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AI may have solved a debate on whether a dinoprint was from a herbivore or meat eater

An international team of researchers has, for the first time, used AI to analyse the tracks of dinosaurs, and the AI has come out on top – beating trained palaeontologists at their own game. “In extreme examples of theropod and ornithopod footprints, their footprint shapes are easy to tell apart -theropod with long, narrow toes and ornithopods with short, dumpy toes. But it is the tracks that are in-between these shapes that are not so clear cut in terms of who made them,” one of the researchers, University of Queensland palaeontologist Dr Anthony Romilio, told Cosmos. “We wanted to see if AI could learn these differences and, if so, then could be tested in distinguishing more challenging three-toed footprints.” Theropods are meat eating dinosaurs, while ornithopods are plant eating, and getting this analysis wrong can alter the data which shows diversity and abundance of dinosaurs in the area, or could even change what we think are the behaviours of certain dinos. One set of dinosaur prints in particular had been a struggle for the researchers to analyse. Large footprints at the Dinosaur Stampede National monument in Queensland had divided Romilio and his colleagues. The mysterious tracks were thought to be left during the mid-Cretaceous Period, around 93 million years ago, and could have been from either a meat eating theropod or a plant eating ornithopod. “I consider them footprints of a plant-eater while my colleagues share the much wider consensus that they are theropod tracks.” <div class="advert ad-in-content"> <div id="adn-00000000001fc2ca" style="display: none;"></div> </div> So, an AI called a Convolutional Neutral Network, was brought in to be a deciding factor. “We were pretty stuck, so thank god for modern technology,” says <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jens-Lallensack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr Jens Lallensack</a>, lead author from Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. “In our research team of three, one person was pro-meat-eater, one person was undecided, and one was pro-plant-eater. <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p224866-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> <form class="wpcf7-form mailchimp-ext-0.5.62 spai-bg-prepared init" action="/history/dinosaur-ai-theropod-ornithopods/#wpcf7-f6-p224866-o1" method="post" novalidate="novalidate" data-status="init"> <input class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text referer-page" name="referer-page" type="hidden" value="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/" data-value="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/" aria-invalid="false" /> </form> </div> </div> “So – to really check our science – we decided to go to five experts for clarification, plus use AI.” The AI was given nearly 1,500 already known tracks to learn which dinosaurs were which. The tracks were simple line drawings to make it easier for the AI to analyse. <div class="advert ad-in-content"> <div id="adn-00000000001fc2ca" style="display: none;"></div> </div> Then they began testing. Firstly, 36 new tracks were given to a team of experts, the AI and the researchers. “Each of us had to sort these into the categories of footprints left by meat-eaters and those by plant-eaters,” says Romilio. “In this the ai was the clear winner with 90% correctly identified. Me and one of my colleagues came next with ~75% correct.” Then, they went for the crown jewel – the Dinosaur Stampede National monument tracks. When the AI analysed this it came back with a pretty strong result that they’re plant eating ornithopod tracks. It’s not entirely sure though, the data suggests that there’s a 1 in 5,000,000 chance it could be a theropod instead. <div class="advert ad-in-content"> <div id="adn-00000000001fc2ca" style="display: none;"></div> </div> This is still early days for using AI in this way. In the future. the researchers are hoping for funding for a FrogID style app which anyone could use to analyse dinosaur tracks. “Our hope is to develop an app so anyone can take a photo on their smartphone, use the app and it will tell you what type of dinosaur track it is,” says Romilio. “It will also be useful for drone work survey for dinosaur tracksites, collecting and analysing image data and identifying fossil footprints remotely.” The paper has been published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2022.0588" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Royal Society Interface</a>.  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=224866&title=AI+may+have+solved+a+debate+on+whether+a+dinoprint+was+from+a+herbivore+or+meat+eater" width="1" height="1" />  <div id="contributors"> <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/dinosaur-ai-theropod-ornithopods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on Cosmos Magazine and was written by Jacinta Bowler. Image: Getty Images </div>

