Category Archives: AFRICA

Ancient DNA reveals surprises about how early Africans lived, travelled and interacted

Ancient DNA reveals surprises about how early Africans lived, travelled and interacted

A new analysis of human remains that were buried in African archaeological sites has produced the earliest DNA from the continent, telling a fascinating tale of how early humans lived, travelled and even found their significant others.

Ancient DNA reveals surprises about how early Africans lived, travelled and interacted
Hora Rockshelter in Malawi, where recent excavations uncovered two of the individuals analyzed in a collaborative study of ancient DNA.

An interdisciplinary team of 44 researchers outlined its findings in “Ancient DNA reveals deep population structure in sub-Saharan African foragers.” The paper was published today in Nature and reports findings from ancient DNA from six individuals buried in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia who lived between 18,000 and 5,000 years ago.

“This more than doubles the antiquity of reported ancient DNA data from sub-Saharan Africa,” said David Reich, a professor at Harvard University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute whose lab generated the data in the paper. “The study is particularly exciting as a truly equal collaboration of archaeologists and geneticists.”

The study also reanalyzed published data from 28 individuals buried at sites across the continent, generating new and improved data for 15 of them. The result was an unprecedented dataset of DNA from ancient African foragers — people who hunted, gathered or fished. Their genetic legacy is difficult to reconstruct from present-day people because of the many population movements and mixtures that have occurred in the last few thousand years.

Mt. Hora in Malawi, where recent excavations at Hora Rockshelter uncovered two of the individuals analyzed in a collaborative study of ancient DNA.

Thanks to this data, the researchers were able to outline major demographic shifts that took place between about 80,000 and 20,000 years ago. As far back as about 50,000 years ago, people from different regions of the continent moved and settled in other areas and developed alliances and networks over longer distances to trade, share information and even find reproductive partners. This social network helped them survive and thrive, the researchers wrote.

Elizabeth Sawchuk , an author of the study who is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta and a research assistant professor at Stony Brook University, said a dramatic cultural change took place during this timeframe, as beads, pigments and other symbolic art became common across Africa. Researchers long assumed that major changes in the archaeological record about 50,000 years ago reflected a shift in social networks and maybe even changes in population size. However, such hypotheses have remained difficult to test.

“We’ve never been able to directly explore these proposed demographic shifts, until now,” she said. “It has been difficult to reconstruct events in our deeper past using the DNA of people living today, and artefacts like stone tools and beads can’t tell us the whole story. Ancient DNA provides direct insight into the people themselves, which was the missing part of the puzzle.”

The Livingstone Museum in Zambia, where some of the skeletal remains in the study are curated.

Mary Prendergast, an author of the paper and associate professor of anthropology at Rice University, said there are arguments that the development and expansion of long-distance trade networks around this time helped humans weather the last Ice Age.

“Humans began relying on each other in new ways,” she said. “And this creativity and innovation might be what allowed people to thrive.”

The researchers were also able to demonstrate that by about 20,000 years ago, people had stopped moving around so much.

“Maybe it was because by that point, previously established social networks allowed for the flow of information and technologies without people having to move,” Sawchuk said.

Prendergast said the study provides a better understanding of how people moved and mingled in this part of Africa. Previously, the earliest African DNA came from what is now Morocco — but the individuals in this study lived as far from there as Bangladesh is from Norway, she noted.

“Our genetic study confirms an archaeological pattern of more local behaviour in eastern Africa over time,” said Jessica Thompson, an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University, and author of the study and one of the researchers who uncovered the remains. “At first people found reproductive partners from wide geographic and cultural pools. Later, they prioritized partners who lived closer, and who were potentially more culturally similar.”

Ostrich eggshell beads from Mlambalasi Rockshelter in Tanzania, where one of the individuals in the study was buried.

The research team included scholars from Canada, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, the United States, Zambia and many other countries. Critical contributions to the study came from curators and co-authors at African museums who are responsible for protecting and preserving the remains.

Potiphar Kaliba, director of research at the Malawi Department of Museums and Monuments and an author of the study, noted that some of the skeletons sampled for the study were excavated a half-century ago, yet their DNA is preserved despite hot and humid climates in the tropics.

“This work shows why it’s so important to invest in the stewardship of human remains and archaeological artefacts in African museums,” Kaliba said.

The work also helps address global imbalances in research, Prendergast said.

