Interesting Archaeological Artefacts

[isha]

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A weird looking lad. Assyrian statue of Pazuza, who was a kind of demon deity, king or lord of the west wind, could be wicked in his own right, but also could protect the household against other demons. Particular protection of pregnant women.
Assyrian empire was in first millennium BC, so 2500 years old anyway for the statue. (Assyria - most of present day Iraq, parts of Iran, Kuwait, Turkey).

According to Eckart Frahm's study of the Demon, the appearance of Pazuzu has remained fairly uniform throughout his history.Pazuzu is depicted as a combination of diverse animal and human parts. His body canine-like but scaled, birds' talons for feet, two pairs of wings, a scorpion's tail and a serpentine penis. He has his right hand up and left hand down. His face is striking, with gazelle horns, human ears, a doglike muzzle, bulging eyes, and wrinkles on the cheeks.

- Wikipedia.


"I, Pazuzu, king of the evil spirits of the air who, from the mountains, violently, in rage, goes out, I am"

Note, Pazuza, Pazuzu, Fazuza

[isha]

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"The Neolithic crannog Allensbach-Strandbad is located in Allensbach at the Lake Constance (Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany).

The flint stone blade from Allensbach dates from ca. 2900 BC and is now kept in the Archäologisches Landesmuseum Konstanz. The blade is made of upper Italian flint and was fastened with birch tar in the handle made from elderwood. In addition to the small dagger of the glacier man "Ötzi" this is the only find of such a Northern Italian dagger with preserved shaft."

Quote from megalithic UK - sorry I have lost the page link. Tis early!

The dagger was submerged in thick mud at the bottom of a shallow lake and that's why it's so well preserved after almost 5000 years. It's beautiful. The flint came from Monte Baldo in Italy.

[isha]

A mystery to start the week.

The StargGazers of Ancient Anatolia - who owns them and are they even authentic?



The Guennol Stargazer, auctioned off by Christies in 2017. Dated to circa 3000 to 2200 BC. Made of marble. It appears the heads may have been purposefully broken from the bodies in antiquity. The head is angled back slightly as if gazing at the stars. The Guennol Stargazer is the best of the group of 15 stargazers that have been found in Anatolia.

https://www.christies.com/features/The- ... 195-3.aspx

The Stargazer sold for 14.4 million. A case was brought by Turkey for recovery of the object. The case failed in 2021.
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/t ... 234589493/

Examples of decapitated Stargazers at Izmir museum in Turkey..




Title: “Stargazer” Figurine – Kilia-type
Date: 4360 – 3500 BC
Culture: Cycladic Art
Find site: Kilia site, Gallipoli peninsular, Modern-day Turkey
Medium: Bronze
Museum: Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens

https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/europe ... ilia-type/

Beautiful creations, but are some of them fake? Including the best example, the Guennol Stargazer?

Ayden Dikman, was a Turkish art dealer, with a bit of reputation for not only smuggling antiquities but creating them. Did he whittle the Guennol Stargazer? I hope they are real. However there is an inconsistent chain of custody. And the possible involvement of Dikman.
You can read more about this if interested at https://conflictantiquities.wordpress.c ... oted-fake/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anatolia ... 6615504225

[isha]

Part of the Oxus treasure, from Takht-i Kuwad, Tajikistan. Achaemenid Period, 5th to 4th centuries BCE. (The British Museum, London

Hollow gold fish: hammered up from sheet; the scales are indicated by regular imbrications, and the fins punched with close parallel lines; the mouth has an inner lining with a thickened edge; above the left fin is an applied loop either for suspension or for attachment to a stopper, now missing.

About 24 cm long. Probably used to hold expensive oils. Part of a treasure found in Tajikistan in the 1870s, most of which was melted down.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxus_Treasure

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[isha]

Statues and statuettes of Tutankhamun from the tomb show him wearing golden sandals. These sandals are made of wood and overlaid with a marquetry veneer of bark, green leather, and gold foil on a stucco base. The outer soles are covered with white stucco. The straps over the insteps are of bark ornamented with a diaper pattern in gold foil. On the inner sole are figures of Negro and Asiatic captives bound with stems of lotus and papyrus. Above and below are groups of four bows which together with the captives, represent the nine traditional enemies of Egypt whom the king symbolically trod underfoot when wearing the sandals. The device had a long history dating back more than a thousand years.

