Ancient World Review

120,000-Year-Old Bone Tools Used To Work Leather & Fur Discovered In Moroccan Cave

"Scientists on Thursday said artifacts unearthed in a cave in Morocco dating back as far as 120,000 years ago indicate that humans were making specialized bone tools, skinning animals and then using tools to process these skins for fur and leather." Source: Reuters.

"The items from Contrebandiers Cave [aka Smuggler's Cave], located roughly 800 feet (250 meters) from the Atlantic coastline in the town of Temara, appear to be the oldest-known evidence for clothing in the archaeological record, they added."

According to SciTech Daily, this study "details more than 60 tools made of bone and one tool made from the tooth of a cetacean, which includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises." Marks on the tools show that they were used to "scrape hides to make leather and pelts to make fur". (Science Daily) The researchers also found evidence that people were skinning carnivores for their fur.

Note: Researchers have found evidence that homo sapiens was living in Morocco over 300,000 years ago. A detailed 2012 (?) survey of archaeological work at the cave with maps, diagrams and photographs of the site can be found here (PDF).

Using stone and bone tools to make clothing from hides looks like a laborious process.

The Death Of Seqenenre Tao II

I'm constantly running into stories about Egyptian pharaohs and local leaders I've never heard of before. This isn't too surprising, though, because there were hundreds of them, most of them extremely obscure.

Sequenenre Tao II, for instance, ruled over the Theban region during the 17th Dynasty of the Second Intermediate Period. He may have come to power around 1560 BC. The situation in Egypt during this time is kind of confusing because the Hyksos had invaded and occupied part of the country.

According to Wikipedia, "The Hyksos did not control all of Egypt. Instead, they coexisted with the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties, which were based in Thebes." The Egyptians portrayed the Hyksos as foreign invaders -- they may have been Canaanites or the descendants of Canaanites who settled in Egypt and eventually gained enough political or military power to try to take over.

Sequenenre Tao II began the war to free Egypt. According to Wikipedia, he " is credited with starting the opening moves in a war of revanchism against Hyksos incursions into Egypt, which saw the country completely liberated during the reign of his son Ahmose I."

Judging by the condition of his mummy, discovered in 1881, Sequenenre himself was either killed during a battle or was the victim of some kind of murderous conspiracy:

"...it is not known whether he fell upon the field of battle or was the victim of some plot; the appearance of his mummy proves that he died a violent death when about forty years of age. Two or three men, whether assassins or soldiers, must have surrounded and dispatched him before help was available. A blow from an axe must have severed part of his left cheek, exposed the teeth, fractured the jaw, and sent him senseless to the ground; another blow must have seriously injured the skull, and a dagger or javelin has cut open the forehead on the right side, a little above the eye. His body must have remained lying where it fell for some time: when found, decomposition had set in, and the embalming had to be hastily performed as best it might." -- G. Maspero, History of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4.

The Dendera Zodiac On Egypt: An Ancient Babylonian Copy?

"The sculptured Dendera zodiac ...  is a widely known Egyptian bas-relief from the ceiling of the [portico] of a chapel dedicated to Osiris in the Hathor temple at Dendera, containing images of Taurus (the bull) and Libra (the scales). This chapel was begun in the late Ptolemaic period; its [portico] was added by the emperor Tiberius. This led Jean-François Champollion to date the relief to the Greco-Roman period, but most of his contemporaries believed it to be of the New Kingdom. The relief, which John H. Rogers characterised as 'the only complete map that we have of an ancient sky', has been conjectured to represent the basis on which later astronomy systems were based. It is now on display at the Musée du Louvre, Paris." (Wikipedia)

Related: Origins of the ancient constellations; the Mesopotamian traditions.

A Lost World Off The Southern Coast Of Africa

Cape Agulhas, South Africa.

"Scientists have reconstructed the paleoecology of the Paleo-Agulhas Plain, a now-drowned landscape on the southern tip of Africa that was high and dry during glacial phases of the last 2 million years and may have been instrumental in shaping the evolution of early modern humans." Source: Science Daily (May,2020).

Ice Age landscapes like the Paleo-Agulhas Plain exist along the coasts of all modern continents. Now submerged, these ancient landscapes would have altered the shape of the continents as we know them, sometimes dramatically. In this case, "the paleo-landscape exposed during glacial low-sea levels added a land area the size of Ireland to the southern tip of Africa."

