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Bison archaeologists uncover 1,000-year-old rock carvings

Ancient archaeological find in Canada uncovered by wallowing bison.

Plains bison bull. Credit: Colleen Gara/Getty images

Even bison make great archaeologists. Literally.

Roaming bison in Canada’s Wanuskewin Heritage Park have uncovered 1,000-year-old petroglyphs – rock carvings – and the tool used to carve them, revealing the practices of ancient peoples in North America.

The heritage park is situated on the historic lands of the Dakota First Nation, and Northern Plains Indigenous Peoples, adjacent to the South Saskatchewan River.

“The discovery of these petroglyphs is a testament to just how sacred and important this land is,” says Darlene Brander, CEO of Wanuskewin Heritage Park. “The individual who made these petroglyphs was actually carving their legacy into the rock many years ago.”

Discovered by bison

The clever Saskatchewan bison were reintroduced to the park after more than 150 years, and their normal activity – including “wallowing” by rolling around in the grass to create dust pits – uncovered an embedded boulder that turned out to be a petroglyph.

Upon further inspection, (human) archaeologists found a stone knife that was used to carve the drawing.

“There’s no question about the association,” explains Dr Earnie Walker, chief archaeologist and park co-founder. “I measured the width of the cutting edge and it’s exactly the same width as the groove on the rock. Whoever did that carving almost left a business card behind.”

Petroglyph at Wanuskewin Heritage Park Canada. Credit: Wanuskewin Heritage Park

What do the petroglyphs show?

After the bison had made their discovery, Walker and team uncovered three more petroglyphs in the area, all of different shapes and sizes. Interestingly, one of them bore the scratched marks of a ribstone, which is found in Hoofprint tradition rock art and is associated with bison hunts.

“The lines on the boulder mimicked the ribs of a bison. In the middle of it, there was a little horned figure – a spirit figure with a triangular head with horns and an oblong body and a tail that went to the crack,” says Walker.

“I was trying not to have a heart attack. If the bison hadn’t been here, we wouldn’t have been here.”

Petroglyph. Wanuskewin Heritage Park.P Wanuskewin Heritage Park

The tool was also found to be in the direct trajectory of a bison jump – a rocky formation that indigenous peoples used to hunt bison by driving them off a cliff.

“The migratory bison hunting populations in pre-contact history followed bison herds and never carried a lot of items. But Wanuskewin has everything one would expect to find in a pre-contact culture on the northern plains,” says Walker.

“It has bison jumps and massive campsites that we’ve been excavating. Now it has rock art. That’s exceptional and tangible evidence of pre-contact culture. We think that it’s so exceptional that it’s worthy of the designation [as a UNESCO heritage site].”

The collection of petroglyphs was estimated to be between 300-1,800 years old, but were most likely to be around 1,000 years old based on other historic events.

The rarest of finds

It is extremely rare to find multiple petroglyphs, and even more extraordinary to find a tool nearby – but, we must admit, not quite as extraordinary as the fact that it was the bison who discovered them.

Had the bison not been reintroduced following their near-extinction in the 1970s – primarily due to overhunting – the ancient artifacts may never have been found.

Credit: Wanuskewin Heritage Park

 

“We have been so fortunate over the years to have had these wondrous stories emerge that we are able to share with the community,” says Brander. “Today, it is our duty to share this story as our call to reconciliation by shining a light on the distinct and beautiful cultures of the Northern Plains People.”

If you or another bison stumbles across a fossil or relic, here is a handy guide on what you can do to practice responsible archeology.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/archaeology/bison-archaeologists-uncover-1000-year-old-rock-carvings/

 

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Roman mosaic and villa complex found in Rutland farmer's field

A Roman villa containing a rare mosaic that depicts scenes from Homer's Iliad has been found beneath a farmer's field.

The mosaic, found in Rutland, has been described as the first example of its kind in the UK.

It was discovered by the landowner's son and investigated by archaeologists from the University of Leicester.

Historic England described the mosaic as "one of the most remarkable and significant... ever found in Britain".

The mosaic and surrounding villa complex have now been protected as a Scheduled Monument by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England.

The complex is thought to have been occupied by a wealthy individual from the late Roman period.

FULL REPORT & PHOTOS

 

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Cave stalagmites show that flooding destroyed Liangzhu City

How an ancient Chinese culture met its end.

The Liangzhu excavation site, on the Yangtze River Delta, southwest of Shanghai in China, is home to the remains of a 5,300-year-old civilisation. Liangzhu City was once an advanced culture, with hydraulic infrastructure including dams, reservoirs and canals. Despite not having metals, the Neolithic people of Liangzhu operated a complex water system that allowed agriculture to flourish.

There is still much to learn about Liangzhu, which was only declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. It was inhabited for 1,000 years, but it’s still not entirely clear what caused the city’s downfall, which was thought to be abrupt.

