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On the Doorstep of Europe

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Michael Gordon -

No one could have predicted this.

While excavating among Medieval period ruins in 1983 near the town of Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia, archaeologists encountered a jaw-dropping find. They had uncovered a partial set of fossilized teeth belonging to a rhinoceros — an ancient type that made its home thousands of miles away in places like present-day Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

The scientists were scratching their heads.

It just didn’t fit.

More fossils followed — mammoth, giraffe, saber-toothed cat. Clearly they had opened a door to a time long before anything they had come to expect from their excavations at Dmanisi. They were suddenly digging into a slice of the Early Pleistocene, between 1 million and 2 million years ago—when Europe’s environment was like that seen today in east and southern Africa.

But the excavators’ surprising encounters didn’t stop with animal fossils. Next came stones. Thousands of them. They were clearly shaped with intent, and not by nature. These bits of stone resembled in remarkable detail the kinds of simple stone tools first uncovered by Louis and Mary Leakey during the 1930’s at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. This was the very first human tool industry, known as the Oldowan, the advent of which is now generally accepted by scientists to have occurred about 2.6 million years ago.

So, here was the smoking gun. There must have been some form of human here contemporaneous with these ancient animals.

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Shaking Up the Old Guard

It wasn’t until 1991 that workers at Dmanisi discovered the first direct evidence of a human presence within the Pleistocene layers. It was a fossilized mandible (the lower jaw), and it appeared to be human—but quite different from a modern human mandible. It was more like what scientists had been finding for decades in East and South Africa—fossils of what paleoanthropologists know to be some of the earliest members of our kind—genus Homo—human ancestors that lived between 1 million and 2 million years ago. Geographically, this fossil appeared to be several thousands of miles off course.

Even more remarkable finds were uncovered in 1999 — two similar skulls emerged. Two years later, a third. Then a fourth. One of the skulls had no teeth, only gums. Further examination showed that the individual had suffered an illness and had been toothless for about two years prior to death. How could such an individual survive in the comparatively harsher life conditions that must have existed almost 2 million years ago? Was this person cared for in sickness, as we do our fellow humans today?

These new finds were turning some widely accepted theories of human evolution on their heads.

“The prevailing view was that humans did not leave Africa until about 1 million years ago,” said David Lordkipanidze, paleoanthropologist and Director of the Georgian National Museum.* He has been directing the excavations at Dmanisi for decades. He and his colleagues have dated the new Homo fossils to about 1.8 million years ago using the latest dating technologies. Moreover, the morphology (physical characteristics) of the Dmanisi fossils seemed to be clearly ancestral to the later Homo erectus human species that had long been thought the first global colonizers. The Dmanisi specimens exhibited affinities to the earlier Homo habilis and Homo ergaster finds uncovered at African locations. And the stone tools were Oldowan — the simplest industry — not the more sophisticated Acheulean handaxe technology that at least some scientists contended was required to enable early humans to exit their African environment and survive as a global species.

In the time-honored fashion, Lordkipanidze’s discoveries were immediately met with controversy. “One group of scientists accepted [our interpretation], but mostly people were skeptical,” he said.*

With time, however, his discoveries at Dmanisi have joined the “who’s who” of fossil humans, and the research he and his team are doing today stands at the cutting edge of work in human evolution. Dmanisi is widely regarded as one of the world’s earliest early Homo sites outside of Africa.

But, Lordkipanidze and his colleagues were not through shaking things up in the world of human evolution.

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Aerial view of the Dmanisi excavation site (foreground) and medieval town. Courtesy Fernando Javier Urquijo

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Skull 5

While excavating at Dmanisi in 2005, Lordkipanidze and his team uncovered yet another remarkably well-preserved early Homo fossil. Designated as specimen ‘D4500′, it turned out to be the matching cranium to another fossil find uncovered 5 years earlier — a complete mandible they designated ‘D2600’. These two fossils were discovered alongside the remains of the four other early Homo fossil skulls, animal fossils, and simple stone tools. Designated Skull 5, the new cranium together with its mandible display a relatively small braincase with a long face and large teeth. Other similar early Homo fossils, all found in African contexts, are either incomplete, or adolescent or younger individuals. According to Lordkipanidze and his associates, this new find constituted “the most complete adult skull known from Early Pleistocene Homo.“** Moreover, like some of the other finds, it was associated with other parts of the body that exhibited characteristics akin to Homo erectus body engineering, which closely approximates that of modern human morphology. In other words, this species had a very human-like body.

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The Dmanisi early Homo cranium (D4500) in situ. Courtesy Georgian National Museum

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The Dmanisi D4500 early Homo cranium and a large rodent tooth in situ. Associated fauna, such as the tooth from a rodent species that lived 1.8 million years ago, helped to date the find. Courtesy Georgian National Museum

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The Dmanisi D4500 early Homo cranium and ancient herbivore fossil remains in situ. Courtesy Georgian National Museum

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The complete Skull 5. Courtesy Guram Bumbiashvili, Georgian National Museum

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Skull 5 was another first. But the biggest revelation came not with the latest fossil, but with what the fossils collectively had to say about human evolution.

Now, with fossil finds that represented five distinct individuals, it was the first time that such an assembly of Early Homo fossils were found together within the same time and space context. No other site, in Africa or elsewhere, could boast of such a collection. The Dmanisi discoveries meant that scientists could study a range of variation in human species within the context of one place and time range, a relative mother lode of information that could potentially clarify, and perhaps even revolutionize, how we see these earliest of Homo human ancestors.

The researchers set to work. And the result of their study was startling. Lordkipanidze and his colleagues summarize it well in the following words in their recent report published in Science:

Geometric morphometric analysis and re-sampling statistics show that craniomandibular shape variation among the Dmanisi hominids is congruent with patterns and ranges of variation in chimpanzee and bonobo demes [a population of one species](Pan troglodytes troglodytes, P. t. verus, P. t. schweinfurthii, and P. paniscus) and in a global sample of H. sapiens. Within all groups, variation in cranial shape is mainly due to interindividual differences in size and orientation of the face relative to the braincase. The Dmanisi sample, including skull 5, thus represents normal within-deme variation, ranging from small-faced relatively orthognathic (typically female and/or subadult) individuals to large-faced relatively prognathic (typically male) individuals.**

In other words, after examining the remains, the research team concluded that the differences among these fossils vary no more than the differences between five modern humans or five chimpanzees.

“Thanks to the relatively large Dmanisi sample, we see a lot of variation,” said Christoph Zollikofer from the Anthropological Institute and Museum in Zurich, Switzerland—a co-author of the Science report. “Had the braincase and the face of Skull 5 been found as separate fossils at different sites in Africa, they might have been attributed to different species.”

Historically, variations among Homo fossil finds in Africa and Asia have also been found, but these differences have never been found within the same spatial and time period context, and thus scientists have classified the various finds as belonging to separate species. But now, according to Lordkipanidze and his colleagues, what has previously been thought to be separate ancient human species — Homo erectus, Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, and Homo ergaster, for example — may actually be variations or sub-species of one and the same species.

The upshot: Researchers need to re-adjust their thinking when determining how early Homo fossils are classified.

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Dmanisi Skulls 1-5 (left to right), showing the individual variations, and a Dmanisi landscape. Courtesy M. Ponce de León and Ch. Zollikofer, University of Zurich, Switzerland

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The Erectus Ascendancy

The findings at Dmanisi compelled the researchers to propose a major overhaul of how these early Homo fossils fit into the larger scheme of human evolution, including the emergence of human ancestors from their African homelands. As Lordkipanidze et al. report:

When seen from the Dmanisi perspective, morphological diversity in the African fossil Homo record around 1.8 Ma probably reflects variation between demes of a single evolving lineage [emphasis added], which is appropriately named H. erectus……Specimens previously attributed to H. ergaster are thus sensibly classified as a chronosubspecies, H. erectus ergaster. The Dmanisi population probably originated from an Early Pleistocene expansion of the H. erectus lineage from Africa, so it is sensibly placed within H. e. ergaster and formally designated as H. e. e. georgicus to denote the geographic location of this deme.**

By this thinking, what Louis and Mary Leakey first uncovered at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania in 1960 would not be Homo habilis, but Homo erectus habilis, what Kamoya Kimeu and Alan Walker discovered at Lake Turkana, Kenya in 1984 would not simply be Homo ergaster (the famous “Turkana Boy”), but Homo erectus ergaster, and what Bernard Ngeneo found at Koobi Fora on the east side of Lake Turkana in 1972 was not Homo rudolfensis, it was Homo erectus rudolfensis.

Most significantly, the evidence at Dmanisi, given its location and place in time, also implies something that challenges a long-standing paradigm in a big way: It was not the bigger-brained, bigger-bodied Homo erectus, with the more sophisticated Acheulean stone tools, that first ventured out of their native African comfort zone — it was the smaller-brained, smaller-bodied ones with the simple tools. And the exit out of Africa happened significantly earlier than previously thought. Scientists, these researchers suggest, will need to reconsider the elements required for early humans to become a global species.

Paleoanthropology, however, like many other scientific fields, has proven to be a science where theories come and go. Lordkipanidze and his research colleagues would likely be among the first to admit that their conclusions from Dmanisi are wide open to debate and further testing through future finds and research, at Dmanisi and elsewhere.

“Every year we are finding more and more,” says Lordkipanidze, “and we have excavated only 7 percent of the site.”*

That statement was made a few years ago. The percentage has gone up since then.

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* Lordkipanidze, David, “The First Humans Out of Africa”. Posted March 2012. TEDvideo, 15:27. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC0gdpVS4uM

** David Lordkipanidze, et al., A Complete Skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, and the Evolutionary Biology of Early Homo, Science 342:326-331, 2013.

Cover Photo, Top Left: The five skulls of Dmanisi, against the backdrop of the Dmanisi area. Courtesy Marcia Ponce de León and Christoph Zollikofer, University of Zurich, Switzerland

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Living In the Shadow of Angkor

Posted on December 1, 2013 by James Kensington -

Lying beside the Phipot River about four hours drive from the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, the quiet community of Chi Phat goes about life much like many other villages and communities in the Cambodian countryside. These people are mostly farmers, growing rice, bananas and other crops, and fishermen. But a large number of village families also participate in the Chi Phat Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) project, established about ten years ago with the help of a conservation organization. The ecotourism business offers a range of activities for those tourists who want the more unconventional experience of off-the-beaten-path activity and trekking — like morning bird-watching trips on the river, crab hunting at night, tree-planting, and trekking in the jungle. For those with special interests, such as archaeologists interested in the human past and things ancient, Chi Phat offers a special attraction – a chance to view the remains of a unique, ancient, mortuary ritual of a people still shrouded in mystery.

To see this, it often takes a journey on the back of a motorcycle along a trail so narrow that overhanging vegetation will scratch unprotected legs. The trail is at times so muddy that the rider must dismount to walk through leech-infested terrain, across fast-moving streams and slippery rocks, through clouds of butterflies, and near unsuspecting snakes. The trekker finally reaches a small clearing, to climb the rest of the way up a mountain to a wooden ladder. Here one encounters three high rock ledges. To explore the largest of them requires carefully crawling on hands and knees along a rock surface with a low ceiling above, inches away from the edge, a fall from which would surely mean an unsupported climber’s injury, if not death. Along the rock ledge surface are chipped stoneware jars containing bones, and what appear to be skillfully but simply crafted small wooden coffins with wooden lids. The bones within the jars are human. It is an ancient burial site.

Archaeologists have interpreted it as a secondary burial ritual mortuary site, one among 10 similar known sites distributed over 100 kilometers of the eastern ranges of Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains jungle environment. Secondary burials have been practiced by a variety of cultures throughout history. They are often described as rites in which the bones of the deceased are placed in urns, bone boxes, or other vessels after the flesh has been stripped from the bones by natural decomposition. This particular secondary burial site, known as Phnom Pel, is the closest one to Chi Phat, and it, along with several other such sites, have been the objects of intensive study by Dr. Nancy Beavan and a team of associates. Beavan is an expert in radiocarbon dating, based at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She has examined and dated bones from a multitude of burial sites across the globe, but there was something unique and compelling about the Phnom Pel finds and those of the other nine sites. Beavan has made it her mission to find answers.

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Map of Cambodia and the Cardamom Mountains region. Stars mark all 10 sites that have been geo-located during the project work. The distance between the southernmost and northernmost sites is about 72 km. Map from Beavan, et al., 2012

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“I got a call from the documentary film-makers for National Geographic’s “Riddles of the Dead”[in 2003],” said Beavan, “who asked me if I could date a bone in 3 weeks. After I started to prepare the bone, I became rather curious because it looked so fresh. I got back in touch with them and they told me it was from Cambodia and from a burial site.”* The dating of the bone placed it during the time of the demise of the Khmer Empire in the mid-fifteenth century CE. That was the civilization that built the iconic temple structures of Angkor.

“I became absolutely fascinated”, she said.*

That fascination drove Beavan to investigate the original context of the bone, a journey that eventually led to a full-scale study now financed under a $720,000 grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund.

It hasn’t been an easy journey.

The site where the bone was found is known as Khnorng Sroal, a Cardamom Mountains site located high on a south-facing natural rock ledge. And like Phnom Pel and the other sites, access for extended study requires some extraordinary measures. Motorcycles must be used to negotiate narrow trails, rivers must be crossed, long hikes are required on rugged terrain. And then there is the climbing, as the sites are located on elevated rock ledges. “Instead of going to these places and collecting everything to take back to a comfy lab to work on,” says Beavan, “we live in the jungle for weeks at a time eating dried fish and dried sausages and rice, using this time to do all of our data collection in the field, and taking only tiny samples for scientific analysis, so that we can conserve and protect the sites in their original state.” At another site known as Phnom Khang Peung, 600 meters above seal level and deep in the jungle, they had to use a helicopter to bring in enough water and provisions, including people, to stay for two weeks of field work. “And helicopters are not cheap,” Beavan exclaims, “so that straightforward solution has only been used once!”

Two central questions have underpinned Beavan’s entire effort: Who were these people? And why did they “bury” their dead this way?

Out From Oblivion

For obvious reasons, much of the archaeology and research on ancient Cambodia has focused on the more visible and spectacular sites of the Khmer Empire, arguably Southeast Asia’s greatest ancient civilization, whose temple builders dotted the landscape with wonders like Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. Flourishing from the ninth to fifteenth centuries CE, it dominated the region economically, culturally, and politically. Indeed, chronological and historical referencing in both popular literature and academic studies in the broader examination of Southeast Asia’s past have usually anchored around ‘before’, ‘during’ or ‘after’ Angkor.

