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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY—During the last Ice Age, Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea formed a single landmass, called Sahul. It was a strange and often hostile place populated by a bizarre cast of giant animals.

There were 500-pound kangaroos, marsupial tapirs the size of horses and wombat-like creatures the size of hippos. There were flightless birds that weighed twice as much as modern emu, 33-foot snakes, 20-foot crocodiles, 8-foot turtles with horned heads and spiked tails, and giant monitor lizards that measured greater than 6 feet from tip to tail and were likely venomous.

By about 30,000 years ago, however, most of these ‘megafauna’ had disappeared from the Sahul as part of a global mass extinction that saw the end of nearly all of the super-sized animals that had evolved to survive in extreme Ice Age climates. The factors that forced the Australian megafauna into extinction remain a matter of considerable controversy. Many experts argue that the ancestors of the Australian aborigines, who made an appearance approximately 50,000 years ago, either hunted them into extinction or gradually destroyed the habitat they required by practices such as fire-stick burning. Others argue that the gradual drying out of Australia and weakening of the Australian monsoon played a major role in their demise.

A new study has compared the diet of a variety of Australian megafaunal herbivores from the period when they were widespread (350,000 to 570,000 years ago) to a period when they were in decline (30,000 to 40,000 years ago) by studying their fossil teeth. The analysis suggests that climate change had a significant impact on their diets and may well have been a primary factor in their extinction.

“We have found evidence that, as the climate was changing and getting drier, animal diets were shifting dramatically,” said Larisa DeSantis, assistant professor of earth and environmental studies at Vanderbilt University, who directed the study. “If climate change was a primary or contributing factor in their demise, as it appears, we need to pay more attention to how current levels of climate change are affecting animals today.”

The results of the study are described in a paper titled “Dietary responses of Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea) megafauna to climate and environmental change” published Jan. 26 by the journal Paleobiology. Co-authors on the paper are Judith Field and John Dodson from the University of New South Wales and Stephen Wroe from the University of New England.

Michael Archer, a leading Australian paleontologist at the University of New South Wales who was not involved in the study, commented, “This new study, based on hard evidence, makes it clear that changes in late Pleistocene climate had a major impact on the late Pleistocene megafauna of Australia, adding even more evidence to challenge the imaginative a priori assumption that ‘blitzkrieg’ by early humans caused the extinction of this continent’s lost megafauna. Climate change clearly has been in the past and will continue to be a major cause of extinction into the future.”

The teeth that were analyzed came from the Cuddie Springs site in southeastern Australia. It is located on a prehistoric ephemeral lake and it is the only site on mainland Australia that has produced fossil evidence of the co-existence of humans and megafauna. “Unfortunately, many of the advocates of the human predation hypothesis have discounted Cuddie Springs because it does not support the popular ‘blitzkrieg’ theory that maintains the megafauna went extinct in the 1,000-year period after humans arrived on the scene,” said DeSantis.

It’s amazing how much information about the prehistoric environment paleontologists can extract from fossil teeth using a dental drill, dental impression material and some sophisticated instruments. The ratios of oxygen and carbon isotopes locked in the enamel provide clues about the animals’ diet and the average temperature and humidity of the environment at the time the teeth formed.

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Skull of Diprotodon optatum, extinct Australian marsupial megafauna, at the Melbourne Museum. The specimen clearly shows the large front teeth for which the genus is named (Diprotodon = “two forward teeth”) and the dentition adapted for browsing. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.  jjron, Wikimedia Commons

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Differences within individual teeth mirror climate variability. Analysis of the microscopic scratches on the surface of the teeth provides evidence of what the animal was eating in the last few weeks of its life. Differences in wear-patterns can differentiate between animals that were grazing on grass and browsing on bushes.

“For example, we know from the analysis of modern day kangaroos that oxygen isotope ratios in their teeth are highly correlated with the relative humidity and amount of precipitation in their environment,” DeSantis said. “This makes them ideally suited for tracking changes in aridity over time.”

During the megafaunal heyday around 500,000 years ago, the dental analysis revealed that the climate was semi-arid. In addition, the animals’ diets were highly variable, implying that there were a number of ecological niches available to them. That contrasts markedly with the period from 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. Here, the analysis indicates that the climate was substantially drier and the diet of the giant herbivores was considerably more restricted.

“It appears that long-term aridification may have reduced the ability of megafauna to consume certain types of plants, including salt-bush. Eating salt-rich plants requires drinking additional water that was less available and likely increased competition for similar plant resources,” said DeSantis. “These data clarify the impacts of climatic change on marsupial megafauna and suggest that the long-term drying out of Australia, identified here and in other records, likely played a key role in the decline and disappearance of this unique suite of animals.”

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Article Source: Vanderbilt University

The work was supported by National Science Foundation grants EAR1053839 and FAIN1455198, Australian Research Foundation grants ARC LP211430 and DPO5579230, University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, Oak Ridge Associated Universities and Vanderbilt University.

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UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY—The study of Palaeolithic art is “one of the few tools we have to find out about the culture and society of prehistoric groups,” said Blanca Ochoa, researcher in the UPV/EHU’s department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology. Knowing who the representations were meant for “could indicate the intended use of cave art for prehistoric groups: whether it was something for the whole group, shared by all its members, or whether it was limited to small groups, or even to just one individual,” she explained.

In her research the aim was to specify whether there were any preferences in terms of choosing the spaces where the Palaeolithic representations were drawn or engraved in nine caves on the Cantabrian coast located in Asturias and Cantabria. “It is an aspect that has been analysed very little until now,” remarked the researcher. They developed an in-house methodology to analyse the visibility of the figures depicted, which covers not only variables relating to the space where they are located (room size, accessibility, presence of natural light etc.) but also characteristics relating to the depictions themselves: “The size of the works, the height they are at, and, above all, the technique used to execute them (painting or engraving) largely determines visibility,” said Ochoa. “The paintings are much more visible than the engravings, and even more so if the engraving is not very deep”.

Differences in location, possible change of use

As Ochoa explained, one of the most interesting results they have extracted in the research are the chronological differences observed: “Throughout the Upper Palaeolithic the topographical distribution of the works gradually changed: during the early phases of the Upper Palaeolithic there is a preference for executing medium-sized and large drawings in the main galleries of the caves. During the Magdalenian, between 20,000 and 12,000 years ago, there was an increase in the use of spaces located in places far from the main cave route, in small, sometimes concealed rooms; what is more, there was a preference for a smaller size when it came to creating the figures and an increase in the use of the engraving as a technique. Art may have been used to be seen in community during the Pre-Magdalenian. The use of smaller spaces during the Magdalenian, however, could indicate that art became something more restricted or that it performed another kind of function”.

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This is a panel located in the cave at La Pasiego (Puente Viesgo, Cantabria), where various figures painted in different phases and chronologies can be seen: the largest figure is an auroch and various types of signs of a triangular type and groups of dots can be seen. The panel is located in a small side room open to the main gallery of the cave just a few meters from the entrance. Credit: Blanca Ochoa

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As it is a new type of study and conducted in a limited geographical area, Ochoa stresses the preliminary nature of the results obtained. Nevertheless, she believes it will “help to establish the bases to find out who Palaeolithic art was intended for. We have confirmed that the methodology developed does in fact work and that it can continue to be applied in other areas of the Cantabrian region or outside it. I would like to continue with the research, because the results for this area have been very interesting, and I would like to see whether the conclusions we have drawn can be extended to other areas. Although there will probably be geographical differences as well and the different groups may have had other uses of art”.

Article Source: University of the Basque Country

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UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER—New evidence involving the ancient poop of some of the huge and astonishing creatures that once roamed Australia indicates the primary cause of their extinction around 45,000 years ago was likely a result of humans, not climate change.

Led by Monash University in Victoria, Australia and the University of Colorado Boulder, the team used information from a sediment core drilled in the Indian Ocean off the coast of southwest Australia to help reconstruct past climate and ecosystems on the continent. The core contains chronological layers of material blown and washed into the ocean, including dust, pollen, ash and spores from a fungus called Sporormiella that thrived on the dung of plant-eating mammals, said CU Boulder Professor Gifford Miller.

Miller, who participated in the study led by Sander van der Kaars of Monash University, said the sediment core allowed scientists to look back in time, in this case more than 150,000 years, spanning Earth’s last full glacial cycle. Fungal spores from plant-eating mammal dung were abundant in the sediment core layers from 150,000 years ago to about 45,000 years ago, when they went into a nosedive, said Miller, a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences.

“The abundance of these spores is good evidence for a lot of large mammals on the southwestern Australian landscape up until about 45,000 years ago,” he said. “Then, in a window of time lasting just a few thousand years, the megafauna population collapsed.”

A paper on the subject was published online Jan. 20 in Nature Communications.

The Australian collection of megafauna some 50,000 years ago included 1,000-pound kangaroos, 2-ton wombats, 25-foot-long lizards, 400-pound flightless birds, 300-pound marsupial lions and Volkswagen-sized tortoises. More than 85 percent of Australia’s mammals, birds and reptiles weighing over 100 pounds went extinct shortly after the arrival of the first humans, said Miller.

The ocean sediment core showed the southwest is one of the few regions on the Australian continent that had dense forests both 45,000 years ago and today, making it a hotbed for biodiversity, said Miller, also associate director of CU Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.

“It’s a region with some of the earliest evidence of humans on the continent, and where we would expect a lot of animals to have lived,” Miller said. “Because of the density of trees and shrubs, it could have been one of their last holdouts some 45,000 years ago. There is no evidence of significant climate change during the time of the megafauna extinction.”

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 This is a menagerie of megafauna that inhabited Australia some 45,000 years ago. Credit: Peter Trusler, Monash University

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Scientists have been debating the causes of the Australian megafauna extinctions for decades. Some claim the animals could not have survived changes in climate, including a shift some 70,000 years ago when much of the southwestern Australia landscape went from a wooded eucalyptus tree environment to an arid, sparsely vegetated landscape.

Others have suggested the animals were hunted to extinction by Australia’s earliest immigrants who had colonized most of the continent by 50,000 years ago, or a combination of overhunting and climate change, said Miller.

Miller said the extinction may have been caused by “imperceptible overkill.” A 2006 study by Australian researchers indicates that even low-intensity hunting of Australian megafauna – like the killing of one juvenile mammal per person per decade – could have resulted in the extinction of a species in just a few hundred years.

“The results of this study are of significant interest across the archaeological and Earth science communities and to the general public who remain fascinated by the menagerie of now extinct giant animals that roamed the planet – and the cause of their extinction – as our own species began its persistent colonization of Earth,” said van der Kaars.

In 2016 Miller used burned eggshells of the 400-pound bird, Genyornis, as the first direct evidence that humans actually preyed on the Australian megafauna.

The new study also included Research Professor Scott Lehman of INSTAAR. The study was funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the German Research Foundation.

Article Source: University of Colorado at Boulder

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STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY—During the spring of 2016 a number of large presumed house terraces were identified by the authors at Korshamn, Sweden. As a consequence, high resolution geophysical surveys using ground-penetrating radar were carried out in September 2016. Korshamn is one of the main harbour bays of the island of Björkö, situated outside the town boundaries of the Viking town of Birka. The survey revealed a major Viking period hall on the site, with a length of around 40 meters. Based on the land upheaval the area of the Viking hall can be dated to sometime after 810 AD. The hall is connected to a large fenced area that stretches towards the harbour basin.

“This kind of Viking period high status manor has previously only been identified at a few places in southern Scandinavia, for instance at Tissø and Lejre in Denmark. It is known that the fenced area at such manors was linked to religious activities” says Johan Runer, archaeologist at the Stockholm county museum.

During the survey a predecessor for the Viking Age manor was also identified at the site: a high status manor that existed during the Vendel period, prior to the establishment of the Viking Age town of Birka. Both the identified buildings and their continued use from the Vendel period to the Viking Age correlate well with the “ancestral property” of Birka’s royal bailiff Herigar as mentioned in Rimbert’s Vita Anskarii. Herigar was Christianized by Ansgar, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, during his first mission c. 830 AD, and he built the first church on his land.

“The consequences of our discoveries cannot be overestimated: in terms of the emergence of the Viking town of Birka, its royal administration and the earliest Christian mission to Scandinavia”, says Sven Kalmring, researcher at the Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie, Schleswig.

“The results highlight the benefits of using non-intrusive geophysical surveys for the detection of archaeological features and, once again, prove to be an invaluable tool for documenting Iron Age building remains in Scandinavia”, says Andreas Viberg, researcher at the Archaeological Research Laboratory at Stockholm University.

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 Reconstruction of Viking age manor. Credit: Reconstruction by Jacques Vincent

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The results will be published in the international scientific journal Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt volume 2017/1. Send an e-mail to Anders Viberg to get a preview of the article.

The research is a collaboration between Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie, Stockholm county museum and the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University.

Article Source: Edited from a Stockholm University press release.

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 This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.

AMERICAN FRIENDS OF TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY—Some believe that the fabled mines of King Solomon were located among copper smelting camps in Israel’s Timna Valley. The arid conditions at Timna have seen the astonishing preservation of 3,000-year-old organic materials, which have provided Tel Aviv University archaeologists with a unique window into the culture and practices of a sophisticated ancient society.

An advanced military fortification — a well-defined gatehouse complex — unearthed recently at Timna, including donkey stables, points to the community’s highly-organized defense system and significant dependence on long-distance trade. The research was recently published in The Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

The fortification dates to the reigns of Kings David and Solomon in the 10th century BCE.

“While there is no explicit description of ‘King Solomon’s mines’ in the Old Testament, there are references to military conflicts between Israel and the Edomites in the Arava Valley,” says Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef of TAU’s Institute of Archaeology and one of the leaders of the Timna research and excavation team, along with his colleagues Dr. Lidar Sapir-Hen and Dr. Dafna Langgut. “According to the Bible, David traveled hundreds of miles outside of Jerusalem and engaged in military conflict in the desert — striking down ‘18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt.’ Now, having found evidence of defensive measures — a sophisticated fortification — we understand what must have been at stake for him in this remote region: copper.”

Military threats

“Copper was a rare product and very challenging to produce,” Dr. Ben-Yosef continues. “Because copper — like oil today, perhaps — was the most coveted commodity, it landed at the very heart of military conflicts. The discovery of the fortification indicates a period of serious instability and military threats at that time in the region.”

In the remarkably intact two-room fortification, located in one of the largest smelting camps in the Timna Valley, the researchers also found evidence of a complex long-distance trade system that probably included the northern Edomite plateau, the Mediterranean coastal plain and Judea. The complex featured pens for draught animals and other livestock. According to precise pollen, seed, and fauna analyses, they were fed with hay and grape pomace — high-quality sustenance that must have been delivered from the Mediterranean region hundreds of miles away.

“The gatehouse fortification was apparently a prominent landmark,” says Dr. Ben-Yosef. “It had a cultic or symbolic function in addition to its defensive and administrative roles. The gatehouse was built of sturdy stone to defend against invasion. We found animal bones and dung piles so intact, we could analyze the food the animals were fed with precision. The food suggests special treatment and care, in accordance with the key role of the donkeys in the copper production and in trade in a logistically challenging region.”

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 The entrance complex with a two-room gatehouse flanked by animal pens and piles of dung. Credit: Erez Ben-Yosef et al.

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Archaeology and the Old Testament

The site was discovered in 1934 by the American archaeologist Nelson Glueck. He called the copper smelting site “Slaves’ Hill,” because he believed it bore all the marks of an Iron Age slave camp, complete with fiery furnaces and a formidable stone barrier that seemed designed to prevent escape. But in 2014 Dr. Ben-Yosef and colleagues debunked this theory, revealing that the diets and clothing of the smelters — perfectly preserved by the desert conditions — pointed instead to a hierarchical, sophisticated society.

“The historical accuracy of the Old Testament accounts is debated, but archaeology can no longer be used to contradict them,” Dr. Ben-Yosef observes. “On the contrary, our new discoveries are in complete accordance with the description of military conflicts against a hierarchical and centralized society located south of the Dead Sea.”

Dr. Ben-Yosef and his team plan to continue exploring the ancient societies that worked in these remote copper mines. “The unique preservation of organic materials in Timna, coupled with 21st century research methods including ancient DNA and residue analyses, bear the potential for additional significant discoveries in the future,” says Dr. Ben-Yosef.

Article Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University

The excavations at the ancient mines of Tinma continue every winter as part of the Central Timna Valley (CTV) Project of Tel Aviv University. More information about the excavation can be found at http://archaeology.tau.ac.il/ben-yosef/CTV/.

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 This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS—LAWRENCE—An international group that includes a University of Kansas researcher has discovered a brownish piece of split limestone in a site in Croatia that suggests Neanderthals 130,000 years ago collected the rock that stands out among all other items in the cave.

“If we were walking and picked up this rock, we would have taken it home,” said David Frayer, a professor emeritus of anthropology who was part of the study. “It is an interesting rock.”

The finding is important, he said, because it adds to other recent evidence that Neanderthals were capable—on their own—of incorporating symbolic objects into their culture. The rock was collected more than 100 years ago from the Krapina Neanderthal site, which has items preserved in the Croatian Natural History Museum in Zagreb, where in recent years the research team has re-examined them.

The group’s findings on the collected rock at Krapina were published recently in the French journal Comptes Rendus Palevol. Davorka Radovčić, curator at the Croatian Natural History Museum, was the study’s lead author, and Frayer is the corresponding author.

The same research group in a widely recognized 2015 study published a PLOS ONE article about a set of eagle talons from the same Neanderthal site that included cut marks and were fashioned into a piece of jewelry.

“People have often defined Neanderthals as being devoid of any kind of aesthetic feelings, and yet we know that at this site they collected eagle talons and they collected this rock. At other sites, researchers have found they collected shells and used pigments on shells,” Frayer said. “There’s a little bit of evidence out there to suggest that they weren’t the big, dumb creatures that everybody thinks they were.”

Similar to the Neanderthal jewelry discovery at Krapina, Frayer credits Radovčić’s keen eye in examining all items found at that the site, originally excavated between 1899-1905 and found to contain Neanderthal bones.

The cave at the Krapina site was sandstone, so the split limestone rock stuck out as not deriving from the cave, Frayer said. None of the more than 1,000 lithic items collected from Krapina resemble the rock, but the original archaeologists apparently did nothing more with the rock other than to collect it.

Frayer said the limestone rock—which is roughly five inches long, four inches high and about a half-inch thick—did not have any striking platforms or other areas of preparation on the rock’s edge, so the research team assumed it was not broken apart.

“The fact that it wasn’t modified, to us, it meant that it was brought there for a purpose other than being used as a tool,” Frayer said.

There was a small triangular flake that fits with the rock, but the break appeared to be fresh and likely happened well after the specimen was deposited into the sediments of the Krapina site. Perhaps it occurred during transport or storage after the excavation around 1900, he said.

