Japanese scientists ‘reawaken’ cells of a 28,000-Year-Old woolly mammoth
Her name is Yuka: an ancient woolly mammoth that last lived some 28,000 years ago, before becoming mummified in the frozen permafrost wastelands of northern Siberia.
But now that icy tomb is no longer the end of Yuka’s story.
The mammoth’s well-preserved remains were discovered in 2010, and scientists in Japan have now reawakened traces of biological activity in this long-extinct beast – by implanting Yuka’s cell nuclei into the egg cells of mice.
“This suggests that, despite the years that have passed, cell activity can still happen and parts of it can be recreated,” genetic engineer Kei Miyamoto from Kindai University told AFP.
In their experiment, the researchers extracted bone marrow and muscle tissue from Yuka’s remains, and inserted the least-damaged nucleus-like structures they could recover into living mouse oocytes (germ cells) in the lab.
Red and green dyed proteins around a mammoth cell nucleus (upper right) in a mouse oocyte (Kindai University)
In total, 88 of these nuclei structures were collected from 273.5 milligrams of mammoth tissue, and once some of these nuclei were injected into egg cells, a number of the modified cells demonstrated signs of cellular activity that precede cell division.
“In the reconstructed oocytes, the mammoth nuclei showed the spindle assembly, histone incorporation, and partial nuclear formation,” the authors explain in the new paper.
“However, the full activation of nuclei for cleavage was not confirmed.”
Despite the faintness of this limited biological activity, the fact anything could be observed at all is remarkable, and suggests that “cell nuclei are, at least partially, sustained even in over a 28,000 year period”, the researchers say.
Calling the accomplishment a “significant step toward bringing mammoths back from the dead”, Miyamoto acknowledges there is nonetheless a long way to go before the world can expect to see a Jurassic Park-style resurrection of this long-vanished species.
“Once we obtain cell nuclei that are kept in better condition, we can expect to advance the research to the stage of cell division,” Miyamoto told The Asahi Shimbun.
Less-damaged samples, the researchers suggest, could hypothetically enable the possibility of inducing further nuclear functions, such as DNA replication and transcription.
Another thing that is needed is better technology. Previous similar work in 2009 by members of the same research team didn’t get this far – which the scientists at least partially put down to “technological limitations at that time”, and the state of the frozen mammoth tissues used.
To that end, the researchers think their new research could provide a new “platform to evaluate the biological activities of nuclei in extinct animal species” – an incremental progression to perhaps one day, maybe, seeing Yuka’s kind roam again.
51,000-year-old Indonesian cave painting may be the world’s oldest storytelling art
The 51,200-year-old cave art in Leang Karampuang, Sulawesi, is the oldest narrative rock art ever discovered. The artwork depicts a human-like figure interacting with a warty pig.
A cave painting on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi may be the oldest evidence of narrative art ever discovered, researchers say. The artwork, which depicts a human-like figure interacting with a warty pig, suggests people may have been using art as a way of telling stories for much longer than we thought.
Archaeological evidence shows that Neanderthals began marking caves as early as 75,000 years ago, but these markings were typically non-figurative. Until a few years ago, the oldest known figurative cave painting was a 21,000-year-old rock art panel in Lascaux, France, showing a bird-headed human charging a bison. But in 2019, archaeologists unearthed hundreds of examples of rock art in caves in the Maros-Pangkep karst.
The rock art included a 15-foot-wide (4.5 meters) panel depicting human-like figures engaging with warty pigs (Sus celebensis) and anoas (Bubalus) — dwarf buffalos native to Sulawesi.
“Storytelling is a hugely important part of human evolution, and possibly even it helps to explain our success as a species. But finding evidence for it in art, especially very early cave art, is exceptionally rare,” Adam Brumm, co-author of the new study and an archaeologist at Griffith University in Australia, said at a news conference.
The archaeologists previously dated the panel rock art and found it to be at least 43,900 years old, while the oldest image they found in the area was of a 45,500-year-old warty pig.
Now, using a more sensitive dating technique, the archaeologists found that the rock art is at least 4,000 years older than previously thought, making it around 48,000 years old.
More strikingly, the archaeologists found a similar depiction of the human-like figure and warty pig at another cave in Leang Karampuang that was at least 51,200 years old, making it the oldest known narrative art. Their findings were published Wednesday (July 3) in the journal Nature.
Archaeologists were intrigued by the narrative art’s depiction of a part-human, part-animal figure, or therianthrope.
A panorama of the nearly 15-feet-wide (4.5 meters) panel in one of the caves.
“Archaeologists are very interested in depictions of therianthrope because it provides evidence for the ability to imagine the existence of a supernatural being, something that does not exist in real life,” Brumm said.
Previously, the earliest evidence of a therianthrope was the 40,000-year-old ‘Lion Man’ sculpture unearthed in a cave in Germany.
“These depictions from Indonesia are pushing back the dates back nearly 20,000 years earlier, which is groundbreaking, really,” said Derek Hodgson, an archaeologist and scientific advisor for INSCRIBE, a European-based project investigating the development of writing, who was not involved in the study.
The early evidence of a therianthrope is a sign of complex human cognition, Hodgson told Live Science. “You don’t find any of these Neanderthals or early pre-human archaic species producing complex figurative art.”
A map of Indonesian Island of Sulawesi where the archaeologists conducted the study. The area inside the rectangle is the southwestern peninsula of Mares-Pangkep karst. The red boxes on the right show the location of the cave sites.
To more accurately date the narrative art, the researchers used a technique called laser ablation uranium-series imaging.
Previously, the scientists dated the cave paintings by carbon-dating small samples of cave “popcorn” — calcite clusters that have accumulated over thousands of years.
But in the new study, Brumm and his team used even smaller calcite samples — just 0.002 inches (44 microns) long. By taking much smaller samples, the archaeologists gain a higher resolution of the age distribution of the calcite on the cave walls. The technique also minimizes the damage made to the artwork.
“It really changes the way we do the dating on record, and it can be applied to other records as well,” study co-author Renaud Joannes-Boyau, a geochronologist at Southern Cross University in Australia, said at the news conference.
A team of Australian and Indonesian archaeologists excavate the caves in the Maros-Pangkep karst on the island of Sulawesi.
But not everyone agrees. Paul Pettitt, a paleolithic archaeologist at Durham University in the U.K. who was not involved in the study, said that to suggest the art is a narrative, the researchers had to “really make a leap of faith.”
“The dating method is robust, but the team’s interpretations are certainly not,” he wrote in a statement emailed to Live Science. Looking at the images, it was unclear to him whether these paintings were isolated depictions that just happened to be next to each other.
According to the authors, while the identity of the painters, most likely Homo sapiens, is a mystery, the lack of evidence for human occupations suggests that the cave might have been reserved for art-making. The cave is tucked away from the rest of the area at a higher elevation.
The interior of the Leang Karampuang cave wall in Sulawesi is filled with calcite clusters.
“It’s possible that people, these early humans, were only going up into these high-level caves to make this art,” study co-author Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist and geochemist at Griffith University, said at the news conference. “Perhaps there was stories and rituals associated with the viewing of the art, we don’t know. But these seem to be special places in the landscape.”
The team is planning to survey and date more rock art in the area.
Recently, Adhi Agus Oktaviana, the study’s lead author and archaeologist at the Center for Prehistory and Austronesian Studies (CPAS) in Indonesia, found a painting in another cave of three figures depicting a human, a half-human-half-bird and a bird figure. But the team has not analyzed the painting yet.
“It’s very likely that there is some more beautiful ones hidden somewhere that we don’t know,” Aubert said.
Archaeologists Discovered 8th-century BC Settlement in Uzbekistan
A team of Chinese and Uzbek archaeologists discovered an ancient settlement dating back to the 8th century BC in Uzbekistan, near the country’s Surxondaryo River, also known as Surkhandarya.
A square-shaped architectural structure with several rooms, including a kiln and waste pits, is present at the recently excavated site, offering insight into the ancient civilization that once flourished there.
Numerous smaller square rooms within the ruins were discovered; based on the abundance of pottery wares discovered nearby, archaeologists believe these rooms served as living quarters or kitchens.
Utensils made of stone such as millstone, mortars, and pestles were discovered, revealing the “food processing history of ancient people in the region,” Archaeologist He Jierao told the Global Times.
“It reveals the evolution of ancient people’s community lifestyles and how they developed more civilized lifestyles,” He emphasized.
