A new archeological discovery of prehistoric tools in the area surrounding the Cedro Lagoon in the province of Villa Clara (Cuba) is giving rise to new theories of the existence of ceramist agricultural settlements in the northern part of this region. An archeologist from the Provincial Center for Environmental Studies and Services, Rául Villavicencio, confirmed that five polished axes, 25 chisels made from sea shells, and various ceramic fragments were found. Villavicencio said that previously the area had only produced archaeological evidence of hunter-gatherer civilizations.
     The new find was made in firm ground, 600 meters from the coast, leading investigators to believe that the area might have been a settlement with houses built on piles very close to the water with agricultural fields inland by more fertile land. Researchers have still not determined if the objects are the result of cultural exchanges with ceramist civilizations relatively close to the area or produced by the inhabitants of the area. A group of archaeologists led by Villavicencio will try to determine this and other mysteries such as the controversy over the location of the Carahate aboriginal peoples who were described in the Indian Chronicles written by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas in 1514.

Source: Cuban News Headlines (9 March 2010)

According to the first known evidence of 'double burials,' ancient people in what is now Mexico routinely dug up decomposing bodies and took off their arms, legs, and heads, then reburied the bodies, new research shows. Indigenous peoples of the Cape Region of Baja California Sur practiced these double burials for about 4,500 years, from about 3000 BCE to the 16th-century CE, when Europeans first arrived in the region, anthropologists say.
     To the native groups, death was "a motionless, painful state, from which the living could free the dead by sectioning the limbs," physical anthropologist Alfonso Rosales-Lopez said.  The double-burial practice, he added, is consistent with beliefs in other cultures around the world that death isn't the end of life but rather a passing from one state to another. Since 1991 Rosales-Lopez has examined more than a hundred of the double burials along the southern coast of Baja California and is currently working on a paper describing the practice.
     Immediately after death, candidates for double burial were shrouded in animal skins and bound tightly in the fetal position with cords made from agave plants, the same succulents used in tequila production. Each corpse was then placed in an individual shallow grave lined with seashells, charcoal, and soil. "It would appear this would end the funeral, but the abundance of sectioned remains clearly shows this is not the case - rather, it was only the first part," said Rosalez-Lopez. About six to eight months after a first burial, a body would be exhumed. At this point, the corpse would have decomposed enough that the limbs and head could be easily broken off, he noted. Once separated, the dismembered parts were placed near the body and reburied.
     Near the burial sites, Rosalez-Lopez and colleagues also found stone tools-such as projectile heads, knives, and fishing harpoons-that would have been used to kill and prepare food. Food remains including shells of mollusks, seeds, and plants were also discovered.
     Double burials appear unique to the Cape Region, said Don Laylander, senior archaeologist with the archaeological consulting firm ASM Affiliates and co-editor of The Prehistory of Baja California: Advances in the Archaeology of the Forgotten Peninsula.  Rosales-Lopez's research also offers some new insight into the culture of Mexico's ancient native peoples, Laylander said. For instance, the double burials and the shells and bones found at the sites certainly point to a culture that emphasized ceremony and were seminomadic, Laylander noted. That's because the artifacts suggests the people did not abandon their settlements forever - they had an obligation to revisit and protect their dead, project leader Rosalez-Lopez said.

Source: National Geographic News (9 March 2010)

