Israel Antiquities Authority recovers hundreds of ancient coins from the home of known antiquities thief.

The Israel Antiquities Authority’s Theft Prevention Unit (“The Unit”) had there eyes on a resident of Kfar Kana for some time. Twice he had been caught red-handed using a metal detector without a permit and digging at antiquities sites without authorization. On both these occasions the perpetrator was tried in court, convicted, and sentenced to a fee. Nonetheless, the robber was undeterred. In collaboration with the Kfar Kana Police department, The Unit arrested the suspect for questioning, and searched his house. As a result, they recovered a cache of 232 ancient coins.

The Unit’s investigators identified coins from the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods, representing about 2000 years of history. According to Dr. Eitan Klein, The Unit’s Deputy Director, coins are of particular scientific value because they can be used to date antiquities sites with great accuracy. Klein says, “A coin stolen from an antiquities site is an important piece of information that will be missing when archaeologists want to carry out an archaeological excavation, and in fact is a missing part of the historical puzzle of Israel.” 

Early North Americans much more diverse than previously believed

Ancient skulls tell new story about our first settlers

An analysis of four ancient skulls found in Mexico suggests that the first humans to settle in North America were more biologically diverse than scientists had previously believed. The skulls were from individuals who lived 9,000 to 13,000 years ago, in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene eras.
These findings complicate the story accepted until now, based on ancient skeletons analyzed from South America, which suggested the first settlers in the Americas were very similar, said Mark Hubbe, co-lead author of the study and professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University.
"The first Americans were much more complex, much more diverse than we thought," Hubbe said.
"We have always talked about the settlement of the Americas as if North America and South America were the same. But they are different continents with different stories of how they were settled."
Hubbe led the work with Alejandro Terrazas Mata of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico. Their work was published today (Jan. 29, 2020) in PLOS ONE.
Archaeologists discovered the four skulls between 2008 and 2015 in submerged caves in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. At the time the four people were living, the caves were above sea level.
The skulls were analyzed with a CT scan, which combines data from several X-rays to build a 3D image of each skull.
The researchers analyzed the scans for specific landmarks on each skull and measured their positions on a 3D grid. They then compared the position of the coordinates with skulls from reference populations from all over the world to determine which populations the skulls most resembled.
The oldest skull showed strong similarities to North American arctic populations, while the second-oldest skull was consistent with modern European populations. The third skull showed affinities with Asian and Native American groups and the fourth had affinities with arctic populations in addition to having some modern South American features.
These skulls are important because compared to South America, relatively few ancient skeletons have been found in North America, Hubbe said. Between 300 and 400 skeletons that are more than 8,000 years old have been found in South America, compared to fewer than 20 in North America.
"Not all the skulls we analyzed looked like the ones from South America. They are fairly distinct as far as the morphology," he said.
The results suggest that the initial populations that ventured from Asia into North America had a high level of biological diversity, Hubbe said. For whatever reason, that diversity was reduced as humans dispersed into South America.
"We always assumed that what was happening in South America was true in North America. Now we need to revise that.
"We need to stop talking about the settlement of the Americas. We should talk about the settlement of North America and the settlement of South America as very different."
Hubbe said the results also caution against trying to create overly simple narratives about human migration, especially in the Americas.
"Whatever we thought about the settlement of the Americas is probably not the whole story. We still have a lot to learn."

New study debunks myth of Cahokia's Native American lost civilization

Ancient poop levels point to repopulation of iconic pre-Columbian metropolis

University of California - Berkeley

A University of California, Berkeley, archaeologist has dug up ancient human feces, among other demographic clues, to challenge the narrative around the legendary demise of Cahokia, North America's most iconic pre-Columbian metropolis.
In its heyday in the 1100s, Cahokia -- located in what is now southern Illinois -- was the center for Mississippian culture and home to tens of thousands of Native Americans who farmed, fished, traded and built giant ritual mounds.
By the 1400s, Cahokia had been abandoned due to floods, droughts, resource scarcity and other drivers of depopulation. But contrary to romanticized notions of Cahokia's lost civilization, the exodus was short-lived, according to a new UC Berkeley study.
The study takes on the "myth of the vanishing Indian" that favors decline and disappearance over Native American resilience and persistence, said lead author A.J. White, a UC Berkeley doctoral student in anthropology.
"One would think the Cahokia region was a ghost town at the time of European contact, based on the archeological record," White said. "But we were able to piece together a Native American presence in the area that endured for centuries."
The findings, just published in the journal American Antiquity, make the case that a fresh wave of Native Americans repopulated the region in the 1500s and kept a steady presence there through the 1700s, when migrations, warfare, disease and environmental change led to a reduction in the local population.
White and fellow researchers at California State University, Long Beach, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Northeastern University analyzed fossil pollen, the remnants of ancient feces, charcoal and other clues to reconstruct a post-Mississippian lifestyle.
Their evidence paints a picture of communities built around maize farming, bison hunting and possibly even controlled burning in the grasslands, which is consistent with the practices of a network of tribes known as the Illinois Confederation.
Unlike the Mississippians who were firmly rooted in the Cahokia metropolis, the Illinois Confederation tribe members roamed further afield, tending small farms and gardens, hunting game and breaking off into smaller groups when resources became scarce.
The linchpin holding together the evidence of their presence in the region were "fecal stanols" derived from human waste preserved deep in the sediment under Horseshoe Lake, Cahokia's main catchment area.
Fecal stanols are microscopic organic molecules produced in our gut when we digest food, especially meat. They are excreted in our feces and can be preserved in layers of sediment for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Because humans produce fecal stanols in far greater quantities than animals, their levels can be used to gauge major changes in a region's population.
To collect the evidence, White and colleagues paddled out into Horseshoe Lake, which is adjacent to Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site, and dug up core samples of mud some 10 feet below the lakebed. By measuring concentrations of fecal stanols, they were able to gauge population changes from the Mississippian period through European contact.
Fecal stanol data were also gauged in White's first study of Cahokia's Mississippian Period demographic changes, published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. It found that climate change in the form of back-to-back floods and droughts played a key role in the exodus of Cahokia's Mississippian inhabitants.
But while many studies have focused on the reasons for Cahokia's decline, few have looked at the region following the exodus of Mississippians, whose culture is estimated to have spread through the Midwestern, Southeastern and Eastern United States from 700 A.D. to the 1500s.
White's latest study sought to fill those gaps in the Cahokia area's history.
"There's very little archaeological evidence for an indigenous population past Cahokia, but we were able to fill in the gaps through historical, climatic and ecological data, and the linchpin was the fecal stanol evidence," White said.
Overall, the results suggest that the Mississippian decline did not mark the end of a Native American presence in the Cahokia region, but rather reveal a complex series of migrations, warfare and ecological changes in the 1500s and 1600s, before Europeans arrived on the scene, White said.
"The story of Cahokia was a lot more complex than, 'Goodbye, Native Americans. Hello, Europeans,' and our study uses innovative and unusual evidence to show that," White said.

