The Novetus team wishes you a belated Happy #Easter!
Just in time for Easter, a pit has surprised us with unusual finds that are not only #archaeologically exciting, but also thematically appropriate for the Easter season:
Two ‘Oarkas’ models with #Christian motifs, a figure of #Jesus and a #coin were found in the same pit.
For #TilesOnTuesday the floor of St. Nikolaus at Ruffenhofen, Franconia. The church, located 600 m northwest of the Roman fort in Ruffenhofen, was built in the 13th century with building material taken from the fort. The floor was paved with #Roman tiles.
M. Pausch.
#Oxford academics drank from cup made from human skull. Decades-long use of chalice at Worcester College highlights violent colonial history of looted human remains.
They should get some genealogical DNA done to learn more about the dead woman.
A fat research portfolio in #archaeology is effectively worthless on the Scandinavian labour market. A PhD in itself is marginally more useful, but only if you leave research immediately after your thesis presentation and find a non-research job in construction archaeology, museums or government.
Oxford academics drank from cup made from human skull until 2015, book reveals https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/apr/22/oxford-academics-drank-from-cup-made-from-human-skull-until-2015-book-reveals #UniversityofOxford #Archaeology #Colonialism #UKnews #Race
Maria Wiegele was also part of the excavation team at the #Roman mass grave in #Hasenleitengasse in #Vienna where she was responsible for the fine cleaning of the #skeletons. As a student of #anthropology, she also has a good knowledge of human anatomy.
#archaeology #WienMuseum #romanarchaeology #teamwork #Archäologie @archaeodons
Atlit Yam—a 9,000-year-old underwater village revealing how early humans farmed, engineered freshwater wells, and built sacred stone structures long before modern civilization.
4,000-year-old Ancient Egyptian tomb discovered by archaeologists with sacrificial table found inside – News https://www.byteseu.com/?p=944080 #AncientEgypt #Archaeology #Egypt #history #WorldNews
Maybe it's misty-eyed nostalgia on my part, but I feel there was a time that #NatGeo wouldn't just rehash peak woo, #AncientAliens bullshit, direct from the Daily Fail.
http://archive.today/2025.04.19-172041/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/is-there-a-secret-city-under-the-pyramids- #pseudoarchaeology #pseudoarcheology #archaeology #archeology #Egypt #pyramids
In honor of National Park Week, here is the base of a "HAWAII NATIONAL PARK" Sprite bottle introduced by Coca-Cola Corp. in 1966 for the Fresher National Park campaign. It quickly fell through, but the Sprite bottles for 36 #NationalParks were used into the 1970s (Green 2015:20). #Archaeology
Freshwater shell temper in reproduction Mississippian #ceraamic #archaeology
Early evidence of naked barley in western Tibet: cereal cultivation at extreme altitude along the upper Sutlej River, c. 3500 BP
Medieval ‘hairy books’ were bound in sealskin, study finds
A recently published study, released in Royal Society Open Science, has turned a new and surprising chapter in medieval manuscript history: dozens of volumes long believed to be bound in local animal hides were actually covered with seal skin shipped from the cold northern waters of the Atlantic...
More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/04/medieval-books-were-bound-in-sealskin/
Follow @archaeology
Last Week in Pleiades (14-21 April 2025)
Last week the Pleiades editorial college published 22 new and 173 updated place resources, reflecting the work of Jeffrey Becker, Tom Elliott, Maxime Guénette, Greta Hawes, Chris de Lisle, Gabriel McKee, John Muccigrosso, R. Scott Smith and Richard Talbert.
A full list of changes and additions, including change summaries, short descriptions, links to the corresponding gazetteer entries, and an overview map may be viewed on the blog at https://pleiades.stoa.org/news/blog/last-week-in-pleiades-14-21-april-2025
#ancientGeography #gazetteers #ancientHistory #archaeology
The recently restored #ancient #roman tomb on the via tiburtina. #rome #archaeology #ancienthistory #romanhistory #ancientrome
statue of Queen Tuya, found in the Valley of the Queens, Thebes, Egypt, c.1240 BC
I have only visited Maeshowe once , 45 years ago. It's a bit awkward now, there is a visitor centre just down the way at Stenness village, and people are taken by minibus from there to control a hazardous crossing point near the monument .
