Nits on ancient mummies shed light on South American ancestry

New technique means head lice can provide clues about ancient people and migration

 

IMAGE: A MUMMIFIED ADULT MAN OF THE ANSILTA CULTURE, FROM THE ANDES OF SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA, DATING BACK APPROX 2,000 YEARS. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE SAN JUAN

Human DNA can be extracted from the ‘cement’ head lice used to glue their eggs to hairs thousands of years ago, scientists have found, which could provide an important new window into the past.

In a new study, scientists for the first time recovered DNA from cement on hairs taken from mummified remains that date back 1,500-2,000 years. This is possible because skin cells from the scalp become encased in the cement produced by female lice as they attach eggs, known as nits, to the hair.

Analysis of this newly-recovered ancient DNA – which was of better quality than that recovered through other methods – has revealed clues about pre-Columbian human migration patterns within South America.  This method could allow many more unique samples to be studied from human remains where bone and tooth samples are unavailable.

The research was led by the University of Reading, working in collaboration with the National University of San Juan, Argentina; Bangor University, Wales; the Oxford University Museum of Natural History; and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Dr Alejandra Perotti, Associate Professor in Invertebrate Biology at the University of Reading, who led the research, said: “Like the fictional story of mosquitos encased in amber in the film Jurassic Park, carrying the DNA of the dinosaur host, we have shown that our genetic information can be preserved by the sticky substance produced by headlice on our hair.  In addition to genetics, lice biology can provide valuable clues about how people lived and died thousands of years ago.

“Demand for DNA samples from ancient human remains has grown in recent years as we seek to understand migration and diversity in ancient human populations. Headlice have accompanied humans throughout their entire existence, so this new method could open the door to a goldmine of information about our ancestors, while preserving unique specimens.”

Until now, ancient DNA has preferably been extracted from dense bone from the skull or from inside teeth, as these provide the best quality samples. However, skull and teeth remains are not always available, as it can be unethical or against cultural beliefs to take samples from indigenous early remains, and due to the severe damage destructive sampling causes to the specimens which compromise future scientific analysis.

Recovering DNA from the cement delivered by lice is therefore a solution to the problem, especially as nits are commonly found on the hair and clothes of well preserved and mummified humans.

The research team extracted DNA from nit cement of specimens collected from a number of mummified remains from Argentina. The mummies were of people who 1,500-2,000 years ago reached the Andes mountains of the San Juan province, Central West Argentina. The team also studied ancient nits on human hair used in a textile from Chile and nits from a shrunken head originating from the ancient Jivaroan people of Amazonian Ecuador.

The samples used for DNA studies of nit cement were found to contain the same concentration of DNA as a tooth, double that of bone remains, and four times that recovered from blood inside far more recent lice specimens.

Dr Mikkel Winther Pedersen from the GLOBE institute at the University of Copenhagen, and first author, said: “The high amount of DNA yield from these nit cements really came as a surprise to us and it was striking to me that such small amounts could still give us all this information about who these people were, and how the lice related to other lice species but also giving us hints to possible viral diseases.

“There is a hunt out for alternative sources of ancient human DNA and nit cement might be one of those alternatives. I believe that future studies are needed before we really unravel this potential.”

As well as the DNA analysis, scientists are also able to draw conclusions about a person and the conditions in which they lived from the position of the nits on their hair and from the length of the cement tubes. Their health and even cause of death can be indicated by the interpretation of the biology of the nits.

Analysis of the recovered DNA from nit-cement revealed and confirmed:

• • The sex of each of the human hosts
  • A genetic link between three of the mummies and humans in Amazonia 2,000 years ago. This shows for the first time that the original population of the San Juan province migrated from the land and rainforests of the Amazon in the North of the continent (south of current Venezuela and Colombia).
  • All ancient human remains studied belong to the founding mitochondrial lineages in South America.
  • The earliest direct evidence of Merkel cell Polymavirus was found in the DNA trapped in nit cement from one of the mummies. The virus, discovered in 2008, is shed by healthy human skin and can on rare occasions get into the body and cause skin cancer. The discovery opens up the possibility that head lice could spread the virus.

Analysis of the DNA of the nits, confirmed the same migration pattern for the human lice, from the North Amazonian planes towards Central West Argentina (San Juan Andes)

Morphological analysis of the nits informed that:

• • The mummies were all likely exposed to extremely cold temperatures when they died, which could have been a factor in their deaths. This was indicated by the very small gap between the nits and scalp on the hairs shaft. Lice rely on the host’s head heat to keep their eggs warm and so lay them closer to the scalp in cold environments.
  • Shorter cement tubes on the hair correlated with older and/or less preserved specimens, due to the cement degrading over time.

