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Ancient Times
News From the Past
Mayan Calendar: Year 5,128
the earth is more than 6,000 years old
november 2021
headlines
*Slave room discovered at Pompeii in 'rare' find
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*Massive human head in Chinese well forces scientists to rethink evolution
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*Park Ranger Stumbles Upon Treasure Trove of Several-Million-Year-Old Fossils in Northern California(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Archaeologists uncover oldest human burial in Africa
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*Israeli experts announce discovery of more Dead Sea scrolls
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*50 ancient coffins uncovered at Egypt's Saqqara necropolis
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*'Sensational' Egypt find offers clues in hunt for Cleopatra’s tomb
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*Mexico City buried its rivers to prevent disease and unwittingly created a dry, polluted city where COVID-19 now thrives(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Ancient Australian Aboriginal sites discovered underwater
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*Dino-dooming asteroid hit Earth at ‘deadliest possible’ angle
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*What a bone arrowhead from South Africa reveals about ancient human cognition
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*Four amazing astronomical discoveries from ancient Greece
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*Pompeii ruins show that the Romans invented recycling
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*Scientists discover three new species of pterosaurs in the Sahara
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*Ancient 'lost' civilisation uncovered by archaeologists in Turkey
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*Meet T-Rex’s older cousin: The Reaper of Death
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*Sarcophagus dedicated to sky god among latest ancient Egypt trove
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*Archaeologists discover remains of vast Mayan palace in Mexico
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*6,800-YEAR-OLD RITUAL SITE THREE TIMES BIGGER THAN STONEHENGE'S SARSEN CIRCLE DISCOVERED(ARTICLE BELOW)
*CATACOMB WITH MUMMIES FROM ANCIENT EGYPT'S ROMAN PERIOD DISCOVERED IN VAST BURIAL GROUND(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Drone-mounted lasers reveal ancient settlement off Florida coast
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*ANCESTRAL HOME OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS DISCOVERED BY SCIENTISTS
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*THESE TRACKS WERE MADE BY A FOOT-LONG WORM ON A DEATH MARCH 550 MILLION YEARS AGO
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*3.8-million-year-old skull found in Ethiopia yields new clues on how humans evolved
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*STONE AGE CAVE AT 11,000 FEET IS OLDEST HIGH ALTITUDE HUMAN SETTLEMENT EVER DISCOVERED(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Paleontologists find giant dinosaur bone in southwestern France
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*'Bent' pyramid: Egypt opens ancient oddity for tourism
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*Sahara was home to some of largest sea creatures, study finds
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*‘Oldest remains’ outside Africa reset human migration clock
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*ANCIENT TREE WITH RECORD OF EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD REVERSAL IN ITS RINGS DISCOVERED(ARTICLE BELOW)
*ANCIENT GREECE: UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER MONUMENTAL STRUCTURE FROM SITE OF PRE-BIBLICAL BATTLE(ARTICLE BELOW)
*ANCIENT, LONG-LOST UNDERGROUND CITY STRETCHING FOR MILES DISCOVERED IN TURKEY
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*Scientists unearth ‘most bird-like’ dinosaur ever found
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*ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TOMB DISCOVERED NEAR GIZA PYRAMIDS BELONGING TO HIGH PRIEST AND 'PURIFIER' OF KING KHAFRE
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*Scientists unearth 220 million-year-old dinosaur fossils in Argentina
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*Researchers discover ancient giant ‘lion’ in Kenya
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*HOMO LUZONENSIS: BIZARRE NEW SPECIES OF ANCIENT HUMAN DISCOVERED IN PHILIPPINES
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*Mummified mice found in 'beautiful, colourful' Egyptian tomb
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*Found: fossil 'mother lode' created by asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs
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*ANCIENT POMPEII: ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER FAST-FOOD BUSINESS PRESERVED IN RUINS OF ROMAN CITY DESTROYED BY VOLCANO(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Etruscan tomb in Corsica may yield secrets on civilization’s decline
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*ANCIENT LOST CITY OF MOUNTAIN PEOPLE UNEARTHED AT GATES OF MESOPOTAMIA'S FIRST EMPIRE
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*The 'great dying': rapid warming caused largest extinction event ever, report says
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*PRIMITIVE OLD WORLD MONKEY FROM 22 MILLION YEARS AGO DISCOVERED IN KENYAN BADLANDS
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*Archeologist Spends Over 35 Years Building Enormous Scale Model of Ancient Rome
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*ANCIENT MAYA RITUAL CAVE DISCOVERED BENEATH CHICHEN ITZA HOLDS CLUES ABOUT VAST CITY'S COLLAPSE
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*ANCIENT EGYPT: MYSTERY SQUATTING SKELETON OF TEENAGE GIRL DISCOVERED NEAR 4,600-YEAR-OLD PYRAMID
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*Egypt unveils Pharaonic tomb, home to 50 mummies
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*GALAGADON NORDQUISTAE: TINY PREHISTORIC SHARK WITH ‘ALIEN SPACESHIP’ TEETH DISCOVERED NEXT TO T. REX
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*‘The flayed God’: Archaeologists find Mexico temple to god of skinning sacrifices
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*Egypt unveils ‘one of a kind’ ancient tomb, expects more finds
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*MEGALODON WAS KILLED OFF BY SUPERNOVA RADIATION THAT CAUSED CANCER AND MUTATIONS, STUDY SAYS
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*'AMAZING' 9,000-YEAR-OLD MASK LINKED TO BEGINNINGS OF AGRICULTURE DISCOVERED IN WEST BANK
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*First human remains found in El Salvador’s ‘Mayan Pompeii’
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*LISOWICIA BOJANI: COLOSSAL LIZARD MAMMAL THAT WALKED WITH DINOSAURS DISCOVERED
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*Old Master? Cave paintings from 40,000 years ago are world’s earliest figurative art
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*EASTER ISLAND HEADS MYSTERY SOLVED? RAPA NUI CIVILIZATION BUILT MOAI BY FRESHWATER LOCATIONS
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Ancient Teeth With Neanderthal Features Reveal New Chapters of Human Evolution
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*The New Story of Humanity's Origins in Africa
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*Aboriginal settlement in Australia ‘no accident’: study
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*Humans Mated Outside Our Species 3 Times(ARTICLE BELOW)
*An Older Origin for Complex Human Cultures(ARTICLE BELOW)
*DNA shows first modern Briton had dark skin, blue eyes(ARTICLE BELOW)
*200 million-year-old fossil of rare Jurassic-era 'sea dragon' was found hidden in private collection(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Egypt unveils tomb of ancient priestess(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Stone tools in India suggest earlier human exit from Africa(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Mayan Civilization Has Been 'Grossly Underestimated'(ARTICLE BELOW)
*A SINGLE MIGRATION FROM AFRICA POPULATED THE WORLD, STUDIES FIND(ARTICLE BELOW)
*THE BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION(ARTICLE BELOW)
*MAYA 'SNAKE DYNASTY' TOMB UNCOVERED HOLDING BODY, TREASURE AND HIEROGLYPHS(ARTICLE BELOW)
Slave room discovered at Pompeii in 'rare' find
Agence France-Presse - raw story
November 06, 2021
Pompeii archaeologists said Saturday they have unearthed the remains of a "slave room" in an exceptionally rare find at a Roman villa destroyed by Mount Vesuvius' eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.
The little room with three beds, a ceramic pot and a wooden chest was discovered during a dig at the Villa of Civita Giuliana, a suburban villa just a few hundred meters from the rest of the ancient city.
An almost intact ornate Roman chariot was discovered here at the start of this year, and archaeologists said Saturday that the room likely housed slaves charged with maintaining and prepping the chariot.
"This is a window into the precarious reality of people who rarely appear in historical sources, written almost exclusively by men belonging to the elite," said Pompeii's director general Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
The "unique testimony" into how "the weakest in the ancient society lived... is certainly one of the most exciting discoveries in my life as an archaeologist," he said in a press release.
Pompeii was buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, killing those who hadn't managed to leave the city in time. They were either crushed by collapsing buildings or killed by thermal shock.
'Rare insight'
The 16-square metre (170-square feet) room was a cross between a bedroom and a storeroom: as well as three beds -- one of which was child sized -- there were eight amphorae, stashed in a corner.
The wooden chest held metal and fabric objects that seem to be part of the harnesses of the chariot horses, and a chariot shaft was found resting on one of the beds.
The remains of three horses were found in a stable in a dig earlier this year.
"The room grants us a rare insight into the daily reality of slaves, thanks to the exceptional state of preservation of the room," the Pompeii archaeological park said.
Experts had been able to make plaster casts of the beds and other objects in perishable materials which left their imprint in the cinerite -- the rock made of volcanic ash -- that covered them, it said.
Slave 'family'
The beds were made of several roughly worked wooden planks, which could be adjusted according to the height of the person who used them.
The webbed bases of the beds were made of ropes, covered by blankets.
While two were around 1.7 meters long, one measured just 1.4 meters, and may therefore have belonged to a child.
The archaeological park said the three slaves may have been a family.
Archaeologists found several personal objects under the beds, including amphorae for private things, ceramic jugs and what might be a chamber pot.
The room was lit by a small upper window, and there are no traces or wall decorations, just a mark believed to have been left by a lantern hung on a wall.
The excavation is part of a program launched in 2017 aimed at fighting illegal activity in the area, including tunnel digging to reach artifacts that can be sold on illicit markets.
The Villa of Civita Giuliana had been the target of systematic looting for years. There was evidence some of the "archaeological heritage" in this so-called Slave Room had also been lost to looters, the park said.
Damage by grave robbers in the villa had been estimated so far at almost two million euros ($2.3 million), it added.
The little room with three beds, a ceramic pot and a wooden chest was discovered during a dig at the Villa of Civita Giuliana, a suburban villa just a few hundred meters from the rest of the ancient city.
An almost intact ornate Roman chariot was discovered here at the start of this year, and archaeologists said Saturday that the room likely housed slaves charged with maintaining and prepping the chariot.
"This is a window into the precarious reality of people who rarely appear in historical sources, written almost exclusively by men belonging to the elite," said Pompeii's director general Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
The "unique testimony" into how "the weakest in the ancient society lived... is certainly one of the most exciting discoveries in my life as an archaeologist," he said in a press release.
Pompeii was buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, killing those who hadn't managed to leave the city in time. They were either crushed by collapsing buildings or killed by thermal shock.
'Rare insight'
The 16-square metre (170-square feet) room was a cross between a bedroom and a storeroom: as well as three beds -- one of which was child sized -- there were eight amphorae, stashed in a corner.
The wooden chest held metal and fabric objects that seem to be part of the harnesses of the chariot horses, and a chariot shaft was found resting on one of the beds.
The remains of three horses were found in a stable in a dig earlier this year.
"The room grants us a rare insight into the daily reality of slaves, thanks to the exceptional state of preservation of the room," the Pompeii archaeological park said.
Experts had been able to make plaster casts of the beds and other objects in perishable materials which left their imprint in the cinerite -- the rock made of volcanic ash -- that covered them, it said.
Slave 'family'
The beds were made of several roughly worked wooden planks, which could be adjusted according to the height of the person who used them.
The webbed bases of the beds were made of ropes, covered by blankets.
While two were around 1.7 meters long, one measured just 1.4 meters, and may therefore have belonged to a child.
The archaeological park said the three slaves may have been a family.
Archaeologists found several personal objects under the beds, including amphorae for private things, ceramic jugs and what might be a chamber pot.
The room was lit by a small upper window, and there are no traces or wall decorations, just a mark believed to have been left by a lantern hung on a wall.
The excavation is part of a program launched in 2017 aimed at fighting illegal activity in the area, including tunnel digging to reach artifacts that can be sold on illicit markets.
The Villa of Civita Giuliana had been the target of systematic looting for years. There was evidence some of the "archaeological heritage" in this so-called Slave Room had also been lost to looters, the park said.
Damage by grave robbers in the villa had been estimated so far at almost two million euros ($2.3 million), it added.
Anthropology
Massive human head in Chinese well forces scientists to rethink evolution
‘Dragon man’ skull reveals new branch of family tree more closely related to modern humans than Neanderthals
Ian Sample Science editor
the guardian
Fri 25 Jun 2021 11.00 EDT
Chinese researchers have called the skull, found in Harbin in the north, Homo longi, or ‘Dragon man’, but other experts are more cautious about naming a new species. Photograph: Wei Gao
The discovery of a huge fossilised skull that was wrapped up and hidden in a Chinese well nearly 90 years ago has forced scientists to rewrite the story of human evolution.
Analysis of the remains has revealed a new branch of the human family tree that points to a previously unknown sister group more closely related to modern humans than the Neanderthals.
The extraordinary fossil has been named a new human species, Homo longi or “Dragon man”, by Chinese researchers, although other experts are more cautious about the designation.
“I think this is one of the most important finds of the past 50 years,” said Prof Chris Stringer, research leader at the Natural History Museum in London, who worked on the project. “It’s a wonderfully preserved fossil.”
The skull appears to have a remarkable backstory. According to the researchers, it was originally found in 1933 by Chinese labourers building a bridge over the Songhua River in Harbin, in China’s northernmost province, Heilongjiang, during the Japanese occupation. To keep the skull from falling into Japanese hands it was wrapped and hidden in an abandoned well, resurfacing only in 2018 after the man who hid it told his grandson about it shortly before he died.
An international team led by Prof Qiang Ji at the Hebei Geo University in China drew on geochemical techniques to narrow down when the skull came to rest in Harbin, dating the bones to at least 146,000 years old. The skull has a unique combination of primitive and more modern features, with the face, in particular, more closely resembling Homo sapiens. One huge molar remains.
The skull, which is 23cm long and more than 15cm wide, is substantially larger than a modern human’s and has ample room, at 1,420ml, for a modern human brain. Beneath the thick brow ridge, the face has large square eye sockets, but is delicate despite its size. “This guy had a huge head,” said Stringer.
The researchers believe the skull belonged to a male, about 50 years old, who would have been an impressive physical specimen. His wide, bulbous nose allowed him to breathe huge volumes of air, indicating a high-energy lifestyle, while sheer size would have helped him withstand the brutally cold winters in the region. “Homo longi is heavily built, very robust,” said Prof Xijun Ni, a paleoanthropologist at Hebei. “It is hard to estimate the height, but the massive head should match a height higher than the average of modern humans.”
To work out where the Harbin individual fitted into human history, the scientists fed measurements from the fossil and 95 other skulls into software that compiled the most likely family tree. To their surprise, the Harbin skull and a handful of others from China formed a new branch closer to modern humans than Neanderthals.
The Chinese researchers believe the Harbin skull is distinct enough to make it a new species, but Stringer is not convinced. He believes it is similar to another found in Dali county in China in 1978.
---
Mark Maslin, a professor of earth system science at UCL and the author of The Cradle of Humanity, said: “The beautifully preserved Chinese Harbin archaic human skull adds even more evidence that human evolution was not a simple evolutionary tree but a dense intertwined bush. We now know that there were as many as 10 different species of hominins at the same time as our own species emerged.
“Genetic analysis shows that these species interacted and interbred – our own genetics contain the legacy of many of these ghost species. But what is a sobering thought, is that despite all this diversity, a new version of Homo sapiens emerged from Africa about 60,000 years ago which clearly out-competed, out-bred, and even out-fought these other closely related species, causing their extinction. It is only by painstaking searching and analysis of their fossils, such as the Harbin skull, do we know of their existence.”
Analysis of the remains has revealed a new branch of the human family tree that points to a previously unknown sister group more closely related to modern humans than the Neanderthals.
The extraordinary fossil has been named a new human species, Homo longi or “Dragon man”, by Chinese researchers, although other experts are more cautious about the designation.
“I think this is one of the most important finds of the past 50 years,” said Prof Chris Stringer, research leader at the Natural History Museum in London, who worked on the project. “It’s a wonderfully preserved fossil.”
The skull appears to have a remarkable backstory. According to the researchers, it was originally found in 1933 by Chinese labourers building a bridge over the Songhua River in Harbin, in China’s northernmost province, Heilongjiang, during the Japanese occupation. To keep the skull from falling into Japanese hands it was wrapped and hidden in an abandoned well, resurfacing only in 2018 after the man who hid it told his grandson about it shortly before he died.
An international team led by Prof Qiang Ji at the Hebei Geo University in China drew on geochemical techniques to narrow down when the skull came to rest in Harbin, dating the bones to at least 146,000 years old. The skull has a unique combination of primitive and more modern features, with the face, in particular, more closely resembling Homo sapiens. One huge molar remains.
The skull, which is 23cm long and more than 15cm wide, is substantially larger than a modern human’s and has ample room, at 1,420ml, for a modern human brain. Beneath the thick brow ridge, the face has large square eye sockets, but is delicate despite its size. “This guy had a huge head,” said Stringer.
The researchers believe the skull belonged to a male, about 50 years old, who would have been an impressive physical specimen. His wide, bulbous nose allowed him to breathe huge volumes of air, indicating a high-energy lifestyle, while sheer size would have helped him withstand the brutally cold winters in the region. “Homo longi is heavily built, very robust,” said Prof Xijun Ni, a paleoanthropologist at Hebei. “It is hard to estimate the height, but the massive head should match a height higher than the average of modern humans.”
To work out where the Harbin individual fitted into human history, the scientists fed measurements from the fossil and 95 other skulls into software that compiled the most likely family tree. To their surprise, the Harbin skull and a handful of others from China formed a new branch closer to modern humans than Neanderthals.
The Chinese researchers believe the Harbin skull is distinct enough to make it a new species, but Stringer is not convinced. He believes it is similar to another found in Dali county in China in 1978.
---
Mark Maslin, a professor of earth system science at UCL and the author of The Cradle of Humanity, said: “The beautifully preserved Chinese Harbin archaic human skull adds even more evidence that human evolution was not a simple evolutionary tree but a dense intertwined bush. We now know that there were as many as 10 different species of hominins at the same time as our own species emerged.
“Genetic analysis shows that these species interacted and interbred – our own genetics contain the legacy of many of these ghost species. But what is a sobering thought, is that despite all this diversity, a new version of Homo sapiens emerged from Africa about 60,000 years ago which clearly out-competed, out-bred, and even out-fought these other closely related species, causing their extinction. It is only by painstaking searching and analysis of their fossils, such as the Harbin skull, do we know of their existence.”
Park Ranger Stumbles Upon Treasure Trove of Several-Million-Year-Old Fossils in Northern California
Paleontologists found hundreds of Miocene fossils, including an 8-million-year-old mastodon, at an undisclosed location in the Sierra Nevada foothills
By Elizabeth Gamillo
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
MAY 24, 2021 3:06PM
In the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, paleontologists have uncovered a collection of fossils, including an eight-million-year-old mastodon skull with both tusks intact, a rhino skeleton, a giant tortoise, 600 petrified trees, and many more specimens. Dating back to the Miocene epoch, the site is considered one of the most significant fossil discoveries in California history, reports Andrew Chamings for SFGate.
"Few other fossil discoveries like this exist in California," says California State University paleontologist Russell Shapiro, to Ashley Gebb for Chico State Today.
Park ranger and naturalist Greg Francek from the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) first stumbled upon a petrified forest while on patrol in the Mokelumne River Watershed, located in the Sierra Nevada, reports the Chico State Today.
"I looked around the area further, and I found a second tree," Francek says in a statement. "And then a third and so on. After finding dozens of trees, I realized that what I was looking at was the remains of a petrified forest."
After three weeks of surveying and uncovering more fossilized pieces of the forest, Francek found what appeared to be vertebrate fossils, Chico State Today reports. From there, EBMUD reached out to paleontologists and geologists from California State University, Chico, to take a closer look.
Shapiro's team excavated the site and uncovered the tip of a pearly, white bone. As the team etched away at the rock encasing the bone, teeth, a skull, and two tusks belonging to the elephant-like, eight-million-year-old mastodon emerged, reports Tia Ghose for Live Science. The last time mastodon remains were found in California was in 1947 during pipeline construction, EBMUD explains in a statement.
In the past year since the initial discovery, Shapiro and his team have found hundreds of animal fossils from varying species within the site of the petrified forest remains. Among the finds were a horse, a tapir, the remains of an ancestral 400-pound salmon with sharp teeth, an extinct species of camel that was as tall as a giraffe, and a gomphothere, which is an ancient elephant with four tusks, SFGate reports.
With each fossil find, the team unraveled the region's geologic history and suspect that the remains ended up in the watershed when floods and volcano debris flows carried them there, reports Live Science. The team also hypothesized that the enormous, fossilized mammals roamed the area's oak and flood plains.
"The bones paint a clearer picture of life 10 million years ago when animals evolved from living in forests to grassland as the landscape changed," Shapiro says in a statement.
The excavation team plans to continue excavating at the undisclosed site location and studying the fossils for further insight into the area's history. Those interested in seeing the mastodon skull can view it on display starting September 1 at the California State University, Chico's Gateway Science Museum, reports Chico State Today.
"Few other fossil discoveries like this exist in California," says California State University paleontologist Russell Shapiro, to Ashley Gebb for Chico State Today.
Park ranger and naturalist Greg Francek from the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) first stumbled upon a petrified forest while on patrol in the Mokelumne River Watershed, located in the Sierra Nevada, reports the Chico State Today.
"I looked around the area further, and I found a second tree," Francek says in a statement. "And then a third and so on. After finding dozens of trees, I realized that what I was looking at was the remains of a petrified forest."
After three weeks of surveying and uncovering more fossilized pieces of the forest, Francek found what appeared to be vertebrate fossils, Chico State Today reports. From there, EBMUD reached out to paleontologists and geologists from California State University, Chico, to take a closer look.
Shapiro's team excavated the site and uncovered the tip of a pearly, white bone. As the team etched away at the rock encasing the bone, teeth, a skull, and two tusks belonging to the elephant-like, eight-million-year-old mastodon emerged, reports Tia Ghose for Live Science. The last time mastodon remains were found in California was in 1947 during pipeline construction, EBMUD explains in a statement.
In the past year since the initial discovery, Shapiro and his team have found hundreds of animal fossils from varying species within the site of the petrified forest remains. Among the finds were a horse, a tapir, the remains of an ancestral 400-pound salmon with sharp teeth, an extinct species of camel that was as tall as a giraffe, and a gomphothere, which is an ancient elephant with four tusks, SFGate reports.
With each fossil find, the team unraveled the region's geologic history and suspect that the remains ended up in the watershed when floods and volcano debris flows carried them there, reports Live Science. The team also hypothesized that the enormous, fossilized mammals roamed the area's oak and flood plains.
"The bones paint a clearer picture of life 10 million years ago when animals evolved from living in forests to grassland as the landscape changed," Shapiro says in a statement.
The excavation team plans to continue excavating at the undisclosed site location and studying the fossils for further insight into the area's history. Those interested in seeing the mastodon skull can view it on display starting September 1 at the California State University, Chico's Gateway Science Museum, reports Chico State Today.
Archaeology
Archaeologists uncover oldest human burial in Africa
‘Quite spectacular’ discovery shows three-year-old child was carefully laid to rest nearly 80,000 years ago
Ian Sample Science editor
the guardian
Wed 5 May 2021 11.00 EDT
Archaeologists have identified the oldest known human burial in Africa during field work that uncovered the remains of a child laid carefully to rest in a grave nearly 80,000 years ago.
The arrangement of the bones shows the three-year-old – named Mtoto after the Swahili word for child – was placed with legs tucked to chest, and perhaps wrapped in a shroud with their head on a pillow, before being gently covered in soil.
Researchers discovered the delicate and degraded bones while excavating the floor beneath a sheltered overhang at the mouth of the Panga ya Saidi cave in the tropical uplands of Kenya’s coastal plain about 10 miles from the shore.
“This is quite spectacular,” said Michael Petraglia, a professor of human evolution and prehistory at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. “It is the oldest human burial in Africa. It tells us something about our cognition, our sociality and our behaviours and they are all very familiar to us today.”
The team unearthed the edge of the grave and the first pieces of bone in 2013, but the fragments were so fragile they turned to dust when the scientists tried to remove them. Over the next four years, the researchers excavated the grave from above, revealing yet more bone, but even after applying resins to the material, it was still too weak to recover.
The researchers decided to dig around the circular pit, roughly 40cm wide and 13cm deep, and encase the whole grave in plaster so it could safely be lifted from the ground. The block was taken to the National Museum in Nairobi and on to a specialist lab in Spain where the material was excavated further and then imaged with 3D X-ray equipment.
Two small teeth found in the grave matched those of Homo sapiens and put the age of the child at two and a half to three years old. Further teeth were still embedded in the child’s lower jaw, discovered with the spine, ribs and other bones from the shoulder and limbs. Stone tools for scraping, boring and engraving were found in and around the grave, alongside stone points that may have been hafted on to wooden shafts to make spears.
The images show that the child was laid on their right side with knees tucked up towards the chest, while the position of the skull suggests that it lay on a headrest or pillow. The articulated bones, such as the spine, had not fallen apart in the grave, leading the researchers to suspect the body was wrapped tightly in a shroud before burial. Dating found the bones to be about 78,000 years old, according to the study published in Nature.
“Humans, unlike chimps, began to develop complex belief systems around death,” said Prof Nicole Bovin, the principal investigator on the project in Jena.
“These are deeply variable cross-culturally, as are ways of treating the dead, so we can’t draw specific conclusions about what the burial signified for people.
“But what seems clear is that there is not just an emotional connection to the dead, but almost certainly also a framework for understanding and navigating death, and for making it meaningful. Unlike other species, we have cosmological belief systems that give meaning to experience and to events like the death of a loved one.”
Archaeologists have found older human burial sites outside Africa. Human remains recovered from burials in the Skhul cave on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel and Qafzeh cave near Nazareth are between 90,000 and 130,000 years old.
“Early African burials are especially rare despite the fact that Africa is the birthplace of our species,” said Bovin. “This almost certainly reflects biases in where research has been done – the regions where earlier burials have been found have been much more extensively researched than Africa.
“It’s incredibly rare that we gain access to such a snapshot of a moment in time, especially one so very ancient,” she added. “The burial takes us back to a very sad moment … one that despite the vast time separating us, we can understand as humans.”
The arrangement of the bones shows the three-year-old – named Mtoto after the Swahili word for child – was placed with legs tucked to chest, and perhaps wrapped in a shroud with their head on a pillow, before being gently covered in soil.
Researchers discovered the delicate and degraded bones while excavating the floor beneath a sheltered overhang at the mouth of the Panga ya Saidi cave in the tropical uplands of Kenya’s coastal plain about 10 miles from the shore.
“This is quite spectacular,” said Michael Petraglia, a professor of human evolution and prehistory at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. “It is the oldest human burial in Africa. It tells us something about our cognition, our sociality and our behaviours and they are all very familiar to us today.”
The team unearthed the edge of the grave and the first pieces of bone in 2013, but the fragments were so fragile they turned to dust when the scientists tried to remove them. Over the next four years, the researchers excavated the grave from above, revealing yet more bone, but even after applying resins to the material, it was still too weak to recover.
The researchers decided to dig around the circular pit, roughly 40cm wide and 13cm deep, and encase the whole grave in plaster so it could safely be lifted from the ground. The block was taken to the National Museum in Nairobi and on to a specialist lab in Spain where the material was excavated further and then imaged with 3D X-ray equipment.
Two small teeth found in the grave matched those of Homo sapiens and put the age of the child at two and a half to three years old. Further teeth were still embedded in the child’s lower jaw, discovered with the spine, ribs and other bones from the shoulder and limbs. Stone tools for scraping, boring and engraving were found in and around the grave, alongside stone points that may have been hafted on to wooden shafts to make spears.
The images show that the child was laid on their right side with knees tucked up towards the chest, while the position of the skull suggests that it lay on a headrest or pillow. The articulated bones, such as the spine, had not fallen apart in the grave, leading the researchers to suspect the body was wrapped tightly in a shroud before burial. Dating found the bones to be about 78,000 years old, according to the study published in Nature.
“Humans, unlike chimps, began to develop complex belief systems around death,” said Prof Nicole Bovin, the principal investigator on the project in Jena.
“These are deeply variable cross-culturally, as are ways of treating the dead, so we can’t draw specific conclusions about what the burial signified for people.
“But what seems clear is that there is not just an emotional connection to the dead, but almost certainly also a framework for understanding and navigating death, and for making it meaningful. Unlike other species, we have cosmological belief systems that give meaning to experience and to events like the death of a loved one.”
Archaeologists have found older human burial sites outside Africa. Human remains recovered from burials in the Skhul cave on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel and Qafzeh cave near Nazareth are between 90,000 and 130,000 years old.
“Early African burials are especially rare despite the fact that Africa is the birthplace of our species,” said Bovin. “This almost certainly reflects biases in where research has been done – the regions where earlier burials have been found have been much more extensively researched than Africa.
“It’s incredibly rare that we gain access to such a snapshot of a moment in time, especially one so very ancient,” she added. “The burial takes us back to a very sad moment … one that despite the vast time separating us, we can understand as humans.”
Israeli experts announce discovery of more Dead Sea scrolls
By ILAN BEN ZION ap news
3/16/2021
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dozens of Dead Sea Scroll fragments bearing a biblical text found in a desert cave and believed hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago.
The fragments of parchment bear lines of Greek text from the books of Zechariah and Nahum and have been dated around the first century based on the writing style, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. They are the first new scrolls found in archaeological excavations in the desert south of Jerusalem in 60 years.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts found in desert caves in the West Bank near Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s, date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. They include the earliest known copies of biblical texts and documents outlining the beliefs of a little understood Jewish sect.
The roughly 80 new pieces are believed to belong to a set of parchment fragments found in a site in southern Israel known as the “Cave of Horror” — named for the 40 human skeletons found there during excavations in the 1960s — that also bear a Greek rendition of the Twelve Minor Prophets, a book in the Hebrew Bible. The cave is located in a remote canyon around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Jerusalem.
The artifacts were found during an operation in Israel and the occupied West Bank conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority to find scrolls and other artifacts to prevent possible plundering. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, and international law prohibits the removal of cultural property from occupied territory. The authority held a news conference Tuesday to unveil the discovery.
The fragments are believed to have been part of a scroll stashed away in the cave during the Bar Kochba Revolt, an armed Jewish uprising against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136. Coins struck by rebels and arrowheads found in other caves in the region also hail from that period.
“We found a textual difference that has no parallel with any other manuscript, either in Hebrew or in Greek,” said Oren Ableman, a Dead Sea Scroll researcher with the Israel Antiquities Authority. He referred to slight variations in the Greek rendering of the Hebrew original compared to the Septuagint — a translation of the Hebrew Bible to Greek made in Egypt in the third and second centuries B.C.
“When we think about the biblical text, we think about something very static. It wasn’t static. There are slight differences and some of those differences are important,” said Joe Uziel, head of the antiquities authority’s Dead Sea Scrolls unit. “Every little piece of information that we can add, we can understand a little bit better” how the Biblical text came into its traditional Hebrew form.
Alongside the Roman-era artifacts, the exhibit included far older discoveries of no lesser importance found during its sweep of more than 500 caves in the desert: the 6,000-year-old mummified skeleton of a child, an immense, complete woven basket from the Neolithic period, estimated to be 10,500 years old, and scores of other delicate organic materials preserved in caves’ arid climate.
In 1961, Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni excavated the “Cave of Horror” and his team found nine parchment fragments belonging to a scroll with texts from the Twelve Minor Prophets in Greek, and a scrap of Greek papyrus.
Since then, no new texts have been found during archaeological excavations, but many have turned up on the black market, apparently plundered from caves.
For the past four years, Israeli archaeologists have launched a major campaign to scour caves nestled in the precipitous canyons of the Judean Desert in search of scrolls and other rare artifacts. The aim is to find them before plunderers disturb the remote sites, destroying archaeological strata and data in search of antiquities bound for the black market.
Until now the hunt had only found a handful of parchment scraps that bore no text.
Amir Ganor, head of the antiquities theft prevention unit, said that since the commencement of the operation in 2017 there has been virtually no antiquities plundering in the Judean Desert, calling the operation a success.
“For the first time in 70 years, we were able to preempt the plunderers,” he said.
The fragments of parchment bear lines of Greek text from the books of Zechariah and Nahum and have been dated around the first century based on the writing style, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. They are the first new scrolls found in archaeological excavations in the desert south of Jerusalem in 60 years.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts found in desert caves in the West Bank near Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s, date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. They include the earliest known copies of biblical texts and documents outlining the beliefs of a little understood Jewish sect.
The roughly 80 new pieces are believed to belong to a set of parchment fragments found in a site in southern Israel known as the “Cave of Horror” — named for the 40 human skeletons found there during excavations in the 1960s — that also bear a Greek rendition of the Twelve Minor Prophets, a book in the Hebrew Bible. The cave is located in a remote canyon around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Jerusalem.
The artifacts were found during an operation in Israel and the occupied West Bank conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority to find scrolls and other artifacts to prevent possible plundering. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, and international law prohibits the removal of cultural property from occupied territory. The authority held a news conference Tuesday to unveil the discovery.
The fragments are believed to have been part of a scroll stashed away in the cave during the Bar Kochba Revolt, an armed Jewish uprising against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136. Coins struck by rebels and arrowheads found in other caves in the region also hail from that period.
“We found a textual difference that has no parallel with any other manuscript, either in Hebrew or in Greek,” said Oren Ableman, a Dead Sea Scroll researcher with the Israel Antiquities Authority. He referred to slight variations in the Greek rendering of the Hebrew original compared to the Septuagint — a translation of the Hebrew Bible to Greek made in Egypt in the third and second centuries B.C.
“When we think about the biblical text, we think about something very static. It wasn’t static. There are slight differences and some of those differences are important,” said Joe Uziel, head of the antiquities authority’s Dead Sea Scrolls unit. “Every little piece of information that we can add, we can understand a little bit better” how the Biblical text came into its traditional Hebrew form.
Alongside the Roman-era artifacts, the exhibit included far older discoveries of no lesser importance found during its sweep of more than 500 caves in the desert: the 6,000-year-old mummified skeleton of a child, an immense, complete woven basket from the Neolithic period, estimated to be 10,500 years old, and scores of other delicate organic materials preserved in caves’ arid climate.
In 1961, Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni excavated the “Cave of Horror” and his team found nine parchment fragments belonging to a scroll with texts from the Twelve Minor Prophets in Greek, and a scrap of Greek papyrus.
Since then, no new texts have been found during archaeological excavations, but many have turned up on the black market, apparently plundered from caves.
For the past four years, Israeli archaeologists have launched a major campaign to scour caves nestled in the precipitous canyons of the Judean Desert in search of scrolls and other rare artifacts. The aim is to find them before plunderers disturb the remote sites, destroying archaeological strata and data in search of antiquities bound for the black market.
Until now the hunt had only found a handful of parchment scraps that bore no text.
Amir Ganor, head of the antiquities theft prevention unit, said that since the commencement of the operation in 2017 there has been virtually no antiquities plundering in the Judean Desert, calling the operation a success.
“For the first time in 70 years, we were able to preempt the plunderers,” he said.
Egypt
50 ancient coffins uncovered at Egypt's Saqqara necropolis
Wooden sarcophagi discovered at site south of Cairo along with funerary temple of Queen Naert
Agence France-Presse in Cairo - the guardian
Sun 17 Jan 2021 08.31 EST
A mummy dating back to the New Kingdom found at the funerary temple of Queen Naert. Photograph: Mohamed Hossam/EPA
Egypt has announced the discovery of a new trove of treasures at the Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo, including an ancient funerary temple.
The tourism and antiquities ministry said the “major discoveries” made by a team of archaeologists headed by the Egyptologist Zahi Hawass also included more than 50 sarcophagi.
The wooden sarcophagi, which date back to the New Kingdom period – between the 16th and the 11th century BC – were found in 52 burial shafts at depths of 10 to 12 metres (40 feet).
Hawass said the funerary temple of Queen Naert, the wife of King Teti, as well as three warehouses made of bricks were also found on the site.
Saqqara, home to more than a dozen pyramids, ancient monasteries and animal burial sites, was a vast necropolis of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis that has become a Unesco world heritage site.
In November, Egypt announced the discovery of more than 100 intact sarcophagi, in the largest such find of the year.
The sealed wooden coffins, unveiled alongside statues of ancient deities, dated back more than 2,500 years and belonged to top officials of the Late period and the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt. At the time, the antiquities and tourism minister, Khaled al-Anani, predicted that “Saqqara has yet to reveal all of its contents”.
Hawass said the latest discoveries could shed new light on the history of Saqqara during the New Kingdom. The find was made near the pyramid where King Teti, the first pharaoh of the sixth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, is buried.
Egypt hopes archaeological discoveries will spur tourism, a sector that has endured multiple shocks, from the 2011 uprisings to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Later this year, and after several delays, authorities hope to inaugurate a new museum – the Grand Egyptian Museum – at the Giza plateau.
There has been a flurry of excavations in recent years in Saqqara, home to the step pyramid of Djoser, one of the earliest built in ancient Egypt.
The tourism and antiquities ministry said the “major discoveries” made by a team of archaeologists headed by the Egyptologist Zahi Hawass also included more than 50 sarcophagi.
The wooden sarcophagi, which date back to the New Kingdom period – between the 16th and the 11th century BC – were found in 52 burial shafts at depths of 10 to 12 metres (40 feet).
Hawass said the funerary temple of Queen Naert, the wife of King Teti, as well as three warehouses made of bricks were also found on the site.
Saqqara, home to more than a dozen pyramids, ancient monasteries and animal burial sites, was a vast necropolis of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis that has become a Unesco world heritage site.
In November, Egypt announced the discovery of more than 100 intact sarcophagi, in the largest such find of the year.
The sealed wooden coffins, unveiled alongside statues of ancient deities, dated back more than 2,500 years and belonged to top officials of the Late period and the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt. At the time, the antiquities and tourism minister, Khaled al-Anani, predicted that “Saqqara has yet to reveal all of its contents”.
Hawass said the latest discoveries could shed new light on the history of Saqqara during the New Kingdom. The find was made near the pyramid where King Teti, the first pharaoh of the sixth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, is buried.
Egypt hopes archaeological discoveries will spur tourism, a sector that has endured multiple shocks, from the 2011 uprisings to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Later this year, and after several delays, authorities hope to inaugurate a new museum – the Grand Egyptian Museum – at the Giza plateau.
There has been a flurry of excavations in recent years in Saqqara, home to the step pyramid of Djoser, one of the earliest built in ancient Egypt.
'Sensational' Egypt find offers clues in hunt for Cleopatra’s tomb
Exclusive: discovery of two ancient mummies filmed for Channel 5 documentary
The two mummies found inside a sealed tomb at Taposiris Magna, that would originally have been completely covered with gold leaf. Photograph: Arrow Media
She was the fabled queen of ancient Egypt, immortalised over thousands of years as a beautiful seductress. But, despite her fame, Cleopatra’s tomb is one of the great unsolved mysteries.
Some believe she was buried in Alexandria, where she was born and ruled from her royal palace, a city decimated by the tsunami of 365AD. Others suggest her final resting place could be about 30 miles away, in the ancient temple of Taposiris Magna, built by her Ptolemaic ancestors on the Nile Delta.
Now two mummies of high-status individuals who lived at the time of Cleopatra have been uncovered at Taposiris Magna, a discovery that it is being described as “sensational” because it shows the importance of a necropolis that is being linked to her by the latest finds.
Although the burial chamber had been undisturbed for 2,000 years, the mummies are in a poor state of preservation because water had seeped through. But crucial evidence reveals they were originally completely covered with gold leaf, a luxury afforded only to those from the top tiers of society. Perhaps these two individuals had interacted with Cleopatra herself, archaeologists suggest.
---
It is presented by Dr Glenn Godenho, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at Liverpool University, who described the discovery as phenomenal. “Although now covered in dust from 2,000 years underground, at the time these mummies would have been spectacular. To be covered in gold leaf shows they ... would have been … important members of society,” he said.
The mummies have been X-rayed, establishing that they are male and female. One suggestion is they were priests who played a key role in maintaining the pharaohs’ power. One bears an image of a scarab, symbolising rebirth, painted in gold leaf.
Cleopatra was the last of a ruthless dynasty that ruled the Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt for almost three centuries. Yet not a single Ptolemaic pharoah’s tomb has been found.
Excavations at Taposiris Magna are headed by Dr Kathleen Martínez, who, after working there for over 14 years, is more convinced than ever Cleopatra’s tomb will be found there. Only a tiny percentage of the vast site has been explored.
---
At the site of the temple altar, where priests would have made offerings to the gods, 200 coins bearing Cleopatra’s name and her face have been discovered.
This “incredible find” not only links Cleopatra directly to Taposiris Magna, but also reveals a striking image of the queen, Godenho says in the documentary. While its prominent nose and double chin may not suggest the classical beauty immortalised by Hollywood and Elizabeth Taylor, it is how she would have wanted to be seen as the coins would have been pressed using her direct instructions.
Some believe she was buried in Alexandria, where she was born and ruled from her royal palace, a city decimated by the tsunami of 365AD. Others suggest her final resting place could be about 30 miles away, in the ancient temple of Taposiris Magna, built by her Ptolemaic ancestors on the Nile Delta.
Now two mummies of high-status individuals who lived at the time of Cleopatra have been uncovered at Taposiris Magna, a discovery that it is being described as “sensational” because it shows the importance of a necropolis that is being linked to her by the latest finds.
