Search Results (87)

In zooarchaeological research, animal bone fractures can result from various processes including slaughtering, dismemberment, marrow/grease extraction, craft processing, carnivore gnawing/trampling, sediment compression, bioturbation, and recovery bias. These fractures are further influenced by bone freshness/dryness and environmental temperature. The animal bones analysed in this study, excavated from Han dynasty tombs in the Xinxiang Plain New District, China, represent ritual offerings. These specimens exhibit distinct truncation features—chop surfaces, rough planes, and fracture traces—created by ancient iron tools for culinary purposes such as stewing preparation or consumption facilitation. These characteristics differ significantly, from the V-shaped butchery marks produced by stone/bronze tools and fracture patterns from marrow/grease extraction to post-depositional breakage formed during burial processes. In this study, steel tools were employed in the rocking slicing and rolling slicing of animal bones, complemented by techniques such as breaking to sever bone shafts. Subsequently, the marks on the cross-sections were observed using a stereomicroscope, and the results were compared and analysed with the materials from Han dynasty tombs unearthed at Xinxiang city, Henan Province. From the comparison between experimental observation results and archaeological materials, it is evident that the fine processing of meat-bearing bone materials mainly involved the use of rocking and rolling slicing methods. The cross-sections of the slices revealed shearing surfaces, rough patches, bone splinters, and sliced ends. The shearing surfaces in particular exhibited numerous visible trace characteristics, with the types and quantities of these traces varying with different cutting tools. This study holds significant reference value for exploring cutting tools and techniques in antiquity. Full article

This study investigates the material properties, metallurgical processes, and corrosion mechanisms of bronze arrowheads excavated from the Imperial City of the Minyue Kingdom, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Wuyishan, Fujian, China. Using optical microscopy, SEM-EDS, XRF, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy, the researchers analyzed the cross-section and corrosion layers of the artifacts. Results show that the arrowheads are Cu-Sn-Pb alloys, with Cu (70.76%), Sn (8.73%), and Pb (8.72%), optimizing hardness, toughness, and casting performance. Corrosion analysis reveals a surface layer rich in Cu₂O, CuO, SnO₂, and Cu₂(OH)₂CO₃, driven by oxidation, carbonation, and sulfidation reactions. The corrosion layer exhibits stratification, porosity, and cracks, indicating the influence of oxygen, carbonate ions, and sulfides in burial environments. This study provides crucial insights into ancient bronze metallurgy and the long-term preservation of cultural relics. Full article

At the beginning of human history, surface water, especially from rivers and springs, was the most frequent water supply source. Groundwater was used in arid and semi-arid regions, e.g., eastern Crete (Greece). As the population increased, periodic water shortages occurred, which led to the development of sophisticated hydraulic structures for water transfer and for the collection and storage of rainwater, as seen, for example, in Early Minoan times (ca 3200–2100 BC). Water supply and urban planning had always been essentially related: the urban water supply systems that existed in Greece since the Bronze Age (ca 3200–1100 BC) were notably advanced, well organized, and operable. Water supply systems evolved considerably during the Classical and Hellenistic periods (ca 480–31 BC) and during the Roman period (ca 31 BC–480 AD). Also, early Indian society was an amazing vanguard of technology, planning, and vision, which significantly impacted India’s architectural and cultural heritage, thus laying the foundation for sustainable urban living and water resource management. In ancient Egypt, the main source of freshwater was the Nile River; Nile water was conveyed by open and closed canals to supply water to cities, temples, and fields. Underground stone-built aqueducts supplied Nile water to so-called Nile chambers in temples. The evolution of water supply and urban planning approaches from ancient simple systems to complex modern networks demonstrates the ingenuity and resilience of human communities. Many lessons can be learned from studying traditional water supply systems, which could be re-considered for today’s urban sustainable development. By digging into history, measures for overcoming modern problems can be found. Rainwater harvesting, establishing settlements in proximity of water sources to facilitate access to water, planning, and adequate drainage facilities were the characteristics of ancient civilizations since the ancient Egyptian, Minoan, Mohenjo-Daro, Mesopotamian, and Roman eras, which can still be adopted for sustainability. This paper presents significant lessons on water supply around the world from ancient times to the present. This diachronic survey attempts to provide hydro-technology governance for the present and future. Full article

