Ancient news stories

The most sensational figurine made of an as-yet-unknown organic material featuring what appears to be a feather headdress was unearthed in a prehistoric burial site in old potato field in Siberia. Could it represent a halo atop the head of a deity?  This ancient artifact has no known comparisons, presenting a puzzle for archeologists: which culture made this?

Twelve thousand years ago, the area around what is now known as San Antonio, Texas, must have been something of a paradise for the small bands of hunter-gatherer Paleoindians who passed through on a seasonal basis.  That was the tail end of the Pleistocene, colloquially referred to as the Ice Age.

Passionate amateurs can now rub elbows with working paleontologists in an experimental workshop amid California’s famed treasure trove of Pleistocene fossils named Diamond Valley Lake Local Fauna.

Zarina Kopyrina is a Yakutian ethno singer from the Republic of Sakha, in northern Siberia. From her tiny village, she has traveled to several continents, absorbing new perspectives but ever guided by an unfailing passion for her ancestors’ spiritual beliefs.

Stonehenge was built between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC (its exact date of origin is still highly contested), and the enigmatic stone circle has amazed and perplexed people for centuries. Many theories including the belief that human sacrifices occurred there surround the legacy of the iconic monument.

On the border between Russia and Mongolia are the awe-inspiring Kara-Turug petroglyphs.  There are over 500 exhibits, and the artwork here spans some 4,000 years until the end of the first millennium AD.  Every major civilisation has added their own distinct imprint to the collection of rock art at Dus-Dag mountain in modern-day Tuva Republic, literally from the Age of the Spear until well into Medieval Times

A composer and virtuoso performer trained at the master level in dance, drumming, singing, and shamanic music, Dohee Lee is forging a new performance form rooted in ancient Korean shamanic practices.  She recognizes the medicinal power of personal stories and myth, and makes rituals in the service of healing individuals and communities.

People have called the Choccolocco Valley home for nearly 12,000 years. This great expanse of time encompasses different Prehistoric periods including the Paleoindian, the Archaic, the Woodland, and the Mississippian.

The Urweltmuseum GEOSKOP is located at the Lichtenberg Castle in southwestern Germany.  It is the largest natural history museum in Rhineland-Palatinate, and at the present time is hosting a special exhibition all about prehistoric elephants called Mammoths – Icons of the Ice Age.

Hidden behind a bed-and-breakfast in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, teams of amateur volunteers with trowels and shovels needle the soil in several shallow pits searching for clues about Native Americans who passed through here 12,000 years ago. The researchers hope to find any artifacts that could explain just how these Paleoindians lived, why they set up shop above a valley, and why they eventually moved on.

Travelogue article from Singapore’s Buro focusing on Ancient Nubia, now known as Sudan, which actually has more than twice the number of pyramids as compared to Egypt — with 255 known pyramids as compared to Egypt’s 138 —  built by members of the Kingdom of Kush, an early civilisation that ruled areas along the Nile River from 1070 BC to 350 AD.

Fascinating article from the Free Dictionary site about the 300 stone petrospheres of Costa Rica.  In the cosmogony of the Bribri, which is shared by the Cabecares and other American ancestral groups, the stone spheres are “Tara’s Cannon Balls”. Tara or Tlatchque, the god of thunder, used a giant blowpipe to shoot the balls at the Serkes, gods of winds and hurricanes, in order drive them out these lands. Numerous myths surround the stones, such as they came from Atlantis. Some local legends also state that the native inhabitants had access to a potion able to soften the rock. Research has been offered in support of this hypothesis, but it is not supported by geological or archaeological evidence, and it has not been demonstrated that igneous gabbro, the material most of the balls are composed of, can be worked in this way.

In the American Southwest, the loss of juniper trees at the hands of mining and development could cost the Hopi a crucial part of their heritage.  The juniper provides Hopis the basics of warmth, shelter, tools, and food. Hopis do not cut down junipers, but rather collect deadwood for winter fires and for building houses, corrals, and fences. Juniper roots which can stretch downward 200 feet are carved into cradleboards, bows and arrows, and hairpieces used for the famous squash-blossom hairdo of Hopi maidens.  Juniper berries are considered a “starvation food” for when the tribe’s crops fail.

Early in 2017, evidence of 130,000 year old Ancient Americans was found at the Cerutti Mastodon Site in San Diego, California. This is more than 100,000 years older than the First Americans should be.  So is it right?  Editorial article from Adam Benton’s Filthy Monkey Men website challenges recent findings.

The symbolic Many Hands shirt was made around 1910 by the wife of Chief Daniel Black Horn of the Oglala Lakota. He had traveled extensively with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and other shows of the period. He went to Europe several times and, though he spoke no English, he met many members of European royal families and government officers with whom he had to shake hands.

Nine decades after the original Folsom excavation team labored in the hot summer sun of northeastern New Mexico, recent research continues to shed new light on our understanding of Ancient America.  Frankly, the story just keeps getting better and better.