Ancient DNA from Medieval Germany tells origin story of Ashkenazi Jews

Excavating ancient DNA from teeth, an international group of scientists peered into the lives of a once thriving medieval Ashkenazi Jewish community in Erfurt, Germany. The findings, shared today in the Journal Cell, show that the Erfurt Jewish community was more genetically diverse than modern day Ashkenazi Jews.

 

About half of Jews today are identified as Ashkenazi, meaning that they originate from Jews living in Central or Eastern Europe. The term was initially used to define a distinct cultural group of Jews who settled in the 10th century in Germany's Rhineland. Despite much speculation, many gaps exist in our understanding of their origins and demographic upheavals during the second millennium.

 

“Today, if you compare Ashkenazi Jews from the United States and Israel, they’re very similar genetically, almost like the same population regardless of where they live,” shared geneticist and co-author Professor Shai Carmi of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU). But unlike today’s genetic uniformity, it turns out that the community was more diverse 600 years ago.

 

Digging into the ancient DNA of 33 Ashkenazi Jews from medieval Erfurt, the team discovered that the community can be categorized into what seems like two groups. One relates more to individuals from Middle Eastern populations and the other to European populations, possibly including migrants to Erfurt from the East. The findings suggest that there were at least two genetically distinct groups in medieval Erfurt. However, that genetic variability no longer exists in modern Ashkenazi Jews.

 

The Erfurt medieval Jewish community existed between the 11th and 15th centuries, with a short gap following a 1349 massacre. At times, it was a thriving community and one of the largest in Germany. Following the expulsion of all Jews in 1454, the city built a granary on top of the Jewish cemetery. In 2013, when the granary stood empty, the city permitted its conversion into a parking lot. This required additional construction and an archaeological rescue excavation.

 

“Our goal was to fill the gaps in our understanding of Ashkenazi Jewish early history through ancient DNA data,” explained Carmi. While ancient DNA data is a powerful tool to infer historical demographics, ancient Jewish DNA data is hard to come by, as Jewish law prohibits the disturbance of the dead in most circumstances. With the approval of the local Jewish community in Germany, the research team collected detached teeth from remains found in a 14th-century Jewish cemetery in Erfurt that underwent a rescue excavation.

 

The researchers also discovered that the founder event, which makes all Ashkenazi Jews today descendants of a small population, happened before the 14th century. For example, teasing through mitochondrial DNA, genetic materials we inherit from our mothers, they discovered that a third of the sampled Erfurt individuals share one specific sequence. The findings indicate that the early Ashkenazi Jewish population was so small that a third of Erfurt individuals descended from a single woman through their maternal lines.

 

At least eight of the Erfurt individuals also carried disease-causing genetic mutations common in modern-day Ashkenazi Jews but rare in other populations—a hallmark of the Ashkenazi Jewish founder event.

 

“Jews in Europe were a religious minority that was socially segregated, and they experienced periodic persecution,” described co-author David Reich of Harvard University. Although antisemitic violence virtually wiped-out Erfurt’s Jewish community in 1349, Jews returned five years later and flourished into one of the largest in Germany. “Our work gives us direct insight into the structure of this community.”

 

The team believes the current study helps to establish an ethical basis for studies of ancient Jewish DNA. Many questions remain unanswered, such as how medieval Ashkenazi Jewish communities became genetically differentiated, how early Ashkenazi Jews related to Sephardi Jews, and how modern Jews relate to ones from ancient Judea.

 

While this is the largest ancient Jewish DNA study so far, it is limited to one cemetery and one period of time. Nevertheless, it was able to detect previously unknown genetic subgroups in medieval Ashkenazi Jews. The researchers hope that their study will pave the way for future analyses of samples from other sites, including those from antiquity, to continue unraveling the complexities of Jewish history.

 

“This work also provides a template for how a co-analysis of modern and ancient DNA data can shed light on the past,” concluded Reich. “Studies like this hold great promise not only for understanding Jewish history, but also that of any population.”

 

The research team, of over 30 scientists, included HU’s Shamam Waldman, a doctoral student in Carmi's group, who performed most of the data analysis.

Who built the LSU campus mounds provides insight into these prehistoric treasures

 

IMAGE: WILLIAM G. HAAG PROFESSOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY REBECCA SAUNDERS AND COLLEAGUES CONDUCTED AN EXCAVATION OF LSU CAMPUS MOUND B IN 2018. view more 

CREDIT: LSU

The LSU Campus Mounds sit on high ground overlooking the Mississippi River floodplain and have been a gathering place and destination for people for thousands of years. They are some of the oldest mounds in Louisiana and North America.  Recent papers have offered alternate interpretations of their age. Knowing the approximate age of the mounds provides significant insight into the people who built the mounds. Archaeologists have built “culture histories” describing prehistoric ways of life and the way lifestyles have changed through time. In other words, knowing the age of the mounds provides context into the way of life of the people who built and used the LSU Campus Mounds.

