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This is a "Reindeer Cyclone"

Caligulas Ring

A 2,000-year-old sapphire ring, often attributed to Roman Emperor Caligula, features a delicate portrait engraved into the stone, widely believed to be his fourth and final wife, Caesonia. Crafting a ring from a single piece of sapphire was an immense technical feat in antiquity.

The Ring:

The Material: It is a hololith, meaning the entire ring (both the stone and the band) was carved out of a single piece of sky-blue sapphire.

The Engraving: The bezel features the profile of a woman, which historians and gem collectors associate with Caligula's empress, Milonia Caesonia.

Current Status: The ring is part of the legendary Marlborough Gems collection. It previously surfaced at an auction through the royal jewelers Wartski.

Wake up babe, new octopus just dropped

Bronze Corinthian helmet

Greece, c. 540 BCE

Ribchester Helmet: A Rare 'Face Mask' Helmet Worn by a Roman Cavalry Officer 1,900 Years Ago

The helmet has been a powerful symbol of Roman Britain since it was discovered over 200 years ago.

In 1796, while scampering through fields behind his house in Ribchester, England, a young boy stumbled upon a hoard of over 30 metal artifacts in a hollow. The most unique and impressive item in the hoard was a bronze helmet with a face mask dating to the early Roman Empire.

The Ribchester Helmet entered the collection of the British Museum in 1813, where it has been on display ever since. The helmet consists of two main parts: a helmet bowl decorated with a martial scene, and a mask shaped like the face of a young man. Together, the parts of the mask weigh 2.9 pounds (1.3 kilograms). It is one of only three helmets with face masks ever found in Roman Britain.

The helmet bowl has been highly decorated with a scene of apparent combat between six cavalry and 11 infantry soldiers. Although the cavalry troops are outnumbered, they seem to have the upper hand, as two infantrymen lie dead. Two palmettes symbolizing victory are also depicted on the helmet bowl, in addition to a shield and spears signifying armor captured from the enemy. Holes in the nape of the neck suggest streamers were once attached to the helmet.

Rare Roman-era Madusa Cameo Discovered in Austria

Archaeologists in Hallstatt have unearthed a rare Roman-era cameo that has a carving of Medusa from Ancient Greek mythology.

Medusa is one of the three Gorgons, famed for her hair of living snakes and a gaze that turned onlookers to stone.

Originally a beautiful maiden, she was transformed into a monster by Athena but ultimately met her end at the hands of the hero Perseus, who used a mirrored shield to avoid her deadly stare before beheading her.

The cameo was found during excavations conducted by ARDIS and the Upper Austrian State Museums at the new funicular railway station, which during the Roman period was a bustling lakeside settlement – though much about its layout and name remains unknown.

According to experts, the cameo was crafted in the 2nd century AD in the Adriatic city of Aquileia, and is carved from black-and-white banded agate, or onyx.

Despite its size, the piece stands out for its exceptional workmanship and remarkable preservation. It is only the third Roman cameo currently on public display in Upper Austria, joining a lion-themed ring in the Wels City Museum and a gold ring depicting a bound Cupid in the Lauriacum Museum.

Compared to the Wels and Enns pieces, the Hallstatt cameo is notably larger, with a deeper and more sculptural relief. Experts believe its slightly angled perspective reflects the natural form of the original onyx.

The winged head of Medusa, framed with snakes for hair—also known as the Gorgoneion—is an extremely popular motif in Greek and Roman antiquity. It is considered a protective symbol meant to ward off misfortune.

Its size suggests it was unlikely to have been set in a ring; instead, researchers propose it may once have adorned the necklace of a wealthy Roman woman.

By Mark Milligan.

This flute was discovered during excavations at the Hohle Fels cave in southwestern Germany, where several other flutes dating back to about 41,000-35,000 BCE have also been unearthed. They are the oldest undisputed musical instruments ever discovered.

