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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, TORONTO, ON (Canada) – New research out of South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave led by anthropologists at the University of Toronto (U of T) shows that the climate of the interior of southern Africa almost two million years ago was like no modern African environment — it was much wetter.

In a paper published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, lead author Michaela Ecker, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology at U of T, alongside an international team of scientists that included Michael Chazan, director of U of T’s Archaeology Center, recreated the environmental change in the interior of southern Africa over a span of almost two million years.

“The influence of climatic and environmental change on human evolution is largely understood from East African research,” said Ecker. “Our research constructed the first extensive paleoenvironmental sequence for the interior of southern Africa using a combination of methods for environmental reconstruction at Wonderwerk Cave.”

While East African research shows increasing aridity and the spread of grasslands, the study showed that during the same time period, southern Africa was significantly wetter and housed a plant community unlike any other in the modern African savanna — which means human ancestors were living in environments other than open, arid grasslands.

Using carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis on the teeth of herbivores excavated from the cave, Ecker and her team were able to reconstruct the vegetation from the time the animal was alive and gain valuable insight into the environmental conditions our human ancestors were living in.

“Understanding the environment humans evolved in is key to improving our knowledge of our species and its development,” said Ecker. “Our work at Wonderwerk Cave demonstrates how humankind existed in multiple environmental contexts in the past — contexts which are substantially different from the environments of today.”

This is the latest U of T research out of Wonderwerk Cave, a massive excavation site in the Kuruman Hills of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Chazan has previously discovered early evidence of fire by human ancestors, as well as the earliest evidence of cave-dwelling human ancestors, based on excavations carried out by South African archaeologist Peter Beaumont. Research to date has established a chronology for human occupation of the front of the cave stretching back two million years.

The findings are described in the study “The palaeoecological context of the Oldowan-Acheulean in southern Africa”, published this month in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Research funding was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the German Academic Exchange Service, the University of Oxford’s Boise Fund Trust and the Quaternary Research Association. Other team members include James Brink and Lloyd Rossouw of the National Museum, Bloemfontein, Liora Horwitz of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Julia Lee-Thorp of the University of Oxford.

Research at Wonderwerk Cave is carried out in collaboration with the McGregor Museum, Kimberley and under permit from the South African Heritage Resources Agency.

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A view of southern African landscape as seen from entrance of Wonderwerk Cave. Michaela Ecker

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Entrance of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Michaela Ecker

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View into excavation area from Wonderwerk Cave entrance. Michaela Ecker

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Article Source: University of Toronto news release

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—Researchers report* that a combination of historical aerial imagery and modern airborne laser scanning (ALS) helped locate and contextualize archaeological features at risk of destruction in the ancient Jordanian city of Jerash. Rapid development of cities in the Middle East can endanger archaeological sites, which are abundant in the region and susceptible to irreversible damage that could hamper understanding of how ancient societies responded to economic or environmental change. David Stott and colleagues used historical aerial imagery of the city of Jerash in Jordan dating back to 1917 as well as modern ALS data to establish the locations of archaeological structures. Specifically, the authors used historical imagery to identify likely sites and structures and ALS imagery to assess structures remaining in the wake of development in the eastern half of the city. The authors report a substantial number of previously unmapped possible structures and refine the position of the city’s walls and the scale of previously identified structures, compared with earlier maps. The combined ALS and historical imagery suggests connections between aqueducts, cisterns, and siphons that provide insight into the structure of the water supply system for the ancient city. According to the authors, similar historical and modern remote sensing methods can help uncover and evaluate archaeological data.

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These are aerial photographs from 1953 (left) and 2015 (right) showing rapid growth in Jerash, particularly in the eastern part of the city and much of its immediate surroundings. PNAS

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These are elements of water infrastructure mapped in this study, showing likely aqueducts, channels, springs and cisterns in relation to possible areas of supply within the city. PNAS

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Article Source: A PNAS news release

*”Mapping an ancient city with a century of remotely sensed data,” by David Stott, Søren Kristiansen, Achim Lichtenberger, and Rubina Raja.

UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES—A team from the Université libre de Bruxelles’s center for archaeological research (CReA-Patrimoine) has completed a significant excavation in Pachacamac, Peru, where they have discovered an intact mummy in especially good condition. Pachacamac’s status as a Pre-Colombian pilgrimage site under the Inca empire is confirmed by further evidence.

Peter Eeckhout and his team’s latest campaign of archaeological excavations has concluded with an exciting surprise: after nine weeks spent exploring the Pre-Colombian site of Pachacamac, in Peru, the researchers from CReA-Patrimoine (ULB Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences) have unearthed a mummy in especially good condition. ‘The deceased is still wrapped in the enormous funeral bundle that served as a coffin,’ points out professor Peter Eeckhout. ‘Discoveries like this one are exceptionally scarce, and this mummy is incredibly well preserved. Samples were collected for carbon-14 dating, but the area in which it was discovered and the type of tomb suggest this individual was buried between 1000 and 1200 AD.’

The excavation was carried out as a part of the ‘Ychsma’ project, named after the region’s native people, under the supervision of professor Eeckhout. Three monumental structures were explored during the campaign, including a sanctuary dedicated to the local ancestors. Under Inca rule, in the late 15th century, it appears to have been transformed into a water and healing temple. The archaeologists have discovered many offerings left by worshippers, such as Spondylus shells imported from Ecuador; these are associated with the influx of water during El Niño, and they symbolize fertility and abundance.

Before the Inca settled in the area, the sanctuary included large funerary chambers and numerous mummies, most of which were looted during the Spanish conquest. Miraculously, though, one of the chambers was found intact during the latest round of excavations: this is the funeral chamber that held the mummy. Due to how well it was preserved, the researchers will be able to study it without needing to unwrap the bundle. Together with Christophe Moulherat (Musée du Quai Branly, Paris), they will soon examine the mummy using the latest techniques in medical imaging (X-ray scans, axial tomography, 3D reconstruction, etc.). This will enable them to determine the individual’s position, any pathologies they might have suffered from, but also what offerings might be inside the bundle.

The other structures that were excavated are also related to worship: the first one, an Inca monument intended to host pilgrims and rituals, was built in several phases, each identified with a series of offerings such as seashells and precious objects. The last structure explored was probably one of the ‘chapels’ for foreign pilgrims, referred to by Spanish monk Antonio de la Calancha in his 17th-century description of the site. There, the excavations also uncovered many ‘foundation’ offerings, including vases, dogs, and other animals, as well as a platform with a hole in the center, where an idol was likely placed. The complex appears to have been designed around this idol, involved in religious activities with pilgrims.

According to researchers, all these discoveries indicate that Incas made considerable changes to the Pachacamac site, in order to create a large pilgrimage center on Peru’s Pacific coast. ‘Deities and their worship played a major part in the life of Pre-Colombian societies,’ concludes Peter Eeckhout. ‘The Inca understood this very well, and integrated it into how they wielded their power. By promoting empire-wide worship, they contributed to creating a common sense of identity among the many different peoples that made up the empire. Pachacamac is one of the most striking examples of this.’

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Above and below: The Pachacamac mummy 2018. ULB P. Eeckhout

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Article Source: UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES news release

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FRONTIERS—Muscles once thought ‘uniquely human’ have been discovered in several ape species, challenging long-held theories on the origin and evolution of human soft tissues. The findings question the anthropocentric view that certain muscles evolved for the sole purpose of providing special adaptations for human traits, such as walking on two legs, tool use, vocal communication and facial expressions. Published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, the study* highlights that thorough knowledge of ape anatomy is necessary for a better understanding of human evolution.

“This study contradicts key dogmas about human evolution and our distinct place on the ‘ladder of nature,'” says Rui Diogo, an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy at Howard University, Washington, USA. “Our detailed analysis shows that in fact, every muscle that has long-been accepted as ‘uniquely human’ and providing ‘crucial singular functional adaptations’ for our bipedalism, tool use and vocal and facial communications is actually present in the same or similar form in bonobos and other apes, such as common chimpanzees and gorillas.”

Long-standing evolutionary theories are largely based on the bone structures of prehistoric specimens — and, according to Diogo, also on the idea that humans are necessarily more special and complex than other animals. These theories suggest that certain muscles evolved in humans only, giving us our unique physical characteristics. However, verification of these theories has remained difficult due to scant descriptions of soft tissues in apes, which historically have mainly focused on only a few muscles in the head or limbs of a single specimen.

Diogo explains, “There is an understandable difficulty in finding primate, and particularly ape, specimens to dissect as they are so rare both in the wild and museums.”

To find enough data to complete this research, Diogo compiled all previous information on ape anatomy based on studies with colleague Bernard Wood. He also conducted anatomical research on several bonobos that died of natural causes, together with colleagues at the University of Antwerp under the Bonobo Morphology Initiative 2016 — looking for the presence of seven different muscles thought to have evolved only in our species.

Diogo discovered that these seven muscles were present in apes in a similar or even exact form. For example the fibularis tertius muscle, said to be uniquely associated with human bipedalism (walking on two legs), was present in half the examined bonobos. Similarly, both the laryngeal muscle arytenoideus obliquus and the facial muscle risorius — thought to have evolved for our uniquely sophisticated vocal and facial communication, respectively — were present in at least some chimpanzees and/or gorillas.

These findings open crucial new directions for research and question our understanding of human evolution. “The picture emerging from this research is that the origin and evolution of human soft-tissue is clearly more complex — and not as exceptional — as first thought,” says Diogo.

“We need a more thorough examination of why these muscles are present in apes and, in some cases, in just part of a population within a certain species,” he says. “Are these muscles essential for the apes that have them, as adaptationist evolutionary scientists would argue? Or are they evolutionary neutral features related to how their bodies develop, or simply by-products of other features?”

He concludes, “Most theories of human evolution give the impression that humans are markedly distinct from apes anatomically, but these are unverifiable ‘just-so stories’. The real evidence shows we are not so different overall. This study highlights that a thorough knowledge of ape anatomy is necessary for a better understanding of our own bodies and evolutionary history.”

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Figure showing the striking similarities between the head muscles of common chimpanzees, bonobos and humans: the very rare exceptions are those shown in colors and with text. Rui Diogo

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Article Source: A Frontiers news release

* https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2018.00053/full

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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN—CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A study of ancient mound builders who lived hundreds of years ago on the Mississippi River Delta near present-day New Orleans offers new insights into how Native peoples selected the landforms that supported their villages and earthen mounds – and why these sites were later abandoned.

The study, reported in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, also offers a timeline of the natural and human events that shaped one particular site, said University of Illinois anthropology professor Jayur Mehta, who conducted the work with Vanderbilt University postdoctoral researcher Elizabeth Chamberlain while both were at Tulane University in New Orleans.

The site, now known as Grand Caillou, is one of hundreds of mound sites in coastal Louisiana, Mehta said. (Watch a video about the research and history of the site.)

“Louisiana is incredibly important in the history of ancient mound-building cultures,” he said. “In what is now the United States, earthen monument and mound construction began on the Louisiana coast.”

Ancient peoples began building mounds in North America as early as 4,500 B.C., Mehta said. They often situated their mounds near resource-rich waterways, which could support larger human settlements. As many as 500 people lived at Grand Caillou in its heyday. Some mounds also served ceremonial functions.

That so many mound sites have survived in coastal Louisiana is a testament to their careful construction, Mehta said. Neglect, however, and coastal subsidence – the result of engineered changes to the flow of the Mississippi River – are wearing away at the mounds.

“Louisiana loses about two ancient mounds and/or Native American villages a year,” Mehta said.

The researchers used a variety of methods – sediment coring, radiocarbon dating, carbon-isotope analysis, the dating of ceramics found onsite and a method called optically stimulated luminescence – to figure out how and when the land underneath the Grand Caillou mound was formed by natural forces and when the mound builders arrived and established their settlement.

“We wanted to understand at a deeper level how Indigenous peoples of the coast were choosing where to build their villages,” Mehta said.

Grand Caillou is situated on a natural levee of the Lafourche sub-delta, one of several major lobes of the Mississippi River Delta near New Orleans. Fed by sediments deposited by the river, Lafourche expanded in size over a period of several hundred years, a process that ended at about 800 A.D., the researchers found. The mound builders set up their village around 1200 A.D., long after the site was stable and covered over with vegetation, the team found.

Core samples and excavations revealed that the mound was built in distinct layers, with clay on the bottom, looser sediments piled in the middle and a clay cap on top. This finding confirms earlier archaeological reports that ancient mounds were engineered in layers to withstand the elements.

“The way they were constructed contributes to their durability,” Mehta said.

