Archaeology

An examination of two documented periods of climate change in the greater Middle East, between approximately 4,500 and 3,000 years ago, reveals local evidence of resilience and even of a flourishing ancient society despite the climate changes seen in the larger region.

Working at Tell Tayinat in southeastern Turkey, archaeologists at the University of Toronto and Cornell University demonstrate in a new study that human responses to climate change are variable and must be examined using extensive and precise data gathered locally.

The study, published in PLoS ONE this week, highlights how challenge and collapse in some areas were matched by resilience and opportunities elsewhere.

“The study shows the end of the Early Bronze Age occupation at Tayinat was a long and drawn-out affair that, while it appears to coincide with the onset of a megadrought 4,200 years ago, was actually the culmination of processes that began much earlier,” says Tim Harrison, professor and chair of the department of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science at and director of the Tayinat Archaeological Project. “The archaeological evidence does not point towards significant local effects of the climate episode, as there is no evidence of drought stress in crops.

“Instead, these changes were more likely the result of local political and spatial reconfiguration.”

An aerial view of Tell Tayinat in Hatay, Turkey (photo by M. Akar)

The findings contribute to discussions about human responses to climate change that broaden an otherwise sparse chronological framework for the northern part of the region known historically as the Levant, which stretches the length of the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea.

The mid-to-late Early Bronze Age (3000 to 2000 BCE) and the Late Bronze Age (1600 to 1200 BCE) in the ancient Middle East are pivotal periods of early inter-connectedness among settlements across the region, with the development of some of the earliest cities and state-level societies. But these systems were not always sustainable and both periods ended in collapse of civilisations/settlements. The reasons behind the collapse are highly debated.

The absence of detailed timelines for societal activity throughout the region leaves a significant gap in understanding the associations between climate change and social responses. While the disintegration of political or economic systems are indeed components of a societal response, collapse is rarely total.

Using radiocarbon dating and analysis of archaeological samples recovered from Tell Tayinat, a location occupied following two particularly notable climate change episodes 4,200 years ago and, again, 3,200 years ago, the team of researchers established a robust chronological timeframe for Tayinat for two pivotal periods in the history of the ancient Middle East.

Microscope image of Early Bronze Age ash wood sample from Tell Tayinat in Hatay, Turkey (photo by Brita Lorentzen)

“The absolute dating of these periods has been a subject of considerable debate for many years and this study contributes a significant new dataset that helps address many of the questions,” says Sturt Manning, the Goldwin Smith professor of classical archaeology in the department of classics at Cornell University’s College of Arts & Sciences who is lead author of the study.

“The detailed chronological resolution achieved in this study allows for a more substantive interpretation of the archaeological evidence in terms of local and regional responses to proposed climate change, shedding light on how humans respond to environmental stress and variability.”

The researchers say the chronological framework for the Early Iron Age demonstrates the thriving re-settlement of Tayinat following the event 3,200 years ago during a reconstructed period of heightened aridity.

“The settlement of Tayinat may have been undertaken to maximize access to arable land and crop evidence reveals the continued cultivation of numerous water-demanding crops, revealing a response that counters the picture of a drought-stricken region,” says Harrison. “The Iron Age at Tayinat represents a significant degree of societal resilience during a period of climatic stress.”

The research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, among others.

History in 3D: U of T researchers piece together the past with new scanning technologies

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 15:03:25 +0000

History in 3D: U of T researchers piece together the past with new scanning technologies

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 10/05/2020 - 11:03

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Giles Spence Morrow, who completed his PhD at U of T, uses a scanner at a site in Cambodia (photo courtesy of Giles Spence Morrow)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations

Research & Innovation

As director of the Tayinat archaeological project in Turkey, Tim Harrison saw the need and potential for 3D scanning and modelling technology.

Harrison, chair of the University of Toronto’s department of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations in the Faculty of Arts & Science, has for years conducted research in the region of the Orontes River, which flows from Lebanon through Syria and Turkey. Populated continuously for thousands of years, the region’s rich history is reflected in a wealth of archaeological finds.

