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Prehistoric human ancestors that created hand stencils in caves 40,000 years ago can now be identified as male or female with more than 90% accuracy.

Ancient hand stencils were made by blowing, spitting or stippling pigment onto a hand while it was held against a rock surface, leaving a negative impression on the rock in the shape of the hand. Hand stencils are frequently found alongside pictorial cave art created during a period known as the Upper Palaeolithic. Stencils found in Sulawesi, Indonesia date back 40,000 years, and those discovered in Europe are estimated to be as old as 37,000 years old.

This study, published today (open‐access) in the Journal of Archaeological Science, utilized techniques used in modern forensics to analyze stencils created by student volunteers and researchers as part of a collaborative research project between anthropologists and archaeologists at the University of Liverpool, the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa.

University of Liverpool biological anthropologist, Dr Emma Nelson, led the study. She said: “Archaeologists are interested in hand stencils because they provide a direct, physical connection with an artist living more than 35,000 years ago”.

“Now, using a new experimental application, results from our study indicate it is possible to determine, with more than 90% accuracy, the sex of someone who lived tens of thousands of years ago, from the shape and size of their hand outline. We have even applied the method to hand stencils where digits are missing – common in Palaeolithic art – something prior studies have not been able to do.”

Previously, researchers focused on hand size and finger length, often producing conflicting results. Here, a technique called geometric morphometrics was used to detect sex‐based differences in hand shape and form. Known‐sex hand stencils were digitised and a series of 2D landmarks were applied to statistically evaluate the true shape and relative size of each stencil.

Dr Patrick Randolph‐Quinney, a forensic anthropologist at UCLAN and Wits University, said: “The problem with focussing on hand size and finger length is that two different shaped hands can have identical linear dimensions and ratios. To capture shape, we applied geometric morphometrics, a technique that had never been tested on hand stencils.”

Randolph-Quinney says this geometric approach is very powerful as it allows researchers to look at the palm and fingers independently. “It revealed that the shape of the palm is actually most indicative of the sex of the individual, rather than the finger size or length.”

Jason Hall, an archaeologist, also a member of the team from the University of Liverpool added: “As part of this study we built a replica cave wall to allow us to experiment with how art was made, and how it might look under different lighting conditions – without having to go deep underground. This ‘portable cave’ has been really popular with the public, especially school groups, who can make art in the same way that our ancestors did”.

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 The cave in action: Experimental reproduction of cave art in simulated cave conditions by researchers and students at the University of Liverpool. Credit: Jason Hall, University of Liverpool

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 The cave in daylight: An artificial portable cave wall which allows students and researchers to produce rock art without having to go underground. Credit: Jason Hall, University of Liverpool

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The forensic biometric landmarks used in this study applied to an experimental hand stencil. Credit: Patrick Randolph-Quinney, University of Central Lancashire and Wits University 

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Project co‐ordinator, Dr Anthony Sinclair, a Reader in Archaeology at the University of Liverpool and an expert in Palaeolithic archaeology said: “This is a great example of how archaeological science and forensic science are working together to advance our understanding of the past, and the social and cognitive systems that evolved during the Upper Palaeolithic”.

“We would encourage other researchers to apply this method to different human populations so we can build a more global understanding of hand variation.”

The full report, Beyond size: The potential of a geometric morphometric analysis of shape and form for the assessment of sex in hand stencils in rock art, appears in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Source: University of the Witwatersrand 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.

We are pleased to announce the release of the new Winter 2017 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine. This issue features new discoveries and restoration related to fascinating ancient Roman sites from Turkey to the United Kingdom, as well as new discoveries at a promising ancient Maya site in Belize and a soon-to-be-published feature article about an emerging early Paleo-Indian site in Florida that may hold clues to a human presence more than 13,000 years ago. Following is a list of the articles featured in this issue: 

1. On the Frontier of an Empire (Premium Article)   

The Roman fort of Vindolanda in northern England has revealed a fascinating glimpse into the personal lives of people on the cusp between Imperial Rome and indigenous British tribes. 

2.  The Rise and Fall of a Maya Polity (Premium Article)

Excavations are beginning to provide clues to understanding the rise of divine kingship, urbanization, and collapse at an ancient Maya site in Belize. 

3.  Old Vero (Premium Article)

COMING SOON: A Pleistocene smoking gun in southeast Florida hints at a human presence pre-dating the oldest defined Paleo-Indian culture in North America.

4.  A Pharaoh’s Nautical Tomb (Public Access)

Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Egyptian nautical theme and the remains of a funerary boat in a pharaonic tomb deep in the desert at Abydos.

5.  Restoring the Glory (Public Access)

A great ancient monumental agora in the mountains of Turkey is set to rise like a phoenix from its ruins.

6.  When in Rome: The Stadium of Domitian (Premium Article)

Archaeological excavations and restoration have made it possible for us to walk through ancient Rome’s first major monumental sports venue.

7.  Digging Deeper (Public Access)

A 21st Century Interpretation of Britain’s only known Roman Circus 

As always, we welcome any feedback you wish to provide by sending us a message at [email protected]. 

Thank you for joining us on our exploration of the human past!

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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)—The Tibetan Mastiff is famed for its high-altitude prowess, showing a remarkable strength and endurance to 3-mile elevations and even higher. Evolutionary biologists have successfully identified the genes responsible for this adaptation, yet an elusive question remained: Exactly how did they acquire the adaptation?

The answer, found by a Chinese research group led by Zhen Wang and Yixue Li, sheds light on not only the genetic origins of high-altitude elevation, but a remarkable tale of interbreeding in the adaptation of both dog and modern man.

Their new study demonstrates strong genetic evidence that, when man first settled into the Tibetan plateau, the recently domesticated Tibetan Mastiff interbred with the Tibet grey wolf, and a DNA swap being introduced at two genomic hotspots is the key to acquiring their special high altitude powers.

The study appears in the advanced online edition of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

The recent sequencing of the dog and wolf genomes has been a boon of study to evolutionary biologists.

Now, the Chinese group utilized the genomes for their comparative Tibetan study.

First, they showed that Tibetan Mastiffs are much more closely related with other Chinese dogs rather than grey wolves. Secondly, they found two unique genomic hotspots, the EPAS1 and HBB loci, that show the significant signals of interbreeding with the Tibet grey wolf and underwent strong positive selection.

And in a spectacular coincidence, it turns out to be the same location, same gene, same mechanism—interbreeding—as in humans.

And as for modern humans? Well, other recent studies suggest that Tibetans repeated this interbreeding adaptation—recent evidence shows that they may have also acquired their high-altitude adaptation by interbreeding with an ancient hominid known as the Denisovans. Even in evolutionary biology, history may have a way of repeating itself.

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Ancient interbreeding with the Tibet grey wolf made the Tibetan Mastiff adapt to the high altitude. A similar evolutionary mechanism occurred in parallel in the Tibetan people, who received their high altitude adaptation after inbreeding with the Denisovans.  Credit: Zhen Wang, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, P. R. China

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So perhaps it’s not surprising after all that ‘man’s best friend’ would adapt in a similar manner. The study adds to the significant evidence generated by scientists of the profound contributions and adaptations that can occur as a result of ancient interbreeding.

Article Source: Oxford 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.

A single base change in a human gene likely played an important role in evolutionary expansion of the human brain, researchers say. The results pinpoint an element unique to the human genome and to human-specific aspects of brain development. Bigger brains – an enlargement that largely reflects the increased number of neurons generated during development – are accompanied by the emergence of cognitive functions unique to humans. The human gene ARHGAP11B is the only known human-specific protein-encoding gene to promote the proliferation of neural progenitors during the development of the neocortex, the part of the human brain associated with sight and hearing. The gene arose on the human evolutionary lineage approximately one million years after divergence from the chimpanzee lineage, existed in Neanderthals and Denisovans, and is found in all present-day humans. It is also the product of a partial duplication of ARHGAP11A. Interestingly, the modern human gene lacks 55 nucleotides present in the precursor version. Here, Marta Florio, Svante Pääbo and colleagues show that the 55 nucleotides are deleted by mRNA splicing due to a single cytosine to guanine substitution that creates a novel splice site. The researchers recreated an ancestral version of the gene without the substitution and found that it exhibited similar protein activity as the paralog ARHGAP11A, but did not have the ability to increase neural progenitors. They concluded that the ability of the modern human gene to amplify neural progenitors arose not from the duplication of ARHGAP11A, but more recently, from a tiny change on the genomic scale – specifically, from a base change that led to a novel, human-specific terminal sequence in the protein encoded by the gene.

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 Apical progenitors (APs) and basal progenitors (BPs) in an embryonic mouse and a fetal human neocortex. Credit: Florio et al. Sci. Adv. 2016;2:e1601941 

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 Article Source: Science Advances 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.

MCMASTER UNIVERSITY—HAMILTON, Dec. 5, 2016 – An analysis of 2,000-year-old human remains from several regions across the Italian peninsula has confirmed the presence of malaria during the Roman Empire, addressing a longstanding debate about its pervasiveness in this ancient civilization.

The answer is in mitochondrial genomic evidence of malaria, coaxed from the teeth of bodies buried in three Italian cemeteries, dating back to the Imperial period of the 1st to 3rd centuries Common Era.

The genomic data is important, say researchers, because it serves as a key reference point for when and where the parasite existed in humans, and provides more information about the evolution of human disease.

“Malaria was likely a significant historical pathogen that caused widespread death in ancient Rome,” says evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar, director of McMaster’s Ancient DNA Centre where the work was conducted.

A serious and sometimes fatal infectious disease that is spread by infected mosquitoes, malaria and its parasite Plasmodium falciparum, is responsible for nearly 450,000 deaths every year, the majority of them children under the age of five.

“There is extensive written evidence describing fevers that sound like malaria in ancient Greece and Rome, but the specific malaria species responsible is unknown,” says Stephanie Marciniak, a former post doctoral student in the Ancient DNA Centre and now a postdoctoral scholar at Pennsylvania State University.

“Our data confirm that the species was likely Plasmodium falciparum, and that it affected people in different ecological and cultural environments. These results open up new questions to explore, particularly how widespread this parasite was, and what burden it placed upon communities in Imperial Roman Italy,” she says.

Marciniak sampled teeth taken from 58 adults and 10 children interred at three Imperial period Italian cemeteries: Isola Sacra, Velia and Vagnari. Located on the coast, Velia and Isola Sacra were known as important port cities and trading centres. Vagnari is located further inland and believed to be the burial site of labourers who would have worked on a Roman rural estate.

Using techniques developed at McMaster and abroad, researchers mined tiny DNA fragments from dental pulp taken from the teeth. They were able to extract, purify and enrich specifically for the Plasmodium species known to infect humans.

It was a difficult and painstaking process, complicated by the very nature of the disease.

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 Skeletal remains of an individual from Velia, Italy. Credit: Luca Bandioli, Pigorini Museum

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Usable DNA is challenging to extract because the parasites primarily dwell within the bloodstream and organs, including the spleen and liver, which decompose and break down over time–in this instance, over the course of two millennia.

Marciniak, Poinar, and Tracy Prowse from McMaster, alongside Luca Bandioli from the Luigi Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome and Edward Holmes from the University of Sydney recovered more than half of the P. falciparum mitochondrial genome from two individuals from Velia and Vagnari.

P. falciparum remains the most prevalent malaria parasite in sub-Saharan Africa and the most-deadly anywhere, responsible for the largest number of malaria-related deaths globally.

The findings are published in the journal Current Biology.

Source: McMaster 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.

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN – FACULTY OF HUMANITIES—A study from the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) and the University of Copenhagen shows that the process of cultivation and domestication of cereals occurred at different times across southwest Asia. The analyses of plant remains from archaeological sites dated to around 11,600-10,700 years ago suggest that in regions such as Turkey, Iran and Iraq, legumes, fruits and nuts dominated the diet, whereas cereals were the preferred types of plants in Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Israel. This means that Neolithic plant-based subsistence strategies were regionally diverse and that cereals were not staple foods in all regions.

