MAP AND PHOTOS OF TELL TWEINI. (A) MAP OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SHOWING THE LOCATION OF TELL TWEINI IN MODERN-DAY SYRIA. (B) PHOTO OF BRONZE AND IRON AGE HOUSES FROM THE FIELD A EXCAVATIONS (TAKEN BY JOACHIM BRETSCHNEIDER). (C) PHOTO OF MIDDLE BRONZE AGE GRAVE WITH CYPRIOTE CERAMICS (TAKEN BY JOACHIM BRETSCHNEIDER). (MAP WAS GENERATED USING GMT 5.2.1. WITH THE FINAL LAYOUT CREATED USING ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CC 2019 V.23.1.1.).
CREDIT: FULLER ET AL., 2024, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)
Thousands of years ago, people in ancient Syria likely ate mostly grains, grapes, olives and a small amount of dairy and meat — similar to today’s “Mediterranean diet,” according to a study published June 12 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Benjamin T. Fuller from the University of Leuven, Belgium, Simone Riehl from the University of Tübingen, Germany, and colleagues.
Tell Tweini, an archeological site located near the Syrian coastal city of Jableh, contains relics dating back to the early Bronze Age (around 2,600 BCE) and stretching all the way into the Iron Age, nearly 2,300 years later. For the new study, researchers used isotopic analyses of plant, animal and human remains from the site to map how nutrients flowed through the food chain and agricultural systems on this land over time.
Some of the most interesting results came from the Middle Bronze Age (between 2000 and 1600 BCE). Human remains from this period showed a relatively low level of δ15N — a nitrogen isotope — which indicates a diet mostly based on plants, such as grains and olives. But archaeologists have also found the remains of sheep, goats and cattle from Tell Tweini that suggest that these animals were occasionally eaten and used for milking, meaning the local residents were likely consuming some animal-based protein as well. This diet is similar to the modern day “Mediterranean diet” that highlights grains, fruits and vegetables with fewer animal products, often touted for its health benefits.
Other isotopic analyses from Tell Tweini may shed light on some of the climate and agricultural practices of the people who lived there. For example, all of the grapes found at Tell Tweini have relatively high levels of the Δ13 isotope of carbon, which suggests that the fruits received enough water and were well looked after throughout the site’s history.
The authors add: “Thanks to the interdisciplinary and technical progress of archaeological science, we can not only speculate on the existence of a long cultural tradition of the Mediterranean diet through taxonomic and typological determinations, but also extend these findings through additional analyses, e.g. of stable isotopes in human, animal and plant remains, and thus contribute to a better understanding of the emergence of cultural traditions in their anchoring in environmental and social dynamics.”
AEGINA KOLONNA: VIEW OF THE SITE FROM THE NORTHEAST (AEGINA KOLONNA EXCAVATION, DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS, PARIS LODRON UNIVERSITY OF SALZBURG). SMALL PICTURES FROM THE LEFT: DRAWING OF A PURPLE SNAIL OF THE 16TH C. (IN S. MÜNSTER, COSMOGRAPHIA, 1544), HEXAPLEX TRUNCULUS FROM LATE BRONZE AGE AEGINA KOLONNA (PHOTO BY G. FORSTENPOINTNER), PURPLE PIGMENT SAMPLE FROM AEGINA KOLONNA (PHOTO BY L. BERGER).
CREDIT: AEGINA KOLONNA EXCAVATION, DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS, PARIS LODRON UNIVERSITY OF SALZBURG, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)
The Greek island of Aegina was home to a Late Bronze Age purple dye workshop, according to a study published June 12, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Lydia Berger of Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Austria and colleagues.
Colored dyes were a significant commodity in the Mediterranean region during the Late Bronze Age, and understanding the production of these dyes is valuable for interpretations of culture and trade at the time. In this study, Berger and colleagues describe the site of a purple dye workshop from the 16th century BC located at Aegina Kolonna in the Saronic Gulf.
The presence of a dye workshop at this site is inferred from three main lines of evidence: purple pigment preserved on ceramic fragments, which are likely remnants of dye containers; dyeing tools, including grinding stones and a waste pit; and crushed shells of marine snails whose bodies are harvested for these pigments. Analysis of the shells and the chemical composition of the pigments indicate that the workshop predominantly used one species of Mediterranean snail, the banded dye-murex.
Excavation at this site also uncovered many burnt bones from young mammals, mainly piglets and lambs. The authors hypothesize that these could be the remains of animals ritually sacrificed as spiritual offerings to protect the site of production, a practice known from other cultural sites, although the exact connection between these bones and the dye production is not yet fully clear.
This site provides valuable insights into the tools and processes of Mycenaean purple dye production. Further research might reveal more information about the scale of dye production at Kolonna Aegina, the details of the on-site procedures, and the use of this dye in regional trade.
The authors add: “For the first time, the discovery of remarkable quantities of well-preserved pigment, together with a large number of crushed mollusk shells and a few functional facilities, allow a detailed insight into the production of purple-dye on the Greek island of Aegina around 3600 years ago. Chemical analysis by HPLC, malacological, zoological, and archaeological studies illustrate the technical process and peculiarities of early dye production and prove a workshop within the Late Bronze Age settlement.”
1. An international research team sequenced the genomes of hundreds of horse archaeological remains to track the historical rise of horse-based mobility around 4200 years ago in the Pontic-Caspian steppes. 2. The emergence of improved breeding techniques at the time considerably enhanced the yearly capacity of horse production, which helped spreading domestic horses like a wildfire across the whole Eurasian continent. 3. The massive human migrations that spread Indo-European languages outside the steppes around 5,000 years ago were not mediated by horses, contrarily to what was previously thought.
All domestic horses living on the planet today, whether racetrack champions, pony-club companions, or heavy draft giants, find their origins in the western Russian steppes of the third millennium BCE. However, the exact chronology of horse domestication and the widespread integration of horse power into human societies remained highly debated. A new study published by Nature on June 6th reports that the proliferation of domestic horses started by the end of the third millennium BCE, around ~4,200 years ago. This date marks the start of a new era in human history, in which horses considerably speeded up communication and trade networks across Eurasia, catalyzing unprecedented exchanges and interactions among diverse cultures. This work was coordinated by Ludovic Orlando, director of the Centre of Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse (CAGT, CNRS/Université Paul Sabatier), and involved 133 researchers from 113 institutions around the world.
The research team gathered an extensive collection of horse archaeological remains spanning the Eurasian continent. They combined radiocarbon dating with ancient DNA sequencing to characterize a comprehensive genome time-series providing fine-grained resolution into the genetic transformations coinciding with the emergence of equestrianism.
“I have started working on horses about a decade ago. At that time, we only had a handful of ancient genomes. With this new work, we now have several hundreds. It was particularly important to gain resolution into Central Europe, the Carpathian and the Transylvanian basins, as this area was central to ongoing debates about horseback riding driving the massive migrations from the steppes around ~5,000 years ago, and possibly earlier.”, said Pablo Librado, first author of the study, and now Tenured Scientist at the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva of Barcelona (IBE), a joint centre of the CSIC and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
The research team scrutinized their data for three indicators of horse husbandry. First, they traced when the progenitors of modern domestic horses began to spread outside their native domestication homeland. Next, they reconstructed the horse demography all along the third millennium BCE to precisely date the earliest signs of breeding and large-scale production of horses. Last, they uncovered evidence of significant shifts in the horse reproductive lifespan, indicating deliberate manipulation of animal reproduction by early breeders. The remarkable alignment of all three lines of evidence around ~4,200 years ago strongly suggests that domestic horses were produced in sufficiently large numbers to sustain a growing demand across the continent only then, and not earlier. Therefore, the date of ~4,200 years ago marks the true onset of horse-based mobility as we recognize it. Horse-based mobility persisted as the fastest mode of terrestrial transportation until the advent of mechanical engines in the 20th century.
Yet, ancient DNA research had depicted earlier changes in the genetic landscape of Europeans, during the first half of the third millennium BCE, following the massive expansion of people coming from the steppes, and often considered speakers of a proto-Indo-European language. Since the horse genetic map started to change much later, the research team could discount horseback riding as a driving force for the success of those human migrations, despite horse-related terminology forming a common basis to most Indo-European languages.
