Ancient mound builders carefully timed their occupation of coastal Louisiana site

A study of ancient mound builders who lived hundreds of years ago on the Mississippi River Delta near present-day New Orleans offers new insights into how Native peoples selected the landforms that supported their villages and earthen mounds - and why these sites were later abandoned.

Hundreds of ancient mound sites, depicted here with yellow triangles, still survive in coastal Louisiana. A new study teases
 out the natural and human history of one of these mound-top villages, a site known as Grand Caillou, shown in red
[Credit: Julie McMahon after Mehta and Chamberlain]

The study, reported in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, also offers a timeline of the natural and human events that shaped one particular site, said University of Illinois anthropology professor Jayur Mehta, who conducted the work with Vanderbilt University postdoctoral researcher Elizabeth Chamberlain while both were at Tulane University in New Orleans.

The site, now known as Grand Caillou, is one of hundreds of mound sites in coastal Louisiana, Mehta said.

"Louisiana is incredibly important in the history of ancient mound-building cultures," he said. "In what is now the United States, earthen monument and mound construction began on the Louisiana coast."

Ancient peoples began building mounds in North America as early as 4,500 B.C., Mehta said. They often situated their mounds near resource-rich waterways, which could support larger human settlements. As many as 500 people lived at Grand Caillou in its heyday. Some mounds also served ceremonial functions.

That so many mound sites have survived in coastal Louisiana is a testament to their careful construction, Mehta said. Neglect, however, and coastal subsidence - the result of engineered changes to the flow of the Mississippi River - are wearing away at the mounds.

"Louisiana loses about two ancient mounds and/or Native American villages a year," Mehta said.

The researchers used a variety of methods - sediment coring, radiocarbon dating, carbon-isotope analysis, the dating of ceramics found onsite and a method called optically stimulated luminescence - to figure out how and when the land underneath the Grand Caillou mound was formed by natural forces and when the mound builders arrived and established their settlement.

"We wanted to understand at a deeper level how Indigenous peoples of the coast were choosing where to build their villages," Mehta said.

The mound at Grand Caillou [Credit: Jayur Mehta]

Grand Caillou is situated on a natural levee of the Lafourche sub-delta, one of several major lobes of the Mississippi River Delta near New Orleans. Fed by sediments deposited by the river, Lafourche expanded in size over a period of several hundred years, a process that ended at about 800 A.D., the researchers found. The mound builders set up their village around 1200 A.D., long after the site was stable and covered over with vegetation, the team found.

Core samples and excavations revealed that the mound was built in distinct layers, with clay on the bottom, looser sediments piled in the middle and a clay cap on top. This finding confirms earlier archaeological reports that ancient mounds were engineered in layers to withstand the elements.

"The way they were constructed contributes to their durability," Mehta said.

The Grand Caillou mound was built on top of a river deposit that was naturally higher than surrounding land.

"It's only a few feet higher than nearby areas," Mehta said. "But in a landscape where there's no topography, one or two feet can make a world of difference."

Ceramics found at the site date to between 1000 and 1400 A.D. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal found evidence that the site was abandoned by about 1400. By looking at ratios of carbon isotopes - carbon atoms with differing masses - the team saw changes over time that were likely the result of saltwater incursion into the area. These changes coincided with the ultimate abandonment of the village site.

The new study is a much-needed addition to research on threatened cultural sites in coastal regions, said University of Tennessee anthropology professor David G. Anderson, an expert on U.S. Paleoindian archaeology who was not involved in the research.

"We are facing the loss of much of the record of human settlement and use of coastal zones - and must take steps to address the challenge," Anderson said. "Mehta and Chamberlain's study exemplifies the kind of work that will be needed."

Watch a video about the research and history of the site.

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [May 22, 2018]

12 Zeugma mosaics to be returned to Turkey by USA

The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry signed an agreement on May 14 with Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio in the United States for the return of 12 ancient Zeugma mosaic pieces looted during illegal excavations in Turkey’s southeastern province of Gaziantep nearly 50 years ago.

Credit: BGSU

“We are very happy that the Zeugma pieces are being returned to Turkey. The importance of carrying on cultural relations in the international arena by a mutual understanding has been underlined once again,” said Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry’s New York office director Tülin Sermin Özduran, who signed the agreement.

She thanked the authorities of Turkish Foreign and Interior Ministries as well as the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality for their efforts.

Turkish Consul General in Chicago Umut Acar, who hosted the signing ceremony, also thanked the Foreign Ministry and the Culture and Tourism Ministry for their efforts to return archaeological remains and pieces of cultural heritage to Turkey from all over the world, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Some of the mosaics on the floor of the Arts Center of the 
University of Bowling Green, USA [Credit: BGSU]

BGSU President Rodney Rogers said they took it as a legal and ethical duty to return the tile fragments to Turkey.

