"LAYERS OF ANCIENT JERUSALEM"

I usually don't refer my readers to a magazine but here's an exception: In the January/February 2012 Biblical Archaeology Review there is a splendid article about the Western Wall Plaza Excavation.

To quote briefly "Actually the site of he excavation was outside the city until the eighth century B.C.E. It is located on the northeastern slope of the so-called 'western hill'; In King David's time, Jerusalem was confined to the 10-12 acres ridge south of the Old City known even today as the city of David. Then Solomon extended the city northward where he built the Temple on a much smaller enclosure than the one built by Herod the great a thousand years later. Not until King Hezekiah's time, in the eighth century B.C.E. was the city exteded west to the western hill -- the present area of Mount Zion, the Armenian Quarter and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City."

The details of the dig and the illustrations are marvelous. Possible to read http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/article.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=38&Issue=1&ArticleID=6

HOW DID RESEARCHERS PIN POINT AGES OF CHILDREN WHO PAINTED IN THE CAVES?

I was so intrigued by the previous article about children painting in the caves that I emailed Leslie Van Gelder who was one of the prime researchers. How did she figure out their ages? Here is her edited answer:


The most in depth answer to your question is best found in an article we published in Antiquity in 2006. (Here's the link to the reference if you want to get the article http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/080/ant0800937.htm). That has the long version of the methodology that we used to study childrens' and adults hands.

The short version is that in the cave we had been collecting data on lines that had been drawn with three fingers held together because no matter what the three fingers were the same three fingers, whether left hand or right. We then replicated the wall surface by using clay and asked people of many ages to draw a similar marking with their hands and then we measured the results. We asked people who worked in schools in a number of different countries to work with children in their classes to collect data for us as well as we were especially interested in children because we knew many of the measures in the cave were small.

What we found was that there was a definite clear point of measure where children under 5 seemed to have a measure of 30mm or smaller for their 3 fingered width. Given that we had measures of 22, 28, and 31mm in the cave, that was enormously helpful.

We've also looked at the heights of their flutings from the floor. That, in some areas, gives us a sense of their height, too.

I hope that helps a little in explaining. The Antiquity article would give you the most in depth explanation.
Best wishes and thanks again for your interest,
Leslie
_______________
Leslie Van Gelder, Ph.D.
Program Director
Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership
Walden University
leslie.vangelder@waldenu.edu

NEANDERTHALS BUILT HOMES!

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 44,000 year old Neanderthal building that was constructed using the bones from mammoths. The circular building, which was up to 26 feet across at its widest point, is believed to be earliest example of domestic dwelling built from bone.

The new findings suggest these ancient humans had settled in areas to the degree that they built structures where they lived for extended periods of time. Analysis by researchers from the Muséum National d'Histories Naturelle in Paris also found that many of the bones had been decorated with carvings and ocher pigments.

Laëtitia Demay, an archaeologist who led the research, said: "It appears that Neanderthals were the oldest known humans who used mammoth bones to build a dwelling structure. This mammoth bone structure could be described as the basement of a wooden cover or as a windscreen. Neanderthals purposely chose large bones of the largest available mammal, the woolly mammoth, to build a structure. The mammoth bones have been deliberately selected and were circularly arranged. Under a cold climate in an open environment, the lack of wood led humans to use bones to build protections against the wind."

The bone structure was found near the town of Molodova in eastern Ukraine on a site that was first discovered in 1984. It was constructed of 116 large bones including mammoth skulls, jaws, 14 tusks and leg bones. Inside at least 25 hearths filled with ash were also discovered, suggesting it had been used for some time. The researchers believe that the Neanderthals both hunted and killed the mammoths for meat before using their bones but also collected some of the bones from animals that had died of natural causes.

Simon Underdown, a senior lecturer in biological anthropology who researches Neanderthals at Oxford Brookes University, said: "It's another piece in the newly emerging Neanderthal jigsaw puzzle. Far from being the stupid cavemen of popular image it's becoming increasingly clear the Neanderthals were a highly sophisticated species of human. We can now add shelter building to the list of advanced behaviors that includes burying the dead, spoken language, cooking and wearing jewelery."

MAYAN CALENDAR DOES NOT PREDICT THE END OF THE WORLD

The end is not quite nigh. At least that is the conclusion of a German expert who says his decoding of a Mayan tablet with a reference to a 2012 date denotes a transition to a new era and not a possible end of the world as others have read it. The interpretation of the hieroglyphs by Sven Gronemeyer of La Trobe University in Australia was presented for the first time on Wednesday at the archaeological site of Palenque in southern Mexico.