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Howard Carter found more than 80 pairs of sandals and shoes in Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. Some more images of different 3200+year old sandals from the tomb..

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Most of the shoes found would have been too uncomfortable to wear, having gold, glass and bark embellishments, and he was probably carried around while wearing them ceremonially . The shoes vary in size from one's he likely wore when he was 10, right up to ones worn before his death at about 19 years old. He likely wore bigger orthopaedic shoes/sandals because..

Apart from a foot bone disorder known as Kohler disease II, King Tut might have had seriously deformed feet which left him hobbling around with the use of a cane.

Indeed, the second toe in King Tut's right foot lacked the middle bone, making it shorter, while the left foot was clubbed, rotating internally at the ankle.

The foot condition might have required appropriate shoes with a tight strap in order to avoid them being dragged over the floor.

[isha]

Female figurine known as the Venus of Draguseni. Fired clay
20 cm height.
Cucuteni Culture -c. 6,500 years old, Neolithic Period. Found in the hills around Drăguşeni, in northeast Romania.

I love the markings on it.

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[isha]

Late Shang Period(16th century B.C.——11th century B.C.)

Length 32.7cm, Width 34.5cm

Unearthed from Subutun Tomb M1 in Qingzhou City, Shandong Province in 1965

Yue-ceremonial axe symbolizes political authority in early China. The main motif of the weapon is a very mean human mask. Inscription “Ya Chou” is beside the mask’s mouth

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[isha]

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7,000-year-old basket, made from Esparto grass fiber. Los Murciélagos cave, Spain, late 6th to early 5th millennium BC. The name of the cave means cave of the bats. It has the largest bat colony in Andalusia. Some grass sandals from same cave, same era. It's very dry so things preserve well.

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[isha]

Two awesome types of artefacts.

Cracows.

Long-toed shoes had been popular in Europe at different times, first appearing in the archaeological record in the 12th century and falling in and out of fashion periodically. They reached their most exaggerated form in the third quarter of the 15th century before falling out of fashion in the 1480s

- Wiki

Some say they became exaggerated as an aesthetic response to plague. The longer ones were symbolic of wealth as they were so difficult to walk in they suggested a life of leisure. Wearers used to have to wear silver chains from their knees to keep the toes up. Eventually they were disapproved of because they interfered with kneeling and thus prayer, and also because they were considered rude as there was a popular idea that the shoe size indicated other endowment. There were armoured cracows also

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And look at this fascinating suit of armour made from Egyptian crocodile skin.

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[isha]

Golden Hats - Bronze Age. Dated to approx 1400 to 800 BC. Gold leaf. Would have been mounted over an organic structure to wear or display them.

Four have been found so far. Germany and France.

There's an Irish link with reference to an artefact known as the Comerford Crown, found in 17th century, but long lost now, likely melted down.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hat

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comerford_Crown

Golden hat from Schifferstadt.

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Close up of another

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Drawing of the Comerford Crown

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A thread all about them. You can see more images there.

[Del.Monte]

That stuff is a bit rough - must have been made by a trainee or someone on a BC FAS type scheme - but all that lovely gold.....I'd have it melted into ingots and off to my Swiss bank vault.

[isha]

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Another one then. The Berlin gold hat. 74.5 cm tall.

[isha]

Love this. The clothing on Huldremose woman or Huldre Fen woman. About 2000 years ago, she lived in Denmark. Bog burial found with clothing well preserved.
Not sure but I think the top picture here may be an imitation; at any rate the second one is a mock-up of what the colour would have been. But the top photo could be the actual clothing as they are said to have been in very good condition. Anyway the skirt was dyed blue, the scarf was red, and you can read this for the rest..

