Ancient Empires

[N Crestway]

Legend confirmed?

Mythical City of Underground Labyrinths Found Beneath Altar of 15th Century Church in Mexico

Get the impression that caverns were considered important and sacred throughout much of Mesoamerica. As in the case of the Zapotec caverns, they were seen as an entrance to the underworld. If they didn't exist sometimes they would be created or excavated beneath sites that had been consecrated as holy such as the religious "acropolis" at Teotihucan.

[SubGod22]

This one isn't so much ancient empires, but I didn't want to create a cool caveman discoveries thread.

Cavemen Used Glue to Make Stone Tools 40,000 Years Ago - the Evidence is Sticky

Neanderthals created stone tools held together with a glue made from scratch, a team of scientists has discovered.

They are the earliest evidence of a complex adhesive in Europe, suggest these predecessors to modern humans had a higher level of cognition and cultural development than previously thought.

The stone tools from an archaeological site in Le Moustier, France, were used by Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic period of the Mousterian between 120,000 and 40,000 years ago. Kept in the collection of Berlin’s Museum of Prehistory and Early History, they had not previously been examined in detail.

The tools were rediscovered during an internal review of the collection and their scientific value was recognized.

“The items had been individually wrapped and untouched since the 1960s,” said Ewa Dutkiewicz, from the Berlin museum. “As a result, the adhering remains of organic substances were very well preserved.”

The researchers discovered traces of a mixture of ochre and bitumen on several stone tools, such as scrapers, flakes, and blades. Ochre is a naturally occurring earth pigment; bitumen is a component of asphalt and can be produced from crude oil, but also occurs naturally in the soil.

“We were surprised that the ochre content was more than 50%,” said Patrick Schmidt from the University of Tübingen’s Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology section, who lead the reseach.

“This is because air-dried bitumen can be used unaltered as an adhesive, but loses its adhesive properties when such large proportions of ochre are added.”

He and his team examined these materials in tensile tests—used to determine strength—and other measures.

“It was different when we used liquid bitumen, which is not really suitable for gluing. If 55 percent ochre is added, a malleable mass is formed,” Schmidt says.

The mixture was just sticky enough for a stone tool to remain stuck in it, but without adhering to hands, making it suitable material for adding a convenient handle to a small blade of flint—like a cheese knife—allowing for much greater manipulation of the small tool by thick Neanderthal hands.

“The tools showed two kinds of microscopic wear: one is the typical polish on the sharp edges that is generally caused by working other materials,” explains Radu Iovita, an associate professor at NYU’s Center for the Study of Human Origins, who conducted this analysis.

[shoxlax]

Thought this thread was about the Gregg Marshall Era

[SubGod22]

Archaeologists Uncover Ancient City in Kingdom of Tonga That Rewrites History: 'First City of the Pacific'

A monumental discovery has been made on the island nation of Tonga, where the footprint of a large urban civilization from centuries past was uncovered using cutting-edge laser technology.

Consisting of almost 10,000 earthen mounds that today are hardly noticeable, it could be one of the first cities ever constructed in the Pacific.

With the introduction of aerial laser surveying, we’ve discovered that South and Central America could support urban centers with millions of inhabitants—more than anything archaeologists and historians thought possible 15 to 20 years ago.

That sort of urbanization seems even less likely on tropical archipelagos like Tonga, but there they are, just 12 kilometres from the current capital Nuku’alofa, in the eastern district of Tongatapu.

“Earth structures were being constructed in Tongatapu around AD 300. This is 700 years earlier than previously thought,” study author and Ph.D. scholar Phillip Parton at the Australian National University, told ABC News Down Under.

“As settlements grew, they had to come up with new ways of supporting that growing population. This kind of setup—what we call low-density urbanization—sets in motion huge social and economic change,” he added.

Insights into population centers in the Southern Hemisphere during the European Middle Ages are changing archaeologists’ understanding of the concept of urbanism. One tends, Mr. Parton argues, to imagine compact European cities from this time period—with windy cobblestone alleys and multi-tiered housing.

[SubGod22]

Kinda cool, potentially.

Archaeologists May Have Found the Villa Where the Roman Emperor Augustus Died

Excavations of a Roman villa dating to the start of the Imperial era show it may belong to the greatest of all the Roman emperors, Caesar Augustus.

Called the Somma Vesuviana, the villa was partially destroyed and buried by the same eruption that buried the city of Pompeii in 79 CE, but is located on the northern slopes of the mountain, the site where Augustus is said to have died at the end of a long rule.

Roman sources say he died in a villa north of Vesuvius, but scant further details remain. What might illuminate the matter would be evidence of extensive wealth worthy of a man who, in his own words, found Rome a city of stone and left it a city of marble.

At the moment, the Somma Vesuviana is being excavated by a team of Japanese researchers from the University of Tokyo who have been working in the area since 2022, and who recently released a statement on their progress.

“This archaeological discovery will be a key to unlocking an important phase in human history: the beginning of the ancient Roman Empire and emperor worship,” the translated statement read.

Indeed Roman sources say that the site where Augustus died was consecrated following his death, and the original structures buried by Vesuvius were used as an outline for a subsequent building constructed over top of it.

“[R]ecent excavations have revealed some rooms of the building before the eruption in 79 CE. So far, four rooms and spaces have been identified,” the statement explains.

“In particular, in what we call Room 22, as many as 16 earthenware vessels (amphorae) were found for transporting and storing wine and other items, many of which remained leaning against the walls. On the floor of a small space called Room 25, a large amount of charcoal and ash from the fire was found. This is thought to be the part of the kiln where water is thought to have been boiled.”

The evidence of a fire-heated bath points to someone of great personal wealth, though many Romans among the patrician class had such bathing halls. Greater evidence for it being Augustus’ villa comes from the second structure.

[Kung Wu]

Whoa, that's cool!