PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—An overland route proposed to be key to the initial peopling of the Americas would not have been available, according to a study*. The “Ice-Free Corridor” (IFC) model for the first peopling of the Americas suggests that an opening between the margins of the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets enabled travel from Beringia to the Great Plains. However, uncertainty about the dating of the first opening of the IFC has made the model’s accuracy difficult to assess. Jorie Clark and colleagues used 64 beryllium-isotope surface exposure ages taken from six locations spanning 1,200 km along the Cordilleran-Laurentide ice sheet suture zone to directly date the opening of the IFC. At each of the sites, the authors sampled glacially transported boulders to date the rocks’ exposure to cosmic rays at the onset of ice-free conditions. The results suggest that the IFC did not fully open until around 13,800 years ago. The authors conclude that the IFC would not have been available as a migration route for the first peopling of the Americas, which occurred before 15,600 years ago based on current archaeological and ancient genomic evidence. According to the authors, a more plausible migration route is along the Canadian coast following the retreat of the western margin of the Cordilleran ice sheet.
*“The age of the opening of the Ice-Free Corridor and implications for the peopling of the Americas,” by Jorie Clark et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 21-Mar-2022. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2118558119
Cover Image, Top Left: The central Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada. Anders Carlson
UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID—The archaeology of the Roman period has traditionally been focused on monumental aspects, but very little is known about what the daily life of peasantry was like. An investigation by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) delves into the life of peasant settlements based on the archaeological findings discovered in the Community of Madrid, in the numerous rescue excavations that were carried out during the real estate bubble period.
This research project, funded by the Community of Madrid’s Talent Attraction program, is revealing aspects about the life of the humblest peasantry of that time, of which little information was available until now. “The study of this hidden archaeological heritage is allowing us to learn how they interacted with the surrounding landscape, the type of crops they grew preferentially, how they cooked, the domestic animal species they exploited, the type of crockery they used, how exchange circuits worked at a local and regional level, etc.”, says the project manager, Jesús Bermejo, professor in the Department of Humanities: History, Geography and Art at UC3M.
The study reveals, for example, that Madrid’s gastronomy could have inherited typical dishes from farms in the central areas of Roman Spain, such as potaje and cocido (typical soup and stew). Researchers have found remains of pots that were used to cook these dishes, with a very similar method to the current one. Those peasants threw a piece of meat together with the available vegetables and left them on the fire in a very uncontrolled way, while they carried out the agricultural work. “They left the pot on the fire very early in the morning, went to work in the fields, came back and ate communally, because the patterns we see on the crockery give us a much more collective vision,” explains Professor Bermejo. This also gives us clues about the social relationships of that period: the act of eating was not an individual process, but a collective one, which could bring a large number of people together.
Sites in Barajas, Fuenlabrada, Getafe or Leganés
Due to their provisional nature —associated with the different constructions and public works where these rescue excavations have been carried out—none of these archaeological settlements have been preserved and most people are unaware of their existence. One of the objectives of this research project is to give greater visibility to these sites, both socially and from a scientific point of view.
“Many of these sites are in towns such as Barajas, Fuenlabrada, Getafe or Leganés, where many people who are not aware of the existence of this archaeological heritage that reflects the life of the humblest sectors of past societies are living”, explains Professor Bermejo.
Innovation and knowledge transfer in archaeology
In the case of prospecting – the exploration of the land to discover the existence of sites –two elements have revolutionized the practice of archaeological research in recent decades, according to scientists. The first one has been the use of GPS devices and other remote sensing systems for the geo-referencing of archaeological findings. The second one is the generalization of geographic information systems (GIS), which have made it possible to analyze a huge amount of archaeological data in relation to different geographic and environmental variables. “In the case of the analysis of archaeological findings from excavations, the use of new methodological perspectives such as the so-called household archaeology is revolutionizing our way of understanding the archaeological record”, says Jesús Bermejo.
The results of this research project, as well as other related studies, are collected in The Archaeology of Peasantry in Roman Spain (De Gruyter, 2022), the first monographic volume that addresses the subject of Roman peasantry in the Peninsula. This publication, co-edited by Jesús Bermejo together with Ignasi Grau, professor of Archaeology at the University of Alicante, brings together the contributions of a group of researchers who are developing pioneering and innovative perspectives focused on Hispanic-Roman rural society through different methodological strategies and various archaeological records. Many of these projects are based on the development of archaeological prospecting in various peninsular regions, such as the interior of the province of Alicante or various places in southern Extremadura. In other cases, the studies arise as a result of different excavation work, such as those carried out in the surroundings of the Villa de Almenara de Adaja-Puras, in the province of Valladolid. In this regard, the volume features a large amount of archaeological information which is unpublished or published in a very fragmentary way.
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Planimetry of El Zarzalejo, a Roman farm occupied between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, located in Arroyomolinos (Community of Madrid). UC3M
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—Researchers report evidence of geese domestication in China 7,000 years ago. The history of poultry domestication is less well understood than that of mammalian livestock. Masaki Eda and colleagues performed histological, geochemical, biochemical, and morphological analyses on goose bones from a 7,000-year-old rice cultivation village in the Yangtze River valley in China to uncover evidence of early domestication. The study region is a wintering site for wild geese with no current breeding activity, and the authors found immature goose bones in the archaeological assemblage. Oxygen isotope analysis helped identify bones belonging to nonmigratory, locally bred geese. Biochemical analysis suggested that the diet of local geese differed from migratory geese and may have included cultivated rice. Morphological analysis suggested that local geese were kept for multiple generations, given that they had a consistent body size compared with wild geese. Together, the bones, which were radiocarbon dated to 7150–6670 years ago, exhibited signs of early goose domestication. Based on butchering and manufacturing marks on the bones, the authors suggest that geese were locally bred to meet the demand for meat and bone tool materials when wild, migratory geese were unavailable. According to the authors, the results suggest that early goose domestication may have preceded chicken domestication.
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Modern Chinese domestic geese (Anser cygnoides domesticus). Masaki Eda.
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Goose bones found at Tianluoshan, China. Masaki Eda.
“Multiple lines of evidence of early goose domestication in a 7,000-y-old rice cultivation village in the lower Yangtze River, China,” by Masaki Eda, Yu Itahashi, et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 7-Mar-2022. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2117064119
UPPSALA UNIVERSITY—Mummification of the dead probably was more common in prehistory than previously known. This discovery is made at the hunter-gatherer burial sites in the Sado Valley in Portugal, dating to 8,000 years ago. A new study*, headed by archaeologists at Uppsala University and Linnaeus University in Sweden and University of Lisbon in Portugal, presents new evidence for pre-burial treatments such as desiccation through mummification, which has not been suggested for the European Mesolithic before. The results are now published in European Journal of Archaeology.
Until now, the oldest cases of intentional mummification were known from the Chinchorro hunter-gatherers living in the coastal region of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile with examples of mummified bodies buried in shell middens around 7 000 years ago still preserving soft tissue. However, most surviving mummies worldwide are more recent, dating between a few hundred years and 4 000 years old.
Mummification in prehistory is a challenging topic for researchers because it is difficult to detect if a body was preserved through mummification when soft tissue is no longer visible. An additional difficulty is the lack of written reports for these early periods. Unlike bone, finding soft tissue in archaeological sites is rare due to issues of preservation, and without it, it is difficult to recognize if the remains have been curated soon after death. This is particularly challenging in temperate and wetter climates, such as in most of Europe, where soft tissues and fabrics do not normally survive in archaeological sites.
Using recently discovered photographs of the skeletal remains of thirteen individuals excavated in the 1960s in the Sado Valley Mesolithic shell middens in Portugal, the researchers were able to reconstruct the positions in which the bodies were buried providing a unique opportunity to learn more about mortuary rituals taking place 8 000 years ago.
The study combined the approach of archaeothanatology with human decomposition experiments. Archaeothanatology is an approach used by archaeologists to document and analyse human remains in archaeological sites that combines observations of the spatial distribution of the bones in the grave with knowledge about how the human body decomposes after death. Archaeologists can then reconstruct how the dead body was handled after death and buried, even if several millennia have passed. In this study, the archaeothanatology was also informed by results from human decomposition experiments on mummification and burial at the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility at Texas State University.
Based on the results from the experiments, an observable signature for a mummy could be proposed that combines several observations: a hyperflexion of the limbs, an absence of disarticulation in significant parts of the skeleton, and a rapid infilling of sediment around the bones. These were all clearly present in at least one of the burials in this study. The analysis showed that some bodies were buried in extremely flexed positions with the legs flexed at the knees and placed in front of the chest.
During decomposition, the bones usually become disarticulated at weak joints, such as at the feet, but in these cases, the articulations were maintained. The researchers propose that this pattern of hyperflexion and lack of disarticulation could be explained if the body was not placed in the grave as a fresh cadaver, but in a desiccated state as a mummied corpse. Desiccation not only maintains some of these otherwise weak articulations, but also allows for a strong flexion of the body since the range of movement increases when the volume of soft tissue is smaller. Because the bodies were desiccated before burial, there is very little or no sediment present between the bones and the articulations are maintained by the continuous infilling of the surrounding soil supporting the bones and preventing the collapse of the articulations.
The researchers suggest that the observed patterns could be the product of a guided natural mummification process. The manipulation of the body during mummification would have taken place over an extended period of time, during which the body gradually would become desiccated to maintain its bodily integrity, and simultaneously contracted by trussing with rope or bandages to compress it into a desired position. When the process was finished, the body would have been easier to transport (being more contracted and significantly lighter than the fresh cadaver) while ensuring that it was buried while retaining its appearance and anatomical integrity.
If mummification in Europe was older than previously known, a range of insights relating to the mortuary practices of Mesolithic communities arise, including a central concern for maintaining the integrity of the body and its physical transformation from a cadaver to a curated mummy. These practices would also underscore the significance of the burial places and the importance of bringing the dead to these locations in a manner that contained and protected the body, following principles that were culturally regulated, highlighting the significance of both the body and the burial place in Mesolithic Portugal 8,000 years ago.
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View from the archaeological site Arapouco towards the Sado Valley, Portugal. Photographer: Rita Peyroteo-Stjerna
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Researcher Rita Peyroteo Stjerna at the National Museum of Archaeology, Lisbon, working with the Mesolithic skeletons excavated in the 1950s-1960s at the Sado Valley, Portugal. José Paulo Ruas
*Rita Peyroteo-Stjerna, Liv Nilsson Stutz, et al.;Mummification in the Mesolithic. New Approaches to Old Photo Documentation Reveal Previously Unknown Mortuary Practices in the Sado Valley, Portugal; the European Journal of Archaeology, 3 March 2022; DOI: 10.1017/eaa.2022.3
PLOS—Mollusk shells at 4,000-year-old Native American shell ring villages indicate that environmental change may have driven the formation and abandonment of these coastal communities, according to a study* by Carey Garland and Victor Thompson in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on March 2, 2022.
Shell ring villages were coastal communities built around fishing, as indicated by their sitting next to shellfish estuaries, and their large mounds of mollusk shells which remain to this day. Shell rings formed some of the earliest human village settlements along the U.S. South Atlantic coast but were abandoned at the end of the Late Archaic around 4,000 years ago. While scholars have proposed socio-ecological explanations, there has been limited examination of the physical evidence for these.
Garland, Thompson and colleagues analyzed the biochemistry and paleobiology of mollusk shells found at three abandoned shell rings on Sapelo Island in Georgia, U.S. For example, they measured the size of oyster shells as an indicator of the health of the environment and compared oxygen isotope values to determine salinity conditions. They integrated their findings with chronological data – such as tree ring analyses – using a Bayesian chronological model, to determine environmental fluctuations over time.
The researchers found that the three Sapelo shell rings, known as Ring I, Ring II and Ring III, were occupied in the Late Archaic for varying, sometimes overlapping, periods. Ring II appeared to be the oldest and longest-lasting, founded around 4290 years ago and being occupied until 3950 years ago, with Ring I lasting around 150 years in the middle of this period. Ring III was the newest and outlasted the others, before abandonment around 3845 years ago. While Rings I and II featured large oyster shells, those at Ring III were significantly smaller, indicating a decrease in oyster shell size over time. Smaller oysters tend to be less healthy or younger, so this may indicate a depletion in oyster stocks and/or oyster health. Oxygen isotopes also indicated significantly lower salinity conditions by the time of Ring III as compared to Rings I and II.
The analysis suggests that the inhabitants of the shell ring villages experienced environmental fluctuations, especially around the occupation of Ring III. Coastal settlement may have initially been an adaptation to climate change as a way to effectively manage fisheries – which are highly sensitive to such changes. However, by the time of occupation of Ring III, fishing may have become unsustainable, leading to dispersals to other settlements and other forms of subsistence.
The authors believe that their work provides “comprehensive evidence for correlations between large-scale environmental change and societal transformations on the Georgia coast during the Late Archaic period”.
The authors add: “The emergence of village life and adaptation to coastal environments are significant transitions in human history that have occurred at various times and places across the globe. Our research shows that Indigenous peoples who established North America’s first coastal shell ring villages some 4200 years ago were resilient and, through cooperation and collective action, were able to adapt to environmental instability and resource shortfalls.”
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Map of the Georgia coast showing the location of Sapelo Island and shell rings. The map was created by CJG and VDT using ArcGIS Pro and wetland shapefile data from Georgia GIS Clearinghouse (https://data.georgiaspatial.org/index.asp). Garland et al., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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LiDAR map showing the Sapelo Island Shell Ring Complex. Carey J. Garland, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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Doboy Sound from atop the Sapelo Island Lighthouse.CC BY-SA 4.0. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.
*Garland CJ, Thompson VD, Sanger MC, Smith KY, Andrus FT, Lawres NR, et al. (2022) A multi-proxy assessment of the impact of environmental instability on Late Holocene (4500-3800 BP) Native American villages of the Georgia coast. PLoS ONE 17(3): e0258979. 2-Mar-2022. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258979
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS JOURNALS—”New evidence of the importance of the Roman/Byzantine Mons Smaragdus settlement within the emerald mining network”
A new paper published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies presents the results of and images from the resuming of the archaeological seasons in the Mons Smaragdus region in the Egyptian Eastern Desert. The region, known for Roman-era emerald mines chronicled by authors like Pliny the Elder and Claudius Ptolemy, were rediscovered in the 19th century by the French mineralogist Fréderic Cailliaud. During the 1990s a team from the “Berenike Project” started to survey the area and conducted the first excavations, focusing on the main site identified, Sikait, where the archaeological seasons resumed in January of 2018 and January 2020.
In “New evidence regarding emerald production in Roman Egypt coming from Wadi Sikait (Eastern Desert)” authors J. Oller Guzmán, D. Fernández Abella, V. Trevín Pita, O. Achon Casas, and S. García-Dils de la Vega detail what was found in three buildings. The first structure, referred to as the “Administrative building,” was likely a temple long occupied between the 1st and the 4th-5th centuries. Nineteen coins were recovered at the site, along with other items indicating ritual use like incense burners and bronze and steatite figurines. The “Large Temple,” one of the most well-preserved structures standing in Sikait, also contained religious artifacts like bones, terracotta body parts, and amulets, and was likely occupied between the 4th and the 5th centuries AD, although inner shrines were possibly used earlier, based on surviving traces of Egyptian hieroglyph and other materials. Finally, the “Six Windows Building” complex, possibly a residential space, included an older inner cavity, which may have been related to mining activity. However, concerning these types of structures, common in Sikait, the authors write, “After analyzing most of these spaces, we can conclude that almost none of them can be identified as beryl mines, and mainly we are dealing with storage or living spaces.” Nevertheless, the study of the underground structures present in Sikait and the surrounding areas allowed the documentation of several beryl mining spaces. The detailed analysis of some mines showed relevant evidence concerning their structure, typology, and evolution, including the discovery of the first register inscription ever found in an ancient emerald mine.
These excavation seasons, the authors write, add to knowledge about emerald production in Roman Egypt. “First, it confirmed the significance of the religious aspect in mining settlements like ancient Senskis.” This shows the importance of the settlement within the emerald mining network, as there is no other site in which a similar concentration of cult spaces has been recorded. “This links Sikait to other productive regions in the Eastern Desert, which also offer plentiful evidence of the importance of cult and religion, like the imperial quarries.”
The authors propose this work will provide key evidence in the future for determining how exactly the mines were exploited. Future seasons will focus on documenting the mining complexes to get a complete overview of the process of extraction and commercialization of emeralds, which will provide greater historical context. “According to literary sources such as Olympiodorus, in the 5th century AD a permit from the king of the Blemmyes was required to enter the emerald mines.” Considering that most of the surviving structures in Sikait date to this period, archaeological information from such sites is fundamental for understanding the progressive abandonment of the Roman/Byzantine control in this area and the gradual substitution by the Blemmyan power.
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Location of Sikait in the Eastern Desert. CREDIT: Authors
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Figure 12. The Large Temple of Sikait seen from the wadi floor. CREDIT: Authors
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Materials recovered from the Large Temple: a) “Nubian” head in steatite; b) steatite goddess figurine; c) figurine of a god riding an animal; d) faience Harpocrates amulet; e) bronze Osiris amulet; f) steatite dish. Source: Delia Eguiluz Maestro and Adriana Molina Pérez.
*”New evidence of the importance of the Roman/Byzantine Mons Smaragdus settlement within the emerald mining network” Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 10.1086/712784
Kiyo Films: “Groundbreaking”, a new mockumentary television series being described as “The Office meets Indiana Jones”, aims to reframe how Hollywood portrays archaeologists. Drawing inspiration from hundreds of accounts of actual archaeologists – the series leans into the more innocuous day-to-day activities of a working dig site, unearthing a wealth of relatable comedy.
“We really wanted archaeologists to see themselves – their frustrations, their challenges, their unique traditions – represented accurately on screen, so every component of the show was researched and informed by professionals in the field. Our actors trained alongside notable archaeologists in Ireland, England, France, and the US – participating in actual digs prior to production – and our art department scoured the planet to obtain authentic vintage tools used on past digs – many with fascinating stories of their own.” – Patrick William Smith (creator/writer/director)
On a macro-level, Groundbreaking hopes to bring a renewed interest to the field of archaeology, which is currently experiencing alarming shortages in trained field workers.
Since releasing the trailer this month, a massive groundswell of support for the project has already led to over 1-million views, thanks in large part to Chinese-Irish actor Steven He, whose meteoric rise to YouTube stardom has garnered him more than 8 million followers and nearly 1 billion views across his social media channels (recently making headlines for his ultra-viral and widely circulated “Emotional Damage” video).
“I think Hollywood nearly always misses the point of archaeology. Real archaeology isn’t treasure hunting – it’s story hunting – and Groundbreaking really seeks to honor that.” – Wendy Bird Womack (Producer, Co-Writer)
Groundbreaking is a full-length dramedy series that follows a team of astoundingly unsuccessful archaeologists on the brink of unemployment, who unwittingly discover an ancient Celtic secret that sparks a series of inexplicable events.
Groundbreaking’s ensemble cast is made up of notable actors hailing from nine different countries and 7 languages were spoken on set. Filmed in Ireland, the story pays homage to ancient Irish mythology and beautifully showcases the world-famous Connemara landscape. A mixture of comedy, adventure, and mystery – Groundbreaking hopes to reach a wide audience thirsty for original content.
“Groundbreaking is ultimately a story about friendship, discovery, and the rekindling of wonder in the lives of the wonder-less – something it seems we could all use a bit more of these days. And after spending two years in isolation – waiting for the film industry to kick back into gear – the sheer act of living and working with all these incredible people quickly became one of the most cathartic, engrossing, and (mis)adventurous experiences of my life.” – Patrick William Smith (Creator, Producer, Writer, Director)
Currently in post-production, Groundbreaking will be seeking wide distribution later this year. The production is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for post-production. Fans looking for a way to get more involved (and even hide their own artifact in the show) can visit: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kiyofilms/groundbreaking-series
Groundbreaking’s innovative production model breaks new ground in the film industry. Currently, independent long-form original content doesn’t really exist. Most large-scale television productions begin by filming a pilot episode as a proof-of-concept. Kiyo Films, however, shot the entire first season of Groundbreaking in one fell swoop. This new production model more closely resembles a path previously reserved for independent feature films.
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Credit: Wendy Williams, Kiyo Films
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Shown: Ben Braten, Patrick Smith, Clara Guziewicz, Brian Villalobos, Nataliee Cutler. Photo by Jordan Palmer
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Shown: Brian Villalobos and Steven He. Photo by Jordan Palmer
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Kiyo Films is a full-service production studio specializing in original film and television content, founded by award-winning director/cinematographer, Patrick William Smith (Groundbreaking Creator/Director). For more information, visit: www.kiyofilms.com.
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD—Researchers from the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute have taken a major step towards mapping the entirety of genetic relationships among humans: a single genealogy that traces the ancestry of all of us. The study* has been published in Science.
The past two decades have seen extraordinary advancements in human genetic research, generating genomic data for hundreds of thousands of individuals, including from thousands of prehistoric people. This raises the exciting possibility of tracing the origins of human genetic diversity to produce a complete map of how individuals across the world are related to each other.
Until now, the main challenges to this vision were working out a way to combine genome sequences from many different databases and developing algorithms to handle data of this size. However, a new method published today by researchers from the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute can easily combine data from multiple sources and scale to accommodate millions of genome sequences.
Dr Yan Wong, an evolutionary geneticist at the Big Data Institute, and one of the principal authors, explained: ‘We have basically built a huge family tree, a genealogy for all of humanity that models as exactly as we can the history that generated all the genetic variation we find in humans today. This genealogy allows us to see how every person’s genetic sequence relates to every other, along all the points of the genome.’
Since individual genomic regions are only inherited from one parent, either the mother or the father, the ancestry of each point on the genome can be thought of as a tree. The set of trees, known as a “tree sequence” or “ancestral recombination graph”, links genetic regions back through time to ancestors where the genetic variation first appeared.
Lead author Dr Anthony Wilder Wohns, who undertook the research as part of his PhD at the Big Data Institute and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, said: ‘Essentially, we are reconstructing the genomes of our ancestors and using them to form a vast network of relationships. We can then estimate when and where these ancestors lived. The power of our approach is that it makes very few assumptions about the underlying data and can also include both modern and ancient DNA samples.’
The study integrated data on modern and ancient human genomes from eight different databases and included a total of 3,609 individual genome sequences from 215 populations. The ancient genomes included samples found across the world with ages ranging from 1,000s to over 100,000 years. The algorithms predicted where common ancestors must be present in the evolutionary trees to explain the patterns of genetic variation. The resulting network contained almost 27 million ancestors.
After adding location data on these sample genomes, the authors used the network to estimate where the predicted common ancestors had lived. The results successfully recaptured key events in human evolutionary history, including the migration out of Africa.
Although the genealogical map is already an extremely rich resource, the research team plans to make it even more comprehensive by continuing to incorporate genetic data as it becomes available. Because tree sequences store data in a highly efficient way, the dataset could easily accommodate millions of additional genomes.
Dr Wong said: ‘This study is laying the groundwork for the next generation of DNA sequencing. As the quality of genome sequences from modern and ancient DNA samples improves, the trees will become even more accurate and we will eventually be able to generate a single, unified map that explains the descent of all the human genetic variation we see today.’
Dr Wohns added: ‘While humans are the focus of this study, the method is valid for most living things; from orangutans to bacteria. It could be particularly beneficial in medical genetics, in separating out true associations between genetic regions and diseases from spurious connections arising from our shared ancestral history.’
In sum:
New genealogical network of human genetic diversity reveals how individuals across the world are related to each other, in unprecedented detail
The research predicts common ancestors, including approximately when and where they lived
The analysis recovers key events in human evolutionary history, including the migration out of Africa
The underlying method could have widespread applications in medical research, for instance identifying genetic predictors of disease risk
RICE UNIVERSITY—A new analysis of human remains that were buried in African archaeological sites has produced the earliest DNA from the continent, telling a fascinating tale of how early humans lived, traveled and even found their significant others.
An interdisciplinary team of 44 researchers outlined its findings in “Ancient DNA reveals deep population structure in sub-Saharan African foragers.” The paper was published today in Nature and reports findings from ancient DNA from six individuals buried in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia who lived between 18,000 and 5,000 years ago.
“This more than doubles the antiquity of reported ancient DNA data from sub-Saharan Africa,” said David Reich, a professor at Harvard University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute whose lab generated the data in the paper. “The study is particularly exciting as a truly equal collaboration of archaeologists and geneticists.”
The study* also reanalyzed published data from 28 individuals buried at sites across the continent, generating new and improved data for 15 of them. The result was an unprecedented dataset of DNA from ancient African foragers — people who hunted, gathered or fished. Their genetic legacy is difficult to reconstruct from present-day people because of the many population movements and mixtures that have occurred in the last few thousand years.
Thanks to this data, the researchers were able to outline major demographic shifts that took place between about 80,000 and 20,000 years ago. As far back as about 50,000 years ago, people from different regions of the continent moved and settled in other areas and developed alliances and networks over longer distances to trade, share information and even find reproductive partners. This social network helped them survive and thrive, the researchers wrote.
Elizabeth Sawchuk, an author of the study who is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta and research assistant professor at Stony Brook University, said a dramatic cultural change took place during this timeframe, as beads, pigments and other symbolic art became common across Africa. Researchers long assumed that major changes in the archaeological record about 50,000 years ago reflected a shift in social networks and maybe even changes in population size. However, such hypotheses have remained difficult to test.
“We’ve never been able to directly explore these proposed demographic shifts, until now,” she said. “It has been difficult to reconstruct events in our deeper past using the DNA of people living today, and artifacts like stone tools and beads can’t tell us the whole story. Ancient DNA provides direct insight into the people themselves, which was the missing part of the puzzle.”
