Archives: Articles

EMORY HEALTH SCIENCES—When given a choice between cooperating or competing, chimpanzees choose to cooperate five times more frequently Yerkes National Primate Research Center researchers have found. This, the researchers say, challenges the perceptions humans are unique in our ability to cooperate and chimpanzees are overly competitive, and suggests the roots of human cooperation are shared with other primates. The study results are reported in this week’s early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To determine if chimpanzees possess the same ability humans have to overcome competition, the researchers set up a cooperative task that closely mimicked chimpanzee natural conditions, for example, providing the 11 great apes that participated in this study with an open choice to select cooperation partners and giving them plenty of ways to compete. Working beside the chimpanzees’ grassy outdoor enclosure at the Yerkes Research Center Field Station, the researchers gave the great apes thousands of opportunities to pull cooperatively at an apparatus filled with rewards. In half of the test sessions, two chimpanzees needed to participate to succeed, and in the other half, three chimpanzees were needed.

While the set up provided ample opportunities for competition, aggression and freeloading, the chimpanzees overwhelmingly performed cooperative acts – 3,565 times across 94 hour-long test sessions.

The chimpanzees used a variety of enforcement strategies to overcome competition, displacement and freeloading, which the researchers measured by attempted thefts of rewards. These strategies included the chimpanzees directly protesting against others, refusing to work in the presence of a freeloader, which supports avoidance as an important component in managing competitive tendencies, and more dominant chimpanzees intervening to help others against freeloaders. Such third-party punishment occurred 14 times, primarily in response to aggression between the freeloader and the chimpanzee that was cooperatively working with others for the rewards.

“Previous statements in the literature describe human cooperation as a ‘huge anomaly’ and chimpanzees as preferring competition over collaboration,” says Malini Suchak, PhD, lead author of the study. “Studies have also suggested researchers have to ‘engineer cooperation’ during experiments rather than acknowledging chimpanzees are naturally cooperative. When we considered chimpanzees’ natural behaviors, we thought surely they must be able to manage competition on their own, so we gave them the freedom to employ their own enforcement strategies. And it turns out, they are really quite good at preventing competition and favoring cooperation. In fact, given the ratio of conflict to cooperation is quite similar in humans and chimpanzees, our study shows striking similarities across species and gives another insight into human evolution,” she continues. Suchak was a graduate student at the Yerkes Research Center at the time of the study and is now an Assistant Professor of Animal Behavior, Ecology and Conservation at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY.

Frans de Waal, PhD, director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes Research Center, a C. H. Candler Professor of Psychology at Emory University and one of the study authors, adds, “It has become a popular claim in the literature that human cooperation is unique. This is especially curious because the best ideas we have about the evolution of cooperation come straight from animal studies. The natural world is full of cooperation, from ants to killer whales. Our study is the first to show that our closest relatives know very well how to discourage competition and freeloading. Cooperation wins!”

____________________________________________

 Chimpanzees, our closest animal relatives, have long been subjects of research studies in the wild and in research centers, in part to explore questions bearing on human evolution. Ikiwaner, Wikimedia Commons

____________________________________________ 

Article Source: Emory Health Sciences 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.

ELSEVIER—OXFORD, 16 August 2016 – Researchers from the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries and from universities in the Netherlands have used high-tech imaging to uncover the details of a rare Mexican codex dating from before the colonization of the Americas.* The newly revealed codex, or book, has been hidden from view for almost 500 years, concealed beneath a layer of plaster and chalk on the back of a later manuscript known as the Codex Selden, which is housed at the Bodleian Libraries. Scientists have used hyperspectral imaging to reveal pictographic scenes from this remarkable document and have published their findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Ancient Mexican codices are some of the most important artifacts of early Mexican culture and they are particularly rare. Codex Selden, also known as Codex Añute, dates from around 1560 and is one of fewer than 20 known Mexican codices to have survived from pre-colonial and early colonial Mexico. Of those, it is one of only five surviving manuscripts from the Mixtec area, now the Oaxaca region of Mexico. These codices use a complex system of pictures, symbols and bright colors to narrate centuries of conquering dynasties and genealogies as well as wars and the history of ancient cities. In essence these codices provide the best insight into the history and culture of early Mexico.

Since the 1950s, scholars have suspected that Codex Selden is a palimpsest: an older document that has been covered up and reused to make the manuscript that is currently visible. Codex Selden consists of a five-meter-long strip composed of deer hide that has been covered with gesso, a white plaster made from gypsum and chalk, and folded in a concertina format into a 20-page document. The manuscript underwent a series of invasive tests in the 1950s when one page on the back was scraped, uncovering a vague image that hinted at the possibility that an earlier Mexican codex lay hidden beneath.

_____________________________________

 A section from the Codex Selden (also known as ‘Codex Añute’). The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Wikimedia Commons

_________________________________________________ 

Until now, no other technique has been able to unveil the concealed narrative in a non-invasive way. The organic paints that were partly used to create the vibrant images on early Mexican codices do not absorb x-rays, which rules out x-ray analysis that is commonly used to study later works of art.

‘After four or five years of trying different techniques, we’ve been able to reveal an abundance of images without damaging this extremely vulnerable item. We can confirm that Codex Selden is indeed a palimpsest,’ said Ludo Snijders from Leiden University, who conducted the research with David Howell from the Bodleian Libraries and Tim Zaman from the University of Delft. This is the first time an early Mexican codex has been proven to be a palimpsest.

‘What’s interesting is that the text we’ve found doesn’t match that of other early Mixtec manuscripts. The genealogy we see appears to be unique, which means it may prove invaluable for the interpretation of archaeological remains from southern Mexico,’ Snjiders said.

Some pages feature more than 20 characters sitting or standing in the same direction. Similar scenes have been found on other Mixtec manuscripts, representing a King and his council. But the analysis of this particular text shows that the characters are both male and female, raising interesting questions about what the scene represents.

The imaging has also revealed a prominent individual who appears repeatedly on the document and is represented by a large glyph consisting of a twisted cord and a flint knife. The name seems to resemble a character found in other Mexican codices: the Codex Bodley (in the Bodleian’s collection) and Codex Zouche-Nuttall (in the British Museum).That character is an important ancestor of two lineages connected to the important archaeological sites of Zaachila and Teozacualco in Mexico. However, further analysis is needed to confirm that it is the same individual.

The researchers analysed seven pages of the codex for this study and revealed other images including people walking with sticks and spears, women with red hair or headdresses and place signs containing the glyphs for rivers. They are continuing to analyse the remainder of the document with the aim of reconstructing the entire hidden imagery, allowing the text to be interpreted more fully.

‘Hyperspectral imaging has shown great promise in helping us to begin to reconstruct the story of the hidden codex and ultimately to recover new information about Mixtec history and archaeology,’ said David Howell, Head of Heritage Science at the Bodleian Libraries. ‘This is very much a new technique, and we’ve learned valuable lessons about how to use hyperspectral imaging in the future both for this very fragile manuscript and for countless others like it.’

