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Like being there: Walking through an ancient Roman town

Posted on June 21, 2015 by No Author -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Travel and learn with Far Horizons.

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

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Gold Sun Disc from time of Stonehenge revealed to the public

Posted on June 19, 2015 by No Author -

For the first time, an early Bronze Age sun-disc from Monkton Farleigh in Wiltshire, U.K., is being exhibited for public view at the Wiltshire Museum, in time for this year’s summer solstice. It is one of only 6 sun-disc finds and is one of the earliest metal objects found in Britain. Made in about 2,400 BC, soon after the sarsen stones were erected at Stonehenge, it is thought to represent the sun.

The sun-disc was initially found in 1947 in a burial mound at Monkton Farleigh, just over 20 miles from Stonehenge, during excavations conducted by Guy Underwood. With it were found a pottery beaker, flint arrowheads and fragments of the skeleton of an adult male. It was kept safe by the landowner since its discovery and has only now been given to the Museum after careful cleaning by the Wiltshire Council Conservation Service.

The sun-disc is a thin embossed sheet of gold with a cross at the center, surrounded by a circle. Between the lines of both the cross and the circle are fine dots which glint in sunlight. The disc is pierced by two holes that may have been used to sew the disc to a piece of clothing or a head-dress, and may have been used in pairs. Until recently it has been thought that early Bronze Age gold may have come from Ireland, but a new scientific technique developed at Southampton University is suggesting that the gold may have come from Cornwall.

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The sun disc. Courtesy Wiltshire Museum, photo by Jo Hutchins.

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Museum Director David Dawson said “We have the best Bronze Age collections in Britain and we are delighted to be able to display this incredibly rare sun-disk through the generosity of the donors. It was kept safe since its discovery by Dr Denis Whitehead and the first time that it had been seen by archaeologists was when he brought it to show me at the launch of our new Prehistory Galleries in 2013. It has now been presented to the Museum in remembrance of Denis S Whitehead of Inwoods, Farleigh Wick.”

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Edited and adapted from a Wiltshire Museum press release.

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

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Kennewick Man closely related to modern Native Americans

Posted on June 18, 2015 by No Author -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I Stood Here for Rome

Posted on June 17, 2015 by No Author -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Walking dead among the ancient Greeks?

Posted on June 15, 2015 by No Author -

In an article recently published in Popular Archaeology Magazine, University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Fellow and writer Carrie Sulosky Weaver examines and summarizes the evidence in the archaeological and historical record that supports the suggestion that the ancient Greeks believed in the ‘undead’, or ‘revenants’, individuals who could emerge from a state of death to something that was neither living nor dead—leaving their graves at night to harm the living.

As one case in point, she elaborates on finds unearthed in a cemetery located near the ancient coastal Greek town of Kamarina in southeastern Sicily. Known as Passo Marinaro, this cemetery served as a Classical period necropolis in use from the 5^th through 3^rd centuries BCE. Approximately 2,905 burials have been excavated by archaeologists at the site, more than half of which contained grave goods, such as terracotta vases, figurines, and metal coins.

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Typical flexed burial from Passo Marinaro. Photo by Carrie L. Sulosky Weaver, courtesy of the Regional Museum of Kamarina.

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But two of the burials were unique. The first, designated tomb 653, contained an individual who, although of unknown gender, apparently suffered from serious malnutrition and illness in life. But “what is unusual about Tomb 653 is that the head and feet of the individual are completely covered by large amphora fragments,” states Weaver. “The heavy amphora fragments found in Tomb 653 were presumably intended to pin the individual to the grave and prevent it from seeing or rising.” The second burial, designated tomb 693, contained the remains of a child about 8 to 13 years old. Also of indeterminate gender, this individual was buried with five large stones placed on top of the body. “Like the aforementioned amphora fragments,” states Weaver, “it appears that these stones were used to trap the body in its grave.”*

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Drawing of the burial in Tomb 693. Drawing by D. Weiss from G. Di Stefano’s excavation journals.

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Weaver draws upon ancient documentary and other archaeological records throughout the Mediterranean world from the Neolithic through the 19^th century CE that tend to lend support to the Kamarina burials as possible ‘revenants’.

“Although there are no clear indicators in either the burial contexts or the skeletal remains that would explain why the occupants of Kamarinean Tombs 653 and 693 were pinned in their graves, their special treatment suggests that necrophobic beliefs and practices were present in Greek Sicily,” she concludes about the burials. “However, our understanding of these traditions is tenuous and more questions than answers remain. It is hoped that the careful examination of future cases will shed light on this unusual custom and provide us with a more complete picture of necrophobia [the irrational fear of the dead and things associated with death] in the ancient Greek world.”*

The detailed article by Weaver is published in the Summer 2015 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

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*Weaver, Carrie L. Sulosky, Walking Dead and Vengeful Spirits, Popular Archaeology Magazine, Vol. 19, Summer 2015.

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

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The Unfolding Story of an Ice Age V.I.P.

Posted on June 14, 2015 by Dan McLerran -

As Founder and Editor of Popular Archaeology Magazine, Dan is a freelance writer and journalist specializing in archaeology. He studied anthropology and archaeology in undergraduate and graduate school and has been an active participant on archaeological excavations in the U.S. and abroad. He is the creator and administrator of Archaeological Digs, a popular weblog about archaeological excavation and field school opportunities.

The El Mirón Cave in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain is yielding finds that are providing a rare glimpse of Ice Age life more than 18,000 years ago, say archaeologists.

The cave, commanding a scenic view of the upper valley of the Ason River far below it, has been under intense investigation by Lawrence Straus of the University of New Mexico and colleague Manuel Gonzalez Morales of the Universidad de Cantabria, since 1996.

“No one had ever done any work there since it was scientifically identified as a site in 1903, as archeologists believed it to be totally disturbed,” says Straus. “It was being used to stable goats. In 1995 I persuaded my old friend and colleague, Prof. Manuel Gonzalez Morales that we ought to conduct a test excavation in it, which we began in 1996.”

Since then, their findings have revealed a veritable gold mine of human occupation. El Mirón contains a long, essentially complete cultural sequence beginning with the late Middle Paleolithic through the early Bronze Age, dated using as many as 84 radiocarbon assays. Among the features and finds are rock art engravings and especially rich Magdalenian and Neolithic occupation levels. Within the Neolithic alone, according to Straus, is “the oldest evidence of wheat agriculture, domesticated animals and ceramics in northern Atlantic Spain”.

From the analysis of the excavated evidence, researchers have been able to tease a picture of Lower Magdalenian culture and behavior. But perhaps the most tantalizing discovery came when they encountered red ochre-stained bones in a natural depression in the rear of the cave living area. They were found within a 1-meter-wide space between the cave wall and a large block of stone and were identified as belonging to a human female, about 35-40 years old, robustly built and in good health. Dated to about 18,700 calendar years BP, the bones were deposited in a way that suggested intentional burial—an unusual find, particularly as the archaeological record thus far has suggested that the Magdalenians rarely buried their dead in the caves where they lived.

Perhaps most significant about the burial was the presence of features that suggested something more than a simple, quick and casual interment. Said Straus, “the burial seems to have been “marked” by engravings—a multi-line ‘V’ and other signs that could possibly be hands—on a huge stone block that had fallen from the cave ceiling only a few centuries before the burial.” In addition, according to the published report of the findings, there were lines engraved on the bedrock lower wall and ledge against which the body had been laid behind the stone block.

Straus states that the burial findings indicate “a complex, no doubt ritualized sequence of events”, not typically found in the prehistoric deposits of human remains. He suggests the possibility that it is a human grave containing a person of some status, who was perhaps revered or respected by her family or contemporaries.

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Excavations in the El Mirón Cave have yielded a cultural sequence of Late Mousterian, early Upper Paleolithic, Solutrean, Magdalenian, Azilian, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, and Medieval period occupation. The research has provided new insight on the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition, the phases of the Magdalenian culture, the emergence of the Neolithic in the Atlantic zone of Spain, and the beginning of metal age cultural complexity. Image courtesy Lawrence G. Straus

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Inside the cave: Excavation in the burial area behind the engraved block. Courtesy Lawrence G. Straus

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Straus and his colleagues are continuing their excavations and research of the site. He stresses that there is much more to do before additional conclusions can be drawn about El Mirón and its place in understanding the ancient Lower Magdalenian culture. Research will include a complete DNA analyses on the “Red Lady” skeletal remains by a team working with Dr. Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, with the goal of shedding light on the genetics of human populations that had survived the Last Glacial Maximum in southern France and Iberia.

