Newsroom University of Manchester

An ancient lake supported human life in the Namib Sand Sea, say experts

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 11:22:07 +0100

, and ,

Desert regions in and the have been well studied by archaeologists as the and as routes of along “”. The archaeology of southern Africa’s west coast desert belt has not received the same attention.

The Namib Sand Sea, part of the Namib Desert, is on the west coast of Namibia. It is a hyperarid landscape of towering dunes, occupying about 34,000km² between the towns of Lüderitz in the south and Walvis Bay in the north. However, there are clues that this environment was not always so dry and inhospitable, suggesting that there is more to be learnt about ancient human life here.

We are part of an interdisciplinary research team of physical geographers, archaeologists and geospatial scientists, interested in the long-term history of deserts and human-environmental interactions.

Our provides a timeframe for the presence of a small freshwater lake that once existed in the Namib Sand Sea. This lake was fed by an ancient river and is surrounded by a rich record of stone tools from the (made between about 300,000 years ago and 20,000 years ago), indicating that people ventured into this landscape and used this occasional water source.

Dating the former lake site, Narabeb, makes it clearer when ancient humans would have been able to live here. It draws attention to the Namib Sand Sea as a place archaeologists should study to learn more about far-reaching and deep human connections across southern Africa.

An ancient lake and shifting sand dunes

Today, Narabeb is a landscape dominated by long sand dunes that tower more than 100 metres high over the former lake site. There is no standing water here and the landscape receives little to no rain most years. However, that’s probably not what our ancient ancestors would have seen here. Away from the lake, they might have seen a relatively flat plain, seasonally covered by grasses, beside a river.

The clue is in sediments at the site: mud layers that were laid down by water. To find out how long ago the lake was at Narabeb, we needed to date these layers.

We used a technique called – basically, making sand glow to tell the time. Sand grains release a trapped signal that builds up when sand is buried underground, and is reset when sand is exposed to sunlight. Using this technique, we can date when different layers were last on the surface before they got buried. We dated the sand beneath and above layers of mud that were deposited by water. Our results show that the lake was present at Narabeb at some point between 231,000 ± 20,000 and 223,000 ± 19,000 years ago and again about 135,000 ± 11,000 years ago.

Another clue is the shape of the landscape east of Narabeb. It is dune free, reminding us that ancient humans were not the only things migrating in the Namib Sand Sea. Have the dunes been on the move? For how long? And how quickly?

Drilling to the centre of these dunes to work that out remains logistically impossible. Instead, we used .

The modelling suggests that it would have taken around 210,000 years to accumulate the amount of sand around Narabeb (those 110m high dunes). This number is remarkably close to the oldest age for the lake. This suggests that the dunes may only just have been starting to form and that a river was supplying the lake with fresh water, supporting animals and attracting people. The sediments at Narabeb also clearly tell us that a river once flowed where there are now dunes.

The winds have pushed dunes from the south and west to north and east, creating barriers for the river and hindering movement of people and animals along the water course.

Ancient human presence

At we have found tools from an earlier species of the Homo genus. This is part of a growing body of evidence, adding to research in the Kalahari desert in the centre of southern Africa, that suggests to the story of human evolution and technological innovation than has been supposed.

The artefacts from Narabeb fit into the Middle Stone Age type of stone tool technology. Narabeb is a particularly rich site for stone tools, suggesting people made tools here for a long time and perhaps visited the site over many generations.

This research illustrates the need for a comprehensive study of areas that have not been on the map of the major routes of human and animal migration. These might reveal exciting records of diffusion, innovation and adaptation to marginal and changing environments.

Our results also make us think about the dynamic nature of environmental conditions in one of Earth’s oldest desert regions. It has long been thought that the Namib has been consistently very and not a place capable of containing “green corridors” at the times of interest for archaeologists. Now we can challenge that idea.

Future steps

Recent funding from the will allow us to extend our fieldwork, documenting archaeological sites and dating these “green corridors” across more of this landscape. along the ancient river course has revealed an expansive artefact-littered landscape. We also need to know more about where ancient populations found the materials they used to make stone tools.

This will allow us to piece together a network of archaeological sites and show where human migration might have been possible in this part of southern Africa. Up to now, it’s been a gap in the archaeological map.

More work is also needed to understand the shifts in climate that allowed the rivers to flow into the Namib. This Southern Hemisphere, west coast desert has a very different setting to north Africa and Arabia, which have for understanding their periodic “green corridors”. Ongoing work with the wider scientific community, including climate modellers, may create a clearer picture of the Namib’s “green corridors”.

, Reader in Physical Geography, and , Professor of Archaeology,

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Archaeology tours return to Arthur’s Stone for a final year of excavations

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 10:00:00 +0100

For a final summer, members of the public will get the chance to get up close to archaeological excavations being carried out at Arthur’s Stone.

Tours of the mysterious and evocative English Heritage site also took place in 2022 and 2023 as part of a project to investigate early prehistoric Herefordshire, undertaken by The University of Manchester, Cardiff University and the American Institute for Field Research, in partnership with English Heritage. The project has significantly changed academic understanding of how the monument was used, and its team hope to uncover more of its secrets in 2024.

Arthur’s Stone is a Neolithic burial chamber comprising nine upright stones and a gigantic 25 tonne capstone. Situated on a hillside of Herefordshire’s Golden Valley, the 5,700-year-old site is most famous for its links to legends of King Arthur and for being a source of inspiration for the stone table in CS Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

So far, the project has started to unravel a complex sequence of changes to the monument spanning about seven centuries in the early Neolithic (3,700 – 3,000 BCE). We now know that it started as a stone chamber or ‘dolmen’ in the 37^th century BCE encircled by a thick stone ring, with an entrance on the north. It was later re-oriented to face south and remodelled within a long cairn faced by drystone walls, with a false entrance between two projecting ‘horns’ of the cairn.

The archaeologists found evidence for an avenue of wooden posts leading to the new entrance which were replaced some centuries later with standing stones. It now looked more like the Long Barrows at Belas Knap and Stoney Littleton (also cared for by English Heritage). A narrow passage was built into one side of the cairn so that the old entrance could still be reached. Inside the passage they found pottery, bone, pitchstone from the Isle of Arran and rock crystal, probably brought from North Wales.

This year the excavation team will be continuing to trace the course of the timber and stone avenue down into the Golden Valley, as well as investigating a mysterious circular structure that showed up on drone survey in the field to the south of the monument. They will also aim to clarify the sequence of the construction of the stone chamber and long cairn.

Visitors to Arthur’s Stone will be able to join exclusive guided tours between 3 – 25 July that explain the history of the site and share updates on the progress of excavations. Led by a team of English Heritage volunteers, the tours will bring the findings from this remarkable project to life. Tours will take place three times a day and is essential to secure a place.

Ginny Slade, Volunteer Manager at English Heritage, comments: “Over 2,000 people came to our tours and local lectures on the project in 2023 which was incredible – particularly for those lucky enough to see a new discovery being unearthed in front of them. Given that we may not see archaeological excavations on this scale carried at Arthur’s Stone again for some years, we’d recommend coming to have a look if you’ve visited the site before or want to experience its magic for the first time.”

For more information, visit .

The Past at Their Fingertips – Using the Archaeology Lab for Schools Outreach Activities

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 11:58:33 +0000

Colleagues Sonja Bernhard (TLSE Coordinator) and (Archaeology PhD student) ran an Insight Day giving the year 12 students first-hand experience with the archaeology teaching collection in our archaeology lab. Based upon the success of this event we want to promote our labs for use as an outreach space.

Thursday, 25 January 2024 saw the return of SALC’s popular Insight Days for Year 12 students. 200 students from Sixth Form Colleges across the North West (as far afield as Carlisle and Lancaster in some cases) came onto campus to explore History, English and related disciplines via presentations and hands-on workshops. And it does not get much more hands-on than the ever-popular object handling session in the Archaeology lab!

Every last workbench was filled by students eager to learn from our PhD researcher Jane Barker how to handle ancient artefacts safely and what they can tell us about the people who made and used them. With Archaeology no longer offered at A level, it is ever more important to give students opportunities to explore this discipline and make them understand how it links Humanities with a scientific, lab-based approach.

Jane said:

We plan to show off our lab and include handling sessions at future Insight Days and other school events. They are a vital part of showcasing what makes Archaeology at 91ֱ�� special and unique.

New archaeological discoveries set to transform understanding of Arthur’s Stone

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 09:00:00 +0100

Archaeological excavations at the Neolithic site of Arthur’s Stone in Herefordshire have uncovered unprecedented remains that will transform understanding of the monument, and of the first farming communities in Britain nearly 6000 years ago.

The project - led by The University of Manchester, University of Cardiff and Herefordshire Council’s Archaeology Section - represents the first investigation of the site, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument cared for by the charity English Heritage. Professor Julian Thomas from The University of Manchester, one of the excavation directors, says “Arthur’s Stone is a well-known and much-loved monument, it has become tied up with Arthurian legend, and provided the inspiration for Aslan’s table in C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. However, it has never been excavated before, so we have not clearly understood how the stones visible today relate to the monument in the Neolithic, until now.”

The team expected the site to be poorly preserved, as many upstanding monuments like this were targeted by antiquarians and looters in the 18th and 19th century. But to their surprise, the excavations, permitted by English Heritage and Historic England, uncovered substantial new parts of the monument inches below the surface, and completely undisturbed Neolithic deposits.

Dr Nick Overton from The University of Manchester, another of the project directors, said “The stone-build architecture found in our excavations reveal a complex history of construction. The stone monument began as a ‘dolmen’, made up of the giant capstone sitting on upright stones that is visible today, surrounded by a circular bank of stone with a single entrance at the north end, marked by two large upright stones. There are other dolmens from the period in Britain, mainly in the west, but this is, to our knowledge, the first with a bank and entrance. Interestingly, there may be similar examples in Denmark. This was then surrounded by a larger trapezoid-shaped long cairn bounded by dry-stone walling. On the western side of the cairn was an entrance to a passage, leading to a small stone chamber, formed in part by the entrance stones of the earlier phase. After a period of time, the floor of the chamber and passageway was sealed by stoney deposits, and the entrance was blocked up.

Excavations around the entrance, and within the passageway and chamber recovered Neolithic pottery and stone tools, including a piece of worked rock crystal, most likely from North Wales, and a piece of pitchstone, from the Isle of Arran in Scotland. The excavations also recovered deposits of human bone containing multiple individuals; they were most likely introduced to the monument as fleshed cadavers, and later re-arranged, mixed together, and deposited in discrete piles. The local geology is acidic, so the recovery of well-preserved human bone was not expected, and very exciting.

Professor Keith Ray from the University of Cardiff, the third project director said “Collaborative work like this between our institutions, Historic England and English Heritage is so important; it has uncovered evidence that will radically re-write our understanding of the monument, and contribute to new understandings of the Neolithic in Britain. The human remains offer an enormous potential to think about the life and death of these early farming communities in this part of the world, nearly 6000 years ago. The changing styles of the earlier and later stone monuments tells a story of new communities doing things in specific local ways, before becoming wrapped up in broader regional practices. But at the same time, the presence of rock crystal and pitchstone tells a story of communities with networks of long-distance connections. These are all fascinating insights into a dynamic period of Britain’s prehistory.”

Over the course of July, over 2000 members of the public attended local lectures, daily guided tours led by English Heritage volunteers, and the project’s open day, giving visitors the chance to learn about new discoveries at the monument as they happened. Work is now underway to analyse all of the material recovered, with specialist assistance from Historic England, which will further expand our understanding of the monument and the people that built and used it, and guide the future management and presentation of the monument, ensuring the monument continues to be enjoyed for generations to come.

Bill Klemperer, Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Historic England, said “The results of the carefully planned and highly targeted excavation, and the ongoing analysis, will inform future safeguarding and interpretation for the wider public of this site, and also the understanding and potential of similar sites in England.”

Discovery at Arthur’s Stone led by University of Manchester team

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 13:29:09 +0100

A team from the universities have been excavating at Arthur's Stone in Herefordshire, and continue to make exciting discoveries at the site, believed to date to 3700BC.

Professor Julian Thomas, Director of Archaeology at the University of Manchester, is leading the project with Professor Keith Ray of Cardiff University. 91ֱ�� colleague Dr Nick Overton is Associate Director.

When asked about the recent work undertaken by the team, Professor Thomas said:

Members of the public are now able to visit the site and see the work undertaken by the team. Since the BBC’s news story regarding the discovery of the cremated remains, the site has become a popular destination for enthusiasts.

Professor Thomas added:

The project is an important research excavation that acts as a training exercise for British and overseas students. As well as academics, the project is staffed by professional archaeologists taking leave of absence from commercial archaeology units, most of whom are graduates from 91ֱ�� and Cardiff. It also brings together 38 current and recently graduated 91ֱ�� students, who are taking Archaeology-related degrees. There were also 10 students from Cardiff University and five students from a variety of American universities.

Witness archaeology in action at Arthur’s Stone

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 10:12:06 +0100

Throughout July, visitors to Arthur’s Stone will get the chance to witness excavations taking place that aim to unearth the mysteries surrounding the evocative site. Tours will be run by a team of volunteers from English Heritage who will explain the latest findings from the project, run by experts and students from The University of Manchester, Cardiff University, and a series of American institutions.

Situated in the hills above Herefordshire’s Golden Valley, Arthur’s Stone is a Neolithic burial chamber nearly 6,000 years old formed of nine upright stones with an enormous capstone – estimated to weight more than 25 tonnes and measuring 30 feet long by 7 feet wide – on top. Only the large stones of the inner chamber remain today, though these were once covered by a long cairn of smaller stones.

