New rock art discoveries in Eastern Sudan tell a tale of ancient cattle, the ‘green Sahara’ and climate catastrophe

THE CONVERSQTION
Published: April 25, 2024 4.02pm EDT

The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new research has found rock art over 4,000 years old that depicts cattle.

In 2018 and 2019, I led a team of archaeologists on the Atbai Survey Project. We discovered 16 new rock art sites east of the Sudanese city of Wadi Halfa, in one of the most desolate parts of the Sahara. This area receives almost no yearly rainfall.

Almost all of these rock art sites had one feature in common: the depiction of cattle, either as a lone cow or part of a larger herd.

On face value, this is a puzzling creature to find carved on desert rock walls. Cattle need plenty of water and acres of pasture, and would quickly perish today in such a sand-choked environment.

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In modern Sudan, cattle only occur about 600 kilometres to the south, where the northernmost latitudes of the African monsoon create ephemeral summer grasslands suitable for cattle herding.

The theme of cattle in ancient rock art is one of most important pieces of evidence establishing a bygone age of the “green Sahara”.
New sites discovered on surveys in Eastern Sudan. © The Atbai Survey Project
The ‘green Sahara’

Archaeological and climatic fieldwork across the entire Sahara, from Morocco to Sudan and everywhere in between, has illustrated a comprehensive picture of a region that used to be much wetter.

Climate scientists, archaeologists and geologists call this the “African humid period”. It was a time of increased summer monsoon rainfall across the continent, which began about 15,000 years ago and ended roughly 5,000 years ago.

The wastes of the Atbai Desert, north-east Sudan – a very different landscape to the ‘green Sahara’. Julien Cooper

This “green Sahara” is a vital period in human history. In North Africa, this was when agriculture began and livestock were domesticated.

In this small “wet gap”, around 8,000–7,000 years ago, local nomads adopted cattle and other livestock such as sheep and goats from their neighbours to the north in Egypt and the Middle East.

Read more: The Sahara Desert used to be a green savannah – new research explains why
A close human-animal connection

When the prehistoric artists painted cattle on their rock canvasses in what is now Sudan, the desert was a grassy savannah. It was brimming with pools, rivers, swamps and waterholes and typical African game such as elephants, rhinos and cheetah – very different to the deserts of today.

Cattle were not just a source of meat and milk. Close inspection of the rock art and in the archaeological record reveals these animals were modified by their owners. Horns were deformed, skin decorated and artificial folds fashioned on their neck, so-called “pendants”

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A strong relationship between human and animal: a cow with a modified ‘neck’ pendant and horns. Julien Cooper

Cattle were even buried alongside humans in massive cemeteries, signalling an intimate link between person, animal and group identity.
The perils of climate change

At the end of the “humid period”, around 3000 BCE, things began to worsen rapidly. Lakes and rivers dried up and sands swallowed dead pastures. Scientists debate how rapidly conditions worsened, and this seems to have differed greatly across specific subregions.

Local human populations had a choice – leave the desert or adapt to their new dry norms. For those that left the Sahara for wetter parts, the best refuge was the Nile. It is no accident that this rough period also eventuated in the rise of urban agricultural civilisations in Egypt and Sudan.

The most common image in the local rock art was of cattle. Julien Cooper

Some of the deserts, such as the Atbai Desert around Wadi Halfa where the rock art was discovered, became almost depopulated. Not even the hardiest of livestock could survive in such regions. For those who remained, cattle were abandoned for hardier sheep and goats (the camel would not be domesticated in North Africa for another 2,000–3,000 years).

This abandonment would have major ramifications on all aspects of human life: diet and lack of milk, migratory patterns of herding families and, for nomads so connected to their cattle, their very identity and ideology.
New phases of history

Archaeologists, who spend so much time on the ancient artefacts of the past, often forget our ancestors had emotions. They lived, loved and suffered just like we do. Abandoning an animal that was very much a core part of their identity, and with whom they shared an emotional connection, cannot have been easy for their emotions and sense of place in the world.

For those communities that migrated and lived on the Nile, cattle continued to be a symbol of identity and importance. At the ancient capital of Sudan, Kerma, community leaders were buried in elaborate graves girded by cattle skulls. One burial even had 4,899 skulls.

Today in South Sudan and much of the Horn of Africa, similar practices regarding cattle and their cultural prominence endure to the present. Here, just as in ancient Sahara, cattle are decorated, branded and have an important place in funeral traditions, with cattle skulls marking graves and cattle consumed in feasts.

As we move into a new phase of human history subject to rapid climate oscillations and environmental degradation, we need to ponder just how we will adapt beyond questions of economy and subsistence.

One of the most basic common denominators of culture is our relationship to our shared landscape. Environmental change, whether we like it or not, will force us to create new identities, symbols and meanings.

Read more: Innovations on the Nile over millennia offer lessons in engineering sustainable futures

Author

Julien Cooper
Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University
Disclosure statement
Julien Cooper receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Macquarie University.

Plattsburgh discusses raising Revolutionary War ship ‘Spitfire’ out of Lake Champlain

By Alek LaShomb
Published: Apr. 25, 2024

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (WCAX) - Talks continue over raising the “Spitfire,” a gunboat under Benedict Arnold’s command during the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776.

Underwater archaeologist Art Cohn was on the team in 1997 that discovered the boat’s location at the bottom of Lake Champlain. Back in 2017, the idea of raising the ship was floated around and now he says those talks are ramping up.

“I have been doing this work for over 40 years, I have never recommended a boat be recovered until now. We have identified four studies we are ready to do, four contracts to do our due diligence,” said Cohn.

He says the studies include engineering, a business plan, conservation for when the boat is removed from the lake, and a look at an exhibition facility for a permanent display. All four studies, he says, are primed and ready for funding. But first, he says researchers want to take another dive into the lake to inspect the American treasure.

”We have just applied for a permit to inspect the boat again this year, film it, and determine what the state of the mussels are,” said Cohn.

He says it would take another 15 years to raise the ship and more than $40 million stretched out over time. Cohn also reaffirms his belief that the ship should remain in the North Country where it was built and faced battle, something Plattsburgh Mayor Chris Rosenquest says would be a big boost for the area.

“It is a major attraction and whenever we have new things like this, it will be a boost to the local economy and attract more tourists here,” said Rosenquest.

Cohn says it would keep the past alive for posterity. “It would be our legacy for preserving that, the foundation days of this country, and I think that would be a great thing to do,” he said.

Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.

Stonehenge tunnel project on the A303 near Salisbury paused

By Jordan Elkins@JelkNQ

Senior Reporter
26th April, 2024

Artist's impression of the Stonehenge tunnel. (Image: National Highways)


Preliminary work on the Stonehenge tunnel has paused and members of the public have been invited to find out more.

National Highways' £1.7bn scheme to build a tunnel on the A303 will not go ahead until the outcome of a legal appeal against a High Court judgement is determined.

It was announced on February 19 that a second judicial review of the Government's decision to approve the Stonehenge tunnel was unsuccessful.

Anti-tunnel campaigners from Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site argued the development consent remained unlawful and will be appealing this decision at the Court of Appeal.

Read more: Stonehenge tunnel to go ahead as High Court appeal rejected

The preliminary tunnel work, which has been paused, includes archaeological fieldwork and civils work.

National Highways will tour Salisbury and its surrounding villages next week with representatives from contractors Wessex Archaeology and Octavius, offering residents the opportunity to ask questions about the project.

Andrew Clark, National Highways’ senior project manager, encouraged people to come along.

He said: "We’re continuing to work with heritage groups and other stakeholders, and the information events offer the opportunity for local communities, businesses and other interested parties to find out a little more.

“It’s a chance to meet face to face with the teams and for local residents and groups to ask questions about the current enabling works, and to find out more about the scheme in general, and we encourage people to come along.”

Meanwhile the A360 between Longbarrow roundabout and The Avenue roundabout remains closed until mid-July to enable SSEN to install underground cabling to power the tunnel.

SSEN representatives will be attending the information events to answer any questions.

Up-to-date details on the A303 Stonehenge upgrade are available on the scheme website, and for any further queries ahead of the public information events, people are advised to email info@a303stonehenge.co.uk.

DNA Analysis Redirects the Cradle of Indo-Europeans, Sheds Light on Proto-Greeks

ByDimosthenis Vasiloudis

April 26, 2024

New DNA Analysis Redirects the Cradle of Indo-Europeans, Sheds Light on Proto-Greeks. Credit: Dimosthenis Vasiloudis/GreekReporter

A recent DNA analysis on 777 ancient genomes from across the so-called Southern Arc, namely Southern Europe and West Asia, redirects the cradle of Indo-Europeans and sheds light on the Proto-Greek prehistoric past.

As is well known, the Greek language belongs to the Indo-European language family, and, as far as the latest genetic analysis shows, the area of Greece is highly significant in terms of this language family’s origin and its dispersal throughout other areas—yet, what does new DNA research say about Proto-Greek speakers and the first Indo-Europeans? 

Language and Ethnicity; The Example of the Proto-Greek Speakers

Ethnic identity is said to be based predominately on a community’s subjective faith in a common origin and distinctiveness. However, since no access to subjective ethnic self-awareness of prehistoric peoples is available, only a single objective way remains to trace origins of specific groups. This involves detection of the communication tool, or language in other words, uniting certain peoples and thus distinguishing distinct societies and cultures.