Mary Prendergast, an author of the paper and associate professor of anthropology at Rice University, said there are arguments that the development and expansion of long-distance trade networks around this time helped humans weather the last Ice Age.
“Humans began relying on each other in new ways,” she said. “And this creativity and innovation might be what allowed people to thrive.”
The researchers were also able to demonstrate that by about 20,000 years ago, people had stopped moving around so much.
“Maybe it was because by that point, previously established social networks allowed for the flow of information and technologies without people having to move,” Sawchuk said.
Prendergast said the study provides a better understanding of how people moved and mingled in this part of Africa. Previously, the earliest African DNA came from what is now Morocco — but the individuals in this study lived as far from there as Bangladesh is from Norway, she noted.
“Our genetic study confirms an archaeological pattern of more local behavior in eastern Africa over time,” said Jessica Thompson, an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University, an author of the study and one of the researchers who uncovered the remains. “At first people found reproductive partners from wide geographic and cultural pools. Later, they prioritized partners who lived closer, and who were potentially more culturally similar.”
The research team included scholars from Canada, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, the United States, Zambia and many other countries. Critical contributions to the study came from curators and co-authors at African museums who are responsible for protecting and preserving the remains.
Potiphar Kaliba, director of research at the Malawi Department of Museums and Monuments and an author of the study, noted that some of the skeletons sampled for the study were excavated a half-century ago, yet their DNA is preserved despite hot and humid climates in the tropics.
“This work shows why it’s so important to invest in the stewardship of human remains and archaeological artifacts in African museums,” Kaliba said.
The work also helps address global imbalances in research, Prendergast said.
“There are around 30 times more published ancient DNA sequences from Europe than from Africa,” she said. “Given that Africa harbors the greatest human genetic diversity on the planet, we have much more to learn.”
“By associating archaeological artifacts with ancient DNA, the researchers have created a remarkable framework for exploring the prehistory of humans in Africa,” said Archaeology and Archaeometry program director John Yellen of the U.S. National Science Foundation, one of the funders behind this project. “This insight is charting a new way forward to understanding humanity and our complex shared history.”
Mt. Hora in Malawi, where recent excavations at Hora Rockshelter uncovered two of the individuals analyzed in a collaborative study of ancient DNA. Jacob Davis.
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Hora Rockshelter in Malawi, where recent excavations uncovered two of the individuals analyzed in a collaborative study of ancient DNA. Jacob Davis.
Museum of London Archaeology—Archaeologists from MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) have uncovered an incredibly well-preserved mosaic that once decorated the floor of a Roman dining room. Discovered a stone’s throw away from The Shard, experts have determined this to be the largest area of Roman mosaic found in London for over 50 years. Excavations on the site have been taking place ahead of the construction of The Liberty of Southwark, a mixed-use scheme that is being jointly developed by regeneration specialist U+I (now owned by Landsec) and Transport for London (TfL). Once completed, the Liberty of Southwark will provide new homes, shops, retail and workspace.
The recently uncovered mosaic includes two highly-decorated panels made up of small, colored tiles set within a red tessellated floor. The largest panel shows large, colorful flowers surrounded by bands of intertwining strands – a motif known as a guilloche. There are also lotus flowers and several different geometric elements, including a pattern known as Solomon’s knot, made of two interlaced loops. Dr David Neal, former archaeologist with English Heritage and leading expert in Roman mosaic, has attributed this design to the ‘Acanthus group’ – a team of mosaicists working in London who developed their own unique local style.
The smaller panel has a simpler design, with two Solomon’s knots, two stylized flowers and striking geometric motifs in red, white and black. This has an almost exact parallel found in Trier, Germany, and the same mosaicists were likely at work in both places. It provides exciting evidence for traveling Roman artisans at work in London.
The mosaic was set in a large room, currently interpreted as a dining room, which the Romans called a triclinium. It would have contained dining couches, where people would recline to eat. From these, guests could gaze at the beautiful flooring whilst enjoying their food and drink. The walls of this room were brightly painted, and fragments of colorful wall plaster have been found on the site.
MOLA Site Supervisor, Antonietta Lerz, says: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime find in London. It has been a privilege to work on such a large site where the Roman archaeology is largely undisturbed by later activity—when the first flashes of color started to emerge through the soil everyone on site was very excited!”
While the largest mosaic panel can be dated to the late 2nd to early 3rd century AD, the room was clearly in use for a longer period of time. Astonishingly, traces of an earlier mosaic underneath the one currently visible have been identified. This shows the room was refurbished over the years, perhaps to make way for the latest trends.
The dining room might have been part of a Roman mansio – an upmarket ‘motel’ offering accommodation, stabling, and dining facilities for state couriers and officials traveling to and from London. Given the size of the dining room and its lavish decoration, it is believed that only high-ranking officers and their guests would have used this space. The complete footprint of the building is still being uncovered, but current findings suggest this was a very large complex, with multiple rooms and corridors surrounding a central courtyard.
It was ideally located on the outskirts of Roman Londinium, an area centered on the north bank of the Thames and roughly corresponding to the modern City of London. The complex was built by the river crossing that led into the city and not far from the main road connecting London to other important centers in south-eastern Britain, including Canterbury and the cross-channel port of Dover. As such, it provided excellent transport links for visiting dignitaries.
Neighboring the mansio, archaeologists have identified another large Roman building, likely to have been the private residence of a wealthy individual or family. Traces of lavishly painted walls, terrazzo-style and mosaic floors, coins, jewelry and decorated bone hairpins all testify to the level of wealth enjoyed by the people living in this area 2,000 years ago.
Excavations on this site have been taking place as part of the wider regeneration of the area, set to be completed in 2024 with the opening of The Liberty of Southwark. This new development will sit between Southwark Street, Redcross Way and Union Street, offering contemporary workspace, 36 new homes, including 50% affordable housing, along with shops and restaurants. The scheme will also create new pedestrian routes, reinstating some of the medieval yards and lanes of historic Southwark.
The scheme has been designed by local architects Allies and Morrison as a varied collection of contemporary brick buildings, sensitive to the scale of their surroundings and full of references to the Victorian industrial and commercial architecture of the area. 15 Southwark Street, which dates from the 1860s, will also be restored as part of the development. The homes, commercial opportunities and public realm improvements provided by the scheme will become an important part of the community’s present fabric, without forgetting its past.
The excavation has also provided new training opportunities. MOLA, in partnership with Keltbray and TfL, delivered a two-week ‘Get Into Archaeology’ access program for Londoners interested in learning more about construction and the work of professional archaeologists.
Henrietta Nowne, Senior Development Manager, U+I, said: “The Liberty of Southwark site has a rich history, but we never expected a find on this scale or significance. We are committed to celebrating the heritage of all of our regeneration sites, so it’s brilliant that we’ve been able to unearth a beautiful and culturally-important specimen in central London that will be now preserved so that it can be enjoyed by generations to come.”
Puja Jain, Senior Property Developer at TfL, said: “This is a very exciting finding that illustrates the rich and complex history of this site and London as a whole. This valuable work to discover and preserve London’s history is a key part of our long-term development process, which has already given a number of people the chance to learn more about archaeology. On dozens of sites across London, we are working with world-leading professionals to preserve the heritage of London whilst bringing forward the homes and jobs that London needs to continue to thrive into the future.”
The mosaics will be carefully recorded and assessed by an expert team of conservators. They will then be lifted and transported off-site, enabling more detailed conservation work to take place. Excitingly this will offer the opportunity to investigate the surviving traces of the earlier mosaic. Future plans for the public display of the mosaics are currently being determined in consultation with Southwark Council.
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Location of the Liberty of Southwark site in Roman London. Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), reproduced with permission from Ordinance Survey.
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MOLA archaeologists at work on the mosaic. MOLA/Andy Chopping
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MOLA archaeologist at work on the smaller decorative panel of the Southwark mosaic. MOLA/Andy Chopping
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MOLA archaeologist at work on the mosaic as seen in the city context. MOLA/Andy Chopping
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)—Scientists have uncovered fossilized modern human remains and tools sandwiched between Neanderthal remains and tools in the stratigraphic record at a site in the Rhône Valley in France, suggesting occupation of the area alternated between Neanderthals and modern humans. The findings provide archaeological evidence that these hominin cousins may have coexisted in the same region of Europe during the same time period and indicate that modern humans did not simply replace Neanderthals there. The study* also pushes back the timeline for the earliest modern European human settlements from about 44,000 years ago (with one possible exception in Greece) to about 54,000 years ago. Fossilized remains of early modern humans in Europe have previously only been identified above the remains of Neanderthals in the stratigraphic record, preventing scientists from demonstrating when and where these hominins may have interacted on the European continent. To help elucidate when modern humans first settled in Europe and whether their arrival may have overlapped with the presence of Neanderthals, Ludovic Slimak and colleagues analyzed the structure of hominin teeth uncovered at Grotte Mandrin, a rock shelter in southern France, to distinguish between Neanderthal and modern human remains. They also analyzed sophisticated stone artifacts found at the site, determining that these were similar to tools commonly found at eastern Mediterranean sites occupied by modern humans. The researchers dated the site’s layers using radiocarbon and luminescence techniques, determining that a layer containing a modern human fossil spans the ages of 56,800 to 51,700 years before the present – significantly earlier than any previously documented modern human remains found in Europe. Altogether, Slimak et al. found evidence of at least 4 phases in which Neanderthals and modern humans alternately occupied the area. The authors found no evidence of cultural exchange between either the successive Neanderthal groups or between modern humans and Neanderthals, suggesting that the populations rapidly alternated between one another without major interactions.
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View of the excavation on the Neronian layer dated to 54.000 years old and recording the first Homo sapiens of the European continent. Ludovic Slimak
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View of the excavations at the entrance of Grotte Mandrin. Ludovic Slimak
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Neronian points. These standardized technologies have no equivalent among the Neanderthal groups before and after the arrival of the first modern humans in Grotte Mandrin. They are technically identical to the point of the Initial Upper Paleolithic made by coeval Homo sapiens from the east mediterranean coast. Laure Metz and Ludovic Slimak
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Nanopoint of the Modern Neronian technologies (about 20mm). 1 :1 scale and enlargement. Visual scale is 1 eurocent. Ludovic Slimak
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH—Orkney experienced a wave of immigration during the Bronze Age so large that it replaced most of the local population, ancient DNA analysis has revealed.
Experts say that unlike anywhere else, the Bronze Age newcomers to the islands were mostly women.
Although male lineages from the original Neolithic population survived for at least another thousand years, by the Iron Age, which followed the Bronze Age, they were largely replaced and are vanishingly rare today.
Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Huddersfield combined archaeology with the study of ancient DNA from Bronze Age human remains to shed light on this pivotal moment for the islands.
Around 5200 years ago, during the Neolithic period, when farming first took hold, Orkney was a hugely influential cultural center. Yet, as Europe moved into the Bronze Age around 4500 years ago, the islands’ influence dwindled and it supposedly became more insular.
Despite this, after studying human remains from the Links of Noltland site on the remote northern island of Westray, the research team concluded that Orkney experienced large-scale immigration during the Bronze Age.
The new arrivals were probably the first visitors to Orkney speaking Indo-European languages, and carried genetic ancestry derived in part from livestock farmers living on the steppe lands north of the Black Sea.
This migration of people mirrored what was happening in the rest of Great Britain and Europe in the Early to Middle Bronze Age, experts say.
Across most of Europe, the expansion of livestock farmers on the eve of the Bronze Age was typically led by men.
But in Orkney the researchers found exactly the opposite. The Bronze Age newcomers were mainly women. The survival in Orkney of male lineages from the original Neolithic population for at least another thousand years is not seen anywhere else.
Researchers believe Orkney is so different due to the long-term stability and self-sufficiency of farmsteads on the islands, which the genetic data suggest may have been male dominated by the peak of the Neolithic.
When a Europe-wide recession hit towards the end of the Neolithic, Orkney farmers may have been uniquely placed to weather harsher times and maintain their grip on the population as newcomers arrived.
This implies that Orkney was much less insular than has long been assumed. There was a protracted period of integration of the indigenous males with the newcomers from the south over many generations, experts say.
Jim Wilson, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute, said: “It’s absolutely fascinating to discover that the dominant Orcadian Neolithic male genetic lineage persisted at least 1000 years into the Bronze Age, despite replacement of 95 per cent of the rest of the genome by immigrating women. This lineage was then itself replaced and we have yet to find it in today’s population.”
The study, which appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), was supported by a Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholarship programme, Historic Environment Scotland and the Medical Research Council.
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Aerial image of Orkney islands. Westray is located in the far north on the image. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—Despite a wave of migration from continental Europe, local male lineages in the remote Orkney Islands persisted well into the Bronze Age, according to a study. The remote Orkney Islands were a cultural center during the expansion of farming in the Neolithic period. However, Orkney’s architectural trends and practices during the Bronze Age did not reflect styles that flourished elsewhere. Martin Richards, Ceiridwen Edwards, and colleagues analyzed ancient genomes to determine the extent of the islands’ seeming insularity. The authors analyzed 29 DNA samples representing the Neolithic period, Bronze Age, and Iron Age, including 22 Bronze Age DNA samples from the Links of Noltland cemetery, located on the most northwesterly island in the archipelago. Similar to most of Britain, the authors report, Orkney underwent a genetic shift in the Bronze Age, with a Y chromosome lineage appearing from central Europe. However, the predominant Y chromosome in Orkney was I2a1b-M423, even as the chromosome disappeared from Bronze Age Europe. In contrast, mitochondrial DNA, which reflects maternal ancestry, was more similar to other areas of Britain. The results suggest that local male lineages in the remote Orkney Islands persisted well into the Bronze Age, with immigration from continental Europe reflected in the female lineage. According to the authors, the Neolithic lineages may have persisted due to farming households that retained landholdings over time.
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The settlement at Links of Noltland extends from the late 4th millennium BC to the mid-1st millennium BC. Over 35 buildings have so far been excavated. This house (Structure 7) was constructed around 2900 BC. Graeme Wilson and Hazel Moore (EASE Archaeology).
*“Ancient DNA at the edge of the world: Continental immigration and the persistence of Neolithic male lineages in Bronze Age Orkney,” by Katharina Dulias, M. George B. Foody, Pierre Justeau, Ceiridwen J. Edwards, Martin B. Richards, et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 7-Feb-2022. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2108001119
BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY—A new study, led by researchers from Bar-Ilan University, Ono Academic College, The University of Tulsa, and the Israel Antiquities Authority, presents a 1.5 million-year-old human vertebra discovered in Israel’s Jordan Valley. According to the research published today (Wednesday, February 2) in the journal Scientific Reports, ancient human migration from Africa to Eurasia was not a one-time event but occurred in waves. The first wave reached the Republic of Georgia in the Caucasus approximately 1.8 million years ago. The second is documented in ‘Ubeidiya, in the Jordan Valley, south of the Sea of Galilee, about 1.5 million years ago.
The research was led by Dr. Alon Barash of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University, Professor Ella Been of Ono Academic College, Professor Miriam Belmaker of The University of Tulsa, and Dr. Omry Barzilai of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
According to fossil evidence and DNA research, human evolution began in Africa about six million years ago. Approximately two million years ago, ancient humans –– nearly, but not yet in modern form –– began to migrate from Africa and spread throughout Eurasia, a process known as the “Out of Africa.” ‘Ubeidiya, located in the Jordan Valley near Kibbutz Beit Zera, is one of the places where we have archaeological evidence for this dispersal.
The prehistoric site of ‘Ubeidiya is significant for archaeological and evolutionary studies because it is one of the few places that contain preserved remnants of the early human exodus from Africa. The site is the second oldest archaeological site outside Africa and was excavated by several expeditions led by Professor M. Stekelis, Professor O. Bar-Yosef, and Professor E. Tchernov between 1960 and 1999. The finds from the site include a rich and rare collection of extinct animal bones and stone artifacts. Fossil species include sabertoothed tiger, mammoths, and a giant buffalo, alongside animals not found today in Israel, such as baboons, warthogs, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and jaguars. Stone and flint items made and used by ancient humans show resemblance to those discovered at sites in East Africa.
Recently, excavations in ‘Ubeidiya were resumed by Belmaker and Barzilai under a grant that Belmaker received from the U.S. National Science Foundation. The project uses new absolute dating methods to refine the site’s dating and to study the paleoecology and paleoclimate of the region. While looking at the fossils from the site, now housed at the Hebrew University’s National Natural History Collections, Belmaker, a paleoanthropologist from The University of Tulsa’s Department of Anthropology, encountered a human vertebra. Initially unearthed in 1966, the bone was studied by Barash and Professor Ella Been. They identified it as a human lumbar vertebra, the earliest fossil evidence of ancient human remains discovered in Israel, approximately 1.5 million years old.
According to Barash, human anatomy and evolution researcher at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University, there is an ongoing debate in the literature about whether the migration was a one-time event or occurred in several waves. The new find from ‘Ubeidiya sheds light on this question. “Due to the difference in size and shape of the vertebra from ‘Ubeidiya and those found in the Republic of Georgia, we now have unambiguous evidence of the presence of two distinct dispersal waves.”
