Mestrado em Arqueologia (2011-2012) - UAlg

O passado escondido no Museu Machado de Castro

O Museu Nacional Machado de Castro é palco das escavações arqueológicas da igreja românica de São João, que remonta ao século XII.

A trabalhar nas escavações estão os alunos do mestrado em Arqueologia da UC, uma junção possível graças a uma parceria entre a Universidade e o Museu.

Ancient cave women 'left childhood homes'

"Mrs Ples" is the most famous example of
A. africanus from the Sterkfontein cave site

By Neil Bowdler, Science reporter, BBC News

Analysis of early human-like populations in southern Africa suggests females left their childhood homes, while males stayed at home.

An international team examined tooth samples for metallic traces which can be linked to the geological areas in which individuals grew up.

The conclusion was that while most the males lived and died around the same river valley, the females moved on.

Similar patterns have been observed in chimpanzees, bonobos and modern humans.

Details of the study are published in a letter in Nature.

Isotopic test

The researchers looked at the Sterkfontein and Swartkrans cave sites, north-west of the South African city of Johannesburg.

The sites contain specimens of two distinct early "hominin" species, Australopithecus africanus, a possible direct ancestor of modern humans who lived around 2-3 million years ago, and Paranthropus robustus, who lived some 1.2-2 million years ago, but who is not believed to be our direct ancestor.

They took teeth from eight A.africanus and 11 P.robustus individuals from the cave sites, and removed tiny enamel fragments by laser, to minimise damage.

These fragments were then analysed to test for particular isotopes, or forms, of the metallic element strontium, which can reveal the geological region where individuals were raised.

This is because particular isotopes of strontium dominant within a geological region are digested by individuals living there and incorporated into their tooth enamel.

A third molar from Australopithecus africanus from which a sample was taken for the study

The results showed that the larger teeth, presumed to belong to males, showed most of these individuals lived and died in the region where the Sterkfontein and Swartkrans cave sites are located.

Most of the smaller teeth, presumed to be female, showed that these individuals grew up outside the region.

"What we were trying to do was to find out how these two hominins - two different species living in different time periods - were ranging around and using the landscape in the Sterkfontein valley and beyond," Professor Julia Lee-Thorp of Oxford University told BBC News.

While initial research was aimed at looking at seasonal variations in diet, the isotopic tests pointed them instead to apparent gender variations.

"What [the results] show was that the females were more likely to come from outside the dolomite valley region than the males. It wasn't too far away but it wasn't the same natal group in which they grew up.

"We don't know whether they drifted, or they went across deliberately, or they were abducted; we have no way of knowing that kind of detail, but on the whole most of the females came from somewhere else."

Professor Lee-Thorp said the patterns resemble those seen in chimpanzees, where males tend to stay within the extended family group, hunting together within a single territory, whereas females are forced to leave, possibly to avoid inter-breeding.

But that pattern differs from the one observed in gorillas, where a dominant "silverback" male usually mates with multiple females, and other males are forced to leave the group.

This does not mean, she believes, that the males within these hominin groups were necessarily taking any great role in child-rearing.

"I think that's taking the information too far, quite frankly," she said. "In chimpanzees that doesn't happen. In that case the females are leaving, but the males take little interest in nurturing the children."

Small sample

The sample size is of course very small, with specimens rare and samples for experimentation rarer. The researchers also admit that data from these two separate species living at two separate times was pooled to provide results which were statistically significant.

"We're very obviously constrained by the amount of material we have for destructive analysis," said researcher Professor Darryl de Ruiter of Texas A&M University, during a telephone conference dedicated to the Nature paper.

"In terms of comparing the two species themselves, we did analyse them separately but [the] sample size was so small within these individuals that they were not robust statistics... and we did have to combine these samples in order to get a valid statistical result."

Professor Peter Wheeler of Liverpool John Moores University said that both sample size and methodology were issues to consider.

"You've got to be cautious when drawing conclusions from a relatively small sample. You've got even greater concerns when combining data from more than one species," he said.

However, he said, "if the differences are consistent, then it's extremely interesting and worthy of further work".

He added: "Isotopic work is providing a lot of information about the movement of modern humans in the archaeological record and if people are able to get consistent results further back into prehistory, it could provide information which is potentially useful."

Festival Britânico de Arqueologia – O Dia da Arqueologia 2011

O Dia da Arqueologia 2011 é um projecto online que permitirá aos arqueólogos, que trabalham em todo o mundo, registrarem o que eles fazem num dia, 29 de julho de 2011. Esta data coincide com o Festival Britânico de Arqueologia, que vai de 16 a 31 de julho de 2011. Arqueólogos que participam no projecto poderão registrar o seu dia através de fotografias, vídeos e posts escritos.

Para mais informações:

http://festival.britarch.ac.uk/

Journées de l' archéologie 2011

Mais informações em: http://journees-archeologie.inrap.fr

9º Encontro de Arqueologia do Algarve

É com prazer que se anuncia, que o 9º Encontro de Arqueologia do Algarve terá este ano lugar nos dias 20, 21 e 22 de Outubro, na Fissul em Silves.

Trata-se de uma iniciativa da Câmara Municipal de Silves, que conta com a colaboração da Universidade do Algarve, Instituto de Gestão do Património Arquitectónico e Arqueológico,IP e Direcção Regional de Cultura do Algarve.

O evento assume novamente o seu formato regular objectivando-se na apresentação de comunicações e posters resultantes de trabalhos arqueológicos (de campo ou estudos) ocorridos na ou sobre a região do Algarve no biénio de 2010/2011.

Desta forma, aceitam-se propostas de comunicações e posters até ao dia 24 de Junho. A(s) proposta(s) deve(m) conter:

- o nome do autor(es),

- o tipo de apresentação pretendida (comunicação/poster),

- o título e

- um resumo que não exceda os 2500 caracteres.

Esclarecimentos adicionais poderão ser solicitados, através dos seguintes contactos:

Sector de Arqueologia da Divisão de Património Histórico-Arqueológico e Museus

Câmara Municipal de Silves, Praça do Município, 8300-117 Silves

Email: maria.gonçalves@cm-silves.pt

Telefone directo : 282444100

Göbekli Tepe

The Birth of Religion

We used to think agriculture gave rise to cities and later to writing, art, and religion. Now the world’s oldest temple suggests the urge to worship sparked civilization.

By Charles C. Mann
Photograph by Vincent J. Musi

Notícia em nationalgeographic

Uma vitória...

Participação da arqueóloga Leonor Medeiros na Final do FameLab, que venceu. Em menos de três minutos, como a arqueologia pode ajudar a contar a história de um crime com 5000 anos e de uma ida à praia algumas horas atrás.

Ciclo de Palestras

4600 MILHÕES DE ANOS DE EVOLUÇÃO

"Milplanaltos"

Banco de Imágenes de Huesos Modificados

"A Floresta entre o Real e o Imaginário"

HEIDELBERG MAN LINKS HUMANS, NEANDERTHALS

While many eyes are on Heidelberg Man as being the likely common
ancestor  to Neanderthals and our species, the jury is still out as to
where that pivotal evolution took place. Silvana Condemi

The last common ancestor of humans and Neanderthals was a tall, well-traveled species called Heidelberg Man, according to a new PLoS One study.

The determination is based on the remains of a single Heidelberg Man (Homo heidelbergensis) known as "Ceprano," named after the town near Rome, Italy, where his fossil -- a partial cranium -- was found.

Previously, this 400,000-year-old fossil was thought to represent a new species of human, Homo cepranensis. The latest study, however, identifies Ceprano as being an archaic member of Homo heidelbergensis.

PHOTOS: Faces of Our Ancestors

The finding may shed light on what the species that gave rise to both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens looked like.

"Considering other fossils that can be lumped together with Ceprano in H. heidelbergensis, we can hypothesize that the 'Ceprano-morphotype' was tall, with a strong mandible (jaw) and small teeth," coauthor Silvana Condemi told Discovery News.

Condemi is the Director of Research at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in the laboratory of anthropology at the University of Marseille, where she directs the unit of paleoanthropology.

