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Teams of scientists have uncovered mass graves indicating mass murder at sites representing the same culture in time and space in Central Europe. But these instances have nothing to do with the Nazi-orchestrated holocaust of World War II. They have everything to do with a Neolithic people who lived about 7,000 years ago in what is today Germany and Austria. 

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, anthropologist Christian Meyer of the University of Mainz and colleagues have reported study results that suggest an entire Neolithic community of people, some time between 5207 and 4849 BC, may have been massacred and dumped, without ritual or care, into mass graves at the site today known as Schöneck-Kilianstädten in Germany. One excavated mass grave provides the certain evidence that 26 people, half of them adults and half of them children, were bludgeoned in the head by “typical weapon-tools of the time”.* Furthermore, before or after their deaths, many of them were mutilated or tortured by the smashing of their lower leg bones. Arrowheads were also found among the remains, suggesting the use of arrows in an act of warfare by the perpetrators.

Meyer and colleagues came to their overall conclusions after conducting an intense osteological analysis of the bones, initially excavated at the site in 2006. 

With the exception of the bone leg mutilation, similar mass grave finds were made at two other sites dated to the same time period and affiliated with the same culture—one in Talheim, Germany, and the other in Asparn/Schletz in Austria. All three sites are identified with what is called the Linearbandkeramic culture, or LBK, a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic, which flourished from about 5500 to 4500 BC. Combined, the finds at the three sites present implications for the later phases of the culture.

“The new evidence presented here for unequivocal lethal violence on a large scale is put into perspective for the Early Neolithic of Central Europe and, in conjunction with previous results, indicates that massacres of entire communities were not isolated occurrences but rather were frequent features of the last phases of the LBK,” wrote Meyer, et al., in their report.*

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 Cranial fracture in a 3-5y old child from the Neolithic mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten, Germany. Image courtesy of Christian Meyer.

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Pictured above: Typical LBK Pottery. Collection University of Jena. Roman Grabolle, Wikimedia Commons

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Moreover, report Meyer and colleagues, “the significant absence of younger women in the Kilianstädten mass grave may indicate that these were taken captive by the attackers, as also has been suggested for the Asparn/Schletz site in Austria…we suggest that the repeated occurrence of almost indiscriminate massacres, the possible abduction of selected members, and the patterns of torture, mutilation, and careless disposal all fit into the concept of prehistoric warfare as currently understood within anthropology.”*

The finds beg the obvious questions: What was really happening? What was precipitating this mass violent behavior?

The authors suggest several possible causes, but point to a complex scenario: “Although the underlying supraregional causes for the recognized increase in mass violence in the late LBK undoubtedly were complex and multifactorial, a significant increase in population followed by adverse climatic conditions (drought), possibly coupled with the inability of long-settled farmers to practice the avoidance behavior by which hunter-gatherers typically evade conflict, seem to have been important components of the overall picture.”* 

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*“The massacre mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten reveals new insights into collective violence in Early Neolithic Central Europe,” by Christian Meyer, Christian Lohr, Detlef Gronenborn, and Kurt W. Alt., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 August 2015.

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This richly illustrated ebook version of a recent Popular Archaeology issue includes the following stories: The discovery of the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh that is shedding light on a lost ancient Egyptian dynasty; how genetics is revolutionizing what we know about human evolution and our prehistoric past; one scholar’s controversial ‘New Chronology’ and how it supports the historicity of the biblical Exodus; how archaeologists are unearthing new history in Williamsburg, Virginia, a seat of British colonial power in 18th century America; the discovery of the remains of a major Roman legionary base in Israel; the unearthing of an ancient Judean fortified settlement in the borderlands between the biblical kingdoms of ancient Judah and the Philistines; and how archaeologists are uncovering evidence of what may have been an important administrative center of Judah during the 8th century BCE. Now available from Amazon.com!

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In a study recently published in press in the Journal of Human Evolution, an international team of scientists report evidence that fossilized faunal (animal) remains recovered from Pliocene hominin-bearing deposits show butchery marks—cut marks that were likely made with stone tools. The subject fossil remains and their characteristic marks, they suggest, are dated to the time period of the earliest stone tools, or about 3 million years ago.

Jessica Thompson of Emory University, along with colleagues from other American universities and the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, examined a large assemblage of fossils collected from the Hadar Formation at Dikika, Ethiopia, an area known to have yielded significant hominin finds bearing on the early stages of human evolution. Scrutinizing them through microscopic technigues, they were able to determine that two fossil specimens, taken from a site locality designated ‘DIK-55’, collectively showed “twelve marks interpreted to be characteristic of stone tool butchery damage.”*

The 12 marks on the two specimens – a long bone from a creature the size of a medium antelope and a rib bone from an animal closer in size to a buffalo – most closely resemble a combination of purposeful cutting and percussion marks, Thompson says. “When these bones were hit, they were hit with enormous force and multiple times.”

The paper supports the original interpretation that the damage to the two bones is characteristic of stone tool butchery, published in Nature in 2010. That finding was sensational, since it potentially pushed back evidence for the use of stone tools, as well as the butchering of large animals, by about 800,000 years.

The Nature paper was followed in 2011 by a rebuttal in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggesting that the bones were marked by incidental trampling in abrasive sediments. That sparked a series of debates about the significance of the discovery and whether the bones had been trampled.

For the current paper, Thompson and her co-authors examined the surfaces of a sample of more than 4000 other bones from the same deposits. They then used statistical methods to compare more than 450 marks found on those bones to experimental trampling marks and to the marks on the two controversial specimens.

“We would really like to understand what caused these marks,” Thompson says. “One of the most important questions in human evolution is when did we start eating meat, since meat is considered a likely explanation for how we fed the evolution of our big brains.”

Evidence shows that our genus, Homo, emerged around 2.8 million years ago. Until recently, the earliest known stone tools were 2.6 million years old. Changes had already been occurring in the organization of the brains of the human lineage, but after this time there was also an increase in overall brain size. This increased size has largely been attributed to a higher quality diet.

While some other apes are known to occasionally hunt and eat animals smaller than themselves, they do not hunt or eat larger animals that store abundant deposits of fat in the marrow of their long bones. A leading hypothesis in paleoanthropology is that a diet rich in animal protein combined with marrow fat provided the energy needed to fuel the larger human brain.

The animal bones in the Dikika site, however, have been reliably dated to long before Homo emerged. They are from the same sediments and only slightly older than the 3.3-million-year-old fossils unearthed from Dikika belonging to the hominid species Australopithecus afarensis.

Thompson specializes in the study of what happens to bones after an animal dies. “Fossil bones can tell you stories, if you know how to interpret them,” she says.

A whole ecosystem of animals, insects, fungus and tree roots modify bones. Did they get buried quickly? Or were they exposed to the sun for a while? Were they gnawed by a rodent or chomped by a crocodile? Were they trampled on sandy soil or rocky ground? Or were they purposely cut, pounded or scraped with a tool of some kind?

One way that experimental archeologists learn to interpret marks on fossil bones is by modifying modern-day bones. They hit bones with hammer stones, feed them to carnivores and trample them on various substrates, then study the results.

Based on knowledge from such experiments, Thompson was one of three specialists who diagnosed the marks on the two bones from Dikika as butchery in a blind test, before being told the age of the fossils or their origin.

The PNAS rebuttal paper, however, also used experimental methods and came to the conclusion that the marks were characteristic of trampling.

Thompson realized that data from a larger sample of fossils were needed to chip away at the mystery.

The current paper investigated with microscopic scrutiny all non-hominin fossils collected from the Hadar Formation at Dikika. The researchers collected a random sample of fossils from the same deposits as the controversial specimens, as well as nearby deposits. They measured shapes and sizes of marks on the fossil bones. Then they compared the characteristics of the fossil marks statistically to the experimental marks reported in the PNASrebuttal paper as being typical of trampling damage. They also investigated the angularity of sand grains at the site and found that they were rounded – not the angular type that might produce striations on a trampled bone.

“The random population sample of the fossils provides context,” Thompson says. “The marks on the two bones in question don’t look like other marks common on the landscape. The marks are bigger, and they have different characteristics.”

Trample marks tend to be shallow, sinuous or curvy. Purposeful cuts from a tool tend to be straight and create a narrow V-shaped groove, while a tooth tends to make a U-shaped groove. The study measured and quantified such damage to modern-day bones for comparison to the fossilized ones.

