Bone analyzes tell about kitchen utensils in the Middle Ages

Clay pots? Wooden spoons? Copper pots? Silver forks? What materials has man used for making kitchen utensils throughout history? A new study now sheds light on the use of kitchen utensils made of copper.

At first thought, you would not expect hundreds of years old bones from a medieval cemetery to be able to tell you very much - let alone anything about what kinds of kitchen utensils were used to prepare food.

But when you put such a bone in the hands of Professor Kaare Lund Rasmussen, University of Southern Denmark, the bone begins to talk about the past.

A warehouse full of bones

- For the first time, we have succeeded in tracing the use of copper cookware in bones. Not in isolated cases, but in many bones over many years, and thus we can identify trends in historical use of copper in the household, he explains.

The research team has analyzed bones from 553 skeletons that are between 1200 and 200 years old. They all come from nine, now abandoned cemeteries in Jutland, Denmark and Northern Germany. The skeletons are today kept at Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig, Germany and at the University of Southern Denmark.

Some of the bones examined are from Danish cities such as Ribe and Haderslev, while others are from small rural communities, such as Tirup and Nybøl.

Your body needs copper

The element copper can be traced in bones if ingested. Copper is needed for the body to function; it is, among other things, involved in a number of metabolic processes, such as the function of the immune system - so without copper, the individual would not be able to live.

The need for copper is usually met through the food we eat and most of us probably never think about this.

It is different with the high concentrations of copper now revealed to have been ingested by our predecessors in the Viking Age and the Medieval Times. Much of this copper must have come from the kitchen utensils with which the daily meals were prepared, the researchers believe.

How did the copper get into the body?

One possibility is that the copper pots were scraped by metal knives, releasing copper particles, and that these particles were ingested with the food.

Or maybe copper was dissolved and mixed with food, if the pot was used for storing or cooking acidic foods.

- The bones show us that people consumed tiny portions of copper every day throughout their lives. We can also see that entire cities have been doing this for hundreds of years. In Ribe, the inhabitants did this for 1000 years, says Kaare Lund Rasmussen.

Who ate the copper?

Apparently, the copper intake was at no time so great that it became toxic. But the researchers can't say for sure.

However, they can with certainty say that some people never ingested copper enough for it to be traceable in the bones. Instead, they ate food prepared in pots made of other materials.

These people lived in the countryside. The bones reveal that inhabitants in the small villages of Tirup and Nybøl did not prepare their food in copper pots.

Rely less on written sources

But how do these findings go with historical accounts and pictures of copper cookware used in in country kitchens?

- A copper pot in a country kitchen may have been so unusual that the owner would tell everybody about it and maybe even write it down. However, such an account should not lead to the conclusion that copper cookware was commonly used in the countryside. Our analyzes show the opposite, says Kaare Lund Rasmussen.

Contrary, the use of copper pots was evident in the towns of Ribe, Horsens, Haderslev and Schleswig.

1000 years of constant copper ingestion

- The cities were dynamic communities and homes of rich people who could acquire copper items. Wealthy people probably also lived in the countryside, but they did not spend their money on copperware, concludes Kaare Lund Rasmussen.

208 of the skeletons originate from a cemetery in Ribe, covering a period of 1000 years from AD 800 to AD 1800, spanning from the Viking Age over the Middle Ages to recent times.

- These skeletons show us there was a continuous exposure of copper throughout the period. Thus, for 1000 years, the inhabitants consumed copper via their daily diet.

Mercury in Tycho Brahe's beard

Professor Kaare Lund Rasmussen has performed several chemical analyzes of historical and archaeological artifacts.

Among other things, he has analyzed a hair from the Danish Renaissance astronomer Tycho Brahe's beard and found that the he did not die from mercury poisoning, as hard-nosed rumors would otherwise know.

In turn, Tycho Brahe was exposed to large amounts of gold until two months before his death - perhaps as a result of his alchemist life, perhaps because he ate and drank from gold-plated service.

Maize, not metal, key to native settlements' history in NY

 New Cornell University research is producing a more accurate historical timeline for the occupation of Native American sites in upstate New York, based on radiocarbon dating of organic materials and statistical modeling.

