While walking with a metal detector this spring, 22-year-old archeology student Gustav Bruunsgaard uncovered a hoard of silver that dates back to the Viking Age. The sparkly find has links to the British Isles, Ukraine, and Russia.

According to a translated statement from the Moesgaard Museum in Højbjerg, Denmark, the student from Denmark’s Aarhus University was walking in a field in Elsted, north of Aarhus. When the metal detector beeped loudly, Bruunsgaard grabbed a small shovel and uncovered a small silver bangle. He returned to the site a few days later and found six more bangles. Assessment from both Danish and international experts revealed that they date back to the early Viking Age (about 793 to 1066 CE), shortly after the foundation of the Viking Age city of Aarhus or Aros. Experts believe that it was made in Southern Scandinavia, likely Denmark. 

[Related: Even Vikings had to pay fines.]

Vikings had a fairly complex economic system. Recently, a new interpretation of an inscription on the Swedish Forsa Ring gave economic historians some new insights into how money and debts were handled at this time. Some of these hefty sums could be up to $9,610 today, but it is not clear what offense the fines covered.

During the Viking Age, silver like the rings uncovered in Elsted was a measure of value. The metal was a way to make payments and a type of collateral that demonstrated an owner’s financial means. The seven total bracelets that Bruunsgaard found weigh just over a pound and archaeological experts estimate that they would have had a significant value. 

The coiled ring is a type of silver that originally came from present day Russia or Ukraine which was imitated in the Nordics. The three band-shaped, stamped rings are a type of South Scandinavian design that inspired bangles in present day Ireland, where they became very common. The three smooth bangles are a rare form of jewelry, but have been found in Scandinavia and England. 

[Related: Vikings filed their teeth to cope with pain.]

“The Elsted farm treasure is a fantastically interesting find from the Viking Age, which connects Aarhus with Russia and Ukraine in the east and the British Isles in the west,” Moesgaard Museum historian Kasper H. Andersen said in a statement. “In this way, the find emphasizes how Aarhus was a central hub in the Viking world, which went all the way from the North Atlantic to Asia.”

Visitors to the Moesgaard Museum can now see the silver on exhibit. 

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The honor of Egypt’s oldest necropolis belongs to Pharaoh Djoser, a ruler who ushered in the Old Kingdom’s Third Dynasty during the 27th century BCE. Constructed around 2,680 BCE in Saqqara, northwest of the ruins of Memphis, the six-tier, four-sided Step Pyramid of Djoser stood amid a large courtyard filled with decorative ceremonial structures. And while ancient Egyptians relied on a number of tools to help build the roughly 205-foot-tall structure, a new study indicates at least one previously unknown aid—a hydraulic lift system utilizing a nearby, longgone lake.

The evidence was made available on August 5 by an interdisciplinary team at France’s CEA Paleotechnic Institute writing in the journal PLOS One. After combining satellite imagery, geospatial data analysis, watershed information, and other techniques, the researchers hypothesize a previously unexplained structure near the Step Pyramid likely functioned as a “check dam” for capturing water and sediment. An ancient engineering structure dating back millennia, check dams are comparatively simple designs used to interrupt and slow water flows.

In the Pyramid of Djoser’s case, a water source appears to have channeled through multiple compartments, allowing the sediment to settle while passing through each successive chamber. After traveling through the compartments, some of the water then likely flowed into pyramid shafts built to help builders raise massive building stones to their desired positions. What is particularly interesting is that, although many societies didn’t use check dams for filtration, it appears the pyramid’s may have also served as an water treatment facility. Additionally, the Pyramid of Djoser’s dam predates some of the earliest known examples by hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

To illustrate the concept, researchers described a simple example of how ancient Egyptians may have operated such a hydraulic-check dam system. Based on their analysis, the team believes the lift’s floating platform rose to a maximum height of around 55 feet, but potentially employed modifications to ascend even higher using collapsible extension structures. After reaching the top of the pyramid, the lift platform may have also functioned as a counterweight through the use of pulley-and-rope systems. Combined with additional construction methods like ramps and levee systems, the hydraulic lift may have only been used intermittently when enough water was available. Even so, researchers stressed the lift’s potential existence fundamentally alters what experts believe ancient Egyptians were capable of creating.

[Related: ‘Screaming woman’ may solve a 3,500-year-old mummy mystery.]

“The hydraulic lift mechanism seems to be revolutionary for building stone structures and finds no parallel in our civilization,” they write in their paper, adding that its utility “is so significant that it seems beyond just building the Step Pyramid.” Combined with its water treatment capabilities, the architects’ planning would also “reflect their foresight in meeting various civil needs,” such as making the Saqqara region hospitable for permanent settlement, including agriculture, water access, and long term shelter.

