Research in the Andes has yielded evidence for a complex association
between settlement sites and mortuary monuments, tied to concepts of
death, ancestor veneration and water.
In the case-study Carved Rocks and Subterranean Burials at Kipia,
Ancash, AD 1000 - 1532 published in De Gruyter's journal Open
Archaeology, authors Kevin Lane, Emma Pomeroy and Milton Reynaldo Lújan
Davila analyse the Prehispanic-Spanish Colonial multi-faceted site of
Kipia, in the Ancash highlands in Peru.
The site contains two small settlements, a cosmological centre, and a
funerary sector of subterranean tombs. The author's study reveals the
stunning relation between ceremonial sites and cemeteries which
underpins complex Andean concepts of death and renewal.
The authors paid special attention to the cosmological core of
the site, which is arranged around a series of carved rocks - huanca -, a
central huaca ¬(deity/ancestor), and a communal subterranean tomb. It
was discovered that the various features of the site can be related to
the surrounding landscape, which is remarkable since archaeological
examples establishing a direct link between site and landscape in the
Andes are not common. Even more remarkable is the fact that the
discovery is supplemented by bioarchaeological data (the analyzed
subterranean tomb - pukullo - presented in the research).
In the Prehispanic Andes the landscape was innately animated, and
Kipia is positioned at the center of its particular physical
environment. In this sense, Kipia was not just a repository for the
dead, but more widely a place of communion between the living and the
departed, associated to the central huaca-huanca, and the other carved
rock-faces.
The importance of Kipia lies in its role as a local huaca dedicated
to the lightening deity in which overt manifestations of life and death
cohabited. In turn, Kipia linked into a network of other larger
potentially sacred sites, such as the lakes.
Excavated, comparative highland Late Intermediate Period (AD
1000-1450) tombs are limited, especially ones linked to important sacred
sites. In synthesis, this study makes a valuable contribution to the
very limited literature on the use of communal burial structures in the
Andes that is based on excavation, detailed osteological analysis and is
in direct connection with a particular sacred landscape.
Dr. Alexis Mantha, an expert on Andean Archeology from Université
Montréal, outlines: "This article provides a very interesting and rare
case study of a complex animated ritual landscape in the highlands of
Ancash, Peru, during late Andean prehistory. The authors convincingly
examine the intricate ritual relationships among the skeletal content of
a subterranean tomb (pukullo) and other features of the surrounding
landscape such as a stone monolith (huanca), peaks and highland lakes."
IMAGE: Skeletal remains showing evidence of
leprosy from the Odense St. Jørgen cemetery in Denmark, which was
established in 1270 and existed until 1560.
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Credit: Dorthe Dangvard Pedersen
New research by an international team including scientists from the
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the University of
Tübingen, EPFL Lausanne and the University of Zurich has revealed that
there was much more diversity in the leprosy strains circulating in
Medieval Europe than previously thought. This finding, based on the
sequencing of 10 new ancient genomes from the leprosy-causing bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, complicates prior assumptions about the origin and spread of the disease, and also includes the oldest M. leprae genome sequenced to date, from about 400 AD in the United Kingdom.
Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded and most stigmatized diseases
in human history. The disease was prevalent in Europe until the 16th
century and is still endemic in many countries, with over 200,000 new
cases reported annually. The bacterium Mycobacterium leprae is
the main cause of leprosy. Previous research on the bacterium suggested
that it clusters into several strains, only two of which were present in
Medieval Europe. The present study, published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, aimed to further investigate the history and origin of M. leprae by looking for genetic evidence from a large number of ancient samples from throughout Europe. 10 new ancient genomes of M. leprae dating from approximately 400-1400 AD
The current study examined approximately 90 individuals with
skeletal deformations that were characteristic of leprosy, from across
Europe and from time periods ranging from approximately 400 AD to 1400
AD. From these samples, 10 new medieval M. leprae genomes were
fully reconstructed. These genomes represent all known strains,
including strains that are today associated with different locations
around the globe, including Asia, Africa and the Americas. Additionally,
in this study multiple strains were often found in the same cemetery,
illustrating the diversity of the leprosy strains circulating throughout
the continent at the time.
