May/June 2020 Issue

VANUATU: Oceania was the last region on Earth colonized by humans. When the first settlers from the Lapita Culture arrived in Vanuatu 3,000 years ago, they transported certain plants with them that aided their ability to survive, including the banana. Analysis of microparticles trapped in the dental plaque of individuals buried on Efate Island has indicated the presence of the nonnative species at this early date. Banana plants would not only have provided sustenance, but could also have been used for building material, textiles, cordage, and medicine.

AUSTRALIA: Some very old rock art, such as the Gwion-style paintings that are found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, is notoriously difficult to date because the pigments no longer contain organic material. However, experts were able surmount this challenge by instead dating organic material from millennia-old mud wasps’ nests on rock facades that had been painted over by Aboriginal artists long ago. The researchers estimate that most of the paintings’ enigmatic anthropomorphic figures were created 12,000 years ago.

LIBYA: Faunal remains from the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya underscore just how different the environment was there 10,000 years ago. While today the site is in the Sahara Desert, at the beginning of the Holocene period the area was dotted with lakes, ponds, and waterways. Humans used the shelter between 10,200 and 4,650 years ago. Their discarded food scraps around the site are giving experts insight into their diet. Of 18,000 bones thus far recovered, nearly 80 percent belong to fish species, mainly catfish and tilapia.