Two New Substances Found in Neolithic Pottery

ISTANBUL, TURKEY—According to a statement released by Koç University, a team of researchers led by Adrià Breu Barcons and Rana Özbal of Koç University analyzed pottery recovered from Neolithic sites in the Mediterranean region. “We had some samples with some residues we didn’t really understand,” Barcons said. “We thought maybe they were coming from cooking techniques that thermally alter fat,” she explained. To test this hypothesis, the researchers mixed organic ingredients like olive oil and olive leaves with pottery samples and heated them at different temperatures for various durations. In doing so, they were able to recreate the mysterious residues and record them as two new biomarkers. “These compounds are not normally found in nature and can only be created in high temperature, which means they can be used to prove whether ancient pottery had been in contact with the fire,” Barcons concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Journal of Archaeological Science. To read about an innovative method for directly dating animal fat residues on ancient pottery, go to "Carbon Dating Pottery," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2020.

Remains of George Washington’s Relatives Identified

WASHINGTON, D.C.—CNN reports that DNA analysis has identified skeletal remains of George Washington’s grandnephews, Samuel Walter Washington and George Steptoe Washington, Jr., and their mother, Lucy Payne Washington. George Washington’s younger brother Samuel and several generations of his kin were first buried in a cemetery at Harewood, his estate in Charles Town, West Virginia. But some of the bodies were later moved, leaving a few bones behind in unmarked graves. Courtney L. Cavagnino of the U.S. Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory and her colleagues compared samples taken from degraded skeletal remains in the Harewood cemetery with DNA from a known living descendant of Samuel Washington. They used several types of analysis, including Y chromosome DNA analysis to investigate the paternal line; mitochondrial DNA analysis to investigate the maternal line; and a new technique developed to analyze thousands of data points on a single nucleotide, or building block of DNA, to assess more distant relationships. Cavagnino said that the comparison between the living descendant and the three buried relatives predicted relationships one degree closer than had been anticipated, but she and her colleagues determined that this was due to cross-cousin marriages among the Washingtons. The technique could eventually be used to identify the remains of service members lost around the world. Read the original scholarly article about this research in iScience. To read about artifacts recovered from the site of a 1754 battle in which a young Washington led British troops, go to "Around the World: Pennsylvania."

Prehistoric Campsite Discovered in New Mexico

ALAMOGORDO, NEW MEXICO—KTSM reports that an 8,200-year-old campsite has been discovered on Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico. The site, known as Gomolak Overlook, has been protected by windblown silt and the formation of sand dunes, said 49th CES cultural resource manager Matthew Cuba. “This site marks a pivotal moment in shedding light on the area’s history and its early inhabitants,” he added. In all, some 400 archaeological sites are known in the region. “The Department of Defense’s stewardship of vast tracts of land, including areas between White Sands National Park and Holloman, inadvertently protects numerous documented and undocumented archaeological resources,” explained Scott Dorton, 49th CES environmental chief. To read about fossilized footprints uncovered in the New Mexico desert, go to "Ghost Tracks of White Sands."

Evidence for Domesticated Chickens Dated to 400 B.C.

JENA, GERMANY—A study of eggshell fragments unearthed at 12 archaeological sites located along the Silk Road corridor in Central Asia suggests that domesticated chickens were kept there as early as 400 B.C., according to a Cosmos Magazine report. The eggshells were analyzed by a team of researchers led by Robert Spengler and Carli Peters of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology with ZooMS, or zooarchaeology by mass spectrometery, which identifies animal species through characteristic sequences of amino acids in protein collagen. So many ancient chicken eggshells were identified at these sites that Spengler, Peters, and their colleagues suggest that the birds must have been laying out of season. In contrast, the red jungle fowl, the ancestor of the domesticated chicken, lays just six eggs once a year, the researchers explained. They concluded that such prolific egg laying likely encouraged the spread of the domesticated chicken. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature Communications. For more on the domestication of chickens, go to "Fast Food."

Possible Medieval Helmet Recovered Off Sicily’s Coast

PALERMO, ITALY—The Miami Herald reports that a helmet thought to have been worn by an infantryman during the late medieval period or the early Renaissance has been found on the ocean floor off the southeastern coast of Sicily by researchers from the Superintendency of the Sea. The helmet is oval in shape with a ridge along its bottom edge and a crest across the top, in a style known as a cabasset, or a capacete in Spanish and Portuguese. It is not clear if the artifact was part of a shipwreck, or if it was lost on its own by a soldier at sea. The divers plan to return to the site for further investigation of the area. To read about a Byzantine shipwreck discovered off the Sicilian coast, go to "Shipping Stone."

