When the water levels began lowering outside Peraleda de la Mata in Cáceres, Spain, large standing stones revealed themselves in the reservoir. Nicknamed the “Spanish Stonehenge”, the location may have once been the site of ritual worship.

Of the 144 standing stones, several of them are as a tall as two meters high and have serpents engraved on them. The stones were arranged in a circular shape (just like Stonehenge), but nobody knows why they were put there in the first place or by whom.

Just like England’s Stonehenge (pictured here), some of the stones from the Spanish Stonehenge are two meters tall

It is believed that the site was created in the second and third millennia BC and was used as a sun temple on the banks of the River Tagus as well as a burial ground. “The site would have been created over thousands of years, using granite transported from kilometers away,” local official Angel Castaño stated to The Local. As for its purpose, Castaño explained, “They seemed to have a religious but also economic purpose, being at one of the few points of the river where it was possible to cross,” adding, “So it was sort of a trading hub.”

Nobody has seen the site for nearly six decades since it was submerged under water in 1963 after the construction of a dam made a reservoir. But with no rain, warm weather, and water extraction creating a drought in the area, the water levels lowered so much that the “Spanish Stonehenge” has re-emerged after hiding under water for many years. “We grew up hearing about the legend of the treasure hidden beneath the lake and now we finally get to view them” Castaño said. He also mentioned that while there may possibly be treasures hidden underneath the stones, just witnessing the stones themselves is enough of a treasure.

(Not an illustration of the Spanish Stonehenge)

Castaño and a group of locals are currently trying to preserve the site before it gets submerged under water again by campaigning to have the stones moved to another location on dry land. “If we miss this chance it could be years before they are revealed again,” Castaño insisted, adding, “And the stones, which are granite and therefore porous, are already showing signs of erosion and cracking, so if we don’t act now it could be too late.” They certainly have a valid point, as the last time the site was witnessed (until now) was 56 years ago. You can see pictures here of the “Spanish Stonehenge”.

With the pace of everyday life in the modern world, it can become easy to forget the more fundamental questions we have about who we are, and what it means to be a part of the great enigma that is humankind.

To borrow the words of historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, “As evolution slowly grinds out species, who’s human? Who’s to say? It is tempting to reserve the term human for ourselves—members of the species we call Homo sapiens.” Along similar lines, the late Philip Adler of East Carolina University acknowledged that “Paleoanthropologists continue to dig up specimens that challenge believers in human uniqueness,” and cause us to have to consider what, precisely, it means to be “human.” 

Indeed, with time we may have to drastically rethink the uniqueness of humans in relation to the long line of ongoing hominin discoveries. A more remote possibility—but one which may nonetheless prove to be true—is the discovery of new hominin types that may have existed far more recently, or which might even still exist in small numbers today; a tantalizing, though increasingly unlikely prospect as time goes on. Technologies that are ever-steadily mapping remote corners of the world, in addition to issues like climate change, deforestation, population growth, and other environmental issues would no doubt present considerations in terms of the discovery of any new species, let alone those that might be large mammals resembling humans.

Nonetheless, several archaeological discoveries in recent years do suggest that unique kinds of early humans probably did, at very least, exist more recently than once believed.

As far back as 1979, a discovery was made in a cave in the Guanxi region of China that, decades later, would prove to be of remarkable significance in our broader understanding of human ancestry and the curious persistence of hominid types into recent times. Found at Longlin Cave a similar discovery was made one decade later at the Red Deer Cave site in Yunnan Province, China.

Charcoal remnants extracted from the same areas the fossils were tested in 2012, and found to be of remarkably recent ages: the fossils from Red Deer Cave yielded dates of between 14,300 and 12,600 years, while the earlier Longlin Cave discovery dated to even more recently at around 11,500 years ago.

Partial skull (reconstructed) found in Longlin cave in 1979

(Credit: PLOS One, Wikimedia Commons).

Named after the Red Deer Cave, which became the type site for the discoveries, this mysterious group of hominins bore a number of unique features that seem to place them in between modern humans and those of an earlier archaic variety. With the prevalence of Denisovan DNA remnants that exist among human populations in Southeast Asia, it has been proposed that the Red Deer Cave people might have been human-Denisovan hybrids.

The remains bear remarkable similarities to early archaic human types such as Homo erectus; however, since attempts at extracting DNA from the Red Deer Cave fossils have proven unsuccessful thus far, anthropologists have been at odds over whether to classify these as a new species.

