Archives: Articles

This is the example article

Artificial intelligence applied to the genome identifies an unknown human ancestor

CENTER FOR GENOMIC REGULATION—By combining deep learning algorithms and statistical methods, investigators from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico(CNAG-CRG) of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Institute of Genomics at the University of Tartu have identified, in the genome of Asiatic individuals, the footprint of a new hominid who cross bred with its ancestors tens of thousands of years ago.

Modern human DNA computational analysis suggests that the extinct species was a hybrid of Neanderthals and Denisovans and cross bred with Out of Africa modern humans in Asia. This finding would explain that the hybrid found this summer in the caves of Denisova-the offspring of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father-, was not an isolated case, but rather was part of a more general introgression process.

The study, published in Nature Communications, uses deep learning for the first time ever to account for human evolution, paving the way for the application of this technology in other questions in biology, genomics and evolution.

Humans had descendants with an species that is unknown to us

One of the ways of distinguishing between two species is that while both of them may cross breed, they do not generally produce fertile descendants. However, this concept is much more complex when extinct species are involved. In fact, the story told by current human DNA blurs the lines of these limits, preserving fragments of hominids from other species, such as the Neanderthals and the Denisovans, who coexisted with modern humans more than 40,000 years ago in Eurasia.

Now, investigators of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG-CRG) of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), and the University of Tartu have used deep learning algorithms to identify a new and hitherto-unknown ancestor of humans that would have interbred with modern humans tens of thousands of years ago. “About 80,000 years ago, the so-called Out of Africa occurred, when part of the human population, which already consisted of modern humans, abandoned the African continent and migrated to other continents, giving rise to all the current populations”, explained Jaume Bertranpetit, principal investigator at the IBE and head of Department at the UPF. “We know that from that time onwards, modern humans cross bred with Neanderthals in all the continents, except Africa, and with the Denisovans in Oceania and probably in South-East Asia, although the evidence of cross-breeding with a third extinct species had not been confirmed with any certainty”.

Deep learning: deciphering the keys to human evolution in ancient DNA

Hitherto, the existence of the third ancestor was only a theory that would explain the origin of some fragments of the current human genome (part of the team involved in this study had already posed the existence of the extinct hominid in a previous study). However, deep learning has made it possible to make the transition from DNA to the demographics of ancestral populations.

The problem the investigators had to contend with is that the demographic models they have analysed are much more complex than anything else considered to date and there were no statistic tools available to analyse them. Deep learning “is an algorithm that imitates the way in which the nervous system of mammals works, with different artificial neurons that specialize and learn to detect, in data, patterns that are important for performing a given task”, stated Òscar Lao, principal investigator at the CNAG-CRG and an expert in this type of simulations. “We have used this property to get the algorithm to learn to predict human demographics using genomes obtained through hundreds of thousands of simulations. Whenever we run a simulation we are traveling along a possible path in the history of humankind. Of all simulations, deep learning allows us to observe what makes the ancestral puzzle fit together”.

It is the first time that deep learning has been used successfully to explain human history, paving the way for this technology to be applied in other questions in biology, genomics and evolution.

An extinct hominid could explain the history of humankind

The deep learning analysis has revealed that the extinct hominid is probably a descendant of the Neanderthal and Denisovan populations. The discovery of a fossil with these characteristics this summer would seem to endorse the study finding, consolidating the hypothesis of this third species or population that coexisted with modern human beings and mated with them. “Our theory coincides with the hybrid specimen discovered recently in Denisova, although as yet we cannot rule out other possibilities”, said Mayukh Mondal, an investigator of the University of Tartu and former investigator at the IBE.

___________________________________

Jaume Bertranpetit, researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, and Oscar Lao, researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation, co-led the study. Pilar Rodriguez

___________________________________

Article Source: Center for Genomic Regulation news release

___________________________________

See, first-hand, the original fossils. See original artifacts. See the actual sites. Talk with the famous scientists. Join us on this unique specialized study tour.

___________________________________

11,500-year-old animal bones in Jordan suggest early dogs helped humans hunt

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN – FACULTY OF HUMANITIES—11,500 years ago in what is now northeast Jordan, people began to live alongside dogs and may also have used them for hunting, a new study from the University of Copenhagen shows. The archaeologists suggest that the introduction of dogs as hunting aids may explain the dramatic increase of hares and other small prey in the archaeological remains at the site.

Dogs were domesticated by humans as early as 14,000 years ago in the Near East, but whether this was accidental or on purpose is so far not clear. New research published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology by a team of archaeologists from the University of Copenhagen and University College London may suggest that humans valued the tracking and hunting abilities of early dogs more than previously known.

A study of animal bones from the 11,500 year old settlement Shubayqa 6 in northeast Jordan not only suggests that dogs were present in this region at the start of the Neolithic period, but that humans and dogs likely hunted animals together:

“The study of the large assemblage of animal bones from Shubayqa 6 revealed a large proportion of bones with unmistakable signs of having passed through the digestive tract of another animal; these bones are so large that they cannot have been swallowed by humans, but must have been digested by dogs,” explained zooarchaeologist and the study’s lead author Lisa Yeomans.

Lisa Yeomans and her colleagues have been able to show that Shubayqa 6 was occupied year round, which suggests that the dogs were living together with the humans rather than visiting the site when there were no inhabitants:

“The dogs were not kept at the fringes of the settlement, but must have been closely integrated into all aspects of day-to-day life and allowed to freely roam around the settlement, feeding on discarded bones and defecating in and around the site.”

Can new hunting techniques account for the increase in small prey?

When Yeomans and her co-authors sifted through the analyzed data, they also noted a curious increase in the number of hares at the time that dogs appeared at Shubayqa 6. Hares were hunted for their meat, but Shubayqa 6’s inhabitants also used the hare bones to make beads. The team think that it is likely that the appearance of dogs and the increase in hares are related.

“The use of dogs for hunting smaller, fast prey such as hares and foxes, perhaps driving them into enclosures, could provide an explanation that is in line with the evidence we have gathered. The long history of dog use, to hunt both small as well as larger prey, in the region is well known, and it would be strange not to consider hunting aided by dogs as a likely explanation for the sudden abundance of smaller prey in the archaeological record,” said Lisa Yeomans.

“The shift may also be associated with a change in hunting technique from a method, such as netting, that saw an unselective portion of the hare population captured, to a selective method of hunting in which individual animals were targeted. This could have been achieved by dogs.”

______________________________

Selection of gazelle bones from Space 3 at Shubayqa 6 displaying evidence for having been in the digestive tract of a carnivore. University of Copenhagen

______________________________

One of the excavated structures at the Shubayqa 6 site. University of Copenhagen

______________________________

Article Source: University of Copenhagen news release

Read the study, Close companions: Early evidence for dogs in northeast Jordan and the potential impact of new hunting methods, published in Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

About Shubayqa 6

Shubayqa 6 is situated on the northern edge of the Qa’ Shubayqa, around 130 km northeast of the Jordanian capital, Amman. It is the ?rst substantial early Neolithic settlement identi?ed in the Black Desert and has been under investigation since 2012; this and previous studies demonstrate that settlement in this semi-arid to arid zone was more intensive than previously thought and that the area could sustain large populations of animals and humans.

The excavations were carried out in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan as part of a project funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research, Danish Institute in Damascus and H.P. Hjerl Mindefondet for Dansk Palæstinaforsking.

__________________________________

See, first-hand, the original fossils. See original artifacts. See the actual sites. Talk with the famous scientists. Join us on this unique specialized study tour.

__________________________________

An ancient relative of humans shows a surprisingly modern trait

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, COLUMBUS, Ohio – A relative of modern humans that lived at least 104,000 years ago in northern China showed evidence of dental growth and development very similar to that of people today, a new study found.

An international team of scientists performed the first systematic assessment of dental growth and development in an East Asian archaic hominin fossil that is known as the Xujiayao juvenile. The fossil is of a 6 1/2-year-old who lived between 104,000 and 248,000 years ago found at the Xujiayao site in northern China.

The researchers were surprised to find that in most ways, this child’s dental development was very similar to what you would find in a child today, said Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, co-author of the study and professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University. “The Xujiayao juvenile is the oldest fossil found in east Asia that has dental development comparable to modern humans,” Guatelli-Steinberg said.

“It may suggest that these archaic humans had a slow life history like modern humans, with a prolonged period of childhood dependency.”

The study was published today (1-16-19) in the journal Science Advances.

Teeth provide some of the best data anthropologists have about the growth and development of our ancient ancestors, she said. That’s because growth lines in teeth retain a record of dental development.

Compared to our primate cousins, modern humans – including their teeth – take a long time to form and develop. Anthropologists believe this characteristic is associated with humans’ longer periods of child dependency – how long a juvenile relies on support from a caregiver.

Among other techniques, the researchers used synchrotron X-ray imaging to look inside the fossil to see the internal structure of the teeth, including growth lines that revealed the rate of tooth development.

The results were surprising in part because so many other features of this hominin are not modern, such as the shape and thickness of the skull and the large size of the teeth, according to the researchers. “We don’t know exactly where this enigmatic East Asian hominin fits in human evolution,” said Song Xing, lead author of the study, who is at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. “It has some affinities to archaic human relatives like the Denisovans and Neanderthals with, as we found, some more modern features. It is a strange mosaic.”

Using the growth lines in the teeth, the researchers estimated the death of the Xujiayao juvenile at about 6 1/2 years of age, said study co-author Mackie O’Hara, a graduate student in anthropology at Ohio State. The first molar of this juvenile – what we call the 6-year-molar today – had erupted a few months before death and had started to wear a bit. The root was about three-quarters complete, similar to humans today.

“We found that this juvenile was growing up – at least dentally – according to a schedule similar to that of modern people,” O’Hara said.

Another aspect that was similar to modern humans was the perikymata, which are the incremental growth lines that appear on the surface of the tooth. “We found that the way these perikymata were distributed on the Xujiayao juvenile teeth was close to what we see in modern humans, and not to Neanderthals,” Guatelli-Steinberg said.

Another interesting finding related to the long-period growth line, which is laid down about every eight days in modern humans. “This juvenile had a 10-day rhythm, which you don’t see very often in early hominins,” she said. “Most of the early hominins had a shorter rhythm, closer to seven days. This is another aspect that is much more modern.”

The one aspect of dental development in the Xujiayao juvenile that was not modern was the rate of growth in the roots of the teeth. Here, the juvenile showed relatively fast growth, compared to a slower growth in modern humans.

While the dental development of this juvenile suggested it had a slow life course similar to modern humans, Guatelli-Steinberg cautioned that we don’t know what happens in later childhood in hominins like this one. “It would be interesting to see if dental development in later childhood, such as the growth and development of third molars, was also similar to modern humans,” she said.

_______________________________

The original Xujiayao fossil. Song Xing, Chinese Academy of Sciences

_______________________________

The buccal view of the Xujiayao incisor and canine showing the pattern of perikymata distribution. Song Xing and Paul Tafforeau

_______________________________

Article Sources: Ohio State University and Science Advances news releases

_______________________________

See, first-hand, the original fossils. See original artifacts. See the actual sites. Talk with the famous scientists. Join us on this unique specialized study tour.

DNA tool allows you to trace your ancient ancestry

UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD—Scientists at the University of Sheffield studying ancient DNA have created a tool allowing them to more accurately identify ancient Eurasian populations, which can be used to test an individual’s similarity to ancient people who once roamed the earth.

Currently the study of ancient DNA requires a lot of information to classify a skeleton to a population or find its biogeographical origins.

Now scientists have defined a new concept called Ancient Ancestry Informative Markers (aAIMs) – a group of mutations that are sufficiently informative to identify and classify ancient populations.

The research, led by Dr Eran Elhaik, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, saw the identification of a small group of aAIMs that can be used to classify skeletons to ancient populations.

Dr Elhaik said: “We developed a new method that finds aAIMs efficiently and have proved that it is accurate.”

AIMs (Ancestry Informative Markers) have a long history in science and have been employed for the past decade by health and forensic experts.

But Dr Elhaik said that when his team applied traditional AIMs-finding tools to ancient DNA data, they were disappointed with their low accuracy.

“Ancient populations are much more diverse than modern ones,” he said. “Their diversity was reduced over the years following events such as the Neolithic revolution and the Black Death.

“Although we have many more people today they are all far more similar to each other than ancient people. In addition, the ancient data themselves are problematic due to the large amount of degraded DNA.”

To overcome these challenges, Dr Elhaik developed a specialized tool that identifies aAIMs by combining traditional methodology with a novel one that takes into account a mixture.

“Ancient genomes typically consist of hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of markers. We demonstrated that only 13,000 markers are needed to make accurate population classifications for ancient genomes and while the field of ancient forensics does not exist yet, these aAIMs can help us get much closer to ancient people.”

He added: “Until now you couldn’t test people for ancient DNA ancestry because commercial microarrays, such as the ones used for genetic genealogy, don’t have a lot of markers relevant for paleogenomics – people could not study their primeval origins.

“This finding of aAIMs is like finding the fingerprints of ancient people. It allows testing of a small number of markers – that can be found in a commonly available array – and you can ask what part of your genome is from Roman Britons or Viking, or Chumash Indians, or ancient Israelites, etc.

“We can ask any question we want about these ancient people as long as someone sequenced these ancient markers. So this paper brings the field of paleogenomics to the public.”

Researchers said to make the study’s findings more accurate for identifying and classifying ancient people throughout the world, the framework and methods of the study should be applied again when more comprehensive ancient DNA databases are available.

The full study Ancient Ancestry Informative Markers for Identifying Fine-Scale Ancient Population Structure in Eurasians is published in the journal Genes.

___________________________________

The Eurasian landmass, home to many ancient populations.

___________________________________

Article Source: UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD news release

___________________________________

See, first-hand, the original fossils. See original artifacts. See the actual sites. Talk with the famous scientists. Join us on this unique specialized study tour.

___________________________________

Rembrandt’s Secret Revealed

EUROPEAN SYNCHROTRON RADIATION FACILITY—Rembrandt van Rijn revolutionized painting with a 3D effect using his impasto technique, where thick paint makes a masterpiece protrude from the surface. Thanks to the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France, three centuries later an international team of scientists led by the Materials Science and Engineering Department of the Delft University of Technology and the Rijksmuseum have found how he did it. The study is published in Angewandte Chemie.

Impasto is thick paint laid on the canvas in an amount that makes it stand from the surface. The relief of impasto increases the perceptibility of the paint by increasing its light-reflecting textural properties. Scientists know that Rembrandt, epitome of the Dutch Golden Age, achieved the impasto effect by using materials traditionally available on the 17thcentury Dutch colour market, namely lead white pigment (a mixture of hydrocerussite Pb3(CO3)2(OH)2 and cerussite PbCO3), and organic mediums (mainly linseed oil). The precise recipe was, however, unknown until today.

Plumbonacrite, Pb5(CO3)3O(OH)2 is the mysterious, missing ingredient of the impasto effect, researchers from The Netherlands and France have discovered. It is extremely rare in historic paint layers. It has been detected in some samples from 20th century paintings and in a degraded red lead pigment in a Van Gogh painting. “We didn’t expect to find this phase at all, as it is so unusual in Old Masters paintings”, explains Victor Gonzalez, main author of the study and scientist at the Rijksmuseum and Delft University of Technology. “What’s more, our research shows that its presence is not accidental or due to contamination, but that it is the result of an intended synthesis”, he adds.

The European Synchrotron, ESRF, played an essential role in these findings. The team sampled tiny fragments from the Portrait of Marten Soolmans (Rijksmuseum), Bathsheba (The Louvre) and Susanna (Mauritshuis), three of Rembrandt’s masterpieces. Using the ESRF’s beamlines, they quantified the crystalline phases in Rembrandt’s impasto and in the adjacent paint layers, modelled the pigment crystallites morphology and size and obtained crystalline phase distribution maps at the microscale.

The samples were less than 0.1mm in size, requiring the small and intense beam delivered by the synchrotron. The scientists analysed them on two ESRF beamlines, ID22 and ID13, where they combined High-angular Resolution X-Ray Diffraction (HR-XRD) and micro-X-Ray Diffraction (μ-XRD) . “In the past, we have already successfully used the combination of these two techniques to study lead-white based paints. We knew that the techniques can provide us with high quality diffraction patterns and therefore with subtle information about paint composition”, explains Marine Cotte, scientist at the ESRF, 2018 Descartes-Huygens Prize laureate for her research on art conservation.

The analysis of the data showed that Rembrandt modified his painting materials intentionally. “The presence of plumbonacrite is indicative of an alkaline medium. Based on historical texts, we believe that Rembrandt added lead oxide (litharge) to the oil in this purpose, turning the mixture into a paste-like paint”, explains Cotte.

The breakthrough yields the path for the long-term preservation and conservation of Rembrandt’s masterpieces. However, the number of samples studied is not extensive enough to assess if lead white impastos systematically contain plumbonacrite. “We are working with the hypothesis that Rembrandt might have used other recipes, and that is the reason why we will be studying samples from other paintings by Rembrandt and other 17th Dutch Masters, including Vermeer, Hals, and painters belonging to Rembrandt’s circle”, explains Annelies van Loon, scientist at the Rijksmuseum.

In addition to this, the team will reconstruct specific impasto-like samples, preparing and ageing them under CO2 rich and CO2 free atmospheres (to assess the origin of carbonates in plumbonacrite) and in humid and dry conditions (to assess the effect of water).

This work, led by the Materials Science and Engineering Department of the Delft University of Technology and the Rijksmuseum is a collaboration between academia (Institut de Recherche de Chimie Paris, Sorbonne University and University of Amsterdam), Cultural Heritage research institutes (C2RMF: Centre de Recherche et des Restauration des Musées de France), museums (Rijksmuseum and Mauritshuis) and the ESRF.

_______________________________

The Portrait of Marten Soolmans by Rembrandt van Rijn, at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

_______________________________

Article Source: EUROPEAN SYNCHROTRON RADIATION FACILITY news release

Solving the ancient mysteries of Easter Island

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY—BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The ancient people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) built their famous ahu monuments near coastal freshwater sources, according to a team of researchers including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

The island of Rapa Nui is well-known for its elaborate ritual architecture, particularly its numerous statues (moai) and the monumental platforms that supported them (ahu.) Researchers have long wondered why ancient people built these monuments in their respective locations around the island, considering how much time and energy was required to construct them. A team of researchers including Binghamton University anthropologist Carl Lipo used quantitative spatial modeling to explore the potential relations between ahu construction locations and subsistence resources, namely, rock mulch agricultural gardens, marine resources, and freshwater sources—the three most critical resources on Rapa Nui. Their results* suggest that ahu locations are explained by their proximity to the island’s limited freshwater sources.

“The issue of water availability (or the lack of it) has often been mentioned by researchers who work on Rapa Nui/Easter Island,” said Lipo. “When we started to examine the details of the hydrology, we began to notice that freshwater access and statue location were tightly linked together. It wasn’t obvious when walking around—with the water emerging at the coast during low tide, one doesn’t necessarily see obvious indications of water. But as we started to look at areas around ahu, we found that those locations were exactly tied to spots where the fresh groundwater emerges—largely as a diffuse layer that flows out at the water’s edge. The more we looked, the more consistently we saw this pattern. Places without ahu/moai showed no freshwater. The pattern was striking and surprising in how consistent it was. Even when we find ahu/moai in the interior of the island, we find nearby sources of drinking water. This paper reflects our work to demonstrate that this pattern is statistically sound and not just our perception.”

“Many researchers, ourselves included, have long speculated associations between ahu/moai and different kinds of resources, e.g., water, agricultural land, areas with good marine resources, etc.,” said lead author Robert DiNapoli of the University of Oregon. “However, these associations had never been quantitatively tested or shown to be statistically significant. Our study presents quantitative spatial modeling clearly showing that ahu are associated with freshwater sources in a way that they aren’t associated with other resources.”

According to Terry Hunt of the University of Arizona, the proximity of the monuments to freshwater tells us a great deal about the ancient island society.

“The monuments and statues are located in places with access to a resource critical to islanders on a daily basis—fresh water. In this way, the monuments and statues of the islanders’ deified ancestors reflect generations of sharing, perhaps on a daily basis–centered on water, but also food, family and social ties, as well as cultural lore that reinforced knowledge of the island’s precarious sustainability. And the sharing points to a critical part of explaining the island’s paradox: despite limited resources, the islanders succeeded by sharing in activities, knowledge, and resources for over 500 years until European contact disrupted life with foreign diseases, slave trading, and other misfortunes of colonial interests.”

The researchers currently only have comprehensive freshwater data for the western portion of the island and plan to do a complete survey of the island in order to continue to test their hypothesis of the relation between ahu and freshwater.

____________________________________

Monumental Maois statues on Easter Island. Horacio Fernandez, Wikimedia Commons

____________________________________

Binghamton University archaeologist Carl Lipo is part of an international team of researchers working to solve the ancient mysteries of Easter Island. Binghamton University, State University of New York

____________________________________

Article Source: Binghamton University news release

Also contributing to this research were Matthew Becker and Tanya Brosnan (California State University, Long Beach); Sean Hixon (Pennsylvania State University); and Alex E. Morrison (University of Auckland).

*The paper, “Rapa Nui (Easter Island) monument locations explained by freshwater sources,” was published in PLoS One.

________________________________

Advertisement

See, first-hand, the original fossils. See original artifacts. See the actual sites. Talk with the famous scientists. Join us on this unique specialized study tour.

________________________________

Unearthing the Secrets of Smith Creek

Standing at its base, it is impossible not to feel a sense of awe. Stretching high above and across, it is now covered with grass, stairs built against its face to enable the casual visitor to traverse its height to its summit, 100 feet skyward. It is not a natural hill. It is a massive mound of earth purposefully constructed by perhaps hundreds of toiling laborers more than 1100 years ago near present-day Collinsville, Illinois. Known today as Monks Mound, it is the largest monumental pyramidal construction north of the great ancient Maya centers in Central America. Indeed, at its base it is about the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza of ancient Egypt, with a perimeter larger than that of the great Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán, Mexico. 

______________________________

Monks Mound as it appears today.

______________________________

Monks Mound is arguably the most iconic example of the energy, ingenuity, sense of planning, and organizing capacity of a Native American population that otherwise would have blended into what many later European explorers and settlers would have judged as unremarkable “savages” on a landscape regarded ripe for the taking. But for over 5,000 years, a variety of peoples with both differing and common cultural traditions and heritage built thousands of similar mounds across thousands of square miles stretching from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River Valley to the Mississippi River Valley and this great river’s tributaries. Anciently, for the indigenous inhabitants who constructed these monumental earthworks, it was a land of abundance, a fertility that afforded unmatched hunting, fishing, and other food gathering. The region drew people and eventually supported large population centers, some of which rivaled and even exceeded the urban centers that grew from North American European settlement before the turn into the 19th century AD. 

An Ancient Practice

When and where did this mound building begin?

By far the earliest example of this activity discovered to date can be found in southeastern Louisiana, a mound site that was radiocarbon dated to approximately 4500 BCE, although the dating is debated. It was initially excavated in 1967 as one of the two Monte Sano site mounds. If the dating is correct, this would place the site within the Archaic period. Better known, however, is the Watson Brake site, another Archaic period site located near Monroe in northern Louisiana. Dated to about 3500 BCE, long before the construction of the pyramids of ancient Egypt, it features 11 mounds from 3 to 25 ft in height, all connected by ridges that form an oval almost 900 ft across. Building continued for 500 years. In addition to this is the Archaic site of Poverty Point, also in Louisiana near the village of Epps in West Carroll Parish, which was built about 1500 BCE. A complex of more than one square mile, it consists of six earthwork crescent ridges arranged in a concentric pattern, divided by radial aisles. It also includes three mounds and evidence of residential construction extending about 3 miles along the bank of the Bayou Macon. Notably, the culture associated with Poverty Point has revealed archaeological evidence of a wide trading network showing commercial links with points well beyond its area of habitation.

The discovery and analysis of sites and artifacts from this time period have upended the traditional paradigm of monumental construction as a key activity that emerged out of developed agriculture and centrally organized societies. We now know that the peoples who originally constructed the mounds of sites like Watson Brake and Poverty Point were primarily hunter-gatherers, suggesting that there is much more to learn about the true capabilities and achievements of hunter-gatherer cultures, particularly in North America.

Archaeological inquiry related to the early cultures of North America has thus, among other things, explored the question of when and where developed agriculture and more complex, centralized societies, key elements of urbanization, actually emerged.

Smith Creek

Straddling the bluffs that overlook the Mississippi River in southwestern Mississippi sits an archaeological site known today as Smith Creek. It is one of many Native American mound sites that dot the 350-mile Mississippi Mound Trail near the banks of the Mississippi River. The site stands out from many of the others because it provides evidence of a long human occupation spanning 1,600 years across three different cultures, beginning with the Tchefuncte from about ca. 500 BC – 1 AD. The Tchefuncte, an Early Woodland period culture, were a hunter-gatherer  people who lived in coastal areas and lowlands, living on a variety of food sources, including clams, alligators, fish, deer, raccoons and birds. They produced large amounts of simple pottery, which led to improved food management, better storage and cooking. But it was the Coles Creek Culture (ca AD 700 – 1200), the next group that occupied Smith Creek, that was responsible for the distinguishing monumental platform mound-and-plaza complex remains so prominently featured at the site. Coles Creek culture flourished during the Late Woodland period, generally in the Lower Mississippi valley. It marks a time when population increased dramatically, with evidence of increasing cultural and political complexity, such that near the end of its time they had developed simple elite polities. At Smith Creek, the archaeological evidence also shows a transition to another, succeeding culture, the Plaquemine (AD 1300 – 1500), a society distinguished by a continuation of the platform mound-and-plaza construction and, notably, maize agriculture (as well as cultivation of pumpkins, squash, beans and tobacco), although these people also continued to hunt, fish, and gather wild plants. The Plaquemines generally had established trade contacts with other Mississippian culture peoples to the north and east, contemporaneous with the Mississippian culture at Cahokia. 

Megan Kassabaum, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and archaeologist with the University of Pennsylvania, has been exploring Smith Creek since 2013, when she conducted a series of test excavations. Based on those initial findings, she has returned to conduct full scale excavations in 2015, 2016, and 2018 with crews from the University of Pennsylvania. As Director of the excavations and research, she is exploring some key questions that will hopefully elucidate the evolution of the site. She hopes to eventually shed new light, at least at Smith Creek, on the transition from hunting and gathering to maize agriculture, from egalitarian to hierarchical social organization, from the use of the platform mound-and-plaza complexes as ritual centers to ongoing occupation as elite villages, and the relationship of these developments in time and function. “A suite of important social changes is thought to take place during Coles Creek and early Plaquemine times (i.e., at the transition between the Woodland and Mississippi Periods),” she says. “It is often stated that around this time people began regularly constructing large, flat-topped platform mounds, started relying heavily on corn agriculture, and began living in societies ruled by powerful chiefs. My work at Smith Creek aims to pick apart this complicated transition temporally and culturally to determine the complex relationships between these societal traits. In particular, I am interested in the relationships between monument construction, communal identity, and power.”

Thus far, her excavations have yielded, she says, millions of artifacts that include “even the tiniest evidence of human occupation” using methods from dry screening to wet screening and flotation for carbonized organic remains. Of these, well over 100,000 larger artifacts (1/4 inch and larger) have been excavated and analyzed. Most of the larger artifacts consist of ceramic sherds from storage, cooking, and serving vessels; animal bone (food remains); stone projectile points and other tools and debitage; and daub that was used in construction. In addition to that, her team found some bone tools, a quartz crystal, and a ceramic ear spool.

To date, the Smith Creek archaeological area consists of three large earthen mounds (Mound A, Mound B, and Mound C) surrounding an open plaza. Kassabaum describes Mound A as a platform mound that had been built in multiple stages, Mound B as a burial mound surrounded by a ditch, and Mound C as being less defined because much of it has eroded into a nearby stream. Reports Kassabaum:

“We have put excavation units into or near all three of the mounds at Smith Creek. On Mound A, we have investigated the final summit of the mound, a midden located on one of its previous summits, and the northern toe of the mound. Our excavations on Mound B have been limited because avocational excavations in the 1960s showed that the mound contained human remains. That said, I have done a detailed study of the records and artifacts associated with those early excavations and we have investigated a constructed platform that sits between the mound and the surrounding ditch. On Mound C, we have investigated the toe of the primary mound structure and a secondary structure that extends south off of the main mound. Finally, we have also focused excavations in off-mound areas including three different locations in the plaza. These have largely uncovered Plaquemine midden deposits, though in the Northeast Plaza area, we have spent a great deal of time investigating a probable Tchefuncte structure that underlies these midden deposits.”

___________________________________

Location of the Smith Creek site within Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Base map from https://d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=198678&lang=en.

___________________________________

Topographic map of Smith Creek showing Mounds A, B, and C surrounding an open plaza. The 1960s excavation trench is visible as a dip along the southern flank of Mound B. Modern excavation units are shown as colored rectangles; Wilkinson County is colored red on the inset map. Map created by Kyle G. Olson.

Within the mound fill, we mostly recover pottery, but midden deposits have been excavated from mound surfaces in Mounds A and C. These surface deposits are made up primarily of ceramic and food remains. The ceramic styles present in these deposits, along with the radiocarbon dates, suggest that the mounds were largely constructed and used during Coles Creek times, though at least some additional construction seems to have taken place later on during Plaquemine times. The nature of the food remains on the mound summits and flanks suggests that food consumption might have played a role in the construction episodes. For example, on Mound C, we uncovered the articulated bones of a fish tail laying flat along the mound flank, suggesting that an episode of food consumption occurred immediately before the next phase of mound construction (such that no scavenging of the leftovers took place before they were buried with more fill).

Throughout the flotation samples that we take from the site, we find charred seeds of EAC (Eastern Agricultural Complex) plants including chenopod, maygrass, and knotweed. Though these analyses are just getting underway, initial examination of chenopod seeds under the scanning electron microscope indicate that both wild and domesticated varieties are present at the site. This fits well with the evidence from the nearby Feltus site, which also indicates domestication of chenopod during Coles Creek times. We also find a heavy reliance on nuts (hickory, pecan, walnut, and acorn) during the time.

                                                                                                 — Megan Kassabaum

___________________________________

Photograph of Mound A at Smith Creek, looking northwest along Highway 24. Photo by Meg Kassabaum.

___________________________________

Field supervisor, Arielle Pierson, in the 2018 excavation unit south of Mound C. The unit walls show clear stratigraphic evidence of mound building and a post likely associated with a summit structure. Photo by Meg Kassabaum.

___________________________________

Dr. Meg Kassabaum on site in 2015, readying the South Plaza excavations for photography. Photo by Tom Stanley, Penn Museum.

___________________________________

Diagnostic sherds from Smith Creek dating to the three primary periods of use: Tchefuncte (left), Coles Creek (middle), and Plaquemine (right). Photography by Meg Kassabaum.

___________________________________

Surprises and Implications

Along the way, Kassabaum and her team have encountered a few surprises. One of these was the surprisingly sizable amount of artifacts identifiable to the Tchefuncte period. Kassabaum states that Tchefuncte sites are comparatively few, and when they are found, the artifact assemblages are relatively small. Here, a significant number of Tchefuncte ceramic ware was found, associated with a large circular structure in the Northeast Plaza location of the site. 

_____________________________________

2016 field school student, Isaac Burg, and field supervisors, Anna Graham, Ben Davis, and Kyle Olson, excavating in the Northeast Plaza. The profile walls of the excavation unit shows the thick Plaquemine midden and the unit floor shows the curving feature associated with the probable Tchefuncte structure. Photo by Meg Kassabaum.

_____________________________________

Dr. Meg Kassabaum on site in 2018, photographing features associated with the probable Tchefuncte structure in the Northeast Plaza. Photo by Arielle Pierson.

_____________________________________

In addition, Kassabaum was surprised to find evidence for a significant amount of earth construction beyond that required for the mounds themselves. “I was quite surprised to find large secondary structures associated with both Mounds B and C, both of which would likely have been written off as natural without archaeological testing,” says Kassabaum. “This is a good reminder that archaeological work regularly underestimates the degree of planning and amount of purposeful construction present at pre-contact sites.”

Thus far, a new picture is beginning to emerge about the developmental life of the site. Evidence supports a 1,600-year occupation, with three transitions. Kassabaum suggests that Smith Creek must have been a consistently important location, beginning as early as the Early Woodland and extending through Plaquemine times. Most of the mound-building (large flat-top platform mound surrounding a central plaza) took place during the Late Woodland Coles Creek time, built over a landscape that already must have had some meaning for the people who lived in the area. Curiously, no Middle Woodland occupation has yet been identified at the site.

This said, Smith Creek has some important implications within the larger context of the mound-building cultures in the region and in North America generally. “In general,” summarizes Kassabaum, “the Coles Creek culture represents an interesting moment in the history of mound building in the Eastern United States because it is when the platform mound-and-plaza complex that characterizes the subsequent Mississippian period becomes a widespread site type. My research, and the work being done by some of my colleagues, suggests that this site layout developed before the shift to corn agriculture and before the development of institutionalized status differentiation, which goes against the received wisdom about the type of sociopolitical organization that led to the construction of large platform mounds.”

Going Forward

Currently, Kassabaum and her team are working on completing the analysis of the latest, 2018 season finds. This includes acquiring a number of very important radiocarbon dates. “Accurately dating the various assemblages is essential for this site because of the surprisingly early age of some of the deposits,” says Kassabaum, “and it is important to determine at what point in history important changes like reliance on maize agriculture developed.”

In the future, Kassabaum hopes to further understand the degree to which the inhabitants modified the landscape and answer questions about mound functions, which will include some additional investigation/testing of the platform mounds. Specifically, this would entail opening up a large excavation at the summit of Mound A to determine what function any building at that location performed. Additionally, she would like to identify more middens that might be associated with the Coles Creek Culture in order to understand and compare the various activities that may have occurred at the site over time.

_____________________________________

For interested visitors, Smith Creek, near Woodville, Mississippi, is marked with a historical marker that explains the site. Smith Creek is also featured in the exhibit, Moundbuilders: Ancient Architects of North America at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. A small exhibit about Mississippi’s mound builders and the work at Smith Creek is also projected to open at the Wilkinson County Museum in Woodville in June 2019. 

Readers can follow the Smith Creek adventure on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/22WK526/) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/scapupenn/). More general information about North American Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania can be found at: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/anthropology/content/north-american-archaeology. Finally, readers may also learn about the other 32 mound sites on the Mississippi Mound Trail at http://trails.mdah.ms.gov/mmt/index.html.

________________________________

Spirit Cave: The World’s Oldest Natural Mummy

Jesse Holth is a freelance writer and editor with a background in archaeology, history, and science. She has previously worked with the Royal BC Museum, the University of Victoria, and World Elephant Day. Jesse has degrees in English and Anthropology, specializing in Archaeology. She is passionate about history, education, and conservation.

This article is available to Premium members of Popular Archaeology.

Become a member or upgrade to a Premium membership: REGISTER HERE.

Crossing the Timor

Editor’s Note: Recent archaeological discoveries have overturned traditional thinking about the capability of ancient humans to navigate the seas, shedding new light on the dispersal of humans prehistorically across the globe. What follows is English maritime writer/historian Bob Hobman’s own narrative of the quest by an organized group of modern seafarers to test the possibilities of ancient seafaring. 

As of this writing, eight men and women sailors, keen to exploring what made the world’s first seafarers tick, are readying themselves on Rote Island in eastern Indonesia for a 600 km voyage to cross the Timor Sea on a bamboo raft. They are members of The First Mariners, a global group of people who, by employing the concept of experimental archaeology, are recreating the maritime technology, boats and prehistoric voyages of our hominin ancestors; the world’s first sailors who emerged from the last Homo sapiens dispersal out of Africa some 100,000+ years ago.

Our Middle Pleistocene ancestors were likely not as ‘primitive’ as some scholars suggest. Certainly 70,000 years have seen some changes to human existence, but the oceans have remained mostly unchanged. Granted, glaciation periods have dramatically adjusted sea levels over the millennia, but they had little affect once humans established a harmony with the deep sea.

Approximating Ancient Voyages

In 1985, a seacraft named the ‘Sarimanok’, a 20-meter long double outrigger canoe adzed from a single tree in the Southern Philippines, was constructed to re-enact the migration from Indonesia of human settlers on Madagascar (based on archaeological evidence) some 2,500 years ago (See video below). The canoe sailed from Bali in June, with eight crew and arrived safely on Madagascar seven weeks later. No modern materials were used in the canoe’s construction or sailing rig and the crew survived on what food was available at the time. It was this voyage which inspired the founding of The First Mariners.

______________________________

______________________________

In 2014, stone tools uncovered on Crete – previously thought to have been inhabited for about 12,000 years – were found to be 130,000 years old. The First Mariners set about building an 11-meter raft from thumb diameter stalks of the wild cane arundo donax, harvested on the southern Peloponnese island of Kythira, to follow the trail of the Lower Palaeolithic toolmakers from there to Crete, Greece’s largest island which in human times has always been surrounded by sea. The crew of 10 paddled standing up, with some meager assistance by a propped-up ‘sail’ of split cane, raised whenever a following breeze arose. It took 48 hours to cover the 100 kilometers from Kythira’s southernmost harbor of Kapsali to the old Venetian port of Chania. The original deep sea crossing to Crete would have been only nine kilometers.

________________________________

The cane raft ‘Melida’ and it’s 100 km voyage from Kapsali Bay, the southernmost tip of Kythira Island in the Peloponnese in July, 2014. The experiment was to follow the first inhabitants of Crete. Discovery of stone tools placed them in the Lower Palaeolithic, about 130,000 years ago. Bob Hobman, The First Mariners

________________________________

Flashing back to Indonesia, some 18 years earlier, The First Mariners gathered on the east coast of Bali to film themselves crossing the unpredictable and regularly violent Lombok Strait on a simple bamboo raft tied together with nipa palm fibre rope. This vessel was a cut-down version of the 15-meter bamboo raft which six months earlier had successfully carried a crew of five from Timor to Melville Island off the Australian coast near Darwin.