“One question that puzzled me for years pertains to the scale of the production: how could such a substantial number of horses be bred so suddenly from a relatively small domestication area to meet the increasingly global demand by the turn of the second millennium BCE? Now we have an answer. Breeders controlled the reproduction of the animal so well that they almost halved the time interval between two generations. Put simply, they were able to accelerate the breeding process, effectively doubling their production rate.”, added Ludovic Orlando.
The methodology developed in this study for measuring generation times is new, and leverages the full potential of ancient genome time series. As genomes evolve, they accumulate mutations and recombine every generation. The number of mutations they carry and DNA cross-overs they went through provide a direct measure for the multitude of generations leading to them. When coupled with radiocarbon dates, the numbers of generations can be converted into calendar years. The research team found that more generations accumulated in the last two centuries, concurring with the emergence of many modern bloodlines through intensive selective breeding. Strikingly, the generational clock was also found to tick faster around ~4,200 years ago, right at the time when the mass production and geographic diffusion of domestic horses started.
“Our methodology for measuring temporal changes in generation times holds great potential. It arms the archaeozoological toolkit with a new way to monitor the development of controlled breeding across various domestic species beyond horses. But it can also help elucidate the generation interval in our hunter-gatherer ancestors and how these intervals evolved alongside shifts in lifestyle or significant climatic changes.” adds Pablo Librado, who developed the underlying statistical framework.
For now, and sticking to horses, the research team also reported exceptionally brief generational intervals within a distinct lineage, separate from that leading to modern domestic horses. This lineage was excavated at Botai, a site from Central Asia where evidence of horse milking, harnessing and corralling has been both reported and debated. The discovery of shortened generation times identified adds credit to models depicting settled human groups domesticating the horse in the region to secure consistent access to resources such as meat and milk, which were vital for their subsistence. The Botai people, however, did not engage in extensive long-distance migrations alongside their horses, since the genetic makeup of their horses remained local and did not expand across Eurasia.
“Our evidence supports two domestications in horses. The first, occurring around ~5,500 years ago, aimed to address the decline in horse populations and provide sustenance for populations inhabiting the steppes of Central Asia. The domestic horse as we know it emerged around ~4,200 years ago from the second domestication. This one truly transformed human history by providing fast mobility for the first time.”, concluded Ludovic Orlando.
Bronze cauldrons were used by the inhabitants of the Mongolian steppe around 2,700 years ago to process animal blood and milk. This is shown by a protein analysis of archaeological finds from this period.
Scattered across the Eurasian steppe, archaeologists repeatedly come across metal cauldrons from the Bronze Age during excavations. However, it was previously unclear exactly what they were used for. Now, an international study led by researchers at the University of Basel and published in the journal Scientific Reports reveals their secret: Mongolian nomads collected blood from slaughtered animals, presumably for sausage production, in these cauldrons and may have also fermented milk in them, mainly from yaks.
The research team led by Dr. Shevan Wilkin from the University of Basel carried out extensive protein analyses on two metal cauldrons that were discovered in 2019 by herders in northern Mongolia, along with other artifacts. According to radiocarbon dating, the cauldrons date back to the late Bronze Age, i.e. they were in use around 2,700 years ago.
Animal blood in the diet has a long tradition
In the cauldrons, the researchers identified blood remains from ruminants, mainly sheep and goats. “Various historical accounts of the steppe dwellers claim that they regularly drank blood,” explains Dr. Bryan Miller from the University of Michigan, USA, co-author of the study. The new findings now provide a clearer idea of how blood may have been incorporated into the diet of the steppe dwellers.
The researchers suspect that blood was collected in the cauldrons during slaughtering to make blood sausages – a practice similar to contemporary culinary customs in Mongolia. “These parallels with modern times, together with well-founded historical accounts of diet and slaughtering practices in the region, suggest that the processing of blood was a traditional part of Mongolia's food culture,” says study leader Shevan Wilkin. Sausage production was also an important preservation method for other steppe peoples.