Last summer, archaeologists from The University of Manchester and Cardiff University were granted rare permission to excavate the site, which is in the care of the charity English Heritage, as part of an ongoing project to investigate early prehistoric Herefordshire. The project has significantly changed our understanding of Arthur’s Stone by showing that the monument had a complex structural history.

Originally the chamber may have been set within an earthen platform bounded by a timber palisade and approached by an avenue of upright posts. Later, the long cairn was constructed, bounded by finely-constructed drystone walls. It is now thought that Arthur’s Stone formed part of a ‘monumental landscape’ including the Neolithic long mounds and ditched enclosure on nearby Dorstone Hill.

This year, the excavation team, led by Professor Julian Thomas at The University of Manchester and Professor Keith Ray from Cardiff University, will turn their attention to the passage that enters the monument from the west. This is an area which has never before been excavated. They will also be exploring three areas in nearby fields, which may contain a prehistoric quarry and a previously unknown monument.

Over the centuries Arthur’s Stone has been an inspiration for storytellers as well as historians. The ancient site has links to King Arthur himself who, it is said, slew an almighty giant on the capstone, leaving indentations on its surface. The author CS Lewis is also thought to have been inspired by the Golden Valley and the Wye Valley whilst creating his fictional world of Narnia, taking inspiration for the stone table in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe from Arthur’s Stone.

English Heritage has recruited a team of friendly and enthusiastic volunteers to work alongside the archaeologists to bring the history and stories of the stones to life with free tours of the excavation site. Tours will take place three times daily between 2 – 23 July, except on Saturdays. is essential as the tours are anticipated to sell out. Tours will start from Arthur’s Stone and participants are requested to park in the field next to the site, rather than on the road.

Ginny Slade, Volunteer Manager at English Heritage, comments: “The evocative Arthur’s Stone continues to attract worldwide attention, so it is a real privilege for us to be able to offer the chance for members of the public to come and witness the excavations. The tours proved exceptionally popular in 2022 and we are expecting the same this year, so please do pre-book if you would like the chance to come and listen to our volunteers explain the latest findings in the project.”

For more information on Arthur’s Stone visit .

Archaeologists shed light on the lives of Stone Age hunter-gatherers in Britain

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 12:10:37 +0000

A team of archaeologists from the Universities of Chester and 91ֱ�� has made discoveries which shed new light on the communities who inhabited Britain after the end of the last Ice Age.

Excavations carried out by the team at a site in North Yorkshire have uncovered the exceptionally well-preserved remains of a small settlement inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers around ten and a half thousand years ago. Among the finds that the team recovered were the bones of animals that people hunted, tools and weapons made from bone, antler and stone, and rare traces of woodworking.

The site near Scarborough originally lay on the shore of an island in an ancient lake and dates to the Mesolithic, or ‘Middle Stone Age’ period. Over thousands of years the lake slowly filled in with thick deposits of peat, which gradually buried and preserved the site.

said: “It is so rare to find material this old in such good condition. The Mesolithic in Britain was before the introduction of pottery or metals, so finding organic remains like bone, antler and wood, which are usually not preserved, are incredibly important in helping us to reconstruct peoples’ lives.”

Analysis of the finds is allowing the team to learn more and change what has been previously understood about these early prehistoric communities. The bones show that people were hunting a wide range of animals in a number of different habitats around the lake, including large mammals such as elk and red deer, smaller mammals such as beavers, and water birds. The bodies of hunted animals were butchered and parts of them were intentionally deposited into the wetlands at the island site.

The team also discovered that some of the hunting weapons made of animal bone and antler had been decorated, and had been taken apart before being deposited on the island’s shore. This, they believe, shows that Mesolithic people had strict rules about how the remains of animals and objects used to kill them were disposed of.

According to : “People often think of prehistoric hunter-gatherers as living on the edge of starvation, moving from place to place in an endless search for food, and that it was only with the introduction of farming that humans lived a more settled and stable lifestyle. But here we have people inhabiting a rich network of sites and habitats, taking the time to decorate objects, and taking care over the ways they disposed of animal remains and important artefacts. These aren’t people that were struggling to survive. They were people confident in their understanding of this landscape, and of the behaviours and habitats of different animal species that lived there.”

The team hopes that future research at this site and others in the area will continue to shed new light on people’s relationship with the environment. Analysis of peat deposits around the site is already showing that this was an incredibly biodiverse landscape, rich in plant and animal life, and as work continues, the team hopes to find out what effects humans had on this environment.

The excavations are featured in episode 5 of the new series of Digging for Britain, which will be broadcast on BBC Two at 8pm on Sunday 5^th February and is currently available on BBC iPlayer.

The project is co-directed by Dr Barry Taylor and Dr Amy Gray Jones from the University of Chester, and Dr Nick Overton from The University of Manchester. The project received financial support from the Royal Archaeological Institute, The Prehistoric Society and the Scarborough Archaeological and Historical Society, and took place with the help of landowner Mr Sidney Craggs, students and graduates from the Universities of Chester and 91ֱ��, and volunteers from the Scarborough Archaeological and Historical Society.

Prehistoric Brits used rare rock crystals to mark burial sites, research finds

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 11:18:56 +0100

Distinctive and rare rock crystals were moved over long distances by Early Neolithic Brits and were used to mark their burial sites, according to groundbreaking new archaeological research.

Evidence for the use of rock crystal - a rare type of perfectly transparent quartz which forms in large hexagonal gems - has occasionally been found at prehistoric sites in the British Isles, but little investigation has previously been done specifically into how the material was used and its potential significance.

A group of archaeologists from The University of Manchester worked with experts from the University of Cardiff and Herefordshire County Council on a dig at Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire, a mile south of another dig at Arthur’s Stone. There, they studied a complex of 6000-year-old timber halls, burial mounds and enclosures from the Early Neolithic period, when farming and agriculture arrived in Britain for the first time.

As well as a range of artefacts including pottery, stone implements and cremated bones, they uncovered rock crystal which had been knapped like the flint at the site, but unlike the flint, it had not been turned into tools such as arrow heads or scrapers - instead, pieces were intentionally gathered and deposited within the burial mounds. The experts say the material was deposited at the site over many generations, potentially for up to 300 years.

Only a few places in the British Isles have produced pure crystals large enough to produce the material at Dorstone Hill, the closest being Snowdonia in North Wales and St David’s Head in South West Wales - this means that the ancient Brits must have carried the material across large distances to reach the site.

As a result, the researchers speculate that the material may have been used by people to demonstrate their local identities and their connections with other places around the British Isles.

“It was highly exciting to find the crystal because it is exceptionally rare - in a time before glass, these pieces of perfectly transparent solid material must have been really distinctive,” said lead researcher Nick Overton. “I was very interested to discover where the material came from, and how people might have worked and used it.”

The researchers plan to study materials found at other sites to discover whether people were working with this material in similar ways, in order to uncover connections and local traditions. They also intend to look at the chemical composition of the crystal to find out if they can track down its specific source.

The paper can be accessed at .

Archaeologists carry out first dig at tomb linked to King Arthur

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 10:01:54 +0100

Archaeologists from The University of Manchester have started a dig at a 5,000-year-old tomb linked to King Arthur, hoping to answer some of the mysteries surrounding the enigmatic site in the process.

The experts are working in partnership with English Heritage, which looks after Arthur's Stone in Herefordshire, to remove turf to expose and record particularly sensitive archaeological remains.

Arthur's Stone is a Neolithic chambered tomb which has never previously been excavated, but English Heritage say that similar examples in the same region have been found to contain incomplete skeletal remains of several people, together with flint flakes, arrowheads and pottery.

Today, only the large stones of the inner chamber remains, which is placed in a mound of earth and stones whose original size and shape remains a mystery. The chamber is formed of nine upright stones, with an enormous capstone estimated to weigh more than 25 tonnes on top.

Like many prehistoric monuments in western England and Wales, this tomb has been linked to King Arthur since before the 13th century. According to legend, it was here that Arthur slew a giant who left the impression of his elbows on one of the stones as he fell.

More recently, the author CS Lewis is thought to have been inspired by the area when creating his fictional world of Narnia - with Arthur’s Stone the inspiration for the stone table upon which Aslan the Lion is sacrificed in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

“Arthur’s Stone is one of the country’s most significant Stone Age monuments, and this excavation gives a really rare and exciting chance for members of the public to come and see archaeology in action,” said Ginny Slade, Volunteer Manager at English Heritage. “Our team of wonderful volunteers will be on hand to explain the latest findings as they happen - we’re asking people to book in advance to make sure everyone has a chance to enjoy this great opportunity.”

The dig follows research undertaken by the Universities of Manchester and Cardiff immediately to the south of the monument last year which has already changed the thinking about the orientation and origins of the site.

It was assumed that Arthur’s Stone stood within a wedge-shaped stone cairn, similar to those found in the Cotswolds and South Wales, but 91ֱ��’s Professor Julian Thomas and Cardiff’s Professor Keith Ray found that the monument originally extended into a field to the southwest, and may have taken the form of a low turf mound with rounded ends. Professors Thomas and Professor Ray will also lead the upcoming excavations, with the participation of students from Cardiff University and a series of American institutions.

English Heritage has also recruited a team of volunteers to work alongside the archaeologists to bring the history and stories of the stones to life with tours of the excavation site. Pre-booked tours are available to now.

Faculty of Humanities to host first British Academy lecture

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:18:36 +0000

On Monday, 7 March 2022 the University will welcome David Wengrow FBA, Professor of Comparative Archaeology at University College London.

The lecture, titled ‘For an anthropology and archaeology of freedom’ will draw on Professor Wengrow’s collaboration with the late Professor David Graeber. The lecture will argue the importance of an ethnography of freedom to the foundations of anthropology.

Professors Wengrow and Graeber recently co-authored the New York Times bestselling ‘The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity’.

The public lecture will be followed by an audience Q+A and a drinks reception, all hosted at Alliance 91ֱ�� Business School. Tickets are available to book online:

Stunning fossil find records the last day of the dinosaurs

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 10:24:21 +0100

Dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago. Now scientists have found extraordinary evidence which documents the colossal asteroid impact event.

It was widely accepted that the Chicxulub meteorite impact was a major cause, as is evidenced by a vast 93 mile wide crater beneath the Yucatan Peninsula. This is possibly the best known of the five largest mass extinction events to effect Earth.

The devastation caused by the impact included massive tsunami-like surges, thus-far known only from marine deposits. Similar high-energy deposits are unknown in the continental KPg (Cretaceous-Paleogene) record. An international team of scientists, led by Robert Depalma (a PhD student at ) working with Prof. Phil Manning (The University of Manchester) publish on a new site in that has such an onshore inundation-surge deposit.

The site has been discovered in the dinosaur-rich ‘badlands’ of the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota. Chicxulub ejecta (microtektites, impact-melt glass) is found at the site within the event deposit that is capped with an iridium-rich impactite revealing that its timing coincided with the Chicxulub impact event. The site has an array of terrestrial (reptilian, dinosaurian, etc.) and marine (ammonites, sharks, microfauna, etc.) life and is the first direct evidence of larger organisms killed by the Chicxulub impact. Deposited rapidly by repeated inland-directed surges, the sedimentary layers at this new site resulted in the finest temporally resolved KPg boundary succession recognized in the geologic record.

Prof Phil Manning (The University of Manchester) who is a co-author on this study said: “Robert Depalma has led the way in an extraordinary study of this unique geological and palaeontological treasure trove. The sediments, fossils and associated impact debris make this an important site for those who study the extinction event that helped wipe-out the dinosaurs.”

The impact event occurred at the end of the Cretaceous Period and was among the largest asteroid impacts in effect Earth. This event is intimately associated with a global or ‘mass extinction’. This was without any doubt a pivotal event in Earth’s history, as the ensuing extinction directly paved the way for many species that populate the planet today, including ourselves. A meticulous understanding of the immediate and more long-lasting effects post-impact is essential to resolving the specific consequences of the impact, and the shift from Cretaceous to Paleogene biomes.

Prof Manning went on to say: “Our understanding of the extinction of the dinosaurs is blurred by time and then masked further by the geological record. To find a site that might help paint a picture of the final day or even hours of the Cretaceous might seem impossible.”

The Chicxulub impact was a massive, a global extinction, which extinguished upwards of 75% of life on Earth within a geologically short span of time. Climatic shifts ensued at the same time, and, much sooner after impact, water displacement by the ~10 km-wide impactor was recorded by tsunami (tidal wave) or seiche (tectonically activated) deposits around the Caribbean and what was then the ‘proto’ Gulf of Mexico. Aside from theoretical calculations, however, many of the immediate effects of the impact, especially within the proximal ~2100 miles close to the crater, are incompletely resolved. The complex interplay between the hot vapor plume, molten ejecta, and “wet” plume of vaporized carbonate target rock, for example, is incompletely understood.

Lead author, Robert Depalma said: “A tsunami would have taken at least 17 or more hours to reach the site from the crater, but seismic waves - and a subsequent surge - would have reached it in tens of minutes.”

An international team of scientists, including Prof. Phil Manning, has been exploring the uppermost Hell Creek Formation, a continental sequence in North America preserving the last 1.3 million years of the Cretaceous Period. The team discovered an anomalous, turbulently deposited layer of sediment at a new site they named ‘Tanis’. After many years work on the site and with the analysis of samples back at the lab, the team are sure that the site temporally coincides with the KPg boundary, the point at which the dinosaurs and other life became extinct.

