I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria

British Museum
8 November 2018 – 24 February 2019
Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery


This autumn, discover the world of ancient Assyria through the life and legacy of its last great ruler, King Ashurbanipal. The BP exhibition I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria will transport you back to ancient Iraq in the 7th century BC, when Ashurbanipal became the most powerful person on earth. From his capital at Nineveh, he ruled a vast and diverse empire, shaping the lives of peoples from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the mountains of western Iran.

How did one man negotiate family politics, the pressures of kingship, and the will of the gods? Ashurbanipal, proud of his scholarship, assembled the greatest library in existence during his reign. Guided by this arsenal of knowledge, he defined the course of the empire and boldly asserted his claim to be ‘king of the world, king of Assyria’.

This will be the first ever major exhibition to explore the life of Ashurbanipal in such depth.  The exhibition will tell Ashurbanipal’s remarkable story through the vivid narratives recorded on his palace sculptures, the hundreds of cuneiform texts that survive from his library, and from the wealth of objects discovered by archaeologists working in the region. Innovative displays bring to life the tumultuous story of Ashurbanipal’s reign; his conquest of Egypt, the crushing defeat of his rebellious older brother, and his ruthless campaigns against all who defied his rule.

Over 200 extraordinary objects from all corners of the empire reveal how one of the greatest Assyrian monarchs stamped an indelible mark on the history of the world. The British Museum’s world-renowned collection of Assyrian treasures will be complemented by key loans from across the globe. These include unique objects and artworks from the collections of the History Museum of Armenia, Yerevan; the Musée du Louvre, Paris; the Vorderasiatisches Museum, in Berlin; the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg; the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Musei Vaticani, Vatican City; and the Cyprus Museum, Nicosia. Many of these remarkable objects have never travelled to the UK before.

The exhibition will immerse visitors in the life at the great Assyrian court. Massive stone sculptures, intricately carved reliefs, painted glazed bricks and rare wall paintings evoke the splendour of the cities and palaces. Delicately carved ivories, extravagant metalwork, cosmetic vessels and gold ornaments show how the elites lived in splendour. Ornate chariot fittings and elaborate weaponry reveal how this was an age of conflict, as rival kings fought for power and glory. Ashurbanipal’s prowess as a valiant warrior is recorded on a series of vividly carved reliefs in the British Museum’s collection that depict the royal lion hunt. Lion hunts were drama-filled public spectacles staged within the hunting grounds at Nineveh.

Ashurbanipal claimed to be unlike his predecessors for he could read, write and debate with expert scholars.  During his reign he assembled a unique and visionary library at his palace in Nineveh. Knowledge was power; this library was a practical tool that helped the king to manage his empire. Using the British Museum’s world-renowned collection of documents dating to Ashurbanipal’s reign, the exhibition will recreate the king’s great library to evoke its scale and present its contents and significance.

A map showing the extent of the Assyrian empire (in pink). Map produced by Paul Goodhead.

Bronze Lion Furniture fitting topped by a recumbent lion, bronze, Toprakkale,  9thcentury BC© The Trustees of the British Museum

Discovery of Nimrud Frederick Charles Cooper(1810 –1880), Nimrud,mid-19th century, watercolour on paper© The Trustees of the British Museum

Granite sphinx of Taharqo, Kawa, Sudan, c. 680 BC© The Trustees of the British MuseumIraq scheme

Ivory plaque of a lioness mauling a man, ivory, gold, cornelian, lapis lazuli, Nimrud, 900BC –700BC © The Trustees of the British Museum

Relief detail of Ashurbanipal hunting on horseback. Nineveh, Assyria, 645–635 BC © The Trustees of the British Museum

 

Shamash-shumu-ukin and Ashurbanipal

Stone stele depicting Ashurbanipal (right), shown with a ritual basket on his head with cuneiform inscription, South Iraq, Marduk temple (Babylon), 668BC –665BC. His brother Shamash-shumu-ukin (left)carved with cuneiform inscription, South Iraq, Temple of Nabu (Borsippa), 668BC –655BC © The Trustees of the British Museum

Votive bronze decorated helmet offered to the god Haidi, by king Arguisti 1st, Copper-alloy,786 BC –764 BC. History Museum f Armenia, Yerevan     

Many of the objects featured in the exhibition come from archaeological sites in Iraq such as Nineveh and Nimrud that have been systematically targeted and destroyed by Daesh (IS).


