Archives: Articles

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY—New research suggests that humans became the large-brained, large-bodied animals we are today because of natural selection to increase brain size. The work, published in the journal Current Anthropology, contradicts previous models that treat brain size and body size as independent traits responding to separate evolutionary pressures. Instead, the study shows that brain size and body size are genetically linked and that selection to increase brain size will “pull along” body size. This phenomenon played a large role in both brain- and body-size increases throughout human evolution and may have been solely responsible for the large increase in both traits that occurred near the origins of our genus, Homo.

“Over the last four million years, brain size and body size increased substantially in our human ancestors,” said paper author Mark Grabowski, a James Arthur postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History. “This observation has led to numerous hypotheses attempting to explain why observed changes occurred, but these typically make the assumption that brain- and body-size evolution are the products of separate natural selection forces.”

That assumption is now being questioned, based on a large body of work that has shown that genetic variation—the fuel of evolution—in some traits is due to genes that also cause variation in other traits, with the result that selection on either trait leads to a correlated response in the unselected trait. Consider the leg bone, or femur, of an elephant. As the bone gets longer, it also gets wider. If artificial selection is used to produce a tall elephant, its legs likely won’t just become long, they’ll also get wider. Part of this effect is due to shared genetic variation, or covariation, among traits in the femur. Grabowski set out to explore this kind of genetic relationship between human brain size and body size, and its impact on our evolution.

____________________________________________

 New research shows that a strong selection to increase brain size alone played a large role in both brain- and body-size increases throughout human evolution. This phenomenon also may have been solely responsible for the major increase in both traits that occurred during the transition from human ancestors like Australopithecus, a model of which is seen here in the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Human Origins, to Homo erectus. Credit: AMNH/R. Mickens

__________________________________________________________ 

With brain- and body-size covariation patterns from a range of primates and modern humans, Grabowski created a number of models to examine how underlying genetic relationships and selection pressures likely interacted across the evolution of our lineage. His findings demonstrate, for the first time, that strong selection to increase brain size alone played a large role in both brain- and body-size increases throughout human evolution. This phenomenon also may have been solely responsible for the major increase in both traits that occurred during the transition from human ancestors like Australopithecus (the most famous of which is the Lucy fossil) to Homo erectus.

In other words, while there are many scientific ideas explaining why it would be beneficial for humans to evolve bigger bodies over time, the new work suggests that those hypotheses may be unnecessary; instead, body size just gets pulled along as the brain expands.

“While selection no doubt played a role in refining the physical changes that came with larger body sizes, my findings suggest it was not the driving force behind body-size evolution in our lineage,” Grabowski said. “Therefore, evolutionary models for the origins of Homo based on an adaptive increase in body size need to be reconsidered.”

Source: American Museum of Natural History subject news release.

_______________________________________________________

*The Current Anthropology paper: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/685655

____________________________________________________________ 

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.

LOMONOSOV MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY—Archaeologists from the Lomonosov Moscow State University studied artifacts made of bone, antler and ivory excavated at the Sungir archaeological site. Through the study, they determined how Homo sapiens occupying the site processed solid organic materials and produced tools and ornaments. The study was published in a specialized digest produced by the Hugo Obermaier Society for Quaternary Research and Archaeology of the Stone Age.

The work has established that Sungir was a base camp for Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. One of the study authors, Taisiya Soldatova (Ph.D., Faculty of Foreign Languages and Regional Studies, MSU), also reports that further study of the objects may help to determine the place of the site in relation to the Upper Paleolithic of Europe.

The open-air Upper Paleolithic site is located near Vladimir city, 200 kilometers east of Moscow. It was discovered in 1955 during preparation work for construction of a plant, and investigated by an expedition under the leadership of the famous Soviet archaeologist Otto N. Bader. There he and his team uncovered a complex funerary complex, consisting of two graves, each containing two burials. The burials were accompanied by a rich inventory of objects, including a profusion of products made of ivory, such as beads, bracelets, and spears.

Radiocarbon analysis of fossils and other biological materials found at the site suggested a date range between 28,800 ± 240 and 25,500 ± 200 BP, but other data suggests the site is about 30 thousand years old.

During the collaborative work, Taisiya Soldatova conducted a study of 171 specimens of bone, antler and ivory (including working and hunting tools, blanks for various purposes and waste materials), while Vladislav Zhitenev (Ph.D., Associate Professor of Historical Archaeology, on the faculty of Moscow State University) focused his attention on the ornaments: pendants made of arctic fox teeth and beads of ivory.

“The main objective of the study is to examine the products made of solid organic materials (bone, antler and ivory) from the Sungir Upper Paleolithic site. Together with stone tools, working bone is an important indicator of cultural attribution, and can also play a significant role in addressing some of the relative chronology issues”, says Taisiya Soldatova.

Technological analysis of the Upper Paleolithic sites of the Vladimir region have shown that the Sungirian occupants had mastered a wide range of techniques for processing bone material—longitudinal and transverse fracture, transverse breaks with preparatory sawing, cutting, sawing, planing/scraping. All of these techniques have been used to create collections of bones, antler and ivory, so it is possible to determine a uniform treatment of solid organic materials by the Sungirian occupants.