The results from the study of a dozen sites in the Mohawk Valley were recently published in the online journal PLoS ONE by Sturt Manning, professor of classical archaeology; and John Hart, curator in the research and collections division of the New York State Museum in Albany.

The findings, Manning said, are helping to refine our understanding of the social, political and economic history of the Mohawk Valley region at the time of early European intervention.

The work is part of the Dating Iroquoia Project, involving researchers from Cornell, the University of Georgia and the New York State Museum, and supported by the National Science Foundation.

The new paper continues and expands upon research on four Iroquoian (Wendat) sites in southern Ontario, published by the project team in 2018. Using similar radiocarbon dating and statistical analysis methods, the 2018 findings also impacted timelines of Iroquoian history and European contact.

"The Mohawk case was chosen because it is an iconic series of indigenous sites and was subject to one of the first big dating efforts in the 1990s," said Manning. "We have now examined a southern Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) case as well as a northern Iroquois (Wendat) case, and we again find that the previous dating scheme is flawed and needs revision."

The Mohawk and Hudson river valleys were key inland routes for Europeans entering the region from the coast in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Colonization of the new world enriched Europe - Manning has described this period as "the beginning of the globalized world" - but brought disease and genocide to indigenous peoples, and their history during this time is often viewed in terms of trade and migration.

The standard timeline created for historical narratives of indigenous settlement, Manning noted, has largely been based on the presence or absence of types of European trade goods - e.g., metal items or glass beads. Belying this Eurocentric colonial lens, trade practices differed from one native community to another, and not all of them accepted contact with, or goods from, European settlers.

To clarify the origins of metal goods found in the upstate New York settlements, the team used portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis to determine whether copper artifacts were of native or European origin. They then also re-assessed the dates of the sites using radiocarbon dating coupled with Bayesian statistical analysis.

Bayesian analysis, Manning explained, is "a statistical method that integrates prior knowledge in order to better define the probability parameters around a question or unknown. In this case, archaeological and ethno-historic information was combined with data from a large set of radiocarbon dates in order to estimate occupation dates for a set of Mohawk villages across the 13th to early 17th centuries."

The focus was on the period from the late 15th to the early 17th century, he said, or "the long 16th century of change in the northeast."

The results "add to a growing appreciation of the interregional variations in the circulation and adoption patterns of European goods in northeastern North America in the 16th to earlier 17th centuries," Manning said.

In previous indigenous site studies, where artifacts indicated trade interactions, researchers might assume "that trade goods were equally available, and wanted, all over the region," and that different indigenous groups shared common trade practices, he said.

Direct radiocarbon dating of organic matter, such as maize kernels, tests those assumptions and removes the colonial lens, allowing an independent timeframe for historical narratives, Manning said.

At several major Iroquois sites lacking close European connections, independent radiocarbon studies indicate substantially different date ranges from the previous estimates based on trade goods.

"The re-dating of a number of Iroquoian sites also raises questions about the social, political and economic history of indigenous communities from the 14th to the 17th centuries," Manning said. "For example ... a shift to larger and fortified communities, and evidence of increased conflict," was previously thought to have occurred around the mid-15th century.

But the radiocarbon findings from some larger sites in Ontario and their cultivated maize fields ¬- 2,000 acres or more in some instances - date the sites from the mid-16th to the start of the 17th century, he said.

"However, as this New York state study shows, other areas had their own and differing trajectories. Thus with direct dating we start to see real, lived, histories of communities, and not some imposed generic assessment," Manning said. "The emerging new and independent timeframe for northeast North America will now form the basis of a wider indigenous history," Manning said, "free from a Eurocentric bias, with several past assumptions open for an overdue rethink."

Mysterious bone circles made from the remains of mammoths reveal clues about Ice Age

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

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IMAGE: THE MAJORITY OF THE BONES FOUND AT THE SITE INVESTIGATED, IN THE RUSSIAN PLAINS, ARE FROM MAMMOTHS. A TOTAL OF 51 LOWER JAWS AND 64 INDIVIDUAL MAMMOTH SKULLS WERE USED... view more 

CREDIT: ALEX PRYOR

Mysterious bone circles made from the remains of dozens of mammoths have revealed clues about how ancient communities survived Europe's ice age.

About 70 of these structures are known to exist in Ukraine and the west Russian Plain.

