Category Archives: EUROPE

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

50,000-Year-old Neanderthal Microbiome Analyzed

50,000-Year-old Neanderthal Microbiome Analyzed

Neanderthals’ gut microbiota already included some beneficial micro-organisms that are also found in our own intestine. An international research group led by the University of Bologna achieved this result by extracting and analyzing ancient DNA from 50,000-year-old fecal sediments sampled at the archaeological site of El Salt, near Alicante (Spain).

The 50,000 years old sedimentary faeces (the oldest sample of faecal material available to date) were collected in El Salt, Spain.

Published in Communication Biology, their paper puts forward the hypothesis of the existence of ancestral components of human microbiota that have been living in the human gastrointestinal tract since before the separation between the Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals that occurred more than 700,000 years ago.

“These results allow us to understand which components of the human gut microbiota are essential for our health, as they are integral elements of our biology also from an evolutionary point of view” explains Marco Candela, the professor of the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology of the University of Bologna, who coordinated the study.

“Nowadays there is a progressive reduction of our microbiota diversity due to the context of our modern life: this research group’s findings could guide us in devising diet- and lifestyle-tailored solutions to counteract this phenomenon.”

The Issues of the “Modern” Microbiota

The gut microbiota is the collection of trillions of symbiont micro-organisms that populate our gastrointestinal tract. It represents an essential component of our biology and carries out important functions in our bodies, such as regulating our metabolism and immune system and protecting us from pathogenic micro-organisms.

Recent studies have shown how some features of modernity — such as the consumption of processed food, drug use, life in hyper-sanitized environments — lead to a critical reduction of biodiversity in the gut microbiota. This depletion is mainly due to the loss of a set of microorganisms referred to as “old friends.”

“The process of depletion of the gut microbiota in modern western urban populations could represent a significant wake-up call,” says Simone Rampelli, who is a researcher at the University of Bologna and first author of the study. “This depletion process would become particularly alarming if it involved the loss of those microbiota components that are crucial to our physiology.”

Indeed, there are some alarming signs. For example, in the West, we are witnessing a dramatic increase in cases of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal cancer.

How the “Ancient” Microbiota Can Help

How can we identify the components of the gut microbiota that are more important for our health? And how can we protect them with targeted solutions? This was the starting point behind the idea of identifying the ancestral traits of our microbiota — i.e. the core of the human gut microbiota, which has remained consistent throughout our evolutionary history.

Technology nowadays allows to successfully rise to this challenge thanks to a new scientific field, paleomicrobiology, which studies ancient microorganisms from archaeological remains through DNA sequencing.

The research group analyzed ancient DNA samples collected in El Salt (Spain), a site where many Neanderthals lived. To be more precise, they analyzed the ancient DNA extracted from 50,000 years old sedimentary feces (the oldest sample of fecal material available to date). In this way, they managed to piece together the composition of the micro-organisms populating the intestine of Neanderthals. By comparing the composition of the Neanderthals’ microbiota to ours, many similarities aroused.

“Through the analysis of ancient DNA, we were able to isolate a core of microorganisms shared with modern Homo sapiens,” explains Silvia Turroni, a researcher at the University of Bologna and first author of the study.

“This finding allows us to state that these ancient micro-organisms populated the intestine of our species before the separation between Sapiens and Neanderthals, which occurred about 700,000 years ago.”

Safeguarding the Microbiota

These ancestral components of the human gut microbiota include many well-known bacteria (among which Blautia, Dorea, Roseburia, Ruminococcus and Faecalibacterium) that are fundamental to our health. Indeed, by producing short-chain fatty acids from dietary fiber, these bacteria regulate our metabolic and immune balance.

There is also the Bifidobacterium: a microorganism playing a key role in regulating our immune defences, especially in early childhood. Finally, in the Neanderthal gut microbiota, researchers identified some of those “old friends.” This confirms the researchers’ hypotheses about the ancestral nature of these components and their recent depletion in the human gut microbiota due to our modern life context.

“In the current modernization scenario, in which there is a progressive reduction of microbiota diversity, this information could guide integrated diet- and lifestyle-tailored strategies to safeguard the micro-organisms that are fundamental to our health,” concludes Candela. “To this end, promoting lifestyles that are sustainable for our gut microbiota is of the utmost importance, as it will help maintain the configurations that are compatible with our biology.”