Two U.S. scientists have published a radical new theory about when, where and how humans migrated to the New World, arguing that the peopling of the Americas may have begun via Canada's High Arctic islands and the Northwest Passage - much farther north and at least 10,000 years earlier than generally believed. The hypothesis - described as 'speculative' but 'plausible' by the researchers themselves - appears in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology.
     The idea of an ancient Arctic migration as early as 25,000 years ago, proposed by University of Utah anthropologists Dennis O'Rourke and Jennifer Raff, would address several major gaps in prevailing theories about how the distant ancestors of to-day's aboriginal people in North and South America arrived in the Western Hemisphere. The most glaring of those gaps is the anomalous existence of a 14,500-year-old archeological site in Chile, near the southern extreme of the Americas, that clearly predates the time when East Asian hunters are thought to have first crossed from Siberia to Alaska via the Bering Land Bridge at the end of the last ice age some 13,000 years ago.
     The new theory also may have implications for a lingering Canadian archeological mystery. For decades, the Canadian Museum of Civilization has stood largely alone in defending its view that the Yukon's Bluefish Caves hold evidence of a human presence in the Americas - tool flakes and butchered mammoth bones - going back about 20,000 years.
     The Utah scientists, pointing to genetic affinities between certain central Asian populations and New World aboriginal groups, suggest an Arctic coastal migration may have begun from river outlets in present-day north-central Russia. Using skin boats and hunting along glacier-free refuges while the last ice age was still underway, the prehistoric travellers could have moved quickly along the northern Siberian coast to northern Alaska, Canada's Arctic Islands and beyond to eastern and southern parts of the Americas, they say.
     "Movement to the interior of the continent via the Mackenzie River drainage," the authors assert, "is plausible." And suspected gaps among Arctic glaciers means "open coastal areas for continued movement eastward would have provided access to the open water of Baffin Bay and Davis Strait and a coastal route along the eastern seaboard of North America," the study states.
     O'Rourke said the theory doesn't exclude existing models, but offers a new way of thinking about the movements of the earliest North Americans that deserves to be considered and "to be tested in rigorous ways." However, purported coastal archeological sites that could yield traces of humans from 16,000 years ago or earlier are underwater today. Canadians scientists and others are probing potential sites in British Columbia and Alaska, but evidence remains extremely sketchy.
     In an interview, O'Rourke said the possibility of a very early northern migration is supported by recent research in Russia. In January 2004, a team of Russian scientists reported the remains of a 30,000-year-old human settlement near the Arctic Ocean outlet of Siberia's Yana River, the most convincing evidence ever found for such an early, northerly human presence near the Bering gateway to the New World.
     David Morrison, the Canadian Museum of Civilization's director of archeology and an expert in Canada's prehistoric Arctic peoples, applauded the U.S. researchers for floating a fairly 'wild' theory because "that's how science advances." But he said "count me skeptical" about the hypothesis, citing the 'unspeakably harsh' conditions that the ancient Asians would have encountered in Canada's Arctic before the full retreat of the glaciers.

Source: The Vancouver Sun (26 February 2010)

On the trunk of a gnarled, centuries-old oak tree, about 90 miles southwest of Phoenix, Arizona (USA), are odd carvings of six-legged, lizard-like beings. The tree is located at Painted Rock, an archaeological site peppered with hundreds of ancient petroglyphs, images created upon rock surfaces. Known as the 'scorpion tree,' locals had long believed that cowboys were behind the tree carving (the technical term is 'arborglyph'). But paleontologist Rex Saint Onge knew it dated to long before then. His analysis offers a glimpse not only into the cultural history of the Chumash people, the Native American tribe that once inhabited the region; it also provides unique insights into their scientific expertise.
     Although Saint Onge is uncertain how old the tree carving is, he believes that nearby Chumash residents may have maintained it until the early 20th century. The arborglyph led Saint Onge to connect the symbols within the carving with the stars in the sky. After spending more time at the site, Saint Onge realized that the carved crown and its relation to one of the spheres was strikingly similar to the way the constellation Ursa Major related to the position of Polaris, the North Star. He quickly learned that the constellation could be used to tell the seasons and that the Chumash people also revered this astronomical relationship in their language and cosmology.
     It became increasingly obvious to Saint Onge that the arborglyph and related cave paintings weren't just the work of wild-eyed, drug-induced shamans - which has been a leading theory for decades - but that the ancient images were deliberate studies of the stars and served as integral components of the Chumash people's annual calendar. "This gives us an insight into what the indigenous people of Central California were doing," says Saint Onge, who published his theory last fall in the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. "It wasn't just the daily simpleton tasks of hunter-gatherers. They were actually monitoring the stars."
     Saint Onge isn't the first to speculate that Chumash paintings might have astronomical implications. The anthropologist Travis Hudson did so back in the 1970s combining his observations of rock art with the cultural data recorded nearly a century earlier by ethnographer John P. Harrington. But when others went into the field to check out Hudson's claims, "much of it was pretty unconvincing," explains anthropologist John Johnson of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. "That's what caused people to get skeptical about archaeoastronomical connections."
     That reluctance ruled for three decades until Saint Onge presented his findings to Johnson, and he was so impressed that he co-authored the journal article and is now quite open to the idea that the rock art he's studied might have something to say about the stars. "Whether we're right or not, I don't know, but we keep finding things that strengthen the idea," says Johnson. "And if we keep finding ethnographic support for it, I feel we're on safer ground."

