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Scientists Develop a Key to Preserving Ancient Paper Documents

Posted on June 3, 2014 by No Author -

WASHINGTON D.C. June 3, 2014 — One of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpieces, drawn in red chalk on paper during the early 1500s and widely believed to be a self-portrait, is in extremely poor condition. Centuries of exposure to humid storage conditions or a closed environment has led to widespread and localized yellowing and browning of the paper, which is reducing the contrast between the colors of chalk and paper and substantially diminishing the visibility of the drawing.

A group of researchers from Italy and Poland with expertise in paper degradation mechanisms was tasked with determining whether the degradation process has now slowed with appropriate conservation conditions — or if the aging process is continuing at an unacceptable rate.

To do this, as they describe in Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing, the team developed an approach to nondestructively identify and quantify the concentration of light-absorbing molecules known as chromophores in ancient paper, the culprit behind the “yellowing” of the cellulose within ancient documents and works of art.

“During the centuries, the combined actions of light, heat, moisture, metallic and acidic impurities, and pollutant gases modify the white color of ancient paper’s main component: cellulose,” explained Joanna Łojewska, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. “This phenomenon is known as ‘yellowing,’ which causes severe damage and negatively affects the aesthetic enjoyment of ancient art works on paper.”

Chromophores are the key to understanding the visual degradation process because they are among the chemical products developed by oxidation during aging and are, ultimately, behind the “yellowing” within cellulose. Yellowing occurs when “chromophores within cellulose absorb the violet and blue range of visible light and largely scatter the yellow and red portions — resulting in the characteristic yellow-brown hue,” said Olivia Pulci, a professor in the Physics Department at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

To determine the degradation rate of Leonardo’s self-portrait, the team created a nondestructive approach that centers on identifying and quantifying the concentration of chromophores within paper. It involves using a reflectance spectroscopy setup to obtain optical reflectance spectra of paper samples in the near-infrared, visible, and near-ultraviolet wavelength ranges.

Once reflectance data is gathered, the optical absorption spectrum of cellulose fibers that form the sheet of paper can be calculated using special spectroscopic data analysis.

Then, computational simulations based on quantum mechanics — in particular, Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory, which plays a key role in studying optical properties in theoretical condensed matter physics — are tapped to calculate the optical absorption spectrum of chromophores in cellulose.

“Using our approach, we were able to evaluate the state of degradation of Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait and other paper specimens from ancient books dating from the 15th century,” said Adriano Mosca Conte, a researcher at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. “By comparing the results of ancient papers with those of artificially aged samples, we gained significant insights into the environmental conditions in which Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait was stored during its lifetime.”

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This is Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait as acquired during diagnostic studies carried out at the Central Institute for the Restoration of Archival and Library Heritage in Rome, Italy. Credit: M. C. Misiti/Central Institute for the Restoration of Archival and Library Heritage, Rome

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Their work revealed that the type of chromophores present in Leonardo’s self portrait are “similar to those found in ancient and modern paper samples aged in extremely humid conditions or within a closed environment, which agrees with its documented history,” said Mauro Missori, a researcher at the Institute for Complex Systems, CNR, in Rome, Italy.

One of the most significant implications of their work is that the state of degradation of ancient paper can be measured and quantified by evaluation of the concentrations of chromophores in cellulose fibers. “The periodic repetition of our approach is fundamental to establishing the formation rate of chromophores within the self-portrait. Now our approach can serve as a precious tool to preserve and save not only this invaluable work of art, but others as well,” Conte noted.

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The article, “Visual degradation in Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic self-portrait: a nanoscale study” is authored by A. Mosca Conte, O. Pulci, M.C. Misiti, J. Łojewska, L. Teodonio, C. Violante, and M. Missori. It appears in the journal Applied Physics Letters on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 (DOI: 10.1063/1.4879838). After that date, it can be accessed at: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/104/22/10.1063/1.4879838

The authors of this study are affiliated with ETSF, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Istituto di Struttura della Materia, Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario, Jagiellonian University, and Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi.

Source: Adapted and republished from the press release of the American Institute of Physics.

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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.

Archaeologists Excavate Lower City of Mycenae

Posted on June 2, 2014 by No Author -

Mycenae — the ancient city of the legendary King Agamemnon, best known from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and its iconic Lion Gate and cyclopean defensive walls, has long fascinated scholars and site visitors alike with the epic proportions of its imposing citadel remains. Located about 56 miles southwest of Athens in Greece, it is a World Heritage site.

But there is another Mycenae — one known for centuries from ancient historical documents — which has nevertheless eluded the eyes of archaeologists, historians, and tourists. One might call it “Greater Mycenae”, the Lower Town. It is invisible because most of it still lies undetected, unexcavated, below the surface. In its heyday it was a second millenium BC version of urban sprawl that served as a vital element of the ancient city’s florescence.

Few know it better than Christofilis Maggidis, Associate Professor of Archaeology at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. He has been leading excavations there since 2007. Geophysical surveys utilizing remote sensing technology in the area surrounding the citadel revealed substantial evidence of hidden walls, structures, gates, roads and other features of a possible urban center surrounding it on its south, west and north sides.

“This town may have extended over an area of ca. 30-50 hectares, with a normal population density of 200 people per hectare, consisting mainly of domestic units and commercial buildings, but also including larger palatial structures and annexes (workshops, offices, storerooms) located closer to the main access roads and highways,” writes Maggidis in a report published in the Volume 15 issue of Popular Archaeology . “The discovery of two gates, associated perhaps with an outer circuit wall, further reinforces the possibility of an organized town plan.”*

Ground proof excavations confirmed the geophysical findings. Uncovered thus far were Mycenean-period features that included a long retaining wall possibly connected to a gate, a wall possibly connected with an outer fortification wall of the Lower Town, two buildings, and an apsidal structure. Overlaying the Mycenean features were post-Mycenean findings that included Geometric Period structures such as a pottery/ivory workshop with a cistern, a multi-room house with a courtyard and containing three infant burials under the floor of a room, two circular structures, and a 9th century B.C. cist grave. The cist grave, which contained the skeletal remains of a young woman, consisted of funerary meal remains, an iron pin found on the right shoulder-blade, an iron ring found around a phalanx of the right hand, and five clay vases and a cup placed around the body.

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View of the Lower Town area and excavation site from the citadel area of Mycenae. Courtesy Dickinson Excavation Project and Archaeological Survey of Mycenae

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Excavators at work on the Lower Town site. Courtesy Dickinson Excavation Project and Archaeological Survey of Mycenae

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Overhead view of the excavation site. Courtesy Dickinson Excavation Project and Archaeological Survey of Mycenae

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Numerous artifacts were unearthed. Writes Maggidis: “A great number and wide variety of finds have been retrieved so far, including fragments of Mycenaean and Archaic figurines, flint and obsidian blades, flakes and cores, stone tools, fragments of stone vases, stone cloth weights, seal-stones, beads and pendants, rings, glass shards, metallic objects, coins, lead sheets, iron nails and hooks, lead clamps for pottery mending, ivory objects, clay loom weights and spools, fresco and plaster fragments, color pigments, carbonized wood, animal bones, shell, roof tiles and abundant pottery.”*

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Arrowheads discovered during excavations. Courtesy Dickinson Excavation Project and Archaeological Survey of Mycenae

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But the greatest takeaway thus far has been the confirming evidence that Mycenae, more than its popular image as the fortified palatial abode of Agamemnon, was a large, complex urban center where a population made their living in trade, commercial production, agriculture, and all the other typical functions of an ancient culture, in space and time well beyond the politics and military campaigns of a prominent kingly reign.

“The geophysical survey and systematic excavation of the Lower Town at Mycenae revealed an extensive Mycenaean settlement outside the citadel,” reports Maggidis, “which was protected by an outer fortification wall with gates, as well as overlying structures and buildings dating to the Early Iron Age and the Archaic Period, thus establishing for the first time a continuous, well-stratified occupation of Mycenae in all the successive periods from the 13th century BC to the 6th century BC.”*

Maggidis and his archaeological team, which will include students and volunteers, will be returning to resume excavations during the summer of 2014.

The latest detailed report of the investigations of the Lower Town at Mycenae are published in the Vol. 15 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine, available in early June, 2014.

* Maggidis, Christofilis, Unearthing the City of Agamemnon: The Survey and Excavation of the Lower Town of Mycenae, Popular Archaeology, Vol. 15.

Cover Photo, Top Left: The Lion Gate at Mycenae. Andreas Trepte, Wikimedia Commons

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The Real Form of Richard III Depicted in 3-D Model

Posted on May 29, 2014 by No Author -

In a paper published May 30 in the medical journal, The Lancet, University of Leicester scientists and multimdia experts have detailed their findings, including the development of a 3-D model, that complete the image of Richard III’s appearance, the famous English king whose remains were recently excavated and identified by archaeologists and who was popularly depicted as a hunchback in Shakespeare’s historical play by the same name.

But it appears, based on the study, that Shakespeare’s Richard was somewhat more of an invention for dramatic effect than it was a depiction of his true appearance.

Led by University of Leicester osteoarchaelogist Dr. Jo Appleby of the University’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History, the team of researchers were able to reconstruct an accurate visualization that revealed how the king’s spine had a curve to the right, but also a degree of twisting, resulting in a “spiral” shape. Among the key findings in the paper are:

Richard III had a severe scoliosis, with a particularly pronounced right-sided curve;

Richard’s scoliosis had a “spiral” nature;

His right shoulder would have been higher than his left, and his torso would have been relatively short compared to his arms and legs, but he had a “well-balanced curve” – meaning that his head and neck were straight and not tilted to one side. In consequence the condition would not have been immediately visible to those he met, particularly if he wore well-designed clothes or armour;

The Cobb angle – a measurement used to assess the level of spinal deformity in scoliosis patients – was 65-85 degrees. This would be considered a large curvature these days, though many with the condition today undergo surgery to stabilise it;
His scoliosis would have started to develop during the last few years of growth (after about 10 years of age);

The researchers already established that Richard would have been about 5ft 8 inches tall without his scoliosis – about average for a man during medieval times. However, his condition meant he would have appeared several inches shorter than this.

During analysis, the skeleton was analyzed macroscopically for evidence of spinal deformity and any changes to the tissue caused by the condition.

The spine was then scanned using computed tomography (CT), with 3D reconstructions of each bone made from the digital model. The team used a 3D printer to create polymer replicas of each vertebra – which were put together to recreate the shape of Richard’s spine during his life.

The polymer reconstruction was photographed from 19 different points, and the pictures were then stitched together digitally to create the interactive 3D model – which can be accessed on any web browser and embedded into websites.

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Images of the spinal column showing curvature at various points of rotation. Credit University of Leicester

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Complete image of entire spinal column showing the obvious scoliosis condition. Credit University of Leicester

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Dr. Jo Appleby said: “The major finding we have made is being able to reconstruct the three-dimensional nature of the scoliosis and understand what it would have looked like.

“Obviously, the skeleton was flattened out when it was in the ground. We had a good idea of the sideways aspect of the curve, but we didn’t know the precise nature of the spiral aspect of the condition.

“The arthritis in the spine meant it could only be reconstructed in a specific way, meaning that we can get a very accurate idea of the shape of the curve. It’s really good to be able to produce this 3D reconstruction rather than a 2D picture, as you get a good sense of how the spine would have actually appeared.”

“Although the scoliosis looks dramatic, it probably did not cause a major physical deformity. This is because he had a well-balanced curve. The condition would have meant that his trunk was short in comparison to the length of his limbs, and his right shoulder would have been slightly higher than the left, but this could have been disguised by custom-made armour and by having a good tailor.”

“A curve of 65-85 would not have prevented Richard from being an active individual, and there is no evidence that Richard had a limp as his curve was well balanced and his leg bones were normal and symmetric.”

Dr Phil Stone, Chairman, Richard III Society, said: “Examination of Richard III’s remains shows that he had a scoliosis, thus confirming that the Shakespearean description of a ‘bunch-backed toad’ is a complete fabrication – yet more proof that, while the plays are splendid dramas, they are also most certainly fiction not fact.

“History tells us that Richard III was a great warrior. Clearly, he was little inconvenienced by his spinal problem and accounts of his appearance, written when he was alive, tell that he was “of person and bodily shape comely enough” and that he “was the most handsome man in the room after his brother, Edward IV”.

“Thanks must be given to the University of Leicester for the work they have done on the remains, completing the work begun by the Richard III Society.”
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The work was carried out by Jo Appleby, Osteoarchaeologist in the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History; Professor Bruno Morgan, forensic radiologist in the University of Leicester’s Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine; Professor Guy Rutty and Alison Brough, of the East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit, based at the University of Leicester; Dr Piers Mitchell, University of Cambridge; Claire Robinson, University Hospitals of Leicester; and Professor Russell Harris and David Thompson, Loughborough University.

The dig for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council and in association with the Richard III Society. The originator of the search project was Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society.

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

Cover Photo, Top Left: Excavated skeletal remains of King Richard III. Credit University of Leicester

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Rock-Shelter in Spain Evidences Early Human Use of Fire

Posted on May 27, 2014 by No Author -

In a report co-authored by Michael Walker and colleagues of Spain’s Murcia University, scientists suggest that early humans who lived in the Cueva Negra (Black Cave) rock-shelter of southeastern Spain about 800,000 years ago used fire, and that they exhibited behaviors that indicated a cognitively sophisticated late early Pleistocene use of resources and tools in their environment. The detailed report is published in the upcoming Volume 15 of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

The rock-shelter, located in the face of a cliff overlooking the Quipar river and the small village of La Encarnación, became the subject of initial exploration by archaeologists in 1981. But full systematic excavations didn’t begin until 1990, when an archaeological team led by Walker and colleagues with the Murcia University Experimental Sciences Research Group undertook detailed investigation that continued for another 25 field seasons. What they uncovered were 5 meters of sediment containing late Pleistocene (somewhat before 780,000 years ago) finds, including hominin (early human, possibly H. heidelbergensis) teeth, a rich artifact assemblage, and an array of ancient flora and fauna remains that bespoke an ancient climate of warm, moist environmental conditions. Their analysis and interpretation of the finds may have, they maintain, important implications for early human behavior.

“The most important findings at Cueva Negra concern human activity,” write Walker and colleagues in their report. “Undoubted evidence of fire has been uncovered.”* They point to the evidence of sediment combustion, thermally altered chert and burnt animal bone found in a layer measured at 4.5 meters in depth.

But they qualify their interpretation.

“A fire-place is not a hearth,” the authors continue. “The Cueva Negra could have brought glowing brands left by a forest fire into the cave to establish and tend a fire where rain and wind would not put it out. They may well have been less afraid of fire outside than other animals they saw fleeing from it (which could have led them to play with fire in order to drive animals towards natural death traps, such as swamps, enabling dismemberment and roasting). This does not mean they could reproduce or control fire: there is a dearth of archaeological evidence for hearths or fire-pits before 0.5 Ma.”

Cueva Negra is not the only site that has evidenced early use of fire by early humans. For example, the site of Bnot Ya’akov Bridge in Israel has been claimed to show human control of fire some time between 790,000 and 690,000 years ago, and evidence has emerged at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa for the use of fire by around 1 million years ago. There are also other sites showing this possibility in Africa and China. But Cueva Negra could be the earliest, if not one of the earliest, sites in Europe demonstrating this development.

Other findings suggested a clear mastery of material resources for survival. The assemblage of stone tool artifacts recovered (classified by the authors as “Acheulo-Levalloiso-Mousteroid”) showed evidence of the use of three different core reduction methodologies or sequences, and that natural stone resources were exploited as much as 40 km downstream from the site and 30 km upstream.

Concludes Walker, et al., “Research at Cueva Negra throws new light, including fire-light, on the cognitive versatility, manual dexterity, and technical aptitude of early humans ca. 0.8 Ma in S.E. Spain. They exploited their surroundings in a competent fashion that implies precise knowledge and accurate awareness of what was available for survival.”*

*Walker, Michael, et al., The Early Humans of Cueva Negra, Popular Archaeology, Vol. 15, June, 2014.

Cover Photo, Top Left: Excavations in progress at Cueva Negra. Courtesy Michael Walker and Murcia University

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Archaeologists Excavate for Archaic Greek City of Tenea

Posted on May 22, 2014 by No Author -

It was in July 1984 when rescue excavations conducted by Dr. Elena Korka, now Director of the Ephorate of Private Archaeological Collections and Antiquity Shops, turned up an ancient sarcophagus of the Greek early archaic period near the town of Chiliomodi in Greece. The sarcophagus contained a female skeleton along with offerings. The interior of the sarcophagus slab was adorned with a composition consisting of two lions of monumental character. It was a remarkable find.

But this was not altogether surprising, as archaeologists and historians believed that somewhere in the area the central structural remains of the city of Tenea likely existed. Established, according to written sources, not far from the ancient cities of Corinth and Mycenae shortly after the Trojan War, its first inhabitants were said to be Trojan prisoners of war settled there by Agamemnon. Tenea was considered to be the main settlement of the valley, situated strategically to control the way from Argos to ancient Corinth, and the historian Strabo wrote that Tenea was the location where the Corinthian king Polybius nursed Oedipus.

