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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Willandra Lakes Region – World Heritage Site. Sherene Lambert

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

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

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

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.

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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

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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.

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.

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Prehistoric artwork found in early Iron Age tombs. Trevor Wallace

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A recently looted tomb in Northwest China. Trevor Wallace

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Article Source: University of Bern news release

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.

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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)

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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

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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

BIOMED CENTRAL—Part of the ancient archaeological site of Tiwanaku, Bolivia, believed by Incans to be where the world was created has been reconstructed using 3D printed models of fragments of an ancient building. The results are presented in a study* published in the open access journal Heritage Science.

Researchers at UC Berkeley, USA, created accurate, 3D-printed miniature models of architectural fragments to reconstruct the Pumapunku building in the Tiwanaku site. Considered to be an architectural wonder of its time (AD 500-950), Pumapunku has been ransacked over the last 500 years to a point where none of the remaining 150 blocks that comprised the original building remain in their original place.

Dr Alexei Vranich, the corresponding author said: “A major challenge here is that the majority of the stones of Pumapunku are too large to move and that field notes from previous research by others present us with complex and cumbersome data that is difficult to visualize. The intent of our project was to translate that data into something that both our hands and our minds could grasp. Printing miniature 3D models of the stones allowed us to quickly handle and refit the blocks to try and recreate the structure.

“It is possible that using 3D printed models of fragments could help the study of other historic sites that have fallen apart in time, such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, or that have been the victim of recent destruction, such as Palmyra in Syria. “

The 3D reconstruction of Pumapunku not only shows possible configurations of what the site may have looked like, but also gives clues about the purpose of the building.

Dr Vranich said: “One particularly interesting realization was that smashed doorways of different sizes that lay scattered around the site were aligned in a manner that would create a “mirror” effect; the impression of looking into infinity, when, in fact, the viewer was looking into a single room. This may relate to the Incans belief that this is the site where the world was created and could also suggest that the building was used as a ritual space.”

The authors printed 3D models of a total of 140 pieces of andesite and 17 slabs of sandstone based on measurements compiled by various scholars over the past century and a half of the height, length and width of the blocks found at the site of Tiwanaku. Once modelled on the computer and then made solid with a 3d printer, the authors then physically manipulated the blocks to reconstruct the site, trying out different ways in which they may fit together.

Dr Vranich said: “This effort represents a technological step back from recent methods that used computer modelling to recreate structures on screen, but the human brain continues to be more efficient than a computer when it comes to manipulating and visualizing irregular 3D forms. We attempted to capitalize on archaeologists’ learned ability to visualize and mentally rotate irregular objects in space by providing them with 3D printed objects that they could physically manipulate.”

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3D printed model of the ancient site of Tiwanaku. Dr Alexei Vranich, 2018

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3D printed model of Pumapunku. Dr Alexei Vranich, 2018

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Article Source: Biomed Central news release

*Reconstructing ancient architecture at Tiwanaku, Bolivia: the potential and promise of 3D printing 
Vranich, Heritage Science 2018  DOI: 10.1186/s40494-018-0231-0

FECYT – SPANISH FOUNDATION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY—Argentine and Spanish researchers have used statistical techniques of automatic learning to analyze mobility patterns and technology of the hunter-gatherer groups that inhabited the Southern Cone of America, from the time they arrived about 12,000 years ago until the end of the 19th century. Big data from archaeological sites located in the extreme south of Patagonia have been used for this study*.

The presence of humans on the American continent dates back to at least 14,500 years ago, according to datings made at archaeological sites such as Monte Verde, in Chile’s Los Lagos Region. But the first settlers continued moving towards the southernmost confines of America.

Now, researchers from Argentina’s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and two Spanish institutions (the Spanish National Research Council and the University of Burgos) have analyzed the relationships between mobility and technology developed by those societies that originated in the far south of Patagonia.

The study, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal, is based on an extensive database of all available archaeological evidence of human presence in this region, from the time the first groups arrived in the early Holocene (12,000 years ago) until the end of the 19th century.

This was followed by the application of machine learning techniques, a statistical system that allows the computer to learn from many data (in this case, big data from characteristic technological elements of the sites) in order to carry out classifications and predictions.

“It is by means of automatic classification algorithms that we have identified two technological packages or ‘landscapes’: one that characterizes pedestrian hunter-gatherer groups (with their own stone and bone tools) and the other characterizing those that had nautical technology, such as canoes, harpoons and mollusc shells used to make beads,” explains Ivan Briz i Godino, an archaeologist of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) of Argentina and co-author of the work.

“In future excavations, when sets of technological elements such as those we have detected appear, we’ll be able to directly deduce the type of mobility of the group or the connections with other communities,” adds Briz.

The results of the study have also made it possible to obtain maps with the settlements of the two communities, and this, in turn, has made it possible to locate large regions in which they interacted and shared their technological knowledge. In the case of groups with nautical technology, it has been confirmed that they arrived at around the beginning of the Mid-Holocene (some 6,000 years ago) from the channels and islands of the South Pacific, moving along the coast of what is now Chile.

“Traditional archaeology identifies sites, societies and their possible contacts on the basis of specific elements selected by specialists (such as designs of weapon tips or decorative elements), but here we show that it is more interesting to analyse sets of technological elements as a whole, using artificial intelligence techniques that allow us to work with large data volumes and without subjective prejudices,” concludes Briz.

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Example of a group with nautical technology: Yámana people in the Anglican mission of Bahía Tekenika (Tierra del Fuego), portrayed in the late 19th or early 20th century. Darwin lived with them during the second voyage of the Beagle. Ivan Briz i Godino courtesy of the archives of the South American Missionary Society (United Kingdom)

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Selk’nam people, an example of a more pedestrian group, without nautical technology, although the marine resources were intensely exploited by those who lived near the coast. C. W. Furlong (January 1908) courtesy of the End of the World Museum (Ushuaia, Argentina).

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Technological landscapes of nautical mobility (red circles, with some blues that are less well classified by the algorithm) and pedestrian mobility (orange and purple circles) in hunter-gatherer groups that lived in the extreme south of South America. Briz et al. 2018 / Royal Society Open Science

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Article Source: FECYT – SPANISH FOUNDATION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY news release

*Ivan Briz i Godino, Virginia Ahedo, Myrian Álvarez, Nélida Pal, Lucas Turnes, José Ignacio Santos, Débora Zurro, Jorge Caro and José Manuel Galán. “Hunter – gatherer mobility and technological landscapes in southernmost South America: a statistical learning approach”. Royal Society Open Science, October 2018.. 

Perched atop the Tibetan Plateau – nearly 15,000 feet above sea level – researchers have discovered evidence of the earliest known, highest-altitude human occupation. According to their new study, the site Newa Devu, which was occupied at least 30,000 years ago, is the highest Paleolithic archaeological site yet identified and provides new insight into high-altitude (>4,000 meters above sea level) adaptation, as well as to modern human’s colonization of Earth’s highest reaches. Because of the unforgiving environments and the demanding biological adaptations required to survive them, early human occupation of high-altitude regions, like the Tibetan Plateau – one of the highest ever occupied – has been of great interest. Due to the lack of concrete evidence indicating the antiquity of the region’s earliest residents, however, the timing and processes that brought people to inhabit the “roof of the world” are not well-understood. As a result, some conclude that occupation occurred recently, near the onset of the Holocene, about 11,000 years ago. Xiaoling Zhang and colleagues report on new data from a well-preserved Paleolithic site situated at 4,600 meters above sea level with occupation beginning 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. According to Zhang et al., Newa Devu is characterized by a wide range of stone artifacts including advanced lithic blades that together suggest that the site was used as a workshop where tools were manufactured. Scant sites with similar stone technologies are found in North China, which according to the authors, suggest that early Tibetans interacted with contemporaries from Siberia and Mongolia. Furthermore, the results support the idea that hypoxia-reducing genes, obtained by infusion of Denisovan DNA, enhanced early settler’s ability to adapt to high-altitude extreme environments. 

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Excavation site on the Tibetan Plateau. Yingshuai Jin

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Artifacts found at the archaeological site. Xing Gao

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An unearthed bladecore from the excavation. Yingshuai Jin

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If you liked this article, you may like On the Roof of the World: Discovering the Forgotten Civilization of Zhang Zhung, a premium article (now free) published previously by Popular Archaeology.

Article Source: AAAS news release. This research appears in the 30 November 2018 issue of Science. Science is published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY—Beginning more than 1.5 million years ago, early humans made stone handaxes in a style known as the Acheulean – the longest lasting tool-making tradition in prehistory. New research led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage has documented an Acheulean presence in the Arabian Peninsula dating to less than 190,000 years ago, revealing that the Arabian Acheulean ended just before or at the same time as the earliest Homo sapiens dispersals into the region.

Much attention has been given to understanding the spread of our own species, Homo sapiens, first within Africa and then beyond. However, less attention has been given to where diverse groups of close evolutionary cousins lived in Eurasia immediately prior to the arrival of Homo sapiens. Understanding this is critical because the spatial and temporal characteristics of such groups reveal the human and cultural landscape first encountered by our species on leaving Africa.

The youngest Acheulean site in Southwest Asia

In a paper published in Scientific Reports, an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage reports the first ever dates obtained from an Acheulean site in Arabia, the site of Saffaqah, situated in Central Saudi Arabia. Saffaqah is the first stratified Acheulean site to be reported in the Arabian Peninsula and the dates reveal that early humans occupied the site until at least 190,000 years ago. These dates are surprisingly recent for a region known to feature among the oldest examples of such technology outside Africa. For example, dates from the Levant document an ancient Acheulean presence from 1.5 million years ago. Conversely the site of Saffaqah features the youngest Acheulean tools yet found in southwest Asia.

Over 500 stone tools, including handaxes and other artifacts known as cleavers, were recovered from the occupation levels. Some of the stone flakes used to make handaxes were in such fresh condition that they were recovered still resting on the stone nodules from which they had been detached. These and other artifacts show that the early humans responsible for making them were manufacturing stone tools at this site.

“It is not surprising that early humans came here to make stone tools,” says Dr. Eleanor Scerri of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the lead author of the study. “The site is located on a prominent andesite dyke that rises above the surrounding plain. The spot was both a source of raw material as well as a prime location to survey a landscape that, back then, sat between two major river systems.” This choice location also seems to have continued to be attractive to early humans at an even later date than those recorded by the researchers in this study. Layers containing identical stone handaxes are also found above the dense occupation layers that were dated, raising the possibility that Saffaqah is among the youngest Acheulean sites documented anywhere.

Hominins living at the edge

The new dating results both record the late persistence of the Acheulean in the Peninsula and also show that as yet unidentified hominin populations were using networks of now extinct rivers to disperse into the heart of Arabia during a time of increased rainfall in the region. This suggests that these hominins were able to live on the margins of habitable zones and take advantage of relatively brief “greening” episodes in a generally arid area. The dispersal of these hominins into the heart of Arabia may also help to explain the surprisingly late persistence of the Acheulean, as it suggests a degree of isolation.

“These hominins were resourceful and intelligent,” adds Dr. Scerri, “They dispersed across a challenging landscape using technology commonly seen as reflecting a lack of inventiveness and creativity. Instead of perceiving the Acheulean this way, we should really be struck by how flexible, versatile and successful this technology was.”

Cutting edge science

To date the sediments from the site of Saffaqah, the researchers used a combination of dating techniques known as luminescence methods, including a newly developed infrared-radiofluorescence (IR-RF) dating protocol for potassium rich feldspars. The method relies on the ability of such minerals to store energy induced by natural radioactivity and to release this energy in the form of light. “The application of IR-RF dating allowed us to obtain age estimates from sediments that were previously difficult to reliably date,” explains Marine Frouin of the University of Oxford, one of the researchers involved in the dating program.

These discoveries and methods are already leading to new research. “One of the biggest questions we have is whether any of our evolutionary ancestors and close cousins met up with Homo sapiens, and if this could have happened somewhere in Saudi Arabia. Future field work will be dedicated to understanding possible cultural and biological exchanges at this critical time period,” says Professor Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the director of the project which led to the discoveries at Saffaqah.

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Handaxes from the site of Saffaqah, Saudi Arabia. Palaeodeserts (Ian R. Cartwright)

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Researcher Eleanor Scerri with giant Acheulean core from which flakes were struck to create the handaxes. Palaeodeserts

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Archaeologists excavating the site of Saffaqah, Saudi Arabia. Palaeodeserts

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

UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD—Archaeologists from the University of Sheffield have uncovered a previously unknown Anglo-Saxon cemetery.

Excavations have revealed more than 20 burials at the extraordinary cemetery in the Lincolnshire Wolds dating back to the late fifth to mid sixth centuries AD.

The dig at the site in Scremby, Lincolnshire was led by Dr Hugh Willmott and Dr Katie Hemer from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Archaeology in collaboration with Dr Adam Daubney, the Lincolnshire Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

The cemetery was first brought to light when a local metal detectorist began to discover a number of Anglo-Saxon artefacts, including copper gilded brooches, iron shield bosses and spear heads.

The finds were typical of those found in early Anglo-Saxon burials therefore it was necessary to excavate the site to ensure any further artifacts were retrieved, recorded and preserved before they could be destroyed by agricultural activity.

International volunteers, students from the University of Sheffield, and members of the RAF from nearby stations took part in the excavation which is the first to have been extensively investigated since the 19th century.

Dr Hugh Willmott, Senior Lecturer in European Historical Archaeology from the University of Sheffield, said: “Almost without exception, the burials were accompanied by a rich array of objects, in keeping with the funerary rites adopted during the early centuries of the Germanic migrations to eastern England.

“What is particularly interesting is the significant proportion of very lavish burials which belonged to women. These women wore necklaces made from sometimes hundreds of amber, glass and rock crystal beads, used personal items such as tweezers, carried fabric bags held open by elephant ivory rings, and wore exquisitely decorated brooches to fasten their clothing.

“Two women even received silver finger rings and a style of silver buckle commonly associated with Jutish communities in Kent. Furnished burials belonging to males were also identified, including a number buried with weaponry such as spears and shields.

Dr Willmott added: “Children were notably absent in the parts of the cemetery excavated this year, however, one of the most striking burials was that of a richly-dressed woman who was buried with a baby cradled in her left arm.

“The preservation of the skeletal remains, as well as the many grave finds, provide an exciting opportunity to explore the social and cultural dynamics of the community who chose to bury their dead on this chalky outcrop.”

In order to understand as much as possible about the site and those buried there, a series of scientific investigations are underway at the University of Sheffield by the Department of Archaeology.

The human remains are undergoing a complete osteological assessment, whilst stable isotope analysis of teeth and bone will identify where the individuals grew up as children and what food resources they ate.

Dr Katie Hemer, Lecturer in Bioarchaeology at the University of Sheffield, said: “Analysis also extends to a number of the finds, including the amber beads, which are being provenanced in collaboration with colleagues from Sheffield’s Department of Physics; we will analyze the elemental composition of the metalwork and identify the elephant species which produced the ivory rings.

“The project’s multi-faceted investigation which incorporates cutting-edge scientific techniques will enable Sheffield archaeologists to ask and answer significant questions about early Anglo-Saxon communities in eastern England.”

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This is a female burial unearthed at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Lincolnshire. University of Sheffield

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This is a brooch found at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery unearthed by archaeologists from the University of Sheffield. University of Sheffield

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Article Source: University of Sheffield news release

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH—Some of the world’s oldest cave paintings have revealed how ancient people had relatively advanced knowledge of astronomy.

The artworks, at sites across Europe, are not simply depictions of wild animals, as was previously thought. Instead, the animal symbols represent star constellations in the night sky, and are used to represent dates and mark events such as comet strikes, analysis suggests.

They reveal that, perhaps as far back as 40,000 years ago, humans kept track of time using knowledge of how the position of the stars slowly changes over thousands of years.

The findings suggest that ancient people understood an effect caused by the gradual shift of Earth’s rotational axis. Discovery of this phenomenon, called precession of the equinoxes, was previously credited to the ancient Greeks.

Around the time that Neanderthals became extinct, and perhaps before mankind settled in Western Europe, people could define dates to within 250 years, the study shows.

The findings indicate that the astronomical insights of ancient people were far greater than previously believed. Their knowledge may have aided navigation of the open seas, with implications for our understanding of prehistoric human migration.

Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Kent studied details of Palaeolithic and Neolithic art featuring animal symbols at sites in Turkey, Spain, France and Germany.

They found all the sites used the same method of date-keeping based on sophisticated astronomy, even though the art was separated in time by tens of thousands of years.