The rapidly emplaced sediment layer was highly conducive to detailed preservation at momentary scale, but also contains ejecta tektites (melted Earth’s crust blasted into the upper atmosphere and returning as small ‘droplets’ of glass). The tektites and other impact-generated debris have been geochemically and geochronologically linked to the Chicxulub impact by the international team. The deposit is capped by a distinct KPg boundary clay, indicating it was deposited in a narrow window of time- after impact yet before settling of the finest impact debris

Perhaps most importantly, the sediment layer, which exhibits bidirectional flow and was likely emplaced by a massive hydro-disturbance such as a tsunami. This event was likely to have been triggered by the Chicxulub impact. Ballistic calculations of ejecta indicate that the ejecta tektites at Tanis would have arrived at approximately the same time as the seismic wave from the Chicxulub crater.

The team reports in the journal that the ultra-high-resolution temporal fidelity of the Tanis site provides the first sub-24-hour chronology of the KPg impact event. The site preserves unprecedented detail of one of the most pivotal moments in Earth’s geologic history, and provides an unmistakable northernmost record of the Chicxulub impact event.

The extraordinary preservation potentially afforded by the rapid emplacement of sediment provides a unique opportunity to examine exceptionally preserved terminal-Cretaceous organisms. The layers of sediment along with the remarkable fossils they contain, combined with the geochemical evidence, delivers unique insight into one of Earth’s most studied mass-extinction events.

Finally, Prof Manning added: “This is just the beginning of a long study on the Tanis site. The PNAS paper provides a geological framework from which broader paleontological work will take place in the future. We can definitely say that the Tanis site was not ‘consumed by the desert in a sandstorm that lasted a whole year’ (as in the Raiders of the Lost Ark), but it is certainly a rosette stone that might help us better read and understand events on the last day of the dinosaurs.”

Unearthing the secrets of the American ‘Jurassic Mile’

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 14:29:32 +0000

Scientists at The University of Manchester have joined forces with a major US Museum and European partners to explore an extraordinary Jurassic dinosaur site in the badlands of Wyoming, USA.

Scientists from The University of Manchester will be the academic leaders on the newly announced $27.5 million (£20m) project to explore, research and eventually exhibit fossils from a recently discovered palaeontological site known as the ‘Jurassic Mile’.

will serve as the Mission Jurassic leader, with The University of Manchester’s Prof. Phil Manning and Dr. Victoria Egerton as the lead scientists in the project. The team are partnering with in London and the in Leiden, Netherlands. As a result, more than 100 scientists from three countries will join forces to work in the Morrison Formation of Wyoming to reveal new secrets from this enigmatic period of time.

Prof Manning, Dr. Egerton and the team are calling the fossil-rich, mile-square plot of land, “The Jurassic Mile.” There are four main quarries within the multi-level, 640-acre site that offer a diverse assemblage of Morrison Formation articulated and semi-articulated dinosaurs that has also yielded associated animals, fossil plants in addition to rarely associated dinosaur trackways of the Late Jurassic Period 150 million years ago.

“It is splendid that such an important site has been discovered at just the right time, as the science of paleontology is adapting existing and new imaging techniques to unpick the fossil remains of extinct life.” said Prof Manning, “The imaging work that we undertake at 91ֱ�� is already world-leading and this is a great opportunity to develop this research with other world-class institutions.”

Nearly 600 specimens, weighing more than six tons, have already been collected from this site over the past two years despite the fact that only a fraction of the site has been explored. Included in that are the bones of an 80-foot-long Brachiosaur and 90-foot-long , which have been discovered at the Jurassic Mile. A 6’6” sauropod (Brachiosaur) scapula (shoulder bone) and several jackets containing articulated bones are among the material collected during the 2018 field season. A 5’1” (1.5 metre) femur was revealed at the announcement in Indianapolis on March 25, 2019.

Dr. Jeffrey H. Patchen, President and CEO of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis stated, “We are bringing together an extraordinary international team for the first time that will critically analyze portions of the Morrison Formation in new ways.” Patchen went on to say, “This project reflects a natural synergy between three world-renowned museums, their research scientists and highly-respected research universities, each providing unique elements to complete one of the most interesting chapters in the evolution of Earth.”

Dr. Egerton from the Department of Earth and Environmental Science explained that, “The preservation quality and sheer amount of plants at the Jurassic Mile is extraordinary. During this period, there were no flowering plants and this site provides significant insight to what these giant animals ate and how they may have grown to be so large.”

’ is the world’s largest children’s museum. Its current exhibit has captivated more than 15 million visitors since it opened in 2004 and inspired new generations of explorers and scientists. There, visitors are introduced to some of the finest examples of past life including a rare mummified dinosaur named Leonardo. The first T. rex ever discovered with a wish bone (furcula) and a with a brain tumor (currently being studied by Prof. Manning and Dr. Egerton) are among other amazing fossils found there. A working Paleo Prep Lab at the museum allows visitors to touch real fossils while paleontologists work on real bones and learn the stories behind them.

palaeontologist Sir Richard Owen first coined the term ‘dinosaur’ meaning ‘terrible lizard. The Natural History Museum Acting Director of Science Richard Herrington says: “The reports from the first excavations reveal it is an exceptional area for further scientific exploration - from the fossils already exposed, the quality of the discoveries so far and the existence of rarely-associated dinosaur trackways.”

Prof. Anne Schulp from The Naturalis Biodiversity Center stated, "Typical dinosaurs of the Jurassic include well known creatures such as Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus. It would be marvelous if we could bring one of those impressive beasts to Naturalis,”

The Jurassic Mile project is already utilising cutting-edge science from the international team. The University of Manchester scientist will use the Stanford Synchrotron particle accelerator along with some of the most powerful computers on the planet, to help resurrect the Jurassic and unearth the lost world and forgotten lives of the Jurassic.

Rome’s Flaminian Obelisk: an epic journey from divine Egyptian symbol to tourist attraction

Thu, 03 May 2018 16:41:07 +0100

It’s a great place to sit in the shade and enjoy a gelato. The base of the Flaminian Obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo on the northern end of Rome’s ancient quarter offers views of the twin churches of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria di Montesanto. But while enjoying the outlook, take a few minutes to marvel at how this 23-metre chunk of granite ended up where it has.

The Flaminian Obelisk was carved at the height of , during the reign of (1290 to 1279 BCE), the father of . “Carved” is a rather clinical expression for an astounding feat of engineering. Quarrying and moving a 263-ton chunk of granite – with the additional issue of not having access to any metal harder than bronze – is no mean feat.

The process used by the Egyptians was surprisingly straightforward. Initially, they levelled off the ground above a vein of granite. Then the rough shape of the obelisk was marked using hard stone pounders. Channels were carved in the rock around the shape of the obelisk before it was separated from the bedrock entirely by carving under its bulk.

Afterwards, the obelisk was shipped on barges nearly 900km north to the near modern Cairo and dedicated to the sun god – and of course to the memory of both Seti and Ramesses.

Egypt in vogue

Though much of our current obsessive cultural interest in ancient Egypt can be traced to key events such as the , other cultures at other times in history have had an equal interest in the land of the Pharaohs – and a similar penchant for creatively misrepresenting it.

Villa Adriana: Hadrian’s Egyptian-style pleasure palace. Zh0rz via Dutch Wikipedia,

At the height of the Roman Empire, “Egyptianising” architectural elements became very popular. Sites such as the in Tivoli, built in the second century CE as a retreat for Emperor Hadrian, is positively lousy with Egyptianised statues and architectural elements – including an Egyptian-style shrine dedicated to the .

While these imitations of Egyptian styles and fashions (creatively altered for a Roman audience) were extremely popular, several Roman rulers went a step further. Rather than simply imitating Egyptian architecture, they brought some home with them from Egypt.

After the defeat of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony in 30 BCE, the first Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar, set his sights on the Flaminian Obelisk which had remained for more than 1,200 years at Heliopolis. To commemorate his comprehensive victory, Augustus opted to bring the obelisk back to Rome on a specially designed vessel, which was later destroyed in a fire in Puteoli.

Upon its arrival in Rome, Augustus added a Latin inscription underneath the far older hieroglyphs of the obelisk, extolling his own triumphs as the new ruler of Egypt. To show off his achievement, he ordered the obelisk raised at Circus Maximus.

As Christianity rose to prominence and became the official state religion of the Roman Empire, the arena fell into decay and flooding eventually toppled the obelisk. It was gradually buried in alluvial soil, lying undiscovered for nearly 1,000 years until it was unearthed at the height of the Italian Renaissance in 1587.

Renaissance renewal

A product of the Italian Renaissance, (1521-1590) embarked on a wide-ranging programme of urban renewal in Rome shortly after his election to the Papal Throne. Ironically, while he is credited with , he had very little appreciation for the city’s own antiquity, ordering several ancient monuments demolished and the stone reused as building material.

When the Flaminian Obelisk was rediscovered in 1587, Sixtus charged the noted with the task of raising the monolith in Piazza del Popolo (at that time a place of public executions), a task which he accomplished in 1589. Fontana was experienced in the art of raising obelisks – three years earlier, he had been responsible for placing the (which is heavier than the Flaminian obelisk by nearly 100 tons) in St Peter’s Square. In an attempt to detract from the quite obvious pagan nature of the monuments, both were crowned with large crosses.

View of the Piazza del Popolo, Rome by Gaspar van Wittel (c. 1678) showing the Flaminian Obelisk and the surrounding square. Author provided

With this, the journey of the Flaminian Obelisk from an ancient Egyptian tribute to the sun god to a Renaissance curio was completed. But the monument’s impact on history continued – in 1921, a year before seizing power after the March on Rome, (1883-1945) led a march past the obelisk during the . Later on, the Flaminian Obelisk and the many other Egyptian and Roman obelisks found throughout the city prompted the dictator to create his own: which still stands in Foro Italico (then Foro Mussolini) bearing the Latin inscription MVSSOLINI DVX (Mussolini, the Leader).

The Flaminian Obelisk is a multicultural monument in many ways. It remains today in its square, a physical testament to the grandiose ideas of three rulers – each in their own way both secular and divine: Pharaoh Seti I, Emperor Augustus Caesar and Pope Sixtus V.

, Lecturer in Egyptology,

This article was originally published on . Read the .

New evidence shows might of Pharaoh Ramses is fake news

Mon, 29 Jan 2018 16:03:42 +0000

Archaeological evidence from an Egyptian excavation 200 miles east of the Libyan border has helped bust the fearsome reputation of one of the country’s most famous pharaohs.

, from The University of Manchester, says the Egyptians who lived in the late Bronze Age fortress at of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham were at peace with their Libyan neighbours.

Dr Nielsen’s findings - published in the journal – contradict the commonly held view that Ramses the Great was waging - and winning- fierce war with his neighbours, in Libya, Nubia and the Near East.

The excavation is directed by Dr Steven Snape, from the University of Liverpool.

The evidence- which included3,300-year-old sickle blades, handstones, querns and cow bones - showed the Egyptians harvested crops and raised cattle herds up to 8km away from the protection of the fort, located deep in Libyan territory.

According to Dr Nielsen, the finding adds to the body of evidence that Ramses had limited pedigree as a soldier.

Ramses’ famous monuments heralding his prowess as a warrior were nothing more than ancient propaganda, says Dr Nielsen.

“This evidence demonstrates the degree to which the Egyptian occupants of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham relied on local Libyans not just for trade, but also for their knowledge of the local environment and effective farming methods,” he said.

“It is another strong indication that the widely held belief that Ramses was one of history’s greatest generals – is completely wrong.

“How on earth could Ramses have been fiercely at war with Libyan nomads- when his soldiers were living in peace with them deep in their territory? It just doesn’t add up.

“In fact, the most significant battle Ramses ever fought was at Kadesh: though one of the most famous in the ancient world –it was disastrously executed by the pharaoh.”

According to Dr Nielsen, the Hittites - the Egyptians’ foes- tricked the young king into fighting them, which led him to impetuously imperil a division of his army.

It was only when the three other divisions of his army eventually rescued him was he able to escape, but with no territory gained. In fact he lost control of a great part of modern-day Syria after the battle.

He added: “When you realise that Ramses re-inscribed monuments dedicated to others – so that it appeared they were celebrating his achievements, you realise what a peddler of fake news he was.

“His name was often carved so deeply, it was impossible to remove it – thus preserving his legacy.

“And as he fathered 162 children and ruled Egypt for 69 years, his propaganda had plenty of opportunity to take root.”

Dr Nielsen - along with his fellow Egyptologist Dr Joyce Tyldesley - lectures on the broad suite of online Egyptology courses offered by The University of Manchester.

The remain the only University accredited online courses in Egyptology in the world.

Nefertiti was no pharaoh, says renowned Egyptologist

Mon, 22 Jan 2018 16:00:00 +0000

Contrary to popular opinion, one of the most famous women in ancient history did not rule Egypt, according to a new book.

, an from The University of Manchester, says Queen Nefertiti was just one of a series of powerful queens who played an influential role in Egyptian history.

It was, argues Dr Tyldesley, the beauty of her famous limestone and plaster sculpture - reportedly Hitler’s favourite piece of ancient art - which propelled her into the public spotlight after it was put on public display in 1923.

It was then that Egyptologists began – wrongly says Dr Tyldesley - to argue that she was unusually powerful, and maybe even that she ruled Egypt.

The book - , published by Profile Books next week (25 January) – tells the story of the famous sculpture from its creation to its display today in Berlin.

The bust of the Queen – who was married to the Pharaoh king Akhenaten – was found in 1912 by German excavator Ludwig Borchardt in an ancient workshop which was once part of a house and studio complex belonging to the sculptor Thutmose

It is now on kept at the Neues Museum in Berlin, though Egypt has requested its return.

The missing left eye probably fell out while Borchardt’s team was excavating it, says Dr Tyldesley.

Dr Tyldesley said: “Though most people and many Egyptologists believe Nefertiti was an unusually powerful royal woman, and possibly even a pharaoh, I believe this was not the case.