###

---

JOURNAL

Molecular Biology and Evolution

DOI

10.1093/molbev/msab351 

Great summary of this year's archaeological news in Israel

 With links

Great summary of this year's archaeological news in Israel 

How DNA is preserved in archaeological sediments for thousands of years

Ancient human and animal DNA can remain stably localized in sediments, preserved in microscopic fragments of bone and feces

 

IMAGE: SAMPLING OF AN UNDISTURBED BLOCK OF IMPREGNATED SEDIMENT FOR ANCIENT DNA ANALYSES. view more 

CREDIT: MPI F. EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

Sediments in which archaeological finds are embedded have long been regarded by most archaeologists as unimportant by-products of excavations. However, in recent years it has been shown that sediments can contain ancient biomolecules, including DNA. “The retrieval of ancient human and faunal DNA from sediments offers exciting new opportunities to investigate the geographical and temporal distribution of ancient humans and other organisms at sites where their skeletal remains are rare or absent”, says Matthias Meyer, senior author of the study and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.

To investigate the origin of DNA in the sediment, Max Planck researchers teamed up with an international group of geoarchaeologists - archaeologists who apply geological techniques to reconstruct the formation of sediment and sites - to study DNA preservation in sediment at a microscopic scale. They used undisturbed blocks of sediment that had been previously removed from archaeological sites and soaked in synthetic plastic-like (polyester) resin. The hardened blocks were taken to the laboratory and sliced in sections for microscopic imaging and genetic analysis.

The researchers successfully extracted DNA from a collection of blocks of sediment prepared as long as 40 years ago, from sites in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. “The fact that these blocks are an excellent source of ancient DNA – including that originating from hominins - despite often decades of storage in plastic, provides access to a vast untapped repository of genetic information. The study opens up a new era of ancient DNA studies that will revisit samples stored in labs, allowing for analysis of sites that have long since been back-filled, which is especially important given travel restriction and site inaccessibility in a pandemic world”, says Mike Morley from Flinders University in Australia who led some of the geoarchaeological analyses.

Abundance of micro remains in the sediment matrix

The scientists used blocks of sediment from Denisova Cave, a site located in the Altai Mountains in South Central Siberia where ancient DNA from Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans has been retrieved, and showed that small organic particles yielded more DNA than sediment sampled randomly. “It clearly shows that the high success rate of ancient mammalian DNA retrieval from Denisova Cave sediments comes from the abundance of micro remains in the sediment matrix rather than from free extracellular DNA from feces, bodily fluids or decomposing cellular tissue potentially adsorbed onto mineral grains”, says Vera Aldeias, co-author of the study and researcher at the University of Algarve in Portugal. “This study is a big step closer to understand precisely where and under what conditions ancient DNA is preserved in sediments”, says Morley.

The approach described in the study allows highly localized micro-scale sampling of sediment for DNA analyses and shows that ancient DNA (aDNA) is not uniformly distributed in the sediment; and that specific sediment features are more conducive to ancient DNA preservation than others. “Linking sediment aDNA to the archaeological micro-context means that we can also address the possibility of physical movement of aDNA between sedimentary deposits”, says Susan Mentzer a researcher at the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (Germany).

Diyendo Massilani, the lead author of the study, was able to recover substantial amounts of Neanderthal DNA from only a few milligrams of sediment. He could identify the sex of the individuals who left their DNA behind, and showed that they belonged to a population related to a Neanderthal whose genome was previously reconstructed from a bone fragment discovered in the cave. “The Neanderthal DNA in these small samples of plastic-embedded sediment was far more concentrated than what we typically find in loose material”, he says. “With this approach it will become possible in the future to analyze the DNA of many different ancient human individuals from just a small cube of solidified sediment. It is amusing to think that this is presumably so because they used the cave as a toilet tens of thousands of years ago”.

---

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2113666118 

Scientists digitally ‘unwrap’ mummy of pharaoh Amenhotep I for the first time in 3,000 years

Study shows that 21st dynasty restorers ‘lovingly restored’ mummy, dispelling theory that they were bent on reusing old royal burial equipment

 

IMAGE: FACEMASK OF THE NEVER-BEFORE UNWRAPPED MUMMY OF PHARAOH AMENHOTEP I view more 

CREDIT: S. SALEEM AND Z. HAWASS

All the royal mummies found in the 19th and 20th centuries have long since been opened for study. With one exception: egyptologists have never been bold enough to open the mummy of Pharaoh Amenhotep I. Not because of any mythical curse, but because it is perfectly wrapped, beautifully decorated with flower garlands, and with face and neck covered by an exquisite lifelike facemask inset with colorful stones. But now for the first time, scientists from Egypt have used three-dimensional CT (computed tomography) scanning to ‘digitally unwrap’ this royal mummy and study its contents. They report their findings in Frontiers in Medicine.

This was the first time in three millennia that Amenhotep’s mummy has been opened. The previous time was in the 11th century BCE, more than four centuries after his original mummification and burial. Hieroglyphics have described how during the later 21st dynasty, priests restored and reburied royal mummies from more ancient dynasties, to repair the damage done by grave robbers.

