Ancient World Review

The Prehistoric Bonn-Oberkassel Dog

"In 1914, on the eve of the First World War, two human skeletons were discovered during basalt quarrying at Oberkassel, Bonn in Germany. With them were found a right mandible of a 'wolf' and other animal bones. After the end of the First World War, in 1919 a full study was made of these remains. The mandible was recorded as 'Canis lupus, the wolf' and some of the other animal bones were assigned to it. The remains were then stored and forgotten for fifty years. In the late 1970s there was renewed interest in the Oberkassel remains and the mandible was re-examined and reclassified as belonging to a domesticated dog. The mitochondrial DNA sequence of the mandible was matched to Canis lupus familiaris - dog, and confirms that the Oberkassel dog is a direct ancestor of today's dogs. The bodies were dated to 14,223 YBP. This implies that in Western Europe there were morphologically and genetically 'modern' dogs in existence around 14,500 years ago." Source: Wikipedia.

"Later studies assigned more of the other animal bones to the dog until most of a skeleton could be assembled. The humans were a man aged 40 years and a woman aged 25 years. All three skeletal remains were found covered with large 20 cm thick basalt blocks and were sprayed with red hematite powder. The consensus is that a dog was buried along with two humans. A tooth belonging to a smaller and older dog was also identified but it had not been sprayed with red powder. The cause of the death of the two humans is not known. A pathology study of the dog remains suggests that it had died young after suffering from canine distemper between ages 19 and 23 weeks. The dog could not have survived during this period without intensive human care. During this period the dog was of no utilitarian use to humans, and suggests the existence of emotional or symbolic ties between these humans and this dog. In conclusion, near the end of the Late Pleistocene at least some humans regarded dogs not just materialistically, but had developed emotional and caring bonds for their dogs."

Dog Burial A Common Ritual In Stone Age Iberia

This excerpt from a 2016 National Geographic program shows that prehistoric dog burials were common around the world.

"Coinciding with the Pit Grave culture (4200-3600 years before our era), coming from Southern Europe, the Neolithic communities of the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula started a ceremonial activity related to the sacrifice and burial of dogs. The high amount of cases that are recorded in Catalonia suggests it was a general practice and it proves the tight relationship between humans and these animals, which, apart from being buried next to them, were fed a similar diet to humans'. " Source: Science Daily.

25,000-Year-Old Javelin Found Embedded In Wooly Mammoth

"About 25,000 years ago, ice age hunters in what is now Poland threw a light spear known as a javelin at a mammoth. Now, the discovery of that javelin, still embedded in the mammoth's rib, has revealed a major surprise: the first evidence that ice age people in Europe used weapons to hunt the giant beasts." Source: Live Science.

Note: The video shows how to make a spear using a bone spearhead. The javelin that killed the mammoth had a flint point "which likely broke when a hunter drove the spear into the mammoth's body." The mammoth probably wasn't killed by this one wound, however, and researchers think it was brought down by several hunters working together.

New Human Ancestor Confirmed: Australopithecus Sediba

Video from 2017.

"A new ‘missing link’ between our ape-like ancestors and early humans has been identified, showing that we were still swinging from the trees less than two million years ago." Source: The Telegraph (registration required for full story).

"The first fossils of Australopithecus sediba were discovered in Malapa, South Africa [1], ten years ago, but experts were unsure if they were unique or just examples of already known species."

"Now after a decade of a research experts have confirmed they do belong to a unique species which slots into the human family tree between little upright apes like ‘Lucy’ - the 3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton found in 1974 - and Homo habilis, the first tool-maker, which live around 2.1 to 1.5 million years ago."

[1] The Malapa Fossil Site is the so-called "Cradle of Mankind."

Video from 2013. Closed captions helpful.

These Au. Sediba specimens are intermediate forms or "missing-links" who could live in the trees but were well on their way to living on the ground. According to The Smithsonian, "[t]he combination of primitive and derived traits in Australopithecus sediba shows part of the transition from a form adapted to partial arboreality to one primarily adapted to bipedal walking. but the legs and feet point to a previously unknown way of walking upright."

The story here is that Au. Sediba has been confirmed to be a distinct species and human ancestor:

"The researchers find that Au. sediba is in fact a unique species, refuting earlier critics who questioned its validity as a species. Au. sediba is distinct from both Australopithecus africanus, with which it shares a close geographic proximity, and from early members of the genus Homo (e.g., Homo habilis) in both East and South Africa; yet, it also shares features with both groups, suggesting a close evolutionary relationship." Source: Archaeology News Network.

Video from 2015.

I've lost count of how many human ancestors have been discovered so far. There are at least a dozen, I think, ranging from creatures like Australopithecus to near-humans like the Neanderthals. Au. Sediba was part of "a major transition in hominin evolution, that of the largely ape-like species included broadly in the genus Australopithecus to the earliest members of our own genus, Homo." (Archaeology News Network)

Note: I could be wrong about this, but I think Au. Sediba's relationship with humans is only tangential.

"A remarkably complete skeleton introduced in 2010 as 'the best candidate' for the immediate ancestor of our genus Homo may just be a pretender. Instead of belonging to the human lineage, the new species of Australopithecus sediba is more closely related to other hominins from South Africa that are on a side branch of the human family tree, according to a new analysis of the fossil presented here last week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists." Source: Science (2017).

This might have changed with these new finds. I'm not really sure. If not, then Au. sediba is more like our cousin, five or six times removed, than one of our great-great-etc-grandparents.

Ancient DNA From VIking Graves Proves Warriors Rode Male Horses

Video from 2017. A horse buried in this grave is described at 2:18.

