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  • Ancient workers were paid with BEER

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    5,000-year-old clay tablet from one of the first cities could be the world's first 'payslip'

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  • Listen to the Oldest Song in the World

    A drawing of one side of the tablet on which the hymn is inscribed. The song is a cult hymn that was discovered on a set of tablets found in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit in the early 1950s. The top part of the tablet contained the words and the bottom half was instructions for playing the music A drawing of one side of the tablet on which the hymn is inscribed. The song is a cult hymn that was discovered on a set of tablets found in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit in the early 1950s. The top part of the tablet contained the words and the bottom half was instructions for playing the music

    “A Hurrian Cult Song from Ancient Ugarit” is the 3,400 years old sumerian hymn title

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  • 18th-Century Sex Toy Found by archaeologists at ancient Polish training arena for swordsmen

    One archeologist said: "It is quite thick and rather large, made of leather and filled with bristles... It was probably dropped by someone"

    dildo-archaeform-sextoy-18th-horizontal-webA 250-year-old sex toy has been found by archaeologists during a dig of an ancient toilet in Poland.

    The eight-inch leather dildo with a wooden head Continue reading

  • The Mummy With The Weird Pyramidal Bandage On His Face

    Ancient Egyptian Mummy Has Sophisticated Pattern Woven Around Headmummy-archaeform-wraped-WEB

    While visiting the Louvre, Redditor sbay captured and shared the astonishing intricacies of a mummy’s head wrapping. Continue reading

  • Medieval Pet Names

    La Somme le Roy, France ca. 1290-1300. La Somme le Roy, France ca. 1290-1300.

    People in the Middle Ages did keep pets – dogs, cats, birds, monkeys and many other kinds of animals. Although they often had particular duties – i.e. hunting or catching rats – there are many accounts that showed affection and love between these pets and their owners. Scattered in various texts and remains from the Middle Ages, and the research by Kathleen Walker-Meikle has uncovered several examples of medieval pet names: Continue reading

  • The 1,300 year-old mummy and her intimate tattoo

    Hospital scans help British Museum discover the secrets Egyptians took to their grave, including one woman’s intimate tattoo

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    Wrapped in bandages and caricatured as figures of terror in Hollywood movies, Egypt’s mummies have long captivated and bewildered scientists and children alike.

    Now an exhibition at the British Museum has disclosed the human side of the mummies of the Nile. Continue reading

  • The Case of the Spinning Egyptian Statue

    An ancient Egyptian statue turns in its locked museum display case. A new investigation shows why.statue-spins-archaeform-mistery-solved-web

    An ancient statue in a British museum was caught on camera mysteriously turning in its locked display case in June. The footage mystified many and made international news. According to an article in the “Manchester Evening News”:
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  • Neolithic Beer Recipe Reconstructed

    5,000-Year-Old Chinese Beer Recipe Had Secret Ingredient

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    Barley might have been the "secret ingredient" in a 5,000-year-old beer recipe that has been reconstructed from residues on prehistoric pots from China, according to new archaeological research. Continue reading

  • Oldest Depiction of Ancient Egyptian Demons Found

    Decapitating Demons May Be the Oldest Fearsome Entities of Ancient Egypt

    The demon Ikenty represented as a large bird with a black feline head on a Middle Kingdom coffin. The same demon appears as a large bird on a much older leather roll The demon Ikenty represented as a large bird with a black feline head on a Middle Kingdom coffin. The same demon appears as a large bird on a much older leather roll

    A Belgium-based Egyptologist has discovered the oldest depictions of ancient Egyptian demons, showing that demonic entities populated the ancient Egyptians’ imaginations as far back as 4,000 years ago. Continue reading

  • 3,700-year-old scarab seal found by birdwatcher

    Egyptian artifact, exposed after heavy rains last winter, believed to have belonged to very senior figure in Thirteenth Pharaonic dynasty in 18th century BCE

    A 3,700-year-old scarab seal found by a birdwatcher at Tel Dor, in northern Israel, dated to the 13th Dynasty. (Tel Dor Excavations, courtesy) A 3,700-year-old scarab seal found by a birdwatcher at Tel Dor, in northern Israel, dated to the 13th Dynasty. (Tel Dor Excavations, courtesy)

    Haifa University announced on Sunday the discovery of a rare 3,700-year-old scarab seal found at Tel Dor, an important ancient port on the coast south of Haifa.
    The amulet was found by a birdwatcher, who gave it to university archaeologists on site. The object was exposed after heavy rains last winter. Continue reading

  • Symbols of protection against evil found on Egyptian mummy

    Intricate animal and flower tattoos adorn the mummy’s neck, shoulders and back.

    The mummy's tattoos include two seated baboons depicted between a wadjet eye (top row), a symbol of protection. The mummy's tattoos include two seated baboons depicted between a wadjet eye (top row), a symbol of protection.

