Diachenko and Groneborn link ornament diversity on ancient pottery to population size

Alexandr Diachenko of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Detlef Gronenborn of the Leibniz Centre for Archaeology in Mainz have built a mathematical model that links the diversity of pottery ornament to population size, the organisation of pottery production and the exchange of information. They compared the pottery of the Linear Pottery culture in south-western Germany, dating to about 7000 years ago, with that of the Trypillia culture in central Ukraine, dating to about 6000 years ago. Both cultures are named after the characteristic ware and settlements of Europe's first farmers.

In both societies the population first grew rapidly and then declined. In Germany, as society became more complex, the diversity of ornament first increased and then decreased. Among the Trypillians, as society grew more complex, ornament became more uniform, and the authors attribute this to the emergence of specialist potters

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A Macaque Tooth About 310,000 Years Old Found at Schöningen, the Northernmost Evidence in Europe

Some news on migration. At Schöningen in Lower Saxony, a milk tooth of a macaque some 310,000 years old has been found. The tooth was recovered as long ago as 2004, but has been studied only now. Scientists from Leiden University and the Senckenberg Centre at the University of

Mutations in rice and maize needed for domestication arose long before farming

When ancient farmers domesticated plants, they relied on variation that already existed in wild species. Useful mutations were rare in the wild ancestors of cultivated plants, but people spent millennia selecting plants with the desired traits, and the frequency of those mutations rose. The chief trait of domesticated rice is

Martin McDonagh directs Wild Horse Nine, about CIA agents on Easter Island

I read that Martin McDonagh, the author of "In Bruges", "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" and "The Banshees of Inisherin", has made a new film, Wild Horse Nine. John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play the CIA agents Chris and Lee. In 1973 they have

Neanderthal wooden spears and a club found at Abric Romaní near Barcelona

Researchers of the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution have published the first full analysis of the wooden finds from the Neanderthal site of Abric Romaní. The site lies beneath a rock shelter in the town of Capellades, not far from Barcelona. Neanderthals lived here from roughly 62,

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A Macaque Tooth About 310,000 Years Old Found at Schöningen, the Northernmost Evidence in Europe

Mutations in rice and maize needed for domestication arose long before farming

Martin McDonagh directs Wild Horse Nine, about CIA agents on Easter Island

Neanderthal wooden spears and a club found at Abric Romaní near Barcelona