Archaeological data from Louisiana and the southeastern U.S. indicate that between 5,000 and 7,000 years ago—a time archaeologists call the Middle Archaic—bands of about 20-50 people lived off the land and moved seasonally to take advantage of the availability of different food resources. This lifestyle greatly differed from those who were here 11,000 years ago.

“We know a lot about what people were doing in the North American Middle Archaic period and their lifestyle,” said Heather McKillop, the Thomas & Lillian Landrum Alumni Professor in the LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology and co-author on the paper published in SAA, the Magazine of the Society for American Archeology. “It’s very exciting that we have these earthen mounds preserved here at LSU. As we study them, we need to tie the mounds to the people who built them.”

As populations grew within the large bands of families, central meeting spots were built where multiple bands congregated to exchange information, trade and potentially find mates. And when people get together, what do they tend to do?

“They eat, they dance, they perform rituals that tie them to the past and help them see their way into the future. Building something on the landscape that symbolizes this seems to be an essentially human thing. Human beings do this all over the place, and in the southeastern United States, the landmark tends to be earthen or shell mounds,” said Rebecca Saunders, the William G. Haag Professor of Archaeology at LSU and co-author.

So, the LSU Campus Mounds fit within a way of life where many bands of people built earthen mounds as they were hunting, gathering and moving around the landscape in Louisiana and in the region visiting their mound sites as well as the mound sites of other bands of people.

“We know of at least 13 other sites in Louisiana with earthen mounds built between 5,000 to 7,000 years ago, which indicates that different communities were exploring this idea of building mounds during this period of time,” said Louisiana State Archaeologist Chip McGimsey, who is the lead author of the paper and director of the Louisiana Division of Archaeology.

Hundreds of mounds have been destroyed by landowners, farmers and corporations. These include sites, such as the Monte Sano mounds just upriver from the LSU Campus Mounds, which were built about 7,500 years ago but were destroyed in the 1960s.

“The LSU Campus Mounds are probably the best protected mounds because they are on the campus of LSU and LSU has made a very strong commitment to preserving them. Most of the other mounds are on private land and landowners can do what they’d like with them,” McGimsey said.

Differing interpretations

Earlier this year, LSU geologists published a paper, “The LSU campus mounds, with construction beginning at ∼11,000 BP, are the oldest known extant man-made structures in the Americas.” The LSU archaeologists’ new paper published this month is a response to it.

In this new paper, the archaeologists write: “[The geologists’] interpretation of the age and construction sequence for both mounds represents a significant departure from current archaeological understandings of the origins of mound building in North America. If confirmed, this site would change how archaeologists think about the early history of North America.”

“We’re not questioning the dates but we’re questioning the interpretation and the lack of inclusion of other datasets. This disagreement in no way detracts from the significance and importance of the LSU Campus Mounds. While we would argue they are not the oldest person-made earthworks in North America, they are still some of the very oldest and part of what is a remarkable history of mound-building in North America that has its origins here in Louisiana. The LSU Campus Mounds are part of that tradition,” McGimsey said.

The archaeologists raise the point that 11,000 years ago, people roamed in small groups over large expanses of land throughout North America hunting Ice Age animals such as mammoths, mastodons and ancient bison. There is no other evidence that people were building mounds at this time.

The archaeologists also question the interpretation that the first LSU Campus Mound was built to about half of its current height and then abandoned for about 1,000 years, before the final stage was added. Soil scientists and archaeologists have studied multiple sediment cores taken from the top to the bottom of both mounds. They conclude that if there had been a hiatus of about 1,000 years, there would be color, textural and chemical changes on the exposed surface. None of these changes were observed in the cores. Instead, it appears the mounds were built as a continuous process.

“This process has been shown to not necessarily take very long. If you have a group of people who were coming here seasonally and were building these mounds, it would not take thousands of years to build,” McKillop said.

While the geologists believe the microscopic fragments from burned cane and rush plants called phytoliths found in the mounds may have been remnants from intense, potentially ceremonial fires, the archaeologists point out that phytoliths are commonly found in soil in the area. High densities of phytoliths can occur naturally because wild cane must burn occasionally like forest undergrowth for the health of the ecosystem. Thus, the archaeologists argue the phytoliths could have already been in the soil that was used to build the mounds. The archaeologists also point out that if routine, intense ceremonial fires occurred at the LSU Campus Mounds, as the geologists suggest, there should be obvious changes in soil texture and color where the fires burned.

In addition to raising these points, the archaeologists encourage other researchers to pursue further study of the site and outline specific questions that can provide further clarity about the LSU Campus Mounds.