The team argue their findings also raise the possibility that ancient Egyptians utilized similar systems in other Old Kingdom pyramids, and perhaps even earlier. The only way to know for sure, however, is to continue exploring and analyzing these ruins.

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A team of archaeologists and other researchers uncovered a cache of roughly 2,600-year-old gold coins that were likely an unknown mercenary’s salary. The gold was stored in a small pot in the ancient Greek city of Notion, located in western Turkey. The gold was discovered by the Notion Archaeological Project in July 2023, and the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism has officially given permission for the discovery of the coins to be made public this month.

[Related: Ancient, surprisingly well-preserved purple dye uncovered in Greece.]

What are darics?

According to University of Michigan archaeologist Christopher Ratté, the coins show a figure of a kneeling archer. This image is a characteristic design of the Persian daric–a type of gold coin that was issued by the Persian Empire. The coins were likely minted at Sardis, roughly 60 miles northeast of Notion. The hoard of coins will provide more data on the Persian daric’s timeline and history.

“The discovery of such a valuable find in a controlled archaeological excavation is very rare,” Ratté said in a statement. “No one ever buries a hoard of coins, especially precious metal coins, without intending to retrieve it. So only the gravest misfortune can explain the preservation of such a treasure.”

Darics were created from the late Sixth Century BCE up until Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Empire in 330 BCE. The design of the coins stayed the same with very small stylistic differences. Researchers have attempted to arrange the coins in chronological order by analyzing these minor stylistic differences. This newly discovered hoard of coins sticks out because it is independently dated by other artifacts that are associated with it.

“This hoard will provide a firm date that can serve as an anchor to help fix the chronology of the (entire sequence of coins),” Ratté said.

According to the British Musuem’s former curator of coins and Oxford University classics historian Andrew Meadows the archaeological context for the hoard is likely, “if it can be established accurately by other means, to allow us to fine-tune the chronology of the Achaemenid gold coinage. This is a spectacular find… of the highest importance.”

The best-preserved remains of the ancient city of Notion date back to the city’s Hellenistic period, between Third and First centuries BCE. However, the excavation of a large courtyard house at the center of the city shows that it was likely inhabited earlier. Fragments of pottery likely from the Fifth Century BCE were found in earlier walls incorporated into the foundations of the house. In July 2023, a dig beneath one area of the courtyard revealed the gold coins, buried in a small pot.

“The hoard was found in the corner of a room in a structure buried beneath the Hellenistic house. Presumably, it was stored there for safekeeping and for some reason never recovered,” said Ratté. “According to the Greek historian Xenophon, a single daric was equivalent to a soldier’s pay for one month.”

A military city

According to Ratté, darics have been found by looters with little concern for their historical value.

“An archaeological find without contextual information is like a person suffering from amnesia—a person without memories,” Ratté said. “It is still interesting and important, but the loss of knowledge is incalculable.”

With this specific hoard, archaeologists and historians know precisely where it was found, so they have a great deal of circumstantial evidence for when it was deposited and what was going on at the time.

The city of Notion was incorporated into the Persian Empire together with the other Greek cities on Turkey’s western coast in the Mid-Sixth Century BCE. It was eventually freed from Persian rule in the early Fifth Century BCE. However, it was reintegrated into the Persian Empire in the early Fourth Century BCE, where it remained until Alexander the Great’s conquest in 334 BCE. 

Military operations around the city have been frequently noted by ancient historians. During the Fifth Century BCE, Notion was under Athenian domination despite being freed from the Persians. The Greek historian Thucydides documented the dramatic and conflicting loyalties of the inhabitants of Notion and nearby cities. This area occupied a border region between the Persian and Athenian spheres of influence. 

[Related: These ‘fake’ ancient Roman coins might actually be real.]

Thucydides recounted that between 430 BCE. and 427 BCE., a group of Persian sympathizers from the city of Colophon had occupied part of Notion with the help of Greek and “barbarian” mercenaries. An Athenian general called Paches killed the pro-Persian mercenaries, after luring their commander into a trap in 247 BCE. Persian sympathizers were ultimately expelled, and the city of Notion was reorganized under Athenian supervision.

This type of event may have led to this hoard of coins being deposited and lost, but it is not the only possibility. In 406 BCE, a decisive naval battle during the conflict between Athens and Sparta was fought off the coast of Notion. The city was an Athenian naval base at the time. During the Great Satraps’ Revolt, several governors in Western Anatolia erupted into renewed conflict in the 360s BCE, and Notion’s harbor became an important military asset. The harbor was likely reinforced during this period. The accepted chronology of Persian coins would favor a Fourth Century BCE date for the hoard from Notion.

The coins themselves are now being studied and cared for by the Ephesus Archaeological Museum in Turkey. Researchers are currently excavating new areas of the city that could clarify more of the archaeological context of the coins.