“This fact that Amenhotep I’s mummy had never been unwrapped in modern times gave us a unique opportunity: not just to study how he had originally been mummified and buried, but also how he had been treated and reburied twice, centuries after his death, by High Priests of Amun,” said Dr Sahar Saleem, professor of radiology at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University and the radiologist of the Egyptian Mummy Project, the study’s first author.

“By digitally unwrapping of the mummy and ‘peeling off’ its virtual layers – the facemask, the bandages, and the mummy itself – we could study this well-preserved pharaoh in unprecedented detail,” said Saleem.

“We show that Amenhotep I was approximately 35 years old when he died. He was approximately 169cm tall, circumcized, and had good teeth. Within his wrappings, he wore 30 amulets and a unique golden girdle with gold beads.”

“Amenhotep I seems to have physically resembled his father: he had a narrow chin, a small narrow nose, curly hair, and mildly protruding upper teeth.”

Saleem continued: “We couldn’t find any wounds or disfigurement due to disease to justify the cause of death, except numerous mutiliations post mortem, presumably by grave robbers after his first burial. His entrails had been removed by the first mummifiers, but not his brain or heart.”

The mummy of Amenhotep I (whose name means ‘Amun is satisfied’) was discovered in 1881 – among other reburied royal mummies –  at the archeological site Deir el Bahari in southern Egypt. The second pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th dynasty (after his father Ahmose I, who had expelled the invading Hyksos and reunited Egypt), Amenhotep ruled from approximately 1525 to 1504 BCE. His was a kind of golden age: Egypt was prosperous and safe, while the pharaoh ordered a religious building spree and led successful military expeditions to Libya and northern Sudan. After his death, he and his mother Ahmose-Nefertari were worshipped as gods.

Sahar Saleem and her co-author egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass, had previously speculated that the main intention of the restorers from the 11th century was to reuse royal burial equipment for later pharaohs. But here they disprove their own theory.

“We show that at least for Amenhotep I, the priests of the 21st dynasty lovingly repaired the injuries inflicted by the tomb robbers, restored his mummy to its former glory, and preserved the magnificent jewelry and amulets in place,” said Saleem.

Hawass and Saleem studied more than 40 royal mummies of the New Kingdom in the Egyptian Antiquity Ministry Project that was launched since 2005. Twenty-two royal mummies, including that of Amenhotep I, were transferred in April 2021 to a new museum in Cairo. The face of the mummy of Amenhotep I with its mask was the icon of the spectactular ‘Royal Golden Mummy Parade’ on March 3rd, 2021 in Cairo.

“We show that CT imaging can be profitably used in anthropological and archeological studies on mummies, including those from other civilizations, for example Peru,” concluded Saleem and Hawass.

---

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Medicine

DOI

10.3389/fmed.2021.778498 

The world of Stonehenge

British Museum

7 February – 17 July 2022 

Bone bead necklace

• Bone-bead necklace, part of the finds from Skara Brae, c. 3100–2500 BC Skara Brae, Orkney, Scotland. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Bronze twin horse–snake hybrid

• Bronze twin horse–snake hybrid from hoard, 1200–1000 BC. Kallerup, Thy, Jutland, Denmark. National Museum of Denmark/Ofret Museum. CC-BY-SA, Søren Greve, National Museum of Denmark

Jadeitite axe-heads

• Fine jadeitite axe-heads made from material quarried in the high Italian Alps, c. 4500–3500 BC. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Lunula

• Lunula, 2400–2000 BC. From Blessington, County Wicklow, Republic of Ireland. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Mold Cape

• The Mold Gold Cape, 1900–1600 BC. Mold, Flintshire, Wales. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Torc

• Gold flange twisted spiral torc. 1400BC-1100BC. Dover, UK.  © The Trustees of the British Museum

Sun Pendant

• Bronze Age sun pendant, 1000–800BC © The Trustees of the British Museum 

This major exhibition will see over 430 objects brought together from across Europe in a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle on the history – and mystery – of the ancient monument. The world of Stonehenge  is the UK’s first ever major exhibition on the story of Stonehenge. 

Key loans coming to the British Museum and announced for the first time today include: Britain’s most spectacular grave goods which were unearthed in the shadow of Stonehenge; elaborate ancient gold hats depicting the cosmos; and the astonishing wooden monument – dubbed Seahenge - that recently emerged after millennia from the sands of a Norfolk beach. 

Stonehenge

• Stonehenge © English Heritage

Stonehenge was built 4,500 years ago around the same time as the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. This landmark exhibition will set the great monument in the context of one of the most remarkable eras on the islands of Britain and Ireland, which saw huge social and technological revolutions, alongside fundamental changes in people’s relationships with the sky, the land and one another. 

