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.

'DNA in Forensics 2012' meeting at Innsbruck

In spite of the strange name the materials are all about population genetics, a main interest of mine and this blog, and that's why I mention it.

I'm not sure if all the names mentioned in the full program (PDF) will be partaking (or if it is just the materials to be discussed) but, if so, the meeting will be full of high profile geneticists.

The meeting will take place in September 6-8 at Innsbruck, Austria.

Short version of the program:

Thursday, Sep 06

Registration (10h00 - 14h00)

Welcome (14h00 - 14h30)

Richard Scheithauer (Innsbruck, Austria)
Mechthild Prinz (New York, USA)
Lutz Roewer (Berlin, Germany)
Walther Parson (Innsbruck, Austria)

Session I: Forensic aspects of the mitochondrial phylogeny
Chair person: Walther Parson. 14h30 - 16h30

Session II: Applications of mtDNA analysis
Chair person: Lourdes Prieto. 17h00 - 19h00

Friday, Sep 07

Session III: Updating the Y chromosome phylogeny
Chair person: Lutz Roewer. 09h00 - 11h00

Session IV: Applications of the Y chromosome phylogenetic approach
Chair person: Daniel Corach. 11h45 - 12h45, 14h00-15h30

Session V: Next generation Y-STRs
Chair person: Manfred Kayser. 16h00 - 18h30

Social Evening

Saturday, Sep 08

Session VI: New technologies in haploid marker analysis
Chair person: Peter de Knijff. 09h00 - 10h30

Session VII: Biostatistics of lineage markers
Chair person: Michael Krawczak. 11h00 - 13h45

For more details, see the dedicated website. 

(Hat tip PrinceDuadha).

Iruña-Veleia scandal: four years later archeometric analysis will finally be made

The crust clearly indicates that they are anything but recent

It is an order by the tribunal, on request of the defense, who have insisted from the beginning that the exceptional graffiti found in Iruña-Veleia, which include images and short texts in both Vulgar Latin and early Basque (plus some other stuff), are genuine and not any hoax. 

The archeometric analysis will be performed at the Institute of Cultural Patrimony of Spain, a reputed institution with sufficient capability to perform the much needed analysis. Previously the court had asked two different police corps to perform the analysis but both had to admit that they could not do it. Supporters of the truthfulness of the findings had even offered to pay the analysis from their own pockets, proposing several European laboratories for that purpose. 

Meanwhile the influential clique of mostly linguists, led by the infamous Lakarra and Gorrochategui tandem, who claimed that the inscribed shards were false only because they would clash with their own pet theories, have been pretending that no scientific test can prove anything here: only their own self-serving opinions count. 

Sources[es]: Noticias de Álava, Iruina.

For background on this shameful story of cronyism and pseudoscience inside the Basque academic and political establishment, see category Iruña-Veleia:

• in this blog.
• in my old discontinued blog (Leherensuge).

Some of the shards previously posted in these blogs:

Tartessian script in Veleia

NIIV = NEU (I or me in Basque)

NIIVK CORDV MM (?) - click to expand

SIINIICA -
SOCRATIIS
VIRGILIO
MISCART (?)

NIIVRII ATA = neure ata (my father in Basque, modernly father=aita)

IV Meeting of the European Studies Group at Rennes

St. Denec menhirs

From the official site:

The IVth meeting of an international workgroup will gather together, in Rennes, from 10 to 12 May 2012, several of the leading European specialists on the theme of megalithic monuments (about twenty speakers from some ten different nationalities). Following the international colloquium at Bougon (Deux-Sèvres) which was held in 2002 (Joussaume, Laporte, Scarre, 2006), meetings of the European Megalithic Studies Group took place in Göteborg in Sweden ( 2004 ), in Seville in Spain ( 2008 ) and in Kiel in Germany ( 2010 ). This will be the first time for more than thirty years that the city of Rennes will welcome a high-level scientific meeting specifically dedicated to the study of megalithic monuments. It is organized within the framework of a program entitled " Megalithic monuments of the Atlantic zone and beyond " which is supported in particular by the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme de Bretagne. It will comprise two days of oral communications, open to the general public, in the Auditorium of the Museum of Brittany, in Rennes. They will be accompanied by the presentation of posters about current work on megalithic monuments in France, in Europe and in the World.

The program is as follows:

Thursday 10/05

8h30 – Introduction - Chris Scarre.

9h - Mégalithes au centre de la Péninsule Ibérique - Primitiva Bueno Ramirez.

9h30 - Building forever or just for the time being? A perspective from NW Iberian mounds - Ramón Fábregas Valcarce.

