Archives

The journal Science has announced its top 10 scientific breakthroughs of the year. Not surprisingly, the headline-making news of the Rosetta deep space probe’s approach to the comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the subsequent landing of its companion lander Philae on the comet’s surface ranked number 1 on the list. But also among the top 10 breakthroughs was the realization, made public in October, 2014, by scientists that cave paintings discovered in 7 cave sites in the Maros karsts on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia were actually between 35,000 and 40,000 years old. The breakthrough was significant in that it was the first time that prehistoric human cave painting art found in Indonesia, or East Asia, for that matter, was found to date during time periods usually associated with the “first cave painter” works long known to exist in Europe.

In the potential landmark study, the researchers used uranium-series dating of speleothem samples directly associated with 12 human hand stencils and two figurative animal paintings. “The earliest dated image from Maros,” write the study authors in their report, “with a minimum age of 39.9 kyr, is now the oldest known hand stencil in the world. In addition, a painting of a babirusa (“pig-deer”) made at least 35.4 kyr ago is among the earliest dated figurative depictions worldwide, if not the earliest one”*

The study findings dispel the notion that such early cave painting is unique to Europe or that the first prehistoric artists were European by location. Moreover, it suggests the possibility of an even more ancient common or shared ancestral population of human cave painters, perhaps pointing to an original population, or populations, first emerging out of Africa before about 40,000 BCE. Alternatively, it could suggest that these cognitive abilities evolved independently around the same time period among humans in locations thousands of miles apart.

___________________________________

Animal depiction and hand stencil paintings found in one of the caves at Sulawesi. This is a video still shot from video shown below from Nature.com

____________________________________

In addition to the Rosetta/Philae comet landing and the Indonesian cave painting findings, the annual list of groundbreaking scientific achievements, selected by Science and its international nonprofit publisher, AAAS, also includes groundbreaking advances in medicine, robotics, synthetic biology, and paleontology, among other disciplines.

Regarding the top breakthrough on the list, Rosetta and its lander module, known as Philae, made major headlines in November when Philae touched down on the surface of the speeding comet. Even though the landing was rougher than expected—Philae bounced off the unforgiving surface of 67P and came to rest on its side, quite a distance from its target—it was nonetheless the first-ever soft landing on a comet. And the data from these two space probes are already shedding new light on the formation and evolution of such comets.

“Philae’s landing was an amazing feat and got the world’s attention,” said Tim Appenzeller, news editor of the journal Science. “But the whole Rosetta mission is the Breakthrough. It’s giving scientists a ringside seat as a comet warms up, breathes, and evolves.”

Launched in March, 2004, by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Rosetta spacecraft is now orbiting 67P, sometimes getting as close as 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) to the comet’s surface. Its on-board camera can discriminate between objects on the comet that are just centimeters apart while an array of spectrometers, known as the Rosetta Orbiter Sensor for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA), can sample gases from 67P’s coma, or the thin halo of an atmosphere that surrounds the comet.

ROSINA has already detected water, methane, and hydrogen as well as some rarer compounds, including formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide, in 67P’s coma. Such findings might help researchers figure out whether certain comets could have helped to jump-start life on the early Earth by delivering water and organic molecules. In December, a report published by the ROSINA team revealed an exceptionally high ratio of heavy hydrogen (deuterium) to regular hydrogen, suggesting that comets like 67P, which hail from the Kuiper belt—a region beyond Neptune—could not have made such water deliveries.

“Breakthroughs should do one of two things: either solve a problem that people have been wrestling with for a long time or open the door to a lot of new research,” said Robert Coontz, deputy news editor at Science. “In this case, most of the really good science lies ahead.”

By keeping their eyes on the jets of gas and dust trailing behind 67P, researchers may eventually learn how comets evolve as they approach the sun. Then, by working backwards, researchers could turn back the clock and perhaps glean how various comets formed some 4.5 billion years ago.

The currently-dead batteries on Philae might recharge as the comet gets closer to the sun, but even if they don’t ESA mission managers have suggested that 80% of all the science will come from the mother ship, Rosetta, anyway. Peak activity on the spacecraft should occur in August, 2015, they say, when 67P is halfway between the orbits of Earth and Mars—and as close to the sun as it gets.

____________________________________

Artist’s view of the ESA’s Rosetta cometary probe.  Credit ESA – J. Huart

______________________________________

Rosetta’s lander Philae is shown safely on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. One of the lander’s three feet can be seen in the foreground. Credit European Space Agency

_______________________________________

In addition to the nine runners-up for this year’s Breakthrough of the Year, the staff of Science also describes areas to watch—Arctic sea ice and combined immunotherapy, for example—as well as the year’s major breakdown—the response to West Africa’s Ebola outbreak—and the results of a readers’ choice poll in which the public voted on its own breakthroughs.

After the comet landing, the journal’s list of nine other major scientific achievements of 2014 appears below (in no particular order).

The Dinosaur-Bird Transition: This year, a series of papers that compared the fossils of early birds and dinosaurs to modern birds revealed how certain dinosaur lineages developed small, lightweight body plans, allowing them to evolve into many types of birds and survive the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction about 66 million years ago.

Young Blood Fixes Old: Researchers demonstrated that blood from a young mouse—or even just a factor known as GDF11 from young mouse blood—can rejuvenate the muscles and brains of older mice. The findings have led to a clinical trial in which Alzheimer’s patients are receiving plasma from young donors.

Getting Robots to Cooperate: New software and interactive robots that, for example, instruct swarms of termite-inspired bots to build a simple structure or prompt a thousand quarter-sized machines to form squares, letters, and other two-dimensional shapes are proving that robots can work together without any human supervision after all.

Neuromorphic Chips: Mimicking the architecture of a human brain, computer engineers at IBM and elsewhere rolled out the first large-scale “neuromorphic” chips this year, which are designed to process information in ways that are more akin to living brains.

Beta Cells: Two groups pioneered two different methods for growing cells that closely resemble beta cells—the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas—in the laboratory this year, giving researchers an unprecedented opportunity to study diabetes.

Indonesian Cave Art: Researchers realized that hand stencils and animal paintings in a cave in Indonesia, once thought to be 10,000 years old, were actually between 35,000 and 40,000 years old. The discoveries suggest that humans in Asia were producing symbolic art as early as the first European cave painters.

Manipulating Memory: Using optogenetics—a technique that manipulates neuronal activity with beams of light—researchers showed that they could manipulate specific memories in mice. Deleting existing memories and implanting false ones, they went so far as to switch the emotional content of a mouse memory from good to bad, and vice versa.

CubeSats: Although they’ve been blasted into space for more than a decade now, cheap satellites with sides that are just 10 centimeters squared, called CubeSats, really took off in 2014. Once considered educational tools for college students, these miniature satellites have started to do some real science, according to researchers.

Expanding the Genetic Alphabet: Researchers have engineered E. coli that harbors two additional nucleic acids—X and Y—in addition to the normal G, T, C, and A that make up the standard building blocks of DNA. Such synthetic bacteria can’t reproduce outside the laboratory, but they may be used to create designer proteins with “unnatural” amino acids.

The top-10 list for 2014 appears in the 19 December issue of the journal along with a related news feature and multimedia component. 

________________________________________

________________________________________________

Source: Adapted and edited from a press release of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

*M. Aubert, A. Brumm, M. Ramli, T. Sutikna, E. W. Saptomo, B. Hakim, M. J. Morwood, G. D. van den Bergh, L. Kinsley, A. Dosseto, Pleistocene cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia, Nature 514, 223–227 (09 October 2014) doi:10.1038/nature13422.

________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

____________________________________________

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

An international team of researchers argue that the reason for the collapse of the great ancient Maya city of Tikal during the 9^th century CE was likely due to a lethal combination of persistent recurring episodes of drought and some of the very practices the Maya employed to create a successful and, for a time, sustainable system for supporting its massive and growing urban population.

Through forest surveys, satellite imagery, excavations, coring, and examinations of wood, plant, and soil samples collected from the Tikal zone inhabited during the Maya Late Classic period (LCP, 600 – 850 CE), David L. Lentz of the University of Cincinnati and colleagues from other institutions studied the agro-forestry and agricultural land use practices of the Maya, as well as the evidence for environmental change, to build what they consider to be a likely scenario for the famous collapse of the great Tikal polity.

Located in the Petén Basin of present-day northern Guatemala, Tikal was the political center of one of the most powerful Maya kingdoms. With monumental construction dating back to the 4th century BC, Tikal reached its zenith during the Classic Period, ca. 200 to 900 AD.  Following the end of the Late Classic period, archaeological investigation shows evidence that major monumental construction stopped, and that elite structures were burned. This coincided with significant population decline, culminating in the site’s abandonment. But Tikal was not the only Maya center that experienced such decline at this time, and one of the great mysteries of the ancient Maya revolves around the scholarly debate regarding the reasons for the great collapse of so much of the ancient Maya world at the end of their greatest florescence during the Classic period. Drought, unsustainable agricultural practices, warfare, and overpopulation, among other factors, have all been cited as possible causes.

