History

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HS2 works unearth skeleton of possible iron age murder victim

Other finds include a lead-lined Roman coffin and Stonehenge-like wooden structure

 

 The skeleton discovered near Wellwick Farm with its hands bound. Photograph: HS2/PA

A skeleton believed to be a murder victim from the iron age has been discovered by archaeologists working on the HS2 project in Buckinghamshire.

HS2 said the find was made during excavation work at Wellwick Farm, near Wendover. Archaeologists found the skeleton of the adult male buried face down in a ditch with his hands bound together under his pelvis.

The unusual burial position suggested the man may have been the victim of a murder or execution, it said.

Osteologists were examining the skeleton for further evidence of foul play, HS2 said.

Work on the site for the high-speed rail project has also revealed a large circular monument of wooden posts 65 metres (213ft) in diameter, with features aligned with the winter solstice, similar to Stonehenge in Wiltshire; and a skeleton in a coffin lined in lead, an expensive material indicating high status.

Dr Rachel Wood, an archaeologist working on the project, said: “We already knew that Buckinghamshire is rich in archaeology, but discovering a site showing human activity spanning 4,000 years came as a bit of a surprise to us.

“The death of the Wellwick Farm man remains a mystery to us but there aren’t many ways you end up in a bottom of a ditch, face down, with your hands, bound. We hope our osteologists will be able to shed more light on this potentially gruesome death.”

She said the three discoveries helped to “bring alive the fact that people lived, worked and died in this area long before we came along”

The timber monument has features aligned to the winter solstice. Photograph: HS2/PA Media

The archaeological works had revealed evidence of human activity dating from the neolithic to the medieval period, HS2 said.

HS2’s lead archaeologist, Mike Court, said the discoveries would be shared with communities and the public through virtual lectures, open days, and in an upcoming documentary.

“We are uncovering a wealth of archaeology that will enrich our cultural heritage,” he said. “The sheer scale of possible discoveries, the geographical span and the vast range of our history to be  unearthed makes HS2’s archaeology programme a unique opportunity to tell the story of Buckinghamshire and Britain.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jul/11/hs2-works-unearth-skeleton-of-possible-iron-age-victim

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The earliest evidence for humans in the Americas

Humans settled in the Americas much earlier than previously thought, according to new finds from Mexico.

They suggest people were living there 33,000 years ago, twice the widely accepted age for the earliest settlement of the Americas.

The results are based on work at Chiquihuite Cave, a high-altitude rock shelter in central Mexico.

Archaeologists found thousands of stone tools suggesting the cave was used by people for at least 20,000 years.

Ice age

During the second half of the 20th Century, a consensus emerged among North American archaeologists the Clovis people had been the first to reach the Americas, about 11,500 years ago.

The Clovis were thought to have crossed a land bridge linking Siberia to Alaska during the last ice age.

This land bridge subsequently disappeared underwater as the ice melted.

And these big-game hunters were thought to have contributed to the extinction of the megafauna - large mammals such as mammoth, mastodon and various species of bear that roamed the region until the end of the last ice age.

Break down

As the "Clovis First" idea took hold, reports of earlier human settlement were dismissed as unreliable and archaeologists stopped looking for signs of earlier occupation.

But in the 1970s, this orthodoxy started to break down.

In the 1980s, solid evidence for a 14,500-year-old human presence at Monte Verde, Chile, emerged.

And since the 2000s, other pre-Clovis sites have become widely accepted - including the 15,500-year-old Buttermilk Creek site in central Texas.

Now, Ciprian Ardelean, from the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico, Tom Higham, from the University of Oxford, and colleagues have found evidence of human occupation stretching back far beyond that date, at the Chiquihuite site in the central-northern Mexican Highlands.

"This is a unique site, we've never seen anything like it before," Prof Higham said.

"The stone-tool evidence is very, very compelling.

"Anyone can see that these are deliberately manufactured stone tools and there are lots of them.

"The dating - which is my job - is robust.

"And so, it's a very exciting site to have been involved in."

Dating techniques

The team excavated a 3m-deep (10ft) stratigraphic section - a sequence of soil layers arranged in the order they were deposited - and found some 1,900 stone artefacts made over thousands of years.

Researchers were able to date bone, charcoal and sediment associated with the stone tools, using two scientific dating techniques.

The first, radiocarbon dating, relies on the way a radioactive form of the element carbon (carbon-14) is known to decay over time.

The second, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), works by measuring the last time sediments were exposed to light.

Using two different techniques "added a lot of credibility and strength, particularly to the older part of the chronology", Prof Higham said.

"The optical dates and [radiocarbon] dates are in good agreement," he said.

And the findings could lead scientists to take a fresh look at controversial early occupation sites elsewhere in the Americas.

"In Brazil, there are several sites where you have stone tools that look robust to me and are dated 26-30,000, similar dates to the Chiquihuite site," Prof Higham said.

"This could be an important discovery that could stimulate new work to find other sites in the Americas that date to this period."

Native Americans

The scientists also used "environmental DNA" techniques to look for human genetic material in the cave sediments.

But they could not find a strong enough signal.

Previous DNA evidence has shown the Clovis settlers shared many similarities with modern Native Americans.

And scientists will now want to understand how these older populations relate to later human groups who inhabited the continent.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53486868

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NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland

Kelp found off Scotland dates back 16,000 years to last ice age

Scientists have discovered kelp off the coast of Scotland, Ireland and France that has survived since the last ice age, around 16,000 years ago.

Experts from Heriot-Watt University's Orkney campus analysed the genetic composition of oarweed from 14 areas across the northern Atlantic ocean.

The team found three distinct genetic clusters.

