Prehistoric 'bone hats' found in Mongolia

Recently, archaeologists found prehistoric hats from an ancient tomb site at Tongliao City of Inner Mongolia. Experts said it was the first time this kind of hats, which were made from bones, have been found. Archaeologists have discovered and investigated almost 400 ancient tombs dating back 4,500 years ago around the site, and more than 1,500 objects of pottery, jade stone, horn and clam shell were excavated.
     The newly-found bone hats were tightly cramped on skeletons' heads and had the obvious shape of a hat. After inspection, those headgears were made from 15 or 16 very delicate animal bones. Archaeologists have found four complete 'bone hats' from those 400 ancient tombs.

Source: People's Daily Online (6 September 2010)

  Unearthing the secrets of an Iron Age settlement in England

Archaeologist Derek Hurst recently disclosed the secrets of a Iron-Age settlement near Bewdley (Worcestershire, England). His report, which has appeared in The Council for British Archaeology's online journal Internet Archaeology thanks to funding from English Heritage, charters the excavation of a site at Blackstone, which took place in the 1970s.
     It records how archaeologists discovered fragments of pottery indicating that at the time of the main Iron Age occupation from the 2nd century into the 1st century BCE, the dwellers operated sophisticated trading links. A substance called briquetage was also revealed. This coarse ceramic material was used in the process of extracting and trading salt, and its presence indicates strong ties with Droitwich Spa, which is famed worldwide for its historical salt production.
     Mr Hurst, senior project manager, said: "Not many pre-Roman sites have been excavated so it was really exciting to have the chance to work on this project which offers a snapshot into how our ancestors lived in the past." Judith Winters, Internet Archaeology editor, added: "This project serves as an example of how archaeological thinking and expression has changed in 40 years. And with publication costs being met by English Heritage, the article is now freely available online and will reach an audience way beyond it could ever have achieved in print." To read the report visit intarch.co.uk

Source: Halesowen news (4 September 2010)

  Mass dismissal at Çatalhöyük dig

Researchers finishing the dig season at Turkey's Çatalhöyük - a 9500-year-old site famed for its art and symbolism at the dawn of agriculture - got a big shock last week. Stanford University archaeologist Ian Hodder, who has directed excavations since 1993, told the heads of the dig's specialty labs that they would be asked to step down beginning in 2012, when publication of current work will be completed. "It's the night of the long knives," says one long-time team member, who asked not to be identified.
     Such a mass dismissal is highly unusual at long-running archaeological excavations. But in a 29 August e-mail to the team explaining his decision, Hodder stressed that he was not dissatisfied with anyone's work. Rather, the e-mail said, the project "needs new energy-that is, new questions, new theoretical perspectives, ... new methods."  
     Many team members, some of whom have been working with the project since the mid-1990s, are stunned and confused. So far, however, they have declined to comment publicly as they must work with Hodder for at least another year. The decision affects the leaders of most of the big labs at the privately funded dig, such as ceramics, stone tools, archaeobotany, animal remains, and human remains. Field excavators, who actually dig up the artifacts for the specialists to study, are not affected.
     Hodder says he plans to recruit new lab leaders for the next phase of excavations, planned for 2012-18, although he has not yet spelled out what new questions he intends to pursue.

Source: Science Magazine (3 September 2010)

  Bronze Age gold bracelets found in Kent

Two Bronze Age gold bracelets almost 3,000 years old have been discovered during excavations along the route of the East Kent Access Road (England). When they were found one bracelet was placed inside the other. The bracelets were found in an area of the Ebbsfleet peninsula from which four other Late Bronze Age hoards are already known. Those hoards are all of bronze objects, mainly axes, tools like punches and gouges, fragments of swords, and small ingots.
     Although traces of a Late Bronze Age settlement have also been found, the two hoards of axes found in 2004 were shown to be later than the occupation. One theory is that the newly discovered gold bracelets were votive offerings to the gods. Another is that they may have been buried for safe-keeping but never retrieved.
     Like some of the previous finds, the bracelets had not been buried in a pit. They were found in the topsoil which suggests that they were either covered by a thin layer of soil or perhaps placed in a bag or other organic container. The findspot lies at the foot of low but locally prominent hill which although it is some way inland today, would have been much closer to the sea in the Bronze Age. The best parallel for the bracelets, which date to the 9th or 8th century BCE, are from two hoards found at Bexley Heath in Kent, which are now in the British Museum.

