Archives: Articles

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN—A study of the genomes of 25 individuals who lived 1,000 to 6,000 years ago on the north coast of present-day British Columbia, and 25 of their descendants who still live in the region today, opens a new window on the catastrophic consequences of European colonization for indigenous peoples in that part of the world.

The study is reported in the journal Nature Communications.

“This is the first genome-wide study – where we have population-level data, not just a few individuals – that spans 6,000 years,” said University of Illinois anthropology professor Ripan Malhi, who co-led the new research with former graduate student John Lindo (now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago) and Pennsylvania State University biology professor Michael DeGiorgio.

The research team included members and representatives of the Canadian aboriginal communities of the Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla First Nation, Coast Tsimshian people whose oral histories indicate they have lived in the region for millennia. A previous study by Malhi and representatives of these First Nations showed a direct maternal link between ancient individuals buried in the region and the indigenous people living there today, an ancestry long claimed by the Metlakatla First Nation, one of the groups that participated in the study.

The new study confirms the previous findings by analyzing the exome, the entire collection of genes that contribute to a person’s traits.

“Oral traditions and archaeological evidence to date have shown that there has been continuous aboriginal occupation of this region for more than 9,000 years. This study adds another layer of scientific data linking the actual ancestral human remains to their modern descendants through their DNA over a span of 6,000 years,” said Barbara Petzelt, an author of the study and a liaison to the Metlakatla community. “It’s exciting to see how this tool of DNA science adds to the larger picture of Coast Tsimshian pre- and post-contact history – without the taint of historic European observer bias.”

In the new study, the team found that variants of an immune-related gene that were beneficial to many of those living in the region before European contact proved disadvantageous once the Europeans arrived.

The human leukocyte antigen gene family, known as HLA, contributes to the body’s ability to recognize and respond to pathogens. The gene identified in the study belongs to the HLA-DQ subfamily, which “has been associated with a variety of colonization-era infectious diseases, including measles and tuberculosis, and with the adaptive immune response to the vaccinia virus, which is an attenuated form of smallpox,” the authors wrote.

The genomes of a majority of the ancient individuals contained alleles, or variants, of the HLA-DQ gene that differed from the variants that today are common in their descendants, the researchers found.

Statistical analyses revealed that the ancient variants were under “positive selection” before European contact. This means that those variants helped the native peoples survive and thrive in northwest North America.

However, those same HLA-DQ alleles suffered a dramatic decline in the indigenous population about the time the Europeans arrived, the researchers found.

“The modern individuals show a marked decrease in the frequency of the associated alleles,” the researchers wrote.

“One of the alleles is 64 percent less common today than it was before European contact, which is a dramatic decline,” Lindo said.

Further analyses pointed to a steep population decline among the ancestors of modern Coast Tsimshian, a “reduction in effective population size of 57 percent,” the researchers reported. This dramatic die-off occurred roughly 175 years ago, about the time that European diseases were sweeping through native groups in that part of North America.

“First Nations history mainly consists of oral stories passed from generation to generation. Our oral history tells of the deaths of a large percentage of our population by diseases from the European settlers.

Smallpox, for our area, was particularly catastrophic,” said Joycelynn Mitchell, a Metlakatla co-author on the study. “We are pleased to have scientific evidence that corroborates our oral history. As technology continues to advance, we expect that science will continue to agree with the stories of our ancestors.”

The researchers tested several other hypotheses that might explain the dramatic decline of those ancient alleles.

“The only scenario compatible with this stark change in diversity is negative selection, suggesting that previously advantageous HLA-gene variants became disadvantageous, possibly contributing to the population decline that occurred upon European contact,” DeGiorgio said.

“We knew the history of this group through archaeological evidence, oral histories and written histories,” Malhi said. “And now we also know it through genomic data.”

_______________________________________

Partners from Canada’s northwest coast, from left, Barbara Petzelt, Harold Leighton, Bill Pahl, Wendy Pahl, Yvonne Ryan and Joycelynn Mitchell, collaborated with an international team of researchers on a genetic study of First Nations peoples—both present day and ancient. Photo courtesy the Metlakatla First Nation

Article Source: University of Illinoise at Ubana-Champaign news release.

____________________________________________________

Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

 ______________________________________________

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.

