Jamie, this seemed very up your alley, but it's also just cool in general...
Vanished Persian army said found in desert
50,000 soldiers believed buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.
The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology's biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian researchers.
Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. The 50,000 warriors were said to be buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.
"We have found the first archaeological evidence of a story reported by the Greek historian Herodotus," Dario Del Bufalo, a member of the expedition from the University of Lecce, told Discovery News.
FULL STORY
One of the Hellboy novels involved the discovery of this missing army as undead soldiers or something. It was pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Herodotus was a habitual exaggerator. I wouldn't be surprised if there were only 5-10,000 men, which is still a lot, but still.
ReplyDelete>>Also, Herodotus was a habitual exaggerator.
ReplyDeleteWas wondering about that.
Out of curiosity, is this up Jamie's alley because she's an anthropologist, or because she seems like the kind of person who might want a 50,000 skeleton undead army?
ReplyDeleteI could see it going either way.
Yeah, Herodotus wrote his 'Histories' as narratives and took a lot of dramatic license with them. And based on the evidence they have so far, there is very little evidence to tie the story to the remains (thank you looters).
ReplyDeleteHowever, should they go on to perform excavations - desert conditions are great for preservation and there is the potential that they could find hundreds of buried bodies which had naturally mummified, which would be awesome. Both because they could learn a lot more about army life and conditions AND because an army of dessicated Persian soldiers would be even cooler than a skeleton army.
And honestly, Randy, who wouldn't want an undead army?!