New analysis shows the bones at one site are more than 20,000 years old, making it the oldest such circular structure built by humans discovered in the region. The bones were likely sourced from animal graveyards, and the circle was then hidden by sediment and is now a foot below current surface level.

The majority of the bones found at the site investigated, in the Russian Plains, are from mammoths. A total of 51 lower jaws and 64 individual mammoth skulls were used to construct the walls of the 30ft by 30ft structure and scattered across its interior. Small numbers of reindeer, horse, bear, wolf, red fox and arctic fox bones were also found.

Archaeologists from the University of Exeter have also found for the first time the remains of charred wood and other soft non-woody plant remains within the circular structure, situated just outside the modern village of Kostenki, about 500km south of Moscow. This shows people were burning wood as well as bones for fuel, and the communities who lived there had learned where to forage for edible plants during the Ice Age. The plants could also have been used for poisons, medicines, string or fabric. More than 50 small charred seeds were also found - the remains of plants growing locally or possibly food remains from cooking and eating.

Dr Alexander Pryor, who led the study, said: "Kostenki 11 represents a rare example of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers living on in this harsh environment. What might have brought ancient hunter gatherers to this site? One possibility is that the mammoths and humans could have come to the area on masse because it had a natural spring that would have provided unfrozen liquid water throughout the winter - rare in this period of extreme cold.

"These finds shed new light on the purpose of these mysterious sites. Archaeology is showing us more about how our ancestors survived in this desperately cold and hostile environment at the climax of the last ice age. Most other places at similar latitudes in Europe had been abandoned by this time, but these groups had managed to adapt to find food, shelter and water."

The last ice age, which swept northern Europe between 75-18,000 years ago, reached its coldest and most severe stage at around 23-18,000 years ago, just as the site at Kostenki 11 was being built. Climate reconstructions indicate at the time summers were short and cool and winters were long and cold, with temperatures around -20 degrees Celsius or colder. Most communities left the region, likely because of lack of prey to hunt and plant resources they depended upon for survival. Eventually the bone circles were also abandoned as the climate continued to get colder and more inhospitable.

Previously archaeologists have assumed that the circular mammoth bone structures were used as dwellings, occupied for many months at a time. The new study suggests this may not always have been the case as the intensity of activity at Kostenki 11 appears less than would be expected from a long term base camp site.

Other finds include more than 300 tiny stone and flint chips just a few millimetres in size, debris left behind the site's inhabitants as they knapped stone nodules into sharp tools with distinctive shapes used for tasks such as butchering animals and scraping hides.

The research, conducted by academics from the University of Exeter, University of Cambridge, Kostenki State Museum Preserve, University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Southampton, is published in the journal Antiquity.

Ancient mantis-man petroglyph discovered in Iran

A unique rock carving found in the Teymareh rock art site (Khomein county) in Central Iran with six limbs has been described as part man, part mantis. Rock carvings, or petroglyphs, of invertebrate animals are rare, so entomologists teamed up with archaeologists to try and identify the motif. They compared the carving with others around the world and with the local six-legged creatures which its prehistoric artists could have encountered.

CAPTION

The 'squatter mantis man' petroglyph next to a 10 cm scale bar.

CREDIT

Dr. Mohammad Naserifard

Entomologists Mahmood Kolnegari, Islamic Azad University of Arak, Iran; Mandana Hazrati, Avaye Dornaye Khakestari Institute, Iran; and Matan Shelomi, National Taiwan University teamed up with freelance archaeologist and rock art expert Mohammad Naserifard and describe the petroglyph in a new paper published in the open access Journal of Orthoptera Research.

The 14-centimetre carving was first spotted during surveys between 2017 and 2018, but could not be identified due to its unusual shape. The six limbs suggest an insect, while the triangular head with big eyes and the grasping forearms are unmistakably those of a praying mantid, a predatory insect that hunts and captures prey like flies, bees and even small birds. An extension on its head even helps narrow the identification to a particular genus of mantids in this region: Empusa.

Even more mysterious are the middle limbs, which end in loops or circles. The closest parallel to this in archaeology is the 'Squatter Man,' a petroglyph figure found around the world depicting a person flanked by circles. While they could represent a person holding circular objects, an alternative hypothesis is that the circles represent auroras caused by atmospheric plasma discharges.

