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Archaeologists and a team of other researchers are hoping that an Italian graveyard will provide clues about the evolution of the bacterium that causes cholera.

Located near the ruins of the abandoned Badia Pozzeveri church in Italy’s Tuscany region, the graveyard contains bodies of cholera victims of the world cholera epidemic of the 1850’s.

“To our knowledge, these are the best preserved remains of cholera victims of this time period ever found,” said Clark Spencer Larsen, professor of anthropology at the Ohio State University and one of the leaders of the excavation team. “We’re very excited about what we may be able to learn.”

Larsen presented the details of the project on Feb. 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose.

To date, the team has completed four field seasons at the site, a section of the graveyard that was designated for the burial of cholera victims. Excavations of about 20 – 30 skeletons in each of the past four field seasons revealed hasty burial of the bodies that were then covered with lime encasings, a treatment that the researchers think was designed to prevent the disease from spreading.

“But the lime encasing is pretty amazing for bone preservation, too,” said Larsen. Even more, according to Larsen, the lime trapped soil surrounding the bodies, soil that possibly contains the DNA of the deadly bacteria—Vibrio cholera—and other organisms that the now-buried humans hosted while they were alive. Ancient DNA expert Hendrik Poinar, a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, is scanning the soil samples for the DNA.

“We haven’t found it yet, but we are hopeful,” Larsen said. “We’ve found other DNA associated with humans so we’re continuing the search,” Larsen said. “If we find the DNA we could see how cholera has evolved and compare it to what the bacteria is like today. That’s the first step to possibly finding a cure.”

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Cholera bacterium. Wikimedia Commons

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Larsen says there is much more to the site than the cholera victim graves. The landscape surrounding the church also features several other cemeteries, spanning different time periods.

 “We have a thousand-year window into the health of this village,” said Larsen. “It is a microcosm of what is happening in Italy and all of Europe during this time frame.” He points, for example, to the graves of people who died of the Black Death during the pandemic that devastated populations in Europe from 1346 to 1353. 

“What we are trying to do is to reconstruct these populations as if they were alive, to get a glimpse about what their day-to-day lives were like and what their health was like, as well as how they died.”

Larsen and colleagues plan to extract bone and tooth samples during the upcoming 5th season.  

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Excavations under this project began in 2010 through the combined efforts of the Ohio State University, University of Pisa and the local community near the cemetery location. The project also operates the Field School in Medieval Archaeology and Bioarchaeology at Badia Pozzeveri, an academic program for training students in archaeological and laboratory methods.

Source: Adapted and edited from information in a Ohio State University press release.

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Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

It was in 2007 when the late archaeologist Ehud Netzer announced to the world what was arguably the prize find of his life—the discovery of the remains of the tomb and possible sarcophagus of the one and only Herod the Great himself, who for many, both anciently and today, stands among the great villains of history. But aside from his designs, according to the Christian New Testament gospels, to dispatch the Christ child along with the firstborn of many other families, as well as banishment of members of his own family according to other writings, he was also perhaps the savviest politician, statesman, and greatest builder in first century Judea. It was he who planned and commissioned the building of the massive expansion of the Second Temple, the Temple Mount, and its associated structures in Jerusalem, in its time perhaps the most monumental religous enterprize and wonder of the world. It was he who planned and built the city and harbor of the monumental city of Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coastline, a major port, and the towering fortress complex of Masada near the Dead Sea. And it was also he who planned and commissioned the construction of the only fortified palace complex which bears his name by decree and where he planned to be buried—Herodium.

Netzer died before he could finish his excavation work at Herodium. On October 27, 2010, while leaning on a wooden railing that overlooked a steep slope near where he had made his spectacular tomb discovery, the railing gave way. He fell ten feet, rolled, then fell another ten feet, critically injuring his head, neck and back. Two days later, he passed on. The news of his death shocked the community of scholars, scientists, students, volunteers and everyone who had worked intimately with him for decades.

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Detail view of a section of the remains at Herod’s tomb. Courtesy Shmuel Browns

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But excavation work goes on at Herodium to this day. Archaeologists have recently uncovered a staircase at the site, left unfinished for whatever reasons by its architects and workers 2,000 years ago. Associated with the staircase were impressive archways and an entrance hall with plastered walls and frescoes. 

Shmuel Browns, a photographer and professional tour guide who participated in the Netzer excavations of the mausoleum complex in 2008, writes briefly of his recent visit to Herodium and his experience with the excavators at the staircase site. His account can be read at his blog, Israel Tour Guide/Israel Tours. Other work at Herodium includes ongoing restoration and investigation of the loggia, or VIP box at the Herodium theater, which features colorful panels on plaster and unique paintings in secco (paint applied on top of dry plaster). More about the loggia can be read at A Look into the Loggia at Herodium.

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The staircase and archways as exposed through recent excavations. Courtesy Shmuel Browns

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Readers can find out more about the excavations at Herodium in the article, Netzer’s Legacy: The Wonders of Herodium, written by Shmuel Browns for Popular Archaeology Magazine.

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Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

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Just released!

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Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

____________________________________________

Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

COLUMBUS, Ohio—In the 16th century, during its conquest of South America, the Spanish Empire forced countless Incas to work extracting silver from the mountaintop mines of Potosí, in what is now Bolivia–then the largest source of silver in the world. The Inca already knew how to refine silver, but in 1572 the Spanish introduced a new technology that boosted production many times over and sent thick clouds of lead dust rising over the Andes for the first time in history.

Winds carried some of that pollution 500 miles northwest into Peru, where tiny remnants of it settled on the Quelccaya Ice Cap.

There it stayed–buried under hundreds of years of snow and ice–until researchers from The Ohio State University found it in 2003.

In the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they report discovery of a layer within a Quelccaya ice core that dates to the Spanish conquest of the Inca, contains bits of lead and bears the chemical signature of the silver mines of Potosí.

The core provides the first detailed record of widespread human-produced air pollution in South America from before the industrial revolution, and makes Quelccaya one of only a few select sites on the planet where the pre-industrial human impact on air quality can be studied today.

“This evidence supports the idea that human impact on the environment was widespread even before the industrial revolution,” said Paolo Gabrielli, a research scientist at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio State and corresponding author of the study.

