EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

Fossil of a beetle inside a lizard inside a snake – an ancient food chain

Fossil of a beetle inside a lizard inside a snake – an ancient food chain

Paleontologists have uncovered a fossil that has preserved an insect inside a lizard inside a snake – a prehistoric battle of the food chain that ended in a volcanic lake some 48 million years ago.

Pulled from an abandoned quarry in southwest Germany called the Messel Pit, the fossil is only the second of its kind ever found, with the remains of three animals sitting snug in one another.

Earlier excavations have revealed the fossilized stomach contents of a prehistoric horse, whose last meal was grapes and leaves, and pollen grains were identified inside a fossilized bird. Remains of insects have also been detected in a sample of fish excrement.

Grube Messel

We have been lucky to glimpse such a primordial food chain of the snake, that ate a lizard, that had previously treated itself to a beetle, and ended up in a volcanic lake of the time. It is uncertain how the snake died.

Perhaps the snake’s body fell dead close to the shores of the lake before the waters claimed it. It had died there not more than 48 hours after its “last supper,” scientists say.

“It’s probably the kind of fossil that I will go the rest of my professional life without ever encountering again, such is the rarity of these things.” Such are the words of Dr. Krister Smith, a paleontologist at the Senkenberg Institute in Germany who took charge of the fossil analysis.

According to Dr. Smith, the almost entirely preserved snake was recovered from a plate found in the pit back in 2009, and the discovery soon turned out to be groundbreaking. Smith remarks, “we had never found a tripartite food chain–this is a first for Messel.”

Dr. Smith and Argentine paleontologist Dr. Agustín Scanferla used high-resolution computer imaging to identify the taxonomy of the snake and the lizard, however, they were unable to name the beetle, the least preserved of the three.

Palaeopython fischeri, exhibited in Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

The snake, measuring some 3.4 feet in length, was identified as Palaeophython fischeri, a species which belongs to a group of tree-dwelling snakes that was able to grow to more than 6.5 feet in length and is related to today’s boas.

The preserved sample from Germany was only a juvenile, an assurance being not only the shorter length but also its food choice, the lizard. Adult boas are known to opt for bigger animals.

The lizard would have measured nearly eight inches and a clear hint for paleontologists that it was inside the snake’s body was that the snake’s ribs overlapped it.

It is an example of the now extinct species Geiseltaliellus maarius, a type of iguanian lizard that inhabited the region of what is now Germany, France, and Belgium. Messel has been the site that has provided some of the best-preserved samples of this lizard species.

What’s also interesting is that, even though lizards are known for shedding their tails when under threat, this one has kept it despite falling prey to the snake.

“Since the stomach contents are digested relatively fast and the lizard shows an excellent level of preservation, we assume that the snake died no more than one to two days after consuming its prey and then sank to the bottom of the Messel Lake, where it was preserved,” explained Dr. Smith.

Fossil of Palaeopython in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien

This is a rare type of fossil, but it’s not the first instance in which a fossil has simultaneously exposed three levels of an ancient food chain. According to National Geographic, in 2008, a fossil dated at more than 250 millions of years old depicted a shark that had devoured an amphibian that had previously consumed a spiny-finned fish.

Both these findings are precious as they reveal significant details on how food chains functioned. In the case of the snake fossil, it is interesting that the lizard had eaten a beetle.

Before that, scientists didn’t know that the Messel lizard liked to dine on insects, as in previous digs they had been able to identify only remains of plants in fossilized lizard bellies. In the case of the shark, it was revealed that amphibians consumed fish before becoming a menu item to the fish itself.

CHILE, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Gomphothere Butchering Camp Discovered in Chile

Gomphothere Butchering Camp Discovered in Chile

Archaeologists have uncovered a prehistoric site in South America where hunter-gatherers butchered a now-extinct elephant relative more than 12,000 years ago.

A study, published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, details the excavation and analysis of a recently discovered site in the Tagua Tagua lake region in central Chile.

The site represents a hunter-gatherer camp that the researchers have dated to between 12,440-12,550 years ago.

