Hallie Buckley and Rebecca Kinaston, image courtesy of University of Otago

A University of Otago-led multidisciplinary team of scientists have shed new light on the diet, lifestyles and movements of the first New Zealanders by analysing isotopes from their bones and teeth.

In research published today in the prestigious international journal PLOS ONE, the team are able to identify what is likely to be the first group of people to colonise Marlborough’s Wairau Bar possibly from Polynesia around 700 years ago. They also present evidence suggesting that individuals from two other groups buried at the site had likely lived in different regions of New Zealand before being buried at Wairau Bar.

The researchers, co-ordinated by the Department of Anatomy’s Associate Professor Hallie Buckley, undertook isotopic analyses of samples recovered from the koiwi tangata (human remains) of the Rangitane iwi tupuna prior to their reburial at Wairau Bar in 2009.

Wairau River System, South Island, New Zealand. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Wairau Bar Koiwi Project is part of a larger archaeological project being conducted in collaboration with the Rangitane iwi, the Canterbury Museum and the University of Otago. The interpretation of these new data was strengthened by collaboration with colleagues from SPAR, the University of Otago archaeologists who undertook the more recent archaeological excavations at the site.

“By examining ratios of carbon and nitrogen isotopes present in bone collagen we were able to estimate individuals’ broad dietary makeup over a 10-20 year period prior to death. Our analysis of strontium isotopes in teeth allowed us to distinguish between people growing up in geologically different landscapes,” says Dr Rebecca Kinaston, who conducted the isotope analyses on the bones and teeth.

The tupuna were originally buried in three separate groups in a large village at the Wairau site. First excavated over 70 years ago, this ancient settlement is one of the most important archaeological sites in New Zealand because of its age and the range of east Polynesian type artefacts found there.

Wairau Bar, Image Source: Google Maps

Previous research found that one of the burial groups displayed distinct cultural differences to the two other burial groups at the site. These included the positions in which they were interred and the presence of more numerous and rich grave offerings, including whale bone ornaments and moa eggs generally not found with the other two groups.

The new isotopic analysis of bone collagen and teeth suggests that members of this first group shared similar diets and childhood origins, while individuals in Groups 2 and 3 displayed highly variable diets and spent their childhood in geologically different areas to Group 1.

“Interestingly, Group 1 individuals showed a dietary trend similar to that identified in prehistoric individuals from a site in the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, with both sets of people sharing a low diversity in protein sources,” Dr Kinaston says.

In contrast, dietary patterns in Groups 2 and 3 were found to be in line with individuals who spent most of their lives eating from a wide range of protein sources, such as would be available through New Zealand’s then bountiful seal, moa and other bird populations.

The large range found in Group 2 and 3’s strontium isotope ratios could reflect that they grew up in regions outside of Wairau Bar—but not where Group 1 did—and also that they were hunting and gathering across a wide geographical range, says Associate Professor Hallie Buckley.

“This is consistent with other archaeological evidence that the first settlers in New Zealand were highly mobile. That members of Groups 2 and 3 were still buried back at Wairau suggests that this village may have fulfilled both a ceremonial and home base function.”

If this is the case, this may represent the roots of the tangihanga ritual, in which Maori are buried in their ancestral lands, developing among these first New Zealanders, Associate Professor Buckley says.

Publication details

The first New Zealanders: patterns of diet and mobility revealed through isotope analysis
Rebecca Kinaston, Richard Walter, Chris Jacomb, Emma Brooks,
Nancy Tayles, Sian E Halcrow, Claudine Stirling4, Malcolm Reid, Andrew Gray,
Jean Spinks, Ben Shaw, Roger Fyfe, Hallie Buckley
PLOS ONE
The article can be accessed for free at: dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064580

About the Wairau Bar Koiwi Research Project

The Wairau Bar Koiwi Research Project is a joint initiative between the University of Otago, the Canterbury Museum and Rangitane ki Wairau. The kaitiakitanga of Rangitane ki Wairau over the tupuna (ancestors) discussed in the PLOS ONE paper is acknowledged by the University of Otago and members of this research group.

