Ancient pottery factory unveiled in Israel

Israeli archaeologists have unveiled what they said was a major pottery plant which produced wine storage jars continuously from Roman to Byzantine times.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said that excavations near the town of Gedera, south of Tel Aviv, revealed the factory and an adjacent leisure complex of 20 bathing pools and a room used for board games.

Excavation director Alla Nagorsky told journalists at the site that from the third century AD the plant produced vessels of a type known to historians as "Gaza" jars for an unbroken period of 600 years.

"This kind of a place is not built in an instant," she said. "An engineer worked on it. The site is very designed."

An IAA statement added that the jars' main function was storage and shipment of wine, which was a flourishing local industry at the time, with large-scale exports.

"The continuous production of these jars probably indicates that the business was a family one, which passed from generation to generation to generation," the IAA said in a statement.

It said the remains of around 100,000 jars found buried at the site were probably discarded rejects.

Alongside the factory, it added, were two Byzantine bathhouses, at least one with a heating boiler and 20 "finely constructed" pools, connected to one another by channels and pipes.

"The archaeologists consider that the water complex served both the local population and the many travellers along the ancient main road connecting the port of Gaza with the centre of the country," the statement said.

Gaza City lies about 30 miles (48 kilometres) southwest of Gedera, on the Mediterranean coast. During its long history, Gaza has been ruled by the Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Mamluks and Ottomans.

At Gedera, the IAA said, the games room was "a rare and surprising discovery".

In it were boards used for playing backgammon and "mancala", games which are still popular in the area.

The statement said the Gedera pottery works may have built the leisure centre for its employees, just as today's hi-tech companies provide recreation facilities for their workers.

• 

• 

1 / 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Alla Nagorsky carries a 1,600-year-old Mancala game from the Byzantine time found during a large excavation in the central Israeli town of Gedera

 

2. An Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist shows shows pottery shreds with finger prints on them from the Byzantine time found during a large excavation in the central Israeli town of Gedera

Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled what they said was a major pottery plant which produced wine storage jars continuously from Roman to Byzantine times.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-07-ancient-pottery-factory-unveiled-israel.html#jCp

Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled what they said was a major pottery plant which produced wine storage jars continuously from Roman to Byzantine times.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-07-ancient-pottery-factory-unveiled-israel.html#jCp

Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled what they said was a major pottery plant which produced wine storage jars continuously from Roman to Byzantine times.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said that excavations near the town of Gedera, south of Tel Aviv, revealed the factory and an adjacent leisure complex of 20 bathing pools and a room used for board games.
Excavation director Alla Nagorsky told journalists at the site that from the third century AD the plant produced vessels of a type known to historians as "Gaza" jars for an unbroken period of 600 years.
"This kind of a place is not built in an instant," she said. "An engineer worked on it. The site is very designed."
An IAA statement added that the jars' main function was storage and shipment of wine, which was a flourishing local industry at the time, with large-scale exports.
"The continuous production of these jars probably indicates that the business was a family one, which passed from generation to generation to generation," the IAA said in a statement.
It said the remains of around 100,000 jars found buried at the site were probably discarded rejects.
Alongside the factory, it added, were two Byzantine bathhouses, at least one with a heating boiler and 20 "finely constructed" pools, connected to one another by channels and pipes.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-07-ancient-pottery-factory-unveiled-israel.html#jCp

Ancient pottery factory unveiled in Israel

July 31, 2018

Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Alla Nagorsky carries a 1,600-year-old Mancala game from the Byzantine time found during a large excavation in the central Israeli town of Gedera

Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled what they said was a major pottery plant which produced wine storage jars continuously from Roman to Byzantine times.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said that excavations near the town of Gedera, south of Tel Aviv, revealed the factory and an adjacent leisure complex of 20 bathing pools and a room used for board games.
Excavation director Alla Nagorsky told journalists at the site that from the third century AD the plant produced vessels of a type known to historians as "Gaza" jars for an unbroken period of 600 years.
"This kind of a place is not built in an instant," she said. "An engineer worked on it. The site is very designed."
An IAA statement added that the jars' main function was storage and shipment of wine, which was a flourishing local industry at the time, with large-scale exports.
"The continuous production of these jars probably indicates that the business was a family one, which passed from generation to generation to generation," the IAA said in a statement.
It said the remains of around 100,000 jars found buried at the site were probably discarded rejects.
Alongside the factory, it added, were two Byzantine bathhouses, at least one with a heating boiler and 20 "finely constructed" pools, connected to one another by channels and pipes.

An Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist shows shows pottery shreds with finger prints on them from the Byzantine time found during a large excavation in the central Israeli town of Gedera

"The archaeologists consider that the water complex served both the local population and the many travellers along the ancient main road connecting the port of Gaza with the centre of the country," the statement said.
Gaza City lies about 30 miles (48 kilometres) southwest of Gedera, on the Mediterranean coast. During its long history, Gaza has been ruled by the Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Mamluks and Ottomans.
At Gedera, the IAA said, the games room was "a rare and surprising discovery".
In it were boards used for playing backgammon and "mancala", games which are still popular in the area.
The statement said the Gedera pottery works may have built the leisure centre for its employees, just as today's hi-tech companies provide recreation facilities for their workers.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-07-ancient-pottery-factory-unveiled-israel.html#jCp

How Neolithic people adapted to climate change

IMAGE: In situ pottery at the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük. view more 

Credit: Çatalhöyük Research Project.

Research led by the University of Bristol has uncovered evidence that early farmers were adapting to climate change 8,200 years ago.

The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), centred on the Neolithic and Chalcolithic city settlement of Çatalhöyük in southern Anatolia, Turkey which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 5700 BC.

During the height of the city's occupation a well-documented climate change event 8,200 years ago occurred which resulted in a sudden decrease in global temperatures caused by the release of a huge amount of glacial meltwater from a massive freshwater lake in northern Canada.

Examining the animal bones excavated at the site, scientists concluded that the herders of the city turned towards sheep and goats at this time, as these animals were more drought-resistant than cattle. Study of cut marks on the animal bones informed on butchery practices: the high number of such marks at the time of the climate event showed that the population worked on exploiting any available meat due to food scarcity.

The authors also examined the animal fats surviving in ancient cooking pots. They detected the presence of ruminant carcass fats, consistent with the animal bone assemblage discovered at Çatalhöyük. For the first time, compounds from animal fats detected in pottery were shown to carry evidence for the climate event in their isotopic composition.

Indeed, using the "you are what you eat (and drink)" principle, the scientists deducted that the isotopic information carried in the hydrogen atoms (deuterium to hydrogen ratio) from the animal fats was reflecting that of ancient precipitation. A change in the hydrogen signal was detected in the period corresponding to the climate event, thus suggesting changes in precipitation patterns at the site at that time.

The paper brings together researchers from the University of Bristol's Organic Geochemistry Unit (School of Chemistry) and the Bristol Research Initiative for the Dynamic Global Environment (School of Geographical Sciences).

Co-authors of the paper include archaeologists and archaeozoologists involved in the excavations and the study of the pottery and animal bones from the site.

Dr Mélanie Roffet-Salque, lead author of the paper, said: "Changes in precipitation patterns in the past are traditionally obtained using ocean or lake sediment cores.

"This is the first time that such information is derived from cooking pots. We have used the signal carried by the hydrogen atoms from the animal fats trapped in the pottery vessels after cooking.
"This opens up a completely new avenue of investigation - the reconstruction of past climate at the very location where people lived using pottery."

Co-author, Professor Richard Evershed, added: "It is really significant that the climate models of the event are in complete agreement with the H signals we see in the animal fats preserved in the pots.

"The models point to seasonal changes farmers would have had to adapt to - overall colder temperatures and drier summers - which would have had inevitable impacts on agriculture."

Laziness helped lead to extinction of Homo erectus

New archaeological research from The Australian National University (ANU) has found that Homo erectus, an extinct species of primitive humans, went extinct in part because they were 'lazy'.
An archaeological excavation of ancient human populations in the Arabian Peninsula during the Early Stone Age, found that Homo erectus used 'least-effort strategies' for tool making and collecting resources.

