archaeology_vol_75_3

California: How Native Americans Outlasted the Missions archaeology.org A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America JulMy/aAyu/Jguunset 22000292 Scotland’s Viking Age Hoard When Demons Roamed Egypt Who Made the World’s First Pots? A Surprise Burial in Pompeii PLUS: Assyrian Bionic Armor Celtic Lucky Charms Greek Curse Pot Korean Fire Dragon

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MAY/JUNE 2022 • VOLUME 75, NUMBER 3 CONTENTS 42 Excavations in the Porta Sarno cemetery, Pompeii, Italy FEATURES 22 SECRETS OF SCOTLAND’S 42 TO LIVE AND DIE IN 30 VIKING AGE HOARD 48 POMPEII A massive cache of Viking silver and Anglo-Saxon Unearthing the unusual burial of a freedman who heirlooms reveals the complex political landscape gained entrée into the city’s top social ranks of ninth-century Britain BY BENJAMIN LEONARD BY JASON URBANUS POTTERY’S ORIGIN FIT FOR FIGHTING STORIES The discovery of Mesopotamian-style armor in Why did hunter-gatherers make the northwest China offers new insights into a battle- world’s first pots? tested ancient technology BY KATE RAVILIOUS BY MARLEY BROWN 34 THE WORLD OF Cover: Anglo-Saxon silver brooches and glass beads EGYPTIAN DEMONS from the Galloway Hoard PHOTO: COURTESY NATIONAL MUSEUMS SCOTLAND Thousands of supernatural beings, including protective cobra spirits and knife-wielding turtles, guarded ancient Egyptians in life and death BY ERIC A. POWELL archaeology.org 1

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12 16 14 17 10 DEPARTMENTS LETTER FROM THE BAY AREA 4 EDITOR’S LETTER 55 CALIFORNIA’S COASTAL HOMELANDS 6 FROM THE PRESIDENT How Native Americans defied Spanish missionaries 8 LETTERS and preserved their way of life In praise of small horses, archaeology meets BY ANDREW CURRY seismology, remembering County Clare, and the forced Acadian migration ARCHAEOLOGY.ORG 9 DIGS & DISCOVERIES ■ MORE FROM THE ISSUE To see more images from this Mysterious hominin burial practices, medieval issue’s Digs & Discoveries, go to archaeology.org/mj22digs. falconry, Mesopotamian war donkeys, and Roman theater VIPs ■ ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS Get daily headlines from 18 OFF THE GRID around the world and sign up for our e-Update. San Pedro de Atacama, Chile ■ FOLLOW US ■ INTERACTIVE DIGS Track ongoing work at 20 AROUND THE WORLD interactivedigs.com. A Revolutionary War shipwreck, early Buddhism in Pakistan, ancient ear surgery, and following a 3 conquistador to Kansas 68 ARTIFACT A curse for every occasion archaeology.org

EDITOR’S LETTER POTTERY’S FAMILY TREE Editor in Chief P ots are likely the most plentiful and often the most illuminating artifacts an Jarrett A. Lobell archaeologist will find while in the field. Once pottery-making technology had been developed, wherever ancient people lived they left behind pots—or at least sherds Deputy Editor Executive Editor from broken pots—which they had used for activities as varied as drinking fine wine, making offerings to the gods, and, of course, cooking family dinners. I am sure that many Eric A. Powell Daniel Weiss of you have wondered who made the first pot. In “Pottery’s Origin Senior Editor Associate Editor Stories,” you will find the surprising answer to that question and follow the fascinating story of how hunter-gatherers from Ice Age Benjamin Leonard Marley Brown Japan to the woodlands of North America used pottery not just to cook hearty stews and store supplies in preparation for harsh Editorial Assistant winters, but as a catalyst to come together from across great distances to share food, ideas, and traditions. In the Roman Malin Grunberg Banyasz world, where funerary rites were of such paramount importance, people were often buried in ceramic vessels, as you will learn in Creative Director “To Live and Die in Pompeii.” You will also discover another, much Richard Bleiweiss more unexpected ancient use for pottery in this issue’s Artifact—we don’t think that is what was meant by “a chicken in every pot.” Maps I end this letter on a personal reflection that is very much in keeping with the age-old Ken Feisel tradition of using pottery to provide nourishment for those closest to us. A magazine is a family of editors, writers, artists, scholars, and readers. During the preparation of this Contributing Editors issue, the ARCHAEOLOGY magazine family lost its greatest devotee and most ardent sup- porter—my mother, Leona, who, beginning when I was a kid, always introduced herself Roger Atwood, Paul Bahn, to my friends and colleagues as “Mom.” Since the day decades ago at the Metropolitan Bob Brier, Karen Coates, Museum of Art when I declared that I wanted to be an archaeologist, she never wavered in Andrew Curry, Blake Edgar, encouraging me to follow that dream. She was always the first to ask, with eager anticipa- Brian Fagan, David Freidel, tion of the surprises she would find inside, “Where’s my copy of the magazine?” as soon Tom Gidwitz, Andrew Lawler, as an issue was done—usually before we had even received copies in the office. After each issue came out, she always sent personal notes to each of the editors about their stories. Stephen H. Lekson, And, like so many moms through the millennia, she was always ready with delicious food Jerald T. Milanich, Samir S. Patel, she had cooked in a well-used and well-loved pot. Heather Pringle, Kate Ravilious, Neil Asher Silberman, Julian Smith, Nikhil Swaminathan, Jason Urbanus, Claudia Valentino, Zach Zorich Publisher Kevin Quinlan Director of Circulation and Fulfillment Kevin Mullen Director of Integrated Sales Gerry Moss Account Manager Karina Casines Newsstand Consultant T.J. Montilli NPS Media Group Office Manager Malin Grunberg Banyasz For production questions contact [email protected] Editorial Advisory Board James P. Delgado, Ellen Herscher, Ronald Hicks, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Mark Lehner, Roderick J. McIntosh, Susan Pollock, Kenneth B. Tankersley Jarrett A. Lobell ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE Editor in Chief 36-36 33rd Street, Long Island City, NY 11106 tel 718-472-3050 • fax 718-472-3051 Subscription questions and address changes should be sent to Archaeology, Subscription Services, P.O. Box 37142 Boone, IA 50037 toll free (877) ARKY-SUB (275-9782) or [email protected] 4 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

COLUMBUS AND CAONABó 1493-1498 Retold A historical novel depicting Columbus’s invasion of “Española” and the bitter resistance mounted by its Taíno peoples, led by the chieftain Caonabó. “…fascinating. Rowen’s research into the historical record is impressively thorough…the book adds to our understanding of the Taínos and Contact history.” —L. ANTONIO CURET, Caribbean archaeologist, museum curator. Co-ed., Islands at the Crossroads: Migration, Seafaring, and Interaction in the Caribbean “…a feat of meticulous research, beautiful writing, and great imagination.” —ANDRÉS RESÉNDEZ, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America “…a deep journey that humanizes our ancestors and treats us as equals rather than pas- sive victims. The dialogue between the Caciques and Spaniards is intelligent, meaningful, and extremely believable.” —KACIKE JORGE BARACUTEI ESTEVEZ, Higuayagua Taíno of the Caribbean “…succeeds on two levels, as all the best historical fiction…meticulous research and deft phrasing…a great story...” —MATTHEW RESTALL, When Montezuma Met Cortés “…powerful…brims with striking historical detail…Rowen weaves bravery and treachery and pits truth against myth in this sweeping tour de force.” —booklife “…an impressive work of scholarship.”—Kirkus Reviews ANDREW ROWEN www.andrewrowen.com Available in hardcover, paperback and ebook ALL PERSONS PRESS New York, New York

FROM THE PRESIDENT A I of A AN URGENT NEED The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a vivid reminder of the devastating effects of war. OFFICERS In times of conflict, safeguarding human lives and human rights must take top prior- ity. Protecting heritage is also critical, though, because heritage represents the heart PRESIDENT of a community. It is how a nation or group of people sees itself, its past, and its future. Cultural material also helps communities recover from trauma once the conflict has ended. Laetitia La Follette Ukraine has a rich cultural legacy, ranging from Scythian art of the seventh through third First Vice President centuries B.C. to exquisite works of Byzantine art, Viking artifacts from the medieval kingdom of Kievan Rus, and important relics of the democratic and social revolutions Elizabeth S. Greene of the twentieth century. Six cultural sites in Ukraine are already inscribed on the World Heritage List, and the country is especially famous for its churches, monasteries, and Vice President for Cultural Heritage other religious monuments. As of this writing, many of these cultural treasures have been damaged in what appears to be intentional targeting. Brian Daniels The deliberate destruction of cultural sites is prohibited by the 1954 Vice President for Outreach and Education Hague Convention, to which both Russia and Ukraine are parties. Similarly, the removal of cultural objects from territory occupied Laura Rich during conflict is a violation of the Hague Convention’s First Protocol. Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs ARCHAEOLOGY readers will be interested to know about organizations Thomas Tartaron working to protect heritage during and after combat. The U.S. Vice President for Societies Committee of the Blue Shield (USCBS) focuses on the protection of Sabrina Higgins cultural property during armed conflict. It is the equivalent of the Red Treasurer Cross/Red Crescent for physical monuments and collections. In my David Adam last letter, I mentioned the work of another group, the Smithsonian Executive Director Blue Shield marker Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI), whose current projects include denoting a cultural collaborating on the reconstruction of the Mosul Cultural Museum in Rebecca W. King landmark to be Iraq. Many Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) members are protected in part of both the USCBS and the SCRI. A third promising initiative GOVERNING BOARD wartime Elie Abemayor is the training of new cultural heritage preservation officers modeled Deborah Arnold after World War II’s famed “Monuments Men”—and women. This group of volunteer Jeanne Bailey Emma Blake, ex officio reservists, the result of a partnership between the U.S. Army and the Smithsonian, was Joost Blom launched in 2019 and has graduated its first class. Jane Botsford Johnson Through site-protection grants, educational events, and other programs, the AIA has long Thomas Carpenter advocated for the preservation of cultural property in times of war and for the dedicated Jay Conger archaeologists and heritage professionals charged with its protection. Given the pressing need, the AIA is also raising money for emergency funds for threatened and damaged sites. Lawrence Cripe I’ll have more to say about this new initiative in a future letter. We need to work together Mathea Falco to safeguard heritage for the future. Joshua Gates Elizabeth M. Greene Laetitia La Follette Ömür Harmanşah Julie Herzig Desnick President, Archaeological Institute of America Mark Hurst Alexandra Jones SeungJung Kim Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow Margaret Laird Gary Linn Jarrett A. Lobell, ex officio Elizabeth Macaulay John Papadopoulos Paula Paster Michtom Kevin Quinlan, ex officio Betsey Robinson Robert Schon, ex officio Kim Shelton  Thomas Sienkewicz  Monica L. Smith Patrick Suehnholz Barbara Sweet Maria Vecchiotti Michael Wiseman Past President Jodi Magness Trustees Emeriti Brian Heidtke Charles S. La Follette Legal Counsel Mitchell Eitel, Esq. Sullivan & Cromwell, LLP A I of A 44 Beacon Street • Boston, MA 02108 archaeological.org 6 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

