http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/004733.html
Oetzi's DNA reveals health risks and relations
5 March 2012
The world's most famous frozen corpse has had his genome sequenced. An international team has recently published the almost complete DNA sequence of 5,300-year-old Oetzi the Tyrolean Iceman - discovered in the Alps near the Italian-Austrian border in 1991 - and has found clues as to the whereabouts of his closest living relations.
In 2008, scientists reported the complete sequence of DNA taken from Oetzi's cellular mitochondria. It contained mutations not found in present-day populations, and led to speculation that the iceman had belonged to a people that has vanished from Europe. To get a better picture of Oetzi's ancestry and a look at some of his genetic traits, Albert Zink, head of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano (Italy) and his team team sequenced the DNA from the nuclei of cells taken from a sliver of the iceman's pelvic bone. The sequence accounts for around 96% of Oetzi's genome.
The data suggest that Oetzi had brown eyes and type-O blood, and was lactose intolerant. Zink's team also discovered gene variants linked to hardened arteries, which could help to account for calcium deposits found in scans. "He wasn't obese, he was very active, he doesn't have strong risk factors for developing calcification of his heart," says Zink. "Perhaps he developed this due to a genetic predisposition."
Oetzi's genome also hints at other health problems: Zink's team found almost two-thirds of the genome of Borrelia borgdorferi, a bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Zink found no other telltale signs of Lyme disease in Oetzi's preserved tissues, but he speculates that tattoos on the iceman's spine and ankles and behind his right knee could have been an attempt to treat the joint pain that occurs when the condition goes untreated.
Zink's team also gathered information about Oetzi's ancestry. His Y chromosome possesses mutations most commonly found among men from Sardinia and Corsica, and his nuclear genome puts his closest present-day relatives in the same area. Perhaps Oetzi's kind once lived across Europe, before dying out or interbreeding with other groups everywhere except on those islands. That makes sense, says Eske Willerslev, a palaeogenomicist at the University of Copenhagen. "Sardinians are a group that people have considered distinct from other Europeans, and in this regard it would be interesting if they were more widely distributed in the past."
Edited from Nature (28 February 2012)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-17300084
Worsley Man: Hospital scanner probes Iron Age bog death
8 March 2012 Last updated at 16:03
Bryan Sitch, curator of archaeology at the museum, said it now appeared the man had been beaten about the head, garrotted and then beheaded
The head of an Iron Age man who died almost 2,000 years ago has been scanned in a Manchester hospital to shed light on how he died.
Worsley Man is thought to have lived around 100 AD when Romans occupied much of Britain.
Since its discovery in a Salford peat bog in 1958, the head has been kept at Manchester Museum on Oxford Road.
The scans at the Manchester Children's Hospital have now revealed more details about his violent death.
Doctors said CAT scan tests revealed damage to the remains of his neck, almost certainly caused by a ligature.
Bryan Sitch,
Manchester Museum
Speculation about the death of the man, thought to be in his 20s or 30s, has previously included robbery or human sacrifice.
Bryan Sitch, curator of archaeology at Manchester Museum, said it now appeared the man was bludgeoned over the head, garrotted then beheaded.
He said: "The radiology staff at the hospital were quite excited to have a 2,000-year-old patient.
"This really was an extraordinary level of violence, it could be that there was some sort of ritual behind this."
The death of Worsley Man shares some similarities with another Iron Age body found in a Cheshire peat bog in 1984.
Tests on Lindow Man, who lived around 150 years earlier, suggest he had also been garrotted, as well as having his throat slit.
Iron Age murder mystery as CT scan shows British man from 100AD was beaten, strangled, then beheaded in 'pagan ritual'
By ROB WAUGH
PUBLISHED: 10:48, 9 March 2012 | UPDATED: 12:13, 9 March 2012
Archaeologists have solved a 1900-year-old 'cold case' mystery - using a medical CT scanner to scan the head of an Iron Age murder victim.
The preserved head of the second century Briton - known as The Worsley Man due to his location near Salford - was found in a peat bog in 1958.
The scan shows he as bludgeoned over the head, garrotted and then beheaded - leading archaeologists to suspect he was sacrificed.
