Syphilis may have spread through Europe before Columbus

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease -- and while commonly dismissed due to the availability of modern treatments, it is in fact spreading at an alarming rate: Over the last decades, more than 10 million people around the world have been infected with the syphilis subspecies pallidum of the Treponema pallidum bacteria. Other treponematoses, such as yaws and bejel, are caused by other subspecies of Treponema pallidum. The origins of syphilis, which wreaked havoc in Europe from the late 15th to the 18th century, are still unclear. The most popular hypothesis so far holds Christopher Columbus and his sailors liable for bringing the disease to Europe from the New World.

Yaws already widespread in Europe

The new study indicates a fair possibility that Treponema pallidum already existed in Europe before Columbus ever set sails to America. The researchers found treponematoses in archaeological human remains from Finland, Estonia and the Netherlands. Both molecular dating of the ancient bacterial genomes and traditional radiocarbon dating of the samples were used to estimate the age of the pathogens causing these diseases. The results indicate that the genomes dated back to between the early 15th and 18th century.

In addition to the syphilis cases, the researchers found yaws in one of the individuals. Like syphilis, yaws is transmitted via skin contact, although rarely through sexual intercourse. Today, the disease is only found in tropical and subtropical regions. "Our data indicates that yaws was spread through all of Europe. It was not limited to the tropics, as it is today," says last author Verena Schünemann, professor of paleogenetics at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine of the University of Zurich.

Genome of a previously unknown pathogen discovered

The research team also discovered something else: The skeleton found in the Netherlands contained a pathogen belonging to a new, unknown and basal treponemal lineage. This lineage evolved in parallel to syphilis and yaws but is no longer present as a modern-day disease. "This unforeseen discovery is particularly exciting for us, because this lineage is genetically similar to all present treponemal subspecies, but also has unique qualities that differ from them," says first author Kerttu Majander from UZH.

Because several closely related subspecies of Treponema pallidum existed throughout Europe, it is possible that the diseases persisted in overlapping regions, and sometimes infected the same patient. The spatial distribution in the northern periphery of Europe also suggests that endemic treponematoses had already spread widely in Europe in the early modern period.

Not just Columbus

"Using our ancient genomes, it is now possible for the first time to apply a more reliable dating to the treponema family tree," says Schünemann. The genetic analyses conducted in this study suggest that the predecessor of all modern Treponema pallidum subspecies likely evolved at least 2,500 years ago. For venereal syphilis in particular, the latest common ancestor existed between the 12th and 16th century.

According to the newly discovered diversity of treponematoses in early modern Europe, syphilis may have either originated or perhaps further developed in the Old World. "It seems that the first known syphilis breakout cannot be solely attributed to Columbus' voyages to America," concludes Schünemann. "The strains of treponematoses may have co-evolved and interchanged genetic material before and during the intercontinental contacts. We may yet have to revise our theories about the origins of syphilis and other treponemal diseases."

Analysis of ancient Mesoamerican sculptures supports universality of emotional expressions

Universal facial expressions uncovered in art of the ancient Americas: A computational approach

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

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An analysis of facial expressions in ancient Mesoamerican sculptures finds that some emotions expressed in these artworks match the emotions that modern U.S. participants would anticipate for each discernible context, including elation, sadness, pain, anger, and determination or strain. For instance, elation was predicted in the context of social touch while anger was predicted in the context of combat. The results support the hypothesis that some emotions conveyed through facial expressions are universal, reinforcing that feelings can be expressed nonverbally in ways that transcend culture. While previous studies have explored cross-cultural similarities and differences in how facial expressions convey emotions, these studies have typically asked people from Eastern or indigenous cultures to match depictions of Western expressions to situations or words in their native language. Such work may be perceived as biased since it treats Western emotional expression as the norm. To circumvent this bias, Alan Cowen and colleagues asked U.S. research subjects to label emotions expressed in ancient American art sculptures, which predated exposure to modern Western civilizations. The researchers combed through tens of thousands of images of Mesoamerican sculptures on museum websites, identifying 63 authentic sculptures that displayed facial expressions within clearly identifiable contexts, such as a smiling mother holding a baby. Next, Cowen et al. digitally separated each sculpture's expression from its context, producing, for example, one image of just the smile and one image of the mother holding the baby, with no expression visible. They asked the U.S. participants to label each image of a sculpture's facial expression with the emotion it depicted, and, separately, to label images of a sculpture's context with the emotion they would expect to see. Sculptures depicting some emotions passed the test of universality, with facial expression labels ("elated," for the mother's facial expression) matching the expectations of participants who only saw the context (an expressionless mother holding a baby). This suggests that emotional expressions can be inferred through universal human themes, such as a mother-child relationship, even without a common language. "We would eventually be interested in replicating this work in other cultures," says Cowen, noting examples of sculpture from ancient Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese cultures that could potentially be analyzed using similar study protocols. "For the time being, we are heavily focused on studying emotional expression in everyday life across many countries, aided by machine learning tools."