An in-depth feature article about the “Red Lady of El Miron” has been published in Popular Archaeology Magazine and extensive details of the research are published as a special issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science (guest edited by L.G.Straus, M.R. Gonzalez Morales and J.M. Carretero): “The Red Lady of El Miron Cave: Lower Magdalenian Human Burial in Cantabrian Spain”. The issue features 13 related articles, all of which are now available on-line and released in a hard-copy version during the summer of 2015.

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

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Popular Archaeology Magazine Releases Summer 2015 Issue

Posted on June 11, 2015 by No Author -

Popular Archaeology Magazine is pleased to announce the release of its Summer 2015 issue. In this issue, readers who subscribe to the magazine will enjoy the following fascinating articles:

1. Straddling the Evolutionary Divide

Two remarkable sites are shedding light on a critical transitional period in human evolution.

2. Seeing the Invisible: Visualizing an Ancient Roman Town

For all to see, scientists and experts have visually reconstructed an ancient Roman town in stunning detail.

3. El Mirón and the Red Lady

A Spanish cave and a unique burial offer a tantalizing glimpse on the lives of Ice Age hunter-gatherers in Europe.

4. Indiana Jones and the River of Gold

A traveling exhibit and an archaeological site show how knowledge is as valuable as gold.

5. New Discoveries at Hippos

Archaeologists have unearthed some enlightening finds at this ancient capital of Hellenistic-Roman culture overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

6. Walking Dead and Vengeful Spirits

Archaeology opens a window on occult practices among the ancient Greeks in Sicily.

7. An Ancient Island

Britain ranks among the most fascinating countries in the world when it comes to its archaeology.

Individuals interested in becoming first-time premium subscribers are invited to join us by learning more About Us and going to the website to sign up. Annual fees are kept extremely low, making this affordable to anyone interested in reading in-depth articles about new archaeological discoveries worldwide. Back-issue premium content is available going back over four years.

(Click on ‘Subscribe Here’ in the upper right-hand corner of the website. Allow up to 24 hours for account to be activated to premium level.)

When modern Eurasia was born

Posted on June 10, 2015 by No Author -

Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen—Was it a massive migration? Or was it rather a slow and persistent seeping of people, items and ideas that laid the foundation for the demographic map of Europe and Central Asia that we see today? The Bronze Age (about 5,000 – 3,000 years ago) was a period with large cultural upheavals. But how these upheavals came about has remained shrouded in mystery.

Now, a recent study published in the journal Nature has shed new light on the question.

Says study author Morten Allentoft, Assistant Professor from the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, “both archaeologists and linguists have had theories about how cultures and languages have spread in our part of the world. We geneticists have now collaborated with them to publish an explanation based on a record amount of DNA-analyses of skeletons from the Bronze Age.”

By analyzing the genome sequence data from samples taken from the ancient skeletal remains of 101 individuals across a broad geographic area, the researchers were able to determine a genetic “map” of past human movements that ultimately contributed to the genetic makeup of people across Eurasia today.

Geneticist and director of the Centre for GeoGenetics Eske Willerslev elaborates: “Our study is the first real large-scale population genomic study ever undertaken on ancient individuals. We analysed genome sequence data from 101 past individuals. This is more than a doubling of the number of genomic sequenced individuals of pre-historic man generated to date. The study is without any comparison to anything previously made. The results show that the genetic composition and distribution of peoples in Europe and Asia today is a surprisingly late phenomenon – only a few thousand years old.”

Professor Kristian Kristiansen of the University of Gothenburg, who initiated the project together with Lundbeck Foundation Professor Eske Willerslev, says: “The driving force in our study was to understand the big economical and social changes that happened at the beginning of the third millennium BC, spanning the Urals to Scandinavia. The old Neolithic farming cultures were replaced by a completely new perception of family, property and personhood. I and other archaeologists share the opinion that these changes came about as a result of massive migrations.”

With this new investigation, the researchers confirm that the changes came about as a result of migrations. The researchers note that it is significant because later developments in the Bronze Age are a continuation of this new social perception. It adds up, because the migrations can also explain the origin of the northern European language families. Kristiansen suggests that crucial events happened during these few centuries, as crucial as the colonization of the Americas.

A major finding of the study relates to how these migrations resulted in huge changes to the European gene-pool, conferring a large degree of admixture on the present populations. Genetically speaking, ancient Europeans from the time after these migrations are much more similar to modern Europeans than those prior the Bronze Age.

Mobile warrior people

According to the study, the re-writing of the genetic map began in the early Bronze Age, about 5,000 years ago. From the steppes in the Caucasus, the Yamnaya Culture migrated principally westward into North- and Central Europe, and to a lesser degree, into western Siberia. Yamnaya was characterized by a new system of family and property. In northern Europe the Yamnaya mixed with the Stone Age people who inhabited this region and along the way established the Corded Ware Culture, which genetically speaking resembles present day Europeans living north of the Alps today.

Later, about 4,000 years ago, the Sintashta Culture evolved in the Caucasus. This culture’s sophisticated new weapons and chariots were rapidly expanding across Europe. Areas east of the Urals and far into Central Asia were colonized around 3,800 years ago by the Andronovo Culture. The researchers’ investigation shows that this culture had a European DNA-background.

During the last part of the Bronze Age, and at the beginning of the Iron Age, East Asian peoples arrived in Central Asia. Here it is not genetic admixture we see, but rather a replacement of genes. The European genes in the area disappear.

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Above: A typical group of Danish Bronze Age barrows from ca. 3,500-3,100 BP. Normally they were 3-5 meters high, constructed with cut out grass turfs (sods). One barrow would demand 3 hectares of grazing land. In Denmark 50,000 such barrows were constructed during the period 3,500- 3,100 BP for the leading chiefly lineages. Courtesy Kristian Kristiansen

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This image shows a Yamnaya skull from the Samara region colored with red ochre. Courtesy Natalia Shishlina

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This is a reconstruction of the Yamnaya skull. A typical Yamnaya individual from the Caspian steppe in Russia ca. 5,000-4,800 BP. Yamnaya people were tall and were buried in deep pits covered by a small barrow. Ten thousands were built during this period in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, but also in temperate Europe thousands were built as a result of the migrations. Reconstruction: Alexey Nechvaloda

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A new scale

These new results derive from DNA-analyses of skeletons excavated across large areas of Europe and Central Asia, thus enabling these crucial glimpses into the dynamics of the Bronze Age. In addition to the population movement insights, the data also held other surprises. For example, contrary to the research team’s expectations, the data revealed that lactose tolerance rose to high frequency in Europeans, in comparison to prior belief that it evolved earlier in time (5,000 – 7,000 years ago). Co-author and Associate Professor Martin Sikora from the Centre for GeoGenetics says: “Previously the common belief was that lactose tolerance developed in the Balkans or in the Middle East in connection with the introduction of farming during the Stone Age. But now we can see that even late in the Bronze Age the mutation that gives rise to the tolerance is rare in Europe. We think that it may have been introduced into Europe with the Yamnaya herders from the Caucasus, but the selection that has made most Europeans lactose tolerant happened at a much later time.

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Edited and adapted from a press release of the Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen.

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Key Artifacts from ISIS-endangered Palmyra, Syria on View at the Freer and Sackler Galleries

Posted on June 9, 2015 by No Author -

An exquisitely sculpted ancient bust of a woman from Palmyra, Syria, is returned to view for the first time since 2006 at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Named “Haliphat,” it will be accompanied by images of 18th-century engravings and 19th-century photographs of ancient Palmyra selected from the Freer|Sackler Libraries and Archives. A newly created 3-D scan of the bust will also be released for viewing and download at a later date as part of the Smithsonian X 3D Collection.

Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Near East, and one of the best preserved city-states in the world.

“In the face of current tragic upheavals in Iraq and Syria, every stone, arch and carved relief plays a greater historical and cultural role than it has in the past,” said Julian Raby, the Dame Jillian Sackler Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art. “Like the relief of Haliphat, each stone can remind a people of its past, and fashion identity both individually and collectively.”

Once lush, wealthy and cosmopolitan, Palmyra (“the city of palms”) was an oasis in the desert at the hub of trade between the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, ancient Iran and Southeast Asia. Two millennia ago, its inhabitants constructed monumental colonnades, temples, a theater and elaborate tomb complexes, a significant amount of which survives today.

Dating from 231 AD, the limestone funerary relief sculpture depicts an elegant, bejeweled figure with both Roman and Aramaic artistic influences, reinforcing Palmyra’s status between the Eastern and Western worlds.

The accompanying photographs were taken 1867-1876 by prolific photographer Fèlix Bonfils and provide the most complete visual record of Palmyra from the 19th century.