Above and below: Ruins of the Maya city, Tikal. Courtesy David L. Lentz.

This latest study focused on examining evidence related to the agricultural and environmental factors. Their data and analysis showed that Tikal’s inhabitants practiced intensive forms of agriculture, including irrigation, terracing, and slash-and-burn cultivation, coupled with carefully controlled agro-forestry and water conservation techniques. “Empirical evidence is presented to demonstrate that this assiduously managed anthropogenic system of the Classic period Maya was a landscape that was optimized in a way that provided sustenance to a relatively large population in a pre-industrial, low-density urban community,” wrote Lentz and colleagues in the report published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). “This landscape productivity optimization, however, came with a heavy cost of reduced environmental resiliency and a complete reliance on consistent annual rainfall.”* The report authors supported this with findings from their collection and analysis of mineral deposits from regional caves, which indicated episodes of persistent and unusually low rainfall during the mid-9th century, coinciding with the archaeological evidence of Tikal’s abandonment during that time period. Moreover, argue the researchers, the drought was likely enhanced by the inhabitants of Tikal itself, “as there is a growing body of evidence that indicates forest clearance, even partial forest clearance, will negatively impact the hydrologic cycle.”*

“In short,” concluded the study authors, “the construction of extensive pavements combined with forest clearance likely exacerbated the effect of the drying trend, so by the mid-9th century there were inadequate supplies of water and food with little resilience left in the system to adapt to new conditions.”* As a result, according to Lentz, et al., the social structure of Tikal eventually collapsed and the core of the city was abandoned, “leaving only a tiny relict population huddled around the few water holes that did not dry up”*

The researchers suggest that similar scenarios played out throughout the Central Maya Lowlands during this time period, possibly explaining the great “Maya collapse” at the end of the Classic period.

_________________________________

 Information Sources: Press rlease of the PNAS, Drought and sustainability at ancient Maya city; and PNAS Article #14-08631 (see below).

* Article #14-08631: “Forests, fields, and the edge of sustainability at the ancient Maya city of Tikal,” by David L. Lentz et al. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1408631111 

Cover Photo: Ruins of the Maya city, Tikal. Courtesy David L. Lentz

________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

Popular Archaeology Magazine is pleased to announce the release of its latest issue, the Winter 2015 Issue, to begin the upcoming new year. Here is a listing of the new major feature articles, some of which are designated as premium articles for paying subscribers, for a worldwide readership. Two of the premium articles have been published FREE to the public. This latest issue includes the following titles:

1. The Real Indy (FREE Premium Article)

A book and a special exhibit tell the story of a forgotten explorer and his intrepid journey to discover great ancient Arabian cities of the Incense Road.

2. Unearthing the City of King Midas (Premium Article)

Archaeologists are making new discoveries at Gordion, the legendary capital of the ancient Phrygian kingdom.

3. Digging Vampires (Premium Article)

Have archaeologists uncovered ‘vampires’ among the dead?

4. Uncovering the Secrets of Cosma (FREE Premium Article)

Part 1 of a series: In a remote valley in north-central Peru, archaeologists are beginning to peel back the layers of monumental structures that may tell a forgotten story of an ancient people.

5. A Field Report: Preclassic Xnoha (for regular (free) subscribers)

Excavations in 2014 by the Maya Research Program at the ancient Maya site of Xno’ha uncovered Late Preclassic period finds.

6. Digging a Battlefield of American History (for regular (free) subscribers)

The reflections of a volunteer on an archaeological dig.

7. Syrian Heritage in Crisis (for regular (free) subscribers)

The Syrian Heritage Initiative, the US State Department, and UNESCO work together to save world heritage sites under attack by the Islamic State.

8. Countering the Illicit Antiquities Trade (for regular (free) subscribers)

Fighting the illicit trade of antiquities can mean fighting terrorism, and much more.

Premium subscribers may access all premium articles online in back issues extending back to the beginning of 2011.

_______________________________

*Cover photo courtesy American Foundation for the Study of Man and the Arthur M. Sackler, Smithsonian Institution, from the feature article, The Real Indy.

The ascetic and moralizing movements that spawned the world’s major religious traditions–Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Christianity—all arose around the same time in three different regions, and researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on December 11 have now devised a statistical model based on history and human psychology that helps to explain why. The emergence of world religions, they say, was triggered by the rising standards of living in the great civilizations of Eurasia.

“One implication is that world religions and secular spiritualities probably share more than we think,” says Nicolas Baumard of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. “Beyond very different doctrines, they probably all tap into the same reward systems [in the human brain].”

It seems almost self-evident today that religion is on the side of spiritual and moral concerns, but that was not always so, Baumard explains. In hunter-gatherer societies and early chiefdoms, for instance, religious tradition focused on rituals, sacrificial offerings, and taboos designed to ward off misfortune and evil.

That changed between 500 BCE and 300 BCE—a time known as the “Axial Age”–when new doctrines appeared in three places in Eurasia. “These doctrines all emphasized the value of ‘personal transcendence,'” the researchers write, “the notion that human existence has a purpose, distinct from material success, that lies in a moral existence and the control of one’s own material desires, through moderation (in food, sex, ambition, etc.), asceticism (fasting, abstinence, detachment), and compassion (helping, suffering with others).”

__________________________________

People at worship services. Wikimedia Commons

___________________________________

While many scholars have argued that large-scale societies are possible and function better because of moralizing religion, Baumard and his colleagues weren’t so sure. After all, he says, some of “the most successful ancient empires all had strikingly non-moral high gods.” Think of Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Aztecs, the Incas, and the Mayans.

In the new study, the researchers tested various theories to explain the history in a new way by combining statistical modeling on very long-term quantitative series with psychological theories based on experimental approaches. They found that affluence–which they refer to as “energy capture”–best explains what is known of the religious history, not political complexity or population size. Their Energy Capture model shows a sharp transition toward moralizing religions when individuals were provided with 20,000 kcal/day, a level of affluence suggesting that people were generally safe, with roofs over their heads and plenty of food to eat, both in the present time and into the foreseeable future.

“This seems very basic to us today, but this peace of mind was totally new at the time,” Baumard says. “Humans living in tribal societies or even archaic empires often experience famine and diseases, and they live in very rudimentary houses. By contrast, the high increase in population and urbanization rate in the Axial Age suggests that, for certain people, things started to get much better.”

The researchers say that this transition is consistent with a shift from “fast” life strategies, focused on the immediate problems of the day, to those focused on long-term investments. They say that it will now be interesting to test whether other familiar characteristics of modern human society, such as high parental investment and long-term monogamy, might stem from the same historical change.

__________________________________

Source: Cell Press News Release

Study: Current Biology, Baumard et al.: “Increased Affluence Explains the Emergence of Ascetic Wisdoms and Moralizing Religions”

_____________________________________________

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

An international team of archaeologists under the joint directorship of Dr. Maria Lozada of the University of Chicago, Dr. Hans Barnard of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology of UCLA, and Lic. Augusto Cardona Rosas of the Centro de Investigaciones Arqueológicas Arequipa, Peru, have uncovered what they identified as an ancient Wari temple with a configuration in the shape of a ‘D’ in the Lower Vitor Valley of southern Peru.

“We have identified extensive Wari influence and possible presence at Vitor, including a D-shaped temple and significant quantities of Wari-influenced ceramics,” write Lozada and colleagues about the site discoveries. They have also uncovered a “strong  and substantial presence of local populations”, indicating a mix of local and Wari-influenced culture at the site.*

Digging at a location approximately 40 kilometers west of the modern city of Arequipa, Peru, the team has unearthed a variety of ceramic and textile remains at the site, including skeletal remains found within a local Ramada culture cemetery. Focusing on evidence uncovered for the Early Intermediate (ca. 200 BCE – 800 CE) and Middle Horizon (ca. 500 – 1000 CE) occupation periods of the valley, the scientists hope to be able to answer questions related to the degree to which the local Ramada culture was incorporated into the Wari Empire as well as the role and influence of Wari culture in this area of the Andes.

Above and below: Skeletal and textile remains unearthed at the cemetery site.

Above: Specialists examining the remains in the lab.

The Wari, or Huari, was a civilization that flourished in the south-central Andes and coastal areas of what is modern-day Peru from about AD 500 to 1000 (Middle Horizon period). It expanded to cover much of the highlands and coast of Peru, establishing administrative centers, developing a terraced agricultural technology and a vast network of roads, at least some of which provided a foundation for the same for the later Inca civilization. 

In 2015, the team plans to continue excavations at the D-shaped temple under the direction of Lic. Augusto Cardona, as well as continue with surveys under the direction of Dr. Hans Barnard. In addition, they plan to conduct analyses of the materials excavated from the temple and materials they previously excavated from the Ramada cemetery during 2012 and 2014. The analyses will include an examination of skeletal remains, ceramics, and textiles uncovered during the field seasons.

The research is being conducted through the support and auspices of the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration, Dumbarton Oaks, the community of Vitor, and the Ministerio de Cultura del Perú.

The Institute for Field Research is coordinating field work at the Vitor site. More information about the excavations and how one can participate can be found at the Vitor Archaeological Project website. See the video below.

___________________________________

___________________________________

* http://ifrglobal.org/programs/south-america/peru-vitor?utm_source=IFR+Newsletter&utm_campaign=5aee8dbfad-Peru_Vitor_Video_Announcement11_26_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5da3ddc8ef-5aee8dbfad-326738257

All images are Vitor Archaeological Project YouTube video stillshots.

___________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

PHILADELPHIA, PA—For more than a thousand years, a cemetery on the banks of the Rio Grande Coclé in Panama lay undisturbed, escaping the attention of gold seekers and looters. The river flooded in 1927, scattering beads of gold along its banks. In 1940, a Penn Museum team led by archaeologist J. Alden Mason excavated at the cemetery, unearthing spectacular finds—large golden plaques and pendants with animal-human motifs, precious and semi-precious stone, ivory, and animal bone ornaments, and literally tons of detail-rich painted ceramics. It was extraordinary evidence of a sophisticated Precolumbian people, the Coclé, who lived, died, and painstakingly buried their dead long ago.

Beneath the Surface: Life, Death, and Gold in Ancient Panama, a new exhibition opening February 7, 2015 at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, invites visitors to dig deeper, exploring the history, archaeological evidence, and new research perspectives, in search of a greater understanding of the Coclé people who lived from about 700 to 900 CE. Video footage from the original Sitio Conte excavation, video kiosks with opportunities to “meet” and hear from a range of experts, a centerpiece “burial” with interactive touchscreens—and more than 200 objects from the famous excavation—provide an immersive experience. The exhibition runs through November 1, 2015.

One massive burial, named “Burial 11” by the excavators, yielded the most extraordinary materials from the excavation. Believed to be that of a Paramount Chief, it contained 23 individuals in three distinct layers, accompanied by a vast array of grave objects. A to-scale installation of the burial serves as the exhibition’s centerpiece, drawing visitors beneath the surface of the site. The re-creation features many artifacts displayed in the actual positions they were found, as well as digital interactive stations for further exploration.

About the Site

The site of Sitio Conte is situated about 100 miles southwest of Panama City. When golden grave goods were exposed on the banks of the Rio Grande de Coclé, the Conte family, owners of the land, invited scientific excavation. The Peabody Museum of Harvard University carried out the first investigations in the 1930s. In the spring of 1940, J. Alden Mason, then curator in Penn Museum’s American Section, led a Penn Museum team to carry out three months of excavations.

Diary entries, drawings, photographs, and color film from the excavations set the story of the research in time and place. New excavations in Panama, most recently at nearby El Caño, conservation work and laboratory analyses, and ongoing research on Coclé and neighboring Precolumbian cultures, adds to a growing body of knowledge, told through short interviews with Penn Museum and outside experts.

Coclé Culture and Society

Long overshadowed by research on other indigenous Central and South American peoples, the Coclé remain mysterious, but archaeologists, physical anthropologists, art historians, and other specialists are drawing on the materials they have excavated to tell more. The rich iconography, sophisticated gold working technologies and craftsmanship, exacting placement of bodies and materials in the burials: all offer clues about the world view, artistic style, and social hierarchy of the Coclé.

The art and artifacts uncovered from Burial 11 and throughout the Sitio Conte cemetery were rich in cultural meaning and utilitarian value, and Beneath the Surface uses them to begin to create a portrait of the Coclé people. Central to Exhibition Curator Clark Erickson’s vision of “peopling the past” is a contemporary rendering of the central burial’s Paramount Chief; he stands replete with some of the golden pendants, arm cuffs, and plaques, exquisitely crafted and worthy of a great warrior, which he wore to his grave.

Though not identified as direct descendants of the Coclé, many indigenous groups continue to live in Panama and in the region of Sitio Conte today. A small section of the exhibition provides visitors with an opportunity to see contemporary Kuna clothing that echoes some of the design forms and styles of ancient Coclé pottery, pendants, and gold.

Throughout, visitors can explore the evidence and encounter new perspectives on who these people were and how they lived.

Archival Photograph, Excavations at Sitio Conte, Panama, led by J. Alden Mason of Penn Museum, March 1940. Photograph by R. Merrill.

Archival Photograph, Ceramics in Situ, Excavations at Sitio Conte, Panama, led by J. Alden Mason of the Penn Museum, March 1940. Photograph by R. Merrill.

Ceramic Polychrome Plate (Turtle), Sitio Conte, Panama, ca. 700-900 CE. Photo: Penn Museum.

Ceramic Shaman Figure, Sitio Conte, Panama, ca 700-900 CE. Photo: Penn Museum.

 __________________________________________________________

Gold Plaque, Sitio Conte, Panama, ca. 700-900 CE.  Photo: Penn Museum

______________________________________________________

Dr. Clark Erickson, Curator-in-Charge, American Section, is the exhibition’s Lead Curator, working with Co-curator Dr. Lucy Fowler Williams, Associate Curator and Sabloff Keeper, American Section; William Wierzbowski, American Section Keeper; and a team of undergraduate Student Assistant Curators, Monica Fenton, Sarah Parkinson, and Ashley Terry of the University of Pennsylvania, and Samantha Seyler of New College, Florida, who provided additional collections and research support. Kate Quinn, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs, leads the exhibition interpretation and design, working with Christine Locket and Associates (interpretive planning), Alusive Design (exhibition design), and Bludecadet (multimedia design). The exhibition fabrication is provided by Art Guild, Berry and Homer Printing, and the Penn Muiseum Preparation Department, led by Ben Neiditz, Chief Preparator.

Beneath the Surface: Life, Death, and Gold in Ancient Panama is made possible with generous support from the Selz Foundation, Lead Underwriter, the Manning Family Exhibitions Fund, the Susan Drossman Sokoloff and Adam D. Sokoloff Exhibitions Fund, and A. Bruce and Margaret Mainwaring. Global Arena is Language Services Partner.

_____________________________________________

About the Penn Museum

The Penn Museum (the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) is dedicated to the study and understanding of human history and diversity. Founded in 1887, the Museum has sent more than 300 archaeological and anthropological expeditions to all the inhabited continents of the world. With an active exhibition schedule and educational programming for children and adults, the Museum offers the public an opportunity to share in the ongoing discovery of humankind’s collective heritage.

The Penn Museum is located at 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (on Penn’s campus, across from Franklin Field). Public transportation to the Museum is available via SEPTA’s Regional Rail Line at University City Station; the Market-Frankford Subway Line at 34th Street Station; trolley routes 11, 13, 34, and 36; and bus routes 21, 30, 40, and 42. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and first Wednesdays of each month until 8:00 pm. Open select holiday Mondays. Museum admission donation is $15 for adults; $13 for senior citizens (65 and above); free for U.S. Military; $10 for children and full-time students with ID; free to Penn Museum Members, PennCard holders, and children 5 and younger.

______________________________________________

Source: News Release of the Penn Museum

______________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

Antiquities looting, trafficking and destruction of cultural property is no longer a concern only for archaeologists, preservationists, and other concerned citizens, according to UN officials and other experts. It is a matter of worldwide security.

So stated Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, when he addressed an international conference on threats to cultural heritage and diversity, organized by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in Paris on December 3. “The protection of cultural heritage is a security imperative,” he remarked at the UNESCO Paris headquarters. 

Given recent developments in Syria and Iraq, his remarks would not be an understatement. “Armed gangs of looters have exploited the vacuum of government control, threatened residents, and hired hundreds of people to carry out illegal excavations,” said Zoe Leung, Program Fellow at the U.S. National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (US/ICOMOS), an advisory body to UNESCO on the preservation of heritage sites. “By selling newly found artifacts to middlemen and smugglers on the spot, looters profit instantly. Looting operations constitute a significant source of income for ISIS; and trade in illicit antiquities is driving conflict as lootings fund weapons that are fueling violence.”

U.S. officials at the highest levels of government have become increasingly concerned about the problem, a situation that appears to be growing worse as the chaos and violence in Syria and ISIS actions in Iraq drag on. “Ancient treasures in Iraq and in Syria have now become the casualties of continuing warfare and looting,” stated U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a recent speech at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. “And no one group has done more to put our shared cultural heritage in the gun sights than ISIS….it is tearing at the fabric of whole civilizations….it has no respect for culture, which for millions is actually the foundation of life.”  Kerry also alludes here to the economic significance cultural resources have in countries where tourism and its related industries are the bread-and-butter of many people’s lives. 

_____________________________________

Damage to the Great Mosque in Aleppo due to conflict has been an iconic symbol of the ongoing destruction and looting. Wikimedia Commons

______________________________________

The developing crisis has precipitated a number of high-level calls for action. Said Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General, “there can be no purely military solution to this crisis. To fight fanaticism, we also need to reinforce education, a defense against hatred, and protect heritage, which helps forge collective identity.” The remarks were supported by Staffan de Mistura, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, and Nikolay Mladenov, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative to Iraq. Both stressed the imperative to include education and culture in the developing emergency measures to protect vulnerable civilians in the conflict zones and to safeguard human rights.