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Enlarge / A camel chills next to the Step Pyramid of Djoser in the Saqqara necropolis in Egypt, built around 2680 BCE. (credit: Charles J. Sharp/CC BY-SA 3.0)

It's long been a hotly debated open question regarding how the great pyramids of Egypt were built, given the sheer size and weight of the limestone blocks used for the construction. Numerous speculative (and controversial) hypotheses have been proposed, including the use of ramps, levers, cranes, winches, hoists, pivots, or any combination thereof. Now we can add the possible use of a hydraulic lift to those speculative scenarios. According to a new paper published in the journal PLoS ONE, ancient Egyptians during the Third Dynasty may have at least partly relied on hydraulics to build the Step Pyramid of Djoser.

"Many theories on pyramid construction suggest that pure human strength, possibly aided by basic mechanical devices like levers and ramps, was utilized," co-author Xavier Landreau, of Paleotechnic in Paris and Universite Grenoble Alpes, told Ars. "Our analysis led us to the utilization of water as a means of raising stones. We are skeptical that the largest pyramids were built using only known ramp and lever methods."

The Step Pyramid was built around 2680 BCE, part of a funerary complex for the Third Dynasty pharaoh Djoser. It's located in the Saqqara necropolis and was the first pyramid to be built, almost a "proto-pyramid" that originally stood some 205 feet high. (The Great Pyramid of Giza, by contrast, stood 481 feet high and was the tallest human-made structure for nearly 4,000 years.) Previous monuments were made of mud brick, but Djoser's Step Pyramid is made of stone (specifically limestone); it's widely thought that Djoser's vizier, Imhotep, designed and built the complex. The third century BCE historian Manetho once described Imhotep as the "inventor of building in stone." As such, the Djoser Pyramid influenced the construction of later, larger pyramids during the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Dynasties.

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Enlarge / CT scans and other techniques allowed scientists to "virtually dissect" this 3,500-year-old "Screaming Woman" mummy. (credit: Sahar Saleem/CC BY)

There have been a handful of ancient Egyptian mummies discovered with their mouths wide open, as if mid-scream. This has puzzled archaeologists because Egyptian mummification typically involved bandaging the mandible to the skull to keep the mouth closed. Scientists have "virtually dissected" one such "Screaming Woman" mummy and concluded that the wide-open mouth is not the result of poor mummification, according to a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine. There was no clear cause of death, but the authors suggest the mummy's expression could indicate she died in excruciating pain.

"The Screaming Woman is a true ‘time capsule’ of the way that she died and was mummified,” said co-author Sahar Saleem, a professor of radiology at Cairo University in Egypt. "Here we show that she was embalmed with costly, imported embalming material. This, and the mummy's well-preserved appearance, contradicts the traditional belief that a failure to remove her inner organs implied poor mummification."

Saleem has long been involved in paleoradiology and archaeometry of "screaming"  Egyptian mummies. For instance, she co-authored a 2020 paper applying similar techniques to the study of another "Screaming Woman" mummy, dubbed Unknown Woman A by the then-head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, Gaston Maspero, and one of two such mummies discovered in the Royal Cache at Deir el Bahari near Luxor in 1881. This was where 21st and 22nd Dynasty priests would hide the remains of royal members from earlier dynasties to thwart grave robbers.

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New analysis of a 3,500-year-old mummy known as the “Screaming Woman” may revise what makes for a “good” versus “bad” mummification—and potentially solve a mystery that has perplexed Egyptologists for years. 

During the 21st and 22nd Egyptian dynasties, priests oversaw the relocation of a trove of dynastic remains to the Deir el-Bahari Royal Cache in Thebes (near modern-day Luxor). While initial excavations began in 1881, the Metropolitan Museum of New York conducted a follow-up investigation into adjacent crypts in 1935. It was then that archeologists first uncovered the tomb of Senmut, the royal architect and rumored lover of Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BCE). But beneath Senmut’s resting place lay another chamber, this one containing his mother, Hat-Nufer, and multiple unidentified relatives.

Recent examinations into one of those wooden coffins revealed a striking figure—the mummy of an older (for the time), richly adorned woman with a mouth frozen open as if screaming. Although not the first mummy found with such an expression, the anonymous woman’s anatomy and the preservation techniques used on her raised a question for experts. Usually, an open mouth is evidence of a poorly performed mummification, but this didn’t make sense given the Screaming Woman’s royal interment. Now, Egyptologists may finally have at least some answers about the Screaming Woman.

Radiology professor Sahar Saleem and colleagues at Cairo University’s Kasr Al Ainy Hospital have published a new study in the journal Frontiers in Medicine that provides never-before-seen, detailed looks at the mummy along with reliable theories about her health near the end of her life. Thanks to CT imaging, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and other equipment, Saheer’s team theorize the open mouth may not be due to a shoddy burial, but rather the result of a cadaveric spasm in her final moments.