Climate changes in Africa may have aided human migration

In 1961, John Kutzbach, then a recent college graduate, was stationed in France as an aviation weather forecaster for the U.S. Air Force. There, he found himself exploring the storied caves of Dordogne, including the prehistoric painted caves at Lascoux.
Thinking about the ancient people and animals who would have gathered in these caves for warmth and shelter, he took up an interest in glaciology. "It was interesting to me, as a weather person, that people would live so close to an ice sheet," says Kutzbach, emeritus University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Kutzbach went on to a career studying how changes in Earth's movements through space - the shape of its orbit, its tilt on its axis, its wobble - and other factors, including ice cover and greenhouse gases, affect its climate. Many years after reveling at Ice Age cave art, today he's trying to better understand how changes in Earth's climate may have influenced human migration out of Africa.
In a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Kutzbach and a team of researchers trace changes in climate and vegetation in Africa, Arabia and the Mediterranean going back 140,000 years to aid others studying the influences underlying human dispersal.
The study describes a dynamic climate and vegetation model that explains when regions across Africa, areas of the Middle East, and the Mediterranean were wetter and drier and how the plant composition changed in tandem, possibly providing migration corridors throughout time.
"We don't really know why people move, but if the presence of more vegetation is helpful, these are the times that would have been advantageous to them," Kutzbach says.
The model also illuminates relationships between Earth's climate and its orbit, greenhouse gas concentrations, and its ice sheets.
For instance, the model shows that around 125,000 years ago, northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula experienced increased and more northerly-reaching summer monsoon rainfall that led to narrowing of the Saharan and Arabian deserts due to increased grassland. At the same time, in the Mediterranean and the Levant (an area that includes Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine), winter storm track rainfall also increased.
These changes were driven by Earth's position relative to the sun. The Northern Hemisphere at the time was as close as possible to the sun during the summer, and as far away as possible during the winter. This resulted in warm, wet summers and cold winters.
"It's like two hands meeting," says Kutzbach. "There were stronger summer rains in the Sahara and stronger winter rains in the Mediterranean."
Given the nature of Earth's orbital movements, collectively called Milankovitch cycles, the region should be positioned this way roughly every 21,000 years. Every 10,000 years or so, the Northern Hemisphere would then be at its furthest point from the sun during the summer, and closest during winter.
Indeed, the model showed large increases in rainfall and vegetation at 125,000, at 105,000, and at 83,000 years ago, with corresponding decreases at 115,000, at 95,000 and at 73,000 years ago, when summer monsoons decreased in magnitude and stayed further south.
Between roughly 70,000 and 15,000 years ago, Earth was in a glacial period and the model showed that the presence of ice sheets and reduced greenhouse gases increased winter Mediterranean storms but limited the southern retreat of the summer monsoon. The reduced greenhouse gases also caused cooling near the equator, leading to a drier climate there and reduced forest cover.
These changing regional patterns of climate and vegetation could have created resource gradients for humans living in Africa, driving migration outward to areas with more water and plant life.
For the study, the researchers, including Kutzbach's UW-Madison colleagues Ian Orland and Feng He, along with researchers at Peking University and the University of Arizona, used the Community Climate System Model version 3 from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. They ran simulations that accounted for orbital changes alone, combined orbital and greenhouse gas changes, and a third that combined those influences plus the influence of ice sheets.
It was Kutzbach who, in the 1970s and 1980s, confirmed that changes in Earth's orbit can drive the strength of summer monsoons around the globe by influencing how much sunlight, and therefore, how much warming reaches a given part of the planet.
Forty years ago, there was evidence for periodic strong monsoons in Africa, but no one knew why, Kutzbach says. He showed that orbital changes on Earth could lead to warmer summers and thus, stronger monsoons. He also read about periods of "greening" in the Sahara, often used to explain early human migration into the typically-arid Middle East.
"My early work prepared me to think about this," he says.
His current modeling work mostly agrees with collected data from each region, including observed evidence from old lake beds, pollen records, cave features, and marine sediments. A recent study led by Orland used cave records in the Levant to show that summer monsoons reached into the region around 125,000 years ago.
"We get some things wrong (in the model)," says Kutzbach, so the team continues to refine it. For instance, the model doesn't get cold enough in southern Europe during the glacial period and not all vegetation changes match observed data. Computing power has also improved since they ran the model.
"This is by no means the last word," Kutzbach says. "The results should be looked at again with an even higher-resolution model."

Study focused on ancient skull and mandible remains at Crenshaw, a Caddo Indian site in southwest Arkansas.