Remains of 17th century bishop support neolithic emergence of tuberculosis

Bishop Peder Winstrup of Lund, Sweden passed away in the winter of 1679 at the age of 74 and was interred in a crypt at Lund Cathedral; three centuries later, his astonishingly well-preserved remains provide insights to the origins of tuberculosis

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY

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IMAGE: PORTRAIT OF BISHOP PEDER JENSEN WINSTRUP view more 

CREDIT: ORF3US / CC BY-SA (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY-SA/3.0)

When Anthropologist Caroline Arcini and her colleagues at the Swedish Natural Historical Museum discovered small calcifications in the extremely well preserved lungs of Bishop Peder Winstrup, they knew more investigation was needed. "We suspected these were remnants of a past lung infection," says Arcini, "and tuberculosis was at the top of our list of candidates. DNA analysis was the best way to prove it."

Up to one quarter of the world's population is suspected to have been exposed to bacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, which cause tuberculosis (TB). Bishop Winstrup would have been one of many to fall ill during the onset of the so-called "White Plague" TB pandemic that ravaged post-medieval Europe. Today, TB is among the most prevalent diseases, accounting for the highest worldwide mortality from a bacterial infection.

The global distribution of TB has led to the prevailing assumption that the pathogen evolved early in human history and reached its global distribution via the hallmark Out of Africa human migrations tens of thousands of years ago, but recent work on ancient TB genomes has stirred up controversy over when this host-pathogen relationship began. In 2014, a team led by scientists from the University of Tübingen and Arizona State University reconstructed three ancient TB genomes from pre-contact South America - not only were the ancient strains unexpectedly related to those circulating in present-day seals, but comparison against a large number of human strains suggested that TB emerged within the last 6000 years. Understandably, skepticism surrounded this new estimate since it was based entirely on ancient genomes that are not representative of the TB strains associated with humans today.

"Discovery of the Bishop's lung calcification gave us the opportunity to revisit the question of tuberculosis emergence with data from an ancient European," comments Kirsten Bos, group leader for Molecular Paleopathology at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI-SHH), who co-led the study. "If we could reconstruct a TB genome from Bishop Winstrup, where we know his date of death to the day, it would give a secure and independent calibration for our estimates of how old TB, as we know it, actually is."

The highest quality ancient TB genome to date

In a new study published this week in Genome Biology, Susanna Sabin of MPI-SHH and colleagues reconstruct a tuberculosis genome from the calcified nodule discovered in Bishop Winstrup's remains.

"The genome is of incredible quality - preservation on this scale is extremely rare in ancient DNA," comments Bos.

Together with a handful of tuberculosis genomes from other work, the researchers revisit the question of the age of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, with the year of the Bishop's death as a fine-tuned calibration point. Using multiple molecular dating models, all angles indeed point to a relatively young age of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex.

"A more recent emergence of the tuberculosis pathogen complex is now supported by genetic evidence from multiple geographic regions and time periods," comments Sabin, first author of the study. "It's the strongest evidence available to date for this emergence having been a Neolithic phenomenon."

This most recent shift in the narrative for when bacteria in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex became highly infectious to humans raises further questions about the context of its emergence, as it appears to have coincided with the rise of pastoralism and sedentary lifestyles.

"The Neolithic transition seems to have played an important role for the emergence of a number of human pathogens," comments Denise Kühnert, group leader for disease transmission research at MPI-SHH who co-led the investigation.

"For TB in particular, stronger evidence could only come from an older genome, though these deeper time periods are unlikely to yield preservation on the scale of what we've seen for Bishop Winstrup," adds Bos.

"Moving forward," Sabin further comments, "the hope is we will find adequately preserved DNA from time periods close to the emergence of the complex, or perhaps from its ancestor."

Humans prepared beds to sleep on right at the dawn of our species -- over 200 000 years ago

UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND

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IMAGE: BORDER CAVE IN THE LEBOMBO MOUNTAINS. PANORAMA FROM DRONE IMAGES. A. KRUGER view more 

CREDIT: A. KRUGER

Researchers in South Africa's Border Cave, a well-known archaeological site perched on a cliff between eSwatini (Swaziland) and KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, have found evidence that people have been using grass bedding to create comfortable areas for sleeping and working on at least 200 000 years ago.

These beds, consisting of sheaves of grass of the broad-leafed Panicoideae subfamily were placed near the back of the cave on ash layers. The layers of ash was used to protect the people against crawling insects while sleeping. Today, the bedding layers are visually ephemeral traces of silicified grass, but they can be identified using high magnification and chemical characterisation.

The Border Cave study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, the CNRS (University of Bordeaux), and Université Côte d'Azur, France, the Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales, Tucumán, Argentina, and the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Belgium. The research was published in the high impact journal Science.

"We speculate that laying grass bedding on ash was a deliberate strategy, not only to create a dirt-free, insulated base for the bedding, but also to repel crawling insects," says Professor Lyn Wadley, principal researcher and lead author.

"Sometimes the ashy foundation of the bedding was a remnant of older grass bedding that had been burned to clean the cave and destroy pests. On other occasions, wood ash from fireplaces was also used as the clean surface for a new bedding layer."

Several cultures have used ash as an insect repellent because insects cannot easily move through fine powder. Ash blocks insects' breathing and biting apparatus, and eventually dehydrates them. Tarchonanthus (camphor bush) remains were identified on the top of the grass from the oldest bedding in the cave. This plant is still used to deter insects in rural parts of East Africa.

"We know that people worked as well as slept on the grass surface because the debris from stone tool manufacture is mixed with the grass remains. Also, many tiny, rounded grains of red and orange ochre were found in the bedding where they may have rubbed off human skin or coloured objects," says Wadley.

Modern hunter-gatherer camps have fires as focal points; people regularly sleep alongside them and perform domestic tasks in social contexts. People at Border Cave also lit fires regularly, as seen by stacked fireplaces throughout the sequence dated between about 200 000 and 38 000 years ago.

"Our research shows that before 200 000 years ago, close to the origin of our species, people could produce fire at will, and they used fire, ash, and medicinal plants to maintain clean, pest-free camps. Such strategies would have had health benefits that advantaged these early communities."

Although hunter-gatherers tend to be mobile and seldom stay in one place for more than a few weeks, cleansing camps had the potential to extend potential occupancy.

Australian Indigenous banana cultivation found to go back over 2,000 years

Findings help dispel the view that Australia's first peoples were 'only hunter gatherers'

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: ANCIENT BANANA CULTIVATION SITE AT WAGADAGAM, MABUYAG ISLAN, TORRES STRAITview more 

CREDIT: ANU

Archaeologists at The Australian National University (ANU) have found the earliest evidence of Indigenous communities cultivating bananas in Australia.

The evidence of cultivation and plant management dates back 2,145 years and was found at Wagadagam on the tiny island of Mabuyag in the western Torres Strait.

The site comprised a series of retaining walls associated with gardening activities along with a network of stone arrangements, shell arrangements, rock art and a mound of dugong bones.

Soils from the site showed definitive evidence for intensive banana cultivation in the form of starch granules, banana plant microfossils and charcoal.

Lead researcher, Kambri-Ngunnawal scholar Robert Williams, says the findings help dispel the view that Australia's first peoples were "only hunter gatherers".

"The Torres Strait has historically been seen as a separating line between Indigenous groups who practiced agriculture in New Guinea but who in Australia were hunter gatherers," Mr Williams said.

"Our research shows the ancestors of the Goegmulgal people of Mabuyag were engaged in complex and diverse cultivation and horticultural practices in the western Torres Strait at least 2,000 years ago.

"So rather than being a barrier, the Torres Strait was more of a bridge or a filter of cultural and horticultural practices going both north and south.

"The type of banana we found on Mabuyag appeared much earlier on New Guinea, which was a centre of banana domestication."

The team also found stone flake tools with plant residues along their cutting surfaces.

"What we're seeing here is an Indo-Pacific horticultural tradition based primarily on things like yams, taro and banana and important fat and protein elements in the form of fish, dugong and turtle, these people had a very high-quality diet," Mr Williams said.

"Food is an important part of Indigenous culture and identity and this research shows the age and time depth of these practices. I hope it will spark interest in these food traditions and might move people back towards them."

Mr Williams said the charcoal found at the site indicated burning for gardening activities. Excavated charcoal provided dates for the finds through radiocarbon dating.

Co-researcher Dr Duncan Wright said the Torres Strait region was a place where local innovations took place.

