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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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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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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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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.

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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.

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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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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.

____________________________________________

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.

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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.

____________________________________________

Archaeology isn’t only about excavating and recovering artifacts and buildings from the past. The extensive, ongoing research and analysis that comes from the archaeological investigation of historic and prehistoric sites can help inform computer graphics professionals and artists to create a visualization of what the past looked like—in essence, make the past come alive far beyond words on a page or computer screen.

This is what the experts with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation have done with the countless sets of information acquired through many years of research on the artifacts and structures excavated through archaeological investigation at the site of colonial period Williamsburg in southern Virgina, in addition to careful and intense research of historical documents. And anyone interested in the events related to the 18^th century struggle of American colonists for independence from Britain can thank those experts for the viewing opportunity afforded at the website for Colonial Williamsburg, the one-time capital of the Virginia colonies and a major seat of British power before war broke out in 1776.

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The second Capital of Williamsburg (completed 1753), as it appeared on the eve of the American Revolution. The reconstructed building seen by tourists today represents the first, earlier version of the Capital, which was destroyed in a fire. Courtesy Digital History Center, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, from the article, Imaging History in a Revolutionary Town, by Meredith Poole.

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Words cannot substitute for experience, so here is the website for the reader’s enjoyment.

See a related article, Imaging History in a Revolutionary Town by Meredith Poole, published in the June 2013 issue of 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.

____________________________________________

Archaeologists at the historic James Fort site of Jamestown in southern Virginia may be closing in on a well that was dug by the site’s early colonists during the formative years of America’s first successful English colony.

The prospect is tantalizing because, in the years that archaeologists have been conducting investigations and research at the site, several wells have been uncovered that yielded hundreds of thousands of artifacts, many of them among the most important and spectacular finds of the more than two-decade long excavation project.

Like historic trash middens (garbage dumps), wells often yield a motherlode of finds for archaeologists, because these are the concentrated places where the long-gone inhabitants deposited the refuse of their daily lives, from discarded belt buckles and broken pottery to whole pieces of body armor. 

Now, the Jamestown Rediscovery team of archaeologists are closing in on a feature within a cellar built during the colony’s early years—a pit feature that is beginning to show the tell-tale signs of a square-shaped well.

“It’s a pretty good-sized pit,” says project Senior Archaeologist Danny Schmidt. “We only see a section of it, but you can tell it’s going to be a good-sized pit, maybe square in shape…….Why else would you have a pit within a pit unless you were going for water? Because it’s only a few more feet before you hit the water table.”*

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View of part of the cellar excavation. A still screenshot from the related YouTube video (see below).

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The tell-tale sign of part of one side of a possible well feature. A still screenshot from the related YouTube video (see below).

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Two other reasons hint at the possibility of a well: In previous excavation seasons, archaeologists came across two other wells that exhibited similar signs as they dug—one, the first well, was located in a cellar within the original James Fort footprint, and the other, the second well, also constructed within the James Fort, was square-shaped and framed with shaped oak timbers.

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The second well, excavated during a previous season. A still screenshot from the related YouTube video (see below).

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The cellar in which the possible well is located is part of a structure that was built just outside of the original triangular palisade construction of the early James Fort, when colonists were renovating the fort into a new five-sided design. The structure resembles another structure excavated by archaeologists, called the “factory”, found years ago outside the southeast bulwark of the original fort.

Evidence for this newest structure emerged as they began to uncover postholes for long-vanished timbers that would have supported a 22-by-14 foot building incorporated into the fort palisade that was extended as part of the new five-sided fort.

The cellar feature within the newly excavated structure appears to have been about seven feet deep below the original surface of early Jamestown, according to the archaeologists. Artifacts recovered thus far from the excavation of the structure include large fragments of a Bartmann jug (commonly used during the early 17^th century), well-shaped dice made out of bone (once used as gaming pieces by the colonists), and a copper alloy buckle still complete with its tongue.

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Excavated bone dice. A still screenshot from the related YouTube video (see below).

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The copper alloy buckle. A still sreenshot from the related YouTube video (see below).

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Excavation of the Bartmann jug. A still screenshot from the related YouTube Video (see below).

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Excavated fragments of the Bartmann jug fit perfectly together. A still screenshot from the related YouTube video (see below)

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Readers can read more about it at the Jamestown Rediscovery website.

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*Comments of Danny Schmidt from the related YouTube video (see above) and the Jamestown Rediscovery news release.

________________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________

Analysis of the results of recent Pew Research Center surveys conducted between 2009 and 2014 show that approximately 65% of U.S. adults agree that humans and other living things evolved over time, with 31% favoring the view that all living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of life. About 4% stated they did not know, or have a view.

And “roughly half of those who say that humans have evolved over time,” reported the study, “believe that evolution has occurred from natural processes, such as natural selection (35% of all adults), while a somewhat smaller share (24% of all adults) believe a supreme being guided the evolution of humans and other living things.”* The study reports that about 5% of adults are unsure.

Not surprisingly, the analysis showed religious affiliation and the degree of religious activity (frequency of church attendance) as high correlation factors in these views. Among the most striking findings, for example, is the statistic that shows that a small group of Christians, composed mostly of Mormons, “have a high predicted probability of saying that humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning (+0.69).”*  

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A pencil work mixed with natural photo-textures and digital color. Also features original writings by Charles Darwin from ‘The Origin of Species’. Ade McO-Campbell, Wikimedia Commons

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But these findings are only a small part of the overall scope and results of the Pew study. Much more than issues related to human evolution, it highlights a wide mix of factors tied to public attitudes across a broad set of 22 science issues. It illustrates the strength of connection between political affiliation and opinion, and it shows issues for which other factors – such as educational attainment, knowledge about science, religious affiliation or demographic characteristics – are strongly tied to the public’s views. Prominent among the study’s findings are the numbers that indicate that public attitudes about climate change and energy policy are strongly intertwined with political party affiliation and ideology; and that politics play a more modest, or even peripheral, role on public views about other key issues related to biomedical science, food safety and space.

The analysis in the report relied primarily on data from the Pew Research Center survey of the general public, using a probability-based sample of the adult population by landline and cellular telephone Aug. 15-25, 2014, with a representative sample of 2,002 adults nationwide. The survey, along with a companion survey of members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), was conducted by the Pew Research Center in collaboration with the AAAS.

The report analysis and results are available at the Pew Research Center website, including a related interactive.

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Parts of this article were adapted and edited from a Pew Research Center press release, The public’s political views are strongly linked to attitudes on environmental issues, July 1, 2015.

*Pew Research Center, July 1, 2015, “Americans, Politics and Science Issues.”

_________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________

University of Edinburgh—People have evolved to be smarter and taller than their predecessors, a study of populations around the world suggests.

Those who are born to parents from diverse genetic backgrounds tend to be taller and have sharper thinking skills than others, the major international study has found.

Researchers analyzed health and genetic information from more than 100 studies carried out around the world. These included details on more than 350,000 people from urban and rural communities.

The team found that greater genetic diversity is linked to increased height. It is also associated with better cognitive skills, as well as higher levels of education.

However, genetic diversity had no effect on factors such as high blood pressure or cholesterol levels, which affect a person’s chances of developing heart disease, diabetes and other complex conditions.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh examined individuals’ entire genetic make-up. They pinpointed instances in which people had inherited identical copies of genes from both their mother and their father – an indicator that their ancestors were related.

Where few instances of this occur in a person’s genes, it indicates greater genetic diversity in their heritage and the two sides of their family are unlikely to be distantly related.

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Image: L. Dorfman, Wikimedia Commons

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It had been thought that close family ties would raise a person’s risk of complex diseases but the researchers found this not to be the case. The only traits they found to be affected by genetic diversity are height and the ability to think quickly.

The findings suggest that over time, evolution is favoring people with increased stature and sharper thinking skills but does not impact on their propensity for developing a serious illness.

The study is published in the journal Nature and was funded by the Medical Research Council.