Although the burial chamber had been undisturbed for 2,000 years, the mummies are in a poor state of preservation because water had seeped through. But crucial evidence reveals they were originally completely covered with gold leaf, a luxury afforded only to those from the top tiers of society. Perhaps these two individuals had interacted with Cleopatra herself, archaeologists suggest.
---
It is presented by Dr Glenn Godenho, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at Liverpool University, who described the discovery as phenomenal. “Although now covered in dust from 2,000 years underground, at the time these mummies would have been spectacular. To be covered in gold leaf shows they ... would have been … important members of society,” he said.
The mummies have been X-rayed, establishing that they are male and female. One suggestion is they were priests who played a key role in maintaining the pharaohs’ power. One bears an image of a scarab, symbolising rebirth, painted in gold leaf.
Cleopatra was the last of a ruthless dynasty that ruled the Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt for almost three centuries. Yet not a single Ptolemaic pharoah’s tomb has been found.
Excavations at Taposiris Magna are headed by Dr Kathleen Martínez, who, after working there for over 14 years, is more convinced than ever Cleopatra’s tomb will be found there. Only a tiny percentage of the vast site has been explored.
---
At the site of the temple altar, where priests would have made offerings to the gods, 200 coins bearing Cleopatra’s name and her face have been discovered.
This “incredible find” not only links Cleopatra directly to Taposiris Magna, but also reveals a striking image of the queen, Godenho says in the documentary. While its prominent nose and double chin may not suggest the classical beauty immortalised by Hollywood and Elizabeth Taylor, it is how she would have wanted to be seen as the coins would have been pressed using her direct instructions.
Situated on a plateau and surrounded by mountains, Mexico City is a bowl that traps smog and dust. AP Photo/Marco Ugarte
Mexico City buried its rivers to prevent disease and unwittingly created a dry, polluted city where COVID-19 now thrives
the conversation
July 2, 2020 10.04am EDT
The Aztec ruins of Teotihuacan, outside Mexico City, March 19, 2020. AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Mexico City is a dust bowl, a polluted megalopolis where breathing is hard and newly washed clothes hung out to dry turn stiff by evening. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic began clobbering this capital city, residents regularly wore face masks during the frequent air quality emergencies there.
Now Mexico City’s bad air pollution – which contributes to high rates of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases – is making the metropolitan area’s 21 million people more vulnerable to the coronavirus.
Mexico City wasn’t always an ecological and health disaster. As the center of the Aztec empire, it was verdant and diverse. As late as the early 20th century, 45 rivers ran through the Mexican capital.
The decision to bury and pave over its rivers, creating today’s arid metropolis, was a 20th-century plan meant to protect residents from disease – specifically, cholera, malaria and other waterborne illnesses brought on by frequent flooding.
Origins of Mexico City
...Mexico City was founded by the people now called Aztecs – but who called themselves Tenochcas – in 1325. The Aztecs built their city on a rock in Lake Texcoco, mostly because the more prime locations along the shore were already taken.
By 1427 the powerful Aztecs had defeated their lakeshore neighbors and built a shining capital that spanned the lake. The city, called Tenochtitlan, was built amid water by the development of “chinampas” – small plots of lake filled in with debris, pottery and soil to create solid land, with channels flowing around them.
The foremost chronicler of Spain’s colonization of Mexico, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, described Tenochtitlan as crisscrossed by engineering marvels like causeways and removable bridges, and full of “splendid” palaces. Diaz del Castillo reports that the city market was larger and better regulated than those of Constantinople and Rome. As in the Roman empire, aqueducts supplied the city with fresh water.
Tenochtitlan looked like Venice – gorgeous – and had the same health problems, including contaminated water, mosquitoes and unpleasant smells. But the Aztecs managed the city well and prevented flooding. Their dikes and waterways permitted a great diversity of plants and animals to flourish, and the chinampa agricultural system – in which land was replenished with soil dredged from the lake bottom – was one of the most productive the world has ever known.
Spanish incompetence
That good urban management ended with the Spanish conquest in 1521. Tenochtitlan was destroyed, its palaces and causeways turned to rubble at the bottom of the lake.
The Spaniards did not understand the watery ecology of the area, nor did they understand or respect Aztec engineering. To rebuild their capital, they drained the lake.
This strategy led to both drought and an inadequate water supply for most of the year. Rainy season, however, brought tremendous floods. In 1629, the worst flood in Mexico City’s recorded history is said to have lasted five years and killed more than 30,000 people due to drowning and disease. Churches reportedly held rooftop masses.
Rainy season turned parts of the city turned into cesspools, spawning waterborne diseases like cholera and malaria, as well as meningitis. Gastrointestinal illnesses festered, too, because residents used Mexico City’s rivers for dumping garbage and sewage. Human and animal bodies floated in the stagnant waters, emitting a terrible stench.
Mexico goes deep
Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1810. To deal once and for all with its flooding problems, city leaders decided in the 1890s to channel rain, flood waters and sewage away from the city via a 30-mile desagüe, or drainage channel.
Around this time, the population of the capital began to explode. Mexico City had 350,000 residents in 1900 and 3 million in 1950. By the 1930s, its novel sanitation system was already insufficient. Plus, residents were still using Mexico City’s many rivers for washing clothes, as garbage pits and as sewers.
In 1938, the architect Carlos Contreras proposed enclosing three polluted rivers – the Piedad, the Consulado and the Verónica – and turning them into one giant viaduct to prevent flooding, disease and death. Political conditions did not allow this idea to move forward at the time, but the idea of putting Mexico City’s filthy waterways into enormous pipes and burying them stuck.
Over the following decades, rivers began to be put underground. Between 1947 and 1952 most of Mexico City’s 45 rivers were channeled into giant tubes, buried and paved over. Today, these rivers are visible only in the names of the streets that run over them: Rio Mixcoac Avenue, Rio Churubusco Avenue and others.
Smog bowl
This system gave mid-century Mexico City enough sewer capacity, roads and buildings to serve its population. The foul smell and unsanitary conditions also diminished, because people couldn’t dump garbage into covered waterways.
But without its rivers, Mexico City dried up and grew dusty. And because of its geography – located on a plateau, surrounded by mountains – the dust was unable to escape. Mexico City is in a bowl that traps whatever floats in the air.
Starting in the 1980s, the number of cars grew into the millions, trapping pollution too. Today, Mexico City is notorious for its smog and for the terrible health consequences pollution brings, including asthma and heart disease.
The coronavirus outbreak wasn’t caused by polluted air. But the city’s bad air quality – together with overcrowding and other poverty-related factors – creates the conditions for COVID-19 to severely sicken and kill more people.
In trying to eliminate waterborne illness, the Mexican capital ended up helping an airborne virus find more hosts.
It’s an irony of history the Aztecs would surely mourn.
Now Mexico City’s bad air pollution – which contributes to high rates of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases – is making the metropolitan area’s 21 million people more vulnerable to the coronavirus.
Mexico City wasn’t always an ecological and health disaster. As the center of the Aztec empire, it was verdant and diverse. As late as the early 20th century, 45 rivers ran through the Mexican capital.
The decision to bury and pave over its rivers, creating today’s arid metropolis, was a 20th-century plan meant to protect residents from disease – specifically, cholera, malaria and other waterborne illnesses brought on by frequent flooding.
Origins of Mexico City
...Mexico City was founded by the people now called Aztecs – but who called themselves Tenochcas – in 1325. The Aztecs built their city on a rock in Lake Texcoco, mostly because the more prime locations along the shore were already taken.
By 1427 the powerful Aztecs had defeated their lakeshore neighbors and built a shining capital that spanned the lake. The city, called Tenochtitlan, was built amid water by the development of “chinampas” – small plots of lake filled in with debris, pottery and soil to create solid land, with channels flowing around them.
The foremost chronicler of Spain’s colonization of Mexico, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, described Tenochtitlan as crisscrossed by engineering marvels like causeways and removable bridges, and full of “splendid” palaces. Diaz del Castillo reports that the city market was larger and better regulated than those of Constantinople and Rome. As in the Roman empire, aqueducts supplied the city with fresh water.
Tenochtitlan looked like Venice – gorgeous – and had the same health problems, including contaminated water, mosquitoes and unpleasant smells. But the Aztecs managed the city well and prevented flooding. Their dikes and waterways permitted a great diversity of plants and animals to flourish, and the chinampa agricultural system – in which land was replenished with soil dredged from the lake bottom – was one of the most productive the world has ever known.
Spanish incompetence
That good urban management ended with the Spanish conquest in 1521. Tenochtitlan was destroyed, its palaces and causeways turned to rubble at the bottom of the lake.
The Spaniards did not understand the watery ecology of the area, nor did they understand or respect Aztec engineering. To rebuild their capital, they drained the lake.
This strategy led to both drought and an inadequate water supply for most of the year. Rainy season, however, brought tremendous floods. In 1629, the worst flood in Mexico City’s recorded history is said to have lasted five years and killed more than 30,000 people due to drowning and disease. Churches reportedly held rooftop masses.
Rainy season turned parts of the city turned into cesspools, spawning waterborne diseases like cholera and malaria, as well as meningitis. Gastrointestinal illnesses festered, too, because residents used Mexico City’s rivers for dumping garbage and sewage. Human and animal bodies floated in the stagnant waters, emitting a terrible stench.
Mexico goes deep
Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1810. To deal once and for all with its flooding problems, city leaders decided in the 1890s to channel rain, flood waters and sewage away from the city via a 30-mile desagüe, or drainage channel.
Around this time, the population of the capital began to explode. Mexico City had 350,000 residents in 1900 and 3 million in 1950. By the 1930s, its novel sanitation system was already insufficient. Plus, residents were still using Mexico City’s many rivers for washing clothes, as garbage pits and as sewers.
In 1938, the architect Carlos Contreras proposed enclosing three polluted rivers – the Piedad, the Consulado and the Verónica – and turning them into one giant viaduct to prevent flooding, disease and death. Political conditions did not allow this idea to move forward at the time, but the idea of putting Mexico City’s filthy waterways into enormous pipes and burying them stuck.
Over the following decades, rivers began to be put underground. Between 1947 and 1952 most of Mexico City’s 45 rivers were channeled into giant tubes, buried and paved over. Today, these rivers are visible only in the names of the streets that run over them: Rio Mixcoac Avenue, Rio Churubusco Avenue and others.
Smog bowl
This system gave mid-century Mexico City enough sewer capacity, roads and buildings to serve its population. The foul smell and unsanitary conditions also diminished, because people couldn’t dump garbage into covered waterways.
But without its rivers, Mexico City dried up and grew dusty. And because of its geography – located on a plateau, surrounded by mountains – the dust was unable to escape. Mexico City is in a bowl that traps whatever floats in the air.
Starting in the 1980s, the number of cars grew into the millions, trapping pollution too. Today, Mexico City is notorious for its smog and for the terrible health consequences pollution brings, including asthma and heart disease.
The coronavirus outbreak wasn’t caused by polluted air. But the city’s bad air quality – together with overcrowding and other poverty-related factors – creates the conditions for COVID-19 to severely sicken and kill more people.
In trying to eliminate waterborne illness, the Mexican capital ended up helping an airborne virus find more hosts.
It’s an irony of history the Aztecs would surely mourn.
Ancient Australian Aboriginal sites discovered underwater
July 1, 2020
By Agence France-Presse
Archaeologists have for the first time found Aboriginal artifacts on the seabed off Australia, opening a door to the discovery of ancient settlements flooded since the last ice age, they reported Thursday.
Hundreds of ancient stone tools made by Australia’s Indigenous people at least 7,000 years ago were discovered two metres underwater off the remote Western Australia coast, the research published in the PLOS ONE journal said.
A second site nearby revealed traces of human activity 14 meters below sea level dating back at least 8,500 years — though researchers believe both sites may be even more ancient.
Archaeologists say the finds mark an exciting first step in uncovering more Aboriginal sites thought to have been flooded since the last ice age between 18,000 and 8,000 years ago.
Flinders University associate professor Jonathan Benjamin, who co-authored the study, said sea-level rises covered more than 30 percent of the vast continent in water.
“A huge amount of the archaeological evidence documenting the lives of Aboriginal people is now underwater,” Benjamin said.
“Now we finally have the first proof that at least some of this archaeological evidence survived the process of sea level rise.”
James Cook University professor Sean Ulm said the archaeological team studied geological charts and sites on land to help decide where to search underwater.
“We then used airborne laser scanners and high-resolution sonar on boats to pinpoint likely areas,” he said.
Teams of divers were able to map 269 artifacts at a site about 2.4 meters below sea level off Cape Bruguieres in the Pilbara region, and found an underwater spring at the second site in Flying Foam Passage.
The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation collaborated in the efforts, with CEO Peter Jeffries saying further exploration could unearth more cultural treasures.
“This will help us better understand the life of the people who were so connected to these areas which are now underwater,” he said.
“With this comes a new requirement for the careful management of Aboriginal sea country.”
Archeologists have found Aboriginal sites in inland Australia dating back at least 65,000 years.
The first human settlers of the continent are believed to have arrived via Southeast Asia, by sea and over land bridges that were later submerged.
Hundreds of ancient stone tools made by Australia’s Indigenous people at least 7,000 years ago were discovered two metres underwater off the remote Western Australia coast, the research published in the PLOS ONE journal said.
A second site nearby revealed traces of human activity 14 meters below sea level dating back at least 8,500 years — though researchers believe both sites may be even more ancient.
Archaeologists say the finds mark an exciting first step in uncovering more Aboriginal sites thought to have been flooded since the last ice age between 18,000 and 8,000 years ago.
Flinders University associate professor Jonathan Benjamin, who co-authored the study, said sea-level rises covered more than 30 percent of the vast continent in water.
“A huge amount of the archaeological evidence documenting the lives of Aboriginal people is now underwater,” Benjamin said.
“Now we finally have the first proof that at least some of this archaeological evidence survived the process of sea level rise.”
James Cook University professor Sean Ulm said the archaeological team studied geological charts and sites on land to help decide where to search underwater.
“We then used airborne laser scanners and high-resolution sonar on boats to pinpoint likely areas,” he said.
Teams of divers were able to map 269 artifacts at a site about 2.4 meters below sea level off Cape Bruguieres in the Pilbara region, and found an underwater spring at the second site in Flying Foam Passage.
The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation collaborated in the efforts, with CEO Peter Jeffries saying further exploration could unearth more cultural treasures.
“This will help us better understand the life of the people who were so connected to these areas which are now underwater,” he said.
“With this comes a new requirement for the careful management of Aboriginal sea country.”
Archeologists have found Aboriginal sites in inland Australia dating back at least 65,000 years.
The first human settlers of the continent are believed to have arrived via Southeast Asia, by sea and over land bridges that were later submerged.
Dino-dooming asteroid hit Earth at ‘deadliest possible’ angle
May 26, 2020
By Agence France-Presse - raw story
This much we knew: some 66 million years ago an asteroid roughly twice the diameter of Paris crashed into Earth, wiping out all land-dwelling dinosaurs and 75 percent of life on the planet.
What remained a mystery was whether it was a direct hit or more of a glancing blow, and which would be more destructive.
As it turns out, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications, the giant space rock struck at the “deadliest possible” angle — 60 degrees.
The cataclysmic impact kicked up enough debris and gases into the upper atmosphere to radically change the climate, dooming T-Rex and everything it ever hunted to extinction.
Analyzing the structure of the 200-kilometer-wide crater in southern Mexico where the asteroid hit, scientists ran a series of simulations.
Lead author Gareth Collins of Imperial College London and colleagues at the University of Freiburg and the University of Texas at Austin looked at four possible impact angles — 90, 60, 45 and 30 degrees — and two impact speeds, 12 and 20 kilometers per second.
The best fit with the data from the crater was a 60 degree strike.
“Sixty degrees is a more lethal impact angle because it ejects a larger amount of material fast enough to engulf the planet,” Collins told AFP.
“The Chicxulub impact triggered a mass extinction because it ejected huge quantities of dust and gas out of the crater fast enough to disperse around the globe.”
Had the asteroid hit head on or at a more oblique angle, not as much debris would have been thrown up into the atmosphere, he added.
Large amounts of sulphur in the form of tiny particles that remained suspended in the air blocked the Sun, cooling the climate by several degrees Celsius.
Rocks ‘rebound’ –
Smoke, ash and debris engulfed the atmosphere, eventually destroying most plants and wiping out 75 percent of species on Earth.
Chicxulub is also thought to have triggered an earthquake whose seismic waves reached Tanis -– the fossil site 3,000 km away in North Dakota where definitive evidence of the asteroid’s devastating impact was uncovered -– in just 13 minutes.
The seismic shock triggered a torrent of water and debris from an arm of an inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway.
Thus far, scientists have only been able to study the early stages of the impact.
The researchers combed through geological data gathered during a recent dig to better understand how the cataclysm unfolded.
They soon realized that the asteroid did not, as long assumed, approach Earth from the southeast.
“Our work overturns this hypothesis,” Collins explained. “The crater’s central uplift is leaning slightly to the southwest, and numerical simulations of the impact reproduce this.”
The findings could lead to a greater understanding about how craters are formed in general.
The 3-D simulations, for example, suggest that rocks “rebound” to fill in some of the impact layer during the final stage of crater formation, a process that takes only minutes, the researchers conjectured.
Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how the asteroid triggered a mass extinction event and why some species survived while others didn’t.
“The Chicxulub impact was a very bad day for the dinosaurs,” Collins said, adding that the new research showed it was “even worse” than had been previously thought.
“It makes it even more remarkable that life survived and recovered as rapidly as it did.”
What remained a mystery was whether it was a direct hit or more of a glancing blow, and which would be more destructive.
As it turns out, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications, the giant space rock struck at the “deadliest possible” angle — 60 degrees.
The cataclysmic impact kicked up enough debris and gases into the upper atmosphere to radically change the climate, dooming T-Rex and everything it ever hunted to extinction.
Analyzing the structure of the 200-kilometer-wide crater in southern Mexico where the asteroid hit, scientists ran a series of simulations.
Lead author Gareth Collins of Imperial College London and colleagues at the University of Freiburg and the University of Texas at Austin looked at four possible impact angles — 90, 60, 45 and 30 degrees — and two impact speeds, 12 and 20 kilometers per second.
The best fit with the data from the crater was a 60 degree strike.
“Sixty degrees is a more lethal impact angle because it ejects a larger amount of material fast enough to engulf the planet,” Collins told AFP.
“The Chicxulub impact triggered a mass extinction because it ejected huge quantities of dust and gas out of the crater fast enough to disperse around the globe.”
Had the asteroid hit head on or at a more oblique angle, not as much debris would have been thrown up into the atmosphere, he added.
Large amounts of sulphur in the form of tiny particles that remained suspended in the air blocked the Sun, cooling the climate by several degrees Celsius.
Rocks ‘rebound’ –
Smoke, ash and debris engulfed the atmosphere, eventually destroying most plants and wiping out 75 percent of species on Earth.
Chicxulub is also thought to have triggered an earthquake whose seismic waves reached Tanis -– the fossil site 3,000 km away in North Dakota where definitive evidence of the asteroid’s devastating impact was uncovered -– in just 13 minutes.
The seismic shock triggered a torrent of water and debris from an arm of an inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway.
Thus far, scientists have only been able to study the early stages of the impact.
The researchers combed through geological data gathered during a recent dig to better understand how the cataclysm unfolded.
They soon realized that the asteroid did not, as long assumed, approach Earth from the southeast.
“Our work overturns this hypothesis,” Collins explained. “The crater’s central uplift is leaning slightly to the southwest, and numerical simulations of the impact reproduce this.”
The findings could lead to a greater understanding about how craters are formed in general.
The 3-D simulations, for example, suggest that rocks “rebound” to fill in some of the impact layer during the final stage of crater formation, a process that takes only minutes, the researchers conjectured.
Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how the asteroid triggered a mass extinction event and why some species survived while others didn’t.
“The Chicxulub impact was a very bad day for the dinosaurs,” Collins said, adding that the new research showed it was “even worse” than had been previously thought.
“It makes it even more remarkable that life survived and recovered as rapidly as it did.”
What a bone arrowhead from South Africa reveals about ancient human cognition
the conversation
May 17, 2020
The origin of bow hunting has been a hotly debated topic in archaeology for the past two decades. This is because knowing when it emerged has the potential to offer insights into the development of human cognition and the early development of complex technology.
Bone arrowheads were used throughout most of the world for the last few thousand years. But the examples found in South Africa predate anything from other regions by at least 20 000 years. Currently, the earliest evidence of bow hunting technology outside Africa comes from southern Europe, and dates to around 45 000 years ago. The earliest non-African evidence of bone points used as arrow tips is at 35 000 years ago from Timor Island.
Because bows and arrows were made predominantly from organic materials, very little evidence of these weapons survives archaeologically. Nevertheless, at several sites in South Africa small stone segments have been found from 60 000-year-old horizons that are thought to have once formed part of arrowheads, either as tips or barbs.
Bow and arrow technology gives hunters a unique advantage over their prey. It allows them to hunt from a distance, and from a concealed position. This, in turn, increases individual hunters’ success, as well as providing an aspect of safety when stalking dangerous prey such as buffalo, bushpig, or carnivores.
The bow and arrow consists of multiple parts, each with a particular function and operating together to make hunting possible. This kind of “symbiotic” technology requires a high degree of cognitive flexibility: the mental ability to switch between thinking about different concepts, and to think about multiple concepts simultaneously.
Until now, evidence for bow hunting technology using bone and dating back more than 60 000 years has only been reported from South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal region. Now an in-depth examination of a bone arrowhead found in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province extends the known distribution of this technology farther south – and slightly earlier than previously thought.
The artefact
Our study, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, focused on a long, thin, delicately made, pointed bone artefact. It was found at the Klasies River Main site, along the Eastern Cape coast of South Africa.
This is an extremely important archaeological site. It has the most prolific assemblage of H. sapiens remains in sub-Saharan Africa, spanning the last 120 000 years. Its archaeology sparked the first discussions raising the probability that complex human behaviour and cognition were represented in sub-Saharan Africa long before appearing in Eurasia.
The artefact we studied, which comes from deposits dated to more than 60 000 years ago, closely resembles thousands of bone arrowheads used by the indigenous San hunter-gatherers from the 18th to the 20th centuries. It was excavated in the 1960s, but its importance was not recognised until recently, owing to confusion surrounding its age.
---
The artefact also fits in with what we know of ancient people’s cognition and abilities in southern Africa.
From at least 100 000 years ago people in southern Africa were combining multiple ingredients to form coloured pastes, possibly for decoration or skin protection. By 70 000 years ago they were making glues and other compound adhesives using a range of ingredients, combined in a series of complex steps. These glues may have then been used, among other things, to haft small stone pieces in varying arrangements, probably as insets for arrows or other weapons.
The presence of these technical elements in the southern African Middle Stone Age (roughly equivalent to the Eurasian Middle Palaeolithic) signals an advanced cognitive ability. That includes notions of abstract thought, analogical reasoning, multitasking and cognitive fluidity or the ability to ‘think outside the box’.
Bone arrowheads were used throughout most of the world for the last few thousand years. But the examples found in South Africa predate anything from other regions by at least 20 000 years. Currently, the earliest evidence of bow hunting technology outside Africa comes from southern Europe, and dates to around 45 000 years ago. The earliest non-African evidence of bone points used as arrow tips is at 35 000 years ago from Timor Island.
Because bows and arrows were made predominantly from organic materials, very little evidence of these weapons survives archaeologically. Nevertheless, at several sites in South Africa small stone segments have been found from 60 000-year-old horizons that are thought to have once formed part of arrowheads, either as tips or barbs.
Bow and arrow technology gives hunters a unique advantage over their prey. It allows them to hunt from a distance, and from a concealed position. This, in turn, increases individual hunters’ success, as well as providing an aspect of safety when stalking dangerous prey such as buffalo, bushpig, or carnivores.
The bow and arrow consists of multiple parts, each with a particular function and operating together to make hunting possible. This kind of “symbiotic” technology requires a high degree of cognitive flexibility: the mental ability to switch between thinking about different concepts, and to think about multiple concepts simultaneously.
Until now, evidence for bow hunting technology using bone and dating back more than 60 000 years has only been reported from South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal region. Now an in-depth examination of a bone arrowhead found in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province extends the known distribution of this technology farther south – and slightly earlier than previously thought.
The artefact
Our study, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, focused on a long, thin, delicately made, pointed bone artefact. It was found at the Klasies River Main site, along the Eastern Cape coast of South Africa.
This is an extremely important archaeological site. It has the most prolific assemblage of H. sapiens remains in sub-Saharan Africa, spanning the last 120 000 years. Its archaeology sparked the first discussions raising the probability that complex human behaviour and cognition were represented in sub-Saharan Africa long before appearing in Eurasia.
The artefact we studied, which comes from deposits dated to more than 60 000 years ago, closely resembles thousands of bone arrowheads used by the indigenous San hunter-gatherers from the 18th to the 20th centuries. It was excavated in the 1960s, but its importance was not recognised until recently, owing to confusion surrounding its age.
---
The artefact also fits in with what we know of ancient people’s cognition and abilities in southern Africa.
From at least 100 000 years ago people in southern Africa were combining multiple ingredients to form coloured pastes, possibly for decoration or skin protection. By 70 000 years ago they were making glues and other compound adhesives using a range of ingredients, combined in a series of complex steps. These glues may have then been used, among other things, to haft small stone pieces in varying arrangements, probably as insets for arrows or other weapons.
The presence of these technical elements in the southern African Middle Stone Age (roughly equivalent to the Eurasian Middle Palaeolithic) signals an advanced cognitive ability. That includes notions of abstract thought, analogical reasoning, multitasking and cognitive fluidity or the ability to ‘think outside the box’.
Four amazing astronomical discoveries from ancient Greece
April 28, 2020
By The Conversation - raw story
A 10th century reproduction of a diagram by Aristarchus showing some of the geometry he used in his calculations.
wikipedia, CC BY-SA
The Histories by Herodotus (484BC to 425BC) offers a remarkable window into the world as it was known to the ancient Greeks in the mid fifth century BC. Almost as interesting as what they knew, however, is what they did not know. This sets the baseline for the remarkable advances in their understanding over the next few centuries – simply relying on what they could observe with their own eyes.
Herodotus claimed that Africa was surrounded almost entirely by sea. How did he know this? He recounts the story of Phoenician sailors who were dispatched by King Neco II of Egypt (about 600BC), to sail around continental Africa, in a clockwise fashion, starting in the Red Sea. This story, if true, recounts the earliest known circumnavigation of Africa, but also contains an interesting insight into the astronomical knowledge of the ancient world.
The voyage took several years. Having rounded the southern tip of Africa, and following a westerly course, the sailors observed the Sun as being on their right hand side, above the northern horizon. This observation simply did not make sense at the time because they didn’t yet know that the Earth has a spherical shape, and that there is a southern hemisphere.
1. The planets orbit the Sun
A few centuries later, there had been a lot of progress. Aristarchus of Samos (310BC to 230BC) argued that the Sun was the “central fire” of the cosmos and he placed all of the then known planets in their correct order of distance around it. This is the earliest known heliocentric theory of the solar system.
Unfortunately, the original text in which he makes this argument has been lost to history, so we cannot know for certain how he worked it out. Aristarchus knew the Sun was much bigger than the Earth or the Moon, and he may have surmised that it should therefore have the central position in the solar system.
Nevertheless it is a jawdropping finding, especially when you consider that it wasn’t rediscovered until the 16th century, by Nicolaus Copernicus, who even acknowledged Aristarchus during the development of his own work.
2. The size of the Moon
One of Aristarchus’ books that did survive is about the sizes and distances of the Sun and Moon. In this remarkable treatise, Aristarchus laid out the earliest known attempted calculations of the relative sizes and distances to the Sun and Moon.
It had long been observed that the Sun and Moon appeared to be of the same apparent size in the sky, and that the Sun was further away. They realised this from solar eclipses, caused by the Moon passing in front of the Sun at a certain distance from Earth.
Also, at the instant when the Moon is at first or third quarter, Aristarchus reasoned that the Sun, Earth, and Moon would form a right-angled triangle.
As Pythagoras had determined how the lengths of triangle’s sides were related a couple of centuries earlier, Aristarchus used the triangle to estimate that the distance to the Sun was between 18 and 20 times the distance to the Moon. He also estimated that the size of the Moon was approximately one-third that of Earth, based on careful timing of lunar eclipses.
While his estimated distance to the Sun was too low (the actual ratio is 390), on account of the lack of telescopic precision available at the time, the value for the ratio of the size of the Earth to the Moon is surprisingly accurate (the Moon has a diameter 0.27 times that of Earth).
---
3. The Earth’s circumference
Eratosthenes (276BC to 195 BC) was chief librarian at the Great Library of Alexandria, and a keen experimentalist. Among his many achievements was the earliest known calculation of the circumference of the Earth. Pythagoras is generally regarded as the earliest proponent of a spherical Earth, although apparently not its size. Eratosthenes’ famous and yet simple method relied on measuring the different lengths of shadows cast by poles stuck vertically into the ground, at midday on the summer solstice, at different latitudes.
The Sun is sufficiently far away that, wherever its rays arrive at Earth, they are effectively parallel, as had previously been shown by Aristarchus. So the difference in the shadows demonstrated how much the Earth’s surface curved. Eratosthenes used this to estimate the Earth’s circumference as approximately 40,000km. This is within a couple of percent of the actual value, as established by modern geodesy (the science of the Earth’s shape).
Later, another scientist called Posidonius (135BC to 51BC) used a slightly different method and arrived at almost exactly the same answer. Posidonius lived on the island of Rhodes for much of his life. There he observed the bright star Canopus would lie very close to the horizon. However, when in Alexandria, in Egypt, he noted Canopus would ascend to some 7.5 degrees above the horizon.
Given that 7.5 degrees is 1/48th of a circle, he multiplied the distance from Rhodes to Alexandria by 48, and arrived at a value also of approximately 40,000km.
4. The first astronomical calculator
The world’s oldest surviving mechanical calculator is the Antikythera Mechanism. The amazing device was discovered in an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900.
The device is now fragmented by the passage of time, but when intact it would have appeared as a box housing dozens of finely machined bronze gear wheels. When manually rotated by a handle, the gears span dials on the exterior showing the phases of the Moon, the timing of lunar eclipses, and the positions of the five planets then known (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) at different times of the year. This even accounted for their retrograde motion – an illusionary change in the movement of planets through the sky.
We don’t know who built it, but it dates to some time between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, and may even have been the work of Archimedes. Gearing technology with the sophistication of the Antikythera mechanism was not seen again for a thousand years.
Sadly, the vast majority of these works were lost to history and our scientific awakening was delayed by millennia. As a tool for introducing scientific measurement, the techniques of Eratosthenes are relatively easy to perform and require no special equipment, allowing those just beginning their interest in science to understand by doing, experimenting and, ultimately, following in the foot steps some of the first scientists.
One can but speculate where our civilisation might be now if this ancient science had continued unabated.The Conversation
Herodotus claimed that Africa was surrounded almost entirely by sea. How did he know this? He recounts the story of Phoenician sailors who were dispatched by King Neco II of Egypt (about 600BC), to sail around continental Africa, in a clockwise fashion, starting in the Red Sea. This story, if true, recounts the earliest known circumnavigation of Africa, but also contains an interesting insight into the astronomical knowledge of the ancient world.
The voyage took several years. Having rounded the southern tip of Africa, and following a westerly course, the sailors observed the Sun as being on their right hand side, above the northern horizon. This observation simply did not make sense at the time because they didn’t yet know that the Earth has a spherical shape, and that there is a southern hemisphere.
1. The planets orbit the Sun
A few centuries later, there had been a lot of progress. Aristarchus of Samos (310BC to 230BC) argued that the Sun was the “central fire” of the cosmos and he placed all of the then known planets in their correct order of distance around it. This is the earliest known heliocentric theory of the solar system.
Unfortunately, the original text in which he makes this argument has been lost to history, so we cannot know for certain how he worked it out. Aristarchus knew the Sun was much bigger than the Earth or the Moon, and he may have surmised that it should therefore have the central position in the solar system.
Nevertheless it is a jawdropping finding, especially when you consider that it wasn’t rediscovered until the 16th century, by Nicolaus Copernicus, who even acknowledged Aristarchus during the development of his own work.
2. The size of the Moon
One of Aristarchus’ books that did survive is about the sizes and distances of the Sun and Moon. In this remarkable treatise, Aristarchus laid out the earliest known attempted calculations of the relative sizes and distances to the Sun and Moon.
It had long been observed that the Sun and Moon appeared to be of the same apparent size in the sky, and that the Sun was further away. They realised this from solar eclipses, caused by the Moon passing in front of the Sun at a certain distance from Earth.
Also, at the instant when the Moon is at first or third quarter, Aristarchus reasoned that the Sun, Earth, and Moon would form a right-angled triangle.
As Pythagoras had determined how the lengths of triangle’s sides were related a couple of centuries earlier, Aristarchus used the triangle to estimate that the distance to the Sun was between 18 and 20 times the distance to the Moon. He also estimated that the size of the Moon was approximately one-third that of Earth, based on careful timing of lunar eclipses.
While his estimated distance to the Sun was too low (the actual ratio is 390), on account of the lack of telescopic precision available at the time, the value for the ratio of the size of the Earth to the Moon is surprisingly accurate (the Moon has a diameter 0.27 times that of Earth).
---
3. The Earth’s circumference
Eratosthenes (276BC to 195 BC) was chief librarian at the Great Library of Alexandria, and a keen experimentalist. Among his many achievements was the earliest known calculation of the circumference of the Earth. Pythagoras is generally regarded as the earliest proponent of a spherical Earth, although apparently not its size. Eratosthenes’ famous and yet simple method relied on measuring the different lengths of shadows cast by poles stuck vertically into the ground, at midday on the summer solstice, at different latitudes.
The Sun is sufficiently far away that, wherever its rays arrive at Earth, they are effectively parallel, as had previously been shown by Aristarchus. So the difference in the shadows demonstrated how much the Earth’s surface curved. Eratosthenes used this to estimate the Earth’s circumference as approximately 40,000km. This is within a couple of percent of the actual value, as established by modern geodesy (the science of the Earth’s shape).
Later, another scientist called Posidonius (135BC to 51BC) used a slightly different method and arrived at almost exactly the same answer. Posidonius lived on the island of Rhodes for much of his life. There he observed the bright star Canopus would lie very close to the horizon. However, when in Alexandria, in Egypt, he noted Canopus would ascend to some 7.5 degrees above the horizon.
Given that 7.5 degrees is 1/48th of a circle, he multiplied the distance from Rhodes to Alexandria by 48, and arrived at a value also of approximately 40,000km.
4. The first astronomical calculator
The world’s oldest surviving mechanical calculator is the Antikythera Mechanism. The amazing device was discovered in an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900.
The device is now fragmented by the passage of time, but when intact it would have appeared as a box housing dozens of finely machined bronze gear wheels. When manually rotated by a handle, the gears span dials on the exterior showing the phases of the Moon, the timing of lunar eclipses, and the positions of the five planets then known (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) at different times of the year. This even accounted for their retrograde motion – an illusionary change in the movement of planets through the sky.
We don’t know who built it, but it dates to some time between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, and may even have been the work of Archimedes. Gearing technology with the sophistication of the Antikythera mechanism was not seen again for a thousand years.
Sadly, the vast majority of these works were lost to history and our scientific awakening was delayed by millennia. As a tool for introducing scientific measurement, the techniques of Eratosthenes are relatively easy to perform and require no special equipment, allowing those just beginning their interest in science to understand by doing, experimenting and, ultimately, following in the foot steps some of the first scientists.
One can but speculate where our civilisation might be now if this ancient science had continued unabated.The Conversation
Archaeology
Pompeii ruins show that the Romans invented recycling
Excavations reveal that rubbish left outside the city walls wasn’t just dumped. It was being collected, sorted and resold
Dalya Alberge
the guardian
Sun 26 Apr 2020 05.00 EDT
They were expert engineers, way ahead of the curve on underfloor heating, aqueducts and the use of concrete as a building material. Now it turns out that the Romans were also masters at recycling their rubbish.
Researchers at Pompeii, the city buried under a thick carpet of volcanic ash when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, have found that huge mounds of refuse apparently dumped outside the city walls were in fact “staging grounds for cycles of use and reuse”.
Professor Allison Emmerson, an American academic who is part of a large team working at Pompeii, said rubbish was piled up along almost the entire external wall on the city’s northern side, among other sites. Some of the mounds were several metres high and included bits of ceramic and plaster, which could be repurposed as construction materials.
These mounds were previously thought to have been formed when an earthquake struck the city about 17 years before the volcano erupted, Emmerson said. Most were cleared in the mid-20th century, but some are still being discovered.
Scientific analysis has now traced some of the refuse from city sites to suburban deposits equivalent to modern landfills, and back to the city, where the material was incorporated into buildings, such as earth floors.
With fellow archaeologists Steven Ellis and Kevin Dicus, who worked on the University of Cincinnati’s excavations, Emmerson has studied how the ancient city was constructed. “We found that part of the city was built out of trash. The piles outside the walls weren’t material that’s been dumped to get rid of it. They’re outside the walls being collected and sorted to be resold inside the walls.”
Pompeii was a city of elegant villas and handsome public buildings, open squares, artisan shops, taverns, brothels and bathhouses. It included an amphitheatre that hosted gladiatorial games for audiences of up to 20,000.
When volcanic dust from Vesuvius “poured across the land” – as one witness wrote – enveloping the city in darkness, at least 2,000 people died. In 1748, a group of explorers discovered the almost perfectly preserved city under a hardened carpet of ash and pumice. Even a loaf of bread was found preserved by later archaeologists.
Pompeii is now a Unesco world heritage site and – in normal times – attracts 2.5 million visitors each year.
Emmerson and her colleagues used soil samples to trace the movement of rubish across the city. “The soil that we excavate differs based on where the garbage was left originally,” she said. “Garbage dumped in places like latrines or cesspits leaves behind a rich, organic soil. In contrast, waste that accumulated over time on the streets or in mounds outside the city results in a much sandier soil.
“The difference in soil allows us to see whether the garbage had been generated in the place where it was found, or gathered from elsewhere to be reused and recycled.”
Some walls, for example, included reused materials such as pieces of tile and broken amphorae, and lumps of mortar and plaster. “Almost all such walls received a final layer of plaster, hiding the mess of materials within,” she said.
“The idea has been that all this garbage resulted from that earthquake – consisting of rubble that had been cleared out of the city and dumped outside the wall to remove it from daily life. As I was working outside Pompeii, I saw that the city extended into developed neighbourhoods outside the walls ... So it didn’t make sense to me that these suburbs were also being used as landfills.”
Modern approaches to waste management focus on removing rubbish from our daily lives, she added. “For the most part, we don’t care what happens to our trash, as long as it’s taken away. What I’ve found in Pompeii is an entirely different priority, that waste was being collected and sorted for recycling.
“The Pompeians lived much closer to their garbage than most of us would find acceptable, not because the city lacked infrastructure and they didn’t bother to manage trash but because their systems of urban management were organised around different principles.
“This point has relevance for the modern garbage crisis. The countries that most effectively manage their waste have applied a version of the ancient model, prioritising commodification rather than simple removal.”
Researchers at Pompeii, the city buried under a thick carpet of volcanic ash when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, have found that huge mounds of refuse apparently dumped outside the city walls were in fact “staging grounds for cycles of use and reuse”.
Professor Allison Emmerson, an American academic who is part of a large team working at Pompeii, said rubbish was piled up along almost the entire external wall on the city’s northern side, among other sites. Some of the mounds were several metres high and included bits of ceramic and plaster, which could be repurposed as construction materials.
These mounds were previously thought to have been formed when an earthquake struck the city about 17 years before the volcano erupted, Emmerson said. Most were cleared in the mid-20th century, but some are still being discovered.
Scientific analysis has now traced some of the refuse from city sites to suburban deposits equivalent to modern landfills, and back to the city, where the material was incorporated into buildings, such as earth floors.
With fellow archaeologists Steven Ellis and Kevin Dicus, who worked on the University of Cincinnati’s excavations, Emmerson has studied how the ancient city was constructed. “We found that part of the city was built out of trash. The piles outside the walls weren’t material that’s been dumped to get rid of it. They’re outside the walls being collected and sorted to be resold inside the walls.”
Pompeii was a city of elegant villas and handsome public buildings, open squares, artisan shops, taverns, brothels and bathhouses. It included an amphitheatre that hosted gladiatorial games for audiences of up to 20,000.
When volcanic dust from Vesuvius “poured across the land” – as one witness wrote – enveloping the city in darkness, at least 2,000 people died. In 1748, a group of explorers discovered the almost perfectly preserved city under a hardened carpet of ash and pumice. Even a loaf of bread was found preserved by later archaeologists.
Pompeii is now a Unesco world heritage site and – in normal times – attracts 2.5 million visitors each year.
Emmerson and her colleagues used soil samples to trace the movement of rubish across the city. “The soil that we excavate differs based on where the garbage was left originally,” she said. “Garbage dumped in places like latrines or cesspits leaves behind a rich, organic soil. In contrast, waste that accumulated over time on the streets or in mounds outside the city results in a much sandier soil.
“The difference in soil allows us to see whether the garbage had been generated in the place where it was found, or gathered from elsewhere to be reused and recycled.”
