Geochronologists from the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) have led a study published in the journal Quaternary Geochronology about the chronology of the archaeological site of Gran Dolina, situated in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos), whose results confirm a pulse of human dispersion in southern Europe around one million years ago..
TD4 Level at Gran Dolina site [Credit: CENIEH]
This is a paleomagnetic study of the lower stratigraphic levels of this archaeological site in Burgos, whose objective was to determine the possible presence of the Jaramillo subchron, a geological event of normal magnetic polarity about one million years ago, to improve the chronological framework for the lithic industry found at level TD4, and therefore for human presence in Atapuerca.
"Gran Dolina is one of the sites with the best-preserved sedimentary records of the Middle and Early Pleistocene in Europe, and therefore, knowing the chronology of the stratigraphic levels comprising it is an extremely important element in understanding the presence and development of human activity in the zone," explains Claudia Álvarez Posada, lead author of this paper.
Samples from the levels TD4 to TD6 were analyzed using paleomagnetism, a methodology which is increasingly used for establishing absolute datings given its great versatility and the fact that it has an extremely wide chronological register, because the magnetic field remains captured in sediments when they are formed. These days there is a known register covering a timeline of over 180 million years up to the present, so that as Álvarez affirms, "it's a very powerful tool for chronology."
This method, together with the data furnished by biostratigraphy and the recent dating studies using Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) made at the site, has allowed an age later than the Jaramillo Subchron to be definitively established for the level TD4, that is, less than one million years, consistent with with a pulse of human dispersal across southern Europe during the time interval known as the Lower Pleistocene transition.
Dual study
This paper forms part of a dual paleomagnetic study of Gran Dolina, encompassing levels TD1 to TD6, undertaken for better understanding of the ages of the different stratigraphic levels which comprise the fillings of the site.
The second paper, which has just been published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, focuses on the chronology of the lower sedimentary fillings, and corroborates the datings found for TD4.
Not too many people are able to identify birds by examining a single feather. But a number of folks need to know that sort of thing, and it can actually save lives.
Feathers from the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) aren't exactly what we fill most of our pillows with now [Credit: Einar Kongshaug]
Your pillows – if they're not synthetic – are almost certainly filled with domestic goose or duck feathers. These are the most common types of fill used for this purpose today. But our ancestors weren't always as discerning.
"Eagle-owls," says Jørgen Rosvold, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Cultural History at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) University Museum.
Rosvold is among a handful of individuals in Norway who can identify birds based solely on their feathers. He examined a pillow from a Viking grave and found feathers from Europe's largest owl in it, along with feather residues from a variety of other species.
"This shows that the Vikings valued feathers as an important resource," Rosvold says.
Sometimes all you can say for sure is that a feather came from a duck, but not what kind of duck. (These are mallards, though.) [Credit: Einar Kongshaug]
Rosvold is part of an NTNU down project (Dunprosjektet), where one of the goals is to develop methods to identify small bits of feather residue. It's not always easy to tell what species a feather comes from, especially if only small fragments of feathers remain.
"Sometimes all you can say for sure is that a feather comes from a duck," says Rosvold.
But not always what kind of duck. Some feathers are just too similar to be certain what species it comes from. You might be able to say whether a feather comes from a game bird or a sparrow, but not always much beyond that.
"It depends on how well preserved the feather is, the kind of feather and whether the species has close relatives," he says.
Large collection helpful
Rosvold can identify some feathers down to the specific species. The NTNU University Museum has a large collection, and if he's able to first determine which family the bird belongs to, he can compare it with specimens from the collection.
Miniscule barbules, the smallest branches of a feather, are examined under a microscope to identify the kind of bird. Here are two different birds. At bottom left is a rock ptarmigan, a type of game bird with rings around its barbules. At bottom right is a mallard with triangular growths at the ends of its barbules [Credit: Jørgen Rosvold, NTNU University Museum]
As a rule, the underneath, most downy parts of feathers have distinctive features that make it possible to identify the former owner. The smallest branches of a feather, called barbules, are the most useful. Their shape and distribution of different growths, tiny irregularities and the colour can provide clues.
"You can see the pigmentation really well, even after a long time," says Rosvold.For example, you can see pigmentation in feathers from early Viking times, around 800 CE. Game birds are recognizable by the rings around their barbules. Duck feathers have distinctive triangular growths.
"In some cases, if we're unable to identify a feather beyond the family level with microscopes, we can make more headway using DNA analyses. The analyses are easier when we've narrowed down the range of possible birds," says Rosvold.
But this is clearly an art for specialists. Conservator Leena Aulikki Airola at the NTNU University Museum is skilled at detecting the impression of feathers in metal, among other things. This can happen when a sword is laid on a feather pillow in a Viking grave, for example. Over the years, the sword corrodes and the feathers in the pillow become covered with the rusty metal.
Cooperation between birds and people
As part of the project, researchers are studying Swedish and Norwegian grave discoveries from the Nordic Iron Age, including the Oseberg grave, to find out which birds the feathers come from.
A well-preserved feather fragment found in a grave from the Viking era, about one centimetre long. Even after many hundreds of years you can see the colours and that this is a feather from a crow [Credit: Jørgen Rosvold, NTNU University Museum]
One of the main goals for the down project is to find out when people established eider farming on the Helgeland coast and in central Norway. These are areas along the coast where people provide nesting shelters for eider ducks to return to year after year.
