that the gold wire was used to hold her teeth in place after she died experts think that’s unlikely she had a periodontal disease and her teeth would have been loose so the wire would have been a practical and probably painful way of keeping them in place here’s another Discovery from January 2023 that month archaeologists in Israel found the remains of a moat that dried up one thousand years ago and in the dry moat they found a human handprint the discovery was made during excavation of Sultan Suleiman Street in Old

Jerusalem it’s a defensive moat and would have been a deep and large one back when it was in use it’s 30 feet wide and was carved directly into the Rock the purpose of the moat would have been to surround the old city walls thus giving old Jerusalem an additional level of protection from any potential invading Army the defenses were at least partially successful records indicate that it took the Crusaders five entire weeks to cross the moat when they attacked Jerusalem during the first crusade in 1099.

the handprint is strange because it’s so deliberate as we’ve already said the moat was carved out of solid rock therefore this has to be a carving of a handprint rather than an indentation made by pressing a hand into soft mud or soft Stone does it have a symbolic meaning if so what might it be there is no archaeological site in India right now more exciting than that of kiladi in Tamil Nadu and that’s been the case for several years excavations at the enormous and complex sight are ongoing but in October 2019 at experts

working on the fifth phase of excavations found a confusing arrangement of terracotta pipes decked one above the other horizontally it’s been speculated that the two sets of pipes may have been used for different utilities but that’s yet to be proven there are 10 terracotta pipes in total the bottom set of which form one cohesive pipeline that might have been used for carrying protected water that’s another way of saying that we might be looking at a pipeline made specifically for holy water the pipelines end with perforated

lid-shaped dishes which might have been intended to prevent reptiles or other creatures from entering buildings through the pipes kiladi has continued to provide fascinating artifacts since this 2019 Discovery including a collection of ancient daggers the site is believed to be around 2 600 years old and will continue to be excavated for at least another decade [Music] if you were in Iraq 5 000 years ago and found yourself wanting an alcoholic beverage there was only one place to go the tavern in gersu which is where the

modern city of al-shatra is today archaeologists discovered the tavern in January 2023 and were amazed to find that it’s still stocked with food The Tavern would have been perfect for social Gatherings it has plenty of benches and storage containers and also has a kind of clay refrigerator known as azir as well as an oven basically it had everything you need for making and storing the food and drink of the era you wouldn’t have wanted to visit it during bad weather though as it was an open-air venue back when the

tavern was in use gersu was part of an ancient Kingdom called lagash which also included niggen and lagash itself sites like this one help to expand our understanding of the people who lived in Mesopotamia all those years ago some of the first in the world to build permanent settlements and develop language and culture thank you IIT benadu in Morocco looks like an enormous settlement and ought to be teeming with life in reality only five families live there this fortified city is dominated by huge casbahs but

its walls are crumbling almost all the people who once live here have long since moved to more modern cities and towns on the other side of the river but there are a hearty few Who Remain living a rustic lifestyle the settlement has been in Decline for a long time even back in the 1940s there were only 90 families living there nobody’s entirely sure when I eat benadu was made but based on the style of the architecture involved in its construction it’s likely to have been a product of the 17th century there are

separate cemeteries inside its walls for Muslims and Jews plus a mosque a Public Square and plenty of dwellings during its peak years it was a major Caravan stop between Marrakesh and the Sahara ayat benadu which will probably become utterly abandoned before the 2050s has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1987.

we used to be told that neanderthals were basic creatures barely any more sophisticated than Apes in recent years we’ve had to reassess that opinion it’s now very clear that the Neanderthals were capable of symbolic thought as of January 2023 we know that they sometimes kept the skulls of the animals they hunted as trophies the last of the Neanderthals are thought to have died out in Eurasia forty thousand years ago although some may have survived beyond that this new conclusion about them collecting trophy skulls comes from the

sheer volume of herbivore skulls that have been found in known former Neanderthal caves and territories in Spain’s La Zoya Valley not far from Madrid the skulls come from Red Deer aurix bison and even step rhinoceros in each case they’ve had their jaws and brains removed the brains were probably eaten after which the remains of the skull were placed on display inside the cave based on the ages of the skulls it seems the practice was kept up for several Generations perhaps becoming a tradition that was handed down

