Animal painting found in cave is 44,000 years old

A section of the ancient cave art discovered in Indonesia that depicts a type of buffalo called an anoa, at right, facing several smaller human–animal figures.Credit: Ratno Sardi

World’s Oldest Story?

Researchers have found what they think may be the world’s oldest recorded story. A painting discovered on the wall of an Indonesian cave has been dated to 44,000 years old. The art appears to show a buffalo being hunted by part-human, part-animal creatures holding spears and possibly ropes. Details of the discovery were published in the journal Nature by archaeologists from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before. I mean, we’ve seen hundreds of rock art sites in this region, but we’ve never seen anything like a hunting scene.” says Adam Brumm, an archaeologist at Griffith University in Brisbane.

The depiction of these animal–human figures suggest that early humans in Sulawesi had the ability to conceive of things that do not exist in the natural world, say the researchers.

Drawings found in a cave called Leang Bulu'Sipong 4 in the south of Sulawesi

What do the drawings show?

The drawings were found in a cave called Leang Bulu'Sipong 4 in the south of Sulawesi, an Indonesian island east of Borneo. The panel, which is almost five metres wide, appears to show a type of buffalo called an anoa, plus wild pigs found on Sulawesi. It includes smaller figures that look human but have animal features such as tails and snouts. The painting shows an anoa flanked by several figures holding spears depicting a hunting scene. Some researchers, however, have questioned whether the panel represents a single story, or a series of images painted over a longer period.

The Lion Man. Stadel Cave, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, 40,000 years old. The oldest known evidence of religious belief in the world. © Ulmer Museum.

 The oldest such example from Europe is a half-lion, half-human ivory figure from Germany that researchers have estimated to be 40,000 years old - although some suggest that it might be significantly younger. The Lion Man sculpture found in Stadel Cave, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, has been described as a masterpiece. It provides the oldest known evidence of religious belief. It stands 31 centimetres tall and has the head of a cave lion with a partly human body.

How do we know it's 44,000 years old?

The team calculated the age of the painting by analysing the calcite that had built up on the painting. They found the calcite on a pig began forming at least 43,900 years ago, and the deposits on two buffalo were at least 40,900 years old. This material builds up in the exact same way that stalagmites and stalactites form in a cave.

The calcite incorporates small numbers of naturally occurring radioactive uranium atoms. These atoms decay into thorium at a very precise rate through the ages enabling researchers to determine the age of the artwork. Scientists take a very thin films of the deposit from just above the paint pigments. Because the film was on top, the dates generated were minimum ages. In other words, the paintings had to be at least as old as the calcite deposits and probably much older.

How does it compare to other prehistoric art?

However, the Indonesian drawing is not the oldest in the world. Last year scientists reported finding what was described as ‘humanity’s oldest drawing’ on a fragment of rock in South Africa which was 73,000 years old.

In 2018, a cave painting in Borneo - thought to be the oldest of an animal - was found to be at least 40,000 years old. It is thought to be the oldest example of figurative painting where real objects are depicted rather than abstract shapes. The researchers aren't certain what animal it represents, but it may be a banteng, a type of wild cow that lives in the area today.

This tracing of the cave wall shows the 40,000-year-old painting on the far right. The black box shows the area which was used for dating the cave art
(c) Nature

The painting was found in a system of caves in the remote and rugged mountains of East Kalimantan, an Indonesian province on Borneo. The caves contain thousands of other prehistoric paintings, drawings and other imagery, including hand stencils, animals, abstract signs and symbols.

Co-author Maxime Aubert, from Griffith University in Australia, commented:

"The oldest cave art image we dated is a large painting of an unidentified animal, probably a species of wild cattle still found in the jungles of Borneo - this has a minimum age of around 40,000 years and is now the earliest known figurative artwork."

The animal appears to have a spear shaft stuck in its flank and is one of a series of similar red-orange coloured paintings, which were made with iron-oxide pigment. These paintings, which include other depictions of animals along with hand stencils, appear to represent the oldest phase of art in the cave.

The researchers also dated two red-orange hand stencils, which produced minimum ages of 37,000 years. A third hand stencil had a maximum age of 51,800 years, even older than the animal painting. The authors conclude that rock art locally developed in Borneo between around 52,000 and 40,000 years ago. The older dates for cave artwork raise the distinct possibility that these early paintings were made by our Neanderthal cousins who shared our world with Homo Sapiens.

Re-construction of Neanderthal Man

Our distant relatives, the Neanderthals thrived in Europe for around 300,000 years before modern humans arrived. Excavations in Ibex, Vanguard, and Gorham’s Caves in Gibraltar have revealed evidence of Neanderthal occupation dating to possibly as late as 28,000 years ago. Modern humans interbred not only with Neanderthals, but also with our recently discovered relatives the Denisovans, as well as a currently unidentified population of pre-modern hominins.

Cranial features of Modern Man and Neanderthal compared

A jawbone from a man who lived 40,000 years ago reveals that six to nine percent of his genome is Neanderthal, the highest amount ever found in a modern human specimen. This remarkable find indicates that a Neanderthal was in his family as close as four generations back in his family tree - potentially his Great-Great Grandfather!

The use of symbolism - the ability to let one thing represent another in the mind - is one of those traits that set our animal species apart from all others. Tracing the origins of abstract thought and behaviours, and the rate at which they developed, are critical to understanding human development. It underpins artistic endeavour and the use of language.

For further information see:

(       https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03826-4

h    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46114423

h    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18449711

h   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs6DVTSOEOw

h   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx8ohlEAfy4&t=21s

Neolithic crannogs - New Scottish Discoveries

Lough Gara

Introduction

In earlier posts I discussed the crannogs of Lough Gara on the border between Co Sligo and Co Roscommon in Ireland. Crannogs are partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes, rivers, and estuarine waters of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They are commonly made of timber and stone and are occasionally built on existing rocky structures. They are widespread in Ireland, with an estimated 1,200 examples while Scotland has 347 sites officially listed. 

It had been thought that these artificial islands dated from the Iron Age. We now know that crannogs were used for over five thousand years from the European Neolithic Period to as late as the 17th/early 18th century. Four Western Isles sites in Scotland have recently been radiocarbon dated to about 3640-3360 BC in the Neolithic period - before the erection of Stonehenge's stone circle.

Aerial View of crannog in Loch Langabhat, Scotland
BBC News Scotland, Highlands and Islands

Crannogs, or at least platforms, may have been built on Lough Gara in the Late Mesolithic (5500 to 4000 BC). However, the practice of building on the shallow shores increased during the Late Bronze Age (1200–800 BC) and again in the Early Medieval period around 600 AD. Some crannogs were used as late as the 17th century. The recent research in Scotland points to some crannogs there being much older than previously thought prompting a reappraisal of dates for these structures.

Fredengren’s survey of Lough Gara found piling, timbers and brushwood stretching over a 40m area of white marl along the north-east shore of Inch Island. The wood deposit formed three groups, 3-4 m apart. A small number of posts could be seen in the water. One of the vertical timbers produced a radiocarbon date of 4230–3970 BC, indicating activity in the latest phases of the Mesolithic, while a brushwood piece indicated a date in the early Mesolithic, showing that there was human activity on Inch Island around 7330-7050 BC (Fredengren, 2002).

A diver holds a Neoilithic (c 3,500 BC) Ustan vessel
found near a crannog in Loch Arnish, Scotland.
BBC News Scotland, Highlands and Islands

Isle of Lewis

 Archaeologists Dr Duncan Garrow, of University of Reading, and Dr Fraser Sturt, from the University of Southampton, investigated four crannog artificial islands in the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles. At one of the sites well-preserved Neolithic pottery had previously been found on the loch bed. The archaeologists said the crannogs represented "a monumental effort" through the piling up of boulders on the loch bed, and in the case of a site in Loch Bhorgastail, the building of a stone causeway. The archaeologists believe it is possible other Scottish crannogs, and similar sites in Ireland, were also Neolithic.

Eight radiocarbon dates were recorded from the structural timbers used in the building of the four crannogs on the Isle of Lewis and six of these fell within the Neolithic era.  The research also shows for the first time that the pots were likely to have been intentionally placed in the water around the crannogs.

The condition of the nearly intact Neolithic ceramic vessels found in the water around the crannogs was described as “amazing” by Duncan Garrow, who co-authored the paper. “I’ve never seen anything like it in British archaeology,” he says. “People seem to have been chucking this stuff in the water.”

Neolithic crannog of Eilean Domhnuill,
North Uist, Scotland

Loch Tay

Since 1980 archaeologists have explored the waters of Loch Tay for crannogs and have excavated one at Oakbank, just off the village of Fearnan. Preserved in the loch's cold, peaty waters were structural timbers, food, utensils and 2600-year-old clothing. They even discovered a butter dish with butter still clinging to the inside of it.

In 1994 experimental archaeologists from the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology reconstructed a crannog on Loch Tay using the same material as the original at Oakbank. The reconstruction at Kenmore involved building a thatched roundhouse on a timber platform 15m across, which was connected to the shore by a timber causeway 20m long. The whole structure is supported on 168 timber piles.

Considerable skill is required to build a crannog. The first stage was to create an artificial island out of timber piles. Alder trees, 8-10m long, were used for the piles. Considerable work would have been required to pull the alder piles into a vertical position. The original crannog builders then faced the task of how to drive the alder piles up to 2m into the loch bed using only Iron Age technology. Archaeologists think that a crosspole would have been lashed to the upright pile and twisted back and forth to create enough force to drive it two metres into the loch bed.

Rathtinaun crannog (Late Bronze Age),
Lough Gara, Co Sligo, Ireland.

Conclusion

Whilst it had been thought that crannogs dated from the Iron Age, we now know that they were used for over five thousand years from the Neolithic Period to as late as the 17th/early 18th century. Dating crannogs is complicated by multi-periods of occupancy as noted, for example, in the case of Rathtinaun crannog, Lough Gara, where the foundations date from the Late Bronze Age with evidence of reuse in the Early Medieval Period.

Archaeologists can only speculate as to why the Scottish crannogs were built, how they were used, and why they became places for pottery disposal. Vicki Cummings, an expert in Neolithic monuments from the University of Central Lancashire suggests the sites’ isolation, and the pottery that surrounds them, could point to rituals that marked life transitions like the passage from childhood to adulthood.

Paper co-author Duncan Garrow admits the research is only just beginning. His team plans to conduct a broader survey to date more crannogs in the Outer Hebrides. In the meantime, the Scottish findings provides support for the earlier Mesolithic and Neolithic dates recorded by Fredengren for some of Lough Gara’s sites.

Christina Fredengren (2002) Crannogs: A study of people's interaction with lakes, with particular reference to Lough Gara in the north-west of Ireland

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-48625734

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/culture-history/2019/06/artificial-islands-older-stonehenge-stump-scientists

https://letterfromballinloughane.blogspot.com/2014/08/lough-gara-why-is-this-lake-important.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtEObzvwo4Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i931HbTN9z4  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1teGofZCk4  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=461QhIFau6g  

Eleanor of Aquitaine and Bradwell Abbey

Front view of the stone carving of Eleanor of Aquitaine

 that was discovered. (Milton Keynes Council)

           Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, has been in the news recently with the discovery of a carved stone head believed to be of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The discovery was made during conservation work. Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of England’s most powerful queens and one of the most important women in medieval Europe. Scholars are excited about the find as there are very few contemporary artistic representations of the queen.

Bradwell Abbey Chapel

Bradwell Abbey

Bradwell Abbey was founded around 1154 and dissolved during the English Reformation. The carving is thought to date from the 12^th century. Around 181 hectares of land were granted to Meinfelin (Lord of Wolverton) for the establishment of a Benedictine priory to the west of Bradwell.

In common with many small priories, the number of monks in the Abbey seems to have always been small. The famine of 1316 struck the Buckingham area hard with contemporary accounts of people being found dead from starvation at the side of the road.  This was followed by the Black Death (1348-1350), which caused heavy mortality in the Buckingham area, particularly amongst monastic orders. At the dissolution of the priory, the dormitory had accommodation for only five monks.

Around 1330, after the famine and before the Black Death, the surviving chapel of St. Mary dedicated to "Our Ladie of Bradwell" was built against the west front of the church. Under the Act for the Suppression of Minor Houses, Bradwell Priory was given to Cardinal Wolsey, by papal consent in July 1524.

Eleanor of Aquitaine. (Rezo1515 / CC BY-SA 4.0 )

Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204), was one of the most remarkable women in the Middle Ages. She was born to William X, Duke of Aquitaine, the most powerful noble in France and upon her father’s death controlled more territory in France than the king himself. She married the French monarch Louis VII in 1152 but they were later estranged, and their marriage was annulled. She married the future Henry II of England, a monarch who ruled from southern France to Ireland, which is known as the Angevin Empire. Her marriage to the English king, who was 11 years her junior, was turbulent and many believe that she encouraged her sons to rebel against their father.

King Henry of England

On 25 October 1154, Henry became king of England. Eleanor was crowned queen of England by the archbishop of Canterbury on 19 December 1154. Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan.

His realm extended from Ireland to the Pyrenees. King Henry II was the first king of the Plantagenet dynasty and brought a new level of organization to the English government. Henry II was also the first to establish an English presence in Ireland. He spent just 14 years in total on English soil. Henry 11 is credited with being a careful administrator who overhauled the English judicial system.