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LETTERS FROM OUR READERS Bayeux a Vanished Land- County Clare came across a signpost tapestry, scape” (March/April for Caherconnell Stone Fort. The road eleventh 2022)—a broadly led into a farmyard and the farmyard century A.D. fascinating article was the car park for the site. We walked with appeal to stu- to it and the location and site were SIZE ADVANTAGE dents of multiple evocative of the eleventh century. The disciplines. While only ones there that day were us and a There are many advantages to smaller I myself have a belted cow and her calf. If this indeed is horses (Around the World: England, degree in archaeol- the location of this particular discovery, March/April 2022). Faster mounting ogy, the part that it is yet another example of how small and dismounting are important in battle most jumped out the world is. We look forward to each and much easier on a small steed. Better at me was the sen- issue of ARCHAEOLOGY because we are clearance while charging through woods tence “For decades, never sure where it will take us. Keep is of prime concern when chasing or the petroleum industry had conducted up the good work! being chased. Small horses also live seismic reflection surveys of the North longer, and, finally, you’ll take a shorter Sea to locate and map mineral deposits.” Marcia and Steve Clevenger fall. Thanks for your fine publication. My father, Allen M. Feder (1928–2008), a geophysicist, was one of the inven- Guthrie, OK Christi S. Driggs tors of radar geology. While before Tucson, AZ his retirement he worked for NASA, REMEMBERING THE it is the earthbound applications such ACADIANS A FATHER’S LEGACY as this, where his interests and mine converged, that help me maintain a con- “Paradise Lost” (March/April 2022) I read with great interest “Mapping nection with him. Many thanks! filled in a large gap in my knowledge of the tragic forced migration of ARCHAEOLOGY welcomes mail from David Feder the Acadians. While we can’t avoid readers. Please address your comments death and taxes, we also can’t avoid to ARCHAEOLOGY, 36-36 33rd Street, Austin, TX our ancestry. Regrettably, two of my Long Island City, NY 11106, fax 718-472- relatives were privates in Colonel 3051, or e-mail [email protected]. A COINCIDENCE IN Winslow’s 1755 expedition. That they The editors reserve the right to edit COUNTY CLARE would have been present at the camp submitted material. Volume precludes that was unearthed is both moving and our acknowledging individual letters. Anytime Ireland appears in print we troubling. However, history is simply are invariably drawn to it. The location history, neither good nor bad. It is the of the pen in the Around the World actions of those who created the history section in the March/April 2022 that are good, neutral, or bad. At least issue sounded familiar and piqued our archaeology will not let the past here interest. In 1991, we took a 17-day be forgotten. self-driving B&B tour of the island and in driving through the Burren in Bill Utley Monrovia, MD ARCHAEOLOGY (ISSN 0003-8113) is published bimonthly for $29.95 by the Foreign and Canadian subscriptions, $44.95; includes all government taxes Archaeological Institute of America, 36-36 33rd Street, Long Island City, NY (130277692-RT). Canadian Publication Agreement #1373161. Allow six weeks 11106. Periodicals postage paid at Long Island City, NY, and additional mailing for processing new subscriptions. Send manuscripts and books for review to 36-36 offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Archaeology, P.O. 433091, Palm 33rd Street, Long Island City, NY 11106 or [email protected]. All manu- Coast, FL 32143. scripts are reviewed by experts. Advertisements should be sent to the Advertising Director, 36-36 33rd Street, Long Island City, NY 11106, (718) 472-3050, adver- Subscriptions should be addressed to Archaeology, Subscription Services, [email protected]. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and P.O. 433091, Palm Coast, FL 32143, toll-free (877) ARKY-SUB (275- photographs. For subscription problems please call (877) 275-9782; AIA members 9782), [email protected]. $29.95 per volume. Single numbers, $6.99. with subscription problems should call the membership office at (857) 305-9350. All rights reserved. Printed in USA. The views and opinions expressed do not nec- essarily reflect the policy of the AIA or Archaeology. ©2022 The Archaeological Institute of America 8 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

DIGS DISCOVERIES FIRST FALCONER, MESOPOTAMIAN WAR DONKEYS, KOREAN FIRE DRAGON…AND MUCH MORE CRADLE OF THE GRAVES W hen the skeletal remains of more than a dozen so cramped that the cavers had to excavate upside down. hominins were first uncovered in the Dinaledi Brophy says there is no evidence on Leti’s skull, or on any chamber of South Africa’s Rising Star cave system H. naledi remains, indicating that the hominins were victims in 2013, researchers believed they had discovered a species of attacks by predators, such as tooth or gnaw marks, or that that lived around two million years ago. The species, which any of the fossils were brought into the cave system by flood- scholars named Homo naledi, shared characteristics with early hominins such as Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis), Reconstruction including a wide-flaring pelvis, apelike shoulders of the skull of adapted for climbing, and a brain around one-third the size of a modern human’s. But it also exhibited a female Homo some traits that are very much in line with modern humans, naledi child such as the feet and long legs typical of a biped and hands and wrists suited to making tools. Dating of H. naledi remains in researchers have 2017 determined that these hominins actually lived between named Leti 335,000 and 236,000 years ago—at least a million and a half years later than initial estimates—a period when modern humans also lived on the African continent. Newly uncovered remains of H. naledi individuals from other chambers deeper within the Rising Star system have now led researchers to conclude that the H. naledi population may have deliberately interred their dead in the caves, challenging conventional notions of the behavior of early humans with small brains, who are presumed to have had limited cognitive abilities. Paleoanthropologist Juliet Brophy of Loui- siana State University says there is no evidence that H. naledi lived in the Rising Star caves—no domestic sites tied to the hominins have been discovered there. It’s likely, she says, that a population of H. naledi lived nearby and knew the caves. The team has now dis- covered H. naledi specimens in three cave chambers within the system, including at least 15 individuals in the Dinaledi chamber and three in another known as the Lesedi chamber. Among those in the Lesedi chamber was an adult male whom the team named Neo. According to Brophy, Neo’s remains were concentrated in a small area of the chamber and appear to have been placed there deliberately after his death. In a third chamber, called U.W.110, the team discovered the skull of a young H. naledi female they named Leti, who died between the ages of four and six. This chamber is more than 260 feet from the entrance to the cave system and is archaeology.org 9

DIGS DISCOVERIES ing. “Someone went to a lot of trouble to Cradle of Humankind, a paleoanthropologist at the Univer- deposit this skull in a really remote area,” Gauteng Province, South Africa sity of Wisconsin–Madison, however, Brophy says. “When we first told people believe this is unnecessary to explain the in the field that we thought H. naledi met with incredulity by some who have behavior the team has observed. “Every was deliberately depositing their dead in questioned whether, with their small culture on Earth has mortuary behavior, Rising Star, we were met with resistance, brains, the hominins could have devel- whether or not their burial practices are but this is very compelling evidence that oped a concept of an afterlife. Both related to religion or an afterlife—even they went to a lot of effort.” H. naledi, Brophy and her colleague John Hawks, nonhuman social mammals undergo Brophy says, visited these caves over an emotional and social changes when extended period to bury multiple gen- they encounter a dead individual,” says erations of their dead, some of whom Hawks. “The appearance of mortuary were as young as one or two and couldn’t practices and special behavior around possibly have found their way deep into the dead goes back much further in our the cave system on their own. evolution than any set of beliefs that exists in the world today.” The notion that H. naledi developed a culture of burying their dead has been —Marley Brown TOGETHER FOREVER During excavations at the necropolis of Abusir, Egyptolo- fare well in the afterlife. These inscriptions suggest they would gists discovered an unusual funerary monument embed- ideally be buried with lighted incense, 1,000 pieces of alabaster, ded in an Old Kingdom mudbrick mastaba tomb dating 1,000 pieces of linen, 1,000 loaves of bread, and 1,000 jars of to the 4th Dynasty (ca. 2575–2465 B.c.). The recently uncov- beer, as well as seven sacred oils, including the “best cedar oil” ered stela, however, dates to the first half of the 5th Dynasty and other, less easily identifiable substances such as “festive oil.” (ca. 2465–2323 B.c.) and memorializes a scribe of the trea- The offering scene, doorway, and hieroglyphs surround- sury named Sekhemka Limestone stela of Sekhemka and ing the figures were all and his wife Henut- Henutsen, Abusir, Egypt once painted in rich sen. “Sekhemka was shades of red, yellow, probably a rather low- blue, green, and black. level official and died A surprising amount of much younger than the pigment survives. expected,” says Egyp- Aside from the rar- tologist Martin Odler ity of preserved paint, of Charles University. Odler explains that This may be why an the stela is significant older tomb was reused. because it combines The white lime- well-known elements stone stela is 3.5 feet of funerary monu- tall and 1.5 feet wide ments in a completely and depicts the couple unique way. “The stela standing in a door- shows that our knowl- way. In a relief atop edge of the Old King- the doorway, the pair dom is limited,” he is seated at an offer- says. “We can still find ing table covered with unexpected artifacts 12 loaves of bread. that make Old King- Hieroglyphic inscrip- dom Egyptians more tions around the table Front view of the human and more cre- limestone stela indicate that Sekhemka ative than expected.” and Henutsen should —Jarrett a. loBell 10 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

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DIGS DISCOVERIES CANYON OF THE ANCESTORS I nhabited as a colonial city by Macedonian soldiers in the of frescoes covering many of their walls and ceilings, indicate that third century B.c., the hilltop settlement of Blaundos in the burials date to the Roman period, from the second to fourth western Anatolia is surrounded by a deep canyon on all sides century a.d. The intricate, colorful frescoes, which depict plants into which its inhabitants carved hundreds of burial chambers. and flowers, animals such as birds and dogs, and mythological Although the necropolis has been known for centuries, it is characters, have deteriorated over the centuries due to causes Burial chamber, Blaundos, Turkey Fresco, Blaundos, Turkey only recently that a team led by archaeologist Birol Can of including illegal excavations, water damage, and fires set by Uşak University has begun to systematically investigate the shepherds who used the chambers to house their animals. unexplored tombs. There are hundreds of additional tombs still to be excavated, In 2021, the team documented around 400 burials dug into the including many that likely date to earlier in Blaundos’ history. canyon walls. According to Can, the chambers were initially built “The fact that the whole city was surrounded by the tombs as single rooms and some were expanded over the generations to of the Blaundians’ ancestors must have given them spiritual make room for sarcophagi holding additional family members. confidence,” says Can. “We can guess that people regularly Some eventually held as many as 30 burials. Coins and pottery visited the necropolis during the period when it was used.” fragments found in the tombs, as well as the style and iconography —daniel weiss FIRST FALCONER Wooden figurine A rchaeologists in Oslo have unearthed a three-inch-tall wooden figurine (front and depicting a crowned figure with a falcon perched on its right arm. Based on the figurine’s clothing and hairstyle, it has been dated to the mid-thirteenth back) century, making it among the earliest known depictions of a falconer, according to Kjartan Hauglid, an art historian at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022 Research. The figurine’s date places it within the reign of Haakon Haakonsson, who was king of Norway from 1217 to 1263 and was known as an avid falconer. It’s possible that the figurine was meant to represent the king, though Hauglid believes it could also represent a young prince or noblewoman. The figurine has a hollow bottom and was likely designed as a haft for a small knife or hairpin, but Hauglid believes it was discarded shortly after it was crafted. “Most of these knife handles are very worn and have been used for a long time, possibly for generations,” he says. “This one is very crisp and clear in the details and that could be because it was broken and dumped where it was found.” —daniel weiss 12

