A prehistoric human skeleton, thought to be at least 5,000 years old, was uncovered during construction of a gallery for the Guar Kepah Neolithic site near Kepala Batas, on mainland Penang, on Monday.
The prehistoric human skeleton was found at Guar Kepah Neolithic site on mainland Penang, near Kepala Batas [Credit: USM]
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Global Archaeological Research Centre director Professor Datuk Dr Mokhtar Saidin said a skull, a femur bone and a rib cage were found beneath the floor of a house which had been recently flattened to make way for the gallery.
He said the bones were found 70cm underground as Public Works Department (PWD) backhoes were digging on Monday.
"This is an important discovery not only for us, but the state, and the nation as a whole. Digging works were immediately stopped following the discovery, and we took over to conduct the excavation.
"We have yet to conduct scientific studies, but we estimate it to be around 5,000 years old. More details, such as how the prehistoric people lived, what they ate and their burial patterns, will be released once we complete the studies," Dr Mokhtar told newsmen at Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's office here, yesterday.
Mokhtar believes they could possibly find three skeletons at the site, but it would take them at least two weeks to excavate even the current findings.
USM's Global Archaeological Research Centre had been conducting excavation works and research at the site back in 2010, where prehistoric shells, pottery remnants, tool remnants and food remnants from the Neolithic period were found, documented and dated.
“With this latest discovery, our research is complete. We have the shells, the food, the hunting tools and now we have the skeleton. So, the gallery will be complete with all these on display,” Dr Mokhtar added.
Guar Kepah, the country's final remaining Stone Age site, features shell middens or mounds that date back more than five millennia.
According to a book by F. David Bulbeck, titled “The Perak Man and Prehistoric Skeletons of Malaysia”, a total of 37 skeletons were excavated from the site after British colonial officer G.W Earl first discovered the shell middens in 1860; dating placed the skeletons at between 4,000 and 5,000 years old.
Back in 2013, Mokhtar had said that the Neolithic period site at Guar Kepah, which is older than the ancient civilisation site of neighbouring Lembah Bujang, had the potential to be a major tourism draw.
The Neolithic era is considered to be the last period of the Stone Age, before the discovery of metal tools led humans into the Bronze Age.
He had said that the site was the only prehistoric evidence of marine adaptation by prehistoric humans living near the sea in Malaysia.
No new human remains were found beyond the 37 skeletons previously unearthed, and taken to the National Natuurhistorisch Museum in Leiden, Holland.
Meanwhile, Lim announced a RM20,000 allocation for further excavation works.
The Chief Minister also said that the state government is in talks to have the skeletons repatriated from Holland, to be placed in the new Guar Kepah gallery. Author: Audrey Dermawan | Source: New Strait Times [April 19, 2017]
From July to December in 2016, 14 large Zinc mining and metallurgy sites in Guiyang district were surveyed by Hunan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology cooperates with Peking University School of Archaeology and Museology and other organizations. Intentional excavation of Tongmuling site was hence carried out.
Aerial photo of Tongmuling site [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]
The survey and excavation revealed a number of intact, large-scaled zinc and multi-metal smelting sites, unearthed a series of important smelting remains, encouraged our understanding of smelting technology during Ming and Qing dynasties, which therefore promoted the archaeological research on crafts production. Excavation Results
Tongmuling site is situated in Renyi Town, Guiyang County. The total area of the site is around 110,000 square meters. There is a platform formed by slag in the center of the site. The surface of the platform is triangular, with a length of 100 meters from the east to the west and a width of 50 meters from the south to the north. According to the excavation, a burning unit and two smelting unites on the platform presented a “品” shape, show that the mines were burned first and then smelted.
The burning unit is located in front of the platform (south part) and distributed in an oval shape with a length of 55 meters from the east to the west, a width of 20 meters from the south to the north, and a total area of about 1100 square meters. There are 6 burning stations distributed according to the topography in the burning unit. Each burning station consists of 4 or 8 cylindrical burning furnaces. The burning furnaces have similar size, with a diameter of around 0.9 meters at the opening and a preserved height of 0.8 meters. The wall is relatively straight and the bottom is flat. There is a ventilation opening on a side of the furnace.
