Past Horizons

Researchers performing CT scans of 137 mummies from across four continents showed evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardened arteries, in one third of those examined, including those from ancient people believed to have healthier lifestyles than most of us have today.

A 3D CT showing carotid artery disease in a mummy called Hatiay, a scribe who lived during the New Kingdom (1570-1293 BC) Image: Courtesy of The Lancet A disease of the past

Atherosclerosis is thought to be a disease of modern day humans and related to contemporary lifestyles. However, its prevalence in pre-industrial populations has come as a shock, as the researchers found artery plaque in every single population studied, from pre-agricultual hunter-gatherers in the Aleutian Islands to the ancient Puebloans of southwestern United States.

Their findings provide an important twist to our understanding of atherosclerotic vascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in the developed world. While modern lifestyles can accelerate the development of plaque on our arteries, the prevalence of the disease across human history shows that it may have a more basic connection to inflammation and ageing.

“This is not a disease only of modern circumstance but a basic feature of human ageing in all populations,” said Caleb Finch, USC University Professor, ARCO/ Kieschnick Professor of Gerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology, and a senior author of the study. “Turns out even a Bronze Age individual from 5,000 years ago had calcified, carotid arteries,” Finch said, referring to Otzi the Iceman, discovered frozen in a glacier in the Italian Alps in 1991 and who lived around 3200 BCE.

Finch, along with cardiologist Gregory Thomas of Long Beach Memorial, was part of a team that had previously showed Egyptian mummies had calcified patches on their arteries indicative of advanced atherosclerosis in 2011.

CT scans of 137 mummies showed evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardened arteries, in one third of those examined, including those from ancient people believed to have healthy lifestyles. Looking at ordinary people

However, as ancient Egyptians tended to mummify those who had privileged lives or held high office, the new study led by Thomas and Randall Thompson of Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute expanded the research to examine mummies from four drastically different climates, diets and locations– and also from cultures that mummified ordinary people, including ancient Peruvians, Ancestral Puebloans, the Unangans of the Aleutian Islands as well as ancient Egyptians.

“Our research shows that we are all at risk for atherosclerosis, the disease that causes heart attacks and strokes – all races, diets and lifestyles,” said Thomas, medical director of the MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute, Long Beach Memorial. “Because of this we all need to be cautious of our diet, weight and exercise to minimize its impact. The data gathered about individuals from the pre-historic cultures of ancient Peru and the Native Americans living along the Colorado River and the Unangan of the Aleutian Islands is forcing us to think outside the box and look for other factors that may cause heart disease.”

Overall, the researchers found probable or definite atherosclerosis in 34 percent of the mummies studied, with calcification of arteries more pronounced in the mummies that were older at time of death. Artherosclerosis was equally common in mummies identified as male or female.  The disease was regarded as definite if a calcified plaque was seen in the wall of an artery and probable if calcifications were seen along the expected course of an artery.

Of course there could be unknown factors that contributed to the narrowed arteries found in the study, where fires for heat and cooking, produced a lot of smoke within confined spaces. Breathing in such smoke could have had the same effect as cigarettes.

The CT scans of a Peruvian mummy from about 200-900 B.C. showed calcification in the aorta and iliac arteries. Image: Courtesy of The Lancet A killer for millennia

“We found that heart disease is a serial killer that has been stalking mankind for thousands of years,” Thompson said.

“In the last century, atherosclerotic vascular disease has replaced infectious disease as the leading cause of death across the developed world. A common assumption is that the rise in levels of atherosclerosis is predominantly lifestyle-related, and that if modern humans could emulate pre-industrial or even pre-agricultural lifestyles, that atherosclerosis, or at least its clinical manifestations, would be avoided. Our findings seem to cast doubt on that assumption, and at the very least, we think they suggest that our understanding of the causes of atherosclerosis is incomplete, and that it might be somehow inherent to the process of human ageing.”

A lesson for the future

The international team of researchers will next seek to biopsy ancient mummies to get a better understanding of the role chronic infection, inflammation and genetics plays in promoting the prevalence of atherosclerosis.

“Atherosclerosis starts very early in life. In the United States, most kids have little bumps on their arteries. Even stillbirths have little tiny nests of inflammatory cells. But environmental factors can accelerate this process,” Finch said, pointing to studies that show larger plaques in children exposed to household tobacco smoking or who are obese.

Source: University of Southern California

More Information

• Randall C Thompson, Adel H Allam, Guido P Lombardi, L Samuel Wann, M Linda Sutherland, James D Sutherland, Muhammad Al-Tohamy Soliman, Bruno Frohlich, David T Mininberg, Janet M Monge, Clide M Vallodolid, Samantha L Cox, Gomaa Abd el-Maksoud, Ibrahim Badr, Michael I Miyamoto, Abd el-Halim Nur el-din, Jagat Narula, Caleb E Finch, Gregory S Thomas. Atherosclerosis across 4000 years of human history: the Horus study of four ancient populations. The Lancet, March 10, 2013

Cite this article

University of Southern California.  Heart disease stalked our ancestors new CT study shows. Past Horizons. March 10, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2013/heart-disease-stalked-our-ancestors-new-ct-study-shows For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases

Archaeologists have excavated the skeleton of a young donkey discovered at the Middle Bronze Age site of Tel Haror in the western Negev, Israel.

The donkey was ritually deposited inside a circular installation within the city’s sacred precinct, near to a Syrian-type temple. Owing to the relatively arid conditions of the site, the well-preserved burial included the unique occurrence of a donkey being bridled with the mouthpiece of a metal horse bit in its mouth and the metal remains of saddlebags on its back.

The donkey interment inside the a circular installation. Image courtesy: PLoS ONE Symbolic role of equids

The Tel Haror interment represents the only known example of a donkey within a ritual context that was symbolically harnessed with a horse bit and bearing saddlebags, and, thus, sheds important light on both the functional and symbolic role of equids in the Ancient Near East.

Another skeleton, partially disarticulated, with a missing skull, belonging to an older donkey was found directly on top of the young donkey’s hind section. A layer of distinctive reddish-brown clay sediment covered both donkeys and was topped by an ash layer containing additional bones of butchered sheep and goat.

Fortified city

Tel Haror is one of the largest (ca. 40 acres) Bronze Age sites in southern Israel and is situated ca. 20 km east of the Mediterranean Sea. Excavations at the site uncovered substantial remains of an Middle Bronze Age  III (1700/1650-1550 BCE) city that was fortified by massive ramparts and a deep moat.