Some walls, for example, included reused materials such as pieces of tile and broken amphorae, and lumps of mortar and plaster. “Almost all such walls received a final layer of plaster, hiding the mess of materials within,” she said.
“The idea has been that all this garbage resulted from that earthquake – consisting of rubble that had been cleared out of the city and dumped outside the wall to remove it from daily life. As I was working outside Pompeii, I saw that the city extended into developed neighbourhoods outside the walls ... So it didn’t make sense to me that these suburbs were also being used as landfills.”
Modern approaches to waste management focus on removing rubbish from our daily lives, she added. “For the most part, we don’t care what happens to our trash, as long as it’s taken away. What I’ve found in Pompeii is an entirely different priority, that waste was being collected and sorted for recycling.
“The Pompeians lived much closer to their garbage than most of us would find acceptable, not because the city lacked infrastructure and they didn’t bother to manage trash but because their systems of urban management were organised around different principles.
“This point has relevance for the modern garbage crisis. The countries that most effectively manage their waste have applied a version of the ancient model, prioritising commodification rather than simple removal.”
Scientists discover three new species of pterosaurs in the Sahara
Reptiles inhabited prehistoric Morocco 100m years ago
PA Media - the guardian
Sat 28 Mar 2020 08.20 EDT
The fish-eating pterosaurs had wingspans of three to four metres. Photograph: Triangle News/02031765581/[email protected]/Baynor University
Scientists have discovered three new species of flying reptiles that lived in the Sahara 100m years ago.
Prof David Martill, a palaeontologist at the University of Portsmouth, made the discovery with a team of researchers from Morocco and the US.
The study, published in the Cretaceous Research journal, has revealed a community of pterosaurs that inhabited prehistoric Morocco.
A university spokeswoman said: “The new finds show that African pterosaurs were quite similar to those found on other continents.
“These flying predators soared above a world dominated by predators, including crocodile-like hunters and carnivorous dinosaurs. Interestingly, herbivores such as sauropods and ornithischian dinosaurs are rare.
“Many of the predators, including the toothed pterosaurs, preyed on a superabundance of fish.”
Martill said: “We are in a golden age for discovering pterodactyls. This year alone we have discovered three new species and we are only into March.”
The new pterosaurs – identified from chunks of jaws and teeth found in the middle cretaceous Kem Kem beds of Morocco – had wingspans of three to four metres.
The spokeswoman said: “These aerial fishers snatched up their prey while on the wing, using a murderous-looking set of large spike-like teeth that formed a highly effective tooth grab.
“Large pterosaurs such as these would have been able to forage over vast distances, similar to present-day birds such as condors and albatrosses.”
Prof David Martill, a palaeontologist at the University of Portsmouth, made the discovery with a team of researchers from Morocco and the US.
The study, published in the Cretaceous Research journal, has revealed a community of pterosaurs that inhabited prehistoric Morocco.
A university spokeswoman said: “The new finds show that African pterosaurs were quite similar to those found on other continents.
“These flying predators soared above a world dominated by predators, including crocodile-like hunters and carnivorous dinosaurs. Interestingly, herbivores such as sauropods and ornithischian dinosaurs are rare.
“Many of the predators, including the toothed pterosaurs, preyed on a superabundance of fish.”
Martill said: “We are in a golden age for discovering pterodactyls. This year alone we have discovered three new species and we are only into March.”
The new pterosaurs – identified from chunks of jaws and teeth found in the middle cretaceous Kem Kem beds of Morocco – had wingspans of three to four metres.
The spokeswoman said: “These aerial fishers snatched up their prey while on the wing, using a murderous-looking set of large spike-like teeth that formed a highly effective tooth grab.
“Large pterosaurs such as these would have been able to forage over vast distances, similar to present-day birds such as condors and albatrosses.”
Ancient 'lost' civilisation uncovered by archaeologists in Turkey
'Marvellous, incredibly lucky' discovery made after tip off from farmer uncovers previously unknown kingdom which may have defeated King Midas
harry cockhorn - the independent(uk)
2/25/2020
The ancient stone was found by a farmer who was dredging an irrigation ditch ( James Osborne/University of Chicago )
A mysterious “lost kingdom” dating to between 900 – 600BC has been discovered after a chance find by archaeologists in Turkey.
Hieroglyphs etched in stone suggest the rulers of the civilisation may have conquered the kingdom ruled by King Midas, the legendary ancient ruler said to have a golden touch.
An international team of researchers were working on a significant archaeological dig in Ankara, when they were tipped off by a local farmer who had come across a large and unusual piece of rock while dredging a drainage ditch on his land nearby.
The man described a large stone covered with strange inscriptions, immediately exciting the researchers.
“My colleague Michele Massa and I rushed straight there, and we could see it still sticking out of the water, so we jumped right down into the canal – up to our waists wading around,” said Assistant Professor of Anatolian Archaeology James Osborne of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.
“Right away it was clear it was ancient, and we recognised the script it was written in: Luwian, the language used in the Bronze and Iron ages in the area.”
Luwian is one of the oldest branches of the Indo-European languages and was written in hieroglyphic signs native to the Turkish area which are read alternating between right to left and left to right.
The survey team immediately identified a special hieroglyphic marking indicating the message came from a king.
The farmer then helped pull the “massively heavy stone” out of the irrigation ditch with a tractor.
It was then sent to a local Turkish museum where it was cleaned, photographed and readied for translation.
The nearby archaeological dig was at a site called Türkmen-Karahöyük, a large Bronze and Iron Age mounded settlement that was occupied between about 3500 and 100 BC, and identified as a major archaeological site in 2017.
The researchers believe that at its height the city covered about 300 acres – which would make it one of the largest ancient cities of Bronze and Iron Age Turkey.
They do not yet know what the kingdom was called, but Dr Osborne said its discovery is “revolutionary news in the field”.
Once translated, the stone tablet revealed that the king was called Hartapu, and Türkmen-Karahöyük was probably his capital city.
The stone tells the story of King Hartapu’s conquest of the nearby kingdom of Muska, better known as Phrygia – home to King Midas.
“The storm gods delivered the [opposing] kings to his majesty,” the stone read.
“We had no idea about this kingdom. In a flash, we had profound new information on the Iron Age Middle East,” said Dr Osborne, who specialises in examining the expression of political authority in Iron Age cities.
He said it was “a marvellous, incredibly lucky find”.
The Oriental Institute’s linguistic analysis suggested the engravings was made in the late-eighth-century BC, which lines up with the time Midas ruled.
The stone also provides answers for a long-standing mystery: Less than 10 miles to the south of the ancient city is a volcano with a well-known inscription in hieroglyphics. It refers to a King Hartapu, but no one knew who he was – or what kingdom he ruled.
Hieroglyphs etched in stone suggest the rulers of the civilisation may have conquered the kingdom ruled by King Midas, the legendary ancient ruler said to have a golden touch.
An international team of researchers were working on a significant archaeological dig in Ankara, when they were tipped off by a local farmer who had come across a large and unusual piece of rock while dredging a drainage ditch on his land nearby.
The man described a large stone covered with strange inscriptions, immediately exciting the researchers.
“My colleague Michele Massa and I rushed straight there, and we could see it still sticking out of the water, so we jumped right down into the canal – up to our waists wading around,” said Assistant Professor of Anatolian Archaeology James Osborne of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.
“Right away it was clear it was ancient, and we recognised the script it was written in: Luwian, the language used in the Bronze and Iron ages in the area.”
Luwian is one of the oldest branches of the Indo-European languages and was written in hieroglyphic signs native to the Turkish area which are read alternating between right to left and left to right.
The survey team immediately identified a special hieroglyphic marking indicating the message came from a king.
The farmer then helped pull the “massively heavy stone” out of the irrigation ditch with a tractor.
It was then sent to a local Turkish museum where it was cleaned, photographed and readied for translation.
The nearby archaeological dig was at a site called Türkmen-Karahöyük, a large Bronze and Iron Age mounded settlement that was occupied between about 3500 and 100 BC, and identified as a major archaeological site in 2017.
The researchers believe that at its height the city covered about 300 acres – which would make it one of the largest ancient cities of Bronze and Iron Age Turkey.
They do not yet know what the kingdom was called, but Dr Osborne said its discovery is “revolutionary news in the field”.
Once translated, the stone tablet revealed that the king was called Hartapu, and Türkmen-Karahöyük was probably his capital city.
The stone tells the story of King Hartapu’s conquest of the nearby kingdom of Muska, better known as Phrygia – home to King Midas.
“The storm gods delivered the [opposing] kings to his majesty,” the stone read.
“We had no idea about this kingdom. In a flash, we had profound new information on the Iron Age Middle East,” said Dr Osborne, who specialises in examining the expression of political authority in Iron Age cities.
He said it was “a marvellous, incredibly lucky find”.
The Oriental Institute’s linguistic analysis suggested the engravings was made in the late-eighth-century BC, which lines up with the time Midas ruled.
The stone also provides answers for a long-standing mystery: Less than 10 miles to the south of the ancient city is a volcano with a well-known inscription in hieroglyphics. It refers to a King Hartapu, but no one knew who he was – or what kingdom he ruled.
Meet T-Rex’s older cousin: The Reaper of Death
February 10, 2020
By Agence France-Presse - raw story
Scientists said Monday they had discovered a new species of dinosaur closely related to Tyrannosaurus rex that strode the plain of North America some 80 million years ago.
Thanatotheristes degrootorum — Greek for “Reaper of Death” — is thought to be the oldest member of the T-Rex family yet discovered in northern North America, and would have grown to around eight metres (26 feet) in length.
“We chose a name that embodies what this tyrannosaur was as the only known large apex predator of its time in Canada, the reaper of death,” Darla Zelenitsky, assistant professor of Dinosaur Palaeobiology at Canada’s University of Calgary.
“The nickname has come to be Thanatos,” she told AFP.
Whereas T-Rex — the most famous of all dinosaur species, immortalized in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 epic Jurassic Park — stalked its prey around 66 million years ago, Thanatos dates back at least 79 million years, the team said.
The specimen was discovered by Jared Voris, a PhD student at Calgary, and is the first new tyrannosaur species found for 50 years in Canada.
“There are very few species of tyrannosaurids, relatively speaking,” said Zelenitsky, co-author of the study that appeared in the journal Cretaceous Research.
“Because of the nature of the food chain these large apex predators were rare compared to herbivorous or plant-eating dinosaurs.”
The study found that Thanatos had a long, deep snout, similar to more primitive tyrannosaurs that lived in the southern United States.
The researchers suggested that the difference in tyrannosaur skull shapes between regions could have been down to differences in diet, and dependant on the prey available at the time.
Thanatotheristes degrootorum — Greek for “Reaper of Death” — is thought to be the oldest member of the T-Rex family yet discovered in northern North America, and would have grown to around eight metres (26 feet) in length.
“We chose a name that embodies what this tyrannosaur was as the only known large apex predator of its time in Canada, the reaper of death,” Darla Zelenitsky, assistant professor of Dinosaur Palaeobiology at Canada’s University of Calgary.
“The nickname has come to be Thanatos,” she told AFP.
Whereas T-Rex — the most famous of all dinosaur species, immortalized in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 epic Jurassic Park — stalked its prey around 66 million years ago, Thanatos dates back at least 79 million years, the team said.
The specimen was discovered by Jared Voris, a PhD student at Calgary, and is the first new tyrannosaur species found for 50 years in Canada.
“There are very few species of tyrannosaurids, relatively speaking,” said Zelenitsky, co-author of the study that appeared in the journal Cretaceous Research.
“Because of the nature of the food chain these large apex predators were rare compared to herbivorous or plant-eating dinosaurs.”
The study found that Thanatos had a long, deep snout, similar to more primitive tyrannosaurs that lived in the southern United States.
The researchers suggested that the difference in tyrannosaur skull shapes between regions could have been down to differences in diet, and dependant on the prey available at the time.
Sarcophagus dedicated to sky god among latest ancient Egypt trove
January 30, 2020
By Agence France-Presse - raw story
Egypt’s antiquities ministry on Thursday unveiled the tombs of ancient high priests and a sarcophagus dedicated to the sky god Horus at an archaeological site in Minya governorate.
The mission found 16 tombs containing 20 sarcophagi, some engraved with hieroglyphics, at the Al-Ghoreifa site, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Cairo.
The shared tombs were dedicated to high priests of the god Djehuty and senior officials, from the Late Period around 3,000 years ago, the ministry said.
They were from the 15th nome, an ancient Egyptian territorial division ruled over by a provincial governor.
One of the stone sarcophagi was dedicated to the god Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, and features a depiction of the goddess Nut spreading her wings.
The ministry also unveiled 10,000 blue and green ushabti (funerary figurines), 700 amulets — including some made of pure gold — bearing scarab shapes, and one bearing the figure of a winged cobra.
Painted limestone canopic jars, which the ancient Egyptians used to store the entrails of their mummified dead, were also unearthed.
Egypt has in recent years sought to promote archaeological discoveries across the country in a bid to revive tourism, which took a hit from the turmoil that followed its 2011 uprising.
The mission found 16 tombs containing 20 sarcophagi, some engraved with hieroglyphics, at the Al-Ghoreifa site, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Cairo.
The shared tombs were dedicated to high priests of the god Djehuty and senior officials, from the Late Period around 3,000 years ago, the ministry said.
They were from the 15th nome, an ancient Egyptian territorial division ruled over by a provincial governor.
One of the stone sarcophagi was dedicated to the god Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, and features a depiction of the goddess Nut spreading her wings.
The ministry also unveiled 10,000 blue and green ushabti (funerary figurines), 700 amulets — including some made of pure gold — bearing scarab shapes, and one bearing the figure of a winged cobra.
Painted limestone canopic jars, which the ancient Egyptians used to store the entrails of their mummified dead, were also unearthed.
Egypt has in recent years sought to promote archaeological discoveries across the country in a bid to revive tourism, which took a hit from the turmoil that followed its 2011 uprising.
Mexico
Archaeologists discover remains of vast Mayan palace in Mexico
Ancient building found 100 miles west of Cancùn estimated to be more than 1,000 years old
Emma Graham-Harrison
the guardian
Fri 27 Dec 2019 09.18 EST
Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered the remains of a vast Mayan palace over 1,000 years old in an ancient city about 100 miles west of the tourist hotspot of Cancún.
The building in Kulubá is 55 metres long, 15 metres wide and six metres high, and appears to have been made up of six rooms, said Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.
It is part of a larger complex that also includes two residential rooms, an altar and a large round oven. Archaeologists have also uncovered remains from a burial site, and hope forensic analysis of the bones could provide more clues about Kulubá’s Mayan inhabitants.
The palace was in use during two overlapping eras of Mayan civilisation, in the late classical period between AD600 and AD900, and the terminal classical between AD850 and AD1050, said Alfredo Barrera Rubio, one of the lead archaeologists at the site.
“We know very little about the architectural characteristics of this region, the north-east of Yucatán. So one of our main objectives, as well as the protection and restoration of cultural heritage, is the study of the architecture of Kulubá,” he said in a video made on the site.
“This is just the start of the work. We are only just uncovering one of the largest structures on the site.” He hopes that as the work continues, it will become a natural attraction for visitors to the region.
The Mayans built one of the greatest civilisations of the western hemisphere, which flourished across central America including what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.
Their cities featured pyramid temples and huge stone buildings, and they used agriculture and metalwork, developed sophisticated irrigation systems and invented a hieroglyphic writing system.
But Mayan society suffered a precipitous and mysterious decline between AD800 and AD1000. Scientists have suggested war, climate, disease and politics as possible causes, although cities including Chichén Itzá – which the archaeological dig suggests controlled Kulubá – flourished longer.
The conservation team are considering bringing back some of the forest cover – which was cleared during earlier excavation work at older parts of the site – to protect some of the more delicate buildings from the elements.
“One option which the site offers is using vegetation for conservation,” said Natalia H Tangarife, part of the conservation team.
“This would mean reforesting specific sites so that trees can provide protection from direct sunlight, wind and other elements, for those structures which still have some of the original paint colours.”
The building in Kulubá is 55 metres long, 15 metres wide and six metres high, and appears to have been made up of six rooms, said Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.
It is part of a larger complex that also includes two residential rooms, an altar and a large round oven. Archaeologists have also uncovered remains from a burial site, and hope forensic analysis of the bones could provide more clues about Kulubá’s Mayan inhabitants.
The palace was in use during two overlapping eras of Mayan civilisation, in the late classical period between AD600 and AD900, and the terminal classical between AD850 and AD1050, said Alfredo Barrera Rubio, one of the lead archaeologists at the site.
“We know very little about the architectural characteristics of this region, the north-east of Yucatán. So one of our main objectives, as well as the protection and restoration of cultural heritage, is the study of the architecture of Kulubá,” he said in a video made on the site.
“This is just the start of the work. We are only just uncovering one of the largest structures on the site.” He hopes that as the work continues, it will become a natural attraction for visitors to the region.
The Mayans built one of the greatest civilisations of the western hemisphere, which flourished across central America including what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.
Their cities featured pyramid temples and huge stone buildings, and they used agriculture and metalwork, developed sophisticated irrigation systems and invented a hieroglyphic writing system.
But Mayan society suffered a precipitous and mysterious decline between AD800 and AD1000. Scientists have suggested war, climate, disease and politics as possible causes, although cities including Chichén Itzá – which the archaeological dig suggests controlled Kulubá – flourished longer.
The conservation team are considering bringing back some of the forest cover – which was cleared during earlier excavation work at older parts of the site – to protect some of the more delicate buildings from the elements.
“One option which the site offers is using vegetation for conservation,” said Natalia H Tangarife, part of the conservation team.
“This would mean reforesting specific sites so that trees can provide protection from direct sunlight, wind and other elements, for those structures which still have some of the original paint colours.”
6,800-YEAR-OLD RITUAL SITE THREE TIMES BIGGER THAN STONEHENGE'S SARSEN CIRCLE DISCOVERED
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - newsweek
ON 11/18/19 AT 10:48 AM EST
A huge ancient ritual site dating back over 6,800 years has been discovered in Poland. It is believed to have been used by neolithic people for between 200 and 250 years, with new features added every few dozen years, archaeologists have said.
The circular structure is 360 feet in diameter, which is over three times the size of the inner Sarsen Circle at Stonehenge and roughly the same size as the monument's outer ditch.
The structure, which has been called a "roundel" because of its circular shape, was first spotted in 2017. Since then archaeologists have been working at the site to understand its significance. In an article on PAP, a website run by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education Website, researchers have announced radiocarbon dating indicates the site was built before 4,800 B.C.
The roundel is located in the village of Nowe Objezierze, about 50 miles east of Berlin, Germany. It consists of a central area surrounded by three gates that lead to the interior. It then has four ditches circling it. Each ditch is larger and deeper than the last, and it appears they were dug at relatively regular intervals, with a new one being added every few dozen years. The ditches were about 4 to 6.5 feet deep.
Other similar circular enclosures dating to between 4,850 B.C. and 4,600 B.C. are found in a fairly limited area of Europe, including around the River Danube. These are generally thought to have had a ritual purpose and served as some sort of astronomical calendar.
Discussing the new roundel in Poland, project leader Lech Czerniak, from the University of Gdańsk, told PAP: "This is quite sensational, given the fact that it coincides with the dating of structures located on the Danube, considered the oldest. It seems equally important that the four ditches surrounding the central area of the structure probably did not function simultaneously, but every few dozen years, a new ditch with an ever larger diameter was dug.
"The primary focus of the project are questions about the social aspects of the functioning operation of roundels, including what prompted the inhabitants of a given region to make a huge effort in building and maintaining the roundel, where the idea and knowledge necessary to build this object came from, and how often and for how long the object was used."
As well as dating the roundel, archaeologists also excavated the area and found hundreds of bones, ceramics, stone and flint artifacts and shells and dye. The bones are now being analyzed by experts and the team hopes to find out more about the communities that used the structure for worship. It is thought that like the other circular enclosures, the Roundel was used as a "ritual calendar."
"It is worth realizing that many so-called pre-literate communities celebrated the most important holidays once in a few, or even a dozen or so years, but very intensely," Czerniak said.
The circular structure is 360 feet in diameter, which is over three times the size of the inner Sarsen Circle at Stonehenge and roughly the same size as the monument's outer ditch.
The structure, which has been called a "roundel" because of its circular shape, was first spotted in 2017. Since then archaeologists have been working at the site to understand its significance. In an article on PAP, a website run by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education Website, researchers have announced radiocarbon dating indicates the site was built before 4,800 B.C.
The roundel is located in the village of Nowe Objezierze, about 50 miles east of Berlin, Germany. It consists of a central area surrounded by three gates that lead to the interior. It then has four ditches circling it. Each ditch is larger and deeper than the last, and it appears they were dug at relatively regular intervals, with a new one being added every few dozen years. The ditches were about 4 to 6.5 feet deep.
Other similar circular enclosures dating to between 4,850 B.C. and 4,600 B.C. are found in a fairly limited area of Europe, including around the River Danube. These are generally thought to have had a ritual purpose and served as some sort of astronomical calendar.
Discussing the new roundel in Poland, project leader Lech Czerniak, from the University of Gdańsk, told PAP: "This is quite sensational, given the fact that it coincides with the dating of structures located on the Danube, considered the oldest. It seems equally important that the four ditches surrounding the central area of the structure probably did not function simultaneously, but every few dozen years, a new ditch with an ever larger diameter was dug.
"The primary focus of the project are questions about the social aspects of the functioning operation of roundels, including what prompted the inhabitants of a given region to make a huge effort in building and maintaining the roundel, where the idea and knowledge necessary to build this object came from, and how often and for how long the object was used."
As well as dating the roundel, archaeologists also excavated the area and found hundreds of bones, ceramics, stone and flint artifacts and shells and dye. The bones are now being analyzed by experts and the team hopes to find out more about the communities that used the structure for worship. It is thought that like the other circular enclosures, the Roundel was used as a "ritual calendar."
"It is worth realizing that many so-called pre-literate communities celebrated the most important holidays once in a few, or even a dozen or so years, but very intensely," Czerniak said.
CATACOMB WITH MUMMIES FROM ANCIENT EGYPT'S ROMAN PERIOD DISCOVERED IN VAST BURIAL GROUND
BY ARISTOS GEORGIOU - newsweek
ON 11/14/19 AT 12:09 PM EST
Archaeologists have discovered an ancient catacomb containing mummies and several other items from Egypt's Roman era at the Saqqara necropolis.
The Roman catacomb—a type of underground cemetery with a subterranean gallery—was uncovered during excavations conducted by Nozomu Kawai from Kanazawa University in Japan, Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported.
The researchers say that the catacomb dates back to the 1st or 2nd century A.D., when Egypt was under Roman rule.
Egypt became a Roman province in 30 B.C. after future emperor Augustus deposed Queen Cleopatra VII and annexed the Ptolemaic Kingdom to the Roman Empire.
The territory, which encompassed most of modern-day Egypt, had a highly developed economy and was by far the wealthiest province outside of modern-day Italy. It was lost to Muslim Arabs, who completed their conquest in 646 A.D.
The catacomb was found on the eastern rock escarpment of the North Saqqara plateau, according to the archaeologists.
"This area had never been previously investigated by an archaeological mission," Kawai told Al-Ahram.
Saqqara is a vast ancient burial ground—located south of Cairo—that once served as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis.
According to Kawai, the catacomb is made up of a vaulted mud-brick structure with a staircase that leads to the entrance and a long chamber cut out of fine limestone, measuring around 50 feet in length and 6.5 feet in width.
Inside this rock chamber, the team found a complete terracotta statue of Isis-Aphrodite standing at about 23 inches tall. This deity is a form of the Egyptian goddess Isis combined with the fertility aspects associated with the Greco-Roman goddess Aphrodite.
The team also found a stele—a stone slab used for funerary purposes in the ancient world—featuring depictions of the gods Sokar, Thoth and Anubis, as well as some Greek inscriptions. Kawai suggests that this stele had been used multiple times and that the Greek inscriptions were added at a later date.
Close to the stele, the team found five terracotta figurines of Isis-Aphrodite, several pottery vessels and a pair of limestone guardian lion statues measuring about 22 inches in height. Finally, the team said that they had identified human remains and mummies in the catacombs.
"This is the first discovery of a Roman catacomb in Saqqara," Kawai said, noting that the site displayed the marks of both Egyptian and Greco-Roman cultures.
The Roman catacomb—a type of underground cemetery with a subterranean gallery—was uncovered during excavations conducted by Nozomu Kawai from Kanazawa University in Japan, Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported.
The researchers say that the catacomb dates back to the 1st or 2nd century A.D., when Egypt was under Roman rule.
Egypt became a Roman province in 30 B.C. after future emperor Augustus deposed Queen Cleopatra VII and annexed the Ptolemaic Kingdom to the Roman Empire.
The territory, which encompassed most of modern-day Egypt, had a highly developed economy and was by far the wealthiest province outside of modern-day Italy. It was lost to Muslim Arabs, who completed their conquest in 646 A.D.
The catacomb was found on the eastern rock escarpment of the North Saqqara plateau, according to the archaeologists.
"This area had never been previously investigated by an archaeological mission," Kawai told Al-Ahram.
Saqqara is a vast ancient burial ground—located south of Cairo—that once served as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis.
According to Kawai, the catacomb is made up of a vaulted mud-brick structure with a staircase that leads to the entrance and a long chamber cut out of fine limestone, measuring around 50 feet in length and 6.5 feet in width.
Inside this rock chamber, the team found a complete terracotta statue of Isis-Aphrodite standing at about 23 inches tall. This deity is a form of the Egyptian goddess Isis combined with the fertility aspects associated with the Greco-Roman goddess Aphrodite.
The team also found a stele—a stone slab used for funerary purposes in the ancient world—featuring depictions of the gods Sokar, Thoth and Anubis, as well as some Greek inscriptions. Kawai suggests that this stele had been used multiple times and that the Greek inscriptions were added at a later date.
Close to the stele, the team found five terracotta figurines of Isis-Aphrodite, several pottery vessels and a pair of limestone guardian lion statues measuring about 22 inches in height. Finally, the team said that they had identified human remains and mummies in the catacombs.
"This is the first discovery of a Roman catacomb in Saqqara," Kawai said, noting that the site displayed the marks of both Egyptian and Greco-Roman cultures.
Drone-mounted lasers reveal ancient settlement off Florida coast
*Archaeological remains date from 900 to 1200 CE
*Lidar crucial to discovery: ‘This technology is unbelievable’
Victoria Bekiempis
the guardian
Mon 4 Nov 2019 15.00 EST
Drone-mounted lasers have revealed details of the architecture of an ancient island settlement off Florida’s Gulf coast, researchers said in a new paper published on Monday.
University of Florida archaeologists, doctoral candidate Terry E Barbour and Professor Ken Sassaman, used aerial drones with light detection and ranging (Lidar) sensors – to create detailed 3D maps of the surface of Raleigh Island.
Although archaeological objects were first spotted on the island in about 1990, and subsequent exploration of the area in 2010 revealed the presence of a settlement dating from 900 to 1200 CE, Lidar scanning revealed previously unknown architectural details.
When researchers initially tried land-based surveys to assess the settlements, they hit roadblocks because of the dense foliage. But the drone-mounted Lidar scanner used by researchers swept 16 lasers over an area, “enabling penetration through gaps” in the thick forest.
“This technology is unbelievable,” Sassaman told the Guardian.
This settlement comprises 37 residential areas “enclosed by ridges of oyster shell” that are up to 12ft (4m) tall, Barbour and Sassaman said. Test excavations – digging down 3ft to assess the depth of archaeological deposits – of 10 such areas were conducted.
The researchers said there was “abundant evidence” that beads made from large marine mollusks were produced in these settlements. Stone tools to make the beads were also found there, Sassaman said.
While shell beads were not used as money, they were a form of “ritual wealth” among inland chiefdoms and social and political interactions in these chiefdoms were linked to the possession of these shells, he said.
“The discovery of possible bead production may provide information on past societies in eastern North America – and how beads were integral to social capital,” he said.
In areas that were far from the coast, such as the lower midwest, sizable sea mollusks were even imported. Chiefs of the era requested that craftspeople turn them into beads and other valuable objects, the paper said.
University of Florida archaeologists, doctoral candidate Terry E Barbour and Professor Ken Sassaman, used aerial drones with light detection and ranging (Lidar) sensors – to create detailed 3D maps of the surface of Raleigh Island.
Although archaeological objects were first spotted on the island in about 1990, and subsequent exploration of the area in 2010 revealed the presence of a settlement dating from 900 to 1200 CE, Lidar scanning revealed previously unknown architectural details.
When researchers initially tried land-based surveys to assess the settlements, they hit roadblocks because of the dense foliage. But the drone-mounted Lidar scanner used by researchers swept 16 lasers over an area, “enabling penetration through gaps” in the thick forest.
“This technology is unbelievable,” Sassaman told the Guardian.
This settlement comprises 37 residential areas “enclosed by ridges of oyster shell” that are up to 12ft (4m) tall, Barbour and Sassaman said. Test excavations – digging down 3ft to assess the depth of archaeological deposits – of 10 such areas were conducted.
The researchers said there was “abundant evidence” that beads made from large marine mollusks were produced in these settlements. Stone tools to make the beads were also found there, Sassaman said.
While shell beads were not used as money, they were a form of “ritual wealth” among inland chiefdoms and social and political interactions in these chiefdoms were linked to the possession of these shells, he said.
“The discovery of possible bead production may provide information on past societies in eastern North America – and how beads were integral to social capital,” he said.
In areas that were far from the coast, such as the lower midwest, sizable sea mollusks were even imported. Chiefs of the era requested that craftspeople turn them into beads and other valuable objects, the paper said.
Ancestral home of all human beings discovered by scientists
Vast wetland south of Zambezi river was cradle of all mankind and sustained our ancestors for 70,000 years
Phoebe Weston - Science Correspondent - the independent(uk)
10/28/19
Scientists have pinpointed a fertile river valley in northern Botswana as the ancestral home of all human beings.
The earliest anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) arose 200,000 years ago in a vast wetland south of the Zambezi river which was the cradle of all mankind, a new study has revealed.
This lush region – which also covered parts of Namibia and Zimbabwe – was home to an enormous lake which sustained our ancestors for 70,000 years, according to the paper published in the journal Nature.
Between 110,000 and 130,000 years ago, the climate started to change and fertile corridors opened up out of this valley. For the first time, the population began to disperse – paving the way for modern humans to migrate out of Africa, and ultimately, across the world.
Lead researcher Professor Vanessa Hayes, a geneticist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia, said: “It has been clear for some time that anatomically modern humans appeared in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago.
“What has been long debated is the exact location of this emergence and subsequent dispersal of our earliest ancestors.”
Professor Hayes and her colleagues collected blood samples from study participants in Namibia and South Africa and looked at their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).
As mtDNA is passed almost exclusively from mother to child through the egg cell and its sequence stays the same over generations, making it a useful tool for looking at maternal ancestry.
The team focused their research on the L0 lineage – modern human’s earliest known population – and compared the complete DNA code (mitogenome) from different individuals. They also looked at other sub-lineages across various locations in Africa to see how closely they were related.
The researchers then combined genetics with geology and climatic physics, to paint a picture of what the world looked like 200,000 years ago.
Geological evidence suggests the homeland region once housed Africa’s largest ever lake system, known as Lake Makgadikgadi which was double the size of modern Lake Victoria.
And climate computer model simulations indicate that “the slow wobble of Earth’s axis” brought “periodic shifts in rainfall” across the region.
Professor Axel Timmermann, a climate scientist at Pusan National University in South Korea, said: “These shifts in climate would have opened green, vegetated corridors, first 130,000 years ago to the northeast, and then around 110,000 years ago to the southwest, allowing our earliest ancestors to migrate away from the homeland for the first time.”
Professor Hayes said: “We observed significant genetic divergence in the modern humans’ earliest maternal sub-lineages that indicates our ancestors migrated out of the homeland between 130,000 and 110,000 years ago.
“The first migrants ventured northeast, followed by a second wave of migrants who travelled southwest. A third population remained in the homeland until today.”
Researchers believe that the humans who migrated southwest flourished and experienced steady population growth. They say this could be due to an adaptation to marine foraging.
“These first migrants left behind a homeland population,” said Professor Hayes.
“Eventually adapting to the drying lands, maternal descendants of the homeland population can be found in the greater Kalahari region today.”
The earliest anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) arose 200,000 years ago in a vast wetland south of the Zambezi river which was the cradle of all mankind, a new study has revealed.
This lush region – which also covered parts of Namibia and Zimbabwe – was home to an enormous lake which sustained our ancestors for 70,000 years, according to the paper published in the journal Nature.
Between 110,000 and 130,000 years ago, the climate started to change and fertile corridors opened up out of this valley. For the first time, the population began to disperse – paving the way for modern humans to migrate out of Africa, and ultimately, across the world.
Lead researcher Professor Vanessa Hayes, a geneticist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia, said: “It has been clear for some time that anatomically modern humans appeared in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago.
“What has been long debated is the exact location of this emergence and subsequent dispersal of our earliest ancestors.”
Professor Hayes and her colleagues collected blood samples from study participants in Namibia and South Africa and looked at their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).
As mtDNA is passed almost exclusively from mother to child through the egg cell and its sequence stays the same over generations, making it a useful tool for looking at maternal ancestry.
The team focused their research on the L0 lineage – modern human’s earliest known population – and compared the complete DNA code (mitogenome) from different individuals. They also looked at other sub-lineages across various locations in Africa to see how closely they were related.
The researchers then combined genetics with geology and climatic physics, to paint a picture of what the world looked like 200,000 years ago.
Geological evidence suggests the homeland region once housed Africa’s largest ever lake system, known as Lake Makgadikgadi which was double the size of modern Lake Victoria.
And climate computer model simulations indicate that “the slow wobble of Earth’s axis” brought “periodic shifts in rainfall” across the region.
Professor Axel Timmermann, a climate scientist at Pusan National University in South Korea, said: “These shifts in climate would have opened green, vegetated corridors, first 130,000 years ago to the northeast, and then around 110,000 years ago to the southwest, allowing our earliest ancestors to migrate away from the homeland for the first time.”
Professor Hayes said: “We observed significant genetic divergence in the modern humans’ earliest maternal sub-lineages that indicates our ancestors migrated out of the homeland between 130,000 and 110,000 years ago.
“The first migrants ventured northeast, followed by a second wave of migrants who travelled southwest. A third population remained in the homeland until today.”
Researchers believe that the humans who migrated southwest flourished and experienced steady population growth. They say this could be due to an adaptation to marine foraging.
“These first migrants left behind a homeland population,” said Professor Hayes.
“Eventually adapting to the drying lands, maternal descendants of the homeland population can be found in the greater Kalahari region today.”
THESE TRACKS WERE MADE BY A FOOT-LONG WORM ON A DEATH MARCH 550 MILLION YEARS AGO
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - newsweek
ON 9/4/19 AT 1:01 PM EDT
Fossils of Yilingia spiciformis. The creature is thought to be the earliest example of movement in a segmented creature.
ZHE CHEN NANJING INSTITUTE OF GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY) AND SHUHAI XIAO (VIRGINIA TECH.
Scientists have discovered the tracks of a worm-like animal that lived and died around 550 million years ago—a key point in the evolution of life on Earth. The creature, which has been named Yilingia spiciformis, represents one of the few animals from this period that were capable of movement, so finding both its fossilized tracks and remains together provides huge clues into early animal evolution.
Virginia Tech's Shuhai Xiao and colleagues found 35 fossils of the species—which existed between 551 to 539 million years ago—in the Dengying Formation in south China. "These carbonate rocks were deposited in balmy shallow waters between 550 and 540 million years ago, more than twice older than the oldest dinosaurs," Xiao said in a statement.
In a study published in Nature, the team has now described the species, saying it would have been about 11 inches in length and between 0.1 and 1 inch wide. It was made up of about 50 segments and could not only move around independently, were capable of making decisions—the trail appears to suggest the creature was trying to move away from something, researchers say.
The team also said that Y. spiciformis was on a "death march"—the fossil appears to show the creature shedding its guts shortly before dying, leaving a trail known as a mortichnium.
Independent movement is a trait thought to have evolved at some point around 580 million years ago. Before this, animals were immobile, like sponges and corals today. "The earliest convincing evidence for animal mobility is probably around 560 million years, maybe up to 570 million years," Xiao told Newsweek. "So our fossils are not the oldest evidence for animal mobility, but they are thus far the oldest known evidence for the mobility of segmented animals."
He said plenty of ancient trails and tracks can be found, but working out what animal made them is challenging. "It was still a surprise when we discovered the trace and its trace maker were preserved together and physically connected," he said. "This helped us to unambiguously determine the kind of animals that made this kind of trails."
Y. spiciformis belonged to a group of animals known as bilaterians—which today includes most animals, including humans. "The evolution of animal mobility, and particularly the evolution of mobile segmented animals, is a key evolutionary innovation," Xiao said. "Animals are movers and shakers in [the] modern world. The rise of mobile animals more than half a billion years ago changed the Earth in a significant way because they modify the geochemical cycles."
Virginia Tech's Shuhai Xiao and colleagues found 35 fossils of the species—which existed between 551 to 539 million years ago—in the Dengying Formation in south China. "These carbonate rocks were deposited in balmy shallow waters between 550 and 540 million years ago, more than twice older than the oldest dinosaurs," Xiao said in a statement.
In a study published in Nature, the team has now described the species, saying it would have been about 11 inches in length and between 0.1 and 1 inch wide. It was made up of about 50 segments and could not only move around independently, were capable of making decisions—the trail appears to suggest the creature was trying to move away from something, researchers say.
The team also said that Y. spiciformis was on a "death march"—the fossil appears to show the creature shedding its guts shortly before dying, leaving a trail known as a mortichnium.
Independent movement is a trait thought to have evolved at some point around 580 million years ago. Before this, animals were immobile, like sponges and corals today. "The earliest convincing evidence for animal mobility is probably around 560 million years, maybe up to 570 million years," Xiao told Newsweek. "So our fossils are not the oldest evidence for animal mobility, but they are thus far the oldest known evidence for the mobility of segmented animals."
He said plenty of ancient trails and tracks can be found, but working out what animal made them is challenging. "It was still a surprise when we discovered the trace and its trace maker were preserved together and physically connected," he said. "This helped us to unambiguously determine the kind of animals that made this kind of trails."
Y. spiciformis belonged to a group of animals known as bilaterians—which today includes most animals, including humans. "The evolution of animal mobility, and particularly the evolution of mobile segmented animals, is a key evolutionary innovation," Xiao said. "Animals are movers and shakers in [the] modern world. The rise of mobile animals more than half a billion years ago changed the Earth in a significant way because they modify the geochemical cycles."
3.8-million-year-old skull found in Ethiopia yields new clues on how humans evolved
August 28, 2019
By Agence France-Presse - Raw Story
A “remarkably complete” 3.8-million-year-old skull of an early human has been unearthed in Ethiopia, scientists announced Wednesday, a discovery that has the potential to alter our understanding of human evolution.
The skull, known as “MRD”, was discovered not far from the younger Lucy — the ancient ancestor of modern humans — and shows that the two species may have co-existed for about 100,000 years.
“This skull is one of the most complete fossils of hominids more than 3 million years old,” said Yohannes Haile-Selassie, the renowned Ethiopian paleoanthropologist of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History who is a co-author of two studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
It “looks set to become another celebrated icon of human evolution,” joining the ranks of other high-profile hominid findings, Fred Spoor of the Natural History Museum of London wrote in a commentary accompanying the studies.
“Toumai” (of the species Sahelanthropus tchadensis) is around 7 million years old and is considered by some paleontologists to be the first representative of the human lineage. It was discovered in Chad in 2001.
Ardi (for Ardipithecus ramidus, another species of hominid) was found in Ethiopia in 1994 and is believed to be around 4.5 million years old.
And Lucy, the famous Australopithecus afarensis, was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 and is 3.2 million years old.
Australopithecus afarensis is one of the longest-lived and most studied early human species.
The new skull, MRD, belongs to the species Australopithecus anamensis.
Discovered in February 2016 at the site of Woranso-Mille, just 55 kilometres (34 miles) from where Lucy was found in the Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia, MRD offers “the first glimpse of the face of Lucy’s ancestor,” according to a statement announcing the finding.
Other lesser-known Australopithecus fossils date back at least 3.9 million years, but they featured only jaws and teeth. Without the skull, scientists’ understanding of the evolution of these extinct hominids has remained limited.
-‘Dream come true’-
The finding challenges a previously held belief about how humans evolved.
“We thought A. anamensis (MRD) was gradually turning into A. afarensis (Lucy) over time,” said Stephanie Melillo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, a co-author of the Nature studies.
But MRD reveals that the two species co-existed for about 100,000 years, the scientists said.
“This is a game changer in our understanding of human evolution during the Pliocene,” Haile-Selassie said.
Melillo agreed, saying it also raised new questions like whether the species competed for space or food.
Though small, the skull has been determined to be that of an adult. Facial reconstructions show a hominid with cheekbones projected forward, a prominent jaw, a flat nose and a narrow forehead.
To the researchers’ surprise, the skull represents a mixture of characteristics of Sahelanthropus like “Toumai” and Ardipithecus like “Ardi” as well as more recent species.
“Until now, there was a big gap between the oldest human ancestors, which are about 6 million years old, and species like ‘Lucy’, which are two to three million years old,” said Melillo. But MRD “links the morphological space between these two groups,” she added.
