Questions tagged [archaeology]
For questions about the study of the physical remains of humans and human activity.
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Is it generally more difficult to verify or falsify a story?
I am trying to compare the relative difficulties in using the historical method to show that a false story is false and a true story is true.
For the comparison to be clear, I think it's clear that we ...
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Are these depictions of ancient Greek and Roman libraries "scroll-shelves" historically accurate?
In some modern depictions of ancient Greek and Roman libraries or studies, I sometimes see shelving units specifically designed for scrolls.
These feature cubby-hole style compartments of squarish ...
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Where did Borobudur's stones come from?
Borobudur is a Buddhist temple located in central Java (Indonesia). It is made of andesite, a volcanic rock common in the area—nearby volcano Mount Merapi is andesitic. But I have some troubles ...
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What is the likelihood that significant unearthed prehistoric settlements exist beneath cities with continuous habitation? [closed]
Considering the comparatively rapid accumulation of soil layers over time, which has led to the burial of structures such as the Easter Island statues and Harappan sites, what is the likelihood(based ...
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What is this object?
Can anyone help to identify these stone like objects.
Looks like it might have been used in some kind of armour maybe?
I know that there were a lot of battles in the field where it was found.
Location:...
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When archaeology says "a 12th century structure", does it mean the structure EXISTED till 12th century or it was BUILT in 12th century? [closed]
When archaeological study says "a 12th century structure", does it mean they found a structure in the 12th century "layer"? If a structure was built in 12th century and existed ...
user64876
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How tall was an average person in ancient Israel?
As has long been known, Goliath's height wasn't as impressive as most people would believe. However, I've been thinking; even at the lowest estimates he still would've been taller than an average even ...
user64850
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How is robustness measured in history and archaeology? [closed]
In physics and medicine there is quite a consensus of various levels of evidence. For example, physics has a scale of fifteen levels of scientific evidence (DOI:Opera Magistris pg 50) and medicine has ...
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How common was it for archaeologists in past eras to believe in giants?
The past has involved many myths about the existence of giants. Various colonizers and travelers, for example, reported giants among the indigenous peoples of the Americas (eg "Giant Amerindians: ...
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What were the 20th century historical disputes?
In "Moses in the Hieroglyphs", by Grant Berkley (Trafford, 2006) there appears the following astonishing assertion, relating to professional historians and archaeologists:
In academic ...
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Is this a Stone Age artefact? [closed]
Found these in my garden some time ago. It looks like it may have been worked but also just happens to fit into my hand. Could this be a Stone Age tool of some sort?
The second example looks more ...
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When was The Tale of Sinuhe first REdiscovered?
I have found a website that gives the details of all of the sources of The Tale of Sinuhe, but I can't figure out what the actual date of discovery was for each of those sources (in order to find the ...
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What is the historical origin of the story of the Temptation of Christ? [closed]
In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, there is a story in which Jesus meets the Christian Devil (Satan), and Satan tempts Jesus to give up his mission through promises of power.
I want more ...
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What is the origin of this medallion?
I want to get information on what looks
like a medallion that my father found at a construction
site (at his home) in 1968 in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada. It was found about 10 feet underground. It ...
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Help understanding exactly the phases of stone tool development during the stone age?
I have been studying how the stone tools evolved for the past few days, and think I am close to understanding roughly what the model is, but after reading a few recent papers, it seems there's a lot ...
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How do we know the gender distribution of cave art painters?
I recently visited an exhibition about climate, nature and culture during the last glacial period.
One interactive exhibit about cave paintings sported a plaque saying:
"...Jetzt wissen wir, dass ...
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Are there pyramids at Sternenfels?
The author Frederick Dodson in his rather strange book "Extraterrestrial Linguistics" (2020) makes the claim that several pyramids have been excavated in the German town of Sternenfels. I ...
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What was the estimated weight of transport wagons (plaustra) in 1st through 3rd century Rome?
I am writing a paper about land transport using oxen carts and wagons in central Italy during the High Empire (late 1st century BC to early 3rd century AD), including some computing simulations of ...
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Why was the king of Judah referred to as "the king of the House-of-David"?
In the famous Tel Dan Stele it says, likely in the name of Hazael, king of Aram:
"… קתלת.אית.יהו[רם].בר [אחאב.]מלך.ישראל.וקתל[ת.אית.אחז]יהו.בר[.יהורם.מל]ך.ביתדוד …"
"… killed Jeho[ram]...
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Help identify origin of a small clay statue
I have come across an interesting clay figurine. I was told it's pre-colombian, coming somewhere from Mexico region.
Unfortunately it's not in a good shape as one hand and head decoration are broken ...
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Can 8 m³ of ashes in an AD 750 burial mound mean 2+ k corpses?
This burial mound was excavated in 1903, and apparently contained 8 m³ of ashes.
Här låg nämligen på den ursprungliga marken ett mycket intensivt lager
af aska utbredt öfver ett vidsträckt, 20 kv. m. ...
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What is the difference between archeology and defacing a tomb? [closed]
Its an old joke I heard that well, archeology is just defacing/looting some old tombs. If you mess up and go for a tomb that is too fresh, you will be in trouble.
But that raises a good point: When ...
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Were there clay printing presses in the bronze age?
I'm no lithographer, but it seems to me that making a die cast out of metal, wood or stone, which could be pressed in to clay tablets to produce copies of its textual contents, would be easier than ...
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What's this item?
I have found this item and I'm wondering what it is, and what civilization it came from (if it's old); and if there are any simple methods to know how old it is or what it is made of.
Location: ...
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What made the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb such a significant archeological find? [closed]
The discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt is often regarded as one of the most notable archeological finds of recent history, and is certainly one of the most famous ones. Before its discovery ...
