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Public Release: 8-May-2008
Science
New evidence from earliest known human settlement in the Americas
New evidence from the Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile confirms its status as the earliest known human settlement in the Americas and provides additional support for the theory that one early migration route followed the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago.
National Science Foundation, Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Cientifico y Tecnológica, ational Geographic Society, Universidad de Chile
Contact: David F. Salisbury
david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu
615-343-6803
Vanderbilt University
Public Release: 7-May-2008
X-rays power discoveries at Chicago's Field Museum
Digital medical imaging and information technology is helping The Field Museum discover and analyze secrets hidden within its world-class collections. A computed radiography system enables the museum—for the first time—to capture, archive and share digital x-ray images from more than one million priceless artifacts in its Anthropology collection. The museum is also using a picture archiving and communications system (PACS) to manage, view and store the growing collection of digital images.
Contact: Greg Borzo
gborzo@fieldmuseum.org
312-665-7106
Field Museum
Public Release: 29-Apr-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Sunflower debate ends in Mexico, researchers say
Ancient farmers were growing sunflowers in Mexico more than 4,000 years before the Spaniards arrived, according to a team of researchers that includes Florida State University anthropologist Mary D. Pohl.
Contact: Mary Pohl
mpohl@fsu.edu
850-644-8153
Florida State University
Public Release: 29-Apr-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Ancient sunflower fuels debate about agriculture in the Americas
Lentz and his fellow researchers have documented archaeological, linguistic, ethnographic and ethnohistoric data demonstrating that the sunflower had entered the repertoire of Mexican domesticates by 2600 B.C., that its cultivation was widespread in Mexico and extended as far south as El Salvador by the first millennium B.C., that it was well known to the Aztecs, and that it is still in use by traditional Mesoamerican cultures today.
National Science Foundation and National Geographic Society
Contact: Wendy Hart Beckman
wendy.beckman@uc.edu
513-556-1826
University of Cincinnati
Public Release: 22-Apr-2008
Royal Society's Biology Letters
Shell-breaking crabs lived 20 million years earlier than thought
While waiting for colleagues at a small natural history museum in the state of Chiapas, Mexico last year, Cornell paleontologist Greg Dietl chanced upon a discovery that has helped rewrite the evolutionary history of crabs and the shelled mollusks upon which they preyed.
Contact: Blaine Friedlander
bpf2@cornell.edu
607-254-8093
Cornell University Communications
Public Release: 22-Apr-2008
Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry
Synchrotron light unveils oil in ancient Buddhist paintings from Bamiyan
The world was in shock when in 2001 the Talibans destroyed two ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan. Behind them, there are caves decorated with precious paintings from 5th to 9th century A.D. The caves also suffered from destruction but today they have become the source of a major discovery. Scientists have proved, thanks to experiments at the ESRF, that the paintings were made of oil, hundreds of years before the technique was "invented" in Europe.
Contact: Montserrat Capellas
press@esrf.fr
33-676-655-180
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
Public Release: 17-Apr-2008
Seismological Society of America Annual Meeting
Tip sheet for International Seismology Research Conference
Excavating for clues to past earthquakes, tracking extreme ocean storms, glimpsing past Soviet nuclear testing, and more discussed as seismologists gather in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Contact: Nan Broadbent
press@seismosoc.org
408-431-9885
Seismological Society of America
Public Release: 16-Apr-2008
Seismological Society of America Annual Meeting
Unearthing clues of catastrophic earthquakes
The destruction and disappearance of ancient cultures mark the history of human civilization, making for fascinating stories and cautionary tales. The longevity of today's societies may depend upon separating fact from fiction, and archeologists and seismologists are figuring out how to join forces to do just that with respect to ancient earthquakes, as detailed in new studies presented at the international conference of the Seismological Society of America.
Contact: Nan Broadbent
press@seismosoc.org
408-431-9885
Seismological Society of America
Public Release: 8-Apr-2008
Plan brokered by UCLA, USC archaeologists would remove roadblock to Mideast peace
Two professors, one from USC and another at UCLA, led a group of Israeli and Palestinian archaeologists over the course of five years to draft a plan that covers the fate of the antiquities, and the sacred places, in the event of a two-state solution. They are hoping to remove these treasures from the political arena and remove a potential roadblock on the path to peace.
University of Southern California, University of California -- Los Angelos, US Institute of Peace
Contact: Eddie North-Hager
edwardnh@usc.edu
213-740-9335
University of Southern California
Public Release: 8-Apr-2008
Ancient DNA: reconstruction of the biological history of Aldaieta necropolis
A research team from the Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology & Animal Physiology in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Leioa campus of the University of the Basque Country, and led by Ms. Concepción de la Rúa, has reconstructed the history of the evolution of human population and answered questions about history, using DNA extracted from skeleton remains.
Contact: Irati Kortabitarte
iratik@elhuyar.com
34-943-363-040
Elhuyar Fundazioa
Public Release: 7-Apr-2008
Keeping African artifacts in Africa
University of Calgary researcher Julio Mercader, along with University of Boston Ph.D. student Arianna Fogelman have established the first museum of its kind in Mozambique which will officially open in August. The Museu Local aims to be an interactive cultural heritage center and is supported by the Smithsonian Institution.
Contact: Meghan Sired
mssired@ucalgary.ca
403-220-4756
University of Calgary
Public Release: 5-Apr-2008
37th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research
NYU dental professor discovers biological clock linking tooth growth to other metabolic processes
NYU dental professor Dr. Timothy Bromage discovered the rhythm while observing incremental growth lines in tooth enamel, which appear much like the annual rings on a tree. He also observed a related pattern of incremental growth in skeletal bone tissue -- the first time such an incremental rhythm has ever been observed in bone.