Non-destructive portable techniques for the analysis of cultural heritage items are essential for enhancing our understanding of these objects and providing valuable information for potential restoration interventions. This paper presents a combined use of pulsed thermography, X-ray fluorescence, and Raman spectroscopy to investigate the ancient bronze “Il Togato”, yielding complementary information concerning the techniques used for creating this artefact and its conservation status. Specifically, thermographic analysis has highlighted the presence of many patches of different size used for emending superficial cast defects, weldings used to connect parts separately cast to the main structure, cracks, and defects located in the bronze thickness. On the other hand, XRF provided information on the composition of the gilding which characterises the statue, and supplied an estimate of its thickness through the use of a stratification model. Additionally, Raman spectroscopy has been applied to identify corrosion products. The experimental results presented in the paper provide a comprehensive knowledge of the bronze under investigation and assess the effectiveness of the portable non-destructive techniques employed in the analysis. Full article

This study clarifies the religious traditions underlying the façade-type clay architectural models unearthed from ancient Western Asia by analyzing their iconography apropos each period. The façade-type models considered in this study are one-storied, with a distinct façade, one large opening, and the cella crafted in the niche, three-dimensional, or jar style. The analysis reveals (a) the distribution areas of the most common niche style shifted from the third millennium BC Mesopotamia, through the Middle and Late Bronze Ages and the early Iron Age Levant area, to the Iron Age IIB–C Phoenician areas; (b) the jar style is known only from the second millennium BC Levant and eventually merged with the niche style; and (c) the three-dimensional style is found sporadically. The earlier examples have either a male or a female figure inside the gate, although some have neither. The Levantine examples are without figural representations or with a bird, lions, and female figurines. It may be concluded that two competing religious traditions continued for three millennia, wherein the models with a male figure or without figures represent the tradition of the sovereign god originated in Sumer, whereas those with female figures and decorative motifs reflect the Inana-Ištar cult. Full article

X-ray Computed Tomography (X-CT) is now an established technique for the investigation and diagnostics of Cultural Heritage. Its advantages include non-invasiveness, non-destructiveness, and the possibility of exploring the inner parts of an object without any modification. X-CT is often employed to investigate the construction methods of complex artifacts made with different parts or materials, but it is also able to support the analysis, intervention, monitoring and enhancement processes of artworks, creating digital models that can aid in the conservation and restoration procedures. In this work, several case studies are presented in which the CT technique has been decisive in identifying the effects of time and the events that occurred during the object’s life influencing its state of conservation. These range from large objects, such as an 18th century CE writing cabinet or an ancient Egyptian wooden coffin, to very small artifacts, like Mesopotamian lapis lazuli beads or fragments of Roman colored glass. Additionally, the results obtained by µ-CT investigations on the conservation state of a bronze arrowhead uncovered from the Urama-chausuyama mounded tomb (Japan, Kofun period, end of the 3rd century CE) are presented here for the first time. Lastly, the versatility of the technique when applied with different setups is highlighted. Full article

