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  The archaeological team inside the postholes from the later Roman building. Decorated …

A recently discovered mysterious “winged” structure in England, which in the Roman period may have been used as a temple, presents a puzzle for archaeologists, who say the building has no known parallels.

Built around 1,800 years ago, the structure was discovered inNorfolk, in eastern England, just to the south of the ancient town ofVenta Icenorum. The structure has two wings radiating out from a rectangular room that in turn leads to a central room.

“Generally speaking, [during] the Roman Empire people built within a fixed repertoire of architectural forms,” said William Bowden, a professor at the University of Nottingham, who reported the find in the most recent edition of the Journal of Roman Archaeology. The investigation was carried out in conjunction with the Norfolk Archaeological and Historical Research Group.

The winged shape of the building appears to be unique in the Roman Empire, with no other example known. “It’s very unusual to find a building like this where you have no known parallels for it,” Bowden told LiveScience. “What they were trying to achieve by using this design is really very difficult to say.”

The building appears to have been part of a complex that includes a villa to the north and at least two other structures to the northeast and northwest. An aerial photograph suggests the existence of an oval or polygonal building with an apse located to the east. 

The winged building

The foundation of the two wings and the rectangular room was made of a thin layer of rammed clay and chalk. “This suggests that the superstructure of much of the building was quite light, probably timber and clay-lump walls with a thatched roof,” writes Bowden. This raises the possibility that the building was not intended to be used long term. [Photos of Mysterious Stone Structures]

The central room, on the other hand, was made of stronger stuff, with its foundations crafted from lime mortar mixed with clay and small pieces of flint and brick. That section likely had a tiled roof. “Roman tiles are very large things, they’re very heavy,” Bowden said.

Sometime after the demise of this wing-shaped structure, another building, this one decorated, was built over it. Archaeologists found post holes from it with painted wall plaster inside.

Bowden said few artifacts were found at the site and none that could be linked to the winged structure with certainty. A plough had ripped through the site at some point, scattering debris. Also, metal detecting is a major problem in the Norfolk area, with people using metal detectors to locate and confiscate materials, something that may have happened at this site.

Still, even when the team found undisturbed layers, there was little in the way of artifacts. “This could suggest that it [the winged building] wasn’t used for a very particularly long time,” Bowden said.

The land of the Iceni

Researchers are not certain what the building was used for. While its elevated position made it visible from the town of Venta Icenorum, the foundations of the radiating wings are weak. “It’s possible that this was a temporary building constructed for a single event or ceremony, which might account for its insubstantial construction,’ writes Bowden in the journal article.

“Alternatively the building may represent a shrine or temple on a hilltop close to a Roman road, visible from the road as well as from the town.”

Adding another layer to this mystery is the ancient history of Norfolk, where the structure was found.

The local people in the area, who lived here before the Roman conquest, were known as the Iceni. It may have been their descendents who lived at the site and constructed the winged building.

Iceni architecture was quite simple and, as Bowden explained, not as elaborate as this. On the other hand, their religion was intertwined with nature, something which may help explain the wind-blown location of the site. “Iceni gods, pre-Roman gods, tend to be associated with the natural sites: the springs, trees, sacred groves, this kind of thing,” said Bowden.

The history between the Iceni and the Romans is a violent one. In A.D. 43, when the Romans, under Emperor Claudius, invaded Britain, they encountered fierce resistance from them.  After a failed revolt in A.D. 47 they became a client kingdom of the empire, with Prasutagus as their leader. When he died, around A.D. 60, the Romans tried to finish the subjugation, in brutal fashion.

“First, his [Prasutagus'] wife Boudicea was scourged, and his daughters outraged. All the chief men of the Iceni, as if Rome had received the whole country as a gift, were stripped of their ancestral possessions, and the king’s relatives were made slaves,” wrote Tacitus, a Roman writer in The Annals. (From the book, “Complete Works of Tacitus,” 1942, edited for the Perseus Digital Library.)

