Archaeologists post research data from Sudan online

Graves, small huts or stone-lined sleeping places from antiquity and the Middle Ages: the "Wadi Abu Dom Itinerary" archaeological project being undertaken at the University of Münster’s Institute of Egyptology and Coptology is now putting its data online, gathered between 2009 and 2016 during field research in Sudan. Academics, as well as anyone in the general public who is interested, can use a browser-based geoinformation system (WebGIS) to take a look at the findings.

Squares lined with stones and filled with gravel, and with mats or palm leaves as a bed, served as sleeping
places in the Bayuda Desert in Sudan. The large number of dots shows the high frequency of these beds
[Credit: Münster University/W.A.D.I.; screenshot]

"By providing free access to the data, our aim is not only to meet today’s expectations as regards making research transparent", explains project leader Prof. Angelika Lohwasser from the Institute of Egyptology and Coptology. "What we are also hoping for is a rapid and uncomplicated exchange of data." The WebGIS was developed in collaboration with the Institute of Geoinformatics and is currently also being used by Münster University archaeologists in the excavations at Doliche, in modern Turkey, which are being undertaken by the Asia Minor research unit.

A comprehensive field inspection, as well as aerial surveys of the riverbank areas of the dried-up Wadi Abu Dom river system in the Bayuda Desert in Sudan – rivers which only sporadically contain water – were all carried out as part of the "Wadi Abu Dom Itinerary" research project. In doing so, the team of twelve mapped all the structures of cultural and historical relevance visible on the surface of the terrain. All archaeological findings are shown as geospatial point data and area data in Web GIS and arranged by category. In addition, users can access further information for all the findings, and, in many cases, photos too.

Anyone interested can take a look at various pictures, including rock formations which, as can be seen
 in this photo, depict cattle [Credit: Münster University/W.A.D.I.; screenshot]

Digital working methods were already playing an important role during the field research. The project team recorded the archaeological data while on the terrain, using small computers and a mobile GIS. This not only speeded up the work process, but also made scientific evaluation work easier.

Not only academics, but also non-specialists who are interested can temporarily upload their own data into the application and compare them with those from the "Wadi Abu Dom Itinerary" project. This is a fast, uncomplicated way of seeing whether, and in what form, the relevant archaeological findings have already been recorded by the Münster team of researchers. "In addition to an easy link-up with research projects both at home and abroad", says Angelika Lohwasser, "what we’re hoping for is public involvement. Anyone anywhere in the world who is interested, who has visited Sudan as a tourist or who is exploring these remote areas with the aid of programmes such as Google Earth, can compare any structures they have found which might be of archaeological relevance with the results gathered by the specialists. If they are not sure about something, they can contact us and – in the sense of ‘people’s science’, in the best sense of the term –  help us to complete our picture of the cultural history of Sudan."

Source: University of Münster [May 24, 2018]

1,000-year-old mummy discovered in Peru

A team from the Université libre de Bruxelles's centre for archaeological research (CReA-Patrimoine) has completed a significant excavation in Pachacamac, Peru, where they have discovered an intact mummy in especially good condition. Pachacamac's status as a Pre-Colombian pilgrimage site under the Inca empire. is confirmed by further evidence.

The Pachacamac mummy inside the funeral bundle, surrounded by offerings
[Credit: ULB/P. Eeckhout]

Peter Eeckhout and his team's latest campaign of archaeological excavations has concluded with an exciting surprise: after nine weeks spent exploring the Pre-Colombian site of Pachacamac, in Peru, the researchers from CReA-Patrimoine (ULB Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences) have unearthed a mummy in especially good condition.

'The deceased is still wrapped in the enormous funeral bundle that served as a coffin,' points out professor Peter Eeckhout. 'Discoveries like this one are exceptionally scarce, and this mummy is incredibly well preserved. Samples were collected for carbon-14 dating, but the area in which it was discovered and the type of tomb suggest this individual was buried between 1000 and 1200 AD.'

The excavation was carried out as a part of the 'Ychsma' project, named after the region's native people, under the supervision of professor Eeckhout. Three monumental structures were explored during the campaign, including a sanctuary dedicated to the local ancestors.

Archaeologist Peter Eeckhout and a mummy's wooden false-head from a looted burial
[Credit: ULB/P. Eeckhout]

Under Inca rule, in the late 15th century, it appears to have been transformed into a water and healing temple. The archaeologists have discovered many offerings left by worshippers, such as Spondylus shells imported from Ecuador; these are associated with the influx of water during El Niño, and they symbolise fertility and abundance.