The final section of the exhibition will highlight the challenges faced in protecting Iraqi cultural heritage under threat and will showcase the work of the ‘Iraq Emergency Heritage Management Training Scheme’. In response to the destruction of heritage sites in Iraq, the British Museum developed this scheme to train Iraqi archaeologists in rescue archaeology and emergency heritage management. An overview of the project’s training and research will be presented to visitors through film footage of the excavations and exclusive interviews with participants.

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Beautifully illustrated, this book will feature images of objects excavated from all corners of the empire and will highlight the British Museum’s unrivalled collection of Assyrian reliefs, which bring to life the tumultuous story of Ashurbanipal’s reign: his conquest of Egypt, the crushing defeat of his rebellious brother, and his ruthless campaign against the Elamite rulers of southwest Iran.
Published to accompany a once-in-a-generation exhibition at the British Museum, I am Ashurbanipal gives a fascinating account of the Assyrian Empire told through the story of its last great rule

Archaeology Goes Graphic

September 26, 2018 - July 1, 2019
  The Louvre’s Petite Galerie―a space set aside for art and cultural education―is launching a new exhibition on September 26, 2018. The event is intended to spark a dialogue between archaeology and this season’s “guest”―comic book art. About a hundred artworks and a selection of original pages by comic book artists with an interest in archaeology (such as Jul, Enki Bilal, and Nicolas de Crécy) will invite visitors to follow in the footsteps of amateur and professional archaeologists with a passion for antiquity: to see how they discover “treasures,” unearth objects buried at different periods, classify them, and try to understand what they tell us about the past.
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In four theme-based rooms, the exhibition will show how comic book art (known as the “ninth art” in France), with its blend of fact and fiction, has drawn inspiration from the archaeological finds that have contributed to the Louvre’s collections:

– “Artists and Archaeologists”: archaeology did not become a profession until the 19th century, when scientific archaeologists began to use drawings, surveys, and publications. Both archaeologists and comic book artists use sketchbooks to record the objects, places, and characters that interest them―but comic book heroes tend to be reporters, detectives, or adventurers rather than scientists!

– “Archaeological Treasures”: the history of archaeology is dotted with amazing and unexpected discoveries. But the word “treasure” has a particular meaning for archaeologists: it can refer to pieces of precious metalwork that were buried to save them from natural disasters or war; it can also mean a group of objects dedicated to a divinity and buried under the foundations of a temple, in the ancient Near East and pharaonic Egypt for example. Many comic books feature these moments of discovery―unexpected or otherwise―with heroes in search of treasure or lost civilizations.




Buste d’Ariane, 3e siècle av. J.-C Falerii Novi, près de Civita Castellana. Musée du Louvre, département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines © Musée du Louvre.




Cuve de cercueil exterieur de Tamoutnefret © Musée du Louvre, dist- RMN – Grand Palais – Georges Poncet

 

Momie de chat © Musée du Louvre, dist- RMN – Grand Palais – Christian Decamps

Casque de type corinthien © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) – Herve Lewandowski

– “Classifying and Understanding”: using methods of description and comparison derived from natural science, archaeologists identify, classify, and suggest typologies of material according to technique, shape, or decoration. To date an artifact, they study the conditions of its discovery (burial depth, traces of destruction, etc.) and try to relate these to known events. Some comic book artists use the thoughts of their heroes to evoke different periods of the past; others compose their own typologies of objects.

– “Interpreting and Imagining” and “Comic Book Creativity”: after excavations, archaeologists study and publish their finds. They gather all the material data available and try to interpret it. When there is no information about the context in which an archaeological artifact was found, it is difficult to interpret it. Comic book art has drawn inspiration from historical figures and legendary heroes, archaeological sites and imaginary places. Historical accuracy is sometimes respected, but fact usually gives way to fiction or even science fiction.

Educational wall labels, video displays, a digital flip-book, and a media library draw attention to details and provide key contextual elements.

Exhibition curators: Jean-Luc Martinez, President-Director of the Musée du Louvre, and Fabrice Douar, Editorial Manager at the Interpretation and Cultural Programming Department.
Project Manager: Florence Dinet, Musée du Louvre.


A dedicated website: http://petitegalerie.louvre.fr

PUBLICATION
L’archéologie en bulles, under the direction of Fabrice Douar and Jean-Luc Martinez, assisted by Florence Dinet.
Co-published by: Musée du Louvre Éditions / Éditions du Seuil. French.

