Australia and Oceania
Aboriginal artifacts reveal first ancient underwater cultural sites in Australia
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 18 hours ago
The first underwater Aboriginal archaeological sites have been discovered off northwest Australia dating back thousands of years ago when the current seabed was dry land. The discoveries were made through a series of archaeological and geophysical surveys in the Dampier Archipelago, as part of the Deep History of Sea Country Project, funded through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Project Scheme. The Aboriginal artefacts discovered off the Plibara coast in Western Australia represent Australia's oldest known underwater archaeology. An international team of archaeologists f... more »
Papua New Guinea highland research redates Neolithic period
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 6 days ago
A new report published in *Science Advances* on the emergence of agriculture in highland Papua New Guinea shows advancements often associated with a later Neolithic period occurred about 1000 years' earlier than previously thought. University of Otago Archaeology Programme Professor and report co-author Glenn Summerhayes says findings in Emergence of a Neolithic in highland New Guinea by 5000 to 4000 years ago, provide insights into when and how the highlands were first occupied; the role of economic plants in this process; the development of trade routes which led to the transloca... more »
Denisovan DNA influences immune system of modern day Oceanian populations
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
WELLCOME TRUST SANGER INSTITUTE SHARE PRINT E-MAIL More than 120,000 novel human genetic variations that affect large regions of DNA have been discovered, some of which are linked to immune response, disease susceptibility or digestion. Scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute identified these changes affecting multiple bases of DNA, known as structural variations, in a study of the most diverse worldwide populations examined to date. This included variations in medically-important genes in populations from Papua New Guinea that were inherited from Denisovan ancestors. The ... more »
New Papua New Guinea research solves archaeological mysteries
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: PROFESSOR GLENN SUMMERHAYES AT THE "JOES' GARDEN " SITE IN THE IVANE VALLEY IN THE NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS. view more CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO New research which "fills in the blanks" on what ancient Papuan New Guineans ate, and how they processed food, has ended decades-long speculation on tool use and food stables in the highlands of New Guinea several thousand years ago. Findings from the "Joe's Garden" site in the Ivane Valley in the New Guinea highlands end several decades of academic speculation about what a for... more »
Europe, Asia and Africa
Climate change and the rise of the Roman Empire and the fall of the Ptolemies
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
YALE UNIVERSITY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL The assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March in 44 B.C.E. triggered a 17-year power struggle that ultimately ended the Roman Republic leading to the rise of the Roman Empire. To the south, Egypt, which Cleopatra was attempting to restore as a major power in the Eastern Mediterranean, was shook by Nile flood failures, famine, and disease. These events are among the best known and important political transitions in the history of western civilization. A new study reveals the role climate change played in these ancient events. An inte... more »
Eruption of Alaska's Okmok volcano linked to period of extreme cold in ancient Rome
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
An international team of scientists and historians has found evidence connecting an unexplained period of extreme cold in ancient Rome with an unlikely source: a massive eruption of Alaska's Okmok volcano, located on the opposite side of the Earth. Around the time of Julius Caesar's death in 44 BCE, written sources describe a period of unusually cold climate, crop failures, famine, disease, and unrest in the Mediterranean Region -impacts that ultimately contributed to the downfall of the Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. Historians have long suspected a volcano to be the... more »
Seafood helped prehistoric people migrate out of Africa
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Prehistoric pioneers could have relied on shellfish to sustain them as they followed migratory routes out of Africa during times of drought, a new study suggests. The study examined fossil reefs near to the now-submerged Red Sea shorelines that marked prehistoric migratory routes from Africa to Arabia. The findings suggest this coast offered the resources necessary to act as a gateway out of Africa during periods of little rainfall when other food sources were scarce. The research team, led by the University of York, focused on the remains of 15,000 shells dating back 5,000 years to ... more »
Africa
Mixture and migration brought food production to sub-Saharan Africa
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
In order to reveal the population interactions that gave rise to Africa's enormous linguistic, cultural, and economic diversity, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Africa, Europe, and North America sampled key regions in which current models predict a legacy of significant population interactions. The collaborative study between researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI-SHH), the National Museums of Kenya and other partners was led by archaeogeneticist Ke Wang and archaeologist Steven Goldstein of MPI-SHH. It sheds light on patterns of ... more »
Europe
First-degree incest: ancient genomes uncover Irish passage tomb dynastic elite
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: NEWGRANGE AS SEEN ON A MISTY MORNING. view more CREDIT: KEN WILLIAMS, SHADOWSANDSTONE.COM > The genome of an adult male from the heart of the world famous Newgrange passage tomb points to first-degree incest, implying dynasty and echoing local place-name folklore first recorded in Medieval times > Far-flung kinship ties between Newgrange and passage tomb cemeteries in the west (Carrowkeel and Carrowmore, Co. Sligo) indicate an elite social stratum was widespread > Before megalith builders arriv... more »
Tropical disease in medieval Europe revises the history of a pathogen related to syphilis
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Genomic analysis of plague victims from a mass burial in Lithuania identifies a medieval woman who was also infected with yaws -- a disease today found only in the tropics MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: MULTIPLE BURIAL IN VILNIUS, LITHUANIA CONTAINING AN INDIVIDUAL INFECTED WITH BOTH PLAGUE AND YAWS. view more CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERTAS �UKOVSKIS AND SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. Mass burials are common remnants of the many plague outbreaks that ravaged Medieval Europe. A number of these graveyards are well documented... more »
