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University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Plans Summer Events for Public

Posted on July 2, 2014 by No Author -

For the Indiana Jones in all of us, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, arguably the finest museum of its kind in the United States, is offering a summer packed with special guided tours, musical performances and other activities for all ages during the summer of 2014. Events and activities will include such things as Egyptian gallery tours, a Mexico and Central American gallery tour, summer night concerts, and special performances for children. This, of course, is in addition to the usual offering of galleries and exhibits always available to visitors on a regular basis.

Otherwise known as the Penn Museum, it is located at 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 at the intersection of Spruce Street and 33rd Street. Nearby landmarks include Franklin Field, across South Street, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, across 34th Street.

See the schedule and the website for more information about the museum.

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Cover Photo, Top Left: View of the Penn Museum. Mefman00, Wikimedia Commons

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

Gene From Extinct Human Made Tibetans Adaptable to High Altitudes

Posted on July 2, 2014 by No Author -

Tibetans were able to adapt to high altitudes thanks to a gene acquired when their ancestors mated with a species of human they helped push to extinction, according to a new report by University of California, Berkeley, scientists.

An unusual variant of a gene involved in regulating the body’s production of hemoglobin – the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood – became widespread in Tibetans after they moved onto the high-altitude plateau several thousand years ago. This variant allowed them to survive despite low oxygen levels at elevations of 15,000 feet or more, whereas most people develop thick blood at high altitudes, leading to cardiovascular problems.

“We have very clear evidence that this version of the gene came from Denisovans,” a mysterious human relative that went extinct 40,000-50,000 years ago, around the same time as the more well-known Neanderthals, under pressure from modern humans, said principal author Rasmus Nielsen, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. “This shows very clearly and directly that humans evolved and adapted to new environments by getting their genes from another species.”

This is the first time a gene from another species of human has been shown unequivocally to have helped modern humans adapt to their environment, he said.

Nielsen and his colleagues at BGI-Shenzhen in China will report their findings online July 2 in advance of publication in the journal Nature.

The gene, called EPAS1, is activated when oxygen levels in the blood drop, triggering production of more hemoglobin. The gene has been referred to as the superathlete gene because at low elevations, some variants of it help athletes quickly boost hemoglobin and thus the oxygen-carrying capacity of their blood, upping endurance. At high altitude, however, the common variants of the gene boost hemoglobin and its carrier, red blood cells, too much, increasing the thickness of the blood and leading to hypertension and heart attacks as well as low-birth-weight babies and increased infant mortality. The variant or allele found in Tibetans raises hemoglobin and red blood cell levels only slightly at high elevation, avoiding the side-effects seen in most people who relocate to elevations above 13,000 feet.

“We found part of the EPAS1 gene in Tibetans is almost identical to the gene in Denisovans and very different from all other humans,” Nielsen said. “We can do a statistical analysis to show that this must have come from Denisovans. There is no other way of explaining the data.”

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A Chinese researcher collects a blood sample from an ethnic Tibetan man participating in the DNA study. Credit: Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI-Shenzhen) photo

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The researchers first reported the prevalence of a high-altitude version of EPAS1 in Tibetans in 2010, based on sequencing of the genomes of numerous Han Chinese and Tibetans. Nielsen and his colleagues argued that this was the result of natural selection to adapt to about 40 percent lower oxygen levels on the Tibetan plateau. That is, people without the variant died before reproducing at a much higher rate than those with it. About 87 percent of Tibetans now have the high-altitude version, compared to only 9 percent of Han Chinese, who have the same common ancestor as Tibetans.

Nielsen and his colleagues subsequently sequenced the EPAS1 gene in an additional 40 Tibetans and 40 Han Chinese. The data revealed that the high-altitude variant of EPAS1 is so unusual that it could only have come from Denisovans. Aside from its low frequency in Han Chinese, it occurs in no other known humans, not even Melanesians, whose genomes are nearly 5 percent Denisovan. A high quality sequence of the Denisovan genome was published in 2012.

Nielsen sketched out a possible scenario leading to this result: modern humans coming out of Africa interbred with Denisovan populations in Eurasia as they passed through that area into China, and their descendants still retain a small percentage – perhaps 0.1 percent – Denisovan DNA. The group that invaded China eventually split, with one population moving into Tibet and the other, now known as Han Chinese, dominating the lower elevations.

He and his colleagues are analyzing other genomes to pin down the time of Denisovan interbreeding, which probably happened over a rather short period of time.

“There might be many other species from which we also got DNA, but we don’t know because we don’t have the genomes,” Nielsen said. “The only reason we can say that this bit of DNA is Denisovan is because of this lucky accident of sequencing DNA from a little bone found in a cave in Siberia. We found the Denisovan species at the DNA level, but how many other species are out there that we haven’t sequenced?”

Nielsen’s coauthors include former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Emilia Huerta-Sánchez, now at UC Merced; postdocs Benjamin Peter and Nicolas Vinckenbosch of UC Berkeley’s Department of Integrative Biology; and colleagues in China, Hong Kong, Denmark, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

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Source: Adapted and edited from a University of California press release: Extinct human cousin gave Tibetans advantage at high elevation

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Researchers Discover Population Boom in Ancient American Southwest

Posted on June 30, 2014 by No Author -

Researchers have found that birth rates and life expectancy in the American Southwest between 900 BC and 1400 AD indicated a period of rapid population growth between about 500 AD and 1100 AD followed by a significant decline after 1300 AD, never again to recover the former growth.

The study, conducted with National Science Foundation funding by anthropology professor Tim Kohler and graduate student Kelsey Reese, both of Washington State University, analyzed data on thousands of human remains found at hundreds of sites across the Four Corners region of the Southwest. The data helped to create a chronology of the region’s “Neolithic Demographic Transition” — a time period when stone tool artifacts signaled the agricultural transition from cutting meat to pounding grain.

“It’s the first step towards all the trappings of civilization that we currently see,” said Kohler.

Maize (corn), the region’s staple crop, was introduced as early as 2000 BC, but productivity was slow to rise until about 400 BC, said Kohler, when the crop is estimated to have provided around 80 percent of the regional population’s calories. A corresponding gradual rise in birth rates ensued until about 500 A.D.

Then, growth rates varied across the region. People in the Sonoran Desert and Tonto Basin, in what is today Arizona, were more culturally advanced, with irrigation, ball courts, and eventually elevated platform mounds and compounds housing elite families. Yet birth rates were higher among people to the north and east, in the San Juan basin and northern San Juan regions of northwest New Mexico and southwest Colorado.

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Aerial view of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Bob Adams, Wikimedia Commons

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Kohler suggested that the Sonoran and Tonto people might have had difficulty finding new farming opportunities for their posterity, as corn farming required irrigation. Water from canals may have also carried harmful protozoa, bacteria and viruses. But groups to the northeast would have been able to expand maize production into new areas as their populations grew, he said.

Around 900 A.D., populations remained high but birth rates began to fluctuate. The mid-1100s saw one of the largest known droughts in the Southwest, when the region had likely hit its carrying capacity, with continued population growth and limited resources similar to what Thomas Malthus predicted for the industrial world in 1798.

From the mid-1000s to 1280—by which time all the farmers had left—evidence indicates that conflicts raged across the northern Southwest, but birth rates remained high.

“They didn’t slow down—birth rates were expanding right up to the depopulation,” said Kohler. “Why not limit growth? Maybe groups needed to be big to protect their villages and fields.”

“It was a trap,” said Kohler. “A Malthusian trap but also a violence trap.”

The northern Southwest had as many as 40,000 people in the mid-1200s, but within 30 years it was empty. Kohler hypothesizes that the population may have become too large to be sustained as climates deteriorated, and the lower population would not have adequately maintained the social unity needed for defense and new infrastructure.

But whatever the reason, he said, the experience of the ancient Puebloans could suggest that “population growth has its consequences.”

The paper is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as “Long and spatially variable Neolithic Demographic Transition in the North American Southwest,” by Timothy A. Kohler and Kelsey M. Reese.

