It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, November 26, 2023
ARCHAEOLOGY
Ancient 20-inch-long hand ax discovered in Saudi Arabia may be world's largest
Laura Geggel Sat, November 25, 2023 We see a woman and a man looking at a long hand ax in the lab.
Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia have discovered what may be the world's largest prehistoric hand ax. The stone tool measures 20.2 inches (51.3 centimeters) long and, despite its size, is easily held with two hands, according to a statement.
An international team of researchers found the basalt hand ax on the Qurh Plain, just south of AlUla, a region in northwest Saudi Arabia. Both of the hand ax's sides have been sharpened, suggesting that it could have been employed for cutting or chopping. However, it's still unclear how the stone tool was used and which species, for instance Homo erectus or Homo sapiens, crafted it.
A long stone hand ax on the sand
It's also unknown how old the tool is, as "the handaxe requires much more research to determine an accurate date," Ömer Can Aksoy, an archaeologist and the excavation's project director, told Live Science in an email. However, other tools found at the site may date to 200,000 years ago, according to the team's assessment of their form and characteristics, so it's possible that the hand ax dates also to the Lower or Middle Palaeolithic, Aksoy said.
Researchers nearly missed the enormous hand ax, which is 3.7 inches (9.5 cm) wide and 2.2 inches (5.7 cm) thick. "It was the last 15 minutes of our daily work and it was a hot day," Aksoy said. "Two of our team members found the giant handaxe lying over the surface of a sand dune."
Three hand ax artefacts from Qurh Plain AlUla in Saudi Arabia.
Group of researchers in archaeological site in Saudi Arabia.
Group of researchers in archaeological site in Saudi Arabia.
After hearing the team members' calls, the rest of the crew joined them and then excavated the area in depth. "We recorded 13 more handaxes on the site," Aksoy said. "Each team member took off their yellow vests in order to highlight the locations of each find over the sand dune."
While the other newly found hand axes were similar in style, they were smaller in size. "After the initial excitement when we discovered this remarkable object we carried out an initial search to see if other similar sized objects had been found," Aksoy said. While the search for large hand axes continues, "this might be one of the longest," he said.
Surveys at Qurh Plain are ongoing. The 2023 field season, which lasts from October to December, is nearly over. Archaeological work is planned to start again in winter and spring 2024.
Casas del Turuñuelo, a site of repeated animal sacrifice in Iron Age Spain
Detailed analysis reveals rituals of mass sacrifice of horses and other animals
SACRIFICED EQUIDS FROM THE COURTYARD OF CASAS DEL TURUÑUELO SITE (BADAJOZ, SPAIN). IRON AGE TARTESSIAN CULTURE. YARD DISCOVERED AND EXCAVATED SINCE 2017.
The Iron Age site of Casas del Turuñuelo was used repeatedly for ritualized animal sacrifice, according to a multidisciplinary study published November 22, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mª Pilar Iborra Eres of the Institut Valencià de Conservació, Restauració i Investigació, Spain, Sebastián Celestino Pérez of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain, and their colleagues.
Archaeological sites with evidence of major animal sacrifices are rarely known from the Iron Age of the Mediterranean region, and there is a gap between information offered by written sources and by the archaeological record. This makes it difficult to establish a clear understanding of the patterns and protocols of this practice. In this study, researchers examine a well-preserved example of mass animal sacrifice from an Iron Age building in southwest Spain known as Casas del Turuñuelo, associated to Tartessos and dating toward the end of the 5th Century BCE.
The authors examined and dated 6770 bones belonging to 52 sacrificed animals which were buried in three sequential phases. The identified animals were predominantly adult horses, with smaller numbers of cattle and pigs and one dog. In the first two phases, skeletons were mostly complete and unaltered, but in the third phase, skeletons (except equids) show signs of having been processed for food, suggesting that some sort of meal accompanied this ritual. These data indicate that this space was used repeatedly over several years for sacrificial rituals whose practices and purposes varied.
This case study allows researchers to establish details about ritual protocols at this site, including the intentional selection of adult animals rather than young, and the importance of fire evidenced by the presence of burned plant and animal remains. Casas del Turuñuelo also exhibits unique features compared to other sites, such as the high abundance of sacrificed horses. This study advances efforts to contextualize ritual animal sacrifices across Europe.
The authors add: “This study highlights the role of mass animal sacrifices in the context of Iron Age European societies. Zooarchaeological, taphonomic and microstratigraphic investigations shed light on animal sacrifice practices and the Tartessian ritual behavior at the Iron Age site of Casas del Turuñuelo (Badajoz, Spain).”
