#anthropology

Origin of 30,000-Year-Old Venus of Willendorf Determined to be Northern ItalyOne of the many displays in the Natural History Museum in Vienna is this tiny Venus figurine estimated to have been sculpted about 30,000 years ago. One interesting feature of this ancient artifact is it is made of a rock called "oolite," which is a material not native to Willendorf. Where did this figurine originate?With the help of high-resolution tomographic images, a team of an anthropologist and two geologists have found out a possible place of origin of the Venus of Willendorf — northern Italy. For the past century, the figurine was only examined from the outside. This was the first examination of its interior.So how did the researchers determine where the figurine possibly originated? The answer is through rock samples, which were collected from different countries. The said samples were sawn up and examined under the microscope. After a time-consuming analysis, the statistics pointed out northern Italy as the likeliest place of origin of the ancient Venus sculpture.(Image Credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/ Wikimedia Commons)#Anthropology #Geology #VenusFigurine #VenusofWillendorf

This Ant Study Could Have Found A Clue To Why Human Brains Decreased in Size 3,000 Years AgoWhy are our brains smaller than our Pleistocene ancestors? Anthropologists have been scratching their heads about this phenomenon for years now, says Dr. Jeremy DeSilva. It is said that throughout evolution, the human brain dramatically increased in size. However, 3,000 years ago, something unexpected happened. The human suddenly shrank. A biological anthropologist, a behavioral ecologist, and an evolutionary neurobiologist decided to put their heads together to try and solve this mystery, and they just might have found a clue to this phenomenon. And they found this clue on the humble little ant. By studying models and patterns of worker ant brain size, structure, and energy use in some ant clades, the authors posit that the human brains decreased in size to conserve energy. Our increased reliance on collective intelligence and group decision-making through time may also be one of the reasons why our brains got smaller. Learn more about this study over at Frontiers Science News. (Image Credit: Pjt56/ Wikimedia Commons) #Anthropology #Ants #Evolution

Love after Death: Two Skeletons Found Hugging One Another in an Ancient Tomb in ChinaArchaeologists discovered a double burial in an ancient cemetery unearthed at a construction site in Datong, Shanxi Province, China. During an excavation held in 2020, they discovered two skeletons hugging each other at a grave site - one of the skeletons even wore a silver ring.The skeletons were identified as a man and a woman in an eternal embrace. “This discovery is a unique display of human emotion of love in a burial, offering a rare glimpse people's views towards love, life, death, and afterlife in northern China during a time of intense cultural and ethnic exchange,” said Quanchao Zhang of the Institute of Anthropology at Xiamen University in a study detailing the findings.The researchers noted that the couple likely lived during the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534) which was a politically turbulent time. The discovery is a remarkable display that love can surpass many troubles, and perhaps, even death.Image: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology#archaeology #anthropology #loverstomb #skeleton #burial #doubleburial #love #humanemotion #China #NortherWeiDynasty

Is This Ancient Numerical Notation?The ancient origin of numbers is a subject not much explored by scientists. Evolutionary biologist Russell Gray remarks that the subject is “still a relatively vacant niche in scientific research.” But in 2018, Francesco d’Errico, an archaeologist at the University of Bordeaux, France, published a paper in which he hypothesizes that numerical notation may have began as early as 60,000 years ago, at the time of the Neanderthals. His idea was based on this hyena bone that has nine approximately parallel notches. His paper might have sparked interest among the scientific world. Today, scientists look for answers about the origin of numbers from different perspectives.Cognitive scientists, anthropologists and psychologists are looking at contemporary cultures to understand differences among existing number systems — defined as the symbols that a society uses for counting and manipulating numbers. Their hope is that clues buried in modern systems might illuminate details of their origins. Meanwhile, archaeologists have begun looking for evidence of ancient numerical notations, and evolutionary biologists with an interest in language are exploring the deep origins of number words. These studies have spurred researchers to formulate some of the first detailed hypotheses for the prehistoric development of number systems.Learn more about this intriguing study over at Nature.(Image Credit: F. d’Errico via Nature)#Neanderthal #Archaeology #Mathematics #OriginOfNumbers #Anthropology #CognitiveScience #EvolutionaryBiology