This led Boudicea (more commonly spelled Boudicca) to form an army and lead a revolt against the Romans. At first she was successful, defeating Roman military units and even sacking Londinium. In the end the Romans rallied and defeated her at the Battle of Watling Street. With the Roman victory the rebellion came to an end, and a town named Venta Icenorumwas eventually set up on their land.  [Top 12 Warrior Moms in History]

“The Iceni vanish from history effectively after the Boudicca revolt in [A.D.] 60-61,” said Bowden.

But while they vanished from written history, archaeological clues hint that their spirit remained very much alive. Bowden and David Mattingly, an archaeologist at the University of Leicester, both point out that the area has a low number of villas compared with elsewhere in Britain, suggesting the people continued to resist Roman culture long after Boudicca’s failed revolt.

This lack of villas, along with problems attracting people to Roman settlements in the area, “can be read as a transcript of resistant adaption and rejection of Roman norms,” writes Mattingly in his book “An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire” (Penguin Books, 2007). 

There is “still a fairly strong local identity,” said Bowden, who cautioned that while local people may have lived at the complex, the winged building is out of character for both Roman and Iceni architectural styles, a fact that leaves his team with a mystery.

Although the city known as Durobrivae was documented, as a strategic location for the Roman armies, there was very little evidence about the occupants, in the east of the city.

Now, archaeologists from Oxford and Peterborough have found a building and agricultural farm II century AD “Two-storey building was built of limestone, is paved with a mosaic fine, and the walls plastered in red and green,” said archaeologist Rebecca Hatton House.

The building was built around a cobbled courtyard. Were found and other stone buildings, which suggests that the main structure was in a farm center.

Were found bronze coins, ceramic pots and other objects, some of the Iron Age, from around 100 BC

“All this indicates that this site was important both in Romanian era, but also in the pre-Romanian. People came here and built a Romanian building extraordinary, unprecedented,” said Hatton.

She added that the closest historical site is the Palace of Castor, a few kilometers west of Peterborough. The palace dates from 250 AD and is considered one of the most important complex in Great Britain.

“All new discoveries made ​​in this site are amazing for Peterborough, because of their importance and rarity,” said Hatton.

Head of Culture and Tourism District Dompu Sayuti Melik MSi contacted from Mataram, on Wednesday said the antiquities were discovered accidentally by Sofran, Daha village residents on December 28, 2011.

Ancient objects is estimated that thousands of years old, among others, in the form of ancient tombs, tombstone carving, cutting 15 pieces and ring 12 pieces.

In addition there are faults bracelet, red gems, ancient money hollow mortar and stone seats.

Archaeological objects were found at a depth of two meters when Sofran inadvertently digging at the site after a dream in a row three times. The findings are then reported to the Department of Culture and Tourism Dompu.

“I am grateful for the awareness of residents who reported the discovery of valuable historical objects,” he was accompanied by District Government Public Relations Staff Dompu H Agus Suryanto.

According to him, the location of the discovery of archaeological objects were about two kilometers from the complex Nangasia sites are located not far from beach attractions Lakey, District Huu.

Sayuti admitted after receiving a report about the discovery of archaeological objects that it was reviewing the field to ensure the correctness of such information.

“I’m with Government Public Relations Staff Dompu district is reviewing the field and we ask the people around him to not do the digging around that location,” he said.

To secure the location of the discovery of antiquities, said Sayuti, it is aid residents asked to put a fence around the site.

He suspects there is a common thread between the discovery of archaeological objects with Dorosai site at Nanga Doro former kingdom of Daha in Dompu.

Sayuti mengeni claimed to have reported the discovery of the object to the Institute for Archaeology mewilayahi Denpasar Bali province, NTT and NTB.

“To make sure how old archaeological objects in the Doro Kabotoi we wait for the results of research from Institute for Archaeology Denpasar, Bali,” he said.

