Archaeology

[Kinslaughterer]

Mesoamerican book wins archaeology book award

Salt Lake City, Utah – Aztec child raising, how to play the Maya ball game and the calorie counts for a forager's diet are a few of the special features found in "Ancient Mexico & Central America, Archaeology and Culture History," by Susan Toby Evans, winner of the Society of American Archaeology's 2005 Book Award.
The SAA's Book Award is given to a book that "has had, or is expected to have, a major impact on the direction and character of archaeological research."

This beautiful book, published by Thames & Hudson, covers Central America from the southern most portion of the American Southwest to the beginning of South America and is intended as an entry and resource for those interested in the archaeology and cultures of this area and as a textbook for undergraduate students.

"In writing this book, I wanted to tell a compelling cultural story, and so I tried to avoid the academic language of citation," says Evans, adjunct professor of anthropology, Penn State. "I wanted to help people understand the cultural history of the area and I wanted the reader's focus to stay on that, not on us, the archaeologists who did the work. This is a cultural story, not a history of archaeologists."

While the cultural history is paramount in this work, the book has an extensive bibliography, index, and, best of all, 21 reference maps covering the entire area included in the book. Illustrations within the book are spectacular in color and black and white. The reproduction of the murals at Bonampak jumps off the page. The details of architecture are easily seen in photographs and drawings of archaeological sites – both site maps and reconstructions – do explain what the sites looked like and where structures are located. The first chapter sets the stage for an unusual presentation of Mesoamerican archaeology and cultural history by incorporating the clash of cultures that occur at Spanish contact along with a general roadmap of the chapters that follow including the monumental, breathtaking sites. A discussion of ecology and culture follows this chapter before the book steps off into the past, beginning in 8000 B.C. with archaic foragers, collectors and farmers.

As the chapters work their way up through history, the best parts are the diversions to special features that connect with any reader and not just budding anthropologists. A table of food values for foragers provides both calorie counts and grams of protein. Another feature covers maguey or agave, the modern source of tequila, but an important source of calories in pre-contact Mexico. Also included are essays on jade, jaguars, dogs, cosmetic alterations, metal working, childbirth, childhood, and adulthood, sex and marriage, along with the standard calendar, writing, obsidian blade technologies and ball game treatments.

As an overview of the cultural history of Mesoamerica, "Ancient Mexico & Central America" covers all the basics. As a portal through time and space in an area that both fascinates for its similarity to our world and confuses for its vast differences, Evans creates a guide that is both informative and fun.

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Fossils make case for apparent human ancestor
Wednesday, April 6, 2005 Posted: 2:31 PM EDT (1831 GMT)




NEW YORK (AP) -- New fossil finds and a computer reconstruction of a skull bolster the case that an ancient creature that grabbed headlines in 2002 really is the earliest known ancestor of modern humans, researchers say.

In that year, scientists announced finding jaw fragments, some isolated teeth and a skull of a creature nicknamed "Toumai" in Chad.

At some 6 million to 7 million years old, the fossils came from around the time of a major split in the evolutionary tree, with one branch leading eventually to humans and the other branch leading to chimps.

The researchers argued that the creature, which they dubbed Sahelanthropus tchadensis, belongs on the human branch and so is the oldest known hominid. Some others disagreed.

In any case, the skull provided a puzzling combination of human and chimp traits and raised what one expert called "a wheelbarrow full of questions" about evolution at that time.

Many scientists now think S. tchadensis was probably a hominid, and more evidence appears in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. It comes from Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers in France, who led the team that made the original discovery, and colleagues.

Other experts said the new work strengthens the case for hominid status but doesn't clinch it.

"This isn't a smoking gun," said David Begun of the University of Toronto.

A big question is whether S. tchadensis walked upright, because that's a key characteristic of hominids. Brunet, in an e-mail, said given the available evidence it would be a "great surprise" if it didn't walk upright. But he agreed with other scientists that to be sure, scientists would have to find and analyze skeletal bones that carry signatures of upright walking, like a knee, hip or foot.

In Nature, Brunet and colleagues report discovering two new jaw fragments and the crown of a tooth in the same geographical area as the earlier findings. Analysis shows similarities to hominid fossils and differences from ape traits, they said.

They also present a computerized reconstruction of the skull, because the fossil had been distorted in the ground. The reconstruction confirms that S. tchadensis shared several features with later hominids, the researchers wrote. In addition, the position of the hole where the spinal cord enters is like what's seen in humans but not apes, which suggests upright walking, they wrote.

Rick Potts, director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, said the position of that hole doesn't necessarily prove S. tchadensis walked upright. Still, Potts said he thinks the creature was probably a hominid.

