Head For Threads - by Megan Byrne

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Posted By: Harmony Rocks - Category: history

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Ancient Pet Cemetery Unearthed In Peru

October 27th 2006 05:38

Last month, National Geographic News reported that archaeologists have found more than 40 mummified dogs buried a thousand years ago by the Chiribaya, an ancient people of Peru. The dogs were buried with treats and blankets for the afterlife. They were found next to their human owners in a thousand-year-old pet cemetery the archaeologists discovered while excavating a human cemetery south of Lima, Peru.

The discovery speaks to the high status the Chiribaya culture placed on their dogs, which were prized for their skill in herding llamas. It’s speculated that the Chiribaya shepherds have descendants still living today and that the dogs constitute a unique breed.

History and Culture
The people of the Chiribayan culture fished from the Pacific, grazed their llamas in the shadows of the Andes, with the help their beloved dogs, and fed themselves with an abundance of crops from irrigated fields. They also made exquisite and highly decorative pottery, often depicting their lifestyles.

The custom of the Chiribaya was to put large amounts of pottery in the graves of the deceased. These pieces provide a wealth of information for ceramics studied today. The materials also lend themselves easily to carbon dating techniques which have helped define the unusually large population of the Chiribaya.

The styles of the designs of the pottery differed between the coastal-dwelling Chiribaya and that of the same people found further inland. However, the people of both regions used the same ceramic technologies and often used the same types of paste, paints and other materials and methods to make the ceramics which were later fired. Chiribaya ware has abstract and complex geometric designs. Generally, the pots and jars were decorated with reds and browns, with black outlining.

Chiribaya, who predate the Inca, were an agricultural society thriving from about 900 to 1350. The Chiribaya lived in many small cities throughout the Osmore drainage basin until an el Nino destroyed most of their land.

The el Nino of 1350, with its torrential rains, sent enough mud through the Ilo River Valley that farms and cities were buried up to 30 feet. The mudslides forced the Chiribaya to move from the coast of southern Peru and marked the end of civilization as they had known it.

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Posted By: Harmony Rocks - Category: history

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Ancient Tombs Found By Thieves

October 26th 2006 03:34

Thieves in Egypt recently led archaeologists to the 4,200 year old gravesite of three royal dentists. The graves were found in Saqqara, an ancient royal cemetery south of Cairo.

In an article Monday in the National Geographic News, Stefan Lovgren quoted Zahi Hawass as saying, “it seems for the first time that the ancient Egyptians made a cemetery to the dentists and they were buried in the shadow of the Step Pyramid“. Hawass is chief of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and an explorer-in-residence with the National Geographic Society. The Step Pyramid is thought to be Egypt’s oldest.

The archaeologists date the tombs to Egypt’s 5th dynasty, which ended in 2345 BC; they believe these graves honor a chief dentist as well as two others who treated the pharaohs and their families. The tombs did not contain the dentists' mummies

The hieroglyphs on the tombs shed light on the dead as well as their professions, clearly naming the chief dentist, Iy Mry, and the others as Kem Msw and Sekhem Ka. Among the symbols used to decorate the burial places, two that appear frequently are an eye over a tusk, commonly used to identify them as dentists. On one tomb the threat of being eaten by a crocodile and a snake warns would-be grave robbers.

On the interior walls of the mud, brick and limestone graves are depicted the dentist and his family playing games and presenting offerings to the dead. In general, according to Cathleen Keller, “conforming to accepted standards of elite representation”.

Ms. Keller, an Egyptologist at the University of California, Berkeley, went on to say, “Saqqara is probably the single most important private cemetery of the 5th dynasty. The fact that the tombs were built there reflects the prominent status with which dentists were held in ancient Egypt. These are people who on a fairly regular basis would actually touch the person of the king”.

"There are vast expanses of areas [at Saqqara] that have simply not been scientifically investigated," Keller said. "The fact that local looters found the tombs is an index to how much more there must be out there. Just about every expedition I know of that has gone out to Saqqara to look for tombs has found something."

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Posted By: Harmony Rocks - Category: history

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18th Century Store Discovered

October 24th 2006 15:52

About 40 miles up river from Albany, NY, archeologists are uncovering an 18th century convenience store. Buried only a foot or two underground, the store is located in a wooded area along the east bank of the Hudson River, south of where Fort Edward once stood.

The 250-year-old store was set up near the gates of Fort Edward to sell alcohol, tobacco and ‘other goods‘ to the soldiers who passed through the Hudson River Valley during the French and Indian War. Merchants or 'sutlers' (derived from the Dutch to mean ‘someone who performs dirty work’) enjoyed a brisk trade with off-duty soldiers and officers of the Fort. According to archaeologist David Starbuck, “For your merchants of the day, this is your big captive audience. Booze and tobacco were the big things. I guess things don't change with the years."
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