Archaeology by Prau123 – Page 360 – Main Forum

Prau123 · 2020-04-23T00:56:31Z

Here's an update on some of the new discoveries in recent years in the Mesoamerican region. Tonina - Considered the new tallest structure in Mesoamerica. It's debatable since El Mirador is actually 172 meters tall. The largest structure is still Cholula. There are still several areas in the El Mirador Basin that needs to be excavated and measured. There are 61,000 plus sites that were scanned a few years ago and that was only a mere portion of the El Mirador Basin. 15 facts about the Maya Civilization 1. THEIR PYRAMIDS AND CITIES ARE STILL BEING DISCOVERED.It’s amazing to think that something as large as a pyramid could elude archaeologists today. But it was only a few years ago that a Maya pyramid more than 1000 years old was discovered at Toniná in the Mexican state of Chiapas. It had been hidden under what was believed to be a natural hill. In 2015, researchers said this newfound monument was actually Mexico’s tallest pyramid at 246 feet (75 meters) in height, surpassing the 213-foot Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. The ruins of two Maya cities concealed by thick vegetation were also recently discovered in Mexico’s state of Campeche. Tonina Picture They also found El Palmar and Angamuco a few years ago also. El Palmar - El Palmar is 40 to 70 times larger than previously acknowledged. It’s 40 times larger than we thought it was,” Garrison says. “This is now this huge city that would have been a rival to Tikal An early city called El Palmar seemed now to be 70 times larger than we had suspected, with raised fields for agriculture. An “isolated” royal palace had an extensive swath of settlement extending a kilometer or more. Angamuco - Angamuco had as many buildings as Manhattan city. A new laser-mapping technology, called lidar, has been used to confirm a truly mind-blowing ancient city buried in western Mexico. Called Angamuco, researchers say that it has about 40,000 buildings. This is around the same amount of building foundations as there are in Manhattan, New York. Whoa! El Mirador - Articles: Videos:

A skull unearthed more than 50 years ago from a prehistoric burial site on the northwestern Italian coast has been confirmed as the earliest known example of artificial cranial modification (ACM) in Europe. The find, dated to between 12,190 and 12,620 years ago, suggests that purposeful head shaping was practiced during the Late Upper Paleolithic, pushing back the origins of this European cultural practice.

Europe’s oldest cranial modification found in Italian cave — Artistic illustration showing two individuals wrapping a baby’s head. Credit: Archaeology News Online Magazine

The skull, designated Arene Candide 12 (AC12), was discovered in the 1940s in the Arene Candide Cave, a significant archaeological site that hunter-gatherers had used as a cemetery between approximately 12,900 and 11,600 years ago. Excavations there uncovered many skeletons, including some that had been arranged deliberately during elaborate funeral rites. AC12, which belonged to an adult male, had been buried in a niche above another grave—a tomb known as the “Tomb of the Antlers”—with its jawbone and other remains found separately nearby.

Originally reconstructed in the 1970s, AC12’s elongated skull shape was controversial. It was initially assumed that it resulted from a pathological condition or accidental childhood trauma. With new evidence, however, scientists now believe it was a deliberate cultural practice and the earliest known instance of artificial cranial modification in Europe.

Artificial cranial modification involves subjecting an infant’s skull to ongoing pressure during its growing phase—typically by binding the head with fabric or a rigid board—which causes a permanent shape alteration. The AC12 skull appears to have undergone the annular, or circumferential, modification process, likely through tight wrapping with cloth strips.

As the skull had been glued during its initial reconstruction, the research team disassembled it virtually using CT scans. They then made four digital reconstructions and compared AC12 to others using geometric morphometrics—a statistical method for studying bone shapes—against Late Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic skulls from Italy, as well as other worldwide examples of ACM. All the analyses positioned AC12 consistently among the group of intentionally modified crania, distinct from unmodified skulls and skulls altered by disease or trauma.

The reasons for cranial modification are still not known, although it is believed to have served as a sign of identity, social status, or group affiliation. In Arene Candide, the presence of other evidence—such as individuals wearing cheek plugs—suggests that body decoration was practiced in diverse forms.

This discovery places ACM in Europe much earlier than previously estimated, aligning it with some of the world’s oldest known examples. The oldest example in Australia dates to about 13,500 years ago, and in Asia, to about 11,200 years ago. While perhaps most famously known in Central and South America, where it persisted for nearly 10,000 years, the new study—published in Scientific Reports—demonstrates that the behavior has Paleolithic roots in Eurasia.

Further DNA studies from the Arene Candide remains could reveal whether AC12’s distinctive head shape indicated migration or cultural contact with distant societies. The practice could have developed independently in multiple regions or spread through intergroup contact. In either scenario, the AC12 skull is a startling witness to the significance of body modification in human history.

More information: Mori, T., Sparacello, V.S., Riga, A. et al. (2025). Early European evidence of artificial cranial modification from the Italian Late Upper Palaeolithic Arene Candide Cave. Sci Rep 15, 27792. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-13561-8