Human remains from ‘Marea’/Philoxenite, Egypt, 2023

:<i>Architecture in Ancient Central Italy: Connections in Etruscan and Early Roman Building</i>

Horvat Midras is situated in the central Judean Foothills, approximately 6 km northeast of the Roman city of Beth Guvrin–Eleutheropolis, alongside the primary Roman route to Jerusalem. At its zenith during the Roman period in the 1st century CE, the settlement spanned over 12 hectares, making it one of the largest ancient rural sites in the area. This Jewish settlement was destroyed during the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 CE).Our excavation team uncovered a Late Antique church in the northern section of the village. Beneath the church floor, we found earlier strata that include remains of a building and underground chambers from the Late Hellenistic to Early Roman periods. These interconnected underground chambers, forming a typical hiding complex, fell out of use after the Bar Kokhba Revolt.Following a period of abandonment in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, the remnants of the earlier structures were leveled to make way for a new basilica, which featured a white mosaic floor. This construction, dating to the 4th century CE, was linked to a venerated rock-cut tomb, which we believe was the primary purpose of the architectural complex. The tomb, created within a rock-cut chamber integrated into the earlier hiding complex, also dates to the 4th century.In the subsequent architectural phase, a basilical church with marble columns, capitals, and exquisite multicolored mosaic floors was built within the former basilica, reusing some of its columns and walls. The apse was constructed above the tomb, with access provided via a room north of the apse that served as a martyrium.We identified at least two construction phases for this church, distinguished by the mosaics in their floors. The second phase, dating to the third quarter of the 6th century CE, involved extending the bema westward, sealing the passage between the north aisle and the martyrium, creating a new northern entrance to the martyrium, and constructing what appears to be a baptismal font atop the passage leading from the martyrium to the empty tomb. Numismatic evidence and the style of the mosaics and capitals support this dating. The structure remained in use during the Umayyad period until its destruction in the earthquake of 749 CE.As at other sites in the Judean Foothills, the study of the subterranean chambers carved out of the local chalk provides valuable insights into the site’s history. The survey revealed nearly 60 artificial cavities and subterranean complexes, including cisterns, quarries, columbaria, ritual immersion baths, and storerooms. Ten cavities beneath the ancient settlement contained typical hiding complexes, which, along with the artifacts found, offer important information about the settlement during the late Second Temple period and the Bar Kokhba Revolt.Additionally, dozens of rock-cut tombs were excavated from the surrounding slopes. One decorated hypogeum built of ashlars dates to the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. This hypogeum is connected by a tunnel to a smaller rock-cut tomb with three arcosolia, hewn during the Byzantine period. Red crosses and the Greek letters ΙΧ (iota and chi, representing Ιησους Χριστος, or Jesus Christ) and ΑΩ (alpha and omega, alluding to Jesus’s statement “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” [Revelation 22:13]) were found on the tomb walls.