Eider farmers build nesting boxes and protect the ducks, which in turn leave large amounts of down behind. But we don't yet know how long this cooperation between birds and people has existed.
"The cooperation goes way back in time. We've found a few eider feathers, but also a lot of assorted feathers," says Rosvold.
For a long time people simply took what they had available to stuff their pillows.The researchers have found feather samples that date as far back as the late Germanic Iron (or Merovingian) Age, from around 570 and through the Viking era. No earlier use of feathers in Norway has been discovered, but that doesn't mean that it didn't take place. The Romans used a lot of feathers in their pillows, for example.
Useful for others, too
Archaeologists and biologists aren't the only ones who may be interested in these results. Identifying birds by their feathers may be important in other fields as well.
Feather residues in corroded iron from a Viking sword. Perhaps the sword was laid on a pillow? [Credit: Jørgen Rosvold, NTNU University Museum]
Any of us might be curious to find out just what kind of feather we found on our woods walk the other day.
Biologists find it useful to identify feathers from scat and pellets, which are undigested parts of food that are regurgitated by birds, to determine what they've been eating. Feathers from bird houses can tell us who lived there.
But knowing your feathers can also potentially solve crimes or save lives, such as for investigators who need to collect evidence. One specialist in the United States works primarily with feathers from birds that have collided with airplanes. Finding out what kind of bird crashed into the plane might enable you to take action to reduce the risks.Those microscopic details could end up being really important.
Artefacts and structures found during archaeological excavations on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/Balmedie to Tipperty (AWPR/B-T) project are shedding light on land use and settlement in the north east over the past 15,000 years, including Mesolithic pits, Roman bread ovens, prehistoric roundhouses and a cremation complex.
A beaker from the Chalcolithic period; a fluted carinated bowl from early Neolithic times; impressed ware from the middle Neolithic [Credit: Transport Scotland]
Since the archaeological excavations were completed, specialists have been analysing the artefacts and samples recovered from the various sites and will be detailing the results in a new limited edition book due to be published later this year.
Keith Brown, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work said: “When complete, the AWPR will help to reduce congestion, cut journey times, improve safety and lower pollution in Aberdeen City Centre, as well as enable local authorities to develop public transport solutions."
Cremation urn the remains found in a roundhouse and cremation complex at Nether Beanshill, dating to the Bronze Age, from around 1,600 to 1,250 BC [Credit: Transport Scotland]
"However, the archaeology has also proven to be yet another huge benefit coming from this project, helping to shine a light on Scotland’s ancient past. The discoveries along the AWPR route, which would have remained undiscovered had the new bypass not been built, are truly remarkable and underline the importance of the value we place on meeting our environmental obligations as we plan and construct this new infrastructure.”
Bruce Mann, Archaeologist for Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen City Council, explained: "There has been a range of fascinating discoveries from the archaeological works carried out on site. Some raise more questions than they answer about what we thought we knew about the north east. For instance, a very unexpected discovery was the presence of Roman activity at Milltimber, likely dating from around 83/84 AD. Ninety bread ovens were uncovered, which were probably constructed by the Roman army at a time of invasion led by the Roman General Agricola. However, no evidence of an associated camp was found, which is unusual for these types of features. We can only speculate as to why the ovens were at this specific location, and what it says about what was happening in the area at the time.”
Bread ovens used by invading Roman soldiers around 83/84 AD at Milltimber [Credit: Transport Scotland]
"Going back to the very earliest finds, there was also evidence of stone tool production dating between about 13,000 and 10,000 BC at Milltimber, a near unprecedented body of evidence which pushes back our understanding of human activity in north east Scotland by several thousand years. The same site revealed spreads of flints along with large pits dating between 10,000 BC to 4,100 BC that could have been used by hunter-gatherers to trap deer, elks or aurochs (an ancestor of modern bison). What is particularly exciting is that these finds have been made in an area where our knowledge is rapidly expanding through research projects such as Mesolithic Deeside.”
The discoveries made during the works were not confined to the environs of the River Dee. A structure dating between 7,000 BC to 6,700 BC was also found at Standingstones, in the hills to the west of Dyce. This tent-like shelter was likely only used for a few nights by a small group of people while they collected nuts, berries and tubers or hunted animals in the immediate area.
Hammerstone and cores from digs from Wester Hatton [Credit: Transport Scotland]
Bruce continued: “Bronze Age activity was identified from Nether Beanshill in the form of a roundhouse and contemporary cremation complex dating from around 1,600 to 1,250 BC.BC. The burial comprised of an urn in which the cremated remains of an individual in their 20s had been placed. This urn was placed in a pit which was then marked by a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of timber posts. Two other similar burials were covered by miniature mounds and surrounded by small ditches.”
Although artefacts of a wide range of dates, materials and types were discovered across the scheme, a particularly well-preserved Beaker period pot found in a post-hole at Milltimber was a highlight. The pot was completely intact when it was found and must have been placed in the ground with a great deal of care. It dates to between 2,400 BC to around 2,200/2,000 BC.
Quern Stone with a hand-stone found in Wester Hatton [Credit: Transport Scotland]
Bruce added: “These archaeological finds provide real insight into the history and culture of the north east. They are impressive in both in time depth and range of activities represented. They push back known human activity in the region by at least 2,000 years, add new detail to how our ancestors lived and died, and reveal a new dimension to Rome’s invasions of Scotland.”
