Global Origins
The Chinese identity of St Mark's bronze 'Lion' and its place in the history of medieval Venice
Gilberto Artioli et al.
Antiquity, forthcoming
Abstract:
There are no known written records pertaining to the origins of the enigmatic bronze 'Lion' that stands atop one of the two large columns of the Piazzetta in St Mark's Square, Venice (Italy). Representing the Venetian Winged Lion, a powerful symbol of statehood, the sculpture was installed during a time of political uncertainty in medieval Mediterranean Europe, yet its features do not reflect local artistic conventions. Here, the authors argue that stylistic parallels are found in Tang Dynasty China (AD 618-907); employing lead isotope analysis, they further show that the figure was cast with copper isotopically consistent with ore from the Lower Yangzi River basin.
Earliest evidence of smoke-dried mummification: More than 10,000 years ago in southern China and Southeast Asia
Hsiao-chun Hung et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 23 September 2025
Abstract
In southern China and Southeast Asia (collectively, Southeastern Asia), Terminal Pleistocene and Early to Middle Holocene (ca. 12,000 to 4,000 cal. BP) hunter-gatherer burials feature tightly crouched or squatting postures, sometimes with indications of post-mortem dismemberment. Such burials contrast strongly with the extended supine burial postures typical of subsequent Neolithic inhumations in these regions. Their contorted postures, often with traces of burning, present interpretive challenges. This study uses multiple techniques, including X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, to investigate 54 pre-Neolithic burials from 11 archaeological sites located across Southeastern Asia. The findings confirm that many of these pre-Neolithic flexed and squatting burials were treated by an extended period of smoke-drying over fire, a process of mummification similar to that recorded ethnographically in some Australian and Highland New Guinea societies. Some of the analyzed archaeological samples represent the oldest known instances of such artificial mummification in the world.
Local Responses to a Fourteenth-Century AD Immigration Event on the Georgia Coast
Brandon Ritchison
American Antiquity, forthcoming
Abstract:
By the end of the fourteenth-century AD, Native peoples throughout the midwestern and southeastern regions of North America had withdrawn from major monumental and political centers established in prior centuries. In this article, I present the results of a community-level examination of settlement transformations on the Georgia Coast that I argue are the outcome of this large-scale movement of Mississippian peoples. Specifically, I examine the consequences of the depopulation of the Savannah River Valley, a case of a rapid, historically contingent Mississippian emigration beginning in the fourteenth century AD. My results establish how a large-scale immigration event affected community spatial and political organization and demonstrate that migrants and coastal locals engaged in the collective cultural construction of new identities and lifeways in response to the challenges of negotiating the use of common pool resources, such as fisheries and suitable farmland. Reconstructing the spatial organization of communities can help explain the demographic, economic, and political processes that undergird the cultural materialization of space. Although much remains to be learned about intra-settlement organization at post-Archaic, precolonial sites along the Georgia Coast, this investigation provides new information about the local, community-level spatial response to the fourteenth-century immigration event.
A spectacle of the Roman amphitheatre at Viminacium: Multiproxy analysis of a brown bear skull
Nemanja Marković et al.
Antiquity, forthcoming
Abstract:
Roman amphitheatres were centres of public entertainment, hosting various spectacles that often included wild animals. Excavation of a building near the Viminacium amphitheatre in Serbia in 2016 uncovered the fragmentary cranium of a bear. Multistranded analysis, presented here, reveals that the six-year-old male brown bear (Ursus arctos) suffered an impact fracture to the frontal bone, the healing of which was impaired by a secondary infection. Excessive wear to the canine teeth further indicates cage chewing and thus a prolonged period of captivity that makes it likely this bear participated in more than one spectacle at the Viminacium amphitheatre.
A haplotype-based evolutionary history of barley domestication
Yu Guo et al.
Nature, forthcoming
Abstract:
Barley is one of the oldest cultivated crops, with a complex evolutionary and domestication history. Previous studies have rejected the idea of a single origin and instead support a model of mosaic genomic ancestry. With increasingly comprehensive genome data, we now ask where the haplotypes — the building blocks of this mosaic -- originate, and whether all domesticated barleys share the same wild progenitors or whether certain wild populations contribute more heavily to specific lineages. To address these questions, we apply a haplotype-based approach to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of wild and domesticated barley. We analyse whole-genome sequences from 682 genebank accessions and 23 archaeological specimens, tracing the spatiotemporal origins of haplotypes and identifying wild contributors during domestication and later gene flow events. Ancient DNA supports our genome-wide findings from modern samples. Our results suggest that a founding domesticated population emerged in the Fertile Crescent during a prolonged period of pre-domestication cultivation. A key practical insight is that the high haplotype differentiation among barley populations — arising independently, or layered on top, of selection — poses challenges for mapping adaptive loci.
The chronology of the Early Neolithic Baraba culture, southwestern Siberia: New radiocarbon evidence
Vyacheslav Molodin et al.
Radiocarbon, August 2025, Pages 803-818
Abstract:
During the last decade, early Neolithic sites with unique flat-bottomed pottery as distinguishing feature were discovered in the southern part of Western Siberia at the Baraba forest-steppe and identified as the Early Neolithic Baraba Culture (briefly, Baraba culture). The culture is represented in settlements and ritual complexes, has households, as well as implements made of stone and bone. Samples of mammal bones, bird bones and bone artifacts were collected from three sites of the Baraba Culture: Vengerovo-2, Tartas-1, and Ust-Tartas mounds, and dated by accelerator mass-spectrometry (AMS) to reconstruct the chronology of the sites. 36 reliable radiocarbon dates were obtained: 12 of them at the Curt-Engelhorn-Centre of Archaeometry (Mannheim, Germany) and 24 at the AMS Golden Valley (Novosibirsk, Russia). Minimal-to-no differences between radiocarbon dates assessed at GV and MAMS facilities were identified by Bayesian analysis of covariance/analysis of variance. Bayesian chronological modeling supports existence of the Baraba culture between the middle of 8th millennium BC till the start of 6th millennium BC. Two stages of sites' use were identified, separated by the transitory period of uncertain duration lasting since the end of 7th millennium. The end of the first stage was followed by abandonment of the Tartas-1 site, which we suggest coincided with the start of the 8.2k climatic event.