India Narrative

For archaeologists and historians artefacts and objects of the past reveal a lot about the period and people they belong to and so do teeth of ancient human beings and cultures. Take for instance the ancient Maya who gave a lot of importance to their teeth as per a report in sciencealert.com and had them filled with jade, gold, jet, turquoise or hematite gems. Irrespective of their gender or economic status, men and women from across the society paid a visit to the dentist to have their teeth drilled and filled with minerals, expensive stones and jewels. While the inlays which survived the individual’s lifetime had a spiritual significance there was more to it than just aesthetics as a new study suggests that the material used for cementing the gems to the teeth had therapeutic and hygienic attributes. The adhesive used held the gems in place for not just a lifetime but thousands of years and the ingredients used to make it had properties and potential to combat tooth decay and also ch

The mighty ancient Egypt is not just about the great pharaohs, queens and wars. It is also about hundreds of officials who helped the monarch to run this powerful empire. Not much is known about these officials. Now archaeologists have found a 4,300-year-old tomb of a man called Mehtjetju -- an official who professes to have access to “secret” royal documents -- states a report in livescience.com. The location of this tomb is next to the Djoser’s Step Pyramid, which was built 4,700 years ago in Saqqara. The hieroglyphs in the tomb as per Kamil Kuraszkiewicz in a statement said: "The dignitary bore the name Mehtjetju and was, among other things, an official with access to royal sealed — that is secret — documents.” Kamil Kuraszkiewicz is a professor at the University of Warsaw's faculty of Oriental Studies. Finding the tomb of an official next to the Step Pyramid – the first one to be constructed by the ancient Egyptians -- is not strange. The reason is that Djoser "was an

The sheer size and magnitude of Stonehenge built between 3000 BC and 2000 BC makes it enigmatic. Yet it was not merely for show, for scientists always believed it to be an ancient calendar because of its alignment with the solstices of summer and winter. Till now how the calendar worked was not known but a recent study shows that it performed like the ones used in ancient Egypt with 365.25 days in a year, as per a report in newscientist.com. Each of the stones present in the large sarsen circle denotes a day of the month. Sharing details about it, Tim Darvill of United Kingdom’s Bournemouth University who did the study said: “It’s a perpetual calendar that recalibrates every winter solstice sunset.” The details of the research were published in the academic journal Antiquity. Also read:  Instead of turning them into chocolate, Mayan people used cacao seeds as money The structure would have enabled the people of ancient times living in the area of what is today Wiltshire, UK, to keep co

The space dagger -- made with meteorites’ rocks -- entombed with King Tutankhamen has always been an enigma for historians and archaeologists. Now a new study brings to the fore several interesting aspects about this captivating artefact says a report in sciencealert.com. Using modern scientific tools like high-resolution photography and X-rays for analysis has unveiled the type of meteorite used to make the dagger and how it was made. Interestingly, the research also suggested that the dagger may not have been made in Egypt and was gifted to King Tutankhamen or one of his ancestors. Also read:  Ancient Egyptians celebrated peace and prosperity of King Amenhotep III in grand style Sharing details of the study, Tomoko Arai, Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan’s planetary scientist told Gizmodo: "To understand the manufacture and origin of the dagger, we conducted on-site non-contact, non-destructive two-dimensional chemical analysis for the dagger. We noticed a cross-hatched text