Study backs 'hobbit' island dwarfism theory

How an ancient human species may have shrunk as a result of island dwarfism

A diminutive species of human whose remains were found on the Indonesian island of Flores could have shrunk as a result of island dwarfism as it adapted to its environment.

A study of the remains of the creature, nicknamed the "hobbit", shows that it is possible for it to have been a dwarf version of an early human species.

The hobbit co-existed with our species until 12,000 years ago.

The research has been published in the Royal Society's Proceedings B Journal.

Since its discovery in 2003, researchers have struggled to explain the origins of these metre high, tiny-brained people, known scientifically asHomo floresiensis.

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Gaul warriors unearthed at 2,300-year-old site

French archaeologists have unearthed the graves of several Gaul warriors dating back around 2300 years, at the site of a huge business park development near the city of Troyes in central France.

One of the 2300 year old graves unearthed near the city of Troyes [Credit: The Local]

Archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) have been carrying out excavations at the site near Buchères over the course of recent years.

But even they were surprised by their latest discovery at the 260-hectare site, which is set to become the Aube Logistical Park.

Around 30 graves dating back to between 260 and 325 BC were identified at the site, with around half being excavated, revealing the remains of Gaul warriors, with weapons and shields in hand. Women are buried alongside them.

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Scientists Find Groundbreaking New Surprises in Examination of Early Human Ancestor

It dominated science headlines when the news was first released. The discovery of the remains of a new species of ancient hominin (human ancestor) revealed a candidate that sported a mosaic of features both ape-like and human -- an unprecedented 2-million-year-old hybrid called Australopithecus sediba (Au. sediba). First stumbled upon in 2008 by Professor Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand and his then 9-year-old son Matthew at the fossil bearing site of Malapa in South Africa, the finds, consisting of remarkably complete skeletal remains as well as other well-preserved fauna and flora, instantly became the subject of perhaps the most intense and thoroughly studied hominin fossils ever documented.

The team, led by Berger and composed of South African and international scientists from the Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and 16 other global institutions (totalling more than 100 researchers from around the world), recently examined the anatomy of Au. sediba based on its skeletons catalogued as "MH1" (a juvenile skeleton) and "MH2" (an adult female skeleton), as well as an adult isolated tibia catalogued as "MH4". The scientists have now completed what amounts to the second 2-year installment of a series of studies begun approximately four years ago, and the efforts of their research have resulted in additional new surprises. Dispersed among six separate studies, these latest examinations have determined in essence how the hominin walked, chewed and moved:

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Ötzi the Iceman Needed a Dentist

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Otzi the iceman, an astonishingly preserved Neolithic mummy found in the Alps in 1991, shows evidence of severe gum disease and cavities (shown in red). CREDIT: UZH View full size image

Ötzi the Iceman could have used a dentist. The amazingly preserved Neolithic mummy found in the Italian Alps had tooth decay, gum disease and dental trauma, new research suggests.

The new findings, published Tuesday (April 9) in the European Journal of Oral Sciences, suggest that theIceman mummy's grain-heavy diet took a toll on his dental health.

"It's surprising how bad condition he is in," said study co-author Frank Ruhli, a paleopathologist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. "We have the whole range of disease pathologies you can imagine." [Album: What Otzi the Iceman Looked Like]

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Pottery reveals Ice Age hunter-gatherers' taste for fish

Hunter-gatherers living in glacial conditions produced pots for cooking fish, according to the findings of a pioneering new study led by the University of York which reports the earliest direct evidence for the use of ceramic vessels.

An Incipient Jomon pot from Kubodera-minami, Niigata Prefecture, Japan
ca. 15,000 years old [Credit: Tokamchi City Museum]

Scientists from the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Japan carried out chemical analysis of food residues in pottery up to 15,000 years old from the late glacial period, the oldest pottery so far investigated. It is the first study to directly address the often posed question "why humans made pots?" Theresearch is published in Nature.

The research team was able to determine the use of a range of hunter-gatherer "Jōmon" ceramic vessels through chemical analysis of organic compounds extracted from charred surface deposits. The samples analysed are some of the earliest found in Japan, a country recognised to be one of the first centres for ceramic innovation, and date to the end of the Late Pleistocene -- a time when humans were adjusting to changing climates and new environments.

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Team reconstructs 'human ancestor'

The researchers were able reconstruct the species using bones from three different individuals

The most complete view yet of a possible human ancestor uncovered in South Africa has revealed an intriguing mix of human and ape traits.

The two-million-year-old remains of several partial skeletons belonging to a previously unknown humanlike species were found in 2008 near Johannesburg.

The new analysis shows this species -Australopithecus sediba - had a human-like pelvis, hands and teeth, and a chimpanzee-like foot.

The findings appear in Science journal.

In six separate research reports, scientists probed further into the anatomy of a juvenile male skeleton, commonly referred to as MH1, a female skeleton, known as MH2, and an isolated adult tibia or shinbone, known as MH4.

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Investigating Bronze Age stone ships on Gotland

Ship Stones in Gannarve, Gotland. Image: Jerzy Kociatkiewicz 

(Flickr, used under a CC BY-SA 3.0)

In the middle of the Bronze Age, around 1000 BCE, the quantity of metal artefacts traded in the Baltic Sea region increased dramatically. Around that same time, a new type of monument appeared along the coasts; stones set on edge and arranged in the form of ships, built by the maritime culture involved in that same metal trade.

A wide maritime network

These Bronze Age maritime groups were part of a network that extended across large parts of northern Europe and with links further to the south: a network maintained due to the increasing dependence on bronze and other important raw materials as a means of social status and cultural dependency.

Archaeologists have long assumed that bronze was imported to Scandinavia from the south, and recent analyses has now confirmed this hypothesis. However, the people who conducted the trade and formed the networks are rarely addressed, not to mention the locations of where they met.

‘One reason why the meeting places of the Bronze Age are not discussed very often is that we have been unable to find them. Which is in contrast to the trading centres of the [later] Viking Age, which have been easy to locate due to the wealth of archaeological material that was left behind,’ says the author of the thesis Joakim Wehlin from the University of Gothenburg and Gotland University.


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Ancient monument 'damaged by cattle'

One of the Westcountry's most famous archaeological landmarks is being threatened by grazing cattle permitted by the Government's environment watchdog, campaigners have warned.

The Bronze Age stone monument, known as Men-an-Tol, has stood near Morvah, in West Cornwall, for up to 4,500 years.

It is listed as a scheduled monument with English Heritage describing it as "one of the most famous and mysterious" in Cornwall.

But campaigners fear it is now being damaged by cattle introduced onto the heathland under a Natural England agri-environmental scheme.

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First Love Child of Human, Neanderthal Found

The skeletal remains of an individual living in northern Italy 40,000-30,000 years ago are believed to be that of a human/Neanderthal hybrid, according to a paper in PLoS ONE.

If further analysis proves the theory correct, the remains belonged to the first known such hybrid, providing direct evidence that humans and Neanderthals interbred. Prior genetic research determined the DNA of people with European and Asian ancestry is 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal.

The present study focuses on the individual’s jaw, which was unearthed at a rock-shelter called Riparo di Mezzena in the Monti Lessini region of Italy. Both Neanderthals and modern humans inhabited Europe at the time.


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Bronze warship ram reveals secrets

Analysis of a bronze battering ram from a 2,000 year-old warship sheds light on how such an object would have been made in ancient times.

Known as the Belgammel Ram, the 20kg artefact was discovered by a group of British divers off the coast of Libya near Tobruk in 1964. The ram is from a small Greek or Roman warship – a “tesseraria”. These ships were equipped with massive bronze rams on the bow at the waterline and were used for ramming the side timbers of enemy ships. At 65cm long, the Belgammel Ram is smaller in size and would have been sited on the upper level on the bow. This second ram is known as a proembolion, which strengthened the bow and also served to break the oars of an enemy ship.

Leading marine archaeologist, Dr Nic Flemming a visiting fellow of the National Oceanography Centre, co-ordinated a team of specialists from five institutes to analyse the artefact before it was returned to the National Museum in Tripoli in May 2010. Their results have been published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

Dr Flemming said: “Casting a large alloy object weighing more than 20kg is not easy. To find out how it was done we needed specialists who could analyse the mix of metals in the alloys; experts who could study the internal crystal structure and the distribution of gas bubbles; and scholars who could examine the classical literature and other known examples of bronze castings.


