Grand armoury of Roman Legion unveiled by AMU Archaeologists

 Image Credit : Andrzej Biernacki

The first traces of the monumental stone structure at the ancient site of a former Roman legionary camp in Novae, Bulgaria, was discovered by AMU archeologists a few years ago. Since then, Dr. Elena Klenina and Dr. Andrzej B. Biernacki have worked on the site of the former legionary camp belonging to the Roman soldiers of the First Italian Legion. Last year, they determined that it was an arsenal – armory. This year’s excavations made it possible to learn about the subsequent history of the area.

The structure built by the Roman soldiers was huge, it occupied about 1800 square meters. It was erected in the first half of the second century. Its base consisted of six monumental rectangular pillars arranged in two rows. They were made of precisely matched, hexagonal blocks of limestone. In the opinion of the researchers, it is the most monumental building, discovered in all known legion camps along the Danube River.

Credit : Andrzej Biernacki

Novae was an ancient greek city of Thrace among other cities of Moesias' province . At present we use the name of Novae (Nouae), although the toponym might have referred to the canabae (canabae legionis I Italicae Novae), when the castra itself had the name of castra legionis I Italicae. The literary sources give the name of Novae or in Accusative form Novas (Itin. Ant. 221, 4; Jord., Get., 101, Tab. Peut. VIII, 1; Not. Dign. Or. XL, 30, 31; Eugipp., 44, 4) and the Greek transcription – Nόβας given by Procopius (De aed. IV, 11), Theophanes Confessor (Chron., p. 423, 426, 436, ed. J. Classen) and Anonymous Ravennatis (IV, 7). The Greek form Nόβαι appears rather rare (Hierocl. Synecd. 636, 6; Theoph. Sim. VII, 2.16; VIII, 4.3-4); earlier form mentioned by Ptolemy is Nooῦαι (Ptol. III, 10.10).

Roman military presence in the Lower Danubian region started in the middle of the 1st century AD. Around AD 45 Legio VIII Augusta, which took part in the suppression of the Greek uprising, was placed here and founded its castrum. At the same time the province of Moesia was created.. 

MOESIA, Istros. 4th century BC. Drachm (Silver, 5.70 g 12), circa 350. Two facing male heads side by side, one upright and the other inverted - a tête-bêche pair. Rev. ΙΣΤΡΙΗ Sea eagle standing left on dolphin; below dolphin, monogram of ΑΠ

“At the end of the 4th century construction was rebuilt and then it also changed its function: instead of military installations, it started to store grain and other food necessary to keep the legion stationed here,” said Dr Klenina, head of the International Interdisciplinary Archeological Expedition “Novae” of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

Inside the uncovered structure, archaeologists found numerous artefacts, including over one hundred bronze coins. They were minted in the first quarter of the fourth century AD and a dozen or so coins date from the times of Emperor Licinius I (308-324 AD).

Special attention of archaeologists, however, was pointed by the limestone head sculpture depicting a syncretic deity – Dionysus-Sabazios. According to Dr. Biernacki, an AMU archaeologist who has been involved in work at Novae for many years, the artefact may indicate the arrival of settlers from very distant regions. From the artistic side, the sculpture exhibits distinctly middle-eastern influences with elements of the Greek art of the archaic period of the 1st or 2nd century AD.

This AMU research is carried out in cooperation with the Institute of Archeology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Grand armoury of Roman Legion unveiled by AMU Archaeologists

Clay pot with hundreds of silver and gold coins found at Kaliakra Fortress in Bulgaria

An archaeological team working at the site of the Kaliakra Fortress on Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast have found a small clay pot containing close to 1000 objects, including silver and gold coins and jewellery, the National History Museum announced.

The find was made on August 17 2018. The find is made of 957 objects - 873 silver and 28 gold coins, 11 appliqués and buckles, 28 silver and bronze buttons, 11 gold earrings, two rings, one of which gold, and four beads of precious stones and gold.

The discovery, beneath the floor of a room that was burnt in the 14th century, happened during the 15th year of excavations at the fortress. The archaeological investigations are funded by the Ministry of Culture, Kavarna municipality and the National History Museum. The team is headed by the director of the National History Museum, Associate Professor Bonnie Petrunova.

The name "Kaliakra" is of Byzantine Greek origin. Kaliakra is the ancient Greek city Trizis (Greek: Τίριζις) which later renamed to Kaliakra Greek: Ἂκραι or Καλή Άκρα, Akrai or Kalē Akra. It is a combination of "καλός" ("beautiful") and "άκρα" ("headland" or "fortress") and is traditionally translated as "Beautiful Headland".

The medieval fortress of Kaliakra

An initial examination of a small part of the coins are from the time of Sultan Bayazid Yildirum (1389-1402), and a small part from that of his predecessor, Murad I (1362-1389).

In the same building, during the 2014-2017 surveys, part of a silver church bookcase, a white jade belt buckle, and 26 small copper coins from the time Bayezid I Yilderham (1389-1402) ), were found.

The building itself was built directly on the ruins of ancient buildings. Burial sites were found nearby. In one of the graves, in 2014, three gold coins, dating from the Nicene dynasty in the 13th century were found.

This is the third treasure to be found at the site, following two finds in earlier years, one of 60 coins, and another of 80 coins, gold earrings and small ornaments.

Clay pot with hundreds of silver and gold coins found at Kaliakra Fortress in Bulgaria

In Bulgaria was Found the Tomb of an Ancient Greek Ruler

Presumably the tomb belongs to the ancient Greek ruler of Thrace.

Monumental tomb of the III century BC was discovered by archaeologists in Bulgaria near the village of Manole near Plovdiv.

The Director of the regional archaeological Museum of Plovdiv Kostadin Kisiov reported that the structure has dimensions of 7 by 7 m and height 5 m.

