Ancient Salad Dressing Found in Jars at Bottom of Mediterranean

Genetic analysis has revealed the contents of an ancient shipwreck dating back to the era of the Roman Republic and Athenian Empire. The cargo was olive oil flavored with oregano.

Beyond discovering ingredients for Italian salad dressing on the sea floor, such research could provide a wealth of insights concerning the everyday life of ancient seafaring civilizations that would otherwise be lost at sea.

An international team of U.S. and Greek researchers investigated the remains of a 2,400-year-old shipwreck that lies 230 feet (70 meters) deep, roughly a half-mile (1 kilometer) off the coast of the Greek island of Chios in the Aegean Sea.

The shipwreck's contents, revealed in early 2006, has now been more fully analyzed. By deploying a robot to the wreck to collect two amphoras — two-handled earthenware jars often used by ancient Greeks and Romans — they were able to obtain DNA samples by scraping the insides of the ceramics.

Many archeologists specialize in the analysis of amphoras, which were used for shipping wine, oil, spices, grapes, olives, grain, nuts, fish and other commodities.

Amphoras in a shipwreck can often reveal the age and nationality of the wreck, and at times they even hold their original contents, shedding light on ancient trade across the Mediterranean.

The study of amphoras can also be frustrating.

After centuries underwater, their contents have usually been washed away and researchers are "just left with empty bottles," said researcher Brendan Foley, a maritime archaeologist and historian of technology at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, who helped lead a 2005 expedition that explored and recovered two amphoras from the Chios wreck.

Surprise

Foley and his colleagues identified the DNA contents of one amphora as olives and oregano, suggesting it held olive oil mixed with oregano, they announced recently.

This came as a surprise, since Chios was well known as a major exporter of fine wines in antiquity, and archeologists had assumed that any cargo from that area would have been wine.

The other amphora the researchers analyzed may indeed have contained wine, although the DNA evidence they found there as yet remains uncertain.

"This is the first time that we've taken a jar like this that had no visible remains in it and known for sure what was in it," Foley told LiveScience.

The amphora that held the oregano-flavored oil was of a style distinct to Chios. That style made up roughly two-thirds of the more than 350 amphoras found on the wreck, suggesting the ship had sunk while outbound from the island, possibly due to strong fluke winds common near there.

"The fact that we detected DNA of olives may mean that Chios exported more than wine," Foley said. "Their agricultural production might have been more sophisticated than we've suspected."

The oregano may have done more than just flavor the oil.

"If you go up into the hills of Greece today, the older generation of women know that adding oregano, thyme or sage not just flavors the oil, but helps preserve it longer," Foley said.

The ancient Greeks may have used herbs — and the antioxidants in them — to intentionally help preserve the oil, and possibly accidentally helped preserve the DNA the researchers sampled more than two millennia later.

Window to history

If the researchers' technique works on other containers, "we can begin to trace the agricultural production of different regions through time and their trading networks," Foley said. "We can see what crops were grown where and when, and this will give us an entirely new look at the ancient economy. We can see what they were growing, what they were eating and how they prepared and preserved foods."

Such insights into ancient crops could even yield insights into the climate of that period.

The technique used to analyze ancient cargo DNA has its limits, the scientists stressed.

For instance, it probably cannot reliably identify fish products, since any evidence of that could be contamination from the marine environment.

It also remains to be seen whether this method can be used on amphoras stored in museums for years, whether it works on ceramics excavated from land sites, or whether it will only work on amphoras freshly salvaged from the ocean.

The scientists hope to go back and study a few dozen more amphoras from a variety of wrecks next year.

Foley and his colleague Maria Hansson at Lund University in Sweden will detail their current findings in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Archeological Science.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,310038,00.html

Deus ex machina saves Ancient Olympia

Twelve -not gods but- firefighters saved yesterday the museum of Ancient Olympia. While the fire had reached the yard of the museum, a tracked fire fighting vehicle came from nowhere and saved the museum.

The forest on the hill above the museum and near the stadium was burned. However, no ancient monument was harmed.

