Lecturer in population, medical and evolutionary genomics, University of Sheffield
Disclosure statement
Eran Elhaik consults DNA Diagnostics Centre.
Eran Elhaik was partially supported by a Genographic grant (GP 01-12),
The Royal Society International Exchanges Award to E.E. and Michael
Neely (IE140020), MRC Confidence in Concept Scheme award 2014-University
of Sheffield to E.E. (Ref: MC_PC_14115), and a National Science
Foundation grant DEB-1456634 to Tatiana Tatarinova and E.E.
At 1,000 years, the search for the location of Ashkenaz
– thought to be the birthplace of Ashkanazic Jews and the Yiddish
language – is one of the longest quests in human history. It is perhaps
second only in length to the search for Noah’s Ark which began in the
3rd century AD.
The place name Ashkenaz occurs three times in the Bible, but by the
Middle Ages the exact origin of Ashkenaz was forgotten. Because of the
migration of the Ashkenazic Jews it later became associated with Germany.
This led to all German Jews being considered “Ashkenazic”, a term which
was then applied to central and eastern European Jews who follow Ashkenazic religious customs and who speak Yiddish.
The Yiddish language – which consists of Hebrew, German, Slavic
elements and is written in Aramaic – has been spoken at least since the
9th century AD, but its origins have been debated by linguists for
several centuries. While some have suggested a German origin, others believe a more complex beginning for the language,
starting in Slavic lands in Khazaria – the Middle Age Khazar Empire
that covered present-day southern Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and parts
of the Caucasus – and followed by Ukraine, and finally Germany.
Although the language adopted a German vocabulary it retained its Slavic
grammar – which is why Yiddish is often referred to as “bad German”.
The inability of linguists to reach a consensus have led some to decry that the mystery of where Yiddish came from will never be solved. But now for the first time a pioneering tool that converts genome data into ancestral coordinates, is helping to pinpoint the DNA of Yiddish speakers.
In the largest genomic study of Ashkenazic Jews,
and the first one to study Yiddish speakers, we applied our Geographic
Population Structure (GPS) tool – which operates in a similar way to the
sat nav in your car – to the genomes of more than 360 Yiddish and
non-Yiddish speaking Ashkenazic Jews. DNA of Yiddish speakers could have originated from four ancient villages in north-west Turkey.Author provided, Author provided
Surprisingly, our GPS homed in on north-east Turkey, where we found four primeval villages, one of which was abandoned in the mid-7th century AD.
These ancient villages identified by the GPS tool are clustered close to the Silk Road – the ancient network of trade routes – and are named Iskenaz, Eskenaz, Ashanaz, and Ashkuz. And it is likely that these are the villages that mark the location of the lost lands of Ashkenaz.
The history of a people
Located on the cross roads of ancient trade routes, this region suggests that the Yiddish language was developed by Iranian and Ashkenazic Jews as they traded on the Silk Road from the first centuries AD to around the 9th century when they arrived in Slavic lands.
Putting together evidence from linguistic, history, and genetics, we concluded that the ancient Ashkenazic Jews were merchants who developed Yiddish as a secret language – with 251 words for “buy” and “sell” – to maintain their monopoly. They were known to trade in everything from fur to slaves.
By the 8th century the words “Jew” and “merchant” were practically synonymous, and it was around this time that Ashkenazic Jews began relocating from ancient Ashkenaz to the Khazar Empire to expand their mercantile operations.
This Jewish migration led to some of the Turkic Khazar rulers and numerous eastern Slavs living within the Khazar Empire to convert to Judaism so they didn’t miss out on the lucrative Silk Road trade between Germany and China.
But the demise of Khazaria due to continued invasions and finally the Black Death devastated this last Jewish Empire of Khazaria. This led to the Ashkenazic Jews splitting into two groups – some remaining in the Caucasus and others migrating into eastern Europe and Germany.
The two groups still called themselves Ashkenazic Jews, however the name Ashkenaz became more strongly associated with Germany and the the European group – for whom Yiddish became their primary language.
A secret language
Since north-east Turkey is the only place in the world where the place names of Iskenaz, Eskenaz, Ashanaz, and Ashkuz exist this strongly implies that Yiddish was established around the first millennium at a time when Jewish traders moved goods from Asia to Europe. This was done by developing the language of Yiddish, which very few can speak or understand other than Jews.
Further evidence to the origin of Ashkenazic Jews can be found in many customs – such as the breaking of a glass at a wedding ceremony and placing stones over tombstones, which were probably introduced by Slavic converts to Judaism.
By studying the origin of Yiddish using our GPS technology, combined with a citizen science approach, we were able to shed light on one of the most forgotten chapters of history and demonstrate the use of bio-geographical genetic tools to study the origin of languages. For Ashkanazic Jews these are the ties that bind their history, culture, behaviour, and identity.
The South Caucasus--home to the countries of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan--geographically links Europe and the Near East. The area has served for millennia as a major crossroads for human migration, with strong archaeological evidence for big cultural shifts over time. And yet, surprisingly, ancient mitochondrial DNA evidence reported in Current Biology on June 29 finds no evidence of any upheaval over the last 8,000 years.
Mitochondria are passed from mothers to their children. Therefore, the study of mitochondrial genomes enables scientists to trace the unique history of females over time.
