tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/archeology-548/articles
Archeology – The Conversation
2024-03-06T16:07:53Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222208
2024-03-06T16:07:53Z
2024-03-06T16:07:53Z
The first Europeans reached Ukraine 1.4 million years ago – new research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579833/original/file-20240305-28-c9bzes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3431%2C2025&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Remains of the castle in Korolevo, close to the site.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castle_in_Korolevo.jpg">Катерина Байдужа/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During warm periods in Earth’s history, known as <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-11/1%20Glacial-Interglacial%20Cycles-Final-OCT%202021.pdf">interglacials</a>, glaciers the size of continents pulled back to reveal new landscapes. These were new worlds for early humans to explore and exploit, and 1.4 million years ago this was Europe: a <a href="https://www.nla.gov.au/digital-classroom/senior-secondary/cook-and-pacific/cook-legend-and-legacy/challenging-terra"><em>Terra nullius</em></a> unoccupied by humans.</p>
<p>Long before it emerged as the epicentre of global colonialism, Europe was itself colonised for the first time by humans migrating from the east.</p>
<p>A new study, led by a team from the Czech Academy of Sciences and Aarhus University and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3">published this week in <em>Nature</em></a>, reports the earliest human presence in Europe, at a site on the Tysa River in western Ukraine known as <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/wQsNaz3eba6VaD9TA">Korolevo</a>.</p>
<h2>Buried stone tools at Korolevo, Ukraine</h2>
<p>We studied a layer of stone tools left on a river bed by the people who crafted them. These “core-and-flake” tools were made in the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Oldowan_Tools/">Oldowan style</a>, the most primitive form of tool-making, first classified by the palaeoanthropologist <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mary-leakey-unearthing-hi/">Mary Leakey</a> in east Africa. Similar tools have also been found at the oldest known sites of human occupation in Europe, the Levant, and Asia.</p>
<p>The tools at Korolevo had been buried by river sediment and later by wind-blown dust, and then eventually uncovered by workers at a stone quarry. Evidence of prehistoric people at this site was first discovered in 1974 by the Ukrainian archaeologist, V. N. Gladilin.</p>
<p>Early efforts to date the tools proved troublesome. Measurements of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetostratigraphy">remnant magnetism</a> in the overlying sediments indicated that the lowermost tools predate the most recent reversal in the Earth’s magnetic field 0.8 million years ago, an event known as the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022JB025286">Matuyama-Brunhes reversal</a>. This timing is well beyond the limits of commonly used dating methods, such as radiocarbon (useful back to about 50 thousand years) and luminescence dating (usually limited to the last 300 thousand years or so).</p>
<h2>A dating method based on cosmic rays</h2>
<p>To solve this problem, we applied an innovative dating method using <a href="https://zero.sci-hub.se/2282/fe5beae8f8902cc8db76634e2148be29/granger2014.pdf">cosmogenic nuclides</a> that can reach back 5 million years, the critical timeframe for human evolution. This method has already yielded definitive ages at other key sites, such as the 3.4 million year old <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2123516119"><em>Australopithecus</em> at Sterkfontein</a> in southern Africa, and the 0.77 million year old Zhoukoudian <em>Homo erectus</em>, also known as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/7235123a">‘Peking Man’</a>.</p>
<p>It works like this: exploding stars (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv0gVDvzkwA">supernovae</a>) outside our Solar System release streams of cosmic rays that enter Earth’s upper atmosphere, sending showers of secondary cosmic rays down to Earth, where they react with minerals in rocks and soils to produce radioactive nuclides in tiny but measurable quantities. </p>
<p>We measured two such nuclides, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871101422001686">beryllium-10 and aluminium-26</a>, to calculate the burial age. A date was obtained by observing the ratio of these two nuclides, which changes over time during burial due to their differing radioactive decay half-lives: 1.4-million-years for beryllium-10 and 0.7-million-years for aluminium-26.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579092/original/file-20240301-18-t5jr2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579092/original/file-20240301-18-t5jr2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579092/original/file-20240301-18-t5jr2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579092/original/file-20240301-18-t5jr2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579092/original/file-20240301-18-t5jr2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579092/original/file-20240301-18-t5jr2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579092/original/file-20240301-18-t5jr2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579092/original/file-20240301-18-t5jr2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Left panel: Supernova in galaxy NGC 2525, about 70 million light years away. Earth is continuously bombarded by cosmic rays generated by supernovae like this one. Right panel: the team of physicists (co-authors) at the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and their accelerator mass spectrometer, the machine that measured the beryllium-10 and aluminium-26 in our samples.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA and STSI/HZDR</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By applying this approach to the sediment layer containing the stone tools at Korolevo, we were able to calculate a burial age of 1.5 to 1.3 million years (the <a href="https://itu.physics.uiowa.edu/courses/reporting-uncertainties">1-sigma uncertainty range</a>), making this Europe’s earliest securely dated human occupation.</p>
<h2>Who lived at Korolevo?</h2>
<p>The absence of fossils at Korolevo means we cannot definitively say who these pioneers were. However, the tools are too old and too primitive to be the work of either anatomically modern humans (<em>Homo sapiens</em>), or <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/who-were-the-neanderthals.html">Neanderthals</a>. The tool makers were likely some variety of <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/homo-erectus-our-ancient-ancestor.html"><em>Homo erectus</em></a>, a remarkably successful ancestor of humans that appeared around 2 million years ago, and spread across diverse habitats in Africa, Asia, and Europe.</p>
<p>On their journey from Africa into Eurasia, early humans passed through the Levant region, where they left signs of occupation as early as 2.5 million years ago at <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379119302847">Zarqa Valley</a>. Further north, numerous <em>Homo erectus</em> fossils have been found at <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/meet-frail-small-brained-people-who-first-trekked-out-africa">Dmanisi</a> in the Caucasus Mountains, dating to 1.8 million years ago.</p>
<h2>Europe colonised from the east</h2>
<p>Once into Eurasia, people migrated eastward at a remarkable pace, reaching as far as the island of <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aau8556">Java</a>, southeast Asia, by around the same time we find them in western Ukraine. It is not known what caused the delayed westward incursion into Europe, but it appears that Korolevo bridges the migration gap between the Caucasus (1.8 million years ago) and sites in southwestern Europe dated to 1.2 to 1.1 million years at <a href="https://www.iphes.cat/atapuerca">Atapuerca</a> and Vallonnet. One proposal is that people entered Europe from the east via the Danube Valley and Pannonian Plain.</p>
<p>What they found was very different to the present day. 1.4 million years ago, Europe was home to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Pleistocene_extinctions">megafauna</a> such as the mammoth, hippopotamus, giant species of hyena, cheetah, beaver, sabre-toothed cat, scimitar-toothed cat, and the European jaguar — among others that have <a href="https://books.google.es/books/about/Europe.html?id=q35bDwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y">long since disappeared from the continent</a>.</p>
<h2>Interglacial warmth posed opportunities</h2>
<p>Korolevo is the northernmost known presence of whom we assume to be <em>Homo erectus</em>. Our burial age of around 1.4 million years ago corresponds to three interglacial periods that were among the warmest of the last few million years. We propose that people exploited these warm intervals to disperse into higher latitudes. </p>
<p>The intervening glacial periods in this region were bitterly cold, ruling out any possibility of a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04600-9">suitable habitat</a> for humans. We reason that climate was a major influence on human behaviour back then, just as it is today.</p>
<h2>Europe’s origin story</h2>
<p>Our discovery in Ukraine adds a new and unexpected layer to the story of Europe. Differing opinions on the meaning of these ancient tools will no doubt arise, not least because their discovery in such a contested location brings questions of human history directly into the geopolitical firing line.</p>
<p>And yet an alternative view also exists. It is one that marvels at human enterprise and reminds of the common ground from which all humanity sprang: a salve for transcending these <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/for-arendt-hope-in-dark-times-is-no-match-for-action">dark times</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Jansen currently receives funding from the Czech Science Foundation, the European Commission, and the Chengdu University of Technology where he is visiting professor. He also holds two unsalaried positions: visiting senior fellow at the University of Wollongong, and associate editor with the Geological Society of America Bulletin. </span></em></p>
A new study reveals the earliest evidence of humans in Europe, at Korolevo, Ukraine, shining new light on prehistoric migration routes.
John Jansen, Senior researcher, Institute of Geophysics, Czech Academy of Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/217253
2024-02-26T13:39:14Z
2024-02-26T13:39:14Z
What ancient farmers can really teach us about adapting to climate change – and how political power influences success or failure
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576820/original/file-20240220-22-4dkk2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C15%2C5160%2C3391&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A farmer paddles to his fields on an artificial island among canals, part of an ancient Aztec system known as chinampas, in 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ae1d688be96145e38f16681367992bca?ext=true">AP Photo /Marco Ugarte</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In dozens of archaeological discoveries around the world, from the once-successful reservoirs and canals of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101166">Angkor Wat</a> in Cambodia to the deserted <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209615120">Viking colonies</a> of Greenland, new evidence paints pictures of civilizations struggling with unforeseen climate changes and the reality that their farming practices had become unsustainable.</p>
<p>Among these discoveries are also success stories, where ancient farming practices helped civilizations survive the hard times. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209615120">Zuni farmers</a> in the southwestern United States made it through long stretches of extremely low rainfall between A.D. 1200 and 1400 by embracing small-scale, decentralized irrigation systems. <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520343757/the-scarcity-slot">Farmers in Ghana</a> coped with severe droughts from 1450 to 1650 by planting indigenous African grains, like drought-tolerant pearl millet. </p>
<p>Ancient practices like these are gaining new interest today. As countries face unprecedented heat waves, storms and melting glaciers, some farmers and international development organizations are reaching deep into the agricultural archives to revive these ancient solutions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A canal running through a mountain side with snowy peaks in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576825/original/file-20240220-18-dywyn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576825/original/file-20240220-18-dywyn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576825/original/file-20240220-18-dywyn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576825/original/file-20240220-18-dywyn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576825/original/file-20240220-18-dywyn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576825/original/file-20240220-18-dywyn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576825/original/file-20240220-18-dywyn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An ancient irrigation method used by the Moors involving water channels is being revisited in Spain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/water-channel-for-irrigation-known-as-an-acequia-sierra-news-photo/525482563?adppopup=true">Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Drought-stricken farmers in Spain have reclaimed medieval <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/19/world/europe/spain-drought-acequias.html">Moorish irrigation</a> technology. International companies hungry for carbon offsets have paid big money for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ancient-farming-practice-draws-cash-from-carbon-credits-a803aee1">biochar made using pre-Columbian</a> Amazonian production techniques. Texas ranchers have turned to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/29/rio-grande-valley-farmers-study-ancient-technique-cover-cropping-climate-crisis">ancient cover cropping</a> methods to buffer against unpredictable weather patterns.</p>
<p>But grasping for ancient technologies and techniques without paying attention to historical context misses one of the most important lessons ancient farmers can reveal: Agricultural sustainability is as much about power and sovereignty as it is about soil, water and crops.</p>
<p>I’m an archaeologist who studies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09138-5">agricultural sustainability</a> in the past. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1914211117">Discoveries in recent years</a> have shown how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.07.022">the human past</a> is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145941">full of people</a> who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03190-2">dealt with climate change</a> in both sustainable and unsustainable ways. Archaeologists are finding that ancient sustainability was tethered closely to politics. However, these dynamics are often forgotten in discussions of sustainability today.</p>
<h2>Maya milpa farming: Forest access is essential</h2>
<p>In the tropical lowlands of Mexico and Central America, Indigenous Maya farmers have been practicing milpa agriculture for thousands of years. Milpa farmers adapted to drought by gently steering forest ecology through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/120344">controlled burns</a> and careful <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=gVyTDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Maya+milpa+forest+garden&ots=1ozG6sVYyg&sig=KZNXSDWX2ZR_Em7qGY37CqdeIG0#v=onepage&q=Maya%20milpa%20forest%20garden&f=false">woodland conservation</a>.</p>
<p>The knowledge of milpa farming empowered many <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cX7SEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=chan+Cynthia+robin&ots=yErzYIWFsz&sig=vNrtsYW7IC0X2UnieHxor4Hiiiw#v=onepage&q=chan%20Cynthia%20robin&f=false">rural farmers</a> to navigate climate changes during the notorious <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1114838109">Maya Collapse</a> – two centuries of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1419133112">political disintegration and urban depopulation</a> between A.D. 800 to 1000. Importantly, later Maya political leaders worked with farmers to keep this flexibility. Their light-handed approach is still legible in the artifacts and settlement patterns of <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Political_Geography_of_the_Yucatan_M.html?id=52BlAAAAMAAJ">post-Collapse farming communities</a> and preserved in the flexible <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-020-00134-8">tribute schedules</a> for Maya farmers documented by 16th century Spanish monks.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/96rIEVptFwo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Maya farmers and researchers explain milpa farming.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520395879/rooting-in-a-useless-land">my book</a>, “Rooting in a Useless Land: Ancient Farmers, Celebrity Chefs, and Environmental Justice in Yucatán,” I trace the deep history of the Maya milpa. Using archaeology, I show how ancient farmers adapted milpa agriculture in response to centuries of drought and political upheaval.</p>
<p>Modern Maya milpa practices began drawing public attention a few years ago as <a href="https://www.cimmyt.org/news/helping-farming-families-thrive-while-fighting-climate-change-in-mexico/">international development organizations</a> partnered with celebrity chefs, like <a href="https://www.cimmyt.org/es/noticias/el-restaurante-noma-llega-a-tulum-y-utilizara-maices-sustentables-de-yaxunah-2/">Noma’s René Redzepi</a>, and embraced the concept. </p>
<p>However, these groups condemned the traditional milpa practice of burning new areas of forest as unsustainable. They instead promoted a “no-burn” version to grow certified <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/dining/noma-tulum-pete-wells-mexico-rene-redzepi.html">organic maize for high-end restaurants</a>. Their no-burn version of milpa relies on fertilizers to grow maize in a fixed location, rather than using controlled fire ecology to manage soil fertility across vast forests.</p>
<p>The result restricted the traditional practices Maya farmers have used for centuries. It also fed into a modern political threat to traditional Maya milpa farming: land grabs. </p>
<p>Traditional milpa agriculture requires a lot of forested land, since farmers need to relocate their fields every couple of years. But that need for forest is at odds with hotel companies, industrial cattle ranches and green energy developers who want cheap land and see Maya milpa forest management practices as inefficient. No-burn milpa eases this conflict by locking maize agriculture into one small space indefinitely, instead of spreading it out through the forest over generations. But it also changes tradition. </p>
<p>Maya milpa farmers are now fighting to practice their ancient agricultural techniques, not because they’ve forgotten or lost those techniques, but because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12520">neocolonial</a> land <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1215305">privatization policies</a> actively undermine farmers’ ability to manage woodlands as their ancestors did. </p>
<p>Milpa farmers are increasingly left to either adopt a rebranded version of their heritage or quit farming all together – as many have done.</p>
<h2>Mexico’s fragile artificial islands: Threats from development</h2>
<p>When I look to the work of other archaeologists investigating ancient agricultural practices, I see these same entanglements of power and sustainability.</p>
<p>In central Mexico, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24931564?casa_token=Mnjg8lpMxdEAAAAA:xtiTRUNdJVlBTAR3voVS3IszoyqO-VSb8MSohjUlxpYEdNtVKu0QPefJMjiSyvobBMO94-zcDj2E6DOXbNoUl1d-MNm3UO6TDKVsG4JLVxpWkHtFIg">chinampas</a> are ancient systems of artificial islands and canals. They have enabled farmers to cultivate food in wetlands for centuries. </p>
<p>The continuing existence of chinampas is a legacy of deep ecological knowledge and a resource enabling communities to feed themselves.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571516/original/file-20240125-21-sq17hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571516/original/file-20240125-21-sq17hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571516/original/file-20240125-21-sq17hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571516/original/file-20240125-21-sq17hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571516/original/file-20240125-21-sq17hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571516/original/file-20240125-21-sq17hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571516/original/file-20240125-21-sq17hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chinampa techniques use canals and artificial islands. This photo shows one in 1912.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinampas.jpg">Karl Weule, Leitfaden der Voelkerkunde via Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A well-maintained farming island among canals near Mexico City." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571517/original/file-20240125-19-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571517/original/file-20240125-19-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571517/original/file-20240125-19-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571517/original/file-20240125-19-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571517/original/file-20240125-19-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571517/original/file-20240125-19-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571517/original/file-20240125-19-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The chinampas of Xochimilco are a UNESCO world heritage site today, but development expanding from Mexico City has put their survival in danger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergiosf/12546098673">Sergei Saint via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But archaeology has revealed that generations of sustainable chinampa management could be overturned almost overnight. That happened when the expansionist Aztec Empire decided to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00101164">re-engineer Lake Xaltocan</a> for salt production in the 14th century and rendered its chinampas unusable.</p>
<p>Today, the future of chinampa agriculture hinges on a pocket of protected fields <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022/07/in-mexico-city-the-pandemic-revived-aztec-era-island-farms">stewarded by local farmers</a> in the marshy outskirts of Mexico City. These fields are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.07.018">now at risk</a> as demand for housing drives informal settlements into the chinampa zone.</p>
<h2>Andean raised fields: A story of labor exploitation</h2>
<p>Traditional Andean agriculture in South America incorporates a diverse range of ancient cultivation techniques. One in particular has a complicated history of attracting revival efforts.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, government agencies, <a href="https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/30-3/Raised.pdf">archaeologists</a> and development organizations spent a fortune trying to persuade Andean farmers to <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315810997/inventing-indigenous-knowledge-lynn-swartley">revive raised field farming</a>. Ancient raised fields had been found around Lake Titicaca, on the border of Peru and Bolivia. These groups became convinced that this relic technology could curb hunger in the Andes by enabling back-to-back potato harvests with no need for fallowing.</p>
<p>But Andean farmers had no connection to the labor-intensive raised fields. The practice had been abandoned even before the rise of Inca civilization in the 13th century. The effort to revive ancient raised field agriculture collapsed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A view from a plane shows the outlines where fields were raised." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571518/original/file-20240125-21-4uobzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571518/original/file-20240125-21-4uobzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571518/original/file-20240125-21-4uobzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571518/original/file-20240125-21-4uobzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571518/original/file-20240125-21-4uobzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571518/original/file-20240125-21-4uobzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571518/original/file-20240125-21-4uobzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An aerial photograph shows pre-Colombian raised fields in Bolivia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/861590">Umberto Lombardo, University of Bern, Switzerland</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since then, more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2005.03.002">archaeological discoveries</a> around Lake Titicaca have suggested that ancient farmers were forced to work the raised fields <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2004.08.001">by the expansionist Tiwanaku empire</a> during its peak between AD 500 and 1100. Far from the politically neutral narrative promoted by development organizations, the raised fields were not there to help farmers feed themselves. They were a technology for exploiting labor and extracting surplus crops from ancient Andean farmers.</p>
<h2>Respecting ancient practices’ histories</h2>
<p>Reclaiming <a href="https://www.soulfirefarm.org/media/farming-while-black/">ancestral farming</a> techniques can be a <a href="https://www.icollectiveinc.org/">step toward sustainable food systems</a>, especially when descendant communities lead their reclamation. The world can, and I think should, reach back to recover agricultural practices from our collective past.</p>
<p>But we can’t pretend that those practices are apolitical.</p>
<p>The Maya milpa farmers who continue to practice controlled burns in defiance of land privatizers understand the value of ancient techniques and the threat posed by political power. So do the Mexican chinampa farmers working to restore local food to disenfranchised urban communities. And so do the Andean farmers refusing to participate in once-exploitive raised field rehabilitation projects. </p>
<p>Depending on how they are used, ancient agricultural practices can either reinforce social inequalities or create more equitable food systems. Ancient practices aren’t inherently good – it takes a deeper commitment to just and equitable food systems to make them sustainable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217253/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chelsea Fisher has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Fulbright-Hays Program.</span></em></p>
Agricultural sustainability is as much about power and sovereignty as it is about soil, water and crops.
Chelsea Fisher, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of South Carolina
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223480
2024-02-19T17:10:07Z
2024-02-19T17:10:07Z
Romans kept black henbane seeds in hollowed-out bone, a new study has found. Here’s what they might have been used for
<p>Scientists in the Netherlands have <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/evidence-of-the-intentional-use-of-black-henbane-hyoscyamus-niger-in-the-roman-netherlands/A06E000B17E1642C878E469157D5131C">discovered</a> a hollowed-out bone containing black henbane seeds at a Roman archaeological site. For centuries, the plant has been associated with medicine and magic. </p>
<p>Black henbane (<em>Hyoscyamus niger</em>) contains toxic and potentially deadly compounds called tropane alkaloids. These compounds include hyoscyamine and scopolamine, which are concentrated in the leaves and seeds and are known for their psychoactive and medicinal properties.</p>
<p>The exciting discovery at Houten-Castellum in the Netherlands has shed light on the intentional collection and use of black henbane seeds during the time of the Roman empire. On excavation of a water pit at the site, dated to about AD70-100, a hollowed-out sheep or goat bone, plugged one end with birch-bark tar, was found filled with over a thousand black henbane seeds. </p>
<p>The bone was interpreted as a container rather than a pipe, since there was no evidence of burning of the seeds. Smoking pipes were also rare in Europe before the arrival of tobacco. At the same archaeological site, a flowerhead of henbane was found with a basket and ceramic cooking pots. These were interpreted as offerings when people abandoned the settlement.</p>
<p>Remains of black henbane seeds have been found in association with other medicinal plants at archaeological sites in north-western Europe. These date from the Neolithic period onwards, including at several Roman sites. </p>
<p>The earliest finds date back to the first farmers in Europe, around 5500-4500BC. It has been suggested that the plant migrated with farming communities, either intentionally or accidentally, as a “weed of cultivation”. </p>
<p>Conclusive evidence of black henbane’s use by people at these sites, however, is usually lacking. This is due to the plant’s habit of naturally growing on disturbed ground across temperate <a href="https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:815932-1">Eurasia and north-west Africa</a>, combined with the fact that henbane produces many seeds. </p>
<p>There is little evidence for the cultivation or medicinal and hallucinatory uses of henbane until the Roman period, although it is mentioned in the <a href="https://www.europeana.eu/en/exhibitions/magical-mystical-and-medicinal/henbane">Ebers Papyrus</a> from ancient Egypt, around 1500BC. </p>
<p>The extent of use of henbane as a medicine across the Roman empire is unknown, but it may have been common, since it was found in 65 of 83 Roman-period sites in the Netherlands. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The hollowed-out bone containing the seeds had a plug at one end to keep them in." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hollowed-out bone containing the seeds had a plug at one end to keep them in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/evidence-of-the-intentional-use-of-black-henbane-hyoscyamus-niger-in-the-roman-netherlands/A06E000B17E1642C878E469157D5131C#figures">BIAX Consult via Free University of Berlin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Archaeological finds from a first century AD hospital at a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20775245">Roman fortress in the Rhineland</a> included burned seeds of black henbane along with several other medicinal plants – providing strong circumstantial evidence that people in Roman Rhineland were aware of, and using, black henbane for its medicinal properties. </p>
<h2>Treating everything from fever to flatulence</h2>
<p>Surviving medical texts from the Roman period also provide details of how henbane was used. The Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder and the Greco-Roman physician Dioscorides both wrote about the properties of henbane in the first century AD. </p>
<p>In his famous herbal, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2021666851/">De Materia Medica</a>, Dioscorides referred to three types of henbane: white, yellow and black. The black type is probably black henbane, while the yellow and white types are probably another species, <em>Hyoscyamus albus</em>. </p>
<p>Dioscorides wrote that both yellow and black henbane can cause delirium and sleep, but he considered that black henbane was best avoided due to its stronger effects. </p>
<p>He also described the use of henbane seeds, taken in a juice for pain relief or for treatment of mucus and disorders of the womb. The leaves could be applied to the body to soothe pain or were taken in liquid to lower a fever. If boiled, the leaves were said to cause disturbances to the senses. </p>
<p>Pliny the Elder described four types of henbane in his book <a href="https://www.attalus.org/info/pliny_hn.html">Naturalis Historia</a>, including one with black seeds and purple flowers that could cause insanity and giddiness. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black henbane flowers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black henbane is related to deadly nightshade and mandrake – plants associated with medicine and witchcraft.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49246165">K.B. Simoglou/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several medicinal uses were ascribed to the white type which grew near the coast, including juice from the crushed leaves and stems as a remedy for coughs. Fumes from the burned plant were used for joint ailments, inflamed tendons and gout. Toothache could be treated by chewing on henbane root with vinegar, and the root was applied in an ointment to alleviate womb pain. </p>
<p>Henbane and anise seeds with asses’ milk were taken in a honey-wine to prevent shortness of breath and flatulence. The seed oil was used to soften the skin or poured into the ear to treat earache. </p>
<p>Wine infused with four or more leaves could bring down a fever, but Pliny warned of the dangers of the drug and mentioned remedies for those who had imbibed the wine, declaring henbane both a poison and a remedy. </p>
<p>As with all medicines, the dosage determines the effects. Interestingly, the compounds found in henbane, <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/24/4/796#B13-molecules-24-00796">hyoscyamine and scopolamine</a>, are used in prescription medicines today to treat nausea and vomiting resulting from motion sickness or following surgery, and in the treatment of muscle spasms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Edwards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Roman medicines derived from black henbane treated everything from earache to womb pain.
Sarah Edwards, Associate Lecturer and Plant Records Officer, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220803
2024-01-17T13:37:51Z
2024-01-17T13:37:51Z
Challenging medieval art’s dark, gloomy reputation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568430/original/file-20231114-15-xtz1t7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C8%2C2687%2C1786&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The interior of Sainte-Chapelle, a Gothic chapel in Paris.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/paris-france-october-16-2017-interior-747335830">SIAATH/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Middle Ages began with the rise of Christianity in Western Europe in the 4th century, and went up to the period of Gothic art from the 13th to the 15th centuries. It is a era that is typically imagined in cinema, television, literature and Romantic paintings as dark and sinister, plagued by the diseases that ravaged Europe, with filthy, unhealthy cities and buildings. </p>
<p>This can be seen in both the novel and film <a href="https://www.filmaffinity.com/uk/film288865.html">The Name of the Rose</a>, where the buildings are drab and chilly. Similarly in the series <a href="https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film874956.html">Game of Thrones</a> – set in a fictionalised world that draws heavily on the medieval period – war, violence and death dominate society.</p>
<p>Even in drama series <a href="https://www.filmaffinity.com/uk/film813456.html">The Pillars of the Earth</a>, romanesque buildings were taken as examples of harsh, grim architecture. The Middle Ages have always been characterised by muddy streets, cold palaces, rough stone walls, and an overall atmosphere of depression.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559378/original/file-20231114-25-nras3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The interior of a stone building, with winding stairs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559378/original/file-20231114-25-nras3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559378/original/file-20231114-25-nras3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559378/original/file-20231114-25-nras3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559378/original/file-20231114-25-nras3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559378/original/file-20231114-25-nras3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559378/original/file-20231114-25-nras3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559378/original/file-20231114-25-nras3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Video still from The Name of the Rose, a film adaptation by Jean-Jaques Annaud of the novel by Umberto Eco.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0091605/mediaviewer/rm3150524160/">IMDB</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, research by Medieval scholars in recent decades – combined with new digital reconstruction techniques – has shattered these myths, presenting us with a wholly different picture. Thanks to the study of written sources, archaeological sources and, above all, physical objects and buildings, a startlingly colourful panorama is beginning to appear. </p>
<h2>Glimpses into the High Middle Ages</h2>
<p>Most experts consider medieval art and architecture to have emerged in the 4th century. In many cases, buildings that have survived to the present day are heavily modified, or even ruined. </p>
<p>Experts have reconstructed, for example, <a href="https://parpatrimonioytecnologia.wordpress.com/2022/06/06/reconstruccion-virtual-en-3d-de-la-basilica-constantiniana-de-san-pedro-del-vaticano-roma-s-iv/">Old Saint Peter’s basilica, erected in the Vatican City by Emperor Constantine</a>, which has since been demolished and replaced with the building that stands there today. The data found by historical researchers was used to create a virtual model of the building. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fRy589oQ_zM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">3D virtual reconstruction of Emperor Constantine’s basilica at Sain’t Peter’s, the Vatican, Rome. (s. IV)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Inside, it was filled with colour. It was airy and bright thanks to large windows, and the fixtures were sumptuous, showing off slender proportions in its columns. The building, with its marble, mosaics, textiles, and other elements, dispels the myth that medieval architecture is dark and sinister. In fact, many buildings of the early Middle Ages were painted in bright colours, though the passage of time has erased these fragile murals. </p>
<p>These reconstructions are not some exaggerated fantasy for a mass audience, but the fruit of years of documentation work by scholars.</p>
<p>The monastery churches, basilicas and cathedrals of these periods were not dreary, nor were their walls frigid, bare stone. Even when buildings have completely disappeared, <a href="https://parpatrimonioytecnologia.wordpress.com/2023/05/04/reconstruccion-virtual-en-3d-del-presbiterio-romanico-de-la-antigua-catedral-de-girona/">work such as that on the Romanesque cathedral of Gerona, in Catalonia (Spain)</a> has created a splendid image of its interior, where everything shone: the painted walls, the gold and silver canopies, the rich fabrics, and the candles and tapers that illuminated every nook and cranny.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1654426083284901889"}"></div></p>
<h2>Gothic cathedrals and light</h2>
<p>Large Gothic cathedrals are often depicted as dark, unsettling spaces. This is the way Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris, is presented in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre-Dame">The Hunchback of Notre Dame</a>, as well as in the <a href="https://www.filmaffinity.com/uk/film428225.html">1996 Disney film</a> of the same name.</p>
<p>This image could not, however, be any further from the truth. The technical prowess involved in many buildings erected between the 12th and 15th centuries allowed for the presence of large stained glass windows. These cast shimmering beams of light inside, which caressed the buildings’ walls, pillars and furnishings. The light inside Gothic temples generated an atmosphere that enhanced the spiritual experience of the faithful, and aimed to bring them closer to God. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559429/original/file-20231114-21-5bghec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The interior of a cathedral, with stained glass windows illuminating the nave." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559429/original/file-20231114-21-5bghec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559429/original/file-20231114-21-5bghec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559429/original/file-20231114-21-5bghec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559429/original/file-20231114-21-5bghec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559429/original/file-20231114-21-5bghec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559429/original/file-20231114-21-5bghec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559429/original/file-20231114-21-5bghec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The interior of the cathedral of Santa María de Regla in León.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/leon-spain-july-15-2013-interior-389135920">Madrugada Verde / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A lot of the furniture from these buildings has long since disappeared, but <a href="https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5715110">the conscientious studies of researchers such as Fernando Gutiérrez Baños</a> have allowed us to visualise what the altarpieces and tabernacles of these spaces were like. This was achieved through digital reconstruction, and by rebuilding lost or destroyed elements.</p>
<p>Textiles and tapestries covered walls, floors and altars, giving an almost luxurious air to these spaces of worship. Many of these, however, were sadly lost to fires, damp or robberies.</p>
<h2>Spaces filled with colour</h2>
<p>The great Gothic cathedrals of France – including Notre-Dame in Paris and Amiens cathedral – have been extensively researched by Stephen Murray and Andrew Tallon, who have made use of <a href="https://mcid.mcah.columbia.edu/art-atlas/mapping-gothic/paris-cathedrale-notre-dame">laser and structural analysis techniques</a>. Their studies have played a key role in determining how these churches should be restored, especially in the case of Notre Dame, which was badly damaged by fire in April 2019. </p>
<p>Today we know that medieval art was colourful and lively. This much is clear from <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Polychromie-du-portail-de-la-cathedrale-dAmiens_fig1_278634747">the colour restoration of the Amiens cathedral façade</a>, with striking reds and blues applied to the sculptures. The application of 3D rendering techniques to the architecture and art of the Middle Ages is a very useful tool in gaining a better understanding of the past. </p>
<p>However, if the aim is to create images close to the initial state of the works, this must always be accompanied by careful studies of documentary sources, archaeology and the artistic works themselves. When that goal is achieved, medieval art, full of clarity, colour and light, reveals itself to us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220803/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Las personas firmantes no son asalariadas, ni consultoras, ni poseen acciones, ni reciben financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y han declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado anteriormente.</span></em></p>
The Middle Ages are often portrayed as dark and dirty. New research is revealing that it was, in fact, a period filled with light and colour.
José Alberto Moráis Morán, Profesor Titular de Universidad, Universidad de León
María Dolores Teijeira Pablos, Catedrática de Historia del Arte, Universidad de León
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216553
2023-11-09T08:30:08Z
2023-11-09T08:30:08Z
Skulls in Ukraine reveal early modern humans came from the East
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556301/original/file-20231023-21-v0px95.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C10%2C1823%2C941&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Location of the Buran Kaya III (1), Zlatý Kůň (2), Fournol (3), Serinyà (4), Krems-Wachtberg (5) and Věstonice (6) archeological sites, whose remains were were analysed in the study. Also shown are one of the analysed skull fragments and pierced beads discovered with the bone fragments from the Buran Kaya III site, as well as the Venus statuettes from Věstonice, Willendorf and the Dame de Brassempouy (from right to left).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">E-M. Geigl</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How did our species, <em>Homo sapiens</em>, arrive in Western Europe? Published in <em>Nature Ecology & Evolution</em>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02211-9">our new study</a> analyses two skull fragments dating back between 37,000 and 36,000 years to conclude that our ancestors came from Eastern Europe and migrated westwards. These two individuals interbred with Neanderthals and with the very first European <em>Homo sapiens</em>, who arrived around 45,000 years ago and were thought to have become extinct following a major climatic catastrophe.</p>
<p>Together with lithic tools and pierced mammoth ivory beads, small skull fragments of <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0020834">the two skulls found in 2009 at an archaeological site in the Crimea</a>, Buran Kaya III, bear witness to the presence of anatomically modern humans in Eastern Europe. Working with French and Ukrainian archaeologists, we were able to put in place a sampling protocol that took special precautions to prevent the fragments from being contaminated by modern human DNA and identify their ancient DNA.</p>
<p>The resulting analysis enabled us to generate a broad, up-to-date model of population movements, interactions and replacements as they settled in Europe during the Upper Palaeolithic, the period from around -40,000 to -12,000 years ago characterised by the expansion of anatomically modern humans around the world. These individuals are the oldest representatives of Western Europeans to have established themselves permanently in Europe and to have left traces in the genomes of present-day Europeans.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555326/original/file-20231023-29-gkr3o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555326/original/file-20231023-29-gkr3o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555326/original/file-20231023-29-gkr3o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555326/original/file-20231023-29-gkr3o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555326/original/file-20231023-29-gkr3o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555326/original/file-20231023-29-gkr3o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555326/original/file-20231023-29-gkr3o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555326/original/file-20231023-29-gkr3o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">(A) Mammoth ivory pierced bead discovered in the layer of (B) bone fragment analysed in the current study.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">L. Crépin/E.-M. Geigl</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is estimated they settled in the region after the ice age that took place from 40,000 to 38,000 years ago. In addition to extremely low temperatures, the latter period was also marked by <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45940">the eruption of a super-volcano</a> in the Phlegrean Fields region near Naples, which left south-eastern and eastern Europe covered in ash. Up to this day, researchers believe that <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0065839">the ensuing ecological crisis</a> wiped out both the last Neanderthal populations and the first populations of <em>sapiens</em> humans of the early Upper Palaeolithic. The latter were the descendants of the <em>Homo sapiens</em> populations that came from Africa around 60,000 years ago and left <a href="https://academic.oup.com/gbe/article/14/4/evac045/6563828">archaeological remains in Europe</a> from around 45,000 years ago, possibly even earlier.</p>
<p>Archaeologically, this was the period of transition between the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Paleolithic-Period">Middle Palaeolithic</a> (250,000 to 30,000 years ago) and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Paleolithic-Period">Upper Palaeolithic</a> (about 50,000–40,000 years ago until about 10,000 years ago), as the lithic industry of the last Neanderthals was replaced by that of the first <em>Homo sapiens</em>. Their skeletal remains are rare, but the few that were found in archaeological sites in the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria have had their genomes partially deciphered.</p>
<p>Present-day Europeans bear <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03335-3">no trace of the genomes</a> of these first <em>sapiens</em> Europeans, unlike the human populations that lived in Europe after the ecological crisis of 40,000 years ago, some of whose genomes have been sequenced.</p>
<h2><em>Homo sapiens</em> from interbreeding</h2>
<p>Although the information obtained from the two skull fragments from the Buran Kaya III site is fragmentary, we were able to compare it against the 740,000 genetic variations shared with the genomes of other ancient individuals, a sufficient number to detect their affinities and shared ancestry.</p>
<p>Our palaeogenomic analysis of these two fragments, which are thought to be 700 years apart from one another, revealed that these individuals were part of the second wave of European settlement by <em>H. sapiens</em> that occurred after the ecological crisis. Both individuals are descendants of distant interbreeding with Neanderthals. Our study also showed that the more recent individual bore traces of interbreeding with individuals from the first wave of settlement thought to have been exterminated by the -40,000 year ice age, represented by the Zlatý Kůň individual (-45,000 years). We were therefore able to conclude that the first <em>H. sapiens</em> were not completely replaced and some must have survived the ecological crisis.</p>
<p>The genomes of individuals from Buran Kaya III also revealed a genetic link with contemporary and much later Caucasian populations, in line with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004724842030169X">similarities identified by archaeologists</a> between lithic tools found in the southern Caucasus and those found at Buran Kaya III at the same period. This link indicates the direction of the migration of Buran Kaya III’s ancestors in Europe: from the Middle East via the Caucasus to the territory of present-day Ukraine.</p>
<h2>Links with fossils found in France</h2>
<p>The strongest genetic link has been identified between the genomes of individuals from Buran Kaya III and those from south-west France (see Fournol archaeological site dating back -29,000 years BC) and north-east Spain (Serinyà, -27,000 years BC) and, to a lesser extent, those from Austria (Krems-Wachtberg, -30,500 years BC) and the Czech Republic (Dolní Věstonice, -31,000 years BC) who lived 5000 to 7000 years later. These individuals, close to those from Buran Kaya III, were part of the population associated with the Classical Gravettian period, which produced the female ivory statuettes known as the “Gravettian Venuses” found in France, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. The famous Venus “Dame de Brassempouy” from the French department of Landes was sculpted at this time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The Venus of Brassempoy" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555355/original/file-20231023-23-m1ej3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555355/original/file-20231023-23-m1ej3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555355/original/file-20231023-23-m1ej3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555355/original/file-20231023-23-m1ej3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555355/original/file-20231023-23-m1ej3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555355/original/file-20231023-23-m1ej3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555355/original/file-20231023-23-m1ej3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Venus of Brassempouy, known in French as the Dame de Brassempouy_ or the <em>Dame à la capuche</em>).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean-Gilles Berizzi/Wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This genetic link between individuals from Buran Kaya III and those hailing from the Gravettian culture suggests the former were ancestors of the latter and were already practising a culture that can be described as proto-Gravettian. The genetic ties indicate that these populations spread from east to west. Moreover, the lithic tools produced by Crimean individuals have been attributed by Ukrainian archaeologists, in particular <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003552114000879">Alexandr Yanevich</a> to the Gravettian complex, but this attribution has been rejected by other archaeologists, mainly because of their early date and their location to the east, far from the classic “Gravettian” culture that was produced in central and western Europe between -34,000 and -26,000 years ago, i.e., 5,000 to 7,000 years later and 3,000 km further east. Our genetic results prove the Ukrainian archaeologists right: the individuals from Buran Kaya III were the ancestors of the Western Europeans, producers of the Gravettian culture and artists of the famous Gravettian Venuses.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The <a href="https://anr.fr/ProjetIA-17-EURE-0013">“Génétique et epigénétique nouvelle ecole”</a> project is supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR), which funds project-based research in France. Its mission is to support and promote the development of fundamental and applied research in all disciplines, and to strengthen the dialogue between science and society. For more information, visit the <a href="https://anr.fr/">ANR website</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216553/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eva-Maria Geigl has received funding from CNRS, EUR G.E.N.E. (ANR-17-EURE-0013 ; IdEx #ANR-18-IDEX-0001 l'Université de Paris ; Programme d'Investissements d'Avenir)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thierry Grange has received funding from the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (DGE20111123014), Région Ile-de-France (11015901), CNRS, EUR G.E.N.E. (ANR-17-EURE-0013 ; IdEx #ANR-18-IDEX-0001 l'Université de Paris ; Programme d'Investissements d'Avenir).</span></em></p>
Genetic analysis of two skull fragments dating back almost 40,000 years shows that our species colonised Europe from the east and interbred with our Neanderthal cousins.
Eva-Maria Geigl, Directrice de recherche CNRS, Université Paris Cité
Thierry Grange, Directeur Scientifique Adjoint CNRS INSB Génétique Génomique Bioinformatique, Université Paris Cité
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211712
2023-08-17T19:42:11Z
2023-08-17T19:42:11Z
A changing climate, growing human populations and widespread fires contributed to the last major extinction event − can we prevent another?
<p>Over the past decade, deadly wildfires have become increasingly common because of both <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-is-escalating-californias-wildfires/">human-caused climate change</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/us/hawaii-wildfire-factors.html">disruptive land management practices</a>. Southern California, where the three of us live and work, has been <a href="https://ktla.com/news/the-cities-where-wildfires-threaten-the-most-homes-in-california/">hit especially hard</a>.</p>
<p>Southern California also experienced a wave of wildfires 13,000 years ago. These fires permanently transformed the region’s vegetation and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo3594">contributed to Earth’s largest extinction</a> in more than 60 million years.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/emily-lindsey/">paleontologists</a>, <a href="https://nhm.org/person/dunn-regan">we have</a> a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_FveDz4AAAAJ&hl=en">unique perspective</a> on the long-term causes and consequences of environmental changes, both those linked to natural climate fluctuations and those wrought by humans. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo3594">In a new study</a>, published in August 2023, we sought to understand changes that were happening in California during the last major extinction event at the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Pleistocene-Epoch">end of the Pleistocene</a>, a time period known as the Ice Age. This event wiped out <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-happened-worlds-most-enormous-animals-180964255/">most of Earth’s large mammals</a> between about 10,000 and 50,000 years ago. This was a time marked by dramatic climate upheavals and rapidly spreading human populations. </p>
<h2>The last major extinction</h2>
<p>Scientists often call the past 66 million years of Earth’s history the Age of Mammals. During this time, our furry relatives took advantage of the <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-an-asteroid-caused-extinction-of-dinosaurs.html">extinction of the dinosaurs</a> to become the dominant animals on the planet. </p>
<p>During the Pleistocene, Eurasia and the Americas teemed with enormous beasts like woolly mammoths, giant bears and dire wolves. Two species of camels, three species of ground sloths and five species of large cats <a href="https://tarpits.org/research-collections/tar-pits-collections/mammal-collections">roamed what is now Los Angeles</a>.</p>
<p>Then, abruptly, they were gone. All over the world, the large mammals that had characterized global ecosystems for tens of millions of years disappeared. North America <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.011802.132415">lost more than 70%</a> of mammals weighing more than 97 pounds (44 kilograms). South America lost more than 80%, Australia nearly 90%. Only Africa, Antarctica and a few remote islands retain what could be considered “natural” animal communities today.</p>
<p>The reason for these extinctions remains obscure. For decades, paleontologists and archaeologists have debated potential causes. What has befuddled scientists is not that there are no obvious culprits but that there are too many. </p>
<p>As the last ice age ended, a warming climate led to altered weather patterns and the reorganization of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.08.029">plant communities</a>. At the same time, human populations were rapidly increasing and <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1070/early-human-migration/">spreading around the globe</a>. </p>
<p>Either or both of these processes could be implicated in the extinction event. But the fossil record of any region is usually too sparse to know exactly when large mammal species disappeared from different regions. This makes it difficult to determine whether habitat loss, resource scarcity, natural disasters, human hunting or some combination of these factors is to blame.</p>
<h2>A deadly combination</h2>
<p>Some records offer clues. <a href="https://tarpits.org/">La Brea Tar Pits</a> in Los Angeles, the world’s richest ice age fossil site, preserves the bones of thousands of large mammals that were trapped in viscous asphalt seeps <a href="https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20191203-160736818">over the past 60,000 years</a>. Proteins in these bones can be precisely dated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2014.03.002">using radioactive carbon</a>, giving scientists unprecedented insight into an ancient ecosystem and an opportunity to illuminate the timing – and causes – of its collapse. </p>
<p>Our recent study from La Brea Tar Pits and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Elsinore">nearby Lake Elsinore</a> has unearthed evidence of a dramatic event 13,000 years ago that permanently transformed Southern California’s vegetation and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo3594">caused the disappearance</a> of La Brea’s iconic mega-mammals. </p>
<p>Sediment archives from the lake’s bottom and archaeological records provide evidence of a deadly combination – a warming climate <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3018">punctuated by decadeslong droughts</a> and rapidly rising human populations. These factors pushed the Southern California ecosystem to a tipping point. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501682">Similar combinations</a> of climate warming and human impacts have been blamed for ice age extinctions elsewhere, but our study found something new. The catalyst for this dramatic transformation seems to have been an unprecedented increase in wildfires, which were probably set by humans. </p>
<p>The processes that led to this collapse are familiar today. As California warmed coming out of the last ice age, the landscape became drier and forests receded. At La Brea, herbivore populations declined, probably from a combination of human hunting and habitat loss. Species associated with trees, like camels, disappeared entirely. </p>
<p>In the millennium leading up to the extinction, mean annual temperatures in the region <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.03.024">rose 10 degrees Farenheit</a> (5.5 degrees Celsius), and the lake began evaporating. Then, 13,200 years ago, the ecosystem entered a 200-year-long drought. Half of the remaining trees died. With fewer large herbivores to eat it, dead vegetation built up on the landscape. </p>
<p>At the same time, human populations began expanding across North America. And as they spread, people brought with them a powerful new tool – fire. </p>
<p>Humans and our ancestors have used fire for <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/artificial-intelligence-may-have-unearthed-one-world-s-oldest-campfires">hundreds of thousands of years</a>, but fire has <a href="https://www.firescience.gov/projects/09-2-01-9/supdocs/09-2-01-9_Chapter_3_Fire_Regimes.pdf">different impacts in different ecosystems</a>. Charcoal records from Lake Elsinore reveal that before humans, fire activity was low in coastal Southern California. But 13,200 to 13,000 years ago, as human populations grew, fire in the region increased by an order of magnitude. </p>
<p>Our research suggests that the combination of heat, drought, herbivore loss and human-set fires had pushed this system to a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11018">tipping point</a>. At the end of this period, Southern California was covered in chaparral plants, which thrive after fires. A new fire regime had become established, and the iconic La Brea megafauna had disappeared.</p>
<h2>Lessons for the future</h2>
<p>Studying the causes and consequences of the Pleistocene extinctions in California can provide valuable context for understanding today’s climate and biodiversity crises. A similar combination of climate warming, expanding human populations, biodiversity loss and human-ignited fires that characterized the ice age extinction interval in Southern California are <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/science.abb0355">playing out again today</a>.</p>
<p>The alarming difference is that temperatures today are rising <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/todays-climate-change-proves-much-faster-than-changes-in-past-65-million-years/">10 times faster</a> than they did at the end of the ice age, primarily because of the burning of fossil fuels. This human-caused climate change has contributed to a fivefold increase in fire frequency and intensity and the amount of area burned in the state of California in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EF001210">past 45 years</a>. </p>
<p>While California is now <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148908/whats-behind-californias-surge-of-large-fires">famous for extreme fires</a>, our study reveals that fire is a relatively new phenomenon in this region. In the 20,000 years leading up to the extinction, the Lake Elsinore record shows very low incidence of any fire even during comparable periods of drought. Only after human arrival does fire become a regular part of the ecosystem. </p>
<p>Even today, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pge-caused-california-wildfires-safety-measures-2019-10">downed power lines</a>, campfires and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/us/gender-reveal-party-wildfire.html">other human activities</a> start <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/WF18026">over 90%</a> of wildfires in coastal California. </p>
<p>The parallels between the late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions and today’s environmental crises are striking. The past teaches us that the ecosystems we depend upon are vulnerable to collapse when stressed by multiple intersecting pressures. Redoubling efforts to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, prevent reckless fire ignitions and preserve Earth’s remaining megafauna can help avert another, even more catastrophic transformation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211712/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Lindsey receives funding from the National Science Foundation, which funded some of the research reported in this article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa N. Martinez receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the UCLA Endowed Chair in Geography of California and the American West. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regan E. Dunn receives funding from National Science Foundation and NASA. </span></em></p>
New findings from the La Brea Tar Pits in southern California suggest human-caused wildfires in the region, along with a warming climate, led to the loss of most of the area’s large mammals.
Emily Lindsey, Associate Curator, La Brea Tar Pits; Adjunct Faculty, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles
Lisa N. Martinez, Ph.D. Candidate in Geography, University of California, Los Angeles
Regan E. Dunn, Adjunct Professor of Earth Sciences, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208557
2023-06-29T15:03:50Z
2023-06-29T15:03:50Z
Listen — Indiana Jones’s last ride: A legacy to celebrate or bury?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534185/original/file-20230626-19-s9axwz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C1%2C1257%2C721&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' comes out in theatres on June 30. The fifth in a series over 42 years, many of its originating ideas are taken from 19th-century racist archaeology. Will this iteration be different?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Walt Disney Pictures)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/8f4853b0-cd33-48af-9d8a-77c625f697b0?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>I love watching a good adventure movie, especially at the start of summer. I have some great memories of eating popcorn in the local suburban movie theatre while we watched aliens take over a spaceship or a group of kids hunt for long-lost treasure in an underground cave.</p>
<p>At the same time, even as a kid, I remember thinking how awful some of the racial and gender stereotypes were. </p>
<p>I specifically remember watching <em>Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom</em> and cringing at the representations onscreen, especially, the <a href="https://scroll.in/reel/805944/temple-of-doom-is-the-indiana-jones-movie-that-indians-wont-forget-in-a-hurry">ruthless and flat-dimensioned South Asian characters and the ridiculous idea that Indians ate monkey brains</a> — and then there was little Short Round, Indy’s child guide and sidekick played by the young Ke Huy Quan.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The late Amrish Puri played the critically acclaimed villain in ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Lucas Films)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the series, filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg showcased nostalgia for the early mid-century with Indiana Jones, the humanitarian Hunter College professor turned adventurer at the centre. Indy outran all kinds of harrows to ensure the ancient artifacts he chased ended up where he thought they belonged: “in a museum.” (Another now famous line is from <em>Black Panther</em> when Erik Killmonger asks a museum curator: “How do you think your ancestors got these?”)</p>
<h2>Guilty pleasure or irredeemable Orientalism?</h2>
<p>Well, the final Indiana Jones movie, <em>Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny</em> is coming out tomorrow, 42 years after the first movie was released. </p>
<p>As the series comes to an end, we explore Indy’s complicated legacy — and his famous line: “it belongs in a museum.” </p>
<p>Will <em>Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny</em> reflect the changes in anthropology departments and <a href="https://theconversation.com/museums-are-returning-indigenous-human-remains-but-progress-on-repatriating-objects-is-slow-67378">the growing movements from Indigenous</a> and Global South communities to return <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-accurately-portray-histories-museums-need-to-do-more-than-reimagine-galleries-189109">stolen objects and ancestors from western museums</a>? Will it consider that <a href="https://theconversation.com/protecting-heritage-is-a-human-right-99501">Eurocentric notions of what holds heritage has finally expanded beyond the artifact</a>?</p>
<p>Will this new movie be full of highly problematic stories? Or a guilty pleasure? Or, can it be both?</p>
<p>Historian Christopher Heaney has spent a lot of time thinking about this. He’s written a book <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780230112049/cradleofgold">about the “original” Indiana Jones</a> and wrote <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/burying-indiana-jones">“Burying Indiana Jones” for <em>The New Yorker</em></a>. He’s a professor of Latin American History at Penn State University and he joined me on <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/indiana-joness-last-ride-a-legacy-to-celebrate-or-bury"><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a> — our last episode of the season, and just in time for summer blockbuster season — to unpack everything Indiana Jones.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rcN_InsZCKY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘How do you think your ancestors got these?’ ‘Black Panther’ offers a response to ‘it belongs in a museum.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Read more</h2>
<p><a href="https://mronline.org/2023/05/04/indiana-jones-hollywoods-chief-colonial-pilferer-is-back/">“Indiana Jones, Hollywood’s chief colonial pilferer, is back”</a> (<em>Monthly Review</em>)</p>
<p><em><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/empires-of-the-dead-9780197542552?cc=ca&lang=en&">Empires of the Dead</a></em> by Christopher Heaney (Oxford University Press)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/how-to-fake-an-alien-mummy/535251/">“The Racism Behind Alien Mummy Hoaxes”</a> (<em>The Atlantic</em>)</p>
<p><a href="https://blackgirlnerds.com/it-does-not-belong-in-a-museum-indiana-jones-colonizer-legacy/">“It does not belong in a museum”</a> (<em>Black Girl Nerds</em>)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newarab.com/features/can-indiana-jones-overcome-its-orientalist-past">“Can Indiana Jones overcome its Orientalist past?”</a> (<em>The New Arab</em>)</p>
<p><em><a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807837153/decolonizing-museums/">Decolonizing Museums</a></em> by Amy Lonetree (UNC Press)</p>
<h2>From The Conversation</h2>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-accurately-portray-histories-museums-need-to-do-more-than-reimagine-galleries-189109">To accurately portray histories, museums need to do more than ‘reimagine’ galleries</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/benin-bronzes-what-is-the-significance-of-their-repatriation-to-nigeria-171444">Benin bronzes: What is the significance of their repatriation to Nigeria?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/protecting-heritage-is-a-human-right-99501">Protecting heritage is a human right</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/belize-shows-how-local-engagement-is-key-in-repatriating-cultural-artifacts-from-abroad-171363">Belize shows how local engagement is key in repatriating cultural artifacts from abroad</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/museums-are-returning-indigenous-human-remains-but-progress-on-repatriating-objects-is-slow-67378">Museums are returning indigenous human remains but progress on repatriating objects is slow</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Our recs: Kids adventure movies/shows</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUTtJjV852c&ab_channel=ParamountPictures"><em>Dora the Explorer and the Lost City of Gold</em></a></li>
<li><a href="https://animatedviews.com/2019/director-juan-antin-talks-about-pachamama-on-netflix/"><em>Pachamama</em></a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/81023618"><em>Finding Ohana</em></a></li>
<li><a href="https://etcanada.com/news/951562/mira-nair-on-the-non-white-america-in-national-treasure-edge-of-history-love-it/"><em>National Treasure: Edge of History</em></a></li>
</ul>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eQfMbSe7F2g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Lucas Films) ‘You’ve taken your chances, made your mistakes, and now, a final triump,’ Phoebe Walter-Bridge says to Jones.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The final Indiana Jones movie is coming out June 30. The fifth in a series over 42 years, many of its ideas are taken from 19th-century orientalist and racist archaeology.
Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me Resilient
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206688
2023-06-08T09:46:43Z
2023-06-08T09:46:43Z
Q&A with Ludovic Slimak, the archeologist who wants to rewrite the history of early humans in Europe
<p><em>The French archaeologist Ludovic Slimak has spent the past 30 years rummaging fields and caves from the Horn of Africa to the Artic Circle, and, of course, his beloved Rhône Valley in France. For the past year and a half, his team of 45 researchers have been on a roll, publishing paper after paper on early humanity’s history between 54,000 and 42,000 years ago. All in the scientific community recognises his work’s ambition, but some also regard it as controversial. The Conversation caught up with him by phone to his home in the Pyrenees mountains. He talked Homo sapiens, flints and responded to his critics.</em></p>
<p><strong>Natalie Sauer: In early May, you published a potentially groundbreaking paper claiming that Homo sapiens had not colonised Europe in one, but three distinct waves between 54,000 and 42,000 years ago. According to this viewpoint, each migratory wave yielded its own archeological culture: the Neronian (54,000 years ago), the Châtelperronian (between 45 and 46,000 years ago) and the Proto-Aurignacian (42,000 years ago). Could you start off by unpacking the study’s findings, and then situate it within the context of your research in recent years?</strong></p>
<p>Ludovic Slimak: The <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0277444">paper of 3 May</a> explains that what we thought to be the first wave of colonisation of Sapiens from the Neart East to Europe was in fact the last of three waves. In the process, Homo sapiens interacted intermittently with the Neanderthals over thousands of years. It’s a large view of continental Europe till the Eastern Mediterranean coast, which claims that we have missed something huge and what we saw in the Rhône Valley is only the visible tip of misunderstandings on the early Sapiens’ presence in the continent.</p>
<p>These findings could not have been possible without the other papers we have published in the past year and a half. The first one, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj9496">“The Modern Human Incursion in Neanderthal Territories”</a>, shows that we find Homo sapiens in the Rhône Valley as early as 54,000 years ago, while we thought that for all continental Europe, Homo sapiens would have come by 45 to 42,000 years ago. We published another major paper, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add4675">“Bow and arrow technology of the first modern humans in Europe”</a>, that gives the technical and cultural context of these societies. Again, we claim the bow and arrow technology emerged 40,000 years earlier in Eurasia than was previously estimated.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530861/original/file-20230608-25-r1mlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530861/original/file-20230608-25-r1mlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530861/original/file-20230608-25-r1mlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530861/original/file-20230608-25-r1mlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530861/original/file-20230608-25-r1mlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530861/original/file-20230608-25-r1mlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530861/original/file-20230608-25-r1mlll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flint points from Grotte Mandrin in France and Ksar Akil in Lebanon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Drawings and measurements by Laure Metz and Ludovic Slimak</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>You reached those conclusions of the first paper by comparing flints between Grotte Mandrin, France, and Ksar Akil, Lebanon, and chancing upon one very special molar.</strong></p>
<p>Yes, we researched thousands of lithics that came from both the Rhône Valley and the Levantine region in the eastern Mediterranean coast, the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/quaternary-of-the-levant/palaeolithic-sequence-of-ksar-akil-lebanon/9042343BB5CA3F8E2D3C82F55ED92676">Ksar Akil site</a>. </p>
<p>When I opened the boxes of artefacts from Ksar Akil in Harvard, I realised suddenly that it was precisely what I call the Neronian in the Rhône Valley. All the technical process, all the phases of production of this point, were precisely the same in both sites, in the same chronology. It is the similar phases in tool technologies from both regions that led me to believe they were spread from the Near East to Europe during three distinct waves of colonisation. This precise community of knowledges and traditions induced that the Neronian was in fact the archeological indication of a very early migration of Sapiens in Europe, far before expected and I published these conclusions in 2017.</p>
<p>Some years later we then analyzed and published the 9 hominin teeth we found over 30 years in Mandrin. They come from different phases of occupations of the cave spanning 42,000 to 120,000 years. At this age, all these teeth should have only been from Neanderthals. But this was not the case. Then one day in 2020, as Clément Zanolli from the French research centre CNRS was halfway through reviewing the data of the collection, the figures from a broken molar jumped out at him: “Oh, this tooth is fascinating,” he thought, “It’s not Neanderthal. It’s an archaic homo sapiens, an ancient of Homo sapiens.”</p>
<p>To confirm this hunch, our team used a very high resolution, micro-CT scan, and then ran statistics on the teeth. According to Clément Zanolli, we are a hundred percent sure that it’s a homo sapiens and not a random Homo sapiens – an archaic Homo sapiens.</p>
<p><strong>Let’s turn to the Grotte Mandrin, one of the key witnesses of Sapiens’ early colonisation of Europe. Could you describe it for us? And as an archaeologist, could you tell us about the first time you stepped into it and what your impressions were?</strong></p>
<p>Well, we call it Grotte Mandrin, which means cave. But it’s not a cave, it’s a rock shelter. This accounts for its very good preservation. When you are in a cave, you usually struggle with preservation. But in this case… It’s a vaulted rock shelter that opens to the north that overhangs the Rhône Valley. And what is very important from an archaeological perspective in the Rhône Valley is its very strong, cold, Northern wind - the Mistral. </p>
<p>The Mistral was already blowing in the time period I research. Back then, the climate in Europe was Polar, so there were no trees and very little vegetation. When the Mistral blew, it took the sand and the silt from the river in the Rhône Valley and cast it in the rock shelter, depositing it year after year.</p>
<p>I like to say it’s like Pompeii but instead of a catastrophic event, we have sand and silt. And instead of one event, we have 12 events: 12 major archeological periods in the site that range from a climatically very warm period, the last interglacial, to the extinction of Neanderthal 42,000 years ago. </p>
<p>The first time I went there was in 1998. I was a 25-year old young man, and had been invited by the team that had just began to work there. I wanted to devote my PhD to this collection, which stood out because all other archeological sites in the region had been excavated 50 or 100 years before with pickaxes. This coarse excavation method, which was commonly deployed back then, had two effects: on the one hand, it prevented archaeologists from landing upon finer artefacts, such as flint arrowheads and all tiny flint byproducts, essential to understand these ancient crafts. On the other, it also blended distinct materials that had nothing to do together.</p>
<p>The Mandrin site, by contrast, was something untouched and unique - unique from anything I had seen before and anything I have seen since.</p>
<p><strong>Your research suggests Neanderthals and Sapiens coexisted intermittently for thousands of years. What do you believe their relations were like?</strong></p>
<p>In the first wave dating back to 54,000 years ago, what we see in Grotte Mandrin is that the Sapiens population must have stayed for one generation, something like 40 years. They are in Neanderthal territories, but they won’t stay there for 12,000 years. After that, we will have other Neanderthals. The question of their relation is something fascinating, because when you have a look at the DNA of any early Sapiens in Europe, we see that all these early Sapiens have Neanderthal DNA. But if we focus on the last Neanderthals, we realise that there’s not a single Neanderthal with a recent Homo Sapiens DNA. </p>
<p>What happened? Why do we have all Sapiens in Europe with Neandertal DNA and not a single Neandertal have Sapiens DNA? So we know from Claude Lévi-Strauss’ <em>Elementary Structures of Kinship</em> that the question of the reproduction of societies is not a question of love. It’s a question of exchanges and alliances between populations. So that means that when two groups meet, it’s very important for them to exchange genes. And we know from DNA how they do it, it’s universal for both Neanderthal and Sapiens: through female mobility. That means: “My sister will go in your group, but your sister will come in my group”. And like that, we will build an alliance - we call this patri-locality. But if your sister comes in my group, my sister will have to come in yours. I can’t have your sister in exchange of flint or 10 horses. </p>
<p>What I explain in <a href="https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03432987/"><em>I Love You, Me Neither</em></a>, is that in the case of the Sapiens and Neanderthals, it’s: “You give me your sister, but I don’t give you mine”. This is rare, but it happens. One possible instance when we see this is when there’s a total war between populations, and one group is going to seek to destroy another group. But in fact, it’s not really a genocide, because when that happens, traditionally what they do is that they keep the children and the women, and then they have children with these women. </p>
<p>Another scenario could have been that these two populations had very good relations, where you’re happy when you see fresh blood coming because you are very tiny group, very isolated, and suddenly you see a new group and say: “Oh, there’s fresh blood coming” - and that’s very good news. </p>
<p>And the two populations certainly tried to exchange genes, but we know from DNA that Sapiens and Neanderthal were separated by 300,000 to 500,000 years of genetic distinction and what we call their inter-fecondity was very partial. This means that if they had children, for example, those children could be boys, sterile or not able to survive. So I would say it’s very likely that the two populations met and tried to exchange genes in Europe, but that only worked very partially.</p>
<p><strong>Given that Sapiens boasted technical superiority, notably bows and arrows, why do you think they took so long to take root in Europe?</strong></p>
<p>Well, I don’t know if Homo Sapiens enjoys a technical superiority over Neanderthals, but their tools are certainly more efficient. Objectively, the bow and arrow is more efficient than a spear on many points, and we know that by all data from ethnography. </p>
<p>But I think the question of weapon is not at all the question of why a population is able to stay on a territory. And I think that the main question when a population arrives on a territory is: “What other social relations will I be able to build?” </p>
<p>We are not dealing with a total war between Neanderthal and Sapiens. I think we are dealing with interrelations between humanities that did not work out at the end.</p>
<p>I would also like to add that while Sapiens’ tools may be more efficient, Neanderthals’ are more singular. If you take crafts from Homo Sapiens, for example, 100 tools or 100 flints from 50 to 100,000 years ago, the 10,000 tools or flints after will be exactly the same. The population has a very clear project in their mind and regardless of the natural geologies, the environment, the climate, they reproduce the same thing. But if you take a Neanderthal tool in comparison, and then you analyze a million after that in the same layer, in the same societies, they are all completely different. Each tool is a specific creation. There’s an incredible creativity among Neanderthals. And there’s also a total absence of standardization that we find in our ancestors and in our contemporary societies.</p>
<p>Ultimately, what this shows and what I try to show in my two last books, <em><a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/454664/the-naked-neanderthal-by-slimak-ludovic/9780241617663">The naked Neanderthal</a></em> and <em><a href="https://www.odilejacob.fr/catalogue/sciences-humaines/archeologie-paleontologie-prehistoire/dernier-neandertalien_9782415004927.php">The Last Neanderthal</a></em>, is that we have projected all our fantasies on that humanity, saying: “Look, we have been racist, in fact, Neanderthals are just like us”. But the 30 years I have spent in caves and the millions of flints I have seen tell a different story. It’s not at all a humanity that is like us. </p>
<p><strong>While your scientific colleagues recognise your research as ambitious, not everyone is convinced. You said that there was 100% certainty about the identification of that broken molar, but others will say that it could also be an shaped tooth of a young Neanderthal. Likewise, some are sceptical that the sophisticated tools that we found in the Grotte Mandrin, the Châtelperronian tools, were the handicraft of modern humans and not the Neanderthals. What is your answer to them?</strong></p>
<p>The French historian, Emmanuel Todd, once said he was very disappointed when he was young because he thoughts ideas went on to die in intellectual fights. You know, you have a huge fight and an idea will win and the other will die. In the end, he realised the idea dies with the person who carries it. </p>
<p>So we won’t change the ideas of the person who worked for 40 years or 50 years on the question. You know, the structures of the upper Paleolithic (between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago) were last defined by the abbey Breuil in 1906 and so there was no major change for 120 years. I’m not waiting for all researchers to say: “Well, it’s fantastic you changed everything”. </p>
<p>What is very important to respond to, for example, is the objection that the research is not clear and only based on one tooth. Well, no, it’s not only one tooth, it’s millions of flints. </p>
<p>And even if we did not have any hominin remains, we would be able to identify these artefacts as Sapiens’. Like, for example, for the Aurignacians (35,000 years ago) or the Proto-Aurignacians (42,000 years ago), we did not have any teeth for years. Now I think we have two or three for all Europe and in the Levant we have two or three very isolated teeth, but before we find these teeth everybody was happy and was saying: “Well, it’s clear it’s absolutely homo Sapiens because we have this connection with the Near East.”</p>
<p>As for what the paper of the three waves tried to explain, we must see that as a very general overview, and at the scale of the Western Eurasia - not something at the scale of the Rhône Valley or of one tooth. It’s a major historical event and we must see it at this scale.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ludovic Slimak ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
Meet the archeologist who is overhauling our understanding of early human history.
Ludovic Slimak, Archéologue, penseur et chercheur au CNRS, Université de Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199670
2023-04-17T07:37:39Z
2023-04-17T07:37:39Z
A newly uncovered ancient Roman winery featured marble tiling, fountains of grape juice and an extreme sense of luxury
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509489/original/file-20230210-15-3v910q.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C3630%2C3088&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Roman mosaic illustrating a winemaking scene from the fourth century CE at Santa Costanza, Rome</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">E. Dodd</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent excavations at the <a href="https://www.parcoarcheologicoappiaantica.it/luoghi/villa-dei-quintili-e-santa-maria-nova/">Villa of the Quintilii</a> uncovered the remains of a unique winery just outside Rome. </p>
<p>The mid-third-century CE building located along the <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=via-appia-geo&highlight=quintilii">Via Appia Antica</a> portrays a sense of opulence and performance almost never found at an ancient production site.</p>
<p>This exciting complex illustrates how elite Romans fused utilitarian function with luxurious decoration and theatre to fashion their social and political status. </p>
<p>I was one of the specialist archaeologists to study this newly excavated site. The details of this discovery are outlined in our <a href="https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.18">new article</a> in Antiquity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509473/original/file-20230210-28-3xlymv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509473/original/file-20230210-28-3xlymv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509473/original/file-20230210-28-3xlymv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509473/original/file-20230210-28-3xlymv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509473/original/file-20230210-28-3xlymv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509473/original/file-20230210-28-3xlymv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509473/original/file-20230210-28-3xlymv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509473/original/file-20230210-28-3xlymv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View of the excavated winery at the Villa of the Quintilii on the Via Appia Antica, Rome.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">S. Castellani</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Villa of the Quintilii</h2>
<p>From names stamped on a lead water pipe, we know the 24 hectare ancient Roman villa complex was owned by the wealthy <a href="https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-5487;jsessionid=08B03962E28578BC9834F82C7042559F">Quintilii brothers</a>, who served as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/consul-ancient-Roman-official">consuls</a> in 151 CE. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509478/original/file-20230210-30-299ivd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509478/original/file-20230210-30-299ivd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509478/original/file-20230210-30-299ivd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509478/original/file-20230210-30-299ivd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509478/original/file-20230210-30-299ivd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509478/original/file-20230210-30-299ivd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509478/original/file-20230210-30-299ivd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509478/original/file-20230210-30-299ivd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bust of Commodus in the Glyptothek, Munich.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Roman emperor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Commodus">Commodus</a> had the brothers killed in 182/3 CE. </p>
<p>He took possession of their properties, including this villa, initiating long-term imperial ownership. </p>
<p>The site has been long known for its decorative architecture, including coloured marble tiling, <a href="https://www.museionline.info/roma-musei-e-monumenti/antiquarium-villa-dei-quintili">high-quality statuary</a> recovered over the last 400 years, and a monumental bathing complex.</p>
<p>Less known is an enormous <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Circus.html">circus</a> for chariot racing built during the reign of Commodus. </p>
<p>From 2017-18, during an attempt to discover the starting gates of the circus, the first traces of a unique winery were revealed.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unearthing-falerii-novis-secrets-in-the-hot-italian-summer-an-archaeologist-reports-from-the-dig-162527">Unearthing Falerii Novi's secrets in the hot Italian summer: an archaeologist reports from the dig</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A luxury Roman imperial winery</h2>
<p>This large complex was built on top of the circus starting gates, which dates it after the reign of Commodus. </p>
<p>The complex possesses features commonly found in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/719697">ancient Roman wineries</a>: a grape treading area, two wine presses, a vat to collect grape must (the juice of the grapes along with their skins, seeds and stems) and a cellar with large clay jars for storage and fermentation sunk into the ground. </p>
<p>However, the decoration and arrangement of these features is almost completely unparalleled in the ancient world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509485/original/file-20230210-26-lr3txz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509485/original/file-20230210-26-lr3txz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509485/original/file-20230210-26-lr3txz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509485/original/file-20230210-26-lr3txz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509485/original/file-20230210-26-lr3txz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509485/original/file-20230210-26-lr3txz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509485/original/file-20230210-26-lr3txz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509485/original/file-20230210-26-lr3txz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aerial view of the excavated winery at the Villa of the Quintilii. Production areas are at the top (A–D), and the cellar (E) with adjacent dining rooms (F) in the lower half of the image.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by M.C.M s.r.l and adaptation in Dodd, Frontoni, Galli 2023</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nearly all the production areas are clad in marble veneer tiling. Even the treading area, normally coated in waterproof <em><a href="https://www.archaeoreporter.com/en/2021/01/03/the-roman-cocciopesto/">cocciopesto</a></em> plaster, is covered in red breccia marble. This luxurious material, combined with its impracticalities (it is very slippery when wet, unlike plaster), conveys the extreme sense of luxury. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509490/original/file-20230210-23-jhsr36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509490/original/file-20230210-23-jhsr36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509490/original/file-20230210-23-jhsr36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509490/original/file-20230210-23-jhsr36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509490/original/file-20230210-23-jhsr36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509490/original/file-20230210-23-jhsr36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509490/original/file-20230210-23-jhsr36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509490/original/file-20230210-23-jhsr36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reconstructed ancient Roman wine press at the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">E. Dodd</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two immense <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/a-pressing-matter-ancient-roman-food-technology">mechanical lever presses</a> sit either side of the treading area to press the already trodden grape pulp. </p>
<p>The size and scale of these presses working up and down in harmony would have contributed to the theatre of the production process.</p>
<p>The grape juice produced from treading and pressing flowed from these areas into a long rectangular vat, where an impression from a stamp named the short-reigning emperor <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Gordian_Emperors/">Gordian</a> (deposed 244 CE). This confirms a date of construction or renovation. </p>
<p>But it is here the real performance would have begun.</p>
<p>The liquid grape must poured like a striking fountain out of the vat and through a facade around one metre in height that closely resembles a Roman <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/nymphaeum"><em>nymphaeum</em></a> (a monumental decorated fountain). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509481/original/file-20230210-15-aranpu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509481/original/file-20230210-15-aranpu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509481/original/file-20230210-15-aranpu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509481/original/file-20230210-15-aranpu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509481/original/file-20230210-15-aranpu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509481/original/file-20230210-15-aranpu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509481/original/file-20230210-15-aranpu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509481/original/file-20230210-15-aranpu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View from the excavated dining room over the cellar with its facade of niches and fountains and up to the raised production areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">E. Dodd</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While must flowed out of the three central niches, water flowed out of those on either end and was then channelled back underground through a system of lead pipes.</p>
<p>This niched facade was originally clad in a decorative veneer of brightly coloured white, black, grey and red marble. Some pieces remain attached and more were found loose in the excavated layers.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509482/original/file-20230210-28-6xb7by.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509482/original/file-20230210-28-6xb7by.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509482/original/file-20230210-28-6xb7by.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509482/original/file-20230210-28-6xb7by.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509482/original/file-20230210-28-6xb7by.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509482/original/file-20230210-28-6xb7by.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509482/original/file-20230210-28-6xb7by.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509482/original/file-20230210-28-6xb7by.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cellar with marble-lined distribution channels and eight buried clay jars reinstated in their original positions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">E. Dodd</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A system of thin open white marble channels conveyed the grape must from the facade into an open-air cellar area. </p>
<p>Here it was fed into 16 buried clay jars (<em>dolia defossa</em>) large enough for a person to fit inside. The remains of eight were uncovered during excavations.</p>
<p>Three rooms paved in opulent geometric marble tiling, like those found in other areas of the villa, were arranged around the cellar. </p>
<p>We might imagine the emperor and his retinue reclining, eating and watching the spectacle of production and tasting freshly pressed must.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509475/original/file-20230210-28-4swlsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509475/original/file-20230210-28-4swlsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509475/original/file-20230210-28-4swlsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509475/original/file-20230210-28-4swlsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509475/original/file-20230210-28-4swlsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509475/original/file-20230210-28-4swlsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509475/original/file-20230210-28-4swlsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509475/original/file-20230210-28-4swlsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Geometric coloured marble floor tiling (<em>opus sectile</em>) discovered in one of the dining rooms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">S. Castellani</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Theatrical vintage ritual in ancient Italy</h2>
<p>The only other example like this facility can be found at <a href="https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/53-2/fentress.pdf">Villa Magna</a>, 50 kilometres to the south-east near Anagni. </p>
<p>This similarly opulent marble-clad winery was in use just before the Villa of the Quintilii, from the early second to early third century CE, with an area for dining that enabled a view of the production spaces.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcus-Aurelius-Roman-emperor">Marcus Aurelius</a>’ <a href="http://www.attalus.org/info/fronto.html">letters</a> to his tutor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcus-Cornelius-Fronto">Fronto</a>, we are given a rare glimpse into the activities of Villa Magna around 140-145 CE. He describes the imperial party banqueting while watching and listening to the workers treading grapes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509488/original/file-20230210-25-8fvnpz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509488/original/file-20230210-25-8fvnpz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509488/original/file-20230210-25-8fvnpz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=213&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509488/original/file-20230210-25-8fvnpz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=213&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509488/original/file-20230210-25-8fvnpz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=213&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509488/original/file-20230210-25-8fvnpz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509488/original/file-20230210-25-8fvnpz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509488/original/file-20230210-25-8fvnpz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roman sarcophagus (ca. 290 CE) illustrating a vintage scene with cherubs harvesting grapes and treading on them in a basin to make wine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Villa Museum, Malibu. Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is likely this formed part of a vintage ritual, tied to the ceremonial opening of the harvest. Perhaps this ritual also occurred at the slightly later Villa of the Quintilii facility.</p>
<p>Lavish marble-clad spaces marked areas fit for the imperial party and the winery was the “theatre” for this sacred performance.</p>
<p>One tantalising question remains unanswered: was the Roman emperor’s spectacular, ritual winery moved in the early third century CE from Villa Magna to the Villa of the Quintilii?</p>
<p><hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pompeii-is-famous-for-its-ruins-and-bodies-but-what-about-its-wine-147011">Pompeii is famous for its ruins and bodies, but what about its wine?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emlyn Dodd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This exciting newly excavated complex illustrates how elite Romans fused utilitarian function with luxurious decoration and theatre to fashion their social and political status.
