Zut Alors!

From Archaeology magazine

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:20:42 -0700

Legend of the Crystal Skulls	Volume 61 Number 3, May/June 2008
by Jane MacLaren Walsh

Along with superstars like Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, and Shia LaBeouf, the newest Indiana Jones movie promises to showcase one of the most enigmatic classes of artifacts known to archaeologists, crystal skulls that first surfaced in the 19th century and that specialists attributed to various "ancient Mesoamerican" cultures. In this article, Smithsonian anthropologist Jane MacLaren Walsh shares her own adventures analyzing the artifacts that inspired Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (in theaters May 22), and details her efforts tracking down a mysterious "obtainer of rare antiquities" who may have held the key to the origin of these exotic objects.

In 1992, this hollow rock-crystal skull was sent to the Smithsonian anonymously. A letter accompanying the 30-pound, 10-inch-high artifact suggested it was of Aztec origin. (James Di Loreto & Donald Hurlburt/Courtesy Smithsonian Institution)

Sixteen years ago, a heavy package addressed to the nonexistent "Smithsonian Inst. Curator, MezoAmerican Museum, Washington, D.C." was delivered to the National Museum of American History. It was accompanied by an unsigned letter stating: "This Aztec crystal skull, purported to be part of the Porfirio Díaz collection, was purchased in Mexico in 1960.... I am offering it to the Smithsonian without consideration." Richard Ahlborn, then curator of the Hispanic-American collections, knew of my expertise in Mexican archaeology and called me to ask whether I knew anything about the object--an eerie, milky-white crystal skull considerably larger than a human head.

I told him I knew of a life-sized crystal skull on display at the British Museum, and had seen a smaller version the Smithsonian had once exhibited as a fake. After we spent a few minutes puzzling over the meaning and significance of this unusual artifact, he asked whether the department of anthropology would be interested in accepting it for the national collections. I said yes without hesitation. If the skull turned out to be a genuine pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifact, such a rare object should definitely become part of the national collections.

I couldn't have imagined then that this unsolicited donation would open an entirely new avenue of research for me. In the years since the package arrived, my investigation of this single skull has led me to research the history of pre-Columbian collections in museums around the world, and I have collaborated with a broad range of international scientists and museum curators who have also crossed paths with crystal skulls. Studying these artifacts has prompted new research into pre-Columbian lapidary (or stone-working) technology, particularly the carving of hard stones like jadeite and quartz.

Crystal skulls have undergone serious scholarly scrutiny, but they also excite the popular imagination because they seem so mysterious. Theories about their origins abound. Some believe the skulls are the handiwork of the Maya or Aztecs, but they have also become the subject of constant discussion on occult websites. Some insist that they originated on a sunken continent or in a far-away galaxy. And now they are poised to become archaeological superstars thanks to our celluloid colleague Indiana Jones, who will tackle the subject of our research in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Details about the movie's plot are being closely guarded by the film's producers as I write this, but the Internet rumor mill has it that the crystal skull of the title is the creation of aliens.

The author and Scott Whittaker, director of the Smithsonian's Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Facility, examine the "Mitchell-Hedges Skull." Silicone molds of the skull's carved features were analyzed by SEM for evidence of tool marks. (James Di Loreto/Courtesy Smithsonian Institution)

These exotic carvings are usually attributed to pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, but not a single crystal skull in a museum collection comes from a documented excavation, and they have little stylistic or technical relationship with any genuine pre-Columbian depictions of skulls, which are an important motif in Mesoamerican iconography.

They are intensely loved today by a large coterie of aging hippies and New Age devotees, but what is the truth behind the crystal skulls? Where did they come from, and why were they made?

Museums began collecting rock-crystal skulls during the second half of the nineteenth century, when no scientific archaeological excavations had been undertaken in Mexico and knowledge of real pre-Columbian artifacts was scarce. It was also a period that saw a burgeoning industry in faking pre-Columbian objects. When Smithsonian archaeologist W. H. Holmes visited Mexico City in 1884, he saw "relic shops" on every corner filled with fake ceramic vessels, whistles, and figurines. Two years later, Holmes warned about the abundance of fake pre-Columbian artifacts in museum collections in an article for the journal Science titled "The Trade in Spurious Mexican Antiquities."

