Did Easter Island get 'ratted' out?
Rats and Europeans are likely to blame for the mysterious demise of Easter Island, a team of anthropologists suggests.
The fate of the people who built hundreds of 10-ton stone statues on the South Pacific island and then vanished has long been seen as a cautionary environmental tale. Natives deforested the island paradise to transport the statues, the story goes, triggering erosion that damaged farmlands. And then they supposedly bumped themselves off in a cannibalistic civil war in about 1650.
But anthropologist Terry Hunt of the University of Hawaii at Manoa first blames the Polynesian rat. The rats probably deforested the 66-square-mile island's 16 million palm trees. "Palm tree seeds are filet mignon to rats," Hunt says.
As noted in the article, this tends to undermine the theory, most famously and recently propounded by Jared Diamond in his book Collapse, that Easter Island colonizers essentially did themselves in by deforesting themselves out of existence. Hunt's work shows that colonization took place much later and that deforestation had already largely occurred before humans became fully settled.
Some may blast away at Diamond for this (we've seen a bit of it out in the blogosphere already), and he has gotten some (deserved) criticism from anthropologists and archaeologists for having a rather too simplistic view of the archaeological/anthropological record and literature. While he might deserve some criticism for overreaching with this example, Hunt's work is really the most detailed on Easter Island especially from a chronological standpoint.
Ancient drought 'changed history'
Scientists have identified a major climate crisis that struck Africa about 70,000 years ago and which may have changed the course of human history.
The evidence comes from sediments drilled up from the beds of Lake Malawi and Tanganyika in East Africa, and from Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana.
It shows equatorial Africa experienced a prolonged period of drought.
It is possible, scientists say, this was the reason some of the first humans left Africa to populate the globe.
Untouched Roman sarcophagi found
Italian archaeologists have found a remarkable trove of five untouched Roman sarcophagi in a burial vault outside Rome .
"It's really rare to find so many sarcophagi that have never been profaned or even opened - as can be seen by the intact lead clasps on their edges," said the head of the dig, Stefano Musco .
He said the sarcophagi dated from the II century AD and probably contained the remains of the wealthy residents of a villa that once stood in the area - now a building site on Rome's north-eastern outskirts .
Sialk 6000-year-old Secrets to be Revealed
Archaeologists will start the final season of excavations in the pre-historical Sialk Tepe.
Sialk Tepe which dates back to more than 8000 years ago is one of the most important historical sites of Iran, located in Kashan city. The remains in this historical hill indicate that it was the residential area of many ethnic groups in the course of history. Sialk was first excavated by Roman Grishman, French archaeologist. During his excavations, Grishman unearthed a giant structure which he called the brick structure of Sialk.
“Despite the previous plans, just the northern hill of Sialk will be excavated during the last season of excavations to study again the history of the sixth millennium BC in Sialk,” said Sadegh Malek Shahmirzadi, head of the excavation team of Sialk.