Many volcanological and geoarchaeological studies in the ancient city of Pompeii (Italy) have been devoted to the 79 CE Plinian eruption of Vesuvius, which sealed the city under a thick pyroclastic sequence. Only fragmentary information exists regarding the stratigraphy of the volcanic sediments sandwiched between the 79 CE street level and the volcanic rocks that form the geological framework of the hill on which Pompeii was built, which constitutes the “Pompeii bedrock”. The stratigraphic survey of twenty-one trenches throughout the city, coupled with a geochemical characterization, highlighted that the pre-79 CE stratigraphy includes at least eight late Pleistocene to Holocene tephra layers. Six eruptions were sourced from Somma–Vesuvius (Pomici di Base, Mercato, AP1 to AP4) and two originated from Campi Flegrei (Neapolitan Yellow Tuff and Soccavo 4). The Pompeii bedrock is the product of local vents, the last activity of which possibly shortly predates the 22 ka Pomici di Base eruption. From a geoarchaeological perspective, a relevant result is the absence of the 3.9 ka Avellino tephra in all trenches. This evidence, along with the reappraisal of the stratigraphy of the nearby archaeological site of S. Abbondio, suggests that the Avellino eruption possibly only marginally affected the Pompeii area during the Early Bronze Age. Full article

The ruins of the Imperial City of the Minyue Kingdom were an important site of the Minyue Kingdom during the Han Dynasty. Characteristic bronze arrowheads unearthed from the East Gate, with their exquisite craftsmanship, provide important physical evidence for studying ancient bronze casting technology and the military activities of that time. However, there is still a lack of systematic research on the alloy composition, casting process, and chemical stability of these arrowheads in long-term burial environments. The bronze arrowheads that were found in the East Gate warehouse are the subject of this study. Metallographic analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to carefully examine their composition and microstructure, as well as the casting process characteristics. The findings reveal the following: (1) The East Gate bronze arrowheads primarily consist of copper–tin binary alloys, and certain samples exhibit a lead (Pb) content of up to 11.19%, potentially due to element addition during casting or element migration in the burial environment. (2) The metallographic structure shows that the sample matrix has a typical α-dendrite structure, indicating that a high-temperature casting process was used, and then a certain surface treatment was performed to enhance corrosion resistance. (3) Under a scanning electron microscope, it was observed that a three-layer structure was formed on the surface of the arrowhead, including a fully mineralized layer, an intermediate transition layer, and the original core tissue. (4) The detection of molybdenum (Mo) in some samples suggests a close relationship between the complexity of the buried soil environment and human activities. (5) By comparing the microstructure and corrosion degree of the longitudinal section and the cross-section, it was found that the longitudinal section has a stronger corrosion resistance due to its denser structure. Comprehensive analysis shows that the technical details of the bronze arrowheads unearthed from the Minyue Imperial City in terms of material selection, casting process, and later use reflect the outstanding achievements of the Minyue Kingdom in the field of bronze manufacturing in the Han Dynasty. Full article

Before the Bronze age, when agricultural practices spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula, the diet of the native people was based on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. In spite of modern agriculture, the popular gathering of wild species for medical use, food, craftwork, etc., for centuries has left a detailed knowledge on the use of many of these species. Of the 6176 Angiosperms native to the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, over 200 species were introduced into cultivation during the Neolithic period outside the Iberian Peninsula. The names of 30 of the progenitors still popularly used as food are listed in this paper, together with the names of their derived crops. This review focuses on five wild species collected as food from ancient times, namely Borago officinalis L. Prunus spinosa L., Silene vulgaris (Moench) Garke subsp. vulgaris, Scolymus hispanicus L., and Asparagus acutifolius L. In response to great demand, they have been recently introduced into cultivation in Spain and are now harvested and commercialized as new crops. Special attention is paid to their basic bioactive compounds and pharmacological properties. The limitation of this study is that the published information about the bioactive compounds of these five plants originates from different parts of the world where they grow wild or are cultivated. Therefore, further research is needed to trace the metabolomic dynamics of these plants regarding geographical and ecological principles, as well as wild versus cultivated origins. Full article

