The most comprehensive study on the bones of Homo floresiensis, a species of tiny human discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, has found that they most likely evolved from an ancestor in Africa and not from Homo erectus as has been widely believed.
Artist's impression of Homo floresiensis [Credit: Katrina Kenny, SA Museum]
The study by The Australian National University (ANU) found Homo floresiensis, dubbed "the hobbits" due to their small stature, were most likely a sister species of Homo habilis -- one of the earliest known species of human found in Africa 1.75 million years ago.
Data from the study concluded there was no evidence for the popular theory that Homo floresiensis evolved from the much larger Homo erectus, the only other early hominid known to have lived in the region with fossils discovered on the Indonesian mainland of Java.
Study leader Dr Debbie Argue of the ANU School of Archaeology & Anthropology, said the results should help put to rest a debate that has been hotly contested ever since Homo floresiensis was discovered.
"The analyses show that on the family tree, Homo floresiensis was likely a sister species of Homo habilis. It means these two shared a common ancestor," Dr Argue said.
"It's possible that Homo floresiensis evolved in Africa and migrated, or the common ancestor moved from Africa then evolved into Homo floresiensis somewhere."
A reconstructed skull of Homo floresiensis [Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU]
Homo floresiensis is known to have lived on Flores until as recently as 54,000 years ago.
The study was the result of an Australian Research Council grant in 2010 that enabled the researchers to explore where the newly-found species fits in the human evolutionary tree.
Where previous research had focused mostly on the skull and lower jaw, this study used 133 data points ranging across the skull, jaws, teeth, arms, legs and shoulders.
Dr Argue said none of the data supported the theory that Homo floresiensis evolved from Homo erectus.
"We looked at whether Homo floresiensis could be descended from Homo erectus," she said.
"We found that if you try and link them on the family tree, you get a very unsupported result. All the tests say it doesn't fit -- it's just not a viable theory."
Dr Argue said this was supported by the fact that in many features, such as the structure of the jaw, Homo floresiensis was more primitive than Homo erectus.
"Logically, it would be hard to understand how you could have that regression -- why would the jaw of Homo erectus evolve back to the primitive condition we see in Homo floresiensis?"
Dr Argue said the analyses could also support the theory that Homo floresiensis could have branched off earlier in the timeline, more than 1.75 million years ago.
"If this was the case Homo floresiensis would have evolved before the earliest Homo habilis, which would make it very archaic indeed," she said.
Professor Mike Lee of Flinders University and the South Australian Museum, used statistical modeling to analyse the data.
"When we did the analysis there was really clear support for the relationship with Homo habilis. Homo floresiensis occupied a very primitive position on the human evolutionary tree," Professor Lee said.
"We can be 99 per cent sure it's not related to Homo erectus and nearly 100 per cent chance it isn't a malformed Homo sapiens," Professor Lee said.
For years, Todd Surovell has studied an ancient Paleoindian site in Colorado and wondered why he would find concentrations of tools in one spot or a particular type of tool in another. He had to go to Mongolia to find the answers.
This composite time-lapse photo shows every spot Mongolian people occupied in a reindeer herder camp Sept. 15, 2014. Todd Surovell, a UW professor of anthropology and director of the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, heads the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project. The project’s primary goal is the development of spatial theory of human behavior for application to archaeological problems [Credit: Todd Surovell]
Surovell, a University of Wyoming professor of anthropology and director of the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, is an expert in Paleoindian archaeology. He heads the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project, which has a primary goal of developing spatial theory of human behavior for application to archaeological problems.
In essence, he is interested in understanding how people decide where to do the things they do.
“I’m interested in how people use space from an archaeological perspective,” Surovell says. “We might, for example, identify prehistoric households and examine how people used space, both inside and outside. We also might ask how the spaces in different households were used, whether similarly or differently.”
For a number of years, Surovell and his colleague, Nicole Waguespack, a UW associate professor of anthropology, studied the Barger Gulch archaeological site that dates back 12,500 years and is located in Middle Park, Colo. There, they recovered more than 75,000 chipped stone tools and artifacts. Sometimes, a large number of various tools would be found in one spot. Other times, similar tools would be found in another.
From studying spatial patterns in the Middle Park site, Surovell surmised that Folsom people, nomadic hunter-gatherers, lived in round-shaped structures with fires in their centers. Artifacts preferentially accumulated to one side of the house (east or west), and often toward the back, or south side, of the home.
“Archaeologically, all you see are spatial patterns in chipped stone artifacts. There is no house or physical architectural remains,” he says.
In order to understand archaeological spatial patterns and how they translate into past human behavior, Surovell, as a scientist and a researcher, wanted to see how nomadic people use space in real life.
“To interpret human behavior from the past was not easy,” Surovell concedes. “I wanted to see nomadic people in the real world, and how they use space in the real world.”
