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CIRAD—Traces of cocoa dating back 5300 years have been found in ancient pots in the Ecuadorian Amazon. This is the oldest proof of cocoa use ever found. It predates the domestication of cocoa by the Olmec and the Maya in Central America by some 1500 years.

This evidence was collected in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon, at the Santa Ana La Florida (SALF) archaeological site near Palanda, discovered 16 years ago by the archaeologist Francisco Valdez and his Franco-Ecuadorian team (IRD/INPC) (2). The Mayo Chinchipe, the oldest known Amerindian civilization in the upper Amazon, had consumed cocoa almost continuously from at least 5300 years to 2100 years before present. Traces of houses and of a ceremonial site remain.

“Evidence of cocoa use was found by analyzing the starch grains characteristic of the genus Theobroma, traces of theobromine, a biochemical compound specific to mature cocoa beans, and ancient cocoa DNA found in ceramic vessels, some of which dated back more than 5300 years” , says Claire Lanaud, a geneticist from CIRAD specializing in cocoa, who is one of the lead authors of the study*. “The vessels came from tombs or domestic settings; they clearly showed that cocoa was used both as a funerary offering and for daily consumption.”

The ancient DNA analyses were conducted by a team of geneticists from CIRAD (1), in collaboration with the INPC, the IRD (2), and INRA (3), as part of a project on the past and present domestication of cocoa funded by Agropolis Fondation. After sequencing, the team demonstrated the presence of DNA fragments specific to the species Theobroma cacao, despite their severe degradation due to the humid tropical environment in which they were found.

The Santa Ana-La Florida archaeological site in Ecuador

The Santa Ana-La Florida archaeological site is located within the area of origin of the Nacional cocoa variety grown on the Pacific coast of Ecuador, from which all the fine cocoa produced in the country originated. The presence of seashells, such as spondylus and strombus, from the Pacific coast, at the archaeological site demonstrates that there were communication links between the peoples of the Pacific coast and those of the Amazon, such as the Mayo Chinchipe. “This latter group may therefore have played a major role in domesticating cocoa in general and the Nacional variety in particular.”

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Ceremonial site of Santa Ana La Florida archaeological site near Palanda, Ecuador. © C. Lanaud, CIRAD

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Article Source: CIRAD news release

*Zarrillo S. ±, Gaikwad N. ±, Lanaud C.±, Terry Powis T.,Viot C., Lesur I., Fouet O., Argout X., Guichoux E., Salin F., Loor Solorzano R.G., Bouchez O., Vignes H., Severts P., Hurtado J., Yepez A., Grivetti L., Blake M., Valdez F. The use and domestication of Theobroma cacao during the mid-Holocene in the upper Amazon. Nature Ecology and Evolution ± Lead authors of the study

Amazcacao: a new project on Amazon fine cocoas.

A new project launched in October 2018 to run for three years, funded by Montpellier University of Excellence (MUSE), will be continuing this work on the domestication of the fine and aromatic cocoas of the Amazon. The project, called Amazcacao, which is coordinated by CIRAD, is a multidisciplinary study covering aspects relating to the biodiversity of the cocoa trees in the Ecuadorian Amazon and its use, with the help of local people; the history and domestication of fine cocoa varieties, studied using paleogenomics; an understanding of the genetic and biochemical bases of cocoa aroma quality and sanitary quality; and the socioeconomic aspects of the crop.

*Study partners:

INPC: Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural, INIAP: Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria, Ministry of Heritage and Culture (Ecuador);

University of Calgary, University of British Columbia (Canada);

University of California, UC-Davis, Kennesaw State University (USA);

CIRAD, HelixVenture, INRA, IRD (France).

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON—An international team of scientists has completed the first 3D virtual reconstruction of the ribcage of the most complete Neanderthal skeleton unearthed to date, potentially shedding new light on how this ancient human moved and breathed.

The team, which included researchers from universities in Spain, Israel, and the United States, including the University of Washington, focused on the thorax—the area of the body containing the rib cage and upper spine, which forms a cavity to house the heart and lungs. Using CT scans of fossils from an approximately 60,000-year-old male skeleton known as Kebara 2, researchers were able to create a 3D model of the chest—one that is different from the longstanding image of the barrel-chested, hunched-over “caveman.” The conclusions point to what may have been an upright individual with greater lung capacity and a straighter spine than today’s modern human.

The study is published Oct. 30 in Nature Communications.

“The shape of the thorax is key to understanding how Neanderthals moved in their environment because it informs us about their breathing and balance,” said Asier Gomez-Olivencia, an Ikerbasque Fellow at the University of the Basque Country and the study’s lead author.

And how Neanderthals moved would have had a direct impact on their ability to survive on the resources available to them, said Patricia Kramer, professor in the UW Department of Anthropology and corresponding author on the paper.

“Neanderthals are closely related to us with complex cultural adaptations much like those of modern humans, but their physical form is different from us in important ways,” she said. “Understanding their adaptations allows us to understand our own evolutionary path better.”

Neanderthals are a type of human that emerged about 400,000 years ago, living mostly from what is today Western Europe to Central Asia. They were hunter-gatherers who, in some areas, lived in caves and who weathered several glacial periods before going extinct about 40,000 years ago. Studies in recent years have suggested that Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens interbred, because evidence of Neanderthal DNA has turned up in many populations.

Over the past 150 years, Neanderthal remains have been found at many sites in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. This team worked with a skeleton labeled Kebara 2, also known as “Moshe,” which was found in Kebara Cave in Northern Israel’s Carmel mountain range in 1983. Though the cranium is missing, the remains of the young adult male are considered one of the most complete Neanderthal skeletons ever found. Two different forms of dating of the surrounding soil, thermoluminescence and electron spin resonance, put the age at somewhere between 59,000 and 64,000 years.

Discoveries and studies of other Neanderthal remains in the 19th and early 20th centuries gave rise to theories and images of a stereotypical, hunched-over caveman. Over time, further research clarified scientific understanding of many Neanderthal traits, but some debate has lingered over the structure of the thorax, the capacity of the lungs and what conditions Neanderthals might have been able to adapt to, or not.

Over the past decade, virtual reconstruction has become more commonplace in biological anthropology, Kramer explained. The approach is useful with fossils such as the thorax, where fragile bones make physical reconstruction difficult and risky.

Nearly two years ago, the same research team created a virtual reconstruction of the Kebara 2 spine, the first step in updating theories of Neanderthal biomechanics. The team’s paper, published in the book “Human Paleontology and Prehistory,” reaffirmed the likelihood of upright posture but pointed to a straighter spine than that of modern humans.

For this model of the thorax, researchers used both direct observations of the Kebara 2 skeleton, currently housed at Tel Aviv University, and medical CT scans of vertebrae, ribs and pelvic bones, along with 3D software designed for scientific use. “This was meticulous work,” said Alon Barash, a lecturer at Bar Ilan University in Israel. “We had to CT scan each vertebra and all of the ribs fragments individually and then reassemble them in 3D.”

They then used a technique called morphometric analysis to compare the images of Neanderthal bones with medical scans of bones from present-day adult men. “In the reconstruction process, it was necessary to virtually ‘cut’ and realign some of the parts that showed deformation, and mirror-image some of those that were not so well-preserved in order to get a complete thorax,” said Gomez-Olivencia.

The reconstruction of the thorax, coupled with the team’s earlier finding, shows ribs that connect to the spine in an inward direction, forcing the chest cavity outward and allowing the spine to tilt slightly back, with little of the lumbar curve that is part of the modern human skeletal structure. “The differences between a Neanderthal and modern human thorax are striking,” said Markus Bastir, senior research scientist at the Laboratory of Virtual Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History in Spain.

“The Neanderthal spine is located more inside the thorax, which provides more stability,” said Gomez-Olivencia. “Also, the thorax is wider in its lower part.” This shape of the rib cage suggests a larger diaphragm and thus, greater lung capacity.

“The wide lower thorax of Neanderthals and the horizontal orientation of the ribs suggest that Neanderthals relied more on their diaphragm for breathing,” said senior author Ella Been of Ono Academic College. “Modern humans, on the other hand, rely both on the diaphragm and on the expansion of the rib cage for breathing. Here we see how new technologies in the study of fossil remains is providing new information to understand extinct species.”

What that means for how Kebara 2 lived is ripe for further research, Kramer said. How did Neanderthals breathe, and for what physical demands might they have needed powerful lungs? What does that tell us about how they moved, and the environment in which they lived? Did any of these physical traits make them more or less adaptive to climate change?

