Anthropology.net

This Science paper just came out from my alma mater, UCSC, and it should be a very interesting read:

Human Genome Ultraconserved Elements Are Ultraselected

Ultraconserved elements in the human genome are defined as stretches of at least 200 base pairs of DNA that match identically with corresponding regions in the mouse and rat genomes. Most ultraconserved elements are noncoding and have been evolutionarily conserved since mammal and bird ancestors diverged over 300 million years ago. The reason for this extreme conservation remains a mystery. It has been speculated that they are mutational cold spots or regions where every site is under weak but still detectable negative selection. However, analysis of the derived allele frequency spectrum shows that these regions are in fact under negative selection that is much stronger than that in protein coding genes.

Oh yes, this new transposon piece is also intriguing. I guess I gots reading to do.

By way of the Discovery Channel, I’ve got some cool Egyptology news to share with you. The Brooklyn Museum is planning to extensively analyze its collections of Egyptian mummies in the coming weeks. One of the first mummies they analyzed, known as Demetrios, died sometime around 94-100 AD, and is already revealing some interesting results. To your right is a reconstruction of a portrait of Demetrios. He was excavated from a Roman cemetery in Hawara, Egypt in 1911.

In the photo below, you see Demetrios being prepped for the analysis, X-ray fluorescence. X-ray fluorescence exposes objects and materials to short wavelength beams of energy that excite atoms and cause them to release radiation. This radiation has energy characteristics of the atoms within the object, so the technique helps researchers to determine what chemicals might be present.

After the rays bombarded Demetrios, the red decorated linens you see in the photo that wrap him, matched the chemical composition of lead from Spain’s Rio Tinto region, known for over 5,000 years of silver mining. Museum conservator Lisa Bruno comments,

Spain either exported raw lead, a by product of silver, to be made into Spanish paint before making its way to Egypt…Imported materials would have been hard to come by and therefore probably expensive, so Bruno and her team now speculate that Demetrios was a very wealthy individual. “Red shroud mummies,” of which Demetrios is an example, are exceptionally rare, with only 10 known to exist in the entire world.

Only males received the full red treatment, with females having just touches of red on their more multicolored linen wrappings.

Red shroud mummies have portraits painted on wood that were placed over the wrapped bodies. Although Demetrios additionally had the number “89″ painted on the wood, a CT scan revealed he likely was in his 50′s at the time of his death. Bruno said his portrait does indeed look like that of a distinguished gent in his 50′s.

Lawrence Boxt, director of cardiac MRI’s and CT scans at New York’s North Shore University Hospital, supports the theory that Demetrios was wealthy because he “died a quiet, natural death” with little wear and tear on his bones and body, which otherwise would have suggested a typical laborer’s life.

Boxt even thinks slaves or other workers might have carried around Demetrios, due to the relatively pristine and unused nature of his bones.

This study is pretty fascinating. Using high tech methods, archaeologists reveal not only how widespread trade was throughout the Roman empire, but also give a little bit of insight to how the world worked 2,000 years ago.

For those of us into prehistoric art, the University of Bristol is running a press release announcing a possible Palaeolithic engraving discovered at Cheddar Caves and Gorge by members of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society (UBSS).

The engraving, appears to be an outline drawing of a mammoth. The image on your right, is all I have to show off of it, and it really doesn’t look like anything other than the side of a cave to me. It is estimated to be about 13,000 years old.

Even more fascinating is the claim that the engraving technique of this drawing at the Cheddar caves mimics famous French and Spanish decorated caves.

From the press release,

The team, led by Graham Mullan and Linda Wilson, has carried out investigations in a number of the Cheddar Gorge caves. The latest find is of a possibly late Upper Palaeolithic engraving in a small alcove in the main showcave, Gough’s Cave.

Graham Mullan said: “Unlike our previous finds of abstract designs in the caves in this area, this is a clear representation of an animal. We are more confident that at least part of it was humanly made and the subject material places it firmly in the latter part of the last Ice Age. Finds of mammoth ivory of that age have been made in this cave in the past indicating that these animals would have been known to the inhabitants.

“Although the cave has been studied by many archaeologists, this engraving has previously escaped notice because it is quite difficult to make out. For this reason, a careful study has been made and this announcement was delayed until we were reasonably confident of the attribution.”

Bob Smart of Cheddar Caves and Gorge said: “We welcome yet another indication of how important the Cheddar Caves were to our ancestors 13,000 years ago, and hope this will broaden the general understanding of early British life. We were intrigued when Graham and Linda first suggested this project, and are delighted that they have brought it to a successful conclusion both in Gough’s Cave and in Long Hole. We congratulate them on the persistence and perceptivity with which they have brought to light evidence which had been overlooked for a century.”

The most current issue of the Four Stone Hearth is up at Archaeolog, and I’ll be honest… I’m a little curious about what’s going on with our anthropology blogging carnival.

This current issue has six entries, five from the same blog, and I know there shoulda been at least one more post. I submitted an entry on August 12th, specifically the Ilert fossil review, but it is not in the current issue.

I don’t know why it didn’t show up.

Maybe my Aug. 12th email with the submission got marked as spam? So, I commented on the Archaeolog post asking to see if they got my submission. It has been a long while since I submitted my comment, but my comment hasn’t shown up. Either the authors haven’t gotten around to approve my comment or they decided to moderate it.

This whole situation is no big deal really. However, I can’t help but to wonder if something fishy is going on? I hope not. When I organized the Four Stone Hearth, I didn’t plan for our anthropology blog carnival to be selective.