Source: Oxford Wessex Archaeology (2 September 2010)

  Mysterious Bronze Age oak road discovered in Ireland

Irish archaeologists are puzzled as to the exact purpose of an ancient oak road unearthed on a bog managed by Bord na Móna (a company responsible for the mechanised harvesting of peat) in Co Tipperary.
     Operations manager and site director with Archaeological Development Services (ADS) Jane Whitaker believes the track, which runs parallel to a modern road, may have formed part of an ancient road network. The road, discovered by ADS during a walking survey, is constructed from oak planks laid across oak beams and gravel. Mortise holes have been bored into the planks to facilitate wooden pegs. All of the materials were brought to the site from other locations. Using dendrochronology, the archaeologists have dated wood from the road to 986 BCE. The Bronze Age structure measures 300 metres long and four metres wide.
     Construction of the road would have involved "a substantial amount of wood, organisation, tree-felling, hard labour and graft", said Ms Whitaker. "The reason for that is unknown but most likely just to cross the bog - it's a causeway." A number of other finds have been made at the site of the road on the Longford Pass Bog in Co Tipperary in the past, she revealed. "Historically there have been quite a few finds, mainly in the early days of Bord na Móna hand-cutting. There is actually quite a large number of Bronze Age finds, similar enough in date to this site which would have been daggers and swords." Mystery still remains as to the exact purpose of the road. Although the track is large enough to take wheeled vehicles, archaeologists have found no evidence of hoof prints or wheel ruts. "Interestingly, in this particular site, we have, in two of the cuttings, an upright timber with a hole in it along the northern end of the site, purpose and function as yet unknown."
     "One hypothesis we are testing is that trackways were built as a response to climate change. That is something that is still ongoing - we have got some evidence for it at some sites but not all sites," Environmental archaeologist Dan Young said. Bord na Móna project archaeologist Charles Mount expects more artefacts to be discovered at the Longford Pass site.

Source: Irish Times (2 September 2010)

  Moabite temple unearthed in Jordan

Joint Jordanian-US excavations at Khirbat 'Ataroz (Jordan), have revealed 'the largest and most complete' Iron Age temple in the region, archaeologists announced. The three-story temple, with a main room measuring 29.6 by 13.1 metres, two antechambers and an open courtyard dates to between 1200 and 539 BCE, contained four altars of stone and a raised rectangular high place, features not previously found in Jordan. One altar has features suggesting contacts with Assyrian and Egyptian cultures.
     Khirbat 'Ataroz was one of the most important Moabite cities and the temple reveals "archaeological proof of the level of advancement of technology and civilization at that period of time," explained Ziad al-Saad of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities. As well as the impressive architectural remains, more than 300 clay and bronze artifacts were found, including a figurine of the animal god Hadad and delicate circular ritual vessels.
     Excavations have been ongoing since 2000, carried out by a Jordanian team and Californian La Sierra University, USA, although most finds were discovered recently. The evidence indicates that the Moabites worshipped of a variety of deities and had an organized use of temples, noted al-Saad.
     The kingdom of Moab lay along the mountainous strip of land along the eastern shores of the Dead Sea and the Moabites were often in conflict with their neighboring Israelites. The kingdom was conquered by Babylon in 582 BCE. The objects found will be displayed in Jordan's archaeology museum after analysis and conservation.

Sources: Associated Press, MSNBC (1 September 2010), Middle East Online (2 September 2010)

  Dig planned on proposed daycare site in Scotland

In the 1930's, archaeologists discovered Bronze age artifacts at Knappers Quarry, Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire (Scotland). Burials dating from 4700 to 2700 years BP and holes that may have supported timbers were found during construction on the site. Now a special needs daycare and respite facility is to be built in the same location. The proposed Davie Cooper Centre honors the local Clydebank football hero who collapsed and died suddenly at age 39.    
     Before groundbreaking can begin, the law requires that archaeologists once again conduct an excavation to ensure that no artifacts will be compromised. Hugh McBrien of the West of Scotland Archaeologist Service will direct the dig. He explained the challenges faced in protecting sites 80 years ago. "In the 1930s there weren't many professional archaeologists. There was also very little control over development and archaeologists had to go cap in hand to the landowner. Archaeologists went in as the top soil was being scraped away and found a whole range of burial sites and possible timber sites that suggested ritual use of the site for hundreds, possibly thousands of years."
     McBrien described the current state of the location. "If you look at the site, even with all the modern buildings there, you can see that itís a flat, sandy terrace surrounded by little bits of high ground, one of which Drumchapel sits on now, and another with the multi-storey flats on the south side of Great Western Road." He does not expect to make any new discoveries. But, the spatial extent of Bronze age useage of the site was not clearly defined when it was first studied. And the original excavation may have missed important finds.
     It is llikely that permission will be granted for constuction of the center if no additional artifacts are found.