The look of the rock also caught the researchers’ eye as many inclusions or black lines on it stood out from the brown limestone. Perhaps that is what made the Neanderthal want to collect it in the first place.

“It looked like it is important,” Frayer said. “We went back through all the collected items to make sure there weren’t other rocks like it. It just sat there for 100 years like most of the other stuff from the site. The original archaeologists had described stone tools, but didn’t pay any attention to this one.”

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Arrow indicates edge of the rock with the reddish-brown limonite staining. An international research team that includes Davorka Radovči, Croatian Natural History Museum, curator, and David Frayer, University of Kansas, professor emeritus of anthropology, discovered a limestone rock recovered from the Krapina Neanderthal site didn’t belong in the cave and was evidence a Neanderthal collected it 130,000 years ago. Credit: David Frayer, University of Kansas

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“Clam-shell” view of Side A and B showing black dendrites against the background of the brown mudstone. The flake, only shown re-attached on Side A, is the result of a post-excavation fracture of the specimen. Arrows point to large inclusion visible on Sides A and B. Credit: David Frayer, University of Kansas

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A microscopic view of some dendritic forms from Side A; (b) microscopic image of the limonite stains. . Credit: David Frayer, University of Kansas

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They suspect a Neanderthal collected the rock from a site a few kilometers north of the Krapina site where there were known outcrops of biopelmicritic grey limestone. Either the Neanderthal found it there or the Krapinica stream transported it closer to the site.

The discovery of the rock collection is likely minor compared with other discoveries, such as more modern humans 25,000 years ago making cave paintings in France. However, Frayer said it added to a body of evidence that Neanderthals were capable of assigning symbolic significance to objects and went to the effort of collecting them.

The discovery could also provide more clues as to how modern humans developed these traits, he said.

“It adds to the number of other recent studies about Neanderthals doing things that are thought to be unique to modern Homo sapiens,” Frayer said. “We contend they had a curiosity and symbolic-like capacities typical of modern humans.”

Article Source: University of Kansas

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 This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS)—As more DNA sequencing data continues to become available, including extinct hominids, a new human origins study has been performed that augments a trio of influential papers published in 2016 in the journal Nature.

The papers all confirmed the “Out of Africa” origins of modern humans, while disagreeing on the timing of when a more southern migration route (into Southeast Asia and Australia) may have occurred.

The new study, performed by geneticists at Harvard Medical School, provides an expanded framework for researchers to study human origins, drawing upon extensive DNA sampling—10 representative modern human populations and all archaic hominid DNA sequenced. After accounting for interbreeding events involving the archaic hominids, their model features a major eastern-western population split once modern humans left Africa, dating back to at least 45,000 years ago, with Australians and New Guineans inside the eastern group.

“We view our model as a detailed synthesis of existing data and a good basis for further work,” said Mark Lipson, lead author on the paper from the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Lipson, along with colleague David Reich, of Harvard, the Broad Institute, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, published the study in the advance online edition of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Their model supports a radiation of modern human populations shortly after leaving Africa, matching the work of archaeologists, although the “southern route” question is still not fully resolved. “We don’t see evidence of ancestry from an early southern dispersal in present-day populations, although we can’t rule out a small proportion,” added Lipson.

He also urges caution until more DNA data is in hand.

“There is some older archaeological evidence from Asia, and while our results suggest that the earliest inhabitants probably would not have been closely related to Asian and Australian populations today, it would be extremely interesting to see DNA from those sites,” he said.

Their hope is that analysis of additional ancient samples within the framework of their study and the other recent papers will continue to refine our understanding of human origins.

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 Putative migration waves out of Africa and location of some of the most relevant ancient human remains and archeological sites. The placement of arrows is indicative.  Saioa López, Lucy van Dorp and Garrett Hellenthal, from Wikimedia Commons

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Article Source: Molecular Biology and Evolution news release

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 This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE—A new analysis of an archeological site in the high mountains of Tibet suggests that permanent residents may have set up camp thousands of years sooner than previously thought. Previous analyses estimated that the site’s founding residents arrived about 5,200 thousand years ago, but now a more comprehensive analysis by Michael Meyer et al. suggests that it was inhabited, likely on a permanent basis, at least 7,400 thousand years ago, but perhaps as long as more than 12,000 years ago. Upon leaving Africa, humans effectively spread out across most of the Earth, but the timing of their arrival in the highest Himalyan ranges has been unclear. Among some of the best preserved sites for scientists to study is Chusang, a village perched in the central plateau more than 4,000 meters above sea level. The site, discovered in 1998, features 19 human hand and footprints along the surface of a fossil travertine. In attempts to better date the village, Meyer and colleagues used three different techniques, including thorium/uranium dating of samples taken from and adjacent to the prints; optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to determine the date of quartz crystals in the travertine; and radiocarbon dating on microscopic plant remains at the site. Their new estimated range for settlement at Chusang, between 7,400 and 12,670 years ago, is more in line with results from some genetic studies, the authors note. As well, they highlight how difficult travel from this base camp must have been, with roundtrip routes to other sites likely taking dozens of days and being impassable for most of the year. Therefore, they emphasize that is it very likely that Chusang represents a permanent settlement, before agriculture took hold in the area. Permanent pre-agricultural peopling of the plateau may have been enabled by a wetter climate that prevailed in the region at the time, Meyer and colleagues suggest.