Reconstructing the thorax was an exercise in starting from scratch, deliberately trying to avoid being influenced by past theories of how Neanderthals looked or lived, Kramer said.

“Thinking through all the permutations of the different fragments, it was like a jigsaw without all the pieces. What do the pieces tell us?” she said. “People have told you it should be a certain way, but you want to make sure you’re not over-reconstructing, or reconstructing it the way you think it should be. You’re trying to maintain a neutral approach.”

Other authors of the study were Daniel Garcia-Martinez of the National Museum of Natural History and Mikel Arlegi, of the University of the Basque Country.

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Patricia Kramer, a University of Washington professor of anthropology, is part of an international team that completed a virtual 3D reconstruction of portions of a Neanderthal skeleton. Here, she shows part of the collection of model Neanderthal skulls. Dennis Wise, University of Washington

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This image from the virtual reconstruction shows how the ribs attach to the spine in an inward direction, forcing an even more upright posture than in modern humans. Gomez-Olivencia, et al

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If you liked this article, you may like The Last Neanderthals, a premium article in the Fall 2018 issue of Popular Archaeology.

Article Source: University of Washington news release

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY—A new study, led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, suggests that early hominin dispersals beyond Africa did not involve adaptations to environmental extremes, such as to arid and harsh deserts. The discovery of stone tools and cut-marks on fossil animal remains at the site of Ti’s al Ghadah provides definitive evidence for hominins in Saudi Arabia at least 100,000 years earlier than previously known. Stable isotope analysis of the fossil fauna indicates a dominance of grassland vegetation, with aridity levels similar to those found in open savanna settings in eastern Africa today. The stable isotope data indicates that early dispersals of our archaic ancestors were part of a range expansion rather than a result of novel adaptations to new environmental contexts outside Africa.

Studies of early and late dispersals of hominin populations beyond Africa are important for understanding the course of global human evolution and what it means to be human. Although the species that make up the genus Homo are often termed ‘human’ in academic and public discourse, this evolutionary group (or genus), which emerged in Africa around 3 million years ago, is highly diverse. Indeed, there is continuing debate as to what extent our own species Homo sapiens, which emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago, showed unique ecological plasticity in adapting to novel environments compared to other hominin members in the genus Homo.

Distinguishing ecological settings for members of the genus Homo outside Africa

It has recently been argued that early Homo sapiens occupied a diversity of extreme environments, including deserts, tropical rainforests, arctic, and high-altitude settings, around the world. By contrast, the dispersals of other earlier and contemporaneous species of Homo, such as Neanderthals, appear to be associated with generalized use of different forest and grassland mosaics in and among river and lake settings. A lack of palaeoenvironmental information has made it difficult to systematically test this idea and indeed a number of researchers maintain that non-Homo sapiens species demonstrate cultural and ecological adaptive flexibility.

‘Green Arabia’ and early human migrations

In spite of its crucial geographic position at the crossroads between Africa and Eurasia, the Arabian Peninsula has been astoundingly absent from discussions about early human expansions until recently. However, recent analysis of climate models, cave records, lake records, and animal fossils have shown that at certain points in the past, the harsh, hyper-arid deserts that cover much of Arabia today were replaced by ‘greener’ conditions that would have represented an attractive setting for various hominin populations.

Following the ‘savanna’? Direct environmental evidence for first steps ‘Out of Africa’

In the current paper, the researchers undertook renewed archaeological excavations and analysis of fossil fauna found at the site of Ti’s al Ghadah, in the Nefud Desert of northern Saudi Arabia. As one of the lead authors, Mathew Stewart says, “Ti’s al Ghadah is one of the most important palaeontological sites in the Arabian Peninsula and it currently represents the only dated collection of middle Pleistocene fossil animals in this part of the world, and includes animals such as elephant, jaguar and water birds.” Until now, however, the absence of stone tools has made linking these animals with early hominin presence uncertain.

Significantly, the research team found stone tools alongside evidence for the butchery of animals on bones, confirming a hominin presence in association with these animals 500,000 to 300,000 years ago. Michael Petraglia, the principal archaeologist of the project and a co-author on the paper says, “This makes Ti’s al Ghadah the first, early hominin-associated fossil assemblage from the Arabian Peninsula, demonstrating that our ancestors were exploiting a variety of animals as they wandered into the green interior.”

The authors were also able to innovatively apply geochemical methods to fossil animal tooth enamel to determine vegetation and aridity conditions associated with the movements of our ancestors into this region. The stable isotope findings highlight the presence of an abundance of grass in all animal diets, as well as aridity levels somewhat similar to those found in East Africa ‘savanna’ settings today. This information fits with analysis of the types of animals found on site, and indicates the availability of significant amounts of water at certain points in time.

Implications for our understanding of changing human adaptive capacities

“While these early hominin populations may have possessed significant cultural capacities, their movement into this part of the world would not have required adaptations to harsh and arid deserts,” Dr. Patrick Roberts, the lead author of the paper, explains. “Indeed, the isotope evidence suggests that this expansion is more characteristic of a range expansion similar to that seen among other mammals moving between Africa, the Levant, and Eurasia at this time.” More detailed study of past environments, closely associated with different forms of hominin species in the Arabian Peninsula and elsewhere should enable more refined testing as to whether our species is uniquely flexible in terms of its adaptations to varying environments.

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This is a sand dune in the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia. Palaeodeserts Project (Klint Janulis)

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Excavation of mammal fossils at the Ti’s al Ghadah site, Saudi Arabia. Palaeodeserts Project (Michael Petraglia)

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Mammal fossil recovered from the Ti’s al Ghadah site, Saudi Arabia. Palaeodeserts Project (Ian R. Cartwright)

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If you liked this article, see The First Arabians, a free premium article previously published in Popular Archaeology, and One Small Arabian Finger Bone, also a premium article previously published in Popular Archaeology.

Article Source: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History news release

The international consortium of researchers involved in this project is headed by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, in partnership with HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage. Additional partners include the Saudi Geological Survey, King Saud University and other key institutions in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Science Advances—Through excavation of a site in Texas, researchers have identified a particular style of projectile point – or triangular blade often attached to a weapon that would be thrown – dated between 13,500 and 15,500 years ago, they say. This is earlier than typical Clovis-style technologies dated to 13,000 years ago. The finding suggests that projectile points changed over time from the stemmed form found here into the more widespread, Clovis-style lanceolate fluted projectile point. It’s also possible, say the study’s authors, that the projectile point style they found in Texas is a distinct style created by people of an earlier, separate migration into the Americas. Clovis points – thought to date as early as 13,000 years ago – were once thought to reflect the earliest occupation of North America. However, more recent excavations in western North America have identified a different style of point technology – the Western Stemmed Tradition. The connections between the artifact assemblages of Clovis and Western Stemmed Traditions, however, remain unknown. Here, Michael R. Waters and his colleagues report more than 100,000 artifacts, including 328 tools and 12 complete and fragmented projectile points, excavated from the Buttermilk Creek Complex horizon of the Debra L. Friedkin site, which dates earlier than the Clovis history. From 19 optically stimulated luminescence dates of sediments, they determined the artifacts were between 13,500- and 15,500- years-old. The Buttermilk Creek Complex featured bladed projectile points that exhibited similarities to artifact assemblages of the Clovis, with lanceolate features. Waters and colleagues suggest that once developed, the lanceolate fluted point technology (associated with Clovis) could have spread over much of North America into northern Mexico, or alternatively, the stemmed and lanceolate point traditions may be evidence of two separate human migrations into North America.

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Excavations at the Debra L. Friedkin site 2016. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University

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A 15,000-year-old stemmed point tradition. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University

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A stemmed lanceolate projectile point that is about 15,000 years old. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University

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Read a more in-depth article about the findings at the Debra L. Friedkin site, The First Americans, published previously as a premium article (now free) in Popular Archaeology. 

Source: A Science Advances news release. Science Advances is published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HUMAN GENETICS, SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Ancient populations in the Andes of Peru adapted to their high-altitude environment and the introduction of agriculture in ways distinct from other global populations that faced similar circumstances, according to findings* presented at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2018 Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

John Lindo, PhD, JD, assistant professor of anthropology at Emory University, and a group of international collaborators headed by Anna Di Rienzo, PhD, at the University of Chicago and Mark Aldenderfer, PhD, at the University of California, Merced, set out to use newly available samples of 7,000-year-old DNA from seven whole genomes to study how ancient people in the Andes adapted to their environment. They compared these genomes with 64 modern-day genomes from both highland Andean populations and lowland populations in Chile, in order to identify the genetic adaptations that took place before the arrival of Europeans in the 1500s.