Kunga skeletons, Umm el-Marra, Syria KUNGA POWER Domesticated horses are thought to have arrived in Mesopotamia around 2000 B.c., but before then, Sumerian scribes wrote of another type of equid, the family that includes horses, donkeys, and zebras.These animals were used to pull war wagons in battle and were given as royal dowries.The precise zoological classification of these animals, called kungas—a transliteration of the ancientAkkadian symbol meaning hybrid equid—had never been determined. Recently, a team of researchers analyzed the remains of equids that were discovered in a cemetery dating to between 2600 and 2200 B.c. at the site of Umm el-Marra in what is now Syria.They concluded that the characteristics of the animals’ skeletons do not fit with those of donkeys, which arrived in Mesopotamia from Egypt, where they were first domesticated around 3800 B.c. They also do not fit with those of a type of local wild ass called a hemippe that went extinct in the 1920s. The team sequenced the genomes of the Umm el-Marra Mesopotamian battle chariot, Standard of Ur equids and two hemippes that survived into the early twentieth century as well as the genome of an 11,000-year-old hemippe discovered at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey. They determined that the animals buried at Umm el-Marra were hybrid offspring of female domesticated donkeys and male hemippes. This, says paleogeneticist Eva-Maria Geigl of the Jacques Monod Institute, is the earliest known evidence of animal hybridization. “Before they acquired horses, ancient Mesopotamians needed fast, strong equids that they could train to carry soldiers into battle,” says Geigl. “Donkeys are cautious, smart animals that will not run, especially not towards a hostile force, while wild asses, who are fast and less fearful, are virtually untamable.” By breeding kungas, Geigl explains, ancient Mesopotamians combined the optimal traits of both animals. However, while the offspring would have been healthy, they would also have been sterile, meaning the hybridization process would have had to be repeated for every generation. —Marley Brown archaeology.org 13

DIGS DISCOVERIES Celtic gold coins GOLDEN LUCKY CHARMS Acache of 41 concave Celtic gold coins has been Marjanko Pilekić of the Schloss Friedenstein Gotha Foundation discovered in the state of Brandenburg in northeastern estimates they were minted between 125 and 30 B.c. They are Germany. The coins have no markings, but numismatist known as “rainbow cups.” According to Pilekić, the nickname dates to around the eighteenth century and derives from the Celtic gold coin, Brandenburg, Germany fact that the coins were frequently found by farmers after being revealed by rainfall. Popular lore held that the coins appeared where a rainbow touched the earth—and some believed they were lucky tokens with healing properties. This is the largest hoard of Celtic gold objects to have been found in Brandenburg, which is several hundred miles from areas that are known to have been occupied by Celtic people. It’s unclear how the coins got that far, but Pilekić suggests they were likely transported as a group because they all appear the same. “It’s as if you were to look in your wallet and see only coins produced in a single year from the same mint,” he says. —daniel weiss DRAGON FIRE-EATER fight off fires that regularly damaged wooden struc- Korean archaeologists have unearthed tures. The dragon in the newly discovered tile sports a dragon-shaped roof tile measuring more than three feet tall and weighing a fierce glare and a wide-open mouth, as if ready to more than 265 pounds from a beach in South Korea’s Taean County. The tile is believed to consume flames. date to the early part of the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910), and is of an ornamental type Dragon chidu were reserved solely for royal struc- called a chidu that was typically placed at the corner of a roof and was intended to appear tures. Researchers believe this tile was made by imposing. Beginning in the Unified Silla period (a.d. 676–935), artisans often made chidu in state artisans in the Joseon capital, Seoul, and the form of dragons in the hope that they would was being transported to a royal residence in 14 the southern part of the country on a ship that likely wrecked en route. According to historical documents, the waters in the area were notoriously rough. —Hyung-eun KiM Dragon chidu ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

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DIGS DISCOVERIES Barrow burial, Tuva, Russia Excavation, Tuva, Russia Burial with gold pectoral, Tuva, Russia MEMBERSHIP HAS ITS PRIVILEGES I n a valley in Siberia’s Tuva region, archaeologists have dis- several gold ornaments, including a pectoral in the shape of a covered a large wooden barrow containing the skeletons of a sickle or crescent. This type of pectoral has previously been woman and a young child who were buried around 2,500 years found exclusively in the graves of men and is believed to indicate ago with a set of intriguing artifacts. The deceased belonged membership in a selective group or caste, possibly of warriors. to the Aldy-Bel culture, a nomadic Scythian people based in “This woman must have played a special role in the tribe,” says the mountainous area just north of the Mongolian border in Łukasz Oleszczak, an archaeologist at Jagiellonian University. present-day Russia. Alongside the woman’s skeleton, excavators “Maybe she was a shaman or a member of the tribal aristocracy.” unearthed an iron knife, a bronze mirror, a wooden comb, and —daniel weiss 16 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

Roman amphitheater, Pergamon, Turkey SAVING SEATS W hile excavating the Roman amphitheater in western Anatolia’s ancient city of Pergamon, researchers from the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), the Technical University of Berlin, and the University of Zurich uncovered two blocks of seats inscribed with the names of ancient spectators angling for a prime viewing experience. The amphitheater was built in the second century a.d. and could accommodate about 25,000 people. Most of the seats were simple steps made from a cheap, whitish volcanic stone called tufa. The inscribed seats, however, were carved from grayish-black volcanic andesite, which was more expensive. They also had high backs that would have made for a more comfortable day at the arena. Some names inscribed on these blocks are Greek. Others are Roman names writ- ten in Greek letters, such as Λυκιος for the Latin name Lucius. DAI archaeologist Felix Pirson says that a few of the names are chiseled deeply into the stone, suggesting that certain citizens commis- sioned a stonemason to carve their names, thereby officially claiming the seats. Most of the names, however, are more crudely etched. “People tried to reserve particularly attrac- tive seats for themselves and their family and friends,” Pir- son says. “The interesting question is, did other people Inscribed seat block, Pergamon, Turkey accept this or not?” —BenJaMin leonard archaeology.org 17

OFF THE GRID BY MARLEY BROWN SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA, CHILE Beginning around A.D. Lima cama. The Inca, seeking to PERU take advantage of the Ata- 600, the area came under cama Desert’s natural re- sources, including salt and the influence of the Tiwan- La Paz copper ore, built military outposts in the area around aku culture, an Andean civi- 1450. However, Hubbe says, there is no evidence that the lization based in the Lake BOLIVIA Inca ever directly subjugat- San Pedro de Atacama ed the Atacameños. Titicaca basin of what is now Bolivia. The Tiwanaku domi- nated an extensive swath of the Andes until about A.D. 1000 by exporting their CHILE religious beliefs, iconogra- San Pedro de Atacama, Chile phy, and ceramics, and, in ARGENTINA THE SITE some cases, by conquering Your hotel can easily arrange As a central base camp for travelers who their neighbors. Tiwanaku- Santiago tours of the archaeologi- 0 250 cal sites in and around San want to explore Chile’s Atacama Desert, style pottery, snuff tablets, 500 miles Pedro de Atacama, which range from the early Ata- San Pedro de Atacama is a literal oasis in and gold objects have been cameño settlement period through the Inca era and be- one of the driest regions on Earth. The town discovered at cemeteries Atacama Desert yond. Start at Aldea de Tu- lor, a village of hundreds of is home to the Atacameños, an Indigenous around San Pedro de Ata- circular clay houses founded in about 300 B.C. that was people who first settled abandoned when the near- by San Pedro River shifted the area 3,000 years ago. course. Next, visit Pukará de Quitor, the ruins of a hill The Atacameños, whose fortress dating to around the twelfth century, when the in- ancestors had hunted and fluence of the Tiwanaku had waned and local political gathered in the foothills leaders jostled for suprem- acy. Petroglyphs spanning of the Andes for millen- thousands of years can be seen at Yerbas Buenas and nia, relocated to the des- at Río Grande, an hour drive north from San Pedro de ert and began to grow Atacama. maize, which had come to the area from Meso- america. They established permanent settlements alongside rivers and salt flats and built exchange networks that spanned Aldea de Tulor, Chile thousands of miles across South America. Accord- Petroglyphs, Yerbas Buenas, Chile ing to archaeologist Mark Hubbe of Ohio State Uni- versity, evidence of these interregional networks is apparent in burial goods WHILE YOU’RE THERE excavated from Ata- Take in the steam spout- cameño cemetery sites. ing from nearby El Tatio, the third-largest geyser field in “Atacameños wanted to the world, or head out to the salt flats where pink flamin- represent the status of gos add color to the other- worldly landscape of one of their dead through burial the world’s driest deserts. offerings, many of which were brought in from out- side the Atacama region,” he says. 18 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

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AROUND THE WORLD BY JASON URBANUS PORTUGAL: Researchers were surprised to learn that a man who was buried in an 8,000-year-old shell midden actually died FLORIDA: When conservators cleaned an encrusted button found in a 1782 shipwreck off the coast of St. Augustine, only around 350 years ago. His remains were discovered they were stunned by the 3 letters it displayed: USA. That in 1930 in the Tagus Valley among much older Mesolithic skeletons. Recent DNA and isotope analysis of the man’s might not ordinarily have caused surprise, but experts knew that when the ship went teeth indicate that he was from Senegambia in down, it was carrying British soldiers and West Africa and was likely brought to Portugal loyalists fleeing the Revolutionary War. as an enslaved person. His interment in It’s possible that the button was taken a prehistoric necropolis may suggest from a Continental soldier’s uniform by a that the site was revered by the local supporter of the crown on the battlefield African community. and saved as a war token. ARIZONA: Artifacts recovered MEXICO: Cacao was an from a site in Santa Cruz County integral part of Maya may provide new information life and was grown in about Francisco Coronado’s well-guarded sacred 1540 expedition through the groves. However, since American Southwest. Starting much of the Yucatán’s in Mexico, the Spanish conquis- hot, arid environment is tador eventually traveled as far unsuitable for cultivation of cacao trees, north as Kansas, although the archaeologists have wondered how they exact route he took is debated. grew so bountifully. Soil samples taken Hundreds of newly found from several cenotes, or sinkholes, near objects, including parts of Maya sites revealed the presence of crossbows and other European caffeine and theobromine, biomarkers of weaponry, might be linked with cacao. The cenotes may have provided Coronado and his men, sug- both humidity and shade, creating the gesting they may have passed perfect microclimate for the trees. through southern Arizona along the Santa Cruz River. ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022 CHILE: Modern forensic techniques have determined that a prehistoric fisherman who was buried along Chile’s northern coast 5,000 years ago suffered a tragic drowning accident. Wear marks on his bones indicate that he spent most of his life rowing a boat and throwing a harpoon. Analysis of the man’s bone marrow revealed tiny marine fossils and sediments that could only have entered his system if he had inhaled a fatal amount of salt water shortly before his death. 20