LUND UNIVERSITY—Seven years ago divers discovered the oldest known stationary fish traps in northern Europe off the coast of southern Sweden. Since then, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved Stone Age site. They now believe the location was a lagoon environment where Mesolithic humans lived during parts of the year.

Other spectacular finds include a 9,000 year-old pick axe made out of elk antlers. The discoveries indicate mass fishing and therefore a semi-permanent settlement.

“As geologists, we want to recreate this area and understand how it looked. Was it warm or cold? How did the environment change over time?” says Anton Hansson, PhD student in Quaternary geology at Lund University.

Changes in the sea level have allowed the findings to be preserved deep below the surface of Hanö Bay in the Baltic Sea.

The researchers have drilled into the seabed and radiocarbon dated the core, as well as examined pollen and diatoms. They have also produced a bathymetrical map that reveals depth variations.

__________________________________________

 The underwater site was once a lagoon about 9,000 years ago. Still screen shot from video, shown below.

___________________________________________ 

 Mesolithic period fishtraps found at the site. Still screen shot from video, shown below.

___________________________________________________ 

 A 9,000-year-old pick axe made out of elk antlers, found at the site. Still screen shot from video, shown below.

____________________________________________________ 

“These sites have been known, but only through scattered finds. We now have the technology for more detailed interpretations of the landscape”, says Anton Hansson.

“If you want to fully understand how humans dispersed from Africa, and their way of life, we also have to find all their settlements. Quite a few of these are currently underwater, since the sea level is higher today than during the last glaciation. Humans have always prefered coastal sites”, concludes Hansson.

Source: Lund University press release.

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

 ______________________________________________

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.

CELL PRESS—As the ancestors of modern humans made their way out of Africa to other parts of the world many thousands of years ago, they met up and in some cases had children with other forms of humans, including the Neanderthals and Denisovans. Scientists know this because traces of those meetings remain in the human genome. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 10 find more evidence that those encounters have benefited humans over the years.

All told, the new study* identifies 126 different places in the genome where genes inherited from those archaic humans remain at unusually high frequency in the genomes of modern humans around the world. We owe our long-lost hominid relatives for various traits, and especially those related to our immune systems and skin, the evidence shows.

“Our work shows that hybridization was not just some curious side note to human history, but had important consequences and contributed to our ancestors’ ability to adapt to different environments as they dispersed throughout the world,” says Joshua Akey of University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

Akey says it’s relatively straightforward today to identify sequences that were inherited from archaic ancestors. Studies show that non-African individuals inherited about 2% of their genomes from Neanderthals. People of Melanesian ancestry inherited another 2% to 4% of their genomes from Denisovan ancestors. But it hasn’t been clear what influence those DNA sequences have had on our biology, traits, and evolutionary history.

In the new study, the researchers took advantage of recently constructed genome-scale maps of Neanderthal and Denisovan sequences identified in more than 1,500 geographically diverse people. Their sample included close to 500 individuals each from East Asia, Europe, and South Asia. They also analyzed the genomes of 27 individuals from Island Melanesia, an area including Indonesia, New Guinea, Fiji, and Vanuatu. The researchers were searching for archaic DNA sequences in those human genomes at frequencies much higher than would be expected if those genes weren’t doing people any good.

While the vast majority of surviving Neanderthal and Denisovan sequences are found at relatively low frequencies (typically less than 5%), the new analyses turned up 126 places in our genomes where these archaic sequences exist at much higher frequencies, reaching up to about 65%. Seven of those regions were found in parts of the genome known to play a role in characteristics of our skin. Another 31 are involved in immunity.

“The ability to increase to such high population frequencies was most likely facilitated because these sequences were advantageous,” Akey explains. “In addition, many of the high-frequency sequences span genes involved in the immune system, which is a frequent target of adaptive evolution.”

Generally speaking, the genes humans got from Neanderthals or Denisovans are important for our interactions with the environment. The evidence suggests that hybridization with archaic humans as our ancient ancestors made their way out of Africa “was an efficient way for modern humans to quickly adapt to the new environments they were encountering.”

The researchers say they’d now like to learn more about how these genes influenced humans’ ability to survive and what implications they might have for disease. They are also interested in expanding their analysis to include geographically diverse populations in other parts of the world, including Africa.

_______________________________________

 Above: Artist’s depiction of Le Moustier Neanderthals, AMNH. Wikimedia Commons

___________________________________________________ 

Article Source: Cell Press news release

____________________________________________________

*Current Biology, Gittelman et al.: “Archaic Hominin Admixture Facilitated Adaptation to Out-of-Africa Environments” 

____________________________________________________

Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

 ______________________________________________

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.

PLOS—Middle Stone Age humans in East Africa may have employed varied techniques to process ochre for functional and symbolic uses, according to a study* published November 2, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Daniela Rosso from the University of Bordeaux, France, and colleagues.

Ochre fragments-which are rocks containing iron oxides, red or yellow in color-have often been found at Middle Stone Age sites and have played a role in shaping the cultures of early African Homo sapiens. Some researchers suggest that ochre was used for utilitarian purposes, for example in glue to adhere handles to tools, whilst others believe that the pigment was used for symbolic purposes, such as body painting or creating meaningful patterns. However, few ochre processing tools have been studied in detail to understand how this material was processed.

The authors of the present study used microscopy, spectroscopy and X-ray techniques to analyze 21 ochre-processing tools and two ochre-stained artifacts from the Porc-Epic Cave, a 40,000-year-old Middle Stone Age site in Ethiopia.

The researchers found that the tools appeared to have been used to process different types of iron-rich rocks. A range of stone types were used as grindstones, producing ochre powder of different color and coarseness, likely employed to suit different functions, revealing a high degree of behavioral complexity. For example, finer powders would be most suitable for body painting, whereas coarser ochre would be suitable for functional uses. One round stone appeared to have been painted or used as a stamp to apply pigment powder to different surfaces. The authors note that this is the first Paleolithic site to provide such comprehensive documentation of ochre processing techniques.

_____________________________________

Top left: tool used to grind ochre from the Middle Stone Age levels of Porc-Epic Cave, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia; Top right: residues of ochre on the same object; Bottom left: modified ochre lumps from the same levels; Bottom right: photo of the cave. Courtesy  D.E. Rosso and F. d’Errico

_________________________________________________ 

“This study analyses the largest collection of such tools, found at Porc-Epic Cave, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, in levels dated at c. 40,000 years ago,” says Rosso. “Ochre processing at Porc-Epic Cave reflects a high degree of behavioral complexity, and represents ochre use that was probably devoted to a variety of functions.”

Source: PLOS press release

If you liked this article, see the premium article in Popular Archaeology about the role of ochre in human evolution. 

__________________________________________________

*Rosso DE, Pitarch Martí A, d’Errico F (2016) Middle Stone Age Ochre Processing and Behavioural Complexity in the Horn of Africa: Evidence from Porc-Epic Cave, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. PLoS ONE 11(11): e0164793. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0164793

__________________________________________________

Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

 ______________________________________________

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.

Cobá, Quintana Roo, Mexico — Enveloped by a natural tropical canopy and set near two lagoons on the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, the village of Cobá has been home to a small, quiet community of Maya farmers and other native residents who have made their living for decades from the natural resources such tropical locations could bestow. Best known today for its spectacular Maya ruins, this location once boasted an ancient population of about 55,000 people at its peak between 600 and 900 AD, featuring a complex ancient stone and plaster road or causeway system (sacbeob), linking the ancient city to other smaller ancient sites near and far. At its core were the typical monumental structures characteristic of an ancient Maya metropolis. “The investigations at Cobá mapped approximately 30% of the site between 1974 and 1976, including the core area and the suburban area,” says Dr. Ellen Kintz, an archaeologist with an in-depth knowledge of Coba and who has worked in the area for 40 years. “The site is rich in carved monuments (stelae), ball courts, and murals (in sadly decayed states), but the richness of Cobá is reflected in the housemounds (residential compounds) that showcase the social life of the ancient inhabitants.” Cobá attracts thousands of visitors each year from nearby resort centers like Cancún. It is a popular excursion destination during the tourist season. 

____________________________________

 Above and below: The ancient ruins of Cobá draw tourists from all over the world, from the nearby resorts. Images courtesy Ellen R. Kintz, Maya Research Program.

__________________________________________________ 

But aside from the ruins, there is another Cobá that garners little attention.

“The village itself is often overlooked,” says Kintz. “While Cobá’s residents [today consisting of 120 families] are skilled artists and craftsmen, tourists tend to ignore the modern village and pass directly to the ruins.”

