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Neanderthals and Denisovans
One species, many origins
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *World map with land area resized to represent modern human genetic diversity and colour representing Neanderthal plus Denisovan ancestry. As can be seen, contributions from other populations to the Homo... view more Credit: James Cheshire/Mark G. Thomas In a paper published in *Nature Ecology and Evolution*, a group of researchers argue that our evolutionary past must be understood as the outcome of dynamic changes in connectivity, or gene flow, between early humans scattered across Africa. Viewing past human populations as a succession of discrete branches ... more »
Researchers provide first glimpse at what ancient Denisovans may have looked like
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 days ago
If you could travel back in time to 100,000 years ago, you'd find yourself living among several different groups of humans, including Modern Humans (those anatomically similar to us), Neanderthals, and Denisovans. We know quite a bit about Neanderthals, thanks to numerous remains found across Europe and Asia. But exactly what our Denisovan relatives might have looked like had been anyone's guess for a simple reason: the entire collection of Denisovan remains includes three teeth, a pinky bone and a lower jaw. Now, as reported in the scientific journal *Cell*, a team led by Hebrew U... more »
Denisovans gave modern humans an immunity boost
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 days ago
Garvan Institute of Medical Research [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This map shows the frequency of the Denisovan TNFAIP3 gene variant in modern human populations of Island South East Asia and Oceania, it is found to be common east of... view more Credit: Owen Siggs Findings from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research show modern humans acquired a gene variant from Denisovans that heightened their immune reactions, indicating adaptation of the immune system to a changing environment. The breakthrough study, published in *Nature Immunology*, is the first to demonstrate a single DNA seque... more »
Denisovan finger bone more closely resembles modern human digits than Neanderthals
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Scientists have identified the missing part of a finger bone fragment from the Denisova Cave in southern Siberia, revealing that Denisovans--an early human population discovered when the original fragment was genetically sequenced in 2010--had fingers indistinguishable from modern humans despite being more closely related to Neanderthals. This finding uncovers an important piece of evidence to the puzzle surrounding Denisovan skeletal morphology and suggests that finger bone characteristics unique to Neanderthals evolved after their evolutionary split from Denisovans. The Denisovan... more »
Europe
Northern France was already inhabited more than 650,000 years ago
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 days ago
The first evidence of human occupation in northern France has been put back by 150,000 years, thanks to the findings of a team of scientists from the CNRS and the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle at the emblematic site of Moulin Quignon in the department of the Somme. The site, now located in the gardens of a housing estate in Abbeville, was rediscovered in 2017 after falling into oblivion for over 150 years. More than 260 flint objects, including 5 bifaces or hand axes, dating from 650,000 to 670,000 years ago, have been uncovered in sands and gravel deposited by the river Somm... more »
Inequality: What we've learned from the 'Robots of the late Neolithic'
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 days ago
Santa Fe Institute [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Humble ox or Neolithic robot? view more Credit: Amy Bogaard Seven thousand years ago, societies across Eurasia began to show signs of lasting divisions between haves and have-nots. In new research published in the journal *Antiquity*, scientists chart the precipitous surge of prehistoric inequality and trace its economic origins back to the adoption of ox-drawn plows. Their findings challenge a long-held view that inequality arose when human societies first transitioned from hunting and gathering to agriculture. According to the researcher... more »
Extinction of Icelandic walrus coincides with Norse settlement
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
An international collaboration of scientists in Iceland, Denmark and the Netherlands has for the first time used ancient DNA analyses and C14-dating to demonstrate the past existence of a unique population of Icelandic walrus that went extinct shortly after Norse settlement some 1100 years ago. Walrus hunting and ivory trade was probably the principal cause of extinction, being one of the earliest examples of commercially driven overexploitation of marine resources. The presence of walruses in Iceland in the past and its apparent disappearance as early as in the Settlement and Comm... more »
Women also competed for status superiority in mid-Republican Rome
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
Purple clothing, gold trimmings, earrings and two- or four-wheeled carriages. Among the elite, competition for status superiority was just as vital to women as it was to men in Rome around 2000 years ago. This has been demonstrated in a thesis that investigates the domains and resources women had access to for status competition and how these were regulated by law. Elite status competition was a distinguishing feature of mid-Republican Rome (264-133 BCE). Struggles for superiority in status among the senatorial elite catalysed social growth and conflict, and the desire for glory su... more »
Researchers find earliest evidence of milk consumption
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *A jaw bone used in the study -- from the collections of the Dorset County Museum. view more Credit: Dr Sophy Charlton, University of York Researchers have found the earliest direct evidence of milk consumption anywhere in the world in the teeth of prehistoric British farmers. The research team, led by archaeologists at the University of York, identified a milk protein called beta lactoglobulin (BLG) entombed in the mineralised dental plaque of seven individuals who lived in the Neolithic period around 6,000 years-ago. The human dental plaque samples in the st... more »