This baffled archaeologists for a while because they didn't take into account the fact that the southern coast of modern Africa was far inland during the last ice age:

 "Some of the oldest anatomically modern human bones and artifacts have been found in cliff caves along the coast of South Africa. For many years, the lack of shellfish in some layers at these sites puzzled archaeologists. In spite of apparently living near the ocean, the inhabitants hunted mostly big game -- the sort of animals that typically live farther inland."

Note: Extensive research has been carried out at the Pinnacle Point caves [next video] on the southern coast of South Africa. According to Wikipedia, "Excavations since the year 2000 of a series of caves at Pinnacle Point have revealed occupation by Middle Stone Age people between 170,000 and 40,000 years ago. The focus of excavations has been at Cave 13B (PP13B), where the earliest evidence for the systematic exploitation of marine resources (shellfish) [1] and symbolic behaviour has been documented, and at Pinnacle Point Cave 5–6 (PP5–6), where the oldest evidence for the heat treatment of rock to make stone tools has been documented. The only human remains have been recovered from younger deposits at PP13B which are c. 100,000 years old."

[1] The presence of shellfish in these cave layers suggest that the sea-level was rising (and the coast retreating inland) at the time of occupation.

Related: A lost world and extinct ecosystem on the southern shores of South Africa

Climate and Ecology of the paleo-Algulhas Plain.

Great Library Of Alexandria Destroyed By Budget Cuts, Not Fire?

This brief piece from the History Channel (2013) blames Julius Caesar for the destruction of the Library of Alexandria as if this is a proven fact.

Whatever the case, it's true that Caesar was widely blamed at the time:

"The prime suspect in destruction of the Library of Alexandria is Julius Caesar. It is alleged that during Caesar's occupation of the city of Alexandria in 48 BCE, he found himself in the Royal Palace, hemmed in by the Egyptian fleet in the harbour. For his own safety he had his men set fire to the Egyptian ships, but the fire got out of control and spread to the parts of the city nearest the shore, which included warehouses, depots and some arsenals." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia.

That's the story, anyway, but it probably isn't true:

"In his book The Vanished Library, Luciano Canfora interprets the evidence from ancient writers to indicate the destruction of manuscripts stored in warehouses near the port waiting for export, rather than the great Library itself." Furthermore, "[t]he great scholar and stoic philosopher Strabo, was working in Alexandria in 20 BC and from his writings it is obvious that the Library was not at that time the world-renowned centre for learning it had been in previous centuries." (Ancient History Encyclopedia)

In other words, Caesar may have inadvertently burned some manuscripts stored in warehouses, but he couldn't have destroyed the library itself if Strabo was working there more than 20 years later. Strabo's writing does show that the library had gone through some kind of decline over the years.

Clip from Cosmos (1980). Note the standard assumption that the library was deliberately destroyed.

The Christians have been blamed for destroying the library as well, but it doesn't look like they did it, either:

"The second possible culprit would be the Christians of the 4 ^th century AD. In 391 AD, the Emperor Theodosius issued a decree that officially outlawed pagan practices. Thus, the Serapeum or Temple of Serapis in Alexandria was destroyed. However, this was not the Library of Alexandria, or for that matter, a library of any sort. Furthermore, no ancient sources mention the destruction of any library at this time at all. Hence, there is no evidence that the Christians of the 4 ^th century destroyed the Library of Alexandria." Source: Ancient Origins.

So if Caesar wasn't responsible and the Christians seem to have been exonerated, then who destroyed the library and its priceless collection of ancient texts? Strangely enough, considering how widespread the traditional story is, there's a possibility that the library wasn't destroyed by a fire in the first place. The truth may be radically different and a lot less dramatic.

"Though it seems fitting that the destruction of so mythic an institution as the Great Library of Alexandria must have required some cataclysmic event ... – and while [riots, fires and other disasters] certainly took their toll on the Library - in reality, the fortunes of the Great Library waxed and waned with those of Alexandria itself. Much of [the library's] downfall was gradual, often bureaucratic, and by comparison to our cultural imaginings, somewhat petty." Source: "The Great Library Of Alexandria?" by Heather Philips (PDF).

This article appeared in 2010, I think. If Heather Philips is right, her version of events would radically change the traditional history of the destruction of the Great Library, but that would be a good thing for those of us who want to know the true story. The traditional history has always been highly speculative since no one really knows what happened.