At a press conference in Addis Ababa on Wednesday, Haile-Selassie described how Ali Bereino, a “local guy” from Afar, found the jaw of MRD and immediately brought it to Haile-Selassie’s attention.
The cranium was soon found nearby, and workers spent days sifting through earth that was “1 percent dirt and 99 percent goat poop”, Haile-Selassie said.
“People were not disgusted by it… but some of them of course had to cover their faces because the smell was so bad,” he said.
It was a small price to pay for the discovery of such a complete specimen, he said.
“I did not believe my eyes when I saw the rest of the skull,” recalled Haile-Selassie, who described the discovery as “a eureka moment and a dream come true”.
The skull, known as “MRD”, was discovered not far from the younger Lucy — the ancient ancestor of modern humans — and shows that the two species may have co-existed for about 100,000 years.
“This skull is one of the most complete fossils of hominids more than 3 million years old,” said Yohannes Haile-Selassie, the renowned Ethiopian paleoanthropologist of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History who is a co-author of two studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
It “looks set to become another celebrated icon of human evolution,” joining the ranks of other high-profile hominid findings, Fred Spoor of the Natural History Museum of London wrote in a commentary accompanying the studies.
“Toumai” (of the species Sahelanthropus tchadensis) is around 7 million years old and is considered by some paleontologists to be the first representative of the human lineage. It was discovered in Chad in 2001.
Ardi (for Ardipithecus ramidus, another species of hominid) was found in Ethiopia in 1994 and is believed to be around 4.5 million years old.
And Lucy, the famous Australopithecus afarensis, was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 and is 3.2 million years old.
Australopithecus afarensis is one of the longest-lived and most studied early human species.
The new skull, MRD, belongs to the species Australopithecus anamensis.
Discovered in February 2016 at the site of Woranso-Mille, just 55 kilometres (34 miles) from where Lucy was found in the Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia, MRD offers “the first glimpse of the face of Lucy’s ancestor,” according to a statement announcing the finding.
Other lesser-known Australopithecus fossils date back at least 3.9 million years, but they featured only jaws and teeth. Without the skull, scientists’ understanding of the evolution of these extinct hominids has remained limited.
-‘Dream come true’-
The finding challenges a previously held belief about how humans evolved.
“We thought A. anamensis (MRD) was gradually turning into A. afarensis (Lucy) over time,” said Stephanie Melillo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, a co-author of the Nature studies.
But MRD reveals that the two species co-existed for about 100,000 years, the scientists said.
“This is a game changer in our understanding of human evolution during the Pliocene,” Haile-Selassie said.
Melillo agreed, saying it also raised new questions like whether the species competed for space or food.
Though small, the skull has been determined to be that of an adult. Facial reconstructions show a hominid with cheekbones projected forward, a prominent jaw, a flat nose and a narrow forehead.
To the researchers’ surprise, the skull represents a mixture of characteristics of Sahelanthropus like “Toumai” and Ardipithecus like “Ardi” as well as more recent species.
“Until now, there was a big gap between the oldest human ancestors, which are about 6 million years old, and species like ‘Lucy’, which are two to three million years old,” said Melillo. But MRD “links the morphological space between these two groups,” she added.
At a press conference in Addis Ababa on Wednesday, Haile-Selassie described how Ali Bereino, a “local guy” from Afar, found the jaw of MRD and immediately brought it to Haile-Selassie’s attention.
The cranium was soon found nearby, and workers spent days sifting through earth that was “1 percent dirt and 99 percent goat poop”, Haile-Selassie said.
“People were not disgusted by it… but some of them of course had to cover their faces because the smell was so bad,” he said.
It was a small price to pay for the discovery of such a complete specimen, he said.
“I did not believe my eyes when I saw the rest of the skull,” recalled Haile-Selassie, who described the discovery as “a eureka moment and a dream come true”.
STONE AGE CAVE AT 11,000 FEET IS OLDEST HIGH ALTITUDE HUMAN SETTLEMENT EVER DISCOVERED
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - Newsweek
ON 8/8/19 AT 2:01 PM EDT
Over 30,000 years ago, Stone Age people in Ethiopia had moved into the mountains of Ethiopia, setting up a base in a rock shelter 11,000 feet above sea level. This is the earliest evidence of prehistoric people living at high altitudes, archaeologists that uncovered the site say.
High altitudes place many stresses on the human body. The lower oxygen levels make breathing harder, UV levels are higher and temperature fluctuations are greater. As a result, it was generally thought people did not start living in the mountains until relatively recently in human history.
In 2014, however, scientists announced the discovery of a settlement in the Andes that dated back 12,000 years. This was the oldest evidence of high-altitude living ever discovered, raising questions about how and when humans adapted to these extreme conditions.
Now, in a study published in Science, researchers led by Götz Ossendorf from the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Cologne, Germany, have found a site that shows signs of human occupation between 47,000 and 31,000 years ago.
In an expedition to the Bale Mountains, researchers found a rock shelter containing thousands of artifacts from the Middle Stone Age. This included tools, hearths of fires and animal bones—evidence suggesting the prehistoric people that stayed at the site ate giant mole rats and made good use of the nearby resources.
Radiocarbon dating showed the shelter dated far beyond any other high altitude archaeological site.
The people at the Bale Mountain site would have been hunter-gatherers. Ossendorf told Newsweek it is not surprising to find evidence of humans in these extreme regions—to access food they would have traveled far and wide regularly, and never stayed at a single site for very long. They likely returned to different sites following an annual cycle, he said.
"We know of even older high-altitude occupations in Tibet [by Denisova hominins 160,000 years ago] and human presence in high altitudes at probably the same time in Ethiopia. But these previous records only showed the mere presence of humans at a given time, there is no additional information on what people did," he told Newsweek in an email. "What we could demonstrate now is that people stayed there for longer periods and actively used the resources of the afro-alpine ecosystem, and they did this repeatedly between 47,000 and 31,000 years ago (we cannot be more precise)."
The site appears to have been used repeatedly over the course of several thousand years.
Initially, the researchers thought maybe these prehistoric people had ventured into the mountains because drought in the lowlands had forced them to seek out new habitats. However, analysis of the climate at the time revealed this was not the case.
High altitudes place many stresses on the human body. The lower oxygen levels make breathing harder, UV levels are higher and temperature fluctuations are greater. As a result, it was generally thought people did not start living in the mountains until relatively recently in human history.
In 2014, however, scientists announced the discovery of a settlement in the Andes that dated back 12,000 years. This was the oldest evidence of high-altitude living ever discovered, raising questions about how and when humans adapted to these extreme conditions.
Now, in a study published in Science, researchers led by Götz Ossendorf from the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Cologne, Germany, have found a site that shows signs of human occupation between 47,000 and 31,000 years ago.
In an expedition to the Bale Mountains, researchers found a rock shelter containing thousands of artifacts from the Middle Stone Age. This included tools, hearths of fires and animal bones—evidence suggesting the prehistoric people that stayed at the site ate giant mole rats and made good use of the nearby resources.
Radiocarbon dating showed the shelter dated far beyond any other high altitude archaeological site.
The people at the Bale Mountain site would have been hunter-gatherers. Ossendorf told Newsweek it is not surprising to find evidence of humans in these extreme regions—to access food they would have traveled far and wide regularly, and never stayed at a single site for very long. They likely returned to different sites following an annual cycle, he said.
"We know of even older high-altitude occupations in Tibet [by Denisova hominins 160,000 years ago] and human presence in high altitudes at probably the same time in Ethiopia. But these previous records only showed the mere presence of humans at a given time, there is no additional information on what people did," he told Newsweek in an email. "What we could demonstrate now is that people stayed there for longer periods and actively used the resources of the afro-alpine ecosystem, and they did this repeatedly between 47,000 and 31,000 years ago (we cannot be more precise)."
The site appears to have been used repeatedly over the course of several thousand years.
Initially, the researchers thought maybe these prehistoric people had ventured into the mountains because drought in the lowlands had forced them to seek out new habitats. However, analysis of the climate at the time revealed this was not the case.
Paleontologists find giant dinosaur bone in southwestern France
July 27, 2019
By Agence France-Presse - Raw Story
French paleontologists found the thigh bone of a giant sauropod, an herbivorous dinosaur dating from the late Jurassic era, at an excavation site in southwestern France this week.
The thigh bone of a giant dinosaur was found this week by French paleontologists at an excavation site in southwestern France where remains of some of the largest animals that ever lived on land have been dug up since 2010.
The two-meter long femur at the Angeac-Charente site is thought to have belonged to a sauropod, herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and tails which were widespread in the late Jurassic era, over 140 million years ago.
“This is a major discovery,” Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the National History Museum of Paris told Reuters. “I was especially amazed by the state of preservation of that femur.”
“These are animals that probably weighed 40 to 50 tonnes.”
Allain said scientists at the site near the city of Cognac have found more than 7,500 fossils of more than 40 different species since 2010, making it one of the largest such finds in Europe.
The thigh bone of a giant dinosaur was found this week by French paleontologists at an excavation site in southwestern France where remains of some of the largest animals that ever lived on land have been dug up since 2010.
The two-meter long femur at the Angeac-Charente site is thought to have belonged to a sauropod, herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and tails which were widespread in the late Jurassic era, over 140 million years ago.
“This is a major discovery,” Ronan Allain, a paleontologist at the National History Museum of Paris told Reuters. “I was especially amazed by the state of preservation of that femur.”
“These are animals that probably weighed 40 to 50 tonnes.”
Allain said scientists at the site near the city of Cognac have found more than 7,500 fossils of more than 40 different species since 2010, making it one of the largest such finds in Europe.
'Bent' pyramid: Egypt opens ancient oddity for tourism
Pharoah Sneferu’s structure marks key step in Egyptian architecture, as builders had to change the angle when it started to crack
Reuters
The Guardian
Sun 14 Jul 2019 15.37 BST
King Sneferu, the first pharaoh of Egypt’s 4th dynasty, built three major pyramids, including the pioneering ‘bent’ pyramid, now open to the public. Photograph: Mohamed El-Shahed/AFP/Getty Images
Egypt has opened to visitors the “bent” pyramid built for the pharaoh Sneferu, a 101-metre structure south of Cairo that marks a key step in the evolution of pyramid construction.
Tourists will now be able to clamber down a 79-metre long, narrow tunnel from a raised entrance on the pyramid’s northern face, to reach two chambers deep inside the 4,600-year-old structure.
They will also be able to enter an adjoining 18-metre high “side pyramid”, possibly for Sneferu’s wife Hetepheres, opened for the first time since its excavation in 1956.
The “bent” Pyramid is one of three built for Fourth Dynasty founding pharaoh Sneferu in Dahshur, at the southern end of the Memphis necropolis, a Unesco world heritage site.
Its appearance is unusual. The first 49 metres, which have largely kept their smooth limestone casing, are built at a steep 54 degree angle, before tapering off towards the top. It has been reopened to the public for the first time since 1965, when it was closed for restoration works.
The angular shape contrasts with the straight sides of Sneferu’s Red Pyramid just to the north, the first of ancient Egypt’s fully formed pyramids and the next step towards the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Architects changed the angle of the “bent” pyramid when cracks started appearing in the structure, said Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
“Sneferu lived a very long time … the architects wanted to reach the complete shape, the pyramid shape,” Mohamed Shiha, director of the Dahshur site, said.
“Exactly where he was buried – we are not sure of that. Maybe in this [bent] pyramid, who knows?“
Authorities are seeking to promote tourism at Dahshur, about 28km (17 miles) south of central Cairo. The site lies in the open desert, attracts just a trickle of visitors, and is free of the touts and bustle of Giza.
As they opened the pyramids, archaeologists presented late-period mummies, masks, tools and coffins discovered during excavations that began near the Dahshur pyramids last year and are due to continue.
“When we were taking those objects out, we found … a very rich area of hidden tombs,” Waziri said.
The promotion of Dahshur is part of a wider push to boost tourism, an important source of foreign revenue for Egypt that dipped steeply after the country’s 2011 uprising but has gradually recovered.
Archaeologists also unveiled the nearby tomb of Sa Eset, which has been closed since its excavation in 1894 and contains finely preserved hieroglyphic funerary texts.
Foreign ambassadors invited to attend the archaeological announcements were led sweating into the tight spaces of the tomb, which is not expected to be opened to the public for another two years.
Tourists will now be able to clamber down a 79-metre long, narrow tunnel from a raised entrance on the pyramid’s northern face, to reach two chambers deep inside the 4,600-year-old structure.
They will also be able to enter an adjoining 18-metre high “side pyramid”, possibly for Sneferu’s wife Hetepheres, opened for the first time since its excavation in 1956.
The “bent” Pyramid is one of three built for Fourth Dynasty founding pharaoh Sneferu in Dahshur, at the southern end of the Memphis necropolis, a Unesco world heritage site.
Its appearance is unusual. The first 49 metres, which have largely kept their smooth limestone casing, are built at a steep 54 degree angle, before tapering off towards the top. It has been reopened to the public for the first time since 1965, when it was closed for restoration works.
The angular shape contrasts with the straight sides of Sneferu’s Red Pyramid just to the north, the first of ancient Egypt’s fully formed pyramids and the next step towards the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Architects changed the angle of the “bent” pyramid when cracks started appearing in the structure, said Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
“Sneferu lived a very long time … the architects wanted to reach the complete shape, the pyramid shape,” Mohamed Shiha, director of the Dahshur site, said.
“Exactly where he was buried – we are not sure of that. Maybe in this [bent] pyramid, who knows?“
Authorities are seeking to promote tourism at Dahshur, about 28km (17 miles) south of central Cairo. The site lies in the open desert, attracts just a trickle of visitors, and is free of the touts and bustle of Giza.
As they opened the pyramids, archaeologists presented late-period mummies, masks, tools and coffins discovered during excavations that began near the Dahshur pyramids last year and are due to continue.
“When we were taking those objects out, we found … a very rich area of hidden tombs,” Waziri said.
The promotion of Dahshur is part of a wider push to boost tourism, an important source of foreign revenue for Egypt that dipped steeply after the country’s 2011 uprising but has gradually recovered.
Archaeologists also unveiled the nearby tomb of Sa Eset, which has been closed since its excavation in 1894 and contains finely preserved hieroglyphic funerary texts.
Foreign ambassadors invited to attend the archaeological announcements were led sweating into the tight spaces of the tomb, which is not expected to be opened to the public for another two years.
Sahara was home to some of largest sea creatures, study finds
Scientists reconstruct extinct species using fossils found in northern Mali from ancient seaway
Ruth Maclean West Africa correspondent
The Guardian
Fri 12 Jul 2019 12.35 BST
Some of the biggest catfish and sea snakes to ever exist lived in what is today the Sahara desert, according to a new paper that contains the first reconstructions of extinct aquatic species from the ancient Trans-Saharan Seaway.
The sea was 50 metres deep and once covered 3,000sq km of what is now the world’s biggest sand desert. The marine sediment it left behind is filled with fossils, which allowed thescientists who published the study to build up a picture of a region that teemed with life.
Between 100m and 50m years ago, today’s arid, boulder-strewn northern Mali “looked more like modern Puerto Rico”; the sun shone on some of the earliest mangroves, and molluscs lined the shallow seabed, according to Maureen O’Leary, the palaeontologist who led the study.
The study also formally named the geological units, literally putting the area on the geological map for the first time, showing how the sea ebbed and flowed over its 50m years of existence, and building up information about the K-Pg boundary, the geophysical marker of one of Earth’s five major extinction events, in which the non-avian dinosaurs became extinct.
With 1.6m catfish, 12.3m sea snakes and 1.2m pycnodonts – a type of bony fish – O’Leary and the other scientists developed the idea that in the late Cretaceous and early Paleogene period, the animals were experiencing gigantism.
Evolutionary biologists have long talked about the phenomenon of island gigantism, where species that live on small islands can sometimes develop very large bodies, possibly because they have more resources or there are few predators, or both.
“We put out the idea that maybe this island gigantism can pertain to islands of water,” O’Leary said. “If you get a sea that’s moving in and going out, maybe it’s leaving behind pockets of water in which new variables are taking place that control the body size.”
Though considerably less watery and verdant today, there is no shortage of human life in the Sahara – people for whom the presence of ancient sea creatures is not news, as the team found during their expeditions in 1999, 2003 and 2009.
“The Sahara is full of people. Sometimes we would be working in what seemed like the most remote desert, and someone would just drive up on a moped. It’s a very alive environment,” said O’Leary, who is from Stony Brook University in the US. “The local people … knew that the sea had passed, and they would talk about the shells that they found and know that they’re marine shells.”
People in northern Mali have been living through a “security nightmare”, particularly since Tuareg rebels and then jihadis occupied it in 2012. While this has prevented O’Leary and the 10 other scientists – from Mali, the US and Australia – getting on the ground since 2009, it also forced them to compile their findings and come up with a comprehensive picture.
When setting off on their fourth expedition in 2009, the team got as far as Gao when they received calls urging them to abandon their trip. They did so, but it was only years later, reading the Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler’s book on being kidnapped with an aide by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, that O’Leary realised what the trigger for those calls had been.
She said significant paleontological riches were buried under the sands of northern Mali, and there was also extensive archaeological work to be done, but the security situation that had left so many Malians dead or displaced meant this work would be on hold indefinitely.
“This is such a terrible thing to happen to such an interesting country with such a rich legacy. I hope that by telling our scientific story, it gets the word out that there’s many important and interesting things to be known about Mali that are probably not that well understood. There’s a tremendous amount of scientific work to be done there and it’s impossible.”
The study builds on the work of British expeditions to Mali in the 1980s which, among other things, had discovered but not written about a large turtle shell and an important collection of fossils.
The collected fossils remain Mali’s property, but are on loan to the American Museum of Natural History for scientific study.
O’Leary said the fact that the Sahara was once under water showed there was a precedent for climate change and sea level rises that should give climate deniers pause for thought.
“Hopefully, by understanding these historical examples, in the current dialogue people can be more accepting that what scientists are telling them is true, and that not only is it true, but there are historical examples of much greater magnitude where the planet has changed,” she said.
“Perhaps talking about human-induced climate change seems like ‘Oh, is this the first time’. It’s not the first time. There’s been a lot of change in Earth’s history. And understanding those examples may make it more palatable to people, set their expectations differently.”
The sea was 50 metres deep and once covered 3,000sq km of what is now the world’s biggest sand desert. The marine sediment it left behind is filled with fossils, which allowed thescientists who published the study to build up a picture of a region that teemed with life.
Between 100m and 50m years ago, today’s arid, boulder-strewn northern Mali “looked more like modern Puerto Rico”; the sun shone on some of the earliest mangroves, and molluscs lined the shallow seabed, according to Maureen O’Leary, the palaeontologist who led the study.
The study also formally named the geological units, literally putting the area on the geological map for the first time, showing how the sea ebbed and flowed over its 50m years of existence, and building up information about the K-Pg boundary, the geophysical marker of one of Earth’s five major extinction events, in which the non-avian dinosaurs became extinct.
With 1.6m catfish, 12.3m sea snakes and 1.2m pycnodonts – a type of bony fish – O’Leary and the other scientists developed the idea that in the late Cretaceous and early Paleogene period, the animals were experiencing gigantism.
Evolutionary biologists have long talked about the phenomenon of island gigantism, where species that live on small islands can sometimes develop very large bodies, possibly because they have more resources or there are few predators, or both.
“We put out the idea that maybe this island gigantism can pertain to islands of water,” O’Leary said. “If you get a sea that’s moving in and going out, maybe it’s leaving behind pockets of water in which new variables are taking place that control the body size.”
Though considerably less watery and verdant today, there is no shortage of human life in the Sahara – people for whom the presence of ancient sea creatures is not news, as the team found during their expeditions in 1999, 2003 and 2009.
“The Sahara is full of people. Sometimes we would be working in what seemed like the most remote desert, and someone would just drive up on a moped. It’s a very alive environment,” said O’Leary, who is from Stony Brook University in the US. “The local people … knew that the sea had passed, and they would talk about the shells that they found and know that they’re marine shells.”
People in northern Mali have been living through a “security nightmare”, particularly since Tuareg rebels and then jihadis occupied it in 2012. While this has prevented O’Leary and the 10 other scientists – from Mali, the US and Australia – getting on the ground since 2009, it also forced them to compile their findings and come up with a comprehensive picture.
When setting off on their fourth expedition in 2009, the team got as far as Gao when they received calls urging them to abandon their trip. They did so, but it was only years later, reading the Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler’s book on being kidnapped with an aide by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, that O’Leary realised what the trigger for those calls had been.
She said significant paleontological riches were buried under the sands of northern Mali, and there was also extensive archaeological work to be done, but the security situation that had left so many Malians dead or displaced meant this work would be on hold indefinitely.
“This is such a terrible thing to happen to such an interesting country with such a rich legacy. I hope that by telling our scientific story, it gets the word out that there’s many important and interesting things to be known about Mali that are probably not that well understood. There’s a tremendous amount of scientific work to be done there and it’s impossible.”
The study builds on the work of British expeditions to Mali in the 1980s which, among other things, had discovered but not written about a large turtle shell and an important collection of fossils.
The collected fossils remain Mali’s property, but are on loan to the American Museum of Natural History for scientific study.
O’Leary said the fact that the Sahara was once under water showed there was a precedent for climate change and sea level rises that should give climate deniers pause for thought.
“Hopefully, by understanding these historical examples, in the current dialogue people can be more accepting that what scientists are telling them is true, and that not only is it true, but there are historical examples of much greater magnitude where the planet has changed,” she said.
“Perhaps talking about human-induced climate change seems like ‘Oh, is this the first time’. It’s not the first time. There’s been a lot of change in Earth’s history. And understanding those examples may make it more palatable to people, set their expectations differently.”
‘Oldest remains’ outside Africa reset human migration clock
July 10, 2019
By Agence France-Presse - Raw Story
A 210,000-year-old skull has been identified as the earliest modern human remains found outside Africa, putting the clock back on mankind’s arrival in Europe by more than 150,000 years, researchers said Wednesday.
In a startling discovery that changes our understanding of how modern man populated Eurasia, the findings support the idea that Homo sapiens made several, sometimes unsuccessful migrations from Africa over tens of thousands of years.
Southeast Europe has long been considered a major transport corridor for modern humans from Africa. But until now the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens on the continent dated back only around 50,000 years.
There has however been a number of discoveries indicating the ancient presence of Neanderthals — an early human cousin — across the continent.
Two fossilised but badly damaged skulls unearthed in a Greek cave in the 1970s were identified as Neanderthal at the time.
In findings presented in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers used state-of-the art computer modelling and uranium dating to re-examine the two skulls.
One of them, named Apidima 2 after the cave in which the pair were found, proved to be 170,000 years old and did indeed belong to a Neanderthal.
But, to the shock of scientists, the skull named Apidima 1 pre-dated Apidima 2 by as much as 40,000 years, and was determined to be that of a Homo sapiens.
That makes the skull by far the oldest modern human remains ever discovered on the continent, and older than any known Homo sapiens specimen outside of Africa.
“It shows that the early dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa not only occurred earlier, before 200,000 years ago, but also reached further geographically, all the way to Europe,” Katerina Harvati, a palaeoanthropologist at the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, Germany, told AFP.
“This is something that we did not suspect before, and which has implications for the population movements of these ancient groups.”
Apidima 1 lacked classic features associated with Neanderthal skulls, including the distinctive bulge at the back of the head, shaped like hair tied in a bun.
– Multiple migrations? –
Hominins — a subset of great apes that includes Homo sapiens and Neanderthals — are believed to have emerged in Africa more than six million years ago. They left the continent in several migration waves starting about two million years ago.
The oldest known African fossil attributed to a member of the Homo family is a 2.8 million-year-old jawbone from Ethiopia.
Homo sapiens replaced Neanderthals across Europe for good around 45,000-35,000 years ago, in what was long considered a gradual takeover of the continent involving millenia of co-existence and even interbreeding.
But the skull discovery in Greece suggests that Homo sapiens undertook the migration from Africa to southern Europe on “more than one occasion”, according to Eric Delson, a professor of anthropology at City University of New York.
“Rather than a single exit of hominins from Africa to populate Eurasia, there must have been several dispersals, some of which did not result in permanent occupations,” said Delson, who was not involved in the Nature study.
Harvati said advances in dating and genetics technology could continue to shape our understanding of how our pre-historic ancestors spread throughout the world.
“I think recent advances in palaeoanthropology have shown that the field is still full of surprises,” she said.
In a startling discovery that changes our understanding of how modern man populated Eurasia, the findings support the idea that Homo sapiens made several, sometimes unsuccessful migrations from Africa over tens of thousands of years.
Southeast Europe has long been considered a major transport corridor for modern humans from Africa. But until now the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens on the continent dated back only around 50,000 years.
There has however been a number of discoveries indicating the ancient presence of Neanderthals — an early human cousin — across the continent.
Two fossilised but badly damaged skulls unearthed in a Greek cave in the 1970s were identified as Neanderthal at the time.
In findings presented in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers used state-of-the art computer modelling and uranium dating to re-examine the two skulls.
One of them, named Apidima 2 after the cave in which the pair were found, proved to be 170,000 years old and did indeed belong to a Neanderthal.
But, to the shock of scientists, the skull named Apidima 1 pre-dated Apidima 2 by as much as 40,000 years, and was determined to be that of a Homo sapiens.
That makes the skull by far the oldest modern human remains ever discovered on the continent, and older than any known Homo sapiens specimen outside of Africa.
“It shows that the early dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa not only occurred earlier, before 200,000 years ago, but also reached further geographically, all the way to Europe,” Katerina Harvati, a palaeoanthropologist at the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, Germany, told AFP.
“This is something that we did not suspect before, and which has implications for the population movements of these ancient groups.”
Apidima 1 lacked classic features associated with Neanderthal skulls, including the distinctive bulge at the back of the head, shaped like hair tied in a bun.
– Multiple migrations? –
Hominins — a subset of great apes that includes Homo sapiens and Neanderthals — are believed to have emerged in Africa more than six million years ago. They left the continent in several migration waves starting about two million years ago.
The oldest known African fossil attributed to a member of the Homo family is a 2.8 million-year-old jawbone from Ethiopia.
Homo sapiens replaced Neanderthals across Europe for good around 45,000-35,000 years ago, in what was long considered a gradual takeover of the continent involving millenia of co-existence and even interbreeding.
But the skull discovery in Greece suggests that Homo sapiens undertook the migration from Africa to southern Europe on “more than one occasion”, according to Eric Delson, a professor of anthropology at City University of New York.
“Rather than a single exit of hominins from Africa to populate Eurasia, there must have been several dispersals, some of which did not result in permanent occupations,” said Delson, who was not involved in the Nature study.
Harvati said advances in dating and genetics technology could continue to shape our understanding of how our pre-historic ancestors spread throughout the world.
“I think recent advances in palaeoanthropology have shown that the field is still full of surprises,” she said.
ANCIENT TREE WITH RECORD OF EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD REVERSAL IN ITS RINGS DISCOVERED
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - Newsweek
ON 7/4/19 AT 10:47 AM EDT
An ancient tree that contains a record of a reversal of Earth's magnetic field has been discovered in New Zealand. The tree—an Agathis australis, better known as its Māori name kauri—was found in Ngawha, on New Zealand's North Island, during excavation work for the expansion of a geothermal power plant, stuff.nz reports.
The tree, which had been buried in 26 feet of soil, measures eight feet in diameter and 65 feet in length. Carbon dating revealed it lived for 1,500 years, between 41,000 and 42,500 years ago.
"There's nothing like this anywhere in the world," Alan Hogg, from New Zealand's University of Waikato, told the website. "This Ngāwhā kauri is unique."
The lifespan of the kauri tree covers a point in Earth's history when the magnetic field almost reversed. At this time, the magnetic north and south went on an excursion but did not quite complete a full reversal.
Earth's magnetic field is thought to be generated by the iron in the planet's core. As it moves around, it produces electric currents that extend far into space. The magnetic field acts as a barrier, protecting Earth from the solar wind. This is a stream of charged particles from the Sun that could strip away the ozone layer if it were to impact the atmosphere.
When the magnetic field reverses—or attempts to—it gets weaker, leading to more radiation from the Sun getting through. Previously, scientists have linked extinction events to magnetic field reversals.
The newly discovered kauri tree's rings contain a complete record of a near-reversal—the first time a tree that lived during the entire event has ever been found. "It's the time it takes for this movement to occur that is the critical thing...We will map these changes much more accurately using the tree rings," Hogg told stuff.nz.
Samples of the tree are now being analyzed by scientists, led by Chris Turney from the University of New South Wales—an expert in paleoclimatology and climate change. Understanding what happened to the tree during the event could provide an insight into what we should expect the next time it happens. "We will have increased cosmic radiation. It will take out satellites and it might take out other communication infrastructure," Hogg said.
Magnetic field reversals happen at random intervals, although in the last 20 millions years it appears to have settled into a pattern, happening once every 200,000 to 300,000 years, NASA says. The last full reversal took place around 780,000 years ago.
Scientists recently announced the magnetic north pole had moved unexpectedly. Instead of tracking steadily from the Canadian Arctic towards Siberia, it sped up so much that researchers had to update the World Magnetic Model (WMM)—a representation of Earth's magnetic field that is used by GPS systems worldwide.
The tree, which had been buried in 26 feet of soil, measures eight feet in diameter and 65 feet in length. Carbon dating revealed it lived for 1,500 years, between 41,000 and 42,500 years ago.
"There's nothing like this anywhere in the world," Alan Hogg, from New Zealand's University of Waikato, told the website. "This Ngāwhā kauri is unique."
The lifespan of the kauri tree covers a point in Earth's history when the magnetic field almost reversed. At this time, the magnetic north and south went on an excursion but did not quite complete a full reversal.
Earth's magnetic field is thought to be generated by the iron in the planet's core. As it moves around, it produces electric currents that extend far into space. The magnetic field acts as a barrier, protecting Earth from the solar wind. This is a stream of charged particles from the Sun that could strip away the ozone layer if it were to impact the atmosphere.
When the magnetic field reverses—or attempts to—it gets weaker, leading to more radiation from the Sun getting through. Previously, scientists have linked extinction events to magnetic field reversals.
The newly discovered kauri tree's rings contain a complete record of a near-reversal—the first time a tree that lived during the entire event has ever been found. "It's the time it takes for this movement to occur that is the critical thing...We will map these changes much more accurately using the tree rings," Hogg told stuff.nz.
Samples of the tree are now being analyzed by scientists, led by Chris Turney from the University of New South Wales—an expert in paleoclimatology and climate change. Understanding what happened to the tree during the event could provide an insight into what we should expect the next time it happens. "We will have increased cosmic radiation. It will take out satellites and it might take out other communication infrastructure," Hogg said.
Magnetic field reversals happen at random intervals, although in the last 20 millions years it appears to have settled into a pattern, happening once every 200,000 to 300,000 years, NASA says. The last full reversal took place around 780,000 years ago.
Scientists recently announced the magnetic north pole had moved unexpectedly. Instead of tracking steadily from the Canadian Arctic towards Siberia, it sped up so much that researchers had to update the World Magnetic Model (WMM)—a representation of Earth's magnetic field that is used by GPS systems worldwide.
ANCIENT GREECE: UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER MONUMENTAL STRUCTURE FROM SITE OF PRE-BIBLICAL BATTLE
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - Newsweek
ON 6/17/19 AT 9:08 AM EDT
A marble head from an ancient Greek statue.
CHR. MARABA/GREEK MINISTRY OF CULTURE
The researchers said it would likely have been one of the main public buildings in the area, located at the lowest point of the ancient city—at the port. The team found ceramics, statues, columns or pillars and other features relating to the building. They also found marble sculptures, including the head of a statue of an athlete or god. This, the ministry said, appears to date to the fourth century B.C.
During the 2018 survey, researchers used a new technique where a flexible barrier was constructed, allowing them to drain the area being excavated, get a better view of the site and to take samples of the sediments, helping them date the building.
The discovery of the building is important as it is helping archaeologists reconstruct the geography of the region 2,500 years ago.
At this time—480 B.C.—the Battle of Salamis took place in the straits between Salamis Island and mainland Greece. Following successful invasions by the Persian army, the Greek fleet had withdrawn to Salamis and they were outnumbered. At this point Themistocles, a politician and general, convinced Greek allies to fight, a report of the battle by the U.K.'s Cardiff University notes.
The Persians thought they had the advantage. They entered the straits of Salamis with a view of blocking the entrance. However, their large ships could not be maneuvered in the tight waterways and the Greeks were victorious. After this win, the Greeks defeated the Persians in several other key battles, ending the period of invasion.
During the 2018 survey, researchers used a new technique where a flexible barrier was constructed, allowing them to drain the area being excavated, get a better view of the site and to take samples of the sediments, helping them date the building.
The discovery of the building is important as it is helping archaeologists reconstruct the geography of the region 2,500 years ago.
At this time—480 B.C.—the Battle of Salamis took place in the straits between Salamis Island and mainland Greece. Following successful invasions by the Persian army, the Greek fleet had withdrawn to Salamis and they were outnumbered. At this point Themistocles, a politician and general, convinced Greek allies to fight, a report of the battle by the U.K.'s Cardiff University notes.
The Persians thought they had the advantage. They entered the straits of Salamis with a view of blocking the entrance. However, their large ships could not be maneuvered in the tight waterways and the Greeks were victorious. After this win, the Greeks defeated the Persians in several other key battles, ending the period of invasion.
ANCIENT, LONG-LOST UNDERGROUND CITY STRETCHING FOR MILES DISCOVERED IN TURKEY
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - Newsweek
ON 6/13/19 AT 10:23 AM EDT
A room in Derinkuyu, an underground city in Cappadocia, Turkey
ISTOCK
A long-lost underground city dating back 5,000 years has been discovered in Turkey after workers went to investigate the source of flooding affecting homes in the central Nevşehir province.
"The city, which is partially submerged, is believed to stretch over three miles into the ground," the Daily Sabah reported. An initial exploration of the complex suggest it is made up of three floors and is comprised of tunnels, homes and a place of worship.
The discovery was made after locals living in the Çalış township of Avanos complained of flooding, the source of which could not be found. During their investigations, municipal workers opened up at tunnel that had been closed off for safety reasons decades earlier.
According to the Daily Sabah, when the crew ventured inside, they found the underground city partially submerged in clear water. The flooded rooms of the city were found to be directly beneath the houses that had experienced flooding.
At the site, workers found a small human figurine believed to be an icon of some sort.
Çalış mayor Kazım Yılmaz told Anadolu Agency that archaeologists will need to work out the origin of the city and exact size, but added: "Those who had been there in the past say it is some 600 meters by two kilometers in size,"—around 0.4 square miles.
The Daily Sabah said locals had used parts of the underground city that were close to the surface as a shelter for animals up until the start of the 20th century. About 25 years ago, the complex was rediscovered when a child fell inside the tunnel—it was at this point the entrance was covered up, in order to prevent any more accidents.
Turkey's Nevşehir province is home to many long lost underground cities, many of which have been discovered in the last decade. The Cappadocia region, where Nevşehir is located, is made up of soft volcanic rocks that would have been fairly easy for ancient humans to carve homes out of, providing protection from the elements. Over time, these grew to become vast cities.
At the end of 2014, a 5,000-year-old city around the Nevşehir Fortress was discovered during construction work. The huge network is thought to have been home to thousands of people who are thought to have been part of a farming community that existed around 3,000 BC.
According to the Hurriyet Daily News, the city stretches over four miles, with tunnels wide enough for a car to pass through. Özcan Çakır, from the Canakkale 18 March University who was involved in excavations, told the newspaper: "We believe that people, who were engaged in agriculture, were using the tunnels to carry agricultural products to the city. We also estimate that one of the tunnels passes under Nevşehir and reaches a faraway water source."
This complex is set to be partially opened to tourists—something Yılmaz hopes will happen at the underground city in Çalış. He told the Daily Sabah they plan to apply to Turkey's cultural property protection board for it to be considered as a historical site.
The most famous underground city in the region is Derinkuyu cave—an underground city that was discovered in the 1960s after a resident found a room behind one of the walls in his home. Archaeological research indicates the city—which is the deepest in Cappadocia—could have housed 20,000 people.
"The city, which is partially submerged, is believed to stretch over three miles into the ground," the Daily Sabah reported. An initial exploration of the complex suggest it is made up of three floors and is comprised of tunnels, homes and a place of worship.
The discovery was made after locals living in the Çalış township of Avanos complained of flooding, the source of which could not be found. During their investigations, municipal workers opened up at tunnel that had been closed off for safety reasons decades earlier.
According to the Daily Sabah, when the crew ventured inside, they found the underground city partially submerged in clear water. The flooded rooms of the city were found to be directly beneath the houses that had experienced flooding.
At the site, workers found a small human figurine believed to be an icon of some sort.
Çalış mayor Kazım Yılmaz told Anadolu Agency that archaeologists will need to work out the origin of the city and exact size, but added: "Those who had been there in the past say it is some 600 meters by two kilometers in size,"—around 0.4 square miles.
The Daily Sabah said locals had used parts of the underground city that were close to the surface as a shelter for animals up until the start of the 20th century. About 25 years ago, the complex was rediscovered when a child fell inside the tunnel—it was at this point the entrance was covered up, in order to prevent any more accidents.
Turkey's Nevşehir province is home to many long lost underground cities, many of which have been discovered in the last decade. The Cappadocia region, where Nevşehir is located, is made up of soft volcanic rocks that would have been fairly easy for ancient humans to carve homes out of, providing protection from the elements. Over time, these grew to become vast cities.
At the end of 2014, a 5,000-year-old city around the Nevşehir Fortress was discovered during construction work. The huge network is thought to have been home to thousands of people who are thought to have been part of a farming community that existed around 3,000 BC.
According to the Hurriyet Daily News, the city stretches over four miles, with tunnels wide enough for a car to pass through. Özcan Çakır, from the Canakkale 18 March University who was involved in excavations, told the newspaper: "We believe that people, who were engaged in agriculture, were using the tunnels to carry agricultural products to the city. We also estimate that one of the tunnels passes under Nevşehir and reaches a faraway water source."
This complex is set to be partially opened to tourists—something Yılmaz hopes will happen at the underground city in Çalış. He told the Daily Sabah they plan to apply to Turkey's cultural property protection board for it to be considered as a historical site.
The most famous underground city in the region is Derinkuyu cave—an underground city that was discovered in the 1960s after a resident found a room behind one of the walls in his home. Archaeological research indicates the city—which is the deepest in Cappadocia—could have housed 20,000 people.
Scientists unearth ‘most bird-like’ dinosaur ever found
Agence France-Presse - raw story
15 MAY 2019 AT 08:21 ET
The notches in the wing bones of the new specimen point to muscles which would have allowed it to actively flap its wings Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie/AFP / OLIVER RAUHUT, OLIVER RAUHUT
Researchers in Germany have unearthed a new species of flying dinosaur that flapped its wings like a raven and could hold vital clues as to how modern-day birds evolved from their reptilian ancestors.
For more than a century and a half since its discovery in 1861, Archaeopteryx — a small feathered dinosaur around the size of a crow that lived in marshland around 150 million years ago — was widely considered to be the oldest flying bird.
Palaeontologists from Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich and the University of Fribourg examined rock formations in the German region of Bavaria, home to nearly all known Archaeopteryx specimens.
They came across a petrified wing, which the team initially assumed to be the same species. They soon found several differences, however.
“There are similarities, but after detailed comparisons with Archaeopteryx and other, geologically younger birds, its fossil remains suggested that we were dealing with a somewhat more derived bird,” said lead study author Oliver Rauhut from LMU’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
They called the new bird-like dinosaur Alcmonavis poeschli — from the old Celtic word for a nearby river and the scientist who discovered the fossil, excavation leader Roland Poeschl.
The study, published in the journal eLife Sciences, said Alcmonavis poeschli was “the most bird-like bird discovered from the Jurassic”.
As well as being significantly larger than Archaeopteryx, the new specimen had more notches in its wing bones that pointed to muscles which would have allowed it to actively flap its wings.
Significantly, this “flapping” trait found in Alcmonavis poeschli is present in more recent birds, but not in Archaeopteryx.
“This suggests that the diversity of birds in the late Jurassic era was greater than previously thought,” Rauhut said.
The discovery is likely to fuel debate among dinosaur experts over whether birds and dinosaurs developed the ability to flap their wings from earlier gliding species.
“Its adaptation shows that the evolution of flight must have progressed relatively quickly,” said Christian Foth, from the University of Fribourg, and a co-author of the research.
For more than a century and a half since its discovery in 1861, Archaeopteryx — a small feathered dinosaur around the size of a crow that lived in marshland around 150 million years ago — was widely considered to be the oldest flying bird.
Palaeontologists from Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich and the University of Fribourg examined rock formations in the German region of Bavaria, home to nearly all known Archaeopteryx specimens.
They came across a petrified wing, which the team initially assumed to be the same species. They soon found several differences, however.
“There are similarities, but after detailed comparisons with Archaeopteryx and other, geologically younger birds, its fossil remains suggested that we were dealing with a somewhat more derived bird,” said lead study author Oliver Rauhut from LMU’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
They called the new bird-like dinosaur Alcmonavis poeschli — from the old Celtic word for a nearby river and the scientist who discovered the fossil, excavation leader Roland Poeschl.
The study, published in the journal eLife Sciences, said Alcmonavis poeschli was “the most bird-like bird discovered from the Jurassic”.