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 A handprint image taken in 2006. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the Jan. 6, 2017, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by M.C. Meyer at University of Innsbruck in Innsbruck, Austria, and colleagues was titled, “Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene.” Credit: Mark Aldenderfer

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Article Source: AAAS press release

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“Permanent human occupation of the central Tibetan Plateau in the early Holocene,” by M.C. Meyer; Z. Wang at University of Innsbruck in Innsbruck, Austria; M.S. Aldenderfer at University of California, Merced in Merced, CA; D.L. Hoffmann at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany; J.A. Dahl at National Isotope Centre at GNS Science in Lower Hutt, New Zealand; D. Degering at ADD Ideas Degering and Degering in Mohorn, Germany; W.R. Haas at University of Wyoming in Laramie, WY; F. Schlütz at Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

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Did this article interest you? If so, you may be interested in Popular Archaeology’s premium article about ancient Tibet, On the Roof of the World: Discovering the Forgotten Civilization of Zhang Zhung.

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 This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.

Among the most iconic sites of Jerusalem is the Western Wall, a sacred and holy place of prayer and meditation for thousands of Jewish visitors, many of whom come to its location from thousands of miles away. Today it is only a vestige of its former state — an ancient visible reminder of the great Jewish Second Temple and its precinct constructed by King Herod more than 2,000 year ago. Standing beside it, one can peer up at a towering monument of massive limestone blocks, the lower Herodian courses of which bear the unmistakable weathering of two millennia. In their mind’s eye, many of its visitors imagine it as it was in its heyday, before the great Roman destruction of 70 A.D. saw the Temple and its auxiliary buildings and great platform retaining wall violently dismantled and cast down into the surrounding depths below its platform.

But imagination may no longer be necessary, if technology has its way.  

Now, a virtual reality company has produced a visual app that is touted to present an archaeologically accurate 3D reconstruction of ancient Jerusalem as it appeared during the time of King Herod, around the time of Jesus of the Christian New Testament accounts. The company, known as Lithodomos VR, was founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2016 and is purposed to produce meticulously researched, accurate reconstructions of various locations and subjects of the ancient world. It has just unveiled its first app, Ancient Jerusalem in VR, and the  founder, Simon Young, believes it will serve not only as an entertainment product but as an educational tool, as well. 

“Lithodomos VR was inspired by a burning desire to travel back in time and see the ancient world first hand. VR gave me the tools to do it,” said Young. Most important, “what differentiates Lithodomos VR from the rest is our commitment to archaeological accuracy,” adds Young.

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 A snapshot of what viewers will see with the new app, Ancient Jerusalem in VR. Courtesy Lithodomos VR

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The Jerusalem app is designed to be the company’s first test case of the product line, but Young believes many more apps will follow, providing a resource for both recreational and educational/research use across the world.  

“This awe inspiring VR reconstruction of ancient Jerusalem will leave you speechless,” states a Lithodomos VR press release announcement of the product. “Imagine seeing the Western Wall tower above you, newly constructed and a staggering 20 meters tall. Imagine seeing thousands of homes, sprawling to the horizon at its base.” 

For many, Young believes it could be the next best thing to actually being on location, especially for those who want to visualize how today’s ancient remains fit into the picture of how the city appeared during the tumultuous and eventful period of 1st century Roman occupied Jerusalem. 

Interested readers may acquire the app (available on Google Play for $1.99) by going to this website.

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 A brief video sample of Ancient Jerusalem in VR 

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Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

____________________________________________

 This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY—WASHINGTON (Jan. 2, 2017)—A new study from the George Washington University’s Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology (CASHP) found that whereas brain size evolved at different rates for different species, especially during the evolution of Homo, the genus that includes humans, chewing teeth tended to evolve at more similar rates. The finding suggests that our brains and teeth did not evolve in lock step and were likely influenced by different ecological and behavioral factors.

This research challenges the classically accepted view that reduction of tooth size in hominins is linked with having a larger brain. The reasoning is that larger brains allowed hominins to start making stone tools and that the use of these tools reduced the need to have such large chewing teeth. But recent studies by other authors found that hominins had larger brains before chewing teeth became smaller, and they made and used stone tools when brains were still quite small, which challenges this relationship.

The new study evaluates this issue by measuring and comparing the rates at which teeth and brains have evolved along the different branches of the human evolutionary tree.

