Near East
First Anatolian farmers were local hunter-gatherers that adopted agriculture
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 22 hours ago
An international team, led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and in collaboration with scientists from the United Kingdom, Turkey and Israel, has analyzed 8 pre-historic individuals, including the first genome-wide data from a 15,000-year-old Anatolian hunter-gatherer, and found that the first Anatolian farmers were direct descendants of local hunter-gatherers. These findings provide support for archaeological evidence that farming was adopted and developed by local hunter-gatherers who changed their subsistence strategy, rather than being ... more »
Africa
North Africans were among the first to colonize the Canary Islands
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 22 hours ago
People from North Africa are likely the main group that founded the indigenous population on the Canary Islands, arriving by 1000 CE, reports a new study by Rosa Fregel of Stanford University, USA and Universidad de La Laguna, Spain, and colleagues, published March 20, 2019 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE*. Numerous studies of the culture and genetics of indigenous people living in the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the coast of Morocco, point to North African Berbers as the founders, but more recent human activities - such as the Spanish conquest, the start of sugarcane pl... more »
New light on the origins of modern humans
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 23 hours ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is a map showing early African archaeological sites with evidence for symbolic material and microlithic stone tools view more Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image by Reto Stöckli RESEARCHERS from the University of Huddersfield, with colleagues from the University of Cambridge and the University of Minho in Braga, have been using a genetic approach to tackle one of the most intractable questions of all - how and when we became truly human. Modern *Homo sapiens* first arose in Africa more than 300,000 years ago, but there is great controversy amon... more »
How tiny tools may have made us human
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The iconic, tear-drop shaped hand axe, which filled a human palm, required a large toolkit to produce (left), in contrast to a toolkit for tiny flakes. view more Credit: Emory University Anthropologists have long made the case that tool-making is one of the key behaviors that separated our human ancestors from other primates. A new paper, however, argues that it was not tool-making that set hominins apart -- it was the miniaturization of tools. Just as tiny transistors transformed telecommunications a few decades ago, and scientists are now challenged to ma... more »
Earlier emergence of malaria in Africa
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Institut Pasteur [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *New research suggests an earlier emergence of malaria in Africa. view more Credit: © Institut Pasteur Malaria, which claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year - mainly children and especially in Africa -, is one of the leading causes of death by an infectious agent, the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. In research on malaria, the genetic mutation that causes sickle cell anemia (also known as drepanocytosis), a chronic disease that is often fatal in children under five, caught the attention of the scientific community very early on becau... more »
A shared past for East Africa's hunter-gatherers
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
A genomic analysis suggests African hunting and gathering groups diverged from a common ancestry, and underscores the role of infectious disease and diet as drivers of local adaptation University of Pennsylvania [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *With the help of a local translator, Simon Thompson from Sarah Tishkoff's lab (University of Pennsylvania) and Dawit Wolde-Meskel (collaborator from Addis Ababa University) explain the research project on African... view more Credit: Tishkoff lab Languages that involve "clicks" are relatively rare worldwide but are spoken by several groups in Africa.... more »
Worldwide
Complex societies gave birth to big gods, not the other way around
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 23 hours ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Locations of the 30 sampled regions labelled according to precolonial evidence of moralizing gods. The area of each circle is proportional to social complexity of the earliest polity with moralizing... view more Credit: (c) the authors of the paper (Vienna, March 20, 2019) An international research team, including a member of the Complexity Science Hub Vienna, investigated the role of "big gods" in the rise of complex large-scale societies. Big gods are defined as moralizing deities who punish ethical transgressions. Contrary to prevailing theories, the te... more »
Diet-related changes in human bite spread new speech sounds
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
Diet-induced changes favor innovation in speech sounds University of Zurich Diet-induced changes in the human bite resulted in new sounds such as "f" in languages all over the world, a study by an international team led by researchers at the University of Zurich has shown. The findings contradict the theory that the range of human sounds has remained fixed throughout human history. Human speech is incredibly diverse, ranging from ubiquitous sounds like "m" and "a" to the rare click consonants in some languages of Southern Africa. This range of sounds is generally thought to have be... more »
