Ancient molar points to interbreeding between archaic humans and Homo sapiens in Asia IMAGE

IMAGE: The three-rooted lower molar anomaly in a recent Asian individual. Left: tooth sockets showing position of accessory root; right: three-rooted lower first molar tooth. view more 

Credit: Christine Lee

An analysis of a 160,000-year-old archaic human molar fossil discovered in China offers the first morphological evidence of interbreeding between archaic humans and Homo sapiens in Asia.
The study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, centers on a three-rooted lower molar--a rare trait primarily found in modern Asians--that was previously thought to have evolved after H. sapiens dispersed from Africa.
The new research points to a different evolutionary path.
"The trait's presence in the fossil suggests both that it is older than previously understood and that some modern Asian groups obtained the trait through interbreeding with a sister group of Neanderthals, the Densiovans," explains Shara Bailey, a professor of anthropology at New York University and the paper's lead author.
In a previous study, published in Nature, Bailey and her colleagues concluded that the Denisovans occupied the Tibetan Plateau long before Homo sapiens arrived in the region.
That work, along with the new PNAS analysis, focused on a hominin lower mandible found on the Tibetan Plateau in Baishiya Karst Cave in Xiahe, China in 1980.
The PNAS study, which also included NYU anthropologist Susan Antón and Jean-Jacques Hublin, director of the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, centered on the molar, with the aim of understanding the relationship between archaic humans who occupied Asia more than 160,000 years ago and modern Asians.
"In Asia, there have long been claims for continuity between archaic and modern humans because of some shared traits," observes Bailey. "But many of those traits are primitive or are not unique to Asians. However, the three-rooted lower molar trait is unique to Asian groups. Its presence in a 160,000-year-old archaic human in Asia strongly suggests the trait was transferred to H. sapiens in the region through interbreeding with archaic humans in Asia."

More on 1,600-yr-old Biblical Mosaics Found in Ancient Galilean Village

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Full mosaic depicting Jonah being swallowed by a giant fish in the ancient Huqoq synagogue. 

In an excavation led by Professor Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a 1,600-year-old biblical triptych of mosaics made of small stone cubes (or tesserae) was found in a synagogue in the ancient Galilean village of Huqoq in Israel.

“We’ve uncovered the first depiction of the episode of Elim ever found in ancient Jewish art,” said Dr. Magness.

This comes on the heels of earlier mosaic discoveries at this site which include depictions of The Tower of Babel, Jonah, and the Giant Fish, and the Parting of the Red Sea.

Dr. Magness together with a team of researchers and students uncovered the first ancient Jewish depiction of the Elim episode from the Book of Exodus.

The mosaic depicts the experience of the Israelites camping at Elim after leaving Egypt and wandering in the wilderness without water, which is described in Exodus 15:27.

The 15th chapter and 27th verse describe the site of Elim in which exiled Egyptians sought refuge after exhaustive travel.

The parting of the Red Sea mosaic in the ancient Huqoq synagogue.

Magness said that the Elim panel “is interesting as it is generally considered a fairly minor episode in the Israelites’ desert wanderings, which raises the question of why it was significant to this Jewish congregation in Lower Galilee.”

A mosaic depicting the building of the Tower of Babel in the ancient Huqoq synagogue.

Dr. Magness told the Jewish Press, “The mosaic is divided into three horizontal strips or registers. We see clusters of dates being harvested by male agricultural workers wearing loincloths, who are sliding the dates down ropes held by other men.

The middle register shows a row of wells alternating with date palms.

On the left side of the panel, a man in a short tunic is carrying a water jar and entering the arched gate of a city flanked by crenelated towers. An inscription above the gate reads, ‘And they came to Elim.’ ”

A detail from the newly-discovered Elim mosaic.

 

Another important discovery:  “Chapter 7 in the book of Daniel describes four beasts which represent the four kingdoms leading up to the end of days,” Dr. Magness said.

“This year our team discovered mosaics in the synagogue’s north aisle depicting these four beasts, as indicated by a fragmentary Aramaic inscription referring to the first beast: a lion with eagle’s wings.

The lion itself is not preserved, nor is the third beast. However, the second beast from Daniel 7:4 – a bear with three ribs protruding from its mouth – is preserved. So is most of the fourth beast, which is described in Daniel 7:7 as having iron teeth.”

Maize-centric diet may have contributed to ancient Maya collapse

The question of how to best adapt to extreme climate is a critical issue facing modern societies worldwide. In "The Role of Diet in Resilience and Vulnerability to Climate Change among Early Agricultural Communities in the Maya Lowlands," published in Current Anthropology, authors Claire Ebert, Julie Hoggarth, Jaime Awe, Brendan Culleton, and Douglas Kennett examine the role of diet in the ability of the ancient Maya to withstand periods of severe climatic stress. The authors found that an increase in the elite Maya's preference for a maize-based diet may have made the population more vulnerable to drought, contributing to its societal collapse.
"Population expansion and anthropogenic environment degradation from agricultural intensification, coupled with socially conditioned food preferences, resulted in a less flexible and less resilient system," Ebert writes. "Understanding the factors promoting resilience in the past can help mitigate the potential for similar sudden and dramatic shifts in our increasingly interconnected modern world."
The study was conducted using the remains of 50 human burials from the ancient Maya community of Cahal Pech, Belize. Using AMS radiocarbon dating, Ebert and collaborators determined the age of the human burials found at Cahal Pech, both from the site core and surrounding settlements. These burials dated as early as the Middle Preclassic Period, between 735-400 B.C., and as late as the Terminal Classic, between approximately 800-850 A.D.
At the Human Paleoecology and Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory at Penn State University, Ebert measured stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values of the bone collagen in the burials to determine characteristics of individual diets and how they changed through time. Of particular interest was the increasing proportion of C4 plants in the diet, which includes the Maya staple crop maize.
For the burials dating to the Preclassic and Early Classic periods, representing the early inhabitants of the Cahal Pech, Ebert's results suggest that both elites and commoners had a diverse diet that, in addition to maize, included wild plants and animals procured through hunting. Ebert suggests that this diversity of food provided a buffer when a multi-century drought impacted the May lowlands between 300-100 B.C. "The resilience of complex social systems at Cahal Pech from the Preclassic through Early Classic was dependent in part upon a broad subsistence strategy that helped to absorb shocks to maize-based food production in the context of drought," Ebert writes.
Things took a turn at during the Terminal Classic period, between 750 and 900 A.D., when growing social hierarchies and population expansion led to the intensifying of agricultural production and increasing reliance on maize. During this time frame, Ebert found that humans from surrounding settlements at Cahal Pech had different carbon values than the site's center, where the elite class lived. "Our results show a pattern of highly restricted stable nitrogen and carbon isotopes for elite individuals in the Late and Terminal Classic, which corresponds to a hyper-specialized maize-based diet that persisted through the final abandonment of the site," Ebert writes. Elite demands on the local population for increased maize production, and a preference for this drought-intolerant crop, was likely a factor that contributed to the failure of the Cahal Pech socio-political system in the face of another severe drought at the end of the Terminal Classic Period.
"The study speaks to the importance of diet in the resilience and decline of ancient societies and contributes to our understanding of vulnerability to climate change among modern traditional farming communities as well as industrialized nations," Ebert writes.

Murder in the Paleolithic? Evidence of violence behind human skull remains

IMAGE: Right lateral view of the Cioclovina calvaria exhibiting a large depressed fracture. view more 