The Grand Caillou mound was built on top of a river deposit that was naturally higher than surrounding land.

“It’s only a few feet higher than nearby areas,” Mehta said. “But in a landscape where there’s no topography, one or two feet can make a world of difference.”

Ceramics found at the site date to between 1000 and 1400 A.D. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal found evidence that the site was abandoned by about 1400. By looking at ratios of carbon isotopes – carbon atoms with differing masses – the team saw changes over time that were likely the result of saltwater incursion into the area. These changes coincided with the ultimate abandonment of the village site.

The new study is a much-needed addition to research on threatened cultural sites in coastal regions, said University of Tennessee anthropology professor David G. Anderson, an expert on U.S. Paleoindian archaeology who was not involved in the research.

“We are facing the loss of much of the record of human settlement and use of coastal zones – and must take steps to address the challenge,” Anderson said. “Mehta and Chamberlain’s study exemplifies the kind of work that will be needed.”

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The mound at Grand Caillou. Jayur Mehta

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Hundreds of ancient mound sites, depicted here with yellow triangles, still survive in coastal Louisiana. A new study teases out the natural and human history of one of these mound-top villages, a site known as Grand Caillou, shown in red. Julie McMahon after Mehta and Chamberlain

Article Source: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN news release

*”Mound construction and site selection in the Lafourche subdelta of the Mississippi River delta, Louisiana, USA” is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau.

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HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL—The first whole-genome analyses of ancient human DNA from Southeast Asia reveal that there were at least three major waves of human migration into the region over the last 50,000 years.

The research, published online May 17 in Science, complements what is known from archaeological, historical and linguistic studies of Southeast Asia, defined as the area east of India and south of China.

The work illuminates another critical portion of the story of ancient population dynamics around the world, joining numerous ancient-DNA studies of Europe as well as burgeoning research from the Near East, Central Asia, Pacific Islands and Africa.

“A very important part of the world is now accessible for ancient DNA analysis,” said Mark Lipson, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of ancient-DNA specialist David Reich at Harvard Medical School and first author of the study. “It opens a window into the genetic origins of the people who lived there in the past and those who live there now.”

An international team led by researchers at HMS and the University of Vienna extracted and analyzed DNA from the remains of 18 people who lived between about 4,100 and 1,700 years ago in what are now Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia.

The team found that the first migration took place about 45,000 years ago, bringing in people who became hunter-gatherers.

Then, during the Neolithic Period, around 4,500 years ago, there was a large-scale influx of people from China who introduced farming practices to Southeast Asia and mixed with the local hunter-gatherers.

People today with this ancestry mix tend to speak Austroasiatic languages, leading the researchers to propose that the farmers who came from the north were early Austroasiatic speakers.

“This study reveals a complex interplay between archaeology, genetics and language, which is critical for understanding the history of Southeast Asian populations,” said co-senior author Ron Pinhasi of the University of Vienna.

The research revealed that subsequent waves of migration during the Bronze Age, again from China, arrived in Myanmar by about 3,000 years ago, in Vietnam by 2,000 years ago and in Thailand within the last 1,000 years. These movements introduced ancestry types that are today associated with speakers of different languages.

The identification of three ancestral populations–hunter-gatherers, first farmers and Bronze Age migrants–echoes a pattern first uncovered in ancient DNA studies of Europeans, but with at least one major difference: Much of the ancestral diversity in Europe has faded over time as populations mingled, while Southeast Asian populations have retained far more variation.

“People who are nearly direct descendants of each of the three source populations are still living in the region today, including people with significant hunter-gatherer ancestry who live in Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Andaman Islands,” said Reich, professor of genetics at HMS and co-senior author of the study. “Whereas in Europe, no one living today has more than a small fraction of ancestry from the European hunter-gatherers.”

Reich hypothesizes that the high diversity of Southeast Asia today can be partly explained by the fact that farmers arrived much more recently than in Europe–around 4,500 years ago compared with 8,000 years ago–leaving less time for populations to mix and genetic variation to even out.

The new findings make it clear that the multiple waves of migration, each of which occurred during a key transition period of Southeast Asian history, shaped the genetics of the region to a remarkable extent.

“The major population turnover that came with the arrival of farmers is unsurprising, but the magnitudes of replacement during the Bronze Age are much higher than many people would have guessed,” said Reich.

Also unexpected were the linguistic implications raised by analyses of the ancestry of people in western Indonesia.

“The evidence suggests that the first farmers of western Indonesia spoke Austroasiatic languages rather than the Austronesian languages spoken there today,” Reich added. “Thus, Austronesian languages were probably later arrivals.”

Additional samples from western Indonesia before and after 4,000 years ago should settle the question, Reich said.

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Field workers excavate ancient human remains at Man Bac, Vietnam, in 2007. DNA from skeletons at this site was included in the current study. Lorna Tilley, Australian National University

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Article Source: Harvard Medical School news release

This study was supported by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant 16H02527), Statutory City of Ostrava (grant 0924/2016/ŠaS), University of Ostrava (IRP projects), Moravian-Silesian Region (grant 01211/2016/RRC), Irish Research Council (grant GOIPG/2013/36), Thailand Research Fund (grant MRG5980146), Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (project OPVVV 16_019/0000759), European Research Council starting grant ADNABIOARC (263441), National Science Foundation (HOMINID grant BCS-1032255), National Institutes of Health (NIGMS grant GM100233), Paul Allen Foundation and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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UNIVERSITY OF EXETER—Critically endangered South American forests thought to be the result of climate change were actually spread by ancient communities, archaeologists have found.

Huge swathes of land in Chile, Brazil and Argentina are covered with millions of Araucaria, or monkey puzzle trees, thanks to people planting or cultivating them more than a thousand years ago, a new study shows. Recent logging means the landscape is now one of the world’s most at-risk environments.

It had been thought the forests expanded due to wetter and warmer weather. But the research shows the rapidly expanding pre-Columbian population of South America, Southern Jê communities, were really responsible.

New excavations and soil analysis shows the forests, still hugely culturally and economically important to people living in South America, expanded between 1,410 and 900 years ago because of population growth and cultural changes.

Dr Mark Robinson, from the University of Exeter, who led the British Academy and AHRC-FAPESP-funded research, said: “Our research shows these landscapes were man-made. Communities settled on grassland, and then – perhaps because they modified the soil, protected seedlings or even planted trees – established these forests in places where geographically they shouldn’t have flourished.”

The forests date back to the period when dinosaurs roamed. The iconic monkey puzzle tree, or Parana pine, has grown in the region for thousands of years. Its nuts were one of the most important food sources for ancient communities, attracted game for hunting when nuts were ripe. They were also a valuable source of timber, fuel and resin, and became an integral part of southern Jê cosmology. Communities still call themselves “people of the Araucaria”, and hold festivals to celebrate the forests.

Of the 19 species of Araucaria tree, five are classified as endangered and two, including the Brazilian Araucaria angustifolia, are critically endangered. Reports from the late 1800s describe trees with diameters of over 2 m, reaching 42 m in height. Modern trees are only around 17.7 m tall.

The archaeological analysis began because the experts, from the University of Exeter, University of Reading, University of São Paulo, University of New Mexico, Universidade Federal de Pelotas and Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, noticed that in areas of low human activity forests are limited to south-facing slopes, whereas in areas of extensive archaeology, forests cover the entire landscape. They were able to analyse soil isotopes reflecting vegetation and archaeological evidence from Campo Belo do Sul, Santa Catarina State, Brazil, to test whether this pattern was directly related to past human activity.

The study shows the forests first expanded around 4,480 to 3,200 years ago, most likely near streams, and this may have been caused by a wetter climate. But a more rapid and extensive expansion across the whole region later happened between 1,410 and 900 years ago, when forests expanded into highland areas. The weather during this time was dry and less humid. This expansion of the forests coincides with population growth and increasingly complex and hierarchical societies in South America.

The expansion in forests reached a peak around 800 years ago. The number of people in South America declined 400 years ago when European settlers arrived in the area. The population did not begin to recover until the 19 century, when loggers began exploiting the Araucaria forests for timber.

Professor José Iriarte, from the University of Exeter, another member of the research team, said: “This study shows the Araucaria forests were expanded beyond their natural boundaries, they were used sustainably for hundreds of years, and conservation strategies must reflect this so they balance protection, heritage and economic development.”

Uncoupling human and climate drivers of late Holocene vegetation change in southern Brazil is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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Campos da Serra y Floresta de Araucari. Jose Iriarte

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Monkey puzzle forests. Mark Robinson

UNIVERSITY OF YORK—The ability to focus on detail, a common trait among people with autism, allowed realism to flourish in Ice Age art, according to researchers at the University of York.

Around 30,000 years ago realistic art suddenly flourished in Europe. Extremely accurate depictions of bears, bison, horses and lions decorate the walls of Ice Age archaeological sites such as Chauvet Cave in southern France.

Why our ice age ancestors created exceptionally realistic art rather than the very simple or stylized art of earlier modern humans has long perplexed researchers.

Many have argued that psychotropic drugs were behind the detailed illustrations. The popular idea that drugs might make people better at art led to a number of ethically-dubious studies in the 60s where participants were given art materials and LSD.

The authors of the new study* discount that theory, arguing instead that individuals with “detail focus”, a trait linked to autism, kicked off an artistic movement that led to the proliferation of realistic cave drawings across Europe.

Lead author of the paper, Dr Penny Spikins from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, said: “Detail focus is what determines whether you can draw realistically; you need it in order to be a talented realistic artist. This trait is found very commonly in people with autism and rarely occurs in people without it.

“We looked at the evidence from studies attempting to identify a link between artistic talent and drug use, and found that drugs can only serve to dis-inhibit individuals with a pre-existing ability. The idea that people with a high degree of detail focus, many of which may have had autism, set a trend for extreme realism in ice age art is a more convincing explanation.”

The research adds to a growing body of evidence that people with autistic traits played an important role in human evolution.

Dr Spikins added: “Individuals with this trait – both those who would be diagnosed with autism in the modern day and those that wouldn’t – likely played an important part in human evolution and survival as we colonised Europe.

“As well as contributing to early culture, people with the attention to detail needed to paint realistic art would also have had the focus to create complex tools from materials such as bone, rock and wood. These skills became increasingly important in enabling us to adapt to the harsh environments we encountered in Europe.”

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This is a drawing of a horse by Nadia, a gifted autistic child artist (left) and by a typically developing child of the same age (right). Penny Spikins, University of York

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Article Source: University of York news release

*How do we explain ‘autistic traits’ in European Upper Palaeolithic art? is published in Open Archaeology.

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DESERT RESEARCH INSTITUTE—Reno, NV (May 14, 2018): To learn about the rise and fall of ancient European civilizations, researchers sometimes find clues in unlikely places: deep inside of the Greenland ice sheet, for example.

Thousands of years ago, during the height of the ancient Greek and Roman empires, lead emissions from sources such as the mining and smelting of lead-silver ores in Europe drifted with the winds over the ocean to Greenland – a distance of more than 2800 miles (4600 km) – and settled onto the ice. Year after year, as fallen snow added layers to the ice sheet, lead emissions were captured along with dust and other airborne particles, and became part of the ice-core record that scientists use today to learn about conditions of the past.

In a new study published in PNAS, a team of scientists, archaeologists and economists from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the University of Oxford, NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research and the University of Copenhagen used ice samples from the North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP) to measure, date and analyze European lead emissions that were captured in Greenland ice between 1100 BC and AD 800. Their results provide new insight for historians about how European civilizations and their economies fared over time.

“Our record of sub-annually resolved, accurately dated measurements in the ice core starts in 1100 BC during the late Iron Age and extends through antiquity and late antiquity to the early Middle Ages in Europe – a period that included the rise and fall of the Greek and Roman civilizations,” said the study’s lead author Joe McConnell, Ph.D., Research Professor of Hydrology at DRI. “We found that lead pollution in Greenland very closely tracked known plagues, wars, social unrest and imperial expansions during European antiquity.”

A previous study from the mid-1990s examined lead levels in Greenland ice using only 18 measurements between 1100 BC and AD 800; the new study provides a much more complete record that included more than 21,000 precise lead and other chemical measurements to develop an accurately dated, continuous record for the same 1900-year period.

To determine the magnitude of European emissions from the lead pollution levels measured in the Greenland ice, the team used state-of-the-art atmospheric transport model simulations.

“We believe this is the first time such detailed modeling has been used to interpret an ice-core record of human-made pollution and identify the most likely source region of the pollution,” said coauthor Andreas Stohl, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at NILU.

