O Apple TV divulgou hoje o trailer da segunda temporada de “Mulheres de Azul” (“Las Azules”), série mexicana criada pelo premiado showrunner e diretor Fernando Rovzar, ao lado de Pablo Aramendi.

Marcada para estrear em 12 de agosto (uma quarta-feira), a nova parte da produção acompanhará María (Bárbara Mori), agora promovida a tenente, enquanto se vê dividida entre as regras que jurou cumprir e uma busca implacável pela verdade, após a descoberta do corpo de uma estudante ativista.

Veja o trailer também no YouTube:

Enquanto María, Valentina (Natalia Téllez), Gabina (Amorita Rasgado) e Ángeles (Ximena Sariñana) travam batalhas dentro e fora da delegacia, verdades ocultas vêm à tona e elas são forçadas a confrontar uma questão incômoda: em um sistema assolado pela corrupção, qual é o preço de lutar pelos seus ideais?

Além de Mori, Sariñana, Téllez e Rasgado, a série é estrelada por Miguel Rodarte, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Christian Tappán, Horacio García Rojas e Bruno Bichir.

“Mulheres de Azul” é produzida pela Lemon Studios e conta com Rovzar na produção executiva, ao lado da indicada ao Emmy Wendy Riss, Alejandro Lozano, Erica Sánchez Su e o vencedor do Emmy Internacional Billy Rovzar.

Depois da estreia, novos episódios de “Mulheres de Azul” serão lançados semanalmente, sempre às quartas-feiras, até 30 de setembro.

O Apple TV está disponível no aplicativo Apple TV em mais de 100 países e regiões, seja em iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs, Macs, dispositivos Android, smart TVs ou online — além de também estar em aparelhos como Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast com Google TV, consoles PlayStation e Xbox. O serviço custa R$29,90 por mês, com um período de teste gratuito de 7 dias. Por tempo limitado, quem comprar e ativar um novo iPhone, iPad, Apple TV ou Mac ganha 3 meses do Apple TV. Ele também faz parte do pacote de assinaturas da empresa, o Apple One.

NOTA DE TRANSPARÊNCIA: O MacMagazine recebe uma pequena comissão sobre vendas concluídas por meio de links deste post, mas você, como consumidor, não paga nada mais pelos produtos/serviços usando os nossos links de afiliado.

The Japanese government wants to sharply increase the number of launches despite struggles with both current and new launch vehicles.

The post Japan seeks to ramp up launch activity appeared first on SpaceNews.

As the United States of America celebrated its 250th birthday on terra firma with fireworks displays this weekend, two Asian countries made some splashes of their own farther from Earth.

On Sunday, an aging Japanese spacecraft named Hayabusa2, which completed its initial sample-return objective more than half a decade ago, found success with an extended mission that saw the vehicle fly by a peanut-shaped asteroid named Torifune.

Hours later, the Chinese space agency released images from a spacecraft, Tianwen-2, arriving at its target asteroid following a journey of 1 billion km. At this small asteroid, the Chinese spacecraft will attempt to retrieve samples and return them to Earth late next year.

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Before the prefrontal cortex evolved, another system in the brain may already have been directing attention, scientists have now revealed. 

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have identified a small group of brainstem neurons that act as an internal attention filter.

When these neurons were deactivated in mice, the animals became highly distractible, mirroring one of the hallmark features of ADHD. Restoring activity in these neurons allowed the mice to regain normal focus.

An Old Problem With No Modern Answer

Selective spatial attention is the brain’s ability to focus on relevant information while ignoring distractions. This process allows a person to follow a conversation in a noisy environment or recognize a familiar face in a crowd. Conditions such as ADHD and autism also often involve disruptions in selective attention. For many years, scientists believed the prefrontal cortex was primarily responsible for this function.

However, this view does not fully explain how attention works across different species. Primates have a well-developed prefrontal cortex, while other vertebrates have a less pronounced version, yet birds, fish, and turtles still effectively focus their attention.

“If we really go back in evolution, for hundreds of millions of years, birds have had this ability, fish have had this ability. And they do not typically have a highly developed prefrontal cortex, so how does the brain solve this problem?” said lead author Ninad Kothari, a postdoctoral fellow in Johns Hopkins’ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. “We were able to identify an evolutionarily old region in the brainstem which affords this ability.”

