during construction rather than professionally excavated in its original location. Old Bulgarian was used throughout Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages. Also known as Church Slavonic, it was the official language of the Second Bulgarian Empire and is still the official language of several Eastern Orthodox Churches today.

The grave was found in the ruins of a 13th century Holy Mother of God Monastery that was a major religious center when Veliko Tarnovo, then Tarnovgrad, was the capital city of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The remains of the monastery were first discovered in 2014, and the next year’s excavation revealed the ruins of an Early Christian basilica in the same area.

To be buried in this location with funerary furnishings, the clergyman must have been someone of rank, the Father Superior of the monastery at least, and possibly even a Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

The archaeologist [, Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov who helped translate the inscription,] also explains that the brick with the inscription quoting the first four verses of the Gospel of John from Veliko Tarnovo has been found in a grave with an impressive design, featuring arc built into the wall of the 13th century monastery church.

“Most of the graves of senior clergymen have arcs. It features verses 1-4 from the Gospel of St. Apostle John, posing a number of questions with respect the person in the grave. That may have been the death wish of the buried person because almost all interpreters believe that the Gospel of John starts with a foreword containing some main and major Christian truths… The quote indicates that the buried person was a highly erudite man,” Popkonstantinov elaborates.

Darwin’s Tree of Life notebook stolen

Modern(ish)

Cambridge University Library has launched a public appeal for the recovery of two of Charles Darwin’s notebooks that have gone missing, likely stolen. One of them contains an iconic drawing known as the “Tree of Life” or “transmutation diagram” and both of them are of inestimable value. It’s a very cold case and there are no leads currently.

Dr Jessica Gardner, University Librarian and Director of Library Services since 2017, said: “I am heartbroken that the location of these Darwin notebooks, including Darwin’s iconic ‘Tree of Life’ drawing, is currently unknown, but we’re determined to do everything possible to discover what happened and will leave no stone unturned during this process.

“This public appeal could be critical in seeing the notebooks safely return, for the benefit of all, and I would ask anyone who thinks they may be able to help to get in touch.

“We would be hugely grateful to hear from any staff, past or present, members of the book trade, researchers, or the public at large, with information that might assist in the recovery of the notebooks.

“Someone, somewhere, may have knowledge or insight that can help us return these notebooks to their proper place at the heart of the UK’s cultural and scientific heritage.”

The notebooks were kept in the Special Collections Strong Rooms, an ostensibly secure location for the library’s most valuable and rare volumes. The last time they were recorded as having left the room was when they were photographed from September to November 2000. A routine check in January 2001 found the two notebooks and the bespoke blue box that held them were not back in place. An unfortunate assumption was made that they had simply been misplaced and would turn up again somewhere in the vast collection.

This was not an unreasonable belief, as appallingly sanguine as it seems now. The Cambridge University Library has an absolutely massive collection of Darwin material. Between letters, plans, drawings, manuscripts, 189 archives boxes and Darwin’s personal library of 734 books and 6,000 periodicals, the University Library’s Darwin collection covers more than 320 feet of shelving.

Gardner said: “Security policy was different 20 years ago. Today any such significant missing object would be reported as a potential theft immediately and a widespread search begun. We keep all our precious collections under the tightest security, in dedicated, climate-controlled strong rooms, meeting national standards.

“The building has transformed significantly since the notebooks were first reported as missing in terms of additional security measures such as new strong rooms, new specialist reading rooms, CCTV, enhanced access control to secure areas, and our participation in international networks on collections security.”

There were limited searches for the notebooks over the years, but all have been unsuccessful. This year the first comprehensive targeted search of the library’s storage facilities by specialist staff was begun, but again the notebooks could not be found. The full search will take five years to complete. In the meantime, the loss has been reported as a suspected theft to the Cambridgeshire Police, Interpol and the national Art Loss Register.

Darwin wrote down his thoughts about the speciaton, extinction and adaptation after his return from the voyage on the Beagle to South America in several notebooks. Notebook B contains his notes from July 1837 to February 1838. Notebook C was written between February and July 1838. On page 36 of Notebook B he drew a rough diagram to illustrate his idea of descent of species, how branches multiply as species that are well-adapted to their environments reproduce in great numbers, spread out geographically and diversify, “transmuting” from ancestral forms, while those who are not die out.

I think

[Tree of Life diagram]

Case must be that one generation then should be as many living as now

To do this & to have many species in same genus (as is). REQUIRES extinction.

Thus between A. & B. immens gap of relation C & B. the finest gradation, B & D rather greater distinction

Thus genera would be formed.— bearing relation

[page 37]

to ancient types.— with several extinct forms, for if each species “an ancient” is capable of making, 13 recent forms.— Twelve of the contemporarys must have left no offspring at all, so as to keep number of species constant.

