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Did Deforestation Really Lead to Societal Collapse in Chaco Canyon?

Posted on July 28, 2014 by No Author -

It has been a long-accepted notion that the great-house society of the AD 900 to 1150 puebloan Chaco Canyon culture of the American Southwest collapsed because of deforestation to build their impressive communities. It is popularly cited as an example and warning of how human society employs unsustainable land-use practices.

But not so fast, say these researchers.

According to studies conducted by W.H. Wills, Brandon L. Drake and Wetherbee B. Dorshow of the Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, there is no substantial evidence, archaeological or otherwise, to support the contention that the puebloan peoples who built the architecturally impressive 11th-12th century AD structures of Chaco Canyon in present-day New Mexico abandoned their homes and centers in the 13th century because they exhausted their resources—the self-imposed poor-land-use destruction model often cited as a warning by environmentalists and others for our own future.

“There is no direct evidence for human impacts on local woodlands during the Bonito Phase [the period of high construction from AD 850 to 1150], no indication that agricultural fields were destroyed by deforestation or any other process, and, surprisingly, no conclusive information about the amount and sources of archaeological wood,” write the researchers in their Perspective report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Indeed, Chaco residents had available sources of timber and other natural resources that certainly were less costly than those indicated in collapse models.”*

Between about AD 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that are thought to have been the largest buildings in North America north of Mexico until the 19th century. Some scientists suggest the Chacoans had a sophisticated knowledge of astronomical movements, as many of their buildings appear to have been aligned to capture the solar and lunar cycles, requiring generations of astronomical observations and centuries of skillfully coordinated construction. But all of this quickly came to an end in the 13th century, when the centers were mysteriously abandoned and were never revived. Many scholars have attributed the collapse to drought and/or deforestation.

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An image of the ruins of Chetro Ketl in Chaco Canyon (New Mexico, United States); shown is the complex’s great kiva

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An image of Hungo Pavi, located in the central portion of Chaco Canyon (New Mexico, United States). A staircase can be seen leading out of the complex.

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For this study, the researchers based their conclusions on a review of past research, in addition to their own data collections and analysis of archaeological wood and cost-weighted distance to potential tree resources in the nearby regional mountain areas, as well as historical availability of local resources and other factors such as climate change or consistency.

“Our point,” Wills, et al. continue, “is that we do not know where most of the wood in Chaco great houses originated, and we cannot eliminate local (canyon drainage) sources. Consequently there is no basis for concluding that the abandonment of Chaco Canyon was brought on by deforestation, improvident use of natural resources, or unstable exchange relationships, and therefore there is no reason to use Chaco’s history as a warning from the past about societal failure.”*

And changing climate (such as the 50-year drought that commenced in 1130 AD) may not be the culprit either, they maintain.

“Construction patterns indicate that overall energy investment in Chaco great houses began to decline dramatically in the late AD 1000s, before the onset of any documented drought periods, and immigrants appear to have arrived in Chaco during the 12th century drought.”*

Researchers and the public alike may never know. But for the present, at least for these researchers, the story remains very much an open-ended one.

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* Wills, W.H., Brandon, L. Drake, Dorshow, Wetherbee B., Prehistoric deforestation at Chaco Canyon?, Perspective article, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1409646111

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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.

Earlier Stone Age artifacts found in Northern Cape of South Africa

Posted on July 25, 2014 by No Author -

Excavations at an archaeological site at Kathu in the Northern Cape province of South Africa have produced tens of thousands of Earlier Stone Age artifacts, including hand axes and other tools. These discoveries were made by archaeologists from the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa and the University of Toronto (U of T), in collaboration with the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa.

The archaeologists’ research on the Kathu Townlands site, one of the richest early prehistoric archaeological sites in South Africa, was published in the journal, PLOS ONE, on 24 July 2014. It is estimated that the site is between 700,000 and one million years old.

Steven James Walker from the Department of Archaeology at UCT, lead author of the journal paper, says: “The site is amazing and it is threatened. We’ve been working well with developers as well as the South African Heritage Resources Agency to preserve it, but the town of Kathu is rapidly expanding around the site. It might get cut off on all sides by development and this would be regrettable.”

Today, Kathu is a major iron mining center. Walker adds that the fact that such an extensive prehistoric site is located in the middle of a zone of intensive development poses a unique challenge for archaeologists and developers to find strategies to work cooperatively.

The Kathu Townlands site is one component of a grouping of prehistoric sites known as the Kathu Complex. Other sites in the complex include Kathu Pan 1 which has produced fossils of animals such as elephants and hippos, as well as the earliest known evidence of tools used as spears from a level dated to half a million years ago.

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Flakes and cores from Kathu Townlands, Beaumont Excavation. Credit: Steven James Walker & et al.

A: Large flake off the edge of the core consistent with biface shaping removal; B: Large flake with centripedal dorsal scars.; C: Blade, note that there is some cortex (indicated by C in the sketch) and that scars are not parallel; D-F: Small flakes, note that F is off the edge of the core; G: Discoidal core with removals off both faces. Break on one edge (upper edge in right view); H: Discoidal core with one large flake removal. Note that on the right-hand face the working is unclear and it is possible that this is a natural surface.

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Hand axes from surface collection. Credit: Steven James Walker & et al. A-B. Banded Ironstone; C. Quartzite

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Steven James Walker from the Department of Archaeology at UCT extracts a sample at the interface between the overlying red sands and the Earlier Stone Age archaeological deposits at the Kathu Townlands site. Credit: Vasa Lukich.

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Michael Chazan, Director of the Archaeology Center at U of T, emphasizes the scientific challenge posed by the density of the traces of early human activity in this area.

“We need to imagine a landscape around Kathu that supported large populations of human ancestors, as well as large animals like hippos. All indications suggest that Kathu was much wetter, maybe more like the Okavango than the Kalahari. There is no question that the Kathu Complex presents unique opportunities to investigate the evolution of human ancestors in Southern Africa.”

The full journal paper is available online.

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Source: Joint press release of the University of Cape Town and the University of Totonto

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Ancient naval ram found in Phanagoria reveals history of popular unrest in 63 B.C.

Posted on July 25, 2014 by No Author -

Anapa, July 25, 2014 – The Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation announces the discovery of an ancient naval ram used by the army of Mithradates VI of the Bosporan Kingdom to quell a popular uprising against him in Phanagoria in 63 B.C.

One-meter long ram and presumably made of bronze, it has an engraving of Mithradates VI, the king of Pontus from 119 to 63 B.C. who was the most powerful king in Anatolia during the 1^st century B.C. Often called Rome’s greatest enemy, he fought three wars against the Roman republic.

The ram was found in the submerged part of Phanagoria, the largest Greek colony on the Taman peninsula, not far from the 15-meter-long ship that was previously unearthed in 2012. When the ship was first discovered, scientists suggested the ship was an ancient Byzantine merchant vessel. However, the newly-found ram dismisses the previous version and proves that the ship was a bireme, an ancient oared warship with two decks of oars that Mithradates used to quell unrest. The ship was later burned by the protesters in 63 B.C.

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Newly-found naval ram in Phanagoria. Courtesy Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

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The Roman historian Appian and the Greek historian Plutarch mentioned a citywide uprising at Phanagoria in 63 B.C. that culminated with the incineration of a huge public building and murder of Mithradates’s children and a wife, Hypsikratia. However, there was no material proof of these events until 2006.

In 2006, scientists involved in the Phanagorian archeological expedition, found a marble gravestone inscribed with an epitaph to “Hypsikrates, wife of Mithradates VI.” In his essays Plutarch referred to Hypsikratia as a woman “who on all occasions showed the spirit of a man and desperate courage; and accordingly the king Mithradates VI used to call her Hypsikrates [the male form of Hypsikratia].” The Archaeological Institute of America named this find one of the ten most exciting discoveries in 2009.

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Hypsikaratia’s marble gravestone found in 2006. Courtesy Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

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Thus the ship’s ram continues the series of new discoveries that shed light on the history of the Phanagoria uprising and seemlessly match the historical narratives.

Scientists started to explore Phanagoria in the 18^th century, when it became an essential part of the Russian Empire. The exploration’s active phase, however, began just several years ago, which means archaeologists and historians are almost certain to find more artifacts and information related to Phanagoria, an area that has been something of a bridge between the East and the West for 1,500 years.

Volnoe Delo Foundation, one of Russia’s biggest privately-held charity funds, run by businessman and industrialist Oleg Deripaska, has supported research activities in the 2550-year-old city of Phanagoria since 2004. The Foundation has allocated over $10 million to Phanagoria fieldwork over the past 10 years. Now Phanagoria is one of the best equipped archeological expeditions in Russia, with its own scientific and cultural center, up-to-date equipment for above-ground and underwater excavation and diverse team of specialists involved in the fieldwork.

Among the recent discoveries made at Phanagoria are remains of a palace of Mithradates VI dated the 1^st century B.C., an ancient tomb with a stepped ceiling, the oldest temple unearthed on the Russian territory dating back to the 5^th century B.C. and a number of submerged objects, e.g., the ancient city’s streets covered with sand, Phanagoria’s port structures, and ship debris.

The excavations cover several areas, including the 2,500-square-metre acropolis at the centre of the ancient city, the eastern necropolis, an ancient cemetery that served as a burial place from the very founding of the city, and a submerged part of the city. What makes the expedition unique is the mix of diversified specialists working together. Apart from archeologists and historians, there are anthropologists, soil scientists, paleozoologists, numismatists and other researchers. A complex approach to the study of Phanagoria’s cultural relics helps to restore the residents’ way of living, religious beliefs, economic cooperation, as well as their roles in military conflicts.

“Phanagoria reveals its secrets year by year, showing us the hidden sides of the Black Sea region’s history,” said Vladimir Kuznetsov, Doctor of historical sciences and the head of the Phanagorian expedition. “Our task is to gradually, step by step, go deeper into the ancient times in order to study the circumstances under which people lived thousands of years ago in a thorough and precise way. It is important that we have the opportunity to carry out research using cutting-edge equipment, as well as work in comfortable conditions and carry out overall research of this historic object.”

Said Tamara Rumyantseva, head of Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation: “Phanagoria’s exploration is the Foundation’s top priority project. Now it’s the brightest and best equipped expedition in Russia. We’re constantly expanding our cooperation, and besides the expedition’s support, we have joint publishing projects, we teach future archeologists in the Kuban State University using our scientific and cultural potential to the fullest.”

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Bird’s eye panorama of the Phanagoria acropolis. Courtesy Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

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Pottery found in Phanagoria. Courtesy Courtesy Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

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About Phanagoria

Phanagoria is one of the main antiquity monuments on Russian soil. Founded in the mid-sixth century BC by Greek colonists, the city has long been one of the two capitals of the Bosporan Kingdom, an ancient state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula. Phanagoria was the major economic and cultural center of the Black Sea region, one of the biggest Greek cities, the first capital of Great Bulgaria, and one of the main cities of Khazar Kaganate. It is also one of the ancient centers of Christianity. Saint Andrew was believed to preach in Phanagoria. The city boasts the largest Jewish community in the Black Sea region: the first synagogue in Russia was built in Phanagoria in the 16th century AD.

In the 9-10th centuries the residents abandoned the city for reasons still unknown. Phanagoria is surrounded by Russia’s largest necropolis covering an area of over 300 hectares. The total volume of the cultural layers is 2.5 million cubic meters of soil; the layer’s depth is up to seven meters. No single building has been erected in the city since ancient times, which has helped preserve the ruins and the historical artifacts. Regular archeological expeditions have been conducted in Phanagoria since late 1930s. As of now, only two percent of the city’s territory has been studied. Phanagoria is located in the Temryuksky District in the Krasnodar region.

About Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation

Oleg Deripaska’s Volnoe Delo Foundation (www.volnoe-delo.ru) is one of the largest charity organizations and was founded by the Russian industrialist and businessman, Oleg Deripaska. The Foundation supports a wide range of initiatives, with a particular focus on Russian education and science. It helps to support the country’s cultural and historic heritage, contributes to the preservation of the spiritual values, and assists healthcare projects and solves crucial social problems.

Over the course of its work, the Foundation has found recipients among 86,000 schoolchildren, 4,000 teachers, 8,000 students, 4,000 academics and 1,100 educational, scientific, cultural, healthcare, sport, religious and other institutions.

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Source: Adapted and edited from a Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation press release.

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Dig Reveals More About Maryport Roman Temples Site

Posted on July 24, 2014 by No Author -

A team of archaeologists and volunteers led by Newcastle University’s Professor Ian Haynes and site director Tony Wilmott has been working on the Maryport Roman Temples project dig for the last six weeks.

This is the fourth season of work commissioned by the Senhouse Museum Trust. The aim of the project is to find out more about the complex religious landscape of the Maryport site, next to the Senhouse Roman Museum, where there is a Roman fort and large settlement.

Last year the team re-excavated a rectangular classical temple originally uncovered in the 1880s and were able to recover more detailed information to allow a reconstruction drawing to be made. This year they have concentrated on the area surrounding this and they have re-examined a large stone circular structure next to the rectangular temple. In front of the temple they have found evidence for an open gathering area and the foundations for a large monument.

“The rectangular temple is the most north westerly classical temple in the Roman world to be discovered so far and dates from the 2^nd century,” said Ian Haynes.

“Both this and the circular structure were originally located by local bank manager and amateur archaeologist Joseph Robinson. Photographs and other documents from the 1880s indicate that only part of this area was excavated and much remains to be discovered.

“From this year’s excavation we have evidence for an open area in front of the classical temple and the foundations of a substantial monument, which probably supported a free standing column. A further important discovery was the location of an entrance to the circular structure, indicating that it shared the same alignment as the rectangular temple.

“The finds also show this area, which is to the east of the settlement and north east of the fort, was used in a different way to the main settlement area. The contrast with domestic areas is pronounced and reflects the ritual character of this area.

“We would still like to find out more about exactly where and how the altars found in the 1870s further east of this site were originally displayed here when they were dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter each year by commanders of the fort.

“We have established that when they were ‘buried’ they were actually being reused in the foundations for a large timber building in the 4^th century, but where were they before then? We’re aiming to find more information on this when we return to work here next summer.”

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View of the excavation at the Maryport Temple project site. Courtesy Senhouse Museum Trust

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Community archaeologist Grace Marconi with a piece of a gaming board. Courtesy Senhouse Museum Trust

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The 23 Maryport Roman altars – one excavated by the team in 2012 – form an important part of the collection at the Senhouse Roman Museum. They are the largest group of Roman military altar stones and inscriptions from any single find in Britain.

The information the altars provide is of international importance for the study of the Roman army and its religious practices. The career histories of some of the fort commanders can be established from the inscriptions as they moved from posting to posting across the empire.

Rachel Newman of the Senhouse Museum Trust said: “Each year of the Temples project, with the fantastic support of volunteers and archaeology students on the dig, we’ve been able to build a more detailed picture of this part of the site.

“The digs have inspired more local people and school groups to visit the Senhouse Roman Museum and site too to find out about their amazing heritage.”

Over the six weeks of the dig the team has included sixth form students from Workington, Allonby and Newcastle working alongside adult volunteers and archaeology students from around the UK and from the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Albania and France.

Nigel Mills, heritage advisor to the Hadrian’s Wall Trust said: “The Temples project and the Settlement project at Maryport complement each other and show there is much potential to attract more visitors to the Roman sites along the Cumbrian coast. These sites are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, along with Hadrian’s Wall itself.

“Maryport was an important part of the coastal defences of Rome’s north west frontier for over 300 years. Roman citizens from across the Empire came here to make a living supplying soldiers in the fort and elsewhere across the frontier. The temple is evidence of close connections across the Empire. Roman citizens would have felt at home here in Maryport.”

The Senhouse Roman Museum is open every day from 10am to 5pm. More information is at www.senhousemuseum.co.uk.

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Senhouse Roman Museum (www.senhousemuseum.co.uk)

The museum cares for and displays the Netherhall Collection and other collections of Romano-British objects from West Cumbria. It develops permanent and temporary exhibitions, has a growing public engagement programme of events and activities for the general public, specialist groups and education groups, and a proactive research programme on the collection and the site it was recovered from.

The Netherhall Collection, which was begun by the Senhouse family in the 1570s, is the oldest private collection in the country, and is of international importance.

The museum displays the largest group of Roman military altar stones and inscriptions from any site in Britain and unique examples of Romano-British religious sculpture.

It is run by the Senhouse Museum Trust.

World Heritage Site

The Roman fort and civil settlement at Maryport are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site which includes Hadrian’s Wall and its attendant forts.

The FRE WHS represents the borderline of the Roman Empire at its furthest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched from the west coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast.

Source: Senhouse Museum Trust press release

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Penn Museum, Smithsonian Offer Training, Support for Syrian Museum Collections

Posted on July 24, 2014 by No Author -

JULY 2014—In addition to the high toll that Syria’s four-year-old civil war has had on its people and infrastructure, Syria’s cultural heritage has been and continues to be destroyed at an unprecedented rate. World Heritage sites like the historic city of Aleppo and Krak des Chevaliers, as well as medieval Christian cemeteries and numerous archaeological sites and museums, have been subjected to extensive raiding and looting.

