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Forum: Stones Forum
Moderated by : Andy B , TimPrevett , coldrum , Klingon , MickM , TheCaptain , bat400 , davidmorgan , Runemage , SolarMegalith , sem
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bat400
Joined:
10-04-2006
Messages: 1334
from South Central Indiana, US
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|  New Message Posted!2012-08-31 05:12
Neolithic farmers brought deer to Ireland
The origins of the iconic Irish red deer was a controversial topic. Was this species native to Ireland, or introduced?
In a new study that was published 30 March 2012 in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviews, a multinational team of researchers from Ireland, Austria, UK and USA have finally answered this question.
By comparing DNA from ancient bone specimens to DNA obtained from modern animals, the researchers discovered that the Kerry red deer are the direct descendants of deer present in Ireland 5000 years ago. Further analysis using DNA from European deer proves that Neolithic people from Britain first brought the species to Ireland.
Although proving the red deer is not native to Ireland, researchers believe that the Kerry population is unique as it is directly related to the original herd and are worthy of special conservation status.
Fossil bone samples from the National Museum of Ireland, some up to 30,000 years old, were used in the study. Results also revealed several 19th and 20th century introductions of red deer to Ireland, which are in agreement with written records from the same time. At present there is no evidence of red deer in Ireland during the Mesolithic period, 9000 years ago, when humans first settled there.
The investigation’s findings are in agreement with archaeological evidence, which also suggests a special relationship between humans and red deer during later prehistoric times. Antler fragments and tools are frequently found in Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age excavations.
Dr Allan McDevitt, from the School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, one of the lead geneticists said “We have very few native mammals in Ireland but certainly those that arrived with early humans, such as the red deer, are every bit as Irish as we are.”
Source: School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin
Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, read: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/04/2012/neolithic-farmers-brought-deer-to-ireland
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bat400
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from South Central Indiana, US
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| New Message Posted!2012-04-03 02:58
DNA traces cattle back to a small herd domesticated around 10,500 years ago
All cattle are descended from as few as 80 animals that were domesticated from wild ox in the Near East some 10,500 years ago, according to a new genetic study.
An international team of scientists were able to conduct the study by first extracting DNA from the bones of domestic cattle excavated in Iranian archaeological sites. These sites date to not long after the invention of farming and are in the region where cattle were first domesticated.
The team examined how small differences in the DNA sequences of those ancient cattle, as well as cattle living today, could have arisen given different population histories. Using computer simulations they found that the DNA differences could only have arisen if a small number of animals, approximately 80, were domesticated from wild ox (aurochs).
Dr Ruth Bollongino of CNRS, France, and the University of Mainz, Germany; lead author of the study, said: "Getting reliable DNA sequences from remains found in cold environments is routine.
"But getting reliable DNA from bones found in hot regions is much more difficult because temperature is so critical for DNA survival. This meant we had to be extremely careful that we did not end up reading contaminating DNA sequences from living, or only recently dead cattle."
The number of animals domesticated has important implications for the archaeological study of domestication.
Prof Mark Thomas, geneticist and an author of the study based at the UCL Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment: "This is a surprisingly small number of cattle. We know from archaeological remains that the wild ancestors of modern-day cattle, known as aurochs, were common throughout Asia and Europe, so there would have been plenty of opportunities to capture and domesticate them."
Prof Joachim Burger, an author of the study based at the University of Mainz, Germany, said: "Wild aurochs are very different beasts from modern domestic cattle.
"They were much bigger than modern cattle, and wouldn't have had the domestic traits we see today, such as docility. So capturing these animals in the first place would not have been easy, and even if some people did manage snare them alive, their continued management and breeding would still have presented considerable challenges until they had been bred for smaller size and more docile behavior."
Archaeological studies on the number and size of prehistoric animal bone have shown that not only cattle, but also goats, sheep and pigs were all first domesticated in the Near East. But saying how many animals were domesticated for any of those species is a much harder question to answer. Classical techniques in archaeology cannot give us the whole picture, but genetics can help - especially if some of the genetic data comes from early domestic animals.
Dr Jean-Denis Vigne, a CNRS bio-archaeologist and author on the study, said: "A small number of cattle progenitors is consistent with the restricted area for which archaeologists have evidence for early cattle domestication ca. 10,500 years ago. This restricted area could be explained by the fact that cattle breeding, contrary to, for example, goat herding, would have been very difficult for mobile societies, and that only some of them were actually sedentary at that time in the Near East."