This 'laziness' paired with an inability to adapt to a changing climate likely played a role in the species going extinct, according to lead researcher Dr Ceri Shipton of the ANU School of Culture, History and Language.

"They really don't seem to have been pushing themselves," Dr Shipton said.

"I don't get the sense they were explorers looking over the horizon. They didn't have that same sense of wonder that we have."

Dr Shipton said this was evident in the way the species made their stone tools and collected resources.

"To make their stone tools they would use whatever rocks they could find lying around their camp, which were mostly of comparatively low quality to what later stone tool makers used," he said.

"At the site we looked at there was a big rocky outcrop of quality stone just a short distance away up a small hill.
"But rather than walk up the hill they would just use whatever bits had rolled down and were lying at the bottom.
"When we looked at the rocky outcrop there were no signs of any activity, no artefacts and no quarrying of the stone.
"They knew it was there, but because they had enough adequate resources they seem to have thought, 'why bother?'".
This is in contrast to the stone tool makers of later periods, including early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, who were climbing mountains to find good quality stone and transporting it over long distances.
Dr Shipton said a failure to progress technologically, as their environment dried out into a desert, also contributed to the population's demise.
"Not only were they lazy, but they were also very conservative," Dr Shipton said.
"The sediment samples showed the environment around them was changing, but they were doing the exact same things with their tools.
"There was no progression at all, and their tools are never very far from these now dry river beds. I think in the end the environment just got too dry for them."
The excavation and survey work was undertaken in 2014 at the site of Saffaqah near Dawadmi in central Saudi Arabia.
The research has been published in a paper for the PLoS One scientific journal.

Prehistoric peopling in southeast Asia -- genomics of Jomon and other ancient skeletons

IMAGE: These are experiments concerning genome analysis of ancient skeleton. (In the clean room specialized for ancient DNA analyses, Kitazato University School of Medicine.) Top left: DNA extraction in a clean... view more 

Credit: Kanazawa University

Background
 
Uncovering the expansion processes of human habitats in the past is of great importance for understanding the origins and establishment of present-day populations and the acquisition of genetic characteristics of individuals as well as for investigating mechanisms of resistance against diseases and pathogens. Previous genetic/genomic studies aimed to uncover the expansion processes using present-day human genomes of different individuals and locations.

However, it is not always possible to elucidate the expansion processes based on the genomic similarity of present-day populations due to the possibility of migrations of populations between regions in various periods. It is therefore impossible to uncover the precise expansion processes of populations in the past without knowledge of the genomic information existing in a designated region and period. Thus, expansion processes hypothesized so far were nothing but speculations based on assumptions about present-day genomes.


Recent developments of DNA analysis technology have made it possible to obtain whole genome information from ultratrace amounts of DNA; we are now in an era where whole genome information can be obtained directly from ancient human skeletons discovered at archaeological sites. There remain, however, technical problems for obtaining whole genome information of ancient human skeletons.

In particular, there are two main problems: first, genomic analyses*1) of poorly-preserved ancient remains in hot and humid regions of the world have up until now failed (Figure 1). Secondly, there is the risk of contamination of present-day human DNA in the DNA samples of ultratrace amounts from prehistoric remains.

To evaluate objectively the possibility of such contamination, several different research groups must cross-check*2) one another in order to achieve exact genome sequencing; in other words, establishment of a collaborative research system is a prerequisite for attaining the highest level of scientific authenticity.

In order to cope with these problems, the present international research team, led by researchers from the University of Copenhagen with the participation of three researchers from Kanazawa University has established technologies to efficiently extract human DNA from skeletons discovered at prehistoric remains even under very poor conditions for DNA preservation. At the same time, an international system of research collaboration has been established for objectively evaluating the effects of contamination by present-day human DNA. Thanks to these efforts, the team has uncovered the expansion processes of human habitats and genetic interactions in hot and wet Southeast Asia, which was not possible previously with conventional technologies and research systems (Figure 2).