On the other hand, the study showed that there are some differences between bone- and antler-working and the ivory industry: ivory tools and ornaments are better formed than bone and antler. Moreover, no ivory tools were used in household activity: only hunting weapons, art objects and ornaments. The collection, however, also contains three items of ivory that can be interpreted as tools: a “retoucher” and two “shaft straighteners”, though it should be emphasized that these instruments of ivory were found in burials and may thus have a symbolic meaning.

_________________________________________

 Bone industry of the Sungir site: 1-5. Credit: Taisiya Soldatova

______________________________________________________

 The instruments of hunting: 1, 3 – points; 2, 4 -blanks forpoint. Credit:Taisiya Soldatova

_____________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________ 

The peculiarities of ivory processing found at the site have allowed the researchers to draw some parallels between Sungir and early Aurignacian sites (European Upper Paleolithic culture), from the raw material that served as ornaments and small figurines, and, in rare cases – a point with a massive base. Thus, it can be assumed that the bone industry of Sungir was culturally influenced by the early Aurignacian, resulting in similar categories of tools, as well as the nature of the ivory material use. Also found at Sungir was a high percentage of objects from antler (16%), similar to sites of the Upper Paleolithic found in Central and Western Europe.

Among the investigated items are finds of varying completion – from blanks to finished products. Therefore, the researchers suggest that the treatment of bone material happened at the site. In addition, the functional variety of the findings indicates that Sungir, covering an area of over 4,000 km2, showed a  diversity of economic activity: The manufacturing of clothing from animal skins was confirmed by awls and pins; and hoe-like tools for excavation. Archaeologists also found chisels and points – meaning that the Sungir people paid attention to productive activities as well as hunting – particularly deer, mammoths, wolves and wild horses. In other words, Sungir was probably a prehstoric base camp, as opposed to the site discovered near Rusanikha, 8 km away from the study area. The head of the Rusanikha excavations – L.A. Mikhailova – suggests that the site was an encampement of mammoth hunters because of the predominance of stone hunting tools and animal bones.

“Comparing bones, antler and ivory objects from Sungir with European collections of the Early Upper Paleolithic sites can help identify the cause of differences in methods of treating various bone material, and finding the similarities may help define common features in the nature of bone industries of this age and determine the place of the researched site in the Upper Paleolithic of Europe”, Soldatova explains.

Source: Edited and adapted from a  Lomonosov Moscow State University subject 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 UTAH—Fire, a tool broadly used for cooking, constructing, hunting and even communicating, was arguably one of the earliest discoveries in human history. But when, how and why it came to be used is hotly debated among scientists.

A new scenario crafted by University of Utah anthropologists proposes that human ancestors became dependent on fire as a result of Africa’s increasingly fire-prone environment 2-3 million years ago.

As the environment became drier and natural fires occurred more frequently, ancestral humans took advantage of these fires to more efficiently search for and handle food. With increased resources and energy, these ancestors were able to travel farther distances and expand to other continents.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and the findings were published April 10, 2016 in Evolutionary Anthropology.

Serendipitous science

Current prevailing hypotheses of how human ancestors became fire-dependent depict fire as an accident — a byproduct of another event rather than a standalone occurrence. One hypothesis, for example, explains fire as a result of rock pounding that created a spark and spread to a nearby bush.

“The problem we’re trying to confront is that other hypotheses are unsatisfying. Fire use is so crucial to our biology, it seems unlikely that it wasn’t taken advantage of by our ancestors,” said Kristen Hawkes, distinguished professor of anthropology at the U and the paper’s senior author.

“Everything is modified by fire; just take a look around at the books and furniture in this room. We’re surrounded by fire’s byproducts,” added Christopher Parker, anthropology postdoctoral research associate at the U and the paper’s first author.

The team’s proposed scenario is the first known hypothesis in which fire does not originate serendipitously. Instead, the team suggests that the genus Homo, which includes modern humans and their close relatives, adapted to progressively fire-prone environments caused by increased aridity and flammable landscapes by exploiting fire’s food foraging benefits.

Parker and Hawkes conducted the research with University of Utah anthropology doctoral candidate Earl Keefe, postdoctoral research associate Nicole Herzog and distinguished professor James F O’Connell.

Shedding light on the past

“All humans are fire-dependent. The data show that other animals and even some of our primate cousins use it as an opportunity to eat better; they are essentially taking advantage of landscape fires to forage more efficiently,” said Hawkes.

By reconstructing tropical Africa’s climate and vegetation about 2-3 million years ago, the research team pieced together multiple lines of evidence to craft their proposed scenario for how early human ancestors first used fire to their advantage.

To clarify the dating and scope of increasingly fire-prone landscapes, the research team took advantage of recent work on carbon isotopes in paleosols, or ancient dirt. Because woody plants and more fire-prone tropical grasses use different photosynthetic pathways that result in distinct variants of carbon, the carbon isotopic composition of paleosols can directly indicate the percentage of woody plants versus tropical grasses.

Recent carbon analyses of paleosols from the Awash Valley in Ethiopia and Omo-Turkana basin in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia show a consistent pattern of woody plants being replaced by more tropical, fire-prone grasses approximately 3.6-1.4 million years ago. This is explained by reductions in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and increased aridity. Drier conditions and the expansion of fire-prone grasslands are also evidenced in fossil wood evidence in Omo Shungura G Formation, Ethiopia.

