Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew.  Stay tuned to hear our latest batch of four top news stories from this past week of Archaeologica.  Send us feedback on The Archaeology Channel Facebook page or post a message on our social networking site, ArchaeoSeek!

A Pleistocene site in Spain marks the earliest known European occurrence of pre-planned stone tool production.  Some dams recently found around Liangzhu in China are further evidence of advanced state-level civilization there 5000 years ago.  Some ancient canals in Belize surprisingly date to pre-Maya hunter-gatherer time..  And fossil footprints in Kenya for the first time show different species of early human ancestors living simultaneously in the same place.

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And now, here’s Laura Kennedy with the Audio News from Archaeologica!  We hope you find this to be a valuable part of your day!

Welcome to the Audio News from Archaeologica!  I’m Laura Kennedy, and these are the headlines in archaeological and historical news for the week of November 24th through the 30th, 2024.

We begin this week in Catalonia, where an analysis of lithic tools from the Barranc de la Boella—the oldest European Acheulean site and one of the first Pleistocene-era butchering sites on the continent—is illuminating a technological milestone in human evolution.

As reported by Heritage Daily, the research team comprised archaeologists from the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Catalan Institute for Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution.  Their study, published in the Journal of Palaeolithic Archaeology, centers on lithics created by early hominins between 900,000 and 780,000 years ago.

Three-D models of each tool were used to analyze their dimensions, shape and material.  The researchers found consistent metrics indicating that these lithics were intentionally created, with raw materials chosen based on the tool’s intended size and purpose.

These Acheulean, or Mode 2, tools demonstrate sophisticated foresight and planning, marking a significant advancement from earlier Oldowan or Mode 1 tools.  Those earlier tools are not fashioned into a predetermined shape, but rather are stones with a few flakes removed to make a sharp edge.

However, the evidence of the progression from Mode 1 to Mode 2 methods is not linear.  It most likely took place first in Africa.

According to study lead author Diego Lombao, although the Barranc de la Boella was one of the first European sites where these manufacturing advancements occurred, they likely were not an isolated development.  Similar findings at other sites, including Ubeidiya in the Levant, show that migration and cultural exchange with communities in Africa and the Near East influenced this progress.

Next, we travel to eastern China, where researchers have unearthed several millennia-old dams that were part of a larger water conservancy system.

As reported by Arkeonews, excavators were working among the Liangzhu ruins.  The site in the Yangtze River Basin was home to an urban civilization centered around rice cultivation from about 3,300 to 2,300 BC.  The property is divided into four main areas: the Yaoshan Site area, the High-Dam area at the mouth of the valley, the Low-Dam area across the plain, and the City Site area.  Archaeologists have previously found evidence of urban planning and water systems, defined burials and earthen monuments at the site. 

Archaeologists from previous studies have found the earliest large-scale water conservancy system in China northwest of the ancient city of Liangzhu.

According to Chen Guangsheng, director of the Culture, Radio, Television, and Tourism Department of Zhejiang[Province, archaeologists had confirmed 11 dams among the ruins during previous studies.  The recent identification of these twenty additional dams has now revealed the entire water system layout.

The research team used remote sensing, geographic information systems and artificial intelligence as they worked to locate the dams.  Seven out of twenty dams they identified dated to 5,000 years ago.

The construction of a water conservancy system was a key step in Liangzhu’s social and structural progression from scattered settlements to a unified, walled city.

According to Liu Zheng, a member of the China Cultural Relics Academy, Liangzhu’s dams were a key indicator of this civilization’s advanced development.  This was an ambitious engineering project that only an early, state-level society could have taken on.

We go now to the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Belize, where archaeologists have outlined a system of ponds and zig-zagging canals designed to trap fish 4,000 years ago.  Researchers published a study in Science Advances indicating that this network could have caught enough seafood to feed 15,000 people.

As reported by Smithsonian Magazine, the network covers nearly 16 square miles.  Hunter-gatherers built this earliest-known system of its kind to sustain their community during a major drought.

The research team began to investigate the ancient fisheries in 2017.  By examining the area with drones and Google Earth models, they found nearly 60 ponds and 167 excavated trenches.  A drought struck a couple of years later, allowing them to excavate canals that would have otherwise remained waterlogged.

They sent samples of sediment to be analyzed.  Radiocarbon dating revealed an unexpected finding: the network was built between 2200 and 1900 BC, before the beginnings of Maya civilization. 

According to Eleanor Harrison-Buck, study co-author and anthropologist at the University of New Hampshire, the prospect that hunter-gatherers might have undertaken such a massive, collective construction effort was a surprise. This was the first time anything on such a scale had ever been documented in Central America. 

Their Maya descendants would use the system themselves a thousand years later, likely returning to the site for annual harvests and gatherings.  According to Mariela Brouwer, study co-author and anthropologist at the University of Vermont, the fishery's bounty of seafood and similar structural investments in the local landscape may have contributed to the development of the Maya’s complex civilization.

Although the canals and ponds are now filled with sediment, they still work as their builders designed: concentrating fish within their banks during the dry season.

Finally, we arrive in northern Kenya, where archaeologists have identified fossil footprints that indicate two species of early human ancestors were walking along the shore of a lake at the same time.  

As reported by Cosmos Magazine, both sets of footprints in the Turkana Basin were made 1.5 million years ago.  Based on their age and shape, they were likely left by hominins Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei.  

According to their study published in the journal Science, researchers found that the footprints from a single Paranthropus boisei individual and multiple Homo erectus made within hours or days of one another occurred alongside dozens of tracks left by birds and other mammals. To excavate and document these tracks, the researchers utilized stratigraphic analysis, photogrammetry and 3D modeling. They also conducted comparative analyses with modern human and chimpanzee footprints.  They employed techniques like volumetric arch measurements and abduction angle calculations to thoroughly assess the morphology and biomechanics of these ancient tracks.

Notable early human fossils, including the remains of a 1.6 million-year-old nicknamed “Turkana Boy,” and the oldest known stone tools, which are 3.3 million years old, have been previously identified at Lake Turkana.

These footprints are the first evidence of two different bipedal patterns left on the same surface during the Pleistocene epoch, from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago.  They indicate that, at this point in human evolution, several species of early human ancestors lived in the same part of Africa where our lineage emerged.

While the specifics of their interactions cannot be drawn through skeletal fossil records alone, the researchers posit that near-lake habitats were important for both species.  Their coexistence, competition and niche partitioning—to whatever degree they occurred—would have played a role in driving human evolution forward. 

That wraps up the news for this week!

For more stories and daily news updates, visit Archaeologica on the World Wide Web at www.archaeologica.org where all the news is history! Also, be sure to check out our growing subscription platform, Heritage Broadcasting Service, at heritagetac.org!

I’m Laura Kennedy and I’ll see you next week!