countless thousands of people have worshiped within the walls of Saint bavo’s cathedral in Ghent Belgium over the years until February 2020 none of those people had any idea how close they were to one of the most grisly Feats of construction we’ve ever come across as has been confirmed by archaeologists Excavating part of the cathedral prior to the construction of a new Visitor Center there’s a secret chamber underneath it with nine walls made of human bones they’re at a loss to explain how they

got there or why they were built the suspicion is that they were supposed to become a sort of Belgian equivalent of the famous catacombs underneath Paris but were abandoned early in the construction process it was probably seen as a way to deal with a surplus of human remains as the city’s cemeteries grew ever more crowded necessitating the removal of old bodies to make way for new ones it’s the bones of these older bodies mostly leg bones if you want to be specific that make up these ghoulish walls the bones are almost exclusively

from the 15th century but the walls don’t appear to have been built until the 17th while some may shudder at this practice it was probably seen as more respectful than throwing the old bones away painting the interior walls of a burial Vault feels like a fairly redundant exercise after all it’s not like anybody’s going to see them once the vault is sealed nevertheless excavations at the church of our Lady and Bruges Belgium in September 2021 revealed the presence of two painted Burial Vaults from The 14th Century a third Vault was

also discovered but that one was undecorated the remains of 50 people were found in the vaults along with the nails that once held their coffins together the wood has long since rotted away the most elaborately decorated of the vaults is covered in murals most of which depict angels and scenes from The Bible including a vividly bloody version of Cavalry the scene of the crucifixion also appears in the second Vault this time showing Christ on the cross flanked by Mary and Joseph the quality and extent of the work are

impressive considering that back when these vaults were made religious laws dictated that people had to be buried within 24 hours of their passing an underground pumping station is being built at the site of the fine so the vaults will be removed in their entirety and taken to a museum you’ve probably never given much thought to the question of what the oldest shoe in Norway is but we are happy to answer the question for you anyway it’s the yotenheiman shoe and it was found in August 2006 in the yotenheiman mountains

thus explaining its name it’s a leather shoe of traditional design but it took a while to understand its significance at the time it was found it was incorrectly estimated to be around 1 000 years old a few years after the discovery tests were carried out on the shoe that confirmed it to be at least 3 000 years old the current estimate is 3 800 years but who’s to say it won’t be pushed back even further as technology improves and more accurate dating becomes possible even if it’s three thousand years old

it’s still the oldest surviving piece of clothing ever found in Scandinavia discovered at the same time as the shoe were several wooden arrows and a wooden Spade leading archaeologists to believe that they’d found the personal possessions of a hunter why the hunter would deliberately bury his shoes is a question that the experts have never answered the gelling Stone ship isn’t literally a ship made out of stone but it’s made up of stones and it looks like a ship the ship-like monument Lies Beneath two

enormous burial mounds created by the legendary Viking leader herald Bluetooth in gelling Denmark during the mid 10th century Stone ship burials like this are a uniquely Scandinavian burial custom and are thought to symbolize or facilitate the Journey of the Dead from the plane of the living to the afterlife Harold had the stone ship built over an existing Bronze Age burial mound and dedicated it to his father Gorn the old gorm was also his predecessor as the ruler of Denmark the monument his son built is over one thousand feet long and

contains more than 350 separate monoliths the pre-existing Mounds served as the center of the ship there’s a runestone inscription at the site which when translated into English reads King Herald made this monument in memory of his father gorm and his mother thyra this same Herald who won Denmark and Norway for himself and made the Danes Christians the hidden sea treasure is one of History’s great treasure collections it’s the largest and most valuable collection of Viking jewelry ever discovered in Germany and it was found

on the tiny island of hidden Zay in 1873. it’s thought to have been manufactured during the 10th century and might even have belonged to the family of Harold Bluetooth the legendary Danish King we mentioned mere moments ago losing this treasure collection must have been a huge blow to the family and the loss appears to have happened at Sea it wasn’t found until it was washed up on neuendorf beach after a storm where it was recovered by local fishermen aside from its importance from a historical perspective The Collection is

also notable because it contains some of the finest examples of ancient Scandinavian goldsmithry while history often rates the Vikings off as violent marauding savages the existence of treasures like these reminds us that they were also highly capable Artisans and enjoyed a rich cultural life they might have conquered and pillaged but they also crafted and traded all 16 items that make up the treasure are now displayed at the strazlan Museum of cultural history subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications and you will be the first

to know when a new video comes out thank you for watching and see you soon