In an effort to help stem the loss of the region’s significant cultural heritage, Penn Museum’s Penn Cultural Heritage Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., in cooperation with the Syrian Interim Government’s Heritage Task Force, have come together to offer assistance for museum curators, heritage experts, and civilians working to protect cultural heritage inside Syria. A three-day training program, “Emergency Care for Syrian Museum Collections,” focusing on safeguarding high risk collections, was completed in late June; additional training programs are being planned, pending funding.

“While it is very difficult for international heritage organizations to travel into Syria today, there are a number of Syrians who regularly risk their lives to protect their cultural heritage,” noted Brian Daniels, Ph.D., Director of Research and Programs, Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the Penn Museum. “This workshop and other efforts going forward are designed to support these individuals and their efforts.”

About 20 people from several Syrian provinces attended the first training, held in an undisclosed location outside of Syria, and facilitated by Dr. Daniels; Corine Wegener, cultural heritage preservation officer, Smithsonian Institution; and Robert Patterson, exhibits specialist, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. Workshop leaders were joined by Syrian scholars Salam al-Kuntar, lecturer, University of Pennsylvania; Amr Al-Azm, chair of the Syrian Interim Government’s Heritage Task Force and associate professor, Shawnee State University; and Ali Othman, researcher, Université of Paris I. Technical assistance for the program was provided by the U.S. Institute of Peace (Washington, D.C.) and The Day After Association (Brussels, Belgium), a Syrian-led civil society NGO. The training was funded by the Smithsonian and the J. M. Kaplan Fund (New York).

The objectives of the workshop were three-fold: to offer information on how to secure museum collections safely during emergencies; to provide participants with basic supplies for packing and securing museum collections, and to begin a dialogue among Syrian participants about emergency responses. “This workshop fits the model of heritage preservation promoted by the Penn Cultural Heritage Center,” said Richard M. Leventhal, the Center’s Executive Director. “Local communities are best equipped to identify heritage in need of preservation and protection, and this is precisely what is happening in Syria. We are pleased to work alongside communities in Syria and other places around the world to support these efforts.”

Conditions at the Ma’arra Museum in Idlib province, famous for its collections of Byzantine mosaics, were a subject of much discussion and concern. The museum has received collateral damage in the fighting and come under direct attack by ISIS units. The workshop was able to offer some suggestions for stabilization in the current situation and provide emergency conservation supplies.

Ms. Wegener stressed the importance of bringing people together in a collaborative environment to address situations like those in Syria. “Workshops like these allow us to work directly with the cultural heritage professionals and activists who are on the ground caring for damaged and at-risk collections. We provide them practical information about protecting collections and sites, along with critically needed supplies and equipment. In return, we learn a great deal from our Syrian colleagues.”

While June’s emergency training program is seen as a critical first step, Penn Museum’s Penn Cultural Heritage Center, the Smithsonian Institution, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), with the cooperation of the Syrian Interim Government’s Heritage Task Force, are gearing up to launch an extensive new project to document current conditions and future preservation needs, tracking and reporting intentional damage and destruction to cultural heritage sites in Syria.

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About the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, University of Pennsylvania Museum

Dedicated to supporting cultural heritage initiatives, the Penn Cultural Heritage Center (PennCHC) brings considerable experience in training, capacity building, and basic research about cultural heritage and cultural policy. It has led several projects in conjunction with the U.S. government, including a research partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Mission to UNESCO to increase the empirical information known about the World Heritage program as it exists in the United States and abroad. PennCHC’s capabilities are enhanced by the world-class archaeological and anthropological faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, and the curators of the Penn Museum.

About the Smithsonian Institution

Since its founding in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution has been committed to inspiring generations through knowledge and discovery. The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park and nine research facilities. There are 6,500 Smithsonian employees and 6,300 volunteers. There were 30 million visits to the Smithsonian in 2013. The total number of objects, works of art and specimens at the Smithsonian is estimated at nearly 137 million, including more than 126 million specimens and artifacts at the National Museum of Natural History.

Cover Photo: Damage to the Eastern Hall of the Ma’arra Museum, Idlib Province, Syria. Photo courtesy Ali Othman and the Ma’arra Museum.

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‘Pompeii of the north’ revealed by archaeologists

Posted on July 22, 2014 by No Author -

Excavations at a Roman site in County Durham have revealed the ‘Pompeii of the north’, say archaeologists. The spectacular discoveries at Binchester Roman Fort near Bishop Auckland have uncovered some of the most well preserved remnants of an empire dating back some 1800 years ago, including one of the earliest pieces of evidence for Christianity in Roman Britain in the shape of a silver ring.

The archaeologists have also discovered a bath house with seven-foot high walls, which were once covered with brightly covered painted designs, the original floor, doorways and window openings, as well as an inscribed altar dedicated to the Roman Goddess, Fortune the Home-bringer.

Dr. David Mason, principal archaeologist, Durham County Council, said: “These findings are hugely significant as they are virtually intact and present a graphic illustration of life under the Roman Empire. They are so stunning and spectacular that we can claim we have our very own ‘Pompeii of the north’ right on our doorstep.”

The excavation project, now in its sixth year, is a joint venture between archaeologists at Durham County Council, Durham University, the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland land and several American universities.

Project coordinator, Dr David Petts, lecturer in archaeology at Durham University, said: “Our excavations have uncovered parts of one of the best preserved Roman buildings in Britain. The building itself and the wonderful array of artefacts we have recovered from Binchester give us an unparalleled opportunity to better understand life on the northern frontier in the Roman period.

“For example, the altar is a reminder that bath houses were about more than keeping clean and exercising and were actually social centres – a bit like our modern day leisure centres.

“The most unique feature of these remains is the sheer scale of their preservation. It is possible to walk through a series of Roman rooms with walls all above head height; this is pretty exceptional for Roman Britain.”

The altar has been inscribed by a retired trooper who served with a unit of the Spanish cavalry based at Binchester. The trooper described his rank as “architectus” and this is the only example from the whole of the Roman Empire, outside of Rome itself, which shows that architects were on the staff of auxiliary cavalry units and not just the legions of the Emperor’s personal protection unit, the Praetorian Guard.

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Bath house structure unearthed during excavations at Binchester Fort. Courtesy Durham University and Binchester Research Project

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The ring with Christian symbol. Courtesy Durham University and Binchester Research Project

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The findings coincide with the Roman festival being held at Binchester next weekend (July 26 and 27), where there will be guided tours of the recent excavations. The festival also features several re-enactment groups.

Last year, a first year Durham University student working at Binchester found a 1,800-year-old carved stone head of what is believed to be a Roman god.

The Roman fort at Binchester lies above the River Wear just outside the town of Bishop Auckland in County Durham. Known to the Romans as Vinovia, it commanded the main road that ran from the legionary headquarters at York northwards to Hadrian’s Wall. It formed a key element of the complex frontier system that lay both sides of the Wall that marked the northern-most edge of the Roman Empire for nearly four hundred years. The fort itself was built to house a cavalry regiment in the early years of Roman control in Northern England. It housed troops from across the Empire, including Spain and Germany. It was not just a military site—a thriving civilian settlement (vicus) grew up at its gates.

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Source: Edited and adapted from a Durham University press release.

Cover Photo, Top Left: Excavations showing bath house structure. Courtesy Durham University and Binchester Research Project

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Archaeologist Promotes Wonders of Digital Archaeology

Posted on July 21, 2014 by No Author -

A beautifully and precisely rendered 3D map of an emerging new archaeological site;

An exact replica of a rare and priceless artifact you can hold in your hand, for study or to just set on your shelf;

An authentically fact-based image of an ancient palace, reconstructed digitally to show how it would have looked in its full splendor before it became a ruin for study by archaeologists following the ravages of time;

High-tech “eyes” that can see ancient structures hidden from the naked eye by thick forest overgrowth.

These are but a few examples of what the emerging new science of digital archaeology can offer the interested scholar and public alike. It is, in a very real sense, revolutionizing the way scientists do archaeology, and the way the general public can see and share in the experience of the discoveries in the field.

One archaeologist is on a mission to bring the new science out of its ivory tower and before the public eye. Ashley Richter, who worked and studied as a researcher in cultural heritage diagnostics at the University of California San Diego’s Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology, describes herself as “a laser scanning, 3D printing, digital archaeologist and artist”. She’s seen field work in the United States, the United Kingdom, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, and most recently, all over Italy. Now, she’s capitalizing on her digital expertise to promote a concept she calls “Open Access Antiquarianism“.