As well as being significantly larger than Archaeopteryx, the new specimen had more notches in its wing bones that pointed to muscles which would have allowed it to actively flap its wings.
Significantly, this “flapping” trait found in Alcmonavis poeschli is present in more recent birds, but not in Archaeopteryx.
“This suggests that the diversity of birds in the late Jurassic era was greater than previously thought,” Rauhut said.
The discovery is likely to fuel debate among dinosaur experts over whether birds and dinosaurs developed the ability to flap their wings from earlier gliding species.
“Its adaptation shows that the evolution of flight must have progressed relatively quickly,” said Christian Foth, from the University of Fribourg, and a co-author of the research.
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TOMB DISCOVERED NEAR GIZA PYRAMIDS BELONGING TO HIGH PRIEST AND 'PURIFIER' OF KING KHAFRE
BY CHANTAL DA SILVA - newsweek
ON 5/6/19 AT 10:52 AM EDT
Archaeologists have discovered an ancient Egyptian burial ground near the pyramids of Giza containing a tomb belonging to two high-ranking members of Egypt's fifth dynasty.
A team of archaeologists working near the pyramids said they found a limestone family tomb dating back to around the 25th to the 24th century BC, according to a statement from Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities.
Inside the tomb, researchers found two mummies believed to be Behnui-Ka, who was a priest and judge during Egypt's fifth dynasty and Nwi, who served in at least five roles during his liftime including "chief of the great state" and the "purifier" of the pharaoh Khafre, according to Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities.
Khafre, who has been credited with having built the second of the three pyramids of Giza, is believed to have reigned over Egypt for as many as 25 years.
The Ministry said that in addition to finding the remains of two high-ranking officials, archaeologists also discovered a number of artefacts in the tomb, including a limestone statue of its owner, his wife and their son.
Many late period wooden painted and decorated anthropoid coffins were also discovered at the site, the ministry said, as well as wooden and lay funerary masks.
It added that the cemetary also appeared to have been used extensively duting the Late Period, starting early 7th century BC.
Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities said in its statement that the latest discovery not only has "scientific and archaeological value, but it is a good promotion to Egypt as well as showing to the whole world' Egypt's true image and...power."
Recently, archaeologists in Egypt also uncovered an ancient tomb belonging to another high-ranking official.
The tomb, located in the ancient burial ground of Saqqara, south of the capital, Cairo, was found to hold an official known as "Khuwy," who is thought to have been a nobleman during the Fifth Dynasty.
The tomb was located close to the pyramid of Djedkare Isesi, the penultimate pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, prompting suggestions that Khuwy may have been related to Djedkare, as Newsweek previously reported.
The Egyptian government has expressed hope that the recent archaeological findings will help boost tourism to the area, which has still been struggling to recover in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.
As part of efforts to ramp up tourism, development of the Grand Egyptian Museum has also been underway, with the long-awaited museum expected to officially open in mid-2020.
A team of archaeologists working near the pyramids said they found a limestone family tomb dating back to around the 25th to the 24th century BC, according to a statement from Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities.
Inside the tomb, researchers found two mummies believed to be Behnui-Ka, who was a priest and judge during Egypt's fifth dynasty and Nwi, who served in at least five roles during his liftime including "chief of the great state" and the "purifier" of the pharaoh Khafre, according to Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities.
Khafre, who has been credited with having built the second of the three pyramids of Giza, is believed to have reigned over Egypt for as many as 25 years.
The Ministry said that in addition to finding the remains of two high-ranking officials, archaeologists also discovered a number of artefacts in the tomb, including a limestone statue of its owner, his wife and their son.
Many late period wooden painted and decorated anthropoid coffins were also discovered at the site, the ministry said, as well as wooden and lay funerary masks.
It added that the cemetary also appeared to have been used extensively duting the Late Period, starting early 7th century BC.
Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities said in its statement that the latest discovery not only has "scientific and archaeological value, but it is a good promotion to Egypt as well as showing to the whole world' Egypt's true image and...power."
Recently, archaeologists in Egypt also uncovered an ancient tomb belonging to another high-ranking official.
The tomb, located in the ancient burial ground of Saqqara, south of the capital, Cairo, was found to hold an official known as "Khuwy," who is thought to have been a nobleman during the Fifth Dynasty.
The tomb was located close to the pyramid of Djedkare Isesi, the penultimate pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, prompting suggestions that Khuwy may have been related to Djedkare, as Newsweek previously reported.
The Egyptian government has expressed hope that the recent archaeological findings will help boost tourism to the area, which has still been struggling to recover in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.
As part of efforts to ramp up tourism, development of the Grand Egyptian Museum has also been underway, with the long-awaited museum expected to officially open in mid-2020.
Scientists unearth 220 million-year-old dinosaur fossils in Argentina
Agence France-Presse - raw story
18 APR 2019 AT 06:23 ET
The fossilised dinosaur remains discovered in western Argentina are believed to be 220 million years old IMCN/AFP / HO
A site containing the 220-million-year-old fossilised remains of nearly a dozen dinosaurs has been discovered in western Argentina, researchers said Wednesday.
“There are almost ten different individuals, it’s a mass of bones, there’s practically no sediment,” said Argentinian paleontologist Ricardo Martinez.
According to Martinez, of the University of San Juan, the fossils are approximately 220 million years old, belonging to “an era of which we know little”.
“This discovery is doubly important because there are at least seven or eight individuals of dicynodonts, the ancestors of mammals, the size of an ox,” he said.
He said there were also remains of archosaurs, reptiles that could be the ancestors of great crocodiles “that we do not know about yet”.
The find was discovered in September last year in San Juan province, about 1,100 kilometres (680 miles) west of Buenos Aires.
The site is between one and two metres (yards) in diameter and about the same depth, leading scientists to speculate it was a former drinking hole at a time of great drought, and the creatures died of weakness at the spot.
Argentina has been a rich source of fossils from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras over the years — most, of creatures not found in the northern hemisphere.
“There are almost ten different individuals, it’s a mass of bones, there’s practically no sediment,” said Argentinian paleontologist Ricardo Martinez.
According to Martinez, of the University of San Juan, the fossils are approximately 220 million years old, belonging to “an era of which we know little”.
“This discovery is doubly important because there are at least seven or eight individuals of dicynodonts, the ancestors of mammals, the size of an ox,” he said.
He said there were also remains of archosaurs, reptiles that could be the ancestors of great crocodiles “that we do not know about yet”.
The find was discovered in September last year in San Juan province, about 1,100 kilometres (680 miles) west of Buenos Aires.
The site is between one and two metres (yards) in diameter and about the same depth, leading scientists to speculate it was a former drinking hole at a time of great drought, and the creatures died of weakness at the spot.
Argentina has been a rich source of fossils from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras over the years — most, of creatures not found in the northern hemisphere.
Researchers discover ancient giant ‘lion’ in Kenya
Agence France-Presse - raw story
18 APR 2019 AT 06:32 ET
A Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, a gigantic mammalian carnivore that lived 22 million years ago in Africa and was larger than a polar bear Ohio University/AFP / Mauricio ANTON, Mauricio ANTON
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A giant lion with enormous fangs that roamed the Kenyan savannah more than 20 million years ago was one of the largest ever meat-eating mammals, researchers said Thursday.
A team unearthed the lower jaw, teeth and other bones of a new species, Simbakubwa kutokaafrika — Swahili for “big African lion”.
They calculated it would have weighed up to 1,500 kilogrammes and could have preyed upon the elephant-like creatures that lived there at the time.
“Based on its massive teeth, Simbakubwa was a specialised hyper-carnivore that was significantly larger than the modern lion and possibly larger than a polar bear,” said Matthew Borths, from Duke University, who co-led the research with Ohio University.
An artist’s impression of the creature shows a giant big-cat-like hunter with stripey fur and enormous fangs.
The team behind the study, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, said Simbakubwa lived in what is modern-day Kenya around 23 million years ago, a key period in the evolution of carnivorous mammals.
They said the discovery could shed light on how supersized predators and prey evolved over millions of years around the end of the Paleogene epoch — the period where mammals grew from tiny rodents into many diverse species.
A team unearthed the lower jaw, teeth and other bones of a new species, Simbakubwa kutokaafrika — Swahili for “big African lion”.
They calculated it would have weighed up to 1,500 kilogrammes and could have preyed upon the elephant-like creatures that lived there at the time.
“Based on its massive teeth, Simbakubwa was a specialised hyper-carnivore that was significantly larger than the modern lion and possibly larger than a polar bear,” said Matthew Borths, from Duke University, who co-led the research with Ohio University.
An artist’s impression of the creature shows a giant big-cat-like hunter with stripey fur and enormous fangs.
The team behind the study, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, said Simbakubwa lived in what is modern-day Kenya around 23 million years ago, a key period in the evolution of carnivorous mammals.
They said the discovery could shed light on how supersized predators and prey evolved over millions of years around the end of the Paleogene epoch — the period where mammals grew from tiny rodents into many diverse species.
HOMO LUZONENSIS: BIZARRE NEW SPECIES OF ANCIENT HUMAN DISCOVERED IN PHILIPPINES
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - newsweek
ON 4/10/19 AT 1:00 PM EDT
Scientists discovered a new species of ancient human and named it Homo luzonensis, after the location where it was found—the island of Luzon in the Philippines. This unusual species was identified through several feet and hand bones, along with teeth and a partial femur. From this, scientists realized the bones belonged to a species with bizarre features, unlike any one member of the hominin group.
Their findings, published in Nature, raise huge questions about how early humans evolved and dispersed across the globe before our own species, Homo sapiens, came to dominate.
The team found the bones in Callao Cave on the country’s northern island. They were in a layer of the cave that dates to about 67,000 years ago. Hominin bones had previously been found in this layer, and while analysis had indicated it belonged to the genus Homo, it was unclear which species it was.
After analyzing the 12 new bones and teeth, researchers discovered they had features that could not be assigned to any other existing Homo species. Instead, they appeared to be an unusual mix of primitive and later species. The teeth, for example, were very small compared with those of other hominins. The shape was similar to Homo erectus but also shared features with Paranthropus, a hominin that lived between 2.6 million and 1.1 million years ago that had massive jaws and teeth.
Hand bones indicated similarities to australopithecus (of the famed "Lucy" species) and other early Homo species, suggesting it would have been good at climbing.
The species was found to be markedly different from other Homo species found in the region at the time, including Homo floresiensis, the "Hobbit" species found on the island of Flores in Indonesia that lived there from at least 190,000 to 50,000 years ago.
John McNabb, a senior lecturer in Paleolithic archaeology at the University of Southampton, U.K., who was not involved in the study, said the findings were “something quite special.” He told Newsweek: “I think many paleoanthropologists will be scratching their heads over this one. It could have been named Homo hotch-potch. The finger and toe bones have some really primitive features, more like the African Australopiths two and a half million years earlier, who retained some adaptations for tree climbing. Yet other features, like the small teeth, are more similar to Homo, but even then there are differences.
“But other features seem unique and don’t really group with any other species. So what to make of it? Is there enough on which to define a new species of Homo? That is what many researchers will be asking themselves.”
But where did H. luzonensis come from and how did it end up in the Philippines? The traditional idea of early human migration out of Africa is that it went in two waves. The first involved Homo erectus and its ancestors. H. erectus is thought to have reached Southeast Asia at least 1.6 million years ago. The second wave included modern humans. This took place between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago.
The researchers say the discovery “underscores the importance of island Southeast Asia in the evolution of the genus Homo.”
McNabb says where H. luzonensis fits into the hominin story is a puzzle. He said that at this period of time, there were modern humans in the north, to the southwest there may have been relict populations of H. erectus, while in the east there was H. floresiensis.
“Many researchers will be especially keen to know the relationship of the new hominin to the ‘Hobbit’. One theory is that a small brained hominin left Africa before 2 million years ago and rapidly spread eastward—the population on Flores may be their descendants. Is H. luzonensispart of this ancient population?
“Another theory is that Homo erectus moving across Southeast Asia often became isolated on islands, and on Flores at least was subject to island dwarfism. Is the Luzon hominin another example of island endemism [with] natural selection shaping geographically isolated groups to survive in different environments; or perhaps doing the same to early populations of Homo sapiens? It is too soon to tell.
“Whether the Luzon hominin turns out to be a new addition to our own genus or not—it will have a fascinating story to tell us about
Their findings, published in Nature, raise huge questions about how early humans evolved and dispersed across the globe before our own species, Homo sapiens, came to dominate.
The team found the bones in Callao Cave on the country’s northern island. They were in a layer of the cave that dates to about 67,000 years ago. Hominin bones had previously been found in this layer, and while analysis had indicated it belonged to the genus Homo, it was unclear which species it was.
After analyzing the 12 new bones and teeth, researchers discovered they had features that could not be assigned to any other existing Homo species. Instead, they appeared to be an unusual mix of primitive and later species. The teeth, for example, were very small compared with those of other hominins. The shape was similar to Homo erectus but also shared features with Paranthropus, a hominin that lived between 2.6 million and 1.1 million years ago that had massive jaws and teeth.
Hand bones indicated similarities to australopithecus (of the famed "Lucy" species) and other early Homo species, suggesting it would have been good at climbing.
The species was found to be markedly different from other Homo species found in the region at the time, including Homo floresiensis, the "Hobbit" species found on the island of Flores in Indonesia that lived there from at least 190,000 to 50,000 years ago.
John McNabb, a senior lecturer in Paleolithic archaeology at the University of Southampton, U.K., who was not involved in the study, said the findings were “something quite special.” He told Newsweek: “I think many paleoanthropologists will be scratching their heads over this one. It could have been named Homo hotch-potch. The finger and toe bones have some really primitive features, more like the African Australopiths two and a half million years earlier, who retained some adaptations for tree climbing. Yet other features, like the small teeth, are more similar to Homo, but even then there are differences.
“But other features seem unique and don’t really group with any other species. So what to make of it? Is there enough on which to define a new species of Homo? That is what many researchers will be asking themselves.”
But where did H. luzonensis come from and how did it end up in the Philippines? The traditional idea of early human migration out of Africa is that it went in two waves. The first involved Homo erectus and its ancestors. H. erectus is thought to have reached Southeast Asia at least 1.6 million years ago. The second wave included modern humans. This took place between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago.
The researchers say the discovery “underscores the importance of island Southeast Asia in the evolution of the genus Homo.”
McNabb says where H. luzonensis fits into the hominin story is a puzzle. He said that at this period of time, there were modern humans in the north, to the southwest there may have been relict populations of H. erectus, while in the east there was H. floresiensis.
“Many researchers will be especially keen to know the relationship of the new hominin to the ‘Hobbit’. One theory is that a small brained hominin left Africa before 2 million years ago and rapidly spread eastward—the population on Flores may be their descendants. Is H. luzonensispart of this ancient population?
“Another theory is that Homo erectus moving across Southeast Asia often became isolated on islands, and on Flores at least was subject to island dwarfism. Is the Luzon hominin another example of island endemism [with] natural selection shaping geographically isolated groups to survive in different environments; or perhaps doing the same to early populations of Homo sapiens? It is too soon to tell.
“Whether the Luzon hominin turns out to be a new addition to our own genus or not—it will have a fascinating story to tell us about
Mummified mice found in 'beautiful, colourful' Egyptian tomb
Recently discovered tomb of official dating back more than 2,000 years contains dozens of animals and two mummies
Agencies
the guardian
Fri 5 Apr 2019 22.48 EDT
Hieroglyphics and illustrations inside the ancient Egyptian tomb, which was unveiled this week. Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
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Mummified mice and falcons on display at the recently discovered burial site near Sohag. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
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Dozens of mummified mice were among the animals found in an ancient Egyptian tomb that was unveiled on Friday.
The well-preserved and finely painted tomb near the Egyptian town of Sohag – a desert area near the Nile about 390km (242 miles) south of Cairo – is thought to be from the early Ptolemaic period, dating back more than 2,000 years.
The tomb is believed to have been built for a senior official named Tutu and his wife, and is one of seven discovered in the area last October, when authorities found smugglers digging illegally for artefacts.
Its painted walls depict funeral processions and images of the owner working in the fields, as well as his family genealogy written in hieroglyphics.
“It’s one of the most exciting discoveries ever in the area,” said Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of Egypt’s supreme council of antiquities. He said it was a “beautiful, colourful tomb”.
“It shows images of the owner of the burial room, Tutu, giving and receiving gifts before different gods and goddesses,” Waziri said.
“We see the same thing for his wife, Ta-Shirit-Iziz, with the difference that [we see] verses from a book, the book of the afterlife.”
Two mummies, a woman aged between 35-50 and a boy aged 12-14, were on display outside the shallow burial chamber, along with more than 50 mummified mice, cats and falcons.
Ptolemaic rule spanned about three centuries until the Roman conquest in 30 BC.
The government has described Sohag as “one of the most historically rich cities in Egypt”, where a museum opened last year.
The well-preserved and finely painted tomb near the Egyptian town of Sohag – a desert area near the Nile about 390km (242 miles) south of Cairo – is thought to be from the early Ptolemaic period, dating back more than 2,000 years.
The tomb is believed to have been built for a senior official named Tutu and his wife, and is one of seven discovered in the area last October, when authorities found smugglers digging illegally for artefacts.
Its painted walls depict funeral processions and images of the owner working in the fields, as well as his family genealogy written in hieroglyphics.
“It’s one of the most exciting discoveries ever in the area,” said Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of Egypt’s supreme council of antiquities. He said it was a “beautiful, colourful tomb”.
“It shows images of the owner of the burial room, Tutu, giving and receiving gifts before different gods and goddesses,” Waziri said.
“We see the same thing for his wife, Ta-Shirit-Iziz, with the difference that [we see] verses from a book, the book of the afterlife.”
Two mummies, a woman aged between 35-50 and a boy aged 12-14, were on display outside the shallow burial chamber, along with more than 50 mummified mice, cats and falcons.
Ptolemaic rule spanned about three centuries until the Roman conquest in 30 BC.
The government has described Sohag as “one of the most historically rich cities in Egypt”, where a museum opened last year.
Found: fossil 'mother lode' created by asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs
US researchers reveal haul of perfectly preserved fossils dating back to Chicxulub impact that wiped out most of Earth’s life
Agence France-Presse
the guardian
Sun 31 Mar 2019 22.23 EDT
A perfectly preserved 66m-year-old fish fossil uncovered by Univedrsity of Kansas researchers, revealing life on the day a huge asteroid hit the Earth. Photograph: Robert Depalma/AFP/Getty Images
Scientists in the US say they have discovered the fossilised remains of a mass of creatures that died minutes after a huge asteroid hit the Earth 66m years ago, sealing the fate of the dinosaurs.
In a paper to be published on Monday, a team of paleontologists at the University of Kansas say they found a “mother lode of exquisitely preserved animal and fish fossils” in what is now North Dakota.
The asteroid’s impact – creating the Chicxulub crater in what is now Mexico – was the most cataclysmic event in Earth’s history, eradicating 75% of the planet’s animal and plant species, extinguishing the dinosaurs and paving the way for the rise of humans.
Researchers believe the impact set off fast-moving, seismic surges that triggered a sudden, massive torrent of water and debris from an arm of an inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway.
At the fossil site – called Tanis in North Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation – the surge left “a tangled mass of freshwater fish, terrestrial vertebrates, trees, branches, logs, marine ammonites and other marine creatures”, according to Robert DePalma, the report’s lead author.
Some of the fish fossils were found to have inhaled “ejecta” associated with the Chicxulub event, suggesting seismic surges reached North Dakota within “tens of minutes”, he said.
“The sedimentation happened so quickly everything is preserved in three dimensions – they’re not crushed,” said co-author David Burnham. “It’s like an avalanche that collapses almost like a liquid, then sets like concrete. They were killed pretty suddenly because of the violence of that water. We have one fish that hit a tree and was broken in half.”
The fossils at Tanis include what were believed to be several newly identified fish species, and others that were “the best examples of their kind”, said DePalma, curator of the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History in Florida.
“We look at moment-by-moment records of one of the most notable impact events in Earth’s history. No other site has a record quite like that,” he said.
“And this particular event is tied directly to all of us – to every mammal on Earth, in fact. Because this is essentially where we inherited the planet. Nothing was the same after that impact. It became a planet of mammals rather than a planet of dinosaurs.”
RELATED: 'Mindblowing' haul of fossils over 500m years old unearthed in China
In a paper to be published on Monday, a team of paleontologists at the University of Kansas say they found a “mother lode of exquisitely preserved animal and fish fossils” in what is now North Dakota.
The asteroid’s impact – creating the Chicxulub crater in what is now Mexico – was the most cataclysmic event in Earth’s history, eradicating 75% of the planet’s animal and plant species, extinguishing the dinosaurs and paving the way for the rise of humans.
Researchers believe the impact set off fast-moving, seismic surges that triggered a sudden, massive torrent of water and debris from an arm of an inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway.
At the fossil site – called Tanis in North Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation – the surge left “a tangled mass of freshwater fish, terrestrial vertebrates, trees, branches, logs, marine ammonites and other marine creatures”, according to Robert DePalma, the report’s lead author.
Some of the fish fossils were found to have inhaled “ejecta” associated with the Chicxulub event, suggesting seismic surges reached North Dakota within “tens of minutes”, he said.
“The sedimentation happened so quickly everything is preserved in three dimensions – they’re not crushed,” said co-author David Burnham. “It’s like an avalanche that collapses almost like a liquid, then sets like concrete. They were killed pretty suddenly because of the violence of that water. We have one fish that hit a tree and was broken in half.”
The fossils at Tanis include what were believed to be several newly identified fish species, and others that were “the best examples of their kind”, said DePalma, curator of the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History in Florida.
“We look at moment-by-moment records of one of the most notable impact events in Earth’s history. No other site has a record quite like that,” he said.
“And this particular event is tied directly to all of us – to every mammal on Earth, in fact. Because this is essentially where we inherited the planet. Nothing was the same after that impact. It became a planet of mammals rather than a planet of dinosaurs.”
RELATED: 'Mindblowing' haul of fossils over 500m years old unearthed in China
ANCIENT POMPEII: ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER FAST-FOOD BUSINESS PRESERVED IN RUINS OF ROMAN CITY DESTROYED BY VOLCANO
BY KATHERINE HIGNETT - newsweek
ON 3/29/19 AT 1:28 PM EDT
An ancient Pompeii fresco appears to depict a worker in a snack bar–style environment.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK OF POMPEII
Archaeologists have discovered an ancient snack bar in the ruins of the Roman city of Pompeii. The counter’s colorful frescoes have survived nearly 2,000 years under volcanic ash and pumice.
The Archaeological Park of Pompeii announced the find Friday and released several images of the well-preserved bar, or thermopolium. Researchers think the commercial space may once have served hot food.
The counter is adorned with two vibrant paintings. One features a nereid, or sea nymph, seated on a horse, while the other likely depicts a worker in a snack bar–type environment. Archaeologists likened this image to a modern shop sign advertising the nature of a business.
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Located at the intersection of Vicolo delle Nozze d’Argento and Vicolo dei Balconi, the bar was discovered during excavations at the Regio V section of the archaeological site. Some eighty thermopolia have been discovered at Pompeii in the past.
“A thermopolium comes to light with its beautiful frescoed counter,” wrote University of Naples Federico II archaeologist Massimo Osanna in an Instagram post.
Alfonsina Russo, interim director of the archaeological park, said in a statement: "Even if structures like these are well known at Pompeii, discovering more of them—along with objects which went hand in hand with commercial and thus daily life—continue to transmit powerful emotions that transport us to those tragic moments of the eruption.”
Nonetheless, he added, the ruins of Pompeii offered “unique insights into Roman civilization.”
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E. acted as a time capsule, preserving the ancient Roman city for thousands of years. The long-forgotten city and its neighbor, Herculaneum, were explored in excavations that began in the 18th century. In recent months archaeologists have unearthed frescoes, several human bodies and even the remains of a horse at the site.
Located in the south of modern-day Italy, the site is famous for its lifelike plaster casts depicting the last moments of numerous residents’ lives. Researchers made the casts by pouring plaster into cavities left in the ash layer by bodies.
In other archaeology news, researchers in Egypt announced Thursday they had uncovered a previously hidden palace dedicated to Ramesses the Great.
The Archaeological Park of Pompeii did not immediately respond to Newsweek's request for comment.
The Archaeological Park of Pompeii announced the find Friday and released several images of the well-preserved bar, or thermopolium. Researchers think the commercial space may once have served hot food.
The counter is adorned with two vibrant paintings. One features a nereid, or sea nymph, seated on a horse, while the other likely depicts a worker in a snack bar–type environment. Archaeologists likened this image to a modern shop sign advertising the nature of a business.
---
Located at the intersection of Vicolo delle Nozze d’Argento and Vicolo dei Balconi, the bar was discovered during excavations at the Regio V section of the archaeological site. Some eighty thermopolia have been discovered at Pompeii in the past.
“A thermopolium comes to light with its beautiful frescoed counter,” wrote University of Naples Federico II archaeologist Massimo Osanna in an Instagram post.
Alfonsina Russo, interim director of the archaeological park, said in a statement: "Even if structures like these are well known at Pompeii, discovering more of them—along with objects which went hand in hand with commercial and thus daily life—continue to transmit powerful emotions that transport us to those tragic moments of the eruption.”
Nonetheless, he added, the ruins of Pompeii offered “unique insights into Roman civilization.”
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E. acted as a time capsule, preserving the ancient Roman city for thousands of years. The long-forgotten city and its neighbor, Herculaneum, were explored in excavations that began in the 18th century. In recent months archaeologists have unearthed frescoes, several human bodies and even the remains of a horse at the site.
Located in the south of modern-day Italy, the site is famous for its lifelike plaster casts depicting the last moments of numerous residents’ lives. Researchers made the casts by pouring plaster into cavities left in the ash layer by bodies.
In other archaeology news, researchers in Egypt announced Thursday they had uncovered a previously hidden palace dedicated to Ramesses the Great.
The Archaeological Park of Pompeii did not immediately respond to Newsweek's request for comment.
Etruscan tomb in Corsica may yield secrets on civilization’s decline
by Julie Carriat
Reuters - raw story
28 MAR 2019 AT 06:00 ET
An archaeologist works in an Etruscan tomb containing a skeleton and dozens of objects in Aleria, in the east of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, in this picture provided by INRAP (Institut National de Recherches Archeologique Preventives) on March 27, 2019. Denis Gliksman/Inrap/HANDOUT via Reuters
French archaeologists have unearthed an Etruscan tomb containing a skeleton and dozens of artefacts in Corsica, a rare discovery that could shed new light on the wealthy civilization of northern Italy and its assimilation into the Roman Empire.
The archaeologists found the vault, chiselled into the rock and dating back to the fourth century B.C., within a large Roman necropolis containing thousands of tombs in Aleria, in the east of the French Mediterranean island.
The Etruscans originated in Tuscany during the Bronze Age in around 900 B.C. and left little written trace of their culture. Their decline was gradual and the last Etruscan cities were absorbed by Rome around 100 B.C.
The discovery, announced this week, could yield new details on the existence of a stable Etruscan population in Corsica and help archaeologists understand the slow demise of the Etruscan civilization.
“It’s the missing link which will allow us to piece together Etruscan funerary rites, but it also reinforces the hypothesis that before the Roman conquest (in -259 B.C), Aleria was a transit point in the Tyrrhenian Sea, blending Etruscan, Carthaginian and Phocaean interests”, head curator Franck Leandri said.
The grave appears to belong to a high-ranking official, holding “about 15 ceramic vases similar to Etruscan pieces and what appears to be a mirror or the lid of a casing”, anthropologist Catherine Rigeade said at the site.
“We have some knowledge of Etruscan objects, but we know very little about Etruscan subjects; here we have both”, Rigeade added.
Close to the tomb, archaeologists discovered a gold signet ring bearing almost no trace of time. On it, a feminine face, possibly depicting the goddess Aphrodite, can be made out.
The researchers will now focus on accessing the skeleton, which is covered with collapsed furniture apart from its skull. They plan to call in forensic scientists to help reveal the secrets of the remains.
The archaeologists found the vault, chiselled into the rock and dating back to the fourth century B.C., within a large Roman necropolis containing thousands of tombs in Aleria, in the east of the French Mediterranean island.
The Etruscans originated in Tuscany during the Bronze Age in around 900 B.C. and left little written trace of their culture. Their decline was gradual and the last Etruscan cities were absorbed by Rome around 100 B.C.
The discovery, announced this week, could yield new details on the existence of a stable Etruscan population in Corsica and help archaeologists understand the slow demise of the Etruscan civilization.
“It’s the missing link which will allow us to piece together Etruscan funerary rites, but it also reinforces the hypothesis that before the Roman conquest (in -259 B.C), Aleria was a transit point in the Tyrrhenian Sea, blending Etruscan, Carthaginian and Phocaean interests”, head curator Franck Leandri said.
The grave appears to belong to a high-ranking official, holding “about 15 ceramic vases similar to Etruscan pieces and what appears to be a mirror or the lid of a casing”, anthropologist Catherine Rigeade said at the site.
“We have some knowledge of Etruscan objects, but we know very little about Etruscan subjects; here we have both”, Rigeade added.
Close to the tomb, archaeologists discovered a gold signet ring bearing almost no trace of time. On it, a feminine face, possibly depicting the goddess Aphrodite, can be made out.
The researchers will now focus on accessing the skeleton, which is covered with collapsed furniture apart from its skull. They plan to call in forensic scientists to help reveal the secrets of the remains.
ANCIENT LOST CITY OF MOUNTAIN PEOPLE UNEARTHED AT GATES OF MESOPOTAMIA'S FIRST EMPIRE
BY KATHERINE HIGNETT - newsweek
ON 3/26/19 AT 1:27 PM EDT
Archaeologists have discovered an ancient lost city beneath modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan. Newly discovered stone foundations, tablets and other artifacts revealed a city that thrived on the edge of the Zagros Mountains some 4,000 years ago.
The hidden settlement surprised the researchers, with one describing the discovery on the Kunara site as “a small revolution.”
Archaeologists with a French mission probed the site on expeditions from 2012 to 2018, the country’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) reported. The area has opened up to scientists in recent years, following the fall of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and subsequent regional tensions, the center said in a statement.
Excavations at Kunara suggested a thriving city of mountain poeple once stood at the western Mesopotamian border. Researchers found evidence of major livestock farming, irrigation for agriculture and tablets recording the trade of items such as flour.
Stone tablets discovered at Kunara bore symbols resembling those of the ancient region, which stretched from the southeastern edge of modern-day Turkey to the Persian Gulf. The newly located city would have bordered the very first empire of Mesopotamia: the Akkadian Empire.
Arrowheads made from relatively rare material such as obsidian—transported from Anatolia, hundreds of miles away—suggested the city was “fairly prosperous,” CNRS researcher Aline Tenu explained in a statement. The discovery of decorated fragments of ceramics bolstered the researchers' image of a wealthy city.
As well as the bones of farm animals such as sheep and pigs, scientists found the remains of bears and lions, suggesting royal hunts or high-status gifts, the CNRS reported. Researchers argued the city’s position, between the Iranian kingdom and Mesopotamia,
was lucrative.
Tablets revealed the city’s scribes “had a firm grasp of Akkadian and Sumerian writing, as well as that of their Mesopotamian neighbors,” Phillipe Clancier, a specialist in cuneiform writing with CNRS, said in the statement. “You could call [the city’s discovery] a small revolution,” he added.
These small linguistic clues could shed light on the political dynamics between the city and its behemoth neighbor, CNRS reported. Certain shared words may reflect submission, the use of similar administrative models or simply borrowed words.
Amid these phrases, eagle-eyed researchers spotted a never-before-seen unit of measurement on the ancient tablets. Rather than the Mesopotamian “gur,” the city’s scribes used their own unit to describe volumes in trading logs. “The use of an original unit could resonate like an act of independence,” Tenu said.
Unfortunately, she added, archaeologists are yet to discover the city’s original name. “But we will continue to look,” she said. The team plans to return to the site for further excavations this year.
The hidden settlement surprised the researchers, with one describing the discovery on the Kunara site as “a small revolution.”
Archaeologists with a French mission probed the site on expeditions from 2012 to 2018, the country’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) reported. The area has opened up to scientists in recent years, following the fall of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and subsequent regional tensions, the center said in a statement.
Excavations at Kunara suggested a thriving city of mountain poeple once stood at the western Mesopotamian border. Researchers found evidence of major livestock farming, irrigation for agriculture and tablets recording the trade of items such as flour.
Stone tablets discovered at Kunara bore symbols resembling those of the ancient region, which stretched from the southeastern edge of modern-day Turkey to the Persian Gulf. The newly located city would have bordered the very first empire of Mesopotamia: the Akkadian Empire.
Arrowheads made from relatively rare material such as obsidian—transported from Anatolia, hundreds of miles away—suggested the city was “fairly prosperous,” CNRS researcher Aline Tenu explained in a statement. The discovery of decorated fragments of ceramics bolstered the researchers' image of a wealthy city.
As well as the bones of farm animals such as sheep and pigs, scientists found the remains of bears and lions, suggesting royal hunts or high-status gifts, the CNRS reported. Researchers argued the city’s position, between the Iranian kingdom and Mesopotamia,
was lucrative.
Tablets revealed the city’s scribes “had a firm grasp of Akkadian and Sumerian writing, as well as that of their Mesopotamian neighbors,” Phillipe Clancier, a specialist in cuneiform writing with CNRS, said in the statement. “You could call [the city’s discovery] a small revolution,” he added.
These small linguistic clues could shed light on the political dynamics between the city and its behemoth neighbor, CNRS reported. Certain shared words may reflect submission, the use of similar administrative models or simply borrowed words.
Amid these phrases, eagle-eyed researchers spotted a never-before-seen unit of measurement on the ancient tablets. Rather than the Mesopotamian “gur,” the city’s scribes used their own unit to describe volumes in trading logs. “The use of an original unit could resonate like an act of independence,” Tenu said.
Unfortunately, she added, archaeologists are yet to discover the city’s original name. “But we will continue to look,” she said. The team plans to return to the site for further excavations this year.
The 'great dying': rapid warming caused largest extinction event ever, report says
Up to 96% of all marine species and more than two-thirds of terrestrial species perished 252m years ago
Oliver Milman in New York
the guardian
Thu 6 Dec 2018 14.00 EST(3/19/19)
Rapid global warming caused the largest extinction event in the Earth’s history, which wiped out the vast majority of marine and terrestrial animals on the planet, scientists have found.
The mass extinction, known as the “great dying”, occurred around 252m years ago and marked the end of the Permian geologic period. The study of sediments and fossilized creatures show the event was the single greatest calamity ever to befall life on Earth, eclipsing even the extinction of the dinosaurs 65m years ago.
Up to 96% of all marine species perished while more than two-thirds of terrestrial species disappeared. The cataclysm was so severe it wiped out most of the planet’s trees, insects, plants, lizards and even microbes
Scientists have theorized causes for the extinction, such as a giant asteroid impact. But US researchers now say they have pinpointed the demise of marine life to a spike in Earth’s temperatures, warning that present-day global warming will also have severe ramifications for life on the planet.
“It was a huge event. In the last half a billion years of life on the planet, it was the worst extinction,” said Curtis Deutsch, an oceanography expert who co-authored the research, published on Thursday, with his University of Washington colleague Justin Penn along with Stanford University scientists Jonathan Payne and Erik Sperling.
The researchers used paleoceanographic records and built a model to analyse changes in animal metabolism, ocean and climate conditions. When they used the model to mimic conditions at the end of the Permian period, they found it matched the extinction records.
According to the study, this suggests that marine animals essentially suffocated as warming waters lacked the oxygen required for survival. “For the first time, we’ve got a whole lot of confidence that this is what happened,” said Deutsch. “It’s a very strong argument that rising temperatures and oxygen depletion were to blame.”
The great dying event, which occurred over an uncertain timeframe of possibly hundreds of years, saw Earth’s temperatures increase by around 10C (18F). Oceans lost around 80% of their oxygen, with parts of the seafloor becoming completely oxygen-free. Scientists believe this warming was caused by a huge spike in greenhouse gas emissions, potentially caused by volcanic activity.
The new research, published in Science, found that the drop in oxygen levels was particularly deadly for marine animals living closer to the poles. Experiments that varied oxygen and temperature levels for modern marine species, including shellfish, corals and sharks, helped “bridge the gap” to what the model found, Payne said.
“This really would be a terrible, terrible time to be around on the planet,” he added. “It shows us that when the climate and ocean chemistry changes quickly, you can reach a point where species don’t survive. It took millions of years to recover from the Permian event, which is essentially permanent from the perspective of human timescales.”
Over the past century, the modern world has warmed by around 1C due to the release of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, rather than from volcanic eruptions.
This warming is already causing punishing heatwaves, flooding and wildfires around the world, with scientists warning that the temperature rise could reach 3C or more by the end of the century unless there are immediate, radical reductions in emissions.
At the same time, Earth’s species are undergoing what some experts have termed the “sixth great extinction” due to habitat loss, poaching, pollution and climate change.
“It does terrify me to think we are on a trajectory similar to the Permian because we really don’t want to be on that trajectory,” Payne said. “It doesn’t look like we will warm by around 10C and we haven’t lost that amount of biodiversity yet. But even getting halfway there would be something to be very concerned about. The magnitude of change we are currently experiencing is fairly large.”
Deutsch said: “We are about a 10th of the way to the Permian. Once you get to 3-4C of warming, that’s a significant fraction and life in the ocean is in big trouble, to put it bluntly. There are big implications for humans’ domination of the Earth and its ecosystems.”
Deutsch added that the only way to avoid a mass aquatic die-off in the oceans was to reduce carbon emissions, given there is no viable way to ameliorate the impact of climate change in the oceans using other measures.
The research group “provide convincing evidence that warmer temperatures and associated lower oxygen levels in the ocean are sufficient to explain the observed extinctions we see in the fossil record”, said Pamela Grothe, a paleoclimate scientist at the University of Mary Washington.
“The past holds the key to the future,” she added. “Our current rates of carbon dioxide emissions is instantaneous geologically speaking and we are already seeing warming ocean temperatures and lower oxygen in many regions, currently affecting marine ecosystems.
“If we continue in the trajectory we are on with current emission rates, this study highlights the potential that we may see similar rates of extinction in marine species as in the end of the Permian.”
The mass extinction, known as the “great dying”, occurred around 252m years ago and marked the end of the Permian geologic period. The study of sediments and fossilized creatures show the event was the single greatest calamity ever to befall life on Earth, eclipsing even the extinction of the dinosaurs 65m years ago.
Up to 96% of all marine species perished while more than two-thirds of terrestrial species disappeared. The cataclysm was so severe it wiped out most of the planet’s trees, insects, plants, lizards and even microbes
Scientists have theorized causes for the extinction, such as a giant asteroid impact. But US researchers now say they have pinpointed the demise of marine life to a spike in Earth’s temperatures, warning that present-day global warming will also have severe ramifications for life on the planet.
“It was a huge event. In the last half a billion years of life on the planet, it was the worst extinction,” said Curtis Deutsch, an oceanography expert who co-authored the research, published on Thursday, with his University of Washington colleague Justin Penn along with Stanford University scientists Jonathan Payne and Erik Sperling.
The researchers used paleoceanographic records and built a model to analyse changes in animal metabolism, ocean and climate conditions. When they used the model to mimic conditions at the end of the Permian period, they found it matched the extinction records.
According to the study, this suggests that marine animals essentially suffocated as warming waters lacked the oxygen required for survival. “For the first time, we’ve got a whole lot of confidence that this is what happened,” said Deutsch. “It’s a very strong argument that rising temperatures and oxygen depletion were to blame.”
The great dying event, which occurred over an uncertain timeframe of possibly hundreds of years, saw Earth’s temperatures increase by around 10C (18F). Oceans lost around 80% of their oxygen, with parts of the seafloor becoming completely oxygen-free. Scientists believe this warming was caused by a huge spike in greenhouse gas emissions, potentially caused by volcanic activity.
The new research, published in Science, found that the drop in oxygen levels was particularly deadly for marine animals living closer to the poles. Experiments that varied oxygen and temperature levels for modern marine species, including shellfish, corals and sharks, helped “bridge the gap” to what the model found, Payne said.
“This really would be a terrible, terrible time to be around on the planet,” he added. “It shows us that when the climate and ocean chemistry changes quickly, you can reach a point where species don’t survive. It took millions of years to recover from the Permian event, which is essentially permanent from the perspective of human timescales.”
Over the past century, the modern world has warmed by around 1C due to the release of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, rather than from volcanic eruptions.
This warming is already causing punishing heatwaves, flooding and wildfires around the world, with scientists warning that the temperature rise could reach 3C or more by the end of the century unless there are immediate, radical reductions in emissions.
At the same time, Earth’s species are undergoing what some experts have termed the “sixth great extinction” due to habitat loss, poaching, pollution and climate change.
“It does terrify me to think we are on a trajectory similar to the Permian because we really don’t want to be on that trajectory,” Payne said. “It doesn’t look like we will warm by around 10C and we haven’t lost that amount of biodiversity yet. But even getting halfway there would be something to be very concerned about. The magnitude of change we are currently experiencing is fairly large.”
Deutsch said: “We are about a 10th of the way to the Permian. Once you get to 3-4C of warming, that’s a significant fraction and life in the ocean is in big trouble, to put it bluntly. There are big implications for humans’ domination of the Earth and its ecosystems.”
