New Dates Obtained for Modern Human Remains in China
Frontal view of the Liujiang cranial and postcranial elements.
Some of China’s oldest Homo sapiens remains are about 10 times younger than previously thought. Skeletal remains of a modern human discovered in 1958 were found in southern China’s Liujiang District.
It was previously thought that the remains were up to 227,000 years old. It is thought modern humans began their trek out of Africa about 300,000 years ago.
Location of Tongtianyan cave (Liujiang) in Guangxi Province, southern China, together with the location of other key fossils of Homo sapiens in China.
Now a re-analysis of the bones published in Nature Communications has revised the estimate age of the Chinese remains to between 33,000 and 23,000 years ago.
“These revised age estimates align with dates from other human fossils in northern China, suggesting a geographically widespread presence of H. sapiens across Eastern Asia after 40,000 years ago,” says co-author Michael Petraglia, a professor at Australia’s Griffith University.
The team’s reassessment is based on radiocarbon and other techniques: optically stimulated luminescence, which measures how long it has been since sediments have been exposed to sunlight, and U-series dating which is another radiometric technique which uses uranium isotopes instead of carbon.
“This finding holds significant implications for understanding human dispersals and adaptations in the region,” says lead author Junyi Ge from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “It challenges previous interpretations and provides insights into the occupation history of China.”
Debate continues as to when modern humans made it out of Africa, where we evolved about 300,000 years ago, to East Asia.
Fossil teeth found in southern China’s Fuyan Cave are suggested to be 80,000–120,000 years old. Other finds support the idea that Homo sapiens have been in China for at least 40,000 years.
It is believed that modern humans arrived in Australia about 65,000 years ago.
Besides Homo sapiens, however, other ancient humans made it to East Asia much earlier.
Remains found near Beijing belonging to a Homo erectus individual known as “Peking Man” are between 230,000 and 780,000 years old. Other hominin finds in China are nearly 2 million years old.
Comparison of American Languages Detects Waves of Migration
Indigenous Americans, illustrated here during a mammoth hunt, developed their diverse languages from 4 different population waves that came over from Siberia, a new study suggests.
Indigenous people entered North America at least four times between 12,000 and 24,000 years ago, bringing their languages with them, a new linguistic model indicates. The model correlates with archaeological, climatological and genetic data, supporting the idea that populations in early North America were dynamic and diverse.
Nearly half of the world’s language families are found in the Americas. Although many of them are now thought extinct, historical linguistics analysis can survey and compare living languages and trace them back in time to better understand the groups that first populated the continent.
In a study published March 30 in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology, Johanna Nichols, a historical linguist at the University of California Berkeley, analyzed structural features of 60 languages from across the U.S. and Canada, which revealed they come from two main language groups that entered North America in at least four distinct waves.
Nichols surveyed 16 features of these languages, including syllable structure, the gender of nouns and the way consonants are produced when speaking.
The languages split into two main groups: an early one where the first-person pronoun has an “n” sound while the second-person pronoun has an “m” sound, and a later group with languages that incorporate a sentence’s worth of information in just one word.
Further linguistic analysis indicated that people arrived in the Americas in four distinct waves.
The first occurred around 24,000 years ago, when massive glaciers covered much of North America. Nichols found no unique language features, suggesting a diverse set of people and languages entered North America at that time.
A second wave of people around 15,000 years ago brought languages with n-m pronouns, while a third wave 1,000 years later brought languages with simple consonants. A fourth wave around 12,000 years ago then brought complex consonants.
Until relatively recently, researchers assumed that Indigenous people first arrived in the Americas via a land bridge from Siberia around 13,000 years ago.
But Nichols’ previous study of the linguistic data convinced her that this was not enough time for the nearly 200 Indigenous American languages to develop: Instead, she proposed people first arrived closer to 35,000 years ago.
A growing body of archaeological, geological and climatological and genetic research has since pushed back the dates of the earliest American arrivals, with a new consensus that, sometime between 30,000 and 25,000 years ago, several waves of people made their way into the Americas.
Adding linguistic studies to this work means that “the four fields confirm each other,” Nichols said. “Now I think the interpretation is very solid.”
Andrew Cowell, a linguistic anthropologist at the University of Colorado Boulder who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email that Nichols’ study is interesting because “the language data reinforces growing recognition in other fields that North America was populated much earlier than was assumed for many decades.”
Cowell noted, however, that the study’s statistical analysis shows that two languages, “Yurok and Arapaho are classed quite differently, yet the two languages are known to be genetically related as part of the Algic language super-family.” (Yurok was spoken in far-Northern California, while Arapaho is spoken in Wyoming and Oklahoma.)