It is hoped the discovery could help show how marine plant life survives extreme changes in climate.

Dr Andrew Want collected samples from Kirkwall Bay, near his home.

The marine ecologist said the "refugee populations" managed to hang on and survive "amid dramatic changes".

'Critical role'

Dr Want, who is based at Heriot-Watt's International Centre for Island Technology in Orkney, said: "Oarweed in Scotland and Ireland is more closely related to populations in the high Arctic than to the Brittany cluster.

"As the ice sheets retreated from northern European shorelines at the end of the most recent ice age, oarweed distribution followed and recolonised the higher latitudes of the Atlantic.

"Kelp plays a critical role in the Atlantic so it is important to understand what affects its distribution and survival over time and how sensitive it is to change."

The research team, which included academics based in Portugal and France, found one distinct genetic cluster along the eastern seaboard of Canada and the US.

Another was discovered in central and northern Europe and a third compact population around Brittany.

'Rapidly-changing temperatures'

Dr Want said the "Brittany population" is once again close to the other populations but has managed to remain distinct.

He added: "Worryingly, this unique Brittany gene pool is projected to disappear under greenhouse gas emission scenarios.

"This provides further evidence of the loss of biodiversity expected with rapidly changing marine temperatures."

The team's findings have been published in the European Journal of Phycology.

Dr Joao Neiva, from Algarve's Centre of Marine Sciences, said: "Our study shows how marine organisms adjust to shifting climates by migrating polewards and even across the Atlantic when conditions are favourable.

"These migrations provide a mechanism by which marine life buffers the effects of global climatic shifts, and how they can compensate for predictable contractions at warmer limits as the modern climatic crisis unfolds.

"While the species may not be threatened at global scales, range contractions can have very negative impacts if vanishing ranges are composed of unique and diverse populations.

"This is certainly the case off the coast of Brittany."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-53558308

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Metal detector user uncovers ‘significant’ Bronze Age artefacts less than 2ft underground

‘I was shaking with happiness,’ says treasure hunter after discovering pre-Christian items 

A metal detectorist has discovered a rare hoard of Bronze Age artefacts, which experts describe as “nationally significant”, in the Scottish Borders.

Mariusz Stepien was searching a field near Peebles with friends when he found a bronze object buried half a metre (1ft 8in) underground.

Archaeologists spent 22 days investigating, building a shelter to protect the find from the elements. Mr Stepien and his friends camped out there.

They uncovered a complete horse harness, preserved by the soil, and a sword dated to 1,000 to 900 BC.

The Bronze Age in Britain ran from about 2,000BC to about 650BC.

Mr Stepien said: “I thought ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before’ and felt from the very beginning that this might be something spectacular, and I’ve just discovered a big part of Scottish history.

“I was over the moon, actually shaking with happiness.

“We wanted to be a part of the excavation from the beginning to the end.

“I will never forget those 22 days spent in the field. Every day there were new objects coming out which changed the context of the find, every day we learned something new.

“I’m so pleased that the earth revealed to me something that was hidden for 3,000 years. I still can’t believe it happened.”

All newly discovered ancient objects in Scotland belong to the Crown and must be reported to the Treasure Trove Unit, which Mr Stepien did.

The archaeologists also found decorated straps, buckles, rings, ornaments and chariot wheel axle caps.

Evidence of a decorative “rattle pendant” from the harness was also discovered — the first one to be found in Scotland and only the third in the UK.

Some of the pre-Christian objects found (PA)

The hoard has been taken to the National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh.

Emily Freeman, head of the Treasure Trove Unit, said: “This is a nationally significant find — so few Bronze Age hoards have been excavated in Scotland.

“It was an amazing opportunity for us to not only recover bronze artefacts but organic material as well.

“There is still a lot of work to be done to assess the artefacts and understand why they were deposited.”

In 1990, a hoard of late Bronze Age items was found at St Andrews in Scotland. As well as at least 200 tools, it included weapons, ornaments, and specimens of plant fibre textiles.

In 2015 a major excavation in Cambridgeshire revealed the remains of a remarkably intact Bronze Age settlement, made up of timber roundhouses raised on stilts above the marshy ground.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/metal-detector-bronze-age-find-scotland-peebles-treasure-trove-a9661871.html

 

 

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Europe's earliest bone tools found in Britain

Archaeologists say they've discovered the earliest known bone tools in the European archaeological record.

The implements come from the renowned Boxgrove site in West Sussex, which was excavated in the 1980s and 90s.

The bone tools came from a horse that humans butchered at the site for its meat.

Flakes of stone in piles around the animal suggest at least eight individuals were making large flint knives for the job.

FULL REPORT

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Earliest art in the British Isles discovered on Jersey

Fragments of stone engraved with abstract designs found on Jersey are the earliest known art in the British Isles, researchers say.

They were made by hunter-gatherers who lived between 23,000 and 14,000 years ago.

The designs were scratched into small ornamental tablets known as plaquettes; similar examples have been found in France, Spain and Portugal.

The 10 plaquettes were unearthed at Les Varines, Jersey, between 2014 and 2018.

Since the discoveries in the south-east of the island, scientists from London's Natural History Museum, the University of Newcastle and University of York have been analysing the prehistoric markings.

The researchers, who have published their findings in the journal Plos One, now believe they represent the earliest evidence of artistic expression in the British Isles.

The designs consist of straight lines more or less in parallel and longer, curved incisions. The two types of marks were probably produced by the same tools, in short succession - perhaps by the same engraver.

FULL REPORT

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Ancient Egypt: Mummified animals 'digitally unwrapped' in 3D scans

VIDEO

Three mummified animals from ancient Egypt have been digitally unwrapped and dissected by researchers using high-resolution 3D scans.