Leader of Aberdeenshire Council Cllr Jim Gifford added: “The AWPR project isn’t just about construction of the route itself, as important as that is. It’s also about our relationship with the environment and the history of the north-east of Scotland.
Beaker pot found at Milltimber dating from between 2,400 to 2,000 BC [Credit: Transport Scotland]
“The book, when it becomes available later this year, captures a slice of history and I would like to thank Bruce and those who worked on this element of the scheme for their hard work in producing this excellent document.”
Aberdeen City Council transport and regeneration spokesman Councillor Ross Grant said: “The archaeology finds are fascinating and highlight just how rich the entire area is in history. It is interesting to find out how our forebearers lived and the Roman bread ovens found at Milltimber paint a picture of everyday life of the incoming army while they were invading."
Remains of a roundhouse found at Gairnhill [Credit: Transport Scotland]
“While modern-day residents are looking forward to the completion of the AWPR and the benefits it will bring to Aberdeen and the surrounding area, I’m sure they will find these discoveries interesting.”
Other excavations include a small hub of Iron Age activity at Goval dating from around the first and second centuries AD where a roundhouse of around 10 metres in diameter was found which would have provided space to live comfortably. The roundhouse was built of vertical wooden posts supporting a large conical thatched roof and there would have been a central hearth. An area of stone paving – or work surface – was also found outside the entrance of the building.
A furnace found nearby showed evidence of iron smelting, the process of extracting iron from ore. The ore which was most likely extracted from nearby peat bogs, would have been heated in the furnace causing the iron to separate and pool in the bottom of the furnace.
Researchers from Newcastle and Oxford Universities have for the first time catalogued in detail each of the 54 Brancaster-type rings known to exist in the UK today and say that they can be dated with confidence due to their design and the material they’re made from.
Roman 'Brancaster type' gold finger ring [Credit: Portable Antiquities Scheme]
Named after the Roman Fort and Norfolk village where the first example was discovered in the mid-19th century, a Brancaster ring is a type of signet ring with a characteristic square or rectangular bezel, inscribed with characters or text.
Most of the 54 rings are made from silver, and a small number from gold. This contrasts with the early Roman period when the majority of rings tended to be made from bronze. They are also different to early Anglo Saxon rings, which were much plainer and rarer.
As well as being worn as an item of jewellery, they were commonly used with wax to seal letters and other important documents. Seals were also often used as a security device to protect belongings in the home and while in transit.
Writing in the German journal Bonner Jahrbücher, the research team say that the fact the rings are made from precious metals and were used with important documents and goods point to them being owned by wealthy, educated individuals – the elite of British society at the time.
Dr James Gerrard, Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology, explains: “These were ostentatious rings and would have been a very visible sign of the wearer’s status and their confidence in expressing themselves as a Roman citizen.
“The fifth century was a period of major upheaval and marked the start of the transition from Roman Empire to Anglo Saxon Britain. These rings and their inscriptions provide a glimpse of what Britain was like during these years and give an insight into the dress, beliefs, ideologies and education level of the elite at the time.”
One famous Brancaster ring, the Senicianus ring, is thought to have inspired JRR Tolkien to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The gold ring has been linked to a Roman curse tablet found at the site of a Roman temple in 1785, which said: ‘To the god Nodens: Silvianus has lost his ring and promises half its value to Nodens. Among those named Senecianus, let none enjoy health until he brings it back to the temple of Nodens.’ Nearly 150 years later, archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler is believed to have discussed the ring with Tolkien, who was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University at the time, after realising the ring could potentially be the one referred to by the curse.
The rings were discovered over several years at sites predominantly in the south and east of Britain. Some were found during archaeological excavations at known villa locations but many were found as part of buried hoards alongside other artefacts such as coins and jewellery. A large number of rings were also discovered by metal-detectorists and reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
Many of the hoards that include these rings also contain large numbers of late Roman silver coins. In many cases these coins have been clipped around the edges. Tampering with coins was illegal during the Roman period and it is believed that this clipping dates to the fifth century. This is further evidence of the fifth-century date of the rings.
The rings are engraved with a wide variety of designs. Some have what appear to be portraits of the emperor, soldiers or lovers while others feature several dolphins and mythical sea creatures such as sea griffins, which are frequently depicted in late Roman art.
In addition, many of the rings also bear references to Christianity, either in the inscription or the images depicted on the bezel, such as doves or peacocks. These images have long been associated with Christianity, which had started to spread across the Roman Empire from the fourth century, when Constantine the Great converted and encouraged other Roman citizens to convert.
Dr Gerrard adds: “Taken together, the use of silver and gold, the Christian iconography, the style of the designs and their associations with clipped silver coins, all point to Brancaster rings being of a particular time – in this case, we can be confident in firmly placing them at the very end fourth and in the fifth century.”
Since December, a team of archaeologists from the Museum of Copenhagen have secretly been excavating 20 skeletons discovered under City Hall Square.
Credit: Copenhagen Museum
The skeletons belong to men, women and children who are believed to have lived around 1,000 years ago, and which archaeologists believe were the first Copenhageners.
“It’s amazing. The graves with the skeletons in good condition are lying just a metre under the asphalt on the busiest square in Denmark,” Jane Jark Jensen, an archaeologist and curator with Copenhagen Museum, told Politiken newspaper.
The archaeologists believe that there are two additional layers of skeletons underneath the layer they are currently excavating.
The discovery has been kept hidden from the public in tents to prevent the site from being contaminated by curious citizens wanting to have a peek at the dig.
This became quite a challenge, particularly when the square turned into a bit of a ‘battle ground’ on New Year’s Eve, but the sites were sealed off with heavy iron plates.
The majority of the fragile skeletons have been transported to the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen for further tests.
Following that, they will be moved to the Natural History Museum of Denmark for further examination. It is expected that the tests will reveal new information about the people who helped found the Danish capital a century before Absalon built his castle there.
“This is completely new and will provide us with knowledge of a totally different calibre,” said Jensen.
Over 41 000 cultural goods such as coins, paintings and drawings, furniture and musical instruments, porcelain, archaeological and paleontological objects, books and manuscripts and sculptures were seized all over the world as a result of coordinated law enforcement actions. These seizures were made during the first Global Global Customs-Police Operation, codenamed ATHENA and organised by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) in cooperation with INTERPOL, and during the regional Europe-focused Operation PANDORA II, coordinated by the Spanish Guardia Civil and Europol.
Credit: Europol
Both operations took place from October to early December 2017, with a common action phase from 20 to 30 November 2017, and saw the involvement of customs and police forces from 81 countries. Both, ATHENA and PANDORA II, focused on the illicit trafficking of cultural objects, theft, looting as well as internet sales. Most of the actions were developed and coordinated jointly between Customs and Police on the national level with the support and participation of the experts from the Ministries of Culture and other relevant institutions and law enforcement agencies.
Apart from seizures, there have been tens of thousands of checks and controls in various airports, ports, other border crossing points, as well as in the auction houses, museums and private houses. As a result, more than 200 investigations were opened and 53 persons arrested.
Credit: Europol
Given the global nature of this crime, operation coordination units working 24/7 were established by Europol on one side, and the WCO and INTERPOL on the other, to support the exchange of information as well as disseminate alerts, warnings and perform cross- checks in different international and national databases.
Internet as a facilitator for the illicit trafficking of cultural goods
Internet has changed, as in many other fields of our society, the traditional chains of the illicit trade of cultural goods. It is a new challenge for law enforcement authorities especially for the specialized cultural goods crime units. Now the criminals can reach the collector’s (anywhere in the world) without any intermediate, and out of the traditional channels.
Credit: Europol
Facing this threat, the involved law enforcement agencies monitored thousands of market places, internet announcement has in order to detect and seize looted or stolen cultural goods. Only in this area, 63 new criminal investigations have been opened and more than 6 000 cultural objects have been seized.
In a single successful investigation in Spain, Guardia Civil seized more than 2 000 cultural objects. Most of them were coins from Roman and other Empires and archaeological objects made of ceramic, metal and stone. In addition, 88 pieces of ivory were seized during the searches, including a carving of Christ valued at EUR 6 000 , and 39 firearms of different classification, from historical weapons, such as rifles and shotguns, swords, swords, katanas and a crossbow, revolvers and pistols. The investigation started with the checks of various internet pages dedicated to the sale and purchase of objects of historical value, and is still ongoing.
The Hellenic Police conducted a fruitful investigation in the framework of PANDORA II: during the searches in two residences and in two businesses of a national entrepreneur, they found 41 archaeological objects, for which the collector did not have a corresponding license. Additionally, from a legal collection of 1 133 coins of silver, bronze and gold of the 2nd century B.C. until 200 A.C., 15 coins were missing, and from a legal collection of 105 ancient objects, 26 objects were missing. All the possessed objects of archaeological and cultural value were confiscated, namely 1 252 cultural goods.
In an ancient DNA study published this week in the journal Nature, scientists and archaeologists from over 80 different institutions lift the veil on the genomic history of Southeastern Europe, a region from which very little ancient genetic data has been available until now. This is the second-largest ancient DNA study ever reported. (The largest, reported simultaneously in Nature by many of the same authors, focuses on the prehistory of Northwestern Europe.)
Starting around 8,500 years ago, agriculture spread into Europe from the southeast, accompanied by a movement of people from Anatolia. This study reports data from the genomes of 225 ancient people who lived both before and after this transition, and documents the interaction and mixing of these two genetically different groups of people. “Southeastern Europe was the beachhead in the spread of farming from Anatolia into Europe. This study is the first to provide a rich genetic characterization of this process by showing how the indigenous population interacted with incoming Asian immigrants at this extraordinary moment in the past,” says Songül Alpaslan-Roodenberg, a consulting anthropologist at Harvard Medical School, who identified and sampled many of the skeletons.
“In some places, hunter-gatherers and incoming farmers seem to have mixed very quickly,” says first author Iain Mathieson, a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania, “but mostly the two groups remained isolated, at least for the first few hundred years. These hunter-gatherers had been living there for thousands of years, and it must have been quite a shock to have these new people show up—with a completely different lifestyle and appearance.”
“Three thousand years later, they were thoroughly mixed,” continues David Reich of Harvard Medical School, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who co-directed the study. “Some populations derived up to a quarter of their ancestry from hunter-gatherers.” In other parts of Europe, this mixing was marked by a so-called sex bias, with most of the hunter-gatherer ancestry contributed by men. In the southeast, however, the pattern was different. “This shows that the mode of interaction between the two groups was different in different places, something we need to try to understand in the context of the archaeological evidence,” added Mathieson.