Additional 1,700 year-old mosaic discovered in Lod

  The Lod mosaic that was exposed recently

Copyright: Photo: Niki Davidov, Israel Antiquities Authority

​(Communicated by the IAA Spokesperson)

 

Archaeological excavations carried out in the past month by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the city of Lod,in preparation for the construction of a Visitors’ Center that will exhibit mosaics previously exposed here several years ago, have revealed an additional colorful mosaic dating from the Roman period. The mosaic was carefully removed for conservation in order for construction of the Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Center to continue.

 

The Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Center project is a joint initiative of Shelby White and the Leon Levy Foundation, the Lod Municipality, the Lod Economic Development Corporation and the Israel Antiquities Authority. When complete, the Center will display the mosaics, enclosed within a modern building that relates to and respects the plan of the ancient villa in which they were originally laid.  In 1996, road workers discovered by chance a mosaic floor at the entrance to Lod, adjacent to the Ginnaton Junction.  In the subsequent excavation, directed by the late IAA archaeologist Dr. Miriam Avissar, the remains of a luxurious villa with exceptionally well-preserved, unique mosaic floors dating to the 4th century CE were found. According to Dr. Amir Gorzalczany, the director of the present excavation, “the excavations at the site exposed a villa that included a large luxurious mosaic-paved reception room triclinium, and an internal columned courtyard, also with mosaics, and a water system. We found evidence for Mediterranean luxury that characterized the Roman Empire, including attributes such as fresco wall paintings”.

Animal figures in the mosaic (detail). Photo: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority.

The extraordinary mosaics uncovered in the Lod villa depict realistic and imaginary animals, complex geometric designs and marine scenes, incorporating a multitude of fish and two ships. The variety of colors, the extraordinary quality and the exceptional state of preservation led to local and world-wide interest. The central panel of the mosaic served as a worldwide ambassador for Israel, as the mosaic was exhibited in special exhibitions in museums many of which had never before borrowed artifacts from Israel. These museums included the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Frost Museum in Miami, Florida, the Altes Museum in Berlin, the Cini Foundation in Venice, the Field Museum in Chicago and the Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of visitors saw the mosaics worldwide, and the media and scientific coverage was extensive. 

Shelby White, the generous donor of ‘The Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Archaeology Center’ said, “The Lod Museum will be a dream come true, that began when my husband Leon Levy and I first saw the magnificent mosaic more than twenty years ago. This initiative could not have materialized without the strong support of the Lod community and the Israel Antiquities Authority.”  

 

According to Lod Mayor Adv. Yair Revivo, “It is fascinating to learn how many centuries ago the centrality and the potential of the Lod environs was appreciated by the ancient residents. The establishment of the Center exhibiting aspects of the rich history of Lod will provide an impressive gateway to the town.” 

 

Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Hasson said, “After twenty years of the IAA’s perseverance we have succeeded in reaching a worthy and committed cooperation with the Lod Municipality. I am happy that the citizens of Israel and worldwide will be able to appreciate the cultural heritage that has waited patiently for world recognition, and will now receive the honor it deserves”.   The mosaic that was discovered recently will also be displayed in the new Center.

 

“The archaeological excavation that we carried out this month was relatively small, but contributed significantly to our understanding of the villa building” says Gorzalczany of the IAA. “Thankfully, the main central panel of the mosaic was preserved. The figures, many similar to the figures in the earlier mosaics, comprise fish and winged creatures. A fairly similar mosaic was found in the past in Jerusalem, on the Mount Zion slopes. The Lod mosaics, however, do not depict any human figures that are present in the Mount Zion mosaic. It is quite probable that the same artist produced both the mosaics, or that two artists worked from a similar design. This type of mosaic is better known in the Western part of the Roman Empire. Also noteworthy,” continues Gorzalczany, ”are the rectangular marks that may denote the placing of the couches on which the participants of the banquet or feast reclined. These marks are common in similar villas and are an indication of the use of the space in the reception halls.”

 

The professional treatment of the mosaic in the course of its exposure and its removal from the site for conservation, are carried out by the Conservation Department of the IAA, under the supervision of the Head of the Artistic Conservation Branch Jacques Neguer, and the Head of the Mosaics Department Galeb Abu-Diab.

