Five Sensational Finds Many Haven't Heard Of
Every educated person knows at least something about the Amber Room, the gold of the Third Reich or the Terracotta Army. Or at least he remembers the comedy "Gentlemen of Fortune", where the Assistant Professor had the helmet of Alexander the Great.
And what is archeology breathing now and what discoveries have shocked the world? "KP" has studied the findings, which are recognized as the most significant in recent years by the authoritative journal Archeology.
1. It's a computer
The remains of a ship near the Greek island of Antikythera at the bottom of the Aegean Sea were found back in 1900. They also found metal fragments of a strange device. Dial, gears and hands. Clock? Not so simple.
Scientists recently realized that this thing - the Antikythera mechanism - is a real sensation, because it contains the functions of an analog computer. With the help of X-ray tomography, it was possible to reproduce the appearance of the find and establish its purpose. Radiocarbon analysis and epigraphic studies of the inscriptions showed that the object was created in 150 - 100 BC. e. It was a model of the cosmos, a textbook of astronomy and philosophy at the same time. With the help of the "flat globe" the date of the start of the new Olympic Games was determined - the device counted out a four-year cycle, the mechanism also calculated the position of the Sun and Moon, and calculated the time of the eclipse. On the front dials one could see the days of the year and the signs of the zodiac, the front and back walls showed how the celestial bodies were located, and the black and white ball showed the phases of the moon. The device showed a cycle of 223 lunar months.
It is still unclear who invented such a miracle. According to one version, it could be Posidonius, an astronomer and philosopher from the island of Rhodes, a teacher of Cicero. Cicero himself talked about a similar device created by Archimedes (there is a mention in the treatise On the State). Some experts believe that the astronomer Hipparchus had a hand in the creation of the "calculator of the future".
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A group of scientists who are leading a project to study the Antikythera mechanism, reported in 2016 that the number of decoded characters of the text from the mechanism has reached 3500 - it can almost be read like ancient Greek. Researchers continue to obtain information from scraps of text …
2. The oldest constructor
In the Brunickel Cave in the south of France, in the early 90s, a strange construction was found: several concentric rings made of whole and broken into pieces of stalagmites. A burnt bear bone was dug up nearby. Radiocarbon analysis showed that it appeared 47 thousand years ago.
In 2016, scientists finally determined the age of the stalagmites themselves using the urantorium method - 176 thousand years. It turns out that this is the most ancient object created by the hands of human ancestors! As you know, at that time Europe was inhabited by Neanderthals, supposedly not inclined to abstract thinking and complex activities.
How and why they built a round structure from sections of stalagmites, arranged like a Lego set, is still unclear.
3. Secret empire of Khmers
For a long time, the territory of North-West Cambodia in the Angkor region (where one of the wonders of the world - Angkor Wat, a temple complex with faces carved out of rocks) stands) remained unexplored.
But not so long ago nimble archaeologists set foot there. With the help of laser scanning, which allows "enlightening" the soil through and through from the air, several urban centers of the times of the Khmer Empire (IX-XIII centuries) were discovered. And there are real cities! The verified geometry of buildings and recreations, canals, ditches, water reservoirs, embankments, the purpose of which has not been studied. A real infrastructure, a network of cities and a paradise for explorers. So far, this is the most large-scale scanning using laser radar: the total area of the "clearance" was more than 2000 square kilometers of jungle. The conclusions may follow sensational: a complex of cities aged from 900 to 1.4 thousand years could well constitute the most powerful and unexplored empire of the earth of that time.
Laser scanning allowed us to see an entire city underground
4. Christian graffiti
Rock painting is the most common trend in archeology. Nevertheless, breakthroughs occur in this field too. Recently, a mass of images of pagan deities, Christian symbols and inscriptions were found on the vaults of one of the caves on Mona Island (Puerto Rico). It is a place where cultures and even religions meet. The earliest drawings were scribbled in the 12th century. Christian inscriptions were made after Europeans discovered America in the 16th century. As we remember, Catholic missionaries began to arrive on the American continent along with the conquistadors. The first evidence of their activity dates back to the first quarter of the 16th century. Later, Protestants poured into America. Tellingly, the European signs are respectfully located next to the pagan ones, they do not cross them out. And the entrance to the cave is not obvious, which may indicate that the "artists" did not themselves find a place for "painting",and they were brought by the natives.
5. Antique bridge and tower in Crimea
Our scientists are also not bastard. So, at the site of the construction of the main gas pipeline Krasnodar Territory - Crimea, an expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences opened a section of powerful defensive structures on the Cimmerian Wall. Another name for the shaft is Uzunlarsky, it partitioned off the Kerch Peninsula from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea. And he served as a fortress - he defended the capital and cities of the Bosporus kingdom from the barbarians, which existed on the shores of the Kerch Peninsula a thousand years ago. The defensive structure - trenches and ditches - was complemented by a tower, the remains of which were also found.
And now it is clearly visible with the naked eye. Archaeologists of the Russian Academy of Sciences have opened a passage, a bridge over the moat and a tower. Perhaps this was the main entrance to the territory of the state from the side of the neighboring Crimean Scythia.
EXPERT COMMENTARY
We are looking at the intersection of sciences
- The main trend of modern archeology is multidisciplinary research. That is, work by combining different sciences, - says Anatoly Derevyanko, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientific director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the SB RAS. - It is possible to make a preliminary legend about a monument or object, but geophysics will help to conduct exploration efficiently and purposefully. Geochronology, various methods of material analysis, genetic research, nuclear and mitochondrial DNA help.
There are a lot of major discoveries, and each scientist will have his own list of preferences … I see the results of the work of our institute as significant - research into the problems of the origin of humans of anatomical and genetic type. For example, work in the Denisova Cave (one of the most famous archaeological sites of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic era, located in the Altai Mountains).
OPINION HISTORIAN
The main finds where construction is going on
“There are well-studied written eras - the Middle Ages, the early Iron Age,” says Alexander Kleshchenko, Doctor of Historical Sciences, an employee of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - It's quite difficult to make discoveries on them. But the farther from our time, the more valuable the finds.
Now archeology in 95% of cases is built around new-building expeditions - the port of Taman, the Crimean bridge, Olympic facilities in Sochi, hydroelectric power station. When we worked in Sochi, over the course of three years, about ten settlement artifacts were unearthed in the marshy territory of the Imeretinskaya lowland. Vessels, bronze and iron objects belonged to the Colchian culture of the early Iron Age, almost nothing is known about it. Things of this type were found on the territory of Abkhazia.
There are, of course, overrated news. For example, recently in the south of Zaryadye Park in Moscow they found an English medallion dating from the 16th century. Journalists presented this as a discovery, because the medallion was decorated with a Tudor rose - a symbol of the English royal dynasty. But Zaryadye is located a stone's throw from the English Court on Ilyinka, and therefore the found English thing is not of significant archaeological interest.