“Our analysis shows with statistical certainty that the marks on the two bones in question were not caused by trampling,” Thompson says. “While there is abundant evidence that other bones at the site were damaged by trampling, these two bones are outliers. The marks on them still more closely resemble marks made by butchering.”

One hypothesis is that butchering large animals with tools occurred during that time period, but that it was an exceedingly rare behavior. Another possibility is that more evidence is out there, but no one has been looking for it because they have not expected to find it at a time period this early.

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This is the location in Ethiopia where two stone tool modified bones were discovered in the Andedo drainage of the Dikika Research Project. One bone (DIK-55-2) was found part way up the slope to the left. The other bone was found just to the left of the limits of this photo. Courtesy Dikika Research Project

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This is a detail of the marks on a fossilized rib bone, one of the two controversial bones. “The best match we have for the marks, using currently available data, would still be butchery with stone tools,” says Emory University anthropologist Jessica Thompson. Photo courtesy Zeresenay Alemseged.

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The Dikika specimens represent a turning point in paleoanthropology, Thompson says. “If we want to understand when and how our ancestors started eating meat and moving into that ecological niche, we need to refine our search images for the field and apply these new recovery and analytical methods. We hope other researchers will use our work as a recipe to go out and systematically collect samples from other sites for comparison.”

In addition to Dikika, other recent finds are shaking up long held views of hominin evolution and when typical human behaviors emerged. This year, a team led by archeologist Sonia Harmand in Kenya reported unearthing stone tools that have been reliably dated to 3.3 million years ago, or 700,000 years older than the previous record.

“We know that simple stone tools are not unique to humans,” Thompson says. “The making of more complex tools, designed for more complex uses, may be uniquely human.”

The findings are significant in light of recent discoveries in East Africa that may be effectively pushing back the clock or even blurring the human evolutionary line between the earliest species of the Homo genus (early human ancestors) and an earlier or more ‘primitive’ genus known as the Australopithecines (a proto-human ancestor).  

But who were the possible hominins responsible for the Dikika cut marks? Fossil remains of Australopithecus afarensis are (as of this writing) the only hominin fossils found in the area of Dikika dated to the same time period, though many more finds and much more work remains to be done before the toolmaker can be identified, if ever.

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Emory University anthropologist Jessica Thompson is shown here at work in the field in Africa. She specializes in the study of what happens to bones after an animal dies. Photo courtesy Jessica Thompson.

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Did you like this? See a related story about recent news-breaking finds in the article, Straddling the Evolutionary Divide, published in the current (Summer 2015) issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

*Jessica C. Thompson, et al., Taphonomy of fossils from the hominin-bearing deposits at Dikika, Ethiopia, Journal of Human Evolution, doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.06.013

A portion of this article was adapted and edited from a press release of Emory Health Sciences.

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This richly illustrated ebook version of a recent Popular Archaeology issue includes the following stories: The discovery of the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh that is shedding light on a lost ancient Egyptian dynasty; how genetics is revolutionizing what we know about human evolution and our prehistoric past; one scholar’s controversial ‘New Chronology’ and how it supports the historicity of the biblical Exodus; how archaeologists are unearthing new history in Williamsburg, Virginia, a seat of British colonial power in 18th century America; the discovery of the remains of a major Roman legionary base in Israel; the unearthing of an ancient Judean fortified settlement in the borderlands between the biblical kingdoms of ancient Judah and the Philistines; and how archaeologists are uncovering evidence of what may have been an important administrative center of Judah during the 8th century BCE. Now available from Amazon.com!

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In 1944, the city of Vilna in Lithuania was under the grip of Nazi occupation. Like so many other Jewish communities throughout Europe at the time, citizens of Vilna became part of the Nazi “final solution” — the holocaust —  including the destruction of their holy sites. Among the kosher meat stands, miqva’ot (ritual baths), and the famous Strashun rabbinical library, the most magnificent of these sites was the Great Synagogue and the Shulhof of Vilna. The synagogue was built in the 17th century in the Renaissance-Baroque style, and was burned to the ground in 1944 with the rest of the monuments to Jewish heritage in Vilna. In 1964, the Soviets demolished what was left and built a school over part of the foundation.

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 The Great Synagogue of Vilna as it stood in 1934.

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Recently, however, archaeological efforts to locate the remains of the synagogue have led teams to use ground penetrating radar to identify its long-buried features. The results revealed surviving sections of the synagogue and possible remains of associated mikva’ot. They plan to initiate excavations next year. The research is a joint effort between the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the Cultural Heritage Conservation Authority of Lithuania (CHCAL), with Jon Seligman (IAA), Zenonas Baubonis (CHCAL), and Richard Freund from the University of Hartford leading the project. The researchers hope to coordinate efforts of an international community of Jewish, Israeli and Lithuanian volunteers to expose the remains for study and public display, which will stand as a monument to the destruction of the entire Jewish community of Vilna.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority is encouraging sponsorship and participation in the project. Individuals interested in participating or supporting the efforts may do so by contacting the AIA.

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

In addition, the latest Popular Archaeology ebook is now available.

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Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

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This richly illustrated ebook version of a recent Popular Archaeology issue includes the following stories: The discovery of the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh that is shedding light on a lost ancient Egyptian dynasty; how genetics is revolutionizing what we know about human evolution and our prehistoric past; one scholar’s controversial ‘New Chronology’ and how it supports the historicity of the biblical Exodus; how archaeologists are unearthing new history in Williamsburg, Virginia, a seat of British colonial power in 18th century America; the discovery of the remains of a major Roman legionary base in Israel; the unearthing of an ancient Judean fortified settlement in the borderlands between the biblical kingdoms of ancient Judah and the Philistines; and how archaeologists are uncovering evidence of what may have been an important administrative center of Judah during the 8th century BCE. Now available from Amazon.com!

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Archaeologists and a team of student and volunteer excavators continue to unearth clues to Roman life at the ancient Roman frontier fort and settlement of Maryport in the U.K.

The Roman fort and nearby civilian settlement at Maryport, under excavation since 2011 by the Roman Temples Project team, were a significant element of the coastal defenses forming the northwestern boundary of the Roman Empire for more than 300 years. They are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site which also includes Hadrian’s Wall, the Antonine Wall in Scotland and the German frontier.

This year’s dig has yielded more information about the layout of the temples area near the remains of the Roman fort and civilian settlement in fields next to the Senhouse Roman Museum. The team has also found a rare piece of Roman jewelry.

Professor Ian Haynes, project director said: “This year we have been able to demonstrate that the temples formed part of a large monument complex, unlike anything discovered on Britain’s Roman frontier to date. The complex was a major undertaking and was dominated by a substantial precinct where many of Maryport’s famous altars may once have stood.

“Our aim has always been to find out more about how the famous collection of Maryport Roman altars, unearthed in 1870 and now in the Senhouse Roman Museum, were originally displayed in Roman times.

“In 2011 we found the altars had been used in the foundations for later timber buildings just over the ridge, not ritually buried as previously thought. We think that when they were originally dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter by commanders of the fort each year – which we know from the inscriptions –  a number of them would have been displayed together on the cobbled precinct.

“We’ve also found more evidence from ditches below the precinct for a temporary camp, which appears to date from before Hadrian’s Wall was constructed, evidence for the movement of Rome’s campaigning armies. Site director Tony Wilmott first suggested that there might be indications of an early camp back in 2013, but the proof of his hypothesis came this year.”

And team member Daisy-Alys Vaughan, a BA Ancient History and Archaeology student from Newcastle University, found a rare piece of rock crystal Roman jewelry from the second or third century, probably the centre piece from an expensive ring. The head of a bearded man, possibly a philosopher, is carved into the back. The carving is filled with white material, possibly enamel, and there was a small piece of bronze with the stone which was the backing to the white head. When originally worn the polished bronze back would have looked like gold through the stone.

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The excavated cut stone and pound coin for scale. Courtesy Senhouse Museum Trust

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Newcastle University archaeology student Daisy-Alys Vaughan with the Roman cut stone she excavated. Courtesy Senhouse Museum Trust

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Jane Laskey, manager of the Senhouse Roman Museum said: “It has been a very exciting season and there are just a few days left to visit the excavation site before it closes.  Tours led by the museum’s volunteer guides start from the museum at 2pm and 3.30pm every day, the excavation team’s last day is Friday 14 August.