So, Surovell traveled to the Khovsgol Province of Mongolia to study the Dukha (pronounced Do-ha), nomadic reindeer herders of Tuvan descent. Like the Paleoindians of the past, the Dukha of today live in rounded homes, called an ortz, with iron stoves located in the middle. The structures somewhat resemble teepees.
He has traveled to the northeast Asian country five times, and in all seasons, as part of the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project, which began in 2012. Ethnoarchaeology is the study of living peoples for the purpose of developing tools for improving interpretation of the archaeological record. This project differs from traditional spatial ethnoarchaeology, in that Surovell shifted the focus from the mapping of material remains to the direct mapping of human behavior. To do so, he has used a combination of observational mapping and time-lapse photography coupled with photogrammetry, or mapping from photographic imagery.
For example, one composite time-lapse photo that was taken shows all camp occupants -- in all of the spaces they occupied in exterior camp space -- over the course of a 12-hour day. Photos were taken roughly every three minutes from a camera perched atop a fiberglass mast. Cameras relied on battery and solar power. In all, about 300 photos were shot and then combined into the composite photo that accompanies this story.
“That is unique to the project. The big innovation in our project is this idea of mapping people as they go about their lives,” Surovell says. “Technically, it wasn’t possible to do this with high precision until recently. Imagine being in a place with no electricity, and you want to map how they (Mongolians) go about their lives. So, we turned to time-lapse photography.”
A Dukha summer camp in the West Taiga. Nine families live here. One ortz is used mostly as a rental for tourists [Credit: Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project]
The goal was to precisely map people in camp sites over frequent intervals. The information can be used to develop spatial datasets which, in turn, allow Surovell and his research team to understand how people make space-use decisions. Spatial datasets included information on a person, his or her sex, age, activity, equipment, household membership and weather.
Initial results suggest that human spatial behavior on small scales is highly patterned, predictable and explainable.
During his five separate treks to Mongolia, Surovell has lived in seven different camps. The days are long, filled with lots of hard work just for basic survival.
“It’s physically challenging. It’s cold in winter -- 40 below regularly every night,” he recalls. “In summer, it freezes almost every night. It’s rustic. You sleep on the ground. You can’t take a shower for months on end. I bring freeze-dried food. You have to ride in on a horse or a reindeer.”
During the spring, Surovell often rode a reindeer -- the Dukhas’ mode of transportation -- to help haul firewood to summer camps with the family with whom he stayed and studied. He says he paid attention to being careful, knowing medical help was often three or four days away. Still, his body was beaten up, and he typically lost 8-10 pounds during each trip.
Still, he enjoyed the simplicity of living in the moment and being away from technology.
“It’s wonderful, physically challenging, and they don’t speak English. I had to learn Mongolian,” Surovell says.
Surovell says spatial patterns of tools used at the Colorado Middle Park site could be used at Wyoming’s archaeological sites, including the Mammoth Kill site near Douglas, the Hanson site in the northern Big Horn Basin and at Hell Gap.
“I don’t know if there are obvious, practical benefits of this work. The major benefits are largely academic,” he says. “Architects who design workspaces would probably be very interested in those kinds of data of how people use space.”
Funding and sponsorship of the Dukha Ethnoarchaeological Project was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Scholars Program and the George C. Frison Institute. Surovell says he has a few publication papers in the works and, ultimately, he says his group -- which includes Randy Haas, a UW postdoctoral researcher, and Matthew O’Brien, an assistant professor of anthropology at California State University-Chico -- plans to write a book about the research experience.
“A lot of these things, they do became obvious when you see it in the real world,” Surovell says. “We have found, for example, that the distribution of light is an important factor governing the performance of many activities in interior spaces. I don’t go to a dark closet to read a book. We knew people tended to gather around a stove.
“I suspect how Mongolians use their spaces is fairly similar to how we use our homes, too,” he says. “I hope this research will give us insight into spatial patterns worldwide and not just in Colorado.”
Intriguing new details have emerged about a medieval mummy known for her 'Adidas' boots - which she wore more than a millennia ago.
Scientists believe the body of a woman found in April last year, died up to 1,100 years ago from a blow to the head [Credit: The Mongolian Observer/The Center of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia/Siberian Times]
The body of the woman was discovered a year ago this week in the Altai mountains region of Mongolia.
And her body and possessions remained so remarkably preserved that experts are still uncovering some of the secrets they keep.
Now, scientists have discovered that the mummy suffered a significant blow to the head before her death.
Her trademark felt boots - which feature red and black stripes and metal buckle work - have been carefully cleaned and restored [Credit: The Mongolian Observer/The Center of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia/Siberian Times]
The Mongolian woman - aged between 30 and 40 - hit headlines in April 2016, thanks to her modern-looking footwear, which some likened to a pair of trainers.
