Archives

AlUla, Saudi Arabia, 1 February 2024: The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), the cultural custodian of northwest Arabia, has launched a new, inclusive heritage conservation campaign that aims to deepen and enrich the public’s knowledge, awareness, and desire to protect and uplift AlUla’s ancient history.

The I Care campaign, which launches 1 February, shines a local, national, and global spotlight on the importance of RCU’s diverse and ongoing heritage protection projects in AlUla as the county continues to be developed into the world’s largest living museum. 

I Care will promote the need to safeguard AlUla’s diverse landscape of cultural assets, including natural and manmade monuments, as a means of boosting economic development, driving community engagement, and expanding people’s knowledge and appreciation of their AlUla’s storied past – goals that align with the aims of Saudi Vision 2030.

As an iconic first phase of the campaign, RCU has partnered with the acclaimed US artist David Popa to create a unique, landmark piece set within the landscape of AlUla itself. The artwork, which takes the shape of two protective hands, is constructed around the iconic Tomb of Lihyan, Son of Kuza, a monumental heritage destination at Hegra which was designated as Saudi Arabia’s first World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2008. 

Famous for his sustainable approach and innovative techniques, Popa’s artwork is symbolic of I Care’s ambition to carefully protect and cherish places of great historic and cultural value – vulnerable sites that resonate deeply with the community and global heritage experts alike.

An impressive and ephemeral piece of creativity constructed using exclusively natural elements, including yellow earth from Europe and red earth from the Middle East, it is one of Popa’s largest to date. Designed to disintegrate in a matter of weeks, Popa’s artwork highlights the pressing need for collective action to safeguard cultural heritage locations in AlUla, Saudi Arabia, and the wider world.

Dr Abdulrahman Alsuhaibani, Executive Director of Archaeology, Conservation and Collections at RCU, said: “The roots of Saudi culture and tradition can be traced back millennia, influenced by civilisations as diverse as the Nabataeans, Minaeans and Lihyanites. The I Care campaign is an important and inclusive step towards increasing the AlUla community’s awareness and appreciation of the incredible history that exists on their doorstep.

“The Kingdom has made great strides to conserve and develop its cultural heritage and rich collection of assets, including AlUla with its 200,000 years of human history. As guardians of this unique crossroads for civilisations, RCU is focused on raising people’s awareness of the need to engage with conservation efforts through the new I Care campaign. This will help to deepen RCU’s connection with our community as we work towards a common, shared, and inclusive purpose – to protect and celebrate our heritage so it can be enjoyed for generations to come.”

US artist David Popa said: “Working on this project has been an immense privilege.I Care is not just a campaign; it is a celebration of AlUla’s and the Kingdom’s legacy and traditions. AlUla’s heritage is a treasure for the entire world, and I have been enriched by the enlightening conversations I have had with the local storytellers, the Rawis, the Heritage Rangers, and the young ambassadors being trained in the Hammayah programme to take on guardianship of this invaluable heritage.”

A key audience of the I Care campaign is AlUla’s younger generation. RCU will provide schools with comprehensive toolkits to educate and empower youngsters and their teachers through a series of carefully designed workshops that focus on the importance of heritage protection and how landmarks connect with the community stories, life, and traditions. RCU will also host school visits and community activities at AlUla’s diverse collection of historic landmarks, such as Hegra.

The community, young and old, have an active and key role to play in helping to conserve AlUla’s cultural landscape, with the I Care campaign seeking to fill any knowledge gaps and promote future discovery amongst residents, visiting tourists, and Saudi citizens. 

With its landscape of diverse heritage sites, vast mountains, lush wadis, and wide-open desert scenery, AlUla is now established as a new global destination for culture, history, archaeological discovery, and the sharing of ancient knowledge.

AlUla is home to the extraordinary Nabataean city and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hegra; the city of Dadan, which was the capital of the Dadanite and Lihyanite kingdoms; the Jabal Ikmah open-air library, whose ancient inscription are now included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register; and AlUla Old Town, which has been named as one of UNWTO’s Best Tourism Villages. 

These sites and many others are part of RCU’s active programme of conservation, exploration, and study as AlUla is comprehensively regenerated into a destination for culturally curious tourists.

For more information on The Royal Commission for AlUla and its programmes, visit www.rcu.gov.sa.  

___________________________

Aerial view of the artwork. RCU image

___________________________

Article Source: Royal Commission for AlUla news release.

___________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

___________________________

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – BERKELEY—A genetic analysis of bone fragments unearthed at an archaeological site in central Germany shows conclusively that modern humans — Homo sapiens — had already reached Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, overlapping with Neanderthals for several thousand years before the latter went extinct.

The findings establish that the site near Ranis, Germany, which is known for its finely flaked, leaf-shaped stone tool blades, is among the oldest confirmed sites of modern human Stone Age culture in north central and northwestern Europe.

The evidence that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis lived side by side is consistent with genomic evidence that the two species occasionally interbred. It also feeds the suspicion that the invasion of Europe and Asia by modern humans some 50,000 years ago helped drive Neanderthals, which had occupied the area for more than 500,000 years, to extinction.

The genetic analysis, along with an archaeological and isotopic analysis and radiocarbon dating of the Ranis site, are detailed in a trio of papers appearing today in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology and Evolution.

The stone blades at Ranis, referred to as leaf points, are similar to stone tools found at several sites in Moravia, Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom. These tools that are thought to have been produced by the same culture, referred to as the Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician (LRJ) culture or technocomplex. Because of previous dating, the Ranis site was known to be 40,000 years old or older, but without recognizable bones to indicate who made the tools, it was unclear whether they were the product of Neanderthals or Homo sapiens.

The new findings demonstrate that “Homo sapiens made this technology, and that Homo sapiens were this far north at this time period, which is 45,000 years ago,” said Elena Zavala, one of four first authors of the Nature paper and a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. “So these are among the earliest Homo sapiens in Europe.”

Zavala was a Ph.D. student at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) in Leipzig in 2018 when she first began working on the project, which was a major effort spearheaded by Jean-Jacque Hublin, former director of the institute and a professor at the Collège de France in Paris.

“The Ranis cave site provides evidence for the first dispersal of Homo sapiens across the higher latitudes of Europe. It turns out that stone artifacts that were thought to be produced by Neanderthals were, in fact, part of the early Homo sapiens toolkit,” Hublin said. “This fundamentally changes our previous knowledge about the period: Homo sapiens reached northwestern Europe long before Neanderthal disappearance in southwestern Europe.”

Bones from maternal relatives?

Zavala conducted the genetic analysis of hominid bone fragments from the new and deeper excavations at Ranis between 2016 and 2022 and from earlier excavations in the 1930s. Because the DNA in ancient bones is highly fragmented, she employed special techniques to isolate and sequence the DNA, all of it mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that is inherited solely from the mother.

“We confirmed that the skeletal fragments belonged to Homo sapiens. Interestingly, several fragments shared the same mitochondrial DNA sequences — even fragments from different excavations,” she said. “This indicates that the fragments belonged to the same individual or their maternal relatives, linking these new finds with the ones from decades ago.”

The bone fragments were initially identified as human through analysis of bone proteins — a field called paleoproteomics — by another first author, Dorothea Mylopotamitaki, a doctoral student at the Collège de France and fomerly of MPI-EVA.

By comparing the Ranis mitochondrial DNA sequences with mtDNA sequences obtained from human remains at other paleolithic sites in Europe, Zavala was able to construct a family tree of early Homo sapiens across Europe. All but one of the 13 Ranis fragments were quite similar to one another and, surprisingly, resembled mtDNA from the 43,000-year-old skull of a woman discovered in a cave at Zlatý kůň in the Czech Republic. The lone standout grouped with an individual from Italy.

“That raises some questions: Was this a single population? What could be the relationship here?” Zavala said. “But with mitochondrial DNA, that’s only one side of the history. It’s only the maternal side. We would need to have nuclear DNA to be able to start looking into this.”

A transitional site between Middle and Upper Paleolithic

Zavala specializes in the analysis of DNA found in long-buried bones, on bone tools and in sediment. Her search through sediment from various levels of the Ranis excavation turned up DNA from a broad array of mammals, but none from hominids. The analysis, combined with morphological, isotopic and proteomic analysis of bone fragments, paints a picture of the environment at that time and of the diet of both humans and animals that occupied the cave over the millennia.

The presence of reindeer, cave bear, woolly rhinoceros and horse bones, for example, indicated cold climatic conditions typical of steppe tundra and similar to conditions in Siberia and northern Scandinavia today, and a human diet based on large terrestrial animals. The researchers concluded that the cave was used primarily by hibernating cave bears and denning hyenas, with only periodic human presence.