This is the last week of the final excavation by the Maryport Roman Temples Project team. Since 2011, teams have spent around eight weeks on site each summer.

“We’d like to thank all the volunteers and archaeology students involved in the project over the years for their fantastic support.

“Once work on the excavation site is complete the team will continue analysing the results of this year’s dig and considering the new insights the whole project has brought to our understanding of the Roman empire in Britain.”

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Senhouse Roman Museum (www.senhousemuseum.co.uk)

The museum cares for and displays the Netherhall Collection and other collections of Romano-British objects from West Cumbria. The museum displays the largest group of Roman military altar stones and inscriptions from any site in Britain and unique examples of Romano-British religious sculpture.

It is run by the Senhouse Museum Trust.

This article was adapted and edited from a press release of the Senhouse Museum Trust.

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

In addition, the latest Popular Archaeology ebook is now available.

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Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

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This richly illustrated ebook version of a recent Popular Archaeology issue includes the following stories: The discovery of the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh that is shedding light on a lost ancient Egyptian dynasty; how genetics is revolutionizing what we know about human evolution and our prehistoric past; one scholar’s controversial ‘New Chronology’ and how it supports the historicity of the biblical Exodus; how archaeologists are unearthing new history in Williamsburg, Virginia, a seat of British colonial power in 18th century America; the discovery of the remains of a major Roman legionary base in Israel; the unearthing of an ancient Judean fortified settlement in the borderlands between the biblical kingdoms of ancient Judah and the Philistines; and how archaeologists are uncovering evidence of what may have been an important administrative center of Judah during the 8th century BCE. Now available from Amazon.com!

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For more than two decades, University of Virginia Tibet Center archaeologist and historian John Vincent Bellezza has been exploring highland central Asia, going places where few archaeologists and explorers have ventured. Since 1992, he has investigated and documented scores of monumental sites, rock art, castles, temples, residential structures, and other features on the desolate reaches of the Tibetan Plateau, building a knowledge base on a vast archaic civilization and ancient religion that flourished long before Buddhism emerged and dominated this otherwise comparatively sparsely populated high altitude region.

“Commonly, when people think of Tibet, Buddhism comes to mind,” writes Bellezza in his newest book, The Dawn of Tibet. By this he also implies the better-known and popular images of the imposing, sky-high, mountaintop monumental wonders of Buddhist centers such as Lhasa. But, he continues, “before Buddhism was introduced, a different type of civilization reigned in Tibet, one with monuments, art, and ideas alien to those of more recent times……….Demarcated through an enormous network of citadels and burial centers spanning one thousand miles from east to west, it would endure for some fifteen hundred years.”*

Bellezza is describing an archaic civilization known as Zhang Zhung, which flourished from about 500 BC to 625 AD and encompassed most of the western and northwestern regions of the Tibetan Plateau. Mastering an ancient technology base not normally attributed to peoples of this region in the popular perception, the people of Iron Age Zhang Zhung, according to Bellezza, built citadels, elite stone-corbelled residential structures, temples, necropolises featuring stone pillars, sported metal armaments and a strong equestrian culture, established links with other cultures across Eurasia, and exhibited a relatively uniform and standardized cultural tradition rich in ritualistic religious practice, where kings and priests dominated the highest rungs of power. These are all characteristics of stratified, centralized and developed societies most often associated with the more southerly, lower-altitude great Old World Bronze and Iron Age civilizations that ringed the Mediterranean as well as the advanced civilizations of Mesoamerica and South America. The supporting findings on the landscape, when considered across two decades of investigation, have been nothing less than prolific.

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The Tibetan Plateau features ancient stone structures, many of which date back to the first millennium B.C. Mckay Savage, Wikimedia Commons

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But this archaeological evidence, according to Bellezza, also opened a window on a civilization that heavily fortified itself from threats both within and without. The struggle for resources in a land where climate gradually changed over preceding millennia from one that was relatively warmer and moist to one that was cold and dry may have played a significant role in this. Competing external and internal forces may have played another. “Most archaic era residential facilities in Upper Tibet were built on unassailable high ground, on inaccessible islands, or in hidden spots, “ writes Bellezza. “This insularity indicates that defense was a preoccupation of the population. Eternal Bon historical sources speak of the martial character of Zhang Zhung society and its political nexus of kings and priests.” Even the priests were depicted in the literature as possessing arms. On the other hand, notes Bellezza, “these literary accounts also hold that the ancient priesthood was very adept in the practice of astrology, divination, magic, and medicine.”*

With much still awaiting discovery and study, Bellezza continues to explore and analyze the massive trove of data he has already compiled on this ancient people. In time, he and other researchers hope, by merging references in the literary sources with the accumulating new archaeological evidence, a sharper focus on an otherwise obscure and ill-understood civilization will emerge.

Readers can learn more about Zhang Zhung in Belezza’s book, The Dawn of Tibet, and in an upcoming article about Zhang Zhung authored by Bellezza in the Winter issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

*From The Dawn of Tibet, by John Vincent Bellezza, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014

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

In addition, the latest Popular Archaeology ebook is now available.

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This richly illustrated ebook version of a recent Popular Archaeology issue includes the following stories: The discovery of the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh that is shedding light on a lost ancient Egyptian dynasty; how genetics is revolutionizing what we know about human evolution and our prehistoric past; one scholar’s controversial ‘New Chronology’ and how it supports the historicity of the biblical Exodus; how archaeologists are unearthing new history in Williamsburg, Virginia, a seat of British colonial power in 18th century America; the discovery of the remains of a major Roman legionary base in Israel; the unearthing of an ancient Judean fortified settlement in the borderlands between the biblical kingdoms of ancient Judah and the Philistines; and how archaeologists are uncovering evidence of what may have been an important administrative center of Judah during the 8th century BCE. Now available from Amazon.com!

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For decades, scientists have constructed competing hypothetical models explaining how and when anatomically modern humans (AMH), or early modern humans, left their original homelands in Africa to colonize and populate the globe. Not to be confused with the models that suggest the far earlier movement out of Africa by the hominids known as Homo erectus—a more ancient human species—the AMH’s are thought to have dispersed out of Africa around 60,000 years ago, according to one broadly accepted theory.  

Now, a team of scientists, led by Hugo Reyes-Centeno of Eberhard Karls Universität and colleagues, have tested the spatial and temporal aspects of hypothetical dispersal routes by analyzing the early modern human fossil record from Africa and the Levant, including a large dataset of human crania from Asia, to model ancestor-descendant relationships. The results of their analysis, they conclude, have significant implications for developing a deeper understanding of the complexity of modern human origins and diversity. 

“By assessing the correlation of geographical distances between populations and measures of population differentiation derived from quantitative cranial phenotype data,” stated the researchers in their report, “our results support a model in which extant Australo-Melanesians are descendants of an initial dispersal out of Africa by early anatomically modern humans, while all other populations are descendants of a later migration wave.”*

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Australoids: Untouchables of Malabar Kerala Dravidian. Wikimedia Commons

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The study results support models that suggest the possibility that anatomically modern humans reached Australia, for example, by about 40 – 50,000 years ago. The scientific debate, however, rages on, and future studies will likely shed additional light on the developing AMH dispersal story.  

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*Hugo Reyes-Centeno, et al., Testing modern human out-of-Africa dispersal models and implications for modern human origins, Journal of Human Evolution, 8 July 2015, article in press doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.06.008

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

In addition, the latest Popular Archaeology ebook is now available.

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Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

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This richly illustrated ebook version of a recent Popular Archaeology issue includes the following stories: The discovery of the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh that is shedding light on a lost ancient Egyptian dynasty; how genetics is revolutionizing what we know about human evolution and our prehistoric past; one scholar’s controversial ‘New Chronology’ and how it supports the historicity of the biblical Exodus; how archaeologists are unearthing new history in Williamsburg, Virginia, a seat of British colonial power in 18th century America; the discovery of the remains of a major Roman legionary base in Israel; the unearthing of an ancient Judean fortified settlement in the borderlands between the biblical kingdoms of ancient Judah and the Philistines; and how archaeologists are uncovering evidence of what may have been an important administrative center of Judah during the 8th century BCE. Now available from Amazon.com!

