CSI Stone Age: was 430,000-year-old hominin murdered?

It's the coldest of cold cases: a forensic analysis suggests that an ancient human who lived 430,000 years ago died as the result of a deliberate attack by a right-handed assailant armed with a spear or hand axe. The crime is the earliest evidence of human-on-human violence in the fossil record – and the way the body was found strongly suggests that hominins were engaging in funerary rituals hundreds of thousands of years before our species evolved.

No fewer than 28 hominin skeletons have been recovered from the Sima de los Huesos site in the Atapuerca mountains of northern Spain. An analysis of DNA pulled from one skeleton suggests the tribe may be ancestral to both the Neanderthals and their east Eurasian contemporaries, the mysterious Denisovans

Holes in the head

One of the skulls is interesting for another reason: it has two large holes on the left side of the forehead. Nohemi Sala from Complutense University of Madrid, Spain and her colleagues used forensic techniques to work out how the holes formed. The skull is in 52 pieces, but while most of those fragments have edges that are perpendicular to the surface of the skull – typical of the way dry bone fractures long after death – the edges of the holes in the forehead were oblique in a way that's more consistent with a fresh bone fracture. What's more, both holes were roughly the same size and shape – and both had a distinctive "notch" at a similar location in their outlines. That suggests the holes were injuries sustained close to the hominin's time of death and involving repeated blows from the same object.

"We are pretty sure that these are not circumstantial injuries," says Sala. "Since either of these wounds would likely have been lethal, penetrating the brain, the presence of multiple wounds implies a deliberate act."

The attacker was probably right-handed, judging by the fact that the injuries were to the left side of the face. The weapon may have been a wooden spear, a stone spear tip or a stone hand axe, says Sala.

Ancient funeral

It's "completely compelling", says Debra Martin at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. "I suspect the farther we push back and find straight up forensic evidence such as these authors have, we will find that violence is culturally mediated and has been with us as long as culture itself has been with us." The find may also help settle a long-standing debate over exactly how so many hominin skeletons came to be preserved together. One idea is that, over time, a number of unlucky individuals fell down the vertical shaft by mistake. An alternative viewpoint is that the dead were deliberately thrown into the pit as part of an early funeral ritual.

The new analysis strongly favours the second view. It's clear that this individual was dead before he or she ended up in the pit, so they can hardly have stumbled into the hole by mistake. "The only possible manner by which a deceased individual could have arrived at the site is if its cadaver were dropped down the shaft by other hominins," says Sala. "Middle Pleistocene hominins were already engaging in funerary behaviour."
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Reference:

Barras, Colin. 2015. “CSI Stone Age: was 430,000-year-old hominin murdered?”. New Scientist. Posted: May 27, 2015. Available online: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27611-csi-stone-age-was-430000yearold-hominin-murdered.html

Impact on mummy skull suggests murder

Analysis of archived mummy reveals murdered young female with Chagas disease

Blunt force trauma to the skull of a mummy with signs of Chagas disease may support homicide as cause of death, which is similar to previously described South American mummies, according to a study published February 26, 2014 in PLOS ONE by Stephanie Panzer from Trauma Center Murau, Germany, and colleagues, a study that has been directed by the paleopathologist Andreas Nerlich from Munich University.

For over a hundred years, the unidentified mummy has been housed in the Bavarian State Archeological Collection in Germany. To better understand its origin and life history, scientists examined the skeleton, organs, and ancient DNA using a myriad of techniques: anthropological investigation, a complete body CT scan, isotope analysis, tissue histology, molecular identification of ancient parasitic DNA, and forensic injury reconstruction.

Radiocarbon dated to around 1450 - 1640 AD, skeletal examination indicated that the mummy was likely 20-25 years old at the time of her death, and her skull exhibits typical Incan-type skull formations. Fiber from her hair bands appear to originate from South American llama or alpaca. Isotope analysis of nitrogen and carbon in her hair reveal a diet likely comprising maize and seafood, which, along with other evidence suggest South American origin and a life spent in coastal Peru or Chile. The mummy also showed significant thickening of the heart, intestines, and the rectum, features typically associated with chronic Chagas disease, a tropical parasitic infection. DNA analysis of parasites found in rectum tissue samples also support chronic Chagas disease, a condition she probably had since early infancy. The skull structure where a massive skull and face trauma occurred, suggests the trauma was acquired prior to death, and indicates massive central blunt force. The young Incan may have been victim of a ritual homicide, as has been observed in other South American mummies.
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References:

EurekAlert. 2014. “Impact on mummy skull suggests murder”. EurekAlert. Posted: February 26, 2014. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/p-iom022514.php

8,500-Year-Old Murder Mystery Uncovered

The coldest of cold cases may have emerged from the bottom of a Stone-Age well in Israel as archaeologists uncovered two 8,500-year-old human skeletons deep inside the structure.

Belonging to a woman aged about 19 and an older man between 30 and 40, the skeletal remains were found in a 26-foot-deep well in the Jezreel Valley in Israel's Galilee region.

With the upper part built of stones and the lower hewn in the bedrock, the impressive well was connected to a Neolithic farming settlement.

"It seems the inhabitants used it for their subsistence and living," Yotam Tepper, excavation director at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement.

Tepper and colleagues cannot yet explain whether the two individuals accidentally fell into the well or were murdered and then dumped inside.

“As of now the answer to this question remains a mystery," they said.

Studies on the bones and the objects found near the human remains may provide an answer.

"What is clear is that after these unknown individuals fell into the well, it was no longer used for the simple reason that the well water was contaminated and was no longer potable," Tepper said.

Indeed, the artifacts recovered from inside the well suggest the structure ended up being used as a dump after it became polluted.

Along with the skeletal remains, the archaeologists found deeply dented flint sickle blades used for harvesting, as well as arrow heads, stone implements, animal bones and charcoal.

Whether the man and woman found at the well's bottom were the victims of a crime or a simple accident, Tepper and colleagues agree the structure itself is worth studying further.

"Wells from this period are unique finds in the archaeology of Israel, and probably also in the prehistoric world in general," Tepper said.

According to the archaeologist, the well shows the impressive quarrying ability of the Jezreel Valley's ancient inhabitants and the extensive knowledge they possessed regarding the local hydrology and geology.

"No doubt the quarrying of the well was a community effort that lasted a long time," said Tepper.
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References:

Lorenzi, Rossella. 2012. “8,500-Year-Old Murder Mystery Uncovered”. Discovery News. Posted: November 9, 2012. Available online: http://news.discovery.com/history/ancient-murder-mystery-121109.html

Girl 'murdered' by Roman soldiers in north Kent

The body of a girl thought to have been murdered by Roman soldiers has been discovered in north Kent.



Archaeologists working on the site of a Roman settlement near the A2 uncovered the girl who died almost 2,000 years ago.

"She was killed by a Roman sword stabbing her in the back of the head," said Dr Paul Wilkinson, director of the excavation.

"By the position of the entry wound she would have been kneeling at the time."

The Roman conquest of Britain began in AD43, and the construction of Watling Street started soon afterwards linking Canterbury to St Albans.

A small Roman town was built on the route, near present-day Faversham.

'Dumped' in a shallow grave

Dr Wilkinson is the director of SWAT Archaeology - a company which carries out digs before major building work takes place on sites which may hold historical interest.

He was in charge of a training dig excavating Roman ditches when they made the shocking find.

Dr Wilkinson said that she had been between 16 and 20 years old when she was killed, and her bones suggested that she had been in good health.

He also believes the body had then been dumped in what looked like a hastily dug grave.

"She was lying face down and her body was twisted with one arm underneath her body. One of her feet was even left outside the grave," he said.

The burial site was just outside the Roman town, with cemeteries close by.

Dr Wilkinson said the body was found with some fragments of iron age pottery which would date the grave to about AD50, and suggest that she was part of the indigenous population.

Another indication of her origin, according to Dr Wilkinson, is the orientation of the body.

Romans buried their bodies lying east-west, whereas this body was buried north-south, as was the custom for pagan graves.

'Local populations were killed'

Many people have a romantic view of the Roman invasion, Dr Wilkinson said.

"Now, for the first time, we have an indication of how the Roman armies treated people, and that large numbers of the local populations were killed.

"It shows how all invading armies act the same throughout history. One can only imagine what trauma this poor girl had to suffer before she was killed," he said.

She will be re-buried at the site.
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References:

BBC News. 2011. "Girl 'murdered' by Roman soldiers in north Kent". BBC News. Posted: April 28, 2011. Available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-13211331

Hadrian's Wall child murder: estimated time of death pre-367AD

Gaul legionnaires seen as main suspects after skeleton of girl is found buried under Roman barracks at Vindolanda

The murderous reputation of one of Britain's best-known Roman towns has been raised by the discovery of a child's hastily buried skeleton under a barrack room floor.

Archaeologists at Vindolanda fort near Hadrian's Wall are preparing for a repeat of a celebrated coroner's inquest in the 1930s that concluded two other corpses unearthed near the site were "victims of murder by persons unknown shortly before 367AD".

The latest discovery at the frontier settlement in Northumberland is thought to be the remains of a girl aged between eight and 10 who may have been tied up before she died.

Her burial place is reckoned to be almost certain evidence of a crime, according to specialists at the Vindolanda Trust, which has made thousands of finds at the town and its associated fort since the 1920s.

Human burials were strictly forbidden within built-up areas in Roman times, and Vindolanda followed regulations requiring cemeteries to be laid out on the settlement's outskirts. The bones, initially thought to have been those of a large dog, were in a shallow pit dug in a corner of the garrison's living quarters at the heart of the fort.

Patricia Birley, director of the Vindolanda Trust, said: "This definitely looks like a case of foul play. It has been very sad to find a child in this shallow grave under the barrack floor.

"It would have been very difficult to get a body out of the barracks, through the wider fort and out of the gate, but we may never know if the burial took place with or without the collusion of the men who shared the barracks."

The skeleton was identified by Dr Trudy Buck, a biological anthropologist at Durham university, who will now carry out a full autopsy in the hope of establishing a cause of death. This was relatively easy in the 1930s case, when one of the two skeletons found hidden under the floor of a civilian home in Vindolanda's sister-fort of Housesteads had a knife blade slotted between its ribs.

Punishment for any child murder at Vindolanda is obviously impossible, but the guilty party could conceivably be traced in due course. The trust's excavations have produced the earliest and best-preserved written records from the Roman empire, and the unit stationed in the fort at the suspected time of the death – the mid-third century AD – is known to have been the Fourth Cohort of Gauls.
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References:

Wainwright, Martin. 2010. "Hadrian's Wall child murder: estimated time of death pre-367AD". Guardian. Posted: September 15, 2010. Available online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/15/roman-child-murder-vindolanda?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter