More Interesting Archaeological Finds Something which confirms what I have said about fossils has been found. Before I get into it, I just want to say I have written a couple of times about ancient fossils being displayed in ancient Greek temples. This was not recognized by most in the archaeological community. Scientists have announced they have found evidence of ancient fossil hunting which was found from the Bronze Age at Mycenae. Why the ancients hunted fossils was probably not for the same reasons we do today. It could be they thought they were the remains of gods or mythical creatures, but maybe, just maybe they realized they were from extinct animals. Science has been wrong before, and assessing the reasons for an ancient bone hunt, might not be as simple as we think. The ancient Greeks have shown themselves to be very smart. I bet most of you have never heard of the country of Urartu. I can’t blame you, I never heard of it either. It no longer exists, but was in the Armenian highlands near Lake Van. It became a country in the 9th century B.C. It only lasted until the 6th century B.C. Archaeologists have discovered a fortress called the Kef Fortress which was built by king Rusa of Urartu. The archaeologists are discovering many artifacts at the location including obsidian tools, the forerunner of metal tools. When archaeologists started to dig at a location in Spain, they were hoping to find a lost Roman city. What they found blew their collective minds. Using radar, they found an over abundance of Roman settlements, 57 to be exact. It has been said the settlements would have been connected by a river. Roman settlements and cities never cease to amaze. The fact we are still finding locations of unknown Roman structures and settlements is incredible. Even in England, they continuously find these things. The same thing is true for Egypt. I find archaeology just as fascinating as astronomy. Both fields have their astounding discoveries. It has been said everyone in the government would love to work at NASA. The same is true for archaeology in a way. I think most archaeologists would love to be on a dig in Egypt or searching ancient Mayan ruins. I have a question for you, if an ancient structure is destroyed, should it be rebuilt? My answer would be it depends on different factors. The first is how important was the site. The second is will the money it takes to restore it, take away for other important archaeological digs. I bring this up since it was just announced a Mexican pyramid just collapsed after a rain storm. What do you think? It is always exciting when ancient records are discovered. Lucky for us some were made on long lasting clay tablets. More tablets from Babylon were found which are 4,000 years old. They were discovered a long time ago but only recently translated. Of course they had to contain ominous warnings, or this wouldn’t be as much fun. One of the warnings was a nation will fall. This made me laugh because some people actually worry about this stuff. I have to ask the question how many nations have fallen in the last 4,000 years? There have been plenty, so this could not have been aimed at us since we didn’t even exist at the time and neither did many other countries. An abandoned city in the desert named Hegra, was taken over by the Romans, but was eventually abandoned, which made it a pristine relic for archaeologists, who are learning about the people who lived there. One of the amazing things about it are the tombs carved into solid rock. The people who originally occupied the city were Nabateans. The structures carved into the stone remind one of Petra, in Jordan. I think it is safe to say many of us know of the incredible work the Romans did with mosaics. An ancient Greek mosaic floor has been uncovered which is quite unusual and beautiful. The floor was from the 4th century B.C. and featured two satyrs. It was found on the island of Evia. It was said to have been made with pebbles and contains four different colors of red, black, white, and yellow. It is always interesting when ancient coins are found, especially gold ones. Turkey is one of the places which is a gold mine for relics, because so many countries left their mark there. Well, it happened again, another find was made there. This time a hoard of gold coins was found. They were found in the ancient Greek city of Notion. The coins were found in pottery which was buried under the remains of a house. The coins were Persian. People used to bury their fortunes to keep them safe and sometimes they died before they could retrieve their goods. Egyptian treasure has been found again. There seems to be unlimited treasures to be found in that country, even though people have been digging there for thousands of years. It makes me wonder if they will ever run out of artifacts or even bodies? It seems dozens of tombs were found and in those tombs were treasures. While we may not think of some of the stuff as treasure, like bronze coins, the ancients did and that was why that was in the tombs. But there were also figurines and gold foil. I admit this was not like finding gold coins or gold bars, but this stuff would have some value if sold on the open market, not that this is going to happen. The tombs dated back 2,500 years. It turns out our country once had a very large civilization living here. The mystery is why did they abandon their settlement? The Cahokia settlement had a population of 50,000 people or more and it seems they were doing quite well, until they weren’t. Scientists have been trying to figure out this mystery since the site was discovered. Today, St. Louis is located where the former settlement was. At first it was thought drought caused their exodus, but some scientists don’t think so anymore. Scientists have found the population was still getting the same amount of food, that is why drought being the cause is being eliminated. So, what could have caused the population to leave 900 years ago? Only guesses remain. Some think people were just gradually moving and were not replaced until the city became empty. This idea just doesn’t ring true to me. I think maybe the population left because of some type of threat. It could have been a religious prediction, or maybe the threat of war by some race we haven’t discovered, or one we have.
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