Scientists Found an 8,000-Year-Old Figurine

There’s no face on the oldest piece of art—a small sandstone figurine of a human from the Mesolithic era—ever found in one region of modern-day Azerbaijan.

In a study published by Archaeological Research in Asia, a team of archaeologists from both Japan and Azerbaijan showed how they used technology to investigate the details of the stone figurine that helps tell the story of the cultural shifts from Mesolithic to Neolithic.

“Its stylistic features considerably differ from those of Neolithic human figures in the region,” the study authors wrote, “providing a valuable reference point for understanding the cultural processes in symbolic aspects during the Mesolithic-Neolithic interface in the South Caucasus.”

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Medival Graves Found in Germany

Early medieval weapons and jewelry found in southwestern Germany near the Danube River. 

(Image credit: State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the RPS / Yvonne Mühlei)

Archaeological treasures, including Stone Age pottery and medieval graves with swords and jewelry, have revealed a long history of human habitation near the Danube River in Germany.

At the site, in the Geisingen-Gutmadingen district of Tuttlingen, in southwestern Germany, archaeologists discovered one grave from the Neolithic, or Stone Age, that dates to the third millennium B.C. and contains distinctive pottery from the Corded Ware culture. They also found 140 early medieval graves, dating to between A.D. 500 and 600, that contain goods including swords, lances, shields, bone combs, drinking glasses and earrings.

"Our Gutmadingen district is probably much older than we previously assumed," Mayor Martin Numberger said in a statement. The district had previously been dated to 1273 based on the first written records of settlement there.

The finds were made by a team from archaeology firm ArchaeoTask GmbH in an area near the Danube river where a rainwater retention pond is planned. The Stone Age grave points to the presence of a The Corded Ware people, who are now known mostly for their pottery decorated by geometric lines formed by pressing cord into clay and leaving the impressions to dry. These people were probably pastoralists who kept animals such as cows and sheep, and some also practiced early farming of crops such as barley. Graves from this period are rare in southwestern Germany, according to local officials.

The early medieval graves date to the century after the end of the Western Roman Empire, which fell in 476 A.D. when the German warlord Odoacer deposed the Roman emperor Romulus Augustus. This period is part of what is known as the Migration Period, or the Völkerwanderung, when various tribes in Europe moved around, often conquering one another and pushing each other into new territories. Historians consider this period the transition between antiquity and the early Middle Ages.  READ MORE...