Source: Clydebank Post (1 September 2010)

  The WRAO Field School and Excavation 2010

The Welsh Rock Art Organisation (WRAO) is organising the last field school and excavation for this year in Pembrokeshire (South West Wales) from 3 November to 7 November 2010. Field work will include excavation, drawing, photography and survey work at several rock-art sites in the Preseli landscape (Wales). Participants to the field school will also be involved in the hunt for a stone which has passage grave art, similar to that found in Anglesey.
     Costs for the four full days of unique field work experience with lectures are £350 (concession for full time students £295), per person including up to 5 nights of accommodation, some evening meals and breakfast. Places will be limited to a maximum of 14, so book early, contact Adam Stanford. A booking form is available online.

Source: WRAO (September 2010)

  4,500 year old settlement discovered in Canada

Archaeologists have discovered a 4,500 year old settlement on the Ausable River, near the shore of Lake Huron in Ontario (Canada). The find proves that people were living a sedentary lifestyle at that time, even though they lacked agriculture and pottery.
     Among the discoveries is a 4,500 year old house - the oldest ever found in the province. "It's semi-subterranean - it's dug partially down into the ground," said Professor Chris Ellis of the University of Western Ontario, who led the team that made the find. After the house was abandoned it was hit by flood waters. Garbage was piled on top of it - something that helped the archaeologists reconstruct what the structure looked like. "Because we have the garbage lining the bottom of it we get an idea of the shape of it," said Professor Ellis. "Also we have the stains left by the posts (that) supported the roof."
     "The house was basically circular," said Ellis. "It had an entrance on one side - there's sort of a narrow sloping entrance that faced the river and went down into the actual house pit." The house pit was a meter deep and five meters in diameter. This pit would have provided insulation, helping the inhabitants survive the Canadian winter. "A wooden roof with wooden roof supports would be put over top," he said. "You had this circular bench all the way around," said Ellis, extending half a meter off the ground. "We also found some remnants of what apparently are partitions and things like this that divided the house up into different sections."
     Ellis said that the house would have been used as a single family dwelling and took a considerable amount of time and resources to build. The settlement is about two hectares in size - but only a tiny portion of it has been excavated so far. The rest of the settlement is known only through magnetic surveys and artefacts found on the surface. From the magnetic survey "We know that the site is just covered with buried features of one kind or another," said Professor Ellis.  In one section of the site, a ploughed field, "There are literally millions of artefacts over the surface."
     Artefacts found at the site include spear-points, bifaces, fire cracked rock and even a net sinker. The team has also found abundant organic remains including deer and fish bones, black walnuts and raspberry seeds. These finds suggest that the site may have been used year round. To the north of the 4,500 year old house the team found a storage area, a meter deep and 1.5 meters across. This is further evidence that, despite living a hunting/gathering lifestyle, people were here to stay. The site also had extensive areas for disposing of garbage.
     Another house, found at the site, dates back to about 3,000 years, just before pottery was introduced into Ontario. An additional structure is even stranger - it doesn't seem to be a house at all. It, "was like a platform dug down into the ground," said Ellis. "It was full of deep pits that seem to be earth ovens that were used over and over and over again." It "could be a cook house or something like this."

Source: Heritage Key (31 August 2010)

  Bronze Age brain surgery in Turkey?

Archaeologist Onder Bilgi has been excavating the site of Ikiztepe, Samsun, in northern Turkey for some 37 years now. The Bronze Age inhabitants lived in hard-to-excavate log houses with courtyards and ovens at the front and the village was home to perhaps 300 inhabitants at its peak between 3200 and 2100 BCE. They were evidently skilled metalworkers, since finds include tools, jewellery, religious symbols and weapons; in fact, according to Bilgi, the villagers may sometimes have had to fight their neighbours for access to sources of copper located in mines in nearby mountains.
     At the nearby cemetery, 14 of the 700 excavated skulls show cut marks that could only have been made with a very sharp tool. Bilgi suspects the two obsidian blades recently found near a circular clay platform that could have had some religious or ceremonial function. The blades are 4 cm long and must have been imported since obsidian, a kind of volcanic glass that produces extremely sharp cutting surfaces when fractured, is not found locally.
     The cut marks show that a rectangular opening was made through into the skull and Bilgi suggests reasons why such procedures may have been performed. The treatment of head injuries could be one reason, while relieving the pressure from brain haemorrhages and cancer, both indicated by traces on the inside of skulls, would be another. Bilgi also notes that "patients lived at least two to three years after surgery, because the skull has tried to close the wound."
     The painstaking excavation of the site, carried out with small tools such as brioches and spatulas, will continue.