HUNGARY: A rare gold coin PAKISTAN: One of the world’s known as a double aureus oldest known Buddhist temples was unearthed at a Roman was unearthed atop the ancient site in southwestern Hungary. acropolis of Barikot in the Swat It was minted during the reign Valley. The complex, which is of Volusianus, who co-ruled with his father from A.D. 251 to preserved to a height of more 253. The front features the young, bearded emperor wearing than 10 feet, dates to the 2nd a crown of rays, while the back depicts the goddess Libertas, century B.C. It was built on a platform and features a cylindrical the personification of freedom. Because Volusianus was only structure, a small stupa, and a number of small rooms. The site in power for a short time—he was assassinated by his own has a more than 3,000-year-long history and was purportedly troops—few surviving coins bear his likeness. besieged by Alexander the Great in 327 B.C. SPAIN: An elderly JAPAN: The monumental woman who burial mounds known as lived around kofun are said to contain 5,300 years ago the remains of Japan’s is believed to semilegendary early be the earliest emperors, who ruled known recipient between the 3rd and 7th of ear surgery. Her skull was found at the centuries A.D. Because megalithic tomb known as the Dolmen of they are considered El Pendón with two perforations cut into sacred, access to the the mastoid bone behind each of her ears. mounds is limited, and The painful procedure was performed with archaeologists still know stone tools in order to treat an infection very little about them. that could have led to deafness. Because However, a new study used her bones had begun to regenerate, it’s high-resolution satellite likely the woman survived the ordeal. images and revealed that all the entrances to the archaeology.org keyhole-shaped tombs are aligned with the rising sun. Japanese tradition holds that the first emperors were direct descendants of the sun goddess Amaterasu. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: The remains of round stone buildings on Ghagha Island west of Abu Dhabi are the oldest ever found in the country and surrounding region. Radiocarbon dates estimate that the ruins are 8,500 years old, making them 500 years older than the previously recorded earliest structures, which were found on Marawah Island. Although its climate today is dry and unwelcoming, Ghagha Island would have been much more hospitable thousands of years ago, when it was likely home to a small Neolithic community. 21

SECRETS OF SCOTLAND’S VIKING AGE HOARD A massive cache of Viking silver and Anglo-Saxon heirlooms reveals the complex political landscape of ninth-century Britain By J U WHEN IT COMES TO Viking hoards, gious relics, precious heirlooms, and the largest collection of archaeologists know to expect the Viking Age gold objects found anywhere in the British Isles. unexpected. Hundreds of these These artifacts, which span the pagan and ecclesiastical and caches containing tens of thou- the Viking and Anglo-Saxon worlds, continue to astonish the sands of objects that were hidden researchers who are still trying to understand the hoard’s for safekeeping and never reunited unprecedented elements. “Anything that you look at in this with their erstwhile owners have been found buried beneath hoard has something unusual about it,” says Martin Goldberg, fields throughout Scandinavia and across Great Britain and principal curator of medieval archaeology and history at Ireland. While many Viking hoards share similar characteris- National Museums Scotland. “There’s a whole range of things tics—notably large quantities of silver—no two are identical. that we have never seen before.” Thus, when a new trove is unearthed, what it might yield is In 2014, an amateur metal detectorist surveying Church of endlessly unpredictable. Scotland land located a number of silver artifacts buried in a Almost from the very moment it was discovered eight years shallow pit. He notified local authorities, and an archaeologi- ago in southwestern Scotland, in the region of Twenty-two pieces of cal team was dispatched to the site, where they Galloway, a particularly enigmatic collection of silver bullion, including subsequently unearthed 22 ancient silver objects. early medieval objects has evoked the sense of both raw ingots and The collection seemed to have all the markings finding something truly unexpected. Discovered flattened Viking arm of a Viking hoard. “The Vikings had an insatiable near Balmaghie, in the historical county of Kirk- rings, were discovered demand for silver,” says University of Oxford cudbrightshire, the assemblage, now known as in the Galloway archaeologist Jane Kershaw. “They used it in the Galloway Hoard, dates to about A.D. 900. Hoard. Arm rings such lots of different ways—for display purposes, as a Numbering around 100 artifacts, it is the rich- as these, which are statement of wealth, and as currency.” est, most diverse, and most curious collection usually found in Ireland and date to between In the 400 years between the decline of the of Viking Age (ca. A.D. 793–1066) artifacts ever A.D. 880 and 930, were Roman presence in Britain and the Vikings’ unearthed in Great Britain or Ireland. While worn around the wrist arrival in the late eighth century A.D., silver had it consists of no less than 10 pounds of Viking and were also used been relatively scarce on the island. But when silver, it also boasts Anglo-Saxon jewelry, reli- as currency. the Scandinavians began to permanently settle 22 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

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in the British Isles and take over land for- Anglo-Saxon lands deposit. Thinking they had collected all merly belonging to Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the hoard’s contents, team members were they brought huge quantities of silver with packing up their tools when they made one them, often acquired through trade with the final sweep with a metal detector to confirm Islamic caliphates to the east. “New sources they hadn’t left anything behind. To their of silver were coming into Britain, which is great surprise, the device produced a signal why the Viking Age is sometimes referred in the area that had just been cleared. As to as the Silver Age,” says Goldberg. People NORTHUMBRIA excavators dug just a few inches deeper, often buried their silver at this unsettled GALLOWAY they came across a second assemblage of time as a way of safeguarding their wealth, artifacts that would prove to be three times creating subterranean bank deposits that as bountiful as the first. Whoever buried the could be added to over time, or of hiding York Galloway Hoard had created a decoy layer their valuables in the face of roving bands DANELAW to throw off would-be thieves. They must of dangerous raiders. Many of these stashes Dublin have imagined that if someone happened were never retrieved. across the deposit of silver bullion near the Initially, the Galloway Hoard appeared surface, they might be content with their to be a standard Viking Age cache, with the London windfall and depart satisfied, while the bulk exception of one item—a large silver cross of the treasure remained safe below. It had with a spiral silver chain wrapped around 0 100 200 miles nearly worked, even 1,000 years later. “The it that appeared out of place. It would be team wouldn’t have suspected that there the first sign that the Galloway Hoard was unlike all the was other material underneath if they hadn’t had that modern others that had previously been unearthed. The second such machinery with them,” says Goldberg. sign occurred only a few hours later when the archaeologists The lower deposit contained 46 more pieces of silver, along reached a seemingly undisturbed layer of soil and gravel that with other unusual objects bundled up in separate parcels, appeared to signal that they had reached the bottom of the although all signs continued to point to a Viking owner. While some of the silver was in the form of ingots, other pieces had been shaped into Viking-style arm rings, a type of decorated jewelry usually worn around the wrist. Such arm rings were also used as portable currency and could be broken into pieces known as hack- silver and used as payment for goods. “Wherever you get these arm rings and the hacksilver, it’s in places that are associated with Viking trade,” says Adrián Mal- donado, Galloway Hoard researcher at National Muse- ums Scotland. “When you get them in Scot- land, you are generally safely in a Viking con- text.” These par- ticular arm rings are of a type known as Hiberno-Scandinavian broad-band arm rings, which have mostly been found at sites in Ireland and date to between A.D. 880 and 930. This was the first time they had been found in Scotland. There was also a separate cluster of four fully shaped and elaborately decorated ribbon-style arm rings that had been worn and subsequently tied together and buried. Taken together, the Galloway Hoard represents the largest collection of ancient silver discovered in Scotland in 150 years. “It was unexpected because we had never had a big hoard Four Viking arm rings from the hoard have Anglo-Saxon runes from Galloway before,” says Maldonado. But this was that seem to spell out abbreviations of Old English names. just the beginning. 24

FOR SEVERAL YEARS FOLLOWING its discovery, the Maldonado, the high level of craftwork and the quality and Galloway Hoard remained in a kind of limbo as weight of the silver would have made the cross extremely rare Scottish authorities decided where it should be and valuable. “It could only have been worn by an abbot, a housed. Some conservation and preservation work was bishop, or royalty,” he says. “Nobody else is getting such an carried out, but scholars intensified their research in 2017 ornate symbol of their faith.” after the objects arrived at National Museums Scotland. When experts finally began to closely investigate the The inclusion of a cross in a Viking hoard was puzzling, artifacts, they learned that there was much more to the even unprecedented. But there would soon be an even bigger Galloway Hoard than just Viking silver. They also began twist. When researchers looked more closely at the Viking to suspect that the hoard might not, in fact, be Viking at arm rings, they noticed that they could be divided into four all. “When it came out of the ground, the first thing that types according to the way they were subtly shaped and bent. anybody saw was the piles and piles of silver, so for years For example, some had slight folds on both ends, while oth- after that it was only spoken of as a Viking hoard,” says ers had folds on one end only. Furthermore, a single piece Maldonado. “And then we started looking into the material.” from each distinct group was inscribed, but the words were written using Anglo-Saxon runes, not Viking runes as the There were certain objects that researchers had expected. The language, too, appeared to be seemed entirely anomalous in the Anglo-Saxon, not Scandinavian, and the objects seemed to be inscribed with abbreviations of Old English words frequently context of a Viking hoard, such used as parts of names. One appeared to spell out BER, which as a gold Anglo Saxon–style may be short for Berwulf, while another bears the markings pin shaped like a bird (see ED, which may represent the name Edward. This seemed to “A Golden Bird,” page imply that the collection of silver had four owners, maybe 26) and the cross that Anglo-Saxons, who joined together to bury their personal was found in the upper wealth in one stash. This interpretation corresponds neatly deposit. After it was with the four intact circular arm rings that were tied together. cleaned and conserved, “Everything about it looks like it was four different people it became clear that coming together to form an agreement that is sealed with the cross had been this sacrifice of great wealth,” says Maldonado. decorated using Anglo- Saxon zoomorphic and Yet the question of why a group of Anglo-Saxons would be geometric designs popu- in possession of and sign their names on such typical Viking lar in the kingdoms of silver objects remained unanswered. According to Kershaw, southern Britain in the ninth the scenario is unparalleled. “Typically, the Anglo-Saxons century A.D. The cross has would not be using silver bullion,” she says. “Those things are gold inlay and the sym- not very useful to them since they have a strict coin-based bols of the four Gos- economy.” The answer may lie in Galloway’s unique loca- pel writers etched tion and the tempest of geopolitical events playing out just onto its arms. outside its borders. Around the time the Galloway Hoard According to was deposited, the medieval kingdom of Scotland was just beginning to take shape to Galloway’s north, while a unified An ornate silver cross was found with a spiral England made up of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was forming for silver chain wrapped around it in the hoard’s upper layer. It was decorated in a late Anglo- the first time in southern Britain under Alfred the Great Saxon style with gold inlay and each arm bears (r. ca. A.D. 871–899) and his successors. the symbol of one of the four writers of the Christian Gospels. Galloway also found itself squeezed between two relat- ed but separate Viking kingdoms: one based in Dublin that controlled the Irish Sea and the Scottish west coast, and a group that controlled much of northern, central, and eastern Britain, territory that became known as the Danelaw and had its capital at Jorvik, modern-day York. Galloway was nomi- nally still a part of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, which had had its land greatly reduced by the Danes, but it was essentially cut off from other Anglo-Saxons in Britain and surrounded by Vikings. “Galloway is where these different cultures were meeting,” says Goldberg. “It’s not just Scandinavians, but people from Britain and Ireland as well.” The hoard’s silver reflects this critical era of interaction between Galloway’s Anglo-Saxon inhabitants and the Vikings on their doorstep. “I can imagine lots of pragmatic alliances,” says Kershaw. “I’d 25