The clothes of the woman from Huldremose are very well preserved, despite being almost 2000 years old. She was dressed in a costume consisting of a checked woollen skirt, a checked woollen scarf and two skin capes. The skirt was tied at the waist with a thin leather strap inserted into a woven waistband. The scarf was wrapped around the woman’s neck and fastened under her left arm with a pin made from a bird bone. On her upper body she wore a cape made from several dark brown sheep skins, with a collar of light-coloured sheep skin. The wool side of the skin cape was turned outwards. Under this was another cape with the wool side turned inwards. This was made from 11 small dark lamb skins. The cape had been used a great deal and had 22 patches sewn on. However, one of the patches did not cover a hole. Instead it contained a fine worked bone comb, a thin blue hairband and a leather cord, all wrapped in a bladder. Clearly the patch cannot be interpreted as a pocket, as it had to be cut open in order to get the things out. The sewn-in objects have probably functioned as amulets.

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The woman’s long hair was bound up with a woollen cord, which was also wound round her neck several times. She also wore another wool cord around her neck, on which hung two small amber beads. An impression on the ring finger of her left hand indicates that she originally wore a ring. However, there is no sign of it today and it may be that the ring was removed in connection with the handling of the body in 1879.

A thorough examination of the woman’s body has shown that her innermost item of clothing was a garment made of plant fibres, maybe nettle or linen. Only af few traces of this garment are left on the woman’s skin, as the major part of the textile has decomposed during the period in the bog. The skirt and scarf display an alternating check pattern of light and dark wool. The long period in the water of the bog has turned the clothes brown. Colour analysis has shown that originally the skirt was blue and the scarf was a red colour

https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowled ... woman-die/

[isha]

Great story about the finding of the Lurgan canoe or log boat in Galway in 1901.

https://milltown.galwaycommunityheritag ... rgan-canoe

It's over 4000 years old, hollowed out by fire and stone axe from an oak tree, there are ridges or ribs inside as if making divisions along the boat, and small holes of about an inch diameter near the top of one side. Some say for attaching equipment, others for making a catamaran link to another canoe which would have hugely increased stability and distance that could be traveled.

14 metres/50 foot long, 1 metre wide. It was pale coloured when found by Patrick Coen, but rapidly darkened on exposure to air.

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The Lurgan canoe is similar to a couple of other boats found not too far away. There might have been a single boat builder or a family making similar boats in the area.
The Annaghdeen log boat and the Carrowneden log boat are the other two big log boats.

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[isha]

Six and a half minutes of fascination. Motherhood changing from the Neolithic and on into the Bronze Age.
I love the passion she has for her work.

[isha]

I'm not going to say where this is but it's an Irish megalithic tomb, looking out towards entrance. Amazing construction.

And because savages cannot stop themselves scrawling on these spaces they will have to be made inaccessible. We had the ape-like plunderers of the 19th century (often wealthy landowners) gnawing into ancient places with little thought to method, using dynamite (I kid you not!), then selling off anything they found to private collectors, and now we have dopey knuckleheads scratching their moronic signs into monuments whose extraordinary meaning and encapsulation of deep time they simply cannot fathom....

Perhaps this should go in the ranting thread. I just don't get it. Leave things alone. If you zoom in on this amazing entrance you can see some scrawling on the lintel.

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[isha]

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collectio ... 5-1208-265

Gorgeous handaxe from lower paleolithic Britain found at Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Found in 1915. Beautiful.

Details at link.

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[isha]

Some animals.

A handle from a whip, carved in the shape of a galloping horse. Egypt. Made of Ivory. 3400 years old.

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A stone frog weight. From Mesopotamia. 2000 to 1300 BC.

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Something I would like to see is this example of a lion bas relief from the Ishtar gateway 575BC.

The Ishtar Gate was a passageway to the inner city of Babylon, constructed by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II in about 575 BCE.

The gate was integral to the ancient Walls of Babylon and was considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World.

More here about Ishtar gateway
https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/europe ... h-century/

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[isha]

I have to do a post on the fascinating Vinča culture. It was a neolithic culture centred around approximately the Balkans especially Serbia, running towards Bulgaria, Romania, that kind of area. Approximately 5000 BC, plus or minus 500-700 years in either direction.

The area was an early centre of agriculture and the population grew quite large (for the time) due to the success of agriculture. The Vinča culture has left traces in the form of very distinctive anthropomorphic figures. They look like aliens.