To add substance to the call, Bokova and her colleagues are promoting wide-sweeping measures to stem the tide of loss and destruction. One of them focuses on establishing “protected cultural zones” around important cultural sites, requiring a cooperative/collaborativ:-)e effort by all local parties involved in the conflicts, as well as international elements, including governments, to regard such sites as ‘off limits’ in the arena of armed activities. She suggested a start could be made in places like the city of Aleppo, where the great Omayad Mosqfue has already sustained significant damage.

Other proposed measures have included an international ban on the illicit trafficking or sale of antiquities from Syria, now a major problem and source of financial support for groups like ISIS, and the creaion of a global registry of antiquities that are being placed on the market. “Creating an exhaustive registry of all antiquities of Iraqi and Syrian origins currently held in collections will enable the government to target artifacts that do not have clear legitimate titles and excavation history,” says Leung. “The registry will force buyers to prove legitimacy, sending a strong message that artifacts with questionable origins will be subject to severe scrutiny and ethical conduct investigation. The registry will bring down the market value of these artifacts and makes them less attractive to loot.”

Leung admits that creating and sustaining such a registry would not be an easy task, but would be well worth the effort, if successful. “Striving for a foolproof registry presents both challenges and opportunities,” she stated. “The endeavor is likely to strain administrative resources, yet the registry will be able to shift the burden of proof of origin and legitimacy from sellers to art dealers and antiquities buyers. Holding art dealers and private collectors accountable is vital to deter buyers from obtaining artifacts with questionable origins and from justifying such artifacts as “chance finds.”

__________________________________

More about the crisis in cultural property damage and loss in Syria and Iraq will be covered in two feature articles to be published soon in Popular Archaeology Magazine.

__________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

The first scientific evidence of frankincense being used in Roman burial rites in Britain has been uncovered by a team of archaeological scientists led by the University of Bradford. The findings – published today in the Journal of Archaeological Science – prove that, even while the Roman Empire was in decline, these precious substances were being transported to its furthest northern outpost.

The discovery was made by carrying out molecular analysis of materials previously thought to be of little interest – debris inside burial containers and residues on skeletal remains and plaster body casings. Until now, evidence for the use of resins in ancient funerary rites has rarely come to light outside of Egypt.

The samples came from burial sites across Britain, in Dorset, Wiltshire, London and York, dating from the third to the fourth century AD. Of the forty-nine burials analysed, four showed traces of frankincense – originating from southern Arabia or eastern Africa – and ten others contained evidence of resins imported from the Mediterranean region and northern Europe.

Classical texts mention these aromatic, antimicrobial substances as being used as a practical measure to mask the smell of decay or slow decomposition during the often lengthy funeral rites of the Roman elite. But it was their ritual importance which justified their transportation from one end of the empire to the other. Seen both as gifts from the gods and to the gods, these resins were thought to purify the dead and help them negotiate the final rite of passage to the afterlife.

Rhea Brettell from the University of Bradford, whose research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, was the first to realise that these grave deposits were an untapped reservoir of information which could provide the missing evidence:

“Archaeologists have relied on finding visible resin fragments to substantiate the descriptions of burial rites in classical texts, but these rarely survive,” she says. “Our alternative approach of analysing grave deposits to find the molecular signatures of the resins – which fortunately are very distinctive – has enabled us to carry out the first systematic study across a whole province.”

____________________________________

An example of Frankincense bought on the market in Somalia. This is not an example of evidence actually found in Roman Britain burials.

______________________________________

These resins were only recovered from burials of higher status individuals, identified from the type of container used, the clothing they were wearing and items buried with them. This is consistent with the known value of frankincense in antiquity and the fact it had to be brought to Britain via what, at the time, was a vast and complex trade route.

University of Bradford Professor of Archaeological Sciences, Carl Heron, who led the research, adds: “It is remarkable that the first evidence for the use of frankincense in Britain should come from such seemingly unpromising samples yet our analysis demonstrates that traces of these exotic resins can survive for over 1700 years in what others would reject as dirt.”

The project was a collaboration between the University of Bradford and specialists at the Anglo-Saxon Laboratory in York, the Museum of London and the Universities of Bamburg and Bordeaux.

Dr Rebecca Redfern, research osteologist in the Centre for Human Bioarchaeology at the Museum of London, said: “This eye opening study has provided us with new and amazing insights into the funerary rituals of late Roman Britain. The University of Bradford’s significant research has also rewarded us with further understanding of a rich young Roman lady, used in the study, whose 4th century skeleton and sarcophagus was discovered near Spitalfields Market in the City of London in 1999, making her burial even more unique in Britain.”

The materials from which the samples were collected are held by Dorset County Museum, Museum of London, Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, Wessex Archaeology, Winchester Museums and York Museums Trust.

The resins found in the study were from three different plant families:

• Pistacia spp. (mastic/terebinth) from the Mediterranean or the Levant
• Pinaceae (probably Pinus spp.) from Northern Europe
• Boswellia spp. (frankincense/olibanum) from southern Arabia and eastern Africa

This study published in Journal of Archaeological Science covers inhumation burials. The University of Bradford researchers have subsequently also identified resins in a cremation burial from the Mersea Island barrow, where the resins were added to the ashes in the urn prior to burial. These findings are due to be published in the New Year.

_____________________________________

Source: University of Bradford press release.

______________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

The international research team led by Dr Turi King from the University of Leicester Department of Genetics has now provided overwhelming evidence that the skeleton discovered under a car park in Leicester indeed represents the remains of King Richard III, thereby closing what is probably the oldest forensic case solved to date.

The team of researchers, including Professor of English Local History, Kevin Schürer, who is also Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Leicester and led the genealogical research for the project, has published the findings online today (Tuesday 2 December) in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications.

The researchers collected DNA and analysed several genetic markers, including the complete mitochondrial genomes, inherited through the maternal line, and Y-chromosomal markers, inherited through the paternal line, from both the skeletal remains and living relatives. The study is also the first to carry out a statistical analysis of all the evidence together, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Skeleton 1 from the Greyfriars site in Leicester is indeed the remains of King Richard III.

____________________________________

The excavated remains of Richard III, discovered at Greyfriars. Courtesy University of Leicester

___________________________________

Their results: While the Y-chromosomal markers differ, the mitochondrial genome shows a genetic match between the skeleton and the maternal line relatives. The former result is not unsurprising as the chances for a false-paternity event is fairly high after so many generations. They have also shown beyond reasonable doubt that Skeleton 1 from the Greyfriars site in Leicester is indeed the remains of King Richard III. Genetic markers related to the King’s hair and eye colour indicated that he probably had blond hair and blue eyes, appearing most similar to his depiction in one of the earliest portraits of him that survived, the one curated by the Society of Antiquaries in London.

“The combination of evidence confirms the remains as those of Richard III,” said Shürer. “Especially important is the triangulation of the maternal line descendants.”

Says King of the report: “Our paper covers all the genetic and genealogical analysis involved in the identification of the remains of Skeleton 1 from the Greyfriars site in Leicester and is the first to draw together all the strands of evidence to come to a conclusion about the identity of those remains. Even with our highly conservative analysis, the evidence is overwhelming that these are indeed the remains of King Richard III, thereby closing an over 500 year old missing person’s case.”

Simon Chaplin, Director of Culture & Society at the Wellcome Trust, added: “It is exciting to have access to genetic data from any known historical individual, let alone a king of England lost for more than 500 years, so we are thrilled to be able to support this fascinating project through our Research Resources grant scheme. Adding this information to a wealth of existing material about Richard III further highlights the ways in which studying human remains can inform our understanding of the past, and we look forward to learning more about Richard for many years to come.”

The research team now plans to sequence the complete genome of RIII to learn more about the last English king to die in battle.

See the videos detailing the research and findings below.

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

The University of Leicester was the principal funder of the research. Dr King’s post is part-funded by The Wellcome Trust and the Leverhulme Trust.

Source: Adapted and edited from a University of Leicester press release.

_______________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

It seems the mastodons had already left the scene by the time early Americans arrived on the ancient Beringia landmass about 13,000 – 14,000 years ago. A re-dating of mastodon bones reveals that the extinct mammals, related to the modern day elephant, disappeared from the area during a glacial period more than 50,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Existing age estimates of American mastodon fossils indicate that these extinct relatives of elephants lived in the Arctic and Subarctic when the area was covered by ice caps—a chronology that is at odds with what scientists know about the massive animals’ preferred habitat: forests and wetlands abundant with leafy food. In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers is revising fossil age estimates based on new radiocarbon dates and suggesting that the Arctic and Subarctic were only temporary homes to mastodons when the climate was warm. The new findings also indicate that mastodons suffered local extinction several tens of millennia before either human colonization–the earliest estimate of which is between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago–or the onset of climate changes at the end of the ice age about 10,000 years ago, when they were among 70 species of mammals to disappear in North America.