“Contact with Europeans had a devastating impact on South American populations, such as the introduction of disease, war, and social disruption,” explained Dr. Lindo. “By focusing on the period before that, we were able to distinguish environmental adaptations from adaptations that stemmed from historical events.”

They found that Andean populations’ genomes adapted to the introduction of agriculture and resulting increase in starch consumption differently from other populations. For example, the genomes of European farming populations show an increased number of copies of the gene coding for amylase, an enzyme in saliva that helps break down starch. While Andeans also followed a high-starch diet after they started to farm, their genomes did not have additional copies of the amylase gene, prompting questions about how they may have adapted to this change.

Similarly, Tibetan genomes, which have been studied extensively for their adaptations to high altitude, show many genetic changes related to the hypoxia response – how the body responds to low levels of oxygen. The Andean genomes did not show such changes, suggesting that this group adapted to high altitude in another way.

The researchers also found that after contact with Europeans, highland Andeans experienced an effective population reduction of 27 percent, far below the estimated 96 percent experienced by lowland populations. Previous archaeological findings showed some uncertainty to this point, and the genetic results suggested that by living in a harsher environment, highland populations may have been somewhat buffered from the reach and resulting effects of European contact. The findings also showed some selection for immune-related genes after the arrival of Europeans, suggesting that Andeans who survived were better able to respond to newly introduced diseases like smallpox.

Building on these findings, Dr. Lindo and his colleagues are currently exploring a new set of ancient DNA samples from the Incan capital Cusco, as well as a nearby lowland group. They are also interested in gene flow and genetic exchange resulting from the wide-ranging trade routes of ancient Andeans.

“Our findings thus far are a great start to an interesting body of research,” said Dr. Lindo. “We would like to see future studies involving larger numbers of genomes in order to achieve a better resolution of genetic adaptations throughout history,” he said.

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The ancient Inka site of Macchu Picchu, nestled in the Andes. Martin St-Amant, Wikimedia Commons

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Article Source: American Society of Human Genetics news release

*Lindo J et al. (2018 Oct 17). Abstract: The genetic prehistory of the Andean highlands 7,000 years BP through European contact. Presented at the American Society of Human Genetics 2018 Annual Meeting. San Diego, California.

Monsoon-driven flooding weakened the water infrastructural network of Angkor, likely leading to the fall of this urban infrastructural network – the largest of the preindustrial world – according to a new analysis*. The findings may help experts better understand the vulnerabilities of modern infrastructural networks in urban environments where high-impact, low-frequency weather events pose a threat, say the study’s authors. The multifaceted infrastructural networks seen in cities provide critical services to many people around the world. According to Dan Penny and colleagues, the study of the stability of preindustrial urban networks stressed by climatic variation can provide important insights into the stability of such networks over long periods of time. Here, Penny et al. analyzed the topology of the ancient city of Angkor, one of the world’s most extensive cities by the 13^th century CE. It featured canals, moats and reservoirs used to acquire, store and distribute water resources, as well as to regulate flooding. The authors investigated the ancient city’s topological vulnerability to erosion and sedimentation as caused by variations in rainfall conditions. After modeling the city’s infrastructure network based on archeological remote sensing and mapping, the researchers applied a numerical simulation model of erosion and sedimentation within the water network to determine whether the processes could change how water traveled through the network. They found that very large floods would result in systematic instability of the water distribution network, with the damage more severe near important upstream junctions. Extreme rainfall occurred in mainland Southeast Asia during the final decades of the 14^th century and likely forced the network into a sudden unstable phase that contributed to the fragmentation of Angkor’s infrastructure network at that time, Penny et al. say.

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Sunrise at Angkor Wat. Magnetic Manifestations, Wikimedia Commons

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If you liked this article, you will like Undiscovered Country, a free premium article published previously in Popular Archaeology.

Article Source: A Science Advances news release. Science Advances is a publication of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science)

*“The demise of Angkor: Systemic vulnerability of urban infrastructure to climatic variations,” by D. Penny; C. Zachreson; R. Fletcher; D. Lau; J. Lizier; N. Fischer; M. Prokopenko at University of Sydney in Sydney, NSW, Australia; D. Evans; C. Pottier at École Française d’Extrême-Orient in Paris, France.

JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAINZ—Some 3,500 years ago, there was already a brisk trade in fish on the shores of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea. This conclusion follows from the analysis of 100 fish teeth that were found at various archeological sites in what is now Israel. The saltwater fish from which these teeth originated is the gilthead sea bream, which is also known as the dorade. It was caught in the Bardawil lagoon on the northern Sinai coast and then transported from Egypt to sites in the southern Levant. This fish transport persisted for about 2,000 years, beginning in the Late Bronze Age and continuing into the early Byzantine Period, roughly 300 to 600 AD. “Our examination of the teeth revealed that the sea bream must have come from a very saline waterbody, containing much more salt than the water in the Mediterranean Sea,” said Professor Thomas Tütken of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). The geoscientist participated in the study together with colleagues from Israel and Göttingen. The Bardawil lagoon formed 4,000 years ago, when the sea level finally stabilized after the end of the last Ice Age. The lagoon was fished intensively and was the point of origin of an extensive fish trade.

As demonstrated by archeological finds, fishing was an important economic factor for many ancient cultures. In the southern Levant, the gilthead sea bream with the scientific name of Sparus aurata was already being fished by local costal fishermen 50,000 years ago. More exotic fish, such as the Nile perch, were already being traded between Egypt and Canaan over 5,000 years ago. However, the current study shows the extent to which the trade between the neighbors increased in the Late Bronze Age and continued for 2,000 years into the Byzantine Period. “The Bardawil lagoon was apparently a major source of fish and the starting point for the fish deliveries to Canaan, today’s Israel, even though the sea bream could have been caught there locally,” stated co-author Professor Andreas Pack from the University of Göttingen.

Fish teeth document over 2,000 years of trade

Gilthead sea bream are a food fish that primarily feed on crabs and mussels. They have a durophagous dentition with button-shaped teeth that enable them to crush the shells to get at the flesh. For the purposes of the study, 100 large shell-cracking teeth of gilthead sea bream were examined. The teeth originate from 12 archeological sites in the southern Levant, some of which lie inland, some on the coast, and cover a time period from the Neolithic to the Byzantine Period. One approach of the researchers was to analyze the content of the oxygen isotopes ^18O and ^16O in the tooth enamel of the sea bream. The ratio of ^18O to ^16O provides information on the evaporation rate and thus on the salt content of the surrounding water in which the fish lived. In addition, the researchers were able to estimate the body size of the fish on the basis of the size of the shell-cracking teeth.

The analyses showed that some of the gilthead sea bream originated from the southeastern Mediterranean but that roughly three out of every four must have lived in a very saline body of water. The only water that comes into question in the locality is that of the Bardawil lagoon, the hypersaline water of which has a salt content of 3.9 to 7.4 percent, providing the perfect environment for the growth of sea bream. The Bardawil lagoon on the Sinai coast is approximately 30 kilometers long, 14 kilometers wide, and has a maximum depth of 3 meters. It is separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow sand bar.

“There was a mainland route from there to Canaan, but the fish were probably first dried and then transported by sea,” added Tütken. Even back then, sea bream were probably a very popular food fish, although it is impossible to estimate actual quantities consumed. However, it became apparent that the fish traded from the period of the Late Bronze Age were significantly smaller than in the previous era.

According to the researchers, this reduction in body size is a sign of an increase in the intensity of fishing that led to a depletion of stocks, which is to be witnessed also in modern times. “It would seem that fishing and the trade of fish expanded significantly, in fact to such a degree that the fish did not have the chance to grow as large,” continued Tütken, pointing out that this was an early form of the systematic commercial exploitation of fish, a type of proto-aquaculture, which persisted for some 2,000 years.