Europe
Earliest known Mariner's Astrolabe
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 days ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Guinness World Records have independently certified an astrolabe excavated from the wreck site of a Portuguese Armada Ship that was part of Vasco da Gama's second voyage to India in... view more Credit: David Mearns Guinness World Records have independently certified an astrolabe excavated from the wreck site of a Portuguese Armada Ship that was part of Vasco da Gama's second voyage to India in 1502-1503 as the oldest in the world, and have separately certified a ship's bell (dated 1498) recovered from the same wreck site also as the oldest in the world. The... more »
Genetic history of the Iberian Peninsula revealed by dual studies
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
i [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Excavation work in progress at the site of Balma Guilanyà. view more Credit: CEPAP-UAB An international team of researchers have analyzed ancient DNA from almost 300 individuals from the Iberian Peninsula, spanning more than 12,000 years, in two studies published today in *Current Biology* and *Science*. The first study looked at hunter-gatherers and early farmers living in Iberia between 13,000 and 6000 years ago. The second looked at individuals from the region during all time periods over the last 8000 years. Together, the two papers greatly increase our... more »
Ancient DNA from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) suggests that the Iberian male lineages were almost completely replaced between 4,500 and 4,000 years ago by newcomers originating on the Russian steppe
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The University of Huddersfield's Archaeogenetics Research Group joined an international team conducting the study which spanned an 8,000-year period. view more Credit: University of Huddersfield THE University of Huddersfield's Archaeogenetics Research Group has been involved in a major international collaboration documenting the settlement of Iberia over the last eight thousand years, published on 14 March in the journal *Science*. The work, which involved 111 researchers from Harvard Medical School in the United States, the Max-Planck Institute for the Sci... more »
Thanks to pig remains, scientists uncover extensive human mobility to sites near Stonehenge
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
A mutli-isotope analysis of pigs remains found around henge complexes near Stonehenge has revealed the large extent and scale of movements of human communities in Britain during the Late Neolithic. The findings "demonstrate a level of interaction and social complexity not previously appreciated," the authors say, and provide insight into more than a century of debate surrounding the origins of people and animals in the Stonehenge landscape. Neolithic henge complexes, located in southern Britain, have long been studied for their role as ceremonial centers. Feasts that were unpreced... more »
'Ibiza is different', genetically
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
An investigation reveals that Ibizans are genetically different from the rest of Spain inhabitants. The genetic difference is comparable to that between Basques and the rest of peninsular inhabitants, considered a genetic anomaly to date. Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *These are remains of the Phoenician settlement of Sa Caleta (Ibiza). view more Credit: UPF Ibiza is different." That is what the hundreds of standard-bearers of the "hippie" movement who visited the Pitiusan Island during the 60s thought, fascinated by its climate and its unexplored na... more »
Researchers find a piece of Palaeolithic art featuring birds and humans
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
An exceptional milestone in European Palaeolithic rock art University of Barcelona [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Image of the findings with a tracing of the engraved figures on the piece. view more Credit: UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA It is not very common to find representations of scenes instead of individual figures in Palaeolithic art, but it is even harder for these figures to be birds instead of mammals such as goats, deer or horses. So far, historians have only found three scenes of Palaeolithic art featuring humans and birds in Europe. Now, an article published in the journal *L'Anthro... more »
Foxes were domesticated by humans in the Bronze Age
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Artistic representation of a woman of the Bronze Age accompanied by a dog and a fox. view more Credit: J. A. Peñas In the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, between the third and second millennium BC, a widespread funeral practice consisted in burying humans with animals. Scientists have discovered that both foxes and dogs were domesticated, as their diet was similar to that of their owners. The discovery of four foxes and a large number of dogs at the Can Roqueta (Barcelona) and Minferri (Lleida) sites stands out among the many examples of tombs in differen... more »
Quarrying of Stonehenge 'bluestones' dated to 3000 BC
