This Week in Archaeology: 5,000-Year-Old Iraqi Temple, Neanderthal Cave Art, and a Celtic Gold “Rainbow Cup”
A temple complex discovered 300 miles north of Uruk is forcing scholars to reconsider how the world’s first metropolis influenced surrounding regions. The monumental building at Kani Shaie, dating to roughly 3300–3100 BCE, features decorative wall cones and administrative artifacts typically associated with southern Mesopotamian urban centers, suggesting highland communities were active participants in early state formation rather than passive observers.
Meanwhile, definitive dating evidence from caves across France and Spain has settled a long-standing debate: Neanderthals created abstract art on cave walls tens of thousands of years before modern humans arrived in Europe. And in Saxony, a metal detectorist uncovered a 2,200-year-old Celtic gold coin in near-perfect condition, pushing the region’s monetary history back more than a century and documenting trade networks that stretched from Bohemia into territories far beyond Celtic settlement zones.
This and more archaeological finds from this week: ⬇️
Monumental Building in Northern Iraq Reveals Urban Influence Reached Far Beyond First Cities
Archaeologists working at the Kani Shaie site in Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah Governorate have uncovered a monumental structure dating to the Uruk period, roughly 3300–3100 BCE, when early urban civilization was forming in southern Mesopotamia. The Kani Shaie Archaeological Project, an international collaboration led by the University of Coimbra’s Centre for Studies in Archaeology, Arts and Heritage Sciences, along with the University of Cambridge and the Slemani Antiquities and Heritage Directorate, announced the discovery of a large, officially constructed building atop the mound, probably a temple or cultic space where ritual or administrative activities would have been conducted.
Excavators identified unique wall cones, decorative clay or stone elements pressed into plastered walls and painted to form colorful geometric mosaics, common in the monumental architecture of southern Mesopotamia. This architectural feature suggests the building had a ceremonial or public function. Additional finds include a fragment of a gold pendant, attesting to access to luxury materials and social prestige, and cylinder seals used for record-keeping and the authentication of power. These artifacts collectively indicate that Kani Shaie was not an isolated settlement but an active participant in the administrative and cultural networks of its time.
The site lies almost 300 miles north of Uruk, generally considered the world’s first metropolis. Uruk boasted a population of up to 80,000 with organized streets and temples, and influenced early writing, trade, and religion across the region. The monumental building at Kani Shaie demonstrates that this influence extended deep into the Zagros foothills, linking highland communities with the urban centers of the southern plain in ways previously unrecognized.
If the monumental nature of the building is confirmed, it may challenge current understanding of how Uruk interacted with surrounding regions. Rather than viewing peripheral sites as passive recipients of urban influence, the evidence suggests places like Kani Shaie were active contributors to shaping early cultural and political systems. Excavations at the site, ongoing since 2013, have revealed a long sequence of human occupation from the Chalcolithic period around 6500 BCE to the 3rd millennium BCE, with later layers dating to the Neo-Assyrian and Hellenistic–Parthian periods. This makes it one of the most important archaeological sites east of the Tigris River for studying early social and political development.
The project’s 2025 season was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and supported by the University of Cambridge. The findings reinforce that the cultural networks connecting the Fertile Crescent were more extensive and dynamic than previously believed, with sophisticated architectural traditions and administrative practices spreading far beyond the earliest urban centers.
Benin City Excavations Document Urban Development and Artistic Legacy Ahead of New Museum
Archaeological excavations conducted in Benin City, Nigeria, ahead of construction of the Museum of West African Art are uncovering new details about the Kingdom of Benin’s history, urban development, and celebrated craftsmanship. The project, a partnership between MOWAA, the British Museum, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, and several research teams, represents the most extensive archaeological investigation ever carried out in the city.
Benin City, once the capital of the powerful Kingdom of Benin from approximately 1200 to 1897 CE, was renowned for its advanced urban layout and exceptional artistry, including the world-famous Benin Bronzes. These intricate metalworks amazed visitors from across Africa and beyond. However, the city’s royal palace was destroyed in 1897 during a British raid, and thousands of its treasures were looted. Since then, few excavations have been conducted at the site.