“There are around 30 times more published ancient DNA sequences from Europe than from Africa,” she said. “Given that Africa harbours the greatest human genetic diversity on the planet, we have much more to learn.”

“By associating archaeological artifacts with ancient DNA, the researchers have created a remarkable framework for exploring the prehistory of humans in Africa,” said Archaeology and Archaeometry program director John Yellen of the U.S. National Science Foundation, one of the funders behind this project. “This insight is charting a new way forward to understanding humanity and our complex shared history.”

The paper is online at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04430-9.

How Studying Mummies Could Cure Modern Diseases

How Studying Mummies Could Cure Modern Diseases

Earlier this year, scientists published a study of whole-body CT scans of 137 mummies: ancient Egyptians and Peruvians, ancestral Puebloans of southwest America, and Unangan hunter-gatherers of the Aleutian Islands.

How Studying Mummies Could Cure Modern Diseases
This mummy was once Amenhotep III, King Tut’s grandfather.

They reported signs of athero­sclerosis—a dangerous artery hardening that can lead to heart attacks or stroke—in 34 per cent of them. What struck the research team, led by Randall Thompson of Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, was that it afflicted mummies from every group. Frank Rühli, head of the Swiss Mummy Project at the University of Zurich, also sees the condition in about 30 to 50 per cent of the adult specimens he studies.

The breadth of these findings suggests that atherosclerosis today may have less to do with modern excesses such as overeating and more with underlying genetic factors that seem present in a certain percentage of humans living almost anywhere in the world. Someday, identifying those genes could lead to new drugs for heart disease.

They’re now finding signs of everything from prostate cancer to malaria in mummies across the globe.

Ancient mummies can provide a wealth of information about the health of early civilizations, which may help us better treat diseases today. But because mummies are both rare and delicate, researchers have been limited in what they could do to them—and therefore what they could learn from them.

Recent improvements of two medical tools—DNA sequencing, which can reveal microbial infections, and CT scanning—are letting paleopathologists diagnose mummies’ causes of death in detail. They’re now finding signs of everything from prostate cancer to malaria in mummies across the globe.

By comparing the ancient forms of those diseases with their contemporary equivalents, researchers can learn how those diseases evolved, what makes them so harmful, and—possibly—how to stop them.

In the case of tuberculosis (TB), which kills upwards of 1.4 million people a year, researchers are using DNA sequencing and CT scans in mummies to understand what conditions TB thrives in and how to treat it.

Work from Haagen Klaus, a biological anthropologist at George Mason University, suggests that, contrary to what some experts think, Europeans might have brought a particularly deadly form of TB to the Americas.

His preliminary DNA data hints that Peruvian remains dating back to the 10th century—before Spanish explorers arrived—might have been infected with a more benign strain of the TB bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or a different species altogether, Mycobacterium kansasii. And many studies have shown that the bodies of Central Americans from before and after European contact rarely, if ever, show signs of TB symptoms. Klaus subscribes to the hypothesis that this may be because M. tuberculosis thrives in the presence of iron, and these people ate a low-iron diet with little meat. If true, this insight could point to new drugs that would inhibit M. tuberculosis from taking up an iron.

Researchers use magnetic resonance imaging to see inside mummies, such as this one from ancient Peru.

Researchers use magnetic resonance imaging to see inside mummies, such as this one from ancient Peru.

Other scientists are using DNA sequencing to investigate Chagas disease, an illness caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which can cause fatal heart failure or swelling of digestive system organs.

The parasite infects roughly 10 million people, mostly in Latin America, and appears to be spreading. Some think that different strains of the parasite affect different organs. So in 2008, when Ana Carolina Vicente and Ana Jansen of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro reported their discovery of T. cruzi in the enlarged colon of a 560-year-old mummified body from Brazil, they might have come upon an important clue.

Previously, they found T. cruzi in a sample of bone remains from 4,500 to 7,000 years ago. Comparing the DNA of different samples of the parasite could reveal more about its evolution and spread, and perhaps influence treatment someday.

Paleopathologists are also taking advantage of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which detects signals from water.

Dry mummies haven’t been perfect for this technique, but recent improvements in MRI might make for better images of soft tissues, such as tongues. Plus, unlike the radiation from CT scanning, MRI has no possible risk of damaging DNA evidence.

Fossil child skull from 2.2 million years ago reveals how humans outsmarted the other great apes

Fossil child skull from 2.2 million years ago reveals how humans outsmarted the other great apes

A fossil more than two million years old could help explain why man became so brainy.

The Taung fossil, an early hominid that was discovered in South Africa in 1924, was a significant feature that could shed light on the evolution of intelligence.

The Taung fossil, an early hominid that was discovered in South Africa in 1924, was a significant feature that could shed light on the evolution of intelligence.

Importantly it has a ‘persistent metopic suture’ – an unfused seam – in the frontal bone, which allows a baby’s skull to be pliable in childbirth. In great apes, this closes shortly after birth but in humans, it doesn’t fuse until around two years of age – allowing brain growth.

The unfused seam allows babies to be born with larger brains, and the delay in fusing allows the brain to grow larger in early life, reports Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Taung fossil has become the ‘type specimen,’ or main model, of the genus Australopithecus africanus.

An australopithecine is any species of the extinct genera Australopithecus or Paranthropus that lived in Africa, walked on two legs and had relatively small brains.

Dr Dean Falk, of Florida State University, said: ‘These findings are significant because they provide a highly plausible explanation as to why the hominin brain might grow larger and more complex.

‘The persistent metopic suture, an advanced trait, probably occurred in conjunction with refining the ability to walk on two legs.

‘The ability to walk upright caused an obstetric dilemma.

‘Childbirth became more difficult because the shape of the birth canal became constricted while the size of the brain increased. The persistent metopic suture contributes to an evolutionary solution to this dilemma.

‘The later fusion was also associated with an evolutionary expansion of the frontal lobes, which is evident from the endocasts of australopithecines such as Taung.’

Large Cache of Embalming Materials Discovered in Egypt

Large Cache of Embalming Materials Discovered in Egypt

A team of Egyptologists from Charles University in Prague made the discovery in the western part of the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Abusir in the spring of last year when exploring a group of large shaft tombs located there.

The collection of large ceramic vessels, containing residues of various materials used during the mummification ritual, was found in one huge shaft, carefully placed in 14 layers.

Large Cache of Embalming Materials Discovered in Egypt

The deposit, which dates back to the 6th century B.C., also included some other objects, says Jiří Janák from the Institute of Egyptology, who was one of the members of the research team:

“Among the objects, we found there were other smaller vessels as well as pieces of ashes from a fire that burned somewhere near the place where the person was mummified. We also found remnants of natron, a substance that the Egyptians used to dry the dead body.”

Experts also found residues of resins, oils or myrrh in the amphora-shaped containers. In addition to these, the deposit also contained four so-called canopic jars made of limestone, that were used for storing the viscera removed from the body during the embalming process.

“What we found were empty canopic jars, which had not yet been used. Interestingly, there were inscriptions on them including the name of the owner. That’s what helped us identify the person to whom this deposit belonged.”

So far, experts from the Czech Institute of Egyptology have only opened a part of the nearly 400 sealed vessels.

This year, they are going to continue to analyse the ceramic containers and their contents.

Another part of the team will be examining the adjacent structure right next to the mummification deposit. That will most likely be the tomb of the deposit’s owner, who, according to the inscriptions on the jars, was named Wahibre-mery-Neith.

The team of Czech Egyptologists has been working on the site in Abusir already since the 1960s and has one of the largest archaeological sites loaned by the Egyptians to foreigners, explains archaeologist Veronika Dulíková:

“Imagine an area that’s about two square kilometres in size. We have an amazing concession here with enormous potential.

We estimate that only around ten per cent of the total area has been explored so far.”

The burial site at Abusir has been continuously used throughout the whole of ancient Egypt’s history. Czech experts believe that the new discovery will shed more light on the process of mummification.

Egypt: a 4,200-year-old funerary temple for a queen discovered

Egypt: a 4,200-year-old funerary temple for a queen discovered

Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities has revealed details of the latest landmark discoveries to emerge from the Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo. The vast burial grounds sit in what was once Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to more than a dozen pyramids, including Egypt’s oldest, the Pyramid of Djoser.

The site has yielded thousands of artifacts over decades of excavation, but among the biggest rewards for Egyptologists in this latest round of discoveries was the identity of a queen who died around 4,200 years ago.

Her tomb was discovered at a site adjacent to the pyramid of King Teti, the first pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt’s the Old Kingdom, the era between about 2680 and 2180 BC known as the Age of the Pyramids. 

“The excavation started in 2010 when we discovered a pyramid of a queen next to the pyramid of King Teti, but we didn’t find a name inside the pyramid to tell us who the pyramid belonged to,” leading Egyptologist and former minister of antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass told CBS News.

A sarcophagus is displayed during the official announcement of the discovery by an Egyptian archaeological mission of a new trove of treasures at Egypt’s Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo, on January 17, 2021. The discovery includes the funerary temple of Queen Neit, wife of King Teti, as well as burial shafts, coffins, and mummies dating back 3,000 years to the New Kingdom.

About a month ago they discovered a funerary temple, and now researchers finally have a name for the ancient female monarch: Queen Neit, the wife of King Teti. Her name was finally found, carved on a wall in the temple, and also written on a fallen obelisk in the entrance to her tomb.

Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass poses during an event announcing the discovery by the archaeological mission he leads of a new trove of treasures at Egypt’s Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo, on January 17, 2021.

“I’d never heard of this queen before. Therefore, we add an important piece to Egyptian history, about this queen,” said Hawass, who heads the archaeological mission. He said the recent discoveries would help “rewrite” the history of ancient Egypt.

His team also discovered 52 burial shafts, each around 30 to 40 feet deep, inside of which they found have more than 50 wooden coffins dating back to the New Kingdom, around 3,000 years ago.

Unearthed adorned wooden sarcophagi are displayed during the official announcement of the discovery by an Egyptian archaeological mission of a new trove of treasures at Egypt’s Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo, on January 17, 2021.

“Actually, this morning we found another shaft,” Hawass told CBS News on Monday. “Inside the shaft, we found a large limestone sarcophagus. This is the first time we’ve discovered a limestone sarcophagus inside the shafts. We found another one that we’re going to open a week from now.”

The team also found a papyrus about 13 feet long and three feet wide, on which Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead is written in hieroglyphics, with the name of its owner recorded on it. The Book of the Dead is an ancient manuscript that explains how to navigate through the afterlife to reach the field of the Aaru — paradise, to ancient Egyptians.  

The remains of a papyrus, bearing Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead, found in a burial shaft at the Saqqara necropolis in Egypt are displayed on tables in an image provided by the Ministry of Antiquities.

Hawass said it was the first time such a large papyrus had been discovered inside a burial shaft.  

Other finds from the site include numerous wooden funerary masks, a shrine dedicated to the god Anubis (Guardian of the Cemetery), statues of Anubis, and games that were buried with the dead, to keep them busy in the afterlife. One of them was a game called “Twenty,” found with its owner’s name still visibly written on it.

Another game, called “Senet” (cross), was found in the shafts. It’s similar to chess, but if the deceased player wins, they go safely into the afterlife.

The cache of embalming materials unearthed in Abu Sir

The cache of embalming materials unearthed in Abu Sir

The archaeological mission of the Czech Institute of Egyptology discovered a cache of mummification materials during archaeological excavations inside a group of burial wells dating back to the 26th Dynasty and located in the western part of the Abu Sir cemetery.

The cache of embalming materials unearthed in Abu Sir
Part of the discovery – Min. of Tourism & Antiquities

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri explained that this cache was found inside a huge well measuring 5.3 x 5.3 meters and of depth exceeding 14 meters. 

The cache contains unique embalming materials, consisting of 370 large pottery vessels divided into 14 groups, each group containing from 7 to 52 pots.

The discovered well – Min. of Tourism & Antiquities
The discovered well – Min. of Tourism & Antiquities

Waziri added that these pots contain remnants of materials that were used during the mummification process.

Waziri further indicated that in the upper group, four empty limestone canopic pots engraved with hieroglyphic texts in the name of their owner, a person named Wahibre, were found.

Part of the discovery – Min. of Tourism & Antiquities

For his part, Miroslav Barta, head of the mission, noted, “the 2021 season was part of a long-term project aimed at uncovering antiquities dating back to an era when ancient Egyptian society was looking for new ways to preserve the unique Egyptian identity.

The tombs of Abu Sir, which were built in a similar way to the famous pyramid of Djoser, the most famous king of the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, played a major role in showing the unique Egyptian culture, which was expressed by the Egyptian eras in that period.”

Moreover, Deputy Director of the Czech Mission Mohammad Megahid confirmed that archaeological excavations will continue in the area through 2022. 

At the same time, studies and analysis of the contents of the pottery vessels will be started using modern scientific methods.