Dr Jim Wilson, of the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute, said: “This study highlights the power of large-scale genetic analyses to uncover fundamental information about our evolutionary history.”

Dr Peter Joshi, also of the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute, said: “Our research answers questions first posed by Darwin as to the benefits of genetic diversity. Our next step will be to hone in on the specific parts of the genome that most benefit from diversity.”

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A University of Edinburgh press release.

________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________

Smartly timed to coincide with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian has presented “The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire,” the first major bilingual exhibition on one of the greatest civilizations in South America. The exhibit opened June 26 and will run through June 1, 2018. It explores why and to what end the Inka Road was built more than 500 years ago, and how its construction, without the use of metal or iron, the wheel or stock animals to pull heavy loads, stands as one of the greatest engineering feats of all time.

The paved road is more than 24,000 miles in length, runs north to south crossing through Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The Inka Road engaged impressive engineering strategies in response to the challenges presented by the rugged Andes mountains. This landscape ranges from coastal desert to high plateau and uneven cordillera (a system of mountain ranges) separated by valleys characterized by biodiversity and many unique ecosystems.   

The items on display are intended to illustrate important concepts in Andean cosmology, the principles of duality, reciprocity and integration, and offer examples of the road’s infrastructure and spirituality. Features include images, maps, models and 140 objects, including a ceramic Chavín stirrup spout bottle (the oldest item in the exhibition, ca. 800–100 B.C.), impressive gold ornaments, necklaces made from shells from the Lambayeque region, stone carvings, silver and gold figurines, and various textiles made from camelid hair and cotton.

The Inka Empire, the final period of autonomy and pure indigenous tradition in South American history, began in the 14th century and flourished until the Spanish invasion in 1532. Throughout its 100 years of use, the extensive road served as a complex network and major axis for communication, transportation, expansion, administration and political control of vast and varied territories throughout the Inka Empire. After the Spanish invasion, the road lost its original symbolism and its political meaning, but it never lost its significance as a symbol and sacred space to indigenous people in the region. Contemporary descendants of the Inka continue using the road system and millions of people still speak the native languages of Quechua and Aymara. The Inka Empire ultimately transformed the world through the dissemination of important crops, minerals and medicines.

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Walking the Qhapaq Ñan, part of the Inka Road, in Jujuy, Argentina. Photo by Axel E. Nielsen, 2005

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Portion of the east flank trail at Machu Picchu, Peru (Wright Water Engineers, Inc., 1998)

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The Rumi Colca gateway, Cusco, Peru. Photo by Doug McMains, 2014.

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The exhibition unfolds the history of the Inka Empire in 11 sections:

• The introduction includes a “flyover” of a segment of the road system so visitors can see its magnitude, complexity and enormous scale.

• The story of the beginning of the road explains how the Inka rose to power and constructed the road swiftly, building upon the contribution of earlier civilizations.

• Visitors learn about the ancestors of the Inka and how the foundations of the empire reside in their early creation stories and a spiritual understanding of the universe.

• A section about the city of Cusco takes visitors to the heart of the Inka universe and reveals how it was the capital of the Inka Empire and embodied the physical, political and spiritual center of the Inka Road, as all roads led to and from Cusco. Three-dimensional renderings of the city and existing architecture at the time of the Inka are a central part of the visitor experience along with video elements and images presenting the city today.

• An immersive experience includes walking through four suyus, or four distinct regions, that make up the Inka Empire, also called Tawantinsuyu, which means “four regions together,” and shows how the Inka integrated a vast number of villages, ethnic groups and diverse ecosystems. One of the interactive games has visitors managing the Chaski runners. These individuals were relay messengers who carried information throughout the empire via the Inka Road. Another innovation included the khipu, or numerical knot system, which was a complex and sophisticated system of record keeping. Visitors are challenged to decipher the strands and check answers on a sliding panel.

