Oldest miniaturized stone toolkits in Eurasia

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on October 02, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Asia, South Asia, Sri Lanka

Microliths - small stone tools - are often interpreted as being part of composite tools, including projectile weapons, and essential to efficient hunting strategies of Homo sapiens. In Europe and Africa, the earliest appearance of these lithic toolkits are linked to hunting medium and large-sized animals in grassland or woodland settings, or as adaptations to risky environments during periods of climatic change. Yet the presence of small, quartz stone tools in Sri Lanka suggests the existence of more diverse ecological contexts for the development and use of these technologies by some of the earliest members of our species migrating out of Africa.

Oldest microlithic artifacts from Fa Hien Cave [Credit: Max Planck Institute]

The paper, published in PLOS One and led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History alongside colleagues from Sri Lankan and other international institutions, reports microliths from the cave site of Fa-Hien Lena in the tropical evergreen rainforests of Sri Lanka, which have been dated to between 48,000 and 45,000 years ago. This is as early, or earlier, than the well-known 'Upper Palaeolithic' technologies of Europe associated with Homo sapiens, and highlights that these sophisticated toolkits were a key part of our species' ecological flexibility as it colonized the Eurasian continent.

Tropical rainforests: a unique challenge

In the last decade, growing archaeological evidence has documented the use of tropical rainforest resources by Homo sapiens in several locations in South Asia, South East Asia, and Melanesia between 45,000 and 36,000 years ago. This is much earlier than previously considered, especially given stereotypes that these environments were 'barriers' to human migration, with disease, dangerous animals, and limited resources all posing challenges. Instead, research on human dispersal in Asia has focused on potential human use of coastal and savanna environments.

The island of Sri Lanka, at the southern tip of South Asia, has emerged as a particularly important area for investigating the adaptations of prehistoric hunter-gatherers to tropical rainforests. The earliest South Asian human fossils are found in Sri Lankan caves and rockshelters, in levels dated to about 45,000-36,000 years ago, and scientific analyses of these remains has highlighted human reliance on closed forest resources. Early microliths, commonly associated with efficient hunting strategies by our species, have also been found, yet more detailed analyses have been lacking. Finding such artefacts in this context is significant given that microliths have commonly been linked to hunting medium to large game in grassland settings.

'Microliths': why care?

Traditionally, the miniaturization of stone tool technology has been seen as a major step in the development of novel, projectile technologies such as the bow and arrow. While definitions are variable, the focus of human stone tool producers on the creation of small, sharp lithics is something that has been witnessed in Africa, Europe, and India from around 60,000-45,000 years ago. Early occurrences of this strategy have also been documented in Sri Lanka since the 1980s, by Siran Deraniyagala, but were frequently neglected due to a Eurocentric belief that such tools could not have been produced in this part of the world prior to similar technologies in Europe (at the time dated to only ~20,000 years ago).

Fa Hien Cave overlooking rainforest [Credit: Max Planck Institute]

Microlithic toolkits may also denote how fast and along which routes our species migrated through Asia. For example, a prominent argument states that microlith technologies emerged in Africa, and then rapidly dispersed along the Indian Ocean rim, acting as a proxy for the supposedly first, rapid movement of Homo sapiens through coastal settings. However, significant, local differences have been noted for microlith stone tools in Asia and Africa, alongside regional technological continuity, and a clear 'coming and going' of these type of tools as situations demanded them or not. Investigation of these tools and their adaptive context in different parts of the world is therefore crucial to discussions of human evolution and the archaeology of the last 100,000 years.

A Sri Lankan specialty

Sri Lanka has been a prominent part of discussions of early human adaptations to tropical rainforests, though there has been a lack of systematic, detailed analysis of the technological strategies associated with clear geochemical evidence or animal remains that demonstrate a clearly specialized adaptation. "We undertook detailed measurements of stone tools and reconstructed their production patterns at the site of Fa-Hien Lena Cave, the site with the earliest evidence for human occupation in Sri Lanka," says PhD student Oshan Wedage of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, lead author of the study.

"We found clear evidence for the production of 'miniaturised' stone tools or 'microliths' at Fa-Hien Lena, dating to the earliest period of human occupation," Wedage continues. "Interestingly, our evidence also shows that stone tool technology changed little over the long span of human occupation, from 48,000 to 4,000 years ago," says Andrea Picin, also of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, co-author of the study. This would imply that the technological adaptation practiced by the earliest rainforest foragers on the island proved to be remarkably successful over the course of millennia.

Dedicated 'plasticity'

"While we suspect that these small stone tools were used as part of projectile technologies, as we have also found for bone tools at the same site, residue analysis and impact fracture analysis is ongoing," says Michael Petraglia, co-corresponding author of the paper. "Whatever the results, these miniaturized stone tools place Sri Lanka in a central position in terms of discussing technological sophistication among our species. We have essentially uncovered the 'Upper Palaeolithic' of the rainforest."

Patrick Roberts, another co-corresponding author, continues, "It is evident that these microliths were part of a flexible human toolkit that enabled Homo sapiens to spread into all of the world's environments, demonstrating unparalleled ecological 'plasticity' when compared to other hominin species." The data from Sri Lanka is just one example of human populations demonstrating a remarkable ability to specialize their technological and cultural approaches to novel ecological situations during their movement across the majority of the Earth's continents by 12,000 years ago.

Source: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History [October 02, 2019]

The monkey hunters: Humans colonized South Asian rainforest by hunting primates

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on February 19, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Asia, Early Humans, South Asia, Sri Lanka

A multidisciplinary study has found evidence for humans hunting small mammals in the forests of Sri Lanka at least 45,000 years ago. The researchers discovered the remains of small mammals, including primates, with evidence of cut-marks and burning at the oldest archaeological site occupied by humans in Sri Lanka, alongside sophisticated bone and stone tools. The hunting of such animals is an example of the uniquely human adaptability that allowed H. sapiens to rapidly colonize a series of extreme environments apparently untouched by its hominin relatives.

This is an example of tools manufactured from monkey bones and teeth recovered from the Late Pleistocene layers of Fa Hien Cave, Sri Lanka [Credit: N. Amano]

In a new paper published in Nature Communications, an international team of scientists has revealed novel evidence for the unique adaptability of Homo sapiens. The study, led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, alongside colleagues from Sri Lankan and other international institutions, shows that human populations were able to specialize in the hunting of small arboreal animals for tens of thousands of years. This is the oldest and longest record of sophisticated, active primate hunting by foragers. This work also highlights the distinctive ecological capacities of H. sapiens relative to its hominin ancestors and relatives.

Tropical rainforests: a unique challenge

Recent research has demonstrated that our species adapted to a diversity of extreme environments as they spread around the world, including deserts, high altitude settings, palaeoarctic conditions, and tropical forests. Previously, however, discussion of the migration of our species into Europe, the Middle East, and Asia has often focused on our increased efficiency in hunting, butchering, and consuming medium to large game in open 'savanna' settings. Alternatively, coastal settings have been seen as important sources of protein, stimulating human evolution and migration.

This is an exterior view of the entrance of Fa-Hien Lena cave in Sri Lanka [Credit: O. Wedage]

Tropical rainforests have been somewhat neglected in discussions of human migrations and dispersal. In public and academic perception, these environments are often seen as isolated barriers to human movement, with disease, dangerous animals, and limited resources all posing challenges. In particular, when compared to the large animals of open savannas, small, fast forest monkeys and squirrels are difficult to capture and provide smaller amounts of protein.

Small mammals and hunting complexity

The procurement of small mammals has long been considered a feature of technological and behavioural 'complexity' or 'modernity' unique to our species. Previous research in Europe and West Asia has linked increased capture and consumption of agile small mammals both to human population growth and to climatically-driven crises. Traditionally, these have been considered to be particularly extreme ~20,000 years ago.

This is a gray tufted langur (S. priam), one of the monkey species targeted by early humans that settled in Fa Hien Cave, Sri Lanka [Credit: O. Wedage]

However, the onset and behavioural context of small mammal hunting in other parts of the world, particularly Asia, has remained poorly studied. This is particularly the case outside of temperate environments. "Over the last two decades, research has highlighted human occupation of tropical rainforests in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Melanesia at least as early as 45,000 years ago, so the potential for human reliance on small mammals in these settings prior to 20,000 years ago seems likely," says co-senior author Dr. Patrick Roberts of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

A Sri Lankan specialty

Sri Lanka has been a prominent part of discussions of early human adaptations to tropical rainforests, though there has been a general lack of systematic, detailed analysis of animal remains associated with archaeological sites on the island. For the current study, the researchers produced new chronological information, analysis of animal remains, and studies of lithic and bone tool assemblages from Fa-Hien Lena Cave, the site of the earliest fossil and archaeological evidence of H. sapiens in Sri Lanka.

Map of Sri Lanka, showing the location of Fa-Hien Lena and the country’s vegetation zones [Credit: N. Amano. Wedage et al. 2019]

"The results demonstrate specialized, sophisticated hunting of semi-arboreal and arboreal monkey and squirrel populations from 45,000 years ago in a tropical rainforest environment," says Oshan Wedage, lead author of the study, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Co-author Dr. Noel Amano, also of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, adds, "This was complemented by sophisticated bone tool technologies which were, in turn, created from the bones of hunted monkeys."

Fine-tuned adaptations, not 'monkey business'

Together, the results of this new work demonstrate a highly tuned focus on monkey and other small mammal hunting over 45,000 years. A sustained focus on adult monkeys throughout this time period suggests that this strategy continued to be sustainable during this lengthy period and that the tropical rainforests were not over-taxed by human presence and practices.

"This 'monkey menu' was not a one-off, and the use of these difficult-to-catch resources is one more example of the behavioural and technological flexibility of H. sapiens," says Prof. Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, a senior author of the study. Further detailed analysis of the tools and animal remains left behind by early members of our species promises to yield more insights into the variety of strategies that enabled H. sapiens to colonize the world's continents and left us the last hominin standing.

Source: The Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History [February 19, 2019]

Earliest discovery of clove and pepper from ancient south Asia

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on December 13, 2018 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Asia, South Asia, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has been at the centre of the spice trade for millennia and is today one of the biggest suppliers of clove to Europe, where it has become synonymous with Christmas and winter treats such as mulled wine.

A team of archaeologists from UCL have discovered the first empirical evidence of cloves and black pepper  to have been found in Sri Lanka, suggesting that exotic spice trade in the region dates back to as early as 600 AD [Credit: UCL]

Now published in Antiquity, the team discovered one rare sample of clove dating back to 900-1100 AD and eight samples of charred black pepper dating back to 600-700 AD. They were discovered at the site of an ancient port in Mantai, Sri Lanka.

Lead author, Dr Eleanor Kingwell-Banham (UCL Archaeology), said: “The clove predates most other finds of cloves from outside South Asia by around 500 years. There are only two other reports of clove in the world, including one from Syria which dates back to around 2,000 BC, but these have not been properly dated or recorded and the cloves, if there actually were any, have since been lost. So this discovery of clove in Sri Lanka is the earliest well dated and scientifically catalogued clove in the world.

“The black pepper is also quite a rare discovery for such an early period. However, we do have several earlier finds, for example from Pompeii and Herculaneum c.79 AD. There are also reports of pepper in the tomb of Rameses II, the third king of the 19th dynasty of Egypt, who died in 1213 BC and had two grains placed in his nostrils.”

Clove is native to the Maluku Islands in Indonesia where it has grown for thousands of years, without needing to be planted by people. The first clove tree was planted around the 16-17th century during the spice trade wars when the Dutch East India Company wanted a monopoly on the clove crop.

Dr Kingwell-Banham, added: “The clove from Mantai would have been grown and harvested in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia, where it originated, then packed and shipped to Mantai possibly via Southeast Asia for trade onwards to any one of the regions that Sri Lanka traded with at that time - be it the Roman Empire, India or to Arabia. The amazing thing is that the Maluku Islands are around 7000 km from Sri Lanka and people were shipping them in relatively simple wind powered ships, which means they must have been highly valued.

Charred remains of clove & black pepper have been found at the site of an ancient port in Sri Lanka [Credit: Professor Dorian Fuller (UCL) and SEALINKS]

“Clove is mentioned in the ancient texts of India, c.800 AD and was known as the ‘divine flower’. It was also associated with the Hindu goddess Lakshmi who symbolised beauty, wealth and fortune, so it really was a very luxurious product at the time.”

The discovery has been a long time coming, as excavation at the site started in the early 1980s but was disrupted by the civil war in 1984. The excavations were not renewed until 2009-2010 when extensive remains were discovered.

The trench was excavated to the depth of 10m down to what appeared to be the mid Holocene period. Charred remains were collected and samples dried on site and packed into sealed plastic bags before being exported to the UCL Institute of Archaeology for analysis. Each sample was sorted and analysed using an optical microscope.

From the 2009-2010 excavations researchers also identified other food sources and ceramics. A total of 3,235 cereal grains and grain fragments were identified, 1830 (57 per cent) of which have been identified as rice and 84 (2.5 per cent) as wheat. While a total of 11,418 pottery fragments representing 123 different wares (about 80% produced in Sri Lanka and 20% imported) were also identified.

Dr Kingwell-Banham, said: “Traditionally when we think of early towns we think of mono-cultures but this new evidence suggests that ancient Mantai was a multi-cultural and dynamic trading hub.

“The discovery of wheat is particularly interesting because it is an indication that there were people living there at the time that weren’t interested in eating local staples such as rice and dahl. This suggests that there may have been different cultural groups co-habiting at the time, possibly from the Mediterranean or Arabia. It would’ve been an early cosmopolitan settlement.”

Source: University College London [December 13, 2018]

Evidence for persistent forest reliance by indigenous peoples in historical Sri Lanka

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on April 26, 2018 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Asia, Indigenous Cultures, South Asia, Sri Lanka

Working closely with Wanniyalaeto (Vedda) elders in Sri Lanka during the repatriation of skeletal remains, a team of researchers have demonstrated that while some Indigenous hunter-gatherers in Sri Lanka made use of agricultural resources and trade connections with farmers and colonial power structures, others continued to subsist primarily on tropical forest resources as late as the 19th century.

Relic Buddhist stupas rising out of the tropical forest at Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka [Credit: Patrick Roberts]

In the 1990s, some anthropologists argued that tropical forests could not support long-term human foraging in the absence of agriculture. Part of this thesis was based on the fact that supposedly isolated 'forest' foragers, such as the Wanniyalaeto (or Vedda) peoples of Sri Lanka, could be demonstrated to be enmeshed within historical trade networks and rely on crops as part of their overall subsistence.

In the case of the Wanniyalaeto, while they previously occupied villages across Sri Lanka, including within the Wet Zone rainforests, British colonial policy, and the development of Sri Lankan state education systems and legal orders, led to their decline and focus on more open, dry jungle settings. Furthermore, today, wild game hunting, a traditional subsistence and cultural activity of the Wanniyalaeto is now illegal.

Map showing the vegetation zones of Sri Lanka after Erdelen (1988) and Roberts et al. (2015a) [Credit: Roberts et al. Human Ecology (2018)]

During the process of repatriation of Wanniyalaeto skeletal remains from the Anatomy Department, University of Edinburgh and Duckworth Museum, University of Cambridge, researchers at the Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History teamed up with members of the Wanniyalaeto Council of Elders to test the degree of forest reliance in individuals prior to or just after the onset of British colonial influence in Sri Lanka.

In an article published in Human Ecology, the combined team of European researchers and Wanniyalaeto elders used stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of minimal amounts of tooth enamel powder, to show that while a number of individuals made use of millet, and perhaps also rice, through trade with local agricultural populations, others subsisted primarily on tropical forest resources. These results are significant in the face of current Wanniyalaeto battles to remain on their traditional hunting grounds.

View from the ancient city of Polonnaurwa into Sri Lankan Dry Zone tropical forest at dusk [Credit: Patrick Roberts]

The results will be converted into a multi-lingual poster that will be displayed at the main Wanniyalaeto village museum in Dambana, to become a permanent part of the heritage of this group. The repatriation process is ongoing but will see members of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History bring Wanniyalaeto remains for burial in Sri Lanka, following appropriate tradition.

This is the first time that an archaeological science project has been directed by members of an Indigenous group during the process of repatriation in Asia. It should act as a model for future interactions between archaeological scientists and Indigenous populations, working together on projects with meaningful outcomes for local cultural heritage, questions, and interest.

Source: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History [April 26, 2018]