10h – Megalithic architectures of the dolmenic groups of the oriental andévalo (Huelva, spain). Typology, constructive systems and technical traditions - Jose Antonio Linares Catela,

10h30 - Coffee Break

11h00 – Menga: Biography of an outstanding megalithic monument - Leonardo Garcia Sanjuan, José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez.

11h30 - Megalithic Monuments of Northern and Central Portugal. A broad discussion concerning their construction and decoration programs - María de Jesús Sanches, Domingos de Jesus da Cruz.

12h00 – Megalithic hollows: rock-cut tombs between the Tagus and the Guadiana - Leonor Rocha, Pedro Alvim.

12h30 – Lunch time

14h00 – Structural functions and architectural projects within the elongated monuments of Western France - Luc Laporte.

14h30 – Traces d'exploitation du schiste de quelques cairns néolithiques du Massif armoricain - Eric Gaumé,

15h00 – Poster cession

15h30 - Coffee Break

16h00 – Megalithic building archaeology in the north-western part of France - Florian Cousseau,

16h30 – La file de pierres dressées de Groah Dehn à Hoëdic (Morbihan) : un exemple d’architecture évolutive au 5e-4e millénaire av. J.-C. - Jean-Marc Large, Emmanuel Mens.

17h00 – Accident or design? Chambers, cairns and funerary practices in the Neolithic chambered tombs of western Europe - Chris Scarre.

17h30/18h00 – A northern point of view: synthesis and debate - Chairman - Gabriel Cooney, Torben Dehn,

Friday 11/05

9h00 – Economic Impact of the Megalithic Constructions: the Oceanic Case - Nicolas Cauwe.

9h30 - Beyond the individual monument: New Results from the Priority Program "Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation" - Martin Hinz.

10h00 - A monumental task: building the Neolithic megaliths of Britain and Ireland - Vicki Cummings, Colin Richards.

10h30 - Coffee Break

11h00 – Making megalithic monuments: the role of small things - Gabriel Cooney,

11h30 – Building Boom to Bust: A proposed sequence of construction for the Knowth passage tomb cemetery - Kerri Cleary.

12h00 - Going through the motions: using phenomenology and 3-D modelling techniques to explore the reality of construction at Knowth , Co. Meath - Eimear Meegan.

12h30 – Lunch time

14h00 - 25 years among Neolithic builders - Torben Dehn.

14h30 – The clustering of megalithic monuments around the causewayed enclosures at Sarup on Funen, Denmark - Niels H. Andersen.

15h00 – Dolmens without mounds in Denmark - Jørgen Westphal.

15h30 - Coffee Break

16h00 - In the Eye of the Beholder - Palle Eriksen.

16h30 - Lønt: Two types of megaliths and one oddball - Anne Birgitte Gebauer.

17h00 – A southern point of view: synthesis and debate - Chairman - Primitiva Bueno Ramirez, Luc Laporte.

17h30/ 18h00 – Conclusion of the meeting

Saturday 12/05

Excursion reserved to the communicators

Monument of Carn

More information at the official site. 

See also the many ESMG videos, specially if you are interested but can't go.

Hat tip to Pileta.

Sudden major rise of sea levels after last Ice Age

I cannot find the paper right now (the CEREGE research center's website is down?) but several news sites echo that in only 350 years, beginning 14,600 years ago, sea levels rose as much as 14 meters, judging from coral formations near Tahiti (Polynesia).

That means on average 1 meter each 25 years. The actual impact of this kind of change varies depending on the relief of the coast but nowadays one such change of just one meter would swallow about 1/3 of the Netherlands, for example.

Sources: CNRS, Pileta[es].

Ancient DNA... of chickens

Sure, why not?

Alice A. Storey, Investigating the Global Dispersal of Chickens in Prehistory Using Ancient Mitochondrial DNA Signatures. PLoS ONE, 2012. Open access ··> LINK [DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039171]

The authors managed to produce more or less reliable mtDNA haplotypes for 48 remains of historical and prehistorical chickens from Thailand, Pacific Islands, Latin America (a pre-Columbian site in Chile but post-Columbian sites elsewhere) and (medieval) Spain.

Excepting the oldest Thai haplotype, all them belonged to haplogroups D and E, as follows:

Fig. 1

In spite of the authors burying most of the relevant data in the supplemental material, I was able to conclude that the ancient haplotypes (ah) above mean in terms of samples:

• Haplogroup E:
• cluster 1:
• ah1 Pacific Is. (n=1)
• ah2 Pacific Is. (n=4), Thailand (n=1), Chile (n=1)
• ah6 Peru (n=1)
• cluster 2:
• ah3 Pacific Is. (n=10), Chile (n=2), Spain (n=3), Haiti (n=1), Florida (n=1)
• ah4 Spain (n=1)
• ah5 Bolivia (n=3)
• ah7 Spain (n=1)
• Haplogroup D:
• ah9 Pacific Is. (n=1), Peru (n=1)
• cluster 3:
• ah10 Pacific Is. (n=14)
• ah11 Pacific Is. (n=1)
• Haplogroup B (not shown):
• ah12 Thailand (n=1)

There is no ah8 apparently. 

It must be noted that the ah9 haplotype from Peru is very early post-Columbian, from before 1600 CE, making it another likely evidence of Polynesian introduction of chicken in South America, along with the Chilean sites (which allow for no other explanation). However the Peruvian haplotype is more related to Micronesia than to Hawaii or Rapa Nui.

Other 17th century samples from Bolivia and Peru (ah5 and ah6) have no obvious connection with either plausible origin. Instead Caribbean sites are probably related to Spain.

A simplified geographical distribution is also offered (oddly enough on a pre-WWI map):

Fig. 2

The authors conclude:

As a result of the careful analysis of archaeologically associated, and in some cases directly dated, ancient DNA samples an early global distribution of haplogroup E chickens has been revealed. This dispersal out of Asia began before 3000 years ago and involved the movement of chickens both westwards to Europe and eastwards into the Pacific. The distribution of haplogroup D likely represents a separate dispersal into the Pacific from a distinct Asian domestication centre. The eventual identification of these centers will greatly enrich our understanding of chicken domestication and the history of dispersals from multiple locations. While unambiguous data does not yet exist to trace any of the detected mtDNA signatures back to specific domestication centers, the analysis of ancient DNA sequences presented here is an important first step towards it. Future research needs to focus on markers identified, from both full mtDNA genomes and nuclear genes which are subsequently targeted in ancient specimens, examined within their historical and/or archaeological context.

Khoisan autosomal genetics

There is a new major paper at arXiv on Southern African autosomal genetics, with emphasis on pre-Bantu aboriginal peoples (usually known as Khoisan, even if the phylogenetic unity of their languages is not anymore accepted).

Joseph K. Pickrell et al., The genetic prehistory of southern Africa. arXiv 2012. Open access ··> LINK.

Abstract

The hunter-gatherer populations of southern and eastern Africa are known to harbor some of the most ancient human lineages, but their historical relationships are poorly understood. We report data from 22 populations analyzed at over half a million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), using a genome-wide array designed for studies of history. The southern Africans-here called Khoisan-fall into two groups, loosely corresponding to the northwestern and southeastern Kalahari, which we show separated within the last 30,000 years. All individuals derive at least a few percent of their genomes from admixture with non-Khoisan populations that began 1,200 years ago. In addition, the Hadza, an east African hunter-gatherer population that speaks a language with click consonants, derive about a quarter of their ancestry from admixture with a population related to the Khoisan, implying an ancient genetic link between southern and eastern Africa.  

Unlike most other African (or global) genetic studies, here the Southern African natives are not undersampled and that way a more realistic genetic structure, with Khoisan peoples occupying their distinct position in the overall human structure, is more evident.

Selected images (from the supplementary material):

Locator map and legend for all PCA graphs:

Color code is as follows:

• Dark grey: non-Khoisan Africans (incl. Hadza)
• Blue: Khoe-Kwadi
• Green: Kx'a
• Red: Tuu
• Light grey: Eurasians

Global PCA (SF 2):

The PC1 sets apart Khoisan (specially the Kx'a and the Tuu) from Eurasians, while the PC2 defines the non-Khoisan African dimension (including some Khoisan, specially the Damara).

Africa-only PCA (PC1-2) (SF 3):

Excluded Eurasians, the PC1 is taken by the Khoisan-other African dialectics, while the PC2 contrasts the Ju|'hoan versus the Nama specially. 

Africa-only PCA (PC2-3 with the inclusion of the ǂKhomani) (SF 17):

+ ǂKhomani samples (excluded in previous graphs)

Interestingly enough, here the Damara and the Himba contrasting with other Africans, specially the Dinka, take over PC2. Meanwhile PC3 is monopolized by the contrast between Ju|'hoan and the ǂHoan.

Admixture clustering (SF 7):

Click to expand

As in most previous PC analysis (excepted African PCA 2-3) the most neatly distinct Khoisan populations are the Kx'a (green cluster) and Tuu (purple one). At K=6, two other clusters are taken by the two distinct Pygmy populations, while the fifth one describes Eurasians (or West Eurasians). The remainder indistinct African is shown as blue component but it seems to hide important substructure in fact.

Arguably K=5 may be a better description, or at last one we are more familiar with: differentiating between Khoisans (green), Pygmies (orange), Hadza (purple), other Africans (blue) and Eurasians (red). But something of the order of K=13 or 16 is probably a better description in any case for such a varied bunch.

Special thanks to Millán.