Between 2022 and 2024, archaeologists began new excavations in two major plots where the MOWAA Institute and Rainforest Gallery are being built. Combining ground-penetrating radar, test pits, and large-scale excavation, they documented cultural layers between 1.5 and 3 meters deep, revealing a sequence of occupation stretching from before the kingdom’s rise to the post-colonial era.
Radiocarbon dates show that some layers predate the founding of the Benin Kingdom, suggesting early settlement in the area during the first millennium CE. Other deposits correspond to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the height of Benin’s power, containing evidence of architecture, palace remains, and zones used for artisanal activities such as metalworking. Later layers trace the city’s transformation after its destruction, through colonial and post-independence developments, including use as a police barracks and hospital.
This project marks the first major excavation in Benin City in 50 years and establishes the most detailed archaeological sequence yet for this historic center. Its discoveries illuminate not only the evolution of Benin’s royal capital but also broader aspects of West African life, including trade, diet, and craftsmanship. The institute, now under construction on the historic site, will serve as a center for research, storage, and conservation of archaeological materials from across West Africa.
Lidar Mapping Reveals Teotihuacan’s Southern Sacred Mountain and Pilgrimage Complex
High above the southern edge of the Teotihuacan Valley in Mexico rises Cerro Patlachique, a peak now shown to have served as a major pilgrimage shrine long before, during, and after the heyday of the city of Teotihuacan, which flourished from approximately 150 to 550 CE. Recent lidar mapping and the documentation of 40 carved stone monuments, including petroglyphs and boulders moved into place, reveal that the summit was a ritual center devoted primarily to water and mountain deities, calendrical observances, and regional pilgrimage.
The investigation recorded 34 previously unpublished monuments and an existing corpus of six, all clustered on the summit of Cerro Patlachique. The finds include stone boulders either carved in place or transported and positioned in alignment with newly mapped architecture including a temple, water reservoirs, and an avenue, all roughly matching Teotihuacan’s orientation. Ceramics across the site indicate that occupation began during an incipient phase of urbanization, and the shrine remained in use well beyond the decline of Teotihuacan, bridging pre-urban, Classic, and Post-Classic phases.
A notable feature of the monuments is the repetition of images of two key deities: the Storm God, usually shown with goggle eyes and a fanged mouth, and the Water Goddess. Nine carvings of the Storm God and three of the Water Goddess were documented. The two gods appear together in three instances, evoking the celestial and terrestrial water forces and linking the mountain with seasonal rainfall and ritual practice.
The calendrical signs are equally important. Thirteen of the monuments bear explicit 260-day calendar dates and numerals. At least eight refer to year-bearer day names, key markers in the 365-day solar year as tracked in ancient highland Mexico. Spatial placement is not random. The deities’ carvings cluster east of the main avenue and at the heads of seasonal water streams, linking mountain, rain, and direction. This directional sensitivity aligns Cerro Patlachique with other sacred mountains around Teotihuacan, notably the northern Cerro Gordo. The southern mountain was its counterpart, creating a sacred vertical axis across the valley.
The variation in carving style suggests multiple actors. Some monuments, executed in fine Classic Teotihuacan style, likely reflect state-commissioned works. Others, rougher and more individualistic, point to private or pilgrim activity. One stone shows a carving superimposed upon an earlier image, evidence that visitors returned, modified, and reused the shrine over time. This combination of official and personal devotional activity positions the summit as both publicly sanctioned and individualized, a dynamic complement to the urban center of Teotihuacan. The findings highlight the long-term integration of mountain worship, water rituals, and calendrical ceremony in the Teotihuacan cultural sphere, demonstrating that residents of the valley did not confine their sacrality to the urban core but extended it into the surrounding mountains.
Seized Carthaginian Coins Returned to Tunisia After Norwegian Trafficking Case
In 2022, a case of cultural heritage trafficking unfolded between Tunisia and Norway, revealing how ancient artifacts remain vulnerable to illicit trade. A Tunisian man attempted to sell 30 Punic bronze coins, purportedly from an underwater hoard off Tunisia’s coast, to an antiques dealer in Oslo. The dealer, suspecting the coins’ dubious provenance, alerted Norwegian authorities, who initiated an international investigation.