There are reasons for this. Many of the stores and houses are undeveloped and unpainted, and the streets are poorly maintained. “Many family businesses are set up inside of people’s homes, with little to no indication given to tourists that there are items for sale within the community,” adds Kintz.

Modern Cobá and ancient Cobá thus strike a clear picture of contrasts. Like many small villages and towns across the world that share their space with their overshadowing monumental archaeological remains, Cobá’s state of being falls far short of its promise when it comes to the potential advantages its ancient past could endow its present.  

Kintz, with help from the Maya Research Program (MRP), hopes to change that situation for Cobá. She envisions a Cobá that she believes deserves a renaissance of economic and artistic revitalization.  “Currently, we are hard at work to raise funds for a dramatic transformation of the village’s primary thoroughfare,” she says.  “The roadway [thoroughfare] will be designed as a place for sustainable commerce that will form the backbone of the community’s economic revival.” 

In essence, it will be a new marketplace for promoting the village’s culture and talents to the visiting public. Relying heavily on the input of the residents, a multifaceted plan has already been developed and the villagers are now beginning their work. According to Kintz, it involves, among other things, (1) painting and decorating the houses of 120 families with inspiration from traditional Maya iconography and dress designs; (2) the purchase of tables and chairs for displaying their wares and artistic works along the side of the community road for the visiting public; and (3) creation of new and improved signage to inform and direct visitors to other interesting points of interest within the contemporary village.

“We have estimated that if average tourist spending in Cobá increases by a mere $10 per person, average family income in the village would increase by nearly 20%,” says Kintz. “This would represent a dramatic increase in the villagers’ quality of life, and allow Cobá’s people to begin to secure their own future.” 

_________________________________

 Above and below: Images of the modern village of Cobá. Courtesy Ellen R. Kintz, Maya Research Program

____________________________________________ 

If successful, the project will provide one example of how past and present archaeological activity and restoration creates tangible practical benefits for people — in particular, how it can and does improve the lives of local populations throughout the world. 

For more information about the Cobá community development project and how one can contribute, see the website. All donations are tax deductible and go directly to the community of Cobá to assist in achieving their goals under the project.

____________________________________________  

Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

 ______________________________________________

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.

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA—There is significant variation in how different cultures over time have dealt with the dead. Yet, at a very basic level, funerals in the Sonoran Desert thousands of years ago were similar to what they are today. Bodies of the deceased were buried respectfully, while families and mourners followed certain customs to honor lives lost.

At least, most of the time.

In some cases, however, the dead received far less reverential treatment. Instead, bodies were tossed haphazardly, headfirst, into their eternal resting place, sometimes sustaining post-mortem injuries on top of an often already violent death.

These atypical burials are of interest to University of Arizona bioarchaeologist James Watson, whose study of ancient graves is providing new insight into the social and biological factors that might have motivated violent killings and statement-making burials in the Southwest’s Early Agricultural Period, and how some of the same factors may still be relevant today.

Watson’s new research, which analyzed a series of atypical burial sites in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico between 2100 B.C. and A.D. 50, is published in the journal Current Anthropology. It was co-authored by UA anthropology doctoral student Danielle O. Phelps.

The burials Watson analyzed showed evidence of a violent end; skeletal remains often included broken bones or projectile points indicating a shooting death. Yet the position of the bodies in their graves was the most telling. Awkwardly splayed or deposited in the ground headfirst, they clearly were not given customary burial treatment, in which they would have been arranged in a flexed position on their sides. The burials also lacked other standard funerary features of the time, which would have been present had the bodies been interred by family members.

“These people were buried very differently than the rest of the community, and we’re trying to understand why that is,” said Watson, UA associate professor of anthropology and associate director and associate curator at the Arizona State Museum. “We’re arguing that the way they were tossed into these pits is a form of continued desecration of the body. It’s moving from violence on the living individual, through to the process of death, to violence on the corpse.”

So-called atypical burials often are associated with victims of “bad deaths”—deaths described as unnatural, unplanned or “evil” in nature, Watson said. A common theory in the geographical area where Watson works is that the bodies belong to those accused of witchcraft. Yet, given that the corpses were not dismembered in the way suspected witches’ historically were, Watson offers an alternative explanation.

In his paper, he argues that these bodies may have been the victims of blood feuds, or family feuds, during a time when the population was experiencing some serious growing pains. He further suggests that the violence of these ongoing blood feuds may have become enculturated, or ingrained, in certain communities.

“This was right when agriculture came into the area, and these were the earliest villages, so we think that some of this violence comes from growing pains, as villages are established and people are claiming territory and farming the desert river valleys,” Watson said. “Social tensions develop between communities, or even within communities, and end up boiling over into violence.”

At the root of that violence may be a desire to win prestige, which in turn has important biological implications, even though the perpetrator of violence may not be consciously thinking about those implications, Watson said.

“Prestige has a potential to confer biological benefits, in the sense that you can gain access to power and wealth, including wives, and have more offspring, so there is a level of biological fitness there,” he said.

___________________________________

 Bodies buried by family members were arranged in a flexed position on their side (left), while in atypical burials, bodies were left in more awkward positions (right).  Illustration by Caitlin McPherson

______________________________________________ 

But why the brutal handling of bodies after death?

Watson uses evolutionary biology’s “costly signaling theory” to explain what might be behind the ruthless post-mortem treatment.

Costly signaling theory is the idea that all animals exhibit certain behaviors and physical traits that are simultaneously advantageous and risky. For example, male birds often have colorful plumage to attract females, which is biologically beneficial, as it will result in more offspring. At the same time, the bright feathers could be costly, as they also make the birds more visible to predators.

Watson suggests that violent killings followed by disrespectful burials similarly send a strong signal—one asserting power and dominance. This signal has the potential benefit of attracting prestige, and the wives and children that come with it, but it also comes with significant risk of retaliation by the victim’s family.

“By creating these atypical burials—where they’re basically desecrating the bodies of the people killed — they’re signaling their prowess to gain status, but it’s at a very significant potential cost, and that is either their life or lives in their community or family,” Watson said.

While Watson’s work focuses on violence that occurred 2,000 to 4,000 years in the past, he suggests costly signaling theory might also be applied in the context of modern-day violence.

“With some of the issues that we’re seeing today—like increased violence and murders in a lot of cities, police shootings, retaliation upon police—a lot of kids are growing up in a culture of violence in certain communities, and they’re learning different values on how to interact with their environment because of the disadvantages that they have,” Watson said. “They gain status because they’re good at being violent; that’s how you gain respect, then along with that comes advantages—wealth, women and offspring, potentially. There is a biological imperative to signal that they are worthy of the status they’re trying to earn.”

Source: University of Arizona press release

______________________________________________

Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

 ______________________________________________

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.

Analyzing seafaring strategies and climate impacts on ocean travel can help researchers reconstruct how humans populated one of the most remote places on Earth, according to a study*. Around 3,400 years ago, humans began crossing the Pacific Ocean to settle Remote Oceania, the far-flung collection of islands that includes Tonga, Samoa, and islands in Micronesia. Although archaeological, linguistic, and genetic evidence delimits the time of arrival of many settlers, the origins of these earliest inhabitants have proven difficult to establish. Alvaro Montenegro and colleagues analyzed ocean routes across the Pacific using computer seafaring simulations primed with high-resolution data for winds, ocean currents, precipitation, and land distribution. Additionally, accounting for the influence of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, the authors constructed “shortest-hop” trajectories to identify the most likely port of departure for the inhabitants of five major regions in Remote Oceania. Among other findings, the analysis suggests that the settlers of western Micronesia originated from a location near the Maluku Islands. The authors also compare their results with a number of previously proposed migration scenarios such as “Slow Boat to the Bismarcks,” “Voyaging Corridor Triple I,” and “Mobile Founding Migrant.” The findings demonstrate the need to incorporate Pacific Islander voyaging strategies and the impact of environmental variables on ocean travel into the analysis of colonization in Remote Oceania, according to the authors.

_____________________________________

 View of Kahlap islet, Mwoakilloa atoll, Eastern Caroline Islands, Micronesia.  Image courtesy of Aaron S. Poteate (North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC)

_________________________________________________

 Shell adze from Mwoakilloa atoll, Eastern Caroline Islands, Micronesia.  Image courtesy of Aaron S. Poteate (North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC)

__________________________________________________ 

Source: PNAS press release

__________________________________________________

*“Using seafaring simulations and shortest-hop trajectories to model the prehistoric colonization of Remote Oceania” by Alvaro Montenegro, Richard Callaghan, and Scott M. Fitzpatrick.