"We found much more genetic diversity in ancient Europe than
expected," explains Johannes Krause, senior author of the study and a
director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
"Additionally, we found that all known strains of leprosy are present in
Medieval Europe, suggesting that leprosy may already have been
widespread throughout Asia and Europe in antiquity or that it might have
originated western Eurasia." Oldest leprosy genome to date
One M. leprae genome reconstructed by the team was from Great Chesterford, England, and dates to between 415-545 AD. This is the oldest M. leprae
genome sequenced to date and comes from one of the oldest known cases
of leprosy in the United Kingdom. Interestingly, this strain is the same
found in modern-day red squirrels and supports the hypothesis that
squirrels and the squirrel fur trade were a factor in the spread of
leprosy among humans in Europe during the medieval period.
"The dynamics of M. leprae transmission throughout human
history are not fully resolved. Characterization and geographic
association of the most ancestral strains are crucial for deciphering
leprosy's exact origin" states lead author Verena Schuenemann of the
University of Zurich. "While we have some written records of leprosy
cases that predate the Common Era, none of these have yet been confirmed
on a molecular level."
The abundance of ancient genomes in the current study has resulted in a new and older estimate for the age of M. leprae
than previous studies, placing its age at least a few thousand years
old. "Having more ancient genomes in a dating analysis will result in
more accurate estimates," explains Krause. "The next step is to search
for even older osteological cases of leprosy than currently available,
using well-established methods for identification of potential cases."
IMAGE: Items found in Panga ya Saidi cave.
1. A decorated bone 2. A broken bone arrow point
3. An awl made of tusk
4. An ochre crayon.
5-9. Ostrich egg shell beads,...
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Credit: Credit Francesco d'Errico and Africa Pitarch Marti.
Forty-eight thousand year-old crayons and shell beads were among a
treasure trove of items unearthed by archaeologists at a cave in Kenya.
Archaeologists have discovered more than 30,000 items at the site
which is shedding new light on the crucial time period when Homo sapiens
first started showing signs of modern behaviour.
The research was led by archaeologist Dr Ceri Shipton of The
Australian National University (ANU) School of Culture, History and
Language, who said the Panga ya Saidi cave sequence dates back 78,000
years and is the only known site in East Africa with an unbroken
archaeological record of human inhabitation.
"It is the most beautiful site I have ever worked on. As soon as I saw it I knew it was special," Dr Shipton said.
"It has a continuous record with people there right up until 500 years ago.
"The site has amazing levels of preservation with so many of the artefacts in mint condition."
Dr Shipton said the site, on the Kenyan south coast just north of
Mombasa, was providing new insights into the Later Stone Age - a period
of time beginning about 67,000 years ago associated with the rise of
modern human behaviour and culture in Africa.
"You start to see things like decorated bones, beads made from
marine shell or ostrich eggs, miniaturized stone tools, and bones carved
into things like arrow points. This is the oldest date we have for when
this behaviour is first observed," he said.
"Previous sites relating to this early period of modern human
behaviour have all been in South Africa and the East African Rift
Valley, this is the first site on the coast of East Africa and the first
with such a continuous record."
Dr Shipton said it was highly unusual to find a site where early Homo sapiens were living in a tropical forest.
"Early humans liked to be on open grassland where there is a lot of large animals for hunting," Dr Shipton said.
"These people were living in tropical forest hunting smaller animals
like monkeys and small deer, animals you may need more sophisticated
technology to catch."
"What is striking about this record is the innovations you see in
technology and material culture, and the ability to exploit both forest
and savannah environments. It is this kind of behavioural flexibility
that allowed our species to populate the rest of the world outside of
Africa."
Professor Andy Herries from La Trobe University Archaeology
undertook archaeomagnetic analysis of the cave sediments which showed
that the transition in stone tool technology took place during a
particularly cold and dry glacial period.
"the site documents the earliest evidence of this style of
microlithic Later Stone Age technology and shows how early modern humans
were able to adapt to a range of new environments at this time,"
Professor Herries said.
"It is a small precursor to our eventual habitation of every corner and environment on the planet."
Of more than 30,000 items found at the site, some of the most
remarkable include 48,000 year old red ochre crayons and engraved bones.
Dr Shipton was struck by the high-level preservation of the artefacts.