Police intercepted the suspect in March 2022, seizing the coins and arresting him. The Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo examined the material and confirmed their Carthaginian origin, minted during the Second Punic War between 218 and 201 BCE. Following a legal review and diplomatic engagement, charges were dropped and the coins were returned to Tunisia.
Although the exact context of this hoard is unknown, it was said to have weighed around 200 kilograms. The coins are all corroded from being in water, and they all feature the goddess Tanit on the obverse and a horse before a palm tree on the reverse. Stylistically, they appear to come from a single mint, probably at Carthage, during the later phase of the war. Even without specific archaeological context, the assemblage provides insight into the bronze coinage of Carthage, which is less well documented than its silver or gold series, and raises questions about maritime trade and military logistics in the western Mediterranean.
This case illustrates the challenges in protecting cultural heritage. Coins, because of their portability and demand, are actively trafficked and usually circulate in legal gray areas. This restitution happened because of coordination between the antiques dealer, police, museum specialists, and diplomatic authorities, demonstrating the importance of international cooperation. The case points to serious systemic issues including inconsistent enforcement of international conventions, fragmented national laws, and the growing role of online marketplaces that facilitate anonymous trade.
While stripped of their archaeological context, these coins nevertheless provide valuable insight into history. Their potential underwater origins, from a shipwreck or submerged deposit, shed light on Carthaginian commerce and wartime activities. This case highlights how even a small number of artifacts can inform scholarship, foster heritage diplomacy, and encourage greater global efforts against illicit trade.
New Dating Methods Confirm Neanderthals Created Abstract Cave Art Across Europe
The ability to make art has often been considered a hallmark of modern humans. Over a century ago, prehistorians even had trouble believing that humans from the Upper Palaeolithic, between 45,000 and 12,000 years ago, were capable of artistic flair. Discoveries of uncontrovertibly old artworks from the caves and rock shelters of Europe soon dispelled their doubts. But what of the Neanderthals, an ancient, large-brained sister group to our own species? Recent evidence confirms that they were capable of making art too.
At present, all Neanderthal evidence is non-figurative. They have no depictions of animals, including humans, a form of art perhaps exclusive to Homo sapiens. Instead, the Neanderthal examples consist of hand stencils made by blowing pigment over the hand, finger flutings where fingers were pressed into a soft surface, and geometric markings. Neanderthals inhabited western Eurasia from about 400,000 years ago until their extinction around 40,000 years ago and have often been caricatured as archetypal cavemen. Questions about their cognitive and behavioral sophistication have never quite gone away, and whether they produced art is at the forefront of this issue.
Despite evidence that Neanderthals were capable of producing jewelry and using colored pigments, there has been much objection to the notion that they explored deep caves and left art on the walls. Recent work has confirmed beyond doubt that they did. In three Spanish caves, La Pasiega in Cantabria, Maltravieso in Extremadura, and Ardales in Malaga, Neanderthals created linear signs, geometric shapes, hand stencils, and handprints using pigments. In La Roche Cotard, a cave in the Loire Valley, France, Neanderthals left a variety of lines and shapes in finger flutings. And deep in the Bruniquel cave in southwest France, they broke off stalactites into sections of similar length and constructed a large oval wall of them, setting fires on top. This was not a shelter but something more enigmatic, and if it was constructed in a modern art gallery we would assume it was installation art.
Establishing the age of Palaeolithic cave art is difficult and often the focus of intense debate among specialists. Relative dating schemes based on style and themes have proven useful but have their limits. To produce real ages requires at least one of three conditions. The first is the presence of a charcoal pigment which can be dated using the radiocarbon method. However, black pigments are often from minerals like manganese and therefore much black colored cave art is not dateable. A further problem is that the production of the charcoal may or may not be of the same age as when it was used as pigment.
