The research team has compared the rare discovery to "Hanukkah gelt," a customary gift of gold-foil chocolate coins given to children during the Jewish holiday.Liat Nadav-Ziv/Israel Antiquities Authority
The collection of rare gold coins, also known as dinars, is from the seventh to ninth centuries.
For archaeologists, the best holiday gift is perhaps the discovery of a rare and ancient artifact. Last week researchers were given just that when they uncovered a 1,200-year-old clay jug in Yavne, the central region of Israel. Read More...
After more than 1,000 years of debate, researchers believe they've finally solved the mystery of the world's longest runestone inscription, a Viking slab that describes the real-life Ragnarok apocalypse in the form of cataclysmic climate change.Wikimedia CommonsThe Rok runestone’s inscriptions, which contain allusions to catastrophic climate change.
The Rok (or Rök) stone, unearthed in the ninth century near Sweden’s Lake Vattern, holds the longest runic inscription in the world. The 700-plus runes (early Germanic symbols) covering all five of the stone’s sides were previously believed to have been dedicated to a fallen young man as well as a number of Viking battles, but researchers now believe the messages warned of dire climate change instead. Read More...
It was found within a Siberian cave and is estimated to be over 40,000 years old.Anatoly Derevyanko and Mikhail Shunkov, Vera SalnitskayaThe Denisovan bracelet made of chlorite.
A fragmented green bracelet was recently confirmed to be the 40,000-year-old creation of an ancient hominid species. The accessory was found in 2008 in a cave alongside the bones of a woolly mammoth and the shockingly-preserved pinkie finger bone of a little girl who, scientists later determined, was not a human at all. Read More...
