Engraved megaliths found in France

An excavation in Massongy, southeastern France, has unearthed a Neolithic stone circle with engraved stones. The Chemin des Bels site has two distinct occupation areas from the Middle Neolithic period: a small village and a large megalithic complex. It was occupied for a short time — just a few centuries — but during that period, the complex was went through five distinct stages.

The stone megaliths were installed in a deliberate, organized fashion. Its builders had a clear plan at every stage of redevelopment. The core megalith is a five-ton slab about 11 feet long, 3.6 feet wide and 3.3 feet high. It was carved to a point on one end, suggesting it may have originally been a menhir, but if so it was it stood somewhere else and was transported to Chemin des Bels because it has always been on its side at this location. The massive slab was then encircled by standing stones about three feet high. Eight of those standing stones remain today, but archaeologists estimate that there were at least 15 in the circle when it was originally constructed.

That was phase one of the site and it was brief, lasting a few decades. In phase two, the standing stones were knocked down and buried. The center slab was not, however, and in phase three pebble platforms were built around it. In the fourth phase the associated village was built just a few feet away from the megalith. It developed further in phase five before the site was abandoned.

During the excavation of the stone circle, archaeologists discovered that some of the megaliths were engraved with abstract geometric designs. In order to document the carvings, the team used Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) which captures even the smallest of engraved elements not visible to the naked eye by taking a series of pictures from a stationary point but using a moving light source.

The RTI analysis found that the stones were engraved at different times. The large slab was carved in three stages. The first designs were cup marks, about 20 of them in a loose U formation. Then some smaller divots were removed using the percussive piquetage technique around the cups and under the U. The piquetage punctures form a rectangular band. Lastly, a set of overlapping chevrons were engraved on top of the slab.

First, about twenty cups were hollowed out, forming a sort of large U. Then, numerous stakes were arranged around certain cups and below the U, these puncture-shaped removals form a large rectangular band. Finally, at the top of the slab, a series of intertwined rafters have been engraved.

Two intentionally broken slabs (before burial?) Bore multiple traces of geometric engraved lines. The RTI system makes it possible to trace the chronological order of these drawings. In both cases, we can see quadrangular, cruciform or herringbone patterns. One of the possible interpretations would be that these patterns represent an agricultural parcel landscape. The “Chemin des Bels” site is located a few hundred meters from the Chablais massif. From the plateaus of this massif, the agricultural landscapes must have resembled those engraved on the stones.

The “Chemin des Bels” is located in a vast set of known megalithic sites which has left many traces around Lake Geneva. However, its remarkable state of conservation, the proximity of a contemporary village as well as the wealth of associated material, testifying to successive redevelopments over a long period, make it a megalithic site of exceptional interest.

New virtual tours of 8 Rome museums

Eight of Rome’s civic museums are offering new virtual tours. Available in Italian and English, to tours allow visitors to explore the museums floor-by-floor, in aerial views, through video, audio and information panels.

It’s a curated approach. Select objects on display and important features of the museums themselves are highlighted. You navigate by clicking on arrows, then click on hotspots targeting an object or area and the label/information pops up. If there is video or audio, clickable icons appear on the screen.  You can also bounce around using the map icon in the bottom right. It’s a little awkward to navigate and it’s not the kind of virtual tour that allows you to browse objects on display for hours because even when the collections are huge like the ones in Capitoline very few pieces are hotspots. It’s more about moving through some extremely cool spaces and seeing some celebrated pieces.

This is most effective for the smaller museums, particularly the Museo delle Mura and the Ara Pacis because the collection is comparatively sparse and the structure itself is the focus of the tour. The reliefs of the Ara Pacis are so complex, being able to zoom in on an area virtually and read detailed explanations is very satisfying. The Museo delle Mura was one of my favorite discoveries on my 2018 Rome trip and the best part was getting to clamber through the walls. The virtual tour gives you even more of that unbelievable view from the roof of the Porta Appia and connected defensive walls.

Here are the new virtual tours:

Musei Capitolini
Museo dell’Ara Pacis
Museo Napoleonico
Mercati di Traiano – Museo dei Fori Imperiali
Casino Nobile di Villa Torlonia
Centrale Montemartini
Museo delle Mura
Museo di Roma

Rainfall exposes bronze bull at Olympia

A small bronze figurine of a bull from the Geometric Period (1050-700 B.C.) has been discovered at the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. Heavy rainfall had exposed one its horns which caught the sharp eye of archaeologist Zacharoula Leventouri. The bull was excavated and removed to the laboratory of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia where it was cleaned and conserved.