Researchers clarified earlier findings from a study of stone carvings at one of these sites – Gobekli Tepe in modern-day Turkey – which is interpreted as a memorial to a devastating comet strike around 11,000 BC. This strike was thought to have initiated a mini ice-age known as the Younger Dryas period.

They also decoded what is probably the best known ancient artwork – the Lascaux Shaft Scene in France. The work, which features a dying man and several animals, may commemorate another comet strike around 15,200 BC, researchers suggest.

The team confirmed their findings by comparing the age of many examples of cave art – known from chemically dating the paints used – with the positions of stars in ancient times as predicted by sophisticated software.

The world’s oldest sculpture, the Lion-Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave, from 38,000 BC, was also found to conform to this ancient time-keeping system.

This study was published in Athens Journal of History.

Dr Martin Sweatman, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, who led the study, said: “Early cave art shows that people had advanced knowledge of the night sky within the last ice age. Intellectually, they were hardly any different to us today.

“These findings support a theory of multiple comet impacts over the course of human development, and will probably revolutionize how prehistoric populations are seen.”

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Some of the world’s oldest cave paintings have revealed how ancient people had relatively advanced knowledge of astronomy. Animal symbols represent star constellations in the night sky, and are used to mark dates and events such as comet strikes, analysis from the University of Edinburgh suggests. Alistair Coombs

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Some of the world’s oldest art has revealed how ancient people had relatively advanced knowledge of astronomy. Animal symbols, such as those used at Gobekli Tepe in modern day Turkey, represent star constellations in the night sky, and are used to mark dates and events such as comet strikes, analysis from the University of Edinburgh suggests. Alistair Coombs

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The Lion-Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave. Oleg Kuchar Museum Ulm, Germany

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Article Source: University of Edinburgh news release

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY—Researchers from the Max-Planck-Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Helsinki have analyzed the first ancient DNA from mainland Finland. As described in Nature Communications, ancient DNA was extracted from bones and teeth from a 3,500 year-old burial on the Kola Peninsula, Russia, and a 1,500 year-old water burial in Finland. The results reveal the possible path along which ancient people from Siberia spread to Finland and Northwestern Russia.

Researchers found the earliest evidence of Siberian ancestry in Fennoscandia in a population inhabiting the Kola Peninsula, in Northwestern Russia, dating to around 4,000 years ago. This genetic ancestry then later spread to populations living in Finland. The study also found that people genetically similar to present-day Saami people inhabited areas in much more southern parts of Finland than the Saami today.

For the present study, genome-wide genetic data from 11 individuals were retrieved. Eight individuals came from the Kola Peninsula, six from a burial dated to 3,500 years ago, and two from an 18th to 19th century Saami cemetery. “We were surprised to find that the oldest samples studied here had the highest proportion of Siberian ancestry,” says Stephan Schiffels, co-senior author of the study, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

The other three individuals analyzed for the study came from a water burial in Levänluhta, Finland. Levänluhta is one of the oldest known burials in Finland in which human bones have been preserved. The bodies were buried in what used to be a small lake or a pond, and this seems to have contributed to exceptionally good preservation of the remains.

Siberian ancestry persists today

The study compared the ancient individuals not only to each other, but also to modern populations, including Saami, Finnish and other Uralic language speakers. Among modern European populations, the Saami have the largest proportion of this ancient Siberian ancestry. Worldwide, the Nganasan people, from north Siberia, have the largest proportion of ancient Siberian ancestry.

“Our results show that there was a strong genetic connection between ancient Finnish and ancient Siberian populations,” says Thiseas Lamnidis, co-first author of the study, “suggesting that ancient populations from Siberia may have also shared a subsistence strategy, languages and/or cultural behaviours with Bronze Age and Iron Age Finns, despite the large geographical distance.” Ancient Finnish populations possibly lived a mobile, nomadic life, trading and moving over a large range, with far-reaching contacts to other populations.

People found in Levänluhta, Finland, most resemble modern-day Saami

The researchers found that the population in Levänluhta was more closely related to modern-day Saami people than to the non-Saami Finnish population today.

“People closely related to the Saami inhabited much more southern regions of Finland than the Saami do today,” explains Kerttu Majander, co-first author, of the University of Helsinki and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Interestingly, a recent linguistic study suggested that the place names around Levänluhta trace back to Saami languages.