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The funerary bust of Haliphat, from Palmyra, 231 BC. Courtesy Freer/Sackler galleries

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Above and below: Two examples of 19th century photographs on display at the exhibit. Courtesy Freer/Sackler galleries

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Palmyra as it appears today. ISIS has already destroyed some of the antiquities at this iconic site. Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons

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The engraving images are from Robert Woods’ 1753 The Ruins of Palmyra, a publication that inspired the popular neoclassical architecture style in Britain and North America. Its image of an “Eagle Decorating an Ancient Roman Temple” was the model for the image on the seal of the United States, and its depictions of Palmyra’s coffered ceilings shaped the ceiling of the north entrance of the Freer Gallery of Art.

The display will be on view indefinitely.

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A press release of the Freer/Sackler galleries of art

The Freer Gallery of Art, which opened in 1923, and the adjacent Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, founded 1987, are the Smithsonian’s museums of Asian art and together contain one of the world’s most important collections of Asian and American art. The galleries are located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.asia.si.edu.

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Glimpsing prehistory in today’s Amazon rainforest

Posted on June 7, 2015 by No Author -

In a newly published article in Science Magazine, contributing correspondent Andrew Lawler reports in detail the evolving crisis of events and issues surrounding the recent activities of isolated forest tribes inhabiting the deepest regions of the Peruvian rainforest. What could be described as “throwbacks” to a largely bygone prehistoric era, these people have maintained a traditional “hunter-gatherer” lifestyle, separate from the modern economies that surround them in both Peru and Brazil.

Villagers living along the banks of the Curanja River in the rainforest of eastern Peru are reporting frequent sightings and “raids” from these mysterious forest people, says Lawler in the article. “A surge in sightings and raids in both Peru and Brazil may be a sign that some of the world’s last peoples living outside the global economy are emerging,” he writes.* He reports villagers complaining of stolen goods and destroyed homes, attributing the acts to these “naked ones” from deep within the forest.

To be sure, anthropologists and others have known of the forest peoples’ existence for years. But ethical questions have energized the issue of how and even if contemporary modern villagers and other representatives of ‘developed’ society should contact them. Scientists and health officials often mention, for example, their likely vulnerability to the transmission of disease that, because of their lack of immunity to common pathogens, could mean decimation of their groups to the point of extinction.

It’s easy to imagine—South America, before Columbus, was thought to have teemed with an indigenous population of anywhere between 30 and 100 million people. But in the decades following Columbus’ arrival in 1492, most of these people, along with much of their culture, vanished, due at least in part to disease from pathogens introduced by the incoming Europeans. As historical records and archaeology note, that was only part of a far more complex story of tragic interaction.

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Rural Amazon villages typically hug the banks of the riverine waterways. But many of the villagers are now sighting a mysterious people occasionally emerging from their isolated habitats deep within the more secluded and untouched areas of the rainforest.

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Now, informed by the past, anthropologists, Peruvian and Brazilian policymakers, social organizations and think-tanks are wrestling with the problem of developing a strategy for dealing with these emerging isolated forest tribes, including, and perhaps more importantly, the question of what has changed in the environment to precipitate their recent behavior. Logging, mining, drug trafficking, oil and gas exploration, and even missionaries and film crews have been cited as possible disruptors of an ecosystem that many scientists say is being shaken from its delicate natural balance. The rainforest has been critical to the florescence of thousands of species of plant and animal life for thousands of years—including the uncontacted forest tribes.

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Above and below: A blast from the prehistoric past? More and more sightings are begging new questions – What is the ethical extent of modern intervention in their lives, what can we learn from them, and what is the extent of modern society’s moral obligation to ensure their continued survival and well-being? Still shots from the Science/AAAS video, Making contact, the isolated tribes of the Amazon rainforest (see video below) Courtesy Science/AAAS

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Some anthropologists and archaeologists believe that knowing more about the Amazonian ancestral past could be a key to finding solutions for understanding and dealing with the forest people question.

At the 2015 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose, California, a group of scientists announced plans to scan the Amazon rainforest for signs of ancient settlements. The project, which has already been awarded a $1.9m grant from the European Research Council, will include conducting laser scans via drone. A major goal of the project will be to develop an understanding of the extent to which pre-Columbian populations built and flourished as far back as 3,000 years prior to the arrival of Europeans.

More than 400 geoglyphs have already been exposed by deforestation, suggesting collective, organized human behavior—an argument that has been an ongoing debate within New World archaeology.

“Although humans have lived in Amazonia for the last 13,000 years, until recently, the long-accepted paradigm has been one of a noble savage living in harmony with the ancient forest, with negligible impact on the forest,” said Dr. José Iriarte of the University of Exeter, the lead researcher of the project. “Such a view was widely shared, not only among archaeologists, but also by most tropical ecologists whose interpretations of the biodiversity and ecological change were based on the assumption that this forest environment was largely pristine.”

But, “based on mounting archaeological evidence that suggest the presence of complex Amazonian societies,” Iriarte continued, “at the other end of the spectrum are those that propose that the Amazon Basin was densely populated, perhaps up to 10 million inhabitants, and so intensively managed that by 1492 there was no such thing as a “virgin forest”— instead, it was a cultural parkland.”

Among other objectives, Iriarte hopes to test this idea of large, complex and hierarchical societies in the Amazon, known as the “cultural parkland hypothesis’, by conducting an intensive study of four distinct regions across the Amazon, implementing a battery of state-of-the-art techniques from the social and natural sciences, including archaeology, archaeobotany, ethnohistory, and paleoecology, in conjunction with remote sensing technology. Most notably, he and his team will be mounting LiDAR and multi-spectral sensors on UAVs (drones) beginning in the Fall of 2015 to scan large areas, comparing what they find to landscapes with areas already known to exhibit evidence of anthropogenic (human) manipulation of the landscape.

“It is only by applying this interdisciplinary approach that we can provide a holistic understanding of the origins of the modern Amazonian landscapes,” said Iriarte.

Even if and when Iriarte and his team come up with strong evidence supporting the ‘cultural parklands hypothesis’, they also hope to find answers to some other key questions. Issues of conservation and sustainability play a salient role.

“How did the 1492 Columbian encounter affect these landscapes and cultures?” asks Iriarte. “And did pre-Columbian land use have a lasting affect on the modern forest and, if so, how does the knowledge of the legacy of Late pre-Columbian groups inform modern conservation and sustainable agricultural practices for the future of the Amazon and other tropical regions of the world?”

Iriarte suggests that the outcome of the project could potentially guide policy-making in terms of land management and sustainability, and influence many other decisions that could otherwise be insufficiently informed without understanding past human management of the landscape.

Lawler reports that the isolated forest people, in response to the modern forces that increasingly surround and contain them, have already retreated as deeply as they can go into the last most secluded areas of the rainforest.

Could they be the last whimper and shadow of this ‘ancestral cultural parkland’, as Iriarte has penned?

Perhaps not directly. “These are not the uncontacted people of romantic imagination,” writes Lawler. “Most of these groups had traumatic interactions with industrial society about a century ago, when the upper Amazon filled with tens of thousands of outsiders eager to make a fortune from rubber.”* These indigenous forest dwellers, generations of whom were already skilled at tapping the sap of the rubber tree for their own, traditional needs, were exploited for little in return and, in more than a few cases, rewarded with death. They subsequently escaped to an isolated existence, abandoning their farming and former settlements to manage a living deep within the rainforest ecosystem. Bows and arrows, not the plow, became their most critical tool—much like the ancestors of most of the indigenous populations of South America, if one could glimpse back far enough into the collective past.

Scientists now hope that new chapters will be written about Amazon’s prehistory as future investigations collect the data needed to illuminate a past that has, for centuries, been shrouded beneath a jungle canopy. That is, of course, if enough of the rainforest can be saved to make the research meaningful.

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*Lawler, Andrew, From deep in Peru’s rainforests, isolated people emerge, Science (online), 4 June 2015.

Image above: Geoglyphs discovered in cleared area of Amazon rainforest. Sanna Saunaluoma, Wikimedia Commons

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

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The First Australians?

Posted on June 4, 2015 by No Author -

The site of Madjedbebe, a shallow rock shelter located in northern Australia, is known for yielding stone artifacts and faunal remains that archaeologists suggest date the presence of modern humans on the Australian continent at about 50,000 – 60,000 years ago. The site, however, has been at the center of a debate regarding the validity of the dating, as some scholars have cast doubt on the stratigraphic integrity and history of the deposits at the site as reported by investigations conducted in 1989 excavations.

Now, Chris Clarkson of the University of Queensland, Australia and colleagues report results of a new study on the stone tool artifacts and faunal remains found during the 1989 excavations.

“We demonstrate that the technology and raw materials of the early assemblage are distinctive from those in the overlying layers,” stated Clarkson, et al., in their report. “We conclude that previous claims of extensive displacement of artefacts and post-depositional disturbance may have been overstated. The stone artefacts and stratigraphic details support previous claims for human occupation 50–60 ka and show that human occupation during this time differed from later periods.”*

Madjedbebe has evidence of very early and later human occupation. Early investigations at the site uncovered wall paintings by the later human occupants, including charcoal dating to 18,000 years ago and other associated artifacts, such as a grinding hollow and 2 mortars, one of which had traces of ochre.

But later excavations indicated that Madjedbebe could be the oldest dated site in Australia. The first and earliest (by deposition) appeared about 2.6 m below the surface. These layers were dated to between 61,000 and 52,000 years old. From a depth of 2.5-2.3 m the scientists recorded relatively dense occupation, dated to between 52,000 +7,000/-11,000 BP and 45,000 +6,000/-9,000 BP. More than 1500 artifacts (designated as the Malakunanja assemblage) were in the lowest occupation layer.

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Excavations at Madjedbebe in 2012. From A History of Australia’s Prehistory, lecture before the Royal Australian Historical Society in 2013 by Billy Griffiths, historian and writer. A Vimeo video screenshot.

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The presence of high-grade hematite (a substance thought to have been used as a pigment for various purposes by prehistoric hunter-gatherers) among the deposits has suggested that long distance exchange or transport took place here during the Pleistocene, as the nearest known possible sources are many miles away from the site.

The findings at Madjedbebe are significant for their implications for human evolution and early modern human migration. During the Pleistocene, the site was located in Sahul, the name given to a continent that combined Australia with New Guinea and Tasmania, as the sea level at that time was as much as 150 meters lower than it is today, separated from another adjacent great land mass known as Sunda by the Sahul Strait, a much narrower body of water than that which separates Australia and New Guinea and Tasmania today. Even then, however, to get to the Sahul, people would have needed boats or rafts. Currently, there are two contending theories suggesting when this might have happened: one proposing 60,000 years ago, and the other proposing 40,000 years ago. Generally, most scholars agree that there are sites in Australia that date to at least 40,000 years ago, including the Madjedbebe site. Some scholars theorize that these early human inhabitants were ancestral to today’s Australian Aborigines.

The detailed study report is published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

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*Chris Clarkson, et al., The archaeology, chronology and stratigraphy of Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II): A site in northern Australia with early occupation, Journal of Human Evolution, Vol. 83, June 2015 doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.03.014

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Archaeologists return to prehistoric sanctuaries on island of Menorca, Spain

Posted on June 2, 2015 by No Author -

After nearly 30 years, a team of archaeologists will be returning once again to the site of So na Cacana on the island of Menorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, to renew investigations of a prehistoric sanctuary complex that archaeologists believe represented the remains of the Talaiotic Culture , a prehistoric culture that flourished, particularly on the islands of Majorca and Menorca, during the 1st Millenium BCE.

“Between 1982 and 1987, archaeological excavations made by the Museum of Menorca found two sanctuaries [at So na Cacana] with taula and other buildings, probably religious, where there were only scattered remains half hidden by the vegetation,” stated the project principle investigators. The ancient settlement remains are located about six km away from the municipality of Alaior. The site features a tower-like monument resembling a large rectangular talaiot (Bronze Age megalithic structure) at the highest point of the area and possibly dated to before the 10^th century B.C., which may contain an inner chamber with chapels; a second, smaller tower or talaiot; two sanctuaries with taula; two talaiotic houses; two hypogea; and several structures not yet excavated. The investigators theorize that the site had a religious purpose.

Beginning June 15, 2015 and running for six months, the site investigators plan to field a team that will explore a number of structures and features in the site area, including a funerary hypogeum dated from the 15^th – 8^th centuries BCE, an Iron Age sanctuary or taula (6^th – 3^rd centuries BCE), an Iron Age (6^th – 3^rd centuries BCE) house structure, a Roman period (2^nd – 4^th centuries CE) agricultural-related structure, and a 9^th – 10^th century CE Islamic necropolis.

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Above and below: Views of the megalithic structures at So na Cacana. Courtesy Tanyt

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The team leadership is currently calling on students and volunteers who may be interested in participating in the surveys and excavations, which will entail in-depth training and education. “TANYT (the organization managing the field work) is now responsible for this archaeological site,” write the investigators, “and this cultural association aims to develop a field school and experimental camp focused on theoretical and practical training for students and professionals in archaeology and cultural heritage conservation. So the training in the field school includes hands-on intervention in different sectors of the site, each one representing a cultural stage in Menorca prehistory, proto-history and history (Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman Period and Medieval Period).”

Individuals interested in learning more about the site and how to participate my contact the Asociación Tanyt, Menorca, at [email protected] and can visit the website at http://sonacassana.jimdo.com/.

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New Secrets of Staffordshire Hoard Revealed

Posted on May 31, 2015 by No Author -

Researchers and conservators have revealed two rare objects that promise to shed new light on knowledge of seventh century Anglo-Saxon England, a period of time known as the ‘dark age’ in the British Isles. One is a seventh century helmet, the other an unusual sword pommel.

After years of cleaning, treatment and building on previous research conducted by specialized teams in the UK, researchers and conservators of Barbican Research Associates are painstakingly piecing together the thousands of fragments of objects that constitute what is arguably considered one of the world’s greatest archaeological treasures—the Staffordshire Hoard, first discovered in a field in Staffordshire, England in 2009 by a metal detectorist. While the helmet and sword pommel are only two among hundreds of other important gold and silver metalwork objects identified among the Staffordshire Hoard fragments, their rarity and uniqueness distinguish them among an otherwise remarkable collection of objects presumably belonging to an elite class warrior or important person likely associated with one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the seventh century. Generally, the objects of the Hoard consist mostly of fittings from weaponry, reflecting a turbulent time in English history when competing small kingdoms fought for dominance. Comparatively little is known about this ‘dark’ period of history, which emerged after germanic peoples migrated to the southern and eastern areas of the main island from mainland Europe (becoming the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms) in the centuries after the Romans abandoned occupation of the British Isles during the long decline of their Imperial Period rule over much of the ancient world.

The Helmet

Archaeologists and a conservator worked for three solid days to begin to piece together the helmet’s vast array of some 1,500 thin, fragile silver sheets and strips. Anglo-Saxon helmets are incredibly rare, and the hoard example is only the fifth to be discovered. The painstaking job saw these fragments—many less than 10 mm across and making up around a third of the Hoard in size—pieced together to reveal intricate, die-stamped designs. The designs depict human warriors and male moustachioed faces, as well as birds, animals and mythical beasts, like others seen in the rest of the hoard. Some warrior figures themselves wear helmets. Researchers suggest that it is possible these are ancestral or idealized warriors, intended to give spiritual support to the wearer.

The team also pieced together the fragments of a ‘helmet-band’, thought to have run around the circumference of the helmet (and which featured one of the warrior friezes). Many of the sheet friezes were gilded with gold. In comparison, the helmet found at Sutton Hoo in 1939, in the royal ship-burial, was silver.

“The helmet, if covered in all the gilt foils in the collection, would have looked spectacular,” said Pieta Greaves, the Staffordshire Hoard Conservation Coordinator with the Birmingham Museums Trust, “not only because it would have appeared gold but because it is unique, only being the 5th helmet [of its kind] found in Britain. It was probably worn by a King or someone of great importance.”

Scientists say there is still much more to be discovered about this helmet, and work continues.

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Section of the reconstructed helmetband, depicting a frieze of warriors. Courtesy Birmingham Museums Trust

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Detail of the reconstructed helmetband, depicting a frieze of warriors. Courtesy Birmingham Museums Trust

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The helmet of Sutton Hoo reconstructed as it would have appeared in its day. The Staffordshire helmet would have looked much like this, but it would have likely contained more gold features, and would have displayed a gold appearance, as opposed to the the silver appearance of the Sutton Hoo helmet. Gernot Keller, Wikimedia Commons

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The Pommel

There are over seventy pommels (the part of the sword that fits at the end of a sword-grip) in the Hoard, but the newly constructed one is unique among the finds. Conservation and research teams identified and reassembled it from 26 fragments. Although Anglo-Saxon in style, it also features British or Irish art influences. Its central garnet and glass inlaid disc can be seen to form an early Christian cross, while on its opposite side is a motif formed of three serpents. Thus, both Christian and pagan beliefs may be represented. It is also decorated with gold filigree (fine wire ornament), and inlaid with niello (a black inlay formed from copper, silver, and lead sulfides). Most unusual is the rounded hump on the pommel’s shoulder, known as a ‘sword-ring’—there would have been two originally, one on each shoulder. Many swords from this period in England and Europe have such rings, but the hoard pommel is the first to feature two. This, with its lavish ornament, suggests that it possibly belonged to an individual of significant status. Said Chris Fern, project archaeologist, “The newly recognized pommel is truly exciting. It combines multiple different styles of ornament, much in the same way as the earliest 7th century illuminated manuscripts do, like the Book of Durrow. It suggests the coming together of Anglo-Saxon and British or Irish high cultures.”

