News: Iceman Ötzi was a medical mess (29 Feb 2012)

Few of our ancestors have been so entirely studied as Neolithic Tyrolean Iceman "Ötzi," discovered melting out of an Alpine glacier in 1991 and who lived about 3.330 BCE. Researchers have looked into his stomach and bowels for traces of his last meal and analyzed his teeth for cavities. Now, an international team has sequenced his entire genome, and it turns out Ötzi still has some surprises in store.

Earlier computer scans had revealed Ötzi's severe arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. But the new analysis shows that Ötzi had a genetic predisposition to the condition. "This new data suggests that we might be less able to prevent arteriosclerosis than we believed," notes cardiologist and mummy expert Gregory Thomas of the University of California, Irvine, who was not involved in the new work.

The whole genome sequencing also reveals more about Ötzi's ancestors. Earlier research analyzed Ötzi's mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited through only the female line, but had found few known matches among modern populations. Now sequencing of his Y chromosome places him in the rare G2a2b haplogroup (called G2A4 haplogroup too), meaning that his paternal genes are linked to a population that left the Near East for Europe at the beginning of the Neolithic era, roughly 1000 years before Ötzi himself lived.

Ötzi's genetic profile marks him as being most closely related to small populations currently living in the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, as well as some of the more remote areas of Georgia and Russia, says geneticist Angela Graefen of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy, one of the principal researchers on the paper. That doesn't mean that Ötzi was Sardinian or Corsican, Graefen notes, but that those populations may be the closest living genetic matches to the hunter-gatherers who originally migrated into Europe.

The genome analysis also helps personify our picture of Ötzi: researchers now know he had brown eyes, brown hair, type-O blood, and shared the lactose intolerance that was then still the norm among Neolithic Europeans. He was also the first known carrier of Lyme disease: the sequencing yielded genes from the disease-causing Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium. Although scientists cannot know whether Lyme disease actually made Ötzi sick during his lifetime, the discovery of 60% of a B. burgdorferi genome from a Neolithic carrier shows that this pathogen has plagued humans for thousands of years. Until researchers compare the B. burgdorferi genome from Ötzi with more modern incarnations of the pathogen, they won't have a clear picture of how Lyme disease evolves. "But depending on the research other scientists are doing over the next few years, we could be gaining a lot more insights from Ötzi's genome," Graefen says.

The new paper adds to our knowledge of Neolithic life, says mummy expert Frank Ruehli of the University of Zurich in Switzerland. "Of course Ötzi is only one individual, but he's a very well-preserved, well-described individual, whom we have a lot of additional information about already. So this is an important step."

News: mummified Inca child sacrifice gives up her secrets (29 July 2013)

Sitting cross-legged, a Mona Lisa half-smile playing on her lips, the Llullaillaco Maiden looks at peace. She was unearthed in 1999, and she had a lump of coca in her teeth. In addition, she was found in a icy tomb in the top of a mountain.  These were the only clues that she was part of an Inca child sacrifice ritual 500 years ago.

Inca culture sacrifices (follow this link to a clear explanation in Wikipedia of Inca child sacrifices, known as capacocha rituals)

Now the latest studies of her perfectly preserved body lets us to look  into her life in the months leading up to her death – possibly from hypothermia – and raise questions about the extent to which she was aware of, and accepted, the fate that had been mapped out for her.

The frozen body of the 13-year-old Maiden was entombed in a small chamber 1.5 metres underground near the top of Volcán Llullaillaco in Argentina, together with the bodies of two 4 or 5-year-old childs. With the blood still visible in their hearts and their lungs inflated, the three are probably the best-preserved mummies anywhere in the world, says Andrew Wilson at the University of Bradford in the UK. "They look very recognisable as individuals, which adds to the poignancy of their story."

The children were the centrepiece of an elaborate capacocha ritual – the Inca practice of child sacrifice used to mark important events in the emperor's life. What we know about the ritual comes from 17th-century Spanish accounts, but they reveal little from the children's perspective. The mummies, in particular that of the Maiden, help fill that gap.

Timeline in hair

"She has fantastically braided hair, which effectively acts as a timeline stretching back almost two years before her death," says Wilson. With colleagues, he has analysed how chemical traces in the hair differ from root to tip. The results show the Maiden experienced important dietary changes in those final two years.

Around 12 months before her death, for instance, the Maiden's diet changed markedly from simple to much richer food, indicating the moment that she was elevated to a higher status as someone chosen for sacrifice. The chemical markers also show she consumed large quantities of alcohol and coca – from which cocaine is extracted – in the final months of her life. Her coca use peaked when she had six months to live, possibly coinciding with a hair-cutting ritual she underwent at the time. The final six weeks of her life, meanwhile, were marked by her consuming more alcohol than usual. This was not seen in the two younger children sacrificed with her, who almost certainly both played some subordinate "attendant" role in the capacocha ritual.

Coping mechanism

It's certainly a possibility, says John Verano at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. "We can only hypothesise, but being older, she might have had more of an idea of what was going on around her," he says. And although she may have considered her imminent death an honour – as we know the Inca were encouraged to do – it may equally have caused her anxiety. "Was she nervous and using drink as a way to deal with it?" asks Verano.

However, Verano points out that the Maiden's increased intake of alcohol may simply reflect her involvement in more rituals before the capacocha (maize beer is an important component of Inca ceremonies)

Charles Stanish at the University of California, Los Angeles, offers another interpretation: rather than the alcohol and drugs being used to sedate the Maiden to make it easier for her carers to manipulate her, they might have been for her benefit – to numb her to her fate. "Some would say that within this cultural context, this was a humane action," he says.

There may be a way to throw more light on the issue, says Verano. Hair also contains the stress hormone cortisol, so it should hold clues to the Maiden's stress levels. "If cortisol concentration also increased towards the end of her life, that would certainly be interesting," he says.

News: human brain boiled in its skull lasted 4000 years (03 October 2013)

SHAKEN, burned and boiled in its own juices, this 4000-year-old human brain has been through a lot.

It may look like nothing more than a bit of burnt log, but it is one of the oldest brains ever found. Its discovery, offers the idea that in archaeological remains, more ancient brain specimens could exist. If that's the case, it potentially opens the way to studying the health of the brain in prehistoric times.

Brain tissue is rich in enzymes that cause cells to die rapidly after death, but this process can be stopped in some certain ambient conditions. For instance, brain tissue has been found in the perfectly preserved body of an Inca child sacrificed 500 years ago (this new will be released in this blog in near future, so make sure to check it). In this case, the child died at the top of an Andean mountain where the body froze, preserving the brain.

However, Seyitömer Höyük – the Bronze Age settlement in western Turkey where this brain was found – is not in the mountains. So how did brain tissue survive in four skeletons found there between 2006 and 2011?

Meriç Altinoz at Haliç University in Istanbul, Turkey, who together with colleagues has been analysing the find, says the clues are in the ground. The skeletons were found burnt in a layer of sediment that also contained charred wooden objects. Given that the region is tectonically active, Altinoz speculates that an earthquake flattened the settlement and buried the people before fire spread.

The flames would have consumed any oxygen in the rubble and boiled the brains in their own fluids. The resulting lack of moisture and oxygen in the environment were the ideal conditions to prevent tissue breakdown.

The final factor in the preservation of the brain was the chemistry of the soil, which is rich in potassium, magnesium and aluminium. These elements reacted with the fatty acids from the human tissue to form a soapy substance called adipocere (follow the link to an explanation in Wikipedia) Also known as corpse wax, it effectively preserved the shape of the soft brain tissue.

"The level of preservation in combination with the age is remarkable," says Frank Rühli at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, who has examined medieval brain tissue. Rühli says that most archaeologists don't bother looking for the remains of brain tissue because they assume it is rarely preserved. "If you publish cases like this, people will be more and more aware that they could find original brain tissue too."

In cases where the brain is as well preserved as this, Rühli says it might even be possible to look for pathological conditions such as tumours and haemorrhaging, and maybe even signs of degenerative disease. "If we want to learn more about the history of neurological disorders, we need to have tissue like this."

Decalogue of the Anthropoblogger

Anthropology: anthropos = human (us) + logos = knowledge. Is the science that deals with the social and biological aspects of man.

Ok that’s good, but  you may think, what is really anthropology?

Anthropology is about us, that ugly thing you see reflected in the mirror. That thing is YOU. You’re a human, just in case you haven’t notice yet.

The intention of this blog is to talk about in a relaxed (cup of coffee) way about anything related to humans, their evolution, their culture. These are our eleven Commandments (we’re better than the bible):

1. We won’t follow any order or structural organization in the blogs, because we want to reach a broad range of topics.
2. We love Darwin above all things.
3. We’ll post weekly, if that doesn’t happen please punish us.
4. We like to be criticized as it is the only way of improving. 
5. We love Waffles, if you have any, please send us some.
6. Thou shalt no have other blogs before me 
7. Our mother language is ESPANISH so be nice with our mistakes.
8. We’ll publish about news, papers, articles, curiosities , history...
9. You must follow us on twitter. 
10. Thou shalt not forget to comment.
11. Seriously, we love waffles.

Yes, this post is nearly nonsense, but we have broken the ice and the conversation has started, so it has worked, doesn’t it?

So please be welcome and feel like home. You have been Anthropoligized!