A Filter Hiding in Plain Sight

The researchers traced this behavior to a network of inhibitory neurons located deep within the brainstem, a region found in all vertebrates. Mysore’s laboratory had previously studied this area in birds, frogs, and turtles before examining it in mice.

The team created an attention task, similar to those used in human studies, to test the role of these neurons. Mice viewed visual cues on a screen and earned rewards for responding to a target in front of them while ignoring a distracting signal off to the side. This test measured how well the mice could pick out important information and ignore distractions. The mice successfully performed the task until researchers deactivated the brainstem neurons, at which point they became easily distracted.

Ruling Out the Obvious Explanations

Before concluding that these neurons controlled attention, the researchers tested for other possible explanations, such as vision or motor problems, that might account for the mice’s behavior. However, the researchers ruled out these alternative explanations.

“The only thing impaired was their ability to take the competing pieces of information, compare them, and pay attention to the location with the most important information,” said senior author Shreesh Mysore, a neuroscientist who studies neural circuits tied to behavior. “This part of the brain is like an attentional selection engine. It helps solve the question: ‘What is most important information I should pay attention to right now?'”

The attention deficit was not permanent. When the neurons were reactivated, the same mice that had previously been unable to ignore faint distractions were once again able to ignore even strong distractors.

“A hallmark of ADHD is that even faint distractors draw attention away — and that’s exactly what we see here when these neurons are silenced,” Mysore said. “But the very next day, when the neurons are turned back on, the same animal can ignore distractors again, even very strong ones.”

What This Could Mean for Human Brains

“All the evidence to date suggests that these neurons exist in humans too,” Mysore said. “But are they responsible for selective spatial attention in humans? An exciting hypothesis is that they play a crucial role.”

If researchers find that these neurons function differently in people with attention disorders, the circuit could become a target for future therapies.

Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a data analytics certification. His work focuses on breaking scientific developments, with an emphasis on emerging biology, cognitive neuroscience, and archaeological discoveries.

A butterfly that survives for nearly a year, while its closest relatives live only two weeks, offers a potential model for studying how aging and lifespan can evolve in nature.

A University of Bristol-led study published in Nature Communications reports that some Heliconius butterflies have evolved both longer lifespans and slower physical decline, distinguishing them from most other butterfly species studied to date.

Heliconius butterflies inhabit the rainforests of Central and South America, where most adult butterflies live only a few weeks. In the study, Heliconius hewitsoni reached a maximum lifespan of 348 days, while a related species, Dione juno, only survived about 14 days under observed conditions. This represents a 25-fold difference in maximum lifespan between two closely related species.

Old Age Without the Decline

Heliconius butterflies not only live longer than their relatives, but also show slower physical decline with age. The team, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, measured grip strength in aging butterflies to assess physical decline. Older Heliconius hecale performed as well as the younger individuals tested, showing no detectable age-related decline in grip strength.

The team combined butterfly house data, mark–recapture field studies, and controlled lab experiments. In these cases, Heliconius butterflies consistently showed longer lifespans, lower mortality rates, and slower rates of aging than closely related species that do not feed on pollen.

The Pollen Connection

One hypothesis for their extended lifespan focuses on their unusual adult diet. While most butterflies feed only on nectar, Heliconius also consumes pollen, which was thought to provide the nutritional basis for its extended lifespan.

To test this idea, researchers compared pollen-feeding Heliconius hecale with its non-pollen-feeding relative, Dryas iulia. H. hecale maintained body mass and muscle performance longer than D. iulia. Even without pollen in its diet, H. hecale still outlived its relative by a wide margin. This suggests that diet alone does not explain Heliconius’s extended lifespan.

Dr. Jessica Foley, the study’s lead author from the University of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, explained that insects already show a huge range of lifespans. Some, like mayflies, live only a few days, while ant and termite queens can survive for decades. “This represents a roughly 5,000-fold difference within the class, compared with around a 100-fold difference in lifespan observed in mammals.”

Heliconius butterflies are notable because they have evolved both longer lifespans and slower rates of aging, allowing them to outlive close relatives from which they diverged only recently in evolutionary history.