Lonnie Thompson, Distinguished University Professor of earth sciences at Ohio State and co-author of the study, called the find “another keyhole into the past of human activity in that part of the world,” and suggested that further investigation could ultimately help us better understand the fate of pollution circulating in the atmosphere today.

Previously, Thompson has called the Quelccaya ice cores a “Rosetta Stone” for gauging Earth’s climate history. The samples were cut from ice that formed over 1,200 years as snow settled on the Peruvian Andes. Layer by layer, the ice captured chemicals from the air and precipitation during wet and dry seasons for all those years. Today, researchers analyze the chemistry of different layers to measure historical changes in climate.

For this study, the researchers used a mass spectrometer to measure the amount and type of chemicals present in the ice dating back to 800 AD. They looked for antimony, arsenic, bismuth, molybdenum and especially lead. That’s because the refining process that the Spanish introduced to South America involved grinding silver ore–which contains much more lead than silver–into powder before mixing it with mercury in a process called amalgamation. So atmospheric pollution from silver production would chiefly contain traces of lead particulates.

The mass spectrometer revealed some spikes in the concentrations of these elements in the years before Spanish rule, but those layers all likely coincide with natural contamination sources, such as volcanic eruptions. Starting just before 1600, however, the Quelccaya ice began capturing much larger quantities of these elements, and the high amounts persisted until the early 1800s, when South American countries declared independence from Spain.

To pin down where the pollution came from, the researchers compared their data with those from a peat bog in Tierra del Fuego, Chile, and from sedimentary lake records from regions including Potosí and other mines throughout Bolivia and Peru. These latter sites would have captured the pollution generated in their local area during that time.

The chemical signatures in the Quelccaya ice meshed with what researchers knew from written records: most of the pollution likely came from Potosí, where the Spanish produced the vast majority of silver. Other mines throughout the region contributed to the Quelccaya pollution to a lesser extent.

Even in their highest concentrations, the elements entrapped in the ice are not visible to the naked eye and can be detected only through chemical analyses, Gabrielli explained. The section of core containing them has the translucent white appearance of perfectly clean ice.

“The fact that we can detect pollution in ice from a pristine high altitude location is indicative of the continental significance of this deposition,” Gabrielli added. “Only a significant source of pollution could travel so far, and affect the chemistry of the snow on a remote place like Quelccaya.”

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This is the north dome of the Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru in 2003. Researchers at The Ohio State University found evidence of human-produced air pollution within the ice that predates the industrial revolution by more than 200 years. Photo by Paolo Gabrielli, courtesy of The Ohio State University.

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The spread of human-made pollution across vast distances has become common since the industrial revolution of the late 18th century. Greenland received substantial amounts of airborne lead pollution from Europe and the United States until the 1970s, when national policies began requiring producers to change the formulation of gasoline. And some of the pollution currently troubling North American skies has been traced back to Asia, which is experiencing its own industrial boom right now.

A question in the scientific community is whether much earlier activity should be included in measures of human environmental impact. For example, ice cores in Greenland contain traces of lead from as far back as the 5th century BC, which were sent airborne by smelting in the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. This latest ice core from Quelccaya shows that humans generated substantial pollution in the 16th century. Still, the 20th century produced more pollution than any other time in human history.

International geological governing bodies are currently considering whether to officially call our current epoch the Anthropocene, or “Age of Humans,” to designate the span of time that humans have been changing the environment. Gabrielli, Thompson and their colleagues hope that the Quelccaya core will inform that debate.

In the meantime, they are turning their attention to a core that Thompson’s team drew from the Dasuopu Glacier in southwest China. It is the highest-altitude ice core ever retrieved, and it contains some 8,000 years of climate history. Some of that new trace element record, they hope, will tell new and powerful stories of ancient human activity.

Co-authors of the study include Chiara Uglietti, formerly a postdoctoral researcher at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center and now at the Paul Scherrer Institute; Colin A. Cooke, formerly at Yale University and now at the Alberta Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development; and Paul Vallelonga of the University of Copenhagen.

This work was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Paleoclimate Program and by Ohio State as part of the Byrd Polar Research Fellowship. The mass spectrometer used in the study was funded by the NSF and by Ohio State’s Climate, Water and Carbon Program.

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The Ohio State University

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Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

____________________________________________

Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

An archaeological team is excavating a site that is showing evidence of having been a fortified settlement belonging to the kingdom of Judah both before and during the time when the Assyrians were sacking the kingdom’s cities in the 8^th century BCE.

Known today as the site of Tel Burna, the mound is located in the fertile rolling plains of the Shephelah, a region between the coastal plains and the Jerusalem mountains in central Israel. It is an area that, anciently, served as a strategic borderland between the Philistines in the west and ancient Israel and the kingdom of Judah to the east. Today, Tel Burna is surrounded by other ancient sites that have been intensely investigated and excavated over the years.  But this site has seen relatively little exploration and research—until now.

According to project director and Ariel University assistant professor Dr. Itzhaq Shai, the site was long known to exist but full-scale excavations did not begin at the location until a few years ago.

“Several surveys have been conducted in the region,” said Shai, “however, the site had never been excavated until the summer of 2009, when we began a long-term archaeological project on the site.”

Though still young, the excavations have already revealed important clues to the site’s identification within the context of biblical history.

“The identification of the site has been debated for more than a century,” states Shai. “There are scholars who have claimed that Tel Burna is biblical Libnah, which was mentioned several times in the Bible. This identification was based mainly on geographical and historical arguments……… To date, there are other candidates for the location of ancient Libnah, including nearby Tel Zayit; however, the exposed archaeological remains at Tel Burna support this identification, with both the geographical, survey and excavation data fitting well with what we know and expect from a border town in the Iron Age.”

Thus far, excavations have revealed part of a 13^th century BCE public structure, with finds that included Cypriot votive vessels, a scarab with dozens of beads, a cylinder seal, a rich ceramic assemblage of goblets, chalices, Cypriot zoomorphic vessels, local and imported Cypriot and Mycenaean figurines, fragments of ceramic masks and two large Cypriot pithoi. “All in all, the building size and the effort that was undertaken in order to build it alongside the presence of unique vessels indicate that this was a 13^th century public building where ritual activity took place,” said Shai.