Additionally, languages can be heavily influenced by their neighbors, which can blur how they were originally related, Cowell said.
While this new study presents a model for how languages entered and evolved within North America, it does not speak to their origins, which are still unknown.
“It’s likely that the people who moved into North America left relatives in Asia,” Nichols said, “and possible that some of those languages survive and have remained in Siberia.”
But the limits of the linguistic comparative method mean that we may never know for sure, Nichols said.
This chultún is the first structure of its kind to have been found underneath the Tulum archaeological zone.
A pre-Columbian apparatus that could be of great use today — a system for catching rainwater — has been found in the archaeological zone of Tulum, Quintana Roo. However, this one apparently wasn’t used as a catchment, since it was found inside a cave.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced the discovery this week of a chultún, a bottle-shaped structure used in Maya culture.
This underground chultún is the latest archaeological find inside the cave which was discovered in December 2023. (INAH)
It is the only structure of its type that has been found “indoors” at the Tulum archaeological zone. Located inside a chamber of the cave tabbed Building 25, or Casa del Halach Uinic, the chultún measures 2.48 meters (8.1 feet) in diameter and 2.39 meters (7.8 feet) deep.
According to field manager Enrique Marín Vázquez, the structure “is made up of a layer of ground coral, 1 to 2 centimeters thick, which formed part of the soil surface, and underneath we found reddish clay.
Inside, fillings of medium-sized stones, thick layers of pure ash were found and, in the deepest part, we unearthed human bone remains and burned stones.”
Officials said the discovery could correspond to the first occupation of the site, prior to the Late Postclassic period in Mesoamerica (1250-1521).
The finding occurred during work being carried out by the Program for the Improvement of Archaeological Zones (Promeza).
It is the latest notable archaeological find inside the cave, which was blocked at its entrance by a large rock, on top of human remains, before it was uncovered in December 2023.
The cave has unearthed a trove of archaeological finds, such as the remains of 11 people believed to have been members of an upper class.
José Antonio Reyes Solís, the coordinator of the Promeza research project in Tulum, said two chultúns were previously found outside, and both functioned as catchments.
The latest find, he added, “shows a striking difference” from the other two: Not only was it found inside, but “it has no signs of having stored any liquid,” he said. “Rather, it is believed, it functioned as a storehouse for food and plants, and later, had a ritual use.”
The human remains found are in the process of being investigated, he added.
One theory is that they were three infants whose bodies were buried with other materials, such as deer antlers, shark teeth and shell earrings.
INAH is working on a virtual tour that will showcase the recent cave findings at the Tulum National Park.
Face of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman revealed by scientists
A picture shows the rebuilt skull and a physical reconstruction of the face and head, of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman, named Shanidar Z.
She looks pretty good for 75,000 years old.
Particularly given that her skull was smashed into 200 pieces, possibly by a rockfall, before it was meticulously pieced together by scientists over the last six years.
This is Shanidar Z, a Neanderthal woman whose face was recreated by archaeologists at England’s University of Cambridge. By reimagining her facial features, rather than just the skull itself, the university said a report published on its website Thursday, that experts have been given new insight into what our ancient cousins actually looked like.
Turns out they may have been more similar than we thought — both in terms of their facial features and their thoughts about death.
“The skulls of Neanderthals and humans look very different” to ours, Dr. Emma Pomeroy, a palaeo-anthropologist at Cambridge, said in the report. “Neanderthal skulls have huge brow ridges and lack chins, with a projecting midface that results in more prominent noses. But the recreated face suggests those differences were not so stark in life.”
Given the similarities with humans, “it’s perhaps easier to see how interbreeding occurred between our species,” she added, “to the extent that almost everyone alive today still has Neanderthal DNA.”
Neanderthals were a species of early human that evolved from the same common ancestor as Homo sapiens — modern humans — between 700,000 and 300,000 years ago, according to the Smithsonian. We lived side by side for a time before the Neanderthals died out around 40,000 years ago.
Shorter and stockier than us, they had large noses for humidifying and warming the cold air from the areas in which they lived. But their brains were just as large — if not larger when compared in relative size to their smaller bodies.
Associate Professor in the Evolution of Health, Diet and Disease, Dr Emma Pomeroy, poses for a photograph with the rebuilt skull and a physical reconstruction of the face and head, of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman.
Shanidar Z was discovered in 2018, one of 10 Neanderthals found in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan that’s become an iconic site for archeologists.