"We analyzed many ancient and modern mitochondrial genomes in parts of the South Caucasus and found genetic continuity for at least 8,000 years," said Ashot Margaryan and Morten E. Allentoft from Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. "In other words, we could not detect any changes to the female gene pool over this very long time frame. This is highly interesting because this region has experienced multiple cultural shifts over the same time period, but these changes do not appear to have had a genetic impact--at least not on the female population."
The researchers were interested to study this part of the world because of its position as a cultural crossroads since ancient times. It's also known as an important area for the potential origin and spread of Indo-European languages.
To shed light on the maternal genetic history of the region, the researchers analyzed the complete mitochondrial genomes of 52 ancient skeletons from present-day Armenia and Artsakh, an unrecognized republic bordering Armenia and Azerbaijan. Those specimens span 7,800 years of history. Allentoft's team combined this new data with 206 mitochondrial genomes of modern Armenians and previously published data representing more than 480 individuals from seven neighboring populations.
Their analyses suggest that the population size in the region rapidly increased after the last glacial maximum, about 18,000 years ago. The researchers also used several sophisticated analyses to test five different demographic scenarios that could explain the formation of the modern Armenian gene pool. Despite well-documented cultural shifts in the South Caucasus across the time period in question, their results strongly favor genetic continuity in the maternal gene pool, the researchers report.
The findings imply that the female population in at least some parts of the South Caucasus has been highly stable through many cultural shifts that have occurred over thousands of years. They also suggest that documented migrations into this region during the last 2,000 to 3,000 years have had little genetic impact on the local female population.
Margaryan says the findings suggest either that cultural shifts occurred primarily through the exchange of ideas or that it was primarily men who moved into new territories, bringing new cultural ideas along with them.
The researchers say the next step is to explore these questions in whole-genome data to see if it tells the same story. They also hope to expand the study by including both modern and ancient samples from neighboring countries, which could involve collaborations with researchers in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
A discovery of multiple toothpick grooves on teeth and signs of other manipulations by a Neanderthal of 130,000 years ago are evidence of a kind of prehistoric dentistry, according to a new study led by a University of Kansas researcher.
"As a package, this fits together as a dental problem that the Neanderthal was having and was trying to presumably treat itself, with the toothpick grooves, the breaks and also with the scratches on the premolar," said David Frayer, professor emeritus of Anthropology. "It was an interesting connection or collection of phenomena that fit together in a way that we would expect a modern human to do. Everybody has had dental pain, and they know what it's like to have a problem with an impacted tooth."
The Bulletin of the International Association for Paleodontology recently published the study. The researchers analyzed four isolated but associated mandibular teeth on the left side of the Neanderthal's mouth. Frayer's co-authors are Joseph Gatti, a Lawrence dentist, Janet Monge, of the University of Pennsylvania; and, Davorka Radovčić, curator at the Croatian Natural History Museum.
The teeth were found at Krapina site in Croatia, and Frayer and Radovčić have made several discoveries about Neanderthal life there, including a widely recognized 2015 study published in PLOS ONE about a set of eagle talons that included cut marks and were fashioned into a piece of jewelry.
The teeth and all the Krapina Neanderthal fossils were discovered more than 100 years ago from the site, which was originally excavated between 1899-1905.
However, Frayer and Radovčić in recent years have reexamined many items collected from the site.
In this case, they analyzed the teeth with a light microscope to document occlusal wear, toothpick groove formation, dentin scratches, and ante mortem, lingual enamel fractures.
Even though the teeth were isolated, previous researchers were able to reconstruct their order and location in the male or female Neanderthal's mouth. Frayer said researchers have not recovered the mandible to look for evidence of periodontal disease, but the scratches and grooves on the teeth indicate they were likely causing irritation and discomfort for some time for this individual.
They found the premolar and M3 molar were pushed out of their normal positions. Associated with that, they found six toothpick grooves among those two teeth and the two molars further behind them.
"The scratches indicate this individual was pushing something into his or her mouth to get at that twisted premolar," Frayer said.
The features of the premolar and third molar are associated with several kinds of dental manipulations, he said. Mostly because the chips of the teeth were on the tongue side of the teeth and at different angles, the researchers ruled out that something happened to the teeth after the Neanderthal died.
Past research in the fossil record has identified toothpick grooves going back almost 2 million years, Frayer said. They did not identify what the Neanderthal would have used to produce the toothpick grooves, but it possibly could have been a bone or stem of grass.
"It's maybe not surprising that a Neanderthal did this, but as far as I know, there's no specimen that combines all of this together into a pattern that would indicate he or she was trying to presumably self-treat this eruption problem," he said.
The evidence from the toothpick marks and dental manipulations is also interesting in light of the discovery of the Krapina Neanderthals' ability to fashion eagle talons fashioned into jewelry because people often think of Neanderthals as having "subhuman" abilities.
"It fits into a pattern of a Neanderthal being able to modify its personal environment by using tools," Frayer said, "because the toothpick grooves, whether they are made by bones or grass stems or who knows what, the scratches and chips in the teeth, they show us that Neanderthals were doing something inside their mouths to treat the dental irritation. Or at least this one was.
In Turkey, Carved Skulls Provide the First Evidence of a Neolithic "Skull Cult": Three carved skull fragments uncovered at a Neolithic dig site in Turkey feature modifications not seen before among human remains of the time, researchers say. Thus, these modified skull fragments could point to a new "skull cult" -- or ritual group -- from the Neolithic period.