The good news is those photographs taken in 2000 right before it disappeared with excellent high-resolution images that were uploaded to the University of Cambridge Digital Library. Full scans of covers and pages can be browsed online, and Darwin’s handwritten notes have been transcribed as part of the Darwin Manuscripts Project website.

Biggest Bronze Age goddess statue found in central Turkey

Ancient

Archaeologists have discovered an Early Bronze Age goddess figurine at the archaeological site of Kültepe in central Turkey. Since recent excavations began in 2018, the team has unearthed 35 figurines. At 17 inches high, this statue is the biggest found at the site, double the size of the next largest.

The figurine depicts a curvaceous woman seated on a throne. It is broken in two pieces — body to the shoulders and head — and is missing an object she was holding in her hand. The design of similar figurines suggests it may have been an animal.

[Ankara University professor Fikri] Kulakoglu said the goddess statue is being cleaned of dust to be displayed in a museum.

“This artifact is around 4,200 years old,” he said, adding that all of the statues, statuettes, idols found in Kultepe are women figurines.

“No idols of men have been found so far… the women statues are naked and have a decorated throne, and there are braids on their back,” he said.

Highlighting that the finding is unique, he said: “It is a very special piece for us… it is one of the most precious works showing religious beliefs of this region, of Kultepe.”

Kültepe was first settled in the Copper Age and was continuously occupied through the Roman era. Tens of thousands of cuneiform clay tables have been found from the Assyrian merchant colony built at the tell in the 20th century B.C. These are the oldest known surviving documents in Anatolia, and include the earliest record of Hittite words, or of any Indo-European language, for that matter. The goddess figurine dates to the earliest era of occupation. There are no written records from this period.

Dueling Dinosaurs gifted to North Carolina museum

Ancient, Museums

The Dueling Dinosaurs, two large dinosaurs locked in combat for 67 million years, have been gifted to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It’s the ideal outcome for a saga that began 14 years ago and could very well have ended with the disappearance of this one-of-a-kind natural treasure into anonymous private hands.

When they were put up for auction in 2013, they were believed to be the fossils of the carnivore Nanotyrannus lancensis and the herbivore Chasmosaurine ceratopsian, but the specimens have now been identified the carnivore as a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex and the herbivore as a Triceratops horridus. In other words, this was the real-life version of the most epic clash staged in toy rooms around the world. As if that weren’t cool enough, both the T. rex and the Triceratops are the most complete fossils of their species ever discovered. Tyrannosaurus is the only 100% complete T. rex fossil ever found. They went down in loose sandstone, died and were preserved locked in position.

The dinosaur carcasses have not been studied and remain entombed within sediment from the Montana hillside where they were discovered. Because of these rare burial conditions, each bone is in its natural position and Museum scientists will have access to biological data that is typically lost in the excavation and preparation processes. Entombing sediment preserves extraordinary features such as body outlines, skin impressions and other soft tissues, as well as injuries and potential evidence of interaction, such as tyrannosaur teeth embedded in the Triceratops body. This distinct preservation will provide Museum paleontologists with an unprecedented opportunity for research and education as they work to uncover the fossils and learn from them in the years to come.

The fossils were unearthed in Montana in 2006. The finders, a rancher, his cousin and a friend who hunt fossils for fun and profit, were given permission to search by the landowners Mary Anne and Lige Murray. The unique find made headlines and with the prospect of a multi-million dollar sale in the offing, trouble ensued. The Murrays had bought the land from brothers Jerry and Robert Severson in 2005.  The brothers retained two-thirds of the mineral rights, however, and with the fossils going under the hammer in 2013, the Seversons claimed part ownership on the grounds that Montana law defined fossils as minerals.

The fossils failed to meet the reserve price of $6 million at the 2013 auction so there was no sale, but the lawsuit opened a huge can of worms. If fossils belong to whoever owns the mineral rights instead of surface rights, paleontologists would have to negotiate with landowners for access to the dig site, then separately with the mineral owners. Mineral rights change hands a lot so owners aren’t necessarily easy to determine, and corporate entities predominate. Even the Seversons’ interests are owned by LLCs. It would also cast down on legal title of fossils that are already in museum collections, potentially resulting in a cascade of new ownership claims and sell-offs.

District court ruled for the Murrays first, but in 2018 a panel of the federal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came down on the side of the mineral rights owners. The Murrays filed for a rehearing and the full circuit court referred the case to the Montana Supreme Court. In 2019, state legislature passed a law declaring that fossils belong to the surface estate, but the legislation was not retroactive and the Murray case still had to make its way through the legal system. In May of this year, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that fossils are not minerals but rather belong to the land in which they were discovered.