Citation: Iborra Eres MP, Albizuri S, Gutiérrez Rodríguez M, Jiménez Fragoso J, Lira Garrido J, Martín Cuervo M, et al. (2023) Mass animal sacrifice at casas del Turuñuelo (Guareña, Spain): A unique Tartessian (Iron Age) site in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. PLoS ONE 18(11): e0293654. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293654
Author Countries: Spain, France
Funding: The financial support and the results of this study stem from the National Project Construyendo Tarteso 2.0 I+D+I PID2019-108180GB-I00 ʽAnálisis constructivo, espacial y territorial de un modelo arquitectónico en el valle Medio del Guadianaʼ and from two projects of the Junta de Extremadura: PRI I+D+I IB18131 ‘Estudio de la hecatombe animal del yacimiento de ‘Casas del Turuñuelo’ (Guareña, Badajoz). La gestión de la cabaña equina y sus implicaciones socioeconómicas y rituales en época tartésica’ and PRI I+D+I IB18060 ‘Iberia a través de sus caballos: Estudio integral de la diversidad genética, enfermedades infecciosas y paleopatologías de los caballos extremeños de la Edad del Hierro’.
RESEARCHERS WERE ABLE TO OBTAIN INFORMATION ABOUT THE EARLIEST PHASE OF LIFE OF ADULT HUMANS FROM THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES THROUGH ISOTOPE ANALYSES OF THEIR TEETH.
CREDIT: M. HARBECK, STAATSSAMMLUNG FÜR ANTHROPOLOGIE MÜNCHEN (SNSB-SAM)
A team of researchers led by anthropologist PD Dr. Michaela Harbeck, curator at the Bavarian State Collection for Anthropology in Munich, Germany (SNSB-SAM) and the LMU doctoral student and project collaborator at the State Collection, Maren Velte, were able to obtain information about the earliest phase of life of adult humans from the early Middle Ages through isotope analyses of their teeth. Harbeck and her colleagues analyzed human teeth from various medieval Bavarian cemeteries, mainly from the period around 500 AD. Teeth are formed during childhood and are characterized by little or no remodeling during lifetime. This developmental quality makes them an ideal "archive of childhood". Strontium isotopes, for example, provide an indication of a person's geographical origin, while analyses of carbon and nitrogen provide information to diet. Serial isotope analysis shows the course of nutrition from birth to around 20 years of age. This method reveals the transition process from breast milk feeding in infancy to the inclusion of solid food during early childhood.
Complex migration processes The origins of modern-day Europe date back to a period known as the Migration Period. During this time, which dates between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Western Roman Empire came to an end and profound cultural and political changes began. Many towns, villages and settlements have their origins during this period. In southern Bavaria, the Bavarian duchy emerged from the former Roman province of Raetia secunda in the sixth century. The role migration played in this process remains a point of discourse. Stable strontium isotopes from over 150 early medieval human skeletal remains reveal: At the end of the 5th century, an above-average number of people of non-Bavarian origin migrated to the region of present-day southern Bavaria. These treks involved men as well as women. "Although we cannot narrow down the exact areas of origin for many individuals, we can show that they came from various non-local regions," says Harbeck, lead author of the study.
Certain dietary patterns atypical for Bavaria further suggest a foreign origin of some of the buried individuals. Several women who were shown to have genetic markers characteristic for south-eastern Europe and who also exhibit artificially modified skulls, consumed a diet comprised mainly of millet during their formative years. Millet farming is common in Eastern Europe and even Asia, yet seldom grown in Bavaria at this time. Harbeck states, "These women obviously grew up in other cultures outside of Bavaria. For some women, we were even able to narrow down the approximate time of their diet change and thus when they immigrated to Bavaria. Many of the women from south-eastern Europe, for example, did not immigrate as teenagers - as one might expect in the context of marriage migration at that time - but were already well over 20 years of age when they arrived in Bavaria".
Weaning and complementary food A detailed dietary reconstruction from birth to around the age of ten, including the switch from breast milk to solid food, was conducted for some individuals. These analyses show that women in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages breastfed their children much longer than today. Maren Velte showed in her doctoral thesis: "The weaning from breast milk was completed between the second and third year of life for most of the early Bavarians studied. Women of foreign origin in particular were obviously breastfed longer. Such long breastfeeding periods are known from nomadic peoples, for example."