Begun agreed, and said the chances are "pretty good" the creature walked upright, although "I'll be convinced when they find a knee joint."

Bernard Wood of George Washington University said he finds too little evidence to declare S. tchadensis a hominid with certainty, although it might well be true. If it isn't, the creature might have belonged to a branch of the evolutionary tree that has no living representatives, he said.

[Kinslaughterer]

Genetic testing reveals awkward truth about Xinjiang’s famous mummies
(AFP)

19 April 2005



URUMQI, China - After years of controversy and political intrigue, archaeologists using genetic testing have proven that Caucasians roamed China’s Tarim Basin 1,000 years before East Asian people arrived.


The research, which the Chinese government has appeared to have delayed making public out of concerns of fueling Uighur Muslim separatism in its western-most Xinjiang region, is based on a cache of ancient dried-out corpses that have been found around the Tarim Basin in recent decades.

“It is unfortunate that the issue has been so politicized because it has created a lot of difficulties,” Victor Mair, a specialist in the ancient corpses and co-author of “Mummies of the Tarim Basin”, told AFP.

“It would be better for everyone to approach this from a purely scientific and historical perspective.”

The discoveries in the 1980s of the undisturbed 4,000-year-old ”Beauty of Loulan” and the younger 3,000-year-old body of the ”Charchan Man” are legendary in world archaeological circles for the fine state of their preservation and for the wealth of knowledge they bring to modern research.

New findings and discoveries

In historic and scientific circles the discoveries along the ancient Silk Road were on a par with finding the Egyptian mummies.

But China’s concern over its rule in restive Xinjiang has widely been perceived as impeding faster research into them and greater publicity of the findings.

The desiccated corpses, which avoided natural decomposition due to the dry atmosphere and alkaline soils in the Tarim Basin, have not only given scientists a look into their physical biologies, but their clothes, tools and burial rituals have given historians a glimpse into life in the Bronze Age.

Mair, who played a pivotal role in bringing the discoveries to Western scholars in the 1990s, has worked tirelessly to get Chinese approval to take samples out of China for definitive genetic testing.

One expedition in recent years succeeded in collecting 52 samples with the aide of Chinese researchers, but later Mair’s hosts had a change of heart and only let five of them out of the country.

“I spent six months in Sweden last year doing nothing but genetic research,” Mair said from his home in the United States where he teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

“My research has shown that in the second millennium BC, the oldest mummies, like the Loulan Beauty, were the earliest settlers in the Tarim Basin.

“From the evidence available, we have found that during the first 1,000 years after the Loulan Beauty, the only settlers in the Tarim Basin were Caucasoid.”

East Asian peoples only began showing up in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin about 3,000 years ago, Mair said, while the Uighur peoples arrived after the collapse of the Orkon Uighur Kingdom, largely based in modern day Mongolia, around the year 842.

“Modern DNA and ancient DNA show that Uighurs, Kazaks, Krygyzs, the peoples of Central Asia are all mixed Caucasian and East Asian. The modern and ancient DNA tell the same story,” he said.

Mair hopes to publish his new findings in the coming months.

China has only allowed the genetic studies in the last few years, with a 2004 study carried out by Jilin University also finding that the mummies’ DNA had Europoid genes, further proving that the earliest settlers of Western China were not East Asians.

Mixed opinions…

In the preface to the 2002 book, “Ancient Corpses of Xinjiang,” written by Chinese archeologist Wang Huabing, the Chinese historian and Sanskrit specialist Ji Xianlin soundly denounced the use of the mummies by Uighur separatists as proof that Xinjiang should not belong to China.

“What has stirred up the most excitement in academic circles, both in the East and the West, is the fact that the ancient corpses of “white (Caucasoid/Europid) people’ have been excavated,” Jin wrote.

“However, within China a small group of ethnic separatists have taken advantage of this opportunity to stir up trouble and are acting like buffoons, (styling) themselves the descendants of these ancient “white people’ with the aim of dividing the motherland.”

Further on, in an apparent swipe at the government’s lack of eagerness to acknowledge the science and publicize it to the world, Ji wrote, “a scientist may not distort facts for political reasons, religious reasons, or any other reason”.

Meanwhile, Yingpan Man, a nearly perfectly preserved 2,000-year-old Caucasoid mummy, was only this month allowed to leave China for the first time, and is being displayed at the Tokyo Edo Museum.

The Yingpan Man, discovered in 1995 in the region that bears his name, has been seen as the best preserved of all the undisturbed mummies that have so far been found.

Yingpan Man not only had a gold foil death mask -- a Greek tradition -- covering his blonde bearded face, but also wore elaborate golden embroidered red and maroon garments with seemingly Western European designs.

