The Temple of Augustus: an artificial landscape in Surrey
The Temple of Augustus: How ruins from Libya became the focal point of an artificial landscape in Surrey
Walking around the artificial lake of Virginia Water, past the artificial cascade, you come across the ‘Temple of Augustus’, another artificial addition to the royal landscapes of Surrey. But how did these Libyan ruins come to make up part of the grounds of Windsor Great Park?
The city of Leptis Magna was founded in the 7th Century BC and rose to prominence in 193 AD under Emperor Septimius Severus who initiated a programme of enhancement through the provision of incredible docks, and a huge basilica complete with classical style columns. After his death in 211 the city began to decline, with the destructive tsunami of 365 and the invasion of the Vandals in the 5th Century.
1816, Hanmer Warrington arrived in Leptis Magna with friend, Augustus Earle. Only a few years earlier, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin had been hailed a hero by the British government on return from Greece with the stripped marble of the Parthenon, a response Warrington hoped to achieve with his presentation of the Leptis Magna ruins.
Louis XIV had taken 600 columns from the site and installed them in his palace in Versailles in the 17th century, whilst Rouen Cathedral and Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Preps in Paris also sported Leptis columns.
Upon commissioning ships and creating an agreement with the Local Governor, Warrington came across resistance of the local Libyan people. Not a conservation effort, but a local quarrying issue, they defied the removal of the ruins. Cut stone had often been collected from these sites to aid building work whilst round columns were used as mill stones. They took to destroying the collected ruins as they were being loaded onto ships, leading to 3 columns still lying on the beach, having been abandoned by Warrington’s team.
After the destruction was accounted for, Warrington collected a vast collection made up of 25 pedestals, 15 marble columns, 22 granite columns, 10 capitals, 5 inscribed slabs and fragments of stone and sculpture. On arrival in Britain he was met with an unenthusiastic government who it is said were not ‘at all impressed or convinced of the value, either aesthetic or intrinsic, of the cargo.’
Having sat in the forecourt of the British Museum for 8 years, King George IV’s architect, Jeffry Wyatville expressed an interest in using them to create a folly in the grounds of Windsor Castle, which then stretched as far as Virginia Water.
Named the ‘Temple of Augustus’, possibly as a reference to the King’s full name, George Augustus Frederick, the site consisted of the 15 columns arranged in a semi-circle, and 2 parallel colonnades. Down the centre of the ruins ran a carriage road, allowing King George IV to pass under the road to Ascot. Wyatville placed fragments of cornices along the bridge mimicking an arch in a city wall.
Knowledge of the classics was important in high society, and the introduction of follies, ornamental ruins built to serve purely as landscape features, showed a level of class and sophistication. As William Gilpin, contemporary architect, noted about the importance of a fake authenticity, “if the ivy refuses to mantle over your buttress… you may as well write over the gate, Built in the year 1772.”
All pictures taken by Scout Newby.
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Cooper, P., ‘How Ancient Roman Ruins Ended up 2,000 Miles Away in a British Garden’, The Atlantic, 10th January 2018.
Earle, A., ‘Watercolour of The Ruins at Lebida (Leptis Magna), near Tripoli’, (1793-1838), RCIN 917055 <rct.uk/collection> [accessed 23rd July 2020].
Gilpin, W., Observations on Several Parts of England relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty (London; Strahan and Prefton, 1808), pp.69-75.
‘Sham Ruins’, Foll-e, Vol.45 (2012), pp.1-4.
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Lane, A., ‘The Ruins of Virginia Water’, Libyan Studies (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp.67-94.
The recovery of fluted points from America and Arabia provides example of independent invention
An Iconic Native American Stone Tool Technology Discovered in Arabia
The recovery of distinctive fluted points from both America and Arabia provides one of the best examples of ‘independent invention’ across continents
A new study led by archaeologists from the CNRS, the Inrap, the Ohio State University and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, reports on fluted points from the archaeological sites of Manayzah in Yemen and Ad-Dahariz in Oman. Fluted stone tools are a distinctive, technologically advanced form of projectile points, including spearheads and arrowheads. Fluting is a specific technique that involves the extraction of an elongated flake along the length of a projectile point, leaving a distinctive groove or depression at the base of the spearhead or arrowhead.
Fluting is a distinct technological tradition invented by early human cultures that spread across the Americas. Fluted point technology is very well known in North America, evidenced by finds across the continent dating from 13,000 to 10,000 years ago. As lead author Dr. Rémy Crassard of the CNRS notes, "Until the early 2000s, these fluted points were unknown elsewhere on the planet. When the first isolated examples of these objects were recognized in Yemen, and more recently in Oman, we recognized that there could be huge implications."
The sites of Manayzah and Ad-Dahariz yielded dozens of fluted points. The Arabian examples date to the Neolithic period, about 8,000 to 7,000 years ago, at least two thousand years later than the American examples. As Professor Petraglia of the Max Planck explains, "Given their age and the fact that the fluted points from America and Arabia are separated by thousands of kilometers, there is no possible cultural connection between them. This is then a clear and excellent example of cultural convergence, or independent invention in human history."
The new PLOS ONE article carefully examines the fluted points found in south Arabia. Detailed technological analysis, backed up by stone tool experiments and replication by an expert modern flintknapper, illustrate the similarities between the American and Arabian fluting procedures.
In addition to the similarities, the authors of the new study also investigated the contrasts between the technologies of the two regions. Technological differences were apparent in the nature and location of the flute. The authors emphasize that the 'fluting method' was likely a mental conceptualization of stone tool manufacture, more than just a technical way to produce a projectile and hafting zone. Whereas the apparent function of fluting in the Americas is to facilitate hafting, or attaching the point to a shaft, most of the Arabian fluted points do not have hafting as a functional final aim. The fluting concept and the method itself are the same in both American and Arabia, yet the final aim of fluting appears to be different.
Arabian and American fluted point technologies were highly specialized stone tool production methods. The PLOS ONE study of Arabian fluting technology demonstrates that similar innovations and inventions were developed under different circumstances and that such highly-skilled and convergent production methods can have different anthropological implications. As discussed in the article, Professor McCorriston argues that "fluting in Arabia was used as a display of skill, rather than serving a purely functional purpose such as hafting, as is more widely accepted in the Americas."
In Arabian prehistory, southern Arabia experienced developments of local origin, with multiple examples of inventions and innovations not culturally transmitted by outside traditions. The fluting method is then a hallmark of this indigenous development in the south Arabian Neolithic.
Publication
Rémy Crassard, Vincent Charpentier, Joy McCorriston, Jérémie Vosges, Sofiane Bouzid, Michael Petraglia: Fluted-point technology in Neolithic Arabia: An independent invention far from the Americas, PLOS ONE
Press release from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
In ancient Arabia, some tools were created to show off skills
Fluted projectile points were used like a “peacock’s feathers”
People living in southern Arabia some 8,000 years ago created intricate stone weapons that were not just useful, but designed to “show off” their tool-making skills, a new study suggests.
Researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), The Ohio State University and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History excavated and examined projectile points – such as spearheads and arrowheads – created during the Neolithic period in what is now Yemen and Oman.
They found that the Arabians independently invented a process to create projectile points – called fluting – that was first used by people living in North America thousands of years earlier.
But there was one key difference between fluting as it was used in North America and the way it was used in Arabia, said Joy McCorriston, co-author of the study and professor of anthropology at Ohio State.
In North America, fluting was used just to make the arrowhead or spearhead more functional. But in Arabia, people also used it to demonstrate their technical skills.
“It was like a peacock’s feathers – it was all for appearance. They used fluting to show just how skilled they were at using this very difficult technology, with its heightened risk of failure,” McCorriston said.
The study was published today (Aug. 5, 2020) in the journal PLOS ONE.
The scientists studied projectile points from two archaeological sites: Manayzah, in Yemen, and Ad-Dahariz, in Oman. McCorriston and a team from Ohio State oversaw the excavation in Manayzah, which lasted from 2004 to 2008.
Finding fluted points outside of North America was an important discovery, said Rémy Crassard of CNRS, lead author of the study.
“These fluted points were, until recently, unknown elsewhere on the planet. This was until the early 2000s, when the first isolated examples of these objects were recognized in Yemen, and more recently in Oman,” Crassard said.
Fluting involves a highly skilled process of chipping off flakes from a stone to create a distinctive channel. It is difficult and takes much practice to perfect, McCorriston said.
In North America, almost all fluting on projectile points was done near the base, so that the implement could be attached with string to the arrow or spear shaft. In other words, it had a practical application, she said.
But in this study, the researchers found some Arabian points with fluting that appeared to have no useful purpose, such as near the tip.
As part of the study, the researchers had a master technician in flintknapping – the shaping of stones – attempt to create projectile points in a way similar to how researchers believe the ancient Arabians did.
“He made hundreds of attempts to learn how to do this. It is difficult and a flintknapper breaks a lot of these points trying to learn how to do it right,” McCorriston said.
The question, then, is why would these Neolithic people do this when it was so costly and time-consuming and didn’t make the points more useful? In addition, they only used fluting on some points.
“Of course, we can’t say for sure, but we think this was a way for skilled toolmakers to signal something to others, perhaps that one is a good hunter, a quick study, or dexterous with one’s hands,” she said.
