Europe
Most of Stonehenge's large boulders share origin in west woods, Wiltshire
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 days ago
Origins of the sarsen megaliths at Stonehenge AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE SHARE PRINT E-MAIL Most of the hulking sandstone boulders - called sarsens - that make up the United Kingdom's famous Stonehenge monument appear to share a common origin 25 kilometers away in West Woods, Wiltshire, according to an analysis of the stones' chemical composition. The findings support the theory that the stones were brought to Stonehenge at around the same time, contradicting a previous suggestion that one large sarsen, the Heel Stone, originated in the immediate vicini... more »
Bald's Eyesalve: Medieval medicine could provide new treatment for modern day infections
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 days ago
FULL STORY ------------------------------ Antibiotic resistance is an increasing battle for scientists to overcome, as more antimicrobials are urgently needed to treat biofilm-associated infections. However scientists from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick say research into natural antimicrobials could provide candidates to fill the antibiotic discovery gap. Bacteria can live in two ways, as individual planktonic cells or as a multicellular biofilm. Biofilm helps protect bacteria from antibiotics, making them much harder to treat, one such biofilm that is part... more »
Researchers find evidence of smallpox in the viking age
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES SHARE PRINT E-MAIL The fatal disease smallpox is older and more widespread than scientists so far have proved. A new study by an international team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Cambridge shows that the Vikings also suffered from smallpox. Through the ages, the highly infectious disease smallpox has killed hundreds of millions of people. But it is unclear exactly when the disease emerged. There has been found evidence of smallpox from individuals from the 17th century wh... more »
Breakthrough in studying ancient DNA from Doggerland that separates the UK from Europe
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THE SEDIMENT OF WHICH THE SEDADNA WAS STUDIED view more CREDIT: DR MARTIN BATES, UWTSD Thousands of years ago the UK was physically joined to the rest of Europe through an area known as Doggerland. However, a marine inundation took place during the mid-holocene, separating the British landmass from the rest of Europe, which is now covered by the North Sea. Scientists from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick have studied sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) from sediment deposits in the southern Nor... more »
New chemical analyzes: What did Danes and Italians in the Middle Ages have in common?
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THE MONTELLA CHAPEL NEAR NAPLES, SOUTHERN ITALY, WAS BUILT IN THE 1620S WHEN GIOVANNI BERNARDINO IANNELLI DONATED A LARGE SUM TO THE MONASTERY. IT HAS BEEN EXCAVATED SINCE 2007. view more CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK In the 1600s, two private chapels were erected as family burial sites for two noble families. One in the town Svendborg in Denmark, the other in Montella, Italy. They were both attached to a Franciscan Friary, and only a few meters from the chapels, more common townspeople and friars ... more »29,000 years of Aboriginal history Uncovering new layers of River Murray occupation
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
FLINDERS UNIVERSITY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: MIDDEN SHELL EXPOSED ON THE PIKE CLIFF LINE ON THE RIVER MURRAY. view more CREDIT: FLINDERS UNIVERSITY The known timeline of the Aboriginal occupation of South Australia's Riverland region has been vastly extended by new research led by Flinders University in collaboration with the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (RMMAC). Radiocarbon dating of shell middens - remnants of meals eaten long ago - capture a record of Aboriginal occupation that extends to around 29,000 years, confirming the location as one ...more »
5,000 years of history of domestic cats in Central Europe
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Interdisciplinary studies in paleogenetics and archeozoology NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY IN TORUN SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: PERSPEKTYWICZNA CAVE INSIDE VIEW DURING EXCAVATION. view more CREDIT: MAGDALENA KRAJCARZ A loner and a hunter with highly developed territorial instincts, a cruel carnivore, a disobedient individual: the cat. These features make the species averse to domestication. Even so, we did it. Nowadays, about 500 million cats live in households all around the world; it is also difficult to estimate the amount of the homeless and the feral ones Alth... more »
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
Archaeologists from Cardiff University and the University of Sheffield have combined the latest scientific methods to offer new insights into life during the Norman Conquest of England. Until now, the story of the Conquest has primarily been told from evidence of the elite classes of the time. But little has been known about how it affected everyday people's lives. The research team, which also included academics from the University of Bristol, used a range of bioarchaeological techniques to compare human and animal bones recovered from sites across Oxford, along with ceramics used ... more »
