Anthropological Curiosities

One of the advantages to curating a Anthropological news blog is that I have been very successful and keeping up to date on interesting new Archaeological finds and other anthropological research. Calling it Anthropological Curiosities, referencing early cabinets of curiosity and the early Anthropologists that created them, I have come across numerous interesting stories relating to death and interesting excavations.

I thought I would post a few interesting stories that I have found recently that are related to interesting cases of accidental or premeditated mortuary finds.

The most recent example is the excavation of human remains found in Bronze age Pots.

Such burials are recognized as common cremation burials, and this particular find contains enough bone that analysis of age, gender and any pathologies may be possible. Found at the base of a Standing stone in Britain, it may be interesting what attempts will be made to identify the relationship between the burial and the stone.

Although this article is rather brief, and serves more of an introduction to the finds, it is a good indication of the variety of known burial practices.


The second example I would like to illustrate is quite intriguing. It consists of an excavation completed on a group of Roman soldiers (Article here) that perished during a battle with a group of Persian foes. Taking place in 256AD, these remains, as well as the remains of a Persian warrior (Pictured Below) are believed to be the first evidence of chemical warfare.

Though it is generally believed that  chemical warfare was not uncommon, this seems to be the first hard evidence of such practices archaeologically. Evidence of high concentrations of sulfur and other chemical agents around the remains strongly suggest something extraordinary. As the battle and deaths took place in a confined subterranean tunnel, it does indeed seem plausible that utilizing this tactic would have been extremely effective in such a confined space.

This study, published in January and based off of archaeology completed in the 1930`s can be suspect, as no new primary research was completed. All evidence, however, does merit consideration and it might be beneficial to look into the scholarly evidence in addition to the news release in order to form my own conclusions.

 

 

Having taken it upon myself to constantly keep in the loop with Anthropological news, I have greatly increased my immersion into Archaeology. It is definitely something I plan to continue.

-SDP