However, archaeological finds are rarely uncovered whole or in pristine condition.

“We’ve found thousands of fragments of broken sculptures,” says Harrison. “It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, but it’s a three-dimensional puzzle and you only have maybe five per cent of the pieces.

“So, we became very interested in the development of fast, high-resolution scanning technology that would help generate 3D images that we hope to eventually import into shape-matching software that will help solve these puzzles.”

The 3D scanning and modelling that Harrison and his colleagues are doing is accomplished using portable, hand-held scanners that can be used in the field. They are also developing shape-matching software with a team led by Eugene Fiume, a professor emeritus in the faculty’s department of computer science.

One goal is to create 3D models of pieces of pottery or statues and rebuild them digitally the way you might rebuild a broken coffee cup by fitting its pieces together. Another is to identify artifacts such as pieces of pottery by comparing their shape to a database of similar pieces.

“Eventually, we also want to compare texture, colour, chemistry and mineralogy,” says Harrison. “The more layers of information you add, the more patterns and matches you can make. We're not quite there yet, but that’s the direction we’re headed.”

A 3D model of the Lady of Tayinat, a statue from the Tayinat archaeological project (Image courtesy of the Tayinat Archeological Project; Tim Harrison; Steve Batiuk)

Stephen Batiuk, a senior research associate in the department of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations and a member of the Tayinat team, says “3D modelling quite literally introduces a new dimension to our research, providing us with new ways to measure objects, visualize them and help in reconstruction.

“Plus, since many of these artifacts can’t leave the countries from which they were excavated, it extends our ability to do research on them beyond the field season and allows others who were not there to work on them as well.”

As powerful as it is, 3D scanning is just one tool in the toolkit.

In 2011, with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Harrison and his colleagues launched an organization called Computational Research on the Ancient Near East, or CRANE. CRANE was originally conceived as an effort to build a large collaborative environment for different archaeological projects and researchers working mostly in the eastern Mediterranean. At its core are powerful computational tools for modelling ancient social groups, analyzing complex and diverse data sets from those researchers – and it will even be used to validate climate change models with archaeological data.

The 3D capability is part of what Harrison refers to as “CRANE 2.0.” It’s made possible through a partnership grant – including funding from SSHRC and the Faculty of Arts & Science – that provides support to the Archaeology Centre’s Digital Innovation Lab. With this support, researchers in other departments can apply the technology to their own realm of the ancient world.

“The technology was purchased by CRANE for CRANE work,” says Batiuk. “But all archaeologists at U of T can benefit from us having bolstered the Digital Innovation Lab. This is a spirit of co-operation that CRANE is trying to promote, especially when using university funds.”

Ed Swenson is an associate professor in the department of anthropology and director of the university’s Archaeology Centre. Last winter, Swenson, his former doctoral student Giles Spence Morrow – who is now with the anthropology department at Vanderbilt University – and other colleagues conducted research at ancient sites from the Angkor Empire, which was based in present-day Cambodia and dominated much of Southeast Asia. The work was supported by a grant from the Hal Jackman Foundation.

The team surveyed and conducted excavations of religious temples and complexes built near the end of the first millennium CE. They employed traditional archaeological methods and tools in their work, as well as drone cameras. They also used CRANE’s portable scanners to create 3D models of statues, stone monuments and architecture, and to record inscriptions to facilitate translation and share with other researchers.

One of their most remarkable discoveries: pieces of a statue that likely formed a three-metre-tall likeness of a divine figure. The team discovered two feet attached to a base. Nearby they found a shoulder, an arm, part of a leg and the torso. The head is still missing.

The team scanned the pieces and re-assembled both the actual statue and its digital facsimile.

“The application of 3D scanning to create models of architectural complexes and artifacts has revolutionized our research,” says Swenson. “It permits continued, detailed analysis long after the close of excavations and on-site laboratory analysis.

