ASIA, WORLD

Traces of 3,600-Year-Old Settlement Found in Qatar’s Desert

Traces of 3,600-Year-Old Settlement Found in Qatar’s Desert

Scholars looking for underground water sources on the Eastern Arabian Peninsula for a project funded by the United States Agency for Aid and International Development have accidentally uncovered the outlines of a settlement that appears to be over 3600 years old.   Asymmetrical  2 x 3 kilometre, landscaped area—or trace outlines of a settlement  (and one of the largest potential settlements uncovered in the area) was identified using advanced radar satellite images in an area of Qatar where there was previously thought to be little evidence of sedentary, ancient civilizations. Their new study, published in the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, counters the narrative that this peninsula was entirely nomadic and evidence mapped from space indicates that the population appears to have had a sophisticated understanding of how to use groundwater. The research also points to the critical need to study water and safeguard against climate fluctuations in arid areas.

DRONE SHOT OF SURVEY OF SETTLEMENT AREA IN THE EASTERN ARABIAN PENINSULA

“Makhfia,” the name attributed to the settlement by researchers at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (and which refers to an invisible location in the local Arabic language), was discovered using L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar images from the Japanese Satellite ALOS 1 and specially acquired, high-resolution radar images by its successor, ALOS 2. While the settlement was not visible from space using normal satellite imaging tools nor through surface observation on the earth—the large, underground rectangular plot, it was determined, had to be manmade due to its shape, texture and soil composition which were in sharp contrast to surrounding geological features. 

Independent carbon dating of retrieved charcoal samples suggests that the site is at least 3650 years old, dating back potentially to the same era of the Dilmun civilization.

Lead author, Essam Heggy, of the USC Arid Climate and Water Research Center, describes the site as akin to a “natural fortress surrounded by very rough terrain,” almost making the area inaccessible.

This discovery has significant historic and scientific implications.  Historically, this may be the first piece of evidence of a sedentary community in the area—and perhaps evidence of advanced engineering for the time period.  While we cannot see the remains of a monument or walls of a settlement, the proof is in the soil.  The properties of the soil at the site have a different surface texture and composition than the terrain surrounding it—a disparity typically associated with planting and landscaping.

A settlement of this size in this particular area, which is far from the coastline where most ancient civilizations were located, is unusual, says Heggy.

“With this area now averaging about 110 degrees Fahrenheit in summer months, this is like finding evidence of very green ranch in the middle of Death Valley, California dating back thousands of years ago.”

Further, the site yields new insights on the poorly understood climatic fluctuations that occurred in the region, and how these changes may have impacted human settlement and mobility.

Most critically, the scholars believe that this settlement must have been in place for an extended period due to its development of agriculture and reliance on groundwater, a fact which speaks to the civilization’s advanced engineering prowess given Qatar’s complex aquifers and harsh terrain.

The researchers believe that a population with sufficient knowledge to leverage such unpredictable groundwater resources— inaccessible by digging through hard limestone and dolomite—would have certainly been ahead of its time in mitigating droughts within harsh, inland environments. There is strong evidence that this settlement’s inhabitants relied on deep groundwater sapping, a method by which one accesses water from deeper aquifers through fractures in the ground, in order to use this water for crop irrigation and to support daily life.

This presence of this settlement is now enabling researchers to piece together the most recent paleoclimatic changes that took place on the Eastern Arabian Peninsula.

The bleak side of this, says Heggy, is that we do not fully know who this culture was and why they disappeared. However, based on the presence of charcoal found on the site, Heggy and his colleagues suggest that fire could be one of several plausible explanations for its demise.

This evidence calls for increased study of this area by archaeologists, says Heggy.

The work also has some implications for how we study and address climate fluctuations today.

“Deserts cover about 10 per cent of our planet. We might think today that they were always inhabitable, but this discovery (along with others in the area) shows that this might not have been always the case,” says Heggy who is a research scientist at the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering at USC.

His concern is that the increase in climate fluctuations in arid areas can worsen food insecurity, migration, and degradation of water resources.

Why should people care about the ruins of this ancient settlement? To Heggy, this culture’s ability to mitigate climatic fluctuations could be our story.

“This story is very important today. In arid areas, we have widespread disbelief in climate research. Many think climate change is something in the future or far away in the ‘geologic’ past. This site shows that it has always been here and that our recent ancestors have made its mitigation a key to their survival,” he says.