Mandibles recovered from Red Deer Cave in Yunnan Province, China in 1989.

(Credit: PLOS One, Wikimedia Commons).

Opinions on the matter are wide and varied. Darren Curnoe, and evolutionary biologist with the University of New South Wales, Australia, gave an enthusiastic statement on the discovery to National Geographic in 2012.

“We have discovered a new population of prehistoric humans whose skulls are an unusual mosaic of primitive features, like those seen in our ancestors hundreds of thousands of years ago… In short, they’re anatomically unique among all members of the human evolutionary tree.”

Alternatively, some critics have argued that the fossils may simply be modern humans with an odd appearance.

Erik Trinkaus, Professor Emeritus of Physical Anthropology at Washington University in Saint Louis, called the discovery “an unfortunate over-interpretation and misinterpretation of robust early modern humans, probably with affinities to modern Melanesians,” stating that the finds were “nothing extraordinary.”

While attempts at gathering genetic information about the Red Deer Cave people have proven unsuccessful so far, could there actually be evidence for similar human relatives in our own DNA?

Recent genomic studies also seem to point to mysterious archaic human types that can also be traced in modern human DNA, but which remain unknown in the archaeological record. In other words, we can prove that in addition to Neanderthals and Denisovans, there are at least two other unknown archaic human types that anatomically modern humans met, lived alongside, and even interbred with within the last several tens of thousands of years.

Homo habilis skull reconstruction, which has been compared to certain features present with the Red Deer Cave specimens

(Public Domain).

Recently, I reported on a study published in the journal PNASwhich detailed genetic evidence for two unrecognized hominin species that existed in Asia. According to the study’s authors:

“At least 3 different hominin groups appear to have been involved in Asia, of which only the Denisovans are currently known. Several interbreeding events are inferred to have taken place east of Wallace’s Line, consistent with archaeological evidence of widespread and early hominin presence in the area.”

In other words, if this recent DNA evidence is any indication, we’re already certain there are indeed “missing links” in our evolutionary past, waiting to be corroborated in the fossil record.

Whether those fossils will be found or not, and later corroborated with evidence found in DNA remains to be seen. However, it is clear enough already from the data discussed here that there are plenty of mysteries about humanity’s past to keep us busy for some time to come.

The cause of elongated skulls – alien intrusion aside – is generally accepted to be the sadistic practice of binding a baby’s skull during its early soft state through subsequent growth years to curse the person with a long pointed head that was funny on Saturday Night Live but caused a life of pain and possible mental illness, with the only fame coming centuries later when the strange skulls were unearthed by puzzled archeologists. The reasons anyone would inflict such torture on innocents (as opposed to other tortures humans inflict on innocents to this day – a topic for greater philosophical and psychological minds) are still a mystery. However, a recent discovery of elongated skulls in Croatia points to a strange ancient nomadic culture that may have spread the practice as it traveled.

“We were inspired to study these individuals based on their unusual burial context as well as the identification of two different types of artificial cranial deformation in two of the individuals.”

Example of an elongated skull

In a press release announcing the study published recently in the journal PLOS ONE, co-author Daniel Fernandes, a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at University of Vienna, describes the recent discovery of the remains of three young males age 12 to 15 in a burial pit in the city of Osijek in eastern Croatia. (Pictures here.) What caught his eye was that two of the three had different types of elongated skulls and that that seemed to have been placed together deliberately with pottery and dead animals. Further analysis of these 5th century CE skeletons at first added to their mysterious appearance and burial because it appears the three came from widespread locations.

CT scan of the elongated skull. 

(© M. Cavka/University Hospital Centre Zagreb)

The elongated skull (without the facial region)

 (© M. Novak/Institute for Anthropological Research)

The elongated skull during the excavation.

(© D. Los/Kaducej Ltd)

The burial pit where the skeletons were found 

(© D. Los/Kaducej Ltd)

“Results of ancient DNA analyses indicate that the individual without artificial cranial deformation shows broadly West Eurasian associated-ancestry, the individual with the elongated skull has East Asian ancestry and the third individual has Near Eastern associated-ancestry.”

Ron Pinhasi, head of the ancient DNA laboratory at the University of Vienna and co-director of the study, reveals that the young man with an elongated skull from East Asia is the earliest East Asian to be found in Europe. This means the so-called Migration Period – the era from about 375 CED to 538 CE when the declining Western Roman Empire was invaded by Germanic tribes and the Huns – also included intrusions by East Asians as well. But why an East Asian with an elongated skull?