Beginning in April, the excavation project was led by Northwest University archaeologist Ma Jian and his team in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, China. Three major discoveries were made in Uzbekistan between April and June by experts from China and Uzbekistan.
In addition to the 8th-century BC settlement, another major project involved the investigation of the ancient Kushan Empire. Twenty-five old tombs and six buildings from the Kushan Empire were found as a result of the combined efforts.
The Kushan Empire was a powerful political system that ruled over what is now Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It was founded in the first century AD by the nomadic Yuezhi people.
Archaeologists uncover 8th-century BC ruins near Surkhandarya river
Archaeologist Wang Meng noted that such discoveries are crucial for establishing a chronological timeline of the Kushan culture in the region, helping to trace the development of civilization around the Surkhandarya area.
In the third project, archaeologists focused on the Fergana Valley in eastern Uzbekistan, where they explored and reviewed 84 ruins between April and May.
A precious cliff painting was also discovered during the research, which helped paint a picture of the ancient culture of the Namangan Region of Uzbekistan.
These discoveries mark the latest milestones in a longstanding archaeological partnership between Northwest University and Uzbekistan, which began in 2009.
By 2024, more than 70 joint projects had been conducted in Central Asia, aiming to study the historical exchanges along the ancient Silk Road.
Wang Jianxin, a pioneering archaeologist who began working in Uzbekistan 15 years ago, highlighted that these collaborations have challenged Western-centric interpretations of Silk Road history and enhanced global understanding of China’s contributions to ancient Silk Road civilization.
The World’s Earliest Ground Stone Needles Found in Western Tibetan Plateau
In western Tibet, six peculiar stone artifacts were discovered in 2020 by archaeologists excavating close to the shore of Lake Xiada Co. Each was about half the length of a golf tee, with a pointed tip at one end and an eyelike opening at the other. They’ve now identified them as needles — and believe that they’re the oldest stone sewing needles in the world.
Now, in a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Yun Chen, a graduate student at Sichuan University, and her colleagues claim that the artifacts are indeed stone sewing needles—and, at as much as 9000 years old, the oldest on record.
If so, this discovery dramatically changes the timeline of needle history. However, not everyone agrees that the stone objects found in Tibet were used for sewing.
The stone objects are slightly longer than an inch, with an eye-like opening on one end and a pointed tip on the other. they date from 7049 to 6568 B.C.E., and they are composed of materials such as talc, actinolite, serpentine, and tremolite.
The study’s authors believe that they were once used as needles — and thus are possibly the oldest stone sewing needles ever discovered.
Grooves of Needle 6 show traces of red pigment that was later identified as ochre, suggesting this needle served a religious purpose.
The longest and thickest of the six specimens (only two of which are intact), Needle 1 was examined by the researchers to see if they could duplicate the production of the needles using antiquated techniques.
The researchers suspected that it had been ground into shape after being scraped due to the deep grooves on its sides. They took slabs of tremolite and obsidian and replicated the scraping, grinding, and drilling process that ancient people would have used.
They found that while it was possible to replicate the stone needles, including the characteristic grinding marks, the process was far more time-consuming than making softer bone needles. This implies that the needles might have been employed by the ancient Tibetans for more difficult jobs like sewing tents.
The needles may have had a religious or spiritual significance. More evidence that the needles may have had religious or spiritual significance comes from the red paint traces on them.
According to scientists who told Science, ancient Tibetans thought red could ward off evil spirits and give stone tools “life and energy.”
These bone and ivory needles discovered in China are between 23,000 and 30,000 years old.
The advent of the “eyed” needle was a milestone in human civilization. It allowed our ancestors to craft far more durable and protective clothing and shelters, helping them explore new environments and live permanently in colder regions.
The oldest needles are made of bone. Archaeologists have excavated some dating back approximately 50,000 years in Russia’s Denisova Cave. But until now the oldest stone needles were only 2700 years old, found in Henan province in China. The new find pushes the advent of stone needles back more than 6000 years.
However, not everyone is convinced that the objects found in Tibet are needles. As Science reports, researchers unaffiliated with the new study raised some doubts about them.
Some believe that the needles are “too blunt” for sewing and have suggested that they were “personal ornaments” instead. Others wonder if the needles were used to construct fishing nets, as they were found near a lake.
