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Archaeologists have made an "unparalleled" discovery in East Yorkshire of a chariot buried with two horses, which look as if they "were leaping upwards out of the grave."

The chariot with its ponies [Credit: David Keys]

The pair had been carefully positioned in the Iron Age grave at Pocklington with their back legs bent and hooves just off the ground - ready to spring into the next life.

The chariot - with a man aged in his late 40 upwards in a fetal position inside - had also been buried upright, as though the vehicle was ready to roll on "into any future life."

Archaeologists say the horses may have originally been buried with their heads sticking out of the grave, although when found they were headless.

The discovery comes just a year after another Iron Age chariot and two well-preserved horses were discovered on another building site in the town, David Wilson Homes’ Pavilion Square development.

The horses were buried with a "highly regarded member of the community" who was in his late 40s or older, whose head was surrounded by the bones of six piglets, believed to be an offering, along with a well-preserved shield and a highly decorative brooch.

East Yorkshire is known for its chariot burials but Paula Ware from MAP Archaeological Practice said the type of burial rite had “no British parallel."

The excavation of an Iron Age chariot burial near Pocklington, Yorkshire [Credit: David Keys]

She said: "We couldn't tell how they were placed in the grave. Both were still upright and they were placed as though in motion as if they were leaping out of the grave. It looked as though their skulls were removed centuries ago.

"Possibly the heads were coming out of the graves. Did they go in alive who knows? There's no evidence of a ramp. This is a new burial rite which has never been seen before.

"How spectacular this is - and what time and effort must have gone into it and the people who must have taken part in this burial process, digging this 4.7m by 3.9m grave.

"There is more pig bone in this burial than there has been seen in burials across the Wolds.

"He is honoured with at least six piglets - normally there would be a quarter of a jaw. He was someone so significant."

Nearby was another amazing find - a young man aged 17 to 25 - who had been "ritually speared" with 10 iron and bone spears.

The excavation of the remains of a speared Iron Age man near Pocklington, Yorkshire [Credit: David Keys]

He had suffered blunt force trauma indicative of being in a conflict. It has been suggested by other experts following similar discoveries that it could be a ritual to ensure the corpse remained dead.

But Ms Ware believes it was to release the youngster's spirit, and was a sign of respect from the community.

Ms Ware said: "We will never know because there was no written word and we can only speculate." Simon Usher, managing director at Persimmon Homes Yorkshire, said: “Everyone has been absolutely thrilled by the finds.

"Keeping the news under wraps while the excavation was completed has been a real challenge, but so important to ensure the integrity of the site.”

Author: Alex Wood | Source: The Yorkshire Post [December 09, 2018]

A mysterious male skeleton, lying face-down deep in the Thames mud, with a pair of in-situ thigh-high leather boots has been discovered by MOLA archaeologists working on one of the sites being used to build London’s super sewer in Bermondsey.

The booted man discovered on the Tideway site at Chambers Wharf in London [Credit: MOLA Headland Archaeology]

The skeleton was discovered at Tideway’s Chambers Wharf site in Bermondsey, where work is currently underway to build the Thames Tideway Tunnel to stop sewage pollution in the River Thames.

Jack Russell, Archaeology Lead for Tideway, said:  “The Tideway archaeology programme has allowed us to gather really interesting new evidence for how Londoners have used the river throughout history. As we work towards our goal of cleaning up the Thames and reconnecting London with it, it’s really important to acknowledge the lessons we can learn from significant discoveries like this.”

The river was a hazardous place even in the late 15th century, so perhaps his occupation was the cause of his death and the reason he came to be discovered. Could he have been a fisherman, a mudlark or perhaps a sailor? Was he climbing the Bermondsey Wall when he fell into the water? Did he become trapped in the mud and drown? The discovery has sparked an investigation by a team of archaeological and osteological experts who are unravelling the mystery of the booted man in the mud. So what does the evidence tell us?

The boots

Specialists studying the boots believe they date to the late 15th or early 16th century. Leather was expensive and often re-used at this time and experts believe it is unlikely that someone would have been buried wearing such a highly-prized item. The boots would have reached thigh height when fully extended therefore would have been ideal for walking out into the river and through the sticky Thames mud, so were perhaps waders.

Boots during the conservation process [Credit: MOLA Headland Archaeology]

They were built to last: conservators revealed that they were reinforced with extra soles and stuffed with an unidentified material (possibly moss) perhaps to make them warmer or improve the fit. This research suggests the person wasn’t buried deliberately and the clues also indicate the owner may have made his living from the river, which could well have led to his untimely demise.