“This is the first exploration of ancient DNA from Finland and the results are very interesting,” states Schiffels. “However more ancient DNA studies from the area will be necessary to better understand whether the patterns we’ve seen are representative of Finland as a whole.”

The study was conducted as a collaboration between the SUGRIGE-project (Universities of Helsinki and Turku), and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. The archaeological materials and expertise were provided by the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) and the Levänluhta-project with the Finnish Heritage Agency.

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Artistic impression of an ancient fisherman from Bolshoy Oleni Ostrov. Kerttu Majander

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Location of archaeological sites with material used in this study. Michelle O’Reilly; Lamnidis, Majander et al. 2018. Ancient Fennoscandian genomes reveal origin and spread of Siberian ancestry in Europe. Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07483-5.

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Artistic impression of the Levänluhta water burial site. Kerttu Majander

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Article Source: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History news release.

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH—New research disputes a long-held view that our earliest tool-bearing ancestors contributed to the demise of large mammals in Africa over the last several million years. Instead, the researchers argue that long-term environmental change drove the extinctions, mainly in the form of grassland expansion likely caused by falling atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels.

Tyler Faith, curator of archaeology at the Natural History Museum of Utah and assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Utah, led the study. The research team also includes John Rowan from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Andrew Du from the University of Chicago, and Paul Koch from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The study is published today in the journal Science.

“Despite decades of literature asserting that early hominins impacted ancient African faunas, there have been few attempts to actually test this scenario or to explore alternatives,” Faith says. “We think our study is a major step towards understanding the depth of anthropogenic impacts on large mammal communities, and provides a convincing counter-argument to these long-held views about our early ancestors.”

To test for ancient hominin impacts, the researchers compiled a seven-million-year record of herbivore extinctions in eastern Africa, focusing on the very largest species, the so-called ‘megaherbivores’ (species over 2,000 lbs.) Though only five megaherbivores exist in Africa today, there was a much greater diversity in the past. For example, three-million-year-old ‘Lucy’ (Australopithecus afarensis) shared her woodland landscape with three giraffes, two rhinos, a hippo, and four elephant-like species at Hadar, Ethiopia.

When and why these species disappeared has long been a mystery for archaeologists and paleontologists, despite the evolution of tool-using and meat-eating hominins getting most of the blame.

“Our analyses show that there is a steady, long-term decline of megaherbivore diversity beginning around 4.6 million years ago. This extinction process kicks in over a million years before the very earliest evidence for human ancestors making tools or butchering animal carcasses and well before the appearance of any hominin species realistically capable of hunting them, like Homo erectus,” says Faith.

Taking a Closer Look

Faith and his team quantified long-term changes in eastern African megaherbivores using a dataset of more than 100 fossil assemblages spanning the last seven million years. The team also examined independent records of climatic and environmental trends and their effects, specifically global atmospheric CO₂, stable carbon isotope records of vegetation structure, and stable carbon isotopes of eastern African fossil herbivore teeth, among others.

Their analysis reveals that over the last seven million years substantial megaherbivore extinctions occurred: 28 lineages became extinct, leading to the present-day communities lacking in large animals. These results highlight the great diversity of ancient megaherbivore communities, with many having far more megaherbivore species than exist today across Africa as a whole.

Further analysis showed that the onset of the megaherbivore decline began roughly 4.6 million years ago, and that the rate of diversity decline did not change following the appearance of Homo erectus, a human ancestor often blamed for the extinctions. Rather, Faith’s team argues that climate is more likely the culprit.

“The key factor in the Plio-Pleistocene megaherbivore decline seems to be the expansion of grasslands, which is likely related to a global drop in atmospheric CO₂ over the last five million years,” says John Rowan, a postdoctoral scientist from University of Massachusetts Amherst. “Low CO₂ levels favor tropical grasses over trees, and as a consequence savannas became less woody and more open through time. We know that many of the extinct megaherbivores fed on woody vegetation, so they seem to disappear alongside their food source.”

The loss of massive herbivores may also account for other extinctions that have also been attributed to ancient hominins. Some scientists suggest that competition with increasingly carnivorous species of Homo led to the demise of numerous carnivores over the last few million years. Faith and his team suggest an alternative.

