The number of cave lion cubs preserved in the permafrost of Yakutia, eastern Siberia, has doubled with the discovery of two more. One of them, a little female named Sparta, was so effectively mummified her whiskers, teeth, skin, fur and internal organs are still intact. She is the best-preserved Ice Age animal ever discovered.

The cave lion (P. spelaea) was widely spread throughout eastern Siberia in the Late Pleistocene period, especially during the Karginian interstadial (termochron). It seems unlikely that it is a coincidence that all four mummies of the cave lion cubs found to this day are from the Karginian interstadial and were found in a quite confined area in the river basin in the midstream of the Indigirka River (lower reaches of Uyandina River and Semyuelyakh–Tirekhtyakh River, located only c. 60 km from each other). The large number of cubs found suggests that this area during the Karginian interstadial (when the climate was becoming relatively warm and tree vegetation was spreading) was a favourable breeding site for cave lions. It also seems probable that this site, during this time period, had some characteristics that made it more likely to rapidly freeze and preserve animals. The site was attractive to cave lions for making dens, but it was probably also susceptible to them collapsing.

The two Panthera spelaea cubs were found by mammoth tusk hunter Boris Berezhnev. He came across a male cave lion cub  first on the Semyuelyakh River in 2017. He named it Boris after himself, one supposes. The next year he returned to the site and found Sparta 50 feet away from where he had found Boris.

Sparta was between one and two months old when she died 28,000 years ago. Boris, who is less well-preserved, was around the same age as Sparta when he died, but they were not littermates. Radiocarbon dating found he lived long before her, around 43,500 years ago.

Boris and Sparta were transported to Yakutsk for examination. After microbiological tests found the frozen cubs carried no infectious diseases, they were CT scanned, radiocarbon dated and DNA was extracted. The cubs’ bodies were twisted on their axes and deformed under tens of thousands of years of permafrost pressure, but researchers were able to document the skeletal structure and organs from the tomographic images. Sparta was found to have a uterus-like organ, and Boris testicle-like organs. Researchers were confident enough from what they saw on the scans to conclude Sparta was female and Boris male. DNA analysis then confirmed the sexing.

The preliminary examination of the cubs’ mummies shows that the colour of the hair coat was changing from the juvenile yellowish-brown shade to a more ‘adult’ one, light grey to brown, at some point between 1–2 weeks and 1–2 months. Adult lions probably had light grey hair, well adapted to the Siberian Arctic, which is snow covered for two-thirds of the year.

It is known that cave lions had thick long fur undercoats consisting of strombuliform aeriferous hair. It covers the bodies of mummified lion cubs evenly and most likely helped them adapt to the cold climate.

The study has been published in the journal Quaternary and can be read here.

Four intact bouquets of flowers have been discovered in a tunnel under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan, Mexico. They were found in excellent condition, preserved with the cotton ropes still tied around the stems. They have not been radiocarbon dated yet, but the timeline of the tunnel’s use and other objects found near the flowers indicate they were deposited in the 1st or 2nd century A.D.

This the first time botanical materials have been found in such an exceptional state of preservation. In addition to the flowers, archaeologists also found maize seeds, beans, chilies, pumpkin seeds and prickly pear seeds. A leaf has been carefully recovered from one of the bouquets and will be studied to identify the plants used.

The ancient tunnel under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent was first discovered in 2003 when torrential rains opened a sinkhole in front of the temple. The hole led to an underground passage 338 feet long opening into three chambers that had been deliberately filled with soil and rocks and sealed 1,700-1,800 years ago. Archaeologists believe the tunnel symbolized the underworld and the discovery that the ceiling was impregnated with pyrite (to represent the sun/stars) and the ground was covered in large quantities of mercury to simulate water confirmed the cosmological interpretation of the space.

In 2009, a ground penetrating radar survey mapped out of the length of the tunnel and its attached chambers. Archaeological excavations followed beginning in 2010. An astonishing array of more than 120,000 artifacts and organic remains have been discovered in the tunnel in the 12 years since the Tlalocan Project began. These offerings were immensely valuable, including imports like jade, amber, rubber, cacao beans, the skins and bones of animals not native to the area like wolves and pumas which came from as far away as Guatemala. The flowers are the climactic final discovery marking the end of the project’s exploration stage.

They were discovered past what was previously believed to be the end of the tunnel. When the team reached the edge, they found that it continued for another 16 feet down a steep descent. In the same area, archaeologists also found pounds of charcoal and charred seeds and fruits from a burnt offering ritual, and a sculpture with unusual characteristics that may been an incense burner.

