Interview on BBC Radio Shetland

Interviewed be Mary Blance on the Shetland late programme on 19 Jan 2012.

Whit some listeners seems tae hae tane oot o the interview is that ma 'Shetlan' (as spoke be the Neanderthals) is nae Shetlan at aa, an there some WTF at the Scots Language Centre page on Facebook. As Ah say there in ma ain defence, it stertit aff as auld-farrant Scots an Ah felt that it wis stertin tae soun lik Shetlan - that's whit Ah wis hearin (as best an ootsider can). 

Ah didnae wint tae mak it ower deeficult tae read, though, so I didnae yaise 'd/t' for 'th'. Leuks lik that's THE big shibboleth for the locals - miss that oot an it turns intae Orkney.

Neanderthal archaeology - watch this space

http://www.physorg.com/wire-news/87736163/weizmann-institute-and-max-planck-society-establish-a-joint-cent.html
Frae the press release:
The group at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot will mainly follow the research track entitled 'The Timing of Cultural Change.' Its goal: to shed new light on such fascinating aspects of human history as the spread of ideas, the changes in lifestyles, the different rates of development in various parts of the world and the migration of people from one geographical area to another. Traditionally, these questions have been explored by relative dating – that is, comparing changes in tools or pottery in different regions. However, absolute dating – determining the actual age of objects and strata – is needed in order to establish when a particular change occurred and how fast it spread throughout the region. To document the distribution of cultural changes in the last 50,000 years, the scientists will conduct much of the work in the field, performing a scientific analysis of findings at the archaeological site itself, to be followed up by laboratory studies. They will use high-resolution radiocarbon dating, which makes it possible to date specimens with a precision of 20 to 40 years, taking advantage of such advanced techniques as accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS—see below) analysis of radiocarbon content.

The group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig will mainly conduct research along the track entitled 'Physical Anthropology through Bone and Tooth Structure-Function Studies.' Scientists in this group will investigate issues in recent human evolution, particularly those relating to the co-occurrence of Neanderthal and early modern human populations in the Levantine region, at the crossroads between Africa and Eurasia. The study of fossil remains of these two populations has been traditionally based on the shapes of bones and teeth, examined more recently with the help of 3D computer reconstructions. Scientists in this track will make use of high-resolution computer tomography both at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig and at the Weizmann Institute, a technology that makes it possible to perform such reconstructions down to the level of micron-sized details. The scientists will examine the relationship between structure and function in bones and teeth, which is essential for understanding evolutionary changes. Since this relationship is difficult to establish using fossils alone, the focus of the studies in the new Center will be on modern bones and teeth.

Particle Accelerator for the Study of the Past
The new AMS equipment is expected to have a major impact on archaeology research both locally and internationally, as the only machine of its kind in the entire Middle East. Designed especially for conducting mainly archaeological research, it will be installed at the Weizmann Institute in a designated laboratory in the Physics Faculty, in the end of 2012. Archaeological dating used to rely on counters tracking the decay of the radioactive carbon isotope called C-14, a time-consuming process that requires large quantities of material. In contrast, AMS performs direct measurements of C-14, by accelerating the carbon atoms to a high speed and separating out the C-14 even when it is present at the minute concentrations of one in a quadrillion (1 followed by 15 zeroes) carbon atoms. This approach makes it possible to perform the dating very fast and on minute quantities of material, such as a single lentil, a grain of wheat or a small trace of collagen in bones – an essential feature, since over thousands of years, organic matter on which radiocarbon dating is based tends to disappear.

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Faces o early humans

This leuks weill worth seein:

Safari zum Urmenschen
Japanischen Palais,
Dresden-Neustadt

till 30 Aprile, fae Tuesday tae Sunday, 10am tae 6pm, closed Good Friday

Neanderthal reconstructions fae the exhibition, prentit be the Daily Mail.

This wabsteid is guid place tae fun oot aboot exhibitions, Atelier Daynes - this is the quine at daes a lot o museum feegures.

Nice stanes

It’s been suggestit that Modren humans had the edge ower the Neanderthals in social organisation. Yin aspeck o this is trade, sae it’s interestin tae see fae this article Multiple origins of Bondi Cave and Ortvale Klde (NW Georgia) obsidians and human mobility in Transcaucasia during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic be François-Xavier Le Bourdonnec et al., that baith Neanderthals an Modrens in whit is noo Georgia (Transcaucasia) had access tae obsidian. Obsidian tuils wis fund in twa caves occupied be Neanderthals an later be Modrens. The authors haes identified yin o the places that the obsidian cam fae. It’s no a prohibitive distance (a maitter o 170 km), bit ither sources are twice that.

They cite seemilar recent results fae Hungary for obsidian and the Czech Republic for rock crystal, an note that “even greater distances are attested for flint in areas where artefact quality raw materials are absent or rare”.

There’s ay some doot whan tryin tae link objecks tae the fowk that made thaim, bit it daes leuk like the Neanderthals wis ontae the obsidian first an the Modrens learnt tae wirk it fae thaim: “Neanderthals and later Modern Humans apparently employed the same behaviour with regard to how they worked their obsidian, which raises the question of an eventual transmission of this tradition.”

Lalueza-Fox an Gilbert, “Paleogenomics of Archaic Hominins” (2011)

This article, Paleogenomics of Archaic Hominins, is a maist yuisefu an timeous summary o whit we’ve learned fae “palaeogenomics, a discipline that has begun to revolutionise the study of human evolution” by twa prominent researchers in the field, Carles Lalueza-Fox an M. Thomas P. Gilbert.

There a time line o recent findins, includin:

1997 first Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA sequence;
2006  Neanderthal nuclear DNA sequenced;
2007 Neanderthal FOXP2 gene (crucial tae langage) fund tae be identical tae that o modren humans; Neanderthals fund tae hae reid hair an fair skin;
2008 Neanderthals fund tae be O bluid group;
2010 draft o hale Neanderthal nuclear genome;
2011 detection o ancient hominin gene flow intae modren human genomes warldwide (i.e. Neanderthal in aabody ootside Africa, Denisovan in Australasians an Asians, unidentified ancients in Bushmen an Pygmies).

The authors spick aboot methods, includin the byordnar problems o retrievin relevant data fae the backgrun noise o bacterial DNA, an the risk o modren contamination. They summarise whit we ken fae paleontology o the Neanderthal phenotype, includin the wey the shape o the brain developed fae birth tae adult. (They touch briefly forbye on diet an tools.) They discuss whit we can deduce fae genetics aboot the Neanderthal phenotype, population dispersal an nummers, gene flow atween ancients an modrens, an Neanderthal group structure (a faimly group has been typed, an the males are closely relatit, suggestin a patrilocal social structure; on the ither haun, anither study fund continuity in mitochrondrial DNA ower thoosans o years in yae place). 

Researchers are ay siftin through the Neanderthal genome. “Ultimately, our knowledge of the differences between Neanderthals and us will depend on how well we understand the phenotypic effects of these genetic changes in living organisms.” Yaisin the chimpanzee as a reference pynt, researchers hiv leuked for genes whaur Neanderthals seem tae hae kept an aulder primate form an modrens hae diverged. “The list comprises genes associated with various functions, including metabolism, cranial development, pigmentation, skin physiology, cognition and even sperm movement.” Chynges speceefic tae Neanderthals are faur harder tae pin doon, especially wi a totty sample, sin they could ay be mirages caused be damage or error.

We can leuk forrat tae excitin findins as researchers in this field set aboot the “sequencing of genomes from anatomically modern human samples that date to the Upper Palaeolithic, although this approach will face substantial contamination issues.”

Ancient dalliances

Dienekes screives aboot the divergence o African populations an the lave, an whether it can be pit doon tae Neanderthal admixture. This is a yuisefu post wi links back tae his earlier screivins on the subjeck.

It was kinna surprisin, richt eneuch, whan the Neanderthal element turnt oot tae be richt through aa populations ootside Africa. Dienekes ootlines his ain theory - that (whether or no there's ony Neanderthal admixture as weill), the same data cud be pyntin tae somethin deifferent - somethin aboot Africans raither nor non-Africans - namely admixture wi yin or mair ancient human lineages in Africa. Dienekes' reference for this is Hammer et al's paper Genetic evidence for archaic admixture in Africa.

Essential tae Dienekes' interpretation is his ither norie: that modren humans originatit in an dispersed fae the Arabian Peninsula - in ither wirds INTAE Africa.