Wisent co-existed with true bison already in the Paleolithic

A fascinating story this one indeed: the European bison or wisent has some ancestry related to the cow, evident in its mitochondrial DNA. This was already known but what wasn't known is that this distinct "hybrid" species of bison dated to the Upper Paleolithic. Thanks to the excellent records of anonymous prehistorical biologists who recorded them in Southwestern European rock art with great detail and naturalism, modern researchers have realized that the wisent, with its bovid heritage, existed already in the Upper Paleolithic. Ancient DNA recovery has now confirmed the artist's impression.

Julien Soubrier et al. Early cave art and ancient DNA record the origin of European bison. Nature communications, 2016. Open access → LINK [doi:10.1038/ncomms13158]

Abstract

The two living species of bison (European and American) are among the few terrestrial megafauna to have survived the late Pleistocene extinctions. Despite the extensive bovid fossil record in Eurasia, the evolutionary history of the European bison (or wisent, Bison bonasus) before the Holocene (< 11.7 thousand years ago (kya)) remains a mystery. We use complete ancient mitochondrial genomes and genome-wide nuclear DNA surveys to reveal that the wisent is the product of hybridization between the extinct steppe bison (Bison priscus) and ancestors of modern cattle (aurochs, Bos primigenius) before 120 kya, and contains up to 10% aurochs genomic ancestry. Although undetected within the fossil record, ancestors of the wisent have alternated ecological dominance with steppe bison in association with major environmental shifts since at least 55 kya. Early cave artists recorded distinct morphological forms consistent with these replacement events, around the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ∼21–18 kya).

The depictions of both types of bison are rather distinct but it seems nobody had noticed the difference until now, as the researchers explain in this article.

Fig. 1 - (a) Reproduction from Lascaux cave (France), from the Solutrean or early Magdalenian period (∼20,000 kya—picture adapted from ref. 53). (b) Reproduction from the Pergouset cave (France), from the Magdalenian period (<17,000 kya—picture adapted from ref. 54).

The ancient wisents sequenced now carry a distinct mtDNA haplogroup, called "clade X", which is sister to that of modern wisents (all descending from just 12 survivors). This wisent macro-haplogroup forms a clade with that of bovine cattle (cows of all sorts, both taurine and indicine) but they are joined only at the root, suggesting that the hybridization event that created the wisents as distinct species is very old, just a bit more recent than the divergence of cow and bison.

Fig. 2 - (a) Phylogenetic tree inferred from bovine mitochondrial control region sequences, showing the new clade of bison individuals. The positions of the newly sequenced individuals are marked in red for CladeX. (b) Bovine phylogeny estimated from whole-mitochondrial genome sequences, showing strong support for the grouping of wisent and CladeX with cattle (cow) and zebu. For both trees (a,b) numbers above branches represent the posterior probabilities from Bayesian inference, numbers below branches represent approximate likelihood ratio test support values from maximum-likelihood analysis and scale bars represent nucleotide substitutions per site from the Bayesian analysis. (c) Maximum-clade-credibility tree of CladeX and wisent estimated using Bayesian analysis and calibrated with radiocarbon dates associated with the sequenced bones. Dates of samples older than 50 kyr were estimated in the phylogenetic reconstruction. (d) Map showing all sampling locations, using the same colour code (red for CladeX, orange for wisent and blue for steppe bison).

So it is not random auroch hybridization but a very specific and very ancient episode of admixture between the ancestors of bisons and cows.

The two species appear to have distinct ecological niches:

The detailed records of the southern Ural sites allow the timing of the population replacements between steppe bison and wisent to be correlated with major palaeoenvironmental shifts, revealing that the wisent was associated with colder, more tundra-like landscapes and absence of a warm summer.

This pattern seems to correspond with the periods in which the two species are portrayed in rock art, as two of the researchers explain in this video (third part):

Post-statement: I must say that, on second thought, I'm not really convinced by the claim of wisent corresponding to colder periods. In fig. 1 above it is apparent that it is the steppe bison which corresponds to the last glacial maximum (LGM) in Southwestern Europe and not the wisent, which only shows up after the end of this coldest period. 

I wonder if the researchers are explaining themselves well enough on this aspect or if it is a case of wishful thinking, maybe caused by different conditions in SW Europe (where the rock art is) and the Southern Urals (where most of the archaeogenetic and paleontological data comes from). 

At the very least, judging on fig. 1, it would be the steppe bison the one corresponding with the coldest spell and the wisent the one corresponding to more temperate conditions. Can someone explain me what is going on here?

Armintxe: new rock art site discovered in the Basque Country

A week ago a new rock art site was revealed to exist right in the town of Lekeitio (Biscay). The art, estimated to be from some 14,000 years ago (Magdalenian culture), is made up of several groups of engraved animals: bisons, horses, goats and deers. The cave is not far from other known sites like Lumentxa, Atxurra and Santa Catalina.

Video of the cave and art[es]:

More information:
→ Arkeobasque
→ Pileta de Prehistoria[es] (has several videos and news from several sources, quite extensive)

A Magdalenian campsite map from Catalonia

Quickies

A neat curiosity from the Ice Age:

Marcos García Díez & Manuel Vaquero, Looking at the Camp: Paleolithic Depiction of a Hunter-Gatherer Campsite. PLoS ONE 2015. Open access → LINK [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0143002]

Abstract

Landscapes and features of the everyday world were scarcely represented in Paleolithic art, especially those features associated with the human landscape (huts and campsites). On the contrary, other figurative motifs (especially animals) and signs, traditionally linked to the magic or religious conceptions of these hunter-gatherer societies, are the predominant themes of Upper Paleolithic art. This paper seeks to present an engraved schist slab recently found in the Molí del Salt site (North-eastern Iberia) and dated at the end of the Upper Paleolithic, ca. 13,800 years ago. This slab displays seven semicircular motifs that may be interpreted as the representation of dome-shaped huts. The analysis of individual motifs and the composition, as well as the ethnographic and archeological contextualization, suggests that this engraving is a naturalistic depiction of a hunter-gatherer campsite. Campsites can be considered the first human landscape, the first area of land whose visible features were entirely constructed by humans. Given the social meaning of campsites in hunter-gatherer life-styles, this engraving may be considered one of the first representations of the domestic and social space of a human group.

Twitter in the Aurignacian?

Heh, why not?

The curious fact is that a flint stone engraving recently found in the Aurignacian layers of Cantalouette II (Dordogne, SW France) bears a striking resemblance to the logo of the social network, what is quite funny at the very least.

Otherwise it is a very impressive early artistic expression of a rare type (avians are not common in Upper Paleolithic rock art). The Cantalouette II site was a flint stone quarry used by groups of the area and Arkeobasque (which is my source) speculates that it could be an expression of "art for the sake of art", an artist's caprice with no further meaning but excellent and very unusual technique, that was probably abandoned after its execution.

Grotte Chauvet's Aurignacian dates strongly questioned

The famous rock art of the Cave of Lions (Grotte Chauvet, Ardèche) seems now not to be of such an early date as was claimed by Valladas et al. in 2001 but rather from the Gravettian and Solutrean periods, with more solid dates between 26,000 to 18,000 BP.

Jean Combier & Guy Jouve, New investigations into the cultural and stylistic identity of the Chauvet cave and its radiocarbon dating. L'Anthropologie 2014. Pay per view → LINK [doi:10.1016/j.anthro.2013.12.001]

Abstract

The discovery of Chauvet cave, at Vallon-Pont-d’Arc (Ardèche), in 1994, was an important event for our knowledge of palaeolithic parietal art as a whole. Its painted and engraved figures, thanks to their number (425 graphic units), and their excellent state of preservation, provide a documentary thesaurus comparable to that of the greatest sites known, and far beyond what had already been found in the group of Rhône valley caves (Ardèche and Gard). But its study – when one places it in its natural regional, cultural and thematic framework – makes it impossible to see it as an isolated entity of astonishing precocity. This needs to be reconsidered, and the affinities that our research has brought to light are clearly incompatible with the very early age which has been attributed to it. And if one extends this examination to the whole of the Franco-Cantabrian domain, the conclusion is inescapable: although Chauvet cave displays some unique characteristics (like every decorated cave), it belongs to an evolved phase of parietal art that is far removed from the motifs of its origins (known from art on blocks and on shelter walls dated by stratigraphy to the Aurignacian, in France and Cantabrian Spain). The majority of its works are therefore to be placed, quite normally, within the framework of the well-defined artistic creations of the Gravettian and Solutrean. Moreover, this phase of the Middle Upper Palaeolithic (26,000–18,000) coincides with a particularly intensive and diversified local human occupation, unknown in earlier periods and far less dense afterwards in the Magdalenian. A detailed critique of the treatment of the samples subjected to AMS radiocarbon dating makes it impossible to retain the very early age (36,000 cal BP) attributed by some authors to the painted and engraved figures of Chauvet cave.

Other sources: Global Palaeo News, Pileta de Prehistoria[es/en], Paleoantropología Hoy[es].

Korean petroglyphs at risk by reservoir

A group of very beautiful South Korean petroglyphs that seem to represent whale hunting and are dated some 6000 years ago are being damaged by a water reservoir that provides water for the city of Ulsan. 

The Bangudae petroglyphs, discovered in 1971, are submerged under water seasonally, raising great controversy in the East Asian country. It seems that even President Park is greatly concerned about them, something not too usual in a politician, while the Cultural Heritage Administration is demanding measures to protect the ancient rock art, namely to keep water levels low enough. 

However water utilities claim that it is impossible to meet such demands while providing water to the seventh largest South Korean city. The Ulsan city government is proposing to build a wall around the petroglyphs in order to protect them while keeping the water levels, this however would cause environmental damage to the area, disqualifying the site for UNESCO World Heritage protection schemes.

Source: cinabrio.over-blog[en/es] (incl. several pictures and press articles).

Askondo cave art is 25,000 years old

The rock art of Askondo cave (Mañaria, Biscay, Basque Country) has been dated to c. 25,000 years ago. The materials used for the artworks (red paint and engraving) cannot be dated directly but a bone fragment encrusted in the wall provided an age of c. 23,800 years BP (C14-AMS) belonging therefore to the Gravettian period. 

The cave of Askondo (← aitz-ondo = near the rock) was believed to be a destroyed site but recent archaeological research has shown the opposite: that there is a lot to be researched in that cave, which has a surprising sedimentary depth of at least 6 m and that has already become, thanks to its artwork, in the third more important Paleolithic site of Biscay, after Santimamiñe and Arenaza caves.

Source: Bizkaia.Net.

Australian Burrup Peninsula's rock art is 30,000 years old

The open air engravings have managed to survive thanks to the extremely low erosion rates produced by the hardness of the rock combined with the local climate. 

The petroglyphs have been dated using the isotope beryllium-10. Based on current evidence, the archaeologists say, the occupation of the peninsula cannot be dated to before c. 42,000 years ago. 

Source: Australian Geographic.

Rock art from Baja California dates to c. 9,000 years ago, maybe even older

Catalan researchers from the IPHES have been studying the impressive rock art of the caves of Baja California Sur (Mexico) and concluded that some of the art is from c. 8-9,000 years ago. However contextual dates are sometimes older, of c. 10-11,000 years ago. 

Source: El Universal[es], which has many more photos.

For decades it was believed, following the pioneer work of Clement Meighan, that the art was from the 13th century CE. However in the 1980s the more in-depth research by Catalan scientists revealed that it is in fact from much older dates, at least 5,000 years ago. These days it has been revealed that they are even older in some cases. 

The rock art is distributed by many areas of Baja California Sur, very especially the Sierra de San Francisco, which alone hosts more than 250 sites. These sites were often occupied through millennia, until the 18th century CE in some cases. Even later they have been used as shelters for sheep, however nowadays they do enjoy state and UNESCO protection. 

The most outstanding cave, La Pintada (the painted one), appears to have indications of astronomical knowledge. In the words of Viñas Vallverdú:

In the particular case of La Pintada there are many markings of astronomical type, spots where it is indicated that the Sun illuminates in certain time of the year, signaling a date in their calendar. That way they knew that, when the Sun hit one of those marks, it was time to collect the pitahaya or that the rain period was nearing.