Most of the lead emissions from this time period are believed to have been linked to the production of silver, which was a key component of currency.

“Because most of the emissions during these periods resulted from mining and smelting of lead-silver ores, lead emissions can be seen as a proxy or indicator of overall economic activity,” McConnell explained.

Using their detailed ice-core chronology, the research team looked for linkages between lead emissions and significant historical events.

Their results show that lead pollution emissions began to rise as early as 900 BC, as Phoenicians expanded their trading routes into the western Mediterranean. Lead emissions accelerated during a period of increased mining activity by the Carthaginians and Romans primarily in the Iberian Peninsula, and reached a maximum under the Roman Empire.

The team’s extensive measurements provide a different picture of ancient economic activity than previous research had provided. Some historians, for example, had argued that the sparse Greenland lead record provided evidence of better economic performance during the Roman Republic than during the Roman Empire.

According to the findings of this study, the highest sustained levels of lead pollution emissions coincided with the height of the Roman Empire during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, a period of economic prosperity known as the Pax Romana. The record also shows that lead emissions were very low during the last 80 years of the Roman Republic, a period known as the Crisis of the Roman Republic.

“The nearly four-fold higher lead emissions during the first two centuries of the Roman Empire compared to the last decades of the Roman Republic indicate substantial economic growth under Imperial rule,” said coauthor Andrew Wilson, Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire at Oxford.

The team also found that lead emissions rose and fell along with wars and political instability, particularly during the Roman Republic, and took sharp dives when two major plagues struck the Roman Empire in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The first, called the Antonine Plague, was probably smallpox. The second, called the Plague of Cyprian, struck during a period of political instability called the third-century crisis.

“The great Antonine Plague struck the Roman Empire in AD 165 and lasted at least 15 years. The high lead emissions of the Pax Romana ended exactly at that time and didn’t recover until the early Middle Ages more than 500 years later,” Wilson explained.

The research team for this study included ice-core specialists, atmospheric scientists, archaeologists, and economic historians – an unusual combination of expertise.

“Working with such a diverse team was a unique experience in my career as a scientist,” McConnell said. “I think that our results show that there can be great value in collaborating across disciplines.”

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Dr. Monica Arienzo inspects an ice core sample in the ice core lab at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev. DRI

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Map showing location of NGRIP ice core in relation to Roman lead/silver mines. DRI

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Chronology of European lead emissions that were captured in Greenland ice between 1100 BC and AD 800 in relation to major historic events. DRI

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Article Source: Desert Research Institute news release

UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND—The recently-discovered species Homo naledi may have had a pint-sized brain, but that brain packed a big punch. New research by Ralph Holloway and colleagues – that include researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa – published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examines the imprints (called endocasts) of the brain upon the skulls of this species. The research highlights the humanlike shape of naledi’s tiny brain, surprising scientists who studied the fossils. These findings draw further into question the long-held belief that human evolution was an inevitable march towards bigger, more complex brains.

The discovery of Homo naledi by Professor Lee Berger of Wits University and his team at the Rising Star caves in the Cradle of Humankind in 2013 was one of the largest hominin discoveries ever made and hailed as one of the most significant hominid discoveries of the 21st Century. Berger and Professor John Hawkes who was also part of the original Rising Star team who made the naledi discovery, as well as Professor Heather Garvin from Des Moines University in the US, are associated with the Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI), based at Wits University. They are all co-authors of the current study.

In 2017, geologists demonstrated that this species existed in southern Africa between 236,000 and 335,000 years ago—potentially the same time that modern humans first emerged in Africa. This is a puzzle to scientists, who long held that there was only one species in Africa at this late time period – Homo sapiens. How did this species exist alongside others with brains three times its size? The new study suggests that naledi’s behavior may have reflected the shape and structure of the brain more than its size.

The researchers pieced together traces of Homo naledi‘s brain shape from an extraordinary collection of skull fragments and partial crania from at least five adult individuals. One of these bore a very clear imprint of the convolutions on the surface of the brain’s left frontal lobe. “This is the skull I’ve been waiting for my whole career,” said lead author Ralph Holloway, of Columbia University.

The anatomy of naledi’s frontal lobe was similar to humans, and very different from great apes. Naledi wasn’t alone. Other members of our genus, from Homo erectus to Homo habilis and the small-brained “hobbits”, Homo floresiensis, also share features of the frontal lobe with living humans. But earlier human relatives, like Australopithecus africanus, had a much more apelike shape in this part of the brain, suggesting that functional changes in this brain region emerged with Homo. “It’s too soon to speculate about language or communication in Homo naledi,” said coauthor Shawn Hurst, “but today human language relies upon this brain region.”

The back of the brain also showed humanlike changes in naledi compared to more primitive hominins like Australopithecus. Human brains are usually asymmetrical, with the left brain displaced forward relative to the right. The team found signs of this asymmetry in one of the most complete naledi skull fragments. They also found hints that the visual area of the brain, in the back of the cortex, was relatively smaller in naledi than in chimpanzees—another humanlike trait.

The small brains of Homo naledi raise new questions about the evolution of human brain size. Big brains were costly to human ancestors, and some species may have paid the costs with richer diets, hunting and gathering, and longer childhoods. But that scenario doesn’t seem to work well for Homo naledi, which had hands well-suited for toolmaking, long legs, humanlike feet, and teeth suggesting a high-quality diet. According to study coauthor John Hawks, “Naledi’s brain seems like one you might predict for Homo habilis, two million years ago. But habilis didn’t have such a tiny brain—naledi did.”

A humanlike brain organisation might mean that naledi shared some behaviours with humans despite having a much smaller brain size. Lee Berger, a co-author on the paper, suggests that the recognition of naledi’s small but complex brain will also have a significant impact on the study of African archaeology. “Archaeologists have been too quick to assume that complex stone tool industries were made by modern humans. With naledi being found in southern Africa, at the same time and place that the Middle Stone Age industry emerged, maybe we’ve had the story wrong the whole time.”

