May/June 2021 Issue

NEW ZEALAND: Radiocarbon dating of ancient kauri trees preserved in the wetlands of Ngawha helped pinpoint the date of the mysterious Laschamp excursion, when the earth’s magnetic north and south poles temporarily swapped position 42,000 years ago. Researchers propose that this phenomenon led to drastic changes in climate and an increase in solar and cosmic radiation. They theorize that this may have led people to create more rock art as they increasingly sought protection in caves.

AUSTRALIA: In some cultures, insects are an important dietary source of protein, fat, and vitamins. Europeans who first settled Australia in the 19th century recorded how Aboriginal groups gathered annually in the Australian Alps to collect large numbers of migratory bogong moths. Moth residue on a recently excavated grinding tool from Cloggs Cave shows that this practice dates back at least 2,000 years. Researchers believe the tool was used to process the insects into cakes that could be smoked and preserved for weeks.

ISRAEL: A mosque dating to the earliest decades of Islam was identified in the city of Tiberias, near the Sea of Galilee. Researchers believe it dates to around A.D. 670, just a generation after the death of the prophet Muhammad. Tiberias was founded by the Romans in the 1st century A.D. and conquered by Muslim forces in A.D. 635. Because most other mosques from this period are still in use and therefore can’t be excavated, this new discovery will provide archaeologists with an unprecedented opportunity to investigate a religious building dating to Islam’s infancy.