A Golden Bird Gold bird pin Among the Galloway Hoard’s many surprises Scotland, the bird may not have been was a trio of rare gold objects that had been intended to represent a flamingo at all, but instead the placed in a wooden box and concealed within a mythical phoenix. “There’s a connection in the ancient cluster of four silver Viking arm rings. This mini-hoard world between the flamingo and the phoenix,” Goldberg consisted of an ingot, a ring, and a finely crafted bird-shaped says. This likely stems from the flamingo’s ability, like that pin. On first glance, the bird resembles a flamingo—it of the phoenix, to survive in hot, inhospitable climates. has a large, curved beak, and the thinness of the pin’s “Obviously, a phoenix doesn’t exist, so people had to piece shaft is reminiscent of the flamingo’s long, spindly legs. together what they thought it would look like using the However, other features are depicted less accurately, which characteristics of a flamingo,” he adds. is understandable given that the craftsperson who made the object had likely never seen a flamingo—the nearest The phoenix was commonly associated with gold, fire, the specimens would have lived hundreds of miles away along rising sun, and rebirth. Ancient mythological lore held that the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. the bird was periodically reborn, a characteristic that Anglo- Saxon Christians used as an allegory for Christ’s resurrection. According to Martin Goldberg, principal curator of This small pin may have been valued for its gold—and as an medieval archaeology and history at National Museums emblem of Christian faith. –J.U. be happy to see the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons maybe The vessel itself is an extraordinary work of artistry. Layers of collaborating in some way. It’s just too weird an assemblage textiles that were carefully wrapped around it when it was buried to make sense of otherwise.” are still partially preserved and have yet to be removed so as not to damage them, but more than 1,000 X-rays have revealed the WHILE THE GALLOWAY HOARD has astonished archae- intricate designs engraved on its surface. They seem to depict ologists from the start, its big- gest surprise has been its most Zoroastrian fire altars, winged crowns, and animals such as recent—an artifact that has also taken the leopards and tigers, all common motifs associated hoard another step away from its original with the Sasanian Empire, which ruled identification as Viking. Because of its over modern-day Iran between delicate nature, this particular artifact A.D. 224 and 651. It’s likely took several years to fully investi- that the vase was crafted gate. It was a silver vase, buried in western Asia before it alongside the silver ingots made its way along Viking and arm rings in the lower trade routes and was deposit, with its lid in place, buried in southwest thereby sealing its con- Scotland several tents. Although the hundred years vase measures just later, making it four inches high, it the first such ves- was packed with an sel ever found so eclectic assemblage far from where it of miniature riches was fashioned. “A that came togeth- vessel like this has er over hundreds never made it this far west,” says of years and across Goldberg. “We are having to look thousands of miles. wider and wider to find out where we “The core of the Gal- think some of these things came from.” loway Hoard, and where The objects would only get more exotic you get the most unusual as the researchers looked deeper into the vase. range of materials, is this When researchers finally removed the lid in lidded vessel,” says Goldberg. “It contains items that you 2021, they discovered that the vase was full of trea- will not find in any other Viking Age hoard.” A cluster of four decorated Viking arm rings, bound together by a smaller fifth ring, was found buried in the lower deposit of the hoard. 26 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

A silver brooch (center) and a collection of glass beads, pendants, and curios were placed inside the hoard’s lidded silver vessel. sures, including one of the largest surviving collections of late top, a square bottom, and several leaf-like protruding lobes. “We thought, ‘That’s quite weird for a jar,’” says Goldberg. Anglo-Saxon metalwork.There were silver brooches, decorated As soon as the researchers turned the vessel upside bracelet-like hinged straps, and precious gold items. down, however, they had a revelation. When inverted, the carved rock crystal itself Perhaps the most remarkable item is a two-inch- resembled the top of a classical Corin- tall jar made of rock crystal and gold that had thian column. In ancient Rome, wealthy been carefully wrapped in linen and placed patrons occasionally commissioned into a pouch made of leather and silk. The architecturally inspired miniature silk, which originated in a market along artworks carved from rock crystal. Given its marked resemblance to a the Eurasian Silk Road, is the earliest column capital and the rarity of rock- crystal art in the ninth century, the example ever found in Scotland. object was assuredly manufactured in Like many other items in the the Roman Empire. Having survived for several centuries after the demise hoard, this small jar at first confused of the Romans, it was inverted and investigators. Rock crystal is very dif- A highly decorative late Anglo-Saxon disk ficult to carve, and the methods for doing so had largely been forgotten in brooch was found in the lidded vessel. the western world after the decline of the Roman Empire. The art form would reemerge in Fatimid Egypt, but not until nearly 100 years after the Galloway Hoard was buried. The jar is also oddly shaped, with a round archaeology.org 27

An engraved four-inch-tall lidded silver vessel (left) was carefully wrapped in several layers of fabric that remain partially preserved and attached. When researchers opened the vessel’s lid, they found it was packed (above) with an assortment of tiny treasures. A jar made of rock crystal and gold (left) contained a small amount of a precious liquid that could be poured out through a spout on its top. The vessel (center) after cleaning and conservation showing its original orientation. A Latin inscription on the vessel’s bottom (right) states that a bishop named Hyguald was responsible for its creation. 28 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

encased in a housing of fine Anglo-Saxon gold filigree. A DESPITE NEARLY A DECADE of study, scholars are still spout was then attached to the top, and a tiny channel was not certain who buried the Galloway Hoard, why filled with a precious liquid, likely either perfume or holy they did so, or even whether they were Vikings or water. Researchers now even know who was responsible for Anglo-Saxons. Perhaps it comprises the worldly possessions transforming this tiny sculpture into a jar. Although difficult of a family or group of families. “We may have different to discern with the naked eye, 3-D X-rays revealed a Latin stories involved in this hoard,” says Goldberg. “It’s not just inscription on the jar’s base: “Bishop Hyguald ordered [this] the story of silver and the economy in the ninth century, but to be made.” There is no mention of a Bishop Hyguald in also the story of a family and the things that reminded them historical records, but Hyguald is a Northumbrian name of the generations that had gone before them.” Maldonado that appears in contemporaneous church documents. “The believes the ecclesiastical objects suggest that the hoard may story of that vessel is only beginning to be told now, but comprise the treasury of a local church. Maybe, like many when you look at what’s inside the hoard, it’s looking more other hoards of its time, it was quickly stashed away in an and more Northumbrian,” says Maldonado. “There is almost attempt to hide valuable objects when trouble loomed on the nothing left that is Viking about it.” horizon, although the decoy layer and the meticulous nature of the burial seem to suggest otherwise. Packing these items THE SILVER AND GOLD ARTIFACTS contained in the methodically, wrapping them in cloth or placing them in vase are extraordinary, but perhaps even more so are pouches, and then burying them took time. the objects with seemingly lesser conventional value. Nestled among the vase’s more valuable contents were items There was very likely more than one party responsible for the with little economic worth, including glass beads that Galloway Hoard. Researchers have identified at least five names were already centuries old when buried, and an assortment of other peculiar antique objects that on objects from the hoard—the four etched on the backs Goldberg believes may have been family relics. of the Viking arm rings and that of Bishop Hyguald, “To me the collection in the vessel looks like written in gold on the bottom of the rock-crystal heirlooms,” he says. “They’re things that are jar. But many other people who are not named valued not because they are gold or silver nevertheless had a role in creating the objects or for their material wealth, but for their and in how they made their way to a field in artistry and for how old they are.” A ball made from compacted earth may have Included among these items are the Galloway Hoard’s most curious been a memento that was taken home from a objects––two small balls of compacted earth that survived for more than a mil- pilgrimage to a sacred shrine in the Holy Land. lennium thanks to the vessel’s airtight seal. Objects such as these normally would have dried Scotland. These items passed through countless out and fallen apart long ago. X-ray imaging revealed that, hands and took centuries to be gathered into a single although they were made from ordinary dirt, the balls collection. These peripheral figures are also part of the had tiny flecks of gold scattered throughout them. After Galloway Hoard’s story. “If you think about all the people that some consideration, Goldberg and the team of researchers were involved in making these things, all the people that they recalled similar objects in the Vatican Museums’ collections. might have been traded to, all the people that might have worn During the early Middle Ages when pilgrims visited sacred them at some point, you’re suddenly talking about hundreds of sites in the Holy Land they sometimes took a small amount ancient lives that we had no insight into before this,” says Gold- of mud and rubbed it in the dust on or beneath shrines, berg. “We now have the opportunity to think about everyone rolled it into a ball, and carried it home as a memento. that was involved in this hoard and not just focus on the moment Because many of the reliquaries that held these treasured of final burial. There are years of work that go into pulling out souvenirs were gilded, the dust and dirt often picked up the threads of this story, and it is growing all the time.” tiny specks of gold. It is likely that the delicate balls of Part of the story is the way archaeologists now think about dirt in the Galloway Hoard were transported hundreds of what may—or may not—make a Viking hoard. The Galloway miles from the eastern Mediterranean to Scotland. “People Hoard is providing new insights into the changing world of always ask me, ‘What’s your favorite item?’ and for me it’s ninth-century Scotland. It is a microcosm of the region of always been the dirt balls,” says Goldberg. “There is some- Galloway and the people who lived there during this tumul- thing that is really human about them, and they present tuous era when different kingdoms crossed its borders and us with an opportunity to explore the type of story that competing cultures clashed. “The Galloway Hoard is not a you wouldn’t normally be able to tell. They were placed Viking hoard, it’s a Viking Age hoard,” says Maldonado. “But in that lidded vessel with these other things––gold, silk, the Viking Age is more than just people from Scandinavia—it and crystal––because they were considered of equal, if not eventually involves much of the world. It’s looking more and potentially greater, value.” more like the story of the hoard is that of a group of people swept up in the drama of the Viking Age.” Q Jason Urbanus is a contributing editor at Archaeology. archaeology.org 29

Fit for Fighting The discovery of Mesopotamian-style armor in northwest China offers new insights into a battle-tested ancient technology By M B A set of leather scale armor (left) discovered at the Yanghai cemetery in northwest China may have been made by Neo-Assyrian artisans sometime in the seventh century B.C. It is similar to armor worn by Neo-Assyrian charioteers depicted on a contemporaneous stone relief from the palace of Ashurbanipal (r. 668–627 B.C.) at Nineveh (right). 30 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

archaeology.org AT ITS HEIGHT IN THE seventh century B.C., the vast Neo- Assyrian Empire extended from Egypt through the Levant and Mesopotamia to the northern reaches of Anatolia and into Asia Minor. To control this domain, the Neo-Assyrians relied on highly skilled and deadly efficient military forces. They equipped their army with siege weapons, such as catapults and battering rams, and introduced innovative forms of cavalry warfare, including the use of battle chariots. Neo-Assyrian kings demanded surrender, fealty, and tribute, and depicted their conquests in vivid carvings that lined the walls of palaces and public monuments. Warriors traversed the empire’s enormous territory on horses, which scholars believe were first domesticated on the Eurasian steppe around 3500 B.C. and arrived in the Assyrian heartland of Iraq and Syria some 1,500 years later. The Neo-Assyrians were far from the only ancient people in Asia to develop a culture strongly associated with horses. More than 2,000 miles away from the farthest eastern reaches of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (883–609 B.C.), a group of nomadic pastoralists called the Cheshi, who lived in the Turfan Basin region in what is now northwest China, were also expert riders. Recently, a group of researchers examining objects from a grave at the Yanghai cemetery, a burial ground used by the Cheshi from the thirteenth century B.C. to the second century A.D., identified a piece of equipment that may offer insight into the type of military technology the Neo-Assyrians employed to expand their empire. The artifact is also evidence of contact between the Neo-Assyrians and the Cheshi, suggesting that the Cheshi were able to access goods that originated in the empire through a trade network that spanned the deserts, mountain ranges, and steppe of Eurasia. 31