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Located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee (known as Lake Kinneret in Israel), the site of an ancient Jewish village identified as Magdala (or Migdal) is currently undergoing intensive investigation and excavation by a team of archaeologists. What they are finding promises to shed new light on a pivotal time and place in both Jewish and Christian history—in a region that hosted the simple, peaceful lives of quiet Jewish communities, yet at the same time broiled with new religious ideas and conflict, witnessing the wrath of a Roman Empire bent on quelling a major revolt.

Although the first excavations were carried out in the early twentieth century, and again in 2002 and 2006, the most recent news-making excavations began in 2009 when excavators came across the remains of a 1^st century synagogue only 30 cm beneath the surface during what was a salvage excavation related to construction of a pilgrimage and holiday visitor complex. Led by Dina Avshalom-Gorni and Arfan Najar of the Israel Antiquities Authority, they eventually uncovered (among other things) the well-preserved remains of an entrance hall/study room, a chamber for storing Torah scrolls, and a large decorated stone, now popularly known as the ‘Magdala Stone’, in the center of the structure. The decorated stone, interpreted as a prayer table or altar, is particularly significant in that it featured clear images of objects or symbols associated with the time of the Second Temple, the great temple that stood during the time of Herodian rule. These images included a seven-branch menorah, rosette, and fiery wheels. The menorah image is thought to be the oldest known depiction of the menorah, at least outside of Jerusalem, as it appeared in the Temple. “We can assume that the engraving which appears on the stone, which the Antiquities Authority uncovered, was done by an artist who saw the seven-branched menorah with his own eyes in the Temple in Jerusalem,” commented Avshalom-Gorni to the Jerusalem Post (1). Finds uncovered within the synagogue remains, including a coin minted in Tiberias in 29 CE, helped to date the structure to the first century CE, the time of Jesus’ ministry. Given the Christian New Testament references to Jesus visiting synagogues throughout the Galilee region, archaeologists suggest that the synagogue was likely a place where Jesus taught. And given the dating, the synagogue is thus also believed to have been in use when Josephus commanded rebel forces against the Romans during the First Jewish Revolt.

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The excavated 1st century synagogue. Courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority and Magdala Center.

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The “Magdala Stone”, found within the synagogue during the excavation. Courtesy Magdala Center.

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But the major discoveries being made at Magdala didn’t stop with the synagogue. The excavations were joined in 2010 by Mexican archaeologist Dr. Marcela Zapata-Meza and a team from Universidad Anáhuac México Sur. This team uncovered three unique Jewish ritual baths, or mikva’ot, southeast of the synagogue area. Unplastered, these baths, designed for ritual purification, were constructed down to the level of the water table, which was relatively high due to their proximity to the Lake. Unlike most other mikva’ot, says Jennifer Ristine of the Magdala Center, “they were left unplastered to let ground water infiltrate easily through the joints between the stones.” Moreover, Ristine asserts, “no mikva’ot dating to the late Second Temple period are reported within the excavated areas of Jewish towns and villages located around and close to the Sea of Galilee, such as Tiberias, Hamat-Tiberias, and Capernaum. The three mikva’ot from Magdala give new insight into Jewish life in the Second Temple period.”*

In addition to the synagogue, decorated stone, and mikva’ot, archaeologists uncovered evidence of a marketplace with an advanced plumbing system, a central paved street, and a wharf.

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One of the ritual baths, or mikva’ot, uncovered during the excavations. Courtesy Magdala Center.

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Aerial shot showing the excavated synagogue (left) and adjacent marketplace. Credit David Silverman and Yuval Nadel, courtesy Magdala Center.

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Archaeologists hope to uncover additional structures and artifacts that will shed light on the lives of the people who lived at the site during the tumultuous times of Jesus and the Jewish Revolt. “The excavations at Magdala are part of an international project that works with an interdisciplinary perspective and an extensive excavation strategy,” says Ristine. “Since 2009 we have excavated 4,850 sq. m in six excavation areas. We expect that this archaeological season, 2015, will reveal more information that will help us to better understand the ritual context of the mikva’ot with the synagogue and also help us compare the historical sources like Flavious Josephus with the archaeological evidence.”*

More about the discoveries at Magdala will be published in the Fall 2015 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

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(1) Biblical Magdala, Rejuvenated, by Sarah Levi, Jerusalem Post, July 17, 2015.

*Discoveries at Magdala: A First Century Community on the Banks of the Sea of Galilee, Popular Archaeology Magazine, Fall 2015.

Additional information about the Magdala excavations can be found at the project website and at the Magdala Center website.

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Aşıklı Höyük, a mound near the banks of the Melendiz River in southern Turkey, lies not far from the site of Çatalhöyük. Dated to about 7500 B.C., Çatalhöyük is famous for being one of the oldest and largest Neolithic sites ever found.

But Aşıklı Höyük dates back even earlier, to about 8000 B.C. Though less known and considerably smaller than Çatalhöyük, archaeological excavations at Aşıklı Höyük have revealed a richly informative window on small-town life about 10,000 years ago, long before the pyramids, ziggurats, palaces, and other monumental features of the emerging, more expansive ancient cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt emerged on the landscape.

First investigated by Professor Ian A. Todd in 1964, full-scale excavations of the site didn’t take place until 1989 under Ufuk Esin of the University of Istanbul. It became one of the largest excavations of the region, and is still the subject of archaeological investigations and research. The site finds included simple adobe house structures for a total of at least 400 rooms and as many as 70 burials beneath the house floors. The 1-to-2-room houses typically featured hearths, some houses with built-in earthen benches. Curiously, the houses were relatively dark inside, built essentially without doors and windows.

“These houses had no door for entry,” stated Heval Bozbay, who has been a member of the Aşıklı Höyük research team since 2009. “To enter a house, they had to ascend an exterior ladder and go inside through an opening in the roof, then descend an interior ladder. The only source of light was the opening in the roof one used to enter, and one or two holes in a wall, far too small to be called a window by modern standards.”

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Excavated structural remains of the 8th millennium B.C. Aşıklı Höyük. Credit Aşıklı Höyük archive.

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A sub-floor adult burial in hocker position. Credit Aşıklı Höyük archive.

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Obsidian stone and other objects made from basalt, granite and tuff were found among the artifacts. Located in an area with a geologic past for volcanic activity, the inhabitants of this community had convenient access to a rich supply of volcanic material to produce their goods, obsidian being a highly valued resource that, according to the researchers, may possibly have been a commodity of trade with far-off communities in Cyprus and Syria.

Perhaps the most notable discovery relates to a peculiar 25-square-meter, square-shaped structure which showed evidence of a plastered interior painted entirely in red ochre. The investigation of the interior also indicated that in each corner there was a large stone upon which was placed a wooden post. “Archaeologists investigating the structure suggest that it was probably used as a ceremonial place, with evidence suggesting that a kind of fluid was poured at these ceremonies,” noted Bozbay.

A temple or important communal building? This question still remains unanswered.

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The special or communal building. The floor and walls of the building painted red. Different layers of the building can be seen on the bottom left corner of the photo. Credit Aşıklı Höyük archive.

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Today, visitors to the site can view modern reconstructions of the houses and view the mound where excavations have been taking place. Research continues at the site and archaeologists hope that Aşıklı Höyük, like the other better-known Neolithic sites such as Çatalhöyük  and Göbekli Tepe, will provide valuable insight on how early Neolithic people lived and how their communities formed the foundation upon which the great civilizations that ringed the Mediterranean were built.

A more detailed article about Aşıklı Höyük, authored by Heval Boznay, will be published in the Fall 2015 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

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Rapid phases of warming climate played a greater role in the extinction of megafauna in the Late Pleistocene than did human activity, a new study shows. The study helps to inform the debate about what killed off megafaunal species (or animals, such as mammoths, over 100 pounds) during the last glacial period, commonly known as the Ice Age – a subject that is highly debated, with some scientists pointing to human hunting and land alteration, and others to climate change.

Using advances in analyzing ancient DNA, radiocarbon dating and other geologic records, an international team led by researchers from the University of Adelaide and the University of New South Wales (Australia) have revealed that short, rapid warming events, known as interstadials, recorded during the last ice age or Pleistocene (60,000-12,000 years ago) coincided with major extinction events even before the appearance of humans.

“This abrupt warming had a profound impact on climate that caused marked shifts in global rainfall and vegetation patterns,” said University of Adelaide lead author and Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, Professor Alan Cooper.