“A thin layer of clay was found on the preserved ruins, which points to a possible connection between the demise of the advanced civilisation and floods of the Yangtze River or floods from the East China Sea. No evidence could be found for human causes such as warlike conflicts,” says geologist Christoph Spötl, from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.

“However, no clear conclusions on the cause were possible from the mud layer itself.”

But Spötl, along with Chinese, Austrian and US colleagues, have found more evidence to support this conclusion. They’ve spotted geological indicators in nearby caves that suggest that the city’s decline coincided with unusually wet weather conditions.

A paper describing their research is published in Science Advances.

“These caves have been well explored for years. They are located in the same area affected by the Southeast Asian monsoon as the Yangtze Delta, and their stalagmites provide a precise insight into the time of the collapse of the Liangzhu culture, which, according to archaeological findings, happened about 4,300 years ago,” Spötl explains.

Moisture affects stalagmite growth, so determining the age of specific parts of the stalagmites can help researchers to figure out wetter and drier periods in the caves’ history.

The researchers used carbon isotope analyses on the stalagmites to determine humidity levels when they were formed, and uranium-thorium dating to find their age. Uranium-thorium dating can determine a rock’s age to around a 30-year window.

“This is amazingly precise in light of the temporal dimension,” says Spötl.

The researchers found that between 4,345 and 4,324 years ago, there was a period of extremely high precipitation. This coincides with the decline of Liangzhu.

“The massive monsoon rains probably led to such severe flooding of the Yangtze and its branches that even the sophisticated dams and canals could no longer withstand these masses of water, destroying Liangzhu City and forcing people to flee,” says Spötl.

The researchers determined that the humid conditions persisted for another 300 years after these proposed floods.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/civilisations/liangzhu-city-flooding-stalagmites-caves/

 

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by CaaC (John)
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The earliest Eurasian decorated jewellery

A mammoth-bone pendant that goes back more than 40,000 years.

In 2010, archaeologist Mikołaj Urbanowski found an ornately decorated pendant made from a mammoth bone in Poland’s Stajnia Cave. Working with colleagues, Urbanowski has now discovered the age of this ancient piece of jewellery – around 41,500 years.

This makes it the earliest known piece of decorated jewellery in Eurasia, and ties it to the earliest arrivals of Homo sapiens in Europe.

The pendant, which was found next to an awl, has 50 puncture marks in an irregular looping shape, and two holes. In their paper, published in Scientific Reports, the authors suggest that these holes could represent a hunting tally.

“This piece of jewellery shows the great creativity and extraordinary manual skills of members of the group of Homo sapiens that occupied the site,” says co-author Wioletta Nowaczewska of Wrocław University, Poland.

“The thickness of the plate is about 3.7 millimetres, showing an astonishing precision on carving the punctures and the two holes for wearing it.”

The researchers used radiocarbon dating to figure out the pendant’s age, which was pinpointed at 41,500 years.

“Determining the exact age of this jewellery was fundamental for its cultural attribution, and we are thrilled with the result,” says lead author Sahra Talamo, director of the BRAVHO radiocarbon lab at Bologna University, Italy.

“This work demonstrates that using the most recent methodological advances in the radiocarbon method enables us to minimise the amount of sampling and achieve highly precise dates with a very small error range.”

This mammoth-bone jewellery discovery has interesting implications for our understanding of early humans in Europe.

“The ages of the ivory pendant and the bone awl found at Stajnia Cave finally demonstrate that the dispersal of Homo sapiens in Poland took place as early as in Central and Western Europe,” says co-author Andrea Picin from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany. “This remarkable result will change the perspective on how adaptable these early groups were.”

In their paper, the researchers reiterated the importance of radiocarbon dating to learn more about these Palaeolithic H. sapiens.

“If we want to seriously solve the debate on when mobiliary art emerged in Palaeolithic groups, we need to radiocarbon date these ornaments, especially those found during past fieldwork or in complex stratigraphic sequences,” says Talamo.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/archaeology/the-earliest-eurasian-decorated-jewellery/

 

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Ancient hominin walked like a human but climbed like an ape

New fossil vertebrae of Australopithecus sediba reveals how early hominins moved.

Early hominins used their upper limbs to climb like apes and their lower limbs to walk like humans, according to new fossil evidence.

In 2015, mining excavations in Malapa, South Africa, revealed fossil vertebrae trapped in cement-like rock called breccia. Analysis revealed the vertebrae to be two million years old, from the lower back of a female Australopithecus sediba, a relative of modern humans first discovered at the same site in 2008.

Together with previously discovered vertebrae, these fossils form one of the most complete lower backs in the early hominid fossil record, giving us insight into the movements of our ancient cousin.

