Ancient Remains Research Articles

Raman Spectroscopy Detects Bone Mineral Changes with Aging in Archaeological Human Lumbar Vertebrae from Thornton Abbey.

Archaeological human remains provide key insight into lifestyles, health, and diseases affecting past societies. However, only limited analyses can be conducted without causing damage due to the destructive nature of current technologies. The same problem exists with current clinical analyses of the skeleton, and the preferred advanced imaging techniques only provide macroscopic information. Raman spectroscopy could provide chemical information without detriment to archaeological bone samples and perhaps the need for invasive diagnostic procedures in the future. This study measured archaeological human vertebrae to investigate if chemical differences with aging were detectable with Raman spectroscopy and if differences in mineral chemistry could contribute to information on bone mineral diseases. The three lowest bones of the spine (lumbar vertebrae L3-L5), which are subject to the heaviest loading in life, of nine adults from three age groups (18-25, 25-45, and 45+ years) were provided by the Thornton Abbey Project. Three biomechanically important anatomical locations were selected for analysis; likely sites chosen to measure any chemical changes associated with aging, the vertebral body center and the zygapophyseal joints. Results detected chemical changes associated with aging. These changes relate to the minerals phosphate (∼960 cm-1) and carbonate (∼1070 cm-1), which are fundamental to bone function. Overall mineralization was found to increase with aging, but while carbonate increased with age, phosphate increased up to ∼45 years and then declined. These fluctuations were found in all three vertebrae, but were more distinct in L5, particularly in the vertebral body, indicating this is an optimal area for detecting bone mineral chemistry changes with aging. This is the first Raman analysis of bone samples from the historically significant site of Thornton Abbey. Results detected age-related changes, illustrating that ancient remains can be used to enhance understanding of modern diseases and provide information on the health and lifestyle of historic individuals.

Analysis of wood anatomy via high-resolution micro-MRI and micro-CT: first approaches and results from Pozzo di Bellafonte (Montaione, Florence, Italy)

Several artefacts were found during the excavation performed at “Pozzo di Bellafonte”, located in an archaeological area in the province of Florence (Italy). The material found in the archaeological site included a large amount of wood samples; therefore, a method for understanding the positioning, the shape and the orientation of the wood sample vessels was necessary for identification of botanical taxa. In recent years, the study of ancient remains has benefited greatly from the use of imaging techniques commonly used for medical diagnosis and biomedical research, such as the micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT) and high-field micro-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (micro-MRI). In this paper such imaging methodologies were employed for assessing the internal structure of representative wood samples extracted from the above mentioned. The complementarity of micro-CT and micro-MRI for the investigation of wood specimen anatomy is also discussed, by underlining what micro-MRI provides as compared with micro-CT and by proposing a tool constituted by the combination of micro-CT/micro-MRI for the study of such wood samples in a multimodal approach.

Exploring the Capabilities of ChatGPT in Ancient Chinese Translation and Person Name Recognition

Abstract This study examines the potential of ChatGPT, notable for its skill in standard modern languages, in the context of ancient Chinese. We focus on two fundamental tasks: translating ancient Chinese into modern Chinese and identifying ancient Chinese names. We conduct experiments on Shi Shuo Xin Yu, which is a collection of anecdotes, short conversations, and pithy observations on personalities who lived in China between about 150 and 420 A.D. We also include other methods, like Baidu Yiyan (ERNIE-Bot) for ancient-to-modern translation, and SIKU-RoBERTa for ancient Chinese name recognition. The results reveal that ChatGPT’s performance in ancient Chinese remains in need of enhancement, but it excels in the task of ancient-to-modern translation with the provision of a few context sentences. For the ancient Chinese name recognition, ChatGPT can outperform SIKU-RoBERTa model in terms of precision, but suffers from low recall.

Morphological and Clinical Aspects of Pott's Disease in Ancient Human Remains: A Scoping Review.

The present study is a scoping review of the literature on Pott's disease in ancient human remains. Comprehending the origin and history of Pott's disease is relevant to assessing this pathological condition from an evolutionary perspective. Tuberculosis (TB) is an ancient pulmonary disease that remains the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, rating above HIV/AIDS. The disease typically affects the lungs but can also target other anatomical sites. Of those, the most common and characteristic are the skeletal changes involving the spine, such as in Pott's disease. Spinal tuberculosis accounts for approximately half of all cases of musculoskeletal tuberculosis. It can lead to loss of function in the lower limbs due to damage to the spinal column. Nevertheless, its origin and evolution are still not fully understood and need further investigation. The authors investigated the published studies on Pott's disease in ancient human remains, intending to survey the literature, map the evidence and identify gaps and future perspectives on TB in paleopathology. The search strategy was conducted between September 2021 and March 2023 using keywords including the terms "Pott disease" OR "tuberculosis" AND "skeletal remains" in PubMed Biomed Central, Scopus, and Google Scholar search engines and biomedical databases. Five hundred and three records were initially identified, and 66 studies were finally included and assessed for qualitative analysis. Finally, the included records were analyzed in terms of non-narrative data, including the type of publication, country of excavation, dating of the sample, the number of human remains, and their details. Furthermore, the type of bone lesion was indicated as well as the diagnostic method if detailed. Among articles identified, most were classified as original articles, and were published between 2011 and 2020. Close to 77% of the records reported excavation in Europe and the Near middle east. Included studies considered a total of 3388 human remains, mostly excavated in archaeological sites and necropolis. Interestingly, the reported prevalence was higher among young males and adults. Although most of the findings are consistent with the literature, since the majority of the human remains were from Europe and the Near Middle East, more research is necessary in other sectors of the world. The suggestion of a male predominance needs to be confirmed and questions about the possible pathognomic role of rib lesions as well Serpes endocranica symmetrica (SES) represent further areas of research that need to be explored.

NOthing goes toWAste (NOWA): A protocol to optimise sampling of ancient teeth

Advancements in archaeological sciences through innovative scientific techniques applied to ancient human remains have increasingly been transforming the study of the past. Destructive analyses of bioarchaeological or palaeontological specimens such as dental histology, isotopic or elemental analysis of dental mineralised tissues, 14C dating, proteomic analysis or ancient DNA are increasingly being applied to obtain ever more refined past life histories. In tandem with spatially-resolved analyses, mineralised dental tissues, especially enamel, have proven to be ideal archives. The main concern with any of these techniques is the need for some level of destructive sampling and thus damage to specimens. In compliance with the ALARA (As Low [damage] As Reasonably Achievable) principle, we present a standardised protocol (the NOWA protocol) for the optimisation, in terms of minimising the destructive approach, of tooth sampling for histology, biomolecular and biogeochemical analyses. The NOWA protocol enables the collection of multiple datasets through optimised sampling of a single dental specimen, ensuring the preservation of most of the tooth and, to a substantial degree, its morphology. Overall, this approach balances the significant scientific insights from such investigations against the inevitable conservation requirements of valuable archaeological and palaeontological specimens, thus maximising the feasibility of future analyses of individual specimens that need to be evaluated on a case-to-case basis.

Ancient and modern bone diagnosis: Towards a better understanding of chemical and structural feature alterations

Chemical and structural alterations hold great importance in the field of diagenesis. Attenuated Total Reflectance − Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) is a valuable method for examining bio-apatite composition changes. Infrared spectroscopy (IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were employed to analyze both modern and archaeological bone specimens. Organic and mineral component changes in modern and ancient samples were investigated. Ancient bone samples were collected from two archaeological sites in Jordan, dating back to the Iron and Byzantine ages. IR results indicated that collagen cross-links and mineral maturity are higher in modern bones compared to ancient bones. Additionally, the crystallinity index is higher in modern bones than in archaeological bones, while the carbonate to phosphate ratio (C/P) is lower in modern bones than in ancient ones. Curve fitting was applied to reveal the carbonate substitution inside the hydroxyapatite lattice within the IR region from 850 to 890 cm−1. A2-type carbonates (identified as υ2 of CO32−) denote hydroxyl site substitution, and B-type carbonates represent a substitution to the phosphate site. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the peak at 604 cm−1 from IR spectra reveals that crystallinity is higher in modern bones, as confirmed by the FWHM of the (002)-apatite pattern in XRD. Statistical analysis was conducted to validate these findings, ensuring the robustness of the results. Finally, the results obtained in this investigation align with previous literature reports regarding ATR-FTIR ratios. This suggests that modern bones have better crystallinity compared to ancient bones. Furthermore, the ATR-FTIR ratios indicate that the hydroxyl and phosphate sites of modern bones undergo more substitution than older bones. The findings of this study not only enhance our understanding of the diagnostic processes in archaeological bone specimens but also have broader implications for fields such as archaeology, anthropology, and forensics, where the analysis of bone composition and structural changes can provide valuable insights into the history and characteristics of ancient remains.