His nearly 2.00 meter (six-foot, six-inch) long body is the tallest of all the mummies found so far and the clothes and artifacts discovered in the surrounding tombs suggest the highest level of Caucasoid civilization in the ancient Tarim Basin region.

When the Yingpan Man returns from Tokyo to Urumqi where he has long been kept out of public eye, he is expected to be finally put on display when the new Xinjiang Museum opens this year.

China has hundreds of the mummies in various degrees of dessication and decomposition, including the prominent Han Chinese warrior Zhang Xiong and other Uighur mummies.

However, only a dozen or so are on permanent display in a makeshift building until the new museum is completed.

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Exceptional Whale Fossil Found in Egyptian Desert"

CAIRO - An American palaeontologist and a team of Egyptians have found the most nearly complete fossilised skeleton of the primitive whale Basilosaurus isis in Egypt's Western Desert, a university spokesman said on Monday.

Philip Gingerich of the University of Michigan excavated the well-preserved skeleton, which is about 40 million years old, in a desert valley known as Wadi Hitan (the Valley of the Whales) southwest of Cairo, spokesman Karl Bates told Reuters.

"His feeling is that it's the most complete -- the whole skeleton from stem to stern," said Bates.
The skeleton, which is 18 metres (50 feet) long, could throw light on why there are so many fossilised remains of whales and other ancient sea animals in Wadi Hitan and possibly how the extinct animal swam, he said.

Basilosaurus isis is one of the primitive whales known as archaeocetes, which evolved from land mammals and later evolved into the two types of modern whale.

But it looks like a giant sea snake and the palaeontologists who found the first archaeocetes thought they were reptiles.

Modern whales swim by moving their horizontal fluke up and down in the water, while fish swim by lateral undulations.

"The research team will use the new skeleton to study how it lived and swam, and possibly to learn why it so abundant in Wadi Hitan," Gingerich said in a statement.

The statement said the skeleton will go to Michigan for preservation and replication. The original will then come back to Egypt for display.

Wadi Hitan is unusually rich in fossil remains from the period, trapped in a sandstone formation that then formed the sea bed. The fossils include five species of whale, three species of sea cow, two crocodiles, several turtles, a sea snake, and large numbers of fossilised sharks and bony fish.
It is a protected area to be developed as a national park under an Italian-Egyptian cooperative programme and it has been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its natural beauty and scientific importance.

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

[Kinslaughterer]

Ancient necropolis found in Egypt

The find pre-dates the pyramids
Archaeologists say they have found the largest funerary complex yet dating from the earliest era of ancient Egypt, more than 5,000 years ago.
The necropolis was discovered by a joint US and Egyptian team in the Kom al-Ahmar region, around 600 km (370 miles) south of the capital, Cairo.

Inside the tombs, the archaeologists found a cow's head carved from flint and the remains of seven people.

They believe four of them were buried alive as human sacrifices.

The remains survived despite the fact that the tombs were plundered in ancient times.




Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, said the discovery would add greatly to knowledge of the elusive pre-dynastic period, when Egypt was first becoming a nation.

The complex is thought to belong to a ruler of the ancient city of Hierakonpolis in around 3600 BC, when it was the largest urban centre on the Nile river.

Egyptologists say the city probably extended its influence northwards defeating rival entities. The unification of Upper and Lower Egypt eventually led to the establishment of rule by the Pharaohs.

Excavations at the site started in 2000 under the leadership of Egyptologist Barbara Adams, who died in 2002.

The site contains some of the earliest examples of mummification found in Egypt.

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The Near-Destruction of Giza
Jean-Daniel Stanley

click for full image and caption


Few visitors to the Giza plateau are aware that the pyramids, Egypt's Old Kingdom treasures and testaments to early pharaonic history, were almost dismantled about 170 years ago. It is hard to imagine that these ancient structures, the most popular tourist sights in Egypt, were nearly sacrificed as part of the plan to modernize that country. Yet, shocking as the idea now seems, Egypt's absolute ruler at the time seriously envisioned and nearly executed the project. To understand what transpired, and to place this story in historic context, one must return to early 19th-century Egypt. In 1805, an Ottoman commander of Albanian descent seized power and, with his Ottoman mandate, became the viceroy of Egypt with the rank of pasha. Muhammad 'Ali Pasha controlled the country until his death in 1849, and the dynasty he founded held power for more than a century. Muhammad 'Ali's reign was particularly energetic and presaged the development of Egypt into a modern state. The many "wishes" he expressed during his 44 years at the helm were clearly understood as commands, and many pertained to large-scale public projects throughout the country.