Heggy remains hopeful.  He says the forthcoming NASA Earth Observation missions focused on desert research will bring new subsurface mapping capabilities and will provide unique insights on deserts’ paleoclimatic evolution as well as a human presence in desert areas during climate fluctuations.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Hominin Bone-in Israel Dated to 1.5 Million Years Ago

Hominin Bone in Israel Dated to 1.5 Million Years Ago

Archaeologists have discovered the earliest evidence of ancient man in Israel, a 1.5 million-year-old vertebra found at the prehistoric site of ‘Ubeidiya in the Jordan Valley. The international team of researchers say this adds growing ammunition to the theory that human dispersal out of Africa happened in successive waves, rather than a single event. 

A vertebra unearthed at ‘Ubeidiya is the oldest evidence of humans in Israel. Image credit: Dr Omry Barzilai, Israel Antiquities Authority

The research is published today in Scientific Reports.

‘Ubeidiya is one of the oldest archaeological sites outside of Africa, with a rich record of finds including stone artefacts and the bones of extinct creatures such as sabre-toothed tigers and mammoths. 

The site has been under investigation since the 1960s, but this latest work, funded by a grant from the US National Science Foundation, sought to use new dating methods to refine age estimates for these ancient human traces and to better understand the ecology and climate of the site as it was millions of years ago.

Who did the ‘Ubeidiya vertebra belong to? 

Hominin Bone in Israel Dated to 1.5 Million Years Ago
The vertebra was found at ‘Ubeidiya, of a young boy, 6-12 years old. Image credit: Dr. Alon Barash, Bar-Ilan University

The vertebra the team analysed likely belonged to a young male, 6-12 years old, who was particularly tall for his age.

“Had this child reached adulthood, he would have reached a height of over 180cm,” says Ella Been, a palaeoanthropologist at Ono Academic College, Israel, and an expert in spinal evolution. 

Been says that makes the ‘Ubeidiya boy similar in size to other particularly tall ancient hominins found in East Africa, and this differs markedly from some of the other oldest human remains outside Africa, like the relatively diminutive people who lived at Dmanisi in Georgia some 1.8 million years ago.

What does this find tell us about our human story?

Human evolution research may seem to be an endless conveyor belt of new “oldest” and “earliest”, but that’s kind of the point: the more small pieces of the human puzzle we uncover, the more we learn about the epic story of our evolution and dispersal around the globe.

The prevailing scientific wisdom is that our ancestors evolved in Africa some six million years ago, and began to spread around the globe roughly two million years ago, according to the Out of Africa theory. But the routes are taken, the timing of the dispersal, and whether this dispersal was one singular event or a series of events, are all still up for debate.

“Due to the difference in size and shape of the vertebra from ‘Ubeidiya and those found in the Republic of Georgia, we now have unambiguous evidence of the presence of [at least] two distinct dispersal waves,” says study lead-author Alon Barash, of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

And the authors say that the humans who lived at Dmanisi and ‘Ubeidiya were technologically different, producing markedly different stone tools: the Dmanisi hominins were making Oldowan-style stone tools (some of the earliest stone-tool types found in Africa), while the ‘Ubeidiya hominins were making stone tools like those found in Acheulean assemblages, involving more complex types of tools.

The researchers think their discovery cements the evidence that successive waves of differently evolved hominins moved out of Africa at different times, and in response to different pressures.

“One of the main questions regarding the human dispersal from Africa were the ecological conditions that may have facilitated the dispersal,” explains Miriam Belmaker, study co-author from the University of Tulsa, US. “Previous theories debated whether early humans preferred an African savanna or new, more humid woodland habitat. 

“Our new finding of different human species in Dmanisi and ‘Ubeidiya is consistent with our finding that climates also differed between the two sites,” Belmaker says. According to the study findings, ‘Ubeidiya is more humid and compatible with a Mediterranean climate, while Dmanisi is drier with savannah habitat. 

This, according to Belmaker and team, is further evidence that we’re dealing with two different hominins.

“It seems, then, that in the period known as the Early Pleistocene, we can identify at least two species of early humans outside of Africa,” says Barash. “Each wave of migration was that of different kinds of humans – in appearance and form, technique and tradition of manufacturing stone tools, and ecological niche in which they lived.”

