Ancient hand bone dates origins of human dexterity

The styloid process allows the hand to lock into the wrist bones

The discovery of an ancient bone at a burial site in Kenya puts the origin of human hand dexterity more than half a million years earlier than previously thought.

In all ways, the bone - a well-preserved metacarpal that connects to the index finger - resembles that of modern man, PNAS journal reports.

It is the earliest fossilised evidence of when humans developed a strong enough grip to start using tools.

Apes lack the same anatomical features.

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An archaeology plant puzzle: Dr Helen Wickstead on 6,000-year-old finds at Damerham

Dr Helen Wickstead, of Kingston University, on a sink hole of 6,000-year-old plant material at a Neolithic site in Damerham, Hampshire

"We didn't expect to find this and suspect it would have surprised the original architects of the site, too.

The sink hole contained orange sand with a yellow and grey clay. We are very hopeful that, within this material, there will be evidence of plant life which will help us continue to piece together the puzzle of human habitation on this significant site

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Ancient pig-shaped baby bottle found in Italy

Italian archaeologists have discovered an ancient terracotta pig which worked as a toy as well as a modern-day baby bottle.

Italian archaeologists have discovered a 2,400-year-old terracotta pig which worked as a toy as well as a baby bottle [Credit: Gianfranco Dimitri, Archaeological Superintendency of Puglia/Discovery News]

Known as guttus, the unique vessel dates back about 2,400 years, when the “heel” of Italy was inhabited by the Messapian people, a tribal group who migrated from Illyria (a region in the western part of the Balkan peninsula) around 1000 B.C.

Featuring pointy ears and human-like eyes, the pig-shaped guttus featured terracotta rattles in its tummy to apparently encourage the baby to sleep after the meal.

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Stonehenge unveils trip back in time with new £27m visitor centre

It has been decades since visitors to Stonehenge were able to experience what Neolithic man did when he first set foot inside the gigantic stone circle.

With tourists and day-trippers barred since the late Seventies from entering the circle in order to protect the stones from damage, there has been a fierce and long-running debate on how the site should best be displayed.

But on Wednesday a new £27 million centre will open at Stonehengewith a 360 degree cinema at its heart where visitors can “experience” standing in the ancient circle.

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4.4 MILLION YEAR OLD HORSE HELPS UNDERSTAND HOMININ HABITAT

Two teams of researchers have announced the discovery of a new species of fossil horse from 4.4 million-year-old deposits in Ethiopia.

About the size of a small zebra, Eurygnathohippus woldegabrieli had three-toed hooves and grazed the grasslands and shrubby woods in the Afar Region, the scientists say. They report their findings in the November issue of Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Very complex puzzle

The horse fills a gap in the evolutionary history of horses but is also important for documenting how old a fossil locality is and in reconstructing habitats of human forebears of the time, said Scott Simpson, professor of anatomy at Case Western Reserve’s School of Medicine, and co-author of the research. “This horse is one piece of a very complex puzzle that has many, many pieces.”

The researchers found the first E. woldegabrieli teeth and bones in 2001, in the Gona area of the Afar Region. This fossil horse was among the diverse array of animals that lived in the same areas as the ancient human ancestor Ardipithecus ramidus, commonly called Ardi.

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Wars of the Roses bodies found in hotel grounds near Harlech Castle

Archaeologists believe three bodies found in the grounds of Harlech's old Queen's Hotel date from the days when the castle was almost permanently under siege

Workers building a new visitor centre next to Harlech Castle may have stumbled on the remains of three people who may have been caught up in the Wars of the Roses.

The bodies were found  near the grounds of the Castle Hotel last Thursday.

Historic monuments group Cadw suggests building foundations also dating back to medieval times have been found at the site.

Archaeology Wales are carrying out further excavations in the hope of finding more human remains.

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Double graves with headless slaves

In the Viking era, a number of slaves were beheaded and then buried together with their masters. New methods of skeleton analysis reveal more about the life of the poor more than a thousand years ago.