“It showed one was good at what one did. This could improve one’s social standing in the community.”
The findings suggested that while there were many similarities between the American and Arabian fluted points, there were also differences. The way that people performed the fluting in the two places was different, which is not surprising since they were separated by thousands of miles and thousands of years, McCorriston said.
Finding the fluted points in Arabia provides one of the best examples of “independent invention” across continents, said co-author Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute.
“Given their age, and the fact that the fluted points from America and Arabia are separated by thousands of kilometers, there is no possible cultural connection between them,” Petraglia said.
“This is a clear and excellent example of cultural convergence, or independent invention, in human history.”
This study is part of the larger Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) project, co-led by McCorriston. The project, which included 12 years of field work in Yemen, explored the first use of domesticated animals in Arabia and the societies that developed around them.
Their work is featured in a new book co-edited by McCorriston, Landscape History of Hadramawt: The Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA Project 1998-2008). The book won The Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize, which honors outstanding studies in archaeology.
Press release from the Ohio State University
Native American stone tool technology found in Arabia
Stone fluted points dating back some 8,000 to 7,000 years ago, were discovered on archaeological sites in Manayzah, Yemen and Ad-Dahariz, Oman. Spearheads and arrowheads were found among these distinctive and technologically advanced projectile points. Until now, the prehistoric technique of fluting had been uncovered only on 13,000 to 10,000-year-old Native American sites. According to a study led by an international team of archaeologists from the CNRS(1), Inrap, Ohio State University and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the difference in age and geographic location implies there is no connection between the populations who made them. This is therefore an example of cultural convergence for an invention which required highly-skilled expertise. And yet, despite similar fluting techniques, the final aim appears to be different. Whereas in the Americas the points were used to facilitate hafting, or attaching the point to a shaft, fluting in Arabia was possibly a mere display of knapping skills.
Notes
(1) Researchers based in France are affiliated with the Centre français de recherche de la péninsule arabique (CNRS / Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs; formerly CEFAS), the laboratoire Archéorient de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée (CNRS / Université Lumière Lyon 2 / AMU / ENS Lyon / Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 / Université Jean Moulin / Université Jean Monnet) and the laboratoire Archéologies et sciences de l'antiquité (CNRS / Université Panthéon-Sorbonne / Université Paris Nanterre / Ministère de la culture).
Press release from CNRS
Unprecedented 3D reconstruction of pre-Columbian crania from the Caribbean and South America
Unprecedented 3D reconstruction of pre-Columbian crania from the Caribbean and South America
Alfonso Benito Calvo, head of the Digital Mapping and 3D Analysis Laboratory at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has participated in the 3D reconstructions of a representative selection of 13 pre-Columbian human crania specifically from Cuba and Peru, which are part of the osteological collection of the The Montané Anthropological Museum in Cuba.
The sample studied comprised crania with tabular oblique artificial deformation, annular deformation, and undeformed specimens. The 3D models generated were used to produce prints and 3D animated videos.
The deformed and undeformed crania were digitized with the Artec Space Spider structured blue light scanner, which created three-dimensional models based on the real samples. The resulting 3D models were used to produce 3D printed replicas and animated videos. “These 3D models of the Cuban pre-Columbian skulls have been made with microns precision,” says Alfonso Benito.
The 3D reconstruction of the crania will allow its precise systematic investigation and dissemination in different audiovisual media and online platforms, and they are also a perfect means to publicize the associated intangible resources, such as the experiences, rites and stories that surround these crania.
This study lead by Gizéh Rangel-de Lázaro (Natural History Museum in London and IPHES-URV) is published in the journal Virtual Archaeology Review, with the collaboration of researchers from CENIEH, University of Valladolid and The Montané Anthropological Museum in Cuba.
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Amud 9 is shown to be a Neandertal woman weighing 60 kg who lived in the Late Pleistocene
Amud 9 is shown to be a Neandertal woman weighing 60 kg who lived in the Late Pleistocene
Adrián Pablos, a scientist at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), co-leads a paper published in PaleoAnthropology, the official journal of the PaleoAnthropology Society, looking at the morphology and anatomy of a partial foot recovered over 25 years ago at Amud Cave (Israel), which confirms that the individual Amud 9 was a Neandertal woman from the Late Pleistocene, with a stature of some 160-166 cm and weight of 60 kg.
Over the course of several excavations conducted in the twentieth century at Amud Cave, remains of at least 15 Neandertals were found. A systematic and detailed study of one of these individuals, Amud 9, has found that the fossil possesses the traits usually associated with Neanderthals in the different elements of the foot, tarsals, metatarsals and phalanges, which differ from those of modern humans, both fossil and recent.
“Most of these traits are related to the typical, exceptional robustness of the postcranial skeleton, that is, from the neck down, observed in the majority of Neandertals”, explains Pablos.
Sex, weight and height
Sex, weight and height estimates in fossil populations are normally based on the dimensions of the large leg bones. However, in the case of Amud 9, only a fragment of tibia, the talus or ankle bone, one metatarsal or instep bone, and several phalanges are conserved.
As no long leg bones have been found, the researchers applied different mathematical estimates based upon the foot bones, thus obtaining an approximation to important paleobiological parameters.
“Knowing parameters such as the body size and sex of this individual helps us learn a bit more about what the Neandertals were like”, he says.
The participants in this paper, entitled A partial Neandertal foot from the Late Middle Paleolithic of Amud Cave, Israel, are researchers from Spain (the CENIEH), the United States (University of New Mexico and Arizona State University), and Israel (Tel Aviv University and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem).
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First exhaustive analysis of use-wear traces on basalt tools from Olduvai
First exhaustive analysis of use-wear traces on basalt tools from Olduvai
The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución humana (CENIEH) has participated in an experimental study published recently in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, on the possible uses of tools fashioned from basalts, volcanic rocks that are highly abundant at the Olduvai Gorge sites in Tanzania, through the first exhaustive analysis of the relationships between the petrological characteristics of this raw material and the formation of use-wear traces.
In addition to providing elements of great significance for interpreting human behavior at Olduvai Gorge, the results of this research led by the archaeologist Patricia Bello-Alonso furnish a model which will enable comparative studies for lithic industry assemblages in volcanic rocks from different archaeological and geological contexts to be conducted.
“The results we have obtained are a fundamental resource for analyzing the ways stone tools were used at the archaeological sites located in Beds I and II, in general, and at the Thiongo Korongo (TK) site in particular as, in this area, volcanic rocks are one of the key raw materials for the technological and, therefore, evolutionary development of the different hominin groups that occupied Olduvai more than two million years ago”, explains Bello-Alonso.
Reference Collection
The main objective of the research, in which the Museo de Ciencia Naturales and the Instituto de Evolución Humana en África in Madrid also participated, was to determine how traces are formed in basalts at both the macro and micro scales, to enable their use to be identified. To do so, non-retouched flakes were employed and a wide variety of organic materials was worked upon: animal carcasses, tubers, wood, grass, cane and fresh bone.
“Carrying out these operations has allowed us to compile an experimental reference collection for greater understanding of the role played by the internal and chemical structure of basalts in the formation and development of use-wear traces”, she adds.
This multidisciplinary study, financed by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (HAR2013-45246-C3-2-P and HAR2017-82463-C4-2-P), under the auspices of The Olduvai Paleonthropology and Paleoecology Project (TOPPP) on the Acheulean site of TK, led by the researchers Joaquín Panera and Manuel Santonja, was conducted at the Prehistoric Technology and Archaeology Laboratory of the CENIEH and the Emiliano Aguirre camp, at Olduvai Gorge itself.
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The settlement of Europe could be the result of several immigration waves by a single population
The settlement of Europe could be the result of several immigration waves by a single population
The Dental Anthropology Group of the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), in collaboration with the paleoanthropologist Amélie Vialet of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) in Paris, has just published a detailed external and internal study of the molars in the mandible from the French site of Montmaurin-La Niche in the Journal of Human Evolution, whose results strengthen the hypothesis that the settlement of Europe could have been the result of several waves of migration at different times by a common source population.
The aim in this paper, led by the researchers Marina Martínez de Pinillos (CENIEH) and Laura Martín-Francés (CENIEH and PACEA-University of Bordeaux), is to shed light on the origin of the Neanderthals. The latest data obtained from paleontological and geomorphological studies place the Montmaurin-La Niche mandible in a chronologically intermediate position between the fossils of the Middle Pleistocene and the Neanderthals.
The micro-computed axial tomography (microCT) technique has enabled the molars in this mandible to be compared with the external and internal structures of over 400 other molars from the European, Asian and African Pleistocene and Holocene.
This exhaustive metric and morphological analysis has revealed that, while the mandible is more closely related to African and Eurasian populations from the Early and Middle Pleistocene, the enamel and dentine morphology and pulp cavity proportions are similar to those in Neanderthals. “Nevertheless, the absolute and relative enamel thickness values (2D and 3D) show greater affinity with those exhibited by certain Early Pleistocene hominins”, says Martínez de Pinillos.
Possible hybridization
Over recent decades, finds of human fossil remains from the European Middle Pleistocene have prompted the debate on the evolutionary scenario of the genus Homo on that continent to be reopened. “The great variability we find among the European Middle Pleistocene fossils cannot be ignored in studying human evolution on our continent”, states Martín-Francés.