“Legally, there’s one question and then there’s what we believe is the right decision … Unbeknownst to us, these items appear to have been removed in an improper way. Therefore, we believe it is our duty as a university to allow these pieces, which have historical significance to Turkey and the citizens of Turkey, but also to society in general, [to be returned] to their home,” he said at the ceremony, according to the daily The Blade based in Toledo, Ohio.

Raymond Craig, dean of the BGSU College of Arts and Sciences, and Sean Fitzgerald, general counsel for the university also signed the agreement.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News [May 16, 2018]

Ships unearthed in Virginia offer glimpse of Colonial Era

Nestled in centuries of dirt and debris, several well-preserved ships and artifacts have been unearthed that offer a glimpse of life at what was once one of the busiest ports in the North American colonies.

An 18th-century ship was discovered last month in Old Town Alexandria, Va., the fourth discovered
in recent years within a two-block radius [Credit: Alex Wroblewski/The New York Times]

At the site for Robinson Landing, a new townhouse and condominium development along the Potomac River here, excavations have uncovered the protruding, curved wooden bones of the ships. Three ships were scuttled and buried here centuries ago as Alexandria sought to expand its land into the deeper waters of the river.

“It tells us a lot about the resourcefulness of our predecessors, how pragmatic they were,” said Dan Lee, the city historian in the Office of Historic Alexandria. “They don’t put ships in there because they’re sentimental, but because they needed something and they found a way to do it.”

The three ships, buried just feet from each other, were an unusual find in a neighborhood where residents have fought for decades to preserve the remains of everyday artifacts unearthed in construction since the 1960s. In 2015, the remains of a ship were found a block away in the construction site for a hotel, but archaeologists were shocked earlier this year to find the three ships so close to one another.

“It’s a microcosm for the development of maritime-related cities,” Eleanor Breen, the acting chief city archaeologist, said of the finds. “It shows that the efforts to build out the land and try to make Alexandria an economically viable town were fairly successful.”

The ships, she said, are by far the most striking discovery for the local community. But the urban archaeologists, who are required by city law to be present on any construction site, also found a trove of ordinary items that highlight what colonial residents were using, discarding and trading.

In the rubble of privies and the crumbled foundations of buildings, they found seeds, beads, pins, animal bones and a few pieces of jewelry. There were tokens from Newgate Prison in London and Spanish and Irish coins, signaling the beginnings of international trade. And steps from what is possibly the earliest discovered bakery, they found a ship biscuit: an indestructible combination of flour, salt and water designed to sustain sailors on their voyages.

“It’s difficult to imagine a dig that wouldn’t bring up an artifact from some point in time in Alexandria’s history,” Mr. Lee said.

Excavated planks from a ship at the site. The ships must be kept wet; exposure to dry air
can cause them to deteriorate faster [Credit: Alex Wroblewski/The New York Times]

The city and its residents initially established an archaeological commission and a formal city archaeologist position in the 1970s to preserve and protect the history dug up by modern construction. Since then, the city has excavated multiple sites throughout its boundaries, including a privy from a Civil War hospital support complex, a slave household, 18th century kitchenware and Native American sites.

The first ship found in 2015 is now undergoing conservation at Texas A&M University, and the others will likely be preserved in a similar manner.

The three ships found together in Robinson Landing are still partially buried. The last one found in April seems to be the most complete so far. Archaeologists believe that it was an ocean vessel based on its thick hull, while the other ships are probably river crafts that sailed on the Potomac and the Chesapeake.

Founded in the late 17th century in Virginia, which was one of the earliest American colonies, Alexandria initially thrived as a trading port for tobacco and other crops. By the end of the 18th century, it served as a major point of entry for foreign ships and became one of the 10 busiest ports in the colonies. George Washington shipped wheat and other crops from his Mount Vernon estate through Alexandria merchants.

As the tobacco industry waned, Alexandria maintained its economic foothold as a center for the slave trade in the early 19th century and a supply center for the federal army during the Civil War.

The 18th century ships — derelict and past their prime — had been filled with soil as part of the planned extension of city land. It was a common practice at the time, with other ships found buried along the coast and, in one instance, under the site of the World Trade Center in 2010.

“We were impressed by the size of it,” Ms. Breen said, tracing the curves of the ship as she spoke in an interview. “You literally start to see it emerge.”