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Jaw with a durophagous dentition consisting of teeth with thick enamel of the gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata): The large molariform tooth was used for oxygen isotope analysis and to estimate the size of the fish. photo/©: Guy Sisma-Ventura, Israel

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Changes of the oxygen isotopes in the crushing teeth as well as the fish body mass over the last 10,000 years: From the Late Bronze Age, the sea bream originated from the hypersaline Bardawil lagoon but their body mass was smaller than before, which is an indication of intensification of fishing. ill./©: Thomas Tütken, JGU

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Map of the archeological sites in Israel where the sea bream teeth analyzed were found. Also shown is the Bardawil lagoon on the north coast of the Sinai Peninsula, from which the sea bream remains found in Israel dating back as far as the Late Bronze Age primarily originated. ill./©: Thomas Tütken, JGU

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Article Source: JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAINZ news release

Geoscientist Professor Thomas Tütken of the Department of Applied and Analytical Paleontology at JGU received an ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council in 2016. The current research study was undertaken jointly with another ERC project of his colleagues in Israel. Dr. Guy Sisma-Ventura, who currently works at the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research (IOLR), stayed for a month in Mainz, where the researchers performed the major part of the oxygen isotope analyses.

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA—The discovery of a 10-year-old’s body at an ancient Roman site in Italy suggests measures were taken to prevent the child, possibly infected with malaria, from rising from the dead and spreading disease to the living.

The skeletal remains, uncovered by archaeologists from the University of Arizona and Stanford University, along with archaeologists from Italy, included a skull with a rock intentionally inserted into the mouth. Researchers believe the stone may have been placed there as part of a funeral ritual designed to contain disease – and the body itself.

The discovery of this unusual, so-called “vampire burial” was made over the summer in the commune of Lugnano in Teverina in the Italian region of Umbria, where UA archaeologist David Soren has overseen archaeological excavations since 1987.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s extremely eerie and weird,” said Soren, a Regents’ Professor in the UA School of Anthropology and Department of Religious Studies and Classics. “Locally, they’re calling it the ‘Vampire of Lugnano.'”

A 10-year-old was discovered lying on its side in a fifth-century Italian cemetery previously believed to be designated for babies, toddlers and unborn fetuses. David Pickel/Stanford University

The discovery was made at La Necropoli dei Bambini, or the Cemetery of the Babies, which dates to the mid-fifth century when a deadly malaria outbreak swept the area, killing many vulnerable babies and small children. The bodies of the young victims were buried at the site of an abandoned Roman villa that was originally constructed at the end of the first century B.C.

Until now, archaeologists believed the cemetery was designated specifically for infants, toddlers and unborn fetuses; in previous excavations of more than 50 burials, a 3-year-old girl was the oldest child found.

The discovery of the 10-year-old, whose age was determined based on dental development but whose sex is unknown, suggests that the cemetery may have been used for older children as well, said bioarcheologist Jordan Wilson, a UA doctoral student in anthropology who analyzed the skeletal remains in Italy.

“There are still sections of the cemetery that we haven’t excavated yet, so we don’t know if we’ll find other older kids,” Wilson said.

Excavation director David Pickel, who has a master’s degree in classical archaeology from the UA and is now a doctoral student at Stanford, said the discovery has the potential to tell researchers much more about the devastating malaria epidemic that hit Umbria nearly 1,500 years ago, as well as the community’s response to it.

“Given the age of this child and its unique deposition, with the stone placed within his or her mouth, it represents, at the moment, an anomaly within an already abnormal cemetery,” Pickel said. “This just further highlights how unique the infant – or now, rather, child – cemetery at Lugnano is.”

Witchcraft as disease control

In previous excavations at the Cemetery of the Babies, archaeologists found infant and toddler bones alongside items like raven talons, toad bones, bronze cauldrons filled with ash and the remains of puppies that appear to have been sacrificed – all objects commonly associated with witchcraft and magic. In addition, the body of the 3-year-old girl had stones weighing down her hands and feet – a practice used by different cultures throughout history to keep the deceased in their graves.

“We know that the Romans were very much concerned with this and would even go to the extent of employing witchcraft to keep the evil – whatever is contaminating the body – from coming out,” Soren said.

The “evil,” in the case of the babies and toddlers uncovered in Lugnano, was malaria, Soren believed. DNA testing of several of the excavated bones supported his theory.

Although the 10-year-old’s remains have not yet undergone DNA testing, the child had an abscessed tooth – a side effect of malaria – that suggests he or she may also have fallen victim to the disease, Wilson said.

The child was one of five new burials uncovered at the cemetery over the summer. The body was found lying on its left side in a makeshift tomb created by two large roof tiles propped against a wall – an alla cappuccina-style burial typical of Roman Italy.

“Knowing that two large roof tiles were used for this burial, I was expecting something unique to be found inside, perhaps a ‘double-inhumation’ – not uncommon for this cemetery – where a single burial contains two individuals,” Pickel said. “After removing the roof tiles, however, it became immediately clear to us that we were dealing with an older individual.”

The open position of the child’s jaw, which would not have opened naturally during decomposition with the body positioned on its side, suggests that the rock was intentionally inserted in the mouth after death, Wilson said. Teeth marks on the surface of the stone provide further evidence that it was placed purposefully.

The 10-year old was the first at the cemetery to be found with a stone in its mouth. Similar burials have been documented in other locations, including in Venice, where an elderly 16th-century woman dubbed the “Vampire of Venice” was found with a brick in her mouth in 2009. In Northamptonshire, England, in 2017, an adult male from the third or fourth century was found buried facedown with his tongue removed and replaced with a stone.

These types of burials are often referred to as vampire burials, since they are associated with a belief that the dead could rise again. Other examples of vampire burials throughout history include bodies being staked to the ground through the heart or dismembered prior to interment.

“This is a very unusual mortuary treatment that you see in various forms in different cultures, especially in the Roman world, that could indicate there was a fear that this person might come back from the dead and try to spread disease to the living,” Wilson said.

Archaeologists will return to Lugnano next summer to complete excavations of the cemetery and learn more about a dark time in history.

“It’s a very human thing to have complicated feelings about the dead and wonder if that’s really the end,” Wilson said. “Anytime you can look at burials, they’re significant because they provide a window into ancient minds. We have a saying in bioarchaeology: ‘The dead don’t bury themselves.’ We can tell a lot about people’s beliefs and hopes and by the way they treat the dead.”

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A rock was inserted into the mouth of a 10-year-old to keep the deceased child from rising from the grave and spreading malaria, researchers believe. David Pickel/Stanford University

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This is the rock that was inserted into the child’s mouth in this so-called “vampire burial.” David Pickel/Stanford University

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For a more in-depth article about “vampire burial” practices discovered through archaeology, see the previously published free premium article, Walking Dead and Vengeful Spirits, published in Popular Archaeology.

Article Source: University of Arizona news release

UNIVERSITÀ CA’ FOSCARI VENEZIA—It is now possible to tell the story of mankind’s presence and evolution on the planet by analyzing trends in soil and sediment accumulation of fecal sterols, chemical compounds which are crucial in human physiology. Scientists at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the Institute for the Dynamics of Environmental Processes of the National Research Council (CNR-IDPA) have identified and dated traces of sterols within the sediments of two New Zealand lakes, thus proving the presence of the Maori people who, starting from around 1280, colonized the two oceanic islands and cleared them of forests in just a few decades to make space for fields and pastures. The study has just been published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.

The analyses were carried out in the laboratories of Venice on cores of sediment taken from Lakes Diamond and Kirkpatrick, located on New Zealand’s South Island. By analyzing the microparticles of coal and pollen, researchers had already found evidence of significant forest fires as well as of sudden changes to the New Zealand landscape during the fourteenth century, when the deforested areas made space available for grass and shrubs to grow quickly and in a manner that was without precedent. Archaeological and paleoecological evidence quite conclusively attribute the deforestation to the Maori people, but this new study provides definitive scientific proof of their arrival in the area and of the enormous impact that a group of so few individuals had on the native forest in a very short time, to the extent that it was irreversibly jeopardized. In addition, the research demonstrates the validity of the method tested by the Italian researchers for reconstructing the history of humankind’s presence in a given region.

“Lakes collect traces of the feces of populations that have lived in surrounding areas, and these are deposited on the lake floors,” explains Elena Argiriadis, postdoc at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics at Ca’ Foscari, one of the authors of the study, “offering a continuous recording of the centuries of human presence. The concentration of coprostanol, the sterol most abundant in human feces, graphs a trend which over time nearly matches that of fire-related biomarkers, with a peak between 1345 and 1365 approximately, and is consistent with the profound environmental transformation which took place in New Zealand following the arrival of the Maori.”