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The front of the reconstructed sword pommel. Courtesy Birmingham Museums Trust

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The back of the reconstructed sword pommel. Courtesy Birmingham Museums Trust

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The Hoard’s Legacy

Archaeologists consider the Staffordshire Hoard the most spectacular Anglo-Saxon find since the excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial (Suffolk) in 1939. It consists of a mix of gold, silver and garnet items weighing over 6 kg. Most of the items were stripped from swords and seaxes (single-edged fighting knives), at least one helmet and other items, and probably represent the equipment of defeated armies from unknown battles of the first half of the 7th century. And although fragmented, damaged and distorted, the hoard’s objects represent the possessions of an elite warrior class, as reflected in their craftsmanship and ornamentation.

Said Greaves, “We have all these great Anglo-Saxon poems which talk about the warrior elite, but this is the first evidence we have that they really existed.”

Why it was buried, perhaps before c 675 AD, remains an unanswered question. Significantly, it was discovered close to a then major route-way (Roman Watling Street), in what was the emerging Kingdom of Mercia. Warfare between England’s many competing regional kingdoms was frequent.

Said Fern, “The Staffordshire Hoard links us with an age of warrior splendour. The gold and silver war-gear was probably made in workshops controlled by some of England’s earliest kings, to reward warriors that served those rulers when multiple kingdoms fought for supremacy. The skill of the craftsmen is equally thrilling to behold, with many of the finds decorated with pagan and Christian art, designed to give spiritual protection in battle.”

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Above: An assemblage of some of the major objects of the Hoard. Note the helmet cheek piece on the left. Courtesy David Rowan, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Wikimedia Commons

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Detailed conservation and research of its approximate 4,000 fragments is not yet complete, and the second phase of research and conservation, now in its beginning stages, entails piecing together the fragments like a giant jigsaw puzzle, revealing the artifacts in their original form. Toward this end, the owners (Birmingham City Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council) need to raise an additional £120,000 for this work to continue and to continue the research necessary to illuminate understanding of this unique window on Anglo-Saxon history. Much of the previous funding up to that point was provided by Historic England, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting England’s historic environment.

Duncan Wilson, Historic England Chief Executive, said: “Since its discovery in 2009, the Staffordshire Hoard and the stories behind it have captured the public imagination. The research which Historic England has funded has started to uncover the secrets of this Anglo-Saxon treasure. As technology and research methods develop we are able to discover more and more, and share the results, but more money needs to be raised to capitalize fully on this rich potential.”

For more about the Staffordshire Hoard, see the official website and the article, Conserving the Staffordshire Hoard by Pieta Greaves, published in the March 1, 2014 issue of Popular Archaeology.

Individuals and groups interested in donating funds to help with this effort may do so by going to the website for more information.

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Parts of this article were adapted and edited from the subject press release and email interview with Pieta Greaves, Staffordshire Hoard Conservation Coordinator.

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The major organizational players in the Staffordshire Hoard project include:

The Birmingham Museums Trust, an independent charity that manages the city’s museum collection and venues on behalf of Birmingham City Council. It uses the collection of around 800,000 objects to provide a wide range of arts, cultural and historical experiences, events and activities that deliver accessible learning, creativity and enjoyment for citizens and visitors to the city. Most areas of the collection are designated as being of national importance, including the finest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world. Attracting over 1 million visits a year, the Trust’s venues include Aston Hall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Blakesley Hall, Museum Collections Centre, Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Sarehole Mill, Soho House, Thinktank and Weoley Castle. www.birminghammuseums.org.uk<http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk>

Barbican Research Associates, the UK’s leading independent consultancy specialising in the analysis of archaeological finds and post-excavation management. Further information about the Staffordshire Hoard research project can be found on their website: http://www.barbicanra.co.uk/staffordshire-hoard.html
Birmingham Museums Trust

Stoke-on-Trent City Council, delivering hundreds of services to 249,000 residents, including two museums, leisure and culture facilities. The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery is one of these services, and boasts a series of internationally-renown exhibitions, including the world’s best collection of Staffordshire ceramics, and a Spitfire Mk LF XVI, designed by one of the city’s most famous sons, Reginald Mitchell. All of the museum’s collections of 700,000 objects are categorised as designated collections of national importance. Galleries also include fine and decorative arts, costume, local history, archaeology and natural history.

Historic England (formerly known as English Heritage), the public body that champions and protects England’s historic places. They look after the historic environment, providing expert advice, helping people protect and care for it and helping the public to understand and enjoy it.

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Modern humans migrated out of Africa via Egypt, suggests genetic study

Posted on May 28, 2015 by No Author -

How and when the first modern human populations emerged out of Africa to settle Europe and Asia has been at the center of a long-standing debate among researchers and scholars. The results of a new genetic study, however, suggests that modern humans made their first successful major migration out of Africa around 55,000 – 60,000 years ago through Egypt, and not from further south through Ethiopia, as suggested by another proposed theory.

Dr. Luca Pagani, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge in the UK, and his colleagues analyzed the genetic information from six modern Northeast African populations (100 Egyptians, and five Ethiopian populations each represented by 25 people).

“Two geographically plausible routes have been proposed: an exit through the current Egypt and Sinai, which is the northern route, or one through Ethiopia, the Bab el Mandeb strait, and the Arabian Peninsula, which is the southern route,” Dr. Pagani explains. “In our research, we generated the first comprehensive set of unbiased genomic data from Northeast Africans and observed, after controlling for recent migrations, a higher genetic similarity between Egyptians and Eurasians than between Ethiopians and Eurasians.”

It suggests that Egypt was most likely the way out of Africa.

The team also used high-quality genomes to estimate the time that the populations split from one another: people outside Africa split from the Egyptian genomes more recently than from the Ethiopians (55,000 as opposed to 65, 000 years ago), supporting the idea that Egypt was the last stop on the route out of Africa.

“While our results do not address controversies about the timing and possible complexities of the expansion out of Africa, they paint a clear picture in which the main migration out of Africa followed a northern, rather than a southern route,” says Dr Toomas Kivisild, a senior author from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.

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Human genome sequences from Ethiopians and Egyptians point to a Northern exit out of Africa as the most likely route by the ancestors of all Eurasians. Image courtesy Luca Pagani

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The northern route is also best supported by the known genetic mixture of all non-Africans with Neanderthals, who were present in the Levant at the time, and with the recent discovery of early modern human fossils in Israel (close to the northern route) dating to around 55,000 years ago.

“This important study still leaves questions to answer,” says Dr Chris Tyler-Smith, a senior author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. “For example, did other migrations also leave Africa around this time, but leave no trace in present-day genomes? To answer this, we need ancient genomes from populations along the possible routes. Similarly, by adding present-day genomes from Oceania, we can discover whether or not there was a separate, perhaps Southern, migration to these regions.”

“Our approach shows how it is possible to use the latest genomic data and tools to answer these intriguing questions of our human origins and migrations,” he added.

In addition to providing insights on the evolutionary past of all Eurasians with their new findings, the researchers have also developed an extensive public catalog of the genomic diversity in Ethiopian and Egyptian populations.

“This information will be of great value as a freely available reference panel for future medical and anthropological studies in these areas,” says Dr. Pagani.

The findings are published in the American Journal of Human Genetics*.

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Portions of this article were adapted and edited from the subject Cell Press and Welcome Trust Sanger Institute press releases.

*American Journal of Human Genetics, Pagani et al.: “Tracing the route of modern humans out of Africa using 225 human genome sequences from Ethiopians and Egyptians” http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.04.019.

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Scientists discover 430,000-year-old murder in Spain

Posted on May 27, 2015 by No Author -

An international team of scientists have uncovered what they suggest is a likely case of murder some 430,000 years ago among prehistoric humans living in what is present-day northern Spain.

Their evidence derives from a forensic analysis of an ancient skull belonging to a young adult individual whose lineage was possibly related to an early Neanderthal line, ancient ‘cousins’ of modern humans. The skull, called ‘Cranium 17’ by researchers at the Sima de los Huesos (SH) cave complex in the Atapuerca Mountains of northern Spain, was recovered and pieced together from 52 fragments over a period of 20 years. It was found and studied among an assemblage of over 6700 bones representing at least 28 individuals.