 

“The lumbar region is critical to understanding the nature of bipedalism in our earliest ancestors and to understanding how well adapted they were to walking on two legs,” says lead author Scott Williams, a paleoanthropologist from New York University, US, and Wits University in South Africa.

“Associated series of lumbar vertebrae are extraordinarily rare in the hominin fossil record, with really only three comparable lower spines being known from the whole of the early African record.”

These vertebrae were therefore treated with utmost care. The risk of damage was reduced by scanning the delicate fossils with a micro-CT scanner, creating 3D virtual models of them which can be viewed here.

The vertebrae were then reunited with the rest of the spine, previously found at the site, belonging to a single female specimen nicknamed “Issa” (meaning protector in Swahili).

Other research based on Issa’s incomplete spine had hypothesised that A. sediba had a straight spine, like Neanderthals and other extinct early hominins, as opposed to the inwardly curved spine of modern humans which indicates strong adaptations to bipedalism.

Now, with a complete and well-preserved spine, the research team could see that Issa has a more curved spine than any other australopithecines yet discovered.

This shows that Issa’s species were adapted to walking on two legs, as the team reports in their paper in the journal eLife.

Co-author Gabrielle Russo of Stony Brook University in the US notes, however, that “while the presence of lordosis [curvature] and other features of the spine represent clear adaptations to walking on two legs, there are other features, such as the large and upward oriented transverse processes, that suggest powerful trunk musculature, perhaps for arboreal behaviours”.

In other words, Issa and her species were still climbers.

This means that A. sediba was a transitional form of ancient humans, existing in the space between when hominins spent their entire lives in the trees and when hominins swung down to the ground and began to walk on two legs full time.

Previous research has looked at the upper limbs, pelvis and lower limbs to gain insight into these transitionary adaptations.

“The spine ties this all together,” says palaeoanthropologist Cody Prang of Texas A&M, US, who was not involved in the study.

“In what manner these combinations of traits persisted in our ancient ancestors, including potential adaptations to both walking on the ground on two legs and climbing trees effectively, is perhaps one of the major outstanding questions in human origins.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/palaeontology/ancient-hominin-shows-evolution-of-bipedalism/

 

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Big brain time: why ancient fish moved onto land

Researchers reveal that it was a smart move after all.

Why did fish decide to move out of the water and onto land 370 million years ago? New research from Flinders University reveals it was a brainy decision.

In a study, published in PeerJ, researchers used CT scanning to investigate the internal bones of an ancient Cladarosymblema narrienense fossil – a 330 million-year-old fish from the Carboniferous Period found in Queensland, and ancestor of the four-limbed vertebrate tetrapods – and found that it had a really smart brain, for a fish.

FULL REPORT

 

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Faroe Islands were settled 300 years before the Vikings arrived

Centuries-old faeces indicate previous human occupation of the North Atlantic islands.

The Faroe Islands, sitting between Iceland, Norway and the British Isles, were an important stepping stone for Viking exploration across the North Atlantic. It has long been accepted, based on archaeological evidence, that the Norse were the first to settle the Islands – but there have been niggling doubts, with several indirect lines of evidence suggesting that an existing human population was there to greet the Vikings when the first longships landed.

In new research published in Communications Earth & Environment, researchers have presented the first unequivocal evidence that the Vikings were not the first to settle the Faroes. Using a combination of faecal biomarkers and sedimentary ancient DNA, they have been able to date the earliest settlement to 500 CE, approximately 300 years before the Vikings adopted the sailing technology that saw them expand their territories across vast swathes of the global north.

Lead author Lorelei Curtin, from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, USA, and colleagues drew evidence from sediment cores taken from the Eiðisvatn catchment, home to a major archaeological site that was once a Norse summer farm settlement known as Argisbrekka. From these cores, researchers were able to identify the presence of lipid molecules, called faecal biomarkers, that derive from excrement.

The Argisbrekka faecal biomarkers bear the distinct signature of an origin in sheep digestive tracts. All mammals of the Faroe Islands were originally introduced by humans, so this evidence of sheep poo is a clear indicator of human presence. By dating the sediments in which these markers were found, the researchers were able to shift the date of livestock arrival back several centuries.

“The initial appearance of sheep DNA and increased faecal biomarkers predates the first documented usage of the Argisbrekka site by the Norse by approximately 300 years,” the researchers write.

The team was able to further corroborate the new settlement date using next-generation DNA sequencing technology, which allowed them to compile a profile of the ancient DNA lingering in the sediment cores. Sampling across 11 different depths, they found increasing concentrations of both sheep and grass DNA coinciding with a disappearance of woody plants.

Where once this shift in vegetation was attributed to late Holocene climate change, it now appears that widespread grazing was the dominant driver of landscape transition from shrublands to grasslands and peatlands in the Faroes.

This new evidence validates long-held doubts surrounding the Norse-settlement narrative, which was based primarily on the dating of archaeological structures. The earliest structures on the Faroes date between 800 and 900 CE, consistent with the timing of the widespread Norse expansion to new territories in Iceland, Greenland and all the way to North America.

The current study approaches the question with novel methodology. 

“While the nature of archaeological records causes them to be temporally fragmentary, sedimentary archives provide continuous records of the environmental history of a landscape,” write the researchers.

The results have opened up the discussion regarding pre-existing lines of evidence that have consistently called the established timeline into question.

Many place names in the Faroes derive from Celtic words, and a number of Celtic grave markings have been identified across the Islands. Perhaps the most compelling evidence lies in the genetics of modern Faroese people – there is a strong asymmetry between paternal and maternal ancestry, with the paternal lineage dominantly Scandinavian, while the maternal lineage is primarily from the British Isles.

Although strongly suggestive of an existing population, none of this evidence is directly conclusive.

“By 800 CE, the Vikings were already active in the British Isles,” write the researchers. “They were already influenced by Celtic culture and could have brought wives from the British Isles to the Faroe Islands.”

But with the current research firmly establishing the existence of human populations on the Faroe Islands long before the Vikings had taken up sailing – generally believed to be between 750 and 820 CE – it now appears unlikely that these first settlers were Norse.

So, who were the first inhabitants? Unfortunately, that’s still a mystery. While genetic profiles, place names and grave markings might hint towards a Celtic population, the direct sedimentary DNA evidence can’t pin this down.

“The early Faroese settlers were not Norse, however the identity of these early North Atlantic explorers remains an open question,” assert the researchers.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/faroe-islands-settled-before-vikings/

 

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Well-preserved dinosaur embryo fossil has been discovered in China. Very interesting Twitter thread about it:

 

 

[Azeem]

A Buddhist temple from Gandharan period got discovered in Swat. Looks like a proper town

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Ancient mass migration transformed Britons' DNA

Scientists have uncovered evidence for a large-scale, prehistoric migration into Britain that may be linked to the spread of Celtic languages.

The mass-movement of people originated in continental Europe and occurred between 1,400 BC and 870 BC.

The discovery helps to explain the genetic make-up of many present-day people in Britain.

Around half the ancestry of later populations in England and Wales comes from these migrants.

It's unclear what caused the influx of people during the Middle to Late Bronze Age, but the migrants introduced new ritual practices to Britain.

The results, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, are based on DNA extracted from 793 ancient skeletons.

The study reveals that a gene allowing some people to digest raw milk increased rapidly in Britain during the Iron Age - 1,000 years before the same thing happened elsewhere in Northern Europe. It's an extraordinary example of natural selection for a genetic trait, and the reasons for its spread remain a mystery.

The researchers identified four skeletons at the archaeological sites of Cliffs End Farm and Margetts Pit in Kent that were either first-generation migrants from continental Europe, or their descendants.

FULL REPORT

 

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Roman-era 'Good Shepherd' ring found off Israel in ancient shipwreck

A Roman-era gold ring bearing an image used by early Christians to symbolise Jesus has been found by archaeologists off Israel's Mediterranean coast.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said the ring was set with a green gemstone carved with the figure of a shepherd boy carrying a sheep on his shoulders.

In the Bible, Jesus describes himself as the "Good Shepherd".

The ring was among a number of artefacts discovered in two shipwrecks near the ancient port of Caesarea.

FULL REPORT

 

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EDIT: Deleted

Edited December 31, 2021 by CaaC (John)

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VIDEO

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-59832069

Edited January 2, 2022 by CaaC (John)

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Egyptian pharaoh's mummy digitally unwrapped for first time

The mummified body of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh has been studied for the first time in millennia after being digitally "unwrapped".

The mummy of Amenhotep I, who ruled from 1525 to 1504 BC, was found at a site in Deir el-Bahari 140 years ago.

But archaeologists have refrained from opening it in order to preserve the exquisite face mask and bandages.

Computed tomography (CT) scans have now revealed previously unknown information about the pharaoh and his burial.

"We got to see the face of the king that has been wrapped for more than 3,000 years," Dr Sahar Saleem, professor of radiology at Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine and lead author of the study published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, told the BBC.

FULL REPORT

 

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5 January 2022 / Imma Perfetto

Fossilised dinosaur egg shows embryo preparing to hatch like a bird

An exquisitely preserved oviraptorosaur embryo suggests modern birds’ pre-hatching behaviour originated with dinosaurs.

Researchers have announced the exceedingly rare discovery of a perfectly preserved fossilised dinosaur embryo.

The embryo – named “Baby Yingliang” – was preparing to hatch from its egg in a distinctive “tucking” posture, previously considered to be unique to birds and never seen before in dinosaurs. The research has been published in Cell.

