🧐 Ancient Beat #120: Unusual burials, sarcophagi avenues, and cold hard Bronze-Age cash

Welcome to issue #120 of Ancient Beat! And happy bday to me. 🥳

Heads up that I’ll be out next week, so you won’t hear from me. I know, I know — devastating news, I’m sure. But I’ll be back with a new issue the week after.

In the meantime, here’s the latest ancient news. 👇

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🗞 Ancient News: Top 5

• Sarcophagi Avenue Found in Ancient Necropolis — Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Tios, located near modern Filyos Port in Zonguldak, Turkey, have uncovered a remarkable Roman necropolis featuring an avenue lined with sarcophagi. Tios, a well-preserved Greek colony dating back to the 7th century BCE, has revealed a vast burial ground on its eastern side. The necropolis contains 96 sarcophagi, 23 chamber burials, 7 cist graves, 60 frame tile graves, and over 1,300 funerary objects. The site was most active between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE, with burials placed along a 500-meter avenue, likely belonging to wealthy individuals. The necropolis, with its streets, alleys, and terraces, mirrors the layout of a city, offering a unique insight into the funerary practices and urban planning of the period.

Image credit: AA

• Possible Neolithic Shaman Burial Identified in Southeastern Turkey — A 12,000-year-old burial discovered at Çemka Höyük, a Neolithic site in Mardin Province, Turkey, may hold the remains of a shaman or someone buried by a shaman. The burial was found under the floor of a mud-constructed roundhouse structure, covered with a large limestone block. The remains, identified as a woman who died between 25 and 30 years old, were accompanied by the skull of an aurochs, along with bones from a small ruminant, a partridge, a canid, and a marten. These animal remains suggest symbolic associations between the woman and the animals, possibly reflecting the beliefs of the hunter-gatherer community as it transitioned to a sedentary lifestyle. The limestone slab might have been placed to prevent the woman from returning as a malevolent spirit, while the aurochs skull could have been intended to guard her remains. This burial is notably different from others in the region, indicating a unique ritualistic significance.

• 850,000-Year-Old Remains of Homo Antecessor Discovered at Atapuerca, Spain — The remains of Homo antecessor, one of the earliest known human species in Europe, have been found in the Atapuerca Mountains of Spain. Dating back approximately 850,000 years, these fossils are among the oldest human remains ever discovered on the continent. The find includes fragments of a jawbone and teeth, which provide crucial information about the physical characteristics and evolutionary timeline of early humans in Europe.

• Scientists Now Know When An Ancient Lake Supported Human Life In The Namib Sand Sea — In the hyperarid Namib Sand Sea of Namibia, researchers have uncovered evidence of a once-existing freshwater lake, Narabeb, that supported human life during the African Middle Stone Age. The area, now dominated by towering dunes over 330 feet high, was once fed by an ancient river. Through luminescence dating, scientists determined that the lake existed between 231,000 and 223,000 years ago, and again around 135,000 years ago. The site is rich in stone tools, indicating long-term human activity and possibly repeated visits over generations. The discovery challenges the notion that the Namib Desert has been consistently dry for 10 million years, suggesting that it may have contained "green corridors" that facilitated human and animal migration. The study highlights the importance of southern African deserts in understanding human evolution and calls for further research to explore these overlooked landscapes.

• What Did Bronze Age People Do with All That Bronze? New Research Revives Old Arguments About the Nature of Money — New research suggests that Bronze Age metal hoards may have functioned as a form of currency. Analysis of 25,000 metal objects from Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and Germany revealed a standardized weight system used across Europe. The study proposes that rather than being controlled by elites, these hoards may indicate that everyday people used small pieces of bronze as a form of currency for everyday transactions. The findings challenge previous assumptions that such hoards were primarily elite-focused, instead highlighting the role of common people in economic exchange. The study explores how standardization in Bronze Age artifacts and weights might reflect early economic systems, revealing insights into both social and technological aspects of Bronze Age life.

That’s it for the free Top 5! If you’re a free subscriber, sign up for the paid plan for another 18 discoveries and 6 recommended pieces of content covering extinction, biodiversity, Cerberus, cult temples, graffiti, the Assyrian Renaissance, and traveling women who got little credit for changing our views of ancient Egypt.

Until next time, thanks for joining me!

-James
Twitter: @jamesofthedrum

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🗞 Ancient News: Deep Dive