An Ancient Site Found in UAE may be Sixth-Century Lost City of Tu’am
Ruins from the sixth century have been discovered during excavations in the United Arab Emirates Umm Al Quwain region, which may be the remains of the lost city of Tu’am.
The discovery on Al Sinniyah Island is potentially one of the most significant archaeological finds in the Persian Gulf region. Located on Al Sinniyah Island, the island forms part of a group of small islands on the western side of the Khor Al Bidiyah peninsula.
It is thought the city was once the capital of a territory, on the Gulf coast of what is now the Emirates, and a pearl fishing center famed for the quality of its gems.
When Tu’am reached its zenith, in the sixth century, it was so well-known that old Arabic manuscripts mentioned it. After a plague and regional tensions, the city declined and faded from memory.
Under the direction of Sheikh Majid bin Saud Al Mualla, the Umm Al Quwain Department of Tourism and Archaeology is excavating the site in cooperation with regional and global specialists.
The excavation team unearthed evidence of a sizable settlement that began in the fourth century CE and peaked in the fifth and sixth centuries.
The settlement was once an important coastal city.
Previous research on the island revealed a pearling village and monastery, which have been the focus of the latest excavations.
This year, archaeologists discovered the settlement’s large semi-urban tenement buildings, each about 30 square meters, and tightly packed around narrow alleyways. These buildings, indicating a sophisticated and densely populated city, suggest the presence of a stratified social structure and a thriving urban environment.
Professor Tim Power of United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), who is leading the research, noted, “Our archaeological work has discovered by far the largest settlement ever found on the Gulf coast of the Emirates, aligning perfectly with the city described in early Islamic geographical sources. It’s a really important place. No one has ever found it.”
A jar popped out from the soil. Experts believe this may have been one of the tanner ovens or used for storage.
Archaeologists had previously believed that the settlement could have been a lay community serving the monks. However, it is believed that they have discovered something far more significant after four seasons of work at the location.
Professor Power explained that while they have not found definitive evidence, such as an inscription with the town’s name, the absence of other major settlements from this period on the coast strengthens the argument that this is Tu’am. “It’s a process of elimination,” he said.
Archaeologists have unearthed significant amounts of date wine jars, likely from Iraq, and fish bones, indicating a well-connected and diverse trade system. Findings also show the inhabitants were connected to wider trade networks that ran through Iraq, Persia, and India.
Experts examine the site of a mass burial in the monastery area of the site
The discovery also sheds light on the region’s pre-Islamic history. The town would have been called To’me in Aramaic, and Tu’am in Arabic, which means twins.
Over time, this name was transformed into Greek and English as Thomas, though the original meaning was lost. So it is thought the city was named after St Thomas, who was sent to the East to spread Christianity.
Lost World War II Sub Discovered in South China Sea
An octopus on the “conning” or command tower of the wreck of the American submarine USS Harder, which sank near the Philippines in 1944 after a battle with a Japanese destroyer.
Shipwreck hunters have discovered the remains of a famous American submarine that sank with 79 crew members on board while fighting a Japanese warship near the Philippines in 1944.
According to the New York-based Lost 52 Project, which made the discovery, the wreck of USS Harder now lies on its keel on the bottom of the South China Sea near the northern Philippine island of Luzon at a depth of around 3,750 feet (1,140 meters).
Naval reports of the sub’s final mission say the Harder — a Gato-class sub named after a type of fish (the harder mullet) and nicknamed the “Hit ‘Em Harder” — sank with all crew on Aug. 24, 1944 after it was heavily damaged by depth charges in a battle with a Japanese destroyer.
The Harder was one of the most famous American submarines of World War II. U.S. Navy records report that it torpedoed and sank five Japanese destroyers and several other enemy ships during six successful patrols in the Pacific war theater.
“This is one of the most celebrated WWII submarines and an historic naval discovery,” Tim Taylor, the founder of the Lost 52 Project, told Live Science in an email.
USS Harder—known as the “Hit ‘Em Harder”—sank several enemy warships and was one of the most famous American submarines during World War II.
The wreck lies upright on the seafloor at a depth of about 3,800 feet. It was found by studying reports of its final battle, and by searching suitable sites with sonar and autonomous underwater vehicles.