Working with lead isotopes taken from tooth enamel of prehistoric animals, researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a new method for assessing the geographic origins of ancient humans.
John Samuelsen, doctoral candidate in anthropology and research assistant at the Arkansas Archeological Survey, analyzed linear patterning of lead isotopes on teeth from a 600- to 800-year-old skull and mandible cemetery at the Crenshaw site in southwest Arkansas. The new method allowed the researchers to compare the ancient human teeth to those of prehistoric animals, as well as rocks and soil samples, taken from the same area.
The research, sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation, was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
The Crenshaw site along the Red River is a culturally significant multiple-mound ceremonial center of the Caddo Indians. Previous studies have yielded conflicting interpretations of what the human skulls and mandibles reflect. Some research suggests the remains belonged to victims of violence who came from outside the region, while other research suggests the remains represent a local Caddo Indian burial practice of their own ancestors.
Samuelsen emphasized that a full evaluation of the human remains will be addressed in a future study, but he and Potra found that teeth of five of the 352 individuals tested with the new method contained isotopic signatures consistent with those found in the teeth of prehistoric animals from several sites in the area. Moreover, their isotopic signatures were inconsistent with isotopes from humans and animals from other regions.
"While our focus in this article is to establish a method for using lead isotopes to evaluate ancient human geographic origins," Samuelsen said, "this does suggest that at least these five individuals were from southwest Arkansas."
Lead is a toxic trace metal that affects the health of biological organisms, but it is useful for determining geographic origins. Its isotopic content within human and animal tooth enamel, via food chain pathways, reflects the geology of the region in which an organism grew up. While the lead isotopes from animal teeth were successful at identifying local human remains, versus those from other geographical areas, those isotopes taken from nearby rocks were far too variable to be useful for the same purpose, Samuelsen said. Rock analysis was done by Adriana Potra, associate professor of geosciences, who co-authored the paper.
A major research concern with lead isotope studies is modern, human-caused lead contamination found on soil, rocks and human and animal remains. If modern lead from gas, mines or industrial sources has contaminated the remains, then the lead isotopes will not reflect their original locations. Even if they are uncontaminated by modern lead, the natural soil contains lead that can affect the results similarly. For these reasons, the researchers' study used three different methods to assess contamination and provided recommendations for future research.
With these concerns in mind, the researchers performed isotopic work within the metal-free, modular Radiogenic Isotope Laboratory, a "room inside a room" clean lab at the University of Arkansas. The isotopic and trace element data were collected at the Trace Element and Radiogenic Isotope Laboratory, with help from Erik Pollock, scientific research technician in the Department of Biological Sciences, and Barry Shaulis, research associate in the Department of Geosciences. High accuracy isotopic data were collected on a multi-collector, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. Drilling of teeth was performed with a Leica M80 binocular microscope, housed by Celina Suarez, associate professor of geosciences.
The research project is supervised by George Sabo, director of the Arkansas Archeological Survey. Sabo is Samuelsen's graduate advisor. The research was funded by the Department of Anthropology and the Arkansas Archeological Society, in addition to the National Science Foundation. The study is being conducted in collaboration with the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma to help answer questions the tribe has about the cultural affiliation and origin of the remains.

Latest Archaeology News

 

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

 

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 5 weeks ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 month ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 5 weeks ago

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Neanderthals

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 month ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 month ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 month ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 days ago

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Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago

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Caribbean settlement began in Greater Antilles

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 5 weeks ago

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Ancient dietary practices in Mexico

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 month ago

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

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 month ago

*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 beginni... more »

 

Europe

Late Neolithic Italy was home to complex networks of metal exchange

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago

Analysis reveals where prehistoric Italian communities got their copper, from Tuscany and beyond PLOS [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Articulated burial and dismembered human remains from Ponte San Pietro, tomb 22. The chamber tomb is typical of the Rinaldone burial custom, central Italy, c.3600-2200 BC. Reprinted from Miari 1995 under... view more Credit: Dolfini et al, 2020 During the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, Italy was home to complex networks of metalwork exchange, according to a study published January 22, 2020 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE* by Andrea Dolfini of Newcastle Univer... more »

