ASIA
Fatty residues on ancient pottery reveal meat-heavy diets of Indus Civilization
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 day ago
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: LEAD AUTHOR AKSHYETA SURYANARAYAN SAMPLING POTTERY FOR RESIDUE ANALYSIS IN THE FIELD. view more CREDIT: AKSHYETA SURYANARAYAN New lipid residue analyses have revealed a dominance of animal products, such as the meat of animals like pigs, cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat as well as dairy products, used in ancient ceramic vessels from rural and urban settlements of the Indus Civilisation in north-west India, the present-day states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The study, published in *Journal of ...
Ancient migration was choice, not chance - Paleolithic people likely colonized the Ryukyu Islands intentionally
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: IMAGE] IMAGE: A CANDIDATE BAMBOO CRAFT FOR THE RYUKYU MIGRATION BUILT FOR A RE-ENACTMENT OF THAT CROSSING. view more CREDIT: © 2020 YOSUKE KAIFU The degree of intentionality behind ancient ocean migrations, such as that to the Ryukyu Islands between Taiwan and mainland Japan, has been widely debated. Researchers used satellite-tracked buoys to simulate ancient wayward drifters and found that the vast majority failed to make the contested crossing. They concluded that Paleolithic people 35,000-30,000 years ago must therefore have made the journey not by chance but by cho...
AMERICAS
Warm oceans helped first human migration from Asia to North America
Warm oceans helped first human migration from Asia to North America
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 day ago
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THE PACIFIC OCEAN'S CURRENTS SUPPORT A DIVERSE ECOSYSTEM, SEEN HERE FROM SPACE WITH GREEN INDICATING BLOOMS OF PHOTOSYNTHESIZING PLANKTON. WARMER CURRENTS DURING THE ICE AGE MAY ALSO HAVE SUPPORTED EARLY... view more CREDIT: NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, THE SEAWIFS PROJECT AND GEOEYE, SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO New research reveals significant changes to the circulation of the North Pacific and its impact on the initial migration of humans from Asia to North America. The new inter...
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
Rock art found in the Amazon rainforest. Image: Professor José Iriarte via CNN Researchers from Colombia and the U.K. have found nearly eight miles of ancient rock art depicting numerous now-extinct Ice Age beasts, from mastodons to giant sloths. The Amazon rainforest discovery in the Serranía La Lindosa (Colombia) is thought to be made around 11,800 to 12,600 years ago. Created with red ochre, the vivid images document megafauna, human figures, hunting scenes and a vast array of creatures such as deer, tapirs, alligators, bats, monkeys, turtles, serpents and porcupines. "It ..
Population size, density in rise of centralized power in Peru in antiquity
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
Early populations shifted from quasi-egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies to communities governed by a centralized authority in the middle to late Holocene, but how the transition occurred still puzzles anthropologists. A University of Maine-led group of researchers contend that population size and density served as crucial drivers. Anthropology professor Paul "Jim" Roscoe led the development of Power Theory, a model emphasizing the role of demography in political centralization, and applied it to the shift in power dynamics in prehistoric northern coastal societies in Peru. To...
Early human landscape modifications discovered in Amazonia
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
No evidence of extensive savannah formations during the current Holocene period UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: AERIAL VIEW OF A RESEARCH SITE CALLED SEVERINO CALAZANS. view more CREDIT: MARTTI PÄRSSINEN In 2002 Professor Alceu Ranzi (Federal University of Acre) and Prof. Martti Parssinen (University of Helsinki) decided to form an international research team to study large geometric earthworks, called geoglyphs, at the Brazilian state of Acre in South-western Amazonia. Soon it appeared that a pre-colonial civilization unknow..
The economic and cultural aspects of raising turkeys to supply feathers in the ancient Southwest.