Deutsch added that the only way to avoid a mass aquatic die-off in the oceans was to reduce carbon emissions, given there is no viable way to ameliorate the impact of climate change in the oceans using other measures.
The research group “provide convincing evidence that warmer temperatures and associated lower oxygen levels in the ocean are sufficient to explain the observed extinctions we see in the fossil record”, said Pamela Grothe, a paleoclimate scientist at the University of Mary Washington.
“The past holds the key to the future,” she added. “Our current rates of carbon dioxide emissions is instantaneous geologically speaking and we are already seeing warming ocean temperatures and lower oxygen in many regions, currently affecting marine ecosystems.
“If we continue in the trajectory we are on with current emission rates, this study highlights the potential that we may see similar rates of extinction in marine species as in the end of the Permian.”
PRIMITIVE OLD WORLD MONKEY FROM 22 MILLION YEARS AGO DISCOVERED IN KENYAN BADLANDS
BY ARISTOS GEORGIOU - newsweek
ON 3/11/19 AT 3:00 PM
A fossil jaw of the newly discovered ancient Old World monkey named Alophia metios.
JOHN KAPPELMAN.
Researchers have discovered an ancient species of Old World monkey in the badlands of northwest Kenya, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A team from the University of Texas at Austin, the National Museums of Kenya and other institutions found 22-million-year-old teeth in three different sites, enabling them to identify a new species—now named Alophia metios.
The new find could help shine a light on the origin and evolution of Old World monkeys (Cercopithecoidea)—the largest family of primates, comprising 138 species native to Africa and Asia, such as baboons and macaques.
Important aspects of this group’s early evolution remain shrouded in mystery as there are only two fossils representing it from before 8 million years ago—a 19-million-year-old tooth from Uganda and a 25-million-year-old tooth from Tanzania. Thus, the latest discovery helps to fill in a 6-million-year gap in the Old World monkey fossil record.
"For a group as highly successful as the monkeys of Africa and Asia, it would seem that scientists would have already figured out their evolutionary history," John Kappelman, an author of the study from UT Austin, said in a statement.
"Although the isolated tooth from Tanzania is important for documenting the earliest occurrence of monkeys, the next 6 million years of the group's existence are one big blank,” he said. “This new monkey importantly reveals what happened during the group's later evolution."
The region in which the researchers found the monkey teeth is very arid today. But millions of years ago, it was a verdant woodland. During their excavations there, the team also found the remains of numerous other animals, including reptiles and early elephants.
The monkey teeth described in the new study are more primitive than those found in later Cercopithecoidea specimens. Specifically, they lack a key dental trait of the molar teeth present in all modern-day Old World monkeys, known as bilophodonty.
"These teeth are so primitive that when we first showed them to other scientists, they told us, ‘Oh no, that isn't a monkey. It's a pig," Ellen Miller, another author of the study from Wake Forest University, said in a statement. "But because of other dental features, we are able to convince them that yes, it is in fact a monkey."
Analysis of the fossilized teeth indicated that A. metios probably ate hard foods, such as fruits, seeds and nuts. But the researchers suggest that later Old World monkeys began to eat more soft foods, such as leaves, which could have driven the evolution of bilophodonty. This key trait—which evolved long after the monkeys first appeared—enabled them to process a wider range of foods, thus contributing to their success.
"You can think of the modern-day monkey molar as the uber food processor, able to slice, dice, mince and crush all sorts of foods," Mercedes Gutierrez, an author the study from the University of Minnesota, said in the statement.
A team from the University of Texas at Austin, the National Museums of Kenya and other institutions found 22-million-year-old teeth in three different sites, enabling them to identify a new species—now named Alophia metios.
The new find could help shine a light on the origin and evolution of Old World monkeys (Cercopithecoidea)—the largest family of primates, comprising 138 species native to Africa and Asia, such as baboons and macaques.
Important aspects of this group’s early evolution remain shrouded in mystery as there are only two fossils representing it from before 8 million years ago—a 19-million-year-old tooth from Uganda and a 25-million-year-old tooth from Tanzania. Thus, the latest discovery helps to fill in a 6-million-year gap in the Old World monkey fossil record.
"For a group as highly successful as the monkeys of Africa and Asia, it would seem that scientists would have already figured out their evolutionary history," John Kappelman, an author of the study from UT Austin, said in a statement.
"Although the isolated tooth from Tanzania is important for documenting the earliest occurrence of monkeys, the next 6 million years of the group's existence are one big blank,” he said. “This new monkey importantly reveals what happened during the group's later evolution."
The region in which the researchers found the monkey teeth is very arid today. But millions of years ago, it was a verdant woodland. During their excavations there, the team also found the remains of numerous other animals, including reptiles and early elephants.
The monkey teeth described in the new study are more primitive than those found in later Cercopithecoidea specimens. Specifically, they lack a key dental trait of the molar teeth present in all modern-day Old World monkeys, known as bilophodonty.
"These teeth are so primitive that when we first showed them to other scientists, they told us, ‘Oh no, that isn't a monkey. It's a pig," Ellen Miller, another author of the study from Wake Forest University, said in a statement. "But because of other dental features, we are able to convince them that yes, it is in fact a monkey."
Analysis of the fossilized teeth indicated that A. metios probably ate hard foods, such as fruits, seeds and nuts. But the researchers suggest that later Old World monkeys began to eat more soft foods, such as leaves, which could have driven the evolution of bilophodonty. This key trait—which evolved long after the monkeys first appeared—enabled them to process a wider range of foods, thus contributing to their success.
"You can think of the modern-day monkey molar as the uber food processor, able to slice, dice, mince and crush all sorts of foods," Mercedes Gutierrez, an author the study from the University of Minnesota, said in the statement.
Archeologist Spends Over 35 Years Building Enormous Scale Model of Ancient Rome
Quixote1818 - demo undeerground
3/10/19
Tucked in the residential Roman neighborhood of EUR, a sprawling 1:250 scale model displays the glory of ancient Rome. Known as the Plastico di Roma Imperiale, the plaster model was commissioned by Mussolini in 1933 and depicts Rome in the 4th century AD at the time of Constantine I. It now sits in the Museum of Roman Civilization, a museum opened in the 1930s to demonstrate the history of ancient Rome.
The plaster model is a masterpiece created by archaeologist Italo Gismondi, who worked on the piece throughout his life. The initial core of the scale model, which was partially based on Rodolfo Lanciani‘s 1901 map Forma Urbis, was completed for a large exhibition celebrating the 2,000th anniversary of the death of Augustus. In the 1950s, it was installed permanently in the Museum of Roman Civilization, with Gismondi continuing to expand the model up until 1971.
Now considered one of the most important references for how ancient Rome looked, Gismondi used precise maps for known monuments like the Pantheon and Colosseum. The residential housing, as well as other sites without archeological remains, were created using models that were representative of ancient construction. Ironically, though Mussolini commissioned the model, the lack of references was actually his fault, as he ordered that many of Rome’s ancient houses be razed to make way for large thoroughfares such as the via dei Fori Imperiali, which leads to the Colosseum.
More:
https://mymodernmet.com/scale-model-ancient-rome/?fbclid=IwAR2vjFL-aZyaFA1Ky5HqVJriT2CiA_nUKF7OX80csml1XheqJ5YWTiJaQX8
The plaster model is a masterpiece created by archaeologist Italo Gismondi, who worked on the piece throughout his life. The initial core of the scale model, which was partially based on Rodolfo Lanciani‘s 1901 map Forma Urbis, was completed for a large exhibition celebrating the 2,000th anniversary of the death of Augustus. In the 1950s, it was installed permanently in the Museum of Roman Civilization, with Gismondi continuing to expand the model up until 1971.
Now considered one of the most important references for how ancient Rome looked, Gismondi used precise maps for known monuments like the Pantheon and Colosseum. The residential housing, as well as other sites without archeological remains, were created using models that were representative of ancient construction. Ironically, though Mussolini commissioned the model, the lack of references was actually his fault, as he ordered that many of Rome’s ancient houses be razed to make way for large thoroughfares such as the via dei Fori Imperiali, which leads to the Colosseum.
More:
https://mymodernmet.com/scale-model-ancient-rome/?fbclid=IwAR2vjFL-aZyaFA1Ky5HqVJriT2CiA_nUKF7OX80csml1XheqJ5YWTiJaQX8
ANCIENT MAYA RITUAL CAVE DISCOVERED BENEATH CHICHEN ITZA HOLDS CLUES ABOUT VAST CITY'S COLLAPSE
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - newsweek
ON 3/5/19 AT 7:04 AM
Over the centuries, stalagmites have formed around ritual objects such as this incense burner, which features an effigy of the rain god Tlaloc.
KARLA ORTEGA
|
National Geographic Explorer Guillermo de Anda examines a cache of ritual vessels inside the Balamku (Jaguar God) cave in Yucatán, Mexico. The objects have been untouched for at least 1,000 years.
KARLA ORTEGA
|
A ritual cave has been discovered beneath the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza. Archaeologists found over 150 objects relating to ritual practices in the cave, which they say has been untouched for over 1,000 years.
The expedition, which was part-funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society, was led by Nat Geo explorer Guillermo de Anda and a team from the Great Maya Aquiver Project. De Anda came across the cave while looking for a sacred well beneath the city on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
“I couldn’t speak, I started to cry,” he told National Geographic. “I’ve analyzed human remains in [Chichen Itza’s] Sacred Cenote, but nothing compares to the sensation I had entering, alone, for the first time in that cave. You almost feel the presence of the Maya who deposited these things in there.”
The cave system, called Balamku ("Cave of the Jaguar God") was found by farmers in 1966 and visited by archaeologist Víctor Segovia Pinto. At the time he said there were archaeological artifacts down there. However, instead of exploring further, he ordered the farmers to seal up the cave—and it remained that way until just last year.
Ritual objects, including vases, incense burners and decorated plates, were found in a series of cave chambers. Researchers believe these objects will provide vital clues about the rise and fall of the city—and indeed the civilization itself. In total, 155 artifacts have so far been identified. One was found to have the face of the rain god Tlaloc, while another had markings representing the Maya universe—the symbolic ceiba tree.
Balamku is far larger than another nearby ritual site discovered in 1959. This cave, called Balankanche, contained 70 objects. “Balamku appears to be the ‘mother’ of Balankanche,” De Anda told the magazine. “I don’t want to say that quantity is more important than information, but when you see that there are many, many offerings in a cave that is also much more difficult to access, this tells us something.”
The Maya civilization existed between around 2,000 BCE and the 1600s, with the arrival of European conquests. It had started to decline hundreds of years earlier, however. During the eighth or ninth century, there was a collapse and cities started being abandoned.
Chichen Itza was one of the biggest and most diverse of the Mayan cities, peaking between the ninth and 13th centuries. According to UNESCO, there were no major monuments built after the 13th century and it rapidly declined around 1440 AD. Shortly after, it was abandoned. Researchers have previously speculated this could have been the result of droughts, conquests and exhausted soils.
The latest discoveries in the cave should provide clues about the timeline of events that led to the city being deserted. “Balamku can tell us not only the moment of collapse of Chichen Itza,” De Anda said. “It can also probably tell us the moment of its beginning. Now, we have a sealed context, with a great quantity of information, including useable organic matter, that we can use to understand the development of Chichén Itzá.”
The expedition, which was part-funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society, was led by Nat Geo explorer Guillermo de Anda and a team from the Great Maya Aquiver Project. De Anda came across the cave while looking for a sacred well beneath the city on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
“I couldn’t speak, I started to cry,” he told National Geographic. “I’ve analyzed human remains in [Chichen Itza’s] Sacred Cenote, but nothing compares to the sensation I had entering, alone, for the first time in that cave. You almost feel the presence of the Maya who deposited these things in there.”
The cave system, called Balamku ("Cave of the Jaguar God") was found by farmers in 1966 and visited by archaeologist Víctor Segovia Pinto. At the time he said there were archaeological artifacts down there. However, instead of exploring further, he ordered the farmers to seal up the cave—and it remained that way until just last year.
Ritual objects, including vases, incense burners and decorated plates, were found in a series of cave chambers. Researchers believe these objects will provide vital clues about the rise and fall of the city—and indeed the civilization itself. In total, 155 artifacts have so far been identified. One was found to have the face of the rain god Tlaloc, while another had markings representing the Maya universe—the symbolic ceiba tree.
Balamku is far larger than another nearby ritual site discovered in 1959. This cave, called Balankanche, contained 70 objects. “Balamku appears to be the ‘mother’ of Balankanche,” De Anda told the magazine. “I don’t want to say that quantity is more important than information, but when you see that there are many, many offerings in a cave that is also much more difficult to access, this tells us something.”
The Maya civilization existed between around 2,000 BCE and the 1600s, with the arrival of European conquests. It had started to decline hundreds of years earlier, however. During the eighth or ninth century, there was a collapse and cities started being abandoned.
Chichen Itza was one of the biggest and most diverse of the Mayan cities, peaking between the ninth and 13th centuries. According to UNESCO, there were no major monuments built after the 13th century and it rapidly declined around 1440 AD. Shortly after, it was abandoned. Researchers have previously speculated this could have been the result of droughts, conquests and exhausted soils.
The latest discoveries in the cave should provide clues about the timeline of events that led to the city being deserted. “Balamku can tell us not only the moment of collapse of Chichen Itza,” De Anda said. “It can also probably tell us the moment of its beginning. Now, we have a sealed context, with a great quantity of information, including useable organic matter, that we can use to understand the development of Chichén Itzá.”
ANCIENT EGYPT: MYSTERY SQUATTING SKELETON OF TEENAGE GIRL DISCOVERED NEAR 4,600-YEAR-OLD PYRAMID
BY KATHERINE HIGNETT - newsweek
ON 2/18/19 AT 10:48 AM
Archaeologists reveal the ancient remains of a girl in Egypt.
EGYPT MINISTRY OF ANTIQUITIES
Archaeologists have uncovered the ancient remains of a girl, two animal heads and three ceramic vessels near a roughly 4,600 year-old pyramid in Egypt, the country’s Ministry of Antiquities reported.
Scientists believe the skeleton belonged to a girl aged around 13, but they aren’t sure exactly when she was buried at the site. The pyramid itself—the Meidum pyramid—originally dates back to the third dynasty of Egypt (2686–2613 B.C.E).
The girl’s skeleton was discovered curled up in a squatting position in a cemetery at the Meidum site. Her exact age remains unknown. The animal skulls—likely bulls—and the small pottery vessels were found elsewhere in the cemetery, and are thought to be funerary offerings.
Located near the ancient city of Memphis, the Meidum site features a pyramid, a mortuary temple and a raised track leading to another temple near the River Nile.
Scholars think the pyramid’s construction began at the end of the third dynasty at the command of King Huni, before it was finally completed by Snefru—the first king of the fourth dynasty (2613–2498 B.C.E).
Initially built as a stepped pyramid, Meidum was eventually converted into a true pyramid with the help of limestone from the ancient Tora quarry, Encylopaedia Britannica reports.
The Old Kingdom, which spanned from 2613 to 2181 B.C.E, is sometimes called the Age of the Pyramids. Egypt’s most famous pyramids—such as the Great Pyramid of Giza and its neighbor, the Pyramid of Khafre—were constructed during this period.
Although these ancient pyramids are grand, some historians believe they indicate vast inequality was present in Egypt at the time, with resources diverted to the gravesites of kings. Few archaeological sites from the time remain outside of the Memphite pyramid area.
The young girl’s remains are the latest in a series of significant ancient Egyptian finds. Over the last few months, the Ministry of Antiquities has announced discoveries including the discovery of eight mummies in brightly-painted sarcophagi, the skeleton of a pregnant woman buried with beads and pottery and some 800 tombs hidden in a gravesite between two pyramids.
The Egyptian government has been keen to attract tourists after visitor numbers fell in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and subsequent political unrest.
In other archaeological news, researchers in Scotland were disappointed to discover a stone circle thought to be ancient was really a replica erected in the 1990s.
Scientists believe the skeleton belonged to a girl aged around 13, but they aren’t sure exactly when she was buried at the site. The pyramid itself—the Meidum pyramid—originally dates back to the third dynasty of Egypt (2686–2613 B.C.E).
The girl’s skeleton was discovered curled up in a squatting position in a cemetery at the Meidum site. Her exact age remains unknown. The animal skulls—likely bulls—and the small pottery vessels were found elsewhere in the cemetery, and are thought to be funerary offerings.
Located near the ancient city of Memphis, the Meidum site features a pyramid, a mortuary temple and a raised track leading to another temple near the River Nile.
Scholars think the pyramid’s construction began at the end of the third dynasty at the command of King Huni, before it was finally completed by Snefru—the first king of the fourth dynasty (2613–2498 B.C.E).
Initially built as a stepped pyramid, Meidum was eventually converted into a true pyramid with the help of limestone from the ancient Tora quarry, Encylopaedia Britannica reports.
The Old Kingdom, which spanned from 2613 to 2181 B.C.E, is sometimes called the Age of the Pyramids. Egypt’s most famous pyramids—such as the Great Pyramid of Giza and its neighbor, the Pyramid of Khafre—were constructed during this period.
Although these ancient pyramids are grand, some historians believe they indicate vast inequality was present in Egypt at the time, with resources diverted to the gravesites of kings. Few archaeological sites from the time remain outside of the Memphite pyramid area.
The young girl’s remains are the latest in a series of significant ancient Egyptian finds. Over the last few months, the Ministry of Antiquities has announced discoveries including the discovery of eight mummies in brightly-painted sarcophagi, the skeleton of a pregnant woman buried with beads and pottery and some 800 tombs hidden in a gravesite between two pyramids.
The Egyptian government has been keen to attract tourists after visitor numbers fell in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and subsequent political unrest.
In other archaeological news, researchers in Scotland were disappointed to discover a stone circle thought to be ancient was really a replica erected in the 1990s.
Egypt unveils Pharaonic tomb, home to 50 mummies
Reuters - raw story
02 FEB 2019 AT 11:48 ET
Mummy discovery -- Reuters
Egyptian archaeologists uncovered a Pharaonic tomb containing 50 mummies dating back to the Ptolemaic era, in Minya, south of Cairo, the ministry of antiquities said on Saturday.
The mummies, 12 of which were of children, were discovered inside four, nine-meter deep burial chambers in the Tuna El-Gebel archaeological site.
The identities of the mummies were still unknown, said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
“We have not found names written in hieroglyphics,” he said, adding it was obvious from the mummification method that the individuals whose remains were found had to some extent held important or prestigious positions.
Visitors, including ambassadors from several countries, gathered at the discovery site where 40 of the mummies were exhibited during the announcement ceremony.
Some of the mummies were found wrapped in linen while others were placed in stone coffins or wooden sarcophagi.
The archaeological finding was the first of 2019 and was unearthed through a joint mission with the Research Centre for Archaeological Studies of Minya University.
The mummies, 12 of which were of children, were discovered inside four, nine-meter deep burial chambers in the Tuna El-Gebel archaeological site.
The identities of the mummies were still unknown, said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
“We have not found names written in hieroglyphics,” he said, adding it was obvious from the mummification method that the individuals whose remains were found had to some extent held important or prestigious positions.
Visitors, including ambassadors from several countries, gathered at the discovery site where 40 of the mummies were exhibited during the announcement ceremony.
Some of the mummies were found wrapped in linen while others were placed in stone coffins or wooden sarcophagi.
The archaeological finding was the first of 2019 and was unearthed through a joint mission with the Research Centre for Archaeological Studies of Minya University.
GALAGADON NORDQUISTAE: TINY PREHISTORIC SHARK WITH ‘ALIEN SPACESHIP’ TEETH DISCOVERED NEXT TO T. REX
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - newsweek
ON 1/21/19 AT 10:39 AM
Artist impression of Galagadon nordquistae.
VELIZAR SIMEONOVSKI, FIELD MUSEUM
An ancient shark with teeth resembling spaceships from the 1980s video game Galaga has been discovered in the Hell Creek Formation. The prehistoric shark, which has been named Galagadon nordquistae, was found alongside ‘Sue’ the Tyrannosaurus rex—the largest and most complete T. rex fossil ever found.
Researchers from the North Carolina State University and the Field Museum of Natural History discovered the new species while examining around two tons of dirt recovered at the same time as Sue. While sifting through the sediment, the team found over a dozen microscopic shark teeth, measuring just a millimeter in width.
From the teeth, scientists were able to estimate that the shark would have grown to between 12 and 18 inches in length. They said it likely had camouflage skin, much like its descendents today—including the whiskered wobbegong and bamboo sharks. Galagadon lived around 67 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period, in what would have been freshwater rivers. The shark would not have preyed on dinosaurs. Instead, it probably spent much of its time on the floor of the riverbed eating invertebrates and small fish. These findings were published in the Journal of Paleontology.
"It may seem odd today, but about 67 million years ago, what is now South Dakota was covered in forests, swamps and winding rivers," lead author Terry Gates said in a statement. During the Cretaceous Period, North America was split into two landmasses by the Western Interior Seaway. On the west was Laramidia and to the east was Appalachia.
The Hell Creek Formation is now a vast and intensely studied fossil site. It dates back to around 65 to 70 million years—towards the end of the age of the dinosaurs. "The more we discover about the Cretaceous period just before the non-bird dinosaurs went extinct, the more fantastic that world becomes," Gates said “Every species in an ecosystem plays a supporting role, keeping the whole network together. There is no way for us to understand what changed in the ecosystem during the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous without knowing all the wonderful species that existed before."
Gates told Newsweek that it is not clear how Sue the T. rex ended up next to each other: "We are not even sure if the teeth come form a single shark or many of them. There are lots of scenarios we can speculate upon, but the facts are that Sue the T. rexdied, then landed in a river that was occupied by Galagadon sharks."
Discovering the shark in the same space as T. rex adds to our understanding of the landscape that would have existed in the region at the time. "Today, carpet sharks, which include bamboo sharks and wobbegongs, mostly live in the waters in southeast Asia and Australia, so it's surprising to find their fossils at the Sue locality,” study co-author Eric Gorscak said in a statement. “During the Late Cretaceous the continents continued to drift apart, further isolating dinosaurs and other land animals, and at the same time created the Atlantic and Indian oceans. With occasional seaways connecting these young oceans, we have found fossils of marine life flourishing globally, including Galagadon and its relatives.”
Tom Fletcher, a teaching fellow in palaeobiology at the U.K.’s University of Leicester, who was not involved in the study, said people often forget dinosaurs were just part of a much wider ecosystem that existed millions of years ago. “Alongside them were myriad other animals and plants, and every new species discovered improves our understanding of the whole picture,” he told Newsweek.
“The discovery of sharks here is fascinating because the Hell Creek Formation was deposited on land, so either these teeth were being transported from another habitat or they may have been swimming up freshwater rivers, much like bull sharks do today. These are not the only sharks discovered at this location, but help demonstrate quite how diverse the shark fauna was at this very special place in space and time."
Researchers from the North Carolina State University and the Field Museum of Natural History discovered the new species while examining around two tons of dirt recovered at the same time as Sue. While sifting through the sediment, the team found over a dozen microscopic shark teeth, measuring just a millimeter in width.
From the teeth, scientists were able to estimate that the shark would have grown to between 12 and 18 inches in length. They said it likely had camouflage skin, much like its descendents today—including the whiskered wobbegong and bamboo sharks. Galagadon lived around 67 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period, in what would have been freshwater rivers. The shark would not have preyed on dinosaurs. Instead, it probably spent much of its time on the floor of the riverbed eating invertebrates and small fish. These findings were published in the Journal of Paleontology.
"It may seem odd today, but about 67 million years ago, what is now South Dakota was covered in forests, swamps and winding rivers," lead author Terry Gates said in a statement. During the Cretaceous Period, North America was split into two landmasses by the Western Interior Seaway. On the west was Laramidia and to the east was Appalachia.
The Hell Creek Formation is now a vast and intensely studied fossil site. It dates back to around 65 to 70 million years—towards the end of the age of the dinosaurs. "The more we discover about the Cretaceous period just before the non-bird dinosaurs went extinct, the more fantastic that world becomes," Gates said “Every species in an ecosystem plays a supporting role, keeping the whole network together. There is no way for us to understand what changed in the ecosystem during the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous without knowing all the wonderful species that existed before."
Gates told Newsweek that it is not clear how Sue the T. rex ended up next to each other: "We are not even sure if the teeth come form a single shark or many of them. There are lots of scenarios we can speculate upon, but the facts are that Sue the T. rexdied, then landed in a river that was occupied by Galagadon sharks."
Discovering the shark in the same space as T. rex adds to our understanding of the landscape that would have existed in the region at the time. "Today, carpet sharks, which include bamboo sharks and wobbegongs, mostly live in the waters in southeast Asia and Australia, so it's surprising to find their fossils at the Sue locality,” study co-author Eric Gorscak said in a statement. “During the Late Cretaceous the continents continued to drift apart, further isolating dinosaurs and other land animals, and at the same time created the Atlantic and Indian oceans. With occasional seaways connecting these young oceans, we have found fossils of marine life flourishing globally, including Galagadon and its relatives.”
Tom Fletcher, a teaching fellow in palaeobiology at the U.K.’s University of Leicester, who was not involved in the study, said people often forget dinosaurs were just part of a much wider ecosystem that existed millions of years ago. “Alongside them were myriad other animals and plants, and every new species discovered improves our understanding of the whole picture,” he told Newsweek.
“The discovery of sharks here is fascinating because the Hell Creek Formation was deposited on land, so either these teeth were being transported from another habitat or they may have been swimming up freshwater rivers, much like bull sharks do today. These are not the only sharks discovered at this location, but help demonstrate quite how diverse the shark fauna was at this very special place in space and time."
‘The flayed God’: Archaeologists find Mexico temple to god of skinning sacrifices
Agence France-Presse - raw story
04 JAN 2019 AT 07:06 ET
A statue of Xipe Totec, a pre-Hispanic god whose priests sacrificed and then skinned humans, and then wore their flayed skins on their own backs as part of a fertilty ritual in what is now Mexico INAH/AFP / Meliton TAPIA
Archaeologists in Mexico have found the first temple to the pre-Hispanic deity Xipe Totec, a god of fertility and war who was worshipped by sacrificing and skinning captives.
Evidence indicates that priests ritually sacrificed their victims on one of the temple’s two circular altars, then flayed them on the other and draped themselves in their skin, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement.
Historians have long known that Xipe Totec (“the flayed god”) was worshipped by numerous peoples across what is now central and western Mexico and the Gulf coast.
But the discovery — made among the ruins of the Ndachjian-Tehuacan archeological site in the central state of Puebla — is the first time a temple dedicated to the god has been found, the institute said.
The artifacts uncovered at the site include three stone sculptures of Xipe Totec: two skinned heads and a torso, whose back is covered in engravings representing the sacrificial skins worn by the god.
“Sculpturally speaking it’s a very beautiful piece. It measures approximately 80 centimeters (30 inches) tall and has a hole in the belly, which according to historical sources is where a green stone was placed to ‘bring it to life’ for ceremonies,” said Noemi Castillo Tejero, the lead archaeologist on the project.
The skulls measure about 70 centimeters tall and weigh some 200 kilograms (440 pounds).
The temple would have been used from around the year 1000 until about 1260, the institute said. The Spanish takeover of Mexico began in 1519 with the arrival of the conquistador Hernan Cortes.
The institute said Xipe Totec was one of the most important gods in pre-Hispanic Mexico, and was worshipped in a ceremony called Tlacaxipehualiztli, which in the indigenous Nahuatl language means “to wear the skin of the flayed one.”
Sacrificial victims were killed either through gladiatorial combat matches or by being shot with arrows, then flayed to glorify Xipe Totec, it said.
Their skins were then buried at the foot of the altars.
Two holes filled in with earth were found in front of the altars at the Ndachjian-Tehuacan site, it said.
Evidence indicates that priests ritually sacrificed their victims on one of the temple’s two circular altars, then flayed them on the other and draped themselves in their skin, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement.
Historians have long known that Xipe Totec (“the flayed god”) was worshipped by numerous peoples across what is now central and western Mexico and the Gulf coast.
But the discovery — made among the ruins of the Ndachjian-Tehuacan archeological site in the central state of Puebla — is the first time a temple dedicated to the god has been found, the institute said.
The artifacts uncovered at the site include three stone sculptures of Xipe Totec: two skinned heads and a torso, whose back is covered in engravings representing the sacrificial skins worn by the god.
“Sculpturally speaking it’s a very beautiful piece. It measures approximately 80 centimeters (30 inches) tall and has a hole in the belly, which according to historical sources is where a green stone was placed to ‘bring it to life’ for ceremonies,” said Noemi Castillo Tejero, the lead archaeologist on the project.
The skulls measure about 70 centimeters tall and weigh some 200 kilograms (440 pounds).
The temple would have been used from around the year 1000 until about 1260, the institute said. The Spanish takeover of Mexico began in 1519 with the arrival of the conquistador Hernan Cortes.
The institute said Xipe Totec was one of the most important gods in pre-Hispanic Mexico, and was worshipped in a ceremony called Tlacaxipehualiztli, which in the indigenous Nahuatl language means “to wear the skin of the flayed one.”
Sacrificial victims were killed either through gladiatorial combat matches or by being shot with arrows, then flayed to glorify Xipe Totec, it said.
Their skins were then buried at the foot of the altars.
Two holes filled in with earth were found in front of the altars at the Ndachjian-Tehuacan site, it said.
Egypt unveils ‘one of a kind’ ancient tomb, expects more finds
Reuters - raw story
15 DEC 2018 AT 09:45 ET
Mustafa Abdo, chief of excavation, stands inside the newly-discovered tomb of 'Wahtye', which dates from the rule of King Neferirkare Kakai, at the Saqqara area near its necropolis, in Giza, Egypt, December 15, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Egypt unveiled a well-preserved 4,400-year-old tomb decorated with hieroglyphs and statues south of Cairo on Saturday, and officials expect more discoveries when archaeologists excavate the site further in coming months.
The tomb was found in a buried ridge at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara. It was untouched and unlooted, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters at the site. He described the find as “one of a kind in the last decades”.
The tomb dates from the rule of Neferirkare Kakai, the third king of the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.
Archaeologists removed a last layer of debris from the tomb on Thursday and found five shafts inside, Waziri said. One of the shafts was unsealed with nothing inside, but the other four were sealed. They are expecting to make discoveries when they excavate those shafts starting on Sunday, he said. He was hopeful about one shaft in particular.
“I can imagine that all of the objects can be found in this area,” he said, pointing at one of the sealed shafts. “This shaft should lead to a coffin or a sarcophagus of the owner of the tomb.”
The tomb is 10 metres (33 ft) long, three metres (9.8 ft) wide and just under three metres high, Waziri said.
The walls are decorated with hieroglyphs and statues of pharaohs. Waziri said the tomb was unique because of the statues and its near perfect condition.
“The colour is almost intact even though the tomb is almost 4,400 years old,” he said.
The tomb lies in a buried ridge that has only partially been uncovered. Waziri said he expects more discoveries to be made there when archaeologists start more excavation work in January.
The Fifth Dynasty ruled Egypt from about 2,500 BC to 2,350 BC, not long after the great pyramid of Giza was built.
Saqqara served as the necropolis for Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt for more than two millennia.
Ancient Egyptians mummified humans to preserve their bodies for the afterlife, while animal mummies were used as religious offerings.
Egypt has revealed over a dozen ancient discoveries this year.
The country hopes the finds will brighten its image abroad and revive interest among travelers who once flocked to its iconic pharaonic temples and pyramids but who fled after the 2011 political uprising.
The tomb was found in a buried ridge at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara. It was untouched and unlooted, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters at the site. He described the find as “one of a kind in the last decades”.
The tomb dates from the rule of Neferirkare Kakai, the third king of the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.
Archaeologists removed a last layer of debris from the tomb on Thursday and found five shafts inside, Waziri said. One of the shafts was unsealed with nothing inside, but the other four were sealed. They are expecting to make discoveries when they excavate those shafts starting on Sunday, he said. He was hopeful about one shaft in particular.
“I can imagine that all of the objects can be found in this area,” he said, pointing at one of the sealed shafts. “This shaft should lead to a coffin or a sarcophagus of the owner of the tomb.”
The tomb is 10 metres (33 ft) long, three metres (9.8 ft) wide and just under three metres high, Waziri said.
The walls are decorated with hieroglyphs and statues of pharaohs. Waziri said the tomb was unique because of the statues and its near perfect condition.
“The colour is almost intact even though the tomb is almost 4,400 years old,” he said.
The tomb lies in a buried ridge that has only partially been uncovered. Waziri said he expects more discoveries to be made there when archaeologists start more excavation work in January.
The Fifth Dynasty ruled Egypt from about 2,500 BC to 2,350 BC, not long after the great pyramid of Giza was built.
Saqqara served as the necropolis for Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt for more than two millennia.
Ancient Egyptians mummified humans to preserve their bodies for the afterlife, while animal mummies were used as religious offerings.
Egypt has revealed over a dozen ancient discoveries this year.
The country hopes the finds will brighten its image abroad and revive interest among travelers who once flocked to its iconic pharaonic temples and pyramids but who fled after the 2011 political uprising.
MEGALODON WAS KILLED OFF BY SUPERNOVA RADIATION THAT CAUSED CANCER AND MUTATIONS, STUDY SAYS
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - newsweek
ON 12/13/18 AT 7:55 AM
An artist's impression of Carcharocles megalodon.
KAREN CARR/CC
The megalodon—the biggest shark ever to exist—may have been driven to extinction by a supernova explosion 2.6 million years ago. Scientists have linked the celestial event to a mass extinction of marine megafauna by looking at a spike in radiation that would have caused major health problems for large sea creatures, including cancers and mutations.
The study, published in the journal Astrobiology, builds on previous work from 2016 and 2017 that linked a series of supernova—an exploding star—150 light years away to an extinction on Earth. During this extinction event, about 36 percent of the marine megafauna were wiped out.
After the supernova, Earth would have been bombarded with cosmic rays, showering the planet in muons—elementary particles similar to an electron. Muons are passing through us all the time and account for about a fifth of the radiation dose we receive. “When this wave of cosmic rays hits, multiply those muons by a few hundred,” Adrian Mellot, lead author of the latest study, said in a statement. “Only a small faction of them will interact in any way, but when the number is so large and their energy so high, you get increased mutations and cancer—these would be the main biological effects.
“We estimated the cancer rate would go up about 50 percent for something the size of a human—and the bigger you are, the worse it is. For an elephant or a whale, the radiation dose goes way up.”
Mellot, from the University of Kansas, and colleagues have looked at the event more closely and come to the conclusion that there was probably a series of supernovae producing a cascade of cosmic rays—rather than just a one off burst. They then worked out how different habitats would have been affected—and found creatures living in shallower waters would have had a higher dose of radiation.
They found the radiation would have persisted “for at least the lifetime of marine megafauna,” adding that it is “reasonable to hypothesize that this increase in radiation load may have contributed to a newly documented marine megafaunal extinction at that time.”
This extinction included the megalodon—a shark that could grow up to 60 feet in length. “They just disappeared about that time,” Mellot said. “So, we can speculate it might have something to do with the muons. Basically, the bigger the creature is the bigger the increase in radiation would have been.”
Brian C. Thomas, Professor, Physics and Astronomy at Washburn University, was one of the scientists who initially found the supernova and extinction link. Thomas, who was not involved in the latest study, said the paper was an “interesting addition” that helps fill in our understanding of the supernova impact picture.
“It’s really [a] new twist on the usual story that a supernova destroys ozone, which increases ultraviolet light, which harms organisms, especially smaller ones,” he told Newsweek. “Our work showed that in this case the UV effect is not that big, but this other impact isn’t something people have really thought much about before and it could be significant. I’d say I do agree with the conclusions, which basically say that large ocean-dwelling organisms would be at greater risk from the supernova radiation. Of course it’s hard to directly connect this with the extinction event, but I think it’s reasonable to claim it’s a contributor.”
Other theories about why megalodon went extinct include climate change, a decline in food supply and being outcompeted by new marine predators. Finding conclusive evidence is challenging, however. Because shark skeletons—including megalodon—are made of cartilage, the only thing remaining of them is their teeth. As a result, scientists must try to reconstruct the ancient world they dominated to find major changes that could have led to the species decline.
The study, published in the journal Astrobiology, builds on previous work from 2016 and 2017 that linked a series of supernova—an exploding star—150 light years away to an extinction on Earth. During this extinction event, about 36 percent of the marine megafauna were wiped out.
After the supernova, Earth would have been bombarded with cosmic rays, showering the planet in muons—elementary particles similar to an electron. Muons are passing through us all the time and account for about a fifth of the radiation dose we receive. “When this wave of cosmic rays hits, multiply those muons by a few hundred,” Adrian Mellot, lead author of the latest study, said in a statement. “Only a small faction of them will interact in any way, but when the number is so large and their energy so high, you get increased mutations and cancer—these would be the main biological effects.
“We estimated the cancer rate would go up about 50 percent for something the size of a human—and the bigger you are, the worse it is. For an elephant or a whale, the radiation dose goes way up.”
Mellot, from the University of Kansas, and colleagues have looked at the event more closely and come to the conclusion that there was probably a series of supernovae producing a cascade of cosmic rays—rather than just a one off burst. They then worked out how different habitats would have been affected—and found creatures living in shallower waters would have had a higher dose of radiation.
They found the radiation would have persisted “for at least the lifetime of marine megafauna,” adding that it is “reasonable to hypothesize that this increase in radiation load may have contributed to a newly documented marine megafaunal extinction at that time.”
This extinction included the megalodon—a shark that could grow up to 60 feet in length. “They just disappeared about that time,” Mellot said. “So, we can speculate it might have something to do with the muons. Basically, the bigger the creature is the bigger the increase in radiation would have been.”
Brian C. Thomas, Professor, Physics and Astronomy at Washburn University, was one of the scientists who initially found the supernova and extinction link. Thomas, who was not involved in the latest study, said the paper was an “interesting addition” that helps fill in our understanding of the supernova impact picture.
“It’s really [a] new twist on the usual story that a supernova destroys ozone, which increases ultraviolet light, which harms organisms, especially smaller ones,” he told Newsweek. “Our work showed that in this case the UV effect is not that big, but this other impact isn’t something people have really thought much about before and it could be significant. I’d say I do agree with the conclusions, which basically say that large ocean-dwelling organisms would be at greater risk from the supernova radiation. Of course it’s hard to directly connect this with the extinction event, but I think it’s reasonable to claim it’s a contributor.”
Other theories about why megalodon went extinct include climate change, a decline in food supply and being outcompeted by new marine predators. Finding conclusive evidence is challenging, however. Because shark skeletons—including megalodon—are made of cartilage, the only thing remaining of them is their teeth. As a result, scientists must try to reconstruct the ancient world they dominated to find major changes that could have led to the species decline.
'AMAZING' 9,000-YEAR-OLD MASK LINKED TO BEGINNINGS OF AGRICULTURE DISCOVERED IN WEST BANK
BY ARISTOS GEORGIOU - newsweek
ON 11/30/18 AT 12:14 PM
Israeli archeologist Ronit Lupu of the IAA Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit holds a rare stone mask dating to the Neolithic period which was found in the Pnei Hever region of southern Hebron mount, on November 28, 2018.
GALI TIBBON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Israeli archaeologists discovered a rare 9,000-year-old stone mask they said was linked to the very beginnings of agricultural society.
The rare artifact—which bears a slight resemblance to a hockey mask—is made from pink and yellow sandstone, according to Agence France-Presse. It was discovered this year by a man walking through a field near the Israeli settlement of Pnei Hever in the occupied West Bank.
"The mask is very naturalistic in the way it was made," Ronit Lupu, an archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority, said. "You can see the cheekbones, you can see a perfect nose."
Lupu noted that 14 other neolithic masks that resembled the latest find had been uncovered in the past. But these artifacts were rare and were in the hands of private collectors, meaning researchers were prevented from learning more about them.
“The last one that we know was found 35 years ago,” Lupu said. “It's an amazing find, archaeologically speaking."
According to archaeologists, the mask dates back to a key period in human history—the agricultural revolution, when humans were transitioning from hunting and gathering to domesticating plants and animals.
This “was accompanied by a change in social structure and a sharp increase in ritual-religious activities,” Lupu said. For example, masks may have played an important role in the worship of ancestors.
"Stone masks, such as the one from Pnei Hever, are similar in size to the human face, which is why scholars tend to connect them with such worship."
The archaeologists said that it could be one of the oldest surviving ritual masks in the world, however, there was not enough evidence available to identify what function the artifact served. It could also have been used as a death mask, for example, or displayed in another way, such as being hung up—as the holes drilled into its side would suggest.
The West Bank is landlocked Palestinian territory that has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Six-Day War. Disputes over artifacts uncovered there were a common feature of the long-running conflict.
Several representations of human faces have been found across the Levant, however, most of them tend to be relatively abstract, with experts divided over whether they could be definitively described as masks, Haaretz reported. As such, the recent finding and the 14 similar masks were considered the earliest definitive manifestations of this phenomenon.
The rare artifact—which bears a slight resemblance to a hockey mask—is made from pink and yellow sandstone, according to Agence France-Presse. It was discovered this year by a man walking through a field near the Israeli settlement of Pnei Hever in the occupied West Bank.
