Tag: Archeology

Drought in England is helping to reveal lost Archeological sites.

Over this summer of 2018 Climate Change has brought extreme weather conditions to many of the regions of Europe. In both Portugal and Southern France monsoon-like rains have caused widespread flooding while areas to the north have seen droughts more severe than any in recorded history. England in particular is suffering from an almost complete lack of rain.

But every cloud has a silver lining they say (weather pun intended) and in England archeologists have been making the best of the situation by rediscovering hundreds of ancient homesteads, villages, hillforts and other sites, from the air!  Flying over the parched, brown grasses of the English countryside ghostly lines known as cropmarks become visible appearing to trace the outlines of long vanished human habitation. See images below.

Per-Historic Ceremonial sites in Eynsham, Oxfordshire (Credit: Historic England)
Roman Farm, Bicton, Devon (Credit: Historic England)

It’s hard to imagine how a buried stonewall or even a ditch that was filled in long ago could still effect the plants that are now growing above them. However even tiny chemical differences in the soil can show up as a slight variation in plant colour under the right conditions, such as a drought. These differences may be almost imperceptible from the ground but from the air…well the images speak for themselves. According to Historic England’s Chief Executive Duncan Wilson, “This spell of very hot weather has provided the perfect conditions for our aerial archeologists to ‘see beneath the soil’ as cropmarks are much better defined when the soil has less moisture.”

Pre-Historic Enclosure in Churchstanton, Somerset (Credit: Historic England)

Damian Grady, the Manager of Aerial Reconnaissance for Historic England agrees adding, “This has been one of my busiest summers in 20 years of flying and it has been very rewarding making discoveries in areas that do not normally reveal cropmarks”. By the way, just last year the Aerial Reconnaissance branch of Historic England celebrated it’s 50th birthday.

Aerial Reconnaissance is becoming one of the most important tools in the field of archeology with good reason. Trying to find Iron Age or older farm sites by exploratory digging is both expensive, time consuming and can often come up empty handed. On the other hand, a pleasant afternoon’s flight in a small plane with a camera can disclose the exact location of dozens potential areas worth excavating.

Abandoned Medieval Settlement in Nobel Northamptonshire (Credit: Historic England)
All of the sites aren’t ancient. This is a WWII AA Battery from Bolton upon Dearne (Credit: Historic England)

While England is at present one of the leading countries for aerial archeology the Middle East and even South America are also using the technique to great effect, rediscovering sites lost to mainstream history. (See my post of April 4th 2018.) There are still large areas of the world remaining to be surveyed from the air however. The great steppes of Russia and central Asia have been inhabited for tens of thousands of years and we know very little about the people and cultures that arose there. Aerial reconnaissance could cover those seemingly endless square kilometers of grassland and potentially discover hundreds of places to excavate and study.

Even while they are excited to be making all of these wonderful discoveries the archeologists at Historic England know that their good luck has come at the expense of all of the farmers whose crops are withering from a lack of rain. Another example of how Climate Change may very well bring some benefits to a small percentage of the human race, even as it brings ruin to the lives of many.

If you’d like to know more about Historic England’s aerial reconnaissance of if you’d just like to see some more of these fascinating images click on one of the links below to be taken to their website.

https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/research/50-years-flying/

https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/hot-dry-summer-reveals-hidden-archaeological-sites

Latest Finds from Archeological Site Gobekli Tepe: Evidence of a Skull Cult at the World’s Oldest Temple.

I’m going to take a little time out from my series about America’s science decline to discuss some of the recent finds made at the archeological site Gobekli Tepe, considered the world’s oldest known temple complex. The discovery of human skulls that had been deliberately modified indicate that the ancient people who erected the monumental T-shaped carved stones may have decorated the structures with the skulls.

First a bit of background. Gobekli Tepe (which means Potbelly Hill in Turkish) is an archeological site in southeastern Turkey (see map below). Dated to about 8,000 BCE the “Temple” consists of four oval shaped stone walls each of which contains a number of T-shaped, stone slabs with exquisitely carved animal representations on them. To date there is no evidence of human habitation at the site, it appears to have been used solely for ritual ceremonies. See pictures below the map to get an idea of the site.

Location of Gobekli Tepe in Turkey
Gobekli Tepe Site (Credit Nico Becker, Gobekli Tepe Archive)
Decorated Stone Slab at Gobekli Tepe: Credit Dieter Johannes and Klaus Schmidt, Gobekli Tepe Archive)

In a recent article in the journal ‘Science Advances’ by Julia Gresky, Juliane Haelm and Lee Clare of the German Archeological Institute, the discovery at Gobekli Tepe of three human skulls was reported. Now these were not burials, only skulls were found and the skulls had been deliberately modified by flint tools to produce linear grooves in them. Doctor Gresky et al suggest that these skulls may have been used as decorations on Gobekli Tepe’s stone slabs. One of the skulls discovered also had a hole that had been drilled very precisely into it’s top that could have enabled it to have been hung with a short piece of rope.

This discovery fits in with similar finds from other sites in the region, finds that indicate that Anatolia (an old name for Turkey-Syria) was the home for a skull-cult culture where people would bury their dead and then later dig them up, removing the skulls for display. The question of whether these skulls were venerated ancestors or mutilated enemies is unknown at present but Doctor Gresky hopes further finds will give us an answer.

Indeed the studies going on at Gobekli Tepe in the twenty years since its discovery have raised many more questions than answers. Other evidence from the time period indicate that the surrounding region was inhabited solely by small groups of hunter gatherers, not the sort of society normally associated with the construction of monumental stone structures. Did groups of nomads use Gobekli Tepe as a meeting place, perhaps as a fixed boundary marker as well. Both uses intended to keep peace between the different clans.

If that is true, how did these different groups organize themselves for the construction, feed themselves etc. Hopefully more excavations, more finds will help us learn some of the answers. If you’d like to read more about the recent Skull finds at Gobekli Tepe click on the link below to read the National Geographic’s article.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/skulls-cult-turkey-archaeology-neolithic-gobekli/

Next time I’ll return to my discussion concerning the decline of American Science.