• Chinchaysuyu is the largest suyu and the empire’s most important agricultural region. Innovative engineering solutions to the complicated terrain are highlighted by the rope suspension bridges. A group of communities along with a bridge master who live north of Cusco have been continuously making a suspension bridge for more than 500 years from local grasses in their homeland. They constructed a similar bridge spanning more than 60 feet on the National Mall as participants at the 2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. A portion of that bridge will reside in the exhibition.

• Antisuyu covers the exotic and difficult terrain of the Amazon rainforest, prized for its medicinal plants and bird feathers. Innovative engineering is demonstrated by the water management at Machu Picchu.

• Collasuyu is the second-largest suyu, a pastoral area for llamas and alpacas and rich in gold, silver and copper. The Inka built a system of tampus (way stations) to accommodate travelers on the road.

• Contisuyu is the road to the sea, providing key resources of fish and guano. The Inka built a system of colcas (warehouses) along the road to store goods and developed terrace farming to increase agricultural land and to take advantage of microclimates.

• The section on the Spanish invasion shows how the road gave their armies easy access to the empire and how the introduction of new animals, plants, beliefs, laws and diseases transformed the lives of Andean people, ultimately bringing devastation to the land and the road.

• Finally, a video shows the continuity of Inka culture and traditions today, how the road still binds more than 500 communities and honors the Andean peoples for their unique contributions to human achievement.

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Exhibited: Inka arybalo, ca. AD 1450–1532. Juan Benigno Vela (Pataló), Ecuador. Ceramic, 17 x 23 cm.

The arybalo is a ceramic form unique to the Inka period. This form was standardized and produced throughout Tawantinsuyu (the Inka Empire), and was found in all sizes. While the form of the arybalo was consistent, the designs on each vessel were often particular to the region where it was made. These vessels were used in many ways, from personal “water bottles” for travelers or workers to making and storing chicha (fermented maize beer). Photo by Ernest Amoroso/National Museum of the American Indian

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Exhibited: Inka khipu, AD 1400–1600. Nasca region, Peru. Cotton, 103 x 48 cm. 

Khipu were Inka recording devices made of wool or cotton strings knotted in various ways and sometimes dyed different colors. They were composed of a primary cord from which hang secondary cords that carry the information. Khipu were used to record census reports, the movement of goods and people, historical events, and religious and military information. Ernest Amoroso / National Museum of the American Indian

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Exhibited: Gold Inka figurine, AD 1470–1532. Coastal Peru. Gold, 9 x 7 x 24 cm.

The gold figure represents an important Inka woman. Gold was a sacred material to the Inka, so its use and display was highly restricted. Figurines like these were left as offerings at religious spaces or worn as ornaments
by members of the Inka elite. This figure may have been dressed in miniature textiles when it was used as anoffering during the Inka period. Photo by Ernest Amoroso / National Museum of the American Indian

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Exhibition curators Ramiro Matos (Quechua) and José Barreiro (Taíno) have spent the past six years researching, traveling and documenting the Inka Road in preparation for this exhibition.

“The Inka are one of the primary examples of the achievements of the indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere,” said Kevin Gover (Pawnee), director of the museum. “Their knowledge, their understanding of their environment, their agriculture and, of course, their engineering all remain infinitely interesting and instructive particularly in a world that is grappling with some quite near existential challenges of sustainability. There is knowledge to be gained from the examination of these indigenous cultures not simply for the sake of gathering knowledge, but for its application in our contemporary lives.”

The exhibit will be presented to the general public until June 1, 2018. Admission to the National Museum of the American Indian is free. For more information, visit www.AmericanIndian.si.edu. 

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Every year, local communities on either side of the Apurimac River Canyon use traditional Inka engineering techniques to rebuild the Q’eswachaka Bridge, set on the Inka road. The entire bridge is built in only three days. The bridge has been rebuilt in this same location continually since the time of the Inka.

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Edited and adapted from a Smithsonian press release: Inka Road Remains a Monumental Achievement in Engineering After 500 Years of Continuous Use, May 14, 2015

________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________

Researchers have concluded that an early modern human who lived in present-day Romania about 40,000 years ago had a Neanderthal ancestor who lived just 4 to 6 generations back in the individual’s family tree.

