Skull Find Could Change Picture of Early Human Evolutionary History

We may have to change some thinking about early human evolution in a major way, suggests researchers, after studying new fossil finds at the site of Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia. What has previously been thought to be separate ancient human species - Homo erectus,Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, and Homo ergaster, for example, may actually be variations of one and the same species. This is the conclusion of a recent examination of fossil finds uncovered at this, the world's earliest known hominid site outside of Africa.

The new report describes the analysis of a complete, approximately 1.8-million-year-old cranium that was discovered in 2005 by scientists who, 5 years earlier, uncovered its corresponding mandible (jaw) at the same location. Combined, these fossils now constitute the most complete adult ancient human ancestor skull known to be identified with the Early Pleistocene genus of Homo (the genus of great apes that includes modern humans and species closely related to them). The Early Pleistocene time period ranged between 2.588 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago) and 0.781 ± 0.005 Ma.

Read the rest of this article...

1.8M-year-old skull gives glimpse of our evolution, suggests early man was single species

In this photo taken Oct. 2, 2013, in Tbilisi, Georgia, David Lordkipanidze, director of the Georgia National Museum, holds a pre-human skull found in 2005 in the ground at the medieval village Dmanisi, Georgia.

The discovery of a 1.8-million-year-old skull of a human ancestor buried under a medieval Georgian village provides a vivid picture of early evolution and indicates our family tree may have fewer branches than some believe, scientists say.

The fossil is the most complete pre-human skull uncovered. With other partial remains previously found at the rural site, it gives researchers the earliest evidence of human ancestors moving out of Africa and spreading north to the rest of the world, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

The skull and other remains offer a glimpse of a population of pre-humans of various sizes living at the same time—something that scientists had not seen before for such an ancient era. This diversity bolsters one of two competing theories about the way our early ancestors evolved, spreading out more like a tree than a bush.

Read the rest of this article...

Archaeologists rediscover the lost home of the last Neanderthals

A record of Neanderthal archaeology, thought to be long lost, has been re-discovered by NERC-funded scientists working in the Channel island of Jersey.

The study, published today in the Journal of Quaternary Science, reveals that a key archaeological site has preserved geological deposits which were thought to have been lost through excavation 100 years ago.

The discovery was made when the team undertook fieldwork to stabilise and investigate a portion of the La Cotte de St Brelade cave, on Jersey's south eastern coastline.

A large portion of the site contains sediments dating to the last Ice Age, preserving 250,000 years of climate change and archaeological evidence.

Read the rest of this article...

Bulgaria archaeologists find ancient wine cellar

A team of archaeologists, headed by Associate Professor Aneliya Bozhkova with the National Archaeological Institute with Museum with the Bulgarian Academy of Science, and Petya Kiyashkina with the Ancient Nesebar Museum, discovered a perfectly preserved cellar with amphorae from the V BC, over the last days of the archaeological excavations in the Bulgarian coastal town of Nesebar, the press office of Nesebar Municipality announced.

The research is organised under a project of the Ancient Nesebar Museum, financed by the Ministry of Culture, with the participation of experts in archaeology. 

The ancient amphorae warehouse was dug in deep into the ground along the northern coast of the peninsula, which preserved it from the encroachment of time and the following cultural layers. 

Read the rest of this article...

Blow to multiple human species idea

The 1.8 million-year-old skull is the most complete hominid skull ever found

The idea that there were several different human species walking the Earth two million years ago has been dealt a blow.

Instead, scientists say early human fossils found in Africa and Eurasia may have been part of the same species.

Writing in the journal Science, the team says that Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis and Homo erectus are all part of a single evolving lineage that led to modern humans.

But others in the field reject this.

A team looked at the most complete hominid skull ever found, which was uncovered in Dmanisi, Georgia.

Read the rest of this article...

Unlocking the mysteries of Israel's Tel Dor

It's cold. It's silent. It's murky. It's the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and it's the hangout of choice for students of maritime archaeology, seeking clues to the dawn of modern man. Or in the case of participants on Haifa University’s new English MA in Maritime Civilizations, signs of a harbor at the ancient site of Tel Dor.

View of Tel Dor [Credit: nexttriptourism]

The Tel Dor expedition, some 30 kilometers south of Haifa, is a collaboration between Dr. Assaf Yasur-Landau and Dr. Ayelet Gilboa of the University of Haifa, and Prof. Ilan Sharon of the Hebrew University. Students of the new English-language program, which started its second year this fall, take part in underwater surveys of Tel Dor mostly in shallow waters but also at depths of up to 10 meters of water.

Read the rest of this article...

A Roman bathhouse still in use after 2,000 years

Roman ruins are rarely boisterous places, full of noise, laughter and life. But Edward Lewis stumbled across one that is - a place to have a daily wash, and to enjoy the companionship of friends, just as it was for the Romans who built it.

Observing middle-aged men swathed in white foamy soapsuds is not something I would normally write home about and it certainly wasn't why I was in north-east Algeria.

I had come to look at the Roman baths in Khenchela and had overlooked the fact that for many of the local population the attraction was not the ancient architecture or remarkable state of preservation but the fact there was a free and plentiful supply of hot water - still feeding into two open air baths.

Read the rest of this article...

A VIKING WHITEWASH

Peter Steen Henriksen and Sandie Holst excavate Denmark's oldest lime kiln. Photo: National Museum.

It was already known that Iron Age Danes whitewashed their houses and halls with lime to protect clay walls against wind and weather. However it wasn’t clear whether they created their their own lime, or if it was sourced from elsewhere.

Now Danish National Museum archaeologists have found the answer in the rich Viking settlement at Tissø, Zealand. In the spring of 2013 they excavated the first lime kiln from the Danish Late Iron Age, the oldest found in Denmark.

Burning slaked lime

The researchers examined a kiln used to burn slaked lime around the the middle of 800s CE. National Museum archaeologist Sandie Holst explained that, “We knew in advance that the great halls and buildings of Fuglede farmhouse were whitewashed because of previously excavated daub with traces of white chalk, but now we have proof that the limestone was burned in the immediate area” .

Read the rest of this article...

Frogs' legs may have been English delicacy 8,000 years before France

Blick Mead, near Stonehenge, where a charred toad's leg was found. Photograph: University of Buckingham/PA

If you're French, asseyez-vous, s'il vous plait. Archaeologists digging about a mile away from Stonehenge have made a discovery that appears to overturn centuries of received wisdom: frogs' legs were an English delicacy around eight millennia before becoming a French one.

The shock revelation was made public on Tuesday by a team which has been digging at a site known as Blick Mead, near Amesbury in Wiltshire. Team leader David Jacques said: "We were completely taken aback."

In April they discovered charred bones of a small animal, and, following assessment by the Natural History Museum, it has been confirmed that there is evidence the toad bones were cooked and eaten. "They would have definitely eaten the leg because it would have been quite big and juicy," said Jacques.

Read the rest of this article...

Discovery that brings forgotten church back to life

IT IS a discovery which ranks as one of the most treasured finds to be unearthed yet in an archaeological dig spanning more than a decade.

Archaeologists carried out initial investigations at the Hungate site in the centre of York at the turn of the Millennium, but have only now managed to pinpoint the location of a forgotten church which gives a fascinating insight into life during the medieval era.

The remains of the Church of St John The Baptist, more commonly known as St John’s in the Marsh, have been found as part of the most extensive dig that York has seen since the early 1980s ahead of a £150m housing and retail development.

Read the rest of this article...

Landscape Archeaology: Forty Years on

Landscape Archeaology: Forty Years on
Lecturer: Trevor Rowley
6pm Friday 6 December 2013
To be held at the Rewley House Lecture Theatre, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JA

The OUDCE is sponsoring an annual lecture on landscape archaeology in memory of Mick Aston, who sadly died earlier this year. Mick was tutor in local studies in the Department for Continuing Education before moving to Bristol University as Staff Tutor in Archaeology. Earlier he had made a major contribution to the archaeology of Oxfordshire through his work on the Sites and Monuments Record, then based at the City and Count Museum, Woodstock.

In this lecture Trevor will discuss the thinking behind Landscape Archaeology, a book which went on to have a significant impact on the development of field archaeology in Britain.

Download an application form...

Bronze Age Europe – the first Industrial revolution

s part of a larger pan-European study investigating the Bronze Age of Europe, an archaeologist from the University of Gothenburg has provided the first evidence of long distance travel by an individual – probably from southern Sweden – into the territory of the Únětice culture of Silesia.

The doctoral thesis confirms evidence based on bioarchaeological data.

A traveller from Sweden

‘Over 3800 years ago, a young male, possibly born in Skåne, made a journey of over 900 kilometres south, to Wroclaw in Poland”. concludes Dalia Pokutta, author of the thesis. He met his end violently in Wroclaw, killed in the territory of the Úněticean farmers. His remains were discovered in association with two local females, who had been killed at the same time.

Read the rest of this article...

Amesbury dig 'could explain' Stonehenge history

A group of archaeologists is undertaking a major dig in Wiltshire, which it is hoped could explain why Stonehenge was built where it was. 

The team, which consists of leading experts in the Mesolithic period, also hopes to confirm Amesbury as the oldest continuous settlement in the UK. 

The site already boasts the biggest collection of flints and cooked animal bones in north-western Europe.

Read the rest of this article...

UW archaeologists have discovered legion barracks in Bulgaria

The barracks occupied by the 8th Roman legion of Augustus in the middle of the 1st century AD have been discovered by a team of researchers from the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Centre, University of Warsaw, during the excavation in Novae near Svishtov, Bulgaria.

"The structure consisted of a series of segments of equal sizes. The segments consisted of one big and one small room, the dimensions of which underwent modifications in the subsequent phases of the settlement. The barrack was about 16 meters wide and 42 meters long" - explained Prof. Piotr Dyczek , head of the expedition.
 
The remains indicate that the support structure were large wooden poles, while smaller dowels sustained braid covered with soil. In the last phase, the exterior walls were covered with white plaster. The system of small dowels inside large rooms suggests, according to the researchers, that there could be bunk beds in the corners. There were wooden shelves in the vestibules.

Read the rest of this article...

Iron Age camp unearthed at UK quarry

Archaeologists have unearthed an Iron Age enclosure while excavating land at the edge of a working quarry.

Archaeologists are excavating land close to Potgate Quarry [Credit: Steve Timms/BBC]

It is thought the encampment discovered at Potgate Quarry, near Ripon, was home to several families from as early as 130BC before being abandoned.

Dig leader Steve Timms said the site was later brought back into use in the early Roman period as a paddock.
Read the rest of this article...

Forscher enträtseln die Bevölkerungsentwicklung Europas in der Jungsteinzeit

Die bisher umfangreichste und detaillierteste genetische Studie zur Besiedlungsgeschichte Europas während des Neolithikums ergab deutliche Hinweise auf vier wesentliche Migrationsereignisse in der Zeit zwischen dem 6. und 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Für die heute in Science veröffentlichte Studie untersuchten Anthropologen aus Mainz und Adelaide in Kooperation mit Archäologen aus Halle (Saale) hunderte DNA-Proben von jungsteinzeitlichen Skelettfunden aus dem Mittelelbe-Saale-Gebiet.

Read the rest of this article...

European origins laid bare by DNA

DNA from ancient skeletons has revealed how a complex patchwork of prehistoric migrations fashioned the modern European gene pool.

The study appears to refute the picture of Europeans as a simple mixture of indigenous hunters and Near Eastern farmers who arrived 7,000 years ago.

The findings by an international team have beenpublished in Science journal.

DNA was analysed from 364 skeletons unearthed in Germany - an important crossroads for prehistoric cultures.

Read the rest of this article...

 

Posted with Blogsy

Link to Oetzi the Iceman found in living Austrians

Austrian scientists have found that 19 Tyrolean men alive today are related to Oetzi the Iceman, whose 5,300-year-old frozen body was found in the Alps.

Their relationship was established through DNA analysis by scientists from the Institute of Legal Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University.

The men have not been told about their connection to Oetzi. The DNA tests were taken from blood donors in Tyrol.

Read the rest of this article...

 

Posted with Blogsy

Shock Bronze Age find 'changes history'

Archaeologists in northern Sweden have located the remains of a farm from the Bronze Age, a find which challenges the established history of the area around Umeå and the province of Norrland.

 

"It is completely unique," Jan Heinerud at Västerbotten's Museum in Umeå told The Local on Friday. "We have never previously found a long house like this so far north."

The farm was discovered in the area between Backen and Klabböle in an area known as Klockaråkern and it is thought that the farm was in use for almost 600 years from around 1100 BC.

Read the rest of this article...

Lidar reveals New Forest's hidden secrets

Scrambling through the dense forest undergrowth looking for signs from the past may not sound like your average archaeological expedition. 

The Lidar map shows how another Bronze Age barrow, to the left of the damaged one,
has been flattened to make the other larger [Credit: BBC]

But a project in the New Forest National Park is discovering hundreds of new historical sites which have never been recorded before.

With the help of a technique known as Lidar - a laser beamed from a plane - a detailed 3D map of the terrain underneath the forest canopy has been created. 

Read the rest of this article...