Before the Inca settled in the area, the sanctuary included large funerary chambers and numerous mummies, most of which were looted during the Spanish conquest. Miraculously, though, one of the chambers was found intact during the latest round of excavations: this is the funeral chamber that held the mummy.

Due to how well it was preserved, the researchers will be able to study it without needing to unwrap the bundle. Together with Christophe Moulherat (Musée du Quai Branly, Paris), they will soon examine the mummy using the latest techniques in medical imaging (X-ray scans, axial tomography, 3D reconstruction, etc.). This will enable them to determine the individual's position, any pathologies they might have suffered from, but also what offerings might be inside the bundle.

The other structures that were excavated are also related to worship: the first one, an Inca monument intended to host pilgrims and rituals, was built in several phases, each identified with a series of offerings such as seashells and precious objects.

The last structure explored was probably one of the 'chapels' for foreign pilgrims, referred to by Spanish monk Antonio de la Calancha in his 17th-century description of the site. There, the excavations also uncovered many 'foundation' offerings, including vases, dogs, and other animals, as well as a platform with a hole in the centre, where an idol was likely placed. The complex appears to have been designed around this idol, involved in religious activities with pilgrims.

According to researchers, all these discoveries indicate that Incas made considerable changes to the Pachacamac site, in order to create a large pilgrimage centre on Peru's Pacific coast. 'Deities and their worship played a major part in the life of Pre-Colombian societies,' concludes Peter Eeckhout.

'The Inca understood this very well, and integrated it into how they wielded their power. By promoting empire-wide worship, they contributed to creating a common sense of identity among the many different peoples that made up the empire. Pachacamac is one of the most striking examples of this.'

Source: Université libre de Bruxelles [May 24, 2018]

Simulating the prehistoric use of fire through computer models

Archaeologists often use the percentages of heat-affected stone or bone artifacts found at archaeological sites as a way to determine how frequently fire was used by the inhabitants. Andrew Sorensen and Fulco Scherjon have come up with a computer model called 'fiReproxies' to simulate how fires used by prehistoric peoples affect artefacts buried in the substrate below.

Credit: Leiden University

FiReproxies

The fiReproxies model allows researchers to reconstruct the archaeological record and to test the relative importance of various cultural and environmental conditions (like wood fuel availability, group mobility or sedimentation rates at an archaeological site) in determining how and when fire is used and better understand how these factors, in turn, influence the rates at which artefacts are accidentally heated within an archaeological layer.

Credit: Leiden University

Interpreting fire signals

As an illustrative example, the study models conditions expected at a Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthal site over time and demonstrates that during colder climatic conditions the expected number of heated artefacts produced are lower than during warmer climatic conditions, even when fire is used regularly during both periods. This has implications for how archaeologists interpret differences in fire signals between layers deposited during cold and warm climatic periods.

The study has been published in PLOS ONE.

Source: Leiden University [May 24, 2018]

When the dinosaurs died, so did forests - and tree-dwelling birds

Sixty-six million years ago, the world burned. An asteroid crashed to Earth with a force one million times larger than the largest atomic bomb, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs. But dinosaurs weren't the only ones that got hit hard--in a new study, scientists learned that the planet's forests were decimated, leading to the extinction of tree-dwelling birds.

The asteroid impact that eliminated non-avian dinosaurs destroyed global forests. Here, a hyopothetical
surviving bird lineage - small-bodied and specialized for a ground-dwelling lifestyle - flees a burning
 forest in the aftermath of the asteroid strike [Credit: Philipp M. Krzeminski]

"Looking at the fossil record, at plants and birds, there are multiple lines of evidence suggesting that the forest canopies collapsed," says Regan Dunn, a paleontologist at the Field Museum in Chicago and a co-author on the study in Current Biology. "Perching birds went extinct because there were no more perches."

"We drew on a variety of approaches to stitch this story together," said Daniel Field, the paper's lead author, of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath. "We concluded that the temporary elimination of forests in the aftermath of the asteroid impact explains why arboreal birds failed to survive across this extinction event. The ancestors of modern arboreal birds did not move into the trees until forests had recovered from the extinction-causing asteroid."

The project's pollen expert, Antoine Bercovici of the Smithsonian Institution and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, helped determine that the world's forests were destroyed by looking at microscopic fossils of pollen and spores. Dunn explains, "After a disaster like a forest fire or a volcanic eruption, the first plants to come back are the fastest colonizers --especially ferns." That's because ferns don't sprout from seeds, but from spores, which are much smaller--just a single cell. "Spores are minuscule, the size of a grain of pollen, so they're easily dispersed. They get picked up by the wind and go further than seeds can, and all they need to grow is a wet spot."