Emlyn Dodd, Lecturer in Classical Studies, Institute of Classical Studies, University of London; Assistant Director of Archaeology, British School at Rome; Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow, Macquarie University, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201597
2023-03-10T15:24:09Z
2023-03-10T15:24:09Z
David Chipperfield: how the 2023 Pritzker prize winner creates buildings that last
<p>The British architect David Chipperfield <a href="https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/sir-david-alan-chipperfield-ch">has been announced</a> as the winner of the 2023 Pritzker Architecture Prize, arguably the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lacaton-and-vassal-how-this-years-pritzker-prize-could-spark-an-architectural-revolution-157636">highest international honour</a> in <a href="https://theconversation.com/diebedo-francis-kere-how-first-black-winner-of-architectures-top-prize-is-committed-to-building-peaceful-cities-179483">the discipline</a>. In its <a href="https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/sir-david-alan-chipperfield-ch#laureate-page-2511">citation</a>, the jury highlighted the elegance, restraint and permanence that have consistently characterised Chipperfield’s oeuvre, “an architecture of understated but transformative civic presence”. </p>
<p>Born in London in 1953, Chipperfield graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London in 1980, after undergraduate studies at the Kingston School of Art. He started out working for seminal British architects <a href="https://www.building.co.uk/focus/five-great-architects--youve-never-heard-of/3039656.article">Douglas Stephen</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/apr/03/lord-norman-foster-i-still-get-the-same-buzz-from-designing-buildings-">Norman Foster</a> and <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2021/12/19/richard-rogers-architecture-projects-top-10/">Richard Rogers</a>, before founding his own firm in London in 1985. With additional offices now in Berlin, Shanghai, Milan and Santiago de Compostela, his output has spanned civic, cultural, academic and residential buildings, as well as urban planning throughout Asia, Europe and North America. </p>
<p>Chipperfield’s driving ethos, as the Pritzker jury members emphasised, has always been to choose the tools needed for the project at hand. As opposed to the “starchitect” impulse to create something iconic and instantly recognisable – to stamp their mark on a place – architecture, for him, is a vehicle to pursue civic and public good, even if that means <a href="https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/sir-david-alan-chipperfield-ch#laureate-page-2511">“almost disappearing”</a> behind it. Here are five projects that embody that classic imperative: to achieve something that will stand the test of time in serving the people who need it. </p>
<h2>1. Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, 2007-2009</h2>
<p>Housing one of the first collections of modern art in Germany, founded in 1902, this museum organised a competition to extend its 1960s premises in 2007. Museums have been a consistent focus for Chipperfield. Here, he recognised the <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/174772/museum-folkwang-david-chipperfield">importance of working with</a>, but not overwhelming, the museum’s history. He added six simple structures, clad in slabs of glass, and four inner courtyards, an ensemble that <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2010/02/03/museum-folkwang-by-david-chipperfield/">flows so seamlessly</a> from the original building, it becomes almost invisible. </p>
<p>The jury citation put it plainly:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We do not see an instantly recognisable David Chipperfield building in different cities, but different David Chipperfield buildings designed specifically for each circumstance. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>2. The Neues Museum Berlin, Germany, 1993-2009</h2>
<p>Here Chipperfield reinstated the original use of the Neues Museum Berlin, “a <a href="https://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/system/files/documents/chs-vol.15-pp.39-to-55.pdf">masterpiece</a> of Prussian classicism”, according to German construction historian Werner Lorenz, that was partially destroyed in the second world war. His <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/42393019.pdf">minimalist intervention</a> included <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/127936/neues-museum-david-chipperfield-architects-in-collaboration-with-julian-harrap">an archaeological restoration</a> of the original building, which had been left exposed to the elements for decades, and new volumes added in pale cement and recycled brick. The result is a <a href="https://www.psa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Austausch%20Vol%201,%20Issue,%202,%20Oct%20Souto.pdf">history lesson</a>, the different layers of the building made visible, from 19th-century colonnades to 1940s bullet holes and scorch marks. </p>
<p>It is modern without being overpowering and it showcases Chipperfield’s concept of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/feb/06/david-chipperfield-turner-contemporary-hepworth-wakefield">permanence</a>. As he <a href="https://www.holcimfoundation.org/article/david-chipperfield-keynote-holcim-forum">put it</a> in 2013: “In this age of throwaway and the redundancy of everyday things, taking care of, valuing, and treasuring seem old-fashioned concepts.” Permanence, for him, is “a declaration of lasting priorities. The organisation of buildings and their integration in a larger whole give shape and solidity to our vague ideas of society”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An internal monumental staircase." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514702/original/file-20230310-18-930irz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514702/original/file-20230310-18-930irz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514702/original/file-20230310-18-930irz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514702/original/file-20230310-18-930irz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514702/original/file-20230310-18-930irz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514702/original/file-20230310-18-930irz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514702/original/file-20230310-18-930irz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The grand staircase in the Neues Museum Berlin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Grand_escalier_du_Hall_du_Neues_Museum_%28Berlin%29_%286098967815%29.jpg/1024px-Grand_escalier_du_Hall_du_Neues_Museum_%28Berlin%29_%286098967815%29.jpg">Jean-Pierre Dalbéra/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Inagawa cemetery chapel and visitor centre, Inagawa, Japan, 2013-1017</h2>
<p>“Good architecture provides a setting,” Chipperfield <a href="https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/sir-david-alan-chipperfield-ch#laureate-page-2501">has said</a>. “It’s there and it’s not there. [It] is something which can intensify and support and help our rituals and our lives.” </p>
<p>In Inagawa he demonstrated the importance of learning from the past – of understanding the essence of rituals and making them relevant to contemporary contexts. Located on a steep hillside in the Hyogo prefecture, north of Osaka, he created a <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2018/07/18/david-chipperfield-visitor-centre-inagawa-cemetery-architecture/">pink-hued concrete structure</a> around a courtyard, with a monumental staircase leading up the hill to the shrine. </p>
<p>The building connects directly with the topography of the landscape. The materials used are subtle and the design is minimal. As a whole, it promotes reflection and contemplation. It is architecture that is almost not there, precisely attuned to its function. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_GbCzYyHZBA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>4. The Hepworth Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK, 2003-2011</h2>
<p>This <a href="https://architecturetoday.co.uk/david-chipperfield-the-hepworth-wakefield/">purpose-built gallery</a>, located on the river Calder within the Wakefield waterfront conservation area, embodies Chipperfield’s approach to sustainability, which the Pritzker jury citation <a href="https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/sir-david-alan-chipperfield-ch#laureate-page-2506">defines</a> as striving for “pertinence”. Chipperfield eliminates the superfluous, and creates “structures able to last, physically and culturally”.</p>
<p>Skylights and floor-to-ceiling picture windows allow visitors to engage with the post-industrial riverside setting from subtle, luminious interiors. The <a href="https://hepworthwakefield.org/our-story/our-history/our-architecture/">pigmented concrete</a> of the structures was mixed on the site, giving the whole a sculptural feel, in celebration of Barbara Hepworth, the Wakefield-born artist and museum’s namesake. The building uses the river for its heating and cooling system. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A building in front of a body of water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514700/original/file-20230310-763-db9lli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514700/original/file-20230310-763-db9lli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514700/original/file-20230310-763-db9lli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514700/original/file-20230310-763-db9lli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514700/original/file-20230310-763-db9lli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514700/original/file-20230310-763-db9lli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514700/original/file-20230310-763-db9lli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hepworth Wakefield.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pxhere.com/en/photo/400000">Stephen Bowler</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Fundacion Ria, Galicia, Spain, 2017</h2>
<p>In recent years, Chipperfield has extended his work to support further engagement with local communities, learning about their needs and their contexts, moving away from global solutions. In 2017, he <a href="https://davidchipperfield.com/fundacion-ria">founded</a> Fundacion Ria, a private, non-profit that sponsors <a href="https://www.fundacionria.org/en/la-fundacion/vision">research</a> and future development in Galicia, northwestern Spain, one of the poorest regions in the country. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Uw4gtL1aYjM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The foundation’s exploratory projects encompass planning (<a href="https://www.fundacionria.org/en/actividad/integracion-urbana-del-frente-maritimo-de-palmeira">integrating the seafront</a> into the urban fabric of the region’s small seaside towns) and sustainable land management (setting up an “ecosocial laboratory” to study how local farmland has been managed, historically). As the foundation’s website puts it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Essentially, what we have to hope now is that the environmental crisis makes us reconsider priorities of society, that profit is not the only thing that should be motivating our decisions.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Souto does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Chipperfield is not interested in creating something iconic or instantly recognisable as his. Instead, he sees architecture as a service, a vehicle for civic and public good.
Ana Souto, Senior Lecturer in Architectural History, Nottingham Trent University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196435
2022-12-22T06:56:06Z
2022-12-22T06:56:06Z
The 2,700-year-old rock carvings from when Nineveh was the most dazzling city in the world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501245/original/file-20221215-23-zd431c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sennacherib -- his face deliberately damaged in antiquity -- presides over captives from the Levantine city of Lachish.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/354010001">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Archaeologists in northern Iraq, working on the Mashki and Adad gate sites in Mosul that were <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/160419-Islamic-State-ISIS-ISIL-Nineveh-gates-Iraq-Mosul-destroyed">destroyed</a> by Islamic State in 2016, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/oct/26/archaeologists-unearth-2700-year-old-rock-carvings-in-iraq">recently uncovered</a> 2,700-year-old Assyrian reliefs. Featuring war scenes and trees, these rock carvings add to the bounty of detailed stone panels excavated from the 1840s onwards, many of which are currently held in the <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/assyria-lion-hunts">British Museum</a>. They stem from the ancient city of Nineveh which, for a time, was likely the most dazzling in the world. </p>
<p>There is evidence of occupation at the site already by 3,000 BC, an era known as the <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/prahistorische-ninive-zur-relativen-chronologie-der-fruhen-perioden-nordmesopotamiens/oclc/34784763">late Uruk period</a>. But it was under <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1856-0909-14_7">King Sennacherib</a> (705-681 BC), son of Sargon and grandfather of Ashurbanipal, that Nineveh became the capital of Assyria, the greatest power of its day.</p>
<p>In moving the capital, Sennacherib was doing nothing new. Traditionally, the Assyrian capital was Ashur (from which we derive the word “Assyria”), but in the 800s BC the political capital had been moved to Kalhu (Nimrud). Sennacherib’s father, Sargon, had subsequently built himself a completely new capital city, Dūr Šarrukīn. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An ancient stone carving showing people in vegetation." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501269/original/file-20221215-23-ncsrxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501269/original/file-20221215-23-ncsrxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501269/original/file-20221215-23-ncsrxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501269/original/file-20221215-23-ncsrxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501269/original/file-20221215-23-ncsrxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501269/original/file-20221215-23-ncsrxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501269/original/file-20221215-23-ncsrxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Enemies hiding in the reeds during a marshland battle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1851-0902-22-b">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such initiatives displayed the authority of the monarch, making a clear claim to a new order of things. They also served to <a href="https://www.academia.edu/37128890/The_Scholar_and_Politics_Nab%C3%BB_zuqup_k%C4%93nu_his_Colophons_and_the_Ideology_of_Sargon_II">move</a> the centre of power away from the elite families whose influence had built up over time.</p>
<p>But moves like this could backfire. Sargon died on the battlefield and his corpse was never recovered. This national calamity was presumably a major factor that led his successor, Sennacherib, to abandon his father’s newly founded city and mark out his grandeur elsewhere. </p>
<p>So it was that Nineveh became synonymous with Assyrian power. When it subsequently fell to a coalition of Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC, the Israelite prophets, whose societies had suffered greatly under Assyrian aggression, could not contain their glee. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An ancient stone carving showing people with horses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501280/original/file-20221215-15-purmy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501280/original/file-20221215-15-purmy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501280/original/file-20221215-15-purmy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501280/original/file-20221215-15-purmy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501280/original/file-20221215-15-purmy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501280/original/file-20221215-15-purmy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501280/original/file-20221215-15-purmy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most of the carvings we have known to date stem from earlier 19th-century excavations of the royal palace at Nineveh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucker/9452140841/in/photostream/">Steven Zucker Smarthistory | flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The fall of Nineveh</h2>
<p>The biblical book of Nahum contains an extensive prophecy (albeit written after the event) about the fall of Nineveh. The book of Jonah, meanwhile, recounts that Jonah was sent to that city in order to warn the inhabitants of the dire consequences of their depravity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An ancient stone carving showing people with horses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501266/original/file-20221215-13-l93cjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501266/original/file-20221215-13-l93cjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501266/original/file-20221215-13-l93cjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501266/original/file-20221215-13-l93cjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501266/original/file-20221215-13-l93cjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501266/original/file-20221215-13-l93cjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501266/original/file-20221215-13-l93cjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail from a stone wall relief from Ashurbanipal’s palace, depicting a royal hunt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1856-0909-21_3">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sennacherib knew none of this. He set about making his city as magnificent as he could, surrounding it with a huge wall, the outline of which can still be seen in <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mosul,+Iraq/@36.3563386,43.1118615,14358m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x40079464db1a88b9:0x9745d74edd0f0930!8m2!3d36.3489278!4d43.157736">aerial view</a>. Strictly speaking, the city’s limits were enclosed by <em>two</em> walls, an inner one and an outer one, together enclosing an area of over seven square kilometres. </p>
<p>The two walls were given <a href="http://www.oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/Q003491">names</a> – “The wall whose fearsomeness covers the enemy” and “The wall that terrifies evil” – in Sumerian. They were pierced by 18 monumental entrances, including the Mashki and Adad gateways. In the city’s last days, around 612 BC, these gates were hastily <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4200584">narrowed</a> in a bid to make them more defensible. As iconic parts of the ancient city, the walls and gates were <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/remote-sensing-and-ground-survey-of-archaeological-damage-and-destruction-at-nineveh-during-the-isis-occupation/F029E61E21EEAF19BB4648F634F57EB2">targeted</a> by Islamic State from 2014.</p>
<p>In antiquity, the cityscape would have been dominated by the mounds of Kuyunjik (a name acquired in the Ottoman period, probably from the Turkish <em>koyuncuk</em> or “little sheep”) and Nebi Yunus. These earth forms, up to 30m high, were home to ancient Assyrian <a href="http://www.publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#8744">temples and palaces</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An ancient stone carving showing people with horses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501243/original/file-20221215-12-jmpw8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501243/original/file-20221215-12-jmpw8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501243/original/file-20221215-12-jmpw8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501243/original/file-20221215-12-jmpw8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501243/original/file-20221215-12-jmpw8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501243/original/file-20221215-12-jmpw8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501243/original/file-20221215-12-jmpw8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Attendants on a royal hunt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/241833001">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nebi Yunus, according to Muslim tradition, houses the tomb of the prophet Jonah. Kuyunjik is where Ashurbanipal assembled his <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/library-fit-king">library of cuneiform tablets</a>. Excavated between the 1840s and 1930s, this is arguably our most important source for the <a href="http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/doc/about/index.html">modern understanding</a> of ancient Mesopotamian culture.</p>
<p>Sennacherib’s <a href="http://www.oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/Q003491">inscriptions</a> on clay prisms boast that his beautification of the city also included splendid gardens. The assyriologist Stephanie Dalley, in her 2015 book <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/by-the-rivers-of-nineveh">The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon</a>, suggests these were the actual source of the reports of the hanging gardens of Babylon, the Greeks having confused one Mesopotamian city with another.</p>
<p>Wealthy private citizens could <a href="http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/P335308">own</a> gardens inside the city, and all its gardens could benefit from an <a href="https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/oip/oip-24-sennacherib%E2%80%99s-aqueduct-jerwan">aqueduct</a> which Sennacherib built to bring water from the Gomel river to the Ḫosr river. It is the only such construction known from before Roman times.</p>
<p>The rudimentary methods of Nineveh’s early excavators, such as the 19th-century British adventurer <a href="https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/8e5bd763-ed85-3e29-aa15-f09227c220b2">Austen Henry Layard</a>, could uncover huge areas, but they were heavily <a href="http://repository.bilkent.edu.tr/bitstream/handle/11693/50901/Archaeology_and_the_Ancient_Near_East_Methods_and_Limits.pdf">concentrated</a> on monumental buildings. They were also little more than treasure hunts with no detailed record-keeping, and so irretrievably destroyed precious information.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An ancient stone carving showing people carrying things." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501268/original/file-20221215-26-ilyrvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501268/original/file-20221215-26-ilyrvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501268/original/file-20221215-26-ilyrvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501268/original/file-20221215-26-ilyrvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501268/original/file-20221215-26-ilyrvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1724&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501268/original/file-20221215-26-ilyrvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1724&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501268/original/file-20221215-26-ilyrvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1724&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A relief detail showing a man carrying ropes with the hand of someone carrying a log and traces of water at the upper edge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/486062001">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Contemporary excavations are more cautious and thorough, which also makes them slower. As a result, most of Nineveh remains unexcavated. In particular, we know little of the “lower town” below the two mounds, where ordinary people lived. Lots of it is under modern Mosul, and there remains a huge amount to rediscover.</p>
<p>Written sources do, however, give glimpses of how the place must have bustled and thrived. Historian Mario Liverani, in his 2013 book The Ancient Near East, <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315879895/ancient-near-east-soraia-tabatabai-mario-liverani">estimates</a> that the city’s population under Sennacherib was around 100,000. </p>
<p>Assyrian royal inscriptions often stress the violent side of empire, such as when Ashurbanipal <a href="http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003710/">reports</a> that he chained a rebel at the citadel of Nineveh together with a bear and a dog (thankfully providing no further details). But there <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20221007113741/https:/www.britishmuseum.org/blog/historical-city-travel-guide-nineveh-7th-century-bc">would equally have been</a> markets and craftsmen, diviners and festivals. </p>
<p>Such was the reputation of this ancient city that when explorers in the mid-19th century found the remains of spectacular cities near Mosul – which we now know to be Dūr Šarrukīn and Kalḫu – they published their finds under the titles <a href="https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.112262">Monument de Ninive</a> and <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.281808">Nineveh and its Remains</a>. They assumed that what they had found must be Nineveh, when it was not.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Worthington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ongoing excavations in northern Iraq add to our knowledge of the neo-Assyrian empire – and the beauty of its cities.
Martin Worthington, Trinity College Dublin
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194273
2022-11-10T11:51:44Z
2022-11-10T11:51:44Z
Why stolen objects being returned to Africa don’t belong just in museums – podcast
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494469/original/file-20221109-11-ojxf6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=137%2C82%2C4256%2C2773&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Benin Bronzes: 944 objects looted in the 19th century from the Kingdom of Benin are in the British Museum in London. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-july-2018-architectural-detail-benin-2175043265">Mltz via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Momentum is growing for objects stolen during the colonial era that are now held in museums in Europe and North America to be returned to the places and communities that they were taken from. In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, we talk to three experts about what happens to these objects once they’re returned and the questions their restitution is raising about the relationship between communities and museums in Africa. </p>
<iframe src="https://embed.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/636ccbd22b51320012e7b6a9" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="190px"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-561" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/561/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The Benin bronzes are at the centre of the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1b32105e-428a-49e8-b2f2-d3ba381c4c65">restitution movement</a>. Many of these objects, made of brass, ivory, wood and other materials as well as bronze, were looted in 1897 when British soldiers invaded the Kingdom of Benin in what is today Benin City in Nigeria. Since then, they’ve been scattered in museums and collections around the world. </p>
<p>In early November, a new website was launched called <a href="https://digitalbenin.org/">Digital Benin</a> cataloguing the location of 5,246 bronzes across 131 institutions in 20 countries. It comes as a number of collections are now moving to return the objects to Nigeria. In July, Germany signed a landmark agreement to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-signs-deal-give-ownership-benin-bronzes-nigeria-2022-08-25/">transfer ownership of 512 Benin bronzes to Nigeria</a>. A few have already been returned from the <a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/metropolitan-museum-of-art-returns-two-benin-bronzes-1234595399/">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a> in New York, as well as from the universities of <a href="https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/15479/">Aberdeen and Cambridge in the UK</a>. </p>
<p>Nigeria plans to build a new museum in Benin City, the <a href="https://www.emowaa.com/">Edo Museum of West African Art</a>, to house some of the returned objects. But some researchers think conversations about the objects’ future should extend beyond the national government and the present-day Oba, or king, of Benin. “There is a need to go beyond the elites and get to the members of the descendant communities whose ancestors produced and used many of these [objects] within their cultural context,” explains John Kelechi Ugwuanyi, a senior lecturer in the archaeology and tourism at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. </p>
<p>Involving communities in the way artefacts are used and displayed is a longstanding issue for African museums, even for objects that were never taken abroad. Farai Chabata, a visiting lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and senior curator of ethnography at the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, told us part of this stems from the history of some museums on the continent. For example, he says the Museum of Human Sciences in Harare, where he’s based today, was founded when Zimbabwe was a British colony with the primary objective to understand the colony. “What you then see is a museum which was not actually serving the community in its inclusive form, but these were very exclusive, elitist museums that largely served a colonial white minority,” explains Chabata.</p>
<p>If objects are displayed in museums as works of art, it can <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02580136.2021.1996140">also strip them of their sacred meaning,</a> according to Aribiah David Attoe, a philosopher at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. “Some of those objects still retain their purpose or their usefulness in traditional societies,” says Attoe. “Perhaps we should give these objects their rightful place as religious objects, as sacred objects, not just artworks that can be displayed in museums, whether in Africa or in Europe or anywhere,” he says. </p>
<p>Listen to the full episode of The Conversation Weekly to find out more. </p>
<p>This episode was produced by Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. The executive producer was Gemma Ware. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. </p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode is <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2791/Ep78_Africa's_Stolen_Objects_Transcript_Template.pdf?1694452345">available now</a>.</p>
<p>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aribiah David Attoe receives funding from the Global Philosophy of Religion Project Grant, facilitated by the John Templeton Fund. He's received funding in the past from the Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa, University of Fort Hare and the Global Excellence Stature fund for Doctoral research, facilitated by the University of Johannesburg. He's a member and senior research fellow of the Conversational Society of Philosophy (CSP), Nigeria.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Kelechi Ugwuanyi is also a postdoctoral research fellow at the Global Heritage Lab at the University of Bonn. He's recevied funding from Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Trust Fund and the American Council of Learned Societies and the Overseas Research Scholarship at the University of York. Farai Chabata is senior curator of ethnography for the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, based at the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences in Harare.</span></em></p>
Momentum is growing for the restitution of objects, such as the Benin Bronzes, stolen during colonialism. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.
Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation
Daniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185145
2022-10-31T13:11:38Z
2022-10-31T13:11:38Z
Ghana’s National Museum: superb restoration but painful stories remain untold
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490104/original/file-20221017-18-2taq3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A museum </span> </figcaption></figure><p>Ghana’s national museum has reopened its doors after a seven-year closure to allow for major renovations.</p>
<p>The museum was first <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110670714-019/pdf">opened in March 1957</a> as part of the celebrations marking the transition from colonial rule to independence. </p>
<p>The opening also marked the end of a bitter struggle between members of the museum staff over issues related to the creation of a new memory space. I traced this history in a <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110670714-019/pdf">paper</a> about the origins of the museum.</p>
<p>Often, museums are considered spaces for the past. However, they also reflect how the past is understood and used in the present. In 1957, the makers of the museum wanted to create a space for foreign visitors, telling a history that focused on peaceful aspects of Ghana’s past. In the process, less peaceful histories were excluded, such as the slave trade and the destructive aspects of colonial rule. </p>
<p>Over time, histories of the slave trade were added to the museum’s exhibitions. The recently completed renovation has provided the museum with the opportunity to develop a new exhibition where these histories were part of the main narrative. </p>
<p>I was intrigued to find out how the museum compared with the original vision.</p>
<p>After visiting it I concluded that it does an exemplary job of presenting the dynamic diversity of Ghana as a nation. But it still excludes certain histories – most notably those of the slave trade and colonial rule. The museum is leaving out crucial aspects of Ghana’s past. It misses the opportunity to be a space where these can be discussed and processed peacefully. </p>
<h2>Origins of the National Museum</h2>
<p>The idea of establishing a national museum in what was then known as the Gold Coast was first raised in the 1940s by the colonial government. </p>
<p>In 1951, the <a href="https://www.nli.org.il/en/a-topic/987007272993505171">archaeologist A.W. Lawrence</a> became the director of this future museum. With a collection consisting of archaeological artefacts and an archaeologist as its director, it had a strong historical basis. </p>
<p>Over the next few years, new politicians decided where to house the museum and what histories it should tell. Together with British officials, the anti-colonial Convention Peoples’ Party became responsible for it. </p>
<p>The building was designed by <a href="https://www.themodernhouse.com/journal/architect-of-the-week-denys-lasdun/">Denys Lasdun of Fry, Drew, Drake & Lasdun</a>, a partnership known for Modernist tropical architecture. </p>
<p>The museum consisted of several modern elements, not least the building materials. A prefabricated aluminium dome covers most of the building. But domes also characterise many European museums. The building can therefore be seen as a compromise between the traditional and the modern. </p>
<p>Inside the museum, Lawrence wanted to tell a history that was referred to as “Man in Africa”. This history focused on the Gold Coast against the background of what “Man has achieved throughout the rest of Africa.” </p>
<p>To tell this story, the museum acquired artefacts from ancient Egypt, the Roman period in Morocco, and two original Benin bronze heads, among other things. Lawrence also acquired European objects used in West Africa in the past centuries to illustrate the relationship between the Gold Coast and Europe. </p>
<p>However, one member of the staff, John Osei Kufour, who was an ardent supporter of the Convention Peoples’ Party, wanted the museum to be a space for anti-colonial history. He was highly critical of the objects acquired by Lawrence, particularly those from Europe. He wanted the museum to focus exclusively on Ghana and its traditions – traditions he hoped would soon be confined to the past by the government’s development plans. </p>
<p>In 1956, shortly before the museum was about to open, he used his contacts in the party in an effort to remove the director. It failed. The party leaders did not want the museum to be an anti-colonial space. Rather, they saw it as a suitable meeting place where visitors to the country could learn something of its history.</p>
<h2>Opening exhibitions</h2>
<p>Two temporary exhibitions were unveiled at the opening in 1957.</p>
<p>One was based on objects and told the history of “Man in Africa”, and the other used documents from the newly established national archives to narrate recent history. Both presented narratives of the past characterised by ordered progress and development resulting from the interaction between the people of Ghana, West Africa and other parts of the world. </p>
<p>In general, the national museum excluded all references to the parts of Ghana’s global past that were problematic. It contained references to European contact but not to the slave trade. The documents excluded the anti-colonial narrative of colonial exploitation or resistance. </p>
<p>Over the following decades certain changes were made in a bid to adjust the museum to new demands. In the 1990s, for instance, the history of the transatlantic slave trade was included. This enabled visitors from the African diaspora to find their past too. </p>
<p>In 2015 the museum was closed for reparation and restoration. When it opened in 2022, it started with a clean slate.</p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>The museum has been beautifully restored, and is worth a visit for all who appreciate modernistic architecture from the independence era. </p>
<p>But I have a few criticisms.</p>
<p>The new exhibition is entitled “Unity in Diversity”, which I think is an excellent title. But the opening exhibition fails to explore or discuss this. What does diversity entail? How is it connected to tolerance and acceptance?</p>
<p>Also, as in 1957, difficult histories are excluded. The transatlantic slave trade is not discussed. Nor is the colonial period.</p>
<p>In general, the museum seems unfinished. But this can be a good thing: it allows the museum staff to continuously develop the exhibitions and invite new forms of participation from visitors. Rather than telling the singular “history” of Ghana, it could tell many histories of Ghana - from perspectives that also bring out the diversity of country. </p>
<p>Museums are potentially important places for dialogue and discussions. The National Museum in Ghana can be a place where people use their diverse experiences from the past to discuss how to solve issues in the present.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon Olav Hove does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ghana’s national museum has been reopened after being closed for seven years.
Jon Olav Hove, Associate Professor, Department of Historical and Classical Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/180018
2022-04-25T20:01:12Z
2022-04-25T20:01:12Z
Remaking history: using Ancient Egyptian techniques, I made delicious olive oil at home – and you can too
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454905/original/file-20220329-21-8rqvrl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C233%2C3826%2C2137&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hand Clutching an Olive Branch ca. 1353–1323 B.C. New Kingdom, Amarna Period</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/remaking-history-116020">this series</a>, academics explain the ways they are recreating historical practices, and how this impacts their research today.</em></p>
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<p>Olive oil was one of the major commodities in the ancient Mediterranean. Alongside wine, grain and perhaps also <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-archaeology/article/abs/tracking-consumption-at-pompeii-the-graffiti-lists/E39629AEDBD9B9FBB4643B64EB90EA8D">cheese in some regions</a>, it enveloped and permeated Canaanite, Phoenician, Greek and Roman cultures, and was present in Egypt long before.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D14%3Achapter%3D29">According to</a> the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (1st century CE): </p>
<blockquote>
<p>there are two liquids that are especially agreeable to the human body, wine inside and oil outside […] [the latter] being an absolute necessity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Olive oil was used for a broad variety of purposes in antiquity: fuel for cooking, lighting and heating; personal hygiene; craft; and within the daily diet. </p>
<p>Large proportions of Greek, Roman and presumably Phoenician agricultural texts are devoted to the production of oil.</p>
<p>Authors like Columella, Palladius, Pliny and Cato the Elder, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mago_(agricultural_writer)">now-lost treatise</a> of Mago the Carthaginian – the father of agriculture – debate what tools and equipment are needed, how and where to grow olive trees, what workers are required, and the array of olives and oils. </p>
<p>The detail within these texts is staggering. It extends to precise instructions for creating olive oil as well recipes for various types. Combined with surviving iconography and art that depicts these processes, as well as the archaeological remains of oileries and olive groves, we can attempt to reconstruct these ancient commodities.</p>
<p>This process is termed <a href="https://exarc.net/experimental-archaeology">experimental archaeology</a>. Experimental archaeology is often used to fill gaps in our knowledge and help us understand the practicalities of these production techniques – particularly for objects and processes that are rarely preserved. </p>
<p>This is particularly true for some types of oil presses, which were made almost entirely of organic materials and only survive in exceptional circumstances.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1397095003428622336"}"></div></p>
<h2>Recreating ancient Egyptian olive oil</h2>
<p>One of the earliest, if not the first, methods of pressing substances to produce a liquid such as wine or oil was by torsion. </p>
<p>This method involves filling a permeable bag with the crushed fruit, inserting sticks at either end of the bag before twisting them in opposite directions. This compresses the bag, and liquid filters out.</p>
<p>The torsion method is depicted on various Egyptian wall paintings, from the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. The <a href="https://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/current-research-in-egyptology-17.html">earliest known example</a> is in the tomb of Nebemakhet from around 2600–2500 BCE. </p>
<p>This method lasted millennia. There is evidence for the use of the torsion bag method from pre-industrial Venice, Spain and Corsica, and it is illustrated in early 20th century Italy.</p>
<p>Egyptian depictions of the torsion press have often been assumed to be related to wine production, but we wanted to know: could it also be effectively used to make olive oil?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A colourful Egyptian wall painting depicting two men twisting a bag to produce a liquid and another man filling clay jars with liquid" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=167&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=167&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wall painting depicting a torsion ‘bag’ press between two poles. People on either side twist the bag in opposite directions using sticks placed through loopholes. From inside the ca.1450 BCE tomb of Puyemre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With a lack of written and structural archaeological evidence – unlike the later Graeco-Roman eras – depictions on wall paintings and in relief are some of our only clues in Egypt.</p>
<p>Accompanied by basic olive crushing methods, known since the Neolithic era and still used until recently, we aimed to use these processes to test how effective they were and what quality of oil was achievable. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remaking-history-how-we-are-recreating-renaissance-beauty-recipes-in-the-modern-chemistry-lab-176461">Remaking history: how we are recreating Renaissance beauty recipes in the modern chemistry lab</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is difficult to determine exactly what cloth was used in antiquity for the bag, so we decided to use a simple cheesecloth.</p>
<p>A mix of green and black olives, still used by traditional Italian producers today to create high quality extra-virgin oil, were harvested in the late Australian autumn season of mid-May. </p>
<p>Following ancient recommendations, they were washed before processing.</p>
<p>Before the torsion occurs, crushing is necessary to tear the flesh of the olive. This allows for the release of oils under pressure. We used a basic mortar and pestle – a technique documented archaeologically since around 5000 BCE. </p>
<p>This was hard work, particularly on the less ripe green olives.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Stones used to crush and press olives to make oil in the ruins of a building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Roman mola olearia to crush olives at Kanytelis (ancient Cilicia, modern Turkey)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is not surprising that advances through the Classical and Hellenistic Greek eras were made, including larger rotary mortars, called <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/image/5645/trapetum-roman-olive-press/"><em>trapeta</em></a> (or later, the slightly different <a href="https://exarc.net/issue-2020-2/at/vertical-olive-crushing-mill-machine"><em>mola olearia</em></a>), allowing greater quantities to be processed with ease.</p>
<p>After crushing, the pulp was placed in a cheesecloth sack and a variety of torsion methods were tested: twisting on both ends; anchoring one end and twisting the other; and first soaking the fruit in hot water to release oils before twisting.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People twist the end of a bag to produce a liquid, while another person adjusts the bag itself" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of a single-end torsion ‘bag’ press in a fixed wooden frame.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was immediately noticeable that gentle pressure worked well, providing a slow but steady drip of liquid and minimising any solid materials being forced through the cloth. Multiple layers of cloth were required to prevent ripping, but this also made the filtration process slower and less permeable. </p>
<h2>A slow and gentle pressing</h2>
<p>A compromise in the middle created the best results: a gentle, slow pressing, anchoring one end and twisting the other. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A glass with layers of different coloured liquids inside" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the experimental olive oil batches settling. The oil and vegetable water (lees or amurca) layers are easily distinguishable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emlyn Dodd</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some pressing methods separated the oil far quicker, with a fine yellow layer floating on the surface of the vegetable water in just minutes. Other methods did not separate even when left overnight and we were left with a thick brown mixture of vegetable water (the Roman <em>amurca</em>) and oils. Even <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D15%3Achapter%3D2">Pliny noted</a> “the very same olives can frequently give quite different results”.</p>
<p>The successful jars produced a delicious olive oil. Sharp, bitey and with hints of pepper – just like a nice fresh-pressed extra virgin oil. </p>
<p>Despite the fact that almost no archaeological evidence is known of actual olive oilry facilities in Pharaonic Egypt, with iconography providing the only real clues, this experiment clearly showed it is possible to press olives and produce oil using this frequently depicted method.</p>
<p>It is also an excellent (and relatively easy) method of making your own olive oil at home!</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/extra-virgin-olive-oil-why-its-healthier-than-other-cooking-oils-176637">Extra virgin olive oil: why it's healthier than other cooking oils</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emlyn Dodd receives funding from the British School at Athens, Australasian Society for Classical Studies, and Macquarie University. He is affiliated with the British School at Rome, Macquarie University, Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, and the Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and the Environment. Thanks must go to Hugh Thomson for collaborating on this experimental work.</span></em></p>
Using Greek and Roman texts, Egyptian iconography and archaeological remains, we have a pretty good idea as to how olive oil was made.
Emlyn Dodd, Assistant Director of Archaeology, British School at Rome; Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow, Macquarie University; Research Affiliate, Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/174376
2022-01-11T16:21:10Z
2022-01-11T16:21:10Z
Bones and teeth help reveal whether teenagers have always been a source of worry for their parents
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440092/original/file-20220110-23-lh2upx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6006%2C3998&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Today, teens are often seen as troublesome and difficult. Ancient Roman writers also described adolescence as a period of “hooliganism and debauchery.”</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>They were promiscuous, rarely home and thought they knew everything. They were teenagers from centuries ago, and by studying their bones and teeth, bioarcheologists can confirm that teens have always been a source of worry for their parents.</p>
<p>Today, adolescence is a tumultuous period of change and distress, with clinical research suggesting it is a <a href="https://apps.who.int/adolescent/second-decade/files/1612_MNCAH_HWA_Executive_Summary.pdf">key phase of development</a>, responsible for long-term mental and physical well-being. </p>
<p>Yet even as we worry about teenagers’ well-being, the question remains: What does “normal” adolescence look like? Or what makes a “good” adolescence?</p>
<p>Bioarcheologists — people who study <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/05/01/youre-a-bioarchaeologist-what-is-that/">human remains from archeological sites</a> — are trying to answer those questions. As a <a href="https://creightonavery.com/">bioarcheologist</a>, I examine bones and teeth to better understand when kids started to look like and act like adults in the Roman Empire (first to fifth centuries CE). </p>
<p>By examining bones and teeth, and incorporating archeological data, burial patterns, written sources and other lines of evidence, bioarcheologists are finding that teens today have a lot in common with teens of the past, but there’s one key difference.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person wearing a lab coat holds up a test tube in front of their face. The test tube is in focus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440076/original/file-20220110-15-9m0zd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440076/original/file-20220110-15-9m0zd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440076/original/file-20220110-15-9m0zd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440076/original/file-20220110-15-9m0zd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440076/original/file-20220110-15-9m0zd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440076/original/file-20220110-15-9m0zd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440076/original/file-20220110-15-9m0zd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bioarcheologist Creighton Avery holds up an archeological tooth suspended in acid in a tube, as part of her study to investigate changes in diet, and possible social age changes, in the Roman Empire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Creighton Avery)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Teenagers were innovative</h2>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/upper-paleolithic">Upper Paleolithic</a> (50,000 to 12,000 years ago) and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Neolithic">Neolithic</a> (around 12,000 to 6,500 years ago), teenagers were innovative and played an important role in the <a href="https://www.macvideo.ca/media/Baseline+Models+for+Reconstructions+the+Lived+Lives+of+Adolescents+in+the+Gravettian%2C+by+Dr.+April+Nowell/1_dc5vsy2r/234201922">origin and spread of new ideas</a>. They were <a href="https://www.macvideo.ca/media/Mobility+and+Adolescence+in+Neolithic+France%2C+Roquemissou%2C+by+Jeffrey+Coffin/1_f3kzhyn6/234201922">highly mobile</a>, creative and felt driven to meet and interact with new groups.</p>
<p>Similarly, teens today are <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/teenage-girls-have-been-revolutionizing-language-16th-century-180956216/">creating more words</a>, TikTok dances and social trends than any other age group. They’re also developing new ways to <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/jack-andraka-the-teen-prodigy-of-pancreatic-cancer-135925809/">detect cancers</a> and <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/high-schooler-invented-color-changing-sutures-detect-infection-180977345/">assess wounds</a>, demonstrating that age is not a requirement for innovation.</p>
<p>Being “wired for innovation” may be due to the unique <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2167696817739393">plasticity of the adolescent brain</a>, which makes teens more open to learning new skills and taking on new opportunities. </p>
<p>So, rather than belittling adolescents for moving too fast or talking differently, we may need to put their innovative thinking to good use. That, and continue to have comedian Seth Meyers explain teen slang.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GQKqUV0rkKw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Seth Myers explains teen slang in a clip from Late Night with Seth Myers.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Teenagers tried on adult roles</h2>
<p>For teens today, having a part-time job has <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-teenage-jobs-are-good-for-your-kids-86181">short- and long-term benefits</a>, including higher incomes and better networking skills later in life. However, there are some risks, particularly for those who work too much. Studying teens of the past shows us that this is not new.</p>
<p>Thousands of years ago, in the Neolithic, teens were practising to be adults, learning how to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17585716.2019.1638555">throw spears</a> and hunt big game, joining adults in providing for their communities. </p>
<p>Similarly, in the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago, bioarcheological and ancient literary sources indicate young men <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3033">began apprenticeships</a> or joined the military under semi-protected status as teens, although this <a href="https://www.macvideo.ca/media/Becoming+AdultsA+An+investigation+of+dietary+change+in+childhood%2C+adolescence%2C+and+adulthood+at+Isola+Sacra+%28Italy%2C+1st-4th+centuries+CE%29%2C+by+Creighton+Avery+/1_us0xqr2r/234201922">didn’t happen overnight</a> and was a gradual process. </p>
<p>When these changes happened quickly, like in <a href="https://www.macvideo.ca/media/An+Absent+AdolescenceF+A+Bioarchaeological+Approach+to+Understanding+the+Teenaged+Lived+Experience+in+18th+Century+Atlantic+Canada%2C+by+Dr.+Amy+Scott/1_n1fnto3z/234201922">18th-century Canada</a>, teens faced poor health and well-being, mirroring patterns we see today. Those who take on full adult roles too quickly can face consequences, but a gradual transition has benefits.</p>
<h2>Teenagers didn’t have an identity crisis</h2>
<p>Today, teens are often seen as troublesome and difficult. Ancient Roman writers, too, described adolescence as a period of “<a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203168486">hooliganism and debauchery</a>,” when young men were encouraged to drink heavily and visit brothels (although <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3033">recent bioarcheological</a> research may suggest this is only true of wealthy families). </p>
<p>In the Upper Paleolithic, there was no “<a href="https://www.macvideo.ca/media/Baseline+Models+for+Reconstructions+the+Lived+Lives+of+Adolescents+in+the+Gravettian%2C+by+Dr.+April+Nowell/1_dc5vsy2r/234201922">teenage rebellion</a>,” likely because Paleolithic teens had a strong sense of self and belonging, as well as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2020.37">sense of individual autonomy</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An illustration of anthropologists sitting scanning bones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440090/original/file-20220110-15-1cuzry6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440090/original/file-20220110-15-1cuzry6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440090/original/file-20220110-15-1cuzry6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440090/original/file-20220110-15-1cuzry6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440090/original/file-20220110-15-1cuzry6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440090/original/file-20220110-15-1cuzry6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440090/original/file-20220110-15-1cuzry6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By examining bones and teeth and other lines of evidence, bioarcheologists are finding teens today have a lot in common with teens of the past.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://anthroillustrated.com/">(Anthropologist Scanning Bones/Anthro Illustrated)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When moving from small, open-air communities to large, fortified communities in 13th-century Arizona, older children and teens found many of the activities that had helped create a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1179/cip.2009.2.1.71">sense of autonomy were gone</a>. They no longer fetched water or worked with clay, making them less capable as farmers, hunters and foragers as they became adults. </p>
<p>And we may be seeing similar patterns today — teens are losing their autonomy by not having the opportunity to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/06/02/611082566/why-children-arent-behaving-and-what-you-can-do-about-it">participate in adult roles</a>. However, not all changes in 13th-century Arizona were negative. The move to larger communities also meant that these teens had greater opportunities to meet people, leading to new social skills and opportunities.</p>
<p>So because teens today aren’t given the same opportunities to participate in adult roles, they may be rebelling in an attempt to exert some form of autonomy and control over their lives.</p>
<h2>Evolutionary basis for behaviour?</h2>
<p>As bioarcheologists continue to explore adolescence, and what it was like to be a teen in the past, studies are showing that many of the behaviours we see today are not new. </p>
<p>Teens across millennia have yearned to explore, try new things and participate in risky behaviours. The key difference, however, seems to be the experience of a rebellion or restlessness, which does not appear to be a part of adolescence in the past: teens weren’t always wild. </p>
<p>Which raises the question — does a rebellious phase have to be part of adolescence today?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174376/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Creighton Avery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Teens across millennia have yearned to explore, try new things and participate in risky behaviours. The key difference, however, seems to be the experience of a rebellion or restlessness.
