43 helmets recovered off the coast of Benicarló were not Roman in origin, but Late Medieval

University of Alicante redefines major Mediterranean archaeological discovery

Research conducted by a PhD candidate under a joint supervision agreement with the University of Salerno has revealed that the 43 helmets recovered off the coast of Benicarló were not Roman in origin, but formed part of a Late Medieval military cargo

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Alicante

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Helmets recovered off the coast of Benicarló were not Roman in origin, but formed part of a Late Medieval military cargo

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Credit: University of Alicante

For more than three decades, it was thought to be a relic of the Roman era. New research, however, has shown it to be a key source of evidence for understanding the commercial and military networks of the Late Medieval Mediterranean.

Research led by the University of Alicante (UA) has enabled a reassessment of one of the most remarkable assemblages of weaponry ever discovered in Spanish waters: the 43 helmets unearthed in 1990 at the Piedras de la Barbada underwater archaeological site, off the coast of Benicarló.

Published in the Cambridge University Press journal Antiquity, the study was led by Manuel Frallicciardi, a doctoral student under joint supervision between the University of Alicante and the University of Salerno. The scientific results place the manufacture of the weaponry between the late 14th and early 15th centuries, completely dismantling the Roman attribution that had stuck to the find since its recovery.

The helmets were originally discovered by chance when local fishermen accidentally snagged two large metallic blocks, compacted by marine corrosion, in their nets. Inside lay an exceptional haul of iron headpieces. While this concentration of 43 items represents what remains of a potentially much larger shipment, the quantity makes it the largest hoard of medieval helmets discovered to date in the western Mediterranean.

According to Raimon Graells, a UA lecturer, co-director of Frallicciardi’s doctoral project, and co-author of the paper, the sheer scale of the find goes beyond purely archaeological curiosity. “We are looking at direct evidence of large-scale arms trading. This discovery reveals a network of exchange and communication that was far more complex than previously thought,” he noted.

The research points to a flow of weaponry between the coast of the Valencia Region and the major commercial hubs of northern Italy, such as Genoa, which was one of the dominant mercantile powers of the era. The presence of such a substantial shipment suggests that transporting military equipment was integrated into perfectly structured commercial circuits connecting different Mediterranean territories.

An innovative approach developed at the University of Alicante

One of the most innovative aspects of the project was the application of an analytical methodology developed at the University of Alicante. Although this system is routinely used in other archaeological contexts, it had never been employed to examine medieval weaponry of these characteristics. Thanks to this approach, combined with radiocarbon dating of textile remnants preserved inside several helmets, the team established a highly precise chronology.

Frallicciardi recalled that initial identification posed numerous challenges. "At the beginning, it was difficult to place them in a specific era because they featured traits that recalled both Late Roman models and potential medieval pieces inspired by classical traditions," he explained. The surprise came when scientific analysis confirmed that the typology did not match any category catalogued to date.

"When I started the research, it was incredible to see that practically no known parallels existed," the doctoral student remarked. His search for references led him to some similar 14th-century iconographic representations in England, though without exact matches. The carbon-14 results ultimately confirmed that this was a poorly documented helmet shape belonging to a technological transition phase that left no later lineage.

Specialists believe that all the pieces formed a single shipment when they hit the seabed. The most probable hypothesis is that the batch was packed and transported by sea when an incident occurred during loading or unloading operations. The cache was found at a depth of just six metres, right next to an area used as a jetty.

Dr Graells suggested that a portion of the cargo became trapped under the sand and could not be recovered at the time. This accidental mishap allowed the package to remain hidden for centuries, safely buried out of sight.

The exceptional preservation of the helmets was achieved through the combined action of marine concretions and sediment. In some specimens, these deposits sealed the fabrics lining the interior, creating stable micro-environments that protected organic materials that would normally decay. These very textile fragments proved fundamental to reconstructing the history of the hoard.

The researchers place the sinking during a particularly turbulent period for the western Mediterranean. The expansion of Islamic piracy along the Valencian coast during the mid-14th century, alongside the growing militarisation of the coastline, generated a high demand for defensive equipment. In this context, the cargo may have been destined for local militias, troops of the Kingdom of Valencia, or armed companies tasked with protecting the maritime frontier.

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Journal

Antiquity

The role of insects in the diet of our ancestors revealed

In recent years, human population growth, coupled with the climate crisis, environmental pressures, and current production and consumption patterns, has driven the search for alternative food sources. With 1,611 insect species listed as edible, organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have proposed insects as a sustainable food source. However, despite the fact that hundreds of millions of people already consume them, Western societies continue to show aversion to entomophagy. While this rejection may have a cultural basis, its origin remains unknown.