Yanghai Cemetery tion of this type of scale armor took place somewhere in western Asia and that it was somehow connected to the origin of horse- Turfan Basin drawn chariots during the first half of the second millennium B.C.,” says Wertmann. Nineveh Babylon BEGINNING AROUND 4,000 years ago, Memphis the Neo-Assyrians’ predecessors, the Assyrians, established a city-state at 0 500 1,000 miles 7th c. B.C. Neo-Assyrian Empire Assur on the banks of the Tigris River in THE YANGHAI CEMETERY was first discovered by what is now northern Iraq. By the tenth villagers in the 1970s, and archaeologists have since century B.C., they had transformed their kingdom into excavated more than 500 burials at the site. In 2013, the Neo-Assyrian Empire and expanded across much of Mesopotamia. While the Yanghai scale armor dates to around they unearthed a grave belonging to a man who had died the seventh century B.C., Wertmann explains that it comes around the age of 30. Among his burial goods was a set of from a technological tradition that is much older and was born armor that has been radiocarbon dated to between 786 and out of ancient Assyrian conquests. 543 B.C. The armor was made from more than 5,000 individual pieces of rawhide as well as leather laces. The majority of the The Assyrians introduced chariots to the battlefield as pieces, known as scales, each measure just under an inch long mobile archery platforms. The charioteers and chariot archers who stood on the platforms were raised above the fray and and slightly more than half an inch wide. They are very light, were thus rendered vulnerable and in clear need of some form weighing less than two hundredths of an ounce apiece. Each of of protection. Assyrian armorers invented a type of leather scale the scales has a rounded lower right corner and a row of three armor—some of the earliest armor in the world—that offered vertical slits pierced just below its top edge. Because the scales wearers protection from projectiles and glancing blows, while are all nearly identical, they were most likely cut from a large still allowing them enough freedom of movement to throw a piece of sheep or goatskin using a stencil or template, says spear or draw a bow. According to Wertmann, the Assyrians may archaeologist Patrick Wertmann of the University of Zurich, have looked to nature for inspiration. “This armor is really an who has been analyzing artifacts discovered at the Yanghai example of bionics, in that it is a transfer of biological methods cemetery for more than five years. of defense found in nature to human technology,” he says. “The artisans who made the armor looked at the skins and scales of The scales were sewn onto a leather lining, and the resulting animals and realized that the best protection is not created by armor fit the wearer like an apron or a waistcoat, protecting the just a hard outer shell, but also by the effect of many flexible torso, hips, left side, and lower back. “This is the kind of garment that could be put on quickly without any help from another small scales working together—and they engineered that.” person,” says Wertmann. “It would also have potentially been Depictions of soldiers across the Neo-Assyrian Empire, adaptable for people of different shapes and sizes, as it had a fas- including reliefs from the palace of Ashurbanipal (r. 668–627 tening device that the wearer could adjust.” Such a lightweight, B.C.) at Nineveh on the outskirts of what is now Mosul in portable defensive covering for the body designed to be worn northern Iraq, show cavalry and archers wearing armor of the on horseback was well suited to the Cheshi’s nomadic lifestyle. type found in the man’s burial at the Yanghai cemetery. “The Because the Cheshi left behind no records, what researchers armor had to be light, hard, and flexible,” says Wertmann. “Sets know about this long-lived but poorly understood culture they of scale armor could be made from iron, bronze, or leather have learned through archaeological research and through reports written by court scholars of China’s Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 220). The Han Dynasty seized military and political control of theTurfan Basin around 60 B.C. Han historians characterized the Cheshi as skilled horse riders who lived in tents and followed sea- sonal grasses that fed their horses, cattle, sheep, and goats. They had a reputation for lethal proficiency with the bow and arrow. Alongside the leather armor in the man’s grave, archaeolo- gists discovered cheek pieces from a bridle, suggesting he was a horse rider. Researchers have also recovered numerous artifacts from other graves at the site that attest to the integral role that horses played in Cheshi society. Wertmann says, however, that the scale armor is not just the only object of its kind to have ever been found at the site, it is one of only three sets of Conservators prepare the armor, which was made from more ancient leather scale armor to have been excavated anywhere than 5,000 scales of rawhide, for analysis in a laboratory. in the world. “At the moment, scholars assume that the inven- 32 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

scales, but they were probably most often made from leather.” have been mass produced and adjusted to fit a range of body While innumerable sets of leather armor were doubtless shapes and sizes, which would have been necessary for the Neo-Assyrian army,” he says. However, La Rocca says it’s also crafted and issued to soldiers in the Assyrian and later Neo- conceivable that one of the nomadic cultures of Eurasia, such Assyrian armies, leather rarely survives in the archaeological as the Scythians, may have adopted the technology from the record. The most complete set of Assyrian-style leather scale Neo-Assyrians and that either of the two sets of armor could armor discovered prior to the Yanghai find dates to the four- have been made by one of these groups. “All these peoples teenth century B.C. and was uncovered in the tomb of the were adept horse riders in fairly frequent military conflict who pharaoh Tutankhamun (r. 1336–1327 b.c.), evidence of cultural would have needed this armor, too,” says La Rocca. “I don’t exchange between ancient Assyria and Egypt. doubt that they would have been quick to adopt whatever technology was most advantageous to them.” BY THE SEVENTH CENTURY B.C., horses had been the main form of transportation for societies across Asia THE YANGHAI ARMOR IS not the for nearly 2,000 years. Eurasian steppe only evidence discovered in the groups, such as the Scythians, covered great cemetery that establishes the distances on horseback, forming a continent- existence of cultural connections between spanning network of horse-based cultures the Turfan Basin and regions to the west. that could carry people, goods, languages, “We have found many cowrie shells in and ideas. Texts from this period describe Yanghai cemetery graves,” says archaeologist foreign mercenaries serving in the Neo- Dongliang Xu of Academia Turfanica, a research Assyrian army. It is possible that the Cheshi’s institute devoted to the archaeology and history skill as horse riders was renowned as far of the Turfan region. “The shells must have away as the Neo-Assyrian Empire. “We been traded or exchanged from as far away as can speculate that the man buried at the Indian Ocean.” It was not only such goods Yanghai was from Turfan and that he that were transported to Turfan, says Xu, but may have served in the Neo-Assyrian technological innovations as well. “It was army, for which he was outfitted with Neo-Assyrian equipment,” says most likely nomadic herders who carried Wertmann. “When his service was up, these inventions and this knowledge he might have brought the armor back across Eurasia,” Xu says. “The armor home with him.” It is also possible, is one revealing example, but so are Wertmann suggests, that the man the many textiles we have excavated captured the armor in battle, or at Yanghai, which show weaving even that he was originally from techniques and decorative patterns somewhere in Mesopotamia. from cultures across Siberia, CentralAsia, Wertmann and his team have com- and the Middle East.” pared the Yanghai armor with a similar example of leather armor in the collections of the This set of leather scale armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This set has no Metropolitan Museum of Art dates to the archaeological context but has been radiocar- same period as the Yanghai cemetery bon dated to the same period. Researchers have example and may also have been made determined that the two sets of armor are very by Neo-Assyrians. similar in style but diverge slightly in construction, suggesting that they may have been made by the same artisans but designed Whether the armor was crafted by Neo-Assyrian artisans or for different army units. The museum’s armor has a stiffer, less by Scythians or members of another Eurasian steppe culture, flexible torso and skirt design, which has led Wertmann and his Wertmann remains impressed by its creators’ ingenuity. Since team to suggest that it may have been created for a more heavily the region’s arid climate preserves organic objects that in most armored rider who would not have been expected to dismount places would be lost, the Yanghai cemetery has revealed many and fight on foot. The Yanghai armor, by contrast, may have examples of ancient inventiveness, including the world’s old- been designed for a light cavalry or mounted infantry soldier. est known trousers, which the Cheshi designed specifically The Neo-Assyrian army, Wertmann says, was the only fighting for riding horses some 3,000 years ago. “The plant remains force in the world in the seventh century B.C. to boast these we find, the animal remains, the objects related to horses, specialized fighting roles and types of equipment. and even this set of armor, which is foreign and unique in the Yanghai cemetery, are all connected,” says Wertmann. “They Like Wertmann, Metropolitan Museum of Art curator will gradually paint us a picture of these people who left no emeritus of arms and armor Donald La Rocca believes it’s pos- other records of themselves.” Q sible that both sets of armor were made somewhere in the Neo- Assyrian Empire. “This kind of armor is of a type that could Marley Brown is associate editor at Archaeology. archaeology.org 33

The World of Egyptian Demons Thousands of supernatural beings, including protective cobra spirits and knife-wielding turtles, guarded ancient Egyptians in life and death By E A. P 34 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

HE PANTHEON OF EGYPTIAN GODS is filled be something like genies,” says Egyptologist Kasia Szpakowska. with mighty human-animal hybrid deities “They would come to one’s aid as often as they acted as fear- such as Horus, the falcon-headed god of some, dangerous creatures.” Images of demons first began to appear in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030–1640 b.c.). Before Tkingship; Anubis, the jackal-headed god of this time, worship of the gods was highly centralized and medi- mummification; and the warrior goddess ated by the pharaoh, but during the second millennium B.C., Sekhmet, a divine lioness who possessed all Egyptians were able to directly participate in religious life. healing powers. Ancient priests and scribes left behind mil- lions of textual references to these gods, and their names and Szpakowska and her colleagues at Swansea University titles fill many modern scholarly volumes. But the ancient recently completed a project that cataloged as many of these Egyptians also acknowledged another group of divine human- overlooked demons as possible by analyzing figurines and other animal hybrids, magical creatures that scholars call demons. artifacts that depict the strange beasts. They recorded some These were supernatural beings that took many animal forms 4,000 unique magical beings whom Egyptians worshipped and and were thought to live at the threshold of the divine and feared for at least two millennia. It’s possible these demons— real worlds, and to be able to move between them if called who likely numbered far more than 4,000—were more impor- upon by either gods or humans. Egyptologists know very little tant to Egyptians’ everyday experience than were the remote about these entities, though it is clear that while demons were gods venerated in the land’s great monuments. “An Egyptian capable of causing great harm, they could also be a benevolent demon is really any divine being not worshipped in a temple,” force and help maintain maat, or the cosmic order. “They could says Szpakowska. “And they were everywhere.” archaeology.org Wooden figurines depicting 35 human-animal demon hybrids with the heads of a gazelle (far left), a turtle (left), and a ram (right) once stood guard in the tomb of the pharaoh Horemheb (r. ca. 1323–1295 B.C.).

