Waterlogged Paleolithic Sites in China Excavated
CHENGDU, CHINA—Xinhua reports that more than 100,000 stone, wood, and bone tools; fossilized animal bones; plant matter; ebony; and traces of fire and toolmaking were recently uncovered at the Mengxihe site, which has been dated to between 50,000 and 70,000 years old. First discovered in 2019, an additional 11 similar waterlogged sites have since been identified along the Mengxi River in southwestern China. Zheng Zhexuan of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology said that the animal remains include the bones of elephants, rhinoceros, bears, cattle, deer, macaques, fish, turtles, snakes, frogs, birds, porcupines, and bamboo rats. The plant matter represents more than 30 kinds of trees, fruits, seeds, and herbs that may have been used to treat illnesses, Zheng added. To read about a 13,500-year-old bone sculpture unearthed in Henan, go to "Oldest Chinese Artwork," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2020.
Possible Ancient Game Boards Identified in Kenya
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT—According to a statement released by Yale University, archaeologist Veronica Waweru identified a possible series of game boards at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in the highlands of central Kenya after receiving information from local partners that a prehistoric site there was being looted by tourists. She thinks the rows of shallow pits drilled into the rock may have been used to play a version of the two-player strategy board game now known as Mancala. Some of the pits were deep enough to hold a handful of stones, while others had eroded away over time into shallow pockmarks, Waweru explained. She also noted that 19 burial cairns are situated in the same area as the game boards. So, while herders may have used the boards while their flocks grazed, people who came to visit the burial cairns may have played games, too. Marks consistent with sharpening metal knives, perhaps during the butchering process for ritual feasting, have also been found. To read about an ancient game board found in the ruins of a site in the Qumayrah Valley, go to "Around the World: Oman."
Roman Wooden Bed Unearthed in London
LONDON, ENGLAND—According to a report in The Guardian, the disassembled pieces of a complete Roman funerary bed have been recovered from waterlogged soil near the underground River Fleet in central London. The well-made oak bed, which has carved feet and was joined with small wooden pegs, came from the grave of a man who died in his late 20s or early 30s. Archaeologist Michael Marshall of the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) explained that there are accounts of Romans being carried on beds like this one in funeral processions, and that they are sometimes found depicted on tombstones. “We didn’t know that people were buried in these kinds of Roman burial beds at all,” he said. “That’s something that there is no previous evidence for from Britain.” Five rare oak coffins were also found in the Roman cemetery. To read about other Roman artifacts uncovered in the city, go to "Roman London Underground."
Ice Age Footprints Discovered in Morocco
MORBIHAN, FRANCE—Two trackways made up of 85 well-preserved footprints were discovered on a rocky platform covered in clay sediments on the coast of Morocco by Mouncef Sedrati of the University of Southern Brittany and his colleagues, according to a Live Science report. The prints are thought to have been left behind by a group of at least five modern humans about 90,000 years ago, based upon optically stimulated luminescence dating of quartz in the sand. Measurements of the length and depth of the footprints suggest that the group contained children, adolescents, and adults, Sedrati said. His team will work quickly to complete their analysis of the trackways because the rocky shore platform holding them may collapse. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Scientific Reports. To read about fossilized Ice Age footprints uncovered in the New Mexico desert, go to "Ghost Tracks of White Sands."
Roman-Era Medical Tools From Turkey Identified
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS—Live Science reports that hundreds of 1,800-year-old artifacts linked to the practice of medicine have been identified among the objects unearthed during rescue excavations at Allianoi, an ancient spa town in western Anatolia that was flooded in 2011 after dam construction. Most of the implements came from two buildings within a larger complex. Sarah Yeomans of St. Mary’s College of Maryland suggests the structure housed dozens of practitioners who conducted relatively sophisticated surgical procedures. Some of the instruments were used to remove hemorrhoids, while others were used to extract bladder or kidney stones, remove cataracts from the eyes, and suture wounds, she concluded. To read about another ancient spa town, go to "The Pursuit of Wellness."
Impact of Industrial Revolution on Children’s Health Investigated
DURHAM, ENGLAND—According to a statement released by Durham University, an examination of the teeth of children who were buried in a Quaker cemetery in northeastern England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has detected evidence of vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D can be consumed in foods such as fish and eggs, and produced by the body through exposure to sunlight. A lack of vitamin D can cause rickets, a condition characterized by weak bones that can cause pain, poor growth, bowing deformities, and fractures. Anne Marie E. Snoddy of the University of Otago, Heidi Shaw of Durham University, and their colleagues found that three quarters of the 25 children examined suffered from lack of vitamin D. The researchers determined that the condition was worse in the winter months, when there are fewer hours of sunlight. The study also suggests that boys were more likely to experience a vitamin D deficiency, perhaps because of as-yet-undetermined work practices. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE. For more on how the Industrial Revolution affected health in nineteenth-century England, go to "Haunt of the Resurrection Men."
When Did Modern Humans Arrive in Northern Europe?