Recent archaeological studies have suggested that the cultivation of morphologically wild plant species (pre-domestication cultivation), a precursor of agriculture, developed across southwest Asia around 11,600-10,700 years ago, during the co-called Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. In a new study published in PNAS, researchers from the University of the Basque Country and the University of Copenhagen document regional diversity in the types of plant species that were exploited during this period:

“We have studied the available archaeobotanical evidence (charred plant remains) from Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in southwest Asia dated to approximately 11,600 to 10,700 years ago, and we can conclude that the importance we have hitherto attributed to cereals such as wheat and barley needs to be re-evaluated as other plants such as legumes – e.g. lentils, beans and peas – also played a crucial role during this time period, particularly in the eastern Fertile Crescent, e.g. Iran and Iraq, and southeast Turkey” says postdoc and archaeobotanist Amaia Arranz-Otaegui from the Centre for the Study of Early Agricultural Societies at the University of Copenhagen.

The origins of domesticated cereals

Not only did Neolithic communities from various regions across southwest Asia exploit a different range of plants – and did thus not rely exclusively on cereals – but the evidence also suggests that the different plant exploitation strategies could have contributed to important chronological dissimilarities during the emergence of morphologically domesticated species:

“Our results indicate that in the southern Levant (e.g. modern-day Jordan, Israel, Palestine and southern Syria), cereals were predominant during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA, 11,600-10,700 years ago) and domesticated cereals, which eventually became the cornerstones of agriculture, appeared around 10,700-10,200 years ago. But in the eastern Fertile Crescent, where cereals were not commonly exploited during the PPNA, domesticated cereals appear around 400-1000 years later. We know that plant domestication was a process that occurred in multiple regions and involved several plant species, so it is likely that in those regions where cereal exploitation was not common practice, similar management processes involving plants such as legumes could have existed,” Amaia Arranz-Otaegui points out.

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 Tell Qarassa North, Southern Syria, early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, (10,700-10,200 cal BP). One of the earliest sites in southwest Asia with evidence of morphologically domesticated wheat and barley. Credit: Juan José Ibañez

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 Modern-day harvesting of wild barley in southern Syria. Credit: Juan José Ibañez

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Arranz Otaegui conducted the study “Regional diversity on the timing for the initial appearance of cereal cultivation and domestication in southwest Asia” with colleagues from Spain (Instituto Mila i Fontanals, CSIC, Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistoricas de Cantabria) and England (University Colledge London) when she was still employed at the University of the Basque Country.

Source: University of Copenhagen 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.

PLOS—Cypriot-style pottery may have been locally produced as well as imported and traded in Turkey during the Iron Age, according to a study* published November 30, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Steven Karacic from Florida State University, USA, and James Osborne of the University of Chicago, USA.

White Painted and Bichrome Wares are Cypriot-style ceramics produced during the Iron Age that may provide clues about trade in the Eastern Mediterranean at that time. Although these ceramics are often assumed to be imports from Cyprus, excavations in southern Turkey have suggested that some pottery was produced locally, challenging previous assumptions about trade in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The authors of the present study analyzed White Painted and Bichrome Wares recovered from three sites in the Hatay region of Turkey: Tell Tayinat, Çatal Höyük, and Tell Judaidah, using techniques which bombarded the pottery with x-rays and neutrons, providing insight into the chemical elements they contained. Imported and local versions of this pottery had different elemental compositions, which helped the authors determine where this pottery was produced. When compared with existing datasets, the researchers found that Çatal Höyük and Tell Judaidah may only have had access to pottery imported from Cyprus whereas Tell Tayinat may have made Cypriot-style pottery locally as well as importing it.

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Cypro-Geometric III and Cypro-Archaic I (ca. 850-600 BCE) pottery from Tell Tayinat, ancient Kunulua.

(1-3) White Painted Ware vertical-sided bowls; (4-7) White Painted Ware barrel jugs; (8-10) Bichrome Ware vertical-sided bowls; (11-12) Bichrome Ware barrel jugs; (13) Bichrome Ware juglet.  Credit: Karacic et al (2016)

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 Example of a white painted ware IV ancient Cypriot jug, 7th century BC.  Zde, Wikimedia Commons

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The authors suggest that feasting practices amongst the affluent in Tell Tayinat may have driven demand for Cypriot-style pottery, resulting in either local potters producing this pottery or Cypriot potters settling in the vicinity. Usually, pottery styles are expected to become increasingly rare the further away they are found from their origin of production, so these findings suggest a complex pattern of exchange in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Iron Age.

