Uncovering the secrets of ancient rock art using 'X-ray vision'

IMAGE: A portable X-ray device has revealed new insights about the pigments used in rock art without damaging the site. view more 

Credit: Courtesy of Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center

ORLANDO, Fla., April 1, 2019 -- Prehistoric rock paintings are a source of fascination across the world. Aside from their beauty, there's deep meaning in these strokes, which depict ancient rituals and important symbols. To learn more about these murals, researchers have historically resorted to sampling methods that are damaging to the artwork, contradicting the archaeological tenets of conservation. Today, scientists report use of "X-ray vision" to gain brand-new insights about the layers of paint in rock art in Texas without needless damage.
The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring 2019 National Meeting & Exposition. ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features nearly 13,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
"In this particular work, we used a technique called portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (pXRF), in which a handheld instrument can be carried to a site and used right there, on the spot," says Karen Steelman, Ph.D., who led the study. "It gives you the elemental analysis of a specific material, and is the first step in figuring out how ancient artists used different materials to make their paintings."
Steelman's research focuses on the analysis of rock and cave art, particularly in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands in Texas. She and her colleagues at the Shumla Archaeological Research & Education Center have previously analyzed the composition of pigments at more than 10 sites in the region, but had been unable to see the bigger picture of how these pictographs were composed. Other pigment analysis methods, such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, require a sample of the rock art in question, which results in damage to the site, and field microscopes are unable to detect layers of paint in a complex mural.
For this particular study, Steelman and her colleagues visited the Rattlesnake Canyon Site along the Rio Grande, known for its array of pictographs. Using a 105-foot wide mural as their testing canvas, they used pXRF to measure 138 areas where the composition indicated overlapping pigments of red, black, white and yellow. In addition, measurements were taken at 90 locations of unpainted limestone, which provided insight into the makeup of the geological canvas.
Using the large amount of data collected from Rattlesnake Canyon, the team could determine a pattern to the layers of pigment, as well as their elemental makeup. The pXRF measurements revealed previously unseen layers of black pigment under layers of red, which were made with manganese and iron oxide, respectively. These complex layers of pigment indicated a level of sophistication seen in other Lower Pecos sites, which ethnographers have determined are a series of religious murals that revealed the complex nature of the hunter-gatherer society that occupied the region from 2500 BCE to 500 CE.
In addition to their findings on the composition of the pictographs, Steelman, along with fellow Shumla collaborators Victoria Roberts and Carolyn Boyd, Ph.D., discovered that the site appeared to contain gunshot damage. To confirm their suspicions, they again turned to pXRF to identify any trace elements that could have come from ammunition. "Unfortunately, we often see suspected bullet impacts at rock art sites," Steelman says. "Most of this is older types of vandalism from the early 1900s, and we used the portable X-ray to determine what trace elements were present." At the impact sites, pXRF revealed traces of lead, mercury and selenium, which were not present in the undamaged areas. There is a bright side to this discovery; finding damage at archaeologically significant sites is an opportunity to petition state and federal agencies for conservation funds to use for more extensive preservation measures, Steelman explains.
With over 350 known rock art sites in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands alone, Steelman and team plan to continue using pXRF to see the full picture of the tapestry of color and symbol woven throughout the region. Flooding along the Rio Grande is a major threat to what the researchers describe as "the oldest books in North America," and they are on a mission to document and analyze as many sites as possible to preserve these stories for future generations.