“It’s a collaborative project between archaeologists and computer scientists on the intersection between art, archaeology and technology to encourage people to access and become active with digital heritage,” Richter explains. “After pushing the technological limits of data capture and archaeological visualization at sites like Petra and Palazzo Vecchio, we’d like to take the tools and methodologies we’ve been building and promote archaeology with it in the public sphere.”

To kickstart the movement, she is digitally organizing a Cabinet of Curiosities show of archaeological LiDAR printed furniture (what she calls “literal armchair archaeology”), 3D printed archaeological artifacts, and point cloud visualization for anyone to peruse. In addition, she has joined with Popular Archaeology in a collaborative effort to get the word out on the world of digital archaeology through her blog, Adventures in Digital Archaeology, which can be reached directly at the original website or an ongoing basis at the magazine site.

But whether or not Richter’s campaign gains traction, it is clear that the field of digital archaeology is here to stay as an increasingly important element in archaeological research and presentation— not to mention that it will—at least for those of us who are not into digging in the dirt and reading technical reports—make it all a whole lot more fun.

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Richter’s compilation of recent data for display on the Qualcomm Institute V-Room Wall for UCSD’s TEDX open forum (In the foreground: one of the CISA3 drones used in data collection).

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Richter laser scanning the exterior of the Baptistery of St. Giovanni, Florence.

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Above: 3D printer model Richter helped to develop as part of a “Russian Dolls” series building up from a mini size to an eventual large diagnostic dollhouse of the Baptistery of St. Giovanni in Florence. It was built from photos during a diagnostic survey in 2013 with the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture, and Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego.

* Images provided courtesy Ashley Richter

Below, Richer shows what digital archaeology can do for mapping ‘hard-to-get-to’ places, especially if they’re due for imminent destruction by modern day plans:

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Archaeologists Uncover Lost Population of Ancient Amarna

Posted on July 17, 2014 by No Author -

It remained a mystery for decades.

Since archaeologist F.Ll. Griffith’s excavations in the 1920’s at the ancient site of the pharaoh Akhenaten’s short-lived new capital city of Akhetaten (modern Amarna), archaeologists have been puzzled about the whereabouts of the remains of the city’s commoner population – the people who toiled to build and maintain Akhenaten’s sacred edifices and infrastructure — and more specifically, the estimated 6,000 people who died during the short 15-year period of the city’s construction and development.

“A will-of-the-wisp, the dream of a rich unplundered cemetery of the middle classes at El-Amarneh, full of choice vases and amulets, beckons to each successive explorer,” wrote Griffith in the report for his 1923 excavation season.*

Many of the elaborate unfinished rock-cut tombs of Akhenaten’s elite courtiers and high officials had already been found. They grace the cliff faces of the northern end of the Amarna city plain and the face of a low escarpment at the southern end of the ancient city. They can be plainly seen today by modern visitors.

But the burials of the deceased of the estimated 30,000 commoners and laborers remained elusive – until 2001, when archaeologist Barry Kemp of the University of Cambridge began to see the first signs. Kemp has directed excavations and surveys at Amarna for the Egypt Exploration Society since 1977.

“The puzzle seems now to have been solved,” says Kemp. “ It has come about through the desert GPS survey begun in 2001 and continued in subsequent years. First came the discovery of two cemeteries (clearly robbed) of what must be relatively poor graves on the flat desert not far from tomb no. 6 (of Panehesy), the southernmost of the North Tombs. The surface pottery is appropriate to the Amarna period. In 2003 a third cemetery was discovered on the east side of a narrow wadi which runs back into the low escarpment behind tomb 25 of the South Tombs group. In 2004 two further cemeteries likely to be of the Amarna Period were located on the floor of another wadi which cuts through the cliffs where the North Tombs are located.”**

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Project map of Akhetaten, showing locations of tomb areas and progress as of 2006. Courtesy the Amarna Project

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Above: Plan of the South Tombs Cemetery showing excavation areas. Courtesy Helen Fenwick and the Amarna Project

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View of the interior of the tomb of Panehesy. Mutnedjet, Wikimedia Commons

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Most recently, from 2006 to 2013, Kemp’s excavation team has uncovered artifacts and bones from a cemetery site located near the South Tombs, a site where preliminary evidence indicated that it held the burials of a poorer class of people. “Of the various cemeteries located it is the one that has the most varied material present on the surface, including late 18^th Dynasty sherds, a few pieces of glass vessel and faience, and mud bricks,” states Kemp and colleagues. But, Kemp continues, “it has been partly washed away by occasional floods that have swept down it and across the desert plain in front. The floods left behind a scatter of human bones along both the sandy floor of the wadi and the watercourses that cross the desert plain beyond.”**

Flooding hasn’t been the only challenge faced by researchers at the site. Extensive looting has taken its toll, resulting in additional bones and sherds scattered out of their original contexts across the site and creating urgent pressure to record what remains before it is lost.

Under the direction of Jerry Rose of the University of Arkansas, Project experts have been examining the skeletal remains. “Preliminary indications are that they lived hard, short lives,” reports Kemp and colleagues.** In 2015, examination of the skeletal remains will continue, and Kemp hopes to begin excavating at locations near the North Tomb.

The pharaoh Akhenaten, best known as the ‘heretic pharaoh’, employed thousands of workers and officials to build and administer the city of Akhetaten (Amarna) as his new capital on virgin land north of Thebes in Middle Egypt. Dedicated to the veneration of his new monotheistic religion of worship to the Aten, construction commenced in or around Year 5 of his reign (1346 BC) and is thought to have been completed by Year 9 (1341 BC). Unlike all other ancient Egyptian cities, it is the only one that preserved details of its internal plans. This city, however, was short-lived, lasting only 15 years until Akhenaten’s death. Akhenaten’s son Tutankhamun moved the capital back to Thebes upon his father’s death and returned Egyptian worship to its former pantheon of gods.

More information about the Amarna Project can be obtained at the website, where individuals may also find a utility to donate to support the project efforts. Those interested in participating in the project may also visit the applicable University of Arkansas website.

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* JEA 10, 1924, 303-304.

** _{http://www.amarnaproject.com/}

Cover Image, Top Left: View of the South Tomb area at Amarna. Kurohito, Wikimedia Commons

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Archaeologists Find Evidence of Significant Plant Use Before Agriculture

Posted on July 16, 2014 by No Author -

At a prehistoric site called Al Khiday, set along the White Nile in Central Sudan, archaeologist have uncovered evidence that shows prehistoric inhabitants there consumed significant quantities of a plant that contains both nutritional and medicinal qualities.

By sampling and analyzing chemical compounds and microfossils from the calcified dental plaque of human teeth from 14 individuals in burial grounds at the site spanning three different periods, the pre-Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Later Meroitic age, they were able to determine that humans ingested a specific plant, known as purple nut sedge, for at least 7,000 years, incorporating both pre-agricultural and agricultural periods. Widely regarded today as a weed and a nuisance, purple nut sedge apparently was an important staple in the diet of this prehistoric population, say the researchers in a study recently published in the journal PLOS ONE.

“By extracting material from samples of ancient dental calculus, we have found that rather than being a nuisance in the past, the purple nut sedge’s value as a food, and possibly its abundant medicinal qualities, were known,” says lead study author Karen Hardy. “We also discovered that these people ate several other plants, and we found traces of smoke, evidence for cooking, and for chewing plant fibres to prepare raw materials. These small biographical details add to the growing evidence that prehistoric people had a detailed understanding of plants long before the development of agriculture.”

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Above: One of the Late Meroitic graves excavated at the cemetery, that of a young male. Courtesy Donatella Usai/Centro Studi Sudanesi and Sub-Sahariani (CSSeS)

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The finding provides insight about how much prehistoric people knew about the ecology and potential therapeutic properties of plants. In addition to the nutritional benefits of purple nut sedge, for example, it inhibits a specific kind of Streptococcus that helps to lower the level of cavities. It explains why the teeth of the excavated skeletons at the site exhibited comparatively low levels of cavity formation.

The study is published in the July 16, 2014 issue of the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Stephen Buckley from the University of York and colleagues.

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Source: Adapted and edited from a University of York press release.

The study: Buckley S, Usai D, Jakob T, Radini A, Hardy K (2014) Dental Calculus Reveals Unique Insights into Food Items, Cooking and Plant Processing in Prehistoric Central Sudan. PLoS ONE 9(7): e100808. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100808

Funding: Archaeological fieldwork was funded by The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, Centro Studi Sudanesi e SubSahariani. The equipment used belongs to Pharos Research (UK) and Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation research project (grant number HAR2012-35376). The research described in this submission was unfunded. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Archaeologists Discover One of the Oldest Known Clovis Hunting Sites in North America

Posted on July 14, 2014 by No Author -

When University of Arizona archaeologist Vance Holliday and colleagues began uncovering large fossilized bones at the site of El Fin del Mundo in the Sonoran Desert of northwestern Mexico in 2007, they weren’t sure what kind of animal they were unearthing.