Reference: “Components of a Neanderthal gut microbiome recovered from fecal sediments from El Salt” by Simone Rampelli, Silvia Turroni, Carolina Mallol, Cristo Hernandez, Bertila Galván, Ainara Sistiaga, Elena Biagi, Annalisa Astolfi, Patrizia Brigidi, Stefano Benazzi, Cecil M. Lewis Jr., Christina Warinner, Courtney A. Hofman, Stephanie L. Schnorr and Marco Candela, 5 February 2021,

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

Children’s ID tags unearthed at Nazi death camp in Poland

Children’s ID tags unearthed at Nazi death camp in Poland

I.D. was found by archaeologists excavating the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland. The Yeshiva World notes the tags containing the names of four Jewish children from Amsterdam aged 5 to 11 who were sent to their deaths during the Second World War.

Yoram Haimi, an archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) who helped lead the dig, notes that the tags included the children’s birthdates and hometowns.

“Since the tags are very different from each other, it is evident that this was probably not some organized effort,” he says in a statement. “The children’s identity tags were prepared by their parents, who were probably desperate to ensure that the children’s relatives could be located in the chaos of the Second World War.”

Children's ID tags unearthed at Nazi death camp in Poland
Parents probably created the tags in hopes of finding their children again.

More than 70 years after the children’s murders, researchers were able to connect the tags to information kept at a memorial centre at the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands.

“I’ve been digging at Sobibor for 10 years,” Haimi tells Israel Hayom’s Yori Yalon. “This was the most difficult day. We called the centre and gave them the names. They sent pictures of young, smiling kids to our phones. The hardest thing is to hear that one of the kids [whose] tag you’re holding in [your] hand arrived at Sobibor on a train full of children ages 4 to 8, who were sent here to die alone.”

As Patrick Pester reports for Live Science, the team was able to trace all of the children through train records. Some were part of mass deportation of 1,300 small children who were sent to the gas chambers as soon as they arrived at the camp.

The archaeologists found the tag of 6-year-old Lea Judith De La Penha, who was killed in 1943, near the camp’s railway platform. They discovered the other three tags—belonging to 6-year-old Deddie Zak, 11-year-old David Juda Van der Velde and 12-year-old Annie Kapper—in the camp’s “killing area,” which housed a gas chamber, crematorium and mass grave, per Live Science. Only half of Van der Velde’s partially burned tag was found.

Deddie Zak (left) was murdered in 1943 at age 6.

“The Germans burned his body and on his neck was this tag,” Haimi tells Live Science.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Holocaust Encyclopedia, Nazi authorities built Sobibor in the spring of 1942. It was the second of three killing centres—along with Belzec and Treblinka—that was part of Operation Reinhard, a plan to murder Jews living in the part of Nazi-occupied Europe known as the General Government.

Most of the camp personnel came from Operation T4, the Nazi’s first mass murder program, which targeted people with disabilities. The Operation Reinhard camps channelled carbon monoxide generated by large motor engines to fill gas chambers.

Ongoing excavations at Sobibor also revealed the camp’s gas chamber, a 3,700-square-foot building with eight rooms.

An aerial view of the extermination area of Sobibor death camp where three of the tags were found.

“We can say that every time you can put between 800 to 900 people in this gas chamber, turn on the motor of the tank and kill in 10 minutes 900 people,” Haimi tells Live Science. “It’s a factory of killing.”

Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust remembrance memorial, estimates the number of people murdered at Sobibor around 250,000. But Hami says the real number is likely higher.

“We will never know how many Jewish people [were] killed in this camp,” he tells Live Science. “I can tell you from the size of the mass graves—because they are huge—it must be much more than 250,000.”

Ofer Aderet of Haaretz reports that Haimi began excavating the site in 2007 as a “private undertaking.” He’s now working with Polish colleague Wojtek Mazurek and others to continue uncovering artefacts.

The team recently discovered several I.D. tags that identified some of the camp’s victims as North African Jews. Other discoveries include pins worn by the right-wing Jewish group Beitar, as well as jewellery, keys, shoes and other personal items owned by those killed at the camp.

