12,000-year old stones may be very early evidence of wheel-like technology

Stones were likely used by early human cultures as spindle whorls to turn fibers into yarn

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

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Spinning methods. (a) Manual thigh-spinning [64]; (b) Spindle-and-whorl “supported spinning” [68]; (c) “drop spinning” [66]; (d) the experimental spindles and whorls, the 3D scans of the pebbles and their negative perforations. The bottom pictures show Yonit Kristal experimenting spinning fibres with replicas of the perforated pebbles, using supported spinning and drop spinning techniques (photographed by Talia Yashuv).

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Credit: Yashuv, Grosman, 2024, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

A collection of perforated pebbles from an archaeological site in Israel may be spindle whorls, representing a key milestone in the development of rotational tools including wheels, according to a study published November 13, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Talia Yashuv and Leore Grosman from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Donut-shaped objects connected to a bar, forming a wheel and axle, are a key invention springboarding technological development and are commonly associated with Bronze Age carts. Spindle whorls, round, weighted objects that are attached to a spindle stick, form a similar wheel-and-axle-like device to help the spindle rotate faster and longer, enabling it to efficiently gather up fibers such as wool or flax and spin them into yarn.

The stones studied in the new paper, recovered from the Nahal-Ein Gev II dig site in northern Israel, date back approximately 12,000 years, during the important transition to an agricultural lifestyle and the Neolithic period, long before the cart wheels of the Bronze Age. Introducing an innovative method for studying perforated objects, based on digital 3-D models of the stones and their negative holes, the authors describe more than a hundred of the mostly-limestone pebbles, which feature a circular shape perforated by a central hole. Due to this structure and composition, the authors of the new paper deduce that the stones were likely used as spindle whorls — a hypothesis also supported by successfully spinning flax using replicas of the stones.

This collection of spindle whorls would represent a very early example of humans using rotation with a wheel-shaped tool. They might have paved the way for later rotational technologies, such as the potter’s wheel and the cart wheel, which were vital to the development of early human civilizations.

The authors add: “The most important aspect of the study is how modern technology allows us to delve deep into touching the fingerprints of the prehistoric craftsman, then learn something new about them and their innovativeness, and at the same time, about our modern technology and how we’re linked.”

The freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0312007

Citation: Yashuv T, Grosman L (2024) 12,000-year-old spindle whorls and the innovation of wheeled rotational technologies. PLoS ONE 19(11): e0312007. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312007

12,000-year-old spindle whorls uncovered in the Jordan Valley

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

 

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A perforated stone from NEG II in front of its 3D model.

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Credit: Photographer Daniel Rolider for the Smithsonian Magazine

A new study by researchers from Hebrew University has identified 12,000 years old spindle whorls — early tools used to spin fibers into yarn. This discovery, recovered from the Nahal-Ein Gev II dig site in northern Israel, provides the earliest evidence of wheeled rotational technology in the Levant, offering insights into the technological advancements of the Natufian culture during the important transition to an agricultural lifestyle.

Link to pictures: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DlzDeVUTk2MHp_fXedwduoGNJsqpZTP2?usp=sharing

[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]– The study, recently published in PLOS ONE, was led by Talia Yashuv and Professor Leore Grosman from the Computational Archaeology Laboratory at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology. Introducing an innovative method for studying perforated objects, based on digital 3-D models of the stones and their negative holes, the authors describe more than a hundred of the mostly-limestone pebbles, which feature a circular shape perforated by a central hole. Due to this structure and composition, the authors deduce that the stones were likely used as spindle whorls — a hypothesis also supported by successfully spinning flax using replicas of the stones.

