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Archaeologists have made an "unparalleled" discovery in East Yorkshire of a chariot buried with two horses, which look as if they "were leaping upwards out of the grave."

The chariot with its ponies [Credit: David Keys]

The pair had been carefully positioned in the Iron Age grave at Pocklington with their back legs bent and hooves just off the ground - ready to spring into the next life.

The chariot - with a man aged in his late 40 upwards in a fetal position inside - had also been buried upright, as though the vehicle was ready to roll on "into any future life."

Archaeologists say the horses may have originally been buried with their heads sticking out of the grave, although when found they were headless.

The discovery comes just a year after another Iron Age chariot and two well-preserved horses were discovered on another building site in the town, David Wilson Homes’ Pavilion Square development.

The horses were buried with a "highly regarded member of the community" who was in his late 40s or older, whose head was surrounded by the bones of six piglets, believed to be an offering, along with a well-preserved shield and a highly decorative brooch.

East Yorkshire is known for its chariot burials but Paula Ware from MAP Archaeological Practice said the type of burial rite had “no British parallel."

The excavation of an Iron Age chariot burial near Pocklington, Yorkshire [Credit: David Keys]

She said: "We couldn't tell how they were placed in the grave. Both were still upright and they were placed as though in motion as if they were leaping out of the grave. It looked as though their skulls were removed centuries ago.

"Possibly the heads were coming out of the graves. Did they go in alive who knows? There's no evidence of a ramp. This is a new burial rite which has never been seen before.

"How spectacular this is - and what time and effort must have gone into it and the people who must have taken part in this burial process, digging this 4.7m by 3.9m grave.

"There is more pig bone in this burial than there has been seen in burials across the Wolds.

"He is honoured with at least six piglets - normally there would be a quarter of a jaw. He was someone so significant."

Nearby was another amazing find - a young man aged 17 to 25 - who had been "ritually speared" with 10 iron and bone spears.

The excavation of the remains of a speared Iron Age man near Pocklington, Yorkshire [Credit: David Keys]

He had suffered blunt force trauma indicative of being in a conflict. It has been suggested by other experts following similar discoveries that it could be a ritual to ensure the corpse remained dead.

But Ms Ware believes it was to release the youngster's spirit, and was a sign of respect from the community.

Ms Ware said: "We will never know because there was no written word and we can only speculate." Simon Usher, managing director at Persimmon Homes Yorkshire, said: “Everyone has been absolutely thrilled by the finds.

"Keeping the news under wraps while the excavation was completed has been a real challenge, but so important to ensure the integrity of the site.”

Author: Alex Wood | Source: The Yorkshire Post [December 09, 2018]

Early in human history, people were willing to make enormous sacrifices in order to satisfy their deities. Some cave dwellers even cut off their own fingers, according to new research.

These are examples of negative hand images with missing fingers on calcite draperies in Cosquer Cave, located in Calanque de Morgiou, France [Credit: Jean Clottes]

It was a mystery archaeologists couldn’t figure out for decades. Cave paintings nearly 27,000 years old sometimes depicted hands with missing fingers — but why?

A team of anthropologists and archaeologists from British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University now believe humans in the Upper Palaeolithic era amputated their fingers in religious rituals and that the incredibly painful experience might have helped groups of humans form intensely strong bonds.

Master’s student Brea McCauley and supervisors David Maxwell and Mark Collard combed through records dating back to the 1600s for examples of researchers and travellers who noted the practice of finger amputation.

McCauley, who led the team, was surprised to find examples of finger amputation on every continent humans inhabit.

“We did not expect, in the slightest, to find 121 societies that engaged in finger amputation,” McCauley said in an interview.

Closwer view of hand images in Cosquer Cave [Credit: Fanny Broadcast/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images]

In one instance, a cave in France featured hand paintings from 50 different individuals, including men, women and children. Many had fingers missing.

The team posited that finger amputation was likely done as either a sign of mourning or as a sacrifice in order to appeal to a deity for assistance. And the ritual may have helped, but likely not in the way early humans thought.

Group amputations of people’s fingers in a highly ritualized practice probably had the “side effect” of creating powerful bonds among participants, said Collard, an archaeology professor at SFU.

Existing research suggests deeply uncomfortable experiences can in fact make people more loyal to others who share the same trauma, explained McCauley.