Bones of Roman Britons provide new clues to dietary deprivation
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *A soldier's tombstone from Roman-era London view more Credit: Museum of London Researchers at the University of Bradford have shown a link between the diet of Roman Britons and their mortality rates for the first time, overturning a previously-held belief about the quality of the Roman diet. Using a new method of analysis, the researchers examined stable isotope data (the ratios of particular chemicals in human tissue) from the bone collagen of hundreds of Roman Britons, together with the individuals' age-of-death estimates and an established mortality model... more »
Largest coin hoard of the post-Conquest period found near Somerset
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
The British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) has announced the discovery of the largest hoard from the immediate post-Conquest period ever unearthed. The hoard, which primarily includes coins depicting Harold II (1066), the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England and his successor, William the Conqueror (1066-87), first Norman King of England, is also the largest Norman hoard found since 1833, and the largest ever found from the immediate aftermath of the Norman Conquest. The hoard is in good condition and is made up of 1,236 coins of Harold II and 1,310 coins of the ... more »
Scotland's genetic landscape echoes Dark Age populations
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
University of Edinburgh [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is a genetic map of the British Isles, based on work by Professor Jim Wilson from the University of Edinburgh's Usher Institute and MRC Human Genetics Unit. view more Credit: The University of Edinburgh The DNA of Scottish people still contains signs of the country's ancient kingdoms, with many apparently living in the same areas as their ancestors did more than a millennium ago, a study shows. Experts have constructed Scotland's first comprehensive genetic map, which reveals that the country is divided into six main clusters of ge... more »
Israel and Near East
Tel Aviv University researchers discover evidence of biblical kingdom in Arava Desert
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 days ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *More than 6 m of copper production waste were excavated at Khirbat en-Nahas, Jordan. The excavated materials from here and other sites were used to track more than four centuries... view more Credit: T. Levy/American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU) Genesis 36:31 describes an early, pre-10th century BCE Edomite kingdom: "... the kings who reigned in Edom before any Israelite king reigned." But the archaeological record has led to conflicting interpretations of this text. Now a Tel Aviv University study published in *PLOS ONE* on September 18 finds that ... more »
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
University of Heidelberg [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Some of the studied tin ingots from the sea off the coast of Israel (approx. 1300-1200 BCE). view more Credit: Photo: Ehud Galili The origin of the tin used in the Bronze Age has long been one of the greatest enigmas in archaeological research. Now researchers from Heidelberg University and the Curt Engelhorn Centre for Archaeometry in Mannheim have solved part of the puzzle. Using methods of the natural sciences, they examined the tin from the second millennium BCE found at archaeological sites in Israel, Turkey, and Greece. They we... more »
Canaanite-era settlement discovery: 4,500-year-old copper dagger blade and a collection of intact pottery containers.
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
A previously unknown center of Canaanite-era settlement was recently stumbled upon by a curious electrician on his way to work. A 4,500-year-old copper dagger blade and a collection of intact pottery containers were discovered by Ahmad Nassar Yassin, a resident of the northern Israel village of Araba. The items include northern-style 4,500-year-old storage jars and pouring vessels, as well as the bronze dagger blade, which would have been attached to a wooden handle. As was typical of the era, the artifacts, most likely including foodstuffs, were meant to accompany the occupant of ... more »
Archaeological team excavates at one of the major fortress-settlements in the Armenian Highlands
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This drone photograph faces northwest over the Vedi Fortress site. Cliffs surround and protect much of the site, with two lines of fortress walls protecting the western approach to... view more Credit: @The University of Hong Kong A team of researchers and students from HKU unearthed huge storage jars, animal bones and fortress walls from 3,000 years ago in Armenia as they initiated the Ararat Plain Southeast Archaeological Project (APSAP) during the summer of 2019. APSAP is a collaborative research project between HKU and the Institute of Archaeology and Eth... more »
Early humans used tiny, flint 'surgical' tools to butcher elephants
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The removal of meat from a bone using a replica of the Revadim tiny flake. view more Credit: Prof. Ran Barkai, Tel Aviv University The Acheulian culture endured in the Levant for over a million years during the Lower Paleolithic period (1.4 million to 400,000 years ago). Its use of bifaces or large cutting tools like hand axes and cleavers is considered a hallmark of its sophistication -- or, some researchers would argue, the lack thereof. A new Tel Aviv University-led study published in *Nature*'s *Scientific Reports* on September 10 reveals that these earl... more »
A 2,600-year-old seal bearing a prominent Hebrew name