Worthy of special mention, the present study has been successful in determining the "whole genome" sequence of an individual with typical Jomon culture, while previous studies were only able to show a very limited "partial genome" sequence of two Jomon individuals. Thus, the present study is the first successful example to show the possibility of whole genome sequencing of prehistoric individuals in regions like Japan where preservation conditions are quite poor, possibly leading to further major progress in prehistoric genome studies.

Results
 
In the present study, the international research team succeeded in extracting and sequencing DNA from 25 ancient individuals' skeletons from Southeast Asian remains, where the condition of DNA preservation is very poor, and from one Japanese Jomon female skeleton. Upon comparison of the genomic data of ancient human skeletons with those of present-day human skeletons, it has become clear that those prehistoric populations in Southeast Asia can be classified into six groups (Figure 3).
Group 1 contains Hoabinhians from Pha Faen, Laos, hunter-gatherers (~8000 years ago), and prehistoric populations discovered from Gua Cha, Malaysia (~4000 years ago), being genetically close to present-day Önge and Jarawa from the Andaman Islands and Jehai from the Peninsular Malaysia. To our surprise, group 1 has higher genetic affinities with Ikawazu*3) Jomon individual (Tahara, Aichi), a female adult*4), than other present-day Southeast Asians. In addition, the Ikawazu Jomon genome*5) is best modelled contributing genetically present-day Japanese.

 On the other hand, Groups 2-6 consist of ancient skeletons from the Neolithic Age, when farming started, until ~500 years ago. It is now found that they are genetically much different from Hoabinhians, each group having histories of migration and genetic interaction, i.e., inter-population mixture. Group 2 is found to be genetically close to the present-day Austroasiatic language-speaking groups such as Mlabri, but to have few genetic components common with the present-day East Asian populations. Group 3 is found to be genetically close to Kradai, Thailand, in the present-day Southeast Asian populations and to the Austronesian language-speaking groups. Group 4 is found to be genetically close to the present-day populations in South China. Group 5 is genetically close to the present-day populations in the western part of Indonesia. Group 6 is most closely related to present day Austronesian populations, with one individual showing slightly elevated Denisovan ancestry, an archaic hominin which is classified as a sister group of Neanderthals.

As above, Neolithic Southeast Asians are found to have been partially genetically influenced by ethnic groups in South China and to have had a genetic connection with populations in Taiwan; Neolithic Southeast Asians are found not to have been indigenous hunter-gatherers passively accepting farming but to have accepted farming gradually in the process of migrations of populations between the continent and islands. Conventional archaeology proposed the two-layer hypothesis that, in those periods, a large population with farming culture with rice and millet migrated into Southeast Asia and that they replaced the indigenous population.

Additionally, the present study indicates that the genetic influence from South China with rice farming was only partial and that the migrating population did not replace the indigenous population completely. The present analysis shows that there were at least four big migration waves; migrations of Southeast Asians should be investigated with a new "complex model" framework.

The present study successfully elucidates for the first time the expansion/migration of prehistoric populations by genome analysis of skeletons discovered in Southeast Asia; conventionally, it was thought that such population expansion/migration could only be investigated using archaeological artifacts. An important outcome of the present study is that the same or analogous analyses could be applied to various regions to evaluate the history of population expansion/migration in much more detail and in a more scientific manner.
[Future prospects]
The genomic data obtained from ancient skeletons in Southeast Asia and from a Ikawazu Jomon individual provides an important basis for investigations on the origins of populations in wider East Asia. The whole genome information of a Jomon individual will be useful for direct comparison of genomic similarity with ancient East Asians of the corresponding period to Jomon in present-day Korea, China, Russia and others in the vicinity of the Japanese archipelago. More comparative studies are in progress on populations in wider areas. Note that the whole genome sequence obtained in this study for a Jomon individual corresponds to the Draft Genome Sequence in the Human Genome Project for the present-day humans. We aim at Complete Genome Sequence with higher accuracy.
This study is an interdisciplinary undertaking combining anthropology and archaeology in a close collaboration, allowing us to establish ourselves at the starting point for research on the origin of Jomon and its diversity. By more genome analyses of more Jomon skeletons from different Jomon sites, genetic diversity of Jomon populations will be explored over the Japanese archipelago. It is expected through such studies that various interactions among Jomon groups should be revealed together with migrations of archaeological artifacts such as potteries and stone tools as well as migrations of populations. Based on the outcome of the present study, novel anthropological and archaeological approaches would be further developed.