“We were surprised to find that locally produced Cypriot-style pottery was consumed at Tell Tayinat but not the other sites included in our study,” says Karacic. “These results indicate complex social and economic interactions between the Amuq and Cyprus that we are only just beginning to understand for the Iron Age.”

Article Source: PLOS news release

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*Karacic S, Osborne JF (2016) Eastern Mediterranean Economic Exchange during the Iron Age: Portable X-Ray Fluorescence and Neutron Activation Analysis of Cypriot-Style Pottery in the Amuq Valley, Turkey. PLoS ONE 11(11): e0166399. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166399

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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—While the popular notion of the American Thanksgiving is less than 400 years old, the turkey has been part of American lives for more than 2,000 years. But for much of that time, the bird was more revered than eaten.

Washington State University archaeologists over the years have repeatedly seen evidence, from bones to blankets to DNA extracted from ancient poop, suggesting that the Pueblo people of the Southwest bred turkeys as far back as 200 B.C.

“Turkeys were an important bird symbolically and in practical ways as a source of feathers that kept people warm in the winter,” said Bill Lipe, a WSU professor emeritus of anthropology with decades of experience in the area. “And they were also important as a food source, probably primarily at periodic feasts and ritual gatherings.”

Ritual and practical importance

In what is called the Basketmaker II era, which ran from 400 B.C. to 500 A.D., ancient Pueblo people shifted from making blankets of rabbit fur to using turkey feathers. One blanket could require 12,000 feathers, which could be taken as the birds molted.

The blankets helped ward off the high-altitude chill of Mesa Verde, but the turkeys also “must have had some symbolic importance,” said Lipe. “That continues all the way through to the present. Turkey feathers are still ritually quite important among Pueblo people.”

In the late 1100s, the Pueblo population boomed from what is now Mesa Verde National Park over into nearby southeast Utah. Computer models developed at WSU by anthropologists Tim Kohler and Kyle Bocinsky suggest that deer, a major protein source, were getting hunted out and replaced by turkeys as a source of meat.

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 Mesa Verde cliff dwellings, Colorado. Wikimedia Commons

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Thanksgiving then, too

That’s reflected in the decline of deer bones found in ancient middens, or waste sites, and the rise in the number of turkey bones, said Lipe.

“At some of the larger sites it looks as if they were getting the majority of their meat supply from turkeys, with deer and rabbits being less important,” he said.

Per-capita consumption appears to have averaged around three-fourths to one and a half turkeys per year. That’s not much, but in a village of 500 people, it adds up.

“This was an important bird as a food source as well as symbolically important and valuable for making warming blankets throughout this whole period,” Lipe said. “Turkeys were one of the things they had to be thankful for.”

Maize on the menus

The bird was no Butterball. In fact, said Lipe, historical and genetic evidence indicates a different variety—independently domesticated in Mexico—was taken by the Spanish to Europe. It was later brought back to North America, where it became the basis for the present-day turkey raising industry.

Lipe’s research is looking at the cost to Pueblo people of raising turkeys for meat. About three-fourths of the Pueblo diet was maize, a type of corn, and raising a turkey required either diverting a substantial amount of the crop to the bird or growing more. Lipe calculates that raising one turkey per person each year could consume roughly one-fourth of the maize harvest.

“Converting maize to turkey meat would have added to the risks of farming in a dry-farming area that had highly variable rainfall patterns,” Lipe said. “Of course, in case of a crop failure, the turkey flock could have been reduced, but probably at the risk of increasing the risk of nutritional problems, especially in children.”

Relocation, less reliance on turkeys

Lipe is gathering data that indicates turkey consumption in the Mesa Verde area peaked in the 1200s when the human population was also peaking. Over the following century, the area underwent a massive depopulation, emptying out the elaborate cliff dwellings with which the people are so often identified.

There’s good evidence that many of the people moved to the northern Rio Grande area about 200 miles southeast to escape a variety of stresses: the threat of warfare, recurring drought and new community leadership and organization, Lipe said. It’s possible, he said, that yet another contributing factor was “the costs and risks of raising large flocks of turkeys.”

