Another round of stories on the Neolithic Rhine princess

And the stories just keep on coming! More sites are picking up the news about the excavation of the burial site of a "Rhine princess" (aka the Princess of the Golden Woods) and the nearby City in the Trees.

I'm sure archaeologists will be discussing this news for years to come. So, anyway, here are some excerpts:

Dr. Ernst Voorst, Director of the Reinhard Van Gelder Institute of Anthropology and Archaeology, led an exuberant team in announcing the historic find earlier this week in Basel, Switzerland. Voorst hinted that this discovery vindicates the work that he and his colleague and mentor — the late Dr. Reinhard Van Gelder — had published a few years ago concerning two ancient fortresses on opposing sides of the Rhine Canyon.

Source: Day Loans

Now Professor Bonnet and her mentor, Dr. Voorst, have announced an astonishing discovery that is sure to set the European anthropological and archaeological community abuzz for years to come. A team of experts led by Dr. Voorst has excavated a grave site in a well-hidden part of the Black Forest region they dubbed the “golden wood”. The burial contained only one body, a female, and has been dated to approximately 10,000 BCE. Professor Bonnet, who holds the Chair of Rhine Valley Studies at the Van Gelder Institute, hinted that the body may not be either Neanderthal or modern Human.

Source: The Lobscouse Net

Nestled in what has now become known as the Golden Wood, the white fortress was the bastion of the apparent victors in a war that Voorst and his associates say occurred around 10,000-12,000 years ago. The archaeological community failed to rush to embrace the Voorst-Van Gelder expedition’s findings because they did not uncover any graves or find human remains.

Source: Day Change

It's a pretty big day for science, if you ask me. I'll probably spend many hours analyzing these reports, piecing together the entire complex picture that is slowly emerging. I hope you share that enjoyment, too.

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More news on the Rhine princess from the golden woods

This is turning out to be a pretty exciting day. The news about the excavations in the golden woods along the Rhine river has been spreading like wild fire. I guess a lot of people are as amazed as me that an entire ancient civilization could exist 10,000 years ago in the Black Forest region and we're only now just finding evidence about it.

Here are a few more excerpts from news stories:

Now this week Dr. Voorst has announced a follow up investigation reveals that the western culture apparently lived in trees but — probably at the end of the war — it simply packed up its homes, buried them, and then left. No one seems to know where they went, but one grave has finally been located. The nearly complete remains of a woman dubbed the Princess of the Golden Wood have been exposed for scientific scrutiny.

Source: Scourings

Earlier this week Dr. Voorst and his new team announced they had excavated the grave of a wooden princess in a small forest they call the “golden wood”, a region of the Black Forest that takes on a soft golden hue in the afternoon sunlight. Releasing pictures of the princes and her grave, Voorst and his colleague — French scientist Felecia Bonnet — have rebutted many critics’ doubts about Voorst’s earlier work.

Source: This Press

Now Dr. Voorst is gambling everything — his reputation and the credibility of his and Van Gelder’s institute — on what is sure to be a controversial new report about a “woodland princess” whose grave site led researchers to uncover nearby carefully preserved wooden artifacts — remnants of a prehistoric “city in the trees”.

Source: Cutting Edge

However, members of the expedition team say they have not yet decided whether to make part of the remains available for DNA analysis, which would answer many questions. The notion that a prehistoric war has been confirmed elicits extreme skepticism in the scientific community. “Where are the graves of the warriors?” one archaeologist who has spent 30 years digging around Europe asks in an anonymous news group posting. “Why has no one else documented these finds?”

Source: Eigen Decomposition

Critics of Dr. Voorst’s work suggest he may have overlooked significant information but Voorst’s team are adamantly insisting they have conducting a thorough and trustworthy investigation. The lone grave’s single occupant has been dubbed the “Princess of the Golden Wood” because her remains were so well-preserved. The scientists have not yet decided whether to submit a sample of the nearly perfectly preserved remains for DNA analysis.

Source: The Outlet Detector

As you can see, some controversy has already been stirred up. This makes for good, healthy science. Skeptics have not only a right to be heard, they have an obligation to make themselves heard. But I think it looks like the preponderance of the evidence is on the side of Dr. Voorst and his colleagues.