The snake, bird and cat, from the Egypt Centre's collection at Swansea University, are at least 2,000 years old.

Ancient texts suggest they were offerings to the souls of the departed, but little was known of their fate.

Researchers said the details revealed by the scans were "extraordinary".

Using micro CT scanners, which generate 3D images with 100 times the resolution of medical CT scans, the animals' remains were analysed in previously unseen detail, giving an insight into how they were killed and the ritual behind it.

FULL REPORT

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Vast DNA Analysis of Hundreds of Vikings Reveals They Weren't Who We Thought

What is a Viking? The word conjures an unmistakable mental image: the stereotype of bold Scandinavian invaders, fearsome marauders with white skin and pale hair, ruthlessly raiding and voyaging their way across the globe over 1,000 years ago.

Only, there is a mistake, after all, it seems – crucial details in this longstanding legend are wrong, new research reveals. According to a large genetic analysis of over 400 Viking skeletons scattered across Europe, many Vikings weren't of Scandinavian ancestry, and many would have had dark hair, not blonde.

FULL REPORT

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Egypt tomb: Sarcophagi buried for 2,500 years unearthed in Saqqara

A total of 27 sarcophagi buried more than 2,500 years ago have been unearthed by archaeologists in an ancient Egyptian necropolis.

An Egyptian official, Mostafa Waziri, inspecting one of the coffins, decorated with colourful ornate patterns. Photo: AFP/ Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities

The stone coffins were found inside a newly-discovered well at a sacred site in the ancient Saqqara burial ground, south of Cairo.

Thirteen coffins were discovered earlier this month, but a further 14 have followed, officials say. The discovery is now said by experts to be one of the largest of its kind.

Images released show colourfully painted well-preserved wooden coffins and other smaller artefacts.

Saqqara was an active burial ground for more than 3,000 years and is a designated Unesco World Heritage Site.

One of the coffins from a burial complex in the necropolis of Saqqara. Photo: AFP/ Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities

"Initial studies indicate that these coffins are completely closed and haven't been opened since they were buried," Egypt's antiquities ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

'More secrets'

The statement adds that Egypt's Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani initially delayed announcing the find until he could visit the site himself, where he thanked staff for working in difficult conditions down the 11 metres deep well.

The ministry said it hoped to reveal "more secrets" at a press conference in the coming days.

One of the smaller artefacts found with the coffins in Saqqara. Photo: AFP/ Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities

Other artefacts discovered around the wooden coffins also appeared to be well-crafted and colourfully decorated.

Saqqara, located around 30km south of Cairo, served as the necropolis for Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, for more than two millennia.

In recent years, Egypt has ramped up its promotion of its archaeological finds in a bid to revive its vital but flagging tourism industry.

One of the smaller artefacts found with the coffins in Saqqara. Photo: AFP/ Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/426559/egypt-tomb-sarcophagi-buried-for-2-500-years-unearthed-in-saqqara

 

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The world's earliest 'babies' were fish from Orkney

The earliest "babies" known to science have been uncovered in the remains of a primitive fish found in Orkney.

Researchers say the unborn embryos discovered in a fossil from the island of South Ronaldsay date from 385 million years ago.

The Watsonosteus fletti, now part of the National Museums of Scotland collection, gave birth to live young.

The tiny remains were discovered when scientists looked at slices cut through rock formed in the Mid-Devonian epoch.

They are at least three million years older than the previous record holders - fossilised embryos from Australia.

FULL REPORT

 

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Let the Eurasian games begin

Ball sports were played much earlier than thought.

This area of northwest China may have been the venue for Eurasia’s oldest ball games.

A team of Swiss, German and Chinese researchers has used radiocarbon dating to analyse three leather balls found in graves in a cemetery near the modern city of Turfan and dated them to between 1189 and 911 BCE.

That’s not old by global standards; the oldest balls currently known about were made in Egypt some 4500 years ago when field hockey was among the favoured pastimes.

However, the Turfan balls – which range in size from 7.4 to 9.2 centimetres – “predate other currently known antique balls and images of ball games in Eurasia by several centuries”, the authors write in a paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

There is insufficient evidence to suggest whether they were kicked, thrown or rolled, but the researchers, led by Patrick Wertmann from the University of Zurich, say it is likely they were part of team and goal games.

They also note that the age of the balls coincides with the spread of horse riding in Central Asia.

Two were found in the graves of horsemen, and one of the graves also included the preserved remains of a composite bow and a pair of trousers, which were made in the region at that time and are among the oldest in the world.

Both are signs, the researchers say, of a new era of horse riding, equestrian warfare and fundamental societal transformations which accompanied increasing environmental changes and a rising mobility in the region.

“Given that ball games from ancient times were considered an excellent form of physical exercise and military training, we suggest that balls (and ball games) appeared in the region at the same time as horseback riding and mounted warfare began to spread in the eastern part of Central Asia,” they write.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/archaeology/let-the-games-begin/

 

 

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Egyptians wanted their words to stick

Study finds the technical link to the Renaissance painters.

In the 15th century Europe, artists began adding lead to their paints to help them dry. Now scientists have discovered that the Egyptians were likely doing something similar with their inks at least as early as 100 to 200 CE.

The finding, published in the journal PNAS, not only throws new light on how writing practices developed in Egypt and around the Mediterranean, it could help with the conservation of many famous manuscripts.

In this study, the focus was on a dozen papyrus fragments from the only large-scale institutional library known to have survived from ancient Egypt: the Tebtunis temple library.

And the team of chemists, physicists and Egyptologists called in the big guns, using the advanced X-ray microscopy equipment at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble to examine them.

The work was led by the ESRF and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

They combined several synchrotron techniques to probe the chemical composition from the millimetre to the sub-micrometre scale to provide information not only on the elemental but also on the molecular and structural composition of the inks.

They concluded that the lead was used as a dryer because they did not find any other type of lead, such as lead white or minimum, which should be present if the lead was used as a pigment.

This also suggests that the ink had quite a complex recipe and “could not be made by just anyone”, says Egyptologist Thomas Christiansen from the University of Copenhagen, co-corresponding author of a paper in.

“Judging from the amount of raw materials needed to supply a temple library as the one in Tebtunis, we propose that the priests must have acquired them or overseen their production at specialised workshops much like the Master Painters from the Renaissance,” he says.

The ancient Egyptians have been using inks for writing since at least 3200 BCE, with black used for the primary body of text and red to highlight headings and keywords.

The researchers discovered that red pigment is present as coarse particles, while the lead compounds are diffused into papyrus cells, at the micrometre scale, wrapping the cell walls, and creating, at the letter scale, a coffee-ring effect around the iron particles, as if the letters were outlined.

“We think that lead must have been present in a finely ground and maybe in a soluble state and that when applied, big particles stayed in place, whilst the smaller ones diffused around them”, says co-corresponding author Marine Cotte, from the ESRF.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/civillisations/egyptians-wanted-their-words-to-stick/

 

 

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Bonnie Prince Charlie's Culloden battle hoard found

Musket balls believed to have been part of a stashed supply of weapons for Bonnie Prince Charlie have been found near a ruined Lochaber croft.

Amateur archaeologists made the discovery while trying to find armaments that arrived from France, but too late to help the prince.

They were sent as part of his doomed attempt to defeat government forces as part of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.

The hoard included 215 musket balls, coins and gilt buttons.

The arms shipment is thought to have landed in Lochaber two weeks after Bonnie Prince Charlie's forces were defeated at Culloden.

• Unesco status 'would better protect' Culloden

Fought near Inverness in April 1746, the battle resulted in the deaths of 1,500 Jacobites - who were fighting to restore the prince's father to the thrones of England and Scotland - at the hands of the Duke of Cumberland's government army.

France, which supported the Jacobite cause, sent the weapons and gold to the prince in Scotland.

The discovery was made by a group called Conflicts of Interest, who were given permission to use metal detectors in the area.

They found the musket balls and coins near a ruined croft house which once belonged to the prince's Gaelic tutor - at Sandaig on the shores of the sea loch, Loch nan Uamh.

The find has now been reported to Treasure Trove, an organisation with responsibility for protecting archaeological finds of national significance.

Paul Macdonald, of Conflicts of Interest, told BBC Naidheachdan: "The find was made by joining the dots.

"We knew there were arms landed in the area and it then became a matter of narrowing down where they might be."

He said the balls were of a size matching the calibre of muskets sent to the Jacobites.

Mr Macdonald said the balls along with other supplies may have been distributed locally and then hidden.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-54904272

 

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https://youtu.be/ZvxAaBCc3Ac

Egypt: More than 100 intact sarcophagi unearthed near Cairo

More than 100 intact sarcophagi have been unearthed near Cairo, dating back more than 2,500 years.

This latest find comes just over a month after archaeologists in the area found 59 other well-preserved and sealed wooden coffins.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-54947258

 

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Volcano link to the end of Triassic extinction

Researchers analyse molecular and isotopic evidence.

An Australian-led team of scientists has shed new light on the timing of one of the most catastrophic mass extinctions in history, which set the stage for dinosaurs to dominate Earth.

Two hundred million years ago, the Triassic period was brought to a devastating end by extensive volcanic eruptions from the Central Atlantic magmatic province (CAMP), which formed as Pangea broke apart. As carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere, the Earth’s carbon cycle was disrupted, and the oceans became acidified.

Delicate marine ecosystems collapsed, and a sweep of prehistoric creatures such as conodonts and phytosaurs went extinct – though somehow, plants, dinosaurs, pterosaurs and mammals scraped through. This new world allowed dinosaurs to expand their ecological niche and reign supreme for the next 135 million years.

Evidence for this end-Triassic extinction event comes from two major compositional shifts observed in the carbon isotope record 200 million years ago, as extensive volcanism could have released isotopically light methane into the atmosphere.

Now research led by Curtin University suggests the first shift was actually caused by more localised environmental change throughout European basins, and so the mass extinction may have occurred later on.

Their paper, published in the journal PNAS, describes how the team examined the stable isotope conditions of molecular fossils: traces of organic molecules found in the fossil record. These well-preserved “biomarkers” were extracted from rocks in the Bristol Channel in the UK and indicated the presence of microbial mats, which are complex communities of microorganisms.

The Triassic was marked with small carnivorous dinosaurs that walked on two legs. Credit: De Agostini Picture Library / Getty Images

Curtin’s Calum Peter Fox, the paper’s first author, explains: “Through our analysis of the chemical signature of these microbial mats, in addition to seeing sea-level change and water column freshening, we discovered the end-Triassic mass extinction occurred later than previously thought.”

A drop in sea level in European basins – which may have been indirectly driven by volcanic activity on CAMP – caused localised environmental changes. The marine ecosystem became a brackish, shallow-water environment where microbial mats thrived.

These ancient slimy microbes then produced lighter carbon isotopes, complicating the rock record and causing confusion about the timing and location of the end-Triassic extinction.

According to co-author Kliti Grice, also based at Curtin, the first observed isotope changes, therefore, don’t coincide with the global extinction event.