Spindle whorls, round, weighted objects that are attached to a spindle stick, form a similar wheel-and-axle-like device to help the spindle rotate faster and longer, enabling it to efficiently gather up fibers such as wool or flax and spin them into yarn. This discovery marks the earliest known evidence of this fast-spinning technology in the Levant, predating previously known textile tools by 4,000 years and highlighting an important stage in human innovation. Professor Grosman notes: “These Natufian perforated stones are actually the first wheels in form and function — a round object with a hole in the centre connected to a rotating axle, used long before the appearance of the wheel for transportation purposes”. This early use paved the way for future wheel-based rotational innovations, key advancements that revolutionized human technological history such as the potter’s wheel and the cart wheel that appears 6,000 years ago.

The Nahal Ein Gev II site, with its permanent structures, lime-plastered burials, and diversified tools, provides a rare glimpse into the end of the Natufian culture and the transition from a hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural one. The new findings underscore how the technological innovations are an important driving force in the Neolithization processes. This study not only expands our understanding of technological innovation but also showcases how advanced research tools reveal insights into prehistoric craftsmanship, underscoring humanity’s enduring drive for innovation.

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Journal

PLOS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0312007 

Location of the world’s oldest ochre mine detected: age of around 48,000 years

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Cologne

 

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Ochre mine in the Lion Cavern in Eswatini, a country in southern Africa

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Credit: Jörg Linstädter

In a recent study, an international team of researchers used luminescence dating and geochemical analyses to confirm the location of the oldest ochre mine in the world. It is located in the Lion Cavern in Eswatini, a country in southern Africa. Not only have the researchers dated the mine to an age of around 48,000 years, but they were also able to show how the ochre spread from the mine to nearby areas. The researchers analysed 173 samples from 15 Stone Age sites and reconstructed the methods of ochre extraction, use and transport networks. The study ‘Ochre communities of practice in Stone Age Eswatini’ was published in Nature Communications.

Ochre is a naturally occurring pigment made from iron-rich materials. It has been used by people for thousands of years – for cave paintings and to decorate symbolic objects and personal ornaments. Ochre has cultural, historical and spiritual significance in many societies and therefore offers researchers valuable insights into the growth of human society and human self-expression.

For this study, the researchers created a geochemical fingerprint of the ochre from the Lion Cavern region. For this purpose, small samples of ochre artefacts are safely made radioactive by neutron irradiation. Some of the resulting products can be radioactive. When these radioactive materials begin to decay, they emit characteristic energies. These can be measured and can thus provide information on where the material comes from and how it was created. In this way, the origin and transport routes of the artefacts can be reconstructed. In addition to this method, the researchers used an advanced laser technology, which makes the sample’s molecular bonds vibrate. This vibration indicates the mineral composition of the ochre. 

Dr Svenja Riedesel from the Cologne Luminescence Laboratory at the University of Cologne’s Institute of Geography contributed to the dating of the samples. Luminescence dating is based on the fact that materials such as quartz or feldspar absorb small amounts of energy from their surroundings over the course of time. The main source of this energy is the natural radiation in the ground, which is all around us. Small defects in the crystal structure of the material store this energy. “To determine the age of a material, we take a sample and expose it to light or heat in the laboratory,” said Riedesel. “In this way, the stored energy is released again and a weak light – known as luminescence – is produced.” The amount of light released indicates how long the material has not been exposed to sunlight or heat.

Riedesel used quartz grains to date the materials inside of the now abandoned mining caves of Lion Cavern. The results of the luminescence samples show that the caves were created by mining at least 42,000 years ago. This confirms earlier geochronological findings suggesting that ochre was mined in the Lion Cavern 48,000 years ago. “With the help of Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating, we were able to prove that this is the oldest known ochre mine in the world,” summarized the geographer.

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-53050-6 

Earliest ancient Maya salt works

With funding from the National Science Foundation, a team of archaeologists from LSU and the University of Texas at Tyler have excavated the earliest known ancient Maya salt works in southern Belize, as reported in the journal Antiquity.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Louisiana State University

 

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An excavation grid is put in place to mark an area of high-density pottery on the sea floor.

