Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Human activity on Curaçao began centuries earlier than previously believed

 

New research co-led by Simon Fraser University and the National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management (NAAM Foundation) in Curaçao extends the earliest known human settlement of Curaçao by centuries, adding pieces to the puzzle of pre-Colombian Caribbean history.

A team of international partners have been collaborating on the Curaçao Cultural Landscape Project since 2018 to understand the long-term biodiversity change of the island, and its relationship to human activity.

Findings from the team, published in the Journal of Coastal and Island Archaeology, place human occupation of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean, as far back as 5735 – 5600 cal BP — up to 850 years earlier than previously thought.

This updated timeline was determined by radiocarbon dating charcoal collected from an Archaic period site at Saliña Sint Marie — what is now the earliest known archaeological site on the island — using accelerated mass spectrometry.

Christina Giovas, an associate professor in SFU’s Department of Archaeology and co-lead on the study, explains that the settlement of the Caribbean and the origin of its peoples is still highly debated. “What this new information does is push the initial exploration in this region back to a time where other islands to the north of Curaçao are also being settled. This suggests that the movement of people from the continental mainland into those more northern islands might have entangled with some of the movement of the people into Curaçao,” says Giovas.

While more work is needed to determine if this is the case, Giovas notes that this indicates that the exploration of the islands off the western Venezuelan coast began earlier than previously known and provides a baseline for studying human-environment interactions in the area. According to NAAM Deputy Director, Claudia Kraan, who also led the study, the finding demonstrates to the local public that further research can unveil new insights into the people who once inhabited the island. She notes, “archaeological information is dynamic, continually evolving with ongoing exploration and analysis.”

The team travelled to Curaçao in the summer of 2022 for their first field season, bringing with them a cohort of SFU archaeology undergraduate students as part of a five-week international field school. Students helped survey, map and excavate project sites throughout the island, then presented their findings to the local community. Throughout these activities they worked closely with local volunteers and the project’s Curaçaoan partner, the NAAM Foundation, an NGO that manages the island’s archaeological heritage through collaboration with government and stakeholders.

“For archaeology, practical hands-on learning is really the best way to understand the field,” says Giovas. “I really wanted students to get skills in what's called ‘environmental archaeology’ — techniques and methods that are used to ask questions about human relationships with the environment, in the past and through time. It’s also increasingly about what we can take from the data that we gather from those sorts of investigations and apply to modern day conservation, and environmental awareness.”

The project also works to increase local capacity for archaeology on the island, create opportunities for knowledge mobilization and bring awareness to the depth of history of the area.

“To have students involved in these initiatives is, I think, where you get these generational shifts in the culture of the discipline,” says Giovas.

The team plans to return to Curaçao again in 2025 as part of another SFU international field school to dive deeper into how humans have transformed the island throughout time, and the lessons we can learn for future conservation efforts.

Along with SFU and the NAAM Foundation, the team includes partners from Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, University of Queensland, and InTerris Registries.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

More than forty archaeological sites in Cyprus dating as far back as the Bronze Age that were thought lost

 More than forty archaeological sites in Cyprus dating potentially as far back as the Bronze Age that were thought lost to history have been relocated by University of Leicester scientists working for the Ministry of Defence.

A small team of archaeologists from University of Leicester Archaeological Services, funded by the DIO Overseas Stewardship Project, undertook a ‘walkover survey’ – a systematic surveying and recording of visible archaeological remains – of the Eastern Sovereign Base Area at Dhekelia (ESBA) on the south coast of the island. The work, licensed by Cyprus’ Department of Antiquities in Nicosia, is to inform site management by the DIO, which is the custodian of the UK and overseas Defence estate.

Dhekelia is about 30km south-east of Nicosia, and 80km north-east of the Western Sovereign Base Area (WSBA) at Akrotiri where the University of Leicester has been working since 2015.

The task of the walkover was to relocate around 60 possible archaeological sites that had been recorded in the early 1960s prior to the development of the garrison within the Dhekelia base, and the laying out of the Kingsfield Airstrip at the western end of the area.