“These rituals that might be painful or might cause emotional distress create really strong communities. They bind people as though they are family,” she said.

“So that means they are really likely to look out for one another and that means they might be hostile to other groups because they are so bounded inward.”

While these rituals were happening during the Upper Palaeolithic era, modern humans spread across much of the world and out competed neanderthals.

The research is published in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology.

Author: Wanyee Li | Source: The Star Vancouver [December 07, 2018]

A team of researchers from France, Sweden, and Denmark have identified a new strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, in DNA extracted from 5,000-year-old human remains. Their analyses, published in the journal Cell, suggest that this strain is the closest ever identified to the genetic origin of plague. Their work also suggests that plague may have been spread among Neolithic European settlements by traders, contributing to the settlements' decline at the dawn of the Bronze Age.

The remains of a 20-year old woman (Gokhem2) from around 4900 BP that was killed by the first plague pandemic. She was one of the victims of a plague pandemic  that likely lead to the decline of the Neolithic societies in Europe [Credit: Karl-Göran Sjögren/University of Gothenburg]

"Plague is maybe one of the deadliest bacteria that has ever existed for humans. And if you think of the word 'plague,' it can mean this infection by Y. pestis, but because of the trauma plague has caused in our history, it's also come to refer more generally to any epidemic. The kind of analyses we do here let us go back through time and look at how this pathogen that's had such a huge effect on us evolved," says senior author Simon Rasmussen, a metagenomics researcher at the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen.

To better understand the evolutionary history of the plague, Rasmussen and his colleagues trawled through publicly available genetic data from ancient humans, screening for sequences similar to more modern plague strains. They found a strain they had never seen before in the genetic material of a 20-year-old woman who died approximately 5,000 years ago in Sweden. The strain had the same genes that make the pneumonic plague deadly today and traces of it were also found in another individual at the same grave site -- suggesting that the young woman did likely die of the disease.

This strain of the plague is the oldest that's ever been discovered. But what makes it particularly interesting is that, by comparing it to other strains, the researchers were able to determine that it's also the most basal -- meaning that it's the closest strain we have to the genetic origin of Y. pestis. It likely diverged from other strains around 5,700 years ago, while the plague that was common in the Bronze Age and the plague that is the ancestor of the strains in existence today diverged 5,300 and 5,100 years ago, respectively. This suggests that there were multiple strains of plague in existence at the end of the Neolithic period.

Rasmussen also believes that this finding offers a new theory about how plague spreads. Massive human migrations from the Eurasian steppe down into Europe are known to have occurred around 5,000 years ago, but how these cultures were able to displace the Neolithic farming culture that was present in Europe at the time is still debated. Previous researchers have suggested that the invaders brought the plague with them, wiping out the large settlements of Stone Age farmers when they arrived.

How researchers believe the plague spread [Credit: Gothenburg University]

But if the strain of plague the researchers found in the Swedish woman diverged from the rest of Y. pestis 5,700 years ago, that means it likely evolved before these migrations began and around the time that the Neolithic European settlements were already starting to collapse.

At the time, mega-settlements of 10,000-20,000 inhabitants were becoming common in Europe, which made job specialization, new technology, and trade possible. But they also may have been the breeding ground for plague. "These mega-settlements were the largest settlements in Europe at that time, ten times bigger than anything else. They had people, animals, and stored food close together, and, likely, very poor sanitation. That's the textbook example of what you need to evolve new pathogens," says Rasmussen.

"We think our data fit. If plague evolved in the mega-settlements, then when people started dying from it, the settlements would have been abandoned and destroyed. This is exactly what was observed in these settlements after 5,500 years ago. Plague would also have started migrating along all the trade routes made possible by wheeled transport, which had rapidly expanded throughout Europe in this period," he says.

Eventually, he suggests, the plague would have arrived through these trade interactions at the small settlement in Sweden where the woman his team studied lived. Rasmussen argues that the woman's own DNA also provides further evidence for this theory -- she isn't genetically related to the people who invaded Europe from the Eurasian steppe, supporting the idea that this strain of plague arrived before the mass migrations did. The archaeology also supports this hypothesis, as there were still no signs of the invaders by the time she died.

Some of the remains examined [Credit: Karl-Göran Sjögren/ University of Gothenburg]

Of course, there are some limitations to what the data from this study can tell us. Most importantly, the researchers have not yet identified the plague in individuals from the mega-settlements where it may have evolved. "We haven't really found the smoking gun, but it's partly because we haven't looked yet. And we'd really like to do that, because if we could find plague in those settlements, that would be strong support for this theory," says Rasmussen.

Regardless, he believes that this study is a step toward understanding how plague -- and other pathogens -- became deadly. "We often think that these superpathogens have always been around, but that's not the case," he says. "Plague evolved from an organism that was relatively harmless. More recently, the same thing happened with smallpox, malaria, Ebola, and Zika. This process is very dynamic -- and it keeps happening. I think it's really interesting to try to understand how we go from something harmless to something extremely virulent."

Source: Cell Press [December 06, 2018]

A mysterious male skeleton, lying face-down deep in the Thames mud, with a pair of in-situ thigh-high leather boots has been discovered by MOLA archaeologists working on one of the sites being used to build London’s super sewer in Bermondsey.

The booted man discovered on the Tideway site at Chambers Wharf in London [Credit: MOLA Headland Archaeology]

The skeleton was discovered at Tideway’s Chambers Wharf site in Bermondsey, where work is currently underway to build the Thames Tideway Tunnel to stop sewage pollution in the River Thames.

Jack Russell, Archaeology Lead for Tideway, said:  “The Tideway archaeology programme has allowed us to gather really interesting new evidence for how Londoners have used the river throughout history. As we work towards our goal of cleaning up the Thames and reconnecting London with it, it’s really important to acknowledge the lessons we can learn from significant discoveries like this.”

The river was a hazardous place even in the late 15th century, so perhaps his occupation was the cause of his death and the reason he came to be discovered. Could he have been a fisherman, a mudlark or perhaps a sailor? Was he climbing the Bermondsey Wall when he fell into the water? Did he become trapped in the mud and drown? The discovery has sparked an investigation by a team of archaeological and osteological experts who are unravelling the mystery of the booted man in the mud. So what does the evidence tell us?

The boots

Specialists studying the boots believe they date to the late 15th or early 16th century. Leather was expensive and often re-used at this time and experts believe it is unlikely that someone would have been buried wearing such a highly-prized item. The boots would have reached thigh height when fully extended therefore would have been ideal for walking out into the river and through the sticky Thames mud, so were perhaps waders.

Boots during the conservation process [Credit: MOLA Headland Archaeology]

They were built to last: conservators revealed that they were reinforced with extra soles and stuffed with an unidentified material (possibly moss) perhaps to make them warmer or improve the fit. This research suggests the person wasn’t buried deliberately and the clues also indicate the owner may have made his living from the river, which could well have led to his untimely demise.

Beth Richardson, Finds Specialist at MOLA Headland, said: “By studying the boots we’ve been able to gain a fascinating glimpse into the daily life of a man who lived as many as 500 years ago. They have helped us to better understand how he may have made his living in hazardous and difficult conditions, but also how he may have died. It has been a privilege to be able to study something so rare and so personal.”

The bones

It’s not unusual to find burials on the foreshore, but the booted man’s position was unusual: face-down, with one arm above his head with the other bent back on itself to the side. These clues could suggest that he fell or drowned and was covered quickly by the ground as it moved with the tide. Osteological experts have not identified evidence of any injuries at the time of death or a cause of death.

Osteologist Niamh Carty examines the booted mans skeleton [Credit: MOLA Headland Archaeology]

However, they have uncovered some clues about how he might have made his living, evidence of the damage to his physical health from the extreme physical demands of his work on his body, and why he might have ended up in the silty deposits of the River Thames where he lay undisturbed for more than 500 years.

MOLA osteologists think it’s possible he was under the age of 35 at the time of death, by then he had already led an active life which left its mark on his skeleton. His daily life wouldn’t have been comfortable – he would have felt pain and discomfort from osteoarthritis. Possibly the biggest clues about his life, are deep grooves found on his teeth. They were caused by a repetitive action like passing rope between his teeth as a fisherman might – which may also suggest that he made his living from the river.

Niamh Carty, Human Osteologist at MOLA Headland, said: “Studying a human skeleton provides incredible insights that allow us to create osteo-biographies of a person’s life.  With the booted man, examining his teeth has given clues about his childhood and marks on his skeleton have allowed us to proffer ideas about the aches and pains he may have suffered from on a daily basis, the toll his job took on his body and even a little about what he might have looked like.”

