ARCHÆOLOGY
SHIGIR IDOL GETS OLDER
A larchwood ‘totem pole’ found in a Siberian peat bog is even older than estimated in our earlier report [ FT371:14]. It is by far the world’s oldest surviving work of ritual art. Scattered among the geometric patterns (zigzags, chevrons, herringbones) carved into it are eight human faces, each with slashes for eyes. Svetlana Savchenko, the object’s curator, speculates that the eight faces may well contain encrypted information about ancestor spirits, the boundary between earth and sky, or a creation myth.
The Shigir Idol, named for the bog near Kirovgrad in which it was found by gold miners in 1890, is presumed to have rested on a rock base for perhaps two or three decades before toppling into a long-gone palæo-lake, where the peat’s antimicrobial properties protected it like a time capsule.
Now housed in a museum in the Ural Mountains, not far from the Siberian border, it was originally 17ft (5.3m) long, but parts went missing during the Soviet era. Now only 9ft (2.8m) remains along with sketches drawn by Vladimir Tolmachev in 1914.
Carbon dating in 1997 indicated it was 9,500 years old, but in 2014 a team led by Thomas Terberger, an archæologist and head of research at the Department of Cultural Heritage of Lower Saxony, used accelerator mass spectrometry to push the date back to 11,600 BP, a time when Eurasia was still transitioning out of the last Ice Age. It was more than twice as old as the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge. Now a new study by the same researchers, reporting in Quaternary International, has pushed the date back a further 900 years.
Written with an eye toward disentangling Western science from colonialism, Dr Terberger’s latest paper challenges the ethnocentric notion that pretty much everything, including symbolic expression and philosophical perceptions of the world, came to Europe by way of the sedentary farming communities in the Fertile Crescent 8,000 years ago. Although the Idol is unique, Dr Savchenko sees a resemblance to the stone sculptures of what has long been considered the world’s oldest temple, Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey, some 1,550 miles (2,500km) away [ FT220:46-51, 289:23, 310:18]. The temple’s stones were carved around 11,000 years BP, which makes them 1,500 years younger than the Idol. Both were the work of hunter-gatherers, before the advent of agriculture. nytimes.com, 22 Mar 2021.
ANCIENT BUTTERFLY
A butterfly found pressed between the pages of The Theatre of Insects in the Jerwood Library of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, could be 387 years old. The college acquired the book in 1990 and said the butterfly’s preservation could date back as far as 1634 when the book was published. The Theatre of Insects, also known as Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum, was the first book published in England to be exclusively about insects. The small tortoiseshell butterfly was found next to its accompanying printed image. “There is a striking similarity between the woodcut and butterfly,” said librarian Jenni Lecky-Thompson, who made the discovery. “It is relatively common to find botanical specimens inside old books, but unusual to find an insect specimen.” BBC News, 28 Mar 2021.
PHALLIC MILLSTONE
During an upgrade of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon in 2017-18, more than 300 querns (hand mills) and millstones were recovered. One broken millstone had been revered and used as a bedstone. It has now been put back together revealing a carved penis, one of only four known examples of Romano-British millstones, out of around 20,000 found nationwide, decorated this way. Archæologist Steve Sherlock said phalluses were “seen as an important image of strength and virility in the Roman world, with it being common practice for legionaries to wear a phallus amulet, which would give them good luck before battle… There were known associations between images of the phallus and milling, such as those found above the bakeries of Pompeii, one inscribed with ‘Hic habitat felicitas’ – ‘You will find happiness here’”.
The millstone is the latest in a list of finds on the route of the upgrade to be made public by Highways England. They include the earliest evidence of beer
brewing in Britain, dating back to as early as 400 BC, only the second gold coin to be found in the country depicting Roman emperor Lælianus, who reigned for about two months in AD 269 before he was killed, and woolly mammoth tusks and woolly rhino skulls. BBC News, 17 Feb 2021.
CITIES UNEARTHED
Zahi Hawass, the ubiquitous Egyptologist, has announced the discovery of the largest ancient city, known as Aten, ever uncovered in Egypt. The excavation near the Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor, which began in September 2020, has already revealed a large number of objects, such as jewellery, coloured pottery, scarab beetle amulets and mud bricks bearing seals of Amenhotep III, one of Egypt’s most powerful pharaohs, who ruled from 1391 to 1353 BC. The city continued to be used by subsequent pharaohs Ay and Tutankhamun. Several areas or neighbourhoods have been uncovered, including a bakery, an administrative district and a residential area. Hawass said his team “expects to uncover untouched tombs filled with treasures”. Amenhotep III and his wife Queen Tiye were among the mummies recently transferred to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation [ FT406:11]. BBC News, 9 April 2021.
A ruined city 5,300 years old has been discovered in central China. The huge settlement on the outskirts of Zhengzhou was the highest-level residential complex of its time ever found along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. The ruins, with an area of 1.17 million square metres (12.6 million square feet) lie 2km (1.2 miles) south of the Yellow River at Shuanghuaishu in the township of Heluo, Gongyi city. The ruins are one of the largest settlements of the middle and late phases of Yangshao Culture, emerging around 7,000 years ago during the Neolithic. More than 1,700 tombs, neatly arranged in three blocks, have been uncovered, along with the remains of three sacrificial platforms standing in the residential area. Some unearthed objects showed “the aura of kings”. A set of clay pots arranged like the Big Dipper was believed to represent nobility. Other key findings include a silkworm statuette made of boar teeth.
Previous discoveries in Henan province include Erlitou, generally considered to be the site of the capital of the Xia Dynasty (c. 21st century-16th century BC), Yinxu, the ruins of the last capital of the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC), and several other major cities of the two dynasties – the beginning of China’s united central kingship ruling a vast territory.
The newly unearthed city’s appearance and location echo some historical records in the I Ching. According to Li Boqian, professor of archæology at Peking University, the possibility of the city being the seat of Xuanyuan, a legendary king in early Chinese history, cannot be ruled out, but it is still too early to draw any conclusions. “At least it shows a period of time when the earliest China was being incubated,” Li says. “As other types of civilisations like Liangzhu disappeared in history, the one of Zhongyuan has been continuous. Shuanghuaishu was the starting point of that uncut line.” China Daily, 12 May 2020.
SCARBOROUGH SETTLEMENT
The remains of a Roman settlement believed to be the first of its kind discovered in Britain – and possibly in the whole Roman empire – has been uncovered at Eastfield near Scarborough in North Yorkshire, with Historic England describing it as “easily the most important Roman discovery of the last decade”. The large complex of buildings – approximately the size of two tennis courts – includes a cylindrical tower structure with a number of rooms leading from it and a bathhouse. As excavations and analysis continue, historians believe the site may have been the estate of a wealthy landowner, which could have later become a religious sanctuary or even a high-end “stately home cum gentleman’s club”. Historic England will recommend the remains be protected as a nationally important scheduled monument. theguardian.com, 14 April 2021.