“Scientists have been trying to piece together information on these extinctions for decades,” said Ross MacPhee, a curator in the Department of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the paper. “Was it the result of over-hunting by early people in North America? Was it the rapid global warming at the end of the ice age? Did all of these big mammals go out in one dramatic die-off, or were they paced over time and due to a complex set of factors?”

Over the course of the late Pleistocene, between about 10,000 and 125,000 years ago, the American mastodon (Mammut americanum) became widespread and occupied many parts of continental North America as well as peripheral locations like the tropics of Honduras and the Arctic coast of Alaska. Mastodons were browsing specialists that relied on woody plants and lived in coniferous or mixed woodlands with lowland swamps.

“Mastodon teeth were effective at stripping and crushing twigs, leaves, and stems from shrubs and trees. So it would seem unlikely that they were able to survive in the ice-covered regions of Alaska and Yukon during the last full-glacial period, as previous fossil dating has suggested,” said Grant Zazula, a paleontologist in the Yukon Palaeontology Program and lead author of the new work.

___________________________________

An American mastodon. Bottom: An American mastodon (left) and a woolly mammoth for comparison (right). Image courtesy George Teichmann.

_____________________________________

Megafaunal mammals including the American mastodon (rear center), Jefferson’s ground sloth (front center and right), the flat-headed peccary (front left), and the western camel (rear left) extended their habitat into northern latitudes during the last interglacial period, around 125,000 years ago. Image courtesy of George Teichmann.

_____________________________________

The research team used two different types of precise radiocarbon dating on a collection of 36 fossil teeth and bones of American mastodons from Alaska and Yukon, the region known as eastern Beringia. The dating methods, performed at Oxford University and the University of California, Irvine, are designed to only target material from bone collagen, avoiding the accompanying “slop,” including preparation varnish and glues that were used many years ago to strengthen the specimens.

_____________________________________

Grant Zazula, a paleontologist in the Yukon Palaeontology Program and lead author of the new work, cuts samples of American mastodon bones for radiocarbon dating. Credit: © G. Zazula

_____________________________________

A mastodon molar. Courtesy G. Zazula

___________________________________

All of the fossils were found to be older than previously thought, with most surpassing 50,000 years, the effective limit of radiocarbon dating. When taking mastodon habitat preferences and other ecological and geological information into account, the results indicate that mastodons probably only lived in the Arctic and Subarctic for a limited time around 125,000 years ago, when forests and wetlands were established and the temperatures were as warm as they are today.

The residency of mastodons in the north did not last long,” Zazula said. “The return to cold, dry glacial conditions along with the advance of continental glaciers around 75,000 years ago effectively wiped out their habitats. Mastodons disappeared from Beringia, and their populations became displaced to areas much farther to the south, where they ultimately suffered complete extinction about 10,000 years ago.”

The work has several implications. Researchers know that giant ground sloths, American camels, and giant beavers made the migration as well, but they are still investigating what other groups of animals might have followed this course. The new report also suggests that humans could not have been involved in the local extinction of mastodons in the north 75,000 years ago as they had not yet crossed the Bering Isthmus from Asia.

“We’re not saying that humans were uninvolved in the megafauna’s last stand 10,000 years ago. But by that time, whatever the mastodon population was down to, their range had shrunken mostly to the Great Lakes region,” MacPhee said. “That’s a very different scenario from saying the human depredations caused universal loss of mastodons across their entire range within the space of a few hundred years, which is the conventional view.”

__________________________________________

Source: Edited and adapted from an American Museum of Natural History press release and a press release of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Other authors of the paper include Jessica Metcalfe, University of British Columbia; Alberto Reyes, University of Alberta; Fiona Brock and Shweta Nalawade-Chavan, Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit; Patrick Drukenmiller, University of Alaska Museum and University of Alaska Fairbanks; Pamela Groves, Daniel Mann, and Michael Kunz, University of Alaska Fairbanks; C. Richard Harington, Canadian Museum of Nature; Gregory Hodgins, University of Arizona, Tucson; Fred Longstaffe, University of Western Ontario, London; H. Gregory McDonald, U.S. National Parks Service; and John Southon, University of California, Irvine.

__________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

Potential ‘vampires’ buried in Poland with sickles and rocks placed across their corpses were likely local people known by their community before death, say researchers in a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Lesley Gregoricka from University of South Alabama and colleagues.

Archaeologists and other scientists who have exhumed the medieval and post-medieval skeletal remains of individuals in cemeteries across Europe in the course of their research have long known about burials of individuals who were thought to be potential ‘vampires’, or the ‘undead’. They know this by the peculiar features associated with the skeletal remains within the graves, objects such as sickles placed across the bodies, large stones placed over the neck or under the chins, iron bars or ‘stakes’ inserted through the chest area, or bricks or stones inserted within the cavity between the madible and the cranium (the mouth). They are considered indicators of apotropaic burial practices, or bodily treatments to the deceased within their coffins or graves designed to prevent them from returning to life and rising out of their graves to haunt, kill or eat the living. Only a minority of burials across Europe have exhibited these characteristics, but the practice is a reflection of a variety of cultural or religious beliefs that have inspired or spawned the more modern, popular conceptions in literature and the media about Dracula and vampires within the horror genre—a fascination and source of entertainment for generations.

Beginning in 2008, excavations carried out by an international team at the ‘Drawsko 1’ post-medieval cemetery site in northwestern Poland revealed six unusual graves, with skeletal remains dated to the 17th – 18th century showing sickles across the bodies or large rocks under the chins of select individuals. Though unusual, these burials were among hundreds of other normal burials. The researchers at the site have interpreted them to be apotropaic burials.

“In Polish folklore……the soul and the body are distinct entities that separate upon a person’s death,” write Lesley A. Gregoricka of the University of South Alabama and colleagues in the report. “Souls, the majority of which are harmless, leave the body and continue to inhabit the earth for 40 days after death. However, a small minority of these souls were seen as a direct threat to the living and at risk of becoming a vampire, particularly those who were marginalized in life for having an unusual physical appearance, practicing witchcraft, perishing first during an epidemic, committing suicide, being unbaptized or born out of wedlock, or being an outsider to the community.”*

___________________________________

Individual 49/2012 (30-39 year old female) is shown with a sickle placed across the neck. Courtesy Amy Scott

____________________________________

Individual 60/2010 (60+ year old female) is shown with a stone placed directly on top of the throat. Courtesy Gregoricka et al.

____________________________________

In the study, Gregoricka and her colleagues analyzed the remains of 60 of the total of 285 buried skeletal remains unearthed in the excavations, including those of five of the six “special” or deviant, apotropaic, burials, by using radiometric strontium isotope analysis of dental enamel samples. The study was designed to determine whether the bodies selected for apotropaic burial rites were local or immigrants, one factor that can be scientifically tested. The research methodology used is important because strontium isotopes are absorbed by the flora and fauna of local ecosystems, which include humans, by the weathering or breakdown of bedrock into the soils and groundwater.  “Because strontium is structurally similar to calcium, as humans consume these plants and animals, small amounts of strontium absorbed by the intestines substitute for calcium in the formation of enamel and bone hydroxyapatite,” wrote Gregoricka, et al. in the report. “Strontium uptake into the human skeleton is primarily determined by these consumed foods, and because the 87Sr/86Sr ratios within these products are a direct reflection of the distinct isotopic composition of a particular region’s underlying geology, biogeochemical signatures in human dental enamel (which form only during childhood) offer a useful means of evaluating childhood geographic residence and mobility in the past.”*

The team’s conclusion: The ‘vampires’ were local. They did not immigrate into the community from the outside, often cited historically by residents of communities during the 17th and 18th centuries as a reason for the introduction of evil elements into the social structure. The data thus indicated that they had to be perceived with suspicion in some other way. The study authors suggest one alternate explanation could be related to the cholera epidemics in Eastern Europe during the 17th century. “People of the post-medieval period did not understand how disease was spread, and rather than a scientific explanation for these epidemics, cholera and the deaths that resulted from it were explained by the supernatural – in this case, vampires,” said Dr. Gregoricka. “However,” cautioned Gregoricka in the report,”because cholera kills quickly and does not leave behind visible markers on the skeleton, it is unclear if this is the case at Drawsko.”*

The research study was published November 26, 2014 in the open access journal, PLOS ONE.

A more extensive feature article about the archaeology of ‘vampires’ will be published in the Winter 2015 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

______________________________________

*Gregoricka LA, Betsinger TK, Scott AB, Polcyn M (2014) Apotropaic Practices and the Undead: A Biogeochemical Assessment of Deviant Burials in Post-Medieval Poland. PLoS ONE 9(11): e113564. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0113564

_______________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

Animal teeth, bones and plant remains have helped researchers from Cambridge, China and America to pinpoint a date for what could be the earliest sustained human habitation at high altitude.

Archaeological discoveries from the ‘roof of the world’ on the Tibetan Plateau indicate that from 3,600 years ago, crop growing and the raising of livestock was taking place year-round at hitherto unprecedented altitudes.

