Medieval mass burial shows centuries-earlier origin of Ashkenazi genetic bottleneck

 

 

IMAGE: BASED ON THE SKELETAL REMAINS, SCIENTISTS RECONSTRUCTED THE FACE OF A MALE ADULT (LEFT) AND A CHILD (RIGHT) view more 

CREDIT: PROFESSOR CAROLINE WILKINSON, LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY

In 2004, construction workers in Norwich, UK, unearthed human skeletal remains that led to a historical mystery—at least 17 bodies at the bottom of a medieval well. Using archeological records, historical documents, and ancient DNA, British researchers have now identified the individuals to be a group of Ashkenazi Jews who may have fallen victim to antisemitic violence during the 12th century. Their findings, presented on August 30 in the journal Current Biology, shed new light on Jewish medical history in Europe.

“It’s been over 12 years since we started looking into who these people are, and the technology finally caught up with our ambition,” says evolutionary geneticist and corresponding author Ian Barnes of the Natural History Museum, London. “Our main job was to establish the identity of those individuals at the ethnic level.”

The deceased individuals were found to carry some genetic disorders, for which modern-day Ashkenazi Jewish populations are at higher risk. Genetic disorders that are particularly common in certain populations can arise during bottleneck events, where a rapid reduction of population can lead to big jumps in the number of people carrying otherwise rare genetic mutations.

Using computer simulations, the team showed that the number of such disease mutations in the remains was similar to what they would expect if the diseases were as common then as they are now in Ashkenazi Jews. The results point to a bottleneck event that shaped the modern-day Ashkenazi Jewish population prior to the 12th century, earlier than previous beliefs, which dated the event about 500 to 700 years ago.

Unlike other mass burial sites, where bodies were laid in an organized fashion, skeletons from this well were oddly positioned and mixed, most likely because they were deposited head first shortly after death. Archeological investigations reported six adults and 11 children at the unusual burial location. Together, these findings hint at mass fatalities such as famine, disease, or murder. Radiocarbon dating of the remains placed their deaths around the late 12th to early 13th century—a period with well-documented outbreaks of antisemitic violence in England—leading researchers to consider foul play.

To piece together the individuals’ past lives, the team dug into the DNA of six skeletons from the well by using new technology that decodes millions of DNA fragments at once. The results showed that the individuals were almost certainly Ashkenazi Jews. Among them, four were closely related, including three full-sibling sisters—a 5- to 10-year-old, a 10- to 15-year-old, and a young adult. DNA analysis also inferred the physical traits of a 0- to 3-year-old boy to include blue eyes and red hair, the latter a feature associated with historical stereotypes of European Jews.

“It was quite surprising that the initially unidentified remains filled the historical gap about when certain Jewish communities first formed and the origins of some genetic disorders,” says evolutionary geneticist and co-author Mark Thomas of the University College London. “Nobody had analyzed Jewish ancient DNA before because of prohibitions on the disturbance of Jewish graves. However, we did not know this until after doing the genetic analyses.”

After learning the identity of the remains, the local community arranged a formal Jewish burial for the individuals. Barnes and Thomas say that they still don’t know what directly caused the 17 individuals’ demise, and it’s a puzzle that ancient DNA can’t solve. However, working with local historians, archeologists, and the community, the researchers offered new insights into historical violence and the origins of the Ashkenazi Jewish population.

“When you study ancient DNA from people who’ve died hundreds to thousands of years ago, you don’t often get to work with a living community at the same time,” says Barnes. “It’s been really satisfying to work with this community on a story that’s so important to them.”

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Current Biology, Brace et al. “Genomes from a medieval mass burial show Ashkenazi-associated hereditary diseases pre-date the 12th century” https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01355-0

Burial practices and migration of the earliest humans in island Southeast Asia

 The discovery by researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) of three bodies on Indonesia’s Alor Island, dating from 7,500 to 13,000 years ago, sheds new light on burial practices and migration of the earliest humans in island Southeast Asia. 

Author of a new paper published by PLOS ONE, Dr Sofia Samper Carro, said the three burials are significant because the positioning of each body shows a different mortuary practice.

Dr Samper Carro said this might relate to multiple migratory routes through the area from thousands of years ago.

“Burials are a unique cultural manifestation to investigate waves of migration through the terminal Pleistocene to the Holocene period in Southeast Asia,” Dr Samper Carro said.

“Our results provide significant new data for understanding the evolution and diversification of burial practices in mainland and island Southeast Asia, contributing to a growing body of literature describing prehistoric socio-cultural behaviour in this region.”

Dr Samper Carro and the international team of researchers from ANU and the Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia uncovered more than 50,000 bones. This included the three bodies, one with extremities that were intentionally removed before burial, and two more individuals placed in a seated, and flexed (on side) positions.

