The Archaeology Thread

[Angrboda]

12-sided Roman relic baffles archaeologists, spawns countless theories

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

^Sex toy. Duh.

Boru

[Silver]

12-sided Roman relic baffles archaeologists, spawns countless theories

[Fireball]

The holes appear to all be different sizes.

Yup, different sizes. This is used for knitting the fingers for gloves. 12 different size holes for different size fingers. One can view a youtube video or two to see how it is used.

[Fake Messiah]

The statue of a Greek god found almost intact after thousands of years. It must be Zeus's miracle.

[no one]

Just luci muddying the waters again. She's such a rascal.

[Fake Messiah]

Raunchy Paintings Show A Wine-Glugging Cult Of "Wild Women" At Pompeii

Newly discovered frescoes unearthed at Pompeii reveal glimpses of a wine-fueled cult that embraced the "wild, untamable side of women".

The painting captures a wild procession of Dionysus in a vivid dance of ecstasy and ritual. Female followers of the god (called bacchantes) are pictured dancing alongside hunters who carry slaughtered goats on their shoulders and clutch swords and animal entrails in their hands. A mythical half-man, half-beast with pointed ears (called satyrs) plays the flute, while another pours a stream of wine over his shoulder into another cup.

At the heart of the scene, a mortal woman stands next to an aged follower of Dionysus holding a torch, as if she is about to be initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus, the god who dies and is reborn, promising the same to his devotees.

"For the ancients, the bacchae expressed the wild and untamable side of women; the woman who abandons her children, her home and the city, who leaves the male order, to dance freely, go hunting and eat raw meat in the mountains and woods," Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii Archaeological Park, said.

“In short, the opposite of the ‘pretty’ woman, who emulates Venus, goddess of love and marriage, the woman who looks at herself in the mirror, who ‘makes herself beautiful’,” he added.

https://www.iflscience.com/raunchy-paint...peii-78247

[Fake Messiah]

The upper article has an interesting sentence: "Dionysus, the god who dies and is reborn, promising the same to his devotees." which is an obvious parallel with Jesus and is older than Jesus. But there are other things attributed to Dionysius that was later attributed to Jesus like turning water into wine, and eggs. Eggs were symbols of life after death in the cult of Dionysus, but also other gods as eggs were frequently found in Egyptian tombs.

[Fake Messiah]

No wonder Catholic church and right wing pundits want to go back to medieval times because this was the time when bishops wore £18k rings on their fingers which they earned by exploiting peasants.

Medieval ring found by detectorist could make £18k



A Medieval bishop's ring found by a retired firefighter in a Norfolk field is expected to fetch up to £18,000 at auction.

The gold ring, which has a central hexagonal cabochon sapphire with two emeralds and two garnets, was uncovered by detectorist Mark Sell, 63, in King Row, Shipdham, in 2019.

Mr Sell said he was "amazed" when he spotted some gold glistening in the mud and planned to split the money with the landowner.

The ring, which dates from the late 12th to early 13th Century, will go under the hammer at Noonans Mayfair on 26 March.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgzm3857emo

[brewer]

Spanish fossils may represent unknown ancient human species

March 12 (Reuters) - Scientists have unearthed in Spain fossilized facial bones roughly 1.1 million to 1.4 million years old that may represent a previously unknown species in the human evolutionary lineage - a discovery that rewrites humankind's early history in Europe.

The fossils from the Sima del Elefante cave site near the city of Burgos comprise fragments spanning 80 percent of the left side of an adult individual's middle face, including parts of the cheekbone and upper jaw with the nasal structure. They are among the oldest-known human fossils from Europe.

https://www.reuters.com/science/spanish-...5f2e6f2a84