"The age of the banana propagation is also very significant. It's not something we expect to see in continental Australia and this is the earliest well dated evidence for plant management in Torres Strait," Dr Wright said.

"At the time I thought it was odd to see cultivation in a landscape otherwise set aside for ritual activities. Now we know why, the retaining walls were part of a much older phase of activity at Wagadagam."

As a descendant of the Kambri Ngunnawal peoples, Mr Williams said he was mindful of how his research could affect a first nations' community.

"Historically, culture has been appropriated by non-Indigenous archaeologists and anthropologists, so it was really important for me to make a connection with the people in this community and ensure they understood the research really belongs to them.

"I hope this work is something the community can be really proud about. It demonstrates through clear evidence the diversity and complexity of early horticulture in the western Torres Strait."

Mr Williams is the lead author on the research published in Nature, Ecology and Evolution.

He did his Masters in Archaeology at ANU and is currently a third year PhD candidate in the Department of Archaeology at Sydney University.

"This paper is led by a First Australian author. It's another big achievement for Robert, whom I suspect will play an important role in the discipline of Archaeology," Dr Wright said.

"His work makes a statement that goes beyond academia, representing a much-needed shift for the discipline where research into First Nations' communities is led by First Nations' peoples."

Cremation in the Middle-East dates as far back as 7,000 B.C.

Cremated remains from Israel signify a 7th-millennium cultural shift in funeral practices

PLOS

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IMAGE: PICTURE OF BONES IN SITU: A. SEGMENT OF AXIAL SKELETON: RIBS AND VERTEBRAE EXPOSED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STRUCTURE. B. RIGHT COXAL IN SITU; PRESERVED ALMOST COMPLETE BY A... view more 

CREDIT: BOCQUENTIN ET AL, 2020 (PLOS ONE, CC BY)

Ancient people in the Near East had begun the practice of intentionally cremating their dead by the beginning of the 7th millennium BC, according to a study published August 12, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Fanny Bocquentin of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and colleagues.

Excavations at the Neolithic site of Beisamoun in Northern Israel have uncovered an ancient cremation pit containing the remains of a corpse that appears to have been intentionally incinerated as part of a funerary practice. These remains were directly dated to between 7013-6700 BC, making them the oldest known example of cremation in the Near East.

The remains comprise most of one skeleton of a young adult. The bones show evidence of having been heated to temperatures of over 500°C shortly after death, and they sit inside a pit that appears to have been constructed with an open top and strong insulating walls. Microscopic plant remains found inside the pyre-pit are likely leftover from the fuel for the fire. This evidence leads the authors to identify this as an intentional cremation of a fresh corpse, as opposed to the burning of dry remains or a tragic fire accident.

This early cremation comes at an important period of transition in funerary practices in this region of the world. Old traditions were on the way out, such as the removal of the cranium of the dead and the burial of the dead within the settlement, while practices like cremation were new. This change in funeral procedure might also signify a transition in rituals surrounding death and the significance of the deceased within society. Further examination of other possible cremation sites in the region will help elucidate this important cultural shift.

Bocquentin says: "The funerary treatment involved in situ cremation within a pyre-pit of a young adult individual who previously survived from a flint projectile injury-- the inventory of bones and their relative position strongly supports the deposit of an articulated corpse and not dislocated bones." She adds, "This is a redefinition of the place of the dead in the village and in society."

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IMAGE: THE INDIVIDUAL BURIED IN THE PYRE-PIT WAS INJURED BY A FLINT PROJECTILE SEVERAL MONTHS BEFORE DYING. view more 

CREDIT: © MISSION BEISAMOUN

The gender of the human remains found inside a cremation pyre pit in Beisamoun, Israel remains unknown. What is known is that the individual was a young adult injured by a flint projectile several months prior to their death in spring some 9,000 years ago. Preserved due to it being buried, the pit represents the oldest proof of direct (1) cremation in the Middle-East. An international team lead by CNRS archaeo-anthropologist Fanny Bocquentin (2) with aid from PhD candidate Marie Anton and several experts in animal, plant, and mineral remains, discovered and studied the bones found inside the pyre. An analysis of the clay used to coat the inside of the pit showed the 355 bone fragments, some of which were burnt, were exposed to temperatures reaching 700°C. The position of the bones and the preserved joints seem to indicate the body was placed seated onto the pyre and was not moved during or after cremation. Whether used as fuel, as ornamentation, or as a scent, siliceous traces indicated the presence of flowering plants, which made it possible to identify the season the person died. In addition to the exceptional pyre pit, the cremated remains of five other adults were discovered at the site. They dated back to the same period as burials whose traces were discovered among the ruins of abandoned dwellings. The use of cremation indicates an evolution of the relationship to death in the region. The veneration of ancestors and lengthy funerary practices seem to have given way to shorter rituals. This could be evidence of a transition phase because, some two to three centuries later, the dead were no longer buried inside or near villages and their traces are much more difficult to find.