The monuments greatest claim to fame seems to be the observation that the long entrance passage has been designed such that it is aligned with the setting sun on the day of the Winter Solstice. As the sun sets, its rays are said to radiate down the passage Illuminating the back wall of the great chamber. There remains great speculation regarding this belief, and much scholarly dispute is devoted to the discussion of sunsets and horizons here and elsewhere, on the Orkney landscape. Although it is true that the sun does light up the rear of the chamber at the solstice, some sources question whether this was purposeful or accidental.
The Royal Commission suggests that :“The great boulder in its triangular niche just inside the doorway on the left would have been drawn forwards with ropes to close the entrance.”, but as the butting face for the blocking stone is facing inwards, in my opinion it seems unlikely that an effective closure could be made from the outside. Strange though it may seem, it looks more likely that this closure would be better performed by people enclosed within the cairn.
The other major monument in the Brodgar region of Orkney is the Maeshowe Chambered Cairn.
“More than any other prehistoric monument, the design and execution of Maeshowe epitomises the skill of Neolithic masons in Orkney, and the tomb is rightly considered to be one of the supreme achievements of prehistoric Europe. It is inevitable that such a huge mound should have been robbed long ago, and when it was opened in 1861 by James Farrer it was indeed empty of its original contents, apart from a fragment of human skull.
Its location, close to the great ceremonial complex of the Brodgar-Stenness circles, is presumably no accident.
The mound was built on a levelled circular platform, encircled by a low bank composed of earth scraped up from a shallow ditch on its inner side; the mound itself, 25m in diameter and 7m high, consists largely of clay and stones, but there is an inner core of stones casing and supporting the chamber. The outermost part of the entrance passage has been restored, but from the door checks inwards it is original. The great boulder in its triangular niche just inside the doorway on the left would have been drawn forwards with ropes to close the entrance. In keeping with the proportions of the tomb, the passage is quite spacious, although at a height of 1.4m it is not possible to walk upright.
The main chamber is about 4.5m square and was originally about the same height, with three side cells entered above ground-level; in each corner there is a buttress designed to help in supporting the weight of the corbelled roof. The masonry is superb, the slabs finely adjusted by underpinning or dressing to create a smooth face even where they are in fact oversailing one another towards the roof, and the tapering orthostats facing one side of each buttress not only create an impression of soaring vertical space but attractively interrupt the horizontal lines of the walls.
When Farrer dug into Maeshowe, he found that the chamber had already been broken into, as he did, from the top; from Orkneyinga Saga and from the runic inscriptions on the walls of the chamber, it is clear that it was entered on more than one occasion by Norsemen in the 12th century, to whom the mound was known as Orkhaugr. During the struggle between the rival earls Erlend and Harald for control of the earldom, Harald and some of his men sought shelter in Maeshowe from a snowstorm, but it was such a terrible experience that two of them went mad, ‘ which slowed them down badly’ says the saga, though they still reached their destination by nightfall. The following winter of 1153-4, crusaders gathered together ready for a trip to the Holy Land broke into the chamber and incised some of the runic inscriptions, and there were probably other occasions as well when runes were cut there. This is one of the largest extant collection of runic inscriptions carved in stone. There are about thirty inscriptions, including both ordinary runes and cryptographic twig runes, and there are also some beautifully executed carvings of a walrus, a serpent knot and a dragon or lion on the north-east buttress, all in typically vigorous Scandinavian style.” (RCAHMS Canmore)
ICYMI: 
Laser light technology called LiDAR is transforming Maya #archaeology by creating 3D maps of ancient cities hidden beneath jungle canopy. Where archaeologists once hacked through wilderness on foot, now remote sensors capture detailed data showing extensive urban networks.
The 2016 PACUNAM survey alone mapped over 2,000 square kilometers and identified more than 60,000 structures, dramatically expanding our understanding of Maya civilization's scale and complexity.
Learn more: https://zurl.co/mAEUk
For #MosaicMonday and #Easter Monday a lovely image of a #rabbit, a detail from a mosaic showing Orpheus surrounded by enchanted #animals.
Found in Antioch, modern-day Antakya, #Turkey. Dating 4th c. AD.
On display at Museum Kestner Hannover.