"The stone tools are still sharp. The beads and engraved bones have survived intact which is really rare," he said.
"On the crayons we can still see the grooves where they have been
used. They're in the same condition now as when people discarded them."
The study was published on Wednesday in the Nature Communications journal. The project was led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
IMAGE: The first substantial cave record from
coastal Kenya ranges from the Middle Stone Age to the Iron Age, showing
gradual changes in cultural, technological and symbolic innovations
beginning at 67,000...
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Credit: Mohammad Shoaee
An international, interdisciplinary group of scholars working along
the East African coast have discovered a major cave site which records
substantial activities of hunter-gatherers and later, Iron Age
communities. Detailed environmental research has demonstrated that
human occupations occur in a persistent tropical forest-grassland
ecotone, adding new information about the habitats exploited by our
species, and indicating that populations sought refuge in a relatively
stable environment. Prior to this cave excavation, little information
was available about the last 78,000 years from coastal East Africa, with
the majority of archaeological research focused on the Rift Valley and
in South Africa.
Humans lived in the humid coastal forest
A large-scale interdisciplinary study, including scientific analyses
of archaeological plants, animals and shells from the cave indicates a
broad perseverance of forest and grassland environments. As the cave
environment underwent little variation over time, humans found the site
attractive for occupation, even during periods of time when other parts
of Africa would have been inhospitable.
This suggests that humans
exploited the cave environment and landscape over the long term, relying
on plant and animal resources when the wider surrounding landscapes
dried. The ecological setting of Panga ya Saidi is consistent with
increasing evidence that Homo sapiens could adapt to a variety of
environments as they moved across Africa and Eurasia, suggesting that
flexibility may be the hallmark of our species. Homo sapiens developed a
range of survival strategies to live in diverse habitats, including
tropical forests, arid zones, coasts and the cold environments found at
higher latitudes.
Technological innovations occur at 67,000 years ago
Carefully prepared stone tool toolkits of the Middle Stone Age occur
in deposits dating back to 78,000 years ago, but a distinct shift in
technology to the Later Stone Age is shown by the recovery of small
artefacts beginning at 67,000 years ago. The miniaturization of stone
tools may reflect changes in hunting practices and behaviors. The Panga
ya Saidi sequence after 67,000, however, has a mix of technologies, and
no radical break of behavior can be detected at any time, arguing
against the cognitive or cultural 'revolutions' theorized by some
archaeologists. Moreover, no notable break in human occupation occurs
during the Toba volcanic super-eruption of 74,000 years ago, supporting
views that the so-called 'volcanic winter' did not lead to the
near-extinction of human populations, though hints of increased
occupation intensity from 60,000 years ago suggests that populations
were increasing in size.
Earliest symbolic and cultural items found at Panga ya Saidi cave
The deep archaeological sequence of Panga ya Saidi cave has produced
a remarkable new cultural record indicative of cultural complexity over
the long term. Among the recovered items are worked and incised bones,
ostrich eggshell beads, marine shell beads, and worked ochre. Panga ya
Saidi has produced the oldest bead in Kenya, dating to ~65,000 years
ago. At about 33,000 years ago, beads were most commonly made of shells
acquired from the coast. While this demonstrates contact with the
coast, there is no evidence for the regular exploitation of marine
resources for subsistence purposes.
Ostrich eggshell beads become more
common after 25,000 years ago, and after 10,000 years ago, there is
again a shift to coastal shell use. In the layers dating to between
~48,000 to 25,000 years ago, carved bone, carved tusk, a decorated bone
tube, a small bone point, and modified pieces of ochre were found.
Though indicative of behavioral complexity and symbolism, their
intermittent appearance in the cave sequence argues against a model for a
behavioral or cognitive revolution at any specific point in time.
Project Principal Investigator and Director of the Department of
Archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Dr. Nicole Boivin states, "The East African coastal hinterland and its
forests and have been long considered to be marginal to human evolution
so the discovery of Panga ya Saidi cave will certainly change
archaeologists' views and perceptions."
Group Leader of the Stable Isotopes Lab Dr. Patrick Roberts adds,
"Occupation in a tropical forest-grassland environment adds to our
knowledge that our species lived in a variety of habitats in Africa."