Coffin painting depicting the Book of Two Ways, Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030–1640 B.C.) A DEMON NETWORK When demons began to appear in documents and depic- act as a map to the underworld. According to the Coffin Texts, tions dating to the early Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030–1640 in order to pass to the afterlife the deceased was required to B.C.), officials, as well as the kingdom’s general population, were recite magical formulas, which served as a kind of password, at already actively participating in the worship of the gods. A each gate. Demons would judge the spells successful—or not. series of funerary spells known as the Coffin Texts, which were Bennett found that while the forms these demons took may derived from earlier royal funerary texts, became increasingly seem strange and monstrous, it’s likely they corresponded to common in the tombs of ordinary Egyptians. By this time they the roles the creatures played at the gates. Baboons, who were had as much right to access the afterlife as did the pharaoh. thought to be able to talk, were often shown as demons who But the journey to the realm of the dead was an arduous one would render judgment on the deceased. Demons who took the overseen by a bewilderingly diverse set of human-animal hybrid form of animals regarded as stealthy, such as snakes, turtles, demons. Egyptians imagined the long route to the afterlife as or scorpions, would attempt to trip up the deceased as they marked by a series of gates over which these demons watched. recited the formulas. Felines and cows, thought of as nurturing creatures, would aid a person in their effort to pass through a Swansea University Egyptologist Zuzanna Bennett has gate. Thus, demons were not just obstacles to be overcome, recently studied more than 400 demons described in Middle but played an essential role in the divine assessment of each Kingdom Coffin Texts, particularly in one known as the Book of person’s journey to the afterlife. Two Ways. Scenes from these texts are depicted on coffins and 36 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

COBRA KA The 18th Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten (r. ca. 1349–1336 a new capital city, and then they seem to have been subjected to B.C.) is known for radical religious reforms that elevated harsh working conditions and corporal punishment.” She sug- the sun god Aten to the status of Egypt’s paramount deity. The gests that these people, grinding out an existence in a forbidding pharaoh also ordered a new capital city to be built at the site new location where their traditional beliefs were suppressed, of Amarna, giving workers only a few years to complete this turned to the cobra as a divine protector. massive undertaking. Akhenaten’s religious reforms did not outlive him. They were soundly rejected by his successors, who As an animal that fiercely defends its own life, the cobra also abandoned Amarna. But Egyptologist Kasia Szpakowska may have been considered a powerful demon that workers has found that one religious innovation that occurred during could invoke to protect their own ka, or divine spirit. Some Akhenaten’s reign did endure for hundreds of years. She has 125 fragments of cobra figurines have been found in laborers’ discovered that clay cobra figurines that became common homes at Amarna and in buildings there such as bakeries. It’s during the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 B.C.) first appeared possible many more were discarded by excavators who did not in the homes of workers living in Amarna. initially recognize the significance of the clay objects, which are often simply made and do not always retain their shape. Excavations of workers’ cemeteries in the short-lived capital The tradition of revering these humble idols eventually spread city show that common people living there endured grim condi- throughout Egypt. Judging by the frequency with which the tions. Their bones show evidence of repetitive stress injuries, figurines are found in border forts, it seems soldiers had a malnutrition, and trauma that suggest they had been victims special connection to the cobra demon. They may have called of severe punishment. “They must have been suffering from upon its support when they found themselves living in strange intense anxiety,” says Szpakowska. “Firstly, they were moved to conditions, far from the familiar comforts of home. Cobra figurines from Amarna, New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 B.C.) archaeology.org 37

DEMON ARCHERS OF Calendars of Lucky and Unlucky Days, THE LION GODDESS New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 B.C.) The ancient Egyptians were sophisticated as pestilential winds. “Winds are invisible, practitioners of medicine and understood that just as demons were,” says Megahed. “But many contagious diseases could be cured. However, warm or cold winds can be felt, they they also realized that some epidemics resulted in can carry a scent, and they can make symptoms that could not be treated. These illnesses, they believed, were the work of demons controlled frightening noises. These winds took on by the goddess Sekhmet, who took the form of demonic aspects for Egyptians.” a lioness and was thought to be responsible for human health. Fayoum University Because Sekhmet’s demons were linked with winds and the spread Medical papyrus, New Kingdom of incurable diseases, individuals (ca. 1550–1070 B.C.) suffering during epidemics turned to the goddess’ priests for relief. Egyptologist El Zahraa Megahed has They prayed to Sekhmet to recently analyzed a variety of ancient stop her minions from spreading sources, including a New Kingdom (ca. disease, which was sometimes 1550–1070 B.C.) horoscope known as envisioned, particularly at cer- the Calendars of Lucky and Unlucky tain times of the year, as arrows Days. She has found that Egyptians let loose from the mouths of the believed epidemics were caused by wind demons. This explanation demons sent by Sekhmet that manifested might have had a real-world basis, as certain diseases are more likely to spread through the air during some months than others. For instance, winds could have carried contagions from the cadavers of animals drowned during the annual Nile flood. The Egyptians may have imagined these winds as arrows sent by Sekhmet’s demon archers that were dan- gerous to breathe in. Statue of the goddess Sekhmet, 38 New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 B.C.)

“Magic wands” depicting demons MAGIC WANDS religion had been in disarray, perhaps these wands gave some high-ranking Egyptians the confidence to tap into the power At the same time that artists began to depict demons in of demons and keep the forces of chaos at bay. Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030–1640 B.C.) tombs, carvings of these beasts also appeared on a type of artifact Egyptolo- Egyptologist Frank Vink notes that some Middle Kingdom gists have dubbed “magic wands.” Some 230 of these curved spells intended to be recited during pregnancy and throughout objects, usually made of highly polished hippopotamus ivory early childhood include a word that scholars interpret as “amu- and resembling the shape of tusks, are known. Though many let.” Perhaps, Vink suggests, magic wands were the amulets are worn from use, it’s clear that most were incised with depic- being cited in these spells. Tauret, the powerful hippopotamus tions of demons wielding knives. Some Egyptologists believe goddess, was associated with childbirth, and the fact that most the ancient Egyptians imagined the wands themselves as magic of the wands were made from hippopotamus tusks might link knives. High-status Egyptians who could afford them wielded them to her special role as the protector of mothers and young these powerful instruments against supernatural forces by call- children. One example of a Middle Kingdom magic wand has a ing upon the power of the demons to ward off evil. It’s possible cord still attached to it that could be worn around the neck. It’s the Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom developed these wands as possible that mothers and children alike wore these objects as a response to the period of religious and ideological uncertainty amulets to call upon knife-wielding demons to protect them that followed the collapse of the Old Kingdom (ca. 2649–2150 during the most vulnerable periods of their lives. B.C.). With the memory that traditional centers of power and archaeology.org 39

DANCING DEMONS WITH FEET OF FURY When they were first depicted in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030–1640 B.C.), demons were often shown gripping fearsome knives to ward off malevolent forces. They not only held these weapons with their hands or forepaws, but, also, in rare instances, with one foot. Egyptologist Kasia Szpakowska has found that by the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 B.C.), a few demons seem to have acquired a new means of wielding these weapons. Szpakowska has identified at least 30 depictions of demons brandishing knives with both of their feet or hindpaws. None of the artifacts identify the demons’ names or explain what, exactly, they are doing. But, by studying the placement of the figures, Szpakowska concluded that at least half seem to be engaged in some kind of dance. She believes the dance may be similar to the haka performed by the Maori of New Zealand. The haka, sometimes presented as an intimidating war dance, involves simple steps—stomp to the side, face forward, and then stomp to the other side. The New Kingdom demons may have been engaging in similar moves. Perhaps, thinks Szpakowska, the Egyptians were trying to show these demons as warrior dancers ready to protect their charges with knives bristling from every available limb. Depiction on wood of a demon brandishing knives with both feet, New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 B.C.) DEMON GATE GUARDIANS Aset of rare depictions of demons guarding a gate was dis- Reliefs depicting demon gate guardians, covered at a Saite Period (688–525 B.C.) tomb at the necrop- Abusir, Saite Period (688–525 B.C.) olis of Abusir. Belonging to a general named Menekhibenekau, the tomb also contains an enormous sarcophagus that depicts guardian demons. These creatures are often shown on objects or in tomb decorations standing guard by gates to the afterlife, but images of them acting as physical guardians of a tomb are uncommon. Charles University Egyptologist Renata Landgrafova recently analyzed reliefs that decorate the passage entrance to Menekhibenekau’s tomb chamber. She has found that they depict six gates to the underworld, each guarded by three demons act- ing as a team watching over the portals that Menekhibenekau has to travel through as he makes his way to the afterlife. Underworld gate guardians were probably also commonly understood as guardians of the tomb itself. “The fact that the demons are guarding metaphorical gates as well as an actual passage is significant,” says Landgrafova. “This is the only place we have them so obviously serving a dual function.” The demons depicted on the gate to Menekhibenekau’s tomb are the human-animal hybrids common in the Egyptian imagination. One gate is guarded by a turtle-headed demon named “eater of his own excrement,” a lion figure called “he with alert heart,” and a baboon demon known as “great one.” As Menekhibenekau journeyed to the underworld, he would have been required to show himself worthy to pass through these demons’ gates, even as they stood guard over his sarcophagus for eternity. 40 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

GHOSTS OF THE ANCESTORS Ancestral bust, New Kingdom Perhaps the most common Egyptian demons were the ghosts of one’s immediate family members. Often the (ca. 1550– spirits of the recently deceased were invoked in ritual texts 1070 B.C.) that asked for their blessings—what Egyptologists call “letters to the dead.” These texts were likely read aloud during certain rituals, and were inscribed on bowls or other objects left in tombs. The vast majority of these letters were addressed to the dead men, but Leiden University Egyptologist Renata Schiavo has identified a handful of such letters addressed to women. “These letters are rare,” she says, “but they are important documents that give us a sense that women also played an important role in ancestor worship.” One such text Schiavo studied came from the village of Deir el-Medina, the home of artisans who worked in the Val- ley of the Kings, where pharaohs of the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 B.C.) were buried. The letter was written on a piece of limestone as a rough draft of a text that was perhaps later inscribed on another object. It was written by a scribe named Butehamun and was addressed to the coffin of his dead wife Ikhtay. The text intimates that Butehamun is suffering from some kind of problem that he attributes to the spirit of Ikhtay. He asks the coffin to remind his wife that he has done nothing wrong, that his other deceased relatives still support him, and that she should do so as well. Other documents discovered at Deir el-Medina record that Butehamun remarried after Ikhtay “Letter to the dead” written on limestone, Deir el-Medina, New Kingdom (ca. 1550– 1070 B.C.) died. “It’s reasonable to posit that women were invoked in the so-called letters to the dead in order to appease their anger, perhaps because their husbands remarried, or because these women died in dramatic circumstances, for example during childbirth,” says Schiavo. She notes that other rituals are known that involved exorcizing the malevolent spirits of the dead, but this letter, and others like it, suggests a ritual that was intended to heal the relationship between the living and an angry spirit. Despite having remarried, the senders of these letters may have sought to restore the role of these deceased women as protectors of the household, and to invoke their powers as benevolent demons who could help guide their families, even from the afterlife. Q Eric A. Powell is deputy editor at Archaeology. archaeology.org 41

TO LIVE AND DIE Unearthing the unusual burial of a freedman who gained entrée into the city’s top social ranks By B L 42 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

IN POMPEII archaeology.org A large painted tomb dating to between A.D. 62 and 79 was recently discovered buried in volcanic debris in an unexplored necropolis outside the Porta Sarno, a gate on the eastern side of Pompeii. The epitaph (visible above the painted area on the tomb’s façade) identifies the deceased as a formerly enslaved man named Marcus Venerius Secu4nd3io.