Microscopic fern spores from the fossil record indicating the destruction of the planet's forests
[Credit: A. Bercovici]

"The spores are tiny--you could fit four across a single strand of your hair," says Dunn. "To see them, we take a sample of rock from the time frame just after the collision and dissolve it in acid. Then we purify it so that all that remains is the organic debris, like pollen, spores and little leaf bits, then we look at them under a microscope."

Immediately after the asteroid hit, the fossil record shows the charcoal remains of burnt trees, and then, tons of fern spores. An abundance of fern spores in the fossil record often comes on the heels of a natural disaster that destroyed larger plants like trees.

"Our study examined the fossil record from New Zealand, Japan, Europe and North America, which showed there was a mass deforestation across the globe at the end of the Cretaceous period," says co-author Bercovici.

And with no more trees, the scientists found, tree-dwelling birds went extinct. The birds that did survive were ground-dwellers--birds whose fossilized remains show longer, sturdier legs like we see in modern ground birds like kiwis and emus. The Cretaceous equivalent of robins and sparrows, with delicate little legs made for perching on tree branches, had no place to live.

Ferns growing after a forest fire in the Pacific Northwest
[Credit: Regan Dunn, The Field Museum]

"Today, birds are the most diverse and globally widespread group of terrestrial vertebrate animals--there are nearly 11,000 living species," says Field. "Only a handful of ancestral bird lineages succeeded in surviving the mass extinction event 66 million years ago, and all of today's amazing living bird diversity can be traced to these ancient survivors."

And while fossil animals like dinosaurs and birds often get more love than fossil plants, Dunn says that plants are critical to understanding life on earth. "Plants are everything, plants are the context in which all terrestrial life evolves and survives. They're primary producers, they make energy available to all life forms by capturing it from the sun--we can't do that."

She also notes that while the dinosaurs and their perching bird neighbors died 66 million years ago, their plight is relevant today. "The end-Cretaceous event is the fifth mass extinction--we're in the sixth," says Dunn. "It's important for us to understand what happens when you destroy an ecosystem, like with deforestation and climate change--so we can know how our actions will affect what comes after us."

Source: Field Museum [May 24, 2018]

Graeco-Roman baths discovered in Egypt

An Egyptian Archaeological Mission from the Supreme Council of Antiquities has uncovered Parts of a huge red brick building during excavations carried out at San El-Hagar archaeological site at Gharbia Governorate.

Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

Dr. Ayman Ashmawy, Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities explains that the discovered building most probably is a part of a bath dating back to the Graeco-Roman era; it is about 16 meters long, and its measure 3.5 x 1.80 meters.

Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

The Mission would complete its work during the coming seasons to reveal more parts of the building and its function.

Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

Dr. Ashmawy continues that the mission also found pottery vessels, terracotta statues, bronze tools, a stone fragment engraved with hieroglyphs and a small statue of a ram.

Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

On his part Dr. Saeed Al-Asal Head of the mission said that the most important discovered artifacts is a gold coin of Ptolemy III, which was made in the reign of Ptolemy IV in memory of his father.

Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

The diameter of the coin is 2.6 cm and weighs about 28 gr. on one of the coin’s faces is decorated with a portrait of Ptolemy III wearing the crown and the other side bears the Land if Prosperity surround with the name of the king.

Source: Ministry of Antiquities [May 23, 2018]

How human brains became so big

The human brain is disproportionately large. And while abundant grey matter confers certain intellectual advantages, sustaining a big brain is costly - consuming a fifth of energy in the human body.

Dr Diana Rivas displays a human brain on a working surface at the "Museum of Neuropathology" in Lima, Peru
[Credit: Ernesto Benavides/AFP]

It is an oddity that has long flummoxed scientists: while most organisms thrive with small brains, or none at all, the human species opted to sacrifice a degree of body growth for more cerebral capacity.

On Wednesday, researchers said they can finally reveal how and why this happened.

The human brain, they suggested, expanded mainly in response to environmental stresses that forced our species to come up with innovative solutions for food and shelter, and pass the lessons on to our offspring.

The finding challenges a popular theory that the thinking organ grew as social interactions between humans became more and more complex, a research duo wrote in the science journal Nature.

In fact, the inverse may be true.

"The findings are intriguing because they suggest that some aspects of social complexity are more likely to be consequences rather than causes of our large brain size," said paper co-author Mauricio Gonzalez-Forero of the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

"The large human brain is more likely to stem from ecological problem-solving and cumulative culture than it is from social manoeuvering."

From our ape-like Australopithecus ancestors to modern Homo sapiens, the human brain has tripled in size.

