I recently got a kind message from one of you. In it, I learned that the Beat is an important part of this readerâs weekend breakfast routine. And that put a big smile on my face.
So, friends, Iâll give you a moment to to collect everything you need to break your fast.
For me it will be a crumpet and eggs⊠maybe. Iâve been talking for weeks about making crumpets for my wife and daughter. Iâve never made a crumpet before, but theyâve never eaten one⊠so if it goes south, theyâll be none the wiser. Iâll just slather it in butter and honey, and call it a crumpet.
Ok, ready? Hereâs the latest ancient news (with a side of breakfast). đł
đ Ancient News: Top 5
Intact Burials at Göbeklitepe Reveal New Clues to 11,000-Year-Old Burial Rituals â The first two intact burial contexts found at Göbeklitepe in southeastern Turkey are changing interpretations of the siteâs scattered human remains. Dating to about 8700â8000 BCE, one burial beneath a plaster floor contained at least three peopleâan adult woman, young adult man, and adolescent girlâwhose bones had been rearranged as the grave was apparently reopened for successive burials. Their skulls were grouped in one corner and long bones placed along a wall. A second burial held a young adult woman lying on her left side in a flexed position, facing east. Natural damage to her skeleton resembles that seen among 928 previously recovered bone fragments, suggesting erosion and landslides may have swept some remains from domestic burials downhill into monumental buildings. However, deliberately cut skull fragments from five people still point to more complex mortuary rituals occurring alongside ordinary under-floor burial.
âWe Have Found Traces of Peace, Thousands of Years Oldâ: Fragment of Worldâs Oldest Known Peace Treaty Found in Turkey â A 3,400-year-old cuneiform fragment of the Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty has been uncovered at Hattusha, the Hittite capital in north-central Turkey. Signed around 1269 BCE after generations of conflict between Egypt and the Hittite Empire, the treaty is the oldest known surviving peace agreement. The new fragment preserves part of the section dealing with refugees: people who fled from one kingdom to the other were to be returned, but they were not to be mutilated and their families and homes were to be spared. The broader treaty also established peace, mutual military assistance, nonaggression, and extradition. Earlier versions survive in Egyptian hieroglyphs at Thebes and in Akkadian cuneiform fragments from Hattusha. The agreement followed the famous Battle of Kadesh, although the treaty itself does not directly mention that battle.
Nearly 2,400-Year-Old School Where Aristotle Taught Alexander the Great Discovered in Greece â A monumental 4th-century BCE educational complex uncovered at ancient Mieza in northern Greece is believed to be the school where Alexander the Great and other Macedonian nobles were taught. The complex includes two banquet halls, a sporting arena, a stadium, a roofed porch, and a lecture hall furnished with stone desks. Mosaic floors and columns decorated the buildings, while raised platforms in the banquet halls would have supported nearly a dozen dining couches. Archaeologists also recovered coins, ceramics, and four writing styluses. The architecture closely resembles that of the Macedonian royal palace at Aigai, fitting ancient accounts that the school was created for elite education. Excavation of the complex began in 2024 after earlier discoveries near a sanctuary dedicated to nymphs helped identify the wider site.
New Evidence Points to Possible Hidden Chambers Beyond Tutankhamunâs Tomb â New geophysical surveys around Tutankhamunâs tomb, KV62, in Egyptâs Valley of the Kings have detected anomalies that could represent previously unknown corridors and chambers, although the evidence remains inconclusive. Ground-penetrating radar and more than 1,200 microgravity measurements across roughly 377 square feet identified several low-density, right-angled features aligned with the burial chamberâs north wall. One possible rubble-filled corridor appears to be about 6.6 feet wide, while another anomaly contains a roughly square zone of denser material that could conceivably represent objects inside a chamber. The results revive a theory that Tutankhamunâs unusually small tomb was adapted from a larger preexisting royal complex after his unexpected death. Suggestions that sealed rooms might contain the burial of Nefertiti remain speculative: previous surveys have produced conflicting results, and the latest anomalies require stronger geophysical or physical confirmation.
The Monsters That Werenât: Dinosaur and Tusked-Beast Claims in San Rock Art Unravel â A reassessment of San rock art in southern Africa challenges claims that Indigenous artists depicted creatures inspired by dinosaur and dicynodont fossils. One strange red image previously interpreted as a dinosaur footprint associated with a mythical monster appears to have been misread: historical San accounts show that the mythical being associated with the image was actually a personified veld fire rather than a prehistoric beast. A second painting, previously described as a tusked animal inspired by extinct dicynodonts, was reexamined using new photography and digital enhancement. Its apparent âtusksâ are actually a smear of black pigment, possibly added separately, while weathering created the misleading gray coloration. The figure is more plausibly a rain animal, a supernatural creature well documented in San stories and rock art. No known San traditions cited in the reassessment connect either image with fossils or extinct animals.
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Until next time, thanks for joining me!
-James
Twitter: @jamesofthedrum
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