Innovative drone mapping unlocks secrets of Bronze Age ‘mega fortress’ in the Caucasus

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

 

 

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Atmospheric photo of the site at dusk, showing the location at the convergence of two gorges. 2023 excavations of inner fortress are visible in foreground.

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Credit: Nathaniel Erb-Satullo

A Cranfield University, UK, academic has used drone mapping to investigate a 3000-year-old ‘mega fortress’ in the Caucasus mountains. Dr Nathaniel Erb-Satullo, Senior Lecturer in Architectural Science at Cranfield Forensic Institute, has been researching the site since 2018 with Dimitri Jachvliani, his co-director from the Georgian National Museum, revealing details that re-shape our understanding of the site and contribute to a global reassessment of ancient settlement growth and urbanism.

Fortress settlements in the South Caucasus appeared between 1500-500 BCE, and represent an unprecedented development in the prehistory of the regions. Situated at the boundary between Europe, the Eurasian Steppe, and the Middle East, the Caucasus region has a long history as a cultural crossroads with distinctive local identities.  

Research on the fortress – named Dmanisis Gora – began with test excavations on a fortified promontory between two deep gorges. A subsequent visit in Autumn, when the knee-high high summer grasses had died back, revealed that the site was much larger than originally thought. Scattered across a huge area outside the inner fortress were the remains of additional fortification walls and other stone structures. Because of its size, it was impossible to get a sense of the site as a whole from the ground.

“That was what sparked the idea of using a drone to assess the site from the air,” commented Dr Erb-Satullo. “The drone took nearly 11,000 pictures which were knitted together using advanced software to produce high-resolution digital elevation models and orthophotos – composite pictures that show every point as if you were looking straight down.

“These datasets enabled us to identify subtle topographic features and create accurate maps of all the fortification walls, graves, field systems, and other stone structures within the outer settlement. The results of this survey showed that the site was more than 40 times larger than originally thought, including a large outer settlement defended by a 1km long fortification wall.”

The research team used a DJI Phantom 4 RTK drone which can provide relative positional accuracy of under 2cm as well as extremely high-resolution aerial imagery. In order to obtain a highly accurate map of human-made features, the team carefully checked each feature in the aerial imagery to confirm its identification.

To understand how the landscape of the site had evolved, the orthophotos were compared with 50-year-old photos taken by a Cold War-era spy satellite declassified in 2013. That gave researchers much needed insight into which features were recent, which were older. It also enabled researchers to assess what areas of the ancient settlement were damaged by modern agriculture. All of those data sets were merged in Geographic Information System (GIS) software, helping to identify patterns and changes in the landscape.

“The use of drones has allowed us to understand the significance of the site and document it in a way that simply wouldn’t be possible on the ground” said Dr Erb-Satullo. ”Dmanisis Gora isn’t just a significant find for the Southern Caucasus region, but has a broader significance for the diversity in the structure of large scale settlements and their formation processes. We hypothesize that Dmanisis Gora expanded because of its interactions with mobile pastoral groups, and its large outer settlement may have expanded and contracted seasonally. With the site now extensively mapped, further study will start to provide insights into areas such as population density and intensity, livestock movements and agricultural practices, among others.”  

This data will give researchers new insights into Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age societies, and how these communities functioned. Since the aerial survey was completed, Dr. Erb-Satullo has been carrying out further excavations at the site, uncovering tens of thousands of pottery shards, animal bones, and other artefacts that tell us more about the society that built this fortress.

This work has been funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund and the British Institute at Ankara.

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Journal

Antiquity

DOI

10.15184/aqy.2024.197 

Clues to human evolution

The University of Liverpool has led an international team of scientists to take a fresh look at the running capabilities of Australopithecus afarensis, the early human ancestor famously represented by the fossil ‘Lucy’.

Karl Bates, Professor of Musculoskeletal Biology, convened experts from institutions across the UK and the Netherlands. Together they used cutting-edge computer simulations to uncover how this ancient species ran, using a digital model of ‘Lucy’s’ skeleton.

Previous work on the fossilized footprints of Australopithecus by multiple research teams has suggested that Lucy probably walked relatively upright and much more like a human than a chimpanzee. These new findings demonstrate that Lucy’s overall body shape limited running speed relative to modern humans and therefore support the hypothesis that the human body evolved to improve running performance, with top speed being a more critical driver than previously thought.

