Roam Research
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3 days agoSecrets of giant ancient jar in Laos unpacked at last
New excavations indicate some giant stone jars in Laos’s highlands were used to hold the dead.
A tomb containing the remains of eight individuals and offerings of 47 miniature pottery vessels has been discovered at the Ignacio Zaragoza archaeological site in Tula de Allende, Hidalgo, Mexico. The tomb is between 1,800 and 1,900 years old, and is part of a residential complex within the sphere of its economic and cultural dominance. It was about 55 miles from Teotihuacan and was occupied between 225 and 600 A.D., the apex of Teotihuacan's power.
Out of more than 200 brick-built burials discovered in the area of the ancient city's northern necropolis over the years, only two have been discovered intact and unlooted. The city market area is known to have bordered the necropolis, so a preventative excavation was ordered before construction. This spring, archaeologists have unearthed 44 graves, but last Tuesday they found the first one that had not been looted in antiquity.
The barrow was discovered in an archaeological investigation during the construction of a new access route to Twentyshilling Wind Farm. In a pit in the center of a ring ditch were five urns in fragments. The burial pit and urns contain fill with a mixture of alder, birch and hazel charcoal. Some hazel nutshells were also recovered from the pit and the urns.
As the nights get longer and spookier, there's one thing that's guaranteed to make our hair stand on end: corpses that just won't stay dead. Especially the ones interested in eating us. This week, Danièle speaks with John Blair about who refused to rest in peace in the Middle Ages, how medieval people attempted to keep the dead buried, and why some hauntings reached epidemic proportions.
One of the difficult truths of life in the Middle Ages is that death was never far away. While the vast majority of medieval people owned far fewer possessions than we do today, they were just as concerned with making sure everything was taken care of according to their wishes before they passed. This week, Danièle speaks with Robert A. Wood about medieval wills, funerals, and some memorable bequests.
An Etruscan cinerary urn carved with a high-relief face of Medusa has been revealed to contain no ashes or bones as expected, but rather three terracotta vessels. The vessels, two handled jugs and one cup, are simple and undecorated. The urn is part of the collection of the Palazzone Necropolis, and while it was discovered in the 19th century, it is only now being thoroughly studied.