Oldest hunter-gatherer basketry in southern Europe, 9,500 years old, discovered

 

IMAGE: OLDEST MESOLITHIC BASKETS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE, 9,500 YEARS OLD. view more 

CREDIT: MUTERMUR PROJECT

A team of scientists, led by researchers from the Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), has discovered and analyzed the first direct evidence of basketry among hunter-gatherer societies and early farmers in southern Europe in the Cueva de los Murciélagos of Albuñol (Granada, Spain).

Their work, published in the prestigious journal Science Advances, analyzes 76 objects made of organic materials (wood, reed and esparto) discovered during 19th century mining activities in the Granada cave. The researchers studied the raw materials and technology and carried out carbon-14 dating, which revealed that the set dates to the early and middle Holocene period, between 9,500 and 6,200 years ago. This is the first direct evidence of basketry made by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies in southern Europe and a unique set of other organic tools associated with early Neolithic farming communities, such as sandals and a wooden mace.

As researcher of the Prehistory Department of the University of Alcalá Francisco Martínez Sevilla explains, ”the new dating of the esparto baskets from the Cueva de los Murciélagos of Albuñol opens a window of opportunity to understanding the last hunter-gatherer societies of the early Holocene. The quality and technological complexity of the basketry makes us question the simplistic assumptions we have about human communities prior to the arrival of agriculture in southern Europe. This work and the project that is being developed places the Cueva de los Murciélagos as a unique site in Europe to study the organic materials of prehistoric populations”.

Cueva de los Murciélagos is located on the coast of Granada, to the south of the Sierra Nevada and 2 kilometers from the town of Albuñol. The cave opens on the right side of the Barranco de las Angosturas, at an altitude of 450 meters above sea level and about 7 kilometers from the current coastline. It is one of the most emblematic prehistoric archaeological sites of the Iberian Peninsula due to the rare preservation of organic materials, which until this study had only been attributed to the Neolithic. The objects made of perishable materials were discovered by the mining activities of the 19th century and were documented and recovered by Manuel de Góngora y Martínez, later becoming part of the first collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid.

As detailed by María Herrero Otal, co-author of the work and researcher at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, “the esparto grass objects from Cueva de los Murciélagos are the oldest and best-preserved set of plant fiber materials in southern Europe so far known. The technological diversity and the treatment of the raw material documented demonstrates the ability of prehistoric communities to master this type of craftsmanship, at least since 9,500 years ago, in the Mesolithic period. Only one type of technique related to hunter-gatherers has been identified, while the typological, technological and treatment range of esparto grass was extended during the Neolithic from 7,200 to 6,200 years before the present”.

The work is part of the project “De los museos al territorio: actualizando el estudio de la Cueva de los Murciélagos de Albuñol (Granada)” (MUTERMUR), which has been funded by the Community of Madrid and the Universidad de Alcalá. The objective of this project is the holistic study of the site and its material record, applying the latest archaeometric techniques and generating quality scientific data. The project also included the collaboration of the National Archaeological Museum, the Archaeological and Ethnological Museum of Granada, the City Council of Albuñol and the owners of the cave.

“The results of this work and the finding of the oldest basketry in southern Europe give more meaning, if possible, to the phrase written by Manuel de Góngora in his work Prehistoric Antiquities of Andalusia (1868): ‘the now forever famous Cueva de los Murciélagos’”, the authors highlight.

Human evolution: Hominins challenge giant hyenas for carcasses in Prehistoric simulations

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

Hominins — the group that includes humans and our extinct relatives — may have been capable of competing with giant hyenas for carcasses abandoned by sabre-toothed cats and jaguars during the late-early Pleistocene era (approximately 1.2 to 0.8 million years ago) in southern Europe. The findings of this modelling study are published in Scientific Reports and suggest that moderately sized groups of hominins may have been the most successful at scavenging.

Previous research has theorised that the number of carcasses abandoned by sabre-toothed cats may have been able to sustain early hominin populations in southern Europe. However, it has been unclear whether other large scavengers such as giant hyenas may have limited hominin access to this food resource. 

Ana Mateos, Jesús Rodríguez, and colleagues ran simulations to model competition for carrion (the flesh of dead animals) between hominins and giant hyenas (Pachycrocuta brevirostris) in the Iberian Peninsula in the late-early Pleistocene era. The authors simulated whether the sabre-toothed cats Homotherium latidens and Megantereon whitei and the European jaguar (Panthera gombaszoegensis) could have left enough carrion to support hyena and hominin populations, and how this may have been affected by the size of scavenging groups of hominins. 

The authors found that when hominins scavenged in groups that were large enough to chase away giant hyenas (five or more individuals), hominin populations exceeded giant hyena populations by the end of simulations. However, when hominins scavenged in very small groups, they were only able to survive to the end of a simulation when predator density — and therefore carcass availability — was high. The simulations also suggested a potential optimum group size for scavenging hominins, as groups of over 10 individuals were able to chase away sabre-toothed cats or jaguars but groups of over 13 individuals required more carcasses to sustain their energy expenditure. However, the authors note that their simulations could not specify what the optimum group size was as the numbers of hominins needed to chase away hyenas, sabre-toothed cats, and jaguars were pre-determined and arbitrarily assigned.