In preparation of the survey a Geographic Information System (GIS) record was compiled that included all the known information, and from that co-ordinate points for the possible sites were exported to standard handheld GPS units. Archaeologists then visited each site and searched for the evidence that had been previously recorded. When successfully found, each site would then be photographed, GPS located, and recorded on pro forma sheets.

In total, 51 sites including 5 historic buildings were located. Some records survived for 47 of the sites, but a further four were known only from labels on a 1:25,000 scale plan. Although the dating of most of the sites is currently unknown, they are likely to span from the Bronze Age which started c.2500 BC to the Byzantine period which ended in the 12th Century AD, and to include sites from the Hellenistic period (312 – 58 BC) and Roman periods (58 BC – 395 AD).

Particular highlights included three coastal quarries where stone was being taken off low spits running out into the sea. One quarry had a little ramp that looked like it was used for loading slabs of quarried rock into boats tied in deep water alongside, and another had dozens of very clear circular grinding stone removals which, where immediately adjacent to each other, left behind distinct clover leaf shapes in the bed rock.

Large areas of rock cut tomb extended over several hectares in one part of the inland plateau. Most of these tombs were in a very poor state and some bore clear signs of looting in the form of adjacent mounds of earth. Many tombs have been used as convenient areas for fly tipping. One tomb, part of a substantial cemetery surrounding a monastery to the west of Xylotymbou village was being used for caging cats.

Matt Beamish from University of Leicester Archaeological Services, who led the survey, said:

“Our GIS and survey methods had worked well when used for a similar survey of the Akrotiri peninsula in 2019. Many of the sites we were planning to survey had been last visited over 20 years ago, and in many instances had been reported as no longer existing or being unfindable. On reflection this had more to do with inadequate mapping, lack of preparation and lack of satellite location technologies: we found that many of the sites could be re-found with a little bit of patience.

“There were undoubtedly problems with some of the archive information which was incomplete and had been inaccurately redrawn at some stage in the past. Some sites had clearly been lost to the subsequent development of roads and buildings.”

The Dhekelia Sovereign base is around 20km wide and 7km deep and sits on the east side of Larnaca Bay. The topography is varied including a flat coastal strip meeting steep limestone cliffs and hills, with a broadly flat plateau on the interior which includes more areas of rocky outcrop and is bisected by rivers which are generally dry beds under cultivation. The coastal strip and plateau include areas of agriculture and horticulture, and areas of olive and citrus grove and scrub. In the north of the area there are large dairy and livestock farms.

Cyprus’ position on Mediterranean sea routes has led to a rich and diverse cultural heritage, and it is famed for the preservation of many archaeological sites from the Bronze Age, Hellenistic/Iron Age, Roman, and Byzantine or medieval periods. At the western end of the Dhekelia area this occupation is represented in a significant archaeological landscape comprising a large Bronze Age defended hilltop settlement at Kokkinokremnos and an adjacent Iron Age hillfort at Vikla, both sitting above the Roman harbour town of Koutsopetria: all these protected sites are subject to recent research excavations. The Roman harbour is all now infilled, possibly stemming from a catastrophic tsunami event.

Much of the known archaeology across Dhekelia is funerary, and this mostly comprises rock cut tombs, some of which were built into the limestone caves (generally Hellenistic/Iron Age), and rock cut shaft graves (generally Byzantine/Roman-Medieval). 

Matt Beamish added: “The survey was very successful with the identification of significant archaeological areas. We know that many more archaeological sites will exist which are not obvious to the naked eye. Much of the area has seen no systematic archaeological survey, and the application of remote sensing or aerial survey perhaps using LiDAR would enable a wider picture of previous human activity to be drawn. The information will enable the DIO to better manage the archaeological sites within the Sovereign Base Administration Area, and allow a wider understanding of Dhekelia’s archaeological heritage.”

Alex Sotheran, Archaeology Advisor, DIO, praised the survey and the results:

“The work carried out by Matt and the team has really improved our knowledge and understanding of the archaeology across the Dhekelia area and will allow for an improved system of management of these vital and important heritage assets going forward.”

David Reynolds, Environmental Advisor (Cyprus), DIO, added:

“Along with the University of Leicester team, we would like to thank the Republic of Cyprus Department of Antiquities and the Sovereign Base Area Office (Dhekelia) for all their support and guidance in making this extremely valuable piece of work happen.”