It is presently impossible to tell exactly how old the petroglyphs are, because sanctions on Iran prohibit the use of radioactive materials needed for radiocarbon dating. However, experts Jan Brouwer and Gus van Veen examined the Teymareh site and estimated the carvings were made 40,000-4,000 years ago.

One can only guess why prehistoric people felt the need to carve a mantis-man into rock, but the petroglyph suggests humans have linked mantids to the supernatural since ancient times. As stated by the authors, the carving bears witness, "that in prehistory, almost as today, praying mantids were animals of mysticism and appreciation."

Tang Dynasty noblewoman buried with her donkeys, for the love of polo

A noblewoman from Imperial China enjoyed playing polo on donkeys so much she had her steeds buried with her so she could keep doing it in the afterlife, archaeologists found. This discovery by a team that includes Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is published March 17 in the journal Antiquity.

The research provides the first physical evidence of donkey polo in Imperial China, which previously was only known from historical texts. It also sheds light on the role for donkeys in the lives of high status women in that period.

Researchers found donkey bones in the tomb of Cui Shi, a noblewoman who died in 878 AD in Xi'an, China. The presence of work animals in a wealthy woman's tomb was unexpected, the researchers said.

"Donkeys were the first pack animal, the steam engines of their day in Africa and western Eurasia, but we know almost nothing about their use in eastern Asia," said Marshall, an archaeologist in the Department of Anthropology. She helped study the animal bones found in Cui Shi's tomb.

"Donkey skeletons just have not been found -- this is probably because they died along trade routes and were not preserved," she said. "The donkeys buried in the Tang Dynasty noble tomb in Xian provided a first opportunity -- and a very rare one -- to understand donkeys' roles in east Asian societies."

"There was no reason for a lady such as Cui Shi to use a donkey, let alone sacrifice it for her afterlife," said lead author Songmei Hu, from the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology. "This is the first time such a burial has been found."

Polo is thought to have its origins in Iran; however, the sport flourished during the Tang Dynasty, which ruled China from AD 618 to 907. During this time, polo became a favorite sport of the royal and noble families, to the point where an emperor used a polo competition to pick generals. This included Cui Shi's husband, Bao Gao, who was promoted to general by Emperor Xizong for winning a match.

However, the sport was dangerous when played on large horses, with one emperor killed during a game. As such, some nobles preferred to play Lvju, or donkey polo. Although both forms of polo are mentioned in the historical literature, horse polo is the only form depicted in art and artifacts.

The researchers conducted radiocarbon dating and analyzed the size and patterns of stresses and strains on the donkey bones from Cui Shi's tomb. Their findings suggest that these small and active donkeys were being used for Lvju. Given that animals were typically included in burials for use in the afterlife, the donkeys' presence with Cui Shi allowed the researchers to conclude that she wanted to keep playing her favorite sport after death.

Taken together, this research provides the first physical evidence of donkeys being used by elite women and of donkey polo in Imperial China, the researchers said. As the first donkey skeletons from eastern Asia to be thoroughly studied, they also broaden the understanding of the role of donkeys in the past.

'Little Foot' skull reveals how this more than 3 million year old human ancestor lived

Micro-CT scanning of 'Little Foot' skull reveals new aspects of the life of this more than 3-million year-old-human ancestor

IMAGE: COMPARISON OF THE NEARLY INTACT FIRST CERVICAL VERTEBRA OF 'LITTLE FOOT' AND TWO OTHER AUSTRALOPITHECUS FROM STERKFONTEIN IN SOUTH AFRICA AND FROM HADAR IN ETHIOPIA SHOWING HOW COMPLETE 'LITTLE FOOT'... view more 

CREDIT: AMÉLIE BEAUDET/WITS UNIVERSITY

High-resolution micro-CT scanning of the skull of the fossil specimen known as "Little Foot" has revealed some aspects of how this Australopithecus species used to live more than 3 million years ago.

The meticulous excavation, cleaning and scanning of the skull of the ~3.67 million-year-old fossil specimen has revealed the most complete Australopithecus adult first cervical vertebra yet found. A description of the vertebra by Wits University researchers Dr Amélie Beaudet and the Sterkfontein team was published in the Scientific Reports. This research program is supported by the the Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, Scientific Palaeontological Trust, National Research Foundation, University of the Witwatersrand and the French National Centre for Scientific Research through the French Institute of South Africa.

