Iron Age and the Bones of the Dead

A macabre discovery rewrites what we knew about the rituals and beliefs of Iron Age man.

In 2012 ancient remains were discovered in a bog in Denmark. Archaeologists are now trying to piece together what happened to the dozens of dead warriors found at Alken Enge. Archaeologists were startled by what appeared to be desecration of the skeletal remains.

Protohistoric cultures had many traditions of ensuring the respect of their ancestors, and protection from their dead enemies.

At least six months after the warriors died, their bones were collected, scraped of remaining flesh, sorted and dumped in a lake. Some were handled in a bizarre manner; four pelvises were found strung on a stick. Researchers guess that the desecration of the body parts was an ancient ritual. Were these grisly desecrations a barbaric ritual of triumph over defeated enemies, as historical Roman records suggest? They also have been Iron Age rites of warding, ensuring the ghosts of a fallen enemy wouldn’t return from the grave to wreak revenge.

Norse folktales included the mythology of the draugr, an undead creature, literally meaning “again-walker”. The draugr was a corpse risen from the grave, a decomposed body. It would seek out and attack those who had wronged it in life. So horrifying was the prospect of creating a draugr that special care was taken to ensure a proper burial of the dead.

Gold of the Varna Necropolis

Varna is one of the oldest cities of Europe, it was founded in 570 BC by the Milethians, but it was populated much earlier than that. The Varna Necropolis is near Lake Varna, about 4 km from the city center.

In the 1970s, archaeologists in Bulgaria stumbled upon a Copper Age necropolis from the 5th millennium BC containing the oldest golden artifacts ever discovered. But it was not until they reached grave 43 that they realized the real significance of the find. Inside burial 43 were the remains of a high status male with unfathomable gold riches. Varna is considered one of the key archaeological sites in world prehistory. Bulgarian archaeologists spent more than 15 years excavating 312 graves. All date to a relatively brief period between 4600 and 4450 BC. — a pivotal point in human history, when people were beginning to unravel the secrets of metalworking.

Of the many graves only a handful contain sophisticated examples of metallurgy (gold and copper), pottery, high-quality flint and obsidian blades, beads, and shells. A total of over six kilograms of gold, comprising more than 38 different kinds of objects unique to Varna were found. The gold is very pure - 23.5 carat and experts are unable to agree on its source.

The golden age entombed in the Varna cemetery was brief. The bones were all buried within a few centuries, between 6,600 and 6,200 years ago. All along the lower Danube, settlements and cultures that flourished during the Copper Age come to an abrupt end around 4000 BC. The artifacts can be seen at the Varna Archaeological Museum and at the National Historical Museum in Sofia

Pendant necklace of gold, carnelian, and Spondylus shell

In 2012 archaeologists in eastern Bulgaria unearthed the oldest prehistoric town ever found in Europe, along with an ancient salt production site that gives a strong clue about why massive riches were discovered in the region. The area is home to huge rock-salt deposits, some of the largest in southeast Europe and the only ones to be exploited as early as the sixth millennium BC. Excavations at the site near the town of Provadia uncovered the remains of a settlement of two-storey houses, a series of pits used for rituals as well as parts of a gate, bastion structures and three later fortification walls – all carbon dated between the middle and late Chalcolithic age from 4,700 to 4,200 BC.

Stater of Kyrene

An ancient gold stater from the City of Kyrene, North Africa. Minted under one of Alexander the Great's closest friends and allies, Ophellas while acting as governor under Ptolemy I. Struck 322 - 313 BC. $ 8,000

First dodo skeleton in 100 years sold at auction - makes $431000

The first nearly complete dodo skeleton in more than 100 years was sold at auction - more than 350 years after the bird's last confirmed sighting by humans. Known for their slightly comical, ungainly appearance, the flightless birds - most closely related to pigeons - were last seen on the island of Maritius, their sole habitat, in 1662. It's believed the presence of humans brought about their extinction in just 70 years.

Dodos stood around 1m tall and would have weighed between 10 and 20kg. This dodo skeleton comes from a private collector, who started collecting bones in the 1970s and bought the majority then and in the 1980s. Like most collectors, he spent years adding to his collection and it was only in the early 2000s that he realized he had enough bones (only lacking part of the skull and one set of claws - which have been reconstructed) to construct a skeleton. He then meticulously reassembled them to create as complete a specimen as possible.

Any newly discovered bones from the Mare aux Songes swamp - where the vast majority of dodo bones were found in the 19th century – will not be for sale. The Mauritian Government has now banned all exports of dodo bones.

Classical Greek Statues

The first traces of human habitation in Greece appeared during the Paleolithic Age (120000 - 10000 B.C.) During the Neolithic Age that followed ( 7000 - 3000 B.C.) a plethora of Neolithic buildings spread throughout the country. The beginning of the Bronze Age (3000-1100 B.C.) is marked by the appearance of the first urban centers in the Aegean. Flourishing settlements were found on Crete, Mainland Greece, the Cyclades and the Aegean.

The Artemision Bronze (God from the Sea) is an ancient Greek sculpture that was recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision, in northern Euboea.

It represents either Zeus or Poseidon, is slightly over lifesize, and would have held either a thunderbolt, if Zeus, or a trident if Poseidon.

The Charioteer of Delphi, also known as Heniokhos (Greek: the rein-holder), is one of the best-known statues surviving from Ancient Greece, and is considered one of the finest examples of ancient bronze statues. The life-size (1.8m) statue of a chariot driver was found in 1896 at the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi. It is now in the Delphi Archaeological Museum.

Caryatids from Erechtheion. A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town of Peloponnese. The best-known and most-copied examples are those of the six figures of the Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis at Athens.

The statue of Laocoön and His Sons was excavated in Rome in 1506 and placed on public display in the Vatican. The marble figures are near life-size and the group is a little over 2m (6 ft 7 in) in height, showing the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being attacked by sea serpents.

The Discobolus of Myron ("discus thrower") is a Greek sculpture that was completed toward the end of the Severe period, circa 460–450 BC. The original Greek bronze is lost but the work is known through numerous Roman copies, both full-scale ones in marble and smaller scaled versions in bronze.