The site contains a “diverse and exceptional” collection of archaeological remains that is helping to shed light on the lives of the prehistoric hunter-gatherers who once inhabited this region.

Among the most intriguing finds from the site are the fossilized remains of a gomphothere—an extinct relative of modern elephants.

This group of animals roamed the Earth from as early as the end of the Oligocene epoch (around 23 million to 33.9 million years ago) to the late Pleistocene (around 11,700 to 2.6 million years ago) and early Holocene (11,700 years ago to the present) epochs.

Members of this group of animals had features such as trunks and tusks that were similar to those seen in modern elephants. But some gomphothere species had highly specialized teeth that would have helped them feed on certain types of vegetation.

The authors of the study observed signs of butchery on the gomphothere bones of the Tagua Tagua site, which were found alongside stone tools and other remains. The available evidence suggests the site represents a temporary camp that was mainly associated with the hunting of the gomphothere individual and the processing of its large carcass.

But the researchers found further evidence that other activities were carried out at the site as well, even though it was only occupied for a short time. These activities included the processing of other foods, as evidenced by the presence of the additional charred remains of plants and small animals like frogs and birds.

Stock image of an actor reenacting a prehistoric human while hunting. Researchers have shed light on an intriguing prehistoric site in Chile.

The researchers also documented evidence of activities such as the grinding of red ocher—a natural clay earth pigment.

The site was found to contain the fossilized remains of cactus seeds and bird eggshells, indicating that the camp was specifically occupied during the dry season.

The newly discovered prehistoric camp is one of several similar sites that are now known in the Tagua Tagua region, indicating that the area was a “key location” for nomadic hunter-gatherers during the late Pleistocene due to its abundant, diverse, and predictable resources, according to the study.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Possible Roman Oyster Processing Site Found in England

Possible Roman Oyster Processing Site Found in England

A suspected Roman oyster processing site has been unearthed on the banks of the Humber Estuary.

Possible Roman Oyster Processing Site Found in England
The oysters are believed to have grown naturally on shell reefs

The Environment Agency said the discovery was made during flood defence work near Weeton in East Yorkshire. A team from York Archaeology chanced on the find close to what they think was an early Roman settlement.

Oysters were prized by the Romans with some reports suggesting they played a key part in Julius Caesar’s decision to invade Britain.

Sea defences and mudflats under construction between Outstrays and Skeffling on the north bank of the Humber

According to the agency, large quantities of “misshapen oyster shells” were found, supporting the theory that they grew naturally on a shell reef rather than being grown on ropes, which was a common practice at the time.

Jennifer Morrison, the agency’s senior archaeologist, said: “It was truly amazing to find the evidence of this early oyster processing site during our dig.

“We know that, at this time, oysters would have been plentiful and that they were a staple part of the diet.

“We also know that British oysters were prized by the Romans, and it is quite possible that some of these oysters found their way back to Italy.”

For the last three years, the agency has been realigning sea defences to provide 250 hectares of new wet grassland, saltmarshes and mudflats to replace land being lost to human activity on the north bank of the estuary.

Today, oysters – natural filters, which keep the water clean as they absorb carbon and release oxygen – are being reintroduced to the Humber once again as part of the Wilder Humber partnership, comprising Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and energy company Orsted.

The oyster reefs will help protect the coastline from erosion by stabilising the seabed and absorbing wave energy, the agency said.

People can learn more about Roman and medieval finds at a new exhibition, which runs each Wednesday and Saturday until 22 June at Hedon Museum.

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

‘The Mayor’ buried 6,800 years ago with drinks and food for afterlife discovered in Bavaria

‘The Mayor’ buried 6,800 years ago with drinks and food for afterlife discovered in Bavaria

Dingolfing-Landau district archaeologist Florian Eibl beside the skeleton of “The Mayor” at the excavations at the village of Exing, near the Bavarian town of Eichendorf.

About 6,800 years ago, a “mayor” was buried with a wealth of food and riches, including a halved boar’s tooth, according to archaeologists who found the rare burial in southern Germany.

