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Prehistoric cultural exchange in Germany
Excavations at Eilsleben in northern Germany have revealed a fortified settlement site, dating to c.5375 BC, that may have been founded by some of the first farmers to arrive in this part of Europe. The settlement’s earliest phases include a system of ramparts and ditches, inviting suggestions that they had been built to offer protection against the hunter-gatherer groups that were still active in the region at this time.
Finds from within the site, however, paint a more complex picture. Its early layers have yielded a number of objects associated with late Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups, including antler tools and production flakes, contrasting with more ‘typical’ Neolithic tools that were recovered from the same context. These excavations also produced a much rarer discovery: a large headdress made from the skull and antlers of a roe deer, which is very similar to the one found in the ‘shaman’ burial at Bad Dürrenberg, dating to c.7000 BC. These discoveries hint at a possible cultural exchange between the incoming Neolithic farmers and the Mesolithic hunter gatherer groups that they encountered. The full results were recently published in Antiquity: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.10270.
Vitruvius’ basilica uncovered in Italy
The remains of a Roman basilica designed by the architect Vitruvius have been revealed during excavations in the city of Fano in the Le Marche region of Italy.
Born in Fanum Fortunae (modern-day Fano) in the 1st century BC, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio wrote De Architectura (On Architecture), the only treatise of its kind to survive from antiquity, which has inspired many Classical style buildings constructed over the last two millennia. The basilica in Fano is one of the only buildings whose construction Vitruvius is known to have personally supervised, but its location was lost for centuries. Recently, though, excavations in the Piazza Andrea Costa uncovered the unmistakable footprint of the basilica, which matched Vitruvius’ description to the centimetre. Following this discovery, the locations of several other Roman buildings in Fano have now been corroborated or revealed, based on Vitruvius’ text.
Ancient drill discovered in Egypt
Recent reanalysis of a small copper-alloy tool, excavated a century ago from a cemetery at Badari in Upper Egypt, has revealed that it is a rotary metal drill. Dating to the late 4th millennium BC, it is the earliest example yet known from ancient Egypt. The implement was interpreted as an awl at the time of its discovery, but recent research into its wear patterns (the results of which were recently published in the journal Egypt and the Levant: http://www.austriaca.at/?arp=0x0041300e) has revealed that it was probably used for drilling, not puncturing. If this was the case, the remnant of a leather thong that was found wrapped around it may have been the bowstring used to power the drill, allowing it to go faster and with more control than twisting by hand.
Text: Kathryn Krakowka / Image: © Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, J Lipták
