̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester

Neon sign identified by JWST gives clue to planet formation

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:06:11 +0000

Planetary systems like our Solar System seem to contain more rocky objects than gas-rich ones. Around our sun, these include the inner planets, the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. But scientists have known for a long time that planet-forming discs start with 100 times more mass in gas than in solids, which leads to a pressing question; when and how does most of the gas leave the disc/system?

JWST is helping scientists uncover how planets form, by advancing understanding of their birthplaces, the circumstellar discs surrounding young stars. In a new study published in the Astronomical Journal, a team of scientists including those from the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Arizona, image for the first time an old planet-forming disc (still very young relative to the Sun) which is actively dispersing its gas content.

Knowing when the gas disperses is important as it constrains the time that is left for nascent planets to consume the gas from their surroundings.

During the very early stages of planetary system formation, planets coalesce in a spinning disc of gas and tiny dust around the young star. These particles clump together, building up into bigger and bigger chunks called planetesimals. Over time, these planetesimals collide and stick together, eventually forming planets. ̽��ֱ��type, size, and location of planets that form depend on the amount of material available and how long it remains in the disc. So, the outcome of planet formation depends on the evolution and dispersal of the disc.

At the heart of this discovery is the observation of T Cha, a young star (relative to the Sun) enveloped by an eroding disc notable for its vast dust gap, approximately 30 astronomical units in radius. For the first time, astronomers have imaged the dispersing gas (aka winds) using the four lines of the noble gases neon (Ne) and argon (Ar), one of which is the first detection in a planet-forming disc. ̽��ֱ��images of [Ne II] show that the wind is coming from an extended region of the disc. ̽��ֱ��team is also interested in knowing how this process takes place, so they can better understand the history and impact on our solar system.

Scientists have been trying to understand the mechanisms behind the winds in protoplanetary discs for over a decade. ̽��ֱ��observations by JWST represent a huge step-change in the data they have to work with, compared to previous data from ground-based telescopes.

“We first used neon to study planet-forming discs more than a decade ago, testing our computational simulations against data from Spitzer, and new observations we obtained with the ESO VLT,” said co-author Professor Richard Alexander from the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester. “We learned a lot, but those observations didn’t allow us to measure how much mass the discs were losing.

“ ̽��ֱ��new JWST data are spectacular, and being able to resolve disc winds in images is something I never thought would be possible. With more observations like this still to come, JWST will enable us to understand young planetary systems as never before.”

“These winds could be driven either by high-energy stellar photons (the star's light) or by the magnetic field that weaves the planet-forming disc,” said Naman Bajaj from the ̽��ֱ�� of Arizona, the study’s lead author.

To differentiate between the two, the same group, this time led by Dr Andrew Sellek of Leiden Observatory and previously of the Institute of Astronomy at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, performed simulations of the dispersal driven by stellar photons. They compare these simulations to the actual observations and find dispersal by high-energy stellar photons can explain the observations, and hence cannot be excluded as a possibility.

“ ̽��ֱ��simultaneous measurement of all four lines by JWST proved crucial to pinning down the properties of the wind and helped us to demonstrate that significant amounts of gas are being dispersed,” said Sellek.

To put it into context, the researchers calculate that the mass dispersing every year is equivalent to that of the moon! These results will be published in a companion paper, currently under review at the Astronomical Journal.

̽��ֱ��[Ne II] line was discovered towards several planet-forming discs in 2007 with the Spitzer Space Telescope and soon identified as a tracer of winds by team member Professor Ilaria Pascucci at the ̽��ֱ�� of Arizona; this transformed research efforts focused on understanding disc gas dispersal. Now the discovery of spatially resolved [Ne II] - as well as the first detection of [Ar III] - using the James Webb Space Telescope, could become the next step towards transforming our understanding of this process.

̽��ֱ��implications of these findings offer new insights into the complex interactions that lead to the dispersal of the gas and dust critical for planet formation. By understanding the mechanisms behind disc dispersal, scientists can better predict the timelines and environments conducive to the birth of planets. ̽��ֱ��team's work demonstrates the power of JWST and sets a new path for exploring planet formation dynamics and the evolution of circumstellar discs.

Reference:
Naman S Bajaj et al. ‘JWST MIRI MRS Observations of T Cha: Discovery of a Spatially Resolved Disk Wind.’ ̽��ֱ��Astronomical Journal (2024). DOI: 10.3849/1538-3881/ad22e1

Adapted from a ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester press release.