Enter the Frenchman

To execute his civil improvements, Muhammad 'Ali depended on Egyptian as well as foreign specialists, particularly French and English engineers. He eventually sought the counsel of French-born Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds, who at the age of 18 first visited Egypt in 1817. Linant had no formal training, but he was placed in charge of public works in Upper Egypt in 1831. Only a few years later, in 1837, he became chief engineer of all such projects in the country. The key to his success was reliable and speedy execution of diverse assignments. During the course of many years of service in Egypt, Linant gained the trust of Muhammad 'Ali and eventually became a member of the viceroy's privileged advisory council. He was appointed Minister of Public Works in 1869, retired shortly after, received the grand title of pasha in 1873 and died in Cairo in 1883. The engineer described the projects and personalities of his professional tenure in a hefty memoir published during 1872-1873. In this summary volume, he described how the viceroy commissioned many kinds of construction projects, including Nile waterways, irrigation canals, port and coastal structures, bridges and roads, railroads, wells and changes to Cairo's city plan. Not the least of Linant's great accomplishments during nearly 40 years of service was his role in building the Suez Canal.

click for full image and caption


If ever there was a time and place for one engineer to help modernize a nation, it was mid-19th-century Egypt. Linant's position of key responsibility enabled him to compile a particularly valuable account of the major engineering tasks with which he was involved, including the construction of barrages (dams) that regulated the flow of the Nile River for irrigation. Had the friendship between Linant and Muhammad 'Ali not been so close and long-lived, historians might be skeptical of the engineer's account of the viceroy's wish to have the pyramids dismantled. Although Linant does not provide the exact date of the pyramid saga in his Mémoires, he notes that Muhammad 'Ali had already decided to build barrages on the Lower Nile. This time probably corresponds to late 1833, when laborers began working at a barrage site in the delta north of Cairo. The viceroy expressed his desire to speed barrage construction by dismantling the pyramids to provide a large supply of pre-cut blocks. Linant tells us that the autocrat and his advisors considered the three largest structures for demolition, and they discussed various schemes for stone-by-stone removal or destruction by explosives. To highlight the seriousness of the plan and the narrowness of its defeat, Linant described Muhammed 'Ali and his normal way of proceeding with a plan. The headstrong ruler used a "full speed ahead" approach that demanded the complete dedication of his councilors and engineers. Linant wrote: "En Égypte on veut que les choses une fois decidées se fassent comme par enchantement;...et tout doit être sacrifié à cela." In other words, once in motion, all means should be undertaken and no obstacle should interfere with, or delay, a project.

A Subtle Plan

Although he was personally opposed to the demolition plan, Linant knew that if he declined or failed to move expeditiously on this task, the viceroy would select another engineer in his place. Facing what he termed Muhammad 'Ali's "deplorable proposition," Linant recounts that he did not object or directly counter the viceroy. Rather, he wisely used less conspicuous means. First, he requested permission to study the Giza site to assess the demolition task and provide a logistical plan. He also organized a preliminary visit with the Egyptian ministers of foreign affairs, public works and education. Linant compiled a careful report, which compared the cost of using material scavenged from pyramids versus newly cut stone from quarries, surmising that the quarry material would be cheaper. He judged that the majority of available blocks in the largest of the three pyramids, Khufu or Cheops, was of good quality. However, the report pointed out that Khufu contained four times more rock than was needed for the barrage works. Thus, demolition would require the selective removal of many blocks—at considerable cost. Blocks in the other two pyramids (Menkaure and Khafre) were of mixed quality, especially in the smallest, Menkaure, which did not contain enough suitable rock to meet the total needs for barrage construction. Linant also noted that even if the project used blocks from Menkaure, the cost of additional stone from quarries would excessively raise the overall price. Finally, Linant estimated that, regardless of the specific pyramid source, the project would incur further expenses to recut those blocks too large for barrage construction.

The skillfully crafted report provided specific time constraints and cost estimates for the viceroy's consideration. For example, it detailed the best method for disassembling a pyramid, including a series of cranes positioned to displace and lower the blocks. The facile transfer of material from pyramid base to the Nile plain below would require a 1,000-meter-long ramp of sand faced with rock. Of course, engineers would have to modify the canals so that these waterways could transport blocks from below the Giza plateau to the barrage sites. Thus, Linant itemized the costs of terrain preparation, taking into account the movement of large volumes of soil. The proposed work schedule incorporated the need for terracing at pyramid sites and the time allotted for rock removal. Among other details in Linant's proposal was a projected work rate for an early phase of upper pyramid removal: 480 blocks moved per day. The report recognized that the rate of block removal would increase as disassembly advanced, consequently lowering the cost per volume of rock. The total cost was 15,401,280 Egyptian piasters, a sizable amount at the time.