“This lower-density archaeological signature matches other Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician sites and is best explained by expedient visits of short duration by small, mobile groups of pioneer H. sapiens,” according to one of the papers published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

“This shows that even these earlier groups of Homo sapiens dispersing across Eurasia already had some capacity to adapt to such harsh climatic conditions,” said Sarah Pederzani, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of La Laguna in Spain, who led the paleoclimate study of the site. “Until recently, it was thought that resilience to cold-climate conditions did not appear until several thousand years later, so this is a fascinating and surprising result.”

The Ranis site, called Ilsenhöhle and located at the base of a castle, was initially excavated mainly between 1932 and 1938. The leaf points found there were eventually assigned to the final years of the Middle Paleolithic period — between about 300,000 and 30,000 years ago — or the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, which begins around 50,000 years ago.

Because of the importance of the Ranis site for understanding the LRJ technocomplex and the transition from the Neanderthal-associated late Middle Paleolithic to the modern human Upper Paleolithic in central Europe, Hublin and his team decided to reexcavate the site using modern tools of archaeology.

The new excavations extended to bedrock, about 8 meters below the surface, and involved removing a rock — likely fallen from the cave ceiling — that had halted the previous excavation. Here, Hublin’s team uncovered chips from flint tools and a quartzite flake consistent with the LRJ technocomplex. Subsequent proteomic analysis of thousands of recovered bone chips confirmed that four were from hominids. Of bone chips uncovered during the 1930s excavations, nine were from hominids.

Zavala’s DNA analysis confirmed that all 13 bone fragments came from Homo sapiens.

A revised settlement history of Northern Europe

The team also carried out radiocarbon dating of human and animal bones from different layers of the site to reconstruct the site’s chronology, focusing on bones with traces of human modifications on their surfaces, which links their dates to human presence in the cave.

“We found very good agreement between the radiocarbon dates from the Homo sapiens bones from both excavation collections and with modified animal bones from the LRJ layers of the new excavation, making a very strong link between the human remains and LRJ. The evidence suggests that Homo sapiens were sporadically occupying the site from as early as 47,500 years ago,” said another first author, Helen Fewlass, a former Max Planck researcher who is now a European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

“The results from the Ilsenhöhle in Ranis fundamentally changed our ideas about the chronology and settlement history of Europe north of the Alps,” added Tim Schüler of the Thuringian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and Archaeology in Weimar, Germany.

Among other co-authors of the Nature paper are co-first author Marcel Weiss of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and Shannon McPherron of MPI-EVA, who co-led the Ranis excavation with Hublin, Schüler and Weiss. Zavala, in addition to being co-first author of the Nature paper, co-authored the two papers in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

The excavations and much of the subsequent analysis were financially supported by the Max Planck Society.

__________________________

Excavating the LRJ layers 8 metres deep at Ranis was a logistical challenge and required elaborate scaffolding to support the trench. © Marcel Weiss, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0

__________________________

Human bone fragment from the new excavations at Ranis. © Tim Schüler TLDA, License: CC-BY-ND

__________________________

Stone tools from the LRJ at Ranis. 1) partial bifacial blade point characteristic of the LRJ; 2) at Ranis the LRJ also contains finely made bifacial leaf points. © Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0

__________________________

Article Source: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – BERKELEY news release.

*Homo sapiens reached the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago, Nature, 1-Feb-2024. 10.1038/s41586-023-06923-7 

__________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

__________________________

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)—A baton made of mammoth ivory discovered in a German cave appears to be a tool that was used more than 35,000 years ago to make sturdy rope, according to a new analysis* by Nicholas Conard and Veerle Rots. The tool offers a glimpse at how people of the early Upper Paleolithic may have aligned and combined fibers to create multi-strand rope that could be used in various technologies. The baton was found in pieces at Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany, among other artifacts attributed to the Aurignacian archaeological culture in Central Europe. Radiocarbon dating of animal bones showing signs of human modification places the collection of artifacts between 40,000 and 35,000 years old, the researchers conclude. The baton itself has four holes, with each hole containing precisely carved spiraling grooves. To learn more about the baton’s use, Conard and Rots looked for traces of wear and plant residues in the perforations of the Hohle Fels tool and in a similar artifact from another German archaeological site from the period. The wear and residues found in both artifacts suggest that fibers were pulled through the holes, guided by the grooved pattern. The researchers then reproduced the perforated tool and tested deer sinew and a variety of plant fibers through its holes, finding that the tool helped to straighten, align, and combine multiple strands of fiber. The experiments required several people to operate the tool, which suggests that making rope in Aurignacian times may have been a cooperative effort, Conard and Rots note.

___________________________

Ivory perforated baton from Hohle Fels Cave, southwestern Germany with four views. Conard et al, Sci. Adv. 10, eadh5217 (2024)

___________________________

Macro- and microscopic images of the ivory perforated baton and residue evidence. Conard et al, Sci. Adv. 10, eadh5217 (2024)

___________________________

Article Source: AAAS news release

*Rope making in the Aurignacian of Central Europe more than 35,000 years ago, Science Advances, 31-Jan-2024. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh5217

__________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

__________________

Editor’s Note: The following article is a republication of a previous article published September 6, 2016 at Popular Archaeology Magazine.

Ein Hatzeva.

In Hebrew, it means “strong spring”.

It also describes the ancient place by this name about 35 kms south of the Dead Sea.

The name says it all, because deep in this desert region, in what the ancients called the Arava, water meant everything. The natural fresh water spring made it a reason for ancient roads to converge here — a critical and welcoming oasis for traveling caravans along the spice and incense route, facilitating commerce and providing much-needed rest for weary travelers. And with this clear strategic value, it became a perfect place for expanding kingdoms to establish their presence. 

Fortresses on the Edge

Although the fresh water oasis of Ein Hatzeva has been thought by some to have possibly accommodated ancient Amorites and other wandering, nomadic peoples, it was mostly expanding commerce that transformed this tiny spot into a strategic way station on the fringe of kingdoms. It sat at the intersection of the main Arava road and the Negev-Edom road, a critical stopping point for the traveling caravans of spices and other goods and, at one time, a good location to facilitate oversight and protection of the copper mines at Faynan, near Eilat. 

And a good place to build a fort.  

Which is why Ein Hatzeva, otherwise known as Biblical Tamar*, has seen the presence of at least five succeeding major fortifications. Archaeological excavations since 1972 have uncovered at least 8 historic periods, revealing a sequence including Early Israelite, Edomite, Nabataean, Roman, Early Arab, and later occupations.

The Israelite and Judahite Fortresses

The earliest of the fortifications was constructed during the 10th century BCE. Comparatively small, some scholars and archaeologists have interpreted these Iron Age remains as one of a number of fortifications constructed throughout the land to secure the border of the united kingdom of Israel under Solomon**. But the most magnificent of the Iron Age fortifications was built somewhat later (archaeologists suggesting its construction during the 9th-8th centuries BCE), atop and around the smaller, older fortress footprint. This fortress, according to Biblical scholars, represented the might of the Kingdom of Judah, although it is not certain who among the Judahite kings was responsible for initiating its construction. Some suggest King Jehoshaphat (867 – 846 BCE), desiring an enlarged fortress as part of his policy to renew and build upon commercial ties with the rich kingdoms of present day southern Arabia to the south and east. Others suggest King Amaziah (798-769 BCE) or Uzziah (769-733 BCE). 

In any case, the enlarged fortress is considered to have been among the largest Judahite fortresses ever built, fulfilling a critical role in the Kingdom of Judah’s border defenses. Beginning in the first expansion with a 50 x 50 meter surrounding wall, it was later expanded to 100 x 100 meters, comparable in area to a town of the time. Excavations have uncovered a massive three-meter-thick casemate wall, the casemate sections filled with packed earth. Buttressing the wall was a defensive rampart. Towers were set at its corners. A four-chambered gatethouse complex (a standard feature for cities and fortifications of the period) still stands to a height of three meters in the northeastern corner of the fortress remains. Not intended by its original builders, however, part of the gate complex leans, as if, with one powerful push, one could topple it over. It is a testament to damage caused by a powerful earthquake in the mid-8th century BCE. The fortress remains also feature stores or granaries and silos for food—evidence of wheat and barley found within one of the silos—and a defensive moat. 

But as massive and imposing as the 8th century fortress was, the Judahite kingdom eventually lost control of what is today the Negev region, leaving opportunity for expansion by the neighboring Edomites and the fortress’s resulting destruction near the end of the 8th century BCE. A smaller 7th century fortress was built over the remains of the former, but it never attained the grandeur and defensive prowess that characterized the previous larger fortress. 

_______________________________________

 Aerial view of the excavated remains at Ein Hatzeva. Credit: Biblewalks.com

____________________________________________________

 Aerial view of the excavated remains of Ein Hatzeva with excavated area of the first Iron Age (10th century BCE) Israelite fortress highlighted in yellow. Credit: Biblewalks.com

____________________________________________________________

  Aerial view of the excavated remains of Ein Hatzeva with excavated area of the first Judahite fortress (9th-8th centuries BCE) highlighted in yellow. Credit: Biblewalks.com

_________________________________________________________________

 Aerial view of the excavated remains of Ein Hatzeva with excavated area of the expanded Judahite fortress (9th-8th centuries BCE) highlighted in yellow. Credit: Biblewalks.com

________________________________________________ 

 View of a section of the Iron Age (Israelite) city gate complex remains, one of the grandest discovered in the ‘Holy Land’ region to this day. 

_______________________________________________ 

 Above and below, view of a section of the Iron Age (Israelite) city gate complex remains. 

______________________________________________________________

 Above and below: Views of the remains of the Iron Age expanded fortress northwest wall and tower construction. 

________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Above: View of the exterior remains of the northwest wall of the expanded Iron Age fortress

————————————————————————

Supplement

The Four-Room House

A key feature uncovered at Ein Hatzeva was a four-room house, built during the period of the Israelite/Judahite fortifications:

____________________________________________

Above and below: The foundation still visible, pictured here are its remains—what archaeologists have identified as a classic Israelite four-room house structure. Most houses inhabited by the Israelites during the Iron Age, beginning at the end of the 11th century BCE until about the time of the Babylonian Exile in the 6th century BCE, were designed after this floor plan pattern. It characterized the ground floor of the house, as this is the house level that could be determined through archaeological investigation. It typically featured four sections, or rooms, three of which were defined by two rows of wooden pillars arrayed through the center of the structure and functioning to divide the spaces, and the fourth ‘broadroom’ oriented across the back or rear of the three vertical rooms. This ground level typically functioned as space to stable livestock and for storage. The family, or extended family, resided on the upper level. Like any domicile even today, these houses varied in size, and were constructed either as stand-alone houses or as connected houses (ancient equivalent of the modern day townhouse). Many connected houses were constructed with the back, or broadroom, exterior wall abutting the surrounding casemate wall of a city. Walls, constructed of fieldstones and dried mud, were typically around one meter in thickness, with exterior walls often thicker. The house exteriors were likely plastered to prevent water erosion. Archaeological investigation has revealed that smaller urban houses may have been clustered, sharing exterior walls between and likely inhabited by nuclear families, whereas larger stand-alone houses, like the one illustrated here at Ein Hatzeva, belonged to wealthy or extended families of the elite. “This is the biggest Israelite house in Israel,” says Dr. DeWayne Coxon of the house at Ein Hatzeva. “It was probably the priest’s house.” Coxon is President of Blossoming Rose, the organization that curates the archaeological site at Ein Hatzeva. 

Along with the Israelite and Roman fortresses, bathhouse, and the Edomite cultic shrine, the large Israelite four-room house stands as one of the distinguishing features of the archaeological park, known as the Biblical Tamar Park, administered by Blossoming Rose on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

  ————————————————————————

Supplement

The Shrine

During the 7th century BCE, just north of the fortress ruins, the Edomites built a temple or cultic shrine, likely functioning to serve traders journeying from Edom to the Negev region. Excavations have revealed the foundational outlines of the structure, as well as an assemblage of broken ritual clay vessels and evidence of several stone altars, discovered in a repository within the structure. The finds include bowl-shaped incense stands on round bases, one of them featuring small clay objects in the shape of pomegranates (considered symbols of fertility), originally hanging from hooks; and anthropomorphic stands featuring human figures with decorated bowls atop their heads. 

Archaeologists and historians suggest that the shrine was probably destroyed and the ritual objects smashed during the reign of the Judahite king Josiah, who embarked on a campaign of religious reforms at the end of the 7th century BCE. The Biblical account (2 Kings 22-23) records this campaign of destruction. The shrine remains and the ritual vessels found at the site are currently exhibited at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

____________________________________________

 Above and below: Two views of the shrine remains. Above photo courtesy Victoria Brogdon.

——————————————————————–

 Aerial view of the site remains, highlighting the locations of the four-room house and shrine in relation to the ancient fortress remains. Credit: Biblewalks.com

______________________________________________________

The Nabataean Fortress

Archaeologists unearthed evidence of a small Nabataean (1st century BCE – 1st century CE) fortress and temple beneath the remains of the later Roman fortress (described below). Investigators believe these structures were constructed here as part of a way station the Nabataeans established as a rest and commercial stop along their Incense road. 

The Romans

Ancient Rome’s expanding empire from the 1st century BCE through the 4th century CE saw its presence in almost every corner of the known Western world, and the attractive desert oasis of Ein Hatzeva was no exception. Because of its location along the lucrative caravan routes for transport and trade in spice and merchandise, not to mention its position relative to controlling and protecting the critical Faynan copper mines to the southeast near present-day Eilat and territorial defense against the incursion of outside nomadic tribes, the Romans quickly recognized the imperative of establishing a strategic foothold here. A large Roman fortress took shape over its gentle rise of earth and ruins, and soldiers were garrisoned here in a new fortification, the architectural remains of which have been unearthed by teams of archaeologists in recent years. Part of the massive Roman fortress has been exposed and partially restored by experts and volunteers, including a significant associated bathhouse complex. 

_________________________________________

 Aerial view showing highlighted Roman fortifications and structures. Credit: Biblewalks.com

_________________________________________________

 Above and below: Excavated sections of the Roman period bathouse remains.

 Above photo by Victoria Brogdon

______________________________________________________

The Biblical Tamar Park

For decades, Blossoming Rose, the organization established to administer the site of Ein Hatzeva as an archaeological park, has governed the planning and execution of activities related to the park on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Today, the site hosts volunteer groups for continuing site restoration and excavation, as well as tour groups organized by various organizations and tour leaders in the country visiting the biblically historic sites throughout the ‘Holy Land’ region. Many visitors, by arrangement, stay in rustic but comfortable accommodations while performing volunteer or other activities at the site. 

Although Ein Hatzeva, or Biblical Tamar, is off the beaten path for most typical tour groups and visitors to this historic region of the world, the site administrators and archaeologists hope that the significance of the site will continue to rise on the ‘radar screens’ of the general public and those visiting the region. Certainly the site’s finds, both monumental and small, have played an important role in helping archaeologists and historians to better understand the history and culture of the region. Indeed, according to Coxon, there are 26,000 artifacts from this site alone in the Israel Museum, one of the nation of Israel’s most visited destinations and arguably one of the world’s preeminent archaeologic museums. 

There is much more work to be done at Ein Hatzeva before the full story of its remains can be realized. With funding and a greater commitment of resources, however, the site can prospectively yield much more, including the possibility of uncovering remains from time periods pre-dating the Iron Age, or Israelite, period. More information about the site and the park can be obtained at blossomingrose.org.  

______________________________________________________ 

*The archaeological remains were surveyed near the start of the 20th century and then excavations between 1987 and 1995 confirmed its identification with Biblical Tamar: Ezekiel 48:28 —“The border shall be even from Tamar by the waters of strife in Kadesh (Ezekiel 48:28) and as the Roman Tamara.”

** 1 Kings 9: 17-18: “And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether, and Baalath, and Tadmor [Tamar] in the wilderness, in the land……”

_________________________________

Become a new Popular Archaeology premium subscriber for only $9.00 a year.

_________________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

_______________________________________

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG—Last summer, archaeologists from Gothenburg University and Kiel University excavated a dolmen, a stone burial chamber, in Tiarp near Falköping in Sweden. The archaeologists judge that the grave has remained untouched since the Stone Age. However, the odd thing is that parts of the skeletons of the people buried are missing.

Skulls and large bones are missing and may have been removed from the grave. We don’t know whether that has to do with burial rituals or what’s behind it,” says Karl-Göran Sjögren.

Now that the researchers have examined the material from the grave, they have found that it contains bones from hands and feet, fragments of rib bones and teeth. But skulls and larger bones such as thigh and arm bones are very few.

“This differs from what we usually see in megalith graves, i.e. stone burial chambers  from the Neolithic period,” Karl-Göran Sjögren explains. “Usually, the bones that are missing are smaller bones from feet and hands.”

Torbjörn Ahlström, Professor of Osteology at Lund University, studied the bone finds. His conclusion is that the bones come from at least twelve people, including infants and the elderly. But the archaeologists don’t yet know why they died.

“We haven’t seen any injuries on the people buried so we don’t think violence is involved. But we are continuing to study their DNA and that will show whether they had any diseases,” says Karl-Göran Sjögren.

Falköping has long been known for its many passage graves dating from a somewhat later period, approximately 3300 BCE. Agriculture reached Falbygden in about 4000 BCE, i.e. about 500 years before the grave in Tiarp was built. In all likelihood, the people buried in the dolmen were farmers.

“They lived by growing grain and keeping animals and they consumed dairy products,” says Karl-Göran Sjögren.

Are the people buried in the grave related?

A number of samples were taken at the excavation last summer, including DNA from the skeletal remains.

“The preliminary DNA results show that the DNA in the bones is well preserved. This means we will be able to reconstruct the family relationships between the people in the grave and we are working on that now,” says Karl-Göran Sjögren.

