Credit: Kevin Mackenzie at the University of Aberdeen
Archaeologists from the University of Bradford have examined ear
ossicles taken from the skeletons of 20 juveniles, excavated from an
18th and 19th century burial ground in Blackburn. They were chosen to
represent those with and without dietary disease such as rickets and
scurvy.
These children, who were excavated by Headland Archaeology, were
examined at the University by Masters student Tamara Leskovar, under the
supervision of Dr Julia Beaumont.
The new method has provided a link between the maternal
pre-pregnancy diet and the late pregnancy diet found in the earliest
tooth tissue. In particular it provides information on the health of the
mother and baby in the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
Building on Dr Beaumont's previous research using teeth, the team
identified that a person's ossicles can provide a correlation between
diet and physiology, with the potential to identify children at risk of
disease in later life and to study maternal and infant health in ancient
populations.
Dr Beaumont said: "Our previous research has shown that teeth can
tell us a lot more than people think. What we didn't realise is just how
much one of the smallest bones in the body, our ear ossicle, can also
tell us.
"It is formed early on, when the child is in the womb and finishes
developing in the first two years. Unlike other bones, it then doesn't
remodel, therefore providing a unique snapshot of the health of the
mother during the early stages of pregnancy."
"This is the first time human ear bones have been used to
investigate diet in the womb. This will allow us, in combination with
the dentine, to work out the health of childbearing women who because of
the slow rate of bone turnover have been invisible to us."
IMAGE: The lake was thought to be the site of an
ancient catastrophic event that left several hundred people dead, but
the first ancient whole genome data from India shows that...
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Credit: Atish Waghwase
A large-scale study conducted by an international team of scientists
has revealed that the mysterious skeletons of Roopkund Lake - once
thought to have died during a single catastrophic event - belong to
genetically highly distinct groups that died in multiple periods in at
least two episodes separated by one thousand years. The study, published
this week in Nature Communications, involved an international team of 28 researchers from institutions in India, the United States and Europe.
Situated at over 5000 meters above sea-level in the Himalayan
Mountains of India, Roopkund Lake has long puzzled researchers due to
the presence of skeletal remains from several hundred ancient humans,
scattered in and around the lake's shores, earning it the nickname
Skeleton Lake or Mystery Lake. "Roopkund Lake has long been subject to
speculation about who these individuals were, what brought them to
Roopkund Lake, and how they died," says senior author Niraj Rai, of the
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in Lucknow, India, who began
working on the Roopkund skeletons when he was a post-doctoral scientist
at the CSIR Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in
Hyderabad, India.
The current publication, the final product of a more than
decade-long study that presents the first whole genome ancient DNA data
from India, reveals that the site has an even more complex history than
imagined. First ancient DNA data from India shows diverse groups at Roopkund Lake
Ancient DNA obtained from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake -
representing the first ancient DNA ever reported from India - reveals
that they derive from at least three distinct genetic groups. "We first
became aware of the presence of multiple distinct groups at Roopkund
after sequencing the mitochondrial DNA of 72 skeletons. While many of
the individuals possessed mitochondrial haplogroups typical of
present-day Indian populations, we also identified a large number of
individuals with haplogroups that would be more typical of populations
from West Eurasia," says co-senior author Kumarasamy Thangaraj of CCMB,
who started the project more than a decade ago, in an ancient DNA clean
lab that he and then-director of CCMB Lalji Singh (deceased) built to
study Roopkund.
Whole genome sequencing of 38 individuals revealed that there were
at least three distinct groups among the Roopkund skeletons. The first
group is composed of 23 individuals with ancestries that are related to
people from present-day India, who do not appear to belong to a single
population, but instead derived from many different groups.