To explore its roots, a study by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a joint centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), has used genomic analyses to reconstruct insect consumption over the past thousands of years. The research, published in Science Advances, suggests that insect consumption was sporadic and accidental in Europe, Central and East Asia, while it would have been more frequent in tropical regions and among Neanderthal populations. The results shed light on human evolution, ecology, and current insect consumption.

Genomic analysis reconstructs the history of entomophagy in Eurasia

To find evidence of insect consumption, the IBE team analyzed 745 samples of dental calculus (tartar) from anatomically modern humans, dating back up to 33,000 years. Tartar preserves traces of DNA from the species regularly consumed in the diet. The dental analyses suggest that modern humans in northern Eurasia did not routinely practice entomophagy. The team also studied the human genes involved in the digestion of chitin, a component of the insect exoskeleton. In North Eurasian human populations, chitinase genes carry mutations that confer a reduced capacity to digest insect exoskeletons, a trait that has persisted for the last 9,000 years, since the advent of agriculture.

“The scarce presence of insects in the diet of northern Eurasians suggests that the absence of entomophagy is not solely due to recent cultural factors, but also to a long ecological and evolutionary history”, says Pablo Librado, principal investigator at the IBE who led the study.

Neanderthals may have consumed insects more frequently

Despite inhabiting the same environment, Neanderthals had a greater abundance of insect DNA in their dental calculus than anatomically modern humans. These levels in Neanderthals are comparable to those found in western chimpanzees, which rely on entomophagy to supplement their diet on the savanna, especially during periods of drought.

The most abundant DNA remains in Neanderthal tartar belong to Diptera, the insect group that includes flies and mosquitoes, with the latter being particularly prominent. These findings support a recent hypothesis about the regular consumption of animal carcasses infested with fly larvae. The abundance of mosquito remains reinforces the possibility that the carcasses of their prey were kept in ponds and marshy areas, where mosquitoes lay their eggs.

The study also revealed that Neanderthal chitinase genes facilitate better digestion of insects, as also observed in the only Denisovan specimen analyzed.

The genetic imprint of entomophagy persists in tropical populations

The team analyzed genes linked to the digestion of insect exoskeleton chitin. These genes are expressed in the stomach and encode the enzymes chitinase acid (CHIA) and chitobiase (CTBS). In both ancient and modern samples, the researchers identified genetic variants associated with a greater expression of these enzymes in populations inhabiting areas near the tropics.

“Large quantities of insects need to be ingested to compensate for the high caloric expenditure involved in their collection. In the tropics, there is a greater availability of social insects, such as termites and locusts: their biomass and diversity allow for sustainable exploitation throughout the year, which even contributes to pest control”, explains Manuel Piñero, a predoctoral researcher at the IBE and first author of the study.

The expression of these enzymes gradually decreased as populations moved towards higher latitudes. This latitudinal genetic variation, maintained for at least 9,000 years, reflects the abandonment of entomophagy in European populations.

The future of entomophagy in Europe

“Beyond cultural or religious factors, our results suggest that the reduced availability of insects in non-tropical areas may have been a key factor in the abandonment of entomophagy, leading to a reduced capacity to digest insect exoskeletons”, Librado comments.

However, modern industrial processing allows us to take advantage of the nutritional properties of the food source without needing to digest this component, in addition to allowing its mass production in edible insect farms.

The Ancient Population Genomics research group led by Pablo Librado at the IBE studies the domestication process, using insect species recently approved for human consumption as a model and by comparing the genomes of farmed insects with the genomes of pre-domestication individuals extracted from entomological collections. “We investigate the evolution of domestication in animals, which also gives us information to improve the exploitation of insects for consumption, both as animal feed and for human consumption”, Librado concludes.

CSIC Comunicación

comunicacion@csic.es 

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.aec6939 

Study details epic transportation of Stonehenge stone across ancient Britain

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Curtin University

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Dr Anthony Clarke at Stonehenge

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Credit: Curtin University

New research by Curtin University has revealed how one of Stonehenge’s most mysterious stones was likely transported hundreds of kilometres across Britain through challenging terrain, highlighting the remarkable capabilities of ancient communities.

 

Stonehenge’s central Altar Stone is a six-tonne sandstone megalith now believed to have originated in northeast Scotland, around 700km from Salisbury Plain, underscoring the extraordinary scale of its journey.

