Latest news with #OldStoneAge
Rudaw Net
18-05-2025
- Science
- Rudaw Net
Stone Age footprints discovered in Soran
Also in Kurdistan Kurdistan Region governors to visit Sanandaj for economy talks Duhok mother dies after alleged blood transfusion error PM Barzani arrives in Washington for energy talks Solar power on the rise in Sulaimani with private users, new plant A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Human footprints dating back to the Stone Age have been discovered in the Soran district of Erbil province, a local expert said on Friday. 'We have discovered several archaeological remains dating back to the late Old Stone Age and the beginning of the Middle Stone Age,' Abdulwahab Sulaiman, head of the Soran independent administration's archaeological department, told Rudaw. The archaeological layers, according to Sulaiman, had been lost for over half a century after being first discovered by foreign archaeologists in 1951. 'After that, no other traces were found until we discovered these layers at the foot of Plngan Mountain, and they are the footprints of humans from that era,' he said. A five-year contract signed with the Autonomous University of Barcelona has resulted in the discovery of 'several important archaeological sites,' Sulaiman said. Approximately 1,200 archaeological sites are registered in the Soran Independent Administration, according to statistics provided by Sulaiman. The Kurdistan Region is home to a wealth of archaeological sites, ancient cities, and religious landmarks that bear witness to thousands of years of continued civilization. These include remnants from the Sumerian and Assyrian eras as well as Neanderthals.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Hugely Significant' Stone Circles in Scotland Suggest Early Human Arrival
Recently discovered stone tools and circular structures on the Isle of Skye suggest humans from the Old Stone Age traveled all the way to the frigid northwest edge of Scotland. This boundary-pushing endeavor took early humans in northern Europe to the "far end of everything", according to a new paper from an international team of archaeologists. "This is a hugely significant discovery which offers a new perspective on the earliest human occupation yet known, of north-west Scotland," says lead author and archaeologist Karen Hardy from the University of Glasgow. "The journey made by these pioneering people who left their lowland territories in mainland Europe to travel northwards into the unknown is the ultimate adventure story." Until recently, there hadn't been any clear evidence of a human population in Scotland before the Holocene, the current geological epoch that began about 11,700 years ago. Even when earlier artifacts began to pop up, it was assumed that the inhospitable climate would have only allowed for visiting humans, not a sustained population. But the new study suggests humans arrived – and settled – earlier than we give them credit for. Hardy and colleagues have based their conclusions on a collection of stone tools and circle structures found on the Isle of Skye in the last eight years. Unfortunately, no radiocarbon-datable material has been recovered, so the exact timing of human arrival is unknown. Still, there are some important clues in the details. The ancient baked mudstone tools found on Skye have complex features that resemble artifacts from continental Europe in the Late Upper Paleolithic, specifically those of Ahrensburg culture, argue Hardy and colleagues. Ahrensburg-like tools have been found on some other isles and islands in Scotland, but never this far north and never in such abundance. The number of artifacts made from local materials on Skye "indicate either a reasonably sized population or long-term occupation", the team of archaeologists argue. What's more, archeologists have uncovered several stone circles, between 3 and 5 meters (10 and 16 feet) in diameter, in a large tidal flat in the center of the Isle. Long ago, when Scotland was icier, this tidal flat would have existed above sea level. Today, the stone circles are only visible for around two to three hours per year, when the extreme spring tides arrive. At other times, archaeologists have had to snorkel. Even during the lowest tide, digging into the waterlogged sandy bottom made it very difficult to measure definitive sediment layers for dating. Based on some climate modeling, however, this tidal flat was above sea level roughly 11,000 years ago. For the last 10,000 years, the sites of the stone circles have been covered by water, meaning they were most likely built before then. What's more, other similar stone circles, found across the sea in Norway, were radiocarbon-dated to between roughly 10,400 and 11,000 years ago. "The similarity between these circular alignments and those at Sconser is remarkable and supports the interpretation of a Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene age," write Hardy and colleagues. Experts disagree on when the Ahrensburg culture came and went, but some studies suggest it existed as recently as 10,500 years ago. There is also evidence of Ahrensburgian-like artifacts from this time in what is now southern England. Today, the Isle of Skye is connected to the mainland by a human-made bridge. During the Upper Paleolithic, however, when ice sheets in the region were expanding, there may have been a land bridge or very narrow crossing, less than 300 meters wide. This could have been walkable to Old Stone Age humans during spring tides. During this time, however, the western margins of Scotland would have been cold and inhospitable. The authors of the recent archaeological analysis suspect the earliest humans came to Skye after the ice sheets had already begun to recede. "As they journeyed northwards, most likely following animal herds, they eventually reached Scotland, where the western landscape was dramatically changing as glaciers melted and the land rebounded as it recovered from the weight of the ice," hypothesizes Hardy. "A good example of the volatility they would have encountered can be found in Glen Roy, where the world-famous Parallel Roads provide physical testament to the huge landscape changes and cataclysmic floods that they would have encountered, as they travelled across Scotland." Without reliable radiocarbon dating it's hard to say much about when these cultures arrived. Hardy and colleagues admit this is a limitation, but based on what we know about Old Stone Age humans in continental Europe and in southern England, there's reason to suspect an early push northward. The study was published in The Journal of Quaternary Science. Surprisingly Advanced Ancient Spear Tip Was Not Made by Modern Humans DNA Reveals Surprising Twist About Christopher Columbus This 134-Year-Old Patent Reveals The Proper Way to Hang Toilet Paper
Perth Now
23-04-2025
- Health
- Perth Now
Gwenyth Paltrow 'sick' of Paleo diet
Gwyneth Paltrow is 'sick' of her caveman diet. The 52-year-old actress and her TV producer husband Brad Falchuk became Paleo - following a plan that only includes foods that were available during the Old Stone Age - "a few years ago", but she is now fed up of having "coffee [for breakfast], bone broth for lunch and vegetables for dinner" so she is ditching the restrictive diet for "sourdough bread, cheese [and] a little pasta". She is quoted by the Daily Mail newspaper's Eden Confidential column as saying: "Brad and I became Paleo a few years ago now, although I'm a little bit sick of it, if I'm honest. "I'm getting back into eating sourdough bread, cheese - there I said it. A little pasta after being strict with it for so long." The 'Iron Man' star previously revealed she also uses intermittent fasting during an appearance on 'The Art of Being Well' podcast in 2023. She explained: "I eat dinner early in the evening. I do a nice intermittent fast. I usually eat something at about 12. In the morning, I'll have something that won't spike my blood sugar, so I have coffee. But I really like soup for lunch. I have bone broth for lunch a lot of the days." Gwyneth added she does "one hour of movement" each day before she sitting in a sauna and then eating vegetables for dinner. Admitting the diet had "worked" for her, she added: "It's really just what has worked for me, and it's been very powerful and very positive. "This is not to say I eat this way all day, every day. And by the way, I eat far more than bone broth and vegetables. "I eat full meals, and I also have a lot of days of eating whatever I want. You know, eating french fries and whatever. My baseline has been to try to be healthy and eat foods that will really calm the system down." Gwyneth previously insisted she was attempting to use her diet to calm her "very high levels of inflammation" which she believed were linked to long COVID. During a fan Q+A on her Instagram Stories, Gwyneth said: "I've been working with Dr. Cole {Dr. Will Cole} to really focus on foods that aren't inflammatory. "So, lots of cooked vegetables, all kinds of protein, healthy carbs to really lower inflammation. It's been working really well."
The Hindu
22-04-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Public demands early opening of new government museum building in Salem
Residents have called for the swift opening of the newly constructed government museum building at Hasthampatti, built at a cost of ₹5 crore. Originally established in 1976 through public initiative, the first to do so, the Salem district government museum has operated out of various rented premises over the years and is currently located on Sarada College Road within the Salem Corporation limits. The museum features a diverse collection that includes sculptures, ancient weapons, musical instruments, and paintings. It prominently showcases hero stones that depict the brave acts of warriors and chieftains who once ruled the Salem district. Among the exhibits are sculptures from the Pallava, Chola, and Vijayanagara periods. A notable piece is the 12th-century Parsvanatha sculpture, which highlights the prevalence of Jainism in the Salem district. Additionally, the museum displays an array of artifacts such as coins, foreign currency, stamps, and tools from the Old Stone Age and New Stone Age, which have been sourced from the Shevroyan Hills and Kolli Hills. Lacking a permanent facility, the museum has been relocated three times. In response to repeated requests from the public and historians, the Tamil Nadu government in 2023 announced the construction of a permanent museum building in Hasthampatti. The project, undertaken at a cost of ₹5 crore, began last year and is now nearing completion. The public is urging the authorities to expedite the final works and open the museum to visitors. Officials from the Public Works Department (PWD) confirmed that the main construction is complete, with only minor finishing work remaining. The Museum Department has reportedly sent a request for permission to shift the exhibits to the new premises. Once approval is granted, the relocation will begin, and the museum is expected to open within two weeks, officials said.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Most ancient Europeans had dark skin, eyes and hair up until 3,000 years ago, new research finds
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Most prehistoric Europeans had dark skin, hair and eyes well into the Iron Age, about 3,000 years ago, new research finds. Scientists found that the genes that cause lighter skin, hair and eyes emerged among early Europeans only about 14,000 years ago, during the late stages of the Paleolithic period — also known as the "Old Stone Age." But these light features were only sporadic until relatively recently, said study senior author Silvia Ghirotto, a geneticist at the University of Ferrara in Italy. Lighter skin may have carried an evolutionary advantage for Europeans because it enabled people to synthesize more vitamin D — needed for healthy bones, teeth and muscles — in Europe's weaker sunlight. But lighter eye color — blue or green, for example — does not seem to have had major evolutionary advantages, and so its emergence may have been driven by chance or sexual selection, Ghirotto told Live Science in an email. Ghirotto and her colleagues analyzed 348 samples of ancient DNA from archaeological sites in 34 countries in Western Europe and Asia, according to research published Feb. 12 on the preprint server bioRxiv, which hasn't been peer-reviewed. The oldest, from 45,000 years ago, was from the Ust'-Ishim individual discovered in 2008 in the Irtysh River region of western Siberia; and another high-quality DNA sample came from the roughly 9,000-year-old SF12 individual from Sweden. But many of the older samples were badly degraded, and so the researchers estimated those individual's pigmentation using "probabilistic phenotype inference" and the HIrisPlex-S system, which can predict eye, hair, and skin color from an incomplete DNA sample. Related: Nearly 170 genes determine hair, skin and eye color, CRISPR study reveals Palaeoanthropologists think the first Homo sapiens permanently arrived in Europe between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, which meant they weren't that far removed from their modern human ancestors in Africa. As a result, early Europeans initially only had genetics for dark skin, hair and eyes, which rely on hundreds of interconnected genes, Ghirotto said. Even after lighter traits emerged in Europe about 14,000 years ago, however, they only appeared sporadically in individuals until relatively recent times — about 3,000 years ago — when they became widespread, she said. The new study showed that the frequency of people with dark skin was still high in parts of Europe until the Copper Age (also known as the Chalcolithic period, which started about 5,000 years ago in Europe) and in some areas dark skin appeared frequently until even later, Ghirotto said. The researchers found that light eyes emerged among people in Northern and Western Europe between about 14,000 and 4,000 years ago, although dark hair and dark skin were still dominant at that time. (There are outliers, however. A 2024 genetic analysis showed a 1-year-old boy who lived in Europe about 17,000 years ago had dark skin, dark hair and blue eyes.) The genetic basis for lighter skin seems to have emerged in Sweden at about the same time as lighter eyes, but initially it remained relatively rare, Ghirotto said. The researchers also reported a statistical "spike" in the incidence of light eye color at this time, which suggested that blue or green eyes were more prevalent at that time than earlier or later. RELATED STORIES —1,500 ancient European genomes reveal previously hidden waves of migration, study finds —The first Europeans had a striking combination of features —India's evolutionary past tied to huge migration 50,000 years ago and to now-extinct human relatives Carles Lalueza Fox, a palaeogeneticist at Barcelona's Institute of Evolutionary Biology, is an expert on early European pigmentation but was not involved in the latest study. It was a "surprise" to learn that some European individuals had inherited genes for darker pigmentation up until the Iron Age, which was relatively recent in genetic terms, he told Live Science in an email. While the new research charts the emergence of traits like lighter skin, hair and eyes, the reasons these traits could have become an evolutionary advantage are still not well understood, he added.