PIRANESI'S CIRCUSES AND CARCERES: THE NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST STATE OF THE CAMPUS MARTIUS PLAN AND ITS ANTIQUARIAN CONTEXT

This essay takes as its starting point the newly discovered first state print of the large topographical plan of the Campus Martius of ancient Rome made by Giovanni Battista Piranesi in the years around 1760. There are significant differences between the first and the more common second state (which was bound into the Campus Martius volume published in 1762) and they concern the form of the circuses, six of which are included by Piranesi in his plan. This essay will investigate those changes and propose a hypothesis regarding the motivations for them by looking at the antiquarian context with which Piranesi was familiar and taking into consideration his enthusiasm for on-site examination of ancient remains. Particularly relevant are the ruins of the circus of Maxentius on the via Appia just outside the city, a site which preoccupied Piranesi at various times throughout his career in Rome. The antiquarian material examined includes earlier writings on circuses, which had a marked effect on the way that Piranesi drew his circuses in the first state of the plan and on the changes he made, clearly visible in the copper plates from which the prints were made. The circus Maximus and circus of Maxentius as described by Pirro Ligorio, Onofrio Panvinio and Raffaele Fabretti are key to the genesis and development of the Campus plan.

A label-free quantification method for assessing sex from modern and ancient bovine tooth enamel

Identification of the sex of modern, fossil and archaeological animal remains offers many insights into their demography, mortality profiles and domestication pathways. However, due to many-factors, sex determination of osteological remains is often problematic. To overcome this, we have developed an innovative protocol to determine an animal’s sex from tooth enamel, by applying label-free quantification (LFQ) of two unique AmelY peptides ‘LRYPYP’ (AmelY;[M+2]2+\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^{2+}$$\\end{document} 404.7212 m/z) and ‘LRYPYPSY’ (AmelY;[M+2]2+\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^{2+}$$\\end{document} 529.7689 m/z) that are only present in the enamel of males. We applied this method to eight modern cattle (Bos taurus) of known sex, and correctly assigned them to sex. We then applied the same protocol to twelve archaeological Bos teeth from the Neolithic site of Beisamoun, Israel (8-th–7-th millennium BC) and determined the sex of the archaeological samples. Since teeth are usually better preserved than bones, this innovative protocol has potential to facilitate sex determination in ancient and modern bovine remains that currently cannot be sexed.

Detection of Hunting Pits using Airborne Laser Scanning and Deep Learning

ABSTRACT Forests worldwide contain unique cultural traces of past human land use. Increased pressure on forest ecosystems and intensive modern forest management methods threaten these ancient monuments and cultural remains. In northern Europe, older forests often contain very old traces, such as millennia-old hunting pits and indigenous Sami hearths. Investigations have repeatedly found that forest owners often fail to protect these cultural remains and that many are damaged by forestry operations. Current maps of hunting pits are incomplete, and the locations of known pits have poor spatial accuracy. This study investigated whether hunting pits can be automatically mapped using national airborne laser data and deep learning. The best model correctly mapped 70% of all the hunting pits in the test data with an F1 score of 0.76. This model can be implemented across northern Scandinavia and could have an immediate effect on the protection of cultural remains.

Retrospective isotope analysis of ancient remains to distinguish between tamed and wild animals

The origin and process of the domestication of wild animals have long fascinated scientists. However, there are no reliable methods to distinguish between tamed and wild animals. Here, we present a new method to identify tamed and wild juvenile brown bears (Ursus arctos) using retrospective isotope analysis of the femur. We used femurs from the nine bear cubs and the tibia from one domesticated dog excavated from the Nijibetsu Shuwan Kumaokuriba site, Hokkaido Islands, Japan (late 19th century–1939 AD). These bears were potentially tamed by indigenous Ainu people, and the domesticated dog was used as a reference of a tamed animal. We subdivided these bones into 10 sections along the growing axis, extracted collagen and measured the stable nitrogen isotope ratios (δ15N). The bone sections of the domesticated dog had constant δ15N values that were as high as that of salmon, suggesting that tamed animals exclusively consumed a marine diet fed to them by the Ainu. Notably, two of nine brown bear cubs showed a temporal elevation of δ15N to the similar isotope ratios of the dog tibia, which is unlikely to occur in the wild condition, strongly suggesting that they were tamed and fed by the Ainu people.

Application of Georadar Method to Investigate shallow Artifacts for Al-Maabid Area in Babylon Archaeological City

Babylon, one of the most influential civilizations in Mesopotamia, significantly contributed to human history with its rich culture, advanced legal systems, and architectural marvels, serving as the capital of the Neo-Babylonian empire. This study aims to discover ancient Babylonian civilizational remains and artifacts, including artifacts and walls from an ancient Babylonian house near the Ishtar temple. A geophysical survey was carried out using ground penetrating radar (GPR), yielding promising preliminary results. It contributed to the Department of Antiquities' excavation campaign for potential antiquities in Babylon Governorate, which was regarded as a preliminary step before beginning extensive excavations. Accurate GPR results were displayed as radargrams, maps, and 3D VI visualization diagrams, providing a precise subsurface view of buried archaeological remains.