Dr Marjan Mashkour, a CNRS Archaeologist working in the Middle East added "This study highlights how important it can be to consider archaeological remains from less well-studied regions, such as Iran. Without our Iranian data it would have been very difficult to draw our conclusions, even though they concern cattle at a global scale".
Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/ucl-dtc032712.php
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bat400
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| New Message Posted!2011-11-29 05:27
Soybean adoption came early by many cultures, archaeologists say
Domestication occurred beyond China's borders and may provide a roadmap to making better crops
EUGENE, Ore. -- Human domestication of soybeans is thought to have first occurred in central China some 3,000 years ago, but archaeologists now suggest that cultures in even earlier times and in other locations adopted the legume (Glycine max).
Comparisons of 949 charred soybean samples from 22 sites in northern China, Japan and South Korea -- found in ancient households including hearths, flooring and dumping pits -- with 180 modern charred and unburned samples were detailed in the Nov. 4 edition of the online journal PLoS ONE, a publication of the Public Library of Science. The findings, say lead author Gyoung-Ah Lee, an archaeologist at the University of Oregon, add a new view to long-running assumptions about soybean domestication that had been based on genetic and historical records.
"Preserved beans have been carbonized, and that distorts the sizes," Lee said. "So we experimented with modern soybeans, charring them to compare them with historical samples. All the different sizes and shapes of soybeans may indicate different efforts in different times by different cultural groups in different areas."
Experts argue that larger beans reflect domestication, but the transition zone between smaller wild-type soybeans and larger hybridized versions is not understood, Lee said. Small-seeded soybeans indicating wild-type soybeans date to 9,000 years ago. Historical evidence to date shows a close relationship between soybeans and use in China during the Zhou Dynasty, about 2,000 years ago. The new study moves domestication back to perhaps 5,500 years ago.
"Soybeans appeared to be linked to humans almost as soon as villages were established in northern China," said co-author Gary Crawford, a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, in a news release. "Soybean seems to be a plant that does well in human-impacted habitats. In turn, humans began to learn how tasty soybean was and how useful it was."
Today, of course, soybeans are used as livestock feed and to make cooking oil, tofu, tempeh, edamame and protein powder for human consumption.
The new archaeological evidence, Lee says, should be a springboard for archaeologists, crop scientists and plant geneticists to collaborate on understanding cultural contributions, which may lead them to better soybean characteristics. Cultural knowledge, she said, could fill in gaps that relate to domestication and genetic changes of the legume.
"I think one contribution that archaeologists can make is how peoples in ancient times contributed to our heritage of this viable crop and how we can trace their efforts and the methods to help guide us to make even better crops today," Lee said.
In Lee's homeland of South Korea, the research team uncovered evidence for a cultural selection for larger sized soybeans at 3,000 years ago. The evidence for such dating, which also surfaced in Japan, indicates that the farming of soybeans was much more widespread in times much earlier than previously assumed, researchers concluded.
Thanks to coldrum for the link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/uoo-sac111711.phphttp://www.eurekalert.org
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2011-11-29 05:31 ]
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bat400
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Messages: 1334
from South Central Indiana, US
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| New Message Posted!2011-03-20 03:16
Scholar to Study Ancient Food Production
A University of Connecticut anthropology instructor has received a prestigious award to study ancient plant life at Middle Eastern archaeological sites and how early humans used the plants as food.
UConn assistant professor Alexia Smith's $400,000 award comes from the National Science Foundation. Smith will use the money for botanical studies at archaeological sites in Syria, Turkey and Armenia.
Her work focuses on how ancient humans grew plants for food from about 6000 to 550 B.C.
That includes studying what they grew and how their economies and social structures adjusted when climate changes affected the food production.
Smith plans to bring preserved plant and seed samples back to UConn for study. Doctoral students will help with fieldwork and use the studies in their dissertations.
Thanks to coldrum for the link: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2011/02/21/uconn_scholar_to_study_ancient_food_production/.
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2011-03-20 03:16 ]
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bat400
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from South Central Indiana, US
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| New Message Posted!2010-10-16 20:55
Archaeological Study Shows Human Activity May Have Boosted Shellfish Size
Submitted by coldrum ---
In a counter-intuitive finding, new research from North Carolina State University shows that a species of shellfish widely consumed in the Pacific over the past 3,000 years has actually increased in size, despite – and possibly because of – increased human activity in the area.
