Archaeological scientist Tom Higham of the University of Oxford’s Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit is developing techniques to obtain more accurate radiocarbon dates of samples from the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition, a time when modern humans arrived in Europe and the last Neanderthals disappeared, between 30,000 and 50,000 years ago. It is a difficult process because when fossils are 30,000 years old, most of their carbon-14 is gone and they are easily contaminated. “We want to create this huge map that will allow us to try to look at the movement of people, the movement of objects, the development of new ideas. … You have to know the dates,” he says.

Rusty iron machinery from industrial sites presents a special problem to conservators. Archaeologist Timothy Scarlett and chemical engineer Gerad Caneba of Michigan Technological University are investigating two new ways to stop iron from rusting. The first displaces water in the object with highly pressurized carbon dioxide. The second prevents the absorption of water with polymers. “Stopping corrosion is paramount. We want to preserve every little bit of data and artifacts in the long term,” said Scarlett.

A village and burial complex have been discovered in the jungles of the Indonesian province of Jambi. The oral traditions of the residents in a nearby village say that their ancestors had moved the location of the village twice before settling on the current spot. Oral tradition also records a natural disaster that led to the burial of victims in a mass grave. “The elders could not say what the natural disaster was, if it was an earthquake or flood,” said Yusuf Martun of the archaeology division of the Merangin Geopark research team.

Folding stools made of two movable wooden frames that were connected with pins and topped with an animal hide seat were fashionable in northern Europe 3,500 years ago, at a time when Egypt became a major power under Thutmose III. Did the northern Europeans copy such mobile furniture from the Egyptians? “The design and dimensions of the chairs are too similar,” said Bettina Pfaff. Networks dealing in luxury goods are known to have spread out from Germany, perhaps even reaching Egypt, with traders probably traveling by foot or by oxcart.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, May 3, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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