###

[Glossary]
*1) Genomic Analysis
Analysis of whole genome of a species.
*2) Cross-check analysis
Cross-check analysis is an analytical method that evaluates whether the same result will be produced irrespective of different research institutions, different analytical methods, and so on. It is an important scientific index in research on ancient DNA.
*3) Ikawazu kaizuka (shellmound)
A kaizuka (shellmound) site at Tahara city, Aichi prefecture, dating back to late and final Jomon period. One of the best known archaeological site of Jomon period, where more than 200 individual skeletons have been discovered from Meiji era till today. A number of renowned anthropologists like Profs. Yoshikiyo KOGANEI and Hisashi SUZUKI performed morphological research on prehistoric skeletons from this site. There are also other kaizuka sites in Tahara city, such as Yoshigo kaizuka and Hobi kaizuka, representative Jomon sites. Those sites have been well studied and many skeletons have been excavated.
*4) A female skeleton dating back to late Jomon period, ~2500 years ago.
A Jomon skeleton discovered from Ikawazu kaizuka site in 2010. Recent studies indicate the beginning of Yayoi period to be ~3000 years ago, but the arrival of Yayoi culture differed depending on regions. The female adult skeleton from Ikawazu kaizuka site is accompanied with a pottery that is validated to date back to the period of Gokanmori type pottery, indicating that the period was still Jomon at those sites in Atsumi peninsula, Aichi prefecture. In addition, the female skeleton analyzed here shows typical Jomon morphology.
*5) Whole genome sequence
Whole genome sequence is the total DNA sequence of a species covering not only DNA sequences for genes but also DNA sequences for non-gene regions.

Lost Norse of Greenland fueled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests

---

 

This is an example of an elaborately-carved ecclesiastical walrus ivory plaque from the beginning of the medieval walrus ivory trade, featuring the figure of Christ, together with St Mary and St Peter, and believed to date from the 10th or 11th century. Found in North Elmham, Norfolk, UK, in the 19th century, and currently exhibited in the University of Cambridge's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Credit: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge

The Icelandic Sagas tell of Erik the Red: exiled for murder in the late 10th century he fled to southwest Greenland, establishing its first Norse settlement.

The colony took root, and by the mid-12th century there were two major settlements with a population of thousands. Greenland even gained its own bishop.

By the end of the 15th century, however, the Norse of Greenland had vanished -- leaving only abandoned ruins and an enduring mystery.

Past theories as to why these communities collapsed include a change in climate and a hubristic adherence to failing farming techniques.

Some have suggested that trading commodities -- most notably walrus tusks -- with Europe may have been vital to sustaining the Greenlanders. Ornate items including crucifixes and chess pieces were fashioned from walrus ivory by craftsmen of the age. However, the source of this ivory has never been empirically established.

Now, researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Oslo have studied ancient DNA from offcuts of tusks and skulls, most found on the sites of former ivory workshops across Europe, in order to trace the origin of the animals used in the medieval trade.

In doing so they have discovered an evolutionary split in the walrus, and revealed that the Greenland colonies may have had a "near monopoly" on the supply of ivory to Western Europe for over two hundred years.

For the latest study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the research team analysed walrus samples found in several medieval trading centres -- Trondheim, Bergen, Oslo, Dublin, London, Schleswig and Sigtuna -- mostly dating between 900 and 1400 CE.

The DNA showed that, during the last Ice Age, the Atlantic walrus divided into two ancestral lines, which researchers term "eastern" and "western." Walruses of the eastern lineage are widespread across much of the Arctic, including Scandinavia. Those of the western, however, are unique to the waters between western Greenland and Canada.