This is a pillar from Building D at Göbekli Tepe seen from the southeast. CREDIT German Archaeological Institute (DAI)
Throughout history, people have valued skulls for different reasons, from ancestor worship to the belief that human skulls transmit protective properties. This focus on the skull has led to the establishment of the term skull cult in anthropology, and various such cults -- each with characteristic modifications to skull bones -- have been catalogued.
Recently, Julia Gresky and colleagues observed a previously unknown type of modification in three partial skulls uncovered at Göbekli Tepe. Each skull had intentional deep incisions along its sagittal axes and one of those skulls also displayed a drilled hole in the left parietal bone, as well as red ochre remnants, the authors say.
By using different microscopic techniques to analyze the fragments, Gresky et al. verified that the carvings were executed using lithic tools, thus ruling out natural causes, like animal gnawing. In addition, they were able to discount scalping as a source of the marks, due to the depth of the carvings; however, other minor cut-marks on the skulls show signs of possible defleshing, they say. More likely, the skulls were carved to venerate ancestors not long after their death, say the authors, or, to put recently "dispatched" enemies on display. These findings present the very first evidence for treatment of the dead at Göbekli Tepe.
Using five different scientific approaches, a team including University of Wyoming researchers has given considerable support to the idea that humans lived year-round in the Andean highlands of South America over 7,000 years ago.
Examining human remains and other archaeological evidence from a site at nearly 12,500 feet above sea level in Peru, the scientists show that intrepid hunter-gatherers -- men, women and children -- managed to survive at high elevation before the advent of agriculture, in spite of lack of oxygen, frigid temperatures and exposure to elements.
"This gives us a very strong baseline to help understand the rates of cultural and genetic change in the Andean highlands, a region known for the domestication of alpaca, potatoes and other plants; emergence of state-level political and economic complexity; and rapid human adaptation to high-elevation life," says Randy Haas, a postdoctoral research associate in the University of Wyoming's Department of Anthropology and the team's leader.
The research appears in the July issue of Royal Society Open Science, a peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal. Along with Haas, the second author is Ioana Stefenescu, graduate student in UW's Department of Geology and Geophysics. Also contributing to the paper were Alexander Garcia-Putnam, doctoral student in the UW Department of Anthropology; Mark Clementz, associate professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics; Melissa Murphy, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology; and researchers from the University of California-Davis, the University of California-Merced, the University of Arizona and Peruvian institutions.
Excavations led by Haas at the site in southern Peru produced the remains of 16 people, along with more than 80,000 artifacts, dating to as early as 8,000 years ago. Evidence from that site, as well as others, has led some researchers to estimate that hunter-gatherers began living in the Andes around 9,000 years ago, but debate has continued over whether that human presence was permanent or seasonal.
The research team led by Haas took five different approaches to test whether there was early permanent use of the region: studying the human bones for oxygen and carbon isotopes; the travel distances from the site to low-elevation zones; the demographic mixture of the human remains; and the types of tools and other materials found with them.
The scientists found low oxygen and high carbon isotope values in the bones, revealing the distinct signature of permanent high-elevation occupation; that travel distances to low-elevation zones were too long for seasonal human migration; that the presence of women and small children meant such migration was highly unlikely; and that almost all of the tools used by the hunter-gatherers were made with high-elevation stone material, not brought from elsewhere.
"These results constitute the strongest evidence to date that people were living year-round in the Andean highlands at least 7,000 years ago," Haas says. "Such high-elevation environments were among the last frontiers of human colonization, and this knowledge holds implications for understanding rates of genetic, physiological and cultural adaption in the human species."
Tel Aviv University archaeologists have revealed that cloth samples found in the Israeli desert present the earliest evidence of plant-based textile dyeing in the region. They were found at a large-scale copper smelting site and a nearby temple in the copper ore district of Timna in Israel's Arava desert and are estimated to date from the 13th-10th centuries BCE.
CREDIT Clara Amit, courtesy of the Israeli Antiquities Authority.
The wool and linen pieces shed light on a sophisticated textile industry and reveal details about a deeply hierarchical society dependent on long-distance trade to support its infrastructure in the unforgiving desert.
The study was published in PLOS ONE. It was led by Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures and Dr. Naama Sukenik of the Israel Antiquities Authority; and conducted in collaboration with Vanessa Workman of TAU's Department of Archaeology, Dr. Orit Shamir of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Dr. Zohar Amar, Dr. Alexander Varvak and Dr. David Iluz of Bar-Ilan University.
Textiles suggest significant social stratification
"This was clearly a formative period, with local kingdoms emerging and replacing Egyptian hegemony in Canaan," Dr. Ben-Yosef said. "These beautiful masterpieces of weaving and dyeing -- the first evidence of industrial dyeing at the time, of wash-resistant color on textile -- support the idea of a strong, hierarchical Edomite Kingdom in Timna at the time.
"It is apparent that there was a dominant elite in this society that took pains to dress according to their 'class,' and had the means to engage in long-distance trade to transport these textiles -- and other materials and resources -- to the desert."
The research suggests a sophisticated dyeing process involving cooking colorful plants in water, then adding fleece fixed with alum to create a chemical bond between fabrics and dye. The result is a wash-resistant colorful fabric.
The researchers radiocarbon-dated the textile pieces and harnessed gas chromatography to identify the cloth's organic molecules. They found "red" molecules produced from the madder plant and "blue" molecules from the woad plant.