When we talk about the origins of the Greeks or the “outset” of the Greek civilization, the impression of a “coming” of a proto-Greek speaking population from another area to the Hellenic mainland is conveyed. Of course, this concept has its roots in some controversial information in ancient written sources, and it is also evidenced in the existence of certain words and place names of non-Greek origin (“Pre-Greek substratum”) in the Greek language itself.

However, interpretations of migrations which dominated archeology in the previous century have influenced, and continue to influence, the main theories about the dispersal of the Indo-European languages.

In the last decades, the phenomenon of migration has been significantly revised by more systematic ways of Processual Archeology. It should no longer be considered a self-evident question but merely a hypotheses among many to be evaluated. Through the development of the new archeological theoretical thought, experts emphasize the radical shift towards the study of indigenous developments regarding the importance of migrations.

Family Tree of Indo-European Languages. Credit: EnriBrahimaj/ Wikimedia Commons

Proto-Greek Language and the Problem of the Indo-European Language “Evolution”

Experts consider the Greek language a member of the Indo-European family. Due to this status, the origin of the Greek language problematizes the derivation of the Indo-European family of languages. The most popular and long-lived predominant theory of the Proto-Indo-European origin is the one involving the South Russian steppe (Kurgan theory). Later alternative views also place the Proto-Indo-European homeland in eastern Anatolia, which is now Turkey (Anatolian or “sedentary farmer theory”).

Α characteristic problem of this complex Indo-European issue is that the research of linguistic paleontology developed tendencies to manipulate the archaeological research over time. Therefore, a common and equal tool for investigating the human past was hard to come by. 

The revolution brought by the discovery of DNA in the 1950s was perceived as a huge opportunity utilized in scientific branches which work closely with archeological science to clarify ancient migration patterns. Despite the initial enthusiasm, various problems demonstrate that DNA alone cannot shed light on complex issues.

The mutation rate of genes, as well as the identification between genetic mutations and specific geographical areas, are issues that are still under investigation, and this is why the interdisciplinary conclusions of many genetic researches cannot be unquestionably accepted.

Nevertheless, the Indo-European problem still has a diachronic seductive effect on numerous scholars and research programs even though many theories often reach an impasse with no persuasive non-linguistic explanation of the dispersal of the Indo-European languages to account for all the regions where relevant languages were spoken.

Furthermore, contemporary research illustrates a worldwide systematic overview of successive cultural phases from the Upper Paleolithic to the end of the Bronze Age, mostly located with precision in time and space. Particularly, we can no longer consider the prehistory of the Greek area as “dark.”

The New Genetic Study and the Mycenean DNA; Proto-Indo-European Elite Imposition on Natives or Something Else?

Lion’s Gate, Mycenae. The Mycenaean Civilization was destroyed during the Bronze Age Collapse. Credit: Andreas Trepte/CC-BY-SA-2.5

The new study, in which many Greek experts were involved (such as Iosif Lazaridis, associate researcher in Genetics of Harvard Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and Harvard Medical School), published this Thursday, August 26, 2022 in Science, reports on genetic data extracted from 777 individuals who lived across the so-called Southern Arc, namely Southern Europe and West Asia. 

According to other more recent DNA data of ancient Anatolians, which raised new questions about the “spread” of Indo-European languages, it seems that Anatolians did not mix with steppe pastoralists during the early Bronze Age. It’s the only place where Indo-European-related languages were spoken even though there was no steppe ancestry.

Ancient Anatolian peoples spoke the now-extinct Anatolian languages of the Indo-European language family, which were largely replaced by the Greek language during classical antiquity as well as during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods. The major Anatolian languages included Hittite, Luwian, and Lydian while other, poorly attested local languages included Phrygian, Palaic, Luwic, and Mysian.

The new Indo-European DNA research also shows that between five to seven thousand years ago there was a gradual increase of ancestry from the Caucasus in the Anatolian genome, probably by a series of migrations from the east at the end of which about a third of the ancestry of Anatolians could be traced to somewhere in the Caucasus.

The fact that the same Caucasus component found in Anatolia comprises roughly fifty percent of the Yamnaya pastoralist genome further implicates the riddle of Indo-European languages. Given that this mysterious Caucasian link is the only ancestral commonality between the Yamnaya and the ancient Anatolians, it seems plausible that this enigmatic migration from the Caucasus brought the ancestral form of Indo-European to both these peoples. Therefore, the homeland and the “first language” of Indo-Europeans must be placed somewhere in the Caucasus.

We must point out that these conclusions seem to primarily justify the eminent archaeologist Colin Renfrew and his Anatolian hypothesis and do line up quite well with contemporary archeological indications. The dispersal of the Indo-European languages is equated by the British archeologist with the diffusion of the Neolithic way of life from its Anatolian “homeland” (possibly the Caucasus) in the seventh millennium BC.

Renfrew also identifies this Neolithic demic diffusion with the spread of the Proto-Indo-European language and its subsequent differentiation into the daughter branches, i.e. the different Early Neolithic cultural phases across Europe.

