Ancient finds
Posted on 03/12/2020 1:06:39 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The beads were tested using a method called strontium isotope analysis to determine the point of origin for the shells, learning where they were originally laid.
Much like radiocarbon dating that analyzes the rate of decay of an element over time, the analysis relies on detecting strontium-87, the product of the radioactive element rubidium-87 as it decays.
Old rock formations including granite are found to have more strontium than younger rocks like basalt. And when animals eat grass from around these rocks, the strontium becomes part of their tissues.
Lesotho is at the heart of the Karoo Supergroup, a geologic formation with volcanic basalt at the center and older rings of rock stretching as far out as 202 to 621 miles away.
The researchers established a range of strontium isotopes by piecing together how much was available in a given area based on strontium content in soil and vegetation samples. They also used museum specimens, like rodent tooth enamel.
Their analysis revealed that 80% of the beads could not have originated from the Lesotho highlands. The study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
"These ornaments were consistently coming from very long distances," said Brian Stewart, study author and University of Michigan paleolithic archaeologist."The oldest bead in our sample had the third highest strontium isotope value, so it is also one of the most exotic."
His analysis showed that they could not have come from closer than 202 miles away, and may have first been made by hunter-gatherers as far as 621 miles away.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
EggBook?
If I was you, I’d be concerned :)
You came up with the same yolk? I hope you don’t scramble the topic, because, as I love puns, probably omelet you do it.
lol
It’s amazing that so many years ago people lived their lives thinking that they and their culture would be around forever.
Each generation and each culture thinks that, at least a little.
And before you know it, you’re an archaeological dig.
Fascinating and depressing at the same time :)
I often wondered how the bow and arrow became global. Or how is it that every society that we see on Earth today developed membranophones, ie drums with skin (membranes) heads. In both these cases it’s interesting to note that in Australia the Aborigines hadn’t either bow and arrows or drums. That indicates to me, the Australian Aborigines developed culturally apart every other group of peoples on the rest of the globe.
EggBook?
No, these were Bird’s eggs.
This was “Twitter”
That was good :)
:-)
...eggshell fragments. In the Mess Tent.
Nice.
LOL! I was just fitsin’ to type it when I read it.
No, ‘tweeter’.
I poached most of those.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXejTmEfz4c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_nETGb7B8g
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