The figurine is intact and in excellent condition. Atop its stylized slim form are comparatively large forward-facing horns like an aurochs, the iconic wild bull which at the time this figurine was made still roamed southern Greece. It was found in the sacred grove of Alteos, the open-air enclosure that was the earliest precinct dedicated to Zeus at the site in the 10th-9th century B.C. (The classical Doric temple was built much later in the 5th century B.C.) The wee bull was a votive offering, one of thousands made by the devout of Zeus at the Olympia sanctuary during the Geometric Period.

The bull, like the horse, was one of the most important animals for human survival and the creation of civilization until modern times. Thus he acquired this special role in the worship of the gods of antiquity, that is, to be a beloved object which was dedicated by the faithful to their consolation, by supplication or as a sign of pleasure.

Like dozens of similar figurines depicting animals or human figures, the bronze bull seems to have been offered by a believer at the time of the sacrifice, as evidenced by the strong burn marks on the sediments and sediments removed during its purification. A large number of figurines found in the thick layer of ash from the altar of Zeus that covered the entire ​​Alteos area is exhibited in the second room of the Archaeological Museum of Olympia and is indicative of the importance of the Sanctuary of Olympia as a Panhellenic center.

The figurine will now be studied by archaeologists to narrow down its typology and chronology.

19th c. Frenchman’s life writ on his uniquely preserved skin

Warning: this is a grisly one. The preserved heavily tattooed skin of a man held in a private collection in London has been studied for the first time, revealing tantalizing glimpses into his life.

Pieces of tattooed human skin were preserved as medical oddities in the 19th century, as anthropological specimens in the case of indigenous peoples of the Pacific, Asia and North America (tattooed Maori heads were sold as oddities), and as pathology specimens for Europeans thanks to the prevalent association of tattoos with criminality. The Wellcome Collection has about 300 examples, from flowers to dates to pinup girls, collected from “sailors, soldiers, murderers and criminals.”

The subject of this most recent study isn’t a snippet of skin with a tattoo or two on it. This is the entire front of an adult male’s skin excised from ankles to top of the head, including face and ears. The genitalia were not preserved which made sex difficult to determine absolutely, although heavily tattooed women were exceedingly rare in the late 1800s so it’s reasonable to believe he was male on that basis alone. There is no evidence of breasts or facial hair. In the end it was the receded hairline typical of male pattern baldness that confirmed the likelihood of this having been a man.

This is the only known example of a full-body incised tattooed skin in Europe. The only other examples are in Japan, where in the late 19th century after tattooing was outlawed men would get the funding to complete their body suits by agreeing to donate their flayed skin after death to the sponsoring collector or institute.

He was heavily tattooed with images and text on his limbs and torso, hence the extensive flaying and preservation. The word “BONHEUR,” French for happiness, was tattooed in capital letters above his genitalia. Researchers refer to him as Monsieur Bonheur as his name is not known.

Whoever removed the skin did an expert job, removing it just two sections using a pattern of incision that was once common in medical autopsies. CT scans confirmed that only the skin was removed, no other tissue. The edges of the skin, including the “Bonheur” area above the pubis were then sewn back together with a post-mortem stitch to give it a unified appearance. The operation had to have been performed by someone with medical training and experience.

The skin was then mounted to a wooden board with flat-headed nails around the perimeter of the body and stuffed with horse hair to give a three-dimensional fullness. This work was rough compared to the surgical precision of the skin’s removal. It suggests the intent was display, not anatomical preparation.

When the remains of M. Bonheur were acquired by the present owner in Paris in the early 2000s, there was no documentation attesting to its age or the history of the person who it was attached to in life. The seller claimed it was the skin of a murdered hanged in Marseilles whose skin had been excised and nailed to the door of the court as a cautionary tale. This is not a plausible account, to put it mildly, and is typical of the tall tales associated with human skin curiosities like book bindings.

Because of postmortem discoloration and distortion of the skin, some of the tattoo groups were darkened and overlapping black outlines and black shading made them hard to discern. In the darkest areas, it was impossible to see if there were any tattoos at all. In order to penetrate the penumbra not just of the tattoos but of the treatment, the research team examined the skin using CT scanning, multispectral imaging, X-rays and infrared reflectography. The skin and hair were also analyzed using digital microscopy.

Researchers determined that there were between 55 and 60 pictorial tattoos and nine text elements. Image motifs include florals, animals, daggers piercing hearts, swords, flags and human figures (women and men). Human figures — full bodies, busts and faces — are the most common. The men feature a variety of facial hair and outfits, include clown hats and turbans. Some of the women have different hairstyles and what appear to be hats; some are nudes. One of the female images has the name Flourine tatted underneath it. That name appears in a second tattoo as well, so it’s likely M. Bonheur had a romantic relationship with her. An anchor and the text “Vive La Flotte” (“Long live the fleet”) indicate he was in the navy at some point.