The data created during the survey has been entered into DIO’s Historic Buildings, Sites and Monuments Record, which in turn is vital for helping to protect the historic environment across the Ministry of Defence’s UK and overseas estate.

Additionally, the archaeological data has been shared with the Republic of Cyprus Department of Antiquities (DoA) as part of a Protocol for Collaboration between British Forces Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus DoA. The protocol will ensure that potential impacts on archaeology will be actively considered alongside military training activities and infrastructure work across the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. It also sets out procedures for managing any archaeological remains uncovered during construction projects.


Wednesday, February 28, 2024

DNA study of ancient Eastern Arabians reveals malaria adaptation

 

People living in ancient Eastern Arabia appear to have developed resistance to malaria following the appearance of agriculture in the region around five thousand years ago, a new study reveals.

DNA analysis of the remains of four individuals from Tylos-period Bahrain (300 BCE to 600 CE) - the first ancient genomes from Eastern Arabia - revealed the malaria-protective G6PD Mediterranean mutation in three samples.

The discovery of the G6PD Mediterranean mutation in ancient Bahrainis suggests that many people in the region’s ancient populations may have enjoyed protection from malaria. In the present day, among the populations examined, the G6PD mutation is detected at its peak frequency in the Emirates, the study indicates.

Researchers discovered that the ancestry of Tylos-period inhabitants of Bahrain comprises sources related to ancient groups from Anatolia, the Levant and Caucasus/Iran. The four Bahrain individuals were genetically more like present-day populations from the Levant and Iraq than to Arabians.

Experts from Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Birmingham Dubai, and the University of Cambridge worked with the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities and other Arabian institutes such as the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai, as well as research centres in Europe, including Université Lumière Lyon 2, Trinity College Dublin, and others. The group published its findings today in Cell Genomics.

Lead researcher Rui Martiniano, from Liverpool John Moores University, commented: “According to our estimates, the G6PD Mediterranean mutation rose in frequency around five-to-six thousand years ago - coinciding with the onset of agriculture in the region, which would have created ideal conditions for the proliferation of malaria.”

Due to poor ancient DNA preservation in hot and humid climates, no ancient DNA from Arabia has been sequenced until now - preventing the direct examination of the genetic ancestry of its past populations.

Marc Haber, from the University of Birmingham Dubai, commented: “By obtaining the first ancient genomes from Eastern Arabia, we provide unprecedented insights into human history and disease progression in this region. This knowledge goes beyond historical understanding, providing predictive capabilities for disease susceptibility, spread, and treatment, thus promoting better health outcomes.”

"The rich population history of Bahrain, and more generally of Arabia, has been severely understudied from a genetic perspective. We provide the first genetic snapshot of past Arabian populations – obtaining important insights about malaria adaptation, which was historically endemic in the region,” commented Fatima Aloraifi, from the Mersey and West Lancashire NHS Trust.

Salman Almahari, Director of Antiquities and Museums at the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, states, “Our study also paves the way for future research that will shed light on human population movements in Arabia and other regions with harsh climates where it is difficult to find well-preserved sources of DNA.”

Data gathered from the analysis of the four individuals’ remains allowed researchers to characterise the genetic composition of the region’s pre-Islamic inhabitants - insights that could only have been obtained by directly examining ancient DNA sequences.

Researchers collected ancient human remains from archaeological collections stored at the Bahrain National Museum. They extracted DNA from 25 individuals, but only four were sequenced to higher coverage due to poor preservation.

Richard Durbin, from the University of Cambridge, who supervised the project, says “It is exciting to have been able to analyse ancient human genetic data from the remarkable burial mounds of Bahrain. We would like to thank our colleagues in the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities for their support and contributions.”

