More Incredible Ancient Finds
Some very interesting ancient finds have been made. One of the ones that surprised me was made in China. We know that certain important people like to be buried with things they thought were valuable. A Chinese Emperor from 2100 years ago was buried with his valuable treasure which turned out to be things like tea and rice. I guess of you consider the fact that there were many famines in China you could see how important tea and rice could turn out to be. It turns out discovering the tea in the grave of this emperor proved that this certain kind of tea was in China far earlier than expected. This always excites archaeologists, because they are really keen on finding out how people lived and when they discover something like this it adds to that knowledge. They were actually able to date the tea and it dated back to 141 BC, to the dynasty of Emperor Jing of the Han dynasty.
It’s not often that archaeologists find a fleet of ships or should I say boats which are from the Bronze Age, but they discovered eight of these boats in Cambridgeshire, Great Britain. It seems these boats were sunk on purpose. The event took place more than 3000 years ago. It is the largest group of Bronze Age boats ever found in one place in the United Kingdom. It would be very interesting to know why they were sunk, because they must have been considered precious and the time. One boat was covered inside and out with decorative carvings, another has handles carved from an old tree for lifting the boat in and out of the water. One boat still floated and traces of fires lit on the back part of its deck could be seen. It is assumed this is where the fish that were caught were cooked. Several of the boats had been repaired using clay patches and an extra section had been added. The reason they were so well preserved was they were waterlogged in the silt in the bed of a long dried-up Creek. One archaeologist said, “There was huge excitement over the first boat, and then they were phoning the office saying they found another, and another, and another, until finally we were thinking, come on now you’re just being greedy.”
As unbelievable as it sounds, Cambridgeshire was again a place where another huge discovery from the Bronze Age was made. Some of the best preserved houses were found there. They were built on stilts and formed part of a settlement and dated back between 1000 and 800 BC. There must of been a fire that destroyed the posts, because the houses then fell into a river where the silt preserved the contents. Pots were found which still had meals inside of them. Finding meals uneaten inside of pots makes me think when the settlement fell into the water it was without warning. Archaeologists believe a platform was held up by poles and round buildings which were on top of the platform held up with timbers. The archaeologists were very excited to find what they called exotic glass beads which formed a necklace, because they said that this type of sophistication was usually not associated with the Bronze Age. It is generally accepted that the average dates for the Bronze Age run from 2500 BC and 2000 BC until the dawn of the Iron Age. Obviously the dates are somewhat different for different parts of the world.
Birds and dinosaurs are very similar and some scientists say dinosaurs were literally birds. We know how a lot of them look from their fossils and we have found many clues to how they behaved but until now we had no idea of how they attracted a mate. Two scientists hope to change this and the scientists from the University of Colorado, Denver have published a paper in Scientific Reports discussing a find they had made. They found dinosaur tracks etched into sandstone surfaces to create a nest displays hoping to attract female to mate with. The scrapings are a one-of-a-kind and are found nowhere else in the entire world. The sites are said to look like a lek. A lek is an area where males perform mating dances to impress females and it is believed dinosaur males dug deeply into the dirt to show their nest making abilities. The nest would have been created nearby.
Sometimes you just have to wonder in amazement at what some of the ancient peoples did. A 3200 year-old papyrus containing astronomical information about the star Algol was discovered. The papyrus has been sitting in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo since 1943. Recently University of Helsinki researchers decided to analyze the papyrus. The star Algol is a variable star. This means the amount of light it puts out changes. This star is far from being the only variable and certainly far from being the only star in the sky, which makes you wonder why the ancient Egyptians selected it? The researchers said they have found that the star Algol was represented by Horus and thus signified both divinity and kingship. The star has a connection with the ancient Cairo Calendar. Here is the kicker, the first variable star was said to have been discovered in 1596. It seems the Egyptians beat this date by some 1500 years and probably did it with naked eye observations.
Think some of those ancient Greek and Roman buildings are old? Let me introduce you to a building which was found in Russia that has been dated as being 25,000 years old. Yes you have read this correctly I did say 25,000 years old. A small building was found in the Caucasus Mountains not far from the cities of Tzelentzchik, Touapse, Novorossiysk and Sochi. The Russians call these type of buildings dolmens and it is said there use is not clear. Some have guessed they were burial chambers, but most of them have been found empty leading some archaeologists to think this was not their purpose. The building in Russia is incredible, because of the fact it has wide stone slab walls which weigh many tons and an even thicker stone slab roof. One has to wonder how the stones not only were moved, but how the huge stone slab which serves as the roof was put on top of the building. Instead of a doorway there is a stone slab in the front with a circular hole which is not big enough for anyone to enter through. A rectangular design has been carved on the front of the building. The stones had to be shaped before the building was erected, so the question is how was this done? Whoever built these buildings is long gone and we may never find out their origins. While we don’t know who these people were, it is obvious even back then they knew the secrets of moving gigantic stones, the secrets which have been lost through time. Along the coast of the Black Sea there are as many as 100 of these dolmens which have been discovered so far.
Just a quick thought. Some of the Russian dolmens which have very small entrances may have been built by a race much smaller than us. The reason I say this is it doesn’t seem to make sense to create a building which you cannot enter.