“The findings of the study indicate that simple causal relationships between the evolution of brain size, tool use and tooth size are unlikely to hold true when considering the complex scenarios of hominin evolution and the extended time periods during which evolutionary change has occurred,” said Aida Gómez-Robles, lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral scientist at GW’s CASHP.

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 This is a 3-D reconstruction of a modern human cranium showing the teeth and endocranial cast. Credit: George Washington University

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To conduct the research, Dr. Gómez-Robles and her colleagues analyzed eight different hominin species. The researchers identified fast-evolving species by comparing differences between groups with those obtained when simulating evolution at a constant rate across all lineages, and they found clear differences between tooth evolution and brain evolution. If the classical view proposing co-evolution between brains and teeth is correct, they expected to see a close correspondence between species evolving at a fast rate for both traits. The differences they observed indicate that diverse and unrelated factors influenced the evolution of teeth and brains.

“Once something becomes conventional wisdom, in no time at all it becomes dogma,” said Bernard Wood, university professor of human origins at GW and a co-author of the paper. “The co-evolution of brains and teeth was on a fast-track to dogma status, but we caught it in the nick of time.”

The research published Jan. 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: George Washington University news release.

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Subscribe to Popular Archaeology Premium. Available on all laptops and mobile devices, and still the industry’s best value at only $9.00 annually.

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Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

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 This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY—Phoenix, AZ—You’ve likely heard about being in the right place at the wrong time, but what about having the right genes in the wrong environment? In other words, could a genetic mutation (or allele) that puts populations at risk for illnesses in one environmental setting manifest itself in positive ways in a different setting?

That’s the question behind a recent paper published in The FASEB Journal by several researchers including lead author Ben Trumble, an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change and ASU’s Center for Evolution and Medicine.

These researchers examined how the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene might function differently in an infectious environment than in the urban industrialized settings where ApoE has mostly been examined. All ApoE proteins help mediate cholesterol metabolism, and assist in the crucial activity of transporting fatty acids to the brain. But in industrialized societies, ApoE4 variant carriers also face up to a four-fold higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related cognitive declines, as well as a higher risk for cardiovascular disease.

The goal of this study, Trumble explains, was to reexamine the potentially detrimental effects of the globally-present ApoE4 allele in environmental conditions more typical of those experienced throughout our species’ existence—in this case, a community of Amazonian forager-horticulturalists called the Tsimane.

“For 99% of human evolution, we lived as hunter gatherers in small bands and the last 5,000-10,000 years—with plant and animal domestication and sedentary urban industrial life—is completely novel,” Trumble says. “I can drive to a fast-food restaurant to ‘hunt and gather’ 20,000 calories in a few minutes or go to the hospital if I’m sick, but this was not the case throughout most of human evolution.”

Due to the tropical environment and a lack of sanitation, running water, or electricity, remote populations like the Tsimane face high exposure to parasites and pathogens, which cause their own damage to cognitive abilities when untreated.

As a result, one might expect Tsimane ApoE4 carriers who also have a high parasite burden to experience faster and more severe mental decline in the presence of both these genetic and environmental risk factors.

But when the Tsimane Health and Life History Project tested these individuals using a seven-part cognitive assessment and a medical exam, they discovered the exact opposite.

In fact, Tsimane who both carried ApoE4 and had a high parasitic burden displayed steadier or even improved cognitive function in the assessment versus non-carriers with a similar level of parasitic exposure. The researchers controlled for other potential confounders like age and schooling, but the effect still remained strong. This indicated that the allele potentially played a role in maintaining cognitive function even when exposed to environmental-based health threats.

For Tsimane ApoE4 carriers without high parasite burdens, the rates of cognitive decline were more similar to those seen in industrialized societies, where ApoE4 reduces cognitive performance.

“It seems that some of the very genetic mutations that help us succeed in more hazardous time periods and environments may actually become mismatched in our relatively safe and sterile post-industrial lifestyles,” Trumble explains.

Still, the ApoE4 variant appears to be much more than an evolutionary leftover gone bad, he adds. For example, several studies have shown potential benefits of ApoE4 in early childhood development, and ApoE4 has also been shown to eliminate some infections like giardia and hepatitis.

“Alleles with harmful effects may remain in a population if such harm occurs late in life, and more so if those same alleles have other positive effects,” adds co-author Michael Gurven, professor of anthropology at University of California, Santa Barbara. “Exploring the effects of genes associated with chronic disease, such as ApoE4, in a broader range of environments under more infectious conditions is likely to provide much-needed insight into why such ‘bad genes’ persist.”

The abstract and full research paper “Apolipoprotein E4 is associated with improved cognitive function in Amazonian forager-horticulturalists with a high parasite burden” can be viewed here in The FASEB Journal.

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 The tropical environment of the Tsimane. Sascha Grabow, Wikimedia Commons

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Article Source: Arizona State University news release

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Subscribe to Popular Archaeology Premium. Available on all laptops and mobile devices, and still the industry’s best value at only $9.00 annually.