A sacred precinct in the southwestern corner of the city which spanned three strata includes the remains of a Syrian-type temple, a storehouse or temple magazine, a spacious courtyard with offering altars and numerous cultic repositories, and auxiliary service structures. Among the cultic characteristics of the precinct throughout its existence, are the remains of numerous sacrifices, such as complete skeletons of young dogs and birds, some of which are associated with clay figurines and miniature vessels, all indicating that the area functioned continuously as a religious precinct.

Metal fasteners of the saddlebags in situ. Image courtesy: PLoS ONE

Ritual burial of equids is an intriguing aspect of the ritual life of third and second millennium BCE societies in Eurasia and North Africa. Well-known examples in the Levant and Egypt include donkey burials from Early Dynastic Egypt and in Early Bronze Age Syria and Iraq.

These interments have been variously interpreted, as reflections of the funerary ideology of the elite, ancestor cults, and temple sacrifice. This phenomenon reached its peak in the Levant and Egypt in the beginning of the second millennium BCE in conjunction with the emergence of urban societies, large-scale trade and highly organized warfare.

A privilege

Judging from these rich textual and iconographic records the donkey was clearly a cultural-ideological marker to which high symbolic value was attached. This reflects the centrality of the donkey as a pack animal in societies for which caravans played a pivotal economic role. Indeed, many textual references and iconographic representations reflect the high social status of donkey riders. Donkey riding was thus a privilege enjoyed by royalty and other high-ranking personalities.

Source: PLoS ONE

More Information

• Bar-Oz G, Nahshoni P, Motro H, Oren ED (2013) Symbolic Metal Bit and Saddlebag Fastenings in a Middle Bronze Age Donkey Burial. PLoS ONE 8(3): e58648. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058648

Cite this article

PLoS ONE. Bronze Age donkey ritual burial in Israel. Past Horizons. March 11, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2013/bronze-age-donkey-ritual-burial-in-israel For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases

• P • I • T • O • T • I • is a multimedia digital rock art exhibition in the South Lecture Room of Cambridge University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), on display until March 23. This is the first time it has been on display in the UK.

It brings some of the earliest human figures in European rock art to life with interactive graphics, 3D printing and video games; exploring the potential links between the world of archaeology and the world of film, digital humanities and computer vision.

The images on display are just a fraction of the 300,000 rock engravings that act as an archive of nearly 10,000 years of human history at the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Valcamonica, detailing how a small clan of hunter-gatherers eventually became part of the Roman Empire.

Activity spans thousands of years

The engravings were made from as early as 7,000 BC and continued to be made right up till the 16th century AD, with the richest activity taking place in the Iron Age (1100BC-200BC, before the Roman Empire).

Deer hunting scene at Valcamonica: Image: Luca Giarelli / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Now, a host of artists have injected digital life into these rock-art figures, with video projections, an ambient cinema and an interactive touch screen table where multiple visitors can explore and play with a digitised rock face.

A large projection of the Valcamonica is hooked up to a video-game style joystick which can be used to navigate the valley and discover the carvings, and detailed scans have allowed the creation of 3D printed panels which visitors can touch.

Dr Frederick Baker, Senior Research Associate at the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, said: “Human beings have engraved the rocks with their everyday lives and stories. It’s a kind of visual autobiography. Through the help of digitisation we discover this tribe and get insight into the symbols which actually adorn the rock, to get these symbols moving.

“These images created by humans depict animals to tell of hunting and aspects of everyday life. Computer visual science, film, 3D and graphic design explore ancient prehistoric art forms.

“Visitors can interact and discover with their fingers in a tactile manner that was impossible until today. Now in the 21st century digital art allows the rock art to move from the valley onto the screens and into the digital world that surrounds us.”

Little puppets

The exhibition grew from years of research by Dr Christopher Chippindale and Dr Frederick Baker, both members of the Cambridge University Prehistoric Picture Project. Pitoti is a word from the Lombard dialect and is a local word describing these engraved figures as “little puppets”.

Dr Chippindale said: “What European rock art gives us is the world of prehistoric Europeans, as they themselves experienced it and understood it. Our prehistoric ancestors chose to make engravings of animals, but few of plants. Many of deer, but few of sheep, and vast numbers of armed warriors in opposed pairs. Why? Because those aspects of their lives were vital and central to them.”

The images depicted also tell the story of how innovations spread across continents.

“Horses appear, as do ploughs and carts,” said Professor Graham Baker from the MacDonald Institute. “Their wheels are a huge innovation which leads later to chariots. The engravings of musical instruments remind us that the arts were also part of prehistoric life.”

According to Dr Baker, the link between the rock art and the digital animations are stronger than might be imagined.

He added: “Some of the humans and animals in the art are made in rather rigid forms. Others look to be in lively, animated motion – frozen at a certain moment as if they were stills from an animated cartoon. What the figures cannot do is move: there were no film cameras or animation studios in prehistoric times. But with our cameras and studios, today we can take the metaphor literally. So much the ancient artists could not do – working only with hammer and stone against tough resistant rock – our new digital technologies can.”

Source: University of Cambridge

More Information

• Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
• Valcamonica rock art field school

Cite this article

University of Cambridge. 7,000BC: The dawn of cinema brought to life. Past Horizons. March 10, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2013/7000bc-the-dawn-of-cinema-brought-to-life For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases

In a remote corner of the world, east of Esperance, in Western Australia, a stone fish trap has been re-discovered by Traditional Owners and an integrated research team operating within the Gabbie Kylie Foundation (National Trust of Australia, W.A.).

The find is the first fish trap so far recorded in the wEsperance region. For Esperance Traditional Owner and Coordinator of the Foundation, Doc Reynolds, the find is a powerful reminder of his community’s connection to Country.

“I remember using this area as a child, with the Old People catching a good feed here all the time. The old fellas had a very complex understanding of the seasons, tides, and animal behaviour, and were able to utilize sustainable techniques to harvest a catch with great skill and efficiency.”