Co-led by Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator David Reich at Harvard Medical School, along with researchers at the Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins in Beijing, China, researchers were able to tease out and analyze a small percentage of the DNA remnants found in a 37,000 to 42,000-year-old modern human jaw bone originally found in 2002 by cavers and archaeologists in the Oase Cave in south-western Romania.

“I could hardly believe it when we first saw the results,” said Pääbo. “It is such a lucky and unexpected thing to get DNA from a person who was so closely related to a Neanderthal.”

The task was not an easy one.

Trace amounts of ancient DNA can be recovered from bones as old as the Oase jawbone, but to analyze it, that ancient DNA must be sifted out of an overwhelming amount of DNA from other organisms. When Qiaomei Fu, who was a graduate student in Pääbo’s lab, obtained DNA from the bone, most of it was from microbes that lived in the soil where the bone was found. Of the fraction of a percent that was human DNA, most had been introduced by people who handled the bone after its discovery.

Using methods pioneered in Pääbo’s lab, Fu enriched the proportion of human DNA in the sample, using genetic probes to retrieve pieces of DNA that spanned any of 3.7 million positions in the human genome that are considered useful in evaluating variation between human populations. Most of the DNA she ended up with was human, but came from people who had handled the jawbone since 2002, rather than the jawbone itself. Fu, who is now a postdoctoral researcher in Reich’s group, solved that problem by restricting her analysis to DNA with a kind of damage that deteriorates the molecule over tens of thousands of years. Once they had discarded the contaminating DNA, Reich’s team could then compare the fossil’s genome to genetic data from other groups. Through a series of statistical analyses, a surprising conclusion emerged.

“The sample is more closely related to Neanderthals than any other modern human we’ve ever looked at before,” Reich says. “We estimate that six to nine percent of its genome is from Neanderthals. This is an unprecedented amount. Europeans and East Asians today have more like two percent.”

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DNA taken from a 40,000-year-old modern human jawbone reveals that this man had a Neandertal ancestor as recently as four to six generations back. Courtesy MPI f. Evolutionary Anthropology/Paabo

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For their analysis the researchers used 35 milligrams of bone powder from the jawbone. Courtesy MPI f. Evolutionary Anthropology/Paabo

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The implications of the finding are significant. Neanderthals lived in Europe until about 35,000 years ago, disappearing at the same time modern humans were spreading across the continent.

“We know that before 45,000 years ago, the only humans in Europe were Neanderthals. After 35,000 years ago, the only humans in Europe were modern humans. This is a dramatic transition,” Reich says.

All present-day humans who have their roots outside sub-Saharan Africa carry one to three percent of Neanderthal DNA in their genomes. Until now, researchers have thought it most likely that early humans coming from Africa mixed with Neanderthals in the Middle East around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, before spreading into Asia, Europe and the rest of the world. However, radiocarbon dating of remains from sites across Europe suggests that modern humans and Neanderthals both lived in Europe for up to 5,000 years and that they may have interbred there, too. There is archaeological evidence for this: Changes in tool making technology, burial rituals, and body decoration imply a cultural exchange between the groups. “But we have very few skeletons from this period,” said Reich.

So the jawbone that archaeologists uncovered in Romania in 2002, which radiocarbon dating determined was between 37,000 and 42,000 years old, was an important find. “It’s an amazing bone,” Reich says. The jawbone was found along with the skull of another individual in a cave called Petera cu Oase. No artifacts were discovered nearby, so anthropologists had no cultural clues about who the individuals were or how they lived. The physical features of the jawbone were predominantly those of modern humans, but some Neanderthal traits were also apparent, and the anthropologists proposed that the bone might have belonged to someone descended from both groups.

The Oase individual is not responsible for passing Neanderthal ancestry on to present day humans, however. Reich found no evidence that he is closely related to later Europeans. “This sample, despite being in Romania, doesn’t yet look like Europeans today,” he says. “It is evidence of an initial modern human occupation of Europe that didn’t give rise to the later population. There may have been a pioneering group of modern humans that got to Europe, but was later replaced by other groups.”

