posted
Sweden 8ka Coastal lagoon - red deer hunters, fish trappers
Note: India fish trap: "kudu", similar pron. to African kudu antelope and Tibetan khudru coracle of wicker & buttered yak hide)
Underwater Stone Age settlement mapped out 14.11.16
6 years ago, divers discovered the oldest known stationary fish traps in N-Europe, off the coast of S-Sweden. Since then, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved Stone Age site. The location was a lagoon environment, where Mesolithic humans lived during parts of the year.
A submerged Mesolithic lagoonal landscape in the Baltic Sea, south-eastern Sweden Early Holocene environmental reconstruction and shore-level displacement based on a multiproxy approach Anton Hansson cs 2016 Quat.Internatl. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.07.059>
Several unprecedented archaeological findings made in the study area are presented & discussed, including stationary fishing constructions, dated to c 9.1 8.4 ka. These constructions (the oldest known in N-Europe) indicate extensive riverine & lagoonal fishing, previously not recorded during the Mesolithic in Sweden. Bones & antlers of red deer with slaughter marks & a unique pick axe made of elk antler provide evidence of human exploitation of terrestrial resources. The Haväng site shows the strong potential of submerged landscapes as palaeo-ecological source materials, and demonstrates the importance of resources at coastal settings near river-mouths for Mesolithic communities.
posted
Note: I saw in a book on ancient boats a stone carving of a canoe with paddlers with a man holding up a pair of either snowshoes or fish traps.
fish trap (South India, Karnataka?) kudu snowshoes (Norse) truger (trek/tracker?) snowshoes (Croatian) krplje
The only link I've found to Africa & snowshoes is ancient Egypt sandals (possibly Ankh = sandal strap) and a reference to chimps making leaf "sandals" (leaves bunched under toes) to crossover thorny ground. I'd think sandals were first made to walk over very hot desert ground, but I don't think the KhoiSan wore sandals. Snowshoes are only worn in soft deep snow, like desert sand, and may have developed directly from sandals.
Au.afarensis is the best-known & most dimorphic species in the early hominin fossil record. Here, we present a comparative description of new fossil specimens from Nefuraytu, a 3.3303.207-Ma fossil collection area in the central Afar.
NFR-VP-1/29, one of the most complete & largest mandibles assigned to Au.afarensis, likely represents a male individual. It retains almost all of the distinctive archaic features documented for Au.afarensis: - a posteriorly sloping symphysis, - a low & rounded basally set inferior transverse torus, - antero-superiorly opening mental foramen, - a lateral corpus hollow bound anteriorly by the C/P3 jugae, and posteriorly by the lateral prominence, - the ascending ramus arising high on the corpus.
Dental morphology & metrics of the Nefuraytu specimens also falls within the range of Au.afarensis. The presence of this species at Woranso-Mille 3.330 - 3.207 Ma confirms its close spatial & temporal proximity to other mid-Pliocene hominin taxa, e.g. - the Burtele foot BRT-VP-2/73 & - the recently named species Au.deyiremeda. This has important implications for our understanding of middle Pliocene hominin diversity.
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We found that the Jomon population lineage is best considered to have diverged before diversification of present-day East Eurasian populations, with no evidence of gene flow events between the Jomon and other continental populations. This suggests that the Sanganji Jomon people descended from an early phase of population dispersals in East Asia.
They have words for the numerals "one" and "two" only, but can count to ten by tapping the nose with the finger-tips of both hands, uttering for each in turn the word #-&= "and this," until, when the last is reached, the expression drduru implies " all."
Industrial pollution may seem like a modern phenomenon, but in fact, an international team of researchers may have discovered what could be the world's first polluted river, contaminated approximately 7,000 years ago.
In this now-dry riverbed in the Wadi Faynan region of southern Jordan, Professor Russell Adams, from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Waterloo, and his colleagues found evidence of early pollution caused by the combustion of copper. Neolithic humans here may have been in the early stages of developing metallurgy by learning how to smelt.
Bucky Fuller speculated that bronze age began in Thailand, where a river flows between a copper rich range and a tin rich range with evidence of kilns.
With the Neanderthal genome now published, for the first time, scientists have a rich new resource of comparative evolution. For example, recently, scientists have shown that humans and Neanderthals once interbred, with the accumulation of elements of Neanderthal DNA found in up to 5 percent in modern humans. Scientist have found evidence of accumulation of a Neanderthal DNA region found on chromosome 3 that contains 18 genes, with several related to UV-light adaptation, including the Hyal2 gene. Their results reveal this region was positively selected and enriched in East Asians, ranging from up to 49 percent in Japanese to 66 percent in Southern Chinese.
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Earliest direct evidence of plant processing in prehistoric Saharan pottery Julie Dunne, Anna Maria Mercuri, Richard Evershed cs 2016 Nature Plants 3:16194 doi 10.1038/nplants.2016.194
The invention of thermally resistant ceramic cooking vessels c 15 ka was a major advance in human diet & nutrition, opening up new food groups & preparation techniques. Previous investigations of lipid bio-markers contained in food residues have routinely demonstrated the importance of prehistoric cooking pots for the processing of animal products across the world. Remarkably, however, direct evidence for plant processing in prehistoric pottery has not been forthcoming, despite the potential to cook otherwise unpalatable or even toxic plants. In N.Africa, archaeo-botanical evidence of charred & desiccated plant organs denotes that Early Holocene hunter-gatherers routinely exploited a wide range of plant resources.
Here, we reveal the earliest direct evidence for plant processing in pottery globally, from Takarkori & Uan Afuda, Libyan Sahara 8200–6400 bC. Characteristic carbon number distributions & δ13C values for plant wax-derived n-alkanes & alkanoic acids indicate sustained & systematic processing of C3/C4 grasses & aquatic plants, gathered from the savannahs & lakes in the Early to Mid-Holocene green Sahara.
Researchers studied unglazed pottery (>10 ka) from 2 sites in the Libyan Sahara.
... Ancient cooking would have initially involved the use of fires or pits: the invention of ceramic cooking vessels led to an expansion of food preparation techniques.
Cooking would have allowed the consumption of previously unpalatable or even toxic foodstuffs, it would also have increased the availability of new energy sources.
Until now, evidence of cooking plants in early prehistoric cooking vessels has been lacking.
The researchers detected lipid residues of foodstuffs preserved within the fabric of unglazed cooking pots.
Over half of the vessels studied were found to have been used for processing plants based on the identification of diagnostic plant oil & wax compounds.
Detailed investigations of the molecular & stable isotope compositions showed a broad range of plants were processed: - grains, - the leafy parts of terrestrial plants & - most unusually aquatic plants.
The interpretations of the chemical signatures obtained from the pottery are supported by abundant plant remains preserved in remarkable condition, due to the arid desert environment at the sites.
The plant chemical signatures from the pottery show that the processing of plants was practiced for >4 ky, indicating the importance of plants to the ancient people of the prehistoric Sahara.
Julie Dunne: "Until now, the importance of plants in prehistoric diets has been under-recognised, but this work demonstrates the importance of plants as a reliable dietary resource. These findings also emphasise the sophistication of these early hunter-gatherers in their utilisation of a broad range of plant types, and the ability to boil them for long periods of time in newly invented ceramic vessels would have significantly increased the range of plants prehistoric people could eat."
Richard Evershed: "The finding of extensive plant wax & oil residues in early prehistoric pottery provides us with an entirely different picture of the way early pottery was used in the Sahara compared to other regions in the ancient world. Our new evidence fits beautifully with the theories proposing very different patterns of plant & animal domestication in Africa & Europe/Eurasia."
- - - Note: much cooking can be and was done without pots.
I spent a winter living in Guerrero Negro (Black Warrior) village in Baja Mexico. Huge salt mining center. I haven't been to Black Warrior Basin, Alabama, perhaps will someday.
"The Phoenician language and its later, divergent form Punic are extinct Semitic languages that originated in the Near East and were spoken in antiquity across into North Africa and southern Iberia by Phoenician and Carthaginian traders and colonists. Needless to say, an origin for a number of British and Irish names in these languages is an intriguing possibility, and such a linguistic hypothesis does, in fact, have a potential historical context too."
Populations from three regions in particular possess distinctive autosomal genetic signatures indicative of likely refugia: one, in the north, centered around the eastern coast of the Black Sea, the second, with a more Levantine focus, and the third in the southern Arabian Peninsula. - - -
Oldest obsidian trade/transport 200ka:
Evidence from the ∼200 ka Middle Stone Age Baringo, Kenya
The majority of obsidian derives from the farthest source, 166 km to the south of the site.
The SSRS thus provides important new evidence that long-distance raw material transport, and the expansion of hominin inter-group interactions that this entails, was a significant feature of hominin behavior ∼200 ka (when H.sapiens first appeared): ∼150 ky before similar behaviors were previously documented in the region.
Recent work at Tam Pa Ling (cave), Laos, is beginning to alter this picture, having produced some of the earliest modern human fossils in the entire Southeast Asianregion, dated to a minimum age of ~63-46 ka (Demeter et al.,2012a,b; 2015). The work sets somewhat of a precedent in the re-gion, with the authors providing some very robust stratigraphic data including a basic depositional environment reconstruction(Demeter et al., 2015).
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Just finished the Jomon paper. really fascinating. Showed how aDNA can correct a lot of false beliefs. Jamon are really the Ainu people. Ainu were a tropical people in the Japanese Islands. I posted on thsi several years ago. Now aDNA is proving me correct. I hate patting myself on the back but I must.
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posted
Hate to burst your bubble, but the when the Ainu arrived in north Japan, they found the Jomon already living there in dome huts shingled with butter burr leaves. The Ainu built square huts, as they had in central Asia.
What you are seeing is the mixed descendants of Jomon and Ainu.
Modern Japanese have this and also Hmong (Laos), Korean and Chinese mixture.
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"Defective gene" in Europeans = immunity to HIV, plaque, smallpox
(somitcw @ AAT)
"The one that I heard about was a few Europeans had a faulty gene for the CCR5 ( Calcium Cell Receptor # 5 ) CCR5 is how smallpox and the plague enter a cell.
First smallpox or plague epidemic in Europe killed many but people with one faulty CCR5 gene ( called delta 32 ) had some resistance so were more likely to live and have offsprings. After many epidemics, more had the CCR5 delta 32 gene. Some descendants inherited a "defective" gene from each parent so were immune to any disease that enters only through CCR5 which includes smallpox, plague, early HIV infections, and many others.
Today, one percent of Europeans have two copies so are immune to smallpox, several poxes, the plague, and HIV.
Today, ten percent of Europeans are resistant to smallpox, several other poxes, the plague, and HIV.
Is the CCR5 delta 32 mutation really a "faulty" mutation? If I don't have the "faulty" gene now, I want it. "
The papers all confirmed the "Out of Africa" origins of modern humans, while disagreeing on the timing of when a more southern migration route (into Southeast Asia and Australia) may have occurred.