Linant anticipated that the estimated costs in his report might dissuade Muhammad 'Ali from his straightforward plan to obtain pre-cut stone. With so many projects already under way and a growing shortage of funds, would the viceroy really want to pay for the first-phase removal of 28,800 pyramid blocks—an amount six times greater than that needed for an equivalent volume of rock from quarries? Linant calculated the total volume of rock required to construct the barrages at 1,288,551 cubic meters. The average cost of one cubic meter of rock transported from Giza: 10.20 piasters. The cost of commercially quarried stone was only 8.35 piasters per cubic meter. Financially overextended, Mohammad 'Ali was convinced by the bottom line. The ruler told Linant that the quarry solution would be the better one in any case, because it would enable him to shift more workers to still other projects, rather than waste time on pyramids.

Word of this matter spread, and some officials expressed gentle dismay about the engineer's poor form in countering the viceroy. The French General Consul in Egypt, having caught wind of plans to demolish the pyramids, published in newspapers a diplomatic letter that opposed "vandalism" but refrained from mentioning the ruler. Most people would agree with Linant that at least this potentially terrible state of affairs ended well. If Egypt places any more monuments on the Giza plateau in the future, they might think to add one to Linant de Bellefonds for his work and honorable defense of history.

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Ancient Egyptian City Yields World's Oldest Glassworks
James Owen
for National Geographic News
June 16, 2005

Glass was a scarce and highly valued commodity in ancient times, so those who knew how to make it possessed a powerful technology.

Glass fragments unearthed in modern-day Iraq suggest that glassmaking began around 1500 B.C. in Mesopotamia and was kept a closely guarded secret for many centuries. Or so it was thought.

Now a new study suggests the ancient Egyptians mastered the art of glassmaking very soon after the Mesopotamians, using the technology to extend their influence throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

The findings are published tomorrow in the journal Science.

Artifacts unearthed in Egypt's eastern Nile Delta show glass was made there from raw materials around 1250 B.C. The artifacts were found at the site of Pharaoh Ramses II's capital city. The remains reveal the earliest known glassmaking site anywhere in the world and the only one dating from the Bronze Age.

The finds also show for the first time the methods used to make early glass.

"This is the first site we can put our finger on and say, This is where they did it, and this is how they did it," said study co-author Thilo Rehren, professor of archaeological materials and technologies at University College London.

Rehren added that the next earliest known glassworks, in Rhodes, Greece, dates to around 200 B.C.—more than a thousand years after the ancient Egyptian glassworks.

The glassmaking equipment and material was identified late last year following three years of excavations at Qantir, site of the ancient royal city of Piramesses. The finds date to the time of Ramses II, who reigned when Egypt was a major imperial power.

The artifacts reveal a two-stage manufacturing process. Raw materials, including silica and plant ash, were heated inside ovoid vessels that might have been recycled beer jars. The mixture was then crushed and washed before being colored and melted a second time in cylindrical molds to form round, glass ingots.

Rehren said these ingots would have been transported to workshops where skilled craftsmen made glass perfume bottles and other decorative items, such as inlays for furniture and luxury ornaments.

"Many people thought Egyptians weren't capable of making their own glass but got the finished glass chunks from Mesopotamia," Rehren said. "We can say that within 200 years [of the origination of glassmaking in Mesopotamia] the Egyptians were well capable of making their own glass, and not just any glass but difficult-to-make red glass."

Red glasses, which use copper-based colorants, require a high level of technical know-how, according to Caroline M. Jackson, a senior lecturer in archaeology at Sheffield University, England.

Other colors produced during the Late Bronze Age (1600 to 1100 B.C.) ranged from purple and cobalt blue to yellow and white.
Jackson, who wasn't involved with the study, said the authors "convincingly show that the Egyptians were making their own glass in large specialized facilities that were under royal control."

Jackson also noted that glass was difficult to work with and complicated to produce, yet available in vivid colors. As such, it likely played an important political role in the Mediterranean and Middle East during this period.

Glass manufacture at a royal city like Piramesses isn't surprising, she added, because glass was an elite material used to enhance power, status, and political allegiances.

Large numbers of colored glass ingots were discovered among the cargo of a Late Bronze Age shipwreck that was excavated off southern Turkey from 1984 to 1994. Those ingots were found to match the internal size and shape of glass molds excavated at Qantir. This, the researchers say, demonstrates the importance of such ingots in international trade in the ancient world.

Furthermore, the chemical composition of glass vessels, plaques, and inlays found at high-status archaeological sites throughout the Mediterranean matches that of the Qantir ingots, suggesting Egypt as the country of origin.

Rehren, the study's co-author, said the material wouldn't have been traded in the traditional sense. Rather, glass was used as a kind of diplomatic currency. For instance, Ramses II might have exchanged glass objects with his governors in territories abroad and with foreign rulers.