The findings, published today in Science, demonstrate that across 53 archaeological sites spanning 800 miles, there is evidence of sustained farming and human habitation between 2,500 metres above sea level (8,200ft) and 3,400 metres (11,154ft).

Evidence of an intermittent human presence on the Tibetan Plateau has been dated to at least 20,000 years ago, with the first semi-permanent villages established only 5,200 years ago. The presence of crops and livestock at the altitudes discovered by researchers indicates a more sustained human presence than is needed to merely hunt game at such heights.

Professor Martin Jones, from Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology, and one of the lead researchers on the project, said: “Until now, when and how humans started to live and farm at such extraordinary heights has remained an open question. Our understanding of sustained habitation above 2-3,000m on the Tibetan Plateau has to date been hampered by the scarcity of archaeological data available.

“But our findings show that not only did these farmer-herders conquer unheard of heights in terms of raising livestock and growing crops like barley and millet, but that human expansion into the higher, colder altitudes took place as the continental temperatures were becoming colder.

“Year-round survival at these altitudes must have led to some very challenging conditions indeed – and this poses further, interesting questions for researchers about the adaptation of humans, livestock and crops to life at such dizzying heights.”

Professor Jones hopes more work will now be undertaken to look at genetic resistance in humans to altitude sickness, and genetic response in crop plants in relation to attributes such as grain vernalisation, flowering time response and ultraviolet radiation tolerance – as well as research into the genetic and ethnic identity of the human communities themselves.

________________________________

Modern-day barley harvest in Qinghai, farmed at a height of 3,000 meters above sea level. Credit Professor Martin Jones, University of Cambridge

________________________________

Research on the Tibetan Plateau has also raised interesting questions about the timing and introduction of Western crops such as barley and wheat – staples of the so-called ‘Fertile Crescent’. From 4,000-3,600 years ago, this meeting of east and west led to the joining or displacement of traditional North Chinese crops of broomcorn and foxtail millet. The importation of Western cereals enabled human communities to adapt to the harsher conditions of higher altitudes in the Plateau.

In order to ascertain during what period and at what altitude sustained food produced first enabled an enduring human presence, the research group collected artefacts, animal bones and plant remains from 53 sites across the late Yangshao, Majiayao, Qiija, Xindian, Kayue and Nuomuhong cultures.

Cereal grains (foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, barley and wheat) were identified at all 53 sites and animal bones and teeth (from sheep, cattle and pig) were discovered at ten sites. Of the 53 sites, an earlier group (dating from 5,200-3,600 years ago) reached a maximum elevation of 2,527m while a later group of 29 sites (dating from 3,600-2,300 years ago) approached 3,400m in altitude.

Professor Jones believes the Tibetan Plateau research could have wider and further-reaching implications for today’s world in terms of global food security and the possibilities of rebalancing the ‘global diet’; at present heavily, and perhaps unsustainably, swayed in favour of the big three crops of rice, wheat and maize.

He said: “Our current knowledge of agricultural foods emphasises a relatively small number of crops growing in the intensively managed lowlands. The more we learn about the rich ecology of past and present societies, and the wider range of crops they raised in the world’s more challenging environments, the more options we will have for thinking through food security issues in the future.”

____________________________________

Source: University of Cambridge press release

________________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

Ostia Antica, the famous Roman port that served the city of Rome from the days of the Republic through Imperial times, is noted for its remarkably preserved ancient buildings, frescoes and mosaics. Located near Rome, its ruins lie near the modern suburb of Ostia, a popular destination for tourists and teams of excavating archaeologists for years. During its heyday it skirted the banks of the Tiber river, but silting over centuries of time has placed the site 3 kilometres (2 miles) from the sea. Many of its ancient structures, however, remain extraordinarily intact, almost as if to imply that nothing has changed.

In 2015, a team of archaeologists and students will once again return to the site under the direction of Dr. Darius Arya and Dr. Michele Raddi of the American Institute of Roman Culture. They will be focusing their efforts on two areas in the Parco dei Ravennati, a public park area near the main archaeological site of Ostia and the famous Medieval borgo Renaissance castle built by Pope Julius II. The first area, designated ‘Area A’, contains an Imperial Roman structure built using the opus mixtum construction technique and redecorated in Late Antiquity with frescoes and an opus sectile floor in one room, which was later divided into a series of smaller rooms during the Medieval period. Next to this is a 15th century vaulted structure that was partially investigated in the late 1960s, thought to be associated with the construction of the borgo castle. The second area, designated ‘Area B’, features part of a Roman road next to a circular Late Republican period mausoleum, excavated in previous years. Arya, et al., believe this part of the road was “likely the last major phase of the Via Ostiensis dating to the early Middle Ages”.*

____________________________________

Ostia Antica, for obvious reasons as depicted above, is among the most visited archaeological sites in Italy, with visual reminders of places like Pompeii. Wikimedia Commons

____________________________________

The upcoming excavations come on the heals of some remarkable finds by the team in recent years. “We’ve had amazing finds over the past two years at Parco dei Ravennati,” Arya told ANSA, the Italian news wire service, in an interview last July. “This year, we’ve uncovered more than a dozen early Christian-era tombs arranged close to a central tomb. Our working hypothesis is that the set up of the surrounding tombs suggests the person buried here was of great importance, such as Saint Monica or Saint Aurea, whose church is nearby.” Excavators also uncovered a number of fragmentary funerary inscriptions and a possible tabella defixionum, a lead tablet inscribed with a curse to protect the dead from tomb raiders. In 2013, the team uncovered an opus sectile (an inlaid, colored marble pavement). The 2014 excavations continued the work on the pavement, revealing a detailed geometric motif.

Darya and colleagues are currently calling for individuals who would be interested in participating in the excavations during the 2015 summer season. For more information about the Ostia Antica excavations and how to participate, see the website for details.

_______________________________________________

*http://romanculture.org/programs/current-field-school-excavation/

_______________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

Yes, it is true. Popular Archaeology Magazine is now among the world’s top 20 most popular digital magazines for those interested in archaeology. In fact, it ranks no. 2, close on the heals of Archaeology Magazine, the publication of the Archaeological Institute of America, which has been around for decades with a strong traditional following. Comparatively speaking, Popular Archaeology is the new kid on the block, having been up and running for less than 5 years. But it has been the quality of its content that so quickly propelled Popular Archaeology to the top rung of the heap.

_________________________________________

See the quality for yourself by examining the articles first hand at https://popular-archaeology.com. And access to all of our best, premium quality articles, in past issues and in the present, can be obtained for only $9.00 annually (significantly less costly than the equivalent digital version of Archaeology Magazine).

But here is the best news: For a limited time, from now until January 1, 2015, those who subscribe for the first time for the premium content level can have access to all premium articles for only $4.50, a 50% discount, as our “Black Friday”/Holiday discount offer. Just go to “Subscribe Here” in the upper right-hand corner of the web page and enter the coupon code, holiday12014, during the sign-up process. 

Want a hardcopy print edition? Popular Archaeology has just released its beautiful, upscale, premium special print issue—nice to have as a gift to yourself or to a friend or family member interested in archaeology.

We at Popular Archaeology hope you have a wonderful holiday season and we look forward to continuing to provide the top quality content that you demand.

Scientists will have to find alternative explanations for a huge population collapse in Europe at the end of the Bronze Age as researchers prove definitively that climate change – commonly assumed to be responsible – could not have been the culprit.

Archaeologists and environmental scientists from the University of Bradford, University of Leeds, University College Cork, Ireland (UCC), and Queen’s University Belfast have shown that the changes in climate that scientists believed to coincide with the fall in population in fact occurred at least two generations later.

Their results, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that human activity starts to decline after 900BC, and falls rapidly after 800BC, indicating a population collapse. But the climate records show that colder, wetter conditions didn’t occur until around two generations later.

Fluctuations in levels of human activity through time are reflected by the numbers of radiocarbon dates for a given period. The team used new statistical techniques to analyse more than 2000 radiocarbon dates, taken from hundreds of archaeological sites in Ireland, to pinpoint the precise dates that Europe’s Bronze Age population collapse occurred.

The team then analysed past climate records from peat bogs in Ireland and compared the archaeological data to these climate records to see if the dates tallied. That information was then compared with evidence of climate change across NW Europe between 1200 and 500 BC.

“Our evidence shows definitively that the population decline in this period cannot have been caused by climate change,” says Ian Armit, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Bradford, and lead author of the study.

Graeme Swindles, Associate Professor of Earth System Dynamics at the University of Leeds, added, “We found clear evidence for a rapid change in climate to much wetter conditions, which we were able to precisely pinpoint to 750BC using statistical methods.”

According to Professor Armit, social and economic stress is more likely to be the cause of the sudden and widespread fall in numbers. Communities producing bronze needed to trade over very large distances to obtain copper and tin. Control of these networks enabled the growth of complex, hierarchical societies dominated by a warrior elite. As iron production took over, these networks collapsed, leading to widespread conflict and social collapse. It may be these unstable social conditions, rather than climate change, that led to the population collapse at the end of the Bronze Age.