Why were those Indonesian voyages important?

Academics rarely agree on everything, but most agree that, geologically, Bali/Java – and therefore the great continent of Eurasia — were never joined to the island system and Australia to their east — not since the beginning of humankind. At best the distance to Lombok and then the rest of the islands – including Flores – heading resolutely eastward toward Australia, was 50 kilometers. And that meant, if one were to make the voyage by boat, it was necessary to stage on the little island of Nusa Penida in between.

Anything set afloat on the eastern shore of Bali during the annual Northwest monsoon from April until October is most likely to wash up on Lombok, or Sumbawa, or even further east on the impressively large island of Flores where some scholars suggest that Homo erectus seafarers may have ended up around 840,000 BP years ago. This would have been the hominins’ first ocean crossing. Why they would do this almost a million years ago we may never know, although that does not stop scholars endlessly speculating on whether such a feat was intentional or accidental or something in between. Suffice it to say that humans will go where they want to go, even without a particularly good reason. And they will always find a conveyance to carry them.

The First Mariners repeated the Homo erectus feat on its second attempt. Fourteen paddlers aboard a nine meter long bamboo raft landed on Lombok’s Gili Islands assisted by a roughly woven mat held up to catch whatever there was of a southerly breeze and to help equate the notorious currents which plague the Lombok Strait.

But Homo erectus didn’t seem to maintain this new-found maritime technology. Archaeologically, there is a gap of 800,000 years before the next hominin traces are found in the region — not Homo erectus or Neanderthal — but Homo sapiens, the first representatives of anatomically modern humans. If the dating of stone tools on Crete and Gavdos islands in the Mediterranean is anything near accurate, then humans were already using seacraft by 135,000 years ago. Taking the Greek Islands as an example, humans probably staged their voyages by bridging small gaps along the way with intervisibility: targeting destinations which could be seen.

It is this activity that may have defined the voyage from the islands at the eastern point of the great continent of Eurasia, reached by a wave of nomadic Homo sapiens, to become the last humans to disperse out of Africa and eventually settle Oceania. An estimated 70,000 years ago they could have arrived at the same water barrier – defined now by the Wallace Line*, which demarks the botanical boundary between Asia and Oceania – and repeated what Homo erectus had done to cross it. But they didn’t stop. They kept going, morphing along the way from land nomads into the world’s first islanders and sea nomads.

By at least 65,000 BC, so the latest archaeological clues tell us, they had discovered what is today known as Australia and began colonizing it. By 30,000 BC, according to the archaeological record, they had settled all the islands of Wallacea, the Philippines, and Melanesia of the Western Pacific. With very few exceptions, these locations were all visible to each other. Was Australia (the ancient Sahul Land) included? Could the ancient Sahul continental shelf islands, which were above sea level at the time, provided safe and easily navigable access to the mainland beyond?

It is our hypothesis that these ancient ‘Wallaceans’ –  there seems to be no contradicting theory – are the ancestors of the Melanesians and all the indigenous inhabitants of Sahul Land, the vast combined landmass of Papua New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania before the polar ice melted and the sea rose to terrestrially separate them.

The topography has changed since then, and not just a little. For the past 6,000 years the Timor Sea has been up to 600 km wide and its eastern shores not visible from anywhere. At least that’s what we thought. After decades of plodding research into the peopling of Sahul Land, the beginnings of the Australian Aboriginal, academia is suddenly taking an interest in the subject. It is the academic fuel that feeds an experimental archaeological group like The First Mariners, with the result that we are keeping a close eye on what the learned are saying. And the academics are keenly watching what we are doing, as well.

For the past 6,000 years the Timor Sea has been 600 km wide. Before that the gap between the continents of Australia and Eurasia was in places no more than a sixth of that distance, and maybe even much less now that the results of a recent surge of academic interest are coming to light. The traditional consensus is that Sahul Land could not be seen from Asia, that to make a landfall there was either a mistake or the result of an exceedingly bold adventure.

_________________________________

The Sarimanok at sea. It was named after a legendary bird of the Maranao people, who originate from Mindanao, an island in the Philippines. Bob Hobman, The First Mariners

_________________________________

The route of the Sarimanok across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar. Bob Hobman, The First Mariners

_________________________________

From Wallacea to Oceania

The First Mariners team set up its first camp on Rote Island, south of Timor. It was 1998, a year in which the ‘El Nino’ phenomenon with its reverse winds would spell doom for the voyage of the 23-meter bamboo-pontoon raft ‘Nale Tasih I.’ It was El Nino and an infestation of the dreaded ‘bamboo borer’ (Dinoderus minutus). Steadily sinking and unable to make headway against the unseasonal easterly winds, the raft and its 14-strong crew turned back to Rote Island after a mere 48 hours at sea.

The group re-assembled nine months later at the southern tip of Timor to build a smaller ‘Nale Tasih II’. It set out for Australia in front of the northwest monsoon wind in December, 2000, with a crew of four and a seasick, non-swimmer scientist aboard. After six days the 11-meter raft crossed the shallow Australian continental shelf, the ancient border of Sahul Land, and seven days later, 60 nautical miles short of its destination, it was storm driven onto a Melville Island beach.

By bridging the ancient sea gap between the continents, ‘Nale Tasih II’ had technically repeated the crossing to Sahul just as the Wallaceans may have done to become the original Australians.

So why repeat it now with a new venture?

The smaller (11 metres) “Nale Tasih II” succeeded in reaching Melville Island, some 80 kilometres from Darwin. With a crew of five, the voyage took 13 days. Bob Hobman, The First Mariners

“Nale Tasih II” (pictured right) was only partly representative of the raft the ancients most likely would have used. The rectangular, relatively modern-rigged sail we employed was actually more likely made from nipa palm fibre, woven on Neolithic hand looms by the people of Rote. The raft also was built with metal tools which, according to The First Mariners’ fussy parameters, disqualifies it as a reasonable replication of the craft that is most likely to have made the first crossing of the Timor Sea.

Now we can follow up – with practical application –  the speculative voyaging routes which Australian scientists like Michael Bird and Brendan Brooke and the American anthropologist Thomas Whitley of Sonomo State University, Ca. are publishing.

The northern route from Wallacea to Papua New Guinea is challenging the commonly recognized ‘southern route’ from Timor which makes use of a chain of what are now being described as ‘habitable, resource rich’ islands that could have been used as stepping stones for the voyagers when extreme low temperatures enlarged the world’s two ice caps and lowered sea levels, in some parts of the planet a whopping 200 meters.

The Nale Tasih III. Bob Hobman, The First Mariners

The new raft will comply with all the unwritten rules of Middle Pleistocene maritime technology. A Dutch master stone tool expert is already fashioning a full assemblage of the era’s stone tools. Two local botanists will ensure that gathering food for the crossing will follow strict principles and the raft’s unsophisticated sail will be layers of the great fan-like fronds of the Borassus flabellifer sugar palm, a native of the Indian sub-continent but which could well have been around at the time of the first voyages.

The crew’s basic diet will be fish baked over a coral hearth fire ignited by various techniques learned on the earlier voyages. The banana is thought to have originated in neighboring Papua New Guinea. Bamboo shoots will be shredded to provide vegetable material and so will the tops of coconut palms. Fish of all descriptions are readily speared as they seek relief from the sun’s blazing noon zenith beneath the wide and slow-moving raft. Without ceramic pots it is also possible to boil water in a leak-proof lontar palm basket the locals call haik and the raft will carry a large supply of mature coconuts for the nut’s water and flesh and its outer shell to feed the fire. Birds’ eggs are allowed, and honey. Drinking water from the region’s annual west monsoon rain squalls will be trapped in bamboo tubes.

With the following northwest monsoon wind the voyage could take less than two weeks. As it was for the original journey, there will be no pre-established landfall, although Darwin of course would be a convenient one since much of Australia’s mostly uninhabited northwest coastline offers an unwelcome shore to vessels of any ilk.

It will not be a drift voyage. Nor will it be a sailing venture, but something in between. The raft’s crew will have paddles but also a great pile of palm leaves. As the first human conquerors of the Timor Sea would have done, some kind of basic sail must have been employed. Humans are notoriously adept at exploiting nature to ease their burden. The First Mariners believe that even the earliest hominins were not stupid or suicidal enough to treat the oceans and enclosed seas like the Mediterranean with anything but caution and a great deal of respect. Their early craft would have been devised to reach pelagic and deep water fish.**

________________________________

The 19-metrer-long “Nale Tasih I” under full sail and clearly sinking. Bamboo wrongly harvested at the waning stage of the moon allowed access to the ravaging dreaded ‘Powderpost Beetle’ which caused flooding of the culms. Combined with adverse winds, the voyage from Rote Island to northern Australia was abandoned after 48 hours. Bob Hobman, The First Mariners

________________________________

A bamboo raft is born. Construction begins on the raft ‘Nale Tasih II’ at the dark of the moon’s high tide mark on a beach near Kupang on Indonesia’s most eastern island of Timor. The raft’s body will be finished by the high tide of the full moon two weeks later and can be floated without damaging the bark rope lashings underneath. Bob Hobman, The First Mariners

________________________________

The first two ’Nale Tasih’ rafts employed an ancient, pre-ceramic local cooking technique. The ends of a ‘lontar’ palm leaf are squeezed together and secured to a transverse stick to make an instant, watertight basket which, suspended over heated coals will cook foxtail millet, tubers or rice. It resists burning as long as there is water inside. Bob Hobman, The First Mariners

________________________________

The route of “Nale Tasih II.” Rigged with a hand woven palm-fibre sail and pushed by the seasonal Northwest monsoon, the raft averaged a little over 1.5 knots. Bob Hobman, The First Mariners

________________________________

 

Our Homo sapiens ancestors have been nothing if not experimental, and humans with their renowned persistence found a way to — not control the ocean or master it — but come to terms with it very well over the past 100,000 years or more. Some more than others, but some not at all, like Australia’s first colonists who, while still part of the world’s most ancient living culture, seem to have turned their backs to the sea in time to become super-terrestrials, wiping out the continent’s megafauna in record time while not producing any notable examples of maritime technology during their 65,000-year-long tenure.

But that is not something for The First Mariners to ponder. Perhaps at a later time. For now, our mandate is to get the settlers to that broad island continent we today call Australia.

 

To learn more about The First Mariners, readers can go to their website at https://www.thefirstmarinersexpeditions.com/

*Wallace’s Line delineates Australian and Southeast Asian fauna. The deep water of the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok formed a water barrier even when lower sea levels linked the now-separated islands and landmasses on either side anciently. (Wikipedia)

**This Timor Sea crossing is currently planned to take place in February, 2020.

If you liked this article, you may like the premium article, Thor Heyerdahl and the Theory of the Archaeological Raft.

________________________________

See the original fossils and artifacts, see the actual sites, and talk with the famous scientists on this unique and specialized study tour.

The Hohokam: Canal Masters of the American Southwest

P. J. DeMola is a postgraduate of the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester in England.
His principle areas of interest are Roman history, archaeology, and politics, as well as Bronze Age Mesopotamia, and the political history of Middle Kingdom through Late Period Ancient Egypt. He has broad general interests in both Classic and Postclassic Mesoamerican sociopolitical structures.
Paul has studied Ancient Greek and Latin under Professor Graham Shipley, FRHistS, FSA (University of Leicester, British School at Athens), and researched Roman military history with Professor Simon James, FSA (University of Leicester).

During the High Middle Ages, whilst Western Europe was still coping with the sociopolitical disorder and economic decline which had engulfed the continent since the fall of Rome, the Hohokam of the North American Southwest were reaching their pinnacle of economic prosperity and social organization (Brown 1988: 1-61; Smith 2004: 14). Interestingly, the Hohokam or ‘those who have gone before’ are not as well known as some of their contemporaries, such as the Pueblo III era Anasazi, the Aztecs and the late-Classic/Postclassic Maya (Justice 2002: 275; Milner 2009: 680; Webster and Evans 2009: 596). Nonetheless, the Hohokam were a productive and expansive culture, whose innovations influenced subsequent Native American and post-Columbian generations (Browman et al. 2009: 320; See also Smith 2004: 23-93).

Center to Hohokam culture was their technologically sophisticated canal engineering which was utilized to irrigate numerous sub-communities (Abbott 2000: 48). At its peak (c. AD 1150-1450), the Hohokam hydraulic system was the largest of the day and provided water (and consequently food) to tens of thousands of rural inhabitants, rivaling the excellence of the ancient Roman aqueducts — an urban engineering marvel (Medchill 2012, pers.comm.; Logan 2002: 31; cf Aicher 1995: 6). Moreover, through a vast array of human-made waterways, otherwise disunified subcultural ‘villages’ were integrated into a highly complex agricultural based society (Abbott 2000: 143; Abbott et al. 2003: 15). Thus, one may argue, that the increasing needs of an agrarian society was an incentive for the centralized management of inter-communal water facilitation, which in turn resulted in a closely knit farming society that was regionally unsurpassed in crop production (cf Milner 2009: 692, 694).

How is archaeological survey and excavation changing our understanding of Hohokam agriculture and irrigation? To answer this, I shall critically discuss several examples from both the Preclassic (c. AD 700-1150) and Classic (c. AD 1150-1450) Hohokam Periods. Specifically, I will draw from a host of archaeological subcategories such as botanical, hydrological and settlement patterns, with some perspectives coming from my recent fieldwork at the Riverview Archaeological Project.

Part I: The Dry Farmers

Evolving Cultigen Patterns

Research into the selection of agricultural crops may be a rather unique reflection of the evolution of Hohokam irrigation. For example, archaeobotanical evidence has revealed that cultigens, such as the legume tepary and the herb amaranth (Fig. 1), were popular with the Classic Hohokam especially during the Sacaton-Soho (Sedentary) transition phase (c. AD 1050-1150) (Browman et al. 2009: 320-321; Elson 1998: 7; Barnes and Breternitz 1988: 54). Other agricultural genera excavated from Classic Period contexts include cucurbita (squash) and P. vulgaris (common beans) (Foster 2012: 39; Kwiatkowski 2003: 50). This is in stark contrast to their more homogenous Preclassic taste for ‘traditional’ cultigens such as maize — a species found sparingly in Classic contexts but abundantly in Preclassic phases (Browman et al. 2009: 316; cf Foster 2012: 91). Some have explained this apparent disparity between Preclassic and Classic horticulture as indicative of archaeological bias from poor sampling techniques (See Browman et al. 2009: 316, 318).

Perhaps there is validity to this argument. Funding for Hohokam field research has been infinitesimal since the start of the Great Recession and this has impacted specialist studies (Howard 2012, pers. comm.). However, an equally valid interpretation is that a growing diversity of plant based food products during the Classic Period was a direct result of expanding farming communities; a development caused by the increasing sophistication of the canal system and exploitation of arable land (See also pre-Columbian ‘soil changes’ in Fish 2000: 258-259). Arguably, the plethora of these otherwise ‘Mesoamerican’ species in Classic Hohokam contexts implies escalating trade with the south which may be the product of increased socioeconomic complexity — a process also reflected in Hohokam irrigation (see below) (Abbott  2003: 15; contra Foster 2012: 9192).

As the irrigation systems became more integrated, farming intensified and the Classic Period Hohokam added to their subsistent resources by domesticating wild plant types as can be seen in the cultivation of the monocot agave, an arid perennial (Phillips 2009: 698). Additionally, survey and excavation of several sites, such as Hodges, have indicated that these ‘transplanted desert species’ included the now virtually extinct lycium berlandieri (a Southwest American wolfberry), hoffmannseggia densiflora (a rushpea potato) and a variety of species from the subfamily chenopodioideae for pseudocereal usage (Gibbon 1998: 364; Fish 2000: 260; Hodgson 2001: 236; Moerman 2010: 128, 437; Scupin and DeCorse 2003: 193). Moreover, the Hohokam cultivated the genus of hordeum known as pusillum (a wild grass), most likely to provide a crop that could be harvested year-round (Hodgson 2001: 66). However, as the Civano Phase Hohokam (c. AD 1300-1375) were faced with horrendous cycles of droughts and floods which negatively impacted their ecosystem, they were forced to rely on broader subsistence strategies (Elson 1998: 7; Howard 2012, pers. comm.; Phillips 2012, pers. comm.).

Living off the Land

For example, evidence from the Tucson occupation zone (see below) suggests that the Hohokam established seasonal camps to obtain supplemental food sources from the ‘thriving desert’ (Fish et al. 1992a: 14-17; Blythe 2009: 45). On the other hand, these ‘outposts’ may have been positioned in familiar terrain for the express purpose of exploiting certain wild species to support communal sustenance. For instance, archaeological evidence has indicated that villagers foraged for cacti fruit from species such as C. gigantea (saguaro), which became an essential staple of their diet (Phillips 2009: 692). However, it should be noted that statistical analysis of cacti density patterns has implied that systemic foraging of C. gigantea seeds would hardly meet the needs of a pre-Columbian village community (Kwiatkowski 2003: 52-54). Whatever the case may be, arguably the Hohokam maintained a somewhat ‘semi-hunter-gatherer’ lifestyle (cf Bayman 2001: 273-274).

Fascinatingly, excavations of food processing sites at Nogales revealed the usage of plant based foods and herbs as medicine (Eppinga 2002: 10-11). It therefore follows that the Classic Hohokam possessed at least a rudimentary understanding of nutritional values. From this premise, one may argue that simple nutritional requirements may have been a factor in Classic Period horticulture. For example, archaeozoological analyses of animal bones excavated from sites in the Phoenix and Tucson areas have suggested that the dramatic escalation in the number of settlements during the Classic Period caused a precipitous decrease in the local wildlife (Sheridan 2012).

Logically, any decline in wild game would have resulted in a corresponding reduction in dietary sources of ‘complete proteins’ (See Gropper and Smith 2005: 239). Consequently, cultigens that contain the essential amino acid lysine — such as amaranth — would have become highly valuable to a predominately agrarian culture (Huckell and Toll 2004: 90-91; See also Browman et al. 2009: 321; cf Sheridan 2012). What may be inferred is that the Hohokam, potentially, became victims of their own success in irrigation and agriculture. Regardless, it is increasingly clear from the archaeological evidence that similar to their engineering feats, the Hohokam had designed a complex agricultural system.

Part II: Irrigation and Settlement Structure

The Sacredness of Water

Prehistoric canal research of the ‘occupation zones’ has greatly changed our understanding of Hohokam irrigation by revealing its role in sociopolitical structure (Howard 2012, pers. comm.). A role that evolved in no small way from the Hohokam’s concept that water was sacred — a celestial gift from God (Medchill 2008, pers. comm.; See also Lockard 2008: 245). Thus, water was intimately linked to inter and intra social structures. A unique example of this association may be found in the area known as Canal System Two, or CS-2, where three identified sites may have been part of a intercommunal nexus bound by irrigation needs (Abbott 2000: 67; cf ‘irrigation communities’ in Bayman 2001: 273, 287).

Casa Buena & the Grand Canal Ruins

Northwest of the Salt River, excavations carried out at the site of Casa Buena revealed an expansive Classic Period village settlement which, interestingly, possessed a large platform-based mound (Abbott 2000: 67-68). This is not uncommon. Hohokam mounds have been found elsewhere (Fig. 2) in the Salt River area and it has been suggested that they served a ritualistic function (Howard 2012, pers. comm.). However, northeast of Casa Buena another mound was found at the Grand Canal Ruins leading archaeologists to speculate that there was a link between the two settlements (Abbott 2000: 68, cf 147). To be sure, excavated pottery sherds from Casa Buena and the Grand Canal Ruins revealed a high degree of exchange in locally produced ‘plainware’ between the two communities, suggesting a ‘social relationship’ of some sort (See Abbott 2000: 145-148). This may be supported from similar burial practices vis-à-vis the inhumation/cremation ratio, and the analogous types of grave goods (Mitchell and Brunson-Hadley 2001: 58).

Pueblo Grande

Figure 3: An assemblage of artifacts, specifically red-on-buff pottery sherds and lithics from Canal One (Riverview). Photo courtesy of Heidi Emma (2012)

Southeast of these sites is Pueblo Grande, a village which possessed a local pottery industry as well (Abbott 2000: 18). However, here ceramic production was on a much more prodigious scale. For example, chemical analysis has revealed that a wide spectrum of Salt River sand types and outcrops were employed for locally produced pottery fabrics such as plainware (Mitchell and Brunson-Hadley 2001: 46; Abbott 2000: 79-83). Such data underscores the scope of their ceramic industry in comparison to their contemporaries (cf Abbott 2000: 147-151). Yet, excavations also revealed an unusually high quantity of the socially coveted redware (cf Fig. 3), a non-local ceramic unobserved in contexts at Casa Buena and the Grand Canal Ruins (Abbott and Walsh-Anduze 1995: 93-94; Abbott and Schaller 1994: 100). Thus, it may be plausible to deduce that Pueblo Grande was a ‘regional’ socioeconomic center — but to what end?

Irrigation Alliance

Uniquely, all three of these sites shared two CS-2 canals in what is labeled the ‘North Occupation Zone’ (See Abbott 2000: 87). However, what is captivating is the fact that Pueblo Grande is strategically situated at the head gates of both canals — tactically in a position to exhibit influence over the other two sites if desired (Earle and Doyel 2008: 34; cf Yoffee 2004: 11-12). What can be said then? Perhaps the ruins of the Grand Canal are in actuality a colony of Casa Buena ‘pioneers’, both of which formed an axis with Pueblo Grande — itself responsible for the water management and irrigation development of the area (cf Abbott 2000: 147; Fish et al. 1992a: 15; Morgan 1994: 108; Abbott et al. 2003: 15). Under such circumstances, Casa Buena and the Grand Canal Ruins could be viewed as theperipheral’ to a Pueblo Grande ‘center’ (See ‘site hierarchy’ in Renfrew and Bahn 2008: 184).

Equally, Pueblo Grande may have used their ‘water rights’ as leverage on neighboring polities to compel ‘membership’ in a canal system they monopolized (See Abbott and Schaller 1994: 101). To be sure, it has been suggested that disputes over ‘canal integration’ formed the foundation of intersocial organization for the early Classic Period (Abbott et al. 2003: 15). Moreover, such ‘interpolity transactions’ may explain the disparities between Pueblo Grande and Casa Buena/Grand Canal Ruins pottery types (cf Maya ‘interpolity competition’ in Rice 2009: 123). For example, it has been suggested that redware exchange was used in a ‘reciprocal’ manner between village families (Abbott 2000: 139-140; cf Renfrew and Bahn 2008: 360-361).

Considering its value, however, it is equally plausible that redware was a form of payment for services rendered from one village to another or a symbol of respect to the social hierarchy of a community (cf ‘Hohokam chiefdom’ in Earle and Doyel 2008: 33). Thus, it may be posited that the Pueblo Grande-Casa Buena-Grand Canal Ruins’ sector constituted an agricultural league, consisting of semiautonomous villages bound by a common need for water (cf Yoffee 2004: 11-12).

Early Irrigation and the complexities of a Civilization

In the past, archaeologists interpreted the Hohokam ‘canal social system’ (see above) as a product of diffusion from pre-Columbian Mexican cultures (Foster 2012: 39). However, this has been disputed as radiometric dating indicates that the earliest Hohokam canal — a ‘small ditch’ in the vicinity of Riverview — was constructed during the 1st century AD (Earle and Doyel 2008: 31; contra Fig. 4). In addition, researchers have concluded that the Hohokam of the Formative Period (c. AD 1-750) were ‘dependent on irrigation’ as early as the middle of the first millennium AD (Phillips 2009: 692). This is in no doubt a result of Preclassic subsistence requirements brought on by the gradual sedentism of the Sacaton Phase (c. AD 750-1050) (See Phillips 2009: 698). It is therefore logical to assume that the demands placed on older, less sophisticated canals would be too great. Consequently, a ‘Preclassic’ construction boom in ‘single ditch’ canals took place, thus setting the stage for the Classic Period integration (Earle and Doyel 2008: 31-32).

__________________________________

Figure 4: Riverview’s Canal One excavation (in progress) as it appeared on April 16, 2012. At this point during the excavation it was assumed that there were actually two canals running parallel to each other, hence the great length of the trench. Regardless, after weeks of digging — old school archaeological style — our sixteenth trench intercepted the first Prehistoric waterway at the site. Of course, the full scope of the discovery was not fully realized for several weeks. Photo by Paul J. De Mola (2012)

__________________________________

Interestingly, it appears that the causes behind Preclassic irrigation development parallel the socioeconomic factors which drove the hydraulic engineering of the Classic Period. Moreover, while archaeology has definitely increased our understanding of Hohokam irrigation and agriculture, the various evidences presented here seem to suggest that one cause was the catalyst for all changes: sedentism. However, we should not assume that the Hohokam were an entirely sedentary culture at any stage of their evolution. For example, surveys of the Tucson landscape have indicated that the mountainous topography was unsuitable for the type of large scale irrigation seen in the north occupation zone. This may be supported by the late arrival of irrigation in this area (Earle and Doyel 2008: 31).

In addition, ethnographic studies have inferred that the Tucson Hohokam made use of both anthropogenic and natural reservoirs to store water for agricultural purposes (Bayman 2001: 273-273; Fish et al. 1992b: 43). However, could not a mobile community utilize ‘large water holes’ while foraging too? Perhaps certain Hohokam ‘sects’ were only semi-sedentary and had a lifestyle that reflected their Paleoindian forbearers (See Browman et al. 2009: 313-321). This might better explain the motivation behind their seasonal camps (see above). In comparison, neighboring cultures such as the Mogollon coped with hilly landscapes through an institutionalized synthesis of agricultural and hunter-gatherer economies (Shaw and Jameson 1999: 45; Darvill 2008: 286). Consequently, it may be postulated that the Tucson area Hohokam were not nearly as sedentary as their Phoenix counterparts and were, in point of fact, quite mobile.

