Archaeologists can decipher a culture’s trade network and the distances it might have covered by tracing obsidian, used by ancient people for making tools, back to its source volcano. Until now, researchers sent the volcanic glass artifacts uncovered at sites to laboratories for analysis, with results only available months later. The time-consuming process could take up to five minutes per fragment—and there are often a lot of fragments.

University of Sheffield research fellow Ellery Frahm has successfully tested a new method for performing on-site obsidian sorting on more than 600 artifacts at two sites in Armenia. Frahm used a tool from the lab, a handheld instrument resembling a supermarket price gun, that performs X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning an artifact in only 10 seconds. The device discerns the concentration of certain elements in the material—such as iron and zirconium—creating a chemical signature that can be compared with nearby obsidian sources. 

Moving XRF into the field, Frahm explains, could offer archaeologists real-time, on-site guidance for their excavation strategies. Critics, however, say the method sacrifices analytic precision, which would render it useless in regions that have a glut of obsidian sources, such as western Mexico.

Frahm likens the method to the preset modes on a digital camera—though the process lacks the control and precision of traditional lab methods, it provides a useful, expedient shortcut. “The preset modes allow one to take many more photos, often very good ones, much faster,” he says. “That’s not a bad thing.”

Archaeologists working in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq have located the ancient city of Idu. The international team unearthed the settlement while excavating a tell along the Lower Zab River. Although Idu’s existence was known from Assyrian texts, its location was previously unidentified. 

Beginning in the thirteenth century B.C., Idu flourished as a provincial capital of the Assyrian Empire. During this period, and also during the interval when Idu gained its independence, the settlement featured lavish royal palaces. This prosperity is attested to by ornate bricks, cylinder seals, and artworks that depict mythological scenes. Researchers ascertained the city’s identity through a series of cuneiform inscriptions. “The discovery of Idu fills a gap in what scholars had previously thought was a dark age in the history of the ancient Near East, and it helped us to redraw the political and historical map of Assyria in its early stage,” says Cinzia Pappi, an archaeologist from the University of Leipzig.

How monotonous was Neanderthal cuisine? The bones of large herbivores found at Neanderthal sites across Europe and Asia seem to indicate that their meals consisted of one course: meat. Several new studies, however, reveal a wider variety of menu options.

Isotope analysis of bones from Kudaro 3 in the Caucasus Mountains (in a disputed area of Georgia) show that Neanderthals there dined on salmon. Fish was also on the menu in southeastern France, at Abri du Maras, where analysis of the residue left on stone tools shows that Neanderthals also ate duck, rabbit, and possibly mushrooms. And when the meals were over, Neanderthals cleaned up with toothpicks that left grooves in their teeth found at Cova Foradà in Spain.

Neanderthals may have made for good dinner companions, but maybe not everything they ate accorded with modern tastes. Research published in 2012 shows that the tartar on Neanderthal teeth contains microfossils from a wide variety of plant foods and medicines (“Neanderthal Medicine Chest,” November/December 2012). But Laura Buck and Chris Stringer of London’s Natural History Museum suggest that Neanderthals may not have directly eaten these plants, but rather ate herbivores’ stomachs containing them. Before you make a face: “We know that many modern hunter-gatherers eat the stomach contents of their prey,” says Stringer. “The Inuit regarded this as a special treat.”