Archaeology thread

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Medieval Augustinian friars got worms. A lot.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879981722000316?via%3Dihub

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Genomes from a medieval mass burial show Ashkenazi-associated hereditary diseases pre-date the 12th century

www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01355-0

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Hittite Empire collapsed due to drought

www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05693-y

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This is the Sword of Goujian, a bronze blade found in a tomb soaked in underground water for >2,000 years. Amazingly, the air-tight scabbard was able to preserve the exceptionally preserve the blade (the body of the blade is mainly copper, while the edges have more tin content).

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Hot mixing: Mechanistic insights into the durability of ancient Roman concrete

Ancient Roman concretes have survived millennia, but mechanistic insights into their durability remain an enigma. Here, we use a multiscale correlative elemental and chemical mapping approach to investigating relict lime clasts, a ubiquitous and conspicuous mineral component associated with ancient Roman mortars. Together, these analyses provide new insights into mortar preparation methodologies and provide evidence that the Romans employed hot mixing, using quicklime in conjunction with, or instead of, slaked lime, to create an environment where high surface area aggregate-scale lime clasts are retained within the mortar matrix. Inspired by these findings, we propose that these macroscopic inclusions might serve as critical sources of reactive calcium for long-term pore and crack-filling or post-pozzolanic reactivity within the cementitious constructs. The subsequent development and testing of modern lime clast–containing cementitious mixtures demonstrate their self-healing potential, thus paving the way for the development of more durable, resilient, and sustainable concrete formulations.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add1602

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Recurring summer and winter droughts from 4.2-3.97 thousand years ago in north India

The 4.2-kiloyear event has been described as a global megadrought that transformed multiple Bronze Age complex societies, including the Indus Civilization, located in a sensitive transition zone with a bimodal (summer and winter) rainfall regime. Here we reconstruct changes in summer and winter rainfall from trace elements and oxygen, carbon, and calcium isotopes of a speleothem from Dharamjali Cave in the Himalaya spanning 4.2–3.1 thousand years ago. We find a 230-year period of increased summer and winter drought frequency between 4.2 and 3.97 thousand years ago, with multi-decadal aridity events centered on 4.19, 4.11, and 4.02 thousand years ago. The sub-annually resolved record puts seasonal variability on a human decision-making timescale, and shows that repeated intensely dry periods spanned multiple generations. The record highlights the deficits in winter and summer rainfall during the urban phase of the Indus Civilization, which prompted adaptation through flexible, self-reliant, and drought-resistant agricultural strategies.

www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00763-z

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Earliest curry in Southeast Asia and the global spice trade 2000 years ago

The global spice trade has played an essential role in world history. However, because of poor preservation conditions, archaeobotanical remains of spices have been limited in archaeological contexts until now. This study reports evidence for spice processing from the archaeological site of Oc Eo in southern Vietnam, an entrepôt of the state of Funan that was occupied during the early centuries CE. Analysis of plant microremains recovered from the surfaces of Oc Eo grinding stone tools thought to be of South Asian origin has identified culinary spices that include turmeric, ginger, fingerroot, sand ginger, galangal, clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon. These spices are indispensable ingredients used in the making of curry in South Asia today. We suggest that South Asian migrants or visitors introduced this culinary tradition into Southeast Asia during the period of early trade contact via the Indian Ocean, commencing about 2000 years ago.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh5517

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An arrowhead made of meteoritic iron from the late Bronze Age settlement of Mörigen, Switzerland and its possible source

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440323001073

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Fish hook found in ancient Egyptian crocodile mummy.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212054824000419

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Stone-Tipped versus Bone- and Antler-tipped Arrows and the Movement of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians from Their Homeland: ontarioarchaeology.org/wp-content/uploads/oa096-08_Engelbrecht_Jamieson.pdf

Experimental Replication and Use of Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian Antler Projectile Points: www.researchgate.net/publication/248579200_Experimental_Replication_and_Use_of_Cantabrian_Lower_Magdalenian_Antler_Projectile_Points

[theropod]

Sept 14, 2024 2:06:44 GMT 5 Infinity Blade said:

Stone-Tipped versus Bone- and Antler-tipped Arrows and the Movement of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians from Their Homeland: ontarioarchaeology.org/wp-content/uploads/oa096-08_Engelbrecht_Jamieson.pdf

On a related note (this point is also briefly mentioned in the paper you linked), this video series has a good discussion of Iroquoian wood armor, including some experimentation on its efficacy against different weapons:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmkQS8_MODE