The new paper also dramatically increases the number of samples from the population of hunter-gatherers that inhabited Europe before the farmers. The study reports a particularly rich sampling of forty hunter-gatherers and early farmers from six archaeological sites from the Iron Gates region, which straddles the border of present-day Romania and Serbia. The genetic results show that the region witnessed intensive interaction between hunter-gatherers and farmers. Out of four individuals from the site of Lepenski Vir, for example, two had entirely Anatolian farmer-related ancestry, fitting with isotope evidence that they were migrants from outside the Iron Gates region, while a third individual had a mixture of ancestries and consumed aquatic resources, as expected if farmers were being integrated into hunter-gatherer groups or were adopting a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
“These results reveal the relationship between migrations, admixture and subsistence in the this key region and show that even within early European farmers, individuals differed in their ancestry, reflecting a dynamic mosaic of hunter-farmer interbreeding,” adds Ron Pinhasi, an anthropologist at the University for Vienna, who co-directed the study.
The new paper also reports ancient DNA from the people who lived at iconic archaeological sites such as Varna, one of the first places in the world where there is evidence of extreme wealth inequality, with one individual from whom the study obtained data buried with more gold than all other known burials of the period. “The DNA from the famous Varna burial is genetically similar to that of other early European farmers. However, we also find one individual from Varna and several individuals at neighboring sites in Bulgaria who had ancestry from the eastern European steppe. This is the earliest evidence of steppe ancestry this far west—two thousand years before the mass migration from the steppe that replaced more than half of the population of northern Europe,” says Johannes Krause, Director of the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, who led the work on Varna.
Adds Reich, “These very large ancient DNA studies, involving intense collaboration between geneticists and archaeologists, make it possible to build up a rich picture of key periods of the past that could only be weakly glimpsed before. Studies on this scale represent a coming of age for the field of ancient DNA—I look forward to what we will learn when similar approaches are applied elsewhere in the world.”
Even our earliest human ancestors made and used technology - something we can look back on thanks to the lasting nature of stone tools.
Researchers work on the archaeological site in Spain, known as Porto Maior, where the tool deposits were found [Credit: Eduardo Méndez Quintas, Author provided]
An exceptionally high density of giant handaxes dated to 200,000-300,000 years ago has been uncovered at an archaeological site in Galicia, northwest Spain. The findings are documented in a new article published by our international research team of archaeologists and dating specialists.
The discovery of these handaxes suggests that alternative types of stone tool technologies were simultaneously being used by different populations in this area – supporting the idea that a prehistoric “Game of Thrones” scenario existed as Neanderthals emerged in Europe.
Additional evidence for this idea comes from fossil records showing that multiple human lineages lived in southwest Europe around the same time period.
Stone tool technology
Porto Maior is near the town of As Neves (Pontevedra, Galcia) on a terrace 34m above the current level of the Miño River, which borders northern Portugal and Spain.
The large tools are consistent with a culture known as Acheulean [Credit: Eduardo Mendez Quintas, Author provided]
The archaeological site at Porto Maior preserves an ancient stone tool culture known as the Acheulean. Characterised by symmetrically knapped stones or large flakes (known as bifaces), the Acheulean is the first sophisticated handaxe technology known in the early human settlement record of Europe.
While Acheulean sites are widespread across the continent, Porto Maior represents Europe’s first extensive accumulation of large cutting tools (LCTs) in the Acheulean tradition. Until now, such high densities of LCTs had only been found in Africa. This new finding reinforces an African origin for the Acheulean in Europe, and confirms an overlap in time-frames of distinctly different stone tool cultures on the continent.
At around the same time that handaxes were being used at Porto Maior, a different stone tool tradition (the Early Middle Palaeolithic) was present in Iberia, for example at Ambrona and Cuesta de la Bajada. In central and eastern Europe – where tools were made exclusively on small flakes – the Acheulean tradition has never been found.
Porto Maior introduces further complexity to this overlapping technological pattern, and suggests that distinct early human populations of different geographical origins coexisted during the Middle Pleistocene (between 773,000 and 125,000 years ago).
Abundant large cutting tools
In total, 3,698 discarded artefacts were recovered from river-lain sediments at the site, with 290 of these making up the studied assemblage reported in our new paper.
The stone tool assemblage is composed of 101 LCTs in original position, and that are on average 18cm long, with a maximum length of 27cm. These handaxe dimensions are exceptionally large by European Acheulean standards (typically only 8-15cm long). The assemblage also contains large cleavers, a type of tool typically found in African sites.
At 9.5 pieces per m² in an excavated area of more than 11.8m², the density of the Acheulean stone tool accumulation is one of the highest recorded globally, surpassing previous European findings of smaller Acheulean tools (usually less than 3 artefacts per m²).
Laboratory analyses indicate that the tools were used to process hard materials such wood and bone, in activities that could have included the breaking up of carcasses.
The Spanish site of Porto Maior clearly resembles extensive accumulations of very large tools previously only seen in Africa and the Near East. These similarities reinforce the idea of an African origin for the Acheulean tradition of southwest Europe.
They also raise new questions regarding the origin and mobility of prehistoric human populations – the ancestors of Neanderthals – that occupied the European continent during the Middle Pleistocene period before the arrival of our own species, Homo sapiens.
Luminescence dating samples being measured under controlled lighting conditions at the University of Adelaide’s Prescott Environmental Luminescence Laboratory [Credit: Lee Arnold]
These techniques provide an estimate of the last time sand grains within sediments were exposed to sunlight, by looking at their luminescence or paramagnetic properties – that is, they can tell us the timing of sediment burial. This, in turn, can be used to determine when the site was last occupied and when the artefacts discarded by prehistoric populations were subsequently buried by sediment accumulation.
In the study of Porto Maior, pIR-IRSL and ESR dating were applied to grains that had been carefully collected from the sediment layers hosting the stone tools, without exposing the sample material to daylight.
The two methods, which were applied independently at two different Australian institutions (University of Adelaide and Griffith University), produced remarkably similar ages.
This confirms the reliability of the dating results, and indicates that the archaeological record spanned the time period from 200,000 to 300,000 years ago.
Migration from Africa
The Acheulean tool-making tradition originated in Africa about 1.7 million years ago, and disappeared on that continent by 500,000 years ago. The specific type of Acheulean tools described at Porto Maior is exclusive to southwest Europe, suggesting that the technology was brought into the region by an “intrusive” population.
Acheulean tools in their primary position at Porto Maior, Spain [Credit: Eduardo Mendez-Quintas, CC BY]
The age of Porto Maior is consistent with previous findings from Iberia that suggest that the Acheulean culture experienced an expansion in the region between 400,000 to 200,000 years ago.
This latest discovery supports the increasingly complex narrative developing from ongoing studies of human fossils from Europe; namely that human groups of potentially different origins and evolutionary stages coexisted across the continent during a time when the emergence of Neanderthals was taking place.
While it is clear that more human fossil and stone tool sites need to be reliably dated across the region, a picture appears to be emerging of a turbulent “Game of Thrones” style scenario of hominin evolution in Eurasia during the Middle Pleistocene period.
Goat hairs have been found in a grave structure that was discovered in the 1930s in Kauhava, western Finland. These are the oldest animal hairs found in Finland. From the perspective of Finnish prehistory, the finding supports the evidence of animal husbandry practised during the Corded Ware period, while also revealing details of burial rituals.
Corded Ware sherds [Credit: Finnish National Board of Antiquities]
This is the first concrete evidence found in Finland of a goat dated back to the Neolithic Corded Ware period (in Finland ca. 2800-2300 BCE). The animal from more than four thousand years ago was identified by its fossilised hair, found in an archaeological soil sample.
The research finding tells about the mortuary practices of the Corded Ware culture. The soil sample under investigation originated in a grave structure discovered in the 1930s in Kauhava, western Finland. The grave and its perimeter were encircled by a layer of dark soil resembling the dimensions of an animal skin. Since the hairs were found in the sample collected from the feature in question, it can be assumed that they are connected with a goat skin placed in the grave.
The identification is based on images taken with a scanning electron microscope. The fibres included in these images were identified on the basis of their structure, typical to goat hair.
"Our study proves that completely new knowledge of our past can be gained by using microscopes to study organic material in advanced states of degradation. Now that we know to look for them, hairs have been found in other soil samples as well," explains Tuija Kirkinen.
An image of a fossilised goat hair (left) compared to a modern Finnish Landrace goat hair (right). Both images are taken with a scanning electron microscope [Credit: Krista Vajanto & Tuija Kirkinen]
In the light of these new findings, it is reasonable to assume that domestic animals and a herder identity have constituted a significant part of the belief system of the Corded Ware culture. This interpretation is also supported by objects made of domestic animal bones and pottery that might have been used for storing and drinking milk found in Corded Ware graves.
"Even though Corded Ware graves found elsewhere in Europe are generally better preserved, no equivalent evidence of skins placed in the grave have been found. As our findings show, the placement of the skin of an important domestic animal in the grave produces entirely new notions on the burial rituals and belief system of the Corded Ware culture," elaborates Marja Ahola.
Oldest animal hair found in Finland
From the perspective of Finnish prehistory, the finding supports the evidence of animal husbandry practised during the Corded Ware period. In the field of Finnish archaeology, it has long been assumed that people kept domestic animals also during the Corded Ware period. This conclusion is based on the fact that during the period, people often lived in meadow environments suited to animal husbandry. Milk residues have also been found in Corded Ware pottery. It has been difficult to prove the practice of animal husbandry, since in the acidic Finnish soil, unburnt bone is preserved only for about a thousand years. Therefore, Finland has little osseous material preserved from the Stone Age. The oldest domestic animal bones known here, for example, date back only to the later part of Stone Age in ca. 2200-1950 BCE.
"The hairs found in the Corded Ware grave in Kauhava are the oldest animal hairs found in Finland and the first evidence of goats. Our finding does indeed prove that goats were known already at that early period as far up north as Finland," says Krista Vajanto.
Archaeologists have unearthed two "extremely rare" Roman boxing gloves during an excavation at the site of a fort on Hadrian's Wall.
The gloves resemble leather padded bands rather than the full-hand versions used in modern boxing [Credit: The Vindolanda Trust]
Researchers said they believed the gloves, which can still "sit comfortably on a modern hand", were most likely used for sparring and practice.
They were found at the Vindolanda fort near Hexham in northern England in the middle of last year.
"I have seen representations of Roman boxing gloves depicted on bronze statues, paintings and sculptures, but to have the privilege of finding two real leather examples is exceptionally special," Vindolanda Trust CEO and director of excavations Andrew Birley said.