The most interesting conclusion about prehistoric Greek populations comes from the new estimation of the Mycenaean steppe ancestry (about 1/10). The new study shows that this proportion was not uniform across the population. In fact, even among the elites, it was possible to find people who were not genetically related to Yamnaya (such as the genome of the so-called Griffin Warrior of Pylos).

According to experts, steppe migrants did not establish a rule over the natives and keep to themselves. Rather, they admixed with them, and there were still people without steppe ancestry with elite roles in mainland Greece, especially in Peloponnese. This means then that during the later Mycenaean period in Greece, the new data suggest Yamnaya descendants had little impact on Greek social structure.

This explanation also once again confirms C. Renfrew and many other scholars, who insisted throughout the last decades that the picture of the Proto-Indo-Europeans as warlike mounted nomads have been based not only on the misuse of linguistic paleontology but also on serious anachronism. 

Genetic Similarity of Minoans, Mycenaeans, Western Anatolians Possibly Confirms Homolingualism

Phaistos Disk, a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age . Credit: Wikimedia Commons

An earlier genome sequencing study (2021) also showed that the first major civilizations of the Aegean, namely the Minoan that flourished on Crete, the Cycladic of the central Aegean islands, and the Helladic of mainland Greece, are more genetically homogeneous than expected.

In the past, it was assumed that these three major different cultures were created by genetically distinct peoples despite their close proximity and constant contact. However, results of more recent research call this assumption into question. It seems that these three great Aegean civilizations were not as isolated from each other as experts initially assumed. Instead, they trace their origins to earlier common ancestors or even to past common civilization.

Experts have also suggested that Aegean inhabitants shared common DNA with populations of western and northern Anatolia with whom they shared common architectural and burial practices. It seems that the first Neolithic populations of Western Anatolia and Greece were extremely homogeneous and descendants of a common proto-agricultural population that spread from the seventh millennium BC throughout Europe.

These results are important because they suggest that critical innovations such as the development of urban centers, the use of metals, and the intensive “international” trade that took place during the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age were not solely due to exogenous factors and mass migrations as previously supported but also largely a result of the cultural continuity of local Neolithic populations.

Α homolingualism between the first cultures around the Aegean Sea is not at all improbable if one considers that it may be connected with the Pre-Greek substratum of the Greek language and with the fact that the Minoan language seems to have many elements in common with the Anatolian Luwian.

'Britain's Pompeii': UK's largest Bronze Age find

Katy Prickett,

BBC News, Peterborough

Dave Webb

Archaeologists discovered the largest UK collection of everyday Bronze Age artefacts at Must Farm

The discovery of a burnt-out village dubbed Britain's Pompeii revealed "an amazing time capsule" that captured an everyday moment in late Bronze Age Britain.

The 3,000-year-old settlement at Must Farm quarry in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, burnt down less than a year after it was built, and a wealth of well-preserved artefacts were discovered.

The finds and some newly-made replicas will be exhibited at Peterborough Museum on Saturday.

From sophisticated technology and multi-tools to a far-flung trading network, what did this extraordinary excavation uncover?
Residents 'zoned' their homes

V Herring/Cambridge Archaeological UnitYears of post-excavation analysis revealed information on how the settlement's residents lived

The settlement had about 10 circular wooden houses and its excavation by Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) between 2015 and 2016 revealed "an amazing time capsule", according to archaeologist Chris Wakefield.

The buildings had flexible floors, constructed from woven panels, and as the sudden blaze took hold, household goods were deposited directly into the silt below, preserving them for thousands of years.

Archaeologists were able to discover the ancient residents "zoned" the internal space in their homes, comparable to the rooms we have in houses today.

In one roundhouse, complete pots and wooden containers were recovered from the northwest suggesting that was the cooking area, metal tools appeared to have been stored in its eastern corner and fine textiles and bundles of fibres were found in the southeast corner, close to the light of the entranceway, which suggested this was a good place to work on those materials.


Sophisticated technology and far-flung trading contacts

PAEveryday objects like storage pots and tools were amongst the finds, but so were beads made from glass from Iran

The collection was made up of 200 wooden artefacts, more than 150 fibre and textile items, 128 pottery vessels and about 90 pieces of metalwork.

These included stackable pots and axes "a bit like a multi-tool, that you can swap in different axe heads", said Mr Wakefield.

"I think people have this perception that everyone was struggling to survive, that it was a horrible, nasty time to be alive, and actually looking inside these structures shows they've got a very sophisticated level of technology, " he said.

Beads from glass made thousands of miles away in Iran revealed the community's links to far-flung trading routes.

Infected with tapeworm

M Ledge/Department of Archaeology, Cambridge UnivHuman and dog faeces were analysed and parasitic worms were found

The extraordinary preservation conditions also revealed less savoury remains - pieces of human faeces or "coprolites" - which enabled scientists to discover the earliest evidence of fish tapeworm in Britain.