The ancient animal is an oviraptorosaur – a group of feathered theropod dinosaurs closely related to birds that lived during the Late Cretaceous period 100–66 million years ago. Theropods were a sup-group of obligate bipedal dinosaur with hollow bones and three-toed limbs, which also included Tyrannosaurus rex.

This discovery suggests that the modern birds’ pre-hatching tucking behaviour could have evolved in dinosaur ancestors prior to the origin of birds.

Baby Yingliang is one of the most complete non-avian dinosaur embryos ever discovered, as – according to corresponding author Waisum Ma, of the University of Birmingham, UK – most fossilised non-avian dinosaur embryos are incomplete and have disarticulated skeletons.

“We were surprised to see this embryo beautifully preserved inside a dinosaur egg, lying in a bird-like posture,” says Ma. “This posture had not been recognised in non-avian dinosaurs before.”

A modern bird embryo in the tucking position has its head placed under the right wing to stabilise it while using the beak to break out of the shell. The process is controlled by the central nervous system and is critical for hatching success.

Baby Yingliang’s head is tucked between its arms and legs and its body is curled into a C-shape inside its egg. This has never been observed in articulated non-avian dinosaur embryos due to their scarcity.

The fossil was found in 2000 in Ganzhou, southern China, but ended up in storage and was largely forgotten until about 10 years later, when it was unearthed by museum staff during the construction of Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum.

“Museum staff identified them as dinosaur eggs and saw some bones on the broken cross section of one of the eggs,” says Dr Lida Xing, of China University of Geosciences.

The fossil was initially studied by scraping off part of the eggshell to expose the embryo within, however researchers say that they will continue to study it in more depth using various imaging techniques to gain insight into its internal anatomy, such as skull bones, and other body parts still covered in rock.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/fossilised-dinosaur-egg-shows-embryo-preparing-to-hatch-like-a-bird/

 

 

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Look at the size of it

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Decoding the disappearance of bears and lions using ancient DNA

Australian researchers gain new insight into ancient extinctions.

Tens of thousands of years ago in the Pleistocene, North America was roamed by fearsome beasts, including ancient cave lions and grizzly bears. The lions went extinct, never to return, but the bears are still there in force. The history of these carnivores’ existence on the continent, however, is peppered with disappearances and reappearances in the archaeological record.

Now, a team of researchers from the University of Adelaide have found a changing climate may be behind the mysterious disappearance of ancient lions and bears from parts of North America for a thousand years or more prior to the last Ice Age.

The study, published in Molecular Ecology, sequenced DNA extracted from ancient bones of cave lions and bears found in North American and Eurasia to understand their past abundance and movements between continents.

“There’s a common perception that outside of mass extinctions or direct human interference, ecosystems tend to remain stable over thousands or even millions of years,” says study co-author Kieren Mitchell, from the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for DNA. “As illustrated by our study of the fossil record, that’s not necessarily the case.”

Mitchell says the bears went extinct multiple times on the continent before their reappearance.

“Previous research has shown that brown bears (or grizzly bears) disappeared from some parts of North America for thousands of years prior to the last Ice Age. They later reappeared, walking from Russia to Alaska across the Bering Land Bridge – possibly at the same time as people moved across the Bridge into North America too.

“But no-one knows exactly why they disappeared in the first place, which is why studying this event is important.”

The Bering Land Bridge is an intermittent causeway between Russia and North America that is ordinarily undersea, but has been exposed in past ice ages, following the rhythms of sea level rise and fall. It’s this crucial land bridge that brought megafauna like bears, elk and lions – as well as humans – onto the frigid continent.

A key finding of the new research is that cave lions from the same area also became extinct more than once – before their final extinction they had already disappeared and reappeared thousands of years later, following the same pattern as the bears. There is no evidence that people caused these temporary disappearances, nor were cold Ice Age conditions to blame.

“Instead, it looks like a smoking gun pointing to some kind of change in their ecosystem,” Mitchell says.

As it turns out, the timing of these bear and lion extinctions in parts of North America coincides with evidence of a widespread shift in vegetation in the region. The authors say warming temperatures prior to the last Ice Age may have changed the composition of plants, interrupting the flow of the food chain and denting the population of herbivores on which the bears and lions preyed.

As the Ice Age encroached, cooling temperatures may have reversed this change, making the area more hospitable for herbivores and their predators.

“Overall, these findings demonstrate just how changeable past ecosystems have been, and also how the abundance of different species can be very sensitive to changes in climate,” Mitchell says.

Lead author Alexander Salis agrees: “While many might think that species arrive in a region and stay put, we show that the past was much more dynamic, involving multiple waves of dispersal and local extinctions in this case.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animals/grizzly-bear-cave-lion-dna/

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by CaaC (John)

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The earliest unequivocally modern human remains in Africa

There may be earlier remains of modern humans – but science is certain about these ones.

