6,500-Year-Old Earthworks in Austria Are Thousands of Years Older than Stonehenge

Around 10,000 years ago, a paradigm shift in human history began to unfold. Prior to this transitional period, which archaeologists refer to as the Neolithic Revolution—the final phase of the Stone Age—small societies were organized around hunting and gathering for sustenance. During the Neolithic period, the gradual adoption of agricultural practices forever changed the way we live.

Over the next few thousand years, humans began domesticating plants and practicing animal husbandry in different parts of the world. And with less time needed for farming than for nomadically searching for food, ancient people could enjoy other activities that led to economic, political, religious, and artistic developments.

The Neolithic period saw the very first civilizations. It’s also when iconically old structures like Ireland’s Newgrange passage tomb and England’s Stonehenge complex were built, the latter of which was begun around 3100 B.C.E. and finished around 600 years later. For context, when Stonehenge was in its final phase, construction of the Pyramids of Giza was likely in progress. Recently, a series of circular earthworks dating to the 5th millennium B.C.E. (5000 to 4001 B.C.E.) in Burgenland, Austria, may predate much of Stonehenge by a remarkable 2,000 years.

At the newly excavated site, three monumental structures sit in close proximity to one another near the town of Rechnitz. The earthworks were initially discovered via aerial and geomagnetic surveys between 2011 and 2017. A total of four were found, three of which are ring-shaped structures that were previously invisible to the naked eye.

Known as circular ditch systems, the structures were built in the Middle Neolithic period—sometime between 4850 and 4500 B.C.E.—making them at least 6,500 years old.

“The Rechnitz site can be considered a supra-regional center of the Middle Neolithic period,” says Nikolaus Franz, the director of Burgenland Archaeology, in a statement. In the ditches measuring as much as 340 feet across, archaeologists have documented pits containing ceramic finds and post holes that indicate where timber beams in the ground once supported shelters.

Circular ditch monuments of this type, known as Kreisgrabenanlagen in German, are consistently found throughout Central Europe. While their intended function remains unknown, researchers generally believe they held an ancient religious, or cultic, purpose. Similar to Stonehenge, their orientation includes openings that align with the solstices and seem to correspond to an astronomical calendar.

“The excavations open a veritable window into the Stone Age,” Franz says. “We are learning a great deal about the Neolithic settler clans who found this a favorable location to establish the cultural techniques of agriculture and livestock farming in what is now Burgenland…After centuries of hunting and gathering, the gradual settlement of humans was truly revolutionary.”

You might also enjoy exploring the phenomenal complex of more than 10,000 earthworks made by prehistoric Indigenous societies in the Amazon basin.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article 6,500-Year-Old Earthworks in Austria Are Thousands of Years Older than Stonehenge appeared first on Colossal.

Bryan Sansivero Documents Otherworldly, Forgotten Houses in ‘America the Abandoned’

In many parts of rural America, the population keeps shrinking. Low birth rates, aging residents, and evolving or shuttering industries pair with a trend of younger people migrating to metro areas for jobs and more diverse cultural amenities. As of 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that there are more than 15 million abandoned houses around the country, which have been left for myriad reasons ranging from foreclosures to structural issues to the death of inhabitants with no one else able or willing to shoulder the responsibility of a home and its furnishings.

Photographer Bryan Sansivero feels a strong pull to document and explore forgotten dwellings. His new book forthcoming from Artisan, America the Abandoned, explores deserted homes around the country in 200 striking images. From interiors strewn with garments, toys, knick-knacks, and decor to empty farmhouses gradually sagging into the prairie, he captures a spectral phenomenon ripe for storytelling.

Sansivero’s practice also revolves around portraiture, which lends itself to his approach of capturing these once-occupied houses. Although devoid of people, their enigmatic stories and vernacular personalities resonate through aged clapboard walls, overgrown shrubs, and forsaken belongings.

The images range from misty, haunting facades to everyday interiors. “These spaces are often littered with dust, mold, and creepy crawlies, and occasionally, they house one-of-a-kind relics: a tiger skin rug, a commemorative bicentennial piano, or a collection of mannequins,” the publisher says. “Taken together, this photographic collection serves as a time capsule—as an eerie reminder that everything we own is temporary and will eventually be forgotten.”

America the Abandoned is slated for release on October 14. Pre-order your copy on Bookshop, and check out more of Sansivero’s work on his website and Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Bryan Sansivero Documents Otherworldly, Forgotten Houses in ‘America the Abandoned’ appeared first on Colossal.

A Feat of Engineering Transports the World’s Best-Preserved Viking Ship to Its New Home

In 1903, on a farm in southeastern Norway, a once-in-a-lifetime discovery emerged from within a large yet unassuming mound in a field. When the spot was excavated in 1904, the mound revealed an entire Viking longship that had been interred in its entirety as a burial containing the remains of two women, several animals, and a wide array of elaborately decorated objects.