“What we’ve found indicates that human activity does not necessarily mean that there is going to be a negative impact on a species – even a species that people relied on as a major food source,” says Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick, associate professor of sociology and anthropology at NC State and co-author of the study. “The trends we see in the archaeological record in regard to animal remains are not always what one would expect.”
Researchers found that the average size of the humped conch increased in conjunction with a growing human population.
At issue is the humped conch, Strombus gibberulus, a small mollusk that has been a food source in the Pacific islands for thousands of years. The researchers dated and measured more than 1,400 humped conch shells found at an archaeological site on the island of Palau in the western Pacific. They expected the size of the conchs to decrease over time, based on the conventional wisdom that an expanding human population would result in the conchs being harvested before they could achieve their maximum size.
Instead, the researchers were surprised to find that the average size of the conchs actually increased in conjunction with a growing human population. Specifically, the length of the average conch increased by approximately 1.5 millimeters (mm) over the past 3,000 years. That may not sound like much, but it is significant when you consider the conchs are only around 30 mm long – which means the conchs are now almost 5 percent larger than they used to be.
Fitzpatrick believes the size increase is likely related to an increase in nutrients in the conch’s waters, stemming from increased agriculture and other human activities.
“In the big picture,” Fitzpatrick says, “this study tells us to focus on the physical evidence and beware of conventional wisdom. It also tells us that using a large number of samples is important. Previous studies had shown a decline in conch size at Pacific archaeological sites – but they used smaller sample sizes. Maybe that is a factor in their findings.”
For more, see http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wmsfitzpatrickconch/
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bat400
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| New Message Posted!2010-09-26 22:53
Taking Molecular Snaps of Ancient Crops.
RNA molecules could help to reveal plant breeding in action hundreds of years ago.
Article by Ewen Callaway, submitted by coldrum --
Archaeologists interested in the genetics of ancient organisms have a new molecular tool at hand — RNA. Two teams of scientists have decoded RNA from ancient crops in the hope of understanding the subtle evolutionary changes that accompanied the process of plant domestication.
Unlike DNA, which remains largely unchanged throughout the life of an organism, RNA molecules offer a snapshot of the activity of a cell, indicating which genes are turned on and off, and to what extent.
"With ancient DNA you can see what an ancient organism might have looked like. With ancient RNA we can see what it actually looked like," says Sarah Fordyce, a molecular biologist at the University of Copenhagen, who presented the RNA transcriptomes (the whole set of RNA molecules present) of 700–850-year-old maize (corn) seeds at a conference there last week.
Ancient RNA is also a lot more likely to catch evolution in action than DNA, says Robin Allaby, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Warwick, UK, whose team has sequenced small regulatory RNAs from ancient Egyptian barley seeds. Increasingly, biologists are discovering that the differences between organisms are due not to mutations that change the sequence of protein-coding genes, but to the genes' activity.
Important as RNA is to evolution, it isn't an obvious molecule to study in ancient specimens. RNA is notoriously difficult to work with because it is much less stable than DNA. Biologists working with fresh RNA struggle to prevent it breaking down, and extracting it from samples that are hundreds or even thousands of years old seemed pointless, Allaby says. "There was a strong ethos that even if there was any RNA around, it would be too degraded to do anything with."
"I started doing it because nobody believed me," says Tom Gilbert, a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen who works with Fordyce. He got the idea to sequence ancient RNA after seeing a paper that described the germination of a 2,000-year-old date seed — a process that requires intact RNA1.
At the International Symposium on Biomolecular Archaeology in Copenhagen last week, Gilbert's team presented the first results of their efforts to coax RNA sequences from ancient maize samples from Chile and Arizona. The proof-of-principle study showed that both messenger RNA and ribosomal RNA are abundant in the maize kernels and that the mRNA sequences correspond to known genes.
To put the method to use, Gilbert plans to collect maize samples that span the plant's 6,000-year history as a domesticated crop from across the Americas, and to examine how its transcriptome changed in human hands. "We want to get into the psyche of early breeders," he says.
Terry Brown, a plant geneticist at the University of Manchester, UK, who is collaborating on the project, says that ancient maize transcriptomes could help scientists determine how domestication influenced the nutritional content of these early crops.
"There is a question of how technically advanced these ancient people were. To what extent could they recognize that varieties have particular qualities?" says Brown. "If there is steady development in the quality of the grain, that suggests they understood what they were doing as farmers."