As the ecosystem became increasingly arid and a pattern of rapid, recurring fluctuation between woodlands and open grasslands emerged, many ancestral humans adapted to eating grassland plants and food cooked by fires. In essence, they took advantage of the foraging benefits that fire provided.

Turn up the heat: more fire for more food

More specifically, fire-altered landscapes provided foraging benefits by improving both the processes of searching for and handling food. The research team identified these benefits by using the prey/optimal diet model of foraging, which simplifies foraging into two mutually exclusive components — searching and handling — and ranks resources by the expected net profit of energy per unit of time spent handling. This model identifies changes in the suite of resources that give the highest overall rate of gain as search and handling costs change.

By burning off cover and exposing previously obscured holes and animal tracks, fire reduces search time; it also clears the land for faster growing, fire-adapted foliage. Foods altered by burning take less effort to chew and nutrients in seeds and tubers can be more readily digested. Those changes reduce handling efforts and increase the value of those foods.

“Most people think that the logical reaction would be to run away from fire, but fire provided our ancestors with a feeding opportunity. Evidence shows that other animals take advantage of fire for foraging, so it seems very likely that our ancestors did as well,” said Hawkes.

____________________________________________

 This image shows anthropogenic burning in Hadza country, Africa. Credit: James F. O’Connell

______________________________________________ 

Without a trace

Landscapes burned by fire, then, had numerous foraging payoffs for genus Homo.

The proposed scenario not only explains how hominins came to manipulate fire for its foraging advantages, but also provides a solution to the baffling mismatch between the fossil and archaeological records. Anatomical changes associated with dependence on cooked food such as reduced tooth size and structures related to chewing appear long before there is clear archaeological evidence of cooking hearths.

Parker and Hawkes’ scenario resolves the mismatch by suggesting that the earliest forms of fire use by the genus Homo would not have left traces in the form of traditional fire hearths.

Instead of cooking over a prepared hearth that would be visible archaeologically, hominins were taking advantage of burns, had an increased energy budget and could travel longer distances. Early fire use, therefore, would have been indistinguishable from naturally occurring fires.

“When our genus appears, almost immediately, those populations got out of Africa. If you look at the other great apes, they’re tied to habitats where juveniles can feed themselves. We were able to expand out of Africa into Europe and Asia because our fire use not only earned higher return rates, but also permitted older women in these communities to help feed juveniles, thereby freeing our ancestors to move into habitats where youngsters couldn’t feed themselves,” said Hawkes.

“This scenario tells a story about our ancestors’ foraging strategies and how those strategies allowed our ancestors to colonize new habitats. It gives us more insight into why we came to be the way we are; fire changed our ancestors’ social organization and life history.”

Looking forward, the research team will take on an ethnographic project with the Hadza people, an indigenous ethnic group in Tanzania that are among the last hunter-gatherers in the world, to learn how they forage in burns. The team will also continue to study more examples of how nonhuman primates forage in burns to confirm the anecdotal evidence that they take advantage of landscape fires, as well as further study fire ecology in tropical Africa and how that allowed ancestors to move to other continents.

Source: University of Utah

____________________________________________

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 CAMBRIDGE—A new study suggests that Neanderthals across Europe may well have been infected with diseases carried out of Africa by waves of anatomically modern humans, or Homo sapiens. As both were species of hominin, it would have been easier for pathogens to jump populations, say researchers. This might have contributed to the demise of Neanderthals.

Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford Brookes have reviewed the latest evidence gleaned from pathogen genomes and DNA from ancient bones, and concluded that some infectious diseases are likely to be many thousands of years older than previously believed.

There is evidence that our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals and exchanged genes associated with disease. There is also evidence that viruses moved into humans from other hominins while still in Africa. So, the researchers argue, it makes sense to assume that humans could, in turn, pass disease to Neanderthals, and that – if we were mating with them – we probably did.

Dr Charlotte Houldcroft, from Cambridge’s Division of Biological Anthropology, says that many of the infections likely to have passed from humans to Neanderthals – such as tapeworm, tuberculosis, stomach ulcers and types of herpes – are chronic diseases that would have weakened the hunter-gathering Neanderthals, making them less fit and able to find food, which could have catalysed extinction of the species.

“Humans migrating out of Africa would have been a significant reservoir of tropical diseases,” says Houldcroft. “For the Neanderthal population of Eurasia, adapted to that geographical infectious disease environment, exposure to new pathogens carried out of Africa may have been catastrophic.”

“However, it is unlikely to have been similar to Columbus bringing disease into America and decimating native populations. It’s more likely that small bands of Neanderthals each had their own infection disasters, weakening the group and tipping the balance against survival,” says Houldcroft.

________________________________________

 Left, modern human skull. Right, Neanderthal skull. Evidence mounts that modern humans and Neanderthals came in contact with each other, exchanging not only DNA but likely also pathogens as well. Hairymuseummatt, Wikimedia Commons

 ______________________________________________________

New techniques developed in the last few years mean researchers can now peer into the distant past of modern disease by unravelling its genetic code, as well as extracting DNA from fossils of some of our earliest ancestors to detect traces of disease.

In a paper published today in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Houldcroft, who also studies modern infections at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Dr Simon Underdown, a researcher in human evolution from Oxford Brookes University, write that genetic data shows many infectious diseases have been “co-evolving with humans and our ancestors for tens of thousands to millions of years”.