Seahenge Lynn Museum

• Seahenge timber posts on display in the Lynn Museum. On long term loan to Norfolk Museums Service from the Le Strange Estate.

Seahenge 1999

• Seahenge at the time of excavation. © Wendy George.

At the heart of the exhibition will be the sensational loan of a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age timber circle, dubbed Seahenge due its similarity to Wiltshire’s Stonehenge. It is a hugely significant and extremely rare surviving example of a timber monument that has also been called “Stonehenge of the Sea.” It reemerged on a remote Norfolk beach in 1998 due to the shifting sands, and it consists of a large upturned tree stump surrounded by 54 wooden posts. The oak posts, some up to 3m tall, were tightly packed in a 6.6m diameter circle with their bark-covered sides facing outwards. Inside the circle was a mighty oak, its roots upturned towards the heavens like branches. Collectively the circle creates a giant tree. A narrow entranceway was aligned on the rising midsummer sun and it is thought this monument was used for ritual purposes. 

Seahenge comes to the British Museum from the Norfolk Museums Service, where it is partially displayed at the Lynn Museum in King’s Lynn. This is the first time Seahenge has ever gone on loan. Visitors to the exhibition at the British Museum will see some of the monument’s most important elements, including many timber posts that have never been displayed before. They will also see the hugely important ‘doorway’ where worshippers would enter. Its inclusion in the exhibition will help tell the story of the shared beliefs that inspired ancient communities to build the many astonishing monuments found across Britain, Ireland and beyond. 

Dr Jennifer Wexler, project curator of The world of Stonehenge at the British Museum, said: “If Stonehenge is one of the world’s most remarkable surviving ancient stone circles, then Seahenge is the equivalent in timber. But as it was only rediscovered in 1998, it is still relatively unknown. We know about some aspects of the monument, including that it was constructed in the spring and summer of 2049 BC, from mighty oaks. But there’s much that still eludes us, including exactly what it was used for. Perhaps the central upturned trunk was used in funerary rituals to support a dead body. Perhaps entering the circular shrine brought worshippers closer to the otherworld. By displaying Seahenge in this exhibition we hope to bring it to a wider audience, and it provides an unparalleled opportunity to time travel back to the moment when circles of stone and timber were at the heart of people’s beliefs.” 

Nearly two-thirds of the objects going on display in The world of Stonehenge will be loans, with objects coming from 35 lenders across the UK, the Republic of Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland. Of these, the majority have never been seen in the UK before. 

Golden Hat

• The Schifferstadt gold hat, c. 1600 BC, which was found with three bronze axes Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Historisches Museum der Pfalz Speyer

Newly revealed today as going on show in the exhibition are two rare and remarkable gold cone-shaped hats - the Schifferstadt gold hat from Germany and the Avanton gold cone from France. This is the very first time either will have been seen in Britain. These are decorated with elaborate solar motifs that reflect the religious importance of the sun during this era. Only two other examples of these hats are known to have survived. Serving as headgear during ceremonies or rituals, they perhaps imbued the wearer with divine or otherworldly status. Carefully buried alone or accompanied by axes, rather than interred with the deceased, it seems they were held in trust for the community. 

Sun-Disc

• Decorated sun-disc from a woman’s belt, c. 1400 BC Langstrup, Frederiksborg Amt and Vellinge, Fyn, Denmark. CC-BY-SA, Roberto Fortuna & Kira Ursem, National Museum of Denmark

Similar motifs are to be found on a belt plate on loan from the National Museum of Denmark. This example, and others like it, was found on the stomach of a women buried in Scandinavia. It’s conical central point might represent the same concept as the sun hat, but in miniature form. Alongside the international loans, visitors will see some of the most important objects unearthed in the Stonehenge landscape, many of them now in the collections of neighbouring museums. 

Dagger

• Dagger from the Bush Barrow grave goods (with replica handle), 1950–1600 BC. Amesbury, Wiltshire, England. Photographs taken by David Bukach. © Wiltshire Museum, Devizes

On loan from Wiltshire Museum will be the whole hoard of objects that accompanied a burial known as the Bush Barrow site. This burial hoard has never been lent in its entirety before. 

Bush Barrow

• The gold lozenge of the Bush Barrow grave goods, 1950–1600 BC Amesbury, Wiltshire, England. Photographs taken by David Bukach. © Wiltshire Museum, Devizes

They include the ‘gold lozenge’ which is the finest example of Bronze Age gold craftsmanship ever found in Britain, which was buried across the chest of the Bush Barrow chieftain. This grave, with commanding views of Stonehenge, shows close parallels with the richest graves from northern France, eastern Germany and even Ancient Greece. 

The exhibition will illustrate these long-distance connections. 