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Edited and adapted from a Washington State University press release, “WSU Researchers chart an ancient baby boom”.

Cover Photo, Top Left: A digital model of ancient Pueblo Bonito (Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, U.S.) before it was abandoned. Wikimedia Commons

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Scientists Uncover Evidence of Early Human Diet

Posted on June 25, 2014 by No Author -

Researchers continue to make progress in their efforts to understand an essential aspect of prehistoric lifeways and a major contributing factor in the dynamics of human evolution — the human diet. In two studies, one focusing on an archaeological site in Spain, the other in the Turkana Basin in Africa, scientists are suggesting that early humans had a more diverse diet than traditionally thought.

In the first study, published June 25 in the open access journal PLOS ONE, Ainara Sistiaga from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of La Laguna and colleagues examine human fecal matter (poop) detected in sediment samples taken from different occupational floor levels at the site of El Salt in Spain, a site known to have been inhabited by Neanderthals 50,000 years ago. The fecal matter indicated, based on the analysis of fecal biomarkers, that these Neanderthals predominantly consumed meat, consistent with the widely accepted dietary model for Neanderthals, but that they also consumed plant foods. One of the fecal biomarkers was formed by the bacterial reduction of cholesterol in the gut (coprostanol), an indicator of meat consumption, but the other showed the presence of a compound found in plant sources, evidence of significant plant intake.

“Taken together, these data suggest that the Neanderthals from El Salt consumed both meat and vegetables, in agreement with recent hypotheses based on indirect evidence,” conclude Sistiaga and colleagues in the study. “Future studies in Middle Palaeolithic sites using the fecal biomarker approach will help clarify the nature, role and proportion of the plant component in the Neanderthal diet, and allow us to assess whether our results reflect occasional consumption or can be representative of their staple diet.”*

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View of El Salt archeological site. Credit: Ainara Sistiaga

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In another study, to be published soon in the Journal of Human Evolution, scientists have found that aquatic fauna (fish and other water-based animals) may have been a highly nutritious source of food for early Pleistocene humans living in the Turkana Basin of East Africa almost 2 million years ago. In this case, Will Archer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and colleagues employed multiple datasets to examine aquatic resource use in the early Pleistocene by focusing on four components of aquatic faunal assemblages: taxonomic diversity; skeletal element proportions; bone fragmentation; and bone surface modification from tool use. These components were used to identify associations between early Pleistocene aquatic remains and hominin behavior at the site of FwJj20 in the Koobi Fora Formation of the Turkana Basin in Kenya. The researchers focused on two dominant aquatic species: catfish and turtles.

Based on their findings, the researchers suggest that aquatic food sources provided hominins (early humans) with a significant alternative or supplement to other, terrestrial food sources. They also suggest that aquatic food sources provided some important advantages, such as “(1) a probable reduction in required investment of energy relative to economic return in the form of nutritionally dense food items, (2) a decrease in the technological costs of resource acquisition, and (3) a reduced level of inter-specific competition associated with carcass access and an associated reduction of predation risk relative to terrestrial sources of food.”**

The Turkana Basin, which includes Lake Turkana and the Koobi Fora (ridge) Formation, is well known in human evolution studies as one of the richest and most important sources of hominin fossils shedding light on the evolution of man over the past 4.2 million years.

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Lake Turkana in the Turkana Basin. Near the ancient shores of this lake, some of the most important early human finds were discovered. Doron, Wikimedia Commons

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*Sistiaga A, Mallol C, Galvan B, Summons RE (2014) The Neanderthal Meal: A New Perspective Using Faecal Biomarkers. PLOS ONE 9(6): e101045. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0101045 http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101045

** Will Archera, David R. Braunb, Jack W.K. Harrisc, Jack T. McCoyd, Brian G. Richmond, Early Pleistocene aquatic resource use in the Turkana Basin http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004724841400056

Cover Photo, Top Left: View of El Salt archeological site. Credit: Ainara Sistiaga

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Archaeologists Return to Ancient Megiddo

Posted on June 23, 2014 by No Author -

Archaeologists are now onsite at Tel Megiddo, in northern Israel, to continue large-scale excavations at what has often been called the “crown jewel” of archaeological sites of the Levant, or Eastern Mediterranean region.

Led by well-known archaeologists Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Eric Cline of the George Washington University, a team of archaeologists, students, volunteers and other specialists will be excavating where they left off in 2012, when they encountered a large building featuring 18 pillars dated to the Iron Age IIA period, (around 1000 BCE). South of the building they uncovered a hoard of six iron daggers and two bronze bowls, dating to the Iron Age I (1200 – 1000 BCE).

Tel Megiddo, a World Heritage site, is best known for the remains of a large Canaanite center that once ruled at a location strategically placed at one of the most important military and trade routes in the ancient Near East, the Via Maris, dominating trade and commercial traffic for over 6,000 years beginning around 7000 BCE. The city is often mentioned in ancient literature and documents such as the Hebrew Bible and the el-Amarna letters of ancient Egypt, particularly as the site of epic battles that changed the course of ancient history in the region. As the inspiration for James Michener’s novel, The Source, the site affords a layer-cake of remains of ancient civilizations that came and went at the location, each succeeding civilization building upon the ruins of predecessors. This has created a treasure for archaeologists and their sponsors, who for decades have been unearthing monumental temples, palace complexes, massive fortifications, and sophisticated water systems, adding to our understanding of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement and lifeways in the Levant. Some of the major finds of recent seasons have included a hoard of gold, silver and bronze jewelry, all wrapped in fabric and hidden in a vessel dated to around 1100 B.C.; and an Early Christian prayer hall with a mosaic floor discovered at a prison site near the Tel.

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The Iron Age city gate at Megiddo, one of the main attractors for toursits at the site. Golf Bravo, Wikimedia Commons

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Model of Megiddo in its ancient fortified glory. Alma Guinness, Wikimedia Commons

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For the 2014 season, archaeologists will continue work on the pillared structure exposed in 2012; expose some late Middle Bronze Age (1800 – 1540 BCE) domestic architecture; continue to excavate parts of the early Middle Bronze Age fortification system which includes a massive mudbrick wall and glacis (defensive slope construction); study areas related to Late Bronze-Iron Age street levels; expose more of the Late Bronze Age levels excavated previously; and conduct exploratory soundings in three new locations.

The Tel Megiddo Expedition offers one of the best field school and excavation experiences for students and volunteers in the Levant. More information about the Expedition and the field school can be obtained at their website.

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Cover Photo, Top Left: The Megiddo altar. James Emery, Wikimedia Commons

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Fossil Human Skulls Unearthed in Spanish Cave Shed Light on Neandertal Evolution

Posted on June 19, 2014 by No Author -

The recent recovery and analysis of 17 early human fossil skulls from the Sima de los Huesos (“Pit of Bones”) cave pit site in the Sierra de Atapuerca cave system of northern Spain have illuminated our understanding of how Neandertals, a more ancient, extinct sister species of Homo sapiens (modern humans), actually evolved, according to a study report published this week in Science.

Currently led by Juan Luis Arsuaga of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, archaeological teams have been excavating at the site for four decades, and have recovered the largest assemblage of early human fossils ever discovered at any one site in the world.

“After thirty years, we have recovered nearly 7,000 human fossils corresponding to all skeletal regions of at least 28 individuals,” says study co-author Ignacio Martinez, Professor of Paleontology at the University of Alcalá. “This extraordinary collection includes 17 fragmentary skulls, many of which are very complete.”

The 17 skulls, according to the researchers, represent a single population of a hominin (early human) species. Although some of have been studied before, seven are presented anew here, and six are more complete than ever before, after many hours of painstaking assemblage in the lab. Now, with the mostly intact samples for study, the researchers have been able to more clearly define the common features of what they believe to be a single population.

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The Sima de los Huesos site. Image courtesy Javier Trueba / Madrid Scientific Films

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The fossils exhibited a mosaic of physical characteristics that could not be wholly attributed to any single, recognized human species to date. The skull samples showed clear Neandertal features in the face and teeth. The researchers suggest these ‘Neandertal-derived’ features were functionally related to mastication, or chewing. “It seems these modifications had to do with an intensive use of the frontal teeth,” Arsuaga said. “The incisors show a great wear as if they had been used as a ‘third hand,” typical of Neanderthals.” But elsewhere, the skulls showed characteristics that diverted from the Neandertal model. The braincase itself, for example, still showed features associated with more primitive hominins.

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Skull 17 from the Sima de los Huesos site in Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain. Image courtesy Javier Trueba / Madrid Scientific Films

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Skull 15. Image courtesy Javier Trueba / Madrid Scientific Films

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Skull 9. Image courtesy Javier Trueba / Madrid Scientific Films

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Observations like these led the researchers to suggest support for the ‘accretion model’ of Neandertal evolution, or something similar to cladogenesis, wherein evolution takes place through a splitting of species into branches or “clades”, leading to the development of a greater variety of sister species.

However, according to Arsuaga,”we think based on the morphology that the Sima people were part of the Neanderthal clade, although not necessarily direct ancestors to the classic Neanderthals.”

“One thing that surprised me about the skulls we analyzed,” Arsuaga continued, “is how similar the different individuals were. The other fossils of the same geological period are different and don’t fit in the Sima pattern. This means that there was a lot of diversity among different populations in the Middle Pleistocene.”

In other words, because other European Middle Pleistocene fossil specimens found in Europe do not exhibit the suite of features seen in this fossil group, the researchers suggest that more than one evolutionary lineage appears to have coexisted during the European Middle Pleistocene, with that represented by the Sima sample being closer to the Neandertals. The work of Arsuaga et al. suggests that facial modification was the first step in Neandertal evolution, a mosaic pattern fitting the prediction of the accretion model.

Key to the study findings was the homogeneity of the Sima samples. “All of the individuals recovered at the site represent the same biological population which makes it possible for anthropologists to study individual variation as well as sexual differences in the skeleton and patterns of growth and development, among other aspects,” report Arsuaga, et al. in a press release of the Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humano. “While considerable differences in size are apparent within the collection, with some larger skulls and some smaller ones, the anatomical features that anthropologists study to examine evolutionary relationships do not vary much within the Sima population. This combination of mosaic evolution and anatomical homogeneity led the authors to favor a branching pattern of evolution, known as cladogenesis in evolutionary studies, in the European Middle Pleistocene.”

So what species do these Sima fossils represent? The study authors do not assign the fossils to any specific species. But mitochondrial DNA was recently extracted and analyzed from one of the Sima fossils. The results suggest that this population was not a group of “early Neandertals”. Nor, as has been previously suggested, were they representatives of another early human species called Homo heidelbergensis, thought to be ancestral to the Neandertals. The Sima jawbones (mandibles) were observed to be anatomically distinct from that of heidelbergensis.

But there is much more to come from the Pit of Bones.

“With excavations continuing and new fossils being discovered each field season,” report Arsuaga, et al., “there is certainly reason to believe that the Sima de los Huesos will yield more surprising findings in the future.”

A detailed feature article about the work and latest findings at Sima de los Huesos will be published in the upcoming September 2014 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

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Information Sources: Press releases of the Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humano and the American Association for the Advancement of Science

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News for June 19, 2014

Posted on June 19, 2014 by No Author -

Stonehenge’s Singing Stones

Could the massive standing stones of Stonehenge also have made sounds? The New York Times

Archaeologists to Assess Condition of Kedarnath Temple

A team of archaeologists and officials left Wednesday for the Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand to assess the condition of the shrine that was badly damaged in flash floods a year ago……. Mid-Day

The Last Biblical Frontier

Archeologists unearth findings in biblical site dating back to Joshua and the Judges. The Jerusalem Post

Archaeologists discover 4,000-year-old necklace was made from dog whelk and tusk shells

Bronze Age Brits were wearing bling around 4,000 years before today’s flashy pop stars and footballers, reveals new research. Daily Mail

News for June 18, 2014

Posted on June 18, 2014 by No Author -

Joseph Smith Cabin Foundation Excavated at Historic Site

Archaeologists are excavating the early nineteenth-century cabin of Joseph Smith Sr. and wife Lucy Mack, who were parents of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon church. They have also uncovered prehistoric artifacts. The Quincy Herald-Whig

Tiwanaku Tombs Uncovered in Peru

Archaeologists have discovered tombs from the Tiwanaku culture in Peru’s Tambo Valley. Peru This Week

Archaeologists Dig Outside the James Fort

Excavations at historic Jamestown in Virginia are now focusing on searching for evidence of the outlying palisades, soldiers’ tents, and other structures. The Daily Press

Remains of Plague Victims Discovered at Thebes in Egypt

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of third-century plague victims at the Funerary Complex of Harwa and Akhimenru of ancient Thebes. Live Science

Climate Change Prompted Migrations in Ancient Peru, Says Genetic Study

Posted on June 16, 2014 by No Author -

“The weather made me do it,” as the saying might have gone for many, long-deceased and unnamed ancient Peruvians. Like some other populations throughout history, they were refugees of climate change who then flourished in their newly found home.

This is the story told by a recent genetic study that suggests that the evidence indicates periods of migration in pre-Columbian Andean societies in Peru, spurred on by local climate changes. It supports the archaeologists, who for years have been saying that the excavated evidence hints of such shifts by the Nasca, Wari and Tiwanaku peoples.

To get to this conclusion, anthropologist Lars Fehren-Schmitz and colleagues collected samples of mitochondrial DNA from 207 individuals in Peru’s Rio Grande de Nasca region and determined that the mitochondrial DNA likely represented Andean populations living between approximately 840 BC and 1450 AD. Using a Bayesian modeling approach, the authors found that the genetic results suggest a migration from the coastal valleys of Southern Peru to the Andean highlands during a period of increasing climate variability around 640 AD. They also found a possible backward migration from the highlands to the coast during a period of drought in the highlands and favorable conditions at the coast around 1200 AD. The study results suggest that climate-driven migrations may have led to a genetic homogenization in Southern Peru over time.

“The supported migration events coincide with observed climatic alterations, which must have led to a genetic homogenization in the RGND [Rio Grande de Nasca drainage area in southern coastal Peru] over time,” report Fehren-Schmitz and colleagues in the published study. “Most studies analyzing the impact of climate on the mobility and demography of ancient populations have concentrated on foraging societies. Here we reveal climatic impacts on socially complex, agricultural societies. Despite a range of anticipatory agricultural adaptations observed in the archaeological record, the instability of the coastal and highland ecosystems in southern Peru exceeded critical points in the past in which migration became inevitable to sustain the population.”*

The detailed study report is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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*“Climate change underlies global demographic, genetic, and cultural transitions in pre-Columbian southern Peru,” by Lars Fehren-Schmitz et al., www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1403466111

Source: Adapted and edited from a University of California, Santa Cruz press release.

Cover Photo, Top Left: Piquillacta archaeological site (ancient Wari construction). AgainErick, Wikimedia Commons

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Archaeologists Return to Excavate Ancient Jaffa

Posted on June 16, 2014 by No Author -

Teams of archaeologists, students and volunteers will return this month to the site of ancient Jaffa on the central coast of Israel to pick up where they left off in 2013, when they uncovered more of the sensational evidence of a fiery destruction at the site’s ancient Amarna period New Kingdom Egyptian fortress gate. The continuing investigations will also include new elements — the search for the ancient harbor complex, and excavation of evidence of a 14th century B.C. destruction layer at the remains of the site’s Lion Temple.

Under the direction of project co-directors Aaron Burke, Associate Professor of the Archaeology of Ancient Israel at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Martin Peilstöcker of the Isral Antiquities Authority, one team will continue the excavations at the famous fourteenth century B.C. Egyptian fortress gate complex, where in 2013 they uncovered the stark remains of an extensive violent destruction.