After hearing about Gilbert's success in sequencing ancient RNA from maize, Allaby, Oliver Smith and their colleagues examined small regulatory RNA molecules in 500-year-old barley seeds from Egypt. The seeds produce plants whose grains grow in rows of two, instead of the usual rows of six — an adaptation to dry conditions. The problem, says Allaby, is that the seeds also contain a gene mutation that normally produces six-row barley.
He hopes that small RNAs, which influence the translation of mRNA and epigenetic modification of genes, will explain this conundrum. His team next plans to compare these RNAs with those found in modern barley and to try to identify which transcripts and genes they target.
For more, including the RNA of Mammoths, see http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100913/full/news.2010.464.html
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bat400
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from South Central Indiana, US
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| New Message Posted!2010-09-26 22:43
Water buffalo, goats can distort Stone Age sites
Submitted by coldrum --
Archaeologists who interpret Stone Age culture from discoveries of ancient tools and artifacts may need to reanalyze some of their conclusions. That's the finding suggested by a new study that for the first time looked at the impact of water buffalo and goats trampling artifacts into mud.
In seeking to understand how much artifacts can be disturbed, the new study documented how animal trampling in a water-saturated area can result in an alarming amount of disturbance, says archaeologist Metin I. Eren, a graduate student at Southern Methodist University and one of eight researchers on the study.
In a startling finding, the animals' hooves pushed artifacts as much as 21 centimeters into the ground — a variation that could equate to a difference of thousands of years for a scientist interpreting a site, said Erin.
The findings suggest archaeologists should reanalyze some previous discoveries, he said.
* Journal of Archaeological Science: "Experimental Examination of Animal Trampling Effects on Artifact Movement in Dry and Water Saturated Substrates: A Test Case from South India"
"Given that during the Lower and most of the Middle Pleistocene, hominids stayed close to water sources, we cannot help but wonder how prevalent saturated substrate trampling might be, and how it has affected the context, and resulting interpretation, of Paleolithic sites throughout the Old World," conclude the authors in a scientific paper detailing their experiment and its findings.
"Experimental Examination of Animal Trampling Effects on Artifact Movement in Dry and Water Saturated Substrates: A Test Case from South India" has been published online by the Journal of Archaeological Science. For images, additional information and a link to the article, see http://www.smuresearch.com. The research was recognized as best student poster at the 2010 annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
"Believe it or not, there have been dozens of trampling experiments in archaeology to see how artifacts may be affected by animals walking over them. These have involved human trampling and the trampling of all sorts of animals, including elephants, in dry sediments," Eren said. "Our trampling experiments in dry sediments, for the most part, mimicked the results of previous experiments."
But this latest study added a new variable to the mix — the trampling of artifacts embedded in ground saturated with water, Eren said.
Researchers from the United States, Britain, Australia and India were inspired to perform the unique experiment while doing archaeological survey work in the Jurreru River Valley in Southern India.
They noticed that peppering the valley floor were hardened hoof prints left from the previous monsoon season, as well as fresh prints along the stream banks. Seeing that the tracks sunk quite deeply into the ground, the researchers began to suspect that stone artifacts scattered on the edges of water bodies could be displaced significantly from their original location by animal trampling.
"Prehistoric humans often camped near water sources or in areas that receive lots of seasonal rain. When we saw those deep footprints left over from the previous monsoon season, it occurred to us that animal trampling in muddy, saturated sediments might distort artifacts in a different way than dry sediments," Eren said. "Given the importance of artifact context in the interpretation of archaeological sites and age, it seems like an obvious thing to test for, but to our surprise it never had been."
Eren and seven other researchers tested their theory by scattering replicated stone tools over both dry and saturated areas of the valley. They then had water buffalo and goats trample the "sites." Once sufficient trampling occurred, the archaeologists proceeded to excavate the tools, taking careful measurements of where the tools were located and their inclination in the ground.
The researchers found that tools salted on ground saturated with water and trampled by buffalo moved up to 21 centimeters vertically, or a little more than 8 inches. Tools trampled by goats moved up to 16 centimeters vertically, or just over 6 inches.
"A vertical displacement of 21 centimeters in some cases might equal thousands of years when we try to figure out the age of an artifact," Eren said. "This amount of disturbance is more than any previously documented experiment — and certainly more than we anticipated."
Unfortunately for archaeologists who study the Stone Age, artifacts left behind by prehistoric humans do not stay put, said Eren. Over thousands or even millions of years, all sorts of geological or other processes can move artifacts out of place, he said.