The people continued to raise turkeys in the Rio Grande area, but archaeological evidence indicates they went back to relying more on deer for meat.

Source: Washington State 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.

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY—Hundreds of years before the first Thanksgiving, Native Americans were raising and feasting on America’s classic holiday meal.

Florida State University Associate Professor of Anthropology Tanya Peres and graduate student Kelly Ledford write in a paper published today in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports that Native Americans as early as 1200 – 1400 A.D. were managing and raising turkeys.

This is the first time scientists have suggested that turkeys were potentially domesticated by early Native Americans in the southeastern United States.

“In the Americas, we have just a few domesticated animals,” Peres said. “Researchers haven’t really talked about the possibility of Native Americans domesticating or raising turkeys.”

Researchers knew that turkeys had been a part of Native American life long before the first Thanksgiving in 1621.

Their feathers were used on arrows, in headdresses and clothing. The meat was used for food. Their bones were used for tools including scratchers used in ritual ceremonies. There are even representations of turkeys in artifacts from the time. An intricately engraved marine shell pendant found at a site in central Tennessee shows two turkeys facing each other.

But this new research indicates turkeys were more than just a casual part of life for Native Americans of that era. Peres and Ledford came across a few curiosities as they examined skeletons of turkeys from archaeological sites in Tennessee that led them to believe that Native Americans were actively managing these fowls.

For one, the groupings researchers worked on had more male turkeys than a typical flock.

In a typical flock of turkeys, there are usually more females, Peres said. But in the flock they examined, they found more remains of males. That would only happen if it were designed that way, she said.

“It appears Native Americans were favoring males for their bones for tools,” Peres said. “And they certainly would have favored males for their feathers. They tend to be much brighter and more colorful than the female species. Female feathers tend to be a dull grey or brown to blend in to their surroundings since they have to sit on the nest and protect the chicks.”

The other immediately noticeable trait that stood out to Peres and Ledford was that these ancient American gobblers were big boned — much larger than today’s average wild turkey. That could be the result of them being purposefully cared for or fed diets of corn.

“The skeletons of the archaeological turkeys we examined were quite robust in comparison to the skeletons of our modern comparatives,” Ledford said. “The domestication process typically results in an overall increase in the size of the animal so we knew this was a research avenue we needed to explore.”

Peres and Ledford are working with colleagues at Washington State University to perform a DNA sequencing of these turkeys and also conduct experiments to see what the turkeys were eating. If they were being fed corn, a chemical signature should appear in the remains.

Ledford is also collecting data from additional sites across the southeastern United States to see if this pattern of managing turkeys was consistent across settlements or if it was an isolated practice.

“It might be that not everybody was practicing this, but some people were for sure,” Peres said.

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 The first Thanksgiving. Painting print from the Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons

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Article Source: Florida State University press reease

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UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE—The latest research on archaeological sites of the ancient Indus Civilisation, which stretched across what is now Pakistan and northwest India during the Bronze Age, has revealed that domesticated rice farming in South Asia began far earlier than previously believed, and may have developed in tandem with – rather than as a result of – rice domestication in China.

The research also confirms that Indus populations were the earliest people to use complex multi-cropping strategies across both seasons, growing foods during summer (rice, millets and beans) and winter (wheat, barley and pulses), which required different watering regimes. The findings suggest a network of regional farmers supplied assorted produce to the markets of the civilisation’s ancient cities.

Evidence for very early rice use has been known from the site of Lahuradewa in the central Ganges basin, but it has long been thought that domesticated rice agriculture didn’t reach South Asia until towards the end of the Indus era, when the wetland rice arrived from China around 2000 BC. Researchers found evidence of domesticated rice in South Asia as much as 430 years earlier.

The new research is published today in the journals Antiquity and Journal of Archaeological Science by researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Division of Archaeology, in collaboration with colleagues at Banaras Hindu University and the University of Oxford.