She is “perhaps the best preserved individual to be found this century,” the university said after her face was recreated as part of a documentary, “Secrets of the Neanderthals,” produced by the BBC and released Thursday on Netflix.
When her skull was flattened and contained 200 bone fragments, which “can be very soft, similar in consistency to a biscuit dunked in tea,” Pomeroy said.
The team used glue to strengthen the bones, before removing them in foil-wrapped blocks. Back at the lab, the team diluted the glue, made CT scans of each bone, and then began the painstaking process of piecing them back together freehand.
“It’s like a high stakes, 3D jigsaw puzzle,” Pomeroy added. “A single block can take over a fortnight to process.”
The rebuilt skull was scanned again and 3D printed so world-leading palaeoarchaeologists, identical twins Adrie and Alfons Kennis, could begin building up layers of muscle and skin to reveal the face itself. Only half of Shanidar Z was found. So, without her pelvis, the team had to use tooth enamel proteins to determine her sex.
The cave where she was discovered sits around 50 miles north of the Iraqi city of Erbil and has attained legendary status in the field after American archeologist Ralph Solecki discovered Neanderthal remains there in the 1950s.
The site features a huge vertical rock, which experts say may have been used as a landmark for this burial site — suggesting our relatives may have had a more significant understanding of death than previously thought.
“Neanderthals have had a bad press ever since the first ones were found over 150 years ago,” Cambridge Professor Graeme Barker, who leads the excavations at the cave, said as part of Thursday’s report.
“Our discoveries show that the Shanidar Neanderthals may have been thinking about death and its aftermath in ways not so very different from their closest evolutionary cousins — ourselves.”
A new chapter in the Hittite world is revealed by painted hieroglyphs discovered in the Hattusa Yerkapı tunnel
The painted hieroglyphs discovered in 2022 in the Yerkapı Tunnel in Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites, one of the first civilizations of Anatolia, were introduced at a conference held at the Culture and Promotion Consultancy of Turkey’s Embassy in Rome.
Professor Andreas Schachner said that the painted hieroglyphs discovered in the Yerkapı tunnel in Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire, opened a new page in the Hittite world.
Turkish, German, and Italian experts who took part in the excavations gave information to those concerned about the features of the red hieroglyphs found in the 80-meter-long Yerkapı Tunnel in Hattusa in August 2022 and their work on them.
The conference was attended by Prof. Dr. Andreas Schachner from the German Archaeological Institute, Head of the Hattusa Excavation, and many participants.
In his speech, Schachner said that the discovery of the hieroglyphs in the Yerkapı Tunnel was thanks to Associate Professor Bülent Genç, Lecturer at Mardin Artuklu University Archaeology Department.
Prof. Dr. Schachner told AA correspondent after the conference that they are trying to introduce the discovery of Anatolian hieroglyphs found during excavations in Boğazköy in 2020-2023.
Stating that this is a joint work product of Türkiye, Germany and Italy, Schachner said, “The fact that the hieroglyphs are painted opens a new page in the Hittite world.
Because we had not seen these painted hieroglyphs until now. There was something in a small area, but the discovery of 250 such hieroglyphs opened a completely different world for us.”
Schachner stated that with this discovery, they also saw that there were different aspects in the use of writing in the Hittites and said: “Until now, we have been working mostly from Hittite cuneiform texts, but we see that there is also a writing system in public areas.
It is also a unique Anatolian writing system. We call it Anatolian Hieroglyphics. Thus, we see that these two systems run in parallel. This is a great innovation that allows us to understand the Hittite world.”
Stating that his work in Hattusa continues, Schachner said, “We have almost understood what is written in the inscriptions.
Now we will investigate what it means for the city in a little more detail, we will try to learn this. Of course, there is also the work of publishing it in a systematic way. But in other aspects, excavations in Hattusa continue every year. There is always the possibility of new discoveries.”
Assoc. Prof. Metin Alparslan from Istanbul University pointed out that there are not many examples of applying Anatolian hieroglyphs on stone with paint and said, “Until now, we had an example around Sivas in a very small area. Now this example shows us that we need to pay more attention to the stones.
Most probably there were such signs on the stones of the walls that are now exposed. But they have not survived until today. We will pay special attention to this in the next excavations and carry out our work accordingly.”
Archaeology team discovers a 7,000-year-old settlement in Serbia
Results of the geophysical survey of the previously unknown site of Jarkovac (Serbia). The settlement, whose surface material points to both the Vinča culture and the Banat culture (5400-4400 BCE), has a surface area of up to 13 ha and is surrounded by four to six ditches. The deep black angular anomalies indicate a large number of burnt houses.
Together with cooperation partners from the Museum of Vojvodina in Novi Sad (Serbia), the National Museum Zrenjanin and the National Museum Pančevo, a team from the ROOTS Cluster of Excellence has discovered a previously unknown Late Neolithic settlement near the Tamiš River in Northeast Serbia.
“This discovery is of outstanding importance, as hardly any larger Late Neolithic settlements are known in the Serbian Banat region,” says team leader Professor Dr. Martin Furholt from the Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University.
Geophysics reveals a 13-hectare settlement structure
The newly discovered settlement is located near the modern village of Jarkovac in the province of Vojvodina. With the help of geophysical methods, the team was able to fully map its extent in March of this year. It covers an area of 11 to 13 hectares and is surrounded by four to six ditches.
“A settlement of this size is spectacular. The geophysical data also gives us a clear idea of the structure of the site 7,000 years ago,” says ROOTS doctoral student and co-team leader Fynn Wilkes.
Parallel to the geophysical investigations, the German-Serbian research team also systematically surveyed the surfaces of the surrounding area for artifacts. This surface material indicates that the settlement represents a residential site of the Vinča culture, which is dated to between 5400 and 4400 BCE.
However, there are also strong influences from the regional Banat culture. “This is also remarkable, as only a few settlements with material from the Banat culture are known from what is now Serbia,” explains Wilkes.
A wheel model from the site of Szilvás (Hungary), which can be assigned to the Vučedol culture (3000/2900–2500/2400 BCE).
Investigation of circular enclosures in Hungary
During the same two-week research campaign, the team from the Cluster of Excellence also investigated several Late Neolithic circular features in Hungary together with partners from the Janus Pannonius Museum in Pécs.
These so-called “rondels” are attributed to the Lengyel culture (5000/4900–4500/4400 BCE). The researchers also used both geophysical technologies and systematic walking surveys of the surrounding area.
Thanks to the combination of both methods, the researchers were able to differentiate the eras represented at the individual sites more clearly than before.
“This enabled us to re-evaluate some of the already known sites in Hungary. For example, sites that were previously categorized as Late Neolithic circular ditches turned out to be much younger structures,” explains co-team leader Kata Furholt from the Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University.
New insights into the distribution of wealth and knowledge in the Neolithic period
Map of the sites that were surveyed as part of the 2024 spring campaign.
The highlights of the short but intensive fieldwork in Hungary included the re-evaluation of a settlement previously dated to the Late Neolithic period, which is very likely to belong to the Late Copper Age and Early Bronze Age Vučedol culture (3000/2900–2500/2400 BCE), as well as the complete documentation of a Late Neolithic circular ditch in the village of Vokány.
“Southeast Europe is a very important region in order to answer the question how knowledge and technologies spread in early periods of human history and how this was related to social inequalities. This is where new technologies and knowledge, such as metalworking, first appeared in Europe.
With the newly discovered and reclassified sites, we are collecting important data for a better understanding of social inequality and knowledge transfer,” says Professor Martin Furholt.
The results are being incorporated into the interdisciplinary project Inequality of Wealth and Knowledge of the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, which is focusing on these issues. The analyses are still ongoing.
Archaeology specialists from the APSARA National Authority (ANA) are meticulously identifying the dozens of fragments and identifying them. ANA
Specialists from the APSARA National Authority (ANA) found more than they bargained for during a recent excavation, with more than 100 pieces of sandstone sculptures uncovered.
The ANA’s Department of Preservation and Archaeology was conducting the removal of built-up soil from south of the laterite stone wall of Ta Prohm Temple’s third enclosure, while cataloguing each of the stone fragments they discovered.
Ta Prohm is one of the most well-known of the Kingdom’s ancient temples, with the unique combination of soaring trees growing from the crumbling, yet still majestic stones lending an air of romantic exploration.
It is sometimes referred to as the “Tomb Raider Temple”, thanks to the fame it enjoyed as a location for Angelina Jolie’s 2001 eponymous film.
As the soil removal progressed, an unexpected number of significant pieces of ornate carvings were unearthed, some of them buried in as little as 10 to 15 centimetres of soil.
According to ANA archaeologist Neth Simon, the team recognised the importance of their finds, and immediately sought permission to expand the dig site.
One of the APASARA National Authority (ANA) team notes the precise measurements and features of one of the newly discovered national treasures. ANA
With the approval of the ANA leadership, more serious excavations were undertaken, leading to a treasure trove of rare pieces. Many of the statues are up to 50cm in height, and almost complete. A total of over 100 pieces have been identified, and are currently being measured, weighed and assessed.
According to Simon, some of the sculptures include seated and standing Buddhas, along with Nagas, the spiritual snake-like guardian of ancient Khmer legend.
She explained that although unconfirmed, many of the ANA’s experts have speculated that the statues were carved in the Bayon style, dating from the late 12th or early 13th century.
A close up image shows the detail one of the fragmented statues discovered near the Ta Prohm Temple. ANA
Long Kosal, ANA spokesperson, noted that there are many places in the park where fragments of ancient statues have been found. The pieces remain as clues to the daily lives of people from ancient times.
“We don’t know what remains under the earth in this area. This is why it is necessary to preserve the location,” he said.
As the work continues, one thing is certain. The ancient structures of Siem Reap province’s Angkor Archaeological Park will continue to surprise the modern inhabitants of this ancient land.
Archaeologists unearth Greek helmet which may rewrite history of ancient tribal people
Archaeologists unearth Greek helmet which may rewrite history of ancient tribal people
Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient Greek helmet from burial mounds in southern Croatia, shedding new light on the history of the Illyrians, a tribal people from the eastern Adriatic and the Balkans.
Near the village of Zakotorac on the Peljesac peninsula, approximately 70 kilometres northwest of Dubrovnik, a team of archaeologists, led by Hrvoje Potrebica from the University of Zagreb, uncovered various artefacts, including lavish jewellery and a Greco-Illyrian helmet.
The helmet is the second of its kind found in the area, following a similar discovery in 2020. Both items date back to the 5th or 6th century BC, a period when historians believe local Illyrian communities flourished.
Although little is known about Illyrian culture or language, they are known to have lived in tribes. The tribe inhabiting the Peljesac area of modern-day southern Croatia is believed to have thrived due to their control over strategically significant maritime trade routes around the peninsula.
How do the Greco-Illyrian helmets help rewrite history?
Greek-Illyrian helmet dating from 5th century BC
Despite being discovered in burial mounds, the helmets were not part of burial rituals. Experts speculate that they were deposited much later, possibly as votive gifts in a religious or ceremonial context.
“They were both found as separate objects, laid in a way which indicates that this was some kind of a cult practice,” explains archaeologist Hrvoje Potrebica from the University of Zagreb.
“These were votive gifts left to pay respect to deities or people buried here. We don’t think that they are related to any specific person buried here because the site contains remains of dozens of individuals.”
Numerous burial mounds have been discovered in recent years in the area and on nearby islands. While most remain unexamined, the recent findings from sites at Zakotorac and nearby Nakovana suggest these locations may have held special spiritual significance to 5th-century Illyrians from the region.
Roman conquest and its impact
Illyrian tribes, that lived along the eastern Adriatic since at least second millennium BC, were eventually brutally defeated by the invading Romans in the latter years of the 1st century BC.
Their cultural sites and settlements seem to have been deserted approximately 500 years after the time of the helmets.
Various pieces of jewellery found at Zakotorac
Various pieces of jewellery found at Zakotorac
Local historian Ivan Pamic states, “These mounds were likely robbed, probably by the Romans, who arrived here in the last decades of the 1st century BC. At the time Octavian, the future Roman emperor, led military expeditions against Illyrians on the eastern Adriatic.”
Other artefacts discovered include pins, jewellery pieces, buckles, glass beads, and fibulas (ancient brooches used for fastening clothes).
Challenging traditional colonial perspectives
Archeologists excavating by hand at near the village of Zakotorac
At the time, Greek city-states founded thriving colonies throughout the Mediterranean, some of the most important ones in the Adriatic were on the modern-day Croatian islands of Vis, Hvar, and Korcula – just across the narrow Peljesac channel from mainland Illyrians.
The findings appear to show just how wealthy local elites had been at the time.
“The wealth of this community, which lived here, which can be seen in many artefacts found in burial cairns, most likely came about because of trade and the control of trade routes passing from the southeast towards the northwest and on towards the interior of the Balkans,” says Domagoj Perkic, archeologist and curator at Dubrovnik Archeological Museum.
The findings may also help change the dominant perspective about the history of this part of the Mediterranean, which is traditionally told through Greek or Roman sources.
“In the past, we had no access to this data, we only had to rely on ancient sources and our knowledge of the Greeks, so we viewed these communities via the colonial lens, through the eyes of those who arrived here,” adds Potrebica.