From Salisbury Museum will be the treasures buried with the Amesbury Archer, a man honoured with remarkable grave goods after his death. His grave contained the richest array of items ever found in a Bronze Age burial site in the UK, and 39 of these items – including copper knives, gold ornaments and flint tools – will travel to the exhibition. The gold discovered is thought to be among the earliest found in Britain. The Amesbury Archer was also buried close to Stonehenge, but he came from the area of modern day Switzerland or Germany. His early dates mean that he could have participated in the construction of the iconic phase of the stone circle. 

Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, said: “To understand the purpose of the great stone monument constructed on Salisbury Plain, it is essential to consider its contemporary world and the culture of its builders. We are delighted to be able to do this in this unprecedented exhibition. Over 430 exceptional objects are being brought together, objects which are the last and only testament of sophisticated and ingenious people, and we are grateful to all of the lenders who have made it possible.” 

Neil Wilkin, curator of The world of Stonehenge at the British Museum, said: “The mystery of Stonehenge is a source of enduring fascination for every generation who visit or catch a glimpse of its distinctive silhouette. This landmark exhibition will begin to reveal its secrets by setting this great monument in the context of a period of radical change on these islands, and by bringing together exceptional objects that shed new light on its meaning and significance. It is an exhibition about the people who built and worshipped at the monument, but it is also a story that transcends the Salisbury Plain and even Britain and reaches far into continental Europe. Stonehenge’s eternal mystery and significance can only be fully understood by charting the surrounding world that made it possible.” 

Nebra Sky Disc

• Nebra Sky Disc, Germany, about 1600 BC. Photo courtesy of the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, Juraj Lipták

The exhibition has been organised with the State Museum of Prehistory, Halle/Saale, Germany, who will be lending the previously announced Nebra Sky Disc, the oldest surviving representation of the cosmos anywhere in the world. 

 The ‘Nebra Sky Disc’ is 3,600 years old and is the oldest surviving representation of the cosmos anywhere in the world. The 31cm (12-inch) bronze disc features a bluegreen patina with inlaid gold symbols thought to represent the sun, moon, stars, the solstices and the constellation of the Pleiades. It was discovered buried in the ground in 1999 near the town of Nebra in Saxony-Anhalt in the east of Germany and will be loaned to the British Museum from the collection of the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle. The UK will be only the fourth country the disc has travelled to, and its display in London will be the first time it’s been loaned internationally for 15 years. 

Sun Pendant

• Bronze Age sun pendant, 1000–800BC © The Trustees of the British Museum

Also on display in the exhibition will be an extremely rare 3,000-year-old sun pendant, described by the British Museum as the most significant piece of Bronze Age gold ever found in Britain. One side shows a stylised sun – a rare and hugely significant addition to the art and iconography of Bronze Age Britain. Solar symbolism is a key element of Bronze Age cosmology and mythology across Europe, but before the discovery of this pendant it was very rarely seen on objects found in Britain.

 It was discovered in May 2018 by metal detectorist and retired engineer Bob Greenaway in Shropshire. It had been cushioned in the peaty soil of the Shropshire Marches for three millennia before the finder, who had been metal detecting for 25 years, came across this find of a lifetime. He has remarked that "when I found it, my eyes nearly popped out of my head." 

It is only the second ever object of this type found in Britain: the other – now lost – was discovered near Manchester in 1722 but was last recorded in 1806 before disappearing from sight. Measuring 3.6cm high and 4.7cm wide, the pendant was brought to the British Museum where it went through the legal Treasure process and was recorded as part of the Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme. 

Neil Wilkin, curator of The world of Stonehenge at the British Museum, said: “The Nebra Sky Disc and the sun pendant are two of the most remarkable surviving objects from Bronze Age Europe. Both have only recently been unearthed, literally, after remaining hidden in the ground for over three millennia. We’re delighted that they will both be key pieces in our once-in-a-lifetime Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum. While both were found hundreds of miles from Stonehenge, we’ll be using them to shine a light on the vast interconnected world that existed around the ancient monument, spanning Britain, Ireland and mainland Europe. It’s going to be eye-opening.” 

Built 4,500 years ago around the same time as the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, Stonehenge is the world’s most extraordinary ancient stone circle and is one of the most recognized sites on the planet. Yet much about it is still shrouded layers of uncertainty, speculation and folklore. 

The world ofStonehenge, written by Duncan Garrow and Neil Wilkin, will be published by the British Museum Press in February 2022.

Largest ever find of gold coins from Anglo-Saxon England

A find of 131 gold coins along with four other gold objects dating to 1,400 years ago stands to be the largest find to date of gold coins from the Anglo-Saxon period in England. Buried shortly after AD 600, the West Norfolk hoard contains a total of 131 gold coins, most of which are Frankish tremisses, as these coins were not yet produced in East Anglia at this date. 

The hoard contains nine gold solidi, a larger coin from the Byzantine empire worth three tremisses. The hoard also contains four other gold objects, including a gold bracteate (a type of stamped pendant), a small gold bar, and two other pieces of gold which were probably parts of larger items of jewellery. The presence of these items in the hoard suggests that the coins should be seen as bullion, valued by weight rather than face value. 