Source: New Scientist (31 August 2010)

  Remains of funeral feast found in Israel

A team of archaeologists believe they have found the earliest evidence of a ritual feast in an Israeli cave near the Sea of Galilee. Natalie Munro from the University of Connecticut and Leore Grosman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have been conducting an excavation for several years at Hilazon Tachtit. The cave was occupied by the Natufian hunter-gatherers 20,000 years ago and contained the remains of 28 individuals including children.
     In 2008, they discovered the burial of a woman approximately 45 years of age who suffered in life from a deformed spine and pelvis. The condition would have caused her to display a pronounced limp when she walked. The bones were interred with unusual animal remains, leopard, eagle, and stone marten, leading the researchers to conclude that she was a shaman.
     Now Munro, Grosman and their team have uncovered 71 tortoise shells and the bones of 3 aurochs, a type of wild cattle. The shells and bones show cut marks from stone tools and are burned, indicating cooking over a campfire. It is estimated that the animals would have provided 17 kilograms of meat, perhaps enough for 35 people.
     In an article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they propose that this was a funerary feast for the woman shaman. Her head was placed on one of the tortoise shells and others were arranged around her body.
     There is debate in the scientific community around these conclusions. While it is agreed that the research conducted was careful and thorough, not everyone agrees that this was ritual feasting. Ian Kuijit from the University of Notre Dame (US)argues that the evidence proves only a communal meal. He argues that one cannot assume symbolic meaning simply by the size of the event. "Do all communal meals serve as feasts? No."
     Support of the ritual feast hypothesis is expressed by Brian Hayden from Simon Fraser University (Canada). He calls the evidence "very convincing" and believes that this is the "best documented case" of early feasting.
     The distinction between a ritual feast and a large communal meal is important for the sociological significance. Many anthropologists hold to the theory that symbolic behavior and ritual marked the beginning of the transistion from hunter-gatherer socities to farming and permanent settlements. And shared meals may have offered the opportunity to resolve disputes in a non-threatening setting and lead to binding with communities.

Sources: National Science Foundation, Science (30 August 2010), BBC News (1 September 2010), Haaretz.com (5 September 2010)

  Israel researchers find ancient disposable cutlery

Israeli archaeologists believe thousands of ancient shards of flint found scattered around a fire pit in a cave near Tel Aviv might be the world's oldest known disposable knives.
     The tiny knives are believed to be at least 200,000 years old, having been made during the Stone Age. An excavation team found the tools around a fireplace littered with charred animal bones. Archaeologist Ran Barkai said he believes Stone Age hunter-gatherers used the rough, round-shaped cutlery - ranging from the size of human teeth to guitar picks - for slicing through cooked meat because they were found next to the animal bones. The bones were used to determine the age of the knives.
     The number of knives found, coupled with the fact that they had no signs of sharpening, indicates they were disposable since they would have dulled after only several uses, he said.
     They were made from recycled materials - parts of larger knives and tools designed for other uses such as butchering animals and scraping hides, he said. "They are made in a special way. On the one hand, they are very efficient and on the other, very simple," Barkai said. Working with replicas made from other stones found in the cave, an expert determined that the wear and tear resulting from cutting soft tissues, like meat, matched marks found on the ancient knives. Barkai said that while people have been cutting meat for the last 2 million years, these knives stood out because of their small size and the fact that they were disposable and made from recycled materials. "Such tiny meat-eating knives were never described before," he said.
     Yorke Rowan, an archaeologist from the University of Chicago who was not involved in the dig, said the discovery still leaves a number of questions unanswered, such as why the tools are so small and why the makers would have bothered to recycle materials when they had access to a large supply of flint stones. But the finding is significant, he said, because it shows that materials "that have traditionally been treated as waste might actually be tools."