Lindisfarne Gospels and Beyond: Learning Across the Region

For more information visit our website: http://lindisfarnegospels.com/learning

This video was made possible via funding and support from:

ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND
Durham University
Durham Cathedral
Durham City Council
The Heritage Lottery Fund
The British Library

With Special Thanks:

Northumbrian Small Pipes Music: Kevin Tilbury http://www.ethnopiper.com

Low Bass Drum Sound: http://www.freesound.org/people/Puniho/

Monk Chant Sound: http://www.freesound.org/people/Striderjapan/

Here is the bustle gown which Mr. Soup wanted to know more about.

Ahoy, Archaeosoupians!

You see before you (right) a picture of me proudly modelling a bustle gown I made last year. Mr. Soup (known to me from our days working together in York) was fascinated by its construction and asked me to share with you a bit about how women of the period would make shapes like this with their clothes. So, here we go…

Among my projects, it’s a little unusual in that I didn’t make it for a show or a client- it was simply a test of my historical sewing skills, and a good challenge. A bustle gown is considered one of the most complex historical garments to make because of the strict fit and drapery. Here I’m going to answer a few frequently asked questions about wearing the outfit and the construction of its distinctive silhouette.

How did you get such a massive bum?

Here’s a picture of me in my Victorian underwear (picture.1)- how shocking! As you can see, I’m wearing a corset over a chemise, and a bustle.

1/1a: The structure of Victorian underwear!

This is essentially a petticoat with wire or “bones” in it to make it stand out from my back. In the 19^th century, whalebone as well as cane and steel were used in corsets and bustles alike, but these days steel is used almost exclusively. Bustles reached their peak of popularity in the 1870s and 1880s, and the one I’m wearing here aims for a date of around 1883. Making your bum seem bigger seems like a very strange thing to do these days, but throughout history women have wanted to make their hips seem wider, often to make the waist look smaller in comparison. Bustles can be made in different ways, but luckily mine has a panel you can lift up, so I can show you where the bones go. Inside the bustle, a ribbon is sewn to each point where a bone ends, and they are tied together to make the bone bend as you see  in picture. 1a.

Isn’t it heavy and uncomfortable? don’t you get too hot?

2. Layers trap air between them.

The large amount of air trapped between the skirts and in the folds of the petticoats is a great insulator, keeping me warm in the winter and cool in summer. Today most of the clothes we wear fit very close to our skin, which means there is less air trapped between us and the clothes. This means we have to wear lots of layers in winter and strip right down in summer, but until recently most people didn’t have this luxury. Not only were skimpier styles seen as inappropriate, most people would only own one or two outfits that had to be wearable all year round, so having an outfit that only worked in one season of the year would have been no good. As for the weight, it is a lot of fabric. Technological advances in the Industrial Revolution made fabric easier to purchase, and the Victorians responded to this by making gowns with as much fabric as they could possibly squeeze in. My outfit altogether weighs much more than almost any modern outfit would. All that weight, though, is pretty evenly spread out by my corset, making it much easier to deal with.

Whoa, isn’t it hard to breathe in those things? I heard they squash your organs up into you ribcage.

There are a lot of misconceptions about corsets, because unless you’re a burlesque dancer or a historical re-enactor, you’re unlikely to ever wear a real one yourself. Corsets can make it very difficult to breathe, but only if they’re done wrong. Remember when I said that the bustle is meant to make the waist look small in comparison to the hips? Well, the same is true for the bust. Victorian women don’t want to make their busts look small, because this would ruin the illusion. So corsets aren’t meant to constrain you around the chest, where your lungs are. In fact, they’re meant to support and push up the bust, much like a modern bra. They’re not even necessarily meant to actually make your waist smaller- taking into account how thick the corset is, my waist measurement is exactly the same when I’m wearing a corset and when I’m not wearing one. They also not only bear the weight of the large skirts, but also smooth out any rolls or lumpy bits in your abdomen. When I’m wearing it, I don’t feel uncomfortable at all- many corset wearers describe the sensation as a “tight hug”. However, I do lose some flexibility, because it’s very difficult not to have a straight back in a corset. Slobbing out on the sofa is difficult. Here’s a photo from Robert Wilson Shufeldt’s book Studies of the human form for artists, sculptors, and scientists (picture.3, below) showing the effect achieved by corsetry. You can see that although the waist is nipped in a bit, the bust and hips aren’t constrained at all.

