segunda-feira, 13 de junho de 2011
Los científicos de Atapuerca buscan restos de 1,3 millones de años.
quinta-feira, 9 de junho de 2011
Web-Exclusive Video: Less Spark, More Smolder?
One good way to learn about the human spark is to investigate a closely related species that lacked it. Alan Alda traveled to a French cave called Roc de Marsal, where Neanderthals sheltered intermittently for tens of thousands of years. The archaeologists who excavate here are becoming experts on Neanderthal life. In this video, Alan quizzes them on what they believe the big differences were between Neanderthals and early modern humans. Harold Dibble, Shannon McPherron, and Dennis Sandgathe explain what they think differentiates Neanderthals from us… and why the human spark might actually have been more of a human smolder.
in: pbs.org
terça-feira, 7 de junho de 2011
Hallada la mejor pelvis neandertal femenina del mundo
Desenterrado en Murcia un esqueleto casi completo de una hembra de 'Homo neanderthalensis'
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| Excavaciones en la Sima de las Palomas. u. de murcia |
Encontrar la tumba intacta de un faraón es para un egiptólogo lo que para un arqueólogo es desenterrar un esqueleto completo de un humano extinto. Y eso es precisamente lo que ha aparecido en una montaña de mármol murciana, el Cabezo Gordo, a seis kilómetros del mar Menor. Allí, un equipo dirigido por el arqueólogo Michael Walker ha hallado el esqueleto casi completo de una mujer neandertal. La hembra fue descubierta en 2006 bajo un montón de grandes piedras, en posición extendida y acostada de lado, con las manos cerca del rostro. Walker, de la Universidad de Murcia, no descarta que tanto esta mujer neandertal como otros dos esqueletos detectados cerca fueran tapados con pedruscos para evitar que las hienas y los leopardos que entonces habitaban Murcia se comieran los cadáveres.
El estudio de los restos fósiles, cuyo hallazgo se publica hoy en la revista PNAS, es una oportunidad única. El esqueleto, completo desde la pantorrilla hasta el cráneo, "permite por primera vez la comparación con exactitud de las dimensiones de un neandertal mediterráneo y las de los neandertales del norte". El primer diagnóstico cumple con el tópico: Tanto la hembra conocida ahora como los restos de otro individuo menos completo hallado en el mismo yacimiento, la Sima de las Palomas del Cabezo Gordo, eran más bajitos que sus hermanos de latitudes más septentrionales. Según Walker, estas dimensiones coincidirían con las de otro ejemplar de la cueva de El Sidrón, en Asturias. Apenas medían metro y medio, aunque mantenían las mismas proporciones de la especie.
"Quizá eran más bajitos"
Sin embargo, el arqueólogo de la Universidad de Murcia no quiere extraer conclusiones precipitadas. "Los restos que tenemos sugieren que los neandertales mediterráneos eran más bajitos, pero en realidad no tenemos ni idea", subraya. "Lo importante de este estudio es que por fin tenemos un esqueleto para comparar", añade.
Los autores, entre los que también figura una de las máximas autoridades en la morfología de los neandertales, el antropólogo estadounidense Erik Trinkaus, destacan que es "el primer esqueleto articulado de un neandertal adulto jamás excavado en el litoral mediterráneo europeo". Además, exponen, posee "la pelvis femenina neandertal más completa del mundo", lo que posibilitará ampliar la información sobre múltiples aspectos de la reproducción de las hembras neandertales.
En la Sima de las Palomas, en el municipio de Torre-Pacheco, han aparecido huesos y dientes de otros seis neandertales. Sin embargo, los investigadores creen que no era una morada fija, ya que hace 40.000 años apenas medía cuatro metros de diámetro y 2,5 de alto.
via publico.es
sábado, 4 de junho de 2011
quinta-feira, 2 de junho de 2011
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'
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| "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."
Quaternary International
Shell Midden Research: An Interdisciplinary Agenda for the Quaternary and Social Sciences
Edited by Andrea Balbo, Marco Madella, Ivan Briz Godino and Myrian Álvarez
Lithic Technology
Articles
- Possible functions of grooved ground stones from Baking Pot, Belize by James J. Aimers, W. James Stemp, and Jaime J. Awe
- A technological evaluation of the flint blade core reduction sequence at Wadi El-Sheikh, Middle Egyptby Theresa Barket and Robert M. Yohe II
- On cache recognition: An example from the area of the Chico River (Patagonia, Argentina) by Nora Viviana Franco, Alicia Castro, Natalia Cirigliano, Marilana Martucci, and Agustin Acevedo
- “I’ll have a flake to go, please”
- Expedient core technology in the Late Bronze (c. 1100–800 cal BC) and Earliest Iron (c. 800–600 cal BC) ages of eastern England
- Andrew P. McLaren
BOOK REVIEWS
- Tools and Economy of the Eneolithic Farmers of South-Eastern Europe, by N.N. Skakun reviewed by Mikhail Zhilin
- Prehension of Hafting Traces on Flint Tools: A Methodology by Veerle Rots, reviewed by Grant S. McCall
Quaternary Science Reviews
Early Human Evolution in the Western Palaearctic: Ecological Scenarios
Edited by Jose Carrion, James Rose and Chris Stringer
Mesolithic Miscellany
Bicho, N., Cascalheira, J., Marreiros, J., Pereira, T. 2011. The 2008-2010 excavations of Cabeço da Amoreira, Muge, Portugal. Mesolithic Miscellany, Vol. 21, n.º.2: 3-13.
quarta-feira, 25 de maio de 2011
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.
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