This variability in European Middle Pleistocene populations could indicate different migrations at different times and/or fragmentation of the population, thought it might also be due to possible hybridization between residents and new settlers.
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The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2020: when literature precedes history
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2020: Great American Novels, Black Lives Matter, archetypes and stereotypes
The almost proverbial longtime obsession that American writers have always shown to have for writing the “Great American Novel” (an expression canonised by Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel) seems to have found its perfect embodiment in the finalist trio of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Let’s be honest: not all past Pulitzer winners — let alone just finalists — have managed to contribute to the history of American literature, but this year, the year of Apocalypse apparently, our judges have provided us with a remarkable specimen of thriving American fictional prose.
The victory of The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead (for the second time awarded with the prize, after his triumph in 2017 with The Underground Railroad) could not be more timely: only 21 days before the murder of George Floyd, which initiated the ongoing history-changing wave of protests of the Black Lives Matter movement, on May 4th 2020, a novel whose story revolves around white violence against black boys in an American reformatory, deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize. A prophecy? A foreshadow of things to come? Or perhaps just a signal, a symptom of the growing need for awareness on a social — and ultimately historical — issue that had been simmering just beneath the surface for way too long.
This is not simply an honest, profound, and well-timed novel on the condition of black people in the US. It is — I will be excused the redundancy from now on — a Great American Novel.
I quote from the Wikipedia page for GAN: “The term Great American Novel (GAN) refers to a canonical novel that is thought to capture the spirit of American life. It is generally regarded as being written by an American and dealing in some way with the question of America's national character. The Great American Novel is considered America's equivalent of the national epic.”
The Nickel Boys, though not canonically “epic” with its 215 pages, does indeed capture in a robust way the spirit of contemporary American life. Despite the fictional character of this novel, older and recent history has proved that the events narrated in Whitehead’s last book — the brutality of the violent and multiform abuse against (even young) black people — are facts that permeate everyday American (and not only) society and corrode its foundations. The question of black lives is, therefore, a question of America’s national character, and Whitehead’s powerful writing immortalises it in a way that few other writers (and I’m thinking of Toni Morrison above all) have been able to do so far: this is a profoundly personal, single, individual story that has the strength to turn itself into the archetype of a universal human condition of suffering, abuse, violence, and discrimination. Creating archetypes is indeed what good writing should normally bet able to do, whereas mediocre writing fills its pages with fragile and dull stereotypes. This is why, if one of the two winners of the Man Booker Prize 2019, Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo, merely offers us a rather banal tracking shot of poorly written cliches (stereotypes, precisely!) on black women (and does not, therefore, portray a reality a reader can fully grasp), Whitehead, on the contrary, creates a fictional world that, in its uniqueness, makes the real world aware of its flaws, and resonates with archetypical strength. This is how it becomes epic too, and most resolutely deserves the title of Great American Novel.
What further enriches the literary scenario of this year’s Pulitzer Prize is the incontestable truth that the other two contenders also notably had all the characteristics of great American novels.
The Topeka School, by Ben Lerner, is a refined and sophisticated novel depicting a certain bourgeois cross-section of American society: the protagonists are a family of psychotherapists, whose young son is a champion of public debate. The narration is polyphonic not only thanks to the multitude of voices (mother, father, son), but also to the author’s choice of alternating the first and third-person speech. The narrative technique is wise, as the secretly hidden story of a boy called Darren — that touches tangentially yet significantly the lives of the protagonists — unwinds throughout the chapters without being ever explicitly told. This is potentially a great American novel, not only because it is beautifully written and masterfully orchestrated, but also because it tackles tactfully a number of hot themes of contemporary American society. Public speech and eloquence — persuasion and its danger —, above all, feminism, mental health and psychotherapy, but also and quite remarkably the critical role of education. This pastiche of themes could have easily risked creating yet another collection of stereotypical cliches, but Ben Lerner appears to know better than this, and chooses to give his novel a vigorous framework within which these problems interact naturally and vividly, and therefore can aim at universality.
Finally, we have The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett, perhaps the most traditional of the three novels: a family saga. The plot, somehow a modern and harsh rewriting of the fairytale of Cinderella, is that of two siblings (a brother and a sister, of whom the brother narrates the story), who are, on the one hand, the victims of the tragic destiny of their family (abandoned by their mother, kicked out from their family house by the second wife of their late father), and, on the other hand, the victims of their own violent obsession for the Dutch House. The house is the sumptuous place where they grew up — the materialisation of their father’s American dream, the dream of an ambitious and stubborn man, decided to substantiate his scaling of the social ladder through the possession of a dream house, the same house that will lead his wife to folly and escape.
The obsession of the two protagonists for the house will accompany them until old age and death, and will be inherited by future generations. If the plot is fundamentally simple, the feeling it conveys is undoubtedly epic: a blind, insistent, stubborn search for the evidence of the actuality of the past; a desperate chase of roots; a morbid yet rational attachment to the material possession — the house — which provided those roots; the physical and tangible component of memory.
By narrating these sentiments, universal yet so strongly connotated as typically American (isn’t in the big house, after all, the American dream?), Ann Patchett builds an epic novel, whose emotional strength is at times excruciating, whose simplicity describes folly, torment, resignation, family love, and a vast plethora of human emotions and actions. This is, in sum, a great (and in this case also traditional, though universal) American novel.
Ultimately, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2020 amazes for its foresight and for the brilliance of choices, but most remarkably teaches how literature, at times, precedes history, how the big human and social questions often surface on the written page before action takes place. How great American novels (and hopefully great universal novels) can be a driving force to action and thought.
Georadar reveals the unknown parts of the Sierra de Atapuerca caves
Georadar reveals the unknown parts of the Sierra de Atapuerca caves
An international team of researchers from the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) and the University of Denver has managed to define the bottom part of the caves in the Trinchera del Ferrocarril sites (Cueva Peluda, Sima del Elefante, Galería and Gran Dolina), using georadar, revealing the unknown parts of these caves in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain).
This non-invasive geophysical method, also known as ground penetrating radar (GPR), widely employed in archaeology because it is rapid and easy to apply, enables structures buried at different depths to be discovered. However, using it to study caves is usually discarded because the clayey sediments that fill them, being highly conductive, attenuate the radar signal, thus limiting its penetration capacity.
“Nevertheless, in our case this characteristic has served for studying the lower part of these caves, because we have been able to clearly distinguish the walls from the conduits, and from the sediments that fill them”, states Bermejo, lead author of this study, which was published recently in the journal Geomorphology.
It was possible to constrain the caves' depth by drilling two mechanical boreholes with core recovery, which have identified up to 17 meters of terrigenous fillings, such as in the case of the Galería site. Moreover, different types of sediments were discernible, thanks to which a possible conduit full of fluvial sediments was recorded, which would connect the lower level of Cueva Peluda with the lower part of Sima del Elefante.
Quarrying activity
On the other hand, the information provided by the georadar and historical photographs have made it possible to establish how far the impact of the quarrying activity that took place at the Trinchera until the 1970s extended.
This activity was especially intensive between Cueva del Compresor, situated opposite the Galería site, and Gran Dolina, and it produced rubble fills up to 4 meters thick in the areas most impacted.
“All these data will help to optimize strategies for future excavations, as in this study it has been possible to identify the best preserved zones”, concludes Bermejo.
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The economy of hunter gatherers in the Mediterranean coasts between the Pleistocene and Holocene included exploitation of marine environment
The economy of hunter gatherers in the Mediterranean coasts between the Pleistocene and Holocene included exploitation of marine environment
New discoveries and material reviews by an inter-institutional research team have confirmed that the economic context at the end of the transition between the Pleistocene and the Holocene on the Mediterranean coast were richer, more complex and more varied than was previously thought. The exploitation of marine resources was not limited to the harvesting of molluscs, but also included fishing, although not many remains have been preserved, probably because the preservation of these types of materials is more delicate or because of the eating habits of ancient human populations.
Until a few years ago, little was known about the characteristics of the economy of hunter-gatherer groups in the Mediterranean during the transition from the Pleistocene (the glacial era, the Palaeolithic) to the Holocene (post-glacial, the time we live in today). Most of the studies carried out in the Iberian Peninsula suggested that the sites of marine exploitation were located particularly in the Cantabrian and Atlantic area, but the new data and studies provided by the research team can change this paradigm.
The research and analysis work, whose conclusions have been published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, has involved Dídac Román, doctoral researcher of excellence of the GenT Plan of the Valencian Regional Government in the Department of History, Geography and Art at the Universitat Jaume I and the Pre-EINA research group; Miguel Martínez Andreu from the Municipal Archaeological Museum of Cartagena; Gustau Aguilella from the Archaeological and Prehistoric Research Service of the Castellón Provincial Council and Josep Maria Fullola and Jordi Nadal from the Prehistoric Studies and Research Seminar (SERP) of the University of Barcelona.
Data collected during the research confirm that the use of marine resources during the late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic on the Iberian Mediterranean coast was clearly more common than was previously thought with the data available at the time. The difference regarding the presence of less evidence than in the case of the Cantabrian and Atlantic coasts, where there are more hunter-gatherer-fisherman sites catalogued, could be due to different reasons: greater richness and diversity of life due to the cold marine currents, more abundant in nutrients; presence of tides and other environmental factors and better preservation of the sites over time thanks to a coastal platform and a steeper coastline that protected them from the progressive flooding of the environment with the melting of the poles during the Holocene.
