Latest news with #Magdalenian
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Earliest Known Whale Bone Tools Discovered in Europe's Museum Collections
As far back as 20,000 years ago, humans living around the Bay of Biscay were crafting a variety of whale bones into tools, new research has revealed. A careful study of artifacts that have spent years tucked away in museum collections across Europe shows that the Magdalenian culture not only worked and used the bones of our planet's largest living beasts, they did so from a range of species, long before they were capable of actively hunting them. This discovery not only gives is crucial insight into the Magdalenians, but also reveals information about the changing ecology of the Bay of Biscay, off the coast of France and Spain. "I am an archaeologist more accustomed to terrestrial faunas. I am used to excavating cave sites in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and I work on the Magdalenian period which yielded a well-known cave art showing mostly ungulates (horse, bison, cervids, etc.)," University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès archaeologist and senior author Jean-Marc Pétillon told ScienceAlert. "The most exciting thing for me is to shed light on how much the sea, and the sea animals, might also have been important for the people at that time." The Magdalenian culture occupied coastal and inland regions of western Europe flourished some 19,000 to 14,000 years ago as the world was reaching the end of the last glacial period. They left behind a relatively rich archaeological record, but with limitations. Ancient coastal habitats are particularly prone to the ravages of time and the ocean, and most of the record of the use of coastal resources comes from inland, where artifacts had been transported. It's from these inland sites that archaeolologists excavated the Magdalenian artifacts: "more than 150 tools and projectile heads made of whale bone presumably of Atlantic origin, mostly found scattered from Asturias to the central part of the northern Pyrenean range," writes a team led by Krista McGrath of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Laura G. van der Sluis of the University of Vienna. Hunting and seafaring techniques to prey on whales would not emerge until thousands of years later, so the bones would have been gleaned opportunistically from whales stranding themselves on the seashore. The Magdalenians then used the foraged material to craft tools – mostly projectile points, Pétillon explained. "The main raw material used to manufacture the points at that period is antler (from reindeer or red deer), because it is less brittle and more pliable than land mammal bone," he said. "The fact that some points are made of whale bone shows that this material was preferred over antler in certain cases. It is probably because of its large dimensions: some of our whale bone points were more than 40 centimeters [16 inches] long, which is difficult to get with antler." To learn more about the timing and use of whale bone as a material, the researchers turned to two relatively modern techniques: a paleoproteomics method that analyzes collagen peptides in ancient samples to identify species; and micro-carbon dating, which is a variation of radiocarbon dating that requires less material. By carefully using these techniques on their samples, the researchers dated the bone tools to between 16,000 and 20,000 years ago. At least five different species of large whales contributed their bones to Magdalenian technology – which tells us about the ecology of the region during the last glacial period. "Our study shows that there was a large diversity of whale species in the Gulf of Biscay, northeastern North Atlantic, at that period. Most of the species we identified (sperm whale, blue whale, fin whale) are present in the North Atlantic today; in this perspective, their presence is not surprising," Pétillon said. "What was more surprising to me – as an archaeologist more accustomed to terrestrial faunas – was that these whale species remained the same despite the great environmental difference between the Late Pleistocene and today. In the same period, continental faunas are very different: the ungulates hunted include reindeer, saiga antelopes, bison, etc., all disappeared from Western Europe today." Interestingly, analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes absorbed from the environment as the animals fed show that these whales had a slightly different diet from those of the same species that are around today. It's impossible to determine what exactly this means – perhaps migration patterns were different, or food availability – but it does show a level of adaptability to changing circumstances, whatever those were. The presence of the whales in the Bay of Biscay would have been a draw for the Magdalenian culture, the researchers believe, offering a resource opportunity too good to pass up. Although whale strandings may not have been a frequent occurrence, they would have contributed to the list of benefits coastal living would have had to offer, playing a role in human mobility patterns in the region. It's a fascinating, multi-layered result that underscores the value of revisiting previously collected objects and seeing what new information we can discover with new techniques. "Even old collections, excavated more than one century ago with field methods now outdated, and stored in museums for a long time, can bring new scientific information when approached with the right analytical tools," Pétillon said. The research has been published in Nature Communications. Are Dogs Replacing Babies in Countries With Declining Birth Rates? Underwater Fossils Surface to Reveal a Lost World of Archaic Humans Scientists Discovered a Hidden Clue Why Men Are Taller Than Women