Clear evidence of fortification walls was also uncovered defining the summit of the mound, and dating suggests their use during the 9^th and 8^th centuries BCE.

Said Shai, “the Iron Age II (1000 – 586 BCE) wall reflects the role of this site during this period. The location of Tel Burna—midway between Gath, the dominant Philistine city in the Iron Age IIA (1000 – 925 BCE), and Lachish, the main Judahite city, monitoring the road along Nahal Guvrin, with visibility all the way to the coastal plain — would account for the investment of the central authority of Judah in establishing such a walled city so close to the city of Lachish.”

Other finds included LMLK (of or belonging to the king – like state property) and Rosette stamped pottery handles and pillar figurines, all indicative of a Judahite presence. Six silo structures were also uncovered.

“The Iron Age remains attested to the importance of the settlement at the site and that it was a fortified Judahite border site facing the Philistines in the west,” summarized Shai.

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Aerial view of one of the excavation areas at Tel Burna. Courtesy Itzhaq Shai and the Tel Burna Excavation Project

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Stamped handles: far left, four-winged LMLK; center, seal impression of Ezer Hagai; right, Rosette. Courtesy Itzhaq Shai and the Tel Burna Excavation Project

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Shai and his team plan to return to the site in 2015, when they will expand the excavated areas to uncover more of the Late Bronze public building, the Iron Age fortifications, agricultural installations, and Late Bronze Age burial caves.

Readers may learn more about Tel Burna and how to participate and support the excavations by going to the project website.

A detailed article by Dr. Shai about the Tel Burna excavations will be published in the Spring 2015 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

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Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

____________________________________________

Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

Charles Darwin’s theory on evolution still holds true despite lower mortality and fertility rates in the modern world, according to new research by the University of Sheffield.

Scientists looked at how cultural influences like easy access to contraception and medical advances reducing infant mortality, effects natural selection in modern human populations.

The study, carried out in Finland, observed that while only 67 per cent of children born in the 1860s survived to adulthood the figure rose to 94 per cent during the 1940s. At the same time, people went from having an average of five children to 1.6 children during their lifetime.

But despite artificial influences the study found genetic differences between humans are what continue to fuel evolution.

Dr Virpi Lummaa, from the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, and Dr Elisabeth Bolund, now at the Uppsala University in Sweden, used genealogical records collected from Finnish churches starting at the beginning of the 18th century and still being collected today. By assembling family trees over several generations of over 10,000 individuals, they could sort out how much of the variation in a trait is due to genetic influences and how much is due to environmental influences, and how the determinants of key traits for evolutionary success may have changed over the modernisation of society.

The study found that in the 18th and 19th centuries, about four to 18 per cent of the variation between individuals in lifespan, family size and ages at first and last birth was influenced by genes, while the rest of the variation was driven by differences in various aspects of their environment.

“This is exciting because if genes affected differences between individuals in these traits, it means they could also change in response to natural selection,” said Dr Bolund. “But we know that the environment has changed rapidly and dramatically, so we investigated the genetic basis of such complex traits and their ability to continue changing through evolution.”

The study showed that the genetic influence on timing of reproduction and family size tended to actually be higher in recent times. This means that modern human societies can still respond to selection, and genetic differences between us continue to fuel evolution.

“It is possible that we in modern societies have more individual freedom to express our genetic predispositions because social and normative influences are more relaxed, and this leads to the genetic differences among us explaining more of the reproductive patterns,” said Dr Bolund.

Complex traits like the ones in the study are each influenced by many different genes, while at the same time, several different traits can be affected by the same genes. The authors found that the genetic basis that is shared between the studied reproductive traits and longevity did not change over time.

“This is reassuring if we want to use current patterns of natural selection and genetic variation to make predictions of what will happen in modern human populations over the next few generations,” added Dr Bolund.

“Our results can help us when we want to predict population responses in the face of global challenges such as prevailing epidemics, ageing populations and decreasing fertility.”

The paper is being published online by the journal Evolution on Thursday 5 February 2015.

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Source: Press release of the University of Sheffield

With almost 26,000 of the brightest students from around 120 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the world’s leading universities.

A member of the UK’s prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines.

For further information, please visit http://www.sheffield.ac.uk

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Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

____________________________________________

Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

For the first time, a promising, newly discovered monumental archaeological site in northern Peru may see its first exposure to an organized tour expedition group consisting of members of the public, bloggers, photographers, and freelance writers.

The area, where archaeologists began full-scale excavations in 2014 and where forthcoming additional surveys and excavations will explore several monumental sites in close proximity in the Upper Nepeña Valley of Peru, has thus far yielded finds that suggest human occupation as far back as at least 3,000 years.

Led by project director Kimberly Munro, an Andean archaeologist and PhD student at Louisiana State University, along with Lic. Jeisen Navarro, a professional Peruvian archaeologist and co-director of the new project, and Dr. David Chicoine, also of Louisiana State University, the team is in the first stages of unearthing the ancient sites that, together, bespeak a possible associated complex of structures with beginnings at least as long ago as ancient Peru’s “Early Horizon” period (900 – 1 BCE). What has been investigated thus far includes a mound about 250 meters long and 70 meters wide and featuring an underground gallery and truncated top; a smaller mound featuring signs of exposed architecture at its top; and a hilltop fortress-like structure. Collectively, they are known as the archaeological site of Cosma, named after the nearby small village.

“Cosma is located in an ecological region which has largely been ignored by researchers,” Munro says. And because of their location in the upper reaches of the coastal river valley, says Munro, they could offer a glimpse into ancient inter-regional interactions that many other sites could not afford.

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The Cosma sites are located in the scenic upper coastal Nepeña River Valley. The sites have been relatively unexplored until now. Courtesy Kimberly Munro and the Cosma Archaeological Project

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The 2014 excavations uncovered a set of stairs leading into the underground gallery within the main mound at the Cosma archaeological site. Courtesy Kimberly Munro and the Cosma Archaeological Project

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The 2014 excavations also revealed evidence of a circular room structure within the smaller mound. Courtesy Kimberly Munro and the Cosma Archaeological Project

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Excavations are scheduled to continue during the summer of 2015. But concurrent with that, Popular Archaeology Magazine plans to lead a group to visit the sites, affording members of the public, writers, and photographers the chance to see the sites and the ongoing excavations first-hand.

“The proposed tour expedition will permit the participants to see the exposed architecture and artifacts in person and give them the opportunity to ask questions of the project staff and take photographs at a working excavation within an exceptionally scenic and remote area hugging the Andes mountains,” says Popular Archaeology Magazine Editor in Chief Dan McLerran, who will be co-leading the group along with tour operator and local guide Juan Cardenas. The tour expedition will be conducted in collaboration with Far Horizons Archaeological and Cultural Trips, Inc.

“But more than this,” he continues, “we also plan to see a significant number of ancient sites in Peru during the tour, including such sites as Caral, the oldest known monumental city of the Americas, dating back to 2700 BCE, and even some iconic Inca sites such as Machu Picchu for those who want to stay a little longer.”

McLerran hopes that the tour expedition will play its small part in supporting archaeological research while also contributing to the economy of a rural village and the Peruvian services sector. McLerran maintains that services and the tourist industry play an important role in developing nations like Peru, where cultural resources are a significant resource that, if developed, can bring new jobs and income to the people of the country.

“Part of the proceeds from the tour will be donated to the Cosma archaeological project, which in turn will hopefully eventually have a positive income affect on the families of the rural villages in the area, and may bring more tourists and travelers to the area,” says McLerran. “A lot of people think that, when they go on a tour to a developing country, they’re just spending a lot of money on a vacation get-away and enriching their own lives — and while that is true, they don’t realize that they’re also contributing to the economies of those countries and the people who live there by infusing their dollars into services and products. This is especially true for countries and communities where their cultural and historical resources, such as archaeological sites, are among their greatest assets.” 

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Aerial view of Caral, the New World’s oldest ancient monumental complex. Villa de Omas, Wikimedia Commons

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The Inca mountaintop site of Machu Picchu, Peru’s most iconic archaeological site. Wikimedia Commons

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More information about the expeditionary tour can be obtained at the website.  

See the article about the latest excavations at Cosma, published in the Winter issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

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Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

____________________________________________

Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

Beginning in March 2015, the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., will present Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, the first major international exhibition to bring together approximately 50 ancient bronzes from the Mediterranean region and beyond ranging from the 4^th century B.C. to the 1^st century A.D.

During the Hellenistic era, artists around the Mediterranean created innovative, realistic sculptures of physical power and emotional intensity. Bronze—with its reflective surface, tensile strength, and ability to hold the finest details—was employed for dynamic compositions, graphic expressions of age and character, and dazzling displays of the human form. 

From sculptures known since the Renaissance, such as the Arringatore (Orator) from Sanguineto (in the collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence), to spectacular recent discoveries that have never before been exhibited in the United States, the exhibition is the most comprehensive museum survey of Hellenistic bronzes ever organized. In each showing of the exhibition, recent finds—many salvaged from the sea—will be exhibited for the first time alongside well-known works. The works of art on view will range in scale from statuettes, busts and heads to life-size figures and herms. Just one example, illustrated below right, is the bronze Portrait of a Man, dated to 100 BC.*

Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World is especially remarkable for bringing together works of art that, because of their rarity, are usually exhibited in isolation. When viewed in proximity to one another, the variety of styles and techniques employed by ancient sculptors is emphasized to greater effect, as are the varying functions and histories of the bronze sculptures.

Bronze was a material well-suited to reproduction, and the exhibition provides an unprecedented opportunity to see objects of the same type, and even from the same workshop, together for the first time.

The travel schedule for Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World is:

• Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy

          March 14 – June 21, 2015

          www.palazzostrozzi.org

• J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA

          July 28 – November 1, 2015

          www.getty.edu

• National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

          December 6, 2015 – March 20, 2016

          www.nga.gov

This exhibition is curated by Jens Daehner and Kenneth Lapatin of the J. Paul Getty Museum and co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; with the participation of Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Bank of America is the National Presenting Sponsor of this exhibition. The Los Angeles presentation is also supported by the Getty Museum’s Villa Council.

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The J. Paul Getty Trust is an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts that includes the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation. The J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty programs serve a varied audience from two locations:  the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Malibu.

The J. Paul Getty Museum collects in seven distinct areas, including Greek and Roman antiquities, European paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculpture and decorative arts, and photographs gathered internationally. The Museum’s mission is to make the collection meaningful and attractive to a broad audience by presenting and interpreting the works of art through educational programs, special exhibitions, publications, conservation, and research.

Visiting the Getty Center 

The Getty Center is open Tuesday through Friday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is closed Monday and most major holidays. Admission to the Getty Center is always free. Parking is $15 per car, but reduced to $10 after 5 p.m. on Saturdays and for evening events throughout the week. No reservation is required for parking or general admission. Reservations are required for event seating and groups of 15 or more. Please call (310) 440-7300 (English or Spanish) for reservations and information. The TTY line for callers who are deaf or hearing impaired is (310) 440-7305. The Getty Center is at 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, California.

Additional information is available at www.getty.edu.

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*Image: Portrait of a Man, about 100 B.C. Bronze, white paste and dark stone, 32.5 x 22 x 22 cm.  Courtesy of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Photo: Marie Mauzy/Art Resource, NY

Source: Press release of the J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

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During the summer of 2015, a team of archaeologists and other specialists and students will be exploring a large mound that contains the remains of an ancient city that once commanded the highest point on a peninsula that juts out from the southern coast of Tunisia into the Mediterranean. Visible from the island of Djerba, which was anciently known as Calypso of the Lotus Eaters in Homer’s The Odyssey, the mound features the remains from a Roman bathhouse, ceramic kilns, evidence of metallurgy, and a Punic tomb.

Dr. Brett Kaufman of Brown University and colleagues from UCLA and the Institut National du Patrimoine (INP), Tunisia, have been conducting research at the site known as Zita, (“Olive City” in Punic), since 2013. Their first two seasons have uncovered promising signs that will help shed light on the human occupation phases and changes in a location that will see the first archaeological teams at the site since the Arab Spring.