Credit: Kranoti et al, 2019

New analysis of the fossilized skull of an Upper Paleolithic man suggests that he died a violent death, according to a study published July 3, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by an international team from Greece, Romania and Germany led by the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany
The fossilized skull of a Paleolithic adult man, known as the Cioclovina calvaria, was originally uncovered in a cave in South Transylvania and is thought to be around 33,000 years old. Since its discovery, this fossil has been extensively studied. Here, the authors reassessed trauma on the skull--specifically a large fracture on the right aspect of the cranium which has been disputed in the past--in order to evaluate whether this specific fracture occurred at the time of death or as a postmortem event.
The authors conducted experimental trauma simulations using twelve synthetic bone spheres, testing scenarios such as falls from various heights as well as single or double blows from rocks or bats. Along with these simulations, the authors inspected the fossil both visually and virtually using computed tomography technology.
The authors found there were actually two injuries at or near the time of death: a linear fracture at the base of the skull, followed by a depressed fracture on the right side of the cranial vault. The simulations showed that these fractures strongly resemble the pattern of injury resulting from consecutive blows with a bat-like object; the positioning suggests the blow resulting in the depressed fracture came from a face-to-face confrontation, possibly with the bat in the perpetrator's left hand. The researchers' analysis indicates that the two injuries were not the result of accidental injury, post-mortem damage, or a fall alone.
While the fractures would have been fatal, only the fossilized skull has been found so it's possible that bodily injuries leading to death might also have been sustained. Regardless, the authors state that the forensic evidence described in this study points to an intentionally-caused violent death, suggesting that homicide was practiced by early humans during the Upper Paleolithic.
The authors add: "The Upper Paleolithic was a time of increasing cultural complexity and technological sophistication. Our work shows that violent interpersonal behaviour and murder was also part of the behavioural repertoire of these early modern Europeans."

Ancient DNA sheds light on the origins of the Biblical Philistines

An international team, led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Leon Levy Expedition, retrieved and analyzed, for the first time, genome-wide data from people who lived during the Bronze and Iron Age (~3,600-2,800 years ago) in the ancient port city of Ashkelon, one of the core Philistine cities during the Iron Age. The team found that a European derived ancestry was introduced in Ashkelon around the time of the Philistines' estimated arrival, suggesting that ancestors of the Philistines migrated across the Mediterranean, reaching Ashkelon by the early Iron Age. This European related genetic component was subsequently diluted by the local Levantine gene pool over the succeeding centuries, suggesting intensive admixture between local and foreign populations. These genetic results, published in Science Advances, are a critical step toward understanding the long-disputed origins of the Philistines.
The Philistines are famous for their appearance in the Hebrew Bible as the arch-enemies of the Israelites. However, the ancient texts tell little about the Philistine origins other than a later memory that the Philistines came from "Caphtor" (a Bronze Age name for Crete; Amos 9:7). More than a century ago, Egyptologists proposed that a group called the Peleset in texts of the late twelfth century BCE were the same as the Biblical Philistines. The Egyptians claimed that the Peleset travelled from the "the islands," attacking what is today Cyprus and the Turkish and Syrian coasts, finally attempting to invade Egypt. These hieroglyphic inscriptions were the first indication that the search for the origins of the Philistines should be focused in the late second millennium BCE. From 1985-2016, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, a project of the Harvard Semitic Museum, took up the search for the origin of the Philistines at Ashkelon, one of the five "Philistine" cities according to the Hebrew Bible. Led by its founder, the late Lawrence E. Stager, and then by Daniel M. Master, an author of the study and director of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, the team found substantial changes in ways of life during the 12th century BCE which they connected to the arrival of the Philistines. Many scholars, however, argued that these cultural changes were merely the result of trade or a local imitation of foreign styles and not the result of a substantial movement of people.
This new study represents the culmination of more than thirty years of archaeological work and of genetic research utilizing state of the art technologies, concluding that the advent of the Philistines in the southern Levant involved a movement of people from the west during the Bronze to Iron Age transition.
Genetic discontinuity between the Bronze and Iron Age people of Ashkelon
The researchers successfully recovered genomic data from the remains of 10 individuals who lived in Ashkelon during the Bronze and Iron Age. This data allowed the team to compare the DNA of the Bronze and Iron Age people of Ashkelon to determine how they were related. The researchers found that individuals across all time periods derived most of their ancestry from the local Levantine gene pool, but that individuals who lived in early Iron Age Ashkelon had a European derived ancestral component that was not present in their Bronze Age predecessors.
"This genetic distinction is due to European-related gene flow introduced in Ashkelon during either the end of the Bronze Age or the beginning of the Iron Age. This timing is in accord with estimates of the Philistines arrival to the coast of the Levant, based on archaeological and textual records," explains Michal Feldman of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, leading author of the study. "While our modelling suggests a southern European gene pool as a plausible source, future sampling could identify more precisely the populations introducing the European-related component to Ashkelon."
Transient impact of the "European related" gene flow
In analyzing later Iron Age individuals from Ashkelon, the researchers found that the European related component could no longer be traced. "Within no more than two centuries, this genetic footprint introduced during the early Iron Age is no longer detectable and seems to be diluted by a local Levantine related gene pool," states Choongwon Jeong of the Max Planck Institute of the Science of Human History, one of the corresponding authors of the study.
"While, according to ancient texts, the people of Ashkelon in the first millennium BCE remained 'Philistines' to their neighbors, the distinctiveness of their genetic makeup was no longer clear, perhaps due to intermarriage with Levantine groups around them," notes Master.
"This data begins to fill a temporal gap in the genetic map of the southern Levant," explains Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, senior author of the study. "At the same time, by the zoomed-in comparative analysis of the Ashkelon genetic time transect, we find that the unique cultural features in the early Iron Age are mirrored by a distinct genetic composition of the early Iron Age people."

