Latest news with #:Reports
Miami Herald
13-03-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
‘Loved' infant twins found in ‘rare' burial in Roman cemetery in Croatia. ‘Poignant'
In 2016, construction on a private parking lot in Trogir, Croatia, destroyed layers of an ancient cemetery. Construction teams learned of their mistake when they discovered several stone urns, followed by 42 human burials that had not been completely damaged by the work. The site became known as the Dragulin villa cemetery, part of the Tragurium communal necropolis in the Roman city of Tragurium, researchers said in a study published March 1 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The cemetery dates between the first and fourth centuries B.C., according to the study, and excavations over many years allowed researchers to get a better understanding of the cemetery's occupants. One 'rare' burial caught their attention — two infants buried facing one another. Genetic testing confirmed that the two infants were fraternal twins, a boy and a girl, and they were both between the ages of 0 and 2 months, possibly stillborn, according to the study. 'This burial was found in a portion of the community cemetery that seems to have been set aside for individuals who died very young,' study author Anna Osterholtz, a researcher from Mississippi State University, told McClatchy News in an email. 'It is one of very few double burials known in Croatia and in this cemetery in particular and is the only double burial of very young individuals in the cemetery,' Osterholtz said. The preservation of the remains was poor, according to the study, but additional analysis of the bones revealed details about the twins' possibly very short lives. 'Both individuals have evidence of long-standing systemic metabolic disease,' according to the study. Since the twins are so young, this is likely a reflection of the health of their mother, as all of their nutrition would stem from her, whether in utero or through breast milk, researchers said. The metabolic disease may have been brought on by scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency or rickets, or vitamin D deficiency, both symptoms of malnutrition, according to the study. The twins' mother may also have had lead poisoning, a condition that is thought to have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire, researchers said. 'Lead was widely used in the Roman world, particularly in urban settings. Plumbing pipes were made of lead, lead-lined ceramics were used to produce sapa, used to sweeten wine and to preserve fruits. Lead-based paints were commonly used in particularly upper-class structures, and sheet-lead toys have been recovered from sites across the Roman Empire,' according to the study. Lead poisoning can also contribute to higher rates of miscarriages, stillbirths and infant mortality, researchers said. Lead poisoning is transmitted through the placenta to her unborn child and again later through breast milk. 'Their burial together suggest (the twins) died at the same time or very nearly together,' researchers said. 'This may suggest that they were full term but did not survive the birth process or that they failed to thrive immediately after birth. Their mother was unlikely to be able to produce breast milk that would have been nutritious enough to help, possibly due to increased exposure to lead that she also passed along through breast milk.' The children were very young, possibly never taking a breath, but they were still treated with care and grief by their family, according to the study. 'The image of the two infant twins, likely loved and welcomed by their families dying at or close to birth, is a poignant one,' researchers said. Burial practices can be used to determine social relationships and community identity when other historical context isn't available, researchers said, including how cultures buried children. 'Affection or care is always difficult to infer from the archaeological or bioarchaeological record, but placement of infants in double burials with their mothers as well as depictions of infants on mortuary monuments has been used to argue for affection and grief at the loss of a child within the Roman world,' according to the study. The analysis of the twins is the first osteobiography published from the site, Osterholz said, and study of the bones found in the cemetery is ongoing. Trogir is on the southern coast of Croatia, along the Adriatic Sea. The research team includes Osterholtz, Mario Novak, Mario Carić and Lujana Paraman.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Philippines' 40,000-year-old deep-sea fishing tech contests West's marine power
New findings from sites in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste challenge the notion that technological advancements during the Paleolithic age were exclusive to Europe and Africa. Many of the earliest and most well-studied Paleolithic sites were located in Europe and Africa. This led to a concentration of research and a perception that these regions were the primary centers of innovation. An upcoming study in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (April 2025) by Ateneo de Manila University researchers Riczar Fuentes and Alfred Pawlik challenges the prevailing belief and suggests that Early seafarers possessed a level of technological sophistication comparable to much later civilizations. The research builds on mysterious archaeological evidence that points to early human habitation in the ISEA, despite most of it being never connected to mainland Asia by land bridges or ice sheets. This evidence raises the question: How did these ancient people manage such difficult ocean crossings since wooden and fiber-based materials used for boats rarely survived archaeological records? The new study addresses this very question and indicates that ancient seafarers in the Philippines and ISEA built sophisticated boats and mastered deep-sea fishing 40,000 years ago. Microscopic analysis of stone tools from these sites reveals traces of plant processing for extraction of fibers necessary for making ropes, nets, and bindings essential for boatbuilding and open-sea fishing. Some of these tools date as far back as 40,000 years ago, Excavations from sites in Mindoro and Timor-Leste also uncovered the remains of deep ocean fish like tuna and sharks, along with fishing tools such as hooks, net weights, and gorges. The researchers said, "The remains of large predatory pelagic fish in these sites indicate the capacity for advanced seafaring and knowledge of the seasonality and migration routes of those fish species.' They added that the discovery of fishing implements indicates the need for strong and well-crafted cordage for ropes and fishing lines to catch marine fauna. This collection of evidence points to the possibility that ancient seafarers built sophisticated boats with plant-based ropes to hold organic composite materials together. The same technology could have also been helpful for open-sea fishing. It would also prove instead of passive sea drifting or fragile bamboo rafts, the movement of people across Island Southeast Asia was a product of deliberate, technologically advanced seafaring over deep waters. The researchers were inspired to think of this topic and to test this hypothesis after several years of fieldwork in Ilin Island, Occidental Mindoro. They recently started the 'First Long-Distance Open-Sea Watercrafts' (FLOW) project to test raw materials that were likely used in this region during the paleolithic age and to design and test various scaled-down seacraft models. This initiative collaborates with naval architects from the University of Cebu and is supported by a research grant from the Ateneo de Manila University. Such advanced maritime capabilities and technologies in prehistoric ISEA highlight the ingenuity of early Filipino people and their neighbors. Archaeological investigations have historically favored areas of interest to Western scholars, leading to an uneven understanding of global prehistory. This study, however, entertains the possibility that boat-building knowledge made the ISEA region a center of prehistoric innovations tens of thousands of years ago and planted the seeds for maritime traditions that still thrive even today.