“At first, just based on the size of the bone, we thought maybe it was a bison, because the extinct bison were a little bigger than our modern bison,” said Holliday, who has been researching geoarchaeology at Paleoindian sites across the U.S. for years.

Then, in 2008, they discovered something that clinched it for them.

“We finally found the mandible, and that’s what told the tale,” Holliday said.

It was a gomphothere. Actually, two of them. About the same size as a modern elephant, but smaller than their extinct cousins the mammoths, gomphotheres were once widespread in North America but were thought to have disappeared from the fossil record long before humans arrived in North America some 13,000 to 13,500 years ago.

Until now.

Radiocarbon dating of charcoal flecks and burned bone found within the context of the fossils indicated a reliable age of 13,390 years. This made these two gomphotheres the last known gomphotheres in North America.

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Gomphothere mandible in place, upside down, at El Fin del Mundo excavation site. The fossil was fully prepared at the INAH zooarchaeology lab in Mexico City. Image courtesy of Vance T. Holliday.

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The fully excavated and prepared gomphothere mandible. Courtesy Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales/Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia

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These sculptures, made by Mexican artist Sergio de la Rosa, show three elephant ancestors: (from left to right) the mastodon, the mammoth and the gomphothere. Courtesy Sergio de la Rosa

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But there was more.

As they excavated among the bones, they also uncovered human artifacts—Clovis artifacts, to be specific—including 7 projectile points, some stone cutting tools and 21 flint flakes from stone tool-making. The position and proximity of the Clovis fragments relative to the gomphothere bones at the site suggested that humans did in fact kill the two animals there. Of the seven points found at the site, four were in place among the bones, including one with bone and teeth fragments above and below. The other three points had eroded away from the bone bed and were found scattered nearby. This suggested that the gomphomeres were likely hunted and thus constituted a Clovis prey species, along with mammoths, mastodons, and bison, already known to have been hunted by the Clovis.

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A clear quartz Clovis point found near the bone bed at El Fin del Mundo. Although very difficult to shape into a tool, quartz was used by Clovis tool makers at several sites. Courtesy INAH Sonora.

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“This is the first Clovis gomphothere, it’s the first archaeological gomphothere found in North America, it’s the first evidence that people were hunting gomphotheres in North America, and it adds another item to the Clovis menu,” Holliday said.

The Clovis culture, today considered the oldest clearly defined and recognized Paleoindian culture in the Americas, is characterized by its distinctive stone tools, particularly the fluted projectile points. The first examples of this culture were discovered by archaeologists near Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1930s. The El Fin del Mundo site, along with the Aubrey site in Texas, is now among two sites that show the earliest solid evidence of Clovis hunting in North America, indicating that the earliest widespread and recognizable group of hunter-gatherers were already in place 13,390 years ago in the North American Southwest.

Holliday and colleagues suggest that the finds support the model of an American southwestern origin for the Clovis material culture. As they conclude in the study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

“These data expand our understanding of the age range for Clovis, Clovis diet, raw material preference, and the late Pleistocene megafaunal assemblage of North America, and provide evidence for a southern origin of the Clovis technocomplex.”*

Holliday and the study team report that the radiocarbon ages from El Fin del Mundo were made based on testing the site’s charcoal, shell, and organic matter at the Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory.

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*Article #14-04546: “Human (Clovis)–gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ~13,390 calibrated yBP in Sonora, Mexico,” by Vance T. Holliday et al.

In addition to Holliday, authors of the PNAS paper include: lead author Guadalupe Sanchez, who has a doctorate in anthropology from the UA; UA alumni Edmund P. Gaines and Susan M. Mentzer; UA doctoral candidates Natalia Martínez-Tagüeña and Andrew Kowler; UA master’s student Ismael Sanchez-Morales; UA scientists Todd Lange and Gregory Hodgins; and Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

The dig at El Fin del Mundo, a joint effort between the U.S. and Mexico, was funded by the UA School of Anthropology’s Argonaut Archaeological Research Fund, the National Geographic Society, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and The Center for Desert Archaeology in Tucson.

Source: Some material for this article was adapted and edited from a University of Arizona press release, Meet the gomphothere: UA archaeologist involved in discovery of bones of elephant ancestor

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Archaeologists Investigate a Massive Ancient Mycenaean Citadel

Posted on July 10, 2014 by No Author -

A team of archaeologists is surveying and excavating the remains of a major ancient Mycenaean citadel—an archaeological site featuring ruins that are turning out to be much more extensive than what meets the naked eye.

Under the leadership of Associate Professor Christofilis Maggidis of Dickinson College and the auspices of the Athens Archaeological Society, teams of specialists have been systematically surveying an imposing, island-like, flat-topped bedrock outcrop that rises 20-40 meters above a surrounding plain with a summit area stretching 49.5 acres at the northeastern edge of the Kopais basin in southeastern Greece. Known as the citadel of Glas and identified as consisting of ancient Mycenaean structures, the summit area featuring the ruins is estimated to measure ten times the size of the ancient citadel of Mycenaean Tiryns and seven times that of Mycenae, the famed city of Agamemnon of Homer’s Iliad.

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Map shows the region (red) of Greece wherein the Kopais basin and Glas are located. Wikimedia Commons

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Boeotia, where the Kopais basin and Glas are located, in the context of the nearby ancient central regions of Greece. Ministerofbadtimes, Wikimedia Commons

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Aerial view of Glas in the midst of the surrounding plain, showing massive Cyclopean walls enclosing and defining the site of the ancient remains. Courtesy Christofilis Maggidis

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“I first excavated at Glas in 1990 as a graduate student with my mentor, the late Spyros Iakovidis,” said Maggidis. “The unparalleled size of the citadel, its connection with the gigantic drainage project of Kopais, and the discovery of such important but few remains in the citadel indicating that the rest of the citadel was left vacant puzzled me since then.”

Begun in the 14th century BC, the drainage project of Kopais was a large-scale engineering effort of massive proportions which transformed the Kopais basin into what became the most fertile plain on mainland Greece. The ancient engineers drained marshland through a complex drainage control system, diverting six rivers and streams from the basin into two enormous canals that converged at the northeastern edge of the Kopais basin. The canals were flanked by massive embankments reinforced at some locations with double Cyclopean revetments that supported roads and were supplied with underground drains and channels directing water overflow into artificial polders, natural cavities and sinkholes, or to the Larymna bay. Archaeologists estimate that as much as 2,000,000 cubic meters of earth were moved to build dykes and embankments along the periphery of the basin, with more than 250,000 cubic meters of stone used to face the embankments.

Thought to be the administrative center for this expansive system, the citadel of Glas was protected by a massive Cyclopean wall about 5.50-5.80 meters thick, running along the edge of the natural outcrop summit platform and defining the periphery of the citadel for approximately 3 kilometers, featuring four gates and a cluster of three adjacent central enclosures. But, said Maggidis, “the citadel of Glas presented the lay-out of a fort with certain spatial peculiarities: only one third or less of the total area of the citadel (49.5 acres) seemed to be occupied by various buildings and structures (administrative buildings, storage facilities, workshops, kitchens, personnel residence quarters), whereas no other ruins had been located so far by surface survey anywhere else in the citadel.” The space outside the central enclosures, in other words, appeared to be void of structures. Why?

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The ancient gate structures of Glas. Courtesy Christofilis Maggidis

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General plan of the Glas site. Note the gaps where no structures are visible. Courtesy Christofilis Maggidis

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Structures excavated in area A (see the larger plan above this image) at the site. Courtesy Christofilis Maggidis

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For Maggidis, this just didn’t add up.

“I was convinced that Glas was much more than a fort administrating the drainage works of the Kopais lake and the local agricultural production, and decided to investigate the site further.”

And investigate he did.

Beginning in 2010, Maggidis and colleagues conducted a systematic geophysical survey of the citadel using ground penetrating radar (GPR), a Fluxgate gradiometer, electrical resistivity, and satellite imagery. The team focused primarily on unexplored areas and some already excavated sectors.

The results were illuminating.

“The citadel of Glas was not left void of structures outside the central enclosures after all, but was apparently covered with many buildings of various uses, including at least five large and well-built complexes, extensive residential quarters and clusters of buildings stretching between these complexes, (semi)circular structures (silos?), a cistern, staircases, retaining walls and terraces. This is the picture of a fortified town.”

Maggidis and colleagues had come much closer to uncovering the true proportions and complexity of the citadel. But looking ahead, he sees much more to be done.