Beth Richardson, Finds Specialist at MOLA Headland, said: “By studying the boots we’ve been able to gain a fascinating glimpse into the daily life of a man who lived as many as 500 years ago. They have helped us to better understand how he may have made his living in hazardous and difficult conditions, but also how he may have died. It has been a privilege to be able to study something so rare and so personal.”

The bones

It’s not unusual to find burials on the foreshore, but the booted man’s position was unusual: face-down, with one arm above his head with the other bent back on itself to the side. These clues could suggest that he fell or drowned and was covered quickly by the ground as it moved with the tide. Osteological experts have not identified evidence of any injuries at the time of death or a cause of death.

Osteologist Niamh Carty examines the booted mans skeleton [Credit: MOLA Headland Archaeology]

However, they have uncovered some clues about how he might have made his living, evidence of the damage to his physical health from the extreme physical demands of his work on his body, and why he might have ended up in the silty deposits of the River Thames where he lay undisturbed for more than 500 years.

MOLA osteologists think it’s possible he was under the age of 35 at the time of death, by then he had already led an active life which left its mark on his skeleton. His daily life wouldn’t have been comfortable – he would have felt pain and discomfort from osteoarthritis. Possibly the biggest clues about his life, are deep grooves found on his teeth. They were caused by a repetitive action like passing rope between his teeth as a fisherman might – which may also suggest that he made his living from the river.

Niamh Carty, Human Osteologist at MOLA Headland, said: “Studying a human skeleton provides incredible insights that allow us to create osteo-biographies of a person’s life.  With the booted man, examining his teeth has given clues about his childhood and marks on his skeleton have allowed us to proffer ideas about the aches and pains he may have suffered from on a daily basis, the toll his job took on his body and even a little about what he might have looked like.”

The discovery location

It may be that his discovery location – at a bend in the river downstream from the Tower of London at Chambers Wharf close to where the medieval Bermondsey Wall stood – is a natural confluence where materials accumulate in the river.

Archaeologists on the tideway site at Chamber's Wharf in London [Credit: MOLA Headland Archaeology]

The skeleton was uncovered during the construction of a shaft at Chambers Wharf, where one of the main tunnel boring machines digging the super sewer is due to start tunneling later next year.

We may never know the answer to exactly how the booted man came to rest in the river, but his untimely death has offered an incredible opportunity to learn from him: to explore the relationships between the people of London in the past and the river Thames and how this dangerous and powerful natural resource was used by so many as a means of making a living.

Source: MOLA Headland Archaeology [December 04, 2018]

The Acropolis Museum in Athens is perfectly capable of hosting its original sculptures of the Parthenon instead of the well-crafted copies it exhibits, said Deputy Editor of the Sunday Times, Sarah Baxter.

Plaster casts from the east pediment sculptures of the Parthenon at the Acropolis Museum against  the backdrop of the Athenian Acropolis [Credit: The Acropolis Museum]

The original sculptures of the east pediment in the British Museum [Credit: Kevin Gessner/Flickr]

“I simply can’t think of a sound reason for refusing Greece’s claim for their return,” said Ms Baxter in a column she wrote for the British publication.

Plaster casts from the east pediment of the Parthenon at the Acropolis Museum, as well as original metopes  and both orginal and casts of the Ionic frieze [Credit: The Acropolis Museum]

The original sculptures of the east pediment in the British Museum [Credit: ANA-MPA]

“It is hard to deny that they belong to their original place, why not exchange them? We are fighting a losing battle to maintain our looting when there are innovative ways to share our knowledge,” added the Deputy Editor, who defends the return of the Parthenon Marbles and agrees with the opinion of which Labor leader Jeremy Corbin has also made publicly known.

Original segments of the Ionic frieze from the Parthenon bordered by paster casts  of those found in the British Museum [Credit: The Acropolis Museum]

Section from the original Ionic frieze of the Parthenon displayed in the British Museum [Credit: ToVima]

The Sunday Times also observes that modern technology can provide perfect replicas and representations of ancient cities such as ancient Rome and the Arc of Triumph of Palmyra and raises the question if Britain could return the Parthenon Marbles and reproduce with technology the grandeur of the Parthenon for the new generations of visitors to the British Museum, why not do it?

Finally, she notes that a similar replica policy is followed by the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Source: Greek City Times [November 26, 2018]

When President Emmanuel Macron of France received a report he had commissioned on the restitution of African treasures, he wasted no time in announcing that the Quai Branly Museum in Paris would return 26 objects, looted by French colonial forces in 1892, to Benin.