The Upper Paleolithic burial area at Předmostí: ritual and taphonomy

Previous articleNext article FreeBook ReviewLife Histories of Theban Tombs: Transdisciplinary Investigations of a Cluster of Rock-Cut Tombs at Sheikh ‘Abd al-Qurna Edited by Andrea Loprieno-Gnirs (AUC Press Archaeological Reports). Cairo: American University in Cairo Press 2021. Pp. 200. $79.95. ISBN 9781617979910 (paper).Stefan BojowaldStefan BojowaldEgyptological Seminary University of Bonn Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThis publication concerns ancient Egyptian Theban rock-cut tombs at Sheikh ‘Abd al-Qurna, excavated by the Life Histories of Theban Tombs project, which is based at the University of Basel with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and the University of Zurich as partners. The aim of the project is to improve knowledge of the tombs’ construction in their natural environment. The book inaugurates the new series AUC Press Archaeological Reports.In chapter 1 the editor introduces the project, which began in 2015, and the site. The main focus was on two clusters of six mainly unfinished tombs from the beginning of the Middle Kingdom and the mid Eighteenth Dynasty (1). The project was designed to foster the interaction between archaeology, natural and computer sciences, the science of geomatics, and several archaeometrical fields (1). Three Eighteenth Dynasty tombs show architectural features typical of this period, such as battered facades surmounted by superstructures, sunken courtyards with enclosure walls, and short protruding side wings extending the facade (4). The Middle Kingdom tombs correspond to the corridor type plan (7).Chapters 2–12 offer contributions to specific technical questions, written either by individual authors or groups of authors. The range of topics is broad and includes geological, philological, and anthropological aspects, among others. The results that seem most important to the reviewer are highlighted here.Chapter 3 tackles the archaeological investigations at the Middle Kingdom Corridor Tomb K 85. The tomb was left unfinished and does not reveal any historical information about its owner (22). The precise chronology of the filling layer is hard to reconstruct, due to post-depositional alterations, the scarcity of diagnostic fragments, and the lack of chronological homogeneity within most of the archaeological contexts (31). Although the author says that “the most useful type of finds for dating the sedimentary units and built installations in K 85 and for helping understand the use phases of the tomb is the ceramic material” (31), this conclusion seems a little contradictory. A well-preserved brush, seemingly made of palm fibers, whose closest parallels in terms of manufacturing technique are a brush ascribed to the X-Group culture and one from the monastery of Epiphanius (32), can be seen as the archaeologically most significant item found in K 85 (32). The report of the discovery of an aspirin package and a packet of cigarettes (37) could have been left out.In subchapter 3.2 the Coptic ostraca from K 85 and surroundings are analyzed. The ostracon designated LHTT (Life Histories of Theban Tombs) 3007 deserves special attention because of the possible mention of Persians, which could indicate a date during or shortly after the Persian occupation of Egypt (619–629 CE) (55–56). In LHTT 1854 the masculine word “artaba” is combined with the feminine form of the numeral “four” (57). The phenomenon occurs in a few other cases. In Coptic grammar, the gender equality between counted and numeral was normally observed.In chapter 5, epigraphic studies in TT (Theban tombs) 84 and 95 are undertaken. The main inscriptions of the side walls of the main hall were affected by the secondary alterations of the tomb owner, but most of the ceiling inscriptions and smaller captions remained untouched (85). In TT 95, the layout of the south side of pillar B stands out because it presents the main text opposite the titles and name of the deceased (87). No exact information is given about the content of the text.In chapter 8, finds from funerary and domestic occupation phases at TT 95 are examined. The female burial from the looted shaft tomb in TT 95 yielded a prosthesis of a big toe attached to the mummy’s right foot—one of the oldest prosthetic devices in the world (99). The find material retrieved from the fill of the shaft and its adjacent burial chamber encompass mixed material from several occupation phases, so no conclusive date for the burial of the female mummy can be suggested.In subchapter 8.3, leather items from various use phases at TT 95 are documented. In Chamber 1 of TT 95 B, a fragment of white leather with a remnant of green appliqué came to light (109). White leather was far less common than leather stained red or green. The chemical processes involved in the manufacture of white leather are an open question (110).Chapter 10 presents bioarchaeological studies of human remains from TT 95. The mummy parts and loose skeletal elements belong to a minimum of 104 individuals: 32 subadults and 72 adults (128). In the case of the subadults in TT 95 A, the femur was the most frequent skeletal element found in the tomb (129). In the same group, sex estimation was only allowed for by a partially preserved mandible, which belonged to a possible female individual aged approximately 14.5–15.5 years at the time of death (129). The age of the youngest individual recovered from TT 95 A can be estimated at 1–2 months (129). The find of an incomplete cranium of a child, approximately 6 years old at the time of death, is of special interest; it shows evidence of advanced cribra orbitalia, endocranial lesions on the frontal and parietal bone, and abnormal frontal bossing (131). However, the exact medical diagnosis must remain open. The human remains and associated finds from TT 95 hint at different methods of postmortem body treatment, such as brain extraction through the nostrils, evisceration, and artificial eye application (132).The book is a prime example of interdisciplinary collaboration, yielding a wealth of information thanks to the involvement of professionals from a wide variety of disciplines. Use of modern measuring instruments and natural science methods has had an extremely fruitful effect. The site has revealed more and more information through intensive study, and in this respect is one of the most thoroughly explored in the Theban necropolis. The book meets all the requirements that are placed on a modern publication. The reading will interest specialists both in ancient Egypt and in neighboring fields. At the same time, chapters are easily understandable, and details are made sufficiently clear for the nonspecialist. The book should not be missing from any well-stocked archaeological library.Notes[email protected] Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 126, Number 4October 2022 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 221Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/721903 Views: 221Total views on this site HistoryPublished online August 09, 2022 Copyright © 2022 by the Archaeological Institute of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

