Natural Origins
First successful detection of oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone in multiple human hard tissues, and their use as potential biomarkers of pregnancy
Aimée Barlow et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science, November 2025
Abstract:
The sex steroid hormones oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone have never been detected in modern or archaeological human skeletal tissues using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) analysis, and there are no standard protocols for their extraction. As progesterone is a biomarker of pregnancy in living individuals, its detection in skeletal remains would substantially improve the visibility of pregnant individuals in the archaeological record and furnish a novel means of exploring female life histories in the past. The present study demonstrates that oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone can be detected in the hard tissues of ten individuals of known sex dating from the 1st to 19th centuries CE and evaluates their potential as biomarkers of pregnancy. The cohort comprised seven females of varied parity status and three males. A novel ELISA methodology was developed for hormone extraction from prepared tissue samples of bone, dentine, enamel, root from second and third permanent molars, and dental calculus (n = 74). Oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone concentrations were measurable in bone, dentine, enamel, and root samples, whereas only progesterone and testosterone were detected in dental calculus. Elevated progesterone concentrations were detected in the bone and tooth structures of one pregnant female, all individuals with in utero pregnancies had undetectable testosterone, and those associated with fetal remains presented elevated progesterone levels in dental calculus. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility and significant potential of the ELISA method for the detection of sex hormones in human skeletal remains to examine the reproductive histories of past populations.
On the ecological impact of prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Europe: Early Holocene (Mesolithic) and Last Interglacial (Neanderthal) foragers compared
Anastasia Nikulina et al.
PLoS ONE, October 2025
Abstract:
Recent studies have highlighted evidence of human impact on landscapes dating back to the Late Pleistocene-long before the advent of agriculture. Quantifying the extent of vegetation transformations by hunter-gatherers remains a major research challenge. We address this challenge by comparing climate-based potential natural vegetation cover with pollen-based vegetation reconstructions for the Last Interglacial and the Early Holocene. Differences between these datasets suggest that climate alone cannot fully explain the pollen-based vegetation patterns in Europe during these periods. To explore this issue, we used an upgraded version of the HUMan impact on LANDscapes (HUMLAND) agent-based model (ABM), combined with a genetic algorithm, to generate vegetation change scenarios. By comparing ABM outputs with pollen-based reconstructions, we aimed to identify parameter values that yield HUMLAND results closely matching the pollen-based vegetation cover. The updated ABM covers a broad temporal range, and incorporates the effects of hunting on herbivores and their influence on vegetation regeneration. The results show that the combined effects of megafauna, natural fires, and climatic fluctuations alone lead to vegetation cover estimates that are inconsistent with paleoecological reconstructions. Instead, anthropogenic burning played a key role, with modelling results suggesting that European landscapes were already substantially modified by humans by the Early Holocene. In scenarios where human-induced burning was minimal or absent, foragers still shaped landscapes indirectly through hunting, which influenced herbivore densities and their impact on vegetation dynamics. Our study revealed that Neanderthals and Mesolithic humans influenced similar-sized areas around their campsites and shared comparable preferences for vegetation openness. Our results challenge the assumption that pre-agricultural humans had minimal ecological impact. Instead, this study provides strong evidence that both Neanderthals and Mesolithic foragers actively shaped European interglacial ecosystems, influencing vegetation dynamics long before agriculture.
The walking moai hypothesis: Archaeological evidence, experimental validation, and response to critics
Carl Lipo & Terry Hunt
Journal of Archaeological Science, November 2025
Abstract:
The transport of Rapa Nui's (Easter Island) monumental moai statues has been debated for over a century. Based on a systematic analysis of 962 moai, with a focus on 62 road statues, combined with 3D modeling and experimental trials, we demonstrate that these multi-ton megaliths were designed for transport vertically in a controlled "walking" motion facilitated by their carved shapes. Our evidence includes distinctive morphological features of road moai (wide, D-shaped bases and forward lean), archaeological road characteristics (4.5m wide, concave cross-sections), non-random breakage patterns, and successful experimental validation using a precisely-scaled 4.35 metric ton replica based on road moai morphology. Our experiments revealed that the forward-leaning design enabled efficient transport, covering 100 m in 40 min with a team of 18 people-a significant improvement over earlier vertical transport attempts that used incorrectly proportioned ahu moai forms. Statistical analysis of the road moai distribution reveals patterns that are strongly consistent with transport failure: 51.6 % concentrate within 2 km of the Rano Raraku quarry, following an exponential decay pattern expected from mechanical failure processes rather than deliberate ceremonial placement. Despite empirical support, several scholars have challenged the walking hypothesis. We systematically address critiques regarding terrain constraints, rope availability, weathering patterns, and alternative transport mechanisms, demonstrating how objections fail to account for the comprehensive archaeological evidence supporting vertical transport. The walking method required minimal resources and labor compared to horizontal transport hypotheses, revealing sophisticated engineering rather than environmental destruction, and aligning with Rapa Nui oral traditions that describe moai "walking" from the quarry.