French antiquarian Eugène Boban with his collection of Mesoamerican artifacts at an 1867 Paris exposition. Among the objects on display were two crystal skulls. At his feet rest a pot and a battleaxe Boban exhibited as Aztec. Both are fakes. (Courtesy Jane Walsh/Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico City)

The first Mexican crystal skulls made their debut just before the 1863 French intervention, when Louis Napoleon's army invaded the country and installed Maximilian von Hapsburg of Austria as emperor. Usually they are small, not taller than 1.5 inches. The earliest specimen seems to be a British Museum crystal skull about an inch high that may have been acquired in 1856 by British banker Henry Christy.

Two other examples were exhibited in 1867 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris as part of the collection of Eugène Boban, perhaps the most mysterious figure in the history of the crystal skulls. A Frenchman who served as the official "archaeologist" of the Mexican court of Maximilian, Boban was also a member of the French Scientific Commission in Mexico, whose work the Paris Exposition was designed to highlight. (The exhibition was not entirely successful in showcasing Louis Napoleon's second empire, since its opening coincided with the execution of Maximilian by the forces of Mexican president Benito Juárez.)

One small crystal skull was purchased in 1874 for 28 pesos by Mexico City's national museum from the Mexican collector Luis Costantino, and another for 30 pesos in 1880. In 1886, the Smithsonian bought a small crystal skull, this one from the collection of Augustin Fischer, who had been Emperor Maximilian's secretary in Mexico. But it disappeared mysteriously from the collection some time after 1973. It had been on display in an exhibit of archaeological fakes after William Foshag, a Smithsonian mineralogist, realized in the 1950s that it had been carved with a modern lapidary wheel.

In 1886, the Smithsonian acquired a crystal skull that may have been a pre-Columbian bead re-carved in the 19th century. This catalogue entry shows the object at close to its actual size, and with a vertical drill hole through its center. (Courtesy of Paula Fleming Collection)

These small objects represent the "first generation" of crystal skulls, and they are all drilled through from top to bottom. The drill holes may in fact be pre-Columbian in origin, and the skulls may have been simple Mesoamerican quartz crystal beads, later re-carved for the European market as little mementos mori, or objects meant to remind their owners of the eventuality of death.

In my research into the provenance of crystal skulls, I kept encountering Boban's name. He arrived in Mexico in his teens and spent an idyllic youth conducting his own archaeological expeditions and collecting exotic birds. Boban fell in love with Mexican culture--becoming fluent in Spanish and Nahuatl, the Aztec language--and began to make his living selling archaeological artifacts and natural history specimens through a family business in Mexico City.

After returning to France, he opened an antiquities shop in Paris in the 1870s and sold a large part of his original Mexican archaeological collection to Alphonse Pinart, a French explorer and ethnographer. In 1878, Pinart donated the collection, which included three crystal skulls, to the Trocadero, the precursor of the Musée de l'Homme. Boban had acquired the third skull in the Pinart collection sometime after his return to Paris; it is several times larger than any of the others from this early period, measuring about 4 inches high. This skull, now in the Musée du Quai Branly, has a large hole drilled vertically through its center. There is a comparable, though smaller, skull (about 2.5 inches high) in a private collection. It serves as the base for a crucifix; the somewhat larger Quai Branly skull may have had a similar use.

Macabre Obsession
The 19th century was a period of keen fascination with skulls and skeletons in Europe. During the reign of Louis Napoleon (1852-1870), French artists created stereoscopic photographs, called Diableries, of miniature dioramas of skeletons at dress balls, libraries (below), conferences with the devil, and in amorous trysts. Wicked lampoons of corruption at Napoleon's court, they illustrate how popular skeletal imagery was when the first crystal skulls made their appearance. (Courtesy of Paula Fleming Collection)

A second-generation skull--life-size and without a vertical hole--first appeared in 1881 in the Paris shop of none other than Boban. This skull is just under 6 inches high. The description in the catalogue he published provided no findspot for the object and it is listed separately from his Mexican antiquities. Boban called it a "masterpiece" of lapidary technology, and noted that it was "unique in the world."