“Our first excavations in 2014 revealed fish hooks and a human skull that was more than 12,000 years old,” Dr Samper Carro said.

“When the Australia-Indonesian team returned in 2018 to excavate the original burial, they found two more bodies buried in different positions above each other.

“The three quite unusual and interesting burials show different mortuary practices, which might relate to recent discoveries of multiple migratory routes through the islands of Wallacea from thousands of years ago.”

Dr Samper Carro said while the process of studying every item included delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the wait has been worthwhile.

“Once we realised we had uncovered such unique findings, I had a very long process of studying each and every piece. We called this paper The Talking Dead because of the stories each pieces tells,” Dr Samper Carro said.

“We’re very pleased to present a paper that shows how burial practices can complement data on genetic diversity from one of the current research hotspots in Southeast Asia.”

Dr Samper Carro completed her research on the Tron Bon Lei burials through a Gerda Henkel research scholarship. Fieldwork in Alor was funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage.

Read the researchers’ paper in full: Talking Dead. New burials from Tron Bon Lei (Alor Island, Indonesia) inform on the evolution of mortuary practices from the terminal Pleistocene to the Holocene in Southeast Asia.

 

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0267635 

Lost islands cited in Welsh folklore and poetry are plausible - new study of coastal geography and a medieval map

 

IMAGE: THE BLACK BOOK OF CARMARTHEN (1250 APPROX) IS BELIEVED TO BE THE EARLIEST SURVIVING COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT WRITTEN IN THE WELSH LANGUAGE. THIS EXTRACT SAYS, IN WELSH: ‘STAND FORTH, SEITHENHIN, AND LOOK UPON THE FURY OF THE SEA; IT HAS COVERED MAES GWYDDNEU.’ THE NEW RESEARCH ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE COASTLINE IN WEST WALES SUGGESTS THAT CLAIMS SUCH AS THIS OF A DROWNED LAND ARE PLAUSIBLE. view more 

CREDIT: LLYFRGELL GENEDLAETHOL CYMRU/NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES.

A Welsh tradition dating to the medieval period of a landscape lost to the sea is plausible, new evidence on the evolution of the coastline of west Wales has revealed.

Drawing on geological data and a medieval map, the researchers – from Swansea University and the University of Oxford – propose how two islands may have come into existence and then disappeared again.

The study was inspired by the Gough Map, the earliest surviving map of Great Britain, perhaps with its origins in the thirteenth century, which is held in the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library.

The map depicts two islands in Cardigan Bay in west Wales, which no longer exist. Each of them is depicted about one quarter of the size of the island of Anglesey in north Wales. One is between Aberystwyth and Aberdovey and the other between there and Barmouth to the north.

The research was undertaken by Simon Haslett, Honorary Professor of Physical Geography at Swansea University and David Willis, Jesus Professor of Celtic at the University of Oxford.

Their study investigates historical sources and geological evidence from the coastline and the seabed. It proposes a model for how the coast has evolved since the last ice age around 10,000 years ago, which provides a possible explanation for the ‘lost’ islands.

They suggest that the islands could be the remnants of a low-lying landscape underlain by soft glacial deposits laid down during the last ice age. Since then, forces of erosion have worn away the land, reducing it to islands, before these too were worn away and disappearing by the sixteenth century.

As finer sediments of glacial deposits are eroded away, the larger gravel and boulder component is left on the seafloor. The position of the islands coincides with the location of submarine accumulations of gravel and boulders, known locally as sarns.

Professor Simon Haslett of Swansea University Department of Geography said:

“We know that the west Wales coast has changed significantly over time. Evidence from the Roman cartographer Ptolemy suggests the coastline 2000 years ago may have been some 13 km further out to sea than it is today.

The Gough Map is extraordinarily accurate considering the surveying tools they would have had at their disposal at that time, and the two islands are clearly marked.

Our research increases our understanding of potential coastal processes acting along the coast of Cardigan Bay. It can also help with future research on post-glacial evolution of similar lowlands in other parts of northwest Europe.

Understanding coastline dynamics has never been more important. Some towns along the area we studied are vulnerable to climate and sea-level change, and it has been suggested that it may lead to some of the first climate change refugees in the UK”.

David Willis, Jesus Professor of Celtic Studies at the University of Oxford, said:

Our evidence may provide an explanation of how the story of Cantre’r Gwaelod (‘The Hundred of the Bottom’) may have arisen. This lost land is said to have suffered a catastrophic inundation and is referred to in poetry in the Black Book of Carmarthen and in later folklore.”

The research was published in the journal Atlantic Geosciences and is available open access until 5 September 2022.