"The finds at Panga ya Saidi undermine hypotheses about the use of
coasts as a kind of 'superhighway' that channeled migrating humans out
of Africa, and around the Indian Ocean rim," observes Professor Michael
Petraglia.
A new study has discovered that horses were first domesticated by
descendants of hunter-gatherer groups in Kazakhstan who left little
direct trace in the ancestry of modern populations. The research sheds
new light on the long-standing "steppe theory" on the origin and
movement of Indo-European languages made possible by the domestication
of the horse.
The domestication of the horse was a milestone in human history that
allowed people, their languages, and their ideas to move further and
faster than before, leading both to widespread farming and to
horse-powered warfare.
Scholars from around the world have collaborated on a new
inter-disciplinary research project, which was published in the journal Science9 May 2018.
The researchers analysed ancient and modern DNA samples from humans and
compared the results - the 74 ancient whole-genome sequences studied by
the group were up to 11,000 years old and were from inner Asia and
Turkey.
Professor Eske Willerslev, who holds positions both at St John's
College, University of Cambridge, and the University of Copenhagen,
jointly led the study which looked at archaeological findings, history,
and linguistics.
Much of the study builds on questions raised by scholars of
Indo-European studies at the Institute of Nordic Studies and Linguistics
at University of Copenhagen. A number of conflicting theories have been
presented about who first domesticated the horse, with previous studies
pointing to people of the pastoralist Yamnaya culture, a dominant
herding group who lived in Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
Dr. Guus Kroonen, historical linguist at University of Copenhagen, explains:
"The successful spread of the Indo-European languages across Eurasia
has puzzled researchers for a century. It was thought that speakers of
this language family played a key role in the domestication of the
horse, and that this, in combination with the development of wheeled
vehicles, allowed them to spread across Eurasia from the Yamnaya
culture."
However, as this study shows, domesticated horses were used by the
Botai people already 5,500 years ago, and much further East in Central
Asia, completely independent of the Yamnaya pastoralists. A further
twist to the story is that the descendants of these Botai were later
pushed out from the central steppe by migrations coming from the west.
Their horses were replaced too, indicating that horses were domesticated
separately in other regions as well.
No link between Botai and Yamnaya cultures
The study does not find a genetic link between the people associated
with the Yamnaya and Botai archaeological cultures, which is critical
to understanding the eastward movement of the Yamnaya. Apparently, their
eastward expansion bypassed the Botai completely, moving 3000
kilometres across the steppe to the Altai Mountains in Central and East
Asia.
Professor Alan Outram from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter and one of the paper's authors, states:
"We now know that the people who first domesticated the horse in
Central Asia were the descendants of ice age hunters, who went on to
become the earliest pastoralists in the region. Despite their local
innovations, these peoples were overrun and replaced by European steppe
pastoralists in the middle and later Bronze Age, and their horses were
replaced too."
Languages spread through exchanges between several cultures
The authors also demonstrate the oldest known Indo-European
language, Hittite, did not result from a massive population migration
from the Eurasian Steppe as previously claimed.
In contrast to a series of recent studies on population movement in
Europe during the Bronze Age, the new results from Asia suggest that
population and language spread across the region is better understood by
groups of people mixing together.
Gojko Barjamovic, Senior Lecturer on Assyriology at Harvard University, explains:
"In Anatolia, and parts of Central Asia, which held densely settled
complex urban societies, the history of language spread and genetic
ancestry is better described in terms of contact and absorption than by
simply a movement of population."
He adds:
"The Indo-European languages are usually said to emerge in Anatolia
in the 2nd millennium BCE. However, we use evidence from the palatial
archives of the ancient city of Ebla in Syria to argue that
Indo-European was already spoken in modern-day Turkey in the 25th
century BCE. This means that the speakers of these language must have
arrived there prior to any Yamnaya expansions."
The study also shows that the spread of the Indo-Iranian languages
to South Asia, with Hindi, Urdu and Persian as major modern offshoots,
cannot result from the Yamnaya expansions. Rather, the Indo-Iranian
languages spread with a later push of pastoralist groups from the South
Ural Mountains during the Middle to Late Bronze Age.