The “Lost 52 Project” that found the wreck aims to locate all 52 American submarines that went missing during World War II and four that sank during the Cold War.
War grave
Taylor is the CEO of a company called Tiburon Subsea, which uses autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and other technologies to collect data at underwater sites. He also leads the Lost 52 Project, which aims to locate the wrecks of the 52 American submarines lost at sea during World War II and four lost during the Cold War.
The group has already located the wrecks of eight vessels, making the wreck of USS Harder their ninth discovery, Taylor said. Each of the underwater wrecks is also a war grave for the crewmembers who died when it sank, and the missing crew of the Harder were remembered for their service when the wreck was found.
“We have a protocol that, when we locate a submarine, we memorialize the crew,” Taylor said. “We observe a minute of silence, ring the bell for every member of the crew and have a prayer service led by a deacon who is part of our expedition team.”
The team located the wreck by studying reports of its final battle and then searching suitable areas with shipboard sonar, which can reveal objects on the seafloor, and AUVs, which can go much deeper than human divers.
But even after they take steps to make the search patterns as efficient as possible, “It is a long and arduous process, like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Taylor said.
Sunken sub
The extreme depth of the wreck meant that AUV searches were essential, although a period of relatively good weather in recent weeks made the search easier.
The Harder wreck is too deep to be visited by divers, and the U.S. Navy has designated the wreck as a protected site. “The wreck represents the final resting place of sailors that gave their life in defense of the nation and should be respected by all parties as a war grave,” the Navy said in a statement.
Taylor added that the AUV images show that the vessel appears to be in good condition. “The submarine is relatively intact, minus the damage done by the depth charges,” he said.
And now, after 80 years under the waves, the wreck seems to be a thriving home for sea life, including an octopus that Taylor saw in the AUV images.
“It is a protected gravesite for 79 US WWII sailors, but there is a lot of life on the submarine,” he said. “It’s quite extraordinary.”
8,000-Year-Old Pearl, Found In Abu Dhabi, Is World’s Oldest
An 8,000-year-old pearl that archaeologists say is the worlds oldest will be displayed in Abu Dhabi, according to authorities who said Sunday it is proof the objects have been traded since Neolithic times.
Dubbed the ‘Abu Dhabi Pearl’, it was found in layers carbon-dated to 5800-5600 BCE, during the Neolithic period.
This finding proves that pearls and oysters have been used in the UAE nearly 8,000 years ago and is the first confirmed evidence of pearling discovered anywhere in the world.
The small pearl was found on the floor of a room during excavations at Marawah Island
The Abu Dhabi Pearl, on loan from the Zayed National Museum collection, will feature in the special exhibition 10,000 Years of Luxury, taking place at Louvre Abu Dhabi from October 30, 2019, to February 18, 2020.
Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi, said: “The Abu Dhabi Pearl is a stunning find, testimony to the ancient origins of our engagement with the sea.
The discovery of the oldest pearl in the world in Abu Dhabi makes it clear that so much of our recent economic and cultural history has deep roots that stretch back to the dawn of prehistory.
Marawah Island is one of our most valuable archaeological sites, and excavations continue in the hope of discovering even more evidence of how our ancestors lived, worked and thrived.”
Prior to the Abu Dhabi Pearl discovery, the earliest known pearl in the UAE was uncovered at a Neolithic site in Umm al-Quwain.
Ancient pearls from the same time have also been found at a Neolithic cemetery close to Jebel Buhais in the emirate of Sharjah. The carbon dating indicates that Abu Dhabi Pearl is older than both these discoveries.
Aside from the priceless Abu Dhabi Pearl, significant finds from the Marawah site have included an imported ceramic vase, beautifully worked flint arrowheads and shell and stone beads.
Numerous painted plaster vessel fragments were also discovered and represent the earliest known decorative art yet discovered in the UAE. At the beginning of 2020, a major new excavation will take place at the site to further uncover its secrets.
Experts have suggested that ancient pearls were possibly traded with Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) in exchange for highly-decorated ceramics and other goods. Pearls were also likely worn as jewellery by the local population, as indicated by the finds at Jebel Buhais in Sharjah.
The art of pearling required in-depth knowledge of pearl beds and their locations and expert seafaring skills.
