Really Old News_ The Earliest Ever Ear Surgery _ Roman Mosaics Under London

Hello and welcome to yet another installment of Really Old News, the number one archaeology news series on YouTube. In the past two weeks, some truly extraordinary discoveries have been announced, including the earliest ever ear surgery, a truly magnificent Roman mosaic found under the heart of London, and an astonishingly pristine medieval wooden street under the heart of yet another European metropolis, Berlin. In addition, this week I'll be covering these discoveries in chronological order, and surprisingly enough, they all seem to cluster around prehistory, the late Roman Empire, and late medieval Europe. So without further ado, let's dive into the news. Archaeologists from the Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi have just unearthed the earliest known buildings in the United Arab Emirates and the broader region. They're simple circular rooms made of local stone, preserved up to nearly a whole meter in height, which are likely more than 8,500 years old. These humble prehistoric structures, which likely made up a small hunter-gatherer community, were built on the small island of Gaga, west of Abu Dhabi city. The buildings on Gaga are thought to be 8,500 years old, meaning they were built around 6,500 BC, because pieces of charcoal found at the site have been radiocarbon dated to that point in time. Prior to this discovery, the oldest known buildings in the UAE were on the island of Marawa, also off the coast of Abu Dhabi, but the newly discovered structures are thought to be 500 years older than that. As such, it appears that the islands off Abu Dhabi seem to have been a focal point of human settlement in the Neolithic. It was previously believed that the region was settled later due to long-distance maritime trade, but this new discovery indicates local settlements already existed here. Hundreds of artifacts have been found within the structures on Gaga, including these finely-worked stone arrowheads. It's unknown how long this settlement was in use, but around 5,000 years ago, so some 3,500 years after it was initially inhabited, its ruins were used as the site of a burial, which highlights its continued significance over the millennia. Evidence of the earliest known ear surgery found in a 5,300-year-old skull from Spain has just been published in the journal Scientific Reports. The skull was unearthed in quite a fascinating megalithic structure, the so-called Dolmen of El Pendón in north-central Spain's Burgos province. It was built at the beginning of the 4th millennium BC, so roughly a thousand years before the unification of Egypt, and consists of a passage terminating in a central burial chamber, which were originally covered by a stone-and-dirt mound measuring more than 80 feet in diameter. The burial chamber was reused as a collective burial in the last quarter of the 4th millennium, and housed around a hundred bodies which had been carefully disarticulated and repositioned in different groups. The partially-broken skull in question was unearthed from the site back in July of 2018, but its true significance has only just now been revealed. It's likely from the Dolmen's second phase of use. The skull probably belonged to an elderly woman. Both of her ears' external auditory canals had been enlarged through trepanation, the world's oldest surgical technique, as determined through osteological examination and CT scans, and apparently she actually survived this surgery because the bones involved regenerated. This elderly woman probably underwent such surgery because she was suffering from an infection of the mastoid bone called mastoiditis, resulting from an untreated middle ear infection, making this surgery the world's first mastoidectomy, too. Amazingly, one of the surgical instruments that was involved in this may have actually also been recovered from the same Dolmen. A flint blade that seems to have been used to cut bone and that was once heated to 300-350 degrees was found there, and may have been used as a cauterizing tool during the procedure. The largest Roman mosaic found in London in over 50 years has just been discovered in Southwark, London, near London Bridge and The Shard. This was a result of excavations in preparation for the construction of a multi-use development. The discovery was made by the Museum of London Archaeology, or MOLA. Excavations at the site began in June of last year, but only small items like harness fittings, bone game dice, and bone pins were recovered up until last month. That's because a few weeks ago, a few tesserae, or mosaic tiles, were discovered, and although they were initially thought to be not of much significance, when the excavators cleared the area around them, they realized that they had stumbled across something big. Two mosaics were discovered, set into a 26-foot-long red tile floor, which is probably the floor of a dining room, which the Romans would have referred to as a triclinium. The main, largest mosaic is in black, white, and red tesserae, and features a variety of geometric designs, knots, and floral motifs. This mosaic was made somewhere between the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries, so the age of the Tetrarchy, and was laid over an earlier mosaic. The artisans behind it have been identified as a team of mosaicists referred to as the This same floor also contains a smaller mosaic, which was likely set within a recess in the triclinium it was in. It features lotus flowers and Solomon's knots, surrounded by these nice little four-leafed clovers. It's primarily made up of black tiles set against a white tile background, with some red tile accents added here and there. This smaller mosaic is actually virtually identical to a mosaic found in Trier in Germany, which suggests that they were made by the same high-profile mosaicist. This site was previously excavated in 1988, revealing the remains of a large Roman building consisting of multiple rooms set around an internal courtyard and a well-landscaped exterior garden. It's thought to have been built in 72 AD, soon after London's establishment as Londinium, and was later modified as shown by the mosaics just discovered. It's been proposed that this building was either a private urban villa or an