“During our first two seasons in 2013 and 2014,” state the project leaders in their project summary, “extensive survey and selected excavations at the site demonstrated occupation levels beginning at least 500 BCE and lasting at least until 400 CE, mostly abandoned around 300 CE. A tophet was identified with numerous stelae and burials well preserved. Also, portions of a Roman forum were exposed, clearly demonstrating continued occupation covering the Punic and Roman cultural horizons.”*

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Excavators taking and recording measurements in one of the areas at the Zita excavaton site. Credit: Zita Project on the Archaeology, Anthropology and Ethnography of Southern Tunisia

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The team’s goals for 2015 include mapping the ancient city, including the surrounding coastal and agricultural areas; and targeted excavation of key areas and features of the site, such as the Roman forum, the Punic sacrificial precinct, and domestic and metallurgical areas. In addition, project leadership states that it intends to “document the socioeconomic, political, religious, and ecological realities of the local populations from prehistory to the post-Arab Spring.”*

Individuals interested in learning more about the site and how to participate may go to the project website. Participation at the Zita excavations is being coordinated by the Institute for Field Research.

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* http://ifrglobal.org/images/2015/Syllabus/Syllabus-TunisiaZita2015-Final.pdf

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The Snake Mountains of Eastern Nevada are not easily explored. Rough terrain and remote territory make certain that lost items may remain undisturbed for prolonged periods of time. The lever-action 1873, spotted by archaeologist Eva Jensen, required very little excavating to recover by the staff at Great Basin National Park and has been a discovery that sent her into the archives to discover the identity of the rifle’s owner.

It was found propped up against a juniper. The manufacture date: 1882. The find was a lucky shot for Jensen who was with her team, scouting for Native American artifacts and petroglyphs prior to a prescribed burning of vegetation. The rifle was found with the stock buried an inch or two in the dirt and with a number of rocks supporting it. The wood was dried out and the steel body rusted thoroughly, but it was not enough to disguise the rifle from the trained eye of the 57-year-old archaeologist.

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The Winchester 1873 as discovered at the site. Courtesy National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior

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Since the discovery in early November, Jensen has found herself searching historical records—bills of purchase, newspapers, photographs, and letters—to hunt down the owner of the gun. Every rifle produced by the Winchester company was stamped with a serial number, and as consulted by the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming, the rifle was manufactured in 1882. The order number for the rifle was even found and showed that the rifle was shipped from the warehouse in Connecticut that year. The trail, however, has gone cold, as there is no information as to where it was shipped.

According to Jensen, everybody she encounters seems to have a theory of how the gun was left, and the search continues for hard evidence to illustrate the events of that day. For now, the rifle is being kept in climate-controlled storage and will become part of the park’s public collection. The location of where the rifle was found has not been revealed.

The Winchester was a series of lever-action repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. They were among the earliest repeaters. The model type 1873 discovered by Jensen was considered especially successful, and has been popularly called “The Gun that Won the West”.

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See the LA Times story for details.

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Modern Europeans have inherited about 4 percent of their genes from Neanderthals, meaning the two groups mated at some point in the past. But the question is, where and when?

Characteristics of a partial skull recently discovered in Manot Cave in Israel’s West Galilee provide the earliest evidence that modern humans co-inhabited the area with Neanderthals and could have met and interbred 55,000 years ago.

The finding—which challenges a previous hypothesis that the two species potentially met 45,000 years ago somewhere in Europe—is reported in the Advance Online Publication Nature article, “Levantine cranium from Manot Cave (Israel) foreshadows the First European modern humans.”

“It has been suspected that modern man and Neanderthals were in the same place at the same time, but we didn’t have the physical evidence. Now we do have it in the new skull fossil,” said paleontologist Bruce Latimer, from Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine’s Department of Orthodontics.

The finding of Neanderthals living at other Levantine sites in the eastern Mediterranean region places the two species in the same area at about the same time. The Manot cave is located in the region where Neanderthals periodically lived, perhaps when ice sheets in Europe forced them to migrate to warmer locales, like the Levant region.

Manot is a prehistoric cave with an impressive archaeological sequence and spectacular speleothems. To date, five excavation seasons (2010-2014) have been conducted in the cave on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The cave is situated along the only land route available for ancient humans to travel out of Africa to the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

“Modern humans and Neanderthals likely encountered each other foraging for food,” Latimer said.

Latimer and Mark Hans, chair of CWRU’s Department of Orthodontics, were among a team of researchers that worked closely with the study’s lead investigator Israel Hershkovitz, professor of anatomy and anthropology at Tel Aviv University.

The partial cranium, covered in a patina of minerals produced by the wet conditions within the cave, allowed Miryam Bar-Matthews, Avner Ayalon and Gal Yas’ur from the Geological Survey of Israel to use uranium-thorium dating techniques and determine that the skull was between 50,000 to 60,000 years old.

Latimer said the skull contained a relatively small brain of around 1,100 milliliters. (The modern human brain averages around 1,400 milliliters.)

Several features of the cranium resemble modern man’s skull, Latimer said. In particular, he was interested in the cranium’s bony formation called the occipital bun on the back of the skull. While its purpose is unknown, the Neanderthal’s bun looks much like a bony hot dog bun with a groove down the center. This feature was absent in the Manot fossil, and is also typically missing in modern humans.

The fossil’s gender is unknown because it’s missing the brow ridge, one marker for gender differences. Because the skull is from an adult, CWRU researchers know it is not related to other sub-adult human teeth and bones also found in the cave, according to Hans.

“This leads us to believe that there are likely more fossils in the cave where other bones associated with the skull might be found,” Hans said.

Latimer became involved in the project after receiving an invitation from Hershkovitz to examine the fossil skull, discovered in 2008 by spelunkers who had rappelled through a newly opened roof of the previously unknown cave that had been sealed for 30,000 years.

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View inside the Manot Cave where excavations are taking place. Courtesy Manot Cave Expedition, Wikimedia Commons

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Under the direction of former dental school Dean Jerold Goldberg, Case Western Reserve formed a 10-year partnership with Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University in 2012 to excavate the cave. As a result of this partnership, Latimer joined Hans to expand the scope of orthodontic research on craniofacial growth and development to include human evolution. The Manot Cave project also is part of Case Western Reserve’s initiative, called the Institute for the Science of Origins (ISO).