EUROPE, SWEDEN, WORLD

800-Year-Old Shipwreck Found Off Swedish Coast

800-Year-Old Shipwreck Found Off Swedish Coast

A previously undiscovered wreck has been found outside of Fjällbacka on the Swedish west coast. Analysis of wood samples shows that it is the oldest shipwreck ever found in the province of Bohuslän. This is also one of the oldest cogs that have yet to be found in Europe.

“The wreck is made from oaks cut between 1233 and 1240, so nearly 800 years ago,” says Staffan von Arbin, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Gothenburg.

This wreck from the Middle Ages was found by the island of Dyngö outside of Fjällbacka in the Swedish municipality of Tanum. This last autumn, the University of Gothenburg conducted archaeological diving inspections along the coast of Bohuslän to find out more about known wrecks on the seafloor.

“We collected wood samples to determine the age by dating the tree rings—known as dendrochronology,” says Staffan von Arbin.

It was during this work that the maritime archaeologists came upon the wreck outside of Fjällbacka which has been given the name “Dyngökoggen.” This limited survey of the wreck shows that it is a cog, a type of ship that was widely used from around the 12th century onward.”

The bottom planking is flush-laid (carvel), while the side planks are overlapping (clinker). Seams between planks are also sealed with moss, which is typical for cogs.

The surviving hull section is about 10 meters long and 5 meters wide. Staffan von Arbin believes, however, that originally the ship would have been up to 20 meters long.

A cog ship on the town seal of Stralsund dated to 1329. Even if the depiction is nearly 100 years later than the Dyngö cog ship, it provides a good idea of what cogs may have looked like.
Maritime archaeologist Anders Gutehall from Visuell Arkeologi Norden inspects the bottom at Dyngö.

Was the ship attacked by pirates?

Analysis of the wood samples shows the ship was built of oaks from north-western Germany. How did it end up outside of Fjällbacka?

“Cogs are mentioned often in written sources about the medieval Hanseatic League, but ships of this type were common throughout the Middle Ages in northern Europe.” Staffan von Arbin argues that the find also points to the importance of Bohuslän as a transit route for international maritime trade during this period.

This is also one of the oldest cogs that have yet to be found in Europe.

It is not yet known why the ship sank but that would likely be an exciting story. The survey of the ship clearly shows indications of an intense fire.

“Perhaps the ship was attacked by pirates? Written sources tell us that Norway’s southern coast, including Bohuslän, had periods with intense pirate activity during the Middle Ages.”

But it might also have been a simple accident, perhaps a fire spread while the ship was docked. Or the ship was sunk in battle? The first decades of the 12th century were a turbulent time in Norway, which Bohuslän was a part of, with intense internal struggles for the Norwegian crown.

What happens now?

There are currently no plans for more surveys of the wreck. However, they hope to conduct new dives of the wreck in the future.

But this requires both a permit from the county administrative board and extensive external funding that is currently unavailable. The results and observations by the marine archaeologists are currently being analyzed for a larger scholarly article.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

13th-Century Tiled Floor Unearthed at Friary Site in England

13th-Century Tiled Floor Unearthed at Friary Site in England

Archaeologists at a city dig site have uncovered a medieval tiled floor dating back to around the 13th Century. The discovery was made in Gloucestershire at the location of the new £107m development, The Forum.

13th-Century Tiled Floor Unearthed at Friary Site in England
The medieval floor was found two meters below ground level

The floor, made of glazed white and green tiles, belonged to the cloister of the city’s medieval Whitefriars Carmelite Friary and was unearthed by the Cotswold Archaeology team.

Archaeologist Anthony Beechey described the find as “extra special”.

Mr Beechey explained that the “beautiful tiled floor is in remarkably good condition”.

“Most of our Whitefriars findings are fragments of the original structure while this floor is largely intact, making the discovery extra special” and the excavation process “endlessly fascinating”, he added.

‘Best-preserved finding’

Andrew Armstrong, the city archaeologist at Gloucester City Council, said: “It is thrilling to see yet more evidence of Whitefriars emerge and this is the best-preserved finding to date.”

He added: “The friary played an active role in the city for 300 years and yet, until these excavations started, very little was known about it.”

Whitefriars’ exact location in Gloucester was the subject of speculation for decades until the archaeological investigations began, following the demolition of the former multi-storey carpark on Bruton Way in early 2020.

