Atlantis research blog

[archaeologicalnews]

World's oldest human DNA found in 800,000-year-old tooth of a cannibal

In 1994, archaeologists digging in the Atapuerca Mountains in southern Spain discovered the fossilized remains of an archaic group of humans unlike any other ever seen. The bones were cut and fractured, and appeared to have been cannibalized. The largest skeletal fragments — which came from at least six individuals and dated to at least 800,000 years ago — shared some similarities with modern humans (Homo sapiens), plus other now-extinct human relatives like Neanderthals and Denisovans, but were just different enough to defy classification as any known species.

Researchers ultimately named the previously unknown hominins Homo antecessor, borrowing the Latin word for “predecessor.” Because the bones were among the oldest Homo fossils ever found in Europe, some researchers speculated that H. antecessor may have been the elusive common ancestor of Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans. Now, a new study of H. antecessor’s DNA — the single oldest sample of human genetic material ever analyzed — argues that that’s probably not the case. Read more.

[ancientorigins]

Göbekli Tepe, Birth of Civilization and Religion

The dating of Göbekli Tepe to 12,000 years ago, pushes the dawn of civilization back with 6,000 years. Debates abound to the purpose of the ancient site, but a ‘holy place’ seems to trump other hypotheses. Until another settlement called Boncuklu Tarla was uncovered in the vicinity and ground-penetrating radar indicates that only about five percent of the structures have been excavated.

[ancientorigins]

The Ring of Brodgar, the Neolithic Henge of Orkney Island

Very little is known about the people who constructed the Ring of Brodgar some 4,600 years ago, and how the ancient stone circle was once used.

[breathtakingdestinations]

Sao Miguel - Azores - Portugal (by earthpeek) 

https://www.instagram.com/earthpeek/

[ursemiten]

Spanish archaeologists discover largest Iberian-era building known to date

In the middle of the Bronze Age, sometime between 2100 and 1500 BC, a group of settlers took up residence on a craggy hill outside what is

Iberian is a pre-indoeuropean language. Probably people who are ancestors of those who came directly from Atlantis to Western Europe.

[archaeologicalnews]

The 'Spanish Stonehenge' Is Above Water for the First Time in 50 Years

After 50 years out of sight beneath the waters of a man-made lake in western Spain, the 7,000-year-old megalithic monument known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal is finally back on dry land — emphasis on dry.

As new imagery taken from NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite shows, the reappearance of the ancient monument is owed to very low water levels in Spain’s Valdecañas Reservoir following a summer of record heat and drought across Europe (and most of the rest of the planet.)

Sometimes labeled the “Spanish Stonehenge,” the Dolmen of Guadalperal is a large circle of about 150 standing stones, some more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall, arranged around a central, open oval. Archaeologists speculate that the structure was built in the 4th or 5th millennium B.C. (possibly making it thousands of years older than Stonehenge in England). The mysterious megalith may once have supported a massive stone cap that enclosed the space for ritual uses. Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

Northern France was already inhabited more than 650,000 years ago

The first evidence of human occupation in northern France has been put back by 150,000 years, thanks to the findings of a team of scientists from the CNRS and the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle at the emblematic site of Moulin Quignon in the department of the Somme. The site, now located in the gardens of a housing estate in Abbeville, was rediscovered in 2017 after falling into oblivion for over 150 years.

More than 260 flint objects, including 5 bifaces or hand axes, dating from 650,000 to 670,000 years ago, have been uncovered in sands and gravel deposited by the river Somme about 30 metres above the current valley.

This also makes Moulin Quignon the oldest site in north-western Europe where bifaces have been found. The discovery confirms the central position of the Somme Valley in current debates about Europe’s oldest settlements. (source)

[archaeologicalnews]

Scientists Find Possible Traces of 'Lost' Stone Age Settlement Beneath the North Sea

Deep beneath the North Sea, scientists have discovered a fossilized forest that could hold traces of prehistoric early humans who lived there around 10,000 years ago, before the land slipped beneath the waves a few thousand years later.

The discovery gives the researchers new hope in their search for “lost” Middle Stone Age — or Mesolithic — settlements of hunter-gatherers, because the find shows that they have found a particular type of exposed ancient landscape.

The scientists took sediment samples from the submerged fossilized forest during their 11-day voyage in the North Sea aboard the research ship RV Belgica, in the Doggerland region known as Brown Bank or Brown Ridge. The scientists say they are certain they are close to finding traces of a prehistoric human settlement in the submerged lands. Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

Excavations show hunter-gatherers lived in the Amazon more than 10,000 years ago

Hunter-gatherers occupied the southwestern Amazon rainforest by around 10,600 years ago — at least several thousand years earlier than previously thought.