There is some indication that he might have had less than positive relations with law enforcement. An image of two crossed swords labelled “Mort aux Commissaires” (“Death to ‘Commissioners'”) is believed to refer to the Commissaire de Police Judiciaire, basically the police commissioner. Then there’s the more metaphoric approach: a tattoo of a uniformed man chained to a pillar with a bird delivering him “liberté” in his beak. The date 1883 is on the base of the pillar. Perhaps the date of his incarceration or release?

 If the date on the pillar to which the tattooed figure in the (convicts?) uniform was chained, ‘1883’ did indeed refer to a date of release from prison or military servitude, then it would appear that for this individual that day never came. The portion of flayed skin then appears to have come into the possession of others who placed it on display. The practice of displaying tattoos would accord with an established nineteenth century tradition whereby heavily tattooed (living) individuals exhibited themselves for entertainment (Oettermann 2000). If this suggestion is true, it implies a European example of the ‘sideshow mummy’ phenomenon that was prevalent in the USA during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Here unclaimed, embalmed bodies were exhibited for profit in circus sideshow and fairground attractions, commonly with a fictional or at least highly embellished story attached in order to increase their interest and profitability (Conlogue et al. 2008). In this respect, the story attached to M. Bonheur that was told to its current curator at the point the skin was purchased may in fact be of some antiquity and would also be consistent with this interpretation as ‘marketing’ for such an attraction.

Almost-looted medieval treasure goes on display

An exceptional hoard of 10th century jewelry that almost disappeared into the penumbra of online antiquities trafficking has gone on display for the first time at the Archaeological Museum of Córdoba. Its existence was only suspected last year when a local archaeologist saw photographs of some of the pieces for sale on social media and notified the National Police. The treasure was ostensibly discovered on La Amarguilla, a farm in the Andalusian town of Baena, southeast of Córdoba, but the story is self-serving with many glaring omissions.

According to the experts consulted, the treasure was buried inside a bag or a ceramic container in the ground. Indeed, all of the pieces were stained by soil, indicating the treasure had been dug up only recently. The police investigation took place in the Córdoba municipalities of Lucena, Luque and Baena, where the treasure was finally found in an industrial warehouse. The person who had it in their possession took the police to an estate in Baena where they claimed to have found it.

However, the individual’s explanations regarding the original site of the buried treasure reportedly failed to convince archaeologists and consequently, no excavation has been undertaken to determine whether other elements are still to be discovered there.

This is the 16th known jewelry hoard found in Andalusia and it stands out among them for the quality, quantity and rarity of its pieces. The Amarguilla Treasure is comprised of 623 jewels, beads and gems. There are 98 pieces of jewelry made of precious metal — gold, silver or gilt silver — of an unusual variety of designs. There are pendants, bracelets, hairpins, dress ornaments, rings of caliphal type, chains and broken necklaces. A large group of beads and pearls found in the hoard were originally part of the necklaces or bracelets. There are 17 hard stone (mostly quartz and rock crystal) beads, four cylindrical pink coral beads, 36 glass beads of different colors and 476 river seed pearls. No other documented Andalusian jewelry hoard contains any seed pearls.

Among the notable pieces are two intricate gold filigree pendants, one in a circular, one in a bell shape. Circular examples have been found before in hoards. The bell-shaped one is unique on the archaeological record. The greatest standout jewels are a circular pendant with the Star of David inside and two bangles, one silver, one gilt, with animal head terminals. The Star of David pendant is made with a filigree so delicate and precise that required great technical virtuosity from the goldsmith. It is unique; there is no other piece like it extant. The bangles are made of four twisted tubes silver with four threads twisted between them. The terminals are serpent heads constructed with very fine granulation.

The style of the jewels dates them to the 10th century. It was likely buried in the beginning of the 11th century during the upheaval of the civil war that broke out in 1009 and would drag on for two decades and ultimately bring about the demise of the Caliphate of Córdoba. The other Andalusian hoards also include coins that made it possible to pin down the latest possible date they were buried. That this hoard does not strongly suggests they were surreptitiously sold before authorities got wind of the discovery. Coins are more common, making them easy to move because people don’t ask a lot of questions when they emerge on the market. The jewelry is extremely rare and much harder to sell without arousing suspicions, which is exactly how the Amarguilla treasure came to light in the first place.

The Jewels of Amarguilla exhibition is temporary, running through June 6, 2021, but the treasure will go on permanent display at the museum.