New henge at Stonehenge

by Kathryn Hadley,

The University of Birmingham announced this morning the discovery of a new henge less than one kilometre away from Stonehenge. The new henge was discovered by a team of archaeologists led by the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology earlier this week, just two weeks into a three-year study that forms part of the international Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project. The project aims to map the Stonehenge landscape and to virtually recreate the prehistoric monument and its surroundings using the latest geophysical imaging techniques.

The new henge consists of a circular ditch aligned with Stonehenge, which measures 25 metres (82ft) in diameter (five metres less than Stonehenge). It has two opposed north-east/south-west entrances and surrounds a smaller circle with internal deep pits that are up to one metre in diameter and could have held a free-standing timber structure. It is believed to be contemporaneous to Stonehenge, dating back to the Late Neolithic period between approximately 2,900 and 2,200 BC.

In the words of Professor Vince Gaffney from the University of Birmingham’s IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Centre, the finding ‘is remarkable’. In an interview with the BBC, he explained that ‘a major ceremonial site of this type or of this significance’ had not been found for over 50 years.

The discovery has raised many new questions about Stonehenge and the surrounding landscape, which archaeologists hope to solve as the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project progresses.

According to Professor Vince Gaffney,

‘it will completely change the way we think about the landscape around
Stonehenge. People have tended to think that as Stonehenge reached its peak it
was the paramount monument, existing in splendid isolation. This discovery is
completely new and extremely important in how we understand Stonehenge and its
landscape.’

Professor Wolfgang Neubauer, Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, added:

‘This is just the beginning. We will now map this monument using an array of
technologies that will allow us to view this new discovery, and the landscape
around it, in three dimensions. This marks a new departure for archaeologists
and how they investigate the past.’

Mr Paul Garwood, prehistorian at the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham, said:

‘This discovery is of great importance for our understanding of the Stonehenge
landscape in the 3rd millennium BC. Its location, a short distance from
Stonehenge, and the fact that the two monuments were inter-visible, raises
exciting new questions about the complex sacred landscape that existed around
Stonehenge when the sarsen and bluestone monument was constructed.’

Prior to the construction of the iconic monument which survives today, there existed an earlier bluestone structure which was dismantled. In March 2008, archaeologists began, for the first time in 40 years, a new series of excavations at Stonehenge in an effort to throw new light on the origins of this little understood structure. Anthony Johnson reports in Solving Stonehenge.

Images:

- The archaeological team on site at Stonehenge (professional images)

From left, archaeologist Eamonn Baldwin, University of Birmingham with archaeological geophysicist Dr Chris Gaffney of University of Bradford with Professor Wolfgang Neubauer, director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Vienna.

- Interpretation: visual representation showing site of ditches (grey), post holes (yellow) and barrow (blue)

Wannabe cavemen in the United States

Wannabe cavemen in the United States
Philip Bethge reports in Der Spiegel on the development of a Stone Age subculture in the United States. In the belief that men lived healthier lives in prehistoric times, members of the New York based group promote what they term ‘Evolutionary Fitness’. They practice leaping and sprinting as if they were still threatened by mammoths and wild animals and follow a strict diet of lean meat, fruit, vegetables and nuts.
For further information, visit our Prehistory focus page.

The history of the Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival was introduced to West Berlin by the US military administration in the aftermath of the Soviet blockade. The first festival was celebrated in 1951 and was designed as ‘showcase of the free world’, a propaganda tool to bring glamour to West Berlin. Der Spiegel reports. The article is illustrated with a slideshow of images charting the history of the Berlinale.

Death of the inventor of the Frisbee
The Frisbee was invented by Walter Frederick Morrison in 1948. He died on Tuesday, February 9th, aged 90, at his home in Utah. The BBC reports. The article also features a slideshow of images revealing 60 years of the history of the Frisbee.

65th anniversary of Dresden bombing
Every year, since the 1990s, the German far-right has traditionally staged a march to commemorate the bombing of Dresden between February 13th and 15th, 1945. This year, anti-right-wing activists including leftist politicians and celebrities have sought to oppose the march. Steffen Winter reports in Der Spiegel on how the anniversary has raised complex issues about commemoration and how memory is exploited for political propaganda.
In Dresden Plus 93 Days the British veteran Dick Sheehy recalls his experience caught up as a POW in the Alllied bombing of Dresden.
In Sowing the Wind James Barker charts the RAF's wartime bombing campaign of Germany.

