Earliest Musical Instruments Date Back 42000 Years

Oxford and Tübingen scientists have identified what they believe are the world’s oldest known musical instruments.

Mammoth-, left, and bird-bone flutes from the site of Geißenklösterle in Germany (Tom Higham et al / Oxford University / Tübingen University)

In their paper in the Journal of Human Evolution, the scientists report new results of radiocarbon dating for animal bones, excavated in the same archaeological layers as the musical instruments and early art, at Geißenklösterle Cave in the Swabian Jura of southern Germany.

The musical instruments take the form of flutes made from the bird bones and mammoth ivory. The animal bones bear cuts and marks from human hunting and eating. They were excavated at a key site, which is widely believed to have been occupied by some of first modern humans to arrive in Europe.

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Oldest Art Even Older: New Dates from Geißenklösterle Cave Show Early Arrival of Modern Humans, Art and Music

Jewelry. Geißenklösterle Cave is one of several caves in the Swabian Jura that have produced important examples of personal ornaments, figurative art, mythical imagery and musical instruments. (Credit: Image courtesy of Universitaet Tübingen)

 New dates from Geißenklösterle Cave in Southwest Germany document the early arrival of modern humans and early appearance of art and music.

Researchers from Oxford and Tübingen have published new radiocarbon dates from the from Geißenklösterle Cave in Swabian Jura of Southwestern Germany in the Journal of Human Evolution. The new dates use improved methods to remove contamination and produced ages between began between 42,000 – 43,000 years ago for start of the Aurignacian, the first culture to produce a wide range of figurative art, music and other key innovations as postulated in the Kulturpumpe Hypothesis. The full spectrum of these innovations were established in the region no later than 40 000 years ago.

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Earliest musical instruments in Europe 40,000 old

The first modern humans in Europe were playing musical instruments and showing artistic creativity as early as 40,000 years ago, according to new research from Oxford and Tübingen universities. 

A flute from the site of Geißenklösterle made from mammoth ivory [Credit: Oxford University]

The researchers have obtained important new radiocarbon dates for bones found in the same archaeological layers as a variety of musical instruments. The instruments take the form of flutes made from the bird bones and mammoth ivory. They were excavated at a key site in Germany, which is widely believed to have been occupied by some of first modern humans to arrive in Europe. 

In a paper published in the Journal of Human Evolution, the researchers describe the new dating results for animal bones, excavated in the same archaeological layers as the instruments and early art, at Geißenklösterle Cave in the Swabian Jura of southern Germany. The animal bones bear cuts and marks from human hunting and eating.

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Trefael Stone reveals stone age burial chamber

 

 

The Trefael Stone, seen here with a metre-long measuring stick, is probably the capstone of a Stone Age burial chamber

Archaeologists are to exhume and analyse human bones found under a prehistoric monument only recently identified as a burial site cap.

The Trefael Stone in Pembrokeshire was thought to be just one of many linked to nearby Bronze Age locations.

But it has now been reclassified after a survey established it as the capstone of a Stone Age ritual burial chamber.

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Prague dig yields 5500 BC settlement

You could almost say that Prague keeps getting older. Not long ago, archaeologists found evidence of the oldest ploughed field here, tended five and a half thousand years ago. Now the imprints of structures have been found in the same location, dating back even further, some 7,500 years. 

View of the excavations [Credit: Czech Television]

The dates of the earliest settlements in the area of Prague are continuously being pushed back – just about anytime someone puts a shovel to the northern district of Bubeneč. The spot in the bend of the Vltava river apparently offered an unparalleled living space, a river terrace with fresh water in plenty, defence on three sides and fertile land. The site makes headlines again and again as the ground yields up fascinating finds from the mysterious peoples who inhabited Central Europe before the Europeans. That they farmed in at least 3500 BC, and that they lived there long before that, is well known. Now though comes the first hard evidence of a settlement as old as agriculture on the Nile, from around 5500 BC. Radek Balý is the director of the Czech Archaeological Society and heads the team that made the find.