̽��ֱ��winds that help to form planets in the gaseous discs of early solar systems have been imaged for the first time by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) using the noble gases neon and argon.

ESO/M. Kornmesser

Artist's impression of the surroundings of the supermassive black hole in NGC 3783

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Let’s go wild: how ancient communities resisted new farming practices

amb206 — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 11:01:15 +0000

A box of seemingly unremarkable stones sits in the corner of Dr Giulio Lucarini’s office at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research where it competes for space with piles of academic journals, microscopes and cartons of equipment used for excavations. These palm-sized pebbles were used as grinding tools by people living in North Africa around 7,000 years ago. Tiny specks of plant matter recently found on their surfaces shine light on a fascinating period of human development and confirm theories that the transition between nomadic and settled lifestyles was gradual.

̽��ֱ��artefacts in Lucarini’s office come from a collection held in the store of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) just a couple of minutes’ walk away. In the 1950s the well-known Cambridge archaeologist Sir Charles McBurney undertook an excavation of a cave called Haua Fteah located in northern Libya. He showed that its stratigraphy (layers of sediment) is evidence of continuous human habitation from at least 80,000 years ago right up to the present day. Finds from McBurney’s excavation were deposited at MAA.

In 2007, Professor Graeme Barker, also from Cambridge, started to re-excavate Haua Fteah with support from the ERC-funded TRANS-NAP Project. Until 2014, Barker and his team had the chance to spend more than one month each year excavating the site and surveying the surrounding Jebel Akhdar region, in order to investigate the relationships between cultural and environmental change in North Africa over the past 200,000 years.

Now an analysis of stone grinders from the Neolithic layers of Haua Fteah (dating from 8,000-5,500 years ago), carried out by Lucarini as his Marie Skłodowska-Curie Project ‘AGRINA’, in collaboration with Anita Radini ( ̽��ֱ�� of York) and Huw Barton ( ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester), yields new evidence about people living at a time seen as a turning point in human exploitation of the environment, paving the way for rapid expansion in population.

Around 11,000 years ago, during the early phase of the geological period known as Holocene, nomadic communities of Near Eastern regions made the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a more settled farming existence as they began to exploit domesticated crops and animals developed locally. ̽��ֱ��research Lucarini is carrying out in Northern Libya and Western Egypt is increasingly revealing a contrasting scenario for the North African regions.

In a paper published today, Lucarini and colleagues explain that the surfaces of the grinders show plant use-wear and contain tiny residues of wild plants that date from a time when, in all likelihood, domesticated grains would have been available to them. These data are consistent with other evidence from the site, notably those from the analysis of the plant macro-remains carried out by Jacob Morales ( ̽��ֱ�� of the Basque Country), which confirmed the presence of wild plants alone in the site during the Neolithic. Together, this evidence suggests that domesticated varieties of grain were adopted late, spasmodically, and not before classical times, by people who lived in tune with their surroundings as they moved seasonally between naturally-available resources.

Lucarini is an expert in the study of stone tools and has a particular interest in the beginning of food production economies in North Africa. Using an integrated approach of low and high-power microscopy in the George Pitt-Rivers Lab at the McDonald Institute, and in the BioArCh Lab at the ̽��ֱ�� of York, he and his colleagues were able to spot plant residues, too small to be visible to the naked eye, caught in the pitted surface of several of the stones from Haua Fteah. Some of the grinders themselves exhibit clear ‘use-wear’ with their surfaces carrying the characteristic polish of having been used for grinding over long periods.

“It was thrilling to discover that microscopic traces of the plants ground by these stones have survived for so long, especially now that we’re able to use powerful high-power microscopes to look at the distinctive shape of the starch granules that offer us valuable clues to the identities of the plant varieties they come from,” says Lucarini.

By comparing the characteristic shape and size of the starch found in the grinders’ crevices to those in a reference collection of wild and domestic plant varieties collected in different North African and Southern European countries, Lucarini and Radini were able to determine that the residues most probably came from one of the species belonging to the Cenchrinae grasses. Various species of the genus Cenchrus are still gathered today by several African groups when other resources are scarce. Cenchrus is prickly and its seed is laborious to extract. But it is highly nutritious and, especially in times of severe food shortage, a highly valuable resource.

“Haua Fteah is only a kilometre from the Mediterranean and close to well-established coastal routes, giving communities there access to commodities such as domesticated grain, or at least the possibility to cultivate them. Yet it seems that people living in the Jebel Akhdar region may well have made a strategic and deliberate choice not to adopt the new farming practices available to them, despite the promise of higher yields but, instead, to integrate them into their existing practices,” says Lucarini.

“It’s interesting that today, even in relatively affluent European countries, the use of wild plants is becoming more commonplace, complementing the trend to use organically farmed food. Not only do wild plants contribute to a healthier diet, but they also more sustainable for the environment.”

Lucarini suggests that North African communities delayed their move to domesticated grains because it suited their highly mobile style of life. “Opting to exploit wild crops was a successful and low-risk strategy not to rely too heavily on a single resource, which might fail. It’s an example of the English idiom of not putting all your eggs in one basket. Rather than being ‘backward’ in their thinking, these nomadic people were highly sophisticated in their pragmatism and deep understanding of plants, animals and climatic conditions,” he says.

Evidence of the processing of wild plants at Haua Fteah challenges the notion that there was a sharp and final divide between nomadic lifestyles and more settled farming practices – and confirms recent theories that the adoption of domesticated species in North Africa was an addition to, rather than a replacement of, the exploitation of wild resources such as the native grasses that still grow wild at the site.

“Archaeologists talk about a ‘Neolithic package’ – made up of domestic plants and animals, tools and techniques – that transformed lifestyles. Our research suggests that what happened at Haua Fteah was that people opted for a mixed bag of old and new. ̽��ֱ��gathering of wild plants as well as the keeping of domestic sheep and goats chime with continued exploitation of other wild resources – such as land and sea snails – which were available on a seasonal basis with levels depending on shifts in climatic conditions,” says Lucarini.

“People had an intimate relationship with the environment they were so closely tuned to and, of course, entirely dependent on. This knowledge may have made them wary of abandoning strategies that enabled them to balance their use of resources – in a multi-spectrum exploitation of the environment.”

Haua Fteah continues to pose puzzles for archaeologists. ̽��ֱ��process of grinding requires two surfaces – a hand-held upper grinding tool and a base grinding surface. Excavation has yielded no lower grinders which made have been as simple as shallow dish-shaped declivities in local rock surfaces. “Only a fraction of the extensive site has been excavated so it may be that lower grinders do exist but they simply haven’t been found yet,” says Lucarini.

̽��ֱ��uncertain political situation in Libya has resulted in the suspension of fieldwork in Haua Fteah, in particular the excavation of the Neolithic and classical layers of the cave. Lucarini hopes that a resolution to the current crisis will allow work to resume within the next few years. He says: “Haua Fteah, with its 100,000 years of history and continuous occupation by different peoples, is a symbol of how Libya can be hospitable and welcoming. We trust in this future for the country.”

Inset images: Giulio Lucarini analysing the artefacts at the microscope, George Pitt-Rivers Laboratory, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research (Aude Gräzer Ohara); Upper grinder found in the Neolithic layers of the cave, with plant residues stuck inside a crevice (Giulio Lucarini); Anita Radini collecting plants and algae for reference collection in Fezzan, Libya (Muftah Haddad); Cenchrinae starch granules from the Haua Fteah archaeological tools (a-c) and modern starch granules of Cenchrus biflorus (d) scale 20 µm (Anita Radini); Cenchrus ciliaris L., Burkina Faso (Arne Erpenbach, African plants - A Photo Guide www.africanplants.senckenberg.de).

Analysis of grinding stones reveals that North African communities may have moved slowly and cautiously from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to more settled farming practices. Newly published research by Cambridge archaeologist Dr Giulio Lucarini suggests that a preference for wild crops was a strategic decision.

Rather than being ‘backward’ in their thinking, these nomadic people were highly sophisticated in their pragmatism and deep understanding of plants, animals and climatic conditions

Giulio Lucarini

Haua Fteah, Cyrenaica, Libya. ̽��ֱ��cave’s entrance.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Cast of ancient skull of Bede, the ‘Father of English history', found in Cambridge collection.

pbh25 — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 14:28:40 +0000

A cast of the skull of Bede – the ‘Father of English History’ – has been rediscovered within the anatomical collections of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge by an academic from the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester.

An exhibition showcasing the cast of the skull – recently rediscovered by Professor Jo Story of the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester’s School of History – and the story behind the excavation of Bede’s tomb in 1831 and the preservation of the skull found there, has opened today (8 September) at Bede’s World, Jarrow, Tyne and Wear.