Sources: Time (9 february 2010), Discovery News (10 February 2010)

The skeletal remains of a Native American woman who likely lived more than 3,000 years ago were uncovered by trenching work at Carmel Valley Ranch (California, USA). Construction workers uncovered the ancient grave, and appropriate county and state officials were notified, said county Planning Director Mike Novo. Salinas archaeologist Gary Breschini went to the site with a coroner's deputy, which he often does when possible remains of Native Americans are discovered.
     Breschini said the partially uncovered remains were those of a woman, probably 28 to 30 years old, who lived with members of the Esselen tribe more than 30 centuries ago. He estimated the age of the woman by examining the comparative wear on her molars. Native Americans who moved into the area at a later time made acorns a major part of their diet, and they typically had far more wear on their teeth, he said. Breschini said the woman likely was laid to rest in an isolated burial site. Only two or three pieces of shell were found, and there was no village or major Native American site nearby, he said.
     Under state law, the California Native American Heritage Commission designates the deceased's "most likely descendant," and that person is responsible for deciding how to handle the remains. "Normally, the preference is to leave them in place," Breschini said. Louise Miranda Ramirez, tribal chairwoman of the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation, was designated as the person to make arrangements on how to handle the remains.

Source: The Herald - Monterey County (13 January 2010)

An agreement signed is aimed at safeguarding thousands of prehistoric American Indian drawings and carvings from truckers' dust in a famed Utah canyon (USA) near where a Colorado company wants to dramatically increase energy development. The pact signed at the Utah Capitol is the first major attempt to address concerns over dust in Nine Mile Canyon, whose miles of decorated walls are sometimes called the world's longest art gallery.
     The canyon has been the focus of intense debate for several years after Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. proposed developing 800 natural gas wells on West Tavaputs Plateau, which sits above Nine Mile Canyon. The Bureau of Land Management has not made a final decision on Bill Barrett's proposal. The primary concern has been concern over dust from the unpaved road being kicked up by an increasing number of trucks ferrying equipment and workers. Some worry the dust could hurt the ancient art panels depicting bighorn sheep, owls, a two-headed snake, spear-wielding hunters and warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat.
     The agreement is meant to lay out protections for the rock art if Bill Barrett's proposal is approved. It was signed by BLM officials, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, Bill Barrett Corp., as well as environmental and archaeological groups and advocates for the 78-mile-long canyon. The deal, affecting some 233 square miles, including the canyon and the West Tavaputs Plateau, includes a list of tasks such as more dust suppression and studies to determine if the rock art is being harmed.
     Pam Miller, chair of the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, said she's happy to see efforts to tamp down dust and study its potentially adverse effects. Whether the BLM cracks down when problems crop up will be something her group will be watching for. "We haven't always been listened to before when we've reported problems," Miller said. "But we're hopeful. We sincerely hopes it's going to work."