This could turn out to be another big find like the discovery of Homo Florienensis, the "hobbit" from Indonesia. What do you think?

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International archaeology team announces major Rhine valley discovery

Neolithic science just got rewritten. Scientists excavating a lone grave in a copse of woods that make up part of the Black Forest have announced a fascinating new discovery. Here are a few excerpts from articles I've found across the Web:

The grave site for the supposed princess reportedly led Professor Felecia Bonnet, a French anthropologist who teaches at the Van Gelder Institute, to discover buried ancient wooden platforms, walls, and other artifacts associated with a City in the Trees. The tree-dwelling humans appear to have lived in the region for many thousands of years and were closely associated with the white fortress on the western side of the Rhine. Excited members of the team uncovered and restored a road leading to the city and built a replica of its largest surviving house.

Source: Flanitos

The University of the Rhine accepted a bequest from Van Gelder’s will to establish the Reinhard Van Gelder Institute of Anthropology and Archaeology, which is now headed by Van Gelder’s longtime student and friend, Dr. Ernst Voorst. Voorst made headlines this week when he announced that further work in the Golden Wood had led to the discovery and excavation of a grave site for a female human from about 10,000 years ago. Dubbed the Princess of the Golden Wood, her burial led researchers to uncover wooden artifacts that are believed to have been used to construct homes in the treetops.

Source: Singona

The excavation of the female’s grave led to a stunning discovery of carefully preserved wooden structures that, the team concluded, had once adorned majestic trees in the ancient world. The team reconstructed one such home and dubbed it the Palace of the Princess from the City of the Trees in the Golden Wood. Initial reaction to the announcement has been guarded but hopeful. Some experts insist that Dr. Voorst’s work will have to be confirmed by other experts in the field who have not been tainted by the controversy.

Source: Info-Monster

The Voorst expedition returned to the Golden Wood and uncovered a remarkable deposit of carefully preserved wooden artifacts from the era. It is almost as if the inhabitants of the Golden Wood disassembled their homes and left the area about 10,000 years ago. They may have planned to return because they left enough material to rebuild at least a few of the houses that were once supported by ancient trees of monumental height.

Source: GeoStatics

One of the more amazing pictures associated with this story depicts a restored roadway through the Golden Woods.



I'm sure there will be more stories. It seems like this party is just getting started!

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How did modern humans come to be modern?

We have many questions about our past. One of those questions is a rather complex one. It can be summed up thus: if modern humans arose about 200,000 years ago, why did it take another 160,000 years for them to start acting like modern humans?

Specifically, scientists ask (and argue) why humanity took so long to develop the basic cultural skills that signify human cognizance -- our awareness of self within the universe. The most commonly cited metric in prehistoric studies and analyses is art. If early man took the time to be artistic, it meant he was beginning to think beyond his basic needs: breathing, drinking, eating, reproducing, and surviving.

There have been three recent archaeological discoveries which have sparked both debate and the imagination.

The Oldest Known Artwork: Blombos Cave
In early 2002 scientists announced the discovery of 70,000 year-old human art found in a cave in South Africa. Soft ochre stone was apparently carved with an intricate pattern of criss-crossed lines. Some detractors argue the scrapes are just meaningless doodles. But perhaps they represent a picture, say of a range of mountains, perhaps lining a lake or a seashore.

What we can be sure of is that someone took the time to carve lines in a piece of rock. We don't know why. Perhaps it was a bored hunter waiting for a kill and at the end of a day he took his doodles home with him. Perhaps it was a bored child confined to a cave by Mom on a rainy day when there were dangerous animals or enemies close by.

There might be lost significance which cannot be conveyed by the carvings themselves. Perhaps prehistoric artisans had to prove they had certain skills in order to be admitted into a special group of artisans. Maybe carving straight lines on a rock meant something like, "I know how to carve straight lines on a rock -- most people cannot do that." Have you ever tried to draw a straight line on paper? It's not as easy as it looks for many people.

Archaeologists suggest Python cult existed 70,000 years ago
In 2006 a team of archaeologists proposed that African San people worshipped a giant python rock 70,000 years ago. Scientists suggest that 300-400 carvings may have enhanced firelight views (scroll down) of the rock.