Bede (also known as ̽��ֱ��Venerable Bede) lived from 672–735. He was one of the most influential scholars in medieval Europe. His most famous work, completed in AD 731, is the 'Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum' or ' ̽��ֱ��Ecclesiastical History of the English People'.

It is the key source for understanding early British history and the establishment of Christianity in England, and it was the very first work of history to use the AD system of dating which is still in use today.

In 1831 Dr James Raine excavated the tomb of Bede in Durham Cathedral. This tomb contained the bones that had been venerated throughout the middle ages as those of Bede. ̽��ֱ��medieval tomb was destroyed at the Reformation but the bones it contained were carefully laid out in a new tomb in the Galilee Chapel at the western end of the cathedral, where they remain today.

̽��ֱ��new Jarrow exhibition explores the medieval devotion to Bede, and the discovery, preservation, and fierce debate about the authenticity of the skull in the mid-19th century. This story is revealed in a new article by Professor Story and Richard Bailey (formerly Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Anglo-Saxon Civilisation at the ̽��ֱ�� of Newcastle upon Tyne) just published in ̽��ֱ��Antiquaries Journal.

By kind permission of the Society of Antiquaries of London, this article on ‘ ̽��ֱ��Skull of Bede’ has been made free to view online by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, to coincide with the opening of the exhibition.

Professor Story said: “ ̽��ֱ��story of ‘ ̽��ֱ��skull of Bede’ is one that takes us to the heart of 19th-century ideas about race and the peopling of the British Isles in antiquity. It traces the thread of evidence that links the cast in the Cambridge cupboard back to the excavation of Bede’s tomb in Durham Cathedral in 1831, and from there back to the destruction of the medieval shrines of saints in Reformation England, to the devotion to the memory of Bede throughout the middle ages, to the creation of Durham Cathedral in early twelfth-century Norman England.”

Professor Bailey said: “Thirty years ago, when working on the cult of Bede, I discovered Dr Raine’s handwritten note which showed that he had ordered three casts of the skull he had found in Bede’s tomb. I tracked the subsequent fate of one of them through to the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries but it had disappeared by 1900. Every other trail I tried to follow then went cold on me. Imagine my surprise therefore when Professor Story e-mailed me with a photograph of the Cambridge cast! Of course, that means that there may still be one more out there somewhere.”

̽��ֱ��article uncovers the tale of Alfred Westou, a thieving monk who, in the early eleventh century, is said to have stolen the bones of Bede from his original grave in the monastery of Jarrow and secreted them into the tomb of St Cuthbert at Durham for safe keeping.

̽��ֱ��bones were discovered there in 1104 when St Cuthbert’s tomb was moved from the old Anglo-Saxon cathedral into the magnificent new Norman building, where it remains today.

In the article, Story and Bailey argue that the skull recovered in Durham by James Raine in 1831 was almost certainly that which was discovered in Cuthbert’s tomb in 1104, and thus that it was the skull that Westou had excavated, and which he believed was that of Bede himself.

Raine was perplexed by the shape of the skull found in Bede’s tomb, and had a plaster cast made before reinterring the bones. Three copies of Raine’s cast were made in 1831.

Raine gave one cast to Dr John Thurnam, a pioneering psychiatrist and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, who had developed a specialist interest in ethnography and archaeology alongside his medical work.

All the casts were since believed to be lost, but Professor Jo Story recently discovered Thurnam’s cast in the collections of the Duckworth Laboratory in the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies (LCHES) at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��cast of the skull of Bede sits there alongside remains of the earliest hominids, which are the focus of the pioneering research at LCHES.

̽��ֱ��cast made it into the collection via Sir George M Humphry, Professor of Anatomy at Cambridge 1866-83, and then of Surgery. He was a noted collector of specimens for the museum of anatomy and surgical pathology at Cambridge and it is thought he may have acquired the collection shortly after Thurnam’s death in 1873.

It was later incorporated into the collection of Crania and Cranial Bones in the [Anatomy] Museum of Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� and then transferred in 1968 from the Department of Anatomy to Department of Physical Anthropology before finally being moved to the reference collection of the Duckworth Laboratory.

̽��ֱ��laboratory is named after noted anatomist and former Master of Jesus College, Wynfrid L H Duckworth. ̽��ֱ��Duckworth collection was created in 1945 to hold the amalgamated material from the ̽��ֱ��’s Collection of Anatomy and those from the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology

A copy of the Cambridge cast has been made for the museum of Early Medieval Northumbria at Bede’s World in Jarrow by the Duckworth director Dr Marta Mirazon Lahr and senior technician Maggie Bellatti. It is the centrepiece of the new exhibition which opens on Tuesday 8 September at Bede’s World, Jarrow.

Matt Storey, of Bede’s World, said: “Not only is it exciting that we have been able to acquire a cast of the skull of Bede for permanent display at the museum, but the story behind the cast opens up a number of fascinating questions about what happened to Bede’s bones after his death along with the celebration of his cult in medieval Europe. ̽��ֱ��project has been a very successful collaboration between Bede’s World, the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and I hope that there will be further opportunities for us to work together in the future.”

Picture credits: Skull images; J. Story, with permission of the director of the Duckworth Laboratory at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies. Catalogue images: with permission of the director of the Duckworth Laboratory at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies.

Duckworth Collection provides the missing link in a search for the venerable Bede's skull cast.

̽��ֱ��story of ‘ ̽��ֱ��skull of Bede’... traces the thread of evidence that links the cast in the Cambridge cupboard back to the excavation of Bede’s tomb in Durham Cathedral in 1831.

Professor Jo Story of the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester’s School of History

More information:

̽��ֱ��‘Skull of Bede’ by Professor Jo Story and Richard Bailey is free to view online from 4 September until 31 December 2015: http://journals.cambridge.org/Skull_of_Bede

Information about Bede’s World is available here: www.bedesworld.co.uk

For information on the LCHES go to www.human-evol.cam.ac.uk/index.html

Story based on a ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester press release: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2015/september/univers....

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Poisons, plants and Palaeolithic hunters

amb206 — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 10:30:00 +0000

We’re surrounded by poisonous plants: they thrive in our parks and gardens, hedgerows and woodlands. Foxgloves (Digitalis) look charming but their seeds can kill. ̽��ֱ��flowers of monkshood (Aconitum napellus) are a stunning blue but its roots can be deadly. Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is both common and extremely toxic as Shakespeare reminds us in Macbeth with the incantations of the witches.

Archaeologists have long believed that our ancestors used poisons extracted from such plants to make their weapons more lethal and kill their prey more swiftly. By dipping an arrow head into a poisonous paste, the hunter could ensure that an animal would receive a dose of toxic chemicals - alkaloids or cardenolides - that would either kill it immediately or slow it down.

Until very recently it has been impossible to prove that poisons extracted from plants were used by early societies. Now Dr Valentina Borgia, a specialist in Palaeolithic hunting weapons and Marie Curie Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, believes that she is on the brink of being able to prove that our ancestors used poisons as far back as 30,000 years ago.

Borgia has approached the likely use of poisons by our distant ancestors from a number of viewpoints. Her research looks at the ubiquity of poisonous plants in many local environments and their use both historically and by modern hunter-gatherers. Working with a forensic chemist she has also developed techniques capable of detecting tiny residues of poison on archaeological objects. She is now putting those techniques to the test with samples obtained from museum collections.

“We know that the Babylonians, Greeks and Romans used plant-based poisons both for hunting animals and in war. In fact, the word ‘toxic’ come from toxon, the Greek for bow. Taxus is a genus of the yew tree with a springy timber traditionally used to make bows. It also produces seeds used to poison arrows. In Britain, yews grown for their timber were planted in churchyards so that animals wouldn’t be poisoned by eating their berries,” says Borgia.

“Few hunter-gatherer societies remain today but all the groups that have survived employ poisons. ̽��ֱ��Yanomami people of the Amazonian rainforest use curare - a mix of Strychnos genus plants - to poison their arrows. In Africa, a variety of different plants are used to make poisons. Acokanthera, Strophantus and Strychnos are the most common.”

Many Northern Asian populations used monkshood (Aconitum) to kill large animals such as bear and Siberian ibex. Poisonous plants also feature in folklore. In Malaysia, darts are poisoned using Antiaris toxicaria, a poison that comes from the Upas tree. A Malaysian legend says: “Seven up, eight down and nine no life”. ̽��ֱ��victim takes seven steps uphill, eight steps downhill and a ninth final step.

In 2014, Borgia enlisted the expertise of forensic chemist Michelle Carlin (Northumbria ̽��ֱ��) to help her devise a method for identifying residues of poison. Carlin’s day-to-day work is focused on crime and the detection of illegal substances through chemical analysis. Using a highly specialist technique called liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, she is able to detect invisible traces of drugs – such as cocaine in pocket linings.

̽��ֱ��same technique can be used to detect the presence of poisons used thousands of years ago. Together Borgia and Carlin have created a database listing toxic plants and have developed a non-destructive method of collecting samples of residues from archaeological materials, by simply touching the item with cotton imbued with pure water.

Samples of poisonous plants were supplied to the researchers by the Botanic Garden at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Alnwick Castle in Northumberland. Alnwick has a Poison Garden where visitors can see 150 poisonous plants. Some (such as monkshood) are so toxic that Alnwick has to obtain a licence from the Home Office in order to cultivate them.

Another route to identification of plant residues is to look for the presence of starches which remain on the surface of the prehistoric weapons. Starch grains can be used to determine plant taxa: each species has distinctive size, shape and structure. Borgia has collaborated with a major expert in this methodology, Dr Huw Barton ( ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester) in order to use starching testing as one of her research tools.

Many museums with ethnographical collections have poisoned weapons in their displays and stores. Borgia has been able to collect samples from objects held by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, the Pitts Rivers Museum in Oxford and the Museo Etnografico Pigorini of Roma (Italy) with the collaboration of her Italian colleague, Dr Jacopo Crezzini. ̽��ֱ��objects include a Chinese pot with Aconite poison inside (wrapped in a newspaper dated 13 July 1926), Malaysian darts poisoned with Upas, various African arrows and a glass tube containing curare.

“ ̽��ֱ��wonderful craftsmanship used to create objects so strongly associated with poison is also significant. As the French philosopher Simondon says, there is no pure technical device free from symbolic meaning,” says Borgia. “These artefacts fully express this concept, as they show a high degree of care. A scary-looking Borneo harpoon, wonderfully carved, in the Cambridge museum is thought to have been made from a human bone. A card, conserved with it, warns ‘Care. Has been poisoned’.”

Carlin’s analysis of these samples of materials has shown that residues of poisons are easily detectable on the objects a century later and that the residues retained their chemical characteristics. Now the real challenge for the researchers is to go much further back in time.

Testing of a sample of six stone-tipped pre-dynastic Egyptian arrows, dating from 4,000 years BC and conserved in the Phoebe A Hearst Museum of Berkeley (USA), is now taking place. At the time these arrows where first studied, 40 years ago, the researchers removed small portions of the black residue present on the tips, and injected into a cat. ̽��ֱ��reaction of the poor animal (which did survive) was evidence of the presence of a poison on the arrows.

“Nowadays we have the right instruments to get more information without cruelty to animals. Initial tests strongly suggest the presence of Acokanthera, a poisonous plant on our database, but we can’t be completely certain as there are a number of components in the compound,” said Borgia.

“It made good sense for people to use poisons. On their own, Palaeolithic weapons with stone arrowheads may not have been deadly enough to immobilise or kill a large animal such as a red deer. Poisons plants were plentiful and the Prehistoric population knew the environment where they lived, they knew the edible plants and their potential as medicines and poisons. To fabricate a poison is easy and economic, and the risk is minimal. In addition, the making of poisons is often part of the tradition and the rituality of hunting.”

When archaeologists remove items from the ground in the course of field work, they brush off the soil adhering to the finds and sometimes even wash objects. Borgia is appealing to fellow archaeologists to contact her when they find weapons and not to clean up their finds. “Now we have this technique available, and have shown that it works, we need to test it as much as possible on archaeological samples,” she says.

Borgia denies that her family name (Lucrezia Borgia is legendary as a devious poisoner) prompted her interest in poisons but she delights in the Latin quip ‘nomen omen’. It translates roughly as ‘significant name’ and certainly the name Borgia has powerful historic resonances. Luckily for Borgia’s colleagues, her objectives are honourable and entirely academic.

She says: “Investigation of the use of poisons in Prehistoric periods adds to our understanding of hunting techniques and rituals, and also how the plant world was exploited. ̽��ֱ��Renaissance physician Paracelsus wrote that dosis facit venenum (the dose makes the poison). Ethnographic studies tell us that the most common toxic plants used in poisons were also used to treat diseases. Not surprisingly, the same substances are the basis for many medications still in use today.”

Inset images: Aconitum napellus, credit Wikimedia Commons; starches of Aconite; pot of Aconitum wrapped in the 1926 newspaper, copyright of Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge; Egyptian arrow with poison, copyright of Phoebe A Hearst Museum of Berkeley (USA); poisoned arrows for crossbow, China, copyright of Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge; pot of curare, Peru, copyright of Pitt Rivers Museum, ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford.

Dozens of common plants are toxic. Archaeologists have long suspected that our Palaeolithic ancestors used plant poisons to make their hunting weapons more lethal. Now Dr Valentina Borgia has teamed up with a forensic chemist to develop a technique for detecting residues of deadly substances on archaeological objects.

Spatula to poison darts, Malaysia

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Richard III – case closed after 529 years

fpjl2 — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 17:46:44 +0000

An international research team has provided overwhelming evidence that the skeleton discovered under a car park in Leicester indeed represents the remains of King Richard III - closing what is probably the oldest forensic case solved to date.

Analysis of all the available evidence confirms identity of King Richard III to the point of 99.999% (at its most conservative).

̽��ֱ��team of researchers, including geneticist Dr Peter Forster from Murray Edwards College and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, and led by Cambridge graduate Dr Turi King have published their findings online today in the journal Nature Communications.

̽��ֱ��researchers collected DNA from living relatives of Richard III and analysed several genetic markers, including the complete mitochondrial genomes, inherited through the maternal line, and Y-chromosomal markers, inherited through the paternal line, from both the skeletal remains and the living relatives.

While the Y-chromosomal markers differ, the mitochondrial genome shows a genetic match between the skeleton and the maternal line relatives. ̽��ֱ��former result is not unsurprising as the chances for a false-paternity event is fairly high after so many generations.

Forster said: “Although the false paternity means we cannot look forward in time, we can trace King Richard’s Y lineage back into prehistory. Historically, the male line of the Plantagenets is recorded back until AD1028 in N France. Using King Richard’s genetic profile, we can go back much further: Richard’s G2a type traces back to the first farmers who migrated from the Near East and Anatolia (modern Turkey) to Europe about 8000 years ago, quickly spreading along the Mediterranean and into Central Europe and France by 5500BC.

"These pioneer farmers carried predominantly G2a types, which today are quite rare, around 1 percent in Europe (see map). And one of these Anatolian farmers was King Richard’s immigrant male ancestor. Incidentally, the descendants of the Plantagenets not only became Kings of England but also of Jerusalem, bringing the migration of this Y chromosome type full circle.”

Map shows locations of 14 living men who are close genetic matches to King Richard – their G2a type is quite rare, around 1 percent in Europe today.

Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA shows a match between Richard III and modern female-line relatives Michael Ibsen and Wendy Duldig. ̽��ֱ��male line of descent is broken at one or more points in the line between Richard III and living male-line relatives descended from Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort.

This paper is also the first to carry out a statistical analysis of all the evidence together to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Skeleton 1 from the Greyfriars site in Leicester is indeed the remains of King Richard III.

̽��ֱ��researchers also used genetic markers to determine hair and eye colour of Richard III and found that with probably blond hair - at least during childhood - and almost certainly blue eyes, Richard III looked most similar to his depiction in one of the earliest portraits of him that survived, that in the Society of Antiquaries in London.

“Our paper covers all the genetic and genealogical analysis involved in the identification of the remains of Skeleton 1 from the Greyfriars site in Leicester and is the first to draw together all the strands of evidence to come to a conclusion about the identity of those remains,” said Dr Turi King from the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester, who lead the research.

“Even with our highly conservative analysis, the evidence is overwhelming that these are indeed the remains of King Richard III, thereby closing an over 500 year old missing person’s case.”

Historically, the male line of the Plantagenets is recorded until Hugues, Count of Perche (documented AD1028 in N France).
Prehistorically, Richard’s male ancestor, carrying a G2a-type, arrived with the first farmers from the Near East and Anatolia (modern Turkey) to Europe about 8000 years ago, quickly spreading along the Mediterranean and into Central Europe and France by 5500BC.

̽��ֱ��research team now plans to sequence the complete genome of Richard III to learn more about the last English king to die in battle.

Adapted from a ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester press release.

DNA and genealogical study confirms identity of remains found in Leicester and uncovers new truths about his appearance and Plantagenet lineage.

Although the false paternity means we cannot look forward in time, we can trace King Richard’s Y lineage back into prehistory

Peter Forster

̽��ֱ�� of Leicester/Carl Vivian

Skull and bones of Richard III

Yes

Scientists use 3D scans to uncover the truth about Richard III’s spinal condition

jfp40 — Thu, 29 May 2014 23:15:08 +0000

Historical and literary references to the physical deformities of Richard III, who ruled England from 1483-1485, are well-known, but debate has raged for centuries over the extent to which these descriptions are true. Various historical and literary references refer to Richard III as “crook-backed” or “hunch-back’d” , but until now, it was unknown whether these descriptions were based on Richard’s actual appearance, or were an invention of later writers to damage his reputation.

Early examinations of the remains of Richard III, discovered in 2012 by archaeologists at the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester, showed that the king had a condition called scoliosis, where the spine curves to the side. ̽��ֱ��latest analysis, published in ̽��ֱ��Lancet, reveals that the king’s condition would have had a noticeable, but small, effect on his appearance, and is unlikely to have affected his ability to exercise.

Professor Bruno Morgan, and the forensic imaging team at the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester, created both physical and computer-generated replicas of the king’s spine by performing CT scans at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, and using 3D prints of the bones created by the Loughborough ̽��ֱ�� from the CT image data. This allowed the study authors to carefully analyse the remains of Richard III’s skeleton to accurately determine the nature of his spinal condition and the extent to which it would have affected his appearance.

̽��ֱ��results show that Richard’s scoliosis was unlikely to have been inherited, and that it probably appeared sometime after he was 10 years old. ̽��ֱ��condition would today be called ‘adolescent onset idiopathic scoliosis’, and is one of the commonest forms of scoliosis.

According to study author Dr Piers Mitchell, of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology: “ ̽��ֱ��physical deformity produced by Richard’s scoliosis was probably slight as he had a well-balanced curve of the spine. His trunk would have been short relative to the length of his limbs, and his right shoulder a little higher than the left. However, a good tailor to adjust his clothing and custom-made armour could have minimised the visual impact of this.”

“ ̽��ֱ��moderate extent of Richard’s scoliosis is unlikely to have resulted in any impaired tolerance to exercise from reduced lung capacity,” says study co-author Dr Jo Appleby, Lecturer in Human Bioarchaeology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester, “Moreover, there is no evidence to suggest Richard would have walked with an overt limp, as his curve was well balanced and the bones of the lower limbs symmetric and well formed.”

̽��ֱ��Dig for Richard III was led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council and in association with the Richard III Society. ̽��ֱ��originator of the Search project was Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society.

Research led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester, working with the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Loughborough ̽��ֱ�� and ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals of Leicester, has finally uncovered the truth about Richard III’s spinal condition.

̽��ֱ��physical deformity produced by Richard’s scoliosis was probably slight as he had a well-balanced curve of the spine

Dr Piers Mitchell

̽��ֱ�� of Leicester

Skeleton of Richard III

Yes

Deprivation responsible for 450 breast cancer deaths each year

sj387 — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 10:09:36 +0000

Research presented today at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Liverpool, and funded by Cancer Research UK, examined the effect deprivation has on the stage at which women are diagnosed with breast cancer, and how many lives are lost as a result.

̽��ֱ��researchers, based at the Universities of Leicester and Cambridge, looked at the stage of breast cancer in over 20,000 women diagnosed between 2006-2010 using data from the National Cancer Registration Service (Public Health England). They then calculated the number of lives that would be saved within 5 years of diagnosis if the stage at diagnosis for all deprivation groups matched those of the most affluent women.

̽��ֱ��study estimates that 40 lives would be saved every year in Eastern England if these socioeconomic differences were removed, equivalent to around 450 lives saved in the whole of England every year.

Dr Gary Abel, statistician at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and study author, said: “These avoidable deaths are not due to differences in the response to treatment, or the type of breast cancer. Rather these are deaths that might be avoided if cancer was caught as early in women from deprived backgrounds as those from more affluent backgrounds.

“ ̽��ֱ��reason for this inequality may be a combination of these women being less aware of breast cancer symptoms and a greater reluctance to see their GP.”

Dr Julie Sharp, head of health information at Cancer Research UK, said: “Other research shows that women from deprived backgrounds are more likely to feel embarrassed or worried about going to their GP – but it’s important for women to take that step as going to the GP promptly could make all the difference.

“All women should be aware of how their breasts normally look and feel because we know that early diagnosis is one of the most important factors in whether breast cancer treatment is effective.”

Adapted from CRUK press release

Deprivation could be responsible for around 450 deaths from breast cancer every year in England as women in lower income groups are likely to be diagnosed when the disease is more advanced, and treatment is less effective

These are deaths that might be avoided if cancer was caught as early in women from deprived backgrounds as those from more affluent backgrounds

Dr Gary Abel

Rhoda Baer

Woman receiving a mammogram

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Yes