For the study, she and colleagues Aurelien Mounier and Giorgio Manzi compared Ceprano with 42 fossils from Africa and Eurasia ranging from 1.8 million to 12,000 years ago. The scientists also compared Ceprano to 68 modern humans. The sample set is the most extensive ever assembled in relation to the ancient Italian fossil.

In addition to identifying Ceprano as a Heidelberg Man, the analysis found notable similarities with other human-associated fossils from Europe dating to the Middle Pleistocene 781,000 to 126,000 years ago. Connections were also made to early human fossils from Africa. The researchers therefore believe that Homo heidelbergensis was widespread, dispersing throughout Eurasia and Africa beginning around 780,000 years ago.

Good weather may have permitted Heidelberg Man's worldly lifestyle.

"We can hypothesize that particular environmental conditions during the Middle Pleistocene may have favored the expansion of H. heidelbergensis and contacts between populations," explained Condemi, who is also the co-editor of the new book Continuity and Discontinuity in the Peopling of Europe (Springer, 2011). "The gene flow was never completely stopped between Old World populations."

Paleontologist Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London, told Discovery News that he agrees with most of the new study's conclusions.

"I have long argued that Homo heidelbergensis represented our common ancestor with the Neanderthals about 400,000 years ago, and the Ceprano fossil, with its newly-determined late date, is well-situated chronologically to be part of this common ancestral group," Stringer said.

"However, it is quite a primitive specimen in several respects and therefore it may be that, like some other samples of heidelbergensis in Africa and Europe, it does not represent the actual last ancestral population," Stringer added.

"In my view, we still do not know where that particular population existed," he explained, "and it may even have lived in a place from which we have very little evidence at present, such as western Asia."

Ian Tattersall, curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, told Discovery News that he agrees Ceprano has been "appropriately assigned to the cosmopolitan species Homo heidelbergensis. But in Europe this species is contemporaneous with the lineage leading to Homo neanderthalensis."

If Homo heidelbergensis did arrive before modern humans, "it must thus have been via an earlier, presumably African, representative of the species," Tattersall explained.

While many eyes are on Heidelberg Man as being the likely common ancestor to Neanderthals and our species, the jury is still out as to where that pivotal evolution took place.

Anthropologist Eric Delson of Lehman College, The City University of New York, thinks the new study is "very interesting and takes a good approach," but he believes additional research is needed to elucidate exactly when, where and how Neanderthals and modern humans originated.

In Discovery News

CAVEMEN, CAVE BEARS

This diaroma shows what a crew of cavemen painters may have looked like.
Both of the caves examined in this study feature art on the walls,
some of which shows cave bears. Corbis

Cavemen may have had to jostle with bears to settle into caves up to 32,000 years ago, as research shows cave bears lived in the same spaces coveted by prehistoric humans.

The new study on cave bears, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science, may also shed light on the age of cave art depicting these enormous animals and why the bears eventually went extinct.

A clue to the mysteries is that from 32,000 to 30,000 years ago, both humans and cave bears lived in two French caves, creating a likely man-versus-bear battle.

"Paleolithic humans used to kill large animals during their hunts, so they were able to kill cave bears," lead author Celine Bon told Discovery News.

While genetics show cave bears consumed a mostly vegetarian diet, "they might have been violent if they were disturbed during hibernation or if they felt frightened," added Bon, a researcher in the Institute of Biology and Technology at Saclay, France.

"In such a case, they may have been very dangerous because of their huge size and their impressive claws and canines (teeth)."

For the study, Bon and her colleagues performed radiocarbon dating, mitochondrial DNA analysis and isotope investigations of cave bear remains from Chauvet-Pont d'Arc and Deux-Ouvertures caves located along the Ardeche River in France. Both caves feature art on the walls, some of which shows cave bears.

The tests revealed that cave bears inhabited the Ardeche region from around 37,000 to 27,400 years ago, with the oldest samples from Chauvet dating to 29,000 years ago. For a while, the bears had few rivals for the caves

That changed when humans first began to use the natural shelters 32,000 to 30,000 years ago. The DNA analysis determined the cave bear population was small and isolated, and that the bears probably died out not long after humans came onto the scene.