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

The Age and Construction of the LSU Campus Mounds: Consideration of Ellwood and Colleagues

Findings from 2,000-year-old Uluburun shipwreck reveal complex trade network

 

IMAGE: TIN FROM THE MUŠISTON MINE IN CENTRAL ASIA’S UZBEKISTAN TRAVELED MORE THAN 2,000 MILES TO HAIFA, WHERE THE ILL-FATED SHIP LOADED ITS CARGO BEFORE CRASHING OFF THE EASTERN SHORES OF ULUBURUN IN PRESENT-DAY TURKEY. view more 

CREDIT: MAP PROVIDED BY MICHAEL FRACHETTI/WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

More than 2,000 years before the Titanic sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean, another famous ship wrecked in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern shores of Uluburun — in present-day Turkey —  carrying tons of rare metal. Since its discovery in 1982, scientists have been studying the contents of the Uluburun shipwreck to gain a better understanding of the people and political organizations that dominated the time period known as the Late

Now, a team of scientists, including Michael Frachetti, professor of archaeology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, have uncovered a surprising finding: small communities of highland pastoralists living in present-day Uzbekistan in Central Asia produced and supplied roughly one-third of the tin found aboard the ship — tin that was en route to markets around the Mediterranean to be made into coveted bronze metal.  

The research, published on November 30 in Science Advances, was made possible by advances in geochemical analyses that enabled researchers to determine with high-level certainty that some of the tin originated from a prehistoric mine in Uzbekistan, more than 2,000 miles from Haifa, where the ill-fated ship loaded its cargo.  

But how could that be? During this period, the mining regions of Central Asia were occupied by small communities of highlander pastoralists — far from a major industrial center or empire. And the terrain between the two locations — which passes through Iran and Mesopotamia — was rugged, which would have made it extremely difficult to pass tons of heavy metal.

Frachetti and other archaeologists and historians were enlisted to help put the puzzle pieces together. Their findings unveiled a shockingly complex supply chain that involved multiple steps to get the tin from the small mining community to the Mediterranean marketplace.  

“It appears these local miners had access to vast international networks and — through overland trade and other forms of connectivity — were able to pass this all-important commodity all the way to the Mediterranean,” Frachetti said.

“It’s quite amazing to learn that a culturally diverse, multiregional and multivector system of trade underpinned Eurasian tin exchange during the Late Bronze Age.”

“To put it into perspective, this would be the trade equivalent of the entire United States sourcing its energy needs from small backyard oil rigs in central Kansas.”

Michael Frachetti

Adding to the mystique is the fact that the mining industry appears to have been run by small-scale local communities or free laborers who negotiated this marketplace outside of the control of kings, emperors or other political organizations, Frachetti said.

“To put it into perspective, this would be the trade equivalent of the entire United States sourcing its energy needs from small backyard oil rigs in central Kansas,” he said.

About the research

The idea of using tin isotopes to determine where metal in archaeological artifacts originates dates to the mid-1990s, according to Wayne Powell, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Brooklyn College and a lead author on the study. However, the technologies and methods for analysis were not precise enough to provide clear answers. Only in the last few years have scientists begun using tin isotopes to directly correlate mining sites to assemblages of metal artifacts, he said.

“Over the past couple of decades, scientists have collected information about the isotopic composition of tin ore deposits around the world, their ranges and overlaps, and the natural mechanisms by which isotopic compositions were imparted to cassiterite when it formed,” Powell said. “We remain in the early stages of such study. I expect that in future years, this ore deposit database will become quite robust, like that of Pb isotopes today, and the method will be used routinely.”

Aslihan K. Yener, a research affiliate at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University and a professor emerita of archaeology at the University of Chicago, was one of the early researchers who conducted lead isotope analyses. In the 1990s, Yener was part of a research team that conducted the first lead isotope analysis of the Uluburun tin. That analysis suggested that the Uluburun tin may have come from two sources — the Kestel Mine in Turkey’s Taurus Mountains and some unspecified location in central Asia.

“But this was shrugged off since the analysis was measuring trace lead and not targeting the origin of the tin,” said Yener, who is a co-author of the present study.

Yener also was the first to discover tin in Turkey in the 1980s. At the time, she said the entire scholarly community was surprised that it existed there, right under their noses, where the earliest tin bronzes occurred.

Some 30 years later, researchers finally have a more definitive answer thanks to the advanced tin isotope analysis techniques: One-third of the tin aboard the Uluburun shipwreck was sourced from the Mušiston mine in Uzbekistan. The remaining two-thirds of the tin derived from the Kestel mine in ancient Anatolia, which is in present-day Turkey.

Findings offer glimpse into life 2,000-plus years ago

By 1500 B.C., bronze was the “high technology” of Eurasia, used for everything from weaponry to luxury items, tools and utensils. Bronze is primarily made from copper and tin. While copper is fairly common and can be found throughout Eurasia, tin is much rarer and only found in specific kinds of geological deposits, Frachetti said.

“Finding tin was a big problem for prehistoric states. And thus, the big question was how these major Bronze Age empires were fueling their vast demand for bronze given the lengths and pains to acquire tin as such a rare commodity. Researchers have tried to explain this for decades,” Frachetti said.

The Uluburun ship yielded the world’s largest Bronze Age collection of raw metals ever found — enough copper and tin to produce 11 metric tons of bronze of the highest quality. Had it not been lost to sea, that metal would have been enough to outfit a force of almost 5,000 Bronze Age soldiers with swords, “not to mention a lot of wine jugs,” Frachetti said.