“Based on the presented results, we propose that the type of artificial cranial deformation may have been a visual indicator of membership in a specific cultural group, and that these groups were interacting closely on the Pannonian Plain during the Migration Period.”

Because of the rich artifacts found in other tombs of individuals with artificial cranial deformation, many researchers believe elongated skulls were a sign of nobility. However, these Croatian skeletons and their artifacts indicated they were poor, undernourished, nomadic and part of a common cultural group despite being from distinctly different geographic locations and having different (or no) forms of elongation. What does it mean that they all ended up in the Pannonian Plain during the Great Migration Period? Were they novices in the Distinguished Gentlemen of the Elongated Skull?

“This leads us to ask: is this a random peculiarity or part of a larger-scale pattern of association between ACD type and group membership? We believe that future multi- and inter-disciplinary studies combining archaeology, bioarchaeology, history, stable isotopes analysis, and ancient DNA, conducted on a larger skeletal sample from a wider region will aid us in answering this question.”

Ah! A new question requiring more research to compare elongated skulls around the world in a completely different way. These archeologists definitely know how to create job security. We await their future answers.

Millions of years ago, some of the most remarkable creatures ever to walk the earth would begin to emerge out of East Africa. Loping along with ease, their forelimbs could just as easily carry them at speed along the ground as they could into the heights of trees. These remarkable creatures were adept in several different kinds of locomotion: in addition to their climbing prowess and their four-legged movement across the ground, they could also stand upright and, perhaps stumbling at first, carry themselves aloft on two legs for impressive distances.µ

With time, these arboreal creatures began to learn that standing upright gave them several advantages; no less among them had been the ability to see greater distances and to spot predators when they were further out. On such occasions, the little creatures could emit sharp whistles and other sounds that, with time, became more and more complex as the sounds turned from shrill warnings to outright mimicry of the sounds produced by the other creatures around them.

Over the passing of generations, these arboreal apes also began to create unique sounds of their own, which they could use to communicate with a depth and clarity no other creatures in the animal kingdom had ever mastered.

These early apes where hungry, like all creatures in nature, but they had something else that motivated their actions apart from a sheer desire for food: curiosity. As they moved about, they began to master their environments, first using stones to break open nuts, seeds, and shells and to grind simple grains that grew in their habitat. Pounding these rocks against hard surfaces often caused them to fracture; there is little doubt that these creatures soon realized how much more could be done with a stone that bore chipped, sharpened edges.

Their curiosity carried them further and further along, and by around 2 million years ago, early migrations by the upright walking ancestors of modern humans out of Africa and into other parts of the world were well underway. These early humans spread first into parts of the Middle East, and then into Europe; by around 25,000 years ago, the genus Homo could be found on each of the world’s continents, with the exception of Antarctica.

The debate has continued as to when, precisely, modern humans first arrived in the Americas. With each new discovery that pushes back the timescales on such migrations to the new world, all new controversies ensue; but this is by no means anything new in the history of anthropological study.

Even at the time of the groundbreaking discoveries of the Folsom and Clovis cultures in the American Southwest during the early part of the last century, which clearly showed that humans had arrived in America by the end of the last ice age (and perhaps even earlier), much doubt was expressed by experts in the anthropological field. Most notably, Aleš Hrdlička, founder and first curator of physical anthropology of the U.S. National Museum (later renamed and known today as the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History), presumably went to his grave having never acknowledged the discoveries, preferring to believe that humans simply couldn’t have been on the American continent any earlier than 3000 or so years ago.

Today, archaeological sites like the Gault site in Texas, as well as Bluefish Caves in Alaska, clearly show that humans were there well in advance of 13,000 years ago, and perhaps even tens of thousands of years ago. Compelling discoveries at locations like Monte Verde, Chile—where radiocarbon dates may indicate a human presence as far back as 33,000 years—continues to tempt us with the idea of much earlier human arrivals in the Americas. Even more controversial sites like the Topper site in Allendale County, South Carolina, suggest dates going even further back to 50,000 years for human occupation, an idea which, understandably, remains controversial today.

But could there have been even earlier arrivals than these?

In 2017, one of the most controversial archaeological papers in recent memory was published in the journal Nature, having to do with a possible early human site in San Diego County, California. Known as the Cerutti Mastodon site, the paleontological remains found at the site, which the 2017 research team found close to stones they believe were used as hammerstones and anvils, boast a seemingly incredible radiocarbon date of 130,700 years.