Technology

Statues found in Italy could “rewrite” history

The discovery of a cache of ancient bronze statues in Tuscany has been dubbed one of the most significant finds in the whole Mediterranean and could “rewrite” history in the region. Archaeologists working in the small hilltop town of San Casciano dei Bagni outside Siena, Italy, have uncovered 24 perfectly preserved bronze statues in the mud and water of ancient thermal baths. Excavation leader Jacopo Tabolli, a historian at the University for Foreigners in Siena, said they found “the largest deposit of bronze states of the Etruscan and Roman age ever discovered in Italy and one of the most significant in the whole Mediterranean”. The statues include a sleeping ephebe (an adolescent male aged between 17-18) lying next to Hygeia, the goddess of health, with a snake wrapped around her arm, as well as a statue of Apollo and figures representing matrons, children and emperors. Along with the statues, some of which date back 2300 years and stand at almost a metre tall, the researchers found thousands of coins and other artefacts, including relics that may have belonged to wealthy Etruscan and Roman families, landowners, lords and Roman emperors. The statues date back to between the second century BCE and first century CE, which was a time of major upheaval in Tuscan history, with the transition from Etruscan to Roman rule achieved through hard-fought battles that were followed by the destruction of Etruscan cultural items. Some bear inscriptions in both Latin and Etruscan with the names of prominent Etruscan families, suggesting the two cultures experienced some kind of harmony during this period. “This discovery rewrites the history of ancient art,” Tabolli said. “Here, Etruscans and Romans prayed together. “Even in historical epochs in which the most awful conflicts were raging outside, inside these pools and on these altars the two worlds, the Etruscan and Roman ones, appear to have coexisted without problems.” With the statues submerged in the mineral-rich waters of the hot springs, they were kept perfectly preserved until their recent discovery. Helga Maiorano, an archaeologist at the University of Pisa, told La Republica that the mud they were in created an atmosphere without oxygen, which is ideal for protecting bronze from bacteria. “One of the last ones [of the statues] particularly struck me for the quality of the details,” Chiara Fermo, an archaeologist at the University of Siena, told La Repubblica. “It is a female statue, entirely bejewelled, with very detailed necklaces and earrings. An example of what a woman of the time must have been like.” The baths are believed to have been built by the Etruscans during the third century and made more opulent under Roman rule. Tabolli told Ansa that the hot springs remained active until the fifth century, before being closed and the pools sealed with heavy stone pillars during Christian times. The find was made when archaeologists removed the covering to the spa. “It is the greatest store of statues from ancient Italy and is the only one whose context we can wholly reconstruct,” said Tabolli. Since their discovery, the statues have been taken to a restoration lab and will eventually go on display in the town of San Casciano. The site of the ancient baths, located nearby to a modern-day spa that is one of Italy’s most popular spa spots, is also due to be developed into an archaeological park. Images: The Italian Ministry of Culture

International Travel

“Exceptional” mosaic uncovered under Syrian house

A virtually intact mosaic that is 1600 years old has been uncovered in central Syria and is said to be the rarest of its kind. The mosaic, measuring 20 x 6 metres, was found under a building in Rastan in northern Syria’s Homs province, which has been besieged since 2011. With many of Syria’s cultural items and archaeological finds being damaged after more than a decade of war, the discovery of this intact mosaic has been described as the most important archaeological find since the start of the conflict. "What is in front of us is a discovery that is rare on a global scale," Hamman Saad, a senior official at Syria’s General Directorate of Museums and Antiquities, told the Associated Press. The mosaic depicts mythical scenes of the Trojan and Amazon wars, including the Roman sea god Neptune and 40 of his mistresses, as well as Hercules slaying Amazonian queen Hippolyta. The General Directorate of Museums and Antiquities shared the news on social media, along with images of the mosaic and excavation process, describing the find as “one of the most important paintings technically and archeologically, it may be exceptional and rare worldwide”. <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/10/mosaic-syria1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/10/mosaic-syria1.jpg" alt="" />The huge mosaic was uncovered underneath a house in Rastan, northern Syria. Image: DGAM (Facebook) While Syria has been considered a treasure trove for archaeologists since it is home to some of the most well-preserved relics from ancient civilisations, many of these items have been destroyed or looted during the civil war. It has also fuelled a black market selling small items such as coins and statuettes, as reported by the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63240648">BBC</a>. The mosaic was first found in 2018 during the drilling and exploration of a house in Rastan, with the General Directorate of Museums and Antiquities saying that it dates back to the 4th century AD. Image: DGAM (Facebook)

International Travel

7th century gold coins found hidden in wall

A collection of coins have been found concealed in a wall at a nature reserve in what has been described as an "extremely significant archaeological find". During an excavation at the Hermon Stream (Banias) in Israel, archaeologists found 44 gold coins dating back to the 7th century. Weighing in at about 170g, experts estimate that the hoard was hidden during the Muslim conquest in 635 CE. They say the discovery sheds light on this significant moment in history which saw the end of the Byzantine rule in the area. "We can imagine the owner concealing his fortune in the threat of war, hoping to return one day to retrieve his property," Yoav Lerer, the director of the excavation, told the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63122180" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC</a>. "In retrospect, we know that he was less fortunate." <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/10/ancient-coins1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> Numismatic (currency) expert Dr Gabriela Bijovsky of the Israel Antiquities Authority said some of the coins were minted by Emperor Phocas (602-610 CE), while the majority were of his successor, Emperor Heraclius, with the latest coins the latter minted dating back to 635 CE. Eli Escusido, the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said it was a significant find and that the public could soon see the coins for themselves. "The coin hoard is an extremely significant archaeological find as it dates back to an important transitional period in the history of the city of Banias and the entire region of the Levant," he said. "The Israel Antiquities Authority, together with the National Parks Authority, will work together to exhibit the treasure to the public." Along with the coins, Israeli authorities said the excavation also uncovered remains of buildings and bronze coins, as well as water channels and pipes. Images: Israel Antiquities Authority (Facebook)

Money & Banking

17th-century Polish ‘vampire’ found buried with sickle across neck

The remains of a woman found in a 17th-century graveyard in Poland are believed to be an example of an ‘anti-vampire’ burial after a sickle was also found placed across her neck to prevent her from rising from the dead. Dariusz Poliński, a professor at Nicholas Copernicus University, led the archaeological dig where the remains were uncovered, with the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11173505/Remains-VAMPIRE-pinned-ground-sickle-throat-Poland.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Mail</a> reporting that the skeleton was found wearing a silk cap and with a protruding front tooth. “The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up… the head would have been cut off,” Professor Poliński told the outlet. According to the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/17th-century-poland-vampires-werent-boogeymen-out-town-girl-or-boy-next-door-180953476/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Smithsonian</a> magazine, Eastern Europeans reported fears of vampires and began treating their dead with anti-vampire rituals during the 11th century. By the 17th century, these practices were common across Poland in response to reports of a vampire outbreak, per <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/research-reveals-the-origin-of-poland-s-mysterious-vampires" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ScienceAlert</a>. <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/09/skeleton-lady1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> The skeletal remains, pictured from above. Image: Łukasz Czyżewski, NCU Professor Poliński told the New York Post that there were other forms of protection to prevent vampires from returning from the dead, including cutting off limbs and using fire. “Other ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them, and smashing them with a stone,” he said. The skeleton’s toe was also padlocked, which Professor Poliński said likely symbolised “the closing of a stage and the impossibility of returning”. This isn’t the first time a ‘vampire’ has been discovered by archaeologists either. Matteo Borrini, a lecturer at Liverpool John Moore University, discovered the remains of a woman who died in the 16th century and was buried with a stone in her mouth in a mass grave with plague victims. He explained that outbreaks of ‘vampires’ were often associated with periods where people were dying from unknown causes at the time - such as pandemics or mass poisoning. “These ‘vampires’ start to hunt and kill family members first, then the neighbours, and then all the other villages,” he said. “This is the classical pattern of a disease that is contagious.” The most recent ‘vampire’ remains, which were dug up in August, are being further investigated by scientists. Image: Mirosław Blicharski