According to Katharina Becker, Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at UCC, the Late Bronze Age is usually seen as a time of plenty, in contrast to an impoverished Early Iron Age. “Our results show that the rich Bronze Age artefact record does not provide the full picture and that crisis began earlier than previously thought,” she says.

“Although climate change was not directly responsible for the collapse it is likely that the poor climatic conditions would have affected farming,” adds Professor Armit. “This would have been particularly difficult for vulnerable communities, preventing population recovery for several centuries.”

______________________________________________

Painting depicting the fall of Troy, a symbolism here of the Late Bronze Age civilization collapse. Wikimedia Commons

The findings have significance for modern day climate change debates which, argues Professor Armit, are often too quick to link historical climate events with changes in population.

“The impact of climate change on humans is a huge concern today as we monitor rising temperatures globally,” says Professor Armit.

“Often, in examining the past, we are inclined to link evidence of climate change with evidence of population change. Actually, if you have high quality data and apply modern analytical techniques, you get a much clearer picture and start to see the real complexity of human/environment relationships in the past.”

______________________________________________

Source: University of Bradford press release.

The detailed research paper: “Rapid climate change did not cause population collapse at the end of the European Bronze Age”, by Ian Armit, Graeme Swindles, Katharina Becker, Gill Plunkett and Maarten Blaauw, is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the week beginning 17 November 2014.

Archaeology in Ireland

Ireland offers particularly rich opportunities to study archaeological records, partly because of the quality of palaeoenvironmental samples from the countries peat bogs, and partly because of a huge upsurge in archaeological excavations in Ireland during the economic boom between 1995 and 2008.

______________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

Much is still unknown about these people who once occupied present-day northeastern Oman about 5,000 years ago. They left no written records, at least none that have been found to date. They made up what scholars and historians have referred to as the ancient Magan civilization.

“The people of Magan did not use writing or glyptic arts to record their history or organize their societies, so we know very little about their way of life,” write Christopher Thornton, Charlotte Cable and colleagues about the ancient society.* Discovering more about it must be left to the tools and methods of archaeology.

Thornton, a consulting scholar at the Penn Museum, has been co-directing the Bat Archaeological Project since 2007. Bat, the focus of investigations under the Project, is a settlement identified with the Magan civilization. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the interior of the country. It features a large Bronze Age cemetery and other evidence of 3rd millennium BCE settlements near large, circular structures called “towers”, which have been the subjects of their excavations from 2007 to 2012. But in 2013, they shifted to exploring a series of Bronze Age domestic structures, including 3rd millennium BCE structures excavated in 2014 that give clues to the transition from an early agricultural settlement to a developed center for trade and production. 

“Bat is unusual in eastern Arabia for its relatively deep stratigraphic sequence (1-3 meters), in which earlier houses are overlain by later houses,” state Thornton and colleagues in a summary brief. “While common in other regions of the world, Bat has the potential to provide the first radiocarbon-dated stratigraphic sequence of the 3rd millennium BCE on the Omani Peninsula, and our first glimpse of settlement evolution in the Bronze Age of this area.”**

Bat, along with the sites of al-Khutm and al-Ayn, are thought by scholars to be ancient centers that traded extensively with Mesopotamia between 3000 and 2000 BCE. Sumerian cuneiform texts make reference to Magan as a major source of copper and diorite in 2300 BCE, describing ships with cargo capacities of 20 tons journeying up the Arabian Gulf, stopping at ancient Dilmun along the way. They also record Indus Valley merchants and others traveling to Magan. Research in this area of Arabia has identified large copper deposits, in addition to more than 150 medieval smelting sites, reinforcing the notion that the region had the natural resources to suggest that this was, indeed, where ancient Magan was located.

_____________________________________

Scattered remains of ancient tombs at Bat. Stefan Karsowski, Wikimedia Commons

______________________________________

Thornton and Cable plan to return to Bat in 2015 with a team of archaeologists, other specialists and student volunteers to further investigate the domestic structures, in addition to nearby abandoned Late Islamic/pre-Modern mud-brick village structures, working alongside the local community to study how the village spaces were used.

They plan to have the people of the local community assume a significant role in the research, an element that is fast becoming an important trend in archaeological projects and activities throughout the world. “With the conferring of World Heritage (WH) status to the adjacent Bronze Age cemetery and settlement of Bat”, report Thornton, et al., “the people of Bat have increasingly become interested in their own recent history and its meaningful role in the development and articulation of their identity, and are very keen to develop the heritage and tourist potential of the Oasis and site.”**

The Bat project directors are calling for help from students and volunteers all over the world. For more information, see the project field school website.

__________________________________

*http://ifrglobal.org/programs/me/oman-bat?utm_source=IFR+Newsletter&utm_campaign=6c7212178d-Oman_Bat_Permit_Received11_12_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5da3ddc8ef-6c7212178d-326738257

**http://ifrglobal.org/images/2014/Syllabus/Syllabus-Oman_BAT_2014.pdf

___________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

Whether you are a human being or an orangutan, tools can be a big help in getting what you need to survive. However, a review of current research into the use of tools by non-human primates suggests that ecological opportunity, rather than necessity, is the main driver behind primates such as chimpanzees picking up a stone to crack open nuts.

An opinion piece by Dr Kathelijne Koops of the University of Cambridge and others, published today (12 November 2014) in Biology Letters, challenges the assumption that necessity is the mother of invention. She and her colleagues argue that research into tool use by primates should look at the opportunities for tool use provided by the local environment.

Koops and colleagues reviewed studies on tool use among the three habitual tool-using primates – chimpanzees, orangutans and bearded capuchins.

Chimpanzees use a variety of tools in a range of contexts, including stones to crack open nuts, and sticks to harvest aggressive army ants. Orangutans also use stick tools to prey on insects, as well as to extract seeds from fruits. Bearded capuchin monkeys living in savannah-like environments also use a variety of tools, including stones to crack open nuts and sticks to dig for tubers.

The researchers’ review of the published literature, including their own studies, revealed that, against expectations, tool use did not increase in times when food was scarce. Instead, tool use appears to be determined by ecological opportunity – with calorie-rich but hard-to-reach foodstuffs appearing to act as an incentive for an ingenious use of materials.

“By ecological opportunity, we mean the likelihood of encountering tool materials and resources whose exploitation requires the use of tools. We showed that these ecological opportunities influence the occurrence of tool use. The resources extracted using tools, such as nuts and honey, are among the richest in primate habitats. Hence, extraction pays off, and not just during times of food scarcity,” said Koops.

__________________________________

This image shows a chimpanzee using a stone to crack a nut. Courtesy Kathelijine Koops

__________________________________

Tool use—and transmission of tool-making and tool-using skills between individuals—is seen as an important marker in the development of culture. “Given our close genetic links to our primate cousins, their tool use may provide valuable insights into how humans developed their extraordinary material culture and technology,” said Koops.

It has been argued that culture is present among wild primates because simple ecological and genetic differences alone cannot account for the variation of behaviour – such as tool use – observed across populations of the same species.

Koops and co-researchers argue that this ‘method of exclusion’ may present a misleading picture when applied to the material aspects of culture.

“The local environment may exert a powerful influence on culture and may, in fact, be critical for understanding the occurrence and distribution of material culture. In forests with plenty of nut trees, we are more likely to find chimpanzees cracking nuts, which is the textbook example of chimpanzee material culture,” said Koops.

“Our study suggests that published research on primate cultures, which depend on the ‘method of exclusion’, may well underestimate the cultural repertoires of primates in the wild, perhaps by a wide margin. We propose a model in which the environment is explicitly recognised as a possible influence on material culture.”

___________________________________________

The opinion piece ‘Ecological conditions influence primate cultures’ is published by Biology Letters. The authors are Kathelijine Koops (University of Cambridge, Archaeology and Anthropology and University of Zurich, Anthropological Institute and Museum), Elisabetta Visalberghi (CNR, Institute of Cognitive Sciences) and Carel van Schaik (University of Zurich, Anthropological Institute and Museum).

___________________________________________

Source: University of Cambridge Press Release

___________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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 are scratching their heads about an underground pyramid-shaped structure they have been excavating beneath the historic medieval town of Orvieto in Italy. But it may not be a mystery forever. They hope to find answers as they continue to tease artifacts and architectural materials from the soil.

“We discovered it three summers ago and still have no idea what it is,” write Prof. David B. George of St. Anselm College and co-director Claudio Bizzarri of PAAO and colleagues about the site. “We do know what it is not.  It is not a quarry; it’s walls are too well dressed. It is not a well or cistern; its walls have no evidence of hydraulic treatments.”*

Calling it the “cavitá” (‘hole’ or ‘hollow’ in Italian), or hypogeum, the archaeologists have thus far excavated about 15 meters down. They marked their third year at the site in 2014. By then they had uncovered significant amounts of what they classify as Gray and Black bucchero, commonware, and Red and Black Figure pottery remains. They have dated deposits to the middle to the end of the 6th century BCE.