The researchers came to their conclusions after detecting a pattern, 10 years ago, in ancient DNA studies suggesting the rapid disappearance of large species. At first the researchers thought these were related to intense cold snaps. However, as more fossil-DNA became available from museum specimen collections and through improvements in carbon dating and temperature records that showed better resolution through time, they were surprised to find the opposite. It became increasingly clear that rapid warming, not sudden cold snaps, was the cause of the extinctions during the last glacial maximum.

The research results help explain, for example, the sudden disappearance of mammoths and giant sloths that became extinct around 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

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Above: Mammoth vertebrae in ice, in Yukon Territory, Canada.  Photo credit Kieren Mitchell

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Abseiling into Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming. Alan Cooper descending the 100ft pitch into NTC to excavate Ice Age megafaunal bones. Photo credit Laura Weyrich

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Alan Cooper sampling permafrost bison bone, in Yukon Territory, Canada. Photo credit Julien Soubrier

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But this does not dismiss human hunters as a player in the extinction process, the researchers note. They make the point that the unique megafauna population structures that resulted from climate change events could have made the giant mammals more susceptible to human impact.

“It is important to recognize that man still played an important role in the disappearance of the major mega fauna species,” said fellow author Professor Chris Turney from the University of New South Wales. “The abrupt warming of the climate caused massive changes to the environment that set the extinction events in motion, but the rise of humans applied the coup de grace to a population that was already under stress.”

The study may also have implications for the future. It brings to mind the present-day phenomenon of a rapidly increasing list of endangered species, indicating alarming changes in the faunal environment. 

“Even without the presence of humans we saw mass extinctions,” said Cooper. “When you add the modern addition of human pressures and fragmenting of the environment to the rapid changes brought by global warming, it raises serious concerns about the future of our environment.”

In addition to the finding, the new statistical methods used to interrogate the datasets (led by Adelaide co-author Professor Corey Bradshaw) and the new data itself has created an extraordinarily precise record of climate change and species movement over the Pleistocene. The new dataset will allow future researchers a better understanding of this important period.

The report*, published in the journal Science, is related to a special package from Science’s News department on ancient DNA. The full package includes six articles written by various members of Science’s News department.

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*”Abrupt warming events drove Late Pleistocene Holarctic megafaunal turnover,” by A. Cooper; B.W. Brook; C.J.A. Bradshaw at University of Adelaide in Adelaide, SA, Australia; C. Turney at University of New South Wales in Sydney, NSW, Australia; K.A. Hughen at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA; B.W. Brook at University of Tasmania in Hobart, TAS, Australia; H.G. McDonald at National Parks Service in Fort Collins, CO.

Adapted and edited from the subject press releases of the University of Adelaide and Science magazine, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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In what could turn out to be a landmark study, researchers have pieced together a new picture of how and when the ancestors of present-day Native Americans entered the Americas.

Using genetic data from the remains of ancient individuals as well as that of modern individuals, Maanasa Raghaven of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues from an international array of multiple institutions sequenced and compared the genomes of ancient and modern individuals from the Americas, Siberia, and Oceania, including the application of a range of analyses that also leveraged previously published genomic datasets from Europe and Africa. 

The results of their analysis suggested that the earliest, Late Pleistocene ancestors of Native Americans entered the Americas in a single wave from a single source population—not in multiple waves from different, geographically disparate population sources, as some scholars have suggested. Moreover, they estimate that this group migrated from Siberia to the Americas no earlier than 23,000 years ago, during the harsh and frigid Last Glacial Maximum – and after no more than 8,000 years of isolation from the ancestral Siberian population. The study results also suggest that present-day genetic differences were due to genetic changes or events occuring after the initial migration. 

“Our results show the Siberian Yupik and Koryak are the closest Eurasian populations to the Americas, with the Yupik likely representing back-migration of the Inuit into Siberia,” stated the authors in the study report. Using demographic models, they also suggested that “the split of Native Americans (including Amerindians and Athabascans) from the Koryak dates to ca. 20 kya.”*   

Though it is generally accepted that ancestors of modern-day Native Americans descended from Siberians who crossed the Bering Land Bridge, the exact timing and pattern of entry has been hotly debated, revolving around the issues of when ancestral Native Americans left Siberia, whether they came to the Americas in one wave or multiple (with multiple times explaining the current genetic diversity), and how long they spent isolated in the Bering Strait region before arriving, with one model (the Beringian Incubation Model) suggesting as much as 15,000 years.

Perhaps most significantly, their findings lend further support to a pre-Clovis presence of humans in the Americas, a subject of great debate over the years among scholars. Mounting archaeological evidence over the past few decades, however, have provided increasing support to those challenging the Clovis First theory, which advances the notion that the earliest peoples who entered the Americas were associated with a distinct stone tool industry or culture with an earliest date of approximately 12.6 kya.

But the research also shows a major twist in the genetic journey of the earliest Americans—specifically, that the group split off into two branches around 13,000 years ago, coinciding with glacier melt and the opening of routes into North America’s interior, combined with additional admixture leading to the diversity of Native American populations we see today:

“The data presented here are consistent with a single initial migration of all Native Americans and with later gene flow from sources related to East Asians and, more distantly, Australo-Melanesians. From that single migration, there was a diversification of ancestral Native Americans leading to the formation of ‘northern’[ancestors of the Athabascans and northern Amerindian groups] and ‘southern’[Amerindians from southern North America and Central and South America] branches, which appears to have taken place ca. 13 KYA within the Americas.”*

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Origins and population history of Native Americans, based on the research by Raghavan et al. [Credit: Raghavan et al., Science (2015)]

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The research paper is published with free access in the 23 July issue of Science Express, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

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* Maanasa Raghaven, et al., Genomic evidence for the Pleistocene and recent population history of Native Americans, Science Express, 23 July 2015

Some content for this article was adapted and edited from the related AAAS press release.

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The famous “Tomb of Philip” is not after all the tomb in which the remains of the legendary king Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, were laid to rest. Another adjacent well-known tomb is, however, the actual tomb in which his remains were found.

These are the results of a study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), of skeletal remains found in what has been designated ‘Tomb I’ within the Great Tumulus hill located near the northern Greek town of Vergina in Macedonia. Led by Antonis Bartsiokas of the Democritus University of Thrace and Juan-Luis Arsuaga of the Centro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid, a team of researchers, using state-of-the-art scanning and radiography techniques and equipment, closely examined a partial skeleton that had been long disinterred from the first (‘Tomb 1’) of three royal tombs of the Vergina Tumulus.

Some scholarly wisdom has held that the second of the 3 tombs (‘Tomb 2’), commonly called the “Tomb of Philip,” contained the remains of King Philip II. This was based on several lines of evidence previously advanced by the University of Bristol anatomist Jonathan Musgrave, along with British archaeologist John Prag and medical illustrator Richard Neave, both of the University of Manchester. The skeleton that was found in that two-chambered royal tomb in 1977 was that of a man 35 to 55 years old at the time of death (Philip died at 46), exhibited signs of battle wounds, and was placed in a golden larnax (or chest), which bore an embossed starburst, the emblem of the Macedonian royal family. Also associated with that skeleton were an iron helmet, a ceremonial shield, an iron and gold cuirass, a gilded silver diadem, and two ivory head portraits interpreted to be those of Philip II and Alexander. In addition, the remains of a woman, interpreted to be that of Cleopatra, Philip’s wife at his death, were found in the tomb’s second chamber.

But further research suggested that the royal artifacts found in the tomb were more likely dated to about 317 B.C., long after Philip’s assassination in 336 B.C., and a later study of the skeleton by Bartsiokas using macrophotography techniques suggested that the skeletal evidence proposed to support the identification were actually unusual anatomical characteristics that were affected by cremation and insufficient reconstruction of the remains. In addition, the remains did not bear some of the characteristic evidence of wounds widely known from the literature to have been associated with the warrior king—particularly a lance wound he sustained in battle in his leg, which crippled the monarch three years before he was slain in 336 BCE.

The skeleton found in Tomb 1, however, seemed to match the description. Strikingly tall at around 180 cms, the approximately 45-year-old male in Tomb 1 had leg bones with a knee joint showing the clear signs of fusion (ankylosis), and a hole through the knee overgrowth indicative of a piercing wound “likely affected by a penetrating instrument, such as a fast-moving projectile (like a spear).”*. Also noted were signs of trauma-related inflammation, and asymmetrical bone lesions that suggest wryneck, a plausible side effect of compensatory head tilting tied to uneven gait.