__________________________________________________

Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

 ______________________________________________

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.

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS – LAWRENCE—Perhaps the bias against left-handers dates back much further than we thought.

By examining striations on teeth of a Homo habilis fossil, a new discovery led by a University of Kansas researcher has found the earliest evidence for right-handedness in the fossil record dating back 1.8 million years.

“We think that tells us something further about lateralization of the brain,” said David Frayer, a KU professor emeritus of anthropology and the lead author of the study. “We already know that Homo habilis had brain lateralization and was more like us than like apes. This extends it to handedness, which is key.”

The findings were published online this week in the prestigious Journal of Human Evolution. The researchers made the discovery after analyzing small cut marks, or labial striations, which are the lip side of the anterior teeth in an intact upper jaw fossil, known as OH-65, found in a stream channel of the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.

Frayer said among the network of deep striations found only on the lip face of the upper front teeth most cut marks veered from left down to the right. Analysis of the marks makes it likely they came from when OH-65 used a tool with its right hand to cut food it was holding in its mouth while pulling with the left hand. The scratches can be seen with the naked eye, but a microscope was used to determine their alignment and to quantify their angulation.

“Experimental work has shown these scratches were most likely produced when a stone tool was used to process material gripped between the anterior teeth and the tool occasionally struck the labial face leaving a permanent mark on the tooth’s surface,” Frayer said.

Based on the direction of the marks, it’s evident the Homo habilis was right-handed. It’s a sample of one, but because this is the first potential evidence of a dominant handed pre-Neanderthal, Frayer said, the study could lead to a search for the marks in other early Homo fossils.

_______________________________________

David Frayer, KU professor emeritus of anthropology, is lead author on a recent study published in the Journal of Human Evolution that found striations on teeth of a Homo habilis fossil 1.8 million years old moved from left to right, indicating the earliest evidence in the fossil record for right-handedness. Researchers believe the marks came from using a tool to try to cut food being pulled from the mouth with the left hand.  Credit: David Frayer

____________________________________________________ 

“Handedness and language are controlled by different genetic systems, but there is a weak relationship between the two because both functions originate on the left side of the brain,” he said. “One specimen does not make an incontrovertible case, but as more research is done and more discoveries are made, we predict that right-handedness, cortical reorganization and language capacity will be shown to be important components in the origin of our genus.”

Multiple lines of research point to the likelihood that brain reorganization, the use of tools and use of a dominant hand occurred early in the human lineage. Today, researchers estimate that 90 percent of humans are right-handed, and this differs from apes which are closer to a 50-50 ratio. Until now, no one looked for directionality of striations in the earliest specimens representing our evolutionary lineage.

“We think we have the evidence for brain lateralization, handedness and possibly language, so maybe it all fits together in one picture,” Frayer said.

Source: University of Kansas, Lawrence, press release

_____________________________________________________

Co-authors of the study were Ronald J. Clarke, Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Ivana Fiore and Luca Bondioli, Polo Museale del Lazio, Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico; L. Pigorini, Rome, Italy; Robert J. Blumenschine, Paleontological Scientific Trust, Johannesburg, South Africa, Alejandro Pérez-Pérez, Laura M. Martinez and Ferran Estebaranz, Department on Animal Biology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain and Ralph Holloway, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York.

_____________________________________________________

Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

 ______________________________________________

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.

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HUMAN GENETICS—BETHESDA, MD – Relationships between the ancestors of modern humans and other archaic populations such as Neanderthals and Denisovans were likely more complex than previously thought, involving interbreeding within and outside Africa, according to a new estimator developed by geneticists. Findings were reported at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2016 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, B.C.*

In recent years, genetics has led to the revision of many assumptions about archaic populations, explained Ryan J. Bohlender, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and first author on the research. For example, the 2010 release of the Neanderthal genome led to the discovery that Neanderthals and the ancestors of modern Europeans interbred. A few years later, scientists discovered the existence of Denisovans, a population known of only through genetics, through a fossilized sample of DNA.