 

The new study builds on earlier findings that ruled out glaciers as the sole mechanism for moving the stones, strengthening the conclusion people were responsible for transporting them across difficult terrain rather than relying on natural Ice Age processes.

 

Researchers have now focused on what that journey may have looked like, combining mineral grain dating with ice-sheet modelling to pinpoint the stone’s origin and test whether glaciers could have carried it south.

 

Co-lead author Dr Anthony Clarke, from the Timescales of Minerals Systems Group within Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the findings suggest the journey was far from simple and likely required careful planning across multiple stages.

 

“Rather than being carried naturally by ice, the evidence points to a deliberate, carefully planned movement across a challenging and varied landscape,” Dr Clarke said.

 

“Our modelling shows glaciers may have transported rocks part of the way during the last Ice Age — potentially as far as Dogger Bank in the North Sea — but not into southern England, meaning the stone would still have needed to be moved hundreds of kilometres by people.

 

“The research indicates there were no viable glacial pathways linking the source region directly to Stonehenge, reinforcing the conclusion that human transport was required.

 

“Instead, this suggests the stone was likely moved in stages, potentially combining overland hauling with river or coastal transport where possible.”

 

Dr Clarke said the findings reveal a level of organisation and cooperation among Neolithic communities not previously fully appreciated.

 

“Transporting a stone of this size over such a long distance would have required planning, coordination and a deep understanding of the landscape – not to mention tremendous determination,” Dr Clarke said.

 

“The study demonstrates how combining geological analysis with computer modelling can help resolve long-standing questions about how Stonehenge was built.”

 

Future research will aim to pinpoint the Altar Stone’s exact source in northeast Scotland and further investigate possible transport routes used by prehistoric communities.

 

The research was conducted in collaboration with experts from Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Sheffield, Wessex Archaeology, and the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

 

The study, ‘From Highlands to Henge: Refining the Provenance and Transport Pathways of Stonehenge’s Altar Stone’ (DOI:10.1002/jqs.70080), was published in the Journal of Quaternary Science.

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Journal

Journal of Quaternary Science

DOI

10.1002/jqs.70080 

Ice Age mystery: Taimering mammoth was likely butchered by hunters and gatherers

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The mammoth’s tusk at the excavation site in Taimering. (Photo: BLfD)

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Credit: BLfD

Six years ago, during construction work in Taimering near Regensburg (Bavaria, Germany), employees of the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments (BLfD) discovered a nearly 2.5-meter-long, spirally twisted tusk that belonged to a woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius. Nearby, the archaeologists also found over 70 additional bones and bone fragments, primarily from the ribcage as well as hand and foot bones. Most of the long bones of the large mammal are missing. “The mammoth’s tusk and bones were exceptionally well-preserved due to their millennia-long conservation in the wet soil environment,” says Dr. Christoph Steinmann, deputy head of the Department of Archaeological Heritage Preservation for Lower Bavaria/Upper Palatinate at the BLfD. After its recovery, the find was prepared at the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB), and further scientific investigations were coordinated from there.

The palaeontological assessment revealed that all the bones, as well as the tusk, belong to a single, very large but not yet fully grown individual with a shoulder height of about three meters. The Taimering woolly mammoth likely died directly at or at least near its discovery site. The bone surfaces, which have been preserved intact down to the finest detail, rule out both prolonged transport by water and disarticulation by predators. According to the researchers, the animal was buried in the sediments of a pond or a slow-flowing tributary of the prehistoric Danube River during the Ice Age. Radiocarbon dating indicates a geological age of the bones between 27,000 and 25,000 years ago.

Unusual markings on the surface turned out to be cut marks and provide clear evidence of human activity. Numerous such indentations are found exclusively on the ribs—made by Palaeolithic hunters and gatherers who butchered the animal. One of the broad rib bones was even used as a cutting board. Whether the mammoth was killed by humans or had already been dead when people processed the carcass remains unclear, according to lead author Kerstin Pasda from the Institute of Prehistory and Early History at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), who conducted the osteoarchaeological analyses of the anthropogenic modifications.

Pollen analyses conducted by Dr. Philipp Stojakowits at the University of Augsburg reveal a great deal to the researchers about the habitat in which the mammoth lived and died. They indicate a herbaceous, tundra-like steppe vegetation with scattered dwarf shrubs. The so-called Mammoth Steppe was a vast treeless ecosystem in Eurasia that, during the peak of the last glacial period from 30,000 to 20,000 years ago, stretched across Europe between the Scandinavian ice sheet and the southern glaciers of the Alps. Its nutrient-rich grasses and dwarf shrubs provided food for a variety of large mammals, including the Taimering mammoth.