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
Homo sapiens regularly crossed the Pyrenees during the Ice Age – here's what they took with them
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways A fine mist accompanies the clan as the sun rises and they begin their journey. There are 12 people in total, some of them adults, some children, and others so small that they have to travel on the backs of the women. This is one of the human groups that frequented the Pyrenean Mountains during the period known as the Last Glacial Maximum, or Ice Age. These Homo sapiens – nomadic hunter-gatherers who populated Western Europe between 11,000 and 35,000 years ago – carry with them a leather rucksack containing objects of value: mostly flint cores and flakes that they will use on the journey as hunting tools, or as ornaments. These are pieces of their homeland. By mid-morning, the group arrives at their destination for the next few days: the wide Pyrenean valley of Cerdanya, one of the enclaves that, generation after generation, has served as both a refuge and meeting place. Today this place is known as Montlleó: an open-air Magdalenian archaeological site located high in the Catalan Pyrenees. At around 1,144 metres above sea level, in the Coll de Saig, it is one of the most favourable mountain passes for crossing the Pyrenees. Even during the Ice Age, when glaciers covered much of the landscape, Cerdanya was still passable. Leer más: The first Europeans reached Ukraine 1.4 million years ago – new research They will spend a few days there, perhaps hunt a horse or a goat and meet neighbouring communities, who have come from both sides of the mountain range and have the same cultural tradition. At these meetings they share experiences, but also exchange ideas, objects and materials. Some groups come from the coast, bringing with them an abundance of perforated sea shells which adorn their necks and clothing. Others bring small, high-quality flints that they exchange for resources such as deer or reindeer antlers. On the first night, they show the projectiles they have made. These objects all have the same purpose: to wound an animal until it dies and becomes food for the group. However, each object is characteristic of its community, made with different varieties of flint and in a particular shape. They are, in a way, a distinctive element of each clan, similar to the tradition shared by the different communities that frequent the Pyrenees. CC BY At the Montlleó site, we identified five distinct tool-making technological traditions. Sciencedirect Mapping prehistoric movments The archaeological research carried out in recent decades has allowed us to travel back in time in order to complete, little by little, the puzzle that is the study of prehistory. Archaeological work in the Pyrenees has shown that human populations adapted to changes in the mountain environment, and settled in areas that had initially been considered permafrost: permanently frozen ground during the Last Glacial Maximum. To find out how and where these groups moved in the Pyrenees, we can study the valuable tools and ornaments that they carried with them from their place of origin. The lithic industry discovered at Montlleó is made up of more than 25,000 pieces, of which more than 2,000 are finished flint tools and cores (masses of homogeneous rock that are carved to extract flakes for later use). We have a good number of objects to trace. Our research project – named SPEGEOCHERT and funded by the European Research Council (ERC) – traces the routes followed by human groups to cross the Pyrenees. Today we know that the mountains were not a barrier, but rather a passage frequented by the Homo sapiens of the Upper Palaeolithic. Among the project's many surprises, three specimens of possible flint from Chalosse have been tentatively identified. They are from the south-west of present-day France and represent, for the time being, the most distant source. Leer más: Western Europe's oldest human face discovered in Spain Favourite flints In order to map out these potential routes, we relied on a very abundant resource in the archaeological record: tools made of flint, one of the most widely used rocks in prehistoric times. Flint's characteristics are specific to the place and time of its formation in the earth's geology. This allows us to know, after detailed study, the origin of the pieces we find in the archaeological record. Our team is working to locate and recover samples of geological formations containing flints similar to those found in prehistoric sites. In our research, we are seeing that not all flints have the same territorial extension. In other words, it seems that there were 'favourite' flints that circulated more than others. CC BY Geological formations containing flint similar to that found at the Montlleó archaeological site. The study allows us to know their routes. Sciencedirect For our research we selected these preferred types of flint as tracers or markers. By observing their distribution radius, we were able to track the mobility of the groups that carried them. This included small cores prepared for carving, some crude tools such as blades and flakes, and also finished tools which were ready to be used. We analysed, at various scales, the archaeological flints recovered from more than 20 sites located on both sides of the Pyrenees mountain range, together with reference samples recovered from other geological formations. Geochemical analysis then allowed us to establish a match between the archaeological piece and the source area. Lastly, we applied geographic information systems, which take into account different variables such as topography and even the prevailing climatic conditions. With all this we suggest the routes that these populations may have followed to acquire flint, which, in short, allows us to know where they moved and what relationship they had with the mountain areas. It is now recognised that at least two main natural corridors for crossing the Pyrenees were frequented by prehistoric human groups: the 'Basque Crossroads' in the west and the Cerdanya valley in the east. What this tells us is that human presence in high-altitude open areas during the Ice Age was not just a possibility, but a reality. Este artículo fue publicado originalmente en The Conversation, un sitio de noticias sin fines de lucro dedicado a compartir ideas de expertos académicos. Lee mas: In addition to her position at the University of Barcelona, Marta Sánchez de la Torre is a researcher at the Seminari d'Estudis i Recerques Prehistòriques (SERP). She receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC) through the Starting Grant (ERC-2022-StG-101075451). Archaeological work at the Montlleó site have received funding through the Generalitat de Catalunya, project CLT009-22-000076.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
DNA Extracted From Dirt to Learn More About Ancient ‘Red Lady'
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." First discovered in 2010, the 'Red Lady of El Mirón' is an ochre-coated skeleton that provides a glimpse into human life following the last glacial maximum some 21,000 years ago. A new study analyzes sedimentary ancient DNA, or sedaDNA, to provide more context to the comings and goings—both human and animal—of the El Mirón Cave as well as the Red Lady's ancestry. This breakthrough DNA technique allows researchers to examine entire past ecosystems without relying on bones or other artifacts. Some 19,000 years ago, a 35-to-40-year-old woman, coated in red ochre, was buried in a cave in what is now northern Spain. This was a tough time for her people, likely still recovering from the last glacial maximum. Nicknamed the 'Red Lady' due to her ochre-coated bones, she was a member of the Magdalenian people of the late Upper Paleolithic—people not so unlike us. Fast-forward to 2010, archaeologists uncovered her remains in what is now called El Mirón Cave, providing a vital glimpse into this little known era of human prehistory. Now the same scientists who discovered her remains and subsequently reported on the discovery in 2015 are providing even more context related to the lineage of this unknown woman by analyzing a new kind of DNA. Called sedimentary ancient DNA or sedaDNA, this technique allows scientists to understand the various inhabitants of El Mirón Cave spanning some 46,000 years without the need to directly analyze bones or other artifacts. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Communications. 'The results show that several animals not represented by bones from the dig were present —either once living in the cave or as carcass pieces,' the University of New Mexico's Lawrence Straus, who originally discovered the 'Red Lady' in 2010 and co-authored the new study, said in a press statement. 'As with everything else at El Miròn DNA-wise, the preservation of DNA in dirt here is extraordinary.' These previously unmentioned animals, at least in the fossil records, include cave hyenas, leopards, cave lions, and, surprisingly, a species of dhole that's now only found in parts of Asia. They also found some larger species of hoofed animals as well, including wooly mammoth, reindeer, and rhinoceros. However, the most fascinating discovery is that the team also found human DNA belonging to the 'Fournol' genetic ancestry, a Western European hunter-gather group that lived during the height of the last glacial maximum around 25,000 to 21,000 years ago. Incredibly, the researchers tied this DNA with similarities found in the Red Lady's DNA as well. 'These were the people whose range had contracted southward during the climatic crisis and who preceded the Red Lady of El Miron and contributed to her DNA,' Straus says. 'We now know who the predecessors of the Red Lady were, confirming evidence from other sites with DNA from bones and teeth.' The ability extract DNA from sediment layers, particularly at a site like El Mirón Cave, give scientists the ability to examine human-animal habitation cycles as well as entire environments without the need of physical remains. Because of its 46,000 years of unbroken DNA information, archeologists can peer back into a time when Homo neanderthalensis occupied the area all the way up to modern Homo sapiens in the Upper Paleolithic. 'We don't need bones,' Straus said. You Might Also Like Can Apple Cider Vinegar Lead to Weight Loss? Bobbi Brown Shares Her Top Face-Transforming Makeup Tips for Women Over 50
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Extracted DNA From the Dirt to Learn More About the 19,000-Year-Old ‘Red Lady'
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." First discovered in 2010, the 'Red Lady of El Mirón' is an ochre-coated skeleton that provides a glimpse into human life following the last glacial maximum some 21,000 years ago. A new study analyzes sedimentary ancient DNA, or sedaDNA, to provide more context to the comings and goings—both human and animal—of the El Mirón Cave as well as the Red Lady's ancestry. This breakthrough DNA technique allows researchers to examine entire past ecosystems without relying on bones or other artifacts. Some 19,000 years ago, a 35-to-40-year-old woman, coated in red ochre, was buried in a cave in what is now northern Spain. This was a tough time for her people, likely still recovering from the last glacial maximum. Nicknamed the 'Red Lady' due to her ochre-coated bones, she was a member of the Magdalenian people of the late Upper Paleolithic—people not so unlike us. Fast-forward to 2010, archaeologists uncovered her remains in what is now called El Mirón Cave, providing a vital glimpse into this little known era of human prehistory. Now the same scientists who discovered her remains and subsequently reported on the discovery in 2015 are providing even more context related to the lineage of this unknown woman by analyzing a new kind of DNA. Called sedimentary ancient DNA or sedaDNA, this technique allows scientists to understand the various inhabitants of El Mirón Cave spanning some 46,000 years without the need to directly analyze bones or other artifacts. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Communications. 'The results show that several animals not represented by bones from the dig were present —either once living in the cave or as carcass pieces,' the University of New Mexico's Lawrence Straus, who originally discovered the 'Red Lady' in 2010 and co-authored the new study, said in a press statement. 'As with everything else at El Miròn DNA-wise, the preservation of DNA in dirt here is extraordinary.' These previously unmentioned animals, at least in the fossil records, include cave hyenas, leopards, cave lions, and, surprisingly, a species of dhole that's now only found in parts of Asia. They also found some larger species of hoofed animals as well, including wooly mammoth, reindeer, and rhinoceros. However, the most fascinating discovery is that the team also found human DNA belonging to the 'Fournol' genetic ancestry, a Western European hunter-gather group that lived during the height of the last glacial maximum around 25,000 to 21,000 years ago. Incredibly, the researchers tied this DNA with similarities found in the Red Lady's DNA as well. 'These were the people whose range had contracted southward during the climatic crisis and who preceded the Red Lady of El Miron and contributed to her DNA,' Straus says. 'We now know who the predecessors of the Red Lady were, confirming evidence from other sites with DNA from bones and teeth.' The ability extract DNA from sediment layers, particularly at a site like El Mirón Cave, give scientists the ability to examine human-animal habitation cycles as well as entire environments without the need of physical remains. Because of its 46,000 years of unbroken DNA information, archeologists can peer back into a time when Homo neanderthalensis occupied the area all the way up to modern Homo sapiens in the Upper Paleolithic. 'We don't need bones,' Straus said. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Miami Herald
14-02-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Cannibal-filled caves and threads of gold: Take a look at the latest discoveries
The summaries below were drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All linked stories were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists. Throughout history, cultures have left behind a trail of breadcrumbs for archaeologists to follow. New sites and artifacts are found all the time, revealing forgotten secrets of the past. Here are some of the latest discoveries: Brain-eating cannibalistic community lived in Poland cave 18,000 years ago, bones show In southern Poland, researchers revisited the Maszycka Cave, where they found evidence of cannibalism among the Magdalenian people 18,000 years ago. Using 3D microscopy, they analyzed cut marks on bones, suggesting the community consumed human flesh for survival. This discovery sheds light on the harsh conditions faced by prehistoric communities. | Published Feb. 7 | Read More | Archaeologists discover Roman villa in France — then unearth soldier's wedding ring In Soissons, France, archaeologists unearthed a Roman villa dating back to the first to fourth centuries, revealing Roman influences in the region. Among the finds was a grave containing a German World War I soldier's remains, identified by a wedding ring inscribed with his wedding date. This unexpected discovery connects ancient Roman history with more recent events. | Published Feb. 6 | Read More | Viking-age hoard found in Scotland a decade ago had indecipherable runes — until now In Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, a Viking-age hoard containing silver and gold artifacts was discovered, with one arm band featuring indecipherable runes. Historians have now translated the runes to mean 'this is the community's wealth/property,' suggesting communal ownership of the hoard. This discovery provides insight into the social structures of Viking-age communities. | Published Feb. 11 | Watch the video | Rare 1,600-year-old purple fabric — woven with gold threads — found in France. See it In Autun, France, archaeologists discovered a 1,600-year-old fabric woven with gold threads in an ancient burial site. The fabric, once a symbol of elite aristocracy, was found in a lead coffin, along with other exceptional artifacts. This rare find offers a glimpse into the luxurious burial practices of the time. | Published Feb. 12 | Read More | Ancient chief buried 'extremely rare' Roman equipment. Archaeologists just found it Near Løsning, Denmark, archaeologists uncovered a stockpile of weapons and rare Roman equipment buried by an ancient chief 1,500 years ago. Among the finds were two iron plates identified as parts of a Roman helmet, a rare discovery in southern Scandinavia. This excavation highlights the cultural exchanges and conflicts during the Iron Age. | Published Jan. 31 | Read More | McClatchy News continues to follow the discovery of intriguing archaeological discoveries from around the globe. Check back to see the latest finds.
