November/December 2022 Issue

MARIANA ISLANDS: Cowrie shells discovered at 7 sites on Saipan and Tinian initially perplexed archaeologists, but are now believed to be the world’s oldest known octopus lures. Cowries are a favorite delicacy of the 8-armed cephalopods. The shells, which are 3,500 years old, were drilled with tiny holes and fastened to stone weights using fiber cords. When the deceptive devices were dropped into the water, they attracted octopuses, which could then be captured by Indigenous Chamorro fishers using hooks, spears, or nets.

TAIWAN: Construction workers unearthed a 4,000-year-old prehistoric site in Kenting National Park at the southern tip of Taiwan. It contained 51 graves, 10 of which held slate coffins and coral funerary goods, along with great quantities of shark-tooth ornaments and fishhooks and adzes made from shell. Given the unusually large number of these objects, archaeologists believe the site must have been an important shell-tool manufacturing site, the oldest and largest of its kind ever found in the Asia-Pacific region.

IRAN: Evidence of one of the largest fire temples ever found was uncovered near the village of Bazeh Hur in the northern province of Razavi Khorasan. Fire temples were centers of worship for Zoroastrians and housed sacred fire altars before which religious rites and prayers were performed. Archaeologists found stucco fragments that once adorned the columns of the temple’s great hall. The structure likely dates to the prosperous era of the Sassanids, who ruled from A.D. 224 to 651.