A second condition is the presence of calcite flowstones, stalactites and stalagmites, that have formed over the art. If they demonstrably grew on top of a piece of art, then they must be younger than it. A dating method based on the decay of uranium into an isotope of thorium can be used to establish exactly when flowstones formed, producing a minimum age for the art underneath. Researchers used this method to date flowstones overlying red pigment art in the three Spanish caves, demonstrating that hand stencils, dots, and color washes must have been created over 64,000 years ago. This is a minimum age; the actual age of the images could be much older.
Even at its youngest range, the images predate the earliest arrival of modern humans in Iberia by at least 22,000 years. As Middle Palaeolithic archaeology, the calling cards of the Neanderthals, is common in all three caves, the simplest interpretation that fits the dating is that the authors of the images were Neanderthals. The third condition has just provided further evidence of Neanderthal artistic activity. Meandering lines left by tracing fingers along the soft muds of the walls of the Roche Cotard cave reveal another form of interacting with the subterranean realm. These markings include wavy, parallel, and curved lines in organized arrangements that show they were made deliberately.
The dating of sediments which formed over its entrance show that it was completely sealed no later than 54,000 years ago, probably earlier. As with the Spanish examples, this was long before Homo sapiens arrived in the region and the cave contains only tools made by Neanderthals. It adds another art form to the Neanderthal repertoire. The art could represent Neanderthal individuals becoming more aware of their own agency in the world. It might constitute the first evidence of engagement with an imaginary realm.
Celtic “Rainbow Cup” Gold Coin Found in Saxony Pushes Region’s Monetary History Back Centuries
A 2,200-year-old gold coin found near Gundorf, northwest of Leipzig, has been identified as the oldest coin ever discovered in Saxony. Discovered in July by certified metal detectorist Daniel Fest, it provides new information about early trade connections between the inhabitants of Saxony and the Celtic societies to the south.
Weighing a mere two grams and roughly half the size of a modern penny, the coin is almost pure gold at about 99 percent. It features a stylized animal head, likely that of a stag, with eyes flanking a long nose and a pronounced bump on the forehead. The reverse depicts an open neck ring, or torc, with thickened ends surrounding a five-pointed rounded star and a small sphere. It is classified as a Celtic quarter stater, dated to the 3rd century BCE, and was likely minted in northern Bohemia, one of the main Celtic centers at that time.
In Celtic culture, torcs were more than ornaments. They symbolized nobility, divine power, and protection. Their presence on coins indicates that such objects served not only an economic but also a social and ritual purpose. Dr. Regina Smolnik, the State Archaeologist from the Saxon State Office for Archaeology, confirmed the discovery and noted that this is a significant find. Even though Saxony lay beyond the main Celtic settlement zones, this find offers clear evidence of contact and exchange between locals and the Celts.
The coin is in perfect, nearly mint condition and thus most likely never circulated as currency, but rather functioned as a status symbol or store of wealth for a member of the upper class engaged in long-distance trade. Until now, only eleven Celtic coins have been documented in Saxony. One of the earliest, from the 19th century, has since been lost. Nine more specimens have come to light as a result of intensive surveys in recent years, but only one other specimen in gold, which was undecorated, has been documented. The discovery at Gundorf, with its detailed imagery and excellent state of preservation, is therefore a unique piece among them.
It is also called the “rainbow cup” due to its gently curved, bowl-like shape. The name comes from ancient folklore saying that gold treasures could be found where a rainbow touched the ground. Since such coins were often found after rainstorms, farmers once believed they had fallen from the sky. The State Office for Archaeology of Saxony officially presented the find to the press at an event attended by Barbara Klepsch, Saxony’s State Minister for Culture and Tourism. She praised the responsible behavior of the finder and emphasized the cooperation between volunteers and archaeologists as indispensable for protecting and studying cultural heritage.
Until now, the oldest known coin from Saxony had been a silver Büschelquinar discovered near Zauschwitz in 2007, dated to the early 1st century BCE. The Gundorf gold coin is more than a hundred years older than this find, pushing the beginning of Saxony’s coinage history further back in time. Gold quarter staters like this one were produced only briefly before being replaced by larger third staters, reflecting changes in Celtic trade, especially with regions rich in amber. The Gundorf specimen is one of the most valuable Celtic coins ever found in the region due to its artistic design and near-perfect preservation.