Led by Nohemi Sala from Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Spain, the team of researchers examined the skull using modern forensic techniques, including stereoscopic light and digital microscopes, an industrial CT scanner, 3D imaging technology, and contour and trajectory analysis. The scientists focused on two peculiar penetrating lesions on the frontal bone above the left eye. They were unlike many of the bone fractures on the other bones recovered from the site, which by examination were shown to have been caused by geological process disturbances or as a result of having fallen down a vertical shaft into the cave, perhaps by accident. But the results of the study on Cranium 17 indicated that both fractures were likely produced by two separate impacts by the same object with slightly different trajectories, around the time of the individual’s death. According to the researchers, the injuries were unlikely the result of an accidental fall down the vertical shaft. Rather, the type of fracture, their location, and the appearance of having been produced by two blows with the same object, led the researchers to interpret them as the result of an act of lethal interpersonal aggression—or what may constitute the earliest case of murder in human history.

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This is a frontal view of Cranium 17 showing the position of the traumatic events T1 (inferior) and T2 (superior). Courtesy Javier Trueba / Madrid Scientific Films

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Shown above: The Cranium 17 bone traumatic fractures. (A) Frontal view of Cranium 17 showing the position of the traumatic events T1 (inferior) and T2 (superior); (B) Detailed ectocranial view of the traumatic fractures showing the two similar notches (black arrows) present along the superior border of the fracture outlines. Note that the orientation of the two traumatic events is different; (C) Detail of the notch in T1 under 2X magnification with a light microscope. (D) Endocranial view of T1 and T2 showing the large cortical delamination of the inner table (black arrows). From Sala N, Arsuaga JL, Pantoja-Pérez A, Pablos A, Martínez I, Quam RM, et al. (2015) Lethal Interpersonal Violence in the Middle Pleistocene. PLoS ONE 10(5): e0126589. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0126589

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“This represents the earliest clear case of deliberate, lethal interpersonal aggression in the hominin fossil record,” stated Sala, et al. in the study report, “demonstrating that this is an ancient human behavior.”*

Moreover, the study results indicated that the individual was already dead before arrival at the cave site, suggesting that the person was carried to the top of the vertical shaft of the cave and deposited by other humans. Given the nature, position, abundance and condition of human bones found within the cave, “the interpretation of the SH site as a place where hominins deposited deceased members of their social groups seems to be the most likely scenario to explain the presence of human bodies at the site,” wrote the study authors in the report. “This interpretation implies this was a social practice among this group of Middle Pleistocene hominins and may represent the earliest funerary behavior in the human fossil record.”*

The study report is published online in the May 27, 2015 issue of PLoS ONE. http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126589

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*Sala N, Arsuaga JL, Pantoja-Pérez A, Pablos A, Martínez I, Quam RM, et al. (2015) Lethal Interpersonal Violence in the Middle Pleistocene. PLoS ONE 10(5): e0126589. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0126589

Some material for this article was adapted and edited from the subject PLoS ONE press release.

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Ancient Mummies Meet Modern Medicine with “The Anatomy of the Mummy”

Posted on May 22, 2015 by No Author -

PHILADELPHIA, PA May 22, 2015—Mummies are fascinating to the general public. It turns out they are fascinating to scientists, too. Anthropologists, archaeologists and doctors and researchers in the medical community have been coming together for decades, now, engaging in interdisciplinary exploration of mummies from all over the world. What have they learned? What can modern medical techniques applied to long deceased humans tell us—and what techniques and practices hold the best promise for scholars eager to unwrap more about the human experience in the past?

Several years ago, Janet Monge, Penn Museum Curator of Physical Anthropology, connected with Jeffrey Laitman, Associate Editor of the scholarly journal The Anatomical Record, to bring together a range of scholars to discuss these questions at a Penn Museum public symposium. That 2011 symposium formed the kernel of an unusual June 2015 Special Issue of The Anatomical Record (available online beginning May 22), “The Anatomy of the Mummy.”

“We wanted to bring together the growing number of people—medical and scholarly—who were actively engaged in this cross-disciplinary work. What could we learn from each other about how diverse procedures, applied to diverse mummy populations, are or are not providing new and meaningful data about our shared human past?” noted Dr. Monge.

Dr. Monge is guest editor with Frank Reuhli, Swiss Mummy Project, Institute of Evolutional Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland, on what has become an international mummies and science volume. Twenty-six research articles explore mummy studies, most employing state-of-the-art scientific techniques like CT scans, MRI and endoscopy, far more commonly used on living patients by the medical community, as well as newly developed techniques of Terahertz MRI imaging. Mummies studied come from around the world, including Egypt, Korea, Sicily, Greenland, Peru, New Guinea, and Denmark. The development of a mummy database for future study, and consideration on the ethics of mummy studies, are included in the issue.

“The scope and depth of the topics makes this volume truly unique,” noted Dr. Monge. “The Anatomy of the Mummy explores the challenges and emerging techniques for studying mummies under varied conditions of preservation including natural and artificial mummification as well as bodies preserved in bogs. In addition to discussions of ethical practice and disease patterns in past human populations, authors discuss best practices of mummy conservation for future generations. These wide ranging topics will interest those in many fields ranging from anthropology to zoology.”

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Dr. Janet Monge, Curator-in-Charge and Keeper, Physical Anthropology section, Penn Museum, and guest co-editor with Frank Reuhli, of “The Anatomy of a Mummy,” the June 2015 Special Issue of The Anatomical Record. Photo taken of Monge in Museum storage, by Steve Minicola, Penn Communications.

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Penn Museum has a history of mummy conservation and research, and two articles in the special issue come from the museum: Molly Gleeson, project conservator for the Museum’s In the Artifact Lab: Conserving Egyptian Mummies public lab and exhibition, collaborating with Dr. Michael Zimmerman, Adjunct Professor, Villanova University, offers an historic perspective on a famous Penn Museum mummy, PUM I, autopsied more than 40 years ago—and revisits the earlier mummy study with new techniques of analysis to learn more. Samantha Cox, Penn Museum scholar and a graduate student, University of Cambridge, UK, offers “A Critical Look at Mummy CT Scanning,” reviewing the history and assessing the potentials, and the pitfalls, of high-resolution scanning, with particular attention on two Egyptian mummies in the Museum’s collection.

Read more about the Artifact Lab and Molly Gleeson in the free premium article, The Mummy Doctors, published in the Fall 2014 issue of Popular Archaeology.

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About The Anatomical Record and the American Association of Anatomists

The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, is a peer-reviewed journal, an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists, founded in 1906, and published by John Wiley & Sons. The American Association of Anatomists (AAA) was founded by Joseph Leidy in Washington, D.C. in 1888 for the “advancement of anatomical science.” Today, via research, education and professional development activities, AAA serves as the professional home for an international community of biomedical researchers and educators focusing on the structural foundation of health and disease.

About the Penn Museum

Founded in 1887, the Penn Museum (the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology), 3260 South Street in Philadelphia, is one of the world’s great archaeology and anthropology research museums, and the largest university museum in the United States. With nearly one million objects in the collection, the Penn Museum encapsulates and illustrates the human story: who we are and where we came from. A dynamic research institution with many ongoing research projects, the Museum is an engaging place of discovery. The Museum’s mandate of research, teaching, collections stewardship, and public engagement are the four “pillars” of its expansive mission: to transform understanding of the human experience.

The Penn Museum can be found on the web at www.penn.museum. For general information call 215.898.4000.

Photo above: Project Conservator Molly Gleeson at work on a mummy In the Artifact Lab. Photo: Penn Museum.

A press release of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

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Our bond with dogs may go back more than 27,000 years

Posted on May 21, 2015 by No Author -

Cell Press—Dogs’ special relationship to humans may go back 27,000 to 40,000 years, according to genomic analysis of an ancient Taimyr wolf bone reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 21. Earlier genome-based estimates have suggested that the ancestors of modern-day dogs diverged from wolves no more than 16,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age.

The genome from this ancient specimen, which has been radiocarbon dated to 35,000 years ago, reveals that the Taimyr wolf represents the most recent common ancestor of modern wolves and dogs.

“Dogs may have been domesticated much earlier than is generally believed,” says Love Dalén of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. “The only other explanation is that there was a major divergence between two wolf populations at that time, and one of these populations subsequently gave rise to all modern wolves.” Dalén considers this second explanation less likely, since it would require that the second wolf population subsequently became extinct in the wild.

“It is [still] possible that a population of wolves remained relatively untamed but tracked human groups to a large degree, for a long time,” adds first author of the study Pontus Skoglund of Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute.

The researchers made these discoveries based on a small piece of bone picked up during an expedition to the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia. Initially, they didn’t realize the bone fragment came from a wolf at all; this was only determined using a genetic test back in the laboratory. But wolves are common on the Taimyr Peninsula, and the bone could have easily belonged to a modern-day wolf. On a hunch, the researchers decided to radiocarbon date the bone anyway. It was only then that they realized what they had: a 35,000-year-old bone from an ancient Taimyr wolf.