But there is something apart, unique and tantalizingly mysterious about these Cardamom Mountains rock ledge burials when compared to the better-known discoveries associated with Angkor. Beavan thinks they could tell a story of a forgotten highland people with a unique culture living on the margins of the Angkorian world during its waning days in the fifteenth century, and then long after it’s fall. She also suggests that, though their time overlapped with that of the end of Angkor, the mountain culture that created this funeral ritual was separate and distinct from Angkor.

The first clue to this evolving story has to do with location. “The rugged terrain and isolation of the region has given it notoriety over the centuries as a place of refuge. The mountains have also been home to ethnic minorities who notably lived apart from the Khmer culture of the lowlands and were seen as “savages” and taken as slaves in Angkorian times,” writes Beavan and colleagues in an international publication in 2012. **

The second clue relates to the nature and unique combination of characteristics of the finds. Those sites, which Beavan has radiocarbon dated to between CE 1395 to 1650 using wood, tooth enamel and human bone samples from four sites, feature ritual use of 53 cm high stoneware storage jars containing human bones, and small coffins (averaging only about 1 meter in length), each much too small to accommodate a flesh and blood adult. The jars and coffins were placed together high on rock ledges or overhangs. The 50-53-cm-high stoneware jars used for the burials are known as Maenam Noi jars, made at the Maenam Noi kilns in the Singburi province along the Chao Phraya River in Thailand. These jars were in production from about the fourteenth to possibly the sixteenth centuries CE. The kilns are hundreds of miles distant from the region of the Cardamom sites. Says Beavan:

“There are at least 75 of these large storage jars among the 10 sites that we have located, and let me tell you, getting these things up into their mountain burial sites must have been a mission and a half. But they did, and they were very particular, too: only a certain type of storage jar, and then after having procured them and hauled them by some still unknown means into their mountain homelands, they used them simply to contain the bones of their dead, filling the jars with one or more skeletons.”

(Above right, a typical Maenam Noi stoneware jar used to contain the bones of the dead. Credit Tep Sokha).

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The secondary burial jars and coffins were placed high on rock ledges in the Cardamom Mountains. Photo Credit Tep Sokha

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Dr. Nancy Beavan sitting among the artifacts on the Phnom Khnang Peung site ledge. Photo Credit Ouk Sokha

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A perspective view of the jars on a site rock ledge. Sitting in the background is Danni Eam, a member of the field team. Photo Credit Ouk Sokha

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Mr. Gan, a long-time member of the team and a member of the Chong ethnic minority, sieves sediments on the jar ledge for artifacts. Photo Credit Ouk Sokha

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And there is much more. Writes Beavan in the 2012 report:

“All of the burial jars appear to have been prepared by breaking away the rim to facilitate the emplacement of larger skeletal material such as entire skulls. A hole was drilled through the bottom of each jar, perhaps to ritually “kill” the vessel. The log coffins in the Phnom Pel, Damnak Samdech, and Khang Tathan sites are made of an as yet unidentified tree species, which is extremely dense and has a fine annual growth structure. The coffins vary in overall length between 90 to 178 cm, but their design is generally similar in that whole logs are cut into sections, the centers are carved out in squared corners, and each is topped by a lid, but there is no additional carving or decoration to the exterior. The exception to this, at one of the oldest sites, Khnang Tathan, is a single coffin of 210 cm, which has deep chevron carving on the ends of the coffin lid.”**

In addition, the jars were found to contain green, yellow and blue glass beads, and simple bronze rings. The assemblages in all 10 sites also contained additional tradeware jars, bowls, and dishes, possibly used, according to the archaeological interpretation, for food offerings. Curiously, at every site Beavan and her team always found at least one 45-cm-high ceramic Angkorian jar, made at the Buriram kilns in an area bordering the western boundaries of present-day Cambodia and Thailand. In the twelfth-thirteenth centuries CE the Buriram kilns were part of the Angkorian kingdom. The Angkorian jars are significantly earlier than the more numerous Maenam Noi jars. “The Angkorian jars sort of stick out like a sore thumb,” Beavan told the Phnom Penh Post recently. “Why, if you are collecting Maenam Noi with such a passion, do you pop in one Angkorian jar? What does that mean?” Though Beavan suggests that these people were not associated with the lowland Angkorians, had there been any sort of an Angkorian connection?

Perhaps. Yet most of the elements belie a cultural identity with Angkor. Write Beavan and her colleagues in their 2012 article:

“The ritual practices in the mountains are distinctive compared with what is known of lowland mortuary practices in the pre-Angkorian and Angkorian periods. What is especially remarkable about the Cardamom sites, and suggests much about their inter-relationship and the cultural similitude of those who created them, is the overall uniformity of the material aspects of the ritual for the dead. This uniformity includes such items as the small nautical tradeware bowls and plates that were possibly used for food offerings, the use of coffins in 3 of the 4 sites presented here, and the Maenam Noi jars used for the burials in all but the Khnang Tathan site.”**

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Above and below: The ancients deposited the defleshed bones in modified Maenam Noi jars. Photo Credit Ouk Sokha

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Dr. Nancy Beavan views and examines a coffin on a ledge. Credit Ouk Sokha

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Nancy with three types of coffins at a site. Ouk Sokha

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The body of a coffin, which also has a tight fitting lid (not shown). Note the detail in the simple carving of the rim designed to receive the equally well carved lid. They are simple designs, with no outer decoration, but the craftsmanship of the people who made them is evident in the fine edges and the fit of the lids. Photo Credit Ouk Sokha

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To be sure, the general use of jars for secondary burials is not unique to these sites. The practice has been found at a number of ancient sites throughout Southeast Asia, including locations in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Okinawa, Borneo, Mindanao, and the Phillipines, to name a few. But those “jar burial” practices consist of the literal burial of the jar in the earth. The Cardamom Mountain ritual is among the few anywhere with jars set out upon the ground or in rock niches. The ceramic jars from Thailand’s Maenam Noi kilns used by the ancient tribes of the Cardamom Mountains, according to Louise Cort, curator for ceramics at the Freer and Sackler museums of Asian art in Washington, DC., were the “all purpose containers at a time when there weren’t other alternatives” – they were used to store everything from rice and indigo to sulfur for gunpowder and even textiles (so that insects couldn’t get to them). The jars were also used as containers for commercial goods that were shipped and traded from Siam throughout Asia, reaching as far as Japan. “They are very commonplace jars,” Cort said. “But what’s interesting is how these jars were moved and acquired and then taken up into the mountains.”

Some light was shed on this in 2006 near Cambodia’s Koh S’dech Island off the coast of Koh Kong Province in the southwestern Cardamom Mountains, when fishermen began pulling these same jars out of the sea. Further investigations by Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture showed that they had actually uncovered a medieval shipwreck, yielding 900 pieces of pottery in two recovery dives. Most of the cargo’s pottery consisted of Maenam Noi storage jars, exactly like the Cardamon bone burial jars, as well as examples of other types of ceramic ware of the period. Either it was a ship carrying only empty jars, or it was transporting another commodity inside the jars, Cort says. The discovery has led the researchers to suggest that the highland people identified with the jar and coffin burial sites may have exchanged forest products, such as wood, cardamom, and elephant tusks, for the jars and then brought them inland in river boats. Beavan cites the historical record of Zhou Daguan, a Chinese emissary who visited Angkor in the thirteenth century, who commented on how “mountain ethnic groups collected and sold exotic and desirable forest products such as resin, elephant tusks, and cardamom; these products would have been sought by supracultural traders.”** The shipwreck’s discovery underscored another distinction between these highland people and the people of Angkor — they used different trade routes. If the trade theory is correct, “the people of the Cardamom Mountains got their jars through a maritime trade connection in the Gulf of Thailand that the Angkorian people didn’t have,” according to Beavan. “The Angkorians used mainly overland trade routes, and possibly river systems. The Angkorians also created their own ceramics; the people of the Cardamoms appear not to have had any such ceramic tradition, as only tradeware has ever been found among the sites.”

Clues from the Living

Often the stories of living descendants or people who later settled the area of an archaeological site can provide some hints or insights that archaeologists can use to help interpret the material finds in the field. Beavan and her team have made a point of ensuring that what ethnologists and the current local inhabitants have said about the jars and their past play a role in helping to understand who these highland people were, and why they practiced this unique mortuary ritual and burial practice.

French ethnographers Marie Martin and Jean Ellul conducted studies of the current Cardamom highland inhabitants decades ago, and recorded stories from the people there of “bones in caves”, bones they thought belonged to the “people of the court” of Longvek, (a trading port on the Tonle river just north of present-day Phnom Penh) who had fled a Thai invasion in 1593. The site to which they referred was located in the Cardamom range flanking Kampong Speau province. But it was further investigated by Ellul and Roland Mourer, a French archaeologist, who concluded that associated remains, consisting of simple glass beads and metal rings, likely did not represent those of a high-status group or royalty and thus these people would not have been good candidates for the “people of the court”.

“For some reason they did not comment on the ceramics,” says Beavan, “but perhaps they did not realize they were looking at a very uncommon ceramics collection! And then, the researchers simply walked away from this quite unusual burial site, and the story of their single visit is recorded only by Marie Martin writing about her pre-1975 research in the Cardamom Mountains.”

Other oral traditions mention a “Chong Empire” that predated that of the Khmer. Its capital was said to be located near the town of Chanthaburi in Thailand. One legend has it that a people known as the Pear/Por of Kulen, north of Angkor, emigrated to the Cardamoms and discovered a cardamom spice called kravanh, a substance used in divine offerings during the eleventh century. Among thje legends, the Samre people of the Pursat Province also mention a Chong Empire that preceded the Khmer.

Were the ‘people of the jars’ a remnant of the Chong Empire, or somehow connected to them? There is no evidence to suggest this. And other than the single twelfth-thirteenth century Angkorian jar from the Buriram kilns that archaeologists have found at each of the Cardamom burial sites, there is nothing to suggest any real connection to Angkor or its people.

Beyond investigating known sites, archaeologists are also looking for new ones — the Cardamoms stretch for 20,000 square kilometers, and large areas still haven’t been surveyed. To find the sites and learn more about them, they are collecting stories about the jars from villagers. Finding people whose families are originally from the Cardamoms is not easy because during the Khmer Rouge period villages were forcefully relocated to different parts of the country — so much so that in Chi Phat probably as few as 10 percent of the inhabitants have family who lived in the area before Pol Pot’s regime.

Still, some locals maintain a connection to the sites.

On several visits to the mountain ledges, researchers came across candle wax and plastic bags. Once, scientists even encountered a group of 20 villagers who made a three-day trek on foot to offer food and incense to the bones. It is not clear whether these people have an ancestral connection to the site. Regardless, researchers are interested in interviewing the locals.

“We try to collect old stories, even old myths because sometimes in a myth there is a grain of memory,” says Beavan.

But the mystery remains.

A Race Against Time

Whether or not Beavan and her team ever find all of the answers they are looking for, one thing is certain — their time is running out. Like so many other verdant rainforest and mountain habitats and regions across the globe, the natural riches of the Cardamom Mountains region are in danger of disappearing at an ever-accelerating pace. Modern development has already taken its toll. Bulldozing and deforestation have left red-earth scars where once stood relatively untouched rainforest. Along with the wildlife and vegetation, any human cultural remains, like those of the jar and coffin ritual burial sites, will go with them, if not protected.

“There is a lot of illegal looting still going on,” Beavan says, “and economic land concessions, which turn the foothills into sugarcane and rubber plantations; hydroelectric schemes which flood valleys; black market trade in precious wood species; poaching of some of the world’s most endangered species; elephants and other wildlife being squeezed out of their natural ranges.”***

Beavan believes she has about 5 years to run with her project before it is too late, unless something is done to preserve the known sites as well as any future sites they may discover. She is now working with the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts to develop a heritage protection plan, hoping to buy more time.

And plenty of time is what it takes if archaeologists expect to get more than a few scraps and clues about who these people were and how they related to the larger context of Cambodian history and culture during the final years and aftermath of the Khmer Empire. Thus, like any project of an archaeological nature, the work is characteristically slow, but the mystery is compelling.

“Despite the work that has now spanned some ten years,” says Beavan, “we still do not know exactly who these people were, or where their burial practice came from. Did they make it up themselves? Did they get the idea from vaguely similar practices of other mountain people in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand and if so, how did that happen?”

So Beavan and her colleagues liken their work to piecing together a giant jigsaw puzzle, but without the benefit of the box lid that illustrates the complete picture. And most of the pieces may never be found.

In the end, they can only hope that enough of the picture will eventually materialize to tell a story of an enigmatic highland people who, long forgotten in the shadow of Angkor, lived their lives on the margin.

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* Nancy Beavan, “Burial Practices in the Cardamom Mountains,” interviewed by Kathryn Ryan, Nine to Noon, Radio New Zealand, July 20, 2012.

** Nancy Beavan, et al., “Radiocarbon Dates from Jar and Coffin Burials of the Cardamom Mountains Reveal a Unique Mortuary Ritual in Cambodia’s Late-to-Post-Angkor Period (15th-17th Centuries AD)”; Radiocarbon, 54: 1-22, 2012.

*** Nancy Beavan, “Burial Practices in the Cardamom Mountains,” interviewed by Kathryn Ryan, Nine to Noon, Radio New Zealand, July 20, 2012. Also includes statements to Popular Archaeology.

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A Lab in the Jungle

Much of the work of Beavan’s team is done in the field at the sites where the finds exist. There, the artifacts are recorded, mapped, measured, collected, sorted and examined. Thus, with the exception of sampling for radiocarbon dating where special equipment and facilities are required, they eschew a comfortable lab to study and work on all of the artifacts on site. “We live in the jungle for weeks at a time eating dried fish and dried sausages and rice, using the field time to do all of our data collection in the field, and taking only tiny samples for scientific analysis, so that we can conserve and protect the sites in their original state,” Beavan related to Popular Archaeology. Conservation takes place concurrent with the scientific work they perform at the site. For example, fragments of some of the ceramic ware that lay on the surface of the rock ledges, such as that of the Maenam Noir jars, were carefully pieced together onsite, an activity that in archaeology is normally done in museum or university conservation laboratories.