Senior Esperance Nyungar Traditional Owners Doc Reynolds (foreground) and Uncle Graham Tucker (background) leading the way in the protection of archaeological sites. Image: David Guilfoyle A subsistence strategy

The site comprises a number of placed stones across a tidal creek and estuary, that were most likely supported by wooden stakes and other fibrous meshing, that have long since deteriorated. The trap was created as a subsistence strategy, harnessing the natural tidal cycles of this estuary, whereby fish move in and out with the tides but then some are blocked by this fish trap; and are therefore more easily speared or caught. People traditionally fished and hunted in seasonal cycles, careful to not over-exploit any one resource, to ensure sustainable futures.

During a survey of this region in October 2012, local Elder Gail Yorkshire-Selby noticed a large stone protruding from the sand, though still partially submerged. The team investigated and identified a discrete alignment; waiting until low tide before excavating the beach sands and exposing the entire feature. They then busily went about photographing and mapping the feature before the high tide returned. The site was recorded and will be submitted to the Department of Indigenous Affairs who provide legislative protection of important heritage places. The Gabbie Kylie team will continue to monitor and manage this area.

Elaborate fish traps have been documented throughout the Southwest and South coast, most notably the heritage-listed fish traps of Oyster Harbour in Albany. It is difficult to determine how long these traps have been used, and further work is necessary to document the way people utilized the area and adapted to changing environments.

Complex human occupation on several islands

During the mid-Holocene (c.a. 7,000 to 3,000 years ago), the local environment is likely to have had a different configuration associated with changing sea levels and coastal formation processes. Indeed, the Gabbie Kylie team and other archaeologists from the Western Australian Museum have documented archaeological sites and evidence of complex human occupation on several offshore islands; demonstrating that people were able to once walk through a vast coastal plain that is now the Islands of the Recherche Archipelago.

The fish trap site is one of hundreds of archaeological places, historic structures, and maritime sites being recorded and managed by the Esperance Traditional Owner community, together with various specialists, and with support from the Department of Environment and Conservation.

Elders, archaeologists and international students mapping the fish trap at low tide. Image: David Guilfoyle An integrated approach

Archaeologist David Guilfoyle (Applied Archaeology International) believes it is the integrated approach adopted by the Foundation that underlies much of the success of the programme. “This works because we all have different perspectives but share the same goal – to learn how best to manage and protect our natural and cultural landscapes. We have Elders, young fellas, students, archaeologists, land managers, and botanists all in the field together. Everyone has something to contribute; everyone’s perspective is respected and incorporated into the field work and research.”

Genevieve Carey, a student from the University of Montana in the USA, who participated in this most recent field trip, believes the programme is something special. “I was able to listen, learn and experience a great deal during my time on this field school. But more than that, I was treated not solely as a student, but as an active member of the team. It was a great honour to work alongside the Elders and specialists in such a way, and experience the thrill of discovery and adventure together.”

The team was joined by Professor Steve Hopper, Winthrop Professor of Biodiversity, from the Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management and School of Plant Biology, within the University of Western Australia. Professor Hopper agreed that the holistic nature of the programme, and working with the Indigenous community, is vitally important:

“Sharing cross-cultural and cross disciplinary knowledge is a powerful way to achieve the best outcomes for caring for country and conserving biodiversity. It was a personally enriching and moving experience for me to join the elders, archaeologists and students on the Field School and explore plant life while learning about how humans lived and adapted to one of the world’s most beautiful and enigmatic landscapes.”

Support partners

The programme is also greatly supported by long-term partners, the Western Australian Museum (WAM). Representing WAM on the field trips is Ross Anderson, a maritime archaeologist who has been researching aspects of the early whaling and sealing period along the south coast.

Ross says: “The Gabbie Kylie Foundation (GKF) research and field school programme aims for excellence in community development and natural and cultural heritage site management. In achieving its aims the GKF programme is both grass-roots and academic in its philosophy, and represents all that is positive in cross-cultural sharing between Traditional Owners, researchers, students, and management bodies. The WA Museum is proud to be a supporter of the GKF programme.”

The team take a break at high tide to discuss the area’s cultural connections. Image: David Guilfoyle

The programme is further supported by historical archaeologist, Renée Gardiner, managing director of Earth Imprints Consulting. Her work with the Traditional Owners is uncovering some exciting aspects of the more recent past through investigation of several remote homesteads.

Enables Traditional Owners to re-establish connections

The Gabbie Kylie Foundation was established in late 2007 to conserve and interpret the Indigenous heritage values of the south coast region and enable Traditional Owners to re-establish connections with country.

In order to achieve these objectives, the Foundation has adopted a holistic, community-based approach that integrates education and training programmes with on-ground conservation works. Field schools enable high school students, university students and members of the broader community to undertake on-ground conservation work, while receiving instruction in archaeology, geography, restoration ecology, heritage conservation and landscape management. The programme is supported by the W.A. Museum, the Federal Government’s Indigenous Heritage Programme, and BHP Billiton.

David Guilfoyle says the programme is highly important and relevant. “Understanding the complex connections and knowledge people have of the land is the most important avenue of inquiry for our generation as we strive toward achieving ecological, economic and social sustainability. Western science and society is, in many ways, still trying to catch up to the complexity and ingenuity of Australia’s First Nations. A fish trap and a programme like this one provide many insights. We only need open our eyes to the past to see sustainable pathways for the future.”

 

 

More Information

• To get involved or for more information, contact David Guilfoyle:  davidg@appliedarchaeology.com.au
• Field School information
• National Trust

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Gabbie Kylie Foundation. Fish trap evokes powerful memories for Esperance Traditional Owners . Past Horizons. March 09, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2013/fishtrap-evokes-powerful-memories-for-esperance-traditional-owners For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases

This article titled “Stonehenge may have been burial site for Stone Age elite, say archaeologists” was written by Maev Kennedy, for The Guardian on Saturday 9th March 2013 00.03 UTC

 

Centuries before the first massive sarsen stone was hauled into place at Stonehenge, the world’s most famous prehistoric monument may have begun life as a giant burial ground, according to a theory disclosed on Saturday.

More than 50,000 cremated bone fragments, of 63 individuals buried at Stonehenge, have been excavated and studied for the first time by a team led by archaeologist Professor Mike Parker Pearson, who has been working at the site and on nearby monuments for decades. He now believes the earliest burials long predate the monument in its current form.

The first bluestones, the smaller standing stones, were brought from Wales and placed as grave markers around 3,000BC, and it remained a giant circular graveyard for at least 200 years, with sporadic burials after that, he claims.

