Earliest isotopic evidence in the Maya region for animal management and long-distance trade at the site of Ceibal, Guatemala
Authors:
Sharpe et al
Abstract:
This study uses a multiisotope (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and strontium) approach to examine early animal management in the Maya region. An analysis of faunal specimens across almost 2,000 years (1000 BC to AD 950) at the site of Ceibal, Guatemala, reveals the earliest evidence for live-traded dogs and possible captive-reared taxa in the Americas. These animals may have been procured for ceremonial functions based on their location in the monumental site core, suggesting that animal management and trade began in the Maya area to promote special events, activities that were critical in the development of state society. Isotopic evidence for animal captivity at Ceibal reveals that animal management played a greater role in Maya communities than previously believed.
Japanese archaeologists said Wednesday they have for the first time unearthed ancient Roman coins at the ruins of an old castle.
The discovery of 10 bronze and copper coins -- the oldest dating from about 300-400 AD -- in southern Okinawa caught researchers by surprise.
It was the first time Roman Empire coins have been discovered in Japan, thousands of kilometres from where they were likely minted.
"At first I thought they were one cent coins dropped by US soldiers," archaeologist Hiroki Miyagi told AFP.
Ancient Japan may have been far more cosmopolitan than previously thought, archaeologists said Wednesday, pointing to fresh evidence of a Persian official working in the former capital Nara more than 1,000 years ago.
Present-day Iran and Japan were known to have had direct trade links since at least the 7th century, but new testing on a piece of wood -- first discovered in the 1960s -- suggest broader ties, the researchers said.
Infrared imaging revealed previously unreadable characters on the wood -- a standard writing surface in Japan before paper -- that named a Persian official living in the country.
The official worked at an academy where government officials were trained, said Akihiro Watanabe, a researcher at the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties.
The official may have been teaching mathematics, Watanabe added, pointing to ancient Iran's expertise in the subject.
"Although earlier studies have suggested there were exchanges with Persia as early as the 7th century, this is the first time a person as far away as Persia was known to have worked in Japan (during the period)," he said.
Cook Island artifact geochemistry demonstrates spatial and temporal extent of pre-European interarchipelago voyaging in East Polynesia
Authors:
Weisler et al
Abstract:
The Cook Islands are considered the “gateway” for human colonization of East Polynesia, the final chapter of Oceanic settlement and the last major region occupied on Earth. Indeed, East Polynesia witnessed the culmination of the greatest maritime migration in human history. Perennial debates have critiqued whether Oceanic settlement was purposeful or accidental, the timing and pathways of colonization, and the nature and extent of postcolonization voyaging—essential for small founding groups securing a lifeline between parent and daughter communities. Centering on the well-dated Tangatatau rockshelter, Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands, we charted the temporal duration and geographic spread of exotic stone adze materials—essential woodworking tools found throughout Polynesia— imported for more than 300 y beginning in the early AD 1300s. Using a technique requiring only 200 mg of sample for the geochemical analysis of trace elements and isotopes of fine-grained basalt adzes, we assigned all artifacts to an island or archipelago of origin. Adze material was identified from the chiefly complex on the Austral Islands, from the major adze quarry complex on Tutuila (Samoa), and from the Marquesas Islands more than 2,400 km distant. This interaction is the only dated example of down-the-line exchange in central East Polynesia where intermediate groups transferred commodities attesting to the interconnectedness and complexity of social relations fostered during postsettlement voyaging. For the Cook Islands, this exchange may have lasted into the 1600s, at least a century later than other East Polynesian archipelagos, suggesting that interarchipelago interaction contributed to the later development of social hierarchies.
Evidence of Eurasian metal alloys on the Alaskan coast in prehistory
Authors:
Cooper et al
Abstract:
Six metal and composite metal artifacts were excavated from a late prehistoric archaeological context at Cape Espenberg on the northern coast of the Seward Peninsula in Alaska. X-ray fluorescence identified two of these artifacts as smelted industrial alloys with large proportions of tin and lead. The presence of smelted alloys in a prehistoric Inuit context in northwest Alaska is demonstrated here for the first time and indicates the movement of Eurasian metal across the Bering Strait into North America before sustained contact with Europeans.
China's trade shrank in April in a sign government stimulus is failing to jolt the world's second-largest economy out of a prolonged slowdown.
Exports contracted by 1.8 percent from a year earlier to $172.7 billion, falling back into negative territory after March's temporary burst of 11.5 percent growth, customs data showed Sunday. Imports plunged 10.9 percent to $127.2 billion after the previous month's 13.8 percent contraction.