Despite being one of a kind, the skull failed to sell, so when Boban returned to Mexico City in 1885, after a 16-year absence, he took it with him. He exhibited it alongside a collection of actual human skulls in his shop, which he dubbed the "Museo Cientifico." According to local gossip, Boban tried to sell it to Mexico's national museum as an Aztec artifact, in partnership with Leopoldo Batres, whose official government title was protector of pre-Hispanic monuments. But the museum's curator assumed the skull was a glass fake and refused to purchase it. Then Batres denounced Boban as a fraud and accused him of smuggling antiquities.

In July 1886, the French antiquarian moved his museum business and collection to New York City and later held an auction of several thousand archaeological artifacts, colonial Mexican manuscripts, and a large library of books. Tiffany & Co. bought the crystal skull at this auction for $950. A decade later, Tiffany's sold it to the British Museum for the original purchase price. Interestingly, Boban's 1886 catalogue for the New York auction lists yet another crystal skull. Of the smaller variety, it is described as being from the "Valley of Mexico" and is listed with a crystal hand, which is described as Aztec. Neither of these objects can now be accounted for.

A third generation of skulls appeared some time before 1934, when Sidney Burney, a London art dealer, purchased a crystal skull of proportions almost identical to the specimen the British Museum bought from Tiffany's. There is no information about where he got it, but it is very nearly a replica of the British Museum skull--almost exactly the same shape, but with more detailed modeling of the eyes and the teeth. It also has a separate mandible, which puts it in a class by itself. In 1943, it was sold at Sotheby's in London to Frederick Arthur (Mike) Mitchell-Hedges, a well-to-do English deep-sea fisherman, explorer, and yarn-spinner extraordinaire.

Since the 1954 publication of Mitchell-Hedges's memoir, Danger My Ally, this third-generation, twentieth-century skull has acquired a Maya origin, as well as a number of fantastic, Indiana Jones-like tall tales. His adopted daughter, Anna Mitchell-Hedges, who died last year at the age of 100, cared for it for 60 years, occasionally exhibiting the skull privately for a fee. It is currently in the possession of her widower, but 10 nieces and nephews have also laid claim to it. Known as the Skull of Doom, the Skull of Love, or simply the Mitchell-Hedges Skull, it is said to emit blue lights from its eyes, and has reputedly crashed computer hard drives.

The Mitchell-Hedges skull, top, and the British Museum skull were the subject of a series of 1936 articles in which British Museum curator Adrian Digby and physical anthropologist G. M. Morant debated whether the two were based on the same original skull, which Digby posited was perhaps revered as a Mesoamerican "death god."

Although nearly all of the crystal skulls have at times been identified as Aztec, Toltec, Mixtec, or occasionally Maya, they do not reflect the artistic or stylistic characteristics of any of these cultures. The Aztec and Toltec versions of death heads were nearly always carved in basalt, occasionally were covered with stucco, and were probably all painted. They were usually either attached to walls or altars, or depicted in bas reliefs of deities as ornaments worn on belts. They are comparatively crudely carved, but are more naturalistic than the crystal skulls, particularly in the depiction of the teeth. The Mixtec occasionally fabricated skulls in gold, but these representations are more precisely described as skull-like faces with intact eyes, noses, and ears. The Maya also carved skulls, but in relief on limestone. Often these skulls, depicted in profile, represent days of their calendars.

French and other European buyers imagined they were buying skillful pre-Columbian carvings, partially convinced perhaps by their own fascinated horror with Aztec human sacrifice. But the Aztecs didn't hang crystal skulls around their necks. Instead, they displayed the skulls of sacrificial victims on racks, impaling them horizontally through the sides (the parietal-temporal region), not vertically.