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Left leg of King Philip II of Macedonia showing the massive knee ankylosis (fusion of the joint). Image courtesy of Javier Trueba.

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Mandible of King Philip II of Macedonia. Image courtesy of Javier Trueba.

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Portrait of King Philip II of Macedonia in his late years, after having received a wound through his left leg by a lance. Image courtesy of Arturo Asensio.

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Moreover, Tomb 1 also contained the remains of an estimated 18-year-old female and an approximately 42 week-old infant of unknown gender, the combination of which supports a grim story: According to the writings of Diodorus, Olympias, the fourth wife of Philip and mother to Alexander, murdered Cleopatra and her baby soon after Philip’s assassination and her son Alexander’s ascendance to the throne. According to Justin, Olympias also burned the body of Philip’s assassin, Pausanias, a few days after Philip’s death, and then forced Cleopatra to hang herself, having first killed her daughter.

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Maxilla of Queen Cleopatra, wife of King Philip II of Macedonia. Image courtesy of Javier Trueba.

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Legs of Queen Cleopatra, wife of King Philip II of Macedonia. Image courtesy of Antonis Bartsiokas.

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Bones of newborn child of Queen Cleopatra and King Philip II of Macedonia. Image courtesy of Antonis Bartsiokas.

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The authors suggest that Tomb 1 contains the mortal remains of Philip II as well as his wife Cleopatra and his child. Hence, the authors reason, Tomb 2 must contain the remains of King Arrhidaeus, one of King Philip’s sons, and his wife Eurydice.

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*Bartsiokas, et al., The lameness of King Philip II and Royal Tomb I at Vergina, Macedonia, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1510906112.

Some content has been edited and adapted from a related PNAS press release.

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Using state-of-the-art techniques, an international team of specialists has been busy piecing together a chronology of construction for the Baptistery of Saint John, otherwise known as the Baptistery of San Giovanni, one of the oldest buildings in the iconic historic Renaissance heart of Florence, Italy.  Along the way, they have uncovered some tantalizing clues to its construction history, including history before the time of the Baptistery itself.

Constructed between 1059 and 1128 AD, the Baptistery is well known for its three sets of artistically significant bronze doors with relief sculptures—the east doors were referred to by Michelangelo as the Gates of Paradise. It was also here that the Italian poet Dante and many other famous Renaissance figures, such as the Medici family, were baptized. But this functional space also defines an unwritten history that goes back even before Renaissance times, an inner face unseen by the public. Thanks to the miracles of high-tech and digital exploration, this unseen face is beginning to emerge.

“We imaged, via terrestrial laser scanning, thermography, high resolution photogrammetry (including structure from motion), stereoscopic imaging, and multispectral imaging, the interior of the building and the exterior of the building – emphasizing spaces that the public has no access to, including the subterranean Roman archaeological site underneath the altar/scarsella – as well as the main chamber of the active house of worship which the public can access,” said Ashley Richter, a member of the special team. The Opera del Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiore (OPA), the organization responsible for the conservation and restoration of the site, invited select members of UC San Diego’s Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) at the Qualcomm Institute to help build an interdisciplinary team of researchers working to establish a chronology of construction of the structure, a key to understanding how the site can be conserved and protected for the future. Richter manned the laser scanner, an integral part of the total operation.

“The evolution of the site from its Roman origins upwards is rather mysterious,” Richter said. “Significant research has been done by dedicated scholars, but they’ve no way to correlate that information altogether to start making sense of it. Enter CISA3 with our concept of layered realities of data draped on a digital scaffold.”

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The exterior of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, East Face. Image provided by Ashley Richter

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A point cloud screenshot of the northeast face of the Baptistery. Image provided by Ashley Richter

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A single scan point cloud screenshot of the interior of the Baptistry. Image provided by Ashley Richter

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The onsite work, part of a project still in progress, was done within a two-week window at the end of a lengthy two-month field season in 2013. For the team, it was not a convenient undertaking.

“The Baptistery is a popular tourist spot and open for regular masses in one of the most crowded public plazas in Italy,” continued Richter. “Most of the imaging work requires that crowds be sparse or non-existent. We scanned, imaged, and did thermography of the exterior of the Baptistery late at night from 1 AM to 5.30 AM.”

“The inside was even trickier than the outside. We were allotted chunks of time just after the monument closed to the public or in the early hours of the morning before it was opened. In the morning we initially imaged the subterranean levels. They gave us an extra hour by locking us in there while mass went on above us.” These levels produced some intriguing results (see video below), which included the use of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and imaging to reveal a heretofore unexcavated portion of an ancient Roman villa that once graced this site in the 4^th or 5^th century AD. Ongoing archaeological excavations that began in the 1970’s have already revealed significant portions of the villa structure, but the new imaging investigations of the unexcavated portions revealed a possible staircase, two vaulted rooms, and a series of walls and hallways.

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 (In the above video, substitute ‘Roman villa’ for ‘Roman temple’ for accuracy.)

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The analysis of the Baptistery results is still in progress, and a third field season is tentatively planned for the very near future. But more than this, there is hope that this work will have important implications for similar future applications worldwide.

“It’s not about creating a bunch of pretty pictures and a static record of the site. Often that’s all that’s done with this technology,” says Richter. “Hopefully there will be an expansion of projects pushing for more public accessibility to visualization technologies and their digital heritage results, projects like the Open Access Antiquarianism collaborative my colleagues are working on as we move away from CISA3, the amazing efforts of non-profit groups focused on digital heritage like CyArk, or private companies with the fabulous potential to build technologies for digital heritage like Tanzle. Technology has some serious and exciting possibilities for expanding what we know about the past, just as the past is an intriguing resource around which we can build the visualization and analytical surveying technologies we’re going to need in the future.”

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Ashley Richter, in addition to her recent involvement in the CISA3 project, writes about digital archaeology in her blog, Adventures in Digital Archaeology, which is also among the content features of Popular Archaeology Magazine, and has been a key player in the Open Access Antiquarianism project.

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____________________________________________

For years, archaeologist Anabel Ford has been arguing the case that the ancient Maya knew well how to manage their tropical forest environment to their advantage, eventually sustaining large populations even beyond the time when many archaeologists suggest the Maya declined and abandoned their iconic Classic period pyramidal and temple constructions and monumental inscriptions during the 8^th and 9^th centuries CE.  She challenges the popular theories long held by many scholars that the Maya declined because of overpopulation and deforestation from increased agricultural production, perhaps aggravated by draught and climate change.  

“In the past there was no extensive deforestation,” states Ford.*

At the base of her reasoning stands years of research related to the ancient practice of the Maya in cultivating ‘forest gardens’, a method of sustainable agroforestry that employs an agricultural methodology called the Milpa Cycle—the creation of a polycultivated, tree-dominated, biodiverse landscape by dispersed smallholder farmers, employing natural cycles and maximizing the utility of the native flora and fauna. Having its roots even before the rise of the Preclassic Maya, it worked by sequencing an area from a closed canopy forest to an open field. When cleared, it was dominated by annual crops that transformed into a managed orchard garden, and then back to a closed canopy forest in a continuous circuit. “Contrary to European agricultural systems developed around the same period, these fields were never abandoned, even when they were forested,” says Ford. “Thus, it was a rotation of annuals with succeeding stages of forest perennials during which all phases received careful human management.”   

She explains the process and its implications in detail in her new book, The Maya Forest Garden: Eight Millennia of Sustainable Cultivation of the Tropical Woodlands, co-authored with Ronald Nigh, a professor at the Centro Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) in Chiapas, Mexico. The book summarizes years of research evaluating archaeological, paleoenvironmental, agricultural, botanical, ecological and ethnographic and historical data from Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize, including a focus on the large Maya center of El Pilar.

“Ecological, agricultural, and botanical research on the Maya forest demonstrates that it is in fact a variegated garden dominated by plants of economic value, and thus highly dependent on human interaction,” says Ford. Thus, “the co-creation of the Maya and their forest environment was based on a strategy of resource management that resulted in a landscape called the Maya “forest garden.”