The research is part of an international project by IPHES and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) of Mexico, which is surveying the prehistory of the North American federation. 

The study will be published as the doctoral thesis of lead researcher Ramón Viñas Vallverdú (IPHES).

Source: El Universal[es] (includes a very beautiful photo-gallery).

Submerged rock art from Papua

In the World-famous diving paradise of Raja Ampat, just West of the Bird's Head peninsula of Papua (aka New Guinea), there is more than one of the greatest biodiversity areas of the planet. It has been found recently that off the shore of Misool, one of the major islands of the archipelago, there is also abundance of beautifully conserved Paleolithic murals.

The now submerged rock art is found in 13 different sites (so far), most of them sharing an intriguing pattern of location:

• a large and rather high cliff;
• a cavity, cave, overhang or hole around the foot of the cliff;
• a main coloured (red-yellow to red-brown) wide strip pouring out, or reaching down to the cavity;
• a (facultative) step-bank (coral or karst platform) at the foot. 

The art was obviously above the water level until the sea flooded all that area at the end of the Ice Age. 

Sources: World Archaeological Congress, Stone Pages' Archaeonews.



Update (Feb 24): after being down for days, causing perplexity among some readers and myself, the WAC source site is up again. Exactly as it was four days ago. Just in case this time I'll upload the images here. 

Large concentration of decorated stones found in the Scottish Highlands

An area holding a dense concentration of stones with engraved "cup marks" has been unveiled near Evanton, Scotland. The discoverer, Douglas Scott, has mapped the 28 decorated rocks and found that they are aligned with the rising and setting of Sun and Moon. 

He has also found a wide circular ditched enclosure, with a small central standing stone next to a cupmarked stone, which suggested it was the remains of a henge. The entrance of this enclosure aligns with the winter solstice sunrise.

He believes that this was a major ritual center between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. 

Sources: Ross-shire Journal, Stone Pages' Archaeonews (via Pileta).

New rock art findings of India

A new rock art site has been found by the Archaeological Survey of India on the Satpura mountain range, near Batul, at the Maharastra-Madhya Pradesh border. The site includes nothing less that 71 rock shelters with paintings and engravings dating from c. 12,000 years ago (Late Upper Paleolithic) to recent times.

Decors comprise petroglyph's in various forms, such as engravings, bruising, pecking and pictographs in various colours, viz red, various shades of red, white, black and green. The pictographs or paintings usually illustrate human, animal, bird, tree and abstract geometric figures and are depicted by stick figures, outlines, solid and X-ray figures. he engravings usually exhibit elements of natural world as well as abstract themes. The decorated shelters are spread in an area of approximately 40 square kilometres, Sahu said. 

No pictures are available.

Source: Indian Express (via Pileta).

"Megadrought" may have affected NW Australia some 5500 years ago

Depictions of the Wondjina rain spirits
(CC by Whinging Pom)

Researchers have detected an apparent "megadrought" affecting at least the region of Kimberley (NW Australia), which hosts some of the most important collections of Aboriginal rock art and may have been one of the first inhabited regions of the island-continent.

The drought may explain a change in artistic style between the Gwion (or Bradshaw) style and the Wondjina one, more modern. Memory of the drought persists in the legends from the Dream Time of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia.

Hamish McGowan et al., Evidence of ENSO* mega-drought triggered collapse of prehistory Aboriginal society in northwest Australia. GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 39, 2012. Pay per view → LINK [doi:10.1029/2012GL053916]

Abstract

The Kimberley region of northwest Australia contains one of the World's largest collections of rock art characterised by two distinct art forms; the fine featured anthropomorphic figures of the Gwion Gwion or Bradshaw paintings, and broad stroke Wandjina figures. Luminescence dating of mud wasp nests overlying Gwion Gwion paintings has confirmed an age of at least 17,000 yrs B.P. with the most recent dates for these paintings from around the mid-Holocene (5000 to 7000 yrs B.P.). Radiocarbon dating indicates that the Wandjina rock art then emerged around 3800 to 4000 yrs B.P. following a hiatus of at least 1200 yrs. Here we show that a mid-Holocene ENSO forced collapse of the Australian summer monsoon and ensuing mega-drought spanning approximately 1500 yrs was the likely catalyst of this change in rock art. The severity of the drought we believe was enhanced through positive feedbacks triggered by change in land surface condition and increased aerosol loading of the atmosphere leading to a weakening or failure of monsoon rains. This confirms that pre-historic aboriginal cultures experienced catastrophic upheaval due to rapid natural climate variability and that current abundant seasonal water supplies may fail again if significant change in ENSO occurs. 

See also article at Past Horizons (h/t Pileta). 

_________________________________________________

* ENSO = El Niño Southern Oscillation.

Alert: destruction of 8000 year-old engravings in Morocco by Fundamentalists - government denies

The Amazigh League for Human Rights denounced the destruction of several Neolithic engravings in Toubkal National Park, south of Marakesh. Among the damaged art is said to be a depiction of the Sun as a god. They date from c. 6000 BCE.

Source and more details: BBC (h/t Stone Pages' Archaeonews).

The damaged relic (source)

Update: the Government of Morocco denies the claim with strange wording

The Moroccan authorities have denied the claim of a vandalism against a solar engraving attributed to Fundamentalists. According to an AFP report:

"This kind of incident, contrary to our values, cannot take place in Morocco," it said, adding that an investigation carried out with local and regional authorities had showed that the claims were unfounded.

But such sites "can suffer, like elsewhere, the effects of natural and even human degradation, sometimes through vandalism and trafficking."

The wording is at the very least strange: the logic does not seem sound (can't happen because of our values) and the suggestion of other reasons for the same vandalism are at the very least suspicious. 

My reading is that the Moroccan Ministry of Culture wishes to deny all kind of militant Salafist activism but that, subtly, acknowledges the destruction, attributing it to mystery causes (either erosion or mindless vandalism) rather than Fundamentalism. 

Not too credible. 


Update (Oct 25):

Dalouh (see comments) has been gathering some more info on the matter from Arabic language sources in Facebook and it would seem that the locals chased out the fundamentalist vandals preventing greater damage, still:

Above: damage stone, below: original

Periodization of Saharan rock art

Marnie has a most interesting blogpost today on the periodization of Saharan rock art, specifically at Tadrart Acacus site in SW Lybia. It is not a well known matter so I am recycling her entry and the materials at Amis de l'Art Rupestre Saharien[fr/en/de/it] to make a quick visual note here on the matter.

Periodization dates are based on description at UNESCO site but need not to be correct for all pieces or not all authors need to agree to them. Here I follow that lead after some thoughts just because of its simplicity, which may well be misleading. It should only be taken as a very basic introductory note, nothing else.

Naturalistic or bubaline phase (14-10,000 BP):

··> more info at AARS.

Reminds a bit of rock art from Qurta (Nubia, Egypt).

Round head phase (10-6,000 BP):

··> more info at AARS.

Bovidian or Pastoral phase (6000-3500 BP):

··> more info at AARS.

As Marnie mentions, this phase would be approximately after the date of earliest clear evidence for milking in Africa, which is of c. 7000 BP.

Caballine phase (3500-2000 BP):

··> more info at AARS.

This would be soon after the date of arrival of the Hyksos to Egypt, who brought the chariot from Asia.

Cameline phase (since 2000 BP):

··> more info at AARS.

Dromedaries were probably introduced in Egypt (and the rest of Africa) with the Persian invasion c. 500 BCE.

Alert: Foissac cave threatened by pig farm expansion

The expansion of an existent pig farm from 1000 to 8000 heads per annum threatens to contaminate the cave, inhabited in the Chalcolithic and Paleolithic, with pig manure.

Foissac (Aveyron department, Languedoc) is particularly wealthy in burial, pottery and other Chalcolithic remains, which are preserved in situ because of exceptional conservation conditions (it was dug up by F. Rouzaud, M.-A. Garcia and H. Duday between 1978 and 1988). 

More recently (2006) a branch of the same cave was found to have Paleolithic rock art, which would be at risk by this farm. 

There is an ongoing public inquest (ending on September 27) which has been given no publicity. However you may want to write to the authorities at the following address:

Monsieur Le Commissaire Enquêteur
Mairie de Causse et Diège, Loupiac
12 700 CAUSSE ET DIEGE.

There is also an online petition that you may sign.

More information (in French language in principle) at:

Sébastien du Fayet de la Tour : sebastien.dufayet@voila.fr
mobile phone : 06 11 75 97 02
Grotte de Foissac : 05 65 64 60 52

Source: Hominidés.com.

See also the official site of the Foissac Cave.

Bronze Age rock art in Azores

The claim, even if very unexpected, seems legitimate enough to have been made by the President of the Portuguese Association of Archaelogical Research (APIA), Dr. Nuno Ribeiro, within a conference titled "pre-Portuguese human presence in Azores, myth or reality?"

Among the findings cataloged in the last few years Ribeiro mentioned building remains that seem prehistorical, a Roman era inscription, a rock art site in Terceira island and several megalithic structures. Only in the last year, five tombs of the hypogeum kind and three sanctuaries also dug in the rock were located. All the findings are still pending radiocarbon dating however but the style of the rock art is similar to Bronze Age ones from Iberia. 

However red tape by the regional government is blocking further research: in 2011 for lack of financing and in 2012 for not being withing the frame of a legal decree.  The archaeologist denounced that all these extraordinary findings are therefore in state of abandonment. In one case, works in the local airport, carried without the corresponding archaeological survey, may have damage a site.

These findings strongly suggest that the navigation skills of Bronze Age peoples of the Eastern North Atlantic (Western Europe, NW Africa) were much more advanced than we usually admit.

Source: RTP[por] (h/t Pileta).

See also these articles in English language at the Portuguese American Journal: art1, art2.

Azores are located far away into the North Atlantic Ocean (CC by Tyk)

Pyrenean Neolithic cave of El Trocs (Bisagorri)

Pottery fragment

After four research seasons the Aragonese site of El Trocs (Bisagorri[ara], Ribagorza) reveals a seasonally occupied shepherd shelter. The inhabitants knew of wheat but did not grow it anywhere near the cave. 

The findings, a long way before publication as of now, go through six different and intact layers from c. the 6th millennium BCE (early Neolithic) and include faunal remains, pottery and awls.

Also some skeletal remains, from several individuals and possible de-fleshing marks (cannibalism?) have been revealed. 

An unusual antropomorphic figure is also drawn on the walls but the chronology of this artwork is unknown:

Sources[es]: Patrimonio Cultural de Aragón (incl. video), Radio Huesca, Pileta.

Aragonese rock art at risk because of mine

The negligence in the processing of the declaration as cultural good of the rock art of Villarluengo (Teruel province, Aragón, Iberia), which was delayed for five years, has allowed the mining company to win an appeal to the Spanish Supreme Court, allowing them to continue with their destructive business regardless of the cave art, which is now endangered.

Sources[es]: La Comarca, Pileta.

Research continues in Santimamiñe Cave (Basque Country) and produces some new information

Littorina littorea
(winkle, magurio, faocha)

Santimamiñe Cave, near Gernika, has one of the most complete archaeological records of all Europe, from Chatelperronian to Iron Age with the only exception of Aurignacian, including some Magdalenian rock art, although not as spectacular as in other sites.

Research continues however and these days a new hearth, at the innermost human habitation area of the cave, dated to c. 12,000 years ago (end of the Upper Paleolithic) has been discovered with tools and food remains that should help us to better understand the way of life of our ancestors.

They ate stuff like deer, goats, bisons, aurochsen, game, salmon, sea snails (winkles) and sea urchins.

The hearth belongs to the Late Magdalenian culture and, for what chief archaeologist Juan Carlos López Quintana says, they are probably contemporary with the artwork located deeper in the cave, in a small hidden room.

Part of the Santimamiñe rock art

The research continues at good pace financed by the Chartered Government of Biscay, having made the work of some 20 campaings in just eight years. They expect to reach the Early Magdalenian layers by 2020 or so. It's a methodical work. 

Follows video in Spanish:

Sources[es]: ETB, Pileta.