"Glass wasn't important practically but important emotionally and statuswise," Rehren noted. "There's no money being exchanged. But you can impress someone by giving them a glass offering."

Rehren compared the political clout of glass in ancient Egypt to that of nuclear power today. "You can't buy nuclear power. You have to be good pals with the guys who have it," he said. "You acquire nuclear capability through a political framework of alliances and friendships."

Jackson, the Sheffield University archaeologist, said the Qantir finds suggest that there was an Egyptian monopoly not only on the exchange of luxury glass but also on the diplomatic currency that glassmaking technology offered its rulers.

The new study, she added, "reinforces and reappraises the role of glass both within Egyptian society and as an elite material that was exported from Egypt to the Mediterranean world."

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Ancient tomb find in Ethiopia

Paris - Experts have discovered a major network of underground funerary chambers and arches near the original site of an ancient obelisk in Ethiopia, Unesco said.

The discovery was made last week during a surveying mission in the East African country in preparation for the return of the final piece of the 1 700-year-old Axum obelisk from Italy, the agency said.

Teams from the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation found the chambers using high-technology imaging equipment.

"It is likely that some of the tombs identified through underground imaging are intact," said Koichiro Matsuura, Unesco's director-general, in a statement.

The Axum site was classified as a Unesco World Heritage site in 1980. The obelisk - a symbol of African civilisation - was stolen in 1937 under orders from Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

The vast chambers, part of a royal necropolis predating the Christian era, are located underneath a parking lot built on the site in 1963, Unesco said.
Italian researchers were examining images and were working to create three-dimensional models of the royal tombs, the agency said.

Where is Kin anyway?

--A

[Kinslaughterer]

Sorry about the delay...

I was busy back in WV teaching a field school at my undergrad university.

2,000-year-old pit houses there before Hohokam
By Joyesha Chesnick
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

The shallow trenches and holes in the dirt, roped off in the back yard of an old adobe row house Downtown, seem at first like nothing more than the work of a diligent child playing in the mud.

Then archaeologist Homer Thiel mentions that this is the remains of a pit house built 2,000 years ago, well before the time of the Hohokam, and forms begin to jell - an arced pattern where posts once held up a roof, linear depressions where walls stood.

"This was not known before. This tells us this same spot was lived in for 2,000 years," said Thiel, project director for Desert Archaeology Inc., the firm hired to shore up the interior of a mid-19th-century triplex at 196 N. Court Ave.

The triplex, the abode of noted seamstress Soledad Jacomé and her six daughters from 1866 to 1911, will eventually be a museum in the Presidio Historic Park, a Rio Nuevo project reconstructing a tower of the Presidio fort at its original site.

It's proved to be a treasure-trove in itself.

Inside the three front rooms, Thiel has found layers of history: a pit house and pottery made by the Hohokam as early as the 750s; the largest-ever excavation of trash and debris from the Presidio era, 1775-1850, revealing residents may have been eating horses, cats and dogs; the head of a porcelain doll, a packet of Dukes Cameo Cigarettes and other evidence of more modern habitation.

Interrupting a stroll down Court Avenue to take a peek inside, Lawrence Steen aptly summed up the feeling of the place.

"If you close your eyes, you can feel things are going on in there," he said.

The pit house in the back yard is a significant discovery.

"It's from the early agricultural period, so that was a surprise," said Marty McCune, historic-preservation officer for the city of Tucson.

Older pit houses have been found west of Congress by "A" Mountain, but this is one of the oldest found east of the Santa Cruz River, McCune said.

"That is a new find; we didn't realize habitation went back that far," she said.

Other pit houses from the same era and from the age of the Hohokam, about A.D. 750 to 900, have also been found in the parking lot behind the triplex, near the Main Library and under the lawn of City Hall.

"Everywhere we looked, we found evidence," Thiel said.

The pit house in the back yard of the triplex will be studied, covered with protective cloth and filled back in with dirt. But one in the parking lot dating to around 900, which was found under a corner of the Presidio wall, may be kept uncovered and turned into an interpretive exhibit where people can see the actual remains, Thiel said.

"The plan is to figure out some way to conserve it so it doesn't erode."

That exhibit, in turn, would be part of a larger plaza connecting the planned reconstruction of the Presidio tower at the corner of Church and Washington streets and the triplex at Court Avenue.

The Tucson Presidio Trust for Historic Preservation, which has as its mission the restoration of the Presidio San Augustín del Tucson, will conduct living-history activities at the complex, said Don Laidlaw, the group's past president and current treasurer.

"We see the triplex as an important authentic historic element that adds dignity and a Southwestern flavor to the complex there," he said. "It provides an important entry to the cultural park."