Finds from the early years of the ivory trade were mostly from the eastern lineage. Yet as demand grew from the 12th century onwards, the research team discovered that Europe's ivory supply shifted almost exclusively to tusks from the western lineage.

They say that ivory from western linage walruses must have been supplied by the Norse Greenlanders -- by hunting and perhaps also by trade with the indigenous peoples of Arctic North America.

"The results suggest that by the 1100s Greenland had become the main supplier of walrus ivory to Western Europe -- a near monopoly even," said Dr James H. Barrett, study co-author from the University of Cambridge's Department of Archaeology.

"The change in the ivory trade coincides with the flourishing of the Norse settlements on Greenland. The populations grew and elaborate churches were constructed.

"Later Icelandic accounts suggest that in the 1120s, Greenlanders used walrus ivory to secure the right to their own bishopric from the king of Norway. Tusks were also used to pay tithes to the church," said Barrett.

He points out that the 11th to 13th centuries were a time of demographic and economic boom in Europe, with growing demand from urban centres and the elite served by transporting commodities from increasingly distant sources.

"The demands for luxury goods produced from ivory may have helped the far-flung Norse communities in Greenland survive for centuries," said Barrett.

Co-author Dr Sanne Boessenkool of the University of Oslo said: "We knew from the start that analysing ancient DNA would have the potential for new historical insights, but the findings proved to be particularly spectacular."

The new study tells us less about the end of the Greenland colonies, say Barrett and colleagues. However, they note that it is hard to find evidence of walrus ivory imports to Europe that date after 1400.

Elephant ivory eventually became the material of choice for Europe's artisans. "Changing tastes could have led to a decline in the walrus ivory market of the Middle Ages," said Barrett.

Ivory exports from Greenland could have stalled for other reasons: over-hunting can cause walrus populations to abandon their coastal "haulouts"; the "Little Ice Age" -- a sustained period of lower temperatures -- began in the 14th century; the Black Death ravaged Europe.

Whatever caused the cessation of Europe's trade in walrus ivory, it must have been significant for the end of the Norse Greenlanders," said Barrett. "An overreliance on a single commodity, the very thing which gave the society its initial resilience, may have also contained the seeds of its vulnerability."
The heyday of the walrus ivory trade saw the material used for exquisitely carved items during Europe's Romanesque art period. The church produced much of this, with major ivory workshops in ecclesiastical centres such as Canterbury, UK.

Ivory games were also popular. The Viking board game hnefatafl was often played with walrus ivory pieces, as was chess, with the famous Lewis chessmen among the most stunning examples of Norse carved ivory.

Tusks were exported still attached to the walrus skull and snout, which formed a neat protective package that was broken up at workshops for ivory removal. These remains allowed the study to take place, as DNA extraction from carved artefacts would be far too damaging.

Co-author Dr Bastiaan Star of the University of Oslo said: "Until now, there was no quantitative data to support the story about walrus ivory from Greenland. Walruses could have been hunted in the north of Russia, and perhaps even in Arctic Norway at that time. Our research now proves beyond doubt that much of the ivory traded to Europe during the Middle Ages really did come from Greenland."
The research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust, Nansenfondet and the Research Council of Norway.

Traces of submerged Stone Age settlement in Southeast Finland

The prehistoric settlement submerged under Lake Kuolimojarvi provides us with a clearer picture of the human occupation in South Karelia during the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Stone Age (about 10,000 -- 6,000 years ago) and it opens up a new research path in Finnish archaeology.

In the early Stone Age, the water levels in the small lakes located in the southern parts of what are today Lake Kuolimojarvi and Saimaa were several metres below the present levels. After this period, the water levels started rising as a result of uneven land uplift and the tilting of lakes and rivers. The rise in water levels ended with the outburst of River Vuoksi through the Salpausselka; Ridge about 6,000 years ago when water masses carved a new southeastern outflow channel towards Lake Ladoga.

With the rise in water levels, areas that were on dry land in the early Stone Age have been buried in the bottom of the lake and its littoral deposits.