In the intervening 12 months, scientists have been working to find out more about the mysterious Mongolian mummy.
Experts from the Centre of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia now believe the woman died up to 1,100 years ago after suffering a serious head wound.
The items of clothing found, like this jacket, were decorated with fine embroidery patterns [Credit: The Mongolian Observer/The Center of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia/Siberian Times]
Initial examinations found that 'it was quite possible that the traces of a blow to the mummy's facial bones were the cause of her death'.
They are still seeking to verify the exact age of the burial, but they estimate it took place in the tenth century - more recently than originally thought.
The high altitude and cold climate helped to preserve both the woman's body and her belongings.
Experts believe she may have been a seamstress, due to a variety of sewing equipment which was found inside her bag, as well as the embroidery on her clothing [Credit: The Mongolian Observer/The Center of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia/Siberian Times]
And a coating of Shilajit - a thick, sticky tar-like substance with a colour ranging from white to dark brown - that covered her body aided this process.
Some skin and hair can be seen on her remains, which were wrapped in felt.
The woman was buried alongside a number of her possessions - including a handbag and four changes of clothes.
Despite her seemingly lavish possessions archaeologists believe she was an 'ordinary' women of her time, rather than an aristocrat or royal [Credit: The Mongolian Observer/The Center of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia/Siberian Times]
A comb and a mirror from her beauty kit were also found, along with a knife.
Her horse and a saddle with metal stirrups in such good condition that it could be used today were buried as well.
But despite her seemingly lavish possessions archaeologists believe she was an 'ordinary' women of her time, rather than an aristocrat or royal.
The preserved remains of a horse were uncovered at the burial site [Credit: The Mongolian Observer/ The Center of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia/Siberian Times]
'Judging by what was found inside the burial, we guess that she was from an ordinary social strata,' added Mr Enkhbat.
'Various sewing utensils were found with her.
'This is only our guess, but we think she could have been a seamstress.'
A saddle with metal stirrups in such good condition that it could be used today were found alongside it [Credit: The Mongolian Observer/The Center of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia/Siberian Times]
'Inside (her bag) was the sewing kit and since the embroidery was on both the bag and the shoes, we can be certain that the embroidery was done by locals.'
The grave was unearthed at an altitude of 9,200ft (2,803 metres) and the woman is believed to be of Turkic origin.
It appears to be the first complete Turkic burial in Central Asia.
The Mongolian woman is believed to have been aged between 30 and 40 when she died. Some skin and hair can be seen on her remains, which were wrapped in felt [Credit: The Mongolian Observer/ The Center of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia/Siberian Times]
A host of possessions were found in the grave, offering a unique insight into life in medieval Mongolia.
These included a saddle, bridle, clay vase, wooden bowl, trough, iron kettle, the remains of an entire horse, and ancient clothing.
There were also pillows, a sheep's head and felt travel bag in which were placed the whole back of a sheep, goat bones and small leather bag designed to carry a cup.
Experts from the Centre of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia have worked for the past 12 months to restore the items they found buried [Credit: The Mongolian Observer/ The Center of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia/Siberian Times]
Archaeologists from the city museum in Khovd were alerted to the burial site by local herdsmen.
The Altai Mountains - where the burial was discovered - unite Siberia, in Russia, and Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan.
Author: Will Stewart | Source: DailyMail [April 13, 2017]
The discovery in 2015 that theremains of the teenage Egtved Girl discovered in Denmark were not in fact Danish caused an outcry. Partly because this Danish Bronze Age icon turned out not to be Danish after all, and partly because she demonstrated that Bronze Age people travelled far and wide—including women. And the discovery raised one important question: were there others like her?
Skrydstrup Woman was discovered in Denmark in 1935. She is one of the best preserved Bronze Age bodies in Denmark, alongside Egtved Girl, who was discovered close by. Both women are now known to have travelled across Europe to reach Denmark [Credit: The National Museum of Denmark]
Archaeological scientists from the National Museum of Denmark can now say, yes, there were. They have discovered that a woman who was buried in Skrydstrup, southern Jutland in west Denmark, around 1300 to 1200 BCE, was not Danish.
Analyses suggest that she could have come from south Germany, France, Sweden, or The Czech Republic, and researchers are now trying to pinpoint her exact origins to see just how far she may have travelled.
It opens up for a new understanding of the European Bronze Age, says Professor Karin Frei from The National Museum of Denmark who is behind the discovery.
“We can’t say with 100 per cent certainty where she came from, and we may never be able to, but she definitely wasn’t Danish. It gives us so many new perspectives. Now we know that Egtved Girl was not an isolated case,” says Frei.
Similarities with Egtved Girl
Egtved Girl and Skrydstrup Woman lived at approximately the same time period and both died at a young age--16 to 18 years. They were both buried in oak coffins under a burial mound, which was an elite way to be buried. And they were both foreigners. But this is where the similarities end.