Complex artefacts don't prove brilliance of our ancestors

IMAGE: Artefacts such as bows and arrows do not necessarily prove our ancestors had sophisticated reasoning and understanding of how these tools worked, new research suggests. view more 

Credit: University of Exeter

Artefacts such as bows and arrows do not necessarily prove our ancestors had sophisticated reasoning and understanding of how these tools worked, new research suggests.
Instead, such items could have emerged from an "accumulation of improvements made across generations" - with each generation understanding no more than the last.
The new study, by the University of Exeter and the Catholic University of Lille, does not question humanity's capacity for "enhanced causal reasoning" - but argues this did not necessarily drive the development of technologies such as bows, boats and houses.
Researchers used "chains" of volunteers to tackle an engineering problem, with each volunteer able to learn from the last. Solutions improved with each "generation" - but those at the end of the chain had no more understanding of key concepts than their predecessors.
"We tend to explain the existence of complex technologies by saying humans have big brains and superior causal reasoning abilities," said Dr Maxime Derex, of the University of Exeter and the Catholic University of Lille.
"But - as our study shows - you don't have to understand how something works in order to improve it.
"Artefacts from hundreds or thousands of years ago do not necessarily show that their makers had a plan or a theory about how something would work."
The study used 14 chains of five French university students, each aiming to optimise a wheel that rolled down a track - moving faster or slower depending on the adjustment of moveable weights on its four spokes.
Each participant had five attempts to minimise the time it took for the wheel the reach the end of the track, and all but the first participant in each chain got details of the last two configurations used by the previous person.
Afterwards, researchers tested each participant's understanding by asking them to predict which of two wheels would cover the distance faster.
The study found: "The average wheel speed increased across generations while participants' understanding did not."
A further 14 chains of students completed the same process, but this time they could write down a theory to pass to the next participant.
Wheel speed rose at a similar rate as that seen in groups who passed on no written instructions, but once again understanding "barely changed across generations".
The researchers said: "Most participants actually produced incorrect or incomplete theories despite the relative simplicity of the physical system."
The findings prove the power of "cultural transmission, without the need for an accurate causal understanding of the system", they said.
"Our experiment indicates that one should be cautious when interpreting complex archaeological materials as evidence for sophisticated cognitive abilities such as reasoning, problem solving or planning, since these abilities are not the sole driver of technological sophistication," said Dr Alex Mesoudi, of the University of Exeter.

