Here are the posts I enjoyed this week:
Dating ancient cosmetics. No, not dating by using cosmetics. Dating the lead carbonates in ancient pigments in Egyptian and Greek tombs from 1500 to 20 BCE. Carbon dating requires biologic material, until the development of this new technique. It will work on pigments used in art, also. All kinds of possibilities here. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Carbon Dating Ancient Cosmetics”
Blame the Bourbons. That decapitated skeleton found recently at Pompeii that was believed squashed by a stone door jamb sent flying by a volcanic cloud—it was not the door jamb, after all, that did him in but suffocation. The decapitating happened when the Bourbon dynasty controlled Naples and had a lot of tunnels dug to pillage—oh, excuse me, excavate—Pompeii. The skeleton that just keeps giving more and more story. Click here for New York Times “He Died at Pompeii, but His Head Wasn’t Crushed by a Block”
As you’ve probably heard, Hobby Lobby purchases looted antiquities and encourages destructive pillaging. A recent shipment of their ill-gotten artifacts was intercepted by customs and an expert in cuneiform was called in to authenticate and identify as much about the large collection of tablets as he could quickly before they were repatriated to Iraq as international law requires. They turn out to be from a “lost” city that we only roughly know the location of from written records found elsewhere in Mesopotamia. Tablets from this city of Irisagrig began appearing after the Iraq war. Whoever looted them knows where they came from, but the criminals are, of course, not talking. Despite the destruction of all-important context, the tablets are still informative and rich in detail. The administrative records list an incredible array of daily minutia and bureaucratic organization, such as distributions of food for the palace dogs (and palace personnel such as weavers). Also: tax systems, business contracts, letters, and, perhaps most important, a collection of incantations from ca. 2,500 BCE invoking the gods An, Enlil and Enki for divine support for the restoration of a city. Everyone hopes that Iraq will quickly make public the tablets for further scholarly study. The professor of Assyriology had 3 or 4 minutes per tablet to examine a small portion of the collection, so most of the tablets’ secrets remain to be decoded. If only looters couldn’t sell this stuff (boycott Hobby Lobby and their evil ilk) and their best option was to show an archaeologist the site so it could be excavated. Then these tablets would have far more to say to us as a whole city came to light. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Hobby Lobby’s illegal antiquities shed light on a lost, looted ancient city in Iraq”
I particularly love archaeology on Cyprus. At some point my version of Homer’s Briseis may move there in my fiction. During her 12th C BCE time period Cyprus had economic and cultural boomtimes, and also layers of total destruction, just as is true of much of the Eastern Mediterranean—the famous collapse of civilization at the end of the Late Bronze Age. One dig on Cyprus keeps revealing utterly fascinating and gorgeous finds, an area called Dromolaxia or Hala Sultan Tekke after the mosque built next to it. In this season report, there’s a photo of a magnificent Mycenaean vase with a chariot, horses and warriors. The layout of the city is becoming clearer with various scans and targeted digs. Industrial areas of metalworking (tuyeres, furnaces and crucibles for copper), purple dye production from murex shells and textile weaving reveal the economic powerhouse. The comfortable life provided is revealed in a newly excavated area of the city. There’s an elaborate bathhouse made from finely cut stone blocks (ashlar), drains and water inlets. Tomb goods in one area include ivory disks imported from Egypt, carved with a pattern of petals, that were used to decorate part of a woman’s dress around her hips. I get positively entranced by such details. What catches your imagination? Click here for Archaeology News Network “Mycenaean vessels among finds at Dromolaxia, Cyprus”