Egtved Girl's grave, from 1370 BC [Credit: The National Museum of Denmark]
Egtved Girl was a frequent traveller in her later years, and only spent a short period of her life at Egtved--probably only a few months--where she died. But Skrydstrup Woman made just one long journey before she died and was buried in what is now Denmark.
It is now clear that she came to Skrydstrup at the age of around 13 or 14, which was considered a marriageable age for girls, and that she lived here until she died. Unlike Egtved Girl, there is nothing in the analyses of her hair, teeth, or nails that suggests she suffered from a prolonged period of illness or malnutrition.
She was buried in the centre of a burial mound. Two men, whose relation to her is not yet known, were found buried on the side of the same mound. All of this points to a woman of great importance.
Skrydstrup Woman was an elegant queen-like figure
Alive, Skrydstrup Woman would have been striking. She was approximately ten centimetres taller that most other women with long, thick hair tied up in an intricate fashionable style, which would have added a further ten centimetres to her already impressive height.
Skrydstrup Woman was buried in an oak-coffin, which helped to preserve her remains [Credit: The National Museum of Denmark]
She dressed in beautifully embroidered clothes, with big gold earrings draped over each ear. She had long, sleek limbs, and would have wanted for nothing her entire life.
“I see a very elegant woman. A queen-like figure. I’ve no doubt that when she came in through the door, people thought “wow”,” says Frei.
Srontium reveals our origins
Frei is world-renowned for developing an analytical method to measure the ratio of strontium in a person’s hair and nails, or textiles. She has now applied the method to Skrydstrup Woman.
Recreation of Skrydstrup woman's hairstyle [Credit: Oldtidsllimt/Museum Sønderjylland]
Strontium is found naturally in soils and water, and enters the food chain via plants, the animals that eat them, and so on, until it ends up in people. The composition of the different types of strontium—so-called isotopes—contained in an individual’s teeth, nails, and hair, is directly related to the soils, plants and animals, where they live.
By analysing the strontium isotopic composition of an individual and comparing that with known compositions for different parts of the world, scientists can decipher where an individual may have came from and lived throughout their life.
Archaeologists already knew quite a lot about Skrydstrup Woman’s life.The area where she was buried is known to have been a centre of wealth, due to the large number of Bronze Age burial mounds and impressive long-houses that have been excavated in the area. Lots of bronze and gold have also been found in the area.
A reconstruction of how Skrydstrup woman's impressive house may have been decorated [Credit: Oldtidsllimt/Museum Sønderjylland]
Close to where Skrydstrup Woman was buried, archaeologists have discovered two large long-houses. One of which is the largest known “three-aisled” houses from the early Bronze Age—it was 500 square metres in size.
Archaeologists had thought that Skrydstrup Woman’s grandparents or great-grandparents built the house, but the new results overturn that interpretation.
A young girl travelled to make an alliance
Skrydstrup Woman was originally discovered in 1935. The inner part of the mound, which was dedicated to her, was 13 metres in diameter, according to Museum Sønderjylland. It was later covered by a larger grave, in which two men were buried. The burial itself is an important part of Skrydstrup Woman’s story, says Frei.
A quick overview of Skrydstrup Woman and Egtved Girl: where they were discovered and where they
may have come from [Credit:ScienceNordic/Charlotte Price Persson/Mette Friis-Mikkelsen]
“Skrydstrup Woman travelled once and stayed in the Skrydstrup area the rest of her life. So perhaps she came to make an alliance. That could have been through marriage, but we don’t know. And we don’t know who the two men were. We can only tell that it was possible for women to travel and that people could integrate quickly into that society. Otherwise you wouldn’t have been buried in this way,” says Frei.
Skrydstrup Woman probably died of an infection
Analyses of Skrydstrup Woman’s bones reveal her age and sex, but also whether she had suffered from a period of prolonged illness, malnutrition, or stress.
Analyses of Skrydstrup Woman’s teeth and hair show that she only made one long journey during her life [Credit: Charlotte Price Persson]
“We haven’t found any signs of chronic disease. On the contrary, her bones indicate that she was probably a well-nourished girl,” says post-doc Marie Louise Jørkov, from the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who conducted the analyses.
“In all probability she probably died of an infection: flu or some virus that did not show up in her skeleton. It would show up in the blood, which obviously isn’t preserved today,” says Jørkov.
Skrydstrup Woman’s bones are witness to her impressive height, which would have been around 170 centimetres tall, says Jørkov.
“The bones were very long, she was certainly a tall girl compared with her contemporaries. We don’t have many other finds, because people began cremating their dead not long after this. But we can see in corresponding discoveries for example from Borum Eshøj [another Bronze Age burial mound in Denmark] that they had shorter and more robust bones,” she says.