The flowers are being cleaned and conserved inside the tunnel to keep them in the humid, cool environment that has preserved them so well for 2,000 years. This is solution is both budget and conservation friendly, as it does not require the creation of a highly controlled environment in a laboratory to prevent rapid deterioration of the organic materials. This is acutely necessary right now as Mexico has had to temporarily close archaeological zones and rebury excavated sites due to lack of resources in the wake of the pandemic.

Now that the excavation phase of the tunnel is over, the project’s focus will shift to studying and cataloguing the masses of objects and remains found there.

A rare carved wooden idol made more than 1600 years ago was discovered in a bog in Gortnacrannagh,  Co Roscommon, western Ireland. The artifact was made from a split oak trunk and carved into a vaguely anthropomorphic shape, with a small round head at the top, small shoulders and a long body carved with deep horizontal notches. It is one of only twelve Iron Age idols of its kind found in Ireland, and is the largest of them at more than eight feet long.

Wooden idols are known from bogs across northern Europe where waterlogged conditions allow for the preservation of ancient wood.

“The lower ends of several figures were also worked to a point suggesting that they may once have stood upright,” said wood specialist, Cathy Moore.

“Their meaning is open to interpretation, but they may have marked special places in the landscape, have represented particular individuals or deities or perhaps have functioned as wooden bog bodies, sacrificed in lieu of humans.”

Archaeologists believe this idol too was likely originally planted in the ground where it was the center point of some ceremony or ritual. It was found face-down and broken in two parts, so they don’t believe it fell where it stood, but rather was decommissioned, taken down and laid to rest. It may even have become an object of sacrifice itself. Along with the idol, the team also found Iron Age ploughs, daggers, spears, Bronze Age gold pins and large quantities of animal bones and even some human bones. All of these are evidence that the Iron Age residents of the area used the bog for votive deposits and for animal sacrifice.

Radiocarbon analysis dates the idol to between 200 and 400 A.D., which is actually on the later side for this type of artifact. The outside date is only a century before St. Patrick evangelized Ireland, so it’s an important survival of pre-Christian religious practices on the island.

It takes on added significance because it was excavated by professional archaeologists in its original context. The other 11 idols were found by accident, often by peat cutters, so only the orphaned objects themselves survive. This one was surrounded by artifacts and remains attesting to the religious ceremonies associated with the idol.

The idol is now undergoing conservation at University College Dublin. It is in a bath of polyethylene glycol (PEG), a polymer that replaces the water in wood ensuring it doesn’t warp or shrink when it dries. The idol will have to remain in this bath for three years before the wood is stable enough to be exposed to air. When it’s ready, it will go on display at the National Museum of Ireland. Meanwhile, a replica is being made of oak posts for display in the Rathcroghan Centre in Tulsk, Co Roscommon, near when the artifact was found.

Excavations in Murviel-lès-Montpellier in the Occitanie region of southern France have unearthed the remains of a large building with a pot of Roman Republic coins secreted in one of its walls.

Initially founded in the beginning of the 2nd century B.C. by the Samnagenses, a Gallic people mentioned in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, the oppidum of Altimurium was a fortified settlement was built on a hill that would later become known as Castellas. At its height, the town covered almost 30 hectares encircled by a monumental wall. It was divided into an upper town on the flat summit and several terraces below, and the lower town on the gentle slope at the bottom of the hill. Where the upper and lower town met was a large forum with two porticos and colonnaded public buildings.

The ancient town was absorbed into the territory of its much larger neighbor, the Roman colony of Nemausus, modern-day Nîmes, in the 2nd century, and thereafter suffered a rapid decline. The oppidum was abandoned by the middle of the 3rd century and was never rebuilt. The current town of Murviel-lès-Montpellier was founded in the 11th century on a hill to the south of Castellas.

This season’s excavations focused on the lower town enclosure dating to around 100 B.C. in advance of planned home construction in the area. They found the first defensive ditch ever discovered at the site and the only evidence of a road in the lower town. They also found a medieval burial ground, but most notably a building of yet undetermined function built in the 1st century B.C.

The remains consist of a large threshold stone and carefully constructed walls with some traces of surviving plaster. A bench was built into the wall adjacent to the threshold. A second room featured a concrete floor. This structure was extensively redeveloped in the early 1st century A.D., creating a large building with three wings built around a central courtyard. A dolium, a large storage amphora, was found embedded in a basin in a room that had been used one time (and only one time) as a forge. A room in the south wing was employed as a forge, not just once but consistently. Two hearths and large quantities of associated detritus were found. The design of the building and the evidence of different types of work having taken place within its walls indicate this was not a dwelling. A large open space in front of it suggests the building may have been open to the public.

A small pottery vessel containing 20 silver denarii of the Roman Republic was unearthed in the demolition layers of this building. Archaeologists believe it may have been hidden in the earthen walls of the room that were destroyed during the reconstruction. The coin hoard survived by a fluke.