Henry and Thomas à Beckett

Henry and Thomas à Beckett

Henry’s reign was marked by disputes with his chancellor, Thomas à Beckett, who was also archbishop of Canterbury. Ultimately, the story goes, Henry said, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Four knights rode to Canterbury, called Thomas a traitor and tried to drag him outside. Thomas refused to go and said, “No traitor but a priest of God.” The knights struck him on the head with their swords. He fell to the floor of the cathedral, dead.

Revolt and capture

In March 1173, annoyed at his lack of power and spurred on by Henry's enemies, his son Henry launched the Revolt of 1173–1174. Eleanor was imprisoned for 16 years, much of the time in various locations in England.

Henry lost the woman believed to be his great love, Rosamund Clifford, in 1176. He had met her in 1166 and had begun their liaison in 1173, allegedly contemplating divorce from Eleanor. This notorious affair caused a monkish scribe to transcribe Rosamund's name in Latin to "Rosa Immundi", or "Rose of Unchastity".

When Henry II died, her eldest son Richard I (the Lionheart) became king and Eleanor became his key advisor. On the death of Richard, her other son John was crowned King John I.

King Richard I effigy
Church of Fontevraud

Richard I of England

Richard I was King of England from 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of

Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony. He was an extremely able military leader famous for his several victories in the battlefield, the most celebrated being against Saladin, the Muslim leader during the Third Crusade.

King John

King John

John was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire. His reign was marked by disputes between John and his barons and bishops. King John is best remembered for granting Magna Carta in June 1215, although he sought its annulment almost immediately.

The Crusades 

The Crusades were organized by western European Christians after centuries of Muslim wars of expansion. Their primary objectives were to stop the expansion of Muslim states, to reclaim for Christianity the Holy Land in the Middle East, and to recapture territories that had formerly been Christian.

In 1147, Eleanor accompanied her husband on the Second Crusade, travelling to Constantinople and Jerusalem. The Second Crusade failed because the Christian armies were not able to take control of Edessa or Damascus. The result was a victory for the Muslim forces and a defeat for the Christians in 1149

Church of Fontevraud Abbey
Eleanor of Aquitaine Effigy

Conclusion

Although further research may be needed to verify that the head is that of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was both Queen of France and England, this discovery is exciting. Perhaps, Queen Eleanor made a pilgrimage to Bradwell? Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband Henry and her son Richard. By the time of her death she had outlived all her children except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/eleanor-aquitaine-0012592

https://www.archaeology.org/news/8008-190916-england-eleanor-of-aquitaine

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/henry-ii-0011231

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVOFwLfchWA 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IhdUVPp8G0  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y66LJ512Diw  

Walking the Camino

Arriving in the main square, Santiago

Our Pilgrimage

Pilgrim, who calls you?

What secret power draws you? (Anon.)

Santiago was the destination of one of the great pilgrimages of the Middle Ages. Pilgrims set out from all over Europe and converged as they crossed the Pyrenees and entered Spain. Then the Way of St James led to the great cities of Burgos and Leon and on to the shrine in the Field of the Star (Campus Stellae – Compostela) where the bones of St James were believed to lie and now a magnificent cathedral stands.

In early July, together with my son John, we walked as a group of 24 pilgrims from Sarria to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, a distance 70 miles. King Alfonso IX died at Sarria in 1230 while on pilgrimage to the great shrine and his remains lie in the Cathedral of St James the Great. Our walk took us through beautiful undulating Spanish countryside with shady oaks, quiet country roads, sleepy villages with small stone churches and through forest track in the eucalyptus woods.

The Mount of Joy where medieval pilgrims first saw
the spires of Santiago Cathedral

We visited the Romanesque fortress-church of San Nicolas (13 c) in Portomarin. In 1962 the valley was flooded by the creation of the Belesar reservoir. The entire town was moved to higher ground on the west bank. The stones of the façade of the Church of San Pedro (1182) and those of the -church of San Nicolas were numbered to aid reconstruction when the town was moved. At Lavacolla early pilgrims washed themselves in the river before their arrival in Santiago. At the Mount of Joy (Monte Del Gozo), medieval pilgrims first saw the spires of Santiago Cathedral.

Stone carving of Our Lady
Santiago

One of the few carved stone images depicting Our Lady when she was about six months pregnant can be seen decorating an old building in Santiago Old Town. She is shown with her left hand touching her stomach.

In the Middle Ages, Santiago, together with Rome and Jerusalem, were regarded as ‘great pilgrimages’. Santiago was, and still is, one of the largest centres of pilgrimage in the Christian world. The cathedral is the reliquary of the Apostle St James. The first church over the tomb of the Apostle was built by King Alfonso II in around 830-840.

The Apostle James

The Apostle James was one of Jesus’ closest disciples and was present at some significant events in the Gospels including: The Healing of Jairus’ Daughter (Mark 5:21-24a and 35-43); The Transfiguration (Luke 9: 23-36) and in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14: 32-42). He was killed by King Herod. The supposed tomb of St James discovered in 813 led to increase in the number of pilgrims to Santiago and the building of the original church. In 899 a new cathedral was consecrated and in 1075 the second cathedral was begun. The third cathedral was started in 1100. In 1181 a Papal Bull confirmed Santiago’s status as a major pilgrimage site.

After 1300 the number of pilgrims visiting Santiago declined due to the Black Death, wars and schism. In 1879 excavations at the cathedral revealed the reburial site and relics of the Apostle. In 1884 the relics were authenticated by Pope Leo XIII and replaced under the high altar. In 1948 pilgrimage and Holy Year were publicised outside Spain and the number of pilgrims grew. Pope John Paul II visited Santiago in 1982 and again in 1989. Pope Benedict XVI’s official visit to Spain in 2010 began at the cathedral.

Fording a stream in Galicia

My lasting image of the Camino is walking along narrow country lanes, through small stone-walled fields, with a profusion of foxgloves on either side all seeming to point towards Santiago de Compostela. When the Lord scattered those seeds, did He think of a pilgrim like me, I wondered? I would like to think that he did!

210,000-Year-Old Homo sapiens Skull Oldest Outside Africa

A 210,000-year-old human skull found in Greece
Source: Esben 468635/Adobe stock

The website https://www.ancient-origins.net/ reports that a 210,000-year-old human skull found in Greece in the 1970s could provide new evidence that our species left Africa much earlier than previously thought. If the claim is verified, the discovery will rewrite a key chapter of the human story, with the skull becoming the oldest known Homo sapiens fossil in Europe by more than 90,000 years.

Early Expansion not Maintained

The first fossil evidence for any modern humans outside Africa comes from the Middle East, from the archaeological sites of Skhul and Qafzeh in Israel, dating to around 120,000 years ago. However, this early expansion of modern humans was not maintained. A change to a colder climate may have driven those pioneers back into Africa. The expansion of our own species out of Africa that eventually led to the colonisation of the globe would start later – after 100,000 years ago.

A re-evaluation of early human remains and artefacts from Morocco has pushed back the advent of Homo sapiens by 100,000 years. Archaeologists and palaeontologists now think that the oldest of the fossils comes from 300,000 to 350,000 years ago. Skulls, teeth, and long bones of at least five Homo sapiens, along with stone tools and animal bones, have been found at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco since 2004.

Stone Tools

Although stone tools were found all over Africa by 300,000 years ago, human fossils were thought to be no older than 195,000 years old. One possibility was that the stone tools had been made by some hominid (any member of the group consisting of all modern and extinct humans and great apes - including gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans - and all their immediate ancestors) other than Homo sapiens. Jebel Irhoud is the oldest and richest African Middle Stone Age hominin site that documents early stages of the Homo sapiens.

Hominins, which may have originated in Africa up to 6 million years ago, include all the species that emerged after the Homo genus, split from that of chimpanzees. Humans and chimpanzees are very closely related and separated about 7.4 million years ago.  There is only a 1% difference between the chimpanzee genome and our own suggesting that we have a common ancestor.

Apidima 2 and its reconstruction.
(c) Katerina Harvati, Eberhard Karls: University of Tubinggen

Apidima Cave

The human skull from Greece was one of two cranial fossils found in Apidima Cave, on the southwestern coast of the Peloponnese in Greece. Both were initially identified as Neanderthals. The discovery of these skulls provides evidence of an earlier migration of people from Africa that left no trace in the DNA of people alive today. One skull was very distorted and the other incomplete. The more complete skull appears to be a Neanderthal. But the other shows clear characteristics, such as a rounded back to the skull, diagnostic of modern humans.

A multinational team from the University of Tubinggen in Germany, led by Katerina Harvati, reconstructed the specimens digitally and dated them by measuring their radioactive decay and confirmed that the skull known as Apidima 2 was an early Neanderthal dating from around 170,000 years ago. Scientists also digitally recreated the skull known as Apidima 1 and found that it was more likely a modern human (Homo sapiens), dating it to 210,000 years ago.