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Why a White Christ Continues to Be Racist: The Legacy of Albert B. Cleage Jr.
Easter Sunday 2017 will mark the 50-year anniversary of Albert B. Cleage Jr.’s unveiling of a mural of the Black Madonna and child in his church in Detroit, Michigan. This unveiling symbolized a radical theological departure and disruption. The mural helped symbolically launch Black Christian Nationalism and influenced the Black Power movement in the USA. But 50 years later, what has been the lasting impact of this act of theological innovation? What is the legacy of Cleage’s emphasis on the literal blackness of Jesus? How has the idea of a Black Madonna and child informed notions of black womanhood, motherhood? LGBTQ communities? How has Cleage’s theology influenced Christian education, Africana pastoral theology, and the Black Arts Movement? The contributors to this work discuss answers to these and many more questions. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-54689-0_1Posts: 949 | From: England | Registered: Oct 2015
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quote:Originally posted by DD'eDeN: Sweden 8ka Coastal lagoon - red deer hunters, fish trappers
Note: India fish trap: "kudu", similar pron. to African kudu antelope and Tibetan khudru coracle of wicker & buttered yak hide)
Underwater Stone Age settlement mapped out 14.11.16
6 years ago, divers discovered the oldest known stationary fish traps in N-Europe, off the coast of S-Sweden. Since then, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved Stone Age site. The location was a lagoon environment, where Mesolithic humans lived during parts of the year.
A submerged Mesolithic lagoonal landscape in the Baltic Sea, south-eastern Sweden Early Holocene environmental reconstruction and shore-level displacement based on a multiproxy approach Anton Hansson cs 2016 Quat.Internatl. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.07.059>
Several unprecedented archaeological findings made in the study area are presented & discussed, including stationary fishing constructions, dated to c 9.1 8.4 ka. These constructions (the oldest known in N-Europe) indicate extensive riverine & lagoonal fishing, previously not recorded during the Mesolithic in Sweden. Bones & antlers of red deer with slaughter marks & a unique pick axe made of elk antler provide evidence of human exploitation of terrestrial resources. The Haväng site shows the strong potential of submerged landscapes as palaeo-ecological source materials, and demonstrates the importance of resources at coastal settings near river-mouths for Mesolithic communities.
Is it pronounced with a click-consonant, as in the San language? There's a YT video where linguist C. Ehret pronounces it (more or less) correctly. The "K" is a click consonant.
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I don't know exactly how it is pronounced, but expect very similarly. Very likely, kudu is related to hide (of animal), but not sure why fish basket trap (no skin) would have same name in Karnataka, India.
Joshua Conner Moon please post that fascinating article at your own thread, and add commentary/analysis of your own. Thank you. DD'eDeN
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TANN
Heat from Earth's core could be underlying force in plate tectonics
Posted: 18 Jan 2017 03:30 AM PST
For decades, scientists have theorized that the movement of Earth's tectonic plates is driven largely by negative buoyancy created as they cool. New research, however, shows plate dynamics are driven significantly by the additional force of heat drawn from the Earth's core. Researchers find the East Pacific Rise is dynamic as heat is transferred, showing that plate dynamics are driven significantly by additional force of heat...
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Green Sahara's ancient rainfall regime revealed
Posted: 18 Jan 2017 03:00 AM PST
Rainfall patterns in the Sahara during the 6,000-year "Green Sahara" period have been pinpointed by analyzing marine sediments, according to new research. The multicorer device being lowered into the ocean takes eight one-foot cores from the seafloor. Scientists analyze such cores for clues to the climate of the past several thousand years [Credit: Peter deMenocal]What is now the Sahara Desert was the home to hunter-gatherers...
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Finding ways to fix the climate before it is too late
Posted: 18 Jan 2017 02:30 AM PST
Scientists and policymakers rely on complex computer simulations called Integrated Assessment Models to figure out how to address climate change. But these models need tinkering to make them more accurate. What kind of climate does the future hold? Scientists have created a number of different computer models to predict what different technologies and government policies will mean for the climate — but they can be improved...
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Climate change to shift global pattern of mild weather
Posted: 18 Jan 2017 02:00 AM PST
As scientists work to predict how climate change may affect hurricanes, droughts, floods, blizzards and other severe weather, there's one area that's been overlooked: mild weather. But no more. This global map shows the change in the annual number of mild days for 2081-2100 with areas of blue seeing an increase and areas of brown seeing a decline. The six graphics below the global map show the changes occurring in several...
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A catalogue of habitable zone exoplanets
Posted: 18 Jan 2017 12:30 AM PST
The last two decades have seen an explosion of detections of exoplanets, as the sensitivity to smaller planets has dramatically improved thanks especially to the Kepler mission. These discoveries have found that the frequency of planets increases to smaller sizes: terrestrial planets are more common than gas giants. This artist’s concept depicts an exoplanet [Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech]The significance of a universe rich in...
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Mars rover Curiosity examines possible mud cracks
Posted: 18 Jan 2017 12:00 AM PST
Scientists used NASA's Curiosity Mars rover in recent weeks to examine slabs of rock cross-hatched with shallow ridges that likely originated as cracks in drying mud. The network of cracks in this Martian rock slab called "Old Soaker" may have formed from the drying of a mud layer more than 3 billion years ago. The view spans about 3 feet (90 centimeters) left-to-right and combines three images taken by the MAHLI camera on...