“The current findings illustrate a sophisticated international trade operation that included regional operatives and socially diverse participants who produced and traded essential hard-earth commodities throughout the late Bronze Age political economy from Central Asia to the Mediterranean,” Frachetti said.  

Unlike the mines in Uzbekistan, which were set within a network of small-scale villages and mobile pastoralists, the mines in ancient Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age were under the control of the Hittites, an imperial global power of great threat to Ramses the Great of Egypt, Yener explained.

The findings also show that life 2,000-plus years ago was not that different from what it is today.

“With the disruptions due to COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, we have become aware of how we are reliant on complex supply chains to maintain our economy, military and standard of living,” Powell said. “This is true in prehistory as well. Kingdoms rose and fell, climatic conditions shifted and new peoples migrated across Eurasia, potentially disrupting or redistributing access to tin, which was essential for both weapons and agricultural tools.

“Using tin isotopes, we can look across each of these archaeologically evident disruptions in society and see connections were severed, maintained or redefined. We already have DNA analysis to show relational connections. Pottery, funerary practices, etc., illustrate the transmission and connectivity of ideas. Now with tin isotopes, we can document the connectivity of long-distance trade networks and their sustainability.”

More clues to explore

The current research findings settle decades-old debates about the origins of the metal on the Uluburun shipwreck and Eurasian tin exchange during the Late Bronze Age. But there are still more clues to explore.

After they were mined, the metals were processed for shipping and ultimately melted into standardized shapes — known as ingots — for transporting. The distinct shapes of the ingots served as calling cards for traders to know from where they originated, Frachetti said.

Many of the ingots aboard the Uluburun ship were in the “oxhide” shape, which was previously believed to have originated in Cyprus. However, the current findings suggest the oxhide shape could have originated farther east. Frachetti said he and other researchers plan to continue studying the unique shapes of the ingots and how they were used in trade.

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In addition to Frachetti, Powell and Yener, the following researchers contributed to the present study: Cemal Pulakat at Texas A&M University, H. Arthur Bankoff at Brooklyn College, Gojko Barjamovic at Harvard University, Michael Johnson at Stell Environmental Enterprises, Ryan Mathur at Juniata College, Vincent C. Pigott at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Michael Price at the Santa Fe Institute.

The study was funded in part by a Professional Staff Congress-City University of New York Research Award, in addition to a research grant from the Institute for Aegean Prehistory.

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abq3766 

Study using DNA analysis of sacrificial spider monkey suggests Mesoamerican diplomacy

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

 A multimethod archaeological study of a spider monkey sacrificed at Teotihuacàn, located approximately 25 miles from Mexico City, provides the earliest evidence of primate captivity and translocation in the Americas over 1,500 years ago.

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma’s Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research led the genetic analysis of the spider monkey’s skeleton. The OU team includes study co-authors Courtney Hofman, Ph.D., President’s Associates Presidential Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, with graduate student Robin Singleton and laboratory technician Karissa Hughes.

“Geoffrey’s spider monkeys are not found near Teotihuacàn today,” Hofman said. “Ancient DNA analysis of this spider monkey sought to identify the subspecies of the spider monkey, which can provide insight into ancient trade networks.”

“We were able to confirm that the spider monkey was most closely related to two endangered populations, the Mexican and the Yucatan spider monkey subspecies,” she added. “Using additional lines of evidence, including isotopic analysis, we hypothesized that this animal was of the Mexican subspecies, which today lives in parts of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. The presence of this animal in the central Mexican city of Teotihuacàn suggests that there was greater interaction with the Maya than previously understood and perhaps this spider monkey was a diplomatic gift.” 

The study, Earliest evidence of primate captivity and translocation supports gift diplomacy between Teotihuacan and the Maya, was published Nov. 21 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was featured in Science.

Nawa Sugiyama, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside, is the first author. In addition to the OU team, co-authors include researchers from Arizona State University; the Archéologie des Amériques in Paris, France; the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute; the RIKEN Institute in Kobe, Japan; and Washington State University.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2212431119 

Ancient Roman coins reveal long-lost emperor

A gold coin long dismissed as a forgery appears to be authentic and depicts a long-lost Roman emperor named Sponsian, according to a new study led by a University College London (UCL) researcher

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

 

IMAGE: SPONSIAN GOLD COIN, C.260-C.270 CE (OBVERSE) view more 

CREDIT: THE HUNTERIAN, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.

A gold coin long dismissed as a forgery appears to be authentic and depicts a long-lost Roman emperor named Sponsian, according to a new UCL-led study.

The coin, housed at The Hunterian collection at the University of Glasgow, was among a handful of coins of the same design unearthed in Transylvania, in present-day Romania, in 1713. They have been regarded as fakes since the mid-19th-century, due to their crude, strange design features and jumbled inscriptions.

In the new study, published in PLOS ONE, researchers compared the Sponsion coin with other Roman coins kept at The Hunterian, including two that are known to be genuine.