“Instead, the mass extinction stage must have happened a bit later, along with the land plant extinctions, toxic levels of hydrogen sulfide and ocean acidification is driven by massive volcanic activity linked with the opening of the Proto-Atlantic Ocean,” she says.

It is currently unclear exactly how much later the extinction event occurred. Grice says their new interpretation requires further reanalysis of the carbon isotope record, in order to gain a better understanding of the regional versus global effects of the CAMP.

This research may also reshape our understanding of other mass extinction events – particularly those linked to volcanic activity – and could alert us to future potential mass extinctions on modern Earth.

As fossil fuel consumption drives us further into the climate crisis, Grice explains that “it is important to correlate contemporary conditions and dynamics to past periods of major environmental change and threats. Threats can include a decline in biodiversity; ocean acidification; environments with no oxygen; destruction of habitats and degradation; changing nutrient levels and rising and falling sea levels.”

She concludes: “Knowing more about the carbon dioxide levels present during the end-Triassic mass extinction event provides us with important details that could help protect our environment and health of our ecosystems for future generations.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/palaeontology/volcano-link-to-end-of-triassic-extinction/

 

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People chose the coast during the big chill

Evidence found of persistent occupation in South Africa.

Excavations at Waterfall Bluff on South Africa’s southeast coast. Credit: Erich Fisher

Excavations on South Africa’s southeast coast have uncovered evidence of persistent human occupations from the end of the last Ice Age 35,000 years ago.

Importantly, the scientists say, this includes the period of the Last Glacial Maximum, which lasted from 26,000 to 19,000 years ago, highlighting the complex transitions that were necessary to survive the wide climate and environmental fluctuations.

Archaeological records from this globally cold and dry time are rare in southern Africa because of widespread movement as people abandoned increasingly inhospitable regions.

However, researchers involved with the Mpondoland Palaeoclimate, Palaeoenvironment, Palaeoecology, and Palaeoanthropology Project (P5) suspected that places with narrow continental shelves may preserve records of glacial coastal occupation and foraging.

Mpondoland (also known as Pondoland) includes a remote and largely unstudied section of South Africa’s “Wild Coast”. Here a part of the continental shelf is only 10 kilometres wide.

“The narrow shelf in Mpondoland was carved when the supercontinent Gondwana broke up and the Indian Ocean opened,” says Hayley Cawthra, from Nelson Mandela University. “When this happened, places with narrow continental shelves restricted how far and how much the coastline would have changed over time.”

Cawley and a multi-disciplinary international team have been excavating a rock shelter site known as Waterfall Bluff for the past five years.

“The work we are doing in Mpondoland is the latest in a long line of international and multidisciplinary research in South Africa revealing fantastic insights into human adaptations that often occurred at or near coastlines,” says Erich Fisher from Arizona State University in the US.

Waterfall Bluff from the ocean. Credit: Erich Fisher

“Yet, until now, no-one had any idea what people were doing at the coast during glacial periods in southern Africa. Our records finally start to fill in these longstanding gaps and reveal a rich, but not exclusive, focus on the sea.

“Interestingly, we think it may have been the centralised location between land and sea and their plant and animal resources that attracted people and supported them amid repeated climatic and environmental variability.”

To date, their evidence – a variety of marine fish and shellfish remains – P5 researchers worked with South Africa’s iThemba LABS and the Centre for Archaeological Science at Australia’s University of Wollongong, developing what they say is one of the highest-resolution chronologies at a southern Africa Late Pleistocene site.

The findings are published in the journal Quaternary Research.

In a companion study, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, palaeobotanists and palaeoclimatologists used different lines of evidence to investigate interactions between prehistoric people’s plant-gathering strategies and climate and environmental changes over the last glacial/interglacial phase.

It was the first multiproxy study in South Africa to combine preserved plant pollen, plant phytoliths, macro botanical remains (charcoal and plant fragments) and plant wax carbon and hydrogen isotopes from the same archaeological archive.

“It is not common to find such good preservation of different botanical remains, both of organic and inorganic origin, in the archaeological record,” says research leader Irene Esteban, from the South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand.

One of the key findings, the researchers say, is that Mpondoland’s current vegetation types persisted across glacial and interglacial periods, albeit in varying amounts due to changes in sea levels, rainfall and temperature.

The implication is that people living in the area in the past had access to an ever-present and diverse suite of resources that let them survive here when they couldn’t in many other places across Africa.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/archaeology/people-chose-the-coast-during-the-big-chill/

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There’s more than one way to grow a beak

Madagascar fossil adds a new twist to bird evolution.

Artist’s reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous enantiornithine bird Falcatakely forsterae. Credit: Mark Witton.

A new fossil discovered on the ever-surprising island of Madagascar suggests ancient Mesozoic bird beaks and faces were more diverse and evolved differently than previously thought, scientists report in the journal Nature.

Long and deep, the beak resembles that of modern crown birds such as toucans. It belongs to a previously unknown species named Falcatakely forsterae, referring to its sickle shape, from the late Cretaceous epoch around 70 to 68 million years ago.

Although it appears quite unremarkable on the surface, the researchers say, a careful reconstruction revealed the bone structure is unlike those of any dinosaur-bird or otherwise. Its facial anatomy bears resemblance to modern birds but its cranium and upper jaw are similar to that of flightless theropods.

The discovery upends what we know about bird evolution, as current species such as toucans and hornbills seem to have independently evolved similarly shaped beaks tens of millions of years later, according to lead author Patrick O’Connor from Ohio University, US.

“Mesozoic birds with such high, long faces are completely unknown,” he adds, “with Falcatakely providing a great opportunity to reconsider ideas around the head and beak evolution in the lineage leading to modern birds.”

