Ancient Finds When archaeologists were digging at Nero’s palace in Rome it was announced they found an Egyptian Blue Ingot. It was essentially the stuff blue dye was made of. In case you are wondering why a chunk of this stuff was there, it was extremely valuable. The ingot weighed about 11 pounds and was said by some to be far more valuable than gold. The ingredients used to make one were silica, limestone, copper with minerals, and sodium carbonate all heated to a high temperature which created what was thought to be the first synthetic dye. One has to wonder how the Egyptians ever discovered this complex formula. Speaking about Nero, I was asked the other day who I thought was crazier, Nero or Caligula. If we think about Nero the business of his fiddling while Rome burned is a story which was never proven. He was however a murderer, had an almost insane passion for music and enjoyed persecuting Christians. This didn’t seem to make him very different than some of the other emperors. Caligula was a different story; it seemed he truly might have had a mental illness. His real name was Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus. To begin with it is said he was the butt of many jokes behind his back because he had a strange appearance. He was bald, and thin according to some historians, with an extremely hairy body, yet some statues show him with hair and a good physique. Not everyone agrees on what I am about to say. He created a law which forbade mentioning a goat in his presence. He made some of the senators run in front of his chariot. He had sex with the wives of his allies. It was said he had a mock fight with wooden swords and the gladiator deliberately fell and then the emperor pulled out his knife and killed him. He poisoned the horses of his rivals at his racetrack and there were reportedly so many other crazy things he was accused of doing it makes Nero pale in comparison. A grave was found in Spain which has been dated back to 4,900 years ago and it is puzzling archaeologists. It was discovered on the site of Valencina de la Concepcion. The reason they are so astounded is the fact the site contains the most beads ever found in an ancient site. The number of beads is said to be more than 270,000 and consist of beads made from sea shells, stone and bone. Many women were found buried in beaded outfits which it is believed demonstrated their status. A pyramid has been discovered in Peru. It was discovered at the Chupacigarro archaeological site. The former residents were the Caral people. They lived there from the fourth to the second millennia B.C. Along with the pyramid a sunken plaza was found among buildings arranged around a central area. It seems pyramid building in ancient times was not limited only to Egypt. It always fascinates me when ancient footprints are found and this event is no different. There is an ancient tale that states that when the Roccamonfina Volcano erupted about 350,000 years ago the devil climbed out and left his footprint along a trail which became known as the Devils Trails. It turns out a group of ancient humans walked across the trail when the lava from the volcano was cooling and left their footprints. The footprints are said to be different from each other because the people in the group of four were of different sizes and weights. Ancient large stone structures have been found in the infamous part of China known as Wuhan, made famous for the escape of covid from the Wuhan lab. It is said these large structures are the first built in the Xia-Shang period. The site has been said to be 3,500 years old. The building of large stone structures was said to have been to demonstrate high social status. Barracks thought to have been used by the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War were just discovered in Colonial Williamsburg. They were thought to have been burned by British troops under the command of General Cornwallis in 1781. The barracks were found during the preparation for construction of a new sports center. The barracks were used by the army from 1777 to 1781. It just keeps happening. During road work in England, an ancient coffin was discovered. It was Roman, made of stone, and hand-carved. It weighed about 1,650 pounds and was dated from about 1,500 years ago. The date seems a little off since the Romans officially left Britain around 410 A.D., but I imagine some stayed around for a while. Speaking of finding coffins, a sarcophagus from 3,400 years ago was found under a ceremonial road in Luxor, Egypt. It had been buried 26 feet below the road. A very strange 7000-year-old sculpture looks like the head of an alien creature. It was found in a prehistoric site in Kuwait. It seems to have an elongated skull. Similar ones have turned up in the Arabian Gulf from the sixth millennium B.C. The sixth millennium was over 8,000 years ago. Sometimes something turns up which might look like something we can’t figure our and it gets classified as an amulet. The definition of an amulet is a charm often inscribed with a magic incantation or symbol to aid the wearer or protect against evil. I feel sometimes this classification is given out too freely when we could just be talking about an ancient piece of jewelry. How does one lose a staircase? A student on an archaeological dig discovered an ancient staircase in an old German castle which led to a moat. It was said maybe other digs should be conducted there in the hope of finding more discoveries. Sometimes finds are made in caves by archaeologists. It seems these caves were sometime thought of as entrances to the underworld. They were also used as homes and protection from wild animals. They were convenient for putting up art on the walls since they protected it from the elements and some of the art, we have found, is more than 25,000 years old. Some of the finds which were made were said to contribute to the theory of evolution and the discovery of unknown races. They have also proved at times Neanderthals and humans shared caves.
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