The earliest timber structure in London

by Kathryn Hadley

A couple of weeks ago, the earliest timber structure ever discovered in London was unearthed by archaeologists from Archaeology South-East (part of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London). The structure, which consists of a timber platform or trackway, was found at a depth of 4.7 metres, beneath two metres of peat, during the excavation of a prehistoric peat bog adjacent to Belmarsh Prison in Plumstead, Greenwich. The site is adjacent to an ancient river channel and is currently being excavated in advance of the construction of a new prison building. Radiocarbon dating has revealed that the structure dates back almost 6,000 years, predating Stonehenge by over 500 years. The structure oldest timber structure previously discovered in Greater London is the timber trackway in Silvertown, which has been dated to 3340-2910BC.

It is believed that wetlands adjacent to rivers were an important source of food for prehistoric people. The timber trackway was thus constructed to provide easier access to the boggy terrain. Other artefacts were also discovered during the excavations in Plumstead, including an Early Bronze Age alder log with unusually well-preserved marks made by a metal axe. The log was scanned at UCL’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geometric Engineering and is currently undergoing conservation treatment. It will thereafter go on display in Greenwich Heritage Centre in Woolwich. Studies of the trackway are due to continue for the next couple of years in the hope that they will provide further clues about the structure itself and the environment in which it was constructed.

Mark Stevenson, Archaeological Advisor at English Heritage, commented on the discovery:

‘The discovery of the earliest timber structure in London is incredibly
important. The timber structure is slightly earlier in date than the
earliest trackways excavated in the Somerset Levels, including the famous ‘Sweet
Track’ to Glastonbury, which provide some of the earliest physical evidence for
woodworking in England.’

To visit the website of the Greenwich Heritage Centre, go to http://www.greenwichheritage.org/
For further information on the prehistoric period, visit our ‘Prehistoric’ Focus Page.

Did climate change cause the extinction of the Neanderthals? Do modern human beings descend from the Neanderthals? To find out more, there is also a series of articles related to the prehistoric period in the archives of our News Blog.

Pictures:

- excavation of the timbers at the Plumstead site

- laser scan of the Early Bronze Age alder log

Iceman Photo Scan: A glimpse of Oetzi, if you dare!

by Kathryn Hadley

To coincide with the opening of the ‘Mummies’ exhibition, the EURAC research institute in South Tyrol has recently launched the Iceman Photo Scan project, a revolutionary website which records the complete photographic documentation of the Iceman mummy. The website enables the user to view the entire mummified body and to zoom in to examine specific parts in incredible detail. The preservation conditions of the mummy prevent the public from having close access to the body and the project is thus aimed at providing an opportunity to discover the 5,300-year-old mummy without compromising its preservation.

Shots were taken from 12 different angles and almost 800 scans were necessary in order to map the whole body. Particular attention was paid to recording the tattoos on the mummy’s body, which it is possible to view in a special section of the website via high definition photos. A third section provides 3D photos of the mummy, which can be viewed using anaglyph glasses.

Visit the website http://iceman.eurac.edu. The Iceman Photo Scan website is also accessible via the homepage of the website of the EURAC institute - http://www.eurac.edu/

Above: Mummy of Imhotep, Vezir of Thebes, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, 1504 – 1492 BC, also on display in the exhibition 'Mummies: The dream of everlasting life' (Museo delle Antichità Egizie, Torino)

Neanderthals Part 3: Reconstruction of the Neanderthal Genome

by Kathryn Hadley

Do modern human beings descend from the Neanderthals? The question is subject to fierce debate and the Neanderthal is either categorised as a subspecies of humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) or as a separate species (Homo neanderthalensis). Because Homo sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted for thousands of years, there has been speculation that they possibly interbred and that modern humans consequently inherited Neanderthal DNA in their genome. Results of the latest scientific studies of the DNA of the Neanderthals (notably explained in an article published by BBC News) have revealed, however, that they never interbred with the ancestors of modern human beings.

The latest research is led by Professor Svante Paabo from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, who has sought to reconstruct a complete Neanderthal genome. He announced the first draft of the genome at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Chicago from February 12th - 16th. The reconstructed genome was based on genetic information uncovered from fossils of the bones of a Neanderthal man who died approximately 38,000 years ago, discovered in Vindija Cave in Croatia. A second team led by Edward Rubin of the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has also been working on the same samples using different technological strategies in an attempt to define the genome.

Paabo’s team has sequenced three billion ‘letters’, which are believed to cover almost 63% of the Neanderthal genome. Recent research has focused on the FOXP2 gene, which is associated with speech and language in modern human beings. Studies of the Neanderthal genome have confirmed that Neanderthals had the FOXP2 gene. Chimpanzees also have the FOXP2 gene, which differs from the human version of the gene at two key points, and the preliminary results of Paabo’s research appear to reveal that the FOXP2 gene in Neanderthals had the same variations. There are, however, too many different genes to conclude from these similarities that Neanderthals could not speak at all.

Above all, the reconstruction of the Neanderthal genome will provide a basis upon which to carry out further comparative studies with the human genome. In Paabo’s words, it will provide clues about the genetic regions that make us ‘uniquely human’.

‘Now that we have the Neanderthal genome, we can look for areas in the human
genome where a change seems to have swept rapidly through us since we separated
from Neanderthals. There, something special may have happened in us. The cool
thing is, now that we have the whole genome, we can look for these changes
without bias.’

Paabo confessed that he did not expect, however, to find any clues in the genome to help solve the mystery of their extinction:

‘I don't think they became extinct due to something in their genome. It was
clearly something in their interaction with the environment or with modern
humans that caused them to be extinct. That will not be something you can see
from their DNA sequence.’

An article about Paabo’s address at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is available on their website http://www.aaas.org/.
A presentation of the Draft Version of the Neanderthal Genome as well as a video of the press conference in which Paabo first announced the results of his research, in Leipzig on February 12th, is available on the website of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology http://www.eva.mpg.de/.
A comprehensive article about the project is available on the site About.com: Archaeology http://archaeology.about.com/od/neanderthals/a/neanderthal_dna_2.htm

The current topicality of the Neanderthals is particularly timely in the light of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book On the Origin of Species, this year. For more information on the conflict between supporters of Darwin’s theory of evolution and creationists, read our article latest America's Difficulty with Darwin.

News of the Neanderthals

by Kathryn Hadley

The Neanderthals, who became extinct approximately 28,000 years ago, seem to be back in fashion! They have made the news at least three times over the past week. On Sunday February 7th, a recreation of their music was staged for the first time at the National Museum Cardiff. Results of recent research about their DNA and the cause of their extinction have been published over the last week: the Neanderthals may have been the victims of climate change and modern humans did not interbreed with the Neanderthals. We may not descend from them after all!

Last Friday, BBC News published an article reporting on the results of the latest research into the cause of the extinction of the Neanderthals, led by Professor Clive Finlayson, the director of the Gibraltar Museum, which suggested that climate change may have partly caused the death of the Neanderthals. In 2006, evidence from radiocarbon dates obtained from Neanderthal campfires in Gorham’s Cave, a natural shelter cut into the rock of Gibraltar, revealed that a small population of Neanderthals had survived, longer than was previously believed, in Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar. The discovery sparked further research and, according to Professor Finlayson’s latest conclusions, they may have lived until 24,000 years ago, almost 1,000 years later than previous estimates.

Nevertheless, even this small surviving population eventually became extinct. How and why? Previous research assigned a key role to the arrival of the Homo sapiens in the death of the Neanderthals. In the game of natural selection they were allegedly better equipped because they were more intelligent, had better technology and were more able to adapt. The latest research suggests, however, that the disappearance of the Neanderthals was an altogether more complex process which cannot be explained by one sole factor.

In his book The Humans Who Went Extinct, Finlayson notably explains how they disappeared at a time when sea surface temperatures were the coldest they had been for the previous 250,000 years. The phenomenon, known as the Heinrich Event 2, may have caused drought in Iberia, affecting supplies of food and water. The Heinrich Event 2 was part of a series of other Heinrich Events which may have affected the survival of Neanderthals in other parts of Europe.

In the words of Professor Chris Stringer, of London's Natural History Museum:

‘For many years, people assumed that it was an overall superiority of modern
humans: that modern humans were more intelligent, that they had better
technology, or had more effective adaptations. They thought that when they came
into Neanderthal regions, the Neanderthals very quickly disappeared, because
they were out-competed. What we've learnt recently, is that the story was much
more complicated. There probably wasn't a single cause of the Neanderthal
extinction. They may have died out in different places for different
reasons.'

Finlayson’s conclusions are, however, not unanimous. Chronis Tzedakis, a professor at the University of Leeds, has notably argued against Finlayson that the Neanderthals survived climate change. His research has sought to put archaeological evidence for the survival of the Neanderthals in its climatic context. Results have revealed, however, that radiocarbon dates and calendar dates do not always match up, leading to discrepancies that can be thousands of years apart. He notably discovered that evidence from Gorham’s Cave followed the Heinrich Events, thus suggesting that the Neanderthals must have survived the Heinrich Event 2.

In Tzedakis words:

‘What we have managed to show is, in a sense to simplify the equation, and I
think we can be reasonably certain it was not the effects of abrupt,
catastrophic climate change and Heinrich Events that were responsible. Now, that
does not mean that climate was not involved at all. It is entirely possible that
you had a combination of factors, perhaps competition from modern humans at a
time of limited resources. Because climate is deteriorating at that time - we
are moving into the glacial maximum. So resources are scarce; but, on the other
hand, climate alone is not the most parsimonious explanation. So I think the
jury is still out on the factors that may have been involved.’

Although, both scientists agree that the Heinrich Event 2 took place, whether or not it caused the death of the Neanderthals is still open to debate and remains an unsolved mystery. Finlayson’s last words seem, however, particularly appropriate: over focusing on the cause of their extinction, risks causing us to overlook the fact that the Neanderthals nevertheless survived for three or four thousand years.

‘As far as I see it, they are intelligent human beings. Different, but when has
difference meant superiority or inferiority? That's the take-home message I
would have about our understanding of the Neanderthals today. A parallel form of
being human. "It is quite sobering that at one point in the history of the
planet, there were different types of us of which one - possibly by chance -
survived. In other words, we might be the Neanderthals discussing this today.’

Part 3 of the Neanderthal story will follow tomorrow, with the latest results of genetic research! What evidence is there that modern human beings descend from the Neanderthals?

Prehistoric Music

by Kathryn Hadley

Yesterday, the premiere of ‘Sounds of the Neanderthals’, a recreation of prehistoric music by Jazz composer Simon Thorne, was staged at the National Museum Cardiff. Thorne was commissioned by the National Museum Wales to create a musical backdrop to the Paleolithic section of its new exhibition ‘Origins: In Search of Early Wales’, which opened last December, and spent the last year researching the way in which Neanderthals created language through sound rather than words. He was introduced to brain experts, studied fossil remains from the museum’s collection and visited Pontnewydd cave in Denbighshire, where excavations between 1978 and 1995 revealed the earliest human presence in Wales dated to around 230,000 years ago. The exhibition notably includes teeth discovered at Pontnewydd cave as well as a Neanderthal hand axe. Thorne’s 75-minute composition was also inspired by Professor Stephen Mithen’s book The Singing Neanderthals and David Lewis Williams’s The Mind in the Cave. The event was follwed by a talk by Stephen Mithen from Reading University.

In April last year, a team of scientists led by Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University, reconstructed, for the first time, Neanderthal voices using 50,000-year-old fossils from France and a computer synthesizer (notably reported by Reuters). Stephen Mithen’s book notably argues that the Neanderthal language was more musical than modern human language and predated the separation of language and music into two different forms of cognition. Recent research has suggested that Neanderthals were more innovative and resourceful than was previously believed and that they may have created the first forms of music.

Thorne explained:

"It's a ridiculous notion to suggest we could ever know the precise role that
music played in the lives of the Neanderthals, but imagining it has been a
fascinating experience [...] Given that Neanderthal's man brain was about
the same size as ours, and much of our brain is given over to language, then you
can assume they probably had language too [...] We can't not be - we have to
invent things and who's to say Neanderthal man did not invent the beginnings of
music? [...] We use language for words, to communicate. But how do we learn
language? If you look at babies and the noise they make, they learn to make
singing noises before they learn to speak."

The Neanderthal man evolved from the late Homo erectus in West Eurasia and the middle-east about 230,000–150,000 years ago. The classification of the Neanderthal is subject to debate - he is either classified as a subspecies of humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) or as a separate species (Homo neanderthalensis). The Neanderthal was a cold-adapted species and they were the first humans to express aesthetic qualities and religious beliefs in the form of burials. They became extinct approximately 28,000 years ago as more numerous and versatile populations of Homo sapiens sapiens colonized their territories.

‘Sounds of the Neanderthals’ is due to go on a separate live tour in Wales, with four singers, stone instruments and a video project, at the end of March.

For more general information on the prehistoric period, visit our prehistory focus page http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=32972&amid=30258685
For information on the discoveries at Pontnewydd cave, visit the blog of the National Museum Wales
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/1968/