Part of a larger project investigating women's roles in Bronze Age societies
The results have been submitted to a scientific journal and will now go through a peer review before they are published. ScienceNordic will follow up with Frei and her colleagues progress.
In the meantime, the archaeologists will continue with the project Tales of Bronze Age Women, in which Frei and her colleagues are studying a number of well-preserved oak-coffins of Bronze Age women to investigate their role in Bronze Age society.
This approach is “fruitful” says archaeologist Professor Helle Vandkilde from Aarhus University, Denmark.
“Oak-coffins are such fantastically well-preserved source materials that make it possible to focus on each individual to an exceptional degree. This biographical perspective is especially new and exciting,” she says.
Vandkilde is not involved in the project herself and has not yet seen the unpublished results, but she is familiar with Frei’s work in general. While the precise interpretation of Skrydstrup Woman’s origins are not yet a done-deal, one thing is clear she says: both Egtved girl and Skrydstrup Woman have “definitely travelled.”
Frei is now planning to investigate some of the other well-preserved burials in Denmark.
Next on the list are the individuals buried at Borum Eshøj mound in Central Jutland, which contained the remains of an older woman, and two men. Only time will tell if this woman also travelled from far away.
“Suddenly, these women have a much larger role in this society, because they're outsiders with new knowledge and know-how that would have been of great value. I’m beginning to think that they had a greater importance than we have previously attributed to them. But all of that still remains to be seen,” says Frei.
Author: Charlotte Price Persson | Source: ScienceNordic [April 11, 2017]
Analysis of the bone remains in ancient Mesopotamia suggests that physical violence in the area was less common than suggested by historical sources, argues bioarchaeologist Dr. Arkadiusz Sołtysiak.
Skull with traces of healed trauma (the arrow) from Tell Majnuna, Syria, late Chalcolithic (c. 3,500 BC) [Credit: A. Sołtysiak]
Dr. Sołtysiak from the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, reviewed all publications concerning the burial grounds in Mesopotamia, the ancient land in the Middle East, located in the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates (mainly present territory of Iraq and Syria).
Analysed skeletons come from the period covering 10 thousand years, from the Neolithic, i.e. the introduction of agriculture - to the present day, the beginning of the 20th century.
The publications collected by Sołtysiak contain information on more than 1,200 skeletons. The scientist focused on descriptions of traces of healed skull injuries - injuries that did not directly lead to death. Traces of such injuries followed by recovery are much easier to identify than traces of a fatal injury (which are often very similar to the changes occurring after death, for example due to a specific funerary ritual or damage to the bones in the tomb).
"The incidence of such injuries in Mesopotamia is clearly lower than in other parts of the Middle East, and clearly decreases with the formation of the first states" - Arkadiusz Sołtysiak said in an interview with PAP. The scientist also found that most of the healed head injuries occured in the outskirts of Mesopotamia, with almost no such cases in the central part. Historically, the risk of skull injury for the average inhabitant of Mesopotamia was therefore low, significantly lower than in Armenia and the Levant, the scientist believes.
Map of Mesopotamia showing location of sites mentioned in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology paper [Credit: A. Sołtysiak]
This fact - according to the researcher - may be the result of the existence of a strong, centralized state authority. "The authorities were able to effectively minimize violence within a single state organism. The rulers had the right to administer justice, and ensured that any conflicts between the subjects would not lead to violence". suggested the bioarchaeologist.
"Many texts from ancient Mesopotamia contain colourful descriptions of wars and other physical atrocities, such as mass beheadings or stripping the skin. Meanwhile, bioarchaeology research paints the picture of a community, in which physical violence appeared to be rather uncommon", noted the researcher .
The number of cemeteries from the last 10 thousand years that had been studied and described by scientists, proved to be surprisingly small. To date, researchers have published data on the bone remains from only 25 cemeteries.
"This shows that the degree of development of bioarchaeology in Mesopotamia is quite low, especially when compared to Europe or North America", commented Sołtysiak. There are several reasons for this situation, the main one being that Syria and Iraq are politically unstable. "The work of archaeologists in these countries is often impossible due to armed conflicts", he added.
When early humans, including our species, ate their own kind it was more likely for ritual purposes than for a nourishing meal, according to an unusual study released Thursday.
Several clues help archaeologists identify cannibalism from the study of bones, such as the absence of the cranial base (to extract the brain) [Credit: Achim Scheidemann/DPA/AFP]
Carving up the human body to calculate the caloric value of each part, the study argues that prehistoric cannibalism -- while less rare than widely assumed -- was a dangerous undertaking offering relatively meagre nutritional rewards.
Kilo for kilo, a wild horse, bear or boar had more than three times the calories in fat and protein than our lean-and-mean human ancestors, who were mostly skin, muscle and bone, according to the research, published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Moreover, human prey -- as wily as the hunter -- would surely put up a good fight before being sliced up into filets.