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The skulls of Homo naledi bear traces on their inside surfaces of the shape of naledi’s brain. Only a third the size of human brains, they nonetheless had some surprisingly humanlike features. John Hawks

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Homo naledi endocast (top) with a curvature map (bottom) highlighting the sulci that are visible. The frontal of naledi’s brain looked very humanlike despite its small size. Heather Garvin

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Evidence about the brain shape of Homo naledi comes from many partial skulls. The team used virtual methods to understand how naledi’s brain fits into the big picture. Heather Garvin

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Article Source: University of the Witwatersrand news release

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MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY—An international, interdisciplinary group of scholars working along the East African coast have discovered a major cave site which records substantial activities of hunter-gatherers and later, Iron Age communities. Detailed environmental research has demonstrated that human occupations occur in a persistent tropical forest-grassland ecotone, adding new information about the habitats exploited by our species, and indicating that populations sought refuge in a relatively stable environment. Prior to this cave excavation, little information was available about the last 78,000 years from coastal East Africa, with the majority of archaeological research focused on the Rift Valley and in South Africa.

Humans lived in the humid coastal forest

A large-scale interdisciplinary study, including scientific analyses of archaeological plants, animals and shells from the cave indicates a broad perseverance of forest and grassland environments. As the cave environment underwent little variation over time, humans found the site attractive for occupation, even during periods of time when other parts of Africa would have been inhospitable. This suggests that humans exploited the cave environment and landscape over the long term, relying on plant and animal resources when the wider surrounding landscapes dried. The ecological setting of Panga ya Saidi is consistent with increasing evidence that Homo sapiens could adapt to a variety of environments as they moved across Africa and Eurasia, suggesting that flexibility may be the hallmark of our species. Homo sapiens developed a range of survival strategies to live in diverse habitats, including tropical forests, arid zones, coasts and the cold environments found at higher latitudes.

Technological innovations occur at 67,000 years ago

Carefully prepared stone tool toolkits of the Middle Stone Age occur in deposits dating back to 78,000 years ago, but a distinct shift in technology to the Later Stone Age is shown by the recovery of small artifacts beginning at 67,000 years ago. The miniaturization of stone tools may reflect changes in hunting practices and behaviors. The Panga ya Saidi sequence after 67,000, however, has a mix of technologies, and no radical break of behavior can be detected at any time, arguing against the cognitive or cultural ‘revolutions’ theorized by some archaeologists. Moreover, no notable break in human occupation occurs during the Toba volcanic super-eruption of 74,000 years ago, supporting views that the so-called ‘volcanic winter’ did not lead to the near-extinction of human populations, though hints of increased occupation intensity from 60,000 years ago suggests that populations were increasing in size.

Earliest symbolic and cultural items found at Panga ya Saidi cave

The deep archaeological sequence of Panga ya Saidi cave has produced a remarkable new cultural record indicative of cultural complexity over the long term. Among the recovered items are worked and incised bones, ostrich eggshell beads, marine shell beads, and worked ochre. Panga ya Saidi has produced the oldest bead in Kenya, dating to ~65,000 years ago. At about 33,000 years ago, beads were most commonly made of shells acquired from the coast. While this demonstrates contact with the coast, there is no evidence for the regular exploitation of marine resources for subsistence purposes. Ostrich eggshell beads become more common after 25,000 years ago, and after 10,000 years ago, there is again a shift to coastal shell use. In the layers dating to between ~48,000 to 25,000 years ago, carved bone, carved tusk, a decorated bone tube, a small bone point, and modified pieces of ochre were found. Though indicative of behavioral complexity and symbolism, their intermittent appearance in the cave sequence argues against a model for a behavioral or cognitive revolution at any specific point in time.

Project Principal Investigator and Director of the Department of Archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Dr. Nicole Boivin states, “The East African coastal hinterland and its forests have been long considered to be marginal to human evolution so the discovery of Panga ya Saidi cave will certainly change archaeologists’ views and perceptions.”

Group Leader of the Stable Isotopes Lab Dr. Patrick Roberts adds, “Occupation in a tropical forest-grassland environment adds to our knowledge that our species lived in a variety of habitats in Africa.”

“The finds at Panga ya Saidi undermine hypotheses about the use of coasts as a kind of ‘superhighway’ that channeled migrating humans out of Africa, and around the Indian Ocean rim,” observes Professor Michael Petraglia.

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The first substantial cave record from coastal Kenya ranges from the Middle Stone Age to the Iron Age, showing gradual changes in cultural, technological and symbolic innovations beginning at 67,000 years ago. Mohammad Shoaee

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Approach to the Panga ya Saidi cave. Limestone upland in background. The cave site is 15 km from the modern coast. Michael Petraglia

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Worked red ochre; bead made of a sea shell; ostrich eggshell beads; bone tool; close-up of the bone tool showing traces of scraping. (from left to right). Francesco D’Errico and Africa Pitarch

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

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PLOS—A flint flake from the Middle Paleolithic of Crimea was likely engraved symbolically by a skilled Neanderthal hand, according to a study* published May 2, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ana Majkic from the University of Bordeaux, France and colleagues. The authors developed a detailed framework for interpreting engravings on stone artifacts.

Engraved stone artifacts are important clues to the history of human culture and cognition. Incisions on the cortex (soft outer layer) of flint or chert flakes are known from Middle and Lower Paleolithic sites across Europe and the Middle East. However, it can be difficult to determine the action that created an incision: was it an accidental scrape or purposeful engraving? To address this issue, Majkic and colleagues created an interpretive framework that allows researchers to classify the structure and patterns of engraved cortexes and cross-check these attributes with a list of possible causal actions.

They tested this methodology with an engraved flake from the cave site of Kiik-Koba in Crimea. The many stone artifacts at the site are associated with Neanderthal remains and date to around 35,000 years ago. Following microscopic examination of the grooved lines on the flint cortex, the researchers concluded that the incisions represent deliberate engravings that would have required fine motor skills and attention to detail. These engravings appear to have been made with symbolic or communicative intent.

If this interpretation is correct, this engraved flake would join a growing list of signs that Neanderthals engaged in symbolic activities, along with evidence of intentional burial, personal ornaments, and other decorated objects. This has implications for the question of when and how many times this sort of cultural expression has evolved among hominin populations. The researchers hope to hone their framework further for use with artifacts of varying ages and cultural contexts.

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The engraved flint flake from Kiik-Koba layer IV. Majki, et al. (2018)

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Article Source: PLOS news release

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*Majki A., d’Errico F., Stepanchuk V. (2018) Assessing the significance of Palaeolithic engraved cortexes. A case study from the Mousterian site of Kiik-Koba, Crimea. PLoS ONE13(5): e0195049. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195049

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BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY—Over the last 25 years many scholars have questioned the existence of the kingdom of David and Solomon, which was supposed to have existed in the 10th century BCE. This was based to a large extent on the lack of evidence of royal construction at the heart of the region in which the kingdom supposedly existed. As a result, it was assumed that the rulers at the time were just local chiefs who ruled only over Jerusalem and its immediate surroundings.

