Nobody’s land? The oldest evidence of early Upper Paleolithic settlements in inland Iberia
“The directly dated cut-marked bones of ungulates indicate the presence of AMHs in inland Iberia during the early and mid-Upper Paleolithic. The paleoecological inferences suggest that human populations occupied Malia when climatic and ecological conditions were not particularly severe in terms of aridity and temperature.”
Nohemi Sala et al., Nobody’s land? The oldest evidence of early Upper Paleolithic settlements in inland Iberia. Sci. Adv.10, eado3807 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado3807
Ancient Egyptian scribes and specific skeletal occupational risk markers (Abusir, Old Kingdom)
“Our research reveals that remaining in a cross-legged sitting or kneeling position for extended periods, and the repetitive tasks related to writing and the adjusting of the rush pens during scribal activity, caused the extreme overloading of the jaw, neck and shoulder regions.”
Brukner Havelková, P., Dulíková, V., Bejdová, Š. et al. Ancient Egyptian scribes and specific skeletal occupational risk markers (Abusir, Old Kingdom). Sci Rep 14, 13317 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-63549-z
Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines
“Our analysis suggests that this genetic distinction is due to a European-related gene flow introduced in Ashkelon during either the end of the Bronze Age or the beginning of the Iron Age. This timing is in accord with estimates of the Philistines arrival to the coast of the Levant, based on archeological and textual records (2–4).”
Michal Feldman et al., Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines. Sci. Adv.5, eaax0061 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax0061
Does a cave beneath Pembroke Castle hold key to fate of early Britons?
“One of the issues that scientists are seeking to resolve is the question of whether or not Neanderthals interbred with Homo sapiens in Britain, as they did in other parts of the world. For good measure, they also want to know if the two species lived alongside each other or whether they replaced each other in successive waves.”
In a fieldnote shared by Teresa Cremer on S-AND.org you can meet Salim Ali Mohamed of the Malindi Beach Management Unit in Kenya. To him, sand indexes a healthy ocean. Poetically, Salim considers the ecological work of sand as cleansing respirations. What do receding shorelines, an unwanted effect of urban development, say about ownership, access, and practices of more-than-human care?
Read the full fieldnote here: https://s-and.org/blog/sand-the-ocean-breather
The ultimate guide for the student encountering anthropology for the first time, Anthropology: The Basics explains and explores key anthropological concepts including:
what is anthropology?
how can we distinguish cultural differences from physical ones?
what is culture, anyway?
how do anthropologists study culture?
what are the key theories and approaches used today?
How has the discipline changed over time?
To live, every being must put out a line, and in life these lines tangle with one another. This book is a study of the life of lines. Following on from Tim Ingold's groundbreaking work Lines: A Brief History , it offers a wholly original series of meditations on life, ground, weather, walking, imagination and what it means to be human.
Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe
“The historical and archaeological record leave no doubt that the development of culture and population in southwestern Germany was temporarily characterized by profound discontinuities, particularly during the third to first century BCE. The definitive end of the 2,000 years of relative genetic continuity from the Bronze throughout the Iron Age in southern Germany is marked by a sudden, sharp increase of Steppe-related ancestry during the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.”
Gretzinger, J., Schmitt, F., Mötsch, A. et al. Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01888-7
Ancient genomes revealed the complex human interactions of the ancient western Tibetans
“Outside the Tibetan Plateau, the western Tibetan Plateau populations interacted with both South and Central Asian populations at least 2,000 years ago, and the South Asian-related genetic influence, despite being very limited, was from the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) migrants in Central Asia instead of the IVC populations from the Indus Valley.”
Sand makes up coastal bioinfrastructures in Guyana, as Sarah Vaughn shows in a recent essay, https://roadsides.net/vaughn-010/. Groynes used to prevent erosion "reinforce the shoreline’s existing sandy terrain." These groynes themselves contain sand. The essay is part of a special issue entitled "Bioinfrastructures" co-edited by Raúl Acosta and S.AND team member Lukas Ley. Check out the full open access issue here: https://roadsides.net/collection-no-010/
Through the term "bioinfrastructures," Ley and @raulaco reckon with the surge in projects to (re)create lively urban landscapes: While this shows that "infrastructure is never just a single entity or one discrete thing but rather an evolving set of multispecies and material relations," they also interrogate the ambivalent politics of bioinfrastructures.
What is the significance of bioinfrastructures "for larger political projects, emancipatory movements and Indigenous sovereignty?"
If you like economic anthropology/sociology & are interested in the work of artists, then Alison Gerber's concise & highly readable, The Work of Art: Value in Creative Careers (2017) is for you. Assessing how value is seen in (manly US) art worlds, Gerber doesn't model or use aggregated statistics, but actually asks artists & reports/reflects on what they tell her. the result is compelling & informative!