“This research is part of a series of studies on mankind’s impact, through our history and prehistory, on environment and climate, analyzing biomarkers archived within ice or sediment extracts from all over the planet (the Early Human Impact project, funded by the European Research Council),” explains Carlo Barbante, professor of Analytical Chemistry at Ca’ Foscari and director of the CNR-IDPA. “Traces of human excrement also tell of the Europeans’ arrival on the southern island of New Zealand, starting in the 1800s. The exponential growth in the concentration of fecal sterols vividly demonstrates the rapid increase in the population of the area, which has been ongoing since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The method can now be applied to nearby lake sediments and soils, in which the history of human settlement is not so well-documented as in the case of New Zealand, helping to map the movements of populations over time”.

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Aerial view of Diamond Lake in New Zealand.

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The study was conducted in collaboration with scientists from Montana State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, the Landcare Research center of New Zealand and the University of Auckland.

Article Source: A UNIVERSITÀ CA’ FOSCARI VENEZIA news release

PLOS—The classic account of the ancient city of Koh Ker is one of a briefly-occupied and abruptly-abandoned region, but in reality, the area may have been occupied for several centuries beyond what is traditionally acknowledged, according to a study published October 10, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Tegan Hall of the University of Sydney, Australia and colleagues.

Koh Ker was part of the Khmer kingdom during the Angkor period in what is now Cambodia. For a mere two decades in the tenth century CE, the city served as royal capital, and it has long been proposed that after the royal seat moved back to Angkor, the city and its surroundings were abandoned. In this study, Hall and colleagues tested this theory by analyzing charcoal and pollen remains in sediment cores spanning several centuries in three Koh Ker localities, including the moat of the main central temple. From these data, they inferred a long history of fluctuations in fire regimes and vegetation which are highly indicative of patterns of human occupation and land use over time.

The newly-painted picture is of a region that was occupied well before the Angkor period, at least as far back as the late 7th century CE, and continuing seven centuries or more after the royal seat’s departure. The authors suggest that the mobility of royal houses may have had less of an impact on regional populations in the Khmer kingdom than previously thought. This study also highlights the utility of palaeoecological tools to reconstruct the occupational history of ancient urban settlements.

Hall adds: “When the environmental record is analyzed, it becomes clear that Koh Ker was much more than a temporary 10th century capital of the Khmer kingdom. The settlement history of the site is extensive and complex, beginning in the pre-Angkor period and lasting for centuries beyond the decline of Angkor.”

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These are coring locations across Koh Ker and its surrounds. Background image supplied by Google Earth. Hall et al., 2018

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If you liked this article, you may like Living in the Shadow of Angkor, a previously published premium article in Popular Archaeology.

Article Source: PLOS ONE news release

*Hall T, Penny D, Hamilton R (2018) Re-evaluating the occupation history of Koh Ker, Cambodia, during the Angkor period: A palaeo-ecological approach. PLoS ONE 13(10): e0203962. 

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY, BINGHAMTON, N.Y. —Ancient inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) maintained a society of thousands by utilizing coastal groundwater discharge as their main source of “freshwater,” according to new research from a team of archaeologists including faculty at Binghamton University, State University at New York.

The team, which included Binghamton University Professor of Anthropology Carl Lipo, measured the salinity of coastal water around the island of Rapa Nui, in order to determine whether or not the water close to the shores had a salt concentration low enough for humans to safely drink.

The process of coastal groundwater discharge makes it possible for humans to collect drinkable freshwater directly where it emerges at the coast of the island.

By measuring the percentage of salt in the coastal waters, and finding it safe for human consumption, and by eliminating other options as primary sources of drinking water, the researchers concluded that groundwater discharge was a critical factor in the sustenance of the large population the island is thought to have harbored.

“The porous volcanic soils quickly absorb rain, resulting in a lack of streams and rivers,” Lipo said. “Fortunately, water beneath the ground flows downhill and ultimately exits the ground directly at the point at which the porous subterranean rock meets the ocean. When tides are low, this results in the flow of freshwater directly into the sea. Humans can thus take advantage of these sources of freshwater by capturing the water at these points.”

Lipo said the freshwater mixes with the saltwater slightly, creating what’s called brackish water, but not enough for the water to contain harmful levels of salt to human consumers. It does, however, mean that the islanders rarely used salt on their foods, because the water they drank contributed so drastically to their daily salt intake.

Lipo’s team indicated researchers have often wondered why the island’s famous statues are only located in certain places around the island, with a high concentration of them near the coasts.

“Now that we know more about the location of freshwater, however, the location of these monuments and other features makes tremendous sense: they are positioned where freshwater is immediately available,” Lipo said.

He said there are very few sources of freshwater on the island, including two lakes that are perilously difficult to access, no streams, and one spring that is often reduced to a wetland bog. Much of the opposition to the research of Lipo’s team is the presence of taheta on the island, which are small, carved-out cisterns used for collecting rainfall. To refute this argument, Lipo’s team explained that if collecting rainwater was extremely necessary to island survival, the cisterns would be much larger, instead of being able to hold only between two and four liters of water each.

The team’s research shows that the little amount of rainfall that Rapa Nui receives (1240 mm/yr), coupled with the basic evaporation rate of water in a climate such as the island’s, means that on average, taheta could not be used as viable sources of drinking water 317 days out of the year.

This led the researchers to conclude that there must be a different source of drinking water, in order for a population numbering in the thousands to sustain itself. European accounts of first encounters with the island in the 18th century include passages where the natives appear to simply drink seawater. Since the human body cannot process the high salt concentration of seawater, this supports the team’s groundwater discharge theory.

Lipo said the group’s next project is to try to understand how closely the availability of freshwater in certain locations is linked to the methods and means of building the large statues on the island. He is hopeful that this research will benefit both science and the modern world.

“This information ultimately sheds light on the conditions that drove and enabled these communities to work together to achieve their feats of engineering,” Lipo said. “By gaining knowledge about community scale behavior, we can gain insights into the general conditions necessary for group-level cooperation—whether in the past or in contemporary society.”

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Moai at Rano Raraku, Easter Island. Horacio_Fernandez, Wikimedia Commons

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Article Source: Binghamton University news release

*”Coastal Groundwater Discharge and the Ancient Inhabitants of Rapa Nui, (Easter Island) Chile,” was published in the Journal of Hydrology.

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA—A progressively drying climate punctuated by variable wetter episodes may have precipitated the transition from our hominin ancestors to anatomically modern humans, according to research published on Oct. 8 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

Since the discovery of a rich assemblage of human fossils as well as stone tools and other archeological evidence in the rift valley of East Africa, a region often referred to as the cradle of humanity, scientists have attempted to piece together the complex puzzle that is the history of our human origins, including the environmental context of that history.

The study, based on lake sediment cores, is the first to provide a continuous environmental context for the diverse archeological evidence recovered from nearby localities in the rift valley basins of southern Kenya. The cores were sampled from Lake Magadi as part of the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project, or HSPDP, which is directed by University of Arizona professor Andrew Cohen.

Lake Magadi, a shallow, periodically dry lake, is close to the Olorgesailie basin in Kenya, one of the most productive sites for archaeological evidence of human evolution in Africa. The authors suggest that the profound climatic changes may have been driving forces behind hominin evolution, the origins of modern Homo sapiens and the onset of the Middle Stone Age.

While previous hypotheses have related hominin evolution to climate change, most prior studies lack regional-scale evidence for a link between environment and hominin evolution, the authors write in the paper, “Progressive aridification in East Africa over the last half million years and implications for human evolution.” According to the study, a trend toward intense aridification in the area began 575,000 years ago. The change, not previously documented in continuous continental cores from East Africa, corresponds with faunal extinctions and a major transformation in stone tool technology documented in the Olorgesailie region.

“Much evidence for human evolution has been gathered from the area, but linking those records to detailed environmental records was missing until now,” said the study’s lead author, Richard Owen, of Hong Kong Baptist University. “There is a big gap in the records between the last Early Stone Age tools 500,000 years ago and the appearance of Middle Stone Age tools about 320,000 years ago. Our results plugged that gap with a continuous environmental record.”

A critical transition occurred sometime during this gap, a period for which archeologists have unearthed evidence of a leap in early humans’ abilities to make, use and trade stone tools.

The cores from Lake Magadi provide the first detailed link between climate change and events known from the region’s archeological record.

“We have known for a while that the climate at the time was very varied, but the key here is that the records are in proximity to the archeological evidence for this transition,” says Cohen, a professor in the University of Arizona’s Department of Geosciences. “The older stone tools found at Olorgesailie did not change much between 1.2 million and a half-million years ago. And suddenly, after 500,000 and before 320,000 years ago – we don’t know exactly when, but in that timespan – there was a critical transition in archeology when tools became more sophisticated and were transported over longer distances.”