Drinking diplomacy: Fraternal culture in early imperial Russia

Using newly discovered archival materials, Igor Fedyukin of the Higher School of Economics, in collaboration with Robert Collis (Drake University) and Ernest A. Zitser (Duke University), sheds light on the significance and context surrounding a Spanish diplomat's initiative which sought to establish an informal men's club called the 'Order of the Anti-Sober' at Peter II's court. Their study was published in The International History Review.
In the late 17th - early 18th centuries, various fraternities, societies and associations were gaining popularity throughout Europe among the elite. Their motives were often not particularly serious: the informal gatherings often served as an occasion for drinking and socializing. However, these associations often provided venues for discussing and solving important political issues, forging political alliances, and laying the groundwork for future political parties.
In 1728, in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Duke of Liria, a Spanish Ambassador, sought to start such a club at Peter II's court. It was to be called the 'Order of the Anti-Sober'.
When James Francis Fitz-James Stuart (1696-1738), Duke of Liria and Spain's first permanent envoy to Russia, was preparing to depart on his diplomatic mission, he knew in advance how he would go about achieving his objectives in St. Petersburg. As he intimated in a letter to his uncle and heir to the British throne James (III) Stuart, the envoy planned to rely on 'the varieties of [his] wines', since 'in that part of the world all affairs are concluded on a bottle'.
Such assumptions should not be too surprising: during the reign of Peter the Great, the Russian court was known for its boisterous feasts and carnivals with heavy drinking. It appears only natural that Liria would have the same stereotype about the court of Peter the Great's teenage grandson, Emperor Peter II (1715-1730, r. 1728-1730), who reigned by the time the envoy arrived.
However, the behavior and alcohol consumption of Russian elites of those times were in fact not so different from their European counterparts. In the 18th-century European royal courts, informal meetings with a narrow circle of confidants were quite popular, where the aroma of wine was an integral element. There is evidence of the existence of such societies as 'The Order of the Wine Grape' (Ordre de la Grappe) in Arles, France, 'The Order of the Medusa' (Ordre de la Meduse) in Toulon, and 'The Order of the Drinks' (Ordre de la Boisson) in Avignon. A 'Collegium of Tobacco Smokers' (Tabakskollegium) existed at the court of King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia. According to the diary by Friedrich Wilhelm von Bergholz, a gentleman of the bedchamber to Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp, who resided in Russia throughout the early 1720s, the creation of mock orders was a common practice in the context of small northern European courts. These societies were a platform for entertainment and informal interaction for diplomats and the ruling elites. So the Duke of Liria's intention to create a closed club named future 'Order of the Anti-sober' (Ordre des Antisobres) was quite in line with that era's political culture trends.
Rules of the Club
The charter of the 'Order of the Anti-Sober', which was discovered in French archives, mentions the Epiphany of 1728 as the date of the order foundation. It is known that the Duke of Liria, who had come to Russia and had been introduced at the court not long before that, officially participated in a foreign diplomats' assembly for the first time around these dates.
The surviving text of the charter has, of course, a boisterous, mocking tone. For example, the first article mockingly refers to the Old Testament and requires order members to exhibit 'eternal antipathy' towards the 'sect' of teetotalers and all those who practiced the 'vice of sobriety'. Another rule had it that the 'cavaliers' of the order had to be pleasant in their interactions and be able to mock without turning to malice. Pointedly, the lack of these qualities could be forgiven if a candidate had a 'good cook' and 'excellent wines'.
The planned order was intended as a space for socializing, uninterrupted by any personal or political tensions. The members were instructed to leave all their ranks and titles at the door and limit the length of their speeches to two minutes to avoid the 'dread' of 'yawning' and the 'unpardonable crime' of boredom.
No more than three dishes were to be put on the table during the meals, since 'profusion is the irreconcilable enemy of delicacy.' In addition, nobody was to force other members to eat and drink beyond the dictates of their own appetite.
The members of the order were to observe secrecy, in a manner similar to other secretive societies. There would also be special marks, signs, and rituals, allowing a member to recognize his fellows wherever they met. The members were supposed to greet each other by exclaiming 'Long live the Epiphany at the 59th Degree!' - a countersign marking the latitude of St. Petersburg, the location of the order foundation.
Women were barred from entering the order. This was explained by the necessity to temper the 'ardor of certain desires' and contribute to the 'sweet harmony' and 'happiness' to which the prospective members of this 'august and incomparable order' aspired.
Article 11 of the charter mandated that the members maintain sincere, close, and cordial relations with one another and exclude all prejudices, such as those that are caused by religious or national differences. To this end, the charter even banned all 'ceremonial toasts' honouring monarchs and any other 'potentates'.
The violators of these rules were to be condemned to 'travel 20 years in Russia without a bed and without a cook, in winter without a fur jacket, in summer without ice.'
According to the researchers, the exclusion of women and the explicitly apolitical nature of the meetings were very much in the spirit of English Freemasonry, as articulated in 1723 by James Anderson.
Motives to Create the Club
The Duke of Liria was, in fact, a servant to two masters: Philip V, the sovereign who appointed him Spain's first official diplomatic representative in Russia, and James (III) Stuart, the Jacobite claimant to the British throne, with whom the duke maintained secret correspondence and to whom he professed boundless loyalty.
In 1725, Spain signed The Treaty of Vienna with Austria, which opposed the signatories of the Treaty of Hanover, most notably, France, Great Britain, and Prussia. Under such a balance of powers, Philip V commissioned Liria to persuade Russia to join the Treaty of Vienna and, probably, even dispatch a fleet that would land in England, overthrow George I, and restore the Stuart dynasty.
In St. Petersburg, Liria was going to count on Duke Karl Friedrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, spouse of tsar's daughter Anna Petrovna, member of Russia's Supreme Privy Council and an important political player at the court of his mother-in-law, Empress Catherine I. Karl Friedrich's claims to both the Holstein territory annexed by the king of Denmark and to the Swedish throne were very much central to the hostility between Russia and Britain. Liria was therefore hoping to talk Karl Friedrich into acting against the Hanoverian Alliance.
But over the course of the Spanish envoy's six-month journey from Madrid to St. Petersburg, the diplomatic situation in Europe changed. In March 1727, the government of George I managed to persuade Sweden to join the Hanover alliance. In June, Catherine I passed away. These conditions led to the expulsion of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, whose support was to be instrumental to Liria, from Russia.
The charter of the 'Order of the Anti-Sober' establishes Liria as Grand Master, but it also names Baron Mardefeld, Prussian Ambassador in Russia, 'Protector' of the order. It appears such courtesy towards the Prussian diplomat was made in pursuit of some clear political goals. On the one hand, by the moment of Liria's arrival to Russia in November 1727, Mardefeld had spent a full decade in St. Petersburg and probably knew more about Russian domestic politics than most of the other foreign residents. On the other hand, Mardefeld had been charged with repairing the strategic relationship between Russia and the Hanoverian Alliance, a diplomatic rapprochement that Liria was specifically tasked with preventing. The Prussian diplomat also supported the candidacy of a Saxon prince to the Polish throne, whereas Liria was intriguing in favor of an alternative claimant for the crown. Apparently, some opportunities for close and informal meetings with the Prussian diplomat as part of a mock order would be very useful for Liria.
Meanwhile, researchers have no further evidence on whether the 'Order of the Anti-Sober' was created or not. Neither reports by Liria himself, nor known papers by Mardefeld, include any intentions on creating a closed drinking club in St. Petersburg. But this does not mean that informal interaction over a bottle of wine was not used by diplomats as a political tool. It is known that the Duke of Liria hosted regular dinner parties for diplomats, the young Russian monarch, and his confidants. At such parties, over 500 bottles of wine could be emptied, and, undoubtedly, political talk was an integral part of them. As a result, Liria managed to assume very good positions at Peter II's court. Unfortunately, however, the teenage monarch died soon, and the international political situation quickly changed. As a result, Liria's embassy did not achieve any outstanding diplomatic results. Mock orders as a space for informal socializing for the elites soon started to be replaced by Masonic Lodges: Jacobites, advocates of the overthrown Stuart dynasty in Europe, played a key role in their popularization.

Rise of religion pre-dates Incas at Lake Titicaca

IMAGE: The team found ritual offerings consisting of ceramic feline incense burners; sacrificed juvenile llamas; and gold, shell and stone ornaments view more 

Credit: Teddy Seguin

An ancient group of people made ritual offerings to supernatural deities near the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, about 500 years earlier than the Incas, according to an international team of researchers. The team's findings suggest that organized religion emerged much earlier in the region than previously thought.
"People often associate the Island of the Sun with the Incas because it was an important pilgrimage location for them and because they left behind numerous ceremonial buildings and offerings on and around this island," said Jose Capriles, assistant professor of anthropology, Penn State. "Our research shows that the Tiwanaku people, who developed in Lake Titicaca between 500 and 1,100 AD, were the first people to offer items of value to religious deities in the area."
The Incas, Capriles noted, did not arrive in the Lake Titicaca region until around the 15th century AD.
A team lead by Christophe Delaere, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology and research associate at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, conducted underwater archaeological excavations in the Khoa Reef near the Island of the Sun. The archaeologists used sonar and underwater three-dimensional photogrammetry to scan and map the reef. They used a water-dredge to excavate the sediment and measured and weighed all the archaeological materials they uncovered. Their results appear today (April 1) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In particular, the team found ritual offerings consisting of ceramic feline incense burners; sacrificed juvenile llamas; and gold, shell and stone ornaments.
"The findings, and especially the ceramic puma-shaped incense burners, are significant because they help us gain a broader understanding of the ritual behavior and religion of the Tiwanaku state -- a society that preceded the Incas by several hundred years," said Delaere.
The puma was an important religious symbol to the Tiwanaku, Delaere added.
Another observation made by the team was that the religious offerings appear to have been made intentionally to be submerged underwater.
"The presence of anchors near the offerings suggests that officiating authorities may have deposited the offerings during rituals held from boats," said Capriles.
According to Capriles, the Island of the Sun was likely important to the Tiwanaku people because of its natural beauty, but also because of its location at the center of the Andes Mountains.
"It was a strategic and ritually charged place," said Capriles. "At the Island of the Sun and the Khoa Reef, religious specialists could come together for sacred ceremonies. The ritual offerings they made here demonstrate the transitioning of societies from more local-based religious systems to something that had a more ambitious geopolitical and spiritual appeal."
In turn, he added, this emergence of organized religion likely led to consolidation of the groups of people living around the lake and the emergence of the Tiwanaku state, characterized by political hierarchy.

Researchers find ancient Maya farms in Mexican wetlands

University of Cincinnati archaeologists say these farms likely produced cotton and other goods to support Yucatan trade routes

University of Cincinnati

IMAGE: UC assistant professor Christopher Carr examines an ancient quarry in Yaxnohcah, Mexico. view more 

Credit: Nicholas Dunning/UC

Archaeologists with the University of Cincinnati used the latest technology to find evidence suggesting ancient Maya people grew surplus crops to support an active trade with neighbors up and down the Yucatan Peninsula.
They will present their findings at the annual American Association of Geographers conference in Washington, D.C.
The Mayan civilization stretched across portions of Mesoamerica, a region spanning Mexico and Central America. The oldest evidence of Maya civilization dates back to 1800 B.C., but most cities flourished between 250 and 900 A.D. By the time Spanish ships arrived in the 1500s, some of the biggest cities were deserted. Researchers at UC are trying to piece together the life history of the Maya before the Spanish conquest.
Nicholas Dunning, a professor of geography in UC's McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, was part of a research team that found evidence of cultivation along irregular-shaped fields in Mexico that followed the paths of canals and natural water channels at a place called Laguna de Terminos on the Gulf of Mexico. The archaeologists expect to find evidence of habitation when they begin excavations.
The extensive croplands suggest the ancient Maya could grow surplus crops, especially the cotton responsible for the renowned textiles that were traded throughout Mesoamerica.
"It was a much more complex market economy than the Maya are often given credit for," Dunning said.
Local workers brought the Laguna de Terminos site to the attention of researchers about seven years ago.
"A forester working in the area said there seemed to be a network of ancient fields," Dunning said. "I looked on Google Earth and was like, 'Whoa!' It was an area in the Maya Lowlands that I'd never paid any attention to. And obviously not a lot of other people had, either, from the perspective of looking at ancient agriculture."
Satellite images revealed a patchwork quilt of blocks along drainage ditches that suggested they were built. Archaeologist also studied imagery NASA created of the region using a tool called Light Detection and Ranging, or LIDAR, that can depict the contours of the ground beneath the leafy canopy of trees and vegetation. Their review confirmed Dunning's suspicions: the area was covered in ancient farm fields.
"It appears they developed fairly simply from modifications of existing drainage along the eastern edge of the wetlands," Dunning said. "They probably deepened and straightened some channels or connected them in places, but then further expanded the fields with more sophisticated hydro-engineering."
LIDAR gives scientists a never-before-seen picture of the Earth's surface even after centuries of unchecked jungle growth conceals the remains of ancient structures. Researchers look for telltale signs of human activity: squares and rectangles indicating old foundations and circular pits from man-made reservoirs and quarries where the chert used in stone tools was mined. On the LIDAR maps, any hidden structures pop out, including ancient roads and former villages.
"That's the magic of LIDAR," UC assistant research professor Christopher Carr said.??Carr spent a career practicing engineering before returning to UC to study and eventually teach in the geography department. He approaches questions about the ancient Maya from an engineer's perspective.
Carr pointed to a map of Yaxnohcah, Mexico, showing a small reservoir the ancient Maya apparently dug in a wetland far from cultivated fields or known settlements.
"What were my ancient counterparts thinking when they built that water reservoir? What did they want to accomplish?" he asked.
Carr also used the LIDAR imagery in the project to follow an ancient Maya road that perhaps hasn't been traveled in more than 1,000 years. The road is perfectly visible on the LIDAR map but is virtually impossible to discern when you are standing right on it, Carr said.
"There's vegetation everywhere. But when you've been doing this for a while, you notice little things," Carr said. "I'll have a LIDAR image on my smartphone that shows me where I am, but I don't see anything but rainforest. You just walk back and forth until you can feel something underfoot and follow it."
Identifying possible roads is important for another interest of the UC researchers: ancient Maya marketplaces. Dunning and Carr are working at Yaxnohcah with researchers such as Kathryn Reese-Taylor from the University of Calgary and Armando Anaya Hernandez from Universidad Autónoma de Campeche to unlock the mysteries of the ancient Maya economy. Additionally, they and graduate student Thomas Ruhl have been analyzing NASA's LIDAR imagery across the Yucatan Peninsula to identify more ancient marketplaces.
Unlike pyramids or even many homes, marketplaces had no foundations or permanent structures, researchers said. They were built on low platforms or cleared areas, perhaps like a seasonal fair or flea market. But they were an important part of life in Maya culture
Dunning said the presence of roads between Maya cities would lend credence to the value the ancient Maya placed on trade with their neighbors. He thinks some of the larger squares identified on the LIDAR maps represent these open markets.
"In some areas, they have this very distinct physical signature," Dunning said. "So far, we've identified several possible marketplaces. We don't know for sure that they're marketplaces, but they have an architectural layout that is suggestive of one."
Soil analysis at other locations identified evidence of ancient butcher shops and stone masons. Dunning solicited the help of UC's botanists who are conducting analyses that might shed light on his marketplace hypothesis. But the LIDAR maps themselves are instructive.
"I look at spatial patterns. If you look at these big structures and small pyramids, you can tell they're important structures," Carr said. "And then you have this 'lightweight' thing next to it. That's what a marketplace looks like to me."
Dunning said the ancient Maya likely sold perishable goods such as maize and a starchy tuber called manioc. And they traded "mantas," or bolts of the ornate and richly patterned textiles made from the cotton they grew. These were prized by the Spaniards who arrived in the 1600s.
"We don't have direct evidence of what the textiles look like in this area. But if you look at ancient paintings and sculptures, people were wearing very elaborate garments," Dunning said.
Dunning first explored the historic sites of the Yucatan Peninsula at age 14 when he and his older brother drove down to Mexico from Illinois.
"We took a train to the Yucatan and used public transportation to get around to the sites," Dunning said.
He applied to the University of Chicago partly because it offered a Mayan language class. Dunning returned to Mexico while in college to conduct his first field research. He's been back many times since.
"My interest in archaeology is in human-environment interactions, including agriculture," Dunning said.
Dunning is learning more about how ancient Maya people shaped their world to overcome challenges and take advantage of natural opportunities. Dunning's work also took him to a place called Acalan near the Gulf of Mexico.
"Roughly translated, Acalan means 'place of canoes' because it's very watery," Dunning said. "And getting around by water is far easier than any other means in that area."
Then as now the region is covered in thick tropical rainforest. Researchers have to be wary of cheeky monkeys that will throw fruit or worse from the treetops. Carr said one encounter left him sore for days.
"There was this aggressive spider monkey. He'd seen me a couple days earlier. And he's back shaking the trees," Carr said. "And all of a sudden, I'm lying flat on the ground. A branch hit me in the shoulder and knocked me to the ground."
Visiting archaeologists at Yaxnohcah stay at a former Army outpost that was converted into a staffed research station.
"Living conditions are actually luxurious by camping standards. You're in the field all day and you're dirty and tired. But you can take a shower. And when you're finished, someone has cooked you a meal," Carr said.
At Laguna de Terminos, UC researchers are working to collect clues about the ancient Maya before they are lost to development. Many of the wetlands are being drained or plowed up for grazing pasture.?
Dunning said ironically these low-yield pastures provide far less economic value to today's farmers than the seeming bounty of crops the ancient Maya derived from them more than 1,000 years ago. Their study warns the land-use practices are causing environmental damage to some of these valuable wetlands.
"It's a shame because the grazing isn't particularly good. The economic production from that land use is minuscule compared to what was produced by the Maya," Dunning said.

Fur discoveries in Iron Age graves testify to respect for animals

University of Helsinki

IMAGE: A microscopic image of deer fur found in a burial site used at the end of the Iron Age (800-1200 CE) in Vilusenharju, Tampere, central Finland. Photo: Tuija Kirkinen view more 

Credit: Tuija Kirkinen

The doctoral dissertation of Tuija Kirkinen, MA, examines the use and significance of furs in Finland and the region of Karelia surrendered to the Soviet Union. Furs were commonly used in burials in southern Finland until the 14th and 15th century, and in northern Finland as late as the 17th century. The most prevalent group of skins are those of large mammals, which were wrapped around the deceased. In cremation, bear skins were particularly popular, while Finnish forest reindeer and elk skin were commonly used in burials.
Clothes and objects were also manufactured from fur; a knife sheath could be covered or lined with fur.
Finland's oldest goat observation dates back to the Stone Age As research material, Kirkinen used hair and fur remains found in burial sites, as well as predator claws which had been attached to the skins.
"Contrary to initial assumptions, quite a lot of fur remains have been preserved in graves."
Animal hairs have been identified by their structure with the help of a microscope. Exceptionally, microscopically small hairs have been preserved in connection with other objects and even in the soil of a burial site dating back to the Stone Age (2800-2300 BCE). This finding, made in Perttulanmäki, Kauhava, western Finland, turned out to be Finland's oldest goat finding. As a result, Kirkinen's research provides recommendations for the handling of potential fibre material at archaeological excavations.
According to Kirkinen, Finland has presumably been situated at the intersection of two fur and bear traditions, one based in the west, the other in the east and north. Deer hunted for their meat stand out from the dataset, an aspect where Finnish data clearly differs from material found across Scandinavia. Fewer products made of mustelids and other more typical fur animals have been found, which makes Kirkinen think that fur use related to status was not very common in Finland and the Karelian Peninsula.
The treatment of prey speaks of respect Archaeological basic research increases our understanding of the past. The research carried out by Tuija Kirkinen opens perspectives on the relationship between humans and animals, particularly animals that serve as the origin of products used by humans.
"Wrapping bodies in fur is a tradition born already among hunting cultures. The continuation of this tradition all the way to early recorded history and, in Lapland, up to the 17th century, speaks of the preservation of a spiritual culture connected with hunting."
Wrapping the deceased in fur made it possible for them to join their ancestors, making the boundary between humans and animals less clear-cut than today. Ethnographic datasets also contain examples of narratives on how fur had to be handled with respect when sewing, or the animals would no longer give their skins up for humans to use.
"This is a distinct difference from modern fur farming," Kirkinen points out.
Grave archaeology has proven that traditions relating to hunting maintained a central role in communities otherwise dominated by agriculture. This is proof of the continued significance of hunting, both in terms of economics and culture.

Ancient Caribbean children helped with grocery shopping in AD 400

Florida Museum of Natural History

IMAGE: Archaeologists concluded that thousands of discarded shells at a site in downtown St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands are evidence of ancient Saladoid children foraging for shellfish. West Indian... view more 

Credit: Florida Museum of Natural History

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Researchers have long thought that snail and clam shells found at Caribbean archaeological sites were evidence of "starvation food" eaten in times when other resources were lacking. Now, a University of Florida study suggests these shells may be evidence of children helping with the grocery shopping - A.D. 400 style.
Researchers found thousands of discarded shells at a site in downtown St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, likely evidence of ancient Saladoid children foraging for shellfish. Adult foragers typically would discard shells immediately after extracting the meat, meaning few shells made it back to archaeological sites, said William Keegan, curator of Caribbean archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History. This site, however, was littered with them.
"It's not that people were starving. It's that children were contributing to their own subsistence in a meaningful and very efficient way," Keegan said. "We need to think of children as active members that influence site materials and their distribution. It changes the whole attitude about the collection in the archaeological site."
For the most part, children have remained invisible to archaeologists until now, Keegan said. This study, the first to document child labor in an archaeological context, provides an important model for identifying children in the past and their contributions to their communities.
"Children are really the last group to receive any attention because to archaeology, they sort of look like little adults," he said. "Efforts to identify children so far have emphasized badly made objects, miniatures and things that look like toys - it isn't a complete perspective."
Children may have had a role in foraging, which for the Saladoid people meant collecting mollusks for food.
"If your parent needs to go to the grocery store, you have to go with them," Keegan said. "If you can do more than pull candy off the shelf, then you're that much more helpful."
Shells deposited in middens - mounds of shells and sediment that were once ancient garbage dumps - led Keegan's research team to believe that shellfish had been intentionally brought to the site, eaten and the shells then thrown away. The team also developed seven criteria to help determine if shellfish at archaeological sites were collected by children.
Shellfish collected by children are most easily identified by variety and size, Keegan said. Child foragers tend to be generalists, meaning that they're more likely to collect small shells indiscriminately. This research suggests that small, easy to transport and low-yield mollusks found in high amounts on a site indicate the presence of child foragers, he said.
"It looked like someone had sent a biology student with a one meter square and told them, 'Collect everything,'" Keegan said. "You can certainly collect a whole bucket of these things and you've got a good meal, but it's a waste of time for an adult to focus on those really small resources when they could be out collecting specific snails and clams that they know they can get a certain nutritional return on."
Recent construction has disturbed much of the site, and researchers were only able to excavate a snapshot of what was once there, Keegan said.
Because the Caribbean is a largely understudied area in archaeology, Keegan and his team had few ethnographic descriptions of the Saladoid's lifestyles to draw from. They chose to compare their findings with current research in the Pacific Islands, where foraging habits and available resources have remained virtually unchanged for millennia.
"It's not a direct application," Keegan said. "It's an analogy that shows what we're seeing in the living population is consistent with what we see in an archaeological population."
Evidence suggests that foraging together was a way Saladoid people built kinship, a practice still seen today in the Pacific Islands. The Saladoid people were a matrilocal society, meaning familial lineage was traced through women and men were frequently absent from day-to-day life.
"The women would often go on trips with children to collect things farther away," Keegan said. "The community functions holistically. By about age 15, children are involved in fully adult activities."
Keegan's work suggests that in some respects, children could actually outperform adults at certain tasks. Whereas adults focused on collecting larger shellfish from deeper waters, children were able to scour shallow areas for smaller shellfish that would be difficult for adult fingers to grasp.
"Children like being included. The same sorts of things children need in traditional societies are basically what we still need today to grow up to be healthy, useful adults," Keegan said. "In fact, it wasn't uncommon for children to collect small animals as pets."
Because the site is located on St. Thomas' main street, Keegan and his team were able to engage bystanders in their discoveries.
"What I think is unusual is that the road caps the site. Below the pipes, everything was completely intact," Keegan said. "The archaeologists were fenced in - all day long people were coming up to the fence, and we were showing them what we had, but that's all part of it. We want people to get excited about what we're doing."
Excavation was a collaborative effort that included several experts from different disciplines, lending a broader perspective to the team's findings, Keegan said. The team was assembled by David Hayes, a founding member of the St. Croix Archaeological Society and project collaborator.
"For us, it's always a new puzzle, trying to get the pieces to fit together. One of the real joys of this project was that even though there were specialists for each area, we were all together in the field," Keegan said. "We were all working on the issues together, talking about things and getting a broad picture of what was going on rather than just a narrow focus of one archaeological material."