As this article describes:

With five finger holes and a V-shaped mouthpiece, the almost complete bird-bone flute—made from the naturally hollow wing bone of a griffon vulture—is just 0.3 inch (8 millimeters) wide and was originally about 13 inches (34 centimeters) long.

The sophistication of the flute's design suggests that it was part of a much older musical tradition:

... although these are currently the earliest flutes known, it is reasonable to expect that even earlier examples were produced within and outside the region: the instruments from Hohle Fels are too "evolved" in terms of design and manufacture to represent the first flutes.

The makers and players of the Aurignacian flutes were thus not novices, but had considerable musical knowledge and experience that may have resulted from some form of trans-generational communication.

Moreover, the earliest musical instruments, such as drums and rattles, were probably made of perishable materials — perhaps wood and hide — that are not routinely preserved in the archaeological record.

Even so, these flutes from southwestern Germany are of immense importance, as they document a mature musical tradition that was firmly in place thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

In fact, the development of music may be as old as humanity itself:

During their migration from Africa into Europe as early as 40,000 years ago, our ancestors were already making music. The artifacts discovered in the Hohle Fels Cave, dating back some 40,000 years, reveal that this capacity existed in our common ancestors even then, and quite likely long before.

In this rare glimpse into the unfolding of culture itself, we can see that the evolutionary roots of music go deep into our human story. So deep, that many scientists now believe that music played a crucial role in the development of the human mind.

Sources & More Info:

National Geographic: Bone Flute is World's Oldest Musical Instrument, Study Says

PubMed: The Earliest Known Musical Tradition

The New York Times: Oldest Musical Instruments are Even Older than First Thought

Kassa Flutes: Toneholes and Tradition: How a 40,000 Year Old Flute Leveled the Playing Field

Nature: New Flutes Document the Earliest Musical Tradition in Southwestern Germany

1,800-Year-Old 'Piggy Banks' Full of Roman-era Coins Unearthed in French village

An excavation in a small French village reveals three jars with thousands of Roman coins.

Archaeologists in France have discovered three ancient storage jars brimming with tens of thousands of Roman coins. The vessels were buried in pits 1,700 years ago in the house floor of an ancient settlement, possibly as a type of safe or piggy bank.

These three jugs, known as amphorae, were uncovered during excavations run by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) in the village of Senon in northeastern France, and may contain a total of more than 40,000 Roman coins.

The first hoard held an estimated 83 pounds (38 kilograms) of coins, which "corresponds to approximately 23,000 to 24,000 coins," Vincent Geneviève, a numismatist with INRAP who is analyzing the hoards, said in an email.

The second jug and its coins weighed about 110 pounds (50 kg), "and, based on the 400 coins recovered from the neck, which was broken at the time of discovery, it could contain 18,000 to 19,000 coins," Geneviève said. The third jug was retrieved in ancient times and only three coins were left in the pit where the vessel once sat.

Around 30 coin hoards are already known in this area, so the real significance of this find lies not in the sheer number of coins but in the detailed information about where the hoards were found.

"Contrary to what one might think at first look, it is not certain that these are 'treasures' that were hidden during a period of insecurity," according to a Nov. 26 translated statement from INRAP. Experts believe based on the dates on the coins that the amphoras were buried between A.D. 280 and 310.

Among the hoard are coins that feature busts of the emperors Victorinus, Tetricus I, and his son Tetricus II, the emperors of the so-called Gallic Empire, which ruled Gaul and the surrounding provinces independently of the rest of the Roman Empire from 260 to 274, until it was reintegrated by emperor Aurelian in 274.

Researchers who found coins stuck to the outer face of one vessel realized that they had been added to the hoard before the pit was filled with sediment. The Mediomatrici settlement in which the vessels were found had been burned to the ground in the 4th century and rebuilt, only to be reduced to ashes again, and these artifacts were there before the fires. That can only mean that they had been there before the Romans conquered.