“To demonstrate such early occupation of the Americas requires the presence of unequivocal stone artifacts,” said archaeologist Michael Waters of the claims. “There are no unequivocal stone tools associated with the bones… this site is likely just an interesting paleontological locality.” Detractors made the reasonable assertion that marks on the mastodon remains that indicated possible butchering were likely to have been the result of highway construction projects underway at the location in recent years. Adding to the extraordinary nature of the claimed discoveries at the site is the fact that along with an absence of any human bones, or irrefutable tools in context with extinct megafaunal remains that can be reliably dated, the site remains an outlier: where are the other sites of similar age in the region, let alone in North America?

Interestingly, less than three hours from the Cerutti site is what had once been the most controversial archaeological site in North America: the Calico Mountain site, located near Barstow, California. Proponents of the site’s legitimacy contend that it is the oldest archaeological site anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, where more than 60,000 possible lithic tools were recovered during excavations, which led to a shocking discovery: some of the tools from Calico appeared to date as far back as 200,000 years.

If true, this presents a number of problems. In addition to their incredible age, this is around the same time that anatomically modern humans begin to appear in the fossil record in Africa. Hence, if tools found at the Calico Mountain site were to be reliably dated back to 200,000 years, it could only mean that their makers must have been an earlier archaic human ancestor such as Homo erectus, Homo Neanderthalensis, or even the latter’s close relatives, the enigmatic Denisovans (an implication which would equally apply to the Cerutti site).

Understandably, the extraordinary nature of these claims was not received well by the anthropological community at large. However, neither were they met with complete opposition, as J. M. Adovasio notes in his Strangers in a New Land: The First Americans:

“The Calico site was by no means unanimously discredited at the time—indeed, news of the findings there garnered interest among the growing ranks of archaeological scholars whose criticism of the Clovis First model had been gathering through the 1970s and 1980s. But Calico is now held in widespread disregard among professional archaeologists, largely due to the lack of indisputable artifacts in the Lake Manix and Calico Lithic Industry assemblages, the lack of valid cultural features, a suspicion that the age of any valid archaeological deposit at the location is radically younger than that proposed, and the site’s apparent position as a secondary deposit in an alluvial fan.”

Needless to say, both the Calico site, and the Cerutti site just a few hours further south, will continue to have their proponents—particularly among those advocating controversial ideas about earlier arrivals in the Americas (notably, author Graham Hancock discusses these locales, and others like them, in his new book America Before, which has no doubt introduced the controversy to an all-new audience). To be able to accept such incredible antiquity for sites like these, as noted earlier, calls for more than just an open mind as to when modern humans arrived on the continent: it would also appear to require acceptance that our early hominid cousins were more highly mobile than once thought.

Interestingly, new studies in the field of genomics are helping to shed light on some of the mysteries of human ancestry. Today, traces of both Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA can be found in human populations around the world; however, the notable prevalence of Denisovans in Southeast Asia up until their demise around 40,000 years ago would likely have placed them closer to the Beringia land bridge that would have existed for a time during the Pleistocene, suggesting these mysterious archaic humans as possible contender for sites like Cerutti and Calico.

That is, of course, if they are ever reliably proven to represent conclusive evidence of a hominid presence in the early Americas. By that time, perhaps other sites will have emerged, and we will ultimately have gained a more broad understanding of humanity’s arrival in the Americas… and whether the first immigrants were really “human” in the same sense that we would recognize today.

Construction workers at an elementary school in school in China thought they were renovating the school’s sports field. Instead they ended up up unearthing a mysterious 1,000-year-old tomb filled with pottery and art from the Tang dynasty of imperial China.

The tomb was discovered underneath Xiaojingyu Elementary School in the city of Taiyuan. Workers were setting new foundations for structures in the sports field when they accidentally punched through the ceiling of the 1,000 year old tomb. Which probably came as a decent surprise.  The tomb is believed to be one of several rooms in a larger underground complex.

Inscriptions on in the mysterious tomb indicate that it belonged to someone of influence, but the exact identity of the eternal resident is still unknown. Archaeologists who have examined the ornate underground tomb say that it most likely dates back to the rule of the Tang dynasty, a golden age and high point of imperial China, which lasted from  618 to 907 AD.

According to the Daily Mail, a “cultural expert” told local media that the artwork bears the very specific style of a roughly 50-year period known as Sheng Tang, when the Tang dynasty flourished between 713 and 766 AD.

