Cold war satellite images reveal hundreds of unknown Roman forts

Declassified spy images point to 396 undiscovered forts in Syria and Iraq, shifting understanding of Roman frontier Caroline Davies Thu 26 Oct 2023 05.00 BST Last modified on Thu 26 Oct 2023 05.29 BST

Declassified cold-war spy satellite images have thrown new light on the workings of the Roman empire by revealing hundreds of previously undiscovered forts, with dramatic implications for our understanding, experts have said.

Archeologists examining aerial photographs taken in the 1960s and 70s said they reveal 396 sites of unknown Roman forts in Syria and Iraq across the Syrian steppe.

The findings, published today in Antiquity, an international archeology academic journal, have now forced a re-evaluation of life at the Roman frontier.

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 3,500-year-old cemetery that contains a "Book of the Dead" papyrus.

The cemetery, at Tuna al-Gebel in central Egypt, dates back to the New Kingdom (circa 1550 to 1070 B.C.) and contains mummies, sarcophagi, amulets and numerous "shabti" (also called ushabti) figurines that were meant to serve the deceased in the afterlife, according to an Arabic statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The "Book of the Dead" papyrus found in the cemetery is about 43 to 49 feet (13 to 15 meters) long. Archaeologists from the ministry have been excavating the site since 2017 and found the cemetery recently.

Human and animal sculptures that could date to 9,600 B.C.E were found in Turkey at sites some believe have ties to biblical accounts.

The more we look, the further back human civilisation goes.

The two brooches are the first definitive evidence of Viking presence on the island of Jomfruland in southern Norway.

Archeologists in Reims, northeastern France, have found an unopened Roman sarcophagus with the remains of a woman and her funerary goods.

Scientists in Sudan have discovered a tattoo with references to Jesus Christ on a 1,300-year-old body excavated in a cemetery near a medieval monastery.

It is only the second time that a tattoo has been found from medieval Nubia, the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA) at the University of Warsaw, whose members are conducting excavation and research at the site, known as Ghazali, said in a statement. Nubia is a region that encompasses parts of modern-day Egypt and Sudan.

An earthquake last year revealed a big surprise beneath a law school in modern-day Mexico City: a giant, colorful snakehead from the Aztec Empire.

The snakehead dates back more than 500 years, to when the Aztecs controlled the area, which at the time was part of the flourishing capital of Tenochtitlan. The sculpture was discovered after a magnitude-7.6 earthquake struck Mexico City on Sept. 19, 2022; the seismic event caused damage and changes in the topography, revealing the snakehead beneath a building that was part of a law school at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said in a Spanish-language statement.

A team of scientists from the Universities of Granada and Cambridge, as well as the Government of Catalonia, have identified the oldest pieces of Baltic amber ever found on the Iberian Peninsula, revealing that this luxury material used in jewelry and handicrafts around the world was already being imported more than 5,000 years ago.

The research was led by UGR lecturer Mercedes Murillo-Barroso and involved the collaboration of Marcos Martinón-Torres of the University of Cambridge and Araceli Martín Cólliga of the Government of Catalonia. According to Murillo-Barroso, the work "allows us to say with confidence that the arrival of Baltic amber on the Iberian Peninsula occurred at least in the 4th millennium BC, more than a millennium earlier than we thought, and that it was probably part of wider trade networks linked to the south of France."

More than 500,000 years ago, our human ancestors used large, stone tools known as "Acheulean handaxes," to cut meat and wood, and dig for tubers. Often made from flint, these prehistoric oval and pear-shaped tools are flaked on both sides and have a pointed end.

Researchers from Dartmouth and the University of Cambridge have identified that "The Melun Diptych" (circa 1455), painted by Jean Fouquet, depicts what is likely the earliest artistic representation of an Acheulean handaxe, demonstrating that these objects had an even earlier place in the modern world. The findings are published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.