Haimi tells Haaretz that he has also discovered a “huge number of alcohol bottles” apparently belonging to Nazis and other camp personnel. The archaeologists gave the items to a museum at the camp that opened last year but is currently closed due to the pandemic.

Sobibor remained in operation until October 1943, when prisoners staged an uprising. Around half of the 600 people then held at the camp escaped, but many were subsequently killed. About 50 former prisoners from the camp survived the war. After the uprising, the Nazis shut the centre down, shooting all prisoners who hadn’t managed to flee.

EUROPE, WORLD

DNA reveals origins of first European farmers

DNA reveals origins of first European farmers

A team of international researchers led by ancient DNA experts from the University of Adelaide has resolved the longstanding issue of the origins of the people who introduced farming to Europe some 8000 years ago.

A detailed genetic study of one of the first farming communities in Europe, from central Germany, reveals marked similarities with populations living in the Ancient Near East (modern-day Turkey, Iraq and other countries) rather than those from Europe.

Project leader Professor Alan Cooper, Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) at the University of Adelaide, says: “This overturns current thinking, which accepts that the first European farming populations were constructed largely from existing populations of hunter-gatherers, who had either rapidly learned to farm or interbred with the invaders.”

Europe First Farmers came from Turkey 8,000 Years ago
Ancient DNA from human remains (pictured) found in Anatolia, Turkey, has revealed that the farmers who lived there 8,000 years ago were among the first to spread into Europe. The farming revolution brought about changes in human culture that led to some of the first civilisations in history emerging.

The results of the study have been published in the online peer-reviewed science journal PLoS Biology.

“We have finally resolved the question of who the first farmers in Europe were — invaders with revolutionary new ideas, rather than populations of Stone Age hunter-gatherers who already existed in the area,” says lead author Dr Wolfgang Haak, Senior Research Associate with ACAD at the University of Adelaide.

“We’ve been able to apply new, high-precision ancient DNA methods to create a detailed genetic picture of this ancient farming population, and reveal that it was radically different to the nomadic populations already present in Europe.

“We have also been able to use genetic signatures to identify a potential route from the Near East and Anatolia, where farming evolved around 11,000 years ago, via south-eastern Europe and the Carpathian Basin (today’s Hungary) into Central Europe,” Dr Haak says.

The project involved researchers from the University of Mainz and State Heritage Museum in Halle, Germany, the Russian Academy of Sciences and members of the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, of which Professor Cooper is a Principal Investigator and Dr Haak is a Senior Research Associate.

The ancient DNA used in this study comes from a complete graveyard of Early Neolithic farmers unearthed at the town of Derenburg in Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany.

Neolithic farmers spread to replace hunter-gatherer populations in Europe. Wall paintings of hunters (pictured) found in Catal Hoyuk in Anatolia, Turkey is thought to have been made in 6,000BC, just as farming was beginning to spread into Europe. The new study suggests the area was a hub for the farming revolution

“This work was only possible due to the close collaboration of archaeologists excavating the skeletons, to ensure that no modern human DNA contaminated the remains, and nicely illustrates the potential when archaeology and genetics are combined,” says Professor Kurt Werner Alt from the collaborating Institute of Anthropology in Mainz, Germany.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

‘Find of the century’: a medieval hoard of treasures unearthed in Cambridge

‘Find of the century’: a medieval hoard of treasures unearthed in Cambridge

A mediaeval graveyard with an excess of unidentified graves being uncovered underneath student accommodation in Cambridge University is listed as being one of the most exciting discoveries of Anglo-Saxon archaeology since the 19th century.

Medieval hoard of treasures unearthed in Cambridge
The human remains found at the Cambridge site are remarkably well preserved in the alkaline soil.

After demolishing a group of 1930s buildings that had recently housed graduates and employees in the west of the city, King’s College discovered the “extensive” cemetery, containing more than 60 graves, to make way for more modern halls.

Many objects (around 200 items) have been found in the graves, including bronze brooches, bead necklaces, knives, small blades, pottery and glass bottles.

A late Roman glass flask found at the site.

Most date from the early Anglo-Saxon period from 400 to 650, although evidence of iron-age structures and Roman earthworks has also been found. Caroline Goodson, who teaches early medieval history at King’s College, said the human remains they found were remarkably “well-preserved.”