It had been thought that almost all the Stonehenge burials, many originally excavated almost a century ago, but discarded as unimportant, were of adult men. However, new techniques have revealed for the first time that they include almost equal numbers of men and women, and children including a newborn baby.

“At the moment the answer is no to extracting DNA, which might tell us more about these individuals and what the relationship was between them – but who knows in the future? Clearly these were special people in some way,” Parker Pearson said.

A mace head, a high-status object comparable to a sceptre, and a little bowl burnt on one side, which he believes may have held incense, suggest the dead could have been religious and political leaders and their immediate families.

The team included scientists from the universities of Southampton, Manchester, Bournemouth, Sheffield, London, York and Durham. Their work is revealed for the first time in a documentary on Channel 4 on Sunday night, Secrets of the Stonehenge Skeletons.

Archaeologists have argued for centuries about what Stonehenge really meant to the people who gave hundreds of thousands of hours to constructing circles of bluestones shipped from Wales, and sarsens the size of double-decker buses dragged across Salisbury plain. Druids and New Age followers still claim the site as their sacred place. Others have judged it a temple, an observatory, a solar calendar, a site for fairs or ritual feasting or – one of the most recent theories – a centre for healing, a sort of Stone Age Lourdes.

The latest theory is based on the first analysis of more than 50,000 fragments of cremated human remains from one of the Aubrey holes, a ring of pits from the earliest phase of the monument, which some have believed held wooden posts. Crushed chalk in the bottom of the pit was also revealed, suggesting it once supported the weight of one of the bluestones. Dating the bones has pushed back the date of earliest stone circle at the site from 2500BC to 3000BC.

Parker Pearson believes his earlier excavation at nearby Durrington Walls, which uncovered hut sites, tools, pots and mountains of animal bones – the largest Stone Age site in north-west Europe – is evidence of a seasonal work camp for the Stonehenge builders, who quarried, dragged and shaped more than 2,000 tons of stone to build the monument. Analysis of the animal bones shows some of them travelled huge distances – from as far as Scotland – and were slaughtered at Durrington in mid-summer and mid-winter: “Not so much bring a bottle as bring a cow or a pig,” Parker Pearson said.

Mike Pitts, an archaeologist, blogger and editor of the British Archaeology journal, who has excavated some of the cremated human remains from Stonehenge, says the new theory proves the need for more research and excavation at the site.

“I have now come to believe that there are hundreds, maybe many times that, of burials at Stonehenge, and that some predate the earliest phase of the monument,” Pitts said. “The whole history of the monument is inseparably linked to death and burial – but I believe that there are hundreds more burials to be found across the site, which will tell us more of the story.”

Almost all the prehistoric human remains come from the eastern side of the circle, and many had been excavated by earlier archaeologists including William Hawley in the 1920s, who regarding them as unimportant compared with the giant stones, reburied them jumbled together using one of the Aubrey holes as a convenient pit.

“There must be more, in the western quadrant, or buried outside the enclosure ditch. A new excavation could clinch it,” Pitts said.

This autumn visitors to Stonehenge will see more interpretation of its complex history than ever before, when English Heritage finally opens its long-awaited visitor centre – originally planned to usher in the new millennium in 2000.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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The first phase of the project to map all of Iran’s archaeological sites has been completed by a team of experts.

The map was unveiled during a ceremony at the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) in Tehran on Monday.

A total of 45,000 archaeological sites appear on the map, team director Abbas Moqaddam said at the ceremony.
He said that the map was drafted based on available information.
“However, the team did not have access to specific data, which are kept at some storehouses by certain experts,” he added.

  Read more on tehrantimes.com

High above the Rio Grande river in a towering wall of  limestone cliffs lies Panther Cave, named after the giant panther at the far end of the rockshelter. Here a nomadic people painted fantastic scenes consisting of human and animal figures, leaving a story that resists modern interpretation.

The cave contains Pecos River and Red Linear style pictographic imagery dating back approximately 4,000 years with figures ranging in size from less than 6 inches to over 10 feet  ( more than 3 metres) in height.

The larger Pecos River style figures are the most prominent, and include colourful human- and animal-like figures.

This site is accessible only by boat, and co-managed by Seminole Canyon State Park and Amistad National Recreation Area. This site is endangered by flooding related to the construction of Amistad Reservoir.

The 3D modelling was part of a 3 year rock art documentation project conducted by SHUMLA Archeological Research and Education Center, Amistad National Recreation Area, Seminole Canyon State Park, and Geo-Marine Inc. to digitally preserve the site for future generations.

The stunning 3D model has been created by Mark Willis using Structure from Motion photogrammetry and can be viewed in the video below. (Best viewed in High Definition.)

 

Source: SHUMLA and Mark Willis

More Information

• SHUMLA Archeological Research and Education Center
• Structure from Motion ( wikipedia entry)
• Lower Pecos rock art

Cite this article

SHUMLA. Panther Cave rock art recorded in 3D. Past Horizons. March 07, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2013/panther-cave-rock-art-recorded-in-3d For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases

 

This article titled “Australian uranium discovery threatens ancient indigenous cave art” was written by Debra Jopson at The Global Mail, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 8th March 2013 06.00 UTC

One of the world’s biggest uranium producers has found a significant deposit in a remote tropical Australian mountain range near sandstone galleries holding some of the oldest and most spectacular rock art on the planet.

After years of drilling, Canadian-based mining company Cameco has reported the find in the Wellington Range, where the thousands of Aboriginal artworks adorning cliffs and caves include a painting of the extinct dog-like creature, the thylacine, made in a style that is at least 15,000 years old.

“The importance of this art site is that it’s like a library,” Ronald Lamilami, a traditional Aboriginal landowner in western Arnhem Land and a custodian for the art, told The Global Mail, which on Friday published a detailed feature and map of the rock-art sites at risk nationwide. Lamilami said he fears if mining goes ahead, the works of his ancestors will be damaged.

The archaeologist Prof Paul Taçon, who has worked with Lamilami to document and date the artwork, said that dust and visitors from mining exploration could potentially damage works at the Northern Territory’s Djulirri, Malarrak and Bald Rock galleries.

Uranium runs right through the Wellington Range area, and Cameco has explored close to Djulirri, although the big deposit found recently is nearer to Australia’s northern coast, Taçon said.

Where once there was trenchant opposition to expanding uranium mining in Australia – which has the largest known reserves in the world – the present Labor government has softened its stance, as the resources boom feeding China’s voracious appetite for energy powers the Australian economy.