Scans indicate the woman, approximately 48-years-old, lacked multiple teeth at her time of death—these, however, were lost earlier in her life due to evidence of bone resorption, which occurs when an empty tooth socket reheals. According to Saleem, these may have even been extracted by a professional, as dentistry originated in ancient Egypt. Evidence of bone spurs on her vertebrae also indicates mild spine arthritis.

When it comes to the Screaming Woman’s bodily mummification, a surprising detail sticks out from everything else—the lack of an embalming incision. Egyptologists have long believed classic New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE) mummifications entailed the removal of a cadaver’s organs except their heart, but the Screaming Woman appeared to still possess them when she was buried. Because of this, Saleen theorizes leaving organs inside a body may actually have been sometimes customary at the time.

As for how she was prepared for mummification, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) scans of the mummy’s skin revealed the presence of juniper and frankincense, luxuries that Egyptians would need to import from Southern Arabia, East Africa, or the Eastern Mediterranean. The woman’s natural hair was dyed with henna and juniper, but she also wore a long wig for the afterlife made from date palm fingers treated with albite crystals, magnetite, and quartz. These were often used to stiffen the wig’s locks and make them appear black to indicate a more youthful appearance.

“These findings support the ancient trade of embalming materials in ancient Egypt,” Saleem said in an accompanying statement, noting a previous expedition led by Queen Hatshepsut brought back frankincense, while Tutankhamun’s tomb also contained frankincense and juniper.

These embalming methods, combined with her well-preserved appearance, “contradicts the traditional belief that a failure to remove her inner organs implied poor mummification,” said Saleem.

While a definitive answer about the Screaming Woman’s cause of death remains a mystery, Saleem’s work indicates practices like organ removal weren’t always a defining feature of professional mummifications. If nothing else, the spooky visage is likely not due to a bad mummification job. Regardless, Saleem calls the Screaming Woman a “true ‘time capsule’ of the way that she died and was mummified.”

CORRECTION 8/2/2024 6:47AM: A previous version of this article incorrectly dated the Screaming Woman mummy as 2,500-years-old.

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Enlarge / Artificially modified skull from a female Viking individual in Havor, Hablingbo parish, Gotland. (credit: © SHM/Johnny Karlsson 2008-11-05/CC BY 2.5 SE)

German archaeologists discovered that the skulls of three medieval Viking women found on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea showed evidence of an unusual procedure to elongate their skulls. The process gave them an unusual and distinctive appearance, according to a paper published in the journal Current Swedish Archaeology. Along with evidence that the Viking men from the island may have deliberately filed their teeth, the discovery sheds light on the role body modification may have played in Viking culture

When people hear about Viking body modification, they probably think of Viking tattoos, particularly since the History Channel series Vikings popularized that notion. But whether actual Vikings sported tattoos is a matter of considerable debate. There is no mention of tattoos in the few Norse sagas and poetry that have survived, although other unusual physical characteristics are often mentioned, such as scars.

The only real evidence comes from a 10th century travel account by an Arab traveler and trader named Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, whose travel account, Mission to the Volga, describes the Swedish Viking traders ("Rusiyyah") he met in the Middle Volga region of Russia. "They are dark from the tips of their toes right up to their necks—trees, pictures, and the like," Ibn Fadlan wrote. But the precise Arabic translation is unclear, and there is no hard archaeological evidence, since human skin typically doesn't preserve for centuries after a Viking burial.

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Enlarge / A decorative ring made from carved stone is embedded in the wall of a ballcourt in the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza. (credit: Kåre Thor Olsen/CC BY-SA 3.0)

It's well-known that the ancient Maya had their own version of ball games, which were played with a rubber ball on stone courts. Such games served not just as athletic events but also religious ones that often involved ritual sacrifices. Archaeologists have now found evidence that the Maya may have blessed newly constructed ball courts in rituals involving plants with hallucinogenic properties, according to a new paper published in the journal PLoS ONE.

“When they erected a new building, they asked the goodwill of the gods to protect the people inhabiting it,” said co-author David Lentz of the University of Cincinnati. “Some people call it an ensouling ritual, to get a blessing from and appease the gods.” Lentz and his team previously used genetic and pollen analyses of the wild and cultivated plants found in the ancient Maya city Yaxnohcah in what is now Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, revealing evidence of sustainable agriculture and forestry spanning a millennia.

As we've reported previously, there is ample evidence that humans in many cultures throughout history used various hallucinogenic substances in religious ceremonies or shamanic rituals. That includes not just ancient Egypt but also ancient Greek, Vedic, Maya, Inca, and Aztec cultures. The Urarina people who live in the Peruvian Amazon Basin still use a psychoactive brew called ayahuasca in their rituals, and Westerners seeking their own brand of enlightenment have also been known to participate.

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