“The alkaline soil, which is typical around here, hasn’t decomposed the bones,” she said.

This is significant because it would enable archaeologists to apply modern scientific techniques to reveal the diet and DNA of the dead, permitting analysis of migration and family relationships.

Goodson said excavators had been “surprised” to find so many graves and such an extensive early medieval cemetery surrounded by Roman ditches and so close to the remains of Roman Cambridge.

According to Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, which was written in the eighth century, Cambridge was abandoned — like many other Roman towns — when the Romans withdrew their military forces from England during the fifth century.

“We already know that Cambridge wasn’t fully abandoned. But what we’re seeing now is a greater and clearer picture of life in the post-Roman settlements,” she said.

Goodson speculated that people living in Cambridgeshire were a mix of descendants from earlier Roman populations and recent migrants to Britain from the continent, living in a post-imperial world.

“They are no longer living as the Romans did, they’re eating differently, dressing differently and finding different ways of exploiting the land. They are changing the way they are living during a period of considerable fluidity,” Goodson said.

Some of the finds throw up questions about the emotional connections people living at the time of the burials might have felt toward the Romans who lived in Cambridge before them.

In one grave, archaeologists found a body buried with what appears to be a late Roman piece of glass shaped like a small barrel for storing wine.

“It looks like a classic Roman object being reused in a post-Roman context, as grave goods,” Goodson said.

Another grave looks like a typical late Roman burial from the fifth century, suggesting there might have been continuity of use of the burial ground from the Roman period onward.

Archaeologists have so far not found “strong evidence” that people living in the sixth century were still choosing to bury their dead near late Roman graves, but few graveyards of this size have ever been scientifically excavated using modern methods and technologies, such as advanced radiocarbon dating techniques and isotopic analysis.

The site of the dig, in the west of the city.

“It would be great to say very clearly — and we’re going to need an ample suite of carbon-14 dates to do this — that we’ve got people using this site from the fifth until the seventh century,” Goodson said. “We can see that the burial of the dead and the treatment of their bodies is particularly significant to living in a way that is different from elsewhere in the post-Roman world.”

That points to a different world view and a different “cosmology”: “It’s a new form of commemoration,” she said.

She hoped to find out whether anyone in the cemetery died of the Justinianic Plague, a pandemic that raged across Europe in the 540s.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Archaeologists unearth bronze age graves at Stonehenge tunnel site

Archaeologists unearth bronze age graves at Stonehenge tunnel site

New items discovered near the proposed road tunnel underneath Stonehenge could shed light on the makers of the famous stone circle. Early discoveries include various graves dating back to the Bronze Age as well as two burial pits of Beaker people, who arrived in Britain around 4,500 years ago after Stonehenge was erected in the late Neolithic period around 5,000 years ago. 

The findings have thus far not provided any insight into who may have built Stonehenge, or how they may have done it, but researchers believe ongoing excavations could help unpick some of the mystery surrounding the monument.  Small finds uncovered at the site pertain mostly to everyday life and allow experts to build a clearer image of life pre-and post-erection of Stonehenge, which could help inform future studies and theories about its origin. 

Wessex Archaeology is leading hundreds of trial digs around the site to ensure the construction work, due to start in 2023, does not destroy any archaeological items. 

Early discoveries include various graves dating back to the Bronze Age as well as two burial pits of Beaker people (pictured), who arrived in Britain around 6,500 years ago, long before Stonehenge was erected in the late Neolithic period around 5,000 years ago
Map showing archaeological investigations along the proposed route of the A303 at Stonehenge

‘We’ve found a lot – evidence about the people who lived in this landscape over millennia, traces of people’s everyday lives and deaths, intimate things,’ Matt Leivers, A303 Stonehenge consultant archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology told The Guardian.

Every detail lets us work out what was happening in that landscape before during and after the building of Stonehenge. Every piece brings that picture into a little more focus. Objects from the Neolithic period were also found scattered around the site, including chunks of pottery, flint, and red deer antlers.  It is possible these items were left by the same people who built Stonehenge, but the archaeologists are currently unavailable to prove this. 

One discovery of note is a cylindrical piece of shale that was found in a 4,000-year-old Beaker burial. It has been described by archaeologists as ‘an oddity’ and unique.  The item is thought to have sat atop a staff or mace and was inside the grave of an adult who was also interred in a crouched position with a small pot and a copper awl.

A cylindrical shale object from a Beaker burial

Nearby to this pit was the burial site of a young child from the same period of time.   All that remains of the youngster are the inner ear bones and the baby was buried in a plain pot, which was likely a grave good for the deceased.  This bland Beaker pot is unusual for the culture, which is known for its ornate items. The simplicity likely reflects the age of the person who was buried there, the experts believe. 

The Beaker sites were found near the Western portal of the proposed tunnel, which sits south of the Stonehenge visitor center.  Even further south the team of archaeologists discovered an unusual arrangement of C-shaped ditches, and their use remains unknown. 

To the south of the Stonehenge visitor centre the team of archaeologists discovered an unusual arrangement of C-shaped ditches, and their use remains unknown. ‘It is a strange pattern of ditches,’ Matt Leivers, A303 Stonehenge consultant archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology told The Guardian . ‘It’s difficult to say what it was, but we know how old it is because we found a near-complete bronze age pot (pictured) in one of the ditches’

It is a strange pattern of ditches,’ Mr Leivers told The Guardian.  It’s difficult to say what it was, but we know how old it is because we found a near-complete bronze age pot in one of the ditches. The excavation also revealed large amounts of burnt flint in the ditches, which could indicate an industrial purpose. Mr. Leivers says this could be related to metal, leatherworking, pottery, or crops. 

Digs at the earmarked location for the Eastern portal of the tunnel have revealed fewer items, but they themselves have intrigued archaeologists.  One dig found evidence of debnitage, the waste material produced when making flint tools. Ditches in the area have also been found which date to the Iron Age and may be connected to the nearby Vespasian’s Camp, a hillfort located to the south.  

All items unearthed so far are being stored temporarily in nearby Salisbury and will eventually go on display at the city’s museum.  The controversial £1.7billion tunnel project is designed to divert traffic away from the iconic site by removing the current stretch of the A303 which passes within a few hundred yards of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Traffic will be sent underground and into the new dual-carriageway tunnel network, which will be 164ft further away from the site than the current road, in a bid to ease congestion around the landmark. 

The current road will become a public footpath.  Environmentalists, archaeologists, and druids have been outraged at the plans, which were first unveiled in 2017, and a legal battle was mounted last year.   

Highways England says its plan for the dual carriageway tunnel, located 164ft further away from Stonehenge compared to the existing A303 route, will remove the sight and sound of traffic passing the site and cut journey times.

The area is often severely congested on the single carriageway stretch near the stones, particularly on Bank Holiday weekends. But some environmentalists and archaeologists have voiced their opposition to the plan due to its potential impact on the area.

Modern-day druids, who each year celebrate the winter and summer solstices at Stonehenge, have also hit out at the plans. As a result, huge amounts of archaeological preparation is being conducted by Wessex, renowned leaders and experts in commercial excavations, 

They have recently revealed the ‘Hampton Court of Warwickshire’ as well as a 19th-century Victorian bathhouse in Bath. The experts drafted in specialists to hand dig and sift through more than 2,000 test pits and trenches. Next, the company intends to bring in 150 archaeologists to clear a larger swath of the land later this year. 

Construction work on the tunnel is expected to start in 2023, and Andy Crockett, A303 project director for Wessex Archaeology, acknowledges it is impossible to mitigate all risk to an area’s archaeology when road projects are involved. 

Highways England says the unprecedented amount of surveying done on the area is due to the significance of the Stonehenge site. David Bullock, A303 project manager for Highways England, told The Guardian: ‘There has been a huge amount of investigations so that this route can be threaded through so as to disturb as little as possible.’   

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Painted Terracotta Figurines Discovered in Turkey

Painted Terracotta Figurines Discovered in Turkey

Dozens of terracotta figurines that are over 2,000 years old have been found by archaeologists, including ones that represent gods, goddesses, men, women, cavalry, and animals. In the ancient city of Myra, in what is now modern-day Demre in Turkey, some of the figurines still had drawings on them and some had inscriptions, and both opened a window into life.

Some of the figurines didn’t have bodies, suggesting there were other terracottas to be found in the area.