Sources: Associated Press, Google News, NPR (30 August 2010), Times of Malta (1 September 2010)

  Tablets of first written trade agreement unearthed in Anatolia

Professor Cahit Gunbatti of Ankara University's Faculty of Letters, History and Geography said the first written trade agreement in Anatolia was made 4,000 years ago. "We have discovered the cuneiform-script tablets in Kultepe-Karum excavations in (the Central Anatolian province of) Kayseri," Gunbatti said.
     Archeologists have been carrying out excavations in Karum hamlet near Kultepe tumulus, where Assyrians used to live, since 1948. They have unearthed some 23,000 cuneiform-script tablets so far. "Around 4,500 tablets have been smuggled abroad since 1948," Gunbatti said. Assyrian tradesmen who settled in the region 4,000 years ago sold the tin and fabrics they brought from Mesopotamia. "The Assyrian Kingdom in Mesopotamia made written trade agreements with Kanesh Kingdom and Hahhum Kingdom near Adiyaman," he said.
     Kultepe flourished most strongly as an important merchant colony (karum) of the Old Assyrian kingdom, from ca. 20th to 16th centuries BCE. It is the site of discovery of the earliest traces of the Hittite language, and the earliest attestation of any Indo-European language, dated to the 20th century BCE.

Source: AINA (29 August 2010)

  Cavemen accused of wiping out cave bears

Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) are named after the European caves where their bones are often found. These giants were roughly a third larger than modern grizzly bears - their populations started to plummet in Europe 24,000 years ago, dying out from unknown causes roughly 20,000 years ago, back when ice dominated the Earth. Now scientists believe that giant cave bears might have been driven to extinction by the advance of humanity.
     An international team of scientists analyzing DNA in 17 newly identified fossils of cave bears has revealed that genetic decline started 50,000 years ago - "much earlier than previously suggested, at a time when no major climate change was taking place, but which does coincide with the start of human expansion," said researcher Aurora Grandal-D'Anglade at the University of Coruña in Spain. In the May issue of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, genetic scientists report that they compared 59 DNA sequences from cave bear mitochondria - the powerhouses within their cells - with 40 modern and fossil DNA samples from brown bears (Ursus arctos) to find out why the former went extinct while the latter did not. Other fossil evidence reveals that cave bears ceased to be abundant in Central Europe roughly 35,000 years ago. (Diversity of genes can provide indirect evidence for the number of breeding individuals, because with more bears mating more genes are thrown into the mix, and vice versa.)
     "This can be attributed to increasing human expansion and the resulting competition between humans and bears for land and shelter," Grandal-D'Anglade reported. "As humans became more effective at using caves, the number of places where cave bears could hibernate, which was essential to reproduction and everything else they did, started to decrease," said anthropologist Erik Trinkaus at Washington University in St. Louis. During the ice age 20,000 years ago, the combination of fewer caves for hibernation and significant reductions in the vegetation the animals largely depended on may have delivered "the 'coup de grace' for this species, which was already in rapid decline," Grandal-D'Anglade said. In contrast, the brown bear may have survived until today precisely because they did not depend so heavily on caves. "Brown bears rely on less specific shelters for hibernation," Grandal-D'Anglade said. "In fact, their fossil remains are not very numerous in cave deposits."

Source: Live Science (27 August 2010)

  Modern cactus traced to living ancestor in Mexico

In an article published in the Annals of Botany, a team from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) describes the domestication of the Gray Ghost Organ Pipe Cactus. Villagers in the Tehuacán Valley (Mexico) cultivate the cactus in their gardens while a more primitve ancestor of the plant grows wild in nearby forests. The cactus produces a fruit called pitaya.
     According to Dr. Alejandro Casas, an ethnobotanist with the project, "What we found is that the people of the Tehuacán Valley are carefully selecting and cultivating cacti to produce the pitaya they want. They're not attempting to produce one type of pitaya. They have a rich understanding of the cacti and are able to produce fruits with a variety of colours and tastes. We found that the forest cacti showed more diversity in their genes than expected. It is not a case of finding a simple transition from wild to domesticated plants. The methods of propagation of cacti by the traditional farmers, including the production of a variety of fruits, help increase the genetic diversity of the cacti. This is a crucial strategy in conserving the genetic resources of Mesoamerica. In contrast agriculture in the industrialised world aims for mass-produced conformity in fruit."
     Domestication has modified the genes of the cultivated plants. Their chromosomes carry more duplicate alleles than are found in the wild cactus. This would be expected when pollination is restricted to a selected population.
     The implications for the findings are explained by Dr. Mark Olson, a biologist at UNAM who was not a part of the research project. "Mesoamerica is a real laboratory for the study of evolution and domestication is one of the most important ways available for studying the evolutionary process. It is a rare luxury to be able to study not only the descendants of selection but also to be able to examine a true living ancestor. Perhaps more than any other region on earth, Mesoamerica has a range of grades of domestication, from the highly modified, such as maize, to plants only casually managed and in stages of 'incipient domestication'. Understanding this process will be important as Mexico becomes inundated with commercial varieties of corn, beans and other plants, all growing next to their wild ancestors."

Source: Science Daily (25 August 2010)