Endings

Figure 5: Here, Paul Joseph De Mola is measuring strata column elevation for trench nine using an automatic level (Riverview). Photo courtesy of Dutch Duering (2012b)

Throughout this essay, I have discussed how archaeological survey and excavation (Fig. 5) has been used to change our understandings of agricultural patterns by highlighting some of the changes that the Hohokam brought to their own diets. Moreover, I have examined various excavated sites to display how Hohokam irrigation was critical to Preclassic and Classic societies. These two aspects of Hohokam culture while distinguishable are, of course, inseparable. In fact, it may be said that canals formed the thread that interweaved Hohokam agricultural and irrigation strategy. That is to say, agriculture was as intertwined with irrigation as day is to night. To this end archaeological research has been indispensable in our knowledge of the Hohokam as a ‘people’.

Dr. Jerry Howard (2012, pers. comm.) has stated that the expansion of settlements during the latter Classic Period caused a subsequent overexploitation of resources during the Polvoron Phase (c. AD 1375-1450) setting the stage for an ecological crisis. Tragically, with numerous droughts came a decline in irrigation, which in turn caused a collapse of the already strained agricultural system. Subsequently, villages were abandoned thereby reducing human power to maintain operating canals which only further depleted food sources. As a result, the entire Hohokam economic structure descended into social chaos. Ergo, it may be argued that at the height of their civilization — during the great days of the early Classic Period — the Hohokam were inadvertently sowing the seeds of their own demise.

Notes

  1. The recent decision of the city of Mesa to redevelop the Riverview Golf Club and Park resulted in the State’s first serious archaeological fieldwork in nearly four years. Consequently, a grant to conduct cultural research management was extended to Dr. Jerry Howard (ASU) for a short three week season in April 2012. Additional funding for what became known as the Riverview Archaeological Project was commensurate to any ‘significant discovery’ of prehistoric value, such as Hohokam features (Howard 2102, pers. comm.; See Nelson 2012; cf Renfrew and Bahn 2008: 584). 
  2. At the heart of Hohokam life was the dependence their social communities placed upon desert farming in which canal systems played an essential role. A chief objective of the Riverview Archaeological Project was the methodical recording of any Hohokam canals—including their location, number, age, and configuration—with the intention of enabling the researchers to better ‘reconstruct the evolution’ of Canal System One (CS-1) (Howard 2012. pers. comm.). Because of its location south of the Salt River, Riverview was suspected of Hohokam agency. This theory was postulated by Dr. Jerry Howard, a leading authority of Hohokam culture and expert on Classic Phase irrigation.  
  3. Much of the excavation at Riverview was in the form of ‘intercept trenches’. Ingeniously utilized by Dr. Howard and his CRM team, the raison d’être of intercept trenches is rather straightforward: intercept archaeological features at a perpendicular angle. In the case of Riverview, east-west ditches were cut in the hope of intersecting prehistoric canals flowing south from the Salt River — a method that bore much fruit for the team from ASU. 
  4. Since the Hohokam disposed of their rubbish in waterways, the most indicative evidence for a canal is artifacts of which pottery is the most common (Medchill, 2012, pers. comm.). However, it must be noted that excavation is not an exact method of science. For example, after the first two weeks of digging at Riverview, only two shards were found in the first ten intercept trenches. These specimens were identified as Classic Hohokam red-on-buff ware (Howard 2012, pers. comm.). Unfortunately, because of the dearth of material culture from these trenches, it was concluded that none of them intersected a canal.

  5. Simple in situ observation of stratigraphy during excavation is an essential component of Hohokam fieldwork (Greene 2002: 88 – 90). During data recovery, any indications of leaching (i.e. caliche), rust and charcoal may aid in the detection of hidden contexts. For example, charcoal—essentially a pyrolitic organic residue—may imply the presence of a kiln or even a crematory, as was briefly believed to be the case within Riverview’s Canal One (Hurcombe 2007: 140; contra Duering 2012a, pers. comm.).
  6.  Petrographic and chemical analyses of soil composition (e.g., sandy silt with high levels of silica, clay with bioturbation), equips Hohokam ceramicists with a cross-referencing tool to help determine the provenience of fabrics used in ceramic typologies (Phillips 2012, pers. comm.; Booker 2102, pers. comm.). For example, are the vegetal inclusions found within a piece of Redware consistent with botanical conditions from this or another site? What is the precise mineral source of the clay that a Hohokam potter used in a red-on-buff bowl (See Banning 2000: 175)? Ultimately, answers to these questions may aid in identifying socioeconomic trade patterns and anomalies.
  7. In theory, canals are known for the exquisite ‘mottled strata’ they leave in soil deposits. That is to say, heterogeneous sediments possessing low levels of sand that are deposited through channeled river and appear as ‘churned’ color patterns on trench walls (Phillips 2012, pers. comm.; See also Huckleberry 2006: 349). This was most vividly illustrated recently at Riverview’s trench sixteen (Fig. 4) which was also accompanied by a wide prehistoric artifact distribution, lending support to the opinion that this was indeed a canal of Hohokam origin. 
  8. It should be noted, however, that Hohokam canals were so well designed that they were frequently reused by historical (later) engineers. At Riverview, their post-colonial reuse is evidenced by the presence of bioturbation by freshwater anthropods. For example, a cavity located immediately below the topsoil in trench thirteen’s stratigraphy implied the presence of crayfish—a nonnative crustacean which entered Salt River reservoirs in historical times (Duering 2012a, pers. comm.; See AGFD 2012).

 

Bibliography

Abbott, D. R., 2000. Ceramics and Community Organization Among the Hohokam. First ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Abbott, D. R., Breternitz, C. D. & Robinson, C. K., 2003. Challenging Conventional Conceptions. In: D. R. Abbott, ed. Centuries of Decline during the Hohokam Classic Period at Pueblo Grande. First ed. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, pp. 3-23.

Abbott, D. R. & Schaller, D. M., 1994. Ceramics Among the Hohokam: Modeling Social Organization and Exchange. In: D. Scott & P. Meyers, eds. Archaeometry of Pre-Columbian Sites and Artifacts. First ed. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, pp. 85-112.

Abbott, D. R. & Walsh-Anduze, M. E., 2005. Temporal Patterns without Temporal Variation: The Paradox of Hohokam Redware Ceramics. In: B. J. Mills & P. L. Crown, eds. Ceramic Production in the American Southwest. First ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 88-114.

AGFD, 2003. Crayfish Brochure. Arizona Game and Fish Department. [Online]
Available at:
http://www.azgfd.gov/pdfs/i_e/Crayfish_Brochure.pdf
[Accessed 1 July 2012].

Aicher, P. J., 1995. Guide to the Aqueducts of Ancient Rome. First ed. Wauconda: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.

Banning, E., 2000. The Archaeologist’s Laboratory: The Analysis of Archaeological Data. First ed. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Barnes, E. & Breternitz, C. D., 1988. Excavations at Casa Buena: Changing Hohokam Land use along the Squaw Peak Parkway. Soil Systems Publications in Archaeology, II(11), pp. 49-56.

Bayman, J. M., 2001. The Hohokam of Southwest North America. Journal of World Prehistory, XV(3), pp. 257-311.

Blythe, A. A., 2009. Social Differentiation in Animal Use and Subsistence: A Case Study of the Marana Platform Mound. First ed. Ann Arbor: ProQuest, LLC.

Browman, D. L., Fritz, G. J., Watson, P. J. & Meltzer, D. J., 2009. Origins of Food-Producing Economies in the Americas. In: C. Scarre, ed. The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies. Second ed. London: Thames & Hudson, Ltd, pp. 306-349.

Brown, T. S., 1988. The Transformation of the Roman Mediterranean, 400-900. In: G. Holmes, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe. First ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-61.

Darvill, T., 2008. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Archaeology. Second ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

De Mola, P. J., 2012. Looking south across Canal One. The former cross-trench sixteen now appears to be intercepting a potential second canal. The excavators may be observed working to the immediate southwest of the landscape. [Photograph] (Riverview Archaeological Project).

Duering, W. D., 2012a. Personal Communication. In the field cartography and geospatial engineering instruction. As well as general conversations on the Riverview Archaeological Project, including its sedimentology and artifacts. [Interview] (March 29-April 5, 2012).

Duering, W. D., 2012b. Paul De Mola measuring strata column elevation at trench nine. [Photograph] (Riverview Archaeological Project).

Earle, T. & Doyel, D. E., 2008. The Engineered Landscapes of Irrigation. In: L. Cliggett & C. A. Pool, eds. Economies and the Transformation of Landscape. First ed. Lanham: Alta Mira Press, pp. 19-46.

Elson, M. D., 1998. Expanding the View of Hohokam Platform Mounds: An Ethnographic Perspective. First ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Emma, H., 2012. Assorted lithics and shards from Canal One. [Photograph] (Riverview Archaeological Project).

Eppinga, J., 2002. Nogales: Life and Times on the Frontier. First ed. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing.

Fish, S. K., 2000. Hohokam Impacts on Sonoran Desert Environment. In: D. L. Lentz, ed. Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformations in the Precolumbian Americas. First ed. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 251-280.

Fish, S. K., Fish, P. R. & Madsen, J. H., 1992a. Early Sedentism and Agriculture in the Northern Tucson Basin. In: S. K. Fish, P. R. Fish & J. H. Madsen, eds. The Marana Community in the Hohokam World. First ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 11-19.

Fish, S. K., Fish, P. R. & Madsen, J. H., 1992b. Parameters of Agricultural Production in the Northern Tucson Basin. In: S. K. Fish, P. R. Fish & J. H. Madsen, eds. The Marana Community in the Hohokam World. First ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 41-52.

Foster, W. C., 2012. Climate and Culture Change in North America AD 900-1600. First ed. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Gibbon, G. E., 1998. Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia. First ed. Oxon: Taylor & Francis Group.

Greene, K., 2002. Archaeology: An Introduction. Fourth ed. London: Routledge.

Gropper, S. S. & Smith, J. L., 2005. Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism. Sixth ed. Stamford: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Hodgson, W. C., 2001. Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert. First ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Howard, J., 2012. Personal Communication. Regular in the field conversations on the Riverview Archaeological Project, Hohokam culture and interpretion of material remains. [Interview] (March 29-April 5, 2012).

Huckell, L. W. & Toll, M. S., 2004. Wild Plant Use in the North American Southwest. In: P. E. Minnis, ed. People and plants in ancient western North America. First ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 37-114.

Huckleberry, G., 2006. Sediments. In: J. Balme & A. Paterson, eds. Archaeology In Practice: A Student Guide To Archaeological Analyses. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 338-361.

Hurcombe, L. M., 2007. Archaeological Artefacts as Material Culture. First ed. London: Routledge.

IAE, 2008. Interpreting Archaeological Evidence: Material Culture and Environment. (Level 2 course reader). First ed. Leicester: University of Leicester.

Justice, N. D., 2002. Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Southwestern United States. First ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Kwiatkowski, S. M., 2003. Evidence for Subsistence Problems. In: D. R. Abbott, ed. Centuries of Decline during the Hohokam Classic Period at Pueblo Grande. First ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 48-69.

Lockard, C. A., 2008. Societies, Networks, and Transitions: A Global History (Volume I: To AD 1500). First ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning.

Logan, M. F., 2002. The Lessening Stream: An Environmental History of the Santa Cruz River. First ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Medchill, B., 2012. Personal Communication. Instruction in various field methods and their logical applications, including sedimentology. General conversations on the Riverview Archaeological Project. [Interview] (April 2-5, 2012).

Meiguoren, 2012. Mesa Grande Hohokam Ruins Arizona. (Photo) Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mesa_Grande_Hohokam_Ruins_Mesa_Arizona.jpg.
[Accessed 12 December 2012].

Milner, G. R., 2009. Complex Societies of North America. In: C. Scarre, ed. Our Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies. Second ed. London: Thames and Hudson, pp. 678-715.

Mitchell, D. R. & Brunson-Hadley, J. L., 2001. An Evaluation of Classic Period Hohokam Burial and Society: Chiefs, Priests, or Acephalous Complexity? In: D. R. Mitchell & J. L. Brunson-Hadley, eds. Ancient Burial Practices in the American Southwest: Archaeology, Physical Anthropology, and Native American Perspectives. First ed. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 45-67.

Moerman, D. E., 2010. Native American Food Plants: An Ethnobotanical Dictionary. First ed. Portland: Timber Press, Inc.