Quite a long extract from an article here, but it's fascinating.

Research and analysis of the artifacts and the settlements reveal a culture and a community of people that actually had a very advanced way of life, for the time. Remains of houses show traces of insulation against the elements and inside the houses, there were intricate multi-room layouts. Findings of decorative ceramic cups and sophisticated tools all speak to a relatively comfortable lifestyle.

The settlements themselves even had what we would call today public communal spaces. As the culture advanced, tiny villages developed into spatially organised blocks divided by streets and enclosed by ditches discovered at the Belo Brdo, Belovode, Oreškovica, Stubline, Gradac and Pločnik sites. These advancements represent the fist signs of proto-urban development in Europe.

The sheer number of objects found at the Vinča sites, coupled with the ease and skill with which they were fashioned is reminiscent of contemporary industrial production. Experiments with the thermic reactions of malachite show that in times of plenty the Vinča culture’s inquisitiveness made strides toward creating a modern civilisation like the one we know today.

Possibly the most interesting finding is the presence of copper objects and metallurgy which date from well before the Metal Ages began. Early copper metallurgy was confirmed in several sites, adding further proof of the advanced nature of the Vinča culture. Since they made metal objects, we know that the lifetime of the Vinča culture actually stretches from the late Neolithic age into the Chalcolithic age (also known as Eneolithic), a period still considered part of the broader Stone Age but in which humans began to use metal tools for the first time.

Copper chisels, axes, pendants, bracelets, and beads have become the new prestige goods. Although it does not seem so, this community had been changed, shifting from the Stone Age into the world of metals, and the idea of owning possessions was born.

https://emerging-europe.com/after-hours ... stone-age/

Now for the eye candy.

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[isha]

Moar...

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[isha]

One last one for now. The largest Vinca statuette found so far. Vita, found in 2019. 54 CMS tall.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.telegra ... l-treasure

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[Del.Monte]

Some scary stuff there...very alien looking carvings.

[isha]

Fascinating. Ignore his Eye -er-lind pronunciation. Great overview.

[KHD]

A lost Roman Emperor is rediscovered after been disregarded as being fake. Mr Sponsian was his name. I hope them so called experts who cancelled him are turning in their graves.

An ancient gold coin proves that a third century Roman emperor written out of history as a fictional character really did exist, scientists say.

The coin bearing the name of Sponsian and his portrait was found more than 300 years ago in Transylvania, once a far-flung outpost of the Roman empire.

Believed to be a fake, it had been locked away in a museum cupboard.

Now scientists say scratch marks visible under a microscope prove that it was in circulation 2,000 years ago.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63636641

[isha]

The Anzick site is a human burial which occurred approximately 13,000 years ago, part of the late Clovis culture, Paleoindian hunter-gatherers who were among the earliest colonizers of the western hemisphere. The burial in Montana was of a two-year-old boy, buried beneath an entire Clovis period stone tool kit, from rough cores to finished projectile points. DNA analysis of a fragment of the boy's bones revealed that he was closely related to Native American people of Central and South America, rather than those of the Canadian and Arctic, supporting the multiple waves theory of colonization.

Excavations and interviews with the original (1969) finders in 1999 revealed that the bifaces and projectile points had been stacked tightly within a small pit measuring 3x3 feet (.9x.9 meters) and buried between about 8 ft (2.4 m) of the talus slope. Beneath the stone tools was the burial of an infant aged 1-2 years of age and represented by 28 cranial fragments, the left clavicle and three ribs, all stained with red ochre. The human remains were dated by AMS radiocarbon dating to 10,800 RCYBP, calibrated to 12,894 calendar years ago (cal BP).


The assemblage of stone tools recovered from the Anzick (Wilke et al) by the original finders and the subsequent excavations included ~112 (sources vary) stone tools, including large bifacial flake cores, smaller bifaces, Clovis point blanks and preforms, and polished and beveled cylindrical bone tools. The collection at Anzick includes all reduction stages of Clovis technology, from large cores of prepared stone tools to finished Clovis points, making Anzick unique.

Extracts from https://www.thoughtco.com/anzick-clovis ... usa-172047

Pictures of some of the tools discovered at the Anzick burial -

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