The excavation of a prehistoric necropolis in Aubagne, southeastern France, has unearthed an individual from the 1st millennium B.C. bedecked in copper jewelry.

The necropolis, in use from around 900 – 600 B.C., bookending the late Bronze and early Iron ages, was first excavated in 2021. At that time, archaeologists unearthed 10 burials, eight of them under a tumulus, and three cremation deposits. This years’ dig encountered three more burials, one under a large tumulus 33 feet in diameter. While the tumulus is notable — it was surrounded by a deep ditch and likely originally marked by a ring of stones — the burial within it was not furnished. The two other burials excavated this season were.

The first of the two contained the skeletal remains of an individual wearing a twisted copper alloy bracelet and a pearl and stone jewel on the left shoulder. Two ceramic pots were buried near the deceased’s head.

The second non-tumulus burial is the richest that has been found so far in this necropolis. The person was buried with a tubular torc with rolled terminals around their neck, three bangles on each ankle and three toe rings. Next to the deceased was a brooch and a large ceramic urn.

The tumulus and first burial are in close proximity. The third was distant from the other two. Each space was clearly and intentionally delimited with structures, now long-gone. The tumulus and first inhumation are bound by a line of postholes, indicating a linear structure once formed the boundary line of space reserved for the dead. The second burial was delimited by an alignment of stone blocks more than six feet long.

The discovery of these three burials adds significantly to our understanding of the funerary practices of protohistoric southern France. They also reveal that the necropolis extended far beyond archaeologists’ early estimates for the size of the burial ground. The new data indicates the necropolis covered at least 1.3 hectares, and probably extends even further than that.

A massive hoard of 1.5 tons of bronze coins dating to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties has been unearthed in the village of Shuangdun in eastern China’s Jiangsu province. The coins were strong together with straw ropes and arranged in tidy stacks.

The uncovered coins were well-preserved, and most of them had clear inscriptions, suggesting important value for further research.

In ancient China, such hoards were often buried in the ground so as to preserve precious porcelain, coins, metal tools, and other valuables, said the researchers.

Seventy wells were also found around the coin hoard, which was near the battle frontline of the Song and Jin troops, making the researchers wonder whether the excavation site belonged to a hutted camp.

Most of the coins in the hoard are from the Song dynasty wens. Bronze wens were the common currency of the period until a severe copper shortage forced the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) to issue coins of lower quality and value. Iron was hard to mint and rusted too easily once in circulation. Due to the scarcity of bronze coinage, the government was forced to cut military wages in half in 1161, ultimately leading to the emergence of paper money. In 1170, the state began to require that half of all taxes be paid with Huizi paper currency stepped into the breach.

Skeletal remains from what archaeologists believe is an ancient sacrificial victim have been discovered in Egedal on the island of Zealand, Denmark. The bones were found in an archaeological survey of a site slated for development around Town Hall. The found a femur and jaw bone first, and then unearthed legs, pelvis and more of the jaw. The bones belong to a single individual, and while an initial osteological examination found no direct evidence of sacrifice on the skeletal remains, the discovery of a Neolithic flint axe and a concentration of animal bones and pottery next to the body strongly suggests a ceremonial offering context from the Danish Neolithic (3900-1700 B.C.).

“That’s the early phase of the Danish Neolithic,” said excavation leader Emil Struve(opens in new tab), an archaeologist and curator at the ROMU museums in Roskilde. “We know that traditions of human sacrifices date back that far — we have other examples of it.” [..]

Struve said the flint ax-head found near the body was not polished after it was made and may have never been used, and so it seems likely that this, too, was a deliberate offering.

The style of the axe dates it to around 3600 B.C.

The area around ancient Egedal was a well-travelled transport corridor through the Værebro river valley dotted with settlements. The find site was a marshy area and the bog that evolved from it was still actively mined for peat well into the 20th century. Bog bodies are known for the preservation of soft tissue and organic materials that can take place in the anaerobic environment of peat bogs, but only the bones of this individual have been preserved.

The remains are now being cleaned and studied. Researchers will radiocarbon date the bones to narrow down when the person died. They also hope to be able to approximate their age by the wear on the teeth and their sex by the shape of the pelvis. More questions may be answered if ancient DNA can be extracted from the teeth.