"The mask is very naturalistic in the way it was made," Ronit Lupu, an archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority, said. "You can see the cheekbones, you can see a perfect nose."
Lupu noted that 14 other neolithic masks that resembled the latest find had been uncovered in the past. But these artifacts were rare and were in the hands of private collectors, meaning researchers were prevented from learning more about them.
“The last one that we know was found 35 years ago,” Lupu said. “It's an amazing find, archaeologically speaking."
According to archaeologists, the mask dates back to a key period in human history—the agricultural revolution, when humans were transitioning from hunting and gathering to domesticating plants and animals.
This “was accompanied by a change in social structure and a sharp increase in ritual-religious activities,” Lupu said. For example, masks may have played an important role in the worship of ancestors.
"Stone masks, such as the one from Pnei Hever, are similar in size to the human face, which is why scholars tend to connect them with such worship."
The archaeologists said that it could be one of the oldest surviving ritual masks in the world, however, there was not enough evidence available to identify what function the artifact served. It could also have been used as a death mask, for example, or displayed in another way, such as being hung up—as the holes drilled into its side would suggest.
The West Bank is landlocked Palestinian territory that has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Six-Day War. Disputes over artifacts uncovered there were a common feature of the long-running conflict.
Several representations of human faces have been found across the Levant, however, most of them tend to be relatively abstract, with experts divided over whether they could be definitively described as masks, Haaretz reported. As such, the recent finding and the 14 similar masks were considered the earliest definitive manifestations of this phenomenon.
First human remains found in El Salvador’s ‘Mayan Pompeii’
Agence France-Presse - raw story
23 NOV 2018 AT 07:47 ET
Like Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy, the remains of Joya de Ceren were discovered in exceptional condition, providing a rare insight into the Mayan way of life including rituals, agriculture, trade, governance and eating habits AFP/File / Jose CABEZAS
Human remains have been discovered for the first time in El Salvador’s Joya de Ceren, a city buried by a volcanic eruption more than 1,400 years ago and sometimes dubbed the “Mayan Pompeii,” the ministry of culture said Thursday.
A skeleton, which was in poor condition, was discovered at the beginning of November, buried with an obsidian knife at the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site located about 20 miles (35 kilometers) north of the capital San Salvador.
The person “probably lived in the city but was not killed by the eruption” of the Loma Caldera volcano, archaeologist Michelle Toledo said.
Toledo added that researchers believed the remains date to the Late Classic period of Mesoamerica because of the presence of fine white tephra, known as “Tierra Blanca Joven” (young white earth) resulting from the volcanic eruption around 535 AD.
The cataclysmic eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano destroyed numerous Mayan sites and was responsible for the formation of Lake Ilopango, with an area of 27.8 square miles (72 square kilometers).
The remains are the first to be discovered in more than 40 years of excavations.
Like Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy, the remains of Joya de Ceren were discovered in exceptional condition, providing a rare insight into the Mayan way of life including rituals, agriculture, trade, governance and eating habits.
A skeleton, which was in poor condition, was discovered at the beginning of November, buried with an obsidian knife at the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site located about 20 miles (35 kilometers) north of the capital San Salvador.
The person “probably lived in the city but was not killed by the eruption” of the Loma Caldera volcano, archaeologist Michelle Toledo said.
Toledo added that researchers believed the remains date to the Late Classic period of Mesoamerica because of the presence of fine white tephra, known as “Tierra Blanca Joven” (young white earth) resulting from the volcanic eruption around 535 AD.
The cataclysmic eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano destroyed numerous Mayan sites and was responsible for the formation of Lake Ilopango, with an area of 27.8 square miles (72 square kilometers).
The remains are the first to be discovered in more than 40 years of excavations.
Like Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy, the remains of Joya de Ceren were discovered in exceptional condition, providing a rare insight into the Mayan way of life including rituals, agriculture, trade, governance and eating habits.
LISOWICIA BOJANI: COLOSSAL LIZARD MAMMAL THAT WALKED WITH DINOSAURS DISCOVERED
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - newsweek
ON 11/22/18 AT 2:00 PM
Skeleton of Lisowicia bojani.
TOMASZ SULEJ
A humongous lizard mammal that lived alongside the dinosaurs over 200 million years ago has been discovered in Poland. The herbivorous creature, named Lisowicia bojani, was about 40 percent bigger than any other species of its kind, measuring 4.5 meters in length, 2.6 meters in height and weighing approximately nine tons. This is roughly equivalent to a the size of an elephant.
Tomasz Sulej, from the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki, from Sweden’s Uppsala University, say the discovery overturns the belief that the only giant herbivores to exist during the Triassic period were dinosaurs. The findings are reported in the journal Science.
Lisowicia is a dicynodonts—a group of animals belonging to the therapsid order. Therapsids were mammal-like reptiles that lived alongside the first mammals, crocodiles and dinosaurs.They became a dominant species during the Middle and Late Triassic period. Until now, dicynodonts were thought to walk in a sprawling manner—similar to modern reptiles—and could grow to sizes anywhere between a rat and an ox.
However, fossils uncovered in the Polish village of Lisowice have now obliterated both these assumptions. Since 2005, over 1,000 bones have been collected from the region.
Analysis of the bones allowed scientists to build up a picture of Lisowicia—revealing its immense size and how it would have walked in an upright manner, similar to large mammals like rhinos and hippos. It lived between 210 and 205 million years ago—roughly ten million years later than previous dicynodont findings.
Lisowicia is the first evidence that giant dicynodonts were alive at the same time as large herbivorous dinosaurs like sauropodomorphs. It shows features thought to characterize large mammals had also evolved separately in dicynodonts. Lisowicia was also found to have fast growth, similar to dinosaurs and mammals.
Researchers believe selection pressures—potentially to protect themselves from larger predators—may have been the driver behind their giant size, but more research will be needed to understand Lisowicia and its place in the evolutionary tree.
"Dicynodonts were amazingly successful animals in the Middle and Late Triassic. Lisowicia is the youngest dicynodont and the largest non-dinosaurian terrestrial tetrapod from the Triassic,” Niedzwiedzki said in a statement. “It's natural to want to know how dicynodonts became so large. Lisowicia is hugely exciting because it blows holes in many of our classic ideas of Triassic 'mammal-like reptiles’.”
Sulej said the discovery completely changes our ideas about the history of the dicynodonts and is a “once in a lifetime discovery.”
Nick Fraser, head of the Department of Natural Sciences at National Museums Scotland, who was not involved in the study, said Lisowicia was a “remarkable discovery” that was “completely unexpected.”
“Previously it was widely thought that only sauropodomorph dinosaurs attained such gigantic proportions on land at this time,” he told Newsweek. “We now know there was a completely separate group of huge terrestrial vertebrates muscling in on the scene.”
Fraser also said the discovery also upturns current thinking about the fall of the dicynodonts: “It demonstrates that, contra the current widely held view that dicynodonts were on the decline in the later stages of the Triassic period, there was at least one lineage of dicynodonts diversifying very late on in the Triassic.
He continued: “The Triassic is already known for its remarkable diversity of weird land-living vertebrates living alongside the earliest dinosaurs, mammals and crocodiles. Lisowicia adds one more twist to this fascinating and critical period in the history of life on Earth.”
Tomasz Sulej, from the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki, from Sweden’s Uppsala University, say the discovery overturns the belief that the only giant herbivores to exist during the Triassic period were dinosaurs. The findings are reported in the journal Science.
Lisowicia is a dicynodonts—a group of animals belonging to the therapsid order. Therapsids were mammal-like reptiles that lived alongside the first mammals, crocodiles and dinosaurs.They became a dominant species during the Middle and Late Triassic period. Until now, dicynodonts were thought to walk in a sprawling manner—similar to modern reptiles—and could grow to sizes anywhere between a rat and an ox.
However, fossils uncovered in the Polish village of Lisowice have now obliterated both these assumptions. Since 2005, over 1,000 bones have been collected from the region.
Analysis of the bones allowed scientists to build up a picture of Lisowicia—revealing its immense size and how it would have walked in an upright manner, similar to large mammals like rhinos and hippos. It lived between 210 and 205 million years ago—roughly ten million years later than previous dicynodont findings.
Lisowicia is the first evidence that giant dicynodonts were alive at the same time as large herbivorous dinosaurs like sauropodomorphs. It shows features thought to characterize large mammals had also evolved separately in dicynodonts. Lisowicia was also found to have fast growth, similar to dinosaurs and mammals.
Researchers believe selection pressures—potentially to protect themselves from larger predators—may have been the driver behind their giant size, but more research will be needed to understand Lisowicia and its place in the evolutionary tree.
"Dicynodonts were amazingly successful animals in the Middle and Late Triassic. Lisowicia is the youngest dicynodont and the largest non-dinosaurian terrestrial tetrapod from the Triassic,” Niedzwiedzki said in a statement. “It's natural to want to know how dicynodonts became so large. Lisowicia is hugely exciting because it blows holes in many of our classic ideas of Triassic 'mammal-like reptiles’.”
Sulej said the discovery completely changes our ideas about the history of the dicynodonts and is a “once in a lifetime discovery.”
Nick Fraser, head of the Department of Natural Sciences at National Museums Scotland, who was not involved in the study, said Lisowicia was a “remarkable discovery” that was “completely unexpected.”
“Previously it was widely thought that only sauropodomorph dinosaurs attained such gigantic proportions on land at this time,” he told Newsweek. “We now know there was a completely separate group of huge terrestrial vertebrates muscling in on the scene.”
Fraser also said the discovery also upturns current thinking about the fall of the dicynodonts: “It demonstrates that, contra the current widely held view that dicynodonts were on the decline in the later stages of the Triassic period, there was at least one lineage of dicynodonts diversifying very late on in the Triassic.
He continued: “The Triassic is already known for its remarkable diversity of weird land-living vertebrates living alongside the earliest dinosaurs, mammals and crocodiles. Lisowicia adds one more twist to this fascinating and critical period in the history of life on Earth.”
Old Master? Cave paintings from 40,000 years ago are world’s earliest figurative art
Agence France-Presse - raw story
08 NOV 2018 AT 08:10 ET
The painting in Borneo, possibly depicting a native type of wild cattle, is among thousands of artworks discovered decades ago in the remote region
A painting of an animal in an Indonesian cave dates from at least 40,000 years ago, making it the world’s oldest piece of figurative art, new research has shown.
The painting in Borneo, possibly depicting a native type of wild cattle, is among thousands of artworks discovered decades ago in the remote region.
But it was only using technology called uranium series analysis that researchers have finally been able to work out just when they were painted.
The discovery adds to a growing body of evidence that cave painting did not emerge only in Europe, as was once thought.
“We can see that figurative art developed and evolved more or less at the same time in Asia and in Europe,” researcher Maxime Aubert told AFP.
In 2014, researchers dated figurative art on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to 35,000 years ago, but some of the paintings examined by Aubert and his team in nearby Borneo were produced at least 5,000 years earlier.
Aubert, an associate professor at Australia’s Griffith University, worked with a team in remote and inaccessible caves in the East Kalimantan area of Borneo to date the paintings.
The team, whose research was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, looked at multiple layers of artwork painted on top of each other.
The bottom-most and oldest layer featured paintings of animals, mostly a local type of cattle, as well as hand stencils in a reddish colour.
On top of those artworks were hand stencils in a mulberry colour grouped in patterns and embellished with lines and dots, as well as small stick-like human figures in the same colour.
The final layer featured people, boats and geometric designs.
– ‘An intimate window’ –
Aubert and his team employed a technique called uranium series dating, which involves analysing layers of the mineral calcite that formed on top of the painting over the years, as well as the material underneath the art.
They removed samples smaller than one centimetre (half an inch) across from the artworks and found one painting of an animal had been produced at least 40,000 years ago, and possibly nearly 52,000 years ago.
“To our knowledge, the large animal painting… is the oldest figurative rock art image in the world,” the team’s study said.
The painting is in fact one of the earliest-known representations of any kind of an animal, dating from a similar period to mammoth-ivory figurines found in Germany, the study added.
For many years, cave art was thought to have emerged from Europe, where famed pieces have been discovered and dated in Spain, Italy and France.
But the Indonesian paintings challenge that theory.
“It now seems that two early cave art provinces arose at a similar time in remote corners of Palaeolithic Eurasia: one in Europe and one in Indonesia, at the opposite end of this ice age world,” said Adam Brum, an archeologist involved in the study, in a press release issued by Griffith University.
The second layer of artwork dates to around 20,000 years ago, and suggests an interesting evolution in the artwork of the era.
“Around 20,000 years ago, painting becomes of the human world, not the animal world. We see the same thing in Europe at more or less the same time,” Aubert told AFP.
He plans to carry out further testing of other artwork in Indonesia, as well as pieces in Australia, and said he felt a personal connection to the past when examining the paintings.
“It’s amazing to see that. It’s an intimate window into the past.”
The painting in Borneo, possibly depicting a native type of wild cattle, is among thousands of artworks discovered decades ago in the remote region.
But it was only using technology called uranium series analysis that researchers have finally been able to work out just when they were painted.
The discovery adds to a growing body of evidence that cave painting did not emerge only in Europe, as was once thought.
“We can see that figurative art developed and evolved more or less at the same time in Asia and in Europe,” researcher Maxime Aubert told AFP.
In 2014, researchers dated figurative art on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to 35,000 years ago, but some of the paintings examined by Aubert and his team in nearby Borneo were produced at least 5,000 years earlier.
Aubert, an associate professor at Australia’s Griffith University, worked with a team in remote and inaccessible caves in the East Kalimantan area of Borneo to date the paintings.
The team, whose research was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, looked at multiple layers of artwork painted on top of each other.
The bottom-most and oldest layer featured paintings of animals, mostly a local type of cattle, as well as hand stencils in a reddish colour.
On top of those artworks were hand stencils in a mulberry colour grouped in patterns and embellished with lines and dots, as well as small stick-like human figures in the same colour.
The final layer featured people, boats and geometric designs.
– ‘An intimate window’ –
Aubert and his team employed a technique called uranium series dating, which involves analysing layers of the mineral calcite that formed on top of the painting over the years, as well as the material underneath the art.
They removed samples smaller than one centimetre (half an inch) across from the artworks and found one painting of an animal had been produced at least 40,000 years ago, and possibly nearly 52,000 years ago.
“To our knowledge, the large animal painting… is the oldest figurative rock art image in the world,” the team’s study said.
The painting is in fact one of the earliest-known representations of any kind of an animal, dating from a similar period to mammoth-ivory figurines found in Germany, the study added.
For many years, cave art was thought to have emerged from Europe, where famed pieces have been discovered and dated in Spain, Italy and France.
But the Indonesian paintings challenge that theory.
“It now seems that two early cave art provinces arose at a similar time in remote corners of Palaeolithic Eurasia: one in Europe and one in Indonesia, at the opposite end of this ice age world,” said Adam Brum, an archeologist involved in the study, in a press release issued by Griffith University.
The second layer of artwork dates to around 20,000 years ago, and suggests an interesting evolution in the artwork of the era.
“Around 20,000 years ago, painting becomes of the human world, not the animal world. We see the same thing in Europe at more or less the same time,” Aubert told AFP.
He plans to carry out further testing of other artwork in Indonesia, as well as pieces in Australia, and said he felt a personal connection to the past when examining the paintings.
“It’s amazing to see that. It’s an intimate window into the past.”
EASTER ISLAND HEADS MYSTERY SOLVED? RAPA NUI CIVILIZATION BUILT MOAI BY FRESHWATER LOCATIONS
BY HANNAH OSBORNE - newsweek
ON 10/10/18 AT 7:32 AM
The lost civilization of Easter Island may have chosen the location of the iconic moai heads to signal where fresh water was available, a study has suggested.
Carl Lipo, an anthropologist who has spent almost 20 years studying the Rapa Nui people and their disappearance from Easter Island, was looking at how the population was able to survive with such limited access to drinking water. Across the island, there is very little access to freshwater—springs and streams are almost completely absent and there is very little rainfall (approximately 48.8 inches per year). So how did a civilization of an estimated 15,000-20,000 at its peak manage to survive?
To find out, Lipo and colleagues carried out field studies looking at how the islanders might have used brackish groundwater discharge that surfaces along coastlines. Brackish water is saltier than normal water, but not as salty as seawater. Previous accounts from European explorers indicated the Rapa Nui people drank brackish water, but where they accessed it was not known.
Lipo’s research, published in the Hydrogeology Journal, finds the islanders could have survived by drinking the brackish groundwater discharge that becomes ponded in trenches along the coast, or that floats on the coastal waters of the island. “Two field surveys indicate abundant locations of brackish but potable water along the coastline… Although coastal groundwater sources are of poor quality, they were apparently sufficient to support the population and allow them to build the magnificent statues for which Easter Island is famous,” the study concludes.
What is more intriguing, however, is the location of the water sources and the position of the Easter Island statues. The moai appear to have been placed at spots where drinking water was available.
The statutes—which can reach up to 30 feet in height—are carved from compressed volcanic ash. In total, there are almost 900 statues. They were built at some point between 1200 and 1600. After the Europeans arrived in the 1700s, they were toppled over, which has been attributed to tribal warfare and an earthquake.
Why the Rapa Nui built these statues and what purpose they served is not entirely understood. It is thought they were symbols of religious and political power, representing the ancient ancestors of Polynesians. Most of the statues are located on the coasts of Easter Island—Lipo suggests this could have been done for practical purposes.
"Now that we know more about the location of freshwater, however, the location of these monuments and other features makes tremendous sense: they are positioned where freshwater is immediately available," he said in a statement.
The team will now try to better understand how closely the location of the moai and the availability of drinking water are tied. This could eventually provide answers about one of the world’s most enduring archaeological mysteries.
Lipo told Newsweek: “The issue of water availability—or the lack of it—has often been mentioned by researchers who work on Rapa Nui/Easter Island. When there were clear 'wells'—i.e., holes that provide access to fresh water—it was noted that the archaeological remains tended to be relatively dense. Yet it wasn’t until we started to examine the details of the hydrology that we saw that fresh water access and statue location were so tightly linked together.
“The more we looked the more consistently we saw this pattern. Places without ahu/moai showed no fresh water. The pattern was striking and surprising in how consistent it was. Even when we find ahu/moai in the interior of the island, we find nearby sources of drinking water. That was a real surprise.”
He said the question of why the heads were built where they were is one of the key mysteries of this civilization. You would think that such huge monuments would be placed in spots where they could be visible to outsiders—yet often they are often found in shallow hollows or in places generally not visible to outsiders. This, Lipo said, doesn’t make sense.
“Linking the location of statues with key natural resources offers us the opportunity to learn about some of the functional reasons communities went through such great extents to establish monuments,” he said. “Knowing the details of the island’s hydrology and understanding that fresh water was a key ingredient in monument location now allows us to start generating hypotheses about the role that statues/monuments played in the community … This may well help unravel the secret to why this island boasts so many massive statues.”
The Rapa Nui civilization collapsed after the arrival of European explorers. Foreign disease is thought to have played a huge role in their demise—along with the slave raiding expeditions in the 1860s.
Lipo said they are now “tantalizingly close” to putting all the pieces of the Easter Island puzzle together. Understanding the hydrology should, he says, provide an important step towards working out what island life was like for the Rapa Nui. “They were ingenious in their ability to transform this remote and isolated place—one that was plagued by remarkably constrained natural resources—into a place that could support the islands communities over at least five centuries,” he said. “What they did was an incredible feat—but one that has been misinterpreted by outsiders who make European assumptions about what the island ‘should look like.’
“The ancestors of Rapa Nui were indeed wise—and it is our job to learn as much of this wisdom as possible.”
RELATED: Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and it's People
Carl Lipo, an anthropologist who has spent almost 20 years studying the Rapa Nui people and their disappearance from Easter Island, was looking at how the population was able to survive with such limited access to drinking water. Across the island, there is very little access to freshwater—springs and streams are almost completely absent and there is very little rainfall (approximately 48.8 inches per year). So how did a civilization of an estimated 15,000-20,000 at its peak manage to survive?
To find out, Lipo and colleagues carried out field studies looking at how the islanders might have used brackish groundwater discharge that surfaces along coastlines. Brackish water is saltier than normal water, but not as salty as seawater. Previous accounts from European explorers indicated the Rapa Nui people drank brackish water, but where they accessed it was not known.
Lipo’s research, published in the Hydrogeology Journal, finds the islanders could have survived by drinking the brackish groundwater discharge that becomes ponded in trenches along the coast, or that floats on the coastal waters of the island. “Two field surveys indicate abundant locations of brackish but potable water along the coastline… Although coastal groundwater sources are of poor quality, they were apparently sufficient to support the population and allow them to build the magnificent statues for which Easter Island is famous,” the study concludes.
What is more intriguing, however, is the location of the water sources and the position of the Easter Island statues. The moai appear to have been placed at spots where drinking water was available.
The statutes—which can reach up to 30 feet in height—are carved from compressed volcanic ash. In total, there are almost 900 statues. They were built at some point between 1200 and 1600. After the Europeans arrived in the 1700s, they were toppled over, which has been attributed to tribal warfare and an earthquake.
Why the Rapa Nui built these statues and what purpose they served is not entirely understood. It is thought they were symbols of religious and political power, representing the ancient ancestors of Polynesians. Most of the statues are located on the coasts of Easter Island—Lipo suggests this could have been done for practical purposes.
"Now that we know more about the location of freshwater, however, the location of these monuments and other features makes tremendous sense: they are positioned where freshwater is immediately available," he said in a statement.
The team will now try to better understand how closely the location of the moai and the availability of drinking water are tied. This could eventually provide answers about one of the world’s most enduring archaeological mysteries.
Lipo told Newsweek: “The issue of water availability—or the lack of it—has often been mentioned by researchers who work on Rapa Nui/Easter Island. When there were clear 'wells'—i.e., holes that provide access to fresh water—it was noted that the archaeological remains tended to be relatively dense. Yet it wasn’t until we started to examine the details of the hydrology that we saw that fresh water access and statue location were so tightly linked together.
“The more we looked the more consistently we saw this pattern. Places without ahu/moai showed no fresh water. The pattern was striking and surprising in how consistent it was. Even when we find ahu/moai in the interior of the island, we find nearby sources of drinking water. That was a real surprise.”
He said the question of why the heads were built where they were is one of the key mysteries of this civilization. You would think that such huge monuments would be placed in spots where they could be visible to outsiders—yet often they are often found in shallow hollows or in places generally not visible to outsiders. This, Lipo said, doesn’t make sense.
“Linking the location of statues with key natural resources offers us the opportunity to learn about some of the functional reasons communities went through such great extents to establish monuments,” he said. “Knowing the details of the island’s hydrology and understanding that fresh water was a key ingredient in monument location now allows us to start generating hypotheses about the role that statues/monuments played in the community … This may well help unravel the secret to why this island boasts so many massive statues.”
The Rapa Nui civilization collapsed after the arrival of European explorers. Foreign disease is thought to have played a huge role in their demise—along with the slave raiding expeditions in the 1860s.
Lipo said they are now “tantalizingly close” to putting all the pieces of the Easter Island puzzle together. Understanding the hydrology should, he says, provide an important step towards working out what island life was like for the Rapa Nui. “They were ingenious in their ability to transform this remote and isolated place—one that was plagued by remarkably constrained natural resources—into a place that could support the islands communities over at least five centuries,” he said. “What they did was an incredible feat—but one that has been misinterpreted by outsiders who make European assumptions about what the island ‘should look like.’
“The ancestors of Rapa Nui were indeed wise—and it is our job to learn as much of this wisdom as possible.”
RELATED: Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and it's People
Ancient Teeth With Neanderthal Features Reveal New Chapters of Human Evolution
The 450,000-year-old teeth, discovered on the Italian Peninsula, are helping anthropologists piece together the hominid family tree
By Brian Handwerk
smithsonian.com
October 3, 2018 3:48PM
Crime-drama fans know that forensic scientists can ID the remains of long-missing persons by examining their teeth. To solve even more ancient mysteries, anthropologists use the same kind of cutting-edge tooth technology, and a European team may have cracked a very cold case indeed—one that’s almost half a million years in the making.
A fossil tooth study published today in the journal PLOS ONE analyzes some of the oldest human remains ever found on the Italian Peninsula. The teeth, which are some 450,000 years old, have some telltale features of the Neanderthal lineage of ancient humans. Dating back to the Middle Pleistocene, the fossils help to fill in gaps in an intriguingly complex part of the hominid family tree.
The species Homo neanderthalensis shares an unknown common ancestor with our own species, Homo sapiens, but it’s unclear exactly when the lineages diverged. Homo sapiens evolved perhaps 300,000 years ago, according to the fossil record, while Neanderthals’ evolutionary timeline has proven even trickier to pin down. Some genetic studies suggest that their lineage split from our own as long as 650,000 years ago, but the oldest definitive fossil evidence for Neanderthals extends back only about 400,000 years.
To help to take a bite out of that gap, Clément Zanolli of the Université Toulouse III and colleagues used detailed morphological analyses and micro-CT scanning techniques to painstakingly measure the 450,000-year-old teeth. The teeth were then compared, inside and out, to those of other ancient human species, revealing that they have Neanderthal-like features.
“With this work and other recent studies, it seems now evident that the Neanderthal lineage dates back to at least 450,000 years ago and maybe more,” Zanolli says in an email. “This age is much older than the typical Neanderthals, and before our study it was unclear to which human fossil species these Italian remains were related.”
Most Neanderthal fossils are far more recent, dating from about 130,000 to 40,000 years ago, making evidence of the species’ earlier period hard to come by. The Middle Pleistocene Era teeth were found at two different sites, one near Rome (Fontana Ranuccio) and another outside Trieste (Visogliano). Together, these tiny fossils represent an intriguing piece of physical evidence that supports the findings of genetic studies of ancient human ancestry.
“I think that this is an interesting study, demonstrating that many of the features of Neanderthal teeth are present in Europe as far back as 450,000 years ago, which is farther back in time than Neanderthals have yet been identified in the fossil record,” says Ohio State University anthropologist Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg in an email, who wasn’t involved in the study. “This pushes back the ‘hard evidence’ of the split of Neanderthals from modern humans and is entirely consistent with the divergence dates coming from ancient DNA analyses, which suggest that the divergence occurred before 450,000 years ago.”
But the story isn’t as simple as a fork between modern human and Neanderthal lineages. Rather, the ancestral tree of the genus Homo appears wonderfully complex.
“There are other European fossils of comparable age that lack the Neanderthal features of these Italian fossils, and therefore indicate that other kinds of humans, besides Neanderthals, may have been present in Europe during this period of time,” Guatelli-Steinberg says.
One species in particular, Homo heidelbergensis, has been suggested as the possible common ancestor of both Neanderthals and modern humans.
“During the Middle Pleistocene, another species called Homo heidelbergensis was present in Europe, and its relationships either with Neanderthals or with more archaic species like Homo erectus are still unclear,” Zanolli says.
As scientists further untangle the evolutionary pathways of ancient humans, teeth will likely continue to play a critical role. Made of enamel, the body’s hardest biological substance, teeth tend to survive longer than bone. Additionally, the shapes and structures of teeth provide a valuable diagnostic tool to discriminate between our various ancient hominin relatives.
But how does one tell a Neanderthal’s tooth from a modern human’s, or any of the lineages in between? Paleoanthropologist Kristin Krueger of Loyola University of Chicago says that in general, teeth and jaws get smaller as evolution progresses, likely due to dietary changes such as the development of cooking. But when it comes to teeth, size isn’t the only thing that matters.
Cusps, crenulations, ridges and other features can be used to categorize the teeth of early humans. Tooth interiors can differ as well, and variations like enamel thickness and pulp chamber size can yield critical information to the trained eye.
“This study is an excellent example of what we can learn about evolution from teeth in general, and also what we can learn without destructive analysis,” Krueger says in an email. “The dental record from this time period and location is rare, so to have the number of teeth and analyze them to this degree without having to cross-section them or do destructive analysis (which is necessary for DNA analysis) is of paramount importance.”
And teeth can potentially do much more than simply uncover the roots of our evolutionary family tree. Ancient chompers can often teach us about the lives and diets of the ancient humans they belonged to.
“We think of teeth and dental records when identifying a random body in the woods, but what we don’t often appreciate is the scope of information that teeth can reveal. They are like little windows into a person’s life and can tell us about things like age, diet, hygiene, migration patterns, weaning practices, stress episodes and more,” Krueger says.
That such information might endure for half a million years makes the humble tooth an important tool for untangling the complex threads of early human origins.
A fossil tooth study published today in the journal PLOS ONE analyzes some of the oldest human remains ever found on the Italian Peninsula. The teeth, which are some 450,000 years old, have some telltale features of the Neanderthal lineage of ancient humans. Dating back to the Middle Pleistocene, the fossils help to fill in gaps in an intriguingly complex part of the hominid family tree.
The species Homo neanderthalensis shares an unknown common ancestor with our own species, Homo sapiens, but it’s unclear exactly when the lineages diverged. Homo sapiens evolved perhaps 300,000 years ago, according to the fossil record, while Neanderthals’ evolutionary timeline has proven even trickier to pin down. Some genetic studies suggest that their lineage split from our own as long as 650,000 years ago, but the oldest definitive fossil evidence for Neanderthals extends back only about 400,000 years.
To help to take a bite out of that gap, Clément Zanolli of the Université Toulouse III and colleagues used detailed morphological analyses and micro-CT scanning techniques to painstakingly measure the 450,000-year-old teeth. The teeth were then compared, inside and out, to those of other ancient human species, revealing that they have Neanderthal-like features.
“With this work and other recent studies, it seems now evident that the Neanderthal lineage dates back to at least 450,000 years ago and maybe more,” Zanolli says in an email. “This age is much older than the typical Neanderthals, and before our study it was unclear to which human fossil species these Italian remains were related.”
Most Neanderthal fossils are far more recent, dating from about 130,000 to 40,000 years ago, making evidence of the species’ earlier period hard to come by. The Middle Pleistocene Era teeth were found at two different sites, one near Rome (Fontana Ranuccio) and another outside Trieste (Visogliano). Together, these tiny fossils represent an intriguing piece of physical evidence that supports the findings of genetic studies of ancient human ancestry.
“I think that this is an interesting study, demonstrating that many of the features of Neanderthal teeth are present in Europe as far back as 450,000 years ago, which is farther back in time than Neanderthals have yet been identified in the fossil record,” says Ohio State University anthropologist Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg in an email, who wasn’t involved in the study. “This pushes back the ‘hard evidence’ of the split of Neanderthals from modern humans and is entirely consistent with the divergence dates coming from ancient DNA analyses, which suggest that the divergence occurred before 450,000 years ago.”
But the story isn’t as simple as a fork between modern human and Neanderthal lineages. Rather, the ancestral tree of the genus Homo appears wonderfully complex.
“There are other European fossils of comparable age that lack the Neanderthal features of these Italian fossils, and therefore indicate that other kinds of humans, besides Neanderthals, may have been present in Europe during this period of time,” Guatelli-Steinberg says.
One species in particular, Homo heidelbergensis, has been suggested as the possible common ancestor of both Neanderthals and modern humans.
“During the Middle Pleistocene, another species called Homo heidelbergensis was present in Europe, and its relationships either with Neanderthals or with more archaic species like Homo erectus are still unclear,” Zanolli says.
As scientists further untangle the evolutionary pathways of ancient humans, teeth will likely continue to play a critical role. Made of enamel, the body’s hardest biological substance, teeth tend to survive longer than bone. Additionally, the shapes and structures of teeth provide a valuable diagnostic tool to discriminate between our various ancient hominin relatives.
But how does one tell a Neanderthal’s tooth from a modern human’s, or any of the lineages in between? Paleoanthropologist Kristin Krueger of Loyola University of Chicago says that in general, teeth and jaws get smaller as evolution progresses, likely due to dietary changes such as the development of cooking. But when it comes to teeth, size isn’t the only thing that matters.
Cusps, crenulations, ridges and other features can be used to categorize the teeth of early humans. Tooth interiors can differ as well, and variations like enamel thickness and pulp chamber size can yield critical information to the trained eye.
“This study is an excellent example of what we can learn about evolution from teeth in general, and also what we can learn without destructive analysis,” Krueger says in an email. “The dental record from this time period and location is rare, so to have the number of teeth and analyze them to this degree without having to cross-section them or do destructive analysis (which is necessary for DNA analysis) is of paramount importance.”
And teeth can potentially do much more than simply uncover the roots of our evolutionary family tree. Ancient chompers can often teach us about the lives and diets of the ancient humans they belonged to.
“We think of teeth and dental records when identifying a random body in the woods, but what we don’t often appreciate is the scope of information that teeth can reveal. They are like little windows into a person’s life and can tell us about things like age, diet, hygiene, migration patterns, weaning practices, stress episodes and more,” Krueger says.
That such information might endure for half a million years makes the humble tooth an important tool for untangling the complex threads of early human origins.
The New Story of Humanity's Origins in Africa
Several new discoveries suggest that our species didn’t arise from a single point in space. Instead, the entire continent was our cradle.
Ed Yong - the atlantic
7/11/18
An ancient human skull from Jebel IrhoudRyan Somma / Flickr / Katie Martin / The Atlantic
There is a decades-old origin story for our species, in which we descended from a group of hominids who lived somewhere in Africa around 200,000 years ago. Some scientists have placed that origin in East Africa; others championed a southern birthplace. In either case, the narrative always begins in one spot. Those ancestral hominids, probably Homo heidelbergensis, slowly accumulated the characteristic features of our species—the rounded skull, small face, prominent chin, advanced tools, and sophisticated culture. From that early cradle, we then spread throughout Africa, and eventually the world.
But some scientists are now arguing that this textbook narrative is wrong in its simplicity, linearity, and geography. Yes, we evolved from ancestral hominids in Africa, but we did it in a complicated fashion—one that involves the entire continent.
Consider the ancient human fossils from a Moroccan cave called Jebel Irhoud, which were described just last year. These 315,000-year-old bones are the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens. They not only pushed back the proposed dawn of our species, but they added northwest Africa to the list of possible origin sites. They also had an odd combination of features, combining the flat faces of modern humans with the elongated skulls of ancient species like Homo erectus. From the front, they could have passed for us; from the side, they would have stood out.
Fossils from all over Africa have modern and ancient traits in varied combinations, including the 260,000-year-old Florisbad skull from South Africa; the 195,000-year-old remains from Omo Kibish in Ethiopia; and the 160,000-year-old Herto skull, also from Ethiopia. Some scientists have argued that these remains represent different subspecies of Homo sapiens, or different species altogether.
But perhaps they really were all Homo sapiens, and our species simply used to be far more diverse than we currently are. “If you look at skulls, you’ll see different features of modern humans arising in different locations at different times,” says Eleanor Scerri, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford. And the reason for that, she says, is that “we’re a species with multiple African origins.”
She and others argue that humans originated from several diverse populations that lived across Africa. Separated from each other by geographical barriers, they mostly evolved in isolation, and each group developed some of our hallmark traits, but not others. But their separation wasn’t constant: As a changing climate remodeled the African landscape, greening deserts and drying out forests, those early humans were repeatedly drawn together and pulled apart. Whenever they met, they mated and mingled, exchanging genes and ideas in a continent-wide melting pot that eventually coalesced into the full bingo of features that you or I might recognize.
This theory, known as “African multiregionalism,” is a fundamentally different view of how we came to be. It’s saying that no single place or population gave rise to us. It’s saying that the cradle of humankind was the entirety of Africa.
---
There’s one large potential problem with the African multiregionalism story. Genetic studies of today’s African populations suggest that they diverged from one another between 100,000 and 150,000 years ago—far later than the early, continent-wide origin suggested by the bones and tools. That deep and broad origin might be right, “but, it’s not something that we geneticists have formally tested,” says Brenna Henn from UC Davis, who is an author on the new paper. “We have discussed ways of doing that, but there’s no published paper yet saying that there is deep population structure in Africa.”
But the DNA of today’s Africans has been shaped by more recent population upheavals that have obscured the goings-on of 300,000 years ago. What’s more, the studies that analyzed this modern DNA have largely relied on tree-like population models in which a single lineage grows from a single place—exactly the scenario that proponents of African multiregionalism say is wrong. “In science, we use simple models for good reasons, because often we don’t have sufficient data to inform more complex models,” says Thomas, who is a geneticist himself. “But there’s a difference between using simple models and believing in them.”
“We’re just at the beginning of trying to figure out how to refine this new theory,” says Scerri. “To know more about what happened, we need to get more data from many of the gaps in Africa. The earliest Homo sapiens fossils we have come from 10 percent of Africa, and we’re extrapolating to 90 percent of the continent. Most of it remains unexplored. We’re effectively saying those places aren’t worth looking at because we have the answer from 10 percent. How can we possibly know that?”
But some scientists are now arguing that this textbook narrative is wrong in its simplicity, linearity, and geography. Yes, we evolved from ancestral hominids in Africa, but we did it in a complicated fashion—one that involves the entire continent.
Consider the ancient human fossils from a Moroccan cave called Jebel Irhoud, which were described just last year. These 315,000-year-old bones are the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens. They not only pushed back the proposed dawn of our species, but they added northwest Africa to the list of possible origin sites. They also had an odd combination of features, combining the flat faces of modern humans with the elongated skulls of ancient species like Homo erectus. From the front, they could have passed for us; from the side, they would have stood out.
Fossils from all over Africa have modern and ancient traits in varied combinations, including the 260,000-year-old Florisbad skull from South Africa; the 195,000-year-old remains from Omo Kibish in Ethiopia; and the 160,000-year-old Herto skull, also from Ethiopia. Some scientists have argued that these remains represent different subspecies of Homo sapiens, or different species altogether.
But perhaps they really were all Homo sapiens, and our species simply used to be far more diverse than we currently are. “If you look at skulls, you’ll see different features of modern humans arising in different locations at different times,” says Eleanor Scerri, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford. And the reason for that, she says, is that “we’re a species with multiple African origins.”
She and others argue that humans originated from several diverse populations that lived across Africa. Separated from each other by geographical barriers, they mostly evolved in isolation, and each group developed some of our hallmark traits, but not others. But their separation wasn’t constant: As a changing climate remodeled the African landscape, greening deserts and drying out forests, those early humans were repeatedly drawn together and pulled apart. Whenever they met, they mated and mingled, exchanging genes and ideas in a continent-wide melting pot that eventually coalesced into the full bingo of features that you or I might recognize.
This theory, known as “African multiregionalism,” is a fundamentally different view of how we came to be. It’s saying that no single place or population gave rise to us. It’s saying that the cradle of humankind was the entirety of Africa.
---
There’s one large potential problem with the African multiregionalism story. Genetic studies of today’s African populations suggest that they diverged from one another between 100,000 and 150,000 years ago—far later than the early, continent-wide origin suggested by the bones and tools. That deep and broad origin might be right, “but, it’s not something that we geneticists have formally tested,” says Brenna Henn from UC Davis, who is an author on the new paper. “We have discussed ways of doing that, but there’s no published paper yet saying that there is deep population structure in Africa.”
But the DNA of today’s Africans has been shaped by more recent population upheavals that have obscured the goings-on of 300,000 years ago. What’s more, the studies that analyzed this modern DNA have largely relied on tree-like population models in which a single lineage grows from a single place—exactly the scenario that proponents of African multiregionalism say is wrong. “In science, we use simple models for good reasons, because often we don’t have sufficient data to inform more complex models,” says Thomas, who is a geneticist himself. “But there’s a difference between using simple models and believing in them.”
“We’re just at the beginning of trying to figure out how to refine this new theory,” says Scerri. “To know more about what happened, we need to get more data from many of the gaps in Africa. The earliest Homo sapiens fossils we have come from 10 percent of Africa, and we’re extrapolating to 90 percent of the continent. Most of it remains unexplored. We’re effectively saying those places aren’t worth looking at because we have the answer from 10 percent. How can we possibly know that?”
Aboriginal settlement in Australia ‘no accident’: study
the new daily - australia
Aboriginal settlement in Australia was no accident but the result of large-scale migration by skilled maritime explorers, research shows.
Experts have made the finding using wind and ocean current modelling, similar to that deployed in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The process was designed to simulate likely routes between the islands of Timor and Roti and more than 100 now-submerged islands off the Kimberley coast.
“There’s always been a lot of speculation about how Aboriginal people made it to Australia and a lot of people have argued that people might have made it here by accident,” study co-author and James Cook University archaeology Professor Sean Ulm said.
“What this study has shown … is that it’s so absolutely improbable that you can explain any of those lines of evidence with accidental voyaging.
Aboriginal settlement in Australia was no accident but the result of large-scale migration by skilled maritime explorers, research shows.
Experts have made the finding using wind and ocean current modelling, similar to that deployed in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The process was designed to simulate likely routes between the islands of Timor and Roti and more than 100 now-submerged islands off the Kimberley coast.
“There’s always been a lot of speculation about how Aboriginal people made it to Australia and a lot of people have argued that people might have made it here by accident,” study co-author and James Cook University archaeology Professor Sean Ulm said.
“What this study has shown … is that it’s so absolutely improbable that you can explain any of those lines of evidence with accidental voyaging.
It has to be purposeful, it has to be co-ordinated and it has to be fairly large-scale to explain the patterns we see.”
The Quaternary Science Reviews-published study estimated migration to the bridge of islands off northwest Australia occurred between about 50,000 and 65,000 years ago.
Prof Ulm said the sea was 75 metres lower and the islands visible from the parts of Timor and Roti.