It is unlikely that any more ships will be found on this particular site, Ms. Breen said, because excavation is nearly complete.  Evan Goldman, the vice president for acquisitions and development at EYA, the developer, said the company had expected there might be a need for excavation before the $185 million construction project could be finished by its completion date of 2020.

“It’s part of the fabric of working here,” Mr. Goldman said. “It’s hard to understand how exciting it is until you see it and how complete it is. It’s incredible.”

Some of the artifacts recovered from the wreck [Credit: Alex Wroblewski/The New York Times]

The ships, he acknowledged, have a unique appeal among researchers and history enthusiasts. But more than 100,000 artifacts painstakingly found elsewhere at the site — international coins, broken glassware, straight pins and more, all carefully separated by trowels and shovels, sifted through soil and sprayed with water — carry their own significance.

Extracting the ships is a bit tricky. They have to be stored in water to maintain the state of the uncovered wooden cribbing, and to prevent the pieces from decaying further.

The Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University has been working on the ship found under the Indigo Hotel for nearly eight months, documenting the pieces of timber and painstakingly removing water as well as iron from fastenings that permeated the ship’s wood over time. Tree nails, the few iron spikes left in there and other stray parts, will be pulled out as part of an in-depth investigation of the various pieces.

Once the iron has been drawn out, the wood pieces will be dehydrated and vacuum-frozen for six months.

The timbers — an estimated 220 large pieces — are each photographed, scanned and reproduced with a 3-D printer. There will be a 3-D model, nearly 4 feet long, and a virtual model created before the ship is reconstructed and returned to Alexandria.

The community is still working to raise funds for completion of the 2015 ship’s conservation.

“Whenever somebody finds a ship, it has incredible magnetism for the public,” said Dr. Peter Fix, the research specialist leading the conservation team at Texas A&M. In the last 50 years, he said, there’s been a significant interest in heritage and the preservation of artifacts as ships are discovered underneath seaport towns in the United States.

“They’re the same as the Ryder trucks, pickup trucks and eighteen-wheelers of today,” he said. “They were everywhere.”

John P. Mullen and Elizabeth Johnson of Thunderbird Archaeology, investigating finds from the Robinson Landing site.
More than 100,000 artifacts have been painstakingly recovered [Credit: Alex Wroblewski/The New York Times]

Dan Baicy, an associate archaeologist at Thunderbird Archaeology, the group of specialists who have been investigating the Robinson Landing site for more than a year, said the ships are just one aspect of the excavation.

“The level of preservation has been unprecedented,” he said of the site, where he has worked on at least 19 buildings and their contents. “You don’t get that very often, and particularly in Alexandria, this is a rare chance to gain data and investigate and research day to day life in the beginnings of Alexandria.”

More than 100,000 artifacts painstakingly found elsewhere are being moved to a lab for dating and preparation, and then will be categorized and identified based on material, age and usage. Archaeologists will establish a time period based on the layers of soil before looking at where the artifacts were manufactured, their usage and how they were assembled.

City officials and archaeologists hope that from there, the artifacts can be paired with the trove of documents and records meticulously preserved in city museums and archives.

“You can do cross-comparative analysis, this house with this house with this house, with tax records, who was living there, how they were presenting themselves,” Mr. Baicy said, adding that some of the remaining buildings don’t have corresponding documents.

“You can piece together industry, who’s working where,” he added.

The artifacts and ships will eventually be returned to Alexandria, where they will become part of exhibits and continued research for the city, curated in air-controlled conditions.

“Alexandria can come here and look at what we’re doing,” Ms. Breen said.

And in Alexandria, each excavation has been met with enthusiasm from residents. More than 3,200 people toured the site last month, when researchers opened it to showcase the ships before removal and preservation began, pausing on their way to the wharf on a sunny spring day.

“I love it,” said Steve Woyicki, 43, who stopped with his daughter on their bicycle ride so Kate, 7, could see the ship. “She’s going to grow up with all this living history around her.”

Kate, still wearing her sparkly bicycle helmet as she peered through the chain link fence, agreed that the ship, still partially buried in sand and dirt, was an exciting sight.

“When you dig, you never really find stuff, just rocks,” she said. “But here, you dig and you find ships.”

Author: Emily Cochrane | Source: The New York Times [May 11, 2018]

Scientists can measure population change through chemicals found in feces

Fecal stanols - organic molecules - located in sediment can give archaeologists new information about population numbers and changes, according to new research by faculty at Binghamton University, State University at New York.