When the Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, worked through a uranium deal with India late last year, Toronto-based Cameco noted her nation could benefit from a nuclear boom in India and in China.

The company has reportedly been trying to strike a deposit in Australia as rich as that of the Athabasca Basin in its home country, which supplies about one-fifth of the world’s uranium.

Djulirri, a magnificent complex where artwork ripples across cliffs, into caves and beneath overhangs, contains more than 3,000 images, including the oldest known “contact” art, a faded yellow ochre depiction of a south-east Asian boat at least 350 years old.

The rainbow serpent, fish, kangaroos and other creatures are painted in traditional “X-ray” style and the world’s only known indigenous rock-art stencils depicting whole birds are silhouetted on a cave wall, while the gallery also features European missionaries, a biplane and a buggy.

At nearby Malarrak and Bald Rock galleries, there are more recent images of rifles, a coffee mug, an ocean cruiser and three stencils of a tobacco tin.

“There are rock art sites throughout the Wellington Range, but most of it still has not been adequately surveyed,” said Taçon, who worries that the explorers surging across Australia as its resources boom continues will damage works never properly recorded.

There are estimated to be about 100,000 rock-art sites in Australia, with more than one million images, but there is not even a national list, let alone adequate heritage protection, according to Taçon.

Lamilami said his people are not anti-development, but the resources boom has made it apparent that mining will impact both the people and the country in Arnhem Land.

“It’s spreading like a wart,” he said.

Australia’s environment minister, Tony Burke’s office said Cameco had not yet submitted a proposal for any uranium project in the Wellington Range, but such a plan would need clearance if it was likely to have significant environmental impact.

Cameco Australia’s managing director, Brian Reilly, said that the company would work with all stakeholders to protect the area’s environment, culture and heritage.

Traditional owners – the Aboriginal people who own land belonging to their ancestors – review any exploration work by the company, which conducts heritage surveys to ensure these areas are protected, he said.

Meanwhile, an exploration company owned by the world’s second richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has just announced that it will withdraw two applications to explore for minerals, after Aboriginal complaints that mining could damage another world-class rock art precinct in northern Queensland.

However, research by James Cook University adjunct research fellow in archaeology Noelene Cole has discovered this region, known as “Quinkan” country, is crisscrossed by similar applications. These have not been lifted.

• Read more about the threats to Aboriginal rock art on The Global Mail.

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Australian uranium discovery threatens ancient indigenous cave art The Guardian One of the world’s biggest uranium producers has found a significant deposit in a remote tropical Australian mountain range near sandstone galleries holding some of the…

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The paintings, which were created 30,000 years ago, have been buried for 20,000 years. Discovered…

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An 18th century depiction of Dublin city’s medieval ‘High Cross’ or market cross that formerly stood at High Street.

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PRECIOUS mediaeval books, usually displayed in glass cases and touchable only with gloves, can now be read in glorious 3D, thanks to a system unveiled at a tech fair in Germany.

With the 3D interactive book explorer, developed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, users browse through the sinewy Latin text and colourful illustrations penned centuries ago but in a distinctly up-to-date manner.

The text is scanned in and displayed on a flat-screen display and readers, standing a couple of metres back from the screen, scroll through the pages by waving their hands in the air to operate motion sensor cameras.

Read the full amazing story on theaustralian.com.au

THE 3,000-year-old Carpow log boat is about to embark on another journey – not by river, but by road.

The waterlogged craft was discovered partially submerged in the mud, sand and gravel of Carpow Bank, at the head of the Tay Estuary, in 2001.

Carved from a single tree trunk, it was an example of one of the first known boats in existence and was radiocarbon dated to 1130-970 BC.

After years of conservation measures, it was finally unveiled to the public in January 2012, taking up residence in a special display at Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

Now, however, the Bronze Age vessel is being loaned to the Glasgow Museums’ Resource Centre for the next five years, during which time the museum will launch new exhibitions.

Read more here on thecourier.co.uk

A remarkable find from 2011 of 33,000 year old dog from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains showed evidence of dog domestication, the earliest ever found.

DNA and morphological analysis

The extraordinary preservation of the dog from the Razboinichya Cave, including skull, mandibles and teeth, allowed a Russian-led international team of archaeologists to conduct a complete morphological examination.

Now, using the latest DNA analysis of material extracted from a fossil tooth recovered in southern Siberia confirms that the tooth belonged to one of the oldest known ancestors of the modern dog, and is described in research published March 6 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Anna Druzhkova from the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Russian Federation, and colleagues from other institutions.

The domestication of dogs from the grey wolf is well accepted, however, the timing, location and number of domestication events is still hotly debated with the archaeological record providing unequivocal domesticated dog remains beginning about 14,000 years ago from Natufian levels in the southern Levant.

A full mitochondrial genome analysis of modern dogs suggests an origin in southern China approximately 16,000 years ago, but the case for it taking place much earlier received a boost from sites across Eurasia.

The Razboinichya canid profile. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022821.g001  A growing number of early dog remains

Mietje Germonpré, of Belgium’s Museum of Natural History, and a team of researchers published a paper describing three canid skulls that had many of the distinctive traits that separate domesticated dogs from their wolf ancestors, including a shorter, broader snout and a wider brain case.

The skulls, which date to roughly 31,500 years ago, were part of a collection from the site of Předmostí, in Czech Republic. Then, this separate research at Razboinichya Cave in Siberiaalso found a dog skull that was dated to 33,000 years ago.

Both finds support a 2009 research paper published by Germonpré and her colleagues describing a 36,000-year-old dog skull found at Goyet in Belgium.

Human domestication of dogs and when modern dogs emerged as a species distinct from wolves is still unclear. Although some previous studies have suggested that this separation of domestic dogs and wolves occurred over 100,000 years ago, the oldest known fossils of modern dogs are only about 36,000 years old at the site in Belgium.

Relationship of Siberian fossil to modern dogs

The new published research evaluates the relationship of a 33,000 year old Siberian fossil to modern dogs and wolves based on DNA sequence. The researchers found that this fossil, named the ‘Altai dog’ after the mountains where it was recovered, is more closely related to modern dogs and prehistoric canids found on the American continents than it is to wolves.