Working with the Humanities Division in the University of Oxford, the Libraries acquired the hyperspectral scanner in 2014 with the support of the University’s Fell Fund. Once a technique used by astrophysicists to study the color of stars, hyperspectral imaging is now used by Bodleian researchers to reveal hidden text and images and identify unknown substances and pigments with a high degree of accuracy. Researchers have recently used the scanner to clarify the text of the famous Bakhshali manuscript from India, which includes the first use of zero, to analyze the medieval Gough Map, the earliest road map of Great Britain and to reveal a hidden devil in a centuries-old Armenian gospel-book.

Source: Elsevier news release.

_______________________________________________________

*”Using hyperspectral imaging to reveal a hidden precolonial Mesoamerican codex” was published online on 21 July 2016 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. It was co-authored by Ludo Snijders, a PhD researcher from the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University in The Netherlands, Tim Zaman, a PhD researcher from the Quantitative Imaging Group at Delft University in The Netherlands and David Howell, Head of Heritage Science at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries.

The study was funded by NWO, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research as part of its Science4Arts program.

_______________________________________________________

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.

INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—A team of psychologists, kinesiologists and archaeologists at Indiana University and elsewhere are throwing new light on a longstanding archaeological mystery: the purpose of a large number of spherical stone artifacts found at a major archaeological site in South Africa.

IU Bloomington professor Geoffrey Bingham and colleagues in the United Kingdom and United States contend that the stones—previously thought by some to be used as tools—served instead as weapons for defense and hunting.

The research, which combines knowledge about how modern humans perceive an object’s “throwing affordance” with mathematical analysis and evaluation of these stones as projectiles for throwing, appears in the journal Scientific Reports.

“Our study suggests that the throwing of stones played a key role in the evolution of hunting,” said Bingham, a professor in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and an author on the study. “We don’t think that throwing is the sole, or even primary, function of these spheroids, but these results show that this function is an option that warrants reconsidering as a potential use for this long-lived, multipurpose tool.”

The use of these stones, which date from between 1.8 million and 70,000 years ago, has puzzled archaeologists since they were unearthed at the Cave of Hearths in South Africa’s Makapan Valley nearly 30 years ago.

The study’s lead author, Andrew Wilson of Beckett Leeds University in England, and co-author, Qin Zhu of the University of Wyoming, were both Ph.D. students in Bingham’s lab at IU. The other researchers are archaeologists Lawrence Barham and Ian Stanistreet, both of the University of Liverpool in England. Stanistreet is also affiliated with the Stone Age Institute at IU.

______________________________________

 This is one of 55 round stone artifacts analyzed to determine their use as throwing weapons for hunting and defense. Credit: Judy Maguire

____________________________________________________

 The archaeological site near South Africa’s Cave of Hearths is where the round stones were found. Credit: Judy Maguire

__________________________________________ 

The team’s conclusions are based upon a theoretical framework and computational tools developed in the Perception/Action Lab at IU, directed by Bingham, who investigates human coordinated action and perceptual capabilities. This includes judging an object’s throwing affordance, which is the selection of the best object in terms of size, weight and shape for throwing at maximum distance, speed and damage.

Using these methods, the researchers used computational models to analyze 55 ball-shaped stone objects from the South African site, finding that 81 percent of the stones were the optimal size, weight and shape for hitting such a target at a 25-meter distance. The stones are about the size of tennis balls but much heavier.

The team also simulated the projectile motions the spheroids would undergo if thrown by an expert, as well as estimated the probability of these projectiles causing damage to a medium-sized prey such as an impala.

Research on biomechanics and perception, particularly vision, shows that the human shoulder joint and perceptual abilities are uniquely specialized for throwing objects aimed at a particular target at a distance of 20 to 30 meters, Bingham said. The stones, which predate thrown spears, likely served as projectile weapons for hunting and defense since they were found to perform best as hunting weapons when thrown overhand, he added.

“Humans are the only animals—the only primates even—with that talent,” Bingham said. “We can throw something to hit something else—like a quarterback throwing to the running back all the way down the field. That’s how in large measure we survived the ice ages. The available food was largely on hoof, or it was ‘mega-fauna,’ such as a mammoth. You don’t want to get close to them.”

Previous research by archaeologists suggested that spherical stones were used as percussive tools for shaping or grinding other materials. Most of the objects analysed in this study had weights that produce optimal levels of damage from throwing, however, rather than simply being as heavy as possible.

“Imagine a human, searching for an object to throw so as to cause the most damage possible to potential prey or a competitor,” Wilson said. “This is a perceptual task: the person needs to perceive throwing-relevant properties of objects and be able to discriminate between objects that vary in those properties.”

Bingham, along with former students and other colleagues, have been studying the mechanics and evolutionary role of throwing—a complex human action—for several decades at IU. Over time, they developed both theories on this capability, as well as virtual simulations to measure the mechanics of the task.

“The ability to throw great distances was not a small thing,” Bingham said. “It was how we got lunch.”

Source: Indiana University 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.

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD—Oxford University researchers say that trees which grew during intense radiation bursts in the past have ‘time-markers’ in their tree-rings that could help archaeologists date events from thousands of years ago. In a new paper*, the authors explain how harvesting such data could revolutionize the study of ancient civilizations such as the Egyptian and Mayan worlds. Until now scholars have had only vague evidence for dating when events happened during the earliest periods of civilization, with estimates accurate within a differential of hundreds of years. However, the unusually high levels of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 found in tree-rings laid down during radiation bursts could help reliably pinpoint dates. The distinct spikes act as time-markers like secret clocks contained in timber, papyri, baskets made from living plants or other organic materials, according to the paper published in the Royal Society Journal Proceedings A.

Scholars believe that intense solar storms caused major bursts of radiation, striking the Earth in 775 and 994 CE, which resulted in distinct spikes in the concentration of radiocarbon in trees growing at that time. The events are precisely datable because the tree-rings belong to archives in which the growth year of each tree-ring is exactly known. In the new research, the authors outline how they could detect similar spikes elsewhere within the thousands of years of available tree-ring material from across the world. They say even a handful of these time-markers could allow them to piece together a reliable dating framework for important civilizations. The crucial point is that the time-markers will also be present in every living plant or tree that grew at the time of a radiation surge, including in the timber used in ancient buildings or other artifacts fashioned from the plants. The paper suggests that the existing tree-ring data are likely to reveal other radiocarbon surges in particular years. The problem, however, is that the tree-ring data is only available in blocks of decades rather than year by year. The paper proposes a cutting-edge mathematical method to filter out particular years within such a block when ‘change points’ in radiocarbon levels occurred. It also adds that it is currently unclear how regularly the Earth has been hit by such intense bursts of radiation, and what the precise magnitude of the events might have been, so finding new spikes will also help us understand past solar activity.

____________________________________________

 Tree-ring dating, or dendrochronology, has been used by many archaeologists for dating ancient sites. Adrian Pingstone, Wikimedia Commons

_________________________________________________________ 

Currently, archaeologists have to rely on relatively sparse evidence for dating the history of Western civilization before 763 BCE, with Chinese history also only widely agreed from 841 BCE. For example, they depend on ancient records of rare astronomical phenomena, such as the solar eclipse during the ninth year of Ashur Dan III of Assyria, to determine the age of historical events. In the absence of such records, standard radiocarbon measurements provide the best estimates, but these are still often only accurate to within 200 to 300 calendar years. If the radiocarbon spikes in the tree-ring data were also found in archaeological items attributable to specific historical periods, the information could be used to anchor exactly when events occurred, say the researchers.