The melting workshop [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]
The first smelting unit is located in the east part of the platform and distributed in a round-cornered rectangular shape with a length of 55 meters, a width of 25 meters, and a total area of about 1300 square meters. In this unit, No. 1 channel furnace smelting workshop is preserved more complete. The channel furnace is the main body of the workshop and surrounded by remains such as the storage pit, mixing pit, stirring pit, and raw material pile.
The second smelting unit is located in the southwest part of the platform. In this unit, there are 3 smelting workshops with the channel furnace as the main body. The workshops are all connected with the road surface; therefore, they are suggested as the remains from same time period. The structure, design, and size of each workshop are similar to No. 1 channel furnace smelting workshop in the first smelting unit. According to the investigation, the collapse of the southwest part of the third channel furnace was probably caused by coal mining in modern times.
Illustration showing the smelting process [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]
A series of relatively intact smelting tools such as crucible, condensation pocket, condensation appliance, condensation lid, iron shovel, crooked chisel, and anvil were uncovered from the smelting working area. On the other hand, green graininess scattered slag and lumped corrugated slag were found. Also, furnace remains (K23 and K24) with a high content of copper, lead, and silver, as well as a suspected plank of circular bellow piston, were recovered at the correspondence positions to the slag. It is suggested that this is a multi-metal smelting site mainly used for zinc-smelting and combined with smelting of lead, copper, and silver.
Daily utensils and a small quantity of coins belong to Qianlong and Jiaqing periods of Qing dynasty were recovered from the housing and working areas. It is initially suggested that the site began to use in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and abandoned in the late Qing dynasty.
An ore wash trough on the river bed [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]
The archaeology team has investigated the surrounding areas of the Tongmuling site. Test excavations were also carried out to the sites with important signs and a double-lined furnace with a length of around 20 meters was recovered. This is the first time that this type of furnace found in China. On the other hand, remains related to zinc-smelting such as burning furnace, channel furnace, and housing remains were found.
Value and significance
The discovery and excavation of the entire platform in the center of the site indicates the function and structure of the smelting site. This is very important to the understanding of the function division, technological process, production capacity, and the daily life and productivity of the workers.
The discovery of lined round shaped furnaces has filled in the gap in the research of zinc-smelting technology in China. The channel furnaces recovered from the site are the most completed Qing dynasty zinc-smelting furnaces found in China. The remains of zinc-smelting and metallurgy uncovered with the furnaces dovetailed with the historical literature. It is very significant to the reconstruction of ancient zinc-smelting technology. The investigation and excavation result is a treasure to the research of Chinese metallurgical history, coin history, and political-social history.
The Papua Center for Archaeology has discovered a prehistoric cave dwelling in the Malaumkarta Village, Makbon Sub-district, Sorong City, West Papua Province.
Kalabus Cave [Credit: Papua Center for Archaeology]
"The local community named the cave as Kalabus Cave," Hari Suroto, an archaeologist of the Papua Center for Archaeology, stated during a telephonic conversation here on Sunday.
Suroto said the cave is located 200 meters west of the Kalabu River. When it was discovered, the caves floor was covered by the droppings of swallows, while the mouth and yard of the cave were in dry condition.
"Pottery and food remains, in the form of sea shells, were found on the floor of the caves mouth," he noted.
Based on the artifacts discovered in the cave, it could be assessed that Kalabus Cave had served as a prehistoric dwelling, as the men who once inhabited the cave largely depended on natural resources in the vicinity.
"The findings of food remains, in the form of sea shells, indicated that the men who once lived in the cave reached the coast in search of food," he revealed.
The finding of pottery artifacts also indicated that food processing activities were more varied, which included boiling.
"In addition, the pottery was used to store food or water," he noted.
