Stolen Artifacts Returned to Pakistan

NEW YORK, NEW YORK—The United States repatriated 192 antiquities to Pakistan in a ceremony held at the Pakistan Consulate in New York, according to a CNN report. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. said that most of the artifacts were linked to a single dealer who has been accused of trafficking Asian antiquities from his Manhattan gallery. The district attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit has seized more than 2,500 artifacts as part of this investigation. The recently returned objects include several so-called Mehrgarh dolls, which date to the Neolithic period and are some of the oldest known figurines in the world. To read about one of the oldest known Buddhist temples that was recently uncovered in the Swat Valley, go to "Around the World: Pakistan."

Iron Age Artifact May Shed Light on Origins of Basque Language

BARCELONA, SPAIN—The Guardian reports that engravings on the so-called Hand of Irulegi, a flat, 2,000-year-old hand-shaped bronze artifact unearthed last year in northern Spain, may be an example of the written language of the Vascones, which is thought to be an ancestor of modern-day Basque. The artifact was found in an abandoned mudbrick dwelling thought to have been burned down in the first century B.C. during the Sertorian War, fought by two Roman factions on the Iberian Peninsula. Only a few words written on Vascone coins had previously been known to scholars, and so it was thought that the Vascones began writing only after the Romans came to the region and introduced the Latin alphabet. Javier Velaza of the University of Barcelona said that the 40 characters on the Hand of Irulegi could represent five words. One of them has been identified as sorioneku, an ancestor of the modern Basque word zorioneko, for good luck, or good omen. “We were almost convinced that the ancient Vascones were illiterate and didn’t use writing except when it came to minting coins,” commented team member Joaquín Gorrochategui of the University of the Basque County. To read about a Visigothic city built in Spain following the Roman Empire's final collapse, go to "The Visigoths' Imperial Ambitions."

U.S. Repatriates Looted Artifacts to Turkey

ANTALYA, TURKEY—Hurriyet Daily News reports that artifacts recovered from two auction houses in the United States have been returned to Turkey as a result of cooperation between Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry, the Antalya and Burdur Museum Directorates, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The objects include a rare, life-sized bronze statue of the Roman emperor Lucius Verus, fragments of a sarcophagus from the city of Perge, a third-century B.C. marble figurine thought to have come from western Anatolia, a silver figurine of Apollo from northern Turkey, a seated statuette of the god Attis, and a terracotta plate from the southern region of Pisidia. The artifacts are currently housed in the Antalya Museum. To read about excavations of a Roman amphitheater at the ancient city of Pergamon in western Turkey, go to "Saving Seats."

Roman-Era Necropolis Discovered in Southern Spain

ANTEQUERA, SPAIN—A Roman necropolis dated to the first and second centuries A.D. has been found at a construction site in southern Spain, according to a report in The Olive Press. Traces of 24 cremations and 30 burials have been unearthed to date. One of the graves held a lead sarcophagus containing two teenagers and a baby who died at about three months of age, and a second burial of an adolescent girl and a four-month-old infant. Glass jars of ointments, game tokens, a coin minted in the second century A.D., and some glass beads were also found in the first section of the double burial. Tokens for the same game, glass beads, glass marbles, and a second century A.D. oil lamp were recovered from the second. To read about the discovery of a Roman arch in southern Spain, go to "Making an Entrance."

New Thoughts on Egypt’s Ancient Branding Irons

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS—According to a Live Science report, Ella Karev of the University of Chicago suggests that 10 branding irons now held in the collections of the British Museum and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology may have been used to mark the skin of humans some 3,000 years ago. It had been previously thought that the ancient Egyptians typically marked people with tattoos, as interpreted in a carving of prisoners of war found in southern Egypt at the site of Medinet Habu, Karev said. The branding of cattle with square or rectangular brands is frequently depicted in ancient Egyptian paintings, she added, and these brands were likely to have been at least four inches long because a scar left by a smaller brand could have become illegible as the young animals grew. The ancient Egyptian brands held in the museums, however, are very similar in size and shape to those used by Europeans during the transatlantic slave trade, Karev explained. She thinks the carving at Medinet Habu may show small brands being heated in a brazier for the purpose of marking a large number of people quickly. To read about ceramic figurines and vessels depicting tattooed Egyptian women, go to "Ancient Tattoos: Faience Figurine and Bowl."

When Did Cooking Begin?

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL—Hominins living in what is now northern Israel some 780,000 years ago may have cooked their fish before eating it, pushing back the advent of cooking by some 600,000 years, according to an Agence France-Presse report. Irit Zohar of Tel Aviv University examined fish remains unearthed at the site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, which was once on the shores of a lake. One area of the site contained nearly no fish bones, but a lot of fish teeth and some burned flints. This could indicate that the bones had softened and disintegrated when burned at high temperatures, leaving just the teeth behind, Zohar explained. Most of these teeth belonged to a species of carp that can grow to more than six feet long. Examination of the fish teeth with X-ray powder diffraction at London’s Natural History Museum revealed changes in the structure of the tooth enamel caused by heating at high temperatures, perhaps in an oven made of earth, she added. Critics note that the bones could have also been thrown in the fire to dispose of them, however. To read about evidence for cooking fish in pottery 15,000 years ago, go to "World Roundup: Japan."

Large Temple Found in Italy's Etruscan City of Vulci

LAZIO, ITALY—According to a statement released by the University of Freiburg, an Etruscan temple was discovered in west-central Italy at the ancient city of Vulci by Mariachiara Franceschini of the University of Freiburg and Paul P. Pasieka of the University of Mainz during a survey employing ground penetrating radar. The building stood to the west of the Tempio Grande, a temple discovered at the site in the 1950s. Partial excavation of the newly discovered structure, which is thought to have been built at the end of the sixth century or beginning of the fifth century B.C., suggests that it is about the same size as the Tempio Grande—about 150 feet long by 115 feet wide. “This duplication of monumental buildings in an Etruscan city is rare,” Pasieka said. The new study will help researchers understand Etruscan religion and the development of the city, he added. “The intact strata of the temple are offering us insights into more than a thousand years of development of one of the most important Etruscan cities,” Pasieka explained. To read about the burials of an Etruscan noble family at Vulci, go to "The Tomb of the Silver Hands."

Genetic Study Suggests Neolithic Mesopotamia Was a Melting Pot

ANKARA, TURKEY—Phys.org reports that an international team of researchers including N. Ezgi Altinişik of Hacettepe University has analyzed DNA obtained from 13 people who were buried in Çayönü Tepesi, which is located in the Upper Tigris region of Mesopotamia, between 8500 and 7500 B.C., when people began to transition from hunting and gathering to farming. The study suggests that two men, five women, two boys, and three girls in the study had ancestors from the South Levant, Central Anatolia, and Central Zagros. The remaining woman’s ancestors came from Caucasus/Zagros, the researchers explained. Examination of the bones also indicates that the skull of one of the children had been shaped, and may have been cauterized as part of a medical procedure. The researchers concluded that the Upper Tigris region may have been a hub for migrants and traders during the Neolithic period. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. To read about the world's first named author, who was Mesopotamian royalty, go to "Priestess, Poet, Politician."

Knowledge About Cultivation May Have Traveled With Early Crops

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI—According to a statement released by Washington University in St. Louis, irrigation was practiced in northern China’s Loess Plateau some 4,000 years ago, when wheat and barley were introduced to the region from the Fertile Crescent of southwest Asia. Growing wheat requires more water than growing barley, but its growing cycle does not fit northern China’s rainy season, explained Xinyi Liu of Washington University. He and his colleagues decided to investigate ancient growing conditions in the Loess Plateau by measuring the levels of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in samples of ancient wheat and barley, and in millet seeds, which were locally domesticated about 8,000 years ago. They found that the wheat crops had received plenty of water. “The water management may have been achieved either by deliberate watering [through simple ditches] or by strategic planting in soils with higher water retention,” Liu explained. Barley, on the other hand, was likely planted without irrigation, in the same manner as the locally domesticated millet. Knowledge about cultivating the plants was probably transmitted with the seeds, Liu and his colleagues surmised. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity. To read about the adoption of domesticated crops in ancient Chinese regional cuisines, go to "You Are How You Cook."