“In other words, one can literally revisit and restudy sites that are accurately recreated in three-dimensional simulations. The models also offer an invaluable teaching resource as it allows students to fully experience and analyze virtual archaeological datasets.”

Prehistoric teeth reveal details on ancient Africa’s climate: U of T research

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 28 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Prehistoric teeth reveal details on ancient Africa’s climate: U of T research

noreen.rasbach Mon, 05/28/2018 - 00:00

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The entrance of Wonderwerk Cave, where a team of researchers, including from U of T) recreated the environmental change in the interior of southern Africa (photo by Michaela Ecker)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

Research & Innovation

New research out of South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave shows that the climate of the interior of southern Africa almost two million years ago was like no modern African environment – it was much wetter.

In a paper published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, lead author Michaela Ecker, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Toronto’s department of anthropology, alongside an international team of scientists that included Michael Chazan, director of U of T’s Archaeology Centre, recreated the environmental change in the interior of southern Africa that took place over a span of almost two million years.

“The influence of climatic and environmental change on human evolution is largely understood from East African research,” said Ecker. “Our research constructed the first extensive paleoenvironmental sequence for the interior of southern Africa using a combination of methods for environmental reconstruction at Wonderwerk Cave.”

While East African research shows increasing aridity and the spread of grasslands, Ecker’s study showed that during the same time period, southern Africa was significantly wetter and housed a plant community unlike any other in the modern African savanna – which means human ancestors were living in environments other than open, arid grasslands.

Using carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis on the teeth of herbivores excavated from the cave, Ecker and her team were able to reconstruct the vegetation from the time the animal was alive and gain valuable insight into the environmental conditions our human ancestors were living in.

“Understanding the environment humans evolved in is key to improving our knowledge of our species and its development,” said Ecker. “Our work at Wonderwerk Cave demonstrates how humankind existed in multiple environmental contexts in the past – contexts which are substantially different from the environments of today.”

Read the research in Nature Ecology & Evolution

This is the latest U of T research out of Wonderwerk Cave, a massive excavation site in the Kuruman Hills of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Chazan has previously discovered early evidence of fire by human ancestors, as well as the earliest evidence of cave-dwelling human ancestors based on excavations carried out by South African archaeologist Peter Beaumont. Research to date has established a chronology for human occupation of the front of the cave stretching back two million years.

Research funding was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the German Academic Exchange Service, the University of Oxford’s Boise Fund Trust and the Quaternary Research Association. Other team members include James Brink and Lloyd Rossouw of the National Museum in Bloemfontein, Liora Horwitz of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Julia Lee-Thorp of the University of Oxford. Research at Wonderwerk Cave is carried out in collaboration with the McGregor Museum in Kimberley and under permit from the South African Heritage Resources Agency.

Archaeologists find earliest evidence of winemaking

rasbachn — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 21:12:18 +0000

Archaeologists find earliest evidence of winemaking

rasbachn Mon, 11/13/2017 - 16:12

Cutline

A photograph taken by a drone of excavations at the Gadachrili Gora site (photo by Stephen Batiuk)

Sean Bettam

Topic

Breaking Research

Archaeology

Faculty of Arts & Science

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

U of T team contributes to discovery of 8,000-year-old wine production in ancient Middle East

Excavations in the Republic of Georgia by the Gadachrili Gora Regional Archaeological Project Expedition (GRAPE), a joint undertaking between the University of Toronto and the Georgian National Museum, have uncovered evidence of the earliest winemaking, made from the Eurasian grape (Vitis vinifera), anywhere in the world.

The discovery dates the origin of the practice to the early Neolithic period around 6000- 5800 BC, pushing it back 600 to 1,000 years from the previously accepted date.

The earliest previously known chemical evidence for wine dated to circa 5400-5000 BC and was from the site of Hajji Firuz Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, excavated by the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia. Researchers now say that winemaking began earlier in the South Caucasus region, which sits at the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent that stretches from Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea to the northern shores of the Persian Gulf.