Furthermore, Suroto, who was also an alumnus of the University of Udayana in Bali Province, said the observation results of the soil type around Kalabus Cave revealed that it could not have been used to make pottery. Hence, it could be assumed that the pottery came from outside the cave.
"Physically, Kalabus Cave is comfortable and safe, as it has spacious spaces, good lighting, dry and flat floor surface, good air circulation, and is located close to a water source," he stated.
"Kalabus Cave had the potential to be used as a place to live and move by humans," he added.
Gezishan Site is located at the northwest of Qingtongxia city, Ningxia Province, it is an important prehistorical site in the later period of late Pleistocene in China. From 2013, the Ningxia Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics in conjunction with Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences made a systematical research, and cleared up the selected location No.10. In 2016, another great finding was made during the excavation.
Remains of camp fire found in Gezishan Site [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]
Excavation and research plan
Location No.10 was at the east of the Gezishan Basin. From 2014 to 2015, the archaeological team had felt out the distribution of the connate deposit of the site in the current situation, also had ascertained the actuality of the core area of the cultural layer. In 2016, archaeologists decided to expand the excavation scale in the core area, in order to get the overall connotation of the site.
In 2016, the archaeological team decided to clear up 200 excavation units (whose length of side was 1 meter) at the north of the core zone of the site, with an area of about 180 square meters. Expect the upper layer (disruption layer) was excavated as a thickness of about 20 to 30 centimeters layer, the rest was excavated as a thickness of about 5 to 10 centimeters.
Stratum, age, artifacts and remains
The stratum was divided into 5 layers, and archaeologists have recorded the three-dimensional coordinates of about 7,000 stone tools (larger than 2 centimeters) and more than 500 pieces of animal bones; Dozens of ostrich eggshell beads was found, especially those of less than 2 millimeters diameter, which became an important achievement of this excavation, however, the manufacturing techniques and the usage method, indicating the skills and cognitive competence need to be further researched.
The section which showed the uncertain post hole [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]
Meanwhile, about 400 pieces of charcoal samples was collected from different layers, in order to establish a high-resolution chronology frame and a solid background for the culture understanding. More than 20 remains of fire-using and carbon dust dense area were revealed, a large amount of burnt stones scattered in the excavation, and some of which were fireplaces with burnt bones around. In the fourth layer of excavation unit T5, dozens of round pits, with about 10-20 centimeters in diameter, 5-20 centimeters in depth were found, in zonal distribution, which was speculated to be temporary dwelling remains.
Academic values and significance
The excavation of Gezishan Site was the first time that chronosequence from the late period of late Pleistocene to the early period of holocene was established at the edge of the northwestern desert in China, providing important materials for understanding the prehistoric human activities and environmental change in this special geographic zone. Given to the excavation, archaeologists firstly found the stone saddle-quern, stone roller, featured bi-facial tools and Helan pointed implements in situ, which defining the date of those artifacts, and providing evidence of the means of livelihood and diet of ancient people at that moment in this area.
The ostrich eggshell beads [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]
The ostrich eggshell and ornaments unearthed in the site refreshed our understandings towards the cognitive competence and skills of processing tiny objects of the ancient people, as well as providing perfect samples of studying their complex techniques and cognitive competence. A large number of fire using traces inside the site and its spatial distribution not only reflected the livelihood pattern, the background of climate and environment of ancient humans, but providing important informatiom for the activities of making fire, using fire and the use of housing space.
The pierced calcite ornaments [Credit: Chinese Archaeology]
Location No.10 of Gezishan site provides a complete stratigraphic sequence for this region. The cultural accumulations of at least three different periods have not only enriched our understanding of the period and its culture, but have also made it a special location for studying the cultural evolution and prehistoric human activities of the desert fringe zone from the late Pleistocene to the early Holocene as well as the transitional period from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic.
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]
According to new research, nomadic horse culture—famously associated with Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes—can trace its roots back more than 3,000 years in the eastern Eurasian Steppes, in the territory of modern Mongolia.
