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Offerings Buried With the Llullaillaco Maiden Reveal When the Famous Inca Child Was Sacrificed
Frozen near the summit of a volcano, the Llullaillaco Maiden has looked almost untouched by time for more than 500 years. Now, maize, cassava and coca leaves buried beside her have helped researchers place her death more precisely in history. A new study suggests that the famous Inca capacocha ceremony took place around 1499, during…
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Oldest Traces of Alcoholic Drinks in Northeastern Poland Found in 4,500-Year-Old Ritual Vessels
A few broken pots from northeastern Poland have preserved a surprisingly vivid trace of prehistoric life: the remains of fermented alcoholic drinks consumed around 4,500 years ago. Researchers from the University of Warsaw and Lodz University of Technology identified chemical residues inside ceramic fragments from Supraśl in the Northern Podlasie Lowland and Skrzeszew in the…
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New Study: Mysterious Marks on Roman Glass Decoded — Diatreta Symbols Finally Make Sense
For more than two centuries, scholars have admired the technical brilliance of Roman diatreta — the famous “cage cups” with their delicate open-work walls. Yet one small detail on some of these vessels has gone largely unnoticed: a set of abstract symbols carved into the inscription band. A new study now argues that these marks…
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Turkish scientists determine that copper was processed in Anatolia 3 thousand years earlier than known
The Kocaeli University (KOÜ) Archaeometry Working Group’s excavations at Gre Fılla Höyük in Southeastern Anatolia have overturned conventional knowledge about the history of copper processing in Anatolia. The copper smelting and casting processes, previously thought to date back to 5,000 BC, have now been traced back 3,000 years earlier, to around 8,000 BC, thanks to…