Because the reserves of coins were buried between 280 and 310 C.E., it is thought that they may be associated with the Roman military occupation at Senon—whether they belonged to Roman warriors or Mediomatrici, however, is unclear. The artifacts were buried at a time when urban growth began to trigger a shift in building practices and materials, and the living space, as a result, was made of limestone bricks (limestone was a plentiful resource in this part of France at the time). Rooms are separated by brick walls, with multiple pits that may have been latrines or spaces for storage. What they were actually used for will be determined by lab analysis.

It seems that Senon was heavily influenced by its Roman conquerors. Impressions on the coins appear stylistically Roman, and the ruins at the site reflect an affluent city with a public square, courtyards, temples, baths, and even a theater. Its inhabitants may have been artists or merchants. INRAP officials, therefore, do not think that there was a rush to bury these coins because of impending disaster. The fact that the tops of the amphorae were almost at ground level indicates that they were supposed to be easily accessible for deposits or withdrawals.

“Their exceptional nature lies less in the discovery of a large quantity of coins (some thirty coin hoards are known in the Meuse department alone) than in the possibility of documenting their depositional context so precisely,” Geneviève said, “which is rare.”

By Marjanko Pilekić.

The historic "Frog House" (Kamienica Pod Żabami) in Bielsko-Biała, Poland.

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How Did an Ancient Byzantine Gold Coin End Up in Norway?

A Byzantium-era gold coin that was recently discovered in the mountains of southern Norway has historians and archaeologists perplexed over how it ended up there.

The coin is a Byzantine histamenon nomisma. These were introduced in Byzantium around 960 AD in what was then the eastern part of the Roman Empire.

One side of the coin is stamped with an image of Christ holding the Bible. On the other side, the two emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII are most likely depicted. The two brothers jointly ruled in Byzantium for almost fifty years from 976 to 1025.

Presumably, the coin was minted early in the eleventh century. The exact date is difficult to determine, but the dotted border suggests it was late in Basil’s and Constantine’s reign, Norwegian archaeologist May-Tove Smiseth told Science Norway.

The coin also bears two inscriptions. In Latin, it says Jesus Christ, King of those who rule, and in Greek, it reads Basil and Constantine, emperors of the Byzantine Empire.

How did the Byzantine gold coin end up in Norway?

In some way or other, the coin found its way to Valdres in Norway. Science Norway says that perhaps it was originally part of the treasures that Harald Hardrada amassed after serving in the Varangian Guard for the Byzantine emperor in 1034. The Varangian Guard consisted of Scandinavian mercenaries, who served as bodyguards and were known as being fearless and strong.

Hardrada was King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. Additionally, he unsuccessfully claimed both the Danish throne until 1064 and the English throne in 1066. In a press release, Innlandet County writes that it was customary at that time for the guards to loot the palace when an emperor died, and during Harald’s time in Byzantium, three emperors had died.

“It’s not unrealistic to suggest that this is where the coin originates from,” Smiseth told Science Norway. She points to a study on Byzantine coins in the Nordic region, which states that three Byzantine gold coins have been found in Sweden, none in Denmark, but fifteen in Norway. Most of these were from various treasure finds made in the nineteenth century. This includes the recent find in Valdres.

“It’s reasonable to believe that this coin could be from the treasures that Harald Hardrada brought with him,” Smiseth says. “He received a lot of gold in payment from the three emperors in Byzantium who ruled while he was there.”

“Harald acquired a lot of power by using the gold he returned with to build alliances,” Smiseth added.

Over the mountains in Valdres, trade routes connected the east and west. Perhaps a merchant traveler had the unfortunate luck to lose the splendid gold coin on such a trading trip. Science Norway notes that we might learn more about this next year because the discovery was made so late in autumn this year, and the ground had already frozen. The discovery site will, therefore, be examined more closely in the spring.

By Tasos Kokkinidis.