HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY—The mountain fortress of Rabana-Merquly in modern Iraqi Kurdistan was one of the major regional centers of the Parthian Empire, which extended over parts of Iran and Mesopotamia approximately 2,000 years ago. This is a conclusion reached by a team of archaeologists led by Dr Michael Brown, a researcher at the Institute of Prehistory, Protohistory and Near-Eastern Archaeology of Heidelberg University. Together with Iraqi colleagues, Brown studied the remains of the fortress*. Their work provides important insights into the settlement structures and history of the Parthians, about whom there is surprisingly little knowledge, emphasizes Dr Brown, even though the annals of history record them as a major power. Furthermore, Rabana-Merquly may be the lost city of Natounia.
Situated on the southwest flanks of Mt. Piramagrun in the Zagros Mountains, the stone fortress of Rabana-Merquly comprises not only the nearly four-kilometer-long fortifications but also two smaller settlements for which it is named. Because of its high position on the mountain, mapping the site was possible only with drones. Within the framework of multiple excavation campaigns conducted from 2009 and most recently between 2019 and 2022, the international team of researchers was able to study the archaeological remains on site. Structures that have survived to this day suggest a military use and include the remains of several rectangular buildings that may have served as barracks. The researchers also found a religious complex possibly dedicated to the Zoroastrian Iranian goddess Anahita.
The rock reliefs at the entrance to the fortress are of special significance, along with the geographic location of the fortification in the catchment area of the Lower Zab River, known in antiquity by its Greek name of Kapros. The researchers suspect that Rabana-Merquly may be the lost city of Natounia. Until now, the existence of the royal city known as Natounia on the Kapros, or alternatively as Natounissarokerta, has been documented only on a few coins dating from the first century BC. According to one scientific interpretation, the place name Natounissarokerta is composed of the royal name Natounissar, the founder of the Adiabene royal dynasty, and the Parthian word for moat or fortification. “This description could apply to Rabana-Merquly,” states Dr Brown.
According to the Heidelberg archaeologist, the wall reliefs at the entrance to the fortress could depict the city’s founder, either Natounissar or a direct descendant. The researcher explains that the relief resembles a likeness of a king that was found approximately 230 kilometers away in Hatra, a location rich in finds from the Parthian era. The Rabana-Merquly mountain fortress is located on the eastern border of Adiabene, which was governed by the kings of a local dynasty dependent on the Parthians. It may have been used, among other things, to conduct trade with the pastoral tribes in the back country, maintain diplomatic relations, or exert military pressure. “The considerable effort that must have gone into planning, building, and maintaining a fortress of this size points to governmental activities,” stresses Dr Brown.
The current research in Rabana-Merquly is being funded by the German Research Foundation as part of priority program 2176, “The Iranian Highlands: Resilience and Integration of Premodern Societies”. The aim of the research project is to investigate Parthian settlements and society in the Zagros highlands on both sides of the Iran-Iraq border. During the latest excavations at Rabana-Merquly, Dr Brown collaborated with colleagues from the Directorate of Antiquities in Sulaymaniyah, a city in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. The results of the Heidelberg investigations were published in the journal “Antiquity”.
____________________________
Excavation of the perimeter wall at the entrance to Rabana valley. Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project
UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA—The study of the genomes of our closest relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, has opened up new research paths that can broaden our understanding of the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens. A study* led by the University of Barcelona has made an estimation of the time when some of the genetic variants that characterize our species emerged. It does so by analyzing mutations that are very frequent in modern human populations, but not in these other species of archaic humans.
The results, published in the journal Scientific Reports, show two moments in which mutations accumulated: one around 40,000 years ago, associated with the growth of the Homo sapiens population and its departure from Africa, and an older one, more than 100,000 years ago, related to the time of the greatest diversity of types of Homo sapiens in Africa.
“The understanding of the deep history of our species is expanding rapidly. However, it is difficult to determine when the genetic variants that distinguish us from other human species emerged. In this study, we have placed species-specific variants on a timeline. We have discovered how these variants accumulate over time, reflecting events such as the point of divergence between Homo sapiens and other human species around 100,000 years ago”, says Alejandro Andirkó, first author of this article, which was part of his doctoral thesis at the UB.
The study, led by Cedric Boeckx, ICREA research professor in the section of General Linguistics and member of the Institute of Complex Systems of the UB (UBICS), included the participation of Juan Moriano, UB researcher, Alessandro Vitriolo and Giuseppe Testa, experts from the University of Milan and the European Institute of Oncology, and Martin Kuhlwilm, researcher at the University of Vienna.
Predominance of behavioral and facial-related variations
The results of the research study also show differences between evolutionary periods. Specifically, they highlight the predominance of genetic variants related to behavior and facial structure —key characteristics in the differentiation of our species from other human species— more than 300,000 years ago, a date that coincides with the available fossil and archaeological evidence. “We have discovered sets of genetic variants which affect the evolution of the face and which we have dated between 300,000 and 500,000 years ago, the period just prior to the dating of the earliest fossils of our species, such as the ones discovered at the Jebel Irhoud archaeological site in Morocco”, notes Andirkó.
The researchers also analyzed variants related to the brain, the organ that can best help explain key features of the rich repertoire of behaviors associated with Homo sapiens. Specifically, they dated variants which medical studies conducted in present-day humans have linked to the volume of the cerebellum, corpus callosum and other structures. “We found that brain tissues have a particular genomic expression profile at different times in our history; that is, certain genes related to neural development were more highly expressed at certain times,” says the researcher.
Supporting the mosaic nature of the evolution of Homo sapiens
These results complement an idea that is dominant in evolutionary anthropology: that there is no linear history of human species, but that different branches of our evolutionary tree coexisted and often intersected. “The breadth of the range of human diversity in the past has surprised anthropologists. Even within Homo sapiens there are fossils, such as the ones I mentioned earlier from Jebel Irhoud, which, because of their features, were thought to belong to another species. That’s why we say that human beings have lived a mosaic evolution,” he notes.
“Our results,” the researcher continues, “offer a picture of how our genetics changed, which fits this idea, as we found no evidence of evolutionary changes that depended on one or a several key mutations,” he says.
Application of machine learning techniques
The methodology used in the study was based on a Genealogical Estimation of Variant Age method, developed by researchers at the University of Oxford. Once they had this estimation, they applied a machine learning tool to predict which genes have changed the most in certain time windows and which tissues these genes may have impacted. Specifically, they used ExPecto, a deep learning tool that uses a convolutional network — a type of computational model — to predict gene expression levels and function from a DNA sequence.
“Since there are no data on the genomic expression of variants in the past, this tool is an approach to a problem that has not been addressed until now. Although the use of machine learning prediction is increasingly common in the clinical world, as far as we know, nobody has tried to predict the consequences of genomic changes over time,” notes Andirkó.
The importance of the perinatal phase in the brain development of our species
In a previous study, the same UB team, together with the researcher Raül Gómez Buisán, used genomic information from archaic humans. In that study they analyzed genomic deserts, regions of the genome of our species where there are no genetic fragments of Neanderthals or Denisovans, and which, moreover, have been subjected to positive pressure in our species: that is, they have accumulated more mutations than would have been expected by neutral evolution. The researchers studied the expression of genes — i.e., which proteins code for different functions — found in desert regions throughout brain development, from prenatal to adult stages, covering sixteen brain structures. The results showed differences in gene expression in the cerebellum, striatum and thalamus. “These results bring into focus the relevance of brain structures beyond the neocortex, which has traditionally dominated research on the evolution of the human brain,” says Juan Moriano.
Moreover, the most striking differences between brain structures were found at prenatal stages. “These findings add new evidence to the hypothesis of a species-specific trajectory of brain development taking place at perinatal stages — the period from 22 weeks to the end of the first four weeks of neonatal life — that would result in a more globular head shape in modern humans, in contrast to the more elongated shape seen in Neanderthals,” concludes Moriano.
____________________________
These results complement an idea that is dominant in evolutionary anthropology: that there is no linear history of human species, but that different branches of our evolutionary tree coexisted and often intersected. UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA, CC BY
*Fine-grained temporal mapping of derived high-frequency variants supports the mosaic nature of the evolution of Homo sapiens, Scientific Reports, 10.1038/s41598-022-13589-0 .
Scientists have teased a horrific story from the remains of the ill-fated inhabitants of a once opulent and thriving seaside city of the Roman Empire . . .
This article is available to Premium members of Popular Archaeology.
Become a member or upgrade to a Premium membership:REGISTER HERE.
A Pictorial: Unbeknownst to most, archaeologists are revealing a sensational find on what has been penned the ‘dark side’ of Mount Vesuvius in Italy . . .
This article is available to Premium members of Popular Archaeology.
Become a member or upgrade to a Premium membership:REGISTER HERE.
Freelance writer, researcher and photographer, Georges Fery (georgefery.com) addresses topics from history, culture, and beliefs to daily living of ancient and today’s indigenous societies of Mesoamerica and South America. His articles are published online at travelthruhistory.com, ancient-origins.net and popular-archaeology.com, and in the quarterly magazine Ancient American (ancientamerican.com). In the U.K. his articles are found in mexicolore.co.uk.
The author is a fellow of the Institute of Maya Studies instituteofmayastudies.org, Miami, FL and The Royal Geographical Society, London, U.K. (rgs.org). He is a member in good standing with the Maya Exploration Center, Austin, TX (mayaexploration.org) the Archaeological Institute of America, Boston, MA (archaeological.org),NFAA-Non Fiction Authors Association (nonfictionauthrosassociation.com) and the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC. (americanindian.si.edu).
Scholars are familiar with the “where,” “what,” and “how” of Easter Island’s past, and with its communities’ rise and fall in the confines of extreme isolation, but they are still grasping for the “why.” Throughout human history, communities have altered their surroundings to meet their needs. On Easter Island, however, it is theorized that overuse of an uncommon ecosystem in an extremely remote environment destroyed the society’s food chain. On a large landmass, people in this situation usually would move with the seasons or away from their neighbors’ hostility. Inversely, on islands, migrations are dependent on limited land and food collection zones that extend offshore.
These observations apply to Easter Island, but are insufficient to answer its riddle without looking at the islanders’ belief structure. Not unlike events that shaped other cultures of the Pacific, the island’s past unfolds in the man-made belief in an “other world”. Together with this island’s singular isolation, however, its past ended grievously — an example of the collision of faith and nature in a confined environment.
Scholars and historians are familiar with the settlement of people on this isolated island, its archaeology, and the making of giant stone statues known as the Moai. Let’s examine the undercurrents that led to the society’s demise. Non-literate cultures recorded their histories in myths and folklore. The glyphs on rongorongo tablets discovered on the island unfortunately cannot be translated, for there are too few. The mythologized past, traditionally short on facts, leaves many gray areas in Easter Island’s historical record. The origin of the group that settled on Easter Island point to the Society Islands and the Tuamotu archipelago. People moved to the eastern Polynesian Triangle defined by Hawai’i and Easter Island probably around 850 to 950, and New Zealand (Aotearoa), in about 1200. The closest islands to Easter, such as Pitcairn, are 1300 miles to the northwest, while the South American continent is 2200 miles to the east.
“Te Pito o Te Henua”: The End of the Land
Easter Island’s Polynesian name is Rapa Nui, as are the language and name of the people, although spelled in one word, Rapanui. The island singularity is that its society’s ecological collapse took place on sixty-seven square miles of a volcanic island in the middle of the South Pacific. Its three major volcanos, Teravaka, Poike, and Rano Kau, with seventy-three minor volcanic cones, are the witnesses to the geologically tumultuous birth of the island (there is no volcanic activity today). From the late thirteenth century, the isolation of the island had its people believe that they were at “te pito o te henua,” or “the end of the land” in Polynesian. The generations that followed the last wave of settlers didn’t see another human from outside the island for hundreds of years. They believed that they were the only living beings on earth, but for the seasonal migration of sea birds in time with the rising of the Pleiades and the Austral Solstice.
On Rapa Nui, the giant Moai were believed to be the representations of ancestors, the departed heads of clans. In the mythic “other world,” these ancestors were believed to have received mana – thesupernatural power over the natural world – from the paramount god Make’make, which they then passed on to their living descendants. Mana was entrusted to the Ariki Henua, or supreme religious leader and symbol of the island, Hotu Motu’a and to clan chiefs. Of note is that Hotu Motu’a was not a political ruler but the main mana holder for he received more to enforce prohibitions or taboos to benefit the community.
