Southeast Asian Prehistory
An international research team has discovered new DNA evidence to overturn conventional theories that suggest that the present-day populations of Island Southeast Asia (covering the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysian Borneo) came from Taiwan 4,000 years ago. The researchers show that population dispersals came earlier, from within the region, and probably resulted from flooding.
So Bellwood might have been wrong… The Out-of-Taiwan hypothesis is such an important part of my Archaeology classes in Uni that we have almost swallowed it. I wonder what Bellwood’s reaction is regarding this particular study. Does he have a rebuttal?
An archaeological team has dug up a pot shard with an inscription around its shoulder, at the San Ignacio archeological site in Intramuros, Philippines, which shows an ancient form of writing.
This is a really cool finding. Evidence of ancient script is very rare in the Philippines. This makes the sherd (edited; shard? what was I thinking? It’s a sherd!!!) an important artifact.
South American Archaeology
Archaeologists have found three Inca child mummies dating back to 500yrs on the top of the 22,000ft summit of the Mount Llullaillco volcano in Argentina. One of the mummies found is that of a thirteen year old girl, now dubbed as the ‘Llullaillaco Maiden’, the other two mummies are that of a boy and a girl aged around four years old. The mummy of Llullaillaco Maiden is remarkably preserved whereas the remains of the boy and the girl were struck by lightning and so are charred.
Sacrifices are very significant rituals in a lot of cultures around the world. (Note: I just want to give a sneak peak about something similar in the Philippines) In the Philippines, sacrifices of chickens, bulls or pigs are done as proxy for an actual human sacrifice. This is done to appease gods or spirits, to ensure good yield of crops, among others. I remember my Anthropology prof who told us a story about one of his informants. Seeing Manila, he made a comment that the reason why a lot of children die in Metro Manila is because no proper sacrifice and ritual was done for the construction of buildings and infrastructure.
The mystery potsherds sat in storage until 2011, when Mélanie Roffet-Salque pulled them out and analysed fatty residues preserved in the clay. Roffet-Salque, a geochemist at the University of Bristol, UK, found signatures of abundant milk fats — evidence that the early farmers had used the pottery as sieves to separate fatty milk solids from liquid whey. That makes the Polish relics the oldest known evidence of cheese-making in the world1.
Here’s an article about how the consumption of milk evolved in Europe. It also answers how Europeans overcame lactose intolerance through the lactase gene, while other populations in the world did not.