ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

DNA reveals surprise ancestry of mysterious Chinese mummies

DNA reveals surprise ancestry of mysterious Chinese mummies

Cemeteries in the Taklamakan Desert, China, hold human remains up to 4,000 years old.

Since their discovery a century ago, hundreds of naturally preserved mummies found in China’s Tarim Basin have been a mystery to archaeologists. Some thought the Bronze Age remains were from migrants from thousands of kilometres to the west, who had brought farming practices to the area. But now, a genomic analysis suggests they were indigenous people who may have adopted agricultural methods from neighbouring groups.

As they report today in Nature1, researchers have traced the ancestry of these early Chinese farmers to Stone Age hunter-gatherers who lived in Asia some 9,000 years ago. They seem to have been genetically isolated, but despite this had learnt to raise livestock and grow grains in the same way as other groups.

The study hints at “the really diverse ways in which populations move and don’t move, and how ideas can spread with, but also through, populations”, says co-author Christina Warinner, a molecular archaeologist at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.

The finding demonstrates that cultural exchange doesn’t always go hand in hand with genetic ties, says Michael Frachetti, an archaeologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. “Just because those people are trading, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are marrying one another or having children,” he says.

Perfect preservation environment

Starting in the early twentieth century, the mummies were found in cemeteries belonging to the so-called Xiaohe culture, which are scattered across the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang region of China.

The desert “is one of the most hostile places on Earth”, says Alison Betts, an archaeologist at the University of Sydney in Australia.

Here, bodies had been buried in boat-shaped coffins wrapped in cattle hide. The hot, arid and salty environment of the desert naturally preserved them, keeping everything from hair to clothing perfectly intact. Before the latest study, “we knew an awful lot about these people, physically, but we knew nothing about who they were and why they were there”, says Betts.

The mummies — which were buried over a period of 2,000 years or more — date to a significant time in Xinjiang’s history, when ancient communities were shifting from hunter-gatherers to farmers, she adds.

DNA reveals surprise ancestry of mysterious Chinese mummies
The harsh desert conditions preserved the bodies as natural mummies.

Some of the later mummies were buried with woollen fabrics and clothing similar to those of cultures found in the west. The graves also contained millet, wheat, animal bones and dairy products — evidence of agricultural and pastoral technologies characteristic of cultures in other regions of Eurasia, which led researchers to hypothesize that these people were originally migrants from the west, who had passed through Siberia, Afghanistan or Central Asia.

The researchers behind the latest study — based in China, South Korea, Germany and the United States — took DNA from the mummies to test these ideas, but found no evidence to support them.

They sequenced the genomes of 13 individuals who lived between 4,100 and 3,700 years ago and whose bodies were found in the lowest layers of the Tarim Basin cemeteries in southern Xinjiang, as well as another 5 mummies from hundreds of kilometres away in northern Xinjiang, who lived between 5,000 and 4,800 years ago.

They then compared the genetic profiles of these people with previously sequenced genomes from more than 100 ancient groups of people, and those of more than 200 modern populations, from around the world.

Two groups of people

They found that the northern Xinjiang individuals shared some parts of their genomes with Bronze Age migrants from the Altai Mountains of Central Asia who lived about 5,000 years ago — supporting an earlier hypothesis.

But the 13 people from the Tarim Basin did not share this ancestry. They seem to be solely related to hunter-gatherers who lived in southern Siberia and what is now northern Kazakhstan some 9,000 years ago, says co-author Choongwon Jeong, a population and evolutionary geneticist at Seoul National University. The northern Xinjiang individuals also shared some of this ancestry.

Evidence of dairy products was found alongside the youngest mummies from the upper layers of cemeteries in the Tarim Basin, so the researchers analysed calcified dental plaque on the teeth of some of the older mummies to see how far back dairy farming went. In the plaque, they found milk proteins from cattle, sheep and goats, suggesting that even the earliest settlers here consumed dairy products. “This founding population had already incorporated dairy pastoralism into their way of life,” says Warinner.

But the study raises many more questions about how the people of the Xiaohe culture got these technologies, from where and from whom, says Betts. “That’s the next thing we need to try and resolve.”

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

A dried-up arm of the Nile provides another clue to how Egyptians built the pyramids

A dried-up arm of the Nile provides another clue to how Egyptians built the pyramids

To understand what environmental issues lie ahead for our warming planet, geographers often look back to the past for answers.

A dried-up arm of the Nile provides another clue to how Egyptians built the pyramids
The pyramids of Giza.

A new study published on August 29 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences details how the landscape of ancient Egypt allowed them to create the pyramids of Giza—one of the most iconic human-made phenomenons in the world. On a now-dried-up arm of the Nile River called the Khufu branch, the study authors found that people needed the waterway to transport tools and other materials such as stones and limestones to the Giza Plateau for pyramid construction.

The Nile was a vital resource not only for transportation, but for food, land for farming, and water for ancient Egypt, explains Sheisha Hader, a physical geographer at the Aix-Marseille University in France and the lead author of the study.

“Good [Nile] levels promised stability [to] the ancient Egyptian society,” Hader says. “By contrast, the drought as a result of low Nile levels would be catastrophic and a reason for social unrest and sometimes, civil wars.”

In May 2019, Hader and the team studied pollen grains taken after drilling the land next to where the Khufu branch of the Nile once stood. Two of the study sites were in the supposed Khufu basin.

About 109 samples dating between the Predynastic and Early Dynastic-Old Kingdom periods were collected for analysis and divided into different groups based on seven vegetation patterns.

The vegetation patterns combined with other data sets involving nearby volcanic activity that could drive weather changes, solar radiation, and African water levels at the time, helped the geographers trace back changing water levels and painted a picture of how the climate looked over the last 8,000 years in Egypt.

This timeline encapsulated the dates when the three pyramids of Giza—Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure—were estimated to be completed, between 2686 and 2160 BCE.

An artist’s reconstruction of the now defunct Khufu branch of the Nile River, which once enabled transportation of construction materials to the Giza Pyramid complex.

Hader says she wasn’t as much surprised but rather in awe of the “clever old kingdom’s engineers who could thoroughly harness their environment and the Nile dynamics for turning the impossible into reality.” With the river, she says the ancient Egyptians were capable of designing a harbour on the edge of the desert where the small Khufu channel would drive in water without the risk of flood. “They dredged the floodplain on the western part of the channel and let the water flow, and the ships navigate to provide the logistic supply for builders.”

Joseph Manning, a professor of classics and history at Yale University says that, before this study, how water got to the Giza pyramids was not well understood. “We’d known there was water that came pretty close to the Giza Plateau, which is how they’re getting stone from the Tura quarries [the Egyptians’ main source of limestone] across the river over to Giza,” he explains. “I thought they were building canals that connected, but it looks like it’s a natural river channel.“

Manning says that finding natural river features frames how humans interacted and took advantage of their environment, creating not-so-simple projects like the pyramids. However, one concern he points out in the study is how the researchers analyzed the data on volcanic eruptions during that time period.

Their findings suggest volcanic eruptions played a major role in fluctuations in the Khufu branch, which in this case, led to a decrease in Nile summer flooding. “Just because you have a volcanic sequence doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about Nile conditions,” he explains.

For instance, some large eruptions in high latitude regions, such as Iceland or Alaska, have been known to impact the East African monsoon—which can change the water levels on the Nile. But not every eruption has an effect, Manning says, explaining that other factors such as the time of year, location, and the scale of the eruption will affect monsoon responses in the Middle East, instead. 

Christophe Morhange, an expert in geomorphology at Aix-Marseille University and senior study author, says the study goes beyond knowing the origin of these massive monuments. “It’s also the human imprints on the environment [and] the importance of landscape archaeology.”

The rise and fall of the ancient Egyptian empire were hinged on changes in the Nile, explains Hader. Looking back on a society that rose to power by tapping into the local ecosystem can teach/inform climate scientists today. 

It’s important to know how “the path of their history and how the environment could direct a flourishing empire like the old kingdom,” Hader says. “[But] the climate-environmental change being the same reason for which the empire collapsed is a crucial point to understand if we want to face our present and future environmental challenges.”

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

1400-Year-Old Folding Chair Found in a Woman’s Grave in Germany

1400-Year-Old Folding Chair Found in a Woman’s Grave in Germany

Archaeologists have made a very unusual find. A Medieval folding chair has been discovered in a woman’s grave. The excavation team unearthed the chair in a woman’s grave in Steinsfeld in Central Franconia in the Ansbach district.

An approximately 1,400-year-old iron folding chair was found by archaeologists in a woman’s grave in Middle Franconia, Germany. The chair has been underground at a depth of around 6.5 feet.

Franconia lies in the north of the Free State of Bavaria, parts of Baden-Württemberg, and South Thuringia and Hesse in Germany.

It is only the second discovery of an iron folding chair from the early Middle Ages in Germany, said the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments. 

1400-Year-Old Folding Chair Found in a Woman’s Grave in Germany
A rarity: this iron folding chair was found during an excavation in Steinsfeld, Bavaria.

Across Europe, 29 sites of early medieval graves with folding chairs have been handed down, only six of which are made of iron.

According to the state office, it dates from around 600 AD, i.e., from the early Middle Ages. When folded, the chair, which was about 70 by 45 centimetres in size, had been placed at the feet of the dead.

“This find, which at first glance seems so modern, is an absolute rarity and of the greatest cultural-historical interest because it gives an insight into the burial equipment of prominent sections of the population and into the early use of furniture,” said the head of the state office, Mathias Pfeil.

People have been making iron and bronze folding chairs since ancient times.

They were considered essential official signs and symbolized power, authority, and dignity. According to the state office, they appear as grave goods in women’s graves.

Examinations of the woman’s skeleton showed she was around 40 to 50 when she died. The dead woman had a necklace of coloured glass beads around her neck.

On the belt was a fibulae hanger and a large pearl, among other things.

The millefiori pearl of the belt hanger.

In addition, the experts also uncovered a man’s grave in which they found, among other things, a belt with a bronze buckle and a complete set of weapons.

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

The Immortal Armour of China Jade burial suits

The Immortal Armour of China Jade burial suits

Threaded hand-crafted from thousands of precious stone slabs with silver and gold during the Han Dynasty about 2000 years ago, ancient China’s jade burial suits were built as armour for the afterlife to prevent mortal decay.

The Immortal Armour of China Jade burial suits

The Jude Burial Suits of China are maybe the most opulent type of burial in history. Ceremonial suits composed of jade and gold thread were the chosen way of afterlife immortality for Han Dynasty China’s royal members.

Small discs strung onto necklaces as emblems of political power and religious authority, or ceremonial instruments like axes, knives, and chisels, were fashioned from nephrite jade.

Jade became associated with Chinese conceptions of the soul, protective properties, and immortality in the ‘essence’ of stone over time due to its hardness, durability, and delicate transparent hues (yu Zhi, shi Zhi jing ye).

With the rise of the Han Dynasty (China’s second imperial dynasty) in 202 BC-AD, 9 AD and AD 25 AD–220 AD, the association with jade’s longevity is clear from the text by the Chinese historian Sima Qian (145 – 86 BC) about Emperor Wu of Han (157 BC–87 BC), who was described as having a jade cup inscribed with the words “Long Life to the Lord of Men,” and indulging with an elixir of jade powder mixed with sweet dew.

Jade articles were first documented in literature around 320 AD, although there is archaeological evidence that they existed earlier than half a century.

Jade burial suit at the Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King, in Guangzhou

However, their existence was not verified until 1968, when the tomb of Han Dynasty ruler Liu Sheng and his wife Princess Dou Wan was found.

The undisturbed tomb, said to be one of the most important archaeological findings of the twentieth century, was discovered in Hebei Province behind an iron wall between two brick walls and a passageway packed with stone.

They were composed of hundreds of tiny jade plates stitched together with gold thread. There were also jade pieces designed to conceal the eyes and plugs to fit into the eyes, ears, and other orifices.

All in the sake of keeping the bad at bay. Each suite is divided into twelve sections: the face, head, front and rear portions, arms, gloves, leggings, and feet. Liu Sheng’s outfit was very opulent. It was composed of 2498 pieces of jade that were stitched together with 1.1kg of gold thread and took an estimated 10 years to complete. On occasion, the remains were also placed in elaborate jade-covered coffins, which were equally spectacular, having been constructed with hundreds of solid gold nails.

Detail of the hand section of the jade burial suit of Liu Sui, Prince of Liang, of Western Han

Sets of instructions and standards for how the outfits should be made were also discovered. These rules are detailed in “The Book of Later Han.”

However, a study of the suits reveals that they were not always designed to meet the stated standards. The quality of the 15 outfits revealed varies.

The type of thread used was determined by the deceased’s status, according to Hu Hànsh (The Book of the Later Han). An emperor’s jade suit was threaded with gold, lessor royals and high-ranking nobles wore silver threaded jade suits, sons and daughters of the lessor wore copper threaded jade suits, and lower-ranked aristocrats wore silk threaded jade suits.

Close-up detail of a jade burial suit with replaced copper wire in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum.

Emperor Wen of Wei ordered that the production of jade suits be stopped, as they encouraged tomb looters who would burn the suits to retrieve the gold thread in AD 223.

Jade failed to prevent soft tissue deterioration. Nonetheless, because jade is permeable, DNA from the royal pair may be entrenched in the stones for 2,000 years after their deaths, granting them a kind of immortality.

EUROPE, PORTUGAL, WORLD

Huge dinosaur skeleton unearthed in Portuguese garden

Huge dinosaur skeleton unearthed in Portuguese garden

Palaeontologists in Portugal have unearthed the fossilized skeleton of what could be the largest dinosaur ever found in Europe. The remains are thought to be those of a sauropod, a herbivorous dinosaur 12 meters (39 feet) tall and 25 meters long that roamed the Earth around 150 million years ago.

One of the sauropod’s ribs is about three metres long.

“It’s one of the biggest specimens discovered in Europe, perhaps in the world,” palaeontologist Elisabete Malafaia, from the Faculty of Sciences at Lisbon University, told AFP on Monday.

The bones were uncovered by Portuguese and Spanish scientists in the garden of a house near Pombal in central Portugal at the beginning of August.

Among the bones collected, they found the remains of a rib about three meters long, Malafaia said.

Fossil fragments were first noticed at the site in 2017 when the owner was digging up his garden to make way for an extension.

He contacted palaeontologists, who unearthed part of the dinosaur skeleton earlier this month and have been examining it ever since.

Sauropods have characteristically long necks and tails and are among the largest animals to have ever lived.

The fossils discovered at the Monte Agudo site in Pombal are thought to be those of a brachiosaurid who lived during the Upper Jurassic period.

The fact that the vertebrae and ribs were found at the same location and in the position they would have been in the dinosaur’s anatomy is “relatively rare”, Malafaia said.

The team may conduct more digs in the coming months at the site and in the surrounding area.

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

The largest animal-shaped bronze mythical beast unearthed at Sanxingdui

The largest animal-shaped bronze mythical beast unearthed at Sanxingdui

Chinese archaeologists have unearthed a big bronze beast – one of the most highly anticipated treasures of the Sanxingdui ruins – a year after spotting it in a pit at the mysterious site in Sichuan province.

Archaeologists first spotted the animal figure more than a year ago but had to remove other artefacts before they could dig it out of the pit.

The bronze was discovered in July last year, but archaeologists were not able to lift it out of the pit until Wednesday, when other bronze objects piled on top of the statue were removed.

The bronze animal is the biggest ever found in decades of digging at the site. It weighs around 150kg (330lbs) and has a large mouth, small waist, huge ears and four embellished hooves.

According to Zhao Hao, a Peking University archaeologist in charge of the pit that contained the object, all other bronze animals uncovered at the site since digging began in the 1980s measured around 20 to 30cm (7.9 to 11.8 inches).

“But this one is very large in size, with height and width both measuring about one metre (3.3 feet). It’s the only one at the whole site,” Zhao was quoted by state broadcaster CCTV as saying.

A human figurine was attached to what looks like a horn on the creature’s head. The figure was dressed in a long gown and appeared to be riding or controlling the animal.

Another human-shaped artefact was found lying by the animal’s side with its head missing. Human statuettes in different postures were also found nearby, which Zhao speculated could originally have been attached to the bronze beast’s body.

Excavation at Sanxingdui will continue until September, after which archaeologists will begin restoring, categorising and researching the newly uncovered treasures.

“A holy tree was cast on the chest of the animal, showing people in Sanxingdui worshipped the holy tree or treated it as a god,” Zhao was quoted as saying. “Such a configuration has not been found among any previously excavated artefacts. It’s extremely interesting.”

His team also speculated there could be a larger object that was attached to the beast’s back and has yet to be unearthed.

The Sanxingdui ruins, considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, are believed to be at the heart of the mysterious Shu kingdom, which dates back some 4,500 years. But researchers have yet to find written records of the kingdom.

The ruins were discovered in the southwestern city of Guanghan in the late 1920s, but excavation work did not start until the 1980s, when archaeologists made a breakthrough and discovered two sacrificial pits containing more than 1,700 artefacts.

More than 400 class A artefacts – the most historically and culturally valuable, according to China’s classification system – were unearthed at the ruins during the first two decades of digging.

The excavation was paused in 2002, resuming only in 2020, after six more pits were identified. More than 13,000 artefacts have been uncovered since then, including a bronze sacrificial altar with human figures, a bronze sculpture with a human head and snake body and a dragon-shaped bronze statue with a pig’s nose.

This round of field excavation work will be completed in September, after which archaeologists will begin restoring, categorising and researching the newly uncovered artefacts.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Anglo-Saxon Trade Hub Found at Monastery Site in England

Anglo-Saxon Trade Hub Found at Monastery Site in England

Anglo-Saxon Trade Hub Found at Monastery Site in England
The site excavated lies next to Cookham’s Holy Trinity Church

Archaeologists have unearthed a long-forgotten trading hub that researchers say would have enjoyed comparable status to London in the Middle Ages.

The find on the banks of the Thames in Cookham, Berkshire, has been hailed as “a once in a generation discovery” by the University of Reading.

It includes infrastructure that suggested the area was used extensively for importing and exporting goods.

The university said the site was abandoned in the late 9th Century.

University students and staff spent four weeks excavating the site

Archaeologists began work on the land next to the Holy Trinity Church after evidence pointed to it being the site of a “lost” 8th Century monastery.

The excavation team said what it went on to find “ranks alongside the most extensively preserved early medieval monastic sites ever investigated in Britain”.

They found evidence of a waterside loading area, workshops for industrial activities like metalworking, and bread ovens to feed the local population.

The university said the area “could have enjoyed similarly important status as a trade and production centre to larger towns like London and Southampton”.

Archaeologist Gabor Thomas said the discoveries would lead to a better understanding of daily life at the monastery

Gabor Thomas, the excavation’s lead archaeologist, said: “This is a once-in-a-generation archaeological discovery.

“We have not just rediscovered the location of this monastery but shown that it’s in a remarkable state of preservation.

“We have uncovered a densely occupied riverside trading and production zone, complete with streets and loading areas.

“This level of infrastructure and planning is surprising and compares with larger trading and production sites known as ‘wics’ that were the only towns of the period.”

The excavation was part of a summer field school project run by the university

He said Cookham’s population would have been considerably smaller than London but similarities in the way the monastery was organised reflected “its importance as a place of trade and production on the River Thames”.

“The discoveries at Cookham will enable us to build a detailed picture of daily life within a monastery of this period, including Cookham’s role as an economic hub for the Middle Thames region,” he added.

The monastery is believed to have thrived in the 8th and early 9th centuries, reaching its peak under the control of powerful Anglo-Saxon queen Cynethryth.

Cynethryth was the only Anglo-Saxon queen known to have been depicted on a coin and had been married to King Offa, who ruled one of the era’s main kingdoms, Mercia, until his death in 796 AD.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Did archaeologists discover the grave of Alexander the Great?

Did archaeologists discover the grave of Alexander the Great?

An Egyptian official has claimed that he has evidence that Alexander the Great’s tomb is in Siwa, Egypt, the Egypt Independent reported on Friday.

Did archaeologists discover the grave of Alexander the Great?
An Egyptian tourism official has claimed to have located the tomb of Alexander the Great in Siwa.

The report says that Mohamed Omran, the director of Siwa’s Tourism Department, “announced evidence suggesting the potential discovery of the tomb of alexander the Great might be in the Marai area.”

Omran said that between 1995 and 1996 a temple was found in the area that historians believed could be consistent with Alexander the Great’s tomb. Omran also pointed to the discovery of a temple that could be traced back to the Greek and Roman era three years ago.

It is important to note that Omran’s purported evidence has not yet been verified. The tomb of Alexander the Great is considered one of the “Holy Grails” of archaeological discovery and has been said to have been found several times in the past, with each time failing to substantiate any results.

We will have to wait and see if Siwa is truly the home of the Greek leader’s tomb, and if it is, it will be a momentous day in history. Alexander the Great is one of the most exalted figures in history— and the whereabouts of his tomb would command the attention of historians and archaeologists across the world.

The story of Alexander the Great

Alexander III, the “Basileus of Macedon”, the “Hegemon of the Hellenic League”, the “Shahanshah” of Persia, the “Pharaoh” of Egypt and the “Lord of Asia” — better known as Alexander the Great — was one of the most significant figures in human history.

Born in Pella, in modern-day Central Macedonia, northern Greece, in 356 B.C., he was the son of Philip II, the King of Macedon and his wife, Olympias. But Alexander was no royal place-holder. He became renowned at a very early age for both his military and political capabilities.

Alexander, whose name in Greek (Alexandros) means “defender of men”, knew as the son of a king that his destiny was already written, putting him at the forefront of history.

This was why, while he was still a teenager, he began to be tutored by one of Greece’s most respected men, the giant of philosophy and science, Aristotle.

Since his education included philosophy, politics, ethics, and science, Alexander was clearly not brought up to become just a warrior but a thoughtful leader of men and society.

Fate dictated that, following his father’s assassination when Alexander was only twenty, he would take into his hands not only the Kingdom of Macedon but also the generalship of the Hellenic League of Greece.

Several years prior to that, his father Philip II of Macedon had managed to unite most of Greece’s city-states, urging them to address the Persian threat as a united and solid front. Alexander fearlessly took on this enormous responsibility after the death of his father and began the great march of the Hellenes to the East.

The greatest leader of all time

Thousands of soldiers followed him. What is now the modern-day countries of Turkey, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and the entirety of the modern-day Arab world, became Greek in less than ten years’ time. In a few short years, Alexander had conquered all the way east to the western borders of India.

Battle after battle, fight after fight, Alexander and his men were able not only to beat many enemies while conquering the vast Achaemenid Empire but to establish a new status quo which would respect the local people. At the same time, the Greek overlords would introduce into their everyday life and cultural elements of the Greek way of thinking and acting.

Alexander’s original plans included the conquest of the last centimetre of the East. It is recorded in history that he stated his vision was to literally reach “the end of the world”. But Alexander’s long military campaigns finally led his men to demand his return to their beloved homeland of Greece.

Alexander wisely eventually listened to his officers and men, who once had blindly followed him eastward, and he reluctantly began his long journey home from the borders of present-day India.

His plans called for the city of Babylon to become the new capital of his vast empire. But the Fates did not pay heed to the conqueror’s grandiose plans.

Alexander, at the very young age of 33, suddenly fell gravely ill; to this day the cause of his illness remains a mystery. In the span of just a few days, his strong body betrayed him, and he died in his bed.

All In One Magazine