Gorzalczany considers that the newly discovered mosaic paved an additional reception room next to the sumptuous reception hall uncovered in 1996. “If this is the case, then the villa may be much larger than we supposed. The discovery, in close proximity to the earlier hall, raises new questions: How large was the building? Did the villa comprise several reception halls? Where were the private living rooms? Was there a second story? These issues may be resolved in future excavations.” The Center will enable visitors to appreciate the mosaic from different angles and with the aid of various visualizing aids. Additional artifacts from the excavation and from the rich history of Lod will also be displayed.

 

The Visitors’ Center of Lod Is part of the wider plan to develop other parts of the historic city of Lod as a touristic route. The mosaic is located in the northeast of Lod, next to the Ginnaton Junction. It is accessible from the Ben Gurion International Airport, and from the two main arteries of the country, the Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Highway No. 1, and the north to south highway No. 6.  The Visitors’ Center is planned to open within two years. 

A rare 9,000-year-old stone mask was recently uncovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)

  The rare stone mask dating to the Neolithic period

Copyright: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority

(Communicated by the IAA Spokesperson)

 

This fascinating and rare stone mask dates to the Neolithic (new stone age) period. It was discovered several months ago and is currently being studied by experts of the IAA and the Geological Survey of Israel. Results of the initial study of the mask will be presented tomorrow (Thursday, 29 November 2018) at the Israel Prehistoric Society annual meeting.

Information received at the IAA’s Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit at the beginning of 2018 led to the recovery of the impressive stone mask. The Head Staff Officer of Archaeology Department of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria Mr. Hananya Hizmi was informed on the finding of the mask. An investigation revealed the probable archaeological site in which the mask was originally found, in the Pnei Hever region of southern Har Hevron. Its characteristics, in addition to other findings from the contexts in which it was discovered, testify that the mask is 9,000 years old – dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period.

According to Ronit Lupu of the IAA Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit, “The mask is a unique finding in the archaeological world. It is even more unusual that we know which site it came from. The fact that we have information regarding the specific place in which it was discovered makes this mask more important than most other masks from this period that we currently know of.” The mask is made of pinkish-yellow limestone, carefully shaped with stone tools to resemble a human face. Four holes were drilled along the perimeter of the mask, probably in order to tie it – possibly to the face of a living person, or maybe to a pole or other designated artifact in order to display it. According to Lupu, “Discovering a mask made of stone, at such a high level of finish, is very exciting. The stone has been completely smoothed over and the features are perfect and symmetrical, even delineating cheekbones. It has an  impressive nose and  a mouth with distinct teeth.”

Dr. Omry Barzilai, head of the IAA Archaeological Research Department, said that “Stone masks are linked to the agricultural revolution. The transition from an economy based on hunting and gathering to ancient agriculture and domestication of plants and animals was accompanied by a change in social structure and a sharp increase in ritual-religious activities. Ritual findings from that period include human-shaped figurines, plastered skulls, and stone masks.”

Ancestor worship was practiced during this period. “It was part of the ritual and retention of family heritage that was accepted at the time,” says Ronit Lupu. “For example, we find skulls buried under the floors of domestic houses, as well as various methods of shaping and caring for the skulls of the dead. This led to plastering skulls, shaping facial features, and even inserting shells for eyes. Stone masks, such as the one from Pnei Hever, are similar in size to the human face, which is why scholars tend to connect them with such worship.”

There are currently fifteen known masks in the world that date from this period, of which only two were discovered in a clear archaeological context – meaning: we know which site they came from. The remaining masks are in private collections throughout the world, which makes it more difficult to study them. The importance of this new mask stems from the fact that it has been traced to an archaeological site that can be studied. The site can help us understand the material culture, everyday world in which the mask was produced, probably for purposes of worship.

The mask from Pnei Hever joins other masks attributed to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period discovered in the southern Hebron Hills – Judean Desert area. Discovering the mask from Pnei Hever strengthens the assumption that the southern Hebron Hills area was a center for producing stone masks, and most likely also for ritual activities in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period.

Dr. Omry Barzilai and Ronit Lupu of the IAA will present the initial research of the mask tomorrow (Thursday) at the Israel Prehistoric Society annual meeting to be held at the Israel Museum.