Excavations have focused on two Neolithic sites (circa 6000-4500 BC): Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora, approximately 50 kilometres south of the modern capital of Tbilisi. Pottery shards of jars recovered from the sites were collected and subsequently analyzed by scientists at the Penn Museum, the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Boise State University in Idaho, and the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. They established the chemical composition of the jars’ residues, which had been preserved for millennia.

“We believe this is the oldest example of wine being made from the Eurasian grapevine,” said Stephen Batiuk, a senior research associate in the department of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations and the Archaeology Centre at U of T, and co-author of a study published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Using highly sensitive, state-of-the-art chemical techniques, including tandem liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and tartaric acid – the fingerprint compound for grape and wine – was confirmed, together with three associated organic acids (malic, succinic and citric), in the residues of eight jars.

Read about the research in the New York Times

“It is not yet known whether the early Neolithic inhabitants of the sites made their wine from wild or domesticated grapes, but the sites lie within the area where the wild grape has grown since the end of the last Ice Age and still do today,” said Patrick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project at the Penn Museum and lead author of the study.

“The domesticated subspecies of the fruit has 8,000-10,000 varieties of table and wine grapes worldwide,” added Batiuk. “Georgia alone is home to over 500 grape varietals, suggesting that grapes might have been domesticated here and certainly must have crossbred for a very long time.”

The base of a Neolithic jar being prepared for sampling for residue analysis (photo by Judyta Olszewski)

GRAPE represents the Canadian component of a larger international, interdisciplinary project involving researchers from the United States, Denmark, France, Italy and Israel. The sites excavated by the U of T and Georgian National Museum team represent the remains of two villages that date back to the Neolithic period, which began around 10,000 BC in the Near East and ended around 4

Interested in publicly funded research in Canada? Learn more at UofT’s #supportthereport advocacy campaign

The Neolithic period was characterized by a collection of activities that include the beginning of farming, the domestication of plants and animals, the development of crafts such as pottery and weaving, and the making of polished stone tools.

“Pottery, which was ideal for processing, serving and storing fermented beverages, was invented in this period, together with many advances in art, technology and cuisine,” said McGovern, whose research group first tested a vessel from the site of Godin Tepe in central western Iran dated circa 3400-3000 BC, excavated more than 40 years ago by a team from the Royal Ontario Museum led by fellow U of T researcher T. Cuyler Young, who once taught Batiuk.

“So in many ways, this discovery brings my co-director Andrew Graham and I full circle back to the work of our professor Cuyler, who also provided some of the fundamental theories of the origins of agriculture in the Near East,” said Batiuk.

“In essence, what we are examining is how the Neolithic package of agricultural activity, tool-making and crafts, which probably initially developed farther south in the Fertile Crescent in places such as modern-day Iraq, Syria and Turkey, was adapted in new regions with different climates and plant life,” Batiuk said. “The horticultural potential of the south Caucasus might have led to the domestication of new plant species, possibly including the wild Eurasian grapevine which grows in the region, and innovative products such as wine might well have begun to be produced here on a large scale.”

The researchers say the combined archaeological, chemical, botanical, climatic and radiocarbon data provided by the analysis demonstrate that the Eurasian grapevine was abundant at and likely in the vicinity of the sites. It grew under ideal environmental conditions in early Neolithic times, similar to premium wine-producing regions in Italy and southern France today.

Read a Guardian story on the research

Batiuk, like McGovern, envisions an ancient society in which the drinking and offering of wine penetrates and permeates nearly every aspect of life from medical practice to special celebrations, from birth to death, to everyday meals at which toasting is common.

“As a medicine, social lubricant, mind-altering substance, and highly valued commodity, wine became the focus of religious cults, pharmacopeias, cuisines, economics, and society throughout the ancient Near East,” McGovern said.

Batiuk and McGovern cite ancient viniculture as a prime example of human ingenuity in developing horticulture, and creative uses for its byproducts.

U of T student Catie Collins sifting earth from excavations, looking for ceramic and bone fragments (photo by Judyta Olszewski)

As stated in the study, “Today, there are some 8,000-10,000 domesticated cultivars of wine, raisin, and table grapes, including a range of colors from black to red to white. They owe their origins to human selection and accidental crosses or introgression between the incoming domesticated vine and native wild vines. These varieties account for 99.9 per cent of the world’s wine production, and include famous western European cultivars such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, and Tempranillo, and Chardonnay.”

The archaeological research was funded largely by the National Wine Agency of Georgia and the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia.

Majestic 3,000-year-old female statue uncovered in Turkey: excavation led by U of T archaeologists

ullahnor — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 17:23:32 +0000

Majestic 3,000-year-old female statue uncovered in Turkey: excavation led by U of T archaeologists

ullahnor Fri, 08/11/2017 - 13:23

Cutline

This statue was uncovered at a citadel gate complex in Turkey by U of T archaeologists leading the Tayinat Archaeological Project (photo courtesy of the Tayinat Archaeological Project)

Sean Bettam

Author legacy

Sean Bettam

Topic

Global Lens

Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations

Faculty of Arts & Science

Archaeology

The remains of a majestic female statue uncovered at the archaeological site of Tayinat in Turkey may challenge our understanding of the public role of women in the ancient world.

Excavations led by University of Toronto archaeologists in southeast Turkey near the Syrian border have unearthed a beautifully carved head and upper torso of an unknown female figure. The remnants are largely intact, although the face and chest appear to have been intentionally – possibly ritually – defaced in antiquity.

The statue was found within a monumental gate complex that would have provided access to the upper citadel of ancient Kunulua – later Tayinat – the capital of the Iron Age Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 1000-738 BC). It was located approximately 75 kilometres west of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

“The discovery of this statue raises the possibility that women played a more prominent role in the political and religious lives of these early Iron Age communities than the existing historical record might suggest,” says Timothy Harrison, a professor in the department of Near & Middle Eastern civilizations in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Urban archaeology: U of T students excavate King's College Circle

hjames — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 16:32:25 +0000

Urban archaeology: U of T students excavate King's College Circle

hjames Thu, 07/06/2017 - 12:32

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Archaeology field method students found First World War military badges, Masonic pipe parts and Victorian pottery in the dirt at U of T (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Hannah James

Author legacy

Hannah James

Topic

City & Culture

Archaeology

St. George campus

Subheadline

U of T's Paul Duffy says this is the first time anyone has excavated the iconic front campus circle

A pipe stummel with a Masonic symbol, a First World War military badge and coal from Victorian furnaces – these are some of the artifacts students found while excavating beneath U of T's King's College Circle.

“The undergrads will be the only people to have ever excavated there,” says Paul Duffy, a lecturer in the department of archaeology at U of T who was one of the archaeologists who oversaw the dig in the southeast corner of the circle.

Undergraduate students in the field work intensive archaeology course at U of T learned how to survey the land, dig, identify and catalogue artifacts. It was part of an ongoing urban archaeology project, mapping U of T’s downtown campus that has been running for eight years with previous excavations at the Lime Ridge Monument behind Gerstein Science Information Centre and Sir Daniel Wilson quadrangle at University College.

“It’s been a lot of fun and really hands on which makes it interesting – more interesting than reading textbooks and taking notes,” says Caitlyn Fleming, an archaeology major at U of T who is graduating in the fall.

While there are lots of modern debris in the top layers of the soil – plastic, shoelaces, bubble gum and newer coins – Duffy says that as students dig deeper, the objects can date back to the early 1800s.

According to documents and photographs contained in U of T Libraries, King’s College Circle has been used by military cadets, funeral processions, university sports teams and convocation celebrations. This archival documentation helped give context to some of the artifacts students hit upon in their dig.

“This is our chance to actually get evidence for use of the space and changes in its use over time,” says Duffy.