Lead author Dr Michael Dee, from the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, said: “Variations in atmospheric radiocarbon concentration are largely the result of carbon dioxide emissions from activity from volcanoes and the ocean, but they are also influenced by changes in solar activity. The spikes in 775 and 994 CE were almost vertical and of comparable magnitude all around the Earth. Such markers can be easily identified in known-age tree-rings and are fixed in time. In the past, we have had floating estimates of when things may have happened, but these secret clocks could reset chronologies concerning important world civilizations with the potential to date events that happened many thousands of years ago to the exact year.”

Source: University of Oxford news release.

_____________________________________________________

*Anchoring historical sequences using a new source of astro-chronological tie-points, by Michael Dee and Benjamin Pope, published in the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

_____________________________________________________

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 ADELAIDE—University of Adelaide research has for the first time statistically proven that the earliest standing stone monuments of Britain, the great circles, were constructed specifically in line with the movements of the Sun and Moon, 5000 years ago.

The research, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, details the use of innovative 2D and 3D technology to construct quantitative tests of the patterns of alignment of the standing stones.

“Nobody before this has ever statistically determined that a single stone circle was constructed with astronomical phenomena in mind – it was all supposition,” says project leader and University of Adelaide Visiting Research Fellow Dr Gail Higginbottom, who is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian National University.

Examining the oldest great stone circles built in Scotland (Callanish, on the Isle of Lewis, and Stenness, Isle of Orkney—both predating Stonehenge’s standing stones by about 500 years), the researchers found a great concentration of alignments towards the Sun and Moon at different times of their cycles. And 2000 years later in Scotland, much simpler monuments were still being built that had at least one of the same astronomical alignments found at the great circles.

The stones, however, are not just connected with the Sun and the Moon. The researchers discovered a complex relationship between the alignment of the stones, the surrounding landscape and horizon, and the movements of the Sun and the Moon across that landscape.

“This research is finally proof that the ancient Britons connected the Earth to the sky with their earliest standing stones, and that this practice continued in the same way for 2000 years,” says Dr Higginbottom.

Examining sites in detail, it was found that about half the sites were surrounded by one landscape pattern and the other half by the complete reverse.

“These chosen surroundings would have influenced the way the Sun and Moon were seen, particularly in the timing of their rising and setting at special times, like when the Moon appears at its most northerly position on the horizon, which only happens every 18.6 years,” Dr Higginbottom says.

“For example, at 50% of the sites, the northern horizon is relatively higher and closer than the southern and the summer solstice Sun rises out of the highest peak in the north. At the other 50% of sites, the southern horizon is higher and closer than the northern, with the winter solstice Sun rising out of these highest horizons.

“These people chose to erect these great stones very precisely within the landscape and in relation to the astronomy they knew. They invested a tremendous amount of effort and work to do so. It tells us about their strong connection with their environment, and how important it must have been to them, for their culture and for their culture’s survival.”

____________________________________

The great stone circle, Stenness on the Isle of Orkney, is situated in a ‘reverse’ landscape. The project examined the alignments running from the center of circle through the stones on the circle’s perimeter and the stone holes where stones formally stood (as revealed by excavation). This told us that the stone furthest to the right is oriented upon the last glimmer of a southern Moon occurring only every 18.6 years; the second stone is aligned towards the winter solstice sunset and the stone furthest to our left is aligned to the Moon as it sets into its most northern position every 18.6 years. These are astronomical events that could be seen 5000 years ago. Credit: Douglas Scott.

Source: University of Adelaide news release.

_________________________________________________

The research is part of the Western Scotland Megalithic Landscape Project carried out by Dr Higginbottom and Professor Roger Clay, astrophysicist at the University of Adelaide.

_________________________________________________

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.

For centuries archaeologists, excavators and historians have been discovering ancient devices, uncovering treasured artifacts and revealing cities that had long been lost. These discoveries, no matter how small they may seem, are vital for our understanding of our ancestors. Discoveries such as the Rosetta stone, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Sacsayhuaman allow us to get a glimpse into the lives of those that have inhabited the earth before us. Some of the most momentous discoveries have resulted in a deeper understanding of ancient customs and teachings. For details on some of the most fascinating archaeological discoveries of all time, let’s take a look at the infographic below by Caherconnell Stone Fort! 

An infographic by the team at Caherconnell Stone Fort

___________________________________________

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SANTA BARBARA—For more than 120 years the Venus Table of the Dresden Codex—an ancient Mayan book containing astronomical data—has been of great interest to scholars around the world. The accuracy of its observations, especially the calculation of a kind of ‘leap year’ in the Mayan Calendar, was deemed an impressive curiosity used primarily for astrology.

But UC Santa Barbara’s Gerardo Aldana, a professor of anthropology and of Chicana and Chicano studies, believes the Venus Table has been misunderstood and vastly underappreciated. In a new journal article, Aldana makes the case that the Venus Table represents a remarkable innovation in mathematics and astronomy—and a distinctly Mayan accomplishment. “That’s why I’m calling it ‘discovering discovery,’ ” he explained, “because it’s not just their discovery, it’s all the blinders that we have, that we’ve constructed and put in place that prevent us from seeing that this was their own actual scientific discovery made by Mayan people at a Mayan city.”

Multitasking science

Aldana’s paper, “Discovering Discovery: Chich’en Itza, the Dresden Codex Venus Table and 10th Century Mayan Astronomical Innovation,” in the Journal of Astronomy in Culture, blends the study of Mayan hieroglyphics (epigraphy), archaeology and astronomy to present a new interpretation of the Venus Table, which tracks the observable phases of the second planet from the Sun. Using this multidisciplinary approach, he said, a new reading of the table demonstrates that the mathematical correction of their “Venus calendar”—a sophisticated innovation—was likely developed at the city of Chich’en Itza during the Terminal Classic period (AD 800-1000). What’s more, the calculations may have been done under the patronage of K’ak’ U Pakal K’awiil, one of the city’s most prominent historical figures.

“This is the part that I find to be most rewarding, that when we get in here, we’re looking at the work of an individual Mayan, and we could call him or her a scientist, an astronomer,” Aldana said. “This person, who’s witnessing events at this one city during this very specific period of time, created, through their own creativity, this mathematical innovation.”

The Venus Table

Scholars have long known that the Preface to the Venus Table, Page 24 of the Dresden Codex, contained what Aldana called a “mathematical subtlety” in its hieroglyphic text. They even knew what it was for: to serve as a correction for Venus’s irregular cycle, which is 583.92 days. “So that means if you do anything on a calendar that’s based on days as a basic unit, there is going to be an error that accrues,” Aldana explained. It’s the same principle used for Leap Years in the Gregorian calendar. Scholars figured out the math for the Venus Table’s leap in the 1930s, Aldana said, “but the question is, what does it mean? Did they discover it way back in the 1st century BC? Did they discover it in the 16th? When did they discover it and what did it mean to them? And that’s where I come in.”