This study aims to determine the chronological sequence of the collective burials in the hypogea of the prehistoric cemetery of La Beleña (Cabra, Córdoba) through Bayesian analyses of 14C dates obtained from human remains. The data from this site are not only key to grasping the phenomenon of the introduction and spread of hypogea throughout the western Mediterranean, but to gain insight into multi-stage funerary practices during the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic. The dataset comprises 14C dates of 71 of the 79 individuals placed in five of La Beleña’s six hypogea. The findings suggest: (i) La Beleña is one of the oldest assemblages of hypogea in Iberia, (ii) that this type of collective burial spread rapidly throughout the western Mediterranean area, (iii) that La Beleña is marked by two main phases of funerary activity interspersed by brief burial surges, (iv) funerary intensity at La Beleña increased between cal BC 3400–2900 (2σ), and (v) the cemetery saw a very brief surge of burials potentially related to a catastrophic event. The results of this analysis thus shed light on the little-known chronological sequence of prehistoric hypogea or rock-cut tombs in Iberia, their spread, and their relation to other Late Neolithic collective burials in western Europe.

the nearby Pezoules Kephala tomb enclosures, and assist in drawing two major sections of the site. Hogarth's excavations in the central part of Zakro in 1901 produced no human skeletal remains. However, human remains were recovered from caves located within the gorge.' R.B. Seager obtained a permit to go Zakro try for the cemetery (letter G. Richter 15 March 1924) and spent two weeks in May in a futile attempt locate the burial area.

Our aim is to understand the economy and sociology of rock-cut building sites on the basis of the analysis of technical processes. The use of the concept of chaînes opératoires allows us to question current hypothesis found in the Cappadocian literature. The sites under study are located in the Cappadocian Volcanic Province (CVP) and more precisely in the area of Göreme. Buildings are caved in the ignimbrites, a kind of soft volcanic rock that comes from pyroclastic flows. They are the product of volcanic eruptions that took place during the Upper Miocene-Quaternary age. The ignimbrites are heterogeneous because they are composed by volcanic welded ash and, mostly, hard lithic blocks. Thanks to the soft characteristics of ignimbrites, tool marks are visible on the walls. It is therefore possible to reconstruct the way in which tombs and churches were made. The means of production and the rock-cutting processes can be studied with the help of use-wear archaeology. Furthermore, these analyzes underscore the incongruities in the type of tools used and the reasons that push workers to abandon a site. Then, the economy and sociology of the rock-cut monument-sites can be approached. Most of the researchers, who are working on Roman and Byzantine periods, think that churches could have been made by monks, as the monuments were not that voluminous and the ignimbrite, a soft rock easy to carve. Thanks to the technical approaches, this hypothesis can be questioned. Rock-cutting techniques are so complex that workers need to be professionals. Furthermore, technical studies can be used to perceive the evolution of techniques and explain the modifications of landscape in rural Cappadocia. Why rock-cut monuments are so numerous since the medieval period? Leo the Deacon defined the Cappadocian as Troglodyte during the 10th century, why this appellation appeared so late? Some answers can be given with the help of the anthropology of the techniques.