Surprisingly, the second largest group is made up of 14 individuals with
ancestry that is most closely related to people who live in the eastern
Mediterranean, especially present-day Crete and Greece. A third
individual has ancestry that is more typical of that found in Southeast
Asia. "We were extremely surprised by the genetics of the Roopkund
skeletons. The presence of individuals with ancestries typically
associated with the eastern Mediterranean suggests that Roopkund Lake
was not just a site of local interest, but instead drew visitors from
across the globe," says first-author Éadaoin Harney of Harvard
University. Dietary analysis of the Roopkund individuals confirms diverse origins
Stable isotope dietary reconstruction of the skeletons also supports
the presence of multiple distinct groups. "Individuals belonging to the
Indian-related group had highly variable diets, showing reliance on C¬3
and C4 derived food sources. These findings are consistent with the
genetic evidence that they belonged to a variety of socioeconomic groups
in South Asia," says co-senior author Ayushi Nayak of the Max Planck
Institute for the Science of Human History. "In contrast, the
individuals with eastern Mediterranean-related ancestry appear to have
consumed a diet with very little millet." Two major groups at Roopkund Lake date to 1000 years apart, with the more recent around 1800 AD
The findings also revealed a second surprise about the skeletons of
Roopkund Lake. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the skeletons were not
deposited at the same time, as previously assumed. Instead, the study
finds that the two major genetic groups were actually deposited
approximately 1000 years apart. First, during the 7th-10th centuries CE,
individuals with Indian-related ancestry died at Roopkund, possibly
during several distinct events. It was not until sometime during the
17th-20th centuries that the other two groups, likely composed of
travelers from the eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asia arrived at
Roopkund Lake. "This finding shows the power of radiocarbon dating, as
it had previously been assumed that the skeletons of Roopkund Lake were
the result of a single catastrophic event," says co-senior author
Douglas J. Kennett of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"It is still not clear what brought these individuals to Roopkund
Lake or how they died," says Rai. "We hope that this study represents
the first of many analyses of this mysterious site."
"Through the use of biomolecular analyses, such as ancient DNA,
stable isotope dietary reconstruction, and radiocarbon dating, we
discovered that the history of Roopkund Lake is more complex than we
ever anticipated, and raises the striking question of how migrants from
the eastern Mediterranean, who have an ancestry profile that is
extremely atypical of the region today, died in this place only a few
hundred years ago," concludes co-senior author David Reich of Harvard
Medical School. "This study highlights the power of biomolecular tools
to provide unexpected insights into our past."
IMAGE: This is historian Dan Snow inspecting the site.
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Credit: Maritime Archaeological Trust
The Maritime Archaeological Trust has discovered a new 8,000 year old
structure next to what is believed to be the oldest boat building site
in the world on the Isle of Wight.
Director of the Maritime Archaeological Trust, Garry Momber, said
"This new discovery is particularly important as the wooden platform is
part of a site that doubles the amount of worked wood found in the UK
from a period that lasted 5,500 years."
The site lies east of Yarmouth, and the new platform is the most
intact, wooden Middle Stone Age structure ever found in the UK. The site
is now 11 meters below sea level and during the period there was human
activity on the site, it was dry land with lush vegetation. Importantly,
it was at a time before the North Sea was fully formed and the Isle of
Wight was still connected to mainland Europe.
The site was first discovered in 2005 and contains an arrangement of
trimmed timbers that could be platforms, walkways or collapsed
structures. However, these were difficult to interpret until the
Maritime Archaeological Trust used state of the art photogrammetry
techniques to record the remains. During the late spring the new
structure was spotted eroding from within the drowned forest. The first
task was to create a 3D digital model of the landscape so it could be
experienced by non-divers. It was then excavated by the Maritime
Archaeological Trust during the summer and has revealed a cohesive
platform consisting of split timbers, several layers thick, resting on
horizontally laid round-wood foundations.
Garry continued "The site contains a wealth of evidence for
technological skills that were not thought to have been developed for a
further couple of thousand years, such as advanced wood working. This
site shows the value of marine archaeology for understanding the
development of civilisation.
Yet, being underwater, there are no regulations that can protect it.
Therefore, it is down to our charity, with the help of our donors, to
save it before it is lost forever."
The Maritime Archaeological Trust is working with the National
Oceanography Centre (NOC) to record and study, reconstruct and display
the collection of timbers. Many of the wooden artefacts are being stored
in the British Ocean Sediment Core Research facility (BOSCORF),
operated by the National Oceanography Centre.
As with sediment cores, ancient wood will degrade more quickly if it
is not kept in a dark, wet and cold setting. While being kept cold,
dark and wet, the aim is to remove salt from within wood cells of the
timber, allowing it to be analysed and recorded. This is important
because archaeological information, such as cut marks or engravings, are
most often found on the surface of the wood and are lost quickly when
timber degrades. Once the timbers have been recorded and have
desalinated, the wood can be conserved for display.
Dr Suzanne Maclachlan, the curator at BOSCORF, said "It has been
really exciting for us to assist the Trust's work with such unique and
historically important artefacts. This is a great example of how the
BOSCORF repository is able to support the delivery of a wide range of
marine science."
When diving on the submerged landscape Dan Snow, the history
broadcaster and host of History Hit, one of the world's biggest history
podcasts, commented that he was both awestruck by the incredible remains
and shocked by the rate of erosion.
This material, coupled with advanced wood working skills and finely
crafted tools suggests a European, Neolithic (New Stone Age) influence.
The problem is that it is all being lost. As the Solent evolves,
sections of the ancient land surface are being eroded by up to half a
metre per year and the archaeological evidence is disappearing.
Research in 2019 was funded by the Scorpion Trust, the Butley
Research Group, the Edward Fort Foundation and the Maritime Archaeology
Trust. Work was conducted with the help of volunteers and many
individuals who gave their time and often money, to ensure the material
was recovered successfully.
Excavations in Israel's Galilee have uncovered remains of an
ancient church said to mark the home of the apostles Peter and Andrew, the
dig's archaeological director said Friday.
Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret Academic College, on the shore
of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, said this season's dig at nearby
El-Araj confirmed it as the site of Bethsaida, a fishing village where Peter
and his brother Andrew were born according to the Gospel of John.
The Byzantine church was found near remnants of a Roman-era
settlement, matching the location of Bethsaida as described by the first
century AD Roman historian Flavius Josephus, Aviam said.
The newly-discovered church, he added, fitted the account of
Willibald, the Bavarian bishop of Eichstaett who visited the area around 725 AD
and reported that a church at Bethsaida had been built on the site of Peter and
Andrew's home.
According to Willibald, Aviam says, Bethsaida lay between
the biblical sites of Capernaum and Kursi.
"We excavated only one third of the church, a bit less,
but we have a church and that's for sure," Aviam told AFP.
"The plan is of a church, the dates are Byzantine, the
mosaic floors are typical... chancel screens, everything that is typical of a
church."
"Between
Capernaum and Kursi there is only one place where a church is described by the
visitor in the eighth century and we discovered it, so this is the one,"
he said.
IMAGE: A team of researchers examined an ancient
papyrus with a supposed empty spot. With the help of several methods,
they discovered which signs once stood in this place and which...
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Credit: HZB
The first thing that catches an archaeologist's eye on the small
piece of papyrus from Elephantine Island on the Nile is the apparently
blank patch. Researchers from the Egyptian Museum, Berlin universities
and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin have now used the synchrotron radiation
from BESSY II to unveil its secret. This pushes the door wide open for
analysing the giant Berlin papyrus collection and many more.
For more than a century, numerous metal crates and cardboard boxes
have sat in storage at the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection
Berlin, all of which were excavated by Otto Rubensohn from 1906 to 1908
from an island called Elephantine on the River Nile in the south of
Egypt, near the city of Aswan. Eighty percent of the texts on the
papyrus in these containers have yet to be studied, and this can hardly
be done using conventional methods anymore. Thousands of years ago, the
Egyptians would carefully roll up or fold together letters, contracts
and amulets to a tiny size so that they would take up the least possible
space. In order to read them, the papyri would have to be just as
carefully unfolded again. "Today, however, much of this papyrus has aged
considerably, so the valuable texts can easily crumble if we try to
unfold or unroll them," Prof. Dr. Heinz-Eberhard Mahnke of
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and Freie Universität Berlin describes the
greatest obstacle facing the Egyptologists, who are eager to unearth the
scientific treasures waiting in the boxes and crates in the Berlin
Egyptian Museum. Testing the fragile papyrus with nondestructive methods
The physicist at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin knew from many years of
research how to analyse the fragile papyrus without destroying it:
shining a beam of X-ray light on the specimen causes the atoms in the
papyrus to become excited and send back X-rays of their own, much like
an echo. Because the respective elements exhibit different X-ray
fluorescence behaviour, the researchers can distinguish the atoms in the
sample by the energy of the radiation they return. The scientists
therefore long ago developed laboratory equipment that uses this X-ray
fluorescence to analyse sensitive specimens without destroying them.
Scholars in ancient Egypt typically wrote with a black soot ink made
from charred pieces of wood or bone and which consisted mainly of
elemental carbon. "For certain purposes, however, the ancient Egyptians
also used coloured inks containing elements such as iron, copper,
mercury or lead," Heinz-Eberhard Mahnke explains. If the ancient
Egyptian scribes had used such a "metal ink" to inscribe the part that
now appears blank on the Elephantine papyrus, then X-ray fluorescence
should be able to reveal traces of those metals. Indeed, using the
equipment in their laboratory, the researchers were able to detect lead
in the blank patch of papyrus. Revealing sharper details at BESSY II with "absorption edge radiography"
In fact, they even managed to discern characters, albeit as a blurry
image. To capture a much sharper image, they studied it with X-ray
radiography at BESSY II, where the synchrotron radiation illuminates the
specimen with many X-ray photons of high coherence. Using "absorption
edge radiography" at the BAMline station of BESSY II, they were able to
increase the brightness of this technique for the sample studied, and
thus better distinguish the characters written on the papyrus from the
structure of the ancient paper. So far, it has not been possible to
translate the character, but it could conceivably depict a deity. Composition of the invisible ink resolved in the Rathgen laboratory
The analysis at BESSY II did not identify the kind of leaded ink the
ancient scribes used to write these characters on the papyrus. Only by
using a "Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer" could the scientists
of the Rathgen Research Laboratory Berlin finally identify the substance
as lead carboxylate, which is in fact colourless. But why would the
ancient scribe have wanted to write on the papyrus with this kind of
"invisible ink"? "We suspect the characters may originally have been
written in bright minium (red lead) or perhaps coal-black galena (lead
glance)," says Heinz-Eberhard Mahnke, summarising the researchers'
deliberations.
If such inks are exposed to sunlight for too long, the energy of the
light can trigger chemical reactions that alter the colours. Even many
modern dyes similarly fade over time in the bright sunlight. It is
therefore easily conceivable that, over thousands of years, the bright
red minium or jet black galena would transform into the invisible lead
carboxylate, only to mystify researchers as a conspicuously blank space
on the papyrus fragment. Method developed to study folded papyri without contact
With their investigation, Dr. Tobias Arlt of Technische Universität
Berlin, Prof. Dr. Heinz-Eberhard Mahnke and their colleagues have pushed
the door wide open for future studies to decipher texts even on finely
folded or rolled papyri from the Egyptian Museum without having to
unfold them and risk destroying the precious finds. The researchers
namely developed a new technique for virtually opening the valuable
papyri on the computer without ever touching them.
The Elephantine project funded by the European Research Council,
ERC, and headed by Prof. Dr. Verena Lepper (Stiftung Preußischer
Kulturbesitz-Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) is thus well on its way to
studying many more of the hidden treasures in the collection of papyrus
in Berlin and other parts of the world, and thus to learning more about
Ancient Egypt.
Stone tools uncovered in Mongolia by an international team of
archaeologists indicate that modern humans traveled across the Eurasian
steppe about 45,000 years ago, according to a new University of
California, Davis, study. The date is about 10,000 years earlier than
archaeologists previously believed.
The site also points to a new location for where modern humans may
have first encountered their mysterious cousins, the now extinct
Denisovans, said Nicolas Zwyns, an associate professor of anthropology
and lead author of the study.
Zwyns led excavations from 2011 to 2016 at the Tolbor-16 site along
the Tolbor River in the Northern Hangai Mountains between Siberia and
northern Mongolia.
The excavations yielded thousands of stone artifacts, with 826 stone
artifacts associated with the oldest human occupation at the site. With
long and regular blades, the tools resemble those found at other sites
in Siberia and Northwest China -- indicating a large-scale dispersal of
humans across the region, Zwyns said.
"These objects existed before, in Siberia, but not to such a degree
of standardization," Zwyns said. "The most intriguing (aspect) is that
they are produced in a complicated yet systematic way -- and that seems
to be the signature of a human group that shares a common technical and
cultural background."
That technology, known in the region as the Initial Upper
Palaeolithic, led the researchers to rule out Neanderthals or Denisovans
as the site's occupants. "Although we found no human remains at the
site, the dates we obtained match the age of the earliest Homo sapiens
found in Siberia," Zwyns said. "After carefully considering other
options, we suggest that this change in technology illustrates movements
of Homo sapiens in the region." Their findings were published online in an article in Scientific Reports.
The age of the site -- determined by luminescence dating on the
sediment and radiocarbon dating of animal bones found near the tools --
is about 10,000 years earlier than the fossil of a human skullcap from
Mongolia, and roughly 15,000 years after modern humans left Africa.
Evidence of soil development (grass and other organic matter)
associated with the stone tools suggests that the climate for a period
became warmer and wetter, making the normally cold and dry region more
hospitable to grazing animals and humans.
Preliminary analysis identifies bone fragments at the site as large
(wild cattle or bison) and medium size bovids (wild sheep, goat) and
horses, which frequented the open steppe, forests and tundra during the
Pleistocene -- another sign of human occupation at the site.
The dates for the stone tools also match the age estimates obtained
from genetic data for the earliest encounter between Homo sapiens and
the Denisovans.
"Although we don't know yet where the meeting happened, it seems
that the Denisovans passed along genes that will later help Homo sapiens
settling down in high altitude and to survive hypoxia on the Tibetan
Plateau," Zwyns said. "From this point of view, the site of Tolbor-16 is
an important archaeological link connecting Siberia with Northwest
China on a route where Homo sapiens had multiple possibilities to meet
local populations such as the Denisovans."
New research published today in the journal Parasitology
shows how the prehistoric inhabitants of a settlement in the freshwater
marshes of eastern England were infected by intestinal worms caught
from foraging for food in the lakes and waterways around their homes.
The Bronze Age settlement at Must Farm, located near what is now the
fenland city of Peterborough, consisted of wooden houses built on stilts
above the water. Wooden causeways connected islands in the marsh, and
dugout canoes were used to travel along water channels.
The village burnt down in a catastrophic fire around 3,000 years ago,
with artefacts from the houses preserved in mud below the waterline,
including food, cloth, and jewellery. The site has been called
"Britain's Pompeii."
Also preserved in the surrounding mud were waterlogged "coprolites"
-- pieces of human faeces -- that have now been collected and analysed
by archaeologists at the University of Cambridge. They used microscopy
techniques to detect ancient parasite eggs within the faeces and
surrounding sediment.
Very little is known about the intestinal diseases of Bronze Age
Britain. The one previous study, of a farming village in Somerset, found
evidence of roundworm and whipworm: parasites spread through
contamination of food by human faeces.
The ancient excrement of the Anglian marshes tells a different story. "We have found the earliest evidence for fish tapeworm, Echinostoma worm, and giant kidney worm in Britain," said study lead author Dr Piers Mitchell of Cambridge's Department of Archaeology.
"These parasites are spread by eating raw aquatic animals such as
fish, amphibians and molluscs. Living over slow-moving water may have
protected the inhabitants from some parasites, but put them at risk of
others if they ate fish or frogs."
Disposal of human and animal waste into the water around the
settlement likely prevented direct faecal pollution of the fenlanders'
food, and so prevented infection from roundworm -- the eggs of which
have been found at Bronze Age sites across Europe.
However, water in the fens would have been quite stagnant, due in
part to thick reed beds, leaving waste accumulating in the surrounding
channels. Researchers say this likely provided fertile ground for other
parasites to infect local wildlife, which -- if eaten raw or poorly
cooked -- then spread to village residents.
"The dumping of excrement into the freshwater channel in which the
settlement was built, and consumption of aquatic organisms from the
surrounding area, created an ideal nexus for infection with various
species of intestinal parasite," said study first author Marissa Ledger,
also from Cambridge's Department of Archaeology.
Fish tapeworms can reach 10m in length, and live coiled up in the
intestines. Heavy infection can lead to anemia. Giant kidney worms can
reach up to a metre in length. They gradually destroy the organ as they
become larger, leading to kidney failure. Echinostoma worms are much smaller, up to 1cm in length. Heavy infection can lead to inflammation of the intestinal lining.
"As writing was only introduced to Britain centuries later with the
Romans, these people were unable to record what happened to them during
their lives. This research enables us for the first time to clearly
understand the infectious diseases experienced by prehistoric people
living in the Fens," said Ledger.
The Cambridge team worked with colleagues at the University of
Bristol's Organic Chemistry Unit to determine whether coprolites
excavated from around the houses were human or animal. While some were
human, others were from dogs.
"Both humans and dogs were infected by similar parasitic worms, which
suggests the humans were sharing their food or leftovers with their
dogs," said Ledger.
Other parasites that infect animals were also found at the site, including pig whipworm and Capillaria
worm. It is thought that they originated from the butchery and
consumption of the intestines of farmed or hunted animals, but probably
did not cause humans any harm.
The researchers compared their latest data with previous studies on
ancient parasites from both the Bronze Age and Neolithic. Must Farm
tallies with the trend of fewer parasite species found at Bronze Age
compared with Neolithic sites.
"Our study fits with the broader pattern of a shrinking of the
parasite ecosystem through time," said Mitchell. "Changes in diet,
sanitation and human-animal relationships over millennia have affected
rates of parasitic infection." Although he points out that infections
from the fish tapeworm found at Must Farm have seen a recent resurgence
due to the popularity of sushi, smoked salmon and ceviche.
"We now need to study other sites in prehistoric Britain where people
lived different lifestyles, to help us understand how our ancestors'
way of life affected their risk of developing infectious diseases,"
added Mitchell.
The Must Farm site is an exceptionally well-preserved settlement
dating to 900-800 BC (the Late Bronze Age). The site was first
discovered in 1999. The Cambridge Archaeological Unit carried out a
major excavation between 2015 and 2016, funded by Historic England and
Forterra Building Products Ltd.