“Who we are, where we came from and how we got here are questions that have fascinated us humans since before there was history,” said Glenn Starkman, director of ISO and professor of physics, who studies origins of the universe. “We weaved wondrous myths that answered those questions definitively, but now we slowly accumulate evidence from the distant past. This process lies at the heart of the origins sciences, and the Institute for the Science of Origins celebrates the unique interdisciplinary collaboration that its fellows from the School of Dental Medicine deployed to uncover more of the story behind humanity’s departure from Africa for the world beyond.”

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The Manot Cave project is directed by Ofer Marder from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Omry Barzilai from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Hershkovitz from Tel Aviv University and Bruce Latimer from CWRU.

Also contributing to the study are: Avner Ayalon and Miryam Bar-Matthews (Geological Survey of Israel), Gal Yas’ur (Geological Survey of Israel and Hebrew University of Jerusalem); Elisabetta Boaretto and Valentina Caracuta (Max Planck Society-Weizmann Institute Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology); Bridget Alex (Harvard University); Amos Frumkin, Alan Matthews and Mae Goder-Goldberg (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Philipp Gunz (Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology); Ralph Holloway (Columbia University); Ron Lavi (Independent Researcher); Viviane Slon, Hila May and Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer (Tel Aviv University and University of Haifa), Francesco Berna (Simon Fraser University); Guy Bar-Oz and Reuven Yeshurun (University of Haifa); and Gerhard Weber (University of Vienna).

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Source: Edited from a Case Western Reserve University press release, Nature reports 55,000-year-old skull links modern man in vicinity of Neanderthals.

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By comparing and analyzing paleoclimate and cultural data, researchers are suggesting that draught conditions may have had a major impact on the rise and fall of a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican city in central Mexico.

Known as Cantona, the city’s ancient remains lie east of Mexico City in the semiarid basin called the Cuenca Oriental. Occupied from 600 BCE to 1050 CE, it thrived as an important player in the obsidian trade, reaching a peak population of 90,000 inhabitants by about 700 CE. Between 900 and 1050 CE, however, the record shows a precipitous decline and then abandonment, correlated with the driest part of an arid interval between 500 and 1150 CE. But the researchers found that the history as revealed by the data is a bit more complicated than that.

Led by Tripti Bhattacharya of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues, the research team conducted geochemistry and oxygen isotope analysis of the sediments of Aljojuca lake, which is located near the remains of Cantona, and compared it with the archaeological record. What they found indicated a correlation between both periods of expansion and decline during dry intervals, not just wet-and-dry oscillations. More specifically, the researchers noted that the population expanded in its initial phase between 600 BCE and 50 CE during a wet period, but continued with a strong expansion between 50 and 600 CE, despite a gradual drying trend over this period. But more interesting still was their finding that “despite intensifying aridity between 500 CE and 1150 CE, population rose again in the period defined as Cantona III (600 – 900 CE), reaching an estimated peak of 90,000 at 700 CE.”*  The researchers suggest a possible explanation for this might lie in theories proposed by archaeologists regarding migration of peoples from the north due to increasing aridity, among other factors. “This time period was likely one of turmoil elsewhere in highland Mexico,” they continue, “as a result of Teotihuacan’s earlier decline, the decline of Cholula between 650 CE and 850 CE, and eruptions of the volcano Popcatepetl. It is possible that this turmoil may have created a flux of migrants to other rising centers of regional power.”* The researchers noted that the great decline and final abandonment between 900 and 1050 CE was also marked by increased defensive construction works, coinciding with the most intense aridity in the record.

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View of the remains of Cantona. AnheruAn, Wikimedia Commons

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Platform mound construction at Cantona. Aleksms, Wikimedia Commons

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The authors conclude that the study results may suggest a complex interplay between climate conditions and the political and societal conditions of Cantona and other city-states and settlements in Mesoamerica.

The detailed study* is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   

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*Article #14-05653: “Cultural implications of late Holocene climate change in the Cuenca Oriental, Mexico,” by Tripti Bhattacharya et al. 

________________________________________________________

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Pintia, Spain—At an archaeological site in north central Spain, an archaeological team has been uncovering prolific finds that testify to a civilization that occupied a region of Spain long before the Romans arrived and conquered. The archaeological area measures about 125 hectares and contains the remains of human occupation spanning more than 1,000 years. Recently, archaeologists have recovered numerous artifacts from 2,500-year-old burials, particularly cremation tombs, that have provided a window on the Vaccean culture, an Iron Age people who lived and thrived in the area for several centuries BC, before the arrival of the Romans.

“It was dominated by three cultures: Vaccean, Roman and Visigoth, although the pre-Roman people, during the final four centuries BC, were the most important for the area,” state Carlos Sanz and colleagues. Sanz is the site director and Professor of Archaeology at the University of Valladolid. “Although most of the archaeological remains are below ground,” he and his colleagues continue, “in the past few years the archaeological team has been excavating and restoring the site to shine light on this distant people.”*

Over the past decade the team has excavated at least 150 cremation tombs containing a variety of grave goods: funerary jars, daggers, necklaces, children’s toys, knives, tongs, iron grills, broaches, and spear points, among other types of artifacts. From these finds and other discoveries in the area, Sanz and his colleagues are slowly developing a knowledge base about the ancient Vaccean culture in the area—a people who believed in an afterlife and lived in a hierarchical society ruled by a small military elite. The overall study site features several different areas of study, including a residential settlement called Las Quintanas, its necropolis called Las Ruedas, the ustrinum or crematorium called Los Cenizales, a possible sanctuary between Los Hoyos and Las Ruedas, and an artisan neighborhood in Pesquera called Carralaceña, which has its own residential area, necropolis and pottery-making facilities.  Referring to Las Quintanas, Sanz, et al., state that the “excavation and aerial photography have revealed a well-developed layout with a system of primary and secondary roads. Houses were built of adobe, wood, and mud walls, with straw roofs and floors of compressed earth.”*

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The cremation grave shown above was one of the richest Vaccean burials found at Pintia’s necropolis, Las Ruedas. It contained a large number of perfume bottles, among other things. Photograph taken during the June 2008 field school session. Wikimedia Commons

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Pintia first came to light in 1870, when local farmers came across bones and artifacts, bringing the discovery to the attention of local authorities. But the most recent organized research in the area didn’t begin until 1979 under the auspices of the University of Valladolid, with a hiatus of two decades and then resumption in recent years with a focus on the Vaccean necropolis. 