More than 11,000 species of birds exist today, with a complex evolutionary history harking back to the dinosaurs – their only branch that survived the last mass extinction. Intriguingly, it was the beaked birds that persisted.

The exquisitely preserved Falcatakely fossil skull – only 8.5 centimetres long – was embedded in rock in the Mahajanga region of Madagascar, the second Cretaceous specimen the team has found there.

They used high-resolution micro-computed tomography and complex digital modelling to dissect individual bones virtually and used 3D printing to reconstruct the skull and compare it with other species.

The formation of modern bird beaks is very precise, mostly by a large bone called the premaxilla, while their dinosaur ancestors have fairly unspecialised noses consisting of a small premaxilla and large maxilla.

One of the new fossil’s surprises was evidence of both features.

“Falcatakely might generally resemble any number of modern birds with the skin and beak in place,” says O’Connor. “There are clearly different developmental ways of organising the facial skeleton that lead to generally similar end goals.”

Illustration of Falcatakely forsterae and friends during the Late Cretaceous in Madagascar. Credit: Mark Witton.

Daniel Field, from the University of Cambridge, highlights the importance of such fossil discoveries for building evolutionary models in a related commentary, noting the “stunning” specimen’s surprisingly unique skull.

“Although the fossil consists of only the front half of a skull, it’s clear that Falcatakely is more than just a pretty face,” he writes. “The skull is utterly bizarre, characterised by a deep and elongated snout unlike those seen in any other Mesozoic birds.”

Field goes on to note a tooth on the snout and an absence of teeth along the skull’s jaws, in direct opposition to the closest Cretaceous relatives of modern birds.

“These features give the skull of Falcatakely an almost comical profile – imagine a creature resembling a tiny, buck-toothed toucan flitting from branch to branch, occasionally glancing down at Madagascar’s formidable Late Cretaceous inhabitants,” he writes, “which included equally bizarre mammals and giant predatory dinosaurs.”

The new species is in good company with other bizarre creatures on the island, such as Simosuchus, a pug-nosed, herbivorous crocodile, Beelzebufo, a giant predatory frog, and the recently discovered “crazy beast” Adalatherium.

“The more we learn about Cretaceous-age animals, plants and ecosystems in what is now Madagascar,” says O’Connor, “the more we see its unique biotic signature extends far back into the past and is not merely reflective of the island ecosystem in recent times.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/palaeontology/theres-more-than-one-way-to-grow-a-beak/

 

 

Edited November 26, 2020 by CaaC (John)

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Scans tell three tales of ancient Egypt

Mummified animals revealed in high-tech detail.

The coiled remains of an Egyptian Cobra. Credit: Swansea University

Three mummified animals have been digitally unwrapped and dissected in unprecedented detail, providing, the researchers say, new insights into religion and human-animal relationships in ancient Egypt.

Previous investigations had identified the animals as a snake, a bird and a cat, but little else was known about what lay inside the wrappings.

However, high-resolution 3D scans allowed a team of engineers, archaeologists, biologists and Egyptologists to gather new evidence of how they lived, the conditions they were kept in, and the possible causes of death.

X-ray micro CT scanning can generate images with a resolution 100 times greater than a medical CT scan, revealing even the smallest bones and teeth.

“Using micro CT, we can effectively carry out a post-mortem on these animals, more than 2000 years after they died in ancient Egypt,” says research leader Richard Johnston of Swansea University, UK. The three mummies are from the university’s Egypt Centre.

Used in materials science to image internal structures on the micro-scale, the method involves building a 3D volume (or tomogram) from many individual projections or radiographs. The shape can then be 3D printed or used in virtual reality.

Analysis of images of the teeth and skeleton indicate that the cat was in fact a kitten, less than five months old, and may have had its neck broken at the time of death or during mummification to keep the head in an upright position.

Measurements of the mummified bird of prey suggest it most closely resembled the Eurasian kestrel. It did not appear to have died from injuries to the neck.

The snake was identified as an Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje), and evidence of kidney damage suggests it was deprived of water during its life, developing a form of gout.

Analysis of bone fractures shows it was ultimately killed by a whipping action, prior to possibly undergoing an “opening of the mouth” procedure during mummification.

If true this demonstrates the first evidence for complex ritualistic behaviour applied to a snake, the authors write in a paper in the journal Scientific Reports.

The ancient Egyptians mummified a number of animals, including cats, ibis, hawks, snakes, crocodiles and dogs.

Sometimes these were buried with their owner or as a food supply for the afterlife, but the most common were votive offerings, bought by visitors to temples to offer to the gods as a means of communication.

Animals were bred or captured by keepers, then killed and embalmed by temple priests. It is believed that as many as 70 million animal mummies were created in this way, the researchers say.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/civillisations/scans-reveal-three-tales-of-ancient-egypt/

 

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Rare Pictish stone goes on Covid-safe display

A rare Pictish standing stone is to go on display in the window of a Highlands museum that is temporarily closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 1,200-year-old carved stone was discovered hidden under vegetation at an early Christian church site near Conon Bridge last year.

It is to go on display at a museum in nearby Dingwall next week.

The stone will be positioned so that it can be seen by passers-by through a window facing the High Street.

Archaeologists described its discovery last year being of national importance because it is one of only about 50 complete Pictish cross-slabs - intricately carved stones - known to exist.

The stone has a large ornate Christian cross and is also decorated with oxen, and an animal-headed warrior and mythical beasts.

It has markings showing it was used as a grave marker in the 1790s.

Archaeologists believe the stone would have originally measured more than two metres (6ft) tall. Just over a metre of it survives.