"Both plants were known in antiquity as sources of organic dyes," said Dr. Ben-Yosef. "We know that these plants were used to create elaborate costumes during the Roman period, more than a thousand years later. Now we have evidence in the region of an Edomite society wearing textiles produced the same way, versus an earlier 'primitive' smearing of color on fabric."
"We can make many inferences according to this discovery," Dr. Ben-Yosef continued. "To force a large group of people to work in dangerous mines in the desert, you need a strong ruling party -- an elite that probably wore exquisite clothes to further distinguish themselves. The smelters, working in furnaces, were considered 'magicians' or even priests, and they probably wore fine clothing too. They represented the highest level of society, managing a sensitive and complex process to produce copper from rock."
Evidence of long-distance trade
The textile dye presents evidence of long-distance trade, Dr. Ben-Yosef noted. "Clearly this is not local. These plants require a lot of water and probably hail from the Mediterranean regions. The dyeing required special craftspeople, an entire industry that could not have subsisted in the desert. If Jerusalem was indeed opulent in the time of King Solomon, and the Temple covered in copper, we can assume a link to that kingdom."
The textiles are currently being stored in special facilities at the Israel Antiquities Authority and will one day be presented in museums in Israel and elsewhere.
Toe prosthesis of a female burial from the Theban tomb TT95, early first millennium BC. Egyptian Museum Cairo, JE100016a. CREDIT University of Basel, LHTT. Image: Matja� Kačičnik
It is likely to be one of the oldest prosthetic devices in human history: Together with other experts, Egyptologists from the University of Basel have reexamined an artificial wooden big toe. The find is almost 3000 years old and was discovered in a female burial from the necropolis of Sheikh ´Abd el-Qurna close to Luxor. This area is currently being studied using state-of-the-art methods.
The international team investigated the one-of-a-kind prosthesis using modern microscopy, X-ray technology, and computer tomography. They were able to show that the wooden toe was refitted several times to the foot of its owner, a priest's daughter. The researchers also newly classified the used materials and identified the method with which the highly developed prosthesis was produced and utilized. Experts from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo - where the prosthetic device was brought to after it had been found - and the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich were also involved in this study.
The artificial toe from the early first millennium BC testifies to the skills of an artisan who was very familiar with the human physiognomy. The technical know-how can be seen particularly well in the mobility of the prosthetic extension and the robust structure of the belt strap. The fact that the prosthesis was made in such a laborious and meticulous manner indicates that the owner valued a natural look, aesthetics and wearing comfort and that she was able to count on highly qualified specialists to provide this.
Life histories of a burial ground
The prosthesis from the Early Iron Age was found in a plundered shaft tomb that was cut into the bedrock of an older, long time idle burial chapel at the graveyard hill of Sheikh ´Abd el-Qurna to the west of Luxor. This chapel belongs to a group of monumental rock-cut tombs from the late 15th century BC which were built for a small upper class that was close to the royal family. Since the end of 2015, the University of Basel has been studying this ancient Egyptian elite cemetery, its long history of usage, and surroundings.
For this project, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, microanalytic, scientifically oriented methods, as well as precision technology for surveying and photography were used. The researchers are looking into the materiality of archaeological remains and are thus gaining insight into the life histories of building structures and objects. These material biographies can provide information about the manufacturing practices, usages, personal skills, habits and preferences of people who were in contact with these objects.
A necropolis in 3-D
The oldest known tombs from Sheikh ´Abd el-Qurna date back to the early second millennium BC. The cemetery saw its heyday in the 15th century BC. However, many of these rock-cut structures were reused and in parts remodeled several times for burials during the first millennium BC. Much later, they served as dwellings mostly for locals - a process that began with the early Christian hermits and only ended in the early 20th century.
Together with the experts for geodesy and geology from the ETH Zurich, the Basel team of archaeologists is scientifically assessing the natural and artificial structures of the excavation area and its surroundings. The specialists are currently developing geometric precise digital elevation, landscape, and architecture models for this area. These will then be combined to an archaeological and geological 3-D map that will illustrate the morphology of the terrain as well as the investigated subterranean structures. On that basis, the researchers want to reconstruct and simulate the development of the cemetery and its use phases.
Skeletal evidence shows that, hundreds of years after the Roman Republic conquered most of the Mediterranean world, coastal communities in what is now south and central Italy still bore distinct physical differences to one another - though the same could not be said of the area around Rome itself.
Using state-of-the-art forensic techniques, anthropologists from North Carolina State University and California State University, Sacramento examined skulls from three imperial Roman cemeteries: 27 skulls from Isola Sacra, on the coast of central Italy; 26 from Velia, on the coast of southern Italy; and 20 from Castel Malnome, on the outskirts of the city of Rome. The remains at the cemeteries in both Isola Sacra and Velia belonged to middle-class merchants and tradesmen, while those from Castel Malnome belonged to manual laborers. All of the remains date from between the first and third centuries A.D.
The researchers took measurements of 25 specific points on each skull using a "digitizer," which is basically an electronic stylus that records the coordinates of each point. This data allowed them to perform shape analysis on the skulls, relying on "geometric morphometrics" -- a field of study that characterizes and assesses biological forms.
"We found that there were significant cranial differences between the coastal communities, even though they had comparable populations in terms of class and employment," says Ann Ross, a professor of anthropology at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work.
"We think this is likely due to the fact that the area around Velia had a large Greek population, rather than an indigenous one," says Samantha Hens, a professor of biological anthropology at Sacramento State and lead author of the paper.
