WORLD

Lost ‘Woolly Dog’ Genetics Highlight Indigenous Science

Lost ‘Woolly Dog’ Genetics Highlight Indigenous Science

“Woolly dogs” that were kept by the Coast Salish peoples are now extinct, but researchers were able to see their importance written in the genome of the only known pelt.

Full-body forensic reconstruction of a woolly dog based on a 160-year-old pelt in the Smithsonian’s collection as well as archaeological remains. The reconstructed woolly dog stands against a stylized background of a Coast Salish weaving motif from a historic dog-wool blanket. The portrayal of the weaving motif was designed under advisement of the study’s Coast Salish advisory group.

For millennia before Europeans colonized what is now called the Pacific Northwest, small, fluffy, white “woolly dogs,” known as sqwemá:y in one language of the Coast Salish peoples,  roamed the coast.

The animals were unlike any dog living today. Their hair was so luxurious that Coast Salish individuals used it to make functionally and ceremonially important blankets.

Only one known woolly dog pelt exists today. By analyzing its genes, scientists have now shown just how different these shaggy creatures were from the Yorkshire terriers and Newfoundland dogs that gallivant around modern neighborhoods.

The woolly dog “wasn’t a dog as we know it,” says Debra qwasen Sparrow, a master weaver of the Musqueam First Nation. “And DNA has proved that.”

Sparrow is a co-author of new research published December 14 in Science that analyzes the fur of a woolly dog named Mutton, which is currently kept by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Mutton died in 1859, around the time when the tradition of tending woolly dogs was crumbling in the face of the Coast Salish peoples’ forced assimilation and decimation by European diseases.

By the early 20th century, the animals had disappeared.

For part of the research, Sparrow shared recollections from her grandfather, who saw some of the last of the sqwemá:y as a young child.

“My grandfather would tease a little bit and say it was kind of like they were our sheep,” Sparrow says. “We would herd them—they stayed in packs; we didn’t want them integrating with the other wild animals.”

The 160-year-old pelt of the woolly dog Mutton in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

The Coast Salish peoples often combined the dogs’ woolly undercoat with mountain goat hair and plant fiber to form a thick yarn that weavers then used to craft patterned blankets.

They used the blankets in ceremonies and to stay warm, making the sqwemá:y a central part of society. “The relationship to those little dogs was a gift,” Sparrow says.

And the attention with which Coast Salish peoples tended to these animals is inscribed in Mutton’s genome, says Audrey Lin, a paleogeneticist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the new research.

“Dog breeds are inbred in order to maintain a very specific phenotype,” Lin says. “There were signatures of that in his genome, which reinforced what we know culturally—that these dogs were kept by the Coast Salish and very carefully maintained for a very long period of time.”

The scientists’ analyses confirmed that Mutton’s lineage goes back about 4,800 years, Lin says. Although Mutton himself seems to have had a great-grandparent that was a European dog breed, the rest of his genome is distinct and includes several mutations affecting skin and hair that could help produce spinnable fur.

“These gene variants, we didn’t see them in any other dogs that we had looked at,” Lin says. Intriguingly, some of these genes cause hair-related diseases or “woolly” hair in humans.

Mutton’s distinctive heritage, retained even as Europeans were encroaching on the Pacific Northwest, is particularly striking. “It just shows how devastating colonialism is,” Lin says. “This ancient tradition of keeping woolly dogs for possibly up to 5,000 years was just gone within a couple of generations.”

With the sqwemá:y now extinct, the Coast Salish relationship with them has become a mere memory. “Settler colonialism has impacted every human and nonhuman being and the relationships between those human and nonhuman beings,” says Kelsey Dayle John, a social scientist at the University of Arizona, who focuses on Indigenous studies and was not involved in the new research.

Sparrow hopes to renew that relationship, looking to create the first traditional blanket in more than a century. Without the sqwemá:y, she’ll have to find another dog whose hair she can spin. She’ll also need to retrace her ancestors’ steps in harvesting mountain goat hair and stripping stinging nettles, which will form the core of her yarn.