One of the more interesting finds, says Duffy, was a First World War infantry badge ostensibly left behind by one of the cadets who spent time around University College when the grounds there were being used for training exercises.

The students also found gun flint which Duffy says is probably British from the early 1800s, Victorian pottery and lots of coal from Victorian furnaces.

Paul Duffy in the department of archaeology lab showing carbon rods for a carbon-arc lamp found during U of T excavations. Behind Duffy, are dozens of paper bags containing artifacts that are now being cleaned and catalogued (photo by Hannah James)

But before they get down to the artifacts, there is a lot of prep work to be done.

Duffy says the students spent a week in late May mapping the topographic contours of the land. Then, they in June they began doing “shovel tests,” digging down 30 or 40 centimeters to see if there was any intact archaeological material.

At the excavation stage, each student was responsible for excavating a portion of the dig, going down two to ten centimetres, and recording stratigraphic changes and locations of artifacts.

Fleming says her pit was mostly clay, and digging through it was “about as interesting as it sounds”. Then, she says, she found a nail and some wood, which she said could have been evidence of a fence, which she says she found very intriguing and wanted to dig down as far as the professors would allow.

“I am more interested in structures than artifacts,” she said.

Corinne Harrilall, an archeology major, digs at the site. Students worked every day, rain or shine at King's College Circle (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Each artifact is analyzed in the context in which it is found. Duffy explains that if an object is found among charcoal and other bits of rubble, students must consider what all these things could mean together as an event.

“Is it evidence of a hearth in situ or a fire that occurred?” says Duffy. He says students build these interpretations into a final report.

When the dig is complete, the artifacts are processed and catalogued in the department where they will eventually be made available to researchers from inside and outside U of T.

Fleming says that while she took the course as part of her major, she felt that documenting the city's history was especially important as Toronto continues to expand and grow.

“Urban archaeology can help us realize things we never knew about the city,” says Fleming.

A ceramic pipe stummel embossed with symbols – a Masonic sign and a bird – found near the Lime Ridge Monument at U of T (photo by Hannah James)

MacArthur Fellowship goes to U of T classicist

sgupta — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 11:14:52 +0000

MacArthur Fellowship goes to U of T classicist sgupta Tue, 09/29/2015 - 07:14

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(all photos courtesy Dimitri Nakassis

Kim Luke

Author legacy

Kim Luke

Diamond mine dig offers rare glimpse at enclave of racial coexistence in 19th Century South Africa

sgupta — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 12:01:11 +0000

Diamond mine dig offers rare glimpse at enclave of racial coexistence in 19th Century South Africa sgupta Mon, 06/22/2015 - 08:01

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Students at the Canteen Kopje dig in South Africa

Pierre Boisseau

Author legacy

Pierre Boisseau

Topic

Subheadline

U of T students and peers from Sol Plaatje University work together on excavation

An unassuming hill in rural South Africa held secrets of a surprising history between Europeans and Africans for more than a century, says a team of archaeologists from the University of Toronto and the McGregor Museum of South Africa.

“About 150 years ago this hill was teaming with people, a real mixture of European and African," said U of T anthropologist Michael Chazan. “The separation of races that came to characterize South Africa was maybe not quite so prevalent in the 1860s, and the division of labour we came to think of under apartheid did not develop as early on as people had believed.”

The group uncovered evidence of complex social interactions between colonial and local populations on the hill of a former diamond mine, known as Canteen Kopje, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.

Their dig was intended to investigate reports that an Iron Age settlement has been disturbed by mining for sand. But, rather than revealing expected evidence from the 500-year-old village of the Tswana people, the U of T archaeologists found African pottery and European glass located only centimetres apart, likely dating from the 1860s.

“We landed on a little bit of a window on a period of interaction and coexistence during the time of colonization,” said Chazan.

The excavations at Canteen Kopje was part of an archeological training course for heritage students from the newly established Sol Plaatje University in South Africa. University of Toronto students worked with their peers from Sol Plaatje, sharing the techniques and equipment used in archaeological research.

