The Staffordshire Hoard, valued at £3.3 million. Picture from Portable Antiquities.
They’ve been made by all from hard-working heritage experts, after years of slaving at the archaeological coal-face, to fluky amateurs on their very first treasure hunt.
Here we give our run down of what we believe are the top ten major discoveries of 2009. All of them have enriched our knowledge of the past in some way – either by offering fascinating glimpses of past civilizations, or challenging preconceived notions about ancient history or opening up a heated debate that has seen important questions asked, if not always answered.
As ever, we want your feedback on the list – if you think there are any especially deserving inclusions or glaring omissions, leave us a comment!
Here we give our run down of what we believe are the top ten major discoveries of 2009. All of them have enriched our knowledge of the past in some way – either by offering fascinating glimpses of past civilizations, or challenging preconceived notions about ancient history or opening up a heated debate that has seen important questions asked, if not always answered.
As ever, we want your feedback on the list – if you think there are any especially deserving inclusions or glaring omissions, leave us a comment!
1. The Staffordshire Hoard
Valued at a whopping £3.3 million ($5.4 million), the Staffordshire Hoard – a trove of 1,600 pieces of 7th century Anglo Saxon treasure, including sword pommels, jewellery and crushed ceremonial crosses – was discovered by metal detectorist Terry Herbert in July, buried in a field in the West Midlands. It’s the largest and most valuable collection of its kind ever discovered.
The items are on display at the British Museum until February 2010. Beyond that, the hoard is expected to be purchased jointly by the Birmingham Museum and Art Galley and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke, for the seven figure sum quoted above. Who else wants a metal detector for Christmas?
The items are on display at the British Museum until February 2010. Beyond that, the hoard is expected to be purchased jointly by the Birmingham Museum and Art Galley and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke, for the seven figure sum quoted above. Who else wants a metal detector for Christmas?
2. Bone Flute and Erotic Figurine at Hohle Fels
Two major finds made at the Hohle Fels cave in the Swabian Alb mountain range of Germany were revealed to the world in 2009. Both have offered an intriguing insight into just how much-more sophisticated – and fun-loving – Upper Paleolithic cave dwellers were than previously understood.
The first artefact was a tiny, busty erotic figurine – the so-called Venus of Hohle Fels – which, dated at 35,000-40,000 years old, is the most venerable undisputed example of Upper Paleolithic art and figurative prehistoric art ever discovered. The second was aportion of a thin rudimentary flute carved from bird bone described as “unambiguously the oldest musical instrument in the world.”
The first artefact was a tiny, busty erotic figurine – the so-called Venus of Hohle Fels – which, dated at 35,000-40,000 years old, is the most venerable undisputed example of Upper Paleolithic art and figurative prehistoric art ever discovered. The second was aportion of a thin rudimentary flute carved from bird bone described as “unambiguously the oldest musical instrument in the world.”
3. Bronze Age Burial Cist at Forteviot
The lid of a Bronze Age burial chamber at Forteviot in Scotland is lifted. Picture from SERF (Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen).
The burial chamber is believed to have been the resting place of a local dignitary of significant importance in Bronze Age Scotland. Grave wax – that is, residue of the deceased, which is extremely rare – was found on a bed of quartz pebbles and a woven birch bark lattice, alongside such objects as a wooden bowl, a leather scabbard and an ornate copper ceremonial dagger – the star of a recent face-off against King Tut’s dagger. Read Vicky's detailed article on the Forteviot dig here.
4. The Lost City of Bathonea
Istanbul is the largest city in Europe, and one of the five largest cities in the world, with a population of almost 13 million people. It’s incredible, therefore, to think that it took until 2009 for someone to spot the ancient and long-lost Roman city of Bathonea just 20 kilometres away, amid a historical landscape eight kilometres wide, dating from the classical era back into the mists of prehistory.
The site – first inhabited by humans 15 millennia ago – has been hidden in plain view, beneath farm land, on the banks of Lake Küçükçekmece, a small inlet west of Istanbul. The remains of Bathonea may be partially submerged in the waters. A reported minaret in the middle of the lake is believed to be the remains of Bathonea’s lighthouse. If this is verified, it’ll represent one of just three Roman lighthouses known to have existed in the eastern Mediterranean, next to those at Alexandria and Patara.
The site – first inhabited by humans 15 millennia ago – has been hidden in plain view, beneath farm land, on the banks of Lake Küçükçekmece, a small inlet west of Istanbul. The remains of Bathonea may be partially submerged in the waters. A reported minaret in the middle of the lake is believed to be the remains of Bathonea’s lighthouse. If this is verified, it’ll represent one of just three Roman lighthouses known to have existed in the eastern Mediterranean, next to those at Alexandria and Patara.
5. The Stirling Hoard
David Booth shows off the hoard of gold torcs he discovered in a field near Stirling. Picture by Sandy Young.
Found on private land near Stirling in September, the torcs were unveiled in November, when they were described as being of “European significance” and “the most important hoard of Iron Age gold found in Scotland to date.” They most likely belonged to an important and powerful local leader, and were worn as a way of showing off his wealth, importance and ability to trade precious goods with the continent.
It’s not yet clear where or when the torcs will go on display to the public – expect an announcement sometime early in the New Year.
6. World’s Oldest Flax Fibres
These tiny flax fibres, aged 34,000-years and discovered by archaeologists from Harvard University in a cave in the Caucasus Mountains of the Republic of Georgia, are evidence of man’s first attempt to manufacture thread from natural resources. They’re so tiny they’re not visible to the naked eye – the team who found them only spotted the miniscule artefacts while examining clay samples under a microscope.
They showed evidence of having been cut, twisted and dyed, perhaps to produce parts of clothing, rope or baskets. Team leaderOfer Bar-Yosef said they represent evidence of a “critical invention for early humans.”
They showed evidence of having been cut, twisted and dyed, perhaps to produce parts of clothing, rope or baskets. Team leaderOfer Bar-Yosef said they represent evidence of a “critical invention for early humans.”
7. Earliest Chemical Warfare
Chemical weapons aren’t the exclusive nasty preserve of modern warfare. In January, University of Leicester archaeologist Simon James speculated that 20 Roman soldiers killed in the defence of the fortress-city of Dura (now Dura-Europos) in the eastern Syrian desert, were the first known victims in history of a gas attack.
They were found lying dead in a collapsed tunnel, which was found to contain high levels of chemical residues and sulfur crystals. James believes that the besieging Sasanians – alerted to the Roman counter-attack – had prepared braziers of pitch and sulfur in the tunnel, which they lit, unleashing a toxic cloud of sulfur dioxide.
They were found lying dead in a collapsed tunnel, which was found to contain high levels of chemical residues and sulfur crystals. James believes that the besieging Sasanians – alerted to the Roman counter-attack – had prepared braziers of pitch and sulfur in the tunnel, which they lit, unleashing a toxic cloud of sulfur dioxide.
8. Ida – The Link
In May 2009 Ida was introduced to the world at the head of a whirlwind publicity campaign as the supposed “missing link” in human evolution.
Ida – a tiny 47-million-year-old fossil – was discovered decades ago, in 1983, at the Messel Pit southeast of Frankfurt am Main in Germany. But it was only in May 2009 that she was introduced to the world, at the head of a whirlwind publicity campaign (she even appeared in the Google logo), as the supposed “missing link” in human evolution.The pint-sized primate made headlines all over the world, and was the subject of a big-budget feature-length documentary shown by The History Channel. But debate over Ida’s true importance has simmered all year. Norwegian paleontologist Jørn Hurum – who purchased Ida for $1 million from a dealer he met in a vodka bar in Hamburg – believes she was an early ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans. Other experts have staunchly disagreed, and argued that Ida in fact originates from an insignificant and long-ceased branch of evolution.
9. The Emperor’s Private Amphitheatre at Portus
Excavations at the “grossly under studied” site of Portus – the cargo port of ancient Rome, which lies two miles north of its better-known counterpart Ostia Antica – have revealed a number of important remains in 2009, among them the ruins of a large, plush amphitheatre that may have been where Roman Emperors took in private performances.
As you’ll gather from the comments prompted by Bija’s blog on the find in October, there has been some prickly debate about the significance of the discovery, which was made by a team led by archaeologists from the University of Southampton. Whatever it’s as important a structure as claimed or not, it was remarkable to learn that such large remains are still being unearthed in a nation as heavily developed as modern Italy.
As you’ll gather from the comments prompted by Bija’s blog on the find in October, there has been some prickly debate about the significance of the discovery, which was made by a team led by archaeologists from the University of Southampton. Whatever it’s as important a structure as claimed or not, it was remarkable to learn that such large remains are still being unearthed in a nation as heavily developed as modern Italy.
10. The Lost Army of Cambyses
Are these really the bones of the Lost Army of Cambyses? Picture by Discovery/Angelo & Alfredo Castiglioni.
Their claims have been dismissed by many scholars on the basis of the fact that they chose to announce them in a documentary film rather than a scientific journal. But if further investigations do concur that the Castiglionis have indeed found the remains of Cambyses’s mysteriously vanished force, it may prove one of the biggest archaeological discoveries of the century.
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