A Maya forest garden. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar

The Milpa Cycle, from maize field to perennials and back to the forest. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar

Moreover, Ford points to the Milpa Cycle as being responsible for producing much of the visible fabric of the ancient Maya jungle ‘backdrop’, including the Maya landscape of today—a forest that is in a real sense itself a creation and ‘monument’ of the Maya people.  “The Maya forest, once thought to be a wild, pristine jungle, is, in reality, the result of prehistoric, colonial, and recent human activities,” write Ford and Nigh in their book.* 

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Courtesy Exploring Solutons Past: The Maya Forest Alliance

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In other words, by managing and shaping the forest landscape elements through the Milpa Cycle into a human-sculpted environment beneficial in terms of the food, shelter, medicinal and other material needs for sustaining ever-increasing populations, the Maya became the actual creators of their tropical environment—in essence, the architects of the jungle itself. Most significantly, because of its sustainable, renewing techniques, the Milpa Cycle became a key to the longevity of the Maya civilization long after the Classic period ‘collapse’. Ford and Nigh conclude: “When political crises struck Classic Maya society, the population largely retired to the forest garden, leaving elite centers abandoned.”*

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The book, The Maya Forest Garden: Eight Millennia of Sustainable Cultivation of the Tropical Woodlands, is published by Left Coast Press and can be purchased at the Left Coast Press website. 

*Ford, Anabel and Nigh, Ronald, The Maya Forest Garden: Eight Millennia of Sustainable Cultivation of the Tropical Woodlands, Left Coast Press, June 2015.

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Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

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A 2,700-year-old pyramid tomb excavated in the western Chiapas state of Mexico, and the monumental center in which it was discovered, opened a window on the possible origins or connections it may have to a well-known ancient Olmec capital to its east on the Mexican Gulf Coast.  The discovery has presented a tantalizing new piece in the emerging picture of state formation in southern Mexico and of a people and civilization that may have had trade and cultural affiliations with La Venta and possibly other Olmec centers from 1,000 to 400 B.C.

Known as Chiapa de Corzo, the site was excavated in 2010 by archaeologist Bruce Bachand of Brigham Young University’s New World Archaeological Foundation, along with Emiliano Gallaga of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History and Lynneth Lowe of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The tomb contained two regally adorned individuals, one an adult male and the other an adult female. Given the nature of the burial and finds, they had clearly uncovered a royal tomb, a tomb that, when it was discovered, predated by 600 years any other such tomb found in Mesoamerica, including that of the familiar ancient Maya sites at Tikal and Kaminaljuyu.

“The main occupants were likely a conjugal pair that governed Chiapa de Corzo and the surounding countryside,” said Bachand. “The tomb exhibits Olmec rather than Maya affinities. Jade beads fashioned into duck heads, clamshells, pumpkin-shaped gourds, and bamboo shoots are similar to artifacts excavated seventy years ago at the mammoth Gulf Olmec site of La Venta. Green and gray obsidian disks—eye pieces for wooden or textile masks now long decayed—are also similar to pairs of disks found in a tomb and offering at La Venta”.

Similarities notwithstanding, the site also exhibited characteristics unique to its particular culture. Said Bachand, “when objects like these are discovered it is easy to overlook or downplay what is unique or distinct about the context. The absence of large jade earspools on the heads of the deceased (a signature Olmec trait), and the placement of clamshells over their mouths (a practice that continued for centuries in Chiapas), appear to be expressions of local identity and belief.”

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Mound 11 (the tomb) at the height of excavation in April of 2010 (photograph by Oscar López, courtesy of INAH, Mexico).

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Equally significant was the discovery of several offering pits near the pyramid tomb, containing artifacts identified as ritual stone axes, greenstone axes, a serpentine axe with an engraved image of an Olmec deity, and an elaborate sacrificial burial. The artifacts and burial, the alignment of the pits with the pyramidal tomb, and the nature and arrangement of subsequent deposits and monumental structures throughout the site of Chiapa de Corzo suggest that it was a center of continuous ritual activity. Moreover, the size, shape and arrangement of certain central mounds at the site, which includes the tomb mound, resemble the familiar “E-Group” formations found at other Chiapas region sites dated to 900 – 800 B.C., 200 years before it appeared in the later Maya sites. Analysis of findings at the pyramidal tomb mound indicate an association between the “E-Group” configuration and human sacrifice, rulership, the cardinal directions, lighting, corn, and community ritual, all related to Olmec views of the supernatural.

The excavations at Chiapa de Corzo have raised perhaps more questions than answers, but ongoing investigations and research continue to open the door on who these people were and what connections they had with other civilizations and centers of Mesoamerica.

To be sure, some elements of the larger picture have already come into focus. Reported Bachand: “The last twenty years of archaeological and linguistic research have demonstrated that Chiapa de Corzo and west-central Chiapas were home to the Zoque, descendants of the Mixe-zoque speaking Olmec who inhabited the Gulf and Pacific coasts of southern Mexico during the Early Formative Period (1500 – 1000 B.C.).  Recognizing ancient Chiapa de Corzans as Zoque has ramifications for understanding the ethnic composition of Middle Formative (1000 – 400 B.C.) Gulf Olmec centers such as La Venta……..the two centers shared a common Early Formative Mixe-zoque heritage.”

Were the two centers closely related and representative of the same population and culture? According to Bachand, the jury is still out on this question.

“It would be rash to envision La Venta or Chiapa de Corzo as immiscible entities; La Venta was surely the more cosmopolitan of the two.  But if one culture can be pegged for playing a dominant role in La Venta’s florescence, it would have to be the Zoque, considering the many ties seen in architecture, site planning, and sumptuary items across the two regions.”

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Cover Photo, Top: The skeleton of Tomb 1’s main occupant: a regally adorned middle aged male. His skull was crushed like a pancake when the tomb collapsed anciently. White residues on his lower torso and pelvis are probable vestiges of bark cloth attire. Remnants of a shell-decorated loin cloth descend from the pubic area. (photographs by Bruce R. Bachand, courtesy of INAH, Mexico).   

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

In addition, the latest Popular Archaeology ebook is now available.

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Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

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Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

____________________________________________

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa—Two of South Africa’s most famous archaeological sites, Sibudu  and  Blombos,  have  revealed  that  Middle   Stone  Age  groups  who  lived  in these different  areas,  more  than  1,000  kilometres  apart,  used  similar   types  of  stone  tools  some  71,000  years ago,  but  that  there  were  differences  in  the  ways  that  these  tools   were  made.  

“This was not the case at 65,000 years ago when similarities in stone tool making suggest that similar cultural traditions spread across South Africa,” says Professor Lyn Wadley, archaeologist from the University  of  the Witwatersrand,  Johannesburg.

Wadley  is  part  of  an  international  team  of  researchers  from  South  Africa,  France,  the  US  and  Italy  who published  the results of their systematic study of Middle Stone Age (MSA) stone  tool  technologies in a paper, titled:  The  Still  Bay  and  Howiesons  Poort  at  Sibudu  and  Blombos:  Understanding  Middle  Stone   Age technologies,  in  the  journal,  PLoS  One,  on  10  July  2015.  

The team also includes Wits University’s Professor Christopher Henshilwood, as well as lead author Sylvain Soriano  (France),  Paola  Villa  (US),  and  others  (*).    

The  researchers  undertook  systematic  technological  and  typological  analysis  on  two  types  of  Middle   Stone  Age  assemblages—Still  Bay  and  Howiesons  Poort—from  two  of  the  most  famous  archaeological   sites  from  this  time  period  in  South  Africa,  Blombos  Cave  in  the  Western  Cape  and  Sibudu  in  KwaZulu-Natal.  At  these  sites  we  find  much  of  the  archaeological  evidence  for  the  origins  of  modern  human   behaviour.  

In  the  paper,  using  their  own  and  published  data  from  other  sites,  the  researchers  report  on  the   diversity between  stone  artifact  assemblages  and  discuss  to  what  extent  they  can  be  grouped  into   homogeneous lithic  sets.    

In  agreement  with  results  of  previous  studies  of  broadly  contemporaneous  Howiesons  Poort   assemblages by other analysts, the researchers’ analysis  argues  for  some  uniformity  in  this  cultural   entity  among  sites spread  across  a  vast  region  from  the  Western  Cape  to  the  Free  State  and  KwaZulu-­‐ Natal.