Ancient DNA provides comprehensive genomic history of the “cradle of civilization”

Across three studies, Iosif Lazaridis, David Reich, and colleagues present a comprehensive genomic history of the so-called “Southern Arc,” a region spanning southeastern Europe and Western Asia and long considered to be the “cradle of Western civilization.” The analysis, which examined newly sequenced ancient DNA from more than 700 individuals across the region, reveals a complex population history from the earliest farming cultures to post-Medieval times. Until relatively recently, much of the ancient history of the Southern Arc – stories concerning its people and populations – have been told through archaeological data and the thousands of years of historical accounts and texts from the region. However, innovations in sequencing ancient DNA have provided a new source of historical information. Here, in three separate studies, Lazaridis et al. use ancient DNA from the remains of 777 humans to build a detailed genomic history of the Southern Arc from the Neolithic (~10,000 BCE) to the Ottoman period (~1700 CE). The findings provide an account of complex migrations and population interactions that have shaped the region for thousands of years and suggest that the earlier reliance on modern population history and ancient writings and art have provided an inaccurate picture of early Indo-European cultures.

The first study: “The genetic history of the Southern Arc: a bridge between West Asia and Europe,” presents the new dataset and focuses analysis on the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages (roughly 5000 to 1000 BCE). This analysis revealed large genetic exchanges between the Eurasian Steppe and the Southern Arc and provides new insights into the formation of the Yamnaya steppe pastoralists and the origin of Indo-European language. The second study: “Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia,” presents the first ancient DNA from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Mesopotamia from the epicenter of the region’s Neolithic Revolution. The findings suggest that the transition between Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic phases of Neolithic Anatolia was associated with two distinct pulses of migration from the Fertile Crescent heartland. The third study: “A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia,” focuses on ancient DNA analysis during the period of recorded history in the Southern Arc, elucidating the not-well-understood demographics and geographic origins of groups like the Myceneans, Urartians, and Romans.

“The studies by Lazaridis et al. represent an important milestone for ancient genomic research, providing a rich dataset and diverse observations that will drive the next iteration of interpretations of the human history of West Eurasia,” write Benjamin Arbuckle and Zoe Schwandt in a related Perspective. Although the authors note that Lazaridis et al. have produced an “astounding dataset, unimaginable in its scale just a decade ago,” Arbuckle and Schwandt highlight the challenges and limitations of the interpretations, suggesting that many of the narratives explored across the three studies reflect a Eurocentric worldview.

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abm4247 

ARTICLE TITLE

The genetic history of the Southern Arc: a bridge between West Asia and Europe

DNA analysis shows Griffin Warrior ruled his Greek homeland

 

Using new scientific tools, University of Cincinnati archaeologists discovered that an ancient Greek leader known today as the Griffin Warrior likely grew up around the seaside city he would one day rule.

The findings are part of three new studies published in the journal Science that examined the ancient DNA of the Griffin Warrior and 726 other people who lived before and during the Bronze Age to learn more about their origins and movements across three continents surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

Led by researchers from Harvard University and co-authored by experts from around the world, the papers demonstrate that between 5,000 and 7,000 years ago, people with ancestry from the Caucasus, a region between the Black and Caspian seas, moved west into Anatolia (now Turkey) and north into the steppe of Eastern Europe. Then around 5,000 years ago, people from Eastern Europe spread out across the European continent and into Western Asia and back to the Caucasus. They joined local populations, “creating a tapestry of diverse ancestry from which speakers of the Greek, Paleo-Balkan and Albanian languages arose.”

“When we look at the rise of Mycenaean civilization, the ancient DNA supports the notion that it was a local phenomenon, not something imported from the outside,” said co-author Jack Davis, a UC Classics professor and department head.

“The development of the state by the Mycenaean was indigenous to Greece,” Davis said.

Among the remains studied for ancient DNA analysis was that of the Griffin Warrior, whose tomb was discovered in 2015 by Davis and UC Classics senior research associate Sharon Stocker. 

Davis and Stocker found the tomb under an olive grove in Pylos, a coastal city in southern Greece. A forensic examination determined the remains belonged to a young man between 30 and 35 years old who came from obvious wealth. His tomb contained weapons, armor and precious artwork, including an ivory plaque emblazoned with the image of the mythological half-eagle, half-lion griffin that gave the warrior his nickname.

“We were interested in the local implications for our interpretation of what we found at Pylos but also within the broader Mycenaean civilization,” Davis said.

Archaeology magazine heralded the UC Classics’ project as the greatest archaeological discovery in Greece in the past 50 years.

Their revelations continued UC’s storied tradition of exploration in Greece. Previously at Pylos, UC Classics professor Carl Blegen and his Greek colleague, Konstantinos Kourouniotis, unearthed the Palace of King Nestor, a figure mentioned by Homer in his epic poems.