These can grow up to 10m (32ft) long and live coiled in the intestines.

Teams from Cambridge and Bristol universities used microscopy techniques to detect ancient parasite eggs within the faeces and determined whether it was from a human or dog.

The University of Cambridge's Dr Marissa Ledger said it also appeared they shared food with their dogs, because both were infected by similar parasitic worms from eating the raw fish, amphibians and molluscs.

The research offered the first clear understanding of prehistoric Fen people's diseases, according to the university.

'An insight into the everyday'

Emma Jones/AncientCraftReplicas of many of the discoveries were commissioned and some of them will go on display at the Peterborough Museum exhibition

Experimental archaeologist, Emma Jones, said: "It's probably a reflection what a normal late Bronze Age settlement looked like, and the insight into the mundane and everyday does echo with us.

"In comparison, most archaeological findings from this era come in some sort of burial or ritual context, so relates to someone of higher status."

Ms Jones works for AncientCraft, which was commissioned to make replicas of some of the tools and jewels and she was fascinated by the recovery of 49 glass beads.

She added: "In a world that's presumed to be in browns and natural colours, because no evidence has survived of the dyeing of cloth, to see the sudden burst of colour was exciting."

Introducing Must Farm, a Bronze Age Settlement is at Peterborough Museum from 27 April – 28 September.

GOING UNDERGROUND: NEOLITHIC FLINT MINE OPENS TO PUBLIC


Visitors to Grime’s Graves can descend into the oldest humanmade underground space in England

New entrance provides access to subterranean world and new exhibition with Neolithic tools tells story of people 4,500 years ago




Transporting visitors 4,500 years back in time, a new entrance to one of a vast complex of prehistoric flint mines opens from Saturday (27 April) at Grime’s Graves in Norfolk.

English Heritage’s new entrance building and exhibition at the country’s oldest humanmade underground space – complete with previously unseen flint tools discovered at the site, such as an axe, sickle and circular knife – will reveal the wonders of this ancient industrial hub, the Neolithic equivalent of Yorkshire’s cotton mills, or South Wales’ steelworks. This project has been made possible by funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

Standing above ground at Grime’s Graves – first named Grim’s Graves by the Anglo-Saxons (who believed it was the burial place of the god Woden/Grim) – you would be forgiven for thinking you had landed on another planet, with its strange, grassy lunar landscape, but the undulating ground hints at the historical treasure below. Around 2500 BC, about the time many of the stones at Stonehenge were first raised, Neolithic miners used tools made from deer antlers to carve out a labyrinth of tunnels across 430 mine shafts, some up to 13 metres deep. This was in pursuit of the prized, high value and jet-black flint which was formed millions of years ago by the debris of sea creatures on what was then an ocean bed.

Described as the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of Neolithic life, flint was sought after for its versatility and durability, as well as perhaps spiritual value, and was used to fashion tools, weapons, and ceremonial objects. The flint at Grime’s Graves was of such good quality that it would have been used for fine, specialised tools, and a giant hunk of flint possibly from the area has even been found as far away as Avebury, Wiltshire. Now thanks to a new structure over one of the mineshafts, known as Pit 1, visitors are able to easily descend 9 metres (30 ft) below ground into one of the flint mines dug over 4,500 years ago.




Jennifer Wexler, English Heritage’s Properties Historian, said: “What makes Grime’s Graves such a special place is that there are still so many secrets to be unlocked. It was not until 1868-70, when one of the pits was excavated, that this was even identified as a Neolithic flint mine. To this day, most of the over 400 pits remain untouched and geophysical surveys suggest that the mines covered a much greater area, so we are getting a tantalising glimpse into place full of hidden mystery.

“What I find remarkable is the deep understanding the miners had of their environment. The mines are a feat of great engineering skill, showing sophisticated geological knowledge of the earth. The site was in use at the same time that Neolithic people were transforming their world on a massive scale and building impressive monuments across the British Isles, such as Stonehenge and Avebury. It’s brilliant that visitors will be able to see a few of the remarkable objects we have recently excavated in our new exhibition and then descend deep underground to have this totally otherworldly experience.”

Archaeologist and Time Team’s Phil Harding, who voices Grime’s Graves new audio guide, said: ‘’There’s a big part of my life at Grimes Graves; I spent five happy summers in the 1970s discovering its wonderful archaeology. I hope that what we learnt, some of which has been incorporated in the new improved facilities, can help visitors to understand the site better and appreciate what is not just a magical place but a testament to the skills of the Neolithic civil engineers.”




Miners were believed to have been lured to Grime’s Graves from far afield for its precious flint, and whole communities, including women, children, and even pet dogs, were involved in the mining process. Now, a new exhibition, will reveal the engineering prowess and geological understanding of Neolithic people, looking at examples of the tools they fashioned from the flint, and showing how they lived, and what they believed.