Falbygden is known for its many traces of people from the Stone Age. There are more than 250 passage graves here, large graves built of blocks of stone.

“But this dolmen is older. It’s about 200 to 150 years older than the passage graves, making it one of the oldest stone burial chambers in Sweden and across the whole of Scandinavia,” says Karl-Göran Sjögren.

There is another thing that makes the grave unique.

“It’s the way it is constructed. There’s a little niche at each end. This is unique for graves in Falbygden,” says Karl-Göran Sjögren.

_____________________________

The archaeological excavation in Tiarp in summer 2023 was carried out jointly by Gothenburg and Kiel Universities. From left: Julia Dietrich, Ann-Katrin Klein, Malou Blank and Karl-Göran Sjögren. Photo: Cecilia Sjöberg

_____________________________

The chamber under excavation. East side mould removed. The plastic tubes are samples for environmental DNA. Photo: Karl-Göran Sjögren

_____________________________

Article Source: UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG news release.

*Tiarp Backgården. An Early Neolithic Dolmen in Falbygden, Sweden and Early Megalithic Tombs in South Scandinavia and Northern Central Europe, Journal of Neolithic Archaeology, 22-Dec-2023. https://doi.org/10.12766/jna.2023.8

_____________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

_____________________________

UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING—The oft-used description of early humans as “hunter-gatherers” should be changed to “gatherer-hunters,” at least in the Andes of South America, according to groundbreaking research led by a University of Wyoming archaeologist.

Archaeologists long thought that early human diets were meat based. However, Assistant Professor Randy Haas’ analysis of the remains of 24 individuals from the Wilamaya Patjxa and Soro Mik’aya Patjxa burial sites in Peru shows that early human diets in the Andes Mountains were composed of 80 percent plant matter and 20 percent meat.

The study, titled “Stable isotope chemistry reveals plant-dominant diet among early foragers on the Andean Altiplano,” has been published by the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE. It applies methods in isotope chemistry and statistical modeling to unveil a surprising twist in early Andean societies and traditional hunter-gatherer narratives.

“Conventional wisdom holds that early human economies focused on hunting — an idea that has led to a number of high-protein dietary fads such as the Paleodiet,” Haas says. “Our analysis shows that the diets were composed of 80 percent plant matter and 20 percent meat.”

For these early humans of the Andes, spanning from 9,000 to 6,500 years ago, there is indeed evidence that hunting of large mammals provided some of their diets. But the new analysis of the isotopic composition of the human bones shows that plant foods made up the majority of individual diets, with meat playing a secondary role.

Additionally, burnt plant remains from the sites and distinct dental-wear patterns on the individuals’ upper incisors indicate that tubers — or plants that grow underground, such as potatoes — likely were the most prominent subsistence resource.

“Our combination of isotope chemistry, paleoethnobotanical and zooarchaeological methods offers the clearest and most accurate picture of early Andean diets to date,” Haas says. “These findings update our understanding of earliest forager economies and the pathway to agricultural economies in the Andean highlands.”

Joining Haas in the study were researchers from Penn State University, the University of California-Merced, the University of California-Davis, Binghamton University, the University of Arizona and the National Register of Peruvian Archaeologists.

Undergraduate students also had the opportunity to conduct research during the initial 2018 excavations at the Wilamaya Patjxa burial site.

Currently a Ph.D. student in anthropology at Penn State University, Jennifer Chen, the journal article’s lead author and a former undergraduate student in Haas’ research lab, performed the isotope lab work and much of the isotope analysis following the excavations.

“Food is incredibly important and crucial for survival, especially in high-altitude environments like the Andes,” Chen says. “A lot of archaeological frameworks on hunter-gatherers, or foragers, center on hunting and meat-heavy diets — but we are finding that early hunter-gatherers in the Andes were mostly eating plant foods like wild tubers.”

Haas notes that archaeologists now have the tools to understand early human diets, and their results are not what they anticipated. This case study demonstrates for the first time that early human economies, in at least one part of the world, were plant based.

“Given that archaeological biases have long misled archaeologists — myself included — in the Andes, it is likely that future isotopic research in other parts of the world will similarly show that archaeologists have also gotten it wrong elsewhere,” he says.

Haas investigates human behavior in forager societies of the past to better understand human behavior in the present. He leads archaeological excavations and survey projects in the Andes and mountain regions of western North America. To learn more about his research, email Haas at whaas@uwyo.edu.

____________________________

The Wilamaya Patjxa archeological site in Peru produced human remains showing that the diets of early people of the Andes were primarily composed of plant materials. Randy Haas

____________________________

Article Source: UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING news release

*Stable isotope chemistry reveals plant-dominant diet among early foragers on the Andean Altiplano, PLoS ONE, 24-Jan-2024. 10.1371/journal.pone.0296420 

____________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

____________________________

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)—High-resolution paleoclimate reconstructions from southern Italy, dating to between around 200 BCE and 600 CE, provide a clearer picture of how climate and disease intersected in ancient Rome. Reconstructions showed that temperature and precipitation became increasingly unstable after ~130 CE, with several cold periods tied to historic pandemic outbreaks such as the Justinian Plague. Paleoclimate proxies can offer insights into how past climate change may have influenced human societies, such as when warm or cool intervals coincided with periods of social development or pandemics. The Roman Warm Period – identified from paleoclimate proxies as an era of unusual warmth between roughly 200 BCE and 150 CE – has been associated with a time of prosperity for the Roman Empire. Alternatively, the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age around 540 CE, coinciding with the Justinian Plague, is thought to have played a key role in the empire’s decline. Sparse proxy records have made it difficult to characterize these dynamics in detail. Here, Zonneveld et al.* studied temperature and precipitation records at ~3-year resolution between 200 BCE to 600 CE, using proxy data from marine sediments found in the Gulf of Taranto. They observed stronger climate variability beginning after ~130 CE, marking the apparent end of the Roman Warm Period. Comparing these reconstructions with existing records of infectious disease outbreaks in the heart of Rome, they found pulses of ever cooler and drier conditions coinciding with three major pandemics: the Antonine Plague (~165 to 180 CE), the Plague of Cyprian (~251 to 266 CE), and the Justinian Plague, the first wave of the First Plague Pandemic, which began around 540 CE. An extreme temperature drop – about 3°C cooler than the warmest intervals of the Roman Warm Period – occurred between around 537-590 CE, Zonneveld et al. found, which may have amplified the devastation of the Justinian Plague when it emerged in the region.

_____________________________

St Sebastian pleading for the life of a gravedigger afflicted with plague during the 7th-century Plague of Pavia. Painting at the Walters Art Museum, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

_____________________________

Article Sources: AAAS news release

*Climate Change, Society, and Pandemic Disease in Roman Italy between 200 BCE and 600 CE, Science Advances, 26-Jan-2024. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk1033

_____________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

_____________________________

A team of archaeologists excavating at the site of Ziyaret Tepe in southeastern Turkey discovered a rare and unique cuneiform tablet — one that tells a story of frustration and desperation expressed by an ancient Assyrian official, providing a glimpse of conditions in the Assyrian Empire just before its collapse in the 7th century, B.C.  

Recovered within the remains of what archaeologists have identified as an administrative complex, the clay tablet, small enough to be held in the palm of one’s hand, features, in cuneiform script, a letter written by Mannu-ki-libbali, who was a senior official of the Assyrian provincial capital of Tushan. Tushan was a 7th-century city that governed an area on the outskirts of the Assyrian Empire. In the letter, he responds to an order to assemble a unit of chariotry, but he explains that all of the skilled professionals he needed to accomplish it had already fled the city. He expresses his frustration and resignation with these final statements:   

“How can I command? ….. Death will come out of it. No one will escape. I am done!”

“This letter is unparalleled,” writes the excavation leadership in an article published in Popular Archaeology Magazine. “It can only have been written as the front line drew close to Tushan and the infrastructure of the empire collapsed. As a first-hand account of Assyria in its death-throes it is unique.”

The administrative complex in which the tablet was found also yielded a remarkable archive of cuneiform tablets. Totaling 27, they were discovered in fragments on the floors of the rooms of the complex. “The contents of the tablets include movements of grain, the loan of a slave, lists of personnel, the resettlement of people and a census enumerating military officers and their agricultural holdings,” wrote the excavation leadership about the finds. “But the majority of the tablets deal with transactions of barley – deliveries from outlying farmsteads, loans and payments for rations.”  They span the period from 614 BC to 611 BC — around the time of the the fall of Nineveh. 

“This is the first time that Assyrian administrative texts from this period have ever been found,” stated dig directors Timothy Matney and John MacGinnis. The archive provides a window on the Assyrian world as the Babylonian king Nabopolassar was waging military campaigns against a disintegrating Assyrian empire.

