Prehistoric Tools Uncovered in Northern England

CUMBRIA, ENGLAND—An excavation conducted in northern England ahead of a road improvement project along an ancient pathway has uncovered flint tools dated to the Upper Paleolithic period, according to a Newsweek report. The tools could be between 10,000 and 14,000 years old, when the climate would have been colder. Hunter-gatherers likely followed herds of reindeer, wild horses, and wild cattle over a wide range, said archaeologist Stephen Rowland. The tools were found in a pit that had been sealed by soil that washed down a nearby slope. The researchers will look for traces of an encampment that may have also been preserved through the same process. To read about monuments uncovered during construction of Cambridgeshire's A14 roadway, go to "Letter from England: Building a Road Through History."

Stolen Ramesses II Sculpture Returned to Egypt

CAIRO, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that a fragment of a sculpture of Ramesses II stolen some 30 years ago was handed over to Egyptian authorities by Swiss officials. The 3,400-year-old carving, which shows the pharaoh’s face, was taken from the Ramesses II temple in Abydos. The sculpture originally featured Ramesses II with a group of deities. It was recovered in Geneva during a criminal proceeding. To read about recent finds at the temple of Ramesses II in Abydos, go to "Ram Heads for Ramesses."

Bear Bone Engraved by Neanderthals Studied

WROCŁAW, POLAND—IFL Science reports that a team of researchers led by Tomasz Płonka and Andrzej Wiśniewski of the University of Wrocław has examined an engraved bear bone with microscopy and X-ray computed tomography. Discovered in the 1950s in southern Poland’s Dziadowa Skała Cave, the bone has been dated to between 115,000 and 130,000 years ago, and is thought to have been engraved by Neanderthals. The researchers determined that the marks on the bone are orderly, and do not resemble marks made by butchery or accident, or as a side-effect of another activity. Experiments aimed at recreating the marks show that they were made by a right-handed person using a retouched stone tool using repeated movements, all in one direction. All of the marks are also thought to have been made at the same time, perhaps as decoration or as numerical notation. The researchers concluded that the incisions are evidence for the use of symbols. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Journal of Archaeological Science. To read about the earliest known bone point, go to "The Bone Collector."

Bottles of 18th-Century Cherries Discovered at Mount Vernon

MOUNT VERNON, VIRGINIA—According to a Washington Post report, two bottles containing liquid and some surviving cherries have been uncovered in the dirt basement of George Washington’s plantation home. The excavation was conducted as part of a project to conserve the mansion’s foundation. Archaeologist Jason Boroughs said that much of the liquid in the bottles may be groundwater that entered the vessels after their corks had deteriorated. While emptying the bottles, members of the research team found pits, stems, cherries, and gooey residues. “It actually smelled like cherry blossoms when we got to the bottom,” Boroughs said. The contents were placed in small containers for later analysis. Conservator Lily Carhart determined that the bottles were imported from England in the mid-eighteenth century, and were likely filled with cherries picked at Mount Vernon by enslaved people, then buried in the storage area between 1758 and 1776. “There are eighteenth-century accounts that talk about proper ways of preserving fruits and vegetables,” Boroughs explained. “One of the most common, especially for berries, is to dry them as much as possible… put them in a dry bottle, cork it… and then bury them,” he added. Treated in this manner, the fruit was expected to last for a year. Additional bottles may yet be recovered as the project continues. To read about artifacts uncovered at the site of a 1754 battle where troops were led by Washington, go to "Around the World: Pennsylvania."

300-Year-Old Medical Prosthesis Found in Poland

KRAKOW, POLAND—Live Science reports that an eighteenth-century palatal obturator has been found with the remains of a man with a cleft palate who was buried in a crypt at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Krakow in the eighteenth century. The prosthesis measures about an inch long and consists of a woolen pad sewn to a metallic plate that would have fit into his nasal cavity and blocked substances in the mouth from entering it. The wool pad is thought to have been coated in silver iodide and then covered with a thin sheet of copper and then gold and silver, based upon analysis with a scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The device would have also helped the man to swallow, breath, and talk, explained Anna Spinek of the Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. To read about the burial of a sixth-century Lombard warrior who appears to have worn a prosthetic arm, go to "Late Antique TLC."

18th-Century Fort Site Explored on Island of St. Barts

GUSTAVIA, SAINT BARTHÉLEMY—According to a Miami Herald report, a collection of small cannonballs known as grapeshot has been unearthed at Fort Gustav, a military outpost on the Caribbean Island of Saint Barthélemy, by researchers from the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research. Construction of the fort was begun by the French in the mid-eighteenth century to protect ships headed to Europe from pirates, but the island was soon traded to Sweden for trading rights. Saint Barthélemy was eventually returned to the French in 1878. Such rounds of grapeshot would have been fired from cannon, perhaps at enemy ships. A horseshoe, nails, coins, elements of military uniforms, a porcelain bust, and a handle were also recovered from the fort. To read about a fort on Panama's Caribbean coast, go to "Pirates of the Original Panama Canal."