Weak demand from consumers in China and worldwide is hampering government efforts to reverse an economic slowdown that dragged growth to a seven-year low of 6.7 percent in the first quarter of the year.
Beijing has eased controls on credit growth and real estate purchases in hopes of stimulating activity but analysts said the impact was likely to be temporary. They said March's unexpectedly strong trade growth also was a fluke due to comparison with weak numbers last year and the resumption of business after the Lunar New Year holiday in February.
Surveys of manufacturers showed factory activity weakened in April and the number of people employed declined.
A new study from geoscience researchers has important implications for studies of Mesoamerica and North America prior to the arrival of European settlers. Using isotope geochemistry, scientists at Pennsylvania's Dickenson College and the University of Arizona are trying to identify if turquoise mineral specimens record the signature of their parent ore deposits.
Turquoise is a copper aluminum phosphate mineral that forms from water percolating through bedrock near copper ore deposits. Scientists thought that they should see signatures of the ore body where a specimen formed reflected in lead and strontium isotopes in the turquoise, and initial results suggest that they do. Learn what these chemical fingerprints say about where turquoise originates, and how this could improve our understanding of ancient trade routes in North America
Lower commodity prices dragged down China's October trade figures, but the volume of imported oil and other raw materials rose as the world's second largest economy was stocking up on bargains, showed customs data released on Sunday.
Imports fell by 16 percent from a year ago, while exports shrank by 3.6 percent.
Chinese purchases of foreign goods improved from September's 20.4 percent decline. Purchases of raw materials such as crude oil and soybeans went up in quantities, but China paid far less for the goods than a year ago because of lower prices. Yet, data also showed China cut back on purchases of coal, steel, copper and aluminum, in a sign of sluggish economy.
Sales of Chinese goods to foreign markets fell 3.6 percent, a slight improvement from the previous month's 3.7 percent contraction.
Overall, China's foreign trade dropped 9 percent, marking the eighth consecutive monthly decline.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will be in Washington this week on an official state visit. President Obama had hoped to impress Xi with an all but sealed trade deal with major Pacific nations called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to demonstrate that America is still a force to be reckoned with in China's backyard.
But Obama's trade policy is in tatters. The grand design, created by Obama's old friend and former Wall Street deal-maker, trade chief Mike Froman, comes in two parts: a grand bargain with Pacific nations aimed at building a U.S.-led trading bloc to contain the influence of China, and an Atlantic agreement to cement economic relations with the European Union.
Both are on the verge of collapse from their own contradictory goals and incoherent logic.
China will impose export control on some drones and high performance computers startingon August 15th, according to an announcement published on Friday by China's Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs.
Companies need to apply for permits from related commerce department under the StateCouncil to export some drones and other commodities listed, the announcement added.
Somehow, colorful tropical scarlet macaws from tropical Mesoamerica -- the term anthropologists use to refer to Mexico and parts of northern Central America -- ended up hundreds of miles north in the desert ruins of an ancient civilization in what is now New Mexico.
Early scientists began excavating the large Pueblo settlements in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico and found the birds' remains in the late 1890s, but only recent radiocarbon dating of the physical evidence has pushed back the time period of sophisticated Pueblo culture by at least 150 years, according to a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Co-author and archaeologist Stephen Plog, the University of Virginia's David A. Harrison Professor of Anthropology, worked with Adam S. Watson of the American Museum of Natural History, Douglas J. Kennett of Pennsylvania State University and a team of researchers from the museum and other universities to have macaw bones dated and interpret the results.
Using accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon methods with high precision in dating, the researchers found the macaw skeletal remains were much older than previously thought -- from as early as the late A.D. 800s -- signaling what researchers theorize was a Pueblo culture established enough to form relationships with Mesoamerican cultures to the south. Plog said archaeologists had typically put the beginning of the apex of ancestral Pueblo civilization in Chaco at A.D. 1040, based on other means such as tree-ring dating that suggested a major architectural expansion began at that time.
Anthropologists had already determined that the ancient Pueblo developed a complex social and religious hierarchy in the canyon, reflected in their distinctive architecture. They have posited that Chaco's 'golden century' or the Chaco 'florescence' occurred from A.D. 1040 to 1110, coinciding with a major expansion of the 'great houses.' These great houses contained clustered complexes of rooms for large gatherings, lodgings, storage, burial and religious rituals. Pueblo Bonito, with about 650 rooms in the largest of the great houses of Chaco Canyon, is where most of the macaws were recovered.
'In general, most researchers have argued that emergence of hierarchy, and of extensive trade networks that extended into Mexico coincided with what we see as other aspects of the Chaco florescence: Roads being built outward from Chaco and the formation of what are called Chaco outliers that mimic the architecture seen in the cultural center,' Plog said.
The radiocarbon dating project, led by Plog, Watson, and Kennett, showed that the bird remains came from as early as the late A.D. 800s to mid 900s. The earlier dating suggests that the rise of Pueblo sociopolitical complexity developed earlier than previously thought.
Between Egypt, Mesopotamia and Scandinavia: Late Bronze Age glass beads found in Denmark
Authors:
Varberg et al
Abstract:
New research results from glass beads found in Denmark reveal surprising evidence for contact in the 14th–12th centuries BC between Egypt, Mesopotamia and Denmark, indicating a complex and far-reaching trade network. 290 annular glass beads ranging from dark blue to green, white and yellow, along with four polychrome beads, have been found in 14th–12th century burials from Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein in North Germany. Coming from well dated contexts, twenty-three well-preserved Danish glass beads were chosen for analysis.
Russia says Ukraine's deal to buy U.S.-made nuclear fuel for its Soviet-built reactors could trigger a nuclear accident.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk of Ukraine announced Tuesday that his nation has reached a deal on nuclear fuel deliveries with Westinghouse to reduce dependence on Russian supplies.
Russia's Foreign Ministry deplored the move as a "dangerous experiment that threatens safety and health of the Ukrainian citizens and peoples of Europe." It said nuclear fuel produced by the U.S. company doesn't quite fit Soviet-built nuclear reactors that Ukraine has.
The ministry said Ukrainian authorities must take a responsible approach to nuclear safety, or risk disasters such as the 1986 Chernobyl one, which was a result of a flawed Soviet reactor design coupled with serious mistakes made by the plant operators.
In a statement Tuesday, Westinghouse said it "has been working in the Ukrainian market since 2003, and brings diversification of suppliers, global best practices and technology to the Ukraine market. Westinghouse fuel is currently operating safely and efficiently at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant without any defects in performance."
Ancient East Polynesian voyaging spheres: new evidence from the Vitaria Adze Quarry (Rurutu, Austral Islands)
Authors:
Roletti et al
Abstract:
The use of adze sourcing to study interaction spheres opens new perspectives on ancient Polynesian voyaging. Our work contributes to this effort by documenting the discovery and geochemical signature of the Vitaria Adze Quarry, a major adze quarry complex in the central East Polynesia core area. We present WD-XRF geochemical data for the Vitaria raw material and ethnographically collected adzes from Raivavae and Tubuai Islands, also part of the Australs. Comparison of our results with previously published artifact and source data shows that initial tool production at the Vitaria Adze Quarry coincides with the human colonization of East Polynesia. Artifacts from Rurutu were exchanged within the Australs, as well as to neighboring archipelagoes, indicating the importance of Rurutu as a node in voyaging networks spanning the East Polynesian homeland area. Large-scale tool production at the Vitaria Adze Quarry may have contributed to the rise of Vitaria District as the seat of the paramount chief and the center of power on Rurutu.
IA Regnum military observer Leonid Nersisyan recently took a stab at preparing Russian public opinion for the eventual sale of S-400 SAMs and Su-35S fighters to China. A major arms deal with China should be expected, especially given Moscow’s turn further east in the wake of Western sanctions.
Nersisyan aims to refute usual complaints about exporting Russia’s most advanced weaponry to China, i.e. that Beijing will quickly copy and sell it more cheaply. He dials back to the early 1990s.
Despite strong language from the French President François Hollande, Russia has not received formal notification from France suspending or cancelling the $1.53 billion deal for two Mistral-class amphibious warship deal, Russian officials said on Tuesday.
“We have not received any official refusals,” Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov, reported Russian wire service ITAR-TASS.
“The contract schedule has not changed.”
Under the original terms, France was to handover the first ship — Vladivostok — at the end of October.
In September Hollande’s office issued a statement saying, absent a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, “the conditions under which France could authorize the delivery of the first helicopter carrier are not in place.”
France’s final decision on the Mistral isn’t clear as of Tuesday.
A chocolate habit in ancient North America
Author:
Bawaya
Abstract:
For centuries, elite people in ancient Mesoamerica drank a foaming beverage made from the ground beans of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Served in cylindrical jars and spouted pitchers in grand cities and temples, this was a chocolate drink steeped in ritual. North America had its great prehistoric cities, too—for example, ancient Cahokia near St. Louis, Missouri, or Chaco Canyon in New Mexico—but for years most archaeologists assumed little contact between the cultures. Chocolate may change that picture, with the recent discovery of subtle residues of it in pots from Cahokia. Added to similar evidence from the Southeast and Southwest, the findings suggest regular trade in cacao—and movements of the people who imbued it with significance—between ancient Mesoamericans and their northern neighbors, says Dorothy Washburn, an archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and co-author of a new paper. But the new work also reveals the complexities of such residue analysis, she says: Low levels of a certain alkaloid of T. cacao may be due to modern contamination.
For now, however, neither side appears eager for a rapprochement. Both China’s insertion and its withdrawal of the oil rig were done on its terms. And as the stronger, richer and more economically diversified of the two countries, it can more easily absorb the shock of extended bad relations. As for Vietnam, Dr Tuan says that China “underestimates the power, strength, will and nationalist sentiments of its opponents”. The flames of nationalism are always easier to stoke than to put out, however. If the Vietnamese public comes to see its leaders as weak in the face of foreign aggression, it may be the Communists in Hanoi that get burned.
CANADA and Mexico share the fortune, or misfortune, of a border with the world’s most powerful country, which looks down on both of them. For 20 years, as privileged trading partners of the United States, they have had the opportunity to influence it by creating a shared vision for North America. Instead the two have bickered like rivals in a tawdry ménage a trois.
Canada plays the part of the wronged partner. It has jealously sought to protect the relationship with its neighbour, fearing that Mexico may steal its thunder. “Canada is quick to give offence and Mexico is quick to take it,” says Laura Dawson, author of a report on the bilateral relations for the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, a business group. That could be shrugged off as irrelevant in a region where the only bond that matters is with the United States. But there are economic costs for North America as a whole, including the United States, because more could be done to link supply chains and energy markets trilaterally rather than just bilaterally.
Canada was a reluctant participant in the negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was launched in 1994. It agreed to join largely to safeguard the advantages it had won from a prior free-trade deal with the United States. After the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, efforts to strengthen NAFTA through trilateral negotiations lost momentum. Instead, the United States, Canada and Mexico have sought to tackle border and security issues bilaterally.
Relations between Canada and Mexico have become more brittle this year; the leaders of both countries have pointedly snubbed each other.
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NEAR the centre of Sumatra, an Indonesian island once blanketed by forest, a gash in the ground reveals the wealth that lies just beneath its surface. Large yellow diggers prise out coal and tip it into 60-tonne lorries that huff their way to the top of the open-cast mine in Pauh subdistrict. Five years of constant traffic, propelled by China’s hunger for fuel, has formed deep ruts in the dirt road. Recently, however, the lorries have stopped moving at midday. China’s appetite for coal has plateaued, the coal price has sagged and Minemex, the firm that operates the mine, has given workers longer lunch breaks, without pay. “We have no choice. We must endure,” sighs Demak, a sun-weathered 38-year-old.
Enduring might seem an apt word for Asian economies that had come to rely on ever-stronger exports to China. After averaging 10% annual growth for 30 years, the Chinese economy has managed only 7.5% over the past two years—enviable for most countries but a clear downshift for China. The lull has rippled through the region. Taiwanese machine-tool makers have seen exports to China fall by more than 20% since 2012. Australian iron ore for delivery to China recently hit its lowest price in 21 months. Jewellery sales in Hong Kong have fallen by 40% this year, in part due to China’s crackdown on corruption.
But enduring is not the right word for all those doing business with China. Analysts refer to milk as New Zealand’s “white gold”, such is China’s thirst for it. The number of Chinese visitors to Sri Lanka more than doubled in the first half of the year. Chinese women in their 30s are now the biggest group of foreign buyers on the website of Lotte, a big South Korean retailer, snapping up cosmetics.
These contrasting fortunes stem from profound, if gradual, changes to Chinese growth. Consumption is at last edging out investment as the economy’s main engine. Household consumption has been inching up of late as a proportion of GDP, rising from 34.9% in 2010 to 36.2% last year, according to official data. Some economists think the true share could be ten percentage points higher. This year even with the government’s “mini-stimulus”—a burst of spending on railways and public housing unveiled in April—consumption has still accounted for over half of Chinese growth.
Limited though it has been, this rebalancing is beginning to make itself felt beyond China’s borders.
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