Now researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Israel have uncovered new evidence that supports the existence of Israel’s united monarchy and indicate that the Kingdom extended beyond Jerusalem’s vicinity. The findings were recently published by Prof. Avraham Faust and Dr. Yair Sapir in the journal Radiocarbon.

Over the past decade Prof. Avi Faust, of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, excavated a large residence of the type, known as a “four-room house”, which was destroyed in massive conflagration in the 8th century BCE, during one of the Assyrian campaigns. The residence is located at Tel ‘Eton in the Shephelah (20 km. southeast of the city of Qiryat Gat). This large building had at least two stories and its ground floors extended over some 225 sq. m. Large, high quality ashlar stones were placed in the building’s corners and entrances. The structure was built on the highest part of the mound, on top of deep foundations, using high quality building materials and according to a meticulous plan. Hundreds of vessels and additional finds were discovered within the conflagration. “Surprisingly, radiocarbon dates from within the floor make-up and from within a foundation deposit that was placed below the floor indicate that the building had already been erected in the 10th century BCE, between the late 11th century and the third quarter of the 10th century BCE. This date is in line with other finds related to the construction, like the foundation deposit itself,” says Prof. Faust. Faust and Sapir say that construction of such a large residence on the top of the mound, visible from a great distance, along with the significant growth of the size of the city at the same time, was an important event in the history of Tel ‘Eton.

But who initiated the change? The researchers say that the evidence hints at the identity of the builders. The mere fact that the residence was built as a classical four-room house, a style that was very dominant in Israelite sites and missing or rare at Canaanite and Philistine sites, seems to send a clear message regarding the identity of the builders – the emerging Israelite polity in the highlands.

Interestingly, however, the site was not destroyed during the changes, and new construction and development were apparently not a result of a conquest and the arrival of new population. Thus, while the transformations were inspired by the highland kingdom, the development was done in cooperation with the local population. This is also indicated by the combination of the highland, Israelite-inspired architectural style, along with the use of the Canaanite tradition of placing foundation deposits below the floors.

The finds are indicative of impressive public construction underway already in the 10th century BCE, and even on the use of ashlar stones in the region of Judah at this early stage. When the finds from Tel ‘Eton are combined with those at other sites in the region, the process in which the highland polity took over the Shephelah, and gradually colonized it, can be reconstructed.

Faust and Sapir stress that “the association with David is not based on direct archaeological evidence, but solely on circumstantial grounds”. The source of the changes at Tel ‘Eton (i.e,. the erection of the four-room residency and the growth in size of the site) appears to be in the highlands, and since these changes took place at the time when David was supposed to have existed in the highland, the link is plausible.” They add that “if someone thinks that there was no king by the name of David, we should find another name to call the highland king in whose time the region was incorporated into the highland kingdom”.

Beyond the identification of social complexity in Judah already in the 10th century BCE, the study has broader implications for archaeology. “The finds from Tel ‘Eton indicate that structures can exist for centuries, but the finds reflect their last period of usage. From their long lives – sometimes centuries – very little will be found, and even less will be reported,” says Faust. One of the negative implications of this, he says, is that a series of destructive events following a long period of peace will lead to extensive information on the time of the destruction, but very little on the era that preceded it. “Archaeologists should therefore be careful when they conclude that the rarity of finds from these eras indicates that society was poor, and lacked social complexity.”

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An aerial photograph of Tel ‘Eton, looking north. Photographed by Sky View\ Griffin Aerial Imaging, from Canaanites and Israelites at Tel ‘Eton, Israel, by Avraham Faust in Popular Archaeology Magazine, Spring 2015

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See the in-depth feature article about excavations at Tel ‘Eton, published in Popular Archaeology Magazine.

Article Source: Bar-Ilan University news release

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In a recently published paper* in the journal, Historical Biology, researchers report confirmation that sediments bearing early human cultural remains in the Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar rockshelter in southeastern Spain are dated to over 800,000 years ago. The sediments include an Acheulean style stone handaxe and evidence for the use of fire within the rockshelter.

“We regard its age as quite likely between 865,000 and 810,000 years ago,” said Michael Walker of Spain’s Murcia University, a lead researcher on Cueva Negra.

“[Arguably] Until now hand-axes in Europe have not been recorded from before 500,000 years ago,” said Walker. Moreover, he adds, “the evidence of combustion [use of fire] is also the oldest anywhere outside Africa.”

The new dating results were acquired through biochronological analysis of small-mammal teeth remains found within the Cueva Negra rockshelter, indicating they accumulated during what is technically called the Matuyama magnetochron, or between 0.99 and 0.78 Ma.

Researchers do not yet know what species of ancient human occupied the rockshelter during this early time period, but they suggest that they were pre-Neanderthal, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, Homo antecessor, or Homo erectus. Homo erectus has been most often associated with Acheulean handaxes in the archaeological record, but there is no consensus or evidence that shows that this stone tool type was exclusive to Homo erectus.

The rock-shelter, located in the face of a cliff overlooking the Quipar river and the small village of La Encarnación, became the subject of initial exploration by archaeologists in 1981. But full systematic excavations didn’t begin until 1990, when an archaeological team led by Walker and colleagues with the Murcia University Experimental Sciences Research Group undertook detailed investigation that have continued for multiple field seasons. What they uncovered were 5 meters of sediment containing late Pleistocene (somewhat before 780,000 years ago) finds, including hominin (early human, possibly H. heidelbergensis) teeth, a rich artifact assemblage, and an array of ancient flora and fauna remains that bespoke an ancient climate of warm, moist environmental conditions. Their analysis and interpretation of the finds may have, they maintain, important implications for early human behavior.

“The most important findings at Cueva Negra concern human activity,” write Walker and colleagues in their report. “Undoubted evidence of fire has been uncovered.”** They point to the evidence of sediment combustion, thermally altered chert and burnt animal bone found in a layer measured at 4.5 meters in depth.

But they qualify their interpretation.

