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."

3,000-Year-Old Beads from England's Must Farm Studied

PETERBOROUGH, ENGLAND—According to a BBC News report, an analysis of beads unearthed at Must Farm suggests that most of the glass was made in what is now Iran, while the glass for one bead is thought to have come from Egypt. The site, which is located in eastern England, consists of the remains of about 10 circular houses that stood on stilts in a river before they were destroyed by fire some 3,000 years ago. Beads made of amber, shale, siltstone, faience, and tin were among the many artifacts preserved in the river’s silt. “Some of the beads must have been got from northern Britain and possibly even Ireland, while the glass came from a very, very long way across the sea," said archaeologist Alison Sheridan. The amber bead may have been made from material imported from Scandinavia, she added. “But there is also the faience bead, the only one known from this late Bronze Age period in Britain, while the tin bead is incredibly rare, as it doesn’t usually survive, it tends to oxidize,” Sheridan commented. To read about a study of the provenance of ancient gold jewelry uncovered in Ireland, go to "Bronze Age Ireland's Taste in Gold."

Medieval Castle and Moat Uncovered in France

VANNES, FRANCE—A castle, a moat, and a bridge have been uncovered in northwestern France, according to a CBS News report. Researchers from the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research found the 600-year-old fortress, built by the Duke of Brittany Jean IV, underneath the courtyard of Château Lagorce. The structure measured about 140 feet long and 55 feet wide. Traces of staircases suggest that it may have been three or four stories tall. Coins dated to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, jewelry, pots, pans, and fragments of wooden bowls and barrels were recovered in a system of latrines and pipes. A mill powered by water flowing through a canal under the castle was also found. Once the flowing water had turned the mill wheel, it was released into the moat through a grated opening in the mill room. To read about excavations of a medieval cemetery in northwestern France, go to "Buried With Care."

Bronze Age Microbiome Analyzed

DUBLIN, IRELAND—According to a statement released by Oxford University Press USA, Lara Cassidy of Trinity College Dublin and her colleagues analyzed the oral microbiome of a man whose 4,000-year-old remains were discovered in a cave in southwestern Ireland. The remains of other people who had been buried in the cave showed advanced dental decay, but two teeth taken from this particular man showed no evidence of dental carries. Evidence of the bacterium S. mutans, which is the primary cause of dental decay, was detected on the root of one of his teeth, however. Cassidy and her colleagues noted that other species of streptococcal bacteria usually found in ancient biofilms were absent from the sample, yet it contained two different strains of T. forsythia, a bacteria involved in gum disease. “These strains from a single ancient mouth were more genetically different from one another than any pair of modern strains in our dataset, despite these modern samples deriving from Europe, Japan, and the USA,” said team member Iseult Jackson. “This is interesting because a loss of biodiversity can have negative impacts on the oral environment and human health,” she explained. The researchers also determined that these disease-causing bacteria have changed dramatically over time, likely through a shift to more sugar in the human diet. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Molecular Biology and Evolution. For more, go to "Worlds Within Us."

4,500-Year-Old Burial Uncovered in Northern England

EAST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that three archaeological sites were discovered by researchers associated with Yorkshire Water during a sewer construction project in northern England. The first is a well-preserved circular monument containing human remains thought to be about 4,500 years old. The remains were buried in a crouched position and then were likely covered with burned stone and charcoal to form a dome-shaped mound. The second site features parts of a Roman road flanked by drainage ditches. This road likely traveled to the nearby Roman town of Derventio. The third site features a burnt mound, including a small oven and a deep pit thought to have been used as a wood-lined well. To read about jet gemstones from Yorkshire that were found in a 4,000-year-old burial on the Isle of Man, go to "Jetting Across the British Isles."

Model Suggests Persian Plateau as Early Migration Hub

QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA—According to a Cosmos Magazine report, a team of scientists including Michael Petraglia of Griffith University constructed a model for the populating of Eurasia using genetic, archaeological, and environmental data. The genetic data included DNA samples from ancient and modern people. “We argue that people first settled when they came out of Africa [some 70,000 years ago], in what we call the ‘hub’ location, or the Persian Plateau,” Petraglia said. The Persian Plateau, he explained, had savannas, grasslands, and forested zones, creating an ideal living situation for a large population of hunter-gatherers. “It is a bit of a mystery as to what exactly happened,” he added. “And I don’t say that we solved it, but that’s what we’re addressing here, through a combination of evidence.” From this hub in the Persian Plateau, waves of migrants may have then eventually spread into Eurasia by some 45,000 years ago. Further investigation of the Persian Plateau could offer additional clues to migration across Asia, Europe, and Oceania, the researchers concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature Communications. To read about excavations of the oldest continuously inhabited place in the world, go to "Erbil Revealed."