Once these were mastered by the ancient inhabitants of Marawah, pearling was to remain a mainstay of the UAE’s economy for millennia.
The Venetian jewel merchant Gasparo Balbi, who travelled through the region, mentions the islands off the coast of Abu Dhabi as a source of pearls in the 16th century. The industry flourished until the 1930s.
2,700-year-old leather saddle found in woman’s tomb in China is oldest on record
The leather horse saddle from the tomb at Yanghai in northwest China is dated to roughly between 700 and 400 B.C. and may be the oldest ever found.
Archaeologists have unearthed an elaborate leather horse saddle — possibly the oldest ever found — from a grave in northwestern China, according to a new study.
The saddle, preserved for up to 2,700 years in the arid desert, was discovered in the tomb of a woman at a cemetery in Yanghai, in the Turpan Basin of China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The woman was dressed in a hide coat, woolen pants and short leather boots, and had a “leather saddle placed on her buttocks as if she was seated on it,” according to the study, published Tuesday (May 23) in the journal Archaeological Research in Asia.
The saddle — two cowhide cushions filled with a mixture of straw and deer and camel hair — was made between 724 and 396 B.C., according to radiocarbon dating. It may predate saddles known from the Scythians — nomadic, warlike horse riders from the western and central Eurasian Steppe who interacted with the ancient Greeks and Romans. The earliest Sythian saddles seem to date from between the fifth and the third centuries B.C. and have been found in the Altai Mountains region of Russian Siberia and in eastern Kazakhstan.
The graveyard near Yanghai is in the Turpan Basin region, in the east of the Tian Shan mountains, which was occupied by the Subeixi people from about 3,000 years ago.
“This places the Yanghai saddle at the beginning of the history of saddle making,” study lead author Patrick Wertmann, an archaeologist at the University of Zurich, told Live Science.
The tombs at Yanghai are thought to be from people of the Subeixi culture, who occupied the Turpan Basin from about 3,000 years ago. The culture is named after another graveyard of tombs near the modern town of Subeixi, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Yanghai.
Horse herds
The archaeologists also examined a saddle from another Subeixi graveyard in the region, which is thought to have been made at about the same time.
Archaeologists now think horses were domesticated as herd animals up to 6,000 years ago. But the earliest evidence suggests they were kept for their milk and meat; horse-riding may not have started until up to 1,000 years later.
The first riders used mats secured to the backs of horses with straps; carvings show Assyrian cavalrymen with such horse-gear in the seventh century B.C.
Archaeologists don’t know exactly when true saddles were invented, but they likely were developed by horse-riders in Central Asia about the mid-first millennium B.C., which would make the Yanghai saddle among the oldest, Wertmann said.
The development of saddles began “when riders began to care more about comfort and safety, and also the health of the horses,” he told Live Science in an email. “Saddles helped people to ride longer distances, hence leading to more interaction between different peoples.”
The early Scythian saddles and the Yanghai saddle both have distinct supports, which help riders maintain a firm position and raise themselves in the saddle, such as when shooting an arrow. The first saddles also had no stirrups, Wertmann said.
Female riders
The saddle was found in the tomb of a woman from the pastoralist Subeixi culture; it was positioned so that she seemed to be riding the saddle.
The Subeixi had similar weaponry, horse gear and garments to the Scythians and may have had contact with them in the Altai Mountains region, the study authors wrote. But while the Scythians were nomads, the Subeixi horse-riders were likely pastoralists who looked after herds of animals within the Turpan Basin.
University of Zurich biomolecular archaeologist Shevan Wilkin, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science that the extraordinary level of preservation of the Yanghai saddle suggests other, potentially older saddles, may be found nearby.
“Usually for something organic that’s this old, like leather, then we wouldn’t have any remnants of it, or very little,” she said.
The seated position of the buried woman on the saddle suggests she was a rider. “This really shifts our ideas about who was riding horses,” Wilkin said.
Birgit Bühler, an archaeologist at the University of Vienna, who also wasn’t involved with the study, told Live Science in an email that the discovery in an ordinary tomb is “strong evidence for women participating in the day-to-day activities of mounted pastoralists, which included herding and travelling.”
The find contradicts traditionalist historical narratives associating horse-riding with warfare by elite men, she said.