"The cave bear population began to decline at the same time that modern humans arrived in Europe," Bon said. "Yet it is unclear if humans are responsible for the cave bear extinction because of competition over space or food resources, or if the extinction of cave bears is due to climatic and/or environmental changes.

"Our data favor both explanations because they show a small cave bear population size in caves occupied by humans."

She thinks it's doubtful the bears and humans ever lived together simultaneously in the caves. Despite the probable competition, there appears to have been a period where the bears occupied the caves during the winter while the humans took over the caves in the summer. There also might have been intervals lasting several years between cave occupations by either group.

Since the oldest cave bear remains from the Chauvet cave date to 29,000 years ago, that supports prior claims that the charcoal drawings there are the oldest in the world.

In the journal paper, the authors explain: "Because painting an animal that is no longer present is hardly feasible, we propose that these red rock art pictures are indeed very ancient, dating back to the Aurignacian (a period lasting from 40,000 to 28,000 years ago)."

Archaeologist Jean-Michel Geneste, who is director of France's National Center for Prehistory, told Discovery News said the "results are important for the interpretation of the Aurignacian paintings."

Andrew Lawson, an archaeologist based in Salisbury, U.K., also supports the new findings. But Paul Pettitt of the University of Sheffield is skeptical that the Chauvet paintings are so ancient.

Pettitt believes their style is too advanced for the date given, likening them to a Renaissance painting found in a Roman villa. He further questions if the bears in the drawings are cave bears or brown bears, but Bon's team say the skull shapes for each species are unique.

Bon and her colleagues hope future studies will put a more firm date on when cave bears went extinct. The researchers also call for analysis of charcoal fragments spotted in the Chauvet cave places containing the cave bear remains.

In news.discovery

Hace medio millón de años que el Homo sapiens es diestro

Ahora, nuevos materiales encontrados en la Sima de los Huesos y en otros yacimientos europeos confirman sus resultados.

Una nueva investigación, dirigida por el profesor norteamericano David Frayer, de la Universidad de Kansas, ha confirmado que los seres humanos han sido preferentemente diestros al menos desde hace medio millón de años, una característica que se relaciona con el lenguaje.

El trabajo, en el que también participan los investigadores de Atapuerca, especialmente Marina Lozano, junto con colegas croatas e italianos, ha seguido los pasos de la investigación publicada 1988, en la revista ‘Journal of Human Evolution’, por el codirector del equipo español José María Bermúdez de Castro, Timothy G. Bromagea y Yolanda Fernández Jalvo, en la que por primera vez se mencionó este rasgo humano.

Ahora, nuevos materiales encontrados en la Sima de los Huesos y en otros yacimientos europeos confirman sus resultados.

En la nueva investigación, también se han analizado las marcas que hay en la parte frontal de los dientes de ancestros de nuestra especie y que se relacionan con el uso de la mano derecha. “No se trata de marcas hechas al comer, sino que vimos que eran más gruesas y siempre con la misma dirección. Los microscopios electrónicos revelaron que fueron hechas con piedras afiladas. Concluímos que los homínidos cogían la carne con la boca y la cortaban con lascas al ras de los dientes, como hacen los esquimales con los cuchillos”, explica Bermúdez de Castro a Elmundo.es

Enseguida les llamó la atención que todas las marcas estaban hechas en paralelo y en la misma dirección, siguiendo un patrón que se corresponde con el uso de la mano derecha para coger la herramienta de piedra. Además, como ahora resalta Frayer, se observa que eran señales producidas a lo largo de toda la vida, y no en un episodio puntual de corte.

Sima de los Huesos

El artículo publicado este mes en la revista ‘Laterality’ concretan que el porcentaje de individuos en la Sima de los Huesos (donde se han encontrado ‘Homo heidelbergensis’) y en otros yacimientos de neandertales es del 93,1% de diestros.

Frayer destaca que este rasgo tiene implicaciones para comprender la capacidad lingüística de las poblaciones humanas primitivas, dado que el lenguaje se localiza en el hemisferio izquierdo del cerebro, que controla también la parte derecha del cuerpo, por lo que hay una conexión entre ser diestro y el lenguaje.