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AFTERLIFE OF EARLY NEOLITHIC HOUSES IN THE POLISH LOWLANDS

First farmers on the Polish Lowland

The transition to farming on the Polish Lowland, which is a part of the North European Plain, was a complex process lasting over a millennium. This is partly due to the diversity of the landscapes (Figure 1) from the Pomerania Lakeland to the north with its rolling glacial hills and the south with the flat monotonous Great Poland Lowland Plain. The largest area is covered by a light sandy soil, however, in some regions heavy, fertile mollic gleysols formed over a clay subsoil can be found; comparable to the fertile loess-based soils prevailing in the uplands of southern Poland.

The Early Neolithic long house

The LBK long house is a rectangular post-built dwelling with a pitched roof structure, which rests its weight on three rows of posts along the its axis (Figure 2). The side walls are created by a row of more densely spaced external posts sunk to a shallower depth than the weight bearing posts. In the eastern part of the LBK distribution area, including Kuyavia, there is as yet no record of foundation trenches in the buildings, which is a more common feature to the west.

The length of these long houses varies from 12 to 40 plus metres, though the average is about 20 metres. The width is more standardised, ranging from between 5 to 8 metres.

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Stone Ships Show Signs of Maritime Network in Baltic Sea Region 3,000 Years Ago

 In the middle of the Bronze Age, around 1000 BC, the amount of metal objects increased dramatically in the Baltic Sea region. Around the same time, a new type of stone monument, arranged in the form of ships, started to appear along the coasts. New research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden shows that the stone ships were built by maritime groups.

The maritime groups were part of a network that extended across large parts of northern Europe. The network was maintained largely because of the strong dependence on bronze.

Archaeologists have long assumed that bronze was imported to Scandinavia from the south, and recent analyses have been able to confirm this notion. The distribution of bronze objects has been discussed frequently, with most analyses focusing on the links in the networks. The people behind the networks, however, are only rarely addressed, not to mention their meeting places.

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'Out of Africa' Story Being Rewritten Again

Our early human ancestors may have left Africa more recently than thought, between 62,000 and 95,000 years ago, suggests a new analysis of genetic material from fossil skeletons.

The new findings are in line with earlier estimates, but contradict a more recent study that put humans' first exodus from Africa least 200,000 years ago.

The new results "agree with what we know from archaeology," said study co-author Alissa Mittnik, a biologist at University of Tübingen, in Germany.

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How Beer Gave Us Civilization

HUMAN beings are social animals. But just as important, we are socially constrained as well.

We can probably thank the latter trait for keeping our fledgling species alive at the dawn of man. Five core social instincts, I haveargued, gave structure and strength to our primeval herds. They kept us safely codependent with our fellow clan members, assigned us a rank in the pecking order, made sure we all did our chores, discouraged us from offending others, and removed us from this social coil when we became a drag on shared resources.

Thus could our ancient forebears cooperate, prosper, multiply — and pass along their DNA to later generations.

But then, these same lifesaving social instincts didn’t readily lend themselves to exploration, artistic expression, romance, inventiveness and experimentation — the other human drives that make for a vibrant civilization.

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Ancient Rock Art at Risk, Warn Experts

Chatton. Urgent action is needed to prevent ancient art disappearing, Newcastle University experts have warned. (Credit: Image courtesy of Newcastle University)

Researchers from the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (ICCHS)  and School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG) studied the physical underpinnings and condition of Neolithic and Bronze Age rock art panels in Northumberland. They conclude climate change could cause the art to vanish because new evidence suggests stones may deteriorate more rapidly in the future.

Writing in the Journal of Cultural and Heritage Studies, they say action is needed so the art can be preserved for future generations, but they also urge that a deeper understanding is needed of what causes rock art to deteriorate.

David Graham, Professor of Ecosystems Engineering (CEG) said: “We wanted to understand the scientific reasons why these stones may deteriorate. Our findings show that predicted changes to our broader environment  – such as more wind and warmer, wetter weather -  could have a devastating effect on these artworks. If we want to keep them, we need to start looking at how we can preserve them now.”

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Failure to Hunt Rabbits Part of Neanderthals' Demise?

Neanderthals did not learn how to hunt small animals such as rabbits (pictured, a group of animals Portugal).

Rabbits are small, fast, and devilishly hard to catch. And that could have had dire consequences for Neanderthals.

A new study suggests that an inability to shift from hunting large mammals to wild rabbits and other small game may have contributed to the downfall of European Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic period, about 30,000 years ago.

