Archive for the 'Anthropology' Category

Shhh… Science in action

Published
by
Dirk
on August 27, 2010
in Anthropology
. 0 Comments

This story starts in Italy and will then take us to the Tarim Basin in Northwestern China. It features a well-known mummy (Oetzi) and one of the best preserved mummies in the world (The Beauty of Xiaohe). It contains data from in-depth DNA analysis performed on one mummy and holds the promise of similar date generated in the near future on another set of mummies. Fasten your seatbelts, here we go.

During the month of August 2010, several stories hit the wire that the DNA of Oetzi, the famous Iceman mummy had been sequenced. The Iceman was discovered emerging from a glacier on the border between Austria and Italy. His mitochondrial DNA is now the oldest complete H. sapiens mtDNA genome generated to date.

This is where we segue to the Tarim Basin mummies, discovered thousands of miles away from the Alps. As it turns out, Oetzi’s find spot was very close to Alpine pastures where Dr. Victor Mair’s family once took their animals to graze, and that brings us to the Tarim Basin Mummies, a long term focus of Dr. Mair’s research.

A gratuitous link between these two areas, you say? Not necessarily, if one considers what has just been announced in Italy and the potential of what could happen with the mummies in China. Moreover, one of the reasons Dr. Mair got to be so interested in ancient human remains was the discovery of Oetzi in 1991. This occurred a few years after he had seen the Tarim Basin mummies on display in a museum in Urumqi.

 The Beauty of Xiaohe. Courtesy of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Museum in Urumqi.

Oetzi lived about 5000 years ago; while the Beauty of Xiaohe lived about 1,000 years later, around 2000 BC.  In both cases, DNA research has been carried out on these early human remains. It seems that the Beauty of Xiaohe and her kinfolk had very close links with areas to the west of the Pamir Mountains. (In a previous blog, the Pamirs are mentioned as part of the geography of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region).  Specifically, “Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed that the Xiaohe people carried both the East Eurasian haplogroup (C) and the West Eurasian haplogroups (H and K), whereas chromosomal DNA analysis revealed only the West Eurasian haplogroup R1a1a in the male individuals.”

Oetzi is of European origin; the Tarim Basin Mummies are often referred to as Eurasian, and Caucasian, without much further information about where they may have originated from, other than “west of the Pamir mountains.” This is where the reference made above, to the potential of future research comes in. The techniques exist to investigate the Tarim Basin mummies in much greater detail. The research has not happened yet.

In addition, there are ways to establish where individuals were born and raised, one of the most famous examples being the remains of an archer found close to Stonehenge. Tests showed that he originated in the Alps, probably Switzerland, Austria or Germany. He somehow made his way into what is now the United Kingdom, where he was buried. A similar scientific approach could be applied to the Xiaohe remains. I am sure that one day this will happen.

Currently the Beauty of Xiaohe is receiving visitors at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Oetzi, on the other hand, remains safely ensconced in his refrigerated display unit in Bolzano, Italy. No word yet if he is interested in coming over to visit his long lost relative.

Don’t miss Secrets of the Silk Road, open now at HMNS. See strikingly well-preserved mummies, tall in stature and fair in complexion, that have lain in the parched Tarim Basin of western China for 3,800 years along with 150 objects drawn from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum and the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology in Urumqi.
 

del.icio.us this | digg this | Stumble It!      Email This Post Email This Post

Secrets of the Silk Road – Revealed! [Online Chat]

Published
by
Erin F
on August 14, 2010
in Anthropology
. 6 Comments

The Silk Road, a series of trade routes extending thousands of miles through which people, ideas and goods moved East to West, crossed high mountain ranges and extensive deserts. Its very existence is a testimony to mankind’s never-ending desire to explore.

“The mummies on display in the Silk Road exhibit underscore the great antiquity of these migrations,” said Dirk, our curator of anthropology. “This is what makes this exhibit so interesting.”

Well, that and the 150 stunning, ancient artifacts discovered along this famed passage – including some of the most astonishingly well-preserved human remains ever discovered. Even at 3,800 years old, “The Beauty of Xiaohe” continues to turn heads (see below). Over 100 mummies like her were discovered in China’s Tarim Basin, wearing Western-influenced textiles and possessing surprising technologies and customs. Not only is the identity of these extraordinary people a mystery – but they prove that there was trade in both goods and genes in this region almost 2,000 years before the passage was previously thought to have been in use.

The Beauty of Xiaohe, stunningly well-preserved at 3,800 years old.

So…got questions? I know I do! The Museum is hosting an Online Chat with our curator of anthropology, Dirk Van Tuerenhout, on Tuesday, August 24 at 7 p.m. You can ask questions and get a preview of this astonishing exhibition.

Silk Road Online Chat!
Tuesday, Aug. 24 at 7 pm
Register

Can’t wait? Post your questions in the comments section below! Dirk will address all questions during the event and in a q&a post following it. 

del.icio.us this | digg this | Stumble It!      Email This Post Email This Post

Secrets of the Silk Road: The Tarim Basin

Published
by
Dirk
on August 12, 2010
in Anthropology
. 1 Comment

As we prepare to host an exciting exhibit on Western China, one of the main attractions will be two mummies found in the Taklimakan desert. I anticipate that a lot of attention will be showered on the Beauty of Xiaohe and on a child mummy. In this blog I would like to talk about the Tarim Basin and the Taklimakan Desert, backdrop to the mummies and the artifacts in the exhibit.

Now, imagine a place far, far away….

Creative Commons License photo credit:Kmusser
 Map of the Tarim Basin in Western China

The Tarim Basin is located in China’s far western the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and measures 400,000 km2 (150,000 sq mi). This makes it similar in size to Germany and Switzerland combined or 57 % of the size of Texas.

Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region.
Creative Commons License photocredit:Pravit

Geography buffs will know that it borders on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India and China-administered Tibet. It is home to the world’s third lowest point below sea level, with Lake Assal in the Afar Depression making up the second lowest) and the Dead Sea being the lowest point on Earth.

The Talkimakan (or Taklamakan) desert makes the area one of the driest in the world as well, with an annual rainfall of 0.5 inch. The Taklimakan has an arid continental climate with long cold winters and short hot summers. This is the result of its location in the interior of Asia and near enclosure of the basin by some of the highest snow-covered mountains on Earth.  The satellite image below illustrates this point well.

Among these mountain ranges we find (starting in the south and moving clockwise on the first map shown in this blog): the Kunlun Shan, the Pamir and Tien Shan Mountains. The Kunlun Shan mountain range counts four mountains higher than 7,000 m, the Pamir range counts two such mountains and the Tian Shan mountains has one. In comparison, the tallest mountain in the Rocky Mountains is Mount Elbert, at 4402 m above sea level. The tallest mountain in the US, Mount McKinley, is 6193 meters high.

The basin gets its name from the Tarim River, the longest inland river in China and the second largest inland river in the world (second only to the Volga River). Fed by the melting snows from the mountains, the river never reaches any ocean, instead disgorging its waters in the Taklimakan Desert itself . About a century ago, the river reached as far as Lop Nor, now a dry lake and home to the Lop Nor salt works.

Given the remoteness of this area, Lop Nor also served as China’s nuclear weapons testing grounds. Our upcoming exhibit, Secrets of the Silk Road pre-dates the nuclear age by several millennia. In a next installment, we will tackle the topic of the Silk Road, starting with “what does Silk Road mean?”

del.icio.us this | digg this | Stumble It!      Email This Post Email This Post

Can you spell g-a-u-t-e-n-g-e-n-s-i-s?

Published
by
Dirk
on May 28, 2010
in Anthropology
. 0 Comments

It seems like barely a few weeks have gone by since the last public announcement about the discovery and identification of a new fossil human ancestor and here we are again, looking at a new face in the family line up.

Meet Homo gautengensis.

Recently we were “warned” that the discovery of several proto humans were about to hit the headlines. The first of these is now getting the limelight; a new member to the genus Homo no less.

Homo gautengensis lived in what is now South Africa. Gauteng refers to a province in that country, and a term in the local Sesotho language meaning ‘place of gold.’

 Photo courtesy of Darren Curnoe

The preliminary information available through public channels at the time of writing indicate that this new species of hominid, which  measured about three feet tall and weighed around 110 pounds, was capable of walking upright as well as moving around in the trees. They lived from about 2 million years ago to 600,000 years ago. According to the researchers involved in this discovery, Homo gautengensis predated Homo habilis, officially still listed as the oldest known tool making and using human. As you will see below, there are other researchers who claim that Homo habilis had a much greater time depth. This headline grabbing statement will, no doubt, generate an interesting discussion.

This may now change as more context information becomes available. According to Dr. Darren Curnoe thinks it is highly likely that these hominids ‘produced and used stone tools and may even have made fire.” The presence of burnt bones found in association with the human remains points to this alleged use and mastery of fire.

More information will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal HOMO – Journal of Comparative Human Biology. Until then, this seems to be the extent of what the general public knows. What is certainly interesting to note here is that, while the announcement is to be made soon, the skull fragments were found in 1976 in the famous Sterkfontein caves. According to a University of New South Wales publication,

“The surprise finding was based on a partial skull – known by its museum catalogue number Stw 53 – along with two other partial skulls, several jaws, teeth and other bones found at various times at Sterkfontein and other nearby caves.”

This is not the end of the story. As they say in late night commercials: “but wait there is more…”  What is the broader picture here? We all know that when it comes to the study of early human ancestors, hyperbole often abounds in press releases and subsequent newspaper articles. With that in mind, be prepared to read headlines in which the totally incorrect terminology of “missing link” will re-appear. There will also be claims that our understanding of human has been “severely shaken,”  as it was claimed in other cases, again and again. You get the picture.

Homo erectus
Creative Commons License Photo credit Thomas Roche

Aside from all this predictable hoopla, we do have a chronological range (2 million to 600,000 years ago) and a place (Gauteng province, South Africa). Who else was around during that timeframe? As it turns out, quite a few hominids were around during that time span, all members of the genus Homo. Homo rudolfensis lived in East Africa from 1.9 to 1.8 million years ago; Homo habilis lived in Eastern and Southern Africa from 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago; Homo erectus lived in Northern, Eastern and Southern Africa as well as parts of Asia; Homo heidelbergensis lived in Europe, and possibly Asia and Africa from 700,000 to 200,000 years ago.

It looks like the place was crowded. In a way it was, with many more species of hominids present on our planet, mainly Africa, than there are today. In another way, it was not; we should not conjure up images of all these ancient hominids bumping into each other and stepping aside to let the others pass as if it were a busy pedestrian crossing in downtown Tokyo. Chances are that most may not have seen other species, and, if they did, were they aware that these others were different?

The earliest accepted evidence of using and controlling fire dates back to 790,000 years ago, at a site in Israel. If this find is pegged closer to the 2 million years ago mark, this would move the marker of fire use back in time considerably. We are not yet at stage of the game yet to make that call.
I wonder what the next announcement will bring.

Stay tuned.

del.icio.us this | digg this | Stumble It!      Email This Post Email This Post