“He husband Akhenaten died around 1336 BC; Tutankhamun - who was possibly Nefertiti’s son - became pharaoh in approximately 1336 BC. It has been argued that Nefertiti ruled Egypt, filling in this gap and perhaps influencing the early reign of Tutankhamen.

“But she wasn’t born a royal, and for a non-royal woman to become king would have been unprecedented. Her daughter Meritaten, however, was indeed born a royal – and so is a more likely candidate for pharaoh, if anyone is.”

She added: “It’s quite easy to explain why the bust is so appealing and why it has made Nefertiti so famous today: it’s a beautiful work of art which seems to cast its spell on anyone who looks at it.

“Some have claimed it’s a fake but they are completely wrong. I have no doubt the object on display in Germany is the real thing; it’s truly remarkable.

“The sculpture’s admirers tend to see their own cultures and interests reflected in her image; Hitler, for example, presumably saw her as Aryan.

“Soon after it went on display in 1923, replica busts were made and circulated, in a sophisticated PR operation that has been going on ever since, helping to establish today’s cult.

“But just because she is Egypt’s most famous and powerful queen in our world does not mean she was Egypt’s famous and powerful queen in her world.”

Dr Tyldesley will be giving a free talk and launching the book on Thursday 25 January, 6pm at 91ֱ�� Museum. For more details, click

Ancient DNA results end 4000 year old Egyptian mummy mystery in 91ֱ��

Wed, 17 Jan 2018 01:00:00 +0000

Using ‘next generation’ DNA sequencing scientists have found that the famous ‘Two Brothers’ mummies of the have different fathers so are, in fact, half-brothers.

The Two Brothers are the Museum’s oldest mummies and amongst the best-known human remains in its Egyptology collection. They are the mummies of two elite men - Khnum-nakht and Nakht-ankh – dating to around 1800 BC.

However, ever since their discovery in 1907 there has been some debate amongst Egyptologists whether the two were actually related at all. So, in 2015, ‘ancient DNA’ was extracted from their teeth to solve the mystery.

But how did the mystery start? The pair’s joint burial site, later dubbed , was discovered at Deir Rifeh, a village 250 miles south of Cairo. They were found by Egyptian workmen directed by early 20^th century Egyptologists, Flinders Petrie and Ernest Mackay. Hieroglyphic inscriptions on the coffins indicated that both men were the sons of an unnamed local governor and had mothers with the same name, Khnum-aa. It was then the men became known as the Two Brothers.

When the complete contents of the tomb were shipped to 91ֱ�� in 1908 and the mummies of both men were unwrapped by the UK’s first professional female Egyptologist, Dr Margaret Murray. Her team concluded that the skeletal morphologies were quite different, suggesting an absence of family relationship. Based on contemporary inscriptional evidence, it was proposed that one of the Brothers was adopted.

Therefore, in 2015, the DNA was extracted from the teeth and, following hybridization capture of the mitochondrial and Y chromosome fractions, sequenced by a next generation method. Analysis showed that both Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht belonged to mitochondrial haplotype M1a1, suggesting a maternal relationship. The Y chromosome sequences were less complete but showed variations between the two mummies, indicating that Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht had different fathers, and were thus very likely to have been half-brothers.

Dr Konstantina Drosou, of the at the University of Manchester who conducted the DNA sequencing, said: “It was a long and exhausting journey to the results but we are finally here. I am very grateful we were able to add a small but very important piece to the big history puzzle and I am sure the brothers would be very proud of us. These moments are what make us believe in ancient DNA. ”

The study, which is being published in the , is one of the first to successfully use the typing of both mitochondrial and Y chromosomal DNA in Egyptian mummies.

Dr Campbell Price, Curator of Egypt and Sudan at 91ֱ�� Museum, said: “The University of Manchester, and 91ֱ�� Museum in particular, has a long history of research on ancient Egyptian human remains. Our reconstructions will always be speculative to some extent but to be able to link these two men in this way is an exciting first.”

91ֱ�� graduate Harriet McMahon celebrates a twin success

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 14:27:22 +0100

A student from The University of Manchester is celebrating after graduating from her degree only three months after giving birth to twin girls.

Harriet McMahon had just started the final year of her Archaeology & Anthropology degree when she discovered she was expecting twins. She was delighted, but also knew this would make her final year much more complicated to complete.

Against the advice of some family and friends, Harriet decided to carry on with her course rather than deferring until she had given birth. However, she took her studies and her pregnancy in her stride, and university staff and her fellow students offered support wherever they could.

Despite having extreme morning sickness for the first three months of her pregnancy and having to spend a lot of time at home during this, she was closely supported by her academic supervisor Dr Melanie Giles, who met with her one-on-one and prepared her for her final year exam.

She was also supported by her fellow students, who stepped in to help in their group work projects, including their archaeology radio programme.

She thought she would be able to complete her studies before giving birth, but her twins - Florence and Mathilda – actually arrived three weeks early, which meant she had to finish her dissertation while caring for them. Dr Giles ensured she helped with this by meeting with Harriet – and the twins – and helping her to meet her deadlines.

Harriet now plans to take some months off with her new arrivals, but has applied for several graduate schemes and hopes to begin one of these next year.

"When Harriet told me she was not just expecting, but expecting twins, I was delighted - not least because I am also a twin - but also daunted," said Dr Giles. "They were due before the end of term, and we knew we would have to work hard to get all of her assessments completed by the time they arrived. We nearly managed that!"

Ancient fossil reveals the evolution of bird legs for the first time

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:18:52 +0000

Researchers from the UK and China have found that living birds have a more crouched leg posture than their ancestors, who are generally thought to have moved with straighter limbs similar to those of humans. The study, published in Nature Communications, highlights how birds shifted towards this more crouched posture.

Experts from The University of Manchester, The Royal Veterinary College and China’s Nanjing University studied the lower leg of a Confuciusornis bird, which was fossilised in volcanic ash and lake sediments in China 125-145 million years ago.

They found that the fossil had amazingly well-preserved soft tissues around the ankle joint, including cartilage and ligaments. “These soft tissues were not just preserved as an ashen replacement of the former tissue, as sometimes happens - rather, the structure of the tissues was preserved at a microscopic level”, said Professor Baoyu Jiang, a co-author of the study from Nanjing University.

Imaging methods showed that the detailed anatomical preservation extended to the molecular level, with some of the original chemistry of the bird’s tissues remaining. In particular, the team found evidence of fragments of the collagen proteins that made up the leg ligaments, which matched the preservation at the microscopic tissue level of detail.

These findings tally with an expanding body of evidence that, under special conditions, some biological molecules - including even amino acids or partial proteins - can survive over millions of years in the fossil record.

“The new information we gained about the anatomy of the cartilages and tendons show that this early bird had an ankle whose form fit an intermediate function between that of early dinosaurs and modern birds,” said Professor John R. Hutchinson from the Royal Veterinary College, who led the study. “Overall, this reinforced other lines of evidence that the more crouched, zigzag limb posture of birds evolved gradually from early dinosaurs to birds, with even these early birds having limbs that were built and worked differently from those of living birds, but were approaching the modern condition.”

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation of China, Leverhulme Trust, and the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council. It was enabled by international collaboration between many scientists from fields as diverse as palaeontology and ornithology, biomechanics, geology and geochemistry, medical imaging and physics, and shows how a combination of sophisticated technologies with fast-paced discoveries of spectacular fossils is revealing new insights into how major changes in anatomy, physiology and behaviour took place in animals.

4D science to give inside view of volcanoes, batteries and ice cream at 91ֱ�� festival

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 12:07:08 +0100

The insides of volcanoes, batteries and even ice cream will be demonstrated to visitors attending the 91ֱ�� Science Festival by ‘4D scientists’ from The University of Manchester.

The exciting interactive exhibition will focus on a technique called tomography, drawing together research by scientists from the universities of Manchester and Liverpool, plus Unilever.

The 4D science event will take over one of the main gallery spaces at the Museum of Science and Industry in 91ֱ�� from October 24 to 28. More than 30,000 people are set to visit the gallery during this busy half-term period – and they be able to engage with this fascinating area of science by:

• seeing inside a volcano to understand how it erupts
• handling 3D prints of ice-cream magnified a hundred times to see what makes it taste so good
• running an experiment to simulate a synchrotron that generates incredibly bright light beams

Tomography - used in many fields, from archaeology to medical research - allows scientists to build up a 3D picture of an object’s internal structure using a series of X-rays (similar to medical CT scanning). The University of Manchester is running a number of tomography projects at the UK’s Diamond Light Source, which supports academic and industrial research.

The facility enables electrons to be accelerated to near light speed, generating brilliant light beams to allow scientists to take a full 3D picture about once a second, creating a ‘movie’ depicting how the inside of materials change with time - it is this process that is known as ‘4D science’.

Scientists at Diamond are exploring the link between battery failure and the gradual growth of lithium deposits. By seeing how these develop deep inside an otherwise opaque battery, researchers hope to learn how to prevent the process and improve battery life and safety in consumer technology.

“Tomography could also help us to enjoy better ice cream – we have teamed up with Unilever and Diamond to investigate the formation of microscopic ice crystals that grow inside ice cream over time.”

4D Science takes place from October 24 to 28 in the Textiles Gallery on the ground floor of the Museum of Science and Industry, and entry is free of charge. For more about the University's involvement in the Science Festival, visit .

91ֱ�� presents revolutionary research at Royal Society Summer Exhibition

Mon, 04 Jul 2016 10:05:00 +0100

The University of Manchester is revealing some of its most revolutionary research at the prestigious Royal Society Summer Exhibition this week. The exhibition – which draws in thousands of visitors every year – is an exploration of advanced science and state of the art technology. The free event features talks, activities and more than 20 separate exhibits from the UK’s leading science facilities.

The University’s collaboration with Diamond Light Source, the UK’s synchrotron science facility, is showcasing their cutting-edge research using tomography - which allows scientists to build up a 3D picture of an object’s internal structure using a series of X-rays - and is used in many fields, from archaeology to medical research. Diamond Light Source allows scientists to take a full 3D picture about once a second, creating a ‘movie’ depicting how the inside of materials change with time - this process is called 4D Science.

Professor Peter Lee, the Co-Director of MXIF (University of Manchester) which leads the Diamond 91ֱ�� collaboration, said: “We’re here to tell people up and down the country about some of the frontline work that’s currently taking place using this technique. The 4D Science exhibit will provide a first look at research that could help to provide next-generation consumer technology, early disaster warning systems and even tastier ice cream!”

An exhibit entitled ‘What happened at the Big Bang?’ will also be present, demonstrating the work that scientists from Jodrell Bank are doing to understand recent Galactic emission results from the Planck satellite. The exhibit will feature a model of the satellite, a 3D TV, an infrared camera and touchscreen displays, as well as various information and literature for visitors to take away with them.

The final 91ֱ�� exhibit, Antimatter Matters, will demonstrate the results of two experiments into antimatter in which the University is involved – including one at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Visitors to the Exhibition will be able to see how fundamental particles and antiparticles are identified, talk to researchers, try experimental techniques to hold and study anti-atoms, and to locate antimatter within a scanner system.

Prof. Chris Parkes, who is one of the 50 people involved in the exhibit, said: “Antimatter might sound like science fiction, but it is one of the biggest mysteries in science today. We’re going to show everyone just why it matters so much – from what it can tell us about the earliest universe, to how we study it at the frontiers of research, to how it has everyday uses in medical imaging.“

Neanderthal bone found using novel fingerprinting technique

Fri, 01 Apr 2016 14:34:32 +0100

An international team of scientists has used a new molecular fingerprinting technique to identify one Neanderthal bone from around 2,000 tiny fragments found in Russia.

This is the first time that researchers have identified traces of an extinct human from an archaeological site using a collagen fingerprinting technique called ‘Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry’ - or ZooMS - which was developed by Dr Michael Buckley from The University of Manchester. The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests that ZooMS has huge potential to increase our understanding of human evolution, including the amount of interbreeding that went on between our closely related cousins and modern humans.

The research team was made up of Dr Michael Buckley, Professor Thomas Higham and student Sam Brown of the University of Oxford, as well as other academics from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Cranfield University and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Russia.

The sequences of collagen peptides in bone differ in tiny ways between different animal species. The team profiled these sequences at The University of Manchester using minute samples of over 2000 unidentified bone fragments from the site, before comparing these against a reference library of peptides from known animal species.

On finding out that one 2.5cm long piece of bone had a clear human fingerprint, Sam Brown said: “When the ZooMS results showed that there was a human fingerprint among the bones I was extremely excited. After a lot of hard work, finding this tiny bone which yields so much information about our human past was just fantastic. The bone itself is not exceptional in any way, and would otherwise be missed by anyone looking for possible human bones amongst the dozens of fragments that we have from the site.”

The bone was found in Denisova Cave in the Russian Altai region, a key site for archaeologists wanting to understand the nature of evolution over the last 100,000 years. Its cold climate means that bones from the cave are often exceptionally well-preserved in their DNA and collagen, which is ideal for genetics and radiocarbon dating.

However, there were periods during the Ice Age when the cave was occupied by carnivores such as hyenas and wolves, which crunched the bones into tiny pieces – hence why almost all of the excavated fragments were difficult to identify.

91ֱ�� helps youngsters dig up the past

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 14:20:00 +0100

Young people with disabilities are getting their hands dirty whilst working on an archaeological dig this summer.

This is thanks to a partnership between The University of Manchester University and Pure Innovations which is giving two young people from Rochdale with learning disabilities the opportunity to join an archaeological excavation at Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire.

Their experience at the site will form one of the challenges that they will undertake in order to achieve the prestigious Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Pure Innovations, a national charity that supports people with disabilities and helps them to reach their potential and achieve social inclusion, have been running the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme in Rochdale for the last two years.