The Forum is being developed into a new social and digital quarter by the council and Reef Group.

Councillor Richard Cook said the findings are shining “a light on Gloucester’s historic heritage”.

In September 2021, a 1,800-year-old figurine was uncovered by Cotswold Archaeology close to the area of the site currently being excavated.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Father discovered a medieval English gold coin worth a record $875,000 on the first day he tried out his new metal detector

Father discovered a medieval English gold coin worth a record $875,000 on the first day he tried out his new metal detector

When his children were born, Michael Leigh-Mallory gave up his passion for metal detecting. Now, 10 and 13, they encouraged him to take up the hobby again. On the first day he used his new metal detector, he found the oldest gold coin in England, dating back to the 13th century.

“The day after it arrived, I went out into this field. It was a bright, sunny day, and within 15 minutes, I found the coin. I knew it was gold, but I had no idea how important it was,” Leigh-Mallory told The Guardian.

The 52-year old ecologist and amateur historian had dug up the rare gold penny as it glistened in a field in Devon, South West England, and was advised to take it to the British Museum.

Father discovered a medieval English gold coin worth a record $875,000 on the first day he tried out his new metal detector
The gold coin was found by the father of two, dates back to the thirteen century. Spink auction house

It was discovered to be one of only eight in existence, and the last one was found 260 years ago, according to The Metro.

The coin, made from North African gold, was minted in the reign of Henry III, who was the English king between 1217-72.

Father discovered a medieval English gold coin worth a record $875,000 on the first day he tried out his new metal detector
Father discovered a medieval English gold coin worth a record $875,000 on the first day he tried out his new metal detector

Not only did it bring immense joy to Leigh-Mallory and his family, but also a record-breaking hammer price of £540,000 – with extra fees taking the total £648,000 ($878,778) – when the coin was sold at Spink and Sons auctioneers in London, last week.

Spink told Insider that the sale price made it the most valuable coin ever sold in the UK. A private collector bought it, say reports.

The gold coin was found by the father of two, which dates back to the 13th century. Spink auction house

“It is quite surreal, really,” Leigh-Mallory told the paper. “I’m just a normal guy who lives in Devon with his family, so this really is a life-changing sum of money which will go towards their futures.”

In a statement to Insider, Leigh-Mallory said that he is “humbled and honoured to be linked with the discovery and subsequent history afforded to us by the staggering research undertaken by Spink and the wider academic community about this coin.”

He will split the profits of the find with the landowner. “The money will be put towards my children’s future, who show the same passion for our history as me. In fact, I really owe it to them for having found the coin in the first place, as they were my inspiration to go out prospecting,” Leigh-Mallory added.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Archaeologists discover new mystery human species in Israel

Archaeologists discover new mystery human species in Israel

Researchers working in Israel have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human that lived alongside our species more than 100,000 years ago. They believe the remains uncovered near the city of Ramla represent one of the “last survivors” of a very ancient human group.

The skull fragment and jawbone found near Ramla in Israel

The finds consist of a partial skull and jaw from an individual who lived between 140,000 and 120,000 years ago.

Details have been published in the journal Science.

The team members think the individual descended from an earlier species that may have spread out of the region hundreds of thousands of years ago and given rise to Neanderthals in Europe and their equivalents in Asia.

The scientists have named the newly discovered lineage the “Nesher Ramla Homo type”.

Dr Hila May of Tel Aviv University said the discovery reshaped the story of human evolution, particularly our picture of how the Neanderthals emerged. The general picture of Neanderthal evolution had in the past been linked closely with Europe.

“It all started in Israel. We suggest that a local group was the source population,” she told BBC News. “During interglacial periods, waves of humans, the Nesher Ramla people, migrated from the Middle East to Europe.”

The human finds were uncovered during the excavation of a sinkhole. Thousands of stone tools and animal remains were also found

The team thinks that early members of the Nesher Ramla Homo group were already present in the Near East some 400,000 years ago. The researchers have noticed resemblances between the new finds and ancient “pre-Neanderthal” groups in Europe.

“This is the first time we could connect the dots between different specimens found in the Levant,” said Dr Rachel Sarig, also from Tel Aviv University.

“There are several human fossils from the caves of Qesem, Zuttiyeh and Tabun that date back to that time that we could not attribute to any specific known group of humans. But comparing their shapes to those of the newly uncovered specimen from Nesher Ramla justify their inclusion within the [new human] group.”

Dr May suggests that these humans were the ancestors of Neanderthals.

“The European Neanderthal actually began here in the Levant and migrated to Europe, while interbreeding with other groups of humans.”

Others travelled east to India and China, said Prof Israel Hershkovitz, suggesting a connection between East Asian archaic humans and Neanderthals in Europe.

“Some fossils found in East Asia manifest Neanderthal-like features as the Nesher Ramla do,” he said.

One of the stone tools used by the Nesher Ramla humans. It was produced with the same techniques used by modern humans at the time

The researchers base their claims on similarities in features between the Israeli fossils and those found in Europe and Asia, though their assertion is controversial. Prof Chris Stringer, from the Natural History Museum in London, UK, has recently been assessing Chinese human remains.

“Nesher Ramla is important in confirming yet further that different species co-existed alongside each other in the region at the time and now we have the same story in western Asia,” he said.

“However, I think it’s a jump too far at the moment to link some of the older Israeli fossils to Neanderthals. I’m also puzzled at suggestions of any special link between the Nesher Ramla material and fossils in China.”

The Nesher Ramla remains themselves were found in what used to be a sinkhole, located in an area frequented by prehistoric humans. This may have been an area where they hunted for wild cattle, horses and deer, as indicated by thousands of stone tools and bones of hunted animals.

According to an analysis by Dr Yossi Zaidner at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, these tools were constructed in the same manner that modern humans of the time also made their implements.

“It was a surprise that archaic humans were using tools normally associated with Homo sapiens. This suggests that there were interactions between the two groups,” Dr Zaidner said.

“We think that it is only possible to learn how to make the tools through visual or oral learning. Our findings suggest that human evolution is far from simple and involved many dispersals, contacts and interactions between different species of human.”

WORLD

The world’s smallest elephants led unusually long lives

The world’s smallest elephants led unusually long lives

Ancient elephants that would have been born the size of a puppy lived for decades more than previously thought. Researchers studying an ancient miniature elephant that lived on Mediterranean islands found it could have lived for over 68 years, which is unusually long for a mammal of its size. The smallest-ever elephant took a leisurely approach to grow up, with a drawn-out development lasting up to 15 years.

The world's smallest elephants led unusually long lives
Palaeoloxodon Falconeri was a species of dwarf elephant that shrunk after adapting to life in Malta and Sicily.

Though it was barely a metre tall, a team of European scientists found that Palaeoloxodon Falconeri grew much more slowly than its modern relatives, with modern African bush elephants entering adulthood four years earlier than their extinct relative despite being much bigger. Their findings contradict previous studies which suggest P. Falconeri would only have lived for 26 years, suggesting that the species would have lived for at least seven decades, and perhaps even longer.

Professor Meike Köhler, the paper’s lead author, says, ‘Traditionally this species had been considered to have a rapid development, reaching sexual maturity early and having a short life. Our work reveals that the life history of this elephant was much slower.

‘Organisms that grow at slower rates have fewer errors in biosynthesis which leads to an extended lifespan.’

Dr Victoria Herridge, who researches fossil elephants at the Museum and co-wrote the paper, says, ‘It’s hard to know why these elephants grew so slowly. There is an idea that the islands had limited resources and predators, so on the one hand food is scarce, but on the other, there is very low mortality.

‘This would allow for a slower investment in growth over a longer period of time, but without paying the price that smaller individuals pay on the mainland, such as a death in the jaws of a predator. However, the reasoning behind that is still debated.

‘There’s a lot we don’t know about this species, but its slower growth shifts our thinking a little bit on how these elephants evolved.’

The findings, led by the Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Paleontology, was published in Scientific Reports.

Scientists used fossilised bones (left) and teeth (interior shown right) to deduce the life history of Palaeoloxodon Falconeri.

Bigger is better

It’s been known for some time that when it comes to mammals and birds, larger animals live longer. While some shrews live for little more than a year, mammals at the other end of the weight spectrum can live for centuries. The bowhead whale, which can grow up 18 metres long or about the length of a bowling alley, has been estimated to live over for over 200 years. Some bowheads have lived so long that they still contain Victorian harpoons used to try and kill them over a century ago. While the relationship between size and lifespan generally holds true across mammals and birds, lifestyle can have an impact. For instance, flying animals generally live longer than their ground-dwelling relatives, with small bats living for much longer than rats and shrews of a similar size.

However, there are a few notable exceptions. Naked mole-rats can live for around 30 years, while humans have used technological innovations and medicine to allow us to live for longer too. Previously, it had been thought that the miniature elephants fitted well with the overall pattern. After diverging from the largest elephant to ever live, the straight-tusked elephant, it was thought that P. Falconeri would have shortened its lifespan as it dwarfed over the millennia it was isolated on what is now the island of Sicily.

‘Palaeoloxodon Falconeri is the smallest elephant ever to have existed, living on both Malta and Sicily,’ says Victoria. ‘At the time, we don’t know if the area was one large island or an archipelago in the Mediterranean.

‘They are really remarkable animals. They were around a metre tall, which is about the same size as a newborn African elephant but they were adults. As babies, they would only have been the size of a puppy.’

While little is known about the species’ life, it is assumed to have grown smaller through a process of miniaturisation which is common to many island species due to a lack of resources, predators and competitor species. Looking at the overall trend in life history for mammals, it was estimated that an elephant of this size would live for at least 26 years. The new study analysed the growth of teeth, bones and tusks from Spingallo Cave, near Siracusa in southeast Sicily, to provide a more accurate estimate, which shows the species is an exception to the rule.

Professor Antonietta Rossa, from the University of Catania, Sicily, where the fossils are housed and coauthor of the study, says, ‘Spinagallo Cave is outstanding for the number of remains. This abundance of bones provides enough material for analyzing specimens of different ages and growth stages.’

Even the largest bull (left) of Palaeoloxodon Falconeri was significantly smaller than a human, while cows (right) and calves (centre) were smaller.

Good things come to those who wait

The researchers found that across the different types of remains studied, P. Falconeri grew very slow. Though elephants are generally already slow-growing, this species was even more so. While most species grow rapidly as an infant before slowing down after reaching adulthood, the Sicilian elephants grew at a fairly constant rate throughout their entire lives. Even the oldest specimens grew only two millimetres a year more slowly than the youngest, while the difference for African bush elephants is around a centimetre a year. However, this slow growth was compensated for by a much longer developmental period, with some bones not showing signs of adulthood even by the age of 22. The age of sexual maturity was similarly delayed, with all evidence pointing towards 15 years in P. Falconeri, compared with 12 years in living African elephants.

‘Given the later age of sexual maturity, their gestation period may also have been longer or similar to large African elephants,’ says Victoria. ‘And of course, those newborns would also take a long time to grow up, leading to long generation times.’

Researchers have suggested that this long period of development could have resulted from a lack of predators in Sicily. This would allow the elephant to grow more slowly as there was little danger of infants being hunted.

As it was less likely to die, this meant that there was less evolutionary pressure for P. Falconeri to grow up fast and reproduce. As a result, selection pressures instead drove it to grow slowly, allowing more time for learning and development over decades rather than years. However, this slow development would have put it at a disadvantage when it came to sudden changes. Longer development means that evolution acts more slowly, requiring many generations to make significant changes.

‘By taking the inferred age of sexual maturity we can see their gestation period may have been similar to large African elephants,’ Victoria says. 

‘Even though it’s a lot smaller than a full-sized elephant, it’s behaving like a very large animal in terms of its generation time which makes it more vulnerable to extinction. 

‘Island populations are already vulnerable to extinction because they are often unique and not very numerous so it all adds up.’

The period in which P. Falconeri lived was one of dramatic environmental and climatic change, with Sicily undergoing changes in tectonic activity and sea level. This could have put even more pressure on the elephant’s limited resources and may have led to its extinction around 400,000 years ago.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Woolly mammoth and rhino among Ice Age animals discovered in Devon cave

Woolly mammoth and rhino among Ice Age animals discovered in Devon cave

The remains of Ice Age animals including mammoths, woolly rhinoceros and hyenas have been uncovered in a cave near Plymouth. The finds offer a glimpse of an ancient ecosystem from over 30,000 years ago and have started a campaign to prevent the cave from being sealed off once more.

Woolly mammoth and rhino among Ice Age animals discovered in Devon cave
Bones from Ice Age animals, such as the jaw of a woolly rhinoceros, were found during excavations and are now being studied.

