News pertaining to all things Anthropology and Archaeology. New finds, old info, fascinating pictures and quotes.
Reblogged from gwebarchaeology
Dendrochronology was posted at http://www.randompicturesblog.com/2013/05/dendrochronology/
Dendrochronology
Reblogged from theolduvaigorge
The first evidence of cut marks and usewear traces from the Plio-Pleistocene locality of El-Kherba (Ain Hanech), Algeria: implications for early hominin subsistence activities circa 1.8 Ma
- by Mohamed Sahnouni, Jordi Rosell, Jan van der Made, Josep María Vergès, Andreu Ollé, Nadia Kandi, Zoheir Harichane, Abdelkader Derradji, Mohamed Medig
“The current archaeological data on early hominin subsistence activities in Africa are derived chiefly from Sub-Saharan Plio-Pleistocene sites. The recent studies at El-Kherba (Ain Hanech) in northeastern Algeria expand the geographic range of evidence of hominin subsistence patterns to include the earliest known archaeological sites documented in North Africa. Dated to 1.78 million years ago (Ma), excavations from El-Kherba yielded an Oldowan industry associated with a savanna-like fauna contained in floodplain deposits. The faunal assemblage is dominated by large and medium-sized animals (mainly adults), especially equids, which are represented by at least 11 individuals. The mammalian archaeofauna preserves numerous cut-marked and hammerstone-percussed bones. Made of primarily limestone and flint, the stone assemblage consists of core forms, débitage, and retouched pieces. Evidence of usewear traces is found on several of the flint artifacts, indicating meat processing by early hominins. Overall, our subsistence analysis indicates that early hominins were largely responsible for bone modification at the site, which is also corroborated by other relevant taphonomic evidence. Moreover, at 1.78 Ma, the cutmarked bones recovered from El-Kherba represent the earliest known evidence for ancestral hominin butchery activities and large animal foraging capabilities in northern Africa”.
(Image and text source: Journal of Human Evolution, 2013 64(12):137-150)
A 6,000 year old Tenerian skeleton found in the Sahara with its middle finger in its mouth.
If we compare Earth’s history to a 24-hour day (with one second equaling 50,000 years),
Earth originates at midnight.
The earliest fossils were deposited at 5:45 A.M.
The first vertebrates appeared at 9:02 P.M.
The earliest mammals, at 10:45 P.M.
The earliest primates, at 11:43 P.M.
The earliest hominins, at 11:57 P.M.
And Homo sapiens arrives 36 seconds before midnight.
Reblogged from katiepithecus
Milford H. Wolpoff (via steveyaas)
“The Society for Cultural Anthropology (a section of the American Anthropological Association) is excited to announce a groundbreaking publishing initiative. With the support of the AAA, the influential journal of the SCA, Cultural Anthropology, will become available open access, freely available to everyone in the world.”
Reblogged from ljspillowbook
Archaeologists have uncovered 20 Stone-Age skeletons in and around a rock shelter in Libya’s Sahara desert, according to a new study.
The skeletons date between 8,000 and 4,200 years ago, meaning the burial place was used for millennia.
“It must have been a place of memory,” said study…
Reblogged from theolduvaigorge
Australian Uranium Discovery Threatens Ancient Indigenous Cave Art
“One of the world’s biggest uranium producers has found a significant deposit in a remote tropical Australian mountain range near sandstone galleries holding some of the oldest and most spectacular rock art on the planet.
After years of drilling, Canadian-based mining company Cameco has reported the find in the Wellington Range, where the thousands of Aboriginal artworks adorning cliffs and caves include a painting of the extinct dog-like creature, the thylacine, made in a style that is at least 15,000 years old.
“The importance of this art site is that it’s like a library,” Ronald Lamilami, a traditional Aboriginal landowner in western Arnhem Land and a custodian for the art, told The Global Mail, which on Friday published a detailed feature and map of the rock-art sites at risk nationwide. Lamilami said he fears if mining goes ahead, the works of his ancestors will be damaged.
The archaeologist Prof Paul Taçon, who has worked with Lamilami to document and date the artwork, said that dust and visitors from mining exploration could potentially damage works at the Northern Territory’s Djulirri, Malarrak and Bald Rock galleries.
Uranium runs right through the Wellington Range area, and Cameco has explored close to Djulirri, although the big deposit found recently is nearer to Australia’s northern coast, Taçon said” (read more).
(Source: Past Horizons)