Domestic horse head burial from Mongolia’s Deer Stone-Khirigsuur complex, used in the study [Credit: William Taylor]
The study, published in Journal of Archaeological Science, produces scientific estimates of the age of horse bones found from archaeological sites belonging to a culture known as the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex. This culture, named for the beautiful carved standing stones ("deer stones") and burial mounds (khirigsuurs) it built across the Mongolian Steppe, is linked with some of the oldest evidence for nomadic herding and domestic livestock use in eastern Eurasia. At both deer stones and khirigsuurs, stone mounds containing ritual burials of domestic horses - sometimes numbering the hundreds or thousands - are found buried around the edge of each monument.
A team of researchers from several academic institutions - including the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Yale University, University of Chicago, the American Center for Mongolian Studies, and the National Museum of Mongolia - used a scientific dating technique known as radiocarbon dating to estimate the spread of domestic horse ritual at deer stones and khirigsuurs.
'Deer stone' stela in Bayankhongor province, central Mongolia, surrounded by small stone mounds containing domestic horse remains [Credit: William Taylor]
When an organism dies, an unstable radioactive molecule present in living tissues, known as radiocarbon, begins to decay at a known rate. By measuring the remaining concentration of radiocarbon in organic materials, such as horse bone, archaeologists can estimate how many years ago an animal took its final step. Many previous archaeological projects in Mongolia produced radiocarbon date estimates from horse remains found at these Bronze Age archaeological sites. However, because each of these measurements must be calibrated to account for natural variation in the environment over time, individual dates have large amounts of error and uncertainty, making them difficult to aggregate or interpret in groups.
By using a statistical technique known as Bayesian analysis - which combines probability with archaeological information to improve precision for groups of radiocarbon dates - the study authors were able to produce a high-precision chronology model for early domestic horse use in Mongolia. Lead author William Taylor, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, says that this model "enables us for the first time to link horse use with other important cultural developments in ancient Mongolia and eastern Eurasia, and evaluate the role of climate and environmental change in the local origins of horse riding."
Domestic horses form the center of nomadic life in contemporary Mongolia [Credit: P. Enkhtuvshin]
According to the study, domestic horse ritual spread rapidly across the Mongol Steppe at around 1200 BC - several hundred years before mounted horsemen are clearly documented historical records. When considered alongside other evidence for horse transport in the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex these results suggest that Mongolia was an epicenter for early horse culture - and probably early mounted horseback riding.
The study has important consequences for our understanding of human responses to climate change. For example, one particularly influential hypothesis argues that horse riding and nomadic herding societies developed during the late second millennium BCE, as a response to drought and a worsening climate. Taylor and colleagues' results indicate instead that early horsemanship took place during a wetter, more productive climate period - which may have given herders more room to experiment with horse breeding and transport.
Domestic horse head burial from Mongolia's Deer Stone-Khirigsuur complex, used in the study [Credit: William Taylor]
In recent years, scholars have become increasingly aware of the role played by Inner Asian nomads in early waves of globalization. A key article published this month in Nature argues that nomadic movement patterns shaped the early trans-Eurasian trade networks that would eventually move goods, people, and information across the continent. The development of horsemanship by Mongolian cultures might have been one of the most influential changes in Eurasian prehistory - laying the groundwork for the economic and ecological exchange networks that defined the Old World for centuries to come.
An ancient bridge has been discovered at the site of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Fengyang city of East China's Anhui province.
An ancient bridge has been unearthed at the historic site of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Fengyang city of East China's Anhui province [Credit: VCG]
According to archaeologists, the bridge was constructed with grey bricks during Ming Dynasty and had been in service since completion.
Archaeological staff members clean up the mud on the periphery of the ancient bridge at the historic site of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Fengyang city of East China's Anhui province, April 9, 2017 [Credit: VCG]
In 1970s, due to road construction, the bridge was buried under the ground. However, it was not until last year that the ancient bridge was excavated again.
The ancient bridge was constructed with grey bricks [Credit: VCG]
Chen Huairen, an expert on Ming Dyansty, said the bridge was located at Yunji Street, a second axis that crossed the main axis of the city.