“We know there are also major extinctions among African carnivores at this time and that some of them, like saber-tooth cats, may have specialized on very large prey, perhaps juvenile elephants” says Paul Koch. “It could be that some of these carnivores disappeared with their megaherbivore prey.”

“Looking at all of the potential drivers of the megaherbivore decline, our analyses suggest that changing climate and environment played the key role in Africa’s past extinctions,” said Faith. “It follows that in the search for ancient hominin impacts on ancient African ecosystems, we must focus our attention on the one species known to be capable of causing them – us, Homo sapiens, over the last 300,000 years.”

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A fossil tooth of a hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius) (left) and a fossil tooth of a white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) (right) , two of the few surviving megaherbivores, from the Late Pleistocene of western Kenya (left). J. Tyler Faith

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The team analyzed more than 100 sites in East Africa with rich fossil records to track the longterm decline of megaherbivore diversity. J. Tyler Faith

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Article Source: University of Utah news release

Cover Photo Top Left: Elephant, nickandmel2006, Wikimedia Commons

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN—New research from an international team of scientists led by University of Cape Town isotope geochemist Dr Robyn Pickering is the first to provide a timeline for fossils from the caves within the Cradle of Humankind. It also sheds light on the climate conditions of our earliest ancestors in the area.

Published online in the journal Nature on 21 November 2018, the work corrects assumptions that the region’s fossil-rich caves could never be related to each other. In fact, the research suggests fossils from Cradle caves date to just six specific time periods.

“Unlike previous dating work, which often focused on one cave, sometimes even just one chamber of the cave, we are providing direct ages for eight caves and a model to explain the age of all the fossils from the entire region,” says Dr Robyn Pickering.

“Now we can link together the findings from separate caves and create a better picture of evolutionary history in southern Africa.”

The Cradle of Humankind is a World Heritage Site made up of complex fossil-bearing caves. It’s the world’s richest early hominin site and home to nearly 40% of all known human ancestor fossils, including the famous Australopithecus africanus skull nicknamed Mrs Ples.

Using uranium-lead dating, researchers analysed 28 flowstone layers that were found sandwiched between fossil-rich sediment in eight caves across the Cradle. The results revealed that the fossils in these caves date to six narrow time-windows between 3.2 and 1.3 million years ago.

“The flowstones are the key,” says Pickering. “We know they can only grow in caves during wet times, when there is more rain outside the cave. By dating the flowstones, we are picking out these times of increased rainfall. We therefore know that during the times in between, when the caves were open, the climate was drier and more like what we currently experience.”

This means the early hominins living in the Cradle experienced big changes in local climate, from wetter to drier conditions, at least six times between 3 and 1 million years ago. However, only the drier times are preserved in the caves, skewing the record of early human evolution.

Up until now, the lack of dating methods for Cradle fossils made it difficult for scientists to understand the relationship between East and South Africa hominin species. Moreover, the South African record has often been considered undateable compared to East Africa where volcanic ash layers allow for high resolution dating.

Professor Andy Herries, a co-author in the study at La Trobe University in Australia, notes that “while the South African record was the first to show Africa as the origin point for humans, the complexity of the caves and difficultly dating them has meant that the South African record has remained difficult to interpret.”

“In this study we show that the flowstones in the caves can act almost like the volcanic layers of East Africa, forming in different caves at the same time, allowing us to directly relate their sequences and fossils into a regional sequence,” he says.

Dr Pickering began dating the Cradle caves back in 2005 as part of her PhD research. This new publication is the result of 13 years of work and brings together a team of 10 scientists from South Africa, Australia and the US. The results return the Cradle to the forefront and open new opportunities for scientists to answer complex questions about human history in the region.

“Robyn and her team have made a major contribution to our understanding of human evolution,” says leading palaeoanthropologist Professor Bernard Wood, of the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at the George Washington University in the USA, who is not an author on the study.

“This is the most important advance to be made since the fossils themselves were discovered. Dates of fossils matter a lot. The value of the southern African evidence has been increased many-fold by this exemplary study of its temporal and depositional context.”

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Typical Cradle of Humankind landscape today. We believe that at specific times in the past, this environment was much wetter and more vegetated than today. Dr Robyn Pickering

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Field photograph of massive flowstone layers from one of the South African hominin caves, with red cave sediments underneath. Robyn Pickering

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Article Source: University of Cape Town news release