upscale hotel of sorts, offering accommodation, stabling, and of course, dining facilities to visiting army officers, government officials, and state couriers. Called a mansio, it's now thought that it's more likely to have been the latter, especially since high-end pottery, coins, and phallic amulets found here suggest that the site was frequented by such people. As a result of irrigation work done in the small town of San Martino d'Argine, just outside of Mantua in Italy, a small early 6th century cemetery has just been discovered. A total of 11 tombs have been unearthed so far, but there are probably more that haven't been found yet. These tombs are organized into five distinct groupings, each separated by 100 feet. Three are cappuccino-style graves, and no, it has nothing to do with coffee. It was a type of burial for members of the lower classes at the time, made by lining bricks or teguli, terracotta roof tiles, around a grave and then tilting larger ones against each other to form a roof structure over it. Apparently, they're always devoid of grave goods, and that's also the case for the examples in the San Martino necropolis. These graves are currently dated to the early 6th century because the graves were made using reused material, and because the construction techniques used match up with those used at that point in history. However, radiocarbon test results of the bones found at the necropolis are still being awaited. These reused architectural elements probably came from the Roman town of Bedreacum, five miles away. The tombs have been removed from the site and were transported to a secure location for further study and conservation. The prospects of creating a museum or archaeological park dedicated to this necropolis have already been raised. It'll be continuously excavated in the hope of discovering more of it, and maybe even the town of Bedreacum, where the material used to create the tombs came from. As you might have noticed, if you're a Romaboo, Bedreacum was the site of two major battles during the tumultuous year of the four emperors, so I hope that if they choose to go down that route, they'll find something big. In other news, a truly stunning medieval gold brooch inscribed with a prayer in Latin and letters in Hebrew has just been discovered by a metal detectorist in a freshly ploughed field in Pusey Vale, Wiltshire, England. It was made sometime between 1150 and 1400. The prayer in Latin and the Hebrew initials inscribed onto it were likely seen as protecting its user against illness or supernatural events. The inscription contains no errors, which isn't too common given artisans of the time were mostly illiterate. Its circular frame, whose front and backs were both beveled, was engraved on all its four sides. Three of the surfaces are inscribed with a Hail Mary, but the reverse inner angle bears the initials of the Hebrew phrase Athagebirlelem Adonai, meaning Thou art mighty forever, O Lord. These initials were thought to have power in the Middle Ages against illness, especially fever, and against nefarious supernatural forces. The brooch's small size and the reference to the Virgin Mary on it suggest it may belong to a woman and may have been part of a light fabric garment. It was found by metal detectorist William Nordhoff back in March of 2020, but its discovery has just now been widely announced. At first he thought it was made out of base metal, but it had just been temporarily dullened by the soil it had been sitting in for centuries, and when he realized its true value, he nobly reported it to the UK's Portable Antiquities Scheme. The Portable Antiquities Scheme, or PASS, is a government-sponsored organization that publishes reports and images of archaeological finds made by metal detectorists on its website and sometimes in scholarly journals. The brooch has been declared a treasure, according to the UK's Treasure Act, because it's over 10% precious metal and over 300 years old, and as such its value is going to be determined and then a local museum, in this case likely the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, will have the opportunity to acquire the brooch for the assessed market value. So hopefully Mr. Nordhoff will get a substantial reward for uncovering such a remarkable bit of medieval history. A 50 meter or 164 foot long stretch of a 13th century wooden causeway has just been unearthed in Berlin's historic downtown by archaeologists from the Berlin State Monuments Office, or LDA. It was discovered during preventative excavations conducted before the installation of new power and gas lines, 8 feet or 2.5 meters below Strahlauer Strasse, which is now one of Berlin's main arteries. It's about 20 feet or 6 meters wide and is composed of three different layers. The bottom layer consists of thick, roughly worked tree trunks, above that are three parallel rows of beams going along the embankment, and above that is a top layer of log stripped of its bark and laid side by side across the road in the direction of travel. The two bottom layers were filled in with sand and in order to smooth it out the top layer was filled in with small boulders and its edges were also smoothed by more sand. Tree ring analysis of the oak, pine, and birch trees that make up these layers indicates the trees used to make it were felled all the way back in 1238 from around the founding of Berlin. It would have been of great help to those who traveled along it as it provided a safe solid surface through the waterlogged ground around the Spree River up to the Strahlauer Gate in Berlin's first defensive city wall. The reason it survived for so long is that it's covered in a thick layer of peat and the waterlogged soil it's in created an anaerobic environment for it. The wooden road is still being excavated but its fate unfortunately remains rather uncertain. If the utility lines whose construction resulted in the causeway's discovery are installed according to plan it'll be destroyed and unfortunately it doesn't seem like the Berlin State Monuments Office has announced that they plan to salvage it. Thank you so much for watching this latest installment of really old news. Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed the video and you want me to keep creating content like this. Thank you and goodbye.