Full-scale excavations at Ziyaret Tepe began in 2000 and lasted for 12 seasons. Located on the upper Tigris river abut 60 km east of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, the site consists of a central mound 30 m high and the remains of a surrounding lower town about 30 hectares in area. The project, which was headed in the field by Prof. Timothy Matney of the University of Akron, Ohio, began with geophysical prospection and ceramic surface collection, and work at the site eventually yielded structural and artifact remains that evidenced a massive provincial capital that flourished for almost 300 years. According to written records, it was founded on a previously occupied site by the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II in 882 BC, but was then finally captured by the Babylonian king Nabopolassar in 611 BC. Archaeologists have uncovered a palace, an administrative complex, elite residences, and a military barracks at the site.

______________________________________

 Letter ZTT 22, in which the writer Mannu-ki-libbali reports on the disintegration of the military infrastructure as the Assyrian empire collapsed. Ziyaret Tepe Archaeological Project

____________________________________________________

 Aerial view of work in progress in the palace. Ziyaret Tepe Archaeological Project

__________________________________________________

An in-depth feature article about the excavations at Ziyaret Tepe, anciently known as Tushan, was published in Popular Archaeology Magazine.

___________________________________________________

Readers may also acquire a copy of the book, which relates much more detail about the excavations and the discoveries, at this website. 

___________________________

Advertisement

CNRS—Our ancestors were already living in the north of present-day China around 45,000 years ago. This discovery, made as a result of research at the Shiyu site by an international team including researchers from CNRS¹ , challenges the established timeline of colonization in China by Homo sapiens populations 40,000 years ago.

Located about 20 kilometers from the city of Shuozhou, the Shiyu site is, to date, the oldest archaeological site with evidence of the arrival of modern humans in China. Artifacts discovered, including a perforated disc made of graphite — currently the oldest jewelry item ever found in China — and a bifacially shaped bone tool, present a series of characteristics indicative of a diverse range of cultural influences at the time our species arrived in the region. Analysis of tools made of obsidian, a volcanic rock, also revealed the existence of social networks spread over distances of up to 1,000 kilometers. Scientists believe that interactions between Homo sapiens and indigenous populations, far more complex than archaeologists previously imagined, led to significant genetic and cultural mixing.

These results, published on 18 January in Nature Ecology & Evolution,* shed new light on the global expansion of Homo sapiens and broaden our understanding of human history.

____________________________

Fragment of a perforated disc made of graphite. Found at the Shiyu site in archaeological layers dating back 45,000 years, this object is the oldest jewellery item discovered in China. It may have been used as a button. © F. d’Errico

____________________________

Reconstruction of daily life at the Shiyu site 45,000 years ago, by Xiaocong Guo. © IVPP

____________________________

Article Source: CNRS news release.

1 – Working at the “From prehistory to today: culture, environment and anthropology” laboratory (CNRS/French Ministry of Culture/Université de Bordeaux).

*Initial Upper Palaeolithic material culture by 45,000 years ago at Shiyu in northern China. Shi-Xia Yang, Jia-Fu Zhang, Jian-Ping Yue, Rachel Wood, Yu-Jie Guo, Han Wang, Wu-Gan Luo, Yue Zhang, Emeline Raguin, Ke-Liang Zhao, Yu-Xiu Zhang, Fa-Xiang Huan, Ya-Mei Hou, Wei-Wen Huang, Yi-Ren Wang, Jin-Ming Shi, Bao-Yin Yuan, Andreu Ollé, Alain Queffelec, Li-Ping Zhou, Cheng-Long Deng, Francesco d’Errico and Michael Petraglia (2023). Nature Ecology and Evolution, 18 janvier 2024. 

____________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

____________________________

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)—Ancient DNA and isotopic analyses of a female woolly mammoth tusk dated to be 14,000 years old has helped scientists trace her relatives and migration route, from the western Yukon to her final resting place in an early Alaskan hunter-gatherer settlement. Although there is no direct evidence that humans actively hunted this mammoth, the presence of other mammoth remains in and around the camp site suggest that mammoth herds congregated there, Audrey Rowe and colleagues say – and humans may have chosen the site’s location specifically for that reason. The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is an iconic ice age animal, subject to ongoing debates over the causes of its extinction and recent efforts to “de-extinct” it. The species thrived in steppe tundra across northern Eurasia and Beringia (what is now Russia and Alaska) during the last ice age. Humans are thought to have spread across Beringia between 20 and 12 thousand years ago, overlapping with woolly mammoths for at least 1,000 years. Although humans are known to have used these animals for food and raw materials such as ivory, details about whether they actively hunted the giants, and how humans may have affected the animals’ extinction, remain elusive. Here, Rowe et al.* examined a full woolly mammoth tusk among other mammoth remains found at Swan Point – a 14,000-year-old archaeological site in Tanana Valley, central Alaska, thought to have been used as a seasonal hunting camp by early Alaskans. DNA showed that the mammoth was a young adult female, around 20 years old when she died, and was closely related to other mammoths found at the site. Isotope analyses revealed that she likely spent the beginning of her life in what is now northwestern Canada before migrating about 1,000 kilometers northwestward for around 2.5 years, through the White Mountains and eventually into the camp where her tusk was found.

____________________________

Sequential isotopic analyses along an entire ~60-cm-long transect of a female mammoth tusk from the Swan Point archeological site, interior Alaska. Rowe et al., Sci. Adv. 10, eadk0818 (2024)

____________________________

Artist’s rendering of a mammoth traversing the landscape. Willgard, Pixabay

____________________________

Article Source: AAAS news release.

*A female woolly mammoth’s lifetime movements end in an ancient Alaskan hunter-gatherer camp, Science Advances, 17-Jan-2024. 10.1126/sciadv.adk0818 

____________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

____________________________

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)—A dense system of pre-Hispanic urban centers, characterized by constructed platforms and plazas and connected by large, straight roads, has been discovered in the upper Amazon, according to a new study*. The research, based on more than 20 years of interdisciplinary research, suggests that this original 2500-year-old society constitutes the earliest and largest low-density agrarian urbanism documented in the Amazon thus far. Such extensive early development in the Upper Amazon resembles similar Maya urban systems in Central America. Although a growing body of research has begun to highlight the scope and scale of pre-Hispanic occupation of the Amazon, evidence for large-scale urbanism has remained elusive. Stéphen Rostain and colleagues present evidence for an agrarian-based civilization that began more than 2500 years ago in the Upano Valley of Amazonian Ecuador, a region in the eastern foothills of the Andes. Based on more than 20 years of interdisciplinary research that included fieldwork and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) mapping, Rostain et al. describe urbanism at a scale never before documented in Amazonia, consisting of more than 6000 anthropogenic rectangular earthen platforms and plaza structures connected by footpaths and roads and surrounded by expansive agricultural landscapes and river drainages within the 300 square kilometer survey area. The authors identified at least 15 distinct settlement sites of various sizes based on clusters of structures. However, according to Rostain et al., the most notable elements of this built environment are the extensive and complex regional-scale road network connecting urban centers and the surrounding hinterland. Archaeological excavations indicate that the construction and occupation of the platforms and roads occurred between ~500 BCE and 300 to 600 CE and was carried out by groups from the Kilamope and later Upano cultures. Rostain et al. note that the Upano sites are different from other monumental sites discovered in Amazonia, which are more recent and less extensive. “Such a discovery is another vivid example of the underestimation of Amazonia’s twofold heritage: environmental but also cultural, and therefore Indigenous,” write Rostain et al. “…we believe that it is crucial to thoroughly revise our preconceptions of the Amazonian world and, in doing so, to reinterpret contexts and concepts in the necessary light of an inclusive and participatory science.”

Article Source: AAAS news release

*Two thousand years of garden urbanism in the Upper Amazon, Science, 12-Jan-2024. 10.1126/science.adi6317 

Cover Image, Top Left: Credit Rosinakaiser, Pixabay

_____________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

_____________________________

CNRS—The North Arabian Desert oases were inhabited by sedentary populations in the 4^th and 3^rd millennia BCE. A fortification enclosing the Khaybar Oasis—one of the longest known going back to this period—was just revealed by a team of scientists from the CNRS¹ and the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU). This new walled oasis is, along with that of Tayma, one of the two largest in Saudi Arabia. While a number of walled oases dating back to the Bronze Age had already been documented, this major discovery sheds new light on human occupation in north-western Arabia, and provides a better grasp of local social complexity during the pre-Islamic period.

Cross-referencing field surveys and remote sensing data with architectural studies, the team estimated the original dimensions of the fortifications at 14.5 kilometres in length, between 1.70 and 2.40 metres in thickness, and approximately 5 metres in height. Preserved today over a little less than half of its original length (41%, 5.9 km and 74 bastions), this colossal edifice enclosed a rural and sedentary territory of nearly 1,100 hectares. The fortification’s date of construction is estimated between 2250 and 1950 BCE, on the basis of radiocarbon dating of samples collected during excavations.