Three large royal statues of the Kingdom of Dahomey on display at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris. President Emmanuel Macron of France announced on Friday that 26 items taken by force from the kingdom would be returned to Benin [Credit: Philippe Wojazer/Reuters]

But that was as far as the president went in publicly endorsing the report on Friday. Its authors, Bénédicte Savoy of France and Felwine Sarr of Senegal, recommend that all objects removed without consent from Africa and sent to France be permanently returned if the countries of origin ask for them.

Mr. Macron instead assigned his culture and foreign ministers to help fulfill an objective he set a year ago: to ensure that the cultural treasures of sub-Saharan Africa be accessible in Africa through restitutions, but also exhibitions, exchanges and loans. He also called for an international conference in early 2019 on the return of African artifacts.

In Europe, the restitution announcement drew tepid reactions from museum directors, as it sets a tricky precedent. Leaders of cultural institutions were quick to emphasize that Mr. Macron was speaking for France and France alone, but acknowledged that his actions and pronouncements on African heritage had energized and accelerated discussions on the subject elsewhere.

In Africa, the announcement was met with a mix of enthusiasm and caution.

The restitution of 26 objects to Benin “does not change the policy of the British Museum, nor legislation in Great Britain,” said Hartwig Fischer, the director of the London institution, which has 73,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa in its collections, many obtained in colonial times. The museum has been in a decades-long dispute with Greece over the so-called Elgin marbles, which came from the Parthenon, and the governor of Easter Island requested last week the return of Hoa Hakananai’a, a statue that is among the British Museum’s most popular items.

Mr. Fischer said that while the British Museum’s trustees were open to all forms of cooperation, “the collections have to be preserved as whole.”

He recognized that Mr. Macron’s announcement would “intensify the debate” about access, and would contribute to “the next dimension of cooperation” as African countries develop their cultural and museum infrastructure.

King Ghezo’s throne from Abomey, which dates from the early 19th century, is among the items France will return, Mr. Macron said [Credit: Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images]

Hartmut Dorgerloh, the director of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, a giant museum of non-Western art set to open next year, said in an interview that Mr. Macron’s pledge to return the 26 objects had made issues of Africa’s heritage “more obvious, more visible and also more urgent.” In the future, he said, European museums would “have to return” objects in some cases, while in others, the inclusion of artifacts in collections would have to be viewed as “the result of European or global history.”

“How far back will you go? Until Roman times?” he said. “Because many items in Rome were robbed somewhere in Greece or in ancient Egypt.”

The objects that Mr. Macron is giving back to Benin are a star attraction of the Quai Branly Museum. Seized when French colonial forces ransacked the capital of the 300-year-old Kingdom of Dahomey, they were royal treasures that the fleeing king left behind: statues, thrones, and even the carved polychrome doors of his palace.

Although the report by Ms. Savoy and Mr. Sarr advises against measures such as long-term loans, Mr. Macron has spoken favorably in the past of “temporary restitution.” One example of the kind of cooperation that Mr. Macron could be looking for is the Benin Dialogue Group, which includes representatives from Nigeria and from major European museums that own treasures of the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now southern Nigeria.

Those artifacts — mostly sculptures and relief plaques — were looted from royal palaces during a British expedition in 1897. They were taken to Britain or sold on the open market, and eventually ended up in museums in Europe and the United States. Some are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Edo State in Nigeria hopes to open a museum by 2021 to house several hundred of the artifacts, lent short-term by the British Museum, among others.

Doors from a Kingdom of Dahomey palace, on display at the Quai Branly Museum. The items had been buried underground when the kingdom was ransacked by French colonial forces in the 19th century [Credit: Michel Euler/Associated Press]

Prince Kum’a Ndumbe III of the Duala people in Cameroon, who runs AfricAvenir International, a nonprofit that calls for the restitution of artifacts taken without consent, said that the French report was “the first step in the right direction.” He added that such a political commitment had been awaited since Cameroon and much of the rest of Francophone Africa gained independence from France in 1960.

“This is not just about the return of African art,” he said. “When someone’s stolen your soul, it’s very difficult to survive as a people.”

He invited Britain and Germany to follow the French example and commission their own restitution reports.

Stéphane Martin, president of the Quai Branly Museum, which has 70,000 objects from sub-Saharan Africa in its collections, said in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro that last week’s report was “a bad answer to the courageous question posed by the president.” While restitution was “not a word that I’m scandalized by,” he added, there are “other ways to engage in cultural cooperation with Africa.”

In a separate interview with Europe 1 radio on Sunday, Mr. Martin said it was he who had suggested that the 26 objects from his museum be returned to Benin. “Museums must not be hostages to the painful history of colonization,” he said.