Sources: Associated Press, ABC News (6 January 2010)

Some of the rock paintings at China Lake Naval Air Weapons Center near Death Valley have been dated as far back as 16,000 years ago. Established in the summer of 1943 in the heat of Allied offensives in the Pacific, China Lake is the US Navy's premier weapons testing range and its largest real estate holding. "Every weapon being used overseas right now was tested here," said Peggy Shoaf, a civilian Navy public affairs officer. The property comprises 1.1 million acres of Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles and west of Death Valley.
     The base is home to a complex of remote canyons holding the greatest concentration of ancient rock art in the Western Hemisphere, known as the Coso Petroglyphs. David S. Whitley, an archaeologist and expert on prehistoric rock art and iconographic interpretation believes the Coso Petroglyphs to be one of the most important rock art sites on earth. Mr. Whitley estimated that there may be as many as 100,000 images carved into the dark volcanic canyons above the China Lake basin, some as old as 12,000 to 16,000 years, others as recent as the mid-20th century.
     Everywhere you look, for a mile or so down what is known as Little Petroglyph Canyon, there are images pecked or scratched into the rock faces: stylized human figures in a variety of headgear, stick figures with bows and arrows, dogs or coyotes, bear paws with extra digits, all manner of abstract geometric patterns, zigzags and circles and dots, and hundreds upon hundreds of what looked like bighorn sheep, some small, some larger than life size.
     Some archaeologists believe that the images are evidence of simple hunting rituals. Mr. Whitley sees in them nothing less than the origins of human creativity and religion. He theorizes, based on his research, that the petroglyphs are the work of generations of shamans, or medicine men, who traveled here (from all over what is now the southwestern United States) to fast and smoke native tobacco, to hallucinate or have visions, and to render their hallucinations on the rock. Perhaps the goal was to make rain. Perhaps it was to impress upon their followers a sense of the supernatural.
     For a time, after 9/11, civilian visits to the petroglyphs were suspended. "There's always a risk when you let civilians into a secured area," Ms. Shoaf said. But she said she felt the place was too precious for the public not to have access. So she rewrote the protocol to show the commanding officer how it might be possible to allow tours and still protect the base's security. He agreed. More than 1,100 civilians visit the site every year, either on tours available to the public or as part of private tours with command-approved escorts arranged through Ms. Shoaf's office.
     Public petroglyph tours are available through the Maturango Museum (100 East Las Flores Avenue, Ridgecrest, California; 760-375-6900, maturango.org) $35 per person for nonmembers; $25 for members of museum and the Friends of Last Chance Canyon. Arrangements can be made through the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake itself by calling the public affairs office at (760) 939-1683. The base's Web site has information about the petroglyphs and the tours, which carry a number of restrictions, at navair.navy.mil/nawcwd/nawcwd/recreation/petroglyphs.htm. Tours are held on weekends and holidays. Visitors are responsible for finding two command-approved escorts, arranging car pools and for filing all necessary paperwork. Up to three groups of 20 are allowed in the canyon each weekend day. No children under 10, and no pets. Only American citizens are now allowed to go on tours, and proof of citizenship is required for participants 16 and older.

Source: The New York Times (18 December 2009)

An international group of anthropologists offers a new theory about the diffusion of maize to the Southwestern United States and the impact it had. The study, co-authored by Gayle Fritz, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues, suggests that maize was passed from group to group of Southwestern hunter-gatherers. These people took advantage of improved moisture conditions by integrating a storable and potentially high-yielding crop into their broad-spectrum subsistence strategy.
     "For decades, there have been two competing scenarios for the spread of maize and other crops into what is now the U.S. Southwest," Fritz said. According to the first, groups of farmers migrated northward from central Mexico into northwest Mexico and from there into the Southwest, bringing their crops and associated lifeways with them. In the second scenario, maize moved northward from central Mexico to be Southwest by being passed from one hunter-gatherer band to the next, who incorporated the crop into their subsistence economies and eventually became farmers themselves.
     On the new study, the researchers integrate what is currently known about early maize in the Southwest with genetic, paleoecological, and historical linguistic studies. Corn from five sites in Arizona and New Mexico now predates 2,000 BCE, which makes it too early to be explained by diffusion of settled Mexican villagers, said Fritz. "No artifacts or features of any type point to in-migrating Mesoamerican farmers; in fact, continuity of local traditions is manifested, with independent invention of low-fired ceramics and with the construction of irrigation features in the Tucson Basin dating earlier than any known south of the border," she said. "We interpret the linguistic evidence as favoring a very early (beginning shortly after 7,000 BCE), north-to-south movement of Proto-Uto-Aztecan hunter-gatherers and subsequent division into northern and southern Uto-Aztecan-speaking groups."
     These two groups do not share words and meanings for maize because, according to the researchers' scenario, farming post-dates their separation. "We think the Southwest stands as a region in which indigenous foragers adopted crops and made the transition to agriculture locally rather than having been joined or displaced by in-migrating farming societies," Fritz said.