Despite  the  use  of  different  rock  types  in  each  site,  Howiesons  Poort  craftsmen  follow  the  same  pattern   to  knap  stone.  Small  blades  were  produced  and used as blanks for “penknife-like” backed and pointed tools, hafted  and  used  both  as  cutting  devices  and  composite  elements  of  hunting  weaponry.  

This  supports  the  idea  of  a  long-lasting  system  of  complex  behavioural  traditions  that  may  have  been   socially  transmitted  by  teaching  and  verbal  instructions.  The  study  also  implies  that  the  Howiesons  Poort   complex  was  not  static,  but  underwent  gradual  changes  through  time.  

A  similar  approach  was  used  in  the  analysis  of  the  Still  Bay  assemblages  from  Sibudu  and  Blombos.  At  Sibudu,  stone  knapping  was  almost  completely  oriented  towards  the  production  of  thin,  long,  double   pointed  stone  points.  

These  points  were  designed  for  a  primary  use  as  cutting  devices  and  a  long  re-­‐sharpening  process  was   applied  to  these  tools  to  ensure  their  long-­‐life  use.  These  points  were  also  used  as  tips  of  hunting   weapons.

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Blombos Still Bay points. Courtesy University of the Witwatersrand

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Howiesons Poort baked tools of quartz. Courtesy University of the Witwatersrand

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Although  elements  of  similarity  are  certainly  present,  the  manufacturing  differences  observed  between   the Sibudu  and  Blombos  Still  Bay-­type  tools  considerably  weaken  their  grouping  into  the  same  cultural   entity.  In  other  words,  at  71,000  years  ago  stone  tool  making  at  Sibudu  and  Blombos  did  not  share  the   same  rules  and  traditions.  Still  Bay  sites  are  still  not  common  in  South  Africa  and  future  research  might  provide  new  observations  needed  to  determine  whether  the  Still  Bay  really  does  have  directional  change   different  from  that  of the  Howiesons  Poort.  

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(*)  Authors:  Sylvain  Soriano  (ArScAn,  AnTET,  Université  Paris  Quest,  CNRS,  France);  Paola  Villa  (University   of  Colorado  Museum,  US);  Anne  Delagnes  (CNRS-­‐PACEA,  Université  de  Bordeaux,  France),  Ilaria  Degano   (Dipartimento  di  Chimica  and  Chimica  Industriale  Università  di  Pisa,  Italy);  Luca  Pollarolo  (Department  of   Genetics  and  Evolution,  University  of  Geneva,  Switzerland);  Jeannette  J.  Lucejko  (Dipartimento  di  Chimica   and  Chimica  Industriale  Università  di  Pisa,  Italy);  and  Christopher  Henshilwood  and  Lyn  Wadley  from  the   Evolutionary  Studies  Institute,  University  of  the  Witwatersrand,  South  Africa.

Adapted and edited from a press release of the University of the Witwatersrand.

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

In addition, the latest Popular Archaeology ebook is now available.

 ______________________________________________

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

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Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

____________________________________________

Located within the Belize River region and spread across the imaginary border between Guatemala and Belize, the ancient Maya site of El Pilar features an unusual and mysterious ancient construction complex that has archaeologists jumping for answers.

When last reported in March, 2015 in Popular Archaeology Magazine, archaeologist Anabel Ford, who has led investigations and research at El Pilar for many years, described the discovery of highly unusual construction work hidden beneath the shroud of centuries of jungle overgrowth. Nick-named the ‘Citadel’ because of its apparent defensive construction characteristics and relative geographic isolation from the rest of El Pilar, it was detected only through the application of remote sensing technology. Using LiDAR—Light (Laser) Detection and Ranging—equipment installed aboard an overflying helicopter, scientists were able to outline the construction features perched atop a ridge with the appearance of fortifications, consisting of concentric terracing and six structures, including two ‘temples’, each about five meters high. In a quest to find some answers, Ford returned to the site in 2015 with a team, this time to do some ‘ground-truthing” and limited excavation. 

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LiDAR image showing the core area of El Pilar, and the Citadel to the far right, or east of the core area. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar

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After arriving and beginning work, however, the team found that they had to sift through extensive damage and debris left by looters. In addition, thick vines and underbrush had to be removed to examine and map the site. Despite this, the archaeologists began to develop a clearer picture of what they were uncovering.

“Covering almost 1 hectare, or about 2.5 acres, with 4-meter-high ramparts encircling a natural hill, the El Pilar ‘Citadel’ presents a remarkable image of construction ingenuity clearly with defense in mind,” said Ford. “While the lower two ramparts were created by the unusual strategy of quarrying into the limestone hill to create vertical faces that are impossible to scale, the upper terraces that make up the apex of the hill appear to be constructed with retaining walls and fill, a technique similar to most Maya monuments.”

But another surprise emerged. Said Ford, “the archaeologists discovered that the placement of temples and platforms was not in the expected form that should be aligned in the cardinal directions at the edges of a plaza. Instead, the main central temple, at the highest point of the hill, is squarely in the middle of the plaza and oriented to the east.”

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LiDAR image showing the Citadel with renderings of currently-detected structures and their relative dimensions and locations at the top of the ridge, including the two lower ramparts. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar

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The team has been cleaning the debris of looter’s trenches excavated decades ago into the core of two of the largest temples at the top of the Citadel. These efforts exposed a massive looter’s trench and shaft that demolished the center of the highest structure to a depth of almost 7 meters and exposed the details of some 10 construction episodes. Plaster floors, walls, stairs, rooms, and charcoal layers make up the sequence the archaeologists are piecing together from the devastation of this temple wrought by the looters. A second looter’s trench was discovered in another temple located within a southern plaza. “The looter’s excavation destroyed the top of the temple and pried out beautifully dressed stone using picks on elegantly prepared stucco with painted black lines, showing cavalier disregard for the complexity of the ancient architecture,” said Ford.  “Walls, doorways, additions, as well as a major plaster floor more than 25 cm think were so thoroughly damaged it is difficult to understand the architectural relationships.”

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Thick vines and underbrush at the Citadel site had to be removed, leaving trees for shade, before further work and mapping could take place. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar

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The center temple structure before removal of overgrowth and debris. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar

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Center temple after clearing. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar

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Mapping the Citadel. Dr. Anabel Ford (left) with Julia Longo, a key member of the special team. Courtesy BRASS/El Pilar
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While the archaeologists are only beginning to understand the construction chronology of the El Pilar Citadel, Ford says that many of the ceramics gathered in the looter’s back dirt suggest an early occupation in the Preclassic (the time range from before 1000 B.C. to 250 A.D.).

El Pilar is considered the largest site in the Belize River region, boasting over 25 known plazas and hundreds of other structures, covering an area of about 120 acres. Monumental construction at El Pilar began in the Middle Preclassic period, around 800 BCE, and at its height centuries later it supported more than 20,000 people. Ford, who is the Director of the BRASS/El Pilar Program at the MesoAmerican Research Center of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has taken a “hands-off,” highly selective conservation approach to investigating the site. With the exception of a fully exposed Maya house structure, most of the structures at El Pilar have remained completely conserved by design, still covered in their tropical shroud. The Citadel excavations have opened a new chapter in the research at El Pilar.

It is too early to ascertain the dating of the construction with assurance and to draw reasonable conclusions about the nature or functions of the Citadel, but Ford says she continues to work on profiles and the analysis of the ceramics excavated at the site. She hopes to know much more in the coming weeks.

For now, there is always room for more questions. “Was this the site of the original constructions of El Pilar?” Ford asks. She knows with confidence that it will only take a matter of time and meticulous examination of the uncovered evidence.  “We’re on the trail to discover the answer.”

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See the previous related story in Popular Archaeology Magazine.

_________________________________________

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

In addition, the latest Popular Archaeology ebook is now available.

 ______________________________________________

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

____________________________________________

Popular Archaeology’s annual Discovery Edition eBook is a selection of the best stories published in Popular Archaeology Magazine in past issues, with an emphasis on some of the most significant, groundbreaking, or fascinating discoveries in the fields of archaeology and paleoanthropology and related fields. At least some of the articles have been updated or revised specifically for the Discovery edition.  We can confidently say that there is no other single issue of an archaeology-related magazine, paper print or online, that contains as much major feature article content as this one. The latest issue, volume 2, has just been released. Go to the Discovery edition page for more information.

____________________________________________