“It’s really cool to talk to local people our own age who are also doing postsecondary education but in a totally different situation,” said Meghan Macleod, a student participating in the excavation as part of the Faculty of Arts & Science 399 Research Excursions program.

“It was nice to see them make the connection with their own past.”

Ironically, mining now threatens to destroy all traces of the inter-racial community it helped create more than 100 years ago. The South African government’s Department of Mines has issued permits to develop the site, though the Heritage Resources Agency says it is seeking to preserve the site with the support of the researchers.

Pushing against economic development in the name of heritage will be a hard fight to win in an area with a “tremendous amount of poverty and unemployment,” said Chazan.

Sol Plaatje University launched only last year, admitting little over 100 students in a first step towards boosting the region's economy and academic landscape. The dig with University of Toronto was one of Sol Plaatje's earliest archaeological collaborations.

“We’re very proud that we played a role in launching one of the first South African universities to be founded since the end of apartheid," said Chazan.

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sites/default/files/chazan dig_600x400_3.jpg

How wine-making spread through the ancient world: U of T archaeologist

sgupta — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 09:33:52 +0000

How wine-making spread through the ancient world: U of T archaeologist sgupta Wed, 06/17/2015 - 05:33

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On display in the Georgian National Museum, this pot has been chemically tested to show that it once contained vines

Peter Boisseau

Author legacy

Peter Boisseau

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Archaeology

Research

Global

Next time you bring wine to the party, consider raising a glass to the ancient people of the Republic of Georgia for helping make the grape beverage such a popular social lubricant.

An archeological dig at the site of Gadachrili Gora, near the village of Imiri in southeastern Georgia, recently unearthed the earliest evidence of domesticated grapes from about 6000 BC, according to carbon-dating analysis.

This fits with other evidence that the people of the Caucasus region were not only the first to master viticulture but may have also spread wine technology to the “Fertile Crescent” of the ancient world, helping civilizations in places such as Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean begin to flourish.

“Once people from the Caucasus start to move into these new neighbourhoods, you start to see wine drinking really take off and it becomes an integral part of the society,” said Stephen Batiuk, of the University of Toronto’s Archaeology Centre and the department of Near & Middle Eastern civilizations, who is part of an international team working in the area.

Batiuk was recruited to join the “Research and Popularization of Georgian Grape and Wine Culture” project, sponsored by the government of the Republic of Georgia, based on his groundbreaking research suggesting the Early Transcaucasian culture helped to catalyze other societies by taking their wine-making skills to other countries about 5,000 years ago.

“Rather than being viewed as unwelcome interlopers, they brought something new and valuable to the table,” said Batiuk.

“Wine became something that is used and manipulated by the emerging elites. This is also the same time that people are beginning to live in the cities. And so you have the hierarchies of city life that are starting to emerge and wine becomes an important tool being used by these groups.”

Batiuk formed his theory when he overlaid a map of the grape-growing areas in the Fertile Crescent with the migration patterns of the Early Transcaucasian culture – it was a near perfect match.

He would like to prove that the migrants from the Caucasus not only moved into regions where grapes grew so they could pursue their craft, but also brought their own domestic varieties to the new lands. Right now, that theory is a “bit of a pipe dream” that will take more time and better evidence to establish as fact, said Batiuk, just as more work needs to be done to categorically link the traces of the earliest domesticated grapes found in the excavations of Gadachrili Gora with actual wine production.

The research at Gadachrili and other sites near Imiri is causing quite a stir in a country with more than 500 varieties of grapes.

“You walk down the street and everything has an image of a grape drawn into it or carved into it. You look at their folk songs, their art – wine is in there somewhere,” said Batiuk.

“This is why the Georgians are all excited about these discoveries, because they show this is where wine was first made, and you have 8,000 years of history of wine production in this area. It helps explain why wine is so it’s deeply embedded in Georgian culture.”

The Western civilization that emerged from those ancient Fertile Crescent cultures in the Middle East and Mediterranean also owes a toast to the Caucasus and the unifying force of their wine-making heritage.

Conflicts that arise from fears about immigrants taking land, jobs and resources are not just modern phenomena, they occurred in ancient times as well. The immigrants coming from Caucasus were bringing wine-making skills that did not exist locally so they were not viewed as a threat. “They were coming in and occupying a different economic niche, so there was no conflict with the indigenous inhabitants,” said Batiuk.

“Wine acted as a good social lubricant and a tool to help communities live together. As a result, we see wine playing a more important role in these developing urban civilizations of the ancient Middle East.”

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Today's Europe the result of massive Bronze-age migration from Asia

sgupta — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 11:08:49 +0000

Today's Europe the result of massive Bronze-age migration from Asia sgupta Mon, 06/15/2015 - 07:08

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Stonehenge is perhaps the most popular and recognizable of the Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England (photo by Wally Gobetz via flickr)

Sean Bettam

Author legacy

Sean Bettam

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Archaeology

Anthropology

Research

One of the largest DNA studies of ancient humans to date has found that the genetic makeup of Europe’s current populations is the result of a massive migration from western Asia during the Bronze Age – and that lactose tolerance developed later than experts previously believed.

Published June 11 in Nature, the study examined DNA from 101 ancient humans from across Eurasia and drew on the expertise of researchers around the world, including Paul Duffy, a Bronze Age archaeologist at the University of Toronto's department of anthropology.

“Archaeologists have long argued about how cultural changes and technologies spread from place to place, whether through migration or simply through circulation of ideas when visitors pass through a region” said Duffy. “We found genetic evidence for a large migration of people from north of the Black Sea into Eastern, Central and Western Europe beginning around 2,800 BC.”

The study, titled “Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia,” also lends support to a long-standing theory that Indo-European languages spread to Europe from Asia during the third millennium BC, said Duffy.

The period was a time of major cultural changes in Europe. The archaeological record shows new burial practices, chariots built for travel, breeding and training of horses, and the production of sophisticated new weapons. These are all characteristics rooted in the Yamnaya steppe herders of Western Russia and the Sintashta culture that emerged around 2,000 BC in the Ural Mountains that form the natural boundary between Europe and Asia.

Previous studies have been restricted to single or a few individuals because of the degraded nature of the ancient DNA, making sequencing costly and time-consuming. This study, led by researchers at the Center for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen, employed new DNA retrieval methods, allowing scientists to examine the large number of specimens. The 101 specimens the researchers studied spanned the entire Bronze Age, and even included some from the Late Neolithic era before it and the Iron Age period that followed.

The DNA analysis showed that the European and Central Asian gene pools towards the end of the Bronze Age mirror present-day Eurasian genetic structure to an extent not seen in previous studies of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic populations that came before the Bronze Age. The results imply that much of the basis of the Eurasian genetic landscape of today was formed during the complex patterns of expansions and population replacements during the Bronze Age.

The large sample size enabled researchers to select several genetic variants for deeper examination, one of which was the gene associated with lactose tolerance.

“We were surprised to find a low frequency of the gene in Bronze Age Europeans – approximately 10 per cent,” said Duffy. “It indicates that the spread of a mutation that allows humans to digest milk was only beginning during the Bronze Age and may have originated in the Bronze Age steppe cultures as they showed the highest frequency of the lactose tolerant gene among ancient groups.”

Analysis for skin and eye colour revealed that light skin pigmentation and blue eyes were prevalent by the beginning of the Bronze Age, having established themselves in the course of the previous 3,000 years.

“Our findings also support the theory that Indo-European languages expanded into Europe during the Bronze Age, something historical linguists and some archaeologists have said for a long time,” said Duffy. He pointed to root words such as yoke, wheel and cart that are shared across Slavic, Germanic and Romance languages, and would have been common among populations from the steppes.

“Our data suggests the migrating people brought with them their language and shared it as they settled across Europe.”

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