The finding of malaria adaptation agrees with archaeological and textual evidence that suggested malaria was historically endemic in Eastern Arabia, whilst the DNA ancestry of Tylos-period inhabitants of Bahrain corroborates archaeological evidence of interactions between Bahrain and neighbouring regions.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Plant seed and fruit analysis from the biblical home of Goliath sheds unprecedented light on Philistine ritual practices

 


Peer-Reviewed Publication

BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY

Miniature Vessels 

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TEMPLE OFFERINGS - MINIATURE AS WELL AS FOOD SERVING VESSELS, AND A SHELL OF MARINE MOLLUSC, TONNA GALEA FOUND IN ONE OF THE TEMPLES 

 

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CREDIT: PROF. AREN MAEIR

The enigmatic Philistine culture, which flourished during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-604 BCE), profoundly affected the southern Levant's cultural history, agronomy, and dietary customs. More than a quarter century of excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath in central Israel, identified as the biblical Gath of the Philistines and the home of Goliath, has provided a unique window into the world of this ancient civilization. In the systematic excavation project of the temple area in the lower city of Gath, a team from Bar-Ilan University in Israel, led by Prof. Aren Maeir (archaeology) and Prof. Ehud Weiss (archaeobotany), has overseen the reconstruction of the plants used in Philistine rituals. Tel Zafit (Gath of the Philistines) is a national park under the auspices of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

 

 

While many aspects of Philistine culture are well-documented, the specifics of Philistine religious practices and deities have long remained shrouded in mystery. The study by Frumin et al. on "Plant-Related Philistine Ritual Practices at Biblical Gath," recently published in Scientific Reports, contributes valuable new data to our understanding of the Philistine's ritual practices. The discovery of numerous plants in two temples unearthed at the site unraveled unprecedented insights into Philistine cultic rituals and beliefs – their temple food ingredients, timing of ceremonies, and plants for temple decoration.

 

Dr. Suembikya Frumin, under Prof. Ehud Weiss's supervision, studied Philistine plant use in their temples as part of her PhD project. Together with Dr. Amit Dagan, Maria Eniukhina, and Prof. Aren Maeir, they delved into the plant assemblages discovered within the temples’ precincts, uncovering a wealth of information regarding the significance of various plant species in Philistine religious rituals. Through meticulous examination and quantitative and qualitative analysis of the types of plants used, the timing of their harvest, modes of offering, and potential symbolic significance, the researchers pieced together a clearer picture of the Philistine approach to spirituality.

 

Dr. Suembikya Frumin, manager of the Archaeobotany Laboratory at Bar-Ilan University and the study's lead researcher, noted, "One of the most significant findings is the identification of earliest known ritual uses of several Mediterranean plants, such as the lilac chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus), crown daisy (Glebionis coronaria), and silvery scabious (Lomelosia argentea). These widespread Mediterranean plants connect Philistines with cultic rituals, mythology and paraphernalia related to early Greek deities, such as Hera, Artemis, Demeter, and Asclepios. In addition, plants with psychoactive and medicinal properties in the Philistine temples reveal their use for cultic activities. The study revealed that the Philistine religion relied on the magic and power of nature, such as running water and seasonality, aspects that influence human health and life."

 

Moreover, analysis of the temples’ seeds and fruits provided valuable insights into the timing of rituals, with the importance of the early spring for temple rites, and the date of the final utilization of the temples -- and their destruction by Hazael of Aram – which occurred in late summer or early fall. The seasonal aspect of Philistine religious practices underscores their deep connection to the natural worlds and the cycles of agriculture.

 

Prof. Ehud Weiss, Director the Archaeobotany Laboratory at Bar-Ilan University and co-author of the study, commented, “Our findings challenge previous understandings of Philistine ritual practices and offer a fresh perspective on their cultural practices, and the connections between Philistine culture and broader Mediterranean religious traditions. By examining the plants they used in ritual contexts, we better understand how the Philistines perceived and interacted with the world around them."

 

Furthermore, the study proposes intriguing parallels between Philistine and Aegean ceremonial practices. The discovery of loom weights (an apparatus used for fabric production) within Philistine temples, a common feature in Aegean cult locations associated with Hera, further strengthens the hypothesis of cultural exchange and influence between the two regions.

 

“These findings open up new avenues for research into the cultural and religious interactions between the Philistines and neighboring regions,” added study co-author Prof. Aren Maeir, of Bar-Ilan University’s Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, who has directed the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath for more than 25 years. “By employing advanced quantitative and qualitative analyses of plant assemblages, we have deepened our understanding of ancient cultic practices and their significance in the broader Mediterranean world.”

 

“This new data indicates knowledgeable activity by temple personnel regarding the use of plants with mood-affecting features. Our method of quantitative and qualitative analysis of total plant assemblage should be highly relevant for analyzing other ancient cults and for the study of the cultural and cultic history of the region and beyond,” concluded Dr. Frumin.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Artifact could be linked to Spanish explorer Coronado's expedition across Texas Panhandle

 


Could a family’s obsidian blade be a clue to the expedition’s trail?


Obsidian blade 

IMAGE: 

A SMALL PIECE OF OBSIDIAN, JUST OVER 5 CENTIMETERS LONG, LIKELY FOUND ON A HARD-SCRABBLE PIECE OF RANCHLAND IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE.

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CREDIT: SMU

 – It’s a small piece of obsidian, just over 5 centimeters long, likely found on a hard-scrabble piece of ranchland in the Texas panhandle. But when SMU anthropologist Matthew Boulanger looks at it, he gets a mental image of Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado making his way across the plains more than 470 years ago in search of a fabled city of gold.

Boulanger believes that the flaked-stone tool with its sharp edge was likely dropped by a member of Coronado’s expedition, which included people indigenous to Mexico, as they trekked across parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma and Kansas. His theory is backed by spectrometer analysis of the blade’s chemical composition, which ties it to Central Mexico’s Sierra de Pachuca mountain range, where indigenous people used obsidian to produce cutting tools until the Spanish conquest.

“This small unassuming artifact fits all of the requirements for convincing evidence of a Coronado presence in the Texas panhandle,” said Boulanger. “It is the correct form of artifact, it is fully consistent with other finds, the correct material, found in the correct location, and there are no indications of an intentional hoax.”

Boulanger, director of the Archeology Research Collections in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, published his findings in the Journal of the North Texas Archeological Society, with co-author Charlene Erwin.

Other researchers have traced the path of Spanish explorers and indigenous people from Mexico across what is now the United States through the presence of central Mexican obsidian blades; because the blades were brittle, they were discarded along the way as they broke.

Boulanger concedes that where the blade was found is subject to conjecture, as he examined the artifact after the death of its collector. But a reconstructed map of Coronado’s expedition shows that the travelers likely passed by or through the ranch near McLean Texas where collector Lloyd Erwin grew up.

As a child, Erwin became interested in historical artifacts and started collecting items he found on the ranch. Years later, his daughter-in-law, Charlene, asked Boulanger to authenticate some of the obsidian pieces in a collection of artifacts that he had framed. Upon closer examination, Boulanger noticed a greenish tint to an obsidian piece that looked like it had been placed in the frame as an afterthought.

Using a spectrometer, Boulanger traced the obsidian to Central Mexico’s Sierra de Pachuca mountain range, where indigenous people widely used obsidian to produce tools until the Spanish Conquest.

So how did an obsidian blade from Central Mexico end up in the Texas Panhandle? There is no clear evidence for a trade network that would have connected Indigenous peoples of the Texas Panhandle to those living in Central Mexico prior to the Spanish Conquest of Mexico in the early 1500s.

Boulanger offered three theories for consideration: young Lloyd Erwin obtained the blade through trade or exchange of artifacts with other collectors, the blade is a hoax to garner attention to Erwin and his collection, or the blade was genuinely found in Texas by Erwin and is indeed an archaeological find. After piecing together Erwin’s travels and interviewing his family, Boulanger believes the third hypothesis is correct.

He suspects the obsidian blade was carried northward by one of the many people indigenous to Mexico who accompanied the Coronado expedition to Quivira, near modern-day Salina, Kansas. If more corroborating evidence is uncovered near where Erwin found the blade, it could provide archaeologists more proof the artifact is part of a Coronado-related site and a clue to the expedition’s trail.

“Because we know Erwin found the knife on his family ranch, we can speculate that someone on Coronado’s expedition discarded it,” said Boulanger. “When I talk to people collecting artifacts, I tell them to document where they find objects. Because most of us now have mobile phones, we can record GPS coordinates easily. You can now provide archeologists precise locations, which helps them authenticate artifacts and possible lead to more discoveries.”

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Did neanderthals use glue? Researchers find evidence that sticks

 

Analysis of 40,000-year old tools reveals surprisingly sophisticated construction
Micrographs showing wear traces on a tool 

IMAGE: 

MICROGRAPHS SHOWING WEAR TRACES ON A TOOL USED BY NEANDERTHALS DURING THE MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD. LOCATIONS OF THE MICROGRAPHS ON THE ARTIFACT ARE INDICATED IN THE DRAWING (UPPER LEFT) IN RED. A) POLISH, OR SHEEN, ON THE ACTIVE EDGE OF THE TOOL HANDLE. B) POLISH UNDER COLORANT STAINS WITHIN THE ZONE COVERED BY ADHESIVE. C) RIDGE BETWEEN CONCAVE SURFACES FORMED BY THE REMOVAL OF BITS OF STONE THAT WERE REMOVED—RATHER THAN WORN AWAY NATURALLY. D) DULLED OUT OR WORN DOWN RIDGE IN THE GRASPABLE ZONE THAT WAS COVERED WITH AN ADHESIVE. A COMPARISON OF (C) AND (D) INDICATES THAT THE WORN OUT PORTION IS WITHIN THE AREA COVERED BY DESIGNED ADHESIVE GRIP. IMAGES ARE SHOWN IN MICRONS.

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CREDIT: DRAWING BY D. GREINERT, STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN.

Neanderthals created stone tools held together by a multi-component adhesive, a team of scientists has discovered. Its findings, which are the earliest evidence of a complex adhesive in Europe, suggest these predecessors to modern humans had a higher level of cognition and cultural development than previously thought. 

The work, reported in the journal Science Advances, included researchers from New York University, the University of Tübingen, and the National Museums in Berlin.

“These astonishingly well-preserved tools showcase a technical solution broadly similar to examples of tools made by early modern humans in Africa, but the exact recipe reflects a Neanderthal ‘spin,’ which is the production of grips for handheld tools,” says Radu Iovita, an associate professor at New York University’s Center for the Study of Human Origins

The research team, led by Patrick Schmidt from the University of Tübingen’s Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology section and Ewa Dutkiewicz from the Museum of Prehistory and Early History at the National Museums in Berlin, re-examined previous finds from Le Moustier, an archaeological site in France that was discovered in the early 20th century.

The stone tools from Le Moustier—used by Neanderthals during the Middle Palaeolithic period of the Mousterian between 120,000 and 40,000 years ago—are kept in the collection of Berlin’s Museum of Prehistory and Early History and had not previously been examined in detail. The tools were rediscovered during an internal review of the collection and their scientific value was recognized. 

“The items had been individually wrapped and untouched since the 1960s,” says Dutkiewicz. “As a result, the adhering remains of organic substances were very well preserved.”

The researchers discovered traces of a mixture of ochre and bitumen on several stone tools, such as scrapers, flakes, and blades. Ochre is a naturally occurring earth pigment; bitumen is a component of asphalt and can be produced from crude oil, but also occurs naturally in the soil. 

“We were surprised that the ochre content was more than 50 percent,” says Schmidt. “This is because air-dried bitumen can be used unaltered as an adhesive, but loses its adhesive properties when such large proportions of ochre are added.” 

He and his team examined these materials in tensile tests—used to determine strength—and other measures.

“It was different when we used liquid bitumen, which is not really suitable for gluing. If 55 percent ochre is added, a malleable mass is formed,” Schmidt says. 

The mixture was just sticky enough for a stone tool to remain stuck in it, but without adhering to hands, making it suitable material for a handle. 

In fact, a microscopic examination of the use-wear traces on these stone tools revealed that the adhesives on the tools from Le Moustier were used in this way.

“The tools showed two kinds of microscopic wear: one is the typical polish on the sharp edges that is generally caused by working other materials,” explains Iovita, who conducted this analysis. “The other is a bright polish distributed all over the presumed hand-held part, but not elsewhere, which we interpreted as the results of abrasion from the ochre due to movement of the tool within the grip.”