The age of the tomb is confirmed by the identified ancient Greek bronze coins, carved in the third century of our era.

The study of the tomb in Manole continues. It is assumed that the search for the entrance to its interior will be gone for about a month.

In Bulgaria was Found the Tomb of an Ancient Greek Ruler

Ancient glass bracelets found at newly-discovered necropolis near Plovdiv’s Small Basilica

Very well-preserved glass bracelets have been found in a grave in a recently-discovered necropolis near Plovdiv’s Small Basilica.

The necropolis was found about two weeks ago, Plovdiv Bulgarian-language news website podtepeto.com reported.

According to archaeologist Elena Bozhinova, who is working on the site of about 200 sq m, the finds at the site date from about the 11th to the 14th centuries.

The use of the site varied in the centuries long past. At one point, it was a cemetery, and at another, a residential neighbourhood.

Also found were remnants of a very large stone building, something exceptional for the Middle Ages and more usual for the Roman era in the ancient city. It is assumed to have been a building of significant importance. A stone wall in the middle of the site is believed to have been enclosed in the necropolis.

According to Bozhinova, the finding of the glass bracelets helped to date the entire necropolis.

Dating the necropolis was more accurate than basing the date on coins, “as the glass bracelets are fragile and break easily, while one coin may not change for 300 years,” Bozhinova said.

“We did not expect it from the mediaeval period, but from it we have literally all possible archaeological structures,” she said. This included a paved street, a fragement of an apse, a below-level dwelling, and an underground storage space of which only the stove remained.

At the site, work is now proceeding from the mediaeval period further down to antiquity.

The Small Basilica in Plovdiv was built in the second half of the fifth century CE. The remnants were found in the 1980s. After an extensive conservation and restoration project, funded by the America for Bulgaria Foundation, Ministry of Culture and Plovdiv Municipality, the site – protected and housed in a special structure – opened to the public in May 2014.

Source/Photography/Bibliography

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podtepeto.com

Ancient glass bracelets found at newly-discovered necropolis near Plovdiv’s Small Basilica

Europe was the birthplace of mankind, not Africa, scientists find

The history of human evolution has been rewritten after scientists discovered that Europe was the birthplace of mankind, not Africa. 

Currently, most experts believe that our human lineage split from apes around seven million years ago in central Africa, where hominids remained for the next five million years before venturing further afield.

But two fossils of an ape-like creature which had human-like teeth have been found in Bulgaria and Greece, dating to 7.2 million years ago.

The discovery of the creature, named Graecopithecus freybergi, and nicknameded ‘El Graeco' by scientists, proves our ancestors were already starting to evolve in Europe 200,000 years before the earliest African hominid.

An international team of researchers say the findings entirely change the beginning of human history and place the last common ancestor of both chimpanzees and humans - the so-called Missing Link - in the Mediterranean region.

At that time climate change had turned Eastern Europe into an open savannah which forced apes to find new food sources, sparking a shift towards bipedalism, the researchers believe.

“This study changes the ideas related to the knowledge about the time and the place of the first steps of the humankind,” said Professor Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

“Graecopithecus is not an ape. He is a member of the tribe of hominins and the direct ancestor of homo.

“The food of the Graecopithecus was related to the rather dry and hard savannah vegetation, unlike that of the recent great apes which are leaving in forests.  Therefore, like humans, he has wide molars and thick enamel.

"To some extent this is a newly discovered missing link. But missing links will always exist , because evolution is infinite chain of subsequent forms. Probably  El Graeco's face will resemble a great ape, with shorter canines."

The team analysed the two known specimens of Graecopithecus freybergi: a lower jaw from Greece and an upper premolar tooth from Bulgaria.

Using computer tomography, they were able to visualise the internal structures of the fossils and show that the roots of premolars are widely fused.

"While great apes typically have two or three separate and diverging roots, the roots of Graecopithecus converge and are partially fused - a feature that is characteristic of modern humans, early humans and several pre-humans,", said lead researcher Professor Madelaine Böhme of the University of Tübingen.

The lower jaw, has additional dental root features, suggesting that the species was a hominid.

The species was also found to be several hundred thousand years older than the oldest African hominid, Sahelanthropus tchadensis which was found in Chad.

"We were surprised by our results, as pre-humans were previously known only from sub-Saharan Africa," said doctoral student Jochen Fuss, a Tübingen PhD student who conducted this part of the study.

Professor David Begun, a University of Toronto paleoanthropologist and co-author of this study, added: "This dating allows us to move the human-chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area."

During the period the Mediterranean Sea went through frequent periods of drying up completely, forming a land bridge between Europe and Africa and allowing apes and early hominids to pass between the continents.

The team believe that evolution of hominids may have been driven by dramatic environmental changes which sparked the formation of the North African Sahara more than seven million years ago and pushed species further North.

They found large amounts of Saharan sand in layers dating from the period, suggesting that it lay much further North than today.

Professor Böhme added: "Our findings may eventually change our ideas about the origin of humanity. I personally don't think that the descendants of Graecopithecus die out, they may have spread to Africa later. The split of chimps and humans was a single event. Our data support the view that this split was happening in the eastern Mediterranean - not in Africa.

"If accepted, this theory will indeed alter the very beginning of human history."

However some experts were more skeptical about the findings.

Retired anthropologist and author Dr Peter Andrews, formerly at the Natural History Museum in London, said: "It is possible that the human lineage originated in Europe, but very substantial fossil evidence places the origin in Africa, including several partial skeletons and skulls.

"I would be hesitant about using a single character from an isolated fossil to set against the evidence from Africa."

The new research was published in the journal PLOS One.

Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Europe was the birthplace of mankind, not Africa, scientists find