In addition, the skulls from Castel Malnome had more in common with both coastal sites than the coastal sites had with each other.
"This likely highlights the heterogeneity of the population near Rome, and the influx of freed slaves and low-paid workers needed for manual labor in that area," Hens says.
"Researchers have used many techniques -- from linguistics to dental remains - to shed light on how various peoples moved through the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire," Ross says. "But this is the first study we know of in which anyone has used geometric morphometrics to evaluate imperial Roman remains.
"That's important because geometric morphometrics offers several advantages," Ross says. "It includes all geometric information in three-dimensional space rather than statistical space, it provides more biological information, and it allows for pictorial visualization rather than just lists of measurements."
"The patterns of similarities and differences that we see help us to reconstruct past population relationships," Hens says. "Additionally, these methods allow us to identify where the shape change is occurring on the skull, for example, in the face, or braincase, which gives us a view into what these people actually looked like."
According to the study published today in the journal Scientific Reports by an international team lead by Israeli researchers, Neanderthals in the Levant constituted a resilient population that survived successfully in caves and open landscapes 60,000 years ago, when dispersing modern humans reached the region.
The study was led by Dr. Ella Been from the Ono Academic College, Prof. Erella Hovers from the Institute of archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dr. Omry Barzilai from the Israel Antiquities Authority, with the assistance of Dr. Ravid Ekshtain (the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Dr. Ariel Malinsky-Buller (the Museum for Human Behavioral Evolution, Monrepos, Germany).
The study focused on the skeletal remains of two human individuals from the open-air site of ‘Ein Qashish, on the banks of the Qishon stream in northern Israel. The analyses shown that these bones represent the first Neanderthal remains outside caves in the Levant, and are among the very few of such finds worldwide. The remains were dated to the late Middle Paleolithic period, between 70,000 and 60,000 years ago by Dr. Naomi Porat from the Geological Survey of Israel.
The first individual is represented by a single upper molar tooth, and was studied by Dr. Stefano Benazzi and colleagues from the University of Ravena in Italy and the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. This tooth is attributed to a Neanderthal using advanced imaging and statistical techniques.
The other individual, studied by Dr. Ella Been in collaboration with researchers from Bar-Ilan and Tel-Aviv Universities, is represented by lower limbs of a young Neanderthal (15-22 years in age), who suffered from injuries that caused limping. This individual was found within a rich archaeological level containing flint tools, animal bones, and some unusual finds for this period, such as a marine shell, pigments and an antler of a deer.
The fate of the Neanderthals and the nature of their interactions with modern humans are among the focal questions in the research of the Middle Paleolithic period, which lasted ca. 200,000 years. The Near East is the only region known today where the two populations existed during the Middle Paleolithic. The finds from ‘Ein Qashish allow, for the first time in the history of research in this region, to tie material culture remains in an open-air site with the Neanderthals, known until now only from cave sites. The current study indicates that Neanderthals repeatedly visited the site of ‘Ein Qashish and that the settlement system of Neanderthals groups included both caves and open-air sites.
Fieldwork at the site of ‘Ein Qashish and following research on the finds were conducted by researchers and students from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, and the University of Haifa.
״A number of researchers have recently claimed that Neanderthals were adapted to life in rugged mountainous terrains whereas modern humans adapted better to flat and open landscapes. The finds from ‘Ein Qashish show that Neanderthals inhabited sites in diverse topographic and ecological contexts.
Another contentious topic concerns the causes for the disappearance of the Neanderthals. One of the prominent explanations offered was that it was difficult for Neanderthals groups in the Levant to cope with the environmental outcomes of a trend of increasing drying climate that was characteristic of the time period under study. The unique find from ‘Ein Qashish indicates that Neanderthal groups repeatedly returned to the open-air sites during this time. Our study suggests that Neanderthals were a resilient population that successfully existed in the north of Israel at the time that modern humans arrived from Africa some 60,000 years ago.”
According to this study, despite possible genetic flow between Neanderthal and early Homo sapiens populations and climatic fluctuations, the Neanderthals in the Levant were a resilient population that survived successfully in the region when modern humans reached it again some 60,000 years ago.
Recently uncovered remains of a massive stone tower built to guard Gihon Spring -- a vital water supply just downhill from the ancient city of Jerusalem.
CREDIT Weizmann Institute of Science
Gihon Spring, just downhill from the ancient city of Jerusalem, was crucial to the survival of its inhabitants, and archaeologists had uncovered the remains of a massive stone tower built to guard this vital water supply. Based on pottery and other regional findings, the archaeologists had originally assigned it a date of 1,700 BCE. But new research conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science provides conclusive evidence that the stones at the base of the tower were laid nearly 1,000 years later. Among other things, the new results highlight the contribution of advanced scientific dating methods to understanding the history of the region.
Dr. Elisabetta Boaretto, Head of the Weizmann Institute of Science's D-REAMS Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory and track leader within the Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, had the opportunity to date the tower as part of her ongoing cooperative research projects with the Israel Antiquity Authority (IAA). Since 2012, Dr. Joe Uziel and Nahshon Szanton of the IAA, in continuing the excavations around the tower, have discovered that the base of the tower was not built on bedrock. "The boulders in the tower's base, in and of themselves," explains Boaretto, "do not yield any information other than the fact that whoever placed them there had the ability to maneuver such heavy stones. But underneath the boulders, the soil exhibits the layers typical of archaeological strata, and these can reveal the latest date that the site was occupied before the tower was built."