In 1975, three intact skeletons from the Iron Age were found on the Tommeide farm in Tomma. Naumann interprets this as a family grave. - Despite possible kinship between them, probably as members of the same household, the child nevertheless had a diet that was different from that of the two adults during the last years of their lives. (Photo: Anne Stalsberg, NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet)

How was life for common people in Norway during the period 400–1050 AD? Can we learn more? Yes, according to Elise Naumann, research scholar in archaeology. By using isotope analysis to examine ancient skeletons, she has made several remarkable discoveries. The research results from the analysis of skeletons found at Flakstad in Lofoten have also been reported in the American newspaper USA Today.

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Nutrients in food vital to location of early human settlements

Research led by the University of Southampton has found that early humans were driven by a need for nutrient-rich food to select 'special places' in northern Europe as their main habitat. Evidence of their activity at these sites comes in the form of hundreds of stone tools, including handaxes.

A study led by physical geographer at Southampton Professor Tony Brown, in collaboration with archaeologist Dr Laura Basell at Queen's University Belfast, has found that sites popular with our early human ancestors, were abundant in foods containing nutrients vital for a balanced diet. The most important sites, dating between 500,000 to 100,000 years ago were based at the lower end of river valleys, providing ideal bases for early hominins - early humans who lived before Homo sapiens (us).

Professor Brown says: "Our research suggests that floodplain zones closer to the mouth of a river provided the ideal place for hominin activity, rather than forested slopes, plateaus or estuaries. The landscape in these locations tended to be richer in the nutrients critical for maintaining population health and maximising reproductive success."

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Voting now open!

December 10, 2013 By Emma Watts-Plumpkin Filed Under: Articles

Every year, the Current Archaeology Awards celebrate the projects and publications that have made the pages of Current Archaeology over the 12 months, and the people judged to have made outstanding contributions to archaeology.  Now in it’s 6th year, we have just announced the latest nominees.

To find out more about the nominees in each category, click on the links below:

Archaeologist of the Year
Book of the Year
Rescue Dig of the Year
Research Project of the Year

These awards are voted for entirely the public – there are no panels of judges – so we encourage you to get involved and choose the projects, publications, and people who you would like to win.

To cast your votes, click here.

Revealed: how prehistoric 'des res' gave Stone Age Brits a perfect diet

25-site survey shows that early humans chose predominantly to live on islands in the flood plains of major rivers

Stone Age Brits were past masters at choosing the perfect ‘des res’, according to new research carried out by archaeologists.

Their investigations have revealed that, 300,000 years before the emergence of anatomically modern humans, prehistoric Britons were selecting their domestic real estate with tremendous care.

Nutritional and security considerations appear to have been the main criteria, according to the new research carried out by scholars at the University of Southampton and Queen's University, Belfast.

A survey of 25 major British and north-west French sites dating from 500,000 to 200,000 years ago has revealed that early humans – members of the now long-extinct species Homo heidelbergensis – predominantly chose to live on islands in the flood plains of major rivers. They avoided  forests and hills – and the upper and middle reaches of river systems,  and their estuaries.

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Sumatra coastal cave records stunning tsunami history

The cave retains the deposits washed ashore by huge waves over thousands of years

A cave on the northwestern coast of Sumatra holds a remarkable record of big tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.

The limestone opening, close to Banda Aceh, retains the sandy deposits washed ashore by huge, earthquake-induced waves over thousands of years.

Scientists are using the site to help determine the frequency of catastrophes like the event of 26 December 2004.

This is being done by dating the cave's tsunami-borne sediments, which are easy to see between layers of bat droppings.

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Discovery of Partial Skeleton Suggests Ruggedly Built, Tree-Climbing Human Ancestor

A human ancestor characterized by "robust" jaw and skull bones was a muscular creature with a gorilla-like upper body and more adaptive to its environment than previously thought, scientists have discovered.

Researchers found a partial skeleton -- including arm, hand, leg and foot fragments -- dated to 1.34 million years old and belonging to Paranthropus boisei at the Olduvai Gorge World Heritage fossil site in Tanzania. The find, published in the latest edition of the scientific journal PLOS ONE, represents one of the most recent occurrences ofP. boisei before its extinction in East Africa.