Archaeologists unearth secrets of prehistoric citadel's water supply

Archaeologists excavating a sprawling prehistoric fortress in southern Greece have discovered a secret underground passage thought to have supplied the site with water in times of danger.
Dated to the mid-13th century B.C., the stone passage passed under the massive walls of the Mycenaean citadel of Midea and probably led to a nearby water source, authorities said Friday.
Excavation director Katie Demakopoulou said the find confirmed that Midea, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Athens, had a sophisticated water supply system like those unearthed in the nearby citadels of Mycenae and Tiryns.
"It is a very important discovery, which gave us great joy," she said. The passage would allow the people of Midea safe access to drinkable water even in times of enemy attack.
Only three such networks — major engineering feats requiring intensive labor — from Mycenaean times have been found so far.

Excavations in late June and July at Midea revealed rock-cut steps leading to the triangular passage, whose entrance was covered with a large stone lintel. Up to three meters of its course are visible.
"It advances under the walls, which are up to five-and-a-half meters thick, and probably led out of the citadel to a point where there was either an underground spring or well, or where water was brought from a distance through pipes," Demakopoulou said.
At the entrance to the 1.5-meter (five-foot) -high passage, archaeologists found quantities of broken clay water jars and cups.
"We need to shore up the walls to go ahead with the excavation, and will dig outside the walls to see how far the passage goes," Demakopoulou said.
The 2.4-hectare (6-acre) site was girdled with a wall of huge stone blocks, built around 1250 B.C. Excavations have also uncovered several buildings — some decorated with painted plaster walls — pottery, a clay figure of a goddess, seal-stones and an amethyst vase shaped like a triton shell.
Controlling a strategic road in the northeastern Peloponnese, Midea was first occupied in the later Neolithic period, in the 5th millennium B.C. It flourished during Mycenaean times and was destroyed by earthquake and fire at the end of the 13th century B.C. — after which the site diminished in size and significance. Traces of habitation have also been located from the Archaic (7th and 6th centuries B.C.), Roman and Byzantine periods.
Greek and Swedish archaeologists have systematically excavated Midea since 1983.

Source:http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/24/europe/EU-GEN-Greece-Prehistoric-Water-System.php

Ancient Cambodian city revealed by radar

Archaeologists using radar imagery have shown that an ancient Cambodian settlement centred on the celebrated temple of Angkor Wat was far more extensive than previously thought, a study released on Monday said.

The medieval settlement surrounding Angkor, the one-time capital of the illustrious Khmer empire which flourished between the ninth and 14th centuries, covered a 3 000 square kilometre area.

The urban complex was at least three times larger than archaeologists had previously suspected and easily the largest pre-industrial urban area of its kind, eclipsing comparable developments such as Tikal a Classic Maya "city" in Guatemala.

Archaeologists have been trying to map the boundaries of the sprawling agricultural environs of Angkor in Siem Reap province since the 1950s, but the ancient remains have been subsumed by modern residential and agricultural developments, complicating the task.

So in 2000, a group of archaeologists from Australia, France and Cambodia who were working on the project turned to the US space agency Nasa for help.

The agency obliged, providing radar images of the terrain that distinguished the contours of the landscape under the surface of the Earth, identifying the location of roads, canals and ponds surrounding temples.

When the researchers combined the data with aerial photography and ground surveys, they were able to identify several thousand ponds and 74 long-lost temples.

The researchers concluded the complex irrigation network that provided the basis for the settlement's rice agricultural extended 20-25 kilometres out from Angkor city, to the north and south to the border of Lake Tonle Sap.

The roads and canals, the defining features of the area, demonstrated that the urban settlement extended far beyond the walls of Angkor - a World Heritage site home to Angkor Wat and other renowned temples.

The settlement could have supported a population of up to half a million people, although there were signs that some of the terrain was sparsely populated, said Damian Evans, a graduate student in the archaeology department at Sydney University and author of the paper.

The study also yielded clues to support the theory that environmental disaster was the cause of the civilisation's collapse in the 14th century, Evans said.

"We saw signs that embankments had been breached and of ad hoc repairs to bridges and dams, suggesting that the system became unmanageable over time.

"Angkor was extensive enough, and the agricultural exploitation intensive enough, to have created a number of very serious environmental problems," he said.

Deforestation, over population, topsoil erosion and degradation with subsequent sedimentation or flooding could have been disastrous for the medieval population, he said.

The paper appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=588&art_id=nw20070813230535704C860779

Medical Papyrus nr.10059

Minoan Symbols 

Kyriakidis, Evangelos (2002), "Indications on the Nature of the Language of the
Keftiw from Egyptian Sources" Ägypten und Levante XII, p. 211-219.

Tell el-Dab'a (Minoans with Hyksos)

Currently thought to be the site of the Hyksos capital Avaris, Tell el-Dab'a was occupied from the Middle Kingdom through to the New Kingdom and is one of a number of town-sites in the north-eastern area of the Delta. The settlement site which covers an area of two square kilometres has been undergoing excavations since 1966 and has proven to be a very complex site with several occupation levels dating from the First to the Second Intermediate Periods. Our modern knowledge of the site began in the mid-1960s when Dr Manfred Bietak of the Austrian Institute in Cairo began to excavate, finding evidence of an extensive occupation by an intrusive non-Egyptian population which led him to identify the cultural objects he found as almost identical to Middle Bronze Age artefacts from Syria-Palestine. This in turn led to the belief that Tell el-Dab'a was the lost town-site of the Asiatic Hyksos peoples of Egyptian texts. Excavations have been continued by the Institute of Egyptology at the University of Vienna. The Hyksos city was built over a Middle Kingdom town. Statues of Queen Sobeknefru, the last ruler of Dynasty XII and a little-known King Harnedjheriotef (Hetepibre) of Dynasty XIII have been found there. During Dynasty XIII royal power became weakened as a result of very short reigns and Asiatic foreigners began to filter into and settle the eastern Delta area. Avaris became an important centre for trade and imported objects found at Tell el-Dab'a underline the fact that there was contact between Egypt and the Aegean countries as well as Canaan at this time. Dr Bietak's excavations suggest that Avaris may have been colonised by both Asiatic and Aegean people who were allocated rectangular areas of land in a pattern influenced by the earlier Middle Kingdom town and the deep and virtually untouched stratigraphy has allowed archaeologists to observe the changing patterns of settlement over several generations of the Bronze Age community. During the 1990s excavations by the Austrian team concentrated upon an area on the western edge of the site, known as Ezbet Helmi where a large palace-like structure dating to the Hyksos period was found. The ancient gardens revealed many fragments of Minoan wall-paintings, similar in style to those found in the palace at Knossos in Crete. It has been suggested that these paintings with a distinctive red-painted background may even pre-date those of Crete and Thera and possibly have influenced some of the Dynasty XVIII tomb-paintings which appear to include Minoan themes such as the 'flying gallop' motif of horses and bulls. In the Dynasty XVIII strata of Ezbet Helmi, Dr Bietak discovered many lumps of pumice-stone, suggested to have come from the volcanic explosion on the island of Thera. Archaeologists have also discerned several cemeteries belonging to the Second Intermediate Period and during recent excavations at Tell el-Dab'a, burials dating from late Dynasty XIII to the end of the Hyksos Period have been uncovered. One of the more remarkable finds is a mudbrick vaulted tomb to the west of the main temple enclosure, which apparently belonged to a warrior. He was buried with his weapons, a well-preserved copper sword (the earliest of its type found in Egypt) and dagger, as well as other grave-goods and offerings. In the entrance to the tomb the skeleton of his horse was found and next to the north-eastern wall the body of a young girl - thought to have been a servant, perhaps a sacrifice, who was interred at the time of her master's burial. A number of other horse-burials have recently been uncovered. For many years the city of Avaris had been lost, lying buried beneath the cultivated land of the eastern Delta. A famous commemorative inscription by the Theban King Kamose (Wadjkheperre) at the end of Dynasty XVII, gives an account of his campaign against the Hyksos King Ipepi and the bringing down of the walls of Avaris. We now know that Avaris was defended by a large buttressed wall, over 8m wide which enclosed a massive fortified citadel with gardens and vineyards. Kamose had threatened to drink the wine from Ipepi's vineyard and chop down his trees in the taunting message on his inscription and archaeologists have now confirmed that the citadel was indeed abandoned at the end of the Hyksos Period. The Hyksos fortress was abandoned but seems to have been subsequently modified and rebuilt for re-occupation during early Dynasty XVIII. Evidence of New Kingdom occupation of the site is also seen in building activity by Horemheb and the Ramesside kings. The Delta residence of Rameses II was at Pi-Rameses (now known to be a little to the north at Qantir), but the settlement area eventually spread across Tell el-Dab'a and a large temple probably dedicated to the god Seth was built in the centre of the area. Today there are few standing remains to be seen at Tell el-Dab'a. The natural mound is partly surrounded by a large lake resulting from flooding of the River Nile, but over the past two decades, systematic excavation is slowly beginning to reveal many of the foundations of ancient buildings - houses, palaces, tombs and temples of the towns which once flourished in the area.