The unique and methodical approach of the D-REAMS lab team begins by planning and executing the field sampling and excavation from the beginning - together with the site archaeologists. "Getting one's hands dirty is all part of building a reliable chronology," says Boaretto. During field work conducted with the archaeologists and later in her laboratory with postdoctoral fellow Dr. Johanna Regev, Boaretto identified several clearly-delineated strata. From these, they carefully collected remains of charcoal, seeds and bones - organic matter that can be definitively dated through radiocarbon dating.
The first dating was conducted on mid-to-lower levels of sediment, and these dates indeed agreed with those originally proposed. "But there was another half-meter of sediment between the material we had dated and the large cornerstone," says Boaretto. "At a glance, we thought this might represent another few hundred years before the stone was placed." The presence of separate, sequential layers, which they identified using microarchaeological tools and radiocarbon dating, enabled the researchers to attach dates to the strata just below the tower.
The radiocarbon dating method is based on counting the radioactive 14C atoms in a sample. These carbon atoms are found in all living things in a small, but stable ratio to that of regular carbon, and they begin to decay at a known rate after death. At the Weizmann Institute of Science, the count of 14C atoms in a sample is performed with an accelerator, so it can return highly accurate results on something as small as a seed.
The date revealed by this radiocarbon dating was sometime around 800-900 BCE. That is nearly 1,000 years later than thought, and it moves the building of the tower to another historical period entirely, from the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age.
To complete the study, Boaretto and her team asked whether any explanation could allow the tower to have been built earlier - repairs, for example - but the presence of the large boulders sitting above layers of earth containing the remains of everyday activities would appear to be fairly conclusive evidence that the later date is the correct one. Boaretto: "The conclusive, scientific dating of this massive tower, placing it in a later era than was presumed, will have repercussions for other attempts to date construction and occupation in ancient Jerusalem."
Archaeologists at The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Sydney have provided a window into one of the most exciting periods in human history -- the transition between Neanderthals and modern humans.
An archaeological dig in a cave in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic has provided a timeline of evidence from 10 sedimentary layers spanning 28,000 to 50,000 years ago. This is the period when our modern human ancestors first arrived in Europe.
The dig, in a cave near the Czech border with Austria and around 150kms north of Vienna, has unearthed over 20,000 animal bones as well as stone tools, weapons and an engraved bone bead that is the oldest of its kind in Central Europe.
ANU archaeologist Dr Duncan Wright said the project was so important because it gives some of the earliest evidence of modern human activity in the region. This was a period when humans were moving substantial distances and bringing with them portable art objects.
"In the early layers the items we've found are locally made flakes, possibly used by small communities living and hunting in the vicinity to kill animals or prepare food, but around 40,000 years ago we start to see objects coming from long distances away," Dr Wright said.
"Dating from this same time we unearthed a bead made from mammal bone. This is the oldest portable art object of its type found anywhere in central Europe and provides evidence of social signalling, quite possibly used as a necklace to mark the identity of the wearer.
"So between these two periods, we've either seen a change in behaviour and human movement or possibly even a change in species."
Archaeologist Ladislav Nejman of the University of Sydney said one of the biggest questions is the beginnings of human exploration of this landscape by Homo sapiens who arrived in this area for the first time. "We've found that somewhere between 40-48,000 years ago people became highly mobile," Dr Nejman said.
"Instead of moving short distances near the cave where they lived, they were walking for hundreds of kilometres quite often. We know that because we found various artefacts where the raw material comes from 100-200 kilometres away.
"The artefacts were also made of different materials from different regions. Some from the North-West, some from the North, some from the East."
However in layer 10, which represents an earlier time period between 48-45,000 years ago, all the recovered stone artefacts were made using local raw material, which indicates that the high residential mobility came later.
Dr Nejman said the study also revealed valuable new information about the climate of the region.
"We haven't had such a long sequence of sedimentary layers before that we could test," he said.
"The climate changed quite often from warmer to colder, and vice versa, but at all times it was much colder than the interglacial period that we have lived in for the past 10,000 years."
Samples from the site have been sent through for analysis using a new technique, called ancient sediment DNA analysis. This is the first scientific method that can detect which species were present even without the bones of these species. It tests remnant DNA preserved in the sediment.
Dr Wright said the results will shed new light on a period of transition between two species of humans and also give clearer evidence about the activities of our modern human ancestors in a period and region where little is known.
"We can tell by the artefacts that small groups of people camped at this cave. This was during glacial periods suggesting they were well adapted to these harsh conditions" Dr Wright said.
"It's quite possible that the two different species of humans met in this area."
Using advanced imaging technology, Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered a hitherto invisible inscription on the back of a pottery shard that has been on display at The Israel Museum for more than 50 years.
This is the inscription found on reverse of ostraca at Arad. CREDIT American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU)
The ostracon (ink-inscribed pottery shard) was first found in poor condition in 1965 at the desert fortress of Arad. It dates back to ca. 600 BCE, the eve of the kingdom of Judah's destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. The inscription on its front side, opening with a blessing by Yahweh, discusses money transfers and has been studied by archaeologists and biblical scholars alike.
"While its front side has been thoroughly studied, its back was considered blank," said Arie Shaus of TAU's Department of Applied Mathematics, one of the principal investigators of the study published today in PLOS ONE. The study can be found at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178400.