This collection of figurines, “gives us rich clues about what existed in the mysterious Myra under a thick silt layer in the first and second centuries B.C.,” said Nevzat Çevik, a professor of archaeology at Akdeniz University in Turkey who led the excavation.

Myra is “one of the most important ancient settlements in Lycia,” an important maritime region along the Mediterranean Sea.

Myra’s port was once one of the largest harbors in the ancient Mediterranean; it is famous for its rock-cut tombs jutting from the hills, the church of Saint Nicholas, who was Myra’s bishop in the fourth century, and its 11,000-seat Roman-era theater.

Çevik and his team were excavating parts of this theater between June and October 2020 when they unearthed a second, smaller theater below the Roman remains.

The older structure dates back to the Hellenistic period, from 323 B.C. when Alexander the Great died to the beginning of the Roman Empire in 30 B.C.  They expected to find the Hellenistic theater, but the terracotta figurines scattered in it were “an unexpected big surprise,” Çevik told Live Science.

“It is as if the people of ancient Myra were resurrected and ran through the time tunnel all together and came to our day,” Çevik remembers telling his team when they found the figurines. 

The figurines were discovered in a Hellenistic theater buried beneath the famous ancient Myra theatre in southwestern Turkey.
Painted Terracotta Figurines Discovered in Turkey

The figurines, which are 2,100 to 2,200 years old included mortal men and women as well as divine figures such as Artemis, Heracles, Aphrodite, Leto, and Apollo; they also included figurines depicting a woman and a child, a boy with a fruit, a horseman and a woman carrying hydria (an ancient Greek water vessel).

Because of the “collective coexistence” of the figurines and the fact that the collection included divine figurines, votive plates, and incense containers, the researchers think that the figurines may have been brought in from a cult area and thrown here.

The collection gives “important clues about the Hellenistic period of Myra and Lycia,” he said.

Some of the statues had partially preserved paint on them. Red, blue and pink were used “intensely in different shades” in the clothes of the figurines, he said.

The inscriptions on the backs of some of the figurines could be the name of a master or workshop. The fact that the team discovered more than 50 terracotta heads that are missing their bodies suggests there are more figurines in the area to be found. 

The team also discovered a variety of ceramic, bronze, lead, and silver objects around the terracottas. They plan to continue excavating the area this year.

In the meantime, the excavation team is working to preserve, repair, and assemble the hundreds of small pieces that make up the terracotta collection. They plan to publish their findings and display the terracottas at the Andriake Lycian Civilizations Museum in Antalya, Turkey.

The excavations were led on behalf of Akdeniz University and Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Researchers Find 320 Million-Year-Old Plant Root Stem Cells

Researchers Find 320 Million-Year-Old Plant Root Stem Cells

It may look more like a shiny mosaic or a piece of jewellery, but the world’s oldest plant stem cells contain a 320 million-year-old fossil. And it gives us an entirely new understanding of the evolution of how plants grow.

The oldest fossilised remains of an actively growing root meristem, named Radix carbonica (Latin for coal root).
The oldest fossilised remains of an actively growing root meristem, named Radix carbonica (Latin for coal root).

The fossil shows that the way plants grew from their roots millions of years ago was totally different from the way many modern plants form. Stem cells, self-renewing cells responsible for the development of multicellular organisms, in groups called meristems, are present in plants at the tips of shoots and roots.

Scientists at Oxford University have discovered the oldest known population of plant root stem cells in a 320 million-year-old fossil. The researchers found the 320 million-year-old stem cells are different to all those living today, revealing a unique pattern of cell division that had remained unknown until now.

This means some of the mechanisms controlling root formation in plants and trees back then have now become extinct.

The fossils were the remains of the soil from the first giant tropical rainforests on Earth. These fossils made up the rooting structures of the plants growing in the Earth’s first global tropical wetland forests.

The cells, which gave rise to the roots of an ancient plant, were found in a fossilized root tip held in the Oxford University Herbaria – a preserved selection of plants kept for scientists to study.

‘I was examining one of the fossilized soil slides held at the University Herbaria as part of my research into the rooting systems of ancient trees when I noticed a structure that looked like the living root tips we see in plants today,’  said Alexander Hetherington, from Oxford University, who made the discovery during the course of his research.