A quarter of a million years ago, the East African Rift zone was a fertile causeway, where ample rainfall collected in basins among the hills, and fertile soils were laced with ash from a series of active volcanoes. This region is also thought to be the birthplace of our species, Homo sapiens, based on a rich nexus of archaeological sites.

Now, scientists have dated a famous set of remains from the rift zone in Ethiopia, known as Omo I, firmly identifying them as the oldest modern human remains in eastern Africa, and the oldest unquestioned evidence of H. sapiens in the world.

“It’s probably no coincidence that our earliest ancestors lived in such a geologically active rift valley – it collected rainfall in lakes, providing fresh water and attracting animals, and served as a natural migration corridor stretching thousands of kilometres,” says Clive Oppenheimer, a volcanologist at Cambridge University, UK, who is attempting to date volcanic eruptions from the region at the time of our species’ origins.

“The volcanoes provided fantastic materials to make stone tools and from time to time we had to develop our cognitive skills when large eruptions transformed the landscape.”

FULL REPORT

 

 

 

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Australian archaeologists discover ancient Arabian highways

Satellite studies reveal sophistication of the Bronze-Age inhabitants of the Middle East.

A team of archaeologists from the University of Western Australia has discovered a network of ancient super-highways – long-distance corridors linking oases and pastures – built by the Bronze-Age inhabitants of north-west Arabia.

“Funerary avenues were the major highway networks of their day, and show that the populations living in the Arabian Peninsula 4,500 years ago were far more socially and economically connected to one another than we previously thought,” says Matthew Dalton, lead author of the study and an archaeologist from UWA’s School of Humanities.

The research, published in the journal Holocene in December, involved taking satellite images of these avenues, which scar the countryside across an area of 160,000 square kilometres. The authors found more than 11,000 of the 17,800 “pendant” tombs found in the region were placed on these causeways, and that the highest concentration of funerary monuments on the avenues were located near permanent water sources.

Based on the locations and pathways of the ancient highways, the team think populations used them to travel long distances between major oases like Khaybar, Al-Ula and Tayma. Lesser avenues also trail into the surrounding landscapes, which the team thinks hints at herds of domestic animals being moved to nearby pastures with the swell and flow of seasons and drought.

“These oases, especially Khaybar, exhibit some of the densest concentrations of funerary monuments known worldwide,” says Dalton.

“The sheer number of Bronze-Age tombs built around them suggests that populations had already begun to settle more permanently in these favourable locations at this time.”

Hugh Thomas, director of the project, says the study is part of a swathe of information revolutionising traditional understandings of Bronze-Age Arabia.

“The papers published in 2021 have helped demonstrate that in ancient times Al-Ula and Khaybar were characterised by a rich and dynamic occupational landscape,” Thomas says.

“The archaeological finds coming out of these regions have the potential to profoundly change our understanding of the early history of the Middle East.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/archaeology/arabian-ancient-highways/

 

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60 million icefish nests found in Antarctica

Massive fish breeding colony discovered in the chilly Weddell Sea.

2000 kilometres south of the southernmost tip of Antarctica lies the Weddell Sea. These cold, iceberg-filled waters are home to krill, Emperor Penguins – and a massive breeding colony of icefish.

Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, have just discovered 60 million active fish nests across 240 square kilometres of the Weddell Sea. This is the largest fish breeding colony yet discovered, and appears to be a globally unique ecosystem.

“A few dozen nests have been observed elsewhere in the Antarctic, but this find is orders of magnitude larger,” says deep-sea biologist Autun Purser, lead author of the paper published in Current Biology.

“The idea that such a huge breeding area of icefish in the Weddell Sea was previously undiscovered is totally fascinating.”

Known as Jonah’s icefish (Neopagetopsis ionah), these fish are found exclusively in the Southern Ocean and live between 20 and 900 metres below the surface, preying on other fish and krill.

Research vessel RV Polarstern. Credit: AWI – Tim Kavelage

The vast breeding colony was discovered while Purser and colleagues were surveying the Filchner ice shelf in the German research vessel, Polarstern. They were towing a camera “sled” called the Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System (OFOBS), designed to survey the seafloor of extreme environments.

“Basically this is a large, towed device, weighing one ton, which we tow behind the icebreaker RV Polarstern at a speed of one to four kilometres per hour,” Purser explains. “We tow this at a height of about 1.5 to 2.5 metres above the seafloor, recording videos and acoustic bathymetry data.”

The team knew that this area of the seafloor has an upwelling of warm water so they thought they might see something interesting, but they certainly weren’t prepared to see thousands upon thousands of fish nests.

That, Purser says, came as a “total surprise”.

“After the spectacular discovery of the many fish nests, we thought about a strategy on board to find out how large the breeding area was – there was literally no end in sight,” he adds.

