Latest news with #HeritageDaily
Miami Herald
21-05-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Lost penis pendant found inside Roman wall in UK. See phallic good luck charm
Hadrian's Wall — a 73-mile construction across northern Britain that marked the frontier of the Roman Empire — is no stranger to penis imagery. The nearly 2,000-year-old example of Roman engineering is covered in penile carvings, thanks to the ancient citizens and soldiers leaving their marks, the Vindolanda Charitable Trust said. Nearly five dozen phalli have been found along the wall and at military installations, according to Heritage Daily, including at the Vindolanda Fort along the wall in Hexham, England. Now, another phallic-shaped art piece has been discovered, this time for a more personal use. A small, carved penis pendant was found in Vindolanda on April 25, the Vindolanda National Trust told McClatchy News in an email. 'It was found dropped into the rubble fill or core of a stone wall. Quite (possibly) dropped there by the soldier or mason who built the wall,' Andrew Birley, archaeologist and director of excavations at Vindolanda, told McClatchy News. 'Wall building is hard manual work and all manner of personal items find their way into wall cores because they get knocked or dropped by their owners,' Birley said. 'In the past we have found belt buckles, rings, pottery and other items in wall cores.' It was found in a barrack wall dated to the early fourth century, Birley said, making the piece around 1,700 years old. The pendant was made from jet, a type of lignite gemstone or the lowest rank of coal, the archaeologist said. 'Jet is increasingly common as a material used for (jewelry) from the early third century onwards and small good luck charms or pendants like these would have been worn by many of the soldiers at places like Vindolanda,' Birley said. This particular penis would have been worn as a pendant, likely around the neck instead of being carried, according to Birley. Jet feels warm to the touch, so it was likely kept close to the skin. The pendant is small but 'rather fine,' Birley said, likely 'made by a skilled artisan rather than someone unused to working in that material' and could have been worn by a soldier or someone else in the community. 'You can see that the pendant is quite smooth, not just because of the material used but also no doubt because the wearer touched the charm for good luck,' Birley said. The charm adds to the growing collection of phallus imagery at the site, a practice Birley said both men and women participated in. While uncovering rubble in 2022, a volunteer discovered a stone face with a carved phallus and letters, believed to be inscribed as a personal insult, according to the trust. In 2024, researchers found another carving of a penis, this time in a stone on the ground and considered a message of good luck from soldier to soldier, McClatchy News reported. The year previous, archaeologists uncovered a large wooden phallus in a ditch at Vindolanda, first thought to be a knitting tool, McClatchy News reported. Later investigation revealed it instead could have been part of a statue, a pestle or, alternatively, a sex toy. Vindolanda is located in Hexham in north-central England.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Discovered Hidden Messages at the Site of Jesus' Last Supper
This story is a collaboration with Popular Mechanics. The Last Supper is one of the most venerated events in the story of the Christian faith. Depicted in all three Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as the Gospel of John (though this latter account creates issues with the established timeline), it's at this meal that Jesus Christ purportedly reveals his foreknowledge of Judas Iscariot's betrayal, and where, through the symbolic consumption of bread and wine, Jesus establishes the tradition of the Eucharist: 'The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.'' 1 Corinthians 11:23–25 Although no Gospel provides a precise location for the site of The Last Supper—only that disciples were led by a man in the city to 'a large upper room furnished and ready' (Mark 14:13–15)—later tradition would hold that the event occurred on Mount Sinai, outside the Old City of Jerusalem. The site of Jesus's Last Supper was likely held a synagogue. But after what Heritage Daily describes as 'cycles of destruction and reconstruction,' there came to be, in the time of the Crusades, a structure built referred to as the Cenacle, which still stands to this day. The Cenacle has attracted religious pilgrims for centuries, from impoverished worshippers to kings and conquerors. And now, a study published in Studium Biblicum Franciscanum has revealed that some of those pilgrims left messages behind on the very walls that surround this sacred site. In the study, scientists deployed advanced digital photography within the confines of the Cenacle and discovered 'hidden inscriptions, coats of arms, and sketches etched into the Cenacle's centuries-old stone,' per Heritage Daily. The inscriptions included one that belonged to Johannes Poloner of Regensburg, sometimes written as John Poloner. He is known to have visited the site, having chronicled his travels in the 1421–1422 work John Poloner's Description of the Holy Land, wherein he wrote of the Cenacle: 'Now in the church of Mount Sion where the high altar now stands in that very place Christ supped with His disciples giving them His own body and blood wherefore it was called by Christ the Great Supper room.' The scientists also identified 'coats of arms belonging to Tristram von Teuffenbach, a Styrian nobleman who was part of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1436, led by Archduke Frederick of Habsburg (later the Holy Roman Emperor),' according to Heritage Daily, as well as an inscription that read 'Christmas 1300.' They assessed it as being written 'in a style typical of Armenian nobility.' If true, this lends credence to the widely held belief that the Armenian king Het'um II and his forces entered Jerusalem after fighting alongside the Kingdom of Georgia and the Mongol Ilkhanate to defeat the Mamluks in Syria on December 22, 1299, in the Battle of Wad al-Khaznadar. None of these inscriptions definitively prove that this site was the location of the Last Supper; the area's history of relentless destruction and reconstruction makes that practically impossible to confirm. But, as study co-author Ilya Berkovich points out, a discovery like this can broaden our understanding of the places made sacred by centuries of tradition. 'These graffiti shed new light on the geographical diversity and international pilgrimage movement to Jerusalem in the Middle Ages,' Berkovich told Heritage Daily, 'far beyond the Western-dominated research perspective.' You Might Also Like Nicole Richie's Surprising Adoption Story The Story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Her Mother Queen Camilla's Life in Photos