Naples IV Mount Vesuvius V Porta Sarno Pompeii III VI POMPEII Via dell’Abbondanza II VII IX I VIII 0 500 1000 feet AT THE TIME POMPEII was buried by the A.D. been explored during modern excavations. In July 2021, an 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, it was a bus- international team of researchers, led by archaeologist Llorenç tling, cosmopolitan Roman city. Sitting at the Alapont of the European University of Valencia and overseen by crossroads of major regional arteries, it was Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director general of the Archaeological Park a commercial hub with a mixed population of Pompeii, uncovered a new masonry tomb dating to the last that included descendants of Greek settlers decades of the city in a largely unexplored necropolis outside the and of people known as the Samnites who had migrated to Porta Sarno, one of the city’s eastern gates. The tomb’s exterior is decorated with a now-faded painting of an idyllic garden and the area from the Apennine Mountains in the fifth century fountain that evoked the Roman vision of the afterlife. A marble B.C., as well as Romans who had arrived beginning in the third inscription on the facade identifies the deceased: century B.C. Weaving their way along busy streets, residents and travelers alike rubbed elbows at public fountains and in Marcus Venerius Secundio, a freedman of the colony, guardian of bars, baths, and bakeries. The city eventually spilled beyond the temple of Venus, Augustalis and minister of these. He, on his own, its walls, where shops, workshops, and apartment buildings gave Greek and Latin games for four days. sprang up just outside some of its seven gates. Inside the tomb, the team made a surprising discovery: a These areas, however, had long been the realm of the dead. hermetically sealed vaulted chamber containing one of the The Samnites buried their deceased there in shallow graves. best-preserved skeletons ever found in Pompeii. The deceased After the Romans conquered Pompeii and established it as a man had been positioned on his back with his head resting on colony in 80 B.C., they used these same spaces for their own a stone pillow and covered with a cloth shroud, fragments of cemeteries. From the late first century B.C. on, Pompeians which survive. Analysis of preserved strands of the man’s white constructed aboveground monumental tombs in necropo- hair, as well as of cartilage from his left ear, suggests that he lises outside all but one of the city gates. As was the custom was intentionally mummified. throughout the Italian peninsula, almost all adults in Pompeii At a site known for plaster casts of victims who perished were cremated—the Romans typically did not inter bodies, as they tried to flee the eruption that destroyed the city, the ways in which Pompeians chose to intentionally bury and aside from those of young children—and their urns were buried memorialize the deceased are not always clearly understood. inside tombs or deposited in recessed niches on tomb facades. To date, archaeologists have unearthed about 200 monu- mental tombs in Pompeii, the vast majority of which have not 44 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

Marcus Venerius Secundio’s unusual burial now offers Alapont and his colleagues a rare opportunity to investigate funerary customs and the social and cultural life of the city in its last decades. They believe that this former slave’s tomb reflects not only the elevated status he achieved in Pompeian society, but also his family’s attempt to emulate the imperial family. LIKE OTHERS IN POMPEII, Marcus’ tomb was built as much for the living as the dead. His burial chamber was located inside a larger rectangular enclosure with an area of 116 square feet and walls just over six feet tall. Alapont explains that this space would have allowed people to visit and leave offerings for the deceased. Inside the 26-square-foot burial chamber, Marcus’ body was laid out along the left wall as one entered, leaving ample room for people to perform funerary rituals. Resting next to his stone pillow were two glass unguentaria, small bottles that held perfumes and oils that would have been used to prepare his body and consecrate his tomb. Alapont and his team are still analyzing a substance pre- served on Marcus’ bones that is likely a remnant of the cloth shroud that was laid over his body. “Our hypothesis is that it’s asbestos,” Alapont says. “We’ve found this material in other tombs and it was very common for preserving bodies.” Along Glass bottles called unguentaria laid next to Marcus’ head contained perfumes and oils that would have been used to with the embalming oils and the oxygen-free environment prepare his body and consecrate the tomb. created by sealing the chamber with tufa blocks mortared in place, this shroud helped preserve Marcus’ body in the partially mummified state in which archaeologists discovered it. the Roman world. “Other cases of embalming in this period The fact that Marcus was not cremated is a striking depar- are known, but they’re all very particular,” says Alapont. “They ture from traditional Roman burial practices. Archaeologist were followers of Isis and other eastern gods.” As a result, Allison Emmerson of Tulane University says that while a few Alapont adds, he didn’t expect to find a tomb like this. “In other adult inhumations are known from Pompeii, those fact,” he says, “it’s the only tomb with an embalmed body in individuals were almost all older women. Only a handful of Pompeii. The reason for this burial ritual was to do it in a way embalmed bodies have been unearthed in excavations across that most others could not. Marcus was inhumed and not cremated because he had the power and money to do it.” From their initial examination of his bones and teeth, Alapont and his team have determined that Mar- cus died in his 60s, a considerably advanced age in antiquity. On his left hip bone, they found lesions indicat- ing he had taken a very hard fall. “These types of traumatic lesions are seen in horse falls,” says Alapont. He estimates Marcus’ fall occurred at least five to 10 years before his death. The researchers didn’t find any other signs of stress in his joints, suggesting that he hadn’t performed hard labor and that his job at the temple had not been physically taxing. Archaeologists also found two urns buried within the tomb enclo- sure. Along the wall to the left of the burial chamber was a ceramic urn The sealed chamber in which Marcus was buried preserved his partially mummified body. containing the cremated remains of archaeology.org 45

a public slave who served as a custodian of the Temple of Venus, Pompeii’s patron goddess. Unlike private slaves who worked in their owners’ houses, public slaves were the property of the city. In the same way that private slaves took the names of their owners, Secundio’s nomen, Venerius—the middle of the standard three names of Roman citizens—is derived from the full name of Pompeii after it was conquered by Rome: Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum. His work, which likely involved accepting offerings and managing temple operations, undoubtedly brought him into contact with wealthy and influential Roman citizens. The same Marcus Venerius The inscribed marble epitaph on the front of Marcus’ tomb records his accomplishments as Secundio also appears in another a slave and freedman, which included funding four days of theatrical performances. text found at Pompeii—he is named as a witness to the sale of public another adult. Buried in a corner was a glass urn—a rare find land on a wax tablet recording the business dealings of the at Pompeii—set in a metal box that also contained a bronze banker Lucius Caecilius Iucundus. At some point prior to nail, a symbolic marker that the burial was a sacred space witnessing the payment, Secundio had been manumitted and and that the urn should not be disturbed. This urn held the become a libertus, or freedman. With his new status as a Roman remains of a woman identified as Novia Amabilis on an citizen, he assumed the name Marcus Venerius Secundio. inscribed marble headstone called a columella mark- “He probably received tips and offerings from the ing her burial. Because she did not share Marcus’ people who visited the temple, and he might have middle name, Venerius, Alapont explains, she bought his freedom that way,” Alapont says. “Or could not have been his mother or daughter. “We he might have been so popular that he argued for are completely certain she must be his wife,” he his freedom in front of a magistrate on account of says. The urn also contained the bones of three children between three and eight years old, all of A bronze coin dating to A.D. 65 recovered inside whom researchers believe were the offspring of Mar- the tomb commemorates games honoring the tenth cus and Novia. A lidded amphora placed next to the anniversary of the emperor Nero’s reign (r. A.D. 54–68). columella served as a conduit for libation offerings his service to the city.” that mourners could pour into the urn. As a freedman, Marcus became a member of The researchers will continue to examine Pompeii’s Augustales, a selective group of priests Marcus’ remains, as well as the cloth fragments devoted to the cult of the emperor. During Marcus’ and preserved liquid recovered from the glass urn. later life, that emperor was Nero (r. A.D. 54–68). Using genetic testing and isotope analysis, they hope Although ancient sources portray Nero as a mad to learn more about Marcus’ diet and place of birth, as and profligate ruler, the number of Augustales known well as his relationship to the other individuals with whom to have been members during his reign is a testament to his he was interred. It’s also possible, Alapont says, that crema- initial popularity among the Roman people. Attaining a posi- tion urns belonging to other relatives are buried outside the tion in the Augustales was a goal of all ambitious freedmen, tomb’s walls, as is the case at several other tombs that have who accounted for most of the membership and were barred been excavated in Pompeii. from holding other civic offices. “The Augustales were power- ful and held a lot of influence,” Alapont says. “Only wealthy IT IS NOT JUST THE BONES and ashes of Marcus Venerius men could be members because you had to pay dues, either Secundio and his family that reveal their place in by arranging games for the people or making a public offering Pompeian society. The newly discovered epitaph has in the emperor’s name.” In Pompeii, the paths to economic allowed researchers to fill in details of Marcus’ life and and social advancement were open and flexible, even to the career. Although his origins are unknown, it’s clear from the formerly enslaved. “Freedmen presented themselves much like inscription that Secundio—as he was likely first known—was the elites, emphasizing their public offices and services to the 46 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022

city. This was the main way you built status at Pompeii,” says embalmed and buried following the rituals of “foreign kings,” Emmerson. “The fact that Marcus Venerius mentions he’s a presumably Macedonian royals such as Alexander the Great member of the Augustales and his contributions to the city is and the Ptolemies, a dynasty that ruled Egypt from 304 to in keeping with ways that other prominent freedmen and elites 30 B.C. Alapont and his team suggest that Marcus possibly commemorated themselves.” chose this particular—and expensive—burial treatment for Among his acts of public beneficence for the city, himself as a direct imitation of the empress and another way Marcus funded four days of Latin and Greek games. This might have been the fee he paid to become an Augustalis. to connect his legacy to that of Nero. “His tomb, inscription, According to Zuchtriegel, these games, or ludi, were not and the way his body was preserved and buried are signs athletic competitions or gladiatorial shows put on in the city’s amphitheater. Rather, they were theatrical and musical shows of the cultural and artistic movement of Nero, which was important in Pompeii,” says Alapont. performed in Latin and Greek. Nero had a great affinity for Greek culture and, as the second-century A.D. Roman historian Suetonius writes in his Life of Nero, the emperor frequently performed Greek musical and theatrical pieces himself at public functions. To celebrate the five-year anniversary of his reign, Nero established a Greek-inspired festival in Rome, called the Neronia, which featured musical performances in Greek, as well as gymnastic events and horse races. The Neronia were held for a second time in A.D. 65, three years before the emperor’s suicide. A bronze coin dating to around A.D. 65 that archaeologists found in Novia Amabilis’ cremation burial commemorates this second Neronia. Zuchtriegel thinks the coin’s presence is a nod to the Greek games Marcus boasts of in his epitaph, A marble headstone (above right) marks the grave of Marcus’ This glass urn was encased in a metal box and contained the wife, Novia Amabilis. An amphora (above left) was used as a cremated remains of Novia Amabilis and three young children. conduit for pouring libations into her burial. The placement of Marcus’ tomb, less than 100 feet outside which were likely modeled on those Nero had organized in the Porta Sarno and directly facing the gate, was clearly intend- the empire’s capital. The inscription provides the first clear ed to advertise the prosperity and prominence he had attained evidence that plays and musical works were performed in upon gaining his freedom and Roman citizenship. Everyone Greek in Pompeii, whose sizable population of Greek-speaking traveling out of Pompeii along the Via dell’Abbondanza, one residents included members of all social classes. of the city’s main thoroughfares, would have seen his epitaph and been able to read of his many contributions to the city. The fact that Marcus’ body was embalmed provides Despite his humble beginnings, Marcus Venerius Secundio further evidence of his desire to imitate the emperor and succeeded in preserving his memory, even 2,000 years after his family. Nero’s beloved second wife, Poppaea, a native his death, in the competitive landscape of Pompeii’s dead. Q Pompeian, died in A.D. 65, allegedly by the emperor’s own hand. The first- and second-century A.D. Roman historian Benjamin Leonard is senior editor at Archaeology. Tacitus relates that the emperor insisted on having her body archaeology.org 47

POTTERY’S ORIGIN STORIES Why did hunter-gatherers make the world’s first pots? By K R UNTIL RECENTLY, MANY scholars believed example. Pottery, archaeologists reasoned, increased farmers’ that the earliest pottery was made some 9,000 years ago, when Neolithic peoples efficiency, enabling them to process large harvests and stock their cupboards against lean months. And because producing in the Near East first settled down perma- ceramics requires time and pots are themselves cumbersome nently and turned to farming. Archaeologists thought that pots were initially used to cook objects, it was assumed that the transient lifestyles of hunter- cereals to make them more digestible or to ferment surplus gatherers were ill-suited to making pottery. grains so they could be stored for longer periods—as beer, for But archaeological discoveries have gradually chipped away at this consensus. Around 10 years ago, improvements 48 ARCHAEOLOGY • May/June 2022