The longstanding view of infectious disease is that it exploded with the dawning of agriculture some 8,000 years ago, as increasingly dense and sedentary human populations coexisted with livestock, creating a perfect storm for disease to spread. The researchers say the latest evidence suggests disease had a much longer “burn in period” that pre-dates agriculture.

In fact, they say that many diseases traditionally thought to be ‘zoonoses’, transferred from herd animals into humans, such as tuberculosis, were actually transmitted into the livestock by humans in the first place.

“We are beginning to see evidence that environmental bacteria were the likely ancestors of many pathogens that caused disease during the advent of agriculture, and that they initially passed from humans into their animals,” says Houldcroft.

“Hunter-gatherers lived in small foraging groups. Neanderthals lived in groups of between 15-30 members, for example. So disease would have broken out sporadically, but have been unable to spread very far. Once agriculture came along, these diseases had the perfect conditions to explode, but they were already around.”

There is as yet no hard evidence of infectious disease transmission between humans and Neanderthals; however, considering the overlap in time and geography, and not least the evidence of interbreeding, Houldcroft and Underdown say that it must have occurred.

Neanderthals would have adapted to the diseases of their European environment. There is evidence that humans benefited from receiving genetic components through interbreeding that protected them from some of these: types of bacterial sepsis – blood poisoning occurring from infected wounds – and encephalitis caught from ticks that inhabit Siberian forests.

In turn, the humans, unlike Neanderthals, would have been adapted to African diseases, which they would have brought with them during waves of expansion into Europe and Asia.

The researchers describe Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that causes stomach ulcers, as a prime candidate for a disease that humans may have passed to Neanderthals. It is estimated to have first infected humans in Africa 88 to 116 thousand years ago, and arrived in Europe after 52,000 years ago. The most recent evidence suggests Neanderthals died out around 40,000 years ago.

Another candidate is herpes simplex 2, the virus which causes genital herpes. There is evidence preserved in the genome of this disease that suggests it was transmitted to humans in Africa 1.6 million years ago from another, currently unknown hominin species that in turn acquired it from chimpanzees.

“The ‘intermediate’ hominin that bridged the virus between chimps and humans shows that diseases could leap between hominin species. The herpes virus is transmitted sexually and through saliva. As we now know that humans bred with Neanderthals, and we all carry 2-5% of Neanderthal DNA as a result, it makes sense to assume that, along with bodily fluids, humans and Neanderthals transferred diseases,” says Houldcroft.

Recent theories for the cause of Neanderthal extinction range from climate change to an early human alliance with wolves resulting in domination of the food chain. “It is probable that a combination of factors caused the demise of Neanderthals,” says Houldcroft, “and the evidence is building that spread of disease was an important one.”

Source: University of Cambridge 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.

CELL PRESS—Researchers reporting in the American Journal of Human Genetics, published by Cell Press, have completed the first in-depth genetic analysis of a Neanderthal Y chromosome. The findings offer new insights into the relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans and some of the genetic factors that might have kept the two lineages apart.

The Y chromosome was the main component remaining to be analyzed from the Neanderthal genome, the researchers say.

“Characterizing the Neanderthal Y chromosome helps us to better understand the population divergence that led to Neanderthals and modern humans,” says Fernando Mendez of Stanford University. “It also enables us to explore possible genetic interactions between archaic and modern [gene] variants within hybrid offspring.”

Mendez and his colleagues, including Carlos Bustamante, also at Stanford, and Sergi Castellano, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, analyzed the Y chromosome from a Neanderthal male found in El Sidrón, Spain. Their analysis suggests that Neanderthals and modern humans diverged almost 590,000 years ago, consistent with earlier evidence.

The researchers say that the Neanderthal Y chromosome they sequenced is distinct from any Y chromosome observed in modern humans, suggesting that the lineage in question is to be extinct. They also found some intriguing protein-coding differences between genes on the Neanderthal and modern human Y chromosomes.

Three of those changes are missense mutations in genes known in humans to produce male-specific minor histocompatibility antigens. Antigens derived from one of these genes, known as KDM5D, are thought to elicit an immune response in some pregnant mothers against their male fetuses and lead to miscarriages.

The researchers speculate that incompatibilities at one or more of these genes might have played a role in driving ancient humans and Neanderthals apart by discouraging interbreeding between them.

“The functional nature of the mutations we found suggests to us that the Y chromosome may have played a role in barriers to gene flow,” Bustamante says.

“The finding that most of the functional differences associate with these genes, rather than with genes involved in [sperm production], came as a surprise,” Mendez adds.

___________________________________________

 Recent studies have now shown that Neanderthals and modern humans diverged almost 590,000 years ago. Image by Nathan Harig, Wikimedia Commons

________________________________________________________ 

The researchers say additional research is required to confirm the role of those Y-chromosome mutations in discouraging the formation of a hybrid Neanderthal and human species. They are planning those experiments now.

Source: Cell Press 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.

Hundreds of iconic moai statues stand testament to the vibrant civilization that once inhabited Easter Island, but there are far fewer clues about why this civilization mysteriously vanished. Did they shortsightedly exhaust the island’s resources? Were they decimated by European illnesses and slave trade? Or did stow-away rats devastate the native ecosystem? Such theories have spread widely, but recent evidence shows that the truth is not as simple as any one of these alone.