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The Times of Their Lives: Understanding the Neolithic peoples of Europe

Windmill Hill, a large Neolithic causewayed enclosure in Avebury, was previously thought to be built circa 3700 - 3100 BC, but with the breakthrough achieved through the scientific dating project conducted by English Heritage and Cardiff University, it is now revealed that it was constructed in 3700 - 3640 BC – narrowing the span from six centuries down to six decades. Image: English Heritage Photo Library

A five-year collaborative project between Cardiff University and English Heritage that aims to construct a more precise chronology of Neolithic civilisations in Europe has just been awarded €2.5M from the European Research Council.

The Times of Their Lives, led by Professor Alasdair Whittle of the and Dr Alex Bayliss of English Heritage builds on the ground-breaking success of combining expertise in Neolithic archaeology and Bayesian statistical analysis in mapping a precise chronology of causewayed enclosures, a type of early Neolithic earthwork, in Britain.

A revolutionary new technique

Causewayed enclosures are known prehistoric features, but up to now it has been thought that they spread slowly across Britain over five centuries. Using the new technique, Professor Whittle and Dr Bayliss have already shown that this new class of huge monuments spread rapidly all over southern Britain in a short span of 75 years, starting from the Thames Estuary through Kent and Sussex, and then west, on an intense scale that was not apparent before. The new knowledge that this happened in a flurry within two to three generations has revolutionised the way prehistory is understood and studied in Britain, and has prompted wide interest around the world.

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Join the experts to uncover the past at Flag Fen dig

Flag Fen

Flag Fen will live again this summer when archaeological experts will work tool by tool with wannabes for the first time. John Baker dug in to find out more about the world’s first ever crowd sourced and crowd funded excavation.

The Bronze age site off Northey Road will be flooded again in July and August, this time with people hoping to uncover secrets before time runs out completely. 

DISCOVERED by Time Team’s Francis Pryor, who lives in Sutton St James, the site has a fantastic national and international reputation, but is not really held in the same regard by the people of Peterborough. Legend has it that Francis was on his way to the pub in 1982 when he stumbled over a piece of wood near a Fenland ditch on the outskirts of Peterborough.

The markings on that piece of timber looked unusual and were soon confirmed as dating from around 1000 BC – and from Francis’ serendipity a legend was born.

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"This place has never been empty..."

"Since the discovery in 1999, of a large settlement site from Early Stone Age (ca 6 000 -- 4 000 BC) close to the river Motala ström, the Swedish National Heritage Board has conducted archaeological excavations north and south of the river.

Among other artifacts the site provides a rich and multifaceted material of bone and antler, which is very rare for this type of Stone Age excavations. This is due to the exceptionally good conditions for preservation. Artifacts found in anaerobic, cool and moist contexts appear to be manufactured yesterday and not to have been deposited in layers of gyttja for 7 000 or 8 000 years.

The structure of the excavated area and the multifaceted artifacts in combination with the projects inter disciplinary constitution creates widening scopes of interpretation of how the site was used, and also broadens our perception of Early Stone Age society."

The video is about 18 mins long and has English sub-titles.

You can view the video here...

Modern dogs have 'little in common' with ancient breeds

The cross-breeding of dogs has made it difficult to trace the genetic roots of today's pets, according to a new study.

Scientists from Durham and Aberdeen analysed data from the genetic make-up of modern dogs while assessing the archaeological record of dog remains.

They found that modern breeds genetically have little in common with their ancient ancestors.

The scientists believe their research could offer new insights into dog domestication and its evolution.

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New Look for the Current Archaeology Website

Current Archaeology now has a dedicated news editor in-house, and the news articles are now posted on our website as the stories break rather than simply published in the magazine.  You can also subscribe to receive an email newsletter, and there are RSS feeds for your newreader as well.