Americas
Lead white pigments on Andean drinking vessels provide new historical context
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 4 days ago
Isotope analysis suggest clues to the manufacture and distribution of qeros DICKINSON COLLEGE SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: LEAD RESEARCHER ALLISON CURLEY WITH QEROS FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN. view more CREDIT: ALYSON THIBODEAU (Carlisle, Pa.) - Researchers studying lead white pigments on Andean ceremonial drinking vessels known as qeros have found new similarities among these artifacts that could help museums, conservators, historians and scholars better understand the timeline and production of these culturally si... more »
Stone tools move back the arrival of humans in America thousands of years
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES SHARE PRINT E-MAIL Stone tools move back the arrival of humans in America thousands of years Findings of stone tools move back the first immigration of humans to America at least 15,000 years. This is revealed in a new international study from the University of Copenhagen, where researchers have analysed ancient material from a Mexican mountain cave. The first humans arrived in America at least 30,000 years ago, approximately 15,000 before science was hitherto able to render it probable. This is the conclusion i... more »
Earliest humans stayed at the Americas 'oldest hotel' in Mexican cave
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
A cave in a remote part of Mexico was visited by humans around 30,000 years ago -- 15,000 years earlier than people were previously thought to have reached the Americas. Painstaking excavations of Chiquihuite Cave, located in a mountainous area in northern Mexico controlled by drugs cartels, uncovered nearly 2000 stone tools from a small section of the high-altitude cave. Archaeological analysis of the tools and DNA analysis of the sediment in the cave uncovered a new story of the colonisation of the Americas which now traces evidence of the first Americans back to 25,000-30,000 years... more »
Archaeologists use tooth enamel protein to show sex of human remains
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
New method used in Bay Area excavation A new method for estimating the biological sex of human remains based on reading protein sequences rather than DNA has been used to study an archaeological site in Northern California. The protein-based technique gave superior results to DNA analysis in studying 55 sets of human remains between 300 and 2,300 years old. The work is published July 17 in *Scientific Reports*. The method targets amelogenin, a protein found in tooth enamel, said first author Tammy Buonasera, postdoctoral researcher working with Glendon Parker, adjunct associate profe... more »
New evidence challenges Euro-centric narrative of early colonization
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
In American history, we learn that the arrival of Spanish explorers led by Hernando de Soto in the 1500s was a watershed moment resulting in the collapse of Indigenous tribes and traditions across the southeastern United States. While these expeditions unquestionably resulted in the deaths of countless Indigenous people and the relocation of remaining tribes, new research from Washington University in St. Louis provides evidence that Indigenous people in Oconee Valley -- present-day central Georgia -- continued to live and actively resist European influence for nearly 150 years. The... more »
How Native Americans sustained oyster harvests for thousands of year
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
An interdisciplinary team of scientists studying thousands of oyster shells along the Georgia coast, some as old as 4,500 years, has published new insights into how Native Americans sustained oyster harvests for thousands of years, observations that may lead to better management practices of oyster reefs today. Their study, led by University of Georgia archaeologist Victor Thompson, was published July 10 in the journal *Science Advances*. The new research argues that understanding the long-term stability of coastal ecosystems requires documenting past and present conditions of such ... more »
Polynesians, Native Americans made contact before European arrival, genetic study finds
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
STANFORD MEDICINE SHARE PRINT E-MAIL Through deep genetic analyses, Stanford Medicine scientists and their collaborators have found conclusive scientific evidence of contact between ancient Polynesians and Native Americans from the region that is now Colombia -- something that's been hotly contested in the historic and archaeological world for decades. "Genomics is at a stage where it can really make useful contributions to answering some of these open questions," said Alexander Ioannidis, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford. "I think it's really exciting that we, as data ... more »
Neandertals
Neandertals may have had a lower threshold for pain
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
People who inherited a special ion channel from Neandertals experience more pain MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: NEANDERTALS AND MODERN MAN HAVE MIXED AND EXCHANGED GENES SEVERAL TIMES OVER THE MILLENNIA. RESEARCHERS HAVE DISCOVERED THAT PEOPLE WHO HAVE INHERITED A GENE VARIANT FOR AN ION CHANNEL FROM...view more CREDIT: © SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / DAYNES, ELISABETH As several Neandertal genomes of high quality are now available researchers can identify genetic changes that were present in many or all Neandertals, invest... more »