    A mummy from ancient Egypt was heavily tattooed with sacred symbols, which may have served to advertise and enhance the religious powers of the woman who received them more than 3,000 years ago. Continue reading

  • Hobbits Died Out 50,000 Years Ago

    Findings published in Nature reveal Hobbits may have lived along side modern humans.hobbits-skull-archaeform-web

    Eight years of further excavations and study at the Indonesian cave site of Liang Bua have pushed back the time of disappearance of the ‘hobbits’ of Flores (Homo floresiensis) from as recently as 12,000 years ago to about 50,000 years ago, according to new findings published today (31 March, AEDT) in Nature. Continue reading

  • Neanderthal Table Manners: They Used Toothpicks, Too

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    Neanderthals, the closest known extinct relatives to humans, probably had to pick annoying bits of food out of their teeth from time to time. And now, scientists have evidence that these extinct cousins of modern humans may have done so with the help of prehistoric toothpicks.

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  • New evidence of Viking life in America?

     

    vikings-america-evidence A new discovery has revealed that the Vikings may have travelled hundreds of miles further into North America than previously thought. It's well known that they reached the tip of the continent more than 1,000 years ago, but the full extent of their exploration has remained a mystery, writes historian Dan Snow.

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  • 1,500-Year-Old Mummy Appears To Be Wearing Adidas Trainers

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    People have been pointing out the resemblance of this recently discovered ancient mummy’s shoes to a pair of Adidas trainers, complete with their iconic stripes. Continue reading

  • Detective Scientists Discover Ancient Clues in Mummy Portraits

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    Northwestern is a leader in using scientific analysis to study cultural heritage materials

    EVANSTON, Ill. --- A Northwestern University research team has taken CSI to a whole new level: employing sophisticated scientific tools to investigate details of the materials and methods used by Roman-Egyptian artists to paint lifelike mummy portraits more than 2,000 years ago. These visages of the dead are considered to be antecedents of Western portraiture. Continue reading

  • 9.200 years old preserved fish found

    Signs of early settlement in the Nordic region date back to the cradle of civilisation

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    The discovery of the world’s oldest storage of fermented fish in southern Sweden could rewrite the Nordic prehistory with findings indicating a far more complex society than previously thought. The unique discovery by osteologist Adam Boethius from Lund University was made when excavating a 9,200 year-old settlement at what was once a lake in Blekinge, Sweden.

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  • World's oldest customer complaint translated

    Is this the world's oldest customer complaint? 3,750-year-old Babylonian tablet details how a person called 'Nanni' was not happy with a delivery of ancient copper ore

    An intricate tablet (pictured), thought to be the world's oldest complaint 'letter' was written by a disappointed customer from ancient Babylonia. The story goes that a merchant named Ea-nasir journeyed to the Persian Gulf to buy copper to sell in Mesopotamia. This included ingots for Nanni, who sent his servant to pay for them. An intricate tablet (pictured), thought to be the world's oldest complaint 'letter' was written by a disappointed customer from ancient Babylonia. The story goes that a merchant named Ea-nasir journeyed to the Persian Gulf to buy copper to sell in Mesopotamia. This included ingots for Nanni, who sent his servant to pay for them.

    If you have ever composed a shirty email complaining about damaged goods, a mixed-up order or late delivery, you certainly weren't the first.

    An intricate tablet, thought to be the world's oldest complaint 'letter' was written by a disappointed customer from ancient Babylonia, 3,766 years ago.

    In it, 'Nanni' complains to a merchant about receiving the wrong grade of copper ore that's arrived late and is slightly damaged.
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  • 1st Century bar? Archaeological find in France offers glimpse

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    Finally a decent place to eat! Archaeologists digging in southern France have found a restaurant-like structure roughly 2,100 years old, making it one of the earliest such taverns in the western Mediterranean.
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  • Beauty in antiquity: MESOLITHIC PENDANT DISCOVERED

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    11,000 year old pendant is earliest known Mesolithic art in Britain

     

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    YORK, ENGLAND—An 11,000-year-old pendant has been discovered in lake-edge deposits at the Early Mesolithic site at Star Carr in North Yorkshire. It is triangular in shape, was carved from a single piece of shale, has a hole in one corner, and is engraved with a series of lines that scholars think could represent a tree, a map, a leaf, or tally marks. At first, the artifact was thought to be a natural stone, since the perforation was blocked by sediment. “It is unlike anything we have found in Britain from this period. We can only imagine who owned it, how they wore it, and what the engravings actually meant to them,” Nicky Milner of the University of York said in a press release. Shale beads, a piece of perforated amber, and two perforated animal teeth have also been recovered from the site. “The designs on our pendant are similar to those found in southern Scandinavia and other areas bordering the North Sea, showing a close cultural connection between northern European groups at this time,” added Chantal Conneller of the University of Manchester. Continue reading

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