“We found evidence for an entirely separate domestication process in ancient South Asia, likely based around the wild species Oryza nivara. This led to the local development of a mix of ‘wetland’ and ‘dryland’ agriculture of local Oryza sativa indica rice agriculture before the truly ‘wetland’ Chinese rice, Oryza sativa japonica, arrived around 2000 BC,” says study co-author Dr Jennifer Bates

“While wetland rice is more productive, and took over to a large extent when introduced from China, our findings appear to show there was already a long-held and sustainable culture of rice production in India as a widespread summer addition to the winter cropping during the Indus civilisation.”

Co-author Dr Cameron Petrie says that the location of the Indus in a part of the world that received both summer and winter rains may have encouraged the development of seasonal crop rotation before other major civilisations of the time, such as Ancient Egypt and China’s Shang Dynasty.

“Most contemporary civilisations initially utilised either winter crops, such as the Mesopotamian reliance on wheat and barley, or the summer crops of rice and millet in China – producing surplus with the aim of stockpiling,” says Petrie.

“However, the area inhabited by the Indus is at a meteorological crossroads, and we found evidence of year-long farming that predates its appearance in the other ancient river valley civilisations.”

The archaeologists sifted for traces of ancient grains in the remains of several Indus villages within a few kilometers of the site called Rakhigari: the most recently excavated of the Indus cities that may have maintained a population of some 40,000.

As well as the winter staples of wheat and barley and winter pulses like peas and vetches, they found evidence of summer crops: including domesticated rice, but also millet and the tropical beans urad and horsegram, and used radiocarbon dating to provide the first absolute dates for Indus multi-cropping: 2890-2630 BC for millets and winter pulses, 2580-2460 BC for horsegram, and 2430-2140 BC for rice.

Millets are a group of small grain, now most commonly used in birdseed, which Petrie describes as “often being used as something to eat when there isn’t much else”. Urad beans, however, are a relative of the mung bean, often used in popular types of Indian dhal today.

In contrast with evidence from elsewhere in the region, the village sites around Rakhigari reveal that summer crops appear to have been much more popular than the wheats of winter.

The researchers say this may have been down to the environmental variation in this part of the former civilisation: on the seasonally flooded Ghaggar-Hakra plains where different rainfall patterns and vegetation would have lent themselves to crop diversification – potentially creating local food cultures within individual areas.

This variety of crops may have been transported to the cities. Urban hubs may have served as melting pots for produce from regional growers, as well as meats and spices, and evidence for spices have been found elsewhere in the region.

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 Excavating a pit from which archaeobotanical samples were collected at the Indus Civilization site of Masudpur I in northwest India.  Credit: Cameron Petrie

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While they don’t yet know what crops were being consumed at Rakhigarhi, Jennifer Bates points out that: “It is certainly possible that a sustainable food economy across the Indus zone was achieved through growing a diverse range of crops, with choice being influenced by local conditions.

“It is also possible that there was trade and exchange in staple crops between populations living in different regions, though this is an idea that remains to be tested.”

“Such a diverse system was probably well suited to mitigating risk from shifts in climate,” adds Cameron Petrie. “It may be that some of today’s farming monocultures could learn from the local crop diversity of the Indus people 4,000 years ago.”

The findings are the latest from the Land, Water and Settlement Project, which has been conducting research on the ancient Indus Civilisation in northwest India since 2008.

Article Source: University of Cambridge news release.

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FACULTY OF SCIENCE – UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN—An ancient maize genome sequence of a 5,310-year-old maize cob provides new insights into the early stages of maize domestication. The specimen is important because it dates to a point in time approximately halfway between the beginning of maize domestication and today’s corn. In a gene-by-gene analysis, the ancient sample shows that many key genes had already been affected by human selection, including the lack of a hard seed coat and changes in flowering time. Other traits were not yet under selection, including sugar content of the kernels and, surprisingly, a gene that is related to dispersal of kernels from the plant. These details are the result of a study conducted by postdoc Nathan Wales and PhD student Jazmín Ramos Madrigal from the Natural History Museum of Denmark. The results have just been published in the scientific journal Current Biology.

Researchers have long debated how and why ancient people domesticated maize, in large part because the wild ancestor of maize–known as teosinte–provides surprisingly little nutrition. Each teosinte ear produces only 5 to 12 kernels, and each kernel is surrounded by a hard casing that must be removed prior to eating.