The grant funding was provided by NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s Social Investment Fund, which supports services that deliver health and wellbeing benefits to the local community, foster inclusion and prevention and enable people to live better lives.

To date eight people have gained their Bronze and Silver Awards and have grown immeasurably in self-confidence, self-esteem and aspirations for themselves in the process.

Two of the disabled young people are still young enough to aim for the Gold Award and if successful will be off to Buckingham Palace to collect their Award alongside other young high achievers in the Country.

One part of the award requires them to take part in a residential experience for a week – as a result the youngsters will be taking their place alongside University undergraduates to help in the investigation of three funerary long mounds dating to the Early Neolithic period (c. 4000-3500 BC).

This important site has previously been reported in the national and international press, owing to the presence of the remains of burnt timber buildings sealed beneath the mounds which is a most unusual finding.

Notes for editors

The excavation at Dorstone Hill is being directed by Dr Keith Ray (Nexus Heritage) and Professor Julian Thomas from The University of Manchester who are both available for interview.

Media enquiries to:

Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 0790
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

Catherine Thomas
Pure Innovations
Tel: 07872 423214
Email: Catherine.Thomas@pureinnovations.co.uk

BBC Horizon: Egypt's dark secret

Mon, 11 May 2015 17:10:00 +0100

Up to 70 million creatures were wrapped and buried in underground catacombs
Many of the animal mummies are, in fact, empty

University of Manchester team helps to uncover the story behind 70 million animal mummies

A team from and The University of Manchester features on tonight’s BBC Horizon programme entitled 70 Million Animal Mummies: Egypt's Dark Secret.

The programme, which airs at 9pm on BBC 2 (Monday 11 May), looks at the Egyptian practice of mummifying animals and reveals that up to 70 million creatures were wrapped and buried in underground catacombs.

A university team of radiographers and Egyptologists are filmed using the latest medical imaging technology to scan hundreds of animal mummies removed from Egypt during the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Through their work, they discovered that many of the animal mummies are, in fact, empty.

, who led the team, said: "We always knew that not all animal mummies contained what we expected them to contain, but we found around a third don't contain any animal material at all - so no skeletal remains."

Dr McKnight’s team used a CT Scanner and X-ray machine, that would normally be used on children, to see beneath the wrappings without damaging the ancient specimens inside. Horizon joined them over three nights last Autumn and filmed around a dozen of the scans.

The work forms the basis of tonight’s documentary which explores the bizarre role animals played in ancient Egyptian belief.

The team scanned animal mummies including wading birds, falcons, cats, shrews and a five-foot long Nile crocodile. In one instance, a crocodile- shaped mummy was found to contain eight baby crocs carefully wrapped together. In another case, scans revealed that for thousands of years, an intricately crafted cat-shaped mummy , with tiny ears and a nose, in fact contained only a few pieces of cat bone.

Horizon - 70 Million Animal Mummies: Egypt's Dark Secret, will air on BBC 2 on Monday 11 May at 9pm.

Archaeologists defy Isis militants by finding new antiquities in Iraq

Wed, 08 Apr 2015 09:00:00 +0100

Archaeologists are continuing to make significant new discoveries near the ancient city of Ur
During the team’s time in Iraq, Islamic State militants destroyed ruins

University of Manchester archaeologists are continuing to make significant new discoveries near the ancient city of Ur despite efforts by Islamic State militants to ‘culturally cleanse’ Iraq of its ancient relics.

The 91ֱ�� team - one of only two operating in non-Kurdish Iraq – has just returned from three months of fieldwork there.

During the team’s time in Iraq, Islamic State militants destroyed ruins at the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh and are reported to have bulldozed an Assyrian palace at Nimrud and the classical city of Hatra too, as well as wrecking museum artefacts in Mosul.

But despite this, the archaeologists, who returned to southern Iraq in 2012,, continued to work at Tell Khaiber, which is close to the ancient city of Ur, where Sir Leonard Woolley discovered the fabulous 'Royal Tombs' in the 1920s.

The team, directed by Professor Stuart Campbell, Dr Jane Moon and Dr Robert Killick from 91ֱ��, described their Iraqi colleagues as resourceful, innovative and resilient, even when times were bad.

“Everyone is quite rightly expressing outrage at the destruction in and around Mosul. The sad fact is, there is very little one can do to prevent deliberate vandalism by well-armed fanatics.

“But if the militants think they can 'erase history' we are helping to make sure that can't happen: it is the information that is important and not the objects. Our project is actually doing something positive for the Iraqis, and that is appreciated,” Dr Moon said.

In the course of their fieldwork this year the archaeologists discovered, among other things, 50 new documents, written in Babylonian, and found evidence for a scribal school operating at the settlement, which dates to around 1500 BC.

These were in a public building the size of a football pitch, and of an unprecedented format, believed to be an administrative complex serving a capital city of the Babylonian empire.

Professor Campbell said: “We found practice texts in the form of lists of exotic animals, and of precious stones, also evidence for the making and recycling of clay tablets. The whole complex dates to the 'Dark Age' following the fall of Babylon and the disintegration of Hammurabi's empire.

“For a time when this key area of Babylonia was thought to be de-urbanised and chaotic, we have evidence of sophisticated administrative mechanisms and large-scale distribution of grain and other commodities.”

Before returning to the UK, the archaeologists deposited 300 new artefacts in the Iraq Museum and set up a temporary exhibition in Baghdad as well as visiting universities that teach, or are planning to teach, archaeology.

“What we can do is make new discoveries to be proud of and help our Iraqi colleagues and the rest of the world to understand and appreciate what the antiquities actually tells us,” concluded Dr Moon.

Notes for editors

High resolution images are available upon request as well as a video of Dr Jane Moon speaking at an ‘Against ISIL Attacks in Iraq’ protest meeting.

Professor Stuart Campbell is also available for interview via the Media Relations Office.

Media enquiries to:

Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 0790
Mob: 07990 550050
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

Moai Hava arrives at 91ֱ�� Museum

Mon, 23 Mar 2015 10:20:00 +0000

91ֱ�� Museum received a new arrival on Friday (20 March): a moai, commonly known as an Easter Island Head.

Moai Hava, on loan from the British Museum will be shown in a new exhibition, , opening on Wednesday, 1 April.

The monumental stone statues of Pacific island Rapa Nui (named Easter Island by European explorers) are some of the most widely recognised and fascinating archaeological objects in the world.

Following recent fieldwork on the island, Professor Colin Richards, an archaeologist at The University of Manchester, has developed this exhibition, which will take a fresh look at these impressive statues.

Moai Hava, meaning ‘dirty statue’ or ‘to be lost’ entered 91ֱ�� Museum in a five and a half hour operation. Cranes and other specialist lifting equipment were needed to get the statue, which stands 1.56 metres tall and weighs 3.3 tonnes, into the building.

It’s understood that the Moai were made on Rapa Nui between AD 1100 and 1600. The size and complexity of the moai increased over time and Moai Hava is one of only 14 moai made from basalt; the rest are carved from the island’s softer volcanic tuff.

Over a few hundred years the inhabitants of this remote island quarried, carved and erected around 887 moai.

The exhibition runs from Wednesday, 1 April to Sunday, 6 September, though Moai Hava will remain in the Museum entrance hall for a number of years.

Treasures from under the sea go on show

Thu, 28 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A spectacular exhibition combining historic and contemporary art, new commissions and natural history specimens is to feature at 91ֱ�� Museum.

Coral: Something Rich and Strange explores the enduring fascination with coral as a material and inspiration for artists, cultures and societies, from antiquity to the present day.

The displays will include fascinating and beautiful objects, telling a story about biodiversity and the importance of marine environments and bringing to our attention coral’s fascinating natural, scientific characteristics; the diversity of its shapes and patterns; its uses in different cultures and contexts; and the urgency of marine habitat protection.

Natural history specimens from the Museum’s zoology collection, fossils, glass models of marine invertebrates, and scientific illustrations will be seen alongside cultural artefacts such as charms, talismans, funerary objects, rosaries, netsuke and jewellery ‘curiosities’.

Paintings, prints, textiles and objects from the collections of Whitworth Art Gallery, 91ֱ�� Art Gallery and the V&A will also be on display alongside artworks from 15 national and 3 international institutions.

The exhibition will also include commissions of new works from the internationally renowned artist Mark Dion and the Lancashire-based textile artist Karen Casper, as well as a large-scale community engagement project, 91ֱ��’s very own Crochet Coral Reef.

A beautifully illustrated book, Coral: Something Rich and Strange, accompanies the exhibition, containing an essay on coral in art and nature, an interview with the artist Gemma Anderson and several object stories by experts from different disciplines, ranging from art history and archaeology to history of science and biology, published by Liverpool University Press.

The exhibition is curated by Dr Marion Endt-Jones, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in Art History and Visual Studies, University of Manchester. She explained how the exhibition is the culmination of a three year project: “91ֱ�� Museum, as a multi-disciplinary university museum, presented itself as an ideal venue for giving a public outlet to my research on the cultural history of coral as an organism, material and symbol. The exhibition hopes to illustrate what rich and diverse cultural tradition we put at risk by polluting, overfishing and acidifying the world’s oceans.”

Dr Nick Merriman, Director of Manchester Museum said: “According to a recent authoritative report, half of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed in the last 30 years, and if we do not take action immediately to reverse this decline, we will see all of them disappear before the end of the century. This exhibition is timely by showing the beauty of coral, both in nature and in the ways it has been used artistically, and what we risk losing if we stand by while it is destroyed”.

Notes for editors

Coral: Something Rich and Strange (#MMCoral), supported by Arts Council England and The Granada Foundation, runs from 29 November 2013 to 16 March 2014.

For media enquries contact:
Rachel Fitzgerald
Press Officer at 91ֱ�� Museum
Rachel.fitzgerald@manchester.ac.uk
0161 275 8786

Two 6000-year-old ‘halls of the dead’ unearthed, in UK first

Wed, 31 Jul 2013 01:00:00 +0100

The remains of two large 6000-year-old halls, each buried within a prehistoric burial mound, have been discovered by archaeologists from The University of Manchester and Herefordshire Council – in a UK first.

The sensational finds on Dorstone Hill, near Peterchurch in Herefordshire, were thought to be constructed between 4000 and 3600 BC.

Some of the burnt wood discovered at the site shows the character of the building’s structure above ground level- in another UK first.

The buildings, probably used by entire communities, are of unknown size, but may have been of similar length to the Neolithic long barrows beneath which they were found – 70metres and 30m long.

They were, say the team, deliberately burnt down after they were constructed and their remains incorporated into the two burial mounds.

However- much detail has been preserved in the larger barrow: structural timbers in carbonized form, postholes showing the positions of uprights, and the burnt remains of stakes forming internal partitions.

Most importantly, the core of each mound is composed of intensely burnt clay, representing the daub from the walls of the buildings.

The buildings were likely to have been long structures with aisles, framed by upright posts, and with internal partitions.

The smaller barrow contains a 7m by 2.5m mortuary chamber, with huge sockets which would have held upright tree trunks at each end.

These massive posts bracketed a linear ‘trough’ lined with planks, which would have held the remains of the dead.

Professor of archaeology from The University of Manchester Julian Thomas and Dr Keith Ray Herefordshire Council’s County Archaeologist, co-directed the excavation.

Professor Thomas said: “This find is of huge significance to our understanding of prehistoric life- so we’re absolutely delighted.

“It makes a link between the house and a tomb more forcefully than any other investigation that has been ever carried out.

“These early Neolithic halls are already extremely rare, but to find them within a long barrow is the discovery of a lifetime.”

He added: “The mound tells us quite a bit about the people who built it: they sought to memorialize the idea of their community represented by the dwelling.

“And by turning it into part of the landscape, it becomes a permanent reminder for generations to come.

“Just think of how the burning of the hall could have been seen for miles around, in the large expanse of what is now the border country between England and Wales.”

Archaeologists have long speculated that a close relationship existed between houses and tombs in Neolithic Europe, and that ‘houses of the dead’ amounted to representations of the ‘houses of the living’.

In addition to the two long mounds, the site has provided evidence for a series of later burials and other deliberate deposits, including a cremation burial and a pit containing a flint axe and a finely-flaked flint knife.

The objects have close affinities with artefacts found in eastern Yorkshire in the Late Neolithic (c. 2600 BC).

Dr Ray said: “These subsequent finds show that 1000 years after the hall burial mounds were made, the site is still important to later generations living 200 miles away – a vast distance in Neolithic terms.

“The axe and knife may not have been traded, but placed there as part of a ceremony or an ancestral pilgrimage from what is now East Yorkshire.

“So we witness an interconnected community linking Herefordshire and East Yorkshire by marriage and by descent 5000 years ago.”

He added: “In the British context, the Dorstone find is unique and unprecedented.

“We were hoping our work with The University of Manchester would help us to give us a clearer picture of the origins of these long barrows- but we were surprised how clearly the story came through.

“It’s very exciting for us: for 15 years I have been arguing that Herefordshire has something important to say on the national picture of our Neolithic heritage.”

Notes for editors

Images are available from the excavation

An artist’s impression of the halls of the dead are available

Professor Thomas and Dr Ray are available for comment

Journalists are welcome to visit the site at any point on Monday or Tuesday

For media enquiries contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Old toys show plus side to losing your marbles

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 01:00:00 +0100

A collection of long lost toys, just unearthed by a team of archaeologists at The University of Manchester, have shone new light on the commercialisation of childhood by the late Victorians.

The Whitworth Park Community Archaeology Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, is one of the first projects to expose and explore the rich history of everyday life in public parks between the 1890s and 1950s.