While continuing their work on the Griffin Warrior, Davis and Stocker made a second startling find in 2018 of two nearby gold-covered tholos or beehive-shaped family tombs. Like the Griffin Warrior’s tomb, the tholos tombs also contained a wealth of cultural artifacts and exquisite jewelry.

In 2016, Davis and Stocker turned to former UC anthropology professor Lynne Schepartz, now at the University of Arizona, to reconstruct the warrior’s features. Now additional investigation using ancient DNA is helping to fill in details about the Griffin Warrior’s life in Greece 3,500 years ago.

“He was a young man, and wealthy, who served different functions: a religious or sacred function, as an outstanding warrior and as leader of his people,” Stocker said.

“He was one of the first kings of Mycenaean Pylos. Until then there had been competing aristocratic families, which explains why there were multiple tholos tombs,” Stocker said. “But the Griffin Warrior was one of the first individuals to unite all of these functions within society.”

Stocker supervised the excavations of the Griffin Warrior and tholos tombs.

“This research addresses a bigger question about population dynamics. Where did the Greeks come from? We had no way of addressing that question without looking at genetic relationships,” Davis said.

For the ancient DNA analysis, Davis and Stocker again turned to Schepartz to examine remains.

“Mycenaean tombs are difficult to study because their mortuary rituals involved repositioning of skeletons when newer interments took place in tombs that were used over generations,” Schepartz said.

Schepartz, a co-author of the Science articles, took samples of the Griffin Warrior’s petrous bone, a part of the skull near the inner ear that often preserves ancient DNA.

Ancient DNA is a powerful tool for researchers because it can shed light on how people are tied to each other and the places they lived. UC researchers have used ancient DNA to learn more about the agricultural practices of the ancient Maya in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

“This type of study is critical for our understanding of the ancient history of the region and the role of Mycenaeans in forming that history,” Schepartz said.

Schepartz discovered that two tholos tombs and seven chamber tombs first uncovered by Blegen at the Palace of Nestor contained more individuals than researchers initially realized.

Schepartz subjected the samples to isotopic analysis to learn more about the diets of the ancient Greeks at Pylos. She found that males consumed more protein than females. The people interred in the tholos tombs likewise consumed more protein than those buried in the chamber tombs. High-protein diets are considered a barometer of good nutrition, which often correlates with status or wealth.

These findings correspond with what we know about ancient Greek rituals, she said.

“For example, the participation of males at feasts where meat was consumed is documented, but the participation of females may have been much less frequent,” she said.

“For us, we’re really interested in the relationships between the people buried in the tombs at Pylos and the wider population,” Stocker said. “Ancient DNA is the only way to establish these relationships.”

Ancient DNA also supports what UC’s experts have suspected all along: the Griffin Warrior was from the region he would later rule. Davis said the new evidence refutes the suggestion that he was an invader or outsider.

“We’ve always been skeptical about that theory but weren’t able to prove it except through DNA analysis,” Davis said. 

UC’s contribution to the study was made possible in part by Blegen, the former department head of UC Classics, who had the foresight to preserve samples. In Turkey, Blegen showed that Homer’s Iliad was based on historical events, including the sack of Troy during the Trojan War. 

Working at Pylos in 1939, Blegen found more than 1,200 clay tablets with some of the first known European writing dating to 1250 B.C.. Blegen’s work was interrupted by World War II, but he returned in 1952 to resume his investigation at Pylos and remained in Greece until his death in 1971.

“Blegen was ahead of his time in understanding that there would be better technology in the future,” Stocker said. “He saved all of the human and animal remains from his excavation so we were able to go back and take samples of DNA he collected.”

Likewise, Stocker said, her team has taken steps to preserve excavated material at its sites for tomorrow’s archaeologists who likely will have advanced equipment or techniques at their disposal.

“We’re very careful about saving intact a portion of what we have,” Stocker said. “We know advances in technology will be made. It’s important to preserve them for future generations to study.”

Stocker said ancient DNA analysis is still in its infancy when it comes to anthropological surveys. At the moment, sample sizes are very small for statistical interpretation. But she is thrilled about where the research is going.

“It’s definitely an exciting aspect of archaeology,” Stocker said. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration.”

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abm4247 

Scientists say a shipwreck off Patagonia is a long-lost 1850s Rhode Island whaler

 

IMAGE: THE WRECK OF A SHIP THOUGHT TO BE THE 19TH-CENTURY RHODE ISLAND WHALER DOLPHIN AT LOW TIDE OFF PUERTO MADRYN, ARGENTINA. view more 

CREDIT: U. SOKOLOWICZ

Scientists investigating the remains of an old wooden ship off the cold, windy coast of far southern Argentina say it almost certainly is the Dolphin, a globe-trotting whaling ship from Warren, R.I., lost in 1859. Archaeologists have spent years researching the ship’s origin without making a definitive identification, but a new analysis of tree rings in its timbers has provided perhaps the most compelling evidence yet. A team of Argentinian and American researchers just published the findings in the journal Dendrochronologia.