According to Barzilai, head of the Archaeological Research Department at the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The stone and flint artifacts from ‘Ubeidiya, handaxes made from Basalt, chopping tools, and flakes made from flint, are associated with the Early Acheulean culture. Previously, it was accepted that the stone tools from ‘Ubeidiya and Dmanisi were associated with different cultures – Early Acheulean in ‘Ubeidiya and Oldowan in Dmanisi. After this new study, we conclude that different human species produced the two industries.”
Belmaker explained, “One of the main questions regarding the human dispersal from Africa were the ecological conditions that may have facilitated the dispersal. Previous theories debated whether early humans preferred an African savanna or new, more humid woodland habitat. Our new finding of different human species in Dmanisi and ‘Ubeidiya is consistent with our finding that climates also differed between the two sites. ‘Ubeidiya is more humid and compatible with a Mediterranean climate, while Dmanisi is drier with savannah habitat. This study showing two species, each producing a different stone tool culture, is supported by the fact that each population preferred a different environment.”
“The analysis we conducted shows that the vertebra from ‘Ubeidiya belonged to a young individual 6-12 years old, who was tall for his age. Had this child reached adulthood, he would have reached a height of over 180 cm. This ancient human is similar in size to other large hominins found in East Africa and is different from the short-statured hominins that lived in Georgia,” said Been, paleoanthropologist at the Ono Academic College Faculty of Health Professions and an expert in spinal evolution.
“It seems, then, that in the period known as the Early Pleistocene, we can identify at least two species of early humans outside of Africa. Each wave of migration was that of different kind of humans –– in appearance and form, technique and tradition of manufacturing stone tools, and ecological niche in which they lived,” concluded Barash.
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A new study, led by researchers from Bar-Ilan University, Ono Academic College, The University of Tulsa, and the Israel Antiquities Authority, presents a 1.5 million-year-old human vertebra discovered in Israel’s Jordan Valley. According to the research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, ancient human migration from Africa to Eurasia was not a one-time event but occurred in waves. The first wave reached the Republic of Georgia in the Caucasus approximately 1.8 million years ago. The second is documented in ‘Ubeidiya, in the Jordan Valley, south of the Sea of Galilee, about 1.5 million years ago. The research was led by Dr. Alon Barash of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University, Professor Ella Been of Ono Academic College, Professor Miriam Belmaker of The University of Tulsa, and Dr. Omry Barzilai of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Photo: The site at ‘Ubeidiya. Dr. Omry Barzilai, Israel Antiquities Authority, Below, Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority
*The earliest Pleistocene record of a large-bodied hominin from the Levant supports two out-of-Africa dispersal events, Scientific Reports, 2 Feb. 2022.
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI—The rapid decline of the Hopewell culture about 1,500 years ago might be explained by falling debris from a near-Earth comet that created a devastating explosion over North America, laying waste to forests and Native American villages alike.
Researchers with the University of Cincinnati found evidence of a cosmic airburst at 11 Hopewell archaeological sites in three states stretching across the Ohio River Valley. This was home to the Ohio Hopewell, part of a notable Native American culture found across much of the American East.
The comet’s glancing pass rained debris down into the Earth’s atmosphere, creating a fiery explosion. UC archaeologists used radiocarbon and typological dating to determine the age of the event.
The airburst affected an area bigger than New Jersey, setting fires across 9,200 square miles between the years A.D. 252 and 383. This coincides with a period when 69 near-Earth comets were observed and documented by Chinese astronomers and witnessed by Native Americans as told through their oral histories.
The study was published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.
UC archaeologists found an unusually high concentration and diversity of meteorites at Hopewell sites compared to other time periods. The meteorite fragments were identified from the telltale concentrations of iridium and platinum they contained. They also found a charcoal layer that suggests the area was exposed to fire and extreme heat.
In his lab, lead author Kenneth Tankersley, a professor of anthropology in UC’s College of Arts and Sciences, held up a container of tiny micrometeorites collected at the sites. A variety of meteorites, including stony meteorites called pallasites, were found at Hopewell sites.
“These micrometeorites have a chemical fingerprint. Cosmic events like asteroids and comet airbursts leave behind high quantities of a rare element known as platinum,” Tankersley said. “The problem is platinum also occurs in volcanic eruptions. So we also look for another rare element found in non-terrestrial events such as meteorite impact craters — iridium. And we found a spike in both, iridium and platinum.”
The Hopewell people collected the meteorites and forged malleable metal from them into flat sheets used in jewelry and musical instruments called pan flutes.
Beyond the physical evidence are cultural clues left behind in the masterworks and oral histories of the Hopewell. A comet-shaped mound was constructed near the epicenter of the airburst at a Hopewell site called the Milford Earthworks.
Various Algonquin and Iroquoian tribes, descendants of the Hopewell, spoke of a calamity that befell the Earth, said Tankersley, who is Native American.
“What’s fascinating is that many different tribes have similar stories of the event,” he said.
“The Miami tell of a horned serpent that flew across the sky and dropped rocks onto the land before plummeting into the river. When you see a comet going through the air, it would look like a large snake,” he said.
“The Shawnee refer to a ‘sky panther’ that had the power to tear down forest. The Ottawa talk of a day when the sun fell from the sky. And when a comet hits the thermosphere, it would have exploded like a nuclear bomb.”
And the Wyandot recount a dark cloud that rolled across the sky and was destroyed by a fiery dart, Tankersley said.
“That’s a lot like the description the Russians gave for Tunguska,” he said of a comet airburst documented over Siberia in 1908 that leveled 830 square miles of forest and shattered windows hundreds of miles away.
“Witnesses reported seeing a fireball, a bluish light nearly as bright as the sun, moving across the sky. A flash and sound similar to artillery fire was said to follow it. A powerful shockwave broke windows hundreds of miles away and knocked people off their feet,” according to a story in EarthSky.
UC biology professor and co-author David Lentz said people who survived the airburst and its fires would have gazed upon a devastated landscape.
“It looks like this event was very injurious to agriculture. People didn’t have good ways to store corn for a long period of time. Losing a crop or two would have caused widespread suffering,” Lentz said.
And if the airburst leveled forests like the one in Russia, native people would have lost nut trees such as walnut and hickory that provided a good winter source of food.
“When your corn crop fails, you can usually rely on a tree crop. But if they’re all destroyed, it would have been incredibly disruptive,” Lentz said.
UC’s Advanced Materials Characterization Center conducted scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometry of the sediment samples. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was employed at the University of Georgia’s Center for Applied Isotope Studies. The U.S. Geological Survey provided stable carbon isotope analysis.
Despite what scientists know, there is still much they do not, Lentz said.
“It’s hard to know exactly what happened. We only have a few points of light in the darkness,” he said. “But we have this area of high heat that would have been catastrophic for people in that area and beyond.”
Now researchers are studying pollen trapped in layers of sediment to see how the comet airburst might have changed the botanical landscape of the Ohio River Valley.
Co-author Steven Meyers, a UC geology alumnus, said their discovery might lead to more interest in how cosmic events affected prehistoric people around the world.
“Science is just a progress report,” Meyers said. “It’s not the end. We’re always somewhere in the middle. As time goes on, more things will be found.”
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University of Cincinnati researchers take sediment samples at a Hopewell site at the confluence of the Ohio and Great Miami rivers. From left they are anthropology student Louis Herzner, biology student Stephanie Meyers, anthropology professor Kenneth Tankersley and UC geology alumnus Stephen Meyers. Larry Sandman
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A magnet holds tiny micrometeorites collected from sediment samples taken from an ancient Hopewell site. Researchers say this evidence points to a comet airburst that devastated parts of the Ohio River Valley more than 1,500 years ago. Michael Miller
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY—For as much as modern society worships chocolate, cacao — the plant chocolate comes from — was believed to be even more divine to ancient Mayas. The Maya considered cacao beans to be a gift from the gods and even used them as currency because of their value.
As such, cacao bean production was carefully controlled by the Maya leaders of northern Yucatan, with cacao trees only grown in sacred groves. But no modern researcher has ever been able to pinpoint where these ancient sacred groves were located — until now.
Researchers at Brigham Young University, including professor emeritus Richard Terry and graduate students Bryce Brown and Christopher Balzotti, worked closely with archaeologists from the U.S. and Mexico to identify locations the Maya used to provide the perfect blend of humidity, calm and shade required by cacao trees. While the drier climate of the Yucatan peninsula is inhospitable to cacao growth, the team realized the vast array of sinkholes common to the peninsula have microclimates with just the right conditions.
As detailed in a study newly published in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, the team conducted soil analyses on 11 of those sinkholes and found that the soil of nine of them contained evidence of theobromine and caffeine — combined biomarkers unique to cacao. Archaeologists also found evidence of ancient ceremonial rituals — such as staircase ramps for processions, stone carvings, altars and offerings like jade and ceramics (including tiny ceramic cacao pods) — in several sinkholes.
“We looked for theobromine for several years and found cacao in some places we didn’t expect,” said Terry, who recently retired from BYU. “We were also amazed to see the ceremonial artifacts. My students rappelled into one of these sinkholes and said, ‘Wow! There is a structure in here!’ It was a staircase that filled one-third of the sinkhole with stone.”
To extract and analyze the sinkhole soil for cacao biomarkers — specifically theobromine and caffeine — the team developed a new method of soil extraction. This involved drying the soil samples and passing them through a sieve, covering them with hot water, having them centrifuged and passed through extraction disks, and analyzing the extracts by mass spectrometry. To increase the sensitivity of their testing, the research team compared the results of the soil samples to seven control samples with no history of exposure to the biomarkers.
The findings of the BYU study indicate that cacao groves played an important role in ancient rituals and trade routes of the ancient Maya, impacting the entirety of the Mesoamerican economy. A 70-mile Maya “highway” in the area that was the main artery for trade passes near hundreds of sinkholes, so it is likely that the leaders who commissioned the highway development also controlled cacao production. The evidence of cacao cultivation alongside archaeological findings also supports the idea that cacao was important in the ideological move from a maize god to a sun god.
In one sinkhole near Coba, Mexico, a village 45 minutes from modern day Tulum, the research team found the arm and bracelet of a figurine attached to an incense jar and several ceramic modeled cacao pods. They also found remnant cacao trees growing there, making it quite possible that this sinkhole, named “Dzadz Ion,” was the location of a sacred cacao grove during the Late Postclassic period (About A.D. 1000 to 1400).
“Now we have these links between religious structures and the religious crops grown in these sinkholes,” Terry said. “Knowing that the cacao beans were used as currency, it means the sinkholes were a place where the money could be grown and controlled. This new understanding creates a rich historical narrative of a highly charged Maya landscape with economic, political and spiritual value.”
Researchers for the project also came from University of California, Riverside, the University of Miami, State University of New York, Kent State University, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, and the Cultural Heritage and Archaeology in the Maya Area institution.
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Researcher Chris Balzotti climbs an ancient staircase discovered in a sinkhole near Coba, Mexico. Richard Terry
*Soil biomarkers of cacao tree cultivation in the sacred cacao groves of the northern Maya lowlands, Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 6-Jan-2022. 10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103331
THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM—A new article* published today in PLOS ONE by a Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)’s Institute of Archaeology team and colleagues focused on the remains of a previously submerged fisher-hunter-gatherer camp on the shores of the Sea of Galilee from around 23,000 years ago. Through a close analysis of the abundance, variety and through use of animal remains, the team concluded that these survivors of the latest Ice Age thrived whereas most of their contemporaries, in other parts of the world, were nearly starved, due to the Earth’s extremely cold temperatures.
The Israeli site, known as Ohalo II, was occupied at the end of the last Ice Age (“Last Glacial Maximum”), between 23,500-22,500 years ago. Ohalo II is known for the excellent preservation of its brush huts and botanical remains. The study, led by HU doctoral student Tikvah Steiner, under the supervision of HU Professor Rivka Rabinovich and University of Haifa archaeologist Prof. Dani Nadel who excavated the site, examined the diet and extensive use of animal parts to determine the welfare and lifestyle of these ancient inhabitants.
During the Last Glacial Maximum, ice sheets covered much of North America, Northern Europe, and Asia, profoundly affected Earth’s climate by causing drought, desertification, and a large drop in sea levels. Ironically enough, Ohalo II was discovered in 1989, following drought conditions that lowered the water level of the Sea of Galilee by several meters. Excavations were carried out between 1989-1991, and again between 1998-2001. The site covers 2000 meters and is located near the southern tip of the modern Sea of Galilee, about 9 km south of Tiberias. The site contains the remains of six oval-shaped brush huts, open-air hearths, the grave of an adult male, as well as various installations and refuse heaps. Abundant organic and inorganic materials provide a wealth of information about the lifestyle of fisher-hunter-gatherers during that period.
From a close analysis of 22,000 animal bones found at the site, including gazelles, deer, hares, and foxes, as well previous documentation regarding the number of charred plant remains, flint tools, cereal grains found there which signify a robust diet and lifestyle, the team concluded that Ohalo II presents a different picture of subsistence than most other early Epipaleolithic sites.
Climatic oscillations during the Last Glacial Maximum had minimal effects on the Upper Jordan Valley, specifically near Ohalo II, enabling those people to utilize a broad ecological niche comprised of varied edible plants, mammals, reptiles, birds, and fish. “Despite their ability to hunt large animals, these inhabitants also hunted a wide range of prey and had tools and time enough to fully exploit animal carcasses down to the marrow,” shared Steiner. Likewise, “tortoises were seemingly selected for a specific body-size, which may suggest that their shells for use as bowls—and not their meat—were the main target. Hare and fox were possibly hunted for their pelts,” she added.
The current study focused on reptile, bird and mammal remains found in one of the huts during its three consecutive occupations. As part of the study, identification and quantification was carried out of the different animal species, bone sizes were measured, and bone surfaces were subjected to spectroscopic examination to identify signs of cutting and wear. In addition, Dr. Rebecca Biton, a post-doctoral student at the Hebrew University and an expert in herpetology, discovered that the turtles were all of a uniform size, which might indicate a conscious selection by the hunters for a specific size of turtle shell.
Steiner and her colleagues believe that the findings from the site do not indicate a decline in the availability of food during this period but rather a rich diversity of food sources. In this way, Ohalo II is a wonderful example of a true broad-spectrum economy during the latest Ice Age, at the very beginning of the Epipaleolithic period.
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Ohalo II brush hut. Danie Nadel/Univ of Haifa
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Cut marks on gazelle bones found at Ohalo II. Tikva Steiner/Hebrew University
*Abundance or stress? Faunal exploitation patterns and subsistence strategies: The case study of Brush Hut 1 at Ohalo II, a submerged 23,000-year-old camp in the Sea of Galilee, Israel. Faunal exploitation of a brush hut at Ohalo II. PLoS ONE, 26-Jan-2022. 10.1371/journal.pone.0262434
PLOS—As climate shifted 23,000 years ago, humans in Israel experienced a new abundance of food, according to a study published January 26, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Tikvah Steiner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and colleagues.
The submerged archaeological site of Ohalo II, located on the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee in Israel, preserves extensive evidence of human occupation about 23,000 years ago. This was a time period of global climate fluctuation, and also a time when humans notably diversified their dietary habits. Some researchers have suggested this diet shift was necessary due to decreasing food availability, while others suggest the change was an opportunistic one made possible by increasing food abundance. In this study, Steiner, Nadel and colleagues from a multidisciplinary team from four Israeli and Spanish universities tested these competing hypotheses via analysis of animal remains at Ohalo II.
Early Epipaleolithic sites are marked with red circles, Middle Epipaleolithic with black squares and Late Epipaleolithic with blue triangles. Steiner et al., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
The authors examined over 20,000 animal remains, including reptiles, birds, and mammals, from well-preserved successive floors of a brush hut at the site. The results show that the people of Ohalo II were successfully hunting prime large game, while at the same time gathering a wide variety of fish, other small animals, and plants.
According to the authors, this evidence does not indicate a drop in food availability, but rather an abundance of multiple prey sources. They suggest that while some animals were gathered for meat, others might have been hunted for pelts (e.g.: foxes, hares) or shells (e.g.: tortoises). From this study, it seems that fluctuating climate conditions did not create food stress, at least in this region, but instead new dietary opportunities. The researchers hope that this work at Ohalo II will serve as a model for similar investigations of human diet changes at other locations and time periods.
The authors add: “The choice of a littoral habitat that could be intensively exploited year-round may be an example of niche selection. The availability of multiple food sources within a rich habitat may have driven exploitation of myriad local resources, rather than targeting mainly energetically-rich large prey.”
*Steiner T, Biton R, Nadel D, Rivals F, Rabinovich R (2022) Abundance or stress? Faunal exploitation patterns and subsistence strategies: The case study of Brush Hut 1 at Ohalo II, a submerged 23,000-year-old camp in the Sea of Galilee, Israel. PLoS ONE 17(1): e0262434. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262434
Funding: This study was supported partly by scholarships awarded to T.S. by the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel to M.A. students and the Ruth Amiran Scholarship. Field work was supported by grants from the Israel Science Foundation (Nos. 831/00 and 711/08), Jerusalem Center for Anthropological Studies, L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, MAFCAF Foundation, National Geographic Society, Stekelis Museum of Prehistory in Haifa, and the Israel Antiquities Authority. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA—The Curia of Pompey was one of the great meeting rooms of profound historical importance during the Roman Republic. Located on the eastern flank of the ancient Portico of Pompey, within its walls the senators of ancient Rome discussed weighty political affairs in private meetings.