Popular conception of Stone Age community: Image via Wikipedia

Cannibalism may have been a facet of life in Stone Age Britain. The Romans recorded instances of cannibalism in Britain when they conquered the island and there are records of cannibalism even in Mediaeval Britain. The taste for human flesh may have been part of the life of the inhabitants of the British Isles as far back as 14,700 years ago. That is when the skulls if Cheddar Gorge have been dated to.

In the 1980s, skulls were excavated at Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge, but only now have the technology come into being that allows archaeologists to thoroughly examine them. The marks on the three relevant skulls are the same as those seen in the butchery of animals, which means that the skulls were defleshed. It does not necessarily mean the contents of the skull were consumed, but it is considered likely by the Natural History Museum and University College London. Bone marrow was eaten than (and it is now). The skulls were, 14,000 years ago, carefully taken apart, cleaned, smoothed and then decorated by using “razors” and “hammers”. The skulls were from two adults and a toddler. It is thought that the skulls were used as drinking cups, linking modern anthropological study of different human behaviours seen today. Even the Greek historian Herodotus noted the use of skulls in temple rites.

Scholar Silvia Bello said: ‘We suspected that these early humans were highly skilled at manipulating human bodies once they died, and our research reveals just what great anatomists they were. “The cut marks and dents show how the heads were scrupulously cleaned of any soft tissues shortly after death. The skulls were then modified by removing the bones of the face and the base of the skull. Finally, these cranial vaults were meticulously shaped into cups by retouching the broken edges. All in all, it was a very painstaking process, given the tools available.”

Chris Stinger of London’s Natural History Museum opined: “This shows us the complexity of human behavior in ancient Britain. … They treated their dead in many different ways. It seems gruesome to us, but there are people in Asia today who aren’t even meat eaters, who treasure human skulls and use them as drinking bowls.”

He also said: ‘They don’t seem to have been used for very long. In some more recent examples they have been kept for hundreds of years and have become polished and worn through wear. These seem to be relatively fresh and it looks as if their use was limited to a short time – days or weeks or months.”

Rick Schulting, an archaeology professor at Oxford University added: “These finds are important because there are so few finds from this period. These are fully modern humans like us but we have very little insight into what they thought about themselves and their world. We know they had some burials, we know they cared about their dead. This adds complexity to their world. It’s not some barbaric bloodthirsty example. It’s always a ritualistic setting where you eat the remains of the dead, but we can’t know in this case whether you’re eating your own revered ancestors, to keep in contact, or eating the outsider, the enemy, as a way of insulting them and imbibing their power and their spirit.”

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/02/17/uk-cave-yields-ice-age-skull-cups/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1357764/Ancient-Britons-drank-skulls-used-cups.html

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/17/ancient-brits-were-cannibals-scientists-say/?hpt=T2

See also:  http://socyberty.com/social-sciences/scottish-stone-age-secrets/

Stone Age tools: Image via Wikipedia

hole was positioned in order that leads to heaven, which may be in it filled rocks, signs, or fire that marked the sunrise and sunset. Tim international archaeological survey to find the holes in the program Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project.This team uses geophysical imaging techniques to investigate the site. archeologists from the University of Birmingham, England, and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Utilization in Vienna, Austria, has been doing surveys of sub-surface since the summer of 2010. 

Route procession initial guess, the holes at Stonehenge it is forming impressions Neolithic Cursus , which might be a ritual procession route of formation of the past. Assumed to perform the ritual reminder movements when moving across the sky mid-summer ( midsummer solstice ). 

Acursus (like roads) consists of two parallel-shaped drain holes. In addition, the look is also a gap in the north cursus , allegedly as the entrance and exit for the procession took place.The result revealed that the site is already used as a main ritual, before the stones were erected. Ritual allegedly been committed since 5000 years ago. 