Among the finds are beautifully preserved fragments of a child's tea set, a toy pistol, a miniature lead soldier, and ceramic “Jacks” game pieces. - all early examples of commercially produced toys from the late 19th and very early 20th centuries.

Then team also excavated glass balls, removed from “cod bottles” for playing with, alongside mass produced marbles, presumably used by better-off children

According to the University's Professor Sian Jones, who leads the project, some of the finds are very early examples of marble mass production, which started around the turn of the twentieth century.

Akron, Ohio was the location of early mass production at around that time, she says, though handmade clay marbles were produced from the mid-1700s and glass marbles from the mid-nineteenth century.

World War I and the invention of marble producing machinery in America effectively ended the handmade marble industry.

Also found by the team: two attractive clay pipes, one inscribed with the phrase “for auld lang syne” and the other with an Irish Harp and the word “Erin”, possibly owned by someone from the Irish community living in the area at the time.

Ruth Colton, a University of Manchester researcher from the team with expertise on childhood and parks said: "Mass production of toys began following the industrial revolution and toys gradually became cheaper and more widespread.

"Many of the early toys were educational, such as toy blocks and wooden numbers.

"But following educational reforms in the second half of the nineteenth century, manufacturers increasingly recognised children as a potential market for toys - and these finds reflect that.

"Toy manufacture in Britain produced wooden or porcelain dolls, toy trains and model boats, although these were mainly available only to middle class children.

She added: "Better-off members of the working class were able to buy marbles, toy soldiers, spinning tops, skipping ropes, “Jacks” (also know as knucklebones or five stones) and coloured pick up sticks, while meccano and plasticine became widely available in the early twentieth century.

"But poorer children were still exposed to advertising and the displays in the windows of toy shops, such as one just outside Whitworth Park.

"So these poorer children made their own toy boats, dolls and other games, though they also competed with other children for marbles as well as “recycling” the glass balls from “cod bottles” to play with.”

Professor Sian Jones said: "Historical sources provide information on the development of public parks and the ideas behind them - but there's little record of what ordinary people got up to in parks and this is why this project is so unique.

"One person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure: something dropped by the edge of the lake over a hundred years ago gives archaeologists a huge amount of important - and often forgotten - detail about what life was like in those times.

"So the work not only shines a welcome light on the lives of children, but on other intimate items of daily life, such as buttons, parts of shoes and even gentleman's pipes.

“The artefacts provide a visceral connection to past lives and shed light on the important cultural heritage of public parks."

Notes for editors

Whitworth Park Community Archaeology and History Project finishes on Saturday 13 July 2013 with a 91ֱ�� Museum 'Big Saturday'.

The Project is led by the Archaeology Department at the University of Manchester. Partners include The Friends of Whitworth Park, and The University of Manchester’s 91ֱ�� Museum, Whitworth Art Gallery and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre.

Participants in the project have included local community volunteers, schools, long-term unemployed people, and the CBA Young Archaeologists' Club.

Siân Jones and Ruth Colton are available for comment about the project and the toys.

Ken Shone is available for comment about the Friends of Whitworth Park and the work they are doing to regenerate the Park.

Images are available of the toys, other finds and artist impression (courtesy of Frank Collins) of the excavation

For media enquiries contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Scheme bids to uncover park’s secret history

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 01:00:00 +0100

The latest stage of an annual project at one of Manchester’s best loved parks is bidding to uncover its secret history.

Led by University of Manchester archaeologists, the Heritage Lottery Fund supported dig aims to expose and explore the rich vein of Victorian and Edwardian history still hidden from view at Whitworth Park.

Local schoolchildren will work alongside the University’s top archaeologists, students and local community volunteers in field workshops until 12 July.

Whitworth Park opened in 1890, soon becoming a popular place for families, couples, and hospital staff and patients.

It has provided a space to commemorate the war dead, helped the civil defence of the city during the Second World War and acted as a venue for political marches and civil rights rallies into the twenty-first century.

But little of the park’s heritage is visible today.

Star finds so far include

Glazed ceramic ‘five stones’ and marbles, telling us about the games children played in the Park.
A medallion celebrating the Coronation of Edward VII in 1902.
A clay pipe bowl with a skull and cross design, produced by a 91ֱ�� factory, and referred to as ‘Death and Glory’. The bowl probably commemorates the 17th Lancers regiment who participated in the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Other more mundane objects such as bottles, plates, jewellery and house keys lost by Mancunians over the years, depict the changing lifestyles from the mid 1800s to the present day.

Project partners include the Archaeology Department, The Friends of Whitworth Park, 91ֱ�� Museum, the Whitworth Art Gallery and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre – all based at The University of Manchester.

Participants in the project have included local community volunteers, schools, long-term unemployed people, and the CBA Young Archaeologists’ Club.

The team will also lay-on a series of workshops, drama performances, open days and daily tours during the excavations, with future plans for public lectures and an exhibition at 91ֱ�� Museum in 2014.

Project Leader, Professor Siân Jones, who specializes in community archaeology, said: “Parks are an important part of the urban social environment informing people’s sense of identity, belonging and place.

“By investigating the history of Whitworth Park, we aim to increase everyone’s awareness of the value of these wonderful green spaces in the heart of the city, and encourage people to become more involved in their future.

“So we are delighted the Heritage Lottery Fund has supported this project to explore its past.”

“Our main objective is to enhance different local communities’ appreciation and use of this vital and vibrant urban green space, while being involved in archaeological discovery and research.

Sara Hilton, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund North West, said: “We are delighted to be supporting this excavation project that is giving local people the chance to quite literally uncover the history of Whitworth Park, which has been at the heart of the community for more than 120 years. We are looking forward to seeing what is discovered and urge everyone to take part!”

Notes for editors

Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) aims to make a lasting difference for heritage, people and communities across the UK and help build a resilient heritage economy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, HLF invests in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has supported almost 35,000 projects with more than £5.3bn across the UK. www.hlf.org.uk.

Whitworth Park Community Archaeology Project dates for your diary:

Open Day in the Park Saturday 6th July 11-3pm
91ֱ�� Museum 'Big Saturday' event Saturday 13th July
Visits from local schools on: Friday 5th, Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th July
Daily site tours at lunchtime (12.30-1.30pm) but staff and students will be on hand to talk to visitors throughout the day.

Siân Jones, Melanie Giles are available for comment about the project and the excavation.

Ken Shone is available for comment about the Friends of Whitworth Park and the work they are doing to regenerate the Park.

Images are available

For media enquiries contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Ancient Egyptians accessorised with meteorites

Fri, 31 May 2013 01:00:00 +0100

Researchers at The Open University (OU) and The University of Manchester have found conclusive proof that Ancient Egyptians used meteorites to make symbolic accessories.

The evidence comes from strings of iron beads which were excavated in 1911 at the Gerzeh cemetery, a burial site approximately 70km south of Cairo. Dating from 3350 to 3600BC, thousands of years before Egypt’s Iron Age, the bead analysed was originally assumed to be from a meteorite owing to its composition of nickel-rich iron. But this hypothesis was challenged in the 1980s when academics proposed that much of the early worldwide examples of iron use originally thought to be of meteorite-origin were actually early smelting attempts.

Subsequently, the Gerzeh bead, still the earliest discovered use of iron by the Egyptians, was loaned by the 91ֱ�� Museum to the OU and the University of Manchester’s School of Materials for further testing. Researchers used a combination of the OU’s electron microscope and 91ֱ��’s X-Ray CT scanner to demonstrate that the nickel-rich chemical composition of the bead confirms its meteorite origins.

OU Project Officer Diane Johnson, who led the study, said: “This research highlights the application of modern technology to ancient materials not only to understand meteorites better but also to help us understand what ancient cultures considered these materials to be and the importance they placed upon them.”

Meteorite iron had profound implications for the Ancient Egyptians, both in their perception of the iron in the context of its celestial origin and in early metallurgy attempts.

Co-author Dr Joyce Tyldesley, a Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at The University of Manchester, said: “Today, we see iron first and foremost as a practical, rather dull metal. To the ancient Egyptians, however, it was a rare and beautiful material which, as it fell from the sky, surely had some magical/religious properties. They therefore used this remarkable metal to create small objects of beauty and religious significance which were so important to them that they chose to include them in their graves.”

Philip Withers, Professor of Materials Science at The University of Manchester, added: “Meteorites have a unique microstructural and chemical fingerprint because they cooled incredibly slowly as they travelled through space. It was really interesting to find that fingerprint turn up in Egyptian artefacts.”

The paper, ‘,’ is published in the Meteoritics and Planetary Science journal.

Ends

Notes for editors

Images of the iron bead are available through the press office.

For media enquiries contact:

Liezel Tipper (OU)
Tel: 01908 654 316
Mob: 07540 668963
Email: liezel.tipper@open.ac.uk

or Aeron Haworth (91ֱ��)
Tel: 0161 275 8387
Mob: 07717 881563
Email: aeron.haworth@manchester.ac.uk

Solved: riddle of ancient Nile kingdom’s longevity

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:00:00 +0100

Researchers have solved the riddle of how one of Africa’s greatest civilisations survived a catastrophic drought which wiped out other famous dynasties.

Geomorphologists and dating specialists from The Universities of Aberystwyth, 91ֱ��, and Adelaide say that it was the River Nile which made life viable for the renowned Kerma kingdom, in what is now northern Sudan.

Kerma was the first Bronze Age kingdom in Africa outside Egypt.

Their analysis of three ancient river channels where the Nile once flowed shows, for the first time, that its floods weren’t too low or too high to sustain life between 2,500 BC and 1,500 BC, when Kerma flourished and was a major rival to its more famous neighbour downstream.

They also show that the thousand year civilisation came to end when the Nile’s flood levels were not high enough and a major channel system dried out - though an invasion by resurgent Egyptians was the final cause of Kerma’s demise.

Downstream in Egypt, a catastrophic 30 year drought 4,200 years ago, which produced low Nile floods, created chaos in the old kingdom for at least a century.

Other civilisations in the near east and Mesopotamia were also severely hit by this drought.

The team’s findings, funded by the Sudan Archaeological Research Society (SARS) and the Australian Research Council, are published in the journal ‘Geology’.

Professor Mark Macklin from The University of Aberystwyth said: “This work is the most comprehensive and robustly dated archaeological and palaeoenvironmental dataset yet compiled for the desert Nile.

“The relationship between climate change and the development of Old World riverine civilizations is poorly understood because inadequate dating control has hindered effective integration of archaeological, fluvial, and climate records.”

from The University of Manchester said: “In Nubia four thousand years ago the Kerma people farmed what we might call the Goldilocks Nile: its floods were just large enough to support floodwater farming, but not so big as to cause damage to the riverside settlements.”

“It’s quite remarkable that the Kerma civilization was able to flourish, produce amazing craftsmanship and wealth, at a time when their Egyptian rivals to the North were struggling with environmental, social, and political strife.

“Until now we didn't understand why that was - but thanks to our field work in Sudan, this riddle has now been solved.”

The team used cutting edge geological dating methods to analyse the dried up channels; now 20 km from the today’s river course. It is the first time individual flood events on the desert Nile have been dated.

Using hundreds of deep irrigation pits dug by modern Sudanese farmers, Macklin and Woodward were able to observe the geological history of the old channels. In places, these old channel belts are well preserved at the modern land surface. They are between 1 and 3 km wide with Kerma sites on their margins.

According to Derek Welsby from the British Museum who led the archaeological survey, Kerma’s wealth and power may have been underpinned by its agriculturally-rich hinterland utilising the banks of the ancient channels.

Archaeological surveys of the floodplain in the Dongola Reach to the south of Kerma have discovered more than 450 sites spanning the Neolithic (pre–3500 B.C.) to the Medieval Christian period (A.D. 500–1500). Many sites are associated with the Nile’s ancient channels.

He said: “Kerma’s success was also down to their reliance on animal husbandry practices that are less susceptible to changes in flood level, more mobile, and better able to cope with environmental stress.

“They were a truly remarkable civilisation, producing some of the most exquisite pottery in the Nile Valley.”

This pioneering work on human settlement history and the channels of the desert Nile in northern Sudan is featured in the new Ancient Worlds Galleries at the 91ֱ�� Museum.

Notes for editors

The team is:
Professor Mark Macklin, Aberystwyth University
Professor Jamie Woodward, University of Manchester
Dr Derek Welsby, The British Museum
Professor Geoff Duller, Aberystwyth University
Dr Frances Williams, University of Adelaide,
Professor Martin Williams, University of Adelaide

The paper, , published in Geology is available

Professor Macklin (Aberystwyth) is available for interview
Professor Woodward (91ֱ��) is available for interview
Derek Welsby (The British Museum) is available for interview

For media enquiries contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Huge find throws new light on ancient Iraq

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 01:00:00 +0100

University of Manchester archaeologists have started the excavation of an enormous building complex in Iraq, thought to be around 4,000 years old.

The team, directed by Professor Stuart Campbell and Dr Jane Moon, both from 91ֱ��, and independent archaeologist Robert Killick, first spotted the amazing structure – thought to be an administrative complex serving one of the world’s earliest cities– on satellite.

It was after carrying out geophysical survey and trial excavations at the site of Tell Khaiber that they were able to confirm the size of the complex at about 80 metres square – roughly the size of a football pitch.

They are the first British archaeologists to excavate in Southern Iraq since the 1980s, working close to the ancient city of Ur, where Sir Leonard Woolley discovered the fabulous 'Royal Tombs' in the 1920s.

The arrangement of rooms around a large courtyard are at a site only 20km from Ur, the last capital of the Sumerian royal dynasties, the founders of the earliest cities in the world.

Professor Campbell is head of the University’s renowned Department of Archaeology. He said: “This is a breathtaking find and we feel privileged to be the first to work at this important site.