Contact: Christopher James
christopher.james@nyu.edu
212-998-6876
New York University
Public Release: 4-Apr-2008
2008 Society for American Archaeology Meeting
Russian-American research team examines origins of whaling culture
Recent findings by a Russian-American research team suggest that prehistoric cultures were hunting whales at least 3,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than was previously known.
National Park Service, National Science Foundation
Contact: Daniel Odess
202-354-2128
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Public Release: 3-Apr-2008
Science Express
The voyage to America
A team of researchers led by Danish professor Eske Willerslev shows that the ancestors of the North American Indians who came from Asia were the first people in America, and that they were of neither European nor African descent. It also shows that immigration to North America took place approximately 1,000 years earlier than assumed. These findings call for a revision of our understanding of the early immigration route to the American continent.
Contact: Eske Willerslev
ewillerslev@bio.ku.dk
452-875-1309
University of Copenhagen
Public Release: 3-Apr-2008
Science
Researchers, led by UO archaeologist, find pre-Clovis human DNA
DNA from dried human excrement recovered from Oregon's Paisley Caves is the oldest found yet in the New World -- dating to 14,300 years ago, some 1,200 years before Clovis culture -- and provides apparent genetic ties to Siberia or Asia, according to an international team of 13 scientists.
US Bureau of Land Management, UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Association of Oregon Archaeologists, Marie Curie Actions
Contact: Jim Barlow
jebarlow@uoregon.edu
541-346-3481
University of Oregon
Public Release: 2-Apr-2008
Were Assyrian rulers the forefathers of today's CEOs?
Tel Aviv University archaeologists find ancient Jerusalem may be a model for today's corporations.
Contact: George Hunka
ghunka@aftau.org
212-742-9070
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Public Release: 31-Mar-2008
From bones to berserkers -- Vikings under the spotlight
Viking experts will be gathering at the University of Nottingham to discuss the findings of latest research into the Norsemen.
Contact: Dr. Christina Lee
Christina.lee@nottingham.ac.uk
University of Nottingham
Public Release: 24-Mar-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Corn's roots dig deeper into South America
In a paper published in the March 24 advanced online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U of C Ph.D. student Sonia Zarrillo and archaeology professor Scott Raymond report that a new technique for examining ancient cooking pots has produced the earliest directly dated examples of domesticated corn (maize) being consumed on the South American continent.
Contact: Grady Semmens
gsemmens@ucalgary.ca
403-220-7722
University of Calgary
Public Release: 20-Mar-2008
Science
Texas A&M scientists say early Americans arrived earlier
A team led by two Texas A&M University anthropologists now believes the first Americans came to this country 1,000 to 2,000 years earlier than the 13,500 years ago previously thought, which could shift historic timelines.
Contact: Kelli Levey
klevey@tamu.edu
979-845-4645
Texas A&M University
Public Release: 19-Mar-2008
Proceedings of the Royal Society
Good luck indeed: 53 million-year-old rabbit's foot bones found
One day last spring, fossil hunter and anatomy professor Kenneth Rose, Ph.D., was displaying the bones of a jackrabbit's foot as part of a seminar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine when something about the shape of the bones looked oddly familiar.
National Geographic Society, US Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of India, Research Foundation Flanders, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office
Contact: Audrey Huang
audrey@jhmi.edu
410-614-5105
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Public Release: 19-Mar-2008
Journal of Anthropological Research
Floating a big idea: MIT demos ancient use of rafts to transport goods
Oceangoing sailing rafts plied the waters of the equatorial Pacific long before Europeans arrived in the Americas, and carried trade goods for thousands of miles all the way from modern-day Chile to western Mexico, according to new findings by MIT researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
MIT's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
Contact: Elizabeth Thomson
thomson@mit.edu
617-258-5402
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Public Release: 18-Mar-2008
International Conference on Computational and Experimental Engineering and Sciences
Tell them where it hurts
For statues, stress injuries come from standing in place for hundreds of years. Using a novel technique, researchers have now developed a way to predict such fracturing, applying the procedure to Michelangelo's David in an analysis that proved simpler, faster and more accurate than previous methods. In applying the technique to other objects -- including human bones -- the researchers are also gaining new perspective on how these structures are likely to fail.
Contact: Josh Chamot
jchamot@nsf.gov
703-292-7730
National Science Foundation
Public Release: 17-Mar-2008
PNAS Early Edition
Clovis-age overkill didn't take out California's flightless sea duck
Clovis-age natives, often noted for overhunting during their brief dominance in a primitive North America, deserve clemency in the case of California's flightless sea duck. New evidence says it took thousands of years for the duck to die out.
Contact: Jim Barlow
jebarlow@uoregon.edu
541-346-3481
University of Oregon
Public Release: 11-Mar-2008
FSU classics professor exploring a 'lost' city of the Mycenaeans
Along an isolated, rocky stretch of Greek shoreline, a Florida State University researcher and his students are unlocking the secrets of a partially submerged, "lost" harbor town believed to have been built by the ancient Mycenaeans nearly 3,500 years ago.
Contact: Daniel Pullen
dpullen@fsu.edu
850-644-0304
Florida State University
Public Release: 10-Mar-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Domestication of the donkey
An international group of researchers has found evidence for the earliest transport use of the donkey and the early phases of donkey domestication, suggesting the process of domestication may have been slower and less linear than previously thought.
Contact: Fiona Marshall
FMARSHAL@WUSTL.EDU
314-935-5181
Washington University in St. Louis
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