The active compounds found in many plants have been widely used in traditional medicine and ritual activities. However, archaeological evidence for the use of such plants, especially in the Palaeolithic period, is limited due to the poor preservation and fragility of seed, fruit, and other botanical macro-remains. In this study, we investigate the presence and possible uses of Ephedra during the Late Pleistocene based on the analysis of exceptionally preserved plant macrofossils recovered from c. 15 ka year-old archaeological deposits at Grotte des Pigeons in northeastern Morocco. This cave has yielded the earliest carbonized plant macrofossils of Ephedra, which were found concentrated in a human burial deposit along with other special finds. Ephedra is a plant known to produce high amounts of alkaloids, primarily ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which have been utilized in traditional medicine. Direct radiocarbon dates on both Ephedra and the human remains indicate that they were contemporaneous. To understand the uses of Ephedra by people at the site, we discuss the different pathways through which plant remains could have arrived. We suggest that the charred cone bracts of Ephedra likely represent residues of the processing and consumption of the plant’s fleshy cones, which may have been valued for both their nutritional and therapeutic properties. Furthermore, we interpret the presence of Ephedra and its deposition in the burial area as evidence that this plant played a significant role during the funerary activities.

Bronze Age burials from Doghlauri (Georgia). Preliminary analysis of human remains reveals a change in burial customs

The skeletal remains of nearly 100 Indigenous Bahamians, called Lucayans, have been recovered in the Bahama archipelago (Lucayan Islands). Until now, virtually, all were recovered from wet and dry caves, caverns, and blue holes, most of which lacked specific evidence for mortuary practices. In the aftermath of Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015, two human crania were found on Lowe's Beach, Long Island, The Bahamas. In addition, two burial areas were identified in the face of the adjacent, north‐facing, Atlantic coast sand dune. The human remains were identified as Indigenous Lucayans based on the intentional fronto‐occipital modification of the crania. These are the first open‐air, sand dune burials to be excavated systematically in The Bahamas, and they provide new insights regarding Lucayan burial practices and lifeways. This article describes the unique environmental and cultural contexts of Lucayan individuals who were buried at the Rolling Heads site. The local geomorphology reflects long‐term processes of dune erosion and remodeling that suggest that an unknowable number of additional individuals were buried at the site. The physical characteristics and mortuary practices are different from those observed elsewhere in the Caribbean, highlighting regional diversity and local practices. They raise the question of why different portals were used to transmit the dead to their afterlife. Finally, these individuals are contributing to regional studies assessing biological and cultural identities through genome‐wide DNA, phenotypic morphometrics, stable carbon and nitrogen isotope reconstruction of diet, strontium isotope assessment of origins, and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating to evaluate the timing of human dispersal across the Bahama archipelago. The Lucayans did not survive the Spanish invasion, but there is much to be learned from their remains.

Identification of dermestid beetle modification on Neolithic Maltese human bone: Implications for funerary practices at the Xemxija tombs

By scrutinising examples of imitation curtain patterns on Cappadocian wall paintings, this article aims to comparatively evaluate other curtain imitation compositions seen in Byzantine art. In addition to this, the use of curtains in civil and religious architecture (especially at the entrances of large structures) in the Byzantine Period and the theological importance of imitation curtain patterns in the Byzantine Period are also discussed. Curtains were found in all areas of the Empire, although few have survived. In addition to the positive influences of Old and New Testament texts, religious commentaries called tractates written by Gregorius of Nyssa, one of the Cappadocian Church Fathers, may have encouraged the use of curtain patterns in Christian religious structures. Based on this, the theological explanations of aniconic curtain patterns are also included in our article. The article also aims to prove that this pattern we encounter in Byzantine art is a continuation of Roman art traditions. It is possible to find curtain patterns in a lot of handiwork from the early Byzantine Period. Among the churches of the Byzantine Period in the Cappadocia region, which is our main subject, imitation curtain patterns are primarily seen in wall paintings dating to the 9th - 11th centuries. In this study, we have identified that the only exception to this situation is the example in the apse of Ihlara Bezirana Church (end of 13th century, beginning of 14th century). The pattern was implemented especially in the aniconic ornament of the naos or apse wall paintings of the churches in the region, and it is noteworthy that they were painted as the main motif in a row, forming the border of the figural scenes on the lower parts of the walls (in the areas below the human waist). This study explains the properties of the imitation curtain patterns found in the wall paintings of Cappadocia and compares them in terms of ornamental properties, pattern composition, size, colour scale, and theological roots and development in Byzantine art. In addition, the importance of the curtain pattern, its usage areas and its features in the Byzantine Empire have been explained with examples.