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Has this rock been engineered by humans and, if so, what was its use?
I found this rock in my garden (Cheshire, UK) and wondered whether it had been fashioned by humans for some use. If so what was it used for and what is its history?
The two largest holes on either ...
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What is this decorative metal object with overlapping squares?
Can anyone identify this object?
Found in a rockpool, exposed at low tide, just East of the entrance to Plymouth Sound, South West UK.
It feels like it's made of metal. There's a square in the centre ...
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Were ancient people interested in archaeology?
Before the establishment of the field of archaeology, which is said here to have originated in 15th and 16th century Europe, surely ancient peoples were also curious about those who came before them ...
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What mining feature is this?
In a former lead mining region of Derbyshire (Just North of Wirksworth) there's this bank of earth running across the side of a hill, with a small "valley" alongside it:
It's about 15-20m ...
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Could there be frozen animals under Antarctica's ice sheets?
Similar to how we occassionally dig up frozen mammoths from the Siberian permafrost, could there be animals and plants frozen under the Antarctic ice sheets? I understand that at various times in the ...
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Is there any estimate for expected life of 'ordinary' or 'poor' people in middle ages after surviving infancy?
I tried to do my own research on this and according to paper I found:
Life expectancy at birth was a brief 25 years during the Roman Empire, it reached 33 years by the Middle Ages and raised up to 55 ...
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Are there examples of African/European/American hunter-gatherer's constructions?
Often people think about hunter-gatherers as primitives. "Dark Emu" book is a great example of popular history book that refutes those beliefs. Aboriginal constructions could be quite ...
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What's the primary theory behind tracks in the stone around the world? [closed]
What's the primary theory behind tracks in the stone around the world?
Even if they are ancient roads, why there are no traces from the horses or other animals that should be in the middle?
Turkey:
...
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Why did ancient cultures (e.g. the Mesopotamians) use sexagesimal?
Why did ancient cultures, such as the Mesopotamians, use sexagesimal (base-60)? I've been doing some reading on this, and there seems to be no consensus. Of course, it's rare that there's perfect ...
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Is there any evidence that people in the late Pleistocene understood that their environment was changing?
Of all the periods of geographic and climactic transformation our planet has undergone, the late Pleistocene is of particular interest to historians, since it was the first to be witnessed by human ...
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What is the emblem on this ring?
After cleaning up a local cave, among lots of trash this ring was found laying underneath.
Can anyone identify this emblem?
Location: Center, Israel
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Where can I find illustrations online depicting Idrisi's coffer in the Queen's chamber in the "Khufu" pyramid
I believe I have found sufficient evidence that points to a block of stone, not necessarily a coffer as stated by Idrisi, being inside the niche in the Queen's Chamber blocking the entrance to the ...
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What does this Swedish sonar image depict? [closed]
I am wondering what conclusions can be drawn from this sonar image.
The object is sunk in a river, of unknown age, and not examined.
Width 5,5 m
Length 15,6 m
Depth 9,7-9,2 m
The image was taken ...
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Was any object from Anza's expeditions conserved?
In the 1770s, Juan Bautista de Anza led two overland expeditions from Sinaloa to Alta California. The first was for reconnaissance and the second, larger and better known, for the purpose of ...
user18968
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What was the architectural predecessor of Roman triumphal arches?
Roman triumphal arches (fornix, ianus, then arcus triumphalis) are generally categorized into two main types: those with a single arched opening (e.g. Arch of Titus) and those with three openings (e.g....
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What is the oldest discovered Neanderthal boat or raft? [closed]
I read how there is evidence that Neanderthals used to sail on the Mediterranean using primitive 'boats'. Have we discovered any of these boats, and if we have, what is the oldest of these Neanderthal ...
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Why so many old remains of different animals and almost no remains of humans [closed]
There are so many fossils of dinosaurs 70, 100, 200 million years ago, and no remains of human ancestors like Orrorin. If we assume that is size, but there are plenty of other examples of much smaller ...
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Why are the Corded Ware and Kurgan theories incompatible?
Why can't the Corded Ware Culture be a part of the Kurgan hypothesis of the PIE Urheimat? These two things overlap in time and place. Gambutas included the Corded Ware culture in her theory. I'm not ...
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What exactly is a Tang dynasty 壺 (pot)?
I have asked this question on Chinese Stack Exchange but received no satisfactory answer there so far. I think it is relevant to the History Stack Exchange and will link these two questions together.
...
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Are there any hypotheses on how the Dorset people disappeared?
I read an article about how anthropologists have discovered artifacts from an ancient Arctic culture known as the Dorset that disappeared centuries ago and were the precursors to the Inuit in the ...
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What does BPE/PE in some archaeology journals stand for?
Apparently, this is an acronym for reckoning time period instead of using the usual BC-AD or BCE-CE.
The journal I am referring to is archeo sciences. Here's a snippet of the article:
I've looked ...
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How do archaeologists date cave paintings?
Imagine I get hold on 15000 yr old pigments and I draw an iguana next to a bison at "Altamira Caves"... how does one know that that drawing wasn't made 15000 years back? Would people then start saying ...
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Earliest evidence of objects intended for future archaeologists?
In modern times, it is not unusual for people to wonder what, if anything, will archeologists of the future (human or otherwise) will learn about our civilization from various artifacts we leave ...
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Troy: How could a city be built on top of an older one?
As far as I know, archaeological excavation discovered several layers of the city of Troy, each one built on top of the ruins of the older ones.
I just can imagine how that might have happened.
One ...
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What is known about the Ubaid lizard-people figurines?
I find the Ubaid lizard-people figurines visually captivating. But for obvious reasons it's difficult to search for information about them online without wading chest deep through pages of ancient ...
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