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Historically, other hints of Tenea’s real existence have emerged, such as the discovery of the Kouros statue in 1846, now housed in the Glyptothek Museum in Munich, and more recently two other archaic kouroi were found and seized by the police in 2010. Because of the importance of the finds, archaeologists conducted surveys in the area around the sarcophagus discovery and its surrounding region.

But the first full, systematic investigation in the area did not begin until 2013 under the direction Korka. With the help of Greek and foreign scholars, archaeologists, geologists, and students, Korka soon uncovered an archaic cemetery consisting of burial sites with archaic period enclosures. Korka believes the cemetery may be associated with the ancient city of Tenea itself.

“Only sporadic remains of the city have been discovered in the region…….such as the Munich kouros, the sarcophagus, and two archaic kouroi,” write Korka and colleagues. “It is thus most likely that substantial archaeological remains of this important ancient city are expected to come to light very soon.”*

Korka and her team hope to uncover much more in coming excavation seasons. They intend to return to the area in September of 2014 to continue where they left off in 2013.

More information about the effort and how one can participate can be obtained at http://www.archaeological.org/fieldwork/afob/15660.

Cover Photo, Top Left: The Kouros statue of Tenea in the Glyptothek Museum, Munich. Zde, Wikimedia Commons

* http://www.archaeological.org/fieldwork/afob/15660.

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Microbiology Provides Clues to Extinct Caribbean Cultures

Posted on May 20, 2014 by No Author -

BOSTON, MA — May 20, 2014 — By evaluating the bacteria and fungi found in fossilized feces, microbiologists are providing evidence to help support archeologists’ hypotheses regarding cultures living in the Caribbean over 1,500 years ago. They report their findings today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

“Although fossilized feces (coprolites) have frequently been studied, they had never been used as tools to determine ethnicity and distinguish between two extinct cultures. By examining the DNA preserved in coprolites from two ancient indigenous cultures, our group was able to determine the bacterial and fungal populations present in each culture as well as their possible diets,” says Jessica Rivera-Perez of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, who presented the study.

Various indigenous cultures inhabited the Greater Antilles thousands of years ago. The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico have thousands of pre-Columbian indigenous settlements belonging to extinct cultures that migrated to the Caribbean at some point in history.

Archaeological excavations in Vieques, Puerto Rico unearthed hand-made tools and crafts as well as fossilized feces dating from 200 to 400 A.D. The presence of two distinct styles of craftsmanship, as well as other clues obtained from the dig sites, suggested these artifacts belonged to two distinct cultures.

“One culture excelled in the art of pottery; in fact, their signature use of red and white paint helped identify them as descendants from the Saladoids, originating in Saladero, Venezuela. In contrast, the second culture had exquisite art for crafting semiprecious stones into ornaments, some of which represented the Andean condor. This helped archaeologists identify the Bolivian Andes as possible origins of this Huecoid culture,” says Rivera-Perez.

To help confirm these archeological hypotheses, Rivera-Perez and her colleagues examined the DNA preserved in coprolites from both Saladoid and Huecoid settlements and compared the bacterial and fungal populations found in each. Major differences were detected between the fecal communities of these cultures, providing additional support that they may have had different origins. Additionally, they found fungal and corn DNA in the Huecoid coprolite that suggests the consumption of an Andean fermented corn beverage, further confirming the theory that the Huecoids originated in the Bolivian Andes.

“The study of the paleomicrobiome of coprolites supports the hypothesis of multiple ancestries and can provide important evidence regarding migration by ancestral cultures and populations of the Caribbean,” says Rivera-Perez.

Source: Press Release of the American Society for Microbiology: This study was conducted by collaborators from the University of Puerto Rico and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The study was co-authored by Jessica Rivera-Perez of the University of Puerto Rico and Raul Cano of California Polytechnic State University,San Luis Obispo. It was partially funded by the NIH Grant to the University of Puerto Rico (Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement Program).

The research was presented as part of the 2014 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology held May 17-20, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Oldest Most Complete Early American Skeleton Yields Clues to Native American Ancestry

Posted on May 15, 2014 by No Author -

Initially discovered in 2007 by a team of underwater archaeologists, her nearly complete skeleton was found within a submerged chamber (which site investigators called “Hoyo Negro”, or “black hole”) in the Sac Actun cave system on Mexico’s Eastern Yucatán Peninsula. Named “Naia” by the dive team, she was a slightly-built teenage girl at death, measuring only 4 feet 10 inches in height. Anthropologists who examined the skeleton determined that she was between 15 and 16 years old, and had likely fallen to her death into the chamber (a dry pit during the time of the fall) before the cave had subsequently filled with water due to climate change and rising sea levels.

The find was unprecedented for two reasons. The first reason had to do with the age. Scientists dated the skeleton to between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago based on radiocarbon dating of tooth enamel and Uranium/Thorium dating analyses of mineral deposits on her bones. Also, starting about 10,000 years ago, it is known that global glaciers melted, filling the caves with water as sea levels rose. The analysis indicated that the skeleton had to have been deposited before the cave system filled with water. Finally, in addition to the near-complete human skeleton, the researchers found the remains of 26 large mammals, including extinct taxa such as sabertooths and gomphotheres (extinct relatives of mastodons), another indicator of the age of the find. This made Naia one of the six oldest humans found in America.

The second reason was related to the pristine preservation of the bones. “The preservation of all the bones in this deep water-filled cave is amazing — the bones are beautifully laid out,” said Patricia A. Beddows of Northwestern University, a cave-diving member of the international team. “The girl’s skeleton is exceptionally complete because of the environment in which she died — she ended up in the right water and in a quiet place without any soil.” James Chatters of Applied Paleoscience, the lead author of the newly-published research report, elaborated further: “Paleoamerican skeletons are rare for several reasons. The people themselves were few; they were highly nomadic and seem to have buried or cremated the dead where they fell, making the locations of graves unpredictable; also, geologic processes have destroyed or deeply buried their graves.” Moreover, most unearthed ancient Native American skeletal remains are only found in a few fragments, and most of those have been estimated to be younger than 10,000 years old. The most widely accepted theory of Native American origins suggests that people reached the North American continent before that time.

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Divers Susan Bird and Alberto Nava search the walls of Hoyo Negro, an underwater cave on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula where the remains of “Naia,” a 12,000- to 13,000-year-old teenage girl, were found. Image courtesy of Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

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Divers Alberto Nava and Susan Bird transport the Hoyo Negro skull to an underwater turntable so that it can be photographed in order to create a 3-D model. Image courtesy of Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

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The skull of Naia on the floor of Hoyo Negro, as it appeared in December 2011, having rolled into a near-upright position. Photo by Roberto Chavez Arce

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Deciphering the ancestry of the first people to populate the Americas has been a challenge. On the basis of genetics, modern Native Americans are thought to descend from Siberians who moved into eastern Beringia (the landmass connecting Asia and North America) between 26,000 and 18,000 years ago. These people, considered the earliest Americans, are suggested to have then spread southward and populated the rest of the continent. But despite widespread support for this idea, the ancestry of the earliest Americans is still debated because the facial features of the oldest American skeletons don’t look much like those of modern Native Americans. The famous Kennewick Man is a prime example.

“Modern Native Americans closely resemble people of China, Korea, and Japan,” Chatters said, “but the oldest American skeletons do not.” Scientists who have examined the fossils of the oldest skeletons have determined that their bodies were structured slightly differently than that of today’s Native American, such as longer, narrower crania and smaller, shorter faces. “This has led to speculation that perhaps the first Americans and Native Americans came from different homelands,” Chatters continued, “or migrated from Asia at different stages in their evolution.”

The biggest finding came, however, when the team analyzed the skeleton’s genetic makeup, with important implications about Native American origins.

“We tried a DNA extraction on the outside chance some fragments might remain,” Chatters said. “I was shocked when we actually got intact DNA.”

The study team analyzed the girl’s mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), a useful tool for examining the relatedness of populations. Their analysis revealed a haplotype common to modern Native Americans, subhaplogroup D1. This genetic signature occurs only in the Americas. The report authors suggest that this genetic signature likely developed in Beringia after populations there split from other Asians, and indicates that individuals of this population traveled at least far and wide enough through the Americas to have reached Mexico by 12,000 – 13,000 BP. They further suggest that the differences in craniofacial form are probably best explained as evolutionary changes that happened after the divergence of Beringians from their Siberian ancestors. Thus the Americas, they theorize, were not colonized by separate migration events from different parts of Eurasia. Rather, the earliest Americans represent an early population expansion out of Beringia. This aligns with the hypothesis that both Paleoamericans and Native Americans derive from a single source population, hunter-gatherers who moved onto the Bering Land Bridge from northeast Asia (Beringia) between 26,000 and 18,000 years ago, spreading southward into North America sometime after 17,000 years ago.

Says Chatters: “This project is exciting on so many fronts: the beautiful cave, the incredibly well-preserved animal skeletons, the completeness of the human skeleton, the success of our innovative dating approach. But for me,” he said, “what is most exciting is that we finally have an answer, after 20 years, to a question that has plagued me since my first look at Kennewick Man: ‘Who were the first Americans?'”

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The upper right third molar of Naia, which was used for both radiocarbon dating and DNA extraction. The tooth is held by ancient genetics expert Brian Kemp of Washington State University, who led the genetic research on the skeleton. Photo by James Chatters

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The complete report has been published in the May 15th online edition of the journal Science.

Participating and supporting institutions in the research included the National Geographic Society, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Waitt Institute, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, NSF (Y.A., V.P., and D.K.), Pennsylvania State University, the University of New Mexico, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and DirectAMS.

Source: Adapted and edited from press releases of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Geographic Society, and Northwestern University.

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Archaeologists to Capture More Secrets of an American Civil War Vessel

Posted on May 10, 2014 by No Author -

KINSTON, N.C. — While much of the remnants of the ironclad CSS Neuse can be seen on display in downtown Kinston, parts of it still remains submerged in the Neuse River. Archaeologists from the N.C. Underwater Archaeology Branch will use the latest modern technology May 13 to recover remnants of the vessel that was destroyed in March 1865.

The CSS Neuse was constructed in Whitehall, now known as Seven Springs, and completed in Kinston in 1863. She was launched in 1864 with the intention of steaming to New Bern, which had been occupied by Union troops since 1862. The ship ran aground on a sandbar and eventually was floated back to Kinston until March 1865 when she was blown up by her crew to prevent capture by the Union. Early in the 1960s recovery efforts began, and in 1964 most of the ship was salvaged and brought to the site of the Governor Richard Caswell Memorial. In June 2012 the vessel was moved to the CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center on the corner of Queen and Caswell Streets in Kinston.

“It’s very significant because this is the only commissioned Confederate ironclad left from the Civil War,” Site Manager Matthew Young explained. “We know there are sections of the ship still in the river; we don’t know how significant they are to our understanding of its construction or operations. There may be pieces of iron plate, a propeller, or even an anchor still in the river.”

A 10 a.m. pre-launch briefing at the boat ramp off Highway 70 will start the work between the King Street and Queen Street bridges. This will be the third attempt at recovery.

“The Neuse River is in great condition for this project right now,” said Deputy State Archaeologist John “Billy Ray” Morris. “The river is at the right depth for this research and the weather is excellent.”

The river survey is a cooperative project of the Office of State Archaeology and the Division of State Historic Sites within the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. High waters and heavy rains prevented two earlier attempts. Archaeologists will use the 23 foot boat, R/V Snap Dragon to patrol the river for several hours. “This will be the first detailed survey of this part of the river using modern side sonar, a magnetometer, and ad differential Global Positioning System,” Morris continued.

“We are hoping this survey will tell us what, if anything, is salvageable,” said Historic Sites Division Director Keith Hardison. “We need to gather information so we can explore the possibility of recovering additional pieces of the ship to add to the CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center in downtown Kinston.”

Donations to support this effort are encouraged. The CSS Neuse Interpretive Center is located at 100 N. Queen St. in downtown Kinston. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Governor Caswell Center is at 2612 W. Vernon Ave., Kinston. Hours are Tuesday-Friday,10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For information, please contact Site Manager Matthew Young at (252) 526-9600 or email [email protected]. Visit the site on Facebook at “CSS Neuse” or “Gov. Richard Caswell Memorial State Historic Site” pages. The CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center and the Gov. Richard Caswell Memorial are within the Division of State Historic Sites of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

Source: Edited from a press release of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

Cover Photo, Top Left: Recovery efforts at the CSS Neuse in the 1960s. Courtesy North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

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Archaeologists for Autism

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Dan McLerran -

As Founder and Editor of Popular Archaeology Magazine, Dan is a freelance writer and journalist specializing in archaeology. He studied anthropology and archaeology in undergraduate and graduate school and has been an active participant on archaeological excavations in the U.S. and abroad. He is the creator and administrator of Archaeological Digs, a popular weblog about archaeological excavation and field school opportunities.

Tom Penders is an archaeologist who wears a number of hats. He is the cultural resources manager for the 45th Space Wing, USAF at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station; he heads a small CRM (Cultural Resources Management) firm called Thomas Penders and Associates; he runs volunteer archaeological research projects on weekends from January to April as part of the Indian River Anthropological Society, a local chapter of the Florida Anthropological Society; and he volunteers as an archaeological consultant for the Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Program.

One might say that he has more than enough responsibilities to keep him busy. But he would be the first to say that his most important responsibility really lies outside the immediate realm of anthropology and archaeology. He is the father of a 15-year-old teenager named Becky. She is autistic. She is also many other things.

“She was born with a condition called Bilateral Anophthalmia (born without eyes and optic nerves),” he says. “At 5 she was diagnosed with autism and at 10 years she developed epilepsy. We also suspect she has PANDAS [Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections], but has not been formally diagnosed. The major issue is the autism. After 10 years since the diagnosis we are still struggling with understanding autism. It is a long hard road to try and get her the services so she can do just basic everyday living skills. We struggle with the lack of communication. We also struggle finding things for her to do. The non-verbal part is the worst because Becky cannot tell us when she is sick, what is wrong when she is sick, what she wants, etc. Most people, including our family, don’t have any idea what autism is or understand the meltdowns.”

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Tom Penders with daughter Becky. Courtesy Tom Penders

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Becky gets around with trusted service dog and friend Thule, who alerts to epileptic seizures, and she has ongoing support from her parents and those who are familiar with her conditions. But unlike work responsibilities, which come and go, for the Penders, this will be a lifelong commitment. In his efforts to find solutions and play his part to bring Becky into life’s mainstream as much as possible, Penders began to search for options.

“Becky plays Challenger League baseball, does surfing and Special Olympics swimming and I wanted to do my part for these kids,” he says. “I just could not sit on the sidelines anymore.”

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Becky with trusted service dog and friend Thule. Courtesy Tom Penders

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So, in partnership with the Scott Center for Autism, the Florida Public Archaeology Network, and the Environmentally Endangered Lands Program, he came up with a unique plan that in essence combined two loves — archaeology and his daughter — to create a vehicle that he hopes will make some difference in the quality of the lives of children and families who struggle with autism. Called ‘Archaeologists for Autism’ (AFA), he hopes to bring children with autism and their families together in one place, where they can experience archaeology and paleontology in a fun, low stress environment.

Penders feels the venue is perfect. It combines two things he knows something about — archaeology and autism — at a historic place called Sams House on Pine Island, Merritt Island, Florida — an area where he had spent years in his official capacity doing archaeology. There, for example, he has documented 2 historic houses, a burial mound, a prehistoric and historic archaeological site, and a Pleistocene mega fauna site (fossil beds). Fortunately, there also seems to be a connection between archaeology and paleontology and people on the autism spectrum. “I have been told by several parents that children at the high end of the [autism] spectrum and with Asperger’s tend to be drawn to archaeology, history and paleontology,” says Penders. “And it is hard to find events that target children on the spectrum.”

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The Sams House site. Courtesy Tom Penders

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In addition to activities related to archaeology and paleontology, he plans to include a catered lunch, live music, face-painting, bounce houses, and more, all at no cost to the participants. Says Penders: “I want to create a day where children on the spectrum and their parents can forget about autism for a day (if that is possible) and just have fun. Everything will be done at the children’s pace. Their siblings will also participate. Every parent of a child on the spectrum that I have talked to about this concept has been excited we are doing this. My bottom line is that the children have a fun-filled day and their parents are happy.”

But there is an underlying purpose to the fun. According to Penders, one goal is to help unlock the potential of people with developmental disabilities. “It is a very special day where children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can interact with typical peers and wow families with their capabilities,” he adds. In the big picture, the organizers ultimately hope that the event will do its small part to support advocacy for autism issues, promote scientific research, and help eliminate the stigma associated with the condition through public awareness and education, as well as to promote or inspire more community volunteerism.

Although the first event is only one day in November*, Penders envisions the AFA eventually going nationwide, with local and state autism groups working with archaeologists to sponsor and organize events across the country. “With the rate of autism in children ever on the increase,” he says, “there is a need for events like this.”

Individuals and organizations interested in playing a role or assisting the AFA may contact them at [email protected] and they will provide a sponsorship form. More detailed information about the program may also be obtained at their website. Registration for the event will open on July 7th, 2014.

* Saturday, November 22, 2014, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sams House at Pine Island, Merritt Island, Florida

Cover Photo, Top Left: Tom Penders examines an artifact while working with UCF students at an archaeology project site. Courtesy Tom Penders

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Ancient Geoglyphs in Peru Predate Nazca Lines

Posted on May 5, 2014 by No Author -

A recent study of an archaeological mound complex with astronomical orientations and geoglyph lines in southern Peru suggests that the site features a ceremonial or ritualistic center for religous and social interaction in an ancient culture that existed between 800 and 100 BCE.

Known as the Paracas culture, these ancient people constituted an Andean society known for extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management. The Chincha Valley, about 200 km south of Lima, contains early settlements of the Paracas culture. Previous surveys have indicated at least 30 major Paracas period sites or centers in the valley.

Recenty, a study team co-led by Charles Stanish of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and Department of Anthropology, University of California, surveyed and test-excavated among five previously identified mound clusters in the lower Chincha mid-valley area. Dating them based on excavated pottery to the Late Paracas period (400 – 100 BCE), they found that the mounds featured a total of 71 geoglyph lines that radiated outward from the mounds, forming what they called “ray centers”. Two of the mounds, built in a u-shape configuration, were oriented toward the location of the sun at the June solstice. Stanish and colleagues suggest that it all represents construction for specific group or societal purposes, the details of which are thus far lost to time. But the signs appear to be unmistakeable. Write Stanish, et al:

In Chincha, linear geoglyphs, platform mounds, and walls on those ceremonial mounds mark the June solstice. If it were only lines, then one could argue that the few solstice alignments were due to chance. However, the combination of platform mounds built in orientation with the June solstice, similarly positioned wall alignments, and comparative evidence from other regions in the Andes that documents solstice marking at sites contemporary with the Paracas period, makes purposeful construction the most parsimonious explanation. Based on these data, there is little doubt that marking the June solstice is an Andean tradition that was part of the logic of ceremonial mound construction and the creation of linear geoglyphs in pre-Hispanic Chincha during Paracas times.*

Ancient geoglyphs in Peru are most commonly associated with the famous Nazca Lines located in the Nazca Desert of southern Peru. Thought to have been created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD, scholars have developed a number of theories explaining their existence, with the greatest consensus revolving around religious practices or beliefs. But with recent discoveries related to the earlier Paracas culture, the picture is becoming a bit clearer, with the construction tradition appearing to be more ancient and more widespread.

“The ritualized landscape publically attested to particular platform mound sites as focal points for social gatherings, but it was also a product of these gatherings,” write Stanish, et al. “The act of creating geoglyphs within the broader ritualized landscape—the physical piling and clearing of rocks and soil—may be a key component of individual participation in such events. The specific nature of these social events remains obscure and will be the focus of our future research.”*

The study report has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1406501111

*Article #14-06501: “A 2,300-year-old architectural and astronomical complex in the Chincha Valley, Peru,” by Charles Stanish, Henry Tantaleán, Benjamin T. Nigra, and Laura E. Griffin.

Cover Photo, Top Left: Mantle — Peru, Paracas — 200 BCE – 200 CE, Wikimedia Commons

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Were Neanderthals and Early Modern Humans Intellectual Equals?

Posted on April 30, 2014 by No Author -

A traditional notion advanced about Neanderthals is that they were less cognitively capable and more disadvantaged than their early modern human counterparts some 40,000 or more years ago in Eurasia, explaining why they were driven to extinction while the modern humans flourished.

Neanderthals lived in Eurasia between about 350,000 and 40,000 years ago, but, according to the fossil record, seem to have disappeared after our ancestors, the anatomically modern humans (AMH), entered Eurasia from Africa some time between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago. Many researchers have theorized that the Neanderthal extinction was due to competition with the AMH newcomers, who had advantages like superior tools, weaponry, communication ability, and a broader diet, to name a few.

But not so fast, say two researchers.

Through an extensive review of recent Neanderthal research, CU-Boulder researcher Paola Villa and co-author Wil Roebroeks, an archaeologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, make the case that the available archaeological evidence does not support the widely-held concept that Neanderthals were less advanced than anatomically modern humans.

“The evidence for cognitive inferiority is simply not there,” said Villa, a curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. “What we are saying is that the conventional view of Neanderthals is not true.”

Villa and Roebroeks examined the most common scientific explanations or theories for Neanderthal extinction, such as technologically more primitive tools and weapons, lack of symbolic communication, a narrower diet, and less complex or less effective social organization. They did this by conducting a comparative study of the accumulated archaeological record of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, who lived in Africa and Southwest Asia between 200,000 and 40,000 years ago. They found the accepted theories did not stand up to much of the data.

For example, evidence from multiple archaeological sites in Europe suggests that Neanderthals hunted as a group, using the landscape to aid them. Research shows that Neanderthals likely herded hundreds of bison to their death by steering them into a sinkhole in southwestern France, for example. At another site used by Neanderthals, this one in the Channel Islands, fossilized remains of 18 mammoths and five woolly rhinoceroses were discovered at the base of a deep ravine. These findings imply that Neanderthals could plan ahead, communicate as a group and make efficient use of their surroundings, the authors said.

Other archaeological evidence suggests that Neanderthals did in fact have a diverse diet. Microfossils found in Neanderthal teeth and food remains left behind at cooking sites indicate that they may have eaten wild peas, acorns, pistachios, grass seeds, wild olives, pine nuts and date palms, depending on what was locally available.

Additionally, researchers have found ochre, a kind of earth pigment, at sites inhabited by Neanderthals, which may have been used for body painting. Ornaments have also been collected at Neanderthal sites. Taken together, these findings suggest that Neanderthals had cultural rituals and symbolic communication.

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A view of Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar, theorized to have been inhabited by some of the last Neanderthals to exist in the area of present-day Europe. Gibmetal77, Wikimedia Commons

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Villa and Roebroeks say that the past misrepresentation of Neanderthals’ cognitive ability may be linked to the tendency of researchers to compare Neanderthals, who lived in the Middle Paleolithic period (300,000 to 40,000 years ago), to modern humans living during the more recent Upper Paleolithic period (between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago), when new and more sophisticated technologies were evidenced.

“Researchers were comparing Neanderthals not to their contemporaries on other continents but to their successors,” Villa said. “It would be like comparing the performance of Model T Fords, widely used in America and Europe in the early part of the last century, to the performance of a modern-day Ferrari and conclude that Henry Ford was cognitively inferior to Enzo Ferrari.”

But if Neanderthals were not technologically and cognitively disadvantaged, why didn’t they survive?

The researchers argue that the real reason for Neanderthal extinction is likely complex, and that some clues may be found in recent analyses of the Neanderthal genome over the last several years. These genomic studies suggest that AMH and Neanderthals likely interbred and that the resulting male children may have had reduced fertility. Recent genomic studies also suggest that Neanderthals lived in small groups. All of these factors could have contributed to the decline of the Neanderthals, who were eventually swamped and assimilated by the increasing numbers of modern immigrants.

Thus, “the results of our study,” conclude Villa and Roebroeks, “imply that single-factor explanations for the disappearance of the Neandertals are not warranted any more, and that their demise was clearly more complex than many archaeology-based scenarios of ‘‘cognitive inferiority’’ reviewed here seem to suggest.”*

The detailed study report was published April 30, 2014, in the open access journal PLOS ONE.

The study is available online at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0096424.

* Villa P, Roebroeks W (2014) Neandertal Demise: An Archaeological Analysis of the Modern Human Superiority Complex. PLoS ONE 9(4): e96424. doi:10. 1371/journal.pone.0096424

Source: Adapted and edited from a CU-Boulder press release, Neanderthals were not inferior to modern humans, says CU-Boulder study.

Cover Photo, Top Left: Neandertha/modern human skull comparison, Harrymuseummatt, Wikimedia Commons

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Scientists Uncover Evidence of Change from Hunting to Herding at Early Neolithic Settlement

Posted on April 28, 2014 by No Author -

An international team of researchers examining the earliest known pre-ceramic Neolithic mound site in Turkey, called Aşıklı Höyük, suggests that humans shifted from hunting wild ungulates and small animals to managing sheep and goats at the site over a period of a few hundred years beginning on or before 8200 BCE.

The mound, located in south-central Turkey about 25 km southeast of Aksaray, Turkey, has been the subject of a number of studies and excavations in recent years, beginning with Professor Ian A. Todd in 1964. Subsequent investigations included salvage excavations by Professor Ufuk Esin (University of Istanbul) beginning in 1989, followed by those of Nur Balkan-Ath, also of Istanbul University, and more recent excavations in 2010.

Site finds have been stratified into 5 different levels, with the oldest (or earliest) being 5. The most significant findings for these study purposes were discovered in level 4, which contained evidence of human habitation dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period (a time period generally defined as lasting from 8500-5500 BCE), which is thought by many scholars to mark the transition from a hunter-gatherer way of life to a more settled way of life, including the beginnings of animal domestication.