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
The ancient inhabitants of the American Southwest used around 11,500 feathers to make a turkey feather blanket, according to a new paper in the *Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports*. The people who made such blankets were ancestors of present-day Pueblo Indians such as the Hopi, Zuni and Rio Grande Pueblos. A team led by Washington State University archaeologists analyzed an approximately 800-year-old, 99 x 108 cm (about 39 x 42.5 inches) turkey feather blanket from southeastern Utah to get a better idea of how it was made. Their work revealed thousands of downy body feath...
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: ICE DEPOSIT AT THE EL MALPAIS NATIONAL MONUMENT IN NEW MEXICO. view more CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA - For more than 10,000 years, the people who lived on the arid landscape of modern-day western New Mexico were renowned for their complex societies, unique architecture and early economic and political systems. But surviving in what Spanish explorers would later name El Malpais, or the "bad lands," required ingenuity now being explained for the first time by an international geosciences team led by the University of South Florida. ...
Neandertals'New evidence: Neandertals buried their dead
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 day ago
CNRS Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: EXAMINING MATERIAL FROM THE 1970S EXCAVATIONS AT THE MUSÉE D'ARCHÉOLOGIE NATIONALE, FRANCE. THOUSANDS OF BONE REMAINS WERE SORTED AND 47 NEW FOSSIL REMAINS BELONGING TO THE NEANDERTAL CHILD 'LA FERRASSIE... view more CREDIT: © ANTOINE BALZEAU - CNRS/MNHN Was burial of the dead practiced by Neandertals or is it an innovation specific to our species? There are indications in favour of the first hypothesis but some scientists remain sceptical. For the first time in Europe, however, a multi-disciplinary team led b...
The impact of Neandertal DNA on human health
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
A researcher at the University of Tartu described new associations between Neandertal DNA and autoimmune diseases, prostate cancer and type 2 diabetes. Modern humans migrated out of Africa more than 60,000 years ago and met and interbred with Neandertals and other archaic human groups. As a consequence, we can find that a few percent of the genomes of people outside of Africa contain traces of archaic ancestry. Large-scale resources with genetic and medical data are needed to find out how this archaic remains affect modern human health. Most previous studies have examined Europ...
Videoscope analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton reveals detailed dental information
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: AN IMAGE OF THE SKULL, COMBINED WITH A DETAIL OF THE PALATE, WITH THE MAXILLARY TEETH VISIBLE. view more CREDIT: SOPRINTENDENZA ABAP PER LA CITTÀ METROPOLITANA DI BARI. In situ observations on the dentition and oral cavity of the Neanderthal skeleton from Altamura (Italy) Funding: This work was supported by Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, PRIN 2015 grant to G.M., J.M.-C. and D.M., number 2015WPHSCJ, prin.miur.it. The Soprintendenza A.B.A.P. per la città metropolitana di Bari (formerly Soprintendenza Archeologia p...
Neanderthal thumbs better adapted to holding tools with handles
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
Neanderthal thumbs were better adapted to holding tools in the same way that we hold a hammer, according to a paper published in *Scientific Reports*. The findings suggest that Neanderthals may have found precision grips -- where objects are held between the tip of the finger and thumb -- more challenging than power 'squeeze' grips, where objects are held like a hammer, between the fingers and the palm with the thumb directing force. Using 3D analysis, Ameline Bardo and colleagues mapped the joints between the bones responsible for movement of the thumb -- referred to collectively ...
AFRICA
African trade routes sketched out by mediaeval beads
African trade routes sketched out by mediaeval beads
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
An analysis of archaeological glass beads discovered in sub-Saharan West Africa brings to light the full extent of the region's international trade routes between the 7th and 13th centuries UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THE GLASS BEADS STUDIED, UNEARTHED BY ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS IN DOUROU-BORO AND SADIA, MALI, AND DJOUTOUBAYA, SENEGAL. view more CREDIT: © UNIGE/TRUFFA GIACHET/SPUHLER The origin of glass beads dates back to early ancient times. The chemical composition of the beads and their morphological and technical ch...
Ancient people relied on coastal environments to survive the Last Glacial Maximum
Middle Stone Age populations repeatedly occupied West African coast
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: EXCAVATIONS AT WATERFALL BLUFF, SOUTH AFRICA view more CREDIT: ERICH FISHER Humans have a longstanding relationship with the sea that spans nearly 200,000 years. Researchers have long hypothesized that places like coastlines helped people mediate global shifts between glacial and interglacial conditions and the impact that these changes had on local environments and resources needed for their survival. Coastlines were so important to early humans that they may have even provided key routes for the dispersal of people out of Africa ...
Middle Stone Age populations repeatedly occupied West African coast
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Excavations at Tiémassas, Senegal, indicate roughly 40,000 years of behavioural continuity, in contrast to other African regions over this period MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: A LEVALLOIS CORE RECOVERED FROM EXCAVATIONS AT TIÉMASSAS, PART OF A COMMON, PERSISTENT SUITE OF STONE TOOL TECHNOLOGIES EMPLOYED AT THE SITE BETWEEN 62-25 THOUSAND YEARS AGO view more CREDIT: K. NIANG Although coastlines have widely been proposed as potential corridors of past migration, the occupation of Africa's trop...
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
A new interdisciplinary study indicates agricultural market integration centuries before Roman conquest, suggesting the mechanisms that led to the Anthropocene began much earlier than assumed MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY In the field of economics, the concept of a market economy is largely considered a modern phenomenon. Influential economists such as Karl Marx and Max Weber, for example, argued that although markets existed in antiquity, economies in which structures of production and distribution responded to the laws of supply and demand developed on...
Archaeology: Transition to feudal living in 14th century impacted local ecosystems
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
SHARE PRINT E-MAIL The transition from tribal to feudal living, which occurred throughout the 14th century in Lagow, Poland had a significant impact on the local ecosystem, according to a study published in *Scientific Reports*. The findings demonstrate how historical changes to human society and economies may have changed local environments. Mariusz Lamentowicz and colleagues analysed changes in the composition of plants and pollen in different layers of peat in Pawski Lug, a nature reserve in Western Poland near the village of Lagow. Lagow was founded in the early 13th c...
Hidden 15th-century text on medieval manuscripts
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Imaging system they built as freshmen reveals new information about Otto Ege Collection ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: BY USING ULTRAVIOLET-FLUORESCENCE IMAGING, RIT STUDENTS REVEALED THAT A 15TH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT LEAF HELD IN RIT'S CARY GRAPHIC ARTS COLLECTION WAS ACTUALLY A PALIMPSEST, A MANUSCRIPT ON PARCHMENT WITH MULTIPLE LAYERS... view more CREDIT: RIT Rochester Institute of Technology students discovered lost text on 15th-century manuscript leaves using an imaging system they developed as freshmen. By ...
The unique hydraulics in the 2nd century AD Barbegal water mills, the world's first industrial plant
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
The unique hydraulics in the Barbegal water mills, the world's first industrial plant An elbow-shaped water flume as a special adaptation for the Barbegal mill complex and a symbol of the ingenuity of Roman engineers The Barbegal watermills in southern France are a unique complex dating back to the 2nd century AD. The construction with 16 waterwheels is, as far as is known, the first attempt in Europe to build a machine complex on an industrial scale. The complex was created when the Roman Empire was at the height of its power. However, little is known about technological ad...
ISRAEL
King David-era fort unearthed in Golan Heights
King David-era fort unearthed in Golan Heights
Jonathan Kantrowitz, Archaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
Archaeologists believe the complex was built by the Aramean Kingdom of Geshur. Complete article [image: Ofri Eitan of the Kfar Hanasi pre-military academy next to the engraved stone at the site of the ancient fortified building complex uncovered in the Golan Heights, November 2020. Credit: Tidhar Moav/Israel Antiquities Authority.] Ofri Eitan of the Kfar Hanasi pre-military academy next to the engraved stone at the site of the ancient fortified building complex uncovered in the Golan Heights, November 2020. Credit: Tidhar Moav/Israel Antiquities Authority. A fortified building com...
No comments:
Post a Comment