Some of the earliest residents of a new town in Devon are not quite what you’d expect. The bones of mammoths, woolly rhinoceros and hyena are among the remains discovered in a cave during the construction of new houses in Sherford, near Plymouth. They date to the middle of the last Ice Age between 60,000 and 30,000 years ago. Rob Bourn, the lead archaeologist on the project, described the find as a major discovery of national significance,’ adding it was a once in a lifetime experience for those involved.’

He said, ‘To find such an array of artefacts untouched for so long is a rare and special occurrence. Equally rare is the presence of complete or semi-complete individual animals. We look forward to reaching the stage where the discoveries can be shared and displayed so that everyone can find out more about our distant past.’

The Ice Age remains are expected to go on display locally at The Box, a newly opened museum in Plymouth, amid debate over what should happen to the site of their discovery.

The woolly mammoth evolved around 800,000 years ago, before dying out around 4,000 years ago.

What is an Ice Age?

An Ice Age is any period of Earth’s history when the planet has a large number of ice covers, such as polar ice caps and glaciers. There have been five Ice Ages in Earth’s history, with the first taking place over two billion years ago. This has been followed by others such as the Cryogenian Ice Age when it is thought that ice sheets could have reached as far as the Equator.

What we tend to refer to as the Ice Age is simply the last glacial period. Ice sheets covered much of northern Europe until the current interglacial began around 11,700 years ago.

Dr Victoria Herridge, an expert in fossil elephants at the Museum who was not involved with the discovery, says, ‘The Sherford Ice Age fossils are from the middle of last major cold period, known as the Devensian. During this time, ice sheets covered much of Wales and northern England but did not reach as far south as in some earlier glaciations.

‘At this time, Devon then would have been a bitterly cold and dry place to be, even in summer. However, it was also a huge open grassland, capable of supporting vast herds of cold-tolerant animals like the woolly mammoth, the woolly rhino and reindeer, as well as the big carnivores like hyena and wolf that preyed upon them.’

The conclusion of this Ice Age also spelled the end for many of these animals, with climate change and the activity of early humans both suggested as potential causes. This had a significant impact on the planet, with dramatic changes in ecosystems resulting from the extinction of large herbivores.

Archaeological work at Sherford has previously uncovered Bronze Age remains at the site.

What was found in Sherford, and what happens now?

The Sherford finds include an almost complete wolf skeleton, as well as the tusk and bones of a woolly mammoth and part of the skull of a woolly rhinoceros. Even though the bones have been found together, it doesn’t necessarily mean the animals all lived at the same time. One suggestion is that the animals fell into a pit over thousands of years, while another is that the bones may have been washed into the cave or moved by predators.

Victoria says, ‘As our most recent geological period, the Ice Age fossil record is very rich in what are known as ‘superficial’ geological deposits – the gravels and sands deposited by ancient glacial streams. This means that Ice Age fossils turn up pretty frequently during construction projects or as a result of quarrying for gravel and sand.

‘The Museum has a huge number of Ice Age fossil mammals in its collections that were discovered during construction projects that shaped modern London. These include finds from the construction of the London Underground, while the tooth of a straight-tusked elephant was found during the construction of the Museum itself.

While the Sherford remains are set to go on display at The Box, the future of the site they were discovered in is being debated. A petition has been launched by Tara Beacroft, conservation officer for caving organisation the Devon and Cornwall Underground Council, to prevent the cave from being sealed.

Speaking to BBC News, she said that the site should be preserved for future generations and researchers as a ‘unique presence’ for the new town.

‘Let’s keep pushing so that we can continue the scientific research,’ Tara said. ‘We can find out more about the site’s potential ecology, we can find out more about the past climate and explore this incredible historical time capsule.’

However, The Sherford Consortium, which is developing the new town, said that it intends to seal the entrance, adding that the public should not attempt to visit the site.

In a press release, the developers said, ‘The underground space will be conserved, and no construction will take place on top of it. However, the entrance will be closed to both protect the historic site and ensure public welfare. It is not, nor will it be, possible for the public to safely access the area in which the discoveries have been made.’

While the debate continues, scientists will continue to research the remains found in the cave and add to our knowledge of the UK in the last Ice Age. Victoria says, ‘Every new discovery if excavated properly, has the potential to advance our understanding of what this past world was like.

‘This is vital knowledge. Scientists are still unravelling what role climate and humans played in the extinction of the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhino – and what we can learn from that to protect species threatened by both today.’

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