Archaeology News for March 2022     

Even while the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage around the world scientists have been reexamining the pandemics of the past in their efforts to uncover something useful for their fight against Covid. In these posts I have already mentioned the ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic of 1919-1920 and its similarity to Covid-19.

Even during the ‘Spanish Flu’ pamdemic of a hundred years ago there were people too stupid to put on their masks. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Now a team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History has published a new study in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution of arguably the best known plague of all time, the ‘Black Death’ of the mid 14th century. Caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis the bubonic plague is considered to have been responsible for the death of as much as 50% of the population of Europe between the years 1347 to 1352.

Bring out your dead was no joke during the middle of the 14th century as bubonic plague took the life of as much as half the people in Europe. (Credit: Critical Specator)

Like all of our knowledge of history, what we know about the Black Death comes from those people who kept the records of that time, the literate people who lived in the towns or monasteries. Those records tell us much about the heavy toll the plague took on the people who lived in those communities. Unfortunately those records tell us very little about what was happening to the country people, the peasants, who made up more than 75% of the population in Europe back then.

Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the black death. It may look harmless but ever today in some parts of the world it takes its toll. (Credit: CDC)
Much of our knowledge of the Middle Ages comes from the writings of the few people who could read and write, and most of them were monks in monasteries. (Credit: by Sterling Lynch)

In order to correct for this urban basis in our knowledge of the effect of the Black Death the team from Max Planck used a new archaeological technique called Palynology, which is the study of fossil plant spores and pollen. The rational for the study was this, if the death rate due to the plague among the rural population was a high as it was in the cities and towns, about 50%, then large areas of once cultivated land should have reverted to wilderness in the years after 1352. Such a large scale change in the flora would be reflected in the kind of pollen that was deposited into the ground from that time.

The size shape and ‘spikiness’ of pollen grains varies so greatly that it makes it possible for experts to identify the species of plant that the pollen comes from. (Credit: Wikipedia)
 

The researchers collected pollen samples from over 1,600 sites spread throughout Europe and analyzed them. What they found was that the mortality caused by the plague varied widely from location to location, with some rural areas like those in Germany and Italy being hit just as hard as nearby cities while other localities suffered far less. Ireland, for example showed hardly any change at all.

Rational behind the pollen study to the mortality caused by the black death. Areas of Europe that had high mortality would see a change in the variety of vegetation, and hence fossil pollen, while areas that were unaffected would see little change in the pollen. (Credit: The Conversation)

These results correlate well with what epidemiologists are seeing today. Covid-19 may be a worldwide pandemic but how it effects each and every human being depends very much on local conditions where they live.

While Covid-19 has spread worldwide its effects haven’t been equally as deadly everywhere. Some nations have been badly hit while others only slightly. (Credit: ResearchGate)

On a lighter note another team of archaeologists with the Max Plank Institute for the Science of Human History have unearthed an Old Stone Age site not 160 kilometers from present day Beijing in China. The site, which is in the Nihewan Basin to the northwest of the Chinese capital and has been given the name Xiamabei, was carbon dated to between 39,000 and 41,000 years ago and consists of a layer of remains that had been buried about 2.5 meters beneath the surface. During their excavations the archaeologists found and removed 380 small stone tools and artifacts along with 430 mammal bones.

The site was also identifiable by several artifacts that had been stained red by the mineral ochre, which is known to have been used by many primitive cultures as a dye because of its resemblance to the colour of blood. The Xiamabei site is the oldest ochre culture site to have been found in the Far East but the pigment is known to have been used in Europe and Africa as long ago as 300,000 years.

Archaeologists excavating the Nihewan Old Stone Age site west of Beijing. (Credit: SciTechDaily)
 
The use of red Ochre as a pigment has been attested in many Stone Age cultures throughout the Old World. (Credit: ResearchGate)

 According to co-author Shixia Yang, a scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, “The remains seemed to be in their original spots after the site was abandoned by the residents. Based on this, we can reveal a vivid picture of how people lived 40,000 years ago in eastern Asia.”

The use of red Ochre as a pigment has been attested in many Stone Age cultures throughout the Old World. (Credit: ResearchGate)
 

One big question left unanswered by the investigation so far is exactly what kind of human beings lived at the Xiamabei local. 40,000 years ago the residents could have been modern Homo sapiens but they could also have been either Neanderthals or Denisovans, the lack of any human bones makes it impossible to be certain. However a slightly younger, nearby location called Tianyuandong, lying about 110 kilometers away, has had remains of H sapiens identified there so the likelihood is that the Xiamabei site was made by our direct ancestors.

What’s the difference between Neanderthals and Modern Humans, not really all that much! (Credit: Quora)

Just another couple of stories about the science of archaeology uncovering small bits of our past.