After spinning the mixture together, she’ll dye it with diatomaceous earth, a crumbly sedimentary rock made of fossilized algae that keeps insects away.

Sparrow says she also needs to build a new loom to weave the final blanket that can accommodate a yarn that behaves so differently from her usual wool.

“It’s leading me back to that place of wanting to get as close as I can to the originals,” Sparrow says of seeing science dig into the sqwemá:y and their importance to Coast Salish peoples. “What I want society to understand is the intelligence behind these women who were scientifically putting blankets together.”

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Rare Byzantine Gold Coin Discovered In Norway – Was It Brought By Harald Hardrada From Constantinople

Rare Byzantine Gold Coin Discovered In Norway – Was It Brought By Harald Hardrada From Constantinople

A metal detectorist found a rare gold coin in the mountains in Vestre Slidre municipality depicting two emperors and Jesus Christ.

Archaeologists are now trying to determine how this 1,000-year-old Byzantine gold coin ended up in the Norwegian mountains. Could it have been part of the great treasure that Harald Hardrada brought home from Constantinople?

Window with a portrait of Harald Hardrada, Lerwick Town Hall, Shetland.

The coin was introduced in Byzantium around 960 A.D. and is unique in the Norwegian context.

According to May-Tove Smiseth, the county archaeologist for Innlandet County in Eastern Norway, the coin is the only one of its kind in Norway.

On one side of the coin, we “can see Christ holding the Bible, and on the other side, it is probably the emperors Basil II (left) and Constantine VIII (right) we see depicted. The two were brothers and ruled together,” Innlandet County Municipality wrote in a press release.

Presumably, the coin was minted early in the 11th century. The exact date is difficult to determine, but the dotted border suggests that it was late in Basil’s and Constantine’s reign, Smiseth explains.

The coin also bears two inscriptions. In Latin, it says Jesus Christ, King of those who rule, and in Greek, it reads Basil and Constantine, emperors of the Romans.

The treasure of Harald Hardrada

In some way or another, the coin found its way to Valdres in Norway.

Perhaps it was originally part of the treasures Harald Hardrada amassed after serving in the Varangian Guard for the Byzantine emperor in 1034? The Varangian Guard consisted of Scandinavian mercenaries who served as bodyguards and were known as being fearless and strong,” Science in Norway reports.

Rare Byzantine Gold Coin Discovered In Norway – Was It Brought By Harald Hardrada From Constantinople
On one side of the coin, the emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII are probably depicted.

During his stay in Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey), Harald Hardrada was part of the Varangian Guard and served the Emperor. In older Byzantine sources, Hardrada is referred to as Araltes. At that time, it was customary for the guards to be given the right to loot the palace and take all the valuables they could find when the emperor died. During Hardrada’s time in Byzantium, three emperors had died.

From Harald Hardrada’s Saga by Wilhelm Wetlesen (1871-1925), from Snorre Sturluson: Heimskringla, 1899 edition.

The treasures he acquired during his time as part of the Emperor’s guard in Constantinople, he sent to Prince Yaroslav in Kyiv. The treasures Harald collected were partly used as a dowry so that he could marry Ellisiv, one of the daughters of Prince Jaroslav of Kyiv.

Incidentally, Basil II, who is depicted on the coin, was Ellisiv’s great-uncle.

The sagas also tell us that Harald and his men returned home to Norway with immense wealth in 1046, with ships laden with gold and other valuables.

Harald Hardrada accepted Magnus the Good as co-king of Norway in 1046, as Basil II and Constantine VIII were depicted as co-regents on the coin.

On the other side of the coin we see Christ holding the Bible.

Smiseth explained “three Byzantine gold coins have been found in Sweden, none in Denmark, while 15 have been found in Norway—most of them from various treasure finds made in the 19th century. This includes the recent find in Valdres.