3. The effect achieved by corsetry. Although the waist is nipped in a bit, the bust and hips aren’t constrained at all.

But didn’t Victorian women have tiny waists? That must have been because of their corsets!

It’s true that you sometimes see black and white pictures of women (Edwardian usually, rather than Victorian) with really tiny waists, (picture.4).

4. Edwardian women are often thought to have had tiny waists.

These tend to be actresses, the Megan Foxes and Victoria Beckhams of their day. And just like our celebrities, Victorian celebrities have smaller waists than the average woman. Sometimes, that’s literally all they’re famous for. In studies of historical garments, the typical waist rarely falls below 20 inches, which is not an unreasonable size on a young woman today. Victorian women were on average about four inches shorter than women today, too, which makes smaller waist sizes more feasible. Just to balance things out, here are some pictures of ordinary Victorian women wearing their Sunday best:

5. Ordinary women in the Sunday best.

How do you sit down in a bustle?

Now this is a tricky endeavour. Luckily the bones in bustles are made of a kind of steel which, if compressed, springs back into shape, so you don’t need to worry about getting up with a crumpled bustle. Sitting in a bustle, therefore, just involves making sure the bones are arranged properly around you. When I want to sit down, I back up to the chair until I can feel it hit the back of my skirt. Bearing in mind that the back of the skirt is actually quite far away from my legs, I can then judge how far back I need to sit. The bones of the bustle fold up behind me in the chair, and I cross my legs at the ankles.

6. Sitting down is a tricky endeavour!

Not so difficult after all! One problem that often crops up is the bustle pushing the chair backwards as you sit. This happens particularly on polished floors, and is why in period films, you’ll often see the gentlemen pulling out chairs for the ladies as they sit down to dinner- they’re making sure the chair doesn’t edge backwards. If you are trying to sit in a bustle or a crinoline, it’s useful to have friend on hand to help with this.

Having mastered sitting, the bustle wearer must then face the inevitable question of how to get in and out of a car, and how to use the toilet. Unfortunately there is no period answer to the car question- bustles having fallen out of favour a good while before cars became mainstream- but the toilet is an obstacle that Victorian women did face. Public toilets, with their narrow stalls, can be especially tricky to navigate, as the lack of space limits one’s ability to turn around. The first public stalls were opened in the Great Exhibition of 1851, and 827,280 visitors- including a good many ladies wearing crinolines- paid to use them. The method that I find works best (after much experimentation!) is to sit on the toilet backwards, i.e. facing the wall. That way, you don’t need to turn around twice in the skirt.

I hope I’ve give you a good primer into women’s underwear from the Bustle Era. These things often look very difficult to manage, but remember that Victorian women liked to be comfy just like we do, and it’s not possible to have an item of clothing in fashion for over twenty years if it’s completely impossible to live in!

***

Jenny Draper is a theatrical and historical costumier based in York.
She is currently creating the costumes for “Faustus: A Steampunk Musical” with Six Lips Theatre.
"Faustus: A Steampunk Musical" will be playing at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.

Welcome to Archae-Facts, the place to find bite-sized chunks of Archaeological Trivia!

Today, we hear of a Shakespeare play which really brought the house down!

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This is the interior of the Tomb of the Elephant. Image Courtesey of University Pablo Olavide.

The so-called Elephant’s Tomb in the Roman necropolis of Carmona (Seville, Spain) was not always used for burials. The original structure of the building and a window through which the sun shines directly in the equinoxes suggest that it was a temple of Mithraism, an unofficial religion in the Roman Empire. The position of Taurus and Scorpio during the equinoxes gives force to the theory.

The Carmona necropolis (Spain) is a collection of funeral structures from between the 1st century B.C. and the 2nd century A.D. One of these is known as the Elephant’s Tomb because a statue in the shape of an elephant was found in the interior of the structure.