Mural from the Tang dynasty similar to those found in the newly discovered tomb.

The Tang dynasty period was one of immense progress until it collapse.d after social unrest during. At its height, Tang China was a period of social progress and imperial expansion. During the Tang dynasty, China stretched its economic influence across the world, trading with other empires even as far as Rome and Syria and merchants, envoys, and travelers from other nations were a common sight in the capital. It was also a period of  progress in education and art. The Tang period of imperial China was the first to enable educated men without family connections to serve as government officials. The Tang dynasty is also seen by historians as the high water mark for classical Chinese literature and art. The tomb found in Taiyuan was probably built during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, who was called minghuang or “brilliant monarch.”

Engraved brick from the Tang dynasty.

Since the discovery of the tomb, construction work at Xiaojingyu Elementary School has been halted. Officials say that further excavations will be difficult due to the proximity of the school’s teaching buildings. According to the officials, negotiations with the school may result in the school having to be relocated and its buildings torn down. Fairly ironic for what started as a renovation project.

But, even if the school is shut down for a little while, it might end up having a net positive impact on the children’s education. I know if, when I was a kid, a thousand-year-old tomb from Imperial China destroyed my school, I’d want to know everything there was to know about imperial China. That’s how you get kids interested in history.

According to new evidence obtained from excavations, archaeologists say that the ancient city of Troy in northwestern Turkey may have been more than six centuries older than previously thought. Rüstem Aslan, who is from the Archaeology Department of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (ÇOMU), said that because of fires, earthquakes, and wars, the ancient city of Troy had been destroyed and re-established numerous times throughout the years.

In the last 150 years or so, ten layers of settlements had been uncovered and they were named “Troy I” to “Troy XI”. This year, however, they discovered an eleventh layer of settlement that they named “Troy o”. “We found traces of burns, pottery and wooden beams in the Troy o layer,” Aslan told the Daily Sabah.

Ancient city of Troy

The items recovered were of great significance as they prove that the city’s history dates back to approximately 5,500 years ago in around 3500 BC. Prior to this year’s significant discovery of an eleventh layer, the previous layers of the settlements were from the ancient Greek to Byzantine time periods between 3000 BC and 1300 AD.

The ancient city of Troy can be found on the mounds of Hisarlik, looking over to the Turkish Aegean coastal plain. It is known as one of the most famous and most visited archaeological sites in the entire world. Excavations of the ancient city began in 1870 by a German businessman named Heinrich Schliemann, who is very well known in the field of archaeology.

Troy was famously known in the Greek Trojan War when Spartan and Achaean warriors from Greece laid siege on the city in the 13^th century BC. It was written about in the famous poem called The Iliad by the Greek poet Homer.

Trojan horse of Troy

As for more recent times, in order to celebrate the 20^thanniversary o+f being declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Turkish government declared the year 2018 the “Year of Troy”. Hundreds of thousands of visitors have toured the famous archaeological site, which also includes a Troy Museum that opened in 2018 and houses around 2000 artifacts representing the ancient city. You can see more pictures here of the archaeological site of Troy.

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced this week that a team of divers has made some pretty remarkable discoveries in the ancient sunken city of Heracleion. Because the only thing better than a lost ancient Egyptian city is a lost and sunken ancient Egyptian city.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Antiquities, the team found multiple ancient temples, gold coins, precious jewels, and a sizable ceremonial boat during their two month long excavation of the site. The city of Heracleion rose to prominence during the last days of the Pharaohs, as the Ptolemaic dynasty began their rule over the Egyptian coast. The city was named for the Greek hero of myth Heracles (better known by his Roman name: Hercules) who, according to ancient legend, actually visited the city and was presumably such a cool guy that they changed the name from the original Egyptian name, Thonis, to Heracleion in his muscly honor.

Beyond Heracles, the city was mentioned in many stories, both legendary and historical. Myth holds that Heracleion was one of the last stops of Paris and Helen of Troy fleeing from the jealous King Menelnaus before the Trojan war. Queen Cleopatra was also crowned in a temple in Heracleion. The website of Franck Goddio, the underwater archaeologist who discovered Heracleion, describes the city’s mysterious history:

Thonis-Heracleion (the Egyptian and Greek names of the city) is a city lost between legend and reality. Before the foundation of Alexandria in 331 BC, the city knew glorious times as the obligatory port of entry to Egypt for all ships coming from the Greek world. It had also a religious importance because of the temple of Amun, which played an important role in rites associated with dynasty continuity. The city was founded probably around the 8th century BC, underwent diverse natural catastrophes, and finally sunk entirely into the depths of the Mediterranean in the 8th century AD.