The use of adhesives with several components, including various sticky substances such as tree resins and ochre, was previously known from early modern humans, Homo sapiens, in Africa but not from earlier Neanderthals in Europe. Overall, the development of adhesives and their use in the manufacture of tools is considered to be some of the best material evidence of the cultural evolution and cognitive abilities of early humans.  

“Compound adhesives are considered to be among the first expressions of the modern cognitive processes that are still active today,” says Schmidt.

In the Le Moustier region, ochre and bitumen had to be collected from distant locations, which meant a great deal of effort, planning, and a targeted approach, the authors note. 

“Taking into account the overall context of the finds, we assume that this adhesive material was made by Neanderthals,” concludes Dutkiewicz. 

“What our study shows is that early Homo sapiens in Africa and Neanderthals in Europe had similar thought patterns,” adds Schmidt. “Their adhesive technologies have the same significance for our understanding of human evolution.”

 

Friday, February 16, 2024

Neolithic groups from the south of the Iberian Peninsula first settled permanently in San Fernando (Cadiz) 6,200 years ago

 New study by ICTA-UAB and the University of Cádiz reveals that the first farmers and herdsmen settled in Andalusia collected and consumed shellfish throughout the year, especially in winter.

 

The first Neolithic farmers and shepherds in Andalusia settled permanently on the island of San Fernando, Cadiz, 6,200 years ago, where they continued to collect and consume shellfish throughout the year, preferably in winter. This is the conclusion of an archaeological study led by Asier García-Escárzaga, researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) and the Department of Prehistory of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), which shows that these populations occupied the island throughout the year. 

The research carried out in recent decades in the south of the Iberian Peninsula has revealed many aspects of the life of the first Neolithic groups in Andalusia. These populations were the first to base their subsistence mainly on agriculture and livestock, rather than hunting and gathering. However, there were still questions to be answered about the patterns of occupation of sites (annual or seasonal) and the exploitation of marine resources after the adoption of a new economic model. 

In a new study, published in the prestigious international journal Archaeological and Anthropological Science, oxygen stable isotope analysis was applied to marine shells to address both questions. The shells analysed were recovered from the sites of Campo de Hockey (San Fernando, Cadiz).

The necropolis of Campo de Hockey, excavated in 2008, is located on the ancient island of San Fernando, just 150 metres from the ancient coastline. The excavations, directed by Eduardo Vijande from the University of Cadiz, allowed to document 53 graves (45 single, 7 double and 1 quadruple). Most of them were plain (simple graves in which the individual is buried), but what stood out the most was the existence of 4 graves of greater complexity and monumentality, made with medium and large stones considered to be proto-megalithic. The Campo de Hockey II site, annexed to the first site and whose excavation and research was conducted by María Sánchez and Eduardo Vijande in 2018, allowed for the identification of 28 archaeological structures (17 hearths, two shell heaps, four tombs and five stone structures). 

The high presence of hearths and mollusk and fish remains in the middens suggests that the area was used for the processing and consumption of marine resources. Among the information that can be obtained from the analysis of stable oxygen isotopes in marine shells is the possibility of reconstructing the time of year when the mollusks died, and therefore when they were consumed by prehistoric populations in the past. 

The results of this research indicate that the first farmers occupying the island of San Fernando collected shellfish all year round, but more in the colder months of autumn, winter, and early spring, that is, from November to April. This information allowed the scientific team to conclude that these populations occupied the island throughout the year. "The size of the necropolis already led us to believe that it was an annual habitat, but these studies confirm the existence of a permanent settlement 6,200 years ago," said Eduardo Vijande, researcher at the University of Cadiz and co-author of the study. 

The greatest exploitation of shellfish during the coldest months of the year coincides with the annual period of maximum profitability of this food resource due to the formation of gametes. A seasonal pattern of shellfish consumption based on energetic cost-benefit principles which is similar to that developed by the last hunter-gatherer populations of the Iberian Peninsula. "That is to say, there is a greater exploitation of these topshells in the winter months, since this is the time when these animals present a greater quantity of meat," points out Asier García-Escárzaga. This suggests that, although these new Neolithic groups had changed their economic model, living from agriculture and livestock, in this settlement located in an insular environment, the exploitation of the marine environment continued to be of great importance.