Prehistoric hunting megastructures in the Adriatic hinterland
Dimitrij Mlekuž Vrhovnik & Tomaž Fabec
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 21 October 2025
Abstract:
Airborne laser scanning survey of the Karst Plateau in the Adriatic hinterland has revealed four monumental dry-stone structures, characterized by long, low stone alignments converging into concealed enclosures. These features, strategically placed along natural movement corridors, appear to have been designed to guide and trap herds of wild animals. Their architectural scale, complexity, and integration with the terrain suggest a high degree of communal organization, landscape knowledge, and planning. Although direct dating remains inconclusive, associated stratigraphy indicates they were abandoned before the Late Bronze Age, pointing to a potentially earlier origin. These structures may represent the westernmost examples of a broader tradition of large-scale hunting installations previously known only from the arid zones of Southwest Asia and North Africa. Their finding challenges prevailing models of prehistoric subsistence in Europe and opens broad perspectives on social organization, mobility, and human-animal relations in complex landscapes.
A thousand years of Nubian supply of sub-Saharan ivory to the Southern Levant, ca. 1600-600 BCE
Harel Shochat et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science, November 2025
Abstract:
Finely crafted ivory objects were highly valued prestige commodities in the Levant and more generally throughout the ancient Near East, wielded as symbols of authority, rulership, and participation in trans-regional trade networks. Our research aims to trace the networks and agents involved in the trade of ivory to the Southern Levant over a period of a thousand years (1600 BCE-600 BCE) by identifying its biological and geographical sources. This timespan encompassed major shifts in the geopolitical landscape of this region, from Late Bronze Age Canaanite city-states under Egyptian hegemony to autochthonous Iron Age territorial polities. Proteomic analyses reveal that ivories were harvested mostly from African elephants, while multi-stable isotope analyses indicate that these animals generally inhabited woodland mosaic habitats, probably located in the upper White Nile tributary. Elephant ivories were probably acquired by Nubian traders via small-scale exchange with local hunters who harvested elephants from diverse ecological niches within that broader ecoregion. The persistence of ivory sourced from this region despite the political disintegration of Dynastic Egypt, the widely recognized mediator of ivory exchange networks, suggests that Nubians actively asserted their monopoly over the procurement and distribution of lucrative ivory independent of Egyptian control and prestige economies.
Iron in copper metallurgy at the dawn of the Iron Age: Insights on iron invention from a mining and smelting site in the Caucasus
Nathaniel Erb-Satullo & Bobbi Klymchuk
Journal of Archaeological Science, November 2025
Abstract:
Despite enormous interest in the origins of the iron, the world's quintessential industrial metal, the technological foundations of the invention and innovation of extractive iron metallurgy remain unclear. While fundamental aspects of geology and thermodynamics favor a model for the invention of iron by copper smelters, empirical archaeological evidence to support this model is lacking. Reanalysis of the smelting workshop at Kvemo Bolnisi, originally published as an iron smelting site in the 1960s and dated to the late 2nd millennium BC, offers insights by which copper smelters recognized and experimented with iron oxides. Chemical and microscopic analysis of slags and minerals samples via optical microscopy and SEM-EDS conclusively shows that metalworkers at the site were smelting copper rather than iron. However, our analyses, coupled with a reassessment of the excavation report, show that iron oxides were deliberately stockpiled and added to the furnace as a separate component of the charge to flux the silica-rich host rock. These discoveries make Kvemo Bolnisi arguably the earliest unequivocal example of the deliberate use iron oxide fluxes in copper metallurgy. The knowledge and behaviors reflected in the Kvemo Bolnisi copper smelting technology have important implications for theories about the invention of iron metallurgy by copper smelters.