The oldest known bead in the Western Hemisphere has been discovered at the La Prele Mammoth site in Wyoming. Radiocarbon dating results indicate the tubular bone bead is approximately 12,940 years old.

There are very few Early Paleoindian beads known to survive, and most of them are not securely dated because they are made of minerals (caliche, hematite) rather than bone. The bone beads on the archaeological record were found in slightly more recent contexts than the La Prele example.

The La Prele Mammoth site was first excavated in 1987. They uncovered a Paleoindian camp where the remains of a young Columbian mammoth had been processed using chipped stone tools. Radiocarbon dates of the mammoth bones found the site was occupied around 12,940 years before the present. The bead was found in a hearth area of the site about 11 miles from the mammoth remains. Stone flake tools, bone needles and the butchered and burned remains of prehistoric bison were unearthed there, but the bead was not derived from bison bones.

Researchers employed zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) to identify the animal the bone came from, and the material turned out to be lagomorph bone, most likely from a hare rather than a rabbit.

This finding represents the first secure evidence for the use of hares during the Clovis period, which refers to a prehistoric era in North America, particularly prominent about 12,000 years ago. It’s named after the Clovis archaeological site in New Mexico, where distinctive stone tools were discovered.

The bead is about 7 millimeters in length, and its internal diameter averages 1.6 millimeters. The research team considered the possibility that the bead could have been the result of carnivore consumption and digestion and not created by humans; however, carnivores were not common on this site, and the artifact was recovered 1 meter from a dense scatter of other cultural materials.

Additionally, the grooves on the outside of the bead are consistent with creation by humans, either with stones or their teeth. Beads like this one were likely used to decorate their bodies or clothing.

The findings have been published in the journal Scientific Reports and can be read in full here.

A large Copper Age necropolis has been discovered in the burg of San Giorgio Bigarello on the outskirts of Mantua. It dates to around 5,000 years ago. The quantity of graves and the finely crafted weapons found in some of them were unexpected, and examination of the burials is expected to shed new light on the prehistoric peoples who inhabited of this area of northern Italy.

In the Neolithic (ca. 6000-4,000 B.C.) and Chalcolithic (ca. 4000-1700 B.C.), the area that is now Mantua was part of the River Mincio basin. The outskirts of the modern city were the shores where people actually lived and died. The famous Neolithic double-burial, the Lovers of Valdaro, were found in San Giorgio Bigarello, so it is known to be archaeologically significant.

The first human skeletal remains were found in November in an archaeological survey at the site of a future city park. A follow-up excavation unearthed three inhumation burials about 16 inches under the surface. Fortunate happenstance had left the site undisturbed by agricultural work of urban development, and the sandy soil preserved the bones in excellent condition. Two of the burials included grave goods: flint arrowheads and a flint knife blade.

Most of the burials excavated at Bigarello are simple individual inhumations, the deceased placed on their left sides with legs bent to their chests and heads oriented to the northwest. These characteristics are also seen in burials of Neolithic cultures in northern Italy, and some of the grave goods found in the Bigarello graves — flint weapons, hematite beads — are found in Neolithic burials as well.

Excavations resumed in January, and since then another 19 graves have been found, confirming archaeologists’ suspicions that this was a cemetery, not a handful of random burials. More flint arrowheads and blades have been found in the 19 newly-discovered burials. They are of exceptionally high quality — sharp, even, so light they are practically translucent — and can only have been crafted by people of great technical ability and experience.

Archaeologists are continuing to explore the site. Meanwhile, the skeletal remains and grave goods are being removed to Palazzo Ducale complex in Mantua for further analysis and conservation. There has been some discussion of creating a dedicated museum to house the finds and make them more accessible to visitors.

A prehistoric stone wall more than half a mile long has been discovered on the floor of the Baltic Sea in the Bay of Mecklenburg off the coast of Germany. Around 11,000 years old, it is the oldest human-made structure in the Baltic Sea and one of the documented human-made hunting structures in the world. More than a half mile long, it is also one the largest known Stone Age structure in Europe.

It is composed of 1,673 individual boulders placed next to each other for 971 meters along what was the shore of a lake before rising sea levels submerged it around 8,500 years ago. The deliberate alignment of the stones, the way smaller stones were used to connect larger three-foot boulders and the length of the wall indicates this was a megastructure built by Neolithic people, not a natural development caused by movement of glaciers.

The stones were first spotted by geologists investigating natural formations of manganese crusts on the seabed of Mecklenburg Bay in 2021. They reported the find to the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Office for Culture and Monument Preservation who arranged for a team of multi-disciplinary researchers to investigate the structure. They used submersibles to collected sediment samples, created a detailed 3D model of the wall from geophysical data and dove the site to explore the wall close-up.

From the sediment samples, researchers were able to date construction to around 11,000 years ago in the early Mesolithic period. It was built by hunter-gatherers who inhabited the area and was likely a drive lane (a means to control the movement of animals to force them into a restricted space or, in this case, the lake itself) used to hunt migrating Eurasian reindeer. Prehistoric stone walls like these have been found elsewhere in the world (Jordan, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Greenland, the United States) but are all but unknown in Europe. The closest comparable example was found at the bottom of Lake Huron in Michigan where a stone wall was used to hunt migrating caribou 9,000 years ago. It is much shorter a wall than the Mecklenburg megastructure — 98 feet versus 3186 feet.

The stone wall and the surrounding seabed will be investigated in more detail using side-scan sonar, sediment echo sounder and multibeam echo sounder devices. Additionally, research divers from the University of Rostock and archaeologists from the LAKD M-V are planning further diving campaigns to search the stone wall and its surroundings for archaeological finds that could help with the interpretation of the structure.

Luminescence dating, which can be used to determine when the surface of a stone was last exposed to sunlight, may help in determining a more precise date that the stone wall was constructed. Furthermore, the researchers intend to reconstruct the ancient surrounding landscape in more detail.

“We have evidence for the existence of comparable stone walls at other locations in the Mecklenburg Bight. These will be systematically investigated as well,” explains Jens Schneider von Deimling from Kiel University.

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and can be read here.

A CT scan of the Roman chicken egg discovered in Berryfields, Buckinghamshire, has revealed that it isn’t just the shell that is intact, but the contents — yolk, whites, and air bubble — are still inside. That makes it the only known example in the world of an ancient chicken egg that is complete with its interior liquids.

The Berryfields site was excavated between 2007 and 2016 in advance of the construction of new a housing development. The fieldwork uncovered evidence of human occupation going back to the early Neolithic period and extending into the early Modern era. The site saw significant activity in the Roman era, and in a waterlogged pit dating to the 4th century, archaeologists found a wealth of organic remains including leather shoes, animal bones and a woven basket containing four eggs. The ancient eggs were so fragile that three of the four disintegrated on contact, so the last egg standing became the only intact Roman egg ever found in Britain and the second ever found anywhere in the world.

The only other Roman-era egg to survive intact was found in a child’s grave in the Vatican necropolis under the via Triumphalis in Rome. The child, a baby who was less than a year old when they died between 50 and 150 A.D., was buried with a chicken egg in the right hand. The shell was intact but it was empty. It was probably not a food offering because at this time food offered for the deceased were usually pourable liquids like milk, honey and wine that were used in the burial ritual. Archaeologists believe it was symbolic, that the egg represented rebirth after the tragically premature death of the baby.

Researchers have recently undertaken a new examination of the Berryfields egg, subjecting it to a microCT scan at the University of Kent. The scan clearly exposed the liquid interior with an angled air bubble at the top.

The egg has also been taken to London’s Natural History Museum, where Douglas Russell, senior curator of the museum’s birds’ eggs and nests collection, and his colleague Arianna Bernucci were consulted about how to conserve the egg and remove the contents without breaking it.

Mr Russell said: “There are older eggs with contents – for example, the [museum] has a series of mummified birds’ eggs, probably excavated… from the catacombs of sacred animals at Denderah, Upper Egypt in 1898 which may be older.

“However, this is the oldest unintentionally preserved avian egg I have ever seen. That makes it fascinating. “Going forward, it will be very exciting to see if we can use any of the modern imaging and analysis techniques available here at the museum to shed further light on exactly which species laid the eggs and its potential archaeological significance.”

Mr Biddulph said: “As we found out when we visited the Natural History Museum, [it] appears to be the oldest known example in the world.”

The best-preserved Roman military diploma was dredged up from the River Sava in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, in 1997. It was issued by the emperor Vespasian on February 9th, 71 A.D., to the centurion Liccaius, veteran of the Classis Misenensis (the “Fleet of Misenum“) under the command of Sextus Lucilius Bassus.

The diploma states he was born in Marsunia (the Roman name for what is now Slavonski Brod) and was settled on land in Paestum on southern Italy’s Tyrrhenian coast after his honorable discharge. The fact that his diploma was found in the river flowing through his birthplace, however, indicates that at some point after his retirement he left his land grant in southern Italy and went home to Pannonia.

The rest of his diploma includes the standard boilerplate for these documents. He was granted citizenship for himself, his children, their descendants. He was also granted the right to marry and the citizenship extended to the spouse as well, although this was valid for one wife only, so if he remarried she would not get Roman citizenship through him.

What makes this particular diploma so extraordinary is that is so complete and well-preserved that the wax seals of the witnesses are still attached. The two tablets are tied together through perforations in the bronze. The tablet on the right feature is engraved with the names of the seven witnesses. Witnesses stamped their signatures on wax using their signet rings. Down the middle of the second tablet is a compartment with a slide-out lid where the wax seals of five of the witnesses are contained. This is a unique artifact. No other military diplomas with seals are known to survive.

Liccaius’ diploma is on display at the Brod Posavlje Museum in Slavonski Brod, but a really kickass 3D model has been made of it where the compartment slides out to reveal the seals. Explore it here: