NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Old bone links lost American parrot to ancient Indigenous bird trade

Old bone links lost American parrot to ancient Indigenous bird trade

For centuries, Indigenous communities in the American Southwest imported colourful parrots from Mexico. But according to a study led by The University of Texas at Austin, some parrots may have been captured locally and not brought from afar.  

The research challenges the assumption that all parrot remains found in American Southwest archaeological sites to have their origins in Mexico. It also presents an important reminder: The ecology of the past can be very different from what we see today.     

“When we deal with natural history, we can constrain ourselves by relying on the present too much,” said the study’s author, John Moretti, a doctoral candidate at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. “These bones can give us kind of a baseline view of the animal life of the ecosystems that surrounded us before huge fundamental changes that continue today began.”  

The study was published in print in the September issue of The Wilson Journal of Ornithology.  

Parrots are not an uncommon find in southwestern archaeological sites dating as far back as the 7th or 8th centuries. Their remains have been found in elaborate graves and buried in trash heaps. But no matter the condition, when archaeologists have discovered parrot bones, they usually assumed the animals were imports, said Moretti.  

Old bone links lost American parrot to ancient Indigenous bird trade
The tarsometatarsus, or ankle bone, of a thick-billed parrot. The bone was collected at an archaeological dig in New Mexico during the 1950s. UT doctoral student John Moretti identified the bone as belonging to a parrot.

There’s a good reason for that. Scarlet macaws — the parrot most commonly found in the archaeological sites — live in rainforests and savannahs, which are not part of the local landscape. And researchers have discovered the remains of ancient parrot breeding facilities in Mexico that point to a thriving parrot trade.   

But there is more to parrots than macaws. In 2018, Moretti found a lone ankle bone belonging to a species known as the thick-billed parrot. It was part of an unsorted bone collection recovered during an archaeological dig in the 1950s in New Mexico.   

A thick-billed parrot.

“There was a lot of deer and rabbit, and then this kind of anomalous parrot bone,” said Moretti, a student in the Jackson School’s Department of Geological Sciences. “Once I realized that nobody had already described this, I really thought there was a story there.” 

Thick-billed parrots are an endangered species and do not live in the United States today due to habitat loss and hunting. But that was not the case even a relatively short time ago. As recently as the 1930s, their range stretched from Arizona and New Mexico to northern Mexico, where they live today. The boisterous, lime-green birds are also very particular about their habitat. They dwell only in mountainous old-growth pine forests, where they nest in tree hollows and dine almost exclusively on pine cones.  

With that in mind, Moretti decided to investigate the connection between pine forests in New Mexico and Arizona and the remains of thick-billed parrots found at archaeological sites. He found that of the 10 total archaeological sites with positively identified thick-billed parrot remains, all contained buildings made of pine timber, with one settlement requiring an estimated 50,000 trees. And for half the sites, suitable pine forests were within 7 miles of the settlement.  

Moretti said that with people entering parrot habitat, it’s plausible to think they captured parrots when gathering timber and brought them home.  

A map showing the distribution of mountainous pine forests and thick-billed parrot occurrences. This includes parrot remains recovered from archaeological sites and recent sightings.

“This paper makes the hypothesis that these [parrots] were not trade items,” Moretti said. “They were animals living in this region that were caught and captured and brought home just like squirrels and other animals that lived in these mountains.”  

Moretti relied on thick-billed parrot bones from the United States and Mexico permanently archived in collections at The University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and the Smithsonian Institution to conclusively identify the lone bone that sparked the research.

Mark Robbins, an evolutionary biologist and the collection manager of the ornithological collections at The University of Kansas, said this study shows the value of natural history collections and the innumerable ways they assist with research.  

“The scientists who originally collected those specimens, they had no idea they would be used in this fashion,” Robbins said. “You can revisit old questions or formulate new questions based on these specimens.”  

The research was funded by the Museum of Texas Tech University, where Moretti earned a master’s degree.   

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Tunnel Discovered at Egypt’s Ancient City of Taposiris Magna

Tunnel Discovered at Egypt’s Ancient City of Taposiris Magna

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a vast tunnel beneath a temple in the ancient city of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria. 

The tunnel is about 6.6 feet (2 meters) high and is similar to another ancient tunnel built at Samos in Greece.

The 4,281-foot-long (1,305 meters) tunnel, which brought water to thousands of people in its heyday, was discovered by an Egyptian-Dominican Republic archaeological team, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement. 

Ancient Egyptian builders constructed the  6.6-foot-high (2 m) tunnel at a depth of about 65 feet (20 m) beneath the ground, Kathleen Martínez, a Dominican archaeologist and director of the team that discovered the tunnel, told Live Science in an email. “[It] is an exact replica of Eupalinos Tunnel in Greece, which is considered as one of the most important engineering achievements of antiquity,” Martinez said.

The Eupalinos tunnel, in Samos, a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, also carried water. 

Archaeologists found two alabaster heads in the tunnel.
The 4,281-foot-long (1,305 meters) tunnel brought water into the city.

The archaeology of the Taposiris Magna temple is complex.

Parts of it are submerged under water and the temple has been hit by numerous earthquakes over the history of its existence, causing extensive damage. The tunnel at Taposiris Magna dates to the Ptolemaic period (304 B.C. to  30 B.C.), a time when Egypt was ruled by a dynasty of kings descended from one of Alexander the Great’s generals. 

Finds within the tunnel included two alabaster heads: one of which likely depicts a king, and the other represents another high-ranking person, Martinez said.

Their exact identities are unknown. Coins and the remains of statues of Egyptian deities were also found in the tunnel, Martinez said. 

At the time the tunnel was built, Taposiris Magna had a population of between 15,000 and 20,000 people, Martinez said.

The tunnel was built beneath a temple that honoured Osiris, an ancient Egyptian god of the underworld, and Isis, an Egyptian goddess who was Osiris’s wife. 

Previous work in the temple uncovered a hoard of coins minted with the face of Cleopatra VII. Excavations at Taposiris Magna and analysis of artefacts from the site are ongoing. 

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

2,200-Year-Old Fruit Baskets Found in the Underwater City of Heracleion

2,200-Year-Old Fruit Baskets Found in the Underwater City of Heracleion

2,200-Year-Old Fruit Baskets Found in the Underwater City of Heracleion
A fruit basket — with fruit still inside — was discovered in the remains of the underwater city of Heracleion, Egypt by divers this week.

Fruit baskets — with fruit still inside — that are more than 2,200 years old were discovered recently in the ruins of Thonis-Heracleion, the ancient lost city near Alexandria, Egypt.

The city, once the nexus of Mediterranean trade routes in the Hellenistic era, sank beneath the waves in the second century BC as the result of earthquakes and tidal waves that liquified the ground underneath it.

Imposing temples, such as the one dedicated to Amon, or Herakles, fell into the water and lay untouched there until the year 2000 when French diver Franck Goddio discovered them and brought many of them to the surface.

When the stones fell they trapped boats and cargo under them, preserving them in the clay of the sea bottom. This ensured that spectacular discoveries, such as Goddio’s recent find of a Greek/Egyptian wooden ship, would be protected from the ravages of time.

Osirian statuettes of gods and goddesses were found in situ on the floor of the sea at ancient Heracleion by Franck Goddio. Further excavations of this same mound have yielded the fantastic discovery of an intact basket of fruit from that same era.

But no one expected to discover an intact basket — complete with the fruit it held — almost 2200 years later.

The wooden vessel, along with hundreds of ancient ceramic vases and amphorae — some of them meant for use in burials — as well as bronze treasures have been recently discovered in the waters containing the remains of the legendary city of Thonis-Heracleion off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt.

The ship had been moored at a wharf in the canal that flowed along the south face of the temple when the disaster occurred. The fallen blocks actually protected this ancient Greek shipwreck by pinning it to the bottom of the deep canal, which was then filled with clay and the debris of the sanctuary. The shipwreck lies under 5 meters (15 feet) of hard clay, mingled with the remains of the temple.

Fruit basket from Heracleion only the latest spectacular finds at the site of the lost city.

Almost miraculously, the ancient Greek ship was only detected through the use of a cutting-edge sonar prototype called a “sub-bottom profiler.”

“The finds of fast galleys from this period remain extremely rare”, explains Goddio, “the only other example to date being the Punic Marsala Ship from 235 BC.

The remains of the city sank even further into the clay bottom of the sea in the eighth century AD, following further natural disasters, including additional earthquakes and tidal waves. The city served as Egypt’s largest port on the Mediterranean Sea even before Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in the year 331 BC, with the intention of that city becoming his capital.

A Ptolemaic-era galley was recently discovered off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt by diver Frank Goddio. Huge blocks from the destroyed temple of Amun in Thinis-Heracleion fell on top of a galley which was moored nearby. The fruit basket was found 350 meters away from the vessel. Second century BC.

One of the greatest archaeological finds of recent times was made in the years 1999 and 2000, when Goddio discovered and brought to the surface the monuments of the ancient city, which had been lying for more than two thousand years in only 30-odd feet of water. Many of the massive statues belonging to the Temple of Amon/Herakles were in nearly perfect condition; some of the treasures he brought to the surface were shown in an exhibition at London’s British Museum in 2016.

Goddio, long used to finding hoards of archaeological treasures in the lost city of Heracleion, expressed complete amazement at his latest find, telling the Guardian that the fruit baskets found most recently were “incredible”, since they had been untouched for more than 2,000 years.

In the most stunning discovery of all, the baskets were still full of doum, the fruit of an African palm tree that was sacred to ancient Egyptians. Additionally, there were grape seeds as well, which can be used for pressing to make oil.

“Nothing was disturbed,” he told reporters. “It was very striking to see baskets of fruits.”

Beautiful ancient Greek pottery unearthed by diver Frank Gauddio off Alexandria, Egypt. Precious offerings, including some imported Greek ceramics, were used for funerary purposes by the Greek settlers in Thonis-Heracleion. End of fifth century – beginning of fourth century BC.

The basket may have a connection to funeral rites. Goddio told reporters that they had been placed inside an underground room, contributing to the likelihood that they would be preserved. The fruit basket was inside the same area where the funerary pottery was discovered, on a tumulus, or a mound that had been constructed over graves. The tumulus measured approximately 60 meters long by 8 meters wide (197 feet by 26.24 feet)

These findings date back two centuries before the destruction of the city, to the early fourth century BC, at the time of the greatest flourishing of the city, when Greek merchants and other Greek people lived in Thonis-Heracleion.

New finds part of tumulus containing Greek pottery, “exquisite” gold amulet

The Greek people had been allowed to settle in the area during the late Pharaonic period, as they were known for their skills as merchants and traders and that area soon controlled the entrance to Egypt at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the Nile. The Greeks were even allowed to construct their own religious temples, including that dedicated to the god Amun, or Hercules.

Goddio explained to interviewers that the tumulus “is a kind of island surrounded by channels. In those channels, we found an unbelievable amount of deposits made of bronze, including a lot of statuettes of Osiris (the ancient Egyptian fertility god).

“On that island, (was) something totally different. We found hundreds of deposits made of ceramic. One above the other. These are imported ceramic, red-on-black figures from the Attic period.”

Not only the spectacular Attic vases and amphorae but mirrors and quantities of statuettes were found in the tumulus as well.

Perhaps most fascinatingly, Goddio also discovered extensive evidence of burning, which he believes suggests that there had been a “spectacular” ceremony that in effect barred anyone from entering the particular site ever again — until now.

Strangely, the tumulus appears to have been sealed for hundreds of years, Goddio stated, since none of the artifacts he found were from later than the early fourth century BC — despite the fact that the city thrived for several hundred years after that time, when it finally sunk under the waves.

Goddio stated “There’s something very strange here. That site has been used maybe one time, never touched before, never touched after, for a reason that we cannot understand for the time being. It’s a big mystery.”

The underwater archaeologist says that he hopes to find answers to this conundrum in some of the treasures themselves. His newest finds include other carbon-based objects which rarely survive more than a few hundred years underwater, including the well-preserved remains of a wooden sofa for banquets.

In addition, Goddio said, there was also a large Attic vase and a gold amulet which he said was of “exquisite quality.”

The European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, or IEASM, is led by Goddio. The Institute works in close cooperation with Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and has the support of the Hilti Foundation, which makes historic finds like these possible.

Goddio’s newest discoveries will be studied and preserved before being put on display in museums so the public can view them. Despite the many jaw-dropping discoveries already made at the site over the past 20 years, Goddio says that there is far more in store. So far, he says, only about 3% of the sunken city has been explored so far.

ASIA, RUSSIA, WORLD

1,500-year-old Crypt of Rich Warrior Buried With Wife and Children Discovered in Ancient Russian City

1,500-year-old Crypt of Rich Warrior Buried With Wife and Children Discovered in Ancient Russian City

An Ancient warrior has been unearthed from a Russian crypt, buried alongside his wife and three children. The discovery has sparked an archaeological mystery, with experts unable to confirm whether the family died from plague – or were butchered by local tribesmen.

1,500-year-old Crypt of Rich Warrior Buried With Wife and Children Discovered in Ancient Russian City
The Russian crypt was littered with bodies
The family was buried 16 feet below ground
Rare artefacts buried with the family indicate high status or wealth

Archaeologists say the “noble” family was buried at the site in Fanagoriya, Russia around 1,500 years ago. The adult male skeleton was found buried with riding stirrups and spurs, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He was also equipped with a sword belt, which suggests he was a mounted warrior.

And the 16-foot-deep crypt also contained valuables, indicating wealth or high status.

Archaeologists think the family may have been butchered by local tribesmen
It’s likely the crypt belongs to a noble warrior family
It’s also possible that the family were killed by plague
Skeletons were unearthed at the lost Russian city of Fanagoriya, founded by Ancient Greek colonists

This ancient warrior may have been like a real-life version of Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones.

“Judging by what we have found here, the man served the city’s army,” said Aleksei Voroshilov, who led the dig.

“He was a horseman because we found riding stirrups and spurs too.

“There is also a leather harness attached to a belt, which was used to carry a sword.

“The buckles on the harness are really worn out, which means this warrior has seen a lot of fighting.

“He was unsheathing and sheathing his sword again and again.”

The long-dead warrior was also buried alongside his wife and three children.

It’s not clear how they died, but archaeologists believe they may have been killed by the plague.

Another leading theory is that they were butchered by nomadic tribesmen in the local area.

The eerie burial site was dug 1,500 years ago.
The ancient lost city has produced important artefacts

In any case, the dig site at Fanagoriya is of huge interest to archaeologists.

The site is believed to have major historical importance to Christianity and has produced a number of rare artefacts.

“This year we have discovered very accurate and strong evidence that Christianity was founded in Fanagoriya in the fifth century, which is a marble tabletop, which could be used as an altar in a church,” said Aleksei.

“We have discovered a marble baptistery for infants or probably for toddlers as well. It is not very big, nevertheless, it is massive and made from marble.

“One of our underwater expeditions discovered a ship some time ago, which was sunk following the uprising in Fanagoriya against Mithridates VI of Pontus which occurred exactly in 62 BC.

“This ship is one of the most ancient ones ever found in the world.”

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Giant 1,100 Pound bone belonging to sauropod found in France

Giant 1,100 Pound bone belonging to sauropod found in France

The femur of a giant dinosaur was found this week by French palaeontologists at an excavation site in southwest France where, since 2010, remains of some of the largest animals ever to live on land have been excavated.

Maxime Lasseron inspects the femur of a Sauropod (AFP/Getty Images)
Maxime Lasseron inspects the femur of a Sauropod.

The thigh bone of a giant dinosaur was found this week by French palaeontologists at an excavation site in southwestern France where remains of some of the largest animals that ever lived on land have been dug up since 2010.

The two-meter-long femur at the Angeac-Charente site is thought to have belonged to a sauropod, an herbivorous dinosaur with long necks and tails which were widespread in the late Jurassic era, over 140 million years ago.

“This is a major discovery,” Ronan Allain, a palaeontologist at the National History Museum of Paris told Reuters. “I was especially amazed by the state of preservation of that femur.”

“These are animals that probably weighed 40 to 50 tonnes.”

Allain said scientists at the site near the city of Cognac had found more than 7,500 fossils of more than 40 different species since 2010, making it one of the largest such finds in Europe.

Scientists believe that the bones are from a sauropod, which is the largest herbivorous dinosaur and first appeared in the late Triassic Period.

These reptiles were the largest of all dinosaurs and the largest land animals that have ever lived, they had a small head a long neck and a very long tail.

Scientists believe they would spend their time wallowing in shallow water that would help support their bodies.

The dinosaur bone was found covered in clay by volunteers from the National Museum of Natural History.

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

Polish archaeologists co-discover ‘unique’ Roman military tower

Polish archaeologists co-discover ‘unique’ Roman military tower

Polish archaeologists co-discover ‘unique’ Roman military tower
El Mellali site with visible remains of the tower.

A Polish-Maroconian team of archaeologists have discovered a Roman military observation tower in Volubilis, Morocco. ‘This is important for research on the system of Roman fortifications built on the outskirts of the empire’, says Maciej Czapski, an archaeologist from the University of Warsaw.

Similar military observation towers had been previously discovered during excavations in Scotland, Germany, and Romania, but never in Morocco.

From the 5th decade CE, Morocco was part of the Roman Empire, but since it was geographically isolated, from a scientific point of view little is known about this region and archaeologists treat it as a niche.

‘Based on satellite images, we have selected several sites that have a common feature: an oval plan with an inscribed rectangle or square. We have chosen this particular site because it is located farthest to the south. There are a few brief descriptions of this site in French publications indicating that the place could have been associated with the Roman army’, says Czapski.

The researcher adds that preparations for excavations included dozens of hours spent in libraries in Rimini and London but this and the analysis of satellite images did not guarantee success.

“We were lucky to have started digging in the right place. Just a 500-600 m shift of the starting point would have resulted in finding nothing. Our discovery is a significant contribution to the general state of research on the Roman limes – the system of Roman border fortifications, erected on the outskirts of the empire, especially vulnerable to raids’, says Czapski.

Excavation work at the eastern wall of the observation tower.

Included amongst the find were the foundations and fragments of walls preserved up to a height of approx. 80 cm. A fragment of the internal staircase and a fragment of cobblestones surrounding the building on the south side have also been preserved. The outer wall has not survived. Tile fragments are in very bad condition.

The researchers also found fragments of weapons and accessories of Roman legionnaires.

“We found fragments of javelins, nails from sandals of Roman legionnaires, fragments of ornaments typical for Roman military belts,” says Czapski.

“Until now, we had a very broad dating – we knew that there was a defence system of the Roman province between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. We want to narrow down the chronology and explain whether it was a single system or different systems at different times. We have a hypothesis that the system we discovered existed during the reign of Antoninus Pius. We have some military finds dating back to this period, around the 2nd century CE,” says Czapski.

He adds that “a lot is known about the military and political situation of this region. We know that battles were fought, but we do not know the details – what their course was, whether they were very heavy, and to what extent. We know that in some cases it ended with signing treaties as a result of diplomatic activities, but we do not know the details.”

The main focus of the Polish-Moroccan team is determining how the Romans maintained the acquired territories and what were their contacts with the local population.

“We are dealing with the relations between the administration and the local population. We know that these relations were quite turbulent because epigraphic evidence confirms it. We want to find out how the Romans controlled the flow of people and goods, that is, how they controlled the border zone’, says Czapski.

The head of the Polish part of the research team Dr. Radosław Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski from the University of Warsaw, and the Moroccan team leader is Professor Aomar Akerraz from the National Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (INSAP) in Rabat. The team consists of 10 people.

In the near future, the researchers plan to complete the documentation and publish a report. Next year, after the end of Ramadan, they will begin field work at a different site. They hope to discover more towers, which would help to “complete the concept of the Roman defence system.

“Next year, at the turn of May, we will dig at a different site. The discovery of another tower should be easier. We now know where to dig and what to expect,” says Czapski.

ASIA, OMAN, WORLD

Oman has recovered an exceptional collection of silver jewellery from a prehistoric grave

Oman has recovered an exceptional collection of silver jewellery from a prehistoric grave

Oman has recovered an exceptional collection of silver jewellery from a prehistoric grave

From a prehistoric grave dating to the 3rd millennium BC in Dahwa, North Batinah, a team of international archaeologists working under the auspices of the Oman Ministry of Heritage and Tourism have unearthed an extraordinary collection of silver jewellery.

The joint Omani-American team headed by professor Nasser al Jahwari and professor Khaled Douglas from Sultan Qaboos University and professor Kimberly Williams from Temple University, Philadelphia USA, excavate an early bronze age site and Dahwa, Wilayat of Saham of North Al Batinah Governorate.

The collection includes parts of necklaces with beads and several rings.

Stone seal from Mohenjo Dara (Sindh, Pakistan), with the same image of an Indian bison head, lowered into a manger.

One of the silver rings, interestingly, bore a stamp depicting an Indian bison (Bos Gaurus), a defining symbol of the Indus Valley (or Harappa) Culture that suggested the merchants were engaged in interregional trade.

Although quite common on Indus-related circular stone seals in Iran, Bahrain, Mesopotamia, and Oman, this image was relatively uncommon in the Indus Valley.

In fact, it was discovered engraved on stamp seals made from local soft stone in Oman at Salut and Al-Moyassar. This is, however, the first time this image has been discovered on a metal finger ring.

Tomb 1 in Dahwa was interred with silver jewelry, pottery, stone vessels, and other personal ornaments.

According to professor Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, an expert on ancient technologies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, seal rings are typical of much later periods.

“But this discovery confirms that Bronze Age peoples were much more ingenious and technically advanced than previously thought. They introduced at a very early stage administrative solutions that allowed economic growth in the later millennia.”

What makes the find even more intriguing is the fact that the jewelry found is made of silver that most likely came from Anatolia (Turkey).

EUROPE, FINLAND, WORLD

Scientists Investigate Fibers in 6,000-Year-Old Finnish Burial

Scientists Investigate Fibers in 6,000-Year-Old Finnish Burial

The exceptional excavation of a Stone Age burial site was carried out in Majoonsuo, situated in the municipality of Outokumpu in Eastern Finland. The excavation produced microscopically small fragments of bird feathers, canine and small mammalian hairs, and plant fibres.

Scientists Investigate Fibers in 6,000-Year-Old Finnish Burial
An artist’s impression of the child buried in Majoonsuo during their life

The findings gained through soil analysis are unique, as organic matter is poorly preserved in Finland’s acidic soil. The study, led by Archaeologist Tuija Kirkinen, was aimed at investigating how these highly degraded plant- and animal-based materials could be traced through soil analysis.

During the Stone Age in Finland, the deceased were interred mainly in pits in the ground. Little of the organic matter from human-made objects has been preserved in Stone Age graves in Finland, but it is known, on the basis of burial sites in the surrounding regions, that objects made of bones, teeth and horns as well as furs and feathers were placed in the graves.

Teeth and arrowheads were found in the red-ochre grave

The Trial Excavation Team of the Finnish Heritage Agency examined the site in 2018, as it was considered to be at risk of destruction. The burial place was located under a gravelly sand road in a forest, with the top of the grave partially exposed.

The site was originally given away by the intense colour of its red ochre. Red ochre, or iron-rich clay soil, has been used not only in burials but also in rock art around the world.

In the archaeological dig at the burial site, only a few teeth were found of the deceased, on the basis of which they are known to have been a child between 3 and 10 years of age. In addition, two transverse arrowheads made of quartz and two other possible quartz objects were found in the grave. Based on the shape of the arrowheads and shore-level dating, the burial can be estimated to have taken place in the Mesolithic period of the Stone Age, roughly 6,000 years before the Common Era.

What made the excavation exceptionally was the near-complete preservation of the soil originating in the grave. A total of 65 soil sample bags weighing between 0.6 and 3.4 kilograms were collected, also comparison samples were taken from outside the grave.

The soil was analyzed in the archaeology laboratory of the University of Helsinki. Organic matter was separated from the samples using water. This way, the exposed fibres and hairs were identified with the help of transmitted-light and electron microscopy.

Oldest feather fragments found in Finland

From the soil samples, a total of 24 microscopic (0.2–1.4 mm) fragments of bird feathers were identified, most of which originated in down. Seven feather fragments were identified as coming from the down of a waterfowl (Anseriformes). These are the oldest feather fragments ever found in Finland.

Although the origin of the down is impossible to state with certainty, it may come from clothing made of waterfowl skins, such as a parka or an anorak. It is also possible that the child was laid on a down bed.

In addition to the waterfowl down, one falcon (Falconidae) feather fragment was identified. It may have originally been part of the fletching of the arrows attached to the arrowheads, or, for example, from feathers used to decorate the garment.

Dog or wolf hairs?

Besides the feathers, 24 fragments of mammalian hair were identified, ranging from 0.5 to 9.5 mm in length. Most of the hairs were badly degraded, making identification no longer possible.

The finest discoveries were the three hairs of a canine, possibly a predator, found at the bottom of the grave. The hairs may also originate, for example, in footwear made of wolf or dog skin. It is also possible a dog was laid at the child’s feet.

“Dogs buried with the deceased have been found in, for example, Skateholm, a famous burial site in southern Sweden dating back some 7,000 years,” says Professor Kristiina Mannermaa, University of Helsinki.

“The discovery in Majoonsuo is sensational, even though there is nothing but hairs left of the animal or animals – not even teeth. We don’t even know whether it’s a dog or a wolf,” she says, adding: “The method used, demonstrates that traces of fur and feathers can be found even in graves several thousands of years old, including in Finland.”

“This all gives us a very valuable insight about burial habits in the Stone Age, indicating how people had prepared the child for the journey after death”, says Kirkinen.

The soil is full of information

Also found were three fragments of plant fibres, which are preserved particularly poorly in the acidic Finnish soil. The fibres were what are known as bast fibres, meaning that they come from, for example, willows or nettles. At the time, the object they were part of may have been a net used for fishing, a cord used to attach clothes, or a bundle of strings. For the time being, only one other bast fibre discovery dating back to the Mesolithic Stone Age is known in Finland: the famed Antrea Net on display in the National Museum of Finland, laced with willow bast fibres.

A fibre separation technique was developed in the study, and is already being applied in subsequent studies. The project has demonstrated the great information value of soil extracted from archaeological sites.

The study is part of the ERC-funded project entitled Animals Make Identities (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/animals-make-identities) headed by Kristiina Mannermaa.

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