The modern village of Tell el-Dab'a is situated about 6km to the north of the town of Faqus in the north-eastern Delta. The site is on the east bank of a Nile tributary.

Source: http://www.egyptsites.co.uk/lower/delta/eastern/daba.html

Greek experts to excavate Alexander's colony in Kuwait

Greek archaeologists plan to excavate an ancient colony founded by Alexander the Great in the Gulf of Kuwait in the fourth century BC, officials said Wednesday.

"The site on Failaka Island is of particular importance to [Greece] as it was founded by Macedonians and other Greeks on Alexander the Great's expeditionary force," said culture ministry general secretary Christos Zahopoulos.

The agreement between Greece and Kuwait signed in July will enable the Greek team to excavate the ancient town of Icarus on the island, organize the site, and restore its finds, the ministry said in a statement.

The Greek mission's departure date was not announced.

Prior excavation on Failaka Island by French archaeologists has partially unearthed the Greek outpost, believed to have been created by forces under the command of Alexander's admiral Nearchus in the fourth century BC.

A temple to Artemis, the ancient Greek goddess of hunting, has been found on the site along with Greek coins, idols, vessels, and an inscription bearing 43 verses in Greek, Zahopoulos said.

The inscription sustained damage in the Iraqi invasion of 1991, which also forced the evacuation of Failaka's inhabitants.

Archaeologists from Denmark, the US, Italy, and Slovakia have also worked on the now-deserted island, whose name is believed to be descended from 'fylakio,' the Greek word for outpost.

The ruler of the ancient kingdom of Macedon, based in modern-day northern Greece, Alexander the Great created through conquest an empire stretching into modern-day India and Egypt.

Source: http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070801-021350-9158r

Nearchus (c.360-c.300): admiral of Alexander the Great, famous for his exploration of the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.

Nearchus was born on Crete, but his father Androtimus moved to Amphipolis in Macedonia; here, Nearchus grew up. Androtimus must have been an important man, because his son was educated together with the crown prince, Alexander, the son of king Philip of Macedonia (356-336). At some point in around 337, probably as a result of the Pixodarus affair, Nearchus was banished by Philip. He shared his exile with Ptolemy, Harpalus, Erigyius and Laomedon. It is likely that they remained in exile until after Alexander's accession in 336.

When Alexander invaded Asia in May 334, Nearchus was with him, and at the beginning of the next year, he was appointed as satrap of Lycia and Pamphylia. This meant that Nearchus was responsible for the ports in southern Turkey; as long he held them, the Persian navy was forced to sail from Cyprus to the Aegean Sea through open waters, which was very risky. He did his job well: during 333, the Persian commanders Memnon of Rhodes and Pharnabazus were active in the Aegean waters, but they received no reinforcements. A town that revolted, Telmessus in Lycia, was reduced without much violence.

Meanwhile, the naval war ended when Alexander conquered Phoenicia, the Persian naval base. He went on to Egypt and Babylonia, took the Persian capitals of Susa, Persepolis, Pasargadae and Ecbatana, pursued the defeated Persian king Darius III Codomannus and went on to the northeastern provinces of the former Achaemenid empire, Bactria and Sogdia.