If Philips is right, we'd lose some dramatic stories, though. For example, her revisionist view would demolish the historical accuracy (such as it is) of the excellent 2009 movie, Agora, which tells the heavily romanticized story of Hypatia of Alexandria  and blames the destruction of the library on a rioting Christian mob.

Agora is a good flick, highly recommended, but it's undeniably a work of anti-Christian propaganda. That doesn't bother me particularly, but some people get all worked up about it. For instance, here's a harsh attack on the movie (2010) by David Bentley Hart who admits he never saw the film but argues that its premise is completely ahistorical, which seems to be the case. Considering their record of destroying pagan shrines and writings, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the Christians destroyed the library, but it looks like they weren't involved.

Various other individuals and groups have been blamed for the destruction of the Great Library --the emperor Aurelian, the Arabs, Pope Theophilus of Alexandria -- but if Heather Philips is right, the library may never have been "destroyed" at all, only damaged over the years in various wars and riots before it went out of business due to budget cuts. That doesn't make for a good movie, however, so if that's what really happened, I doubt if the story will ever make it to the Big Screen.

Zenodotus - First Librarian Of The Library Of Alexandria

"Zenodotus ... was a Greek grammarian, literary critic, Homeric scholar, and the first librarian of the Library of Alexandria. A native of Ephesus and a pupil of Philitas of Cos, he lived during the reigns of the first two Ptolemies, and was at the height of his reputation about 280 BC." (Wikipedia)

"Zenodotus was the first superintendent of the Library of Alexandria and the first critical editor ... of Homer. In 284 BC the Ptolemaic court appointed Zenodotus as first Director of the library and also the official tutor to the royal children. His colleagues in the librarianship were Alexander of Aetolia and Lycophron of Chalcis, to whom were allotted the tragic and comic writers respectively, Homer and other epic poets being assigned to Zenodotus."

Note: Zenodotus is a very obscure figure, but his editorial work apparently had a big impact on the content of Homer's epic poems. "After comparing different manuscripts of Homer, he deleted doubtful lines, transposed others, made emendations [corrections, changes], and divided the Iliad and the Odyssey into 24 books each," according to Britannica Academic (source currently locked). His work was criticized and other editors came out with their own editions, which raises the question of how much the original version -- if there was an original -- was tampered with back then.

Zenodotus' editorial revisions "represented the first scientific attempt to get back to the original Homeric text by the collation of several manuscripts," according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary. "He marked lines of the genuineness of which he felt doubt with a newly-invented sign, the obelus [Zenodotus apparently invented this sign, still used today]. Some modern critics have accused him of altering the text drastically; more recent research suggests that this picture of an arbitrary and subjective manipulator of the text is unfair."

Resolving this question is probably impossible without access to the manuscripts that Zenodotus used for his comparisons. His work does prove that there were different versions of the Iliad and Odyssey floating around in the third-century BC.  I suppose if those versions could be traced back to their authors it might be possible to eventually discover if there were original versions of the poems, but any scholar wandering down that rabbit hole will probably never be heard from again.

The Old Kingdom Sphinx Temple

"The Old Kingdom Sphinx Temple sits on a wide terrace roughly eight feet lower than the base of the Sphinx. This terrace was originally paved with alabaster with granite facing but this has almost all gone now and it is in poor condition." Source: Ancient Egypt Online.

"The Sphinx temple is built from the same blocks of limestone as the Sphinx itself and the valley temple of Khafre leading many to suggest that the Sphinx is contemporaneous with Khafre’s pyramid complex. These blocks are of relatively poor quality and have eroded badly. "

"The Great Sphinx is, like many other monuments in Egypt, a complex rather than simply a single colossal statue. At the Sphinx on the Giza Plateau near Cairo, there are actually two Sphinx temples. One of them, directly in front of the Sphinx, dates to the time when the Sphinx monument was built, while the other is of New Kingdom construction." Source: Tour Egypt.

The Old Kingdom Sphinx temple "was probably built by the same men who constructed the Pyramid temples of Khafre and is in fact almost an exact copy of the court of Khafre's mortuary temple. In fact, Khafre's lower temple was at one time thought to be the Sphinx Temple."

Note: According to Ancient Architects (next video), old photographs show that there were at least five Sphinx temples, but I haven't been able to verify this.

Fragments Of Egyptian Book Of The Dead Digitally Reunited

"A torn 2,300-year-old mummy wrapping — covered with hieroglyphics from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead — has been digitally reunited with its long-lost piece that was ripped away." Source: Live Science.