Sanz and his team will be returning to the site in June and July of 2015. Individuals interested in learning more about the excavations and the Vacceans and how to participate may find more information at the project website.

The excavation field school at the site is carried out through a partnership between the University of Valladolid and ArchaeoSpain.

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*http://archaeospain.com/programs/necropolis-of-celtic-iron-age-pintia/

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Researchers have come across ancient anatomical evidence that suggests that Australopithecus africanus, a hominin species thought to be an ancestor of humans, sported hands capable of making and using stone tools, a capability until now reserved only for the later hominins.

The discovery pushes back the clock of possible tool use to as much as about 3 million years ago, possibly pre-dating the earliest known archaeological record of stone tools, which is dated to about 2.6 million years ago.

Led by Matthew Skinner and T.L. Kivell of the UK’s University of Kent, along with researchers from University College London, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) and the Vienna University of Technology (Austria), the study involved examining the internal spongey bone structure of Australopithecus hand fossils from the Pliocene Epoch, fossils dated to 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago. Trabecular bone is important in this case because it typically changes its structure through the lifetime of an individual, depending upon the individual’s lifestyle or behavior.

The researchers first examined and compared the trabeculae of the hands of humans and chimpanzees. They observed distinct differences between modern humans, including other more ancient human species such as Neanderthals, who have a unique ability for precision gripping between thumb and fingers, critical for tool-making and use, and chimpanzees, who do not have the same ability.

“We initiated the study when we realized that by using microCT scanning we could image the internal structure of bones to reveal how they were loaded during particular behaviours,” said Skinner. “Once we had evidence for the characteristic human forceful precision grip in human hands compared to chimpanzees, we decided to see whether this signal was present in a pre-Homo species such as Australopithecus africanus.”

Their analysis was eye-opening—they observed that the pattern of trabeculae within the Australopithecine samples suggested the same precision grip ability—a key feature usually considered unique to humans.

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An example of a human precision grip, grasping an Australopithecus africanus first metacarpal (StW 418) of the thumb (3-2 million years old). Credit: T.L. Kivell & M. Skinner

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Top row: First metacarpals of the thumb in (from left to right) a chimpanzee, fossil hominins Australopithecus africanus (StW 418) and two specimens belonging to either a robust australopith or early Homo (SKX 5020 and SK 84), and a human. The bottom row shows 3D renderings from the microCT scans of the same specimens, showing a cross-section of the trabecular structure inside. Ma, million years ago. Credit: T.L. Kivell

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Until now, the first stone tool making had generally been associated with an early human called Homo habilis, a species of humans thought by many scholars to be directly ancestral to humans and whose remains have been accompanied by simple stone tools classified into a primitive technology called the Oldowan, the first stone tools. The first fossil remains of this species was discovered by Mary and Louis Leakey in 1960 at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.

Now, however, Skinner, et al.’s findings suggest the possibility that an older “less human” hominin species, Australopithecus africanus, had the anatomical capability of producing such simple stone tools. The results support previously published archaeological evidence for possible stone tool use in australopiths and provide skeletal evidence that our early ancestors used human-like hand postures much earlier and more frequently than previously considered.

Australopithecus africanus is an early hominid, or australopithecine, that lived as much as 3 million years ago and whose fossil remains have been found in several South African sites. Raymond Dart first named or identified the species in 1924 when the well-preserved skull of a child specimen was uncovered in a lime mine at Taung near Kimberley, South Africa.

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Skull and endocast of the famous Taung child australopithecus specimen. Courtesy Didier Discouens, Wikimedia Commons

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Details of the study* have been published in the journal Science, a publication of the non-profit scientific organization, the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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*”Human-like hand use in Australopithecus africanus,” by M.M. Skinner; T.L. Kivell at University of Kent in Canterbury, UK; M.M. Skinner; A.C. Foote at University College London in London, UK; M.M. Skinner; N.B. Stephens; Z.J. Tsegai; N.H. Nguyen; J.-J. Hublin; T.L. Kivell at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany; M.M. Skinner; T.L. Kivell at University of the Witwatersrand in Wits, South Africa; T. Gross; D.H. Pahr at Vienna University of Technology in Vienna, Austria.

Some content for this article was adapted and edited from the University of Kent press release, Early human ancestors used their hands like modern humans.

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Sozopol, Bulgaria—A team of archaeologists are discovering new finds on a tiny island just off the Black Sea coast near Sozopol, Bulgaria—finds that may shed additional light on the location and features of a lost temple to Apollo erected by Archaic Greeks in the late 6^th century BCE.  

Epigraphic sources document that a temple to Apollo was raised on an island near the ancient Greek colony of Apollonia Pontica, which is located near present-day Sozopol. But there has been no evidence to suggest where the temple was actually located—until recently, when an archaeological team under the direction of Kristina Panayotova of the National Institute of Archaeology and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, unearthed a fragment of East Greek pottery with an inscription dedication to Apollo.

The ancient temple was famous for another reason: It was here, in front of the temple, where a colossal 13-meter high bronze statue of Apollo was raised and dedicated to the Apollo letros (the Healer), the patron deity of Apollonia Pontica.

“In 72 BCE the Romans under Marcus Lucullus sacked the city and the colossal sculpture was taken to Rome as a trophy,” state Panatoyova and colleagues in a summery of their excavations project on the island. “It was exhibited for several centuries on the Capitoline Hill.”* It has been lost to the world since the advent of the Christian era, as has the exact location of the temple.

Panayotova’s teams have been conducting excavations at the site since 2009, and have thus far uncovered evidence of Greek settlement here going back as far as the 7^th century BCE and a late 6^th-early 5^th century BCE Archaic Greek temple complex which may be the lost temple of Apollo. Other finds included remains of a temple from the 4^th century BCE Hellenistic  period; an ancient Greek tholos; an ancient Greek copper foundry; an early Byzantine basilica and necropolis; two ritual pits from the Archaic period containing numerous artifacts; several early Christian 5^th century CE graves; structures dated to the Archaic period; and many other finds.