The movement distorts the cultural and behavioral information that is contained in the original artifact patterning, what archaeologists call "context." Archaeologists must discern whether artifacts are in their original context, and thus provide reliable information, or if they've been disturbed in some way that biases the interpretation, Eren said.
The researchers concluded that sites with water-saturated sediments should be identified and reanalyzed.
For more, including the researchers who worked on this project, see http://blog.smu.edu/research/2010/09/study_should_prompt_new_look_a.html
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2010-09-26 22:47 ]
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bat400
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| New Message Posted!2010-08-29 05:58
Cactus Genes Connect Modern Mexico to Its Prehistoric Past
submitted by coldrum
In prehistoric times farmers across the world domesticated wild plants to create an agricultural revolution. As a result the ancestral plants have been lost, causing problems for anyone studying the domestication process of modern-day varieties, but that might change. A team led by Fabiola Parra at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) has managed to trace a domesticated cactus, the Gray Ghost Organ Pipe (Stenocereus pruinosus) to its living ancestor that can still be found in the Tehuacán Valley in Mexico.
Cacti were domesticated in prehistoric times for their fruit, pitaya. They're eaten around the world, but it's the pitaya of the Gray Ghost Organ Pipe that are most prized for their quality. Parra's team went to the Tehuacán valley to examine the cacti and how they grew both in gardens and forests managed by the local people and in the wild.
Dr. Alejandro Casas, an ethnobotanist on the project, said: "What we found is that the people of the Tehuacán Valley are carefully selecting and cultivating cacti to produce the pitaya they want. They're not attempting to produce one type of pitayo. They have a rich understanding of the cacti and are able to produce fruits with a variety of colours and tastes."
Dr. Mark Olson, a biologist at UNAM who did not participate in the project, believes the research has significant implications for the future: "Perhaps more than any other region on earth, Mesoamerica has a range of grades of domestication, from the highly modified, such as maize, to plants only casually managed and in stages of 'incipient domestication'. Understanding this process will be important as Mexico becomes inundated with commercial varieties of corn, beans and other plants, all growing next to their wild ancestors."
Whether or not the future includes a domesticated Gray Ghost Organ Pipe remains to be seen. Parra notes that even cacti are struggling with the diminishing rainfall. This, and economic pressures, means that the traditional farming methods are in decline and may be lost in the future.
For more, see Science DailyThe research is published in the September 2010 edition of the Annals of Botany.
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bat400
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| New Message Posted!2010-06-20 21:10
Archaeologists discover beehives from ancient Israel
Submitted by coldrum ---
Recently discovered beehives from ancient Israel 3,000 years ago appear to be the oldest evidence for beekeeping ever found, scientists reported.
Archaeologists identified the remains of honeybees — including workers, drones, pupae, and larvae — inside about 30 clay cylinders thought to have been used as beehives at the site of Tel Rehov in the Jordan valley in northern Israel. This is the first such discovery from ancient times.
"Although texts and wall paintings suggest that bees were kept in the Ancient Near East for the production of precious wax and honey, archaeological evidence for beekeeping has never been found," the researchers, led by Guy Bloch of Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wrote in a paper in the June 8 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The hives have a small hole on one side for the bees to come and go, and on the other side is a lid for the beekeeper to use to access the honeycomb. The archeologists used carbon dating on grains that had spilled from a broken storage jar next to the hives to estimate that they were about 3,000 years old.
The scientists used a high-resolution electron microscope to study the bee remains, and found that their legs and wings suggest they belonged to a different subspecies than the bees currently found in Israel. In fact, the ancient bees most closely resemble those found in modern-day Turkey. That suggests the ancient people may have imported a specialized bee species for its superior characteristics, such as a milder temper or better honey production.
The researchers found three rows of these hives in a courtyard that used to be part of a large architectural complex during the 10th to 9th centuries B.C. "The location of such a large apiary in the middle of a dense urban area is puzzling because bees can be very aggressive, especially during routine beekeeping practices or honey harvesting," the researchers wrote. They speculate that maybe the honey was so valuable it was worth placing in such a congested area to keep it safe.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0609/Archaeologists-discover-beehives-from-ancient-Israel
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2010-06-20 21:10 ]
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bat400
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| New Message Posted!2010-05-02 05:12
See the previous Megalithic Portal "Farm Report".
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2010-05-02 05:18 ]
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