Hieroglyphic Texts Discovered on Coffins Believed to Contain Mummies of Birds and Guts

Hieroglyphic Texts Discovered on Coffins Believed to Contain Mummies of Birds and Guts

Three burial shafts believed to contain mummified birds were discovered near Cairo. The coffins, which are covered in ancient hieroglyphic texts, were found in the Abusir necropolis, a large cemetery.

The discovery was made after authorities received reports of illegal excavations in the area, according to Ahram Online.

In additional to 38 carved ceramic pots, the committee discovered that the graves held four wooden coffins. Though in poor condition, hieroglyphic texts are still visible on their surfaces.

Hieroglyphic Texts Discovered on Coffins Believed to Contain Mummies of Birds and Guts
An ancient Egyptian mummy depicting an ibis on display at the Brooklyn Museum. Four coffins believed to contain mummies of birds were recently discovered near Cairo.

Sabri Farag, the director-general of the Saqqara Necropolis and leader of the excavation committee, said that one of the texts featured a cartouche—an oval tablet bearing text specifically associated with royalty—of King Ptolemy IV, according to Ahram Online. 

King Ptolemy IV reigned from 221 B.C. to 205 B.C.

The hieroglyphs were too badly degraded for experts to decipher anything further, but additional studies are being planned to reveal more, according to Ahram Online.

Supreme Council of Antiquities secretary-general Mostafa Waziri said that an excavation committee was formed to investigate the site as quickly as possible following reports of illegal grave-digging, according to Ahram Online.

The coffins are believed to contain four mummified bodies, but not of humans—of birds. Also found in the coffins were three of the mummies’ stomachs, wrapped protectively in linen.

Removal of internal organs during the mummification process was common practice, according to the Smithsonian Institution. In addition to removing moisture from the body, embalming involves taking out anything that would rot especially quickly, like organs.

Animal mummification was also common practice in ancient Egypt. While the precise purpose of mummifying creatures like dogs, cats, and birds remains unknown, ancient Egyptians viewed animals as of equal importance to humans, according to The New York Times.

For instance, a mummified ibis—a sacred bird with a long hooked beak—would have been preserved because that bird was associated with the deity Thoth, the god of magic and wisdom, according to The New York Times.

And yet, a CT scan of one such mummy revealed “just a bundle of feathers” inside. A separate scan of a different bird mummy revealed that it really did contain a bird—which had choked to death on a mouse, according to National Geographic.

All of which is to say that these newly discovered mummies might be, quite literally, full of surprises.

Archaeologists Identify Mummified Legs as Queen Nefertari’s

Archaeologists Identify Mummified Legs as Queen Nefertari’s

A team of international archaeologists believe a pair of mummified legs on display in an Italian museum may belong to Egyptian Queen Nefertari — the favourite wife of the pharaoh Ramses II.

The team, which included Dr Stephen Buckley and Professor Joann Fletcher from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, used radiocarbon dating, anthropology, palaeopathology, genetics and chemical analysis to identify the remains.

They conclude that “the most likely scenario is that the mummified knees truly belong to Queen Nefertari.”

Archaeologists Identify Mummified Legs as Queen Nefertari's
Queen Nefertari’s knees.

As the favourite wife of the pharaoh Ramses II, Nefertari was provided with a beautifully decorated tomb in the Valley of the Queens to which Professor Fletcher was recently given access.

Although plundered in ancient times, the tomb, first excavated by Italian archaeologists in 1904, still contained objects which were sent to the Egyptian Museum in Turin.

This included a pair of mummified legs which could have been part of a later interment as was often the case in other tombs in the region.

But as the legs had never been scientifically investigated, it was decided to undertake the recent study to find out if the legs could actually represent all that remained of one of Egypt’s most legendary queens.

The study, published in the journal Plos One, revealed that the legs are those of an adult woman of about 40 years of age.

Dr Buckley’s chemical analysis also established that the materials used to embalm the legs are consistent with 13th Century BC mummification traditions, which when taken in conjunction with the findings of the other specialists involved, led to the identification.

Professor Fletcher said: “This has been the most exciting project to be part of, and a great privilege to be working alongside some of the world’s leading experts in this area.

“Both Stephen and myself have a long history studying Egypt’s royal mummies, and the evidence we’ve been able to gather about Nefertari’s remains not only complements the research we’ve been doing on the queen and her tomb but really does allow us to add another piece to the jigsaw of what is actually known about Egyptian mummification.”