Archaeologist Franck Goddio with an engraving found at Heracleion.

©Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation, photo: Christoph Gerigk

Heracleion was first discovered in 2000 by Franck Goddio, and has slowly been excavated over the past 19 years. Goddio led the latest two-month-long excavation, which proved much more fruitful than previous endeavors thanks to modern technology. The team of European and Egyptian archaeologists used an underwater imaging tool to locate artifacts on the sea floor and those buried beneath.

On the latest expedition, the team discovered the crumbling remains of a large Egyptian temple including the massive stone columns, as well as a smaller Greek temple buried beneath three feet of sediment on the ocean floor. The team also found the missing chunk of a large ceremonial boat. Previous expeditions had uncovered 75 different boats, mostly incomplete. This find completes one of those previously discovered, a 43-foot-long ornate boat stuffed with coins and jewelry that the Ministry of Antiquities says was likely used for ceremonial purposes.

Statue of a Ptolemaic queen.

©Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation, photo: Christoph Gerigk

The treasures found inside the boat include gold jewelry and coins that date to the reign of King Ptolemy II, who ruled from 283 to 246 B.C. They also found pottery dating to the fourth century B.C.

The team also surveyed another sunken city, Canopus, and found that the city was half a mile larger than previously thought. They recovered some coins and pottery from Canopus which, according to the Ministry of Antiquities, indicates that this city was also a bustling port town from the fourth century B.C. through the Islamic period.

The number of “lost” cities being found and excavated seems to be increasing exponentially as our ability to image previously unassailable locations gets better and better. There’s no telling how many forgotten places, people, and stories have yet to be discovered.

“A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.”
—  Samuel 17

For those not up on their biblical measurements, “six cubits and a span” is 9 feet 9 inches or 2.97 meters (some say this is was a transcription error because other texts list Goliath’s height as four cubits and a span – a still giant 6 feet 9 inches or 2.06 meters). For those not up on their biblical geography, Gath or Gat was a Philistine city-state mentioned often in the Hebrew bible and thought to be buried under the archaeological mound (tell) known as Tell es-Safi, a former Palestinian village located inside Tel Zafit National Park 35 kilometers (22 mi) northwest of Hebron. For those not up on their biblical history, you should still be familiar with the story of young David slaying the giant Goliath. An archeological team has recently discovered an ancient settlement under the remains of Gath with structures so large that they may be the reason behind the legendary giant stature of Goliath.

“The discovery suggests that Gath was at the peak of its power much earlier than previously thought, putting its heyday around the time when the city features heavily in the biblical narrative as a fierce rival of the early Israelites as well as the hometown of Goliath and other outsized biblical warriors.”

Bar-Ilan University professor and head of the Gath Archeological Project Aren Maeir tells Haaretz that recent digs just a meter below Gath have uncovered the older settlement that matches the time period of the biblical Gath. The differences between the older Gath and what was built over it are obvious.

“Over the summer’s digging campaign, which ended last week, archaeologists decided to investigate the foundations of large terraces located in Gath’s lower city, which was only inhabited during the Iron Age. The dig revealed that those terraces were resting on massive fortifications and larger buildings made of huge stone boulders and fired bricks – a method that makes them stronger than traditional sun-dried mud bricks. In some areas these walls are four meters thick or more, and the pottery associated with them dates to the early Iron Age, to the 11th century B.C.E. or possibly earlier. No comparably colossal structures are known in the rest of the Levant from this period – or even from the later incarnation of Philistine Gath.”

Gath has been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times, so the discovery of an older version is not much of a surprise. However, the size of the structures is a big one, and it may be why the Philistines were believed to have giant warriors.

“When people see remains of very impressive architecture and say, ‘Wow, how could someone have built that?’ one of the explanations they sometimes offer is ‘This must have been done by giants of the past’.”

Before you wonder how an experienced archeologist like Maeir could have missed doing the obvious, he says:

“There are no skeletons of people who are taller than NBA centers.”

It’s just a theory, but it’s the best we have in lieu of the actual skeleton of Goliath or the rest of his team. Maeir plans to continue digging in hopes of determining why there was such a difference in architectures between the two Gaths. He’s obviously excited about what he might find:

“But one thing is certain, we are slowly awakening a sleeping giant.”

I like this guy’s sense of humor.