The first cervical vertebra (or atlas) plays a crucial role in vertebrate biology. Besides acting as the connection between the head and the neck, the atlas also plays a role in how blood is supplied to the brain via the vertebral arteries.

By comparing the atlas of "Little Foot" with other fossils from South and East Africa as well as living humans and chimpanzees, the Wits University team shows that Australopithecus was capable of head movements that differ from modern humans.

"The morphology of the first cervical vertebra, or atlas, reflects multiple aspects of an organism's life," says Beaudet, the lead author of the study. "In particular, the nearly complete atlas of 'Little Foot' has the potential to provide new insights into the evolution of head mobility and the arterial supply to the brain in the human lineage."

The shape of the atlas determines the range of head motions while the size of the arteries passing through the vertebrae to the skull is useful for estimating blood flow supplying the brain.

"Our study shows that Australopithecus was capable of head movements that differ from us. This could be explained by the greater ability of Australopithecus to climb and move in the trees. However, a southern African Australopithecus specimen younger than 'Little Foot' (probably younger by about 1 million years) may have partially lost this capacity and spent more time on the ground, like us today."

The overall dimensions and shape of the atlas of "Little Foot" are similar to living chimpanzees. More specifically, the ligament insertions (that could be inferred from the presence and configuration of bony tubercles) and the morphology of the facet joints linking the head and the neck all suggest that "Little Foot" was moving regularly in trees.

Because "Little Foot" is so well-preserved, blood flow supply to the brain could also be estimated for the first time, using evidence from the skull and vertebrae. These estimations demonstrate that blood flow, and thus the utilisation of glucose by the brain, was about three times lower than in living humans, and closer to the those of living chimpanzees.

"The low investment of energy into the brain of Australopithecus could be tentatively explained by a relatively small brain of the specimen (around 408cm3), a low quality diet (low proportion of animal products) or high costs of other aspects of the biology of Australopithecus (such as upright walking). In any case, this might suggest that the human brain's vascular system emerged much later in our history."

Bronze Age diet and farming strategy reconstructed using integrative isotope analysis

The El Algar society thrived in complex hilltop settlements across the Iberian Peninsula from 2200-1550 cal BCE, and gravesites and settlement layouts provide strong evidence of a marked social hierarchy.

Knipper and colleagues conducted carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis at two different El Algar hilltop settlements: the large fortified urban site La Bastida (in present-day Totana, Murcia), and the smaller settlement Gatas (Turre, Almería). Their sample included remains of 75 human individuals from across social strata, 28 bones from domestic animals and wild deer, charred barley (75 grains total), and charred wheat (29 grains) from the middle and late phases of El Algar civilization across the two sites.

The sampled human individuals showed no significant difference between isotope values for males and for females, suggesting that diets may have been similar between genders. However, "elite" individuals at La Bastida showed higher levels of both carbon and nitrogen. This might have implied that the people of La Bastida consumed higher levels of animal-based food, but the authors suggest that the isotope value differences between La Bastida and Gatas could in fact have resulted from similar dietary compositions. Nitrogen values are similar at both sites for barley, but higher for the domestic animals at La Bastida, meaning that diets with similar relative contributions of barley and meat/dairy products would have led to higher nitrogen values in the humans at La Bastida compared to Gatas.

The researchers found a strong reliance on cereal farming, supplemented by livestock, in the El Algar economy. The range and values of carbon in the barley and wheat sample reflect what was likely a dry, unirrigated landscape, though nitrogen levels in the cereal crops suggest the El Algar people applied animal manure to their fields. Cereals and their by-products appear to have contributed substantially to the forage of domesticated sheep/goats, cattle and pigs.

Though the sample used in this study is relatively small, and there are limitations to what can be sampled with this type of isotope analysis, this study shows the importance of considering the complete trophic chain in order to adequately interpret isotope data from human remains--and also demonstrates the sophistication of El Algar farming techniques.

Knipper adds: "It is essential to not only investigate human remains, but also comparative samples of different former food stuffs as well as to interpret the data in the light of the archaeological and social historical context."

PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0229398