CANADA, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

The 14,000-year-old ice age village discovered is 10,000 years older than the pyramids

The 14,000-year-old ice age village discovered is 10,000 years older than the pyramids

The 14,000-year-old ice age village discovered is 10,000 years older than the pyramids

In their oral history, the Heiltsuk people describe how the area around Triquet Island, on the western coast of their territory in British Columbia, remained open land during the ice age.

“People flocked there for survival because everywhere else was being covered by ice, and all the ocean was freezing and all of the food resources were dwindling,” says Heiltsuk Nation member William Housty.

And late last year, archaeologists excavating an ancient Heiltsuk village on Triquet Island uncovered the physical evidence: a few flakes of charcoal from a long-ago hearth.

Analysis of the carbon fragments indicates that the village site — deserted since a smallpox epidemic in the 1800s — was inhabited as many as 14,000 years ago, making it three times as old as the pyramids at Giza, and one of the oldest settlements in North America.

“There are several sites that date to around the same time as the very early date that we obtained for Triquet Island, so what this is suggesting is that people have been here for tens of thousands of years,” says Alisha Gauvreau, a scholar at the Hakai Institute and a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria, who has been working at the Triquet Island site.

But how was it that Triquet Island remained uncovered, even during the ice age? According to Gauvreau, sea levels in the area remained stable over time, due to a phenomenon called sea level hinge.

“So all the rest of the landmass was covered in ice,” she explains. “As those ice sheets started to recede — and we had some major shifts in sea levels coastwide, so further to the north and to the south in the magnitude of 150 to 200 meters of difference, whereas here it remained exactly the same.”

The result, Gauvreau says, is that people were able to return to Triquet Island repeatedly over time. And while nearby sites also show evidence of ancient inhabitants, people “were definitely sticking around Triquet Island longer than anywhere else,” she says. In addition to finding bits of charcoal at the site, she says archaeologists have uncovered tools like obsidian blades, atlatls and spear throwers, fishhook fragments and hand drills for starting fires.

“And I could go on, but basically, all of these things, coupled with the fallen assemblage, tell us that the earliest people were making relatively simple stone tools at first, perhaps expediently, due to the parent material that was available at the time,” Gauvreau says.

The site also indicates that these early people were also using boats to hunt sea mammals, and gather shellfish, she adds. And later on, they traded or travelled great distances to obtain nonlocal materials like obsidian, greenstone, and graphite for tools.

For archaeologists and anthropologists, the find bolsters an idea, called the “Kelp Highway Hypothesis” hypothesis, proposing that the first people who arrived in North America followed the coastline in boats to avoid the glacial landscape.

“It certainly adds evidence to the fact that people were able to travel by boat in that coastal area by watercraft,” Gauvreau says.

And for the Heiltsuk Nation, which has worked with the archaeologists for years to share knowledge and identify sites like Triquet Island, the updated archaeological record provides new evidence, as well.

The nation routinely negotiates with the Canadian government on matters of territory governance and natural resource management — negotiations that depend in part on the community’s record of inhabiting the area over long periods.

Archaeologists at the site are unearthing tools for lighting fires, fish hooks and spears dating back to the Ice Age

“So when we’re at the table with our oral history, it’s like me telling you a story,” Housty says. “And you have to believe me without seeing any evidence.”

But now, he explains, with the oral history and archaeological evidence “dovetailing together, telling a really powerful tale,” the Heiltsuk have new advantages at the negotiating table.

“That’s really going to be very significant … and I think will definitely give us a leg up in negotiations, for sure,” he says.

RUSSIA, WORLD

3,000-Year-Old “Charioteer” Skeleton With Special Belt Discovered In Siberia

3,000-Year-Old “Charioteer” Skeleton With Special Belt Discovered In Siberia

3,000-Year-Old "Charioteer" Skeleton With Special Belt Discovered In Siberia
The burial includes a distinctive hooked piece of bronze, probably once fixed to a belt around the waist, which is for drivers of horse-drawn chariots to tie the reins and free their hands.