I believe that all of the smaller crystal skulls that constitute the first generation of fakes were made in Mexico around the time they were sold, between 1856 and 1880. This 24-year period may represent the output of a single artisan, or perhaps a single workshop. The larger 1878 Paris skull seems to be some sort of transitional piece, as it follows the vertical drilling of the smaller pieces, but its size precludes it being a bead, or being worn in any way. This skull now resides in the basement laboratories of the Louvre, and the Musée du Quai Branly has begun a program of scientific testing on the piece that will include advanced elemental analysis techniques like particle induced X-ray emission and Raman spectroscopy, so we may know more about its material and age in the near future.

South American Idol?

In the opening scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones is hot on the trail of an extremely valuable golden idol created by an unidentified ancient South American culture. The goddess's image, which Jones deftly snatches from an altar (setting off a series of booby traps that culminate with an enormous boulder nearly crushing our hero), is of a woman in the act of giving birth. The golden figure was modeled on a purportedly Aztec greenstone carving called Tlazolteotl, considered to be a masterpiece by the Dumbarton Oaks Museum in Washington, D.C.

In my research into the object's acquisition history, I discovered that a Chinese dealer in Paris sold the figure in 1883 to a famous French mineralogist, Augustin Damour. His friend, Eugene Boban, advised Damour on the purchase. In examining the artifact's iconography, I found that the birthing position is unknown in documented pre-Columbian artifacts or depictions in codices. I have also used scanning electron microscopy to analyze the manufacture of the idol and have found there is ample evidence of the use of modern rotary cutting tools on the object's surface. In my opinion, the Tlazolteotl idol, like the crystal skulls, is a nineteenth-century fake.

The 1878 Paris skull and the Boban-Tiffany-British Museum skull that appeared in 1881 are perhaps nineteenth-century European inventions. There is no direct tie to Mexico for either of these two larger skulls, except through Boban; they simply appear in Paris long after his initial return from Mexico in 1869. The Mitchell-Hedges skull, which appears after 1934, is a veritable copy of the British Museum skull, with stylistic and technical flourishes that only an accomplished faker would devise. In fact, in 1936 British Museum scholar Adrian Digby first raised the possibility that the Mitchell-Hedges skull could be a copy of the British Museum skull since it showed "a perverted ingenuity such as one would expect to find in a forger." However, Digby, then a young curator, did not suggest it was a modern forgery and also dismissed the possibility that his museum's own crystal skull was a fraud, as early twentieth-century microscopic examination did not reveal the presence of modern tool marks.

The skull that arrived at the Smithsonian 16 years ago represents yet another generation of these hoaxes. According to its anonymous donor, it was purchased in Mexico in 1960, and its size perhaps reflects the exuberance of the time. In comparison with the original nineteenth-century skulls, the Smithsonian skull is enormous; at 31 pounds and nearly 10 inches high, it dwarfs all others. I believe it was probably manufactured in Mexico shortly before it was sold. (The skull is now part of the Smithsonian's national collections and even has its own catalogue number: 409954. At the moment it is stored in a locked cabinet in my office.)

There are now fifth- and probably sixth-generation skulls, and I have been asked to examine quite a number of them. Collectors have brought me skulls purportedly from Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, and even Tibet. Some of these "crystal" skulls have turned out to be glass; a few are made of resin.

British Museum scientist Margaret Sax and I examined the British Museum and Smithsonian skulls under light and scanning electron microscope and conclusively determined that they were carved with relatively modern lapidary equipment, which were unavailable to pre-Columbian Mesoamerican carvers. (A preliminary report on our research is on the British Museum website, www.britishmuseum.ac.uk/compass). So why have crystal skulls had such a long and successful run, and why do some museums continue to exhibit them, despite their lack of archaeological context and obvious iconographic, stylistic, and technical problems? Though the British Museum exhibits its skulls as examples of fakes, others still offer them up as the genuine article. Mexico's national museum, for example, identifies its skulls as the work of Aztec and Mixtec artisans. Perhaps it is because, like the Indiana Jones movies, these macabre objects are reliable crowd-pleasers.

Impressed by their technical excellence and gleaming polish, generations of museum curators and private collectors have been taken in by these objects. But they are too good to be true. If we consider that pre-Columbian lapidaries used stone, bone, wooden, and possibly copper tools with abrasive sand to carve stone, crystal skulls are much too perfectly carved and highly polished to be believed.