Aerial view of the historical site of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Fengyang city of East China's Anhui province, April 9, 2017 [Credit: VCG]
Other ancient capital cities Xi'an and Beijing only had one city axis in north-south direction, but the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty in Fengyang had two, which makes it unique in city planning, said Chen.
Some parts of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Fengyang city have been restored [Credit: VCG]
At the site, Donghua Gate, Southeastern Corner Tower, and Merdian Gate of the Middle Capital of Ming Dynasty have been restored.
Stone inscriptions dating back to the 12th to 15th Century AD have been found neglected at Lord Uma Koppulingeswara temple at Palivela village of Kothapeta mandal in East Godavari. Rare inscriptions of Veerabhadra Reddy of Rajamahendravara Reddy kingdom, who ruled the Godavari area from 14th to 15th Century AD, were found on the walls and pillars of the temple in Telugu script.
Stone inscriptions dating back to the 12th to 15th Century AD have been found neglected at Lord Uma Koppulingeswara temple at Palivela village of Kothapeta mandal in East Godavari [Credit: Deccan Chronicle]
The stone inscriptions clearly mention king Veerabhadra Reddy and his queen Anitalli who made generous donations to temple deities during Salivahana era. An inscription, dated Salivanana era 1338, mentions the ‘Kalyana Mantapa’ in the temple that was constructed by Allada Reddy Dodda of the Rajamahendravara Reddy dynasty. Reddy Dodda was the younger brother of Veerabhadra Reddy and he ordered performing of Kalyana of Lord Uma Koppulingeswara. The practice of performing Kalyana is still being followed at the temple.
Some inscriptions dated Salivahana era 1239 of Kakatiya Prataparudra area were also found on the temple premises and they are in a bad condition for want of maintenance. An inscription, belonging to the 10th century AD of Velanati Chodas, was being used by the devotees to break coconuts to offer to the Lord at the temple. Archaeologist Varanasi Rahul said, “It is time the state government takes interest to protect and preserve ancient stone inscriptions, as these are getting either damaged or ruined for want of care.”
The Tibetan Plateau in China experiences the strongest monsoon system on Earth, with powerful winds—and accompanying intense rains in the summer months—caused by a complex system of global air circulation patterns and differences in surface temperatures between land and oceans.
Stratification in Tibet sediment. Climate variations are reflected in color variations with the red sediment typically indicating a wetter climate and the white indicating a drier climate. "You can literally walk up time as you sample the sediment," Garzione says [Credit: Qingquan Meng]
These extreme weather patterns make this area an ideal location for climate scientists to study the delicate interconnected web of the global climate system.
Carmala Garzione, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester, and Junsheng Nie, a visiting research associate at the University, surveyed sediment samples from the northern Tibetan Plateau's Qaidam Basin and were able to construct paleoclimate cycle records from the late Miocene epoch of Earth's history, which lasted from approximately 11 to 5.3 million years ago. They recently published their findings in Science Advances.
Reconstructing past climate records can help scientists determine both natural patterns and the ways in which future glacial events and greenhouse gas emissions may affect global systems.
Based on previous research on ice core, marine, and sediment records, researchers determined that for the past 800,000 years, Northern Hemisphere ice ages—in which vast areas of North America, Europe, and Asia are covered with thick sheets of ice—occurred about every 100,000 years. Prior to that period, ice ages occurred more frequently, on cycles of 41,000 years, and scientists believed this was the norm.
Using the sediment samples from the Qaidam Basin, Nie and Garzione show that the East Asian monsoon patterns in the late Miocene also follow similar 100,000 year cycles, with stronger monsoons peaking at 100,000 years and diminishing in the periods in between. This reveals a greater than 6 million earlier onset of these 100,000 year cycles than was previously documented.
"People have been thinking that the 100,000 year cycle was a later Quaternary [present-day] climate anomaly," Nie says. "But from our results, we see that it's not an anomaly, it was present many years before."