“These different interpretations may be complementary, rather than incompatible,” said Dr. Valentí Rull. “In the last decade, there’s been a burst in new studies, including additional research sites and novel techniques, which demand that we reconsider the climatic, ecological and cultural developments that occurred.” Rull is a senior researcher of the Spanish National Research Council in Barcelona, Spain, and the lead author of an overview on the holistic reassessment of Easter Island history.

Until recently, the evidence has been limited. Prior sedimentary samples–commonly used as historical records of environmental change–were incomplete, with gaps and inconsistencies in the timeline. Furthermore, past interpretations relied heavily on pollen alone, without incorporating more faithful indicators of climate change. Due to this uncertainty, many fundamental questions remain, not only about why the culture disappeared, but also precisely when these events occurred and how this civilization developed in the first place.

Using the latest analytical methods, Rull and his collaborators are beginning to shed light on many of these questions. Complete sedimentary samples now show a continuous record of the last 3000 years, showing how droughts and wet seasons may have influenced the island’s population. Sea travel depended on such weather patterns, resulting in periods of cultural exchange or isolation. Rainfall also impacted native palm forests, with droughts potentially contributing to the island’s eventual deforestation. Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis of artifacts and human remains are also showing where the inhabitants lived on the island, what they farmed and ate, and the influence of cultures beyond their Polynesian ancestors.

“These findings challenge classical collapse theories and the new picture shows a long and gradual process due to both ecological and cultural changes. In particular, the evidence suggests that there was not an island-wide abrupt ecological and cultural collapse before the European arrival in 1722,” said Rull.

____________________________________________

 Moai statue found on Easter Island. Photo courtesy of Dr. Valentí Rull

__________________________________________________________ 

There is much work yet to be done before this mystery is solved, but it is clear that neither environmental nor human activities are solely responsible for the events on Easter Island. Only a combined approach that encompasses climate, ecology, and culture will fully explain how this ancient civilization went extinct.

The article is published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

Source: Frontiers

__________________________________________________________

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 CINCINNATI—Collection, storage and management of water were top priorities for the ancient Maya, whose sites in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala were forced to endure seven months out of the year with very little rainfall. As researchers expand their explorations of the civilization outside of large, elite-focused research site centers, aerial imagery technology is helping them locate and study areas that are showing them how less urbanized populations conserved water for drinking and irrigation. The NSF-supported research by Jeffrey Brewer, a doctoral student in the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Geography, and Christopher Carr, a UC research assistant professor of geography, was presented at the 81st annual meeting of the Society of American Archaeology. The meeting takes place April 6-10, in Orlando, Florida.

The UC researchers used a surveying technology called LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) – along with excavation data – to examine the spatial characteristics, cultural modifications and function of residential-scale water tanks – a little-investigated component of Maya water management by commoners versus the more powerful and visible elites, says Brewer.

LiDAR is a remote sensing technology that collects high-resolution imagery shot from an airplane at 30,000 points per second, allowing researchers to map ground surfaces through dense vegetation. The technology saves a significant amount of time in the field, compared with trekking through forests to locate these small depressions at ground level.

The specific area under study is the ancient Maya site of Yaxnohcah, located in the Central Yucatan. “One of the unique aspects of this particular site is that it appears to date a little earlier than many regional sites of the same size in terms of displaying significant cultural activity,” says Brewer. “So, we’re still at ground level with our discoveries here.”

Although the LiDAR analysis revealed more than 100 potential small reservoirs scattered throughout the site, only five have been excavated so far. Brewer says three out of the five reservoirs appear to be water features based on the archaeological evidence.

“We looked specifically at small depressions that were adjacent to residential structures, and we could assume they were household accessible,” explains Brewer. “We found modified reservoirs, a limestone quarry that would have served as a resultant water tank, and a depression that appears to have served as an area for localized horticulture or agriculture.

“Based on recovered ceramic material, we know that some of these residential-scale reservoirs at Yaxnohcah date to the Middle Preclassic period (around 900 B.C.). We also have evidence from the soil layers that shows these systems were lined with a thick, clay ‘plaster’ that would help them hold water,” Brewer says. “The geology in this region is all limestone, so if they hadn’t been modified or sealed in some way, the water would have just seeped through them.”

Agricultural communities also would have needed water to farm maize, cotton and possibly even tubers, so Brewer says future examination will explore how the water features would have been used for agricultural purposes. “If the reservoir was elevated, it could have released water into agricultural fields for irrigation. If it was lower, it could have collected runoff from a paved surface or a field. We’re still examining the elevation profiles.”

_________________________________________

 The base of an excavated depression showing evidence of limestone quarrying for building material. Credit: Jeff Brewer

___________________________________________

 A view of a depression showing placement of excavation units. Credit: Jeff Brewer

_____________________________________________ 

Brewer adds that one of the depressions appears to have originated as a quarry for limestone, which would have been used in construction at the adjacent residential complex. Although not lined with clay, the resulting limestone tank floor could opportunistically hold water for the extended annual period that the region received very little rainfall – extremely useful for agricultural purposes if not for drinking water.

Brewer says investigating how the commoners existed at these ancient sites is becoming a growing trend in research among archaeologists, anthropologists and geographers.

Source: University of Cincinnati 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.

It was an unfortunate albeit serendipitous development for Dr. Kate Leonard, a young Canadian archaeologist who was due to fly into Fiji on February 20th, 2016. On that day, Winston, a category 5 cyclone, had arrived, wreaking devastation the Fiji islanders had never witnessed in their lifetimes, and hoped never to see again. Indeed, it was recorded as the most powerful cyclone to have ever impacted the southern hemisphere, and the second strongest on a global scale. Leonard saw herself stranded in Melbourne, Australia, waiting for the brunt of the storm to pass before she could continue on to her destination. Leonard’s pending departure was part of an ambitious global project she hatched to volunteer her knowledge and skills to work at no less than 12 projects in 12 countries in 12 months. Fiji was to be her third stop on her globe-trotting worldwide archaeology project, what she has called Global Archaeology: A Year of Digs. Now, after completing one month of work in Tasmania, she was looking forward to her newly assigned tasks with the Archaeology Department at the Fiji Museum in Suva on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji’s biggest island.

But after finally arriving on the 22nd, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that all her original plans for work on Fiji would be radically changed. As the Fiji Museum was a government organization, the devastation turned the plans and work schedule of the museum’s Archaeology Department on its head. Her initial flight across the country told the story. 

“From the air it looked like giant hands had pressed down pockets of trees in the forests,” said Leonard. “There was flooding everywhere and the rivers had burst their banks. Once I reached Suva everything was uncertain. The electricity was still coming on and off and the country had been put into a state of emergency by the government. Many homes and livelihoods on the islands north of Viti Levu were lost and the death count a week after the cyclone approached 50.” 

Due to the state of emergency all archaeology work would be focused on doing archaeological damage assessments. This meant that Leonard, in concert with a small team of museum archaeologists, would be traveling from Suva on the southeast coast of the  island to Nadi on the western side. Along the way, they visited Bourewa, site of the earliest known settlement in Fiji (c. 3100 BP) and Momi Battery, a WWII gun emplacement site run by the National Trust of Fiji. Bourewa has yielded artifacts and features attributed to the Lapita, a Pacific Ocean people who thrived from c. 1600 BCE to c. 500 BCE. Archaeologists suggest that the Lapita is ancestral to the later cultures found in Polynesia, Micronesia, and some coastal areas of Melanesia. 

“We also did a walk over of the amazing Sigatoka Sand Dunes, where we had to do an unanticipated rescue lift of two human skeletons,” she said. The effects of the cyclone had re-sculpted the dunes, erased much of the previous vegetation and deposited debris, including an excess of driftwood, along the shore. Along with that, the force of the cyclonic waves and wind had also dredged up human bones. 

“The team divided to see if more bone could be found,” Leonard writes in her blog “One group stuck to the lower slope where a skull, arm bones, and some vertebrae and ribs had already fallen down the slope and were resting in a jumble; the other group trudged directly up the steep slope and found a pelvis, ribs and vertebrae exposed to the elements. Once the sand was removed we found that there were actually two sets of legs lined up together! The force of the winds from Cyclone Winston had removed much of the sand covering the burials and the upper halves had fallen down the slope. Their location high up on the dune, above the latest dated occupation layer, tells us that the burials likely date to after 280 AD. If we had not lifted them that day all evidence of them being there would have been lost, but now they will be kept in the Fiji Museum for analysis. This was rescue archaeology to the extreme!”* 

Human occupation at Sigatoka has been dated from the earliest settlement period of Fiji to the historic period. Archaeologists have determined occupation here through at least six different episodes, creating a layer-cake physical record observed on some of the coastal slopes. In addition to human remains, the team took note of pottery fragments, evidence of a sea salt drying operation. Dated to 420 – 660 A.D., they were once part of large trays, about 60 cm in diameter. “On the back of some of the fragments you can see the impressions of mats and leaves,” explains Leonard in her blog. “This small clue helps to paint a picture of how the trays were made of thick slabs of wet clay pressed onto mats or beds of leaves. These large shallow trays would have been filled with sea water, left in the sun to evaporate, and then the sea salt collected for use and maybe trade.” 

__________________________________________

 Discovering the bone exposed high up on the sand slope. Image courtesy Fiji Museum

________________________________________________________

Fragments of ceramic salt drying trays. Image courtesy Kate Leonard and the Fiji Museum 

________________________________________________________

 Kate Leonard in the lab. Image courtesy Kate Leonard and the Fiji Museum

______________________________________________ 

Popular Archaeology asked Leonard what she thought was unique about doing archaeology work in Fiji.

“The pace of work is very different from what I am accustomed to as a North American,” she responded. “There are certain protocols and sequences of interaction that must be followed in order to be considered polite.” For example, she continues, “When archaeologists go out into the field to conduct work they must first visit the village associated with the land/archaeological site they are interested in and participate in a sevusevu. This is a ceremony whereby kava (a mildly narcotic powdered root made into a drink) is exchanged and consumed. The ceremony not only allows for the exchange of information regarding where all the parties are from, their chiefly affiliations and what work they wish to conduct, but it is a way of showing respect. It is a great transgression to go onto community land without conducting the sevusevu.” 

For Leonard, the diversity and abundance of archaeological sites on Fiji has been an eye-opener. Yet, Leonard adds, “since there have not been many archaeological investigations here, there is still so much to discover and discuss.” 

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.

_________________________________________________________

  *”Sigatoka Sand Dunes: Rescue archaeology in Fiji,” Global Archaeology blog, Dr. Kate Leonard.

_________________________________________________________

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.

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY—PULLMAN, Wash.—The heavily studied yet largely unexplained disappearance of ancestral Pueblo people from southwest Colorado is “the most vexing and persistent question in Southwestern archaeology,” according to the New York Times.

But it’s not all that unique, say Washington State University scientists. Writing in the journal Science Advances, they say the region saw three other cultural transitions over the preceding five centuries. The researchers also document recurring narratives in which the Pueblo people agreed on canons of ritual, behavior and belief that quickly dissolved as climate change hurt crops and precipitated social turmoil and violence.

“The process of releasing one’s self from those canons, the process of breaking that down, can occur very quickly and occurred very quickly four times in the Pueblo past,” said Kyle Bocinsky, a WSU adjunct faculty member in anthropology and director of sponsored projects for the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colo. The article grew out of work toward Bocinsky’s WSU doctorate.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, Bocinsky, WSU Regents Professor Tim Kohler and colleagues analyzed data from just over 1,000 southwest archaeological sites and nearly 30,000 tree-ring dates that served as indicators of rainfall, heat and time. Their data-intensive approach, facilitated by climate reconstructions run at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, gives a remarkably detailed picture of year-to-year changes.

This is particularly important as droughts of just five or ten years were enough to prompt major shifts in the small niches where Pueblo people grew maize, their major crop.

The niches, said Kohler, were “woven together with a web of ceremony and ritual that required belief in the supernatural” to ensure plentiful rain and good crops. When rains failed to appear, he said, the rituals were delegitimized.

“Then there’s a point where people say, ‘This isn’t working. We’re leaving,'” he said.

That starts a period of exploration in which people look for new places to live and develop new ways of living, followed by a period of exploitation in a new niche with different behaviors and values.

“There’s a new period of wealth creation, investment in architecture and culture change,” said Kohler.

_________________________________________

 Pueblo Bonito, one of the largest Great Houses in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, grew out of one of several cultural transformations that researchers have documented in the ancient Southwest. Credit: Nate Crabtree

_____________________________________________________ 

The researchers said the first period of exploitation, known as Basketmaker III, took place between 600 and 700 A.D. It ended with a mild drought and was followed by a period known as Pueblo I, in which the practice of storing maize in underground chambers gave way to storage in rooms above ground.

The researchers think this represents a shift from unrestricted sharing of food to more restricted exchanges controlled by households or family groups. The period ended around 890 with a slightly larger drought.

The exploitation phase of the Pueblo II period ran from 1035 to 1145 and was marked by large shared plazas and great houses—what we would today call McMansions—in the Chaco Canyon area south of Mesa Verde, Colo.

“We’re talking some of the largest—actually, the largest—prehistoric masonry structures in North America north of Mexico,” said Kohler. “These things are huge.”

Wood for roofs had to come from 50 to 75 miles away, requiring an unprecedented level of coordination. The mix of large and small buildings also suggests a more hierarchal social structure with someone in charge.

Pueblo III, which peaked around 1250, featured restricted access to civic and ceremonial spaces and has some of the greatest evidence of social inequality. This period ended with the largest and most widespread of the four droughts. By contrast, the ensuing Pueblo IV period had big rectangular pueblos with apartments surrounding large shared plazas and civic ceremonial spaces.

“It’s as if everybody has equal access to where all the important stuff happens,” said Bocinsky. “That’s been interpreted as being far more egalitarian in how people were organizing themselves as a society than what we see during any of the previous periods.”

“There’s a total reorganization,” said Kohler.

The researchers hope their analysis of societal expansion and collapse, as well as periods of exploration and exploitation, can be applied to other Neolithic societies whose economic, organizational and ritual practices collapsed when they failed to meet expectations.

To varying degrees, Bocinsky and Kohler also draw parallels to the current dissatisfaction among people who have yet to recover from the last recession.

“A lot of the nation has not recovered since 2008, and what you’re seeing is a populist movement to radically reorganize the way that politics is done in this country,” said Bocinsky. “We’re seeing that need to reorganize four times in the Pueblo record.”

Bocinsky and Kohler collaborated on their paper with Jonathan Rush of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Keith Kintigh of Arizona State University.

The work is in keeping with WSU’s Grand Challenges, a suite of research initiatives aimed at large societal issues. It is particularly relevant to the themes of sustainable resources and advancing opportunity and equity.

Source: Washington State 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.

UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE—The first large-scale study of ancient DNA from early American people has confirmed the devastating impact of European colonisation on the indigenous American populations of the time.

Led by the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD), the researchers have reconstructed a genetic history of indigenous American populations by looking directly into the DNA of 92 pre-Columbian mummies and skeletons between 500 and 8600 years old.

Published today in Science Advances, the study reveals a striking absence of the pre-Columbian genetic lineages in modern indigenous Americans; showing extinction of these lineages with the arrival of the Spaniards.

“Surprisingly, none of the genetic lineages we found in almost 100 ancient humans were present, or showed evidence of descendants, in today’s indigenous populations,” says joint lead author Dr Bastien Llamas, Senior Research Associate with ACAD. “This separation appears to have been established as early as 9000 years ago and was completely unexpected, so we examined many demographic scenarios to try and explain the pattern.”

“The only scenario that fit our observations was that shortly after the initial colonization, populations were established that subsequently stayed geographically isolated from one another, and that a major portion of these populations later became extinct following European contact. This closely matches the historical reports of a major demographic collapse immediately after the Spaniards arrived in the late 1400s.”

The research team, which also includes members from the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) and Harvard Medical School, studied maternal genetic lineages by sequencing whole mitochondrial genomes extracted from bone and teeth samples from 92 pre-Columbian—mainly South American—human mummies and skeletons.

_____________________________________

 The Llull Maiden: DNA of the Doncela (The Maiden) Incan mummy found at Mount Llullaillaco, Argentina, in 1999, was used in the study. Credit: Johan Reinhard

_____________________________________________________

 Human remains at a burial site of the Lima culture (500-700 AD) uncovered at the Huaca Pucllana great adobe pyramid, in the city of Lima, Peru. Credit: Huaca Pucllana research, conservation and valorization project

_____________________________________________________ 

The ancient genetic signals also provide a more precise timing of the first people entering the Americas—via the Beringian land bridge that connected Asia and the northwestern tip of North America during the last Ice Age.

“Our genetic reconstruction confirms that the first Americans entered around 16,000 years ago via the Pacific coast, skirting around the massive ice sheets that blocked an inland corridor route which only opened much later,” says Professor Alan Cooper, Director of ACAD. “They spread southward remarkably swiftly, reaching southern Chile by 14,600 years ago.”

“Genetic diversity in these early people from Asia was limited by the small founding populations which were isolated on the Beringian land bridge for around 2400 to 9000 years,” says joint lead author Dr Lars Fehren-Schmitz, from UCSC. “It was at the peak of the last Ice Age, when cold deserts and ice sheets blocked human movement and limited resources would have constrained population size. This long isolation of a small group of people brewed the unique genetic diversity observed in the early Americans.”

Dr Wolfgang Haak, formerly at ACAD and now at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, says: “Our study is the first real time genetic record of these key questions regarding the timing and process of the peopling of the Americas. To get an even fuller picture, however, we will need a concerted effort to build a comprehensive dataset from the DNA of people alive today and their pre-Columbian ancestors, to further compare ancient and modern diversity.”

Source: University of Adelaid 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.

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY—An ancient species of pint-sized humans discovered in the tropics of Indonesia may have met their demise earlier than once believed, according to an international team of scientists who reinvestigated the original finding.

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 have recently begun revealing the features of an ancient prehistoric stone structure on the Mediterranean island of Menorca in the Balearic Islands, an archipelago near the eastern coast of Spain.  

Beginning in 2015, under the direction of archaeologists Montserrat Anglada, Irene Riudavets, and Cristina Bravo, an archaeological team began excavating a newly opened structure at the site, known as Sa Cudia Cremada, a site that is composed of distinctive Iron Age (part of Spain’s prehistoric period) stone structures such as talayots — truncated tower-shaped constructions. The builders were members of the mysterious Talayotic culture, a people who left no written records, but whose architectural legacy dots the Balearic Islands. 

“This research project started in 2015, when the team started digging remains of an Iron Age sanctuary, a site that was untouched until we first started digging in August,” said Bravo, one of the lead archaeologists. “The most important finding did not wait too long to be discovered and, during the first field school session one of the students found a large stone slab which was clearly broken and in situ. Its vertical position, its shape and location inside the building helped shed light on the building’s typology: it was a Taula monument.” 

Characteristic of the Talayotic culture, the Taula is a large vertical monolith or supporting stone combined with a horizontal one resting on top, forming a large T-shaped monument. “Taula” means table in Catalan, as they were by tradition once thought to be tables used by giants. Now archaeologists suggest they were monuments representing Talayotic deities, occupying central positions in sanctuaries where rituals were performed.

“During archaeological excavations, new architectural elements were located, which are typical from these buildings, such as pilasters abutting the perimeter walls,” reports the archaeological team about the building in which the Taula is located. Also found were several grinding stones and pestles, as well as indigenous pottery, including artifacts from later periods, such as the Punic, Roman, Islamic, and Medieval periods. 

_________________________________________

 Aerial view of Sa Cudia Cremada’s taula sanctuary after the 1st excavation campaign. Courtesy Sa Cudia Cremada Field School

______________________________________________________

Fieldwork at Sa Cudia Cremada’s sanctuary. Courtesy Sa Cudia Cremada Filed School 

______________________________________________________

 One of the taula sanctuaries already excavated in Menorca: the Taula sanctuary at Torralba d’en Salort. Courtesy Sa Cudia Cremada Field School

_______________________________________________________ 

The Talayotic culture is a society that flourished on the Gymnesian Islands (the easternmost Balearic Islands) during the Iron Age. Its origins date from the end of the second millennium BC. It is named after the talayots, abundant and emblematic structures from the prehistoric period of the Balearic Islands. Archaeologists are continuing to piece together excavated clues that are still raising more questions than answers, but progress is slowly being made. “Archaeological excavations and research tasks are slow and laborious,” reports the team. “As a consequence, the team has a long way to go to be able to ascertain all these questions and others, which will shed light on the function and significance of this type of unique sanctuary from Mediterranean Prehistory.”

An in-depth feature article about the new excavations at Sa Cudia Cremada will be published in the upcoming Summer 2016 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

Individuals wishing to know more or who may be interested in participating in the excavations may visit the project’s website: http://archaeologysacudia.com/en/ or contact the team at [email protected].

_________________________________________

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.