Neanderthals of Western Mediterranean did not become extinct because of changes in climate
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: RESEARCHERS SAMPLED THIS 50-CM LONG STALAGMITE IN THE POZZO CUCÙ CAVE, IN THE CASTELLANA GROTTE AREA (BARI) AND THEY CARRIED OUT 27 HIGH-PRECISION DATINGS AND 2,700 ANALYSES OF CARBON AND... view more CREDIT: PHOTO: O. LACARBONARA Homo Neanderthaliensis did not become extinct because of changes in climate. At least, this did not happen to the several Neanderthals groups that lived in the western Mediterranean 42,000 years ago. A research group of the University of Bologna came to this conclusion after a detailed pa... more »
Israel/Egypt
Hyksos, 15th Dynasty rulers of Ancient Egypt, were an internal takeover
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Chemical analysis reveals Egypt was a multi-cultural hub for centuries PLOS SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: SEAL AMULET WITH THE NAME OF THE HYKSOS PHAROAH APOPHIS. view more CREDIT: THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART (CC0) The Hyksos, who ruled during the 15th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, were not foreign invaders, but a group who rose to power from within, according to a study published July 8, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Chris Stantis of Bournemouth University, UK and colleagues. The Hyksos were a foreign dynasty that ruled parts of Egypt between approximate... more »
Grape pips reveal collapse of ancient economy in the grip of plague and climate change
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 4 days ago
While we all try to understand the new reality imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, many look to the past for historical precedents such as the Spanish flu of 1918 and the Black Plague of the 14th century. The first historically attested wave of what later became known as the Black Plague (caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis) spread throughout the Byzantine Empire and beyond, in 541 CE. Known as Justinianic Plague, after the emperor Justinian who contracted the disease but survived, it caused high mortality and had a range of socio-economic effects. Around the same time, an enormo... more »
Ancient rock art in northern Israel
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
The culture responsible for building the dolmens -- enormous stone graves -- scattered throughout Israel remains largely unknown, but the discovery of rock art may give archaeologists new understanding of the people who lived here 4,000 years ago. Cave carvings discovered unexpectedly at the Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve on the Golan Heights are the subject of new research from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Tel Hai Academic College. The carvings were identified on ancient graves constructed from boulders, known as dolmens, that date back some 4,200 years, and appear to ... more »
Naturally perforated shells one of the earliest adornments in the Middle Paleolithic
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
Simulations and microscopic analysis confirm that ancient shells were hung on strings and painted with ochre PLOS CAPTION Shells from Qafzeh Cave on which use-wear was studied. CREDIT Bar-Yosef Mayer et al, 2020 Ancient humans deliberately collected perforated shells in order to string them together as beads, according to a study published July 8, 2020 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE* by Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer (Tel Aviv University, Israel), Iris Groman-Yaroslavski (University of Haifa, Israel), and colleagues. Shells are one of the oldest ways humans have adorned and expresse... more »
Artifacts from Ezra and Nehemiah era found
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
Image: A seal made out of a piece of clay from the Persian Period /Credit: Shai Halevy, Israel Antiquities Authority /via CBN News. How did Jerusalem deal with the tremendous destruction wrought upon her by the Babylonian army in the 6th century BC? A double stamp impression on a bulla and a seal made of re-used pottery shards, dated with high probability to the Persian period, may provide an answer to this question. The findings were discovered in the course of archaeological excavations undertaken by the Israel Antiquities Authority [IAA] and Tel Aviv University in the Givati p... more »
Asia
Care for cats? So did people along the Silk Road more than 1,000 years ago
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
Common domestic cats, as we know them today, might have accompanied Kazakh pastoralists as pets more than 1,000 years ago. This has been indicated by new analyses done on an almost complete cat skeleton found during an excavation along the former Silk Road in southern Kazakhstan. An international research team led by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), Korkyt-Ata Kyzylorda State University in Kazakhstan, the University of Tübingen and the Higher School of Economics in Russia has reconstructed the cat's life, revealing astonishing insights into the relationship between ... more »
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