Several factors affect these cycles, but they are ultimately determined by orbital forcing—the Sun's radiation received by the Earth due to variations in the Earth's orbit in the solar system. There are three types of variations that occur simultaneously, known as the Milankovitch Cycles:
Eccentricity: How the Earth rotates around the Sun—the shape of Earth's orbit gradually changes from being more oval to more round over a period of 100,000 years.
Axial tilt: The Earth tilts toward the Sun at an angle that changes from an approximate 22-degree tilt to a 24.5-degree tilt over a period of 41,000 years.
Precession of equinox: The Earth slowly wobbles as it spins, much like a toy top, while at the same time, the Earth's rotational axis—the line from the north to south poles—rotates. The interaction of these two processes results in cyclical movement of equinoxes over a period of approximately 23,000 years.
"Each of these factors influences incoming solar radiation and how the earth is absorbing heat,"Garzione says.
Mysteries remain because eccentricity is the weakest cycle, so should logically not be the dominant cycle for climatic events. It is not only sunlight that plays a role in these cycles, but the influence of glaciers and atmospheric carbon dioxide.
For the past one million years, the waxing and waning of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets—mainly those in Canada—have controlled the climate cycles, by affecting ocean currents, temperatures, and wind patterns. Southern Hemisphere ice in Antarctica has remained relatively fixed, without any major glacial melting to catalyze advances and retreats.
During the late Miocene, this was the opposite, with ice in Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere waxing and waning. Nie and Garzione suggest that the fluctuating Antarctic ice sheet in the late Miocene, at a time when there was minimal ice in the Northern Hemisphere, exerted the dominant control on the 100,000 year cycles observed in the Qaidam Basin record.
"If one hemisphere sees major advances and retreats in ice sheets, that's when we get into this pattern of 100,000 year cycles dominating," Garzione says. "The question is, will we push carbon dioxide high enough in the future that the Northern Hemisphere remains ice free and the advances and retreats begin again with the Southern Hemisphere ice sheets."
If so, the Southern Hemisphere ice sheets may once again exert dominant influence on climate cycles.
Archaeologists have found 13 tombs, which are estimated to be between 1,800 and 2,700 years old, in Bomi County of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
The tombs were discovered by construction workers during a road project in Qundo township, Nyingchi, in the second half of 2016, according to the regional institute of cultural relics.
Two relatively complete human skeletons were found in two tombs, while human bones were also discovered in other graves, said Shaka Wangdu, associate researcher with the institute.
Archaeologists found that the tombs appeared to follow a known burial custom, which is still seen in parts of Qundo. According to the custom, after the body has decayed, the bones are exhumed and reburied.
Objects including eight complete examples of pottery, a millstone, three bronze arrowheads and iron residue were also found.
"The tombs will help research into Tibetan funeral customs and human development in eastern Tibet in a period without written records," said Shaka Wangdu.
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."
Griffith University archaeologists Associate Professor Adam Brumm, who with Indonesian colleagues led the excavations that yielded the new findings, and Dr Michelle Langley, who analysed the recovered ornaments and art objects.
Excavations at the limestone cave of Leang Bulu Bettue on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi [Credit: Justin Mott]
Griffith University archaeologists are part of a joint Indonesian-Australian team that has unearthed a rare collection of prehistoric art and ‘jewellery’ objects from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, dating in some instances to as early as 30,000 years ago.
The Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE) team, based in Griffith’s Environmental Futures Research Institute, together with Indonesian colleagues, have shed new light on ‘Ice Age’ human culture and symbolism in a paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dated to between 26,000 to 22,000 years ago, this humanly modified artefact consists of a drilled and perforated finger bone from an endemic bear cuscus. The hole at one end formerly bore a string, while wear marks on the ornament show that it repeatedly rubbed against human skin or clothing during the period of its use. These facts suggest the perforated bone was suspended for use as a 'pendant' or similar jewelry object [Credit: Griffith University]
The study was co-led by Associate Professor Adam Brumm, an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow, and Dr Michelle Langley , who also holds a fellowship from the ARC, analysed the recovered artefacts, and is the country’s leading expert in the study of ancient ornaments and bone technology.