They found minerals on the coin’s surface that were consistent with it being buried in soil over a long period of time, and then exposed to air. These minerals were cemented in place by silica – cementing that would naturally occur over a long time in soil. The team also found a pattern of wear and tear that suggested the coin had been in active circulation.

Lead author Professor Paul N. Pearson (UCL Earth Sciences) said: “Scientific analysis of these ultra-rare coins rescues the emperor Sponsian from obscurity. Our evidence suggests he ruled Roman Dacia, an isolated gold mining outpost, at a time when the empire was beset by civil wars and the borderlands were overrun by plundering invaders.”

The Roman province of Dacia, a territory overlapping with modern-day Romania, was a region prized for its gold mines. Archaeological studies have established that the area was cut off from the rest of the Roman empire in around 260 CE. Surrounded by enemies, Sponsian may have been a local army officer forced to assume supreme command during a period of chaos and civil war, protecting the military and civilian population of Dacia until order was restored, and the province evacuated between 271 and 275 CE.

Coinage has always been an important symbol of power and authority. Recognising this and unable to receive official issues from the mint in Rome, Sponsian seems to have authorised the creation of locally produced coins, some featuring an image of his face, to support a functioning economy in his isolated frontier territory.

When the coins were discovered in the early 18th century, they were thought to be genuine and classed alongside other imitations of Roman coins made beyond the fringes of the empire. However, from the mid-19th century, attitudes changed. Coins from the hoard were dismissed as fakes because of the way they looked. This has been the accepted view until now.

The new study is the first time scientific analysis has been undertaken on any of the Sponsian coins. The research team used powerful microscopes in visible and ultraviolet light, as well as scanning electron microscopy and spectroscopy – studying how light at different wavelengths is absorbed or reflected – to study the coins’ surface.

Only four coins featuring Sponsian are known to have survived to the present day, all apparently originally from the 1713 hoard. Another is in Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania. High magnification microscopic analysis performed there, following the research on the coin at The Hunterian, has revealed similar evidence of authenticity.

Curator of Numismatics at The Hunterian, Jesper Ericsson, said: "This has been a really exciting project for The Hunterian and we’re delighted that our findings have inspired collaborative research with museum colleagues in Romania. Not only do we hope that this encourages further debate about Sponsian as a historical figure, but also the investigation of coins relating to him held in other museums across Europe."

The interim manager of the Brukenthal National Museum, Alexandru Constantin Chituță, said: "For the history of Transylvania and Romania in particular, but also for the history of Europe in general, if these results are accepted by the scientific community they will mean the addition of another important historical figure in our history.

“It is a wonderful thing for the Brukenthal National Museum, because the museum in Sibiu, Romania, is the holder of the only known coin belonging to Sponsian from the territory of Romania. I would like to express my gratitude to the colleagues from the Brukenthal Național Museum - History Museum Altemberger House and especially to the leader of the scientific team, Professor Paul N. Pearson from UCL, for their commitment, hard work and their impressive result."

Four gold coins analysed by researchers, including the Sponsian coin and other Roman coins previously dismissed as forgeries, are on display in The Hunterian at the University of Glasgow, while the Sponsian coin in the Brukenthal National Museum is also on public display.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0274285 

Researchers discovered Egypt’s oldest tomb oriented to winter solstice

Located in the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa, it is precisely oriented to the sunrise of the winter solstice, in such a way that the sun's rays bathed with its light the place that was intended to house the statue of a governor of the city ofElephantine

Peer-Reviewed Publication

 

IMAGE: LOCATED IN THE NECROPOLIS OF QUBBET EL-HAWA (ASWAN), IT IS PRECISELY ORIENTED TO THE SUNRISE OF THE WINTER SOLSTICE, IN SUCH A WAY THAT THE SUN'S RAYS BATHED WITH ITS LIGHT THE PLACE THAT WAS INTENDED TO HOUSE THE STATUE OF A GOVERNOR OF THE CITY OF ELEPHANTINE, WHO LIVED AT THE END OF THE XII DYNASTY, AROUND 1830 B. C. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF JAEN AND MALAGA

Researchers of the University of Malaga (UMA) and the University of Jaen (UJA) have discovered Egypt’s oldest tomb oriented to the winter solstice. Located in the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa (Aswan), it is precisely oriented to the sunrise of the winter solstice, in such a way that the sun's rays bathed with its light the place that was intended to house the statue of a governor of the city of Elephantine, who lived at the end of the XII Dynasty, around 1830 b. C.

This way, the tomb perfectly registered the whole solar cycle, related to the idea of rebirth. While the winter solstice meant the beginning of the sunlight victory over darkness, the summer solstice generally coincided with the beginning of the annual flooding of the Nile, hence both events had an important symbolism linked to the resurrection of the deceased governor.

Perfection in the orientation

In this paper, recently published in the prestigious scientific journal Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, the researchers explain that, in order to achieve perfection in the orientation, the Egyptian architect simply used a two-cubit pole, around one meter long, a square and some robes, with which he was able to perfectly calculate the orientation of the funerary chapel and the location of the statue of the governor.