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Above, Tep Sokha and Danni Eam, responsible for the ceramic conservation work of the research team, reconstruct one jar that was broken into more than 160 pieces. All of this conservation work takes place in the middle of the jungle. Sokha has reconstructed dozens of burial jars and bowls, piecing them together like a puzzle. He doesn’t remove anything from the rock ledge – doing so would mean destroying the jar cemetery – so he places the reconstructed jars back on the ledge in the position where the fragments were found. He then photographs them to record their appearance. Says Beavan, “Mr. Tep is an extraordinary ceramic conservator. He can take a large jar broken into more than a hundred pieces and put it back together in the middle of the jungle on cliff edges. And one of his findings is that in those ancient times, people were also trying to mend their broken jars. Mr. Tep found two jars where broken pieces had been fixed anciently using natural tree resins.” Photo Credit Ouk Sokha

Above, Tep Sokha, the chief ceramics conservator, with a skull. Photo Credit Ouk Sokha

Above, Mr. Gan, a member of the field research team, piecing together broken jars. Photo Credit Nancy Beavan

Above, Dr. Sian Halcrow (right), Chief Bioarchaeologist for the project, and Stacey Ward at work at their bone analysis station in the midst of the jungle.

Dr. Halcrow’s research on the bones suggests that the people who were buried in the jars did not die a violent death — their bones give no indication of that. The skeletal remains range in age from preterm infants and babies to older adults, including a skull that belonged to a woman who lived long enough to lose all her teeth in old age.

One of her most interesting discoveries relates to the teeth of the dead: many of the skulls have had the two lateral incisors – the teeth on the left and right of the two central teeth – removed. She believes that these teeth were pulled out deliberately – either as a sign of tribal affiliation or for beautification. According to Halcrow, pulling out teeth or changing how they look — by filing to give them a different shape or by removing teeth in a certain pattern — is a ritual that was last shown to have been practiced by lowland peoples in the Cambodian region around 200 CE. There is no mention of this practice in Angkor, however.

Halcrow also thinks that members of this tribe probably consumed significant quantities of rice, and that they did not eat much fibrous food, as the teeth do not show the signs of wear typical of fiber-rich food consumption.

Surprisingly, she also found some evidence among the bones of scurvy, a disease that results from lack of Vitamin C in the diet. This is unusual because these people lived in a jungle environment rich in fruits which contain high amounts of Vitamin C.

Photo Credit Nancy Beavan.

Dr. Halcrow at her jungle workstation for skeletal analysis. Photo Credit Ouk Sokha

Dr. Halcrow and Dr. Beavan sorting through the bone from one of the jars. Photo Credit Ouk Sokha

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Digging into First Century Jerusalem’s Rich and Famous

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Jason Weaver -

At first blush, anyone peering at the site from a distance might think it is a construction site. There are workers scattered about well-defined, squared-off open earthen pits and partial walls of stone blocks. Many of them are crouched down, close to the soil, appearing more like gardeners than construction workers. But some of them are wearing hard hats. There are sandbags placed in line at select locations, appearing to define work areas and spaces both shallow and steep. The area is fenced off, and it overlooks a busy road, traffic passing by with drivers mostly oblivious to what is happening in this place.

But if one looks closer, a very different picture emerges.

This is an archaeological excavation, and most of the “construction workers” are actually students and volunteers, along with a few professionally trained archaeologists and other specialists. Since 2007, these workers have been carefully and methodically peeling away layers of earth and stone and other debris in an effort to detect and reveal ancient walls, floors, and artifacts that have remained buried for hundreds if not thousands of years. Directing the operation is Shimon Gibson, a British-born Israeli archaeologist and adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is also a Senior Associate Fellow at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research. He, along with co-director James Tabor, a well-known scholar of early Christianity and Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is excavating an area adjacent to and below the southern Old City wall of Jerusalem. Referred to as the Mount Zion excavation because of its location in the sacred elevated area at the center of ancient Jerusalem near the historical Temple Mount (see map above), the work here is important because it is unearthing evidence of people who played out history in this place for thousands of years. It is set near a number of significant places in the history of this ancient city, such as the Praetorium where Jesus was tried before Pontius Pilate; the presumed location of the Last Supper of Jesus; the House of Caiaphas and those of other priestly families who lived during the time of Jesus; the large Nea Ekklesia of the Theotokos Church that Emperor Justinian commissioned in the 6th century and that was situated just above the site; and fortifications of the Crusaders and the Ayyubids.

History and location are not the only factors that distinguish the site. It is also remarkably well preserved, due at least in part to construction work during Byzantine times. That construction required the establishment of an artificial leveling fill of stones, soil and other debris atop the remains of older Early Roman period house structures as a foundation to support new buildings. Then, construction of the Nea Church in the 6th century required excavation of underground reservoirs and the earth and stone from those excavations were subsequently dumped over the earlier Byzantine constructions.

“The area got submerged, ” Gibson said. “That’s why we found an unusually well-preserved set of stratigraphic levels.”*

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Above, the Mount Zion dig site, and below, the site looking north with modern, Islamic, Byzantine, and Early Roman period layers exposed. Courtesy Shimon Gibson

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Digging the Priestly Upper Crust?

This isn’t the first time archaeologists have investigated this location. In the 1970’s, Magen Broshi of the Israel Museum conducted excavations on Mount Zion in at least several areas, and then in 2000 and 2005, excavations were resumed to record data from the earlier excavations and to clarify the site chronology in terms of the historical occupation of the site from the Second Temple period through to the Ottoman level. It became clear from these efforts that the site still held enormous potential. Renewed excavations began here in large measure in 2007 under a license from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel Parks Authority and the sponsoring auspices of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Archaeologists have now uncovered evidence of an urban occupation going back before the destruction of the Jewish First Temple, when Judahite kings ruled the city. “The earliest finds uncovered in the recent excavations are from the Iron Age II (eighth- sixth centuries B.C.E.), but nothing was found in situ, and building remains from this period have yet to be uncovered,” writes Gibson in a 2010 report. “A layer of soil was uncovered at one location above bedrock containing large quantities of Iron Age II pottery; its significance will be investigated in future seasons of work at the site.”**

But as the excavation progressed, the finds that generated the biggest splash in the popular press related to the Early Roman period and the 1st century CE, and more particularly the Herodian period (the time of Herod the Great).

Wrote Gibson:

“The basement of a well preserved dwelling was uncovered dating from the Early Roman period, with associated finds dating from the first century C.E. It included a plastered cistern, a stepped and plastered ritual bathing pool (mikveh) with a well preserved barrel-vaulted ceiling, and a chamber containing three bread ovens (tabuns)…….Numerous finds from the Early Roman period were found, including pottery, lamps, stone vessels (including a qalal jar rim with egg-and-dart decoration), scale-weights, murex shells, and coins. A fragment of an ornate window screen made of stone was also found. In fills situated above the rubble collapse of 70 C.E. there were a few Tenth Legion stamped roof tiles, but there were no signs of any construction activities in the area from the Late Roman period. The Early Roman period dwelling appears to have remained in ruins until the Byzantine period.”**

Both Gibson and Tabor knew they were on to something very significant. This was a residence that included its own cistern, its own mikveh, a barrel-vaulted ceiling, a chamber with three bread ovens, and part of an ornate window screen — not the stuff of a commoner’s home. Given the location of the structure not far from the most sacred spot in 1st century Jerusalem — the Second Temple — and the presence of what appeared to be a possible personal household mikveh – could they be looking at a Herodian period residence of a wealthy or important person, perhaps in some way connected to the Temple?

Gibson and Tabor suggest that this may indeed be the case.

Tabor hypothesizes one step further: “Caiaphas’s house has been located. It’s up on the hill just a few hundred yards from our site……..Caiaphas is the son-in-law of Anas, [who] had seven sons who were high priests, starting from before Jesus all the way down to the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. So he ran the show for about 50-60 years, putting his sons in one after another, and finally a son-in-law, Caiaphas. My guess would be that we’re in one of the homes of that extended priestly family……”****

The large collection of murex shells could also be telling. The murex is a genus of Mediterranean sea snail that was used to produce a purple dye, highly valued by members of the aristocracy in the Roman world for coloring their clothing. It represented a mark of distinction for royalty and members of the upper classes of society.

“This color was highly desired,” said Gibson. “The dye industry seems to be something that was supervised by the priestly class for the priestly vestments and for other aspects of clothing which were vital for those who wished to officiate in the capital precincts.”*

Gibson theorizes that the shells may have been used as a means to identify varying grades of dye, as this can differ from species to species of the snail. Perhaps the priests were involved in the industry in some way, and if so, this says something new about the lives of these people – something that is not apparent in the historical record and that could only have been discovered through the archaeological process.

“It is significant that these are household activities which may have been undertaken by the priests,” Gibson said. “If so, it tells us a lot more about the priests than we knew before. We know from the writings of Josephus Flavius and later rabbinical texts about their activities in the area of the Jewish temple, but there is hardly any information about their priestly activities outside the holy precinct. This is new information, and that is quite exciting. We might find in future seasons further aspects of industries which were supervised by these priestly families.”*

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Looking down into the area of the basement of the Herodian period house. Courtesy Shimon Gibson

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The bread ovens, found in the basement of the house. Courtesy Shimon Gibson

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The stepped ritual bathing pool, or mikveh, found in the basement of the house. Courtesy Shimon Gibson

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A finding in 2009 added more grist to their interpretation.

“Among the special finds from the 2009 season of excavations was a soft white limestone cup dating from the first century C.E. bearing an incised inscription, with ten or perhaps eleven lines of script on its sides,” wrote Gibson.**

The cup (pictured left) was found in four pieces within a fill layer containing 1st century pottery fragments above a barrel-vaulted ceiling of a mikveh. It represented a well-known type of 1st century cup found in excavations throughout Jerusalem and beyond. The inscription on the cup has not yet been completely and definitively translated, but study of the cup and the historical context of its finding suggests that it might have been a ritual cleansing cup, used for the washing of hands before engaging in liturgical functions. Suggests Gibson, “the discovery of the cup in the area of the Upper City of Jerusalem, in which priestly families are known to have resided (including the Qatros family), may hint at the original priestly function that this specific vessel had some two thousand years ago.”**

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A detailed examination of the inscription was made by Stephen Pfann, the staff epigrapher, using special photographic enhancing methods (PTM/RTI imaging) in order to clarify the fine spidery writing and to exclude accidental marks and incisions.

Pfann’s study has shown that there are ten, or possibly even eleven, lines of script visible on the vessel, with the rest of the facets filled up with zig-zag lines, perhaps intentionally in order to ensure that no further script might be added to the vessel. Pfann has identified three different scripts in the inscription: (1) a script previously known from the Dead Sea Scrolls as “Cryptic A” script (Pfann also calls this “Hebrew Hieratic”); (2) an unknown cryptic script which is unique to this specific inscription, even though some letters bear a resemblance to cryptic letters and signs already known in the Dead Sea Scrolls; and (3) the standard Jewish/Aramaic square script of the period (with only a few words evident in lines 5-6). Another interesting feature is the appearance of repeated letters: he (appearing four times in line 4), yud (appearing four times in line 7), waw (appearing four times in line 7), and tsade (appearing four times in line 10). Were these letters written without purpose, or did each one of these letters signify a repeated musical notation or prayer?

Clearly the scribe who made this inscription did not want it to be easily read, and to that end this person deliberately did not provide word dividers and intentionally wrote a text with a variety of scripts. Interestingly, Pfann has suggested that lines 5-6 might even be a paraphrasing of Psalm 26:8, and the words “Adonai shavti…” are fairly clear, even if the rest is not.

—- Shimon Gibson, excerpts from Preliminary Report: New Excavations on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and an Inscribed Stone Cup/Mug from the Second Temple Period ** Image courtesy Shimon Gibson

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Then, in 2013, they made yet another major discovery.

While continuing to excavate near the mikveh within the building basement, they uncovered a vaulted chamber that contained what appeared to be a well-defined plastered bathtub. It was among only three other such Second Temple period rooms found so far in Israel. Two of them were in palaces of Herod the Great. Gibson believes that the addition of the bathroom feature is a clear sign of wealth and status.

“The bathroom is very important because hitherto, except for Jerusalem, it is usually found within palace complexes, associated with the rulers of the country,” Gibson said.”We have examples of bathrooms of this kind mainly in palatial buildings.”*

A nearly identical bathroom was found through previous excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the city. It is, according to Gibson, “only a stone’s throw away”. “The building in the Jewish Quarter is similar in characteristics to our own with an inscription of a priestly family,” Gibson added. “The working theory is that we’re dealing [here] also with a priestly family.”*

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The house “bathroom”. Note the bathtub to the left. Courtesy Shimon Gibson

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Cisterns and Hiding Places

As previously mentioned, among the uncovered features of the residence is a large, 30-foot deep oval-shaped cistern. As 1st century CE cisterns in Old Jerusalem go, there was nothing initially unusual about it. But this one contained a few surprising finds — cooking pots, charcoal, evidence of burn marks, storage jars, and remains of an oven.

In 1st century Jerusalem, cisterns, often public access facilities, were in common use among the city’s inhabitants as a means to collect and store water, a highly valuable commodity in Judea’s dry climate. So what were these objects doing at the bottom of a cistern? Would the residents have simply discarded them there once they became unusable, like depositing trash into a garbage dump? As precious as clean water cisterns must have been to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in this environment, it would be an unlikely scenario.

But Gibson and Tabor suggest a possible explanation.

“We still need to look at this material very carefully and be absolutely certain of our conclusions, but it might be that these are the remnants of a kitchen in use by Jews hiding from the Romans,” said Gibson. “Their last resort was to go into these cisterns. It was a common practice, but this conclusion is theoretical. It makes for a very good story and it does look that way, but we’ve got to be certain.”*

Historically, subterranean features such as cisterns and tunnels were used by the Jews to escape the pursuit of the Romans during the First Jewish Revolt. Flavius Josephus, for example, in The Jewish War, writes the following:

One John, a leader of the rebels, along with his brother Simon, who were found starved to death in the cisterns and water systems that ran under the city. Over 2000 bodies found in the various underground chambers, most dead from starvation. (Josephus, War 6:429-433)

Moreover, not far from the Mount Zion site, archaeologists excavating in the ancient Ophel area near the Temple Mount (or Haram Ash-Sharif) of Jerusalem have uncovered a plaster-lined cave with an associated system of subterranean tunnels. Under the direction of Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University, excavators removed uncounted bucket-loads of dirt and rock fill from the cave, discovering in the process that its walls had been lined with a layer of plaster. The cave also appeared to be connected to a structure dated to the First Temple period (10th to 6th centuries BCE) above it, which featured water channels for directing water into the cave. This suggested to the archaeologists that they were actually exploring what was originally an ancient water cistern. But this cave excavation revealed some surprises. Says Brent Nagtegaal, an excavation supervisor, “we started to find a layer that related to the time just following Herod the Great during the Herodian Period. We were quite surprised that we would find stratified layers inside this cistern, and as we went underneath them we started to find walls, walls that indicate that there was some type of occupation or at least construction that took place inside the cistern after the cistern had lost its use for water.”*** Excavators found that the Herodian Period walls related to yet another key feature of the cave or cistern — a system of tunnels carved from the rock, large enough to accommodate the passage of individuals from one location to another. Continues Nagtegaal: “You can see many signs of life in here. You can see chisel marks that exist on the walls which really indicate the direction at which the tunnels were constructed, and you can see holes where candles would have been placed and their burn marks. You also see little foot steps and handholds in vertical shafts.”*** The tunnels also revealed numerous shards of Herodian Period pottery, a ceramic type used to date the tunnels and shafts.

So was the cistern with the cooking pots and oven excavated by Gibson and Tabor’s team actually part of the same story?

The jury is still out on this interpretation, but as Gibson notes, “it makes for a very good story”.

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Co-director James Tabor descends into the cistern. Photo credit Lori Woodall

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Cleaning out the cistern, student excavator kneels by a 2,000-year-old cooking pot. Photo credit Lori Woodall

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A tile fragment recovered during the excavations. The tile fragment shows the stamp of the 10th Roman Legion. This legion fought and occupied Jerusalem and Judea during the time of the First Jewish Revolt, the time when many Jerusalem residents took up hiding in subterranean tunnels and cisterns. Photo credit Lori Woodall

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Moving Forward

The Mount Zion excavations are really about much more than the 1st century world of Judaism and Christianity. In addition to the Iron Age II and Early Roman period layers, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a strong Byzantine presence and strata representing Islamic cultures from the Umayyad through the Ottoman periods (the 7th to 12th centuries CE). Finds have included a threshold to a gate dating back to Saladin. “Here, in this site,” said Gibson, referring to the Islamic layers, “we have three superimposed levels — belonging to the Umayyads (seventh to mid eighth centuries), Abbasids (mid-eighth to ninth centuries) and Fatimids (ninth to eleventh centuries)– which allow us to reconstruct the cultural life in the houses from these periods.”*

The excavations are expected to continue for at least two or three more seasons. Much can happen in that time. Only a fraction of the site has been excavated thus far, and as so often happens in archaeology, theories and hypotheses can be challenged or overturned. In terms of the 1st century finds, Tabor makes clear that what the team is uncovering is not about a single find or discovery. “It’s not necessarily one house,” he says. “We’re uncovering a significant area of 1st century Jerusalem. The big news [of the latest, 2013 season] is the bath. But it’s what the bath really means. What it means is that we have significant areas of well-preserved material where we are. The bath is just the beginning……..”****

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Individuals interested in learning more about the Mount Zion excavations and/or who wish to participate financially may go to the UNC website. Additional direction for individuals interested in participating as dig volunteers may go to the Dig Mount Zion website for more information. This website also includes more in-depth information about the excavations, finds, and history.

The UNC Charlotte dig, licensed by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel Parks Authority, is the only archaeological excavation in Jerusalem currently being conducted under the leading sponsorship of an American university. While the 2013 excavations have been completed, work is expected to continue on the site during the summers of 2014 and 2015. The work was made possible through the generous support of The Friends of Mount Zion, a group of private funders organized by the Office of Development at UNC Charlotte. Other assistance was provided by the University of the Holy Land and The Foundation for Biblical Archaeology.

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* University of North Carolina press release, James Hathaway, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 17 September 2013

** Gibson, Shimon, Preliminary Report: New Excavations on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and an Inscribed Stone Cup/Mug from the Second Temple Period, University of North Carolina at Charlotte and University of the Holy Land, Jerusalem, 2010.

*** Archaeologists Excavate Jerusalem Cave and Tunnel Network, Popular Archaeology Magazine, Vol. 11, June 2013.

**** UNC Charlotte Mount Zion Excavation, Charlotte Talks, WFAE 90.7, 1 August 2013.

Map image of Mount Zion excavations location courtesy Shimon Gibson and Mount Zion Excavations Project.

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The Once and Future Egypt

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Eric Vasallo -

Editor’s Note: The following article is a ‘blast from the past’ re-publication of the original article, published in 2013 at Popular Archaeology. It was subsequently removed from access, but is now re-published as there are many new readers who would not otherwise have had the opportunity to read the story, and recent efforts to negotiate the return of the famous bust of Nefertiti to Egypt from Germany has been championed by this subject article’s Dr. Zahi Hawass . Much has changed in Egypt and with Dr. Zahi Hawass since the interview was conducted, in terms of both the political situation in Egypt and the research and discoveries he has made since that time, so readers should bear this in mind. Although he may remain a somewhat controversial figure in some circles, he nonetheless has played a prominent role historically in the ongoing narrative on discovering Egypt’s past. Since the interview, he has made notable contributions to Egyptology, including unearthing the tombs of the pyramid builders at Giza and the Valley of the Golden Mummies at Bahariya; and through the Egyptian Mummy project, he led efforts to conduct CT scans of the mummy of King Tutankhamun and other important figures such as Queen Hatshepsut and Nefertiti to learn more about their lives and deaths. He continues to be a strong, leading advocate for the protection, repatriation and conservation of Egypt’s antiquities.

Cairo, Egypt – It took over an hour navigating through chaotic Cairo traffic to arrive at Zahi Hawass’s apartment building. Nestled amidst a bustling suburb, it was a surprisingly austere place for a man who, it seemed but moments ago, held Egypt’s highest post for the management of its antiquities and, for years, was Egypt’s iconic face to the world when it came to antiquities. As we entered the dusty and dimly lit lobby, the guard stoically nodded for us to pass to the elevators that would take us up to Zahi’s apartment. Once we arrived, his assistant opened the door and politely greeted us, asking us to come in. His office had an academic air and was well kept, much like a professor’s office. The walls were filled to capacity with books about Egyptian archaeology, many of them authored by Zahi himself, who has produced numerous titles on Egyptology over the years. There were clusters of framed photos, and certificates of appreciation and accolades given to him over the years from schools, universities and governmental agencies, among others. Life in this space has become much quieter since before the revolution. Back then, he’d usually have teams of student assistants swirling about, helping to coordinate and organize his ambitious workload. With so many projects being managed at any given time, he needed all the help he could get. No longer.

Zahi met us warmly with an infectious, friendly smile. It was no wonder. I was with his longtime friend Mary Lomando. She met Zahi over 20 years ago, while she was completing her degree as an Egyptologist. Today, she is a seasoned tour leader and owner of PachaTera Travel. For Zahi, she was a welcome face, and for good reason. He has grown weary of being maligned by the media and his countrymen because he had been a cabinet appointee of deposed President Hosni Mubarak.

So it came as no surprise that, as we sat down together and began our discussion, one of the first topics naturally related to how recent events in Egypt had affected Zahi’s image. From his perspective, the people of Egypt found him an easy target, and he inevitably became a scapegoat for their frustration with anything to do with Mubarak’s regime. Even though all of the charges of corruption against him have since been dropped due to lack of evidence, some still try to malign his work. But love him or hate him, the facts speak clearly: he has arguably done more for restoring the sites of Egypt, preserving its antiquities, and announcing new discoveries, than any other archaeologist in recent history. He has written or co-written more than 60 books on Egyptian archaeology, containing new insights and discoveries. Through his books and public speaking events, he has educated and informed countless archaeologists and archaeologists-in-training, reinforcing the notion that it’s not about the gold, but the ‘treasure’ of information gleaned from the artifacts that tell the “story of us.” In Zahi’s words, “If anyone were to ask what my religion is, I would answer my religion is to train other archaeologists to be better archaeologists than I was!”

Despite his celebrity status, Zahi sees himself not as a media personality, but as a guardian of Egypt’s rich heritage. At the start of the revolution in January, 2011, Zahi took a big risk by forming a human chain with other Egyptians in the streets in front of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, hoping to prevent protesters from storming the museum. This act was not reported by any media source. While in his post with the Egyptian government, he was responsible for repatriating over 5,000 artifacts from museums all over the world. The New York Metropolitan Museum cooperated with him in returning 19 artifacts from King Tutankhamun’s tomb. His boldest move was more controversial: for the first time in history, he blocked France from digging at Saqqara until the Louvre returned the five fragments of the Tetiky frescoes taken from the West Bank in Luxor. Said Zahi, “a bomb dropped at the Louvre when I stopped the French from digging at Saqqara.” His bravado worked and all frescoes were returned.

“What are the most important artifacts you feel should be returned to their home in Egypt?” I asked.

He spouted off a short list of the most significant, such as the Statue of Ramses II in Turin, Italy; the statue of the architect, Hemiunu of the Great Pyramid at the Roemer-und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim; the bust of Prince Ankhhaf at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Dendera zodiac at the Louvre in France; the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum; and, of course, the famed bust of Nefertiti in the Berlin Neues Museum.

Regarding the Nefertiti bust, said Zahi: “There is no progress after years of stalled negotiations and the new Minister of the Supreme Council for Antiquities has sadly and unbelievably publicly declared he does not want Nefertiti returned to Egypt.”

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The Rosetta Stone as exhibited in the British Museum. Hans Hillewaert, Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

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I asked him how he felt about the overall difference he has made for Egypt in meeting its objectives related to its antiquities. He recounted some of the projects and achievements for which he was instrumental during his tenure before the revolution:

The initiation or establishment of 24 new museums around the country. Six have been completed. The rest are still under construction;
The complete restoration of the Serapeum and reinforcement of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara;
Excavation of Pharaoh Seti’s tomb tunnel;
Renovation of the conservation lab at the Egyptian Museum;
Extension of the Luxor Museum; and
Restoration of the Sphinx and its enclosure.

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The Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

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The Great Sphinx, as seen today. Makalu, Pixabay

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As would be expected, discussion gravitated to the impact of Egypt’s slow-boil revolution on its priceless antiquities, in and out of the ground. The archaeological sites of Egypt are unbelievably empty of tourists — one of the casualties of the civil unrest. Security has much to do with this. The monuments, exemplifying some of humanity’s greatest achievements, are barely guarded, and in some sites there are no guards whatsoever. Many sites are in a neglected condition, littered with animal dung, graffiti, and trash.

Moreover, the wave of Islamic extremist incidents throughout the country, fueled by the Muslim Brotherhood, haven’t helped matters. One cleric recently threatened to dismantle the Pyramids and ancient temples. It seems that Islamic fundamentalism isn’t friendly to secular archaeology, which highlights the accomplishments of ancient people with a different belief system, even though today’s Egyptians generally no longer subscribe to it. And looting, like a viral disease, is running in epidemic proportions.

“The current situation is a disaster for Egypt,” said Zahi, “and particularly in Abu Sir, there are illegal excavations everywhere!”

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(AbuSir) – Photo of children playing near large mounds of toxic waste and trash strewn along the irrigation canal in Abu Sir that leads to the Nile. Before the revolution the government had started a clean up project but now that has been halted and with garbage pickup spotty at best, residents dump their garbage alongside it’s banks, sometimes even burning the rubbish to decrease the trash piles that block the flow of water to irrigate local crops. http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/garbage-piles-canals-residents-take-matters-their-own-hands

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Neglected mummy surrounded by trash in Luxor’s Assasif Mountain area, near the Valley of the Kings.

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I asked him about the recent reports of work by Sara Parcak, the University of Alabama archaeologist who, using satellite imagery, calculated the extent of the looting epidemic since the revolution, estimating an increase of 500 percent.

“The [looting] holes that Sarah Parcak is talking about,” Zahi responded, “are what looters leave behind and are not always accurate indicators of looting. These looters dig hundreds of exploratory holes and [they] are mostly failed attempts. They dig for two things — gold and the myth of the healing “red mercury” that supposedly exists in the throats of the mummies, which sometimes fetch high prices on the medicinal black market. There is no such liquid. I have never seen it. It doesn’t exist!”

While on the topic of Parcak’s work, I asked him how he felt about the merits of new technologies, such as the satellite imagery she used to make the recent headline-making new discoveries in Egypt.

“These technologies are all wonderful,” he responded, “but first of all, Egypt is filled with ancient sites – there are sites everywhere! The problem is these new technologies are incompatible with the current state of Egypt today. You find a site and it is reported but then who can we assign to protect it from looting and excavate it properly? There aren’t enough resources for the discovery of so many sites when the existing ones haven’t been properly secured and restored yet. You need a good and stable government for that!”

On another topic, much has been reported in the media regarding accusations and charges against Zahi for corruption related to contracts with National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. I inquired about them.

“All the charges have been dropped from lack of evidence of wrongdoing,” he explained. “I negotiated those projects based on what best offer of help they would provide for the benefit of Egypt. The National Geographic video was very successful for them and in return, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo received a 3 million dollar CT scan machine that is in use to this day and bringing to light many more insights and discoveries about the Pharaohs and their families. All funds paid by the Discovery Channel went straight to the Egyptian antiquities department. The Tutankhamun exhibit earned 125 million dollars for a new room inside the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, now under construction. These contracts were all approved beforehand by the Mubarak regime and were totally transparent.”

Egypt’s mega-project — its new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza — promises to be Egypt’s crown jewel, just a mile away from the pyramids near Cairo. Giza’s skyline is dotted with so many cranes, it looks as if they are constructing a new pyramid. A large sign with red LED numbers in front of the site shows a countdown of 622 days. But this has been a running joke among the locals who say the countdown is in years, not days.

I asked him if he had any updates on the new museum.

“Construction work is ongoing, but very slow, as they need about 700 million dollars to complete the construction of this massive museum. With the current instability, who knows when that will be completed,” he lamented.

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Sunset sky filled with cranes looming over Giza Plateau almost a mile away from the pyramids complex. The cranes are being used to build the new Grand Egyptian Museum, which will be a much larger, state-of-the-art home for Egypt’s finest antiquities. The old museum will still be used but as more of a research center for Egyptology.

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The construction coundtown clock at the building sight for the new Grand Egyptian Museum near Giza Plateau.

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Zahi’s dream – to do the work that still needs to be done to complete his vision for the antiquities department – has been blocked. Looking to the future, that won’t stop him from making new discoveries and continuing to be an Egyptologist, he asserts. But for now, he is resigned to filling his days by organizing speaking tours in the U.S., and book signings in Geneva, Poland, and London, which began November 5th. He’ll be promoting his new book, Discovering Tutankhamun: From Howard Carter to DNA. He is also currently completing another book on the DNA research findings on the royal mummies at Cairo’s Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.

And his passion remains, not in carrying a title, but in being able to effect change and fulfill his personal mission as a guardian of Egypt’s heritage.

I asked him: “If it were offered to you again, would you want your old job back?

He answered with an emphatic “No!”

“Not in the current state Egypt is in. If there is no stability and Egypt is not brought back to a normal working condition, I would be useless and unable to perform my job well.”

I was curious to know what would be on his bucket list of future discoveries when and if life in Egypt returned to normal. He replied, without missing a beat:

“The tomb of Nefertiti, the tomb of the great Imhotep, and finally find the answer to what is behind Gantenbrink’s door inside the Great Pyramid. I believe Imhotep may be buried in an unexcavated area on the west side of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. They have already found a 2nd Dynasty tomb underneath the Step Pyramid. Senenmut, the architect of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, was buried near her mortuary temple there. This leads me to believe that Imhotep mirrored this same act of reverence near King Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara, since he was architect of that pyramid.”

Although not mentioned on his bucket list, Zahi addressed my additional inquiry about the status of the search for Cleopatra’s burial place.

“Dr. Kathleen Martinez unearthed a marble bust of Cleopatra and 22 coins with her image at a small cemetery inside the Ptolemaic temple at Taposiris Magna in Alexandria, some time ago. Unfortunately, that mystery still remains unsolved after more than 5 years of digging and the excavations at the site are ongoing with Dr. Martinez.”

Finally, at the risk of getting a bit too political in a country where the current sensitivities in this realm run high, I asked the big question: “Who would you like to see as the next president?”

There was little hesitation in his response, but his discretion was clear.

“Whoever the people elect, that leader must be very strong and determined to make changes quickly. There are so many people that haven’t worked in three years. The situation is terrible.”

Meanwhile, Zahi is enjoying the legacy he has already built. Next stop: a flight to another speaking engagement and book signing……….to a country where “revolution” is something one only reads about happening somewhere else.

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Zahi Hawass with long time friend and fellow Egyptologist, Mary Lomando at his home office in Cairo.

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Article Supplement

A COUNTRY IN CRISIS

The Egypt of today is a surreal dichotomy. Its once remarkably rich and powerful civilization led by vibrant pharaohs contrasts sharply with the economic and political breakdown of the seemingly leaderless Egypt of today. At present, Egypt’s unemployment rate is over 13 percent (locals say it’s much higher). Moreover, like other third-world countries, much of its population lives in poverty, while luxurious havens exist for the elite few in Cairo, Alexandria, Hurghada, and Sharm el-Sheikh. Income inequality and corruption are as bad as, if not worse than, most other third-world countries.

On our way to visit the pyramids at Giza, youth—no more than 13 years of age— suddenly surrounded the taxi driving us down the old Pyramids Road. They tapped on the car’s windows in an attempt to get money, or baksheesh, from us. Our driver exclaimed apologetically, “They are starving!” in a spurt of honesty that was so heartfelt, it rang in my ears, creating instant empathy for their living conditions. Being Cuban, and having visited my country several times, parallels were instantly drawn in my mind of how far a failed government can effect it’s own people, forcing them to be capable of anything in an effort to survive.

Yet, even though Egypt’s people are in dire need, the country is very safe to visit. Tourists are always treated with kindness and appreciation. It’s an unspoken rule to treat tourists well, but every now and then you will get a character that won’t take “No, thank you” for an answer. A payment of baksheesh—about 10 Egyptian pounds ($1.44 US)—usually satisfies them. Egypt’s economy is heavily reliant on tourism, and the revolution has taken a toll on the tourism industry, which, since the revolution erupted in 2011, has come to a virtual standstill. It would not be an exaggeration to say that at many of the sites we visited we were the only American tourists around. Whenever we were asked the common question: “Where are you from?” our response was always greeted with “Ah, America . . . good people!” Thankfully, Tourism Minister Hisham Zazou announced on October 2, 2013, that 13 countries have now lifted bans on travel to Egypt. The latest two countries, Austria and Ireland, lifted bans to holiday destinations in the Red Sea and South Sinai.

But despite some silver linings, Egypt remains in the grips of an ongoing revolution, and the resultant consequences for its archaeological treasures have been grim. Egypt’s Malawi National Museum was looted and vandalized in August of 2013 by local Muslim extremists, and many artifacts, even wooden sarcophagi, were hacked to pieces with axes. Reports of looting have been leaked from independent sources, but as yet there isn’t much actual data, or an official account, of what has gone missing. However, in Jerusalem, a public auction of 126 recently looted antiquities was halted, evidence that many antiquities are being smuggled out through Egypt’s porous borders.

Mary Lomando and I visited Saqqara and the Abu Sir pyramids area the day before meeting with Dr. Hawass, and reported to him that the replica, full-size statue of King Djoser sitting inside his serdab enclosure was moved out of line in a failed looting attempt. Most looters are not educated enough to know it is a replica. The representation of the ancient king now sits in wait, no longer aligned, blocked from his line of sight to the stars. It is a standing metaphor for the state of Egypt today.

—- EV

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Djoser’s serdab with eyesight holes.

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Before the attempted looting: The pharaoh Djoser’s statue looks out through the hole in his serdab. Wikimedia Commons

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After: The position of the statue as shifted due to the looting attempt.

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Cover Photo, Top Left: View of the great pyramids at Giza. by Soupysquirrel, Pixabay

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Exeter’s Roman Baths

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Claire Johnson -

Claire Johnson is a freelance writer and former artist. Other than her career, she maintains a special interest in ancient history and archaeology and spends her free time visiting places of interest with her family, so that they can understand their mother is not the only one with old bones!

Exeter, England – It’s doubtful that readers will have heard much about this historically fascinating city – which is a great shame, as Exeter has much to offer. The city only has herself to blame for the discrepancy, however. This under-appreciated historical gem is blessed with an abundance of highly visible archaeological treasures – yet has a curiously blasé attitude to its history. Despite containing within its purview such marvels as the unique medieval Underground Passages, several miles of complete Roman wall, beautifully preserved Saxon fortifications, and the oldest public gardens in England (to name but the most obvious), Exeter has an incomparable talent for shooting herself in the archaeological foot.

Take her Roman baths, for example. For almost a thousand years these lay, forgotten, beneath a succession of churches nestled at the foot of the outstanding Gothic front of St Peter’s cathedral. The church builders of the past should not, perhaps, be held accountable for their burying of this absolutely unique outpost of Roman hygienic principles. Times and attitudes were very different, and besides, after the initial Saxon church was built over the site, the baths were soon forgotten. Nobody even knew that they were there – until the 1970s, when it was decided that the little church at the foot of the Cathedral was blocking the view of its (admittedly rather magnificent) West Front, and should accordingly be demolished to make way for something much more attractive (an underground parking lot). During the works, a Saxon burial ground was discovered – excavations of which quickly broke through to reveal a thoroughly unique and absolutely unexpected Roman bath house.

After a few weeks of excited discussion, the City of Exeter established that they had within their bounds a site of worldwide historical interest which could only advance the study of Roman provincial life and provide a massive tourism boost. They therefore did what seemed the only logical thing given these exceptional circumstances…and reburied the baths. Those with an interest in archaeology were obviously aghast at this decision, and have been campaigning for many years to bring back the diggers and once more expose the baths to the Devon sunlight. Now, some forty years after their re-internment, there may be a glimmer of hope upon the horizon for the Roman baths of Exeter. A recent statement by Exeter Cathedral indicates that they may be considering digging them up again in order to afford the site the investigation and public viewing it deserves.

Cutting-Edge Roman Technology

To give the authorities their due, they buried the baths beneath grass and sand in order to make future re-excavation easier – and nobly refrained from smashing the whole thing to pieces for the sake of underground parking. This does at least indicate that they appreciated the significance of the find. Exeter was previously thought to be a very tenuous Roman holding; little more than a fortification at which a suffering legion would be placed in order to oversee the safe extraction and movement of tin from the wild moorlands of Devon and Cornwall. Surrounded on all sides by bleak, inhospitable country and uncivilized hill-tribes, it was thought that Exeter – or Isca Dumnoniorum as it was then known – was a somewhat utilitarian fortification. Despite the impressive walls built by the Romans (which still surround much of central Exeter today, see picture above right), it was generally thought that Roman interest in Exeter was fairly perfunctory, and that attempts at Romanization (as seen in less feral parts of the Empire) were not wasted upon Exeter and its environs. The discovery of the baths tells a different story. Archaeologists excavating the baths in the seventies discovered an impressive hypocaust – very cutting-edge for its time – which heated a large caldarium (hot room) dating from around 60-65 AD. Further excavation revealed a trepidarium (cold room), an expensive furnace house, an exercise yard, and multiple service rooms.

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Above, an example of Roman mosaics found at Exeter.

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All in all, a well-developed bath complex – absolutely unique in Northern Europe – indicates an advanced Roman cultural element in what was previously thought a wild, Brythonic area into which only military Roman influence extended. For its time, the bath complex would have been quite superior. This demonstrates that someone found Exeter important enough to put considerable investment into, and that the population was Romanized enough to take full and profitable advantage of the facilities. Furthermore, this was one of the earliest stone-masonry buildings to be constructed in Roman Britain, which has huge implications for the status of Roman Exeter. This evidence is backed up by the discovery of a great many Roman mosaics, potsherds and so forth within the city – although the vast number of stern Roman fortifications in Devon and Cornwall does suggest that the hill tribes outside the city were neither particularly Romanized nor friendly.

Unacknowledged History

It is possible that the suppression of this evidence of Exeter’s importance to the Romans is due to confusion and disbelief. In Britain’s current London-centric culture, Exeter remains something of an isolated oddity. In a deeply rural part of Britain, often overlooked by central government, and somewhat sequestered between the wild moorlands of Dartmoor (famed as the fictional home of the Hound of the Baskervilles) and Exmoor (the home of the equally fictional and deadly Doones of Lorna Doone), Exeter is largely disregarded. This has allowed it to preserve much of its ancient character – Exeter Castle, for example, remained in civic use as the quarters of Exeter City Council until 2003 (when Health and Safety obligations forced the council into less ancient quarters), and Exeter’s 800-year-old Guildhall is widely thought to be the oldest non-religious building still used for its original purpose in Europe.

However, this adherence to historical veracity often comes at the expense of archaeological investigation. Institutions are used for their original purpose right up until the very last possible minute – and when that minute comes, their educational and tourism potential is often not appreciated. If used in conjunction with established educational resources, the wealth of archaeological history which is just lying around in Exeter could be of enormous research value – and bring a much needed tourism boost to the city. Unfortunately, however, Exeter has not yet learned to use its history in the manner that other, more up-to-date cities have. A case in point closely linked to the abandoned baths is Exeter’s Underground Passages. The Underground Passages date from the early medieval period, and became necessary when works on the Cathedral obstructed Exeter’s main water supply. The baths, situated on the site before the Cathedral was conceived, had utilized this abundant spring to full effect. However, the construction of the Cathedral cut off the water, necessitating the plumbing of clean water from alternate springs into the city. Then, as now, the pipes used to carry the water would need periodic repairs – yet rather than dig up the roads and obstruct traffic, the benevolent engineers of medieval Exeter elected instead to dig a series of underground passages to allow them easy access to the water pipes whenever needed. These ancient subterranean passages remain beneath the city, in good repair, and utterly unique – yet are relatively unknown. Although they are a visitor attraction and can be visited, they are little advertised, and visitors get an almost personal guided tour of the medieval underbelly of Exeter from enthusiasts delighted that somebody is finally taking an interest.

Looking Ahead

It is to be hoped that this display of interest in the Roman baths buried beneath the forecourt of Exeter Cathedral is not mere talk, and that efforts will be made to excavate this site and give it the status it deserves as one of the premier Roman areas of interest in the UK. It is also to be hoped that the renewed interest in Exeter’s archaeological history will prompt city authorities to make the most of their heritage, rather than leaving it to gradually dissolve, unpublicized and un-researched. Should this re-excavation prove successful, it could prompt the greatest outpouring of love for Exeter’s history since this marvelously eccentric city took up arms to defend a threatened Tudor building by placing it on iron wheels and rolling it up a hill. Certainly these early British baths could provide great insight into Romano-British culture, rendering this a story to be watched with deep interest and hope.

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Cover Photo, Top Left: View of Exeter Cathedral. Markus Koljonen, Wikimedia Commons

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Archaeologists find more bodies at Durham University site

Posted on December 1, 2013 by No Author -

Durham University archaeologists have found the remains of many more human bodies at a dig on the City’s World Heritage Site, providing clear evidence of a centuries-old mass grave.

The number of bodies found has risen from four to 18.

Experts first thought they had uncovered remains of Durham Cathedral’s medieval cemetery, whose boundaries may have extended further than the present day burial site.

But further investigation has revealed an unorthodox and intriguing layout to the bodies which archaeologists say is proof of a mass burial.

Richard Annis, senior archaeologist, Archaeological Services Durham University, said: “We have found clear evidence of a mass burial and not a normal group of graves.

“One of the densest areas of the excavation was further north, which is further away from the edge of the presumed graveyard.

“The bodies have been tipped into the earth without elaborate ceremony and they are tightly packed together and jumbled.

“Some are buried in a North to South alignment, rather than the traditional East to West alignment that we would expect from a conventional medieval burial site.”

The same Durham University team will carry out further research into the remains, which will include dating the bones and looking for clues as to their origin. This work is expected to begin in the New Year.

Mr Annis added that no definitive interpretation could be offered at this stage in the investigation: “The process of post-excavation processing, examination and analysis is essential to allow us to draw proper conclusions about this group of human remains.

“It is too early to say what they may be.”

The evidence of human remains was found earlier in November during building work at the University’s Palace Green Library.

With the necessary permission from the UK’s Ministry of Justice, archaeologists are carrying out excavation works in the area before taking the bones away for further examination. By law, the bones must eventually be reinterred at an approved burial ground.

Palace Green Library is undergoing a £10m development to establish world-class exhibition and visitor facilities, part of a £30m total investment in Durham University library services.

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Source: Durham University Press Release, November 29, 2013

Cover Photo, Top Left: Courtesy Durham University Archaeological Services and Durham University News

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Scientists Push Back the Clock on Early Human Finds

Posted on December 1, 2013 by No Author -

An international multi-disciplinary team of scientists have determined that a well-known group of early Homo (early human) fossils discovered in previous investigations at Koobi Fora in the Turkana Basin of East Africa have an age range that is older than previously estimated.