"I did the study because I wanted to know how nutritional we are compared to these other animals," explained James Cole, a senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Brighton in England.
Humans are much less nutritional than a boar or a pig [Credit: AFP]
"That might tell us whether we, and other human species, were doing it for the calories, or if there is some other explanation," he told AFP.
The findings help flesh out the idea that cannibalism among homo sapiens -- as well as Neanderthals, homo erectus and other hominins -- was suffused with cultural meaning.
Recent scholarship suggests our ancestors, including Neanderthals, had rich cultures, evidenced by artifacts, jewellery and perhaps language.
"It seems unreasonable to think that early humans wouldn't have had as complex an attitude to cannibalism as we modern humans," Cole said.
"They may have had as many reasons to consume each other as we do."
Archaeologists have put a face to the oldest human remains excavated from Thailand's northern highlands.
The facial approximation of Tham Lod woman, who lived about 13,600 years ago in Thailand's northern highlands [Credit: Hayes, Shoocongdej et al./Antiquity]
The remains of the woman, who lived about 13,600 years ago, were found in the Late Pleistocene Tham Lod rock shelter in north-west Thailand. The woman was between 25 and 35 years old and between 1.48 and 1.56 metres tall.
The age of her remains and the location they were found in suggest that she descended from the first humans to colonise South-East Asia. The findings are reported in the journal Antiquity.
The first approximation of the woman's face has now been created, using a global dataset of measurements of skulls, muscles, skin and other soft facial tissue from a large sample of the population across the world.
Estimating the face of a prehistoric human can be rife with pitfalls. Using data from a range of ethnicities in different countries and continents helps to make sure the impression of the face isn't biased towards one population, study author Susan Hayes of the University of Wollongong, Australia, told IBTimes UK.
The 'facial approximation' method uses facial soft tissue data from a global population to try to recreate the subject's appearance [Credit: Hayes, Shoocongdej et al./Antiquity]
Hayes used a method called "facial approximation", based on the analysis of soft tissues and skull measurements from an international sample population, rather than the popular method of "forensic facial reconstruction".
"Facial reconstruction fascinates people, and it attracts a lot of enthusiasm from both artists and scientists," Hayes said. "Unfortunately, some are scientists without any understanding of the technicalities of artistic depiction, others are artists without any understandings of the technicalities of science.
"The deceased deserve a bit better than this."
The resulting image is thought to give a good general impression of the woman's face, but is "unlikely to be a portrait likeness", Hayes said. This is because the data used for comparison are averaged over a large population. So if the Tham Lod rock shelter woman was entirely like the average person with her facial measurements, then the image would be a good likeness. But, Hayes notes, no one is average.
"But the average [image] is better, I think, than intuition, inspiration, self-portraiture, or doggedly sticking to relatively simple methods that are simply wrong."
In an earlier study Professor Kristian Kristiansen from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and Lundbeck Foundation Professor Eske Willerslev from the Centre for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen, and their research teams, showed that the large demographic changes during the first part of the Bronze Age happened as a result of massive migrations of Yamnaya people from the Pontic-Caspian steppes into Neolithic Europe. They were also able to show that plague was widespread in both Europe and Central Asia at this time.
Corded ware vessel, an axe and two discs made of amber from an early male grave [Credit: Danish National Museum]
Now Professor Kristiansen and Professor Willerslev with co-authors reveal a more detailed view of the mechanism behind the emerging culture known as the Corded Ware Culture -- the result of the encounter between the Yamnaya and the Neolithic people.
Professor Kristian Kristiansen says: "We are now for the first time able to combine results from genetics, strontium isotopes on mobility and diet, and historical linguistics on language change, to demonstrate how the integration process unfolded on the ground after the Yamnaya migrations from the steppe. In our grand synthesis we argue that Yamnaya migrants were predominantly males, who married women who came from neighbouring Stone Age farming societies"
These Stone Age Neolithic societies were based on large farming communities reflected in their collective burial ritual often in big stone chambers, so called megaliths. Very different from the traditions of the incoming migrants.
The origin of the Yamnaya
The Yamnaya people originated on the Caspian steppes where they lived as pastoralists and herders, using wagons as mobile homes. From burial pits archaeologists have found extensive use of thick plant mats and felt covers.
Their economy was based on meat, dairy products and fish, they were tall and rather healthy with little caries in their teeth. No agriculture is documented. Barrows were aligned in groups forming lines in the landscape to mark seasonal routes and after death diseased people were put into individual graves under small family barrows.
Their burial ritual thus embodied a new perception of the individual and of small monogamous family groups as the foundation of society. The continent encountered by the Yamnaya people around 3000 BC had seen a decline in the agrarian Stone Age societies, thereby allowing space for incoming migrants. This decline was probably the result of a widespread plague from Siberia to the Baltic.
