May/June 2022 Issue

JAPAN: The monumental burial mounds known as kofun are said to contain the remains of Japan’s semilegendary early emperors, who ruled between the 3rd and 7th centuries A.D. Because they are considered sacred, access to the mounds is limited, and archaeologists still know very little about them. However, a new study used high-resolution satellite images and revealed that all the entrances to the keyhole-shaped tombs are aligned with the rising sun. Japanese tradition holds that the first emperors were direct descendants of the sun goddess Amaterasu.

PAKISTAN: One of the world’s oldest known Buddhist temples was unearthed atop the ancient acropolis of Barikot in the Swat Valley. The complex, which is preserved to a height of more than 10 feet, dates to the 2nd century B.C. It was built on a platform and features a cylindrical structure, a small stupa, and a number of small rooms. The site has a more than 3,000-year-long history and was purportedly besieged by Alexander the Great in 327 B.C.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: The remains of round stone buildings on Ghagha Island west of Abu Dhabi are the oldest ever found in the country and surrounding region. Radiocarbon dates estimate that the ruins are 8,500 years old, making them 500 years older than the previously recorded earliest structures, which were found on Marawah Island. Although its climate today is dry and unwelcoming, Ghagha Island would have been much more hospitable thousands of years ago, when it was likely home to a small Neolithic community.