Nonetheless, the Oase fossil discovery is now a first on two counts: “When we started the work on the Oase site, everything was already pointing to an exceptional discovery,” remembers Oana Moldovan, the Romanian researcher who initiated the systematic excavation of the cave in 2003. “But such discoveries require painstaking research to be confirmed,” adds Silviu Constantin, her colleague who worked on dating of the site. “We have previously shown that Oase is indeed the oldest modern human in Europe known so far, and now this research confirms that the individual had a Neanderthal ancestor. What more could we wish for?”

The detailed paper is published in the journal Nature.

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Adapted and edited from material provided by press releases of the Max Planck Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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

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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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The development of new technologies and techniques, combined with the increasingly interdisciplinary approach of archaeological investigation, are producing results that, for the archaeologist of 20 years ago, might have been the stuff of science fiction. Who would have known then that scientists would resurrect in startling detail an entire ancient Roman town after only fractional excavation? And who would have known that thousands of people from nearly every corner of the world would be able to ‘walk’ through that town without ever physically setting foot within? 

This, however, is exactly what has happened for an obscure archaeological site located in Portugal—a relatively small ancient Roman town whose few visible remains have attracted comparatively few visitors—at least as compared to the iconic Roman city of Pompeii in the south of Italy.

But unlike Pompeii, this Roman town, known as Ammaia, has been the subject of an intense, comprehensive focus through the remarkable new advances of what is being penned ‘non-invasive archaeology’—the application of state-of-the-art remote sensing, mapping and visualization technologies to uncover what an otherwise prohibitively expensive and lengthy archaeological investigation might reveal. Efforts began in 2009 with the launch of the Radio-Past (an acronym for Radiography of the Past) under the coordinative co-direction of Cristina Corsi of the Universita degli Studi di Cassino, Italy, and Frank Vermeulen of the Universiteit Gent in Belgium. Through the collective efforts of a consortium of European institutions spearheaded by the University of Evora in Portugal, as well as a broad array of experts, Radio-Past approached the site with a non-invasive research strategy, collecting data not as much through traditional excavation as through the application of technology and a multi-disciplinary plan to, in essence, ‘see’ what was hidden beneath the surface without digging it up. In the end, the results were both abundantly informative and visually stunning.

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Reconstructed/revisualized street view of the south part of the city of Ammaia. Courtesy 7reasons

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The video shown below encapsulates the project’s results. In addition, a richly illustrated major feature article in Popular Archaeology Magazine relates the project and its conclusions in greater detail.

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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.

____________________________________________

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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The controversial 8,500-year-old skeletal remains of the adult man popularly known as Kennewick Man, first discovered in a bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington in 1996, is now said by geneticists to be closely related to modern Native Americans—and more specifically, to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington. 

This was the conclusion of an international collaborative study recently conducted by scientists at the University of Copenhagen and the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Led by Lundbeck Foundation Professor Eske Willerslev and postdoctoral scholar Morten Rasmussen of the Centre for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen, and working with Carlos Bustamante, professor of genetics with the Stanford University Medical Center, the researchers removed small samples of bone from the skeleton’s hand to perform an exhaustive DNA analysis. Willerslev and Bustamante are well-known for their studies of ancient DNA. Willerslev and Rasmussen recently published the genome of a young child, known as the Anzick boy, buried more than 12,000 years ago in Montana. That study showed that the boy was also closely related to modern Native American groups, in particular those of South and Central America. In 2012, Bustamante and colleagues used DNA from the 5,300-year-old Iceman mummy called Otzi to show the man likely hailed from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia rather than the frigid Alps, where his body was found.

Regarding this latest analysis of Kennewick Man, said Rasmussen: “Although the exterior preservation of the skeleton was pristine, the DNA in the sample was highly degraded and dominated by DNA from soil bacteria and other environmental sources. With the little material we had available, we applied the newest methods to squeeze every piece of information out of the bone.”