“The surrounding countryside, now arid and desolate, was the birthplace of cities and of civilization about 5,000 years ago and home to the Sumerians and the later Babylonians."

One of the most striking finds at the site to date is a clay plaque, 9cm high, showing a worshipper approaching a sacred place. He is wearing a long robe with fringe down the front opening.

“It has been off-limits to international archaeologists for many decades so the opportunity of re-engaging with the study of the earliest cities is a truly exciting one,” said Professor Campbell.

“The satellite photos suggested the presence of a substantial building, and our survey has indeed confirmed that there is a building about 80m square, probably connected to the administration of Ur.

“We provisionally date the site to around 2,000 BC, the time of the sack of the city and the fall of the last Sumerian royal dynasty. “

The team aim to analyse plant and animal remains found at the site to help reconstruct environmental and economic conditions in the region 4,000 years ago.

Marshy conditions are thought to have prevailed, with the head of the Gulf being much further north, so that maritime trading was possible to obtain vital natural resources from India and the Arabian peninsula.

Professor Campbell, who has now returned from Iraq, added: “As well as offering unparalleled opportunities for redeveloping research in one of the most important areas of archaeology in the world, the project is also building partnerships with local practitioners and institutions.

“The aim is to help rebuild capacity in archaeological expertise and heritage management, working alongside members of Iraq's State Board for Antiquities and Heritage, and to address the 20-year isolation from the international community.”

Notes for editors

The project is funded by the British Institute for the 91ֱ�� of Iraq, the FCO, Gulfsands Petroleum, and companies and private individuals with an interest in Iraq's heritage.

Professor Campbell is available for comment in 91ֱ�� and Dr Moon is available in Iraq.

Images are available

For media enquires contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

How the Industrial Revolution is part of Manchester’s new revolution

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A fascinating glimpse of Industrial Revolution life, including the remains of a club frequented by Friedrich Engels, has been revealed at the site of the National Graphene Institute.

Cellars from rows of 1830s terraced houses and the remnants of the Albert Club have been unearthed by archaeologists beginning work at the new £61m Institute at The University of Manchester – the home of graphene.

The buried remains provide a window into life in 91ֱ�� almost 200 years ago and show how graphene, 91ֱ��’s new revolution, will be built on the foundations set by the Industrial Revolution.

The club was founded for 91ֱ��’s community of middle class Germans involved in the cotton trade, and Engels became a member in 1842. It was while living in 91ֱ�� that experienced the horrific conditions people worked in, which inspired his book The Condition of the Working Class in England.

Fronted by formal gardens and previously owned by architect Jeptha Pacey as his private villa, the club was converted into a private social club named after Queen Victoria’s consort.

With the remodelling that the building has undergoing during the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries, very little survives that can be identified firmly with the Albert Club. However, several fragments of ornate stone columns are likely to derive from the use of the building as a Turkish baths.

The cellars of five properties along the former Lawson Street have been discovered, together with the rear yards of larger houses that fronted onto Booth Street East. The fabric of the cellars retain interesting evidence for how they were used, and how they were adapted during the later nineteenth century to comply with legislation that was introduced during the 1880s and 1890s.

An intact sink has been removed from the site and Nobel Laureate Professor Kostya Novoselov intends to include it in the Institute when it opens in 2015.

The site covers where Lawson Street used to run – the old cobbled street has also been unearthed – and the former houses on Ebenezer Plat Terraces.

The stunning, glass-fronted (NGI) will be the UK’s home of research into the world’s thinnest, strongest and most conductive material, providing the opportunity for researchers and industry to work together on a huge variety of potential applications.

It is hoped the centre will initially create around 100 jobs, with the long-term expectation of many thousands more in the North West and more widely in the UK.

The 7,600 square metre building will house state-of-the-art facilities, including two ‘cleanrooms’ – one which will take up the whole of the lower ground floor – where scientists can carry out experiments and research without contamination.

Funding for the NGI will come from £38m of Government funds via the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, as part of £50m allocated for graphene research, and the University has applied for £23m from the European Research and Development Fund (ERDF). The NGI will operate as a ‘hub and spoke’ model, working with other UK institutions involved in graphene research.

Professor Novoselov said: “it was an unexpected and pleasant surprise to find these fascinating remains at the site of the Institute.

“We have been very careful to record these remnants of the Industrial Revolution and we will look to keep some artefacts for use in the new building or elsewhere.

“It is genuinely exciting to start work on such a significant research institute on such an important site.”

University of Manchester Director of Estates Diana Hampson said: “We have been advised that the remains we have uncovered are not hugely significant in archaeological terms, but are fascinating nonetheless.”

An open day is taking place on Friday March 1st from 10am-3pm. The site is on Booth Street East, opposite the Aquatics Centre car park.

Notes for editors

Members of the press are invited to a photocall at the site from 11am-12pm on Thursday February 28th. Professor Novoselov and architects Oxford Archaeology North will be available for photos/filming and for brief interviews.

Please contact the Press Office to confirm your attendance.

Artist impressions of the National Graphene institute are available from the Press Office.

More information about graphene can be found at

For media enquiries please contact:

Daniel Cochlin
Graphene Communications and Marketing Officer
The University of Manchester
0161 275 8382
Daniel.cochlin@manchester.ac.uk
@UoMGraphene

Cheers! One of world’s earliest ‘micro-breweries’ found

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Archaeologists working in Western Cyprus are raising a glass to the discovery of a Bronze Age ‘micro-brewery’, one of the earliest ever found.

The team who excavated the two by two metre domed mud-plaster structure, led by Dr Lindy Crewe from The University of Manchester, have demonstrated it was used as a kiln to dry malt to make beer three-and-a half-thousand years ago.

According to Dr Crewe, beers of different flavours would have been brewed from malted barley and fermented with yeasts with an alcoholic content of around 5%. The yeast would have either been wild or produced from fruit such as grape or fig.

Dr Crewe is based jointly in Archaeology at the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures and 91ֱ�� Museum - both at the University.

Since 2007, she has been leading the excavation at the Early–Middle Bronze Age settlement of Kissonerga-Skalia, near Paphos.

She said: “Archaeologists believe beer drinking was an important part of society from the Neolithic onwards and may have even been the main reason that people began to cultivate grain in the first place.

“But it’s extremely rare to find the remains of production preserved from thousands of years ago so we’re very excited.

“The excavation of the malting kiln with associated sets of pottery types and tools left in place gives us a fantastic opportunity to look at Bronze Age toolkits and figure out techniques and recipes.”

The oven discovered by the archaeologists was positioned at one end of a 50 metres square courtyard with a plastered floor.

They found grinding tools and mortars which may have been used to break down the grain after it was malted, a small hearth and cooking pots made of clay to cook the beer gently.

They also found juglets, which they believe probably contained yeast additives or sweeteners to produce beers of different strengths or flavours. The beers’ ingredients were found by the team as carbonised seeds.

She added: “Beer was commonly drunk because it is more nutritious than bread and less likely to contain harmful pathogens than drinking water which can make you ill.

“But alcoholic beverages were also used to oil the wheels of business and pleasure in much the same way as today: work brought communities together for tasks such as bringing in the harvest or erecting special buildings.

“Instead of payment, participants are rewarded with a special feast, often involving quantities of alcohol, which also transformed the work from a chore into a social event.

“The people of the Bronze Age, it seems, were well aware of the relaxing properties of alcohol.”

An experimental archaeology team, led by Ian Hill of HARP Archaeology, recreated the drying kiln using traditional techniques, to test to test Dr Crewe’s theory in August .

The modern version used hot air to produce a temperature of 65° C – perfect conditions for heating and drying grains but still preserving it’s enzymes and proteins.

He said: “After the beers had been strained, we felt they were all pretty drinkable, though some varieties were better than others.

“The grape was less pleasant - a bit too sweet– the outcomes are less reliable when using wild yeasts, compared to brewers yeast, but the fig beer was definitely the most popular.”

Notes for editors

A recipe for the Bronze Age beer found at Kissonerga-Skalia is available.

An article on the excavation of the beer-making installation at Kissonerga-Skalia and how it can inform on Cypriot Bronze Age society has been published this month in the journal Levant.

Images are available.

The structure and the courtyard were excavated from 2007-12 and the experimental archaeology was in August.

Dr Crewe is available for interview in London

The excavation and experimental archaeology took place during the summer.

The project team would like to thank the following institutions for their financial and/or logistical support:

The University of Manchester;
The British Academy (funding 2007–08);
The Council for British Research in the Levant (funding 2009 and ongoing project affiliation);
Department of Greece and Rome, The British Museum (funding 2009–12 and project partners)
Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute
Lemba Archaeological Research Centre.

For media enquiries contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

New life for Nubian bones

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 01:00:00 +0100

A two-and-a-half-year transatlantic search by researchers at The University of Manchester for the remains of thousands of Nubian skeletons will culminate in a fascinating workshop later this month.

The project has been led of The University of Manchester and Professor Norman MacLeod of The Natural History Museum. Since 2010 they and a team of researchers have been identifying the whereabouts of the remains of bodies collected on the first archaeological survey of Nubia more than 100 years ago.

7,500 skeletons and mummies dating back to between 4,000BC and 1,000AD were excavated during the dig which took place in Southern Egypt from 1907 to 1911. It was a race against time for the American archeologist, George Reisner, and his team who were battling the rising waters building up behind the newly completed Aswan Low Dam.

The fact the area was flooded by the end of the excavation demonstrates the historical importance of what they found and the significance of the Nubian remains that were removed.

However, over the past century the remains have been scattered around the world; placed in various collections where their significance has been lost. Many have also been damaged, including a substantial number of skeletons which were destroyed by a bombing raid in London during the Second World War.

from the Faculty of Life Sciences worked on the project: “We wanted to bring together as many of the remaining skeletons as we could in a virtual database so researchers could properly compare them. We also realised the full potential of these fascinating remains hadn't been properly fulfilled as research techniques have developed so much since 1911.”

Starting with the collection brought back to 91ֱ�� by the lead anatomist on the original dig, Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, Dr Cockitt and her colleagues began the painstaking investigation work to identify the bones. They used photos from the dig, notes from the archeological team, records of the shipments of remains into the UK and identification marks such as the grave number recorded on the bones themselves.

They also looked at the very well preserved collection at The Natural History Museum in London. Their investigations eventually led them around the UK and even to America to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Dr Cockitt recalls: “I had a real eureka moment in Cambridge when I found a packet of 400 cards that recorded the details of specific remains. Another high point was in America when we looked through thousands of photos that George Reisner had taken of the dig. It was hard work following the clues but so rewarding when we found what we were looking for. We began to feel that we knew the people behind the bodies and that we were giving them their voice again after all these years. ”

Professor MacLeod comments: “In the past, the dispersal of a collection inevitably resulted in the degradation of the collection’s significance and ease of access. But through the use of new technologies collections that physically reside in multiple locations can be brought back together in a virtual sense to support a greater range of scientific investigations than any of the host institutions could provide on its own. This project is a pioneering effort to move collections management into the virtual space and as such will have an influence far beyond the study of Nubian archaeology per se. It also shows what can be accomplished through inter-museum collaboration.”

In total Dr Cockitt and her colleagues have identified around 2,000 bodies. The researchers have used modern techniques to re-investigate the remains, focusing on what they can tell us about disease and trauma.

Images of the bodies have now been put on a virtual database, bringing them together for the first time since they were removed from the ground more than a hundred years ago. Descriptions of any known pathology or trauma suffered by the individual are recorded, along with a complete dental survey of all bodies with surviving teeth. It should prove to be a significant tool for researchers looking at disease.

As the project nears completion, the initial results will be presented at a workshop held at The Natural History Museum, London on the 29 and 30 August, titled “Palaeopathology in Egypt and Nubia: A Century in Review”. The workshop will also bring together researchers from around the world to discuss the history of the discipline in these areas, and what the next steps will be as new and increasingly powerful technologies are brought to bear on the subject. Tickets cost £45 and can be purchased online from The University of Manchester

The workshop will be held at The Natural History Museum (London). It's been organised by The Natural History Museum, London and , The University of Manchester, as part of a joint project funded by The Wellcome Trust. It is open to anyone who wishes to attend.

A small number of bones from the collection of Nubian remains held by The Natural History Museum will be on display.

The workshop will include lectures by:

Prof Don Brothwell, The University of York
Dr Derek Welsby, The British Museum
Prof Albert Zink, EURAC
Prof Rosalie David, The University of Manchester

A public lecture will also be given by Prof. Michael Zimmerman from Villanova University on the evening of the 28th August, with tickets for workshop attendees included free of charge. Lecture only tickets are £10.

Tickets can be purchased online at

The database can be found at on the KNH centre website:

City becomes vast instrument in pioneering concert

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 01:00:00 +0100

A group of concert-goers are to experience the city as never before in a pioneering project led by University of Manchester music researchers today (29 June).

The project, led by Dr Ricardo Climent from the University’s NOVARS Research Centre, will transform 91ֱ�� into a gigantic instrument - doubling up as an audio museum, which will be relayed live to the Martin Harris Centre – also at the University.

A walking tour will hear commentaries and compositions triggered using GPS and 3G technology at specific locations on specially configured smartphones in 91ֱ�� and Blacksburg, Virginia via the Internet.

A live ensemble at the University’s John Thaw Studio Theatre – where the concert is taking place- will interact with ‘soundwalk’ tours.

Using game and mobile phone technologies, the Martin Harris Centre audience will also be able to interact with a virtual world using the University's large surround sound system called MANTIS.

The event is taking place as part of the LocativeAudio festival - a partnership between NOVARS Research Centre and noTours and is sponsored by the University’s Cities@91ֱ�� network.

