Archaeology news for May 13-26

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Silk embroidery found hanging on church wall is believed to have belonged to Elizabeth I

Parishioners of a tiny church in rural Herefordshire have long believed a rumour that their altar cloth once belonged to Queen Elizabeth I.

It was kept at St Faith's Church in Bacton in an old wooden frame.

Now, having spotted it by chance, experts at Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) have concluded the exquisitely-embroidered cloth of silver is so lavish it is likely to have come from a dress worn by the Tudor monarch herself.

Treasures found hidden in Auschwitz mug for more than 70 years

A mug confiscated by Nazis at Auschwitz has been hiding a secret for more than 70 years.
Workers at the Auschwitz Museum this week found a gold ring and necklace that had been carefully wrapped in canvas before being concealed in a false base.

A rock structure, built deep underground, is one of the earliest hominin constructions ever found.

In February 1990, thanks to a 15-year-old boy named Bruno Kowalsczewski, footsteps echoed through the chambers of Bruniquel Cave for the first time in tens of thousands of years.

The cave sits in France’s scenic Aveyron Valley, but its entrance had long been sealed by an ancient rockslide. Kowalsczewski’s father had detected faint wisps of air emerging from the scree, and the boy spent three years clearing away the rubble. He eventually dug out a tight, thirty-meter-long passage that the thinnest members of the local caving club could squeeze through. They found themselves in a large, roomy corridor. There were animal bones and signs of bear activity, but nothing recent. The floor was pockmarked with pools of water. The walls were punctuated by stalactites (the ones that hang down) and stalagmites (the ones that stick up).

Some 336 meters into the cave, the caver stumbled across something extraordinary—a vast chamber where several stalagmites had been deliberately broken. Most of the 400 pieces had been arranged into two rings—a large one between 4 and 7 metres across, and a smaller one just 2 metres wide. Others had been propped up against these donuts. Yet others had been stacked into four piles. Traces of fire were everywhere, and there was a mass of burnt bones.