It was at this stage of the war, in the first months of 329, that Alexander recalled Nearchus, who was to come to the east bringing reinforcements of Greek mercenaries. The former satrap of Lycia and Pamphylia shared this command with Asander, who had been satrap of Lydia. It is likely that Nearchus was surprised to see how his youth friend had changed: he was now calling himself Son of Zeus and King of Asia, and wore a diadem and the Persian royal tunic.

We do not know what Nearchus did during the Sogdian campaign; during the invasion of India (327/326), however, he was one of the two commanders of the Shield bearers, a heavy infantry unit. He was almost immediately replaced by Seleucus, who commanded these men during the battle on the Hydaspes (May).

Although they were victorious, the Macedonian and Greek soldiers refused to go any further and Alexander decided to return to Babylonia. He ordered the construction of a large fleet, which was to be commanded by Nearchus. The voyage down the Indus lasted from November 326 to July 325. It was not an easy cruise: several times, the Macedonians had to fight their way past resisting native towns. Finally, the reached Patala (Old Indian for 'camp for ships'), modern Bahmanabad, 75 kilometers north-east of Hyderabad.

Not all soldiers continued to the Ocean. The army was too big to remain united. In June, general Craterus had already left the main force and had gone to Carmania with a third of the soldiers. In August, Alexander and three quarters of what remained of the army set out for a long and difficult march through the Gedrosian desert. Nearchus was to ship the remaining quarter of the soldiers, 17,000 - 20,000 men, to Carmania and Babylonia. He was not the first westerner to make the expedition: one Scylax of Caryanda had made the same voyage in the late sixth century BCE.

Later, Nearchus wrote a book about the naval expedition, which was also to be a voyage of discovery. The Indikê is now lost, but its contents are well-known from several sources, especially the Indikê by Arrian of Nicomedia. It seems to have consisted of two parts: the first half contained a description of India's borders, size, rivers, population, castes, animals -especially elephants-, armies and customs; the second half described Nearchus' voyage home.

On 15 September, Nearchus' set out from Patala, having waited for the Southwest monsoon to subside. It is not easy to reconstruct the voyage in detail, because it was impossible for the ancients to measure distances at sea; all Nearchus' indications of distance are, therefore, merely guesswork and can hardly be relied upon to reconstruct his expedition. Nonetheless, the information in the Indikê is sufficient to have a general idea of the route and the troubles encountered. (All places mentioned below can be found in The Times Atlas of the World.)

Almost immediately after leaving Patala, it was clear that the Macedonian fleet had set out too soon. (Perhaps the native population had forced Nearchus to leave earlier than he wanted to.) The ships encountered adverse winds and it took them almost a week to reach Ocean. Then, they headed for the North, through the lagoon between the mouths of the rivers Indus and Hab. This was easier, but when they turned to the East, the renewed Southwest monsoon proved too strong to continue. The Macedonians had to wait and fortified their camp with a wall of stone, fearing enemy attacks. They soon discovered that their supplies were running out. They were forced to hunt for mussels, oysters, and razor-fish and had to drink briny water.

They remained there for twenty-four days, but were eventually able to continue and after several days reached a place called Morontobara or Woman's Harbor (modern Karachi) and reached the mouth of the Hab. They continued along the coast through the Sonmiani Bay. One night, they camped on the battlefield where Leonnatus, one of Alexander's generals, had defeated the native population, the Oreitans ('Mountain people'). He had left a large food deposit for Nearchus' men - enough for ten days.

With the wind behind them and sufficient supplies, they were able to speed up their journey and reached the Hingol river. At this point, the Indikê describes how a native village was destroyed and its inhabitants were killed (text). It is remarkable that the author (Arrian/Nearchus) makes no attempt to justify the attack.

Continuing their voyage, Nearchus and his men arrived in the country of the Fish eaters. (It was a common practice among the Greeks to describe people not by their own name, but by one of their most remarkable customs.) These were very poor people living on the sandy strip of land between the Ocean and the Gedrosian desert, and the Macedonians had big difficulties finding supplies. Fortunately, they found an excellent harbor, called Bagisara (modern Ormara).