“It’s reasonable to believe that this coin could be from the treasures that Harald Hardrada brought with him. He received a lot of gold in payment from the three emperors in Byzantium who ruled while he was there,” Smiseth says.

“Harald acquired a lot of power by using the gold he returned with to build alliances.”

Scientists will examine the site where the coin was found in 2024. Maybe, archaeologists can unearth something more valuable that can shed more light on the history of the Byzantine gold coin.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Ancient Expensive Roman Domus With Beautiful Mosaic Unearthed In Rome

Ancient Expensive Roman Domus With Beautiful Mosaic Unearthed In Rome

Archaeologists working within the Colosseum Archaeological Park’s research project, have unearthed some rooms of a luxurious domus dated to the late Republican age.

Ancient Expensive Roman Domus With Beautiful Mosaic Unearthed In Rome

The discovery was made in close vicinity of the Horrea Agrippiana warehouse complex along the Vicus Tuscus (commercial road that connected the river port on the Tiber and the Roman Forum) built by Augustus’ son-in-law, Marco Vipsanio Agrippa.)

The domus is spread over several floors, probably divided into terraces, and characterized by at least three building phases dating back to the second half of the 2nd century BC and the end of the 1st century BC.

Distributed around an atrium/garden, the domus presents, as its main environment (the specus aestivus) a banquet hall that imitates a cave, used during the summer season and originally animated by spectacular games of water thanks to the passage of some lead fistulas (pipes) between the decorated walls.

An extraordinary wall decorated with the so-called “rustic” mosaic, characterized by the complexity of the scenes depicted and chronology, makes this discovery unique, researchers say in a press release.

The mosaic – dated to the last decades of the 2nd century BC – is made up of different types of shells, Egyptian blue tiles, precious glass, minute flakes of white marble or other types of stone, tartars (fragments of spongy travertine), and all this is bound by mortar and warps. The mosaic presents a complex sequence of figurative scenes.

In the four aedicules, defined by pilasters and decorated with vases from which shoots of lotus and vine leaves emerge, stacks of weapons are depicted with Celtic-type trumpets (carnyx), prows of ships with tridents, rudders with triremes which allude, perhaps , to a double triumph, land and naval, of the owner of the domus.

The large lunette above also presents a fascinating depiction of a landscape with, in the centre, a city, with a cliff simulated with travertine tartars, overlooking the sea crossed by three large ships, one of which with raised sails; a city wall with small towers surrounds the city equipped with porticoes, gates, and a large public building; on one side a pastoral scene.

The representation of a coastal city could allude to a war conquest by the owner of the domus, belonging to an aristocratic figure, presumably of senatorial rank, according to researchers. In an adjoining reception room, however, the careful restoration work has brought to light a white stucco covering with landscapes within fake architecture and figures of the highest quality.

“The discovery of a new domus with an environment decorated with a truly extraordinary mosaic represents an important result which demonstrates, once again, how much the Colosseum Archaeological Park and the Ministry of Culture are constantly committed to promoting research, knowledge, protection and enhancement of our extraordinary cultural heritage.

The discovery then has an important scientific value which makes the domus even more relevant.

After the reopening of the Domus Tiberiana and the improvement of the accessibility of the Flavian Amphitheater, with the inauguration of the elevator which now reaches the third level, the heart of Romanity has therefore revealed an authentic treasure, which it will be our responsibility to safeguard and make accessible to the public”, according the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano.

The archaeological excavation will end in the first months of 2024 and then, this specacular ancient structure will be prepared to finally welcome the public.

NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

North America’s First People May Have Arrived By Sea Ice Highway 24,000 Years Ago

North America’s First People May Have Arrived By Sea Ice Highway 24,000 Years Ago

One of the hottest debates in archaeology is about how and when humans first arrived in North America. Archaeologists have traditionally argued that people walked through an ice-free corridor that briefly opened between ice sheets an estimated 13,000 years ago.

North America’s First People May Have Arrived By Sea Ice Highway 24,000 Years Ago

But a growing number of archaeological and genetic finds—including human footprints in New Mexico dated to around 23,000 years old—suggests that people made their way onto the continent much earlier. These early Americans likely traveled along the Pacific coastline from Beringia, the land bridge between Asia and North America that emerged during the last glacial maximum when ice sheets bound up large amounts of water causing sea levels to fall.

Now, in research to be presented Friday, 15 December at the American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting (AGU23) in San Franciso, paleoclimate reconstructions of the Pacific Northwest hint that sea ice may have been one way for people to move farther south.

The idea that early Americans may have traveled along the Pacific Coast isn’t new. People were likely south of the massive ice sheets that once covered much of the continent at least 16,000 years ago.

Given that the ice-free corridor wouldn’t be open for thousands of years before these early arrivals, scientists instead proposed that people may have moved along a “kelp highway.” This theory holds that early Americans slowly traveled down into North America in boats, following the bountiful goods found in coastal waters.

Archaeologists have found evidence of coastal settlements in western Canada dating from as early as 14,000 years ago. But in 2020, researchers noted that freshwater from melting glaciers at the time may have created a strong current that would make it difficult for people to travel along the coast.

Ice highway over dangerous water

To get a fuller picture of ocean conditions during these crucial windows of human migration, Summer Praetorius of the US Geological Survey and her colleagues looked at climate proxies in ocean sediment from the coast. Most of the data came from tiny, fossilized plankton. The abundance and chemistry of these organisms help reconstruct ocean temperatures, salinity, and sea ice cover.

Praetorious’ presentation is part of a session on the climate history and geology of Beringia and the North Pacific during the Pleistocene, the current ice age, at AGU23.

The week-long conference has brought 24,000 experts from across the spectrum of Earth and space sciences to San Francisco this year and connected 3,000 online attendees.

Praetorious’ team used climate models and found that ocean currents were more than twice the strength they are today during the height of the last glacial maximum around 20,000 years ago due to glacial winds and lower sea levels. While not impossible to paddle against, these conditions would have made traveling by boat very difficult, Praetorius said.

However, the records also showed that much of the area was home to winter sea ice until around 15,000 years ago. As a cold-adapted people, “rather than having to paddle against this horrible glacial current, maybe they were using the sea ice as a platform,” Praetorius said.

Arctic people today travel along sea ice on dog sleds and snowmobiles. Early Americans may also have used the ‘sea ice highway’ to get around and hunt marine mammals, slowly making their way into North America in the process, Praetorius said. The climate data suggest conditions along the coastal route may have been conducive to migration between 24,500 and 22,000 years ago and 16,400–14,800 years ago, possibly aided by the presence of winter sea ice.

While proving that people were using sea ice to travel will be tricky, given most of the archaeological sites are underwater, the theory provides a new framework for understanding how humans may have arrived in North America without a land bridge or easy ocean travel.

And the sea ice highway isn’t mutually exclusive with other human migrations further down the line, says Praetorius. The team’s models show the Alaskan current had calmed down by 14,000 years ago, making it easier for people to travel by boat along the coast.

“Nothing is off the table,” she said. “We will always be surprised by ancient human ingenuity.”

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

Bronze Age Axes Discovered in Poland

Bronze Age Axes Discovered in Poland

A metal detectorist in Poland has found five Bronze Age axes buried in a forest. Archaeologists suggest that the artifacts may have been used to either chop wood or for cult purposes.

Bronze Age Axes Discovered in Poland
One of the five axes with semicircular blades found in a forest in Poland.

Denis Konkol was exploring a heavily wooded area in Kociewie, a region in northern Poland, when his metal detector started beeping. After digging about 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters) into the soil, he unearthed the metal tools, according to the Miami Herald.

Officials from the Starogard Forest District announced the “sensational discovery” on Nov. 27 in a translated Facebook post.

Archaeologists analyzed the five axes and estimated that they’re about 3,500 years old, according to a translated article on Science in Poland, a Polish news site.

