Up to 70,000 coins and ornaments

Match the following terms with their definitions

Artifact

Hieroglyphic

C.E.

Pot sherd

Shards

Strata

Excavation

Chronology

Stratigraphy

Lithic

a) is an abbreviation for Common Era and is jargon used to substitute the letters A.D. by cultures who do not accept Jesus Christ;

b) many layers of earth or levels in an archaeological site;

c) broken fragments of glass artefacts including perfume jars, jugs and serving or storage vessels. Very common throughout the Roman period;

d) the systematic digging and recording of an archaeological site;

e) an arrangement of events in the order in which they occurred;

f) an ancient Egyptian system of writing;

g) a piece of broken pottery;;

h) stone, or made of stone;

i) any object made, modified, or used by people;

j) the archaeology definition of spatial evidence is the cultural remains and natural deposits form layers over time.

Read, translate and render the following article.

Mummy-Making Began Long Before Pharaohs

AUG 13, 2014 02:00 PM ET // BY ROSSELLA LORENZI

The ancient Egyptians began mummifying bodies as far back as 6,000 years ago, analysis of Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic funerary wrappings has revealed.

The finding predates the origins of mummification in ancient Egypt by 1,500 years, indicating that resin-soaked textiles used in the prehistoric period (c. 4500 – 3350 B.C.) are the true antecedents of Egyptian mummification.

Experts have long assumed that in the 5th and 4th millennia B.C. preservation of soft tissues was due to natural processes, since buried bodies were naturally desiccated in the hot, dry desert sand.

Weird Facts About King Tut and His Mummy

The start of true Egyptian mummification is generally dated to the Old Kingdom (2500 B.C.), although the use of preservative resinous recipes became evident centuries later during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000 – 1600 B.C.).

Detailing their finding in the current issue of PLOS ONE journal, researchers from the Universities of York, Macquarie and Oxford report that complex embalming agents were soaked in linen wrappings covering bodies from Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic period tombs at Badari and Mostagedda in Upper Egypt.

"In 2002, I examined samples of funerary textiles from these sites that had been sent to various museums in the United Kingdom through the 1930s from Egypt," Jana Jones of Macquarie University, Sydney, said.

Preliminary microscopic analysis by Jones revealed resins were likely to have been used. After a number of aborted attempts by other experts, Stephen Buckley, a Research Fellow at the University of York, was able to carry successful biochemical analysis.

Using a combination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and sequential thermal desorption-pyrolysis, Buckley examined 23 samples of wrappings from Mostagedda. Radiocarbon dating at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit confirmed the Late Neolithic and predynastic dating of the textiles, with the oldest wrappings dating between 4316-3986 B.C.

Photos: Mummy Stash Found in Italian Church

Buckley identified a pine resin, an aromatic plant extract, a plant gum/sugar, a natural petroleum source, and a plant oil/animal fat in the wrappings.

"These are embalming agents," Buckley told Discovery News.

Plant oil or animal fat made up the the bulk of the balms, with far lesser amounts of a conifer resin and an aromatic plant extract, or "balsam," and minor amounts of a wax and a plant gum/sugar.

"Ingredients were brought from the North East Mediterranean. For example, the pine resin must have come from what is now south eastern Turkey," Buckley said.

According to Buckley, the mixtures, which had antibacterial properties, show the same ingredients used in approximately the same proportions in mummies from the pharaonic period some 3000 years later, when mummification was at its zenith.

At that time, evisceration and the use of a desiccant had become an integral part of the embalming process.

Buckley says there is no doubt prehistoric Egyptians experimented with artificial mummification. Experts have previously described resin-impregnated linen being used to mold the shape of the bodies around 2800 B.C. as a forerunner to a more complex process, yet this research suggests the use of embalming agents in this way started over a millennia earlier.

"Because these are complex processed mixtures, the idea that by coincidence the pharaonic embalming agents and these prehistoric recipes happen to be the same, yet have no connection, is nonsense," he said.

Mummified Fetus Found in Tiny Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagus

Early reports of burials at the site of Badari mention seven cases in which the head was wrapped in textile and one example of a pad of textile at the hands. We know that bodies were placed in pit graves and had associated artifacts such as shells, pottery and jewellery buried with them, but unfortunately the remains are now lost.

"The antibacterials would have provided some soft tissue preservation, but it is a shame that we can't do a direct comparison," Buckley said.

He believes the resinous recipes probably started as something symbolic. Then, through observation and subsequent experimentation, the preservative qualities of the recipes would have appeared as vital for the body and the spirit in the afterlife.

Mystery Pharaoh Found in Egypt

"The process evolved, by trial and error, rather than emerging from nowhere fully formed," Buckley said.

According to Egyptologist Joann Fletcher, professor at the University of York's Department of Archaeology, the study is of tremendous importance.

"It shows the Egyptians were doing things far earlier than previously realized," Fletcher told Discovery News.

"Not only were they far more sophisticated in terms of their understanding of preservation techniques at this very early date, but they were using materials imported from far greater distances than they have generally been given credit for," she added.

http://news.discovery.com/history/ancient-egypt/mummy-making-began-long-before-pharaohs-1408131.htm

The largest hoard of Iron Age coins ever found in Europe

UP TO 70,000 COINS AND ORNAMENTS

In June 2102, the largest hoard of Iron Age coins ever found was discovered in Jersey, one of the English Channel Islands. It is the third and largest hoard found at the secret location by Reg Mead and Richard Miles who have been searching the area for thirty years after a farmer's daughter told how her father had found some coins when uprooting a tree. The coins had the "head of an Indian chief" on one side and a horse on the other. Reg and Richard knew this probably meant the coins were Iron Age.

They thought that perhaps these coins had been held in a pot, and hoped that the base of the pot might still be buried in the ground. Reg used a specialised detector to search deep into the ground. When they got a signal they dug to find a small handful of Iron Age coins and promptly reported their find to Jersey Heritage. A team of archaeologists, assisted by Reg and Richard, excavated the site to reveal a massive hoard of Iron Age coins and ornaments. They decided to remove the hoard in one lump and take it to the laboratory for expert cleaning and recording.

The latest estimate for the number of coins fused together in a lump that weighs three quarters of a ton is 70,000. All the coins so far seen were made by the Coriosolites, a tribe in the area centred around what is now St Malo in France and date to around 56BC, when Julius Caesar was conquering Gaul (modern day France). Perhaps this hoard was buried by Gauls on the run from Caesar!

The coins are made of billon, a mixture of silver and copper, and are staters and quarter-staters. The ornaments are made of gold and silver.

During the excavation they found a smaller hoard, about 25 coins of the Roman Republic, in a pot. As the coins are well-worn, they may be about 50 years younger than the big hoard. So now there are three hoards: the one found under the tree by the farmer in the 1960s; the big hoard; and the small hoard of Roman coins.

In addition to the coins, other items are also visible, squashed within the mass of coins, including a tubular gold neck ornament.

Neil estimates that it will take him eight years to fully dismantle, record and conserve the whole hoard - if he does it alone.

The findspot of the hoard is being kept a secret. It is understood that the finders and landowner will be awarded the current market value of the hoard when it is declared treasure.

Reg Mead is a regular listener to Win Scutt's weekly chat about Archaeology on BBC Radio Jersey's Late Show with Vic Morgan. He has kindly supplied a set of the latest pictures of the hoard, showing how it was craned out of the ground in a single lump and taken to Jersey Heritage Museum where it is now being meticulously cleaned and recorded by conservator Neil Mahrer.

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