Schematic depicting the formation, deposition, and degradation of human fecal stanols [Credit: A.J. White,
Lora R. Stevens, Varenka Lorenzi, Samuel E. Munoz, Carl P. Lipo, Sissel Schroeder]

"Archaeologists have just begun to explore how biomarkers like fecal stanols can provide information on past populations," said Carl Lipo, professor of anthropology at Binghamton University. "Traditionally, we have used coarse proxy measures such as houses and artifact numbers. These measures are plagued with problems, as this evidence may or may not be directly connected to changes in population sizes. Conditions of preservation, changes in settlement patterns, limited observations, shifts in subsistence activities, alteration in burial practices and so on can all lead to changes in artifacts without there being a connection to the number of people in the past environment."

Although other human materials can be unreliable in terms of population prediction, fecal stanols, which contain traces of human waste products, can be a more accurate clue into the history of a settlement. These organic molecules are present in sediment for hundreds to thousands of years.

In collaboration with colleagues at California State University Long Beach, Lipo studied a method of population change in a settlement called Cahokia, located just outside of St. Louis. The site is the location of one of the largest prehistoric populations in North America, existing between 600 to 1,500 years ago.

Cahokia regional vicinity and Horseshoe Lake watershed, shown as the black dashed line. Coring sites are
indicated by red stars. Cahokia largely consists of deposits that are within the large circle; black
rectangles indicate the location of major Cahokian mounds. Black dots show the locations
of small archaeological deposits (<2 mounds) occupied contemporaneously
with Cahokia (approx. 1000-1400 CE; Milner, 1998)
[Credit: A.J. White et al.]

"Fecal stanols almost uniquely measure human presence in the environment," said Lipo. "While this work has been demonstrated in cold climates where preservation of stanols is more certain, this is one of the first archaeological cases where this method has been shown to work in a more temperate climate. The success here suggests that this way of studying past populations might very well lead to a revolution in our knowledge about the archaeological record around the world.

"In this study, we examined the abundance of fecal stanols in a lake core next to Cahokia," said Lipo. "What we found shows that population peaks for the site occur relatively early in its occupation and slowly decline. This finding contradicts suggestions that Cahokia underwent a 'collapse' event or was victim to massive floods that are known to have occurred."

This method of determining population change can be used to study other sites as well, said Lipo. He and Molly Patterson, assistant professor of geology at Binghamton University, are working on developing the technique at Binghamton.

"It has become relatively popular to think of the past as a series of periods in which cultures flourish and then catastrophically collapse," said Lipo. "Easter Island is a great example of this kind of thinking. While some of the interest in this kind of thinking relates to worries about our own future, the archaeological evidence often does not support such a view. Like Easter Island, Cahokia is often discussed as a cultural phenomenon that suddenly ends due to overpopulation or some natural catastrophe. Using empirical evidence available in the form of the fecal stanols, we can now see that the end of Cahokia was not so much a 'collapse' but a slow fading-away that took multiple centuries. Flooding events, for example, appeared to have had no effect on the relative population size."

The study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Source: Binghamton University [May 08, 2018]

25 years of fossil collecting yields clearest picture of extinct 12-foot aquatic predator

After 25 years of collecting fossils at a Pennsylvania site, scientists at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University now have a much better picture of an ancient, extinct 12-foot fish and the world in which it lived.

A rendition of what the Hyneria lindae might have looked like [Credit: Jason Poole,
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University]

Although Hyneria lindae was initially described in 1968, it was done without a lot of fossil material to go on. But since the mid-1990s, dedicated volunteers, students, and paleontologists digging at the Red Hill site in northern Pennsylvania's Clinton County have turned up more - and better quality - fossils of the fish's skeleton that have led to new insights.

Academy researchers Ted Daeschler, PhD, and Jason Downs, PhD, who specialize in the Devonian time period (a time before dinosaurs and even land animals) when Hyneria lived, have been able to reconstruct that the predator had a blunt, wide snout, reached 10-12 feet in length, had small eyes and featured a sensory system that allowed it to hunt prey by feeling pressure waves around it.

"Dr. Keith Thomson, the man who first described Hyneria in 1968, did not have enough fossil material to reconstruct the anatomy that we have now been able to document with more extensive collections," explained Daeschler, curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Academy, as well as a professor in Drexel's College of Arts and Sciences.

A fossil of the front-end of the lower jaw of Hyneria lindae
[Credit: Drexel University]

Originally, pieces of the fish were collected in the 1950s. Thomson described and officially named Hyneria lindae in 1968, but he had just a few pieces of a crushed skull and some scales to work with.

The new discoveries that Daeschler and Downs (who is an assistant professor at Delaware Valley University) wrote about in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology were made possible by years of collecting that turned up, "well-preserved, well-prepared three-dimensional material of almost all of the [bony] parts of the skeleton," according to Downs.