With the legalities sorted out, the nonprofit Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences was able to negotiate the acquisition. The museum is going all-out to showcase and study their new dinosaurs.

“The Museum is thrilled to have the unique opportunity to house and research one of the most important paleontological discoveries of our time,” said Dr. Eric Dorfman, director and CEO of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. “Not only are we able to uncover unknown details of these animals’ anatomy and behavior, but our new dedicated facility and educational programs will allow us to engage with audiences locally, across North Carolina, and worldwide.”

The renovation will be located on the ground floor of the innovative Nature Research Center and will include high-tech exhibit spaces, an area where visitors can explore the tools and techniques used by paleontologists, and an exemplary science laboratory dubbed the “SECU DinoLab,” where scientists will research the specimens live in front of the public. Museum guests will have a unique opportunity to enter the SECU DinoLab and talk directly to the paleontology team. This state-of-the-art facility will also feature video feeds and research updates so the public, both onsite and online, can follow along live as paleontologists work to reveal and share their Dueling Dinosaurs discoveries.

“We have not yet studied this specimen; it is a scientific frontier. The preservation is phenomenal, and we plan to use every technological innovation available to reveal new information on the biology of T. rex and Triceratops. This fossil will forever change our view of the world’s two favorite dinosaurs,” said Dr. Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and associate research professor at North Carolina State University. “The way we have designed the entire experience — inviting the public to follow the scientific discoveries in real time and participate in the research — will set a new standard for museums.”

Two of Vesuvius’ victims found, cast

Ex Cathedra

New plaster casts have been made of two victims of the eruption of Vesuvius in a villa on the outskirts of Pompeii. The skeletal remains of two adult men were found in a side room of the cryptoporticus at the suburban villa at Civita Giuliana about half a mile northwest of Pompeii’s city walls. This is the same villa where the remains of a purebred horse dressed with a bronze-plated saddle and tack, were found in the stables in 2018. A graffito discovered earlier this year suggests the estate may have belonged to a member of the wealthy and influential Mummius family.

The room where the two bodies were found is in the northwest residence where the family and guests lived. It’s next to the cryptoporticus below the terrace peristyle garden overlooking the Bay of Naples. A vaulted opening led from the cryptoporticus to a rectangular room that allowed access to the upper floor. The room was seven feet wide and of undetermined length. It had a wooden floor and was destroyed when the first stories of the house collapsed when it was slammed by the pyroclastic flow. Archaeologists first found the tell-tale hollows in the layers of hardened ash that were left behind after the soft tissues of the bodied decayed. Digging down through a small hole to preserve as much of the void as possible, archaeologists found the bones. Most of them were removed for analysis. Plaster was then poured into the voids to capture the shape of the bodies.

They were both in supine position. One was a young man between 18 and 25. He was approximately 5’1″ tall and evidence of compression of his vertebrae, unusual in someone so young, indicates he had carried out manual labour for a long time. The imprint of his clothing was left in the ash hollow and therefore on the cast. He was wearing a short tunic of heavy fabric, likely wool.  The tunic and bone damage suggests he may have been a slave. The other victim was found with his head turned, cheek in the hardened ash, his arms folded, hands on his chest, legs spread wide apart. He was older than the first victim, between 30 and 40, and an inch taller. He was more elaborately attired in a tunic topped with a woollen mantle.

Both died in the second pyroclastic flow. They and the other Pompeiians had survived the pumice rain that fell for 19 hours an the first pyroclastic flow that struck the town when the eruptive column collapsed. Vesuvius then tricked them by quieting down for about half an hour, just long enough to encourage the survivors to leave their hiding places and attempt to flee with their lives. The second pyroclastic flow hit with sudden fury, faster and far more powerful than the first, blowing through vertical walls, pancaking the tops of buildings into the bottoms and killing the people who had hoped to escape their fate. The flow appears to have flooded the room in the Civita Giuliana villa through multiple points of entry, engulfing the men in hot ash that would harden into their tomb. Their entire bodies were encased in a gray ash layer 6.5 feet deep created by the second flow.

Other voids were discovered in this room three or so feet from the victims. The hollows were manually examined and plaster poured into them revealing items that may have been lost during the attempted escape, mainly heaps of heavy, draped cloth. The wool clothes they were wearing and carrying are additional evidence that the eruption took place October 24-25, not the traditional August date that may be the result of a medieval translation error.

This video shows the process of opening the voids, pouring the plaster and excavating the casts.