"Weaning stress" The weaning process, i.e. the gradual addition of solid foods to replace breast milk, always poses a certain health risk to an infant. Children are suddenly and repeatedly exposed to new pathogens, and potentially, malnutrition. Resulting visible malformations in tooth enamel that occur during dental development and are considered identifiable physiological stress markers, can be interpreted to determine at what age children were exposed to these stress events. Infants raised in the period after the social upheavals in Bavaria apparently experienced a particularly high level of "weaning stress": in the 7th century, stress-related developmental changes in dental morphology are particularly frequent. The research team believes that fundamental changes in childhood nutrition, especially with regard to complementary foods, are to blame. Future research will reveal more details
Serial isotope analysis shows the course of nutrition from birth to around 20 years of age.
THE SKULL OF HIPPOPOTAMUS AMPHIBIUS OF CAVA MONTANARI. CRANIUM IN DORSAL (A), VENTRAL (B), RIGHT LATERAL (C), LEFT LATERAL (D) AND POSTERIOR (E) VIEWS. MANDIBLE IN OCCLUSAL (F) RIGHT LATERAL (G) AND LEFT LATERAL (H) VIEWS. SCALE BAR 10 CM.
CREDIT: MECOZZI ET AL., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)
Modern hippos first dispersed in Europe during the Middle Pleistocene, according to a study published November 22, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Beniamino Mecozzi of the Sapienza University of Rome and colleagues.
Modern hippos, Hippopotamus amphibius, arose from African ancestors during the Quaternary, a time when hippos were widespread in Europe. However, the details of the modern species’ origin and dispersal into Europe are unclear and highly debated. In this study, Mecozzi and colleagues provide new insights via analysis of a fossil hippo skull from the study area of Tor di Quinto in Rome.
The skull of Tor di Quinto, currently housed at the Earth Science University Museum of Sapienza University of Rome, is among the most complete hippo specimens known from Pleistocene Europe, but its significance has been unclear due to uncertainties about its age and where exactly it was originally excavated. Following restoration of the skull in 2021, researchers were able to analyze the composition of sediments found within the skull cavities, revealing a match to the local Valle Guilia Formation, indicating a geologic age for this skull between 560,000-460,000 years old. Cranial and dental morphologies also confirmed the identity of this skull as the modern species Hippopotamus amphibius.
This research reveals this skull to be the oldest known fossil of this modern hippo species in Europe. These results shed light on the history of hippos in Europe, reinforcing the hypothesis of an early dispersal during the Middle Pleistocene and bolstering broader understanding of the deep history of these large mammals. Hippos are highly influential species within modern and ancient ecosystems, and they are valuable indicators of past climate and environmental conditions.
The authors add: “Restoring the mammal skeletons exposed at the University Museum of Earth Science, Terra, Sapienza University of Rome offers new data for old fossils. The multidisciplinary study of the skull from Cava Montanari (Roma) redefines the first dispersal of Hippopotamus amphibius in Europe.”
Citation: Mecozzi B, Iannucci A, Mancini M, Tentori D, Cavasinni C, Conti J, et al. (2023) Reinforcing the idea of an early dispersal of Hippopotamus amphibius in Europe: Restoration and multidisciplinary study of the skull from the Middle Pleistocene of Cava Montanari (Rome, central Italy). PLoS ONE 18(11): e0293405. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293405
Author Countries: Italy, Germany
Funding: Sapienza Università di Roma Grandi Scavi 2019 SA11916B513E7C4B Prof. Raffaele Sardella -Sapienza Università di Roma Grandi Scavi 2020 SA1221816893E2AB Prof. Raffaele Sardella -Sapienza Università di Roma Grandi Scavi 2021 SA12117A87BC3F0A Prof. Raffaele Sardella Sapienza Università di Roma Grandi Scavi 2022 SA1221816893E2AB) Prof. Raffaele Sardella Progetti per Avvio alla Ricerca - Tipo 2 anno 2022”, Sapienza Università di Roma AR222181333C1B88 Dr. Beniamino Mecozzi Contributi premiali per i ricercatori e assegnisti di ricerca per rafforzarne la condizione professionale e potenziare il sistema della ricerca del Lazio” DE G05411, 05/05/2022 Dr. Beniamino Mecozzi.
Reinforcing the idea of an early dispersal of Hippopotamus amphibius in Europe: Restoration and multidisciplinary study of the skull from the Middle Pleistocene of Cava Montanari (Rome, central Italy)
Historical picture of the Tor di Quinto area from the archive of the Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA, A, B) and the same area today.
CREDIT
Mecozzi et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Reinforcing the idea of an early dispersal of Hippopotamus amphibius in Europe: Restoration and multidisciplinary study of the skull from the Middle Pleistocene of Cava Montanari (Rome, central Italy)
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