Excavated food remains and human burials at several locations in Bolivia support a scenario in which hunter-gatherers regularly occupied those spots for large parts of the year. The unearthed evidence also indicates that the hunter-gatherers were living in the southwestern Amazon until around 4,000 years ago, anthropological archaeologist José Capriles of Penn State University and colleagues report online April 24 in Science Advances.

If hunter-gatherers developed a preference for living in one place for months at a time, that may have led to the rise of farming societies in the southwestern Amazon around 2,500 years ago, the scientists speculate. Read more.

[irisharchaeology]

Interesting graphic

Source

[artist-gericault]

Scene of the Deluge, 1820, Theodore Gericault

Medium: oil,canvas

https://www.wikiart.org/en/theodore-gericault/scene-of-the-deluge

[archaeologicalnews]

Mexican archaeologists find 7,000-year-old Mayan remains in cave

Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered sets of human remains from the early ancestors of the Mayan civilization that could be as much as 7,000 years old, officials reported on Tuesday.

According to archaeologists at a Mexico City news conference, three sets of human remains were unearthed at the Puyil cave in the Tacotalpa municipality of Tabasco state, located in southern Mexico.

One set reportedly goes as far back as the pre-classical era of the Mayan civilization, putting it at up to 7,000 years old.

The other two skeletons are estimated to be about 4,000 years old. These ancient Mayan remains are on show in the capital’s Anthropology Museum for an exhibition called Puyil: the Cave of Ancestors. Ream more.

[archaeologicalnews]

Archaeologists found traces of submerged Stone Age settlement in Southeast Finland

A prehistoric settlement submerged under Lake Kuolimojarvi provides researchers with a clearer picture of the human occupation in South Karelia during the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Stone Age (about 10,000—6,000 years ago) and opens up a new research path in Finnish archaeology.

In the early Stone Age, the water levels in the small lakes located in the southern parts of what are today Lake Kuolimojarvi and Saimaa were several metres below present levels. After this period, the water levels started rising as a result of uneven land uplift, and the tilting of lakes and rivers. The rise in water levels ended with the outburst of River Vuoksi through the Salpausselka Ridge about 6,000 years ago, when water masses carved a new southeastern outflow channel towards Lake Ladoga.

With the rise in water levels, areas that were on dry land in the early Stone Age have been buried in the bottom of the lake and its littoral deposits. Read more.

[cosmicportal]

[cosmicportal]

Atlantis.

[tlatollotl]

Keep an eye out for this book coming out May 31st.

About:

In 1519, the Conquistador Hernán Cortés landed on the mainland of the Americas. His quest to serve God, win gold, and achieve glory drove him into the heartland of what is now Mexico, where no European had ever set foot before. He marched towards to the majestic city of Tenochtitlan, floating like a jewel in the midst of Lake Texcoco. 

This encounter brought together cultures that had hitherto evolved in complete isolation from each other - Catholic Spain and the Aztec Empire. What ensued was the swift escalation from a clash of civilizations to a war of the worlds. At the conclusion of the Conquistador campaign of 1519-21, Tenochtitlan lay in ruins, the last Aztec Emperor was in chains, and Spanish authority over the native peoples had been definitively asserted. 

With the colourful personalities - Cortés, Malinche, Pedro Alvarez, Cuitláhuac, Cuauhtémoc - driving the narrative, and the vivid differences in uniforms, weapons, and fighting styles between the rival armies (displayed using stunning specially commissioned artwork), this is the fascinating story of the collapse of the Aztec Empire.

https://ospreypublishing.com/tenochtitlan-1519-21

[tlatollotl]

Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, a Mesoamerican historian and archeologist in the 1800s, believed that the Mayan civilization might have...

This is a very long, but very interesting post so I will not copy/paste it here. Please go check it out!

[archaeologicalnews]

9,000-year-old wells found in central China

Archaeologists have discovered six wells dating back some 9,000 years in central China’s Henan Province.

The wells in Xiping County are the oldest ever discovered in China, said Wei Xingtao, deputy head of the provincial archaeological research institute.

“The discovery pushes the origins of China’s wells back over 2,000 years,” he said. “The invention of wells was of great significance as it freed people from their reliance on rivers for water.”

Previously it was believed that wells first appeared along the Yangtze River some 6,000 to 7,000 years ago in the late Neolithic period. 

Five well-preserved pottery pots used to carry water were discovered inside the wells. Read more.