The origin and function of the construction have been the subject of much debate. Archaeologists from the University of Pablo de Olavide (Seville, Spain) have conducted a detailed analysis of the structure and now suggest that it may originally not have been used for burials but for worshipping the God Mithras. Mithraism was an unofficial religion that was widespread throughout the Roman Empire in the early centuries of our era.

Researchers have identified four stages in which the building was renovated, giving it different uses.

“In some stages, it was used for burial purposes, but its shape and an archaeoastronomical analysis suggest that it was originally designed and built to contain a Mithraeum [temple to Mithras],” as explained to SINC by Inmaculada Carrasco, one of the authors of the study.

Carrasco and her colleague Alejandro Jiménez focus their studies on a window in the main chamber built during the first stage. Earlier studies had already suggested that the purpose of the window was not to provide light, but that rather it may have served a symbolic and spiritual purpose.

The Sun, the Moon and the stars

“From our analysis of the window, we have deduced that it was positioned so that the rays of the sun reached the centre of the chamber during the equinoxes, in the spring and autumn, three hours after sunrise” explains Carrasco.

This video shows the secrets of the Elephant’s Tomb. Video Courtesey of SINC

The authors believe that at that moment a statue of the tauroctony, the statue of Mithras slaying the bull (which has been lost), would have been illuminated.

In addition, during the winter and summer solstice, the sun would light up the north and south walls respectively.

Moreover, the position of the heavenly bodies at that time in the 2nd century reinforces the theory that the building was constructed for Mithraic worship, a religion that gave considerable importance to the constellations.

As the sun shines through the window during the spring equinox, Taurus rises to the East and Scorpio hides to the West. The opposite occurred during the autumn equinox.

Taurus and Scorpio were of special significance to the Mithraics. The main image of the cult is that of the God Mithras slaying a bull, and in the majority of these images there is also a scorpion stinging the animal’s testicles.

Other constellations such as Aquarius, Orion or Leo, which were also of significance in this religion, appear in the path of the sun in the equinoxes and solstices at that time.

Moreover, according to the authors, the Moon, although having a secondary role, may have lit up the face of Mithras with a full moon on nights near to the equinoxes.

Four stages of renovation

Apart from the window, the architecture of the original building has similarities to other Mithraic constructions.

Carrasco explained that it is “an underground structure, with a room divided into three chambers, with a shrine or altar illuminated by the window at the head. The presence of a fountain is also highly significant as these are commonly found in the Mithraeums”.

According to the authors, after its period as a Mithraic temple, the building was renovated three times, giving it new functions more in line with the functions of a necropolis. A burial chamber was built and at a later date, the roof was removed, leaving open courtyards. Lastly, it was filled with rubble and used as an area for burials.

However, there are some objections to the theory that it was a Mithraic temple as it is in a necropolis, an uncommon site for buildings used for this cult which were more often found in domestic, urban or rural environments.

“A similar case is that of Sutri (Italy) where the Mithraeum is on the outskirts of the town. The structure in Carmona is in a multi-purpose space, next to the Via Augusta which connected Cadiz to Rome, close to the amphitheatre and the circus, and consequently its position should not be considered an objection,” says Jiménez.

References:

A. Jiménez, I. Carrasco. “The tomb of the Elephant at the Roman Necropolis of carmona. A necessary review through the Building Archaeology and Archaeostromy” Archivo español de arqueología. DOI: 10.3989/aespa.085.012.007

Welcome to Questions of Doom. In this series, we answer your questions about Archaeology and our shared heritage.

Today, we ask: ‘Is there an easy route through an archaeology degree?’…

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Languages across the world have been linked as part of a ‘super family’. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

“Everybody in Eurasia can trace their linguistic ancestry back to a group, or groups, of people living around 15,000 years ago, probably in southern Europe, as the ice sheets were retreating.”

This article titled “European and Asian languages traced back to single mother tongue” was written by Ian Sample, science correspondent, for The Guardian on Monday 6th May 2013 19.00 UTC

Languages spoken by billions of people across Europe and Asia are descended from an ancient tongue uttered in southern Europe at the end of the last ice age, according to research.

The claim, by scientists in Britain, points to a common origin for vocabularies as varied as English and Urdu, Japanese and Itelmen, a language spoken along the north-eastern edge of Russia.

The ancestral language, spoken at least 15,000 years ago, gave rise to seven more that formed an ancient Eurasiatic “superfamily”, the researchers say. These in turn split into languages now spoken all over Eurasia, from Portugal to Siberia.

“Everybody in Eurasia can trace their linguistic ancestry back to a group, or groups, of people living around 15,000 years ago, probably in southern Europe, as the ice sheets were retreating,” said Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at Reading University.

Linguists have long debated the idea of an ancient Eurasiatic superfamily of languages. The idea is controversial because many words evolve too rapidly to preserve their ancestry. Most words have a 50% chance of being replaced by an unrelated term every 2,000-4,000 years.

But some words last much longer. In a previous study, Pagel’s team showed that certain words – among them frequently used pronouns, numbers and adverbs – survived for tens of thousands of years before other words replaced them.

For their latest study, Pagel used a computer model to predict words that changed so rarely that they should sound the same in the different Eurasiatic languages. They then checked their list against a database of early words reconstructed by linguists. “Sure enough,” said Pagel, “the words we predicted would be similar, were similar.”

Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors list 23 words found in at least four of the proposed Eurasiatic languages. Most of the words are frequently used ones, such as the pronouns for “I” and “we”, and the nouns, “man” and “mother”. But the survival of other terms was more baffling. The verb “to spit”, and the nouns “bark” and “worm” all had lengthy histories.

“Bark was really important to early people,” said Pagel. “They used it as insulation, to start fires, and they made fibres from it. But I couldn’t say I expected “to spit” to be there. I have no idea why. I have to throw my hands up.”

Only a handful of verbs appear on the list, but Pagel points out “to give”, which appeared in similar form in five of the Eurasiatic languages. “This is what marks out human society, this hyper-co-operation that we do,” he said.

From their findings, the scientists drew up a family tree of the seven languages. All emerged from a common tongue around 15,000 years ago, and split off into separate languages over the next 5,000 years.

“The very fact that we can identify these words that retain traces of their deep ancestry tells us something fundamental about our language faculties. It tells us we have this ability to transmit highly complicated and precise information from mouth to ear over tens of thousands of years,” said Pagel.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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Impression of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Stephanie Dalley of Oxford University has amassed a wealth of textual evidence to show that the hanging garden of Babylon was instead created at Nineveh, 300 miles from Babylon, in the early 7th century BC.

This article titled “Babylon’s hanging garden: ancient scripts give clue to missing wonder” was written by Dalya Alberge, for The Guardian on Sunday 5th May 2013 17.52 UTC

The whereabouts of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – the fabled Hanging Garden of Babylon – has been one of the great mysteries from antiquity. The inability of archaeologists to find traces of it among Babylon’s ancient remains led some even to doubt its existence.

Now a British academic has amassed a wealth of textual evidence to show that the garden was instead created at Nineveh, 300 miles from Babylon, in the early 7th century BC.

After 18 years of study, Stephanie Dalley of Oxford University has concluded that the garden was built by the Assyrians in the north of Mesopotamia – in modern Iraq – rather than by their great enemies the Babylonians in the south.

She believes her research shows that the feat of engineering and artistry was achieved by the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, rather than the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.

The evidence presented by Dalley, an expert in ancient Middle Eastern languages, emerged from deciphering Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform scripts and reinterpreting later Greek and Roman texts. They included a 7th-century BC Assyrian inscription that, she discovered, had been mistranslated in the 1920s, reducing passages to “absolute nonsense”.

She was astonished to find Sennacherib’s own description of an “unrivalled palace” and a “wonder for all peoples”. He describes the marvel of a water-raising screw made using a new method of casting bronze – and predating the invention of Archimedes’ screw by some four centuries.

Dalley said this was part of a complex system of canals, dams and aqueducts to bring mountain water from streams 50 miles away to the citadel of Nineveh and the hanging garden. The script records water being drawn up “all day”.

Recent excavations have found traces of aqueducts. One near Nineveh was so vast that Dalley said its remains looked like a stretch of motorway from the air, and it bore a crucial inscription: “Sennacherib king of the world … Over a great distance I had a watercourse directed to the environs of Nineveh …”

Having first broached her theory in 1992, Dalley is now presenting a mass of evidence in a book, The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon, which Oxford University Press publishes on 23 May. She expects to divide academic opinion, but the evidence convinces her that Sennacherib’s garden fulfils the criteria for a wonder of the world – “magnificent in conception, spectacular in engineering, and brilliant in artistry”.

Dalley said: “That the Hanging Garden was built in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar the Great is a fact learned at school and … ‘verified’ in encyclopaedias … To challenge such a universally accepted truth might seem the height of arrogance, revisionist scholarship … But Assyriology is a relatively recent discipline … Facts that once seemed secure become redundant.”

Sennacherib’s palace, with steps of semi-precious stone and an entrance guarded by colossal copper lions, was magnificent. Dalley pieced together ancient texts to reveal a garden that recreated a mountain landscape. It boasted terraces, pillared walkways, exotic plants and trees, and rippling streams.

The seven wonders appear in classical texts written centuries after the garden was created, but the 1st-century historian Josephus was the only author to name Nebuchadnezzar as creator of the Hanging Garden, Dalley said. She found extensive confusion over names and places in ancient texts, including the Book of Judith, muddling the two kings.

Little of Nineveh – near present-day Mosul – has so far been explored, because it has been judged too dangerous until now to conduct excavations.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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Welcome to Archae-Facts, the place to find bite-sized chunks of Archaeological Trivia!

Today, we consider the origins of a much-feared phrase…

*Back to the Future II clip employed under ‘fair use’ for commentary and reference to popular culture. Clip ownership is not my own and remains that of the Copyright Owners.*

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Archaeologists who discovered King Richard III under a car park now plan to exhume a second discovery found nearby- a 600-year-old lead lined stone coffin. Image courtesy of Leicester University

Archaeologists who discovered King Richard III under a car park now plan to exhume a second discovery found nearby- a 600-year-old lead lined stone coffin.

University of Leicester Archaeological Services has applied to the Ministry of Justice for an exhumation licence and to Leicester City Council to extend their dig to discover more about the Church of the Grey Friars where King Richard III was buried

Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, of the University of Leicester, said the stone coffin potentially contains the 14th century remains of a medieval knight called Sir William Moton. He is believed to have been buried at Grey Friars Church in 1362 – over a century before King Richard III.

The dig, due to start in July, will involve digging at the site of the former Alderman Newton Grammar School, next to the car park, and will entail partial demolition of a Victorian wall separating the sites.

A floor tile recovered from the Greyfriars excavation hints at the interior of the Church. Image Courtesy of Leicester University.

Mr Buckley said: “This will be a great opportunity to confirm the plan of the east end of the Grey Friars church to learn more about its dating and architecture, and will give us the chance to investigate other burials known to be inside the building.”

Mr Buckley said the tomb is one of four graves uncovered during the Search for Richard III.

The dig is funded by the University of Leicester and Leicester City Council, and will add to the historical information available about medieval Leicester.

The former School where the dig is due to take place is being converted into a Richard III heritage centre to coincide with the reinterment at nearby Leicester Cathedral next year.

City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “It’s important that the University is given the chance to continue its excavation of the site, as it’s quite possible there are more interesting discoveries to be made within the old Grey Friars church.

“Our aim is for the gravesite located within 6-8 St Martins to become part of the new visitor centre, and the removal of part of the wall will be necessary to make this happen. This application is therefore a step forward in the development of the site.”

The archaeological excavation would start at the beginning of July and last for around four weeks. There will be opportunities for the public to see the work in progress.

The earliest surviving portrait of Richard III. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The University of Leicester discovered human remains with signs of battle trauma in August 2012. The remains were exhumed in September and, following extensive scientific investigations, a team from the University of Leicester confirmed the remains were those of King Richard III in February 2013.

Following further examination by the University of Leicester, preparations are taking place for a reinterment at Leicester Cathedral in spring 2014.

The Search for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council and in association with the Richard III Society.