Creighton Avery, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/170073
2021-10-21T19:01:15Z
2021-10-21T19:01:15Z
The horse bit and bridle kicked off ancient empires – a new giant dataset tracks the societal factors that drove military technology
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427637/original/file-20211020-15-1njjnw4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C45%2C5565%2C3629&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ancient military innovations – like the bit and bridle that enabled mounted horseback riding – changed the course of history.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Assyrian_reliefs_in_the_British_Museum#/media/File:Assyrian_king_Ashurbanipal_on_his_horse_thrusting_a_spear_onto_a_lion%E2%80%99s_head._Alabaster_bas-relief_from_Nineveh,_dating_back_to_645-635_BCE_and_is_currently_housed_in_the_British_Museum,_London.jpg">Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin/British Museum via WikimediaCommons </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Starting around 3,000 years ago, a wave of innovation began to sweep through human societies around the globe. For the next millennium the continued emergence of new technologies had a dramatic effect on the course of human history. </p>
<p>This era saw the advancement of the ability to control horses with bit and bridle, the spread of <a href="https://doi.org/10.21237/C7clio11145895">iron-working techniques through Eurasia</a> that led to <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1143/armour-in-ancient-chinese-warfare/">hardier and cheaper weapons and armor</a> and new ways of killing from a distance, such as with <a href="http://services.cambridge.org/af/academic/subjects/history/history-science-and-technology/science-and-civilisation-china-volume-5-part-6?format=HB&isbn=9780521327275">crossbows</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1291833">catapults</a>. On the whole, warfare became much more deadly. </p>
<p>During this era, many societies were consumed by the crucible of war. A few, though – <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/peter-turchin/figuring-out-the-past/9781541762688/">the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the Roman Empire and Han China</a> – not only survived, but thrived, becoming megaempires encompassing tens of millions of people and controlling territories of millions of square miles.</p>
<p>So what drove this cascade of technological innovation that literally changed the course of history? </p>
<p>We are <a href="https://peterturchin.com/">a complexity scientist</a>, Peter Turchin, and <a href="https://evolution-institute.academia.edu/DanielHoyer">a historian</a>, Dan Hoyer, who have been working since 2011 with a multidisciplinary team to build and analyze a large database of past societies. In a new paper published in PLOS One on Oct. 20, 2021, we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258161">describe the main societal drivers of ancient military innovation</a> and how these new technologies changed empires.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427631/original/file-20211020-19094-6ud2kl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map of the world showing the extent of large empires in Eurasia, Africa and the Americas." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427631/original/file-20211020-19094-6ud2kl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427631/original/file-20211020-19094-6ud2kl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427631/original/file-20211020-19094-6ud2kl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427631/original/file-20211020-19094-6ud2kl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427631/original/file-20211020-19094-6ud2kl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427631/original/file-20211020-19094-6ud2kl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427631/original/file-20211020-19094-6ud2kl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the year A.D. 1, many areas of the world were dominated by massive empires each encompassing millions of people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_in_1_CE.png#/media/File:World_in_1_CE.png">Javierfv1212/WikimediaCommons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A database for human history</h2>
<p>The store of knowledge about the past is truly enormous. The trick is to translate that knowledge into data that can be analyzed. This is where Seshat comes in.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://seshatdatabank.info">Seshat Databank</a> is named after Seshat, an ancient <a href="https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/seshat/">Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge and writing</a>. Founded in 2011 as a collaboration among the Evolution Institute, the Complexity Science Hub Vienna, the University of Oxford and many others, Seshat aimed to first systematically gather as much knowledge about humanity’s shared past as possible. Then our team formatted that information in a way that allows researchers to use big-data analytics to look for recurrent patterns in history and test the many theories aiming to explain such patterns.</p>
<p>The first step in this process was to develop a conceptual scheme for coding historical information ranging from military technology to the size and shape of states to the nature of ritual and religion. The database <a href="http://seshatdatabank.info/databrowser/">includes over 400 societies</a> across all world regions and ranges in time from roughly 10,000 B.C. to A.D. 1800.</p>
<p>In order to trace the evolution of military technologies, we first broke them down into six key dimensions: hand-held weapons, projectiles, armor, fortifications, transport animals and metallurgical advances. Each of these dimensions was then further divided into more specific categories. Altogether we identified <a href="http://seshatdatabank.info/methods/code-book/">46 such variables</a> among the six technological dimensions. </p>
<p>For example, we distinguish types of projectile weapons into slings, simple bows, compound bows, crossbows and so on. We then coded whether or not each historical society in the Seshat sample wielded these technologies. For example, the earliest appearance of <a href="http://seshatdatabank.info/browser/CnWeiWS">crossbows in our database</a> is around 400 B.C. in China. </p>
<p>Of course, humanity’s knowledge of the past is imprecise. Historians may not know the exact year crossbows first appeared in a particular region. But imprecision in a few cases is not a serious problem given the staggering amount of information in the database and when the goal is to discover macrolevel patterns across thousands of years of history.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427822/original/file-20211021-23-lcky5u.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map of Africa and Eurasia showing how military technologies spread." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427822/original/file-20211021-23-lcky5u.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427822/original/file-20211021-23-lcky5u.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427822/original/file-20211021-23-lcky5u.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427822/original/file-20211021-23-lcky5u.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427822/original/file-20211021-23-lcky5u.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427822/original/file-20211021-23-lcky5u.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427822/original/file-20211021-23-lcky5u.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Seshat Databank places technological innovation in specific societies at specific times, as seen in this map showing the spread of mounted cavalry through time from its origins in the Eurasian steppes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258161">Peter Turchin and Daniel Hoyer</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Competition and exchange drive innovation</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258161">In our new paper</a>, we wanted to find out what drove the invention and adoption of increasingly advanced military technologies around the globe during the era of ancient megaempires.</p>
<p>Utilizing the massive amount of historical information collected by the Seshat team, we ran a suite of statistical analyses to trace how, where and when these technologies evolved and what factors seemed to have had the largest influence in these processes.</p>
<p>We found that the major drivers of technological innovation did not have to do with attributes of states themselves, like population size or the sophistication of a governance. Rather, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258161">biggest drivers of innovation</a> appear to be the overall world population at any given time, increasing connectivity among large states – along with the competition that such connections brought – and a few fundamental technological advances that set off a cascade of subsequent innovations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427866/original/file-20211021-13-1gyumy0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Pieces of bronze with many holes and a cross brace that acts as a bit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427866/original/file-20211021-13-1gyumy0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427866/original/file-20211021-13-1gyumy0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427866/original/file-20211021-13-1gyumy0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427866/original/file-20211021-13-1gyumy0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427866/original/file-20211021-13-1gyumy0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427866/original/file-20211021-13-1gyumy0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427866/original/file-20211021-13-1gyumy0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The invention of horse bits and other bridle parts – like this one from 7th- to 8th-century B.C. Italy – gave people more effective control of horses, which had knock-on effects for the development of mounted warfare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/255363">Walter C. Baker/New York Metropolitan Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Let’s illustrate these dynamics with a specific example. Around 1000 B.C., nomadic herders in the steppes north of the Black Sea <a href="https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-36.3.554">invented the bit and bridle</a> to better control horses when riding them. They combined this technology with a powerful recurved bow and iron arrowheads to deadly effect. Horse archers became <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S174002280900312X">the weapon of mass destruction of the ancient world</a>. Shortly after 1000 B.C., thousands of metal bits suddenly appeared and spread within the Eurasian steppes.</p>
<p>Competition and connection then grew between the nomadic people and the larger settled states. Because it was hard for farming societies to resist these mounted warriors, they were forced to develop <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/history/east-asian-history/history-chinese-civilization-2nd-edition?format=PB&isbn=9780521497817">new armor and weapons like the crossbow</a>. These states also had to build <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/war-and-state-formation-in-ancient-china-and-early-modern-europe/F81552218F82BDF65C54DF0BC08759D0">large infantry armies</a> and mobilize more of their populations toward such collective efforts as maintaining defenses and producing and distributing enough goods to keep everyone fed. This spurred the development of <a href="https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/tekb6">increasingly complex administrative systems</a> to manage all these moving parts. Ideological innovations – <a href="https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/2v59j">such as the major world religions of today</a> – were also developed as they helped to unite larger and more disparate populations toward common purpose. </p>
<p>Within this cascade of innovation we see the origins of the world’s first megaempires as well as the rise and spread of world religions practiced by billions of people today. In a way, these critical developments can all be traced back to the development of the bit and bridle, which allowed riders better control of horses. Each step in this line has been long understood, but by employing the full range of cross-cultural information stored in the Seshat databank, our team was able to trace the dynamic sequence tying all these different developments together. </p>
<p>Of course, this account gives a greatly simplified explanation of very complex historical dynamics. But our research exposes the key role played by the intersocietal competition and exchange in the evolution both of technology and of complex societies. Although the focus of this research was on the ancient and medieval periods, the gunpowder-triggered military revolution had analogous effects in the modern era.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, our research shows that history is not “<a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/09/16/history/">just one damn thing after another</a>” – there are indeed discernible causal patterns and <a href="https://doi.org/10.25162/historia-2018-0006">empirical regularities</a> through the course of history. And with Seshat, researchers can use the knowledge amassed by historians to separate theories that are supported by data from those that are not.</p>
<p><em>This story was co-authored by Daniel Hoyer, a researcher and project manager at the Evolution Institute and a part-time professor at George Brown College.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170073/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Turchin receives funding from the program “Complexity Science,” which is supported by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG under grant #873927. </span></em></p>
Did ancient technological advancements drive social innovation, or vice versa? Studying cause and effect in the ancient world may seem like a fool’s errand, but researchers built a database to do just that.
Peter Turchin, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Connecticut
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/168920
2021-10-07T16:24:49Z
2021-10-07T16:24:49Z
How ancient water management techniques may help Prairie farmers experiencing drought
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424356/original/file-20211004-18-1kfec42.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=93%2C85%2C4462%2C3360&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A refurbished Nabataean cistern at the site of Humayma, Jordan.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Craig Harvey)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year witnessed one of the hottest and driest summers in recent history for Western Canada and the American Southwest. The resulting droughts <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210729/dq210729d-eng.htm?CMP=mstatcan">adversely affected food supply</a> and helped send <a href="https://financialpost.com/news/economy/oh-no-canada-bacon-is-leading-the-pack-of-sizzling-hot-meat-prices">meat prices rising three times faster than inflation</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the severity of these droughts, the worst may be yet to come. <a href="https://changingclimate.ca/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2020/12/Prairie-Provinces-Chapter-%E2%80%93-Regional-Perspectives-Report-1.pdf">Extreme weather events are expected to become increasingly severe and frequent in the Prairies</a>, with longer dry periods coupled with the risk of floods from intense rainstorms.</p>
<p>While Canada benefits from a world-class agricultural technology industry, lessons can also be drawn from low-tech solutions developed by ancient societies that flourished in arid climates. One such society was the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Kingdom_of_Nabatea/">Nabataean culture</a>, which thrived in the hyper-arid deserts of Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and southern Israel 2,000 years ago. For over a decade, I have worked on Nabataean and Roman archeological sites of this region, exploring their building practices and innovative strategies for overcoming environmental limitations.</p>
<h2>Masters of hydraulic engineering</h2>
<p>Known for their rock-carved monumental facades at the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/326/">UNESCO World Heritage sites of Petra</a> (their capital) <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1293/">and Hegra</a>, the Nabataeans grew rich from trading incense between southern Arabia and the Mediterranean. But it was another skill that allowed them to flourish in their arid homeland.</p>
<p>Drawing on local techniques as well as those adopted from neighbouring cultures, the Nabataeans became masters of hydraulic engineering. They constructed complex <a href="https://www.topoi.org/publication/47316/">water management systems</a> that included dams, catchment systems, underground cisterns and aqueducts. These systems were designed to maximize the amount of rainwater collected and stored during the wet winter months and to minimize the amount of water lost through evaporation during the dry summer months.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tourists pointing to an ornate building facade carved out of red standstone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424533/original/file-20211004-12717-1r2ntkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Treasury, a monumental tomb carved from bedrock by the Nabatean civilization in the Petra archeological park, in southern Jordan. The Nabateans dug diversion tunnels to protect their capital of Petra against flash floods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Sam McNeil)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At Petra, the Nabataeans constructed a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774305000053">network of dams to protect their capital from flash floods and covered channels to deliver water to the city centre</a>. In the surrounding hillsides, they built <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.09.061">terraces to absorb runoff</a>, mitigating flood risk and supporting agriculture. So effective were these catchment and delivery systems that the Nabataeans built <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3210851">open-air pools and monumental fountains</a> in Petra as ostentatious displays of their wealth and power.</p>
<p>South of Petra, at the archeological site of Hawara (modern Humayma), Canadian archeologists have explored and documented the settlement’s extensive <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5615/j.ctt2jcb16">water supply system</a>. Here, catchment systems directed rainwater runoff to large cisterns that stored it for use in the dry season. These cisterns were roofed to prevent evaporation and were furnished with settling basins to collect sediment. A 26.5-kilometre spring-fed aqueduct also supplied this settlement with drinking water. Much of this system is still in use today.</p>
<h2>Ancient techniques for a modern problem</h2>
<p>Despite being developed and constructed two millennia ago, efforts are currently underway to <a href="https://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/scholars-say-complex%E2%80%99-nabataean-irrigation-system-can-be-adopted-current-times">revitalize the Nabataean water management systems</a> around Petra to help with flood control and support agricultural development. Elsewhere across the globe, archeology has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-019-09138-5">advanced our understanding of sustainable farming</a> and holds the potential to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1215">contribute meaningfully to contemporary water politics</a>. While implementation of these historical solutions may not by themselves solve the complex issues we currently face, they will likely play an important role in helping us adapt to a warmer and dryer climate.</p>
<p>Although the climate and hydrology of the Canadian Prairies are very different from the deserts of northern Arabia, some similarities exist. Just as winter rains in northern Arabia sustained life during the summer months, runoff from snow melt in the Prairies plays an important role in recharging groundwater and represents a significant portion of stream flow during the spring.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A trough carved out of a rock wall beside a path" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425035/original/file-20211006-14-17tja2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A segment of the Nabataean aqueduct in the Petra Siq, which brought water to the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(John Oleson)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like the underground cisterns built by the Nabataeans, <a href="https://www.ontariofarmer.com/news/local-news/dugouts-more-than-just-a-hole-in-the-ground/wcm/46f5b750-0d50-4481-93e2-0f1d469193c6/amp/">excavated depressions known as dugouts</a> are an important source of water for Prairie farmers. While these human-made reservoirs can be supplied by groundwater, they often rely on spring snow melt. During the drought conditions of this past summer, however, many of these <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-drought-cattle-farmers-1.6093799">dugouts dried up</a>, forcing many farmers to rely on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-global-race-for-groundwater-speeds-up-to-feed-agricultures-growing-needs-108458">pumped groundwater</a>, which comes with its own set of issues.</p>
<p>Adopting sustainable practices similar to those used by the Nabataeans to maximize the amount of water collected and minimize the amount lost to evaporation can help increase the effectiveness of these reservoirs. Just as the Nabataeans placed their cisterns to maximize the catchment of runoff, dugouts should be strategically located in fields to collect as much snow melt as possible. The amount of snow melt captured can be further increased by the use of <a href="http://prairieshelterbelts.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Snow_Control_with_Shelterbelts_.pdf">well-designed shelterbelts</a>, which comprise rows of trees and shrubs that act as a windbreak and can also encourage the accumulation of snow.</p>
<p>Settling tanks such as the ones the Nabataeans built to prevent the accumulation of sediment in their cisterns, could also be used to <a href="https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/9b728d84-aab2-41bc-8611-b96f051047a6/resource/369333a9-ab82-48da-a3d3-2ee1bd0a2e33/download/716-a01.pdf">prevent sedimentation in dugouts</a>, improving both storage capacity and water quality.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A concrete lined canal running through a dry landsacpe." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424529/original/file-20211004-23-4ple44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">California has more than 1,000 kilometres of aqueducts, reservoirs and pumping plants that move water from the state’s wetter areas to its drier south. Covering the channels with solar panels could reduce evaporation — and generate electricity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Nabataeans were also careful to avoid evaporation, and modern dugouts may benefit from being covered to minimize water loss. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147800">Global studies</a> have shown the effectiveness of physical covers at slowing the rate of evaporation, and recently California proposed <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-04-22/solar-power-water-canals-california-climate-change-boiling-point">covering its canals with solar panels</a> to help conserve its water supply while also producing green electricity.</p>
<h2>Part of an integrated strategy</h2>
<p>While greater investment in water storage systems will improve water security in the Prairies and mitigate the affects of prolonged droughts, these storage systems may also have the added benefit of <a href="https://www.producer.com/opinion/storing-spring-melt-could-yield-flood-crop-benefits/">reducing flood risk</a> by retaining runoff. </p>
<p>Although the adoption of these low-tech and sustainable solutions will not by themselves drought-proof the Prairies, when combined with <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/new-farming-techniques-increased-drought-1.6146266">innovative cropping techniques</a> they may play an important role in helping Canada’s farmers mitigate the growing impacts of climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig A. Harvey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ancient cultures that flourished in arid climates developed low-tech solutions to manage water scarcity.
Craig A. Harvey, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Classics, Western University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/142371
2021-04-29T20:10:11Z
2021-04-29T20:10:11Z
The First Australians grew to a population of millions, much more than previous estimates
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388747/original/file-20210310-15-jri8cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3800%2C2808&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Jason Benz Bennee</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-incredible-journey-the-first-people-to-arrive-in-australia-came-in-large-numbers-and-on-purpose-114074">know</a> it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">more than 60,000 years</a> since the first people entered the continent of Sahul — the giant landmass that connected New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania when sea levels were lower than today.</p>
<p>But where the earliest people moved across the landscape, how fast they moved, and how many were involved, have been shrouded in mystery.</p>
<p>Our latest research, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21551-3">published today</a> shows the establishment of populations in every part of this giant continent could have occurred in as little as 5,000 years. And the entire population of Sahul could have been as high as 6.4 million people.</p>
<p>This translates to more than 3 million people in the area that is now modern-day Australia, far more than any previous estimate.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-mapped-the-super-highways-the-first-australians-used-to-cross-the-ancient-land-154263">We mapped the 'super-highways' the First Australians used to cross the ancient land</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The first people could have entered through what is now western New Guinea or from the now-submerged Sahul Shelf <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-to-australia-more-than-50-000-years-ago-96118">off the modern-day Kimberley</a> (<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-incredible-journey-the-first-people-to-arrive-in-australia-came-in-large-numbers-and-on-purpose-114074">or both</a>).</p>
<p>But whichever the route, entire communities of people arrived, adapted to and established deep cultural connections with Country over 11 million square kilometres of land, from northwestern Sahul to Tasmania.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing a much larger landmass as Australia is joined to both Tasmania and New Guinea due to lower sea levels" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map of what Australia looked like for most of the human history of the continent when sea levels were lower than today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This equals a rate of population establishment of about 1km per year (based on a maximum straight-line distance of about 5,000km from the introduction point to the farthest point).</p>
<p>That’s doubly impressive when you consider the harshness of the Australian landscape in which people both survived and thrived. </p>
<h2>Previous estimates of Indigenous population</h2>
<p>Various attempts have been made to calculate the number of people living in Australia before European invasion. Estimates vary from <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-colonisation-was-no-accident-say-the-numbers-13730">300,000 to more than 1,200,000</a> people.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3238.0.55.001">2016 census figures</a> show an estimated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of about 798,400. </p>
<p>But records prior to the modern era are unreliable because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were only fully included in the national census from 1971, after the historic <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%40.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/E31B62F372FC7BCECA2581320029DC01">1967 Referendum</a>.</p>
<p>Before 1971, population estimates were attempted by anthropologists and government authorities. For example, the <a href="https://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/free.nsf/0/EFE13D17AAA8FF7BCA257AF00015216E/$File/13010_1930%20section%2024.pdf">1929 census</a> reported 78,430 Aboriginal people.</p>
<p>Then, in 1930, the first thorough <a href="https://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/free.nsf/0/EFE13D17AAA8FF7BCA257AF00015216E/$File/13010_1930%20section%2024.pdf">Australia-wide survey</a> of Aboriginal populations estimated a minimum population of 251,000 at the time of European invasion.</p>
<p>This was based on accounts of European settlers adjusted by anthropological concepts about group sizes and ideas about environmental productivity.</p>
<p>Yet almost all of these older estimates are uncertain because of haphazard or incomplete data collection, and even a healthy dose of guesswork.</p>
<h2>A new approach needed</h2>
<p>We developed an entirely different approach to tackle the question of how many people were in Sahul, and through which parts they would have moved first as they adapted to a range of challenging new landscapes.</p>
<p>We developed a simulation model grounded in the principles of human ecology and behaviour, based on anthropological, ecological and environmental data.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wl22Hm6XFhM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Animation of our model shows the spread of people across Sahul. Source: Corey Bradshaw.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, we estimated the number of people the landscape could support based on climate and vegetation models that recreated ecosystems during the time of the first peopling of Sahul.</p>
<p>We also gathered real-world anthropological information on immigration and emigration rates, long-distance movement, human survival and fertility. We even looked at the probability of disasters such as bushfires and cyclones.</p>
<p>After running 120 scenarios of the model many times each, our research found that after expanding to all corners of the continent, the population of Sahul could have been as high as 6.4 million people, with initial entry most consistent with 50,000 or 75,000 years ago.</p>
<h2>How good is our model?</h2>
<p>We tested our predictions by comparing the model’s results against the ages and locations of the oldest known archaeological sites from Australia and New Guinea.</p>
<p>If the model predicts realistic movements (even though it’s unlikely we’ll ever know exactly what occurred), we expect its results should at least partially match the patterns observed from the archaeological data.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing the locations of the oldest archaeological sites in Sahul." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map showing the locations of the oldest archaeological sites in Sahul.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Ulm</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That’s exactly what we found.</p>
<p>For example, while previous modelling says the <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-incredible-journey-the-first-people-to-arrive-in-australia-came-in-large-numbers-and-on-purpose-114074">northern route</a> of entry through New Guinea would probably have been <em>easier</em> for people to negotiate, our model suggests the <a href="https://theconversation.com/island-hopping-study-shows-the-most-likely-route-the-first-people-took-to-australia-93120">southern route</a> through modern-day Timor and into the Kimberley was potentially the <em>dominant</em> entry point.</p>
<h2>Why our estimate is higher than others</h2>
<p>Our model covers the entire landmass of Sahul, including both New Guinea and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-coastal-living-is-at-risk-from-sea-level-rise-but-its-happened-before-87686">now-submerged continental shelves</a>, which represent about 30% of the total landmass of Sahul. No previous population estimates have included this expansive region.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-first-discovery-of-its-kind-researchers-have-uncovered-an-ancient-aboriginal-archaeological-site-preserved-on-the-seabed-138108">In a first discovery of its kind, researchers have uncovered an ancient Aboriginal archaeological site preserved on the seabed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is also plenty of precedent for the population densities our estimates imply.</p>
<p>If you divide our total 6.4 million population estimate by the land area available at the time (11,643,000 km²), it comes out to around 55 people per 100 km². This compares well to <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Continent_of_Hunter_Gatherers/tTy-I8no1MwC" title="Continent of Hunter-Gatherers: New Perspectives in Australian Prehistory">estimated</a> densities of 34 people per 100 km² in some coastal regions of Australia, and 437 people per 100 km² in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00889357">swidden-farming</a> agricultural societies in New Guinea. </p>
<p>Population estimates immediately following European invasion are also likely to be low because of the heavy death rates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people suffered from exposure to European diseases <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/smallpox-epidemic">such as smallpox</a>, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-great-australian-silence-50-years-on-100737">devastating history</a> of genocide committed by colonists.</p>
<p>Our findings add to the new evidence constantly being revealed to paint a more complete picture of life so long ago. </p>
<p>With sophisticated modelling tools combined with an ever-increasing pool of data covering all aspects of pre-European life in Australia, and guided by Indigenous knowledge, we are coming to appreciate the complexity, prowess, capacity and resilience of the ancestors of Indigenous people in Australia. </p>
<p>The more we look into the deep past, the more we learn about the extraordinary ingenuity of these ancient and enduring cultures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142371/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan N Williams is an associate director for EMM Consulting Pty Ltd, an Australian employee-owned environmental consulting firm. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frédérik Saltré receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kasih Norman receives funding from the Leakey Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Ulm receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
It took just 5,000 years for large and well-organised groups of people to populate all corners of the continent.
Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University
Alan N Williams, Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, UNSW Sydney
Frédérik Saltré, Research Fellow in Ecology for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University
Kasih Norman, PhD Candidate, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong
Sean Ulm, Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/154263
2021-04-29T20:09:35Z
2021-04-29T20:09:35Z
We mapped the ‘super-highways’ the First Australians used to cross the ancient land
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397750/original/file-20210429-14-ymshqj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=646%2C0%2C2658%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided/The Conversation</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are many hypotheses about where the Indigenous ancestors first settled in Australia tens of thousands of years ago, but evidence is scarce. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-years-ago-at-lake-mungo-the-true-scale-of-aboriginal-australians-epic-story-was-revealed-98851">Few archaeological sites</a> date to these early times. Sea levels were much lower and Australia was connected to New Guinea and Tasmania in a land known as Sahul that was 30% bigger than Australia is today.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01106-8">latest research</a> advances our knowledge about the most likely routes those early Australians travelled as they peopled this giant continent.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-first-australians-grew-to-a-population-of-millions-much-more-than-previous-estimates-142371">The First Australians grew to a population of millions, much more than previous estimates</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We are beginning to get a picture not only of <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-incredible-journey-the-first-people-to-arrive-in-australia-came-in-large-numbers-and-on-purpose-114074">where those first people landed in Sahul</a>, but how they moved throughout the continent.</p>
<h2>Navigating the landscape</h2>
<p>Modelling human movement requires understanding how people navigate new terrain. Computers facilitate building models, but they are still far from easy. We reasoned we needed four pieces of information: (1) topography; (2) the visibility of tall landscape features; (3) the presence of freshwater; and (4) demographics of the travellers. </p>
<p>We think people navigated in new territories — much as people do today — by focusing on prominent land features protruding above the relative flatness of the Australian continent.</p>
<p>To map these features, we built the most complete digital elevation model for Sahul ever constructed, including areas now underwater.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing the landmass of Australia connected to New Guinea and Tasmania" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How the Sahul landmass would have looked more than 50,000 years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We used this digital elevation model to understand what was visible to early travellers. Essentially, from each point in the continent we asked “what can you see from here?” This moving window calculates the largest “viewshed” map ever created. When our virtual travellers move, they reorient based on visible terrain everywhere they go. The figure above shows the prominence of features across the continent as increasingly yellow shades against the blue background.</p>
<p>You can clearly make out features such as the the New Guinea Highlands, the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, the Great Dividing Range in the east, and the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.</p>
<p>But navigation using prominent landscape features isn’t enough to tell us where the most commonly travelled routes were. </p>
<p>For this we also need to take into account other factors, such as the physiological capacity of people travelling on foot, how difficult the terrain was to traverse, and the distribution of available freshwater sources in a largely arid continent.</p>
<h2>Billions and billions of routes</h2>
<p>We put all these different bits of information together into a mega-model, known as From Everywhere To Everywhere (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440312001379" title="Geospatial modeling of pedestrian transportation networks: a case study from precolumbian Oaxaca, Mexico">FETE</a>), and created more than 125 billion possible pathways from everywhere on the continent to everywhere else. Each route represents the most efficient way to move from one location to another. This was the largest movement simulation of its kind ever attempted.</p>
<p>This gives us an idea of the relative ease or difficulty of walking across all of Sahul.</p>
<p>We cannot possibly examine every metre of the 125 billion pathways we created, so we needed a way to weight the relative importance of likely pathways. To do this, we compared all plausible pathways with the distribution of the oldest known archaeological sites in Sahul, providing weighted probabilities for each path.</p>
<p>This provided a scale going from the “most likely” to the “least likely” chosen paths.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2zLcYePhCW4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Super-highways of the initial peopling of Sahul, with known archaeological sites older than 35,000 years indicated by the grey dots. Megan Hotchkiss Davidson, Sandia National Laboratories (map) and Cian McCue, Moogie Down Productions (animation).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most likely pathways in the map above are what we are calling the “super-highways” of Indigenous movement. The next most likely paths are marked by dotted lines.</p>
<p>This allows us to discard many of the billions of paths as less likely to be chosen, helping us focus on those that were the most probable.</p>
<p>We now have a first glimpse into where Indigenous Australians likely travelled tens of thousands of years ago.</p>
<h2>Pathways well trodden</h2>
<p>These super-highways might have been more than just routes used for the initial peopling of Sahul.</p>
<p>Several of the super-highways our models identified echo well-documented Aboriginal trade routes criss-crossing the country. This includes Cape York to South Australia via Birdsville in the trade of <a href="http://entheology.com/plants/duboisia-hopwoodii-pituri-bush/">pituri</a> native tobacco, and the trade of Kimberley <a href="https://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/management/marine/marine-parks-wa/fun-facts/402-baler-shell">baler shell</a> into central Australia.</p>
<p>There are also striking similarities between our map of super-highways and the most common trading and stock routes used by early Europeans. They followed already well-known routes established by Aboriginal peoples.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old map showing routes across Australia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early routes of European explorers in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Universal Publishers Pty Ltd</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These Aboriginal exchange routes and the relatively recent trade routes of early Europeans cannot be used directly to validate a map from tens of thousands of years ago. But there are strong similarities that might suggest an extraordinary persistence of routes across the entire time period of human occupation of Australia.</p>
<p>Our findings also point to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-first-discovery-of-its-kind-researchers-have-uncovered-an-ancient-aboriginal-archaeological-site-preserved-on-the-seabed-138108">now-submerged continental shelves</a> of Sahul as important conduits for human movement.</p>
<p>We infer that early populations spread across the broad plains on the western and eastern margins of the continent (now under water) and through the region that now forms the Gulf of Carpentaria, which connected Australia to New Guinea.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ancient-aboriginal-star-maps-have-shaped-australias-highway-network-55952">How ancient Aboriginal star maps have shaped Australia's highway network</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is worth noting these early people traversed and lived in all environments of Australia, ranging from the tropics to the arid zone. The ease of adaptation to all ecosystems is remarkable and one of the reasons for the success of the human species across the globe today.</p>
<p>Professor <a href="https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/lynette-russell">Lynette Russell</a> (Deputy Director of the ARC <a href="http://EpicAustralia.org.au">Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage</a> and Co-Chair of its Indigenous Advisory Committee), who was not involved directly in the study, noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[This] modelling establishes the infrastructure for detailed local and regional studies to engage respectfully with Indigenous knowledges, ethnographies, historical records, oral histories, and archives.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The fundamental rules we described apply even to questions about how the first migrations of people out of Africa might have occurred, and how people ultimately proceeded to inhabit the rest of the planet. </p>
<p>This work might even have implications for humanity’s future, if climate scenarios require large-scale migrations. Learning from those who have been present in Sahul from more than 60,000 years ago could help us anticipate migration patterns in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154263/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan N Williams is an associate director for EMM Consulting Pty Ltd, an Australian employee-owned environmental consulting firm. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frédérik Saltré receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Ulm receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Devin White and Stefani Crabtree do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
We now have a glimpse into where early Indigenous Australians likely travelled all those tens of thousands of years ago.
Stefani Crabtree, Assistant Professor for Social-Environmental Modeling @ Utah State University and Associate Investigator ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage and ASU-SFI Biosocial Complex Systems Fellow, Santa Fe Institute
Alan N Williams, Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, UNSW Sydney
Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University
Devin White, R&D Manager for Autonomous Sensing & Perception (Sandia National Laboratories) and Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology (UTK), University of Tennessee
Frédérik Saltré, Research Fellow in Ecology for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University
Sean Ulm, Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159910
2021-04-29T04:06:20Z
2021-04-29T04:06:20Z
What were the Spartans like? Note to Lego Masters: they didn’t build city walls
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397508/original/file-20210428-21-qzmpnb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C56%2C1431%2C793&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot/Nine</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the <a href="https://www.9now.com.au/lego-masters/season-3/episode-2">second episode</a> of the current season of the TV show Lego Masters, contestants were asked to build a castle — then watch it be destroyed by a bowling ball. </p>
<p>In the lucky dip that followed, teammates Fleur and Sarah drew a Spartan figure to signal their theme for the task (others worked on Viking, Medieval or samurai strongholds). They went on to build a giant Spartan warrior, standing protectively against white city walls. </p>
<p>The inclusion of Sparta in a gathering of Lego warrior figurines might seem incongruous to those familiar with ancient history. Sparta, located in Greece’s southern peninsula, the Peloponnese, was one of the oldest and most powerful Greek city-states. Helen, whose abduction started the Trojan War, was married to the king of Sparta in Homer’s Iliad (probably composed in the 8th century BCE).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-homers-iliad-80968">Guide to the classics: Homer's Iliad</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sparta was eventually absorbed into the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BCE. But the Spartans are now a touchstone of popular culture: portrayed in movies such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">300</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332452/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Troy</a>, and video games such as <a href="https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/assassins-creed/odyssey">Assassins’ Creed: Odyssey</a> and <a href="https://www.totalwar.com/games/rome-ii/">Rome: Total War</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately for these hopeful Lego Masters, the city of Sparta was not famous in the ancient world for its walls — but for its lack of them. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ejpXPA6r3NQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/structuring-thought-and-imagination-brick-by-brick-lego-is-more-than-childs-play-88691">Structuring thought and imagination brick by brick, Lego is more than child's play</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Surrounded by men, not bricks</h2>
<p>The Athenian historian Thucydides was probably alluding to this lack of walls when he described the <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0200%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D10%3Asection%3D2">primitive urbanism</a> of Sparta. Later Greek and Roman authors, including the philosopher Plato, considered Sparta’s lack of walls to be a reflection of Sparta’s belief in the superiority of its justly famed soldiers. </p>
<p>As Sparta’s mythical founder Lycurgus is reputed to <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Lycurgus*.html">have said</a>: “A city will be well fortified which is surrounded by brave men and not by bricks.” </p>
<p>Other Spartan notables insulted (in the ancient Greek mindset, at least) cities with impressive walls by describing <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Sayings_of_Spartans*/main.html#ref166">them as</a> “fine quarters for women”.</p>
<p>Archaeological excavations in 1906–7 <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25506051.pdf">confirmed</a> walls were not built around the town until shortly after 184 BCE, long after the height of Sparta’s power during the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars in the 5th century BCE.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397503/original/file-20210428-13-1td5b9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ancient pottery" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397503/original/file-20210428-13-1td5b9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397503/original/file-20210428-13-1td5b9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397503/original/file-20210428-13-1td5b9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397503/original/file-20210428-13-1td5b9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397503/original/file-20210428-13-1td5b9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397503/original/file-20210428-13-1td5b9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397503/original/file-20210428-13-1td5b9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This Chigi vase, dating from 650-640 BC is believed to represent Sparta’s walls — ie their warriors — in action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-who-were-the-spartans-108606">Curious Kids: who were the Spartans?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And yet, while Sparta was protected by an army and not a castle, Sparta and her Peloponnesian allies did seek to shelter behind a set of walls. Not walls around the city of Sparta, but the walls across the Isthmus of Corinth: the narrow strip of land joining the Peloponnese to the rest of Greece. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397511/original/file-20210428-13-6dk8ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397511/original/file-20210428-13-6dk8ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397511/original/file-20210428-13-6dk8ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397511/original/file-20210428-13-6dk8ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397511/original/file-20210428-13-6dk8ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397511/original/file-20210428-13-6dk8ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397511/original/file-20210428-13-6dk8ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397511/original/file-20210428-13-6dk8ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Could this Spartan minifigure actually be Lycurgus?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot/Nine</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was the fall-back position argued for by many Peloponnesians <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Herodotus/7d*.html#207">before</a> and after the eventual defeat of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans by the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 BCE. </p>
<p>The Peloponnesians even offered for other city-states to move their families behind the walls.</p>
<h2>Looking for weaknesses</h2>
<p>This isn’t to say Spartans didn’t recognise the value of a good wall. They saw them as a barrier to other Greek city-states. </p>
<p>The Spartans attempted to convince the Athenians not to <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0200%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D90%3Asection%3D1">rebuild their city wall</a> after it had been torn down by the Persians when they occupied the city after Thermopylae. Once the Persian threat was reduced after Greek victories at Salamis (480), Plataea and Mycale (479), Sparta began to fear the growing power of Athens. </p>
<p>An unfortified Athens would be at the mercy of Sparta’s dominant land army. A fortified Athens, however, could rely on its dominant navy to supply itself by sea and hold out for a long time against a future Spartan siege.</p>
<p>Cannily, Sparta argued Athens should join with them to fund the building of walls around other, less powerful, city-states (who also happened to be less of a threat to Spartan dominance).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397510/original/file-20210428-15-miy81l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397510/original/file-20210428-15-miy81l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397510/original/file-20210428-15-miy81l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=196&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397510/original/file-20210428-15-miy81l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=196&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397510/original/file-20210428-15-miy81l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=196&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397510/original/file-20210428-15-miy81l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397510/original/file-20210428-15-miy81l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397510/original/file-20210428-15-miy81l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image of chariot and Hoplites is carved into marble on the Themistokleian wall in Athens, built after 480 BCE.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Athens delayed their answer to the Spartans, giving themselves time to hastily erect a wall of sufficient height to withstand a siege. </p>
<p>In the 5th century BCE arms race between Greek city-states, <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0200%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D91%3Asection%3D7">Athens wanted their own set</a> of walls to keep pace with other members of the confederacy. </p>
<p>According to Thucydides (an excellent source, even if he treated his speeches and statistics <a href="https://doi.org/10.21237/C7clio10142345">a bit liberally at times</a>), the Spartans eventually became so fearful of Athens’ growing power they fell into the “<a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/thucydides-trap/overview-thucydides-trap">Thucydides’ trap</a>” — where a dominant power allows its fear of a rising power to result in conflict — resulting in the Peloponnesian War (c. 431–404 BCE). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-thucydidess-history-of-the-peloponnesian-war-71550">Guide to the classics: Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Lycurgus, is that you?</h2>
<p>Today’s brick-builders on Lego Masters surrounded their Spartan stronghold with protective walls. </p>
<p>Although this isn’t quite how Sparta was built, Fleur and Sarah’s creation of a giant Spartan warrior towering over the fortifications and facing off invaders (or bowling balls) was an inspired choice. Their work echoed the words of famous Spartans including Lycurgus, Agesilaus and Antalcidas: Sparta’s walls were its warriors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159910/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Duncan Keenan-Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In a recent episode of Lego Masters, contestants were asked to build a castle in the style of the Spartans. It had white city walls — but the real Spartans famously refused to build a wall.
Duncan Keenan-Jones, Lecturer in Ancient History, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/158874
2021-04-14T07:25:42Z
2021-04-14T07:25:42Z
The discovery of the lost city of ‘the Dazzling Aten’ will offer vital clues about domestic and urban life in Ancient Egypt
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394968/original/file-20210414-15-14ujkt4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C88%2C6485%2C3928&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Khaled Elfiqi/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>An almost 3,400-year-old industrial, royal metropolis, “the Dazzling Aten”, has been found on the west bank of the Nile near the modern day city of Luxor. </p>
<p>Announced <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=294251502062591&id=100044332304573">last week by</a> the famed Egyptian archaeologist Dr Zahi Hawass, the find has been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56686448">compared in importance</a> to the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb almost <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/findingkingtutstomb">a century earlier</a>.</p>
<p>Built by Amenhotep III and then used by his grandson Tutankhamen, the ruins of the city were an accidental discovery. In September last year, Hawass and his team were searching for a mortuary temple of Tutankhamen. </p>
<p>Instead, hidden under the sands for almost three and a half millennia, they found the Dazzling Aten, believed to be the largest city discovered in Egypt and, importantly, dated to the height of Egyptian civilisation. So far, Hawass’ excavations have unearthed rooms filled with tools and objects of daily life such as pottery and jewellery, a large bakery, kitchens and a cemetery. </p>
<p>The city also includes workshops and industrial, administrative and residential areas, as well as, to date, three palaces. </p>
<p>Ancient Egypt has been called the “<a href="https://erenow.net/ancient/the-complete-cities-of-ancient-egypt/2.php">civilisation without cities</a>”. What we know about it comes mostly from tombs and temples, whilst other great civilisations of the Bronze Age, such as <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10814-019-09136-7">Mesopotamia</a>, are famous for their great cities. </p>
<p>The Dazzling Aten is extraordinary not only for its size and level of prosperity but also its excellent state of preservation, leading many to call it the “<a href="https://www.newshub.co.uk/culture/2021/04/09/discovery-of-a-city-of-3400-years-the-pompeii-of-ancient-egypt/">Pompeii of Ancient Egypt</a>”. </p>
<p>The rule of Amenhotep III was one of the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/empires/egypt/newkingdom/amenhotep.html">wealthiest periods</a> in Egyptian history. This city will be of immeasurable importance to the scholarship of archaeologists and Egyptologists, who for centuries have <a href="https://austriaca.at/6591-0">struggled</a> with understanding the specifics of urban, domestic life in the Pharaonic period. </p>
<h2>Foundations of urban life</h2>
<p>I teach a university subject on the foundations of urban life, and it always comes as a surprise to my students how little we know about urbanism in ancient Egypt.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199589531.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199589531">The first great cities</a>, and with them the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/understanding-early-civilizations/4E22C3F88D6A41563441A9422767ADA7">first great civilisations</a>, emerged along the fertile valleys of great rivers in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), the Indus Valley (modern day India and Pakistan) and China at the beginning of the Bronze Age, at least 5,000 years ago. </p>
<p>Just like cities today, they provided public infrastructure and roads, and often access to sanitation, education, health care and welfare. Their residents specialised in particular professions, paid taxes and had to obey laws.</p>
<p>But the Nile did not support the urban lifestyle in the same way as the rivers of other great civilisations. It had a reliable flood pattern and thus the second longest river in the world could be easily tamed, allowing for simple methods of irrigation that did not require complex engineering and large groups of workers to maintain. This meant the population didn’t necessarily need to cluster in organised cities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394959/original/file-20210414-17-bwm4f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394959/original/file-20210414-17-bwm4f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394959/original/file-20210414-17-bwm4f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394959/original/file-20210414-17-bwm4f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394959/original/file-20210414-17-bwm4f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394959/original/file-20210414-17-bwm4f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394959/original/file-20210414-17-bwm4f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394959/original/file-20210414-17-bwm4f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An etching of the Nile flooding by French artist Jacques Callot (1592 - 1635)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Gallery of Art</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Excavations of Early Dynastic (c. 3150-2680 BCE) Egyptian cities such as <a href="https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/naqada/">Nagada</a> and <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/hierakonpolis-egypt-largest-predynastic-community-171280">Hierakonpolis</a> have provided us with a plethora of information regarding urban life in the early Bronze Age . But they are separated from the Dazzling Aten by some 1,600 years — as long as separates us from the Huns of Attila attacking ancient Rome. </p>
<p>One city closer in age to the Dazzling Aten we do know a little more about is the short-lived capital of Amenhotep’s III son, Akhenaten, known as the “Horizon of the Aten”, or <a href="https://www.amarnaproject.com/">Tell el-Amarna</a>. Amarna was functional for only 14 years (1346-1332 BCE) before being abandoned forever. It was first described by a travelling Jesuit monk in 1714 and has been excavated on and off for the last 100 years.</p>
<p>Very few other Egyptian cities from the Early Dynastic Period (3150 BCE) to the Hellenistic period (following Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt in 332 BCE), have been excavated. This means that domestic urban life and urban planning have long been <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/archaeology-of-urbanism-in-ancient-egypt/ancient-urbanism-and-the-case-of-egypt/2CFAEEF85D1FAD70B41119E1DBFA72E7/core-reader">contentious research areas in the study of Pharaonic Egypt</a>. </p>
<p>The scientific community is impatiently waiting for more information to draw comparisons between Akhenaten’s city and the newly discovered capital founded by his father. </p>
<h2>The magnificent pharaoh</h2>
<p>Amenhotep III, also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent, ruled between 1386 and 1349 BCE and was one of the most prosperous rulers in the Egyptian history. </p>
<p>During his reign as the ninth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, Egypt achieved the height of its international power, climbing to an unprecedented level of economic prosperity and artistic splendour. His vision of greatness was immortalised in his great capital, which is believed to have been later used by at least Tutankhamen and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ay">Ay</a>.</p>
<p>In 2008, for the first time in history, <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS">the majority of world’s inhabitants lived in the cities</a>. Yet, with globalisation, the differences between the “liveability” of modern cities are striking. </p>
<p>As a society we need to understand where cities come from, how have they formed and how they shaped the development of past urban communities to learn lessons for the future. We look forward to research and findings being published from the ancient city of Amenhotep III to enlighten us about the daily lives of ancient Egyptians at their height.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna M. Kotarba-Morley received funding from the Griffith Egyptological Fund. She currently receives funding from Australian Research Council (ARC). </span></em></p>
We sometimes call Egypt the ‘civilisation without cities’. The Lost Golden City of Amenhotep III will bring new understanding of Ancient Egyptian urban life.
Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Lecturer, Archaeology, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157423
2021-03-19T02:53:54Z
2021-03-19T02:53:54Z
Cave of Horror: fresh fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls echo dramatic human stories
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390306/original/file-20210318-23-qbudbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C24%2C3979%2C2634&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Israel Antiquities Authority conservator Tanya Bitler shows newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll fragments at the Dead Sea Scrolls conservation lab in Jerusalem. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos-cdn.aap.com.au/Image/20210316001527807791?path=/aap_dev11/device/imagearc/2021/03-16/c6/11/f9/aapimage-7exq4avhs4911cmfv8ve_layout.jpg">AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Tuesday <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/israeli-experts-announce-discovery-of-more-dead-sea-scrolls-20210317-p57bc9.html">news broke</a> of the discovery of fresh fragments of a nearly 2,000-year-old scroll in Israel. The fragments were said to come from the evocatively named Cave of Horror, near the western shore of the Dead Sea.</p>
<p>The finds were announced with attention-grabbing headlines that these were new fragments of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls and some of our earliest evidence for the biblical books of Zechariah and Nahum.</p>
<p>But more than just remnants of ancient text, the discovery reflects the troubled history of the Dead Sea Scrolls and tells human stories of revolution, a desperate search for safety and archaeological ingenuity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dead-sea-scrolls-how-we-accidentally-discovered-missing-text-in-manchester-138869">Dead Sea Scrolls: how we accidentally discovered missing text – in Manchester</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>People of the scroll</h2>
<p>Information is still coming out, but unusually for ancient discoveries of this kind, we know something about the people who hid the scroll.</p>
<p>The Cave of Horror is one of a <a href="https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/learn-about-the-scrolls/discovery-sites">series of eight caves in the canyon of Naḥal Ḥever</a>, which were used as places of refuge during a Jewish revolt against Rome (132–135 CE)in the time of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hadrian">emperor Hadrian</a>. The revolt was led by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bar-Kokhba-Jewish-leader">Simon bar Kochba</a> (or Simon bar Kosebah, as he is also known in ancient sources), who was thought by his followers to be the Messiah.</p>
<p>The cave has been known to archaeologists since 1953, but it wasn’t until 1961 that it was excavated by a team led by the Israeli archaeologist, <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/BIBLARCH3209353?journalCode=biblarch">Yohanan Aharoni</a>. The new fragments were found as part of a larger project to search for new manuscripts, which is being conducted by the <a href="http://www.antiquities.org.il/default_en.aspx">Israel Antiquities Authority</a> (IAA).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caves and cliffs near the Dead Sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1554401922-3ac1c68b2715?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MXwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHw%3D&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2251&q=80">Dave Herring/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cave is <a href="https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/learn-about-the-scrolls/discovery-sites">remote and difficult to access</a>, which is doubtless why it was used as a hiding place. Aharoni describes the entrance as being 80 meters below the edge of the canyon with a drop of hundreds of meters below it. The team who first explored the cave in 1955 had to use a 100-meter-long rope ladder to reach the opening.</p>
<p>The nickname <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27924906?seq=1">Cave of Horror</a> was given to the cave because of a large number of skeletons, including children’s skeletons, that were found inside. Together with the skeletons were personal documents, a fragmentary copy of a prayer written in Hebrew, and the scroll to which these fragments belong, which was hidden at the back of the cave.</p>
<p>Remains of a Roman camp at the top of the cliff suggests the refugees sheltering there died as a result of a Roman siege. The occupants were determined not to surrender. There were no signs of wounds on the skeletons, suggesting the occupants died as a result of hunger and thirst, or possibly smoke inhalation from a fire in the centre of the cave.</p>
<p>They buried their most prized possessions, including the scroll from which these fragments come, to keep them safe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman in lab holds up ancient items" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dozens of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments bearing a biblical text found in a desert cave and believed hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos-cdn.aap.com.au/Image/20210316001527807714?path=/aap_dev11/device/imagearc/2021/03-16/5f/2d/9d/aapimage-7exq35n5k90cxo118ve_layout.jpg">AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Our oldest biblical texts</h2>
<p>The photographs and reports released by the IAA indicate the fragments contain our earliest copy of Zechariah 8:16–17 and one of our earliest copies of Nahum 1:5–6. The fragments appear to be missing pieces of a scroll already known to scholars — the <a href="https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/manuscript/8Hev1-1">Greek Minor Prophets scroll from Naḥal Ḥever</a>, or 8ḤevXIIgr to give it its official designation.</p>
<p>As the name suggests, the scroll is a copy of the Greek translation of the biblical minor prophets, containing portions of the books of Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Zechariah. The “minor prophets” or “the twelve” customarily describes the books spanning from Hosea to Malachi in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. </p>
<p>Among other things, the minor prophets include the story of Jonah being swallowed by a “great fish”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dead-sea-scrolls-are-a-priceless-link-to-the-bibles-past-105770">The Dead Sea Scrolls are a priceless link to the Bible's past</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Don’t say His name</h2>
<p>The ancient Hebrew scriptures were first translated into Greek for the benefit of Greek-speaking Jews who had begun to lose contact with their Hebrew roots. Ancient sources, such as the letter of Aristeas, indicate the work of translating the scriptures into Greek probably began in Egypt, some time around 200 years before Christ.</p>
<p>A fascinating feature of the Greek Minor Prophets scroll is the fact the name of God is written in Hebrew, not Greek. <a href="https://repository.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/31606">This practice</a> stems back to the prohibition in Exodus 20:7 against “taking God’s name in vain”. </p>
<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls attest several practices for avoiding accidentally pronouncing the divine name while reading aloud. These include substituting dots in place of the letters and the use of an archaic form of the Hebrew alphabet. </p>
<p>This custom is the basis for the modern practice of writing Lord in capital letters in modern editions of the Bible.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Old papers rolled up in rubble" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A photo of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in the 1940s, before they were unravelled.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=dead+sea+scrolls&title=Special%3ASearch&go=Go&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1#/media/File:Dead_Sea_Scrolls_Before_Unraveled.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Abraham Meir Habermann</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beating the looters</h2>
<p>Shortly after the discovery of the first Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 it became apparent the rare ancient manuscripts had financial value. This led to a race between archaeologists and local Bedouin to discover more scroll fragments. </p>
<p>Consequently, it can be difficult to verify the archaeological provenance of many of the Dead Sea Scrolls remnants.</p>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-23/bible-museum-admits-five-of-its-dead-sea-scrolls-are-fake/10420800">fake scrolls have found their way into at least one modern museum collection</a>. A new manuscript discovery with secure archaeological provenance, like the one announced last week, is immensely important.</p>
<p>Perhaps most excitingly, these new fragments leave open the tantalising possibility there are more scrolls out there, waiting to be found.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fake-scrolls-at-the-museum-of-the-bible-106012">Fake scrolls at the Museum of the Bible</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gareth Wearne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What’s fascinating about the latest Dead Sea Scrolls discovery is how it reflects the stories of those who wrote the ancient texts, those who kept them safe and the archaeologists who found them.
Gareth Wearne, Lecturer in Biblical Studies, School of Theology, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/154827
2021-02-15T04:08:54Z
2021-02-15T04:08:54Z
The Dig’s romanticisation of an Anglo-Saxon past reveals it is a film for post-Brexit UK
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383954/original/file-20210212-19-1xpfpyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C7167%2C4785&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Larry Horricks/Netflix © 2020</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1939, a <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/death-and-memory/anglo-saxon-ship-burial-sutton-hoo">7th century Saxon ship</a> was uncovered at Sutton Hoo, the Suffolk property of Edith Pretty. The discovery of this ship would transform modern understandings of early medieval England, shedding light on the sophistication of its funerary practices, its accomplished artistry and craftsmanship, and its wide-ranging connections across Europe and beyond. </p>
<p>The new Netflix film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3661210/">The Dig</a> dramatises the uncovering of the stunning find. Based on John Preston’s 2007 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3512039-the-dig">historical novel</a> and directed by Australian Simon Stone, the film follows Edith (Carey Mulligan) who, pursuing her intuition about some large mounds on her property, engages Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to excavate them.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JZQz0rkNajo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But while telling a fascinating story of archaeology, The Dig also reflects a more insular aspect of Britain’s recent zeitgeist, nostalgically appealing to an idea of continuity with a deep past. </p>
<p>Appearing at a time of increased hostility toward Britain’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-48692863">minority populations</a> and toward Europe as a perceived <a href="http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/briefing_control.html">threat to British sovereignty</a>, The Dig can be seen as a Brexit film: its romanticising of an imagined continuity between the Anglo-Saxons and modern British people does not speak to the complexity of Britain today.</p>
<h2>For love or money</h2>
<p>The Dig pits Basil, the untrained excavator from farming stock, against the arrogant professionals of Britain’s cultural institutions. </p>
<p>Over the last quarter century, medieval scholarship has increasingly paid tribute to amateur scholars working especially in the 19th century, whose vital contributions were sidelined as the <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/dont-be-snobs-medievalists/">discipline professionalised</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384142/original/file-20210214-21-rsdn2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Film still. Basil holds a mallet and walks past a mound of dirt. He is followed by a young boy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384142/original/file-20210214-21-rsdn2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384142/original/file-20210214-21-rsdn2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384142/original/file-20210214-21-rsdn2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384142/original/file-20210214-21-rsdn2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384142/original/file-20210214-21-rsdn2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384142/original/file-20210214-21-rsdn2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384142/original/file-20210214-21-rsdn2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ralph Fiennes plays Basil Brown, the jobbing, self-taught archeologist who finds himself at odds with representatives of the British Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Larry Horricks/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Played with quiet magnetism by Fiennes, Basil is the epitome of an amateur: one whose devotion arises from love. But the Cambridge archaeologist C.W. Phillips (Ken Stott) is determined to wrest both control and credit from Basil, in a face-off highlighting ongoing tensions between Britain’s rural counties and its metropolitan centre. </p>
<p>Suffolk might be where Saxon kings and their priceless grave goods are buried, but Phillips scorns the “ad hoc” excavational efforts of the “provincials”, believing the British Museum is the natural destination for the treasures. </p>
<p>Basil, an in-demand but underpaid jobbing excavator, values his nose ahead of his eyes or hands: “the past speaks” to him not through book knowledge but through the soil. </p>
<p>He makes discoveries due to his intimate acquaintance with the Suffolk soil, knowledge bequeathed from his farming father and grandfather. </p>
<h2>The ‘Anglo-Saxon’ myth</h2>
<p>The film’s depiction of Basil is deeply attractive, but in the current political climate it warrants closer scrutiny. The Dig reanimates key tropes from the persistent 19th century British and American ideology of Anglo-Saxonism. </p>
<p>After the end of Roman rule, Britain was the destination for groups of Germanic migrants who later became known as the Anglo-Saxons. While they were historical people, their identity has been subject to nationalistic and romanticised constructions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-idea-that-the-english-have-a-common-anglo-saxon-origin-is-a-myth-88272">Why the idea that the English have a common Anglo-Saxon origin is a myth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By the 19th century, historians, educators, and politicians used the “<a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/anglo-saxon/facts-anglo-saxons-dates/">Anglo-Saxon period</a>” to loosely refer to the period spanning from the first settlement of these Northern Europeans in the 5th century to the Norman conquest in the mid-11th century. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384143/original/file-20210214-17-rzgwko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384143/original/file-20210214-17-rzgwko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384143/original/file-20210214-17-rzgwko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384143/original/file-20210214-17-rzgwko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384143/original/file-20210214-17-rzgwko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384143/original/file-20210214-17-rzgwko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384143/original/file-20210214-17-rzgwko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384143/original/file-20210214-17-rzgwko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A still from a home movie shows Basil Brown (front) excavating the burial ship at Sutton Hoo in 1939.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These 19th century commentators used the term “Anglo-Saxon” to invoke a broad <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000246606">conception</a> of the English as a continuation of the Anglo-Saxon race: freedom-loving people whose egalitarian social and political institutions, the argument went, were destroyed by the imposition of the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LKr7vp1Fnk">Norman Yoke</a>”. </p>
<p>The Dig presents Basil as an inheritor of this “freedom-loving” people, defying the authority imposed on him by the professional archaeologists.</p>
<p>The Anglo-Saxon period was also idealised as a time when England was free from nefarious “Romance” continental occupation. This is reflected in Edith and Basil declining to support Ipswich Museum’s excavation of a local <a href="https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF2564">Roman villa at Stanton Chair</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384145/original/file-20210214-17-hhgpx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Film still. The imprint of a ship in the dirt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384145/original/file-20210214-17-hhgpx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384145/original/file-20210214-17-hhgpx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384145/original/file-20210214-17-hhgpx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384145/original/file-20210214-17-hhgpx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384145/original/file-20210214-17-hhgpx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384145/original/file-20210214-17-hhgpx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384145/original/file-20210214-17-hhgpx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The excavation revealed the imprint of a decayed 27m long ship, with a burial chamber full of riches.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Larry Horricks/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Anglo-Saxonism was vital to underwriting <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/old-english-serious-image-problem/">white racial supremacy</a> as a mandate for Britain’s imperial power and the expansionist concept of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/manifest-destiny">Manifest Destiny</a>, based on the belief that the British and white settlers in the colonies <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674948051">inherited a drive for expansion</a> from their Anglo-Saxon ancestors. </p>
<p>When Edith’s rocket-obsessed son Robert (Archie Barnes) compares Vikings to “space pilots” because they both “explore new lands”, we see the film drawing uncritically on a historical tropes of expansionism — despite the fact the violence of colonialism and occupation is well understood today.</p>
<h2>Looking back, not forward</h2>
<p>One of the great reckonings in the film comes when Basil’s wife, May (Monica Dolan), urges her disaffected husband to return to the dig. She tells him:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>you’ve always said your work isn’t about the past or even the present. It’s for the future, so that the next generations can know where they came from. The line that joins them to their forebears. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This appeal to the idea of genetic continuity is rousing and profound, but also exclusionary and insular. May assumes racial and cultural uniformity in Britain, and shared forebears for all. </p>
<p>But her statement is not just intended to move Basil. She speaks to the film’s 21st century viewers, many of whom would not see an unearthed Saxon as a forebear, and might rightly wonder what “future generations” the film has in mind for Britain.</p>
<p>The Dig is a beautifully made and compelling drama about a game-changing archaeological find. But as cinematic archaeology it looks far more to the past than to the future.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ammonite-the-remarkable-real-science-of-mary-anning-and-her-fossils-151296">Ammonite: the remarkable real science of Mary Anning and her fossils</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154827/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise D'Arcens has received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>
The excavation of the 7th century Saxon ship at Sutton Hoo was remarkable – but we can’t ignore the harmful rhetoric about the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ race in a new Netflix film dramatising the find.
Louise D'Arcens, Professor of English, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/153089
2021-01-13T19:12:19Z
2021-01-13T19:12:19Z
We found the oldest known cave painting of animals in a secret Indonesian valley
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378226/original/file-20210112-17-bcb7xi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=370%2C726%2C3634%2C2106&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adhi Oktaviana</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The dating of an exceptionally old cave painting of animals that was found recently on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is reported in our <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd4648" title="Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi">paper</a> out today.</p>
<p>The painting portrays images of the Sulawesi warty pig (<em>Sus celebensis</em>), which is a small (40-85kg) short-legged wild boar endemic to the island. </p>
<p>Dating to at least 45,500 years ago, this cave painting may be the oldest depiction of the animal world, and possibly the earliest figurative art (an image that resembles the thing it is intended to represent), yet uncovered.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/b-wAYtBxn7E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ice age art in Indonesia</h2>
<p>Sulawesi is host to abundant cave art, the existence of which was first reported in the 1950s.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indonesian-cave-paintings-show-the-dawn-of-imaginative-art-and-human-spiritual-belief-128457">Indonesian cave paintings show the dawn of imaginative art and human spiritual belief</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Until recently, the prevailing view was this art was the handiwork of Neolithic farmers who arrived around 4,000 years ago from southern China rather than the hunter-gatherers who had lived on Sulawesi for tens of thousands of years.</p>
<p>We now know that this is not correct.</p>
<p>In 2014, we <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13422" title="Pleistocene cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia">reported</a> the first dates for the South Sulawesi rock art.</p>
<p>Based on uranium-series analysis of mineral deposits (calcite) that formed naturally on the art we showed that a stencilled image of a human hand found in one cave was created at least 40,000 years ago. This is compatible in age with the famous ice age cave art in Europe.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZVEqkVDn6Y4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ice age art in the tropics.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then, in 2019, we <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1806-y" title="Earliest hunting scene in prehistoric art">dated</a> a spectacular painting at another cave that portrays hybrid human-animal figures hunting Sulawesi warty pigs and dwarf buffalos (anoas). This hunting scene is at least 43,900 years old and it features what may be the oldest depictions of supernatural beings.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gx8ohlEAfy4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Earliest hunting scene in prehistoric art.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our latest study we push the age of Sulawesi’s rock art a little deeper into the past. </p>
<h2>The secret valley</h2>
<p>In December 2017 we conducted the first survey of an isolated valley set in mountainous terrain a stone’s throw from one of Indonesia’s largest cities, Makassar. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378222/original/file-20210112-13-12qnkdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A lush green valley landscape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378222/original/file-20210112-13-12qnkdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378222/original/file-20210112-13-12qnkdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=203&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378222/original/file-20210112-13-12qnkdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=203&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378222/original/file-20210112-13-12qnkdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=203&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378222/original/file-20210112-13-12qnkdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378222/original/file-20210112-13-12qnkdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378222/original/file-20210112-13-12qnkdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The limestone karst valley in which Leang Tedongnge is located.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David P McGahan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite its proximity to a major urban centre, there is no road to this valley. The small community of local Bugis farmers live a secluded existence, although they are widely reputed for the sublime quality (and potency) of their palm wine (ballo). </p>
<p>According to them no Westerner had ever set foot in their valley before.</p>
<p>This secret valley is a pristine environment and a place of resplendent natural beauty. There is hardly any rubbish in the tiny village in the centre of the valley. Being there feels like stepping back in time.</p>
<p>The valley harbours a limestone cave known as Leang Tedongnge and inside it we found a rock painting the locals claimed they had never noticed before.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378444/original/file-20210112-15-b12tdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Inside the cave is a painting of warty pigs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378444/original/file-20210112-15-b12tdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378444/original/file-20210112-15-b12tdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378444/original/file-20210112-15-b12tdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378444/original/file-20210112-15-b12tdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378444/original/file-20210112-15-b12tdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378444/original/file-20210112-15-b12tdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378444/original/file-20210112-15-b12tdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adhi Agus Oktaviana in front of the Leang Tedongnge rock art panel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adhi Agus Oktaviana</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The painting was produced using a red mineral pigment (ironstone haematite, or ochre). It depicts at least three Sulawesi warty pigs engaged in social interaction of some kind.</p>
<p>We interpret the surviving elements of this artwork as a single narrative composition or scene, a mainstay of how we tell stories using images today but an uncommon feature of early cave art.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378223/original/file-20210112-13-1d6fvd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Leang Tedongnge rock art panel enhanced to make the artwork clearer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378223/original/file-20210112-13-1d6fvd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378223/original/file-20210112-13-1d6fvd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378223/original/file-20210112-13-1d6fvd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378223/original/file-20210112-13-1d6fvd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378223/original/file-20210112-13-1d6fvd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378223/original/file-20210112-13-1d6fvd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378223/original/file-20210112-13-1d6fvd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The top image has been enhanced (in DStretch) to make the artwork clearer. The bottom image shows a tracing of the art.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adhi Agus Oktaviana</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Unlocking the age of the art</h2>
<p>Dating rock art is very difficult at the best of times. But at Leang Tedongnge we were fortunate to identify a small calcite deposit (known as “<a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/what-is-cave-popcorn.htm">cave popcorn</a>”) that had formed on top of one of the pig figures (pig 1).</p>
<p>We sampled the calcite and analysed it for uranium-series dating. Amazingly, the dating work returned an age of 45,500 years ago for the calcite, meaning the painting on which it formed must be at least this old. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378220/original/file-20210112-21-18klrdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A closer image of one of the wild pigs and two hand stencils" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378220/original/file-20210112-21-18klrdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378220/original/file-20210112-21-18klrdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378220/original/file-20210112-21-18klrdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378220/original/file-20210112-21-18klrdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378220/original/file-20210112-21-18klrdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378220/original/file-20210112-21-18klrdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378220/original/file-20210112-21-18klrdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A close up of the dated warty pig painting at Leang Tedongnge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maxime Aubert</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Early art in Wallacea</h2>
<p>Our discovery underlines the global importance of Sulawesi, and the wider Indonesian region, for our understanding of where and when the first cave art traditions developed by our species arose.</p>
<p>The great antiquity of this artwork also offers hints at the potential for other significant findings in this part of the world.</p>
<p>Sulawesi is the largest island in Wallacea, the zone of oceanic islands located between mainland Asia and the ice age continental landmass of Australia-New Guinea.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-pocket-sized-artworks-from-ice-age-indonesia-show-humanitys-ancient-drive-to-decorate-132187">First pocket-sized artworks from Ice Age Indonesia show humanity's ancient drive to decorate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Modern humans are said to have crossed through Wallacea by watercraft at least <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22968" title="Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago">65,000 years ago</a> in order to reach Australia by that time. </p>
<p>But the Wallacean islands are poorly explored and presently the earliest excavated archaeological evidence from this region is much younger. </p>
<p>We believe further research will uncover much older rock art in Sulawesi or on other Wallacean islands, dating back at least 65,000 years and possibly earlier.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Brumm receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Geographic Society.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adhi Agus Oktaviana is a researcher at Indonesia's Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional (National Archaeological Research Center), Ministry of Education and Culture, and is a PhD student at Griffith University. Research focus on prehistory and rock art in Indonesia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Basran Burhan is a freelance researcher currently pursuing his PhD at Griffith University</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maxime Aubert receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Geographic Society.</span></em></p>
The painting of pigs at least 45,500 years ago on a cave wall in Sulawesi may be the earliest figurative rock art ever found.
Adam Brumm, Professor, Griffith University
Adhi Oktaviana, PhD Candidate, Griffith University
Basran Burhan, PhD candidate, Griffith University
Maxime Aubert, Professor, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/151756
2021-01-05T19:02:46Z
2021-01-05T19:02:46Z
Magic, culture and stalactites: how Aboriginal perspectives are transforming archaeological histories
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375019/original/file-20201215-15-1l7hxyz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C14%2C4891%2C3231&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The main chamber of Cloggs Cave. Monash University archaeologist Joe Crouch is standing in the 1970s excavation pit, digging a new area in the wall of the old excavation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bruno David</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>New collaborative work at an Aboriginal cave in eastern Victoria, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2020.1859963">published today</a>, shows the stark difference between contemporary archaeological research and that conducted in the 1970s.</p>
<p>In 1971, Cloggs Cave was rediscovered near the town of Buchan in East Gippsland, Victoria. By the end of 1972, archaeological excavations had been completed in the cave and adjacent rock shelter. The findings — extinct giant kangaroo remains (megafauna), Aboriginal stone tools dating back to the last Ice Age and buried fireplaces — made <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110762938?searchTerm=Cloggs%20Cave%2C%20Buchan">national news</a> at the time. </p>
<p>Cloggs Cave belongs to the Krauatungalung clan of the GunaiKurnai nation. However in the 1970s, neither state and federal agencies, nor most of Australian society, acknowledged Traditional Owners’ rights to authorise and oversee research into their cultural places.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373831/original/file-20201209-21-5k5887.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A thinly forested hill with a limestone formation and cave entrance in the middle-distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373831/original/file-20201209-21-5k5887.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373831/original/file-20201209-21-5k5887.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373831/original/file-20201209-21-5k5887.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373831/original/file-20201209-21-5k5887.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373831/original/file-20201209-21-5k5887.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373831/original/file-20201209-21-5k5887.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373831/original/file-20201209-21-5k5887.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The outside of Cloggs Cave (vertical fissure in the middle of the cliff) pictured circa 1890-1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo courtesy of the State Library of Victoria. Photographer unknown.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Of habitats and diets</h2>
<p>Five decades ago, archaeological research and radiocarbon dating were in their infancy. Researchers were racing to find the oldest Aboriginal sites across Australia. Non-Indigenous archaeologists determined what research questions to ask and controlled how the research was conducted and interpreted. Findings often focused on how Aboriginal people had responded to their environments and what they ate. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/246303a0">The first stories written about Cloggs Cave</a> in the mid-1970s described it as an Ice Age refuge from which local plant and animal resources were exploited. </p>
<p>According to these early interpretations, people had left the cave to inhabit the rock shelter outside as the climate warmed, around 10,000 years ago. </p>
<h2>GunaiKurnai-led research, 50 years later</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://gunaikurnai.org.au/">GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation</a> revisited Cloggs Cave in the years leading up to 2019. It found sediments were eroding from the walls of the largest 1970s excavation pit. Although the pit had been shored up, the extra support was removed in the 1990s. </p>
<p>GunaiKurnai cultural heritage workers sought to use new technologies to revisit the original findings. Importantly, this research would now include GunaiKurnai cultural knowledge passed down from generation to generation. </p>
<p>Researchers from Monash University, the Université Savoie Mont Blanc (France) and the <a href="https://epicaustralia.org.au/">Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage</a> were invited to be project partners. </p>
<p>In 2019, the cave was mapped in detail using a 3D Light Detection and Ranging scanner and a drone. New excavations of sections of the floor were conducted, and the chronology of people and megafauna in the cave was investigated using <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-radiocarbon-dating-and-how-does-it-work-9690">radiocarbon</a> and <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/luminescence-dating-cosmic-method-171538">optically stimulated luminescence</a> dating techniques. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374069/original/file-20201210-22-1dcsrwk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374069/original/file-20201210-22-1dcsrwk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374069/original/file-20201210-22-1dcsrwk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374069/original/file-20201210-22-1dcsrwk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374069/original/file-20201210-22-1dcsrwk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374069/original/file-20201210-22-1dcsrwk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374069/original/file-20201210-22-1dcsrwk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374069/original/file-20201210-22-1dcsrwk.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Archaeologist Joe Crouch excavating at Cloggs Cave in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bruno David</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The investigations yielded fascinating insights about how the Old People inhabited the cave thousands of years ago. In a small alcove at the back lay a stone arrangement, including a layer of crushed minerals. Most of the stalactites on the ceiling had been intentionally broken. <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/human-fossils/0/steps/49021">Uranium-series</a> dating of parts of the regrown stalactites revealed these mineral deposits were first broken by Aboriginal people more than 23,000 years ago.</p>
<p>Towards the cave’s entrance, the new excavations uncovered a buried standing stone surrounded by fires lit 2,000–1,600 years ago and hundreds of thousands of animal bones. The animals’ deaths were natural — so Aboriginal people had not come to the cave to eat or cook food. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373812/original/file-20201209-15-10cbfvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373812/original/file-20201209-15-10cbfvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373812/original/file-20201209-15-10cbfvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373812/original/file-20201209-15-10cbfvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373812/original/file-20201209-15-10cbfvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=975&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373812/original/file-20201209-15-10cbfvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=975&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373812/original/file-20201209-15-10cbfvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=975&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The stone arrangement, broken stalactites and ground-up powder on the floor of the alcove near the back of the cave. 23,000 years ago, small stalactites started growing from the stumps of the broken stalactites.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">3D modelling by Johan Berthet; photos and artwork by Jean-Jacques Delannoy.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>GunaiKurnai worldviews</h2>
<p>Since the 1970s, Australian society has changed with an increased recognition of Aboriginal cultures, knowledges, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mabo-decision-and-native-title-74147">land rights</a>. It is now possible for the Traditional Owners to finally have a say in the story of Cloggs Cave, and in GunaiKurnai history. </p>
<p>The contrast in the stories from the two archaeological projects, 50 years apart, could not be starker.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374080/original/file-20201210-15-1irmnx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C0%2C4476%2C2800&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two people excavating the ground of a rockshelter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374080/original/file-20201210-15-1irmnx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C0%2C4476%2C2800&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374080/original/file-20201210-15-1irmnx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374080/original/file-20201210-15-1irmnx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374080/original/file-20201210-15-1irmnx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374080/original/file-20201210-15-1irmnx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374080/original/file-20201210-15-1irmnx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374080/original/file-20201210-15-1irmnx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">GunaiKurnai cultural heritage team members Bradley Hood and Chris Mongta excavating in GunaiKurnai Country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bruno David</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to GunaiKurnai Traditional Owners — and Aboriginal perspectives recorded in the mid-19th century — caves are spiritually important. In 1875, Aboriginal men Turnmile and Bunjil Bottle showed <a href="https://theconversation.com/recovered-aboriginal-songs-offer-clues-to-19th-century-mystery-of-the-shipwrecked-white-woman-108070">Alfred W. Howitt</a> the “<a href="https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/sites/den-of-nargun">Den of Nargun</a>” in Gippsland. Howitt wrote that this rock shelter was home to “a mysterious creature which they believe haunts these mountains where they were living in caves and holes”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/recovered-aboriginal-songs-offer-clues-to-19th-century-mystery-of-the-shipwrecked-white-woman-108070">Recovered Aboriginal songs offer clues to 19th century mystery of the shipwrecked 'white woman'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Stories told early last century by residents at Lake Tyers Mission (now known as the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust) described fearful beings called <em>nargun</em>, who lived in caves. </p>
<p>Caves were also frequented by magical practitioners called <em>mulla-mullung</em>. They trained and practised their magic, using crystals and other stones, and ground powders such as ash. </p>
<p>This information was not considered by archaeologists in the 1970s as it did not fit their (mainly secular) interpretations in terms of habitat and diet. What was missing was a deep understanding that the rich social, cultural, and ritual lives of Aboriginal people could fundamentally shape the archaeological record. They did not simply respond to their environments.</p>
<p>A new picture of Cloggs Cave now emerges. The cave was not just a refuge from a cold environment, but a theatre of culturally rich, social and magical activities dating back millenia. It was avoided by people for day-to-day living, and probably used by GunaiKurnai <em>mulla-mullung</em>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373824/original/file-20201209-24-qhy67j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A small elongated stone standing upright in ashy sediments." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373824/original/file-20201209-24-qhy67j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373824/original/file-20201209-24-qhy67j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373824/original/file-20201209-24-qhy67j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373824/original/file-20201209-24-qhy67j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373824/original/file-20201209-24-qhy67j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373824/original/file-20201209-24-qhy67j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373824/original/file-20201209-24-qhy67j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 2,000-year-old standing stone, pictured during the 2019 Cloggs Cave excavations. Layers of ash — the remains of many fires — can be seen at the foot of the stone and in the wall of the excavation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bruno David.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What was located during the 2019 research had been there all along, but was not noticed by previous researchers. </p>
<p>This is partly because new techniques give us a better window into the past activities of Aboriginal people at the cave. These new ways of seeing are matched with new ways of listening and researching — transforming how we tell archaeological histories.</p>
<p><em>The authors are just five of the 19 authors of the journal article. We thank the GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, Joanna Fresløv, Martin and Vicky Hanman of Buchan, and the nine Australian and international universities who collaborated on this project.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruno David receives funding from the Australian Research Council.. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Urwin receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean-Jacques Delannoy receives funding from the Centre National Recherche Scientifique (France) - Ministère de la Culture (France)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynette Russell receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Russell Mullett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Two starkly different research projects at East Gippsland’s Cloggs Cave, 50 years apart, show the importance of Indigenous perspectives in archaeology.
Bruno David, Professor, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Monash University
Chris Urwin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Monash University
Jean-Jacques Delannoy, Professor, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Université Savoie Mont Blanc
Lynette Russell, ARC Laureate Fellow, Monash University, and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Monash University
Russell Mullett, Traditional Custodian — Kurnai, Indigenous Knowledge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.