Yaks domesticated earlier than thought
In addition to blood proteins, the cauldrons also contained traces of milk, particularly from domestic cattle and yaks. “This shows that yaks were domesticated and milked in Mongolia much earlier than previously assumed,” notes Wilkin. The milk might have been fermented in the cauldrons in order to preserve it in the form of yogurt, or it might have been an ingredient in the production of sausages.
“Our discoveries offer insights into the traditions and diet of Bronze Age nomads and shed light on the diverse culinary methods of ancient civilizations,” explains Wilkin. In addition to the Universities of Basel and Michigan, experts from the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology in Jena and the National Museum of Mongolia were also involved in the research project.
A research project led by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) and the Max Planck Institute has studied the remains of 25 individuals buried between the 12th and 15th centuries in the castle at Zorita de los Canes, Guadalajara. After exhuming the remains from the castle’s cemetery, the research team was able to determine the diet, lifestyle and causes of death of the warrior monks, who were members of the Order of Calatrava. The results, published in the journal Scientific Reports, have determined that 23 of the individuals died in battle and that the knights of the order followed a diet typical of medieval high society, with a considerable intake of animal protein and marine fish, in an area far from the coast. Unexpectedly, Carme Rissech, a researcher at the URV, identified the remains of a woman among the warrior monks.
Situated on one of the turns in the Tagus River as it flows through the province of Guadalajara, the remains of the castle of Zorita de los Canes are still standing on the same hill where the emir Mohammed I of Cordova ordered it to be built in 852. The fortress, built to defend the emirate from Christian attacks, changed hands twice until it was definitively conquered by the knights of the Order of the Temple in 1124. Fifty years later, Alfonso VIII of Castile ceded the fortress to the recently founded Order of Calatrava, a Cistercian military and religious order, who were tasked with defending the border, at that time delimited by the Tagus, from Almohad incursions.
When Carme Rissech, a researcher at the URV's Department of Basic Medical Sciences, was told that they were sending her the remains of the Calatrava knights, she couldn't quite believe that they were actually knights. As part of the MONBONES project, which studies diet and lifestyle in monasteries during the Middle Ages, her project partners analysed the presence of carbon isotopes 14 and nitrogen 15 in the bones of the 25 individuals. They also studied animal remains, found around the castle, which complemented the information provided by the isotopes and helped them to work out the habits of the people who lived in the castle between the 12th and 15th centuries. Once she got the remains in the laboratory, Rissech studied them to determine the age, sex, morphology and health of the individuals and to determine their lifestyle and causes of death.
Of the 25 skeletons studied, 23 showed marks compatible with violent death. These were mainly penetrating puncture wounds and blunt force injuries and were found on the parts of the body that were most vulnerable to and unprotected from the weapons of the time. “We observed many lesions on the upper part of the skull, the cheeks and the inner part of the pelvis, which is consistent with the hypothesis that we are dealing with warriors," explains Rissech. It was by studying the bone proportions that she realised that among the warriors there was a woman.
Typically, the skeletons of men and women have specific characteristics that differentiate them. "The morphology of the facial bones and the pelvis, are the most obvious examples," explains Rissech. In some individuals, these characteristics may not be decisive when it comes to determining sex, but in the case of these remains there was little room for error. Who was this woman? Was she part of the order? Did she have the same status as the other knights?
On the one hand, the woman’s injuries led the research team to believe that she participated and died in battle, as there was no sign of bone regrowth in her injuries. "She may have died in a manner very similar to that of male knights, and it is likely that she was wearing some kind of armour or chain mail," says Rissech. On the other hand, she did not have the same dietary indicators as some of the individuals analysed: "We observed a lower level of protein consumption in the case of this woman, which could indicate lower status in the social group," he says. Some researchers have hypothesised that she was a servant who would have been called upon to join the knights in defending the castle if the need arose, but the URV researcher does not think so: "Her work as a servant would have left signs on her bones, indicators of certain types of physical activity that we could now identify".