 

The Vikings erected a runestone out of fear of a climate catastrophe

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

University of Gothenburg [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Rök runes. view more Credit: Helge Andersson Several passages on the Rök stone - the world's most famous Viking Age runic monument - suggest that the inscription is about battles and for over a hundred years, researchers have been trying to connect the inscription with heroic deeds in war. Now, thanks to an interdisciplinary research project, a new interpretation of the inscription is being presented. The study shows that the inscription deals with an entirely different kind of battle: the conflict between light and darkness, warmth ... more »

Magnitude of Great Lisbon Earthquake may have been lower than previous estimates

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

The magnitude of the Great Lisbon Earthquake event, a historic and devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Portugal on All Saints' Day in 1755, may not be as high as previously estimated. In his study published in the *Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America*, Joao F. B. D. Fonseca at the Universidade de Lisboa used macroseismic data -- contemporaneous reports of shaking and damage -- from Portugal, Spain and Morocco to calculate the earthquake's magnitude at 7.7. Previous estimates placed the earthquake at magnitude 8.5 to 9.0. Fonseca's analysis also locates the epi... more »

Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Church ruins from Norse Greenland's Eastern Settlement. view more Credit: James H. Barrett The mysterious disappearance of Greenland's Norse colonies sometime in the 15th century may have been down to the overexploitation of walrus populations for their tusks, according to a study of medieval artefacts from across Europe. Founded by Erik the Red around 985AD after his exile from Iceland (or so the Sagas tell us), Norse communities in Greenland thrived for centuries - even gaining a bishop - before vanishing in the 1400s, leaving only ruins. Latest research fro... more »

 

Time-to-death of Roman emperors followed distinct pattern

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago

Roman emperors faced a high risk of violent death in their first year of rule, but the risk slowly declined over the next seven years, according to an article published in the open access journal *Palgrave Communications*. When statistically modelled, the length of time from the beginning of their reign until their death followed a set pattern, similar to that seen in reliability engineering, interdisciplinary research by Dr Joseph Saleh, an Aerospace Engineer from the Georgia Institute of Technology, US suggests. Historical records show that of 69 rulers of the unified Roman Empire... more »

Large scale feasts at ancient capital of Ulster drew crowds from across Iron Age Ireland

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago

[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *One of the analysed pig jaws for the study. view more Credit: Dr Richard Madgwick People transported animals over huge distances for mass gatherings at one of Ireland's most iconic archaeological sites, research concludes. Dr Richard Madgwick of Cardiff University led the study, which analysed the bones of 35 animals excavated from Navan Fort, the legendary capital of Ulster. Researchers from Queen's University Belfast, Memorial University Newfoundland and the British Geological Survey were also involved in the research. The site had long been considered a cen... more »

New archaeological discoveries reveal birch bark tar was used in medieval England

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago

University of Bristol [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Skeleton from grave 293, Anglo-Saxon child burial. view more Credit: Oxford Archaeology East Scientists from the University of Bristol and the British Museum, in collaboration with Oxford Archaeology East and Canterbury Archaeological Trust, have, for the first time, identified the use of birch bark tar in medieval England - the use of which was previously thought to be limited to prehistory. Birch bark tar is a manufactured product with a history of production and use that reaches back to the Palaeolithic. It is very sticky, and is wate... more »

Archaeologists find Bronze Age tombs lined with gold

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 5 weeks ago

The family tombs are near the 2015 site of the 'Griffin Warrior,' a military leader buried with armor, weapons and jewelry. University of Cincinnati [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *UC archaeologists found a sealstone made from semiprecious carnelian in the family tombs at Pylos, Greece. The sealstone was engraved with two lionlike mythological figures called genii carrying serving vessels... view more Credit: UC Classics Archaeologists with the University of Cincinnati have discovered two Bronze Age tombs containing a trove of engraved jewelry and artifacts that promise to unlock secrets a... more »

