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death pit

One of the Ram in a Thicket statues. Source: British Museum / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Ram in a Thicket: A Mesopotamian Legacy from the Ancient City of Ur

The treasures of ancient cultures are a source of never ending inspiration. It is such a wonder to see the magnificence of the art that was created in the dawn of civilization, so long before our...
Students make protective plaster wrappings for asphalt-preserved giant sloth bones at the Tanque Loma tar pit locality in southwestern Ecuador. (Martin Tomasz / La Brea Tar Pits)

Giant Sloth Death Pit Reveals Death By Feces Ingestion

The fossilized remains of 22 Ice Age, elephant sized sloths have been found preserved in 20,000-year-old asphalt in Ecuador. The discovery of this giant sloth death pit is revealing a virtual Bible...
Great Death pit of Ur

The Great Death Pit of Ur: Mass Human Sacrifice in Ancient Mesopotamia

During Sir Charles Leonard Woolley’s excavation of Ur from 1922 to 1934, any burial without a tomb chamber was given the name ‘death pit’ (known also as ‘grave pits’). Arguably the most impressive...