November/December 2016 Issue

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Using obsidian and pig skin, researchers are attempting to determine whether certain artifacts found at archaeological sites in Melanesia had been used for tattooing. They conducted these experiments to observe the wear, such as chipping and scratches, and residues on the stone caused by tattooing, and then compared that use-wear with 3,000-year-old artifacts. They found that the obsidian pieces, old and new, show similar patterns, suggesting that they hadn’t been used for working hides, but were for adorning human skin. —Samir S. Patel

HONG KONG: The waters of this Chinese territory could be one of the most extensive and largely untapped resources for maritime heritage anywhere in the world. Everything from Neolithic artifacts to Arab, Indian, and Persian trading ships to Chinese and European colonial vessels could lie in its waters, but to date little underwater archaeology has been conducted there. The recent discoveries of a 1,000-year-old granite anchor stock (the oldest maritime artifact found in Chinese waters) and a 19th-century European cannon hint at what might lie below. —Samir S. Patel

JORDAN: Stone tools dating back a quarter of a million years have yielded the oldest known protein food residues ever observed and are providing insight into the diet of ancient hominins who would have been living in an increasingly arid and marginal environment. On the menu were rhinoceros, wild cattle, horses, and ducks. This surprising diversity—and the range of hunting techniques it would have required—suggests, according to the researchers, an adaptability that would have served Middle Pleistocene hominins well as they dispersed across Eurasia’s highly variable landscapes. —Samir S. Patel