Archaeologists in Siberia have discovered the untouched 3,000-year-old grave of a person thought to be a charioteer — indicating for the first time that horse-drawn chariots were used in the region.

The skeletal remains were interred with a distinctive hooked metal attachment for a belt, which allowed drivers of horse-drawn chariots to tie their reins to their waists and free their hands. This type of artifact has also been found in Chinese and Mongolian graves.

Aleksey Timoshchenko, an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Live Science in an email that the object was found in its original placement at the waist of the person in the undisturbed grave. 

The burial was found by Russian archaeologists during their latest excavations in the Askizsky region of Khakassia in Siberia, where a railway is being expanded.

“This fact, along with direct analogies in burial mounds of China, allows us to determine their purpose a little more confidently,” he said.

Timoshchenko led the latest expedition to the Askizsky region of Khakassia in Siberia, where Russian archaeologists have already spent several years excavating areas ahead of the expansion of a railway.

The team discovered the charioteer burial and other graves this month near the village of Kamyshta.

Unknown object

Archaeologists think the “charioteer” burial is from the Lugav culture, which occupied the region about 3,000 years ago. But no remains of chariots have ever been found.

Oleg Mitko, an archaeologist at Novosibirsk State University in Russia who’s a consultant for the finds but not an expedition member, said objects like the “charioteer’s belt” had been found before but not understood.

“For a long time in Russian archaeology this was called a PNN — an ‘item of unknown purpose,'” he told Live Science in an email. But recent discoveries of Bronze Age charioteer burials in China, along with the remains of chariots and horses, indicated that “this object is an accessory for a chariot.”

No chariots had been found in Siberian burials, he said, and the hooked bronze belt plate may have been placed in the Late Bronze Age grave as a symbolic substitute.

As well as the distinctive bronze belt piece, archaeologists also found a bronze dagger and jewelry in the tomb.

Burial mound

The tomb of the “charioteer” was found among graves dated to about 3,000 years ago during the time of the Lugav culture, according to a translated statement.

The burial consisted of an earthen mound heaped over a roughly square stone tomb; a bronze knife, bronze jewelry, and the distinctive belt part was among the grave goods. 

Timoshchenko said the Bronze Age people of the Lugav culture were mainly engaged in cattle breeding and were replaced in the region in about the eighth century B.C., during the Early Iron Age, by Scythian people of the Tagar culture.

According to the statement, the latest excavations unearthed burials from three Bronze Age phases in the region: the earliest from about the 11th century B.C., as the Karasuk culture transitioned into the Lugav culture; a second, with the charioteer, from the Lugav culture itself; and a third after the eighth century B.C., from the early Bainov stage of the Tagar culture.

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

300,000-year-old double-pointed stick among oldest record of human-made wooden tools

300,000-year-old double-pointed stick among oldest record of human-made wooden tools

Archaeologists have unearthed the oldest large collection of wooden tools made by humans at a site in Schöningen, Germany. The artefacts date back to about 300,000 years ago.

300,000-year-old double-pointed stick among oldest record of human-made wooden tools
Perspective photograph of the double-pointed throwing stick from Schöningen, Germany.

Included in what ancient people left behind are wooden spears and shorter throwing sticks that have been sharpened at both ends.

It is unclear exactly which hominin is responsible for producing the tools, but their age suggests either Homo heidelbergensis or Homo neanderthalensis.  

The collection has been analysed before, but further analysis has been required to gain deeper insight into how the tools were used.

The 300,000-year-old tools found at Schöningen were analysed using micro-CT scanning, 3D microscopy and infrared spectroscopy to better understand how they were made and their potential uses. The results are published in the PLOS ONE journal.

The double-pointed stick in particular reveals new human behaviours for the time period. Made from spruce, the branch was debarked and shaped for aerodynamics and ergonomics.

It is believed the wood was seasoned to prevent it from cracking and warping.

New insights from the detailed multi-analytic techniques suggest that the main purpose of the tool was as a throwing stick for hunting. This indicates “potential hunting strategies and social contexts including for communal hunts involving children,” the researchers write.

“The Schöningen throwing sticks may have been used to strategically disadvantage larger ungulates [hooved animals such as deer and antelope], potentially from distances of up to 30 metres.”

“In illustrating the biography of one of Schöningen’s double-pointed sticks, we demonstrate new human behaviours for this time period, including sophisticated woodworking techniques,” the authors write.

These are also not the only ancient tools that have been found at the site. In 2012, researchers found that 171,000-year-old tools found at Schöningen were probably made using fire.

Though it is the oldest collection of wooden tools anywhere in the world, the Schöningen spears are not the oldest known tools made from wood.

In 1911, an artefact now known as the “Clacton spear” was discovered near the English seaside town of Essex. It is believed to be the 400,000-year-old tip of a spear, making it the oldest known wooden tool.

PERU, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

‘Thunder floor’ found at ancient Andean site in Peru

‘Thunder floor’ found at ancient Andean site in Peru

An ancient “sounding” dance floor, perhaps designed to create a drum-like sound for a thunder god when stomped on, has been identified by archaeologists in Peru. Found at the site of Viejo Sangayaico, 200km southeast of Lima, the floor was built into an open-air platform sometime between AD1000 and AD1400.

‘Thunder floor’ found at ancient Andean site in Peru
A different drum: an open-air platform at Viejo Sangayaico that makes a deep percussive sound when stomped on may have been a “sounding” dance-floor used to venerate a nearby mountain deity of thunder and lightning

It then continued in use under Inca rule, from 1400 to 1532, and perhaps during the early years of the Spanish conquest.

“We know that in pre-Hispanic Andean rituals dance was a big part of the proceedings.

I believe that this specially constructed platform was built to enhance the natural sounds associated with dance,” says Kevin Lane, an archaeologist with the Instituto de las Culturas (IDECU) of the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina, who led the research.

Funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the project’s findings have recently been published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

The dance floor was built on one of two open-air platforms close to a possible Inca temple dedicated to a lightning deity.

The platforms face the nearby mountain of Huinchocruz, where a pre-Hispanic ceremonial platform known as an ushnu stood.

“I believe that these open platforms would have been used during the pre-Hispanic period as a stage on which to venerate the nearby mountain gods, in this case those of Huinchocruz,” Lane says.

Because lightning deities were associated with rain and thunder in Andean belief, it is possible that the people of Viejo Sangayaico used the dance floor to imitate the sound of thunder, Lane explains. “This would likely have been accompanied by drums and possibly Andean wind instruments.”

The archaeologists first identified the sounding dance floor when they heard a hollow noise as they walked on it. “We realized that the platform was built to enhance sound when we started excavating it,” Lane says.

“We discovered that the platform had been dug and then infilled with specially prepared fills and surfaces to create a percussion effect. This involved four layers of camelid guano interspersed with four layers of clean silty clay.”

Lane says the dung layers contained small gaps which caused a deep, bass-like sound to be produced whenever people danced or stomped on the floor’s surface, which was around 10 meters in diameter.

“We reckon the platform could have held up to 26 people dancing in unison, making for a loud thumping sound,” Lane says, adding that the dust raised by the dancing may have been a visual feature.

The discovery raises the possibility that parts of other Andean sites may have been built to enhance sound. “We already knew this from sites like Chavin, but even during the late pre-Hispanic period it is possible that many sites had sectors specially prepared for this,” Lane says.

Another Andean site in Peru where the use of sound has recently been studied is Huánuco Pampa.

“The sounding dance platform is a fantastic find and it shows that, aside from instruments, the human body and the landscape could be employed musically,” Lane says. “It also brings past sounds to life, especially given that the past is mostly silent and lost to us.”

ASIA, WORLD

Ancient ‘unknown’ script finally deciphered 70 years after first being discovered

Ancient ‘unknown’ script finally deciphered 70 years after first being discovered

script finally deciphered
Last year, researchers discovered Bactrian and Kushan inscriptions on a rock face near the Almosi Gorge in northwestern Tajikistan.

Researchers have partially deciphered the “unknown Kushan script” — a writing system that has puzzled linguists since it was first found in the 1950s.

The researchers decoded the ancient text using rock face inscriptions that were discovered near the Almosi Gorge in northwest Tajikistan in 2022, which include sections in an extinct but known language called Bactrian.

“We have worked out that the so-called ‘Kushan script’ was used to record a previously unknown Middle Iranian language,” lead study author Svenja Bonmann, a comparative linguist at the University of Cologne in Germany, said in a video posted by the university on July 13. “In other words, we have deciphered the script.”

This Middle Iranian language was likely one of the official languages of the Kushan Empire, which sprawled across Central Asia and northwestern India between 200 B.C. and A.D. 700. At the height of its power, in the second century A.D., the Kushans co-existed with the Roman Empire.

Ancient Eurasian nomads that originally settled in the Kushan Empire — called the “Tocharians” by Greco-Roman authors — may also have spoken the language, which the researchers have proposed to call “Eteo-Tocharian.” (“Eteo” is a prefix used by modern scholars that means “true” or “original.”)

The script associated with this Kushan language has remained elusive partly because many texts didn’t withstand the test of time, Bonmann said. “Most of what was written at the time was probably recorded on organic materials, such as palm-tree leaves or the bark of birch trees. Organic material decomposes very quickly, which means practically none of it remains.”

Characters carved into cave walls and painted onto ceramics, however, have survived across Central Asia and provide clues about the Kushan language. Archeologists have discovered several dozen inscriptions since the late 1950s, mostly in present-day Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

“Researchers have worked on this for decades, mostly in France and Russia, but they were met with little success,” Eugen Hill, a professor of comparative linguistics at the University of Cologne who did not participate in the study, said in the video.

An Iranian language

In a study published July 12 in the journal Transactions of the Philological Society, Bonmann and her colleagues examined the newly discovered “bilingual” inscriptions and decoded the Kushan script using similar methods to those previously used to decipher other ancient languages.

“The best-case scenario is to have a parallel text — a so-called bilingual or trilingual — that presents approximately the same meaning, but in two or three different scripts or languages,” Bonmann said.

In this case, the researchers were able to work out the Kushan meaning using parallel inscriptions in Bactrian carved into rocks found at Almosi Gorge and at Dašt-i Nāwur, in Afghanistan, in the 1960s.

“We had parallel texts and we knew that the elements they contained were likely to come up in our script,” Bonmann said. “Step by step, we were able to read more and more Iranian words, so it became clear that this was an Iranian language.”

Words that referred to Kushan emperor Vema Takhtu as the “king of kings” in the texts from Tajikistan and Afghanistan tipped the researchers off about the phonetic values of individual characters that had, until then, remained a mystery. Their observations suggest the Kushan script records a language that developed mid-way between Bactrian and a language known as Khotanese Saka that was spoken in ancient western China.

The discovery sheds light on more than half of the 25 to 30 signs used in the Kushan script, according to the study. The team hopes that by re-examining known inscriptions and searching for more examples, they can decipher the remaining characters and read the enigmatic script in its entirety.

EUROPE, SWEDEN, WORLD

Woman who died in deadly Vasa warship’s wreck 400 years ago reconstructed in lifelike detail

Woman who died in deadly Vasa warship’s wreck 400 years ago reconstructed in lifelike detail

Woman who died in deadly Vasa warship's wreck 400 years ago reconstructed in lifelike detail
The new reconstruction shows Gertrude wearing a gray jacket and red hat, as pieces of these items were found by her skeleton on the Vasa shipwreck in Sweden.

When researchers raised the Vasa — a 17th-century Swedish warship that sank in Stockholm harbor on its maiden voyage — in the 1960s, they recovered nearly 20 skeletons. Scientists determined that one of those skeletons, dubbed G, was a male they called Gustav.

Earlier this year, a genetic analysis determined that G wasn’t male but female. Now, a new reconstruction of G, whose new nickname is Gertrude, reveals her likeness before the deadly 1628 shipwreck.

According to the new genetic analysis, “she was about 25-30 years of age when she died, her eyes were blue, her hair blonde and her skin pale,” Oscar Nilsson, a Sweden-based forensic artist who created the reconstruction, told Live Science in an email. 

Forensic artist Oscar Nilsson layered plasticine clay on a 3D vinyl printed skull to create Gertrude’s reconstruction.

Nilsson had crafted a reconstruction of Gustav in 2006 and was surprised when he learned that G was female, but he was glad he could help correct the record with a new reconstruction for the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. 

G’s sex suggests that she was married, he noted. “From written sources we know that only married women, and married to a man on board the ship, were allowed on board this maiden voyage.”

Nilsson still had the CT (computed tomography) scan and a 3D plastic print of G’s skull from the 2006 reconstruction, and he built on this by determining Gertrude’s tissue thickness, which he pulled from a chart of modern Scandinavian and North European women who were roughly the same age and weight as Gertrude.

The size of Gertrude’s mastoid process indicated that she had larger than usual ears.

These tissue measurements informed the height of the pegs he placed on the replica skull, which he then used as a guide as he layered muscles made out of plasticine clay on her head. Scientific techniques guided the size and shape of the nose, eyes and mouth.

“The ears are more speculative, but relies a lot on the size and surface of the mastoid process located behind the ears,” Nilsson said. “A big mastoid process means a big ear. And in Gertrude’s case, she certainly has prominent mastoid processes.”

This 2006 reconstruction of G’s skeleton shows Gustav, a 45-year-old man.

Although he was “careful of trying to give her an expression as close to Gustav’s as possible,” the two reconstructions have a few differences. Previously, Nilsson had tipped Gustav’s nose downward, but a new cranial analysis resulted in a more typical nose for Gertrude. Plus, Gustav was thought to be 45 years old. Because Gertrude is younger, “I provided her with more volume in her lips,” he said.

Despite her youth, Gertrude probably lived a hard life; a skeletal analysis of her back indicates that she lifted heavy objects repeatedly. “So just being 25-30, her face must give an impression of hard work,” he said. 

As such, Nilsson crafted her face to show a woman marked by strenuous work but with an awareness of the tragic event that marked her end. 

The skeleton of G, who was previously called Gustav until a genetic analysis revealed the absence of a Y chromosome, which almost all men carry. G’s new nickname is Gertrude.

Nilsson worked with Anna Silwerulv, a textile expert at the Vasa Museum, to dress the reconstruction with a dark gray jacket and hat, as pieces of these items were found by her remains.

A microscopic analysis indicated the hat was bright red. “And the original design was striking: a very high hat, reminding [us] of the traditional festive dressing of the Swedish peasantry, and the Samic ones as well,” Nilsson said. (The Sami are Indigenous people in Sweden.) 

Gertrude’s seriousness was “further enhanced when Anna and I put the bright red tall hat on Gertrude’s head.” But as to what Gertrude is thinking about in this reconstruction, “I leave that to all visitors to the museum,” Nilsson said.

Gertrude went on display at the Vasa Museum on June 28 and will be the main attraction when the museum’s new “Face to Face” exhibition opens in about a year.

BRAZIL, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Archaeologists Discover Wreckage of Notorious Slave Ship Off Brazil

Archaeologists Discover Wreckage of Notorious Slave Ship Off Brazil

Archaeologists Discover Wreckage of Notorious Slave Ship Off Brazil
Illustration of an Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade ship that took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 16th through to the 19th centuries.

The wreckage of a 19th-century U.S. ship with more than 500 slaves on board may have been identified by archaeologists in the sea of ​​Angra dos Rei, Brazil, according to the local news outlet TV Prefeito.

Though researchers are still investigating, they believe it was a North American ship led by slave trader Nathanial Gordon, who was en route to deliver 500 enslaved Africans from Mozambique to Bracuí in Angra dos Reis in 1851.

Gordon illegally participated in the slave trade to Brazil, for which he was later tried, convicted, and executed under the Piracy Law of 1820.

Police had been chasing Gordon because the slave trade and the sailing of ships were illegal in Brazil and believe he may have sunk the ship to cover his tracks.

He lived as a fugitive for the next decade before being hung for his crimes in the U.S. in 1862.

Last year, archaeologists from the AfrOrigens Institute, the Fluminense Federal University, the Federal University of Sergipe, and multiple North American research institutions started searching for the ship.

Brazil was built on the enslavement of millions of Africans and Indigenous peoples. Research conducted by Princeton University observes that, “Of the 12 million enslaved Africans brought to the New World, almost half—5.5 million people—were forcibly taken to Brazil as early as 1540 and until the 1860s.”

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Elite Roman man buried with a sword may have been ‘restrained’ in death

Elite Roman man buried with a sword may have been ‘restrained’ in death

Elite Roman man buried with a sword may have been 'restrained' in death
The burial of the elite Roman man dates to the third or fourth century A.D.

In an isolated field near a Roman villa in Wales, archaeologists have discovered the skeleton of a man buried facedown. Adorned with a silver pin and a sword, he may have been a Roman soldier — but large nails near his neck, back and feet offer tantalizing evidence that he was restrained at death.

This burial and four others, which date to the mid-third to the late-fourth centuries, were discovered by Red River Archaeology, a U.K.-based archaeological firm, during a road improvement project near the town of Barry in south Wales.

Archaeologists think the burials may be associated with the Whitton Lodge Roman villa, which was originally excavated half a century ago.

The man, estimated to be between 21 and 25 years old at death, was placed in a rock-cut grave that may have been edged with wooden planks, based on the discovery of nails at the top and bottom of the pit, according to Mark Collard, managing director of Red River Archaeology.

In an email to Live Science, Collard noted that “the prone [facedown] position and very large nails at the back of the neck, shoulder and between the feet may indicate restraints.”

Archaeologists found a silver crossbow-style brooch in the man’s burial. It was likely used to fasten a cloak.

Contrary to an interpretation of a non-elite or enslaved individual, though, the man’s personal ornaments — an iron sword, hobnailed boots, and a silver crossbow-style brooch — suggest he may have been an elite member of the Roman military. 

Evan Chapman, senior curator of archaeology at Amgueddfa Cymru — Museum Wales, said in a statement that “this is the first example of a Roman silver crossbow brooch to be found in Wales.” These brooches, likely used to fasten a cloak, were often associated with the Roman military.

“The presence of the sword would support the military connection in this instance,” Chapman said.

The remains of the sword and the brooch are visible between the man’s legs.

Direct analysis of the man’s bones and teeth revealed more details about his life. For example, he was suffering from mastoiditis, a bacterial infection of the mastoid bone behind the ear, when he died. This condition can be cured easily with antibiotics today, but in Roman times, it could have been a death sentence.

An analysis of isotopes — elements with varying numbers of neutrons in their nuclei — of the man’s bone and tooth enamel also showed that he “likely grew up further east, possibly from the Welsh borders or beyond,” Rachel Morgan, a project archaeologist for Red River Archaeology, said in the statement. “So what was this rich man doing on a farm in south Wales when he died?”

A smattering of hobnails from the man’s shoes were found in the burial in Wales.

It is not unusual to find Roman burials outside of formal cemeteries. But the man’s prone position — as well as the discovery of a nearby grave with a decapitated individual whose skull was placed at their feet — is notable, Collard said, as other Roman Britain burials also suggest a “clear association between the occurrence of prone and decapitated burials.”

For example, another set of Romano-British cemeteries at Knobb’s Farm, just north of Cambridge, was found in 2021 to have had a very high number of burials out of the norm.

Out of the 52 total burials there, 13 (25%) were prone, while 17 (33%) were decapitated. Researchers have begun to pay more attention to patterns of atypical burials in Western Europe during the Roman period, but so far, no single explanation for these kinds of burials has been found.

Whether it was for low-status individuals, criminals, or those their communities wanted to ensure “stayed dead,” cross-culturally, prone burials are never seen as a positive way of disposing of the deceased.

This Roman soldier is therefore something of a mystery — one that may never be solved. “It is interesting that he was buried prone but still with his ‘regalia,'” Collard said. “Raises more questions than answers!”

All In One Magazine