The discovery location

It may be that his discovery location – at a bend in the river downstream from the Tower of London at Chambers Wharf close to where the medieval Bermondsey Wall stood – is a natural confluence where materials accumulate in the river.

Archaeologists on the tideway site at Chamber's Wharf in London [Credit: MOLA Headland Archaeology]

The skeleton was uncovered during the construction of a shaft at Chambers Wharf, where one of the main tunnel boring machines digging the super sewer is due to start tunneling later next year.

We may never know the answer to exactly how the booted man came to rest in the river, but his untimely death has offered an incredible opportunity to learn from him: to explore the relationships between the people of London in the past and the river Thames and how this dangerous and powerful natural resource was used by so many as a means of making a living.

Source: MOLA Headland Archaeology [December 04, 2018]

How can we protect and preserve cultural heritage? Researchers from 16 Fraunhofer Institutes are collaborating on the executive board's cultural heritage project to develop the technologies needed for this undertaking.

Researchers use a laser scanner to scan the frieze of the Pergamon Altar [Credit: Fraunhofer IGD]

Whether it is visible in historical temples, ancient statues, or paintings by the great masters, cultural heritage must be preserved. But maintaining historical art treasures is not solely the responsibility of restorers – this task calls for research and the high-tech solutions it can provide. A glance inside some of the Fraunhofer labs reveals numerous researchers working on just these kinds of solutions.

A total of 16 Fraunhofer Institutes are collaborating on the cultural heritage research project, together with their partners, the Dresden State Art Collections and the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB). The Fraunhofer executive board is supporting the project with €1.5 million in funding.

"That makes it one of the largest German research projects in the field of cultural heritage," says Dr. Johanna Leissner, the Brussels-based coordinator of the executive board project and spokeswoman for the Research Alliance Cultural Heritage. The project results were presented this past September at the closing event in Dresden – as a contribution by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft to the European Year of Cultural Heritage.

3-D digitization on a conveyor belt

One way to save our cultural heritage for posterity is to digitize works of art in 3-D, so that they can be used at any time, even in parallel: while research teams are examining a digitized temple online, museum visitors all over the world can simultaneously take a virtual stroll through the ancient building.

Until now, this 3-D digitization was a time-consuming undertaking. "Now, for the first time, our CultLab3D automated scanning facility makes it possible to transfer entire museum collections to the digital world," explains Pedro Santos, department head at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD in Darmstadt. Simply scan an object's QR code and lay the piece on a tray – the rest happens automatically. The result is a three-dimensional digital replica, and it is produced at quite a high speed: a new artifact can be digitized every five minutes. Nine cameras photograph the object from multiple sides.

Combining surface scanning and ultrasound tomography [Credit: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft]

Special software processes these images to generate the three-dimensional digital replica. This method also works with large statues, although it must then be performed manually rather than automatically. This is how the Fraunhofer IGD researchers digitized the Pergamon Altar – using a lightweight laser scanner.

Now the research teams are taking it one step further: "In the future, we will not only depict the geometry, texture and optical material properties – in short, an object's exterior – but will also include its interior," says Constanze Fuhrmann, scientist and coordinator of the subproject "Sculptures: Novel damage and material analysis in 3-D" at Fraunhofer IGD.

"The data on an object's interior and exterior, obtained using various technologies, will be uniformly combined to form a 3-D model that is then visualized in 3-D in space in front of the monitor." This first-time combination of digital Fraunhofer methods enables completely new damage and material analyses in 3-D (see box "3-D digital analysis of material and damage").

3-D digitization meets ultrasound

For instance, the experts expanded the CultLab3D approach to include an ultrasound analysis. "In other words, in the digital representation, the restorers can zoom in to the object's interior, enabling them to see immediately whether there are any hidden instabilities, corrosion or holes," says Peter-Karl Weber, a group manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT. What's more, these analyses can now be completed in just a few seconds.