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Yahoo
Submerged Roman-era villa emerges from Lake Fusaro, stuns archaeologists
A geological phenomenon has given rise to an ancient Roman village complex lying in Lake Fusaro's waters. Josi Gerardo Della Ragione, mayor of Bacoli, recently announced on social media that walls had been discovered in Lake Fusaro near Naples, Italy. The Phlegraean Fields sits within a collapsed caldera, namely a volcanic area formed by several volcanic edifices, which includes the Solfatara volcano, well known for its fumaroles (vents from which hot volcanic gases and vapours are emitted), reported Heritage Daily. "They were under the water! Roman era walls and rooms discovered in Lake Fusaro. Maybe they belonged to a lavish mansion," said Josi Gerardo Della Ragione. "The Roman environments will be the subject of further studies by the Sopritendenza. They are located not too far from the Grotte dell'Acqua and make the presence of a luxurious villa with thermal environments. Bacoli continues to be full of wonders, promoting cultural tourist tours unique in the world," added Ragione. The city of Naples in the south of Italy, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, was originally Greek. It even traces its origins back to the siren that attempted to lure Odysseus in Homer's The Odyssey. With a history so old, it's mythological, most familiar with Naples would remember the ancient town is situated on the volcanically active and eruptive Phlegraean fields. Most famously, the supervolcano Vesuvius obliterated Pompei, though some Neapolitans would phrase it differently: the volcano brought the city eternal life. However, Vesuvius is only one major outlet in a field of volcanic activity, and their belief might have been proven right. In the north of the city, Lake Fusaro has been experiencing geological shifts because of the active and volatile activity happening beneath the ground. Locals refer to it as one of the five lakes on Campi Flegrei as an inferno, as in hell, a swamp of sulfuric gases. The Earth's surface has been rising due to the flow of magma or hydrothermal fluids, a phenomenon known as bradyseism. When the first colonies settled in the seventh century BCE, the Greeks named the area 'the burning fields" or Campi Flegrei. They found themselves not just on one volcano but a region. In the age of the Roman Empire, the Roman elite built mansions, or villas, around Lake Fusaro because of its hot springs and favorable weather. And it appears due to the same phenomenon that they sunk only to rise again due to an unusual amount of seismic activity. Since 2005, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology has reported a remarkable rapid incline of up to 4.5 feet in landmass. In short, the seabed lifts, and the shoreline recedes, damaging ports. The good news is that a Roman villa has surfaced. As to what the function of the complex might be, the ancient Roman town of Bacoli used to be a popular resort, as Naples is known for its caves along the shore, where Romans would relax and vacation, Anatolian Archaeology explains. Not on Lake Fusaro. That camp was known for its 'hedonistic lifestyle," described by the poet Sextus Propertius as 'a vortex of luxury and harbor of vice.' From aerial photographs, Josi Gerardo Della Ragione believed they spotted a complex with Roman baths. In the 18th century, the Lake saw a resurgence in royal interest as the hunting and fishing grounds for the Bourbon nobility. Now, the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape of Naples will continue the investigation into this exciting new piece of history, which may have kinky stories to tell.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Metal Detectorists Pulled Up a 15th-Century Sword—and Couldn't Believe Its Condition
A detectorist from Poland's Bishop's Detectory Association located a two-handed medieval sword near a riverbank. The 3.2-foot-long sword was fully intact and complete with a hilt, pommel, and guard. Experts have dated the discovery to sometime in the 14th or 15th centuries. One can imagine that a sword large enough that it required two hands to swing about in battle could get rather tedious to lug around medieval-era Poland. As such, one could also understand some poor soldier's decision to dump his 3.2-foot-long, two-handed sword known as a 'Zweihänder' in a weapons deposit around the 14th or 15th century (probably in favor of something lighter). But, as the saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Metal detectorists in Poland from the Bishop's Detectory Association now consider the sword—along with other weapons and tools they found alongside it in the deposit—to be a significant discovery. They handed the weapons, which also included two axe heads, over to the Voivodic Monument Protection Office and then the Ostroda Museum. Experts were impressed at how well preserved the sword—with its hilt, pommel, and guard—remained while buried near a riverbed, according to a report from Heritage Daily. The museum wrote in a translated Facebook post that preservation of the pieces will begin with a series of X-rays to better understand the find. The museum, which is housed in a former Teutonic castle, said this will be the first two-handed sword in its collection—a fitting location for such a discovery. According to The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts, the popularity of the two-handed sword grew across the 15th century, stemming from the popularity of the longsword during the Late Middle Ages. The Zweihänder—literally meaning 'two-hander'—looks like, essentially, a bigger longsword. Zweihänders were considered specialized weapons, were common throughout Europe (especially with Swiss and German), and continued to grow in popularity through the 16th century. A two-handed sword was considered effective in close quarters, did require extra skill to wield, and was most widely used during the Renaissance. The good condition of this particular sword may be thanks to it having been underwater for years. The origin of the Zweihänder remains a mystery, but Lukasz Szczpanski—an archaeologist at the Ostroda Museum—has a theory, according to Heritage Daily. 'Undoubtedly,' he said, 'this deposit is related to the Osa backwaters. Today, this river is regulated, but in the past, it had the wild character of a meandering riverbed. Perhaps there was a bridge crossing there, where these objects were lost by the owners.' The bridge theory may not be the only plausible explanation for how the weaponry ended up scattered. The potential site of an early medieval settlement is located near to where the detectorists made their find, meaning that there could be even more axe heads and unique swords sitting entrenched in the surrounding earth, waiting to be found. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