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Royal Alberta Museum to crack open 1,600 year old roasting pit with meal still inside
Posted: 17 Jan 2017 12:00 PM PST
Royal Alberta Museum archaeologists are about to start a lengthy and intricate process of figuring out what ancient Albertans cooked for supper. Royal Alberta Museum archaeologists beginning excavation in September 2016 at Head-Smashed-in Buffalo Juamp [Credit: Royal Alberta Museum]Last year, they dug up a 1,600-year-old roasting pit at Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump in southern Alberta. The oven was intact and still had a...
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posted
re. "I don't know exactly how it is pronounced, but expect very similarly. Very likely, kudu is related to hide (of animal), but not sure why fish basket trap (no skin) would have same name in Karnataka, India.
Kudu must have been a variant of mongolu (Mbuti), which in Chinese is gulu, and meant round (shield/shelter). The word hide (English) for animal pelt is derived, not primitive, since in the rainforest pelts are not used, since they rot so quickly. KhoiSan make round reed huts, but in the rainy season they cover them with antelope hides.
Although researchers found many references to this reality, they still failed to find any evidence until now. But eight researchers from universities in Spain, the U.k., Peru and United States, along with the Tibicena archaeological company confirmed the existence of a slave cemetery, thanks to analysis of ancient DNA, stable isotopes, and skeletal markers of physical activity.
Oldest cemetery of African slaves found in Canary Islands DNA was extracted from the bones of the skeletons and revealed that the group was made up of a Canarian aboriginal woman, four black men and another six bodies belonging to native groups of Europe and Africa [Credit: EPA]
Most of the skeletons studied revealed that the slaves died in their 20s, with injuries in the {vertebral? DD} column, suggesting “a pattern of labor involving high levels of effort” — about the same physical markers found in slave plantations in South Carolina, Surinam and Barbados.
The figurines were exhibited in 2014 at Manchester Museum's 'Fragmentary Ancestors' exhibition. Despite the fact that high temperatures typically accelerate DNA damage, and there are only a few previous reports of the recovery of ancient DNA from exposed sites in Sub-Saharan Africa as a result, Professor Terry Brown and PhD student Heather Robinson managed to recover ancient DNA from inside three of the figurines using forensic-style swabs and a magnetic extraction method.
The findings of the researchers suggest that exotic plants such as banana and pine, which are not native to Ghana, were prized by the unknown ancient culture for use in religious rituals as well as other West African plants. Banana and pine could only have been obtained via trade with North Africa, and suggest that the prehistoric inhabitants of the Yikpabongo archaeological site were connected to other parts of the World via trade, because banana is an east Asian cultigen.
We find a genetic signature in present-day Papuans that suggests that at least 2% of their genome originates from an early and largely extinct expansion of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) out of Africa. Together with evidence from the western Asian fossil record, and admixture between AMHs and Neanderthals predating the main Eurasian expansion, our results contribute to the mounting evidence for the presence of AMHs out of Africa earlier than 75,000 years ago. Pagani, et al., "Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia", Nature (Published online 21 September 2016). Hat tip: Marnie at Linear Population Model.
We find that a population that diverged early from other modern humans in Africa contributed genetically to the ancestors of Neanderthals from the Altai Mountains roughly 100,000 years ago. By contrast, we do not detect such a genetic contribution in the Denisovan or the two European Neanderthals. We conclude that in addition to later interbreeding events, the ancestors of Neanderthals from the Altai Mountains and early modern humans met and interbred, possibly in the Near East, many thousands of years earlier than previously thought. Martin Kuhlwilm, et al., "Ancient gene flow from early modern humans into Eastern Neanderthals", Nature, Volume 530, Pages 429-433 (25 February 2016).
Using fineSTRUCTURE, we find in the genomes of Papuans and Philippine Negritos more short haplotypes assigned as African than seen in genomes for individuals from other non-African populations. This pattern remains after correcting for potential confounders such as phasing errors and sampling bias. These shorter shared haplotypes would be consistent with an older population split. Indeed, the Papuan–Yoruban median genetic split time (using multiple sequential Markovian coalescent (MSMC)) of 90 kya predates the split of all mainland Eurasian populations from Yorubans at ~75 kya. This result is robust to phasing artefacts. Furthermore, the Papuan–Eurasian MSMC split time of ~40 kya is only slightly older than splits between west Eurasian and East Asian populations dated at ~30 kya. The Papuan split times from Yoruba and Eurasia are therefore incompatible with a simple bifurcating population tree model.
At least two main models could explain our estimates of older divergence dates for Sahul populations from Africa than mainland Eurasians in our sample: 1) admixture in Sahul with a potentially un-sampled archaic human population that split from modern humans either before or at the same time as did Denisova and Neanderthal; or 2) admixture in Sahul with a modern human population (extinct OoA line; xOoA) that left Africa after the split between modern humans.
Siberians genetically unchanged 7.7ka vs Black Sea
Ancient genomes have revolutionized our understanding of Holocene prehistory and, particularly, the Neolithic transition in western Eurasia. In contrast, East Asia has so far received little attention, despite representing a core region at which the Neolithic transition took place independently ~3 millennia after its onset in the Near East. We report genome-wide data from two hunter-gatherers from Devil’s Gate, an early Neolithic cave site (dated to ~7.7 thousand years ago) located in East Asia, on the border between Russia and Korea. Both of these individuals are genetically most similar to geographically close modern populations from the Amur Basin, all speaking Tungusic languages, and, in particular, to the Ulchi. The similarity to nearby modern populations and the low levels of additional genetic material in the Ulchi imply a high level of genetic continuity in this region during the Holocene, a pattern that markedly contrasts with that reported for Europe. - - - ghorvat: "current Ulchi mtDNA sequences are interesting. They can be connected to both the Ainu and Jomon samples." Furthermore Y is connected to the Funadomari Jomon N9b. As stated by Adachi et al. (2011) - "Haplogroups N9b, D4h2, G1b, and M7a were observed in these [Jomon] individuals, with N9b being the predominant one. .. It is true, though, that not much about N9 and {mtDNA group} Y is mentioned in papers concerning Native American origins but Japan has been connected to Tibet via Y chromosome haplogroup D and which Asian population has the highest frequency of mtDNA haplogroup A (xA2) sequences? Tibet. "
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Archaeological excavations cast new light on Abu Dhabi’s earliest inhabitants
By Wam Published Wednesday, February 01, 2017
Remarkable discoveries by archaeologists from Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, TCA Abu Dhabi, at ancient sites on the island of Marawah and in Baynunah, have revealed new information on Abu Dhabi’s earliest inhabitants, evidencing a rich history stretching back over 7,000 years.
Artefacts excavated from a village on the island of Marawah and in Baynunah indicate that during this time, a sophisticated and highly skilled population were able to trade and thrive in challenging conditions and adapt to the changing environment around them.
Commenting on the latest discoveries, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of TCA Abu Dhabi, said, "These important discoveries signify Abu Dhabi’s advanced construction methods from the Neolithic era and the influential role it had in early long-distance maritime trade. The expertise of our team of archaeologists allows us to build a narrative of the emirate’s development and history, piecing together an intriguing and intricate story of the earliest known inhabitants of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. We are encouraged to assign more excavation works, and our aim is to conduct extensive studies to further understand our ancestors and our land, and our mission is to share these findings with the world."
On the island of Marawah, just off the coast of Abu Dhabi, excavations have revealed one of the earliest stone-built villages in the Arabian Gulf.
The new excavations, completed in October last year, focused on one of seven mounds in the village, and revealed a structure with three joining stone-built rooms.
TCA Abu Dhabi Coastal Heritage archaeologist Abdulla Khalfan Al Kaabi said, "Radiocarbon dating of the deposits show that the village dates back more than 7,500 years to the Neolithic period. This style of architecture is unique for this period and has never been found before in the region."
"These sites can reveal so much information about the very early history of our land and I am proud to be working on both of them," added Al Kaabi.
"These discoveries and findings will provide crucial information in the future for research and documentation, allowing everyone access, from scholars and students to the general public, to a precious part of our history, and gives us opportunities to publish all this information in all mediums available for future generations. These valuable findings can only be obtained through the careful study and excavation work of such archaeological sites," he added.
Hundreds of artefacts have also allowed TCA Abu Dhabi archaeologists to piece together what life was like for these villagers and inhabitants 7,500 years ago.
The ancient people herded sheep and goats, and used stone tools to hunt and butcher other animals, like gazelles.
The large amounts of fish, dugong, turtle and dolphin bones show how people had come to understand the sea and use its resources for food and sustenance.
The excavation also found very fine, small beads made from shell and a small shark’s tooth, which had been very carefully drilled, which archaeologists believe were probably worn as adornments.
During previous excavations at the site, archaeologists and experts also found a complete and highly decorated ceramic jar, made in Iraq, which gives evidence to the fact that the inhabitants of Marawah also used the sea for trade.
This jar was transported more than a thousand kilometres and is early evidence for the beginnings of long-distance maritime trade in the Arabian Gulf.
Marawah inhabitants enjoyed a climate that had more rainfall than exists today. Around 6,000 years ago, however, the situation changed and the area became very arid.
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due to post-glacial 7.7ka deluge of Black Sea oasis?
Or, due to widespread drying of Sahara/Arabia/Mongolia/Tarim sub-tropical deserts?
or both? or neither?
Per facial features:
mongoloids fit open steppe-savanna-desert (epicanthic fold = sun glare), dark irises (good in clear sky) but sand-colored skin (camouflage) yet not too dry (small nose-sinuses)
caucasoids fit (semi-)closed forests-woodlands (round eyes), mixed irises (little direct sunlight, very cloudy), variable light skin tone (olive-tawny-reddish-white), seasonal dryness (variable nose/sinus size, cold dry winter air but warm moist summer air)
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posted
Interesting article on AMHs (modern humans) vs ancient lineage. Especially see top photo of Neanderthal face, the large brow ridges produce a Chinese-like eye morphology (epicanthic fold), allowing better vision under open skies.
"The term 'modern' is somewhat misleading," says Hublin. "When you say 'modern', people assume you mean 'more evolved', but in fact in our case it may mean 'more primitive'."
" Our bones are continually renewed and remodelled
Hublin and his team can also use their software to mature the skulls of children, giving an idea of what they would have looked like when they became adults
When they applied it to the skull fragments of H. antecessor, they got something that looked both primitive and modern at the same time.
"The face has more prominence than modern humans," says Hublin. "But it doesn't have the derived features we see in the Neanderthal."
Something even more surprising emerged when the fossilised skulls of H. antecessor were placed under a microscope. So when Lacruz, Bromage and their colleagues popped the skull fragments from H. antecessor under the microscope, they were staggered to find that the maxilla and canine fossa were heavily pitted. Not only that, but the pattern of bone reabsorption they noticed was similar to that seen in modern humans.