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Above: Comparison of an ancient Taimyr wolf bone from the lower jaw to a modern pipette. Courtesy Love Dalén

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Above: Detailed view of an ancient Taimyr wolf bone from the lower jaw. The animal lived approximately 27,000 to 40,000 years ago. Courtesy Love Dalén

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Above: DNA from this small piece of a rib bone from an ancient Taimyr wolf suggests that dogs may have been domesticated at least 27,000 years ago. Courtesy Love Dalén

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The DNA evidence also shows that modern-day Siberian Huskies and Greenland sled dogs share an unusually large number of genes with the ancient Taimyr wolf.

“The power of DNA can provide direct evidence that a Siberian Husky you see walking down the street shares ancestry with a wolf that roamed Northern Siberia 35,000 years ago,” Skoglund says. To put that in perspective, “this wolf lived just a few thousand years after Neandertals disappeared from Europe and modern humans started populating Europe and Asia.”

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A Cell Press press release.

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Ancient site of Palmyra in hands of Islamic State

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Mark Hallum -

Mark Hallum is a staff writer for Popular Archaeology Magazine.

The Syrian city of Palmyra, known internationally for its iconic archaeological site, is reported to have fallen into the control of the Islamic State, just days after their victory in Ramadi in Northern Iraq.

Soldiers, policemen and citizens were seen fleeing the town in the wake of the ISIS advance, as museum workers frantically packed up what they could save. A museum director, Khalil al-Hariri, told Reuters that many of the artifacts in the museum have been successfully moved to a safer position in anticipation of the city’s capture. But the human casualties have been high, including people who could not escape due to wounds sustained from the conflict.

Images and video clips of the destruction to cultural heritage in Syria and Iraq have been commonplace in the mainstream media in recent months, showing ancient cities, monuments and priceless antiquities destroyed by men with hammers, power tools, bombs and bulldozers. Now Palmyra, among the world’s greatest archaeological gems, faces a similar threat. Built two millennia ago, Palmyra not only represents financial gain for the Islamic State through profits from the illicit antiquities market, but it is also strategically located among a network of roads and gas fields. Looting the site and gaining control of the roads could provide an advantage to anyone strong enough to hold it.

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The ancient site of Palmyra in Syria. Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons

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At the recent Syrian Heritage Initiative Symposium in San Diego, Palmyra was a focal point of consideration. Discussed were the many ways in which the site had been degraded by small-scale looting and nearby conflict. The Syrian Heritage Initiative, an organization of archaeologists who have been funded by the U.S. State Department, has been hard at work attempting to save the heritage of the Syrian people.

Late last week, NPR reported that the U.N. had appealed to the warring groups of Syria to spare Palmyra, which recently became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most alarming to the U.N. has been the encroachment of government forces and the self-proclaimed Islamic State in the area of the site, not only threatening the integrity of the site with collateral battle damage, but also elevating the prospect of losing even more heritage than has already been sustained by looting and combat. Last summer, photos surfaced of blackened stone halfway up one of its famous pillars from a mortar round.

Government troops and other groups within the opposition are considered to be trusted not to harm heritage sites, as some groups even refer to themselves as the “grandchildren of Zenobia”, an ancient queen of Palmyra. It illustrates how much the history and culture of Syria is valued and respected by the Syrian people.

The Islamic State, however, is another element entirely.

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Mark Hallum is a staff writer for Popular Archaeology Magazine.

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The Bronze Age Black Forest Girl of Denmark

Posted on May 21, 2015 by No Author -

University of Copenhagen—The famous Bronze Age Egtved Girl did not originally come from Denmark, but from far away, as revealed by strontium isotope analyses of the girl’s teeth. The analyses show that she was born and raised outside Denmark’s current borders, and strontium isotope analyses of the girl’s hair and a thumb nail also show that she travelled great distances the last two years of her life.

The wool from the Egtved Girl’s clothing, the blanket she was covered with, and the oxhide she was laid to rest on in the oak coffin all originate from a location outside present-day Denmark. The combination of the different provenance analyses indicates that the Egtved Girl, her clothing, and the oxhide come from Schwarzwald (“the Black Forest”) in South West Germany – as do the cremated remains of a six-year-old child who was buried with the Egtved Girl. The girl’s coffin dates the burial to a summer day in the year 1370 BC.

Senior researcher Karin Margarita Frei, from the National Museum of Denmark and Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen, analysed the Egtved Girl’s strontium isotope signatures, in collaboration with Kristian Kristiansen from the University of Gothenburg and the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management and the Centre for GeoGenetics of the University of Copenhagen.

The girl’s movements mapped month by month

Strontium is an element which exists in the earth’s crust, but its prevalence is subject to geological variation. Humans, animals, and plants absorb strontium through water and food. By measuring the strontium isotopic signatures in archaeological remains, researchers can determine where humans and animals lived, and where plants grew because of their strontium isotope signatures. In that sense, strontium serves as a kind of GPS for scientists.

“I have analysed the strontium isotopic signatures of the enamel from one of the Egtved Girl’s first molars, which was fully formed/crystallized when she was three or four years old, and the analysis tells us that she was born and lived her first years in a region that is geologically older than and different from the peninsula of Jutland in Denmark,” Karin Margarita Frei says.

Karin Margarita Frei has also traced the last two years of the Egtved Girl’s life by examining the strontium isotopic signatures in the girl’s 23-centimetre-long hair. The analysis shows that she had been on a long journey shortly before she died, and this is the first time that researchers have been able to so accurately track a prehistoric person’s movements.

“If we consider the last two years of the girl’s life, we can see that, 13 to 15 months before her death, she stayed in a place with a strontium isotope signature very similar to the one that characterizes the area where she was born. Then she moved to an area that may well have been Jutland. After a period of c. 9 to 10 months there, she went back to the region she originally came from and stayed there for four to six months before she travelled to her final resting place, Egtved. Neither her hair nor her thumb nail contains a strontium isotopic signatures which indicates that she returned to Scandinavia until very shortly before she died. As an area’s strontium isotopic signature is only detectable in human hair and nails after a month, she must have come to “Denmark” and “Egtved” about a month before she passed away,” Karin Margarita Frei explains.

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This is the Egtved Girl’s grave, from 1370 BC. Courtesy the National Museum of Denmark

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The Black Forest Girl

If the Egtved Girl was not born in Jutland, then where did she come from? Karin Margarita Frei suggests that she came from South West Germany, more specifically the Black Forest, which is located 500 miles south of Egtved.

Considered in isolation, the Egtved Girl’s strontium isotope signature could indicate that she came from Sweden, Norway or Western or Southern Europe. She could also come from the island Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. But when Karin Margarita Frei combines the girl’s strontium isotopic signatures with that of her clothing, she can pinpoint the girl’s place of origin relatively accurately.

“The wool that her clothing was made from did not come from Denmark and the strontium isotope values vary greatly from wool thread to wool thread. This proves that the wool was made from sheep that either grazed in different geographical areas or that they grazed in one vast area with very complex geology, and Black Forest’s bedrock is characterized by a similarly heterogeneous strontium isotopic range,” Karin Margarita Frei says.

That the Egtved Girl in all probability came from the Black Forest region in Germany comes as no surprise to professor Kristian Kristiansen from the University of Gothenburg; the archaeological finds confirm that there were close relations between Denmark and Southern Germany in the Bronze Age.

“In Bronze Age Western Europe, Southern Germany and Denmark were the two dominant centres of power, very similar to kingdoms. We find many direct connections between the two in the archaeological evidence, and my guess is that the Egtved Girl was a Southern German girl who was given in marriage to a man in Jutland so as to forge an alliance between two powerful families,” Kristian Kristiansen says.

According to him, Denmark was rich in amber and traded amber for bronze. In Mycenaean Greece and in the Middle East, Baltic amber was as coveted as gold, and, through middlemen in Southern Germany, large quantities of amber were transported to the Mediterranean, and large quantities of bronze came to Denmark as payment. In the Bronze Age, bronze was as valuable a raw material as oil is today so Denmark became one of the richest areas of Northern Europe.

“Amber was the engine of Bronze Age economy, and in order to keep the trade routes going, powerful families would forge alliances by giving their daughters in marriage to each other and letting their sons be raised by each other as a kind of security,” Kristian Kristiansen says.

A great number of Danish Bronze Age graves contain human remains that are as well-preserved as those found the Egtved Girl’s grave. Karin Margarita Frei and Kristian Kristiansen plan to examine these remains with a view to analysing their strontium isotope signatures.

The research was made possible through the support of The Danish National Research Foundation, European Research Council, the Carlsberg Foundation and the L’Oréal Denmark-UNESCO For Women in Science Award. The results are published in Scientific Reports.

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Adapted and edited from the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen press release.

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Scientists discover world’s oldest stone tools

Posted on May 20, 2015 by No Author -

Earth Institute at Columbia University—Scientists working in the desert badlands of northwestern Kenya have found stone tools dating back 3.3 million years, long before the advent of modern humans, and by far the oldest such artifacts yet discovered. The tools, whose makers may or may not have been some sort of human ancestor, push the known date of such tools back by 700,000 years; they also may challenge the notion that our own most direct ancestors were the first to pound two rocks together to create a new technology.

The discovery is the first evidence that an even earlier group of proto-humans may have had the thinking abilities needed to figure out how to make sharp-edged tools. The stone tools mark “a new beginning to the known archaeological record,” say the authors of a new paper about the discovery, published today in the leading scientific journal Nature.

“The whole site’s surprising, it just rewrites the book on a lot of things that we thought were true,” said geologist Chris Lepre of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Rutgers University, a co-author of the paper who precisely dated the artifacts.

The tools “shed light on an unexpected and previously unknown period of hominin behavior and can tell us a lot about cognitive development in our ancestors that we can’t understand from fossils alone,” said lead author Sonia Harmand, of the Turkana Basin Institute at Stony Brook University and the Universite Paris Ouest Nanterre.

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The finds were made in the desert badlands near Lake Turkana, Kenya. Many other important discoveries of fossils and artifacts have been made nearby. Courtesy West Turkana Archaeological Project

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Hominins are a group of species that includes modern humans, Homo sapiens, and our closest evolutionary ancestors. Anthropologists long thought that our relatives in the genus Homo—the line leading directly to Homo sapiens—were the first to craft such stone tools. But researchers have been uncovering tantalizing clues that some other, earlier species of hominin, distant cousins, if you will, might have figured it out.

The researchers do not know who made these oldest of tools. But earlier finds suggest a possible answer: The skull of a 3.3-million-year-old hominin, Kenyanthropus platytops, was found in 1999 about a kilometer from the tool site. A K. platyops tooth and a bone from a skull were discovered a few hundred meters away, and an as-yet unidentified tooth has been found about 100 meters away.

The precise family tree of modern humans is contentious, and so far, no one knows exactly how K. platyops relates to other hominin species. Kenyanthropus predates the earliest known Homo species by a half a million years. This species could have made the tools; or, the toolmaker could have been some other species from the same era, such as Australopithecus afarensis, or an as-yet undiscovered early type of Homo.

Lepre said a layer of volcanic ash below the tool site set a “floor” on the site’s age: It matched ash elsewhere that had been dated to about 3.3 million years ago, based on the ratio of argon isotopes in the material. To more sharply define the time period of the tools, Lepre and co-author and Lamont-Doherty colleague Dennis Kent examined magnetic minerals beneath, around and above the spots where the tools were found.

The Earth’s magnetic field periodically reverses itself, and the chronology of those changes is well documented going back millions of years. “We essentially have a magnetic tape recorder that records the magnetic field … the music of the [earth’s] outer core,” Kent said. By tracing the variations in the polarity of the samples, they dated the site to 3.33 million to 3.11 million years.

Lepre’s wife and another co-author, Rhoda Quinn of Rutgers, studied carbon isotopes in the soil, which along with animal fossils at the site allowed researchers to reconstruct the area’s vegetation. This led to another surprise: The area was at that time a partially wooded, shrubby environment. Conventional thinking has been that sophisticated tool-making came in response to a change in climate that led to the spread of broad savannah grasslands, and the consequent evolution of large groups of animals that could serve as a source of food for human ancestors.

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Chris Lepre of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (back to camera) precisely dated the artifacts by analyzing layers above, around and below them for reversals in earth’s magnetic field. Courtesy West Turkana Archaeological Project

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One line of thinking is that hominins started knapping—pounding one rock against another to make sharp-edged stones—so they could cut meat off of animal carcasses, said paper co-author Jason Lewis of the Turkana Basin Institute and Rutgers. But the size and markings of the newly discovered tools “suggest they were doing something different as well, especially if they were in a more wooded environment with access to various plant resources,” Lewis said. The researchers think the tools could have been used for breaking open nuts or tubers, bashing open dead logs to get at insects inside, or maybe something not yet thought of.

“The capabilities of our ancestors and the environmental forces leading to early stone technology are a great scientific mystery,” said Richard Potts, director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the research. The newly dated tools “begin to lift the veil on that mystery, at an earlier time than expected,” he said.

Potts said he had examined the stone tools during a visit to Kenya in February.

“Researchers have thought there must be some way of flaking stone that preceded the simplest tools known until now,” he said. “Harmand’s team shows us just what this even simpler altering of rocks looked like before technology became a fundamental part of early human behavior.”

Ancient stone artifacts from East Africa were first uncovered at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania in the mid-20th century, and those tools were later associated with fossil discoveries in the 1960s of the early human ancestor Homo habilis. That species has been dated to 2.1 million to 1.5 million years ago.

Subsequent finds have pushed back the dates of humans’ evolutionary ancestors, and of stone tools, raising questions about who first made that cognitive leap. The discovery of a partial lower jaw in the Afar region of Ethiopia, announced on March 4, pushes the fossil record for the genus Homo to 2.8 million years ago. Evidence from recent papers, the authors note, suggests that there is anatomical evidence that Homo had evolved into several distinct lines by 2 million years ago.

There is some evidence of more primitive tool use going back even before the new find. In 2009, researchers at Dikika, Ethiopia, dug up 3.39 million-year-old animal bones marked with slashes and other cut marks, evidence that someone used stones to trim flesh from bone and perhaps crush bones to get at the marrow inside. That is the earliest evidence of meat and marrow consumption by hominins. No tools were found at the site, so it’s unclear whether the marks were made with crafted tools or simply sharp-edged stones. The only hominin fossil remains in the area dating to that time are from Australopithecus afarensis.

The new find came about almost by accident: Harmand and Lewis said that on the morning of July 9, 2011, they had wandered off on the wrong path, and climbed a hill to scout a fresh route back to their intended track. They wrote that they “could feel that something was special about this particular place.” They fanned out and surveyed a nearby patch of craggy outcrops. “By teatime,” they wrote, “local Turkana tribesman Sammy Lokorodi had helped [us] spot what [we] had come searching for.”

By the end of the 2012 field season, excavations at the site, named Lomekwi 3, had uncovered 149 stone artifacts tied to tool-making, from stone cores and flakes to rocks used for hammering and others possibly used as anvils to strike on.

The researchers tried knapping stones themselves to better understand how the tools they found might have been made. They concluded that the techniques used “could represent a technological stage between a hypothetical pounding-oriented stone tool use by an earlier hominin and the flaking-oriented knapping behavior of [later] toolmakers.” Chimpanzees and other primates are known to use a stone to hammer open nuts atop another stone. But using a stone for multiple purposes, and using one to crack apart another into a sharper tool, is more advanced behavior.

The find also has implications for understanding the evolution of the human brain. The toolmaking required a level of hand motor control that suggests that changes in the brain and spinal tract needed for such activity could have occurred before 3.3 million years ago, the authors said.

“This is a momentous and well-researched discovery,” said paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington University, who was not involved in the study. “I have seen some of these artifacts in the flesh, and I am convinced they were fashioned deliberately.” Wood said he found it intriguing to see how different the tools are from so-called Oldowan stone tools, which up to now have been considered the oldest and most primitive.

Lepre, who has been conducting fieldwork in eastern Africa for about 15 years, said he arrived at the dig site about a week after the discovery. The site is several hours’ drive on rough roads from the nearest town, located in a hot, dry landscape he said is reminiscent of Arizona and New Mexico. Lepre collected chunks of sediment from a series of depths and brought them back to Lamont-Doherty for analysis. He and Kent used a bandsaw to trim the samples into sugar cube-size blocks and inserted them into a magnetometer, which measured the polarity of tiny grains of the minerals hematite and magnetite contained in the sediment.

“The magnetics pretty much clinches that the age is something like 3.3 million years old,” said Kent, who also is a professor at Rutgers.

Earlier dating work by Lepre and Kent helped lead to another landmark paper in 2011: a study that suggested Homo erectus, another precursor to modern humans, was using more advanced tool-making methods 1.8 million years ago, at least 300,000 years earlier than previously thought.

“I realized when you [figure out] these things, you don’t solve anything, you just open up new questions,” said Lepre. “I get excited, then realize there’s a lot more work to do.”

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Sammy Lokorodi, a resident of Kenya’s northwestern desert who works as a fossil and artifact hunter, led the way to the trove of 3.3 million-year-old tools. Courtesy West Turkana Archaeological Project

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Edited from the Earth Institute at Columbia University press release.

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