#archaeology

[awlwren]

[id: a white swan made of felt. The body and neck are plush, and the neck curved on itself in an s shape. The feet or tail is brown, and also plush, but the wings are flat felt draped over the back with long dramatic feathers that end in black.]/end id.

From the Hermitage Museum description: "The body of the swan, filled with reindeer wool, is made of white felt, while the bill, cere and eye of black felt. The feet made from felt of a reddish-brown colour are stretched over wooden stakes that support the figure in a vertical position. The swan was probably fixed on the wooden top of a chariot or decorated the top of a funeral tent. The representation of birds was rarely used by ancient Altaic people. A swan symbolized life in three spheres of the universe - in air, on earth and in water. There was also a widespread concept of the creation of the universe by a swan, duck or goose, which was characteristic of many cosmogonical conceptions in ancient times."

2,300-Year-Old Plush Bird from the Altai Mountains of Siberia, c.400-300 BCE: this figure was crafted with a felt body and reindeer-fur stuffing, all of which remains intact

This plush bird was sealed within the frozen barrows of Pazyryk, Siberia, for more than two millennia, where a unique microclimate enabled it to be preserved. The permafrost ice lense formation that runs below the barrows provided an insulating layer, preventing the soil from heating during the summer and allowing it to quickly freeze during the winter; these conditions produced a separate microclimate within the stone walls of the barrows themselves, thereby aiding in the preservation of the artifacts inside.

This is just one of the many well-preserved artifacts that have been found at Pazyryk. These artifacts are attributed to the Scythian/Altaic cultures.

Currently housed at the Hermitage Museum.

[ancientstuff]

For me, this is one of the most important, exciting archaeological finds this year. Incredible.

[thesilicontribesman]

Achnabreck Prehistoric Rock Art Panels, Argyll, Scotland

[gwalch-mei]

!!!!!!!! i am looking!!!!!!!!!!! omg these are sooo cool anglo-saxon animal art my beloved!!! i love how you can still see the gem imprints and interlacing thank you sarah!!!

Apropos of nothing, here is a baker's dozen images of bird-shaped brooches ca. 6th century, from Frankish, Vendel, and Anglo-Saxon artisans. They all come from the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection on JSTOR, which includes nearly half a million open access images for everyone!

[specialagentartemis]

@thefoxthief said in response to this post:

I have a question. I vaguely remember learning in an anthro class that there is little/poor evidence of mammoth hunting and most likely the bones used to built huts were collected from already dead mammoths. Teach me.

Pretty much accurate! Mostly, Ice Age people didn’t hunt mammoths, but it varied by region. It was very rare in most of Europe, a little more common in the Russian steppes, and a surprisingly regular occurrence in southwestern North America.

For the most part, in the Ice Age, people hunted animals like deer, caribou, wild sheep/goats, and wild horses (which were the size of modern ponies mostly). That was the size that it seems people preferred—that’s a lot of meat, but like, that’s a manageable-sized animal. The hide is thin and the vital organs are within a spear’s range and also it will have a much harder time trampling you to death if you miss. Killing and butchering a mammoth with stone and bone tools would have been possible, but very difficult and energy consuming (archaeologists LOVE doing experimental archaeology by taking stone tool replicas to the bodies of dead zoo elephants). Generally the belief is that bones from the mammoth bone huts of Ukraine and Russia were scavenged from dead animals—still no small feat, but the mammoths weren’t regularly hunted for them.

As my archaeology professor likes to describe it, hunting a mammoth is something that you might do once and then brag about for the rest of your life. It isn’t unheard of, but it was definitely rare.

… except in the US Southwest and the northern half of Mexico where there seem to be a bunch of really dramatic mammoth kill sites (and gomphotheres, another Ice Age elephant-like animal). The Naco Mammoth Kill Site and El Fin del Mundo site are particularly striking but there are several known ones in southern Arizona/northern Mexico. Those people were hunting mammoths 11-13,000 years ago for whatever reason!

However my story is set around the Black Sea 30,000 years ago, and hunting mammoths was rare and definitely not preferred. And important worldbuilding context is that the clan spends its winters upriver on the steppes to meet the caribou herds migrating south for the winter… but this winter has been harsh, with early freezes and cold winds (and advancing glaciers because we are slowly approaching the Last Glacial Maximum, though they don’t know that), and the normal caribou herds… aren’t here. The clan’s normal winter food source is nowhere to be found. And they are deeply DEEPLY concerned and also starving.

So when the herd of mammoths pass through, this isn’t business as usual, it’s a climactic move of desperation to try to take down a whole damn mammoth to save them all.

[tlatollotl]

Cultura: Olmeca

Técnica: Modelada

Provenience unknown, possibly looted

MNA

[noticiasarquelogicasjaponesas]

Sean bienvenidos a una nueva publicación más, en esta ocasión os voy a hacer un resumen en qué consiste el 書道(しょど) shodō. Una vez dicho esto, pónganse cómodos que empezamos.

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En esta ocasión os comentaré de por qué esto es considerado arte. Si os fijáis bien en las imágenes, ya simplemente es estético, de hecho, hasta relajante, diría yo, o eso sería algo más subjetivo.

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¿Qué opinan ustedes? Os leo en comentarios hasta la próxima publicación y que pasen una muy buena semana. - 別の新しい出版物へようこそ。今回は、「しょど」shodo がどのような内容であるかを要約します。そうは言っても、安心して始めましょう。 - この機会に、なぜこれが芸術とみなされるのかを説明します。画像をよく見てみると、それは単に美的であり、実際、リラックスさえしている、あるいはもっと主観的なものだと思います。 - どう思いますか？次の出版までコメントを読んで、とても良い一週間を過ごしました。 - Welcome to another post, this time I'm going to give you a summary of what 書道(しょど) shodō is all about. Having said that, make yourselves comfortable as we begin. - This time I'll tell you why this is considered art. If you look closely at the images, it's simply aesthetic, in fact, even relaxing, I would say, or that would be something more subjective. - What do you think? I'll read you in the comments until the next post and have a great week.

[venomspecs]

So you know how Diomedes is said to encounter the Messapians during his travels in Italy? Well turns out one of the few Messapian human representations on trozzelle (typical two handed jugs) is of Diomedes' duel against Aeneas. Neat!

[thesilicontribesman]

Fowlis Wester Pictish Stone and Ancient Cross, Fowlis Wester, Scotland

[micewithknives]

I let myself rest and now I'm daydreaming about academia and academic research and writing again

[local-queer-classicist]

WAKE UP BITCHES THEY FOUND NEW EURIPIDES FRAGMENTS

98 LINES, 80% COMPLETELY NEW MATERIAL

[daenystheedreamer]

Skara Brae Buddo, human figure carved from whalebone, dated c. 2,900 – 2,400 BC. Discovered at Skara Brae, a Neolithic settlement located in the Bay of Skaill on the Mainland, an island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland.