Category Archives: WORLD

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Maya Farmers May Have Planned for Population Growth

Maya Farmers May Have Planned for Population Growth

For years, experts in climate science and ecology have held up the agricultural practices of the ancient Maya as prime examples of what not to do. 

Maya Farmers May Have Planned for Population Growth
The research team surveyed a small area in the Western Maya Lowlands situated at today’s border between Mexico and Guatemala, shown in context here.

“There’s a narrative that depicts the Maya as people who engaged in unchecked agricultural development,” said Andrew Scherer, an associate professor of anthropology at Brown University. “The narrative goes: The population grew too large, the agriculture scaled up, and then everything fell apart.”

But a new study, authored by Scherer, students at Brown and scholars at other institutions, suggests that that narrative doesn’t tell the full story. Using drones and lidar, a remote sensing technology, a team led by Scherer and Charles Golden of Brandeis University surveyed a small area in the Western Maya Lowlands situated at today’s border between Mexico and Guatemala.

Scherer’s lidar survey — and, later, boots-on-the-ground surveying — revealed extensive systems of sophisticated irrigation and terracing in and outside the region’s towns, but no huge population booms to match.

The findings demonstrate that between 350 and 900 A.D., some Maya kingdoms were living comfortably, with sustainable agricultural systems and no demonstrated food insecurity. “It’s exciting to talk about the really large populations that the Maya maintained in some places; to survive for so long with such density was a testament to their technological accomplishments,” Scherer said.

“But it’s important to understand that that narrative doesn’t translate across the whole of the Maya region. People weren’t always living cheek to jowl. Some areas that had the potential for agricultural development were never even occupied.”

The research group’s findings were published in the journal Remote Sensing. When Scherer’s team embarked on the lidar survey, they weren’t necessarily attempting to debunk long-held assumptions about Maya agricultural practices. Rather, their primary motivation was to learn more about the infrastructure of a relatively understudied region.

While some parts of the western Maya area are well studied, such as the well-known site of Palenque, others are less understood, owing to the dense tropical canopy that has long hidden ancient communities from view.  It wasn’t until 2019, in fact, that Scherer and colleagues uncovered the kingdom of Sak T’zi’, which archaeologists had been trying to find for decades.

Lidar scans of the research area revealed the relative density of structures in Piedras Negras, La Mar and Lacanjá Tzeltal, providing hints at these cities’ respective populations and food needs.

The team chose to survey a rectangle of land connecting three Maya kingdoms: Piedras Negras, La Mar and Sak Tz’i’, whose political capital was centred on the archaeological site of  Lacanjá Tzeltal.  Despite being roughly 15 miles away from one another as the crow flies, these three urban centres had very different population sizes and governing power, Scherer said.

“Today, the world has hundreds of different nation-states, but they’re not really each other’s equals in terms of the leverage they have in the geopolitical landscape,” Scherer said. “This is what we see in the Maya empire as well.”

Scherer explained that all three kingdoms were governed by an ajaw, or a lord — positioning them as equals, in theory. But Piedras Negras, the largest kingdom, was led by a k’uhul ajaw, a “holy lord,” a special honorific not claimed by the lords of La Mar and Sak Tz’i’. La Mar and Sak Tz’i’ weren’t exactly equal peers, either: While La Mar was much more populous than the Sak T’zi’ capital Lacanjá Tzeltal, the latter was more independent, often switching alliances and never appearing to be subordinate to other kingdoms, suggesting it had greater political autonomy.

The lidar survey showed that, despite their differences, these three kingdoms boasted one major similarity: agriculture that yielded a food surplus.

“What we found in the lidar survey points to strategic thinking on the Maya’s part in this area,” Scherer said.

“We saw evidence of long-term agricultural infrastructure in an area with relatively low population density — suggesting that they didn’t create some crop fields late in the game as a last-ditch attempt to increase yields, but rather that they thought a few steps ahead.”

The lidar — along with boots-on-the-ground surveying (left) and aerial photography (right) — showed evidence of expansive irrigation channels across the region. The depression with dark soil at the left shows the remains of an ancient channel.

In all three kingdoms, the lidar revealed signs of what the researchers call “agricultural intensification” — the modification of land to increase the volume and predictability of crop yields. Agricultural intensification methods in these Maya kingdoms, where the primary crop was maize, included building terraces and creating water management systems with dams and channelled fields. Penetrating through the often-dense jungle, the lidar showed evidence of extensive terracing and expansive irrigation channels across the region, suggesting that these kingdoms were not only prepared for population growth but also likely saw food surpluses every year.

“It suggests that by the Late Classic Period, around 600 to 800 A.D., the area’s farmers were producing more food than they were consuming,” Scherer said. “It’s likely that much of the surplus food was sold at urban marketplaces, both as producer and as part of prepared foods like tamales and gruel, and used to pay tribute, a tax of sorts, to local lords.”

Scherer said he hopes the study provides scholars with a more nuanced view of the ancient Maya — and perhaps even offers inspiration for members of the modern-day agricultural sector who are looking for sustainable ways to grow food for an ever-growing global population. Today, he said, significant parts of the region are being cleared for cattle ranching and palm oil plantations. But in areas where people still raise corn and other crops, they report that they have three harvests a year — and it’s likely that those high yields may be due in part to the channelling and other modifications that the ancient Maya made to the landscape. 

“In conversations about contemporary climate or ecological crises, the Maya are often brought up as a cautionary tale: ‘They screwed up; we don’t want to repeat their mistakes,’” Scherer said. “But maybe the Maya were more forward-thinking than we give them credit for. Our survey shows there’s a good argument to be made that their agricultural practices were very much sustainable.”

Aside from Scherer and Golden, study authors include Brown PhD students Mark Agostini, Morgan Clark, Joshua Schnell and Bethany Whitlock; recent Brown PhD graduates Mallory Matsumoto, now an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and Alejandra Roche Recinos, now a visiting assistant professor at Reed College; and researchers from McMaster University and the University of Florida. The research was funded in part by the Alphawood Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

Hoard of 1,800-Year-Old Silver Coins Discovered in Germany

Hoard of 1,800-Year-Old Silver Coins Discovered in Germany

More than 5,500 silver coins buried by a river about 1,800 years ago are now in the hands of archaeologists, following the hoard’s discovery in Augsburg, Germany. 

About 5,500 Roman silver coins were found in the hoard. Cleaning and analysis of the coins are underway.

At the time of the coins’ burial, the Roman Empire was in full swing, with its coinage reaching all corners of its territory and beyond.

These coins “are denarii, the standard silver denomination during the 1st-early 3rd century [A.D.],” Stefan Krmnicek, a professor of ancient numismatics (the study of coins) at the University of Tübingen in Germany, told Live Science in an email.

Archaeologists found the hoard earlier this year in an old riverbed. But though the coins were scattered in the newly dug pit, that likely wasn’t how they were originally placed.

“The place of hiding was probably washed away many centuries later by a flood of the Wertach river, scattering the coins in the river gravel,” Krmnicek said. 

“We have just started cleaning and studying the material,” but so far, it appears that “the youngest coin of the hoard was minted at the beginning of the 3rd century [A.D.], thus dating the deposition of the hoard in the early 3rd century,” Krmnicek said.

“We currently hypothesize that the hoard was buried in the early 3rd century outside the Roman city of Augusta Vindelicum, near the Via Claudia Augusta [a Roman road] running there.” 

At that time, Augusta Vindelicum was the capital of the Roman province of Raetia, Krmnicek said. Why the hoard was buried is an ongoing mystery that researchers are trying to solve. 

“We do not yet know why the hoard was deposited,” Krmnicek said, noting that Leo Brey, a doctoral candidate at the University of Tübingen, is trying to solve this “riddle” in his research.

The hoard was excavated by Sebastian Gairhos, director of the Archaeological Service of the City of Augsburg. No artefacts other than the coins were found with the hoard.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

‘Beautiful’ 900-year-old Crusader sword discovered by a diver off the coast of Israel

‘Beautiful’ 900-year-old Crusader sword discovered by diver off the coast of Israel

A man diving off the coast of northern Israel, not far from his home, recently stumbled onto a 900-year-old sword dated to the time of the Crusades.

'Beautiful' 900-year-old Crusader sword discovered by diver off the coast of Israel
A diver discovered the 900-year-old sword in a natural cove off the coast of northern Israel.

Shlomi Katzin, a resident of the town of Atlit, spotted the sword and other centuries-old artefacts on the sea bed off the Carmel coast, where shifting sands had apparently made them suddenly visible, reports Nicky Blackburn for Israel21c.

The four-foot-long sword was covered in shells and other remnants of sea life. Katzin reported the discovery to the Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) robbery prevention unit.

“The sword, which has been preserved in perfect condition, is a beautiful and rare find and evidently belonged to a Crusader knight,” says IAA inspector Nir Distelfeld in a statement.

“It was found encrusted with marine organisms but is apparently made of iron. It is exciting to encounter such a personal object, taking you 900 years back in time to a different era, with knights, armour and swords.”

Archaeologists had already been monitoring the area, a natural cove that offered shelter to ships for millennia, before Katzin’s find, reports Stuart Winer for the Times of Israel. Earlier discoveries have shown that the site was active as long as 4,000 years ago.

Shlomi Katzin discovered the sword while diving near his hometown.

Unpredictable conditions in the ocean often bring artefacts to the surface; a rise in the number of people diving recreationally in the area means that more of these objects have reemerged in recent years, says Koby Sharvit, director of the IAA’s marine archaeology unit, in the statement.

“Even the smallest storm moves the sand and reveals areas on the seabed, meanwhile burying others,” Sharvit adds.

In addition to the sword, Katzin spotted pottery fragments and stone and metal anchors, per the Jerusalem Post’s Rossella Tercatin.

Starting in the 11th century, leaders of European nations and the Roman Catholic Church sent Crusader armies to the Middle East to seize sites considered holy by Christians from Muslim rulers.

After the Muslim sultan Saladin retook Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, England’s Richard I led an army against him, travelling south along Israel’s coast from Acre to Jaffa and winning what Richard Spencer of the London Times deems a “great but ultimately pyrrhic victory.”

The sword is encrusted with shells and marine organisms.

Since the sword is still covered in encrustations, it’s impossible to say much about it, Sa’ar Nudel, an archaeologist who studies weapons from the Crusades, tells Haaretz’s, Ruth Schuster. The Crusaders and their Muslim Ayyubid and Mamluk opponents all typically used straight swords of similar size and shape, archaeologist Rafi Lewis adds.

“The basic shape of the weapon, a straight sword, didn’t evolve much from the time of the Vikings to the 14th century,” he tells Haaretz.

According to Sharvit, the fact that the sword was found more than 600 feet from the coast suggests it was a Crusader’s weapon. Muslim forces built fortifications along the coast as defences against arriving Christian forces but didn’t travel by sea themselves.

“They destroyed the coastal cities so the Crusaders couldn’t return and reconquer the Holy Land,” the archaeologist says to Haaretz.

The sword is now in the hands of the IAA’s National Treasures Department, per Israel 21c. IAA scientists plan to clean and study the weapon before putting it on display to the public.

EUROPE, SWITZERLAND, WORLD

Melting Glaciers Reveal 10,000-Year-Old Artifacts Belonging to Mysterious People

Melting Glaciers Reveal 10,000-Year-Old Artifacts Belonging to Mysterious People

Climate changes are a major threat to humanity, but as it seems, there is one science that truly benefits from the terrible changes – archaeology.  When it comes to melting ice or, more specifically, melting glaciers around the world, it has created an incredible opportunity for archaeologists and scientists to dig out old and even ancient artefacts.

Recent Discoveries in Melting Alpine Glaciers

For years, archaeologists had theories that ancient hunters and gatherers collected rocks and crystals needed for tools from the mountains more than 9500 years ago in the Mesolithic era.

The continuous environmental changes and the melting glaciers in the Alps revealed another valuable archaeological site that confirmed these scientific suggestions. What they found was a crystal vein filled with rocks identical to those used millennia ago for ancient tools.

Although these climate changes are undoubtedly not in favour of Earth’s and our future, they laid the foundations of a brand new archaeology branch – glacier archaeology.

This recent excavation mission was conducted at an impressive altitude of 2,800 meters in eastern Switzerland.

How important is this discovery?

To be exact, any ancient artefact or archaeological discovery is significant since it puts another piece to the historical puzzle of our kind. When it comes to glacier archaeology and the discoveries from the past twenty or so years, they totally changed our prehistoric people’s perception.

For example, it was once believed that the prehistoric communities stayed away from the mountains since they were challenging to maneuver and gave few opportunities for settling down.

Opportunities for discoveries like those from the melting glacier ice changed this perception and showed that prehistoric individuals did climb the intimidating mountains in various instances.

Moreover, excavations from the recent decades unraveled evidence that the mountains were bustling with human activities from the earliest periods of human history.

The earliest discovery from melting glacier ice in the Alps occurred in 1991 when the fully-preserved body of a 5300-year-old warrior emerged from the melting ice.

The photographs are a tide intimidating, thus, I will not include them in the article, but you can see pictures of the ancient man by searching “Oetzi” online.

Laced shoes dated to at least 2,800 BC found in the melting glaciers of the Alps.

In 2003, a 3000-year-old birch bark quiver was found at an altitude of 2756 meters.

A few years later, excavations revealed leather clothes and shoes at an archaeological site dating to 4500 BC. In a normal scenario, these artefacts would have been destroyed by erosion and time, but they were perfectly preserved in the glacier ice, as can be seen in the photograph.

Melting Glaciers are an archaeological emergency

Unfortunately, it is estimated that more than 90% of all glaciers in the Alps could melt before the end of the current century. While this is an absolute climate disaster, it also creates an archaeological emergency since nobody knows how many important artefacts it could reveal and how many will be lost forever.

In other words, as I mentioned above, ice will preserve certain objects, but once it is gone, these objects will either be taken by normal people or be destroyed by erosion.

Archaeologists have already spoken about the issue that countless ancient artefacts could be laying in people’s homes after being found in the mountains.

Archaeologists do not have the funding or the capabilities to maintain consistent excavations on all melting glacier sites, which means that countless artefacts could be lost if we do not act quickly. All they have is a short window to extract all the useful historical data until it disappears forever.

They also mention that people in the Alpine regions need to be well informed of the possibility of finding an important item or artefact and, most importantly, then give it to the authorities instead of keeping it as a trophy on the wall.

ASIA, MONGOLIA, WORLD

Ancient mummy ‘with 1,100-year-old Adidas boots’ died after she was struck on the head

Ancient mummy ‘with 1,100 year old Adidas boots’ died after she was struck on the head

Intriguing new details have emerged about a medieval mummy known for her ‘Adidas’ boots – which she wore more than a millennia ago. The body of the woman was discovered a year ago this week in the Altai mountains region of Mongolia.

And her body and possessions remained so remarkably preserved that experts are still uncovering some of the secrets they keep. Now, scientists have discovered that the mummy suffered a significant blow to the head before her death.  

The Mongolian woman – aged between 30 and 40 – hit headlines in April 2016, thanks to her modern-looking footwear, which some likened to a pair of trainers. In the intervening 12 months, scientists have been working to find out more about the mysterious Mongolian mummy.

Scientists believe the body of a woman (pictured) found in April last year, died up to 1,100 years ago from a blow to the head

And her trademark felt boots – boasting red and black stripes – have been carefully cleaned, with new pictures revealed today by The Siberian Times. Experts from the Centre of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia now believe the woman died up to 1,100 years ago after suffering a serious head wound.

Initial examinations found that ‘it was quite possible that the traces of a blow to the mummy’s facial bones were the cause of her death.

They are still seeking to verify the exact age of the burial, but they estimate it took place in the tenth century – more recently than originally thought.  About the boots, Galbadrakh Enkhbat, director of the Centre, said: ‘With these stripes, when the find was made public, they were dubbed similar to Adidas shoes.

New pictures of the leather boots – which feature red and black stripes and metal buckle work (pictured) – have been released

‘In this sense, they are an interesting object of study for ethnographers, especially so when the style is very modern.’ 

And one local fashion expert. quoted by Siberian Times, said: ‘Overall they look quite kinky but stylish – I wouldn’t mind wearing them now in a cold climate.

‘Those high-quality stitches, the bright red and black stripes, the length – I would buy them now in no time.’ 

The high altitude and cold climate helped to preserve both the woman’s body and her belongings.

And a coating of Shilajit – a thick, sticky tar-like substance with a colour ranging from white to dark brown – that covered her body aided this process.  Some skin and hair can be seen on her remains, which were wrapped in felt.  The woman was buried alongside a number of her possessions – including a handbag and four changes of clothes.

Experts from the Centre of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia (pictured) have worked for the past 12 months to restore the times they found buried
This included a handbag, four changes of clothes, the ‘Adidas’ boots, and numerous practical and everyday objects (pictured)
The items of clothing found, like this jacket (pictured), were decorated with fine embroidery patterns

A comb and a mirror from her beauty kit were also found, along with a knife. Her horse and a saddle with metal stirrups in such good condition that it could be used today were buried as well. But despite her seemingly lavish possessions archaeologists believe she was an ‘ordinary woman of her time, rather than an aristocrat or royal.

The Mongolian woman (pictured) is believed to have been aged between 30 and 40 when she died. Some skin and hair can be seen on her remains, which were wrapped in felt.
Despite her, seemingly lavish possessions (pictured) archaeologists believe she was an ‘ordinary’ woman of her time, rather than an aristocrat or royal
Experts believe she may have been a seamstress, due to a variety of sewing equipment that was found inside her bag (pictured), as well as the embroidery on her clothing

‘Judging by what was found inside the burial, we guess that she was from ordinary social strata,’ added Mr Enkhbat.

‘Various sewing utensils were found with her.

The preserved remains of a horse (pictured) were uncovered at the burial site
A saddle with metal stirrups (pictured) in such good condition that it could be used today was found alongside it

‘This is only our guess, but we think she could have been a seamstress.’ 

‘Inside (her bag) was the sewing kit and since the embroidery was on both the bag and the shoes, we can be certain that the embroidery was done by locals.’ 

The grave was unearthed at an altitude of 9,200ft (2,803 metres) and the woman is believed to be of Turkik origin. It appears to be the first complete Turkic burial in Central Asia.  At the time of the discovery, commenters on Twitter and Facebook made a number of tongue-in-cheek claims that a woman must be a time traveller.

One Twitter user jokingly quipped: ‘Must be a time traveller. I knew we would dig one up sooner or later, another added: ‘Huh? Time-travelling Mummy? Corpse interfered with?.’

Meanwhile, Facebook users said: ‘Loooooool he’s wearing a pair of gazelles’, and ‘Well I must admit, I’ve got a few pair but I ain’t had them that long.’  

SEE ALSO: ANCIENT WARES WITH CLOTTED CREAM CLARIFIED BUTTER FOUND IN MONGOLIA

A host of possessions were found in the grave, offering a unique insight into life in medieval Mongolia. These included a saddle, bridle, clay vase, wooden bowl, trough, iron kettle, the remains of an entire horse, and ancient clothing.

The discovery also appears to be the first complete Turkic burial in Central Asia and the remains were found at an altitude of 9,200 feet. An elaborately embroidered bag is pictured

There were also pillows, a sheep’s head and a felt travel bag in which were placed the whole back of a sheep, goat bones and a small leather bag designed to carry a cup. Archaeologists from the city museum in Khovd were alerted to the burial site by local herdsmen.

The Altai Mountains – where the burial was discovered – unite Siberia, in Russia, and Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. 

ARMENIA, ASIA, WORLD

Traces of Unfinished Roman Aqueduct Uncovered in Armenia

Traces of Unfinished Roman Aqueduct Uncovered in Armenia

Archaeologists from the University of Münster and the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia have discovered remains of a Roman arched aqueduct during excavation work on the Hellenistic royal city of Artashat-Artaxata in ancient Armenia.

It is the easternmost arched aqueduct in the Roman Empire. Excavation work took place back in 2019, and an evaluation of the find has now been published in the “Archäologischer Anzeiger” journal.

“The monumental foundations are evidence of an unfinished aqueduct bridge built by the Roman army between 114 and 117 CE,” explains author Prof. Achim Lichtenberger from the Institute of Classical Archaeology and Christian Archaeology at the University of Münster.

“At that time, Artaxata was destined to become the capital of a Roman province in Armenia.”

It was during this time that the Roman Empire reached its greatest extent – if only for a short while – because it was under Trajan, who was Emperor of Rome from 98 to 117 CE – that the Romans attempted to incorporate the province of Armenia into the Roman Empire.

“The planned, and partially completed, construction of the aqueduct in Artaxata shows just how much effort was made, in a very short space of time, to integrate the infrastructure of the capital of the province into the Empire,” says co-author Torben Schreiber from the Institute of Classical Archaeology and Christian Archaeology at the University of Münster.

“The aqueduct remained unfinished because after Trajan’s death, in 117 CE, his successor Hadrian relinquished the province of Armenia before the aqueduct was completed.”

The archaeologists, therefore, see their find as furnishing evidence for the failure of Roman imperialism in Armenia.

Methods

In their excavation campaign, the team used a multidisciplinary combination of methods from the fields of archaeology, geophysics, geochemistry and archaeoinformatics.

In the background of the excavation area is the hillock in Artaxata on which is located the Khor Virap monastery, with Mount Ararat behind it.

The area of the Hellenistic metropolis of Artaxata in the Ararat Plain was first examined geomagnetically. At this stage of their work, the experts surveyed and charted any anomalies.

The geomagnetic image showed a conspicuous dotted line, which they analysed with so-called sondages. The results were documented by the archaeologists three-dimensionally.

Additional drillings provided evidence of further unfinished or destroyed pillars of the aqueduct.

“We used satellite pictures and infrared images from a drone to visualise the course of the aqueduct’s pillars,” says co-author Dr Mkrtich Zardaryan from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography at the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

“We reconstructed the planned course of the aqueduct by means of a computer-assisted path analysis between the possible sources of the water and its destination.”

READ ALSO: 7,500 -YEARS-OLD “ARMENIAN STONEHENGE” DISCOVERED AT CARAHUNGE (THE ARMENIAN STONEHENGE)

A scientific analysis of the lime mortar used showed that it was a typical Roman recipe.

An analysis of soil samples dated the construction of the aqueduct to between 60 and 460 CE, and in the opinion of the researchers, this makes the reign of Emperor Trajan the most likely dating for it.

Project: “Artaxata in Armenia – Fieldwork in a Hellenistic Metropolis in the Ararat Plain”

Since 2018 a team of German and Armenian scientists – headed by Achim Lichtenberger (Münster University), Mkrtich Zardaryan (Armenian Academy of Sciences) and Torben Schreiber (Münster University) – have been carrying out research into the Hellenistic metropolis of Artaxata in the Ararat Plain in Armenia. Their aim is to examine both a newly established Hellenistic royal city and the many-faceted cultural imprint between Central Asia, Iran and the Mediterranean region.

Funding

The excavation project is being funded by the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

EUROPE, WORLD

Mercury Detected in Remains from Copper Age Iberia

Mercury Detected in Remains from Copper Age Iberia

A recent paper published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology and in which researchers from the University of Seville participate explores the complex relationship between humans and mercury over time.

In this article, entitled “The use and abuse of cinnabar in Late Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia”, a team of 14 specialists in biology, chemistry, physical anthropology and archaeology have presented the results of the largest study ever carried out on the presence of mercury in human bone, with a sample of a total of 370 individuals from 50 tombs located in 23 archaeological sites in Spain and Portugal dating from Neolithic, Copper Age, Bronze Age and Antiquity, thus encompassing 5000 years of human history.

The results reveal that the highest levels of mercury exposure occurred at the beginning of the Copper Age, between 2900 and 2600 BC.

In this period, the exploitation and use of cinnabar increased considerably for social and cultural reasons. Cinnabar (HgS) is a mercury sulfide mineral that, when pulverized, turns into a powder of a striking and brilliant red colour.

Historically, this substance has been used to produce pigments in paint, being famous already in Antiquity (“Pompeian red”) or in modern art (known as “vermilion”). It so happens that the largest cinnabar mine in the world, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, is located in Almadén, in central Spain).

The exploitation of the Almadén cinnabar began in the Neolithic, 7000 years ago.

By the beginning of the Copper Age, around 5000 years ago, cinnabar became a product of great social value, with a character that was both sacred, esoteric and sumptuous.

In tombs from this period discovered in southern Portugal and Andalusia, cinnabar powder (often turned into a pigment) was used to paint megalithic chambers, decorate figurines or stelae, and spread it over the dead.

As a result, many people must have accidentally inhaled or consumed it, leading to unsuspected accumulations of mercury in their bodies.

Levels of up to 400 parts per million (ppm) have been recorded in the bones of some of these individuals.

Taking into account that the WHO currently considers that the normal level of mercury in hair should not be higher than 1 or 2 ppm, the data obtained reveal a high level of intoxication that must have severely affected the health of many of those people.

In fact, the levels detected in some subjects are so high that the study authors do not rule out that cinnabar powder was deliberately consumed, by inhalation of vapours, or even ingestion, for the ritual, symbolic and esoteric value that was attributed to it.

The results of this study provide scientific evidence of great value to expand future research on the complex relationship of human beings with mercury, one of the most peculiar mineral substances on our planet, and to learn about its uses and their consequences for human health.

WORLD

Agriculture gave rise to one of the world’s most mysterious language families

Agriculture gave rise to one of world’s most mysterious language families

According to the broadest examination of linguistic, archaeological, and genetic data from around a dozen nations across Asia, a single grain of millet may have given birth to one of the most mysterious—and widespread—language families on Earth.

The Transeurasian languages, sometimes known as Altaic, include the languages of Siberia, Mongolia, Central Asia, and possibly Japan and the Korean Peninsula. The new study suggests the language family arose in northeastern China 9000 years ago, expanding with the spread of agriculture.

“It’s convincing,” says Peter Bellwood, an archaeologist at Australian National University who wasn’t involved with the work. “Languages don’t just go wandering off by themselves; they expand because the people who speak those languages spread.” Farming, he adds, is a strong reason for such an expansion.

Millet farming, pictured in a field in Yonghe Village in northern China, may have spurred the spread of the Transeurasian languages out of the Liao River Valley some 9000 years ago

The origins of so-called Transeurasian languages—about 80 at the highest count—are hotly debated. Some linguists believe they sprang from the same source, but others say extensive borrowing between ancient languages explains why certain sounds, terms, and grammatical features are common among many tongues, from Turkish to Tungusic.

Some researchers had suggested the family arose about 5000 years ago with nomadic shepherds in Central Asia.

Martine Robbeets, an archaeolinguist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, has long believed the Transeurasian languages belong to one family. To bring new evidence to the debate, she teamed up with linguists, archaeologists, and geneticists from China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea to build an extensive linguistic family tree for languages across Eurasia.

They focused on what Robbeets calls “culture-free” vocabulary, including words for basic items such as “field,” “pig,” and “house.”

The team used similarities between such basic terms and known historic shifts in sound to reconstruct an ancestral language, Proto-Transeurasian. Their family tree, which went back approximately 9200 years, suggested a common origin for dozens of words related to the growing and harvesting of a grain known as broomcorn millet. “That tells us that the speakers of Proto-Transeurasian were … farmers probably concentrating on millet,” Robbeets says.

Next, archaeologists examined data from 255 sites across Central and Eastern Asia dating from about 8500 to 2000 years ago. Previous research had found fully domesticated millet arose in China’s Liao River Valley by at least 6000 years ago.

The researchers tracked how similarities between nearby sites in pottery styles, burial styles, and the use of the same domesticated plants clustered together over time. They followed the spread of these “cultural packages” as they moved out of the Liao River Valley and diverged and meshed with other cultures over time. That spread roughly matched the march of the hypothesized Proto-Transeurasian language.

Finally, geneticists analyzed DNA from 23 individuals who lived between 300 and 9000 years ago in what are now Siberia, Mongolia, China, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

They used computer algorithms to predict how those individuals were related to one another and to 2000 modern people whose genomes have been uploaded to genetic databases. Taken together, the three strands of evidence suggest a shared common ancestor for modern-day speakers of Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic languages: farmers living in the Liao River Valley approximately 9000 years ago, the researchers write today in Nature.

READ ALSO: THIS IS THE WORLD’S OLDEST CONTINUALLY OPERATING LIBRARY, WHERE LOST LANGUAGES HAVE BEEN FOUND

Over time, ancient farmers got better at growing millet, and their population expanded, Robbeets says, sending their language out into the world. Eventually, their populations split and merged with other groups across Eurasia, developing distinct languages and cultures, but retaining a still-recognizable linguistic backbone.

Melinda Yang, a geneticist at the University of Richmond who studies the genetic history of ancient East Asian populations, says she’d like more information on how the researchers calculated the relatedness among ancient individuals whose DNA they sampled. Still, she is impressed by the sheer amount of data the team synthesized in the new paper, and says it seems to mostly agree with the existing data from linguistics, archaeology, and ancient DNA.

She broadly agrees with “the large brushstrokes” laid out by the study. At the same time, she adds, the very scope of the paper means it will take time for researchers to wrap their heads around the findings. “It’s not something you can read in an hour and fully understand.”