Traditional models of interaction in northern Sudan have innate Egyptological, elite, and urban biases which have relegated certain areas to mere peripheries of more ‘established’ and ‘central’ sites. In order to reach a higher resolution understanding of cultural dynamics and diversity of ancient Nilotic groups, the DiverseNile project has established the bespoke concept of Contact Space Biography which we present in the following article. We challenge existing approaches to cultural contact in the region by adopting a bottom-up approach which moves away from well-established categorisation of sites in our study area. In particular by reconstructing landscape biographies of the Bronze Age in the Middle Nile beyond established cultural categories in order to provide new insights into the ancient dynamics of social spaces, which include landscape features and non-human activities. In the following we instead consider such areas as complex social spaces intertwined with, an often changing, landscape by presenting our findings from the study of cemetery and settlement sites. Overall, the concept of Contact Space Biography effectively combines models of contact spaces, the idiosyncrasies of a changing landscape and the technological and industrial prerogatives of those living in and accessing this region. Full article

This study investigates the Y-chromosome genetic diversity of the Turkmen population in Turkmenistan, analyzing 23 Y-STR loci for the first time in a sample of 100 individuals. Combined with comparative data from Turkmen populations in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Russia, and Uzbekistan, this analysis offers insights into the genetic structure and relationships among Turkmen populations across regions across Central Asia and the Near East. High haplotype diversity in the Turkmen of Turkmenistan is shaped by founder effects (lineage expansions) from distinct haplogroups, with haplogroups Q and R1a predominating. Subhaplogroups Q1a and Q1b identified in Turkmenistan trace back to ancient Y-chromosome lineages from the Bronze Age. Comparative analyses, including genetic distance (RST), median-joining network, and multidimensional scaling (MDS), highlight the genetic proximity of the Turkmen in Turkmenistan to those in Afghanistan and Iran, while Iraqi Turkmen display unique characteristics, aligning with Near Eastern populations. This study underscores the Central Asian genetic affinity across most Turkmen populations. It demonstrates the value of deep-sequencing Y-chromosome data in tracing the patrilineal history of Central Asia for future studies. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of Turkmen genetic ancestry and add new data to the ongoing study of Central Asian population genetics. Full article

Human habitat is much controlled by the landscape and its ongoing processes overtime. Some of these processes occur instantaneously and are often triggered by seismic events with a major destructive impact on the human-built environment. Helike, on the southwest shore of the Gulf of Corinth, is a characteristic case of an ancient habitation site bearing witness to repetitious natural disasters from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Antiquity. The Late Classical-Hellenistic site, revived in the Helike plain after the 373 BC earthquake, has been systematically investigated thanks to the multidisciplinary research and excavations of the Helike Project in the last 35 years. This work has significantly enriched the historical seismicity of the region and shed light on past human-environment relationships. The study of the architectural remains excavated by the Helike Project, coupled with geological and soil micromorphological analysis on archaeological soils and sediments of the settlement, demonstrates a constant effort of the Helike people to reconcile with the elements of nature. Our results underline the destruction of a flourishing textile dyeworks operated at the settlement, due to a strong earthquake which triggered extensive morphological changes in a broader area. These changes include co-seismic liquefaction and lateral spreading, and post-seismic changes in the gradient of river channels. The former changes attest to an uplift in the headwater area and subsidence in the lowland plain of the ravine flowing near the ancient site. Full article