Genomes of Modern Japanese People Analyzed

YAKOHAMA, JAPAN—A new genetic study conducted by Xiaoxi Liu of the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences and his colleagues suggests that modern Japanese people are mostly descended from three ancestral groups, according to a Live Science report. Those three groups include Jomon hunter-gatherers; a group thought to be the predecessors of the Han people of China; and an unidentified group with ties to Northeast Asia. It had been previously thought that the Japanese were descended from the Jomon and Yayoi farmers who migrated to the islands of Japan from continental Asia. The new study also identified 42 pieces of DNA in the population of Japan that were inherited from Neanderthals and two from Denisovans. Most of this DNA is unique to East Asians, the researchers explained. Some of this DNA has been associated with the development of type 2 diabetes; height; coronary artery disease; prostate cancer; and rheumatoid arthritis. The genetic data and relevant clinical information collected from the study’s 3,200 participants have been entered into a new database dubbed the Japanese Encyclopedia of Whole-Genome/Exome Sequencing Library, or JEWEL. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. For more, go to "Japan's Genetic History."

Burned Bodies at Maya Site May Reflect Regime Change

GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA—According to a CNN report, burned human remains and artifacts have have been discovered under a pile of discarded construction materials in a room beneath a temple at Guatemala’s Maya site of Ucanal by a team of researchers led by Christina T. Halperin of the University of Montreal. The warped, shrunken condition of the bones, thought to represent four adults, indicates that they had been burned at high temperatures, Halperin said. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the burning of the remains occurred between A.D. 773 and 881, when the remains were already about 100 years old. The types of artifacts found with the bones, including body ornaments made of greenstone, pendants made of mammal teeth, shell beads, and weapons, suggest that the dead may have been royal rulers, she added. Yet no scorch marks were found at the site, suggesting that the burning of the bones took place at another location. A possible clue to the reason for this unusual burial may come in the form of inscriptions mentioning the name Papmalil, who was labeled a “ochk’in kaloomte,” or “western overlord,” which have also been found at Ucanal. These inscriptions have been dated to about the same time as the burning of the deceased rulers’ remains. Halperin and her colleagues suggest that the bones of the former leaders may have been removed from their tombs and burned in a ceremony to mark a shift in the city’s leadership. “It was such an extraordinary burning that it had to have been known by the public at large,” Halperin explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity. To read about ritual pendants and stones from Ucanal, go to "World Roundup: Guatemala."

Occupation of Cave in Saudi Arabia Dates Back 10,000 Years

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA—Nature News reports that hundreds of human and animal bones and more than 40 fragments of stone tools have been uncovered at the entrance to a lava tube cave in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The stone tools are thought to be as much as 10,000 years old, while the oldest human bone fragment has been dated to about 7,000 years ago. Zooarchaeologist Mathew Stewart of Griffith University and his colleagues said that the distribution of the artifacts indicates that the cave was occupied intermittently, for short periods. Nearby rock art depicting people with goats and sheep suggests that herders may have come to the cave for rest and shelter while traveling from oasis to oasis across the basalt plain of Harrat Khaybar, as they still do today. These routes have probably been used for thousands of years, explained Melissa Kennedy of the University of Sydney, since 4,500-year-old tombs have been found in the region. “People are very lazy,” she said. “You find the easiest route and you stick to it.” Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE. To read about occupation of Icelandic lava tubes in the Viking Age, go to "The Blackener's Cave."

What Factors Drove Human Evolution?

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—According to a Cosmos Magazine report, Laura van Holstein of the University of Cambridge and her colleagues examined the rate of evolution of hominin species over a period of five million years. First, Van Holstein created a database of the 385 known hominin species, and then she modeled a timeline for the emergence and disappearance of species to fill out the incomplete fossil record. Vertebrates, she noted, usually evolve to fill in “niches” in the environment. For example, the teeth of an early hominin species may have adapted to eat different foods. “The pattern we see across many early hominins is similar to all other mammals,” Van Holstein said. “Speciation rates increase and then flatline, at which point extinction rates start to increase. This suggests that interspecies competition was a major evolutionary factor,” she said. But in the group Homo, she explained, this trend was reversed. “The more species of Homo there were, the higher the rate of speciation,” she said. “So when those niches got filled, something drove even more species to emerge.” The ability to adapt behavior, she explained, such as using tools or fire, or adopting new hunting techniques, may have allowed Homo species to create new ecological niches quickly, without having to survive the evolution of new body plans. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature Ecology & Evolution. To read about hominin behavior that is thought to have been crucial to human evolution, go to "Marrow of Humanity."