The mayor’s Middle Neolithic remains were found near the Bavarian town of Eichendorf, close to Munich and Germany’s southeastern borders with Austria and the Czech Republic.

According to the local government of Bavaria’s Dingolfing-Landau district, the discovery was made last week by district archaeologists excavating at the village of Exing, about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) to the west.

The person in the grave was buried with food and drink for the afterlife; dyes for body painting; a stone ax and a stone adze; and a boar’s tooth split in two. 

The rich grave goods indicate that the person buried there was of high status, possibly an elder or a chieftain — and archaeologists have dubbed them “The Mayor.”

The investigation hasn’t yet determined how old the person was when they died, or whether they were male or female.

The artifacts include pieces of gold jewelry, like this earring in the shape of a boat or barge from more than 2,000 years ago.

Rich grave

District archaeologist Florian Eibl told the German outlet Der Spiegel that it was unusual to find  human remains in a grave from this time and at this place, as very few Neolithic skeletons have survived.

In addition, he said, the finds indicated a person of special position who was older in years and had probably earned their wealth and status, rather than inherited it. 

The two parts of a boar’s tooth were probably two halves of a container that had once held a flint blade and tools for making fire — a symbol of status, because hunting wild boars was dangerous at that time, he said. 

The person in the grave was buried in a squatting position, and several vessels had been placed around their head — but it’s not yet known what they originally held. 

A drinking vessel placed in front of the skeleton’s face was probably their personal cup, and stone blades were also placed in the grave. 

The artifacts found during the excavations at Exing span roughly 7,000 years, including these remains large of a pottery jar.
The excavations in the Barvarian village of Exing have revealed several sites that date from the Mesolithic period to the Bronze Age.

Archaeological site 

Archaeologists from the district government have worked on excavations at Exing since 2023, ahead of a residential development there.

The spectacular finds from Exing span roughly 7,000 years, from the Neolithic through to the Copper and Bronze Ages, including pieces of gold jewelry.

Eibl said the area was important during the Neolithic period for its rich settlements such as Köthingeichendorf, which was a center of importance throughout Europe at that time. 

The skeleton of “The Mayor” will now be examined on site by an anthropologist and have photographs taken to produce a precise 3D model. The technique, known as photogrammetry, involves stitching multiple digital images together to make a virtual model.

AUSTRIA, WORLD

Study Impacts Understanding of First Australians’ Possible Route

Study Impacts Understanding of First Australians’ Possible Route

Study Impacts Understanding of First Australians’ Possible Route
Professor Sue O’Connor (left) and Dr Shimona Kealy say the “major” migration to Timor Island was no accident.

The discovery of thousands of stone artefacts and animal bones in a deep cave in Timor Island has led archaeologists to reassess the route that early humans took to reach Australia.

Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU), Flinders University, University College London (UCL) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage dated and analysed the artefacts and sediment at the Laili rock shelter in central-north Timor-Leste, north of Australia, to pinpoint the arrival of the colonists.

They detected a human “arrival signature” from about 44,000 years ago, suggesting there were no humans on the island prior to this time.

“Unlike other sites in the region, the Laili rock shelter preserved deep sediments dating between 59,000 and 54,000 years ago which showed no clear signs of human occupation,” Dr Shimona Kealy, from the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, said.

“When we analyse and compare markers of human occupation from other sites across Timor-Leste and nearby Flores Island, we can confidently say humans were also absent throughout the wider region of the southern Wallacean islands.

“This is significant as these islands were most likely a gateway crossing for ancient humans making the crossing to Australia.”

Study co-author Professor Sue O’Connor, also from ANU, said Timor Island has long been considered a stepping stone island for the first human migration between mainland Southeast Asia and into Australia and New Guinea. But the new findings challenge this theory.

“The absence of humans on Timor Island earlier than at least 50,000 years ago is significant as it indicates that these early humans arrived on the island later than previously believed,” she said.

“This provides further evidence to suggest early humans were making the crossing to Australia using the stepping stone island of New Guinea, rather than Timor Island as researchers had previously suggested.

“In addition to prompting a re-evaluation of the route and timing of earliest human migration through Wallacea and into Sahul, our findings highlight the fact that migration into the islands was ongoing with occupation of the southern islands occurring thousands of years after the initial settlement of Australia.”

The sediment from the site was analysed at the Flinders Microarchaeology Laboratory by co-author Associate Professor Mike Morley.

“The shift from pre-occupation to intensive human activity at the site was very clear in the sediments,” Associate Professor Morley, from Flinders University, said.

“As soon as people arrived on the scene, their use of the cave was very intensive, with clear evidence of burning and trampling of the shelter floor underfoot.”

The research team unearthed lots of small stone tools during the excavation, as well as charred fish bones.

“We know these people specialised in making tiny stone tools, but we’re not 100 per cent sure what they were used for,” Dr Kealy said.

“Because a lot of their diet was either shellfish or small animals, you don’t really need big knives to gather that sort of food. But having small, fine tools is useful for things like stripping leaves to then weave into baskets, but also for creating wooden tools.”

Based on the sheer number of artefacts unearthed at the site, the researchers say the migration to Timor Island was a “major” one. According to the researchers, these ancient humans likely made the crossing to Timor from nearby Flores Island and mainland Southeast Asia.

“The traditional view held by researchers is that early humans who were making these significant water crossings were stumbling upon these islands by mistake, largely because it was so long ago,” Dr Kealy said.

“Their arrival on Timor was no accident. This was a major colonisation effort, evident through the sheer number of people who were making the journey.

“It’s a testament to these peoples’ level of maritime technology and the boats they created, but also their confidence and competence in braving maritime crossings.”

The research is published in Nature Communications. This work was led by Dr Ceri Shipton from UCL and also involved scientists from Griffith University and the University of Wollongong. 

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

2,700-year-old leather saddle found in woman’s tomb in China is oldest on record

2,700-year-old leather saddle found in woman’s tomb in China is oldest on record

The leather horse saddle from the tomb at Yanghai in northwest China is dated to roughly between 700 and 400 B.C. and may be the oldest ever found.

Archaeologists have unearthed an elaborate leather horse saddle — possibly the oldest ever found — from a grave in northwestern China, according to a new study. 

The saddle, preserved for up to 2,700 years in the arid desert, was discovered in the tomb of a woman at a cemetery in Yanghai, in the Turpan Basin of China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The woman was dressed in a hide coat, woolen pants and short leather boots, and had a “leather saddle placed on her buttocks as if she was seated on it,” according to the study, published Tuesday (May 23) in the journal Archaeological Research in Asia.

The saddle — two cowhide cushions filled with a mixture of straw and deer and camel hair — was made between 724 and 396 B.C., according to radiocarbon dating. It may predate saddles known from the Scythians — nomadic, warlike horse riders from the western and central Eurasian Steppe who interacted with the ancient Greeks and Romans. The earliest Sythian saddles seem to date from between the fifth and the third centuries B.C. and have been found in the Altai Mountains region of Russian Siberia and in eastern Kazakhstan.

The graveyard near Yanghai is in the Turpan Basin region, in the east of the Tian Shan mountains, which was occupied by the Subeixi people from about 3,000 years ago. 

“This places the Yanghai saddle at the beginning of the history of saddle making,” study lead author Patrick Wertmann, an archaeologist at the University of Zurich, told Live Science.

The tombs at Yanghai are thought to be from people of the Subeixi culture, who occupied the Turpan Basin from about 3,000 years ago. The culture is named after another graveyard of tombs near the modern town of Subeixi, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Yanghai. 

Horse herds

2,700-year-old leather saddle found in woman's tomb in China is oldest on record
The archaeologists also examined a saddle from another Subeixi graveyard in the region, which is thought to have been made at about the same time.

Archaeologists now think horses were domesticated as herd animals up to 6,000 years ago. But the earliest evidence suggests they were kept for their milk and meat; horse-riding may not have started until up to 1,000 years later.

The first riders used mats secured to the backs of horses with straps; carvings show Assyrian cavalrymen with such horse-gear in the seventh century B.C.

Archaeologists don’t know exactly when true saddles were invented, but they likely were developed by horse-riders in Central Asia about the mid-first millennium B.C., which would make the Yanghai saddle among the oldest, Wertmann said. 

The development of saddles began “when riders began to care more about comfort and safety, and also the health of the horses,” he told Live Science in an email. “Saddles helped people to ride longer distances, hence leading to more interaction between different peoples.”

The early Scythian saddles and the Yanghai saddle both have distinct supports, which help riders maintain a firm position and raise themselves in the saddle, such as when shooting an arrow. The first saddles also had no stirrups, Wertmann said.

Female riders

The saddle was found in the tomb of a woman from the pastoralist Subeixi culture; it was positioned so that she seemed to be riding the saddle.

The Subeixi had similar weaponry, horse gear and garments to the Scythians and may have had contact with them in the Altai Mountains region, the study authors wrote. But while the Scythians were nomads, the Subeixi horse-riders were likely pastoralists who looked after herds of animals within the Turpan Basin.

University of Zurich biomolecular archaeologist Shevan Wilkin, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science that the extraordinary level of preservation of the Yanghai saddle suggests other, potentially older saddles, may be found nearby.

“Usually for something organic that’s this old, like leather, then we wouldn’t have any remnants of it, or very little,” she said.

The seated position of the buried woman on the saddle suggests she was a rider. “This really shifts our ideas about who was riding horses,” Wilkin said.

Birgit Bühler, an archaeologist at the University of Vienna, who also wasn’t involved with the study, told Live Science in an email that the discovery in an ordinary tomb is “strong evidence for women participating in the day-to-day activities of mounted pastoralists, which included herding and travelling.”

The find contradicts traditionalist historical narratives associating horse-riding with warfare by elite men, she said.

EUROPE, WORLD

1,000 years ago, Baltic pagans imported horses from Scandinavia to behead them or bury them alive

1,000 years ago, Baltic pagans imported horses from Scandinavia to behead them or bury them alive

1,000 years ago, Baltic pagans imported horses from Scandinavia to behead them or bury them alive
An illustration of a ritual sacrifice of a horse at Paprotki Kolonia, in what is now modern Poland.

Around 1,000 years ago, pagans living near the Baltic Sea imported horses from their newly Christian northern neighbors and then subjected the animals to gruesome public sacrifice, a new study finds

Horses were an important component of Balt culture between the first and 13th centuries, evidence shows; numerous ancient equestrian artifacts have been recovered, and travelers have reported that elite Balts drank fermented mare’s milk. Because the Balts were not literate prior to their conversion to Christianity, however, most information about their lives, including their pagan religion, comes from archaeological investigation.

In a new study published May 17 in the journal Science Advances, researchers detailed their biomolecular analysis of 80 sacrificed horses from nine archaeological sites in the eastern Baltic region — modern-day Poland, Lithuania and the Russian province of Kaliningrad sandwiched between them — and determined that both male and female horses were chosen for sacrifice and that some horses were imported from quite a distance.

A previous assumption within Baltic archaeology, according to the study, was that stallions were specifically selected for public sacrifice and that this ritual — which often involved decapitation, flaying, quartering the horses or burying them alive — was enacted at the funerals of elite male warriors in Balt culture. To test this, the team analyzed the DNA of the horses and found that roughly 66% were stallions and 34% were mares. 

“Our results suggest that the Balts were not exclusively selecting male horses for this ritual, as previously thought,” lead author Katherine French, a zooarchaeologist formerly at Cardiff University in the U.K. and now based at Washington State University, told Live Science in an email. 

An illustration of a sacrificial horse burial at Paprotki Kolonia.

Because horses were common in the Balts’ territory, researchers did not previously question whether the animals were sourced locally or from somewhere else.

But the new study did a strontium isotope analysis of the horses’ tooth enamel to identify the origin of the horses — and found that three were not born locally.

The strontium present in tooth crowns comes from the animals’ early diet; by measuring the ratio of two variants of strontium in one tooth or between teeth that grew at different times, researchers can match where the animal grew up or see where it moved when it was growing up.