Together, the findings suggest that moderately-sized groups of late-early Pleistocene hominins in southern Europe may have been able to regularly obtain food by scavenging for carcasses, even in competition with giant hyenas. The authors speculate that scavenged remains may have been an important source of meat and fat for hominins, especially in winter when plant resources were scarce.

Neolithic bird hunting in Upper Mesopotamia

Peer-Reviewed Publication

STAATLICHE NATURWISSENSCHAFTLICHE SAMMLUNGEN BAYERNS

 

IMAGE: PILLAR 43 FROM GÖBEKLI TEPE DEPICTING A VULTURE WITH ITS WINGS SPREAD. VULTURES WERE NOT ONLY THE MOST IMPORTANT BIRDS IN THE ICONOGRAPHY OF EARLY NEOLITHIC HUNTER-GATHERER GROUPS, THEY WERE ALSO HUNTED. view more 

CREDIT: N. PÖLLATH, SNSB-SPM

Besides mammals, ranging from aurochs to hares, or fish, foragers also pursued an impressively large spectrum of bird species in Southeast Anatolia 11,000 years ago. They were hunted mainly, but not exclusively, in autumn and winter – at the time of year, when many bird species form larger flocks and migratory birds cross the area. The species lists are therefore very extensive: At the Early Neolithic settlement of Göbekli Tepe, for example, c.18 km northeast of present-day Şanlıurfa (SE Anatolia, Turkey), the researchers identified the remains of at least 84 bird species. Dr. Nadja Pöllath, curator at the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeoanatomy (Staatssammlung für Paläoanatomie München SNSB-SPM) and Prof. Dr. Joris Peters, chair of the Institute for Palaeoanatomy, Domestication Research and History of Veterinary Medicine at LMU München and director of the state collection, identified the Neolithic bird bones with the aid of the reference skeletons of the state collection.

The researchers were surprised by the large number of small passerine birds identified at Göbekli Tepe, comprising mainly starlings and buntings. In principle, the Early Neolithic inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe hunted birds in all habitats – mainly in the open grassland and wooded steppe in their direct surroundings, but also in the wetlands and gallery forest somewhat further away.

‘We do not know exactly, why they hunted so many small passerine birds at Göbekli Tepe. Due to their low live weight, the effort exceeds the meat yield by far. Perhaps they were simply a delicacy that enriched the menu in autumn, or they had a significance that we cannot deduce yet from the bone remains,’ Nadja Pöllath comments on her findings.

The inhabitants of Gusir Höyük, another Early Neolithic settlement on the shores of Lake Gusir, about 40 km south of the present-day provincial capital of Siirt, even further southeast in present-day Turkey, had a different approach: When fowling they pursued almost exclusively two species populating open hilly grasslands: the Chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) and the grey partridge (Perdix perdix). They apparently ignored the avifauna of the nearby floodplains and the lake. Among several hundred fragments from Gusir Höyük, the archaeozoologists from Munich could not identify a single bone pertaining to waterfowl. ‘Gusir Höyük is the only Neolithic community in Upper Mesopotamia known to us that deliberately avoided wetlands and riverine landscapes when fowling, although they were present. Our results suggest that this was a cultural peculiarity of the Neolithic people inhabiting Gusir Höyük,’ said Prof. Dr. Joris Peters. ‘Our comparison of a number of Early Neolithic sites in the region revealed that the sites in the Euphrates Basin share many similarities regarding their meat procurement, while each community in the Tigris Basin seemingly developed its own subsistence strategy,’ adds Nadja Pöllath.

Neolithic settlers of Upper Mesopotamia hunted birds not only for their meat. Some species, such as cranes or raptors, certainly had a more symbolic meaning and served ritual purposes, the researchers suspect. In a future study, they will focus on these socio-cultural aspects of the human-avian relationship.

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JOURNAL

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 

Byzantine Greek inscription of Psalms 86 found in Hyrcania: unearthing ancient faith

 

Archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem launch excavation project at remote site of Hyrcania in the Judean Desert, unearthing a rare Byzantine Greek inscription paraphrasing a verse from the Book of Psalms

Reports and Proceedings

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM

A Koine Greek inscription paraphrasing Psalms 86 was discovered by Hebrew University archaeologists at the site of Hyrcania Fortress in the Judean Desert. Adorned with a cross, the Byzantine-era inscription was likely made by a knowledgeable monk and holds significance as a well-known prayer in the Masoretic text and Christian liturgy. Analysis of the script's style suggests a dating no later than the first half of the 6th century CE, the height of the Byzantine era, with minor grammatical errors revealing the scribe’s mother tongue to be Semitic.

 

Link to pictures: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1S7TFSC0pAqcOkzVgYtxFfyCcCXzZW1v5?usp=drive_link

All the pictures include a description and photographer credit

[Jerusalem, Israel] Archaeologists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology recently carried out preliminary excavation at the ancient site of Hyrcania in the northern Judean Desert, coming at the heels of increased activity by antiquities looters.