Millet farmers adopted barley agriculture and permanently settled the Tibetan Plateaus

The permanent human occupation on the Tibetan Plateau was facilitated by the introduction of cold-tolerant barley around 3600 years before present (BP), however, how barley agriculture spread onto the Tibetan Plateau remains unknown. Now by using both genetics and archaeological data, researchers from Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS and Lanzhou University revealed that the barley agriculture was mainly brought onto the plateau by the millet farmers from northern China. Moreover, the genetic contribution from millet farmers largely promoted the formation of genetic landscape of the contemporary Tibetans. The work was reported on-line in the journal National Science Review.
According to archaeological evidence, before the permanent settlement of modern humans on the high altitudes of the plateau, the lower altitudes in the northeast Tibetan plateau was extensively occupied by the millet farmers during 5200 to 3600 BP. Interestingly, towards the end of this period (since about 4000 BP), a coexistence of indigenous millet and exotic barley-wheat cultivation appeared in the area, making it probable that the millet farmers adopted barley agriculture and further migrated onto the high altitudes. To test this possibility, the team analyzed large-scale mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data of current Tibetans (8277 samples) and the surrounding populations (58514 samples). Together with radiocarbon dating of cereal remains at different elevations, they identified two haplogroups (M9a1a1c1b1a and A11a1a), whose originations and migrations well matched the dispersal history of millet farming from northern China. Moreover, these components were also found in ancient DNA of human samples excavated from Neolithic sites in which millet was the most important crop (e.g., Yangshao and Majiayao cultural sites), thus would represent the genetic legacy of millet farmers that still retained in the contemporary Tibetans.
Additionally, these millet farmers' genetic components are common in contemporary Tibetans (20.9%), and were probably even more common (40%-50%) in early Tibetans at about 3300 BP (when the barley farmers had already settled on the high altitudes). Meanwhile, these components also contributed to the genetic differentiation between contemporary Tibetans and other East Asians. Therefore, the genetic contribution from Neolithic millet farmers played important roles in the formation of genetic landscape of the current Tibetans.
These results demonstrated substantial genetic components in the Tibetans could trace their ancestry back to the Neolithic millet farmers. The most probable explanation for this observation is that the millet farmers adopted and brought barley agriculture to the Tibetan Plateau and finally occupied the high altitudes permanently. This work thus provide deeper insights into dispersal model of barley agriculture onto the Tibetan Plateau, as well as the origin and migration history of the Tibetans.