Morgan, W. N., 1994. Ancient Architecture of the Southwest. First ed. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Nelson, G., 2012. Vote signals end for Mesa’s Riverview Golf Course. [Online]
Available at:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2012/02/21/20120221vote-signals-end-riverview-golf-course.html
[Accessed 25 November 2012].

Phillips, B., 2012. Detailed in-the-field lectures on the geomorphology and sedimentology of Riverview and the greater Phoenix area. [Interview] (March 29-April 5, 2012).

Phillips, D. A., 2009. Adoption and Intensification of Agriculture in the North American Southwest: Notes Toward a Quantitative Approach. American Antiquity, LXXIV (4), pp. 691-707.

Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P. G., 2008. Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice. Fifth ed. London: Thames & Hudson, Ltd.

Rice, P. M., 2009. Late Classic Maya Pottery Production: Review and Synthesis. Journal of Archaeological Methods and Theories, XVI (2), pp. 117-156.

Scupin, R. & DeCorse, C. R., 2003. Anthropology: A Global Perspective. Fifth ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Shaw, I. & Jameson, R., 1999. A Dictionary of Archaeology. First ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd.

Sheridan, T. E., 2000. Human Ecology of the Sonoran Desert. [Online]
Available at:
http://www.eebweb.arizona.edu/faculty/Bonine/Sheridan_NatHistSonDesert2000_HumanEcologySonoranDesert_105-118.pdf
[Accessed 16 August 2012].

Strobl, B., 2012. Personal Communication. Instruction in interpreting archaeological remains and working with a backhoe. Sporadic discussions on the Riverview Archaeological Project [Interview] (March 29-April 5, 2012).

Smith, J., 2004. Making Water Flow Uphill: The History of Agriculture in Mesa, Arizona. First ed. Mesa: Mesa Historical Society.

Wayne, E., 2006. Popping Amaranth. (Photo) Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amaranth_sp_2.jpg.
[Accessed 11 December 2012].

Webster, D. & Evans, S. T., 2009. Mesoamerican Civilization. In: C. Scarre, ed. The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies. Second ed. London: Thames & Hudson, Ltd, pp. 594-639.

Yoffee, N., 2004. Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations. First ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Acknowledgements

The esteemed cultural resource management team from Arizona State University: archaeologist(s) Carla Booker, Brian Medchill and Bert Strobl who were gracious enough to take the time in giving me a ‘trench course’ in stratigraphy, sedimentology and the logistics involved in ‘canal hunting’.

An expression of gratitude must be paid to my Aunt Faith who furnished me with the camera for my ventures, and my first cousin Heidi who graciously assisted me with photography.

Special mention needs to be made to archaeologist Walter ‘Dutch’ Duering and archaeobotanist Bruce Phillips, for providing me with an intense training experience in modern cartography and geoarchaeology, respectively.

A very special thank you must be expressed to Dr. Jerry B. Howard (ASU) who managed to imbue this young man with a deep appreciation for the pre-Columbian southwest.

For additional information on the Riverview Archaeological Project, Mesa Grande or the Hohokam contact:

Dr. Jerry B. Howard, Curator of Anthropology

Arizona Museum of Natural History

480-644-2230

http://azmnh.org/

Cover Photo, Top Left: Detail of the Casa Grande Great House remains. Greg Hume, Wikimedia Commons

A Mummy in Providence

Arianna Zakrzewski is an intern and writer for Popular Archaeology. She is also a graduate from Rhode Island College with a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology. She has had an interest in archaeology since elementary school, specifically Egyptology and the Classics. In recent years, she has also gained an interest in historical archaeology, and has spent time in the field working in St. Mary’s City, Maryland, participating in excavation and archival research. Most recently, she completed her MA in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University. She is currently focused on collections management and making archaeological discoveries accessible and exciting to the public.

Rhode Island's resident Egyptian mummy is restored to his coffin home . . .

This article is available to Premium members of Popular Archaeology.

Become a member or upgrade to a Premium membership: REGISTER HERE.

Illuminating women’s role in the creation of medieval manuscripts

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY—During the European Middle Ages, literacy and written texts were largely the province of religious institutions. Richly illustrated manuscripts were created in monasteries for use by members of religious institutions and by the nobility. Some of these illuminated manuscripts were embellished with luxurious paints and pigments, including gold leaf and ultramarine, a rare and expensive blue pigment made from lapis lazuli stone.

In a study published in Science Advances, an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of York shed light on the role of women in the creation of such manuscripts with a surprising discovery–the identification of lapis lazuli pigment embedded in the calcified dental plaque of a middle-aged woman buried at a small women’s monastery in Germany around 1100 AD. Their analysis suggests that the woman was likely a painter of richly illuminated religious texts.

A quiet monastery in central Germany

As part of a study analyzing dental calculus – tooth tartar or dental plaque that fossilizes on the teeth during life – researchers examined the remains of individuals who were buried in a medieval cemetery associated with a women’s monastery at the site of Dalheim in Germany. Few records remain of the monastery and its exact founding date is not known, although a women’s community may have formed there as early as the 10th century AD. The earliest known written records from the monastery date to 1244 AD. The monastery is believed to have housed approximately 14 religious women from its founding until its destruction by fire following a series of 14th century battles.

One woman in the cemetery was found to have numerous flecks of blue pigment embedded within her dental calculus. She was 45-60 years old when she died around 1000-1200 AD. She had no particular skeletal pathologies, nor evidence of trauma or infection. The only remarkable aspect to her remains was the blue particles found in her teeth. “It came as a complete surprise – as the calculus dissolved, it released hundreds of tiny blue particles,” recalls co-first author Anita Radini of the University of York. Careful analysis using a number of different spectrographic methods – including energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and micro-Raman spectroscopy – revealed the blue pigment to be made from lapis lazuli.

A pigment as rare and expensive as gold

“We examined many scenarios for how this mineral could have become embedded in the calculus on this woman’s teeth,” explains Radini. “Based on the distribution of the pigment in her mouth, we concluded that the most likely scenario was that she was herself painting with the pigment and licking the end of the brush while painting,” states co-first author Monica Tromp of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

The use of ultramarine pigment made from lapis lazuli was reserved, along with gold and silver, for the most luxurious manuscripts. “Only scribes and painters of exceptional skill would have been entrusted with its use,” says Alison Beach of Ohio State University, a historian on the project.

The unexpected discovery of such a valuable pigment so early and in the mouth of an 11th century woman in rural Germany is unprecedented. While Germany is known to have been an active center of book production during this period, identifying the contributions of women has been particularly difficult. As a sign of humility, many medieval scribes and painters did not sign their work, a practice that especially applied to women. The low visibility of women’s labor in manuscript production has led many modern scholars to assume that women played little part in it.

The findings of this study not only challenge long-held beliefs in the field, they also uncover an individual life history. The woman’s remains were originally a relatively unremarkable find from a relatively unremarkable place, or so it seemed. But by using these techniques, the researchers were able to uncover a truly remarkable life history.

“She was plugged into a vast global commercial network stretching from the mines of Afghanistan to her community in medieval Germany through the trading metropolises of Islamic Egypt and Byzantine Constantinople. The growing economy of 11th century Europe fired demand for the precious and exquisite pigment that traveled thousands of miles via merchant caravan and ships to serve this woman artist’s creative ambition,” explains historian and co-author Michael McCormick of Harvard University.

“Here we have direct evidence of a woman, not just painting, but painting with a very rare and expensive pigment, and at a very out-of-the way place,” explains Christina Warinner of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, senior author on the paper. “This woman’s story could have remained hidden forever without the use of these techniques. It makes me wonder how many other artists we might find in medieval cemeteries – if we only look.”

______________________________

Dental calculus on the lower jaw of a medieval woman entrapped lapis lazuli pigment. Christina Warinner

______________________________

A magnified view of lapis lazuli particles embedded within medieval dental calculus. Monica Tromp

______________________________

Article Source: MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY news release.

*A. Radini, M. Tromp, A. Beach, E. Tong, C. Speller, M. McCormick, J. V. Dudgeon, M. J. Collins, F. Rühli, R. Kröger, C. Warinner  Medieval women’s early involvement in manuscript production suggested by lapis lazuli identification in dental calculus, Science Advances.

Explorer to re-enact prehistoric voyage across the Timor Sea

In an article to be published soon in Popular Archaeology Magazine, mariner-explorer and writer/historian Robert Hobman narrates in his own words his plans to traverse the waters of the Timor Sea from Indonesia to the coast of Australia in a sea-going vessel, or raft, fashioned according to what he and his team suggest was the technology available to prehistoric mariners tens of thousands of years ago. 

Planned for February of 2020, the vessel will begin on Rote Island, an island of Indonesia and part of the East Nusa Tenggara province of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Rote lies 500 km (311 mi) northwest of the Australian coast and southwest of the larger island of Timor. To Rote’s immediate south is the Timor Sea, which is bounded in the north by the island of Timor, the east by the Arafura Sea, and the south by Australia.

Hobman hopes to replicate as much as possible the voyage he suggests ancient Pleistocene mariners made from Indonesia—which is part of the continent of Eurasia—to Australia, one of the first landforms of Oceania as one goes eastward. 

“By at least 65,000 BC, so the latest archaeological clues tell us,” writes Hobman in the article, Homo sapiens “had discovered what is today known as Australia and began colonizing it. By 30,000 BC, according to the archaeological record, they had settled all the islands of Wallacea, the Philippines, and Melanesia of the Western Pacific……It is our hypothesis that these ancient ‘Wallaceans’ –  there seems to be no contradicting theory – are the ancestors of the Melanesians and all the indigenous inhabitants of Sahul Land, the vast combined landmass of Papua New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania before the polar ice melted and the sea rose to terrestrially separate them.”

The raft will be constructed of locally available (and thought to have been available there in Pleistocene times) materials, such as bamboo, using stones tools and technology thought to have likely been used or at least available at the time. Food preparation and foodstuffs for the voyage will also be employed based on what the team suggests was likely in the area during prehistoric times.

“It will not be a drift voyage. Nor will it be a sailing venture, but something in between,” writes Hobman. “The raft’s crew will have paddles but also a great pile of palm leaves. As the first human conquerors of the Timor Sea would have done, some kind of basic sail must have been employed.”   

Hobman believes that we have probably underestimated the capabilities and resolve of our prehistoric ancestors. “Humans are notoriously adept at exploiting nature to ease their burden,” he maintains. “…..even the earliest hominins were not stupid or suicidal enough to treat the oceans and enclosed seas……with anything but caution and a great deal of respect.”

His article will be available as a free premium article in the Winter 2019 Issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

_________________________________

Map of Rote Island, from which Hobman and his crew will embark. Lencer, Wikimedia Commons

_________________________________

See, first-hand, the original fossils. See original artifacts. See the actual sites. Talk with the famous scientists. Join us on this unique specialized study tour.

Archeological discovery yields clues to how our ancestors may have adapted to their environment

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE—During the Stone Age ancestral humans lived with a variety of animal species along what was an area of wetlands in the middle of the Jordanian desert. The site, in the town of Azraq Basin, has been excavated and has revealed an abundance of tools and animal bones from up to 250,000 years ago, leading to better understanding of how ancestral humans have adapted to this changing environment.

James Pokines, PhD, associate professor of forensic anthropology at Boston University School of Medicine, was a leader of the excavation with a team from the Azraq Marshes Archaeological and Paleoecological Project.

The team discovered bone and tooth specimens belonging to wild ancestors of modern-day camels and elephants, as well as horse, rhinoceros, antelope and wild cattle species, among others. Poor preservation of small and less dense bones has resulted in limited conclusions about smaller species of animals that may have inhabited the area during this time.

Prior research in the site revealed evidence of butchery, with blood proteins from multiple species appearing on Stone Age tools. “The periphery of the wetlands where large animals drank and grazed would have presented excellent hunting opportunities for ancestral humans. Humans may have also faced their own challenges from other predatory competitors such as lions and hyenas roaming the area,” said Pokines, corresponding author of the study.

The team’s discovery adds important background to a growing picture of land use over time in Azraq Basin. “There are many portions of the globe that we still know so little about in terms of how ancestral humans lived and evolved there and how they adapted to that environment … we hope to understand how different populations of ancestral humans adapted to this changing, arid environment throughout the Stone Age.”

The excavation efforts were the outcome of a successful collaboration with Jordanian authorities and according to the researchers has paved the way for future excavations in the region.

Article Source: Boston University School of Medicine news release

For more about the archaeological discoveries near Azraq, see the article, Archaeology team makes unprecedented tool discovery.