Histomorphometry specific to anthropological studies concerning the human condition.

Bone histomorphometry refers to the study of the structure and microscopic features of bone tissue. It involves the measurement and assessment of bone microanatomy, and it provides valuable information on bone properties. Through the application of histomorphometry, researchers can acquire information on bone metabolism and on remodeling dynamics, which is useful to the study of bone health. During the last 50 years, biological anthropologists have adopted the use of histomorphometry while examining issues specific to human health and evolutionary trends from prehistoric remains. Scientists coming from the medical field have applied histomorphometry in their research as it allows the study of bone changes, useful to describe pathological conditions among these ancient human remains. This paper reflects on some of the research that involves histomorphometric analysis specific to diet and health, forensic anthropology, taphonomic assessment of bone, non-human primate research and biomechanics. The purpose of the paper is to consider past and future applications of bone histomorphometry to enable a discussion which might direct research towards under-explored areas of bone biology. For example, looking at renewed interest in clavicular histology and stimulating investigations that focus on osteocyte density. Additionally, a discussion is offered concerning OPD values used to correlate chronological age to biological age estimations.

Tracking of Infectious Diseases in Shahr-i Sokhta (Burnt City) during the Bronze Age (ca. 3200-2200 BCE) through Anemic Signs Observed in Excavated Human Skeletons

Background: The intriguing area of paleopathology merges the disciplines of archeology and biological studies. Using this line of research, it is possible to identify diseases that have left skeletal traces in the past. In addition, diseases such as various anemia that occur in childhood, when bone tissue is soft and retains evidence, can be identified in ancient bones. Cribra orbitalia (Co), cribra cranii (Cc), and porotic hyperostosis (Ph) were ancient skeletal remains' most common degenerative anomalies. Methods: Shahr-i Sokhta dated back to 3200-1800 BCE, is the subject of our research; it is located in Sistan and Baluchistan province (Iran). The research was done on the archaeological data collected during the MAIPS expeditions at Shahr-i Sokhta (2017–2021) kept at the storage of the excavated materials on the site. The skeletal remains were examined for bone abnormalities such as Co, Cc, and Ph. These symptoms were analyzed to obtain traces of anemia-related diseases at this site. Data has been utilized following the Data Collection Codebook Results: Ninety-six adults were studied while the anemic signs of CC and Co are respectively seen in 27/72 (37.5 %) and 10/57 (17; 5 %), and these samples have been kept for future analysis. Conclusion: Bones may narrate a person's life, their gender and how old they were when they died besides the diseases they had. Some of the skeletons show signs of anemia, Classical paleopathology lets us to reconfirm studying diseases by further targeted sampling using molecular methods.

Between cities and villages: the livestock economy in historical Palestine

This study aims at establishing a historically based model of animal husbandry in urban and rural settlements, in the Southern Levant. This type of model is required in the field of zooarchaeology, to better analyze and study ancient faunal remains. It also applies a non-traditional method to study and differentiate between urban and rural economies. For this aim, we used British Mandate tax files and village statistics. These are the best available historical documents for this period, that recorded herds management statistics in all settlements of Palestine. We selected only settlements inhabited by the indigenous population and divided the data into four environmental regions. We analyzed the livestock abundance and herd demography in each region. Each urban center was considered independently, while the rural villages were classified into three groups, based on the most common livestock (cattle, sheep, or goats). Results show economic variations between urban and rural settlements as well as regional trends, such as in pastoralism and agricultural management. In addition, meat industries were common in most urban centers, being the primary difference from rural economies. We applied this model to two large zooarchaeological case studies, dating from the Early Islamic to the Ottoman period; Mount Zion, located in the urban city of Jerusalem, and Tel Beth Shemesh (East), whose size and nature were not historically recorded. We found that the economic variations reflected in the model were also present in the faunal assemblages.

Ancient DNA speaks

Many human DNA sequences have been obtained from ancient remains dating back from several millennia. However, these have low coverage and may contain many errors; this has limited their usefulness for many analyses, in particular the search for Identical By Descent (IBD) segments that is very powerful for detection of kinship. A new method, using imputation from database data and sophisticated statistical analysis, proves able to detect IBD segments (and thus parenthood) in low-quality DNA sequences from individuals linked only by sixth degree parenthood, opening a whole new field of investigation using ancient DNA.

Seismo-Stratigraphic Data of Wave-Cut Marine Terraces in the Licosa Promontory (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy)

Some seismo-stratigraphic evidence on the occurrence of wave-cut marine terraces in the Licosa promontory (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) based on Sub-bottom Chirp seismic sections is herein presented. Such evidence is provided by marine terraced surfaces situated at various water depths below sea level and etched into the rocky acoustic basement, which are extensively extending in the seaward extension of the Licosa promontory. It is possible that the isotopic stratigraphy and the terraced marine surfaces are connected, so they can be attributed and dated indirectly. The geologic study of seismic profiles has pointed to the prominence of the acoustic basement, extending to the seabed close to the coast and subsiding seawards under the Quaternary marine succession. Ancient remains of marine terraces, found at a range of water depths between 5 m and 50 m, have documented the major morphological changes of the acoustic basement during the Late Quaternary.

Assessing autosomal aneuploidy in ancient genomes

Using genetic methods, aneuploidies can be detected in ancient human remains, which is so far the only way to reliably prove their existence in the past. As highlighted in recent studies by Rohrlach et al. and by Anastasiadou et al., this initial step enables a deeper exploration of the history of rare diseases, encompassing the social and historical contexts of the afflicted individuals.

Passive Haptics and Conversational Avatars for Interacting with Ancient Egypt Remains in High-Fidelity Virtual Reality Experiences

As extended reality continues to grow, new possibilities arise to provide users with novel ways to experience cultural heritage (CH). In particular, applications based on virtual reality (VR), such as virtual museums, have gained increasing popularity, since they can offer new ways for preserving and presenting CH content that are not feasible in physical museums. Despite the numerous benefits, the level of immersion and presence provided by VR experiences still present challenges that could hinder the effectiveness of this technology in the CH context. In this perspective, it is crucial to provide the users with high-fidelity experiences, in which also the interaction with the objects and the characters populating virtual environments are realistic and natural. This article focuses on this challenge and specifically investigates how the combined use of tangible and speech interfaces can help improve the overall experience. To this aim, a immersive VR experience is proposed, which allows the users to manipulate virtual objects belonging to a museum collection (in the specific case, Ancient Egypt remains) by physically operating on 3D printed replicas and to talk with a curator’s avatar to get explanations by using their voice. A user study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the considered interfaces on immersion, presence, user experience, usability, and intention to visit, comparing the richest configuration against simpler setups obtained by either removing the tangible interface, the speech interface, or both (and using only handheld controllers). The results show that the combined use of the two interfaces can effectively contribute at making the CH experience in VR more engaging.

تأثير النظام الغذائي والعادات الغذائية على فكي الإنسان قديماً وحديثاً في السودان

Background: The masticatory units are highly affected by diet and dietary habits which are reflected on the jaw size and occlusion. There are morphological differences between the modern population and ancient, like jaws of modern population are smaller, .and project less than those of equivalent sized ancient. Aim: To determine the effect of diet and dietary habits on jaws size (width and length) in both modern and ancient. Method: Across sectional study was done in Khartoum state, comparing ancient from Marawi (albejrawya) and modern population in Khartoum state. 44 samples, 22 jaws of ancient and 22 modern populations participate. The 22 ancient remains were examined and measured directly, while the 22 modern participants filled the diet and dietary questioner then examined orally and the findings recorded on the examination sheet. The jaws measurements for living were done on radiological (OPG&CBCT). Statistical analyses of the data set included univariate analysis to show the relative frequency distribution of each variable on the dental examination sheet. Results: According to the result of overall the median of ancient jaw size maxilla vertical length was 2cm and modern population was1.4cm. The median length of mandible in ancient was 14.1cm and modern population was 13.2cm. The width was 5.2cm in ancient mandible and 4.5cm in modern population mandible. The median width of maxilla ancient was 5.6cm and modern population was 5.3cm.

Crocodile Rock! A Bioarchaeological Study of Ancient Egyptian Reptile Remains from the National Museum of Lithuania

Remnants of what was believed to be a single baby crocodile, originating from ancient Egypt and curated in the National Museum of Lithuania, have been recently assessed using noninvasive and nondestructive techniques. These had been donated in 1862 to the then Museum of Antiquities by the prominent Polish-Lithuanian collector Count Michał Tyszkiewicz. After careful investigation of the three mummified reptile fragments available, the authors were able to identify at least two individuals based on morpho-anatomical characteristics. This indicates that the two small crocodiles originally described in historic records are still present within the collection and that none of these items was lost during the different lootings perpetrated throughout the museum’s history. Information regarding the post-mortem treatment of these animals was also obtained. This is the first scientific study of animal mummies in the Baltic States, and it should be followed by proper conservation and display of these findings.