Ancient Whiz Opens Archaeology Window [Look out for number one]

Scientific American ^ | May 13, 2019 | Bob Hirshon

[SunkenCiv]

The residue of ancient urine can reveal the presence of early stationary herder-farmer communities.

A 10,000-year-old archaeological site in central Turkey is helping scientists unlock the region's pee-historic past. That's right: the salty residue of ancient urine can reveal how and when humans went from hunter-gatherers to herder-farmers who kept and raised animals in their settlements...

In the dry climate of central Turkey, the sodium, chloride and nitrates from all that animal excretion would be trapped in the layers of earth onto which they were originally peed. Excavating those salts, layer by layer, should provide a timeline of animal populations at the site...

Abell and his colleagues found that from 10,000 years ago to about 9,700 years ago, the site jumped from having just a few large organisms' worth of whiz to more than 1,800.

Of course, people pee too, so the researchers had to figure out which salts were from humans and which were from their animals. Luckily, the location of the salts provided clues -- for example, high concentrations in narrow alleyways too small for animals...

Something that goats and sheep do rarely, if ever. By subtracting contributions from humans, the researchers calculated that there had to be between 800 and 1,300 sheep and goats to account for the remaining pee...

Look out for number one.

[SunkenCiv]

The study appears in the journal Science Advances. [J.T. Abell et al, Urine salts elucidate Early Neolithic animal management at Asikli Höyük, Turkey]

[SunkenCiv]

Just for kicks, I'm going to do a second Digest ping for this week.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Mr. Blond]

Those neolithic Anatolian farmers. Always peeing everywhere.

[PIF]

Those neolithic Anatolian farmers. Always peeing everywhere.

---

Times have changed ... now people shit everywhere

[Red Badger]

Urine trouble now...........................

[samtheman]

They used to be a thriving community of herder-farmers, but then they petered out.

[SunkenCiv]

This probably explains why some of the earliest pagan dieties were "Puck" and "Pan".

[Red Badger]

...And Priapus..................

[SunkenCiv]

Priapus is old school, the new characters are Pre-op and Post-op.

[Red Badger]

....And Prius.....................