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is the Stonehenge quarry. view more Credit: UCL Excavations at two quarries in Wales, known to be the source of the Stonehenge 'bluestones', provide new evidence of megalith quarrying 5,000 years ago, according to a new UCL-led study. Geologists have long known that 42 of Stonehenge's smaller stones, known as 'bluestones', came from the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire, west Wales. Now a new study published in *Antiquity* pinpoints the exact locations of two of these quarries and reveals when and how the stones were quarried. The discovery has been made b... more »
Dog burial as common ritual in Neolithic populations of north-eastern Iberian Peninsula
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Top: remains of adult dog in partial anatomical connection in La Serreta. Bottom: dog in anatomical connection between human skeletons, in the necropolis Bòbila Madurell. view more Credit: UB-UAB Coinciding with the Pit Grave culture (4200-3600 years before our era), coming from Southern Europe, the Neolithic communities of the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula started a ceremonial activity related to the sacrifice and burial of dogs. The high amount of cases that are recorded in Catalonia suggests it was a general practice and it proves the tight relationship ... more »
Americas
Hundreds of children and llamas sacrificed in a ritual event in 15th century Peru
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
The largest sacrifice of its kind known from the Americas was associated with heavy rainfall and flooding [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Mummified children view more Credit: John Verano (2019) A mass sacrifice at a 15th century archaeological site in Peru saw the ritual killing of over 140 children and over 200 llamas, according to a study released March 6, 2019 in the open access journal *PLOS ONE* by Gabriel Prieto of the National University of Trujillo, Peru and colleagues. This is the largest known mass sacrifice of children - and of llamas - in the New World. Human and animal sacrif... more »
Oldest tattoo tool in western North America
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is a close up of a 2,000-year-old cactus spine tattoo tool discovered by WSU archaeologist Andrew Gillreath-Brown. view more Credit: Bob Hubner/WSU PULLMAN, Wash. - Washington State University archaeologists have discovered the oldest tattooing artifact in western North America. With a handle of skunkbush and a cactus-spine business end, the tool was made around 2,000 years ago by the Ancestral Pueblo people of the Basketmaker II period in what is now southeastern Utah. Andrew Gillreath-Brown, an anthropology PhD candidate, chanced upon the pen-sized in... more »
Northwest Coast clam gardens nearly 2,000 years older than previously thought
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *A study led by SFU archaeology professor Dana Lepofsky and Hakai Institute researcher Nicole Smith reveals that clam gardens, ancient Indigenous food security systems located along B.C.'s coast, date back... view more Credit: Nicole Smith A study led by SFU archaeology professor Dana Lepofsky and Hakai Institute researcher Nicole Smith reveals that clam gardens, ancient Indigenous food security systems located along B.C.'s coast, date back at least 3,500 years--almost 2,000 years older than previously thought. These human-built beach terraces continue to ... more »
Ancient poop helps show climate change contributed to fall of Cahokia
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
A new study shows climate change may have contributed to the decline of Cahokia, a famed prehistoric city near present-day St. Louis. And it involves ancient human poop. Published today [Feb. 25, 2019] in the *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*, the study provides a direct link between changes in Cahokia's population size as measured through a unique fecal record and environmental data showing evidence of drought and flood. "The way of building population reconstructions usually involves archaeological data, which is separate from the data studied by climate scientists... more »
Pottery reveals America's first social media networks
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
Ancient Indigenous societies, including Mississippian Mound cultures, were built through social networks, PNAS study suggests Washington University in St. Louis [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Examples of the kinds of pottery produced by people living across southern Appalachia between AD 800 and 1650. The unique symbols were stamped onto the pottery when the clay was... view more Credit: Jacob Lulewicz Long before Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and even MySpace, early Mississippian Mound cultures in America's southern Appalachian Mountains shared artistic trends and technologies across regio... more »
Safe harbor for Native residents during the Mission era and beyond
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
* Latest findings will be discussed during the Society for California Archaeology annual meeting March 7-10 in Sacramento University of California - Santa Cruz [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This obsidian point was recovered from the site of a 19th-century Coast Miwok village. view more Credit: Carolyn Lagattuta Contrary to the dominant narrative of cultural extinction, indigenous residents of Marin County survived colonization, preserving and passing on their traditions and cultural practices, says a UC Santa Cruz anthropologist who will present his latest research during a conference in M.