Ultimately, the truth behind the skulls may have gone to the grave with Boban, a masterful dealer of many thousands of pre-Columbian artifacts--including at least five different crystal skulls--now safely ensconced in museums worldwide. He managed to confound a great many people for a very long time and has left an intriguing legacy, one that continues to puzzle us a century after his death. Boban confidently sold museums and private collectors some of the most intriguing fakes known, and perhaps many more yet to be recognized. It sounds like a great premise for a movie.

Jane MacLaren Walsh is an anthropologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

From Archaeology magazine

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:12:45 -0700

Moored in the Desert	Volume 54 Number 3, May/June 2001
by David O'Connor and Matthew Adams

Digging an ancient armada

Fourteen ships, built in the early part of Dynasty I (2950-2775 B.C.), were buried side by side amid funerary enclosures belonging to Egypt's earliest kings. (Penn-Yale-IFA)

Investigating a series of mud-brick enclosures near Khentyamentiu's temple a mile north of the cemetery at Umm el Qa'ab in 1991, we fully expected to find more enclosures dedicated to Egypt's earliest kings. Instead, we found the remains of 14 ancient ships "moored" in the desert, miles from the Nile. The ships, which date to early Dynasty I (2950-2775 B.C.), appeared to be associated with the enclosure of an early king, perhaps even Aha, the first of the Dynasty I rulers. The discovery was exciting, but also frustrating. The ships were the earliest planked vessels to survive anywhere in the world, but were so fragile they presented excavation and conservation challenges exceeding our field capabilities at the time, beyond a limited exploration of one vessel.

We returned to our ships in May 2000, exposing about ten feet of the same hull we had briefly examined in 1991. Our conservators successfully removed and conserved the exposed planking, as well as reeds and rope fragments belonging to the boat's structure. So far, we have found no human remains in the boat-graves. The only associated materials are crude offering pots, some of which once had inscribed mud stoppers, of which only fragments survived.

The function of the Abydos boats remains a mystery. Did they serve as "solar boats," which, in later belief, were used by deceased kings to travel through the cosmos like the sun-god? Or were the vessels, like food, clothing, and servants, simply buried to serve the king in the afterlife? Our planned excavation of an entire ship in 2002 may answer some of these questions.

David O'Connor is Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Matthew Adams is a research scholar with the Institute of Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Abydos Intro

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Oldie but goodie

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:10:40 -0700

October 31, 2000

Early Pharaohs' Ghostly Fleet

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

New York University Photo

Excavations at the Abydos site south of Cairo began at the turn of the 20th century. In 1988, archaeologists discovered traces of the grave boats. These conservators work to preserve the exposed wooden planking.

Egyptologists hope to learn more about the significance of boats in ancient Egyptian religion and royal funerary practices, related to the belief that the sun-god Ra traveled by boat through the sky by day and the netherworld by night in cycles of regeneration. Click here for a larger image.

rchaeologists have excavated the hull of a boat fit for an ancient Egyptian king's eternal journey in the afterlife.

The 5,000-year-old wooden hull, they say, is the earliest surviving example of a "built" boat, one constructed out of planks fitted together and representing a major advance in boat-building technology over the dugout logs and reed vessels of more ancient vintage.

The boat — about 75 feet long and 7 to 10 feet wide at the widest part, with narrowing prow and stern and a shallow draft — was examined in detail this summer by American archaeologists at Abydos, 300 miles south of Cairo. Here the earliest pharaohs known to history were buried, long before the pyramids at Giza, outside Cairo, or the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, across the Nile from Thebes.

A study of the Abydos boat and at least 13 others buried in parallel, like a fleet riding at anchor near mortuary monuments, is expected to provide scholars with new evidence about the wealth, power and technological prowess of the earliest royal dynasties of the Egyptian civilization. The boats have not been precisely dated, but other remains indicate they were associated with pharaohs of the first dynasty, beginning around 3000 B.C.