With few exceptions, the Moais were erected on altars or stone platforms facing inland, with their backs to the ocean. This monumental architecture, also referred to as “image Ahu” (ahu meaning altar) developed around 1100-1200. With few exceptions, Moais represent male ancestors; all were named, and so were their altars. With their mana power, which the Moais received once the eyes were set in their sockets, they were believed to protect their descendants and resources. The carving of massive statues and erecting altars strengthened the importance of knowing the ancestry of each family, and the clan’s hierarchies. The increasing need to exhibit power and prestige through the Moai, however, eventually led clans to severely tax their environment through the felling of trees for their quarries, the building of altars, and the transport of statues overland, to the extent that people had to fight for basic resources, essentially wood and food.
But who qualified as an ancestor? As a rule, it was a senior male that traced his line of descent from the Ariki Mau Hotu Motu’a’ssix sons. The island folklore tells us about a conflict in the Tuamotu archipelago when Hotu Motu’a, defeated in battle, escaped with his community from the mythic island of Hiva, and fled with his clan to Easter Island (details of the conflict remain uncertain, for the mythic island is unknown). As a rule, senior males who traced their line of descent from the Ariki Henua Hotu Motu’a’ssix sons were considered “ancestors” for, when alive, they held significant resources or positions in their community. Ancestors became go-betweens in the “other world” with the paramount god Make’make. This wellspring of ancestral power was common in the mythological pantheon of most cultures of the Pacific. With such perception of life, the Rapanui people could not possibly come to terms with the cumulative cause and effect of their actions. In other words, they did not relate as modern minds do to the consequences of their actions, for they assigned those to a third party, the ancestors in the “other world.”
Make’make, however, is unknown elsewhere in the Pacific where, in Maori mythology, the gods Tangaroa, Tane, Tiki, and the goddess and first woman Hina, are believed to be in command of nature, fertility, the seas, and their creatures. Make’make can only be Ariki Henua Hotu Motu’a’s creation, with similar attributes to those of the Polynesian gods, and his dominion over its own Miru, the highest-ranking clan on Rapa Nui. Make’make was believed to command the climate, animal migrations from birds to fish, food crops and other life-sustaining needs. Furthermore, as mentioned before, the god was believed to be the sole master and dispenser of mana, which he granted or withheld at will through the ancestors. No success or failure, from nature’s rewards to joy or sadness, well-being, or deprivation, could happen in this world without mana. As with all human societies, spiritual guidance was needed beyond that of secular authority, and Make’make was Hotu Motu’a’s answer to that need. Depictions of Make’make are found on petroglyphs and ceremonial dance paddles that show the simple circular outline of a human face with round eyes, a nose, but no mouth.
The plain surrounding Rano Raraku’s volcano is where 95% of the Moai were carved and, from earliest times, one of the most densely populated districts on the island. Treister, Vargas Casanova and Cristino underline that “Building large altars or platforms and carving of Moais required extensive manpower mobilization of all clans and socio-economic segments, from farmhands to carvers, support services and housing for workers and their families” (2). So, how, and where did people live? Clan leaders and their families settled in the Ceremonial Zone on the periphery. There were long houses, called harepaenga in the Rapanui language for their elliptical shape, fifty to sixty feet long and about ten feet wide, reminiscent of an up-turned boat. In the Coastal and Interior zones there were simpler pole and thatched houses underlining a complex social stratification. Numerous caves inherited from the island volcanic past were also used on the coast as dwellings by fishermen and their families. Larger caves inland were fitted to accommodate several families as refuge during periods of social unrest and wars.
Cooking took place outside, while several yards away from the dwelling were the chicken coop and the manavai or garden, where edible plants were grown in two- to three-foot-deep holes covered with lava rocks. The rocks sheltered a sunken garden where small plants were cultivated; larger plants were grown in three-to five-foot-high rock enclosures above ground. The function of the manavai was to protect the plants from extreme weather and winds in a weakened environment, for trees had already been greatly depleted on the island by the mid-to-late-1600s. Known as lithic mulch agriculture, the manavai was a way to trap humidity in the soil to slow its dissipation to the winds and the sun. The manavai is indicative of the islander’s awareness of their precarious environment.It is believed that a sharp population decline through famine and wars took place during the mid-1600s.
At its peak, the Easter Island population is estimated to have reached about six thousand souls and fell to about half that number at the beginning of what is known as the Decadent Period (1680-1722). Several factors account for the precipitous decline. As Englert remarks, the Rapanui, like other people in similar exacting circumstances, “tend to see ritual requirements as an integral part of their natural environment. This perception stresses that neglect of ritual duties was believed to cause imbalance in the natural world and that imbalance could only be righted by extending and increasing ritual behavior” (1970). Furthermore, the record shows, according to Edwards, “that the Rapanui used firewood for fuel from 1300 to 1650, but switched to grasses and ferns after that date, an obvious indication that there were less forested areas at that time” (2013).
Van Tilburg notes that “the Decadent/Restructure Phase of the island’s prehistory intensified land use, continued deforestation and probable soil depletion that interacted to produce increasing events of crop failure” (1994). To answer their severe environment, concurrent with constant social strife due to food scarcity, the Rapanui needed to find other ways to deal with reality, but that implied a shift to new values, as Cristino underlines “not as an immediate adoption of new religious concepts, but rather as a rejection of the perceived failed ones” (2). Since their environment did not improve despite prayers and pleas to ancestors, ritual behavior was given priority over reality, for the Rapanui were unable to overcome the ancestor factor deeply rooted in their lives.
At Orongo, on the rim of the extinct Rano Kau volcano, a cult known as tangata manu, or “Birdman,” rose to the challenge of the perceived ancestors’ failure. The Birdman cult coexisted with the Moai cult on their respective sanctuaries, Rano Raraku and Rano Kau, from the early-fifteenth or sixteenth century. Although, as Edwards notes “while the Ancestor Cult deified ancestors represented by statues, the Birdman Cult had a man become the living, breathing medium to communicate with the gods” (2013). At that time, the two cults were reciprocal rather than antagonistic, for even though the Rapanui stopped building statues toward the end of the 1600s, they continued worshipping their ancestors. The rise of the Birdman cult is associated with matato’a leaders, also called tangata rima toto or “men with bloody hands,” who had superseded the socio-political and spiritual dominance of the long-standing Ariki led clans. The cult’s aggressive effort aimed to eliminate the intercession of the ancestors with Make’make in the belief structure and replace it with a direct appeal to the paramount god.
Relentless Winds and Sun
The sixty-three square mile Easter Island is the only landmark in over a million square miles of the South Pacific, with no other landmass to slow the winds. The thirty-seven low and small Sala y Gomez Islands group, 243 miles to the northeast and home to frigates and sooty terns, among other seabirds, are not windbreakers. *Easter Island’s subtropical latitude lies twenty-seven degrees south of the Equator. It is a dry and cool climate that did not allow for the type of tropical crops important elsewhere in Polynesia, such as bread fruit and coconuts; the latter, introduced in modern times, grows poorly on Easter Island. In a depleted environment, the forces of the sun and the wind were intensely destructive.
Archaeobotany supports a historical record that, upon arrival of the Ariki Henua Hotu Motu’a and his people, the island was a sub-tropical forest covered by the massive coccoid sixty-foot-tall Chilean Wine Palm (Jubea chilensis). This is made evident by underground channels cut by its roots and baby coconut remains found in lava tubes, pocked by Polynesian rat teeth marks. The rodent (Rattus exulans), a stowaway from the first settlers, found an ideal habitat for travel in the underground network of lava tubes; there were no predators at that time that could have checked the rodents’ proliferation.
Other large trees, together with smaller species, among which was the endemic eight-to-ten-foot high Toromiro (Sophora toromiro), bushes, and undergrowth plants, provided an environment that allowed large flocks of migrating sea birds, insects, and other life forms to thrive. Annual rainfall averaged forty-five inches, but “water from the rains quickly filtered below a porous volcanic soil to the extensive network of lava tubes that crisscross the island underground, draining rainwater in the ocean at low tide”(2). It was impossible to retain topsoil humidity without shade and wind protection.
There were few water sources on the island. Water was accumulated in crater lakes from which small springs, such as on the slopes of volcanos, irregularly sprouted. Islanders carved stone catch basins, called taheta, to collect rainwater. Small wells were hand dug on the coast to collect rainwater before it emptied into the ocean; it often mixed with sea water.It was impossible to retain topsoil humidity without shade and wind protection. As their environment deteriorated, the islanders did work at finding ways to protect their shrinking ecosystem to grow their food; the manavai, or volcanic rock-covered garden, was one of their solutions.
Recent studies show that from the seventeenth century increasing scarcity multiplied internal conflicts for the control of important and rapidly vanishing resources, such as wood, worsening an already severe fracture in their society. Their belief in an inexhaustible bounty had dramatic consequences. Large birds avoided the island, for their nesting habitat had shrunk dramatically, and their eggs were depleted by scavenging people, so they flew to the Marquesas and beyond. Fish and shellfish made a smaller contribution to the islander’s diet, as found in their kitchen middens. People realized that the ancestors had failed them and that Make’make had turned its back on their ancestors in the “other world” by withholding its mana. The ecological disaster, however, could not be assigned to clan leaders alone. The Rapanui could not understand that they were the ones responsible for an ecological disaster that even the unblinking eyes of the Moais were unable to foresee.
To meet their worsening environment and concurrent community challenges, as Englert notes, “the Rapanui needed to find other ways to grasp with reality that implied a shift to new values, not as an immediate adoption of new religious concepts, but rather as a rejection of the perceived failed ones” (1970). The Birdman cult stood for such a shift, initiated by matato’a leaders, the “men with bloody hands,” that superseded the socio-political and spiritual dominance of the long-standing Ariki-led clans. The Birdman cult brought down the Moais to cut off the ancestors’ mana to their living inheritors and assert the warrior groups’ political power. Studies place the shift away from the Moai cult and the toppling of the giant statues toward the end of the eighteenth century for, by then, the cult had lost most of its political and religious credibility, even though the Rapanui continued worshipping their ancestors.
On Rano Kau’s crater there are petroglyphs of the Birdman represented as part man from the neck down, with the head and beak of a frigate bird (Fregata magnificent), a representation that prevailed before the shift to the sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus). Both birds were referred to as manutara.The reason for the shift from the frigate to the sooty tern in the late part of the eighteenth century points to the fact that the frigates eggs and chicks in the traditional nesting habitats on the slopes of the Poike volcano were depleted by islanders. Edwards explains that “birds were very important to Polynesians, especially those of black and white plumage. Migratory birds, however, were most revered for their ability to transit between the worlds of the living and the dead. In seventeenth to eighteenth century Rapa Nui, these beliefs converged to form a religious cult specifically honoring Make’make, known as the Birdman Cult. While the Ancestor Cult deified ancestors represented by statues, the Birdman Cult had a man become the living, breathing medium to communicate with the gods” (1974)
The Rise of the Birdman Cult
The “Birdman” cult was at Orongo, on the crest of Rano Kau. Three islets offshore—Motu Nui, Motu Iti and Motu Kau Kau. The largest, Motu Nui at nine square miles, was the focus of the cult’s rituals. For their habitat, the sooty terns were content with a more rugged environment than frigates. The birds nested on the rocky islet of Motu Nui to protect their eggs and chicks from the islanders. At Orongo, a contest was held for which contestants and clan leaders were housed in semi-buried oval stone slab structures, dedicated to the clans, and used only once a year for the race.
The contestants were tasked with returning the “first” egg of the manutara to their clan chief. In the southern corner, at Mata N’garau near the crater’s south rim facing the ocean, were hare nui, stone houses built for the prophets and priests, known as Tumu Ivi Atua, and for the healers and spell casters, the Tangata Taku. Each priest was associated with one of the clans; they would monitor the race while pleading with Make’make and their respective beneficent and malevolent deities for the safety of their team or the demise of opponents.
There could be no general scramble for so solemn an event, we are told. Only those who belonged to select Ao clans which were in ascendancy at the time of the race, could compete. This selection gave rise, as expected, to anger and the conflict was often settled by war. Ana Kai Tangata or the “cave where men are eaten,” near Mataveri on the lower slopes of the volcano, was the place where contestants from the dominant clans were selected for the race. The privilege of obtaining the first egg was a matter of competition between the members of the Ao, but the right to compete was only secured by supernatural means among which were supplications to the ancestors and, foremost, to Make’make. Clan chiefs selected men among their servants, known as “hopu manu” or “servants of the birds” to represent them in the race.
Those hopu manu were tasked to go down the 986-foot nearly vertical wall of the crater, wet with sea spray, to the rocky pounding surf below. They then swam about a mile, through swift currents on a pora or totora reed float to the furthest islet, Motu Nui. On each float were carried provisions for a week’s (or more) stay on the nine-square-mile islet, waiting for the arrival of the birds toward the end of September. The “servants of the birds” lived together in a cave whose entrance was concealed by grass. The cries of the approaching of tens of thousands of birds were heard while the flocks were still miles away from the islet. Given their large number, many birds hatched within a close period. The task of the hopumanu was to bring back the “first” egg of the manutara or sooty tern, unbroken, to his clan chief, who would be waiting on the volcano’s rim. Once an egg was secured, the “servant of the birds” placed it in a small reed basket tied to his forehead and, on his totora reed float in a pounding surf, made his way back to the main island. He then climbed the rocky south wall to the rim of the volcano and handed over the egg to his clan chief. The first to receive an intact egg became tangata manu (tangata-man, manu-bird) or Birdman for that year.
Together with the title, the chief was granted sacred status, the pride of his clan. Trester, Vargas Casanova and Cristino point out that “At that time, the clan chief whose champion had won, shaved his head, brows, and lashes in preparation for the festivities. Then he went down to Mataveri and from there was led in procession to a boat house (hare paenga), located on the southwest exterior slope of the Rano Raraku volcano, where he remained in seclusion for one year.” Furthermore, “through the Birdman cult, the warriors managed to surpass the traditional authority of the ariki. Not only did they obtain political power, but they acquired an eminent religious position, generating a new sociopolitical organization that was maintained into the historic period.” (2013).
The stakes of the competition were high indeed, for the rules granted the winning chief absolute power over all clans and their resources for that year. But not all clans accepted the outcome of the race, and those that did not were “convinced” by force. For some, clashes lasted the whole year of the Tangata Manu’s tenure. Was the Birdman cult a substitute for the Moai? The answer is no; for it never pretended to be. Even though the Birdman cult was believed to be sanctioned by Make’make, the ancestor factor was missing. The Moai was personal, while the Birdman was collective, even though associated with an “other world” deeply rooted in traditions and beliefs of all islanders.
As in the past, however, the Birdman rituals were a call to the “other world” to understand their environmental collapse perceived to be the consequences of neglect in ritual and binding duties. The Birdman cult had severed the Moai link with the ancestors in the intercession with the natural world, essentially with food.By shifting those duties away from the ancestors identified with the Moai, it was believed that Make’make would release its mana directly to Birdman chiefs. Again, as with the Moai, the belief that imbalance in the natural world could be righted by increasing ritual behavior persisted and could only result in the same outcome. Predictably, the Birdman cult could not address the dreadful island-wide environment, which had reached a point of no return. At the time of the arrival of men from an unknown world, who came in huge ships and belonged to an entirely different plane of existence, the cult’s political influence was in decline.
The islander’s first contact with the outside world was with the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday 1722. Roggeveen was followed within a few years by inquisitive discoverers and adventurers. In December 1862 Peruvian slave raiders visited the island. The raiders captured over 1,500 men and women, or half the estimated population at the time, while others hid in their caves. Persistent public outcry by the bishop of Tahiti, together with the French government, compelled the Peruvian authorities to return about 300 Rapanui to their island. Most of the kidnapped islanders had died of diseases on the continent, and there were only about thirty who landed on the island, for most died in transit. In the late nineteenth century, the first European science-driven visitors, as well as other travelers, estimated the island’s population to be a few hundred people. Their observations were supported by field investigations of gardens (manavai), and the extent of cultures of sweet potatoes, yams, sugar cane and bananas. At the close of the nineteenth century, however, based on William Thompson’s 1889 census, Easter islanders numbered only 114 souls.
Warren Aston is an independent researcher based in Brisbane, Australia. He studied archaeology at the University of Queensland, and has been involved in archaeological projects in Mexico and Oman over several decades. He can be reached at: astonwarren@hotmail.com.
Little is yet known about the disparate groups that moved into the fertile coastal areas of Dhofar province in southern Oman around the end of the first millennium, or ca. AD 1000. Each was undoubtedly attracted by its opportunities and resources, but their settlement histories, and particularly their origins, remain opaque — none more so than the mysterious Minjui or Minju people who rose to prominence during the last millennium.
This article notes the various origin theories but does not add to them or attempt a resolution. Rather, it presents two surviving structures in Dhofar as being of possible Minjui construction and examines what they may tell us about the activities of the group.
There are some little-known historical references to a group of people known as the “Minjui,” who were supposedly the last dynasty to rule over ancient Merbat [Mirbat] at the eastern end of the Salalah bay in Oman.They then abandoned it, moving west along the coast to the site of modern al-Baleed that, confusingly, they also named Merbat. This information comes to us in the invaluable history from a wide network of Arab historical accounts kept by Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles (1838-1914) of the Indian Army and Political Service, while serving in the region – chiefly eastern Arabia – over many years. (1)
Although even in his day the true origins of the Minjui were obscure, Miles reports indications that they were possibly of Persian origin. Another source he reports claimed that the Minjui originated in the ancient region of Balkh, astride the silk road in northern Afghanistan. (2)
The uncertainty of their origins persists to the present. In a more recent (2019) discussion of sites in Dhofar from “Late Antiquity” [ie. 350-700 AD], Lynne Newton and Juris Zarins note what they term the “mystery and intrigue” surrounding the peoples known as the “Himyari,” and “Minju.”(3)
They further propose: “One theory of their origins could be that they represent groups who originally visited Khor Rori seasonally and who stayed behind and lived in the area after the collapse of Shabwah, post 400 AD (such as the Manji Indian merchants…).”(4)Their book suggests that the history of the ancient town of Zafar, that developed into the capital, Al Baleed, after the collapse of Khor Rori, may hold the key. Here, by around 1000 AD, the Mandju/Mandjawiyyun rose in dominance, variously nominated by historians in that era as Persian, or merchants who travelled to the Tihama and Zabid in Yemen; still others describe them as the Bulukh from southwest Yemen, the local Shahra hill tribes, or a merchant class from SW India. (5)
A useful partial historical chronology of al Baleed/Zafar in which the Minjui feature frequently between AD 970 – 1254 is also given. (6)
The lack of agreement among the scholars of that era about the origins of the Minjui strengthens the likelihood that the collective name covered a variety of peoples, not merely those of a single origin.
Tangible remains of the Minjui
Tombs
In his accounts, Colonel Miles describes locating several Minjui tombs near Robat that dated, according to the headstones, to AD 1020 (AH 411) but without providing further details. (7)
Buildings of uncertain function
Multiple ruins in the area have also been attributed to the Minju, Miles commenting that “…it is to the Minjui that the numerous heaps of ruins scattered over the plain and indicating the ruins of former towns are usually ascribed, and it is curious that so little mention has been made of this family…” (8)
__________________________
Inland from Khor Sowli, this promontory on Jebel Nashib contains one of several “forts” along the northern edge of the Salalah plain that may have been built by the Minjui to oversee and protect trade routes from the coast.
__________________________
In an official government atlas published in 2013, authors Zarins and Newton have also noted some other buildings on the Qara coast that may have been erected by the Minjui. In particular, they note a large stone building atop the prominent promontory of Jebel Nashib (Jebel Kasbar), overlooking a route from Khor Sowli to the interior. They note that its layout, complete with large plastered water tanks, is similar to another hilltop fort at Ain Humran.
Further, they report that local informants claimed that the Jebel Nashib structure, and another complex at Wadi Shaboon, closer to Mirbat, were built by “the mysterious” Minjui. With the Jebel Nashib building at least, both the base and outer casing is formed from large finely cut blocks of limestone. (9)
Given our current level of understanding about the era as a whole and Minjui capabilities in particular, obviously little can be ruled out; what can be stated is that these larger buildings bear very little resemblance to the two structures located further west on the Qamar coast that will be discussed next. Only the building technique and the materials used appear similar, but that is likely a function of the environment they share. Regardless of who built them, the Qamar coast buildings seem to be inland forts guarding important routes from coastal ports.
_______________________
MAP of Oman showing the location of Salalah and the general area of the Qamar coast.
_______________________
The tower structure at al Hauta
[Lat. 16°46′ 6″ N (16.76833333333333° Decimal), Long. 53°29′ 21″ E (53.48916666666667°).]
A useful but preliminary study of shrines in Dhofar, published in 2010, notes a shrine located in a village on a short stretch of the Qamar coast east of Rakhyut. The shrine is named bin Othman, after the man who arrived in Dhofar from Aden in the 11th century, whereas the village and the coast more generally are termed al Hauta. This section of the coast is intersected by two major wadis and one minor wadi.
The village, the shrine and its associated mosque are located at the mouth of Wadi Ahjawt, the westernmost and largest of the three wadis. The end-note of the study (note v) concludes with a passing reference that is relevant here:
… there is a stone tower (kūt) on a rise closer to the foothills of the steep jebel here. A local story is that the “Minjuwi” had a cable attached to it from above and it is how they got supplies from on top of the jebel to the small village below (an archaeological assessment of this site is in preparation by the author). (10)
_________________________
A view of the tower in Wadi Ahjawt facing northwards, showing the steep gully on the eastern side directly below the structure.
_________________________
A view of the structure taken on the small plateau on the north side, at the level of its base, facing southwards toward the ocean and the tiny modern community.
_________________________
The al Hauta structure with a large pile of rubble adjoining.
_________________________
In December 2021 and March 2022, this author undertook an assessment of the structure and the entirety of the al Hauta coast and its wadis, reported here for the first time. No proper examination of the plateau above the wadi for traces of the presumed higher end of the pulley system has yet been made.
The structure can best be described as a squared tower, tapering to a small summit that shows signs of collapse. It may, of course, have been a little taller in antiquity, but presently stands a little over 6 meters (about 20 feet) tall. As shown in image 6B, on each of its 4 sides raised rectangular panels are prominent, reaching vertically toward the summit from the top of the base, which comprises the lower third of the entire tower. This base level is constructed from larger rocks than the upper two-thirds.
At this stage it remains unclear whether the panels have a structural function or are merely decorative. The entire structure, including the panels, is constructed of uncut stone without mortar being used.
_______________________
A view revealing details of the tower, taken facing in a north-easterly direction.
_______________________
Image 6B: Closeup view showing the construction style of one of the stone panels on the side of the structure.
_______________________
The fact that this small coastal strip was isolated from the plateau above and from communities along the coast in both directions, being only accessible by sea until very recently, strengthens the reasonableness of an innovative solution such as a pulley system being constructed to send supplies to the community below.
_______________________
Foreshortened by a moderate telephoto lens, this view shows the higher terrain behind the al Hauta structure.
_______________________
That this same situation is true of the second location, Khor Kharfot, seems unlikely to be coincidence.
The tower structure at Khor Kharfot
[Lat.16°43′ 53″ N (16.731388888888887° Decimal), Long. 53°20′ 18″ E (53.33833333333334°).]
_______________________
A view facing northwards of the collapsed structure at Khor Kharfot with the higher terrain directly above. Part of the double alignment of stones running down from the main structure is visible in the foreground.
_______________________
Khor Kharfot is the mouth of Wadi Sayq, the major drainage of the Qamar mountains, which reaches the Indian Ocean roughly halfway between Rakhyut and Dhalqut. Other than entering through the wadi from the interior plateau, the difficulty in reaching the coastal strip overland is undoubtedly a major factor that has isolated the location despite it having several freshwater springs and abundant vegetation, including trees. It isstill accessed mainly by sea.
Nevertheless, although currently uninhabited, Khor Kharfot has a significant number of sites evidencing periodic occupation in the past. The first archaeological evaluation of the place was made by Paolo Costa with the author in 1993. His general assessment expressed the belief that the human traces there represented occupation from at least the Iron Age down to the Islamic period. Of the collapsed structure that he termed “the most conspicuous remains of the entire area,” he conjectured that the “tall mound of walls and debris [is] possibly the ruin of a solid tower several meters high.”(11)
In 2014, a fuller examination of the collapsed structure was made by Carl Phillips and Michele Degli Esposti as part of a team effort led by the author. Of this structure, dominating the east side of the bay, Phillips and Degli-Esposti concluded that it “…in all likelihood represents the collapsed remains of a squared tower built in large unhewn stones.”
__________________________
The collapsed structure at Khor Kharfot is seen here in this view facing southward over the bay.
__________________________
Construction details of the collapsed tower structure at Khor Kharfot. Image courtesy of Michele Degli Esposti, 2014. In Khor Kharfut (Dhofar). A reassessment of the archaeological remains (in press, Journal of Oman Studies, fig. 9b).
__________________________
After noting that it is connected to three other features of unclear purpose – a roughly rectangular stone enclosure adjoining the ocean side, an almost 200 meter alignment of single stones stretching east and a shorter double line of stones running down from the tower’s enclosure toward the sea – Phillips and Degli Esposti conclude:
“The tower itself could have clearly served a control function, overlooking the sea and whoever was passing by or approaching the beach. It is possibly of some significance that the building technique is the same [as] the massive wall seen at the back of Site 2 [a separate structure further inland not far distant]; more than just the technical similarity (unhewn dry stone walls are not chronologically determinant), the fact that from the “terrace” on top of Site 2 a good view of the sea was granted could point to the two structures being part of the same “project.” (12)
As for the possible purpose of this tower, this author recorded the following explanation from a local informant during April 2010 explorations in Khor Kharfot:
“that a community called the ‘Menjuin’ or something similar had long ago lived at Kharfot and they had used a cable pulley to move goods up and down from the mountainside, that the large ruin was the base of it….if true, it may be that Kharfot was functioning as an incense shipping port where the incense was lowered down from above and ships could restock fresh water and other items also.”
The length required for a cable pulley from the edge of the plateau behind the tower is around 600 meters, considerably less than would be required at the al Hauta tower.
The authors of the 2019 book, Dhofar Through the Ages speculate – on the basis of a brief visit to Khor Kharfot – that Kherfut (their spelling for Khor Kharfot) (13) may fit an ancient description in the Periplus:
“In the Periplus, ca. 120-250 AD, the Syagros promontory had a number of installations including a fort, harbor and warehouse system; it is perhaps modern Kherfut.” (14)
While these authors do not mention the collapsed tower, or any concept of a pulley being used to move goods, if the possible link to the Periplus that they suggest were true, it would clearly fit the pulley idea still embedded in the memories of local people.
____________________________
The large stone wall inland from the collapsed structure at Khor Kharfot and believed to be associated with it. Image courtesy of Michele Degli Esposti, 2014. In Khor Kharfut (Dhofar). A reassessment of the archaeological remains (in press, Journal of Oman Studies, fig. 7).
____________________________
The relative positions of the collapsed structure (foreground) and the location of the stone wall which is behind the large rock shelter (slightly right of centre) on higher terrain in the distance.
____________________________
Conclusions
As already noted, other than reputedly being the product of Minjui workmanship, the structures in Wadi Ahjawt and at Khor Kharfot have very little in common with the “forts” built in the Salalah plain foothills, buildings that seem to have the clear purpose of guarding routes to and from the coast. As these land routes were entirely viable, no need existed for any device between the building and a lower point; there is no suggestion, or claim, that any pulley system was utilized.
On the other hand, though both Qamar structures have a very different function, they also share several similarities with each other.
As already noted, both have a coastal situation and are proximate to inhabited places that are inaccessible by land – completely so in the case of al Hauta until road access arrived just a few years ago, and very difficult at Khor Kharfot where normal access is still only by sea. Both are situated directly below a high plateau. These are striking correlations. There appear to be no other comparable locations on the Qamar coast, ie. an early inhabited coastal area that is essentially inaccessible by land, thus presenting a significant barrier to any attempt to convey goods down from the plateau above or, perhaps, to convey goods in the opposite direction.
And there are other commonalities:
— Neither structure fits the usual pattern of structures in the region and are therefore difficult to categorize. (15)
— The style of both is quadratic, ie. four sided, strongly hinting that both towers may have originally resembled each other in their form.
— Both were built using the dry stonewall method, without mortar and using local stones.
Considered together, these similarities make the concept of a simple pulley system operating between these structures at the base and another structure high above (as yet unidentified in each case) seem more plausible.
The differences between the two constructions are informative. The most obvious are the surrounding stone alignments incorporated into the Khor Kharfot site, as already described. Nothing resembling these alignments exists at the Wadi Ahjawt structure; in fact, due to its location at the narrow end of a bluff they would be impossible except on the small flat area on its northern side. Searches by the author in 2021 and 2022 failed to locate any other man-made traces around it. In the case of Khor Kharfot, it remains possible that the wall and the various stone alignments are a later addition to the original tower.
Despite the commonality of their style and construction method, the state of preservation of the two structures is very different. While the al Hauta tower still stands largely intact on its bluff safely above its wadi, the Khor Kharfot structure is much more degraded and difficult to define; this is certainly a function of its location closer to the constant influence of the ocean and its periodic incursions breaching the sandbar during significant weather events.
While recognizing the limitations of legends and orally transmitted stories generally, the fact that local people in both locations today still associate both these structures with a pulley system, built by the Minjui, may point to aspects of that early group (their inventiveness and ingenuity as expressed through trade activities and expansion efforts in particular) that we have yet to fully appreciate. A distant, but still significant, chapter of Arabia’s history is emerging.
____________________________
Unless otherwise noted, all images were taken by the author without any digital manipulation and are copyrighted 2022. They may only be reproduced with full attribution in connection with the full paper.
Acknowledgements: Appreciation is given to Michele Degli Esposti for permission to use two images from his forthcoming paper.
______________________
NOTES
1. Col. Samuel B. Miles, The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf, vol. 2. (London: Harrison and Sons, 1919), the Minjui first appearing on page 502. See also 504, 546-547, 552. Available at https://dl.wdl.org/17107/service/17107.pdf
Also available in reprint, New York City: Taylor & Francis, 2005.
2. Ibid. 502-503.
3. Lynne Newton & Juris Zarins, Dhofar Through The Ages: An Ecological, Archaeological and Historical Landscape (Muscat: Ministry of Heritage and Culture, 2019), 37, 42.Author’s comment: The Indian term Manji cited here gives us an obvious possible origin for the name Minju and Minjui.
4. Ibid. 37.
5.Ibid. 40. See other scattered references to the Minjui: 56, 114-115.
6.Ibid. 117.
7. Miles 1919: 547. Also cited in Newton & Zarins, 2019, 42.
8. Miles 1919: 502-504.
9. Juris Zarins, Lynne Newton, eds. Atlas of Archaeological Survey in Governorate of Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman (Muscat, Office of the Advisor to His Majesty the Sultan for Cultural Affairs, 2013). The fort on “Jebel Nashib” is pictured 28-29; see also a reference to the “Minjuwi” dynasty, 52. Other structures of uncertain provenance in the Salalah bay are noted in Newton & Zarins 2019, 43.
An earlier summary by these authors was published in 2010 as “Preliminary Results of the Dhofar Archaeological Survey” in Proceedings (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2010), 247-266. It noted “Kherfut” among four examples of “Coastal settlement sites” showing Iron Age (1100 BCE to 600 CE) settlement, 254. https://www.academia.edu/ 29900115/Preliminary_Results_of_the_Dhofar_Archaeology_Survey
10. Lynne S. Newton, Shrines in Dhofar in Death and Burial in Arabia and Beyond: Multidisciplinary perspectives. BAR International Series 2107 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2010), 338-339. No further details are given in the study; the assessment mentioned had not been published as of mid-2022.
11. Paolo Costa, “Khawr Kharfut, Dhofar: a preliminary assessment of the archaeological remains.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies24 (London, 1994), 27-33. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41223409Emphasis added.
12. For the most thorough evaluation, see Carl Phillips, Michele Degli Esposti, W. Aston, “Khawr Kharfut re-visited (Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman),” presentation at the 2014 annual Seminar for Arabian Studies, London. See especially Figure 14. Emphasis added.
13. The name Kharfot ultimately derives from the pre-Arabic Mehri termKharifot, with the dual meanings of “the monsoon rain has brought abundance to this place” and “the trees have ripe fruit.” This paper retains the accepted modern spelling for the place as a closer approximation of the original.
14. Newton and Zarins 2019, 31. In Zarins and Newton 2013, Khor Kharfot (Site No. DS-08-061) is designated as an “Iron Age” site, 58.
15. An informal survey by the author in early 2022 of several recognized authorities in the archaeology of Dhofar established that none of the respondents were aware of the al Hauta structure. Furthermore, none had seen comparable structures anywhere in the region (not only in Dhofar, or even in Oman); a single respondent ventured a tentative identification, noting that it was difficult to identify from a single image, and suggesting that it might represent a “Bronze Age tower tomb.”
Bibliography
Degli Esposti, Michele. Khor Kharfut (Dhofar).A reassessment of the archaeological remains (in press, Journal of Oman Studies, figs 7 and 9b).
Miles, Samuel Barrett. 1919. The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf, vol. 2. London: Harrison and Sons. https://dl.wdl.org/17107/service/17107.pdf. Also available in reprint, New York City: Taylor & Francis, 2005.
Newton, Lynne S. 2010. Shrines in Dhofar. Death and Burial in Arabia and Beyond: Multidisciplinary perspectives. BAR International Series 2107. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Newton, Lynn S and Zarins. Juris. 2019. Dhofar Through the Ages: An Ecological, Archaeological and Historical Landscape. Muscat: Ministry of Heritage and Culture.
Phillips, Carl; Degli Esposti, Michele; Aston, W. 2014. “Khawr Kharfut Re-visited (Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman),” presentation at the 2014 annual Seminar for Arabian Studies, London.
Zarins, Juris; Newton, Lynne, eds. 2013. Atlas of Archaeological Survey in Governorate of Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman. Muscat, Office of the Advisor to His Majesty the Sultan for Cultural Affairs.
Professor Frank J. Korn has retired from his teaching position on the Classical Studies faculty at Seton Hall University.He is a Fulbright Scholar at the American Academy in Rome and the author of nine books on various aspects of the Eternal City.He is listed in Marquis Who’s Who as “a notable classical educator and writer.”Recipient of the Princeton Prize for Distinguished Teaching, he resides with his wife Camille in Scotch Plains, N.J.The couple’s three sons –Frank, Ronald, and John and their families live nearby.His latest book–Below Rome, the Story of the Catacombs–which he co-authored with his wife, is available on Amazon or from the publisher, St. Johann Press, Haworth, N.J.
The endlessly interesting ancient city of Ostia was founded, tradition insists, by Ancus Martius, fourth king of Rome (640-616 B.C.), at the point where the Tiber ceaselessly pours itself into the Tyrrhenian, about 15 miles southwest of the capital.But modern excavations have yielded no traces of anything earlier than the fourth pre-Christian century.(The name Ostia derives from the Latin word ostium, meaning the mouth of a river).
What is certain is that Ostia served originally as a naval base, more particularly as a lookout post for trouble, i.e. invaders coming from the sea.Situated on alluvial soil on the left bank of the river, the castrum (camp) was fortified by lofty walls pierced by four gates.
By the late Republic, Rome’s growing population of more than a half-million had an ever increasing need for imported grain.This was due to the fact that many once prosperous farms in the surrounding countryside had been abandoned, their struggling owners having moved–bag and baggage– into Rome to place themselves on the welfare rolls.Wheat in huge quantities came in from Africa, Egypt, and Sicily.(Ostia was about two days’ sailing distance from North Africa).Wine and olive oil arrived from Spain, produce from the Naples region. From Babylonia came clothing, from Cappadocia in Asia Minor panels of colored marble, from India and Arabia a wide range of goods.This cornucopia of merchandise was transferred to barges at the port and then towed by oxen upstream to Rome.(A towpath on the right bank of the Tiber led all the way to the fabled city.)
All this activity meant jobs and business opportunities.Shipping firms proliferated.The shipbuilding and ship repair industries flourished.Stevedores (dock laborers) were needed by the thousands to load and unload at the docks.Warehouses sprung up seemingly beyond number.These also required laborers, watchmen, and clerks.Ropemaking and carpentry kept thousands more occupied.To satisfy the hunger and thirst and need for lodgings of foreign seamen in port at any given time, inns and cheap restaurants and bars abounded.
Thanks to modern excavation techniques, 38 of these popinae (taverns) have come to light.An example of one of these raucous hangouts can be found on the Via di Diana, featuring two large rooms, one with a long counter, or bar, with an oven at the base for keeping the food hot.These are quite well illustrated in a fresco on a side wall showing a plate of peas, and a glass that seems to contain olives in saltwater.
In the wee hours of the morning, besotted foreign sailors would stumble out of these watering holes, often raising a ruckus.Swear words and bawdy songs in an array of languages echoed in the alley ways.Nearby residents would complain about the difficulty in getting a decent night’s sleep.
Ostia also hosted many brick-making factories.Since the Romans built their four-story tenements (called insulae) out of brick, this was a critical and thriving industry.The few large brickworks and the numerous smaller ones used slave labor.A slave-worker could turn out more than 200 bricks a day.
Inevitably, this fever of activity spawned yet another bloated bureaucracy.The government set up the Annona, an agency to supervise the shipping and distribution of foodstuffs and other goods, to examine and control its quantity and quality, to conduct shipside inspections, and to attend to payment of fees and tariffs.To ensure the government’s interests and the public safety in this congested, turbulent, and traffic-plagued city, a detachment of Rome’s finest soldiers patrolled the streets and piers day and night.
During the early Empire, the maritime city underwent extensive urban renewal.The biographer Suetonius (A.D. 69-122)had this to say on the subject:
“The Emperor Claudius constructed the new harbor at Ostia by building curved breakwaters on the right and left, while before the entrance he placed a mole of deep water. To give this mole a firmer foundation he first sank the ship in which the great obelisk had been brought from Egypt, and then securing it by pilings, built upon it a very lofty tower modeled on the Pharos at Alexandria, to be lighted at night to guide the course of ships.”
Claudius spent a great deal of time on the scene personally overseeing his ambitious project.This innovative deep water harbor, with the lighthouse, transformed Rome’s access to trade from all over the Mediterranean.(One curious note:The obelisk Suetonius mentions was brought to Rome from Heliopolis by order of Caligula.It once stood on the dividing island of his racetrack in the Vatican meadows.Since 1586, thanks to Pope Sixtus V, it has served as the monumental centerpiece of St. Peter’s Square.Some writer once called it the world’s most exquisite exclamation point.)
The Emperor Trajan (A. D. 98-117, that great city planner, and his successor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) also committed massive sums of government funds to further develop and modernize the port city, giving it a distinctive urban character.There were now regularly laid out streets, in a typical Roman grid, with paved sidewalks; state-of-the-art baths; an impressive courthouse (basilica); up-to-date massive warehouses (horrea); modernized apartment complexes four stories high with central courtyards, interior staircases, and balustraded balconies.These living quarters of the common people sometimes arose side-by-side with the posh villas of the rich, with their atria and peristyles and colonnades.
There were also now numerous fire stations and barracks to house the cohorts of firemen in order to combat the frequent fires which were often destroying warehouses and the vital food supplies stored in them.There were rows of shops along the Decumanus Maximus (Latin for the principal thoroughfare or central main street).Often on the sidewalk in front of these retail shops were fine black and white mosaics depicting the services or wares offered inside.These mosaics accommodated the illiterates among the locals as well as the hordes of foreign seamen who could not read Latin.(In the remains of the Baths of Neptune there is a large masterpiece of this jigsaw-puzzle art form showing the Sea god in his chariot driving a team of horses along the water’s floor.)
Outdoor meat and produce markets drew crowds daily.The fishmongers set up their stalls down near the harbor.Thermopolia (fast food stands) were to be found all over town.So too were public latrines with continuously running, constantly flushing water for better hygiene.(These mundane facilities did have some aesthetic touches though:rows of marble seats, paintings, statuary, and such.Privacy and modesty, however, were out of the question.Even the upper class at times had to resort to these “restrooms”.Friends would run into one another there, sit next to each other, converse casually, and even exchange dinner invitations, without embarrassment.)
_____________________________
This shop, a thermopolium, in a prime position near the Forum, sold hot food and drink. In the centre is the bar counter, with shelves and basins for washing dishes. To the right there is a kitchen with large storage jar and a built-in stove. To the rear, there was a small courtyard with a fountain and benches where customers could sit outside in fine weather. Dennis Jarvis, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license,Wikimedia Commons
Public latrines in Ostia. Fubar Obfusco, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
_____________________________
Ostia’s 4,000-seat theater featured the works of Greek and Roman playwrights.This performing arts center is credited by many classical scholars to Marcus Agrippa (63-12 B.C.), Caesar Augustus’ friend, son-in-law, prime minister, and man-for-all-seasons.Behind the theater sprawled a vast colonnaded plaza where the import and export corporations had their offices.As a result of Ostia’s robust commercial life, numerous guilds were established with impressive buildings for their headquarters.Municipal affairs were conducted in the stately edifices of the Forum.
Just off the Decumanus was a side street named “House of Paintings,”because of a palatial structure there known for its elaborately frescoed walls.The building’s four entrances give some researchers the idea that this might have been a hotel. On the ground floor is a fine apartment of several rooms which they surmise served as the living quarters of the hotel owner or manager.
The sophisticated and cosmopolitan nature of Ostia, with a teeming population of nearly 100,000, is further apparent from the great variety of native and foreign gods once worshiped here.In addition to the architecturally elegant shrines honoring Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Minerva, Venus, and those consecrated to the cults of deified emperors like Augustus, Vespasian, Titus, Marcus Aurelius, et. al, through archaeological and epigraphic evidence we also learn that there once existed sanctuaries to the Egyptian divinities Isis and Serapis, and to the Syrian gods Dolichenus and Maiumas.Sixteen oratories to the little Persian god of light, Mithras, survive in fragments.Mithraism was a cult that found great favor among the Roman military.
The remains of a stately synagogue were brought to light in the 1960’s, indicating the presence of a sizable Jewish community in the port city.The scattered remains include reliefs of menorahs, parts of a pulpit from which the rabbi would have read passages from the Torah, and fragments of an ark that housed the sacred scrolls.This first century A.D. site, with numerous Corinthian columns, is thought to be the most ancient Jewish house of worship in Europe.
The Christians of Ostia did not leave behind any remains of churches for Christianity. Having been outlawed since Nero’s reign (A.D. 54-68) they had to celebrate their sacred mysteries secretly in their private homes.Only after Constantine’s Edict of Milan in A.D. 313 were they permitted to erect their beautiful Romanesque shrines.
On the outskirts of the city, i.e, beyond the walls, are the cemeteries, lining the ancient roads like the Via Ostiense and the Via Laurentina.Some of the burial arrangements are elaborate– rich ornamentation and large mausolea–but others modest, little more than tombstones.Thousands of Latin inscriptions and epitaphs, still very legible, give us the names and careers of generations of Ostians from all walks of life.
There is also a type of family tomb called a columbarium, excellent specimens of which survive at Ostia.This was usually built by a man of means for himself, his wife, and their descendants, and in due course for the freedmen and freedwomen (i.e. liberated slaves) of the household, with their descendants as well.These tombs were so called because of the dozens of niches or columbaria that held the urns of ashes of the deceased.Each niche resembled a dove’s nest.(The Latin word for dove is columba.)On the front wall of a columbarium, therefore quite conspicuous, was often an engraved warning imposing a curse and heavy penalties on anyone who should “entomb herein the remains of a person with a name other than that which is contained in this message.” (From the work:Les Inscriptions du port d’Ostieby H. Thylander).
On an island in the Tiber, the Isola Sacra, are the burial grounds of the prosperous freedmen who made up the majority of the maritime trade class.(The little isle has been meticulously excavated, like much of Ostia iself, by the widely acclaimed archaeologist Guido Calza).
To all these necropoli there is an irenic and poignant and haunting beauty.
The Porta Romana necropolis (is a large cemetery or burial ground) consists of some sixty tombs. Burial places are always situated outside Roman cities. They flank roads leading to the city gates, over a long distance. The oldest burials are a group of approximately 35 cremations, that have been dated to the second and first century BC. This is a columbarium with niches for urns. Dennis Jarvis, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license, Wikimedia Commons.
_______________________________
Ostia’s End
In the late fourth century, Ostia’s decline paralleled that of Rome.Then in A.D. 409, Alaric dealt a fatal blow.To bring the imperial capital into submission, he and his Goths seized the port with all its granaries on which Rome’s populace depended.
Soon afterward, the river changed course, the harbor silted up, trade ceased, and the residents began a slow but inexorable exodus.Ostia was in time abandoned and became a ghost town.As the decades and centuries passed, its buildings slowly but steadily crumbled.By the late Middle Ages sand had blown over the ruins and buried this once vibrant city on the Tyrrhenian coast.And thus this Roman colony settled into a centuries-long, eerily silent slumber.
Serious excavations were undertaken in the first part of the 1800’s by direction of Pope Pius VII (1800-1823).And then again under Pius IX (1846-1878).But these efforts, though valiant, met with only modest success.More systematic excavations were launched in 1909 and have been continued until the present day, with its high-tech advantages.
Now having been awakened from its millennium-and-a-half slumber beneath its blanket of sand–thanks to the hard, patient and skilled work of generations of dedicated archeologists–it now welcomes multitudes of classicists and history buffs and camera-toting tourists year-in and year-out. While the voices of its ancient citizens have long ago been stilled, this eternally fascinating seaside city’s bricks and stones ‘talk’ to us, vividly and eloquently relating what Roman daily life was like in that far off golden age.
Cover Image, Top Left: View of Ostia Antica, Camelia.boban, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, Wikimedia Commons
CELL PRESS—For the first time, researchers successfully sequenced the genome of ancient human fossils from the Late Pleistocene in southern China. The data, published July 14 in the journal Current Biology*, suggests that the mysterious hominin belonged to an extinct maternal branch of modern humans that might have contributed to the origin of Native Americans.
“Ancient DNA technique is a really powerful tool,” Su says. “It tells us quite definitively that the Red Deer Cave people were modern humans instead of an archaic species, such as Neanderthals or Denisovans, despite their unusual morphological features,” he says.
The researchers compared the genome of these fossils to that of people from around the world. They found that the bones belonged to an individual that was linked deeply to the East Asian ancestry of Native Americans. Combined with previous research data, this finding led the team to propose that some of the southern East Asia people had traveled north along the coastline of present-day eastern China through Japan and reached Siberia tens of thousands of years ago. They then crossed the Bering Strait between the continents of Asia and North America and became the first people to arrive in the New World.
The journey to making this discovery started over three decades ago, when a group of archaeologists in China discovered a large set of bones in the Maludong, or Red Deer Cave, in southern China’s Yunnan Province. Carbon dating showed that the fossils were from the Late Pleistocene about 14,000 years ago, a period of time when modern humans had migrated to many parts of the world.
From the cave, researchers recovered a hominin skull cap with characteristics of both modern humans and archaic humans. For example, the shape of the skull resembled that of Neanderthals, and its brain appeared to be smaller than that of modern humans. As a result, some anthropologists had thought the skull probably belonged to an unknown archaic human species that lived until fairly recently or to a hybrid population of archaic and modern humans.
In 2018, in collaboration with Xueping Ji, an archaeologist at Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Bing Su at Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his colleagues successfully extracted ancient DNA from the skull. Genomic sequencing shows that the hominin belonged to an extinct maternal lineage of a group of modern humans whose surviving decedents are now found in East Asia, the Indo-China peninsula, and Southeast Asia islands.
The finding also shows that during the Late Pleistocene, hominins living in southern East Asia had rich genetic and morphologic diversity, the degree of which is greater than that in northern East Asia during the same period. It suggests that early humans who first arrived in eastern Asia had initially settled in the south before some of them moved to the north, Su says.
“It’s an important piece of evidence for understanding early human migration,” he says.
Next, the team plans to sequence more ancient human DNA by using fossils from southern East Asia, especially ones that predated the Red Deer Cave people.
“Such data will not only help us paint a more complete picture of how our ancestors migrate but also contain important information about how humans change their physical appearance by adapting to local environments over time, such as the variations in skin color in response to changes in sunlight exposure,” Su says.
____________________________
The lateral view of the skull unearthed from Red Dear Cave. Xueping Ji, CC BY-SA
____________________________
The excavation site of Maludong (Red Deer Cave). Xueping Ji, CC BY-SA
____________________________
he reproduced portrait of the Red Deer Cave People or Mengziren. Xueping Ji, CC BY-SA
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS, Yunnan provincial “Ten Thousand Talents Plan-Youth Top Talent” project, and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS.
Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.
GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY, ATLANTA—Georgia State University anthropologist Dr. Jeffrey Glover grew up in metro Atlanta, but speaking to him, it sounds like his heart is in Quintana Roo. This part of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula has been the home base for an expansive research project spanning more than 10 years. His research there with Dr. Dominique Rissolo, a maritime archaeologist at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute, has uncovered thousands of artifacts that help them shed new light on the ancient Maya people who lived along this stretch of coast.
Glover and Rissolo are working with an interdisciplinary and international team of researchers to uncover new insights about the dynamic interplay between social and natural processes that shaped life for these ancient Maya people over the last 3,000 years. The team has just released a new article in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology summarizing their findings to date*.
“The Proyecto Costa Escondida,” which translates into English as the ‘hidden coast’ project, has focused on the ancient Maya port sites of Vista Alegre and Conil.
“We chose the project name because, the coast is literally hidden behind mangroves. We’ve canoed the coastline and you’ve really got to snake back to get to the site,” Glover said. “But at the same time, and more importantly, this region has been hidden from scholarship—there just hadn’t been a lot of work done there until we arrived.”
To date, the work has produced a wealth of knowledge about maritime Maya civilization since 800 BCE (Before Common Era). Glover, an associate professor of Anthropology, is using an historical ecology framework to better understand the dynamic relationship between humans and the environment at the ancient Maya port sites of Vista Alegre and Conil.