International Travel

New discovery reveals last moments of Pompeii’s middle class

A series of new finds in Pompeii’s archaeological park have shed light on the final moments of middle class Romans before they were buried beneath volcanic ash and debris from Mount Vesuvius. Plates, glasses, vases, amphorae and terracotta objects left behind in chests and cabinets have been recovered from four rooms in a house that was first excavated in 2018. Gabriel Zuchtriegal, the director of the popular Italian tourist destination, said the discovery revealed precious details about the ordinary citizens of the city. “In the Roman Empire there was a significant proportion of the population which fought for their social status and for whom the ‘daily bread’ was anything but taken for granted. It was a social class that was vulnerable during political crises and famines, but also ambitious to climb the social ladder,” Dr Zuchtriegal <a href="http://pompeiisites.org/en/comunicati/the-discovery-of-furnishings-from-the-house-of-the-lararium-in-regio-v-a-snapshot-of-middle-class-pompeii/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a>. “In the House of the Lararium at Pompeii, the owner was able to embellish the courtyard with the lararium and the basin for the cistern with exceptional paintings, yet evidently funds were insufficient to decorate the five rooms of the house, one of which was used for storage. “In the other rooms, two on the upper floor which could be reached by a mezzanine, we have discovered an array of objects, some of which are made of precious materials such as bronze and glass, while others were for everyday use. The wooden furniture, of which it has been possible to make casts, was extremely simple. “We do not know who the inhabitants of the house were, but certainly the culture of otium (leisure) which inspired the wonderful decoration of the courtyard represented for them more a future they dreamed of than a lived reality.” In the rooms on the lower floor of the house, all of the furnishings were able to be recovered by creating casts of the furniture. One bedroom even contained the remains of a bed frame and trace fabric from the pillow, similar to three cot-like beds unearthed last year in another Pompeiian home believed to be slaves’ quarters. Next to the bed, archaeologists found a bipartite wooden chest that was left open when the owners fled. Although heavily damaged by beams that crashed onto it during the eruption, it still held an oil lamp decorated with a relief of the Greek god Zeus being transformed into an eagle. A small, three-legged table was found next to the trunk, with a ceramic cup containing glass ampules, and two small plates sitting on top. In the storeroom, they found a wooden cupboard with its backboard still intact and the shelves caved in. Many of the items from the upper floor were found in the rooms below, including everyday items such as ceramic vessels, two bronze jugs, a bronze bowl with a beaded base, and an incense burner in the shape of a cradle. One of the unique and most interesting finds was a small cast of waxed tablets, made up of seven triptychs (carvings with three panels) that have been tied together by a small cord. Images: Parco Archeologico di Pompei

International Travel

Archaeologists turn to robots to save Pompeii

The city of Pompeii has experienced not one, but two deathly experiences - first from a volcanic eruption, then from neglect - and technology is now being used to keep it safe going into the future. Decades of neglect, mismanagement and scant maintenance of the popular ruins resulted in the 2010 collapse of a hall where gladiators once trained, nearly costing Pompeii its UNESCO World Heritage status. Despite this, Pompeii is facing a brighter future. The ruins were saved from further degradation due to the Great Pompeii Project, which saw about 105 million euros in European Union funds directed to the site, as long as it was spent promptly and effectively by 2016. Now, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii’s new director is looking to innovative technology to help restore areas of the ruins and reduce the impacts of a new threat: climate change. Archaeologist Gabriel Zuchtriegel, who was appointed director-general of the site in mid-2021, told the Associated Press that technology is essential “in this kind of battle against time”. “Some conditions are already changing and we can already measure this,” Zuchtriegel <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/pompeii-rebirth-of-italys-dead-city-that-nearly-died-again/XOOKT34VC3A6ZFG5BJLDC62FJI/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/02/pompeii1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> Archaeologists and scientists are joining forces to preserve and reconstruct artefacts found in Pompeii. Image: Pompeii Archeological Park (Instagram) So instead of relying on human eyes to detect signs of climate-caused deterioration on mosaic floors and frescoed walls across the site’s 10,000 excavated rooms, experts will rely on artificial intelligence (AI) and drones. The technology will provide experts with data and images in real-time, and will alert them to “take a closer look and eventually intervene before things happen”, Zuchtriegel said. Not only that, but AI and robots have been used to reassemble frescoes and artefacts that have crumbled into miniscule fragments that are difficult to reconstruct using human hands. “The amphorae, the frescoes, the mosaics are often brought to light fragmented, only partially intact or with many missing parts,” Zuchtriegel <a href="http://pompeiisites.org/comunicati/al-via-il-progetto-repair-la-robotica-e-la-digitalizzazione-al-servizio-dellarcheologia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “When the number of fragments is very large, with thousands of pieces, manual reconstruction and recognition of the connections between the fragments is almost always impossible or in any case very laborious and slow. “This means that various finds lie for a long time in archaeological deposits, without being able to be reconstructed and restored, let alone returned to the attention of the public.” <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/02/pompeii2.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> The robot uses mechanical arms and hands to position pieces in the right place. Image: Pompeii Archeological Park (Instagram) The “RePAIR” project, an acronym for Reconstructing the past: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics meet Cultural Heritage, has seen scientists from the Italian Institute of Technology create a robot to fix this problem. It involves robots scanning the fragments and recognising them through a 3D digitisation system before placing them in the right position using mechanical arms and hands equipped with sensors. <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/02/pompeii3.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> The project will focus on frescoes in the House of the Painters at Work, which were shattered during WWII. Image: Pompeii Archeological Park (Instagram) One goal is to reconstruct the frescoed ceiling of the House of the Painters at Work, with was shattered by Allied bombing during World War II. The fresco in the Schola Armaturarum - the gladiators’ barracks - will also be the target of robotic repairs, after the weight of excavated sections of the city, rainfall accumulation and poor drainage resulted in the structure collapsing. Image: Pompeii Archeological Park (Instagram)

Technology

Amateur diver uncovers 900-year-old treasure

An amateur diver has found a sword believed to have belonged to a crusader knight from about 900 years ago off Israel’s northern coast. Shlomi Katzin made the discovery while scuba diving off the Carmel coast, as well as finding ancient stone anchors, metal anchors, and pottery fragments. The sword, which has a one-metre-long blade and a 30-centimetre hilt, was found encrusted with marine organisms and is thought to have emerged after the sands shifted. <img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7844945/sword1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/565203079d5d45c78dd0063de5299054" /> The hilt of the sword found by Mr Katzin. Image Shlomi Katzin / IAA Mr Katzin took his find ashore after fearing it would be stolen or buried once again in the sands. After reporting the find to the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Robbery Prevention Unit, Mr Katzin was awarded a certificate for good citizenship. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said the sword would be put on public display once it had been cleaned and analysed. “The sword, which has been preserved in perfect condition, is a beautiful and rare find and evidently belonged to a crusader knight,” <a rel="noopener" href="https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/israelexperience/history/pages/diver-finds-900-year-old-crusader-sword-on-seabed-18-october-2021.aspx" target="_blank">said Nir Distelfeld</a>, IAA’s Robbery Prevention Unit Inspector. “It was found encrusted with marine organisms but is apparently made of iron. It is exciting to encounter such a personal object, taking you 900 years back in time to a different era, with knights, armour and swords.” <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CVLK-IToofQ/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CVLK-IToofQ/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Israel Antiquities Authority (@antiquities_en)</a> </div> </blockquote> Kobi Sharvit, the head of IAA’s Marine Archaeology Unit, said the Carmel coast had provided shelter for ships during storms over the centuries of shipping activity, making it a hotspot for treasured finds. “These conditions have attracted merchant ships down the ages, leaving behind rich archaeological finds,” he said. “The recently recovered sword is just one such find.” Eli Escosido, the IAA’s general director, praised Mr Katzin for coming forward with the discovery. The Crusaders fought in a series of religious wars during the medieval period, with the most commonly known campaigns occurring in the eastern Mediterranean region. Image: Shlomi Katzin / IAA