While the study* confirms that the Khaybar Oasis clearly belonged to a network of walled oases in north-western Arabia, the discovery of this rampart also raises questions regarding why it was built as well as the nature of the populations that built it, in particular their relations with populations outside the oasis.

This archaeological discovery, whose results will be published on 10 January in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (JASREP), paves the way for major advances in understanding the prehistoric, pre-Islamic, and Islamic past of the north-western Arabian Peninsula.

___________________________

Digital reconstruction of the rampart network from the northern section of the Khaybar walled oasis 4,000 years ago. © Khaybar Longue Durée Archaeological Project, M. Bussy & G. Charloux

___________________________

Article Source: CNRS news release

Notes

1 – From the Orient and Mediterranean Laboratory (CNRS/Collège de France/EPHE-PSL/Sorbonne Université/Université Panthéon-Sorbonne) and the Archéorient – Environments and Societies of the Ancient East Laboratory (CNRS/Université Lumière Lyon 2), in connection with the Khaybar Longue Durée Archaeological Project commissioned by the French Agency for AlUla Development (AFALULA) for the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU).

*Discovery of immense fortifications dating back 4,000 years in north-western Arabia, Journal of Archaeological Science, 10-Jan-2024. 

___________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

___________________________

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—A study finds a link between the strengthening of the Asian summer monsoon and early human migration out of Africa to East Asia during the last interglacial period. The role of climate shifts in shaping early Homo sapiens dispersal to East Asia is an important aspect of human history.  However, the subject remains underexplored due to a lack of coordinated paleoclimate and paleoanthropological data. Hong Ao, Jiaoyang Ruan, and colleagues combined records of the Asian summer monsoon from the Chinese Loess Plateau with models of East Asian paleoclimate, compilations of paleoanthropological data, and simulations of Homo sapiens habitat suitability. The resulting reconstruction covers the last 280,000 years and connects the orbital-scale influences on Asian summer monsoon dynamics with early human dispersal. The results suggest that the Asian summer monsoon is influenced by Northern Hemisphere ice volume, greenhouse gas concentrations, and summer solar radiation. The monsoon strengthened between 125,000 and 70,000 years ago, increasing temperatures and precipitation across Asia. The monsoon strengthening coincides with the earliest fossil H. sapiens specimens at multiple locations in Asia. According to the authors, the strengthening of the Asian summer monsoon, along with a coincident deterioration of the climate in Southeast Africa, may have spurred the dispersal of early humans from Africa into East Asia.

____________________________

Map showing the early (pre-LGM) dispersal of Homo sapiens, 200,000 to 32,000 years ago. Katerina Douka & Michelle O’Reilly, Michael D. Petraglia, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

____________________________

Article Source: PNAS news release

*“Concurrent Asian monsoon strengthening and early modern human dispersal to East Asia during the last interglacial,” by Hong Ao et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 8-Jan-2024. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2308994120

____________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

____________________________

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY—Douglas Boin, Ph.D., a professor of history at Saint Louis University, made a major announcement at the annual meeting of the Archeological Institute of America, revealing he and his team discovered an ancient Roman temple that adds significant insights into the social change from pagan gods to Christianity within the Roman Empire. 

“We found three walls of a monumental structure that evidence suggests belonged to a Roman temple that dates to Constantine’s period,” Boin said. “It dates to the fourth century AD and it would be a remarkable addition to the landscape of this corner of Italy. It will significantly aid in the understanding of the ancient town, the ancient townscape and city society in the later Roman Empire because it shows the continuities between the classical pagan world and early Christian Roman world that often get blurred out or written out of the sweeping historical narratives.”

Boin and his excavation team made the monumental discovery over the summer. Boin, an expert in ancient Roman and its religious transitions, had been digging in the town of Spello, the famous medieval hilltop city about 20 minutes from Assisi and 2.5 hours north of Rome. Boin selected the town based on a rescript of a 4th century letter from Emperor Constantine to the townspeople regarding a religious holiday. 

This rescript, which was discovered in the 18th century, allowed the people of Spello to celebrate a religious festival in their hometown rather than travel a great distance to another festival. However, in order to do so, the town was told it must erect a temple to Constantine’s divine ancestors, the Flavian family, and worship them, showcasing how multicultural Roman society was at the time.

“There was a remarkable religious continuity between the Roman world and the early Christian world,” Boin said. “Things didn’t change overnight. Before our find, we never had a sense that there were actual physical, religious sites associated with this late ‘imperial cult practice.’ But because of the inscription and its reference to a temple, Spello offered a very tantalizing potential for a major discovery of an Imperial cult underneath a Christian ruler.”

Boin traveled to Spello and oversaw underground imaging to determine if there were any potential ruins below the surface that needed to be uncovered. After many weeks, and almost by chance, Boin finally received promising images underneath a parking lot where the temple was suspected to be. 

Very carefully, the team dug into the ground until they found two adjoining walls. More digging unearthed what Boin believes to be the inside walls of the temple. This temple immediately became what Boin calls the largest evidence ever of the Imperial Cult in both fourth-century Italy and the late Roman Empire.. 

“There’s evidence from other places throughout the Roman world that Christian rulers supported imperial cult practices,” Boin said. “We’ve known that pagans worshiped at their temples in the fourth century, but those findings have all been small and inconsequential. And we’ve known that Christians supported the imperial cult, and we’ve known that without any sense of where it would have happened. This temple bridges those two landmarks, and in that respect, it is unlike any temple that I know about from the Mediterranean world of the fourth century Roman Empire. Any study of the imperial cult in the fourth century Roman Empire is now going to have to take account of this temple, which is an incredible discovery to make.”

With the discovery, Boin now can show how the societal changes of the time moved very slowly. Though Constantine was the first Roman emperor to famously convert to Christianity, it would take almost 70 years for Christianity to become the official religion of the Roman Empire, under the Emperor Theodosius. During that time it still took many convincing and gradual shifts for those who worshiped pagan gods to convert to Christianity.

“This changes everything about how we perceive the pace of social change and our impression of the impact of social and cultural change,” Boin said. “This building, in a very radical way on its own, shows us the staying power of the pagan traditions that had been on the ground for centuries prior to the rise of Christianity, and it shows us how the Roman emperors continued to negotiate their own values, their own hopes and dreams for the future of the emperor and the Empire without knocking down or burying the past.”

Boin and his team will return to Spello next summer to completely excavate the area to examine the full temple, where he hopes to make even more significant discoveries. 

“We are on the cusp of giving people a very visible piece of evidence that really upends the neat and tidy ways people think about big moments of cultural change,” Boin said “Cultural changes are never as big as we think they are when living through them, and there’s a lot of gray area in between people’s customs and the broader society and culture. And a lot of those can be left out of the story. So to have this temple potentially be a temple dedicated to Constantine’s divine ancestors as a way to worship the emperor in an increasingly Christian world at the time, it’s so weird and I love that we can bring it to light.” 

____________________________

An aerial photograph of the newly-discovered Imperial Cult ruins by Douglas Boin, Ph.D., and his team. Douglas Boin, Ph.D.

____________________________

Article Source: SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY news release.

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

____________________________

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY—A breakthrough achieved by researchers from four Israeli universities – Tel Aviv University, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University and Ariel University– will enable archaeologists to identify burnt materials discovered in excavations and estimate their firing temperatures. Applying their method to findings from ancient Gath (Tell es-Safi in central Israel), the researchers validated the Biblical account: “About this time Hazael King of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem” (2 Kings 12, 18). They explain that unlike previous methods, the new technique can determine whether a certain item (such as a mud brick) underwent a firing event even at relatively low temperatures, from 200°C and up. This information can be crucial for correctly interpreting the findings. 

The multidisciplinary study* was led by Dr. Yoav Vaknin from the Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Entin Faculty of Humanities, at Tel Aviv University, and the Palaeomagnetic Laboratory at The Hebrew University. Other contributors included: Prof. Ron Shaar from the Institute of Earth Sciences at The Hebrew University, Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef and Prof. Oded Lipschits from the Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, Prof. Aren Maeir from the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University and Dr. Adi Eliyahu Behar from the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology and the Department of Chemical Sciences at Ariel University. The paper has been published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

Prof. Lipschits: “Throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages the main building material in most parts of the Land of Israel was mud bricks. This cheap and readily available material was used to build walls in most buildings, sometimes on top of stone foundations. That’s why it’s so important to understand the technology used in making these bricks.”

Dr. Vaknin adds: “During the same era dwellers of other lands, such as Mesopotamia where stone was hard to come by, would fire mud bricks in kilns to increase their strength and durability. This technique is mentioned in the story of the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis: “They said one to another, Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly. So they used brick for stone”(Genesis 11, 3). Most researchers, however, believe that this technology did not reach the Land of Israel until much later, with the Roman conquest. Until that time the inhabitants used sun-dried mud bricks. Thus, when bricks are found in an archaeological excavation, several questions must be asked: First, have the bricks been fired, and if so, were they fired in a kiln prior to construction or in situ, in a destructive conflagration event? Our method can provide conclusive answers.”