The researchers compared the DNA sequences from the skeleton with those of modern Native Americans. They concluded that, although it is impossible to assign Kennewick Man to a particular tribe, he is closely related to members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington.

Said Willerslev: “Comparing the genome sequence of Kennewick Man to genome-wide data of contemporary human populations across the world clearly shows that Native Americans of today are his closest living relatives. Our study further shows that members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation that belongs to the Claimant Plateau tribes of the Pacific Northwest, who originally claimed him as their ancestor, is one of the groups showing close affinities to Kennewick Man or at least to the population to which he belonged.”

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The DNA molecule, the blueprint unit for all life forms. Wikimedia Commons

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The Burke Museum is the court-appointed neutral repository for the remains of Kennewick Man, also known as The Ancient One. The museum doesn’t display the remains, but has been caring for Kennewick Man since 1998. Courtesy of Richard Brown Photography

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This latest finding challenges a recent 2014 study that included isotopic, anatomical and morphometric analysis. That study concluded that Kennewick Man resembles circumpacific populations, particularly the Japanese Ainu and Polynesians and also has certain ‘European-like morphological’ traits, and reinforced the claim that he was anatomically distinct from modern Native Americans. However, that study did not include DNA analysis.

However, in addition to this latest DNA analysis, researchers also re-examined the earlier data from the 2014 cranial morphology study. Professor Christoph Zollikofer and Dr. Marcia Ponce de León from the Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich are world-leading experts on cranial analyses. They concluded the following:

“We started with the observation that cranial variation within human populations—both past and present—is high, and that it is typically higher than variation among populations. One important consequence of this is that, for single individuals such as Kennewick Man, cranial data do not reliably indicate population affiliations. In fact, drawing reliable inferences requires hundreds of independent features—precisely the kind of information that is now available through the new genomic analyses.”

When Kennewick Man was discovered in 1996, initial cranial analysis suggested that he was a historic-period Euro-American. Later radiocarbon dating of the bones revealed an age of ca. 8,000-9,000 years BP, making him pre-Columbian in age. This sparked a legal battle over the disposition of the skeletal remains. Tribes inhabiting the region where Kennewick Man, who they call the ‘Ancient One’, was found, requested the remains to be turned over to them for reburial based on their claim that he was Native American and therefore ancestral to them. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which managed the land where the skeleton was found, was prepared to do so. However, this was blocked by a lawsuit by eight scientists questioning his Native American origins and generated a scientific stir related to Kennewick Man’s ancestry and affiliation. The lawsuit lacerated the anthropological community, badly damaged relations with Native American groups, and triggered a divisive, long-running and expensive legal tug of war that ended in 2004 with a ruling in favour of a more detailed study, the study that was finally published in 2014.

But the latest analysis may finally bring the controversy and the battle to an end, thanks to advances in genetic research.

“Advances in DNA sequencing technology have given us important new tools for studying the great human diasporas and the history of indigenous populations,” said Bustamante. “Now we are seeing its adoption in new areas, including forensics and archeology. The case of Kennewick Man is particularly interesting given the debates surrounding the origins of Native American populations. Morten’s work aligns beautifully with the oral history of native peoples and lends strong support for their claims. I believe that ancient DNA analysis could become standard practice in these types of cases since it can provide objective means of assessing both genetic ancestry and relatedness to living individuals and present-day populations.”

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Edited and adapted with material provided by the subject press releases of the University of Copenhagen and Stanford University Medical Center.

Stanford graduate student David Poznik is also a co-author of the study.

The research was supported by the Danish Council for Independent Research, the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología in Mexico, the National Science Foundation and a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship.

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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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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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The archaeological sites of the ancient Roman Empire constitute without rival the most prolific array of ancient architecture and artifacts that can be attributed to any single civilization or culture. Its remains pockmark the Old World landscape from North Africa and Egypt to Hadrian’s Wall in Britain. The artifacts populate museums the world over.

But comparatively rarely does one find the preserved footprint of an ancient Roman citizen.

That is why excavators and archaeologists got excited when, while digging at the site of Hippos-Sussita (an ancient Hellenistic-Roman site just east of the Sea of Galilee in Israel), they came across what appeared to be imprints of the soles of Roman soldiers’ footwear within the remains of a Roman defensive bastion structure.

“On the ancient binding material of the bastion rear wall, we noticed to our great surprise a number of imprints that were left by Roman military boots while their owners were walking over the mortar before it had dried [while under construction during the 1^st century CE],” related Excavation Director Michael Eisenberg in an article published in Popular Archaeology Magazine. “To be more precise, there were several imprints made by the iron nails (hobnails) of caligae soles—the standard footwear of the Roman army from the 1^st century BCE until the beginning of the 2nd century CE (from the ordinary soldier up to the level of centurion).”*

More specifically, Eisenberg and his team had discovered one complete sole imprint, along with other partial imprints. “The complete imprint was 24.50cm long and had 29 round impressions,” he explained. “It was a left foot caliga, approximating a European size 40.”*

“The bastion and its imprints raise the possibility that Roman cohorts or auxiliary stationed in Syria were also in charge of building the bastion,” Eisenberg continued. “This is an exceptional case and probably occurred during a time of emergency. Such an emergency may have been in connection with the Great Revolt in the Galilee (66-7 CE).”*

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The complete caliga imprint and 3D scanning of its cast (photo M. Eisenberg).

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The bastion was part of an elaborate fortification system for defending the Roman-Hellenistic community set atop the imposing plateau-like summit of Sussita Mountain, which rises prominently some 350 meters from the lake level and about 200 meters above its landscape surroundings. From a defensive perspective, it commanded a strategic view of all approaches below it. But in addition to this advantageous defensive position, its Roman defenders also built a fortification wall and towers along the crest, including an outwork system of additional fortification walls, a ditch, and a series of artillery posts that consisted of ballista launchers. “From here most of the firepower was directed toward the most threatening area for Hippos, which was in the direction of the stream flowing south of the mountain and along which passed the ancient road,” stated Eisenberg. “Such a launcher (ballista) of 8m long could have lunched a basalt ball of about 18 kg to a distance of 350m, and indeed some of those basalt balls have been found nearby.”*

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The western corner of the bastion over the southern cliff. Y. Vitkalov, an excavation team member, is pretending to support the basalt beam foundations exposed after the mortar had washed away (photo M. Eisenberg).

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The bastion. A suggested reconstruction (drawn by D. Porotski, V. Pirsky and M. Eisenberg)

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A. Iermolin, the team’s small finds conservator, holding a 42 minae (18.5 kg.) basalt ballista ball (photo M. Eisenberg).

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Hippos-Sussita was one of the 10 ancient cities of the Decapolis, centers of Greek and Roman culture, most of which were founded by the Seleucid kings but then later re-established and reinforced by the Roman Empire in the southeastern Levant. Together, they constituted enclaves of Greek/Roman culture in a region dominated by Semitic people and culture. The excavations at Hippos are showing increasing signs that it was an unusually heavily fortified and protected location.

The footwear imprints are only one among a number of recent news-making finds Eisenberg and his team have uncovered at Hippos. The other recent discoveries have included a new necropolis; excavation of a mausoleum; the settlement’s first burial tombs with portraiture; a remarkably well-preserved, 30 cm long, 29 cm wide bronze mask of the Greek god Pan (or Roman Faunus); two skeletons found in a basilica with evidence that the individuals had died as a result of the collapse of the basilica roof during an earthquake (one of them, a woman, still wearing her golden dove-shaped pendant); and a unique stucco relief of a Heracles bust and part of a Roman statue among the remains of a bathhouse.

Excavations will continue at the site during the summer of 2015. More detailed information about the excavations and what the team has discovered there are published in a feature article of Popular Archaeology Magazine and at the project website.

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*Eisenberg, Michael, New Discoveries at Hippos, Popular Archaeology, Vol. 19, Summer 2015

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

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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.

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