“The systematic investigation of the Mycenaean citadel of Glas will continue and intensify in the next decade,” says Magiddis. “The geophysical survey will focus on the eastern (Sector IV) and the western part of the citadel (Sector V), while systematic excavation will target select building complexes, clusters, and structures.”

More information about the Glas survey and excavations can be obtained at the project website. A detailed article about the discoveries at the citadel of Glas will be published in the upcoming September issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

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Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum Offers Public an Intimate Window to the Past

Posted on July 9, 2014 by No Author -

Original hand-written working notes of Bram Stoker on paper, grist that would find its way into his famous signature book, Dracula;

An original manuscript of James Joyce’s Ulysses;

The first and only existing printing of Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac;

More than 100 personally inscribed letters of George Washington;

Parts of manuscripts from Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby…………

These are but a tiny sampling of the holdings of the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, tucked almost inconspicuously among a row of 19th-century townhouses in the Rittenhouse-Fitler historic district in the center of bustling Philadelphia. It presents a streetside appearance that doesn’t turn heads like other major tourist sites in this city.

But make no mistake. Its outward appearance belies its significance. Within its walls is a collection of thousands of the original first-print books, manuscripts, letters, illustrations and other works of art of some the most famous and noteworthy literary, historical and artistic figures of the past, a treasure house for historians, historical archaeologists, others doing primary research………and for you and me. What arguably distinguishes it from most museums and archives of its kind is its offering of an up-close and personal experience: With a scheduled Hands-on Tour, the museum curators will permit the visitor to hold and turn the pages of an early printing of a book like Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, or read from an original manuscript like Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim, or view drawings made by William Blake himself.

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The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Wikimedia Commons

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The namesake institution was founded in 1954 by Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach and his brother, Philip. As book, manuscript, and fine art dealers, they were also instrumental in the establishment of private libraries that became the repository for important rare books. Among these libraries are the well known Folger and Huntington Libraries. In the 1970’s, the Rosenbach became the central repository for the works of Maurice Sendak (author and illustrator of the book, Where the Wild Things Are, among others), and remains so today.

Now, for the first time, the Rosenbach has opened a special exhibit for the general public displaying pages from the manuscript of James Joyce’s Ulysses, side-by-side with the Shakespearean plays and poems that inspired it. It will show until August 31, 2014. And until November 2, 2014, visitors can view an exhibit that relates how Maurice Sendak’s art reﬂected the effects of events in his life that caused personal turmoil.

For those of us who like books, old things, and history, it could pleasantly top off a memorable visit to this historic city.

For more information about the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, go to the website, or visit the museum at 2008 Delancey Place in Philadelphia, not far from Rittenhouse Square.

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Cover Photo, Top Left: Fall of Princes by John Lydgate England, probably London, c. 1465–75, Boccaccio Has a Vision of Adam and Eve. Boccaccio’s tale of the fall of noble persons begins with Adam and Eve. The opening miniature shows Boccaccio seated at his desk as Adam steps into the room. Outside, Eve receives the apple from a human-headed serpent twisted around the Tree of Knowledge. Document housed in the Rosenbach Museum

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Popular Archaeology Magazine Releases New App and Ebook

Posted on July 8, 2014 by No Author -

Popular Archaeology Magazine, an exclusively digital, U.S.-based magazine dedicated to publishing new discoveries, developments and opportunites in archaeology and anthropology for a general and scholarly readership, has released two new versions of its quarterly publication designed for access through smartphones and tablets. The most recent issue, published in June, 2014, features stories about the news-making discoveries related to early humans in the Arabian Peninsula; excavations at a massive Bronze Age city-state site in Jordan; new discoveries at Mycenae, the city of Agamemnon; the excavation and preservation of a lost city in South America; a scientific report on excavations at Sima de las Palomas, a Neanderthal site in Spain; and a scientific report on excavations that have turned up 800,000-year-old early human remains, also in Spain. Readers can access the magazine app at The App and the ebook version at Amazon.com.

Archaic Human Skull Discovery in China Sheds New Light on Later Human Evolution

Posted on July 7, 2014 by No Author -

Once again, scientists examining an ancient human fossil are finding that the path of human evolution, at least over the last 100,000 years, is not as simple as evolutionists have thought.

In a recent study, researchers Xiu-Jie Wu, Wu Liu and Song Xing of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, Isabelle Crevecoeur of PACEA, Université de Bordeaux, France, and Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis, re-examined a circa 100,000-year-old archaic human skull originally found during excavations 35 years ago at the Xujiayao site in China’s Nihewan Basin. Based on their micro-CT scans of the interior configuration of the temporal bone, they found that the inner-ear formation closely resembled a formation long thought to occur only in Neanderthals.

“We were completely surprised,” Trinkaus said. “We fully expected the scan to reveal a temporal labyrinth that looked much like a modern human one, but what we saw was clearly typical of a Neandertal. This discovery places into question whether this arrangement of the semicircular canals is truly unique to the Neandertals.” Moreover, he said, “the discovery places into question a whole suite of scenarios of later Pleistocene human population dispersals and interconnections based on tracing isolated anatomical or genetic features in fragmentary fossils. It suggests, instead, that the later phases of human evolution were more of a labyrinth of biology and peoples than simple lines on maps would suggest.”

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The Xujiayao 15 late archaic human temporal bone from northern China, with the extracted temporal labyrinth, superimposed on a view of the Xujiayao site. Credit: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Science

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The Xujiayao 15 temporal bone, with the extracted temporal labyrinth and its position in the temporal bone. Credit: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Science

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Often well-preserved in mammal skull fossils, the semicircular canals are remnants of a fluid-filled sensing system that helps humans maintain balance when they change their spatial orientations, such as when running, bending over or turning the head from side-to-side.

Since the mid-1990s, when early CT-scan research confirmed its existence, the presence of a particular arrangement of the semicircular canals in the temporal labyrinth has been considered enough to securely identify fossilized skull fragments as being from a Neanderthal. This pattern is present in almost all of the known Neanderthal labyrinths. It has been widely used as a marker to set them apart from both earlier and modern humans.

The skull at the center of this study, known as Xujiayao 15, was found along with an assortment of other human teeth and bone fragments, all of which seemed to have characteristics typical of an early non-Neanderthal form of late archaic humans.

Trinkaus, who has studied Neanderthal and early human fossils from around the globe, said this discovery only adds to the rich confusion of theories that attempt to explain human origins, migrations patterns and possible interbreedings.

“The study of human evolution has always been messy, and these findings just make it all the messier,” Trinkaus said. “It shows that human populations in the real world don’t act in nice simple patterns.”

Research details are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Source: Adapted and edited from a Washington University in St. Louis press release, Discovery of Neandertal trait in ancient skull raises new questions about human evolution.

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Evolution of Early Human Traits Not Simple and Straightforward, Say Scientists

Posted on July 3, 2014 by No Author -

Gone are the days when paleoanthropologists could characterize the path of human evolution as a simple, single homogenous line of progressive changes in human morphology and behavior. Or so suggests a collaborative group of scientists who, as detailed in a study published in the July 4, 2014 issue of Science, came up with a new synthesis, or at least the rudimentary framework of one. It is a developing scenario that, they argue, more accurately explains how earlier forms of Homo (early humans) and their Australopithecus forerunners eventually led to the emergence of Homo sapiens (modern humans), the last surviving hominin.

Led jointly by Susan Antón, professor of anthropology at New York University, paleoanthropologist Richard Potts, curator of anthropology and director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Leslie Aiello, president of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the team studied paleoclimate, fossil, and stone tool evidence, leading to a developing consensus that suggests a rethinking of long-held assumptions about human origins and evolution. Based on a synthesis of the data, the researchers point to change and diversity of environmental conditions and the compelling need to survive by adapting to the changing conditions as a key to understanding how early humans were able to vary, survive and begin spreading from Africa to Eurasia 1.85 million years ago. The process entailed a diversification of species and genera differentiating and overlapping in time and morphology, beginning with some key elements once thought to define Homo but actually evolving in earlier Australopithecus ancestors between 3 and 4 million years ago.

Significant to the development of the new synthesis, Potts developed a new climate framework for East African human evolution that depicts most of the era from 2.5 million to 1.5 million years ago as a time of strong climate instability and shifting intensity of annual wet and dry seasons.

“Unstable climate conditions favored the evolution of the roots of human flexibility in our ancestors,” said Potts. “The narrative of human evolution that arises from our analyses stresses the importance of adaptability to changing environments, rather than adaptation to any one environment, in the early success of the genus Homo.”

