Inlay

Antiquity is a bimonthly review of world archaeology edited by Professor Robin Skeates. Please be aware that we sometimes share relevant images of human remains. https://antiquity.ac.uk/

📰 Our ancient relationship with pigeons rivals the importance of dogs, cats, horses, cattle and chickens. New research sheds light on the importance of this unique human-animal interaction. #AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/the-pigeon-f...

This paper is well worth reading, the caveats around the conclusion nuance the claim as a good paper should, more research is needed, while egalitarian equality is not proved enough evidence is shown to suggest a simple narrative that agriculture and settlement produces inequality is not either.

European missionaries taught their construction techniques to Polynesian converts. This had a significant impact on coral architecture, which was used to build everything from churches and schools to a palace for the chief of the Mangareva Islands 2/2 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

#OnThisDay in AD 1770, Captain Cook ran aground on the coral of the Great Barrier Reef, becoming the first European to discover it. In the following decades, European powers spread across the Pacific, where the people had long been using coral as a construction material 1/2 🏺 #Archaeology

In Yorubaland, Orù (pitchers) are used for preparing medicinal herbs #NationalHerbsandSpicesDay Burnt residues found in this Orù from c. AD 1456–1661 Nigeria suggest herbs were burnt, indicating specialised knowledge in the treatment of ailments. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

Wooden remains of a later prehistoric trackway at Lisheen, Ireland, damaged during industrial peat extraction. Peatlands preserve organic archaeological remains but face many threats. We need to act now to save this fragile heritage. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

This @antiquity.ac.uk blog and #openaccess article revisit the death jar - a forgotten mortuary tradition in Laos - offering new perspectives on ritual practice. 🔗 https://cup.org/3Rv8G4P #archaeology

Despite a long and dynamic history of coexistence with humans, the prehistory and domestication of the common pigeon (Columba livia) are not well understood. Here, the authors re-examine a large assemblage of avian bones excavated from Late Bronze Age contexts at Hala Sultan Tekke on Cyprus, aiming to contextualise the presence of pigeons within the settlement and their relationship with contemporaneous humans. The results of zooarchaeological and stable isotope analyses, they argue, suggest that these birds may have been semi-domesticated and may have held a symbolic/ritualistic role that challenges their common perception as mere urban dwellers.

This is a stunning find. Marks inside an Iron Age skull that was entombed in a cairn in Scotland suggest that someone removed the dead woman's brain after she died. 🧪 #archaeology #history www.newscientist.com/article/2529...

New research at Mohenjo-Daro, a major Indus Valley city, found inequality fell as it developed, linking reduced inequality to collective governance. Could current governments learn from this to reduce inequality today? #WednesdayWisdom 🏺 #Archaeology 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Scrape marks inside a skull and sharpened limb bones in a set of remains found in Scotland may be evidence of unusual Iron Age funerary rituals