The two earliest incipient dogs from Western Europe (Goyet, Belguim) and Siberia (Razboinichya) are separated by thousands of kilometres, show that dog domestication was multi-regional, and thus had no single place of origin (as some DNA data had previously suggested).

The closest modern dog to this early wolf/dog is the Siberian Samoyed, bred to herd and guard reindeer.

The researchers conclude that , “These results suggest a more ancient history of the dog outside the Middle East or East Asia, previously suggested as centres of dog origin. Additional discoveries of ancient dog-like remains are essential for further narrowing the time and region of origin for the domestic dog”

Source: PLoS One

More Information

• Anna S. Druzhkova, Olaf Thalmann, Vladimir A. Trifonov, Jennifer A. Leonard, Nadezhda V. Vorobieva, Nikolai D. Ovodov, Alexander S. Graphodatsky, Robert K. Wayne. Ancient DNA Analysis Affirms the Canid from Altai as a Primitive Dog. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (3): e57754 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057754
• Vila C, Savolainen P, Maldonado JE, Amorim IR, Rice JE, et al. (1997) Multiple and ancient origins of the domestic dog. Science 276: 1687–1689. doi: 10.1126/science.276.5319.1687
• Larson G, Karlsson EK, Perri A, Webster MT, Ho SY, et al. (2012) Rethinking dog domestication by integrating genetics, archeology, and biogeography. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 109: 8878–8883. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1203005109.
• Tchernov E, Valla FF (1997) Two new dogs, and other Natufian dogs, from the southern Levant. Journal of Archaeological Science 24: 65–95. doi: 10.1006/jasc.1995.0096.

Cite this article

Public Library of Science. DNA of 33,000 year old domesticated dog revealed. Past Horizons. March 06, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2013/dna-of-33000-year-old-domesticated-dog-revealed For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases

Research on the bones of 200 ancient Egyptians revealed that they suffered from hunger and malnutrition and a whole range of infectious diseases as well as having an extremely high infant mortality rate.

These are some of the conclusions drawn from Qubbet el-Hawa Tomb 33, a project carried out by the University of Jaen, in which anthropologists from the University of Granada (UGR) participated, along with the Ministry of State for Antiquities.

The UGR anthropologists taking part in the part. From left to right, Angel Rubio, Linda Chapon, Miguel Botella and Inmaculada Aleman. Image: University of Granada

The Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis lies opposite the modern-day city of Aswan. Tomb 33 was constructed during the 12th Dynasty (1939-1760 BC), to house the body of one of the region of Aswan’s leading dignitaries, whose identity is still unknown.

The site was later re-used at least three times (18th, 22nd and 27th Dynasties) and is one of the largest in the necropolis. It has a huge archaeological potential, since it houses at least one chamber that remains intact, containing three decorated wooden sarcophagi.

Over 200 skeletons and mummies

Scientists from the UGR’s Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, the director of which is Prof. Miguel Botella Lopez, have just returned from Egypt. They have been analysing the bones of the mummies unearthed in the excavation, as well as calculating the number of individuals belonging to the more recent occupations of the tomb (New Kingdom, 3rd Intermediate Period and Late Dynastic Period). They have found over 200 skeletons and mummies including a large number belonging to young adults of between 17 and 25 years old.

The initial results of their work have led to some very interesting conclusions and have revealed new data not only about the ancient Egyptians physical characteristics, but also about the living conditions at that time. As Prof. Botella explains, “the anthropological analysis of the human remains reveals the population in general and the governors – the highest social class – lived in conditions in which their health was very precarious, on the edge of survival”.

According to the UGR anthropologists, life expectancy barely reached 30 as they suffered from many problems of malnutrition and severe gastrointestinal disorders due to drinking the polluted waters of the Nile.

Source: University of Granada

More Information

• Qubbet el-Hawa Project

Cite this article

University of Granada. Bodies in Aswan tomb reveal premature deaths. Past Horizons. March 06, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2013/bodies-in-aswan-tomb-reveal-premature-deaths For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases

A newly discovered Y chromosome places the most recent common ancestor for the Y chromosome lineage more than 100,000 years before the oldest known anatomically modern human fossils. University of Arizona (UA) geneticists have discovered the oldest known genetic branch of the human Y chromosome – the hereditary factor determining male sex.

The new divergent lineage, which was found in an individual who submitted his DNA to Family Tree DNA, a company specializing in DNA analysis to trace family roots, branched from the Y chromosome tree before the first appearance of anatomically modern humans in the fossil record.

The results are published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Anatomically modern humans had not yet evolved Michael Hammer, shown here with an ancient hominid fossil, is an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Arizona. Image: Michael Hammer

“Our analysis indicates this lineage diverged from previously known Y chromosomes about 300,000 ago, a time when anatomically modern humans had not yet evolved,” said Michael Hammer, an associate professor in the University of Arizona’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology and a research scientist at the UA’s Arizona Research Labs. “This pushes back the time the last common Y chromosome ancestor lived by almost 70 percent.”

Unlike the other human chromosomes, the majority of the Y chromosome does not exchange genetic material with other chromosomes, which makes it simpler to trace ancestral relationships among contemporary lineages. If two Y chromosomes carry the same mutation, it is because they share a common paternal ancestor at some point in the past. The more mutations that differ between two Y chromosomes the farther back in time the common ancestor lived.

Originally, a DNA sample obtained from an African American living in South Carolina was submitted to the National Geographic Genographic Project. When none of the genetic markers used to assign lineages to known Y chromosome groupings were found, the DNA sample was sent to Family Tree DNA for sequencing. Fernando Mendez, a postdoctoral researcher in Hammer’s lab, led the effort to analyze the DNA sequence, which included more than 240,000 base pairs of the Y chromosome.

No fit anywhere on the existing Y chromosome tree

Hammer said “the most striking feature of this research is that a consumer genetic testing company identified a lineage that didn’t fit anywhere on the existing Y chromosome tree, even though the tree had been constructed based on perhaps a half-million individuals or more. Nobody expected to find anything like this.”

About 300,000 years ago falls around the time the Neanderthals are believed to have split from the ancestral human lineage. It was not until more than 100,000 years later that anatomically modern humans appear in the fossil record. They differ from the more archaic forms by a more lightly built skeleton, a smaller face tucked under a high forehead, the absence of a cranial ridge and smaller chins.

The variation is extremely rare

Hammer said the newly discovered Y chromosome variation is extremely rare. Through large database searches, his team eventually was able to find a similar chromosome in the Mbo, a population living in a tiny area of western Cameroon in sub-Saharan Africa.