‘I began to realize that I was looking at a population of 320 million-year-old plant stem cells preserved as they were growing – and that it was the first time anything like this had ever been found.

Thin slice of 320-million-year old fossil coal ball.

‘It gives us a unique window into how roots developed hundreds of millions of years ago.’ This is the first time an actively growing fossilized root has been discovered.

The soil was preserved in the rock that formed in the Carboniferous swamps which gave rise to the coal sources spanning what is now Appalachia to central Europe.

This includes the coalfields in Wales, northern England, and Scotland. Because of this, Mr. Hetherington has named the stem-cell fossil Radix carbonica, which is Latin for ‘coal root’.

The forests had trees over 164 feet (50 meters) tall, and were in part responsible for one of the most dramatic climate change events in history.

When deep rooting systems evolved, this increased the rate of chemical weathering of silicate minerals in rocks – a chemical reaction that pulled carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. This led to the cooling of the Earth and one of the planet’s great ice ages.

Professor Liam Dolan, Head of the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University and senior author of the paper, said ‘these fossils demonstrate how the roots of these ancient plants grew for the first time.

‘It is startling that something so small could have had such a dramatic effect on the Earth’s climate.

‘This discovery also shows the importance of collections such as the Oxford University Herbaria – they are so valuable, and we need to maintain them for future generations.’

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

A 2,400-year-old: World’s Oldest Intact Shipwreck Found at the Bottom of the Black Sea

A 2,400-year-old: World’s Oldest Intact Shipwreck Found at the Bottom of the Black Sea

At the bottom of the Black Sea, the oldest preserved shipwreck ever found has been discovered. After more than 2,400 years, the 75ft Greek trade vessel was discovered lying whole with its anchor, rudders and rowing benches. It was discovered in a well-known ‘shipwreck graveyard’ that has already revealed over 60 other vessels.

The team found what has now been confirmed as the “oldest intact shipwreck” in the world during the most recent excavation, a Greek trade vessel style previously only seen on the side of ancient Greek pottery such as the “Siren Vase” in the British Museum.

The ship, found 1.3 miles under the surface, could shed new light on the ancient Greek tale of Odysseus tying himself to a mast to avoid being tempted by sirens. The vase shows Odysseus, the hero from Homer’s epic poem, tied to the mast of a similar ship as he resisted the Siren’s calls.

The Anglo-Bulgarian team believe the Black Sea wreck dates back to the Fourth Century BC, perhaps 100 years after the Siren Vase was painted

A remote-controlled submarine piloted by British scientists spotted the ship lying on its side about 50 miles off the coast of Bulgaria. The ship lies in over 1.3miles of water, deep in the Black Sea where the water is anoxic (oxygen-free) which can preserve organic material for thousands of years. A small piece of the vessel has been carbon dated and it is confirmed as coming from 400BC – making the ship the oldest intact shipwreck known to mankind.

The 75ft shipwreck was been found lying whole with its mast, rudders and rowing benches after more than 2,400 years.
The shipwreck was found nearly 7,000ft under the sea in ‘remarkable’ condition, with some suggesting it has similarities to a ship shown on an ancient vase that depicts Odysseus tying the mast of a similar ship as he resisted the Siren’s calls

Jon Adams, the project’s chief scientist, said the wreck was very well-preserved, with the rudder and tiller still in place.  A ship, surviving intact, from the Classical world, lying in over 2km of water, is something I would never have believed possible,’ he said

This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient world.’ Prior to this discovery, ancient ships had only been found in fragments with the oldest more than 3,000 years old.  The team from the Black Sea Maritime Archaeological Project said the find also revealed how far from the shore ancient Greek traders could travel.     

Adams told The Times the ship probably sank in a storm, with the crew unable to bail water in time to save it. The archaeologist believes it probably held 15 to 25 men at the time whose remains may be hidden in the surrounding sediment or eaten by bacteria. He said he plans to leave the ship on the seabed because raising it would be hugely expensive and require taking the pint joints apart.

The ship was both oar and sail-powered. 

It was chiefly used for trading but the professor believes it may have been involved in a little bit of raiding’ of coastal cities. It was probably based at one of the ancient Greek settlements on what is now the Bulgarian coast.

He said: ‘Ancient seafarers were not hugging the coast timidly going from port to port but going blue-water sailing.’