The discovery is exceptional in many respects. “First of all, mammoth skeletal remains are extremely rare in our latitudes. We are familiar with finds mainly from regions of Eurasia further to the east,” says PD Dr. Gertrud Rößner, a palaeontologist at the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History. “On the other hand, there is virtually no evidence of human activity in this region from that peak period of the Ice Age. Due to climate change, hunter-gatherer communities in Europe retreated southward and eastward,” add archaeology professors Andreas Maier of the University of Cologne and Thorsten Uthmeier of FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg.

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Journal

Journal of Archaeological Science

DOI

10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.105839 

Ötzi and his microbiome: a 5,300-year-old relationship

Researchers at Eurac Research have obtained a detailed picture of the microbial community associated with Ötzi. The study provides insights into a complex microbiome, ranging from the gut flora of a Copper Age human to cold-adapted yeasts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Eurac Research

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The Iceman mummy is preserved in a refrigeration chamber at a constant temperature of -6°C and a relative humidity of 99% .

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Credit: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Eurac Research/Marion Lafogler

Using a variety of samples and methods, the researchers were able to differentiate which microorganisms were already present in the body during his lifetime and which only colonized it after his death – both during the time in the glacier and over three decades of preservation. In samples of internal tissue, the researchers were able to detect genetic material from bacteria belonging to Ötzi’s original gut flora. A surprising finding is the presence of cold-adapted yeast species, likely originating from the glacial environment, that have persisted on Ötzi’s body to the present day. These cold-tolerant yeasts may also hold potential for industrial applications. The study was published in the reputable Microbiome journal.

It was an extensive investigation, in which the research team analyzed ice from the surface as well as meltwater from inside the mummy and collected numerous samples by swab. Data from intestinal tissue and stomach contents were available from previous studies. A soil sample from the discovery site, collected and frozen during Ötzi’s recovery in 1991, was also analyzed to trace environmental influences. Researchers also identified genetic material from the original gut microbiome in the intestinal tract and stomach content. This microbiome, first described in a 2019 study conducted with Eurac Research, closely resembles the few known examples of gut flora from early human populations – such bacteria are rarely found in the intestines of modern humans living in industrialized societies. Ötzi therefore offers a rare glimpse into humanity’s microbial past.

The newly discovered yeasts were isolated from skin samples, meltwater from inside the mummy, and samples of stomach content. Such highly specialized species have adapted to cold temperatures. Genetic analyses revealed a relationship with strains from extremely cold regions such as Antarctica. This suggests that the yeasts originate from the glacial environment and may have been associated with the mummy for thousands of years. The researchers found both heavily degraded (ancient) and well-preserved (modern) DNA. This indicates that these microorganisms are not merely relics of the past but continue to exist under today’s preservation conditions at minus six degrees Celsius and with high humidity—possibly in a dormant state. “We see continuity here,” explains Frank Maixner, director of the Institute for Mummy Studies at Eurac Research: “These yeasts have accompanied Ötzi on his long journey through the millennia.” According to Maixner, this shows that the mummy is “not a static relic, but a dynamic biological system.”

The study also shows that earlier conservation measures may have unintentionally favored certain microorganisms: three of the four yeasts possess the genetic capacity to break down phenol—an active ingredient used after Ötzi’s recovery to rid the mummy’s surface of fungal growth which the yeasts may have been able to use as a food source.

“A mummy’s microbiome is unique because we are dealing with microbes that are over 5,000 years old and, at the same time, with modern microbes that have been introduced since the discovery,” says microbiologist and lead author Mohamed S. Sarhan.

“The mummy’s conservation conditions are very stable today,” comments Elisabeth Vallazza, director of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology that oversees the mummy’s conservation, “close microbiological monitoring ensures that the mummy suffers no damage. But further research and full conservation efforts are certainly needed to preserve it for many more generations.”

Conservation expert and co-author Marco Samadelli emphasizes: 'The conditions under which glacial mummies are preserved are not yet fully understood. This study expands our knowledge in this area.”

In addition to the significance for the preservation of the mummy, the findings also open new avenues for research: cold-adapted microorganisms could, for example, be used in energy-efficient industrial processes, such as low-temperature fermentation.

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Journal

Microbiome

DOI

10.1186/s40168-026-02417-6