Professor Bates said: “When Lucy was discovered 50 years ago, it was by far the most complete skeleton of an early human ancestor. Lucy is a fascinating fossil because it captures what you might call an intermediate stage in Homo sapiens’ evolution. Lucy bridges the gap between our more tree-dwelling ancestors and modern humans, who walk and run efficiently on two legs.

“By simulating running performance in Australopithecus and modern humans with computer models, we’ve been able to address questions about the evolution of running in our ancestors.

“For decades scientists have debated whether more economical walking ability or improved running performance was the primary factor that drove the evolution of many of distinctly human characteristics, such as longer legs and shorter arms, stronger leg bones and our arched feet. By illustrating how Australopithecus walked and ran, we have started to answer these questions.”

The team used computer-based movement simulations to model the biomechanics and energetics of running in Australopithecus afarensis, alongside a model of a human. In both the Australopithecus and human models, the team ran multiple simulations where various features thought to be important to modern human running, like larger leg muscles and a long Achilles Tendon, were added and removed, thereby digitally replaying evolutionary events to see how they impact running speed and energy use.

Muscles and other soft tissues are not preserved in fossils, so palaeontologists don’t know how large ‘Lucy’s’ leg muscles and other important parameters were. However, these new digital models varied the muscle properties from chimpanzee-like to human-like, producing a range of estimates for running speed and economy.

The simulations reveal that while Lucy was capable of running upright on both legs, her maximum speeds were significantly slower than those of modern humans. In fact, even the fastest speed the team predicted for Lucy (in a model with very human-like muscles) remained relatively modest at just 11mph (18kph). This is much slower than elite human sprinters, which reach peak speeds of more than 20mph (38kph). The models show the range of intermediate (‘jogging’) speeds that animals use to run longer distances (‘endurance running’) was also very restricted, perhaps suggesting that Australopithecus didn’t engage in the kind of long-distance hunting activities thought to be important to the earliest humans.

Professor Bates continued: “Our results highlight the importance of muscle anatomy and body proportions in the development of running ability. Skeletal strength doesn’t seem to have been a limiting factor, but evolutionary changes to muscles and tendons played a major role in enhancing running speed and economy.

“As the 50th anniversary of Lucy’s discovery is celebrated, this study not only sheds new light on her capabilities but also underscores how far modern science has come in unravelling the story of human evolution.”

The study, ‘Running performance in Australopithecus afarensis’ was published in Current Biology (DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.025).

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Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.025 

 

DNA adds new chapter to Indonesia’s layered human history

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Adelaide

 

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Senggo Village, Mappi Regency, Papua, Indonesia.

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Credit: Gludhug Purnomo

A new study from the University of Adelaide and The Australian National University (ANU) has outlined the first genomic evidence of early migration from New Guinea into the Wallacea, an archipelago containing Timor-Leste and hundreds of inhabited eastern Indonesian islands.

The study, published in PNAS, addresses major gaps in the human genetic history of the Wallacean Archipelago and West Papuan regions of Indonesia – a region with abundant genetic and linguistic diversity that is comparable to the Eurasian continent – including the analysis of 254 newly sequenced genomes.

In combination with linguistic and archaeological evidence, the study shows that Wallacean societies were transformed by the spread of genes and languages from West Papua in the past 3,500 years – the same period that Austronesian seafarers were actively mixing with Wallacean and Papuan groups.

“My colleagues at the Indonesian Genome Diversity Project have been studying Indonesia’s complex genetic structure for more than a decade, but this comprehensive study provides confirmation that Papuan ancestry is widespread across Wallacea, pointing to historical migrations from New Guinea,” says lead author Dr Gludhug Ariyo Purnomo, from the University of Adelaide’s School of Biological Sciences.

“By connecting the dots between genetics, linguistics, and archaeology, we now recognise West Papua as an important bio-cultural hub and the launching place of historical Papuan seafarers that now contribute up to 60% of modern Wallacean ancestry.”

Genomic research is also becoming increasingly important for developing new medicines tailored to specific genetic backgrounds.

“In the era of precision medicine, understanding the genetic structure of human groups is vital for developing treatments that are helpful rather than harmful, with Wallacea and New Guinea having been poorly represented in past genomic surveys,” Dr Purnomo says.

Associate Professor Ray Tobler, from ANU, says Wallacea had been isolated for more than 45,000 years since the arrival of the first human groups, and the more recently arriving Papuan and Austronesian migrants reconfigured Wallacean culture by introducing new languages that diversified and intermingled to create its rich linguistic landscape.

“Our findings suggest that the Papuan and Austronesian migrations were so extensive that they have largely overwritten the ancestry of the first migrants, making the recovery of these ancient migrations from genetic data challenging,” says Professor Tobler, who is also an Adjunct Fellow at the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.

According to the researchers, there are challenges in reconstructing past movements of people using modern genetic data due to historical migrations and movements.

“There's also been so much movement in Wallacea in the past couple of thousand years, due to the spice trade and slavery, that it obscures the relationship between geography and genetics,” Associate Professor Tobler says.

“What we know about Wallacea and New Guinea is just the tip of the iceberg, but the use of ancient DNA can help to overcome some of these challenges and help us to understand the origins and legacy of human journeys to the region stretching back tens of thousands of years.”

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DOI

10.1073/pnas.2412355121 

Lead pollution likely caused widespread IQ declines in ancient Rome

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Desert Research Institute

 

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Grass covered mounds mark the site of the Roman-era lead mine at Charterhouse on Mendip in the United Kingdom (credit: Andrew Wilson)

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Credit: Andrew Wilson

Lead exposure is responsible for a range of human health impacts, with even relatively low levels impacting the cognitive development of children. DRI scientists have previously used atmospheric pollution records preserved in Arctic ice cores to identify periods of lead pollution throughout the Roman Empire, and now new research expands on this finding to identify how this pollution may have affected the European population.

The study, published Jan. 6th in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), examined three ice core records to identify lead pollution levels in the Arctic between 500 BCE through 600 CE. This era spans the rise of the Roman Republic through the fall of the Roman Empire, with the study focusing on the approximately 200-year height of the Empire called the Pax Romana. Lead isotopes allowed the research team to identify mining and smelting operations throughout Europe as the likely source of pollution during this period. Advanced computer modeling of atmospheric movement then produced maps of atmospheric lead pollution levels across Europe. Combined with research linking lead exposure to cognitive decline, the research team also identified likely reductions in IQ levels of at least 2 to 3 points among the European population.

“This is the first study to take a pollution record from an ice core and invert it to get atmospheric concentrations of pollution and then assess human impacts,” says Joe McConnell, research professor of hydrology at DRI and lead author of the study. “The idea that we can do this for 2,000 years ago is pretty novel and exciting.”

Records of the Past Preserved in Ice

McConnell’s Ice Core Laboratory at DRI has spent decades examining ice cores from places like Greenland and Antarctica, where sheets of ice have built up over millennia. Using enormous drills, they painstakingly extract columns of ice as much as 11,000 feet (3,400 meters) long, reaching more distant depths of Earth’s history with each inch. McConnell’s team creates precise timelines using records of well-dated volcanic eruptions, which stamp the ice record like postcards from the past. Gas bubbles trapped in the ice offer insight into the atmosphere of past eras, while pollutants like lead can be used to interpret mining and industrial activity.

McConnell began developing methods to create very detailed lead records in ice more than twenty years ago, when he applied them to more recent history. When archeologists and historians learned of this work, they approached him hoping to apply these new techniques to the Roman period, seeking answers to lingering historical questions. “The resulting research changed our understanding of the era by finding precise linkages between the lead pollution records and historical events such as population declines associated with periodic plagues and pandemics,” adds coauthor and ancient historian Andrew Wilson of Oxford University.

A Growing Understanding of the Harms of Lead Pollution

Ancient lead pollution stemmed largely from silver mining, whereby the lead-rich mineral galena was melted down to extract silver. For every ounce of silver obtained, this process produced thousands of ounces of lead—much of which was released to the atmosphere.

In the 20th century, lead pollution predominantly came from the emissions of vehicles burning leaded gasoline. Following the passing of the Clean Air Act in the U.S. in 1970, which restricted the use of leaded gasoline, researchers have tracked the sharp decline of lead in human blood. However, the nationwide exposure, particularly for children born between 1950 and 1985, allowed scientists to track lead’s impact on health and cognitive development.

“As lead pollution has declined during the last 30 years, it has become more and more apparent to epidemiologists and medical experts just how bad lead is for human development,” McConnell says.

In adults, high levels of lead exposure are linked to infertility, anemia, memory loss, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and reduced immune response, among other impacts. In children, even low levels of exposure have been connected to reduced IQ, concentration challenges, and reduced academic success. While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers a blood lead level of 3.5 µg/dl the point for medical intervention for children, they have stated that there is no level of lead exposure without risk.

“Lead is known to have a wide range of human health impacts, but we chose to focus on cognitive decline because it’s something we can put a number on,” says study coauthor Nathan Chellman, assistant research professor of snow and ice hydrology at DRI. “An IQ reduction of 2 to 3 points doesn’t sound like much, but when you apply that to essentially the entire European population, it’s kind of a big deal.”