Led by archaeologist Josephine C.A. Joordens of the Netherlands’ Leiden University, the researchers combined magnetostratigraphy and strontium (Sr) isotope stratigraphy techniques to develop a new age constraint range for 15 selected hominin fossils found in deposits on the Karari Ridge of the Koobi Fora region in the eastern Turkana Basin (Kenya). Magnetostratigraphy measures the polarity of Earth’s changing magnetic field at the time a stratum (layer) was deposited. Strontium isotope stratigraphy involves measuring the ratios of Strontium isotopes in sediments to determine relative ages between successively deposited sediments. The fossils included key specimens such as cranium KNM-ER 1470, partial face KNM-ER 62000 and mandibles KNM-ER 1482, KNM-ER 1801, and KNM-ER 1802, all well-known among scientists and scholars involved in human evolution research. The fossil KNM-ER 1470, for example, has been classified as belonging to the early human species Homo rudolfensis, discovered by Bernard Ngeneo in 1972 and considered a possible theoretical contender for being ancestral to the human line. It has been dated to about 1.9 million years BPE.

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Satellite view of the Turkana Basin, Koobi Fora region, showing Lake Turkana. Fossils were found in an area just east of Lake Turkana. Wikimedia Commons

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Surface level view of Turkana Basin looking toward Lake Turkana. AdamPG, Wikimedia Commons

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Now, however, the results of their tests and analyses show a new age-range constraint of between 1.945 ± 0.004 and 2.058 ± 0.034 Ma, making the fossil finds older than previously estimated, and providing a sharper, more specific age range for their deposit.

“To address questions regarding the evolutionary origin, radiation and dispersal of the genus Homo,” writes Joorden, et al. in their report, “it is crucial to be able to place the occurrence of hominin fossils in a high-resolution chronological framework. The period around 2 Ma (millions of years ago) in eastern Africa is of particular interest as it is at this time that a more substantial fossil record of the genus Homo is first found.”

In addition to the new age range, their research shed light on the possible geographic origins and ecological/climatological adaptability of these early humans. As they report:

“……..our results show that in this time interval, hominins occurred throughout the wet–dry climate cycles, supporting the hypothesis that the lacustrine Turkana Basin was a refugium during regionally dry periods. By establishing the observed first appearance datum of a marine-derived stingray in UBU [upper Burgi] deposits at 2.058 ± 0.034 Ma, we show that at this time the Turkana Basin was hydrographically connected [via a postulated ancient ‘Turkana River’] to the Indian Ocean, facilitating dispersal of fauna between these areas. From a biogeographical perspective, we propose that the Indian Ocean coastal strip should be considered as a possible source area for one or more of the multiple Homo species in the Turkana Basin from over 2 Ma onwards.”

The study report, Improved age control on early Homo fossils from the upper Burgi Member at Koobi Fora, Kenya, has been published in the December 2013 issue of the Journal of Human Evolution.

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Cover photo, Top Left: Homo rudolfensis skull (KNM ER 1470) reconstruction displayed at Museum of Man, San Diego. Durova, Wikimedia Commons

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Archaeologists Uncover Earliest Evidence of Birth of Buddha

Posted on November 25, 2013 by No Author -

Scientists excavating within the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Maya Devi Temple in Lumbini, Nepal, have unearthed a timber structure that they date to the sixth century BCE. It is situated within and underlies a temple that is considered sacred to many as the birthplace of Siddhārtha Gautama, or Buddha. Until now, there has been no archaeological evidence supporting a date any earlier than the third century BCE for Buddha’s life. Some historians have suggested the death of Buddha took place sometime in the late 4th century or early 3rd century BCE, although there are a number of traditions with varying dates.

“This sheds light on a very long debate,” said excavation co-leader Robin Coningham of Durham University, U.K.

Working amidst meditating monks, visiting pilgrims and nuns, the international team of archaeologists, led by Coningham along with Kosh Prasad Acharya of the Pashupati Area Development Trust in Nepal, discovered the timber structure remains while excavating under an overlying series of successive brick temples. To determine the dating of the timber structure, including a previously unknown first brick structure superimposed above it, charcoal and sand grain samples removed from the relevant layers of the early timber structure were tested using radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence techniques. Interestingly, geoarchaeological research also revealed evidence of ancient tree roots within the timber structure’s central space. This latter find is important because, according to Buddhist tradition, Queen Maya Devi, the mother of Buddha, gave birth to him while grasping a branch of a tree. Coningham and his colleagues suggest that the open central space from which the charcoal and sand samples were removed was large enough to accommodate the tree. Thus, concludes Coningham, “we have very clear evidence that this [timber] shrine was focused around the tree.” The later brick temples built over the timber structure, which was built around the open central space, were also arranged around this central space. Moreover, the results of their investigation indicated that the central space had “never been covered by a roof,” suggesting the significance of a space that clearly required special or unique treatment.

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Archaeologists Robin Coningham (left) and Kosh Prasad Acharya direct excavations within the Maya Devi Temple, uncovering a series of ancient temples contemporary with the Buddha. Thai monks meditate. Photo by Ira Block/National Geographic/National Geographic Buddha Birthplace

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Monks chant within the Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini in Nepal. The modern temple enshrines the birthplace of the Buddha. Photo by Ira Block/National Geographic/National Geographic Buddha Birthplace

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Pilgrims meditate at the wall below the nativity scene within the Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini, Nepal. The remains of the earliest temples at the site are in the background. Photo by Ira Block/National Geographic/National Geographic Buddha Birthplace

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Said Coningham: “Very little is known about the life of the Buddha, except through textual sources and oral tradition. We thought ‘why not go back to archaeology to try to answer some of the questions about his birth?’ Now, for the first time, we have an archaeological sequence at Lumbini that shows a building there as early as the sixth century B.C.”

Long lost and hidden by jungle overgrowth, ancient Lumbini was rediscovered in 1896 and, because of an inscription on a sandstone pillar discovered at the site, was identified as the birthplace of the Buddha. The inscription bears record of a historic visit by 3rd century India’s Emperor Ashoka to the site of the Buddha’s birth. The inscription also included the site’s name as Lumbini. Under Ashoka’s patronage, Buddhism spread from present-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh.

Other key historic sites related to Buddhism are Bodh Gaya, where Gautama became the Buddha; Sarnath, where he began his preaching; and Kusinagara, where he died.

Among the world’s major religions, Buddhism is followed by about 500 million people, with hundreds of thousands who make the pilgrimage to Lumbini annually.

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The research was funded by the government of Japan in partnership with the government of Nepal under a UNESCO project for conserving and managing the Lumbini site. Funding was also provided by the National Geographic Society, Durham University, and Stirling University. The report details are published in the December 2013 issue of the international journal Antiquity.

A documentary on Coningham’s exploration of the Buddha’s life, “Buried Secrets of the Buddha,” will premiere in February internationally on National Geographic Channel.

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For an alternative perspective, an excellent and interesting commentary can be read about this discovery at The Subversive Archaeologist.

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Archaeologists Uncover One of Civilization’s Oldest Wine Cellars

Posted on November 22, 2013 by No Author -

While excavating within the palace ruins of Tel Kabri, a 75-acre ancient Canaanite city site in northern Israel that dates back to 1700 BCE, a joint American-Israeli team came across a three-foot-long jar. They later christened it “Bessie.” The single find by itself was nothing remarkable. But they kept digging.

“We dug and dug, and all of a sudden, Bessie’s friends started appearing—5, 10, 15, ultimately 40 jars packed in a 15-by-25-foot storage room,” said excavation co-director Dr. Eric Cline, chair of George Washington University’s Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations within the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. “This is a hugely significant discovery—it’s a wine cellar that, to our knowledge, is largely unmatched in its age and size.”

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The team worked in day and night shifts to excavate a total of 40 intact 3,700-year-old vessels in the ancient palatial wine cellar during its six-week dig in July 2013. Courtesy Eric Cline

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Detail view of some of the ancient wine jars unearthed at Tel Kabri. Courtesy Eric Cline

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The 40 jars, each of which could have held 50 liters, had a total capacity of about 2,000 liters, meaning the cellar could have held the equivalent of nearly 3,000 bottles of red and white wine. This places the cellar among the largest ancient wine cellars in the world.

The finds were made while they were digging an area adjacent to and west of a monumental building first excavated in 2011, a one-of-kind structure that was lined with precisely-shaped orthostat blocks.

“This is the largest concentration to date of restorable pottery found anywhere in the palace of Kabri and the only place on site where we have found an entire room still full of artifacts,” writes co-director Yasur-Landau and colleagues in their preliminary report. Yasur-Landau is chair of the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa.

They add that it is “the first time that such a storeroom with jars still present has been uncovered within an MB (Middle Bronze Age) palace in Canaan.”

What is more, “the wine cellar was located near a hall where banquets took place, a place where the Kabri elite and possibly foreign guests consumed goat meat and wine,” said Yasur-Landau. “The wine cellar and the banquet hall were destroyed during the same violent event, perhaps an earthquake, which covered them with thick debris of mud bricks and plaster.”

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Overall view of the excavated storage room with jars. The room measured approximately 15-by-25 feet, and held 40 wine jars that were 3,700 years old. Courtesy Eric Cline

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This image of the Tel Kabri wine cellar was created using LIDAR, a technique that uses a pulsed laser to measure distances and generate an accurate 3D map of a location. LIDAR helped the archaeologists map the storage room and each of the 40 wine jars discovered in July 2013. Courtesy Tel Kabri Archaeological Project

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At first, it wasn’t clear that the jars once contained wine. To determine that, Dr. Koh, an assistant professor of classical studies at Brandeis University and associate director of the excavation, analyzed the jar fragments using organic residue analysis. He found traces of tartaric and syringic acids, both key components in wine, as well as compounds suggesting the presence of ingredients popular in ancient wine-making, including honey, mint, cinnamon bark, juniper berries and resins. The recipe is similar to medicinal wines used for 2,000 years in ancient Egypt.

“This wasn’t moonshine that someone was brewing in their basement, eyeballing the measurements,” Dr. Koh said. “This wine’s recipe was strictly followed in each and every jar.”

Researchers now want to continue analyzing the composition of each solution, possibly discovering enough information to recreate the flavor.

Archaeologists anticipate the possibility of more storage rooms ahead. A few days before the end of the 2013 field season, they discovered two doors leading out of the wine cellar—one to the south, and one to the west. They suspect they lead to other storage rooms. But they will have to wait another two years — the next field season doesn’t start until the summer of 2015.

Tel Kabri contains the remains of a Canaanite palatial center dated to the Middle Bronze Age (2,000-1,550 BCE). First settled about 16,000 years ago during the Neolithic period, permanent structures began to appear around 10,000 BCE. Excavations were conducted at Tel Kabri from 1986 to 1993 under Israeli archaeologist Aharon Kempinski, and then renewed beginning in 2005 by an international team co-directed by Assaf Yasur-Landau of the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa and Prof. Eric H. Cline of The George Washington University. Tel Kabri is best known for its Minoan-style frescoe fragments, the only such finds ever unearthed in Israel. Beginning in 2009, fragments of additional Minoan style frescoes were discovered at the site.

Ultimately, the researchers hope the Tel Kabri excavations and research will offer what might be the most complete picture of palatial political, social and economic life in the Canaanite period, answering questions such as whether or not the Canaanites had a central government, whether taxes were levied, the type of agriculture practiced, and the trade networks operating during the time.

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An aerial view of Tel Kabri. Among other objectives, researchers are investigating the site to obtain clues as to what drove the economy of the area. Courtesy Skyview Photography, Ltd.

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Source: Adapted and edited from press releases of the George Washington University and Brandeis University and a previous article published by Popular Archaeology Magazine, Archaeologists Uncover Rare Finds at an Ancient Canaanite Center.

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Fossil Fragments of Unknown Early Human Come Together

Posted on November 19, 2013 by No Author -

Scientists at a cave site in South Africa are kicking into high gear as they continue to uncover more fossil bones of what is suspected to be an early human ancestral (“hominid”) species.

The location is known as the “Rising Star” Cave site in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, about 40 kilometers north of Johannesburg, and although it is far too soon to determine the classification and age of the fossil finds, the site could turn out to yield the richest collection of hominid fossil finds at any one site in South Africa, a country that has made history in the chronicles of human evolution research. More than 300 fossil fragments of multiple individuals have been recovered, with potentially much more to come. In the world of early human fossil hunting, this is a rare occurrence.

“Even [for] the best known species of early hominid, there are pieces missing,” said University of the Witwatersrand paleoanthropologist Lee Berger in a blog report from National Geographic reporter Andrew Howley. “What is exceptional about these fossils is we already have parts of the anatomy that have almost never been seen before in any species, and certainly not in this kind of abundance.”*

And now, one of the most critical tasks of the expedition begins to unfold — the assembly and examination of key fragments of the expedition’s first-recovered fossil cranium, an exercise that will lend some of the first important clues to the identity of the early human who inhabited the area of the cave eons ago. Back in the tent lab near the site, Darryl de Ruiter of Texas A & M University and the Evolutionary Studies Institute will do the honors. According to de Ruiter, it is arguably the cranium that retains the most overall consistency among early human species, as other parts, such as the mandible (jaw bone), may vary considerably in size and shape, even within a species.

The fragile cranium fragments had to be slowly and carefully excavated and then removed from their cave context before much further work could be done to excavate what could lie beneath. Now that they have been removed, excavations will progress full-speed ahead to recover what could be many more finds.

The trove of bones were first discovered in October by a pair of recreational cavers, who alerted Lee Berger, a well-known paleoanthropologist with the University of Witwatersrand, who has been at the forefront of major hominid fossil discoveries in South Africa, such as the recent Australopithecus sediba finds at the Malapa cave site. To investigate the cave and its contents, Berger spearheaded the assembly of an expeditionary group (called the “Rising Star Expedition”) of scientists. Along with chief scientists, the group included six researchers who were hand-picked to actually enter the cave system to excavate and remove the fossil bones. To qualify for this job, these team members had to have a master’s degree or Ph.D. in paleontology, archaeology or a related field; they had to be experienced spelunkers, or cavers; and they had to be small enough to successfully and safely negotiate an 18-centimeter-wide opening leading to the targeted cave chamber. The effort has to date proven to be a great success.

More about the expedition and its discoveries, including videos and photos, can be found at the National Geographic website, Rising Star Expedition.

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* http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/11/19/the-skull-man-arrives/

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Story of the First Americans Unfolding Through DNA Research

Posted on November 18, 2013 by No Author -

Recent strides in DNA research are beginning to fill many of the gaps left in multidisciplinary scientific attempts to reveal and understand human prehistory. Some of these studies have provided clues to the dispersal of ancient humans across the globe going back tens of thousands of years.

Now, University of Illinois anthropology professor Ripan Malhi is analyzing DNA to tell the story of how and when humans first arrived in the Americas, and then what happened to them afterwards. Through study sites in British Columbia, California, Guatemala, Mexico and Illinois, he hopes to help find long-sought answers to the big, debated questions addressing the who, when, and where of the first Americans and the dynamics of their spread and activity across the Americas.