No single complete skeleton exists of this giant, but enough is there to show that Hyneria would have truly been a monster to the other animals in the subtropical streams of the Devonian Period, roughly 365 million years ago. An apex predator, Hyneria's mouth was bristling with two-inch fangs. For reference, that's bigger than most modern Great White Shark's teeth.

A fossil of the postparietal part of the skull roof of Hyneria lindae (the same fossil,
turned over to show both sides) [Credit: Drexel University]

Due to its sheer size, weaponry, and sensory abilities, Hyneria may have preyed upon anything from ancient placoderms (armored fish), to acanthodians (related to sharks) and sarcopterygians (lobe-finned fish, the group Hyneria belongs to) - including early tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) that are also found at the site.

Since the streams Hyneria lived in were likely murky and not conducive to hunting by eyesight, sensory canals allowed it to detect fish swimming near it and attack them.

"We discovered that the skull roof elements have openings on their surfaces that connect up, forming a network of tubes that would function like the sensory line system in some modern aquatic vertebrates," Daeschler said. "Similarly, we found a network of connected pores on the parts of the scales that would be exposed on the body of Hyneria."

All of the new information gleaned about Hyneria is doubly valuable because it provides more information about the ecosystem - and time period - it lived in. The Devonian was a pivotal time in vertebrate evolution, especially since some of Hyneria's fellow lobe-finned fish developed specialized fins that would take them onto land and eventually give rise to all limbed verterbates including reptiles, amphibians and mammals.

"Hyneria lived in a time and place that is of incredible interest to those of us studying the vertebrate fin-to-limb transition," Downs commented. "Each study like this one contributes more to our understanding of these ecosystems and what may have played a part in the successful transition to land."

Source: Drexel University [May 07, 2018]

Earth's orbital changes have influenced climate, life forms for at least 215 million years

Every 405,000 years, gravitational tugs from Jupiter and Venus slightly elongate Earth's orbit, an amazingly consistent pattern that has influenced our planet's climate for at least 215 million years and allows scientists to more precisely date geological events like the spread of dinosaurs, according to a Rutgers-led study.

Within ancient rocks in Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park, scientists have identified signs of a regular
variation in Earth's orbit that influences climate. Here, one of the authors near the research site
[Credit: Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory]

"It's an astonishing result because this long cycle, which had been predicted from planetary motions through about 50 million years ago, has been confirmed through at least 215 million years ago," said lead author Dennis V. Kent, a Board of Governors professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "Scientists can now link changes in the climate, environment, dinosaurs, mammals and fossils around the world to this 405,000-year cycle in a very precise way."

The scientists linked reversals in the Earth's magnetic field - when compasses point south instead of north and vice versa - to sediments with and without zircons (minerals with uranium that allow radioactive dating) as well as to climate cycles.

Rutgers University-New Brunswick Professor Dennis Kent with part of a 1,700-foot-long
 rock core through the Chinle Formation in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The
background includes boxed archives of cores from the Newark basin that were compared
with the Arizona core [Credit: Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University-New Brunswick]

"The climate cycles are directly related to how the Earth orbits the sun and slight variations in sunlight reaching Earth lead to climate and ecological changes," said Kent, who studies Earth's magnetic field. "The Earth's orbit changes from close to perfectly circular to about 5 percent elongated especially every 405,000 years."

The scientists studied the long-term record of reversals in the Earth's magnetic field in sediments in the Newark basin, a prehistoric lake that spanned most of New Jersey, and in sediments with volcanic detritus including zircons in the Chinle Formation in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. They collected a core of rock from the Triassic Period, some 202 million to 253 million years ago. The core is 2.5 inches in diameter and about 1,700 feet long, Kent said.

Sediments laid down in what is now Arizona more than 200 million years ago, before the rise of dinosaurs,
were matched with similar earlier cores taken in New York and New Jersey. Here, a freshly pulled core
[Credit: Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory]

The results showed that the 405,000-year cycle is the most regular astronomical pattern linked to the Earth's annual turn around the sun, he said.

Prior to this study, dates to accurately time when magnetic fields reversed were unavailable for 30 million years of the Late Triassic. That's when dinosaurs and mammals appeared and the Pangea supercontinent broke up. The break-up led to the Atlantic Ocean forming, with the sea-floor spreading as the continents drifted apart, and a mass extinction event that affected dinosaurs at the end of that period, Kent said.

"Developing a very precise time-scale allows us to say something new about the fossils, including their differences and similarities in wide-ranging areas," he said.

The findings are published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: Columbia University [May 07, 2018]