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Archaeology [Sticky] Archaeology by Prau123

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ARCHAEOLOGISTS GIVE NEW INSIGHTS INTO MYSTERIOUS STONE SPHERES

 
 
 
 

 

ARCHAEOLOGISTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL HAVE SUGGESTED THAT MYSTERIOUS STONE SPHERES FOUND AT SITES ACROSS THE AEGEAN AND MEDITERRANEAN COULD BE ANCIENT GAMING PIECES FROM EARLY BOARD GAMES.

 

Previous studies indicate that the spheres varied in size within specific clusters and collections of spheres, which they now have explored the potential patterning within the concentrations to give new insights into their purpose.

Spheres have been found at sites in Santorini, Crete, Cyprus, and other Greek Islands, with academics speculating that they could be sling stones, tossing balls, pieces from a counting/record-keeping system or as counters/pawns.

 

In a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science by researchers from the University of Bristol’s Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, the team examined common features on 700 stone spheres – which range from around 4,500 to 3,600 years old – found at the Bronze Age town of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini.
 

 

The spheres are generally smaller than a modern golf ball and vary in colour and different materials. In sites across the Aegean and Akrotiri, there are stone slabs with shallow cup marks where the spheres could have sat or been placed.

sphere1 1
Groups of spheres from Akrotiri – Image Credit : Konstantinos Trimmis

Dr Ferneé said: “The most important finding of the study is that the spheres fit two major clusters (one of smaller and one of larger stones). This supports the hypothesis that they were used as counters for a board game with the spheres most possibly have been collected to fit these clusters rather than a counting system for which you would expect more groupings.”

If these spheres are in-fact part of a board game, they will be one of the earliest examples, along with similar examples from the Levant and Egypt, such as the Egyptian Mehen and Senet.

 
Dr Trimmis added: “The social importance of the spheres, as indicated by the way they were deposited in specific cavities, further supports the idea of the spheres being part of a game that was played for social interaction. This gives a new insight into the social interaction in the Bronze Age Aegean.”

 

The next stage of the research is to apply a similar methodology to the slabs to see if there is clustering in the cup marks and trying to associate the spheres and slabs together. The team also hope to use artificial intelligence techniques to determine how the game was actually played.

 

 

 

 

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Archaeologists give new insights into mysterious stone spheres - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News

 

 

 

 

 

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The largest, longest and deepest caves

21 September 2022

 

A guided cave tour in mammoth cave national park
A guided tour in Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, USA. 

 

There are thousands of caves all around the world, varying from tiny holes to vast caverns. The majority form in karst, a type of landscape made of limestone, dolomite and/or gypsum rocks, which slowly dissolve in the presence of slightly acidic water. In most caves, the dissolving process takes more than 100,000 years to make enough space for a single person. Other caves are formed by erosion of the coastline, by meltwater carving tunnels into glaciers and by highly fluid lava leaving behind a solid tube. Here we depict the largest (by volume), the deepest and the longest caves discovered so far. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The largest, longest and deepest caves - Geographical

 

 

 

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Mexico's 1,500-year-old unknown pyramids
 
 
(Credit: robertharding/Alamy)
Built by indigenous masons, these 1,500-year-old pyramids are still standing strong, held together by sticky juice from the prickly pear cactus.
 

From a distance, the grey volcanic rock pyramids and their encircling stonewalls looked like something that Mother Nature had wrought herself. Located in Cañada de La Virgen (The Valley of the Virgin), an area about 30 miles outside the city of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico's central highlands, the stone formations blended into the arid, desiccated landscape like a diminutive mountain range.

But as I got closer to the largest of the three structures, there was no doubt it was man-made. A staircase of identical steps, etched into the hard, dark rock, had clearly required a skilled mason's hand. The other two pyramids, smaller and less well-preserved, bore a similarly unmistakable human touch. The timeworn edifices were erected by a civilisation long gone.

