July/August 2023 Issue

INDIA: The Indus Valley civilization is known for its megacities and is considered one of the world’s earliest advanced cultures. It flourished between 2600 and 1900 B.C., but the causes of its collapse have been a mystery. Now, though, trace element analysis of stalagmites in a Himalayan cave indicates that, starting around 4,200 years ago, the region suffered a series of major droughts over the course of 200 years. These dry periods may have transformed the existing social structure, gradually forcing populations out of urban centers and into dispersed rural settlements.

RUSSIA: For the first time, a Paleolithic artifact has been directly associated with a specific person. Researchers used a groundbreaking technique to extract human DNA left on a deer tooth pendant found in Denisova Cave in Siberia. They determined that the piece of jewelry was made or worn by a woman who lived between 25,000 and 19,000 years ago. She was genetically related to a group of hunter-gatherers known as the Ancient North Eurasians, who typically lived farther east at that time.

OMAN: An archaeological expedition into the underexplored deserts of Dhofar and Duqm has made a wide range of surprising finds. The discoveries include hand axes fashioned hundreds of thousands of years ago, eggshells of extinct ostriches, Neolithic tombs, and more than 500 rock engravings depicting camels, horses, and turtles. The team also located a 2,000-year-old megalithic monument known as a trilithon that features a cluster of large standing stones. Its function remains unknown.