Moreover, they explain that the Egyptian architect not only achieved the perfect orientation, but also designed its volume with great precision, as determined in a previous paper published by the UJA in 2020 and signed by, among others, Professor Antonio Mozas –also author of this article–, which revealed that the volume of the tomb was perfectly calculated to avoid being coincident with any previous tomb.

The tomb of this governor, catalogued with No. 33, and possibly built by Governor Heqaib-ankh, was excavated by the UJA between 2008 and 2018. From that time on, it has been architecturally studied by different specialists, among them, the Professor of Architecture at the UMA Lola Joyanes, who has been participating in this project since 2015, working on her own line of research since 2019.

The work this researcher of the UMA has performed in the necropolis involves everything related to architecture and landscape, particularly, their study through drawing and photogrammetry.

A specific software to reproduce the position of the sun

The Andalusian scientists reached these conclusions thanks to the identification of the period where the tomb was built, which allowed them to use a specific software (Dialux Evo) that reproduces the position of the sun with respect to the horizon in ancient times.

“This study demonstrates that Egyptians were capable of calculating the position of the sun and the orientation of its rays to design their monuments. Although the tomb No. 33 of Qubbet el-Hawa is the oldest example ever found, certainly it is not the only one”, say the scientists.

This research has been financed by the Government of Andalusia within its projects “A way to immortality: beyond the preparation for death during Middle Kingdom at Qubbet el-Hawa (Aswan, Egypt)” of the University of Jaen and “Archaeology, Architecture and Landscape: typological evolution and state of conservation of tombs in the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa (Aswan, Egypt). Intervention criteria”.

Bibliography:

Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 22, No 2, (2022), pp. 209-235.

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6815469

Ancient DNA analysis sheds light on the early peopling of South America

 

IMAGE: THE FIRST SOUTHERN NORTH AMERICAN GROUPS ENTERED SOUTH AMERICA AND SPREAD THROUGH THE PACIFIC COAST SETTLING THE ANDES (YELLOW ARROW). AT LEAST ONE POPULATION SPLIT OCCURRED SOON AFTER, BRANCHING THE FIRST GROUPS THAT SETTLED THE ATLANTIC COAST (GREEN ARROW) FROM THE GROUPS THAT GAVE RISE TO THE ANCIENT POPULATIONS OF SOUTHERN CONE. NEW MIGRATIONS MAY HAVE THEN EMERGED ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST, WITH A POSSIBLE ORIGIN AROUND LAGOA SANTA, HEADING NORTH TOWARD NORTHEAST BRAZIL AND PANAMA, AND SOUTH TO URUGUAY. EVENTUALLY, URUGUAY AND PANAMA WERE LINKED BY A SOUTH-TO-NORTH MIGRATION ROUTE CLOSER TO THE ATLANTIC COAST (PURPLE DOUBLE-HEADED ARROW). view more 

CREDIT: FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

The Americas were the last continent to be inhabited by humans. An increasing body of archaeological and genomic evidence has hinted to a complex settlement process. This is especially true for South America, where unexpected ancestral signals have raised perplexing scenarios for the early migrations into different regions of the continent.

Many unanswered questions still persist, such as whether the first humans migrated south along the Pacific coast or by some other route. While there is archaeological evidence for a north-to-south migration during the initial peopling of the Americas by ancient Indigenous peoples, where these ancient humans went after they arrived has remained elusive.  

Using DNA from two ancient human individuals unearthed in two different archaeological sites in northeast Brazil – Pedra do Tubarão and Alcobaça – and powerful algorithms and genomic analyses, Florida Atlantic University researchers in collaboration with Emory University have unraveled the deep demographic history of South America at the regional level with some unexpected and surprising results.

Not only do researchers provide new genetic evidence supporting existing archaeological data of the north-to-south migration toward South America, they also have discovered migrations in the opposite direction along the Atlantic coast – for the first time. The work provides the most complete genetic evidence to date for complex ancient Central and South American migration routes.

Among the key findings, researchers also have discovered evidence of Neanderthal ancestry within the genomes of ancient individuals from South America. Neanderthals are an extinct population of archaic humans that ranged across Eurasia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. 

Results of the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. (Biological Sciences), suggest that human movements closer to the Atlantic coast eventually linked ancient Uruguay and Panama in a south-to-north migration route – 5,277 kilometers (3,270 miles) apart. This novel migration pattern is estimated to have occurred approximately 1,000 years ago based on the ages of the ancient individuals.

Findings show a distinct relationship among ancient genomes from northeast Brazil, Lagoa Santa (southeast Brazil), Uruguay and Panama. This new model reveals that the settlement of the Atlantic coast occurred only after the peopling of most of the Pacific coast and Andes.

“Our study provides key genomic evidence for ancient migration events at the regional scale along South America’s Atlantic coast,” said Michael DeGiorgio, Ph.D., co-corresponding author who specializes in human, evolutionary, and computational genomics and is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science within FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. “These regional events likely derived from migratory waves involving the initial Indigenous peoples of South America near the Pacific coast.”

Researchers also found strong Australasian (Australia and Papua New Guinea) genetic signals in an ancient genome from Panama.

“There is an entire Pacific Ocean between Australasia and the Americas, and we still don’t know how these ancestral genomic signals appeared in Central and South America without leaving traces in North America,” said Andre Luiz Campelo dos Santos, Ph.D., first author, an archaeologist and a postdoctoral fellow in FAU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

To further add to the existing complexity, researchers also detected greater Denisovan than Neanderthal ancestry in ancient Uruguay and Panama individuals. Denisovans are a group of extinct humans first identified from DNA sequences from the tip of finger bone discovered around 2008.

“It’s phenomenal that Denisovan ancestry made it all the way to South America,” says John Lindo, Ph.D., a co-corresponding author of the article who specializes in ancient DNA analysis and is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Emory University. “The admixture must have occurred a long time before, perhaps 40,000 years ago. The fact that the Denisovan lineage persisted and its genetic signal made it into an ancient individual from Uruguay that is only 1,500 years old suggests that it was a large admixture event between a population of humans and Denisovans.”

Previously at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, dos Santos and colleagues uncovered the remains of the two ancient humans from northeast Brazil, which date back to at least 1,000 years before present, and sent them to Lindo for DNA extraction and subsequent genomic sequencing and analyses. Raw data were then sent to FAU for computational analysis of the whole genome sequences from northeast Brazil.

Researchers compared the two newly sequenced ancient whole genomes from northeast Brazil with present-day worldwide genomes and other ancient whole genomes from the Americas. As of the publication date of the article, Lindo says that only a dozen or so ancient whole genomes from South America have been sequenced and published, in contrast to hundreds from Europe. 

Apart from the occurrence of mass burials in the sites that yielded the samples from northeast Brazil, Uruguay, southeast Brazil and Panama, there is no other evidence in the archaeological record that indicate shared cultural features among them. Importantly, the analyzed ancient individuals from southeast Brazil are about 9,000 years older than those from northeast Brazil, Uruguay and Panama, enough time for expected and noticeable cultural divergence. Moreover, northeast Brazil, Uruguay and Panama, though more similar in age, are located thousands of kilometers apart from each other.

“This groundbreaking research involved many different fields from archaeology to biological sciences to genomics and data science,” said Stella Batalama, Ph.D., dean, FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science. “Our scientists at Florida Atlantic University in collaboration with Emory University have helped to shed light on an important piece of the Americas puzzle, which could not have been solved without powerful genomic and computational tools and analysis.”

A Stone Age child buried with bird feathers, plant fibers and fur

 

IMAGE: AN ARTIST’S IMPRESSION OF THE CHILD BURIED IN MAJOONSUO DURING THEIR LIFE view more 

CREDIT: TOM BJORKLUND

The exceptional excavation of a Stone Age burial site was carried out in Majoonsuo, situated in the municipality of Outokumpu in Eastern Finland. The excavation produced microscopically small fragments of bird feathers, canine and small mammalian hairs, and plant fibres. The findings gained through soil analysis are unique, as organic matter is poorly preserved in Finland’s acidic soil. The study, led by Archaeologist Tuija Kirkinen, was aimed at investigating how these highly degraded plant- and animal-based materials could be traced through soil analysis.

During the Stone Age in Finland, the deceased were interred mainly in pits in the ground. Little of the organic matter from human-made objects have been preserved in Stone Age graves in Finland, but it is known, on the basis of burial sites in the surrounding regions, that objects made of bones, teeth and horns as well as furs and feathers were placed in the graves.

Teeth and arrowheads found in the red ochre grave

The Trial Excavation Team of the Finnish Heritage Agency examined the site in 2018, as it was considered to be at risk of destruction. The burial place was located under a gravelly sand road in a forest, with the top of the grave partially exposed. The site was originally given away by the intense colour of its red ochre. Red ochre, or iron-rich clay soil, has been used not only in burials but also in rock art around the world.

In the archaeological dig at the burial site, only a few teeth were found of the deceased, on the basis of which they are known to have been a child between 3 and 10 years of age. In addition, two transverse arrowheads made of quartz and two other possible quartz objects were found in the grave. Based on the shape of the arrowheads and shore-level dating, the burial can be estimated to have taken place in the Mesolithic period of the Stone Age, roughly 6,000 years before the Common Era.

What made the excavation exceptional was the near-complete preservation of the soil originating in the grave. A total of 65 soil sample bags weighing between 0.6 and 3.4 kilograms were collected, also comparison samples were taken from outside the grave. The soil was analyzed in the archaeology laboratory of the University of Helsinki. Organic matter was separated from the samples using water. This way, the exposed fibres and hairs were identified with the help of transmitted-light and electron microscopy.