"I'm thrilled to see an example of early technology like this," said Dr. Cheryl Ward, a nautical archaeologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee who examined a 10-foot-long section of the hull. "In the ancient world, boats were the most complex machines produced. They were one of the premier symbols of the leadership of the pharaoh."

Egyptologists hope to learn from these findings more about the significance of boats in the ancient religion and royal funerary practices, related to the belief that the sun-god Ra traveled by boat through the sky by day and the netherworld by night in cycles of regeneration. Boats were buried near a king's tomb so that in death he, too, could achieve endless renewal.

The Abydos boat, archaeologists said, predated by as much as 400 years the famous boat recovered at Pharaoh Khufu's pyramid at Giza, but in meaning and function it appeared to be a direct ancestor. The boat's design and construction also should provide insights into the craft plying the Nile on more mundane missions in early Egypt.

"Our boat experts say this is an actual and viable boat, not a symbolic one," Dr. David O'Connor of New York University, director of the expedition, said in an interview. "But there's no evidence that any of these boats were ever actually used in water. Would you give a king a used boat?"

An official announcement of the excavations was made in Cairo last week by Farouk Hosni, Egypt's minister of culture, and Dr. G. A. Gaballa, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The council licensed the work at Abydos by archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Yale University and New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.

"It's tremendous news," said Dr. Rita E. Freed, an Egyptologist at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, who was not involved in the project. "This is clearly a boat technology the Egyptians would have used in daily life. It also shows their abilities for organization and technology."

Until now, the only evidence of such ancient Egyptian boats came from illustrations on pottery and tomb walls, and archaeologists could not be sure how realistic these were. Of the few actual boats to survive, the oldest had been two found in boat- shaped pits next to Khufu's pyramid at Giza; each was 142 feet long.

"The rarity of royal boat burials suggests that kings' burials might have more often included boat models, magically empowered substitutes for the real thing," Dr. O'Connor said. The tomb of Tutankhamen, who lived much later, in the 18th dynasty, more than 3,300 years ago, contained 35 boat models.

Boats of one sort or another have a much deeper history. Dugout boats from about 6000 B.C. have been uncovered in Denmark, and rafts and reed vessels were probably in use for thousands of years earlier than that. People were presumably floating some kind of boats as early as 50,000 years ago, or how else could humans have first settled Australia.

"We don't see built planked boats until we get to Egypt, not until the start of urban civilizations," Dr. Ward said in an interview. "It takes a lot of skill to build a boat like the ones at Abydos, something we don't think about in our day of power tools. There had to be trained workers shaping the wood, usually with stone tools. It took planning and discipline and a higher level of organization in a society, which the Egyptians must have had 5,000 years ago."

Archaeologists have been digging the ruins of Abydos since the turn of the 20th century. In 1988, while exploring a northern sector of the site, more than a mile away from the royal tombs, the American team, including Dr. O'Connor, found lines of mud brick peeking from the wind- deposited sand. At first, they took these to be buried walls. After closer examination three years later, Dr. O'Connor reported what he then called a "startling and significant discovery." Each "wall" turned out to be part of an enormous boat "grave."

Preliminary excavations in 1991 revealed 12 such graves, each lined and topped with brick and each enclosing a wooden boat. The outline of each grave was the shape of a boat. Each grave surface was originally coated with mud plaster and whitewash, giving the impression of a great white fleet, and a small boulder had been placed near the prow or stern of several graves, the suggestion of anchors. Dr. O'Connor said the placement of the boulders "seems deliberate, not random."

Except for a few scattered probes to determine the presence of actual boats, archaeologists made no attempt then to excavate any of the graves. They needed to make arrangements for the conservation and perhaps reconstruction of any excavated boats, and to obtain permission from the Egyptian authorities. All this came together in time for last summer's digging season.

The excavators started by clearing a three-foot-deep covering of sand off the No. 10 boat. Dr. Matthew Adams, a Penn archaeologist and the associate project director, said this particular grave was chosen because part of its buried hull had already been exposed in 1991 and appeared to be revealing, even though it was in a poor state of preservation. All the better, the team figured, for investigating what it will take to preserve the remains from more promising graves.

