United States
Back to my favourite native American.
More studies have found that Kennewick Man ate a diet of fish, which means he chose not to hunt large game animals, and these were plentiful in the area in which his body was found. The article suggests he had, “some deeply-held belief system that caused him to reject terrestrial meat from his diet” but, if Kennewick Man was brought up in a location where his family only lived on a fish diet, maybe hunting big game wasn’t even a part of his consciousness. Does that still mean it’s a belief system?
The most interesting thing is that Kennewick Man is not related to any of the tribes that exist in North America so, even though he is still considered a native American, the question of where he came from is still open to debate…
Romania
Stunning Dacian gold bracelets and coins that were stolen from an amazing site in southern Romania have finally been returned to their native home after two thousand years.
The Dacians were a pain in the butt for the dominant Roman Empire but, after two bloody wars, they were finally defeated by the master military tacticians. The victory was such that Trajan’s column was built in the centre of Rome to celebrate. It seems the Romans were aware of how difficult it was to defeat the Balkan barbarians and decided such a monument to prove their power was a necessary and deserved award.
It seems, however, that these breath taking coins and bracelets were never used. The Dacians didn’t appear to use the coins for the purposes that we do, and instead they appeared to be solely used for offerings, decoration, or simply a build up of material wealth.
Metal detecting for selfish purposes can remove artefacts and their context becomes lost. This article clearly shows the headache that’s created by people taking artefacts from the ground and the subsequent effort by people all over the world to put those pieces back together.