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Ancient rock art likened to a prehistoric Facebook

Ancient rock art has been likened to a prehistoric form of Facebook by a Cambridge archaeologist. 

Cambridge archaeologist Mark Sapwell believes he has discovered an ‘archaic version’ of social networking site Facebook [Credit: Cambridge News]

Mark Sapwell, who is a PhD archaeology student at St John’s College, believes he has discovered an “archaic version” of the social networking site, where users share thoughts and emotions and give stamps of approval to other contributions – similar to the Facebook “like”.

Images of animals and events were drawn on the rock faces in Russian and Northern Sweden to communicate with distant tribes and descendants during the Bronze Age. 

They form a timeline preserved in stone encompassing thousands of years.

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Warfare Began with Human Hunter-Gatherers?

Author Robert Ardrey's* popularization of the theory that modern humans are in part a product of their violent primate ancestral past may have some merit, with a twist, according to Dr. Christopher Boehm, Director of the Jane Goodall Research Center at the University of Southern California. In a review published in the May 18, 2012 issue of the journal Science, he suggests that, though the common ancestor to modern-day chimpanzees, bonobos and humans may have used conflict to solve problems and achieve objectives, it was not until the later human hunter-gatherers that the more organized, full-scale features of aggression and conflict that define actual warfare developed.

Boehm (pictured right) draws this insight based on comparative behavioral studies among humans and their closest genetic relatives, the chimpanzees and the bonobos. Chimpanzees and other apes, like humans, have been observed to exhibit violence as a means of addressing their environment or relating to others. Bonobos, although not strangers to conflict and violence, have been observed as beng significantly less agressive. The characteristics common to warfare, however, which include the application of social, organizational and technological skills not found among non-human primates, were observed first only among human hunter-gatherer groups.

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Humanity's Best Friend: How Dogs May Have Helped Humans Beat the Neanderthals

One of the most compelling -- and enduring -- mysteries in archaeology concerns the rise of early humans and the decline of Neanderthals. For about 250,000 years, Neanderthals lived and evolved, quite successfully, in the area that is now Europe. Somewhere between 45,000 and 35,000 years ago, early humans came along.

They proliferated in their new environment, their population increasing tenfold in the 10,000 years after they arrived; Neanderthals declined and finally died away.

What happened? What went so wrong for the Neanderthals -- and what went so right for us humans?

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Von sehr alten und etwas jüngeren Felszeichnungen: Abri Castanet und Grotte Chauvet

Die vor fünf Jahren im Abri Castanet in Südfrankreich entdeckten Felszeichnungen und Gravuren dürften mit einem Alter von 37.000 Jahren zu den ältesten bekannten Wandmalereien zählen. Die außergewöhnlichen Zeichnungen in der Grotte Chauvet sind mindestens 21.000 Jahre alt, wie eine neue Studie erbrachte.

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Layer by layer: the Upper Palaeolithic at Mas d’Azil cave revealed

The upstream entrance of the cave of Mas d’Azil/cleaning of the upper archaeological layers. Images: © Marc Jarry / Inrap

Mas d’Azil is an immense cave and is one of the major prehistoric sites in France. Classed as an historic monument since 1942, it is also a very popular tourist site. The construction of a visitor centre and site path by the commune of Mas d’Azil requires archaeological intervention and two phases have already been completed. The first; a trench to house the buried pipes that traverse the road and the second; the visitor centre located inside the cave.

The cave of Mas d’Azil and French prehistory

The first research at this site was carried out in 1860 with Félix Garrigou presenting the general stratigraphy in 1867. Twenty years later, Édouard Piette conducted extensive excavations. Throughout these years, thousands of flint tools and hundreds of portable art objects were recovered.

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The oldest farming village in the Mediterranean islands is discovered in Cyprus

The communal building in Klimonas partially excavated. It measures 10 m in diameter. Credit: J.-D. Vigne, CNRS-MNHN. This image is available from the CNRS photo library, phototheque@cnrs-bellevue.fr

The oldest agricultural settlement ever found on a Mediterranean island has been discovered in Cyprus by a team of French archaeologists involving CNRS, the National Museum of Natural History, INRAP, EHESS and the University of Toulouse. Previously it was believed that, due to the island's geographic isolation, the first Neolithic farming societies did not reach Cyprus until a thousand years after the birth of agriculture in the Middle East (ca. 9500 to 9400 BCE). However, the discovery of Klimonas, a village that dates from nearly 9000 years before Christ, proves that early cultivators migrated to Cyprus from the Middle Eastern continent shortly after the emergence of agriculture there, bringing with them wheat as well as dogs and cats.

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Anthropologists discover earliest form of wall art

Anthropologists working in southern France have determined that a 1.5 metric ton block of engraved limestone constitutes the earliest evidence of wall art. Their research, reported in the most recent edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows the piece to be approximately 37,000 years old and offers rich evidence of the role art played in the daily lives of Early Aurignacian humans. 

Anthropologists, including NYU's Randall White, working in southern France have determined that a 1.5 metric ton block of engraved limestone constitutes the earliest evidence of wall art. Their research shows the piece to be approximately 37,000 years old and offers rich evidence of the role art played in the daily lives of Early Aurignacian humans. Pictured above and below are pieces of the discovery, which depict animals in red and black paint [Credit: Raphaelle Bourrillon]

The research team, comprised of more than a dozen scientists from American and European universities and research institutions, has been excavating at the site of the discovery—Abri Castanet—for the past 15 years. Abri Castanet and its sister site Abri Blanchard have long been recognized as being among the oldest sites in Eurasia bearing artifacts of human symbolism. Hundreds of personal ornaments have been discovered, including pierced animal teeth, pierced shells, ivory and soapstone beads, engravings, and paintings on limestone slabs. 



"Early Aurignacian humans functioned, more or less, like humans today," explained New York University anthropology professor Randall White, one of the study's co-authors. "They had relatively complex social identities communicated through personal ornamentation, and they practiced sculpture and graphic arts."

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Archaeologists uncover 37,000-year-old wall art in France

A massive block of limestone in France contains what scientists believe are the earliest known engravings of wall art dating back some 37,000 years, according to a study published Monday.

The 1.5-metric-ton ceiling piece was first discovered in 2007 at Abri Castanet, a well known archaeological site in southwestern France that holds some of the earliest forms of artwork, beads and pierced shells.

According to New York University anthropology professor Randall White, lead author of the paper in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” the art was likely meant to adorn the interior of a shelter for reindeer hunters.

“They decorated the places where they were living, where they were doing all their daily activities,” White told AFP. “There is a whole question about how and why, and why here in this place at this particular time you begin to see people spending so much time and energy and imagination on the graphics.”

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Repairs for replica Bronze Age boat after Dover launch

 

 

The half-size replica Bronze Age boat took more than three months to build

A replica Bronze Age boat made in Kent is being repaired after it started to sink on its first voyage.

The vessel, which is called Boat 1550 BC, was lowered into Dover Harbour on Saturday but started to leak before it could get under way.

The boat, which has taken three months to construct, is made of wood and is half the size of the original boat unearthed in Dover in 1992.

The way the planks were joined together is thought to have caused the problem.

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Dover launch of replica Bronze Age boat aborted

The half-size replica Bronze Age boat took more than three months to build

The maiden voyage of a replica Bronze Age boat made in Kent had to be aborted when it failed to stay afloat. 

The vessel, which is called Boat 1550 BC, immediately began to take on water when it was lowered into Dover Harbour.

The boat is half the size of an original Bronze Age boat which was unearthed in Dover in 1992.

A Canterbury Christ Church University spokeswoman said: "It didn't go to plan so we had a bit of a naming ceremony instead."

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