In contrast, her skeleton did show attributes similar to those of the other warrior monks, whose job required them to train in the use of the sword, an activity that leaves verifiable marks which were also observed on the woman’s bones. "I believe that these remains belong to a female warrior, but further analysis is needed to determine to what extent this woman is contemporary with the other knights", says Rissech. According to the researcher, we should picture her as a warrior of about forty years of age, just under five feet tall, neither stocky nor slender and skilful with a sword.
The research also involved researchers from the University of Barcelona and the archaeologists who lead the excavations. It is part of the MONBONES project, which takes a multidisciplinary approach involving zooarchaeology, anthropology, documentary research and molecular analysis to offer a new historical perspective on the way of life, diet, health, economy and society in monasteries from the 14th to the 19th centuries.
The unique stone tools were made of flint from the Mountains of Samaria, which were probably also the fallow deers' calving areas, located east of the prehistoric sites of Jaljulia and Qesem Cave. Consequently, the researchers hypothesize that Mounts Ebal and Gerizim were held sacred by prehistoric hunters as early as the Paleolithic era.
The researchers:"The new stone tools had a working edge shaped as scales, useful for a range of tasks in butchering and processing fallow deer. When the elephants disappeared from the region, the ancient hunters were forced to make technological adaptations, enabling them to shift their focus to hunting, butchering, and processing the light-footed fallow deer."
A new study from Tel Aviv University identified the earliest appearance worldwide of special stone tools, used 400,000 years ago to process fallow deer. The tools, called Quina scrapers (after the site in France where they were first discovered), were unearthed at the prehistoric sites of Jaljulia and Qesem Cave. They are characterized by a sharp working edge shaped as scales, enabling users to butcher their prey and also process its hides. The researchers explain that after the elephants disappeared from the region, the ancient hunters were forced to make technological adaptations enabling them to hunt, butcher, and process much smaller and quicker game - fallow deer. The study also found that the unique tools were made of non-local flint procured from the Mountains of Samaria, which probably also served as the fallow deers' calving area, about 20km east of Jaljulia and Qesem Cave. Consequently, the researchers hypothesize that Mounts Ebal and Gerizim (near Nablus of today) were considered a source of plenty and held sacred by prehistoric hunters as early as the Paleolithic period. The study was led by Vlad Litov and Prof. Ran Barkai of Tel Aviv University’s Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures. The paper was published in Archaeologies.
The researchers explain that for about a million years, starting 1.5 million years ago, early humans used stone tools called scrapers to process hides and scrape the flesh off the bones of mostly large game. In the Levant they mainly hunted elephants and other large herbivores that provided most of the calories they needed. The study found, however, that about 400,000 years ago, following the elephants' disappearance, hunters turned to a different kind of prey, considerably smaller and quicker than elephants - fallow deer.
Litov explains: "In this study we tried to understand why stone tools changed during prehistoric times, with a focus on a technological change in scrapers in the Lower Paleolithic, about 400,000 years ago. We found a dramatic change in the human diet during this period, probably resulting from a change in the available fauna: the large game, particularly elephants, had disappeared, and humans were forced to hunt smaller animals, especially fallow deer. Clearly, butchering a large elephant is one thing, and processing a much smaller and more delicate fallow deer is quite a different challenge. Systematic processing of numerous fallow deer to compensate for a single elephant was a complex and demanding task which required the development of new implements. Consequently, we see the emergence of the new Quina scrapers, with a better-shaped, sharper, more uniform working edge compared to the simple scrapers used previously."
The study relies on findings from an excavation at the Jaljulia prehistoric site next to Highway 6 in central Israel, probably inhabited by humans of the homo erectus species, as well as evidence from the nearby Qesem Cave. At both sites the excavators discovered many scrapers of the new type, made of non-local flint whose nearest sources are the western slopes of Samaria, to the east of the excavated sites, or today's Ben Shemen Forest to the south.