Human fossils from Daoxian and Zhirendong

Palaeontologists have discovered modern human fossils from Daoxian and Zhirendong in China dating to between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago. DNA studies indicate that there was early interbreeding between African humans and Neanderthals.

The new evidence from Apidima further extends our understanding of modern human dispersal and interaction with other hominin species. Human evolution has been thought of in terms of new species developing and replacing older simpler ones. Modern humans were thought to have left Africa and moved across the world from around 70,000 years ago replacing the Neanderthals in Europe about 40,000 years ago.  New fossil discoveries, improvements in their dating and the advent of genetic evidence, has led to a reappraisal of the distribution of modern humans.

Adult Male Cranium 'H.naledi'
from Lesed 1 Chamber, Naledi, South Africa

Neanderthals, Homo naledi and Denisovans

Evidence from modern day Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, suggest the first wave of modern humans out of Africa were replaced by Neanderthals, before the final, more successful human migration that followed. In southern Africa, modern humans were alive at the same time as a much smaller and seemingly more primitive species called Homo naledi . Genetic evidence from Siberia and Tibet has identified a new hominin species – the Denisovans – that shared a history of interbreeding and interaction with Neanderthals. DNA analysis of our own genomes shows that the Neanderthals bred with our own species.

People living today who are of European, Eurasian, and Asian descent have well-identified Neanderthal-derived segments in their genome. Present-day Africans, however, do not have detectable traces of Neanderthal DNA in their genomes. This shows that whatever sexual contact occurred between modern humans and Neanderthals happened among humans who left the African continent. 

People living outside Africa today trace their ancestry to a migration that left the continent around 60,000 years ago. As modern humans moved across Europe and Asia, they largely replaced other species they met, such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Cranial features of Modern Man and Neanderthal compared

If at least some early modern humans left Africa more than 210,000 years ago, they may have settled in the Levant (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel and Jordan) before expanding west into Europe, which was already home to Neanderthals. Scientists believe that any early human pioneers who did reach Europe died out there, before the Neanderthals themselves were replaced by an influx of Homo sapiens about 40,000 years ago.

Conclusion

A 210,000-year-old human skull found in Greece in the 1970s could provide new evidence that our species left Africa much earlier than previously thought, becoming the oldest known Homo sapiens fossil in Europe by more than 90,000 years. Some experts, however, question whether the skull really belonged to a modern human. Concerns have also been expressed about the dating procedure used. For now, at least, the jury is still out on this recent ‘Earth breaking’ discovery!
For further information see:
https://www.ancient-origins.net/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YwlBl8WLb0

The Irish Beaker People

Newgrange Passage Tomb

In previous blog posts I discussed the Beaker culture, characterised by its bell-shaped pottery, including DNA evidence for the movement of these early people. When the Beaker culture arrived in Britain and Ireland 4,500 years ago, it was brought by migrants who almost completely replaced the existing inhabitants within a few hundred years. Beaker burials are distinctive and include Beaker ware or pottery.

In his paper Into the west: placing Beakers within their Irish contexts, the author Neil Carlin, points out that the Beaker culture in Ireland is viewed as being rich in settlement evidence. Funerary evidence, on the other hand, is more scarce consisting primarily of collective burials in original megalithic tombs or as secondary burials in earlier sacred sites. Evidence of the Beaker people has also been found in cists and pits.

Example of Beaker Pottery

Beaker Artefacts

Ireland is known for its Beaker-associated copper industry. For example, Beaker pottery was found during the excavation of an ore-processing camp connected with the Early Bronze Age mine at Ross Island, Co. Kerry. Neil Carlin’s paper lists the following items as examples of Beaker origin: polypod bowls, wrist-bracers, V-perforated buttons, basket-shaped earrings, early gold discs, lunulae, copper daggers, small disc beads, small convex scrapers, barbed and tanged arrowheads as well as hollow-based arrowheads.

In Ireland, different types of Beaker objects are rarely found together but in Britain several different Beaker associated objects tend to occur together in the same context. The dating of the Beaker evidence in Ireland remains poorly understood although one archaeologist has argued that the use of Beaker ceramics continued from 2500/2400 to 1900 BC. Finds of beaker pottery in Ireland are mainly found in pits along with artefacts such as lithic, burnt and unburnt animal bone and the charred remains of cereals and fruit.

Stone-lined Pit

At Monadreela, Co. Tipperary, a stone-lined oval pit produced evidence for in situ burning and contained 110 sherds from at least 10 Beakers, fragments of cremated human bone, a large quantity of hazelnuts and acorns together with a small polished stone axe.