Those who want to venture into a mineshaft will find a more accessible descent into Pit 1. Below ground, a new film projected onto the pit’s walls tells the story of the men, women, and even children who risked daily danger in pursuit of their prize. If you look closely, you can still see the marks scoured into the walls as the flint was hacked out to be taken above ground and transported far and wide.

Set amid the distinctive Breckland heath landscape, Grime’s Graves is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a habitat for rare plants and fauna and so a new family trail will encourage exploration of the unique landscape, geology, wildlife and plant life.

Grime’s Graves opens to the public on Saturday 27 April.

Grime's Graves re-opening has been made possible thanks to National Lottery players and a grant of over £200,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

We reconstructed landscapes that greeted the first humans in Australia around 65,000 years ago

THE CONVERSATION
Published: April 25, 2024 

Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – approximately 65,000 years ago – the first humans arrived in Sahul, a place previously devoid of any hominin species.

Due to the patchy nature of the archaeological record, researchers still don’t have a full picture of the routes and speed of human migration across the region.

In research published in Nature Communications, our team has reconstructed the evolution of the landscape during this time. This allowed us to better understand the migration strategies of the first peoples in what is now Australia, along with the places they lived.

Read more: Fifty years ago, at Lake Mungo, the true scale of Aboriginal Australians' epic story was revealed


When trying to understand the dispersion of first humans in Sahul, one overlooked aspect has been the impact of the changing landscape itself.

Our planet’s surface is constantly shifted by various physical, climatic and biological processes, changing on a grand scale over geological time – a process known as landscape evolution.

We used a landscape evolution model that details climatic evolution from 75,000 to 35,000 years ago.

The model allows for a more realistic description of the terrains and environments inhabited by the first hunter-gatherer communities as they traversed Sahul.

Read more: Scientists just revealed the most detailed geological model of Earth's past 100 million years

On top of the evolving landscape, we then ran thousands of simulations, each describing a possible migration route.

We considered two entry points into Sahul: a northern route through West Papua (entry time: 73,000 years) and a southern one from the Timor Sea shelf (entry time: ~75,000 years)

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Results from our simulations predicted migration routes passing through 34 of the 40 archaeological sites older than 35,000 years (white circles are identified archaeological sites). Colours represent the number of moves between consecutive circles; the size of the circle is scaled based on the cumulative distance travelled by groups of hunter-gatherers. Salles et al., Nature Communications (2024)

From these simulations, we calculated the speeds of migration based on available archaeological sites. Estimated speeds range between 0.36 and 1.15 kilometres per year. This is similar to previous estimates, suggesting people spread across the continent quite rapidly.

For both scenarios, our simulations also predicted a high likelihood of human occupation at many of the iconic Australian archaeological sites.
Probability of human presence across Sahul by 35,000 years ago, combining the northern and southern entry points. White circles indicate locations of archaeological sites. Grey lines overlaying the map show the dominant movement corridors interpreted as super-highways of human migration across Sahul before 50,000 years ago. Salles et al., Nature Communications (2024)
Following rivers and coastlines

From the predicted migration routes, we produced a map of most likely visited regions, with probability of human presence as shown above.

We found that human settlers would have dispersed across the continental interior along rivers on both sides of Lake Carpentaria (the modern Gulf of Carpentaria). The first communities would have mainly been foraging along the way, following water streams. They also travelled along the receding coastlines as sea levels rose once more.

Based on our model, we didn’t identify well-defined migration routes. Instead, we saw a “radiating wave” of migrations.

However, our model did indicate a high likelihood of human presence near several already-proposed most likely pathways of Indigenous movement (called super-highways), including those to the east of Lake Carpentaria, along the southern corridors south of Lake Eyre, and traversing the Australian interior.

Read more: We mapped the 'super-highways' the First Australians used to cross the ancient land

We could predict archaeological sites

There’s one particularly interesting outcome from our map that shows the probability of human presence in Sahul. In a cost-effective way (without needing to travel across the entire continent), it could potentially pinpoint areas of archaeological significance.

Our approach can’t tell us how well a given location might be preserved for archaeological finds. However, our simulations do give an indication of how much specific sites may have eroded or received extra sediment.

We could use this to estimate if artefacts at a potential archaeological site have moved or been buried over time.

Our study is the first to show the impact of landscape changes on the initial migration on Sahul, providing a new perspective on its archaeology. If we used such an approach in other regions as well, we could improve our understanding of humanity’s extraordinary journey out of Africa.

Authors

Tristan Salles
Associate professor, University of Sydney

Ian Moffat
Associate Professor of Archaeological Science, Flinders University

Laurent Husson
Earth sciences researcher, Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)

Manon Lorcery
PhD Candidate, Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)

Renaud Joannes-Boyau
Professor, Southern Cross University

Disclosure statement

Tristan Salles receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Ian Moffat receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Flinders University and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

Laurent Husson receives funding from CNRS, Université Grenoble-Alpes, Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

Manon Lorcery receives funding from Université Grenoble-Alpes (UGA).