Built upon an imposing, artificially leveled hilltop situated approximately 17 km southeast of Jerusalem and 8 km southwest of Qumran and the Dead Sea, this was one of a series of desert-fortresses first established by the Hasmonean dynasty in the late 2nd or early 1st century BCE—named in honor of John Hyrcanus—and later rebuilt and enlarged by Herod the Great. The most famous, and luxurious, of these strongholds are Masada and Herodium. Shortly after the death of the latter in 4 BCE, Hyrcania lost its importance and was abandoned. It would then lie desolate for nearly half a millennium, until the establishment of a small Christian monastery among its ruins in 492 CE by the monk Holy Sabbas, an expression of the monastic movement that took shape in the Judean Desert with the rise of the Byzantine period. Dubbed Kastellion, or “Little Castle” in Greek, the monastery remained active past the Islamic conquest of Byzantine Palestine around 635 CE but was apparently abandoned by the early 9th century. The site is known also by its Arabic moniker, Khirbet el-Mird, or “Ruins of the Fortress.” Attempts were made in the 1930s to revive the monastery, but harassment by local Bedouin cut short the venture.

Although a few isolated investigations of the site had been sporadically undertaken in the past, no methodological, academic archaeological excavation had ever been conducted—until now. Complex access and logistics have long played a role. However, recently a team led by Hebrew University's Dr. Oren Gutfeld and Michal Haber, with the support of Carson-Newman University (Jefferson City, Tennessee) and American Veterans Archaeological Recovery, spent four weeks at the site, uncovering key evidence of the site’s remarkable history.

During this initial "pilot" season, efforts were primarily focused on two key areas. In the southeastern corner of the summit, a segment of the prominent upper fortification line was uncovered, a vital component of the Second Temple-period fortress dating back to approximately the late 2nd or 1st century BCE. This discovery prompted Dr. Oren Gutfeld to make the following observation: "There are certain architectural elements within these fortifications that strongly recall those of Herodium, all part of Herod’s extraordinary vision. It's quite possible that the construction was even overseen by the same engineers and planners. It’s not by chance that we call Hyrcania ‘Herodium’s little sister.’”

In the northeast, the team peeled away a deep collapse layer of building stones to unearth an elongated hall lined with piers, part of the lower level of an expansive compound constructed of finely drafted stones. Its original date of construction has yet to be determined, though it likely comprised part of the monastery.

Over the course of excavation, a sizeable building stone was discovered lying on the plastered floor of the hall, bearing lines of text painted in red, with a simple cross at its peak. Haber and Gutfeld immediately recognized the inscription as written in Koine Greek—the language of the New Testament—but called on their colleague, expert epigraphist Dr. Avner Ecker of Bar-Ilan University, to decipher it.

Dr. Ecker was able to identify the readable text as a paraphrase of Psalms 86: 1–2, known as “a prayer of David.” While the original lines are “Hear me, Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am faithful to you,” the Hyrcania version reads:

†  Ἰ(η)σοῦ Χ(ριστ)ὲ

φύλαξ<ο>ν με ὅτι

[π]τ<ω>χὸς (καὶ)

[π]έν[ης] <εἰ>μὶ <ἐ>γώ

 

† Jesus Christ, guard me, for I am poor and needy. 

Dr. Ecker explains, "This psalm holds a special place in the Masoretic text as a designated prayer and is notably one of the most frequently recited psalms in Christian liturgy. Thus, the monk drew a graffito of a cross onto the wall, accompanied by a prayer with which he was very familiar." Judging by the epigraphic style, he assigns the inscription a date within the first half of the 6th century CE. Ecker also points out the presence of a few grammatical errors typical of Byzantine Palestine, which can be attributed to individuals whose native language was a Semitic one. He suggests, "These minor errors indicate that the priest was not a native Greek speaker, but likely someone from the region who was raised speaking a Semitic language."

A few days following this initial discovery, an additional inscription was found in close proximity. It was also inscribed on a building stone from a collapsed wall and is currently undergoing analysis. Michal Haber emphasizes the profound significance of these findings, stating, "Few items hold such importance in the historical and archaeological record as do inscriptions—and it must be stressed that these are virtually the first examples from the site to have originated in an orderly, documented context. We are familiar with the papyrus fragments that came to light in the early 1950s, but they are all of shaky, unreliable provenance. These recent discoveries are truly exceptional.”

In addition, a child-sized gold ring, a little over 1 cm in diameter and adorned with a turquoise stone, was found on site. What adds to the special nature of the discovery is the miniature inscription incised in Arabic Kufic script on the stone. Dr. Nitzan Amitai-Preiss, an expert in Early Arabic epigraphy at The Hebrew University, was able to decipher the inscription as "مَا شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ" (Mashallah), which translates to "God has willed it." She dates the script style to the time of the Umayyad caliphate, which reigned during the 7th and 8th centuries CE. Dr. Amitai-Preiss also observed a unique feature in the inscription: two of the three words were mirror images, strongly suggesting that the ring may have originally served as a seal.

The origin of the turquoise stone itself adds another layer of historical intrigue. It was likely sourced in the newly conquered territory of the Sassanid Empire (modern-day Iran), part of the expanding Umayyad caliphate. The exact path this remarkable artifact took to reach Hyrcania remains a mystery, as is the identity of whoever wore it.