Entire Roman city revealed without any digging
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
For the first time, archaeologists have succeeded in mapping a complete Roman city, Falerii Novi in Italy, using advanced ground penetrating radar (GPR), allowing them to reveal astonishing details while it remains deep underground. The technology could revolutionise our understanding of ancient settlements. The team, from the University of Cambridge and Ghent University, has discovered a bath complex, market, temple, a public monument unlike anything seen before, and even the city's sprawling network of water pipes. By looking at different depths, the archaeologists can now study h... more »
Neandertals and Denisovans
A Neandertal from Chagyrskaya Cave
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Neandertals may have lived in very small groups, and genes expressed in the basal ganglia of their brains may have changed MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: RESEARCHERS HAVE SEQUENCED THE GENOME OF A NEANDERTAL FROM CHAGYRSKAYA CAVE IN THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS TO HIGH QUALITY.view more CREDIT: DR. BENCE VIOLA, DEPT. OF ANTHROPOLOGY, U. OF TORONTO The researchers extracted the DNA from bone powder and sequenced it to high quality. They estimate that the female Neandertal lived 60,000-80,000 years ago. From the variation in the ... more »
Immune properties in ancient DNA found in isolated villages might benefit humanity today
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
TGen-led international study traces genetic diversity among hunter-gathers of Indonesia, including last significant vestige of DNA from extinct human cousins THE TRANSLATIONAL GENOMICS RESEARCH INSTITUTE SHARE PRINT E-MAIL PHOENIX, Ariz. -- June 15, 2020 -- Could remnants of DNA from a now extinct human subspecies known as the Denisovans help boost the immune functions of modern humans? An international study co-led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, and published in the scientific journal *PLOS Genetics*, represents the first... more »
Denisovan DNA influences immune system of modern day Oceanian populations
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
WELLCOME TRUST SANGER INSTITUTE SHARE PRINT E-MAIL More than 120,000 novel human genetic variations that affect large regions of DNA have been discovered, some of which are linked to immune response, disease susceptibility or digestion. Scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute identified these changes affecting multiple bases of DNA, known as structural variations, in a study of the most diverse worldwide populations examined to date. This included variations in medically-important genes in populations from Papua New Guinea that were inherited from Denisovan ancestors. The ... more »
Asia
Discovery of oldest bow and arrow technology in Eurasia
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] IMAGE: FA-HIEN LENA HAS EMERGED AS ONE OF SOUTH ASIA'S MOST IMPORTANT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES SINCE THE 1980S, PRESERVING REMAINS OF OUR SPECIES, THEIR TOOLS, AND THEIR PREY IN A TROPICAL CONTEXT.... view more CREDIT: LANGLEY ET AL., 2020 The origins of human innovation have traditionally been sought in the grasslands and coasts of Africa or the temperate environments of Europe. More extreme environments, such as the tropical rainforests of Asia, have been largely overlooked, despite their deep history of human occupation. A new study provides the earliest evidence for bo... more »
Discovery of the oldest Chinese work of art
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
A small bird carving--the oldest instance of East Asian three-dimensional art ever discovered--is described in a study published June 10, 2020 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE* by Zhanyang Li from Shandong University, China, and colleagues. European animal and human mammoth ivory carvings dated to 40-38 ka are our earliest examples of prehistoric humans three-dimensionally representing the world around them--though due to a lack of evidence, it's unclear when this type of three-dimensional representation became part of the cultural repertoire of prehistoric groups around the res... more »
Radiocarbon dating pins date for construction of Uyghur complex to the year 777
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THIS IS AN AERIAL VIEW OF POR-BAJIN FROM THE WEST. THE COMPLEX IS SITUATED ON AN ISLAND IN A LAKE. SCIENTISTS HAVE PINNED ITS CONSTRUCTION ON THE YEAR 777... view more CREDIT: ANDREI PANIN Dating archaeological objects precisely is difficult, even when using techniques such as radiocarbon dating. Using a recently developed method, based on the presence of sudden spikes in carbon-14 concentration, scientists at the University of Groningen, together with Russian colleagues, have pinned the date for the construction of an eighth-century complex in southern Siber... more »
Oldest connection with Native Americans identified near Lake Baikal in Siberia
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
Using human population genetics, ancient pathogen genomics and isotope analysis, a team of researchers assessed the population history of the Lake Baikal region, finding the deepest connection to date between the peoples of Siberia and the Americas. The current study, published in the journal *Cell*, also demonstrates human mobility, and hence connectivity, across Eurasia during the Early Bronze Age. Modern humans have lived near Lake Baikal since the Upper Paleolithic, and have left behind a rich archaeological record. Ancient genomes from the region have revealed multiple genetic ... more »
Ancient genomes link subsistence change and human migration in northern China
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
Genetic analysis of 55 ancient individuals finds that genetic changes in Yellow River, West Liao River and Amur River populations correlate with the intensification of farming and the inclusion of a pastoral economy E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: HUMAN REMAINS IN HOUSE FOUNDATION F40 OF THE HAMINMANGHA SITE. view more CREDIT: YONGGANG ZHU, SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY JILIN UNIVERSITY While recent advances in ancient DNA analysis have established the major patterns of prehistoric human migration in western Eurasia, the population history of eastern Eurasia remains little understood. North... more »
Israel
Pinpointing the origins of Jerusalem's Temple Mount
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
CAPTION Wilson's Arch excavation area. (A) Map of the old city of Jerusalem and the location Wilson's Arch. Copyrights: Israel Antiquities Authority, 2020. (B) An artistic reconstruction of the Temple Mount in the time of Herod the Great (1st century AD). The arrow points to the arch known today as Wilson's Arch. Copyrights: Ritmeyer Archaeological Design, 2020. (C,D) Photographs of the site. The scale bar in D is 1 meter in length. (E,F) A 3D reconstruction of the site. As the site is under constant renovations, a model is used here to illustrate the location of the various featur... more »
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