"The two linen fragments were pieced together after a digital image of one segment was cataloged on an open-source online database by the Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Historians at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles who saw the image quickly realized that the institute had a shroud fragment that, like a puzzle piece, fit together with the New Zealand segment."

The Isle Of The Dragon's Blood Trees

"Socotra Archipelago, in the northwest Indian Ocean near the Gulf of Aden, is 250 km long and comprises four islands and two rocky islets which appear as a prolongation of the Horn of Africa. The site is of universal importance because of its biodiversity with rich and distinct flora and fauna..." Source: UNESCO.

Socotra was called Dioskouridou ('of the Dioscurides') or Dioscorida in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a first century AD shipping manual. According to the author of the Periplus, "Dioscorida ... is very large but desert and marshy, having rivers in it and crocodiles and many snakes and great lizards, of which the flesh is eaten and the fat melted and used instead of olive oil." Source: Fordham University Internet History Sourcebooks (paragraph 30).

Note: I'm not sure about this, but I think the Erythraean Sea is the old name for the Red Sea and at least part (?) of the Arabian Sea in the Indian Ocean. A map of the Erythraean Sea drawn in 169 BC by the Greek historian and geographer Agatharchides of Cnidus, can be found here. Socotra (lower right at the bottom of the map) was ideally located to be a jumping-off point for voyages to India.

Socotra has been called "the world's strangest place" with good reason. The plants on Socotra are truly bizarre, as can be seen in these pictures. The island's spectacular and alien landscape looks like something out of a science-fiction movie.

The ancient history of Socotra is obscure, but its inhabitants traded spices and the sap of their Dragon's Blood trees to Egypt and Rome. Its location near the mouth of the Red Sea made it an important stopover for cargo ships involved in the thriving maritime trade with the far east.

"The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all tapped the treasures of Socotra’s natural world: aromatic resins such as frankincense, medicinal aloe extract, and the dark red sap of the dragon’s blood tree, used for healing and as an artist’s color. Adventurers came to harvest the island’s wealth, despite stories that it was guarded by giant snakes living in its caves. The Queen of Sheba, Alexander the Great, and Marco Polo were among those who coveted Socotra’s riches." Source: National Geographic.

"The value of incense and dragon’s blood peaked during the time of the Roman Empire. Afterward, the island served mostly as a way station for traders, passing centuries in relative cultural isolation. Socotra’s residents lived generation after generation as their ancestors had: the mountain Bedouin minding their goats, the coastal residents fishing, and everyone harvesting dates. Island history was passed down through poetry, recited in the Socotri language."

According to Socotra Eco-Tours, Aristotle, Alexander the Great's tutor, selected a group of colonists to settle on Socotra. The idea was to harvest its myrhh, valued for its medicinal properties, and turn the island into a base for Alexander's invasion of India. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (1st cent BC) mentions Socotra as a major source of myrhh, labdanum (a kind of resin) and various aromatic plants. The island was an important way station where "[s]ailors and tradesmen not only bought precious resins and medical herbs...which they later on sold at markets in the Roman empire or the Indian kingdoms, but also gained strength and supplies necessary for their long journeys to the African coast, Madagascar or to Persia." Inscriptions in various languages have been found inside Hoq cave on the island. (See video below)

Considering the island's strategic location and valuable resources, I imagine it was fought over repeatedly by various empires in the ancient world. Most of this history, unfortunately, has been lost forever. 

Note: "In 1834, the East India Company, in the expectation that the Mahra sultan of Qishn and Socotra, who resided at Qishn on the mainland [southern coast of modern Yemen], would accept an offer to sell the island, stationed a garrison on Socotra. Faced with the unexpected firm refusal of the sultan to sell, however, as well as the lack of good anchorages for a coaling station to be used by the new steamship line being put into service on the Suez-Bombay route, the British left in 1835." (Wikipedia)

Ten Strange Anomalies At The Giza Plateau

Warning: Maybe there's a simple explanation for these anomalies. Maybe not. I tried researching some of them and ended up falling down a rabbit hole that seemed to go on forever. Hours later, by the time I finally found my way out of the endless labyrinth of obscure details and conflicting theories, I didn't know any more than when I'd started. Your mileage may vary, but if you're interested in looking into these peculiarities I just wanted to warn you that you could end up where I did -- absolutely nowhere.