The wartime destruction of cities and their populations is frequently quantified in statistical terms. In historical summaries of Warsaw's wartime losses it is common to read that the city was 85% destroyed with up to 60% of its population killed. While statistical comparisons may be useful to summative historical accounts, expressing destruction in percentage points ignores the nuanced material relationships between destroyed architecture and human remains. Working outside conventional narratives of the destruction and reconstruction of Warsaw, this essay explores the semantic, ideological and physical conversions that accompanied the extensive survey and ruin clearance work conducted by the Capital Reconstruction Office (Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy—BOS) in the spring of 1945. The text tracks shifts in language and graphic standards as survey information was interpreted, mapped and finally made publicly available in professional journals. Ideological shifts were accompanied by demolitions and material transmutations as the mapped ruins were cleared, piled into rubble heaps, and eventually reused as construction material. This essay views the entirety of post-war urban topography as a war memorial materially implicated in genocide and asks what this means for practices of commemoration. It calls for a re-evaluation of the relationship between the body of architecture and the human body as it challenges the reader to consider the possibility that Warsaw's post-war rubble-concrete buildings may contain human remains.

Evolution of funerary practice in the Neolithic collective tomb of La Chaussée-Tirancourt -The megalithic gallery grave of La Chaussée-Tirancourt was excavated from 1967 to 1975. Formerly the monument had been altered at various times, but probably never included any megalithic covering. Its long and contrasted stratigraphy has already been published. It reveals layers of human bones contrasting with layers of sediment, all due to human activity. The monument received the bodies of deceased people throughout the recent and late regional Neolithic, between the second half of the fourth millennium BC and the extreme end of the third. The excavations made it possible to observe a significant evolution of the mode of inhumation in the course of this long millennium. The changes did not take place on the occasions of the setting in place of the intercalary layers: they had to be deciphered in the heart of the burial layers. The point was always the implementing of the principle of collective burial, successive deposits of the deceased as they die; but this principle evolved over time. This evolution is principally revealed by an alteration in the structure of the burial area. After an early utilisation which only left tenuous evidence, the tomb was organised so that a contrast appears between a burial area,

The church burials of Room-94 and Church-79 as well as the Tower 35-Tomb were excavated within the ancient Byzantine settlement in Khirbet es-Samrā, North Jordan. They were initially dated between the 7th and 9th centuries AD. The report provides the results of macroscopic analyses of the obtained human skeletal remains. These include demographic, anthropometric, epigenetic, and pathologic features. The available biological and archaeological evidence tend to suggest that the five adults and child buried in Room-94 tomb were related males, possibly of one local and highly positioned family that was associated with the adjacent Church 95. The six were successively buried in the “private” tomb in Room-94 of Church-95 and not in the “public” cemetery just outside the settlement. The two probable cases of brucellar lesions on the cervical vertebrae of two adults could be indicative of an animal breeding family and that dairy products were part of the local diet. The report also suggests a possible relatedness between Room-94 tomb burials and the 7th century AD senile female burial in Church-79, which was previously assumed to be a male church-functionary burial. Despite being marked by a cross-engraved stone and a probably lethal arrow injury, the available evidence lead to conclude that the male Tower burial, previously identified as of the 9th century AD, was in fact a medieval burial and that it is neither related to the ancient settlement nor to its ancient population. Also presented are some rarely reported biological features, e.g. the “en bloc” manifestation of the transverse foramen division on the cervical vertebrae C5 to C7.&#x0D; Keywords: Jordan - Byzantine Period - Church Burial – Anthropometry - Epigenetics- Paleopathology.