The hundreds of routes modelled would have taken between four and seven days and spanned up to 150 kilometres.
“If you had the technology to make it there, it was really easy to make it to Australia,” he said.
“We’re talking 60,000 years ago here. So that is an incredible time stamp to how complex the first Australians were from the moment they first saw Australia.”
The study – by experts from the CSIRO and various universities – also used genetic information to show hundreds of people, not just a few, likely made the voyage.
“This is very significant because it was very early in modern human dispersals across the globe,” Prof Ulm said.
“We’re talking multiple boats, not just one boat blowing off course … reflecting the population in the mainland Southeast Asian area.”
Experts have made the finding using wind and ocean current modelling, similar to that deployed in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The process was designed to simulate likely routes between the islands of Timor and Roti and more than 100 now-submerged islands off the Kimberley coast.
“There’s always been a lot of speculation about how Aboriginal people made it to Australia and a lot of people have argued that people might have made it here by accident,” study co-author and James Cook University archaeology Professor Sean Ulm said.
“What this study has shown … is that it’s so absolutely improbable that you can explain any of those lines of evidence with accidental voyaging.
Aboriginal settlement in Australia was no accident but the result of large-scale migration by skilled maritime explorers, research shows.
Experts have made the finding using wind and ocean current modelling, similar to that deployed in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The process was designed to simulate likely routes between the islands of Timor and Roti and more than 100 now-submerged islands off the Kimberley coast.
“There’s always been a lot of speculation about how Aboriginal people made it to Australia and a lot of people have argued that people might have made it here by accident,” study co-author and James Cook University archaeology Professor Sean Ulm said.
“What this study has shown … is that it’s so absolutely improbable that you can explain any of those lines of evidence with accidental voyaging.
It has to be purposeful, it has to be co-ordinated and it has to be fairly large-scale to explain the patterns we see.”
The Quaternary Science Reviews-published study estimated migration to the bridge of islands off northwest Australia occurred between about 50,000 and 65,000 years ago.
Prof Ulm said the sea was 75 metres lower and the islands visible from the parts of Timor and Roti.
The hundreds of routes modelled would have taken between four and seven days and spanned up to 150 kilometres.
“If you had the technology to make it there, it was really easy to make it to Australia,” he said.
“We’re talking 60,000 years ago here. So that is an incredible time stamp to how complex the first Australians were from the moment they first saw Australia.”
The study – by experts from the CSIRO and various universities – also used genetic information to show hundreds of people, not just a few, likely made the voyage.
“This is very significant because it was very early in modern human dispersals across the globe,” Prof Ulm said.
“We’re talking multiple boats, not just one boat blowing off course … reflecting the population in the mainland Southeast Asian area.”
Humans Mated Outside Our Species 3 Times
Second instance of human-Denisovan interbreeding discovered
By Arden Dier, Newser Staff
Posted Mar 16, 2018 9:31 AM
(NEWSER) – Ancient humans weren't against knocking boots with other species: We know they had sex with Neanderthals. We also know they mated with the mysterious Denisovans, as some Australasians (those from Papua New Guinea in particular) have 5% Denisovan DNA. But a "breakthrough" study shows the interbreeding wasn't limited to those two instances. While looking for ancient DNA in the genomes of 5,600 living humans, a team at the University of Washington in Seattle came across evidence of a third interbreeding event, reports New Scientist. A smaller contribution of Denisovan DNA in Han Chinese, Chinese Dai, and Japanese people—about 0.2% of their genome—suggests humans mixed with a distinct population of Denisovans in not one but two locations: Indonesia or Australasia and East Asia.
Though the only four Denisovan fossils that have been found come from the same cave in Siberia, the research published in the journal Cell shows Denisovans were spread across Asia and "suggests that at least in some instances, Denisovans and modern humans were willing to live in proximity and interact," lead author Sharon Browning says. Her research also backs the theory that there was a single "wave" of interbreeding between humans and one population of Neanderthals, reports the Atlantic. But Browning couldn't link other ancient DNA found in living humans to Neanderthals or Denisovans, suggesting humans may have mated with hominins we haven't even discovered yet. Harvard geneticist David Reich, who was not involved in the research, says the finding of "a definite third interbreeding event" makes this "a breakthrough paper," per the Washington Post. (Here's how a bit of cave dirt changed archaeology.)
Though the only four Denisovan fossils that have been found come from the same cave in Siberia, the research published in the journal Cell shows Denisovans were spread across Asia and "suggests that at least in some instances, Denisovans and modern humans were willing to live in proximity and interact," lead author Sharon Browning says. Her research also backs the theory that there was a single "wave" of interbreeding between humans and one population of Neanderthals, reports the Atlantic. But Browning couldn't link other ancient DNA found in living humans to Neanderthals or Denisovans, suggesting humans may have mated with hominins we haven't even discovered yet. Harvard geneticist David Reich, who was not involved in the research, says the finding of "a definite third interbreeding event" makes this "a breakthrough paper," per the Washington Post. (Here's how a bit of cave dirt changed archaeology.)
An Older Origin for Complex Human Cultures
New finds from Kenya suggest that humans used long-distance trade networks, sophisticated tools, and symbolic pigments right from the dawn of our species.
ed yong - the atlantic
3/15/18
Acheulean tools on the left, Middle Stone Age tools on the right
When Rick Potts started digging at Olorgesailie, the now-dry basin of an ancient Kenyan lake, he figured that it would take three years to find everything there was to find. That was in 1985, and Potts is now leading his fourth decade of excavation. It’s a good thing he stayed. In recent years, his team has uncovered a series of unexpected finds, which suggest that human behavior and culture became incredibly sophisticated well before anyone suspected—almost at the very dawn of our species, Homo sapiens.
The team found obsidian tools that came from sources dozens of miles away—a sign of long-distance trade networks. They found lumps of black and red rock that had been processed to create pigments—a sign of symbolic thought and representation. They found carefully crafted stone tools that are indicative of the period known as the Middle Stone Age; that period was thought to have started around 280,000 years ago, but the Olorgesailie tools are between 305,000 and 320,000 years old.
Collectively, these finds speak to one of the most important questions in human evolution: When did anatomically modern people, with big brains and bipedal stances, become behaviorally modern, with symbolic art, advanced tools, and a culture that built on itself? Scientists used to believe that the latter milestone arrived well after the former, when our species migrated into Europe between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, and went through a “creative explosion” that produced the evocative cave art of Lascaux and Chauvet. But this conspicuously Eurocentric idea has been overturned by a wealth of evidence showing a much earlier origin for modern human behavior—in Africa, the continent of our birth.
The new discoveries at Olorgesailie push things back even further. They suggest that many of our most important qualities—long-term planning, long-distance exploration, large social networks, symbolic representation, and innovative technology—were already in place 20,000 to 40,000 years earlier than believed. That coincides with the age of the earliest known human fossils, recently found elsewhere in Africa. “What we’re seeing in Olorgesailie is right at the root of Homo sapiens,” Potts says. “It seems that this package of cognitive and social behaviors were there from the outset.”
“They demonstrate human ways of thinking and doing that cannot be traced easily in the remains of our skeletons or genes,” says Marlize Lombard, an archeologist at the University of Johannesburg. “They provide strong indicators that by about 300,000 years ago we were well on our way to become modern humans in Africa.”
It’s a “textbook example of good archaeological practice,” adds Lyn Wadley from the University of Witwatersrand.
For the longest time, most of the tools that were uncovered at Olorgesailie were Acheulean handaxes—large, teardrop-shaped tools made by chipping away at cores of stone. Hominids like Homo erectus used these implements to butcher meat and cut wood. At Olorgesailie, they started doing this 1.2 million years ago, and continued until at least 500,000 years ago. And during all that time, the basic design of the axes changed very little. In an age where the phones in our pockets can become obsolete in a year, “the idea of a single technology lasting that long is almost inconceivable,” says Potts.
Acheulean hand axes did eventually go obsolete, giving way to the tools of the Middle Stone Age. These were smaller, more carefully shaped, more specialized, and more varied. Instead of just bulky axes and cleavers, they also included spear tips, scrapers, and awls. Potts’ team started finding these at Olorgesailie in the early 2000s, and Alan Deino from the Berkeley Geochronology Center worked out how old they are by analyzing levels of radioactive isotopes of argon and uranium in the samples. He concluded that these tools had completely replaced the Acheulean designs by at least 305,000 years ago.
Many of the tools were made from a black volcanic rock called obsidian, which was brought to the site and processed there. But from where? There aren’t any obsidian outcrops near Olorgesailie. The chemistry of the tools suggests that they came from sources up to 100 kilometers away. But “these are straight-line distances that, in some cases, go over the top of a mountain,” says Alison Brooks from George Washington University.
It’s unlikely that the residents of Olorgesailie regularly commuted to get their obsidian. Instead, they probably took part in long-distance trade networks, receiving obsidian from people who lived in distant locales presumably in exchange for other goods. “There’s an occasional piece in the Acheulean that gets transported these distances,” says Brooks. “But we have thousands of pieces in this one site that’s smaller than most people’s kitchens. There has been a really major import of raw materials.” If she’s right, then Olorgesailie’s obsidian network precedes other examples of long-distance trade by 80,000 to 100,000 years.
These networks help to explain another Olorgesailie discovery: colored rocks. One site contains 86 rounded lumps of manganese ore, which would have produced dark brown or black pigments. Another harbored two lumps of iron minerals that had clearly been deliberately ground with some sharp, chiseling tool to extract the red powder within. “Mixed with any kind of fat, or even rubbed on oily skin, it would have made a very wonderful paint,” says Brooks. “Pigments are often seen as the root of complex symbolic behavior,” says Potts. “Think of the way we use color on clothes, flags, and tattoos—all signals of social identity.”[...]
The team found obsidian tools that came from sources dozens of miles away—a sign of long-distance trade networks. They found lumps of black and red rock that had been processed to create pigments—a sign of symbolic thought and representation. They found carefully crafted stone tools that are indicative of the period known as the Middle Stone Age; that period was thought to have started around 280,000 years ago, but the Olorgesailie tools are between 305,000 and 320,000 years old.
Collectively, these finds speak to one of the most important questions in human evolution: When did anatomically modern people, with big brains and bipedal stances, become behaviorally modern, with symbolic art, advanced tools, and a culture that built on itself? Scientists used to believe that the latter milestone arrived well after the former, when our species migrated into Europe between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, and went through a “creative explosion” that produced the evocative cave art of Lascaux and Chauvet. But this conspicuously Eurocentric idea has been overturned by a wealth of evidence showing a much earlier origin for modern human behavior—in Africa, the continent of our birth.
The new discoveries at Olorgesailie push things back even further. They suggest that many of our most important qualities—long-term planning, long-distance exploration, large social networks, symbolic representation, and innovative technology—were already in place 20,000 to 40,000 years earlier than believed. That coincides with the age of the earliest known human fossils, recently found elsewhere in Africa. “What we’re seeing in Olorgesailie is right at the root of Homo sapiens,” Potts says. “It seems that this package of cognitive and social behaviors were there from the outset.”
“They demonstrate human ways of thinking and doing that cannot be traced easily in the remains of our skeletons or genes,” says Marlize Lombard, an archeologist at the University of Johannesburg. “They provide strong indicators that by about 300,000 years ago we were well on our way to become modern humans in Africa.”
It’s a “textbook example of good archaeological practice,” adds Lyn Wadley from the University of Witwatersrand.
For the longest time, most of the tools that were uncovered at Olorgesailie were Acheulean handaxes—large, teardrop-shaped tools made by chipping away at cores of stone. Hominids like Homo erectus used these implements to butcher meat and cut wood. At Olorgesailie, they started doing this 1.2 million years ago, and continued until at least 500,000 years ago. And during all that time, the basic design of the axes changed very little. In an age where the phones in our pockets can become obsolete in a year, “the idea of a single technology lasting that long is almost inconceivable,” says Potts.
Acheulean hand axes did eventually go obsolete, giving way to the tools of the Middle Stone Age. These were smaller, more carefully shaped, more specialized, and more varied. Instead of just bulky axes and cleavers, they also included spear tips, scrapers, and awls. Potts’ team started finding these at Olorgesailie in the early 2000s, and Alan Deino from the Berkeley Geochronology Center worked out how old they are by analyzing levels of radioactive isotopes of argon and uranium in the samples. He concluded that these tools had completely replaced the Acheulean designs by at least 305,000 years ago.
Many of the tools were made from a black volcanic rock called obsidian, which was brought to the site and processed there. But from where? There aren’t any obsidian outcrops near Olorgesailie. The chemistry of the tools suggests that they came from sources up to 100 kilometers away. But “these are straight-line distances that, in some cases, go over the top of a mountain,” says Alison Brooks from George Washington University.
It’s unlikely that the residents of Olorgesailie regularly commuted to get their obsidian. Instead, they probably took part in long-distance trade networks, receiving obsidian from people who lived in distant locales presumably in exchange for other goods. “There’s an occasional piece in the Acheulean that gets transported these distances,” says Brooks. “But we have thousands of pieces in this one site that’s smaller than most people’s kitchens. There has been a really major import of raw materials.” If she’s right, then Olorgesailie’s obsidian network precedes other examples of long-distance trade by 80,000 to 100,000 years.
These networks help to explain another Olorgesailie discovery: colored rocks. One site contains 86 rounded lumps of manganese ore, which would have produced dark brown or black pigments. Another harbored two lumps of iron minerals that had clearly been deliberately ground with some sharp, chiseling tool to extract the red powder within. “Mixed with any kind of fat, or even rubbed on oily skin, it would have made a very wonderful paint,” says Brooks. “Pigments are often seen as the root of complex symbolic behavior,” says Potts. “Think of the way we use color on clothes, flags, and tattoos—all signals of social identity.”[...]
DNA shows first modern Briton had dark skin, blue eyes
phys.org
February 7, 2018
A reconstruction model from the skull of 'Cheddar Man' after DNA analysis of the 10,000-year-old skeleton shows early Britons had dark skin and blue eyes
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-dna-modern-briton-dark-skin.html#jCp
The first modern Briton had dark skin and blue eyes, London scientists said on Wednesday, following groundbreaking DNA analysis of the remains of a man who lived 10,000 years ago.
Known as "Cheddar Man" after the area in southwest England where his skeleton was discovered in a cave in 1903, the ancient man has been brought to life through the first ever full DNA analysis of his remains.
In a joint project between Britain's Natural History Museum and University College London, scientists drilled a 2mm hole into the skull and extracted bone powder for analysis.
Their findings transformed the way they had previously seen Cheddar Man, who had been portrayed as having brown eyes and light skin in an earlier model.
"It is very surprising that a Brit 10,000 years ago could have that combination of very blue eyes but really dark skin," said the museum's Chris Stringer, who for the past decade has analysed the bones of people found in the cave.
The findings suggest that lighter pigmentation being a feature of populations of northern Europe is more recent than previously thought.
Cheddar Man's tribe migrated to Britain at the end of the last Ice Age and his DNA has been linked to individuals discovered in modern-day Spain, Hungary and Luxembourg.
Selina Brace, a researcher of ancient DNA at the museum, said the cave environment Cheddar Man was found in helped preserve his remains.
"In the cave you have a really nice, cool, dry, constant environment, and that basically prevents the DNA from breaking down," she said.
A bust of Cheddar Man, complete with shoulder-length dark hair and short facial hair, was created using 3D printing.
It took close to three months to build the model, with its makers using a high-tech scanner which had been designed for the International Space Station.
Alfons Kennis, who made the bust with his brother Adrie, said the DNA findings were "revolutionary".
"It's a story all about migrations throughout history," he told Channel 4 in a documentary to be aired on February 18.
"It maybe gets rid of the idea that you have to look a certain way to be from somewhere. We are all immigrants," he added.
Known as "Cheddar Man" after the area in southwest England where his skeleton was discovered in a cave in 1903, the ancient man has been brought to life through the first ever full DNA analysis of his remains.
In a joint project between Britain's Natural History Museum and University College London, scientists drilled a 2mm hole into the skull and extracted bone powder for analysis.
Their findings transformed the way they had previously seen Cheddar Man, who had been portrayed as having brown eyes and light skin in an earlier model.
"It is very surprising that a Brit 10,000 years ago could have that combination of very blue eyes but really dark skin," said the museum's Chris Stringer, who for the past decade has analysed the bones of people found in the cave.
The findings suggest that lighter pigmentation being a feature of populations of northern Europe is more recent than previously thought.
Cheddar Man's tribe migrated to Britain at the end of the last Ice Age and his DNA has been linked to individuals discovered in modern-day Spain, Hungary and Luxembourg.
Selina Brace, a researcher of ancient DNA at the museum, said the cave environment Cheddar Man was found in helped preserve his remains.
"In the cave you have a really nice, cool, dry, constant environment, and that basically prevents the DNA from breaking down," she said.
A bust of Cheddar Man, complete with shoulder-length dark hair and short facial hair, was created using 3D printing.
It took close to three months to build the model, with its makers using a high-tech scanner which had been designed for the International Space Station.
Alfons Kennis, who made the bust with his brother Adrie, said the DNA findings were "revolutionary".
"It's a story all about migrations throughout history," he told Channel 4 in a documentary to be aired on February 18.
"It maybe gets rid of the idea that you have to look a certain way to be from somewhere. We are all immigrants," he added.
200 million-year-old fossil of rare Jurassic-era 'sea dragon' was found hidden in private collection
The ichthyosaur fossil was first found in 1996 in Somerset and had been residing in a private collection before it was identified.
India Ashok - ibt
February 3, 2018 11:25 GMT
Ichthyosaurs, also known as “sea dragons”, were reptiles that swam about in Earth’s seas at a time when dinosaurs ruled supreme James McKay
A 200 million-year-old fossil of a rare Jurassic-era "sea dragon" was recently discovered by British palaeontologist and dinosaur expert at the University of Manchester, Dean Lomax. The fossil was first found in 1996 in Somerset and had since been residing in a private collection before it was identified.
Ichthyosaurs, also known as "sea dragons", were reptiles that swam about in Earth's seas at a time when dinosaurs ruled supreme. Numerous fossils of the ancient sea creature have been found in the UK, and Lomax himself has identified five different species of the ancient reptiles.
The fossil belongs to a new species of ichthyosaur, called Wahlisaurus massarae, and is only the second of its kind. He named it honouring two of his mentors, Bill Wahl and Professor Judy Massare.
Lomax first identified the new species of ichthyosaur in 2016 after finding several unusual features that were unique to the specimen. According to Lomax, the fossil is from the "Triassic-Jurassic boundary, right after a world-wide mass extinction".
"When Wahlisaurus was announced, I was a little nervous about what other palaeontologists would make of it, considering the new species was known only from a single specimen. As a scientist you learn to question almost everything, and be as critical as you can be. My analysis suggested it was something new, but some palaeontologists questioned this and said it was just 'variation' of an existing species," Lomax wrote in an article in Capeia.
According to Lomax, the fossil's caracoid bone has the same unique features found in the same bone of the Wahlisaurus.
"You can only imagine my sheer excitement to find a specimen of Wahlisaurus in Simon's collection. It was such a wonderful moment. When you have just one specimen, 'variation' can be called upon, but when you double the number of specimens you have it gives even more credibility to your research," Lomax added.
Since it was first discovered, the ichthyosaur fossil was residing in the private collection of Simon Carpenter, which is where Lomax first happened to glimpse it and realised that it was a specimen of the Wahlisaurus. The fossil has since been donated to the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
Although the fossil is believed to be around 200 million years old, Lomax and his colleagues, Dr Mark Evans, palaeontologist and curator at the New Walk Museum in Liecester, as well as Carpenter have been unable to determine whether the ichthyosaur was from the late Triassic or early Jurassic period.
"The discovery of the new specimen in a private collection helps to recognise the important contribution of dedicated and responsible fossil collectors," Lomax said. "I am especially grateful to Simon for donating the specimen and collecting all of the data available with the specimen when he found it."
The new study has been published in the Geological Journal.
Ichthyosaurs, also known as "sea dragons", were reptiles that swam about in Earth's seas at a time when dinosaurs ruled supreme. Numerous fossils of the ancient sea creature have been found in the UK, and Lomax himself has identified five different species of the ancient reptiles.
The fossil belongs to a new species of ichthyosaur, called Wahlisaurus massarae, and is only the second of its kind. He named it honouring two of his mentors, Bill Wahl and Professor Judy Massare.
Lomax first identified the new species of ichthyosaur in 2016 after finding several unusual features that were unique to the specimen. According to Lomax, the fossil is from the "Triassic-Jurassic boundary, right after a world-wide mass extinction".
"When Wahlisaurus was announced, I was a little nervous about what other palaeontologists would make of it, considering the new species was known only from a single specimen. As a scientist you learn to question almost everything, and be as critical as you can be. My analysis suggested it was something new, but some palaeontologists questioned this and said it was just 'variation' of an existing species," Lomax wrote in an article in Capeia.
According to Lomax, the fossil's caracoid bone has the same unique features found in the same bone of the Wahlisaurus.
"You can only imagine my sheer excitement to find a specimen of Wahlisaurus in Simon's collection. It was such a wonderful moment. When you have just one specimen, 'variation' can be called upon, but when you double the number of specimens you have it gives even more credibility to your research," Lomax added.
Since it was first discovered, the ichthyosaur fossil was residing in the private collection of Simon Carpenter, which is where Lomax first happened to glimpse it and realised that it was a specimen of the Wahlisaurus. The fossil has since been donated to the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
Although the fossil is believed to be around 200 million years old, Lomax and his colleagues, Dr Mark Evans, palaeontologist and curator at the New Walk Museum in Liecester, as well as Carpenter have been unable to determine whether the ichthyosaur was from the late Triassic or early Jurassic period.
"The discovery of the new specimen in a private collection helps to recognise the important contribution of dedicated and responsible fossil collectors," Lomax said. "I am especially grateful to Simon for donating the specimen and collecting all of the data available with the specimen when he found it."
The new study has been published in the Geological Journal.
Egypt unveils tomb of ancient priestess
Agence France-Presse - raw story
03 FEB 2018 AT 09:31 ET
A general view shows well-preserved and rare wall paintings inside the tomb of an Old Kingdom priestess discovered by Egyptian archaeologists on the Giza plateau on the southern outskirts of Cairo on February 3, 2018 AFP / MOHAMED EL-SHAHED
Egyptian archaeologists on Saturday unveiled the tomb of an Old Kingdom priestess adorned with well-preserved and rare wall paintings.
Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Enany told reporters that the tomb on the Giza plateau near Cairo was built for Hetpet, a priestess to Hathor, the goddess of fertility, who assisted women in childbirth.
The tomb was found during excavation work in Giza's western cemetery by a team of Egyptian archaeologists led by Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The antiquities ministry said the cemetery houses tombs of top officials from the Old Kingdom's Fifth Dynasty (2465-2323 BC), and that several have already been dug up since 1842.
The newly discovered tomb "has the architectural style and the decorative elements of the Fifth Dynasty, with an entrance leading to an 'L' shaped shrine", the ministry said.
"The tomb has very distinguished wall paintings in a very good conservation condition depicting Hetpet standing in different hunting and fishing scenes or... receiving offerings from her children," it said.
The paintings also show scenes of musical and dancing performances as well as two scenes featuring monkeys -- domestic animals at the time -- one picking and eating fruit and the other dancing in front of an orchestra.
Waziri told AFP the paintings were unusual.
"Such scenes are rare... and have only been found previously in the (Old Kingdom) tomb of 'Ka-Iber' where a painting shows a monkey dancing in front of a guitarist not an orchestra," he said.
That tomb is located in Saqqara, a necropolis about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Cairo.
Enany told reporters the new tomb includes "a purification basin on which are engraved the name of the tomb's owner and her titles".
"A German expedition had found in 1909 a collection of antiquities carrying this lady's name, or a lady who has the same name, and these antiquities were moved to the Berlin museum at the time," he said.
"And 109 years later, we find this tomb that carries Hetpet's name."
Waziri said archaeologists will continue to excavate the site and hope to make new discoveries.
Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Enany told reporters that the tomb on the Giza plateau near Cairo was built for Hetpet, a priestess to Hathor, the goddess of fertility, who assisted women in childbirth.
The tomb was found during excavation work in Giza's western cemetery by a team of Egyptian archaeologists led by Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The antiquities ministry said the cemetery houses tombs of top officials from the Old Kingdom's Fifth Dynasty (2465-2323 BC), and that several have already been dug up since 1842.
The newly discovered tomb "has the architectural style and the decorative elements of the Fifth Dynasty, with an entrance leading to an 'L' shaped shrine", the ministry said.
"The tomb has very distinguished wall paintings in a very good conservation condition depicting Hetpet standing in different hunting and fishing scenes or... receiving offerings from her children," it said.
The paintings also show scenes of musical and dancing performances as well as two scenes featuring monkeys -- domestic animals at the time -- one picking and eating fruit and the other dancing in front of an orchestra.
Waziri told AFP the paintings were unusual.
"Such scenes are rare... and have only been found previously in the (Old Kingdom) tomb of 'Ka-Iber' where a painting shows a monkey dancing in front of a guitarist not an orchestra," he said.
That tomb is located in Saqqara, a necropolis about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Cairo.
Enany told reporters the new tomb includes "a purification basin on which are engraved the name of the tomb's owner and her titles".
"A German expedition had found in 1909 a collection of antiquities carrying this lady's name, or a lady who has the same name, and these antiquities were moved to the Berlin museum at the time," he said.
"And 109 years later, we find this tomb that carries Hetpet's name."
Waziri said archaeologists will continue to excavate the site and hope to make new discoveries.
Stone tools in India suggest earlier human exit from Africa
Malcolm Ritter -philly tribune
NEW YORK — Just a week after scientists reported evidence that our species left Africa earlier than we thought, another discovery is suggesting the date might be pushed back further.
Homo sapiens arose in Africa at least 300,000 years ago and left to colonize the globe. Scientists think there were several dispersals from Africa, not all equally successful. Last week’s report of a human jaw showed some members of our species had reached Israel by 177,000 to 194,000 years ago.
Now comes a discovery in India of stone tools, showing a style that has been associated elsewhere with our species. They were fashioned from 385,000 years ago to 172,000 years ago, showing evidence of continuity and development over that time. That starting point is a lot earlier than scientists generally think Homo sapiens left Africa.
This tool style has also been attributed to Neanderthals and possibly other species. So it’s impossible to say whether the tools were made by Homo sapiens or some evolutionary cousin, say researchers who reported the finding Wednesday in the journal Nature.
“We are very cautious on this point” because no human fossils were found with the tools, several authors added in a statement.
It’s not clear how much the tool development reflects arrival of populations or ideas from outside India, versus being more of a local development, said one author, Shanti Pappu of the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education in Chennai, India.
The tool-making style was a change from older stone tools found at the site, featuring a shift to smaller flakes, for example.
Michael Petraglia, an archaeologist who specializes in human evolution in Asia but didn’t participate in the work, said he did not think the tools show that our species had left Africa so long ago.
“I simply don’t buy it,” said Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. — (AP)
Instead, he said, he believes one of our evolutionary cousins in India developed the tool style independently of outside influence. The tools at the site northwest of Chennai in southeastern India are closely related to the older tool-making style there and seem to represent a transition, he said.
The idea that they reflect knowledge brought in from elsewhere would be tough to prove in India, he said. The country has few well-studied archaeological sites and only one fossil find from this period, from a forerunner of Homo sapiens that was associated with the earlier style of tool-making, Petraglia said. --
Homo sapiens arose in Africa at least 300,000 years ago and left to colonize the globe. Scientists think there were several dispersals from Africa, not all equally successful. Last week’s report of a human jaw showed some members of our species had reached Israel by 177,000 to 194,000 years ago.
Now comes a discovery in India of stone tools, showing a style that has been associated elsewhere with our species. They were fashioned from 385,000 years ago to 172,000 years ago, showing evidence of continuity and development over that time. That starting point is a lot earlier than scientists generally think Homo sapiens left Africa.
This tool style has also been attributed to Neanderthals and possibly other species. So it’s impossible to say whether the tools were made by Homo sapiens or some evolutionary cousin, say researchers who reported the finding Wednesday in the journal Nature.
“We are very cautious on this point” because no human fossils were found with the tools, several authors added in a statement.
It’s not clear how much the tool development reflects arrival of populations or ideas from outside India, versus being more of a local development, said one author, Shanti Pappu of the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education in Chennai, India.
The tool-making style was a change from older stone tools found at the site, featuring a shift to smaller flakes, for example.
Michael Petraglia, an archaeologist who specializes in human evolution in Asia but didn’t participate in the work, said he did not think the tools show that our species had left Africa so long ago.
“I simply don’t buy it,” said Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. — (AP)
Instead, he said, he believes one of our evolutionary cousins in India developed the tool style independently of outside influence. The tools at the site northwest of Chennai in southeastern India are closely related to the older tool-making style there and seem to represent a transition, he said.
The idea that they reflect knowledge brought in from elsewhere would be tough to prove in India, he said. The country has few well-studied archaeological sites and only one fossil find from this period, from a forerunner of Homo sapiens that was associated with the earlier style of tool-making, Petraglia said. --
A Single Migration From Africa Populated the World, Studies Find
by Carl Zimmer
From NY Times: Modern humans evolved somewhere in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago. But how did our species go on to populate the rest of the globe?
Did humans flood out of Africa in a single diaspora, or did we trickle from the continent in waves spread out over tens of thousands of years? The question, one of the biggest in human evolution, has plagued scientists for decades.
Now they may have found an answer.
In a series of unprecedented genetic analyses published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, three separate teams of researchers conclude that all non-Africans today trace their ancestry to a single population emerging from Africa between 50,000 and 80,000 years ago.
“I think all three studies are basically saying the same thing,” said Joshua M. Akey of the University of Washington, who wrote a commentary accompanying the new work. “We know there were multiple dispersals out of Africa, but we can trace our ancestry back to a single one.”
The three teams sequenced the genomes of 787 people, obtaining highly detailed scans of each. The genomes were drawn from people in hundreds of indigenous populations around the world — Basques, African pygmies, Mayans, Bedouins, Sherpas and Cree Indians, to name just a few.
The DNA of older indigenous populations may be essential to understanding human history, many geneticists believe. Yet until now scientists have sequenced few whole genomes from people outside population centers like Europe and China. The new findings already are altering scientific understanding of what human DNA looks like, experts said, adding a rich diversity of variation to our map of the genome.
Each team of researchers used sets of genomes to tackle different questions about our origins, such as how people spread across Africa and how others populated Australia. But all aimed to settle the question of human expansion from Africa.
In the 1980s, a group of paleoanthropologists and geneticists began championing a hypothesis that modern humans emerged only once from Africa, roughly 50,000 years ago. Skeletons and tools discovered at archaeological sites clearly indicated the existence of modern humans in Europe, Asia and Australia.
Early studies of bits of DNA also supported this scenario. All non-Africans are closely related to one another, the studies found, and they all branch from a genetic tree rooted in Africa.
Yet there are also clues that at least some modern humans lived outside of Africa well before 50,000 years ago, perhaps part of an earlier wave of migration.
In Israel, for example, researchers found a few distinctively modern human skeletons that are between 120,000 and 90,000 years old. In Saudi Arabia and India, they discovered sophisticated tools dating back as far as 100,000 years.
Last October, Chinese scientists reported finding teeth belonging to Homo sapiens that are at least 80,000 years old and perhaps as old as 120,000 years.
Some scientists have argued from these finds that there was a human expansion from Africa earlier than 50,000 years ago. In 2011 Eske Willerslev, a renowned geneticist at the University of Copenhagen, and his colleagues reported evidence that some living people descended from this early wave.
Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues reconstructed the genome of an Aboriginal Australian from a century-old lock of hair kept in a museum — the first reconstruction of its kind. The DNA held a number of peculiar variants not found in Europeans or Asians.
He concluded that the ancestors of Aboriginals split off from other non-Africans and moved eastward, eventually arriving in East Asia 62,000 to 75,000 years ago. Tens of thousands of years later, a separate population of Africans spread into Europe and Asia.
It was a big conclusion to draw from a single fragile genome, so Dr. Willerslev decided to contact living Aboriginals to see if they’d participate in a new genetic study. He joined David W. Lambert, a geneticist at Griffith University in Australia, who was already meeting with Aboriginal communities about beginning such a study.
Their new paper also includes DNA from people in Papua New Guinea, thanks to a collaboration with scientists at the University of Oxford. All told, the scientists were able to sequence 83 genomes from Aboriginal Australians and 25 from people in Papua New Guinea, all with far greater accuracy than in Dr. Willerslev’s 2011 study.[...]
Did humans flood out of Africa in a single diaspora, or did we trickle from the continent in waves spread out over tens of thousands of years? The question, one of the biggest in human evolution, has plagued scientists for decades.
Now they may have found an answer.
In a series of unprecedented genetic analyses published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, three separate teams of researchers conclude that all non-Africans today trace their ancestry to a single population emerging from Africa between 50,000 and 80,000 years ago.
“I think all three studies are basically saying the same thing,” said Joshua M. Akey of the University of Washington, who wrote a commentary accompanying the new work. “We know there were multiple dispersals out of Africa, but we can trace our ancestry back to a single one.”
The three teams sequenced the genomes of 787 people, obtaining highly detailed scans of each. The genomes were drawn from people in hundreds of indigenous populations around the world — Basques, African pygmies, Mayans, Bedouins, Sherpas and Cree Indians, to name just a few.
The DNA of older indigenous populations may be essential to understanding human history, many geneticists believe. Yet until now scientists have sequenced few whole genomes from people outside population centers like Europe and China. The new findings already are altering scientific understanding of what human DNA looks like, experts said, adding a rich diversity of variation to our map of the genome.
Each team of researchers used sets of genomes to tackle different questions about our origins, such as how people spread across Africa and how others populated Australia. But all aimed to settle the question of human expansion from Africa.
In the 1980s, a group of paleoanthropologists and geneticists began championing a hypothesis that modern humans emerged only once from Africa, roughly 50,000 years ago. Skeletons and tools discovered at archaeological sites clearly indicated the existence of modern humans in Europe, Asia and Australia.
Early studies of bits of DNA also supported this scenario. All non-Africans are closely related to one another, the studies found, and they all branch from a genetic tree rooted in Africa.
Yet there are also clues that at least some modern humans lived outside of Africa well before 50,000 years ago, perhaps part of an earlier wave of migration.
In Israel, for example, researchers found a few distinctively modern human skeletons that are between 120,000 and 90,000 years old. In Saudi Arabia and India, they discovered sophisticated tools dating back as far as 100,000 years.
Last October, Chinese scientists reported finding teeth belonging to Homo sapiens that are at least 80,000 years old and perhaps as old as 120,000 years.
Some scientists have argued from these finds that there was a human expansion from Africa earlier than 50,000 years ago. In 2011 Eske Willerslev, a renowned geneticist at the University of Copenhagen, and his colleagues reported evidence that some living people descended from this early wave.
Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues reconstructed the genome of an Aboriginal Australian from a century-old lock of hair kept in a museum — the first reconstruction of its kind. The DNA held a number of peculiar variants not found in Europeans or Asians.
He concluded that the ancestors of Aboriginals split off from other non-Africans and moved eastward, eventually arriving in East Asia 62,000 to 75,000 years ago. Tens of thousands of years later, a separate population of Africans spread into Europe and Asia.
It was a big conclusion to draw from a single fragile genome, so Dr. Willerslev decided to contact living Aboriginals to see if they’d participate in a new genetic study. He joined David W. Lambert, a geneticist at Griffith University in Australia, who was already meeting with Aboriginal communities about beginning such a study.
Their new paper also includes DNA from people in Papua New Guinea, thanks to a collaboration with scientists at the University of Oxford. All told, the scientists were able to sequence 83 genomes from Aboriginal Australians and 25 from people in Papua New Guinea, all with far greater accuracy than in Dr. Willerslev’s 2011 study.[...]
The beginnings of civilization
The beginnings of civilization
In Egypt, sometime around 40,000 to 15,000 years ago, the rains started to diminish, and the Sahara, which had been a fertile land, started to dry up, and was becoming a desert. Fleeing the advancing desert, many of the people that were living in the area started to migrated closer to the only dependable source of fresh water - the Nile River. Over the following thousands of years, the Sahara became a total desert, completely incapable of supporting human life except for the Oasis'. By then, the people of the area had already moved to the Nile River Valley. And it is here in the Nile Valley, where as these early human groups are forced to live closer and ever closer to each other, they start to cooperate with each other, and to learn from each other.
Over time, they begin to form the first pools of collective knowledge, (as an example of collective knowledge: no one person knows how to build a car by himself - it takes thousands of people, each pooling their individual knowledge and skills to build a car). With this collective knowledge, early man first learns how to make better tools for fishing, hunting and butchering his kill, (in time, this knowledge would grow to the point where they can build the Pyramids). Then the early forms of farming begin to appear. At a few sites, there is evidence that fishing was abandoned by some people, possibly because farmed grains (barley, most likely), together with the large herd animals that they still hunted, created a diet that was more than adequate for their needs.
Read More at: http://realhistoryww.com/index.htm
In Egypt, sometime around 40,000 to 15,000 years ago, the rains started to diminish, and the Sahara, which had been a fertile land, started to dry up, and was becoming a desert. Fleeing the advancing desert, many of the people that were living in the area started to migrated closer to the only dependable source of fresh water - the Nile River. Over the following thousands of years, the Sahara became a total desert, completely incapable of supporting human life except for the Oasis'. By then, the people of the area had already moved to the Nile River Valley. And it is here in the Nile Valley, where as these early human groups are forced to live closer and ever closer to each other, they start to cooperate with each other, and to learn from each other.
Over time, they begin to form the first pools of collective knowledge, (as an example of collective knowledge: no one person knows how to build a car by himself - it takes thousands of people, each pooling their individual knowledge and skills to build a car). With this collective knowledge, early man first learns how to make better tools for fishing, hunting and butchering his kill, (in time, this knowledge would grow to the point where they can build the Pyramids). Then the early forms of farming begin to appear. At a few sites, there is evidence that fishing was abandoned by some people, possibly because farmed grains (barley, most likely), together with the large herd animals that they still hunted, created a diet that was more than adequate for their needs.
Read More at: http://realhistoryww.com/index.htm
Maya 'snake dynasty' tomb uncovered holding body, treasure and hieroglyphs
Find is ‘one of the largest burial chambers ever discovered in Belize’
Hieroglyphic panels, skeleton and offerings hidden for 1,300 years
From The Guardian: Archaeologists have uncovered what may be the largest royal tomb found in more than a century of work on Maya ruins in Belize, along with a puzzling set of hieroglyphic panels that provide clues to a “snake dynasty” that conquered many of its neighbors some 1,300 years ago.
Liquid mercury found under Mexican pyramid could lead to king's tomb
Read more
The tomb was unearthed at the ruins of Xunantunich, a city on the Mopan river in western Belize that served as a ceremonial center in the final centuries of Maya dominance around 600 to 800AD. Archaeologists found the chamber 16ft to 26ft below ground, where it had been hidden under more than a millennium of dirt and debris.
Researchers found the tomb as they excavated a central stairway of a large structure: within were the remains of a male adult, somewhere between 20 and 30 years old, lying supine with his head to the south.
The archaeologist Jaime Awe said preliminary analysis by osteologists found the man was athletic and “quite muscular” at his death, and that more analysis should provide clues about his identity, health and cause of death.
In the grave, archaeologists also found jaguar and deer bones, six jade beads, possibly from a necklace, 13 obsidian blades and 36 ceramic vessels. At the base of the stairway, they found two offering caches that had nine obsidian and 28 chert flints and eccentrics – chipped artefacts that resemble flints but are carved into the shapes of animals, leaves or other symbols...
...Many Maya societies ruled through dynastic families. Tombs for male and female rulers have been found, including those of the so-called “snake dynasty”, named for the snake-head emblem associated with its house. The family had a string of conquests in the seventh century, and ruled from two capital cities. Awe said the newly discovered hieroglyphic panels could prove “even more important than the tomb”, by providing clues to the dynasty’s history.[...]
Liquid mercury found under Mexican pyramid could lead to king's tomb
Read more
The tomb was unearthed at the ruins of Xunantunich, a city on the Mopan river in western Belize that served as a ceremonial center in the final centuries of Maya dominance around 600 to 800AD. Archaeologists found the chamber 16ft to 26ft below ground, where it had been hidden under more than a millennium of dirt and debris.
Researchers found the tomb as they excavated a central stairway of a large structure: within were the remains of a male adult, somewhere between 20 and 30 years old, lying supine with his head to the south.
The archaeologist Jaime Awe said preliminary analysis by osteologists found the man was athletic and “quite muscular” at his death, and that more analysis should provide clues about his identity, health and cause of death.
In the grave, archaeologists also found jaguar and deer bones, six jade beads, possibly from a necklace, 13 obsidian blades and 36 ceramic vessels. At the base of the stairway, they found two offering caches that had nine obsidian and 28 chert flints and eccentrics – chipped artefacts that resemble flints but are carved into the shapes of animals, leaves or other symbols...
...Many Maya societies ruled through dynastic families. Tombs for male and female rulers have been found, including those of the so-called “snake dynasty”, named for the snake-head emblem associated with its house. The family had a string of conquests in the seventh century, and ruled from two capital cities. Awe said the newly discovered hieroglyphic panels could prove “even more important than the tomb”, by providing clues to the dynasty’s history.[...]