His comments came less than a week after Mexico's archaeology institute acknowledged there was a second reference to the 2012 date in Mayan inscriptions, touching off another round of talk about whether it predicts the end of the world. Gronemeyer has been studying the stone tablet, which was found years ago at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Tabasco. He said the inscription described the return of the mysterious Mayan god Bolon Yokte at the end of a 13th period of 400 years, known as Baktuns, on the equivalent of 21 December 2012. Mayans considered 13 a sacred number. There is nothing apocalyptic in the date, he said. The text was carved about 1,300 years ago. The stone has cracked, which has made the end of the passage almost illegible.

"The date acquired a symbolic value because it is seen as a reflection of the day of creation," Gronemeyer said. "It is the passage of a god and not necessarily a great leap for humanity."

Last week, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology said a second inscription mentioning the 2012 date was on the carved or moulded face of a brick found at the Comalcalco ruin, near the Tortuguero site. It is being kept at the institute and is not on display. Many experts doubt the second inscription is a definite reference to the date cited as the possible end of the world, saying there is no future tense marking like there is in the Tortuguero tablet.

The institute has tried to dispel talk of a 2012 apocalypse, the subject of numerous postings and stories on the internet. Its latest step was to arrange a special round table of Mayan experts this week at Palenque, which is where Gronemeyer made his comments.

THE WESTERN WALL OF THE TEMPLE MOUNT WAS NOT COMPLETED DURING KING HEROD'S LIFETIME

Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority discover a ritual bath beneath the Western Wall of the Temple Mount that shows the construction of that wall was not completed during King Herod’s lifetime

Who built the Temple Mount walls? Every tour guide and every student grounded in the history of Jerusalem will immediately reply that it was Herod. However, in the archaeological excavations alongside the ancient drainage channel of Jerusalem a very old ritual bath (miqwe) was recently discovered that challenges the conventional archaeological perception which regards Herod as being solely responsible for its construction.

Recently, reinforcement and maintenance measures were implemented in the pavement of Jerusalem’s main street from 2,000 years ago, used by pilgrims when they went up to the Temple Mount. This was done as part of the project to re-expose the drainage channel that passes beneath the street, running from the Siloam Pool in the City of David to the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden near the Western Wall. The excavations at the site are being conducted on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with Nature and Parks Authority and the East Jerusalem Development Corporation, and are underwritten by the Ir David foundation. The excavations are directed by archaeologist Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority, with assistance from Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa.

In an excavation beneath the paved street near Robinson’s Arch, sections of the Western Wall’s foundation were revealed that is set on the bedrock – which is also the western foundation of Robinson’s Arch – an enormous arch that bore a staircase that led from Jerusalem’s main street to the entrance of the Temple Mount compound.

According to Professor Reich, “It became apparent during the course of the work that there are rock-hewn remains of different installations on the natural bedrock, including cisterns, ritual baths and cellars. These belonged to the dwellings of a residential neighborhood that existed there before King Herod decided to enlarge the Temple Mount compound. The Jewish historian Josephus, a contemporary of that period, writes that Herod embarked on the project of enlarging the compound in the eighteenth year of his reign (that is in 22 BCE) and described it as “the largest project the world has ever heard of”.

When it was decided to expand the compound, the area was confiscated and the walls of the buildings were demolished down to the bedrock. The rock-cut installations were filled with earth and stones so as to be able to build on them. When the locations of the Temple Mount corners were determined and work was begun setting the first course of stone in place, it became apparent that one of the ritual baths was situated directly in line with the Western Wall. The builders filled in the bath with earth, placed three large flat stones on the soil and built the first course of the wall on top of this blockage.

While sifting the soil removed from inside the sealed ritual bath, three clay oil lamps were discovered of a type that was common in the first century CE. In addition, the sifting also yielded seventeen bronze coins that can be identified. Dr. Donald Ariel, curator of the numismatic collection of the Israel Antiquities Authority, determined that the latest coins (4 in all) were struck by the Roman procurator of Judea, Valerius Gratus, in the year 17/18 CE. This means that Robinson’s Arch, and possibly a longer part of the Western Wall, were constructed after this year – that is to say: at least twenty years after Herod’s death (which is commonly thought to have occurred in the year 4 BCE).

This bit of archaeological information illustrates the fact that the construction of the Temple Mount walls and Robinson’s Arch was an enormous project that lasted decades and was not completed during Herod’s lifetime.

THE VOICE OF OUR AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFARENSIS ANCESTOR!

Working backward from clues in ancient skeletons, Dutch researcher Bart de Boer has built plastic models of an early hominin's vocal tract and recreated the sounds our ancestors may have made millions of years ago.

Non-human primates have an organ called an air sac - a large cavity that connects to the vocal tract - linked to an extension on the hyoid bone known as the hyoid bulla. Modern humans have neither an air sac nor an extension on the hyoid bone, but Australopithecus afarensis - a hominin species that roamed Africa approximately 3.9 million to 2.9 million years ago - had a hyoid bulla, and likely an air sac as well.

De Boer built models of the human vocal tract both without an air sac, like modern humans, and with one, as Australopithecus afarensis would have had. By pushing air through the models, he could hear what various vowels sounded like.

The air sacs acted like bass drums, resonating at low frequencies, and causing vowel sounds to merge; according to Charles Harvey at New Scientist, [an Australopithecus] would have had a greatly reduced vocabulary. What, then, might our ancestors' first words have been? With air sacs, vowels tend to sound like the 'u' in 'ugg', but studies suggest it is easier to produce a consonant plus a vowel, and 'd' is easier to form with 'u'. "I think it is likely cavemen and cavewomen said 'duh' before they said 'ugg'," says de Boer.

Edited from NewScientist (23 November 2011), Discover Magazine (28 November 2011)
http://tinyurl.com/bqbtmpk
[2 images, 1 audio file]
http://tinyurl.com/cpgf84w
[1 image]

CHUMASH -- CALIFORNIA INDIANS -- HEALTH MAY HAVE DECLINED FROM EVERYDAY USE OF TAR

A long-term health decline among prehistoric Indians in California (USA) may be linked to their everyday use of tar, which served as glue, waterproofing, and even chewing gum.

The Chumash lived in dense villages of up to 20,000 people in the Channel Islands and Southern California Coast (Santa Barbara to Malibu) and used shell beads as currency. The hunter-gatherers collected tar from the plentiful natural seeps on the islands and used the gummy substance for everything from building canoes to casting broken bones to making chewing gum. While analyzing skeletons of 269 Chumash males and females from various periods, a team of anthropologists found a marked decrease in skull size over time, according to the research, published in May in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

PAHs in bitumen are known toxins - byproducts of modern fossil fuel combustion, cigarette smoking, road paving, and roofing. The chemicals are easily taken up by the human body through breathing, ingestion and skin contact, and can be distributed to organs, tissues, and fetuses. Major health problems - including cancer, altered hormone levels, and damage to internal organs - have been connected to PAH exposure.

Modern tar from seeps in ancestral Chumash territory have high levels of toxic PAHs. The Chumash not only used the tar regularly, they used it more and more as the years went by, based on increasing levels of bitumen found in artifacts. Bitumen was used to waterproof tightly woven fiber baskets that served as water bottles. The Indians also heated the tar to make it more malleable, producing fumes that could have easily been inhaled. Tar was also used as an adhesive in bone whistles, flutes, shell containers, abalone dishes, the mouthpieces of smoking pipes, and musical rattles. Women wore grass skirts weighted with bits of tar. They began building canoes with multiple wooden planks about 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, using tar to seal any spaces where the planks met, to plug holes, and as an adhesive in a canoe's body and paddles.

Edited from National Geographic News (6 October 2011)
http://tinyurl.com/67o6jwp
[1 drawing, 1 image]

ALTAMIRA CAVE IN SPAIN -- THREATENED!

Scientists and managers of the World Heritage Site of Altamira Cave in the Cantabria region of Spain are deeply concerned that recent calls to reopen the cave, closed to mass tourism since 1977, would lead to the cave paintings' destruction.

Recent studies have shown that intense human traffic caused the deterioration of the paintings, produced by modern humans living in or near the cave between 18,500 and 14,000 years ago.

The cave was first discovered in 1897 by amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, who interpreted the paintings as belonging to the late Palaeolithic era - claims considered controversial until several other similar sites were discovered in 1902. The artwork - which includes images of bison, dear, wild boar, horses, goats, abstract shapes and handprints - was created from pigments made from ochre, hematite and charcoal, and is considered among the most complex Palaeolithic art ever found.

In 2008, scientists using Uranium-thorium dating techniques determined that some of the artwork may be between 25,000 and 35,000 years old.

Edited from NewScientist, Popular Archaeology (6 October 2011)
http://tinyurl.com/65o949uì
[1 image]
http://tinyurl.com/6xnklpo
[4 images]

MONGOLIA -- TEN PREHISTORIC SITES DISCOVERED

Archeologists have discovered 10 prehistoric sites in the Badain Jaran Desert, China's third largest desert located in northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. An archeological team composed of 11 experts from Inner Mongolia, Beijing and Sichuan have unearthed a large number of stone and pottery items dating back 5,000 years from the sites, which, the experts believe, indicate an ancient civilization once flourished in the desert.

Experts say one of the most important findings was a black-red painted pottery jar, which represents Neolithic art that dates back 4,500 years. It was unearthed from a site where archaeologists had discovered extensive cultural remains covering an area of over 15,000 square meters. Experts said stone wares made of flint and agate were found in all the newly discovered sites.

The Badian Jaran Desert is 47,000 square km and sparsely populated. It is famous for having the tallest stationary sand dunes in the world - some of them reaching 500 meters of height. It also features spring-fed lakes that lie between the dunes, and Chinese archeologists said all the ancient sites have been found near those lakes.

Edited from Xinhuanet.com (18 October 2011)
http://tinyurl.com/65drdjs

BRONZE AGE BRITAIN REVEALED AS NEVER BEFORE!

Six boats hollowed out of oak tree trunks are among hundreds of intact artifacts from 3,000 years ago that have been discovered in the Cambridgeshire fens of eastern England. The scale, quality and condition of the objects have astonished archaeologists - the largest bronze age collection ever found in one place in Britain - and barely a fraction of the site has been excavated. The dig is likely to continue for years.

David Gibson, head of Cambridge University's archaeological unit, said the discoveries were internationally important. "One canoe would be great. Two, exceptional. Six almost feels greedy". The boats - two of which bear unusual decoration - are in such good condition that the wood grain and color can be seen clearly, as can signs of repairs by their owners. One is 8.3 meters long; the smallest, just over 4 meters.

Unique textile fragments, wicker baskets and wooden sword handles have survived. There are even containers of food, including a bowl with a wooden spoon still wedged into the contents, now analyzed as nettle stew, which may have been a favorite dish in 1000 BCE.

The artifacts were preserved because they were immersed in deep layers of peat and silt. When those layers are lifted off, "the objects are so pristine", said Mark Knight, the unit's senior project officer, "it's as if 3,000 years never happened." The artifacts were submerged under an ancient watercourse along the southern edge of the Flag Fen Basin, land altered over millennia by rising sea levels. Knight said: "In our [bronze age] landscape... you could have walked along the bottom of the fenland basin and to the bottom of the North Sea hunting for deer. By the Roman period, you were perched up at Peterborough, looking out over a huge expanse of peat and reed swamp."

Along the 150-meter stretch of a bronze age river channel, they have found the best preserved example of prehistoric river life. There are weirs and fish traps in the form of big woven willow baskets, plus fragments of garments with ornamental hems made from fibrous bark and jewelery, including green and blue beads. Extensive finds of metalwork include bronze swords and spears, some apparently tossed into the river in perfect condition, possibly as votive offerings. One of the bronze age swords is of a type normally found in northern Spain.

Knight said: "Often at an excavation, it takes much imagination for it to become apparent. This site doesn't need that. It's intact. It feels as if we've actually caught up the [bronze age] people. It feels like we're there."

FOLLOW UP ON HOW THE RESEARCHERS FOUND OUT THE AGES OF THE CHILDREN WHO PAINTED IN CAVES

The article about children painting intrigued me but it did not say how the researchers knew how old the children were who painted in the caves. So I emailed Dr. Leslie van Gelder of Walden U, the head researcher, and asked her how they did it. I was delighted with her reply:

"The most in depth answer to your question is best found in an article we published in Antiquity in 2006. (Here's the link to the reference if you want to get the article http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/080/ant0800937.htm). That has the long version of the methodology that we used to study childrens and adults hands.

The short version is that in the cave we had been collecting data on lines that had been drawn with three fingers held together because no matter what the three fingers were the same three fingers, whether left hand or right. We then replicated the wall surface by using clay and asked people of many ages to draw a similar marking with their hands and then we measured the results. We asked people who worked in schools in a number of different countries to work with children in their classes to collect data for us as well as we were especially interested in children because we knew many of the measures in the cave were small.

What we found was that there was a definite clear point of measure where children under 5 seemed to have a measure of 30mm or smaller for their 3 fingered width. Given that we had measures of 22, 28, and 31mm in the cave, that was enormously helpful.

We've also looked at the heights of their flutings from the floor. That, in some areas, gives us a sense of their height, too. "

Many thanks to Dr. van Gelder!

"POMPEIAN RED" IS REALLY YELLOW!

This is probably more for decorators than archaeologists but I couldn't resist!! The Art Newspaper (No.229, Nov.2011) reports new research into the truth behind what we know as “Pompeian” red.

The color name was taken from the red seen in the frescoes discovered in the excavations of Pompeii. It is now known that in many of these the original color was yellow. Researchers at the National Institute of Applied Optics, Florence, Italy, attribute the shift in color to chemical reaction of the yellow pigments to the gases released by
the eruption of Vesuvius.

For many years certain scholars have believed that as many as 57 frescoes from Herculaneum and Pompeii were originally yellow. Now it is believed that of the 303 known frescoes 165 frescoes were originally red