September 1, 2011

Echoes from the past (Sep 1)

Franchthi cave
Most are very interesting news that may deserve their own entries but I do not feel like writing so much right now:


Neanderthal cave in Jersey used almost continuously for 250,000 years, late extinction ··> BBC.


Mariners already reached the island of Melos in Greece as early as c. 15,000 years ago, providing obsidian to Franchthi cave and other parts of the mainland, new chronometric method finds. At that time some of the Cyclades were joined in a single island but were not part of the mainland in any case ··> PhysOrg.


Intriguing communal structure with water trough, mortar holes, etc. in PPNA of Wadi Faynan, Jordan, indicates some social centralization ··> Neolítico Ibérico[es], Mithen et al 2010 (PDF).

Wadi Faynan 075


Chalcolithic "goddess" idol found in Estepona (Málaga, Andalusia). This kind of "violin" figurines are typical specially of the Almerian culture (coalescing into Los Millares civilization) but are rarer elsewhere ··> Pileta de Prehistoria[es].

Venus of Estepona


Bronze Age Scottish mummy made up of parts ··> BBC.


Argentinean maternal lineages are Native American very often. A new open access study reveals that 41-70% of maternal lineages, depending on region, are Native American. However these may be in many cases from other origins than Argentina itself. This figure is different from the overall Native ancestry which is more in the 20% zone (other research).

··> Laura Catelli et al. The impact of modern migrations on present-day multi-ethnic Argentina as recorded on the mitochondrial DNA genome. BMC Genetics, 2011. Open access.


Above, fig. 1. Legend:

Frequency patterns of the main hgs in Argentina in the admixed groups (A) versus the Native American communities (B). NA: Native American component; Eu: European component; Af: sub-Saharan African component.


Red dots indicate sampled locations as undertaken in other studies from the literature; blue dots indicate the sampled locations in the present study.


Bacterian genome reveals what is essential to life. Only 12 of the genome is essential, at least in C. crescentus. Among these genes, there are 91 segments whose functions are totally unknown so far ··> Science Daily.

4 comments:

  1. "Mariners already reached the island of Melos in Greece as early as c. 15,000 years ago, providing obsidian to Franchthi cave and other parts of the mainland, new chronometric method finds. At that time some of the Cyclades were joined in a single island but were not part of the mainland in any case"

    Interesting that it took until 15,000 years to reach those islands (or island so it seems) that were so close to the mainland. Makes me suspicious of how humans actually reached Crete.

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  2. We don't have any evidence that denies they arrived to Melos earlier. We only have evidence of them positively arriving there at least as early as 15 Ka.

    Lack of evidence is not evidence of lack.

    And we have the Crete handaxes, which you clearly prefer to ignore even if they are unquestionable evidence of early navigation (island-hoping).

    ReplyDelete
  3. "they are unquestionable evidence of early navigation (island-hoping)".

    No they're not. On what other islands have such hand-axes been found? Hand-axes don't simply dissappear.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is unquestionable evidence - unless you think you have some archaeological grounds to question them, which you have not.

    Other islands would be other peoples and other journeys. And also other archaeologists searching and finding them. The Cretan handaxes were disappeared until last year, but, wow, they appeared.

    Now they won't disappear just because you wish so.

    Others may appear however - just give time to time - and to archaeologists too.

    Absence of evidence is NOT evidence of absence. Seriously.

    ReplyDelete

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