The aim of the three-year study carried out by the University of Helsinki has been to find traces of early Stone Age settlements under water and from wetlands at lakes Kuolimojarvi and Saimaa.
"This means that there is a huge gap in our archaeological knowledge of this particular area because we have not yet found the earliest Stone Age sites," explains postdoctoral researcher Satu Koivisto who heads the project.

So far the oldest sites have been settled after the breakthrough of River Vuoksi (from 6000 years ago and onwards). However, there has definitely been human habitation in this area for thousands of years before that, as is shown by the traces of settlements of more than 10,000 years old discovered at Kuurmanpohja in Joutseno further to the south.

Charcoal, burned rocks and quartz flakes have been found at the site

In June 2018, archaeologists carried out underwater excavations and equipment testing at Kammarlahti bay in Savitaipale in cooperation with Nordic Maritime Group (NMG) and the underwater unit of the Finnish Heritage Agency. Archaeologists from Denmark and Sweden also took part in the work.

The work started with a thorough study of the lakebed the purpose of which was to find archaeological remains by mapping the best-preserved areas.

"The western side of the Kammarlahti bay is sheltered from wind and waves and for this reason, the prehistoric dry land areas are best preserved in that part. In one of the test pits, we found a distinct layer of burned soil, charcoal and burned rocks. Quartz flakes were also found in the surrounding test pits and these remains show that quartz artefacts had been made at the site during the Stone Age," Koivisto explains.

The hearth feature and associated find materials indicate that a submerged Stone Age settlement site has now been located at Lake Kuolimojarvi -- the first undisputed observation of this kind in Finland. The nearest similar sites are located in northwestern Russia and southern parts of Scandinavia. It is clear that the hearth feature, which today lies at a depth of about one metre, and the other finds are from the period before the rise of the water level (about 9,000 to 8,000 years ago). The archaeologists managed to take a soil sample of the burned layer around the hearth and are now trying to find datable material from it.
"With the excavation equipment tested in the underwater research at Kammarlahti, we may also be able to find other submerged sites at similar locations. For this reason, the discovery opens up an entirely new era in the research into the Finnish Stone Age. Many of our large lakes, such as Vanajavesi, Pielinen and Oulujarvi have also gone through similar fluctuations in water levels. This means that a huge and largely untapped archaeological resource is hidden in Finnish lakes. Moreover, extremely old organic materials may also have been preserved in these environments for thousands of years," Satu Koivisto says, describing Finland's underwater archaeological potential.

The excavation sites were located in a preliminary study

A thorough preliminary work prompted the archaeologists to select Kammarlahti for underwater excavations. The most promising areas for the preservation of submerged sites were located already in a desk-based assessment and a field survey was carried out in them in Lappeenranta, Savitaipale and Taipalsaari in 2015. More detailed investigations were carried out in 2017 and 2018 at Rajalamminsuo and Kammarlahti at Lake Kuolimojarvi as well as at Sarviniemi and Ahoselka; at Lake Saimaa. In the summer of 2017, peatland excavations were conducted at Rajalamminsuo while Kammarlahti was combed by divers. These investigations also produced clear evidence that in the early Stone Age, the level of Lake Kuolimojarvi was several metres below present levels. This finding prompted experts to revise their previous assumptions of the history of the lake.
The peatland excavations also revealed a distinct charcoal-rich layer underneath the peat, which had been created as a result of human activity, starting at the Late Neolithic and extending to the Iron Age (about 2000 BCE -- 600 CE). The divings carried out at Kammarlahti revealed a small number of old wooden structures and signs of interesting areas that were selected for further underwater excavations in 2018. The three-year archaeological project 'Lost Inland Landscapes' of the University of Helsinki will be concluded at the end of the year. The funding for the project comes from the University's three-year research grants and it is headed by archaeologist Satu Koivisto, who works as a postdoctoral researcher at the university.
This is in many ways a multidisciplinary project and cutting-edge technology has also been used in the planning of the field work and in the modelling of the previous stages of the lakes and underwater topography. An international reference group, with members from Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Russia and Finland, has been set up for the project. The group brings together archaeologists and geologists who are experts on similar environments and archaeological sites in the Baltic region. In this manner, the group promotes international cooperation in an archaeological sector that is extremely challenging but also important in terms of research.