The new method relies on measuring the magnetic field recorded and ‘locked’ in the brick as it burned and cooled down. Dr. Vaknin: “The clay from which the bricks were made contains millions of ferromagnetic particles – minerals with magnetic properties that behave like so many tiny ‘compasses’ or magnets. In a sun-dried mud brick the orientation of these magnets is almost random, so that they cancel out one another. Therefore, the overall magnetic signal of the brick is weak and not uniform. Heating to 200°C or more, as happens in a fire, releases the magnetic signals of these magnetic particles and, statistically, they tend to align with the earth’s magnetic field at that specific time and place. When the brick cools down, these magnetic signals remain locked in their new position and the brick attains a strong and uniformly oriented magnetic field, which can be measured with a magnetometer. This is a clear indication that the brick has, in fact, been fired.

In the second stage of the procedure, the researchers gradually ‘erase’ the brick’s magnetic field, using a process called thermal demagnetization. This involves heating the brick in a special oven in a palaeomagnetic laboratory that neutralizes the earth’s magnetic field. The heat releases the magnetic signals, which once again arrange themselves randomly, canceling each other out, and the total magnetic signal becomes weak and loses its orientation.

Dr. Vaknin: “We conduct the process gradually. At first, we heat the sample to a temperature of 100°C, which releases the signals of only a small percentage of the magnetic minerals. We then cool it down and measure the remaining magnetic signal. We then repeat the procedure at temperatures of 150°C, 200°C, and so on, proceeding in small steps, up to 700°C. In this way the brick’s magnetic field is gradually erased. The temperature at which the signal of each mineral is ‘unlocked’ is approximately the same as the temperature at which it was initially ‘locked’, and ultimately, the temperature at which the magnetic field is fully erased was reached during the original fire.”

The researchers tested the technique in the laboratory: they fired mud bricks under controlled conditions of temperature and magnetic field, measured each brick’s acquired magnetic field, then gradually erased it. They found that the bricks were completely demagnetized at the temperature at which they had been burned – proving that the method works.    

Dr. Vaknin: “Our approach enables identifying burning which occurred at much lower temperatures than any other method. Most techniques used for identifying burnt bricks are based on actual changes in the minerals, which usually occur at temperatures higher than 500°C – when some minerals are converted into others.”

Dr. Eliyahu Behar: “One of the common methods for identifying mineralogical changes in clay (the main component of mud bricks) due to exposure to high temperatures is based on changes in the absorption of infrared radiation by the various minerals. In this study we used this method as an additional tool to verify the results of the magnetic method.” Dr. Vaknin: “Our method is much more sensitive than others because it targets changes in the intensity and orientation of the magnetic signal, which occur at much lower temperatures. We can begin to detect changes in the magnetic signal at temperatures as low as 100°C, and from 200°C and up the findings are conclusive.”

In addition, the method can determine the orientation in which the bricks cooled down. Dr. Vaknin: “When a brick is fired in a kiln before construction, it records the direction of the earth’s magnetic field at that specific time and place. In Israel this means north and downward. But when builders take bricks from a kiln and build a wall, they lay them in random orientations, thus randomizing the recorded signals. On the other hand, when a wall is burned in-situ, as might happen when it is destroyed by an enemy, the magnetic fields of all bricks are locked in the same orientation.”

After proving the method’s validity, the researchers applied it to a specific archaeological dispute: was a specific brick structure discovered at Tell es-Safi – identified as the Philistine city of Gath, home of Goliath – built of pre-fired bricks or burned on location? The prevalent hypothesis, based on the Old Testament, historical sources, and Carbon-14 dating attributes the destruction of the structure to the devastation of Gath by Hazael, King of Aram Damascus, around 830 BCE. However, a previous paper by researchers including Prof. Maeir, head of the Tell es-Safi excavations, proposed that the building had not burned down, but rather collapsed over decades, and that the fired bricks found in the structure had been fired in a kiln prior to construction. If this hypothesis were correct, this would be the earliest instance of brick-firing technology discovered in the Land of Israel. 

To settle the dispute, the current research team applied the new method to samples from the wall at Tell es-Safi and the collapsed debris found beside it. The findings were conclusive: the magnetic fields of all bricks and collapsed debris displayed the same orientation – north and downwards. Dr. Vaknin: “Our findings signify that the bricks burned and cooled down in-situ, right where they were found, namely in a conflagration in the structure itself, which collapsed within a few hours. Had the bricks been fired in a kiln and then laid in the wall, their magnetic orientations would have been random. Moreover, had the structure collapsed over time, not in a single fire event, the collapsed debris would have displayed random magnetic orientations. We believe that the main reason for our colleagues’ mistaken interpretation was their inability to identify burning at temperatures below 500°C. Since heat rises, materials at the bottom of the building burned at relatively low temperatures, below 400°C, and consequently the former study did not identify them as burnt – leading to the conclusion that the building had not been destroyed by fire. At the same time, bricks in upper parts of the wall, where temperatures were much higher, underwent mineralogical changes and were therefore identified as burnt – leading the researchers to conclude that they had been fired in a kiln prior to construction. Our method allowed us to determine that all bricks in both the wall and debris had burned during the conflagration: those at the bottom burned at relatively low temperatures, and those that were found in higher layers or had fallen from the top –at temperatures higher than 600°C.”

Prof. Maeir: “Our findings are very important for deciphering the intensity of the fire and scope of destruction at Gath, the largest and most powerful city in the Land of Israel at the time, as well as understanding the building methods prevailing in that era. It’s important to review conclusions from previous studies, and sometimes even refute former interpretations, even if they came from your own school.” Prof. Ben-Yosef adds: “Beyond their historical and archaeological significance, ancient building methods also had substantial ecological implications. The brick firing technology requires vast quantities of combustive materials, and in ancient times this might have led to vast deforestation and even loss of tree species in the area. For example, certain species of trees and shrubs exploited by the ancient copper industry in the Timna Valley have not recovered to this day and the industry itself ultimately collapsed once it had used up its natural fuels. Our findings indicate that the brick firing technology was probably not practiced in the Land of Israel in the times of the Kings of Judah and Israel.”

______________________________

The studied area during excavation. Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project, Bar-Ilan University

______________________________

One of the studied burnt mudbricks. Dr. Yoav Vaknin

______________________________

Article Source: Tel Aviv University news release

*https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0289424

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

______________________________

HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM— Prof. Gideon Shelach-Lavi from Hebrew University and Prof. Amartuvshin Chunag from the National University of Mongolia, and their team unveil a new discovery in their latest research published in the Journal of Field Archaeology. Their paper, “Unraveling the Mongolian Arc: a Field Survey and Spatial Investigation of a Previously Unexplored Wall System in Eastern Mongolia,” sheds light on a monumental wall system that has remained largely overlooked in existing academic discourse.

The “Mongolian Arc,” spanning 405 kilometers in eastern Mongolia, comprises an earthen wall, a trench, and 34 accompanying structures. Constructed between the 11th and 13th centuries A.D., this intricate system has emerged as a pivotal yet understudied facet of historical architectural marvels.

The research, conducted through a collaborative effort, involved a comprehensive approach combining remote sensing data collection, archaeological field surveys, and analysis through geographic information systems (GIS). Professors Shelach-Lavi and Amartuvshin’s team also delved into ancient written sources to offer a preliminary interpretation of the design and potential functions of the Mongolian Arc.

“Understanding the significance of the Mongolian Arc unlocks profound insights into medieval wall systems, raising pertinent questions about the motives, functionality, and enduring consequences of such colossal constructions,” remarked Prof. Gideon Shelach-Lavi.

This study is part of a larger multidisciplinary project, funded by a generous research fund from the European Research Council (ERC) addressing the construction of extensive walls and structures in northern China and eastern Mongolia during the 11th–13th centuries A.D. The findings not only contribute to unraveling historical mysteries but also offer a framework for exploring the broader socio-political, economic, and environmental impacts of such endeavors.

The published paper marks a pivotal milestone in the ongoing investigation, sparking renewed interest and further inquiry into ancient architectural wonders and their societal implications.

____________________________

Drone photo of Khaltaryn Balgas. CREDIT: Study Authors

____________________________

The wall section is located between structures 17 and 18. Measurements are typical based on measurements at various locations along the wall. CREDIT: Study Authors

____________________________

Article Source: HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM news release.

*Unraveling the Mongolian Arc: a Field Survey and Spatial Investigation of a Previously Unexplored Wall System in Eastern Mongolia, Journal of Field Archaeology, 27-Dec-2023. 10.1080/00934690.2023.2295198 

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

____________________________

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA—The research on management strategies and use of animal resources in high mountain areas during the Early Neolithic, approximately 6,500 to 7,500 years ago, was conditioned by the presumption that human occupancy of these regions were mainly seasonal and that economic practices focused greatly on making use of wild resources. With regards to livestock rearing, the role of sheep and goat transhumance in high mountain areas has stood out traditionally, while only a marginal role has been given to other livestock activities, in which the temporary maintenance of these animal flocks has been highlighted.