“I cannot say with a hundred percent certainty, but analysis of the tree rings indicates it is very likely that this is the ship,” said lead author Ignacio Mundo of Argentina’s Laboratory of Dendrochronology and Environmental History, IANIGLA-CONICET. Mundo and scientists at the Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory used a huge database of rings from old North American trees to show that the timbers were felled in New England and the southeastern United States just before the ship was built in 1850. Other evidence includes artifacts found near the wreck, and historical accounts from Argentina and Rhode Island. This appears to be the first time tree-ring science has been applied to identify a South American shipwreck.

“It’s fascinating that people built this ship in a New England town so long ago, and it turned up on the other side of the world,” said Columbia tree-ring scientist Mukund Rao, a coauthor of the study.

New England was a major player in the global whaling trade from the mid-1770s until the 1850s, when oil extracted from blubber was popular for lighting and lubrication, and whale bone was used in many small household items now made of plastic. Hundreds of Yankee ships roamed remote regions, often on voyages that lasted for years. The industry faded in the 1860s after whale populations were decimated, and petroleum came in.

According to an unpublished manuscript by local Warren historian Walter Nebiker, the Dolphin was built between August and October 1850, of oak and other woods. Normally trees were felled in cold weather a year or so before a ship was built, which in this case would have been between late 1849 and February 1850. Measuring 111 feet long and weighing 325 tons, the Dolphin was launched Nov. 16, 1850. Nebiker described her as “probably the fastest square-rigger of all time.”

The ship ranged across the Atlantic and Indian oceans for nearly two and half years, returning laden with oil in March 1853. Later trips took her to the Azores and around the Horn of Africa to the Seychelles, Zanzibar and Australia. Her last voyage started from Warren on Oct. 2, 1858. The ship ended up off Patagonia a few months later. A letter to the owners from her master, a Captain Norrie, said she was destroyed when she “lay upon the rocks in the southwestern part of New Bay”—an apparent reference to the Golfo Nuevo, one of Patagonia’s few good natural harbors, where whalers were known to put in. The crew would have sailed some 10,000 miles to get there.

There was no permanent European settlement in the Golfo Nuevo until 1865, when Welsh immigrants started what is now the small city of Puerto Madryn. Local tradition has it that early settlers scavenged material from one or more shipwrecks, but it is unclear whether this was from the Dolphin or some other ill-fated ship or ships.

In 2004, shifting sediments revealed the partial remains of a wooden vessel in the intertidal flats just off Puerto Madryn. Locals knew it was there, but scientists had not. In 2006 and 2007, marine archaeologists including Cristian Murray of Argentina’s National Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Studies excavated the remains during low tides. They also documented several other other wrecks nearby.

About all left of the ship was some of the lower futtocks, or ribs, and some hull and ceiling planking. In a 2009 paper, Murray and colleagues determined that the ship was built probably in the 19th century, mainly of oak and pine from the Northern Hemisphere. But of what species and whether European or North American origin, they could not tell. With little else to go on—some brass nails, a single leather shoe—they speculated it could have been a fishing or merchant vessel—or a whaler.

Other evidence eventually turned up. Two iron cauldrons and the remains of bricks were found near the wreck, suggesting a shipboard “try-works” for boiling down blubber. Murray and colleagues also discovered that Argentine mariner Luis Piedrabuena had rescued 42 crew members of the Dolphin; he took them to Carmen de Patagones, a town about 100 miles north, and from there the refugees hopefully made it home. Where would that have been? The Dolphin showed up in Lloyd’s marine insurance register as having come from Warren. The researchers then contacted the Warren Preservation Society, which provided Nebiker’s manuscript and other information.

Based on this, a local Rhode Island newspaper speculated in 2012 that the Dolphin had been found. In 2019 Murray finally published a paper suggesting this—but saying it could not be proven. Enter the tree-ring scientists.

That year, Murray and colleagues re-excavated the wreck and invited Ignacio Mundo to examine it. They were horrified when Mundo told them the only way to get decent samples of the sodden wood would be to chainsaw out a couple dozen cross sections of the ribs and planking, and dry them out. Eventually, realizing there was no other way, the archaeologists relented and picked out spots where they thought the least damage would be done.

After processing the samples in his lab, Mundo turned to Ed Cook, founder of the Lamont-Doherty Tree Ring Lab, a longtime collaborator with South American colleagues, and pioneer in dendroarchaeology, the science of pinpointing the age and provenance of old wooden structures. Cook has analyzed many old buildings in the U.S. Northeast, along with objects including an 18th-century sloop accidentally unearthed during excavations after the World Trade Center was destroyed in 2001. (He figured out it had been built of oak around 1773 near Philadelphia.)