Unraveling the mystery demanded Aldana employ a unique set of skills. The first involved epigraphy, and it led to an important development: In poring over the Table’s hieroglyphics, he came to realize that a key verb, k’al, had a different meaning than traditionally interpreted. Used throughout the Table, k’al means “to enclose” and, in Aldana’s reading, had a historical and cosmological purpose.

Rethinking assumptions

That breakthrough led him to question the assumptions of what the Mayan scribe who authored the text was doing in the Table. Archaeologists and other scholars could see its observations of Venus were accurate, but insisted it was based in numerology. “They [the Maya] knew it was wrong, but the numerology was more important. And that’s what scholars have been saying for the last 70 years,” Aldana said.

“So what I’m saying is, let’s step back and make a different assumption,” he continued. “Let’s assume that they had historical records and they were keeping historical records of astronomical events and they were consulting them in the future—exactly what the Greeks did and the Egyptians and everybody else. That’s what they did. They kept these over a long period of time and then they found patterns within them. The history of Western astronomy is based entirely on this premise.”

To test his new assumption, Aldana turned to another Mayan archaeological site, Copán in Honduras. The former city-state has its own record of Venus, which matched as a historical record the observations in the Dresden Codex. “Now we’re just saying, let’s take these as historical records rather than numerology,” he said. “And when you do that, when you see it as historical record, it changes the interpretation.”

Putting the pieces together

The final piece of the puzzle was what Aldana, whose undergraduate degree was in mechanical engineering, calls “the machinery,” or how the pieces fit together. Scholars know the Mayans had accurate observations of Venus, and Aldana could see that they were historical, not numerological. The question was, Why? One hint lay more than 500 years in the future: Nicolaus Copernicus.

The great Polish astronomer stumbled into the heliocentric universe while trying to figure out the predictions for future dates of Easter, a challenging feat that requires good mathematical models. That’s what Aldana saw in the Venus Table. “They’re using Venus not just to strictly chart when it was going to appear, but they were using it for their ritual cycles,” he explained. “They had ritual activities when the whole city would come together and they would do certain events based on the observation of Venus. And that has to have a degree of accuracy, but it doesn’t have to have overwhelming accuracy. When you change that perspective of, ‘What are you putting these cycles together for?’ that’s the third component.”

Putting those pieces together, Aldana found there was a unique period of time during the occupation of Chichen’Itza when an ancient astronomer in the temple that was used to observe Venus would have seen the progressions of the planet and discovered it was a viable way to correct the calendar and to set their ritual events.

“If you say it’s just numerology that this date corresponds to; it’s not based on anything you can see. And if you say, ‘We’re just going to manipulate them [the corrections written] until they give us the most accurate trajectory,’ you’re not confining that whole thing in any historical time,” he said. “If, on the other hand, you say, ‘This is based on a historical record,’ that’s going to nail down the range of possibilities. And if you say that they were correcting it for a certain kind of purpose, then all of a sudden you have a very small window of when this discovery could have occurred.”

A Mayan achievement

By reinterpreting the work, Aldana said it puts the Venus Table into cultural context. It was an achievement of Mayan science, and not a numerological oddity. We might never know exactly who made that discovery, he noted, but recasting it as a historical work of science returns it to the Mayans.

“I don’t have a name for this person, but I have a name for the person who is probably one of the authority figures at the time,” Aldana said. “It’s the kind of thing where you know who the pope was, but you don’t know Copernicus’s name. You know the pope was giving him this charge, but the person who did it? You don’t know his or her name.”

Source: University of California – Santa Barbara news release.

__________________________________________

 Depicted here is Chichen Itza, showing the El Castillo structure at its center. Daniel Schwen, Wikimedia Commons

 ________________________________________________________

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 GOTHENBURG—An archaeological expedition from the University of Gothenburg has discovered one of the richest graves from the Late Bronze Age ever found on the island of Cyprus. The grave and its offering pit, located adjacent to the Bronze Age city of Hala Sultan Tekke, contained many fantastic gold objects such as a diadem, pearls, earrings and Egyptian scarabs, as well as more than 100 richly ornamented ceramic vessels. The objects, which originate from several adjacent cultures, confirm the central role of Cyprus in long-distance trade.

Hala Sultan Tekke, a Bronze Age city from 1600-1150 BC that covered an area of up to 50 hectares, had far-reaching trade connections that included Sweden. Peter Fischer, professor of Cypriote archaeology at the University of Gothenburg, has led the excavations performed by the Swedish Cyprus expedition for seven seasons since 2010.

‘The excavations in May and June this year were the most successful to date. We discovered an older city quarter from around 1250 BC and outside the city we found an incredibly rich grave, one of the richest in Cyprus from this period, and an offering pit next to it. The fact that we have discovered a burial site from the Late Bronze Age is quite sensational, since those who died around this time were usually buried within the settlement,’ says Fischer.

The area where the grave was found is exposed to erosion caused by farming. Prior to the excavation, a so-called geophysical survey was performed using radar equipment able to identify what is in the ground down to a depth of two meters. The surveying revealed almost 100 underground ‘pits’, some of which turned out to be wells, some offering pits and – as this year – a grave.

‘Wells are usually one meter in diameter, but this structure was 4 x 3 meters. The grave seems to be a family tomb for eight children ages 5-10 years and nine adults, of whom the oldest was about 40 years old. The life expectancy was much shorter back then than it is today,’ says Fischer.

The archaeologists found over 100 ceramic vessels and several gold finds, including a diadem, beads, earrings and Egyptian scarabs (picture 1), in the grave and the offering pit. The finds also include gemstones and five cylinder seals, some produced locally and some from Syria and Mesopotamia, as well as a bronze dagger.

The archaeologists assign the greatest importance to the more than 140 complete ceramic vessels, most of which were decorated with spectacular illustrations of, for example, people sitting in a chariot drawn by two horses and a woman wearing a beautiful dress. There were also vases decorated with religious symbols and animal illustrations of, for example, fish. Many of the vessels were imported mainly from Greece and Crete but also from Anatolia, or the equivalence of present-day Turkey.

‘The pottery carries a lot of archaeological information. There were for example high-class Mycenaean imports, meaning pottery from Greece, dated to 1500-1300 BC. The motif of the woman, possibly a goddess, is Minoan, which means it is from Crete, but the vase was manufactured in Greece. Back in those days, Crete was becoming a Greek “colony”,’ says Fischer.

According to Fischer, the painting of the woman’s dress is highly advanced and shows how wealthy women dressed around this time. The motif can also be found on frescos in the Palace of Knossos in Heraklion, Crete. Other finds are from Egypt. Two of the stone scarabs are gold-mounted and one features hieroglyphs spelling ‘men-kheper-re’ next to an illustration of a pharaoh. This has given the archaeologists a unique opportunity to tie the roughly 3,500-year-old find to a historic person. The inscription refers to Egypt’s most powerful pharaoh Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC), during whose reign Egypt peaked in size and influence as he conquered both Syria and parts of Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq.

‘We also found evidence in the city of large-scale manufacturing and purple-dying of textiles. These products were used in the trade with the high cultures in Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Crete and Greece, which explains the rich imported finds.

_________________________________________

A Mycenaean (Greek) vessel with fish motifs, c. 1300 BC. Credit: Peter Fischer.

_____________________________________________ 

An amulet of faience with the Egyptian God Bes. Credit: Peter Fischer.