For about five days, Dr. Adams recalled, excavators carefully probed the midsection of the buried boat beneath its mud brick topping. They uncovered wooden planks, the remains of rope and reed matting and bundles. Wood-eating ants had been busy, and in many places all that was left of the hull was frass, the ants' excrement.

"The frass retained the shape of the original wood," Dr. Adams said. "So we could see from the frass as well as the remaining wood the profile of the original wooden hull."

Noting that the type of wood has yet to be identified, Dr. Adams said: "Wood was a precious commodity in Egypt, and when we determine the type of wood, we'll be able to pinpoint just where it came from, which opens a whole new avenue of understanding about trade, political relationships and power."

After examining the hull section, Dr. Ward said the flat-bottomed boat reflected "a previously undocumented style of construction" for that period. The boat appeared to be built from the outside in, in contrast to the later shipbuilding technique of starting with an internal frame. The thick planks were lashed together by rope fed through mortises. The seams between planks were filled with bundles of reeds to make the boat watertight. Additional reeds carpeted the floor.

Judging by the length of these boats, from 60 to 80 feet, she said, they probably would have been propelled by as many as 30 rowers. Two additional boat graves were found during the most recent excavations.

Dr. O'Connor said that other artifacts found in and around the boat graves might eventually help with dating and understanding this royal fleet. Archaeologists have already uncovered more than 30 pottery jars, each about a foot tall and of a shape that typically was used for beer, and some seal impressions. So far, none of the remains bear the name or other identifying clues of the king for whom the boats were interred.

The current assumption is that all the Abydos boats were buried at about the same time and were intended for the use of one king in the afterlife. But which king?

Archaeologists have ruled out what once appeared to be the most likely candidate, Pharaoh Khasekhemwy from the late second dynasty, about 2675 B.C. The ruins of a huge enclosure of thick mud-brick walls, standing near the row of boat graves, has been associated with the performance of sacred rituals for this particular pharaoh after his burial at Abydos. But further research has established that the graves lie in a lower stratum of sediment, and thus probably were dug sometime during the first dynasty, which extended from about 3000 B.C. to 2800.

Dr. O'Connor said that the boat graves might have been associated with Pharaoh Djer of the first dynasty, whose probable cult center has been uncovered in the vicinity, or even to Aha, the first of the first dynasty rulers of Egypt, whose reign began shortly after 3000 B.C.

Whomever they were intended to venerate, the Abydos boats were an impressive expression of religion and power by the ancestors of Egyptians who would later outdo themselves in temples and pyramids throughout the land.

"This is the oldest, largest and most amazing waste of labor we know of up to this time," Dr. Ward said. "This is an incredible investment by the government in validating itself by burying all these boats."

But the mode of expression was based on the Egyptian concept of life after death. "Virtually everything the Egyptians did on this scale was religious," said Dr. Freed of the Boston museum.

The American team plans to return to the site this winter to make a more detailed inspection of the wood and other material and also to continue treating the fragile wood to prevent its deterioration. Dr. Deborah Schorsch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is in charge of the conservation work, which is supported by a grant from the United States International Development Agency in Egypt.

In two years, archaeologists expect to dig up another of the Abydos boats, one they have reason to think is better preserved. Egyptologists may then have an even better idea of what it was like to cruise the Nile 5,000 years ago and how people prepared their kings for the ultimate voyage.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Ancient Graves Found in Greece

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:12:02 -0700

Monday, March 10, 2008

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greek workers discovered around 1,000 graves, some filled with ancient treasures, while excavating for a subway system in the historic city of Thessaloniki, the state archaeological authority said Monday.

Some of the graves, which dated from the first century B.C. to the 5th century A.D., contained jewelry, coins and various pieces of art, the Greek archaeological service said in a statement.

Thessaloniki was founded around 315 B.C. and flourished during the Roman and Byzantine eras. Today it is the Mediterranean country's second largest city.

Most of the graves - 886 - were just east of the city center in what was the eastern cemetery during Roman and Byzantine times. Those graves ranged from traces of wooden coffins left in simple holes in the ground, to marble enclosures in five-room family mausoleums.