The team is eagerly anticipating the next excavation season, slated for early 2024, which will see the collaborative effort with Carson-Newman University and American Veterans Archaeological Recovery continue.

Staff Officer for Archaeology – Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria Benny Har-Even said: “The Civil Administration will continue its tireless efforts to preserve and develop the archaeological sites throughout Judea and Samaria. We are delighted to work in cooperation with leading Israeli academic institutions and all parties involved in the archaeology of the Land of Israel to reveal the ancient and rich past of the area.”

Dr. Stephen Humphreys, the founder and CEO of AVAR, commented, “Our organization serves to provide military veterans with challenging fieldwork opportunities, then giving them the support tools and training they need to excel. At Hyrcania we saw the entire project team bond over the physical challenges and excitement of excavating this exceptional site. The training our veterans received at the site from the Hebrew University team will also make them more employable and better prepared to continue engaging with the field.”

Alongside their excitement, Haber and Gutfeld remain acutely aware of the complexities of safeguarding such a site. They emphasize the support they have received from the Staff Office of Archaeology of the Civil Administration in combating the ongoing phenomenon of antiquities looting. They conclude: “We are aware that our excavations will draw the attention of looters. The problem persists; it was here before us and will likely continue after us, underscoring the need for academic excavation—particularly in such a sensitive site as Hyrcania, though this is just one example. We are simply trying to stay a few steps ahead.”

 

New rooms discovered in Sahura’s Pyramid

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF WÜRZBURG

 

IMAGE: FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE PYRAMID. A PASSAGE SECURED WITH STEEL BEAMS. ONE OF THE DISCOVERED STORAGE ROOMS. view more 

CREDIT: MOHAMED KHALED

An Egyptian-German mission led by Egyptologist Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled of the Department of Egyptology at Julius-Maximilians-Universität of Würzburg (JMU) has made a significant discovery within Sahura’s Pyramid.

The exploration has unearthed a number of storage rooms that had not been documented before. This discovery sheds new light on the architecture of the pyramid of Sahura, the second king of the Fifth Dynasty (2400 BC) and the first king to be buried at Abusir.

The conservation and restoration project inside Sahura’s pyramid, initiated in 2019 and supported by the Antiquities Endowment Fund (AEF) of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), aimed to safeguard the substructure of Sahura's pyramid. The team's efforts focused on cleaning the interior rooms, stabilizing the pyramid from inside, and preventing further collapse. In the process, the team succeeded in securing the pyramid's burial chambers, which had previously been inaccessible.

A Briton with the Right Hunch

During the restoration work, the team discovered the original dimensions and was able to uncover the floor plan of the antechamber, which had deteriorated over time. Consequently, the destroyed walls were replaced with new retaining walls. The eastern wall of the antechamber was badly damaged, and only the northeast corner and about 30 centimeters of the eastern wall were still visible.

Traces of a low passageway that John Perring had already noticed during an excavation in 1836 continued to be excavated. Perring had mentioned that this passage had been full of debris and rubbish and had been impassable due to decay. The British Egyptologist suspected that it might have led to storage rooms. However, during further exploration of the pyramid by Ludwig Borchardt in 1907, these assumptions were called into question – other experts joined his opinion.

All the more surprising was the find of the Egyptian-German team, which actually discovered traces of a passage. Thereby proving that the observations made during Perring's exploration were correct. The work was continued, and the passage was uncovered. Thus, eight storerooms have been discovered so far. Although the northern and southern parts of these magazines, especially the ceiling and the original floor, are badly damaged, remnants of the original walls and parts of the floor can still be seen.

Modern Technology in Use

Careful documentation of the floor plan and dimensions of each storage room has greatly enhanced the researchers' understanding of the pyramid's interior. During restoration, a balance between preservation and presentation was pursued to ensure the structural integrity of the rooms while making them accessible for future study and potentially the public.

Using state-of-the-art technology, including 3D laser scanning with a ZEB Horizon portable LiDAR scanner from GeoSLAM, the Egyptian-German team collaborated with the 3D Geoscan team to conduct detailed surveys inside the pyramid. This advanced technology enabled comprehensive mapping of both the extensive external areas and the narrow corridors and chambers inside. The frequent scans provide real-time updates of progress and create a permanent record of exploration efforts.

This groundbreaking project represents a significant milestone in the understanding of the Sahura pyramid and its historical significance. The discovery and restoration of the storerooms is expected to revolutionize the view of historical development of pyramid structures and challenge existing paradigms in the field.

Ancient Shangzhai people 's consumption patterns

 

Ancient Shangzhai people consumed broomcorn millet, the meat of terrestrial non-ruminants and wild ruminants, and dairy of wild ruminants during the Middle to Late Neolithic Age (7500–6000 yr BP) of Beijing.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

 

IMAGE: ON THE LEFT CAN BE SEEN THAT THE AREA WHERE THE SHANGZHAI SITE LOCATED IS IN NORTH CHINA. ON THE RIGHT IS THE EXACT LOCATION OF THE SHANGZHAI SITE, SOUTH OF THE YANSHAN MOUNTAINS AND NORTH OF THE JUHE RIVER. view more 

CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

As the crossroads of prehistoric cultures, the Beijing region is an important area for studying the exchange of prehistoric culture and the spread of millet agriculture, while there is a gap of approximately 2,000 years between millet remains founded in the Neolithic sites (the early Donghulin site and the late Shangzhai site). The Shangzhai site is located in the Pinggu Basin in eastern Beijing (Figure 1), and it has a large time span with sequential strata; however, there are few macro animals and plant remains found at this site, thus the subsistence strategy of ancient people remains unclear.

For this reason, the absorbed lipids of pottery sherds unearthed in the Neolithic cultural layer of the Shangzhai site were extracted and analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS).

The results show that these potteries were used to process millet, the meat of terrestrial non-ruminants and wild ruminants, and dairy of wild ruminants (Figures 2 and 3), providing new insights for the subsistence strategy and the development of millet agriculture in the Middle and Late Neolithic Age of Beijing. In addition, the food processing in pottery may be an internal heating method, such as stone boiling.

It remains to be verified whether there is a continuation of dry-land agriculture between the Donghulin site and Shangzhai site, and the cultivation of millet in Shangzhai may have been influenced by the Zhaobaogou culture in the North.

See the article:

Lyu N, Wang T, Yu J, Rao H, Han B, Yang Y. 2023. Pottery lipid analysis at the Shangzhai site, Beijing, and its implication for subsistence strategy. Science China Earth Sciences, 66(8): 1789–1797, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-022-1121-4

New light on prehistoric cognitionf

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: RAISED STRUCTURE TAR – BIRCH BARK TAR VESSEL CONTAINING HOT TAR FROM A RECENTLY COMPLETED EXPERIMENT USING THE ‘RAISED STRUCTURE’ TECHNIQUE. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO CREDIT: GEESKE LANGEJANS

Studying prehistoric production processes of birch bark tar using computational modelling reveals what kinds of cognition were required for the materials produced by Neanderthal and early modern humans.  Researchers of Team Langejans in the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) department (TU Delft) recently published two papers on one of the world’s oldest transformative technologies, publishing their findings in Nature Scientific Reports.

Measuring complexity

Birch bark tar is the first time we see evidence of creating a new material, said Dr. Paul Kozowyk, lead author on one of the papers. Examining the methods used to create the tar is an important step in understanding the behaviours and technical cognition required by the Neanderthals. Using Petri net models, a formal modelling language, Dr. Sebastian Fajardo led a study looking at various production methods, using metrics from existing literature to measure complexity. “Neanderthals used, at least on some occasions, a complex production process to make tar. To do that they needed ways to deal with a lot of information, like understanding and a way to transmit information very well,” he said. The findings from the study suggest that Neanderthals probably relied on several cognitive traits that archaeologists often associate with modern thinking and behaviour.

Scaling up

Taking one of the metrics Fajardo used, Kozowyk applied it in more detail to one of the tar production techniques to explore how scaling up a technological process affects its complexity. “The outcome in this case was that it has a very significant impact on the complexity and that suggests people had a way to deal with this complex upscaling,” he said. That might involve inventing a different method or working together as a group which requires more communication. “We don't prove that they were using a particular method, but our findings show that regardless of the methods employed, prehistoric tar making likely required a level of information processing that extended beyond simple behaviours.”

Materials then and now

Archaeological research has found a niche at the TU Delft, and Fajardo said it all comes down to analysing materials. “For example, at 3mE we try to find new materials,” he noted. “We try to understand how these new materials were produced in the past because if we understand how the first human-made materials were created, we can also start to identify human conditions we need to make new materials now with the resources that we have.” For Kozowyk, whose research is mostly experimental, it’s about looking at the material properties of the adhesives to try to understand the decisions that people made in the past. “A lot of my experiments involve mechanical testing of the materials so this is the right place to be.”

Visual psychological phenomenon may have stimulated early humans to make cave art

New research has found that Ice Age cave art made as early as 40,000 years ago could have been influenced in part by a visual psychological phenomenon that humans still experience today.  
The research team, led by Dr Izzy Wisher, then a PhD student at Durham University’s Department of Archaeology, tested the theory that cave artists may have experienced pareidolia – a psychological phenomenon where people see meaningful forms in random patterns, such as seeing faces in clouds.

They investigated whether pareidolia may have influenced the artists who painted depictions of animals in the Las Monedas and La Pasiega caves, in Northern Spain. 
If so, then the majority of drawings would be expected to be depictions of animals that included features of the cave walls within them and take relatively simple forms (pareidolic images tend to be simple and lack detail). 

Their study, published today in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, found that pareidolia could be responsible for the production of some cave images, suggesting that the cave artists were experiencing the same psychological influences on perception when viewing the natural features of cave walls that humans still experience today.  

While the researchers found evidence that pareidolia played a part in the production of some cave images, their research also found the cave painters were influenced by their own experiences and creativity. 

Dr Izzy Wisher, now based at Aarhus University, Denmark, said: “It is exciting to see that cave artists in the Upper Palaeolithic era were also experiencing pareidolia, just like many of us do today, and that this influenced their art.  

“Much like a modern artist might take inspiration from a basic form or shape, like a crack in a material or a smudge of paint on a canvas, and build their art around this, we can see that cave artists worked in similar ways.  

“However, whilst our study showed that pareidolia did have some influence on the cave artists, this was not always the case, giving us fascinating insight into the work of these early painters. 
"It seems to us that their art may have been part of a ‘creative conversation’ with the cave walls, where they both took inspiration from what they saw in the cracks and shapes of the cave wall, but also used their own creativity.”  

The research found that as many as 71 per cent of images studied in the Las Monedas caves, and 55 per cent in the La Pasiega caves, showed a strong relationship to the natural features of the cave wall, suggesting pareidolia may have been a partial influence on the artists.  

Examples included where the curved edges of the cave wall were used to represent the backs of animals such as wild horses, or where natural cracks were used as bison’s horns.  
The study also found that of those drawings with a strong relationship to natural features on the cave wall, the majority (80 per cent in Las Monedas and 83 per cent in La Pasiega) lacked additional details such as eyes or hair, which correlates with the simplistic nature of imagery influenced by pareidolia.  

The research team, which included Professor Paul Pettitt, Department of Archaeology and Professor Robert Kentridge, Department of Psychology, both Durham University, also investigated whether lighting conditions in the caves at the time the artwork was created might have contributed to the potential influence of pareidolia.   

To do this Dr Wisher used a virtual reality gaming software called Unity to model the cave walls and replicate the light sources used by the cave artists, which would have consisted of flickering firelight produced by small torches or lamps, to understand the visual effects across the cave wall.  

The results showed that low and unstable lighting conditions did not have a strong correlation to cave art that uses natural features.  

Dr Wisher argues that this, coupled with the conclusion that the influence of pareidolia was evident in some, but not all, of the artwork, suggests that cave artists may also have been actively looking for shapes that reminded them of animals within the caves to incorporate into their drawings, as part of a nuanced dialogue between the artist’s personal creativity and the forms seen in the cave walls.  

Whilst the theory that pareidolia may have influenced cave artists has long been discussed, the team believes their study offers the first systematic testing of this theory, and is the first to utilise simulated lighting conditions in virtual reality to achieve this.  

It provides further detail in the understanding of the experiences, desires, imagination and influences of Upper Palaeolithic cave artists and how cave art may have been made. It also advances Durham University’s research into visual palaeopsychology. 

Pareidolia may have first evolved to help humans evade predators by providing a heightened sense of visual interpretation for potential risks, such as helping humans see predators hiding behind bushes. It is a fundamental part of the human visual system, and was probably triggered within dark cave environments. 

Archaeologists discover world’s oldest wooden structure

 

IMAGE: KALAMBO FALLS, ZAMBIA WHERE THE WOOD WAS FOUND (PHOTO CREDIT, PROFESSOR GEOFF DULLER, ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY) view more 

CREDIT: PROFESSOR GEOFF DULLER, ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY

Half a million years ago, earlier than was previously thought possible, humans were building structures made of wood, according to new research by a team from the University of Liverpool and Aberystwyth University.

The research, published in the journal Nature, reports on the excavation of well-preserved wood at the archaeological site of Kalambo Falls, Zambia, dating back at least 476,000 years and predating the evolution of our own species, Homo sapiens.  

Expert analysis of stone tool cut-marks on the wood show that these early humans shaped and joined two large logs to make a structure, probably the foundation of a platform or part of a dwelling.

This is the earliest evidence from anywhere in the world of the deliberate crafting of logs to fit together. Until now, evidence for the human use of wood was limited to its use for making fire, digging sticks and spears.

Wood is rarely found in such ancient sites as it usually rots and disappears, but at Kalambo Falls permanently high water levels preserved the wood.

This discovery challenges the prevailing view that Stone Age humans were nomadic. At Kalambo Falls these humans not only had a perennial source of water, but the forest around them provided enough food to enable them to settle and make structures.

Professor Larry Barham, from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, who leads the ‘Deep Roots of Humanity’ research project said:

“This find has changed how I think about our early ancestors. Forget the label ‘Stone Age,’ look at what these people were doing: they made something new, and large, from wood. They used their intelligence, imagination, and skills to create something they’d never seen before, something that had never previously existed.”

“They transformed their surroundings to make life easier, even if it was only by making a platform to sit on by the river to do their daily chores. These folks were more like us than we thought.”

The specialist dating of the finds was undertaken by experts at Aberystwyth University.

They used new luminescence dating techniques, which reveal the last time minerals in the sand surrounding the finds were exposed to sunlight, to determine their age.

Professor Geoff Duller from Aberystwyth University said:

“At this great age, putting a date on finds is very challenging and we used luminescence dating to do this. These new dating methods have far reaching implications – allowing us to date much further back in time, to piece together sites that give us a glimpse into human evolution. The site at Kalambo Falls had been excavated back in the 1960s when similar pieces of wood were recovered, but they were unable to date them, so the true significance of the site was unclear until now.” 

The site of Kalambo Falls on the Kalambo River lies above a 235 metres (772 foot) waterfall on the border of Zambia with the Rukwa Region of Tanzania at the edge of Lake Tanganyika. The area is on a ‘tentative‘ list from UNESCO for becoming a World Heritage site because of its archaeological significance.   

Professor Duller added: 

“Our research proves that this site is much older than previously thought, so its archaeological significance is now even greater. It adds more weight to the argument that it should be a United Nations World Heritage Site.” 

This research forms part of the pioneering ‘Deep Roots of Humanity’ project, an investigation into how human technology developed in the Stone Age. The project is funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council and involved teams from Zambia’s National Heritage Conservation Commission, Livingstone Museum, Moto Moto Museum and the National Museum, Lusaka.

Professor Barham added:

“Kalambo Falls is an extraordinary site and a major heritage asset for Zambia. The Deep Roots team is looking forward to more exciting discoveries emerging from its waterlogged sands.”

Ancient human remains buried in Spanish caves were subsequently manipulated and utilized

 

 

IMAGE: VIEW OF THE CAVE ENTRANCE FROM INSIDE. view more 

CREDIT: J.C. VERA RODRÍGUEZ, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Caves served as sites for burial and later modification of human remains for thousands of years in the Iberian Peninsula, according to a study published September 20, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Zita Laffranchi and Marco Milella of the University of Bern, Switzerland, and Rafael Martinez Sanchez, Universidad de Córdoba, Spain, and colleagues: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0291152

The use of caves as burial sites is a cultural phenomenon with a broad distribution in both space and time. In the southern Iberian Peninsula, this practice became particularly common starting around the 4th millennium BCE. Also common in the archaeological sites of this region is evidence of manipulation of buried human remains, although the cultural meaning behind this is largely unclear. In this study, researchers examine altered human remains from a cave, Cueva de los Marmoles, in southern Spain.

The researchers assessed numerous skeletal remains belonging to at least 12 individuals. Radiocarbon dating identified burials dating from the 5th to the 2nd millennium BCE. The team also documented intentional post-mortem modifications to the bones, including fractures and scrapes that might have resulted from efforts to extract marrow and other tissues. Included among these remains were one tibia that appears to have been modified for use as a tool, and one cranium “skull cup” that might have similarly been modified for some dietary or practical use.

These results are consistent with other cave sites in the southern Iberian Peninsula, representing a widespread practice of buried human remains being later modified and utilized for food and tools. The authors suggest there could also be further symbolic purposes of these modifications which might become more clear with further study.

The authors add: “Neolithic human remains from Marmoles Cave suggest complex funerary behaviors in Andalusia during Prehistory.”

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: 

Long-term history of violence in hunter-gatherer societies uncovered in the Atacama Desert

 

10,000 years of violent conflict revealed by skeletons, weaponry, and rock art

 

IMAGE: WEAPONS AND DEFENSIVE OBJECTS. view more 

CREDIT: STANDEN ET AL., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Interpersonal violence was a consistent part of life in ancient hunter-gatherer communities on the Atacama Desert coast of northern Chile, according to a study published September 20, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Vivien Standen of the University of Tarapacá, Chile and colleagues:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0290690

Archaeological research supports the notion that interpersonal violence and warfare have played an important role in the lives of hunter-gatherer groups over time, but many questions remain about the factors that influence such violence. The record of human populations in northern Chile extends across 10,000 years, providing a valuable opportunity to study patterns in violence over time.

In this study, Standen and colleagues examined signs of violent trauma on the remains of 288 adult individuals from funerary sites across the Atacama Desert coast, dating from 10,000 years ago to 1450 AD. The researchers also analyzed patterns in weaponry and in artistic depictions of combat during this time. They found that rates of violence were surprisingly static over time, though there was a notable increase in lethal violence during the Formative Period starting around 1000 BC, a trend also found in similar studies of the Andean region. Data from strontium isotopes indicate that this interpersonal violence was occurring between local groups, not between local and foreign populations.

These results indicate that violence was a consistent part of the lives of these ancient populations for many millennia. The absence of a centralized political system during this time might have been a factor leading to the consistency of violent tensions in the region. It’s also possible that violence was the result of competition for resources in the extreme environment of the desert, a factor which might have become exacerbated as farming became more prominent and widespread.

The authors add: “Despite all the technological advances, humanity has not learned to resolve its conflicts in a different way than our millenary ancestors, in peace and without war.”

Ancient Amazonians intentionally created fertile “dark earth”

 

The rich soil holds thousands of tons of carbon, sequestered over centuries by indigenous practices, a new study suggests

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

The Amazon river basin is known for its immense and lush tropical forests, so one might assume that the Amazon’s land is equally rich. In fact, the soils underlying the forested vegetation, particularly in the hilly uplands, are surprisingly infertile. Much of the Amazon’s soil is acidic and low in nutrients, making it notoriously difficult to farm. 

But over the years, archaeologists have dug up mysteriously black and fertile patches of ancient soils in hundreds of sites across the Amazon. This “dark earth” has been found in and around human settlements dating back hundreds to thousands of years. And it has been a matter of some debate as to whether the super-rich soil was purposefully created or a coincidental byproduct of these ancient cultures.