Oldest feather fragments found in Finland

From the soil samples, a total of 24 microscopic (0.2–1.4 mm) fragments of bird feathers were identified, most of which originated in down. Seven feather fragments were identified as coming from the down of a waterfowl (Anseriformes). These are the oldest feather fragments ever found in Finland. Although the origin of the down is impossible to state with certainty, it may come from clothing made of waterfowl skins, such as a parka or an anorak. It is also possible that the child was laid on a down bed.

In addition to the waterfowl down, one falcon (Falconidae) feather fragment was identified. It may have originally been part of the fletching of the arrows attached to the arrowheads, or, for example, from feathers used to decorate the garment.

Dog or wolf hairs?

Besides the feathers, 24 fragments of mammalian hair were identified, ranging from 0.5 to 9.5 mm in length. Most of the hairs were badly degraded, making identification no longer possible. The finest discoveries were the three hairs of a canine, possibly a predator, found at the bottom of the grave. The hairs may also originate, for example, in footwear made of wolf or dog skin. It is also possible a dog was laid at the child’s feet.

“Dogs buried with the deceased have been found in, for example, Skateholm, a famous burial site in southern Sweden dating back some 7,000 years,” says Professor Kristiina Mannermaa, University of Helsinki.

“The discovery in Majoonsuo is sensational, even though there is nothing but hairs left of the animal or animals – not even teeth. We don’t even know whether it’s a dog or a wolf,” she says, adding: “The method used, demonstrates that traces of fur and feathers can be found even in graves several thousands of years old, including in Finland.”

“This all gives us a very valuable insight about burial habits in the Stone Age, indicating how people had prepared the child for the journey after death”, says Kirkinen.

The soil is full of information

Also found were three fragments of plant fibres, which are preserved particularly poorly in the acidic Finnish soil. The fibres were what are known as bast fibres, meaning that they come from, for example, willows or nettles. At the time, the object they were part of may have been a net used for fishing, a cord used to attach clothes, or a bundle of strings. For the time being, only one other bast fibre discovery dating back to the Mesolithic Stone Age is known in Finland: the famed Antrea Net on display in the National Museum of Finland, laced with willow bast fibres.

A fibre separation technique was developed in the study, and is already being applied in subsequent studies. The project has demonstrated the great information value of soil extracted from archaeological sites.

The study is part of the ERC-funded project entitled Animals Make Identities (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/animals-make-identities) headed by Kristiina Mannermaa.

The study was published in the PlosONE series. In addition to Kirkinen and Mannermaa, contributing to the study were Olalla López-Costas and Antonio Martínez Cortizas from the EcoPast research group at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Sanna P. Sihvo, Hanna Ruhanen and Reijo Käkelä from the Helsinki University Lipidomics Unit (HiLIPID), Marja Ahola and Johanna Roiha from the discipline of archaeology at the University of Helsinki, Jan-Erik Nyman, Esa Mikkola and Janne Rantanen from the Archaeological Field Services unit of the Finnish Heritage Agency and Esa Hertell from the museums of the City of Lappeenranta.

 

 

 

 

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0274849 

Ancient genomes reveal hidden history of human adaptation

The use of ancient DNA, including samples of human remains around 45,000 years old, has shed light on a previously unknown aspect of human evolution.

Dr Yassine Souilmi, Group Leader at the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, co-led the new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

“It was widely believed the genetics of our human ancestors didn’t change due to environmental pressures as much as other animals, due to our enhanced communication skills and ability to make and use tools,” Dr Souilmi said.

“However, by comparing modern genomes with ancient DNA, we discovered more than 50 cases of an initially rare beneficial genetic variant becoming prevalent across all members of ancient human groups.

“In contrast to many other species, evidence for this type of adaptive genetic change has been inconsistent in humans. This discovery consequently challenges the prevailing view of human adaptation, and gives us a new and exciting insight into how humans have adapted to the novel environmental pressures they encountered as we spread across the planet.”

Co-lead author Dr Ray Tobler - an Adjunct Fellow at the University of Adelaide and a DECRA fellow at the Australian National University – said examining ancient DNA has been critical in unlocking the secrets of human evolution.

“We believed historical mixing events between human groups might have hidden signs of genetic changes in modern human genomes,” Dr Tobler said.

“We examined DNA from more than 1,000 ancient genomes, the oldest which was around 45,000 years old, to see if certain types of genetic adaptation had been more common in our history than studies of modern genomes had suggested.”

Professor Christian Huber, a senior author of the research paper, is an Adjunct Fellow at the University of Adelaide and an Assistant Professor at Penn State University.

“The use of ancient genomes was crucial because they preceded major historical mixing events that have radically reshaped modern European genetic ancestry,” Professor Huber said.

“This allowed the recovery of historical signs of adaptation that are invisible to standard analysis of modern genomes.”

Established in 2005, the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA is a world leader in the research and development of advanced ancient DNA approaches for evolutionary, environmental and conservation applications.

Researchers based at the Mayo Clinic, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, the University of New South Wales, and Massey University in New Zealand also contributed to the research paper.