“La correlacióngeneral entre el uso de la manos y la lateralidad del cerebro muestra que los cerebros humanos fueron lateralizados en una forma ‘moderna’ hace al menos medio millón de años y que ese patrón no ha cambiado desde entonces”, señala el investigador norteamericano. “No hay razón para pensar que este patrón no se extiende más allá en el pasado y que el lenguaje tiene raíces muy antiguas”, concluye.

vía | elmundo.es.

DID NEANDERTHALS BELIEVE IN AN AFTERLIFE?

A possible Neanderthal burial ground suggests that they practiced funeral rituals and possessed symbolic thought before modern humans.

Evidence for a likely 50,000-year-old Neanderthal burial ground that includes the remains of at least three individuals has been unearthed in Spain, according to a Quaternary International paper.

The deceased appear to have been intentionally buried, with each Neanderthal's arms folded such that the hands were close to the head. Remains of other Neanderthals have been found in this position, suggesting that it held meaning.

Neanderthals therefore may have conducted burials and possessed symbolic thought before modern humans had these abilities. The site, Sima de las Palomas in Murcia, Southeast Spain, may also be the first known Neanderthal burial ground of Mediterranean Europe.

"We cannot say much (about the skeletons) except that we surmise the site was regarded as somehow relevant in regard to the remains of deceased Neanderthals," lead author Michael Walker told Discovery News. "Their tools and food remains, not to mention signs of fires having been lit, which we have excavated indicate they visited the site more than once."

Walker, a professor in the Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology at the University of Murcia, and his colleagues have been working at the site for some time. So far they have found buried articulated skeletons for a young adult female, a juvenile or child, and an adult -- possibly male -- Neanderthal.

"We cannot say whether these three individuals were related, though it is likely," he said, explaining that DNA has been denatured due to high ambient temperatures. "Surely the child was related to one of the others, though."

The three skeletons represent some of the best-preserved, and most methodically excavated remains of Neanderthals.

"Such discoveries are extraordinarily uncommon," Walker said.

The Neanderthals were found covered together with rocks burying their remains. The researchers believe it's likely that other Neanderthals intentionally placed the rocks over the bodies from a height. While it cannot be ruled out that an accident killed the three individuals, the scientists believe that wasn't the case.

"I think there is just enough evidence at Sima de las Palomas to think that three articulated skeletons are unlikely to have been the result of a single random accident to three cadavers that somehow escaped the ravages of hyenas and leopards, which were present at the site," Walker said.

Unburnt bones of two articulated panther paws were embedded in rock "in an area where the rest of the animal's skeleton was conspicuous by its absence notwithstanding its proximity to the human skeletons," the authors write.

The researchers speculate that a Neanderthal cut off the panther paws and kept them. It is also possible that the paws were added to the bodies before burial, perhaps holding some ritual significance.

The remains of six to seven other Neanderthals, including one baby and two juveniles, have also been excavated at the site. The tallest individual appears to have been an adult who stood around 5'1".

Erik Trinkaus, a professor of physical anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of the world's leading experts on Neanderthals. He told Discovery News that "it is certainly possible that they (the Neanderthals at Sima de las Palomas) were buried."

He said a few dozen documented Neanderthal burials from Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia have already been documented.

Trinkaus added that the Neanderthal remains from Spain will "provide us with our first glimpse of overall Neanderthal body form in Southern Europe, as well as additional specimens for a number of aspects of Neanderthal biology."

in http://news.discovery.com

Descoberta tábua de cerâmica com escrita legível mais antiga da Europa

Michael Cosmopoulos (à esquerda) no local das escavações.

Uma tábua de cerâmica com mais de três mil anos, com o texto legível mais antigo da Europa, foi encontrada numa antiga lixeira, em Peloponeso, na Grécia, segundo anunciou Michael Cosmopoulos, arqueólogo da Universidade do Estado do Missouri-St. Louis (EUA). Trata-se de uma placa de argila, que se julga corresponder a um registo financeiro. Será publicado um artigo sobre a pedra na edição deste mês da«Proceedings of the Athens Archaeological Society».