Dídac Román, Miguel Martínez-Andreu, Gustau Aguilella, Josep Maria Fullola & Jordi Nadal (2020): “Shellfish collectors on the seashore: the exploitation of the marine environment between the end of the Paleolithic and the Mesolithic in the Mediterranean Iberia”, The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology.
Press release from Asociación RUVID
The new findings and examinations of material carried out by a multi-institutional research proved the economic context at the end of the transition between the Plesitocene and the Holocene in the Mediterranean coasts to be richer, more complex and varied than what we thought. Exploitation of marine resources was not limited to a recollection of molluscs, but it also included fishing, although not many remains were preserved, probably because the preservation of such materials is more delicate or due to the eating habits of ancient human populations.
The conclusions of this research and analytical study have been published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. Among the participants in the study are Dídac Román, researcher at Plan Gent of the Valencian Government in the Department of History, Geography and Arts of the University Jaume I and the research group Pre-EINA; Miguel Martínez Andreu, from the Archaeological Museum of Cartagena; Gustay Aguilella, from the Service of Archaeological and Prehistoric Research of Diputación de Castellón, and Josep Maria Fullola and Jordi Nadal, from the Prehistoric Studies and Research Seminar (SERP) of the University of Barcelona, in which the first signer of the study participates as well.
Until some years ago, we did not know much about the economic features of hunter-gatherer groups in the Mediterranean during the transition from the Pleistocene (ice age, Palaeolithic), to the Holocene (post-glaciation, current moment we live in). Most of the studies carried out in the Iberian Peninsula suggested that the areas of marine exploitation were specifically in the Cantabrian and Atlantic areas, but new data and studies conducted by the research team change this paradigm now.
The collected data during the research study states that the use of marine resources at the end of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic in the Iberian Mediterranean coasts was more common than what people thought with the existing data. The difference regarding the presence of less evidence in the Cantabrian and Atlantic coasts, where there are more areas of hunter-gatherer-fishers, could be due to several reasons: more richness and life diversity due to cold marine currents, more nutrients; presence of tides and other environmental factors, and a better preservation of the areas over time (thanks to a littoral platform and an abrupt coast that protected these from a progressive flood of the environment with the melting of the poles during the Holocene).
SERP studies and Catalan records
Although the results of the article resulted from an interdisciplinary study, in which members of different research centres collaborated to obtain data from all regions, SERP-UB has led two essential aspects in this study. On the one hand, the analysis of the bioarchaeological elements –mainly faunistic remains–, on which the conclusions are based in order to show the importance of the utility of the marine resources by the communities of hunter-gatherers in the study area. On the other hand, obtaining radiocarbon dating in different sites, some excavations from years ago and others which are currently active. These datings are the ones to enable researchers to date the exploitation marine events between 13,000 and 7,000 years ago approximately. Moreover, the SERP studies carried out the interpretation of data in the Catalan area, with the examination of material from old excavations that are now in different museums.
Among these are the collections in the Archaeology Museum Salvador Vilaseca in Reus, which features material from key sites for the current study, such as Camping Salou (Salou) or the cave Cova del Solà d’en Pep (Hospitalet de l’Infant), excavated by Salvador Vilaseca. Although they are not mentioned in the article, other synchronic archaeological excavations are now a target excavation for SERP in Catalonia. The objective is to go beyond the evaluation of the importance of the subsistence of marine origins in the coastal areas but also to value the type of resources among the last populations of hunter-gatherers in the area. Thus, shells used as ornaments have been found in Priorat (El Filador and Hort de la Boquera), Moianès (Balma del Gai), La Noguera (Cova del Parco) and even in Cerdanya (Montlleó).
Ten Mediterranean sites
Researchers analysed remains from ten archaeological sites, located over the 800 kilometers of the Mediterranean coast, from Tarragona to Málaga, specifically La Cativera, Camping Salou and Solà d’en Pep (Tarragona); L’Assut and La Cova (Castellón); El Collado (Valencia); Algarrobo, Caballo and La Higuera (Murcia)and Nerja (Málaga). Contrary to what people thought, places in the south show a larger diversity of resources (the most paradigmatic is in the cave in Nerja). This would happen due to the entrance of waters from the Atlantic Ocean, its proximity, and it can be proved because there is presence of species such as L. Obtusata and species from colder climates such as cod species M. Aeglefinus and O. Pollachius. The Mediterranean is poorer regarding its biology due to salinity, temperature, lack of nutrients and unpredictable tides.