“My colleagues and I set out to find out what we might share with these ancient populations and how our histories interacted,” Dr. Bohlender said. They developed an estimation tool to model these interactions based on parameters such as current estimates of population size and dates when populations separated – how long ago they stopped interbreeding – and look for inconsistencies with information known from genetic studies about the overlap between the modern human genome and those of ancient populations. Compared to previous estimators, this one made increased use of genetic data to cut down on statistical bias. The researchers then allowed estimates of population size and separation dates to vary in a series of simulations, in order to find out if adjusting these parameters better fit the genetic data.

“Using this process, we found that the population in Africa was likely about 50 percent larger than previously thought. We also found that an archaic-modern human separation date of 440,000 years ago was the best fit, suggesting that Neanderthals diverged from our lineage 100,000 years more recently than we thought,” Dr. Bohlender said. “We got the same separation date using data from multiple modern human populations, which is a good sign.”

In addition, their results suggest that throughout Eurasia, ancient populations interbred less than previously believed, and that – contrary to previous findings – the level of mixing with Neanderthals did not differ significantly between Europe and East Asia.

The findings bring up many new questions, including to what extent the new estimator can be trusted, why it produces results that differ from prevailing estimates, and how to reconcile these differences.

“Overall, our findings confirm the human family tree is more complicated than we think it is,” Dr. Bohlender said. “For example, other archaic populations are likely to have existed, like the Denisovans, who we didn’t know about except through genetics.” They plan to try out simulations with multiple other populations, to see if this adds some clarity to the results.

Dr. Bohlender also believes that more detailed studies of African populations may shed some light. “Africans have been underrepresented in genetics research – they’re not as well studied as European and Asian populations, yet they are more diverse genetically than any other group,” he said.

Source: American Society of Human Genetics press release

Cover Image, Top Left: DNA Extraction in the lab – Image from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — Northeast Region

_______________________________________________

*Bohlender R et al. (2016 Oct 20). A complex history of archaic admixture in modern humans. Presented at the American Society of Human Genetics 2016 Annual Meeting. Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

_______________________________________________

Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

 ______________________________________________

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.

PLOS—Humans living in South Africa in the Middle Stone Age may have used advanced heating techniques to produce silcrete blades, according to a study published October 19, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Anne Delagnes from the CNRS (PACEA – University of Bordeaux, France) and colleagues.

Middle Stone Age humans in South Africa developed intentional heat treatment of silcrete rock over 70,000 years ago to facilitate the flaking process by modifying the rock properties – the first evidence of a transformative technology. However, the exact role of this important development in the Middle Stone Age technological repertoire was not previously clear. Delagnes and colleagues addressed this issue by using a novel non-destructive approach to analyze the heating technique used in the production of silcrete artifacts at Klipdrift Shelter, a recently discovered Middle Stone Age site located on the southern Cape of South Africa, including unheated and heat-treated comparable silcrete samples from 31 locations around the site.

_____________________________________

Humans living in South Africa in the Middle Stone Age may have used advanced heating techniques to produce silcrete blades, according to a study published Oct. 19, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Anne Delagnes from the CNRS (PACEA – University of Bordeaux, France) and colleagues.  Credit:  Delagnes et al (2016)

__________________________________________________ 

The authors noted intentional and extensive heat treatment of over 90% of the silcrete, highlighting the important role this played in silcrete blade production. The heating step appeared to occur early during the blade production process, at an early reduction stage where stone was flaked away to shape the silcrete core. The hardening, toughening effect of the heating step would therefore have impacted all subsequent stages of silcrete tool production and use.

The authors suggest that silcrete heat treatment at the Klipdrift Shelter may provide the first direct evidence of the intentional and extensive use of fire applied to a whole lithic chain of production. Along with other fire-based activities, intentional heat treatment was a major asset for Middle Stone Age humans in southern Africa, and has no known contemporaneous equivalent elsewhere.

Source: PLOS press release

__________________________________________________

*Delagnes A, Schmidt P, Douze K, Wurz S, Bellot-Gurlet L, Conard NJ, et al. (2016) Early Evidence for the Extensive Heat Treatment of Silcrete in the Howiesons Poort at Klipdrift Shelter (Layer PBD, 65 ka), South Africa. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0163874. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163874

_________________________________________________

Read more in-depth articles about archaeology with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine. 

 ______________________________________________

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.