"These similarities suggest that one of the key developmental changes responsible for the characteristic face of modern humans can be traced back to H. antecessor," says Lacruz. "This is important, because antecessor not only showed this human-like growth pattern, but also shows some human-like morphology around 800,000 years ago." "The bone in modern humans fractures much earlier," says O'Higgins. "It suggests efficient biting we get from our flat faces was not the result of natural selection, but something else."
It now seems that our powerful bites are related to the size of our noses. "H. heidelbergensis and Neanderthals had gigantic brow ridges," says O'Higgins. "It was like having a peaked cap on the top of the forehead."
" With big brow ridges, the movement of the eyebrows is limited
In research presented at the Madrid conference, he and his colleagues used their computer models to shave away the brow ridges, then looked at how this affected the structure of the face and skull. They found that the brow ridges did not provide any structural advantage. Instead, they believe these prominent arches of bone above the eyes may have served to signal dominance to other members of the species, much like the huge antlers of modern male moose.
Stringer has also suggested this, comparing ancestral hominins to olive baboons. These monkeys raise their eyebrows as part of their dominance displays. Similarly, mandrills also use bright colours on their eyebrows and snouts to indicate their rank in their group.
At the 2016 meeting, O'Higgins and his colleagues presented preliminary findings suggesting that, when our ancestors lost these aggressive-looking brow ridges, they gained a subtler form of communication. - - -
From Black Sea Oasis to Canaan to Nile to Mega-Lake Chad/Bodele?
paper. Land of lakes It’s important to remember that the sun played a pivotal role in Egyptian religion. Every day it would rise in the east and set in the west. “The west for the Egyptians was always the underworld, also the realm of the dead,” said Schneider. This can be seen in Egyptian burial traditions. “Most of the necropolises of Egypt were located in the west,” he said. “To some extent the Egyptians were aware that once they moved to the west they moved to the realm of the dead.” Chad, being far to the west of Egypt, may have played a role in these traditions. Professor Schneider has been investigating an ancient text called the Amduat, a “guide” of sorts that helped the king through the afterlife. Divided into 12 “hours,” complete examples of it were painted onto the walls of royal tombs 3,500 years ago. “It describes in a comprehensive way the topography of the underworld – a place that was unknown to the living Egyptians,” said Schneider. He believes that some of those topographical references were inspired by actual places in ancient Chad. “Initially it is very down to earth with measurements, with descriptions.” Schneider, in his paper, writes of one example, seen in the first hour, that, “Re gains access to the underworld through the ‘western portico (arry.t) of the horizon,’ a passageway of 1,260 km,” a pretty exact number for a mystical place. “If this number has any factual basis, it could be seen as the distance between the oasis of Dakhlah [the start of the trail] and the northern shore of Lake Bodele,” writes Schneider. The second and third hours of the Amduat may also refer to Chad. The second hour tells of “a region dominated by a gigantic body of water that fills the entire hour, a sweet- water ocean that is the source of abundant vegetation on its shores,” writes Schneider. Another measurement is given here, the “gigantic lake with its surrounding lands is given the precise dimensions of 309 by 120 jtrw (3,245 km by 1,260 km).” Intriguingly the text refers to the “green plants that are in the Wernes” and describes the underworld figures as “farmers of the Wernes.” Schneider said that the word “Wernes” is important. It’s a word that does not appear to have an Egyptian etymology and its ancient pronunciation was wūd˘ỉ-ỉensəu, which is remarkably similar to fwodi-yezze-u, a word spoken in the Tubu language of Central Africa. It roughly means “waterway/lake of the sun.” That isn’t the only language similarity between Egyptian and Tubu. Schneider said in his article that about 4,000 years ago the consonantal sequence of Apophis, a snake-like villain in Egyptian mythology, was d-r-p-p. “On that basis, an appropriate etymology is provided by the Tubu duro bu bu (which means) ‘very big snake.” The third hour of the amduat tells of a second large lake albeit the same size as the one mentioned in the second hour (3,245 km by 1,260 km). “This topographical structure of an intermediate realm stretching from the Nile Valley 1,260 km (120 jtrw of 10.5 km) to the West, and followed by two gigantic lakes, finds an exact match in the palaeo-environmental situation of the Western Desert and the Chad Basin around 2000 bce,” writes Schneider.
The scientists who uncovered why zebras have black and white stripes (to repel biting flies), took the coloration question to giant pandas in a study published this week in the journal Behavioral Ecology.
The study, a collaboration between the University of California, Davis, and California State University, Long Beach, determined that the giant panda's distinct black-and-white markings have two functions: camouflage and communication.
Through these comparisons, the study found that most of the panda -- its face, neck, belly, rump -- is white to help it hide in snowy habitats. The arms and legs are black, helping it to hide in shade.
The scientists suggest that this dual coloration stems from its poor diet of bamboo and inability to digest a broader variety of plants. This means it can never store enough fat to go dormant during the winter, as do some bears. So it has to be active year-round, traveling across long distances and habitat types that range from snowy mountains to tropical forests.
The markings on its head, however, are not used to hide from predators, but rather to communicate. Dark ears may help convey a sense of ferocity, a warning to predators. Their dark eye patches may help them recognize each other or signal aggression toward panda competitors.
"The researchers identified a series of major detrimental mutations in the Wrangel Island mammoth. One combination of altered genes likely led to the loss of a large number of olfactory receptors for detecting smells. Another suite of mutations would have reduced the number and variety of the animals’ urinary proteins. Together, those changes would have wreaked havoc on the mammoths’ ability to mark and recognize territory, determine rank, and choose mates, if—like modern mammals—they relied on odors for these tasks. The result for the Wrangel Island mammoth community, which numbered about 300 based on population genetics models, could have been social chaos, researchers report today in PLOS Genetics.