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Between 2.1 and 1.8 million years ago, the oldest known species of the human genus, Homo, exhibited diverse traits. These species include the 1470 Group and the 1813 Group, based on the Kenyan fossils KNM-ER 1470 (left) and KNM-ER 1813 (second from left), respectively. By 1.8 to 1.9 million years ago, the species Homo erectus had evolved in Africa and started to spread to Eurasia. Early populations of this long-lived species are represented by the Kenyan fossil KNM- ER 3733 (right) and the Georgian fossil Dmanisi Skull 5 (second from right). The three lineages — the 1470 group, the 1813 group, and Homo erectus — overlapped in time for several hundred thousand years. The Kenyan fossils, from the site of Koobi Fora in the Lake Turkana region of Kenya, are housed in the National Museums of Kenya. Fossils from Dmanisi are housed in the Georgian National Museum. Credits: Kenyan fossil casts – Chip Clark, Smithsonian Human Origins Program; Dmanisi Skull 5 – Guram Bumbiashvili, Georgian National Museum

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Hominin evolution from 3.0 to 1.5 Ma. Green: Australopithecus, Yellow: Paranthropus, Red: Homo. The icons indicate from the bottom the first appearance of stone tools at ~2.6 Ma, the dispersal of Homo to Eurasia at ~1.85 Ma, and the appearance of the Acheulean technology at ~1.76 Ma. The number of contemporaneous hominin taxa during this period reflects different strategies of adaptation to habitat variability. The cultural milestones do not correlate with the known first appearances of any of the currently recognized Homo taxa. Image courtesy of Antón et al., Science/AAAS 2014

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Evolutionary timeline of important anatomical, behavioral and life history characteristics that
were once thought to be associated with the origin of the genus Homo or earliest H. erectus. Image courtesy of Antón et al., Science/AAAS 2014

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Their analysis and conclusions could explain, at least in part, much of the new evidence that has emerged in recent years suggesting that multiple coexisting species of Homo overlapped geographically and developed differentiating morphological and behavioral characeristics. It contrasts with the long-held model of a large brain, long legs, the ability to craft tools and prolonged maturation periods evolving together as a single package at the start of the Homo lineage as African grasslands expanded and Earth’s climate became cooler and drier.

The researchers also analyzed ancient stone tools, isotopes found in teeth and cut marks found on animal bones in East Africa.

“Taken together, these data suggest that species of early Homo were more flexible in their dietary choices than other species,” said Aiello. “Their flexible diet—probably containing meat—was aided by stone tool-assisted foraging that allowed our ancestors to exploit a range of resources.”

The study authors concluded that flexibility likely strengthened the ability of human ancestors to successfully adapt to changing environments and emerge out of Africa, and explains the ability of the modern human species to occupy diverse habitats throughout the world.

The detailed study is published in the July 4, 2014 issue of Science magazine.

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Source: Adapted and edited from a press release of the Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian scientist and collaborators revise timeline of human origins, 3 July 2014; and Early Human Traits Not Delivered in Single Package, Science, 3 July 2014.

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Gene From Extinct Human Made Tibetans Adaptable to High Altitudes

Posted on July 2, 2014 by No Author -

Tibetans were able to adapt to high altitudes thanks to a gene acquired when their ancestors mated with a species of human they helped push to extinction, according to a new report by University of California, Berkeley, scientists.

An unusual variant of a gene involved in regulating the body’s production of hemoglobin – the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood – became widespread in Tibetans after they moved onto the high-altitude plateau several thousand years ago. This variant allowed them to survive despite low oxygen levels at elevations of 15,000 feet or more, whereas most people develop thick blood at high altitudes, leading to cardiovascular problems.

“We have very clear evidence that this version of the gene came from Denisovans,” a mysterious human relative that went extinct 40,000-50,000 years ago, around the same time as the more well-known Neanderthals, under pressure from modern humans, said principal author Rasmus Nielsen, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. “This shows very clearly and directly that humans evolved and adapted to new environments by getting their genes from another species.”

This is the first time a gene from another species of human has been shown unequivocally to have helped modern humans adapt to their environment, he said.

Nielsen and his colleagues at BGI-Shenzhen in China will report their findings online July 2 in advance of publication in the journal Nature.

The gene, called EPAS1, is activated when oxygen levels in the blood drop, triggering production of more hemoglobin. The gene has been referred to as the superathlete gene because at low elevations, some variants of it help athletes quickly boost hemoglobin and thus the oxygen-carrying capacity of their blood, upping endurance. At high altitude, however, the common variants of the gene boost hemoglobin and its carrier, red blood cells, too much, increasing the thickness of the blood and leading to hypertension and heart attacks as well as low-birth-weight babies and increased infant mortality. The variant or allele found in Tibetans raises hemoglobin and red blood cell levels only slightly at high elevation, avoiding the side-effects seen in most people who relocate to elevations above 13,000 feet.

“We found part of the EPAS1 gene in Tibetans is almost identical to the gene in Denisovans and very different from all other humans,” Nielsen said. “We can do a statistical analysis to show that this must have come from Denisovans. There is no other way of explaining the data.”

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A Chinese researcher collects a blood sample from an ethnic Tibetan man participating in the DNA study. Credit: Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI-Shenzhen) photo

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The researchers first reported the prevalence of a high-altitude version of EPAS1 in Tibetans in 2010, based on sequencing of the genomes of numerous Han Chinese and Tibetans. Nielsen and his colleagues argued that this was the result of natural selection to adapt to about 40 percent lower oxygen levels on the Tibetan plateau. That is, people without the variant died before reproducing at a much higher rate than those with it. About 87 percent of Tibetans now have the high-altitude version, compared to only 9 percent of Han Chinese, who have the same common ancestor as Tibetans.

Nielsen and his colleagues subsequently sequenced the EPAS1 gene in an additional 40 Tibetans and 40 Han Chinese. The data revealed that the high-altitude variant of EPAS1 is so unusual that it could only have come from Denisovans. Aside from its low frequency in Han Chinese, it occurs in no other known humans, not even Melanesians, whose genomes are nearly 5 percent Denisovan. A high quality sequence of the Denisovan genome was published in 2012.

Nielsen sketched out a possible scenario leading to this result: modern humans coming out of Africa interbred with Denisovan populations in Eurasia as they passed through that area into China, and their descendants still retain a small percentage – perhaps 0.1 percent – Denisovan DNA. The group that invaded China eventually split, with one population moving into Tibet and the other, now known as Han Chinese, dominating the lower elevations.

He and his colleagues are analyzing other genomes to pin down the time of Denisovan interbreeding, which probably happened over a rather short period of time.

“There might be many other species from which we also got DNA, but we don’t know because we don’t have the genomes,” Nielsen said. “The only reason we can say that this bit of DNA is Denisovan is because of this lucky accident of sequencing DNA from a little bone found in a cave in Siberia. We found the Denisovan species at the DNA level, but how many other species are out there that we haven’t sequenced?”

Nielsen’s coauthors include former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Emilia Huerta-Sánchez, now at UC Merced; postdocs Benjamin Peter and Nicolas Vinckenbosch of UC Berkeley’s Department of Integrative Biology; and colleagues in China, Hong Kong, Denmark, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

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Source: Adapted and edited from a University of California press release: Extinct human cousin gave Tibetans advantage at high elevation

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University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Plans Summer Events for Public

Posted on July 2, 2014 by No Author -

For the Indiana Jones in all of us, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, arguably the finest museum of its kind in the United States, is offering a summer packed with special guided tours, musical performances and other activities for all ages during the summer of 2014. Events and activities will include such things as Egyptian gallery tours, a Mexico and Central American gallery tour, summer night concerts, and special performances for children. This, of course, is in addition to the usual offering of galleries and exhibits always available to visitors on a regular basis.

Otherwise known as the Penn Museum, it is located at 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 at the intersection of Spruce Street and 33rd Street. Nearby landmarks include Franklin Field, across South Street, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, across 34th Street.

See the schedule and the website for more information about the museum.

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Cover Photo, Top Left: View of the Penn Museum. Mefman00, Wikimedia Commons

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Researchers Discover Population Boom in Ancient American Southwest

Posted on June 30, 2014 by No Author -

Researchers have found that birth rates and life expectancy in the American Southwest between 900 BC and 1400 AD indicated a period of rapid population growth between about 500 AD and 1100 AD followed by a significant decline after 1300 AD, never again to recover the former growth.

The study, conducted with National Science Foundation funding by anthropology professor Tim Kohler and graduate student Kelsey Reese, both of Washington State University, analyzed data on thousands of human remains found at hundreds of sites across the Four Corners region of the Southwest. The data helped to create a chronology of the region’s “Neolithic Demographic Transition” — a time period when stone tool artifacts signaled the agricultural transition from cutting meat to pounding grain.

“It’s the first step towards all the trappings of civilization that we currently see,” said Kohler.

