Category Archives: Ancient Relics

A recent exhibition covered by the press displayed some artifacts from the Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil.

A controversy arises because the current paradigm says that people didn’t populate the Americas until 12,000 years ago, but carbon dating techniques have indicated ages of up to 30,000 years old for some of the thousands of cave paintings discovered in the park.

The local economy would be much improved if the UNESCO World Heritage site could attract more tourists, especially since it is the oldest inhabited site in the Americas (discovered so far.)

Have a great day,

A few examples of early large boats capable of long voyages have been found, but finding evidence of early constructions sites is not so easy.
Most of the boats that are found are preserved under special circumstances in unique locations, how do you look for construction sites?

An archaeological site in Monmouth, Wales has produced what news reports indicate is a construction site for large catamaran-like boats.

At one time, the area was under a lake, but as it dried one spot provided Bronze Age Britons (2500 BCE to 800 BCE) both the resources to build large boats and a natural slippery clay soil to slide them out to the water. The boats would have been very stable, apparently more stable that what would be necessary for lake fishing, which raises some questions:
Did the lake have an outlet to the sea?
Are these boats evidence of long-distance trade?

The article says that the area was inhabited for thousands of years, was it another stop on an ancient trade route?

Have a great day.

(Source: Rob Eagle/UCL Petrie Museum)

According to the news report, the three beads in the center are made of iron.

These were found in a burial from 3200 BCE and according to the referenced article from the online Journal of Archaeological Science:

The production of iron metal from ore only started in the mid-second millennium BC…

There is a gap of a few years here, however the disparity is explained by the presence of unique concentrations of elements that prove it came from a meteorite. According to the article:

X-ray scanners, meanwhile, showed that the meteorite iron had been repeatedly heated and hammered to make the precious jewels for the afterlife.
The researchers say the finding shows that the Egyptians were already advanced in the art in smithing by the fourth millennium BC.
Meteoritic iron is much harder and more brittle than copper, the commonly-worked material of the time.
“They were rolled and hammered into shape,” says Thilo Rehren, a UCL professor of archaeology.
“This is very different technology from the usual stone bead drilling, and shows quite an advanced understanding of how the metal smiths worked this rather difficult material.”

Advanced ancient technology and extraterrestrial components – all in one blog posting!

Have a great day.