At the point when the hoard was buried, England was not yet unified, but was divided into several smaller Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Of these, the kingdom of the East Angles, including modern Norfolk and Suffolk, was one of the most important. This region is also one of the most productive in terms of finds of archaeological material through metal detecting, so it is perhaps unsurprising that the largest find to date of gold coins from the Anglo-Saxon period was discovered in Norfolk by metal detectorists. 

The previous largest hoard of coins of this period was a purse containing 101 coins discovered at Crondall in Hampshire in 1828. It had been disturbed before discovery and may originally have included more coins. Buried around AD 640, the hoard contained a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Frankish and Frisian coins, along with a single coin of the Byzantine Empire, minted in Constantinople. 

The decades on either side of AD 600 were quite literally a golden age for Anglo-Saxon England. The largest find of gold metalwork from the period was the Staffordshire hoard, discovered in 2009 by Terry Herbert, and dating from the mid-7th century This contained over 5.1kg of gold and 1.4kg of silver. Though the Staffordshire hoard is currently the largest find of precious metal from the period, it contained no coins. 

The most famous discovery from this period was the ship burial from Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, recently dramatized in the Netflix movie The Dig, and dating somewhere between AD 610 and 640. The Sutton Hoo burial included a purse of 37 gold coins, three blank gold discs of the same size as the coins and two small gold ingots, as well as many other gold items. The Sutton Hoo purse contained only Frankish coins, reflecting the fact that although imported coins were already used in East Anglia by this time, coins were not yet being minted in the area by the time of the burial. 

Another important grave was discovered in 2003 at Prittlewell in Essex, probably buried a few years before the Sutton Hoo ship and containing two gold coins and other gold objects. Norwich Castle Museum hopes to acquire the hoard, with the full support of the British Museum. 

Tim Pestell, Senior curator of Archaeology at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery said: “This internationally-significant find reflects the wealth and Continental connections enjoyed by the early Kingdom of East Anglia. Study of the hoard and its findspot has the potential to unlock our understanding of early trade and exchange systems and the importance of west Norfolk to East Anglia’s ruling kings in the seventh century.” 

Helen Geake, Finds Liaison Officer for Norfolk said: “The West Norfolk hoard is a really remarkable find, which will provide a fascinating counterpart to Sutton Hoo at the other end of the kingdom of East Anglia. It underlines the value of metal-detected evidence in helping reconstruct the earliest history of England, but also shows how vulnerable these objects are to irresponsible collectors and the antiquities trade.” 

Gareth Williams, Curator of Early Medieval Coins at the British Museum said: “This is a hugely important find. It is close in date to the famous ship burial from Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, and although it doesn’t contain as much gold as the whole of the Sutton Hoo burial, it contains many more coins. In fact, it is the largest coin hoard of the period known to date. It must be seen alongside other recent finds from East Anglia and elsewhere, and will help to transform our understanding of the economy of early Anglo-Saxon England.”

Ephemeral evidence of Mediterranean mobility

 

The central Mediterranean throughout time has been a region defined by the continuous flow of people, goods, and ideas. Excavation and analysis of ancient shipwrecks along these coastlines reveal the overlapping social, political, and economic relationships that fostered the development of the region and spurred wide-ranging movement across the Mediterranean Sea.

Elizabeth S. Greene, Justin Leidwanger, and Leopoldo Repola direct the Marzamemi Maritime Heritage Project, a collaborative heritage initiative focusing on seaborne mobility in Sicily, Italy. Their recent excavation of the famous “church wreck” off this coast asked questions about exchange in the waning years of the Roman Empire. Very different images of mobility are raised by the numerous abandoned fishing boats on these same shores of southeastern Sicily. The repurposed boats—which had been utilized by displaced peoples en route to Italy from North Africa—were subsequently impounded by Italian authorities. 

Extending their fieldwork beyond the traditional parameters of ancient Mediterranean studies, Greene, Leidwanger, and Repola, in the article “Ephemeral Heritage: Boats, Migration, and the Central Mediterranean Passage,” published in the January 2022 issue of the American Journal of Archaeology, examine these contemporary migrations through an archaeological lens. By applying methodologies and tools used in analyzing ancient ships in their recording of the modern vessels and their material assemblages, the authors document this ephemeral heritage before it is destroyed. The authors align these contemporary voyages with past migrations and expand upon the region’s history of mobility and interconnectedness.

Bureaucratic entities deem the intercepted ships and their contents to be little more than pollution that needs to be disposed. The authors assert that the boats and the seemingly inconsequential objects left behind make visible the impact of policy decisions that have impeded movement in the Mediterranean, making passage on the sea treacherous for displaced individuals seeking refuge.