O artefacto foi encontrado durante escavações – sob a supervisão da Escola de Arqueologia de Atenas, começaram em 2006 e já revelaram ruínas de uma enorme estrutura com grandes muralhas de entre 1550-1440 a.C. –, numa colina de Iklaina, uma pequena aldeia do departamento de Messene, 300 quilómetros a sudoeste de Atenas.

“Isto é um caso raro onde arqueologia vai ao encontro de textos antigos e mitos gregos”, segundo referiu ao «Past Horizons Archaeology News». Esta tabela de argila muda tudo aquilo que se sabia sobre as origens da alfabetização e a burocracia, durante a Idade do Bronze, na Europa do sul. O fragmento mede cinco centímetros por oito.

A inscrição corresponde a uma forma de escrita – Linear B – usada antes da existência da Grécia Antiga pelos Micénicos, um povo da Idade do Bronze que dominou grande parte do território grego 1.600 anos antes e Cristo, na época da Guerra de Tróia descrita na Ilíada de Homero.

Placa tem inscrição em Linear B.

A placa tem, de um lado, uma lista de nomes e números; no outro, uma verba relativa à confecção, segundo revelou o Cosmopoulos, que também é director doIklaina Archaeological Project, acrescentando que esta descoberta sugere que "a burocracia e a literacia foram desenvolvidas mais cedo do que se pensava".

Segundo o especialista, o sítio em que a placa de argila foi encontrada terá sido uma antiga lixeira do Peloponeso que foi atingida pelo fogo. Felizmente, a inscrição não se perdeu, uma vez que a argila terá cozido com as altas temperaturas do incêndio. O local foi destruído provavelmente no ano 1400 a.C, antes de ser invadido pelo reino de Pilos, cujo rei, Nestor, é mencionado na Ilíada.

In CiênciaHoje

Descoberto primeiro esqueleto de homossexual pré-histórico

Corpo estava disposto como sepultura feminina.

Descobriram o corpo de um homem – que remonta a 2900 ou 2500 anos a.C. –, na República Checa, cuja posição estava normalmente reservada às mulheres na cultura da cerâmica e, por isso, os investigadores acreditam tratar-se do primeiro homossexual ou transexual conhecido e que viveu durante a Idade do Cobre.

O esqueleto, encontrado num subúrbio de Praga, tinha a cabeça apontada para Este e estava rodeado de utensílios domésticos, um ritual que até aqui apenas era descoberta em sepulturas femininas.

Segundo a história da antropologia, "as pessoas deste período levavam este género de ritual funerário muito a sério e isso leva a crer que a posição em que foi encontrado seja dificilmente um erro”, referiu Kamila Remisova Venisova, coordenadora da equipa de arqueólogos que fez a descoberta, ao diário britânico «The Telegraph».

Neste tipo de cultura, os homens eram normalmente enterrados sobre o seu lado direito, com a cabeça virada para o Oeste, com ferramentas, armas, comida e bebidas e as mulheres, normalmente sobre o lado esquerdo, viradas para o Este e rodeada de jóias e objectos de uso doméstico.

Outra das hipóteses é a de que o indivíduo poderia ter sido um xamã ou alguém do ‘terceiro sexo’ (homo ou transexual). "Como o conjunto de objectos encontrados em redor do esqueleto não corroboravam a hipótese de que fosse um xamã, é mais provável que a segunda explicação seja a correcta”, sustentou ainda.

As escavações foram hoje abertas ao público e as visitas têm sido intensas. Os restos são de um membro da cultura da cerâmica cordada, que viveu no norte da Europa na Idade da Pedra, entre 2.500 AC e 2.900 AC.

In CiênciaHoje

Palaeolithic Research Centre

The Palaeolithic Research Centre (PARC) was established in the year 2010. PARC is an institution in which science and art are tightly interweaven. The common roots of this once indivisible unity extend far back into the past, when the first signs of abstract, symbolic thinking appeared in mankind. Today science and art share a common place in the concept of culture. Thus PARC is a cultural institution, which is concerned with the longest period of human history, the Old Stone Age or Palaeolithic. PARC is not limited to Slovenia, but cooperates with similar institutions all over the world. PARC organizes international expert meetings about new discoveries, ideas and theories within anthropology.

You can visit our website on www.parc.si