Laidlaw said the trust envisions the triplex museum as a "gatekeeper," with displays of costumes and implements of the Spanish colonial era and other exhibits that can be quickly assimilated and understood by casual visitors.

"This is not a whole museum experience, but an introduction with the main displays in the Arizona State Museum and Historical Society facilities," he said.

Outside, the plaza will house ramadas that extend from the reconstructed Presidio wall and along a wall on the south boundary, which will be painted with a mural depicting life in the Presidio. There will also be some adobe brick ovens for use in cooking demonstrations.

"We're keenly interested in the portrayal of all the elements of Spanish colonial history," Laidlaw said.

The Presidio Historic Park is one of three geographic sites identified as part of the Tucson Origins Heritage Park, a project that aims to reconstruct and interpret 11,500 years of human history and 30 million years of natural history as it occurred on both sides of the Santa Cruz River.

The other two sites are the San Augustín Mission near "A" Mountain, the center of civilian rule during the Spanish colonial era, and the Mission Garden near the mission San Xavier del Bac, the religious center. The Presidio was the military center.

"Tucson will be the only city in the United States that has those distinctive elements of Spanish colonial policy clearly exhibited," Laidlaw said.

A design team for the Presidio Historic Park should be selected by mid-August, McCune said. The design should take six to eight months to complete and construction about a year. So if all goes as planned, the park should be open in two years.

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No worries, as long as you're back every now and then.

--A

[Kinslaughterer]

UB Hosts African Archaeology Congress

Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)

June 30, 2005
Posted to the web June 30, 2005


The University of Botswana (UB) will host the 12th congress of the Pan African Archaeological Association next month. A news release from the university says the event will be hosted by the UB Archaeology Unit.

The decision to host the event was made by the Permanent Council of the Pan African Archaeological Association after its 11th Congress in Mali.

The Association intends to bring to the event a substantial number of African scholars from Africa and beyond.

The release explains that the Pan African Association for Archaeology and Related Studies (PAA) was founded in Nairobi, Kenya in 1947.

Since then, the Association has held congresses in different African countries every four years.

The main goal of the PAA is to promote archaeological research into the African past as well as the conservation and management of the African archaeological and other heritages, both tangible and intangible.

It provides a forum for scholars based inside and outside Africa, but who are actively engaged in research in African archaeology and related disciplines to meet and share research ideas, results, experiences and and to debate pertinent issues.

This practice goes a long way in creating an international community of research scholars. The proceedings of each congress are published for wider dissemination.

Since the last congress in Mali, many significant research and developments have taken place in African archaeology and cultural heritage management for which a wide forum for debate and discussion will be important, says the release.

Research findings for evaluation include new work on the evolution of species, the origins of African agriculture, early African metallurgy and the development of early African urban systems and complex societies.

Important developments in cultural heritage management in Africa have included debate on the role of local communities and the protection of the intangible aspects of the African heritage.


In addition, there have been new concerns related to the African underwater cultural heritage, heritage management and economic development as well as ways of protecting the African cultural heritage from looting for sale on the international market.

All these areas will constitute the core of several congress themes. The congress will include sessions on women in African archaeology because of the biases that have been noted in both training and research orientation.

[[Syl]]

Always good to see you around, Dr. Jones.

[Kinslaughterer]

Glad to hear it,

To quote Junior, "I'm like a bad penny, I keep turning up."

[Avatar]

Mexican footprints rewrite history of Americas

Human footprints discovered in central Mexico could rewrite the accepted history of the first Americans. Dr Silvia Gonzalez from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) believes the footprints push back by almost 30 000 years the arrival of the first humans in the Americas.

When Gonzalez, the lead geoarchaeologist of an international team, first saw the footprints she said, "It felt like a thunderbolt."

Hundreds of human footprints discovered beside an ancient Mexican lake have been dated to 40 000 years ago. If the finding survives the storm of controversy it is bound to stir up, it means that humans must have moved into the New World at least 30 000 years earlier than previously thought.

Gonzalez explains, “The footprints were preserved as trace fossils in volcanic ash along what was the shoreline of an ancient volcanic lake. Climate variations and the eruption of the Cerro Toluquilla volcano caused the lake levels to rise and fall, exposing the Xalnene volcanic ash layer.”

She said that the early Americans walked across this new shoreline, leaving behind footprints that soon became covered in more ash and lake sediments. The trails soon became submerged whe the water levels rose again, so preserving the footprints.

The generally accepted history of the Americas had the first inhabitants arriving from Asia about 12 000 years ago after having crossed what is now the Bering Straits. At about that time, towards the end of last great ice age, a land-bridge existed between the two continents because much more water was frozen in extensive ice sheets that covered much of the northern hemisphere.