A CT scan of the Iron Age 'Worsley Man' has shown that he was bludgeoned over the head, strangled, then beheaded - and the level of violence has led archaeologists to speculate that it may have been a pagan ritual
Experts had been divided over how he died - but the new CT scan shows clear marks of the ligature that strangled him.
The Worsley Man is thought to have lived around 100AD when Romans occupied much of Britain.
His head has been kept at the Manchester Museum on Oxford Road since its discovery.
Museum staff teamed up with doctors at the newly-built Manchester Children’s Hospital who agreed to carry out detailed CT scans on the ancient head.
The tests reveal damage to what remains of the neck, almost certainly caused by a ligature.
Brian Stich, the museum’s curator of archaeology, said: ‘This really was an extraordinary level of violence. It could be that there was some sort of ritual behind this.
'Previous tests have shown the remains of a garrotte in his neck although some had speculated this could have been a necklace. But on the new scans you can see the marks of the ligature.’
Historians have long argued about why the Salford man, thought to be in his twenties or thirties, was murdered, with explanations ranging from mugging to human sacrifice.
The violent death shares chilling similarities with the famous Lindow Man, whose preserved body was found in a Cheshire peat bog in 1984. Tests suggest the Lindow man, who lived around 150 years earlier, had also been beaten, garrotted and had his throat slit
The violent death shares chilling similarities with the famous Lindow Man, whose preserved body was found in a Cheshire peat bog in 1984.
Tests suggest the Lindow man, who lived around 150 years earlier, had also been beaten, garrotted and had his throat slit.
The violence fuelled speculation that early Britons were able to practise sacrifice under the noses of their Roman occupiers, who had garrisons in Chester and Manchester.
The latest scans were carried out at the nearby hospital in the evening when the equipment is not normally used.
Ancient-remains experts from Manchester and Nottingham Universities have been helping analyse the medical scans and hope to be able to conduct further tests.
Museum bosses praised staff at the hospital for helping shed new light on the historic discovery.
Mr Sitch added: ‘The radiology staff at the hospital were quite excited to have a 2,000-year-old patient.’
http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2012/8294.html
Bristol archaeologists unearth slave burial ground on St Helena
Press release issued 8 March 2012
Archaeologists from the University of Bristol have unearthed a unique slave burial ground on the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena. The excavation, which took place in advance of construction of a new airport on the island, has revealed dramatic insights into the victims of the Atlantic slave trade during the notorious Middle Passage.
The tiny island of St Helena, 1,000 miles off the coast of south-west Africa, acted as the landing place for many of the slaves, captured by the Royal Navy during the suppression of the slave trade between 1840 and 1872. During this period a total of around 26,000 freed slaves were brought to the island, most of whom were landed at a depot in Rupert’s Bay. The appalling conditions aboard the slave ships meant that many did not survive their journey, whilst Rupert’s Valley – arid, shadeless, and always windy – was poorly suited to act as a hospital and refugee camp for such large numbers. At least 5,000 people are likely to have been buried there.
Part of the cemetery was investigated between 2006 and 2008 in advance of a new road that had to pass through Rupert’s Valley to provide access to the proposed airport project. Some 325 bodies in a combination of individual, multiple and mass graves were discovered. Only five individuals were buried in coffins: one adolescent and four still- or newborn babies. The remainder had been placed (or thrown) directly into shallow graves, before being hastily covered. In some cases mothers were buried with their presumed children, or sometimes the bodies were so close that there might have been a familial relationship.
Now archaeologists, led by Dr Andrew Pearson of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol, are publishing for the first time the results of their discoveries and the subsequent scientific investigations of the human remains and associated grave goods buried with them.
Osteological analysis shows that 83 per cent of the bodies were those of children, teenagers or young adults – prime material for the slave traders who sought victims with a long potential working life. In most cases the actual cause of death is not clear, but this is unsurprising because the main killers aboard a slave ship (such as dehydration, dysentery and smallpox) leave no pathological trace. Nevertheless, scurvy was widespread on the skeletons; several showed indications of violence and two older children appear to have been shot.
Despite its horrific nature, the archaeology showed those buried within the graveyard as more than simply victims. These were people from a rich culture, with a strong sense of ethnic and personal identity. This is best evidenced by numerous examples of dental modifications, achieved by chipping or carving of the front teeth. A few had also managed to retain items of jewellery (beads and bracelets), despite the physical ‘stripping process’ that would have taken place after their capture, prior to embarkation on the slave ships.
In addition to the large number of beads, burial conditions allowed for the survival of textiles, including ribbons. A number of metal tags were also found on the bodies that would have identified the slaves by name or number.
Dr Andrew Pearson, director of the project, commented: “Studies of slavery usually deal with unimaginable numbers, work on an impersonal level, and, in so doing, overlook the individual victims. In Rupert’s Valley, however, the archaeology brings us (quite literally) face-to-face with the human consequences of the slave trade.”
Professor Mark Horton said: “Here we have the victims of the Middle Passage – one of the greatest crimes against humanity – not just as numbers, but as human beings. These remains are certainly some of the most moving that I have ever seen in my archaeological career.”
The artefacts from the excavations are currently at the University of Bristol and will be transferred to Liverpool for an exhibition at the International Slavery Museum in 2013 before returning to St Helena. The human remains will shortly be re-interred on St Helena.
The research was supported by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Leverhulme Trust.
The monograph detailing the excavations is published by the Council for British Archaeology: Pearson, Jeffs, Witkin and MacQuarrie, 2011, Infernal Traffic. Excavation of a Liberated African Graveyard in Rupert’s Valley, St Helena. CBA Research Report 169.
An article on the project can also be found in the most recent edition of the magazine British Archaeology (No 123 – March/April 2012, pp 28–33).
The launch of the book, with a lecture on the findings, will be held at the University’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol, on Friday 9 March at 5.30pm. Slave burial ground excavated on St Helena
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2012/slave-burial-ground-excavated-on-st-helena
Slave Burial Ground Excavated on St Helena
The tiny island of St Helena, 1,000 miles off the coast of south-west Africa, is best known for being the place of Napoleon’s exile after his defeat at Waterloo in 1815 until his death in 1821. However, it also acted as the landing place for many of the slaves, rescued by the Royal Navy during the suppression of the slave trade between 1840 and 1872.
During this period a total of around 26,000 freed slaves were brought to the island, most of whom were landed at a depot in Rupert’s Bay. The appalling conditions aboard the slave ships meant that many did not survive their journey, whilst Rupert’s Valley – arid, shadeless, and always windy – was poorly suited to act as a hospital and refugee camp for such large numbers. At least 5,000 people are likely to have been buried there.
Not quite free
From the 1840s, the Royal Navy stationed a squadron at Jamestown on St Helena to suppress the slave trade and enforce Britain’s abolition of slavery and a court was established to bring to trial those pursuing the slave trade on the high seas. Captured slaver ships laden with what was called ‘Prize Slave Cargo’ were landed at St Helena, where ‘Prize Slaves’ had to perform a 14 year indentured labour period before being freed. At St Helena the ‘Prize Slaves’ were interned in special camps and referred to as ‘Liberated Africans’. However, soon these liberated slaves were so numerous as to strain the islands resources, so that those not locally indentured as servants and labourers were offered immediate freedom (without any indenture clause) and free passage to various destinations in the West Indies, on condition that they freely were prepared to leave St Helena. (1)
The excavation site in Rupert's Valley from Bunker Battery
A chance to highlight the past
In 2008, as part of further investigative works prior to the construction of an airport on the island, a major programme of field work was undertaken – the first archaeological research to be carried out on the island. This included building recording across the entire airport development area and excavation in one specific location: Rupert’s Valley. The work was directed by Andrew Pearson in collaboration with Blackfreighter Archaeology and Conservation, with staff from AOC Archaeology and Bristol University, aided by volunteers from St Helena.
The inhabitants of St Helena come to a site Open Day
The excavations took place within part of a cemetery for ‘Liberated Africans’ freed from slave ships by the Royal Navy in the middle years of the 19th century. Much of the valley is occupied by these unmarked graveyards, and the archaeological works only uncovered a very small proportion of the total number of burials that are known to exist. Some 325 bodies in a combination of individual, multiple and mass graves were discovered. Only five individuals were buried in coffins: one adolescent and four still- or newborn babies. The remainder had been placed (or thrown) directly into shallow graves, before being hastily covered. In some cases mothers were buried with their presumed children, or sometimes the bodies were so close that there might have been a familial relationship.
Female and infant burial
Published results reveal a shocking picture
Now archaeologists, led by Dr Andrew Pearson of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol, are publishing for the first time the results of their discoveries and the subsequent scientific investigations of the human remains and associated grave goods buried with them.
Metal tags that would have identified the slaves by name or number were found on some bodies
Osteological analysis shows that 83 per cent of the bodies were those of children, teenagers or young adults – prime material for the slave traders who sought victims with a long potential working life. In most cases the actual cause of death is not clear, but this is unsurprising because the main killers aboard a slave ship (such as dehydration, dysentery and smallpox) leave no pathological trace. Nevertheless, scurvy was widespread on the skeletons; several showed indications of violence and two older children appear to have been shot.
Personal identity remains
Despite its horrific nature, the archaeology showed those buried within the graveyard as more than simply victims. These were people from a rich culture, with a strong sense of ethnic and personal identity. This is best evidenced by numerous examples of dental modifications, achieved by chipping or carving of the front teeth. A few had also managed to retain items of jewellery (beads and bracelets), despite the physical ‘stripping process’ that would have taken place after their capture, prior to embarkation on the slave ships.
In addition to the large number of beads, burial conditions allowed for the survival of textiles, including ribbons. A number of metal tags were also found on the bodies that would have identified the slaves by name or number.
Dr Andrew Pearson, director of the project, commented: “Studies of slavery usually deal with unimaginable numbers, work on an impersonal level, and in so doing, overlook the individual victims. In Rupert’s Valley, however, the archaeology brings us (quite literally) face-to-face with the human consequences of the slave trade.”
Professor Mark Horton said: “Here we have the victims of the Middle Passage – one of the greatest crimes against humanity – not just as numbers, but as human beings. These remains are certainly some of the most moving that I have ever seen in my archaeological career.”
Studies of slavery usually deal with unimaginable numbers, work on an impersonal level, and, in so doing, overlook the individual victims. In Rupert’s Valley, however, the archaeology brings us (quite literally) face-to-face with the human consequences of the slave trade. : Dr Andrew Pearson
Andrew Pearson comments that “What has been found is a stark reminder of the process and conditions of the slave trade between Africa and the Americas. It is dramatic and disturbing”.
Over 11 million people were transported across the Atlantic between the 16th and 19th centuries, but Rupert’s Valley contains one of the few (and perhaps the only) graveyard of Africans rescued directly from the slave ships. Although remote in geographical terms, this small valley is therefore of immense cultural and heritage significance.
The artefacts from the excavations are currently at the University of Bristol and will be transferred to Liverpool for an exhibition at the International Slavery Museum in 2013 before returning to St Helena. The human remains will shortly be re-interred on St Helena.
Source: Bristol University Press Release
Ecuador 'locates final resting place of last Inca emperor's tomb'
It has been sought for centuries but remained a mystery, still out of reach. Now an expert has pinpointed a site that could be Atahualpa's resting place: the last Inca emperor's tomb.
(Atawallpa 1497-1533 Last sovereign emperor of the Tahuantinsuyu or the Inca Empire)
7:42AM GMT 29 Feb 2012
"This is an absolutely important find for the history of Ecuador's archeology and for the (Andean) region," said Patrimony Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa, speaking of the ruins found by Ecuadoran historian Tamara Estupinan.
The Inca empire, in the 1400s and early 1500s, spanned much of South America's Andean region, over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers), from modern-day Bolivia and Peru to Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia. It included dozens of ethnic groups with different languages, cities, temples, farming terraces and fortresses.
Atahualpa was the last of his dynasty. During the Spanish conquest he was taken captive in what is now Cajamarca, Peru.
He had been pressed to convert to Christianity and then the Spanish executed him by strangulation, then after his death in 1533, the empire began to fall apart.
This year Ecuador's state Cultural Patrimony Institute will start work on a promising archeological site, and Estupinan will be front and center to raise the curtain on a massive complex sprawling over a ridge at 1,020 meters.
It was back in June 2010 that Estupinan, now a researcher with the French Institute for Andean Studies (IFEA), found what she describes as an "Inca archeological site" high on the Andes' eastern flank amid plunging canyons. Nearby are a small local farm and a facility for raising fighting cocks.
But in the area called Sigchos, about 45 miles south of Quito, up on a hill dotted with brush, there is more - much more: she found a complex of walls, aqueducts and stonework that lie inside the Machay rural retreat. Machay means burial in the Quechua language.
"This is a late imperial design Inca monument that leads to several rectangular rooms that were built with cut polished stone set around a trapezoidal plaza," Estupinan explained to AFP.
Archeologist Tamara Bray, of Wayne State University in Michigan, and a colleague of Estupinan, confirmed that the site boasts "an Inca edifice that is phenomenally well preserved and quite important scientifically."
Inside the facility, a walled walkway starts at the Machay River and one can see the shape of an "ushno", essentially stairs that form a pyramid believed to be the (capac's) emperor's throne. Meanwhile a tiny cut channel of water would spout out a small waterfall nicknamed "the Inca's bath".
The director at the Lima-based IFEA, Georges Lomne, said the find appears to confirm that the Incas were active and present in a lowland area well outside what their best-known area of operations were: Andean highlands.
"Malqui-Machay is part of a broader complex that also would have included the Quilotoa lagoon and the area called Pujili (Cotopaxi)," he explained.
"All of this belonged to Atahualpa. It was his personal fiefdom in the way that French (and other) kings had royal domains," Lomne added.
Bray also stressed that "very few such Inca sites have been found in this type of tropical lowland. I think that the Incas used it as a sort of getaway."
Estupinan has some more specific ideas.
She believes Malqui-Machay is Atahualpa's final resting place. The tomb of the last capac (emperor) of Tahuantinsuyo, the trans-Andean empire.
While many experts have other theories, Estupinan believes that when Atahualpa was killed his remains could have been brought by his most loyal man, Ruminahui, to Sigchos for burial, to a place where Ruminahui based his fight for survival against the European intruders.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/10-die-egypt-while-digging-ancient-treasures-103017960.html?
10 die in Egypt while digging for ancient treasures
By AFP | AFP – 9 hours ago
Ten people were killed when the soil caved in on them as they were illegally digging for ancient treasures under a house in a central Egyptian village, police officials told AFP on Monday.
The 10, including four brothers, were buried alive when the walls of the dig collapsed in the village of Arab al-Manasra, north of the historic city of Luxor.
Rescue services were working to recover the bodies, the official said, adding that two people were also injured in the incident.
Ambitions of making money quickly have incited many to turn to illegal archaeological digging, particularly in antiquities-rich locations such as Luxor, Aswan and Cairo.
"We have to work on many levels to stop these get-rich-quick schemes, where people are digging for an illusion," Mansur Boreik, head of the Luxor antiquities department told AFP.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/2/22/nation/10773938&sec=nation
Woman finds ancient artifact in baby shark
By R.S.N. MURALI
murali@thestar.com.my
MALACCA: A baby shark being prepared for lunch gave a family here a big surprise - an ancient artifact believed to be dated long before the Portuguese conquest of Malacca.
Housewife Suseela Menon, from Klebang, made the priceless discovery while filleting the fish for lunch.
It is believed to be a medallion worn by the Portuguese soldiers, presumably as a divine protection, during their conquests in this part of the world in the 16th century.
One side of the medallion is a profile of a woman's head with a crown and encircled by a halo and an inscription that is unclear.
The other side is a crucifix with an engraved inscription that read ANTONII.
Checks with a local historian revealed the head engraving could be that of Queen Elizabeth, the consort of King Denis I of Portugal during his reign from 1271 to 1336.
Suseela said she immediately cleaned the medallion and preserved it in a box.
“I bought two sharks from the wet market and was taken aback upon discovering the object inside the stomach of one of the fishes,” said the 47-year-old mother-of-two at her home yesterday.
Suseela had wanted to prepare shark curry for her husband.
“Finally, my husband decided not to eat the fish as the object seems to be a religious item,” she said.
The medallion is 7.4cm long, 6cm wide and weighs 10g.
“My husband feels it is a blessing for the family to have the medallion coming to our home from beneath the sea. We will always cherish it,” said Suseela.