A New Model for an Old Problem

Most aging research uses a limited set of laboratory organisms, such as mice, worms, and fruit flies, to study biological aging mechanisms. The heliconius butterfly provides a unique opportunity to study a long-lived species closely related to short-lived species, allowing for direct comparison in a natural context. Foley noted that comparing these two groups “can help reveal how lifespan is extended, making them a highly promising new model for research into the biology of aging and longevity.”

If pollen feeding and longevity evolved together but are not entirely dependent on each other, the next step is to identify the genetic and physiological changes responsible for both traits. Understanding these mechanisms in Heliconius butterflies could provide insight into how aging evolves across species.

Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a data analytics certification. His work focuses on breaking scientific developments, with an emphasis on emerging biology, cognitive neuroscience, and archaeological discoveries.

Welcome to Edition 8.46 of the Rocket Report! We don't mention Starship in the body of this week's report, so I'll give a brief update here. The next test flight of SpaceX's mega-rocket—Flight 13—could happen as soon as next month, according to Gwynne Shotwell, the company's president and chief operating officer, in a recent interview with CNBC. There's still a fair bit of work to do before Flight 13, so don't count on a launch next month just yet. What we do know, based on Shotwell's comments to CNBC, is the next Starship test flight will look a lot like the previous one last month, with a suborbital flight path and a splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX is holding off on an orbital flight until at least the following launch, Flight 14, after the ship was unable to complete a critical engine restart in space on the last flight.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Isar test flight scrubbed again. Isar Aerospace still commands top position among a new generation of European rocket startups, but the company’s efforts to launch a critical test flight of its Spectrum rocket continue to encounter roadblocks, Ars reports. The latest delay came Monday, when Isar scrubbed a launch attempt after "detecting off nominal behavior in the vehicle’s fluid systems," according to a social media post. "The teams are analyzing the new data to isolate the root cause." Isar is flush with cash, having raised nearly $1 billion to date, but is still lacking in the critical currency of flight experience. The Spectrum rocket has flown just once to date, on a failed launch last year that lasted less than 30 seconds.

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Welcome to Edition 8.46 of the Rocket Report! We don't mention Starship in the body of this week's report, so I'll give a brief update here. The next test flight of SpaceX's mega-rocket—Flight 13—could happen as soon as next month, according to Gwynne Shotwell, the company's president and chief operating officer, in a recent interview with CNBC. There's still a fair bit of work to go before Flight 13, so don't count on a launch next month just yet. What we do know, based on Shotwell's comments to CNBC, is the next Starship test flight will look a like like the previous one last month, with a suborbital flight path and a splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX is holding off on an orbital flight until at least the following launch, Flight 14, after the ship was unable to complete a critical engine restart in space on the last flight.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Isar test flight scrubbed again. Isar Aerospace still commands top position among a new generation of European rocket startups, but the company’s efforts to launch a critical test flight of its Spectrum rocket continue to encounter roadblocks, Ars reports. The latest delay came Monday, when Isar scrubbed a launch attempt after "detecting off nominal behavior in the vehicle’s fluid systems," according to a social media post. "The teams are analyzing the new data to isolate the root cause." Isar is flush with cash, having raised nearly $1 billion to date, but is still lacking in the critical currently of flight experience. The Spectrum rocket has flown just once to date, on a failed launch last year that lasted less than 30 seconds.

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Mitsubishi’s Kei-class eK Cross gets a mild facelift for the 2027 model year that combines a body-color front fascia and updated interior tech to give it a fresh look – but the big news is a new 100 V AC power outlet that can draw up to 1500 Watts.

Welcome to Edition 8.46 of the Rocket Report! We don't mention Starship in the body of this week's report, so I'll give a brief update here. The next test flight of SpaceX's mega-rocket—Flight 13—could happen as soon as next month, according to Gwynne Shotwell, the company's president and chief operating officer, in a recent interview with CNBC. There's still a fair bit of work to do before Flight 13, so don't count on a launch next month just yet. What we do know, based on Shotwell's comments to CNBC, is the next Starship test flight will look a lot like the previous one last month, with a suborbital flight path and a splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX is holding off on an orbital flight until at least the following launch, Flight 14, after the ship was unable to complete a critical engine restart in space on the last flight.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Isar test flight scrubbed again. Isar Aerospace still commands top position among a new generation of European rocket startups, but the company’s efforts to launch a critical test flight of its Spectrum rocket continue to encounter roadblocks, Ars reports. The latest delay came Monday, when Isar scrubbed a launch attempt after "detecting off nominal behavior in the vehicle’s fluid systems," according to a social media post. "The teams are analyzing the new data to isolate the root cause." Isar is flush with cash, having raised nearly $1 billion to date, but is still lacking in the critical currency of flight experience. The Spectrum rocket has flown just once to date, on a failed launch last year that lasted less than 30 seconds.