“We know that the site was sealed toward the end of the 5th century BCE,” George, et al. continue. “It appears to have been a single event. Of great significance is the number of Etruscan language inscriptions that we have recovered – over a hundred and fifty. We are also finding an interesting array of architectural/decorative terra cotta.”*

______________________________

Overview of cavità, showing Etruscan tunnel and a locus with large quantities of pottery. Courtesy Daniel George, Jr.

__________________________________________

Excavation on the west wall of the hypogeum near the Etruscan tunnel that connects this pyramidal hypogeum (Room A) with an adjacent one (Room B). Courtesy Daniel George, Jr.

_________________________________________

Looking from Room B through the Etruscan tunnel into Room A. Courtesy Daniel George, Jr.

_________________________________________

Above and below: The medieval columbarium – a place for raising pigeons – in the cavità used as a lab to sort bucchero. Courtesy Daniel George, Jr.

_________________________________________

_______________________________________

Orvieto has long been known for its scenic medieval architecture. Located in southwestern Umbria, Italy, it is situated on the summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff, commanding a view of the surrounding countryside, and surrounded by defensive walls built of the same volcanic tuff.  Beneath it and in the surrounding areas of the medieval town, however, lie ancient Etruscan and Roman remains, a focus of archaeological investigations and excavations by various teams for decades. George’s excavations have centered on four different sites in the area, two (Coriglia and the Orvieto underground structures) of which will be further excavated in 2015. The Coriglia excavations have resulted in a wealth of finds, including monumental structures such as Etruscan and Roman walls, Etruscan and imported Greek ceramic materials, three large basins dated to the Roman Imperial period, and apsidal structures with associated features related to the management of water for baths or other purposes. “We have uncovered evidence for occupation of the site dating from the 10th century BCE all the way to the 16th century CE, as well as random realia from World War II,” write George, et al.**

________________________________

View of Orvieto. RDesai, Wikimedia Commons

_______________________________

At Coriglia: Trench F showing a viscera with hydraulic cement and flooring with a collapsed vault to the right (Likely 2nd century CE).  On the left a medieval industrial reuse of the structure. Courtesy David B. George

________________________________________

‘Trench C’ showing the recently discovered caldarium of a Roman bath (Imperial period) at Coriglia. Courtesy David B. George

_______________________________________

Overall, excavations under George and Bizzarri’s direction in the area have recovered monumental structures, sculptures, mosaics, coinage, inscriptions, ceramics, frescoes, and numerous other artifacts. Looking forward, he anticipates new finds that will shed additional light and answer more questions about what the sites at Orvieto and Coriglia are all about. “We are still trying to determine how the structure was ‘killed’ [filled in and then abandoned] – in a short period of time confined over the course of a few months or over a much longer period,” says George, referring to the cavitá. “The tight dating of the Attic pottery seems to indicate a short period but the enormous quantity gives one pause. At Coriglia, our current hypothesis is that it is a sanctuary. We wish to test this by excavating in areas that should yield architectural and ceramic evidence that would be associated with such use. We are still working on the phasing of our walls and getting a handle on three periods of expansion, at least one of which followed a mudslide.”

Even more important, however, may be what their findings will ultimately say about the lives of people in the region so long ago. Write George, Bizzarri and colleagues, “based on what is known from similar sites in the region, the members of our archaeological expedition may be confident that they will make discoveries that will reflect daily life in the Etruscan and Roman periods.”* 

More detailed information about the sites and excavation project can be obtained at the project website and here. The latter link includes information about how to apply, for those interested in participating in the excavations.

_______________________________________________

*http://www.archaeological.org/sites/default/files/brochure2015_1.pdf

** http://digumbria.com/

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.

A team of archaeologists have unearthed new evidence of massive, monumental defensive works at the Citadel Mound site of ancient Gordion in Turkey. Excavations have also revealed ancient industrial activity dating back to the 11th century BCE.

Located about 70–80 km southwest of Ankara in western Turkey, Gordion, the ancient city best known as the residence of the legendary King Midas, has been the focus of on-and-off excavations since it was discovered in 1893 by Alfred Körte, who initiated exploratory excavations at the site in 1900. Now, Brian Rose of the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues have uncovered massive defensive walls, part of a road, and industrial work spaces dated back to some of the earliest periods of the site. During the early first millennium B.C., Gordion was the power center of the Phrygian kingdom, ruling much of Asia Minor. It was under King Midas and later rulers that the kingdom reached its apogee. 

“Gordion’s historical significance derives from its very long and complex sequence of occupation, with seven successive settlements spanning a period of nearly 4500 years,” says Rose. “What we discovered was a large glacis or stepped terrace wall over 2.5 m in height, dating to the Early Phrygian period, that supported a substantial fortification wall nearly 3 m. wide. This had proven that the western side of the mound was fortified, and that those fortifications had already been established in the Early Phrygian period (9th c. B.C.), neither of which had been known previously.”*

Other massive fortifications, particularly on the eastern side of the Citadel Mound, were uncovered through previous expeditions. But in the last two seasons, beginning in 2013 under Rose’s renewed excavations at the south side of the Citadel Mound, solid new evidence has emerged for additional defensive works. 

Most significantly, the excavations have also now revealed fortifications spanning the entire time period of Phrygian rule in the region.  “We were fortunate this year in uncovering new fortifications dating to three different periods: Early Phrygian (9th c. BC), Middle Phrygian (8th c. BC) and Late Phrygian (6th c. BC)…….it is already clear that the scale of the citadel fortifications throughout the entire Phrygian period was much more ambitious than formerly suspected.”*

Additionally, Rose’s team excavated a sondage trench through what has been designated the Terrace Building, a structure discovered during previous excavations and thought to be a building where industrial activities occurred. They uncovered a large industrial kiln surrounded by ceramic remains that helped to date the feature to the Early Iron Age, or the 11th century BCE. Above and east of the kiln they excavated an Early Iron Age house structure, which contained objects related to textile manufacture, such as spindle whorls and loom weights, and a bell-shaped pit that contained fragments of Early Iron Age handmade wares and animal bones. “The evidence yielded by the sondage demonstrates that there was considerable industrial activity in this area before the Terrace Building was constructed, beginning in the 11th c. B.C.,” wrote Rose in a recent newsletter report.*

The Outer Town

Concurrent with the excavations and conservation efforts at Gordion, a team under the direction of Stefan Giese and Christian Huebner of GGH in Freiburg, Germany, has been conducting a geophysical survey of the ‘Outer Town’  using magnetometry and electric resistivity techniques. The Outer Town is a second residential area with detected remains just west of the Lower Town, another residential area that extends below the Citadel Mound. What they found has been no less revelatory than the Citadel Mound discoveries. They detected signs that the Outer Town was “bordered by a ditch with a defensive wall on its interior”*, which the team believes surrounded the entire Outer Town. The findings include other features that suggest a monumental fort. These preliminary finds are similar to those previously discovered in the Lower Town, which also features a defensive wall and ditch.

_________________________________

View of the Gordion Citadel Mound and previously excavated fortifications. Note the scaffolding at the Citadel Gateway in the background, a visible reminder of the ongoing architectural conservation and restoration work at the site. Vikicizer, Wikimedia Commons

 ____________________________________________

Elevated overview of the Citadel Mound area. Stipich Bela, Wikimedia Commons

__________________________________________

Although archaeological excavations have taken place at Gordion over decades through a number of expeditionary endeavors, the best known excavations were conducted under the directorship of Rodney Young of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) beginning in the 1950’s. His excavations over 17 seasons uncovered major sections of the Phrygian period Citadel Mound, including overlying Hellenistic towns, and a mudbrick fortress and defensive walls of a Lower Town near the Citadel. During the first years of his excavations, he encountered earlier Bronze Age settlement remains, but investigations of these levels were limited. Young also uncovered 30 burial tumuli, which included the sensational royal ‘Tumulus MM‘ (Midas Mound) and a nearby tomb of a wealthy Phrygian child (Tumulus P). 

___________________________________ 

The Tumulus MM, showing entrance to the associated museum. Tipich Bela, Wikimedia Commons

___________________________________

Rose will be continuing excavations at the site in 2015 and ensuing years under the auspices of the Penn Museum, efforts that have included extensive architectural conservation and restoration work, notably at the spectacular Early Phrygian Gate, considered the best preserved citadel gate of Iron Age Asia Minor. 

“We have not yet determined the city plan of the settlement,” says Rose, “but by combining excavation with remote sensing (radar, magnetic prospection), we should be able to do it.”

More information about the Gordion Archaeological Project can be found at the website. In addition, an in-depth article about Gordion and the excavations will be published in the Winter 2014/2015 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

____________________________________

* Rose, C. Brian and Gürsan-Salzman, Ayse, Friends of Gordion Newsletter, September 2014

____________________________________________

Just released!

The special new premium quality print edition of Popular Archaeology Magazine. A beautiful volume for the coffee table.

Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

Read about the most fascinating discoveries with a premium subscription to Popular Archaeology Magazine.  Find out what Popular Archaeology Magazine is all about.  AND MORE:

On the go?  Get the smartphone version of Popular Archaeology as an app or as an ebook.

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.