The origins of multiple sclerosis (MS) have been a subject intriguing researchers and scholars for generations. The multifactorial etiological nature of the disease continues to be studied as a complex combination of genetic aspects and environmental or external risk elements contributing to the development of the disease. Descriptions of symptoms or clinical disorders suggestive of MS affecting historical figures or prominent individuals (i.e., Lidwina of Schiedam, Heinrich Heine, Augustus d’Este) did not provide clues on the origin of the disease, except for the observation that all these early possible cases were white European individuals. MS was initially framed as a neurological entity and named in the 19th century by the historical participation of the French masters Cruveilhier, Vulpian, and Charcot, among others, but the question of how the disease originated was not addressed until Charles Poser raised his conjecture on the origins of MS in two historical essays (1994 and 1995), raising the question if the Viking voyages and invasions from the 8th to the 11th century carried the Scandinavian MS genetic risk factor to Europe and the rest of the known world at that time. Poser did not have the benefit of access to ancient molecular DNA data and based his theoretical postulation on interesting historical and archeological observations. A series of studies and opinions published in 2024, utilizing sophisticated genetic analyses and genome identification, archeological DNA analysis, and other advanced techniques and biological computation, distinctly demonstrate the installation of HLA-DRB1*15:01 (class II allele) in Europe (with a higher prevalence in Scandinavia) following the massive Yamnaya pastoralists migration from the Pontic Steppe in Eurasia to western Europe (~5000 to 2500 BCE). The data suggest HLA-DRB1*15:01, the strongest genetic association with MS, underwent an evolutive switch (“thrifty drift”) from immune protector against novel zoonotic diseases appearing among the early pastoralists of the Yamnaya civilization to an autoimmune deleterious reactor to molecular mimicry and self-antigens, enabled by lifestyle changes and reduction of pastoralism once communities settled in Europe after the migration from the Pontic Steppe. This writer offers a new perspective on the origins of MS through a phase 1, the ancient east to west migration in the late Bronze Age, consolidating the HLA-DRB1*15:01 haplotype in Europe, and phase 2, the additional dissemination of the genetic MS risk through the Viking invasions, reinforcing inheritability by enabling a homozygous dominant inheritance. Full article

Remote sensing techniques provide crucial insights into ancient settlement patterns in various regions by uncovering previously unknown archaeological sites and clarifying the topological features of known ones. Meanwhile, in the northern part of the Southern Levant, megalithic structures remain largely underexplored with these methods. This study addresses this gap by analyzing the landscape around Rujm el-Hiri, one of the most prominent Southern Levantine megaliths dated to the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age, for the first time. We discuss the type and extent of the archaeological remains identified in satellite images within a broader context, focusing on the relationships between landscapes and these objects and the implications of their possible function. Our analysis of multi-year satellite imagery covering the 30 km region surrounding the Sea of Galilee reveals several distinct patterns: 40–90-m-wide circles and thick walls primarily constructed along streams, possibly as old as Rujm el-Hiri itself; later-period linear thin walls forming vast rectangular fields and flower-like clusters of ~ 20 m diameter round-shaped fences found in wet areas; tumuli, topologically linked to the linear walls and flower-like fences. Although tumuli share similar forms and likely construction techniques, their spatial distribution, connections to other archaeological features, and the statistical distribution in their sizes suggest that they might serve diverse functions. The objects and patterns identified may be used for further training neural networks to analyze their spatial properties and interrelationships. Most archaeological structures in the region were reused long after their original construction. This involved adding new features, building walls over older ones, and reshaping the landscape with new objects. Rujm el-Hiri is a prime example of such a complex sequence. Geomagnetic analysis shows that since the entire region has rotated over time, the Rujm el-Hiri’s location shifted from its original position for tens of meters for the thousands of years of the object’s existence, challenging theories of the alignment of its walls with astronomical bodies and raising questions regarding its possible identification as an observatory. Full article

This paper discusses the evolution of human settlement in ancient Macedonia from the Neolithic to the Late Roman periods, based on the results of a new multi-disciplinary and multi-scale archaeological survey in northern Grevena (NW Greece). Building upon an unpublished (legacy) survey, we developed a GIS-structured workflow that integrates site-revisiting and surveying strategies (material collection and test pits) with multi-temporal remote-sensing analyses, offering analytical information about site distribution, characterisation, dating, and taphonomy. Notably, the new study led to a 64% increase in the number of known sites. The combined results indicate that prehistory is less represented in the surface record than historical periods, likely due to the impact of soil erosion episodes. The Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age saw increased site numbers and the emergence of a settlement structure that characterised the area until the Hellenistic period. During the Roman period, the pattern shifted from a seemingly limited use of the landscape towards a model of more extensive habitation. This was driven by the appearance of new rural sites that introduced a land-use regime designed to support agricultural intensification by implementing anti-erosion measures, such as field terraces. Full article