Newly-discovered 1,600-year-old mosaic sheds light on ancient Judaism

 

Elim mosaic detail, Huqoq Excavation Project. Copyright Jim Haberman. All rights reserved. Courtesy: UNC-Chapel Hill.

Copyright Jim Haberman

For nine years running, Carolina professor Jodi Magness has led a team of research specialists and students to the ancient village of Huqoq in Israel's Lower Galilee, where they bring to light the remains of a Late Roman synagogue. For weeks during the summer, they unearth history in the form of art. With each excavation season, the students and researchers build on what little is known about the fifth century CE Jewish community of Huqoq and the artists who crafted depictions of biblical stories with tiny cubes of stone, or tesserae.

Jodi Magness, director of the Huqoq excavations and Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies in Carolina's College of Arts & Sciences, explains her team's newest findings and how the art they find connects them to texts written thousands of years ago.
Question: If you could name the biggest new discovery of this summer, what would it be?
Answer: I couldn't name just one from this summer's work, so how about two big discoveries?
First: Chapter 7 in the book of Daniel describes four beasts which represent the four kingdoms leading up to the end of days. This year our team discovered mosaics in the synagogue's north aisle depicting these four beasts, as indicated by a fragmentary Aramaic inscription referring to the first beast: a lion with eagle's wings. The lion itself is not preserved, nor is the third beast. However, the second beast from Daniel 7:4 - a bear with three ribs protruding from its mouth - is preserved. So is most of the fourth beast, which is described in Daniel 7:7 as having iron teeth.
Second: We've uncovered the first depiction of the episode of Elim ever found in ancient Jewish art. This story is from Exodus 15:27. Elim is where the Israelites camped after leaving Egypt and wandering in the wilderness without water. The mosaic is divided into three horizontal strips, or registers. We see clusters of dates being harvested by male agricultural workers wearing loincloths, who are sliding the dates down ropes held by other men. The middle register shows a row of wells alternating with date palms. On the left side of the panel, a man in a short tunic is carrying a water jar and entering the arched gate of a city flanked by crenellated towers. An inscription above the gate reads, "And they came to Elim."
Q: A lot of previous discoveries give so much context for this period. What questions do this year's findings prompt for you?
A: The Daniel panel is interesting because it points to eschatological, or end of day, expectations among this congregation. The Elim panel is interesting as it is generally considered a fairly minor episode in the Israelites' desert wanderings ¬¬- which raises the question of why it was significant to this Jewish congregation in Lower Galilee.
Q: Can you describe the, "Wow- look at this!" moment of this year's dig?
A: The "Wow!" moment came when we understood that the animals depicted in the mosaic in the north aisle are the four beasts in Daniel 7. And that was something we realized only a week after uncovering them, when one of our staff members was able to read the accompanying Aramaic inscription identifying the first beast.
Q: Each year, you and the team uncover pieces of history that are significant to so many people for a variety of reasons. What do you hope this work does for the field and what we know of history?
A: Our work sheds light on a period when our only written sources about Judaism are rabbinic literature from the Jewish sages of this period and references in early Christian literature. The full scope of rabbinic literature is huge and diverse, but it represents the viewpoint of the group of men who wrote it. That group was fairly elite, and we don't have the writings of other groups of Jews from this period. Early Christian literature is generally hostile to Jews and Judaism. So, archaeology fills this gap by shedding light on aspects of Judaism between the fourth to sixth centuries CE - about which we would know nothing otherwise. Our discoveries indicate Judaism continued to be diverse and dynamic long after the destruction of the second Jerusalem temple in 70 CE.
Q: Now in the ninth season of digging at this site, what keeps you and the team coming back?
A: We are committed to completing the excavation of the synagogue before we turn the site over to the state of Israel, with the hope that they will develop and open it to the public in the future. In the meantime, I expect our work will continue to shed light on the past through new discoveries.
The mosaics have been removed from the site for conservation, and the excavated areas have been backfilled. Excavations are scheduled to continue in summer 2020. For additional information, images of previous discoveries and project updates, visit the Huqoq Excavation Project site here.