In another bizarre twist, two peculiar mutations to a gene known as FOXQ1—well studied in rodents and rabbits—would have given the Wrangel Island mammoths a translucent, cream-colored, satiny coat. The hairs of its fur would have lacked an inner core, possibly robbing them of their insulating properties." - - -
I would agree that inbreeding occurred, but question if 'white' fur coat is detrimental in arctic, and if hollow hair is detrimental in arctic, since polar bears have both conditions and have been very successful. Smelling might have lost importance, compared to vision. Tropical rainforest elephants have poor vision but good olfaction, Wrangels island was very different.
Common variations in the BCL9 gene, which is in the distal area, confer risk of schizophrenia and may also be associated with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.[11]
Research is done on 10–12 genes on 1q21.1 that produce DUF1220-locations. DUF1220 is an unknown protein, which is active in the neurons of the brain near the neocortex. Based on research on apes and other mammals, it is assumed that DUF1220 is related to cognitive development (man: 212 locations; chimpanzee: 37 locations; monkey: 30 locations; mouse: 1 location). It appears that the DUF1220-locations on 1q21.1 are in areas that are related to the size and the development of the brain. The aspect of the size and development of the brain is related to autism (macrocephaly) and schizophrenia (microcephaly). It has been proposed that a deletion or duplication of a gene that produces DUF1220-areas might cause growth and development disorders in the brain [12] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1q21.1_deletion_syndrome
DUF1220 is a 65 amino acid protein domain that has undergone a striking human specific copy number expansion, resulting in the addition of over 80 new copies of the domain in humans compared to chimps. DUF1220 copy number increases as a function of a species' evolutionary proximity to humans with a trend of 28 copies being added every million years. The greatest number of copies (>270) is found in human while mice and rats have only 1 copy. DUF1220 sequences have also undergone recent positive selection and, while widely expressed, show high levels of expression in the fetal brain (Diskin et al. 2009) and in neurons (Popesco et al. 2006). The DUF1220 copy number in creases in humans involved both domain amplification and gene duplication (NBPF family), with the great majority of copies mapping to the 1q21.1 region.
Ancient Egyptian Mummy Genomes Suggest an Increase of Sub-Saharan African Ancestry in Post-Roman Periods
Krause et al.
Egypt, located on the isthmus of Africa, is an ideal region to study historical population dynamics due to its geographic location and documented interactions with ancient civilizations in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Particularly, in the first millennium BCE Egypt endured foreign domination leading to growing numbers of foreigners living within its borders possibly contributing genetically to the local population. Here we mtDNA and nuclear DNA from mummified humans recovered from Middle Egypt that span around 1,300 years of ancient Egyptian history from the Third Intermediate to the Roman Period. Our analyses reveal that ancient Egyptians shared more Near Eastern ancestry than present-day Egyptians, who received additional Sub-Saharan admixture in more recent times. This analysis establishes ancient Egyptian mummies as a genetic source to study ancient human history and offers the perspective of deciphering Egypt’s past at a genome-wide level. - - -
xyyman: "It looks like even within Central Africa the extant population are NOT the original inhabitants. I am really interested who these late stone age Africans align with most Can’t wait for the paper. The “phenotype” is a teaser."
---- Xyyman's post:
QUOTE: [146] The Forgotten Significance of the Later Stone Age Sites near Hora Mountain, Mzimba District, Malawi Thompson, Jessica (Emory University), Alan Morris (University of Cape Town), Flora Schilt (University of Tuebingen), Andrew Zipkin (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Kendra Sirak (Emory University) In 1950, J. Desmond Clark led excavations at a Later Stone Age rockshelter at Hora Mountain, a large inselberg overlooking a modern floodplain in the Mzimba District of northern Malawi. At the Hora 1 site, he recovered two human skeletons, one male and one female, along with a rich—but superficially described and undated—cultural sequence. In 2016, our renewed excavations recovered a wealth of lithic, faunal, and other materials such as mollusk shell beads and ochre. Our reexamination of the skeletons also produced the first ancient DNA from the central African region, which together with previous morphological analysis demonstrates that the LSA foragers of the area cannot be readily fit within the known genetic and phenotypic parameters of living foragers. The significance of the Hora 1 site was made further clear by the relocation of several previously known sites also at the mountain, the discovery of four new rock art sites, and the discovery of four very rich new archaeological sites in the mountains adjacent to the floodplain. Here, we describe our renewed work and how it fits with the original findings to offer unprecedented promise for understanding the lifeways of Holocene foragers in central Africa.
xyyman: "Mota will not be lonely for much longer. "
- - - "mollusk shell beads and ochre. Our reexamination of the skeletons also produced the first ancient DNA from the central African region, which together with previous morphological analysis demonstrates that the LSA foragers of the area cannot be readily fit within the known genetic and phenotypic parameters of living foragers"
my comment: Lake Malawi had Aka Fula pygmies when Bantus arrived.
Paleo-Pygmies are ancestral to all people, before Caucasoids/Negroids/Mongoloids/Australoids existed.
"mollusk shell beads and *ochre*."
Significance: Pygmies do NOT use ochre at all, they use a crushed red wood as body paint, this preceded ALL use of ochre anywhere. That finding above indicates a visitor, not a homey.
ebembe/pimple/paint-point/pamphlet/palimpsest - all written scripts began as ceremonial body paint, as for Pygmy (and other) elima/female & nkumbe/male puberty ritual dances.
Cave wall paintings in France etc. are derived from these, and include about 30 standard symbols (spiral, triangle-Y, oval....). cf Genevieve von Petzinger master thesis on ancient scripts.
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Abstracts of the Paleoanthropology Society 2016 Meeting Pages A1 - A34 10.4207/PA.2016.ABS14 PDF | How to cite | Export in BibTex format | Export in RIS format
Articles
Raw Material Exploitation, Transport, and Mobility in the Northern Caucasus Eastern Micoquian Pages 1 - 45 Ekaterina V. Doronicheva, Marianna A. Kulkova, and M. Steven Shackley 10.4207/PA.2016.ART98 PDF | How to cite | Export in BibTex format | Export in RIS format
3.3-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools and Butchery Traces? More Evidence Needed Pages 46 - 53 Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo and Luis Alcalá 10.4207/PA.2016.ART99 PDF | How to cite | Export in BibTex format | Export in RIS format
Archaeology and Context of Hugub, an Important New Late Acheulean Locality in Ethiopia's Northern Rift Pages 58 - 99 William Henry Gilbert, Vladimir B. Doronichev, Liubov V. Golovanova, Leah E. Morgan, Luis Nunez, and Paul Renne 10.4207/PA.2016.ART100 PDF | How to cite | Export in BibTex format | Export in RIS format
Varsche Rivier 003: A Middle and Later Stone Age Site with Still Bay and Howieson's Poort Assemblages in Southern Namaqualand, South Africa Pages 100 - 163 Teresa E. Steele, Alex Mackay, Kathryn E. Fitzsimmons, Marina Igreja, Ben Marwick, Jayson Orton, Steve Schwortz, and Mareike C. Stahlschmidt 10.4207/PA.2016.ART101 Supplementary Documents: journal/content/PA20160100_S01_xSCxZsz.pdf PDF | How to cite | Export in BibTex format | Export in RIS format
Dental Microwear Texture Analysis of Croatian Neandertal Molars Pages 172 - 184 Whitney M. Karriger, Christopher M. Schmidt, and Fred H. Smith 10.4207/PA.2016.ART102 PDF | How to cite | Export in BibTex format | Export in RIS format
The Appendicular Remains of the Kiik-Koba 2 Neandertal Infant Pages 185 - 210 Erik Trinkaus, Maria B. Mednikova, and Libby W. Cowgill 10.4207/PA.2016.ART103 PDF | How to cite | Export in BibTex format | Export in RIS format
Reviews
Straus, L.G. and M.R. González Morales (eds.) -- El Mirón Cave, Cantabrian Spain: The Site and its Holocene Record Pages 54 - 57 Rita Dias 10.4207/PA.2016.REV153 PDF | How to cite | Export in BibTex format | Export in RIS format
Haidel, M.N., N.J. Conard, and M. Bolus (eds.) -- The Nature of Culture: Based on an Interdisciplinary Symposium 'The Nature of Culture,' Tübingen, Germany Pages 164 - 166 Susan Cachel 10.4207/PA.2016.REV154 PDF | How to cite | Export in BibTex format | Export in RIS format
Jones, S.C. and B.A. Stewart (eds.) -- Africa from MIS 6-2: Population Dynamics and Paleoenvironments Pages 167 - 171 Deborah I. Olszewski 10.4207/PA.2016.REV155 PDF | How to cite | Export in BibTex format | Export in RIS format
PLOS article: The pigment palette of Spanish Levantine rock art consists of just three colours: red, black and white, with a clear prevalence of the first throughout the entire relative chronological sequence as well as in most of the Levantine regions. To date little is known regarding the composition, preparation and use of these prehistoric pigments, and subsequently even less is known regarding chronological and geographical variations in these hypothetical chaînes opératoires.
Regarding colour selection, we have yet to identify the motivations behind colour choice, whether they correspond to specific social rules or rather are a function of limited access to mineral or organic raw materials. - - -
"Phoebe A. Hearst from the Museum of Anthropology had suggested that in order to acquire such high-priced and rare paints, the artists must have relied on a vast trading network." - - - (That would be Phoenician/Phoenix/Phuinduix/Poindexter/pintura/paste.l/finger-point|paint|ink/pamphlet/ebembe.) - - -
"Now, with new technology, archaeologists are able to look at the wooden images by studying the pigments, brush strokes, and the wood used to create the pieces. What the researchers discovered actually surprised them because the first pigments had been artificially manufactured. As for the bright colors, it was believed that the artists used them as the final top layer of paint.
However, these wooden portraits had been hidden beneath other colors. After further analysis, researchers realized why the artists paid so much for the pigments as their base coat – the red lead pigment used on the wooden portraits were tested and shown as having come from as far away as Spain. Other pigments used appeared to have been imported from Keos, Greece, and the wood that the portraits were painted on were imported from Central Europe.
Under all of the layers of red and yellow paint, the researchers found that the artists had sketched out the work with a certain pigment called Egyptian Blue, which was very valuable at the time. However, those bright colors were hidden under all the other colors"
The researchers say the animal bones are particularly interesting, revealing a mixture of large fauna including rhinoceros, zebra, bovids (Oryx, hartebeest, gazelles, aurochs, and buffalo), carnivores and ostrich. According to Tunisian co-director of the project Nabiha Aouadi, ‘the faunal assemblage represents a sub-Saharan and savanna biotope very different from the one that exists there today’. The team believes that once the landscape was wet and green, which would have made it an ideal habitat for animals and human settlements.
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