The San people believe that humanity descended from a python. Of course, serpents figure in other mythologies -- including the Biblical story of Genesis, where the serpent is the avatar of evil who uses Eve to persuade Adam to commit the first sin against God.

All we know for sure is that someone carved a natural python-like rock formation to look more snake-like. And it occurred around the same time as the ochre stone carving in Bomblos Cave.

Maybe the architect was practicing his design on ochre stone before going to the python rock?

Archaeologists debate whether Moroccan shells are ancient jewelry
Around 82,000 years ago humans living along the coast of northwest Africa in what is now Morocco apparently carried snail shells 50 km inland (that would be about 31.25 miles for those of us who live in the United States). 31 miles may not seem like such a great distance but it's a very long distance for primitive peoples who don't have roads, cars, or safe passage.

The shells, remnants of sea snails whose shells have been found in archaeological digs throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe dating back over 110,000 years, appear to have been pierced as if hung on a string.

Some ancient (but historical) systems of exchange did, in fact, put objects of value (even coins) on strings. But would humans have had a need for a medium of exchange 82,000 years ago? Some scientists argue that since these snails are found in archaeological digs all over the Old World, there is no real significance to the holes in the shells (which could have been created by microbes).

Most recently it has been announced that these odd beads with holes in them have been found in even older layers.

But stop and consider this: these snail shells have been found in archaeological digs all over the Old World.

What Might Have Been 70,000 Years Ago
We have no evidence to sugggest there was a sophisticated human culture 70,000 years ago but we do have evidence that the previous interglacial warming period ended about that time -- probably because of the Toba supervolcano eruption that scientists believe brought on a new period of cooling which either created or speeded the last glaciation period (which lasted from approximately 70,000 BCE to approximately 12,000 BCE).

Scientists estimate that the total surviving human population (then divided between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens?) numbered maybe only 10,000 people -- about 2,000 mating couples with children and/or aged parents. Those people mostly survived in Africa, it seems.

It may also be that there were more men than women 60,000 years ago when modern humans are believed to have begun leaving Africa. If most of the emigrants were men, what happened to all the women? In the course of 10,000 years one might expect the human population to re-establish its gender-balances.

Tool-making Improved 80,000 Years Ago
In another recent study, scientists argue that tool-making became more sophisticated in southern Africa between 80,000 and 60,000 years ago.

Tool-making cannnot be overemphasized. Scientists have been studying a dry lake-bed in the Kalahari desert where ancient stone axes and other tools were manufactured for 10s of thousands of years ranging from about 150,000 years ago to about 10,000 years ago. The Kalahari desert is located in and near Botswana, which is just to the north of central South Africa.

Another recent find suggests that ancient humans along the coast of South Africa (and near Cape Town) used fire in their tool-making processes about 72,000 years ago. Firing stone tools makes them stronger and more durable. Maybe a fired stone tool was used to etch criss-crossing lines in an ochre stone.

Genetic studies suggest that African Pygmies diverged from other modern humans about 60,000 years ago and that the modern Pygmy groups (East and West) emerged around 20,000 years ago.

It is probably no coincidence that the Pygmy peoples became distinct from other modern humans about the same time that a mostly male population began leaving Africa for other lands. There must have been a great upheaval, something which our science has yet to identify.

Modern Human Culture 60,000 Years Ago
It has been proposed that all modern men are descended from one man who lived in Africa about 60,000 years ago (by contrast, genetic studies suggest our common female ancestor lived about 150,000 years ago). There are certainly a lot of possible explanations (many of them implausible) for how one man living at any given time could become the male ancestor of modern humanity.

For example, Genghis Khan is believed to be the ancestor of about 8% of Asian men and many men outside of Asia as well. I read one estimate that suggested Genghis Khan could have had as many as 30,000 living descendants when he died.

Some scientists argue that modern human migration from Africa began as much as 40,000 years prior to the time of "Adam" -- and that is not inconsistent with the data we have. Other modern human populations could have left Africa, died out in the Toba event, or eventually were taken over by Adam's descendants.

The story of Genghis Khan shows us that immense human population upheavals are plausible. He swept across Asia and conquered most of Asia, establishing what would eventually become the largest empire history has known.

60,000 years ago there need only have been a relatively small population of modern humans in Africa. Adam could have been a dynamic leader who gathered the clans, took all the best women for himself, and fathered a generation of ambitious young warriors. In the ensuing years groups of people could have broken off from Adam's little kingdom, migrating away from his successors' area of control.

Perhaps small bands of warriors went north seeking fame, fortune, and women of their own, each group led by one or more of Adam's sons, grandsons, or great-grandsons.

Toba-event Survivors Outside Africa
We can be reasonably certain that there was more than one group of survivors from the Toba event because Neanderthals continued to exist in Europe and the Near East. These small groups of men were pretty sophisticated, probably as sophisticated as our own ancestors.

For example, around 60,000 years ago Neanderthals developed primitive dental hygiene (although there is evidence people were picking their teeth as far back as 2 million years ago).

Neanderthals have been given credit for all sorts of developments, including artwork, possibly religious rituals, caring for injured relatives, and more. 60,000 years Neanderthals began hunting Mammoths in Britain.

There is probably sufficient data for us to conclude that human groups moved around and exchanged gifts, trophies, and perhaps even mates as far back as 100,000 years ago -- maybe longer.

We don't have enough evidence to show there was anything like an intergroup culture capable of waging war or engaging in large-scale activity, but I wouldn't be surprised if archaeologists begin uncovering more interesting remnants of a history we never recorded.

For another attempt at explaining this, check out Africa 60,000 years ago: The Age of Adam in SF-Fandom's Archaeology and Prehistory Forum.

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In the Kingdom of Colchis

I never really studied the geography of Greek mythology in depth. I recall trying to figure out where some of the ancient wars of mythology were supposedly fought, and when Xena: Warrior Princess was popular a lot of us Xenites read up on Amazon history and mythology.

Greek mythology is closely tied to the Black Sea region, whereas Greek history expands beyond that area into the wider world. There is a very clear and definite historical pattern in Greek mythology, however. Ancient Greeks studied that history, accepted it as faithfully as we accept the history lessons we are taught about the past 1000-1500 years, and they analyzed that history and used it to provide context for many contemporary anecdotes and histories.

Today we mine Greek mythology for inspiration in literature and other forms of entertainment. We draw upon the nomenclature and symbology of ancient Greek ideas for business and even for science. But we don't have much science that explores Greek mythology beyond the requisite archaeological inquiries into the city of Troy.

This past weekend SyFy ran the 2000 mini-series "Jason and the Argonauts", and while watching the show I decided to look up the Kingdom of Colchis, which (like many other lands mentioned in Greek mythology) was a real land. In fact, Colchis still exists today -- we call it the nation of Georgia.

Situated on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea, Georgia extends eastward about 2/3 of the way to the Caspian Sea. Colchis lay along the seashore. In the 2nd Millennium BCE it was apparently a rich land, powerful and ancient. Archaeology has confirmed that people have lived in the area (which is home to the Caucausus mountains) for thousands upon thousands of years.

In fact, archaeologists recently announced that 34,000 year-old fibers from Georgia show that people living in that region were weaving and sewing cloth.

Herodotus, called the father of history, opened his book with an account of wrongs between peoples of the east and west, which includes a very much reduced version of the Jason story:

Those of the Persians who have knowledge of history declare that the Phenicians first began the quarrel. These, they say, came from that which is called the Erythraian Sea to this of ours; and having settled in the land where they continue even now to dwell, set themselves forthwith to make long voyages by sea. And conveying merchandise of Egypt and of Assyria they arrived at other places and also at Argos; now Argos was at that time in all points the first of the States within that land which is now called Hellas;--the Phenicians arrived then at this land of Argos, and began to dispose of their ship's cargo: and on the fifth or sixth day after they had arrived, when their goods had been almost all sold, there came down to the sea a great company of women, and among them the daughter of the king; and her name, as the Hellenes also agree, was Io the daughter of Inachos. These standing near to the stern of the ship were buying of the wares such as pleased them most, when of a sudden the Phenicians, passing the word from one to another, made a rush upon them; and the greater part of the women escaped by flight, but Io and certain others were carried off. So they put them on board their ship, and forthwith departed, sailing away to Egypt. 2. In this manner the Persians report that Io came to Egypt, not agreeing therein with the Hellenes,[3] and this they say was the first beginning of wrongs. Then after this, they say, certain Hellenes (but the name of the people they are not able to report) put in to the city of Tyre in Phenicia and carried off the king's daughter Europa;--these would doubtless be Cretans;--and so they were quits for the former injury. After this however the Hellenes, they say, were the authors of the second wrong; for they sailed in to Aia of Colchis and to the river Phasis with a ship of war, and from thence, after they had done the other business for which they came, they carried off the king's daughter Medea: and the king of Colchis sent a herald to the land of Hellas and demanded satisfaction for the rape[4] and to have his daughter back; but they answered that, as the Barbarians had given them no satisfaction for the rape of Io the Argive, so neither would they give satisfaction to the Barbarians for this.