"The disease dynamic here may have been comparable to the European colonization process in America after Christopher Columbus," says Kristiansen. "Perhaps Yamnaya brought plague to Europe and caused a massive collapse in the population."
Barrows in the Danish landscape [Credit: Danish National Museum]
"Black Youth" as migrating males and their marriage to Neolithic women
In the new article, Kristiansen and colleagues argue for a dominance of males during the early phase after the migrations, and correspond to the old Indo-European mythology of later times. These sources talk about war-bands of youths -- called "Black Youth" -- who were employed in pioneer migrations as a dynamic force.
Evidence from strontium isotopic analyses, published in 2016 by Kristiansen together with Douglas Price and Karl Goran Sjogren, showed that a majority of the women in Corded Ware burials in south Germany were non-locals who had married in from Neolithic societies, since they had a Neolithic diet in their childhood. These results now form part of the new synthesis.
Professor Kristian Kristiansen says: "Existing archaeological evidence of a strong 90% male dominance in the early phase of the Corded Ware/Single Grave Culture settlement in Jutland, Denmark, and elsewhere can now be explained by the old Indo-European tradition of war bands of young males who did not have any inheritance to look forward to. Therefore they were probably more willing to make a career as migrating war bands."
These Neolithic women also brought new knowledge of pottery production, and started to imitate pottery containers made of wood from the Yamnaya migrants. In this way a new pottery culture was created called Corded Ware, because of the cord impressions around the neck of the pots. They were made for beer drinking, and the new migrants also learned how to grow barley from the in-married Neolithic women in order to produce beer.
Rapid genetic changeover from Neolithic to Corded Ware cultures after 3000 BC
Eske Willerslev undertook the ancient DNA analyses together with Morten Allentoft and Martin Sikora. Professor Willerslev says:
Typical group of Danish Bronze Age barrows [Credit: Kristian Kristiansen]
"In our big Bronze Age study, published in 2015 we were astonished to see how strong and fast the genetic changeover was from the Neolithic to the Corded Ware. There was a heavy reduction of Neolithic DNA in temperate Europe, and a dramatic increase of the new Yamnaya genomic component that was only marginally present in Europe prior to 3000 BC. Moreover, the apparent abruptness with which this change occurred indicates that it was a large-scale migration event, rather than a slow periodic inflow of people."
New words and new Proto-Germanic dialect
The Yamnaya brought the Indo-European languages into Bronze Age Europe, but as herders, they did not have words for crops or cultivation, unlike the Neolithic farmers. As the Corded Ware Culture developed it adopted words related to farming from the indigenous Neolithic people, which they were admixing with.
Guus Kroonen, a historical linguist, was able to demonstrate that these new words did not belong to the original Indo-European languages. Therefore it was possible to conclude that the Neolithic people were not speaking an Indo-European language, as did the Yamnaya migrants. Thus, the process of genetic and cultural admixture was accompanied by a process of language admixture, creating the foundations for later Germanic languages, termed Proto-Germanic.
The birth of the Bronze Age
The Yamnaya migrations from the Pontic-Caspian steppe into temperate Europe changed the course of history: they brought not only a new language, but also new ideas about how society was organized around small monogamous families with individual ownership to animals and land. This new society became the foundation for the Bronze Age, and for the way European societies continued to develop to the present.
A study of the DNA in ancient skeletal remains adds to the evidence that indigenous groups living today in southern Alaska and the western coast of British Columbia are descendants of the first humans to make their home in northwest North America more than 10,000 years ago.
Researchers are analyzing DNA from ancient individuals found in southeast Alaska, coastal British Columbia, Washington state and Montana. A new genetic analysis of some of these human remains finds that many of today's indigenous peoples living in the same regions are descendants of ancient individuals dating to at least 10,300 years ago [Credit: Julie McMahon, University of Illinois]
"Our analysis suggests that this is the same population living in this part of the world over time, so we have genetic continuity from 10,000 years ago to the present," said University of Illinois anthropology professor Ripan Malhi, who led the study with University of Chicago postdoctoral researcher John Lindo; Penn State University biology professor Michael DeGiorgio; Rosita Worl, the director of the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, Alaska; and University of Oklahoma anthropology professor Brian M. Kemp.
The new work comes on the heels of earlier studies of ancient Americans that focused on mitochondrial DNA, which occurs outside the nucleus of cells and is passed only from mothers to their offspring.
"Mitochondrial DNA just traces the maternal line - your mother's mother's lineage - so, you're missing information about all of these other ancestors," said Lindo, the first author on the paper. "We wanted to analyze the nuclear genome so we could get a better assessment of the population history of this region."
The team looked at genomic data from Shuká Káa (Tlingit for "Man Before Us"), an ancient individual whose remains - found in a cave in southeastern Alaska - date to about 10,300 years ago. They also analyzed the genomes of three more individuals from the nearby coast of British Columbia whose remains date to between 6,075 and 1,750 years ago.