Cook’s secret weapon: the North American Drought Atlas, a massive database whose creation he spearheaded in the early 2000s. The atlas collates ring samples from about 30,000 standing trees of many species across the continent going back more than 2,000 years. Varying precipitation levels create subtle yearly variations in ring width that allow researchers to chart past climates, date trees’ precise years of germination and growth—and in the case of old wooden structures, often where and when trees were cut, since climates vary from place to place, leaving distinct regional signatures.

The dendrochronologists determined that the ribs were made of white oak, many species of which grow in the northeast United States. The hull and ceiling planks, they could tell, were old-growth yellow pine, forests of which once covered much of the U.S. Southeast. Wooden nails holding things together were made of rot-resistant black locust, widespread across many eastern states.

Analysis of the oak rings showed that some of the timbers came from trees that had sprouted as far back as 1679. Most striking: The outermost rings indicated the oaks had been cut in 1849—exactly coinciding with the Dolphin’s 1850 construction. The latest rings in the pine planking came from 1810, but the scientists were unbothered by this; unlike the thick ribs, the planks would have been extensively milled down, so no one expected to find the outer rings.

The scientists then compared the rings to specific regional chronologies. Most of the pine samples matched well with chronologies taken decades ago from living trees in Alabama’s Choccolocco Mountain and Georgia’s Lake Louise areas, both known for exporting massive amounts of pine to the northern states in the 19th century. The researchers couldn’t say if the planks came from those sites specifically, but the signatures indicated that they must have come from somewhere in Alabama, Georgia or northern Florida.

As for the oak ribs, the rings most closely resembled chronologies taken from old trees growing in Massachusetts. Among the markers: distinct dry, low-growth periods in the 1680s-90s, 1700s and 1810s. The rings’ very narrow widths indicated the trees had grown in dense, old-growth forest—most of which was cut down in New England during the early to mid-1800s as loggers swept through. Many of those Massachusetts oaks undoubtedly ended up in the ship yards of next-door Rhode Island.

The new paper still hedges its bets, saying the ship may very well be the Dolphin, but absent some unique artifact associated with the vessel, it could conceivably be some other American whaler from the same time. “There were many whaling ships in that area during that time,” said Murray, who coauthored the paper. “So I don’t like to say it is the Dolphin until we can get more evidence.”

However, Mukund Rao, the Lamont dendrochronologist, says he is completely convinced. “The archaeologists are more conservative—they prefer a slightly higher standard, and I don’t blame them,” he said. “It’s true we don’t have something like the ship’s bell. But for me, the story is there in the tree rings.”

The paper was also coauthored by Mónica Grosso of Argentina’s National Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Studies, and Ricardo Villalba of the Laboratory of Dendrochronology and Environmental History, IANIGLA-CONICET. Ignacio Mundo is also an adjunct professor at the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.

Sahelanthropus, the oldest representative of humanity, was indeed bipedal...but that’s not all!

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

 

IMAGE: LEFT: 3D MODELS OF THE POSTCRANIAL MATERIAL OF SAHELANTHROPUS TCHADENSIS. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: THE FEMUR, IN POSTERIOR AND MEDIAL VIEW; THE RIGHT AND LEFT ULNAE, IN ANTERIOR AND LATERAL VIEW. RIGHT: EXAMPLE OF ANALYSIS PERFORMED TO INTERPRET THE LOCOMOTOR MODE OF SAHELANTHROPUS TCHADENSIS. 3D CORTICAL THICKNESS VARIATION MAP FOR THE FEMURS OF (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) SAHELANTHROPUS, AN EXTANT HUMAN, A CHIMPANZEE AND A GORILLA (IN POSTERIOR VIEW). THIS ANALYSIS ENABLES US TO UNDERSTAND THE VARIATIONS OF MECHANICAL CONSTRAINTS ON THE FEMUR AND TO INTERPRET THESE CONSTRAINTS IN TERMS OF LOCOMOTOR MODE. view more 

CREDIT: © FRANCK GUY / PALEVOPRIM / CNRS – UNIVERSITY OF POITIERS

The acquisition of bipedalism is considered to be a decisive step in human evolution. Nevertheless, there is no consensus on its modalities and age, notably due to the lack of fossil remains. A research team, involving researchers from the CNRS, the University of Poitiers1 and their Chadian partners, examined three limb bones from the oldest human representative currently identified, Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Published in Nature on August 24, 2022, this study reinforces the idea of bipedalism being acquired very early in our history, at a time still associated with the ability to move on four limbs in trees.

At 7 million years old, Sahelanthropus tchadensis is considered the oldest representative species of humanity. Its description dates back to 2001 when the Franco-Chadian Paleoanthropological Mission (MPFT) discovered the remains of several individuals at Toros-Menalla in the Djurab Desert (Chad), including a very well-preserved cranium. This cranium, and in particular the orientation and anterior position of the occipital foramen where the vertebral column is inserted, indicates a mode of locomotion on two legs, suggesting that it was capable of bipedalism2.

In addition to the cranium, nicknamed Toumaï, and fragments of jaws and teeth that have already been published, the locality of Toros-Menalla 266 (TM 266) yielded two ulnae (forearm bone) and a femur (thigh bone). These bones were also attributed to Sahelanthropus because no other large primate was found at the site; however, it is impossible to know if they belong to the same individual as the cranium. Palaeontologists from the University of Poitiers, the CNRS, the University of N'Djamena and the National Centre of Research for Development (CNRD, Chad) published their complete analysis in Nature on August 24, 2022.

The femur and ulnae were subjected to a battery of measurements and analyses, concerning both their external morphology, and their internal structures using microtomography imaging: biometric measurements, geometric morphometrics, biomechanical indicators, etc. These data were compared to those of a relatively large sample of extant and fossil apes: chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, Miocene apes, and members of the human group (Orrorin, Ardipithecus, australopithecines, ancient Homo, Homo sapiens).

The structure of the femur indicates that Sahelanthropus was usually bipedal on the ground, but probably also in trees. According to results from the ulnae, this bipedalism coexisted in arboreal environments with a form of quadrupedalism, that is arboreal clambering enabled by firm hand grips, clearly differing from that of gorillas and chimpanzees who lean on the back of their phalanges.

The conclusions of this study, including the identification of habitual bipedalism, are based on the observation and comparison of more than twenty characteristics of the femur and ulnae. They are, by far, the most parsimonious interpretation of the combination of these traits. All these data reinforce the concept of a very early bipedal locomotion in human history, even if at this stage other modes of locomotion were also practiced.

This work was supported by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Chadian Government, the French National Research Agency (ANR), the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, the CNRS, the University of Poitiers and the French representation in Chad. It is dedicated to the memory of the late Yves Coppens, precursor and inspirer of the MPFT's work in the Djourab Desert.

 

Notes

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1 At the PALEVOPRIM laboratory (CNRS / University of Poitiers).

2 See these two articles:

A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa, Michel Brunet et al., Nature, 11 July 2002. DOI: 10.1038/nature00879.

Virtual cranial reconstruction of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Christoph P.E. Zollikofer et al., Nature, 7 April 2005. DOI: 10.1038/nature03397

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-022-04901-z

A Roman necropolis in Barcelona reveals the food used in funerary banquets and in offerings for the dead

 

IMAGE: TWO ADULT BURIALS FROM VILA DE MADRID NECROPOLIS. view more 

CREDIT: MHCB, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0271296

 

Ancient Roman funerary rituals and food

The afterlife in Roman religion was the milestone that had to be reached after death upon complying with several funerary rituals. Part of these rituals consisted of funerary offerings, banquets and sacrifices of animals, performed to ensure the protection of deities and the memory of the deceased [1–4]. Written sources (Pliny, Epist. IV, 2; Cicero, De leg. II, 22, 55–57; Tacitus, Ann. VI, 5; Petronius, Satyrion 65) show that only when a pig was sacrificed was a grave legally a grave. They also indicate that on the same day of the funeral, a funerary feast was eaten at the grave in honour of the dead and offerings of food were left at the tomb. There was also the cena novendialis eaten at the grave on the ninth day after the funeral. Throughout the year there were also other occasions on which the dead were commemorated by funerary meals eaten at the tomb by their relatives and friends, such as their birthdays or several annual festivities (Parentalia, Lemuria, Rosalia) in which a lamb could also be sacrificed [1, 5]. At all of these banquets, the departed had their share set apart for them.

Therefore, through written sources we imagine that banquets and offerings were an important part of the funerary rituals in antiquity. Archaeology has validated this idea. Graves, whether for inhumation or for cremation, are documented widely to have contained holes or pipes through which food and drink could be poured down directly on to the burial, such as at Colchester (UK) [1], Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer (France) [6], Ostia (necropolis d’Isola Sacra, Italy) [7], Tipasa (Mauritaina) [8] or Carmona (necropolis of Puerta de la Sedía, Spain) [9]. Ceramics, faunal and plant remains from these banquets and offerings have also been thoroughly recovered from the necropolis floors and inside the graves. Some examples are the necropolis of Nimes in France [10], the ‘Mausoleo di Blanda Tortora’ in Pergolo in Italy [11], the Eastern cemetery of London in England [12] or the necropolis of Valentia in Spain [13].