"What really makes Vindolanda so unique is the range of organic objects that we find. Every one of them brings you closer to the people who lived here nearly 2,000 years ago. But the hairs stand up on the back of your neck when you realise that you have discovered something as astonishing as these boxing gloves."
A print from an engraving showing gladiators boxing [Credit: Historical Picture Archive/Corbis via Getty Images]
Unlike the modern boxing glove, the ancient examples have the appearance of a protective guard; designed to fit snugly over the knuckles, protecting them from impact.
The larger of the two gloves was cut from a single piece of leather and was folded into a pouch.
The glove was packed with natural material, acting as a shock absorber.
A number of other valuable relics were recovered on the dig, including swords, "wafer thin" writing tablets, leather shoes, bath clogs, combs and dice.
In the Late Neolithic, a new style of pottery appears among the grave goods buried with the dead in many parts of Europe. A new genetic study shows that, with one exception, its dissemination was not accompanied by large-scale migration.
"Das Bode-Becher" of Quedlinburg, Germany [Credit: K. Ulrich /Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt]
At the end of the Neolithic, on the threshold to the Early Bronze Age, around 2600 BCE, a new set of religious beliefs began to spread across Europe. This is indicated in the archaeological record above else by the appearance of a novel form of pottery among the grave goods buried with the dead. These highly characteristic, decorated vessels are known as bell beakers, and their dissemination from Spain as far as Hungary, and across Northwestern Europe into Britain is known as the Bell Beaker phenomenon.
A team made up of geneticists and archaeologists has now explored whether the diffusion of these pots was driven by the influx of new migrants. Their findings appear in the latest issue of the journal Nature. The new study, for the first time, combines archaeological data relating to the distribution and ages of the Bell Beaker phenomenon in Europe with genetic analysis of human DNA sequences obtained from skeletal remains dated to the same period. This approach has enabled the team to compare the spread of the bell beakers (pots) with that of the migrants (people) who brought the new ideology. The results indicate that the diffusion of the pottery in continental Europe was not accompanied by large-scale migration.
"The study demonstrates that the spread of cultural elements need not involve migrational movements. In this case, it was the ideas that were propagated," says Professor Philipp Stockhammer of the Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich, one of the leading archaeologists among the authors. The results refute the long accepted theory that the spread of the new religion through Western and Central Europe was associated with significant incursions of migrants. Britain, however, represents a striking exception to this. Here, the appearance of the Bell Beaker phenomenon coincides with genetic evidence for the arrival of large numbers of migrants from continental Europe.
In the course of their investigation, the authors obtained DNA sequence data from 400 human skeletons, making it the largest study of ancient DNA carried out so far. This material had been excavated from 136 different sites, most of them in Britain, Spain and Germany. The new DNA samples from Germany originated from excavations carried out in the Valley of the River Lech. In a recent paper based on material from this area, Philipp Stockhammer reported evidence that reveals the surprising mobility of women in the Bronze Age.
"We will now have to compare these three regions in order to determine the degree of spatial variability in mobility across the transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age," he says. The ability to recover and analyze ancient DNA from human burials on such a large scale was made possible by the advent of new techniques. These advances will usher in "a new era in palaeogenetics," he adds.
Indeed, Stockhammer himself is among the authors of a second article in the same issue of Nature. This paper looks at the pattern of migration of farmers and herders from Anatolia into Southeastern Europe 8500 years ago. That study also uses ancient DNA to reveal how the resident hunter-gatherer population reacted to the arrival of the newcomers. In some areas the two groups lived together and in other regions, they avoided contact and lived apart for hundreds of years. In the Danube Valley, the evidence suggests that some of the new farming communities subsequently abandoned agriculture and adopted the hunter-gatherer lifestyle favored by the locals.
Ritualised heads on stakes. Stone Age society and Stone Age people’s conception of the world were more complex than previously believed. This according to new analyses of skulls found in Motala, Sweden.
Anterior view of crania F296 showing well-preserved facial bones [Credit: Sara Gummesson et al., 2018]
“The majority of the crania have traces of healed injuries in the same area of the head. It seems repetitive and there are differences between women and men”, Anna Kjellström says. She works at the Stockholm University Osteoarchaeological Research Laboratory and she is one of researchers who have examined the skulls.
Cranium F318 with wooden stake [Credit: Fredrik Hallgren]
The skulls come from a former lake in Motala, in eastern-central Sweden, excavated 2009–2013. Archaeologists found, among other things, remnants from at least ten people: nine adults and one infant. Two of the skulls were still mounted on stakes and at least seven had traces of healed injuries not caused by falling by incident.
These skulls, collected from the Kanaljorden burial, show signs of blunt-force trauma [Credit: Karin Berggren and Fredrik Hallgren; Antiquity 2018]
The women’s head injuries were in the back and on the right side of the head while the male skulls had injuries on the top of the head and in the face. The researchers also believe that after death the bodies were stored or buried in another place and then transported to the place where they were found.
People of importance
“The fact that so many had healed injuries suggests that these people were special in some way”, Anna Kjellström says.
A model showing the local topography at Kanaljorden. The black outline details where the excavation took place. The black dots show the burial's location in the ancient lake [Credit: Karin Berggren and Fredrik Hallgren; Antiquity 2018]
The great number of findings and their concentration to one place make the researchers believe that these people were of importance. There are no similar findings in Europe, Anna Kjellström says.
The burial was large, about 39 feet by 46 feet (12 by 14 meters). The bottom of the burial was made of large stones and wooden stakes. On top of the packed stone, Stone Age people placed the bones in a certain order. The humans (red) were in the middle, while the brown bears (blue) were south of the humans and the wild boar (yellow) were southeast of the humans [Credit: Sara Gummesson et al./Antiquity 2018]
During the Old Stone Age period, 8,000 to 7,500 years ago, humans were hunter-gatherers living in smaller groups following animals according to season. But there were places where many groups of people gathered at certain times during the year. These places were of great ceremonial importance and people could build more permanent structures there.
Complex Stone Ace society
“Our findings give a more nuanced image of the Stone Age – it was a complex society with clear signs of planning and organisation”, Anna Kjellström says. The handling of human remains allows researchers to get an idea of the large world of religious notions that existed during the Stone Age.
Cut marks on the bear's jaw that are indicative of butchery [Credit: Sara Gummesson et al.; Antiquity 2018]
“Placing heads on stakes may have been some kind of intimidation tactic to scare enemies, but the action might as well have had a different meaning for ancient people than today. In any case, it must have been a striking and spectacular view”, Anna Kjellström says.
Scientists have found the first major evidence that Neanderthals, rather than modern humans, created the world's oldest known cave paintings -- suggesting they may have had an artistic sense similar to our own.
Panel 3 in Maltravieso Cave showing 3 hand stencils (centre right, centre top and top left). One has been dated to at least 66,000 years ago and must have been made by a Neanderthal (colour enhanced) [Credit: H. Collado]
A new study led by the University of Southampton and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology shows that paintings in three caves in Spain were created more than 64,000 years ago -- 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe.
This means that the Palaeolithic (Ice Age) cave art -- including pictures of animals, dots and geometric signs -- must have been made by Neanderthals, a 'sister' species to Homo sapiens, and Europe's sole human inhabitants at the time.
It also indicates that they thought symbolically, like modern humans.
Published in the journal Science, the study reveals how an international team of scientists used a state-of-the-art technique called uranium-thorium dating to fix the age of the paintings as more than 64,000 years.
Until now, cave art has been attributed entirely to modern humans, as claims to a possible Neanderthal origin have been hampered by imprecise dating techniques. However, uranium-thorium dating provides much more reliable results than methods such as radiocarbon dating, which can give false age estimates.
Panel 78 in La Pasiega. The scalariform (ladder shape) composed of red horizontal and vertical lines dates to older than 64,000 years and was made by Neanderthals [Credit: C.D Standish, A.W.G. Pike and D.L. Hoffmann]
The uranium-thorium method involves dating tiny carbonate deposits that have built up on top of the cave paintings. These contain traces of the radioactive elements uranium and thorium, which indicate when the deposits formed -- and therefore give a minimum age for whatever lies beneath.
Joint lead author Dr Chris Standish, an archaeologist at the University of Southampton, said: "This is an incredibly exciting discovery which suggests Neanderthals were much more sophisticated than is popularly believed.
"Our results show that the paintings we dated are, by far, the oldest known cave art in the world, and were created at least 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe from Africa -- therefore they must have been painted by Neanderthals."
A team of researchers from the UK, Germany, Spain and France analysed more than 60 carbonate samples from three cave sites in Spain -- La Pasiega (north-eastern Spain), Maltravieso (western Spain) and Ardales (south-western Spain).
All three caves contain red (ochre) or black paintings of groups of animals, dots and geometric signs, as well as hand stencils, hand prints and engravings.
According to the researchers, creating the art must have involved such sophisticated behaviour as the choosing of a location, planning of light source and mixing of pigments.
Alistair Pike, Professor of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Southampton and co-director of the study, said: "Soon after the discovery of the first of their fossils in the 19th century, Neanderthals were portrayed as brutish and uncultured, incapable of art and symbolic behaviour, and some of these views persist today.
"The issue of just how human-like Neanderthals behaved is a hotly debated issue. Our findings will make a significant contribution to that debate."
Joint lead author Dirk Hoffmann, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, added that symbolic material culture -- a collection of cultural and intellectual achievements handed down from generation to generation -- has, until now, only been attributed to our species.
Drawing of Panel 78 in La Pasiega by Breuil et al (1913). The red scalariform (ladder) symbol has a minimum age of 64,000 years but it is unclear if the animals and other symbols were painted later [Credit: Breuil et al.]
"The emergence of symbolic material culture represents a fundamental threshold in the evolution of humankind. It is one of the main pillars of what makes us human," he said.
"Artefacts whose functional value lies not so much in their practical but rather in their symbolic use are proxies for fundamental aspects of human cognition as we know it."
Early symbolic artefacts, dating back 70,000 years, have been found in Africa but are associated with modern humans.
Other artefacts including cave art, sculpted figures, decorated bone tools and jewellery have been found in Europe, dating back 40,000 years. But researchers have concluded that these artefacts must have been created by modern humans who were spreading across Europe after their arrival from Africa.
There is evidence that Neanderthals in Europe used body ornamentation around 40,000 to 45,000 years ago, but many researchers have suggested this was inspired by modern humans who at the time had just arrived in Europe.
Study co-author Paul Pettitt, of Durham University, commented: "Neanderthals created meaningful symbols in meaningful places. The art is not a one-off accident.
"We have examples in three caves 700km apart, and evidence that it was a long-lived tradition. It is quite possible that similar cave art in other caves in Western Europe is of Neanderthal origin as well."