The study found that atmospheric lead pollution began during the Iron Age and reached a peak during the late 2nd century BCE at the height of the Roman Republic. It then declined sharply during the 1st century BCE, during the crisis of the Roman Republic, before increasing around 15 BCE following the rise of the Roman Empire. Lead pollution remained high until the Antonine Plague from 165 to the 180s CE, which severely affected the Roman Empire. It wasn’t until the High Middle Ages in the early 2nd millennium CE that lead pollution in the Arctic exceeded the sustained high levels of the Roman Empire. According to the research, more than 500 kilotons of lead were released to the atmosphere during the nearly 200-year height of the Roman Empire.

Although ice core records show that Arctic lead pollution was up to 40-fold higher during the highest historical peak in the early 1970s, the insight gained from this study demonstrates how “humans have been impacting their health for thousands of years through industrial activity,” McConnell says.

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More information: The full study, Pan-European atmospheric lead pollution, enhanced blood lead levels, and cognitive decline from Roman-era mining and smelting, is available from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Researchers reveal ancient dietary habits and early human use of plant foods

Groundbreaking study led by Bar-Ilan University uncovers the central role of starch-rich plants in the diet of ancient hunter-gatherers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Bar-Ilan University

 

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Prof. Nira Alperson-Afil, Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies, Bar-Ilan University

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Credit: Prof. Boaz Zissu, Bar-Ilan University

A new archaeological study, conducted along the Jordan River banks south of northern Israel’s Hula Valley, offers a fresh perspective on the dietary habits of early humans, challenging conventional wisdom about prehistoric diets. The research reveals that ancient hunter-gatherers relied heavily on plant foods, particularly starchy plants, as a major energy source. The findings suggest that, contrary to popular belief, the diet of early hominids was not solely focused on animal protein, but rather, featured a diverse range of plant-based foods, including acorns, cereals, legumes, and aquatic plants.

This multidisciplinary study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), focuses on the discovery of starch grains approximately 780,000 years old, uncovered from basalt tools at an ancient settlement site near Gesher Benot Ya’akov. The site, located on the shores of the ancient Hula Lake, has provided a wealth of evidence, including over 20 layers of settlement, fossilized animal remains, and plant remnants such as seeds and fruits.

The study was conducted as part of Dr. Hadar Ahituv's doctoral thesis at Bar-Ilan University’s Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology. He is now at the Laboratory for Ancient Food Processing Technologies (LAFPT), at Haifa University’s Zinman Institute of Archaeology. This collaborative research effort also involved scholars from multiple institutions, including Prof. Nira Alperson-Afil and Dr. Yoel Melamed from Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Naama Goren-Inbar from the Hebrew University, and Prof. Amanda Henry from Leiden University, Netherlands.

The research contradicts the prevailing narrative that ancient human diets were primarily based on animal protein, as suggested by the popular "paleo" diet. Many of these diets are based on the interpretation of animal bones found in archaeological sites, with plant-based foods rarely preserved. However, the discovery of starch grains on ancient tools provides new insight into the central role of plants, particularly starchy tubers, nuts, and roots, which are rich in carbohydrates vital for the energy demands of the human brain.

The study highlights the sophisticated methods early humans used to process plant materials. The starch grains were found on basalt maces and anvils—tools used to crack and crush plant foods. These tools, the earliest evidence of human processing of plant foods, were used to prepare a variety of plants, including acorns, cereals, legumes, and aquatic plants like the yellow water lily and now-extinct water chestnut. Researchers also identified microscopic remains such as pollen grains, rodent hair, and feathers, supporting the credibility of the starch findings.

"This discovery underscores the importance of plant foods in the evolution of our ancestors," said Dr. Ahituv. "We now understand that early hominids gathered a wide variety of plants year-round, which they processed using tools made from basalt. This discovery opens a new chapter in the study of early human diets and their profound connection to plant-based foods."

The findings also offer insights into the social and cognitive behaviors of early humans. The use of tools to process plants suggests a high level of cooperation and social structure, as the hominids operated as part of larger social groups. Their ability to utilize a diverse array of resources from both aquatic and terrestrial environments shows a deep knowledge of their surroundings, much like modern humans today.

The discovery marks a significant milestone in the field of prehistoric studies and provides valuable evidence about the dietary habits of our ancient ancestors, offering new perspectives on human evolution and the development of complex societies.

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2418661121