Biocolonizer species are putting the conservation of the granite at Machu Picchu at risk
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *There is a wide variety of biocolonizer species that are putting the conservation of the granite at Machu Picchu at risk. view more Credit: Héctor Morillas / UPV/EHU The Sacred Rock is one of the most important monuments at the Inca sanctuary Machu Picchu, located in the Cusco region in Peru. It is a granitic rock that the Inca culture used for religious worship as it was regarded as the gateway between earth and heaven. Owing to the location and climate conditions of the site, many rocks in the archaeological city are affected by biocolonization. And at the... more »
Neanderthals
Neanderthals walked upright just like the humans of today U
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Virtual reconstruction of the skeleton found in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, based on high-resolution 3D surface scans of the spine and pelvis. view more Credit: Martin Häusler, UZH. Neanderthals are often depicted as having straight spines and poor posture. However, these prehistoric humans were more similar to us than many assume. University of Zurich researchers have shown that Neanderthals walked upright just like modern humans - thanks to a virtual reconstruction of the pelvis and spine of a very well-preserved Neanderthal skeleton found in France. An upright... more »
Neandertals' main food source was definitely meat
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Tooth of an adult Neandertal from Les Cottés in France. Her diet consisted mainly of the meat of large herbivore mammals. view more Credit: © MPI f. Evolutionary Anthropology/ A. Le Cabec Neandertals' diets are highly debated: they are traditionally considered carnivores and hunters of large mammals, but this hypothesis has recently been challenged by numerous pieces of evidence of plant consumption. Ancient diets are often reconstructed using nitrogen isotope ratios, a tracer of the trophic level, the position an organism occupies in a food chain. Neandertal... more »
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First Neanderthal footprints found in Gibraltar
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 5 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The place where the footprint was found. view more Credit: Universdad de Sevilla The prestigious international journal *Quaternary Science Reviews* has just published a paper which has involved the participation of Gibraltarian scientists from The Gibraltar National Museum alongside colleagues from Spain, Portugal and Japan. The results which have been published come from an area of the Catalan Bay Sand Dune. This work started ten years ago, when the first dates using the OSL method were obtained. It is then that the first traces of footprints left by verte... more »
Asia
New research casts doubt on cause of Angkor's collapse
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
University of Sydney [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The ancient city of Angkor, Cambodia. view more Credit: The University of Sydney New University of Sydney research has revealed the ancient Cambodian city of Angkor underwent a gradual decline in occupation rather than an abrupt collapse. Researchers have long debated the causes of Angkor's demise in the 15th century. Historical explanations have emphasised the role of aggressive neighbouring states, and the abandonment of Angkor in 1431 A.D. has been portrayed as a catastrophic demographic collapse. However, new scientific evidence shows... more »
The monkey hunters: Humans colonize South Asian rainforest by hunting primates
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is an exterior view of the entrance of Fa-Hien Lena cave in Sri Lanka. view more Credit: O. Wedage A multidisciplinary study has found evidence for humans hunting small mammals in the forests of Sri Lanka at least 45,000 years ago. The researchers discovered the remains of small mammals, including primates, with evidence of cut-marks and burning at the oldest archaeological site occupied by humans in Sri Lanka, alongside sophisticated bone and stone tools. The hunting of such animals is an example of the uniquely human adaptability that allowed *H. sapi... more »
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