Anthropology.net

I wrote previously about mankind’s attempts to resurrect some faunal components of the Pleistocene, but here’s a story about mankind’s attempts to obliterate one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer societies that has survived (just about) to the present day. This from MSNBC…

…members of the dwindling Hadzabe tribe, who now number fewer than 1,500, say it is being unduly hastened by a United Arab Emirates royal family, which plans to use the tribal hunting land as a personal safari playground.

The deal between the Tanzanian government and Tanzania UAE Safaris Ltd. leases nearly 2,500 square miles of this sprawling, yellow-green valley near the storied Serengeti Plain to members of the royal family, who chose it after a helicopter tour.

Apparently, the Abu Dhabi royal family were concerned that hunting lands they already used nearby, had become overcrowded by too many members of the same royal family, who are evidently enthusiastic hunters. One detail that caught my eye was the way in which the royals surveyed their new sport-hunting domain from a helicopter – too bad they didn’t have the courage to explain direct to the Habadze why they are about to be denied access to what little they have left in the way of land resources. Here’s a look at one of the ways in which the Hadzabe, like many before them, have gradually been ground down… Read the rest of this entry »

Using fancy medical imaging techniques, like computed tomography (CT) scans, Frank Rühli from the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, reinvestigated the cause of the iceman, Ötzi’s death.

CT scans allow medical professionals, and in this case a multidisciplinary team of investigators, to analyze a body without invasive surgery. CT scans take a whole lot of 2-D X-rays around a single axis and a computer takes these images and compiles them in order to generate a 3-D image of the internals of the object. The image to your right is the 3-D reconstruction of Ötzi’s shoulder girdle and surrounding areas.

Rühli worked in collaboration with Eduard Egarter Vigl of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, as well as Patrizia Pernter and Paul Gostner from the Department of Radiology at General Hospital Bolzano and published their findings in March, when Carl shared this news with us.

The press is just now running the conclusions that the team found and originally published in the Journal of Archaeological Science,

“lesion of a close-to-the-shoulder artery has been found… [the] lesion of the dorsal wall of the left subclavian artery, the artery underneath the clavicle, caused by an earlier, already-detected arrowhead that remains in the back. In addition, a large haematoma [blood clot] could be visualized in the surrounding tissue. By incorporating historic as well as modern data on the survival ship of such a severe lesion, the scientists concluded that the Iceman died within a short time due to this lesion.”

The image of the blood clot they found is also to your right, if you want, click on the image to get an in depth caption describing what you should be seeing. In the abstract, the researchers conclude the following in their own words,

“As the main pathologic finding, the left dorsal subclavian artery contures shows a 13 mm-long part where the vessel wall is damaged and a 3 mm-long irregular pseudo-aneurysm – a typical complication of a laceration of the subclavian artery. In the surrounding soft tissue a large haematoma is visible. Historic records highlight the fatal destiny of subclavian artery injuries e.g. due to massive active bleeding and shock-related cardiac arrest. Therefore, the Iceman’s cause of death by an arrowhead lacerating among others the left subclavian artery and leading to a deadly hemorrhagic shock can be now postulated with almost complete certainty, especially when taking the environmental (3’210 meters above sea level) and historic (5’300 BP) settings into account.”

I consider this another excellent example of a multidisciplinary approach to solving a archaeological mystery. This sorta research brought the best of forensic anthropology, anatomy and medical technology, into good ole archaeology. And to make it all the much better, it was non-invasive!

One last little tid bit of extra information before I let you leave this Sunday morning, Rühli is the project leader of the Swiss Mummy Project. This project aims to,

“use non-invasive methods to gain information on life, death and after-death alterations (e.g., embalming-related changes) on historic mummies. To achieve this, mostly radiological examination techniques such as CT are used. The work of the Swiss Mummy Project is funded by the Forschungskredit (research fund) of the University of Zurich as well as by collaborations with Siemens Medical Solutions, Zuse-Institute Berlin and the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim.”

Also, you may also be interested to read Afarensis‘ take on this, and my 2006 discussion on the iceman’s infertility.

This is a combination of two items in the news this week, and both are concerned with reconstructing the past – the first being an attempt to partially revive a past which can be shown to have existed, the second being an attempt to portray a past that never was, but nevertheless presented as a scientifically researched venture.

The first article over at Scientific American examines a ‘re-wilding’ project slated for Europe, whose aim is to bring back to life some of the mega-fauna that perished here about 50,000 years ago, and reflects a similar proposed venture in the US. As we see…

A few years ago, a group of scientists conceived a “re-wilding” plan aimed at restoring North America’s lost Pleistocene ecosystems. The purpose: to restore lost ecological processes and evolutionary potential as well as provide a safe haven for megafauna barely surviving in conflict-ridden, unstable or densely populated regions elsewhere.

Since that time, much of the discussion about re-wilding has remained focused on North America. Meanwhile, other candidates for re-wilding have been largely overlooked, although there is a major effort underway in Siberia to preserve and extend Pleistocene-like grasslands at northern latitudes as well as initiatives in Europe, the continent that may hold the greatest promise for bringing the Pleistocene back to life.

Bearing in mind that the planet seems to be in the process of gradual and/or sudden climate change, predicting the suitability of areas able to retain long-term viability for any extant animals is going to be difficult, and accommodating guests from yesteryear, even more so. Europe is considered a better candidate than America, mainly because the die-off in America was so extreme, with much of what died leaving no direct genetic descendants.
Read the rest of this entry »