___________________________________________________________

A gold-mounted scarab of steatite, likely Egyptian 19th Dynasty, c. 13th century BC. Credit: Peter Fischer.

____________________________________________ 

What is most interesting about the finds is the dating: they are from 1500/1400 BC, but the researchers have still only found the burial site but not the city from this period.

‘It must have been a rich city judging from the grave we found this year. But it is most likely located closer to the burial site in an area that still has not been explored,’ says Fischer.

This year’s excavation period is over and until next year’s on-site work begins, the researchers have some intense processing of finds to look forward to.

‘In spring 2017 we’ll continue our uncovering of parts of the city and the burial site. As the integrity of both areas is threatened by agricultural activities, there is a need for quick action to secure our shared cultural heritage before it is destroyed forever,’ says Fischer.

Source: University of Gothenburg 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.

Archaeologists under the auspices of the Agsu Archaeological Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan have uncovered an early Medieval settlement at the present-day town of Agsu in Azerbaijan.  

Beginning in 2014, the excavations have revealed 2000 sq/m representing cultural layers of the third to fourth centuries, AD. Digging to a depth of 2.5-3 meters in separate squares, archaeologists encountered houses and administrative buildings, stone-planked roads, and large ceramic vessels. Other artifacts included copper and silver Roman, Sassanid, and Byzantine coins; bronze and agate seals; dice stones; rare snail-shaped pottery; original ceramic-ware; bone samples; golden jewelry; fragments of gray grinding stones; graters; sling stones; and cutting tools.

The explorations have defined a town that covered 12 hectares, encircled with magnificent Sassanid period fortress walls made of adobe. All edifices studied within the town were constructed with river stone and adobe, although some baked brick was encountered in upper layer materials.  

For monument conservation purposes, samples were submitted to the Calabria University of Italy for analyses. Conservation will depend on the results of analyses outcomes, applying nanomaterials.    

Explorations in 2015 showed that the ruins were actually those of Mehravan Town, which has been cited in historical sources. This was a town representing the historic Albanian State’s prosperity, mostly a military-administrative center of the Mehranids, who were Girdiman feudals. 

_______________________________________

 Above and below: Archaeologists at work on the site. Courtesy MIRAS Social Organization in Support of Studying of Cultural Heritage.

_____________________________________________________________

 The excavations have revealed 2000 sq/m representing cultural layers of the third to fourth centuries, AD. Courtesy MIRAS Social Organization in Support of Studying of Cultural Heritage.

______________________________________________ 

 Above and below: Pottery and other artifact finds from the excavations. Courtesy MIRAS Social Organization in Support of Studying of Cultural Heritage.

______________________________________________________________ 

Celebrating and Learning from the Past

Since 2014 an archaeological festival (see www.dayofarchaeology.com) has been held in Azerbaijan under the initiative of the MIRAS (Social Organization in Support of Studying of Cultural Heritage, Azerbaijan). The festival is held every year in the Medieval Agsu Town, with participation of archaeologists, ethnographers, epigraphers, and art historians, as well as volunteers of cultural heritage from the Baku, Agsu, Shamakhi, and Ismayilli regions of Azerbaijan, and also local residents.    

The exhibition, “Urban civilization in early Middle Ages-Mehrevan walled town”, was opened in the windows and podiums of the Juma Mosque in the Medieval Agsu Town Archeological Tourism Complex on 29 July, 2016. The exposition reflected the results of archaeological excavations in the Mehravan walled town conducted during the 2013-2015 seasons. PhD archaeologist Fariz Khalilli stated that rich artifacts – such as bronze jewelry items; iron tools; agate seals; coins of Rome, Byzantine and Sassanids; backgammon stones and dice; and bone, stone and glass items, are exhibited. The exhibition will be open at the Juma Mosque for a year.      

A one-act play called  “Join us”, screened by writer Arzu Soltan and intended for children, was performed by pupils from Agsu. This play encouraged children to be involved in archaeological research and concludes with students’ opportunity to participate in archaeological excavations. The performance was conducted in the main square of Medieval Agsu Town. 

At the conference hall of Medievel Agsu Town Archaeological Tourism Complex, epigrapher Habiba Aliyeva and archaeologist Elmira Abbasova lectured about “Pottery to Applied Art: What Do Ornaments Deal With?”. In this workshop, Azerbaijan’s rich history of art, the variety of ornaments and their existence, were discussed with questions  answered. 

Handicrafts of women from Gagali, Bico and Gashad villages were also exhibited there within the project “The Role of Women in Rural Lifestyle Development”, financed by the Council of State Support to Non-Governmental Organizations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and realized by the MIRAS Social Organization in Support of Studying of Cultural Heritage.

Source: Adapted and edited from a news release of the MIRAS Social Organization in Support of Studying of Cultural Heritage.

___________________________________

The excavations are conducted with support from the MIRAS Social Organization in Support of Studying of Cultural Heritage.

___________________________________

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.

FACULTY OF SCIENCE – UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN—The established theory about the route by which Ice Age peoples first reached the present-day United States has been challenged by an unprecedented study which concludes that their supposed entry route was “biologically unviable”.

The first people to reach the Americas crossed via an ancient land bridge between Siberia and Alaska but then, according to conventional wisdom, had to wait until two huge ice sheets that covered what is now Canada started to recede, creating the so-called “ice-free corridor” which enabled them to move south.

In a new study published in the journal Nature, however, an international team of researchers used ancient DNA extracted from a crucial pinch-point within this corridor to investigate how its ecosystem evolved as the glaciers began to retreat. They created a comprehensive picture showing how and when different flora and fauna emerged and the once ice-covered landscape became a viable passageway. No prehistoric reconstruction project like it has ever been attempted before.

The researchers conclude that while people may well have travelled this corridor after about 12,600 years ago, it would have been impassable earlier than that, as the corridor lacked crucial resources, such as wood for fuel and tools, and game animals which were essential to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

If this is true, then it means that the first Americans, who were present south of the ice sheets long before 12,600 years ago, must have made the journey south by another route. The study’s authors suggest that they probably migrated along the Pacific coast.

Who these people were is still widely disputed. Archaeologists agree, however, that early inhabitants of the modern-day contiguous United States included the so-called “Clovis” culture, which first appear in the archaeological record over 13,000 years ago. And the new study argues that the ice-free corridor would have been completely impassable at that time.

The research was led by Professor Eske Willerslev, an evolutionary geneticist from Centre for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen and University of Cambridge, who also hold posts at St John’s College and the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

“The bottom line is that even though the physical corridor was open by 13,000 years ago, it was several hundred years before it was possible to use it,” Willerslev said.

“That means that the first people entering what is now the US, Central and South America must have taken a different route. Whether you believe these people were Clovis, or someone else, they simply could not have come through the corridor, as long claimed.”

Mikkel Winther Pedersen, a PhD student at the Centre for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen, who conducted the molecular analysis, added: “The ice-free corridor was long considered the principal entry route for the first Americans. Our results reveal that it simply opened up too late for that to have been possible.”

The corridor is thought to have been about 1,500 kilometres long, and emerged east of the Rocky Mountains 13,000 years ago in present-day western Canada, as two great ice sheets – the Cordilleran and Laurentide, retreated.