Mr. Martin did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this article.

Plaques that form part of the Benin Bronzes on show at the British Museum in London. The plaques were taken by British troops in 1897 [Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images]

Mr. Fischer of the British Museum described the French report as “a radical proposal” that made a “moral argument” against colonialism, whereby “everything that took place under the conditions of colonialism is eligible for restitution.” He also noted that Mr. Macron’s statement on Friday was “much more nuanced” than the report, and left open the door for options other than returning objects.

The ball is now in the court of France’s culture minister and foreign minister, who have been asked to bring together African and European museum managers and cultural professionals to ensure that works of art circulate not only among the major museums of the world — which hold 90 percent to 95 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s cultural heritage, according to the report — but also on the African continent.

The Paris conference next year will be a test of that process.

Sindika Dokolo, a businessman from the Democratic Republic of Congo who runs an art foundation in Angola and who has bought back looted African art, said the French president’s restitution offer had “no precedent.”

“Macron has opened a Pandora’s box,” he said.

At the same time, Mr. Dokolo urged African leaders to respond quickly, before a change of government or mood in France — to “put their foot in the door before it closes.”

Author: Farah Nayeri | Source: The New York Times [November 27, 2018]

Archaeologists from the University of Sheffield have uncovered a previously unknown Anglo-Saxon cemetery.

Female burial unearthed at Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Lincolnshire [Credit: University of Sheffield]

Excavations have revealed more than 20 burials at the extraordinary cemetery in the Lincolnshire Wolds dating back to the late fifth to mid sixth centuries AD.

The dig at the site in Scremby, Lincolnshire was led by Dr Hugh Willmott and Dr Katie Hemer from the University of Sheffield's Department of Archaeology in collaboration with Dr Adam Daubney, the Lincolnshire Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

The cemetery was first brought to light when a local metal dectorist began to discover a number of Anglo-Saxon artefacts, including copper gilded brooches, iron shield bosses and spear heads.

The finds were typical of those found in early Anglo-Saxon burials therefore it was necessary to excavate the site to ensure any further artefacts were retrieved, recorded and preserved before they could be destroyed by agricultural activity.

International volunteers, students from the University of Sheffield, and members of the RAF from nearby stations took part in the excavation which is the first to have been extensively investigated since the 19th century.

The cemetery was first brought to light when a local metal dectorist began to discover a number of Anglo-Saxon artefacts, including copper gilded brooches, iron shield bosses  and spear heads [Credit: University of Sheffield]

Dr Hugh Willmott, Senior Lecturer in European Historical Archaeology from the University of Sheffield, said: "Almost without exception, the burials were accompanied by a rich array of objects, in keeping with the funerary rites adopted during the early centuries of the Germanic migrations to eastern England.

"What is particularly interesting is the significant proportion of very lavish burials which belonged to women. These women wore necklaces made from sometimes hundreds of amber, glass and rock crystal beads, used personal items such as tweezers, carried fabric bags held open by elephant ivory rings, and wore exquisitely decorated brooches to fasten their clothing.

"Two women even received silver finger rings and a style of silver buckle commonly associated with Jutish communities in Kent. Furnished burials belonging to males were also identified, including a number buried with weaponry such as spears and shields.

Dr Willmott added: "Children were notably absent in the parts of the cemetery excavated this year, however, one of the most striking burials was that of a richly-dressed woman who was buried with a baby cradled in her left arm.

"The preservation of the skeletal remains, as well as the many grave finds, provide an exciting opportunity to explore the social and cultural dynamics of the community who chose to bury their dead on this chalky outcrop."

Brooch found at Anglo-Saxon cemetery [Credit: University of Sheffield]

In order to understand as much as possible about the site and those buried there, a series of scientific investigations are underway at the University of Sheffield by the Department of Archaeology.

The human remains are undergoing a complete osteological assessment, whilst stable isotope analysis of teeth and bone will identify where the individuals grew up as children and what food resources they ate.

Dr Katie Hemer, Lecturer in Bioarchaeology at the University of Sheffield, said: "Analysis also extends to a number of the finds, including the amber beads, which are being provenanced in collaboration with colleagues from Sheffield's Department of Physics; we will analyse the elemental composition of the metalwork and identify the elephant species which produced the ivory rings.

"The project's multi-faceted investigation which incorporates cutting-edge scientific techniques will enable Sheffield archaeologists to ask and answer significant questions about early Anglo-Saxon communities in eastern England."

Source: University of Sheffield [November 27, 2018]