From the Koskarlı cave to the Norfolk carnyx: two finds that shift chronologies

The Koskarlı cave, near Trabzon in Turkey, has received its first absolute dating: between 12,916 and 12,070 BC, based on bone and charcoal. The study was published on 10 August 2026 by Cambridge University Press in the journal Antiquity, and the excavation report is described as the first systematic epipalaeolithic survey of the region. The news currently comes from a single source (Atlas Anatolia, which reports on the report published in Antiquity); no independent confirmation available.

What makes the dating significant is its anchoring function. For hunter-gatherers in northern Anatolia a chronological reference point was missing: without a fixed point, materials collected on the surface or in unstratified excavations remain comparable only by typology, that is, by formal resemblance.

What the layer contains

The archaeological layer preserves ash, burnt flint and charred remains attributable to an indoor hearth. The materials include flint tools and obsidian artefacts, including lunates in both Anatolian and Caucasian style.

The coexistence of the two styles is the most information-dense element of the find: it indicates that the site is located in an area of contact between different technical traditions. Obsidian, moreover, is not available everywhere: its presence implies the circulation of raw material, and therefore contacts over distance. The available sources do not, however, indicate the provenance analyses that would allow the source deposits to be identified.

The Norfolk carnyx

The second find comes from eastern England. In 2026 the discovery was announced, in western Norfolk, of an almost complete bronze carnyx: a war trumpet. The piece was part of an Iron Age hoard about 2,000 years old, which also includes a metal standard with a boar’s head. The find dates back to summer 2025 and was made public afterwards. Here too the information comes from a single source, the compendium of excavation announcements from the English edition of Wikipedia, built on institutional statements: no independent confirmation available.

The gap between find and announcement — an entire summer — is standard practice in such cases: the time is needed to secure the context and for controlled excavation, and metal finds in agricultural land are particularly exposed if made public too soon. It is the same criterion of caution that this newspaper has already encountered with the Roman cargo from Lake Neuchâtel, made public only after protective measures had been planned (30 August 2026).

The same compendium records two other announcements for the current year: in Norway, at Tønsberg, a medieval gold ring; in Sicily, from the Gela excavations, a bone writing implement attributed to the 5th century BC.

What we don’t know

For Koskarlı we do not know the number of radiometric datings carried out nor the margins of uncertainty associated with them, elements that in the original publication always accompany a chronological range. We do not know how extensive the excavation is nor whether the sequence continues upward.

For Norfolk, the institution responsible for the excavation is missing, as is the detailed conservation status of the carnyx and the museum destination of the assemblage. Neither piece of news currently has a second independent source: we report them with this limitation stated at the outset.