archaeology

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FfaerieOxide, in Neanderthals lived in groups big enough to eat giant elephants
@FfaerieOxide@kbin.social avatar

Well yeah, but that's just a single dude who's, "So hungry [they] could eat a giant elephant".

DharmaCurious, in Medieval 'curse tablet' summoning Satan discovered at the bottom of a latrine in Germany
@DharmaCurious@startrek.website avatar

Yeah, just post that shit for everyone to read. Ending the world via a scrap of lead covered in ancient poo wasn’t on my end-of-2023 bingo card, but I am honestly not surprised.

Pons_Aelius, in Archaeologists unearth ‘most shocking example of Roman slavery’ at Pompeii

As the article states. Slavery is an aspect of Roman society that is so often hand waved away or basically ignored by pretty much every historical discussion or documentary.

When you hear about Julius Caesar in Gaul: one third of the entire population was sold into slavery over the course of a few years.

The entire roman economy ran on slavery.

Spartacus is a staple of modern media thanks to Giovagnoli's novel and its translation into English but the brutality with which it and the other two "Slave wars" were put down in the space of 60 years are rarely touched on.

DogMuffins, in Paleolithic humans may have understood the properties of rocks for making stone tools

Well of course they knew which rocks would make the best tools, having been doing it for millennia.

a_mac_and_con, (edited ) in Baboon mummy DNA from ancient Egypt reveals location of mysterious port city not on any maps
@a_mac_and_con@kbin.social avatar

It is fascinating how they have used this evidence to find a place previously considered "fabled".

However, this part of the article absolutely slays me:

The baboon is the only animal not native to Egypt that is linked with Egyptian deities, Kopp said, and it's a little odd that ancient Egyptians took such interest in baboons. They tend to steal crops and break into homes looking for food, making them difficult to live with, she said.

"The people who coexist with baboons don't really like them," Kopp told Live Science.

No_Eponym, in Headless skeletons in China represent the largest known headhunting massacre from Neolithic Asia
@No_Eponym@lemmy.ca avatar

“Interpersonal conflict with a high level of cruelty.”

“Brutality exerted on …people.”

Humans haven’t changed much in 4000 years, huh?

NigelFrobisher, in Cold war satellite images reveal hundreds of unknown Roman forts

Whenever you visit a Roman Fort marked on an O.S. map it’s pretty much always just a barely noticeable hump in the field where there may once have been a wall - if you’re lucky enough to see anything.

PlasmaDistortion, in Ancient Egyptian cemetery holds rare 'Book of the Dead' papyrus and mummies

It can’t hurt to read it out loud during a midnight ceremony. Right?

milliams, in Researchers use AI to read word on ancient scroll burned by Vesuvius

Not “AI”. It’s a standard machine learning model Seems to be some image segmentation plus extras using PyTorch. The original source never mentioned the term “AI”, so why did the Guardian decide to bandwagon jump? The research and discovery is just as exciting without smacking the AI label on it.

TheOctonaut, in Dark-Age Skeletons Uncovered With Buckets on Their Feet And Rings Around Their Necks

Why is Business Insider trying to write archaeology articles? This is awful.

superpill, in Stunning jade mask found inside the tomb of a mysterious Maya king

I reject my humanity, Jojo!

DigitalTraveler42, in Stunning jade mask found inside the tomb of a mysterious Maya king

Don’t put it on!

Dremor, (edited )
@Dremor@lemmy.world avatar

Why not? It looks sssssmokin’!

DigitalTraveler42,

Sad Jojo noises

Dremor,
@Dremor@lemmy.world avatar

I had to choose one reference, and I’m no Jojo expert. 😆

DigitalTraveler42,

Well The Mask is the fun Norse God version, Jojo is the semi-scary ridiculously powerful vampire version, either was the right answer, lol.

xilliah, (edited ) in Hunter-gatherers were mostly gatherers, says archaeologist

On a tad bit related note I remember reading that it was common for people to be buried with all of their possessions and that women occasionally had hunting equipment buried with them.

I’m just adding it here because I feel it’s connected to the idea that eating lots of meat is naturally manly. Apparently it’s just an exaggerated fantasy that’s part of our own modern culture and the reality seems to be that we were effectively ‘flexitarians’ and that women to some extent hunted too.

Open to pedantic replies 😁

lvxferre, in Huge ancient city found in the Amazon
@lvxferre@lemmy.ml avatar

The settlement is right at the border of what would be controlled by the Inca government, two millenniums later. It shows that there’s some decent access to the region from the west than you’d be led to believe, with the Andes in the way.

As such, if they find other cities further east, I’m predicting that, culturally speaking, they’ll resemble nothing this one; even if they happen to be roughly the same size.

People ate maize and sweet potato, and probably drank “chicha”, a type of sweet beer.

“If you don’t have chicha, any small thing will do.” (reference to a certain song)

Serious now. Potentially yucca too - it grows right next door, and if they got maize from North America then they likely traded for crops.

Akasazh, in Earliest Carpenters: The 476,000-year-old log structure predates the appearance of the first modern humans by some 150,000 years and was likely the handiwork of Homo heidelbergensis.
@Akasazh@feddit.nl avatar

The 476,000-year-old log structure predates the appearance of the first modern humans by some 150,000 years and was likely the handiwork of the archaic human species Homo heidelbergensis. Paleoanthropologists believe H. heidelbergensis was highly mobile. Thus, it is surprising that the hominins would have invested labor in building a semipermanent structure. “We haven’t seen archaic humans manipulating their environment on such a large scale before,” says Barham. “It suggests an attachment to a single point on the landscape.”

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

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