Locals had long been aware of the ruins outside their city. Some rumoured that there were dead people buried in the stone pyramids, while others spoke of hidden gold. Grave diggers had looted the structures and even tried to blow them up with dynamite, but whether they found any fortunes is not recorded. Unexcavated for centuries, the site remained largely unknown to the world beyond San Miguel de Allende, until a team of Mexican archaeologists started digging deeper in the early 2000s.

 

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The House of the Thirteen Heavens is a calendrical instrument based on the sun's movement throughout the year (Credit: Lina Zeldovich)

The House of the Thirteen Heavens is a calendrical instrument based on the sun's movement throughout the year (Credit: Lina Zeldovich)

Local anthropologist Albert Coffee, who also helped with the excavations, began guiding tours for archaeologically curious visitors like me in 2011. "This is The House of the Thirteen Heavens, built in about 540 CE by the people who lived here at that time," he said as we walked around the site. He was pointing to the tallest pyramid, which had a rectangular base, sloping sides and a staircase leading up to its flat platform top, about 15m high. "They mined this tufa rock in the nearby quarry."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mexico's 1,500-year-old unknown pyramids - BBC Travel

 

 

 

 

 

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The Trouble with Toltecs Video by Ancient Americas

 

 

 

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(5) The Trouble with Toltecs - YouTube

 

 

 

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Cartography shows that the Isthmus of Tehuantepec was used as an inter-oceanic passage in the 16th century

 

 

Cartographic methods show that the Isthmus of Tehuantepec was used as an inter-oceanic passage in the 16th century
Sketch of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from Cape Santa Elena to the Pánuco River), attributed to Spanish Royal Cosmographer, Alonso de Santa Cruz, 1544, [AGI, MP-Mexico, 1]. Credit: Source: Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla.

 

The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a region located in the south of Mexico, is the shortest distance between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in all the country. Only 220 kilometers separate the two oceans. In the first half of the 16th century, Spanish conquerors put great effort into finding a strait that would connect the two oceans. This meant that, in the conquest explorations of the 16th century, this region was used as an inter-oceanic passage, making approximately two thirds of the journey along the mighty river Coatzacoalcos and the rest overland.

Interest of the Spanish monarchy in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec

In 1580, the mayor of Coatzacoalcos received a mandate from the Spanish crown to discover different aspects of the overseas territories, such as the geography, topography, place names,indigenous languages, plants, etc. He therefore commissioned a map to describe the geography of the region, indicating the geographic features, towns, and communication routes. For this, he had the assistance of Francisco Gali, a Spanish sailor traveling across these lands on his way to the Pacific coast.

The exploration of this region between the "North Sea" and the "South Sea" had been, since the conquest of Mesoamerica, fixed in the minds of the Spanish monarchy and their representatives. Charles V made this project one of the priority missions of the explorers whose objective was to connect the kingdom of New Spain with the kingdom of Peru. Hernán Cortés also used it in 1520 to transport equipment, stores, and supplies.

Analysis of the map

An analysis of the map suggests that it was made in haste. Both the errors in distances and the numerous corrections which can still be observed support this conjecture. It seems that Francisco Gali was more interested, from his point of view as an explorer and navigator, in the most important aspect of the region: the possibility of connecting the North Sea and the South Sea through the Strait of Tehuantepec.

Francisco Gali: Navigator, explorer, cosmographer and cartographer

Francisco Gali, born in Seville in 1539, is a singular enigmatic character. Barely any information exists about him prior to his appearance in America. In spite of the few maps discovered that were drawn by Gali (two signed and a third attributed to him), the historic documents refer to him not only as an expert mariner, but also as a skilled cartographer and cosmographer.


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Early example of a local nautical map from Hispanic America


More information:Manuel Morato-Moreno et al, The Map of the Coatzacoalcos River (1580): The First Cartography of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,The Cartographic Journal(2022).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cartography shows that the Isthmus of Tehuantepec was used as an inter-oceanic passage in the 16th century

 

 

 

 

 

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