Above and below: Multiple excavations at Aşıklı Höyük have revealed the telling stratigraphic sequencing of the site. Above credit Kvaestad, Wikimedia Commons, below credit Sarah Murray, Wikimedia Commons.

“This site preserves a surprisingly detailed record of human–animal interactions in a formative settlement,” write study authors Mary C. Stiner, et al., in their recently released report. It is in part reflected in the gradual change in the human diet at the location:

A faunal trend through Levels 4–2 reveals a strategic trade-off in the meat diet, from a broad-spectrum strategy that emphasized diverse wild small animals and ungulates to a concerted exploitation of caprines [sheep and goats] in particular. Caprines constitute less than half of the total number of identified skeletal specimens (NISP) in upper Level 4, but caprines increase gradually to 85– 90% by the end of the time series in upper Level 2. The caprines were mainly sheep, which outnumbered goats by a factor of three or more in all periods.*

In addition, the study authors suggested that age-sex distributions of the caprines in upper Level 4 indicate selective manipulation [breeding] by humans by or before 8200 BCE, and that evidence of animal dung accumulation between structures demonstrates that the animals were held captive inside the settlement at that time.

“Taken together,” the researchers conclude, “the zooarchaeological and geoarchaeological evidence demonstrate an emergent process of caprine management that was highly experimental in nature and oriented to quick returns. Stabling was one of the early mechanisms of caprine population isolation, a precondition to domestication.”*

The study details have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

*Article #13-22723: “A forager–herder trade-off, from broad-spectrum hunting to sheep management at Aşıklı Höyük, Turkey,” by Mary C. Stiner et al. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1322723111

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9,000-Year-Old Caribou Hunting Structure Found Submerged in Lake Huron

Posted on April 28, 2014 by No Author -

According to the results of an underwater archaeological investigation conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers, rock structures located on a ridge beneath Lake Huron indicate probable evidence of organized seasonal caribou hunting more than 9,000 years ago.

Known as the submerged Alpena-Amberley Ridge (AAR), it provided a dry land bridge between Michigan and Ontario 9,000 years ago. Using sonar surveys, investigation by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), and scuba-equipped underwater archaeologists, team leader John O’Shea of the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, University of Michigan, and colleagues identified ancient human-made structures on the ridge, structures that they suggest were likely used for caribou hunting.

One such site, called the Drop 45 Drive Lane, consists of two parallel rock-lined paths, suggested by the researchers to have been used to funnel caribou into an 8-meter-wide lane. They also identified what they call V-shaped hunting blinds set above the lane on a hill. Scuba-trained archaeologists recovered eleven flakes of chert, typical byproducts of stone tool repair or maintenance.

Scientists have long theorized that paleoindian and archaic indian hunters pursued and entrapped their prey by using cooperative, organized techniques, requiring a sophisticated level of social interaction and planning. Write O’Shea and colleagues in their report:

Humans and caribou have a long history of interaction, dating back to at least the Middle Paleolithic. Over time, caribou hunters and herders became aware of the tendency of caribou, like many ungulates, to follow linear features. As such, the construction of linear features of stone or brush provides an effective means of channeling the movement of animals into predetermined kill zones. Numerous historical and ethnographic examples of these hunting structures and associated features are known in the Arctic. In more temperate regions of the globe, traces of such structures rarely survive intact.*

More than the Drop 45 Drive Lane itself, the findings show an interrelated complex of drive lanes, multiple blinds and auxiliary structures that served together as an integrated system for controlling the prey into a kill zone. The findings, say the researchers, have implications for understanding the social and economic organization of the ancient hunters that used the AAR, as it required large groups of cooperating hunters and smaller groups of families to operate the system.

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A plan of the Drop 45 Drive Lane site (A) alongside a sonar image of the site (B). The black circular area is the scanning unit, and the red circles denote increasing radii of 15 meters. Credit: Image courtesy of John O’Shea/ UMMAA.

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A V-shaped hunting blind beneath Lake Huron. Credit: Image courtesy of John O’Shea/ UMMAA.

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What is most significant about the discovery, according to the study authors, is that it offers a unique window into the organization of prehistoric hunting for a time period that is very poorly known from terrestrial sites in the Great Lakes region. It further demonstrates that archaeological sites of great antiquity are preserved underwater and that they have the potential to fill important gaps in our understanding of the deep human past.

The detailed study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science Early Edition.

*Article #14-04404: “A 9,000-year-old caribou hunting structure beneath Lake Huron,” by John M. O’Shea, Ashley K. Lemke, Elizabeth P. Sonnenburg, Robert G. Reynolds, and Brian D. Abbott.

Extensively adapted, supplemented, and edited from a press release.

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Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Greek Temple and Emporium in Bulgaria

Posted on April 24, 2014 by No Author -

Near the small village of Krastevich in central Bulgaria, a team of archaeologists, students and volunteers have been busy excavating the remains of two ancient Greek sites that bustled with activity more than 2,500 years ago. One has been identified as a cult or temple complex and the other as an emporium, a place of trade and commerce conducted by Greek colonists during the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. The settlements are thought to have thrived in an area known to have been populated by the ancient Thracians.

Under the direction of Associate Professor Dr. Mitko Madzharov of the archaeological museum of Hissarya, the team has been excavating the sites since 2005. The excavations have revealed the remains of two very different kinds of settlement sites, although both ancient Greek, in close proximity to each other. One, identified as a cult complex, consists of a “sanctuary and a temple” that was set atop a hill.

“At this stage of the studies we have established two periods of its [the temple’s] construction,” Madzharov reports. “Initially a stone foundation (stylobate) was laid, which defined the area in an almost square form. Above it was likely a wooden construction, covered with tiles. The main archaeological finds found in that area are fragments of tiles of various form and decoration. On some of them were painted spirals, on others – Gorgon Medusa [a monster, a Gorgon, having the face of a human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair].”*

“The archaeological structures found till now in the area of Sekiz Harman by the village of Krastevieh allow scientists to assume that the cult complex situated at that place was closely connected with the commercial place in the area Pamuk Tepe,” Madzharov adds. “The archaeological finds document its existence in the time from the end of the 5th century B.C. to the 3rd century B.C.”*

The other associated site, which archaeologists interpret as a Greek emporium, was located 500 meters southeast of the village and is said to encompass an area of about 10,000 square meters. Here, they have uncovered architectural and artifact remains that evidence a “significant commercial complex” with intensive trade ties with other Greek settlements in or near the Aegean from the 5th to the 4th centuries BCE.

“According to the ancient Greek historian Thucydides,” write Madzharov and colleagues at the project website, “the process of creation of emporia by the Greeks begins back at the end of the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. Such emporia are known in Asia Minor, Sicily and Macedonia. And again Thucydides informs that during 464 B.C. on the river valley of the river Strimon (river Struma) and in Thrace settled 10,000 Athenian colonizers. One Greek inscription informs of the existence of emporia (market-places) in Thrace, which realized regulated commercial relations with Maroneia, the island of Thassos and the other town-colonies from the Northern Aegean coast.” These emporia were commonly established at strategic cross-roads in areas rich in minerals, ores and other resources, writes Madzharov and colleagus. Not far from the emporium remains they found natural gold deposits and evidence of an ancient road which led to deposits of non-ferrous metals.

He also clarifies the connection between the nearby cult complex and the emporium. “They did not have a status of a town and in them were always built sanctuaries because according to the beliefs of that time Gods were called on as guarantees for the order and respectability of commercial deals.”*

Madzharov plans to return to the sites with teams in 2014 to further investigate the finds. Individuals interested in additional information about the sites and how to participate may visit the project website.

The excavations have been conducted under the auspices of the RSF Archaeological Trust.

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* http://rsfat.archbg.net/10_kr_background.html#.U1fPhu35I-M

Cover Photo, Top Left: Excavated remains at the emporium and temple complexes. Credit RSF Archaeological Trust and the archaeological museum of Hissarya.

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New Genetic Findings About Stone-Age Scandinavian Farmers and Hunter-Gatherers

Posted on April 24, 2014 by No Author -

An international team led by researchers at Uppsala University and Stockholm University reports a breakthrough on understanding the demographic history of Stone-Age humans. A genomic analysis of eleven Stone-Age human remains from Scandinavia revealed that expanding Stone-age farmers assimilated local hunter-gatherers and that the hunter-gatherers were historically in lower numbers than the farmers. The study is published, ahead of print, in the journal Science.

The transition between a hunting-gathering lifestyle and a farming lifestyle has been debated for a century. As scientists learned to work with DNA from ancient human material, a complete new way to learn about the people in that period opened up. But even so, prehistoric population structure associated with the transition to an agricultural lifestyle in Europe remains poorly understood.