Excavations in 2012 first revealed the evidence, with clues to its extent indicated when excavators discovered a commemorative scarab of Amenhotep III dated to the mid-fourteenth century B.C., found within the upper destruction layers and apparently fallen from what the archaeologists interpreted as a second story administrative office floor. A year later, in 2013, they exposed the city gate’s passageway below more than 1.5 meters of destruction debris. The finds included arrowheads, a spearhead and lead weight, decorative ivory inlays, numerous charred seeds, a number of ceramic vessels, antlers from deer, and nearly two dozen cedar timbers thought to have once made up the gate’s roof and upper story. The seeds, identified as those of barley, olive pits, grape pips, and chick peas were a welcome find, as they provide an insight to the foods consumed at the site.

The assortment of artifacts paint a picture of a city gate that functioned as something more than purely a defensive structure — a complex that housed administrators, storerooms, and other support facilities. Speaking of the antlers, for example, Burke and Peilstöcker noted that they “suggest that the gate was not a stark and utilitarian space as many reconstructions of Egyptian gates suggest. Instead, it would seem that Egyptian soldiers hung these items within the passageway as trophies of their hunting around Jaffa.”**

The timbers, the earliest and largest such ancient timbers from that time period found in Israel to date, are thought to have been used in the construction of the gate’s second story and roof. Reported Burke and Peilstöcker in a press release: “They will provide not only important chronological data such as evidence for the date of the construction of the gate complex but also will contribute to refining our understanding of the evolution of Egyptian rule in Canaan since the gate is one in a sequence of gates providing evidence for the earliest Egyptian fortress in Canaan. As important proxies for climate change, the timbers also offer a unique opportunity for an improved study of the Late Bronze Age environment.”**

Burke and Peilstöcker hope to shed light on the nature of coexistence between the Egyptian occupiers and the native Canaanite inhabitants of the area. “New archaeological data combined with well-known historical texts of the Late Bronze Age are now shedding light on the nature of interactions between the Canaanite inhabitants of Jaffa and its environs and the Egyptian inhabitants of the New Kingdom fortress built atop the city’s earlier remains,” reports Burke and Peilstöcker. “The resulting picture is one colored by episodes of violence and peaceful social interactions in Jaffa over a period of more than 300 years, from ca. 1460 to 1130 BC.”*

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Above: The Gate passageway and south tower following excavations in July 2013. Photo 2013-P0408, courtesy Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project.
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The charred remains of cedar timber/beams were encountered during the 2013 excavation. Courtesy Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project

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The city of Jaffa has been an important port city for over 4,000 years. By the Late Bronze Age, Jaffa had become a principal port and garrison for the New Kingdom Egyptian empire. Mentioned four times in the Hebrew Bible, it was named as one of the cities given to the Hebrew Tribe of Dan (Book of Joshua 19:46), as a port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon for Solomon’s Temple (2 Chronicles 2:16), as the place from which the prophet Jonah embarked for Tarshish (Book of Jonah 1:3) and as the port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon that were used in the construction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem (Book of Ezra 3:7). The city is also mentioned in the ancient Egyptian Amarna letters.

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The view of Jaffa from the sea (as seen in 1895). From the Detroit Publishing Company Collection, Trialsanderrors, Wikimedia Commons

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Additional investigation at the site will entail excavation in the area of the “Lion Temple”, a structure thought to exhibit characteristics of a sacred or religious nature. The structure acquired its name from the discovery of a lion skull in its southeastern corner by Jacob Kaplan during his excavations there in the early 1970’s. It is thought to be a Caananite building.

The 2014 season will also see exploratory efforts under Shelley Wachsmann of Texas A&M University, whose team will be investigating the area thought to contain the remains of the ancient harbor of Jaffa. The team will use remote-sensing in a deep-water survey for ancient shipwrecks, testing the application of archaeogeophysical and geoarchaeological techniques to identify the ancient harbor. The investigation will also employ a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to verify anomalies at the 50 to 300 meter depth range that were previously detected.

More information about the Jaffa project can be obtained at the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project website, and a detailed article about the Jaffa excavations was published in the March 2013 issue of Popular Archaeology.

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** http://www.nelc.ucla.edu/jaffa/assets/2013_JCHP_Press_Release.pdf (2013 excavation summary)

Cover Photo, Top Left: Excavations of the 14th century BC destruction debris in the Egyptian gateway in Jaffa during fourth week. — with Kandis Gordon, Kris Kowa, Molly Stevens, Kayla Allen, Amy Karoll, Nadia Ben-Marzouk, Jon Schadeberg, Tania Fenwick, Heidi Dodgen and Dani Zwang in Jaffa, Israel. Caption text and photo courtesy Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project

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Archaeologists Excavate Roman Temple Area at Maryport

Posted on June 12, 2014 by No Author -

Beginning the fourth year of a five-year program of investigation, a team of archaeologists, students and volunteers commissioned by the Senhouse Museum Trust have returned to a site near the Maryport Roman fort in the U.K. to continue excavation of the remains of a Roman temple and associated structures and features.

Led by Newcastle University’s Professor Ian Haynes and site director Tony Wilmott, they hope to recover more of the structural remains and artifacts at a site that had undergone investigation in previous years, yielding some intriguing results.

“This year we will be looking at the eastern edge of the [Maryport] settlement, to the north east of the fort, where at least one temple stood,” said Haynes. “This structure was originally excavated in the 1880s, and we re-examined it last year.

“Immediately under this building we found the remains of a burnt lamb and bird bones. At other sites across Britain and in other countries these have signified a ritual dedication or offering for the building.

“We also found evidence of a mysterious circular structure next to the rectangular temple and we’re going to be investigating this area to find out what this might have been built for – maybe it was another temple, or a mausoleum.”

Haynes hopes that investigation of this site will help shed additional light on the meaning and importance of stone military altars from the Roman fort of Alauna Carvetiorum and its associated civilian settlement located at what is now Maryport.

“The Temples project is designed to learn more about the internationally famous altars which form the core of the Senhouse Roman Museum display and to understand better the complex religious landscape of Roman Maryport,” said Haynes.

“The collection of altars in the museum is really remarkable. The inscriptions provide information on the lives of the commanders of the fort and their postings across the Roman Empire.

“We want to find out more about exactly where and how they were originally displayed here in Roman times, and how people living in the fort and settlement used rituals such as dedications and offerings.”

Nigel Mills, heritage advisor to the Hadrian’s Wall Trust, said: “The Roman fort and nearby civilian settlement at Maryport were a significant element of the coastal defenses lining the north western boundary of the Roman Empire for more than 300 years.

“Both the Temples project and the Settlement project show there is huge potential to attract more visitors to the Roman Cumbrian coastal defenses which, along with Hadrian’s Wall, are part of the transnational Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site.”

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Team at work on the Maryport Roman Temples site. Courtesy Senhouse Museum/ Hadrians Wall Trust

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Artist’s impression of Maryport Roman Temple. Courtesy Oxford Archaeology Ltd, commissioned by Hadrian’s Wall Trust

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The fort built at Maryport was ordered by Hadrian for construction in the second century AD. It served as the command headquarters and supply base for a series of small forts and towers that extended southward along the west coast from Hadrian’s Wall. The Roman fort and civilian settlement at Maryport are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, which includes Hadrian’s Wall and its attendant forts. The FRE WHS represents the borderline of the Roman Empire at its furthest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched from the west coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast.

More information about the project, how to participate, and the Senhouse Museum generally can be obtained at their website.

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Additional Information

Tours of the Temples excavation site led by the museum’s volunteer guides start from the museum on weekday afternoons at 2pm and 3.30pm until 18 July. They include entry to the museum and costs are adult £3, child £1, family £8.

Lectures, open days and workshops have also been arranged.

Lectures

· Thursday 12 June, 7.30pm: The archaeology of drains and cesspits – Don O’Meara. £3
· Tuesday 1 July, 7.30pm: Interim lecture about the Temples Excavation – Professor Ian Haynes and Tony Wilmott. £3
· Thursday 17 July, 7.30pm: Final lecture about the Temples Excavation – Professor Ian Haynes and Tony Wilmott. £3

Open days

· Saturday 21 June, 11am – 5pm: Temples excavation open day. Museum admission applies – adult £3, child £1, family £8
· Saturday 19 July, 11am – 5pm: Temples excavation open day. Museum admission applies – adult £3, child £1, family £8

Workshops

· Monday 30 June, 7.30pm: Soils, sediments and landscape – with Don O’Meara. £3 (prebooking essential, limited places)
· Friday 18 July, 7.30pm: Inorganic material from samples – with Don O’Meara. £3 (prebooking essential, limited places)

The Senhouse Roman Museum is open every day from 10am to 5pm. More information is at www.senhousemuseum.co.uk.

For more information on becoming a volunteer contact Jane Laskey, museum manager.

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Archaeologists Campaign to Save Ancient Maya Sites

Posted on June 11, 2014 by No Author -

As you read this article, a team of archaeologists, students and volunteers are busy methodically digging up ancient structures and artifacts at archaeological sites in Belize with names like Xnoha, Nojol Nah, and Tulix Mul. These sites contain the remains of ancient Maya settlements. The work is carefully planned, slow, and meticulously executed; and like any physical labor in a subtropical environment during the summer months, it can be sweaty, dirty, and tiring. For these students and volunteers, there is no monetary reward for this. They do it because of the excitement of discovery and the new knowledge it will generate about the life-ways of people who are long gone.

But this team is working against time. These sites, especially Nojol Nah, face the real possibility of destruction before the investigators can glean all of the information they need, and conserve what they can find. In the interest of local farming, ranching and economic progress, these cultural treasures may have to take a back seat. It is a story much like many others across Central America, not to mention the rest of the world.

There is a solution. It has already been realized for a site called Grey Fox, also in Belize and not far from where the archaeological team is now excavating. Under the leadership of Dr. Thomas Guderjan of the Maya Research Program (MRP), a U.S.-based non-profit corporation, archaeologists, preservationists and donors successfully purchased the Grey Fox site and now hope to protect it for future conservation and research. It is also under the MRP that teams are now excavating at Xnoha, Nojol Nah, and Tulix Mul. The MRP, affiliated with the University of Texas at Tyler, has been conducting field operations in northwestern Belize for more than two decades.

“We found the site [Grey Fox] about 14 years ago and mapped it in 2010,” said Dr. Thomas Guderjan, current President of MRP. “It is significant in that it is one of several unlooted sites remaining in northwestern Belize. If we had not purchased it, Grey Fox would surely have been bulldozed within the next 5 years. The land was owned by a group of farmers who were preparing to remove the forest and bulldoze the site.”

Guderjan and colleagues now hope to do the same for the other sites; particularly Nojol Nah, which faces the most acute danger. In partnership with Popular Archaeology Magazine’s Adopt-a Site program, the MRP is getting the word out to potential donors who may be interested in becoming a part of saving this Maya heritage for continuing research, conservation, public education, and tourism. The goal is to purchase approximately 100 acres at a cost of $40,000, an acreage and sum that site investigators believe will secure it for posterity.

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Pieta Greaves, busy at work on the newly discovered mural at Tulix Mul. Pieta is the Staffordshire Hoard Conservation Project Manager at the Birmingham Museums Trust in the U.K. This mural, now being uncovered, examined and preserved, is one among only a few other known Maya murals found in Central America. Courtesy Maya Research Program

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Close-up view of the partially uncovered Tulix Mul mural. Courtesy Maya Research Program

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Overview of the excavated remains of an elite residential structure at Nojol Nah. Courtesy Maya Research Program

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“Now that it is possible to purchase more land,” said Guderjan, “I hope to purchase more properties and open an archaeological reserve.”

For more information about the endangered sites and how to donate, anyone can go to the Adopt-a-Site website and help make a difference.

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Neolithic Peoples Entered Europe Through Maritime Routes, Says Study

Posted on June 9, 2014 by No Author -

A DNA study suggests that early Neolithic people may have migrated into Europe about 9,000 years ago by island-hopping from Anatolia across the Mediterranean through the Dodecanese islands and Crete and across southern coastal routes.

Preistera Paschou and colleagues came to this conclusion after analyzing single nucleotide polymorphisms from a sample dataset of 32 populations, taken from the islands of Crete and the Dodecanese, Central Anatolia, Greece, Southern and Northern Europe, the Near East, and North Africa. They used a population genetics network approach that thye say determines the pathway of gene flow between populations.

Anthropologists and other scientists studying early Neolithic population migration have proposed three general routes that these early peoples may have taken to enter Europe. One was land-based to North-Eastern Anatolia and then through Bosporus and the Dardanelles and Thrace and into the Balkans; the second was maritime, from the Aegean Anatolian coast and across northern Mediterranean islands and along the coast of Southern Europe; and the third from the Levantine coastline across to the Aegean islands and into Greece. It is the second model that the recent genetic study most supports.

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Map of some earlier proposed theories related to Neolithic entry and expansion into Europe.

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“Our data support the Anatolian rather than the Levantine route because they consistently show the Aegean islands to be connected to the Near East through Anatolia,” write Paschou and colleagues in the research report*.

Genetics is not the only evidencial support cited for a maritime model. Archaeology has played its role. “Navigation across the Mediterranean was active during the Early Neolithic and Upper Paleolithic, as illustrated by the finding of obsidian from the island of Milos in Paleolithic sites of the Greek mainland and the early colonization of Sardinia, Corsica, and Cyprus,” add the authors………….”Archaeological evidence from Greek and Near Eastern and Anatolian Neolithic sites suggests that multiple waves of Neolithic migrants reached Greece and Southern Europe. Most likely multiple routes were used in these migrations but, as our data show, the maritime route and island hopping was prominent.”*

The detailed report is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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*PNAS Article #13-20811: “Maritime route of colonization of Europe,” by Peristera Paschou et al. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1320811111

Cover Photo, Top Left: Coast of Greece with sunset. Hedwig Storch, Wikimedia Commons

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The Human Face Evolved from a Violent Past, Say Researchers

Posted on June 9, 2014 by No Author -

scientists have reported a study that suggests that all human males can trace their roots to an ancestor with violent tendencies — a hominin who was not a gentle, ‘noble savage’ whose descendents were later corrupted or changed by the onset of society, as depicted or suggested by many theorists.

University of Utah biologist David Carrier and Michael H. Morgan, a University of Utah physician, have been conducting a comprehensive study of the human fossil record, including that of Australopithecus, an extinct hominin species that is thought to be ancestral to Homo (the human genus of which Homo sapiens, or the modern human, is the soul surviving species). What they have consistently found, among other things, is that certain bones of the face of the male skull have become increasingly more robust over several million years of evolution, and that these bones were critical for protection against impact from objects — like a human fist, which, they maintain, has also evolved over time to form a more effective fist for striking.

“The australopiths were characterized by a suite of traits that may have improved fighting ability, including hand proportions that allow formation of a fist; effectively turning the delicate musculoskeletal system of the hand into a club effective for striking,” said Carrier. “If indeed the evolution of our hand proportions were associated with selection for fighting behavior you might expect the primary target, the face, to have undergone evolution to better protect it from injury when punched.”

Their study of the bones of the face and cranium supported that hunch.

“When modern humans fight hand-to-hand the face is usually the primary target,” said Carrier. “What we found was that the bones that suffer the highest rates of fracture in fights are the same parts of the skull that exhibited the greatest increase in robusticity during the evolution of basal hominins. These bones are also the parts of the skull that show the greatest difference between males and females in both australopiths and humans. In other words, male and female faces are different because the parts of the skull that break in fights are bigger in males. Importantly, these facial features appear in the fossil record at approximately the same time that our ancestors evolved hand proportions that allow the formation of a fist. Together these observations suggest that many of the facial features that characterize early hominins may have evolved to protect the face from injury during fighting with fists.”

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University of Utah biologist David Carrier and Michael H. Morgan, a University of Utah physician, contend that human faces — especially those of our australopith ancestors — evolved to minimize injury from punches to the face during fights between males. Their research is published in the June 9 issue of Biological Reviews. Image courtesy University of Utah

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The findings may have important implications for understanding human nature, and will no doubt become part of the general debate about human evolution.

“The debate over whether or not there is a dark side to human nature goes back to the French philosopher Rousseau who argued that before civilization humans were noble savages; that civilization actually corrupted humans and made us more violent,” said Carrier. “This idea remains strong in the social sciences and in recent decades has been supported by a handful of outspoken evolutionary biologists and anthropologists. Many other evolutionary biologists, however, find evidence that our distant past was not peaceful.”

“The hypothesis that our early ancestors were aggressive could be falsified if we found that the anatomical characters that distinguish us from other primates did not improve fighting ability. What our research has been showing is that many of the anatomical characters of great apes and our ancestors, the early hominins (such as bipedal posture, the proportions of our hands and the shape of our faces) do, in fact, improve fighting performance.”

The theory that humans evolved from a violent ancestor is actually a long-standing and contentious one. It was Raymond Dart, South African anatomist and discoverer of the famous fossilized ‘Taung child’ Australopithecus skull in 1924, who advanced the theory that humans evolved from a “killer ape”, supporting the hypothesis that war and interpersonal aggression was the driving force behind human evolution. The writer Robert Ardrey, author of African Genesis and The Territorial Imperative, further popularized the theory through his books during the 1960’s. But the notion has encountered stiff resistance or dispute among other scholars and anthropologists over the years, whose research has indicated that this is not necessarily the case.

Carrier and Morgan make it clear, however, that their study results are not about casting humans as a hopelessly violent and destructive species.

“Our research is about peace,” said Morgan. “We seek to explore, understand, and confront humankind’s violent and aggressive tendencies. Peace begins with ourselves and is ultimately achieved through disciplined self-analysis and an understanding of where we’ve come from as a species. Through our research we hope to look [at] ourselves in the mirror and begin the difficult work of changing ourselves for the better.”

Their paper, titled “Protective buttressing of the hominin face,” is published in the journal Biological Reviews.

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Source: Statements by David Carrier and Michael Morgan re-published from a University of Utah press release.

Cover Photo, Top Left: Courtesy University of Utah

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Archaeologists of Historic Jamestown Release Native American Artifacts for Public View

Posted on June 6, 2014 by No Author -

Archaeologists with the Jamestown Rediscovery Project are now exhibiting a representative sampling of the thousands of Native American artifacts they have uncovered over the past 20 years in or near the site of the 1607 James Fort remains on Jamestown Island, the site of the first successful English colony in North America.

Under the rubric, “The World of Pocahontas Unearthed”, the artifacts can now be seen artfully displayed in their own section within the relatively new Voorhees Archaearium, a large one-story copper-sheathed building that rests on pilings designed to protect the seventeenth century-archaeological features and artifacts that lie beneath.

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View of the Archaearium on Jamestown Island. Ser Amantio di Nicolao, Wikimedia Commons

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“Over the past 20 years we have found thousands and thousands of Virginia Indian artifacts in the excavations………many of them date to the contact period which is, for us, about 1607 to about 1610. So for years, we have had a very elegant museum talking about the English equation or the English side of the story, and clearly there is another half — and that’s the indigenous, the Virginia Indian folks who were here,” says David Givens, a senior staff archaeologist with the Jamestown Rediscovery Project.

Artifacts exhibited include flaked stone projectile points, some of which were made of non-local materials and likely used for cultural exchange, as opposed to hunting and fighting purposes; Indian beads; examples of the 48,000 Indian pottery sherds thus far excavated; clay tobacco pipes that served as models for the English equivalent tobacco pipes; and even one clay pot that features an imprinted pattern of fiber from an Indian basket.

“So when you come to see the exhibit, you can actually ‘see’ a Virginia Indian basket for the first time in over 400 years,” said Givens.

The James Fort site is unique in that it is considered to contain the richest recovered trove of Virginia Native American artifacts in the Chesapeake region, despite the fact that it is primarily an early English colonial site. This is because centuries of mechanized agriculture have disturbed or destroyed most of the Native American village footprints in the ground, while later colonial structures survived as they were set deeper into the soil than those, for example, of the Powhatan villages in the vicinity of the Jamestown settlement.

The Powhatan was a powerful Native American confederation of tribes in present-day Virginia when the Jamestown settlers first arrived. The confederation was led by Chief Powhatan, who was also referred to as “Emperor”. It is thought that there were possibly about 14,000–21,000 Powhatan people in the eastern part of Virginia in 1607 when the English first established James Fort. It was Chief Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, who saved Captain John Smith’s life and later married colonist John Rolf. She bacame a symbol of the relationship that developed between the English Crown and the Native American people of southeastern Virginia.

“The World of Pocahontas Unearthed” can be seen at the Voorhees Archaearium on the grounds of Jamestown Island, not far from the restored colonial town of Williamsburg, Virginia, another major historical site. See the Jamestown Rediscovery website for more information about this and the ongoing excavations and programs related to James Fort and Jamestown.

Cover Image, Top Left: “The Coronation of Powhatan”, by John Cadsby Chapman, courtesy of the Greenville Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina

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Scientists Develop a Key to Preserving Ancient Paper Documents

Posted on June 3, 2014 by No Author -

WASHINGTON D.C. June 3, 2014 — One of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpieces, drawn in red chalk on paper during the early 1500s and widely believed to be a self-portrait, is in extremely poor condition. Centuries of exposure to humid storage conditions or a closed environment has led to widespread and localized yellowing and browning of the paper, which is reducing the contrast between the colors of chalk and paper and substantially diminishing the visibility of the drawing.

A group of researchers from Italy and Poland with expertise in paper degradation mechanisms was tasked with determining whether the degradation process has now slowed with appropriate conservation conditions — or if the aging process is continuing at an unacceptable rate.

To do this, as they describe in Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing, the team developed an approach to nondestructively identify and quantify the concentration of light-absorbing molecules known as chromophores in ancient paper, the culprit behind the “yellowing” of the cellulose within ancient documents and works of art.

“During the centuries, the combined actions of light, heat, moisture, metallic and acidic impurities, and pollutant gases modify the white color of ancient paper’s main component: cellulose,” explained Joanna Łojewska, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. “This phenomenon is known as ‘yellowing,’ which causes severe damage and negatively affects the aesthetic enjoyment of ancient art works on paper.”

Chromophores are the key to understanding the visual degradation process because they are among the chemical products developed by oxidation during aging and are, ultimately, behind the “yellowing” within cellulose. Yellowing occurs when “chromophores within cellulose absorb the violet and blue range of visible light and largely scatter the yellow and red portions — resulting in the characteristic yellow-brown hue,” said Olivia Pulci, a professor in the Physics Department at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

To determine the degradation rate of Leonardo’s self-portrait, the team created a nondestructive approach that centers on identifying and quantifying the concentration of chromophores within paper. It involves using a reflectance spectroscopy setup to obtain optical reflectance spectra of paper samples in the near-infrared, visible, and near-ultraviolet wavelength ranges.

Once reflectance data is gathered, the optical absorption spectrum of cellulose fibers that form the sheet of paper can be calculated using special spectroscopic data analysis.

Then, computational simulations based on quantum mechanics — in particular, Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory, which plays a key role in studying optical properties in theoretical condensed matter physics — are tapped to calculate the optical absorption spectrum of chromophores in cellulose.

“Using our approach, we were able to evaluate the state of degradation of Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait and other paper specimens from ancient books dating from the 15th century,” said Adriano Mosca Conte, a researcher at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. “By comparing the results of ancient papers with those of artificially aged samples, we gained significant insights into the environmental conditions in which Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait was stored during its lifetime.”

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This is Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait as acquired during diagnostic studies carried out at the Central Institute for the Restoration of Archival and Library Heritage in Rome, Italy. Credit: M. C. Misiti/Central Institute for the Restoration of Archival and Library Heritage, Rome

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Their work revealed that the type of chromophores present in Leonardo’s self portrait are “similar to those found in ancient and modern paper samples aged in extremely humid conditions or within a closed environment, which agrees with its documented history,” said Mauro Missori, a researcher at the Institute for Complex Systems, CNR, in Rome, Italy.

One of the most significant implications of their work is that the state of degradation of ancient paper can be measured and quantified by evaluation of the concentrations of chromophores in cellulose fibers. “The periodic repetition of our approach is fundamental to establishing the formation rate of chromophores within the self-portrait. Now our approach can serve as a precious tool to preserve and save not only this invaluable work of art, but others as well,” Conte noted.

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The article, “Visual degradation in Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic self-portrait: a nanoscale study” is authored by A. Mosca Conte, O. Pulci, M.C. Misiti, J. Łojewska, L. Teodonio, C. Violante, and M. Missori. It appears in the journal Applied Physics Letters on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 (DOI: 10.1063/1.4879838). After that date, it can be accessed at: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/104/22/10.1063/1.4879838

The authors of this study are affiliated with ETSF, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Istituto di Struttura della Materia, Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario, Jagiellonian University, and Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi.

Source: Adapted and republished from the press release of the American Institute of Physics.

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Archaeologists Excavate Lower City of Mycenae

Posted on June 2, 2014 by No Author -

Mycenae — the ancient city of the legendary King Agamemnon, best known from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and its iconic Lion Gate and cyclopean defensive walls, has long fascinated scholars and site visitors alike with the epic proportions of its imposing citadel remains. Located about 56 miles southwest of Athens in Greece, it is a World Heritage site.

But there is another Mycenae — one known for centuries from ancient historical documents — which has nevertheless eluded the eyes of archaeologists, historians, and tourists. One might call it “Greater Mycenae”, the Lower Town. It is invisible because most of it still lies undetected, unexcavated, below the surface. In its heyday it was a second millenium BC version of urban sprawl that served as a vital element of the ancient city’s florescence.

Few know it better than Christofilis Maggidis, Associate Professor of Archaeology at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. He has been leading excavations there since 2007. Geophysical surveys utilizing remote sensing technology in the area surrounding the citadel revealed substantial evidence of hidden walls, structures, gates, roads and other features of a possible urban center surrounding it on its south, west and north sides.

“This town may have extended over an area of ca. 30-50 hectares, with a normal population density of 200 people per hectare, consisting mainly of domestic units and commercial buildings, but also including larger palatial structures and annexes (workshops, offices, storerooms) located closer to the main access roads and highways,” writes Maggidis in a report published in the Volume 15 issue of Popular Archaeology . “The discovery of two gates, associated perhaps with an outer circuit wall, further reinforces the possibility of an organized town plan.”*

Ground proof excavations confirmed the geophysical findings. Uncovered thus far were Mycenean-period features that included a long retaining wall possibly connected to a gate, a wall possibly connected with an outer fortification wall of the Lower Town, two buildings, and an apsidal structure. Overlaying the Mycenean features were post-Mycenean findings that included Geometric Period structures such as a pottery/ivory workshop with a cistern, a multi-room house with a courtyard and containing three infant burials under the floor of a room, two circular structures, and a 9th century B.C. cist grave. The cist grave, which contained the skeletal remains of a young woman, consisted of funerary meal remains, an iron pin found on the right shoulder-blade, an iron ring found around a phalanx of the right hand, and five clay vases and a cup placed around the body.

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View of the Lower Town area and excavation site from the citadel area of Mycenae. Courtesy Dickinson Excavation Project and Archaeological Survey of Mycenae

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Excavators at work on the Lower Town site. Courtesy Dickinson Excavation Project and Archaeological Survey of Mycenae

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Overhead view of the excavation site. Courtesy Dickinson Excavation Project and Archaeological Survey of Mycenae

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Numerous artifacts were unearthed. Writes Maggidis: “A great number and wide variety of finds have been retrieved so far, including fragments of Mycenaean and Archaic figurines, flint and obsidian blades, flakes and cores, stone tools, fragments of stone vases, stone cloth weights, seal-stones, beads and pendants, rings, glass shards, metallic objects, coins, lead sheets, iron nails and hooks, lead clamps for pottery mending, ivory objects, clay loom weights and spools, fresco and plaster fragments, color pigments, carbonized wood, animal bones, shell, roof tiles and abundant pottery.”*

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Arrowheads discovered during excavations. Courtesy Dickinson Excavation Project and Archaeological Survey of Mycenae

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But the greatest takeaway thus far has been the confirming evidence that Mycenae, more than its popular image as the fortified palatial abode of Agamemnon, was a large, complex urban center where a population made their living in trade, commercial production, agriculture, and all the other typical functions of an ancient culture, in space and time well beyond the politics and military campaigns of a prominent kingly reign.

“The geophysical survey and systematic excavation of the Lower Town at Mycenae revealed an extensive Mycenaean settlement outside the citadel,” reports Maggidis, “which was protected by an outer fortification wall with gates, as well as overlying structures and buildings dating to the Early Iron Age and the Archaic Period, thus establishing for the first time a continuous, well-stratified occupation of Mycenae in all the successive periods from the 13th century BC to the 6th century BC.”*

Maggidis and his archaeological team, which will include students and volunteers, will be returning to resume excavations during the summer of 2014.

The latest detailed report of the investigations of the Lower Town at Mycenae are published in the Vol. 15 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine, available in early June, 2014.

* Maggidis, Christofilis, Unearthing the City of Agamemnon: The Survey and Excavation of the Lower Town of Mycenae, Popular Archaeology, Vol. 15.

Cover Photo, Top Left: The Lion Gate at Mycenae. Andreas Trepte, Wikimedia Commons

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The Real Form of Richard III Depicted in 3-D Model

Posted on May 29, 2014 by No Author -

In a paper published May 30 in the medical journal, The Lancet, University of Leicester scientists and multimdia experts have detailed their findings, including the development of a 3-D model, that complete the image of Richard III’s appearance, the famous English king whose remains were recently excavated and identified by archaeologists and who was popularly depicted as a hunchback in Shakespeare’s historical play by the same name.

But it appears, based on the study, that Shakespeare’s Richard was somewhat more of an invention for dramatic effect than it was a depiction of his true appearance.

Led by University of Leicester osteoarchaelogist Dr. Jo Appleby of the University’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History, the team of researchers were able to reconstruct an accurate visualization that revealed how the king’s spine had a curve to the right, but also a degree of twisting, resulting in a “spiral” shape. Among the key findings in the paper are:

Richard III had a severe scoliosis, with a particularly pronounced right-sided curve;

Richard’s scoliosis had a “spiral” nature;

His right shoulder would have been higher than his left, and his torso would have been relatively short compared to his arms and legs, but he had a “well-balanced curve” – meaning that his head and neck were straight and not tilted to one side. In consequence the condition would not have been immediately visible to those he met, particularly if he wore well-designed clothes or armour;

The Cobb angle – a measurement used to assess the level of spinal deformity in scoliosis patients – was 65-85 degrees. This would be considered a large curvature these days, though many with the condition today undergo surgery to stabilise it;
His scoliosis would have started to develop during the last few years of growth (after about 10 years of age);

The researchers already established that Richard would have been about 5ft 8 inches tall without his scoliosis – about average for a man during medieval times. However, his condition meant he would have appeared several inches shorter than this.

During analysis, the skeleton was analyzed macroscopically for evidence of spinal deformity and any changes to the tissue caused by the condition.

The spine was then scanned using computed tomography (CT), with 3D reconstructions of each bone made from the digital model. The team used a 3D printer to create polymer replicas of each vertebra – which were put together to recreate the shape of Richard’s spine during his life.

The polymer reconstruction was photographed from 19 different points, and the pictures were then stitched together digitally to create the interactive 3D model – which can be accessed on any web browser and embedded into websites.