While the authors’ have recorded a series of abandoned and impounded boats along these shores, the article presents the case study of one vessel that departed from Misrata, a Libyan port, in 2018 with 264 individuals on board. The boat is known only from the number 179 spray-painted on its hull by authorities after its interception.

The polyvocal archaeological data available from the remaining assemblages of blankets, clothing, wrappers, bottles, and personal items on this boat—and others like it—offer insights into the human experiences of the individuals undertaking these journeys. Documenting these boats adds nuance to the narratives of contemporary migration, shifting focus away from prevalent media depictions of faceless waves, tragedy, and precarious travel.

Hooks, tools, and rope offer evidence of the ship’s prior fishing endeavors. Analysis of the distribution and types of food packaging and medicine suggests inequalities and varying degrees of preparation among those onboard. Scarves and blankets point to a need for objects to serve more than one purpose. Concealing the ship’s name and destroying personal items indicate a desire to obscure previous identities and begin anew.

By considering these ships as cultural heritage and situating them within the longstanding history of Mediterranean movement, the authors seek to restructure how stories of displacement are presented. The authors advocate for inclusive archaeological approaches that reveal previously overlooked narratives in order to comprehend the past’s ongoing impact as well as the political and environmental factors motivating these voyages.

Out of Africa: The path of Homo sapiens

 

IMAGE: WITH WHICH THE RESEARCHERS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN TOOK DRILL CORES FROM THE LAKE SEDIMENT ON LAKE IZNIK (TURKEY) AND DETERMINED THE POLLEN IN THEM. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: THOMAS LITT/UNIVERSITY OF BONN

What routes did Homo sapiens take on his way from Africa to Europe and Asia in the previous millennia? The climatic conditions changed, and with them the living conditions. The advance was hampered in some places by deserts, in others by dense forests. Over the past twelve years, a team of researchers within the framework of the Collaborative Research Center 806 "Our Way to Europe" unraveled the complex interplay of cultural innovations and environment that shaped migrations. After completion of the interdisciplinary joint project, the researchers now present a book with the most important findings under the leadership of the Universities of Bonn and Cologne.

The cradle of man is in Africa - this has been known for half a century. A decade ago, scholarly discussion was still dominated by the idea that a small group of Homo sapiens migrated from Africa to Europe about 70,000 years ago. Through anatomical and intellectual superiority, this group is said to have displaced archaic local populations as it advanced, leaving Homo sapiens as the only genetic branch of humanity to survive.

"This notion has changed fundamentally since it became clear that Neanderthals contributed at least a small part to the genome of Homo sapiens," says paleobotanist Prof. Dr. Thomas Litt of the University of Bonn, principal editor of the book and deputy spokesman for the Collaborative Research Center. "Genetics doesn't quite tell the same story - or a different part of the story - as paleontology and archeology." The team therefore endeavored to better understand this controversial picture by analyzing information on the nature and environment, as well as the role of culture, of this prehistoric population dynamic. The researchers focused on different time periods: from the emergence of modern humans, their dispersal, the repopulation of Ice Age Europe, Neolithic settlement, and the migration of settled societies.

The new findings show that not only a migration wave, but several African Homo sapiens populations followed a journey of up to 5,000 kilometers to Europe and Asia. Improved radiometric dating of Homo sapiens fossils further suggests that the area of origin of modern humans includes not only East Africa, but also South and Northwest Africa. The time scale of Homo sapiens now extends back to 300,000 years. Prof. Litt's team investigated when and where migration corridors or barriers existed from a paleoecological and paleoclimatological perspective.

No scientific evidence for the western route

Until now, science assumed that there were two possible main routes modern man could have taken to Europe: The western via the Strait of Gibraltar and the eastern via the Levant. Despite the short distance across the Strait of Gibraltar, in the past twelve years researchers were unable to find any evidence of direct cultural contact between Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula or evidence of crossing the strait during the Paleolithic. "This is one of the big question marks in the history of human settlement in the western Mediterranean," Litt says of this surprising finding. Evidently, the Strait of Gibraltar had been more of a barrier at the time due to strong ocean currents.

"This leaves the Levant, the only permanent land bridge between Africa and Eurasia, as the key region as a migration route for modern humans," says Litt. His research group conducted intensive research on drill cores, for example from the Dead Sea or the Sea of Galilee, in which plant pollen is preserved. This allows changes in vegetation cover to be identified and environmental and climatic conditions to be reconstructed. Litt: "These data illustrate that the Levant could only have served as a corridor when, under more favorable conditions, for example, neither deserts nor dense forests impeded the advance."