It is believed that the early arrivals from Asia quickly moved south through what is today Alaska and Canada, and within two thousand years had already reached the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego.

Where did they go to?
Mitochondrial DNA testing tends to support the view that the first inhabitants of North America only arrived from Asia around 12 000 years ago.

Scientists will, no doubt dispute Gonzalez’s findings, because dating techniques have been problematic before, and because the footprints would overturn many cherished and long-held theories. Previous claims of settlements in the Americas as early as 20 000 years ago have not withstood rigorous testing.

If however, the dating of the Mexican footprints proves to be correct, the early history of the Americas will have to be re-written. The footprints will also provoke scientists into searching for what happened to those early settlers.

If there are no traces of their DNA in modern Amerindians is it because they simply did not survive, or was it because the scientists did not look properly for the traces of a people who arrived 40 000 years ago?

[Kinslaughterer]

This one stands to be extremely controversial and interesting. Of particular note, it is very easy to acquire accurate dates from volcanic ash layers with potassium/argon or argon/argon dating techniques. They should be able to determine when that volcano erupted and if the footprints were placed before...
Many theories place people in the Americas before the Clovis stage. Can't wait to hear the results.

[Avatar]

I'm always keen to see data that overturns the established way of looking at something.

I know we've discussed it before, but this whole dating issue is of particular interest to me, and I guess that it's what this particular question will hinge upon.

What is the error factor in dating such as you mention?

--A

[duchess of malfi]

I would also like to see the dates moved back -- for the simple reason that there just didn't seem to be enough time to me to populate two large continents and develop so many different languages and cultures -- and some of those cultures were very advanced.

[Avatar]

A good point. Will an extra 30,000 years make things easier?

--A

[matrixman]

Geez, I am so far behind in my reading of the articles here. I thought Kins's item about the mummies in China was very amusing:

URUMQI, China - After years of controversy and political intrigue, archaeologists using genetic testing have proven that Caucasians roamed China’s Tarim Basin 1,000 years before East Asian people arrived.

Kinda hilarious that white dudes (and dudettes) got there first! I just find it funny. I'm strange.

[Kinslaughterer]

Hoepfully, this will be of some help...ain't science grand?

Potassium-Argon dating is the only viable technique for dating very old archaeological materials. Geologists have used this method to date rocks as much as 4 billion years old. It is based on the fact that some of the radioactive isotope of Potassium, Potassium-40 (K-40) ,decays to the gas Argon as Argon-40 (Ar-40). By comparing the proportion of K-40 to Ar-40 in a sample of volcanic rock, and knowing the decay rate of K-40, the date that the rock formed can be determined.




How Does the Reaction Work?

Potassium (K) is one of the most abundant elements in the Earth's crust (2.4% by mass). One out of every 10,000 Potassium atoms is radioactive Potassium-40 (K-40). These each have 19 protons and 21 neutrons in their nucleus. If one of these protons is hit by a beta particle, it can be converted into a neutron. With 18 protons and 22 neutrons, the atom has become Argon-40 (Ar-40), an inert gas. For every 100 K-40 atoms that decay, 11 become Ar-40.






How is the Atomic Clock Set?

When rocks are heated to the melting point, any Ar-40 contained in them is released into the atmosphere. When the rock recrystallizes it becomes impermeable to gasses again. As the K-40 in the rock decays into Ar-40, the gas is trapped in the rock.



Limitations on K-Ar Dating

The Potassium-Argon dating method is an invaluable tool for those archaeologists and paleoanthropologists studying the earliest evidence for human evolution. As with any dating technique, there are some significant limitations.

The technique works well for almost any igneous or volcanic rock, provided that the rock gives no evidence of having gone through a heating-recrystallization process after its initial formation. For this reason, only trained geologists should collect the samples in the field.


This technique is most useful to archaeologists and paleoanthropologists when lava flows or volcanic tuffs form strata that overlie strata bearing the evidence of human activity. Dates obtained with this method then indicate that the archaeological materials cannot be younger than the tuff or lava stratum. Because the materials dated using this method are NOT the direct result of human activity, unlike radiocarbon dates for example, it is critical that the association between the igneous/volcanic beds being dated and the strata containing human evidence is very carefully established.


As the simulation of the processing of potassium-argon samples showed, the standard deviations for K-Ar dates are so large that resolution higher than about a million years is almost impossible to achieve. By comparison, radiocarbon dates seem almost as precise as a cesium clock! Potassium-argon dating is accurate from 4.3 billion years (the age of the Earth) to about 100,000 years before the present. At 100,000 years, only 0.0053% of the potassium-40 in a rock would have decayed to argon-40, pushing the limits of present detection devices. Eventually, potassium-argon dating may be able to provide dates as recent as 20,000 years before present.