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 This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY—PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University archaeologists are at the helm of new research using sophisticated computer technology to learn how past societies responded to climate change.

Their work, which links ancient climate and archaeological data, could help modern communities identify new crops and other adaptive strategies when threatened by drought, extreme weather and other environmental challenges.

In a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, assistant professor of anthropology, and WSU colleagues Stefani Crabtree, Kyle Bocinsky and Tim Kohler examine how recent advances in computational modeling are reshaping the field of archaeology.

“For every environmental calamity you can think of, there was very likely some society in human history that had to deal with it,” said Kohler, emeritus professor of anthropology at WSU. “Computational modeling gives us an unprecedented ability to identify what worked for these people and what didn’t.”

Leaders in agent-based modeling

Kohler is a pioneer in the field of model-based archaeology. He developed sophisticated computer simulations, called agent-based models, of the interactions between ancestral peoples in the American Southwest and their environment.

He launched the Village Ecodynamics Project in 2001 to simulate how virtual Pueblo Indian families, living on computer-generated and geographically accurate landscapes, likely would have responded to changes in specific variables like precipitation, population size and resource depletion.

By comparing the results of agent-based models against real archeological evidence, anthropologists can identify past conditions and circumstances that led different civilizations around the world into periods of growth and decline.

‘Video game’ plays out to logical conclusion

Agent-based modeling is also used to explore the impact humans can have on their environment during periods of climate change.

One study mentioned in the WSU review demonstrates how drought, hunting and habitat competition among growing populations in Egypt led to the extinction of many large-bodied mammals around 3,000 B.C. In addition, d’Alpoim Guedes and Bocinsky, an adjunct faculty member in anthropology, are investigating how settlement patterns in Tibet are affecting erosion.

“Agent-based modeling is like a video game in the sense that you program certain parameters and rules into your simulation and then let your virtual agents play things out to the logical conclusion,” said Crabtree, who completed her Ph.D. in anthropology at WSU earlier this year. “It enables us to not only predict the effectiveness of growing different crops and other adaptations but also how human societies can evolve and impact their environment.”

Modeling disease- and drought-tolerant crops

Species distribution or crop-niche modeling is another sophisticated technology that archeologists use to predict where plants and other organisms grew well in the past and where they might be useful today.

Bocinsky and d’Alpoim Guedes are using the modeling technique to identify little-used or in some cases completely forgotten crops that could be useful in areas where warmer weather, drought and disease impact food supply.

One of the crops they identified is a strain of drought-tolerant corn the Hopi Indians of Arizona adapted over the centuries to prosper in poor soil.

“Our models showed Hopi corn could grow well in the Ethiopian highlands where one of their staple foods, the Ethiopian banana, has been afflicted by emerging pests, disease and blasts of intense heat,” Bocinsky said. “Cultivating Hopi corn and other traditional, drought-resistant crops could become crucial for human survival in other places impacted by climate change.”

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 WSU scientists use data from archaeological sites like the 1,200-year-old Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, N.M., to study how ancient peoples adapted to climate change in the American Southwest. Credit: Nate Crabtree

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Millet comeback in Tibet

WSU researchers also used crop-niche modeling to identify a viable alternative food source on the Tibetan Plateau. Rapidly rising temperatures make it difficult for the region’s inhabitants to grow cold weather crops and raise and breed yaks, a staple form of subsistence.

In a paper published in 2015, d’Alpoim Guedes and Bocinsky found that foxtail and proso millet, which fell out of cultivation on the Plateau 4,000 years ago as the climate got colder, could soon be grown there again as the climate warms up.

“These millets are on the verge of becoming forgotten crops,” d’Alpoim Guedes said. “But due to their heat tolerance and high nutritional value, and very low rainfall requirements, they may once again be useful resources for a warmer future.”

Future of informed management

With hundreds of years of anthropological data from sites around the world yet to be digitized, scientists are just beginning to tap the potential of archaeology-based modeling.

“The field is in the midst of a renaissance toward more computational approaches,” Kohler said. “Our hope is that combining traditional archaeology fieldwork with data-driven modeling techniques will help us more knowledgeably manage our numbers, our ecosystem interactions and avoid past errors regarding climate change.”

Article Source: Washington State University press release

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Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

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 This richly illustrated issue includes the following stories: Recent findings shedding new light on the whereabouts of the remains of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great; how an archaeologist-sculptor is bringing bones of the dead back to life; archaeologists uncovering town life at the dawn of civilization; an exclusive interview with internationally acclaimed archaeologist James M. Adovasio about what makes the Meadowcroft Rockshelter prominent in the ongoing search for the first Americans; what archaeologists are finding at the site of the ancient city of Gath, the home town of the biblical Philistine giant, Goliath; and how scientists are redrawing the picture of human evolution in Europe.  Find it on Amazon.com.