In general, the exploitation of marine resources (mainly molluscs) is related to the exploitation of terrestrial invertebrates and the presence of mammal remains (deer, Iberian ibex, rabbits, among others). However, researchers confirmed there is a decrease in terrestrial invertebrates in favour of marine resources over time. This feature has been observed in those places that conserved remains over long periods of time such as the cave in Nerja, or studied areas that show an older chronology such as Càmping Salou, La Cova, Caballo, Algarrobo and La Higuera. Among the studied molluscs are sea urchins (Solà d’en Pep and Nerja), crustaceans (Caballo), and cephalopods (Nerja), and among fish, the red sea bream is the most found in places with seasonal marsh (El Collado, Caballo and La Higuera), varieties of cod in Nerja and marine birds and mammals (Monachus and Deplhinus).
Another important aspect of the study was to evaluate whether the location and exploitation could be linked to the proximity to the sea, but according to the obtained data, at the time of occupation, these places were not exactly coastal areas (La Cova and El Collado, for instance); their inhabitants had to move about thirty kilometres to get supplies.
The research team used data on the fluctuations of the sea level during its activity in the late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic to calculate the distance to the coast. To estimate the distance, they combined different digital models of the area with bathymetry, which enabled a simulation of different positions of the coast in ranks, and researchers could specify whether it was within the two-hour isochrone of the sites, a distance considered the common area where hunter-gatherers carried out their activities.
The extension of the continental platform and the shape of the coast has been important for this research. The south east area of the peninsula is a relatively sheer area with a continental platform that has deep cliffs, but these features have protected it from important orographic changes. The central area (Tarragona, Castellón and Valencia) is completely different. The sedimentation of the Ebro Riber conditions the existence of a smooth and low altitude in the coast with a big continental platform that has changed its orography due to marine regression and transgression.
Reference article:
Dídac Román, Miguel Martínez-Andreu, Gustau Aguilella, Josep Maria Fullola & Jordi Nadal (2020): “Shellfish collectors donde the seashore: The exploitation of the marino environment between the end of the Paleolithic and the Mesolithic in the Mediterranean Iberia”, The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15564894.2020.1755395
Press release from the University of Barcelona.
Seafood helped prehistoric people migrate out of Africa, study reveals
Seafood helped prehistoric people migrate out of Africa, study reveals
Prehistoric pioneers could have relied on shellfish to sustain them as they followed migratory routes out of Africa during times of drought, a new study suggests.
The study examined fossil reefs near to the now-submerged Red Sea shorelines that marked prehistoric migratory routes from Africa to Arabia. The findings suggest this coast offered the resources necessary to act as a gateway out of Africa during periods of little rainfall when other food sources were scarce.
The research team, led by the University of York, focused on the remains of 15,000 shells dating back 5,000 years to an arid period in the region. With the coastline of original migratory routes submerged by sea-level rise after the last Ice Age, the shells came from the nearby Farasan Islands in Saudi Arabia.
Plentiful
The researchers found that populations of marine mollusks were plentiful enough to allow continuous harvests without any major ecological impacts and their availability would have enabled people to live through times of drought.
Lead author, Dr Niklas Hausmann, Associate Researcher at the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, said: "The availability of food resources plays an important role in understanding the feasibility of past human migrations – hunter-gatherer migrations would have required local food sources and periods of aridity could therefore have restricted these movements.
“Our study suggests that Red Sea shorelines had the resources necessary to provide a passage for prehistoric people.”
Healthy population
The study also confirms that communities settled on the shorelines of the Red Sea could have relied on shellfish as a sustainable food resource all year round.
Dr Hausmann added: “Our data shows that at a time when many other resources on land were scarce, people could rely on their locally available shellfish. Previous studies have shown that people of the southern Red Sea ate shellfish year-round and over periods of thousands of years. We now also know that this resource was not depleted by them, but shellfish continued to maintain a healthy population.”
Fossil reefs
The shellfish species found in the archaeological sites on the Farasan Islands were also found in abundance in fossil reefs dating to over 100 thousand years ago, indicating that these shellfish have been an available resource over longer periods than archaeological sites previously suggested.
Co-author of the study, Matthew Meredith-Williams, from La Trobe University, said: "We know that modelling past climates to learn about food resources is extremely helpful, but we need to differentiate between what is happening on land and what is happening in the water. In our study we show that marine foods were abundant and resilient and being gathered by people when they couldn't rely on terrestrial food."
Shellfish resilience to prehistoric human consumption in the southern Red Sea: Variability in Conomurex fasciatus across time and space is published in Quaternary International. The research was funded by the European Research Council.
Press release on seafood helping prehistoric people migrate out of Africa from the University of York