Prof. Barkai adds: "In this study we identified links between technological developments and changes in the fauna hunted and consumed by early humans. For many years researchers believed that the changes in stone tools resulted from biological and cognitive changes in humans. We demonstrate a double connection, both practical and perceptual. On the one hand, humans started making more sophisticated tools because they had to hunt and butcher smaller, faster, thinner game. On the other, we identify a perceptual connection: Mounts Ebal and Gerizim in Samaria, about 20km east of Jaljulia, were a home range of fallow deer and thus considered a source of plenty. We found a connection between the plentiful source of fallow deer and the source of flint used to butcher them, and we believe that this link held perceptual significance for these prehistoric hunters. They knew where the fallow deer came from and made special efforts to use flint from the same area to make tools for butchering this prey. This behavior is familiar from many other places worldwide and is still widely practiced by native hunter-gatherer communities."
Litov concludes: "We believe that the Mountains of Samaria were sacred to the prehistoric people of Qesem Cave and Jaljulia, because that's where the fallow deer came from. It's important to note that in Jaljulia we also found numerous other tools made of different kinds of locally-procured stones. When the locals realized that the elephant population was dwindling, they gradually shifted their focus to fallow deer. Identifying the deer's plentiful source, they began to develop the unique scrapers in the same place. This is the earliest instance of a phenomenon that later spread throughout the world. The new scrapers first appeared at Jaljulia on a small scale, about 500,000 years ago, and a short time later, 400,000 to 200,000 years ago, on a much larger scale at Qesem Cave. The Samarian highlands east of Jaljulia and Qesem Cave were likely the home range of a fallow deer population, as evidenced by bone remains recovered from local archaeological sites throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene. Many fallow deer bones were also found at the altar site on Mount Gerizim, attributed in the Old Testament to Joshua bin Nun, and identified by some traditions as the place of Abraham's Covenant of the Pieces described in the Book of Genesis. Apparently, the Mountains of Samaria gained a prominent, or even sacred status as early as the Paleolithic period and retained their unique cultural position for hundreds of thousands of years."
Genetic analyses of Celtic burial mounds from 500 BCE reveal close relationships and provide new insights into the power structures of early Celtic elites
The burial mounds of Eberdingen-Hochdorf and Asperg-Grafenbühl, known as Fürstengräber, are among the richest burials of German prehistory, with gold finds and elaborate bronze vessels. A new genetic analysis has now revealed that the two princes, buried about 10 kilometers apart, were biologically closely related. "It has long been suspected that the two princes from the burial mounds in Eberdingen-Hochdorf and Asperg ‘Grafenbühl‘ were related," says Dirk Krausse of the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, "but only now has this assumption been confirmed by the new analyses“.
For the current analyses, teeth and skull bones of the inner ear were sampled at the MPI-EVA using the latest methods, and the remaining DNA was sequenced to reconstruct the genomes of a total of 31 individuals. The two central burials stand out from the rest of the group due to their close relationship.
Two princes closely related
After establishing a genetic relationship between the two individuals, the team looked at all possible connections, such as brothers, half-siblings, grandfather and grandson, as well as uncle and nephew. "Based on the fairly precise death dates, estimates of age at death and the genetic similarity of the two princes, only one scenario comes into question as uncle and nephew, more precisely: the sister of the Hochdorf prince was the mother of the Asperg prince," explains Stephan Schiffels from MPI-EVA.
"This result shows that political power in this society was most likely inherited through biological succession, comparable to a dynasty," says Joscha Gretzinger from MPI-EVA. This is also supported by evidence of relationships between other individuals from the two mounds, as well as from the much more distant Magdalenenberg mound, which was built about 100 years earlier. Gretzinger adds: "Overall, we seem to be dealing with a broad network among the Celts in Baden-Württemberg, in which political power was underpinned by biological kinship".
But how were the Celts related to other inhabitants of Iron Age Europe beyond Baden-Württemberg? A detailed analysis of the genetic origins of this group reveals a genetic origin most likely to be found in present-day France, but which was widespread throughout southern Germany at the time. In addition, several individuals show a genetic origin from Italy, which also fits well with the objects found in the graves, many of which show Mediterranean styles.
The study is therefore an important piece of the puzzle in our understanding of European history in the Middle and Late Iron Age, which, unlike the Roman and other Early Medieval periods, can hardly be researched from written sources.