The study is based on joint archaeological digs completed between 2007-2016 by the CNRS, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Israel Antiquities Authority.

A seal and a seal impression discovered in the City of David bears witness to the restoration of the city in the period of Ezra and Nehemiah

Revealed in archaeological excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University in the Givati Parking Lot Excavation of the City of David, in the Jerusalem Walls National Park

The new findings may indicate that despite the plight of Jerusalem after the destruction of the First Temple, efforts were made to restore the stature of the administrative authorities. The impression depicts a man sitting on a large chair - probably a king - and in front of his columns.

The findings will be displayed tomorrow  (Wednesday) at the 5th "Jerusalem Days" conference of Yad Ben-Zvi and the Israel Antiquities Authority, donated by the Uzi and Michal Halevy Foundation.

How did Jerusalem deal with the tremendous destruction wrought upon her by the Babylonian army in the 6th century BCE? A double stamp impression on a bulla and a seal made of reused pottery sherds, 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 and Tel Aviv University in the Givati Parking Lot Excavation of the City of David, in the Jerusalem Walls National Park.  They were found next to the rubble of a large structure that was destroyed during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem.

According to Prof. Yuval Gadot, of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University, and Dr. Yiftah Shalev, of the Israel Antiquities Authority: "Despite the numerous excavations conducted in Jerusalem to date, so far the findings revealed from the Persian period are extremely meager, and therefore we lack information regarding the character and appearance of the city during this period. The researchers emphasized that "Discovering these artifacts in an archaeological context which can be dated with a high probability is very rare."

The seal impression - bullae - were small pieces of clay used in ancient times to sign documents or containers (for example, storage jugs for agricultural produce collected as a tax), and were intended to keep them sealed en route to their destination. Frequently, the objects on which the seals were stamped were themselves left unopened or did not endure (especially the documents). Still, the bullae remained preserved, leaving evidence of the administrative authorities, and even of the people representing them.

According to Prof. Gadot and Dr. Shalev: "The finding of the stamp and seal impression in the City of David indicates that despite the city's dire situation after the destruction, efforts were made to restore the administrative authorities to normal, and its residents continued to use the structures that were destroyed partly".

The double seal impression was discovered on a large piece of clay. The size of the clay piece, about 4.5 cm, indicates that it was used to seal a large container -perhaps a jar- and not a document. The imprint bears the image of a person sitting on a large chair with one or two columns in front of him. The design of the image is indicative of Babylonian-style composition. The character is probably a king, and the columns are the symbols that represent the gods Nabu and Marduk. According to Dr. Ido Koch of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University, only about ten artifacts of this style have been found in Israel, in places such as Ein Gedi and Jerusalem, which appear to have been in use during the Persian period. Another bulla of this style, also from the Persian period, was discovered in excavations carried out by Dr. Eilat Mazar on the eastern slope of the City of David.

The seal is made of a large, locally-made pottery shard, with a circular frame engraved on its outer side, and is divided into two sections containing several linear inscriptions. The engravings probably represent two characters, and it may be a pseudo-epigraphic seal (bearing drawings designed to resemble letters). On the other side of the seal is a fragment, which may be indicative of a handle that was attached to it in the past. The size of the seal, about 8 cm in diameter, indicates that it was used to seal large objects.

Other artifacts were discovered along with these items, including a broken pottery vessel decorated with a face of the god Bes. According to the researchers: "Discovering the new findings on the western slope of the City of David adds much information about the city's structure during the period of the Return to Zion, a period we knew about mainly from Biblical literature (the books of Ezra and Nehemiah). The paucity of the findings from this period made it difficult to understand the status and extent of the city.  The findings from the Givati Parking Lot Excavation shed light on the renewal of the local administration, in a location similar to the one that existed before the destruction of the First Temple, about 100 years prior."

The findings will be displayed tomorrow  (Wednesday) at the 5th "Jerusalem Days" conference of Yad Ben-Zvi and the Israel Antiquities Authority, donated by; the Uzi and Michal Halevy Foundation. The conference that will take place on Wednesday and Thursday will be broadcasted live at The Israel Antiquities Authority and Yad Ben-Zvi websites.