“These items were quite rare in these lands,” Igor Strzok, the Pomeranian provincial conservator of monuments, told Science in Poland.

Archaeologists also found a 2,000-year-old fibula (a small brooch or pin), which was used to fasten clothing.

Piotr Klimaszewski, head of the Department of Archaeological Monuments, described the items as “Tautušiai type axes” — a tool with a slender neck and semi-circular blade that’s linked to Tautušiai, a village in Lithuania.

The tools were likely used for “chopping wood, cutting or fighting,” officials wrote in the Facebook post.

However, it’s possible that the axes may have been used as part of a “cult practice” or “sacrifice,” Klimaszewski added. But more than likely they were “probably a deposit related to trade,” he told Science in Poland.

In addition to the tools, archaeologists found a 2,000-year-old fibula (a small brooch — not to be confused with the leg bone of the same name) — which was used to fasten clothing, according to the Miami Herald.

Researchers aren’t sure how the artifacts wound up in the forest, adding that further research is required to fully understand their history. But the team added that they “were genuinely amazed at how great condition [the axes] have been preserved.”

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Organic Material Blend Said to Strengthen China’s Great Wall

Organic Material Blend Said to Strengthen China’s Great Wall

A close-up image of “biocrusts” growing on the Great Wall of China. (Image credit: Bo Xiao)

Large swaths of the Great Wall of China are held together thanks to “biocrusts,” thin layers of organic materials that have helped protect the architectural marvel from erosion.

Scientists made the discovery while analyzing segments of the Great Wall of China, which spans more than 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometers) and was built over the course of many centuries, beginning in 221 B.C., as a way to protect the country’s empires from the outside world.

During construction, ancient workers often used rammed earth, which included a mix of organic materials like soil and gravel that are compacted together, to build the massive wall.

While these materials may be more susceptible to erosion than other materials, such as solid stones, they often help promote the growth of “biocrusts.” 

Organic Material Blend Said to Strengthen China’s Great Wall
Sections of the Great Wall of China are strengthened due to being built with organic materials. (Image credit: Bo Xiao)

This living stucco is made up of cyanobacteria (microorganisms that are capable of photosynthesis), mosses and lichens that help reinforce the construction, especially in arid and semi-arid parts of the country, according to a study published Friday (Dec. 8) in the journal Science Advances. 

“Ancient builders knew which materials could make the structure more stable,” study co-author Bo Xiao, a professor of soil science in the College of Land Science and Technology at China Agricultural University in Beijing, told Live Science in an email. 

“To enhance the mechanical strength, the rammed earth of the wall was always constructed with clay, sand and other adhesive[s] like lime by the original builders,” he said. These ingredients provide fertile ground for the organisms that build “biocrusts.” 

To test the strength and integrity of the Great Wall, researchers collected samples at eight different sections built between 1368 B.C. and 1644 B.C. during the Ming Dynasty.

They found that 67% of the samples contained “biocrusts,” which Xiao called “ecosystem engineers.” Using portable mechanical instruments, both on site and back at the laboratory, they measured the samples’ mechanical strength and soil stability and compared that data to wall segments containing only bare rammed earth, according to a statement.

They found that the “biocrust” samples were sometimes three times stronger than the plain rammed earth samples. Samples containing moss were particularly hearty, according to the study.

This is because the cyanobacteria and other life forms within the biocrust secreted substances, such as polymers, that would “tightly bind” together with the rammed earth particles, helping to “strengthen their structural stability” by creating what was essentially cement, Xiao said.

“These cementitious substances, biological filaments and soil aggregates within the biocrust layer finally form a cohesive network with strong mechanical strength and stability against external erosion,” Xiao said.

ASIA, WORLD

World’s Oldest Known ‘True’ Saddle Discovered In East Asia

World’s Oldest Known ‘True’ Saddle Discovered In East Asia

Archaeologists have used radiocarbon dating to analyze the oldest true wooden frame saddle in East Asia, revealing how advances likely aided the rise of Mongolian steppe cultures in equestrian technology.

A saddle built from a wooden frame is sturdy on horseback, facilitating the addition of stirrups. As such, it is able to carry more weight and provides the rider with greater control, allowing for different kinds of mounted combat.

World’s Oldest Known ‘True’ Saddle Discovered In East Asia

“Despite their ubiquitous presence within modern equestrian activities, saddles and stirrups were not used during the early centuries of horse-back riding,” state the authors.

“Their development revolutionized mounted warfare and contributed to far-ranging social change across Eurasia but the origins of this technology remains poorly understood.”

To trace the beginnings of this revolution, a team of archaeologists from institutions in Asia, Europe and North America studied the saddle, which was found in a human and horse burial at the cave of Urd Ulaan Uneet in western Mongolia. Their results are published in the journal Antiquity.

Calibrated radiocarbon dates place the saddle between AD 267–535, making it the oldest example of a true frame saddle from East Asia.

Additionally, further analysis of the materials that make up the saddle found that they were sourced nearby. The leather is from a domestic horse, which were bred in the area, and the wood from local birch trees.

This suggests that the horse cultures of the eastern Eurasian steppe not only used this new riding technology, but were also instrumental in its development and manufacture. Other finds from Mongolia dating to around the same time period include early metal stirrups.

Importantly, the period to which the saddle dates corresponds to the rise of the Rouran Khaganate, a powerful Proto-Mongolic “imperial confederation” that conquered much of Inner Asia.

New saddle technology that facilitated mounted combat likely aided this success.

The Khaganate took control of Inner Asia through military victories, so its rise may not have been possible without this advanced saddle technology. As such, this particular find could have dramatic implications for our understanding of East and Central Asian history.

“These new improvements to equestrian combat may have contributed to the formation of early steppe polities,” state the authors. “Our findings raise the compelling possibility that the rise of the Rouran was aided by technological supremacy linked to the early use of frame saddles and metal stirrups.”

The study was published in the journal Antiquity

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Statue Heads Of Dionysus And Aphrodite Discovered In The Ancient City Of Aizanoi

Statue Heads Of Dionysus And Aphrodite Discovered In The Ancient City Of Aizanoi

Statue heads of ancient Greek deities have been unearthed several times in the ancient city of Aizanoi, Turkey. Now, archaeologists report they have found even more heads.

The research team found the heads of the goddesses of love and beauty, Aphrodite, and the deity of wine, Dionysus, in Kutahya province.

Statue Heads Of Dionysus And Aphrodite Discovered In The Ancient City Of Aizanoi

Situated 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Kutahya, the ancient city of Aizanoi has a history that can be traced back to about 5,000 years.

Aizanoi had its golden age in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD and became the center of episcopacy in Byzantine times.

The city has a temple built for Zeus, the best-preserved temple in Anatolia. There is also a large theater and a stadium adjacent to the theater.

Archaeological excavations are underway in Aizano, and we can expect many interesting discoveries to be made in this ancient city eventually.

Archaeology professor and excavation team leader Gokhan Coskun told Anadolu that numerous statue pieces were discovered during the excavation.

“The most exciting development for us this season is uncovering new heads of the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, and the deity of wine, Dionysus,” Coskun said.

“In the excavation works we have conducted in the region so far, we have unearthed more than 100 statue pieces. Some of the heads found are from statues that are 2-3 meters long,” he noted.

“These statue heads, which we first discovered three years ago, are in very well-preserved condition. During our excavations, so far we have discovered two Aphrodite and three Dionysus statue heads,” Coskun said.

Zeus temple in the ancient city of Aizanoi.

As Coşkun previously explained,” the heads of the statues give information about the faith system in the Roman period.

We know that the ancient Greek gods Aphrodite and Dionysus existed with different names in the Roman period as well.

These are important findings for us as they show that the polytheistic culture of ancient Greece existed for a long time without losing its importance in the Roman period. The findings suggest that there may be a sculpture workshop in the region.”

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