An ancient strain of plague may have led to the decline of Neolithic Europeans

IMAGE: This image shows the remains of a 20-year old woman (Gokhem2) from around 4900 BP that was killed by the first plague pandemic. She was one of the victims of... view more 

Credit: Karl-Göran Sjögren / University of Gothenburg

A team of researchers from France, Sweden, and Denmark have identified a new strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, in DNA extracted from 5,000-year-old human remains. Their analyses, publishing December 6 in the journal Cell, suggest that this strain is the closest ever identified to the genetic origin of plague. Their work also suggests that plague may have been spread among Neolithic European settlements by traders, contributing to the settlements' decline at the dawn of the Bronze Age.
"Plague is maybe one of the deadliest bacteria that has ever existed for humans. And if you think of the word 'plague,' it can mean this infection by Y. pestis, but because of the trauma plague has caused in our history, it's also come to refer more generally to any epidemic. The kind of analyses we do here let us go back through time and look at how this pathogen that's had such a huge effect on us evolved," says senior author Simon Rasmussen (@simonrasmu), a metagenomics researcher at the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen.
To better understand the evolutionary history of the plague, Rasmussen and his colleagues trawled through publicly available genetic data from ancient humans, screening for sequences similar to more modern plague strains. They found a strain they had never seen before in the genetic material of a 20-year-old woman who died approximately 5,000 years ago in Sweden. The strain had the same genes that make the pneumonic plague deadly today and traces of it were also found in another individual at the same grave site--suggesting that the young woman did likely die of the disease.
This strain of the plague is the oldest that's ever been discovered. But what makes it particularly interesting is that, by comparing it to other strains, the researchers were able to determine that it's also the most basal--meaning that it's the closest strain we have to the genetic origin of Y. pestis. It likely diverged from other strains around 5,700 years ago, while the plague that was common in the Bronze Age and the plague that is the ancestor of the strains in existence today diverged 5,300 and 5,100 years ago, respectively. This suggests that there were multiple strains of plague in existence at the end of the Neolithic period.
Rasmussen also believes that this finding offers a new theory about how plague spreads. Massive human migrations from the Eurasian steppe down into Europe are known to have occurred around 5,000 years ago, but how these cultures were able to displace the Neolithic farming culture that was present in Europe at the time is still debated. Previous researchers have suggested that the invaders brought the plague with them, wiping out the large settlements of Stone Age farmers when they arrived.
But if the strain of plague the researchers found in the Swedish woman diverged from the rest of Y. pestis 5,700 years ago, that means it likely evolved before these migrations began and around the time that the Neolithic European settlements were already starting to collapse.
At the time, mega-settlements of 10,000-20,000 inhabitants were becoming common in Europe, which made job specialization, new technology, and trade possible. But they also may have been the breeding ground for plague. "These mega-settlements were the largest settlements in Europe at that time, ten times bigger than anything else. They had people, animals, and stored food close together, and, likely, very poor sanitation. That's the textbook example of what you need to evolve new pathogens," says Rasmussen.
"We think our data fit. If plague evolved in the mega-settlements, then when people started dying from it, the settlements would have been abandoned and destroyed. This is exactly what was observed in these settlements after 5,500 years ago. Plague would also have started migrating along all the trade routes made possible by wheeled transport, which had rapidly expanded throughout Europe in this period," he says.
Eventually, he suggests, the plague would have arrived through these trade interactions at the small settlement in Sweden where the woman his team studied lived. Rasmussen argues that the woman's own DNA also provides further evidence for this theory--she isn't genetically related to the people who invaded Europe from the Eurasian steppe, supporting the idea that this strain of plague arrived before the mass migrations did. The archaeology also supports this hypothesis, as there were still no signs of the invaders by the time she died.
Of course, there are some limitations to what the data from this study can tell us. Most importantly, the researchers have not yet identified the plague in individuals from the mega-settlements where it may have evolved. "We haven't really found the smoking gun, but it's partly because we haven't looked yet. And we'd really like to do that, because if we could find plague in those settlements, that would be strong support for this theory," says Rasmussen.
Regardless, he believes that this study is a step toward understanding how plague--and other pathogens--became deadly. "We often think that these superpathogens have always been around, but that's not the case," he says. "Plague evolved from an organism that was relatively harmless. More recently, the same thing happened with smallpox, malaria, Ebola, and Zika. This process is very dynamic--and it keeps happening. I think it's really interesting to try to understand how we go from something harmless to something extremely virulent.

The whole of Africa was the cradle of humankind

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Oldest stone artifacts and cutmarked bones in North Africa contemporary with archaeological materials in East Africa

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Members of Ain Hanech team excavating at Ain Boucherit.