Maize (corn), the region’s staple crop, was introduced as early as 2000 BC, but productivity was slow to rise until about 400 BC, said Kohler, when the crop is estimated to have provided around 80 percent of the regional population’s calories. A corresponding gradual rise in birth rates ensued until about 500 A.D.

Then, growth rates varied across the region. People in the Sonoran Desert and Tonto Basin, in what is today Arizona, were more culturally advanced, with irrigation, ball courts, and eventually elevated platform mounds and compounds housing elite families. Yet birth rates were higher among people to the north and east, in the San Juan basin and northern San Juan regions of northwest New Mexico and southwest Colorado.

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Aerial view of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Bob Adams, Wikimedia Commons

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Kohler suggested that the Sonoran and Tonto people might have had difficulty finding new farming opportunities for their posterity, as corn farming required irrigation. Water from canals may have also carried harmful protozoa, bacteria and viruses. But groups to the northeast would have been able to expand maize production into new areas as their populations grew, he said.

Around 900 A.D., populations remained high but birth rates began to fluctuate. The mid-1100s saw one of the largest known droughts in the Southwest, when the region had likely hit its carrying capacity, with continued population growth and limited resources similar to what Thomas Malthus predicted for the industrial world in 1798.

From the mid-1000s to 1280—by which time all the farmers had left—evidence indicates that conflicts raged across the northern Southwest, but birth rates remained high.

“They didn’t slow down—birth rates were expanding right up to the depopulation,” said Kohler. “Why not limit growth? Maybe groups needed to be big to protect their villages and fields.”

“It was a trap,” said Kohler. “A Malthusian trap but also a violence trap.”

The northern Southwest had as many as 40,000 people in the mid-1200s, but within 30 years it was empty. Kohler hypothesizes that the population may have become too large to be sustained as climates deteriorated, and the lower population would not have adequately maintained the social unity needed for defense and new infrastructure.

But whatever the reason, he said, the experience of the ancient Puebloans could suggest that “population growth has its consequences.”

The paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as “Long and spatially variable Neolithic Demographic Transition in the North American Southwest,” by Timothy A. Kohler and Kelsey M. Reese.

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Edited and adapted from a Washington State University press release, “WSU Researchers chart an ancient baby boom”.

Cover Photo, Top Left: A digital model of ancient Pueblo Bonito (Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, U.S.) before it was abandoned. Wikimedia Commons

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Scientists Uncover Evidence of Early Human Diet

Posted on June 25, 2014 by No Author -

Researchers continue to make progress in their efforts to understand an essential aspect of prehistoric lifeways and a major contributing factor in the dynamics of human evolution — the human diet. In two studies, one focusing on an archaeological site in Spain, the other in the Turkana Basin in Africa, scientists are suggesting that early humans had a more diverse diet than traditionally thought.

In the first study, published June 25 in the open access journal PLOS ONE, Ainara Sistiaga from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of La Laguna and colleagues examine human fecal matter (poop) detected in sediment samples taken from different occupational floor levels at the site of El Salt in Spain, a site known to have been inhabited by Neanderthals 50,000 years ago. The fecal matter indicated, based on the analysis of fecal biomarkers, that these Neanderthals predominantly consumed meat, consistent with the widely accepted dietary model for Neanderthals, but that they also consumed plant foods. One of the fecal biomarkers was formed by the bacterial reduction of cholesterol in the gut (coprostanol), an indicator of meat consumption, but the other showed the presence of a compound found in plant sources, evidence of significant plant intake.

“Taken together, these data suggest that the Neanderthals from El Salt consumed both meat and vegetables, in agreement with recent hypotheses based on indirect evidence,” conclude Sistiaga and colleagues in the study. “Future studies in Middle Palaeolithic sites using the fecal biomarker approach will help clarify the nature, role and proportion of the plant component in the Neanderthal diet, and allow us to assess whether our results reflect occasional consumption or can be representative of their staple diet.”*

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View of El Salt archeological site. Credit: Ainara Sistiaga

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In another study, to be published soon in the Journal of Human Evolution, scientists have found that aquatic fauna (fish and other water-based animals) may have been a highly nutritious source of food for early Pleistocene humans living in the Turkana Basin of East Africa almost 2 million years ago. In this case, Will Archer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and colleagues employed multiple datasets to examine aquatic resource use in the early Pleistocene by focusing on four components of aquatic faunal assemblages: taxonomic diversity; skeletal element proportions; bone fragmentation; and bone surface modification from tool use. These components were used to identify associations between early Pleistocene aquatic remains and hominin behavior at the site of FwJj20 in the Koobi Fora Formation of the Turkana Basin in Kenya. The researchers focused on two dominant aquatic species: catfish and turtles.

Based on their findings, the researchers suggest that aquatic food sources provided hominins (early humans) with a significant alternative or supplement to other, terrestrial food sources. They also suggest that aquatic food sources provided some important advantages, such as “(1) a probable reduction in required investment of energy relative to economic return in the form of nutritionally dense food items, (2) a decrease in the technological costs of resource acquisition, and (3) a reduced level of inter-specific competition associated with carcass access and an associated reduction of predation risk relative to terrestrial sources of food.”**

The Turkana Basin, which includes Lake Turkana and the Koobi Fora (ridge) Formation, is well known in human evolution studies as one of the richest and most important sources of hominin fossils shedding light on the evolution of man over the past 4.2 million years.

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Lake Turkana in the Turkana Basin. Near the ancient shores of this lake, some of the most important early human finds were discovered. Doron, Wikimedia Commons

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*Sistiaga A, Mallol C, Galvan B, Summons RE (2014) The Neanderthal Meal: A New Perspective Using Faecal Biomarkers. PLOS ONE 9(6): e101045. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0101045 http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101045

** Will Archera, David R. Braunb, Jack W.K. Harrisc, Jack T. McCoyd, Brian G. Richmond, Early Pleistocene aquatic resource use in the Turkana Basin http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004724841400056

Cover Photo, Top Left: View of El Salt archeological site. Credit: Ainara Sistiaga

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Archaeologists Return to Ancient Megiddo

Posted on June 23, 2014 by No Author -

Archaeologists are now onsite at Tel Megiddo, in northern Israel, to continue large-scale excavations at what has often been called the “crown jewel” of archaeological sites of the Levant, or Eastern Mediterranean region.

Led by well-known archaeologists Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Eric Cline of the George Washington University, a team of archaeologists, students, volunteers and other specialists will be excavating where they left off in 2012, when they encountered a large building featuring 18 pillars dated to the Iron Age IIA period, (around 1000 BCE). South of the building they uncovered a hoard of six iron daggers and two bronze bowls, dating to the Iron Age I (1200 – 1000 BCE).

Tel Megiddo, a World Heritage site, is best known for the remains of a large Canaanite center that once ruled at a location strategically placed at one of the most important military and trade routes in the ancient Near East, the Via Maris, dominating trade and commercial traffic for over 6,000 years beginning around 7000 BCE. The city is often mentioned in ancient literature and documents such as the Hebrew Bible and the el-Amarna letters of ancient Egypt, particularly as the site of epic battles that changed the course of ancient history in the region. As the inspiration for James Michener’s novel, The Source, the site affords a layer-cake of remains of ancient civilizations that came and went at the location, each succeeding civilization building upon the ruins of predecessors. This has created a treasure for archaeologists and their sponsors, who for decades have been unearthing monumental temples, palace complexes, massive fortifications, and sophisticated water systems, adding to our understanding of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement and lifeways in the Levant. Some of the major finds of recent seasons have included a hoard of gold, silver and bronze jewelry, all wrapped in fabric and hidden in a vessel dated to around 1100 B.C.; and an Early Christian prayer hall with a mosaic floor discovered at a prison site near the Tel.

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The Iron Age city gate at Megiddo, one of the main attractors for toursits at the site. Golf Bravo, Wikimedia Commons

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Model of Megiddo in its ancient fortified glory. Alma Guinness, Wikimedia Commons

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For the 2014 season, archaeologists will continue work on the pillared structure exposed in 2012; expose some late Middle Bronze Age (1800 – 1540 BCE) domestic architecture; continue to excavate parts of the early Middle Bronze Age fortification system which includes a massive mudbrick wall and glacis (defensive slope construction); study areas related to Late Bronze-Iron Age street levels; expose more of the Late Bronze Age levels excavated previously; and conduct exploratory soundings in three new locations.

The Tel Megiddo Expedition offers one of the best field school and excavation experiences for students and volunteers in the Levant. More information about the Expedition and the field school can be obtained at their website.

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Cover Photo, Top Left: The Megiddo altar. James Emery, Wikimedia Commons

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Scientists Uncover Evidence of Early Human Diet

Archaeologists Return to Ancient Megiddo

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