“For many of the most interesting questions, DNA-information from people today just doesn’t cut it, the best way to learn about ancient history is to analyze direct data—despite the challenges”, says Dr. Pontus Skoglund of Uppsala University, now at Harvard University, and one of the lead authors of the study.

“We have generated genomic data from the largest number of ancient individuals” says Dr. Helena Malmström of Uppsala University and one of the lead authors. “The eleven Stone-Age human remains were between 5,000 and 7,000 years old and associated with hunter-gatherer or farmer life-styles” says Helena Malmström.

Anders Götherström, who led the Stockholm University team, is satisfied with the amount of DNA that they could retrieve.

“Not only were we able to generate DNA from several individuals, but we did get a lot of it. In some cases we got the equivalent of draft genomes. A population genomic study on this level with a material of this age has never been done before as far as I know.”

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Osteologists excavating and examining the skeleton of a young woman dated to 2700 BC. Credit: Göran Burenhult

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The material used in the study is from mainland Scandinavia as well as from the Baltic island Gotland, and it comprises of hunter-gatherers from various time periods as well as early farmers.

Professor Mattias Jakobsson, who led the Uppsala University team, is intrigued by the results.

“Stone-Age hunter-gatherers had much lower genetic diversity than farmers. This suggests that Stone-Age foraging groups were in low numbers compared to farmers”, says Mattias Jakobsson.

Jan Storå at Stockholm University shares Mattias’ fascination.

“The low variation in the hunter gatherers may be related to oscillating living conditions likely affecting the population sizes of hunter-gatherers. One of the additional exciting results is the association of the Mesolithic individual to both the roughly contemporaneous individual from Spain but also the association to the Neolithic hunter-gatherers.”

The study confirms that Stone-Age hunter-gatherers and farmers were genetically distinct and that migration spread farming practices across Europe, but the team was able to go even further by demonstrating that the Neolithic farmers had substantial admixture from hunter-gatherers. Surprisingly, the hunter-gatherers from the Baltic Sea displayed no evidence of introgression from farmers.

“We see clear evidence that people from hunter-gatherer groups were incorporated into farming groups as they expanded across Europe”, says Pontus Skoglund. “This might be clues towards something that happened also when agriculture spread in other parts of the world.”

“The asymmetric gene-flow shows that the farming groups assimilated hunter-gatherer groups, at least partly”, says Mattias Jakobsson. “When we compare Scandinavian to central European farming groups that lived at about the same time, we see greater levels of hunter-gatherer gene-flow into the Scandinavian farming groups.”

This study is part of the recently initiated “Atlas project” – a large-scale genomic investigation of ancient human remains in Scandinavia led by Stockholm and Uppsala Universities and funded by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences and the Swedish Research Council. The present study brings the first results from the project.

“We have only begun to scratch the surface of the knowledge that this project may bring us in the future” says Anders Götherström.

Source: Edited from a press release of Uppsala University.

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Origins of Domesticated Chili Pepper Found in Mexico

Posted on April 21, 2014 by No Author -

Central-east Mexico gave birth to the domesticated chili pepper — now the world’s most widely grown spice crop — reports an international team of researchers, led by a plant scientist at the University of California, Davis.

Results from the four-pronged investigation — based on linguistic and ecological evidence as well as the more traditional archaeological and genetic data — suggest a regional, rather than a geographically specific, birthplace for the domesticated chili pepper. That region, extending from southern Puebla and northern Oaxaca to southeastern Veracruz, is further south than was previously thought, the researchers found.

The region also is different from areas of origin that have been suggested for common bean and corn, which were presumably domesticated in Western Mexico.

The study findings are published online on April 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, as part of a series of research papers on plant and animal domestication.

Crop domestication, the process of selectively breeding a wild plant or animal species, is of increasing interest to scientists.

“Identifying the origin of the chili pepper is not just an academic exercise,” said UC Davis plant scientist Paul Gepts, the study’s senior author. “By tracing back the ancestry of any domesticated plant, we can better understand the genetic evolution of that species and the origin of agriculture — a major step in human evolution in different regions of the world,” he said.

“This information, in turn, better equips us to develop sound genetic conservation programs and increases the efficiency of breeding programs, which will be critically important as we work to deal with climate change and provide food for a rapidly increasing global population,” Gepts added.

Study co-author Gary P. Nabhan, an ethnobiologist and agroecologist at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center noted: “This is the first research ever to integrate multiple lines of evidence in attempts to pinpoint where, when, under what ecological conditions, and by whom a major global spice plant was domesticated.

“In fact, this may be the only crop-origins research to have ever predicted the probable first cultivators of one of the world’s most important food crops,” Nabhan said.

To determine crop origins, scientists have traditionally studied the plants’ genetic makeup in geographic areas where they have observed high diversity among the crop’s wild ancestors. More recently, they have also examined archaeological remains of plants, including pollen, starch grains and even mineralized plant secretions.

For this chili pepper study, the researchers used these two traditional approaches but also considered historical languages, looking for the earliest linguistic evidence that a cultivated chili pepper existed.

They also developed a model for the distribution of related plant species, to predict the areas most environmentally suitable for the chili pepper and its wild ancestors.

The genetic evidence seemed to point more to northeastern Mexico as the chili pepper’s area of domestication; however there was collectively more evidence from all four lines of study supporting the central-east region as the area of origin.

Source: Edited from a University of California Press Release, Contact Keith Sterling at [email protected]

Cover Photo, Top Left: Dried Chili Peppers RameshNG, Wikimedia Commons

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Anatomically Modern Humans Left Africa Earlier Than Previously Thought, Suggests Study

Posted on April 21, 2014 by No Author -

An international team of scientists conducting an analysis of the genetic diversity and cranial measurements of 10 African and Asian human populations conclude that anatomically modern humans may have dispersed out of Africa earlier than previously thought, and in more than one stage: initially into Asia by taking a southern route through Arabia as much as 130,000 years ago; and later into Northern Eurasia on a more northerly route 50,000 years ago.

The timing and nature of early modern human dispersal out of Africa has long been disputed among scholars, with competing theories or models about how and when it all occurred. The research team analyzed their data within the framework of the competing models, and came up with the model that best fits the results. “We tested for the first time to our knowledge the spatiotemporal dimensions of competing out-of-Africa dispersal models,” write Hugo Reyes-Centeno and colleagues in their report, “analyzing in parallel genomic and craniometric data. Our results support an initial dispersal into Asia by a southern route beginning as early as ∼130 ka and a later dispersal into northern Eurasia by ∼50 ka.”* Reyes-Centeno is a paleoanthropologist with the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany. Other researchers included Katerina Harvati, also of Eberhard Karls University; Silvia Ghirotto and Guido Barbujani of the University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy; and Florent Détroit and Dominique Grimaud-Herve of the National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France.

“This is consistent with archaeological evidence for modern human occupation in the southern Arabian Peninsula at ∼125 ka,” write the authors. “This date [130,000 ka] is in intriguingly closer correspondence with the genetic divergence estimates for our sampled populations, with a calendar date of divergence between Melanesians and South Africans at ∼116 ka, for example. No modern human fossils have been discovered in the southern Arabian Peninsula, but lithic artifacts show affinities with African assemblages, including those discovered alongside the fossil remains at Herto, Ethiopia, dated between ∼154–160 ka.”*

Genetic studies and fossil evidence show that the first common ancestral population of modern humans resided in Africa between ∼100–200 ka, and that members of one branch left Africa by between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago. A prominent theory suggests that over time these humans replaced earlier human populations such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus. Many scholars posit that the date of the earliest successful “out of Africa” migration took place about 60,000 years ago, according to genetic evidence, although recent archaeological finds on the Arabian Peninsula have suggested the possibility of a much earlier migration.

The study report was published April 21, 2014 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

*“Genomic and cranial phenotype data support multiple modern human dispersals from Africa and a southern route into Asia,” by Hugo Reyes-Centeno et al. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1323666111

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New Findings at Prehistoric Stone Tool Site in China

Posted on April 17, 2014 by No Author -

Researchers may have found answers to some questions surrounding stone tool artifacts previously unearthed at the site of Fengshudao, located in the Bose Basin in the Guanxi province of southern China. The site is well known for yielding a lithic assemblage rich in Paleolithic bifacially worked stone artifacts, technically known as Acheulean handaxes, a stone tool most commonly associated with an early hominin (human ancestor) classified as Homo erectus.