Known as the Oseberg Viking Ship after the name of the farm where it was discovered, the vessel is thought to have been built around 820 and buried around 834. Reconstructions over the past several decades have suggested that the ship was indeed built to sail, rather than having been designed specifically as a burial—a practice reserved for high-status individuals, for whom the ship provided passage into the afterlife. Nestled deep in the wet earth, the wood was remarkably preserved for more than 1,000 years, although much of it was crushed and degraded.

Initial restoration efforts of the Oseberg took more than 20 years, and experts tried to preserve as much of the structure as possible through the use of oils and resin to prevent the wood from crumbling. Today, around 90 percent of the ship’s composition is original, making it the best-preserved example in the world.

A feat of engineering and careful planning recently moved the Oseberg Viking Ship to a new permanent home, with the same relocation planned for two additional longships, the Gokstad and the Tune. For more than two years, the Oseberg has been encased in a steel framework that weighs more than 50 tons, allowing it to stay on site during construction of a new museum.

The ship has been on display at the Viking Ship Museum at the University of Oslo for almost a century. Over time, the combination of unstable restoration methods, lack of humidity control, and weakening supports began causing stress on the vessel, making it vulnerable to more damage if left in place.

In 2014, the government-backed Saving Oseberg project kicked off a 10-plus-year mission to not only further protect one of the most important Viking discoveries in the world, but make sure it could be enjoyed and studied for generations to come. In early 2023, construction commenced on a new space connected to the Viking Ship Museum’s original building, now renamed the Museum of the Viking Age. The expanded campus is slated to open in 2027.

On September 10, the 71-foot-long Oseberg ship, contained in its vibration-resistant steel crate, was lifted onto a steel track that conveyed it through a long hall and into its new exhibition space. The process took about 10 hours to move the ship 350 feet, with a maximum speed of around 10 inches per minute.

Director Aud V. Tønnessen celebrated the historic move, saying, “It is a ship that has been part of so much and has an afterlife that gives me chills to think about.” Tønnessen also told Norwegian news agency NTB, “I actually find it quite moving to think that it is now going on its final voyage.”

Learn more, and follow the progress of the Gokstad and the Tune, on the museum’s website and YouTube.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article A Feat of Engineering Transports the World’s Best-Preserved Viking Ship to Its New Home appeared first on Colossal.

Uncanny Papier-Mâché Creatures by Roberto Benavidez Mingle in ‘Bosch Beasts’

Most often associated with Mexico, the piñata’s origins may actually trace back to China. By the 14th century, the celebratory tradition of breaking open a container filled with treats had arrived in Europe. Then, Spanish colonists and missionaries imported the custom to Mexico during the 16th century, although a similar practice was already in use within Indigenous Mayan and Aztec communities in observation of special events. Today, piñatas are an integral element of cartonería, the Mexican craft of papier-mâché.

For Los Angeles-based artist Roberto Benavidez, the art of the piñata is a central tenet of a practice exploring intersecting themes of race, sexuality, humor, sin, and beauty. He draws upon the paper art form’s early religious significance in Mexico, when Spanish missionaries used a seven-pointed version as a tool for converting Indigenous people to Christianity. This motif, which appears in some of Benavidez’s distinctive sculptures, nods to its past colonial use.

“The points of the star represented the seven deadly sins, the blindfold worn by the bat-wielding assailant represented faith, and the treats found inside were the rewards for blind and unwavering belief,” Diva Zumaya says in an exhibition essay for the artist’s current solo exhibition, Bosch Beasts, at Perrotin.

Benavidez continues to make piñata-like sculptures that resemble uncanny, hybrid creatures, often inspired by the marginalia of illuminated manuscripts and the surreal characters in Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” which the Netherlandish artist painted between 1490 and 1510.

Bosch Beasts highlights Benavidez’s ongoing fascination with the rare and extraordinary, exhibiting new works alongside pieces he’s made throughout the past decade. Installed on the floor or suspended from the ceiling, his creatures appear independently occupied and immersed in an esoteric group activity.

Each piece comes to life through papier-mâché, using a balloon to create the central form before adding more structure with Bristol board and additional layers of glue-slathered paper. Wire supports more delicate limbs and appendages, and to achieve the final texture, Benavidez cuts and attaches every tiny feather or scale.

“Drawing from his personal experience as a queer and mixed-race Mexican
American, Benavidez starts from a foundation of hybridity in which these monsters are the perfect actors,” Zumaya says, continuing:

Every mixed-race person who has become well acquainted with the question, “What are you?” is all too familiar with how it feels to live at the borders of identities, appearances complicating the compulsion to categorize. The way Benavidez uses these hybrid bodies to conjure ideas around race echoes their meaning in sixteenth-century Europe, where notions of the monstrous were profoundly intertwined with early formations of race.

Bosch Beasts continues through October 18 in Los Angeles. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Uncanny Papier-Mâché Creatures by Roberto Benavidez Mingle in ‘Bosch Beasts’ appeared first on Colossal.