"Vikings who settled in Iceland more than 1,000 years ago valued their horses so much that the men were buried with their trusty steeds. And DNA analysis of these treasured animals recently proved that the horses consigned to the grave with their manly owners were males, too." Source: Live Science.

"Iceland is home to 355 known Viking graves dating from the late ninth century to the early 11th century A.D., and the occupants are mostly middle-age men, researchers reported in a new study. Horses are common in these graves — more than 175 horses appear in 148 graves. The majority of the animals were clearly associated with the human skeletons, and they appeared to have been slaughtered 'specifically for burial,' the scientists reported."

2300-Yr-Old Egyptian Fortress Guarded A Port That Sent Elephants To War

Berenike Project dig. Video from 2013.

"Berenice (Berenike) or Berenice Troglodytica .., also known as Baranis, is an ancient seaport of Egypt on the west coast of the Red Sea ... It was founded in 275 BC by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC), who named it after his mother, Berenice I of Egypt.Troglodytica refers to the aboriginal people of the region, the 'Troglodytai' or 'cave dwellers'." Source: Wikipedia.

"...Berenice was quite famous and prosperous in antiquity ... From the 1st century BC until the 2nd century AD, Berenice was one of the trans-shipping points of trade between India, Arabia, and Upper Egypt."

According to Live Science (2019), "[h]istorical records indicate that Berenike was part of a chain of ports constructed along the Red Sea to help supply war elephants to the army of the Ptolemies ... In 2014, genetic research revealed that the Ptolemies likely imported their elephants from Eritrea, in East Africa."

Note: Back in 2014, the now defunct Past Horizons reported that "[a]rchaeologists working at the ancient port of Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt have started to uncover an ancient Roman era ship’s hull and an extensive burial ground for animals. They have also started to pinpoint some of the major buildings of the port through geophysical work." The video above shows the excavation of a trench during one of the Berenike Project's digs (exact date unknown). At that time the connection between the port and the war-elephant trade was apparently still unknown.

Sex In A World Of Fear: Scared Rodents Produce More Offspring

"Rodent mothers produce more offspring after smelling odors produced by frightened males. This is reported by a team of biologists from Finland and the Netherlands and bring new information the proximate and ultimate explanations of small mammal behavioral responses." Source: Phys.org.

"Fear of being eaten has the power to shape populations and drive evolution. The effect the authors report is large: exposed mothers produce litters with about fifty percent more pups compared to unexposed control mothers."

Comment: If the rat population can grow so explosively in places like India where they're venerated, I hate to think how quickly they reproduce when living in a state of fear. Rats, of course, are considered to be vermin in the West but they're actually nothing to be afraid of according to the noted English rat expert, James Herbert.

Younger Dryas Period Caused By Massive Arctic Flood?

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Red arrows are warm surface currents. Blue arrows indicate cooler deep currents. Video from 2008.

"A research team found the fingerprint of a massive flood of fresh water in the western Arctic, thought to be the cause of an ancient cold snap that began around 13,000 years ago. " Source: Science Daily (July, 2018).

"'This abrupt climate change -- known as the Younger Dryas -- ended more than 1,000 years of warming' ... The cause of the cooling event, which is named after a flower (Dryas octopetala) that flourished in the cold conditions in Europe throughout the time, has remained a mystery and a source of debate for decades."

Note: According to this research, the cause of the catastrophic flooding was "a huge influx of freshwater from melting ice sheets and glaciers that gushed into the North Atlantic, disrupting the deep-water circulation system -- Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) -- that transports warmer waters and releases heat to the atmosphere. However, geologic evidence tracing its exact path had been lacking."

This is yet another theory explaining the Younger Dryas period, an abrupt cooling which occurred around 12,000 years ago and apparently led to the extinction of large prehistoric mammals like the woolly mammoth across North America.

Prehistoric Humans Lived Alongside Siberian Unicorns?

Video from 2016.

"The Siberian unicorn – long believed to have died out 350,000 years ago – was actually still alive as recently as 29,000 years ago, according to the analysis of a well-preserved skull found in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan." Source: RT.

"Unicorn enthusiasts will be disappointed to learn that the extinct creature – also known as Elasmotherium sibiricum – had more in common with rhinos or woolly mammoths than fictional unicorns, however."

Note: "The [Siberian] unicorn, Elasmotherium sibiricum, was shaggy and huge and looked just like a modern rhino, only it carried the most almighty horn on its forehead." Source: Science Alert.

"According to early descriptions, the Siberian unicorn stood at roughly 2 metres (6.6 feet) tall, was 4.5 metres (14.7 feet) long, and weighed about 4 tonnes.

"That's closer to woolly mammoth-sized than horse-sized. Despite its very impressive stature, the unicorn probably was a grazer that ate mostly grass."

Europe's First Farmers Traveled With Their Dogs

"...The team analysed samples from 99 ancient European and Near Eastern dogs remains, spanning the Upper Palaeolithic and Bronze age. The findings suggest that the dogs accompanied people during the Neolithic migration from the Near East to the North and West of Europe. The study also indicates that during the Neolithic dogs from the Near East gradually replaced European populations of dogs associated with hunter-gatherers which existed in Europe as long as 15,000 years ago." Source: University of Oxford.

Note: According to National Geographic (2013), "[m]an's best friends may have started off as European gray wolves, according to scientists whose research is challenging earlier thinking around where and why dogs became domestic animals ... The researchers found that the DNA of modern dogs most closely matched that of ancient wolves from Europe, indicating that dog domestication began there. They also concluded that dogs are descended from a population of ancient European wolves that are now extinct."