After initial discovery and analysis, these ‘Bose Basin handaxes’ came to the attention of the international scientific community because they were dated to about 803 ka (thousands of years), placing them in the Early to Middle Pleistocene period; and because their presence tested the validity of the Movius Line, a theoretical line drawn across northern India, first proposed by the American archaeologist Hallam L. Movius in 1948 to demonstrate a technological difference between the early prehistoric tool technologies of the east and west of the Old World. However, questions were almost immediately raised because the age was based on the supposed association of the artifacts with tektites that may or may not have been redeposited at the site. Moreover, at the time of the initial publications, all of the Bose Basin handaxes were surface collected. Thus, whether the Bose bifaces could validly be associated with the tektites and whether the tektites themselves were redeposited became arguing points for the finding’s critics.

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Map of the area where the hand axe cultures (Acheulean) extend during the Middle Pleistocene. Wikimedia Commons

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Now, however, new excavations at the site and subsequent analysis led by Wei Wang of the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities and Christopher Bae of the University of Hawaii are reporting new findings from more recent excavations at the site. Based on ‘in situ’ excavation of tektites, which the excavators maintain do not indicate any evidence of redeposition, along with their association with bifaces within the same stratigraphic level, they are now suggesting with greater confidence that the age of the stone tools should indeed be close to 803 ka. In addition, they report that the Fengshudao hominins were utilizing locally-available quartz, quartzite, and sandstone river cobbles, and that the Fengshudao handaxe morphology differs from the western Acheulean type in a number of ways. They add further that the handaxes are comparatively larger and thicker than those of other regions of eastern Asia (e.g., Luonan Basin, China; Imjin/Hantan River Basins, Korea).

“Although Fengshudao may be a case of western Acheulean hominins dispersing into the Bose Basin from nearby South Asia,” concludes Wang, et. al, “it is quite possible that the Fengshudao bifaces can be considered an example of convergent evolution.”*

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Source: Edited and adapted from the abstract of Middel Pleistocene bifaces from Fengshudao (Bose Basin, Guangxi, China), by Wei Wang, et. al, Journal of Human Evolution, Volume 69, April 2014, pp. 110 – 122.

*http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.11.002

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And, Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery edition 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.

Subscription Price: A very affordable $5.75 for those who are not already premium subscribers of Popular Archaeology Magazine (It is FREE for premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology). Premium subscribers should email [email protected] and request the special coupon code. Or, for the e-Book version, it can be purchased for only $3.99 at Amazon.com.

Archaeologists Explore Ancient Roman Forum of Philippopolis

Posted on April 14, 2014 by No Author -

Located in south central Bulgaria, the city of Plovdiv, known to many as the “Eternal City of Bulgaria”, is among the oldest cities in Europe, with evidence of human settlement going back 6,000 years. Established first as the Thracian settlement of Eumolpia, today its ancient remains near the city center are most often identified with the name Philippopolis by archaeologists. That was the name given to the city after it was Hellenized within the Macedonian Empire under Philip II during the 4th century, B.C.E. But its most visible ancient remains took shape when the city was absorbed into the orbit of ancient Rome during the 1st century B.C.E. – 1st century C.E., the time period of Augustus. It was during this time when the great monumental structures, such as the Theater, Stadium, Treasury, Thermae, Odeon, and other associated structures of its central Forum, were built.

A team of archaeologists under the auspices of the RSF Archaeological Trust and the Plovdiv archaeological museum are now exploring an unexcavated area of the Forum, hoping to shed additional light on the character and uses of the complex, its phases of construction, and what may have stood there before its construction.

“The task during the next year,” says Project Director and Associate Professor Dr. Elena Kesyakova of the Plovdiv archaeological museum, “will be to discover the Western Propylaea in order to investigate more thoroughly the site……[The Western Proylaea] is actually the most important part of the complex. Currently we are in the ‘ambulatio’. This is the passage between the ancient shops. It is in the area of the open part of the central square, which in ancient times was under the open sky. This passage is about 10 meters wide. Here we have discovered three ancient shops which are located north of the Western Propylaea.”

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View of the old city of Plovdiv. Klearchos Kapoutsis, Wikimedia Commons

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A view of the Roman Theater of Philippopolis. QuartierLatin1968, Wikimedia Commons

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The ancient Stadium of Philippopolis. Note the seated persons for scale. Zulbish, Wikimedia Commons

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One of Kesyakova’s objectives revolves around answering questions about the initial construction of the Forum complex. According to Kesyakova, the original construction of the Forum occurred in the first century B.C. – 1st century C.E., the time of Augustus and his vassal Thracian ruler Remetalk. “This is the period when the street network of the town was built and, of course, the central square (or Forum). Whether this theory will be confirmed or not we will see after completing the excavations.”

The question is significant because, according to Kesyakov, there is an older and competing theory that suggests that an earlier, Hellenistic agora already stood within the same footprint as the Forum. However, this theory was advanced before archaeological investigations were conducted at the site. “The information we have from the Eastern and Southern part, where the terrain is fully studied, gives no data confirming the existence of a Hellenistic square,” she maintains. (The Eastern and Southern sections of the Forum have already been thoroughly excavated, and today visitors may view the impressive ancient remains, such as the Theater and the Stadium, in this part of the Forum).

But much more work must be done, and written history already tells of a Hellenistic presence in this ancient city, which has been occupied for at least 6,000 years.

More information about the Philippopolis excavation project, and how one can participate, can be obtained at the project website.

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Archaeology News for the Week of April 13th, 2014

Posted on April 13, 2014 by No Author -

April 13th, 2013

Roman Imperial Port Facilities Emerge Under Archaeological Investigation

Known as Vada Volaterrana, it has been identified as a key port system located in present-day Tuscany, Italy, used anciently by the Romans of the city of Volaterrae (today’s Volterra) for the import and export of trade goods throughout the Mediterranean. The main harbor was located north of the mouth of the Cecina river, at S. Gaetano di Vada. Here, the University of Pisa has been excavating, since the 1980s, a significant commercial quarter that has yielded major structures and numerous artifacts that have testified to a facility built during the Augustan age but lasting through to the sixth-seventh centuries, C.E. (Popular Archaeology)

Drones: Archaeology’s Newest Tool to Combat Looting

The scenes are haunting. A video camera strapped to the nose of a drone aircraft first shows only a spinning, sunlit horizon in the barrens of southern Jordan. Then the camera swoops, low and slow, over a hilltop whose surface recalls photographs of the lunar battlefields of World War I Europe. Crater after crater gouge the hill’s stony surface. It looks like the aftermath of a murderous artillery barrage. (National Geographic)

“Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” Shown to Be Authentic in Tests

A small scrap of brown papyrus paper, about the size of a business card, has ignited a red-hot argument that spans all of Christendom. The papyrus document, known as the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,” was unveiled in 2012 and instantly set off a debate over its authenticity. Perhaps its most controversial elements are lines that suggest Jesus had a wife. (Scientific American)

Archaeologists to resume digging at Native American site where prehistoric building found

Archaeologists will return to an ancient Native American site in eastern Oklahoma next month to resume excavation, after they discovered a prehistoric building there last October. Few artifacts have been discovered near the formation — which measures just about 12 feet across — at Spiro Mounds making it difficult for researchers to determine the time period of the building, said Scott Hammerstedt, a researcher at the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey. (TribTown)

The Real Flood: Submerged Prehistory

As a specialist in prehistoric underwater archaeology, Dr Jonathan Benjamin looks at rising sea levels differently from most people and his fascination with this global phenomenon began when as a PhD candidate at Edinburgh University he came across the work of the Danish archaeologists Anders Fischer and Søren H Anderson. (PastHorizons)

Log boat dating back 4,500 years found in Lough Corrib

A 4,500-year-old log boat is among 12 early Bronze Age, Iron Age and medieval craft that have been located in Lough Corrib, along with several Viking-style battle axes and other weapons.The vessels were discovered by marine surveyor Capt Trevor Northage while mapping the western lake to update British admiralty charts. (IrishTimes.com)

Chichester remains: Tests on 4,000-year-old Racton Man

Tests will be carried out on a 4,000-year-old skeleton that was found on farmland in West Sussex 25 years ago. Experts believe the skeleton, which was found with an ornate dagger, could be from the Copper Age or Early Bronze Age – about 2,200-2,100 BC. Archaeologist James Kenny, who led the dig near Chichester in the 1980s, said there were then no funds for tests but a £10,000 project would now begin. (BBC News)

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9,000-Year-Old Caribou Hunting Structure Found Submerged in Lake Huron

Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Greek Temple and Emporium in Bulgaria

New Genetic Findings About Stone-Age Scandinavian Farmers and Hunter-Gatherers

Origins of Domesticated Chili Pepper Found in Mexico

Anatomically Modern Humans Left Africa Earlier Than Previously Thought, Suggests Study

New Findings at Prehistoric Stone Tool Site in China

Archaeologists Explore Ancient Roman Forum of Philippopolis

Archaeology News for the Week of April 13th, 2014

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