Monday, October 26
Tools and a hominid tooth add to the evidence that Africa’s Great Rift Valley is the “cradle of humankind,” according to Friedemann Schrenk of Goethe University in Frankfurt. And, a new study led by Stephen Stearns of Yale University shows that humans are still evolving. David Geary of the University of Missouri adds that as human fathers got involved in child rearing, childhood became longer.
British and French historians reviewed military and tax records from the time of the Battle of Agincourt, and concluded that Britain’s King Henry V may not have been desperately outnumbered after all. “It’s just a myth, but it’s a myth that’s part of the British psyche,” said Anne Curry of the University of Southampton.
Pollen, charcoal, pottery, and traces of lead discovered in sediment cores suggest that there was already a settlement at the site of Alexandria before Alexander the Great arrived there in 331 B.C. “At this point I don’t think you can tell much about the people themselves,” said Christopher Bernhardt of the U.S. Geological Survey.
A 7,000-year-old site has been uncovered in Trinidad by Basil Reid of the University of the West Indies. The inhabitants are thought to have migrated to the island from South America.
Prehistoric rock art depicting animals and matuto, a half-man, half-lizard, were found in the Indonesian province of West Papua. Other images include palm prints, geometric shapes, boats, and tools.
Artifact recovery has ended at Tse-whit-zen, a 2,700-year-old Klallam village discovered six years ago in Port Angeles, Washington, during bridge construction. Hundreds of burials and thousands of artifacts eventually forced the abandonment of the project. “I think it’s really an education opportunity for everybody,” said tribal chairwoman Frances Charles.
The world’s oldest-known granaries have been unearthed in Jordan. Such storage methods are thought to have been developed before large scale, sedentary farming communities. “These granaries are a critical first step, if not the very evolutionary and technological foundation, for the development of large agricultural villages that appear by 9,500 to 9,000 years ago across the Near East,” said Ian Kuijit of the University of Notre Dame.
Nicholas Pinter of Southern Illinois University challenges the idea that a comet impact kicked off the cold snap known as the Younger Dryas.
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