Test application of the new ORMOCER® on damaged enamel models  [Credit: © Fraunhofer ISC]

This is made possible by an elastic belt fastened to the object. "An ultrasonic transducer is attached to each belt. Special electronics enable these transducers to switch between transmitter and receiver. Now, instead of having to constantly reposition the ultrasonic transducer, one needs only place the belt on the work of art. Thanks to QR codes on the transducers, a camera can identify the position at which the ultrasound tomogram was recorded, and software inserts the ultrasound images into the digital scan.

For ultrasound examinations, doctors apply a gel to patients' skin to transmit the ultrasonic waves into the body, but this gel would damage works of art. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP are therefore developing a material that enables dry-coupled ultrasonic testing. This material has the same properties as the gel and can be removed without leaving any residue.

Enameled gold in the Green Vault

The Green Vault in the Dresden Castle is one of the most famous museums in Saxony. It also houses court jeweler Dinglinger's filigree enameled gold treasures depicting the court of India's Great Mogul.

CultLab3D: The scanning facility, which received an EU Prize for Cultural Heritage/ Europa Nostra Award 2018, digitizes artifacts of different sizes in a fully automated process, scanning both geometry and texture as well as optical material properties to generate a faithful representation with micrometer accuracy [Credit: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft]

For decades, the pieces were exhibited in showcases that, unbeknownst to the museum, were off-gassing many harmful substances. As a result, the intricate en-ameling gradually began to peel off. The fragments were meticulously collected, but how would restorers be able to reattach them? Any suitable conservation material must meet some extremely strict requirements: it has to be transparent, highly durable and have similar properties as glass, and it must also firmly bond enamel and metal.

"We developed a suitable material for this at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg twenty years ago: enamel ORMOCER ," explains Dr. Gerhard Schottner, who heads the department for glass research there. Besides its suitability for lasting conservation of enameled treasures, it can also permanently bond ivory and rock crystal, as was discovered in the restoration laboratory at the Dresden State Art Collections. Unfortunately, over the years, the raw materials supplied by industry sources became unavailable in the required quality, and even the slightest impurities can lead to differences in the synthesis of these silicon-organic compounds. So what now?

"We need the best material for preserving cultural heritage, but the amounts required are fairly small," explains Schottner. This makes material development and sales unprofitable for business-oriented companies. The executive board project and funding from the German Federal Environmental Foundation offered a way out of this dilemma.

The ISC team analyzed the raw materials and the individual steps in their production down to the last detail of the chemical reactions, including moisture and temperature levels, and examined the impact of the various solvents on the final product. Now the process is nearly complete: the material is in the final testing phase, and the restorer in charge, Rainer Richter from the Dresden State Art Collections, is extremely satisfied.

Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft [December 04, 2018]

Archaeologists made a sensational discovery during the excavations in the preliminary stages of the planned construction measures in the controversial new development area "Vor dem Lützelberg" in the northen Mittelbuchen district of Hanau, in the German state of Hesse. They came across a grave site that is probably 5,000 years old. The people buried there lived at the time of the so-called Bell Beaker Culture.

Credit: © Bien-Ries AG

The archaeologists suspected even before they went to work that there would be some very interesting finds during the archaeological excavations on the outskirts of Mittelbuchen. Geophysical measurements and already known surface finds made it likely that further excavations would reveal more.

Credit: © Kirstein/Op-Online

But what they uncovered surprised them: graves of the Late Neolithic period from the third millennium BC were revealed. At this time people of the so-called Bell Beaker and Corded Ware cultures settled in Hessen.

Credit: © Kirstein/Op-Online

One of the most spectacular finds is a grave with six people: A young woman and a young man, who were closely entwined and seemingly buried kissing, a woman with a small child on her chest, as well as two other persons.

Credit: © Kirstein/Op-Online

All these people were obviously buried at the same time in a common burial pit. Currently, researchers are still investigating whether sufficient genetic material can be recovered for DNA analysis to determine if they were related to each other.

Source: Op-Online [December 02, 2018]

When a population grows quickly and farms intensively, the environment often suffers. This is not only true today, but was also the case as early as Roman times. Evidence of this has been found by Eawag researchers in sediments in Lake Murten.

Reconstruction of the city of Aventicum on Lake Murten, former capital of Roman Switzerland. The picture is taken from the book “Aventicum — A Roman Capital City” by Daniel Castella et al (2015)

“We are polluting the rivers and the natural elements, and even ruining the very thing that is essential to life — the air.” These words were not spoken by nature conservationists in the 21st century but flowed from the pen of the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder. In fact ancient history researchers agree today that even in Roman times the environment was being polluted – by unfiltered wastewater, the mining of metals such as iron or lead and clear-cutting of the forests. Lake Murten did not escape these depredations, as a new Eawag investigation has shown.