Ancient 'chewing gum' yields insights into people and bacteria of the past

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 5 weeks ago

University of Copenhagen The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *During excavations on Lolland, Denmark, archaeologists have found a 5,700-year-old birch pitch. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have succeeded in extracting a complete ancient human genome from the pitch... view more Credit: Photo: Theis Jensen. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have succeeded in extracting a complete human genome from a thousands-of-years old "chewing gum". According to the researchers, it is a new untapped source of ancient DNA. During excavations o... more »

 

 

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

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 month ago

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 a... more »

3,000-year-old teeth solve Pacific banana mystery

University of Otago

IMAGE: The findings were made from 3,000-year-old skeletons at Teouma, the oldest archaeological cemetery in Remote Oceania, a region that includes Vanuatu and all of the Pacific Islands east and South,... view more 

Credit: University of Otago

Humans began transporting and growing banana in Vanuatu 3000 years ago, a University of Otago scientist has discovered.
The discovery is the earliest evidence of humans taking and cultivating banana in to what was the last area of the planet to be colonised.
In an article published this week in Nature Human Behaviour, Dr Monica Tromp, Senior Laboratory Analyst at the University of Otago's Southern Pacific Archaeological Research (SPAR), found microscopic particles of banana and other plants trapped in calcified dental plaque of the first settlers of Vanuatu.
The finds came from 3000-year-old skeletons at the Teouma site on Vanuatu's Efate Island.
Dr Tromp used microscopy to look for 'microparticles' in the plaque, also known as dental calculus, scraped from the teeth of the skeletons. That allowed her to discover some of the plants people were eating and using to make materials like fabric and rope in the area when it was first colonised.
Teouma is the oldest archaeological cemetery in Remote Oceania, a region that includes Vanuatu and all of the Pacific islands east and south, including Hawaii, Rapa Nui and Aotearoa. The Teouma cemetery is unique because it is uncommon to find such well-preserved archaeological burials in the Pacific. Bone generally does not preserve in hot and humid climates and the same is true for things made of plant materials and also food.
The first inhabitants of Vanuatu were people associated with the Lapita cultural complex who originated in Island South East Asia and sailed into the Pacific on canoes, reaching the previously uninhabited islands of Vanuatu around 3000 years ago.
There has been debate about how the earliest Lapita people survived when they first arrived to settle Vanuatu and other previously untouched islands in the Pacific. It is thought Lapita people brought domesticated plants and animals with them on canoes - a transported landscape. But direct evidence for these plants had not been found at Teouma until Dr Tromp's study.
"One of the big advantages of studying calcified plaque or dental calculus is that you can find out a lot about otherwise invisible parts of people's lives," Dr Tromp says. Plaque calcifies very quickly and can trap just about anything you put inside of your mouth - much like the infamous Jurassic Park mosquito in amber - but they are incredibly small things that you can only see with a microscope."
The study began as part of Dr Tromp's PhD research in the Department of Anatomy and involved collaboration with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, Vanuatu National Herbarium and the community of Eratap village - the traditional landowners of the Teouma site.
Dr Tromp spent hundreds of hours in front of a microscope finding and identifying microparticles extracted from thirty-two of the Teouma individuals. The positive identification of banana (Musa sp.) is direct proof it was brought with the earliest Lapita populations to Vanuatu.
Palm species (Arecaceae) and non-diagnostic tree and shrub microparticles were also identified, indicating these plants were also important to the lives of this early population, possibly for use as food or food wrapping, fabric and rope making, or for medicinal purposes, Dr Tromp says.
"The wide, and often unexpected range of things you can find in calcified plaque makes what I do both incredibly exciting and frustrating at the same time."