Taking into account the importance of these rituals, with this paper we want to take a step deeper into their research. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the funerary rituals involved special food that differed from the every-day diet, or conversely, if what was consumed as food in everyday life was also used in the mortuary meals and ceremonies. To accomplish this, we selected the collegia funeraticia area of the necropolis of Vila de Madrid (Barcelona, Catalonia), in use between the first half of the second century AD and the mid third century AD.

The earliest canoe burial of a young woman, uncovered in Argentinian Patagonia

 

It is also the most southern example in the Americas

 

IMAGE: DETAIL OF THE DISPOSITION OF THE BODY OF INDIVIDUAL 3 AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH REMAINS OF WOOD, FRESHWATER MOLLUSKS, RED PIGMENTS AND PAINTED POTTERY. view more 

CREDIT: PÉREZ ET AL., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272833

Article Title: A pre-Hispanic canoe or Wampo burial in Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina

Author Countries: Chile, Argentina

Funding: The works at the Newen Antug site were carried out and financed by the Secretariat of Planning and Sustainable Development of the Municipality of San Martín de los Andes and the Honorable Legislature of the Province of Neuquén, through the efforts of Deputy Guillermo Carnagui and Vice Governor Rolando Figueroa. It was also supported by grants PICT 2011-1738 (ANPCyT), PI04-173 (UNCo) and PICT V 2014-1558 (ANPCyT) from the Argentine Republic, and by FONDECYT Regular 1200251 from the Republic of Chile. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0272833 

Study of ancient skulls sheds light on human interbreeding with Neandertals

Research has established that there are traces of Neandertal DNA in the genome of modern humans. Now an exploratory study that assessed the facial structure of prehistoric skulls is offering new insights, and supports the hypothesis that much of this interbreeding took place in the Near East – the region ranging from North Africa to Iraq.

“Ancient DNA caused a revolution in how we think about human evolution,” says Steven Churchill, co-author of the study and a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University. “We often think of evolution as branches on a tree, and researchers have spent a lot of time trying to trace back the path that led to us, Homo sapiens. But we’re now beginning to understand that it isn’t a tree – it’s more like a series of streams that converge and diverge at multiple points.”

“Our work here gives us a deeper understanding of where those streams came together,” says Ann Ross, corresponding author of the study and a professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University.

“The picture is really complicated,” Churchill says. “We know there was interbreeding. Modern Asian populations seem to have more Neandertal DNA than modern European populations, which is weird – because Neandertals lived in what is now Europe. That has suggested that Neandertals interbred with what are now modern humans as our prehistoric ancestors left Africa, but before spreading to Asia. Our goal with this study was to see what additional light we could shed on this by assessing the facial structure of prehistoric humans and Neandertals.”

“By evaluating facial morphology, we can trace how populations moved and interacted over time,” Ross explains. “And the evidence shows us that the Near East was an important crossroads, both geographically and in the context of human evolution.”

For this study, the researchers collected data on craniofacial morphology from the published literature. This ultimately resulted in a data set including 13 Neandertals, 233 prehistoric Homo sapiens, and 83 modern humans.

The researchers focused on standard craniofacial measurements, which are reproducible, and used those measurements to assess the size and shape of key facial structures. This then allowed the researchers to do an in-depth analysis to determine whether a given human population was likely to have interbred with Neandertal populations, as well as the extent of that likely interbreeding.

“Neandertals had big faces,” Churchill says. “But size alone doesn’t establish any genetic link between a human population and Neandertal populations. Our work here involved a more robust analysis of the facial structures.”

The researchers also accounted for environmental variables that are associated with changes in human facial characteristics, to determine the likelihood that connections they established between Neandertal and human populations were the result of interbreeding rather than other factors.

“We found that the facial characteristics we focused on were not strongly influenced by climate, which made it easier to identify likely genetic influences,” Ross says. “We also found that facial shape was a more useful variable for tracking the influence of Neandertal interbreeding in human populations over time. Neandertals were just bigger than humans. Over time, the size of human faces became smaller, generations after they had bred with Neandertals. But the actual shape of some facial features retained evidence of interbreeding with Neandertals.”

“This was an exploratory study,” Churchill says. “And, honestly, I wasn’t sure this approach would actually work – we have a relatively small sample size, and we didn’t have as much data on facial structures as we would have liked. But, ultimately, the results we got are really compelling.

“To build on this, we’d like to incorporate measurements from more human populations, such as the Natufians, who lived more than 11,000 years ago on the Mediterranean in what is now Israel, Jordan and Syria.”

The paper, “Midfacial Morphology and Neandertal–Modern Human Interbreeding,” is published open-access in the journal Biology. The paper was co-authored by Kamryn Keys, a Ph.D. student at NC State.

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JOURNAL

Biology

DOI

10.3390/biology11081163