What is now a visible site for pedestrians who circulate through the Roman square of Largo Argentina, was actually constructed in several phases, ranging from the time of Pompey himself to the medieval era. This is, at least, what has been corroborated by a study carried out by an Italian/Spanish research team on which the University of Córdoba participated.
This fact had already been ascertained by stratigraphic studies carried out by the Spanish team that worked on the site between 2013 and 2017. Now these conclusions have been ratified from the point of view of archaeometry, a different scientific discipline used in Archeology that applies physical and chemical analysis techniques to archaeological materials.
Specifically, the work analyzed samples of mortar from the monument; that is, the conglomerate that was used to prepare the different construction elements. The results made it possible to establish an indirect dating method confirming that Pompey’s Curia did, in fact, feature several different construction phases.
The first of them, according to the results of the study, was during the time of Pompey himself, around 55 BC. The samples analyzed indicate that the monument also had a second phase of construction, which must have been around 19 BC, under Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Finally, a last stage of construction during the early medieval period has also been documented.
Tell me where you are from and I’ll tell you when
The dating of these stages was established indirectly thanks to knowledge of the origins of the materials with which the monument was built. Analysis of the compositions of the samples analyzed allowed the authors, F. Marra, E. D´Ambrosio, M. Gaeta and A. Monterroso-Checa to ascertain the quarries from which they were extracted. The compositions and dates of removal from the quarries revealed that there were different chronological phases in the use of these construction materials.
All of this is evident because there is a clear distinction between the composition of the samples attributable to the first construction phase and those of the Augustan and medieval ones. For example, while in the initial stage of the monument’s construction a material known as pink pozzolana, extracted from volcanic deposits in the interior of Rome, was exclusively used, in the samples linked to the second phase of construction volcanic glass is found, which is characteristic of a different kind of pink pozzolanathat, due to the expansion of urban planning, was extracted from areas further away from the city’s monumental center.
In this way, the work, published in the University of Oxford’s prestigious journal Archaeometry, confirms, from a different perspective, the different construction phases of the building where Julius Caesar, one of history’s most important politicians and soldiers, died, a fact pertinent not only to Archeology, but also to Roman History.
The study benefitted from collaboration with the Sovrintendenza Capitolina, the site’s managing body, the University of Cordoba, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology of Italy, and Sapienza University in Rome. It was financed by two projects: HAR 2011 25705 and HAR2013 41818P, under the Spanish Science & Innovation Ministry’s National R&D Plan.
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*Petrographical and geochemical criteria for a chronology of Roman mortars between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD: the Curia of Pompey the Great, Archaeometry, 8-Dec-2021. 10.1111/arcm.12740
ETH ZURICH—Vesuvius is one of Europe’s most dangerous volcanoes. More than three million people live in its immediate vicinity, and in historical and prehistoric times, there were explosive eruptions that destroyed entire settlements and towns in the area.
So, the pressing question is: When will Vesuvius erupt again and how strong could the eruption be?
To answer this question, a research group at ETH Zurich, in collaboration with researchers from Italy, has taken a close look at the four largest eruptions of Vesuvius over the last 10,000 years so that they can better assess whether a dangerous event might be expected in the foreseeable future.
The four eruptions studied include the Avellino eruption of 3,950 years ago, which is considered a possible “worst case scenario” for future eruptions, and the eruption of AD 79 that buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The latter was documented by the Roman writer Pliny the Younger, and so all eruptions of this type are referred to as “Plinian” eruptions. Further, the volcanologists studied eruptions of 472 AD and 8890 y BP. The sub-Plinian eruption of AD 472 is the smallest of the investigated eruptions but still similar in size compared to the recent Tonga eruption.
Garnets allow precise dating
In their study*, which has just been published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers working with lead author Jörn-Frederik Wotzlaw and ETH Zurich Professor Olivier Bachmann determined the age of garnet crystals present in the volcanic deposits. This mineral grows from the magma as it is stored in the magma chamber in the upper crust beneath Vesuvius. Knowing the age of these minerals makes it possible to infer how long magma resided in this chamber before the volcano spewed it out.
Garnet is an unusual choice for determining the age of volcanic ejecta. Researchers typically use zircons, which are tiny accessory minerals found in many igneous rocks. Magma from Vesuvius, however, is too alkaline to crystallize zircons, but it is rich in garnet.
To determine the age of the garnets, the researchers used the radioactive elements uranium and thorium. The crystal structure of garnet incorporates both in small but measurable quantities, with a preference for uranium. Using the ratio of the isotopes uranium-238 to thorium-230, the researchers can calculate the crystallization age of the minerals.
The garnets for this study all came from material that the ETH team collected on site with the help of colleagues from the Universities of Milan and Bari. For this purpose, they searched for corresponding sites where the volcanic deposits from the four eruptions mentioned above are exposed at the surface and are accessible for sampling.
Intervals become shorter
By using the crystallization ages of garnets, the researchers can now show that the most explosive magma type at Vesuvius (so called “phonolitic” magma) is stored in a reservoir in the upper crust for several thousand years before the influx of more primitive, and hotter, magma from the lower crust triggers an eruption.
For the two prehistoric events, the researchers determined that the phonolitic magma resided in the chamber for about 5,000 years. Before the eruptions in the historical period, it was stored in this reservoir for only about 1,000 years.
For all the eruptions, the residence time of the phonolitic magma in the upper crustal chamber coincides with Vesuvius’ quiescent periods.
“We think it’s likely that a large body of phonolitic magma in the upper crust blocked the upwelling of more primitive, hotter magma from deeper reservoirs,” Bachmann says. “Vesuvius has quite a complicated plumbing system,” he adds with a grin.
Below the volcano are several magma chambers connected by a system of pipes. The top chamber, which is critical for the eruptions, fills with magma from one of the lower chambers in a fairly short time. In this colder environment, the magma cools and crystallizes, leading to chemical changes of the residual melt (a process called “magmatic differentiation”). Experts call the “differentiated” magma of Vesuvius phonolite. At some point (probably at relatively regular intervals), more primitive, or “mafic” magma flows into the upper chamber from greater depths. This recharge leads to a pressure rise within the chamber, which can force the phonolitic magma upwards, potentially all the way to the surface, starting an eruption.
A reservoir of phonolitic magma appears to have almost always existed beneath Vesuvius for the last 10’000 years. However, the question is whether one today that could feed a dangerous eruption like the one of 3,950 years ago or the one of AD 79.
Magma build-up rather unlikely
Seismic surveys indicate that there is indeed a reservoir at a depth of about six to eight kilometers underneath Vesuvius. However, the composition of the magma it contains – i.e., whether it is phonolitic, or more mafic – cannot be determined using seismic technology. But since Vesuvius has been producing mostly mafic magma since 1631, researchers believe it is unlikely that differentiated phonolite is currently accumulating. “The last major eruption in 1944 is now nearly 80 years ago, which may well be the beginning of a prolonged quiescent period during which differentiated magma can accumulate. Still, a dangerous eruption comparable to the one in AD 79 probably needs the quiescent period to last much longer,” Wotzlaw says.
If predominantly mafic magma is ejected in the coming decades, this could indicate that the magma body detected by seismic surveys is not composed of differentiated magma and that none is currently present beneath Vesuvius. “That’s why we think it’s more likely that a large, explosive eruption of Vesuvius would occur only after a quiescent period lasting for centuries,” Bachmann says. Wotzlaw adds: “However, smaller but still very dangerous eruptions like the one in 1944 or even the one in 1631 can occur after shorter periods of quiescence. Accurate forecasting of size and style of volcanic eruptions is so far not possible. However, the reawakening of the magma reservoirs beneath volcanoes are now recognizable by monitoring.”
Close monitoring
To avoid any nasty surprises, Vesuvius and its activity, together with its big brother to the west, the Phlegraean Fields, are monitored around the clock. For example, Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology measures every earthquake around the volcanoes, analyzes gases emitted from fumaroles and observes ground deformation, which are indicators of underground activity. There is also an emergency plan outlining how to evacuate the greater Naples area should surveillance conclude that an eruption is imminent.
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Pompeii was destroyed in 79 AD during a massive eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Jörn-Frederik Wotzlaw / ETH Zürich
*Wotzlaw J-F, Bastian L, Guillong M, et al. Garnet petrochronology reveals the lifetime and dynamics of phonolitic magma chambers at Somma-Vesuvius. Science Advances, 12 Jan 2022, Vol 8, Issue 2, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abk2184call_made
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