"There have been some studies that examined the importance of rabbit meat to hominins"—or early human ancestors—"but we give it a new twist," said study lead author John Fa, a biologist at the United Kingdom's Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Imperial College London.

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Bronze Age settlement unearthed in SW England

Wick Barrow beakers [Credit: Somerset County Council]

Excavations at the Hinkley C site have revealed the remains of a 3,000-year-old Bronze Age settlement.

Archaeologists have also discovered the first Saxon grub hut to be found in Somerset, and a number of Roman features and artefacts, including a grain drier, quern stones, a stone anchor, fishing net weights, jewellery and graves.

The work was funded by EDF Energy as part of its site preparations and carried out by Somerset County Council.

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Neanderthals' large eyes 'caused their demise'

Continue reading the main story

The eyes have it: The Neanderthal skull (L) has larger eye sockets compared with a modern human skull (R). Consequently, the now extinct species used more of its brain to process visual information

A study of Neanderthal skulls suggests that they became extinct because they had larger eyes than our species.

As a result, more of their brains were devoted to seeing in the long, dark nights in Europe, at the expense of high-level processing.

By contrast, the larger frontal brain regions of Homo sapiens led to the fashioning of warmer clothes and the development larger social networks.

The study is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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Ancient Reindeer Hunters Fished Ice Age Lakes

Archaeologists unearthed six fishhooks that date to 12,300 years ago, with one made from a 19,000-year-old mammoth tusk.  CREDIT: B. Gramsch 

Scientists have unearthed six fishhooks, the oldest of which was made from a 19,000-year-old mammoth tusk.  

Hunters of ice age reindeer around 12,300 years ago likely left the fishhooks, along with mammal and fish bones, in an open field in what is now Wustermark, Germany. The fishhooks, which are the oldest found in Europe, suggests humans developed fishing tools earlier than previously thought, probably to catch fast-moving fish that appeared in lakes as the climate warmed.

"These people had strong ideas to use the new resources of this changing environment," said Robert Sommer, a paleoecologist at the University of Kiel in Germany. The eel, perch and pike that entered lakes are too fast to snag with a harpoon or a spear, Sommer added.

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Stonehenge started as graveyard, says new research

New research overturns the belief that Stonehenge was built as an astronomical calendar or observatory [Credit: Associated Press]

British researchers have proposed a new theory for the origins of Stonehenge: it may have started as a giant burial ground for elite families around 3000BC.

New studies of cremated human remains excavated from the site suggest that about 500 years before the Stonehenge we know today was built, a larger stone circle was erected at the same site as a community graveyard, according to researchers.

"These were men, women, children, so presumably family groups," University College London professor Mike Parker Pearson, who led the team, said at the weekend. "We'd thought that maybe it was a place where a dynasty of kings was buried, but this seemed to be much more of a community - a different kind of power structure."

Parker Pearson said archaeologists studied the cremated bones of 63 individuals, and believed that they were buried around 3000BC. The location of many of the cremated bodies was originally marked by bluestones, he said.

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Stonehenge may have been burial site for Stone Age elite, say archaeologists

Dating cremated bone fragments of men, women and children found at site puts origin of first circle back 500 years to 3,000 BC

Centuries before the first massive sarsen stone was hauled into place at Stonehenge, the world’s most famous prehistoric monument may have begun life as a giant burial ground, according to a theory disclosed on Saturday.

More than 50,000 cremated bone fragments, of 63 individuals buried at Stonehenge, have been excavated and studied for the first time by a team led by archaeologist Professor Mike Parker Pearson, who has been working at the site and on nearby monuments for decades. He now believes the earliest burials long predate the monument in its current form.

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Tooth found in Cave of Orce named earliest human remain

A MILK tooth discovered in Granada has been declared the earliest known human remain ever found in Western Europe.

The infants tooth was unearthed in the Cave of Orce and is believed to be 1.4 million years old.

Archaeologists believe the tooth came from aHomo erectus or Homo habilis which correlates with another discovery in the cave.

In 1983, Catalan archaeologist Josep Gibert visited the cave and found a skull fragment belonging to what he dubbed the Orce Man.

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BRONZE AGE BOAT TRIP – BY ROAD

THE 3,000-year-old Carpow log boat is about to embark on another journey – not by river, but by road.

The waterlogged craft was discovered partially submerged in the mud, sand and gravel of Carpow Bank, at the head of the Tay Estuary, in 2001.

Carved from a single tree trunk, it was an example of one of the first known boats in existence and was radiocarbon dated to 1130-970 BC.

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Brigg Bronze Age raft back at heritage centre

A Bronze Age raft has returned to a North Lincolnshire town after it was stored away for nearly 40 years.

The 3,000-year-old flat-bottomed oak boat was found in Brigg but has been in storage at a museum in London.

Now the ancient craft is being pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle and will go on display at Brigg Heritage Centre in May.

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Human Ancestors Were Fashion Conscious

Keeping up with fashions. A close examination of shell beads from Blombos Cave (top) suggests that ancient humans there started off with one style of jewelry (bottom) and then shifted to another (middle) over the course of 3000 years.

The 2013 Academy Awards were, as always, as much about making appearances as about making films, as red carpet watchers noted fashion trends and faux pas. Both Jessica Chastain and Naomi Watts wore Armani, although fortunately not the same dress. And Best Supporting Actress Anne Hathaway switched from Valentino to a controversial pale pink Prada at the last minute because her original dress looked too much like someone else's. Of course, no actress would be caught dead wearing the same style 2 years in a row. A new study of ancient beaded jewelry from a South African cave finds that ancient humans were no different, avoiding outdated styles as early as 75,000 years ago.

Personal ornaments, often in the form of beads worn as necklaces or bracelets, are considered by archaeologists as a key sign of sophisticated symbolic behavior, communicating either membership in a group or individual identity. Such ornaments are ubiquitous in so-called Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe beginning about 40,000 years ago, where they were made from many different materials—animal and human teeth, bone and ivory, stone, and mollusk shells—and often varied widely among regions and sites.

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Dogs Domesticated 33,000 Years Ago, Skull Suggests

A canine skull found in the Altai Mountains of Siberia is more closely related to moderndomestic dogs than to wolves, a new DNA analysis reveals.

The findings could indicate thatdogs were domesticatedaround 33,000 years ago. The point at which wolves went from wild to man's best friend is hotly contested, though dogs were well-established in human societies by about 10,000 years ago. Dogs and humans were buried together in Germany about 14,000 years ago, a strong hint of domestication, but genetic studies have pinpointed the origin of dog domestication in both China and the Middle East.

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It didn't sink! Full-size, sewn-together replica of a Bronze Age boat launched to trials success

For the first time in almost 3000 years – a full size Bronze Age style sea-going boat has been launched in Britain. Slipping gracefully down a slipway today into Falmouth Harbour, Cornwall, the 15m-long vessel was then paddled by its 18 person crew for two 500m trial trips.

The launch – part of a long-term experimental archaeology investigation into Bronze Age marine technology – is already providing valuable new insights into prehistoric seafaring.

“I’m so happy with the responsiveness of the boat. We always said you had to build the whole boat to understand what Bronze Age people experienced,” said the project’s leader, University of Exeter archaeologist,  Professor Robert Van de Noort, who is working together with the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. 

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Baylham solar farm archaeological study requested

The site would feature 40,000 panels similar to the company's existing solar farms

Archaeologists want a full study of the land before a proposal for a 50 acre (20 hectare) solar panel farm in Suffolk is considered.

Hive Energy wants to put 40,000 solar panels on agricultural land at Hill Farm, Baylham, near Ipswich.

Suffolk County Council's archaeological service said a systematic study of the land was needed first as the area has been inhabited since the Iron Age.

Mid Suffolk District Council is due to look at the application this year.

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Replica Bronze Age boat to set sail

A replica Bronze Age boat which was built using traditional techniques gets ready to make its maiden voyage from Falmouth.

The construction is part of a collaborative effort between the National Maritime Museum and the University of Exeter.

The BBC's Jon Kay takes a close-up look at how the boat has been built, even down to replica bronze tools used to carve the wood.

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FOUR NEOLITHIC HOUSES UNEARTHED AT QUARRY

Reconstruction of a Neolithic house. Image: CEMEX/Wessex Archaeology

Four early Neolithic houses (3700 BC) have been unearthed by archaeologists at CEMEX’s Kingsmead Quarry in Berkshire.  The discovery is unprecedented on a single site in England and challenges our current understanding of how people lived more than 5,700 years ago.

This rare find will give us a unique opportunity to learn more about the earliest permanent settlements in prehistoric Britain and how such sites developed. At this time new practices were being adopted with people switching lifestyle from hunter-gather to settled farmer.

A rare find

Few houses of this date have been found in England and rarely has more than one been found on a single site. These discoveries by excavators from Wessex Archaeology are key to enhancing the knowledge and understanding of this period nationally and at a local level tell us more about the history of the area around the Rivers Colne and Thames near Windsor.

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REFUGIA AND ICE AGE EVOLUTION

Homo neanderthalensis, adult male. Image: John Gurche, artist / Chip Clark, photographer

Although the most drastic evolutionary changes occur over long spans of time, the effects of these changes can be seen relatively recently, argues Dr John Stewart, a Senior Lecturer in Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction & Environmental Change at Bournemouth University.

Reconstructing environmental effects on evolution

Dr Stewart has made important contributions to a growing body of work that shows how the evolution of ecosystems has to be taken into account when speculating between different geological eras. His work on the location of ice age refugia, the timings of species evolution and how palaeoecological data can be used as evidence of what may happen in the future has far reaching implications for own own species.

Looking back to the time of the dinosaurs or even the single-celled organisms at the very origins of life, it becomes obvious that ecosystems existing more than 65 million years ago and around four billion years ago cannot be deduced from the one that surrounds us today.

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Treasure found in Pembrokeshire

An Early Bronze Age hoard, which is thought to have been buried around 2000BC (4,000 years ago) has been declared treasure by H.M. Deputy Coroner for Pembrokeshire.

The hoard of two early bronze flat axes, was discovered in the Community of Nevern, Pembrokeshire during early August 2011 by Mr Tom Baxter and Mr Luke Pearce. The axes were found less than 3 metres apart while the finders were metal detecting in a field under pasture.

The discovery was first reported as possible treasure to Mark Lodwick, Portable Antiquities Scheme Co-ordinator for Wales (PAS Cymru) and was subsequently reported on by museum archaeologists at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales.

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Did a Comet Really Chill and Kill Clovis Culture?

A 130-foot-meteor created the mile-wide Meteor Crater in Arizona. The comet proposed to have impacted life in North America was significantly larger, but no crater indicating its collision has been found.

A comet crashing into the Earth some 13,000 years ago was thought to have spelled doom to a group of early North American people, and possibly the extinction of ice age beasts in the region.

But the space rock was wrongly accused, according to a group of 16 scientists in fields ranging from archaeology to crystallography to physics, who have offered counterevidence to the existence of such a collision.

"Despite more than four years of trying by many qualified researchers, no unambiguous evidence has been found [of such an event]," Mark Boslough, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, told LiveScience.

"That lack of evidence is therefore evidence of absence."

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BARNACLES POINT TO WHALE MEAT CONSUMPTION IN PREHISTORY

The remains of two barnacle species that once lived exclusively on the exterior of whales have been found in a camp fire at the Cueva de Nerja (the Caves of Nerja) in Málaga, Spain. Researchers from the University of Valencia have dated the charcoal from the fire to between 14,500 and 13,500 years ago.

Earliest consumption of whale meat

Scientists at the University, coordinated by Professor Joan Emili Aura Tortosa, analysed stone artefacts, horn and bone found in the fire along with the charcoal to arrive at the date. The scientific results show evidence of human consumption of whale meat during Prehistory in Europe.

The remains of the whale barnacles were found in occupation layers dating to the end of the last glacial maximum and associated with the Upper Palaeolithic Magdalenian period.

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Homeric epics were written in 762 BCE, give or take

Achilles sacrificing to Zeus, from the Ambrosian Iliad or Ilia Picta, a 5th century illuminated manuscript thought to have been produced in Constantinople [Credit: Wiki Commons]

When were Homer's works written? One of literature's oldest mysteries is a step closer to being solved after a recent study that dates the The Iliad to 762 BCE and adds a quantitative means of testing ideas about history by analyzing the evolution of language.

The epic poem The Iliad, set amid the final year of the Trojan War, is attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer and is foundational to Western literature, but scholars have not reached a consensus about whether it was written shortly after the war or centuries later. Archaeological and historical evidence have placed the text's origins in the 7th or 8th century BCE, but such records are sparse and often have an uncertain validity.

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