“A fire-place is not a hearth,” the authors continue. “The Cueva Negra could have brought glowing brands left by a forest fire into the cave to establish and tend a fire where rain and wind would not put it out. They may well have been less afraid of fire outside than other animals they saw fleeing from it (which could have led them to play with fire in order to drive animals towards natural death traps, such as swamps, enabling dismemberment and roasting). This does not mean they could reproduce or control fire: there is a dearth of archaeological evidence for hearths or fire-pits before 0.5 Ma.”

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Cueva Negra with hand-axe and teeth. Courtesy Michael Walker, et. al.

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Cueva Negra deep layer with thermally altered remains. Courtesy Michael Walker, et. al.

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Cueva Negra is not the only site that has evidenced early use of fire by early humans. For example, the site of Bnot Ya’akov Bridge in Israel has been claimed to show human control of fire some time between 790,000 and 690,000 years ago, and evidence has emerged at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa for the use of fire by around 1 million years ago. There are also other sites showing this possibility in Africa and China. But Cueva Negra could be the earliest, if not one of the earliest, sites in Europe demonstrating this development.

Other findings suggested a clear mastery of material resources for survival. The assemblage of stone tool artifacts recovered (classified by the authors as “Acheulo-Levalloiso-Mousteroid”) showed evidence of the use of three different core reduction methodologies or sequences, and that natural stone resources were exploited as much as 40 km downstream from the site and 30 km upstream.

Concludes Walker, et al., “Research at Cueva Negra throws new light, including fire-light, on the cognitive versatility, manual dexterity, and technical aptitude of early humans ca. [now earlier than] 0.8 Ma in S.E. Spain. They exploited their surroundings in a competent fashion that implies precise knowledge and accurate awareness of what was available for survival.”**

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*Antonio López Jiménez, María Haber Uriarte, Mariano López Martínez & Michael John Walker (2018): Small-mammal indicators of biochronology at Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Río Quípar (Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia, SE Spain), Historical Biology, DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2018.1462804   

**Walker, Michael, et al., The Early Humans of Cueva Negra, Popular Archaeology, Vol. 15, June, 2014. 

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CNRS—The oldest signs of man-made fire date back about 400,000 years. Hundreds of thousands of years later, at around 40,000 BCE, Homo sapiens, having mastered the flickering flame, began dwelling in caves seasonally. These humans left behind them rock art, proof of their former occupancy. Chauvet Cave (Grotte Chauvet–Pont d’Arc), a UNESCO World Heritage site, bears faithful testimony of the very beginnings of cave art. A study* bringing together several CNRS researchers¹ has examined wood charcoal left by humans of the Aurignacian (37,000–33,500 BCE) and Gravettian (31,000–28,000 BCE) cultures who frequented the Chauvet–Pont d’Arc site. Of the 171 samples studied by the scientists, all but one are derived from pine trees. The presence of these conifers indicates a cold, dry climate and steppe interspersed with pine, birch, and juniper groves. Pine would have been burnt for the large flames it produces, illuminating the cave walls while the prehistoric artists executed their works. Some of the fire pits found at the cave were used solely to produce pine charcoal for use in the paintings.

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© C. Fritz / Chauvet Team / MC

These findings are published in Antiquity (April 25, 2018).

Article Source: A CNRS news release.

^{1.Researchers at the following organizations::}

– Laboratory Cultures et environnements. Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen Âge (CEPAM) (CNRS/Université Nice Sophia Antipolis)

– Laboratory Environnements, dynamiques et territoires de la montagne (EDYTEM) (CNRS/Université Savoie Mont-Blanc)

– Laboratory De la préhistoire à l’actuel : culture, environnement et anthropologie (PACEA) (CNRS/Université de Bordeaux/Ministère de la Culture)

– Laboratory Travaux de recherches archéologiques sur les cultures, les espaces et les sociétés (TRACES) (CNRS/Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès/Ministère de la Culture)

– Institut de recherche sur les archéomateriaux (IRAMAT) (CNRS/CEA/Université de technologie Belfort-Montbéliard/Université d’Orléans/Université Bordeaux Montaigne)

– The DRAC de la région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

– The MSHS de Toulouse (CNRS/Universités Toulouse-Jean-Jaurès, Toulouse III-Paul-Sabatier et Toulouse 1 Capitole/Sciences Po Toulouse/COMUE Université fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées)

*Illuminating the cave, drawing in black : wood charcoal analysis at Chauvet-Pont d’Arc. Isabelle Théry-Parisot, Stéphanie Thiébault, Jean-Jacques Delannoy, Catherine Ferrier, Valérie Feruglio, Carole Fritz, Bernard Gely, Pierre Guibert, Julien Monney, Gilles Tosello, Jean Clottes et Jean-Michel Geneste. Antiquity, 2018 April 25.

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Science Advances—At White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, an international team has uncovered fossilized footprints of humans for the first time, and notably, the human prints were inside those of fossilized footprints from giant ground sloths – tall creatures with sharp claws. The results suggest that human hunters stalked these large, now-extinct animals thousands of years ago, helping to paint a picture of how ancient humans and animals interacted, in this instance. Researchers have been studying fossilized footprints for decades, a way to understand how different species related with one other, but predator-prey interactions revealed by vertebrate fossils (particularly those that could shed light on human hunting practices) are extremely rare. Now, however, at White Sands National Monument, researchers led by David Bustos and using the latest geophysical techniques have unearthed the tracks of not only animals, but also of humans – with the latter being “inside” the former, providing evidence that humans followed closely behind, or even “stalked” the sloths. What’s more, say the authors, the sloth tracks show evidence of evasion and defensive behavior when associated with human tracks, leading Bustos and his team to infer that humans may have been hunting these animals in the late Pleistocene, a period when many large mammals went extinct. Understanding the way in which our ancestors tackled big prey is important because big animals like this would have been associated with greater risk to their human predators. The results may also help shed light on any role humans may have had in the extinction of giant ground sloths, the authors say.

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Human footprint inside a sloth track. This composite track is part of a trackway in which the human appears to have stalked the sloth. Matthew Bennett, Bournemouth University

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Composite cast showing a range of footprints from the White Sands National Monument (WHSA) field site.
 David Bustos, National Park Service

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General view of Alkali Flat at White Sands National Monument (New Mexico) showing a series of excavated footprints in the foreground. Matthew Bennett, Bournemouth University

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Reconstruction based on the fossil footprint evidence showing how human hunters stalked giant ground sloth to distract them before trying to land a killing blow. Alex McClelland, Bournemouth University

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

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