_____________________________________

A view of the current Azraq wetlands reserve. This wetlands area dates back as far as 250,000 years ago. Ldud, Wikimedia Commons

_____________________________________

Returning Indigenous Remains to Their Ancestral Lands, Thanks to Ancient DNA

Genomic analyses can reveal the geographic origins of indigenous Aboriginal Australian remains currently held in museums, a new study* reports. Critically, this could allow these remains to be returned to their original communities – a result Aboriginal Australians have fought to achieve for decades. According to the authors, their study has significant implications for future repatriation of ancient peoples, Aboriginal Australians and beyond. Indigenous peoples around the world have been greatly affected by European colonization. Since the arrival of the British to Australia in 1788, Aboriginal Australian remains have been collected for scientific research or for museums. Many indigenous people believe that their ancestors’ spirits cannot rest until their remains are returned to their ancestral lands, and thus, over many decades, Aboriginal Australians have requested that their ancestors’ remains be returned. Unfortunately, in most cases, the geographic origin, tribal affiliation, or language group of many of these remains, respectively, are unknown, thus preventing repatriation. Recent advances have suggested that genomic analyses could aid in repatriation, yet few genomic studies to date have attempted to recover ancient Aboriginal Australian DNA specifically, and none of them have been able to obtain and sequence nuclear DNA from this region, where the climate is harsh. To determine if genomic analyses can be used to successfully determine the origin of indigenous skeletal remains, Joanne L. Wright and colleagues obtained and sequenced ten nuclear genomes and 27 mitochondrial DNA genomes from pre-European Australian samples of known provenance. They compared these ancient samples to the nuclear genomes of 100 modern Aboriginal Australians also of known provenance. Their analysis showed that, for most all of the ancient nuclear genomes, the most closely related contemporary genome was from people living today in the same geographic region. Their results also suggest that mitochondrial sequences, if used in repatriation efforts in Australia, would result in a significant percentage (~7%) of remains being returned to the wrong Indigenous group. Thus, say the authors, mitochondrial DNA alone is not recommended for repatriation.

_________________________________

Willandra Lakes Region – World Heritage Site. Sherene Lambert

_________________________________

David Lambert and Willandra Elder Michael Young visiting the ancient DNA laboratory. Dr. Renee Chapman

_________________________________

Willandra Elders visiting the ancient DNA laboratory. Dr. Renee Chapman

_________________________________

*Article Source: Science Advances news release, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

The Human Origins Field Seminar with Briana Pobiner

You can look long and hard, and you will not find a travel opportunity like this one anywhere. But now, finally, a unique educational travel experience has been designed for anyone with a special interest or passion for the field of human origins and human evolution. Called the Human Origins Field Seminar with [Smithsonian paleoanthropologist] Dr. Briana Pobiner, this is what you will experience: 

— In one trip, we will take you across three different African countries to sites where scientific history was made, and is still being made, in cutting-edge research on human origins and human evolution. As such, you will be traveling across more terrain than typical of any standard Africa tour;

— You will meet with prominent, world-renowned scientists who are leading the way with new discoveries in human origins and human evolution;

— You will be given “back-door” special access to the fossil and artifact collections that have and are making scientific history in human evolution research;

— You will be traveling with a Smithsonian paleoanthropologist who has done significant field research in Africa and who will be with you the entire time for lectures, discussions, to lead you through the important sites, and to answer your questions;

— Along with all of this, you will have the opportunity to enjoy traveling and observing African wildlife, geography, and geology in three different countries, much of which had a bearing on the kind of environment in which early human ancestors lived;

— This may be the only chance you will have to experience an opportunity this unique, particularly as it may never be offered again.

For more information about this one-of-a-kind travel opportunity, go to the website at http://www.grouptoursite.com/tours/mclerran and join us for the trip of a lifetime!

Should you decide to join us, email me at populararchaeology@gmail.com and let us know you are interested, along with any questions you may have.

Your partner in travel,

Dan McLerran

Founder and Editor

Popular Archaeology Magazine

Peering into Little Foot’s 3.67 million-year-old brain

UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND—The first ever endocast reconstruction of the nearly complete brain of the hominin known as Little Foot reveals a small brain combining ape-like and human-like features.

MicroCT scans of the Australopithecus fossil known as Little Foot shows that the brain of this ancient human relative was small and shows features that are similar to our own brain and others that are closer to our ancestor shared with living chimpanzees.

While the brain features structures similar to modern humans – such as an asymmetrical structure and pattern of middle meningeal vessels – some of its critical areas such as an expanded visual cortex and reduced parietal association cortex points to a condition that is distinct from us.

The Australopithecus fossil named Little Foot, an ancient human relative, was excavated over 14 years from the Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa by Professor Ronald Clarke from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). Its brain endocast was virtually extracted, described and analyzed by Wits researcher, Dr Amélie Beaudet, and the Sterkfontein team by using MicroCT scans of the fossil.

The scans reveal impressions left on the skull by the brain and the vessels that feed it, along with the shape of the brain. Beaudet’s research was released as the first in a series of papers planned for a special issue of this journal on the near-complete “Little Foot” skeleton in the Journal of Human Evolution.

“Our ability to reconstruct features of early hominin brains has been limited by the very fragmentary nature of the fossil record. The Little Foot endocast is exceptionally well preserved and relatively complete, allowing us to explore our own origins better than ever before,” says Beaudet.

The endocast showed that Little Foot’s brain was asymmetrical, with a distinct left occipital petalia. Brain asymmetry is essential for lateralisation of brain function. Asymmetry occurs in humans and living apes, as well as in other younger hominin endocasts. Little Foot now shows us that this brain asymmetry was present at a very early date (from 3.67 million years ago), and supports suggestions that it was probably present in the last common ancestor of hominins and other great apes.

Other brain structures, such as an expanded visual cortex, suggests that the brain of Little Foot probably had some features that are closer to the ancestor we share with living chimpanzees.

“In human evolution, we know that a reduced visual cortex, as we can see in our own brain, is related to a more expanded parietal cortex – which is a critical cerebral area responsible for several aspects of sensory processing and sensorimotor integration,” says Beaudet. “On the contrary, Little Foot has a large visual cortex, which is more similar to chimpanzees than to humans.”

Beaudet and her colleagues compared the Little Foot endocast with endocasts of 10 other South African hominins dating between three and 1.5 million years ago. Their preliminary calculation of Little Foot’s endocranial volume was found to be at the low end of the range for Australopithecus, which is in keeping with its great age and its place among other very early fossils of Australopithecus from East Africa.

The study also has shown that the vascular system in Australopithecus was more complex than previously thought, which raises new questions on the metabolism of the brain at this time. This might be consistent with a previous hypothesis suggesting that the endocranial vascular system in Australopithecus was closer to modern humans than it was in the geologically younger Paranthropus genus.

“This would mean that even if Little Foot’s brain was different from us, the vascular system that allows for blood flow (which brings oxygen) and may control temperature in the brain – both essential aspects for evolving a large and complex brain – were possibly already present at that time,” says Beaudet.

Given its geological age of over 3 million years, Little Foot’s brain suggests that younger hominins evolved greater complexity in certain brain structures over time, perhaps in response to increasing environmental pressures experienced after 2.6 million years ago with continuing reduction of closed habitats.

“Such environmental changes could also potentially have encouraged more complex social interaction, which is driven by structures in the brain,” says Beaudet.

______________________________

Above and below: Virtual rendering of the brain endocast of “Little Foot”. Photo of the original skull by M. Lotter and R.J. Clarke. Wits University

______________________________

______________________________

Article Source: University of the Witwatersrand news release

If you liked this article, you may like The Age of Little Foot, an in-depth premium article previously published in Popular Archaeology.

Satellite data exposes looting

UNIVERSITY OF BERN—More than 2,500 years ago, horse riding nomads expanded their cultural realm throughout the Eurasian steppe from Southern Siberia to Eastern Europe. These tribes buried their dead in large burial mounds often together with elaborate golden jewelry and weapons of superior craftsmanship. Most of the organic materials are lost forever, but objects made from metals survive the millennia. Often made from bronze and gold, these treasures attract looters. During the colonization of Siberia in the 18th century, looting even became a seasonal job when gangs of diggers, sometimes up to 300 strong, excavated burials from spring to autumn each year. To transport the metals more easily, the prehistoric artworks were often melted down right at the site where they had been found.

Applying high-resolution satellite imagery

It has become increasingly difficult to find unlooted tombs. The prices for archaeological objects from these burials, however, have seen a vast increase. Gino Caspari from the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bern analyzed the condition of burials in a difficult-to-access region based on high-resolution satellite imagery. These data help to assess the degree of destruction inflicted upon the archaeological heritage. “We specifically chose an area of interest in Xinjiang, China. We assumed that, due to the remoteness and the heavy presence of security forces in the region, we would find a higher proportion of intact tombs”, Caspari explains. However, this assumption proved to be wrong: “More than 74.5 percent of the analyzed burials were already destroyed and plundered”, says Caspari.

Archaeological sites severely threatened

Through conducting an on-ground survey, the researchers managed to show that high-resolution satellite imagery can provide an accurate measurement of the destruction at a particular site. Using time series of different datasets, looting can be effectively monitored. Caspari analyzed data going back to 2003, and found that since then the number of looted tombs increased substantially. “The last untouched archaeological sites of the ancient steppe nomads are under imminent threat”, says Caspari.

The research, published in the journal Heritage, allows for a consequent monitoring of archaeological heritage in remote regions of Central Asia. When looting at a site is recognized in an early stage, measures for the protection of the tombs can be put in place.

___________________________________

Prehistoric artwork found in early Iron Age tombs. Trevor Wallace

___________________________________

A recently looted tomb in Northwest China. Trevor Wallace

___________________________________

Article Source: University of Bern news release

Neanderthal genes give clues to human brain evolution

CELL PRESS—A distinctive feature of modern humans is our round (globular) skulls and brains. On December 13, in the journal Current Biology, researchers report that present-day humans who carry particular Neanderthal DNA fragments have heads that are slightly less rounded, revealing genetic clues to the evolution of modern brain shape and function.

“We captured subtle variations in endocranial shape that likely reflect changes in the volume and connectivity of certain brain areas,” says Philipp Gunz, a paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, who co-led the study with Amanda Tilot of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.

“Our aim was to identify potential candidate genes and biological pathways that are related to brain globularity,” says Amanda Tilot.

To tightly focus their search, they took advantage of the fact that living humans with European ancestry carry rare fragments of Neanderthal DNA buried in their genomes, as a result of interbreeding between Neanderthals and the ancestors of modern Europeans. Different people carry different fragments, which are scattered through the genome.

Gunz, Tilot, and colleagues analyzed cranial shape and identified stretches of Neanderthal DNA in a large sample of modern humans, relying on MRI brain scans and genetic information for about 4,500 people. Based on computed tomographic scans, they computed the endocranial shape differences between Neanderthal fossils and modern human skulls. They used this contrast to assess endocranial shape in thousands of MRI brain scans of living people.

They used information from sequenced genomes of ancient Neanderthal DNA to identify Neanderthal DNA fragments in living humans on chromosomes 1 and 18 that correlated with reduced cranial roundness. These fragments contained two genes already linked to brain development: UBR4, involved in the generation of neurons, and PHLPP1, involved in the development of myelin insulation around nerve cell projections.

“We know from other studies that completely disrupting UBR4 or PHLPP1 can have major consequences for brain development,” says senior author Simon Fisher (@ProfSimonFisher), a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. “Here we found that, in carriers of the relevant Neanderthal fragment, UBR4 is slightly down-regulated in the putamen. For carriers of the Neanderthal PHLPP1 fragment, gene expression is slightly higher in the cerebellum, which would be predicted to have a dampening effect on cerebellar myelination.”

The putamen—part of a network of brain structures called the basal ganglia—and the cerebellum are thought to be important in movement.

“Both brain regions receive direct input from the motor cortex and are involved in the preparation, learning, and sensorimotor coordination of movements,” says Gunz. “The basal ganglia also contribute to diverse cognitive functions, in memory, attention, planning, skill learning, and potentially speech and language evolution.”

The researchers stress that the effects of carrying these rare Neanderthal fragments are subtle and only detectable in a very large sample size.

“The Neanderthal variants lead to small changes in gene activity and only push people slightly towards a less globular brain shape,” says Fisher. “This is just our first glimpse of the molecular underpinnings of this phenotype, which is likely to involve many other genes.”

The researchers are preparing to scale up their approach and apply it to tens of thousands of people. That will enable them to carry out a fully genome-wide screen to reveal additional genes associated with cranial roundness and other biological characteristics.

“The interdisciplinary approach that we developed for this study could be applied more broadly to unresolved questions about human brain evolution,” says Fisher.

________________________________

This image shows that one of the features that distinguishes modern humans (right) from Neanderthals (left) is a globular shape of the braincase. Philipp Gunz (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

________________________________

This image shows a CT scan of the Neanderthal fossil (left) with a typical elongated endocranial imprint (red) and a CT scan of a modern human (right) showing the characteristic globular endocranial shape (blue). Philipp Gunz, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

________________________________

Article Source: Cell Press news release

*Gunz et al.: “Neandertal introgression sheds light on modern human endocranial globularity” https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)31470-2