“This is about how people respond to change,” said Dr. John Yellen, program director for archeology at the U.S. National Science Foundation, which helped fund the research. “Through the lens of historical ecology, this broad team of researchers has shown how Maya adapted over centuries to a wide range of environmental changes. This insight into one society’s long-term adaptation to coastal environments provides a fruitful model for studying such interactions across many cultures.”
This region lies along Yucatan’s north coast, some hours from popular tourist attractions like Cancun and well-known archaeological sites like Chichen Itza and Tulum.
“What’s remarkable about our study area is that it represents one of the least developed coastlines on the northern Yucatan Peninsula,” said Rissolo, who was recently featured in a video series about the Maritime Maya. “When trying to understand the ancient maritime cultural landscape of the so-called ‘Riviera Maya,’ for example, your perspective is obscured by all-inclusive resorts, golf courses and theme parks. The shores of the Laguna Holbox, on the other hand, are still largely wild and offer a more unobstructed view into the region’s past.”
The site of Vista Alegre is a small island surrounded by mangroves that lies along the southern shore of the Holbox Lagoon (also called Conil or Yalahau Lagoon). Glover describes Vista Alegre as what was probably once a small, bustling port. Here, they’ve discovered and recorded as many as 40 rock-filled platforms that served as the foundation for perishable pole and thatch buildings. The largest is a pyramidal structure that stands about 13 meters—or nearly 43 feet—tall. Glover believes this probably served as a temple and a lookout where the site’s inhabitants could see if anyone was approaching by sea. Conil, on the other hand, is a much more expansive site located beneath the modern town of Chiquila and was encountered by early Spanish conquistadors who described it as a town of 5,000 houses.
Researchers have identified tens of thousands of artifacts and ecofacts (animal and plant remains that speak to past diets), which have helped improve our understanding of how the landscape has changed over time, how the people lived, and how they dealt with challenges not unlike those faced by people today, such as: rising sea levels and changing political and economic systems. “We are coordinating and synthesizing all the different datasets that we have, which gives us a wider-angle picture,” Glover said.
The project, which has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), combines traditional archaeological techniques (think digging with a small hand trowel or shovel) with new, high-tech practices for land and sea. Glover says it is a matter of making the most out of the materials at hand.
“Archaeology requires a broad knowledge of the latest scientific techniques mixed with a strong reliance on ‘MacGyvering,’ Glover said. “We often utilize rustic equipment combined with high-tech tools. On any given day, we might find ourselves in a small dinghy borrowed from the local community out of which we are running marine geophysical survey equipment or pounding PVC tubes into the sediments with a homemade fencepost driver.”
The complex work of marine geoarchaeology was spearheaded by Dr. Beverly Goodman-Tchernov and Dr. Roy Jaijel of the University of Haifa in Israel. The core samples include sediment from the coastline and give researchers a better idea of how the coastline has changed over time by looking at a host of different datasets. In particular, the remains of tiny creatures (foraminifera) are preserved in the cores. These creatures lived in very specific environments, so by finding certain species of foraminifera, the team can reconstruct what the coastal environment was like. Instead of being hidden as it is today, Vista Alegre was most likely once more open and purposely built on a peninsula that jutted into the lagoon making it a more obvious destination for ancient canoe-based traders.
Along with paleo-coastline reconstruction, Dr. Patricia Beddows of Northwestern University has been combing research on the modern hydrological system with oxygen isotope values from the core sediments to study how access to freshwater changed over time as a result of rising sea-levels. The team has to bring all of their drinking water with them to the site, so they are keenly aware what a limiting factor freshwater access could have been for past peoples. One idea is that there were springs near the site in the past that have been effectively drowned by rising sea level. To try to identify freshwater seeps (that are about two degrees Celsius cooler than the ocean water) the team is using a drone equipped with a thermal camera to identify areas that might represent past sources of freshwater.
The team also uncovered tens of thousands of pieces of pottery and hundreds of pieces of obsidian (volcanic glass used to make tools that can be traced to its original geologic location), which reveal these coastal peoples were involved in extensive trade. Glover says the diversity of these artifacts stands out when compared to that of nearby, inland sites. The research team believes the archaeological data reinforce the idea that these coastal peoples had much broader and more cosmopolitan connections because they were part of long-distance, canoe-based trade networks.
These trade connections are most evident about 1,000 years ago when researchers see a major realignment and expansion in international trade associated with the emergence of Chichen Itza as a powerful religious, political, and economic city.
“Strong evidence of this realignment comes from the obsidian data which reveals greater connections to parts of central Mexico, near modern day Mexico City” Glover said.
Many of these artifacts come from poring over the detritus—or garbage—left behind by this past civilization, Glover says this is often an archeologist’s goldmine. Mixed with the pottery and obsidian, the research team found items like spindle whorls, that would have been used to make cotton thread which could have been traded as bolts of cloth or used for fishing lines or nets.
When asked what is missing, Rissolo said “We would love to find an intact ancient Maya trading canoe! It’s possible that such a vessel may be preserved beneath the muddy bottom of the bays surrounding Vista Alegre. We would learn so much about these legendary watercraft.”
The team also discovered an array of natural materials, including more than 20,000 animal bones, from sharks, rays, turtles and marine gastropods (gastropods include animals like conchs and whelks which have been studied by another project leader, Dr. Derek Smith). The team is working closely with Mexican archeologists at the Autonomous University of Yucatan in Merida, Mexico to analyze the animal remains and burial sites that have been discovered.
Research came to a halt during much of the pandemic, but after months of excavations and discovery of so many artifacts, the team is still working to analyze their findings. Glover said they are also in discussions with local leaders in Mexico to create a community museum to highlight the region’s rich cultural and natural history.
Often, when people think about the ancient Maya, they may picture some sudden, cataclysmic event that upended daily life and led to the end of this past, advanced civilization. Glover notes that this could not be further from the truth. Maya peoples are alive and well today in the Yucatan, Belize, and Guatemala. While the ‘collapse’ of Maya kingdoms between 800 and 900 CE often gets blown out of proportion in popular media, that does not mean that there were not changes in settlements over time.
“I think it’s a story, not of a sudden or mass exodus, but a shift over time,” Glover explained, “and to understand these shifts we must understand the complex interplay of environmental and cultural factors, which is what our research is revealing.”
The research also highlights the specific lifestyles and adaptive strategies needed to live in a dynamic coastal environment and how this fostered a shared identity amongst coastal Maya communities.
“Our research gives us some idea of the shared challenges that coastal peoples faced – rising sea-levels, diminished freshwater, changing economic and political systems – and they probably leaned from one another, Glover said. “In some ways, I think it might have been easier to hop in your canoe and paddle down the coast to seek help than it was to walk over land.”
“The past, just like the present is not static, and these people were constantly having to make decisions. Sometimes those decisions meant sticking it out, and sometimes they meant re-establishing their lives right down the coast. This new article is a great summation of what we have learned to date. But, you know, there’s always more to be done, and we certainly have plans to continue.” Glover said.
Later this year, the team will start a new project with Dr. Tim Murtha, a colleague at University of Florida, to conduct a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) survey. They will collect detailed elevation data that can reveal the distribution of ancient Maya settlements like house mounds or pyramids. While not focused on the coast, the project will help the team better understand the relationship between inland and coastal communities.
On this project, Glover and Rissolo teamed with Dr. Patricia Beddows (Northwestern University), Dr. Beverly Goodman (University of Haifa), Dr. Derek Smith (University of Washington), and others under the auspices of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
*The Proyecto Costa Escondida: Historical ecology and the study of past coastal landscapes in the Maya area, The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 9-Jun-2022. 10.1080/15564894.2022.2061652
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)—Contradicting the idea that cultural transmission was necessary for early humans to make stone tools, a new study* finds that 25 human participants with no knowledge of knapping (stone tool-making) all succeeded in figuring out these techniques on their own. The finding suggests that cumulative culture, in which practical knowledge accumulates across generations, may not have first emerged when humans developed Oldowan stone tool technology 2.6 million years ago. “This finding calls for a reinterpretation of the conclusions from previous knapping studies regarding modern human knappers and regarding premodern hominin knappers, seeing as these earlier studies did not truly test for technique-naïve individual performances,” write William Snyder, Jonathan Reeves, and Claudio Tennie. Cumulative culture is believed to have been instrumental to the adaptive success of humans. But despite its significance, it has not been clear when, over the course of human evolution, cumulative culture first originated. Scientists have suggested that it may have emerged during the time of the Oldowan industry, a stone tool technology that first appeared around 2.6 million years ago. However, previous studies had not tested whether cultural transmission of information is necessary for humans to make stone tools using knapping techniques. To investigate, Snyder et al. tested 28 human participants’ ability to replicate early knapping techniques, 25 of which were later found (through a questionnaire) to have no prior knowledge of knapping techniques. The participants were given access to raw materials for toolmaking and were presented with a puzzle box containing a reward that could be accessed by severing a rope holding a door shut. Beyond this, participants did not receive any information related to stone tools or tool-making techniques. Each had 4 hours to complete the task. Snyder et al. found that all 4 early knapping techniques (passive hammer, bipolar, freehand, and projectile) were individually developed by participants who had not received any culturally transmitted knowledge.
_____________________________
Image shows the percussion of a glass hemisphere against a granite anvil in what is known as passive hammer technique, one way of creating sharp tools that can be used for cutting. William D. Snyder
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C.— July 5, 2022 – A team of specialists and students led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness recently returned to Israel’s Lower Galilee to continue unearthing nearly 1,600-year-old mosaics in an ancient Jewish synagogue at Huqoq. Discoveries made this year include the first known depiction of the biblical heroines Deborah and Jael as described in the book of Judges.
The Huqoq Excavation Project is now in its 10th season after recent seasons were paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Project director Magness, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of religious studies in Carolina’s College of Arts & Sciences, and assistant director Dennis Mizzi of the University of Malta focused this season on the southwest part of the synagogue, which was built in the late fourth-early fifth century C.E.
This season, the project team unearthed a part of the synagogue’s floor decorated with a large mosaic panel that is divided into three horizontal strips (called registers), which depicts an episode from the book of Judges chapter 4: The victory of the Israelite forces led by the prophetess and judge Deborah and the military commander Barak over the Canaanite army led by the general Sisera. The Bible relates that after the battle, Sisera took refuge in the tent of a Kenite woman named Jael (Yael), who killed him by driving a tent stake through his temple as he slept. The uppermost register of the newly-discovered Huqoq mosaic shows Deborah under a palm tree, gazing at Barak, who is equipped with a shield. Only a small part of the middle register is preserved, which appears to show Sisera seated. The lowest register depicts Sisera lying deceased on the ground, bleeding from the head as Jael hammers a tent stake through his temple.
“This is the first depiction of this episode and the first time we’ve seen a depiction of the biblical heroines Deborah and Jael in ancient Jewish art,” Magness said. “Looking at the book of Joshua chapter 19, we can see how the story might have had special resonance for the Jewish community at Huqoq, as it is described as taking place in the same geographical region – the territory of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon.”
Also among the newly discovered mosaics is a fragmentary Hebrew dedicatory inscription inside a wreath, flanked by panels measuring 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide, which show two vases that hold sprouting vines. The vines form medallions that frame four animals eating clusters of grapes: a hare, a fox, a leopard and a wild boar.
A decade of discovery
Mosaics were first discovered at the site in 2012, and work continued each summer until the COVID-19 pandemic paused work after the dig in 2019. The mosaics exposed in the last 10 active seasons cover the synagogue’s aisles and main hall.
Discoveries along the east aisle include:
Panels depicting Samson and the foxes (as related in Judges 15:4)
Samson carrying the gate of Gaza on his shoulders (Judges 16:3)
A Hebrew inscription surrounded by human figures, animals and mythological creatures including putti, or cupids
The first non-biblical story ever found decorating an ancient synagogue — perhaps the legendary meeting between Alexander the Great and the Jewish high priest
The mosaic floor in the north aisle is divided into two rows of panels containing figures and objects accompanied by Hebrew inscriptions identifying them as biblical stories, including:
One panel depicts two of the spies sent by Moses to explore Canaan carrying a pole with a cluster of grapes, labeled “a pole between two” (from Numbers 13:23)
Another panel showing a man leading an animal on a rope is accompanied by the inscription “a small child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6)
The mosaics panels in the nave, or main hall, include:
A portrayal of Noah’s Ark
The parting of the Red Sea
A Helios-zodiac cycle
Jonah being swallowed by three successive fish
The building of the Tower of Babel
In 2019, the team uncovered panels in the north aisle that frame figures of animals identified by an Aramaic inscription as the four beasts representing four kingdoms in the book of Daniel, chapter 7. A large panel in the northwest aisle depicts Elim, the spot where the Israelites camped by 12 springs and 70 date palms after departing Egypt and wandering in the wilderness without water (Exodus 15:27).
In the 14th century C.E. (the Mamluk period), the synagogue was rebuilt and expanded in size, perhaps in connection with the rise of a tradition that the Tomb of Habakkuk was located nearby, which became a focal point of late medieval Jewish pilgrimage.
“The 14th century C.E. building appears to be the first Mamluk period synagogue ever discovered in Israel, making it no less important than the earlier building,” said Magness.
Sponsors of the project are UNC-Chapel Hill, Austin College, Baylor University, Brigham Young University and the University of Toronto. Students and staff from Carolina and the consortium schools participated in the dig. Financial support for the 2022 season was also provided by the National Geographic Society, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Kenan Charitable Trust and the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The mosaics have been removed from the site for conservation, and the excavated areas have been backfilled. Excavations are scheduled to continue in summer 2023. For additional information and updates, visit the project’s website: www.huqoq.org.
About the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation’s first public university, is a global higher education leader known for innovative teaching, research and public service. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, Carolina regularly ranks as the best value for academic quality in U.S. public higher education. Now in its third century, the University offers 77 bachelor’s, 112 master’s, 66 doctorate and seven professional degree programs through 14 schools, including the College of Arts & Sciences. Every day, faculty, staff and students shape their teaching, research and public service to meet North Carolina’s most pressing needs in every region and all 100 counties. Carolina’s more than 355,786 alumni live in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and 147 countries. More than 189,842 live in North Carolina.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—A study* finds evidence suggesting that only four to seven of 23 purported fossil Homo specimens from southern Africa belong to the genus Homo, with the others sharing traits with other hominin lineages. Identifying the origin and extent of early Homo species can help uncover the selective pressures that may have led to the speciation of Homo and the evolutionary relationships between early Homo, Australopithecus, and Paranthropus. Clément Zanolli and colleagues examined the internal structure of teeth attributed to Early Pleistocene Homo specimens from the Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Drimolen, and Kromdraai B hominin-bearing sites in southern Africa. Using microcomputed tomography and 3D geometric morphometrics, the authors analyzed taxonomically relevant tooth structures from 23 specimens, finding that only four of the specimens—three from Swartkrans and one from Sterkfontein—were unambiguously Homo specimens. Three additional Sterkfontein samples contained derived Homo features but also retained some Australopithecus-like traits, and the remaining specimens exhibited only Australopithecus or Paranthropus features. The results prompt a re-evaluation of purported Homo specimens, particularly specimens with a geochemical profile that previously suggested a diversity of diet and ecology in Homo species but that are likely properly interpreted as consistent with the profile of Australopithecus. According to the authors, correct taxonomic interpretation of hominin samples could illuminate the development and expansion of Homo species in the Early Pleistocene Epoch.
_____________________________
The mandible SK 15, previously attributed to Homo erectus, and more likely representing a species of robust australopith. Clément Zanolli
_____________________________
The enamel-dentine junction of the second maxillary molar of the human specimen SK 27 compared with those of early Homo, Australopithecus, and Paranthropus. Clément Zanolli
*“Dental data challenge the ubiquitous presence of Homo in the Cradle of Humankind,” by Clément Zanolli et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 4-Jul-2022. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2111212119
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, TALLAHASSEE, FL – National Park Service (NPS) archeologists provided valuable research for a new global study finding that Indigenous groups sustainably harvested massive amounts of oysters over hundreds and sometimes thousands of years with minimal impact before European colonizers arrived.
Archeologists from NPS’s Southeast Archeological Center (SEAC) joined an international research team for thisstudy published in Nature Communications magazine last month. The researchers analyzed Indigenous oyster harvest sites in North America, including at three national parks and Australia, dating from as far back as 6,000 years. They learned oyster harvest sites were significantly more productive for thousands of years when managed by Indigenous communities. Today, a major decline in oyster fisheries is a global concern.
“This study is significant because it highlights the importance of Indigenous knowledge in ecosystem management. A failure to take traditional ecological knowledge into account contributed to the collapse of oyster fisheries associated with European settlement,” stated NPS archeologist Michael Lockman.
Archeological data from shell mounds in Canaveral National Seashore, De Soto National Memorial and Everglades National Park contributed to this study. Using scientific techniques, such as radiocarbon dating, NPS archeologist Dr. Margo Schwadron and her team of researchers, including Lockman, concluded that Indigenous people lived sustainably for many thousands of years before the arrival of European colonists and integrated knowledge and sustainability practices that modern-day conservationists can learn from. As such, this study helps the NPS advance its core mission “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations,” the National Park Service Organic Act, 1916.
“I am thrilled to see the excitement being generated by this article, but more importantly I am happy to be working with tribal partners and engaging in important science and research that recognizes the incredible traditional, ecological knowledge of our tribal partners,” said Schwadron.
As an archeologist with SEAC, Schwadron has passionately documented and worked to preserve coastal shell sites in national parks in the southeastern United States for over 30 years, including working with other scientists to restore natural ecosystems and build living shorelines to protect natural and cultural areas. She has led efforts to document and protect NPS coastal shell mounds, advocating for their preservation as significant cultural resources that provide a unique understanding of climate change, historical ecology and traditional culture and ecological knowledge.
One shell mound included in the new Indigenous fisheries study is Turtle Mound located at the Canaveral National Seashore in Florida. It is the largest mound in the NPS system and possibly the tallest in North America, standing 37-feet tall. Turtle Mound contains archeological material that has been in existence for more than 1,200 years, from 800 to 1400 CE. The mound is effectively a time capsule providing evidence of the past in terms of food, tools and other artifacts.
Climate change effects are already producing detrimental impacts to these mound sites, including erosion and loss of significant archeological, environmental and palaeoecological data. Impacts from sea-level rise and increased storm activities are predicted to continue to accelerate erosion, loss of archeological data and eventual total loss of site integrity.
NPS works with partners, universities and non-profits to preserve and protect these sites so future generations will continue to learn lessons from our past.
About the National Park Service: More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 423 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)—An analysis of ancient and modern DNA from Micronesia – a scattering of nearly 2,000 islands in the western Pacific Ocean – has revealed unique migration and population patterns in the region unlike those in the nearby southwest Pacific. The findings indicate that Micronesia was populated by 5 successive migration streams from Southeast Asian islands. Moreover, these early settlements were matrilocal, characterized by a female household-centered social structure where men migrated to find their mates, settling with the female’s family and community. Archaeological evidence suggests that people first arrived and began settling the vast region of Micronesia roughly 3,500 years ago. However, due to sparse genomic data, where these people migrated from isn’t well understood. Despite this, Micronesia’s genetic history is often assumed to be similar to that of the southwest Pacific and Polynesia. Here, Yue-Chen Lui, David Reich and colleagues present an analysis of 164 ancient human genomes from five different archeological sites across Micronesia, representing several prehistoric periods ranging from 2,800-500 years ago, as well as 112 genomes from present-day individuals from the same area. Lui et al. discovered five separate migrations into Micronesia – three likely originating in East Asia, one from Polynesia and another from a Papuan source related to mainland New Guineans. According to the findings, people of the Mariana Archipelago may be the only population in Remote Oceania without Papuan ancestry. While the genomic ancestry of Micronesia differs from that in the southwest Pacific, the authors noted that female-inherited mitochondrial DNA was highly differentiated among Island communities, yet similar within them across many Pacific Islands. These findings indicate that many of the earliest groups to settle the region were matrilocal.
*Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers, Science, 1-Jul-2022. 10.1126/science.abm6536
PLOS—Winemaking practices in coastal Italy during the Roman period involved using native grapes for making wine in jars waterproofed with imported tar pitch, according to a study* published June 29, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Louise Chassouant of Avignon University and colleagues.
The authors examined three Roman period amphorae – wine jars – from a seabed deposit near the modern harbor of San Felice Circeo, Italy, about 90 km southeast of Rome. A combination of chemical markers, plant tissue residue, and pollen provided evidence of grape derivatives and pine within the jars. The evidence suggests the amphorae were used in both red and white winemaking processes, while the pine was used to create tar for waterproofing the jars and perhaps also flavoring the wine, as has been observed at similar archaeological sites.
The grapevine pollen matches wild species from the area, suggesting these winemakers were using local plants, although it remains unclear whether these were domesticated at the time. The pine tar, on the other hand, is non-local, and was likely imported from Calabria or Sicily based on other historical sources.
The authors emphasize the benefit of this multidisciplinary approach to characterize cultural practices from archaeological artifacts. In this case, the identification of plant remains, chemical analysis, historical and archaeological records, amphorae design, and previous findings all contributed to the conclusions of this analysis, providing an example of methodology for interpreting a history beyond the artifacts which would not be possible using a single technique.
The authors add: “If there was a message to be retained from the reading of this article, it would be related to the multidisciplinary methodology to be applied. Indeed, by using different approaches to unravel the content and nature of the coating layer of Roman amphorae, we have pushed the conclusion further in the understanding of ancient practices than it would have been with a single approach.”
___________________________
From the amphorae to understanding the content; this multi-analytical analysis relied on archaeobotany and molecular identification. Louise Chassouant, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
*Chassouant L, Celant A, Delpino C, Di Rita F, Vieillescazes C, Mathe C, et al. (2022) Archaeobotanical and chemical investigations on wine amphorae from San Felice Circeo (Italy) shed light on grape beverages at the Roman time. PLoS ONE 17(6): e0267129. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267129
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—Dating of a cave infill in South Africa that has yielded numerous Australopithecus fossils reveals that the fossils are older than previously thought and that the South African individuals were contemporaneous with Australopithecus afarensis in East Africa. Sterkfontein cave in South Africa is a treasure trove of Australopithecus fossils, often thought to be younger than A. afarensis, which lived in East Africa. Darryl E. Granger and colleagues calculated the ages of the Sterkfontein rocks in which the fossils are found by measuring the amounts of aluminum-26 and beryllium-10 isotopes in rocks containing quartz. The rare isotopes were formed by high-energy cosmic rays while the rocks were at the surface and decayed after they were buried in the cave with the fossils. The cosmogenic isotopes yielded an age of around 3.4-3.7 million years, older than the previously determined age of 2.1-2.6-million-years. The previous age was derived from calcite flowstones, which were intrusions into the fossil-bearing formation, leading to an underestimation of the fossils’ age. According to the authors, the revised age places South African Australopithecus as a contemporary of A. afarensis and other early Australopithecus species, expanding the diversity of hominin morphologies and habitats in the mid-Pliocene Epoch.
_________________________________
Female Australopithecus Sts 71, discovered in 1947 from Member 4 at Sterkfontein, South Africa and newly dated to 3.4-3.6 million years. Jason L. Heaton, Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Alabama
_________________________________
‘Mrs. Ples’ (Sts 5), discovered at Sterkfontein, South Africa in 1947, now shown to be contemporaneous with Lucy’s species in East Africa. Jason L. Heaton, Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Alabama
*“Cosmogenic nuclide dating of Australopithecus at Sterkfontein, South Africa,” by Darryl E. Granger et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 27-Jun-2022. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2123516119
FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY—With some 7,000 islands and cays and a 7,000-year history of human habitation, the Caribbean Sea is practically synonymous with maritime travel. The very word “canoe” is derived from the term “kana:wa,” used by the Indigenous Arawakans of the Caribbean to describe their dugout vessels.
Without clear road signs to indicate where native islanders were traveling, however, the task of reconstructing ancient trade routes relies on subtle clues locked away in the archaeological record. Researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History recently turned to pottery to tease apart the navigational history of the Caribbean, analyzing the composition of 96 fired clay fragments across 11 islands.
The study*, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, is the broadest of its kind yet conducted in the Greater Antilles and marks the first time that pottery artifacts from the Lucayan Islands — The Bahamas plus the Turks and Caicos Islands — have been analyzed to determine their elemental composition and origin.
“Our methods mark a big improvement over other studies that mostly look at a single site or single island, where you might see differences but not know what it means because you’re looking at the results in isolation,” said co-author Lindsay Bloch, a courtesy faculty member with the Florida Museum’s Ceramic Technology Lab.
People have lived on the Caribbean islands on and off for more than 7,000 years, migrating in waves from Central and South America. As early as 800 B.C., new groups arrived from Venezuela and established a trading network among islands, which they used to exchange food, tools and jewelry. But the most common artifacts that survived to the present are the pottery vessels these objects were carried in.
“Most materials don’t preserve well in the Caribbean because of the warm, humid environment, but pottery is durable, so it ends up being one of the most common things we find,” said lead author Emily Kracht, a collections assistant in the Ceramic Technology Lab.
Over the ensuing millennia, different Caribbean cultures developed unique styles and techniques for constructing their pottery. Some artifacts are simple and unadorned, while others are highly decorated, with a lattice of incised lines, punctations, raised ridges and flared rims.
Many studies have relied almost entirely on similarities in style to distinguish between different cultures and infer their movements. But, as Bloch explains, this method has often left more questions than answers and excludes material with potentially valuable information.
“The vast majority of pottery that we find anywhere in the world is going to be undecorated. It’s going to be things used for cooking or storage, which are typically plain and often get ignored because they’re seen as generic,” she said.
Rather than studying the minutiae of varying styles, the researchers focused instead on what the pottery was made of. Using a laser to etch microscopic lines into their samples, the researchers determined the exact amounts and identities of each element in the clay used to make the pottery. Their final analysis included more than seven decades’ worth of archaeological collections that span over 1,000 years of Indigenous Caribbean history.
“One of the advantages of elemental analysis is that we’re explicitly looking for differences, which allows us to see where a pot was made and compare that to where it ended up,” Bloch said.
Such detailed comparisons are possible due to the complexity of the Caribbean’s underlying geology. The largest islands in the archipelago likely got their start as an ancient underwater plateau in the Pacific Ocean. After the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea, the Caribbean plate drifted east in a flurry of volcanic eruptions that elevated the plateau above sea level before ultimately reaching its current position in the Atlantic.
Millions of years of weathering reduced these volcanic outcrops into fine-grained clays with differing concentrations of elements like copper, nickel, chromium and antimony. These differences mean that even the smallest Caribbean pottery sherd bears the elemental signature of the region it was made in.
The results of researchers’ comparative analysis aren’t what might be expected by simply looking at a map. The Lucayan Islands were initially used only temporarily for harvesting resources, and the people who traveled to them would have set sail from the larger islands to the south that supported permanent population centers.
Cuba might initially seem like it’s the perfect staging ground for these operations, being by far the largest Caribbean island and the closest to The Bahamas. While people did make the trek across open water from Cuba, the results of the study indicate the Caribbean’s cultural hub was instead centered on the northwest coast of Hispaniola, from which people imported and exported goods for hundreds of years.
“At least some of the pottery would have been used to ferry goods out to these islands, and people would potentially carry back a variety of marine resources,” Bloch said.
People eventually struck up permanent settlements in The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, becoming collectively known as the Lucayans, or the People of the Islands. They began making their own pottery from claylike soils deposited by African dust plumes blown in from the Saharan Desert, but the results didn’t quite hold up to the pottery from Hispaniola — literally. Lucayan pottery, called Palmetto Ware, is most often thick and soft and crumbles over time due to the poor quality of the grainy Saharan soil.
Thus, up until the arrival of the Spanish, Hispaniola remained the main trading partner and exporter of pottery to the Lucayan Islands.
“We knew that the Lucayans were related to people in Hispaniola, and this study shows their enduring relationship over hundreds of years through pottery,” Kracht said.
William Keegan of the Florida Museum of Natural History is also a co-author on the study.
__________________________
Ancient pottery holds clues to the past lives, traditions, and movements of Indigenous people from the Caribbean Islands. Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace
__________________________
Indigenous Caribbean islanders developed elaborate and ornate pottery styles that varied across time and between cultures. Photo by Lindsay Bloch
*Production of Greater Antillean pottery and its exchange to the Lucayan Islands: A compositional study, Journal of Archaeological Science, 17-May-2022. 10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103469
Popular Archaeology Magazine is collaborating with Stone and Compass to develop and offer an exclusive, unique tour of northern Spain — Northern Spain’s Triple A: Archaeology, Architecture, and Art — projected to take place in 2024 or 2025. This first-time-offered, premier tour will highlight visits to some of the most iconic and breathtaking sites featuring the spectacular cultural treasures that northern Spain has to offer, including a full day to visit the fabulous Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos and the famous Atapuerca caves nearby, where a massive number of early human fossils have been unearthed, representing some of the oldest early humans, dating back to more than a million years, that lived in what is today Europe. More specifically, the tour will include visits to places like:
The tour is expected to last 12 days and is estimated to cost $4,300 per person, which includes the round-trip flight to Barcelona, all meals and lodging, transportation, a tour director and local guides, and all other costs required for access to the sites. There will be $300 additional for single occupancy.
I will be personally participating in this special tour myself, and I look forward to meeting you as a subscriber. If you are interested in this tour, please email us at populararchaeology@gmail.com and express your interest, and we will place you on our correspondence list to receive more information as the tour develops.
Happy Planning!
Dan McLerran
Editor
Popular Archaeology Magazine
____________________________________
Image, top: View of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Javier Alamo, Pixabay
Image, bottom: Bison painting by prehistoric human occupants of Altamira Cave. Janeb13, Pixabay
AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION—WASHINGTON — At the time of Spanish conquest in 1521, the Aztec’s capital Tenochtitlán, now Mexico City, was already one of the largest, most populous cities in the world, managing complex problems of urban development, flooding and water supply.
The city’s ongoing struggles to balance these same issues, 500 years later, are a case study in environmental adaption with lessons for contemporary decision makers and the future of megacities, according to Beth Tellman, a human-environmental geographer at the University of Arizona.
“Can megacities adapt to climate change, are they going to collapse, or are we going to figure it out? I think looking at Mexico City is a really interesting way to answer that question because it’s a city that’s been figuring it out for 700 years and that’s had consequences. Some people have really gained from that adaptation and other people have lost out,” Tellman said.
One of the essential lessons from revisiting and synthesizing the many existing records of the city’s history, Tellman argues, is technological innovation alone can’t solve water problems that have social and political dimensions.
“If a new diversion protects a community from flood, but drowns another community in the diversion path, is it a success? Any time you build a levy, it’s going to move water faster downstream or to the other side. We need to be thinking more about: Whose adaptation is this? Do we actually have all affected people at the table?”
Tellman will speak today about her research on how urban managers mitigate — and create — vulnerability to environmental hazards in Mexico City and other cities around the world in at 5:00 pm EDT session at the Frontiers in Hydrology meeting, convening this week in San Juan, Puerto Rico and online.
The Frontiers in Hydrology meeting is a partnership between AGU and the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc (CUAHSI) designed to inspire new ideas and solutions for the future of water by bringing together engineers, hydrologists, social scientists, urban planners, atmospheric scientists and affiliated communities from around the world that work on all aspects of water issues.
Free media registration is available for online and in-person attendance at the meeting.
Complex trade-offs
“As cities grow and get more complex, managing risks in a separate way is a strategy that does not work and ignoring that reality makes it worse, because instead of anticipated consequences of adaptation decisions, you have these unanticipated consequences,” Tellman said.
Tenochtitlán, and later Mexico City, like many modern cities, started out managing water supply, flooding and urban development separately. But as the city grew, the three adaptation pathways intersected in complex ways, creating complicated risk trade-offs.
The city, built on an island in saline Lake Texcoco, controlled flooding through a sophisticated network of dikes, levees and canals. Aqueducts, sluices and other infrastructure provided fresh water and kept it separated from the salty lake water. But aqueducts contributed to destructive flooding, and dikes to prevent flooding in one location channeled floodwaters into others.
After conquest destroyed much of the original city infrastructure, the Spanish chose to deal with flooding by draining the lake, which created new problems. Now a megacity of 20 million, Mexico City continues to battle flooding, while simultaneously struggling with water shortages. Groundwater pumping to supply fresh water has caused the city to sink, breaking drains, which causes more flooding. Both problems hit neighborhoods unevenly, with the greatest burden falling on low-income areas, Tellman said. Technological solutions like rainwater capture do not reach people with greatest need, because of political barriers to providing city improvements to undocumented residents.
“Vulnerability cannot be eliminated,” Tellman said. “It’s transferred over time or space or to different populations, and what that means is that we should not have the engineering hubris to say we’re going to eliminate vulnerability. What we should instead do is democratically negotiate the consequences of adaptation. It’s not just climate adaptation, but climate justice.”
_______________________
A model of ancient Tenochtitlan, which can be viewed in Mexico City. Branz, Pixabay
AGU (www.agu.org) supports 125,000 enthusiasts to experts worldwide in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, we advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.
TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY—A joint study by researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University unraveled the earliest evidence for domestication of a fruit tree. The researchers analyzed remnants of charcoal from the Chalcolithic site of Tel Zaf in the Jordan Valley and determined that they came from olive trees. Since the olive did not grow naturally in the Jordan Valley, this means that the inhabitants planted the tree intentionally about 7,000 years ago.
The groundbreaking study was led by Dr. Dafna Langgut of the Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology & Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University. The charcoal remnants were found in the archaeological excavation directed by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University. The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reportsfrom the publishers of Nature.
Dr. Langgut: “I am the head of the Laboratory of Archaeobotany & Ancient Environments, which specializes in microscopic identification of plant remains. Trees, even when burned down to charcoal, can be identified by their anatomic structure. Wood was the ‘plastic’of the ancient world. It was used for construction, for making tools and furniture, and as a source of energy. That’s why identifying tree remnants found at archaeological sites, such as charcoal from hearths, is a key to understanding what kinds of trees grew in the natural environment at the time, and when humans began to cultivate fruit trees.”
In her lab, Dr. Langgut identified the charcoal from Tel Zaf as belonging to olive and fig trees. “Olive trees grow in the wild in the land of Israel, but they do not grow in the Jordan Valley,” she says. “This means that someone brought them there intentionally – took the knowledge and the plant itself to a place that is outside its natural habitat. In archaeobotany, this is considered indisputable proof of domestication, which means that we have here the earliest evidence of the olive’s domestication anywhere in the world. I also identified many remnants of young fig branches. The fig tree did grow naturally in the Jordan Valley, but its branches had little value as either firewood or raw materials for tools or furniture, so people had no reason to gather large quantities and bring them to the village. Apparently, these fig branches resulted from pruning, a method still used today to increase the yield of fruit trees.”
The tree remnants examined by Dr. Langgut were collected by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University, who headed the dig at Tel Zaf. Prof. Garfinkel: “Tel Zaf was a large prehistoric village in the middle Jordan Valley south of Beit She’an, inhabited between 7,200 and 6,700 years ago. Large houses with courtyards were discovered at the site, each with several granaries for storing crops. Storage capacities were up to 20 times greater than any single family’s calorie consumption, so clearly these were caches for storing great wealth. The wealth of the village was manifested in the production of elaborate pottery, painted with remarkable skill. In addition, we found articles brought from afar: pottery of the Ubaid culture from Mesopotamia, obsidian from Anatolia, a copper awl from the Caucasus, and more.”
Dr. Langgut and Prof. Garfinkel were not surprised to discover that the inhabitants of Tel Zaf were the first in the world to intentionally grow olive and fig groves, since growing fruit trees is evidence of luxury, and this site is known to have been exceptionally wealthy.
Dr. Langgut: “The domestication of fruit trees is a process that takes many years, and therefore befits a society of plenty, rather than one that struggles to survive. Trees give fruit only 3-4 years after being planted. Since groves of fruit trees require a substantial initial investment, and then live on for a long time, they have great economic and social significance in terms of owning land and bequeathing it to future generations – procedures suggesting the beginnings of a complex society. Moreover, it’s quite possible that the residents of Tel Zaf traded in products derived from the fruit trees, such as olives, olive oil, and dried figs, which have a long shelf life. Such products may have enabled long-distance trade that led to the accumulation of material wealth, and possibly even taxation – initial steps in turning the locals into a society with a socio-economic hierarchy supported by an administrative system.”
Dr. Langgut concludes: “At the Tel Zaf archaeological site we found the first evidence in the world for the domestication of fruit trees, alongside some of the earliest stamps – suggesting the beginnings of administrative procedures. As a whole, the findings indicate wealth, and early steps toward the formation of a complex multilevel society, with the class of farmers supplemented by classes of clerks and merchants.”
_________________________________
Rectangular room at Chalcolithic Tel Tsaf. Prof. Yosef Garfinkel
_________________________________
7,000 years-old hearth remains at the village of Tel Tsaf. Prof. Yosef Garfinkel
Compelling stories dramatize and humanize major events and characters in the history of Ephesus, the ruins of which are a popular destination for tourists in present-day Turkey.Historium Press, 2023.Available from Amazon and other online booksellers.
WHO WERE THE AEGEANS? The exciting new podcast series exploring the mysteries of the ancient Aegeans, the Bronze Age people who inspired Homer's epic stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}