For the study, the research team led by paleolimnologist Mischa Haas took a ten-meter long sediment core from the deepest part of Lake Murten, which enabled them to create a reconstruction of environmental conditions that spanned several centuries.

Removing a long sediment core requires a great deal of expertise [Credit: Franziska Baumann]

The results of the sediment-core analysis surprised the researchers: “We had not expected that signs of the Romans would be so evident in the lake sediment,” comments Mischa Haas. He is referring to the varves, clearly recognizable in the sediment core and stemming from the period in which the Romans flourished on Lake Murten. Varves are alternating dark and light sediment layers that arise when neither oxygen nor living things are found on the lake bottom.

The results can be traced back to the explosive population growth during Roman times, which led to clear-cutting of numerous forests by the Lake Murten population in order to acquire wood for burning and building and to establish fields for agriculture. The ensuing erosion of the earth washed many nutrients like phosphorous, nitrogen and iron into Lake Murten, which became eutrophied – resulting in oxygen deprivation for many fish and other organisms.

This part of the sediment core shows the section with the Roman varves. Each pair of dark and light layers represents one year [Credit: Eawag]

The researchers were not only able to prove the drastic impingement by the Romans on the ecosystem: “It is also interesting that we can see in the sediments exactly when the Roman empire began to fall apart and how the lake reacted to such social revolution,” says Mischa Haas. The lake sediments show that from about the 2nd century AD more oxygen was present in the lake depths. However, it took a good 300 years for the ecosystem to recover,” the researcher points out.

This finding also has relevance to us today also plays an important role at present, as the recovery rate of lake systems is still largely unknown – in spite of numerous renaturalisation projects and new environmental legislation. “Our study shows that human interference in an ecosystem has an effect that can last for hundreds of years,” says Mischa Haas.

The study is published in Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters.

Source: Eawag [December 01, 2018]

Burnt food remains are very often found in pots from archaeological sites. Analyzing their protein content, helps us to understand many aspects of life in antiquity. The Mass Spectrometry Facility at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden was approached by scientists from the State of the Brandenburg Authorities for Heritage Management and Archaeological State Museum (BLDAM) to analyze a clay bowl with burnt food remains, found at an archaeological site in the State of Brandenburg in Germany.

Fragment of Endmesolithic pottery #1977:7/3258 T from Friesack 4. Panel A: side view; Panel B: inner view, secondary  conical puncture is seen at the upper right corner. Panel on the right shows basal fragment of the dish with foodcrust. Panel C: Graphical reconstruction of the profile of the bowl #1977:7/3258 T [Credit: Shevchenko et al. 2018]

Usually, the MPI-CBG Mass Spectrometry Facility provides a service for scientists. The team around Anna Shevchenko at the MPI-CBG developed a new proteomics analysis, identified over 300 proteins and was able to distinguish between ancient proteins and contemporary contaminants. In that way, they found fine carp roe in the charred remains of prehistorical food. They published their findings in the journal PLOS ONE.

Food crust are burnt food remains that are found on archaeological pottery. They are very difficult to analyse because ancient proteins are extensively degraded by cooking and natural aging as well as mixed with environmental contaminants, such as soil bacteria or plants. In 1979, archaeologists excavated fragments of 6000 years old pottery at the Friesack 4 Site, an archaeological site near Berlin in Germany, which is known for excellent preservation of numerous artefacts predominantly from Mesolithic era.

The ancient ceramics were safely stored but at that time the technology to analyse them didn’t exist yet. So, the pottery waited until 2013, when they were re-discovered by scientists from the BLDAM. In the meantime, powerful protein analysis technologies had been developed. This is when the scientists from the Mass Spectrometry Facility of the MPI-CBG came into play. The colleagues from the BLDAM asked them if it was possible to analyse the food remains on a small clay bowl.

Finding out what was in the pot – origin and processing of ancient food – was the major question scientists asked themselves. Remains of ancient foods help us to understand many aspects of life in the European Inland in antiquity, like complex process of transformation from hunter-gatherer groups to sedentary society, diet and cooking practices, the role of natural resources in economy or the domestication of animals and plants.