The team decided to tow the camera a little higher off the sea bed and increase their towing speed, allowing them to survey an area of 45,600 square metres.

In the photo and video footage, they directly observed more than 16,000 nests, each about 75 centimetres in diameter and 15 centimetres deep. Most of the nests they found were guarded by a single adult fish, protecting (on average) more than 1700 eggs.

The consistent density – about 0.26 nests per square metre – allowed the team to estimate that approximately 60 million nests span across 240 square kilometres.

“Numerous degraded fish carcasses within and near the nesting colony suggest that, in death as well as life, these fish provide input for local food webs and influence local biogeochemical processes,” Purser and colleagues write in their paper.

In fact, they suspect Weddell seals may take advantage of this colony.

“A great many Weddell seals spend much of their time in close proximity to the fish nests,” Purser says. “We know this from historical tracking data and fresh tracking data from our cruise. The nests are exactly where the warmer water is upwelling.

“These facts may be coincidence, and more work is needed, but the recorded seal data show seals do indeed dive to the depths of the fish nests, so may well be dining on these fish.”

When they left, the research team deployed two camera systems to monitor the nests, taking several photographs each day to track what the fish are up to.

Purser and colleagues plan to return in April 2022 to survey other areas of the Weddell Sea.

In the meantime, they say that this colony highlights the need for the area to be protected.

“We believe our discovery provides support for endeavours to protect the Weddell Sea from anthropogenic impacts by establishing a regional marine protected area,” they conclude.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/marine-life/60-million-icefish-nests-found-in-antarctica/

 

 

[CaaC (John)]

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Mysterious lightning phenomenon recorded in ancient medieval text

Benedictine monk documented the still-mysterious wonder of ball lightning.

British researchers have uncovered what they believe to be the earliest written account in England of a bizarre – and poorly understood – phenomenon known as ‘ball lightning’, chronicled in a medieval text written by a Benedictine monk who lived just under 1000 years ago. 

What is ball lightning?

Usually associated with thunderstorms, ball lightning has been described as a bright spherical object, on average 25 centimetres across but sometimes reaching several metres in diameter.

The phenomenon has mystified humans for centuries, with the previous oldest written account having been found in a 1638 report, which described a ball of fire flying into a church, accompanied by a great peal of thunder.

Scientists don’t really understand what causes ball lightning, and have long been on the hunt for an explanation. One possible answer is that lightning striking the ground vaporises some of the minerals in the soil, which then, floating in the air, react with oxygen and release heat and light to produce an unearthly glow. This explanation seems supported by a 2014 study, which identified trace evidence of silicon, iron and calcium – all abundant in soil – in a flash of ball lightning.

Historical sleuthing uncovers bizarre weather report

Written by the 12th-century Benedictine monk Gervase, the account states that “a marvellous sign descended near London” on 7 June 1195. Gervase described a dense, dark cloud emitting a white substance that grew into a spherical shape, and from which a fiery globe fell towards the river.

The account was uncovered by the unlikely academic pairing of physicist Brian Tanner and historian Giles Gasper, both of Durham University. The team compared Gervase’s text with historic and modern reports of ball lightning and came to the same conclusion: this dramatic event in 1195 was likely the same phenomenon.

“Gervase’s description of a white substance coming out of the dark cloud, falling as a spinning fiery sphere and then having some horizontal motion is very similar to historic and contemporary descriptions of ball lightning,” says Tanner. 

“If Gervase is describing ball lightning, as we believe, then this would be the earliest account of this happening in England that has so far been discovered.”

Gasper says that, from a historian’s perspective, the account is convincing. Gervase recorded the dates and times of solar eclipses remarkably accurately and in vivid detail. 

“The main focus of Gervase’s writings was Christ Church Cathedral Priory in Canterbury,” says Gasper. “But he was also interested in natural phenomena, from celestial events and signs in the sky to floods, famine and earthquakes.”

The findings are published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s journal Weather.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/ancient-text-mysterious-lightning-phenomenon/

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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[CaaC (John)]

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Tyrants Aisle’ reveals ancient dinosaur footprints

‘72-million-year-old tracks found on a riverbank in Canada.

An Australian-led team of palaeontologists has discovered more than 100 dinosaur footprints in Canada, revealed as a riverbank eroded away.

The fossil footprints show that this boreal-forest-covered area in northern Alberta was once home to greater predators than today’s bears and cougars. 72 million years ago, at least four types of dinosaurs patrolled the ancient floodplains – including tyrannosaurs, earning the stretch of riverbank the nickname ‘Tyrants Aisle’.

“The most abundant tracks at Tyrants Aisle are those of hadrosaurs, which were large herbivorous dinosaurs that sometimes exceeded 12 metres in length and four tonnes in mass,” says Nathan Enriquez, a PhD student from the University of New England (UNE) and lead author of the paper published in PLOS ONE.

“The biggest of their footprints that we found measured 65cm long, suggesting the animal was 2.6 metres tall at the hips. They may have acted a bit like cows, grazing on low-growing vegetation and forming herds.”

Two of the species identified were meat-eaters, including tyrannosaurs that stood 2m tall – relatives of raptors.

“The best-preserved tyrannosaur track at the site measures almost 50cm in length and, based on the age of these rocks, was possibly produced by Albertosaurus sarcophagus, an earlier relative of T. rex,” Enriquez says.

But the tracks are disappearing fast. They are located across three different layers of rock on the banks of the Redwillow River, near the city of Grande Prairie in Alberta. They likely follow the margins of an ancient river system, but they are still being influenced by the water today. The river submerges the fossil site for much of the year and the rock is steadily eroding away.

“By the time we found the site, much information had already been lost,” Enriquez says. “It was important that we carefully document this site while it is still available to us.”

To preserve the data from the site for future work, Enriquez and team have made 3D models of the most significant footprints and trackways.

The study is a collaboration between UNE, the University of Alberta and the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Canada, and the University of Bologna in Italy.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/palaeontology/tyrants-aisle-reveals-ancient-dinosaur-footprints/

 

 

 

[CaaC (John)]

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Ancient spines threaded onto sticks found in Peru

The strange burial practice was discovered in the Chincha Valley on the Pacific Coast of Peru.

Researchers working in Peru have unearthed 192 human spines that were ceremonially threaded onto posts made of reeds 500 years ago. The discovery, published in the journal Antiquity, highlights an Andean burial tradition that has only been found in this specific area of Western Peru, which is known as the Chincha Valley.

Teams of archeologists excavated 20 sites around the region, and found the spines in elaborate graves known as chullpas. The fact that these ‘vertebrae-on-posts’ were discovered at multiple sites may suggest this was a common and well-known practice, they say.

It is thought that the spines were reconstructed and held-together with reeds many years after death, possibly due to the graves being looted and damaged by European settlers. The dead being buried intact was an important part of the culture of the Chincha people, so their reconstruction and reinterment would have been highly significant.

This coastal region was once the heartland of the Chincha Kingdom, but between 1533 and 1583 its population declined massively due to epidemics, famines and the arrival of foreign invaders.

FULL REPORT

 

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by CaaC (John)

[CaaC (John)]

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What did the megalodon look like?

New research casts the commonly believed shape of the ancient shark into question.

Credit: Phillip Sternes/DePaul/UCR

The megalodon – the giant shark that lived between 15 and 3.6 million years ago – has captured the imagination of thousands of people, and at least one filmmaker, over time.

But, while we know Otodus megalodon was huge, there’s not enough fossil evidence to confirm its shape.

And, according to new research in the journal Historical Biology, palaeontologists’ current guesses about the shape of megalodons are based on potentially incorrect assumptions.

“The cartilage in shark bodies doesn’t preserve well, so there are currently no scientific means to support or refute previous studies on Otodus megalodon body forms,” says Phillip Sternes, an organismal biologist at the University of California, Riverside, and lead author on the study.

Palaeontologists have previously modelled the megalodon’s shape on its modern relative, the great white shark. Megalodons are thought to be partially warm blooded, like great whites, and both belong to the order Lamniformes.

Previous researchers have used measurements from the other five warm-blooded lamniforms to figure out the fin size and shape of the megalodon. But there are cold-blooded lamniforms as well, and in this paper, the researchers ask if they should also have been examined.

The researchers compared the physical characteristics of the warm-blooded lamniforms to other sharks in the order. They found no characteristics that distinguished the warm-blooded sharks from the cold.

“Warm bloodedness does not make you a differently shaped shark,” summarises Sternes.

“I encourage others to explore ideas about its body shape, and to search for the ultimate treasure of a preserved megalodon fossil. Meanwhile, this result clears up some confusion about previous findings and opens the door to other ideas once again.”  

The researchers conclude that they still don’t have a clear understanding of the shape of the megalodon. While only teeth and vertebrae can be found, it will be difficult to confirm what the megalodon looked like.

“All previously proposed body forms of Otodus megalodon should be regarded as speculations from the scientific standpoint,” says Sternes.

Co-author Professor Kenshu Shimada, a palaeobiologist at DePaul University, US, says that while the study may appear to be a step backward in science, “the continued mystery makes palaeontology – the study of prehistoric life – a fascinating and exciting scientific field.

“The fact that we still don’t know exactly how Otodus megalodon looked keeps our imagination going.

“This is exactly why the science of palaeontology continues to be an exciting academic field. We’ll continue looking for more clues in the fossil record.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/palaeontology/megalodon-shape-questioned/

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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