“The best opportunity to infer the evolutionary history of Native Americans and to assess the effects of European colonization is to analyze genomes of ancient Native Americans and those of their living descendants,” Malhi said. “I think what makes my lab unique is that we focus not only on the initial peopling of the Americas but also what happened after the initial peopling. How did these groups move to new environments and adapt to their local settings over 15,000 years?” Researchers may draw the wrong conclusions about human history when looking only at artifacts and language, he maintains.

Malhi, an affiliate of the Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois, is taking a collaborative approach to his quest. He works with present-day Native Americans to study their genetic history. By recently cooperating with members of the Tsimshian Nation on the northwest coast of British Columbia, for example, he found a direct ancestral link between ancient human remains in the Prince Rupert Island area and the native peoples living in that region today. That study examined changes in the mitochondrial genome over time. (Mitochondria are structures within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use. Abbreviated as mtDNA, they are inherited by children solely from the mother.)

Other studies from Malhi’s lab analyze changes in the Y chromosome or the protein-coding regions of the genome. DNA in the Y chromosome is passed from father to son.

“What’s interesting about the northwest coast and California is that these communities were complex hunter-gatherer societies,” adds Malhi, “whereas in Mexico and Guatemala, it’s more communities that transitioned to farming and then experienced the effects of European colonization.”

Malhi is reporting some of his findings before the Royal Society in London on Nov. 18 and 19.

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Anthropology professor Ripan Malhi works with Native Americans to collect and analyze their DNA and that of their ancestors. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer

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Cover Photo, Top Left: Metlakatla people of British Columbia in ceremonial attire. Wikimedia Commons

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Ancient Egyptians Used Organic Compounds to Embalm Meat Mummies

Posted on November 18, 2013 by No Author -

A study team consisting of researchers from the University of Bristol, UK, and the American University in Cairo, Egypt, are suggesting that some ancient Egyptian meat mummies were embalmed with organic compounds, including one meat mummy that showed evidence for the use of Pistacia resin, a highly valued luxury item.

Meat victual mummies, which are wrapped and embalmed meaty portions or joints of animals such as cattle or poultry, have typically been found within the ancient tombs of royal and high status individuals in Egypt. They are thought to have been meant as food items for consumption by the deceased in the afterlife. Such were discovered, for example, within 48 carved wooden cases in the tomb of King Tutankhamun (died c. 1323 BCE). Unlike other foods found preserved by dehydration within the tombs, however, the victual meats had to be treated in ways similar to that of the humans and animal mummies, “as untreated meat would not last more than a few hours in the Egyptian heat.”* But the exact elemental components of the substances used in the process of victual meat mummy treatment has been unclear, until now.

To investigate this, Richard Evershed and colleagues from the University of Bristol and the American University analyzed the chemical composition of tissue samples and bandages from four meat mummies – that of a calf from the tomb of Isetemkheb (c. 1064-948 BCE), a duck and goat from the tomb of Henutmehyt (c. 1290 BCE), and beef ribs from the tomb of Yuya and Tjuiu (1386-1349 BCE). They concluded that these meat mummies were prepared using a diverse range of organic compound treatments. As reported by the study group, the external bandages from a victual calf mummy contained a mixture of compounds from animal fat, but no evidence of waxes or resins. They knew this because the bandages they sampled were not in direct contact with the meat, and thus the compounds were interpreted to have been deliberately applied and not simply originating from the meat itself. Similar animal fat-derived compounds were detected with the mummified goat leg sample, but not with the mummified duck sample.

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Beef rib meat mummy from the tomb of Yuya and Tjuiu (1386-1349 BC). Credit: Image courtesy of PNAS.

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The most interesting find, however, came from the analysis of the bandages associated with the mummified beef ribs (pictured above). That sample contained a mixture of fat or oil, beeswax, and Pistacia resin. Pistacia has been considered a comparatively rare luxury item in ancient Egypt.

“The date of the occurrence of Pistacia resin associated with this meat mummy predates any known association with human mummies by some 600 years,” reports Evershed, et al., “although this might change with further investigations of human mummies. The ﬁnding of Pistacia resin on this meat mummy likely relates to the status of the burial; this meat mummy was part of the funerary assemblage of the parents of Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III (c. 1386–1349 BC) (34), making it among the highest status mummy balm thus far chemically analyzed in modern times.”

Conclude the researchers: “Our findings show that the sophistication of the burial extended not only to the organic balming treatments applied to the bodies themselves but also to the foods, particularly the meats, interred with them.”*

The detailed study was published in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on November 18, 2013.

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Sources: Edited and adapted from a PNAS press release, excerpts from published study (see reference below).

* Article #13-15160: “Organic chemistry of balms used in the preparation of pharaonic meat mummies,” by Katherine A. Clark, Salima Ikram, and Richard P. Evershed.

Cover Photo, Top Left: Beef rib meat mummy from the tomb of Yuya and Tjuiu (1386-1349 BC). Credit: Image courtesy of PNAS.

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Archaeology News for the Week of November 17th, 2013

Posted on November 17, 2013 by No Author -

November 17th, 2013

In Florida, a spring cleanup yields cornucopia of history

To the untrained eye, many of the hundreds of artifacts pulled in recent months from a Florida spring in the Chassahowitzka River look like stuff nobody wanted to buy at a yard sale: old bottles, an antler, broken pieces of a plate, a toy cap gun, a bowl, a fishhook, pins. But to archaeologist Michael Arbuthnot, who oversaw a five-month project that pulled hundreds of such items from a 2 1/2-acre field of muck as deep as 25 feet below the surface of the spring, they are much more. “We found an amazing array of artifacts that basically represent every period of human occupation in Florida,” he told CNN in a telephone interview. (CNN News)

Cave women unearth skull of unknown human ancestor

An all-woman team of spelunking scientists has retrieved hundreds of fossils from a 100-foot-deep (30-meter-deep) cave in South Africa — including the cranium from what appears to be a prehistoric humanlike creature. Friday’s retrieval of the skull was a climactic moment for the three-week expedition to the Rising Star Cave in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, just 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Johannesburg. (NBCNews)

DNA hint of European origin for dogs

The results of a DNA study suggest that dogs were domesticated in Europe. No-one doubts that “man’s best friend” is an evolutionary off-shoot of the grey wolf, but scientists have long argued over the precise timing and location for their emergence. The new research, based on a genetic analysis of ancient and modern dog and wolf samples, points to a European origin at least 18,000 years ago. (BBC News)

Archaeologists Find More Than 100 Mummified Dogs in Peru

The discovery of 137 mummified dogs in Peru, more than 1,000 years old, serves as a reminder that historically, a dog’s responsibilities to his owner didn’t always end when the owner died. Archaeologists found 62 complete bodies and 75 incomplete skeletons buried alongside human remains. Enrique Angulo, a veterinarian who’s looked over the remains, says that the dogs were of a wide range of ages and showed signs of a variety of different illnesses. (Dogster.com)

Scientists disagree on age of Serpent Mound

Serpent Mound arguably is the most recognizable icon of ancient America. Therefore, you might be surprised to learn that much about this mound is arguable, including its age. Serpent Mound was long thought to be an Adena mound, dating to between 800 B.C. and A.D. 100, but opinions shifted in the 1990s when a team of archaeologists obtained radiocarbon dates on charcoal recovered from the mound. (The Columbus Dispatch)

Five pharaonic statue heads found in Egypt

A team of Egyptian and French archaeologists have found five heads of royal statues from the pharaonic era, officials from the antiquities ministry said on Saturday.“The heads, which had crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt and were made from limestone, were discovered” south of Luxor, Antiquities Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said in a statement. The head of the department of pharaonic antiquities, Mohammed Abdel Maqsud, said the heads measured 50 centimetres (20 inches) across and are estimated to be around 4,000 years old.(Hurriyet Daily News)

Deformed, Pointy Skull from Dark Ages Unearthed in France

The skeleton of an ancient aristocratic woman whose head was warped into a deformed, pointy shape has been unearthed in a necropolis in France. The necropolis, found in the Alsace region of France, contains 38 tombs that span more than 4,000 years, from the Stone Age to the Dark Ages. (Live Science)

Study Reveals More Clues to Origins of Domesticated Dog

Posted on November 14, 2013 by No Author -

Scientists have theorized that the origin of the domestic dog stems from the domestication of the Grey Wolf tens of thousands of years ago. But the approximate date and place have been grist for scientific debate for years, with some genetic and archaeological evidence indicating that humans domesticated wolves on more than one occasion, with today’s lineage arising at the latest 15,000 years ago based on findings at the Bonn-Oberkassel site in Germany, and genetic evidence pointing to 33,000 years ago from investigations of the Razboinichya Cave in the Altai Mountains of Russia.

Now, based on a recently completed study, Olaf Thalmann of the University of Turku, Finland, and colleagues are suggesting that Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe as much as 32,000 years ago may have played a significant role in the process.

To come to this conclusion, Thalmann and his team compared mitochondrial DNA from a broad range of modern-day dog and wolf breeds to mitochondrial DNA from canine fossils dated to 19,000-32,000 years ago, as well as fossils from modern canines. Their analysis showed that modern dogs’ genetic sequences most closely matched those of either ancient European canines, including wolves, or modern European dogs, but did not closely match DNA from canines outside of Europe. According to the researchers, this suggests a European origin, and, as only hunter-gatherer populations were present during this period, a domestication that predates the advent of agriculture.

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Above: A lateral view of a Pleistocene wolf from the Trou des Nutons cave (Belgium), calibrated age of 26,000 years Before the Present. This wolf species was particularly large. [Image courtesy of Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences]

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A lateral view of a Palaeolithic dog from the Goyet cave (Belgium), calibrated age of 36,000 years Before the Present. Thalmann et al. believe the species represented by this fossil to be an ancient sister-group to all modern dogs and wolves, rather than a direct ancestor. [Image courtesy of Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences]

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Dog burial from Horizon 11 of the Koster site, Greene County, Illinois, US. The fossil specimen at this site have a calibrated age of 8,500 years Before the Present. [Image courtesy of Del Baston, Center for American Archaeology]

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It has been previously thought that fields and crops attracted wolves to villages, leading to interactions with humans that eventually resulted in a cooperative or symbiotic relationship. Human intervention in canine evolution thus produced the variety of modern dog breeds commonly seen today in homes and dog parks throughout the world. But this study, along with clues from other research and excavations, pushes the origins back further to the Palaeolithic Age, when wild wolves may have been drawn to hunter-gatherers, the researchers suggest, because they could feed on carcasses the hunters left behind.

The details of the research appears in the 15 November 2013 issue of Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

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Research Allows Reconstruction of Pre-colonial Landscape in Eastern U.S.

Posted on November 13, 2013 by No Author -

Other than cities, towns, and road systems, what we see today on the eastern mid-Atlantic U.S. landscape is quite different than what Native Americans saw before European contact. It was a world that essentially vanished as colonizers took root and transformed their environment to meet their needs. This is nothing new to most historians.

Thanks to recent research, however, scientists can now reconstruct that landscape with accuracy, providing information that may also help manage the environment of today.

It all has to do with milldams and leaves. According to a team of geoscientists, sediment behind milldams in Pennsylvania preserved leaves deposited just before European contact, providing a glimpse of ancient forests. To get to this, they examined samples of 300-year-old leaves buried by sediment backed up behind Denlinger’s Mill in Lancaster County. The leaves fell from trees from above the location of the dam. As sediment rapidly covered and “entombed” the leaf layer, the leaves that were deposited before the construction of the dam were preserved intact.

“First we had to uncover the leaf mats and then try to get a sample,” said Sara J. Elliott, a research associate at the University of Texas Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology. “The mats were fragile and delicate, and getting them back to the lab or just transferring them from one container to another was problematic.”

But Elliott carefully and successfully peeled away the leaves, layered on top of each other in mud and preserved in remarkable detail. She then treated them in a variety of chemical baths, mounted them between large glass slides and cataloged the various species.

Analysis of the results led to a surprising conclusion.

“We expected to see evidence for single stream channels that meandered back and forth across the valley bottom landscape for millennia, ” wrote researcher Dorothy J. Merritts, chair, Department of Earth and Environment, and colleagues. “Instead, we found that most of the valley bottoms at the time of European contact were dominated by wetland ecosystems with numerous small, stable ‘anastomosing’ streams.” These branching and reconnecting streams were far different from the steep-banked meandering streams that, since the dams were breached, now cut through the silt deposits created by the dams.

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Above shows Denlinger’s Mill study site. Located on the West Branch of the Little Conestoga Creek in Lancaster County, PA. Arrow indicates dark paleo-wetland soil layer containing fossil leaf deposits, with four plus meters of historical sediment buildup on top. Credit: Penn State

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“Milldams were built from the late 1600s to the late 1800s in Pennsylvania and other parts of the east,” said Peter Wilf, professor of geosciences, Penn State University. “We can’t get information from historic records on what the area looked like before the dams because recording of natural history didn’t really begin until the 1730s and was not detailed.”

U.S. census shows that by 1840, tens of thousands of milldams existed in the mid-Atlantic region. About 10,000 of these were in Pennsylvania. In Lancaster County, estimates were one dam for every mile of stream. The abundance of dams in the area altered the landscape dramatically, according to the researchers.

The Denlinger’s Mill site is unusual because of the rock outcrop and the trees that have grown there over the water. The leaves found in the stream bank preserve a snapshot of the trees growing directly above before European settlement, which consisted overwhelmingly of American beech, red oak and sweet birch, similar to modern red oak/beech forests today. But box elder and another maple dominate the current forest that grows above the stream.

“It was intriguing to see samples from American chestnut, which isn’t around anymore because of the chestnut blight,” said Elliott. “On the whole though, the species are around today, just in different proportions and places.”

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Above shows dominant components of the pre-European settlement forest. Red Oak (left), American Beech (center), Sweet Birch (right). These are fossil leaves removed from the Denlinger Mill study site. Credit: Penn State

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This is an artist’s reconstruction of the pre-settlement landscape. The upper slope forest community in the background represents the Red Oak-American Beech-Sweet Birch mixed hardwood forest interpreted here from fossil leaves. The foreground consists of tussock-sedge wetlands with small, interconnected stream channels and pools, quite unlike the steep-banked single channel streams seen today. Credit: Penn State

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The scientists see a potential application of their findings to addressing some environmental problems of today.

“We now know that legacy sediment from the stream banks caused by the milldams is the major source of eutrophication in the Chesapeake area,” said Wilf. “Not, as is usually assumed, modern agricultural runoff.” Establishment of precolonial-like habitats might decrease the amounts of nutrients from the legacy sediments that currently flow into the Chesapeake watershed and cause increased algal and plant growth.

The findings are published in the November 13th issue of PLOS ONE.

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Source: Adapted and edited from a press release of Penn State.

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Cover Photo, Top Left: Artist’s reconstruction of the pre-settlement landscape. The upper slope forest community in the background represents the Red Oak-American Beech-Sweet Birch mixed hardwood forest interpreted here from fossil leaves. The foreground consists of tussock-sedge wetlands with small, interconnected stream channels and pools, quite unlike the steep-banked single channel streams seen today. Credit: Penn State

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Genetic Study Reveals New Insight into Origins of Our Species

Posted on November 10, 2013 by No Author -

New genetic research has revealed the existence of certain regions in the human genome that have changed or mutated more rapidly than most others, resulting in differences that make us human among our primate cousins.

By using the latest sequencing and bioinformatics tools, scientists at the Gadstone Institutes were able to identify certain genomic regions that guide the development of human-specific characteristics.

“Advances in DNA sequencing and supercomputing have given us the power to understand evolution at a level of detail that just a few years ago would have been impossible,” said Gladstone Laboratory Investigator Katherine Pollard, who is also a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco’s (UCSF’s) Institute for Human Genetics. “In this study, we found stretches of DNA that evolved much more quickly than others. We believe that these fast-evolving stretches were crucial to our human ancestors becoming distinct from our closest primate relatives.”

Called “human accelerated regions”, or HARs, they were found to mutate at a relatively fast rate. Specifically, HARs act as “enhancers,” controlling when and for how long certain genes are “switched on” or activated during embryonic development. This was revealed through experiments in embryonic animal models and the use of supercomputers to conduct powerful computational genomics analyses. The research team identified more than 2,600 HARs. Then, using a machine-learning algorithm called EnhancerFinder and genetic information input they were able to reduce the list to those HARs they predicted to be likely enhancers. “We predicted that nearly eight hundred HARs act as enhancers at a specific point during embryonic development,” explained Tony Capra, PhD, the study’s lead author. “Confirming this prediction for several dozen HARs, our next goal was to see whether any of these HARs enhanced patterns of gene activation that were uniquely human.”

Five such HARs were identified, active in both human and chimpanzee genomes, but which activated genes in different embryonic regions. For example, the human versions of HARs 2xHAR.164 and 2xHAR.170 are active in a region of the brain between the midbrain and hindbrain, while the chimp versions are not. This so-called “gain of function” of these two HARs in human embryos may point to differences in the development of key brain regions such as the cerebellum, which is known to regulate not only motor control but may also regulate higher cognitive functions, such as language, fear and pleasure.

“These results, while preliminary, offer an unprecedented glimpse into how very recent changes to the human genome have modified the genetic programs that control embryonic development to potentially yield different results,” said Capra. “We anticipate that if we were to look at the activity of HARs that are enhancers during later developmental stages, we would see even more differences between humans and chimpanzees.”

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Source: Adapted and edited from a Gladstone Institutes press release.

Gladstone is an independent and nonprofit biomedical-research organization dedicated to accelerating the pace of scientific discovery and innovation to prevent, treat and cure cardiovascular, viral and neurological diseases. Gladstone is affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.

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Scientists Discover First Domestication of Cattle in China

Posted on November 8, 2013 by No Author -

It began with the discovery of a lower jaw of an ancient cattle specimen during an excavation in north-east China. Carbon dated to be 10,660 years old, it showed a wear pattern on the molars which, according to the researchers, is a strong indication of long-term human management of the animal. Moreover, analysis of the ancient DNA extracted from the jaw indicated that the animal was not related to the same cattle lineages that were domesticated in the Near East and South Asia.

The discovery overturns the long-accepted theory that the first domestication of cattle occurred in the Near East region around 10,000 years ago. Now, if the findings are correct, it seems domestication took place at more than one center around the same time.

The research was co-led by Professor Michi Hofreiter of the University of York and Professor Hucai Zhang of Yunnan Normal University in China. Said Hofreiter: “The specimen is unique and suggests that, similar to other species such as pigs and dogs, cattle domestication was probably also a complex process rather than a sudden event.”

Like the development of agriculture, domestication of cattle is considered a key benchmark in the expansion of human population and the rise of settlements and urban civilization. Until now, scientists have suggested that humans began domesticating cattle first around 10,000 years ago in the Near East, giving rise to humpless (taurine) cattle, followed by the management of humped cattle (zebu) two thousand years later in Southern Asia.

The new research is published in detail in Nature Communications.

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

Cover Photo, Top Left: China Rice field with cattle and farmer. Photographer: Markus Raab, Wikimedia Commons

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Study Sheds Light on Dawn of Agriculture in Far Northern Climes

Posted on November 6, 2013 by No Author -

Floods didn’t make floodplains fertile during the dawn of human agriculture in the Earth’s far north because the waters were virtually devoid of nitrogen, unlike other areas of the globe scientists have studied.

Instead, the hardy Norsemen and early inhabitants of Russia and Canada have microorganisms called cyanobacteria to mostly thank for abundant grasses that attracted game to hunt and then provided fodder once cattle were domesticated. The process is still underway in the region’s pristine floodplains.

The new findings are surprising because it’s long been assumed that nitrogen crucial to plant growth mainly arrived with floods of river water each spring, according to Thomas DeLuca, a University of Washington professor of environmental and forest sciences and lead author of a paper in the Nov. 6, 2013 issue of the journal PLOS ONE.

Discovering that cyanobacteria in the floodplains were responsible for nitrogen fixation – that is taking it from the atmosphere and “fixing” it into a form plants can use – partially resolves the scientific debate of how humans harvested grasses there for hundreds of years without fertilizing, DeLuca said. It raises the question of whether farmers today might reduce fertilizer use by taking advantage of cyanobacteria that occur, not just in the floodplains studied, but in soils around the world, he said.

It also might lead to more accurate models of nitrogen in river systems because none of the prominent models consider nitrogen being fixed in floodplains, DeLuca said. Scientists model nitrogen loading of rivers, especially where industrial fertilizers and effluent from wastewater-treatment plants cause dead zones and other problems in the lower reaches and mouths of rivers.

Ten rivers and 71 flood plains were studied in northern Fennoscandia, a region that includes parts of Scandinavia and Finland. The rivers were chosen because their upper reaches are pristine, haven’t been dammed and are not subject to sources of human-caused nitrogen enrichment – much like river systems humans encountered there hundreds of years ago, as agriculture emerged in such “boreal” habitats. Boreal habitat – found at 60 degrees latitude and north all the way into the Arctic Circle, where it meets tundra habitat – is the second largest biome or habitat type on Earth.

In the northern regions of the boreal, the surrounding hillsides have thin, infertile soils and lack shrubs or herbs that can fix nitrogen. In these uplands, feather mosses create a microhabitat for cyanobacteria, which fix a modest amount of nitrogen that mostly stays on site in soils, trees and shrubs. Little of it reaches waterways. On the floodplains, high rates of nitrogen fixation occur in thick slimy black mats of cyanobacteria growing in seasonably submerged sediments and coating the exposed roots and stems of willows and sedges.

“We joke and call the floodplains the ‘mangroves of the North’ because there are almost impenetrable tangles of willow tree roots in places, like a micro version of the tropical and subtropical mangroves that are known to harbor highly active colonies of cyanobacteria,” DeLuca said.

“It turns out there’s a lot of nitrogen fixation going on in both,” he said. For example, the scientists discovered that in spite of the dark, cold, snowy winters of Northern Sweden, the cyanobacteria there fix nitrogen at rates similar to those living the life in the toasty, sun-warmed Florida Everglades.

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Huts used for storing fodder dot the floodplains, where sedges have been harvested for hundreds of years without additional fertilization. Early settlers cleared willows to encourage and harvest sedges and grasses. Credit: T DeLuca/U of Washington

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The amount of nitrogen provided by the cyanobacteria to unharvested willows and sedges is perhaps a quarter of what U.S. farmers in the Midwest apply in industrial fertilizers to grain crops and as little as a sixth of what they apply to corn.

Human-made fertilizers can be fuel-intensive to produce and use, for example, it takes the energy of about a gallon of diesel to produce 4 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer. In developing countries in particular, nitrogen fertilization rates are spiraling upward, driving up fossil-fuel consumption, DeLuca said. Meanwhile, cyanobacteria naturally occurring in farm soils aren’t fixing nitrogen at all in the presence of all that fertilizer, they just don’t expend the energy when nitrogen is so readily available, he said.

“Although modest in comparison to modern fertilization, the observation that cyanobacteria could drive the productivity of these boreal floodplain systems so effectively for so long makes one question whether cyanobacteria could be used to maintain the productivity of agricultural systems, without large synthetic nitrogen fertilizer inputs,” he said.

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Source Credit: Sandra Hines, University of Washington press release.

Co-authors of the paper are Olle Zackrisson and Ingela Bergman with the Institute for Subarctic Landscape Research, Sweden, Beatriz Díez

Cover Photo, Top Left: Sedges and willow trees get the nitrogen they need from cyanobacteria living in the sediments of pristine boreal floodplains found at 60 degrees latitude and north into the Arctic Circle. Credit: T DeLuca/U of Washington

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A Secret to the Building of the Forbidden City Revealed

Posted on November 5, 2013 by No Author -

Based on historical research and experiments in mechanical engineering, an international study group has confirmed that Chinese workers in the 16th century CE used artificially created ice paths lubricated with liquid water to transport massive stones to the Forbidden City in Beijing. The method was used, despite the fact that the Chinese civilization had already developed wheeled vehicles capable of moving very heavy objects for 2,000 years.

Study lead author Jiang Li and colleagues first researched the historical literature on the topic, including a 500-year-old document that records the moving of the “Large Stone Carving”. Weighing about 123 tons, a team of men moved it during the deep winter of 1557 a distance of 70 km over 28 days to the Forbidden City using a sliding sledge over a path of ice repeatedly lubricated by water dug from succeeding wells along the path. They tested the technique using materials and conditions that duplicated similar activity, and what they found supported the plausibility of the historical record.

“We show that an ice lubrication technique of water-lubricated wood-on-ice sliding was used instead of the common ancient approaches, such as wood-on-wood sliding or the use of log rollers,” reported Jiang Li and colleagues. “The technique took full advantage of the natural properties of ice, such as sufficient hardness, flatness, and low friction with a water film. This ice-assisted movement is more efficient for such heavy-load and low-speed transportation necessary for the stones of the Forbidden City.”*

The authors determined that fewer than 50 men would have been sufficient to pull the sledge using this method, whereas pulling the same load over ground using the more commonly known ancient methods would have required a force of more than 1,500 men. Given the climatic conditions that existed in the Beijing region in the mid-16th century, the researchers concluded that a wood sledge over lubricated ice could have moved fast enough over a lubricating water film before the water froze to impede forward movement.

The study report is published in full detail in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Cover Photo, Top Left: Workers likely slid massive stones, such as this 300-ton marble carving in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, Beijing, China, along artificial ice paths. Image courtesy of Chui Hu.

* Article #13-09319: “Ice lubrication for moving heavy stones to the Forbidden City in 15th- and 16th-century China,” by Jiang Li, Haosheng Chen, and Howard A. Stone.

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Rare Early Biblical Manuscripts Return to View at Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery

Posted on November 4, 2013 by No Author -

More than 100 years after they were first on view to the public in museum-founder Charles Lang Freer’s Detroit home, two rare antique biblical manuscripts will return to view at the Freer Gallery of Art Nov. 16. The Washington Codex–one of the oldest manuscripts of the four Gospels in the world–as well as an ancient parchment volume of Deuteronomy and Joshua will be on view through Feb. 16, 2014, in the unexpected setting of James McNeill Whistler’s blue-and-gold Peacock Room.

The Washington Codex, also known as the Codex Washingtonensis or Freer Gospels, is the third-oldest parchment manuscript of the gospels in the world, dating from the fourth to fifth centuries. The scriptures of Deuteronomy and Joshua are substantially complete texts from the Old Testament and date from the same period. Painted wooden covers, designed to protect the Gospels and decorated with representations of the four Evangelists, will also be on view. (More on Freer’s collection of Biblical manuscripts)

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Washington Manuscript III: The Four Gospels (Codex Washingtonensis) Egypt, late 4th–early 5th century Ink on parchment Gift of Charles Lang Freer Freer Gallery of Art, F1906.274 Courtesy Freer Gallery of Art

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Freer purchased the manuscripts in 1906 in Giza, Egypt, and later organized and underwrote significant early biblical scholarship. While researching their cultural context and physical structure, it was discovered that the Washington Codex contains a passage not found in any other biblical text-a segment at the end of the Gospel of Mark known as the Freer logion (a logion is a saying attributed to Jesus), which will be viewable during the exhibition.

However, Freer was mainly interested in aesthetic beauty and harmonies among the various objects in his collection, regardless of type or origin. In November 1912, he opened his Detroit home to the public and used Whistler’s Peacock Room as a display space to curate his acquisitions, filling the shelves with pottery from the Middle East and Asia, tables of Buddhist sculpture and glass cases containing the Washington Codex and Old Testament manuscripts. Having recently promised his collection to the Smithsonian, the room became a beautiful laboratory where Freer could bring seemingly disparate objects into a visual conversation.

“When Freer chose to exhibit his rare biblical manuscripts in the Peacock Room, he was demonstrating his belief in cross-cultural correspondence,” said Lee Glazer, curator of American art at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. “Juxtaposing these sacred texts with ceramics and aesthetic decoration underscored Freer’s belief that ‘all works of art go together.'”

Due to their extreme fragility and sensitivity to light, the manuscripts are rarely exhibited, last appearing as highlights of the Sackler’s landmark exhibition in 2006, “In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000.” For this reason, the opening of the Peacock Room shutters on the third Thursday of each month will be suspended while the bibles are on view, resuming on Feb. 20, 2014.

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The Freer Gallery of Art, located at 12th Street and Independence Avenue S.W. and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, located at 1050 Independence Avenue S.W., together house the nation’s collection of Asian art on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Hours are from 10 a.m to 5:30 p.m. every day except Dec. 25, and admission is free. The galleries are located near the Smithsonian Metrorail station on the Blue and Orange lines. For more information, the public may call (202) 633-1000 or visit www.asia.si.edu.

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Source: Press release of the Freer Gallery of Art

Cover Photo, Top Left: Detail, Saint Mark and Saint Luke; right cover of Washington Manuscript II: The Four Gospels (Codex Washingtonensis) Egypt, Byzantine period, 7th c. Encaustic painting on wooden panel Gift of Charles Lang Freer Freer Gallery of Art, F1906.298 Courtesy Freer Gallery of Art

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