“This was surprising because previously the most diverged branches of the Y chromosome were found in traditional hunter-gatherer populations such as Pygmies and the click-speaking KhoeSan, who are considered to be the most diverged human populations living today.”

“Instead, the sample matched the Y chromosome DNA of 11 men, who all came from a very small region of western Cameroon,” Hammer said. “And the sequences of those individuals are variable, so it’s not like they all descended from the same grandfather.”

A Misconception

Hammer cautions against popular concepts of “mitochondrial Eve” or “Y chromosome Adam” that suggest all of humankind descended from exactly one pair of humans that lived at a certain point in human evolution.

“There has been too much emphasis on this in the past,” he said. “It is a misconception that the genealogy of a single genetic region reflects population divergence. Instead, our results suggest that there are pockets of genetically isolated communities that together preserve a great deal of human diversity.”

Still, Hammer said, “It is likely that other divergent lineages will be found, whether in Africa or among African-Americans in the U.S. and that some of these may further increase the age of the Y chromosome tree.”

He added: “There has been a lot of hype with people trying to trace their Y chromosome to different tribes, but this individual from South Carolina can say he did it.”

Source: University of Arizona

More Information

• Mendez et al., An African American Paternal Lineage Adds an Extremely Ancient Root to the Human YChromosome Phylogenetic Tree, The American Journal of Human Genetics (2013)
• National Geographic Genographic Project

Cite this article

University of Arizona. Human Y chromosome much older than previously thought. Past Horizons. March 06, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2013/human-y-chromosome-much-older-than-previously-thought For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases

Four early Neolithic houses (3700 BC) have been unearthed by archaeologists at CEMEX’s Kingsmead Quarry in Berkshire.  The discovery is unprecedented on a single site in England and challenges our current understanding of how people lived more than 5,700 years ago.

This rare find will give us a unique opportunity to learn more about the earliest permanent settlements in prehistoric Britain and how such sites developed. At this time new practices were being adopted with people switching lifestyle from hunter-gather to settled farmer.

A rare find

Few houses of this date have been found in England and rarely has more than one been found on a single site. These discoveries by excavators from Wessex Archaeology are key to enhancing the knowledge and understanding of this period nationally and at a local level tell us more about the history of the area around the Rivers Colne and Thames near Windsor.

Foundation trench of one of the Neolithic buildings. Image: CEMEX

“Unfortunately only the ground plans have survived as any timber would have rotted away long ago.

“However, we have a good idea of what these structures may have looked like from the many house finds in Ireland, from experimental work reconstructing prehistoric buildings, and for wood working techniques from timber-built walkways of the same date, such as the Sweet Track, that were found preserved in the peat deposits of the Somerset Levels.

“These finds add to our knowledge of life in Neolithic times and how buildings at that date were constructed,” comments Dr Alistair Barclay, Wessex Archaeology.

Area, ideal for settlement

The houses were probably built by pioneer farmers that had moved into the area bringing with them the knowledge and woodworking skills necessary to construct substantial buildings.  The area was ideal for a settlement, it was close to the River Colne and there would have been ample woodland nearby.

All the houses were rectangular in shape with the largest being 15 x 7 metres.  Two were constructed out of upright oak planks set into foundation trenches, whilst the others were built using wooden posts.

Pottery, flint tools, arrowheads, rubbing stones for grinding corn and charred food remains were recovered from the buildings confirming the lifestyle of the inhabitants and the approximate age of the houses.

Dates confirmed

Radiocarbon dating has been used to confirm the age of one of the houses (3800–3640 BC) and further dates will be obtained for the other buildings later in 2013, on the charred remains of cereal and hazelnut shell.

Andy Spencer, Sustainability Director, CEMEX commented  “ In addition to extracting valuable building materials that go into buildings all around us, quarrying has given us some wonderful archaeological finds that tell us more about our ancestors and how they lived. At Kingsmead, the scope of the finds covers thousands of years and has provoked some interesting debate about the people who lived there.”

The excavations are part of CEMEX’s £4 million archaeological programme on the site, which has been in operation since 2003.

Source: CEMEX

Learn more about the making of the model here:
www.wessexarch.co.uk/blogs/news/2013/03/07/making-neolithic-house More Information

• Wessex Archaeology is one of the largest heritage practices in the UK. Working all across the south and around its coast, it has won two British Archaeological Awards. http://www.wessexarch.co.uk
• English Heritage Neolithic Houses Project
• BBC History: Overview: From Neolithic to Bronze Age, 8000 – 800 BC

Cite this article

CEMEX. Four Neolithic houses unearthed at quarry. Past Horizons. March 06, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2013/four-neolithic-houses-unearthed-at-quarry For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases

Wooly Rhino By Mauricio Antón [CC-BY-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

Scientists studying an exceptionally well-preserved woolly rhinoceros have revealed details of Britain’s environment 42,000 years ago.

The beast’s remains were discovered in Staffordshire in 2002, buried alongside other preserved organisms such as beetles and non-biting midges.

The research team used these climate-sensitive insects to calculate that summer temperatures in Britain would have averaged just 10C, and dropped to -22C in winter.

Read more on this on bbc.co.uk

This article titled “Flight of the valkyrie: the Viking figurine that’s heading for Britain” was written by Maev Kennedy, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 4th March 2013 15.31 UTC

A little face peering up from a clod of frozen mud in Denmark has proved to be a unique find: the only known 3D Viking representation of a valkyrie.

The figurine, believed to date from about AD800, was found in December and has gone straight from conservation to display in the National Museum in Copenhagen. It will then be included in the exhibition on the Viking age that opens there in June and at the British Museum in 2014.

The legends of the valkyries – the ominous companions of the god Odin who descend on battlefields to choose which warriors will die – have been among the most enduring in Scandinavian folklore and literature. Later images, often inspired by Wagner’s music, tend to be romantic creatures with flowing locks and voluptuous bodies.

The thumb-sized figurine is made of gilded silver, with some black niello inlay decoration. The valkyrie is sturdily dressed, armed with a double-sided Viking sword and a round shield, her hair neatly twisted into a long ponytail forming a loop, suggesting it may have been worn as a pendant.