"Using multispectral imaging to acquire a set of images, Michael Cordonsky of TAU's School of Physics noticed several marks on the ostracon's reverse side. To our surprise, three new lines of text were revealed," Shaus said.
The researchers were able to decipher 50 characters, comprising 17 words, on the back of the ostracon. "The content of the reverse side implies it is a continuation of the text on the front side," said Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin of TAU's Department of Applied Mathematics, another principal investigator of the study.
The multidisciplinary research was conducted by Faigenbaum-Golovin, Shaus, and Barak Sober, all doctoral students in TAU's Department of Applied Mathematics, and by Dr. Anat Mendel-Geberovich of TAU's Department of Archaeology. Additional collaborators include Prof. David Levin and Prof. Eli Turkel of TAU's Department of Applied Mathematics, Prof. Benjamin Sass of TAU's Department of Archaeology, as well as Michael Cordonsky and Prof. Murray Moinester of TAU's School of Physics. The research team was co-led by Prof. Eli Piasetzky of TAU's School of Physics and Prof. Israel Finkelstein of TAU's Department of Archaeology.
"Using multispectral imaging, we were also able to significantly improve the reading of the front side, adding four 'new' lines," said Sober.
A request for more wine
"Tel Arad was a military outpost -- a fortress at the southern border of the kingdom of Judah -- and was populated by 20 to 30 soldiers," said Dr. Mendel-Geberovich. "Most of the ostraca unearthed at Arad are dated to a short time span during the last stage of the fortress's history, on the eve of the kingdom's destruction in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar. Many of these inscriptions are addressed to Elyashiv, the quartermaster of the fortress. They deal with the logistics of the outpost, such as the supply of flour, wine, and oil to subordinate units."
"The new inscription begins with a request for wine, as well as a guarantee for assistance if the addressee has any requests of his own," said Shaus. "It concludes with a request for the provision of a certain commodity to an unnamed person, and a note regarding a 'bath,' an ancient measurement of wine carried by a man named Ge'alyahu."
"The newly revealed inscription features an administrative text, like most of the Arad inscriptions," said Dr. Mendel-Geberovich. "Its importance lies in the fact that each new line, word, and even a single sign is a precious addition to what we know about the First Temple period."
"On a larger scale, our discovery stresses the importance of multispectral imaging to the documentation of ostraca," said Faigenbaum-Golovin. "It's daunting to think how many inscriptions, invisible to the naked eye, have been disposed of during excavations."
"This is ongoing research," concluded Sober. "We have at our disposal several additional alterations and expansions of known First Temple-period ostraca. Hence, the future may hold additional surprises."
A recently published Cornell University study describes how shifts in the diets of Europeans after the introduction of farming 10,000 years ago led to genetic adaptations that favored the dietary trends of the time.
Before the Neolithic revolution that began around 10,000 years ago, European populations were hunter-gatherers that ate animal-based diets and some seafood. But after the advent of farming in southern Europe around 8,000 years ago, European farmers switched to primarily plant-heavy diets.
The study - the first to separate and compare adaptations that occurred before and after the Neolithic Revolution - reveals that these dietary practices are reflected in the genes of Europeans.
"The study shows what a striking role diet has played in the evolution of human populations," said Alon Keinan, associate professor of computational and population genomics and the paper's senior author. Kaixiong Ye, a postdoctoral researcher in Keinan's lab, is the paper's lead author.
The study has implications for the growing field of nutritional genomics, called nutrigenomics. Based on one's ancestry, clinicians may one day tailor each person's diet to her or his genome to improve health and prevent disease.
The study shows that vegetarian diets of European farmers led to an increased frequency of an allele that encodes cells to produce enzymes that helped farmers metabolize plants. Frequency increased as a result of natural selection, where vegetarian farmers with this allele had health advantages that allowed them to have more children, passing down this genetic variant to their offspring.
The FADS1 gene found in these vegetarian farmers produces enzymes that play a vital role in the biosynthesis of omega-3 and omega-6 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA). These LCPUFAs are crucial for proper human brain development, controlling inflammation and immune response. While omega-3 and omega-6 LCPUFA can be obtained directly from animal-based diets, they are absent from plant-based diets. Vegetarians require FADS1 enzymes to biosynthesize LCPUFA from short-chain fatty acids found in plants (roots, vegetables and seeds).
Analysis of ancient DNA revealed that prior to humans' farming, the animal-based diets of European hunter-gatherers predominantly favored the opposite version of the same gene, which limits the activity of FADS1 enzymes and is better suited for people with meat and seafood-based diets.
Analysis of the frequencies of these alleles in Europeans showed that the prevalence of the allele for plant-based diets decreased in Europeans until the Neolithic revolution, after which it rose sharply. Concurrently, the opposite version of the same gene found in hunter-gatherers increased until the advent of farming, after which it declined sharply.
The researchers also found a gradient in the frequencies of these alleles from north to south since the Neolithic Era, including modern-day populations. All farmers relied heavily on plant-based diets, but that reliance was stronger in the south, as compared to northern Europeans - whose farmer ancestors drank more milk and included seafood in their diet.
Plant-based alleles regulate cholesterol levels and have been associated with risk of many diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, cardiovascular disease, arthritis and bipolar disorder.
"I want to know how different individuals respond differently to the same diet," Ye said. Future studies will investigate additional links between genetic variation, diets and health, so that "in the future, we can provide dietary recommendations that are personalized to one's genetic background," he added.