Anna Shevchenko explains the challenges, of analysing food remains: “We had to tackle the question of how food proteins survive in charred deposits on archaeological sherds and how we could distinguish original ancient proteins from modern contaminants, like human skin, saliva or plants once grown at the excavation field.” By quantitatively detecting aging-specific chemical modification, the scientists were not only able to exclude contemporary contaminants. They developed a completely new analytical method for proteins, that was able to identify major components of the food residues.

Scanning Electron Microscopy image, showing microscopic structure of the food crust from the rim of the ancient pot where carp caviar was found. Plant debris (with encrusted conifer pollen) indicate that the pot was probably tapped with leaves during cooking process [Credit: Shevchenko et al. 2018/MPI-CBG]

This newly developed proteomics analysis of food crusts identified up to 300 proteins in 6000 years old pottery, allowing for an evaluating the organismal origin and suggesting food processing technology. They found fish proteins that were matched to the common carp and specifically to caviar or roe. Proteomics analysis did not find evidences of fish fermentation, which suggests that the food was most likely thermally processed. Size and shape of the pottery, a charred crust, and the identification of a certain fish protein suggested that delicate carp roe might be cooked in a small volume of water or fish broth.

Additional electron microscopy images suggest that the pot was probably covered with leaves. The analysis of other potsherds from the site also found pig collagen, which indicates that pork with bones, sinews or skin was cooked in this pottery. This correlates well with zooarchaeological artefacts from the site Friesack 4, which includes boar bones, and supports the notion that this site was used as a hunting station.

"The fact that the investigations with this new method could be carried out so successfully, using the example of over 6000-year old pottery from the site near Friesack, is probably a milestone in the approach to the habits of our hunter-gatherer ancestors,” explains Günter Wetzel, former archeologist at the BLDAM and co-author of the study.

He continues: “At the same time, this method reminds the excavator to be even more careful with archeological finds from the time of their discovery, to make such investigations possible at all later on. The scientists from the MPI-CBG benefited from the fact that the head of excavations and former director of the Potsdam Museum of Prehistory and Early History Bernhard Gramsch, did not let the pottery to be washed after the discovery.”

Anna Shevchenko summarizes: “This study provides archaeologists and anthropologists with new analytical tools for studying dietary habits in prehistorical societies. In a broader perspective, it improves our ability to analyse proteomes from environmental samples originating from organisms with unknown genomes. The method opens new perspectives for proteomics studies of unconventional biological samples in life and medical sciences where proteins are trapped in mineral matrices such as tooth or bones, spicules, or shells.”

Source: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics [December 01, 2018]

Stretching over four sandy kilometres Almanarre beach in southern France is a mecca for sun lovers and kite surfers. But its greatest treasure -- a 2,000-year-old underwater archaeological site -- lies just a few feet offshore.

The ancient Roman city of Olbia fell victim to a slow rise in Mediterranean waters, but is still open for visits from explorers equipped with a snorkel mask and flippers [Credit: AFP]

Welcome to the port of the ancient Roman city of Olbia, which fell victim to a slow rise in Mediterranean waters, but is still open for visits from explorers equipped with a snorkel mask and pair of flippers.

A collection of rectangular limestone blocks, some perfectly aligned, others scattered about on the seafloor, make up the watery remains of the dock of the city of Olbia, a fortified trading post founded by the Greeks in the 4th Century BC on the outskirts of the modern-day Riviera town of Hyeres.

After the capture of nearby Marseille by Julius Caesar in 49 BC the region gradually came under the control of the Roman empire, which endowed Olbia with a port in the 1st Century AD.

Many of the blocks were looted by locals to build homes, so the port went into decline as the sea level rose [Credit: AFP]

The 100-metre (yard) dock was only used for 80 years, according to marine archaeologist Lenaic Riaudel, who guides visits of the remains which lie close to the shore, in some places just inches deep.

"The port suffered from its location, fully exposed to the (strong northwesterly) mistral wind but especially to competition from Toulon," a city 20 kilometres to the west, Riaudel told AFP.

With many of the blocks looted by locals to build homes, the port went into decline and as the sea level rose -- nearly a metre in 2,000 years -- so the port gradually sank.