Burnt mounds are the most common prehistoric monument in Ireland with over 7,000 examples identified. At Cherrywood, Co. Dublin, a spread of burnt stone and charcoal consisted of two layers that produced ten sherds of Beaker pottery from one pot, 33 lithics including a convex scraper and two hammer stones, and an animal tooth. The tooth was radiocarbon dated to 2400 -2100 BC. Under the mound were eight troughs one of which contained sherds of Grooved Ware.

Early Bronze Age Burial
(c) asi-louth.ie

Wedge Tombs and Cists

Beaker pottery has been recovered from at least 13 of the 25 wedge tomb sites excavated and has been associated with human bones often from collective burials including inhumations and cremations. The construction of wedge tombs has been dated to the period 2400-2050 BC.  

Beaker pottery has been found in eight cists together with burials. At Gortcobies, Co. Derry, fragments of cremated human bone accompanied by convex scrapers, sherds of Late Beakers and a pygmy bowl were recovered from a rectangular stone chamber at the centre of an oval cairn. Neil Carlin points out that, overall, there are very few Beaker grave goods from cists.

Gold lunula, Monaghan
(c)National Museum of Ireland

Portal Tombs and Passage Tombs

Beaker finds from portal tombs are much less common and are usually associated with disturbed deposits. Beaker pottery has only been found in one portal tomb at Poulnabrone, Co. Clare, where two Beaker sherds and a hollow-based arrowhead were found. However, these could not be positively associated with human remains from this tomb.

V-perforated buttons have been found in four passage tombs, including the Mound of the Hostages at Tara, Co. Meath, where three were found in the passage. One button was associated with a bronze awl and a crouched inhumation with a bowl beside its head. A disk bead necklace was also found in the passage with another crouched inhumation and two bowls.

Many Beaker objects have been found in natural locations such as bogs, mountains and rivers. Neil Carlin points out that copper metalwork is mainly retrieved from bogs which have produced 46% of all axes (n= 400) and 40% of all daggers (n= 15). Sixteen of the 44 lunulae and two possible gold discs have all been found in bogs. Battle-axes were mainly deposited in rivers. Only two out of 15 copper daggers and a single lunulae have come from rivers and lakes.

Conclusion

In Ireland, only a relatively small number of burials with Beaker artefacts have been identified which contrasts with the situation in Britain. Most of the pottery is been found in pits while many of the non-ceramic artefacts come from natural places such as bogs.

Bowl-inhumations, which consist of a crouched inhumation within a cist accompanied by a pot beside the head, appear to represent the Irish version of Beaker burials after 2200 BC. These burials tend to be accompanied by grave goods including boars’ tusks, flint scrapers, arrowheads, knives, awls and bangles, bone toggles, belt rings, beads and buttons of jet-like materials.

Neil Carlin notes:

Currently, there is no evidence to suggest a direct association between the construction of any large-scale earthen monuments and the use of Beakers in Ireland. In fact, no monuments apart from one possible pit circle, a few ring ditches and many wedge tombs and cists were created by Beaker users. This differs strongly from the association of Beakers with the erection of monuments like Silbury Hill and possibly also the Stonehenge blue stones in the south of Britain.

Reconstruction of a Beaker burial
(c) National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid.

Beaker objects in Ireland do not seem to have shared the same associations with the dead that these objects did in Britain. It has been suggested that deposits in graves related to the individual and those if natural places with the wider community. Neil Carlin suggests that this may indicate that there was not the same preoccupation with individuality that has been proposed for Britain. In Ireland, communal identities were expressed through the construction and use of wedge tombs and the re-use of Neolithic megalithic tombs.

For further information see:

Into the West: placing Beakers within their Irish contexts.

In A. M. Jones & G. Kirkham (eds.) Beyond the Core: Reflections on Regionality in Prehistory, 2011

OXBOW Books 2011

New Human Species Discovered in the Philippines

The excavation site at Callao Cave, Luzon Island, Philippines.
(c) Callao Cave Archaeology Project

A new human relative?

A recent article featured on www.ancient-origins.net reports that researchers working in a cave in the Philippines claim to have found a new, previously unknown, species to add to human history. This hominin (any member of the group consisting of all modern and extinct humans and great apes - including gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans - and all their immediate ancestors) was probably less than four feet high and had some of the characteristics of modern people but also anatomical features from much earlier hominins. 

The latest in a series of finds of early humans in the Philippines was made by archaeologists as they were digging in the floor of Callao Cave on Luzon island. A team of experts, led by Professor Philip Piper, from the Australian National University, found several fossils unlike anything else in the world. The fossil remains included adult finger and toe bones, as well as teeth. The femur bone of a juvenile was also unearthed. The remains are estimated to be about 50,000 years old and date from a time when several human species co-existed on the planet.