At the same time the lake core records point to the climate becoming drier and more variable, there is evidence elsewhere in Africa of the appearance of modern Homo sapiens, prompting much speculation whether the two are connected, Cohen said.

“Whether the evolution of bigger brains goes hand in hand with new toolkits is not entirely clear,” he said. “But the earliest modern Homo sapiens fossils from Morocco date back 325,000 years, the same time we see this transition of tools. And both happened around the same time that our core record indicates severe drying very close to the archeological sites.”

The deepest core drilled at Lake Magadi reached 200 meters (650 feet), penetrating all sedimentary layers down to the volcanic bedrock of the lake. The core samples, each about 10 feet long and 2 1/2 inches in diameter, are cut into manageable 5-foot segments, packaged and air-freighted to the National Lake Core Facility at the University of Minnesota for curation, analysis and storage.

According to the hypothesis of variability selection, a rapidly changing environment creates selective pressure that forces species to adapt to rapid change, Owen said. Under that scenario, the larger brains of anatomically modern humans would have allowed our ancestors to adapt quickly to an increasingly less predictable world.

“Now we have evidence that at the same time the toolkits were changing, the mammal fauna changed and the climate became more arid,” Owen said. “So you have a series of coincidences that makes you think, ‘This could be real.’ Now we can say when the environment changed and then compare that to the archeological evidence of the region.”

Drilling at other nearby sites by HSPDP has been completed as researchers gather more of the region’s climate data to continue studying the importance of environmental variability in the course of human evolution.

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During the dry season, evaporating water leaves behind trona crystals growing on the Lake Magadi lakebed. The drilling rig used in this study towers above the dry lakebed in the background. Robin Renaut

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Study co-authors Veronica Muiruri (left), Anthony Mbuthia (blue shirt) and Andrew Cohen label a freshly sealed sediment core sample from Lake Magadi, Kenya. Anne Billingsley

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Lake Magadi seen in the wet season. The lake periodically dries and floods in response to seasonal rains that cover the lakebed evaporites with up to 3 to 6 feet of water. Richard Owen

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If you liked this article, see Olorgesailie, published as a premium article in the Summer 2018 issue of Popular Archaeology.

Article Source: University of Arizona news release

UNIVERSITY OF YORK—Research at the University of York has suggested that Neanderthals embraced healthcare practices, such as assisting in cases of serious injury and the challenges of childbirth.

Healthcare practices in this period of human evolution have often been studied alongside complex cultural behavior, mostly based around research into rituals and symbols associated with death. This new study, however, sets out, for the first time, that healthcare could have had a more strategic role in Neanderthal survival.

Previous research at the University of York has already suggested that compassion and caring for the injured and dying could have been a factor in the development of healthcare practices, but further investigation has now shown that there was evolutionary drivers behind it too.

Researchers investigated the skeletal remains of more than 30 individuals where minor and serious injuries were evident, but did not lead to loss of life. The samples displayed several episodes of injury and recovery, suggesting that Neanderthals must have had a well-developed system of care in order to survive.

Dr Penny Spikins, from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “Neanderthals faced multiple threats to their lives, particularly from large and dangerous animals, but in popular culture Neanderthals have such a brutish and strong image that we haven’t really thought too deeply about their vulnerabilities before now.

“We have evidence of healthcare dating back 1.6 million years ago, but we think it probably goes further back than this. We wanted to investigate whether healthcare in Neanderthals was more than a cultural practice; was it something they just did or was it more fundamental to their strategies for survival?

“The high level of injury and recovery from serious conditions, such as a broken leg, suggests that others must have collaborated in their care and helped not only to ease pain, but to fight for their survival in such a way that they could regain health and actively participate in the group again.”

It is generally accepted that more than 80% of the skeletal remains known to archaeologists display several injuries, some of which may have required simple remedies, such as food and rest, and others that would have required serious levels of care due to a high risk to life.

Neanderthals lived in small groups, so any one loss of life was particularly significant to the survival of the whole community. Injury, over disease, was the most common threat, as Neanderthals didn’t live in the type of environment, or in large enough communities, to be at high risk from pathogens.

Neanderthal women, however, were at risk from difficulties in childbirth. The shape of their pelvis and the size and shape of a child’s head was similar to that of modern-day humans, so it is assumed that they would also have encountered some common issues in childbirth.

Dr Spikins said: “It is likely that they would have had assisted childbirth; the role that we now attribute to midwives. Without support, they probably could not have survived the toll that the death rate of mothers and babies could have taken on their communities.

“When we look at the daily risks and dangers involved in hunting and finding food, as well as in childbirth in respect to their small hunting communities, it is not surprising that they would develop practices to improve health and reduce mortality risk.

“We can start to see healthcare as a pattern of evolutionary significant collaborative behavior, alongside hunting together, food sharing and parenting. In this we can see why providing healthcare to those in need today is such an important part of human life.”

Researchers now aim to expand this work to look at potential methods of healthcare and how far back healthcare practices can be traced.

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If you liked this article, you may like Did Our Compassion Make Us Human?, by Penny Spikins, a previous premium article (now free to the public) published previously in Popular Archaeology.

Article Source: University of York news release

The research, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, is published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

Cover Image, Top Left: M0001106 Restoration of a Neanderthal man in profile. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Imagesimages@wellcome.ac.ukhttp://wellcomeimages.orgRestoration of a Neanderthal man in profile.Published: – Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Genomic analyses of nomads from Europe and Asia has revealed that the ancestors of most western Iron Age nomads were individuals from the eastern Pontic-Caspian steppe, a region that experienced great population movements during this time. These findings* shed light on the nomadic tribes that had significant impact on the cultural development of Eurasia. The Pontic-Caspian steppe, which connects eastern Europe to western Kazakhstan, was inhabited by nomadic populations during the Bronze and Iron Ages (1800 BCE to 400 CE). While their presence during this time is confirmed from archaeological research, the genomic structure of the Bronze Age peoples (the Srubnaya-Alakulskaya cultures) and of the Iron Age populations (including the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians) in the region has not been fully explored. Maja Krzewińska and colleagues analyzed genomic data for 35 Bronze Age and Iron Age individuals from the Pontic-Caspian steppe from four chronologically sequential cultural groups: 13 Srubnaya-Alakulskaya individuals, 3 Cimmerians, 14 Scythians and 5 Sarmatians – all radiocarbon-dated to have lived between 1900 BCE and 400 CE. The researchers’ analyses of these individuals’ genomic data revealed many genetic links between the Cimmerians and Sarmatians, suggesting that they shared a common ancestral gene pool. However, no group can be deemed a direct ancestor of another group, Krzewińska et al. say. Despite no direct link, these individuals possess common genetic signatures maintained over the years from peoples from eastern fringes of the Pontic-Caspian steppe. This, say the authors, suggests western Eurasian steppe nomads that survived into the Iron Age were not direct descendants of the Bronze Age Srubnaya-Alakulskaya peoples, but rather, that they descended from peoples of the eastern Pontic-Caspian steppe region.

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Map showing the Pontic-Caspian steppe grasslands region of the Eurasian Steppe, in Eurasia. Dbachmann, Wikimedia Commons

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A view of the Steppe. YegorGeologist, Wikimedia Commons

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Article Source: A Science Advances news release

*”Ancient genomes suggest the eastern Pontic-Caspian steppe as the source of western Iron Age nomads,” by M. Krzewińska; G.M. Kılınç; J. Storå; A. Götherström at Stockholm University in Stockholm, Sweden; A. Juras; M. Chyleński; S. Łukasik; M. Krenz-Niedbała at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in Poznań, Poland; D. Koptekin at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey; A.G. Nikitin at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI; N. Shcherbakov; I. Shuteleva; T. Leonova at Bashkir State Pedagogical University in Ufa, Russia; L. Kraeva at Orenburg State Pedagogical University in Orenburg, Russia; F.A. Sungatov; A.N. Sultanova at Bashkir State University in Ufa, Russia; I. Potekhina at National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine; L. Dalén at Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, Sweden; V. Sinika at Taras Shevchenko University in Tiraspol in Tiraspol, Moldova; V. Sinika at Nizhnevartovsk State University in Nizhnevartovsk, Russia; M. Jakobsson at Human Evolution in Uppsala, Sweden; M. Jakobsson at University of Johannesburg in Auckland Park, South Africa.