Renaud Joannes-Boyau receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Leakey Foundation and Google Arts & Culture.

Examples of Australian landscapes. Unsplash

 

Nature conservation works, and we're getting better at it, says new study

by Joseph William Bull, Jake E. Bicknell, The Conversation

The majority of examples studied showed positive outcomes. Langhammer et al. (2024) / 

Science

To work in nature conservation is to battle a headwind of bad news. When the overwhelming picture indicates the natural world is in decline, is there any room for optimism? Well, our new global study has some good news: we provide the strongest evidence to date that nature conservation efforts are not only effective, but that when they do work, they often really work.

Trends in nature conservation tend to be measured in terms of "biodiversity"—that is, the variety among living organisms from genes to ecosystems. We treasure biodiversity not only for how it enriches society and culture, but also its underpinning of resilient, functioning ecosystems that are a foundation of the global economy.

However, it is well known that global biodiversity is decreasing, and has been for some time. Is anything we are doing to reverse this trend effective?

As part of a team of researchers, we conducted the most comprehensive analysis yet of what happened when conservationists intervened in ecosystems. These were interventions of all types, all over the world. We found that conservation action is typically much better than doing nothing at all.

The challenge now is to fund conservation on the scale needed to halt and reverse declines in biodiversity and give these proven methods the best chance of success.

First, the less good news

Globally, biodiversity is being depleted by human activities like habitat clearance, overharvesting, the introduction of invasive species and climate change.

To arrest its decline, people in various places have taken measures including creating protected areas, removing invasive species or restoring habitats, such as forests and wetlands. These efforts are interdependent with traditional stewardship of the world's richest biodiversity by indigenous people and local communities. And in 2022, governments adopted new global targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.

Our team, led by the conservation organization Re:wild, the universities of Oxford and Kent, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, analyzed the findings of 186 studies covering 665 trials of different conservation interventions globally over the course of a century.

We wanted to understand whether the outcomes of these conservation actions improved on what would have happened without any intervention. Lots of studies have tried to compare the effects of conservation projects this way, but this is the first time such research has been combined in a single analysis to determine if conservation is working overall.

And now, the good news

What we found was extremely encouraging: conservation efforts work, and they work pretty much everywhere.

We found that conservation actions improved the state of biodiversity or slowed its decline in the majority of cases (66%) compared with no action. But more importantly, when conservation interventions work, we found that they are highly effective.

Examples from our far-reaching database included the management of invasive and problematic native predators on two of Florida's barrier islands, which resulted in an immediate and substantial improvement in the nesting success of loggerhead turtles and least terns.

In central African countries across the Congo basin, deforestation was 74% lower in logging estates subject to a forest management plan versus those that weren't. Protected areas and indigenous lands had significantly less deforestation and smaller fires in the Brazilian Amazon. Breeding Chinook salmon in captivity and releasing them boosted their natural population in the Salmon River basin of central Idaho with minimal side effects.

Where conservation actions did not recover or slow the decline of the species or ecosystems that they were targeting, there is an opportunity to learn why and refine the conservation methods. For example, in India, removing an invasive algae simply caused it to spread elsewhere. Conservationists can now try a different strategy that may be more successful, such as finding ways to halt the drift of fragments of algae.

In other cases, where conservation action did not clearly benefit the target, other native species benefited unintentionally. For example, seahorses were less numerous in protected sites off New South Wales in Australia because these marine protected areas increased the abundance of their predators, such as octopus. So, still a success of sorts.

We also found that more recent conservation interventions tended to have more positive outcomes for biodiversity. This could mean modern conservation is getting more effective over time.

What comes next

If conservation generally works but biodiversity is still declining, then simply put: we need to do more of it. Much more. While at the same time reducing the pressures we put on nature.

Over half of the world's GDP, almost US$44 trillion (£35 trillion), is moderately or highly dependent on nature. According to previous studies, a comprehensive global conservation program would require an investment of between US$178 and US$524 billion. By comparison, in 2022 alone, subsidies for the production and use of fossil fuels—which are ultimately destructive to nature as fossil fuel burning is the leading cause of climate change—totaled US$7 trillion globally.

That is 13 times the upper estimate of what is needed annually to fund the protection and restoration of biodiversity. Today, just US$121 billion is invested annually in conservation worldwide.

Potential funding priorities include more and better managed protected areas. Consistent with other studies, we found that protected areas work very well on the whole; studies that highlight where protected areas are not working often cite ineffective management or inadequate resources. More large-scale investment in habitat restoration would also help according to this new research.