Apollonia Pontica is considered among the earliest urban Greek settlements on the Western Black Sea coast. The city acquired its name in honor of its patron deity, Apollo, and was founded by the philosopher Anaximander and Miletian colonists around 610 BC., becoming an important center of trade between ancient Greece and Thrace. Strong, prosperous and independent for centuries, it was finally conquered by the Roman legions under Marcus Lucullus in 72 BCE. The city thereafter became known as Apollonia Magna, or Great Apollonia.  Its name was changed to Sozopol during the Christian period in the 4^th century CE.

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Found at Apollonia Pontica, terracotta plaque frieze fragment artifact shows two hoplites. Marie Lan-Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons

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Found at Apollonia Pontica, a lot of 4 Greek silver coins. Wikimedia Commons

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Panayotova and colleagues plan to return to continue excavations at the site in 2015, and will be operating a field school for students and volunteers. “The Field School Season 2015 envisions excavations at the top of the island, in the area of the Archaic and Classical Greek and Hellenistic temples, Ancient Greek copper foundry and the Early Christian basilica and necropolis, where the excavations from 2012 take place,” state Panayotova and colleagues.*

More information about Apollonia Pontica and the field school can be obtained at the project website.

See the earlier news article published by Popular Archaeology in 2013.

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*http://www.bhfieldschool.org/project/APexc

Cover Image: Harbor at Apollonia Pontica, courtesy Apollonia Pontica Excavation Project, Balkan Heritage Field School.

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Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

On the Mediterranean island of Mallorca in Spain lie the remains of a Byzantine settlement, known as Son Peretó, where archaeological excavations are underway. Inhabited from the 5^th century CE to about the 7^th century CE, Son Peretó was home to a Christian population and is perhaps the most significant Byzantine settlement in the islands. What makes the site so interesting to archaeologists is its importance as an example of early Christian architecture. The site features a baptistery and a basilica, and a number of human remains in noteworthy condition have been revealed.

“The current project,” write the Son Peretó project staff, “managed by the Manacor Historical Museum and the University of Barcelona, began in 2005, and since then our goal has been to preserve and restore the ruins uncovered during the 20th-century excavations, especially the foundations of several walls and untouched graves. So far the graves uncovered have been found in excellent condition.”*

The dig has been a continuous effort, and every summer Son Peretó yields new discoveries. The leaders of the excavation are calling for dig participants who will help the archaeologists acquire a higher understanding of the baptistery and the basilica. “This coming year we will focus on the excavation and restoration of the rooms next to the baptistery’s apse, and there is a good chance we’ll also be digging inside the church (known as the basilica),” state project director Magdalena Sala Buguera and colleagues.*

There are five spots still available. Spanish or Catalonian will not be prerequisites for participation but there will be an immersion in the local language and an opportunity to learn. After the day’s work, there will be time to relax by the Mediterranean in a café. The group will also have the opportunity to visit other archaeological sites of Roman, Moorish, Talaiotic, and Medieval influence. A boat trip to the island of Cabrera, one of the most beautiful sites in the Mediterranean, is a highlight of the program.

The site is a 20-minute drive from lodging at Port Nou, where the group will sleep in a four bedroom accommodation by the sea, complete with a kitchen, bathroom, laundry, and a well for fresh water.

More information can be found at this website.

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* http://archaeospain.com/programs/byzantine-church-of-son-pereto/

Cover photo credit ArchaeoSpain.

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Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

An archaeological team is investigating three key sites at the location of ancient Idalion in Cyprus, where excavations are continuing to uncover new features and finds dating as far back as the Bronze Age in an ancient city that was the most important of ten city kingdoms on Cyprus during the 6^th and 7^th centuries BCE.

At the first site, which defines the remains of the Hellenistic period Sanctuary of Adonis, archaeologists uncovered evidence of 11^th century BCE occupation. The discoveries were made as a part of their investigation of earlier phases of habitation at the site. The finds have pointed to possible influence or connection with cultures and belief systems in the Levant, especially during the 1^st millennium BCE.

“There are multiple indicators that the cult of Adonis at Idalion was closely related to the first millennium BCE religion of ancient Israel,” wrote Dr. Pamela Gaber and colleagues in a summary of the recent excavations.* Gaber is Project Director of the excavations, currently with Lycoming College, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. She and her teams have been excavating at Idalion since 1987.    

The second site, known as the “Sanctuary of the Paired Deities”, has also been identified as a religious center. Gaber and colleagues have been excavating there since 2002, uncovering stone altars and ash pits and a pair of standing stones and limestone figures. “During the 2012 season we took out the standing stones and found the remains of a pair of standing wooden columns, apparently destroyed during the conquest of Idalion [by the Kitians] around 450 BCE,” stated Gaber, et al., in their summary.*

In 2015 Gaber plans to continue investigating this sanctuary, along with the Sanctuary of Adonis, hoping to gain a clearer picture of its meaning, significance, and use.

The third site is thought to be a possible industrial installation, as in 2013 they uncovered evidence pointing to an early dyeing industry that continued on into the Hellenistic period.

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Limestone statue of male figure recovered from Idalion during a past exploration of the site. Wikimedia Commons

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Bronze plaque engraved on both faces with a Cyprian inscription, found at Idalion. It is a decree from Stasicypros, the king of Idalion, to compensate a public physician, Onesilos, and his brothers: the king and the city will pay them medical fees for the treatment of the wounded after the siege of Idalion by the Medes (478 and 470 BC). Wikimedia Commons

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The ancient remains of Idalion in central Cyprus have seen on-and-off archaeological excavations since the early 20^th century, but the most significant excavations took place under Einar Gjerstad from 1927 to 1931, from which eight volumes of  scholarly reporting were published. Gjerstad was followed by Lawrence Stager and Anita Walker of the Joint American Expedition to Idalion from 1971 to 1980, which produced two volumes.  Gaber’s expedition has continued investigations, clarifying and adding to the work done previously and opening up new investigations with new questions about Idalion and life in Cyprus in the centuries BCE.  

Idalion is best known historically as a major center of copper trade beginning in the 3^rd millennium BCE. It was one of 11 cities in Cyprus listed on the Stele of Sargon (707 BCE) and considered the most important of the ten Cypriot kingdoms listed on the tablet of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (680–669 BCE).

More information about Idalion, the excavations and how one can participate can be found at the project website. 

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*http://www.lycoming.edu/archaeology/digs/goals.aspx

_________________________________________________

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

____________________________________________

Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.