New fossil finds from the Jebel Irhoud archaeological site in
Morocco do more than push back the origins of our species by 100,000
years. They also reveal what was on the menu for our oldest-known Homo sapiens ancestors 300,000 years ago:
Plenty of gazelle meat, with the occasional wildebeest, zebra and
other game and perhaps the seasonal ostrich egg, says Teresa Steele, a
paleoanthropologist at the University of California, Davis, who analyzed
animal fossils at Jebel Irhoud.
Steele, who studies how food sources and environmental change
influenced human evolution and migration, was part of the international
research team that began excavating at the site in 2004. She is the
co-author of one of two papers featured on the cover of the June 8 issue
of Nature: "Human origins: Moroccan remains push back date for the emergence of Homo sapiens."
Jebel Irhoud has been well known since the 1960s for its human
fossils and for its Middle Stone Age artifacts, but the geological age
of those fossils was uncertain.
The new excavation project --led by Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and
Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer of the National Institute for Archaeology and
Heritage (INSAP) in Rabat, Morocco -- uncovered 16 new Homo sapiens fossils along with stone tools and animal bones. The remains comprise skulls, teeth, and long bones of at least 5 individuals.
Thermoluminescence dating of heated flints yielded an age of
approximately 300,000 years ago -- 100,000 years earlier than the
previously oldest Homo sapiens fossils.
Analysis of the animal fossils provided additional evidence to
support the date. Dating of rodent remains suggested they were 337,000
to 374,000 years old.
Gazelle Bones Common
Steele sifted through hundreds of fossil bones and shells,
identifying 472 of them to species as well as recording cut marks and
breaks indicating which ones had been food for humans.
Most of the animal bones came from gazelles. Among the other
remains, Steele also identified hartebeests, wildebeests, zebras,
buffalos, porcupines, hares, tortoises, freshwater molluscs, snakes and
ostrich egg shells.
Small game was a small percentage of the remains. "It really seemed like people were fond of hunting," she said.
Cuts and breaks on long bones indicate that humans broke them open,
likely to eat the marrow, she said. Leopard, hyena and other predators'
fossils were among the finds, but Steele found little evidence that the
nonhuman predators had gnawed on the gazelle and other prey.
Steele said the findings support the idea that Middle Stone Age
began just over 300,000 years ago, and that important changes in modern
human biology and behaviour were taking place across most of Africa
then.
"In my view, what it does is to continue to make it more feasible
that North Africa had a role to play in the evolution of modern humans."
A Griffith University geochronologist's state-of-the-art dating
methods push back the origins of our species by an unprecedented 100,000
years, uncovering the oldest modern human and our deep biological
history in Africa.
Professor Rainer Grün, director of the leading Australian
Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE), was among an international
research team that dated fossils discovered at the archaeological site
of Jebel Irhoud, Morocco.
The finds - reported on the front cover of Nature - are dated to about 300,000 years ago and represent the oldest securely aged fossil evidence of our own species.
Professor Grün said the fossils - which comprise skulls, teeth,
and long bones of at least five individuals - revealed a complex
evolutionary history of mankind that likely involved the entire African
continent.
Jebel Irhoud has been well known since the 1960s for its human
fossils and its Middle Stone Age artefacts but the interpretation of the
Irhoud hominins has long been complicated because of persistent
uncertainties surrounding their geological age.
Professor Grün used two dating methods - U-series and electron spin resonance - to accurately determine the age of Irhoud.
"The dating techniques I developed, currently being used at
Griffith University, ensure minimal damage of the fossils but the
process is very difficult to carry out," he said.
The crania of modern humans living today are characterised by a
combination of features that distinguish us from our fossil relatives
and ancestors - a small and gracile face, and globular braincase.
The fossils from Jebel Irhoud display a modern-looking face and teeth, and a large but more archaic-looking braincase.
"If we look at the history of human evolution, until the mid-80s
it was thought model humans evolved in Africa and shortly after migrated
to Europe at around 40,000 years," Professor Grün said.
"In the late 80s there were the first results of anatomically
modern humans in Israel at about 100,000 years. In the 90s there were a
few sites found in Ethiopia dated to 200,000 years and now with these
results the origins of modern humans are further pushed back to 300,000
years."
Professor Grün said uncovering more about our history was hard
because of the difficulty continuing to find fossilised human remains.
"When modern humans come to Europe they didn't bury the dead. So
there are only two or three fossils that document the arrival of modern
humans in Europe some 45,000 ago. In contrast, Neanderthals buried their
dead but they ate them as well, leading to bone accumulations in caves"
he said.
"The finds in Jebel Irhoud are one of the few places we've found
modern skulls. That's why our understanding of human evolution is very
patchy because we find so few human remains.
"We now have to rethink a number of principles within human
evolution. This shows our species has a very deep history in Africa."
The work is the latest in a series of important scientific papers
recently published by members of ARCHE, in which the role of dating
studies were crucial. These include the fossilised bones of the Stone
Age victims unearthed at Nataruk (Kenya), the discovery of prehistoric
art and ornaments from the Indonesian 'Ice Age' and the origin of
'hobbits' found in Flores Island.
Professor Grün said these works highlighted the increasing role
ARCHE played in understanding human origins and added to Griffith's
reputation as becoming one of the world's leading institutions in
Quaternary Geochronology.