PLOS ONE—Some of the dental features characteristic of Neanderthals were already present in Early Pleistocene Homo antecessor, according to a study* published September 19, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Laura Martín-Francés of the University of Bordeaux, France and colleagues.

Dental tissue proportions and enamel thickness are helpful features for identifying and distinguishing ancient hominins, reflecting unique developmental processes that arose in among hominin species. Neanderthals possess uniquely thin enamel compared to other hominins, but the origin and evolution of this condition is unknown. In this study, Martín-Francés and colleagues examined teeth from the Early Pleistocene hominin Homo antecessor, a potential ancestor of Neanderthals, to determine when this and other Neanderthal tooth features arose.

The authors examined 17 molars of Homo antecessor from the Gran Dolina-TD6 cave site in Sierra de Atapuerca in Northern Spain, dating back to the Early Pleistocene, 0.8-0.9 million years ago. They compared these teeth to more than 300 molars from other Homo species, living and extinct, from Asia, Africa, and Europe. Through micro-CT scans and high-resolution imaging, they determined that H. antecessor did not share the Neanderthal trait of thin enamel, but that the overall distribution of tooth tissues (enamel and dentine) in H. antecessor was in fact more similar to Neanderthals than to Homo sapiens and other hominins.

These findings suggest that certain aspects of Neanderthal tooth structure had already arisen in earlier hominins of Early Pleistocene Europe, but that the full suite of Neanderthal traits did not appear until later. The authors note that future study on hominins across the Early and Middle Pleistocene of Europe will further elucidate the evolutionary steps that produced the unique dentitions of Late Pleistocene hominins.

Martín-Francés summarizes: “The Early Pleistocene species, Homo antecessor (Atapuerca, Spain) shares the same molar enamel thickness with most hominins, including Homo sapiens. However, as early as 900,000 ago, Homo antecessor shows a few structural characteristics that are absent in the rest of the hominin species and will become the typical Neanderthal configuration.”

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These are enamel thickness cartographies of the H. antecessor upper M1 (ATD6-103) from Gran Dolina (Atapuerca) compared with those of Neanderthal and modern human. Martín-Francés et al., 2018

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Homo antecessor, incomplete skull from “Gran Dolina” (ATD6-15 & ATD6-69), in Atapuerca, Spain (replica).

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In another study**, fossil teeth from Italy, among the oldest human remains on the Italian Peninsula, show that Neanderthal dental features had evolved by around 450,000 years ago, according to the article published October 3, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Clément Zanolli of the Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier in France and colleagues. These teeth also add to a growing picture of a period of complex human evolution that we are only beginning to understand.

Zanolli and colleagues examined dental remains from the sites of Fontana Fanuccio, located 50km southeast of Rome, and Visogliano, located 18km northwest of Trieste. At around 450,000 years old, these teeth join a very short list of fossil human remains from Middle Pleistocene Europe. Using micro-CT scanning and detailed morphological analyses, the authors examined the shape and arrangement of tooth tissues and compared them with teeth of other human species. They found that the teeth of both sites share similarities with Neanderthals and are distinct from modern humans.

There has been much debate over the identities and relationships of Middle Pleistocene ancient humans in Eurasia. The discovery of Neanderthal-like teeth so early in the record adds support to the suggestion of an early divergence of the Neanderthal lineage from our own, around the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition. The teeth are also notably different from other teeth known from this time in Eurasia, suggesting that there may have been multiple human lineages populating the region at this time, adding to a growing list of evidence that the Middle Pleistocene was a time of more complex human evolution than previously recognized.

Zanolli adds: “The remains from Fontana Ranuccio and Visogliano represent among the oldest human fossil remains testifying to a peopling phase of the Italian Peninsula. Our analyses of the tooth internal structural organization reveal a Neanderthal-like signature, also resembling the condition shown by the contemporary assemblage from Atapuerca Sima de los Huesos, indicating that an overall Neanderthal morphological dental template was preconfigured in Western Europe at least 430 to 450 ka ago.”

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A virtual rendering of the Visogliano and Fontana Ranuccio teeth. Zanolli et al., 2018

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Articles Source: PLOS ONE news releases

*Martín-Francés L, Martinón-Torres M, Martínez de Pinillos M, García-Campos C, Modesto-Mata M, Zanolli C, et al. (2018) Tooth crown tissue proportions and enamel thickness in Early Pleistocene Homo antecessor molars (Atapuerca, Spain). PLoS ONE 13(10): e0203334. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203334

**Zanolli C, Martinón-Torres M, Bernardini F, Boschian G, Coppa A, Dreossi D, et al. (2018) The Middle Pleistocene (MIS 12) human dental remains from Fontana Ranuccio (Latium) and Visogliano (Friuli-Venezia Giulia), Italy. A comparative high resolution endostructural assessment. PLoS ONE 13(10): e0189773. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189773

UNIVERSITY OF YORK—Researchers at the University of York and the British Museum have discovered traces of opiates preserved inside a distinctive vessel dating back to the Late Bronze Age.

Vessels of this type, known as ‘base-ring juglets’, have long been thought to have links with opium use because when inverted they resemble the seed head of the opium poppy; they are known to have been widely traded in the eastern Mediterranean ca. 1650 – 1350BC.

Researchers used a range of analytical techniques to study a particular juglet housed in the British Museum, which is a sealed vessel, allowing the contents inside to be preserved. This meant that there was a rare opportunity for scientists to investigate what components might have survived.

Initial analysis by scientists at the British Museum showed that the juglet residue was mostly composed of a plant oil but hinted at the presence of opium alkaloids, a group of organic compounds derived from the opium poppy, and that are known to have significant psychological effects on the human body.

To conclusively detect the alkaloids and demonstrate the presence of opiates in the oil-based residue of the vessel, however, a new analytical technique was needed.

Using instruments in the Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry at the University of York, Dr Rachel Smith developed the new analytical method as part of her PhD at the University’s Department of Chemistry.

Dr Smith said: “The particular opiate alkaloids we detected are ones we have shown to be the most resistant to degradation, which makes them better targets in ancient residues than more well-known opiates such as morphine.

“We found the alkaloids in degraded plant oil, so the question as to how opium would have been used in this juglet still remains. Could it have been one ingredient amongst others in an oil-based mixture, or could the juglet have been re-used for oil after the opium or something else entirely?”

In the past, it has been argued that these juglets could have been used to hold poppy seed oil, containing traces of opium, used for anointing or in a perfume. In this theory, the opium effects may have held symbolic significance.

Professor Jane Thomas-Oates, Chair of Analytical Science in the Department of Chemistry, and supervisor of the study at the University of York, said: “The juglet is significant in revealing important details about trade and the culture of the period, so it was important to us to try and progress the debate about what it might have been used for.

“We were able to establish a rigorous method for detecting opiates in this kind of residue, but the next analytical challenge is to see if we can succeed with less well-preserved residues.”

This is the first time that reliable chemical evidence has been produced to link the opium poppy with a base-ring juglet, despite many previous attempts by researchers over the years.

Dr Rebecca Stacey, Senior Scientist in the Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum, said: “It is important to remember that this is just one vessel, so the result raises lots of questions about the contents of the juglet and its purpose. The presence of the alkaloids here is unequivocal and lends a new perspective to the debate about their significance.”

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The base-ring juglet resembles the seed head of an opium poppy. British Museum

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Article Source: University of York news release

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY—Knowledge of the diet of people living in the prehistoric settlement of Çatalhöyük almost 8000 years ago has been complemented in astonishing scope and detail by analyzing proteins from their ceramic bowls and jars. Using this new approach, an international team of researchers has determined that vessels from this early farming site in central Anatolia, in what is now Turkey, contained cereals, legumes, dairy products and meat, in some cases narrowing food items down to specific species.

An international team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of York has uncovered details about the diet of early farmers in the central Anatolian settlement of Çatalhöyük. By analyzing proteins from residues in ancient pots and jars excavated from the site, the researchers were able to find evidence of foods that were eaten there. Although previous studies have looked at pot residues from the site, this was the first to use proteins, which can be used to identify plants and animals more specifically, sometimes down to the species level.

One of the key early farming sites in the Old World

Çatalhöyük was a large settlement inhabited from about 7100 BC to 5600 BC by early farmers, and is located in what is now central Turkey. The site showcases a fascinating layout in which houses were built directly next to each other in every direction and stands out for its excellent preservation of finds. After over 25 years of excavation and analysis, it is considered one of the best-researched early farming sites in the Old World.