Credit: Sahnouni et al

A team of scientists led by Mohamed Sahnouni, archaeologist at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), has just published a paper in the journal Science which breaks with the paradigm that the cradle of Humankind lies in East Africa, based on the archaeological remains found at sites in the region of Ain Hanech (Algeria), the oldest currently known in the north of Africa.

For a long time, East Africa has been considered the place of origin of the earliest hominins and lithic technology, because up to now, very little was known about the first hominin occupation and activities in the north of the continent. Two decades of field and laboratory research directed by Dr. Sahnouni have shown that ancestral hominins actually made stone tools in North Africa that are near contemporary with the earliest known stone tools in East Africa dated to 2.6 million years.
These are stone artifacts and animal bones bearing marks of cutting by stone tools, with an estimated chronology of 2.4 and 1.9 million years, respectively, found at two levels at the sites of Ain Boucherit (within the Ain Hanech study area), which were dated using Paleomagnetism, Electron Spin Resonance (ESR), and the Biochronology of large mammals excavated together with the archaeological materials.
Fossils of animals such as pigs, horses and elephants, from very ancient sites, have been used by the paleontologist Jan van der Made, of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, to corroborate the ages yielded by Paleomagnetism, obtained by the CENIEH geochronologist Josep Parés, and ESR, found by Mathieu Duval, of Griffith University.
Oldowan technology
The artifacts of Ain Boucherit were manufactured of locally available limestone and flint and include faces worked into choppers, polyhedra and subspheroids, as well as sharp-edged cutting tools used to process animal carcasses. These artifacts are typical of the Oldowan stone technology known from 2.6-1.9 million-year-old sites in East Africa, although those from Ain Boucherit show subtle variations.
"The lithic industry of Ain Boucherit, which is technologically similar to that of Gona and Olduvai, shows that our ancestors ventured into all corners of Africa, not just East Africa. The evidence from Algeria changes the earlier view that East Africa was the cradle of Humankind. Actually, the whole of Africa was the cradle of humankind," states Sahnouni, leader of the Ain Hanech project.
Not mere scavengers
Ain Boucherit is one of the few archaeological sites in Africa which has provided evidence of bones with associated marks of cutting and percussion in situ with stone tools, which shows unmistakably that these ancestral hominins exploited meat and marrow from animals of all sizes and skeletal parts, which implied skinning, evisceration and defleshing of upper and intermediate extremities.
Isabel Cáceres, taphonomist at the IPHES, has commented that "the effective use of sharp-edged tools at Ain Boucherit suggests that our ancestors were not mere scavengers. It is not clear at this moment whether they hunted, but the evidence clearly shows that they were successfully competing with carnivores and enjoyed first access to animal carcasses."
The tool-makers
At this moment, the most important question is who made the stone tools discovered in Algeria. Hominin remains have still not been found in North Africa which are contemporary with the earliest stone artifacts. As a matter of fact, nor have any hominins yet been documented in direct association with the first stone tools known from East Africa.
Nevertheless, a recent discovery in Ethiopia has shown the presence of early Homo dated to 2.8 million years, most likely the best candidate also for the materials from East and North Africa.
Scientists thought for a long time that the hominins and their material culture originated in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. Surprisingly, the earliest known hominin, dated to 7.0 million years, and the 3.3 million years Australopithecus bahrelghazali, have been discovered in Chad, in the Sahara, 3000 km from the rift valleys in the east of Africa.
As Sileshi Semaw, scientist at the CENIEH and a co-author of this paper, explains that the hominins contemporary with Lucy (3.2 million years), were probably roamed over the Sahara, and their descendants might have been responsible for leaving these archaeological puzzles now discovered in Algeria, that are near contemporaries of those of East Africa.
"Future research will focus on searching for human fossils in the nearby Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene deposits, looking for the tool-makers and even older stone tools," concludes Sahnouni.

Hunter-gatherer in coastal Atlantic Forest areas between 8,000 and 1,000 years ago had sophisticated diet

IMAGE: Dental caries on the teeth of buried skeletons (oral pathology of individual MO59 (female, YA). (a) Left maxilla: A, dental wear; B, ante-mortem tooth loss; C, occlusal-dentin caries and pit... view more 

Credit: Luis Nicanor Pezo-Lanfranco

Shell middens are archeological features consisting mainly of the remains of marine animals thrown away near settlements over hundreds or thousands of years. They are the debris of human activity. In Brazil, they are known by the Tupi word sambaqui.
The sambaquis were left by people who lived between 8,000 and 1,000 years ago in coastal Atlantic Forest areas, traditionally considered peripheral to South America's first food production centers in the Andes and the Amazon.
A new study, however, presents strong evidence that sambaqui societies were not ordinary hunter-gatherers. Analysis of their middens shows that they cultivated or at least managed edible plants and had a rich diet with a substantial proportion of carbohydrates. Fapesp - São Paulo Research Foundation- FAPESP has supported the study.
Findings from the study have recently been published in Royal Society Open Science. It was conducted by researchers from Brazil and the United Kingdom using data collected at the Morro do Ouro and Rio Comprido sambaquis in Babitonga Bay near Joinville, Santa Catarina State.
"The significant levels of consumption of high-carbohydrate foods evidenced by these two sambaquis suggests the communities had a mixed subsistence economy that combined fishing and the collection of seafood with some form of plant cultivation," said Luis Nicanor Pezo-Lanfranco, a bioarcheologist at the University of São Paulo's Bioscience Institute (IB-USP), first author of the article and a FAPESP grantee.
Pezo-Lanfranco conducted the study at IB-USP's Biological Anthropology Laboratory, led by Professor Sabine Eggers, in partnership with archeologists at the University of York (UK) and Joinville's Sambaqui Museum.
According to the traditional archeological view of prehistory in South America, the hunter-gatherers who left the shell middens maintained themselves mainly by foraging marine resources. This idea began to be contested in the 1980s when evidence was found that the sambaqui societies had a far more diversified economy.
The high frequency of sambaquis on the southern coast of what is now Brazil and the large volume of some of these shell middens, which also contain hundreds of human burials, are considered evidence of high population density, monumental architecture, and social complexity during the Middle to Late Holocene.
Dental caries on the teeth of buried skeletons, interpreted as evidence of a high-carbohydrate diet, are among the reasons for concluding that these communities had a more diversified economy and diet than previously believed.
Moreover, archeological digs have identified remains of plants that may evidence incipient cultivation of food crops, including tubers (yam and sweet potato), corn, palm trees, soursops and sweetsops (Annonaceae).
The new study was based on oral pathology and stable isotope analyses performed directly on the skeletons. The analyses revealed unexpectedly high consumption of plant resources, i.e., carbohydrates, by the Morro do Ouro sambaqui people on the northern coast of Santa Catarina in the Middle Holocene (8,000-4,000 years ago).
The northern coast of Santa Catarina has the largest number of sambaquis in Brazil. Hundreds of shell mounds are scattered around Babitonga Bay.
"We analyzed the oral health and stable isotopes of human remains buried in the Morro do Ouro and Rio Comprido sambaquis to investigate the dietary habits of these communities during the Middle and Late Holocene," Pezo-Lanfranco said.
Finds made at Morro do Ouro have contributed significantly to the discussion of population density, health and disease, and cultural and dietary variability in Atlantic Forest coastal communities during the Middle Holocene.
Archeological digs conducted there in the 1980s brought to light large amounts of remains of terrestrial and marine animals, artifacts, domestic structures, and human burials.
The animal remains were from several species of mollusk (clams, mussels, oysters), fish (mullet, croaker, seabass, pufferfish, catfish) and terrestrial mammals (lowland paca, white-lipped peccary). Polished stone tools and charred coconut remains have also been found.
According to Pezo-Lanfranco, 116 burials were excavated by several archeological expeditions between 1960 and 1984. Carbon dating of bone collagen for this study showed that the site was occupied between 4,800 and 4,100 years ago. An analysis of minute dental calculus traces from the site performed in 2010 by Verônica Wesolowski, a researcher at the University of São Paulo's Museum of Archeology and Ethnology (MAE-USP), had already identified grains of starch compatible with sweet potato, yam, and coconut.
At nearby Rio Comprido, archeologists found polished stone knives and axes as well as 67 burials in the 1970s. The site was occupied in two phases: Rio Comprido 1 (RC1) between 5,600 and 4,300 years ago (Middle Holocene) and Rio Comprido 2 (RC2) between 4,000 and 3,400 years ago (Late Holocene).
Morphological analysis performed for the study included the determination of sex and age as well as oral pathologies in 70 individuals, 42 from Morro do Ouro (MO) and 28 from Rio Comprido (16 RC1 and 12 RC2). Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes from 36 individuals were analyzed, 20 from MO and 16 from RC (nine RC1 and seven RC2).
Using 11 oral health markers, a total of 1,826 alveoli and 1,345 teeth from these 70 individuals were examined. Most of the skeletons analyzed were found to be male and aged 20-49 on average at the time of death.
"The frequency of dental caries ranged from 7.6% to 13.2% of the samples. This was more than expected for groups of hunter-gatherer-fishers and more compatible with the pattern found for the first farmers of the Late Holocene in other regions, such as the Andes," Pezo-Lanfranco said.
Analysis of teeth from Late Holocene hunter-gatherers found in Patagonia, for example, showed caries frequencies ranging from 3.3% to 5.19%, while samples from more recent sedentary populations in Patagonia displayed a frequency of 10.17%.
Caries types varied considerably across the two sambaqui sites, but statistically significant differences were observed only in cervical (extraocclusal) lesions.
The frequency of occlusal caries was generally high in all groups, ranging from 53.7% (MO) to 70% (RCI) of the individuals analyzed. The highest frequency of enamel caries was recorded for RC1, whereas MO had the highest frequency of extraocclusal caries.
Carious lesions have been associated with diets rich in fermentable carbohydrates and sugar. The frequency of extraocclusal caries and cavities on smooth tooth surfaces increases when diets are rich in cariogenic foods.
"It's probable, therefore, that the Morro do Ouro people had a more cariogenic and refined diet than the Rio Comprido 2 people, quite possibly because they cooked their food, for example," Pezo-Lanfranco said.
Processed carbohydrates
Dietary estimates based on stable isotopes from teeth and bone showed that the main protein source was fish, ranging from a low of 33% in people from MO to 87%-90% in RC2.
Plants accounted for the largest share of calorie intake in MO (48%), followed by fish (44%) and hunted terrestrial mammals (8%).
Bone collagen data from RC1 showed fish to be the main source of calories (48%), followed by plants (44%) and terrestrial mammals (7%).
Pezo-Lanfranco found similar proportions for RC2: fish (48%), plants (42%) and terrestrial mammals (10%). All percentages are averages, with individual values varying considerably.
The main protein source was fish for individuals from MO (58%-84%), RC1 (66%-85%) and RC2 (74%-83%). These levels are slightly higher than the values found for prehistoric and contemporary hunter-gatherers.
"The high proportion of chronic or static caries among individuals from RC1 suggests a less cariogenic diet than among individuals from RC2 and MO. This may be associated with the phosphate and calcium present in diets of marine origin, as you would expect for fisher communities," Pezo-Lanfranco said.
"On the other hand, the higher frequency of deep and extraocclusal caries in RC2, and particularly in MO, points to widespread consumption of cariogenic and processed carbohydrate from roasted or boiled plants. The evidence from RC and MO suggests the existence of some kind of plant cultivation, albeit incipient."
Cervical caries, the most frequent type of extraocclusal caries in individuals from MO (29%), are associated with the frequent consumption of sucrose and solid fermentable starch, high levels of salivary lactobacilli, and the deposition of cervical calculus with gingival recession (receding gums).
"Cervical caries frequencies of around 16% have been reported for Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in northern Africa and interpreted as the first signs of the systematic harvesting and storing of high-carbohydrate wild plant food," Pezo-Lanfranco said.
In Andean agriculturalists, cervical caries are attributed to the consumption of fermented beverages made from cassava, corn, and other starchy foods. Previous studies have shown that sucrose, starch with sucrose, fructose and dextrose in descending order stimulate the production of smooth-surface and cervical caries, while high amounts of maltose and starch tend to lead more to cervical caries.
"So the MO diet was probably richer in cariogenic carbohydrate than the RC diet, and comparable to the diets of some agricultural peoples in antiquity," Pezo-Lanfranco said.
The dental wear index in MO and RC was lower than for several sambaqui communities studied elsewhere. The RC2 diet seems to have been more abrasive than the MO diet. Stone vessels and grindstones found at MO may have been used to make flour. Microscope analysis of these implements is pending.
"This study puts the Neotropics on the map of the world's food production centers in antiquity. The Atlantic Forest coast has mostly been peripheral to this narrative despite its unique biodiversity and the archeological records of dense human occupation since the Middle Holocene. The new study challenges this traditional view," Pezo-Lanfranco said. "We assembled strongly convincing evidence for high-carbohydrate dietary habits among hunter-gatherers in the Joinville region some 4,500 years ago. Confirmation that they had cultivar production systems and how far they had progressed with domestication of the plant species concerned awaits further research."