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: The “Adonayahu Asher Al Habayit” bulla (seal). Photo] The “Adonayahu Asher Al Habayit” bulla (seal). Photo. (photo credit: ELIYAHU YANAI CITY OF DAVID ARCHIVES) A 2,600-year-old seal bearing a Hebrew name was uncovered in dirt excavated in 2013 near the Western Wall, archaeologist Eli Shukron said on Monday. Complete report The seal is inscribed with the name of "*Adenyahu Asher Al HaBayit*," meaning "Adenyahu by Appointment of the House," the most prominent role in the king's court in the Kingdom of Judea that appears for the first time on the list of ministries of ... more »
“We Have Found Biblical Ziklag”
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
*The site, from the time of King David, was discovered near Kiryat Gat * According to the Biblical narrative, David found refuge in Ziklag while fleeing from King Saul. From there he went to Hebron to be anointed as King * Dozens of complete pottery vessels were found at the site, 3,000 years old* *How was Biblical Ziklag found?*Researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, believe they have discovered the Philistine town near Kiryat Gat, immortalized in the Biblical narrative. Ziklag is mention... more »
A First Temple Era Water Cistern near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: The Forgotten Discovery: A First Temple Era Water Cistern near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem] The underground reservoir dating back to the First Temple in Jerusalem found on the edge of the Temple Mount. (*Israel Antiquities Authority, Vladimir Neychin*) At the southern corner of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a rare, preserved cistern from the First Temple period has been found, concealed from view and unknown to many. The Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered the cistern seven years ago, but difficult access to the site prevents public visits. The e... more »
Study of Dead Sea Scroll sheds light on a lost ancient parchment-making technology
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Massachusetts Institute of Technology First discovered in 1947 by Bedouin shepherds looking for a lost sheep, the ancient Hebrew texts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls are some of the most well-preserved ancient written materials ever found. Now, a study by researchers at MIT and elsewhere elucidates a unique ancient technology of parchment making and provides potentially new insights into methods to better preserve these precious historical documents. The study focused on one scroll in particular, known as the Temple Scroll, among the roughly 900 full or partial scrolls found in the y... more »
Archaeologists in Israel say they may have discovered the true location of Emmaus
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
*Complete, fascinating report* Archaeologists in Israel say they may have discovered the true location of Emmaus, the Biblical town where Jesus first appeared to two of his followers after being crucified and resurrected. *Haaretz* reports that researchers found the massive 2,200-year-old walls of a Hellenistic fortification believed to have been built by the Seleucid general who defeated Judah the Maccabee, the Jewish leader spoken of in the Hanukkah story. Since 2017, a Franco-Israeli team has been excavating a hill overlooking Jerusalem known as Kiriath Yearim, an area believed... more »
Archaeologists Find Rare Mosaic Possibly Pointing to Where Jesus Fed the 5,000
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Complete report [image: Photo Credit: Dr. Michael Eisenberg, courtesy] Israeli Archaeologists have discovered an unusually well-preserved mosaic apparently depicting the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 on the floor of an early Christian Church overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Researchers from the University of Haifa exposed the mosaic during excavations on the so-called "Burnt Church" at the Hippos-Sussita excavation site. Researchers believe the 6th century church was most likely burned down during the Sasanian conquest in the 7th century. The fire actually helped preserve the ... more »
Church of the Apostles Found? Archaeologists Claim Byzantine-Era Church is Highly Significant
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority have made what they claim to be a major discovery. They believe that they have found a Byzantine-era church that was built on the site of the home of two of Jesus Christ ’s earliest disciples, Peter and Andrew. If this is true then it could help to settle a long-running dispute over the location of the Biblical village of Bethsaida, later a city known as Julias. A team of Israeli and American archaeologists, from the Kinneret Academic College and Nyack College, New York made the discovery, near Lake Galilee in Northern Israel. The... more »
Clues to early social structures may be found in ancient extraordinary graves
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Reconstructed virtual E-W-cut through the burial Loc. C10:408, facing south. view more Credit: Benz et al., 2018 Elaborate burial sites can provide insight to the development of socio-political hierarchies in early human communities, according to a study released August 28, 2019 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE* by an international team of archaeologists, anthropologists and neuroscientists of the Ba'ja Neolithic Project hosted at the Free University of Berlin in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. The interdisciplinary investigat... more »
Asia
Common carp aquaculture in Neolithic China dating back 8,000 years
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is co-author Junzo Uchiyama preparing to measure common carp removed from the paddy field. view more Credit: Mark Hudson In a recent study, an international team of researchers analyzed fish bones excavated from the Early Neolithic Jiahu site in Henan Province, China. By comparing the body-length distributions and species-composition ratios of the bones with findings from East Asian sites with present aquaculture, the researchers provide evidence of managed carp aquaculture at Jiahu dating back to 6200-5700 BC. Despite the growing importance of farmed f... more »
Early rice farmers unwittingly selected for weedy imposters
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