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Credit: E.C. Sills

The team was led by LSU Alumni Professor Heather McKillop, who first discovered wooden buildings preserved there below the sea floor, along with associated artifacts, and the only ancient Maya wooden canoe paddle in 2004.

Her key collaborator, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Sills at the University of Texas at Tyler, began working with McKillop as a master’s student and then as a doctoral student at LSU.

Since their initial discovery of wood below the sea floor in Belize, the team has uncovered an extensive pattern of sites that include “salt kitchens” for boiling seawater in pots over a fire to make salt, residences for salt workers, and the remains of other pole and thatch buildings.

All were remarkably well preserved in red mangrove peat in shallow coastal lagoons. Since 2004, the LSU research team has mapped as many as 70 underwater sites, with 4,042 wooden posts marking the outlines of ancient buildings.

In 2023, the team returned to Belize to excavate a site called Jay-yi Nah, which curiously lacked the broken pots so common at other salt works, while a few pottery sherds were found.

“These resembled sherds from the nearby island site of Wild Cane Cay, which I had previously excavated,” McKillop said. “So, I suggested to Sills that we survey Jay-yi Nah again for posts and sea floor artifacts.”

After their excavations, McKillop stayed in a nearby town to study the artifacts from Jay-yi Nah. As reported in Antiquity, the materials they found contrasted with those from other nearby underwater sites, which had imported pottery, obsidian, and high-quality chert, or flint.

“At first, this was perplexing,” McKillop said. “But a radiocarbon date on a post we’d found at Jay-yi Na provided an Early Classic date, 250-600 AD, and solved the mystery.”

Jay-yi Nah turned out to be much older than the other underwater sites. Through their findings, the researchers learned Jay-yi Nah had developed as a local enterprise, without the outside trade connections that developed later during the Late Classic period (AD 650-800), when the inland Maya population reached its peak with a high demand for salt—a basic biological necessity in short supply in the inland cities.

Jay-yi Nah had started as a small salt-making site, with ties to the nearby community on Wild Cane Cay that also made salt during the Early Classic period. Abundant fish bones preserved in anaerobic deposits at Wild Cane Cay suggest some salt was made there for salting fish for later consumption or trade.

New insights into the Denisovans – the new hominin group that interbred with modern day humans

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Trinity College Dublin

Scientists believe individuals of the most recently discovered “hominin” group (the Denisovans) that interbred with modern day humans passed on some of their genes via multiple, distinct interbreeding events that helped shape early human history.

In 2010, the first draft of the Neanderthal genome was published, and comparisons with modern human genomes revealed that Neanderthal and modern humans had interbred in the past. A few months later, analysis of a genome sequenced from a finger bone excavated in the Denisova cave in the Altai mountains in Siberia revealed that this bone fragment was from a newly discovered hominin group that we now call Denisovans, who also interbred with modern humans. 

“This was one of the most exciting discoveries in human evolution in the last decade,” said Dr Linda Ongaro, Postdoctoral Research in Trinity College Dublin’s School of Genetics and Microbiology, and first author of a fascinating new review article published in leading international journal Nature Genetics. 

“It’s a common misconception that humans evolved suddenly and neatly from one common ancestor, but the more we learn the more we realise interbreeding with different hominins occurred and helped to shape the people we are today.

“Unlike Neanderthal remains, the Denisovan fossil record consists of only that finger bone, a jawbone, teeth, and skull fragments. But by leveraging the surviving Denisovan segments in Modern Human genomes scientists have uncovered evidence of at least three past events whereby genes from distinct Denisovan populations made their way into the genetic signatures of modern humans.” 

Each of these presents different levels of relatedness to the sequenced Altai Denisovan, indicating a complex relationship between these sister lineages. 

In the review article, Dr Ongaro and Prof. Emilia Huerta-Sanchez outline evidence suggesting that several Denisovan populations, who likely had an extensive geographical range from Siberia to Southeast Asia and from Oceania to South America, were adapted to distinct environments. 

