More Archaeological Finds Sometimes, we find out about something we never heard of before. Most of us have heard about the valley of the kings in Egypt, but I have to wonder how many people have heard about the valley of the temples and where it is located. Obviously, it is not in Egypt, but can you make an educated guess? It is in Italy and located on Sicily. Sicily was originally a Greek colony. The Carthaginians destroyed most of it in 406 B.C. A new previously undiscovered building was found. This is not surprising since some of the area has never been explored by archaeologists. It is believed the building was used for religious purposes. Archaeologists are not sure of the date or if the building was part of another structure. This will be determined at a later date. One of the most incredible archaeological finds was made. It was of a human brain which we usually do not find preserved. Most archaeologists had a hard time believing it when they were told there was a computer archive which kept track of preserved human brains that were found and there were 4,400 instances noted. I have to admit this was a tremendous surprise to me because when one was found a couple of years ago, it was said to be the first. An ancient settlement was found in England which has been called England’s Pompeii. I guess even without me going further, it was obvious the settlement was covered by a volcanic eruption, but the headline was misleading. It is said the settlement was from the Bronze Age and had only been occupied for about one year before disaster struck. The disaster was a fire from unknown causes. The reason it is being compared to Pompeii is so many artifacts were found which showed how these people lived their daily lives. The reason so many objects survived the fire was a nearby river waterlogged the objects thus preserving them. Much of the rubbish was found which was household trash. The people were very advanced for the time as witnessed by axes with interchangeable heads for different jobs. Archaeologists in France have discovered a Neolithic site. At the site were hundreds of structures and artifacts and 63 burials. It seems the site had been occupied for about 4,000 years. The site is located in Clermont-Ferrand, a city in the Auvergne region. Humans were said to have been at the site before 6,000 B.C. Among the objects found at the site were ceramics, and hearths. Sometimes we think some of the things we use were current inventions from less than a couple of hundred years. Many of us would have thought this about ice skates, that was until one which was found and dated back to medieval times. It seems people back then also liked to ice skate, but how would they build an ice skate? It would seem impossible for them to create the shoe and blade, doesn’t it? Well, their ice skate was different from ours. They used horse bones for the blade and the shoe had holes drilled into it and the horse blade was attached with straps which went through the holes. It was rather ingenious. It also seems they used sticks to hold themselves up. They also built sledges using the same method for runners. One fascinating story has to do with an archaeologist who is also a sculptor. He had decided long ago that he would like to take the skulls of people found in ancient graves and create what they used to look like in life by sculpting the face to fit the skull. He has become an expert on facial reconstruction. He has generated some very interesting renderings. His oldest reconstruction was of a 5500-year-old Stone Age man. The Columbian government was to explore a shipwreck it says sank in the Caribbean in 1708. Why would a government be interested in an old Spanish wreck? The answer is easy, it is because the shipwreck is said to contain about 20 billion dollars’ worth of treasure. Historical records claim the ship had over one hundred steel chests and each one was loaded with gold, silver and jewels. If this is true, it would be one of the all-time greatest treasure discoveries, so I guess we can’t blame the Columbian government for wanting to get into treasure hunting. Sometimes ancient settlements are found in places you least expect. A Bronze Age settlement was found under a Swiss village. Nothing that old was ever found in the area before. A Roman site had been found there however. When a construction project was scheduled to start in the area, the government decided to go to the Roman site and recover as much as possible before construction. This led to the discovery of an even older site which dated back to about 3,500 years, much older than the Roman site. Israel is a country which has witnessed many ancient races in biblical times. Recently a 2800-year-old Egyptian scarab amulet was found there during a dig. The discoverer said he saw something shimmering on the ground. Somehow this object had risen to the top, just enough to be noticed. He then called the authorities. There is a carving of a winged horse on the carnelian stone. One professor familiar with these objects said they were frequently used as seals across the ancient world. What is hoped which concerns the ancient world and A.I., is that A.I. will be able to find out more about our history and pick up facts we were not aware of. I believe it is bound to discover at least some things we were never aware of if programmed correctly. A.I. has been at least partially responsible for finding out how to read scrolls found at Pompeii and Herculaneum which could not be read or unrolled due to extreme damage. This is just the tip of the iceberg. One of the areas which A.I. might find out new data in is what some object could have been used for. One object which has puzzled scientists is the Roman dodecahedron. They have been found in many places but their use is still unknown. Over a hundred years ago a Danish bog revealed the body of a man who had been murdered around 3300 B.C. It was obvious he was bludgeoned to death, but not obvious if this was a sentence carried out for a crime, or he was the victim of a crime. It turned out the man did not come from Denmark. This was determined after analyzing his DNA. He was from the Scandinavian coast. We have found 122 bog bodies to date. The first were found in the 17th century and they continue to be found.
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