archaeology

Nimrud - The Treasures of the Queens
Nimrud is one of the great cities of the Assyrians who dominated Mesopotamia from the 10th century BC down to 612 BC when they were destroyed by the Medes and the Persians. In the Bible they appear as wicked rulers with wonderfully romantic names such as Tiglath-Pileser III. Recently the tombs of some of the great queens have been uncovered in the palace at Nimrud, buried under the floor in the harem with a wonderful collection of treasures in gold and other precious metals.

This glittering gold tiara was found in the tomb of Queen Yaba, the wife of Tiglath-Pileser III, who ruled 744 to 727 BC. The tomb chamber was accompanied by a fine curse, see below, but there was a second body buried with the queen.

Plan of the excavations at Nimrud. The tombs were found in the ‘North-West palace’ at the bottom centre of the plan (ringed).     

The tomb contained four magnificent gold bowls, three of them inscribed with the names of different queens; there were two bodies but three inscribed bowls. One was inscribed with the name of Yaba, the second with the name Atalia, the wife of Sargon II, they may have been mother and daughter and both of them queens. The third was inscribed with the name of Banitu, the wife of Shalmaneser V whose bowl may have been inherited by her successors.

Who Was In the Tomb?

 In the antechamber to the tomb an inscription was discovered revealing that the tomb was that of Queen Yaba, and cursing anyone who should desecrate the tomb.

However the curse had soon been broken, for the tomb contained not one body but two: the curse had soon been broken. Queen Yaba may have been the body on the bottom but above her was a second female who had been put in perhaps a generation later. This second body had been gently ‘cooked’ to a temperature of 100-200 degrees C: had she perhaps died far from home and been cooked to preserve the body until it could be buried at home in familiar surroundings under the floor of the Royal Palace?
    
Queen Yaba’s Curse

By command of the great gods of the underworld, mortal destiny caught up with Queen Yaba in death, and she travelled the path of her ancestors.

Whoever in time to come, whether a queen who sits on the throne, or a lady of the palace who is a favourite concubine of the king, removes me from my tomb, or place anyone else with me, or lays hand on my jewellery with evil intent, or breaks open the seal of this tomb, let his spirit wander in thirst in the open countryside.

Below, in the Netherworld, let him not receive any libation of pure water, beer, wine, or flour as an offering! May the great gods of the underworld impose on his corpse and spirit, restlessness for all eternity.

The Jomon Culture in Japan is one of the strangest Prehistoric cultures in the world. It was extremely long lived, beginning in the Upper Palaeolithic around 13000 BC and lasting down to around 800 BC, but they never developed agriculture but remained based on foraging for nuts and fish. Nevertheless it was surprisingly sophisticated, producing some wonderful pottery and figurines as well as living in some very extensive villages. These photographs are all taken from a new book: Jomon Reflections by Tatsuo Kobayashi (Oxbow £25).

A superb example of one of the early Jomon pots with four pointed shoulders and elaborate spiral decoration.

Numerous clay figurines are found in the Jomon period, like the one show on the front cover above, and also this superb standing figure 45cms high. The head is indistinct but has an elaborate headdress or helmet, but the flared jeans somehow look very modern. Were these gods or ancestors?

The Jomon people never developed agriculture but chestnuts and acorns became a major food source. However, many nuts need processing to remove the tannic acids and this large hearth may have been an ash making facility to remove the acids from the nuts.

Despite not developing agriculture, the Jomon people nevertheless developed large villages, such as this one from Namesaka, where a complete village was excavated with circular pit dwelling set round a central plaza.

How to look beautiful in Jomom Japan: have some teeth removed! Here we see some of the more popular forms of tooth oblation. Presumably this marked out tribal differences so that you could see at a glance to what tribe anyone belonged. Was this some sort of Coming-of-Age ritual, a jolly way of celebrating your 21st birthday?   

One of the largest excavations ever to have taken place in Japan, or indeed anywhere in the world. Two Jomon settlements were discovered on a low ridge in the middle of Lake Biwa. A coffer dam was placed around and they were excavated on the bottom of the lake.

Laurion: The silver mines of Athens

The famous mines produced an ore with a silver content of just 0.1% so an elaborate washing process was essential to refine the ore before smelting. Here we see a large water storage system, to the left, from which water will be channelled through to the small cleaning basin to the right.

Muzapher Korkuti

What was it like to live through the Stalinist regime in Albania as an archaeologist? Muzafer Korkuti, now Director of Albania’s Institute of Archaeology, reflects on his life before and after the political changes.