March/April 2017 Issue

AUSTRALIA: A 46,000-year-old kangaroo fibula from a cave in northwestern Australia may be the oldest piece of jewelry ever discovered on the continent and appears nearly 25,000 years earlier than when ancient Australians are thought to have first developed bone-shaping technology. Although it may have been used as an awl, it was more likely a personal adornment worn through the nasal septum. Researchers suspect the tip was broken off during use, perhaps when too much force was exerted during the piercing. —Jason Urbanus

INDIA: The theory that domesticated rice was originally introduced from China to the ancient Indus civilization is being challenged. Fieldwork at several sites in northwest India seems to confirm that Indus Valley communities did not rely solely on wild rice, but instead developed their own domesticated rice agriculture around 4,000 years ago. This process occurred independently from rice domestication in China and at least 400 years before the appearance of Chinese rice in the region. —Jason Urbanus

KAZAKHSTAN: An amateur metal detectorist who found pieces of decorated silver near the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea led authorities to a previously unknown complex of massive ancient stone enclosures. The silver plating, adorned with animal motifs, was once attached to a wooden saddle that was ritually buried in the 5th or 6th century A.D. Archaeologists are still unsure who built the cultic or funerary complex but believe it was linked to the movement of nomadic tribes or Huns through the area. —Jason Urbanus