“Results confirm that there is no possibility that the horses originated in the territory of the Baltic tribes and that the region of the highest likelihood for these horses is the Fennoscandian Peninsula, specifically east-central Sweden or southern Finland,” the researchers wrote. 

All three horses were carbon-dated to about the 11th to 13th centuries, a time when trade networks across the Baltic Sea, particularly with Sweden, were well established.

It was also a period when there was still pagan resistance within the kingdom of Sweden, which officially converted to Christianity in 1164. 

Katherine French examines a horse jaw to select a dental sample at the University of Białystok.

The fact that one nonlocal horse in Kaliningrad was buried with a Scandinavian-influenced artifact — a weight, possibly involved in trading — may suggest that its Balt owner was a pagan trader, the researchers wrote in the study. But it is also possible, they noted, that the imported horses arrived with their Scandinavian owners, who were buried in the Baltic style. 

“In either case,” the researchers wrote, “our results prove that horses were crossing the Baltic Sea on ships, a level of mobility not previously recognized archaeologically.”

Flint Dibble, a zooarchaeologist at Cardiff University in the U.K. who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email that the new research is both innovative and impactful, and demonstrates how scientific methods can be applied to study ancient animal populations.

“The impressive sample size — 80 individual horses — reveals the importance of applying these methods to a significant, localized dataset in order to tease out relevant archaeological patterns,” Dibble said, and “the long distance trade in horses in Northern Europe is now a topic that needs additional investigation.”

French plans to address this topic further with new research. “I’m currently working on a separate project looking at contemporary ship technology to determine how — and how many — horses could have been transported on Viking Age cargo ships.”

EUROPE, NETHERLANDS, WORLD

New Thoughts on the “Lead Lady” of the Netherlands

New Thoughts on the “Lead Lady” of the Netherlands

The remains of a rich Roman woman in a grave found during works in the centre of Nijmegen in 2001 could turn out belong to a menial worker, closer inspection by archeologists has shown.

The coffin being removed from its finding place in 2001.

The remains were buried in a lead coffin which led archeologists to believe that the occupant must have been a well-to-do Roman woman.

However, the “Lead Lady” as she was christened, may have been been far from rich, an investigation has found.

“It’s a warning to all archaeologists to do our job properly,” Nijmegen city archeologist Joep Hendriks told broadcaster NOS. “If you present a story based on a some superficial research you almost always have to amend it,” he said.

Closer inspection showed the coffin had been used before. “It was a used coffin that had been folded inside out. The ornamentation that is normally on the outside a coffin was on the inside, Hendriks said. “The coffin was also covered with a tile not a lead lid, which you would have expected in a nice complete sarcophagus burial.”

The coffin was also found to be too big for the woman, measuring two metres against her 160 centimetres. “Lead was expensive and coffins were usually made to measure so why waste money on an extra 20 or 30 centimetres? It doesn’t make economic sense,” Hendriks said.

The skeleton itself also disproves the initial theory. It shows degeneration of the dorsal vertebrae and signs of arthrosis. The state of her teeth may be an indication she used them as a tool. “You can tell that she used her teeth in repetitive actions, perhaps to process animal skins or plants. That would cause this type of wear,” Hendriks said.

How the women ended up in a recycled coffin is still a mystery although Hendriks thinks the person may have been a well-loved member of a rich Roman household. She may have been an ornatrix, or hairdresser to the woman of the house, he said.

“She would have been close to her mistress who you can imagine wanted to give her a decent burial,” Hendriks said, although he doesn’t want to jump to conclusions this time around.

“Other interpretations are possible, of course, such as a working woman who made good, or perhaps the mater familias of rich family after all. Even a second-hand lead coffin was a pretty big thing.”

DNA tests

DNA tests not available in 2001 may reveal more about the woman’s identity and where she grew up, Hendrik hopes.

“Nijmegen was a melting pot in Roman times. Nijmegen was founded by people from Gaul, soldiers from Spain and people from all corners of the Roman empire, from the Eastern Mediterranean to England. We would like to know where in this mixed society the Lead Lady belonged,” he said.

The coffin and other grave finds can be seen at the Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen.

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