Anne MacInnes of North of Scotland Archaeological Society found the stone lying on the ground under vegetation last August.

Highland Council archaeologist Kirsty Cameron said at the time it was a "once-in-a-lifetime find".

Ian MacLeod, chairman of Dingwall Museum said: "This special stone will enhance our collection and it will be safeguarded for future generations to see.

"I have been very impressed with everyone who has worked along with the museum team, and special mention must go to the local specialists and tradesmen who gave their time and expertise to complete the installation."

The museum is expected to reopen next year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-55273935

 

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Flamboyance in the age of dinosaurs

Dressed to impress, but also to intimidate.

Credit: © Bob Nicholls / Paleocreations.com 2020

Scientists suggest this is the most elaborately dressed-to-impress dinosaur ever described.

Ubirajara jubatus was small, about the size of a chicken, but had a prominent mane of long fur down its back and stiff ribbons projecting from its shoulders – features never been seen in the fossil record.

Its flamboyance was likely used to dazzle mates or intimidate foe, the researchers say, and sheds new light on how birds such as peacocks inherited their ability to show off.

The first non-avian dinosaur described from Brazil’s Crato Formation, a shallow inland sea laid down about 110 million years ago, it is also the first from the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana with preserved skin.

It was actually found among fossils in Germany’s State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe by a team led by the museum’s Dino Frey and by David Martill and Robert Smyth from the University of Portsmouth in the UK.

Frey excavated it from the two slabs of stone in which it lay and, using x-ray, found previously hidden skeletal elements and soft tissue.

The fossil is likely of a young male. It lived 110 million years ago during the Aptian stage of the Cretaceous period and is closely related to the European Jurassic dinosaur Compsognathus.

Its ribbons are not scales, fur or feathers in the modern sense; rather, they appear to be structured uniquely to this animal.

“These are such extravagant features for such a small animal and not at all what we would predict if we only had the skeleton preserved,” says Smyth. “Why adorn yourself in a way that makes you more obvious to both your prey and to potential predators?

“The truth is that for many animals, evolutionary success is about more than just surviving, you also have to look good if you want to pass your genes on to the next generation.”

The mane is thought to have been controlled by muscles that allowed it to be raised, in a similar way that a dog raises its hackles or a porcupine raises its spines when threatened. It could be lowered when not in a display mode for faster movement.

The long, flat, stiff shoulder ribbons of keratin, each with a small sharp ridge running along the middle, were positioned to not impede freedom of movement in its arms and legs, so wouldn’t have limited the animal’s ability to hunt, preen and send signals.

Smyth argues that the elaborate plumage might have improved its chances of survival.

“Ubirajara is the most primitive known dinosaur to possess integumentary display structures,” he says. “It represents a revolution in dinosaur communication, the effects of which we can still see today in living birds.”

The name comes from a Tupi Indian word for “lord of the spear” and jubatus, from the Latin, meaning maned or crested.

The study is published in the journal Cretaceous Research.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/palaeontology/flamboyance-in-the-age-of-dinosaurs/

 

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‘Naked and starving’: letters tell how English paupers fought for rights 200 years ago

FRAMES - 1/3

They were destitute, their children were starving and their short, pitiful lives were often marred by heartbreak and suffering. But they knew that, morally, they had rights, and they understood how to make their voices heard.

Now, previously unpublished letters of penniless and disabled paupers living in the early 19th century reveal the sophisticated and powerful rhetoric they used to secure regular welfare payments from parish authorities, despite being barely able to read and write.

The letters, which were sent to the overseer of Kirkby Lonsdale parish between 1809 and 1836, demonstrate how poor families were “masters” at navigating the complexities of the Old English Poor Law and negotiating effectively for long-term financial support.

“It’s the closest you can get to an oral testimony [of these paupers] in the historical record – we think almost all of these letters were written by the people who signed them,” said Steven King, professor of economic and social history at Nottingham Trent University.

In some letters, the paupers write phonetically and in their Cumbrian dialect – exactly as they would speak the words they are writing. “Some of these people talk as if writing inflicts pain. They have to navigate a medium with which they are wholly unfamiliar. They are literally writing from sound,” said King.

Paupers were forced, through sheer desperation, to write such letters when they became destitute after moving away from their home parish. This is because, under the Old Poor Law, those in need were only allowed to ask for financial assistance from the rate-payers of their home parish and not simply the parish they were living in. Often, it was only by writing humbly to the overseer of their original home parish and demonstrating why, morally, they “deserved” his help that impoverished families could get any relief at all.

“The system makes it difficult for them [to get support], just like the modern welfare system makes it difficult for people,” said King. “They have to find a way – and that’s what they do.”

For example, the rhetorics of “nakedness” and “starvation” are deployed with great effectiveness by several different correspondents, such as when one parishioner writes: “The children are all nearly naked and starving.” This would have been seen as immoral and “an affront to dignity”, according to King: an overseer could potentially lose his moral standing in the parish by ignoring such a letter. Another wrote: “I hope you will befriend me at this time or it is up with me on all sides.”

“These people have no legal rights – but they are very adept at asserting moral obligations, particularly if they’re disabled,” said King. “They are not powerless. They may use the supplicatory language every now and again – ‘I’m your humble servant and I’m very sorry for writing’ – but what they mean is: ‘Give me the cash.’”

The letters will be published by the British Academy on Christmas Eve in a new book, Navigating the Old English Poor Law, by King and Dr Peter Jones, a research associate at the University of Leicester. In total, the two academics analysed 599 pieces of correspondence relating to just 20 poor families from Kirkby Lonsdale. This enabled them to understand not only the rhetorical strategies the paupers employed to convincingly negotiate on their own behalf, but also how they often managed to get friends, advocates and doctors to argue their case and emphasise the moral legitimacy of their claim for support.