They further outline a number of genes of Denisovan origin that gave modern day humans advantages in their different environments.

Dr Ongaro added: “Among these is a genetic locus that confers a tolerance to hypoxia, or low oxygen conditions, which makes a lot of sense as it is seen in Tibetan populations; multiple genes that confer heightened immunity; and one that impacts lipid metabolism, providing heat when stimulated by cold, which confers an advantage to Inuit populations in the Arctic.

“There are numerous future directions for research that will help us tell a more complete story of how the Denisovans impacted modern day humans, including more detailed genetic analyses in understudied populations, which could reveal currently hidden traces of Denisovan ancestry. Additionally, integrating more genetic data with archaeological information – if we can find more Denisovan fossils – would certainly fill in a few more gaps.”

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Journal

Nature Genetics

DOI

10.1038/s41588-024-01960-y 

Ancient DNA challenges stories told about Pompeii victims

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Harvard Medical School

A new genetic study demands reexamination of the identities of, and relationships among, some of the people buried and preserved in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

 

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An international team led by scientists at Harvard Medical School, the University of Florence, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology analyzed DNA from the remains of five people who died in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE and were cast in plaster nearly two millennia later. Researchers retrieved the DNA in conjunction with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii during restoration of 86 damaged casts in 2015.

 

The results, published Nov. 7 in Current Biology, reveal that some of the stories told for decades about the individuals’ sexes and family relationships, which were based on the casts’ physical appearance and other archaeological evidence, are either not correct or not as simple as believed. For example:

 

• An adult with a golden bracelet and a child on their lap, often interpreted as mother and son or daughter, turned out to be a genetic male and a biologically unrelated child.
• Three of four presumed family members at one site had no genetic ties to one another, at least up to the third degree. (The team wasn’t able to analyze DNA from the remains of the fourth person.)
• Two individuals lying in a position frequently seen as an embrace — previously hypothesized to be sisters, mother and daughter, or lovers — include at least one genetic male, excluding two of the three common interpretations.

 

“The findings demonstrate the importance of integrating genetic analysis with archaeological and historical information to enrich or correct narratives constructed based on limited evidence,” said study co-senior author Alissa Mittnik, former research fellow in genetics at HMS who is now a group leader at the Max Planck Institute.

 

The authors note that such narratives often reflect the worldviews and biases of researchers and other storytellers at the time. In the case of the Pompeii individuals, the genetic insights should serve as a caution not to make deductions about characteristics like sex and kinship based on evidence like jewelry and physical proximity.

 

Further complicating the picture is that the remains themselves had been moved into different positions and the plaster casts likely “creatively restored” in the past, the authors said. Some groups of casts reflect the different aesthetic preferences of the historical periods in which they were made, the researchers noted.

 

The authors warn against making similar mistakes based on the new DNA findings.

 

“Instead of establishing new narratives that might also misrepresent these people’s experiences, the genetic results encourage reflection on the dangers of making up stories about gender and family relationships in past societies based on present-day expectations,” said co-senior author David Reich, professor of genetics in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS and professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University.

 

This is true both at Pompeii and at any historic or prehistoric site in the world, Reich added.

 

The analysis does corroborate previous evidence that ancient Pompeiians largely descended from people who had immigrated from the eastern Mediterranean.

 

“This underscores the cosmopolitanism of the Roman Empire in this period,” said Reich.

 

Pompeii Park has included ancient DNA analysis of humans and animals in its study protocols for years, said director Gabriel Zuchtriegel — augmenting other types of data to form a comprehensive, updated interpretation of the site’s archaeological findings and to develop new research methods that advance understanding of the past.

Archeologists find massive 3,000-year-old biblical structure in Jerusalem

 Archaeologists have recently unearthed a massive structure in Jerusalem that is referenced in two books of the Bible. The discovery includes the ruins of an ancient moat, constructed over 3,000 years ago in the City of David, one of history's oldest cities.

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