For this study, the researchers analyzed vessel sherds from the West Mound of Çatalhöyük, dating to a narrow timeframe of 5900-5800 BC towards the end of the site’s occupation. The vessel sherds analyzed came from open bowls and jars, as shown by reconstructions and had calcified residues on the inside surfaces. In this region today, limescale residue on the inside of cooking pots is very common. The researchers used state-of-the-art protein analyses on samples taken from various parts of the ceramics, including the residue deposits, to determine what the vessels held.

Food proteins left behind in ceramic bowls and jars

The analysis revealed that the vessels contained grains, legumes, meat and dairy products. The dairy products were shown to have come mostly from sheep and goats, and also from the bovine (cattle) family. While bones from these animals are found across the site and earlier lipid analyses have identified milk fats in vessels, this is the first time researchers have been able to identify which animals were actually being used for their milk. In line with the plant remains found, the cereals included barley and wheat, and the legumes included peas and vetches. The non-dairy animal products, which might have included meat and blood, came primarily from the goat and sheep family, and in some cases from bovines and deer. Interestingly, many of the pots contain evidence of multiple food types in a single vessel, suggesting that the residents mixed foods in their cuisine, potentially as porridges or soups, or that some vessels were used sequentially for different food items, or both.

Early cheese-making

One particular vessel however, a jar, only had evidence for dairy products, in the form of proteins found in the whey portion of milk. “This is particularly interesting because it suggests that the residents may have been using dairy production methods that separated fresh milk into curds and whey. It also suggests that they had a special vessel for holding the whey afterwards, meaning that they used the whey for additional purposes after the curd was separated,” states Jessica Hendy, lead author, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. These results show that dairying has been ongoing in this area since at least the 6th millennium BC, and that people used the milk of multiple different species of animal, including cow, sheep and goat.

However, the researchers emphasize that based on the archaeological record an even greater variety of foods, especially plant foods, were likely eaten at Çatalhöyük, which either were not contained in the vessels they studied or are not present in the databases they use to identify proteins. The “shotgun” proteomic approaches used by the researchers are heavily dependent on reference sequence databases, and many plant species are not represented or have limited representation. “For example, there are only 6 protein sequences for vetch in the databases. For wheat, there are almost 145,000,” explains Hendy. “An important aspect of future work will need to be expanding these databases with more reference sequences.”

The potential of protein analysis on archaeological ceramics

Other molecular techniques applied to ancient pottery can reveal broad classes of food – such as evidence of dairy or animal fat – but an analysis of proteins allows a much more detailed picture of past cuisine. The results of this study show the power of protein analyses, which can identify foodstuffs in situ down to the species level, in samples as old as 8,000 years. In particular, the residues on the insides of the ceramics were exceptionally well-preserved and contained a wealth of information. The removal of these residues can be a common practice among archaeologists as part of the preservation and cleaning process. “These results highlight how valuable these deposits can be, and we encourage colleagues to retain them during post-excavation processing and cleaning,” states Eva Rosenstock of the Freie Universität Berlin and the senior author of the study.

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Trench 5 on the West Mound (ca. 6000 – 5600 BC) of Çatalhöyük during excavation. The larger East Mound (ca. 7100 – 6000 BC), which was already deserted when the West Mound flourished, is visible in the background. Jason Quinlan

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These are examples of calcified deposits from modern and ancient vessels at Çatalhöyük. a) Example of extensive limescale build-up on a modern tea water pot used near Çatalhöyük. b) A close-up of limescale deposits on an ancient sample. c) A relatively intact vessel (not analyzed in this study) demonstrating bowl shape. d) A selection of 4 sherds analyzed in this study showing calcifications adhering to the inside surface of ceramic sherds. Ingmar Franz; Hendy et al. 2018. Ancient proteins from ceramic vessels at Çatalhöyük West reveal the hidden cuisine of early farmers. Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06335-6.

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A summary of dietary-derived protein identifications. The left graph summarizes proteins extracted from the sherd’s interior wall and the right graph summarizes proteins extracted from calcified deposits on the inner wall. Filled icons represent protein assignments to the genus or species level, while transparent icons represent identifications to higher taxonomies (subfamily, family). In samples CW20 and CW27, blood protein was identified to the taxonomic level of ruminant animals, which includes sheep and goats. In sample CW24, milk protein could be assigned to either bovine or sheep families. Jessica Hendy; Hendy et al. 2018. Ancient proteins from ceramic vessels at Çatalhöyük West reveal the hidden cuisine of early farmers. Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06335-6.

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If you liked this news, you might like Before Kings and Palaces, an in-depth look at a 9,000-year-old settlement in present-day Turkey, published previously as a premium article (and now free) in Popular Archaeology. 

Article Source: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History news release

UNIVERSITÀ CA’ FOSCARI VENEZIA—On the island of Torcello, at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice excavation site, some protagonists of the island’s thousand-year history have begun to emerge. A tomb datable to around 700 A.D. has recently been unearthed by the site’s team of scholars, who hail from universities throughout Italy, under the scientific direction of archaeologist Diego Calaon (a Marie Curie Fellow).

“The subject is a young adult, whose burial – not far from the area we imagine was used as a cemetery adjacent to the Basilica during the Early Middle Ages – maintained nearly the entire skeleton intact, with the exception of the head. We mustn’t be misled, however: the discovery of the residual parts of the right side of the skull and of the perforation coming from above (probably due to a construction pole) which occurred during modern times, indicate that the burial was complete and that the defects we see today resulted from activities which occurred later on in the area”.

The discovery is an important one: during the archaeological digs that took place on Torcello in the 1960s and 70s, cemetery sites were excavated, but for the most part only relatively modern ones pertaining to the High Middle Ages. Being able to analyze the biometric data of those who lived on Torcello from the sixth to ninth century presents a unique opportunity. Who were the ancient island residents who lived in the well-constructed wooden houses that were densely present in the area? Free workers? Slaves? Was this a community which already had deeply Christian roots, or not? If the burial site was isolated, or not connected directly to the Church, multiple hypotheses may arise: DNA and biometric analyses will reveal important interpretative data.

The burial has been excavated in an area which is particularly interesting in terms of stratigraphy: we are at the head of an ancient lagoon canal that separated the island of the Ancient Church of Saint Mary from the inhabited area of the medieval settlement: over time, the channel was fortified with hundreds of wooden poles, indicative of a “hunger for space” on the part of homes and craft businesses that required the enlargement and creation of new living spaces.

As the excavation has expanded, it has revealed how the eighth and ninth century were significant and demonstrative of the island’s population explosion: the presence of dense wooden houses, docks, fireplaces and production facilities, proven by hundreds of ceramic fragments from kitchen pottery (including many covering basins, the dishes of yesteryear for cooking breads and cakes in fireplaces on the ground), amphorae for oil and wine, and soapstone vessels for cooking soups and stews.

The inhabited area includes a large number of warehouses, constructed and active in the two previous centuries, from 500-600 A.D.: “Torcello became a hub of movement within the lagoon precisely at this moment. Altino was no longer feasible as a port, and the warehouses that we are excavating on the island,” explains Diego Calaon, “are revealing that long before the ‘imagined’ or ‘legendary’ barbaric destruction occurred, the local elite had fully invested in creating an efficient ship yard precisely in the littoral area of the time. Warehouses were built with reused Roman bricks, some with markings on them, fashioned with stones taken from ancient Rome. The porticoed harbor warehouse visible on Torcello nowadays is exceptionally well preserved: we will be able to clean up the interiors within 5/10 days of work”. Thanks to the Torcello Abitata project and archaeology talks also attended by the citizenry, inhabitants as well as external interested parties will be able to discover more.

Meanwhile, there is another project underway at a different location where a construction of large dimensions (more than 25 meters in length), which may be interpreted as a boat garage and warehouse datable to the fourteenth century, is currently undergoing excavation and study. The structure, with a solid stone foundation (again, “pieces” from Altino which were salvaged for use here in the lagoon) sits opposite a very old and sturdy stone-laid riverbank, which was subsequently reinforced by an outward-facing jetty reaching where the Sile river used to flow. Between the riverbank and the warehouse, there are obvious and abundant characteristics of a medieval shipyard for organizing and holding boats, probably for fishing, with traces of poles for hauling, for lateral mooring and, probably, for preparing pitches.

It is a history rich with elements which is a marvel to discover from one day to the next.

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The skeleton discovered during the excavation in Torcello Island, Venice, Italy. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

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Article Source: UNIVERSITÀ CA’ FOSCARI VENEZIA news release