Travel Trouble

The origins of money

<div> From cowrie shells to native resources and animals, currency in some shape or form has long been a part of human history. <div class="copy"> A currency of sorts was first thought to emerge as trade and exchange, with trade being tracked through the archaeological record, starting in the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085416" target="_blank">Upper Palaeolithic</a>, when groups of hunters traded the best flint weapons and tools. Throughout the years, various objects were used as units of value until nearly 5,000 years ago, when the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/when-and-why-did-people-first-start-using-money-78887#:~:text=The%20Mesopotamian%20shekel%20%E2%80%93%20the%20first,gold%20coins%20to%20pay%20armies." target="_blank">Mesopotamian shekel</a> emerged as the first known form of currency. Now, researchers from Leiden University in the Netherlands are adding an Early Bronze Age piece to the currency puzzle. They’re proposing that Bronze Age people may have used rings and axe blades as an early form of standardised currency. “Archaeology can provide a unique perspective on the development of money and systems of weighing over space and time, but the discipline has difficulties with the identification of objects that functioned either as commodity money or as weights,” the authors write in their paper, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240462" target="_blank">published</a> in the journal PLOS ONE. The authors compared objects from Early Bronze Age Central Europe. Based on the similarity in weight and shape of the objects, they suggest that ancient people used bronze objects that were standardised in shape and weight as currency. “Found in bulk, sometimes in hoards containing multiple hundreds, many of the rings, ribs and axe blades are considered to have no other practical function besides their tentative use as ingots, or rough-outs for further production,” the authors write. “Moulds, made of clay, stone or casted directly in sand made serial production possible, which led to some degree of unintentional standardisation. However, there are indications that for some types of objects, a deliberate effort was made to achieve a specific weight interval, meaning that weight mattered.” The researchers studied just over 5,000 objects made of bronze in rings, ribs and axe blades from more than 100 ancient hoards. The objects’ weights were compared using a psychology principle known as the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://apps.usd.edu/coglab/WebersLaw.html" target="_blank">Weber fraction</a>, which suggests if objects are similar in mass, a human being weighing them by hand can’t tell the difference. Around 70% of the rings were similar enough in weight – they averaged about 195 grams – and would have been indistinguishable by hand, as were subsets of the ribs and axe blades. Standardisation is a key feature of money. However, the researchers say this can be difficult to identify in the archaeological record since ancient people had inexact forms of measurement. “Commodity money displays rough similarities in terms of shape and weight, because of standardisation, without necessarily following a strict metrological system,” the authors write. “Though archaeologists have no insight in the transactions that took place, there can be no doubt that at least the rings and ribs conform to the definition of commodity money.” More precise weighing tools appear in the archaeology record later, in the Middle Bronze Age of Europe, along with an increase in the availability of scrap bronze.  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=135363&title=The+origins+of+money" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> </div> <div id="contributors"> <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/the-origins-of-money/" target="_blank">This article</a> was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/amelia-nichele" target="_blank">Amelia Nichele</a>. Amelia Nichele is a science journalist at The Royal Institution of Australia. </div> </div> Image: M.H.G. Kuijpers

Money & Banking

Archaeologists baffled by ‘mystical’ find in Scottish cave

Though mummies are mostly associated with ancient Egypt, archeologists have found evidence suggesting mummification also took place on Scottish shores. The team of researchers explored the Coversea Caves, just north of Inverness, with their exploits captured by the Smithsonian Channel’s documentary, <a rel="noopener" href="https://youtu.be/jV9dIhAn0Zg" target="_blank">Mystic Britain: Mummies</a>. The caves are among Scotland’s most impenetrable caverns, but evidence suggests that Bronze Age Britons made the “hazardous journey time and time again carrying the bodies of their dead”. “For prehistoric people to make the effort and to make the journey would have been really arduous to do,” said Dr Lindsey Buster, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh. “When archaeologists first started excavating here, the floor was strewn with human bones.” <img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7844377/mummies1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/cd4d07e5cece43f98dac6f01c7867e14" /> Image: Smithsonian Channel / YouTube Unlike bones previously found in Britain, these bones still had fragments of soft tissue on them. “It’s not something we expect when we’re excavating a site that’s 3000 years old,” Dr Buster added. “That’s a really significant find.” It is possible that these bones once belonged to a fully-fleshed corpse that had been preserved in the unique conditions in the cave. <img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7844378/mummies2.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/9b3a3dadecad4377b3c1c426a3dbaa70" /> Traces of ligaments can still be seen on the remains. Image: Smithsonian Channel / YouTube. The team also found evidence of fires being lit in the cave “at the same time presumably as bodies are being laid out”. “The smoke could actually probably have helped to preserve bodies and body parts,” Dr Buster said. Dr Buster suspects Bronze Age people came to the caves to purposefully mummify their friends and relatives. “I think once bodies began to be brought into the cave and were behaving in ways that they didn’t normally do on above-ground sites, those characteristics were probably well-noted and became a factory of people coming back again and again over centuries to deposit their dead.” Image: Smithsonian Channel / YouTube

International Travel

Lost 3000-year-old city rediscovered

In one of the most important archaeological finds since 1922, a 3,000-year-old “lost city” has been discovered by Egyptian archaeologists in present-day Luxor. According to prominent archeologist Zahi Hawass, who led the expedition, the newly-found city dates back to the era of king Amenhotep III, who ruled from 1391 to 1353 BC. “Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it,” Hawass said in an online statement. “The Egyptian expedition was surprised to discover the largest city ever found in Egypt,” the 74-year-old added. “The excavation started in September 2020 and within weeks, to the team’s great surprise, formations of mud bricks began to appear in all directions. “What they unearthed was the site of a large city in good condition of preservation, with almost complete walls, and rooms filled with tools of daily life.” According to Hawass, the city was the largest administrative and industrial settlement at the time on the western bank of Luxor, in southern Egypt. The team also found rings, scarabs, coloured pottery vessels, and mud bricks bearing the seal of king Amenhotep III’s cartouche which help confirm the dating of the city. “The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archaeological find since the tomb of Tutankhamun,” said Betsy Bryan, a professor of Egyptology at John Hopkins University in the US. Images: Dr Zahi Hawass / Instagram

International Travel

Patient zero of Black Death found

New evidence has suggested a man who died 5300 years ago in Latvia was infected with the earliest-known strain of the plague that caused the Black Death. Waves of the plague swept through Europe for several centuries from the 1300s, causing millions of deaths. “Up to now this is the oldest-identified plague victim we have,” Dr Ben Krause-Kyora of the University of Kiel in Germany said of the remains. The man was buried with three others at a Neolithic burial site in Latvia near the River Salac, which connects to the Baltic Sea. The research, published in Cell Reports, involved the sequencing of the DNA from the bones and teeth of the four individuals. <img style="width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7842261/60da287e1477f300188c82ae.jpg" alt="Dominik Göldner / BGAEU" data-udi="umb://media/1f7ae3fb0a0c41a49c6b87ea085cbef8" /> When the bodies were tested for bacteria and viruses, the researchers were surprised to find one hunter-gatherer - a man in his twenties - was infected with an ancient strain of the plague, caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium. “He was most likely bitten by a rodent, got the primary infection of Yersinia pestis and died a couple of days [later] - maybe a week later - from the septic shock,” said Dr Krause-Kyora. The researchers suggest that this strain appeared about 7000 years ago at the same time that agriculture started to appear in central Europe. They also believe the bacterium may have sporadically jumped from animals to humans and that it became better at infecting humans over time, evolving into the form known as the bubonic plague. The research has been welcomed by other experts, though it doesn’t rule out the hypothesis that the disease was spreading throughout Europe at the time. Though the disease is still around today, it is treatable with antibiotics if caught early. Images: Dominik Göldner / BGAEU

Body

Newly discovered Black Death victims treated with care

When the Black Death swept through Europe during the 14th century it wiped out between 40-60 percent of the population. Despite the traumatic death toll during the pandemic, archaeologists have found that victims of the disease were treated with “care and compassion”. A team from Cambridge University found evidence of individual burials continuing in Cambridge, as well as mass burials, which the team said “had been impossible to confirm until now”. Senior project officer Craig Cessford said it “shows that even in incredibly traumatic times during past pandemics, people tried very hard to bury the deceased with as much care as possible”. Since the disease killed people so quickly that there were no visible traces of it left on skeletons, archaeologists have been unable to identify whether individuals had died of plague unless they were buried in mass graves. At least, that was the case until researchers from the After the Plague project identified the plague-causing pathogen called Yersinia pestis, which they found by studying the DNA from the teeth of medieval bodies. The bodies studied were buried at a parish cemetery and friary in Cambridge, excavated in 2017, as well as those buried in the nearby deserted village of Clopton. At least three plague victims were found buried in the chapter house of the friary. Mr Cessford said the “burials show that even during plague outbreaks, individual people were being buried with considerable care and attention”. Mass graves of plague victims were also uncovered in Cambridge in St Bene’t’s churchyard. The land was soon after transferred to Corpus Christi College, when the St Bene’t’s parish guild founded the college to commemorate victims of the Black Death. Image: Cambridge Archaeological Unit

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