July/August 2013 Issue

JAPAN: An international team of researchers has identified the earliest known direct evidence for the use of pottery in food preparation. Pottery first emerged among hunter-gatherers in Asia up to 20,000 years ago, but little is known about how it was used. The scientists examined the charred residue on 12,000- to 15,000-year-old Jomon ceramic vessels—101 from 13 sites—and found that they were used to process and cook fish or other aquatic foods. It is not clear yet whether this use was common or reserved for ceremonies. —Samir S. Patel

AUSTRALIA: The rock art at Djulirri (“Reading the Rocks,” January/February 2011) is like a library of 15,000 years of Aboriginal history, depicting everything from long-extinct mammals to modern steamships. But there are concerns about its future now that mining companies have discovered uranium nearby (in addition to bauxite deposits previously identified). Experts worry that road dust, visitors to the remote site, and industrial operations could damage known rock art galleries—and completely destroy any number of sites as yet undocumented. —Samir S. Patel

CHINA: A skull fragment more than 100,000 years old displays the signs of a rare congenital birth defect called an enlarged parietal foramen. The bones, excavated in northern China in the 1970s, suggest that the individual also had neurological deficiencies. Combined with other rare genetic conditions that have been observed in early human fossils from this period, the researchers theorize that inbreeding, which can result in a greater incidence of such defects, may have been used as a survival strategy for certain isolated small populations. —Samir S. Patel