Prior to entering South Asia, these groups, thought to have spoken
an Indo-Iranian language, were impacted by groups with an ancestry
typical of more western Eurasian populations. This suggests that the
Indo-Iranian speakers did not split off from the Yamnaya population
directly, but were more closely related to the Indo-European speakers
that lived in Eastern Europe.
Unique collaboration between the humanities and the natural sciences
In this study, geneticists, historians, archaeologists and linguists
find common ground - pointing to increased interaction between the
steppe and the Indus Valley during the Late Bronze Age as the most
plausible time of entry of Indo-European languages in South Asia.
Several authors of the paper had radically conflicting views before the
final interpretation was achieved.
Lead author on the article, Peter de Barros Damgaard, who is a geneticist working at the University of Copenhagen comments:
"The project has been an extremely enriching and exciting process.
We were able to direct many very different academic fields towards a
single coherent approach. By asking the right questions, and keeping
limitations of the data in mind, contextualizing, nuancing, and keeping
dialogues open between scholars of radically different backgrounds and
approaches, we have carved out a path for a new field of research. We
have already seen too many papers come out in which models produced by
geneticists working on their own have been are accepted without vital
input from other fields, and, at the other extreme, seen archaeologists
opposing new studies built on archaeogenetic data, due to a lack of
transparency between the fields.
"Data on ancient DNA is astonishing for its ability to provide a
fine-grained image of early human mobility, but it does stand on the
shoulders of decades of work by scholars in other fields, from the time
of excavation of human skeletons to interpreting the cultural,
linguistic origins of the samples. This is how cold statistics are
turned into history."
Guus Kroonen adds:
"The recent breakthrough in ancient genomics poses challenges for
archaeologists, linguists and historians because old hypotheses on the
spread of languages and cultures can now be tested against a whole new
line of evidence on prehistoric mobility. As a result, we now see that
geneticists are driven by key questions from the humanities, and that
research within the humanities is energized by the influx of new data
from the sciences. In the future, we hope to see more cross-disciplinary
co-operations, such as the one leading to this study."
The United States has returned approximately 3,800 Iraqi artifacts to
the Republic of Iraq at a repatriation ceremony at the residence of the
Republic of Iraq’s Ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C. The
artifacts include many tablets from the ancient city of Irisagrig,
primarily from the Ur III and Old Babylonian period, are mostly legal
and administrative documents, but also include a collection of Early
Dynastic incantations and a bilingual religious text from the
Neo-Babylonian period.Images
The Repatriated Antiquities
The antiquities being repatriated consist of approximately:
Cuneiform is an ancient system of writing on clay tablets that was used
in ancient Mesopotamia thousands of years ago. The names of people,
places and months used on a number of the cuneiform tablets confirm that
they originated in the area of modern-day Iraq. Clay bullae are balls
of clay on which seals have been imprinted. Cylinder seals are small
engraved stone cylinders. When rolled on wet clay, they create raised
images in the clay that
IMAGE: The engraved flint flake from Kiik-Koba layer IV.
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Credit: Majki? et al (2018)
A flint flake from the Middle Paleolithic of Crimea was likely
engraved symbolically by a skilled Neanderthal hand, according to a study published May 2, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE
by Ana Majkic from the University of Bordeaux, France and colleagues.
The authors developed a detailed framework for interpreting engravings
on stone artifacts.
Engraved stone artifacts are important clues to the history of human
culture and cognition. Incisions on the cortex (soft outer layer) of
flint or chert flakes are known from Middle and Lower Paleolithic sites
across Europe and the Middle East. However, it can be difficult to
determine the action that created an incision: was it an accidental
scrape or purposeful engraving? To address this issue, Majkic and
colleagues created an interpretive framework that allows researchers to
classify the structure and patterns of engraved cortexes and cross-check
these attributes with a list of possible causal actions.
They tested this methodology with an engraved flake from the cave
site of Kiik-Koba in Crimea. The many stone artifacts at the site are
associated with Neanderthal remains and date to around 35,000 years ago.
Following microscopic examination of the grooved lines on the flint
cortex, the researchers concluded that the incisions represent
deliberate engravings that would have required fine motor skills and
attention to detail. These engravings appear to have been made with
symbolic or communicative intent.