RANIS, GERMANY—A new excavation in an untouched area of Ilsenhöhle, a cave in central Germany, has uncovered the 47,400-year-old bones of modern humans, according to a Cosmos Magazine report. An international team of researchers led by Dorothea Mylopotamitaki, Marcel Weiss, Helen Fewlass, and Elena Irene Zavala of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology identified the modern human bones through genetic and proteomic analysis. It had been previously thought, based upon an excavation conducted in the 1930s, that the cave and surrounding area had been occupied by Neanderthals alone. “It turns out that stone artifacts that were thought to be produced by Neanderthals were in fact part of the early Homo sapiens tool kit,” said Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Collège de France. “This fundamentally changes our previous knowledge about this time period: Homo sapiens reached northwestern Europe long before Neanderthal disappearance in southwestern Europe,” he explained. The bones of other mammals in the cave were also identified, including reindeer, horses, and woolly rhinoceros likely hunted by modern humans, and denning hyenas and hibernating cave bears. Read the original scholarly articles about this research in Nature Communications and Nature Ecology & Evolution. To read about the domestic spaces of Europe's earliest modern humans, go to "Letter from France: Structural Integrity."
Upper Paleolithic Ivory Tool May Have Made Rope
TÜBINGEN, GERMANY—Science News reports that 15 pieces of mammoth ivory recovered from southwestern Germany’s Hohle Fels Cave have been assembled into an object measuring almost eight inches long. The implement, which has been dated to between 35,000 and 40,000 years old, was equipped with four holes lined with carved spiral grooves. Microscopic wear and tear and the presence of plant residue have been detected on the tool. Archaeologists Nicholas Conard of the University of Tübingen, Veerle Rots of the University of Liège, and their colleagues think that the object was used to make rope, and tested their idea with replicas made from wood, animal bone, a warthog’s split tooth, and bronze. One person held thin, hand-twisted ropes made from animal sinews and five different types of plant fibers, and fed them through the holes of the tool, held by another person. A third person pulled and twisted the fibers as they passed through the holes in the replica tool and twisted them into a single piece of rope. The study suggests that four of five people working together could produce about 16 feet of rope in 10 minutes. The researchers also determined that cattail leaves worked particularly well in this rope-making process. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. To read about recent research on a carved ivory figurine found in the cave nearly 25 years ago, go to "A Horse Is a Horse?"
Ancient Egyptian Woman Diagnosed With Rheumatoid Arthritis
ASWAN, EGYPT—According to an Ahram Online report, the incomplete skeletal remains of a woman, who lived between 1800 and 1500 B.C. and suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, were uncovered in Aswan during an excavation conducted by the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project. This chronic inflammatory autoimmune condition is characterized by aches, stiffness, and swelling of the joints, and was identified by the erosive lesions with smooth edges that were found outside the surface of the woman’s joints. Rheumatoid arthritis can also damage the lining of the joints, skin, eyes, mouth, heart, and lungs. Abdel-Monem Said, General Director of Aswan Antiquities, said that joints on both sides of the woman’s body had been affected, including her hands, feet, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and ankles, and would have made it difficult for her to carry out daily activities. Because mention of rheumatoid arthritis has not been found in any ancient Egyptian medical texts, it had been previously thought that the condition did not exist in its present form at the time. To read about how people of the ancient world attended to their well-being, go to "The Pursuit of Wellness."
Fossilized Ear Bones Offer Clues to Bipedalism
YUNNAN, CHINA—According to a Discover Magazine report, Xijun Ni and Yinan Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Terry Harrison of New York University, and their colleagues reconstructed the inner ears of Lufengpithecus, a six-million-year-old ancestor of modern orangutans that lived in what is now China, using 3-D CT scans of fossilized inner ear bones. They then compared these reconstructions with the inner ears of other extinct apes, modern-day apes, and modern humans from Asia, Europe, and Africa in order to look for clues to the evolution of bipedalism. In modern humans, the vestibular system in the inner ear sends information about balance and motion to the brain through loop-shaped structures called semicircular canals. “The size and shape of the semicircular canals correlate with how mammals, including apes and humans, move around their environment,” Zhang explained. The study suggests that early apes were able to swing through trees with their arms like modern gibbons. Eventually, the last common ancestors of apes and humans were able to use their limbs to hang from trees, and could stand on their feet while hanging from trees, in a similar manner to Lufengpithecus. When on the ground, this last common ancestor likely walked on all fours, Harrison said. “Later, the human lineage diverged from the great apes with the acquisition of bipedalism, as seen in Australopithecus, an early human relative from Africa,” Ni said. Cooler temperatures and the growth of glacial ice sheets some 3.2 million years ago correlate with a rapid increase in the rate of change observed in bony ear structures, Harrison added. Walking upright may therefore have offered an advantage as the environment transformed. To read more about the development of bipedalism, go to "The Human Mosaic."
Hunter-Gatherer’s Atlatl Discovered in Cave in Mexico
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO—An atlatl and two wooden darts have been recovered from a remote room in central Mexico’s Cueva del Tesoro, or Treasure Cave, according to a Newsweek report. Some modified logs found in the room may have also been used as tools. The hunting weapons, radiocarbon dated to 1,900 years ago, were discovered by members of a cavers’ association who notified officials at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History. Archaeologist Carlos Viramontes said that hunter-gatherers lived in the area as early as 9,000 years ago, and survived for about 200 years after the arrival of Europeans. No other artifacts of this age have been recovered from the cave. Further investigations may provide additional clues, however, Viramontes explained. For more on atlatls and ancient spear-throwing weapons that predate them, go to "Weapons of the Ancient World: Hunting Equipment."
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