Our study provides evidence that optimism for nature's recovery is not misplaced. Though biodiversity is declining, we have effective tools to conserve it—and they seem to be getting better over time. The world's governments have committed to nature recovery. Now, we must invest in it.

Journal information: Science 

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.First-of-its-kind study shows that conservation actions are effective at halting and reversing biodiversity loss

 

Granting legal 'personhood' to nature is a growing movement: Can it stem biodiversity loss?

by Viktoria Kahui, The Conversation

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing.

One emerging concept focuses on giving legal rights to nature.

Many Indigenous peoples have long emphasized the intrinsic value of nature. In 1972, the late University of Southern California law professor Christopher Stone proposed what then seemed like a whimsical idea: to vest legal rights in natural objects to allow a shift from an anthropocentric to an intrinsic worldview.

Ecuador was the first country to enshrine rights of nature in its 2008 constitution. Since then, a growing number of countries have followed in awarding rights of nature.

This includes Aotearoa New Zealand, where legal personhood was granted to the Whanganui River, the former national park Te Urewera and soon the Taranaki maunga.

At its core, the rights-of-nature movement allows persons to take legal action on behalf of natural ecosystems, as opposed to on behalf of people affected by environmental degradation.

Ecosystems can become separate entities with their own agency, in the same way other non-human entities such as charitable trusts and organizations can exist as separate entities in law.

But can the movement help stem the loss of biodiversity? There is no easy answer. Our new research shows that many rights-of-nature examples have emerged because current systems were not enough to protect nature from continued economic pressure from development.

We find one of the key features of well designed rights-of-nature frameworks lies in defining who is ultimately liable, and what for.

Global case studies

The design of rights-of-nature frameworks varies widely in geography, legal status, guardianship and who holds liability.

We investigated 14 global rights-of-nature examples and categorized them by types of guardianship. For example, in 2008, Ecuador enshrined rights of nature in its constitution because of decades of pressure from large mining companies.

This represents a type of public guardianship where every citizen has the right to take legal action on behalf of nature.

In New Zealand on the other hand, the former national park Te Urewera was granted legal personhood with Tūhoe trustees as appointed guardians.

A legal person is defined as an entity which has the capacity to enter into contracts, incur debts, sue and be sued in its own right, and to be accountable for illegal activities. We define rights-of-nature cases with appointed guardians as "environmental legal personhoods."

We then compared these cases to explore why they emerged and how they are designed. Who advocated on behalf of the environment? What was the exploiting activity putting pressure on the ecosystem? What is the liability status of the guardians?

We found that, overwhelmingly, Indigenous people and local communities acted as advocates. For example, the Whanganui River in New Zealand was granted legal personhood in 2017 as a result of hundreds of years of resistance by Indigenous Māori to aggressive colonization.

Since 1848, the Crown has introduced a steamer service, cleared forest from river banks, extracted sand and gravel, and diverted water into a power scheme. This led to ongoing conflict with Whanganui iwi who raised concerns about the river's health and the desire to preserve the resource for future generations.

Response to sustained economic pressure

On the other side of the world, the Mar Menor lagoon in Spain was declared a legal person in 2022 due to strong local community advocacy against pollution from agriculture, mining and sewage.

The evidence from our research points to a fundamental divide between local communities and external economic interests. The rights-of-nature movement has come as a response to sustained pressure from economic (urban, agricultural and industrial) activity. The features of design, however, vary significantly.

For example, the Victorian state government in Australia established the Victorian Environmental Water Holder, an independent statutory body under the state's Water Act 1989, as a legal person. It manages water entitlements to improve the health of rivers and wetlands. The entity acts indirectly on behalf of the ecosystems, which is not precisely the same as creating legal rights for rivers themselves.

The Whanganui River, on the other hand, was itself declared a legal person. Its appointed guardians have the legal status of a charitable entity. This group includes representatives of Whanganui iwi and the government, supported by members of councils, locals, and recreational and commercial users.

Liability matters

The recent overturning of two rights-of-nature decisions in particular puts the spot light on the importance of liability.

In the US, farming operations challenged the Lake Erie Bill of Rights in 2020, which granted Lake Erie the right to "exist, flourish and naturally evolve." Farmers argued the bill was too vague and would expose them to liability from fertilizer runoff.

In India, the Ganges and Yamuna rivers were granted living-person status, where injury to rivers was to be treated equally to injury to human beings. The decision was challenged on the grounds of uncertainty about who the custodians are and who would be liable to pay damage to the families of those who drowned in the rivers.

Both these were legally overturned, meaning these natural entities no longer have rights of nature. This suggests attention to legally defining who is liability for what may be an important building block for the movement to protect biodiversity in the future.

Our recommendation is that future rights-of-nature frameworks need to have well-defined legal rights and include appointed guardians, established as separate legal entities with limited liability, as well as the support of representatives from interest groups.

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Trees, rivers and mountains are gaining legal status—but it's not been a quick fix for environmental problems