“Scientists have long been curious about the cultural lives of the first Homo sapiens to inhabit the lands to the immediate north of Australia sometime prior to 50,000 years ago — part of the great movement of our species out of Africa,” Associate Professor Brumm says.
Prehistoric ornaments excavated from the Sulawesi cave site Leang Bulu Bettue [Credit: Michelle Langley/Adam Brumm/Bear/Luke Marsden]
“Some have argued that Pleistocene human culture declined in sophistication as Homo sapiens ventured beyond India into the Southeast Asian tropics and the island chains east of continental Eurasia, known as ‘Wallacea’. “However, the onset of new research programs in Wallacea is steadily dismantling this view.”
Adding to the 2014 breakthrough discovery of 40,000-year-old cave art on the Wallacean island of Sulawesi, which is said to be some of the world’s oldest, is a unique assemblage of previously unknown symbolic objects excavated from a Sulawesi cave site called Leang Bulu Bettue.
Hollow bone tube with red and black pigments, made from the long bone of a bear cuscus, may have been used as an ‘air-brush’ to create human hand stencils on rock surfaces [Credit: Michelle Langley]
The recovered artefacts, dated to between 30,000 to 22,000 years ago, consist of disc-shaped beads made from a babirusa (‘pig-deer’) tooth and a pendant fashioned from the bone of a bear cuscus (a large and primitive possum-like marsupial found only on Sulawesi), as well as ‘portable’ art objects: stones incised with geometric patterns, the meaning of which is unknown.
Dr Langley’s analysis also revealed extensive evidence for rock art production at the site, including discarded ochre pieces, ochre stains on tools, and a bone tube that may have been a ‘blow-pipe’ for creating hand stencil motifs, the earliest of which date to at least 40,000 years ago on Sulawesi.
Hand stencils may have been created using pigments and a bone 'air-brush' [Credit: Yinika Perston]
“Previously, assemblages of multiple and diverse types of Pleistocene ‘symbolic’ artifacts were entirely undocumented from Wallacea,” she said.
“It was also unknown if or how Sulawesi cave artists adorned their bodies or whether their artistic repertoire even extended beyond rock paintings. Our understanding of the symbolic lives of these people is now much richer.”
Wallacea, the zone of oceanic islands positioned east of the Wallace Line, one of the world’s major biogeographical boundaries, and lying between the continental regions of Asia and Australia-New Guinea [Credit: Adam Brumm]
The team says these early examples of art and ‘jewellery’ imply that the spiritual beliefs of modern humans may have transformed as they encountered new forms of animal life on the journey from Asia to Australia.
“Sulawesi, in particular, is renowned among biogeographers for its extremely high rate of species endemism – essentially all of the island’s land mammals, except for bats, occur nowhere else on earth,” Associate Professor Brumm says.
“The discovery of ornaments manufactured from the bones and teeth of two of Sulawesi’s flagship endemics – babirusas and bear cuscuses – and a previously recorded painting of a babirusa dated to at least 35,400 years ago, shows that humans were drawn to these dramatically new faunal species. This may indicate that the conceptual world of these people changed to incorporate exotic animals.”
The researchers think that this ‘symbolic negotiation’ with novel species might have been fundamental to the later settlement of Australia, which harboured unprecedentedly rich communities of endemic faunas and floras.
They speculate that the human journey through the biogeographically unique zone of Wallacea might have prompted new ways of thinking about the natural world, suggesting elements of the complex human-animal spiritual relationships that define Aboriginal cultures may actually pre-date the initial colonization of Australia.
The work reported in PNAS was conducted in collaboration with scientists from a range of Indonesian academic institutes, including the National Research Centre for Archaeology (ARKENAS), as well as a large team of Sulawesi-based archaeologists. Other Griffith University scientists involved were Associate Professor Maxime Aubert, Dr Jillian Huntley and Professor Rainer Grün. Associate Professor Aubert and Dr Huntley are also members of members of the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU) within the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research.