One man, who got a splinter in one eye while working in a lime kiln and had a cataract in the other, “pulls every moral lever to get as much welfare as he can”, says King. “You see the way in which he uses his own words, official words and the words of advocates to make a case. And, of course, they give in – they pay his rent and give him an allowance because he has a moral case. What can you do if a man is blind? You can’t let him starve to death.”

Jones said the letters have made him consider how moral rights are framed within today’s bureaucratised, nationalised welfare system and pity the benefit assessors who, unlike the parish overseers of the past, have no discretion and little power.

“It’s become more and more difficult now for the agents of welfare – the workers who are on the frontline, dealing with the poor – to treat the people in front of them as moral individuals whose needs must be interpreted and responded to. That’s something we’ve lost.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/spotlight/naked-and-starving-letters-tell-how-english-paupers-fought-for-rights-200-years-ago/ar-BB1c4O69?li=AAnZ9Ug

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by CaaC (John)

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Key to the room where Napoleon died found in Scotland

The key to the room where Napoleon died is to be auctioned after it was found in Scotland.

The French emperor was held as a prisoner of the British on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic after his defeat at Waterloo.

He died in 1821 and the bedroom key was taken by a British soldier and ended up in a country house outside of Edinburgh.

The Scottish descendants of the soldier have made the key available for sale.

It is being auctioned by Sotheby's and the key, along with the envelope and notes it was found with, are estimated to be worth up to £5,000.

Soldier Charles Richard Fox took the key from St Helena and gave it to his mother, Baroness Holland, a "super fan" of Napoleon.

She already had a collection of items connected to the Corsican-born former French statesman and military leader, including one of his socks.

Scottish descendants of the soldier and the baroness found the key while unpacking an old trunk.

David Macdonald, of Sotheby's, said: "We see things associated with Napoleon all the time, important pictures or furniture from one of his amazing houses or homes.

"But there's something about a key which, particularly as it comes from where he was incarcerated, is quite powerful, especially as it's the key to the room where he died.

"It's something otherworldly. It was as powerful and potent an object then as it is today."

The property at Longwood on St Helena where Napoleon was held was "not a prison cell by any means" and had some comforts, said Mr Macdonald, adding: "He was a respected foe."

He said it was not clear why Fox was on the island, but "he had the opportunity to take the key for himself or more likely, his mother.

"That's why it ended up at this house in Scotland with his descendants."

The key will go under the hammer at Sotheby's in London together with a piece of ageing yellow paper inscribed with Fox's note: "Key of the room at Longwood, in which Napoleon died".

Fox also wrote that he took the key out of the lock himself on 6 September 1822 when he visited following Napoleon's death.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-55618318

 

[Cicero]

Looking forward to that Napoleon film with Joaquin Phoenix when ever it airs. 

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Old dinosaur, new saxophone snout

Only the second skull found adds new detail to duckbill dinosaur.

In the arid badlands of New Mexico, palaeontologists have uncovered the first new skull of the rare dinosaur Parasaurolophus in nearly a century.

Familiar to every dinosaur-obsessed kid, Parasaurolophus sports a bizarre and elaborate crest growing from its skull, forming a hollow tube at its largest point.

“Imagine your nose growing up your face, three feet behind your head, then turning around to attach above your eyes,” explains Terry Gates, a palaeontologist from North Carolina State University in the US and lead author of the new paper, published in the journal PeerJ.

“Parasaurolophus breathed through eight feet of the pipe before oxygen ever reached its head.”

Three species of Parasaurolophus are currently recognised, with specimens found in New Mexico, Utah, and Alberta in Canada. They all date back to the Late Cretaceous Period, around 75 million years ago. 

The new, exquisitely preserved skull is from Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus, a species known from a single specimen found in the same area of New Mexico 97 years ago, in 1923.

This skull was discovered in 2017 on the lands of the Diné (Navajo Nation) and Puebloan peoples. Initially, only a small sliver of the skull was visible on a steep sandstone slope, so the team were surprised to then chisel out a partial skull, including an intact crest with remarkable detail – providing answers about its structure after decades of paleontological disagreement. 

“Over the past 100 years, ideas for the purpose of the exaggerated tube crest have ranged from snorkels to super sniffers,” notes co-author David Evans from the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. “But after decades of study, we now think these crests functioned primarily as sound resonators and visual displays used to communicate within their own species.”

The characteristics of this new skull also suggest that the two southern species of Parasaurolophus – with specimens found in New Mexico and Utah – are more closely related to each other than to their northern cousin in Alberta.

According to Joe Sertich, curator of dinosaurs at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and leader of the dig team, the skull shows that this crest is formed much like the crests of other related duckbill dinosaurs.

“This specimen is a wonderful example of amazing creatures evolving from a single ancestor,” he says.

While the badlands of New Mexico are today a dry, sparsely vegetated place, 75 million years ago they would have been a lush subtropical floodplain. At this time, North America was divided by a shallow sea into two landmasses. Mountain-building episodes on the western side helped preserve the diverse ecosystems of dinosaurs in some of the best-preserved and most continuous fossils on the planet. They show that Parasaurolophus shared the continent with many species of dinosaurs sporting duckbills or horns, as well as early tyrannosaurs, alligators and turtles.

The fossil was found on Bureau of Land Management Wilderness lands, which, says Sertich, “reinforces the importance of protecting our public lands for scientific discoveries”.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/palaeontology/hey-good-looking/