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Images of the spinal column showing curvature at various points of rotation. Credit University of Leicester

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Complete image of entire spinal column showing the obvious scoliosis condition. Credit University of Leicester

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Dr. Jo Appleby said: “The major finding we have made is being able to reconstruct the three-dimensional nature of the scoliosis and understand what it would have looked like.

“Obviously, the skeleton was flattened out when it was in the ground. We had a good idea of the sideways aspect of the curve, but we didn’t know the precise nature of the spiral aspect of the condition.

“The arthritis in the spine meant it could only be reconstructed in a specific way, meaning that we can get a very accurate idea of the shape of the curve. It’s really good to be able to produce this 3D reconstruction rather than a 2D picture, as you get a good sense of how the spine would have actually appeared.”

“Although the scoliosis looks dramatic, it probably did not cause a major physical deformity. This is because he had a well-balanced curve. The condition would have meant that his trunk was short in comparison to the length of his limbs, and his right shoulder would have been slightly higher than the left, but this could have been disguised by custom-made armour and by having a good tailor.”

“A curve of 65-85 would not have prevented Richard from being an active individual, and there is no evidence that Richard had a limp as his curve was well balanced and his leg bones were normal and symmetric.”

Dr Phil Stone, Chairman, Richard III Society, said: “Examination of Richard III’s remains shows that he had a scoliosis, thus confirming that the Shakespearean description of a ‘bunch-backed toad’ is a complete fabrication – yet more proof that, while the plays are splendid dramas, they are also most certainly fiction not fact.

“History tells us that Richard III was a great warrior. Clearly, he was little inconvenienced by his spinal problem and accounts of his appearance, written when he was alive, tell that he was “of person and bodily shape comely enough” and that he “was the most handsome man in the room after his brother, Edward IV”.

“Thanks must be given to the University of Leicester for the work they have done on the remains, completing the work begun by the Richard III Society.”
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The work was carried out by Jo Appleby, Osteoarchaeologist in the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History; Professor Bruno Morgan, forensic radiologist in the University of Leicester’s Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine; Professor Guy Rutty and Alison Brough, of the East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit, based at the University of Leicester; Dr Piers Mitchell, University of Cambridge; Claire Robinson, University Hospitals of Leicester; and Professor Russell Harris and David Thompson, Loughborough University.

The dig for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council and in association with the Richard III Society. The originator of the search project was Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society.

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

Cover Photo, Top Left: Excavated skeletal remains of King Richard III. Credit University of Leicester

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Rock-Shelter in Spain Evidences Early Human Use of Fire

Posted on May 27, 2014 by No Author -

In a report co-authored by Michael Walker and colleagues of Spain’s Murcia University, scientists suggest that early humans who lived in the Cueva Negra (Black Cave) rock-shelter of southeastern Spain about 800,000 years ago used fire, and that they exhibited behaviors that indicated a cognitively sophisticated late early Pleistocene use of resources and tools in their environment. The detailed report is published in the upcoming Volume 15 of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

The rock-shelter, located in the face of a cliff overlooking the Quipar river and the small village of La Encarnación, became the subject of initial exploration by archaeologists in 1981. But full systematic excavations didn’t begin until 1990, when an archaeological team led by Walker and colleagues with the Murcia University Experimental Sciences Research Group undertook detailed investigation that continued for another 25 field seasons. What they uncovered were 5 meters of sediment containing late Pleistocene (somewhat before 780,000 years ago) finds, including hominin (early human, possibly H. heidelbergensis) teeth, a rich artifact assemblage, and an array of ancient flora and fauna remains that bespoke an ancient climate of warm, moist environmental conditions. Their analysis and interpretation of the finds may have, they maintain, important implications for early human behavior.

“The most important findings at Cueva Negra concern human activity,” write Walker and colleagues in their report. “Undoubted evidence of fire has been uncovered.”* They point to the evidence of sediment combustion, thermally altered chert and burnt animal bone found in a layer measured at 4.5 meters in depth.

But they qualify their interpretation.

“A fire-place is not a hearth,” the authors continue. “The Cueva Negra could have brought glowing brands left by a forest fire into the cave to establish and tend a fire where rain and wind would not put it out. They may well have been less afraid of fire outside than other animals they saw fleeing from it (which could have led them to play with fire in order to drive animals towards natural death traps, such as swamps, enabling dismemberment and roasting). This does not mean they could reproduce or control fire: there is a dearth of archaeological evidence for hearths or fire-pits before 0.5 Ma.”

Cueva Negra is not the only site that has evidenced early use of fire by early humans. For example, the site of Bnot Ya’akov Bridge in Israel has been claimed to show human control of fire some time between 790,000 and 690,000 years ago, and evidence has emerged at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa for the use of fire by around 1 million years ago. There are also other sites showing this possibility in Africa and China. But Cueva Negra could be the earliest, if not one of the earliest, sites in Europe demonstrating this development.

Other findings suggested a clear mastery of material resources for survival. The assemblage of stone tool artifacts recovered (classified by the authors as “Acheulo-Levalloiso-Mousteroid”) showed evidence of the use of three different core reduction methodologies or sequences, and that natural stone resources were exploited as much as 40 km downstream from the site and 30 km upstream.

Concludes Walker, et al., “Research at Cueva Negra throws new light, including fire-light, on the cognitive versatility, manual dexterity, and technical aptitude of early humans ca. 0.8 Ma in S.E. Spain. They exploited their surroundings in a competent fashion that implies precise knowledge and accurate awareness of what was available for survival.”*

*Walker, Michael, et al., The Early Humans of Cueva Negra, Popular Archaeology, Vol. 15, June, 2014.

Cover Photo, Top Left: Excavations in progress at Cueva Negra. Courtesy Michael Walker and Murcia University

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Archaeologists Excavate for Archaic Greek City of Tenea

Posted on May 22, 2014 by No Author -

It was in July 1984 when rescue excavations conducted by Dr. Elena Korka, now Director of the Ephorate of Private Archaeological Collections and Antiquity Shops, turned up an ancient sarcophagus of the Greek early archaic period near the town of Chiliomodi in Greece. The sarcophagus contained a female skeleton along with offerings. The interior of the sarcophagus slab was adorned with a composition consisting of two lions of monumental character. It was a remarkable find.

But this was not altogether surprising, as archaeologists and historians believed that somewhere in the area the central structural remains of the city of Tenea likely existed. Established, according to written sources, not far from the ancient cities of Corinth and Mycenae shortly after the Trojan War, its first inhabitants were said to be Trojan prisoners of war settled there by Agamemnon. Tenea was considered to be the main settlement of the valley, situated strategically to control the way from Argos to ancient Corinth, and the historian Strabo wrote that Tenea was the location where the Corinthian king Polybius nursed Oedipus.

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Historically, other hints of Tenea’s real existence have emerged, such as the discovery of the Kouros statue in 1846, now housed in the Glyptothek Museum in Munich, and more recently two other archaic kouroi were found and seized by the police in 2010. Because of the importance of the finds, archaeologists conducted surveys in the area around the sarcophagus discovery and its surrounding region.

But the first full, systematic investigation in the area did not begin until 2013 under the direction Korka. With the help of Greek and foreign scholars, archaeologists, geologists, and students, Korka soon uncovered an archaic cemetery consisting of burial sites with archaic period enclosures. Korka believes the cemetery may be associated with the ancient city of Tenea itself.

“Only sporadic remains of the city have been discovered in the region…….such as the Munich kouros, the sarcophagus, and two archaic kouroi,” write Korka and colleagues. “It is thus most likely that substantial archaeological remains of this important ancient city are expected to come to light very soon.”*

Korka and her team hope to uncover much more in coming excavation seasons. They intend to return to the area in September of 2014 to continue where they left off in 2013.

More information about the effort and how one can participate can be obtained at http://www.archaeological.org/fieldwork/afob/15660.

Cover Photo, Top Left: The Kouros statue of Tenea in the Glyptothek Museum, Munich. Zde, Wikimedia Commons

* http://www.archaeological.org/fieldwork/afob/15660.

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