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Online in 3D: the 'grotesque beauty' of medieval Britons' diseased bones

Digitised Diseases site makes 1,600 specimens available for doctors and members of the public to study for free

A deformed skull, one of the 1,600 specimens available to explore in 3D on the Digitised Diseases website from Monday.

The bones of a young woman who died of syphilis more than 500 years ago, the reassembled jaw of a man whose corpse was sold to surgeons at the London hospital in the 19th century and the contorted bone of an 18th-century man who lived for many years after he was shot through the leg, are among the remains of hundreds of individuals which can now be studied in forensic detail on a new website.

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Neolithic tridents discovered in northern England

Tullie House museum  in Carlisle, Northwest England, has been donated two very rare Neolithic wooden tridents by Cumbria County Council and is putting them on display for the public to give their theories onwhat they were used for.

Tridents on display. Image Tullie House Museum [Credit: © Tullie House
Museum and Art Gallery Trust]

The two tridents were discovered during the archaeological excavations prior to the construction of the Carlisle Northern Development Route (CNDR), and add to the mystery surrounding identical finds in Cumbria and Northern Ireland around 200 years ago.

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Late Stone Age settlement unearthed on Cyprus

Artifacts found at an archaeological site in Cyprus support a new theory that humans occupied the tiny Mediterranean island about 1,000 years earlier than previously believed – a discovery that fills an important gap in Cypriot history.

Archaeology Centre research fellow Sally Stewart holds replicas of stone tools and decorative
jewellery found on Cyprus dating back to the Late Stone Age [Credit: Jessica Lewis]

Excavations at Ayia Varvara-Asprokremnos (AVA) by archaeologists from the University of Toronto, Cornell University and the University of Cyprus have uncovered, among other objects, the earliest complete human figurine on the island. The site has been carbon-dated to between 8800-8600 BC, near the beginning of the Neolithic Period – also known as the Late Stone Age – when the transition from hunting to farming economies was occurring throughout the Middle East.

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Google ME View: Giant now lets anyone map their surroundings and upload them using a smartphone

Google’s Street View project has mapped the landmarks of Venice, the interiors of train stations and even the Large Hadron Collider.

But now anyone can document views of their favourite locations, which might not have been visited by Google’s cameras.

Members of the public can use an Android smartphone or camera to take photographs and transform them into 'photo spheres' using ‘Views’, which is a new feature of Google Maps.

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Serbian Archaeologist Finds 4,000-Year-Old Chariot

Pirot – During the protective archaeological works, carried out in parallel with the construction of Corridor 10, archaeologist Zoran Mitic found the remains of beautifully decorated chariot, assumed to be aged between 3,000 and 4,000 years and to have belonged to a Thracian from the elite of the time.

According to Mitic, this an unique and extremely important item, which he found near the village of Stanicenje.

“This is a chariot, drawn by two horses. My assumption is that the chariot belonged to a Thracian citizen,” Mitic told Tanjug.

He said that this is backed by the fact that, at the location where the chariot was found, was also found a tumulus – a tomb.

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Google lets users create own Street View

Google said the new tool will help it expand the reach and uses of Street View

Google has unveiled a new tool that allows users to create a Street View - a 360 degree virtual tour - of any place and share it using Google Maps.

These can be created by using photos taken by an Android phone or DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera.

The tool lets users connect various photos and, once published, people can navigate between them on Google Maps.

Google said the move will allow it to expand the reach as well as the uses of its maps service.

(Could be useful for virtual site tours!)

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Isotope analysis reveals diet of beheaded Viking slaves

In the Viking era, a number of slaves were beheaded and then buried together with their masters. New methods of skeleton analysis reveal more about the life of the poor more than a thousand years ago.

In 1975, three intact skeletons from the Iron Age were found on the Tommeide farm in Tomma. Naumann interprets this as a family grave. - Despite possible kinship between them, probably as members of the same household, the child nevertheless had a diet that was different from that of the two adults during the last years of their lives [Credit: Anne Stalsberg, NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet]

How was life for common people in Norway during the period 400–1050 AD? Can we learn more? Yes, according to Elise Naumann, research scholar in archaeology. By using isotope analysis to examine ancient skeletons, she has made several remarkable discoveries. The research results from the analysis of skeletons found at Flakstad in Lofoten have also been reported in the American newspaper USA Today.