Five upper teeth of a single individual provisionally named 'Homo luzonensis
(c) Callao Cave Archaeology Project

The height of the new humans was determined by the size of the tooth and the other bones although more evidence is required to confirm this. This newly discovered species may be related to Homo floresiensis found on the Indonesian island of Flores which was also under four feet in height. The new species of human had ‘long, curved fingers and toes’ suggesting that it was as comfortable scrambling up trees as walking upright. This previously unknown species has been provisionally named Homo luzonensis.

Humans Migrated ‘Out of Africa’ a Lot Earlier than Previously Thought

It is now known that modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago before migrating to other continents. In January 2018 a group of archaeologists from Tel Aviv University working at Mount Carmel, Israel discovered the upper jaw bone of a Homo sapiens in a layer of sediment with tools previously attributed to Neanderthals. This discovery pushed back the date for human migration out of Africa by about 40,000 years confirming the theory that there was more than one expansion phase with different groups leaving over a long period.

The Neanderthals thrived in Europe for around 300,000 years before modern humans arrived. Excavations in Ibex, Vanguard, and Gorham’s Caves in Gibraltar have revealed evidence of Neanderthal occupation dating to possibly as late as 28,000 years ago. This makes Gibraltar the most recent Neanderthal occupation site yet discovered. The ancestors of modern humans interbred with Neanderthals and another extinct line of humans known as the Denisovans. Modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans shared a common ancestor who lived roughly 600,000 years ago.

Humans and chimpanzees are very closely related and separated about 7.4 million years ago.  There is only a 1% difference between the chimpanzee genome and our own suggesting that we have a common ancestor. Homo sapiens represents the last of a long line of hominin races that once consisted of five different species spanning four continents.

Homo Sapiens Sophistication

Most human traits are found in lesser degrees in other species. Researchers point out that humans, compared to other apes, are highly social, primarily use culture to adapt to their environment, and are very skilled at language. These traits have allowed humans to be much more adaptable and resilient in the face of a changing environment. Other animals, including great apes and dolphins, have capacities for abstract thought and language skills but these abilities are especially pronounced in Homo Sapiens.

Thanks to new techniques, including advances in DNA analysis, it is now possible to learn more about extinct species of human than ever before. The evidence is pointing not to one unbroken chain of human ancestors but a rich family tree with several offshoots. Our family tree is now filled with not only direct ancestors like Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus but also cousins and distant relatives like Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Denisova.

Homo Heidelbergensis

Homo Heidelbergensis or Heidelberg man walked the earth about 600,000 years ago in Africa, parts of Asia, and Europe and is believed to be the direct ancestor of Neanderthals. They were using stone tipped spears to hunt large prey and may be the first species of homo to intentionally bury their dead.

Homo Denisova

One of the more recent discoveries of an extinct human species was made at the Denisova Cave in Siberia as recently as 2008. Advances in DNA analysis has made it possible to sequence the genome of Homo Denisova. Some people in Tibet have traces of Denisovan DNA in the same way that some Europeans have a minute percentage of Neanderthal DNA. In 2018, some ten years after the discovery of Homo Denisova, at the Denisova cave a small fragment of bone was positively identified as the direct offspring of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan. The female offspring, nicknamed ‘Denny’, had survived to approximately 13 years of age.

Skeleton of Neanderthal Child found at Roc de Marsal, Dordogne, France
(c) Musee National de Prehistoire

Neanderthals May Have Pioneered Cave Art

In 2018 scientists revealed the origins of some cave art in Spain was Neanderthal rather than human. The discovery supports the theory that Neanderthals and modern humans were not as different to one another as previously presumed. An international team of scientists dated the calcite (crystal) layer which had formed on top of the ancient artwork and concluded that the art must have been there beforehand and must be older than it. Results revealed the artwork predated the arrival of modern humans in the region by a minimum of 20,000 years.

Conclusion

Researchers in the Philippines claim to have found a new, previously unknown, species to add to human history. The remains are estimated to be about 50,000 years old and date from a time when several human species co-existed on the planet. This new species has been provisionally named Homo luzonensis and was probably less than four feet tall. This exciting discovery gives new meaning to the phrase ‘We are not alone’!
For more information please see:
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/new-human-species-0011725
https://www.ancient-origins.net/human-origins-science/11-mysterious-extinct-human-species-0011564

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGN2DvDYWgc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMf8pgXRMvs