Almost one hundred researchers were involved

For a total of twelve years, the interdisciplinary research team from archeology, geosciences, soil science, ethnology and geography in the Collaborative Research Center 806 "Our Way to Europe" deciphered the migrations of Homo sapiens. Around one hundred researchers were involved and many hundreds of scientific papers were published. In addition to the Universities of Cologne and Bonn, RWTH Aachen University and numerous cooperation partners from the USA, Africa, the Middle East and Europe were also involved. The main results are now summarized in the 372-page book jointly edited by the paleobotanist Prof. Dr. Thomas Litt (Bonn), the prehistorian Prof. Dr. Jürgen Richter and the geography didactician Prof. Dr. Frank Schäbitz (both University of Cologne). "The book should be attractive and relevant to all readers interested in understanding the prehistory of our own species, its migratory routes and motivations for migration triggered by complex interactions of its culture and environment," says Litt.

Publication: Thomas Litt, Jürgen Richter, Frank Schäbitz (eds.): The Journey of Modern Humans from Africa to Europe - Culture-Environmental Interaction and Mobility, Schweizerbart Science Publishers, 372p., EUR 39.90

Ancient DNA from Britain reveals the world’s oldest family tree

 Analysis of ancient DNA from one of the best-preserved Neolithic tombs in Britain has revealed that most of the people buried there were from five continuous generations of a single extended family.

 

CAPTION

Analysis of ancient DNA from one of the best-preserved Neolithic tombs in Britain by a team involving archaeologists from Newcastle University, UK, and geneticists at the University of the Basque Country, University of Vienna and Harvard University, has revealed that most of the people buried there were from five continuous generations of a single extended family.

CREDIT

Newcastle University/Fowler, Olalde et al

By analysing DNA extracted from the bones and teeth of 35 individuals entombed at Hazleton North long cairn in the Cotswolds-Severn region, the research team was able to detect that 27 of them were close biological relatives. The group lived approximately 5700 years ago – around 3700-3600 BC - around 100 years after farming had been introduced to Britain.

Published in Nature, it is the first study to reveal in such detail how prehistoric families were structured, and the international team of archaeologists and geneticists say that the results provide new insights into kinship and burial practices in Neolithic times.

The research team – which included archaeologists from Newcastle University, UK, and geneticists from the University of the Basque Country, University of Vienna and Harvard University - show that most of those buried in the tomb were descended from four women who had all had children with the same man.

The cairn at Hazleton North included two L-shaped chambered areas which were located north and south of the main ‘spine’ of the linear structure. After they had died, individuals were buried inside these two chambered areas and the research findings indicate that men were generally buried with their father and brothers, suggesting that descent was patrilineal with later generations buried at the tomb connected to the first generation entirely through male relatives.

While two of the daughters of the lineage who died in childhood were buried in the tomb, the complete absence of adult daughters suggests that their remains were placed either in the tombs of male partners with whom they had children, or elsewhere.

Although the right to use the tomb ran through patrilineal ties, the choice of whether individuals were buried in the north or south chambered area initially depended on the first-generation woman from whom they were descended, suggesting that these first-generation women were socially significant in the memories of this community.

There are also indications that ‘stepsons’ were adopted into the lineage, the researchers say - males whose mother was buried in the tomb but not their biological father, and whose mother had also had children with a male from the patriline. Additionally, the team found no evidence that another eight individuals were biological relatives of those in the family tree, which might further suggest that biological relatedness was not the only criterion for inclusion. However, three of these were women and it is possible that they could have had a partner in the tomb but either did not have any children or had daughters who reached adulthood and left the community so are absent from the tomb.

Dr Chris Fowler of Newcastle University, the first author and lead archaeologist of the study, said: “This study gives us an unprecedented insight into kinship in a Neolithic community. The tomb at Hazleton North has two separate chambered areas, one accessed via a northern entrance and the other from a southern entrance, and just one extraordinary finding is that initially each of the two halves of the tomb were used to place the remains of the dead from one of two branches of the same family. This is of wider importance because it suggests that the architectural layout of other Neolithic tombs might tell us about how kinship operated at those tombs.”

Iñigo Olalde of the University of the Basque Country and Ikerbasque, the lead geneticist for the study and co-first author, said: “The excellent DNA preservation at the tomb and the use of the latest technologies in ancient DNA recovery and analysis allowed us to uncover the oldest family tree ever reconstructed and analyse it to understand something profound about the social structure of these ancient groups.”

David Reich at Harvard University, whose laboratory led the ancient DNA generation, added: “This study reflects what I think is the future of ancient DNA: one in which archaeologists are able to apply ancient DNA analysis at sufficiently high resolution to address the questions that truly matter to archaeologists.”

Ron Pinhasi, of the University of Vienna, said: “It was difficult to imagine just a few years ago that we would ever know about Neolithic kinship structures. But this is just the beginning and no doubt there is a lot more to be discovered from other sites in Britain, Atlantic France, and other regions.”

The project was an international collaboration between archaeologists from the Universities of Newcastle, York, Exeter and Central Lancashire, and geneticists at the University of Vienna, University of the Basque Country and Harvard University. Corinium Museum, Cirencester, provided permission to sample the remains in their collection.

JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-021-04241-4