If this interpretation is correct, this engraved flake would join a
growing list of signs that Neanderthals engaged in symbolic activities,
along with evidence of intentional burial, personal ornaments, and other
decorated objects. This has implications for the question of when and
how many times this sort of cultural expression has evolved among
hominin populations. The researchers hope to hone their framework
further for use with artifacts of varying ages and cultural contexts.
Over the last 25 years many scholars have questioned the existence
of the kingdom of David and Solomon, which was supposed to have existed
in the 10th century BCE. This was based to a large extent on the lack of
evidence of royal construction at the heart of the region in which the
kingdom supposedly existed. As a result, it was assumed that the rulers
at the time were just local chiefs who ruled only over Jerusalem and
its immediate surroundings.
Now researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Israel have uncovered
new evidence that supports the existence of Israel's united monarchy and
indicate that the Kingdom extended beyond Jerusalem's vicinity. The
findings were recently published by Prof. Avraham Faust and Dr. Yair
Sapir in the journal Radiocarbon.
Over the past decade Prof. Avi Faust, of the Martin (Szusz)
Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan
University, excavated a large residence of the type, known as a
"four-room house", which was destroyed in massive conflagration in the
8th century BCE, during one of the Assyrian campaigns. The residence is
located at Tel 'Eton in the Shephelah (20 km. southeast of the city of
Qiryat Gat). This large building had at least two stories and its ground
floors extended over some 225 sq. m. Large, high quality ashlar stones
were placed in the building's corners and entrances. The structure was
built on the highest part of the mound, on top of deep foundations,
using high quality building materials and according to a meticulous
plan. Hundreds of vessels and additional finds were discovered within
the conflagration.
"Surprisingly, radiocarbon dates from within the
floor make-up and from within a foundation deposit that was placed below
the floor indicate that the building had already been erected in the
10th century BCE, between the late 11th century and the third quarter of
the 10th century BCE. This date is in line with other finds related to
the construction, like the foundation deposit itself," says Prof. Faust.
Faust and Sapir say that construction of such a large residence on the
top of the mound, visible from a great distance, along with the
significant growth of the size of the city at the same time, was an
important event in the history of Tel 'Eton.
But who initiated the change? The researchers say that the evidence
hints at the identity of the builders. The mere fact that the residence
was built as a classical four-room house, a style that was very
dominant in Israelite sites and missing or rare at Canaanite and
Philistine sites, seems to send a clear message regarding the identity
of the builders - the emerging Israelite polity in the highlands.
Interestingly, however, the site was not destroyed during the
changes, and new construction and development were apparently not a
result of a conquest and the arrival of new population. Thus, while the
transformations were inspired by the highland kingdom, the development
was done in cooperation with the local population. This is also
indicated by the combination of the highland, Israelite-inspired
architectural style, along with the use of the Canaanite tradition of
placing foundation deposits below the floors.
The finds are indicative of impressive public construction underway
already in the 10th century BCE, and even on the use of ashlar stones in
the region of Judah at this early stage. When the finds from Tel 'Eton
are combined with those at other sites in the region, the process in
which the highland polity took over the Shephelah, and gradually
colonized it, can be reconstructed.
Faust and Sapir stress that "the association with David is not based
on direct archaeological evidence, but solely on circumstantial
grounds". The source of the changes at Tel 'Eton (i.e,. the erection of
the four-room residency and the growth in size of the site) appears to
be in the highlands, and since these changes took place at the time when
David was supposed to have existed in the highland, the link is
plausible." They add that "if someone thinks that there was no king by
the name of David, we should find another name to call the highland king
in whose time the region was incorporated into the highland kingdom".
Beyond the identification of social complexity in Judah already in
the 10th century BCE, the study has broader implications for
archaeology. "The finds from Tel 'Eton indicate that structures can
exist for centuries, but the finds reflect their last period of usage.
From their long lives - sometimes centuries - very little will be found,
and even less will be reported," says Faust. One of the negative
implications of this, he says, is that a series of destructive events
following a long period of peace will lead to extensive information on
the time of the destruction, but very little on the era that preceded
it. "Archaeologists should therefore be careful when they conclude that
the rarity of finds from these eras indicates that society was poor, and
lacked social complexity."