Now, a study led by researchers at MIT, the University of Florida, and in Brazil aims to settle the debate over dark earth’s origins. The team has pieced together results from soil analyses, ethnographic observations, and interviews with modern Indigenous communities, to show that dark earth was intentionally produced by ancient Amazonians as a way to improve the soil and sustain large and complex societies. 

“If you want to have large settlements, you need a nutritional base. But the soil in the Amazon is extensively leached of nutrients, and naturally poor for growing most crops,” says Taylor Perron, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT. “We argue here that people played a role in creating dark earth, and intentionally modified the ancient environment to make it a better place for human populations.”

And as it turns out, dark earth contains huge amounts of stored carbon. As generations worked the soil, for instance by enriching it with scraps of food, charcoal, and waste, the earth accumulated the carbon-rich detritus and kept it locked up for hundreds to thousands of years. By purposely producing dark earth, then, early Amazonians may have also unintentionally created a powerful, carbon-sequestering soil. 

“The ancient Amazonians put a lot of carbon in the soil, and a lot of that is still there today,” says co-author Samuel Goldberg, who performed the data analysis as a graduate student at MIT and is now an assistant professor at the University of Miami. “That’s exactly what we want for climate change mitigation efforts. Maybe we could adapt some of their indigenous strategies on a larger scale, to lock up carbon in soil, in ways that we now know would stay there for a long time.” 

The team’s study will appear in Science Advances. Other authors include former MIT postdoc and lead author Morgan Schmidt, anthropologist Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida, and collaborators from multiple institutions across Brazil. 

Modern intent

In their current study, the team synthesized observations and data that Schmidt, Heckenberger, and others had previously gathered, while working with Indigenous communities in the Amazon since the early 2000s,  with new data collected in 2018-19. The scientists focused their fieldwork in the Kuikuro Indigenous Territory in the Upper Xingu River basin in the southeastern Amazon. This region is home to modern Kuikuro villages as well as archaeological sites where the ancestors of the Kuikuro are thought to have lived. Over multiple visits to the region, Schmidt, then a graduate student at the University of Florida, was struck by the darker soil around some archaeological sites.

“When I saw this dark earth and how fertile it was, and started digging into what was known about it, I found it was a mysterious thing — no one really knew where it came from,” he says. 

Schmidt and his colleagues began making observations of the modern Kuikuro’s practices of managing the soil. These practices include generating “middens” — piles of waste and food scraps, similar to compost heaps, that are maintained in certain locations around the center of a village. After some time, these waste piles decompose and mix with the soil to form a dark and fertile earth, that residents then use to plant crops. The researchers also observed that Kuikuro farmers spread organic waste and ash on farther fields, which also generates dark earth, where they can then grow more crops. 

“We saw activities they did to modify the soil and increase the elements, like spreading ash on the ground, or spreading charcoal around the base of the tree, which were obviously intentional actions,” Schmidt says.

In addition to these observations, they also conducted interviews with villagers to document the Kuikuro’s beliefs and practices relating to dark earth. In some of these interviews, villagers referred to dark earth as “eegepe,” and described their daily practices in creating and cultivating the rich soil to improve its agricultural potential. 

Based on these observations and interviews with the Kuikuro, it was clear that Indigenous communities today intentionally produce dark earth, through their practices to improve the soil. But could the dark earth found in nearby archaeological sites have been made through similar intentional practices? 

A bridge in soil

In search of a connection, Schmidt joined Perron’s group as a postdoc at MIT. Together, he, Perron, and Goldberg carried out a meticulous analysis of soils in both archaeological and modern sites in the Upper Xingu region. They discovered similarities in dark earth’s spatial structure: Deposits of dark earth were found in a radial pattern, concentrating mostly in the center of both modern and ancient settlements, and stretching, like spokes of a wheel, out to the edges. Modern and ancient dark earth was also similar in composition, and was enriched in the same elements, such as carbon, phosphorus, and other nutrients.

“These are all the elements that are in humans, animals, and plants, and they’re the ones that reduce the aluminum toxicity in soil, which is a notorious problem in the Amazon,” Schmidt says. “All these elements make the soil better for plant growth.”

“The key bridge between the modern and ancient times is the soil,” Goldberg adds. “Because we see this correspondence between the two time periods, we can infer that these practices that we can observe and ask people about today, were also happening in the past.”

In other words, the team was able to show for the first time that ancient Amazonians intentionally worked the soil, likely through practices similar to today’s, in order to grow enough crops to sustain large communities. 

Going a step further, the team calculated the amount of carbon in ancient dark earth. They combined their measurements of soil samples, with maps of where dark earth has been found through several ancient settlements. Their estimates revealed that each ancient village contains several thousand tons of carbon that has been sequestered in the soil for hundreds of years as a result of Indigenous, human activities. 

As the team concludes in their paper, “modern sustainable agriculture and climate change mitigation efforts, inspired by the persistent fertility of ancient dark earth, can draw on traditional methods practiced to this day by Indigenous Amazonians.”