Washington University in St. Louis [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The common form of barnyard grass (top) has red stems, while the mimic has green stems -- more like rice. view more Credit: Jordan R. Brock/Washington University Early rice growers unwittingly gave barnyard grass a big hand, helping to give root to a rice imitator that is now considered one of the world's worst agricultural weeds. New research from Zhejiang University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Washington University in St. Louis provides genomic evidence that barnyard grass (*Echinochloa crus-galli*) benefited from ... more »
First ancient DNA from Indus Valley civilization links its people to modern South Asians
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Cell Press [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is a photograph of a red slipped ware globular pot placed near the head of the skeleton that yielded ancient DNA. There are lines as well as indentations on... view more Credit: Vasant Shinde / Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute Researchers have successfully sequenced the first genome of an individual from the Harappan civilization, also called the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). The DNA, which belongs to an individual who lived four to five millennia ago, suggests that modern people in India are likely to be largely descende... more »
Largest-ever ancient-DNA study illuminates millennia of South and Central Asian prehistory
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The first sequenced genome from an archaeological site associated with the ancient Indus Valley Civilization came from this woman buried at the city of Rakhigarhi. view more Credit: Vasant Shinde/*Cell* The largest-ever study of ancient human DNA, along with the first genome of an individual from the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, reveal in unprecedented detail the shifting ancestry of Central and South Asian populations over time. The research, published online Sept. 5 in a pair of papers in *Science* and *Cell*, also answers longstanding questions about... more »
Genes reveal kinship between 3 victims of Mongol army in 1238 massacre
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Skulls from mass grave in Yaroslavl, Russia, showing traces of violence view more Credit: Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology have used DNA testing to prove close genetic kinship between three individuals buried in a mass grave following the capture of the Russian city Yaroslavl by Batu Khan's Mongol army in 1238. This confirms the hypothesis made by archaeologists and anthropologists after studying the remains of 15 p... more »
Americas
Machu Picchu: Ancient Incan sanctuary intentionally built on faults
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Detailed mapping indicates the World Heritage Site's location and layout were dictated by the underlying geological faults. Photo taken 5 Nov. 2010. view more Credit: Rualdo Menegat Phoenix, Arizona, USA: The ancient Incan sanctuary of Machu Picchu is considered one of humanity's greatest architectural achievements. Built in a remote Andean setting atop a narrow ridge high above a precipitous river canyon, the site is renowned for its perfect integration with the spectacular landscape. But the sanctuary's location has long puzzled scientists: Why did the Inc... more »
Archeologists find remains of 227 children sacrificed between 1200 and 1400.in Peru
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Archeologists in Peru say the 227 bodies they have unearthed from a site used by the pre-Columbian Chimu culture is the biggest-ever discovery of sacrificed children. Archeologists have been digging since last year at the huge sacrificial site in Huanchaco, a beachside tourist town north of the capital Lima... Huanchaco was a site where many child sacrifices took place during the time of the Chimu culture, whose apogee was between 1200 and 1400. Archeologists first found children's bodies at the dig site in the town's Pampa la Cruz neighborhood in June 2018, unearthing 56 skeleto... more »
Cooper's Ferry archaeological finds reveal humans arrived more than 16,000 years ago
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
American Association for the Advancement of Science Archaeological discoveries from the Cooper's Ferry site in western Idaho indicate that humans migrated to and occupied the region by nearly 16,500 years ago. The findings expand the timing of human settlement in the Americas to a period predating the appearance of an ice-free corridor linking Beringia and the rest of North America and support the growing notion that the very first Americans likely landed upon the shores of the Pacific coast. How and when human populations first arrived and settled in the Americas remains debated.... more »
Africa
First human ancestors breastfed for longer than contemporary relatives
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The differences in dental morphology are obvious between *Australopithecus africanus* (TM1518 to the left) and early Homo (SK27 to the right), but these teeth are also different in their calcium... view more Credit: Vincent Balter By analysing the fossilised teeth of some of our most ancient ancestors, a team of scientists led by the universities of Bristol (UK) and Lyon (France) have discovered that the first humans significantly breastfed their infants for longer periods than their contemporary relatives. The results, published in the journal *Science Advanc... more »
A 3.8-million-year-old fossil from Ethiopia reveals the face of Lucy's ancestor
Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
Cleveland Museum of Natural History Curator and Case Western Reserve University Adjunct Professor Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie and his team of researchers have discovered a "remarkably complete" cranium of a 3.8-million-year-old early human ancestor from the Woranso-Mille paleontological site, located in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Working for the past 15 years at the site, the team discovered the cranium (MRD-VP-1/1), here referred to as "MRD," in February 2016. In the years following their discovery, paleoanthropologists of the project conducted extensive analyses of MRD, while ... more »
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