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Earlier on Monday, Iranβs president said the country is in a βfull-scale warβ after the US expanded its aerial campaign and Tehran struck Washingtonβs Gulf allies, even as diplomats said talks to de-escalate were continuing.
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In Israelβs Qafzeh cave, archaeologists have discovered an intriguing set of ancient human remains that reveal a story of illness, violence, death, and survival in the remote past.
The international team of archaeologists from Centro Nacional de InvestigaciΓ³n sobre la EvoluciΓ³n Humana (CENIEH) and Tel Aviv University revealed their analysis of ancient humanfossil remains, known as Qafzeh 25, in a recent paper published in Scientific Reports.Β
The findings provide rare evidence of interpersonal violence, care for the injured, and early funerary practices in a human population that lived between 92,000 and 145,000 years ago.
Analyzing Ancient Human Remains
The researchers used a range of techniques to examine one particularly intriguing skull, including high-resolution micro-computed tomography (microCT) alongside macroscopic and microscopic analyses. Their investigation revealed a linear lesion across the mandible and lower premolars, with characteristics consistent with trauma inflicted by a sharp object.
Despite the severity of the injury, the researchers concluded that the individual survived the ordeal based on evidence of bone remodeling. The extent of healing suggests the person lived for a considerable period after suffering the wound.
Although the available evidence does not allow archaeologists to determine exactly how the injury occurred, they consider interpersonal violence the most likely explanation. The discovery is particularly significant because evidence of sharp-force trauma in Middle Paleolithic human remains is exceedingly rare.
The Qafzeh 25 skull revealed significant dental pathologies uncommon to such ancient humans. Credit: CENIEH/Ana Pantojah-Perez et al.
Never-Before-Seen Conditions
Beyond the apparent head injury, the Qafzeh 25 skull yielded another remarkable discovery. Detailed examination of the teeth revealed dental conditions that had not previously been documented in humans of this antiquity.
The microCT scan revealed a hidden carious lesion in a lower premolar, along with enamel defects. These sorts of tooth decay issues are uncommon in early homo sapiens, as they are largely caused by bacteria that thrive on sugars. Before the advent of agriculture and later processed carbohydrates and refined sugars, such tooth decay was rare due to diets high in meats, nuts, and fibrous vegetables, which helped clean the teeth.
Ancient Human Funerary Practices
Looking beyond the skull, the researchers also examined the broader funerary context of the skeleton in an effort to reconstruct the burial practices of these ancient humans.
A broader analysis of the entire skeleton suggests it was deliberately buried, as it lacks evidence of carnivore predation or damage consistent with exposure to the elements. According to the researchers, this makes Qafzeh Cave one of the most important sites in the world for studying Homo sapiensβ earliest internment practices and the relationship not just between the living and the dead, but also between the living and the dying.
The find represents one of the earliest known well-preserved human populations outside of Africa at this time, residing in the Levant at least 90,000 years ago. With evidence of a healed traumatic injury, unusual dental disease, and intentional burial, the Qafzeh 25 skeleton offers a rare glimpse into the livesβand deathsβof some of our earliest ancestors.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
An unusual artifact unearthed at a site in central Israel is offering researchers an unexpected look at far-reaching trade networks, religious traditions, and cultural change that rocked the ancient Near East.
The tiny relic, uncovered at the ancient settlement of Tel Hadid, is nearly 2,700 years old. Archaeologists have identified it as a stamp sealβa common object from this region and period, although upon closer inspection, what it reveals is something more complex than others of its kind.
βThe object is remarkable for its material,β writes Tel Aviv University archaeologist Ido Koch and colleagues in a recent paper published in the journal Levant that describes the object. Crafted from mother-of-pearl, the researchers say this stamp seal is quite unlike any other and represents βa medium hitherto undocumented in the southern Levantine stamp seal corpus.β
Normally, stamp seals were made from durable stone during the Iron Age. What prompted the ancient creator of the recovery from Tel Hadid to use a pearl oyster instead remains perplexing, since this brittle material is so delicate that Koch and his colleagues say engraving it would have been extraordinarily difficult using Iron Age tools.
Varying angles of the stamp seal unearthed at Tel Hadid, Israel (Image Credit: Photo: Sasha Flit, TAU).
In short, crafting such an artifact from mother-of-pearl using known techniques available to artisans in the Near East nearly 2,700 years ago should have been impossible.
So why did its ancient creator choose to undertake such a demanding task in the first place?
Discovery at Tel Hadid
The Tel Hadid site, also known as al-Haditha, is an archaeological site in the Ben Shemen Forest in central Israel found between present-day Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The site overlooks the countryβs coastal plain, and 2,700 years ago, its position also would have held strategic importance.
It was there in 2019 that archaeologists uncovered the stamp seal during excavations led by Koch and his team, which they say belonged to Pinctada margaritifera, a species of pearl oyster native to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. This identification was significant, since it means the raw material traveled hundreds of miles before ultimately reaching the settlement.
Based on its origins and the craftsmanship that obviously went into its creation, Koch and his colleagues believe the unusual artifact reflects the profound changes that followed the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel during the late eighth century B.C.E. At the time, populations that had fallen under Assyrian rule were frequently moved to different locations within the empire, resulting in communities that blended cultures normally only connected by expansive trade routes stretching from Mesopotamia to Arabia and beyond.
The stamp seal appears to reflect these far-reaching connections, since the mother-of-pearl is believed to have been carried by one of the many deported families among their valuables. However, it is also possible that the artifact was imported through the flourishing commercial networks that emerged through the rise of the Assyrian Empire.
A Story in Pictures
However, Koch and his colleagues say the engraved design may also provide clues to the artifactβs origins. Instead of depicting imagery with roots among the Israelites, it depicts a crescent moon mounted on a triangular standardβa human figure is also present, raising its arms in apparent worship.
This imagery is associated with the Mesopotamian moon god Sin, whose worshipers spread quietly amidst Assyriaβs western provinces. Apart from the imagery it depicts, the shallow nature of the engravingβperhaps a requirement for working with such delicate materialβalso suggests that instead of functioning as a practical stamping seal, the object may have been worn as an amulet due to its religious significance.
Altogether, the combination of an exotic and unlikely material for the creation of such an item, along with its foreign religious imagery, and the care that went into its creation, all reveal clues that point to multiculturalism within communities under ancient Assyrian rule.
βThe seal thus demonstrates how a recognized colonial motif was materially articulated within a western Assyrian provincial context,β Koch and his colleagues write, βwhile also providing a rare opportunity to examine the practices and constraints of seal engraving on [mother of pearl].β
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached atΒ micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on XΒ @MicahHanks, and atΒ micahhanks.com.
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