Sources: EurekAlert!, ScienceDaily (8 December 2009)

Three ancient artifacts - 4,000 to 7,000 years old - have been found by the University of Washington's botany greenhouse, the university announced. One piece is a stone projectile point - a type of spearhead or arrowhead. The other two are fragments of stone tools.
     UW freshman Ellen Van Wyk, who is also a botany greenhouse volunteer, found the projectile point buried by the greenhouse on October 22. The greenhouse staff told the Burke Museum about the discovery. The museum staff then dug three test pits in that area and found the two tool fragments. "This (stone) point is exciting because we know exactly where it was found. Other points in our collection have a vague provenance, such as 'near the fountain.' We can now add to the history of the landscape on which the UW was built," said Julie Stein, the museum's director.
     The discovery site is near a documented Native American trail. The museum has contacted area tribes about the discovery, said university spokeswoman MaryAnn Barron Wagner. The university plans to check out the discovery area more and to survey other parts of campus with pending construction projects for potential artifact sites. People stumbling across a potential artifact site are encouraged to call the museum's archaeology department at 206-685-3849.

Sources: Seattle PI (7 December 2009), Associated Press (8 December 2009)

An international team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have found no evidence supporting an extraterrestrial impact event at the onset of the Younger Dryas about 13000 years ago.
     The Younger Dryas is an abrupt cooling event in Earth's history. It coincided with the extinction of many large mammals. This cooling period is generally considered to be the result of the complex global climate system, possibly spurred on by a reduction or slowdown of the thermohaline circulation in North America. This paradigm was challenged two years ago by a group of researchers that reported finding high iridium concentrations in terrestrial sediments dated during this time period, which led them to theorise that an impact event was instead the instigator of this climate shift.
     A team led by François Paquay, a Doctoral graduate student in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) decided to also investigate this theory, to add more evidence to what they considered a conceptually appealing theory. However, not only were they unable to replicate the results found by the other researchers, but additional lines of evidence failed to support an impact theory for the onset of the Younger Dryas.
     "There is a black mat layer across North America which is correlated to the Younger Dryas climatic shift seen in Greenland ice cores dated at 13 thousand years ago by radio carbon," explains Paquay. "Initially I thought this type of layer could be associated with an impact event because concentration in the proxies of widespread wildfires are sky high. That plus very high levels of iridium (which is one indicator used to indicate extraterrestrial impact events). So the theory was conceptually appealing, but because of the missing impact site, the idea of one or multiple airburst arose. Because there are so many aspects to the impact theory, we decided to just focus on geochemical evidence that was associated with it, like the concentration of iridium and other platinum group elements, and the osmium isotopes," says Paquay. "We also decided to look in very high resolution sediment cores across North America, and yet we could find nothing in our data to support their theory."
     Analysis of the sediments was done both at UHM and in Belgium, using the same sediments from the same interval and indepedently did the analysis work and got similar results. Both the marine and terrestrial sediment records do not indicate that an impact event was the trigger for the transition into the Younger Dryas cold period. "The marine and terrestrial record both complement each other to support this finding," concludes Paquay. "That's what makes the beauty of this study."

Source: EurekAlert! (7 December 2009)