Marine archaeologist Lenaic Riaudel guides visits of the remains which lie close to the shore [Credit: AFP]

Today, visitors can tour the remains of Olbia (meaning 'happy' in ancient Greek), including its thermal baths, shops, dwellings and fortifications, on a headland overlooking the sea.

The city was inhabited for nearly 1,000 years before being abandoned during Frankish rule (450-751 AD) when the last residents moved further inland.

While the land site, revealed a century ago, is visible to the naked eye, few are aware that a part of Olbia's history lies beneath Almanarre's iridescent waters, covered in mother-of-pearl and colonised by sea urchins and sea bream.

The 100-metre dock was only used for 80 years, according to Riaudel [Credit: AFP]

Those who visit that part of the beach usually do so "because the water is always warmer here", said 39-year-old Riaudel, who has carried out hundreds of dives at the site.

"I've been exploring this area for years and had never heard of it," Yves Corlobe, an instructor from a local surf school admitted.

Author: Olivier Lucazeau | Source: AFP [November 30, 2018]

Archaeologists from the University of Sheffield have uncovered a previously unknown Anglo-Saxon cemetery.

Female burial unearthed at Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Lincolnshire [Credit: University of Sheffield]

Excavations have revealed more than 20 burials at the extraordinary cemetery in the Lincolnshire Wolds dating back to the late fifth to mid sixth centuries AD.

The dig at the site in Scremby, Lincolnshire was led by Dr Hugh Willmott and Dr Katie Hemer from the University of Sheffield's Department of Archaeology in collaboration with Dr Adam Daubney, the Lincolnshire Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

The cemetery was first brought to light when a local metal dectorist began to discover a number of Anglo-Saxon artefacts, including copper gilded brooches, iron shield bosses and spear heads.

The finds were typical of those found in early Anglo-Saxon burials therefore it was necessary to excavate the site to ensure any further artefacts were retrieved, recorded and preserved before they could be destroyed by agricultural activity.

International volunteers, students from the University of Sheffield, and members of the RAF from nearby stations took part in the excavation which is the first to have been extensively investigated since the 19th century.

The cemetery was first brought to light when a local metal dectorist began to discover a number of Anglo-Saxon artefacts, including copper gilded brooches, iron shield bosses  and spear heads [Credit: University of Sheffield]

Dr Hugh Willmott, Senior Lecturer in European Historical Archaeology from the University of Sheffield, said: "Almost without exception, the burials were accompanied by a rich array of objects, in keeping with the funerary rites adopted during the early centuries of the Germanic migrations to eastern England.

"What is particularly interesting is the significant proportion of very lavish burials which belonged to women. These women wore necklaces made from sometimes hundreds of amber, glass and rock crystal beads, used personal items such as tweezers, carried fabric bags held open by elephant ivory rings, and wore exquisitely decorated brooches to fasten their clothing.

"Two women even received silver finger rings and a style of silver buckle commonly associated with Jutish communities in Kent. Furnished burials belonging to males were also identified, including a number buried with weaponry such as spears and shields.

Dr Willmott added: "Children were notably absent in the parts of the cemetery excavated this year, however, one of the most striking burials was that of a richly-dressed woman who was buried with a baby cradled in her left arm.

"The preservation of the skeletal remains, as well as the many grave finds, provide an exciting opportunity to explore the social and cultural dynamics of the community who chose to bury their dead on this chalky outcrop."

Brooch found at Anglo-Saxon cemetery [Credit: University of Sheffield]

In order to understand as much as possible about the site and those buried there, a series of scientific investigations are underway at the University of Sheffield by the Department of Archaeology.

The human remains are undergoing a complete osteological assessment, whilst stable isotope analysis of teeth and bone will identify where the individuals grew up as children and what food resources they ate.

Dr Katie Hemer, Lecturer in Bioarchaeology at the University of Sheffield, said: "Analysis also extends to a number of the finds, including the amber beads, which are being provenanced in collaboration with colleagues from Sheffield's Department of Physics; we will analyse the elemental composition of the metalwork and identify the elephant species which produced the ivory rings.

"The project's multi-faceted investigation which incorporates cutting-edge scientific techniques will enable Sheffield archaeologists to ask and answer significant questions about early Anglo-Saxon communities in eastern England."

Source: University of Sheffield [November 27, 2018]