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A seismic shockwave traveling within the Earth moved the entire Japanese archipelago by 5 to 6 millimeters, posing a previously unknown Earthquake danger, according to a University of Chicago researcher.

Revealed in a recent paper published in the journal Science, Sunyoung Park and colleagues identified a shear wave bouncing off the Earth’s core after the Tohoku-Oki earthquake in 2011. According to the researchers, this specific type of rebound effect in the mainshock area after an earthquake has never been recognized before, offering new insights into the residual dangers of seismic events and how the layers of our planet interact.

Japan Shifts

As the best-recorded megathrust event in history, the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake has already been well characterized in past studies. However, the team decided to take another look at the event, as monitoring stations throughout Japan detected the ScS shear wave’s return after hitting the core, as well as the archipelago’s eastward movement.

“When we examined the GPS time series in detail, we noticed a small, coherent eastward motion across much of Japan that followed seismic waves reflected from the core (the ScS phase) return to Japan,” Park told The Debrief. “This motion was puzzling because there was no known earthquake (aftershocks) associated with it at that timing, and so we wanted to understand what was really happening.”

According to the team, a previously unknown phenomenon produced the notable ground shift. In just those 13 minutes, a shear wave from the Tohoku-Oki earthquake raced through the planet, bounced off the core, and reactivated the tectonic plate beneath Japan. 

Analyzing the Earthquake Data

In their analysis, they found the rebound shear wave aligned with the tectonic plate boundaries, which, combined with weakened frictional forces after the mainshock, produced the shear wave reflection.

“We only gradually became convinced that this returning wave could actually trigger slip on multiple plate boundaries,” Park said. “It was particularly surprising that such a long-traveling wave (traveling ~5800 km, comparable to the radius of the Earth) could both trigger an event and do so over such a broad region, comparable to the length of Japan, involving several different plate interfaces.”

The movement is described as “steplike,” due to the small but sudden nature of the shift. In the data, the movement resembles a staircase: a flat position, followed by a sudden shift, then another flattening at a different level. Resolving that tiny step proved a challenge.

“In this case, the steplike motion is only a few to several millimeters, so it is relatively small compared to the noise and various processing artifacts that can appear in GPS records,” Park explained. “We did not process the GPS data ourselves; instead, we relied on a carefully processed data product. Even so, we had to be very cautious, because subtle signals can sometimes be introduced by the way the data are processed.”

The research reexamined the main shock source for any evidence of large underwater landslides to rule out other potential causes and found no other correlations.

A New Type of Earthquake Events

According to the team, it is no surprise that such events have previously gone unrecognized. For this rebound effect to occur, an extremely powerful earthquake is required to produce a noticeable effect, and dense, high-precision monitoring networks are needed to detect tiny motions over a large area. Additionally, most seismic studies focus on localized effects rather than viewing the aftermath on such a broad scale.

The slip is six to seven times that of the main shock rupture, making it the broadest single event rupture area ever recorded, doubling that of the great Sumatra Earthquake in 2004. According to the researchers, the Sumatra earthquake may be another example of this behavior, although no work has yet been done to investigate this.

From their work, the team says they cannot predict the exact amount of slip from such an event in the future, similar to the inability to predict normal earthquakes; yet, they can predict when the rebound effect will occur after the main thrust.

“I want to understand more generally how processes deep inside the Earth interact with shallow parts of the Earth,” Park concluded. “I am interested in why deep earthquakes happen and how they may be linked to the whole subduction system and the dynamics, from shallow to deep depth ranges.”

Park added that he is also finding “that these deep events can produce measurable deformation at the Earth’s surface, just like the step-like motions we see in this study,” all of which is helping researchers like him “better understand both these earthquakes and the structure of the Earth.”

The paper, “ScS-Triggered Slip on Megathrust Interfaces after the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake,” appeared in Science on June 18, 2026.

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.

In the dense, vibrant rainforests stretching across South and Central America, a remarkable evolutionary marvel is unfolding in the form of a tropical butterfly genus that defies traditional biological limits on lifespan. According to a groundbreaking study led by researchers at the University of Bristol, as published recently in Nature Communications, Heliconius butterflies have evolved a sophisticated anti-aging mechanism that dramatically extends their lifespans compared to their close relatives. This discovery not only challenges existing paradigms surrounding insect longevity but also opens a new frontier in understanding the molecular and physiological bases of aging in natural populations.

Heliconius butterflies, widely distributed throughout neotropical ecosystems, have long intrigued biologists due to their exceptional longevity. Unlike most butterfly species, which complete their adult phase within a few weeks, Heliconius butterflies exhibit lifespans that soar to nearly a full year, with median lifespans averaging around three times those of closely related species. Specifically, Heliconius hewitsoni can live up to 348 days in the wild, a staggering contrast to the mere 14 days observed in its relative Dione juno. This magnified difference—in terms of maximum lifespan—exceeds a 25-fold disparity, presenting a natural laboratory to investigate the factors that contribute to longevity.

Delving into the evolutionary dynamics behind this phenomenon, the research team employed an integrative methodology that combined field observations, controlled insectary experiments, and mark-release-recapture studies across multiple Heliconiini tribe species. This multifaceted approach allowed the scientists to quantify not only lifespan but also the patterns of physiological aging, including metrics such as physical performance decline via grip-strength assessments. Intriguingly, in some Heliconius species like Heliconius hecale, the expected decline in physical capabilities that accompanies aging in most organisms was virtually absent, underscoring an evolved resistance to senescence.

The research highlights a unique ecological adaptation: adult pollen feeding. Heliconius butterflies are one of the few lepidopteran groups capable of digesting pollen throughout their adult lives, contrasting with the nectar-reliant feeding habits of most butterflies. This dietary specialization appears intricately linked to their extended healthspan and longevity. Pollen is a rich source of proteins and amino acids, which are hypothesized to support enhanced somatic maintenance and cellular repair mechanisms, potentially underpinning slower rates of aging and sustained physiological function.

To rigorously test the relationship between diet and aging, the study contrasted Heliconius hecale with its non-pollen-feeding relative Dryas iulia under controlled conditions that varied access to pollen. Remarkably, while Heliconius hecale individuals sustained their muscular function and body mass longer and evaded typical age-related deterioration, even those deprived of pollen retained a longevity advantage relative to Dryas. This finding implies that while pollen feeding contributes nutritionally, intrinsic genetic or epigenetic adaptations also play a critical role in extending lifespan, suggesting a complex interplay between evolved traits and ecological factors.

From an evolutionary biology perspective, the divergence in longevity and aging rates within the Heliconiini tribe exemplifies natural selection’s power in shaping life-history traits in response to ecological niches and resource utilization. The accelerated lifespan and delayed senescence in Heliconius suggest that adaptive shifts—such as adult pollen feeding—can drive profound modifications in physiology and perhaps modulate molecular pathways linked to aging, including oxidative stress resistance, protein homeostasis, and metabolic regulation.

The implications of this research extend beyond the entomological sphere, offering a promising model for the biology of aging and lifespan extension. Insects have already revealed fundamental insights into genetic regulation and cellular processes, and the Heliconius genus introduces a new dimension by combining extraordinary longevity with ecological and evolutionary relevance. Decoding the molecular mechanisms enabling Heliconius butterflies to circumvent typical aging processes could illuminate targets for biomedical research into human healthspan and age-related diseases.

Jessica Foley, the study’s lead author, emphasized the significance of these findings within the broader context of longevity research. Highlighting the vast interspecies disparity in lifespan—from ephemeral mayflies surviving mere days to ant and termite castes living decades—she notes that Heliconius butterflies offer a naturally evolved system to decode the underlying biology that governs such diversity. Their relatively recent evolutionary divergence from short-lived relatives strengthens the value of this natural comparative experiment.

Furthermore, the study underscores the utility of integrating ecological, physiological, and evolutionary data to unravel complex biological phenomena. By blending fieldwork with laboratory precision, the researchers were able to identify robust patterns of aging and performance that are rarely accessible in wild insect populations. This holistic approach models a pathway forward for future studies aimed at dissecting the multifactorial influences on longevity and healthspan.

In conclusion, the revelation that Heliconius butterflies not only live exceptionally long lives but also maintain functional integrity well into old age represents a profound breakthrough in understanding natural aging mechanisms. Their case underscores how dietary innovations and evolutionary pressures can collectively sculpt lifespan, challenging the limits traditionally imposed by physiology. As research progresses, the Heliconius genus is poised to emerge as a vital model system, shedding light on the deep evolutionary roots of ageing and longevity and potentially inspiring novel therapeutic approaches for age-associated conditions in humans.

Subject of Research: Animals

Article Title: Evolution of increased longevity and slowed ageing in a genus of tropical butterfly

News Publication Date: 16-Jun-2026

Web References: 10.1038/s41467-026-73635-7

Image Credits: Louise Bestea

Keywords: Insects, Lepidoptera, Rainforests, Tropical forests, Evolutionary biology

An iron artifact recovered by archaeologists may be the oldest of its kind ever found in Japan, according to new research.

Recovered during excavations at the Hayashi-Fujishima archaeological site in Fukui, the capital city of Fukui Prefecture, the artifact measures slightly more than an inch and a half across, just under an inch in width, and just a millimeter in thickness.

The presence of tiny, triangular teeth measuring up to 3 millimeters deep indicates the artifact’s use as an early saw, according to investigations by the Fukui Prefectural Archaeological Research Center, which recently announced the discovery.

While similar discoveries have been made in Japan, none are believed to be as old as this saw, which archaeologists have tentatively dated to the late Yayoi Pottery Culture Period, which thrived between the second and third centuries, making it the oldest known in the country.

Tomokatsu Uozu, Deputy Director at the Center, said the age of the discovery indicates the advancement of early iron technologies along the region’s coastal communities during the period.

“The artifact could be an important piece of evidence supporting the advancement of ironware culture along the Sea of Japan coast during the Yayoi period,” Uozu recently told The Asahi Shimbun.

Similar Discoveries in the Ancient East

The saw uncovered at the Hayashi-Fujishima archaeological site bears some similarities to saws from the same period that have been unearthed during past excavations in China.

Such similarities are important, since it is believed that the same iron processing techniques used in the creation of the saw from the Hayashi-Fujishima site originated in China, having been carried across the Korean Peninsula and eventually reaching northern Kyushu, where ancient traders carried it along the Sea of Japan to its eventual arrival at Fukui.

The saw recently showcased by the Fukui Prefectural Archaeological Research Center is only one example of the many artifacts recovered from the Hayashi-Fujishima site.

Identified Decades After Its Discovery

Past work at the site has uncovered additional iron artifacts, as well as stone tools, pottery, distinctive “magatama” and “kudatama” bead varieties, and a range of items during primary excavations, which were conducted during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The site is believed to also host what remains of an ancient settlement dating to the Yayoi period, a period that was significant for the emergence of organized food production, as well as a unique element associated with the culture: the creation of distinctive, keyhole-shaped burial mounds.

However, it wasn’t until 2021, during restoration work with many of the artifacts retrieved from the site, that researchers first noticed something significant that had gone unnoticed decades earlier at the time of the artifact’s discovery: tiny serrations were present on one of its edges.

Further examination with the help of X-ray CT scan imaging confirmed the artifact’s identity as a triangular or “beak-shaped” saw, similar to other discoveries from later periods. At the time of its use, the complete saw would likely have measured up to five times the length of the remaining fragmentary portion.

Another notable feature of the saw is that the tip of the blade is bent, which archaeologists think may indicate that the saw was used for work involving fine crafting of wooden or stone items.

Breaking Earlier Records for Japan’s Oldest Saw

The discovery now overturns the previous oldest artifact of its kind known from the region, which was uncovered from a third-century burial mound in Hyogo Prefecture. That saw’s association with the Kofun Period, which thrived near the end of the third century, made it the oldest known at the time of its discovery.

Although additional studies are required, the team says that confirmation of the age of the Hayashi-Fujishima site’s saw would extend the timescales once again on the earliest use of such technologies by as much as a century.