Researchers from the Archaeozoology Laboratory and the High Mountain Archaeology Group of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the University of Évora (HERCULES Laboratory), the Milà i Fontanals Institution-CSIC and the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Government of Aragon, have now for the first time managed to characterize the livestock practices and feeding strategies of domesticated animals in high mountain regions during the Early Neolithic, specifically in the archaeological site of Coro Trasito, located in the region of Sobrarbe, Aragon. Their research has yielded new elements to be used in the study of the complexity of neolithisation processes in the Central Pyrenees.

The study* conducted by the research team focused on assessing animal ecology, livestock management strategies and feeding practices implemented by the first societies settling in high mountain regions (over 1,500 metres above sea level). To do so, the team became the first to apply to high mountain contexts a combination of analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bone collagen – the study of these two isotopes can be used to determine the diet and the position in the food chain of the animals – and the archaeozoological analysis of the remains of animals from that period. Thanks to this combination, researchers were able to document that management and feeding strategies differed among flocks.

The results obtained showed that flocks belonging to these first settlers were small and formed by a few number of each species: cows, goats, sheep and pigs (Bos taurus, Capra hircus, Ovis aries and Sus domesticus), and were mainly used for their meat and milk production. In addition, researchers were able to document the rise in the economic importance of pigs (Sus domesticus) during the Neolithic.

The presence in some of the cases studied of different ways of managing the feeding of animals, with access to different pastures and the possible provision of forage, mainly from surplus agricultural products, shows that livestock practices developed at the Coro Trasito site were consolidated practices at the start of the Neolithic and related to agricultural practices. The study also demonstrates how flocks were adapted to the environmental conditions of the cave.

The results of the archaeozoological, isotopic and archaeological analyses reveal that the inhabitants of the Coro Trasito cave made use mainly of domestic resources. In addition, the presence of transformation activities related to dairy products and fat, as well as the existence of storage structures within the cave, point to the complexity of neolithisation processes in the Central Pyrenees and how these areas were rapidly integrated into an even wider and more complex economic system.

_____________________________

Above: Image of the southern slope of Sierra de Tucas (Huesca, Spain). The arrow indicates Coro Trasito cave. Below: Entrance to Coro Trasito cave. (B) Plan view of Coro Trasito cave, showing the location of the 2011 and 2013 test-pit and the area of the extended excavation. The isocotes indicate every 20 cm. © 2023 Navarrete, Viñerta, Clemente-Conte, Gassiot, Rey Lanaspa and Saña, CC-BY-4.0, Creative Commons

_____________________________

Article Source: UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA news release

*Navarrete V, Viñerta A, Clemente-Conte I, Gassiot E, Rey Lanaspa J and Saña M (2023) Early husbandry practices in highland areas during the Neolithic: the case of Coro Trasito cave (Huesca, Spain). Front. Environ. Archaeol. 2:1309907. doi: 10.3389/fearc.2023.1309907

Cover Image, Top Left: © 2023 Navarrete, Viñerta, Clemente-Conte, Gassiot, Rey Lanaspa and Saña, CC-BY-4.0, Creative Commons

_____________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

_____________________________

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – DAVIS—When did archery arise in the Americas? And what were the effects of this technology on society?

These questions have long been debated among anthropologists and archaeologists. But a study* led by a University of California, Davis, anthropologist, is shining light on this mystery.

Focusing on the Lake Titicaca Basin in the Andes mountains, anthropologists found through analysis of 1,179 projectile points that the rise of archery technology dates to around 5,000 years ago. Previous research held that archery in the Andes emerged around 3,000 years ago.

The new research indicates that the adoption of bow-and-arrow technology coincided with both the expansion of exchange networks and the growing tendency for people to reside in villages.

“We think our paper is groundbreaking because it gives us a chance to see how society changed throughout the Andes throughout ancient times by presenting a huge number of artifacts from a vast area of South America,” said Luis Flores-Blanco, an anthropology doctoral student and corresponding author of the paper. “This is among the first instances in which Andean archaeologists have investigated social complexity through the quantitative analysis of stone tools.”

The study was published online in November in Quaternary International.

Researchers said increasing social complexity in the region is usually investigated through analysis of monumental architecture and ceramics rather than projectile points, which are historically linked to foraging communities.

Pooling from 10,000 years of history

For the study, the team examined more than a thousand projectile points created over 10,000 years. Each projectile point originated in the Lake Titicaca Basin, specifically the Ilave and Ramis valleys, which are located southwest and northwest of the basin, respectively.

Flores-Blanco said it’s among the highest plateau lands explored and conquered by humans, with Lake Titicaca sitting at an elevation of 12,500 feet.

“At Titicaca, Andeans accomplished the remarkable achievement of domesticating plants like the potato, leaving behind a nutritious legacy that is still appreciated today,” he said. “On top of that, the Tiwanaku were one of the major Andean civilizations that built their vast territory here. Even the Inca Empire claimed this territory was their mythical place of origin. Our study digs even deeper and goes to the roots of this Andean civilization.”

In their analysis, Flores-Blanco and his colleagues considered each projectile’s date of origin and then measured its length, width, thickness and weight. They noticed that older projectile points — from the Early Archaic through the Late Archaic — were larger. A significant decrease in size occurred during the Terminal Archaic period, around 5,000 years ago. The team hypothesized that this size shift indicates a change in preference from spear-throwing technology to bow-and-arrow technology, but without abandoning the old technologies.  

In addition, the team compared their projectile data to archaeological data from the region concerning settlement sizes, raw material availability and cranial trauma data. During the Terminal Archaic period, settlement sizes increased but the total number of settlement sites decreased, researchers said. Not only that, but the inhabitants lacked signs of social violence, even though they had access to exotic raw materials.

“Based on our discovery, we can suggest that bow-and-arrow technology could have maintained and ensured adherence to emerging social norms that were crucial, such as those observed in the development of new social institutions, like obsidian exchange hubs or among individuals establishing residence in expanding villages,” Flores-Blanco said. 

Flores-Blanco co-authored the study with Lucero Cuellar, National University of San Marcos; Mark Aldenderfer, UC Merced; Charles Stanish, University of South Florida; and Randall Haas, University of Wyoming and formerly of UC Davis.  

_______________________________

Lake Titicaca. Mailanmaik, Pixabay

_______________________________

Article Source: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – DAVIS news release

*Did archery technology precipitate complexity in the Titicaca Basin? A metric analysis of projectile points, 11–1 ka,

Quaternary International, 23-Nov-2023. 10.1016/j.quaint.2023.10.012 

_______________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

_______________________________

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—Researchers used baked bricks to reconstruct Earth’s magnetic field intensity in Mesopotamia during the first three millennia BCE. Archaeomagnetic techniques attempt to reconstruct the direction and intensity of Earth’s magnetic field over time and can be used to date archaeological materials. However, archaeomagnetic research is often limited by a dearth of data in certain regions and time periods. Matthew Howland and colleagues analyzed 32 inscribed baked bricks from Mesopotamia to produce precise archaeomagnetic datapoints spanning the third to first millennia BCE. During the kiln firing process, iron oxide minerals within the bricks record the intensity of Earth’s magnetic field at the time the bricks were made. The authors interpreted Sumerian and Akkadian inscriptions on the bricks and associated them with the reigns of 12 Mesopotamian kings, enabling dating at a higher resolution compared with radiocarbon methods. The results corroborate data from neighboring regions pertaining to a period of high geomagnetic field intensity from around 1050 to 550 BCE and known as the Levantine Iron Age geomagnetic anomaly. According to the authors, the findings provide insight into the dynamics of Earth’s magnetic field and establish a baseline for accurately dating archaeological materials from Mesopotamia during the first three millennia BCE, a region and period relevant for studies on the development of urbanism and social complexity.

__________________________________

A mudbrick dated to approximately 1800—1736 BCE, featuring an inscription that reads, “Palace of Iakūn-dīri son of Suma/tanim, king of the land Huršitum.” Matthew D. Howland

__________________________________

Article Source: PNAS news release.

*“Exploring geomagnetic variations in ancient mesopotamia: Archaeomagnetic study of inscribed bricks from the 3rd–1st millennia BCE,” by Matthew D. Howland et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 18-Dec-2023. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2313361120

_______________________________

Advertisement

See the incredible archaeology, architecture, and art of northern Spain. A unique tour with special expert guides and lecturers through the collaboration of Popular Archaeology Magazine and Stone & Compass Tours. Not to be missed. Read More About It: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/northern-spains-triple-a-archaeology-architecture-and-art/.

__________________________________