Magnetic North

Last Refuge for Neanderthals Found at Russian Site

Byzovaya, a Russian site in the western foothills of the Polar Urals, may have been one the last refuges of Neanderthals according to research by Ludovic Slimak at France's Université de Toulouse le Mirail. Palaeolithic sites in the Russian far north have been long considered an Arctic expansion of modern humans. However at Byzovaya, the stone tools are directly comparable with Mousterian 'toolkits' that so far have been exclusively linked with Neanderthal populations in Europe.

These findings are significant first because they may represent the latest surviving Neanderthals anywhere in the world at 33,000 years ago. Secondly, because at such an extreme northern latitude they contradict the hypothesis that neanderthals died out because they couldn't adapt to the harsh cold and environmental changes of periglacial Europe. The site has yet to yield any human or Neanderthal remains, so it cannot be assigned with certainty to either modern humans or Neanderthals until such bones or DNA are found, but the technological evidence is compelling.

Further reading here and here, and the original research article.

Research on the Genetic Heritage of Kazakhs in Russia's Altai Republic

Theodore Schurr and Matthew Dulik, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, recently published the results of their research on the genetic heritage of Kazakhs in Russia's Altai Republic. Their study focused on the Y-chromosome variation, using these genetic markers to examine questions about the influence and role of expansion of the Mongol Empire in the genetic variation of Altaian Kazakhs, as well as comparing the paternal ancestry of this population with other groups in Central Asia.

The Altai region is an important area of culture contact and trade near the ancient network of routes known as the Silk Road. Schurr and Dulik found differences in the patterns of y-chromosomal genetic variation among Kazakh populations and also from other Central Asian populations. All of the groups studied showed evidence of genetic influence by the 13th century CE Mongol Empire.

Links to the original research article and the press release.

Check out Media Coverage for the Athabascan Snowshoe Master Artists Workshop

Check out media coverage for the Athabascan Snowshoe Master Artists workshop of the Recovering Voices – Alaska’s Living Cultural Treasures program.

KSKA radio

http://kska.org/2011/05/09/snowshoe-workshop-seeks-to-preserve-traditional-artistry/

KTUU

Online photo story

http://www.ktuu.com/news/ktuu-snowshoe-builders-display-their-craft-at-the-anchorage-museum-20110505,0,7760220.story

KTVA Channel 11

http://www.ktva.com/news/in-the-spotlight/Passing-Down-Athabascan-Tradition-of-Snowshoes-121227539.html

Juneau Empire

http://juneauempire.com/art/2011-05-04/snowshoe-artists-visit-anchorage-museum-through-Friday

Alaska Business Monthly

http://www.akbizmag.com/events/11090-master-snowshoe-artists-share-craft-at-anchorage-museum.html

MSNBC.com

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42924840/ns/local_news-anchorage_ak/t/snowshoe-builders-display-their-craft-anchorage-museum/

 

Canadian Archaeological Association Meeting, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Next week researchers from the Arctic Studies Center will be traveling to Halifax to attend the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Archaeological Association  and present some of the research that has been occupying them of late. We hope to see many of you there. 

Stephen Loring will be presenting a paper entitled: Observing the Pleistocene in Nitassinan: the Archaeology and Ethnography of Caribou Hunting Dynamics in the Interior of Labrador, in a session organized by Tim Bernard, the Director of History and Culture for the Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq. The session is entitled: New Developments in Late Glacial Archaeology and Geology in Northeastern North America

Bill Fitzhugh  will be presenting a paper in a session in honor of one of the most influential researchers in the Eastern Canadian Subarctic and Northern New England, David Sanger of the University of Maine. This session was organized by Alice Kelley (University of Maine), M.A.P. Renouf (Memorial University of Newfoundland) and Brian Robinson (University of Maine). It is entitled: From Coast to Coast: Session in Honour of David Sanger. Bill's paper is entitled: Seals, Sea Ice, and Paleoeskimos: Environmental Factors Controlling Dorset Boundaries South of Labrador

Chris Wolff  co-organized a session with Don Holly of Eastern Illinois University entitled: Current Archaeology on the Island of Newfoundland. He has co-authored two papers with Don Holly and John Erwin (Provincial Govt. of Newfoundland and Labrador) in this session regarding work they have been conducting in Southeastern Newfoundland at the Stock Cove Site. The papers are entitled: Stock Cove Revisited: Recent Research and Reevaluation of the Dorset Occupation of the Stock Cove Site, Southeastern Newfoundland and Stock Cove West: A Little Passage/Beothuk site in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland.

Unfortunately they are all scheduled at around the same time on Thursday, the 19th, so hard decisions will have to be made. We hope you can attend at least one of our papers and look forward to seeing everyone at the conference. 

Excavation of Prehistoric Ainu sites

Beginning in summer 2011, The Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP) is undertaking an excavation in the Japanese Hokkaido island chain. The project is a collaboration between the University of Alberta (Canada) and Hokkaido University (Japan) in partnership with many international researchers. The two sites that will be their primary areas of focus date to the Middle and Late Jomon periods (3,000 to 1,000 BCE). The project will be investigating comparisons with other Northern, Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers, and the prehistory of the indigenous Ainu people.

New Research into Kazakh Genetic Heritage

Theodore Schurr and Matthew Dulik, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, recently published the results of their research on the genetic heritage of Kazakhs in Russia's Altai Republic. Their study focused on the Y-chromosome variation, using these genetic markers to examine questions about the influence and role of expansion of the Mongol Empire in the genetic variation of Altaian Kazakhs, as well as comparing the paternal ancestry of this population with other groups in Central Asia.

The Altai region is an important area of culture contact and trade near the ancient network of routes known as the Silk Road. Schurr and Dulik found differences in the patterns of y-chromosomal genetic variation among Kazakh populations and also from other Central Asian populations. All of the groups studied showed evidence of genetic influence by the 13th century CE Mongol Empire.

Links to the original research article and the press release.

Master snowshoe artists share craft at Anchorage Museum

On May 3-6, the Anchorage Museum will host a master artists’ workshop to highlight a key implement of Arctic survival — the snowshoe. Gwich’in and Koyukon snowshoe makers Trimble Gilbert of Arctic Village, George Albert of Ruby, and Butch Yaska of Huslia will build traditional snowshoes of sinew, hide and birch while teaching the intricate construction process to apprentices from their communities.

Museum visitors may observe May 3-6 as the artists bend, carve and string snowshoes in the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center. The artists will give a talk at noon Thursday, May 5.

During this four-day workshop, the artists will discuss snowshoe making in their Native languages, documenting the rich vocabulary and traditional knowledge that surround this focal item of Athabascan culture. Smithsonian anthropologists will document the workshop to produce a multilingual publication and film.

This is one of several major research endeavors the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center has led recently, including a Dena’ina language workshop. This program is sponsored by the Alaska State Council on the Arts, Smithsonian Institution’s Recovering Voices program, and National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

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