The next stage of the voyage is well-understood: they put in at Colta (Ras Sakani), Calima (Kalat) and an island called Carnine (Astola), where, according to Nearchus, even the mutton had a fishy taste. They continued and passed Cysa (near Pasni) and Mosarna (near Ras Shahid). Here, a Gedrosian pilot joined them, who led them in two days to modern Gwadar, where they were delighted to see date-palms and gardens. Three days later, Nearchus' men surprised Cyisa, a town near modern Châh Bahâr and took away its supplies. Next, they anchored near a promontory dedicated to the Sun, called Bageia ('dwelling of the gods') by the natives; it is probably identical to Ra's Kûh Lab.

From now on, the Macedonians were really hungry, and they must have been happy to see that they could cover large distances. The places that Nearchus mentions in his account of the voyage (Talmena, Canasis, Canate, Taa, Dagaseira) can not be identified, although it is plausible that the last mentioned town is modern Jâsk.

Now Nearchus had reached Carmania and was approaching the Straits of Hormuz. In the Indikê, he notes that the country produced corn, vines and many cultivated trees, except the olive tree that the Greeks loved so much. The sailors saw the Oman peninsula, and Nearchus describes how the helmsman of the flagship, Onesicritus, said that they should go over there, and that Nearchus replied that he did not want to expose the fleet to new dangers (text).

Nearchus describes Onesicritus as a fool and also mentions that Onesicritus had (later) falsely claimed to have been the fleet-commander. Most scholars accept Nearchus words, but there may be more to it than meets they eyes. Alexander had started to give important commands to two people at the same time, who had to act as colleagues (e.g., Nearchus had shared the command of Alexander's Greek mercenaries with Asander and had been in charge of the Shield bearers with one Antiochus). It is possible that Onesicritus was not just the helmsman of the flagship, but Nearchus' equal, and it is also possible that Alexander had ordered his navy to conquer the Oman peninsula, which was a Persian satrapy, Maka. Perhaps we should not believe Nearchus' own words.

Two days later, the Macedonian navy reached Harmozeia (modern Mînâb), one of the largest ports in the Persian Gulf. Here they had a rendez-vous with Alexander, who had marched through the Gedrosian desert (text). Nearchus had believed Alexander was lost and Alexander had believed that he had lost his navy, so it was a happy encounter.

It was January 324 when the Macedonian fleet continued its voyage along the coasts of Carmania and Persis. But now, they were traveling along familiar shores and made progress. Among the identifiable places they visited are the island Qeshm, Cape Ra's-e Bostâneh, the island Queys, Band-e Nakhîlû, the island Lâzeh (where they watched pearl divers), the Bandar-e Shîû promontory, Nây Band, Kangan, the river Mand, Bûsher, the river Dasht-e Palang, Jazireh-ye Shîf and the river Hendîyan, which is the border of Persis and Susiana. Here, the ships could no longer continue along the coast because of the breakers. However, they finally reached the mouth of the Tigris safely.

When Nearchus heard that Alexander was approaching from the east, he decided to wait for his king at Susa, the capital of Susiana. Here, Alexander celebrated the homecoming of his army and navy. Nearchus, Onesicritus and several others received a golden diadem as a reward for their deeds.

It was Alexander's wish that his friends, and then other Macedonians, should marry native women; therefore, Nearchus married to a daughter of Alexander's Persian mistress Barsine. It is not known whether they had children, but it is notable that during the conflicts after Alexander's death, Nearchus backed Heracles, the son of Alexander and Barsine, and stayed with his wife. He might not have discarded his wife, at least not immediately, as most of the other Macedonians appear to have done.

In the last months of Alexander's life, Nearchus was usually with him, which may have something to do with the fact that Alexander was making plans for a naval expedition against the Arabs of modern Yemen. However, Alexander died on 11 June 323, in Babylon. This was the beginning of the era of Alexander's successors, the Diadochi.

In the argument over the succession, Nearchus backed his wife's half-brother, Heracles, but the boy and Barsine were probably killed by Polyperchon, one of the generals fighting for a share of Alexander's inheritance (309). Nearchus spent some time with another general, Antigonus Monophthalmus, and educated his son Demetrius. When Demetrius had his first independent command in a war against Ptolemy, Nearchus assisted him. The two were defeated near Gaza (312).

Nearchus' year of death is unknown.