Anthropology.net

In a paper due to be published in the June 29th edition of ‘Science’, Tom Dillehay, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University, claims to have found the oldest evidence yet of preceramic horticulture, specifically from the Ñanchoc Valley; here are some details of the discoveries from EurekAlert!

Anthropologists working on the slopes of the Andes in northern Peru have discovered the earliest-known evidence of peanut, cotton and squash farming dating back 5,000 to 9,000 years. Their findings provide long-sought-after evidence that some of the early development of agriculture in the New World took place at farming settlements in the Andes.

Although this early form of agriculture has long been suspected to have existed, it is the implied complexity and intricacy of these preceramic societies which mark them out as especially noteworthy .

Dillehay and his colleagues found wild-type peanuts, squash and cotton as well as a quinoa-like grain, manioc and other tubers and fruits in the floors and hearths of buried preceramic sites, garden plots, irrigation canals, storage structures and on hoes. The researchers used a technique called accelerator mass spectrometry to determine the radiocarbon dates of the materials. Data gleaned from botanists, other archaeological findings and a review of the current plant community in the area suggest the specific strains of the discovered plant remains did not naturally grow in the immediate area.

“The use of these domesticated plants goes along with broader cultural changes we believe existed at that time in this area, such as people staying in one place, developing irrigation and other water management techniques, creating public ceremonials, building mounds and obtaining and saving exotic artifacts.” Read the rest of this entry »

This from BBC News, which details the discovery and subsequent archaeological excavation of two ‘Iron Age round houses’ dating back 2,000 years at Baile Sear, revealed by the erosional effects of a particularly heavy storm back in 2005, on the Hebridean island of North Uist. Other finds include what are thought to be salt pans on the beaches of Brora in Sutherland, and in both cases archaeologists are keen to record as much data as possible before the remains are swept away in subsequent storms.

These two locations form part of a larger project across the whole of Scotland, where similar sites are in danger of disappearing – many sites lie in the paths of violent storms coming in off the Atlantic in the west, and the North Sea over to the east. Low coastlines comprising mostly sand and associated dunes in the west, offer little in the way of resistance to the ravages of weather, which some believe will continue to worsen as local and global climate de-stabilise in unison.

The Council For Scottish Archaeology have instigated an initiative called ‘Adopt A Monument‘, in a bid to focus attention on these and other sites considered vulnerable, as well as providing help and advice to volunteer groups keen on improving the maintenance of and access to sites that may not have high profiles, but are nevertheless integral parts of the archaeology of Scotland as a whole.

The Iron Age in Britain corresponds with the early years of the Roman occupation, and although Scotland was never fully occupied by the imperial armies of Rome, the Caledonian armies in particular took something of a battering at the hands of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, following previous skirmishes which resulted in almost the entire 9th Legion being wiped out in a surprise attack.

However, the Roman army forced the Caledonian army into a set-piece fight at the battle of Mons Graupius in AD 84, and despite being outnumbered, Agricola inflicted a heavy defeat on Caledonian arms that was similar to that inflicted on Boudica and her armies at an unknown location in England, circa AD 60. Although Rome claimed to have quelled resistance in Scotland, the fact that the Hadrian and Antonine walls were constructed, is indicative that a potent threat was still perceived to exist in the far north of the British Isles, and that no further major military incursions were made by Rome into those lands. (TJ)

more images here

SCAPE Trust

see also: Discovery Of Bronze Age Stone Circle On Foula, Shetland Islands

Here’s a report on a paper published recently in PLoS Biology, namely Spontaneous Altruism By Chimpanzees And Young Children, in which it is shown that human children and chimpanzees display similar levels of altruism, a study which has raised questions once more about what makes humans different from all other animals, particularly those to whom were are apparently most genetically related, specifically the chimpanzee.

Felix Warneken and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology present experimental evidence that chimpanzees act altruistically toward genetically unrelated conspecifics.

In addition, in two comparative experiments, they found that both chimpanzees and human infants helped altruistically regardless of any expectation of reward, even when some effort was required, and even when the recipient was an unfamiliar individual–all features previously thought to be unique to humans.

This has led to conjecture that altruism may go back beyond the implied human/chimp divide, to a common ancestor (not a single trace of which has ever been found). I’m not convinced that altruism, whatever exactly that may be, is the only element at work here; maybe some primates are more geared towards problem solving, with their brains wired for resolving situations, rather than necessarily acting out of kindness to their fellow creatures.

If altruism can be said to exist, it would be interesting to see which, if any other, primates can be prompted into similar behaviours – for example, according to Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz et al, the orangutan shares many more unique features with a human than a chimp, and if this is indeed the case, maybe we should be testing for altruistic behaviour expressed at a similar level to the experiments described above, within that species as well. (TJ)

see also: Reciprocal Altruism