Native Americans engaged in trade more extensively than thought

IMAGE: This is a copper band revealed during excavations. view more 

Credit: Matthew Sanger

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - A research team including Matthew Sanger, assistant professor of anthropology at Binghamton University, State University at New York, has found a copper band that indicates ancient Native Americans engaged in extensive trade networks spanning far greater distances than what has been previously thought.

"Our research shows that Native Americans living roughly 3,5000 years ago were engaged in extensive trade networks spanning far greater distances than we had previously assumed (more than 1,500 km) and across various regions that we did not know were connected (the Great Lakes and the coastal Southeast)," said Matthew Sanger, assistant professor of anthropology at Binghamton University. "

While we still struggle to understand the nature of these trade networks, our findings suggest that they moved not only objects (such as the piece of worked copper we recovered) but may also be a pipeline through which belief systems, cultural values and societal norms were also exchanged. The possibility that information also traveled along trade networks is evidenced by the shared use of cremation found alongside the exchange of copper between the two regions."

Sanger and colleagues found a copper band, slightly wider than a bracelet, alongside the cremated remains of at least seven individuals at a burial site in coastal Georgia. Prior to their discovery, both copper and cremated human remains dating to the Archaic period (around 3,000-8,000 years ago) were rarely, if ever, found in the Southeast United States.

 The copper band and burials were located in the center of a Late Archaic shell ring--circular deposits thought to have been used by Native Americans as both residential sites and as places of ritual gatherings and feasting events. Radiometric dating using an Accelerated Mass Spectrometer indicate that the remains and band are both more than 3,500 years old. This is significant, as it pushes the practice of cremation, as well as the use of copper, in the region more than a millennium older than previously thought.

Remarkably, the copper band was not manufactured from local materials, but rather originated in the Great Lakes region, more than 1,500 km away. Copper sources each have their own unique chemical makeup, including very small amounts of trace elements. As such, archaeologists can match manufactured objects to their sources by comparing their chemical signatures, or "fingerprints."

Using Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICPMS), researchers at Ball State, the Field Museum and the New Jersey State Museum determined the chemical makeup of the copper band was most similar to sources found near the Great Lakes. While archaeologists had long known copper was exchanged out of the Great Lakes region, the discovery made by Sanger and his colleagues extended previously documented boundaries of Archaic Period copper exchange by nearly 1,000 km.

The use of cremation is also notable, as this practice is virtually absent in the Southeast United States during the Archaic period, yet quite common further to the north, including in the Great Lakes, where the copper originated. The co-occurrence of copper use and cremation practices suggests, according to Sanger and colleagues, that these two regions were more closely linked than previously assumed. The possibility that the two regions shared cosmological worldviews or religious practices would suggest direct connections across huge amounts of space.

According to the authors, these findings lend insight on emergent patterns of hierarchical social organization in the Archaic Southeast United States.

"Defining social complexity is always difficult -- but our research shows that people were organized to a degree that allowed the formation of vast trade networks spanning half of a continent more than 3,000 years ago," said Sanger. "Considering that these trade networks likely moved both information and objects, we argue that they were not simple "down the line" exchanges--meaning that objects would slowly move between people over large amounts of time, perhaps through trade between friends and neighbors or as inherited items when someone died.

Rather, the movement of information across more than 1,500 km suggests that exchange networks were more formal and direct. Such formal and direct trade networks suggest sustained relations between diverse communities, which must have been sustained by relatively complex social institutions. We assume these social institutions were religious or ritual in nature considering that we are looking at a multiple-person cremation in the center of a circular deposit of food remains."

Sanger and his colleagues at the University of Georgia and Northern Kentucky University have recently been granted a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study an additional 12 shell rings.

"With this grant, myself and my colleagues will begin an ambitious field program and associated analyses to determine whether our findings were unique or part of a broader pattern in the American Southeast," said Sanger.