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Ancient skeleton found in North Yorkshire sewer trench

The discovery was made by contractors working on sewers under Sutton Street in Norton-on-Derwent

An ancient skeleton, thought to date back to Roman Britain, has been discovered in a sewer trench.

Contractors from Yorkshire Water were installing sewers in Norton near Malton when they made the discovery.

Chris Pole, of Northern Archaeological Associates, said the site was formerly a Roman cemetery.

The "remarkably intact" skeleton has been removed for tests to determine its age, sex, and, if possible, a cause of death.

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Leg bone gives up oldest human DNA

The Pit of Bones has yielded one of the richest assemblages of human bones from this era

The discovery of DNA in a 400,000-year-old human thigh bone will open up a new frontier in the study of our ancestors.

That's the verdict cast by human evolution experts on an analysis in Nature journal of the oldest human genetic material ever sequenced.

The femur comes from the famed "Pit of Bones" site in Spain, which gave up the remains of at least 28 ancient people.

But the results are perplexing, raising more questions than answers about our increasingly complex family tree.

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Building is underway at The new Wessex Gallery of Archaeology, The Salisbury Museum

Anglo-Saxon satchel mount c.700 AD. Gold and Silver foils with repoussé decoration. 

Found with the burial of an Anglo-Saxon ‘princess’ at Swallowcliffe, Salisbury.

Amesbury Archer Gold Hair Tresses - 2,300 BC. The oldest gold objects found in Britain, 

Copyright Ken Geiger/National Geographic.

Polished macehead made from gneiss found with a cremation burial at Stonehenge,  3,000 – 2,500 BC.

Building is underway at The new Wessex Gallery of Archaeology, 

The Salisbury Museum

Building has begun on the new Wessex Gallery at the Salisbury Museum, which will make it clear for the first time exactly why Salisbury and it’s nearby World Heritage Sites hold a unique place in British history.

The new gallery will be of international importance, telling the story of Salisbury and the surrounding area from prehistoric times to the Norman Conquest. Realm Projects, the Nottinghamshire based builders who worked on the Hepworth Wakefield and The Jewish Museum, have been contracted to complete the works.

“By Christmas this year the major construction work will be complete,” said museum director Adrian Green with a gleam in his eye. “In roughly seven months, the new Wessex Gallery will be ready.”

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Neolithic sink hole uncovered near Stonehenge

An archaeology team led by an academic from London's Kingston University has delved back into a Neolithic site at Damerham, Hampshire, and uncovered a sink hole of material that may hold vital information about the plant species that thrived there 6,000 years ago.

An archaeology team led by a Kingston University academic has delved back into a Neolithic site at Damerham, Hampshire, and uncovered a sink hole of material that may hold vital information about the plant species thriving there 6,000 years ago [Credit: Kingston University]

Dr Helen Wickstead said the find was completely unexpected and had initially confused the team digging on the farmland. This is the sixth year of the project at Damerham, located about 15 miles from the iconic British monument Stonehenge, with four areas of a temple complex excavated during the summer. The surprise came in the largest of the openings, approximately 40 metres long, where careful extractions revealed a layer of uncharacteristic orange sand and clay. Typically the archaeological survey would involve mapping and cataloguing such finds as bone, pottery and tool-making waste fragments.

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Treasure trove reveals Iron Age town

Västra Vång in Blekinge is now a sleepy rural community on Sweden’s southern Baltic coast. It has never been mentioned in ancient or medieval writings. So why are gold figurines and bronze busts turning up there?

Perhaps the locals should have had suspected there was a wealth of history in the soil beneath them. Several discoveries in the past and more recently show that long ago, this spot was out of the ordinary. 

Burial mounds from the Viking Age abound here. In the 1860s residents dug up a six kg Viking treasure consisting of jewellery and over 4,000 silver coins. But archaeologists are now making discoveries that suggest this place was a significant, but unmapped centre.