Now, the impressive study of a 5,310-year-old maize cob from the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico brings us closer to answering these questions.

– Our study is like a genomic window into the past, says postdoc Nathan Wales, who has conducted the research together with his colleague PhD student Jazmín Ramos Madrigal, both from the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

Jazmín Ramos adds:

– By exploring the genetic history of this ancient maize it is now possible for us to infer how people used the crop in the past, selecting for certain traits at different points in time.

The study first of all shows that the ancient cob is genetically intermediate between teosinte and modern maize.

A half modern maize

In a gene-by-gene analysis, the ancient sample shows that many key genes had already been modified through human selection, including the lack of a hard seed coat and changes in flowering time.

Other traits were not yet under selection, including sugar content of the kernels and, surprisingly, a gene that is related to dispersal of kernels from the plant.

Nathan Wales explains:

– Wild plants naturally release their seeds at the appropriate time, but humans have modified domesticated cereals so they retain their seeds so they can be easily collected from fields. The finding that the ancient maize cob has the ancestral version of the gene is unexpected and encourages further research.

From a snack to a proper meal

Archaeological evidence suggests the people who planted and consumed maize 5000 years ago likely lived in small groups of several dozen people from extended families.

This could be an explanation for why the ancient Tehuacan Valley maize is morphologically and genetically so distinct from modern corn says Jazmín Ramos Madrigal and continues:

– Unlike most modern farmers, these ancient people moved seasonally and mostly consumed wild plants and animals, but supplemented their diets with some domesticated plants. It was only during later periods with higher populations and socially stratified societies that maize became the food staple. For example, the Olmecs (~1200 BC) and the Maya (200BC – 1000 AD) required reliable and predictable food sources to support their cities, and it was at that point that maize would have undergone further selection for important traits.

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 Maize of Mexico. Amefuentes, Wikimedia Commons

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Article Source: FACULTY OF SCIENCE – UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN press release.

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UNIVERSITY OF YORK—A subtle change occurred in our evolutionary history 100,000 years ago which allowed people who thought and behaved differently – such as individuals with autism – to be integrated into society, academics from the University of York have concluded.

The change happened with the emergence of collaborative morality – an investment in the well-being of everyone in the group – and meant people who displayed autistic traits would not only have been accepted but possibly respected for their unique skills.

It is likely our ancestors would have had autism, with genetics suggesting the condition has a long evolutionary history.

But rather than being left behind, or at best tolerated, the research team conclude that many would have played an important role in their social group because of their unique skills and talents.

“We are arguing that diversity, variation between people, was probably more significant in human evolutionary success than the characteristics of one person, “said Penny Spikins, senior lecturer in the archaeology of human origins, at the University of York.

“It was diversity between people which led to human success and it is particularly important as it gives you different specialised roles.

“We are arguing that it is the rise of collaborative morality that led to the possibility for widening the diversity of the human personality.”

Many people with autism have exceptional memory skills, heightened perception in realms of vision, taste and smell and enhanced understanding of natural systems such as animal behaviour.

The incorporation of some of these skills into a community would play a vital role in the development of specialists, the authors of the report, which is published in Time and Mind, suggest.

A previous ethnographic study in 2005 of an elderly reindeer herder from Siberia revealed a detailed memory of the parentage, medical history and character of each one of his 2,600 animals.

His vital knowledge would have made a significant contribution to their management and survival.

The grandfather was more comfortable in the company of the reindeer than of humans, but was much respected and had a wife and son and grandchildren.

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Are there clues of autistic traits in cave art? Above is a prehistoric representation of lions, painted on the walls of the Chauvet Cave in France. Courtesy University of York 

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Finding tangible evidence of autism in archaeological records has always been challenging for academics.

Dr Spikins said “The archaeological record doesn’t give us a skeletal record for autism, but what it does do is give us a record for other people who have various differences and how they have been integrated.”

Other clues can be found in cave art and other artefacts.

“There has been a long-standing debate about identifying traits of autism in Upper Palaeolithic cave art.

“We can’t say some of it was drawn by someone with autism, but there are traits that are identifiable to someone who has autism. It was also roughly at that time that we see collaborative morality emerging.”

Source: University of York 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.