burial

Archaeologists from the Russian Institute of Archaeology, led by Roman Mimohod, have made a fascinating discovery whilst supervising the construction of a new airport near the city of Rostov-on-Don. They have unearthed what seems to be a burial of an “Amazonian Woman”, but it is in fact the burial of a Sarmatian noblewoman, whose belongings have remained unlooted.

he noblewoman’s grave remained intact and during the excavation over one hundred arrowheads were discovered along with numerous gold jewellery pieces.

The Sarmatians were nomadic people who once occupied the steppes north of the Black Sea between 5^th Century BC and 4^th Century AD. They were famous due to their fierce female warriors who are thought to be the inspiration for the legendary ‘Amazon Warriors’ of Greek Mythology.

The noblewoman’s grave remained intact and during the excavation over one hundred arrowheads were discovered along with numerous gold jewellery pieces, which date between 1^st Century BC – 1^st Century AD, and a gem that has a Phoenician inscription.

“It is rather unique, I have not seen such a combination before and have not heard about it,” Mimohood commented on the find. Due to the unusual long date range of the gold items discovered, Mimohood has remarked that “this can mean the most ancient things were handed down for a long time and finally were buried with this noble woman.”

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Unusual-ology is a new post type which focuses on weird new articles/science areas that have cropped up and caught my eye.

Archaeologists have made a very peculiar discovery in a churchyard near the St Pancras train station in London. The researchers, led by Phil Emery from Ramboll Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, have stumbled upon a coffin dating back between 1822 and 1858. What has made the coffin so strange is that it had a large selection of bones from many different animals mixed among human remains. Within the coffin were nine bones from a Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens), eight mixed sets of human remains – including three skulls, and a tortoise.

Top: Collection of the walrus bones. Bottom Left: The walrus’ back right leg. Bottom Right: The skull showing visible signs consistent with craniotomy.

The coffin was originally discovered in 2003 during excavations of the horizontal burial trench underneath the station, when the Eurostar terminal moved from Waterloo to St Pancras. Emery & Wooldridge (2011) have noted that the bones discovered have marks which are consistent to dissection, which was legalised by the Anatomy Act of 1832, with one skull showing evidence of craniotomy (drilling a hole in the skull to gain access to the brain). As the animal bones were found alongside human remains, Emery believes that the bones were used as a teaching collection from a research institute and has said that:

“The animal bone consisted of a small, moderately-preserved group of eight bones derived from a walrus of a very large size and robust build.’The sample includes bones from a lower fore-limb, a fore-foot, first and second metacarpal, the lower hind limbs, fibula, calcaneum, astragalus and first cuneiform. These bones are significantly larger than their reference equivalents held at the Natural History Museum. Microscopic examination revealed that all the St Pancras walrus bones show some degree of surface erosion and butchery marks. Three clear superficial transverse knife cuts were noted.”

The walrus bones have now been moved to the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre in Hackney, East London.

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References:

Daily Mail. 2013. The ongoing mystery around how a Pacific walrus ended up buried in a human coffin beneath London’s St Pancras station. Daily Mail News. Article available here.

Emery, P., Wooldridge, K. 2011. St Pancras burial ground: excavations for St Pancras International, the London terminus of High Speed 1, 2002–3. Gifford, London. This book can be found here.

Telegraph. 2013. Walrus remains found buried under St Pancras station in London. Telegraph News. Available from here.