Source: Project Gutenberg eText of Herodotus' History

Of course, Herodotus cannot prove the tales he relates. He is only repeating what he has been told by local people (or travelers, or other sources). Still, he goes on to draw together some interesting threads about Colchis and Egypt:

For the people of Colchis are evidently Egyptian, and this I perceived for myself before I heard it from others. So when I had come to consider the matter I asked them both; and the Colchians had remembrance of the Egyptians more than the Egyptians of the Colchians; but the Egyptians said they believed that the Colchians were a portion of the army of Sesostris. That this was so I conjectured myself not only because they are dark-skinned and have curly hair (this of itself amounts to nothing, for there are other races which are so), but also still more because the Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians alone of all the races of men have practised circumcision from the first. The Phenicians and the Syrians[88] who dwell in Palestine confess themselves that they have learnt it from the Egyptians, and the Syrians[89] about the river Thermodon and the river Parthenios, and the Macronians, who are their neighbours, say that they have learnt it lately from the Colchians. These are the only races of men who practise circumcision, and these evidently practise it in the same manner as the Egyptians. Of the Egyptians themselves however and the Ethiopians, I am not able to say which learnt from the other, for undoubtedly it is a most ancient custom; but that the other nations learnt it by intercourse with the Egyptians, this among others is to me a strong proof, namely that those of the Phenicians who have intercourse with Hellas cease to follow the example of the Egyptians in this matter, and do not circumcise their children. 105. Now let me tell another thing about the Colchians to show how they resemble the Egyptians:--they alone work flax in the same fashion as the Egyptians,[90] and the two nations are like one another in their whole manner of living and also in their language: now the linen of Colchis is called by the Hellenes Sardonic, whereas that from Egypt is called Egyptian. 106. The pillars which Sesostris of Egypt set up in the various countries are for the most part no longer to be seen extant; but in Syria Palestine I myself saw them existing with the inscription upon them which I have mentioned and the emblem. Moreover in Ionia there are two figures of this man carved upon rocks, one on the road by which one goes from the land of Ephesos to Phocaia, and the other on the road from Sardis to Smyrna. In each place there is a figure of a man cut in the rock, of four cubits and a span in height, holding in his right hand a spear and in his left a bow and arrows, and the other equipment which he has is similar to this, for it is both Egyptian and Ethiopian: and from the one shoulder to the other across the breast runs an inscription carved in sacred Egyptian characters, saying thus, "This land with my shoulders I won for myself." But who he is and from whence, he does not declare in these places, though in other places he has declared this. Some of those who have seen these carvings conjecture that the figure is that of Memnon, but herein they are very far from the truth.

Now, it seems to me that Georgia is a long way from Egypt, but it is significant that Herodotus mentions their use of flax. Whether there is a true connection between Colchis and Egypt other than flax is a conjecture I cannot really explore. On the other hand, there does appear to be a real historical context for the golden fleece. Apparently, the local town of Svaneti in modern Georgia is closely associated with the practice of capturing gold from local rivers by laying sheepskins in the water.

Despite what I wrote above, archaeological work continues throughout the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean regions. But we mostly hear about archaeology concerned with Biblical, Egyptian, and Greco-Roman cultures. The more ancient, isolated cultures don't receive as much attention as we might wish they could. The picture of our ancient history is very incomplete. It will take a long time to uncover all the surviving pieces and assemble them together in something like a solved puzzle.

SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.