The find is one of 67 wrecks found in the area.

Previous finds were discovered dating back as far as 2,500 years, including galleys from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires. Scientists stumbled upon the graveyard while using underwater robots to survey the effects of climate change along the Bulgarian coast.  Because the Black Sea contains almost no light or oxygen, little life can survive, meaning the wrecks are in excellent condition.

Researchers say their discovery is ‘truly unrivalled’. 

Many of the ships have features that are only known from drawings or written description but never seen until now.  Carvings in the wood of some ships have remained intact for centuries, while the well-preserved rope was found aboard one 2,000-year-old Roman vessel. The project, known Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea MAP), involves an international team led by the University of Southampton’s Centre for Maritime Archaeology.

Ed Parker, CEO of Black Sea MAP, said: ‘Some of the ships we discovered had only been seen on murals and mosaics until this moment. There’s one medieval trading vessel where the towers on the bow and stern are pretty much still there. It’s as if you are looking at a ship in a movie, with ropes still on the deck and carvings in the wood.

‘When I saw that ship, the excitement really started to mount – what we have found is truly unrivalled.’ Most of the vessels found are around 1,300 years old, but the oldest dates back to the 4th Century BC. Many of the wrecks’ details and locations are being kept secret by the team to ensure they remain undisturbed. Black Sea water below 150 metres (490 ft) is anoxic, meaning the environment cannot support the organisms that typically feast on organic materials, such as wood and flesh.

As a result, there is an extraordinary opportunity for preservation, including shipwrecks and the cargoes they carried. Ships lie hundreds or thousands of metres deep with their masts still standing, rudders in place, cargoes of amphorae and ship’s fittings lying on the deck. Many of the ships show structural features, fittings and equipment that are only known from drawings or written description but never seen until now.

Project leader Professor Jon Adams, of the University of Southampton, said: ‘This assemblage must comprise one of the finest underwater museums of ships and seafaring in the world.’

The expedition has been scouring the waters 1,800 metres (5,900ft) below the surface of the Black Sea since 2015 using an off-shore vessel equipped with some of the most advanced underwater equipment in the world. The vessel is on an expedition mapping submerged ancient landscapes which were inundated with water following the last Ice Age. The researchers had discovered over 40 wrecks across two previous expeditions, but during their latest trip, which spanned several weeks and returned this month, they uncovered more than 20 new sites.

Returning to the Port of Burgas in Bulgaria, Professor Jon Adams said: ‘Black Sea MAP now draws towards the end of its third season, acquiring more than 1300km [800 miles] of the survey so far, recovering another 100m (330 ft) of sediment core samples and discovering over 20 new wreck sites, some dating to the Byzantine, Roman and Hellenistic periods.’  

The researchers are using two Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to survey the sea bed. One is optimised for high-resolution 3D photography, while the other, called Surveyor Interceptor, ‘flies’ at four times the speed of conventional ROVs. The Interceptor carries an entire suite of geophysical instrumentation, as well as lights, high definition cameras and a laser scanner.  Since the project started, Surveyor Interceptor has set new records for depth at 5,900ft (1,800 metres) and sustained speed of over six knots (7mph), and has covered 1,250 kilometres (776 miles). Among the wrecks are shipped from the Roman, Ottoman and Byzantine Empires, which provide new information on the communities on the Black Sea coast.

Professor Jon Adams of The Black Sea Maritime Archaeology project holding a 3D model of a Greek shipwreck from 400BC, officially the World’s oldest intact shipwreck, at the Wellcome Collection, London

Many of the colonial and commercial activities of ancient Greece and Rome, and of the Byzantine Empire, centred on the Black Sea.  After 1453, when the Ottoman Turks occupied Constantinople – and changed its name to Istanbul – the Black Sea was virtually closed to foreign commerce.  Nearly 400 years later, in 1856, the Treaty of Paris re-opened the sea to the commerce of all nations. The scientists were followed by Bafta-winning filmmakers for much of the three-year project and a documentary is expected in the coming years. Producer Andy Byatt, who worked on the David Attenborough BBC series ‘Blue Planet’, said: ‘I think we have all been blown away by the remarkable finds that Professor Adams and his team have made.

‘The quality of the footage revealing this hidden world is absolutely unique.’