Professor Vince Gaffney, University of Birmingham archaeologist who became the leader of this project said, “This is the first time we see something like this at Stonehenge. It shows a complex explanation of how the rituals held at the cursus and landscaping a wider area. “

Quoted from the pages of the Daily Mail on Sunday, September 25, 2011, archaeologist Alfonso Forgione, who led the excavation believe that the skeletons belonged to the witch woman aged around 25 to 30 years. Alleged witches because they were buried with an unusual way: just buried in the soil excavation that is not too deep, without shroud or coffin.

Not only that, Forgione and his team also found a skeleton with seven nails embedded in his jaw. “The nail that stuck in the jaws of this framework to convince me that she was a witch woman,” he said.

Unusual condition also found in other frameworks. There are 17 dice around the skull. Related to this, Foglione commented, “The framework is buried in the same way but there are 17 dice in the vicinity. In Italy, 17 is an unlucky number, and the women are also banned from playing with the dice.”

Way of burial in such a way is also believed by archaeologists as the business community in those days to make sure the witches did not rise from the dead. Also found signs of torture on some of the framework, so that archaeologists are interested in investigating the cause of death of the witches even further.

But there is one mystery that still can not be solved by archaeologists. They do not know the reason for the burial of the witches are definitely in a concentrated area of ​​800 years ago is the area of ​​a church.

“The most likely explanation by far is, these women did not come from ordinary people. Only a noble family that could be buried in the church area,” said Forgione.

Currently, archaeologists are trying to find the tomb of Saint Cerbonius bishops who had died more than 1,500 years ago. The bishop who was murdered by the barbarians who mastered Toscana because it protects the Roman army was believed to be the patron saint of Toscana.

Voodoo followers believe in the existence of zombies, other terms of the undead. That said, according to their beliefs, people whose spirits are stolen by means of witchcraft, will be employed as slaves. Through the bite, the zombies can also make other people into their kind.

The existence of zombies has never been scientifically proven. In 2009, scientists from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University to investigate the phenomenon of the spread of zombies with the assumptions of biology: in the form of a virus or plague.

However, assuming people in the Middle Ages is clearly different. Recently archaeologists found two skeletons from the early Middle Ages in Ireland – with a large stone stuck in their mouths. The archaeologists believe, the way it shows evidence of people’s fears, that body will bounce back as a zombie.

Skeleton found in several sessions during the 2005-2009 excavations at Kilteasheen, near Loch Key, by a team of archaeologists led by Chris Read from the Institute of Technology of Sligo, Ireland, and Thomas Finan of the University of St. Louis.

This project succeeded in lifting 137 framework, although the scientists believe, there are hundreds to thousands of others who still have not been lifted.

The way that deviates burial was found in two male skeleton. Both are buried in a different time, circa 700 AD.

One of the dead man believed to be aged between 40 to 60 years. Others, still young, about 20 to 30 years. Both were laid side by side, with a rock the size of a baseball stuffed into their mouths.

“One of them lay with his eyes looked up to the top. Driven in large black stone in his mouth,” said Chris Read. “Others, was found with his head turned sideways, terjejal stone in his mouth to make her neck twisted.”

The team of archaeologists suspect, they found a cemetery associated with the so-called “black death”. Stone crammed in the mouth that is proof he has done the ritual murder of a vampire.

Initially, suspicion had dawned, cramming rocks in the mouth that is the way society at that time to prevent the transmission of disease from the corpse. However, because the phenomenon does not appear in the folklore of Europe until the 1500s, archaeologists ruled out that theory. They then retreated back to the 8th century.

“In this case, the stone at the mouth of allegedly used to prevent the corpse rose from the grave,” said Chris Read.

Both bodies Irishman could have been considered a dangerous person – such as the enemy, murderer, rapist, or because of sudden death due to a strange disease or were killed. Residents at that time seemed to fear that they could bounce back and harm society.

Why are their mouths stuffed with stones?

“The mouth is believed to be the door to the soul as it leaves the body at death. Sometimes, the soul can come back, or evil spirits can enter the body through the mouth, and raised him,” he said.

  The researchers for the first time found a boat that is used to bury the Vikings in their entirety. Objects are an estimated age of 1,000 years was discovered in Scotland.

The site is located on the discovery of Scottish Highlands, in a remote area on the west  Ardnamurchan peninsula

. In the tomb that allegedly 1,000 years old, was found a Viking who buried in it. Moreover, it also found axes, swords, and spears.

The experts from the UK that conduct investigations at the site said that the boat with about 200 nails dug has been completed. An archaeologist, Helen Gray, described the discovery was only once in a lifetime. “We have been researching this area since 2006 and almost all of our work is concentrated in different places,” he said.

“We only found a small, small mounds of earth and then decided to conduct an investigation. We do not think for a moment that this study found something important.”

Based on some of the findings, a bronze shield and the ring is also buried with the Vikings.

Project leaders, Hannah Cobb said, “While we have been digging a lot of artifacts that are important for many years, I think this invention that meets our expectations.”

“Viking boat-shaped grave is a remarkable finding. However, in addition to all of this artifact became the most important discovery of the tomb in Britain.”

One project leader, Oliver Harris said, the search for the Vikings is not the only one who carried out by these archaeologists. But, they also learn the social changes of the earliest inhabitants to the 18th century and the 19th.

Voodoo followers believe in the existence of zombies, another term for the undead. That said, according to their beliefs, people whose spirits were stolen by means of witchcraft, will be employed as slaves. Through the bite, the zombies can also make other humans into their kind.

The existence of zombies has never been scientifically proven. In 2009, scientists from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University to investigate the phenomenon of the spread of zombies with the assumptions of biology: in the form of a virus or plague.

However, assuming people in the Middle Ages is clearly different. Recently archaeologists found two skeletons from the early Middle Ages in Ireland – with a large rock wedged in their mouths. The archaeologists believe, the way it shows evidence of people’s fears, that body will bounce back as a zombie.

Skeleton was found in several sessions during the 2005-2009 excavations at Kilteasheen, near Loch Key, by a team of archaeologists led by Chris Read of the Institute of Technology of Sligo, Ireland, and Thomas Finan of the University of St. Louis.

This project succeeded in lifting 137 framework, although the scientists believe, there are hundreds to thousands of others who still have not been lifted.

How to deviant burials were found in two male skeleton. Both are buried in a different time, about the year 700 AD.

One of the dead man believed to be aged between 40 to 60 years. Others, still young, about 20 to 30 years. Both were laid side by side, with a rock the size of a baseball stuffed into their mouths.

“One of them lay with his eyes looked up to the top. Driven in large black stone in his mouth,” said Chris Read. “Others, was found with his head turned sideways, terjejal stone in his mouth to make his neck twisted.”

The team of archaeologists suspect, they found the cemetery associated with the so-called “black death”. Stone is stuffed in the mouth it is proof he has done the ritual vampire murder.

Initially, the allegations had occurred, stuffing rocks in the mouth it is the way society was to prevent the transmission of disease from the corpse. However, because the phenomenon does not appear in the folklore of Europe until the 1500s, archaeologists didn’t accept the theory. They then retreated back to the 8th century.

“In this case, the rock at the mouth allegedly used to prevent the corpse rose from the grave,” said Chris Read.

Both the Irish men’s bodies could be considered a dangerous man – such an enemy, a murderer, rapist, or because of sudden death due to a strange disease or were killed. Residents at that time seemed to fear that they could bounce back and harm society.

Why are their mouths stuffed with rocks?

“The mouth is believed to be the door to the soul as it leaves the body at death. Sometimes, the soul can come back, or evil spirits can enter the body through the mouth, and raised him,” he said. (Source: Discovery News, Lifelittlemysteries