But feeding such a big brain has been suggested to come at the cost of slow body growth in childhood - leaving our young dependent and vulnerable for longer than other animals.

Brain over brawn?

Previous research found correlations between large brain size in species and complex social structures, living in challenging environments, and an ability to learn lessons from peers -- also described as "culture".

But no studies have been able to conclude whether these factors are the cause of brain expansion, or the result of it.

With colleague Andy Gardner, Gonzalez-Forero developed a mathematical model to measure whether being confronted with ecological and social problems has a measurable impact on brain growth, and if yes, how much.

Model "brains" were presented with ecological challenges -- finding prey in bad weather or in tough terrain, for example, preserving food to protect it against mold or heat spoilage, or storing water amid drought.

Social challenges were introduced too, to test the influence on brain growth of cooperation and competition between individuals and groups.

Interestingly, cooperation was associated with a decrease in brain size, the researchers said -- probably because it allows individuals to rely on each other's resources and to save energy by growing smaller brains themselves.

"We find that increasingly difficult ecological problems expand brains, but social demands fail to lead to human sized brains," Gonzalez-Forero told AFP.

But why did human brains grow more than those of other animals living in challenging environments?

Probably because of culture -- the ability to learn skills from others rather than having to figure everything out for ourselves.

"So, our results suggest that it is the interaction of hard ecology and culture that produced the human brain size," said Gonzalez-Forero.

Source: AFP [May 23, 2018]

'Uniquely human' muscles have been discovered in apes

Muscles once thought 'uniquely human' have been discovered in several ape species, challenging long-held theories on the origin and evolution of human soft tissues. The findings question the anthropocentric view that certain muscles evolved for the sole purpose of providing special adaptations for human traits, such as walking on two legs, tool use, vocal communication and facial expressions. Published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, the study highlights that thorough knowledge of ape anatomy is necessary for a better understanding of human evolution.

Figure showing the striking similarities between the head muscles of common chimpanzees, bonobos
and humans: the very rare exceptions are those shown in colors and with text
[Credit: Rui Diogo]

"This study contradicts key dogmas about human evolution and our distinct place on the 'ladder of nature,'" says Rui Diogo, an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy at Howard University, Washington, USA. "Our detailed analysis shows that in fact, every muscle that has long-been accepted as 'uniquely human' and providing 'crucial singular functional adaptations' for our bipedalism, tool use and vocal and facial communications is actually present in the same or similar form in bonobos and other apes, such as common chimpanzees and gorillas."

Long-standing evolutionary theories are largely based on the bone structures of prehistoric specimens -- and, according to Diogo, also on the idea that humans are necessarily more special and complex than other animals. These theories suggest that certain muscles evolved in humans only, giving us our unique physical characteristics. However, verification of these theories has remained difficult due to scant descriptions of soft tissues in apes, which historically have mainly focused on only a few muscles in the head or limbs of a single specimen.

Diogo explains, "There is an understandable difficulty in finding primate, and particularly ape, specimens to dissect as they are so rare both in the wild and museums."

To find enough data to complete this research, Diogo compiled all previous information on ape anatomy based on studies with colleague Bernard Wood. He also conducted anatomical research on several bonobos that died of natural causes, together with colleagues at the University of Antwerp under the Bonobo Morphology Initiative 2016 - looking for the presence of seven different muscles thought to have evolved only in our species.

Diogo discovered that these seven muscles were present in apes in a similar or even exact form. For example the fibularis tertius muscle, said to be uniquely associated with human bipedalism (walking on two legs), was present in half the examined bonobos. Similarly, both the laryngeal muscle arytenoideus obliquus and the facial muscle risorius -- thought to have evolved for our uniquely sophisticated vocal and facial communication, respectively -- were present in at least some chimpanzees and/or gorillas.

These findings open crucial new directions for research and question our understanding of human evolution. "The picture emerging from this research is that the origin and evolution of human soft-tissue is clearly more complex -- and not as exceptional -- as first thought," says Diogo.

"We need a more thorough examination of why these muscles are present in apes and, in some cases, in just part of a population within a certain species," he says. "Are these muscles essential for the apes that have them, as adaptationist evolutionary scientists would argue? Or are they evolutionary neutral features related to how their bodies develop, or simply by-products of other features?"

He concludes, "Most theories of human evolution give the impression that humans are markedly distinct from apes anatomically, but these are unverifiable 'just-so stories'. The real evidence shows we are not so different overall. This study highlights that a thorough knowledge of ape anatomy is necessary for a better understanding of our own bodies and evolutionary history."

Source: Frontiers [May 23, 2018]