A separate group of 94 graves were found near the city's train station, in what was once part of the city's western cemetery.

More findings were expected as digging for the Thessaloniki metro continues. Digging started in 2006 and the first 13 stations are expected to be done by the end of 2012. A 10-station extension to the west and east has been announced.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Ancient Tomb Found on Greek Island

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:43:52 -0800

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 5, 2008

greektomb_5mar08.jpg

A partly demolished, 3,000-year-old tomb recently discovered on the western Greek island of Lefkada is seen in this undated hand out photo released by Greek Culture Ministry on Wednesday, March 5, 2008. Archaeologists said the beehive-shaped tomb, which contained several human skeletons and grave offerings, was the first major Mycenaean-era monument to be found on the island. (AP Photo/Greek Culture Ministry, HO)

ATHENS, Greece -- Road construction on the western Greek island of Lefkada has uncovered and partially destroyed an important tomb with artifacts dating back more than 3,000 years, officials said on Wednesday.

The find is a miniature version of the large, opulent tombs built by the rulers of Greece during the Mycenaean era, which ended around 1100 B.C. Although dozens have been found in the mainland and on Crete, the underground, beehive-shaped monuments are very rare in the western Ionian Sea islands, and previously unknown on Lefkada.

The discovery could fuel debate on a major prehistoric puzzle - where the homeland of Homer's legendary hero Odysseus was located.

"This is a very important find for the area, because until now we had next to no evidence on Mycenaean presence on Lefkada," excavator Maria Stavropoulou-Gatsi told The Associated Press.

Stavropoulou-Gatsi said the tomb was unearthed about a month ago by a bulldozer, during road construction work.

"Unfortunately, the driver caused significant damage," she said.

She said the tomb contained several human skeletons, as well as smashed pottery, two seal stones, beads made of semiprecious stones, copper implements and clay loom weights. It appeared to have been plundered during antiquity.

With a nine-foot diameter, the tomb is very small compared to others, such as the Tomb of Atreus in Mycenae, which was more than 46 feet across and built of stones weighing up to 120 tons.

But it could revive scholarly debate on the location of Odysseus' Ithaca mentioned in Homer's poems - which are believed to be loosely based on Mycenaean-era events. While the nearby island of Ithaki is generally identified as the hero's kingdom, other theories have proposed Lefkada or neighboring Kefallonia.

Stavropoulou-Gatsi said the discovery might cause excitement on Lefkada but it was too soon for any speculation on Odysseus.

"I think it is much too early to engage in such discussion. The location of Homer's Ithaca is a very complex issue," she said.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Experts unearth medieval Berlin under car park

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:53:08 -0800

Thu Jan 31, 2008
By Sylvia Westall

BERLIN (Reuters) - A team of experts has unearthed an 800-year-old cellar under a central Berlin car park which they say dates the city back to the 12th century, earlier than previously thought.

The cellar, which dates from 1192, was found alongside the remains of a graveyard, church and school on a site which the archaeologists say formed the heart of medieval Berlin.

Museum experts had previously been able to date the medieval town where Berlin now stands back to 1237 using church records.

"We are unearthing a medieval town in the centre of a modern city. Usually modern cities are so built up which makes excavation difficult -- so this is a very rare find," said lead archaeologist Claudia Melisch, running her hand along striped layers of medieval soil.

The 1,100 square meter dig site, overshadowed by grey concrete tower blocks and enclosed by busy roads, was first unearthed in March last year, when the team found skeletons and the remains of a school from later in the Middle Ages.

But the cellar, which was discovered just a few weeks ago, became the site's prize find this week, when its oak beams were dated for the first time.

Melisch said the site, which straddled medieval Berlin and the town of Coelln, was especially lucky to survive Berlin's bombardment during World War Two when large parts of the city were completely destroyed.

Ironically, it was thanks to a thick layer of concrete that the site survived intensive East German building programs during post-war years which drove foundations through the soil.

"It is so lucky this was all under a car park. It meant that very few pipelines went through the archaeological evidence, allowing it to be preserved," Melisch said.

Excavation work will continue at the site, located on Berlin's central 'Museum Island,' until September.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend