The world's oldest figurative artwork, dating back nearly 44,000 years

An Indonesian cave painting that depicts a prehistoric hunting scene could be the world's oldest figurative artwork dating back nearly 44,000 years, a discovery that points to an advanced artistic culture, according to new research.

Spotted two years ago on the island of Sulawesi, the 4.5 metre (13 foot) wide painting features wild animals being chased by half-human hunters wielding what appear to be spears and ropes,

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Using dating technology, the team at Australia's Griffith University said it had confirmed that the limestone cave painting dated back at least 43,900 years during the Upper Palaeolithic period.

Long-distance timber trade underpinned the Roman Empire's construction

The ancient Romans relied on long-distance timber trading to construct their empire, according to a study published December 4, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mauro Bernabei from the National Research Council, Italy, and colleagues.

The timber requirements of ancient Rome were immense and complex, with different types of trees from various locations around the Roman Empire and beyond used for many purposes, including construction, shipbuilding and firewood. Unfortunately, the timber trade in ancient Rome is poorly understood, as little wood has been found in a state adequate for analysis. In this study, Bernabei et al successfully date and determine the origin and chronology of unusually well-preserved ancient Roman timber samples.
The twenty-four oak timber planks (Quercus species) analyzed in this study were excavated during Metro construction in Rome during 2014-2016. They formed part of a Roman portico in the gardens of via Sannio (belonging to what was once a lavishly decorated and rich property). The authors measured the tree-ring widths for each plank and ran statistical tests to determine average chronology, successfully dating thirteen of the planks.
By comparing their dated planks to Mediterranean and central European oak reference chronologies, the authors found that the oaks used for the Roman portico planks were taken from the Jura mountains in eastern France, over 1700km away. Based on the sapwood present in 8 of the thirteen samples, the authors were able to narrow the date these oaks were felled to between 40 and 60 CE and determined that the planks all came from neighboring trees. Given the timber's dimensions and the vast distance it travelled, the authors suggest that ancient Romans (or their traders) likely floated the timber down the Saône and Rhône rivers in present-day France before transporting it over the Mediterranean Sea and then up the river Tiber to Rome, though this cannot be confirmed.
The authors note that the difficulty of obtaining these planks -- which were not specially sourced for an aesthetic function but used in the portico's foundations -- suggests that the logistical organization of ancient Rome was considerable, and that their trade network was highly advanced.
Bernabei notes: "This study shows that in Roman times, wood from the near-natural woodlands of north-eastern France was used for construction purposes in the centre of Rome. Considering the distance, calculated to be over 1700km, the timber sizes, [and] the means of transportation with all the possible obstacles along the way, our research emphasises the importance of wood for the Romans and the powerful logistic organisation of the Roman society."

Ancient dietary practices in Mexico

New research from anthropologists at McMaster University and California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), is shedding light on ancient dietary practices, the evolution of agricultural societies and ultimately, how plants have become an important element of the modern diet.
Researchers examined plant remains found on ceramic artifacts such as bowls, bottles and jars, and stone tools such as blades and drills, dating to the Early Formative period (2000-1000 BCE), which were excavated from the village site of La Consentida, located in the coastal region of Oaxaca in southwest Mexico.
They focused on remnants of starch grains, which are where plants store energy, and phytoliths, also known as 'microfossils,' a rigid, microscopic structure made of silica which is produced by plants and can survive the decay process. Both types of microbotanical remains are routinely recovered from artifacts to analyze ancient foodways.
A careful analysis found the remains of flowering plants, wild bean families and grasses, including maize. The findings support existing evidence that the village was transitioning from a broad, Archaic period (7000-2000 BCE) diet to one based on agriculture.
"This is an important piece of the puzzle. The work provides us with a better idea of how plants became cultivated and how they made their way to our plates," explains Éloi Bérubé, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University, who conducted the work with advisor Shanti Morell-Hart, an assistant professor of anthropology.
"It gives us a more complete understanding of the daily activities that played a significant role in ancient societies," he says.
For example, researchers found maize microfossils pointing to the storage and processing of different parts of the plant, as well as indications of heat damage, likely caused by cooking. Evidence of maize and wild beans was also found in artifacts used for burial offerings.
"The Early Formative was a key moment of social transformation for native peoples of Mesoamerica," says Guy Hepp, director of the La Consentida Archaeological Project and assistant professor of anthropology at CSUSB. "La Consentida was among Mesoamerica's earliest villages, and these new dietary results help us better understand some of the changes the community was experiencing, including a shift toward permanent settlements and the beginnings of social complexity."
Combined with other evidence from the site, including variations in burial offerings and the diversity of human depictions in small-scale ceramic figurines, this study suggests that the community was in the early stages of establishing a complex social organization.
The artifacts considered for the study come from a variety of contexts at La Consentida, including mounded earthen architecture, the spaces around ancient houses, and even human burials.
Pottery from the site includes jars used in domestic and communal cooking events and likely also for storage. Some of the jars were later reused as offerings with human burials. Decorative bowls were likely used for serving foods at communal feasts. Ceramic bottles, also found in feasting refuse, likely held beverages brewed from maize and possibly even cacao

Exhibition at The Met to Explore Superb Artistic Achievements of Ancestral Caribbean Civilizations

Exhibition Dates: December 16, 2019–January 10, 2021 Exhibition Location: The Met Fifth Avenue, Floor 1, The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, Gallery 359

Deity Figure (zemí) (detail), ca. A.D. 1000. Dominican Republic (?). Taíno. Wood (Guaiacum), shell, 27 x 8 5/8 x 9 1/8 in. (68.5 x 21.9 x 23.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979    A special exhibition highlighting the artistic achievements of early Caribbean civilizations will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning December 16, 2019. Showcasing more than 40 works drawn primarily from The Met collection and augmented by select loans from public and private collections in the United States, Arte del mar: Artistic Exchange in the Caribbean will present a stunning narrative of creativity from the ancestral cultures that encircled the Caribbean Sea in the millennia before European colonization. The exhibition will be the first to focus on the artistic exchange that took place among the Taíno civilizations of the Greater Antilles (present-day Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico) and the coastal societies in countries such as Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras before the 16th century.  Highlights will include rarely seen sculptures created in ancient Puerto Rico. The exhibition is made possible by the Friends of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas: Art of Five Continents. "Early Caribbean civilizations developed a rich cultural legacy that was fueled by the interplay of ideas and influences across the region," said Max Hollein, the Director of The Met. "This exhibition celebrates the artistic traditions of these ancestral communities while honoring the enduring power of the objects." Organized into three primary sections focused on ritual knowledge, ceremonial performance, and political power, Arte del mar (art of/from the sea) will highlight the sculptural achievements of the diverse island societies known today as the Taínos. Featured works on view include four rare wooden sculptures, such as the 10th- to 11th-century Deity Figure (Zemí) from The Met collection, a masterpiece that intertwines spirituality, ceremony, and politics. Another spectacular wooden figure from the 14th century, on loan from the Saint Louis Art Museum, illustrates how special trees inspired sculptors to reveal specific deity or ancestor forms in collaboration with leaders and ritual specialists. An exceptional group of three-pointed stones (trigonolitos), on loan from the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, highlights the extraordinary range of materials and imagery used by Taino sculptors to create spiritually charged ritual objects.  Alongside works of art created by their better-known Taíno peers, the exhibition will present objects created by the artists of the Tairona in northern Colombia, the diverse kingdoms in the Isthmus of Panama and Costa Rica, and the networks of sculptor communities in the Ulúa Valley, Honduras. Objects created from luxury materials including greenstone, shell, gold, and marble will underscore the range of trade connections between Caribbean peoples. In a fourth section, the exhibition will explore the ancestral legacies into the 20th century and today by incorporating Rumblings of the Earth (Rumor de la tierra), 1950, by painter Wifredo Lam (Cuban, 1902–1982), on loan from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.  In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum will offer a variety of educational programs in 2020, including an Artists on Artworks event, a lecture, Conversations With a Curator (bilingual in English and Spanish), Teen Career Lab, and a Family Afternoon (for families with children ages 3–11).   These programs are made possible by The Reed Foundation.

Arte del mar: Artistic Exchange in the Caribbean—part of a slate of special exhibitions on view for the Museum's 150th anniversary year—is accompanied by a Met Bulletin, which will present new archaeological and art historical research from international scholars of the region.  The Met's quarterly Bulletin program is supported in part by the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, established by the cofounder of Reader's Digest. The exhibition is organized by James Doyle, Assistant Curator for the Art of the Ancient Americas in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. This exhibition will open just ahead of the renovation and re-imagination of The Met's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, the 40,000 square feet of galleries devoted to the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. The exhibition will be featured on The Met website as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using the hashtag #Artedelmar. The exhibition labels will be available in Spanish online.

Ostrich eggshell beads reveal 10,000 years of cultural interaction across Africa

Ostrich eggshell beads are some of the oldest ornaments made by humankind, and they can be found dating back at least 50,000 years in Africa. Previous research in southern Africa has shown that the beads increase in size about 2,000 years ago, when herding populations first enter the region. In the current study, researchers Jennifer Miller and Elizabeth Sawchuk investigate this idea using increased data and evaluate the hypothesis in a new region where it has never before been tested.

Review of old ideas, analysis of old collections
To conduct their study, the researchers recorded the diameters of 1,200 ostrich eggshell beads unearthed from 30 sites in Africa dating to the last 10,000 years. Many of these bead measurements were taken from decades-old unstudied collections, and so are being reported here for the first time. This new data increases the published bead diameter measurements from less than 100 to over 1,000, and reveals new trends that oppose longstanding beliefs.
The ostrich eggshell beads reflect different responses to the introduction of herding between eastern and southern Africa. In southern Africa, new bead styles appear alongside signs of herding, but do not replace the existing forager bead traditions. On the other hand, beads from the eastern Africa sites showed no change in style with the introduction of herding. Although eastern African bead sizes are consistently larger than those from southern Africa, the larger southern African herder beads fall within the eastern African forager size range, hinting at contact between these regions as herding spread. "These beads are symbols that were made by hunter-gatherers from both regions for more than 40,000 years," says lead author Jennifer Miller, "so changes -- or lack thereof -- in these symbols tells us how these communities responded to cultural contact and economic change."
Ostrich eggshell beads tell the story of ancient interaction
The story told by ostrich eggshell beads is more nuanced than previously believed. Contact with outside groups of herders likely introduced new bead styles along with domesticated animals, but the archaeological record suggests the incoming influence did not overwhelm existing local traditions. The existing customs were not replaced with new ones; rather they continued and incorporated some of the new elements.
In eastern Africa, studied here for the first time, there was no apparent change in bead style with the arrival of herding groups from the north. This may be because local foragers adopted herding while retaining their bead-making traditions, because migrant herders possessed similar traditions prior to contact, and/or because incoming herders adopted local styles. "In the modern world, migration, cultural contact, and economic change often create tension," says Sawchuk, "ancient peoples experienced these situations too, and the patterns in cultural objects like ostrich eggshell beads give us a chance to study how they navigated these experiences."
The researchers hope that this work inspires a renewed interest into ostrich eggshell beads, and recommend that future studies present individual bead diameters rather than a single average of many. Future research should also investigate questions related to manufacture, chemical identification, and the effects of taphonomic processes and wear on bead diameter. "This study shows that examining old collections can generate important findings without new excavation," says Miller, "and we hope that future studies will take advantage of the wealth of artifacts that have been excavated but not yet studied."

Latest Archaeology News

 

Europe

The art of the Roman surveyors emerges from newly discovered pavements in Pompeii

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 15 hours ago

Politecnico di milano [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Plan of the house of Orion, Showing the disposition of the newly discovered images (1,2) and of the mosaics (3) view more Credit: L. Ferro, G Magli, M. Osanna The technical skills of the Roman agrimensores - the technicians in charge of the centuriations (division of the lands) and of other surveys such as planning towns and aqueducts - are simply legendary. For instance, extremely accurate projects of centuriations are still visible today in Italy and in other Mediterranean countries. Their work had also religious and symbolic connectio... more »

Facial deformity in royal dynasty was linked to inbreeding

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *King Charles II of Spain was the last in the Habsburg line and one of the most afflicted with the facial deformity view more Credit: Don Juan Carreño de Miranda The "Habsburg jaw", a facial condition of the Habsburg dynasty of Spanish and Austrian kings and their wives, can be attributed to inbreeding, according to new results published in the *Annals of Human Biology*. The new study combined diagnosis of facial deformities using historical portraits with genetic analysis of the degree of relatedness to determine whether there was a direct link. The research... more »

Justinianic plague not a landmark pandemic?

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago

National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *A graphical abstract showing highlights of the research presented in the article: "The Justinanic Plague: An Inconsequential Pandemic? " view more Credit: Elizabeth Herzfeldt-Kamprath, SESYNC Researchers now have a clearer picture of the impact of the first plague pandemic, the Justinianic Plague, which lasted from about 541-750 CE. Led by researchers at the University of Maryland's National-Socio Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), the international team of scholars found that the plague's effects may have b... more »

New archaeological information on the use of plants in prehistoric northern Europe

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago

University of Helsinki [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Charred remains of prehistoric gathered plants: a rose hip, a nutshell fragment, a raspberry seed, a yellow water lily seed and a bird cherry seed. The rose hip, dating back... view more Credit: Santeri Vanhanen In the study, the following questions were explored: Which plants did humans gather in prehistoric times? When did the first cultivated plants make their initial appearance, and where did they come from? How did farming develop after its adoption? To find answers to these questions, ancient plant remains, such as nutshells, seed... more »

 

Early DNA lineages from Finland shed light on the diverse origins of the contemporary population

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Medieval burial site of Kalmistomäki in Kylälahti, Hiitola in Russia. view more Credit: Stanislav Belskiy A new genetic study carried out at the University of Helsinki and the University of Turku demonstrates that, at the end of the Iron Age, Finland was inhabited by separate and differing populations, all of them influencing the gene pool of modern Finns. The study is so far the most extensive investigation of the ancient DNA of people inhabiting the region of Finland. In the study, genes were investigated from archaeological bone samples of more than one ... more »

Alpine rock axeheads became social and economic exchange fetishes in the Neolithic

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Alpine rock axehead found at Harras, Thuringia, from the Michelsberg Culture (c. 4300-2800 ANE). view more Credit: Juraj Lipták, State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt. Axeheads made out of Alpine rocks had strong social and economic symbolic meaning in the Neolithic, given their production and use value. Their resistance to friction and breakage, which permitted intense polishing and a re-elaboration of the rocks, gave these artefacts an elevated exchange value, key to the formation of long-distan... more »

 

 

World's oldest glue used from prehistoric times till the days of the Gauls

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

Birch bark tar, the oldest glue in the world, was in use for at least 50,000 years, from the Palaeolithic Period up until the time of the Gauls. Made by heating birch bark, it served as an adhesive for hafting tools and decorating objects. Scientists mistakenly thought it had been abandoned in western Europe at the end of the Iron Age (800-25 BC) and replaced by conifer resins, around which a full-fledged industry developed during the Roman period. But by studying artefacts that date back to the first six centuries AD through the lens of chemistry, archaeology, and textual analysis... more »

The medieval Catholic church's influence on psychology of Western, industrialized societies

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago

The Western Catholic Church's influence on marriage and family structures during the Middle Ages shaped the cultural evolution of the beliefs and behaviors now common among Western Europeans and their cultural descendants, researchers report. The greater individualism, lower conformity and increased stranger trust behaviors commonly observed among these populations, long exposed to the church, are at least in part due to the Medieval Western Church's policies, the authors say. Their study highlights how cultural changes more than 500 years ago can evolve and seed significant and lo... more »

Ancient roman DNA reveals genetic crossroads of Europe and Mediterranean

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago

All roads may lead to Rome, and in ancient times, a great many European genetic lineages did too, according to a new study. Its results, perhaps the most detailed analysis of changing genetic variation patterns in the region to date, reveal a dynamic population history from the Mesolithic (~10,000 BCE) into modern times, and spanning the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. At its height, the ancient Roman Empire sprawled across three continents, encompassing the entirety of the Mediterranean and the lives of tens of millions across Europe, the Near East and North Africa. The size of ... more »

Minoan treasures found on Libyan Sea island: Experts

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago

A team excavating on the tiny island of Chrysi south of Crete for over a decade have unearthed a 3,800-year-old Bronze Age compound containing gold jewels, glass beads and the remains of bronze talents, the common unit of value of ancient Greece. © ΥΠΠΟΑ. *ATHENS* *(AFP)**.-* Archaeologists in Greece have located a "major treasure" of Minoan origin in a Bronze Age settlement on a small island in the Libyan Sea, the culture ministry said Friday. A team excavating on the tiny island of Chrysi south of Crete for over a decade have unearthed a 3,800-year-old Bronze Age compound contai... more

 

Americas

Unique sled dogs helped the inuit thrive in the North American Arctic

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 days ago

UC Davis anthropologists and geneticists traced dog's DNA back 2,000 years University of California - Davis [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *A team of Greenland sled dogs are descendants of the Inuit of North American Arctic. view more Credit: Article author Tatiana Tatiana Feuerborn Inuit sled dogs have changed little since people migrated to the North American Arctic across the Bering Strait from Siberia with them, according to researchers who have examined DNA from the dogs from that time span. The legacy of these Inuit dogs survives today in Arctic sled dogs, making them one of the last ... more »

Barbequed clams on the menu for ancient Puerto Ricans

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 days ago

Analysis of fossilized shells reveals cooking habits of Caribbean civilizations over 2500 years ago Cardiff University [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Photographs of all shells analyzed in this study. view more Credit: Cardiff University Scientists have reconstructed the cooking techniques of the early inhabitants of Puerto Rico by analysing the remains of clams. Led by Philip Staudigel, who conducted the analysis as a graduate student at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Cardiff University, the team has used new chemical analysis techniques ... more »

 

Only eat oysters in months with an 'r'? Rule of thumb is at least 4,000 years old

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The impressed odostome, Boonea impressa, is a tiny marine snail that parasitizes oysters by perching atop and piercing their shells and sucking their insides. Because the snails have a predictable... view more Credit: Kristen Grace/Florida Museum GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Foodie tradition dictates only eating wild oysters in months with the letter "r" - from September to April - to avoid watery shellfish, or worse, a nasty bout of food poisoning. Now, a new study suggests people have been following this practice for at least 4,000 years. An analysis of a large sh... more »

Scientists use modern technology to understand how ochre paint was created in pictographs

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

Ochre, one of Earth's oldest naturally occurring materials, was often seen as a vivid red paint University of Missouri-Columbia [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is one of the pieces of rock art found at Babine Lake. It is representative of the rock art that was analyzed in the study. view more Credit: University of Missouri Ochre, one of Earth's oldest naturally occurring materials, was often used as a vivid red paint in ancient rock art known as pictographs across the world. Despite its broad use throughout human history and a modern focus on how the artistic symbolism is interpreted,... more »

 

Egypt and the Near East

Ancient Egyptians gathered birds from the wild for sacrifice and mummification

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Scene from the Books of the Dead (The Egyptian museum) showing the ibis-headed God Thoth recording the result of the final judgement. view more Credit: Wasef et al, 2019 In ancient Egypt, Sacred Ibises were collected from their natural habitats to be ritually sacrificed, according to a study released November 13, 2019 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE* by Sally Wasef of Griffith University, Australia and colleagues. Egyptian catacombs are famously filled with the mummified bodies of Sacred Ibises. Between around 664BC and 250AD, it was common practice for... more »

Megadrought likely triggered the fall of the Assyrian Empire

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

Climate change influenced rise and fall of Northern Iraq's Neo-Assyrian Empire Changes in climate may have contributed to both the rise and collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in northern Iraq, which was considered the most powerful empire of its time, according to a new study. The results suggest that multi-decade megadroughts aligned with the timing of the empire's collapse in 609 BCE, triggering declines in the region's agricultural productivity that led to political and economic demise within 60 years. Previous explanations for the empire's collapse have focused on political i... more »

 

Neanderthals

Stanford scientists link Neanderthal extinction to human diseases

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago

Stanford University -- School of Humanities and Sciences [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is an illustration of modern humans overcoming disease burden before Neanderthals. view more Credit: Vivian Chen Wong Growing up in Israel, Gili Greenbaum would give tours of local caves once inhabited by Neanderthals and wonder along with others why our distant cousins abruptly disappeared about 40,000 years ago. Now a scientist at Stanford, Greenbaum thinks he has an answer. In a new study published in the journal *Nature Communications*, Greenbaum and his colleagues propose that complex disease ... more »

 

The last Neanderthal necklace

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is a falange of imperial eagle with marks of court from Cave Foradada view more Credit: Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo Eagle talons are regarded as the first elements used to make jewellery by Neanderthals, a practice which spread around Southern Europe about 120,000 and 40,000 years ago. Now, for the first time, researchers found evidence of the ornamental uses of eagle talons in the Iberian Peninsula. An article published in the cover of the journal *Science Advances* talks about the findings, which took place in the site of the cave Foradada in Calafell. ... more »

 

Africa

The genetic imprint of Palaeolithic has been detected in North African populations

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The origin and history of the population of North Africa are different from the rest of the continent and are more similar to the demographic history of regions outside Africa. view more Credit: Michael Gaida, Pixabay An international team of scientists has for the first time performed an analysis of the complete genome of the population of North Africa. They have identified a small genetic imprint of the inhabitants of the region in Palaeolithic times, thus ruling out the theory that recent migrations from other regions completely erased the genetic traces o... more »

 

The homeland of modern humans

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 5 weeks ago

A study has concluded that the earliest ancestors of anatomically modern humans (*Homo sapiens sapiens*) emerged in a southern African 'homeland' and thrived there for 70 thousand years. The breakthrough findings are published in the prestigious journal *Nature* today. The authors propose that changes in Africa's climate triggered the first human explorations, which initiated the development of humans' genetic, ethnic and cultural diversity. This study provides a window into the first 100 thousand years of modern humans' history. *DNA as a time capsule * "It has been clear for s... more »

 

 

Israel

Human migration out of Africa may have followed monsoons in the Middle East

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago

Last year, scientists announced that a human jawbone and prehistoric tools found in 2002 in Misliya Cave, on the western edge of Israel, were between 177,000 and 194,000 years old. The finding suggested that modern humans, who originated in Africa, began migrating out of the continent at least 40,000 years earlier than scientists previously thought. But the story of how and when modern humans originated and spread throughout the world is still in draft form. That's because science hasn't settled how many times modern humans left Africa, or just how many routes they may have taken... more »

Study reveals that humans migrated from Europe to the Levant 40,000 years ago

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *A view of Manot cave and a close up of the area where some of the teeth were found. view more Credit: Prof. Israel Hershkovitz/American Friends of Tel Aviv University. Who exactly were the Aurignacians, who lived in the Levant 40,000 years ago? Researchers from Tel Aviv University, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Ben-Gurion University now report that these culturally sophisticated yet mysterious humans migrated from Europe to the Levant some 40,000 years ago, shedding light on a significant era in the region's history. The Aurignacian culture first appe... more »

1,400 year-old hammer and nails discovered at Usha show Byzantine inhabitants practiced metallurgy.

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago

This past Sukkot, about 8,500 people participated in archaeological excavations and activities hosted by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). One family, from Tur’an in the Lower Galilee, made a rare and informative discovery while volunteering at the IAA’s excavation of ancient Usha. The family discovered an iron hammer-head and nails dating to the Byzantine period, about 1,400 years ago. According to *Yair Amitzur *and* Eyad Bisharat*, directors of the excavation on behalf of the IAA, “About 20 iron hammers are registered in the Israel Antiquities Authority records, only six o... more » »

 

Asia

Ground penetrating radar reveals why ancient Cambodian capital was moved to Angkor

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Regional map of Koh Ker showing the location of the chute and key archaeological features. The detailed map area (top right) is shown as a white dashed box on the... view more Credit: Dr Ian Moffat, Flinders University The largest water management feature in Khmer history was built in the 10th century as part of a short-lived ancient capital in northern Cambodia to store water but the system failed in its first year of operation, possibly leading to the return of the capital to Angkor. An international team of researchers led by Dr Ian Moffat from Flinders ... more »

The art of the Roman surveyors emerges from newly discovered pavements in Pompeii

Politecnico di milano

IMAGE: Plan of the house of Orion, Showing the disposition of the newly discovered images (1,2) and of the mosaics (3) view more 

Credit: L. Ferro, G Magli, M. Osanna

The technical skills of the Roman agrimensores - the technicians in charge of the centuriations (division of the lands) and of other surveys such as planning towns and aqueducts - are simply legendary. For instance, extremely accurate projects of centuriations are still visible today in Italy and in other Mediterranean countries. Their work had also religious and symbolic connections being related with the foundation of towns and the Etruscan's tradition.
These technicians were called Gromatics due to their chief working instrument, called Groma. It was based on a cross made of four perpendicular arms each bringing cords with identical weights, acting as plumb-lines. The surveyor could align with extreme precision two opposite, very thin plumb-lines with reference poles held at various distances by assistants or fixed in the terrain, in the same manner as palines (red and white posts) are used in modern theodolite surveying.
Up to now, the unique known example of a Groma was coming from Pompeii excavations, while images illustrating the work of the Gromatics were passed on only by medieval codex's, dating to many centuries after the art of the agrimensores was not practiced any more. It now looks like that again Pompeii is the place where new information about these ancient architects can come out. As part of the Great Pompeii Project indeed, inaugurated in 2014 and co-financed by the European Community, new archaeological investigations unearthed a house with a solemn, ancient facade. Inside, almost intact floors have been found containing two beautiful mosaics probably representing Orion, and a series of enigmatic images.
The interpretation of the images has been recently given in a joint paper by Massimo Osanna, Director of the Pompeii archaeological site, and Luisa Ferro and Giulio Magli, of the School of Architecture at the Politecnico of Milan. Among the images there is, for instance, a square inscribed in a circle. The circle is cut by two perpendicular lines, one of which coincides with the longitudinal axis of the atrium of the house and appears as a sort of rose of the winds that identifies a regular division of the circle in eight equally spaced sectors. The image is strikingly similar to one used in the medieval codex's to illustrate the way in which the Gromatics divided the space. Another, complex image shows a circle with an orthogonal cross inscribed in it, connected by five dots disposed as a sort of small circle to a straight line with a base. The whole appears as the depiction of a Groma.
Was the house used for meetings and/or the owner himself belonged to the gromatic's guild? We do not know it for sure. In any case however, and once again, Pompeii reveals itself as an invaluable source in understanding key aspects of the Roman life and civilization.