Video: What did archaeologists find in a 2800-year-old tomb and why they decided that a princess was buried in it
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In France, in the commune of Saint-Voulbas, 20 miles from Lyon, during construction work, the remains of an Iron Age "princess" were discovered. Why "princesses"? Because at the time of the burial, the stranger was wearing gorgeous precious jewelry. Apparently, during her lifetime, they amazed the imagination of the retinue. Now the artifacts will be examined by researchers.
According to archaeologists, the age of the burial is 2800 years. A middle-aged woman who lived in the early Iron Age was buried in the tomb. The woman was buried in an oak coffin, with a large number of jewelry and objects that speak of her high status.
According to Fox News, the tomb measures approximately 2.5 meters by 3.5 feet, with recesses in the bottom that allowed the coffin to be stably positioned.
The woman was lying on her back with her arms outstretched. She was buried clothed and jeweled around her neck, and on each wrist were ring-shaped bracelets of blue and blue-green glass, adorned with thin stripes of a lighter color. Glass beads alternate with disc-shaped copper alloy beads. At the time of burial, the “princess” had a belt, but over many centuries it rotted away and only a buckle with a clip, made of the same alloy as the beads, remained.
The researchers note that 2,800 years ago (considering the technology of that era) glass beads were very rare. It was not so easy to make them, which means that they were very expensive, which is the surest sign of a woman's wealth and high status.
As for the copper beads on the bracelets, they, like the buckle on the belt, were covered with a green coating - after all, they had been underground for many centuries. In addition, the buckle is so worn out that it is almost impossible to make out the decorative patterns depicted on it.
In addition to the aforementioned decorations, the tomb also contains stacks of small discs made of a material resembling pearls. In addition, a perfectly preserved ceramic vessel was found next to the woman's head.
The woman was dressed in a dress that was almost completely decomposed, but from the surviving fragments we can say that it was made of fabric, leather and felt.
The found tomb is one of three found in the area. Two more date from a later period (about the 5th century BC), and the remains they contained appear to have been cremated.
All these burials were accidentally discovered by workers who were removing soil from the territory as part of the construction of an industrial park. It has been established that the inhabitants of the tombs were representatives of the Hallstatt culture - an early Iron Age civilization that existed between 800 and 450 BC and was distributed throughout Central Europe, as well as in the Balkans. In general, from a historical point of view, this culture is remarkable for two things - agriculture and beautiful artifacts.
The culture consisted of independent tribes with no political ties, but connected by an extensive trading network. They exchanged everything from household utensils to primitive agricultural machinery. But the representatives of the Hallstatt culture were especially active in trading in metal (tin, copper, iron), and this trade was spread all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.
In addition to the fact that the discovery of tombs - in particular, the "princess" tomb - is simply interesting in itself, these discoveries give researchers an idea of the funeral traditions that existed in one culture and as it developed, over time, underwent radical changes.
Recommended:
Why did the Germans want to kidnap Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, and why they did not succeed
The plan to kidnap the leaders of the "Big Three" states could be called an adventure, if not for the punctuality and scale with which the Germans were preparing for the operation. One thing the German leaders did not take into account before the "Long Leap" - the activity and awareness of Soviet intelligence, the coherence and scale of their secret, but effective work. Thanks to the timely detention of SS saboteurs and the arrests of German agents, the USSR special services managed to disrupt the operation already at the first stage it was completed
What is point Nemo, why they could not find it for so long, and when they found it, they were scared
The most surprising fact about this conditional point in the World Ocean is probably the very fact of its existence. It was possible to calculate the ocean pole of this inaccessibility thanks to the calculations of the engineer Hvoja Lukatele from Croatia. According to them, point Nemo is closer to people in orbit than on Earth. It is Lukatele who is considered the discoverer of point Nemo
How Russian monarchs were buried and why they were not buried
The French phraseological unit noblesse oblige can literally be translated as “noble position obliges”. Like no one else, this expression applies to representatives of the ruling dynasties. At all times, royal persons were destined not only to rise above their subjects during their lifetime. Even their departure into eternity and burial were different from how it happened with ordinary mortals
Why are they not buried in Svalbard, and in the French province they don't dig graves: 8 places on the map where people are forbidden to die
Every country and even every city has its own laws and prohibitions, sometimes quite strange. In China, for example, you can't watch time travel movies, and in Singapore you can't buy chewing gum without a doctor's prescription. But all this is small compared to the fact that in some places it is strictly forbidden by law to die
Secret doors in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun and the possible tomb of Queen Nefertiti
Archaeologists around the world froze in anticipation: perhaps, at last, the tomb of the legendary Queen Nefertiti has been found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. The Valley of the Kings was closed to tourists for several days, during which the researchers carefully scanned the walls of Tutankhamun's tomb at five different heights, using two different radar antennas operating at frequencies of 400 and 900 megahertz