Hominins Quarried Stone Near Animal Migration Routes

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL—According to a Live Science report, a new study suggests that hominins who lived in what is now the Upper Galilee used local quarries to make tools for hunting and butchering elephants that visited nearby water sources between about two million and 500,000 years ago. Meir Finkel of Tel Aviv University said that elephants follow the same routes to reliable water sources because they each consume more than 100 gallons of it daily. Finkel and his colleagues examined such migration routes used by ancient elephants, based upon the landscape of the Upper Galilee and fossils analyzed in an earlier study, and determined that they corresponded with local hominin quarries. These quarries were also within walking distance of several Paleolithic sites, the researchers noted. But killing, butchering, and preserving such a large animal is a dangerous undertaking that draws other predators. The job would have had to have been completed quickly. Large quantities of suitable cutting tools would have been prepared in advance of the hunt, explained Ran Barkai of Tel Aviv University. “It was tradition: For hundreds of thousands of years, the elephants wandered along the same route, while humans produced stone tools nearby,” he concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Archaeologies. To read about the discovery of the remains of a mammoth that was butchered some 14,500 years ago in what is now Illinois, go to "America, in the Beginning: Schaefer and Hebior Kill Sites."

Roman and Medieval Artifacts Found at Slovakia Site

RIMAVSKÁ SOBOTA, SLOVAKIA—The Slovak Spectator reports that traces of a medieval settlement have been uncovered in south-central Slovakia. Archaeologists suggest the settlement may be Kľačany, known from a document dated to 1557. Kľačany had been in decline and is thought to have been abandoned due to Turkish raids. The excavation has also unearthed evidence that the site was occupied during the Roman era, such as furnaces for drying mud ore, metallurgical debris, and other semi-finished industrial products. A new industrial park will be constructed on the site. To read about excavations of an unusual mass grave in Vráble, Slovakia, go to "Neolithic Mass Grave Mystery."

Violent Wounds Examined on 2,500-Year-Old Bones From Peru

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL—According to a statement released by the São Paulo Research Foundation, the skeletons of 67 individuals who were buried in a cemetery in Peru’s Supe Valley of the Central Andes between 500 and 400 B.C., shortly after the time of the collapse of the Chavín culture, have been analyzed. Bioarchaeologist Luis Pezo-Lanfranco said that 80 percent of the adults and adolescents in the study had traumatic injuries, including wounds to the skull, face, and chest, with no signs of survival or healing. Such wounds had also been inflicted upon children, he added. “Our hypothesis is that a group of strangers came to the community and committed the murders,” Pezo-Lanfranco explained. “After the aggressors left, the murder victims were buried by their own people with the usual funeral rites, as suggested by the burial patterns.” Some of the remains also showed signs of healed wounds, indicating that the individuals had previously survived a violent encounter. Meanwhile, the overall condition of the bones suggests that the people experienced physical stresses and infectious diseases, perhaps brought on by increased competition and a resulting shortage of resources during the turbulent period of the collapse. To read about a culture in the Supe Valley that is often considered the first city-building civilization in the Americas, go to "Around the World: Peru."

Face of China’s Emperor Wu Reconstructed

SHANGHAI, CHINA—Live Science reports that researchers led by Pianpian Wei and Shaoqing Wen of Fundan University created a digital 3-D facial approximation of Emperor Wu, who ruled China’s Northern Zhou Dynasty from A.D. 560 to 578, when he died at the age of 36. The reconstruction is based on analysis of the emperor’s skeletal remains and a DNA sample taken from his nearly complete skull, which were discovered in his tomb in northwestern China in 1996. The image depicts Emperor Wu with brown eyes, black hair, and a darker complexion resembling Northern and Eastern Asians. The DNA analysis also suggests that he was a member of the Xianbei, a nomadic group that migrated southward into Mongolia and northern China, where they mixed with people who were ethnically Han. Additionally, the researchers determined through the DNA analysis that Emperor Wu had an increased risk of stroke. Historic records described Wu as having drooping eyelids, an abnormal gait, and aphasia, or the inability to understand or express speech, which are all potential symptoms of stroke. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Current Biology. To read about excavations in Sichuan Province that uncovered the lost treasury of a seventeenth-century warlord, go to "China's River of Gold."