__________________________________________

 Map outlining the opening of the human migration routes in North America revealed by the results presented in this study.  Credit: Mikkel Winther Pedersen

__________________________________________________________

 A present day view north in the area where the retreating ice sheets created the ice free corridor more than 13,000 years ago. Credit: Mikkel Winther Pedersen

_______________________________________________ 

On paper, this fits well with the argument that Clovis people were the first to disperse across the Americas. The first evidence for this culture, which is named after distinctive stone tools found near Clovis, New Mexico, also dates from roughly the same time, although many archaeologists now believe that other people arrived earlier.

“What nobody has looked at is when the corridor became biologically viable,” Willerslev said. “When could they actually have survived the long and difficult journey through it?”

The conclusion reached by Willerslev and his colleagues is that the journey would have been impossible until about 12,600 years ago. Their research focused on a “bottleneck”, one of the last parts of the corridor to become ice-free, and now partly covered by Charlie Lake in British Columbia, and Spring Lake, Alberta – both part of Canada’s Peace River drainage basin.

The team gathered evidence including radiocarbon dates, pollen, macrofossils and DNA taken from lake sediment cores, which they obtained standing on the frozen lake surface during the winter season. Willerslev’s own PhD, 13 years ago, demonstrated that it is possible to extract ancient plant and mammalian DNA from sediments, as it contains preserved molecular fossils from substances such as tissue, urine, and faeces.

Having acquired the DNA, the group then applied a technique termed “shotgun sequencing”. “Instead of looking for specific pieces of DNA from individual species, we basically sequenced everything in there, from bacteria to animals,” Willerslev said. “It’s amazing what you can get out of this. We found evidence of fish, eagles, mammals and plants. It shows how effective this approach can be to reconstruct past environments.”

This approach allowed the team to see, with remarkable precision, how the bottleneck’s ecosystem developed. Crucially, it showed that before about 12,600 years ago, there were no plants, nor animals, in the corridor, meaning that humans passing through it would not have had resources vital to survive.

Around 12,600 years ago, steppe vegetation started to appear, followed quickly by animals such as bison, woolly mammoth, jackrabbits and voles. Importantly 11,500 years ago, the researchers identified a transition to a “parkland ecosystem” – a landscape densely populated by trees, as well as moose, elk and bald-headed eagles, which would have offered crucial resources for migrating humans.

Somewhere in between, the lakes in the area were populated by fish, including several identifiable species such as pike and perch. Finally, about 10,000 years ago, the area transitioned again, this time into boreal forest, characterised by spruce and pine.

The fact that Clovis was clearly present south of the corridor before 12,600 years ago means that they could not have travelled through it. David Meltzer, an archaeologist at Southern Methodist University and a co-author on the study, said: “There is compelling evidence that Clovis was preceded by an earlier and possibly separate population, but either way, the first people to reach the Americas in Ice Age times would have found the corridor itself impassable.”

“Most likely, you would say that the evidence points to their having travelled down the Pacific Coast,” Willerslev added. “That now seems the most likely scenario.”

Source: Press release of the University of Copenhagen.

_______________________________________________

The paper, Postglacial viability and colonization in North America’s ice-free corridor, was published in the journal Nature on 10. August 2016. DOI: 10.1038/nature19085

_______________________________________________

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.

Anapa, August 9, 2016 – Archaeologists under the auspices of the Oleg Deripaska Volnoe Delo Foundation and the Russian Academy of Sciences‘ Institute of Archaeology have discovered fragments of a marble stele carrying an inscription of the ancient Persian King Darius I. Found among the remains of the ancient town of Phanagoria, an ancient Greek city near Crimea and the Black Sea in the Krasnodar region of Southern Russia, the stele is dated to the first half of the 5th century B.C.E. 

The decoded inscriptions (shown right), in the ancient Persian language, state they were made in the name of the Persian King Darius I, who lived from 550-486 B.C. The text contains a previously unregistered word and, roughly interpreted, identifies the ancient city of Miletus, one of the biggest cities in Ionia, a region later known as Asia Minor. Miletus stood at the head of the so-called Ionian uprising of Greek city states against Darius I. It was suppressed in 494 B.C.

Archaeologists suggest the king erected a marble stele in the city after his victory over the Greeks. The monument featured an incribed text procaiming the king’s triumph. Later on, suggest the archaeologists, a fragment of the overturned and broken stele reached Phanagoria, quite possibly as ballast on a ship that called into the Phanagoria port, as there is no natural stone of the kind on the Taman peninsula.  “The inscription on the stele made in the name of King Darius I is evidently devoted to the crushing of the Ionian revolt,” says Vladimir Kuznetsov, director of the Phanagorian expedition. “The discovery places Phanagoria in the context of one of the most important events of ancient history, which had far-reaching consequences for the Greeks as well as the Persians, and makes it possible to trace the connections of this colony with other parts of the Greek world and analyze its significance in advancing Hellenistic civilization on the Black Sea coast.”

The stele is currently undergoing scrutiny at the restoration laboratory of the Phanagoria Research and Cultural Center. 

Apart from the stele, archeologists have uncovered the remains of ancient fortress walls in the acropolis. Among the recent discoveries made at Phanagoria are remains of a palace of Mithradates VI dated the 1^st century B.C.; an ancient naval ram used by the army of Mithradates VI; a tomb with a stepped ceiling; the oldest temple unearthed on Russian territory, dating back to the 5th century B.C.; and a number of submerged objects, such as the ancient city’s streets covered with sand, port structures, and ship debris.

________________________________________

 Bird’s eye panorama of the Phanagoria archaeological site. Courtesy Oleg Deripaska Volnoe Delo Foundation and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology.

___________________________________________________

 Remains of a building dated to the 5th century, with Roman holes. Courtesy Oleg Deripaska Volnoe Delo Foundation and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology.

____________________________________________________

 Part of Phanagoria’s ancient center. Courtesy Oleg Deripaska Volnoe Delo Foundation and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology.

_________________________________________________ 

The excavations cover several areas, including the 2,500-square-meter acropolis at the center of the ancient city, the eastern necropolis, an ancient cemetery that served as a burial place from the very founding of the city, and a submerged part of the city. What makes the expedition unique is the mix of diversified specialists working together. Apart from archeologists and historians, there are anthropologists, soil scientists, paleozoologists, numismatists and other researchers. A complex approach to the study of Phanagoria’s cultural relics has shed light on understanding the residents’ way of living, religious beliefs, economic cooperation, as well as their roles in military conflicts.

Phanagoria was one of the major monumental cities on presnt-day Russian soil. Founded in the mid-sixth century B.C. by Greek colonists, the city has long been one of two capitals of the Bosporan Kingdom, an ancient state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula. Phanagoria was the major economic and cultural center of the Black Sea region, one of the biggest Greek cities, the first capital of the Great Bulgaria, and one of the main cities of Khazar Kaganate. It was also an ancient center of Christianity. Saint Andrew was believed to preach in Phanagoria. The city boasts the largest Jewish community in the Black Sea region: the first synagogue in Russia was built in Phanagoria in the 16th century C.E. 

In the 9-10th centuries, the residents abandoned the city for reasons still unknown. Phanagoria is surrounded by Russia’s largest necropolis, covering an area of over 300 hectares. The total volume of the cultural layers is 2.5 million cubic meters of soil; the layer’s depth is up to seven meters. No single building has been erected in the city since ancient times, which has helped preserve the ruins and the historical artifacts.

_______________________________________

 Above and below, the prolific array of artifacts unearthed at Phanagoria. Courtesy Oleg Deripaska Volnoe Delo Foundation and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology.

____________________________________________________ 

Regular archeological expeditions have been conducted in Phanagoria since the late 1930s. As of now, only two percent of the city’s territory has been revealed. 

Source: Edited and adapted from the subject press release.

Image, second from top, right: Inscription mentioning Darius I. 

____________________________________________________

The Volnoe Delo Foundation, one of Russia’s biggest privately-held charity funds, is run by businessman and industrialist Oleg Deripaska. It has supported research activities in the 2550-year-old city of Phanagoria since 2004. The Foundation has allocated over $10 million to Phanagoria fieldwork over the past 12 years. Now Phanagoria is one of the best equipped archeological expeditions in Russia, with its own scientific and cultural center, up-to-date equipment for above-ground and underwater excavation and a diverse team of specialists involved in the fieldwork.

____________________________________________________

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.

Everyone knows it as the Burren. Lush green vegetation pockmarks its otherwise ruggedly beautiful yet curiously desolate grey limestone pavement — a pavement initially laid down as sediments of a tropical sea more than 350 million years ago, but much more recently sculpted by Ice Age glaciation ‘only’ 10,000 years ago. Characterized by criss-crossing cracks known as “grikes”, which also leave isolated rocks called “clints”, it is a unique panorama that marks a distinguishing feature of Ireland’s western geography.  Edmund Ludlow, a 17th century English parliamentarian, once described the Burren as “a country where there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him…… and yet their cattle are very fat; for the grass growing in turfs of earth, of two or three foot square, that lie between the rocks, which are of limestone, is very sweet and nourishing.”  And to this day, a healthy and thriving population of cattle and sheep remain prominent players on the Burren landscape. 

___________________________________

 Above and below: The Burren countryside. Top image courtesy Kate Leonard. Bottom image HEireann, Wikimedia Commons

 ________________________________________________

Needless to say, the Burren draws tourists.

And archaeologists. 

This is because the Burren is rich with historical and archaeological sites. Archaeologists and historians have documented more than 90 megalithic tombs and approximately 500 ringforts – such as Cahercommaun, a cashel which sits on the edge of an inland cliff, and the astonishingly well-preserved Caherconnell Cashel (Stone Fort). It is a tapestry of human presence extending back before the written word. 

At this writing, a team of archaeologists and students are busy at work, methodically digging at the Caherconnell Cashel site. They can be seen crouched on their knees atop grey stone and soil, scraping and slicing carefully down with their trowels to expose stone floor surfaces, wall structures, and other features that testify to a long Medieval period occupation. 

“Caherconnell Cashel is a possible royal settlement occupied from 10^th century to the 15^th/16^th century AD,” says Kate Leonard*, a supervising archaeologist who worked at the site during the summer of 2016. “The cashel is a drystone (no mortar) enclosure: a 4m-high limestone wall enclosing a circular area that contained dwellings, the enclosure having an east-facing entrance. Already the excavations in the interior of the cashel have revealed evidence for a series of occupation and building phases that indicate a long period of use.” 

The 1200+ Medieval artifacts thus far uncovered include clothes-fastening pins of bone, iron and bronze; iron shears; knives and other tools; whetstones and quernstones; glass and amber beads; a silver finger ring; iron and bronze buckles; a bronze tuning peg from a harp; iron arrowheads; and intricately carved bone hair combs. 

And plenty of animal remains.

“The underlying limestone bedrock of the region creates an alkaline condition (non-acidic) that preserves bone wonderfully,” continues Leonard. “As a result, there is a large animal bone assemblage from the site that tells us the cashel’s occupants throughout the Medieval period had a varied diet including pig, sheep/goat and cow milk products and meat, fish, shellfish, domestic poultry and their eggs. The meat in their diet was supplemented with gathered herbs, fruits and nuts, like the ever present hazelnut, and cereal grains like barley, oats, rye and wheat ground by hand into flour and/or meal using heavy stone rotary querns.” 

____________________________________

 Above: A view of the Caherconnell Cashel (stone fort). Dabhoireann, Wikimedia Commons. Below, views of the Caherconnell Cashel by Kate Leonard.

_____________________________________________________ 

The recent excavations at Caherconnell began in 2007 with a trial excavation. Results were promising, so in 2010 archaeology field school excavations began under the direction of Dr. Michelle Comber. Those excavations have revealed structures and artifacts which include stone walls, animal bone and finely worked metal objects that all together are beginning to tell the story of the Gaelic people who lived and worked here during Medieval times. “It is a story not fully told through written history,” says Leonard. The finds are helping to paint a fuller picture of the day-to-day lifestyle of these people, who lived in a time when, says Leonard, the written narrative has been dominated by the history, politics, archaeology, and documented architecture of the Anglo-Normans who invaded Ireland beginning in the 12^th century AD.

Because the limestone bedrock is close to the topsoil, the team has been able to uncover a large area in a relatively short period of time, exposing much of the interior features of the stone fort, affording a rapidly developing picture of its foundations and layout, including new structures. “I was digging in an area of the site where the foundations of a round structure, and associated internal features, were revealed that likely dates to the earliest occupation of the cashel – the 10^th century AD,” says Leonard. Site director Comber suggests that this structure was ancillary to the centrally located dwelling house within the stone circle of the cashel, and that it may have also functioned later as a place for storage and/or refuse disposal. “The workshop idea relates to the discovery of some metalworking slag inside the structure, and a furnace and metalworking hearth on the north side of the structure,” says Comber. “A stone-lined hearth inside the structure contained more non-industrial charcoal, charred hazelnut shells, and regular small fragments of burned animal bone.”  Additionally uncovered features are raising new questions. “Secondary activity relates to the quarrying of a large pit within the structure – with a concentration of charcoal and carbonized material in its lower fill, and frequent large animal bones in the upper fill,” adds Comber. “There is the possibility of a flue leading into this pit, which would suggest its primary use as a cereal-drying kiln.” Comber believes further investigation may shed more light on this.  

______________________________________

Above: Field school team members excavating at the site of the Caherconnell Cashel. Courtesy Kate Leonard 

___________________________________________________

 Above: Because the underlying limestone bedrock is relatively close to the topsoil, field school members can make significant progress uncovering new features within the cashel. Courtesy Kate Leonard

___________________________________________________

 Archaeologist Kate Leonard on site on a wet day at the Caherconnell Cashel. Courtesy Kate Leonard

______________________________________ 

Most significantly, archaeologists hope that the results of the excavation will help unfold a new chapter in the ongoing search for the unwritten history of the Gaelic people who inhabited Ireland. “It is very important that the story of the native population is put back into the narrative of Medieval Ireland,” says Leonard. And given that so many of today’s population can trace their roots to Gaelic ancestry, this is no small statement.

___________________________________________________

*Leonard’s time at Caherconnell was brief, as she is engaged in a global year-long journey to work at twelve different archaeological sites in 12 separate countries. She calls her project Global Archaeology: A Year of Digs. Caherconnell now makes the 7th stop on her global trek. 

Popular Archaeology will be following and reporting on Leonard’s worldwide experiences periodically throughout 2016 as she hops from one location to another during her global journey. To continue the work, however, Leonard will need financial support from donors. Readers interested in reading about and supporting her self-directed Global Archaeology crowdfunded project can learn more at gofundme.com/globalarchaeology.

See more about Leonard’s experience at Caherconnell here, and you may also read more about the site and the project at its website.  

__________________________________

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.

PENN STATE, UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—While the Minoan culture on Crete was just beginning, woolly mammoths were disappearing from St. Paul Island, Alaska, according to an international team of scientists who have dated this extinction to 5,600 years ago.

“It’s amazing that everything turned out so precisely with dating of extinction at 5,600 plus or minus 100 years,” said Russell Graham, professor of geosciences, Penn State.”

St. Paul Island lies about 400 miles north of the Aleutian Islands and was part of the Bering Land Bridge before sea level rose when the last glacial period ended. Previous researchers radiocarbon-dated remains of five mammoths to about 6,480 years ago, but there was no way to know if these were the last five animals.

The researchers used a variety of proxies to date the demise of the mammoths on the island. Proxies are things in the environment that can be used to independently document the presence of an organism, even though they are not parts of it. In this study, three different spores from fungi that grow on large animal dung were extracted from lake cores and used to determine when the mammoths were no longer on the island. Proxies in sediments from cores from a lake near the cave were used to determine the time of the demise of the mammoth population.

“We see a reduction in the three species of fungus, all of which are associated with the dung of large animals,” said Graham. “These spores are a marker for the presence of large animals like mammoths.”

Beside the mammoths, the only animals appearing on the island in “prehistoric” times were arctic foxes, shrews and polar bears, and there is no evidence of polar bears before 4,000 years ago. Humans did not arrive on the island until 1787 C.E. The only large mammals present were mammoths.

Sediment DNA from the lake cores showed the presence of mammoth DNA until 5,650 years ago, plus or minus 80 years. After that time, there is no mammoth DNA and so no mammoths on the island. The youngest of the newly dated mammoth remains’ dates fall within the mammoth DNA range and the fungal spore dates as well.

Using state-of-the-art methods for radiocarbon dating, the researchers used 14 newly recovered remains from various areas on the island to help document the time of extinction.

“The St. Paul mammoth demise is now one of the best-dated prehistoric extinctions, ” the researchers report today (August 1) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers also used environmental proxies to investigate habitat changes at the time of extinction. The island, which formed between 14,700 and 13,500 years ago rapidly shrank until 9,000 years ago and continued slowly shrinking until 6,000 years ago and now is only 42 square miles in area. While large animals like mammoths became extinct on the continents about 12,000 years ago due to climate change and habitat restructuring, the process was different on the island.

The shrinking of the island concentrated the mammoths in a smaller area and diminished available water. Pollen from the lake cores indicate that the area around the lake was denuded of vegetation by the mammoths. Like elephants today, when the water became cloudy and turgid, the mammoths probably dug holes nearby to obtain cleaner water. Both of these things increased erosion in the area and helped fill in the lake, decreasing the available water even more.

After the extinction of the mammoths, the cores show that erosion stopped and vegetation returned to the area. In essence, the mammoths contributed to their own demise.

The researchers note that this research “highlights freshwater limitation as an overlooked extinction driver and underscores the vulnerability of small island populations to environmental change, even in the absence of human influence,”

Source: Penn State University news release.

_________________________________________________

 Reconstructed mammoth. Matt Boulton, Wikimedia Commons

_____________________________________________________

Also working on this project from Penn State were Soumaya Belmecheri, former postdoctoral fellow now at the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research, University of Arizona; Brendan J. Culleton, research associate in anthropology; and Lee Newsom, associate professor of anthropology.

The team also consisted of Kyungcheol Choy, Ruth Rawcliffe, and Émilie Saulnier-Talbot, Alaska Stable Isotope Center; and Matthew J. Wooller, Alaska Stable Isotope Center and School of Fisheries and Ocean Science, University of Alaska, Fairbanks; Lauren J. Davies, Duane Froese, University of Alberta; Peter D. Heintzman, Beth Shapiro and Joshua D. Kapp, University of California, Santa Cruz; Carrie Hritz, AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow; and Yue Wang and John W. Williams, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

The National Science Foundation supported this work.

________________________________________________________________

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.

DURHAM UNIVERSITY—An adolescent orangutan called Rocky could provide the key to understanding how speech in humans evolved from the time of the ancestral great apes, according to new research.

In an imitation “do-as-I-do” game, eleven-year-old Rocky, who was eight at the time of the research, was able to copy the pitch and tone of sounds made by researchers to make vowel-like calls.

The discovery, led by Dr Adriano Lameira of Durham University, UK, shows that orangutans could have the ability to control their voices.

It might answer the argument about whether or not spoken language stemmed from early human ancestors.

Previously it was thought that great apes – our closest relatives – could not learn to produce new sounds and because speech is a learned behaviour it could not have originated from them.

The findings are published today (Wednesday, July 27) in the journal Scientific Reports.

Rocky was studied at Indianapolis Zoo, Indiana, USA, where he is currently housed, between April and May 2012, and all steps were taken to ensure his routine and environment were not disrupted.

During the study, a researcher made random sounds with variations in the tone or pitch of her voice which Rocky then mimicked.

The research team compared these sounds against the largest available database of orangutan calls collected from over 12,000 hours of observations of more than 120 orangutans from 15 wild and captive populations.

They were able to conclude that the sounds made by Rocky were different compared to the sounds on the database, showing that he was able to learn new sounds and control the action of his voice in a “conversational” context.

Dr Lameira, who was not a member of Durham University staff at the time of the research but joined the Department of Anthropology in 2015, said: “It’s not clear how spoken language evolved from the communication systems of the ancestral great apes.

“Instead of learning new sounds, it has been presumed that sounds made by great apes are driven by arousal over which they have no control, but our research proves that orangutans have the potential capacity to control the action of their voices.

“This indicates that the voice control shown by humans could derive from an evolutionary ancestor with similar voice control capacities as those found in orangutans and in all great apes more generally.

“This opens up the potential for us to learn more about the vocal capacities of early hominids that lived before the split between the orangutan and human lineages to see how the vocal system evolved towards full-blown speech in humans.”

________________________________________

 Image courtesy Zyance, Wikimedia Commons

_____________________________________________________ 

The research also involved the Pongo Foundation (Netherlands); Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Germany); Liverpool John Moores University (UK); University of Amsterdam (Netherlands); Indianapolis Zoo (USA); George Mason University (USA); Indiana University (USA).

It builds on a previous study led by Dr Lameira when he was based at the University of Amsterdam.

In that study, published in January 2015, it was reported that a female orangutan called Tilda at Cologne Zoo, in Germany, was able to make sounds comparable to human consonant and vowel-like calls at the same rhythm and pace as human speech.

Source: News release of Durham University

_____________________________________________________

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.