"Interestingly, the mitochondrial type that Shuká Káa belonged to was also observed from another ancient skeleton dated to about 6,000 years ago," Kemp said. "It seems to disappear after that. The nuclear DNA suggests that this is probably not about population replacement, but rather chance occurrence through time. If a female has no children or only sons, the mitochondrial DNA is not passed to the next generation. As a male, Shuká Káa could not have passed on his own mitochondrial DNA; he must have had some maternal relatives that did so."
The researchers turned their attention to nuclear DNA, which offers a more comprehensive record of a person's ancestry.
"DNA from the mitochondria and Y chromosome provide unique yet sometimes conflicting stories, but the nuclear genome provides a more comprehensive view of past events," DeGiorgio said.
"The data suggest that there were multiple genetic lineages in the Americas from at least 10,300 years ago," Malhi said.
The descendants of some of those lineages are still living in the same region today, and a few are co-authors on the new study. Their participation is the result of a long-term collaboration between the scientists and several native groups who are embracing genomic studies as a way to learn from their ancestors, said Worl, who is Tlingit, Ch'áak' (Eagle) moiety of the Shangukeidí (Thunderbird) Clan from the Kawdliyaayi Hít (House Lowered From the Sun) in Klukwan, Alaska.
"We supported DNA testing of Shuká Káa because we believed science ultimately would agree with what our oral traditions have always said - that we have lived in southeast Alaska since time immemorial. The initial analysis showed the young man was native, and now further studies are showing that our ancestral lineage stems from the first initial peopling of the region," said Worl, who also is an anthropologist. "Science is corroborating our oral histories."
A new scientific study of medieval human bones, excavated from a deserted English village, suggests the corpses they came from were burnt and mutilated. Researchers from the University of Southampton and Historic England believe this was carried out by villagers who believed that it would stop the corpses rising from their graves and menacing the living.
Knife marks on external surfaces of two rib bone fragments [Credit: Historic England]
The team found that many of the bones from Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire showed knife-marks – suggesting the bodies had been decapitated and dismembered. There was also evidence of the burning of body parts and deliberate breaking of some bones after death.
The findings are published in an article in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports. The research was led by Simon Mays, Human Skeletal Biologist at Historic England, working in collaboration with Alistair Pike, Professor of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Southampton.
Right parietal from an adult cranium showing burn marks [Credit: Historic England]
In medieval times, there was a folk-belief that corpses could rise from their graves and roam the local area, spreading disease and violently assaulting those unlucky enough to encounter them. Restless corpses were usually thought to be caused by a lingering malevolent life-force in individuals who had committed evil deeds or created animosity when living.
Medieval writers describe a number of ways of dealing with revenants, one of which was to dig up the offending corpse, decapitate and dismember it, and burn the pieces in a fire. Perhaps the bones from Wharram Percy were parts of bodies that were mutilated and burnt because of medieval fears of corpses rising from their graves. The researchers considered other theories, but this explanation appears to be the most consistent with the alterations observed on the bones.
A mid-lower thoracic vertebra, showing two almost parallel knife cuts [Credit: Historic England]
In some societies, people may be treated in unusual ways after death because they are viewed as outsiders. However, analysis of strontium isotopes in the teeth showed this was not the reason in this case.
Professor Alistair Pike, who directed the isotopic analysis, explains: “Strontium isotopes in teeth reflect the geology on which an individual was living as their teeth formed in childhood. A match between the isotopes in the teeth and the geology around Wharram Percy suggests they grew up in an area close to where they were buried, possibly in the village. This was surprising to us, as we first wondered if the unusual treatment of the bodies might relate to their being from further afield, rather than local.”
The Wharram Percy Medieval village, North Yorkshire, UK [Credit: Historic England]
Famines were quite common in medieval times, so another possibility might be that the remains were of corpses that had been cannibalised by starving villagers. However, the evidence did not seem to fit. For example, in cannibalism, knife marks on bone tend to cluster around major muscle attachments or large joints, but at Wharram Percy the knife marks were not at these locations but mainly in the head and neck area.
Simon Mays concludes: “The idea that the Wharram Percy bones are the remains of corpses burnt and dismembered to stop them walking from their graves seems to fit the evidence best. If we are right, then this is the first good archaeological evidence we have for this practice. It shows us a dark side of medieval beliefs and provides a graphic reminder of how different the medieval view of the world was from our own.”
Artist's impression of Wharram Percy in the late 12th century [Credit: Peter Dunn/Historic England]
The bones come from the deserted medieval village of Wharram Percy, North Yorkshire, a site managed by English Heritage. There was a total of 137 bones representing the mixed remains of at least ten individuals. They were buried in a pit in the settlement part of the site. They date from the 11th-14th centuries AD.