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Medieval mass grave found at Durham University site

Durham University archaeologists have found the remains of many more human bodies at a dig on the City’s World Heritage Site, providing clear evidence of a centuries-old mass grave. The number of bodies found has risen from four to 18.

Archaeologists discover more remains at University site
[Credit: Durham University]

Experts first thought they had uncovered remains of Durham Cathedral’s medieval cemetery, whose boundaries may have extended further than the present day burial site.

But further investigation has revealed an unorthodox and intriguing layout to the bodies which archaeologists say is proof of a mass burial.

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Archaeologists looking for Stonehenge origins 'are digging in wrong place'

One of the mysteries of Stonehenge is how some of its stones were brought from Pembrokeshire in Wales to Wiltshire. Photograph: I Capture Photography/Alamy

For almost a century archaeologists have been braving the wind and rain on an exposed Welsh hillside in an attempt to solve one of the key mysteries of Stonehenge.

But new research about to be published suggests that over the decades they may have been chipping away at the wrong rocky outcrop on thePreseli Hills in Pembrokeshire.

The work in the hills is a crucial element in the understanding ofStonehenge because it is generally accepted that the bluestones that form part of the ancient Wiltshire monument came from this remote spot in south-west Wales. One of the many huge puzzles remains how the bluestone from Wales travelled 190 miles to the heart of south-west England.

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NEOLITHIC DEATH RITUAL INCLUDES EARLIEST EVIDENCE FOR EUROPEAN BEER

Spanish excavations in Can Sadurní cave (Begues, Barcelona) have discovered four human skeletons dated to about 6,400 years ago. The skeletal remains of the individuals are particularly important as they are in a very good state of preservation.

An archaeological campaign carried out previously identified other individuals which were not so well preserved but belong to the same stratigraphic layer.

Archaeologists excavating  in 1999, also discovered within the cave, evidence for the earliest European beer, which may have been included as part of  the death ritual.

Excavations at Can Sadurní are carried out by Col·lectiu per la Investigació de la Prehistòria i l’Arqueologia del Garraf-Ordal (CIPAG), together with the Seminar of Studies and Prehistoric Research (SERP) of the University of Barcelona.

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Basilica excavation

The Cyprus Antiquities Department, supported by members of the Defence Archaeological Group, have been excavating a 7th century Basilica in the area of RAF Akrotiri recently.

The excavation, which is now in sixth year, is a significant discovery and as experts continue to unearth more of the ancient ruin, there is enough evidence to suggest it was a building of enormous importance. 

The huge site, estimated to have been the size of Westminster Abbey, which the Antiquities Department dates back to approximately 616, is believed to have been a holding area for holy relics brought over from Jerusalem and boasts an incredible wealth of stunning mosaics – now protected with special gravel – marble, gold leaf trimmings, bronze and statues.

And according to Eleni Procopiou, an area officer for the Antiquities Department, its discovery should not be underestimated.

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Ancient board game piece unearthed at Lyminge dig

A 7th century board game piece, the first discovery of its kind for 130 years, has been unearthed in Kent by University of Reading archaeologists.

The piece is made from a hollow cylinder of bone and has a central bronze
rivet [Credit: University of Reading]

Researchers believe the hollow bone cylinder found at the Lyminge dig belongs to an early backgammon or draughts-type games set.

It was found in the remains of an Anglo-Saxon royal hall where board games were traditionally very popular.

Project leader Dr Gabor Thomas called it a "wonderfully evocative discovery".

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Gambling of high-living Anglo-Saxons revealed by archaeological find

The Anglo-Saxon gaming piece found in the Kent village of Lyminge.
Photograph: Design and Print Studio/University of Reading

It would have been a very expensive toy, expertly crafted and imported across the Channel – and archaeologists say it provides a glimpse of the luxurious life of Anglo-Saxon nobles in 7th-century Kent.

The little gaming piece is the only one discovered at an Anglo-Saxon habitation site, although many cruder examples have been found in graves. It is the first piece of such quality found since the excavation of a princely grave in Buckinghamshire in the 1880s.

"This piece comes from a high-end – Harrods – backgammon set," the Reading University archaeologist Gabor Thomas said. "Not only high-end but quite possibly Italian – Ferrari – high-end, as the best parallels outside England are from the 6th-century Lombard kingdom. If such pieces are indeed of Lombardic manufacture, then the implication is that the kings of Kent enjoyed the latest fashions in gaming culture, courtesy of their far-reaching continental contacts."

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Swedish woman finds 2,000-year-old gold ring

A woman was left gobsmacked when she learned the gold ring she stumbled across in a field was 2,000 years old.

The ring is made of Roman gold [Credit: Camilla Lundin]

 "I walk through that field several times a week. At first I thought it was one of the little rings we put around the chickens’ feet," Camilla Lundin, 51, told The Local. "I thought it was strange that it was so far away from home."

Lundin took the ring home and showed her husband, who also didn't believe it was anything special. But Lundin took a picture which she sent to her brother, who immediately told her it was a treasure.

"When he told me it was an ancient gold ring, it felt like a gift from the underworld," Lundin told The Local. "It was my magnificent ring. I didn’t want to give it up."

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6,400 year-old burials found in Spanish cave

Excavations in Can Sadurní cave (Begues, Barcelona) have discovered four human skeletons dated at about 6,400 years ago which were buried following an unknown ritual in the Iberian Peninsula. Few caves have necropolis dated at such an ancient period: the beginning of Middle Neolithic.

In the case of the remains which have just been found, a light landslide from the outer part took place when corpses were quite complete or they had just began the decomposition process; it protected corpses, so they have remained in the position in which they were buried [Credit: University of Barcelona]

In addition, remains are particularly important as they are nearly complete. In fact, a campaign carried out previously identified some buried bodies, which were not so well preserved but belong to the same sepulchral layer, and the most ancient European remains of beer consumption. Excavations at Can Sadurní are carried out by Col·lectiu per la Investigació de la Prehistòria i l’Arqueologia del Garraf-Ordal (CIPAG), together with the Seminar of Studies and Prehistoric Research (SERP) of the UB.

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Limoges enamelled plaque: a dazzling object

Decorated with jewel-like enamelled colours and covered in gilding, this Limoges enamelled plaque found on the Isle of Wight, would have been a dazzling religious item for its original owner.

The plaque bears the image of a winged man, standing on a wave-like cloud, who most likely represents Matthew, one of the four Evangelists who created the four gospel accounts of the New Testament, in the Christian Bible. The plaque is church shaped, formed of a steep roof topped with an orb and cross. On the other side the plaque is recessed, and pierced by a hole, indicating that this small piece may have been attached to something much larger – quite what, we don’t really know.

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NEANDERTHAL STRING THEORY

In a further study of Neanderthal occupation at Abri du Maras, Ardèche in France, the evidence is stacking up to support the view that this group was behaviourally flexible and capable of creating a variety of sophisticated tools including projectile points and more importantly, cord and string.

Fibrous materials that can be used to create cords are difficult to find in the archaeological record and have usually rotted away, so the oldest known string dated back only 30,000 years.  However, perforations in small stone and tooth artefacts as well as shells from other Neanderthal sites in France suggested the pieces had once been threaded on string and worn as pendants.

Bruce Hardy at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, explains that “The wear patterns provide circumstantial evidence of early use of string, but the evidence is not definitive.”  These items could also have been threaded onto animal sinew.

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Another piece in Stonehenge rock source puzzle

The chances of Stonehenge's spotted dolerites not coming from Carn Goedog are 'infinitesimally small'

Research to be published this month may bring us a step closer to understanding how bluestones from Pembrokeshire ended up at Stonehenge.

Scientists from Aberystwyth University, University College London and National Museum of Wales have located the specific outcrop, Carn Goedog, in the Preseli Mountains.

This is where the distinctive spotted dolerites originated.

The findings are to be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Geologist Herbert Henry Thomas first proposed in 1923 that the rocks which form the giant inner ring were specifically quarried for Stonehenge by Neolithic man around 5,000 years ago, and were hauled to Wiltshire via land and sea.

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