Small, flat images of striding women, believed to represent valkyrie, have been found on many Danish Viking sites, but nothing like this figurine. Its survival is something of a miracle: the lower legs and feet are missing, and it was found among fragments of scrap metal, so somebody may have started to chop it up to be melted down to extract its silver content.

Mogens Bo Henriksen, an archaeologist and curator at the Odense city museum, on Funen island near the find site, described the figurine as “unique” and said: “There can hardly be any doubt that the figure depicts one of Odin’s valkyries as we know them from the sagas as well as from Swedish picture stones from the time around AD700,” he said.

The figurine was found at the end of December by Morten Skovsby, who was learning how to use a metal detector with three amateur archaeologists near the village of Hårby.

Henriksen hopes that after the figurine’s travels – during which it will be displayed near the largest Viking ship ever found – it will return to be exhibited in Odense.

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Although the most drastic evolutionary changes occur over long spans of time, the effects of these changes can be seen relatively recently, argues Dr John Stewart, a Senior Lecturer in Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction & Environmental Change at Bournemouth University.

Reconstructing environmental effects on evolution

Dr Stewart has made important contributions to a growing body of work that shows how the evolution of ecosystems has to be taken into account when speculating between different geological eras. His work on the location of ice age refugia, the timings of species evolution and how palaeoecological data can be used as evidence of what may happen in the future has far reaching implications for own own species.

Looking back to the time of the dinosaurs or even the single-celled organisms at the very origins of life, it becomes obvious that ecosystems existing more than 65 million years ago and around four billion years ago cannot be deduced from the one that surrounds us today.

Dr Stewart has effectively studied the interaction between ancient ecosystems – palaeoecology – and the evolution of humans and other organisms over the past 100,000 years, undertaking everything from excavating cave sites in Belgium to exploring the desert of Abu Dhabi where he faced his most unusual challenge; excavating an entire whale skeleton along with a team of conservators. But it is the new work on our recent ancestors reaction to the Ice Ages that is attracting most attention.

Ice ages separate species groups. Baltoro glacier. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Insights into human origins

In one milestone collaborative study Stewart took existing knowledge of the geographical spread of plant and animal species throughout the warming and cooling periods during the recent Ice Ages to provide insights into modern human evolution as well as  the extinction of Neanderthals and other related species. Neanderthals lived from over 200,000 to about 30,000 years ago and evolved in Europe and Asia while modern humans (Homo sapiens) were evolving in Africa.

He has conducted recent studies at the Belgian cave site of Trou Al’Wesse, a refugium once occupied by Neanderthals. He is also studying how animal populations changed as a result of Ice Age climate change to understand the evolutionary processes that have taken place over the last 50,000 years.

By examining the rise of the ‘first Europeans’, along with the Denisovans recently discovered group and mysterious cousins of the Neanderthals, who occupied a vast realm stretching from the chill expanse of Siberia to the tropical forests of Indonesia, it is possible to create a greater understanding of who we are.

The key insight in this work, conducted alongside Prof Chris Stringer of London’s Natural History Museum, came from understanding the important role of ‘the refuge’ taken by a species during periods where harsher conditions are prevalent – known as a refugium – which has a tremendous influence on the evolutionary future of the species. Once climate changes again to one that is more amenable to a species – for instance as ice sheets melt – these separate refuges can expand and even reconnect with each other.

Time spent apart splinters a once unified species

Evolution of course has now played it’s part and has had a huge influence. The inhabitants are not the same as the original populations as a result of variable genetic mutations. Time spent apart in a refugium generally serves to splinter a once unified species.

Previous research into other animals such as hedgehogs and polar bears suggest that, even once an Ice Age ends and the different populations start intermingling again, they never really merge back together as a single group. This process drives important evolutionary changes, which can ultimately lead to the origins of a new species – and the extinction of others.

Ultimately, this explains why Homo sapiens are still here and our archaic human cousins went extinct some 30,000 years ago: our ancestors were in a refugium that allowed greater evolutionary scope, with less chance of genetic bottlenecking.

Today, Stewart’s work has shifted away from fossil remains into ancient DNA. Traditionally insights into the evolution of species have come from fossils, but we now know that the genetic changes that underlie a major change in body shape can be minor and the resolution of data available in ancient DNA will better resolve the underlying questions.

“The most exciting development in my field has been the ability to analyse ancient DNA, which has begun to allow us to see evolution happening over the last several dozen thousand years,” explains Dr Stewart.

Neanderthals in Europe. Image: Giovanni Caselli is a lecturer on palaeoanthropology as well as an artist. Climate change caused the Neanderthals’ demise?

Stewart’s claim that climate change caused the Neanderthals’ demise is supported by the work of Love Dalén at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, who has looked at the genes found in 13 Neanderthal fossils from southern Europe and western Asia.

All Neanderthal fossils more than 48,000 years old, and those found in Asia, had a higher level of genetic diversity than later European fossils, suggesting that the Neanderthals probably went through an evolutionary  ‘bottleneck’ where a significant percentage of the population perished.

When a bottleneck occurs, the remaining individuals are often a less diverse group, which makes it difficult for them to evolve and adapt to a changing environment as the potential for change is lessened within the DNA itself.

Although an African origin of the modern human species is generally accepted, the evolutionary processes involved in this speciation, geographical spread, and eventual extinction of archaic humans outside of Africa remains much debated.

An additional complexity has been the recent evidence of limited interbreeding between modern humans and the Neanderthals and the newly discovered Denisovans.

Modern human migrations and interactions begin during the build-up to the Last Glacial Maximum, around 100,000 years ago and by examining the history of other organisms through glacial cycles, models for evolutionary biogeography can be formulated.

According to one such model, the adoption of a new refugium by a subgroup of a species may lead to important evolutionary changes.

 

 

Source: Bournemouth University

More Information

• J. R. Stewart, C. B. Stringer, Human Evolution Out-of-Africa: The Role of Refugia and Climate” Science 16 March 2012: Vol. 335 no. 6074 pp. 1317-1321 DOI: 10.1126/science.1215627
• Genetic Bottlenecks
• Masatoshi Nei (May 1, 2005). “Bottlenecks, Genetic Polymorphism and Speciation”. Genetics (The Genetics Society of America) 170 (1): 1–4. PMC 1449701. PMID 15914771. Retrieved 2013-02-19.

Cite this article

Bournemouth University. Refugia and Ice Age evolution. Past Horizons. March 06, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/02/2013/refugia-and-ice-age-evolution For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases