Shipwrecks and Other Interesting Finds Lately, it seems a lot more shipwrecks are being found. Some are more or less modern, some hundreds of years old and others really very ancient. It amazes me that shipwrecks many thousands can still exist. I think this surprises the average person and I consider myself one and believe me when I hear archaeologists or others have found one of those types of wrecks, I am very surprised anything at all exists. I do realize however wrecks in fresh water have a better chance of surviving in some form and wrecks that exist in areas of water where there isn’t much oxygen at the bottom also preserve wrecks much longer. Archaeologists have found the shipwrecks in Greek waters that date back all the way to 3,000 B.C. They were among nine other wrecks which ranged in age between 3,000 B.C. to 300 A.D. Can you imagine finding a shipwreck which was over 5,000 years old? Some of the wrecks are Roman cargo ships which still had some cargo in and around them. It is being said we can expect a documentary to be made about the find. It is believed the very first sails came into use on ships around 5,000 years ago. Before that it was oars powering ships. They had come into use around 5,000 B.C. The first wooden paddle which was found so far was dated from around 6,200 B.C. Sometimes something much larger than an ancient ship is found and this is what happened in Slovenia. The University of Ljubljana’s Institute of Underwater Archaeology, known as ZAPA found the remains of a Roman harbor off the coast of Portoroz. There were over 3,000 artifacts also found. Some of the artifacts were ship’s masts, rigging, parts of sails and other things. One has to wonder how a former harbor could have been forgotten. There also was plenty of mass-produced pottery found. One archaeological find I found to be very interesting was the representation of a human hand. It was found in Spain and made of bronze. The hand was covered with mysterious writing, which made it even more intriguing. Experts were trying to figure out what language might have been used and some have come to the conclusion the writing may be related to ancient Paleohispanic. An ancient tribe had lived in that area at the time and not much is known about them. It was thought the tribe was illiterate, but the hand might prove otherwise. An interesting find was made in Germany. Archaeologists from the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, which is known as LDA have found a very ancient and strange burial dating back to 3,600 B.C. Two mounds from the late Neolithic Period were found to contain wooden burial chambers. The mounds are located in Central Germany and Bohemia. It seems the chambers were built and then mounds were built over them. Sometimes incredible ancient objects are found. There is a city in southeastern Sweden known as Kalmar. The city has an old section which has interested archaeologists and they have managed to dig up over 30,000 objects there. One of the objects is an incredible gold ring. What makes it so incredible is the fact it has a beautiful face of Jesus etched into it. Hundreds of buildings were also found which were not known to exist. It is believed that part of the city was populated in the Middle Ages. Archaeologists have a new tool which will be of great help to them. It is a subatomic particle detector. This will allow them to actually look through hundreds of feet of rock according to a scientist. Cosmic rays left over from the Big Bank are called muons. The detector counts the muons passing through the object which can determine the density. It usually takes months to assemble the evidence, but it gives the answer of if there is a chamber behind stone walls without digging. Some objects found by archaeologists are creepier than others. On the top of that list, I have to add a death mask. It seems every once in a while, archaeologists come across one. Archaeologists found what they called an amazing death mask in a Mayan tomb. It belonged to King Pacal the Great. This particular king was considered one of the greatest kings the maya ever had. It is always an incredible thing when you can get something which shows you what an ancient looked like. Ancient astronomical devices are always interesting when they are found. Some of the ancient knew a lot about astronomy and they learned this by careful observations of the heavens over a long time. An astrolabe is an ancient device used to make astronomical calculations and one was found which was from the 11th century which had inscriptions in both Hebrew and Arabic. This article was actually re-found because it was in a museum when it was spotted. When an expert identified it for what it really was, the museum said it instantly became the most important item in the museum. One might think one of the last places archaeology would be going on right now is in the Ukraine, but that is not true. Archaeologists think they might have found the oldest area in the country which contains artifacts dating back 1.4 million years. The area is in the western part of the Ukraine and is so old the experts do not know what type of hominin left the artifacts. Archaeologists in Egypt came across a large black granite sarcophagus at a dig in Alexandria. It raised the superstitions of some of the group. It has been dated at 330 to 323 B.C. A layer of mortar had been put over the body and was seen when the lid was lifted. The hope was it might contain the body of Alexander the Great, but when they got to the bodies inside, they were found to be soldiers. There were three of them inside. The three had been shot with arrows and were laying in stagnant red water. It is said the water smelled so bad; the scientists had to wait for over one hour after the sarcophagus was opened before approaching it.
|