Dr Climent, who is also a music composer and sonic artist, says: “Our sense of hearing provides us with a powerful way to experience the city and influence our decision making.

“One of the issues that composers must tackle is that visual culture has become dominant in the way we experience the world.

“Our research shows that we often underestimate the potential of sound as a way of understanding our environment.

“This event uses sound to create a greater awareness of Manchester’s history and geography.

“Every place has a meaning – and sound can help us get to the bottom of that.

“But the potential is enormous: we hope it might inspire city designers to think about sound more seriously.”

Researchers from archaeology and architecture provided texts to inform the sound walks with a focus on the history of Whitworth Park – where some of the sound tour takes place.

He adds: “In the past we have relied much more on all our other senses, including hearing

“Phoenicians, for example, would once have communicated using ‘clicks’ when navigating along the foggy sea routes but there are many other examples.

“But this project is also about taking music out of the traditional concert hall to the city and returning it to think about new ways of engaging with art.

“For the last 30 years, changes in technology have shaped my thinking and methods when composing music but also altered the way I interact with others as an artist.”

Notes for editors

For more information visit:
http://locativeaudio.org

http://acusmatica.7host.com/locative/

More details of the programme can be found at: http://acusmatica.7host.com/locative/2012/schedule.html

Invited artists can be found here:
http://acusmatica.7host.com/locative/2012/index.html

Information about the walks at:
http://acusmatica.7host.com/locative/2012/geosoundwalks.html

Images are available:
•    NOVARS studio and building
•    Dr Climent
•    Audio Tour

Dr Climent is available for comment

For media enquires contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

New study probes radical rethink on culture

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The University of Manchester is to host a £1.5 million investigation, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), into how society can get the most out of the vast array of often overlooked cultural activities Britons take part in.

91ֱ��’s Dr Andrew Miles will lead a team of experts from the universities of Exeter, Leicester and Warwick in a bid to understand the value of hobbies, community festivals and other leisure activities which millions of people take part in every day.

The team will carry out historical analyses and produce new data to help policy makers and arts organisations target their funding more effectively.

They will find out where cultural participation takes place, how it is valued, and carry out trials of new policy interventions - with the help of national partners and community organisations - in 91ֱ��, Gateshead, Peterborough and Dartmoor.

Additional funding from Creative Scotland will enable two further trials to take place in Aberdeen and Stornoway.

Dr Miles, who is based at the University’s Centre for Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC),said: “Though millions of Britons take part in participatory activities every day, we need to do more to understand the contribution these make to communities and places.

“Many bodies define cultural participation too narrowly, considering only traditional cultural institutions such as museums and galleries.

“But we believe that other - sometimes mundane - activities such as pastimes, local events and social activities - should also be included.”

The project engages with the concept of cultural capital, developed by the world famous sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in the 1980s, which argues that what people do in their cultural lives influences their sense of identity and can have important effects on their life chances.

Dr Miles added: “Thanks to the AHRC grant, this radical re-evaluation of the relationship between participation and cultural value will provide bodies with the information they need to target their resources more effectively.

“Our aim is to find ways to promote better identification and more equitable resourcing of the vast array of these overlooked activities which generate wellbeing, cultural capital and contribute to the development of creative local economies.”

Notes for editors

Understanding everyday participation – articulating cultural values is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). For more details visit

Visit the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) at

For a list of project partners visit:

Partner organisations taking part:
Arts Council England
Clore Duffield Foundation
Creative Scotland
Department of Culture, Media and Sport
English Heritage
Local Government Group
91ֱ�� City Council
Museums Association
National Council for Voluntary Organisations
Norfolk Museums and Archaeology
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Sport England
Sustrans
Vivacity
Voluntary Arts Network
Working Men’s Cub and Institutes Union

For media enquires contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Site of earliest house is scheduled by the Government

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

One of Yorkshire’s most outstanding historical sites has been given protection by Heritage Minister John Penrose.

On the advice of English Heritage, the early Mesolithic site Star Carr, North Yorkshire is being made a scheduled monument for its rarity and archaeological importance.

The announcement follows last year’s discovery of Britain's earliest surviving house by a team of archaeologists from the Universities of Manchester and York at the site.

The houses dates to at least 8,500 BC - when Britain was part of continental Europe.

The research team unearthed the 3.5 metres circular structure next to an ancient lake at the site, near Scarborough, which archaeologists say is comparable in importance to Stonehenge.

They also excavated a well preserved 11,000 year-old tree trunk with its bark still intact and the earliest evidence of carpentry in Europe.

Dr Chantal Conneller and Barry Taylor from The University of Manchester and Dr Nicky Milner from the University of York have been working at Star Carr since 2004.

Dr Conneller said: “The scheduling of Star Carr confirms its position as Britain's most important Mesolithic site. We are delighted that the finds from our excavations - in particular the house and the wooden platform - have increased our understanding of such an iconic site.”

Dr Milner added: “It is great news that the national importance of Star Carr has been officially recognised and it will now be legally protected. We are really looking forward to carrying out further excavations which will help us answer more questions about how our ancestors lived, just after the end of the Ice Age.”

John Penrose said: “The diversity of finds on offer at Star Carr and its history which goes back to 9000 BC are unequalled in British archaeology and it remains one of the most important Mesolithic sites in Europe.”

Nick Bridgland, Designation Team Leader for the North at English Heritage, said: “The remains at Star Carr, including what may be the earliest building known in Britain, are unequalled in British archaeology and designation as a Scheduled Ancient Monument recognises this importance. Scheduling Star Carr will help archaeologists manage the site effectively and carry out critically important excavations to recover the rapidly decaying remains so we can all learn as much as possible about this fascinating period of prehistory.”

The research at Star Carr was made possible by a grant from the Natural Environment Research Council, early excavation funding from the British Academy, and from English Heritage. The Vale of Pickering Research Trust has also provided support for the excavation works.

Notes for editors

An artist’s impression of what the period was like is available. Please credit estate of artist Alan Sorrell

For media enquiries contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Human skull study causes evolutionary headache

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Scientists studying a unique collection of human skulls have shown that changes to the skull shape thought to have occurred independently through separate evolutionary events may have actually precipitated each other.

Researchers at the Universities of Manchester and Barcelona examined 390 skulls from the Austrian town of Hallstatt and found evidence that the human skull is highly integrated, meaning variation in one part of the skull is linked to changes throughout the skull.

The Austrian skulls are part of a famous collection kept in the Hallstatt Catholic Church ossuary; local tradition dictates that the remains of the town’s dead are buried but later exhumed to make space for future burials. The skulls are also decorated with paintings and, crucially, bear the name of the deceased. The Barcelona team made measurements of the skulls and collected genealogical data from the church’s records of births, marriages and deaths, allowing them to investigate the inheritance of skull shape.

The team tested whether certain parts of the skull – the face, the cranial base and the skull vault or brain case – changed independently, as anthropologists have always believed, or were in some way linked. The scientists simulated the shift of the foramen magnum (where the spinal cord enters the skull) associated with upright walking; the retraction of the face, thought to be linked to language development and perhaps chewing; and the expansion and rounding of the top of the skull, associated with brain expansion. They found that, rather than being separate evolutionary events, changes in one part of the brain would facilitate and even drive changes in the other parts.

“We found that genetic variation in the skull is highly integrated, so if selection were to favour a shape change in a particular part of the skull, there would be a response involving changes throughout the skull,” said , in 91ֱ��’s Faculty of Life Sciences

“We were able to use the genetic information to simulate what would happen if selection were to favour particular shape changes in the skull. As those changes, we used the key features that are derived in humans, by comparison with our ancestors: the shift of the foramen magnum associated with the transition to bipedal posture, the retraction of the face, the flexion of the cranial base, and, finally, the expansion of the braincase.

“As much as possible, we simulated each of these changes as a localised shape change limited to a small region of the skull. For each of the simulations, we obtained a predicted response that included not only the change we selected for, but also all the others. All those features of the skull tended to change as a whole package. This means that, in evolutionary history, any of the changes may have facilitated the evolution of the others.”

Lead author Dr Neus Martínez-Abadías, from the University of Barcelona’s, added: “This study has important implications for inferences on human evolution and suggests the need for a reinterpretation of the evolutionary scenarios of the skull in modern humans.”

The research, funded by the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (USA) and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, is published in the journal Evolution.

Ends

Notes for editors

Images of the decorated Hallstatt skulls are available on request.

A copy of the paper,Martínez-Abadías, N.; Esparza, M.; Sjövold, T.; González-José, R.; Santos, M.; Hernàndez, M.; Klingenberg, C.P. “”. Evolution, November 2011, DOI: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01496.x, is also available.

For further enquiries contact:

Aeron Haworth
Media Relations
Faculty of Life Sciences
The University of Manchester

Tel: 0161 275 8383
Mob: 07717 881563
Email: aeron.haworth@manchester.ac.uk

Dig to shed light on rich past of much loved park

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 01:00:00 +0100

An excavation led by University of Manchester archaeologists and started this week, is to shed some light on the rich Victorian and Edwardian heritage of a much loved park.

Parts of Manchester’s Whitworth Park will be excavated by University staff and students, local community volunteers and schoolchildren thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant of £39,700.

The Whitworth Park Community Archaeology Project’s work on the old lake, pavilion and bandstand will continue until Friday 16 September - and the public are welcome to visit.

Archaeologist Dr Melanie Giles from The University of Manchester said “Whitworth was one of industrial 91ֱ��’s most loved Victorian and Edwardian Parks.

“It was a colourful place, filled with elaborate flowerbeds and walkways, to promote the health and wellbeing of adults and children from all social classes around Oxford Road, Rusholme and Moss Side.

“We hope to find remains of these structures and objects that were lost or left behind during days out, picnics and play-times.”

Whitworth Park opened in 1890, and was soon a popular place to take the air and to be seen promenading, becoming an important part of people’s lives and identities.

Families, couples and both staff and patients from the local hospitals became frequent visitors.

It has provided a space to commemorate the War dead, aided the Civil Defence of the city during the Second World War and acted as a venue for political marches and civil rights rallies into the twenty-first century.

But little of the park’s heritage is visible today.

Project Leader, Professor Siân Jones, who specializes in community archaeology added: “Parks are an important part of the urban social environment informing people’s sense of identity, belonging and place.

“By investigating the history of Whitworth Park, we aim to increase everyone’s awareness of the value of these wonderful green spaces in the heart of the city, and encourage people to become more involved in their future.

“So we are delighted the Heritage Lottery Fund has supported this project to explore its past.”

The Archaeology Department is working closely with the Friends of Whitworth Park, a voluntary community organization that seeks to regenerate the Park. Other project partners include 91ֱ�� Museum, the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Centre and Whitworth Art Gallery – all part of The University of Manchester.

Over the next two years, there will be another excavation, as well as exhibitions, public talks and outreach events, to share the results of the dig and record people’s memories to create an oral history of the Park.

Sara Hilton, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund North West, said: “We are delighted to support this excavation project that will give local people the chance quite literally to uncover the past history of this park that has stood at the heart of the community for more than 120 years.”

Notes for editors

Daily tours will be given at 1.30pm and on Saturday 10th September, 91ֱ�� Museum will run an Open Day in the Park from 11am to 4pm, with exciting family activities based around its heritage and wildlife.

Siân Jones and Melanie Giles are available for comment about the project and the excavation.

Ken Shone is available for comment about the Friends of Whitworth Park and the work they are doing to regenerate the Park.

Images are available

For media enquires contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Dead Sea Scroll tract was precursor to Jewish calendar

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:00:00 +0100

An obscure Babylonian document from the world famous Dead Sea Scroll collection was almost certainly a precursor to the Jewish calendar according to University of Manchester research.

An obscure Babylonian document from the world famous Dead Sea Scroll collection was almost certainly a precursor to the Jewish calendar according to University of Manchester research.

Dr Helen Jacobus, a part-time doctoral student who graduated this month, investigated one of the 972 texts found in Khirbet Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan between 1947 and 1956.

The Babylonian text known as Qumran scroll ‘4Q318’and kept at the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem, is thought to have been written around 2000 years ago.

Shown by Dr Jacobus to be a calendar - it contains predictions based on the moon’s position in the zodiac when the sound of thunder occurs.

The calendar can still be used to find the moon's position in the zodiac on a given date in the Jewish calendar – a calculation no other document in the world is able to achieve.

According to Dr Jacobus, the Aramaic month names used in the scroll are the same as those used in the Hebrew calendar today. They are, she says, Aramaic translations of the Babylonian month names.

Dr Jacobus said: “This ancient tract can be still used a functioning lunar zodiac calendar , which was a precursor to the Jewish calendar of today.

“The calendar is followed by an omen text, which makes predictions based on the moon's sign of the zodiac on the day that thunder is heard.

“The predictions are written in an archaic, anachronistic style, similar to the omen texts of the Akkadians, an ancient Semitic people.”

“In contrast, the poetry in the Dead Sea Scrolls is sublime, sophisticated and are masterpieces of literature, so they definitely didn't write 4Q318 in a way that was contemporary.

“It is closely related to Greco-Babylonian zodiacal calendars and connected to a tradition of calendrical systems developed in Ptolemaic Egypt and Greece.

“It adds hugely to our understanding of the history of the Jewish calendar, and of ancient calendars, astronomy and astrology.

“It also tells us much tell us about the variety of different calendars in Palestine 2,000 years ago."

Her thesis is to be published as a book next year.

Her paper entitled, “A Jewish Zodiac Calendar at Qumran?” was awarded the tenth Annual Sean W. Dever Memorial Prize 2011 from the William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, in Jerusalem, in March.

This month’s international periodical Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) announced her a prize-winning article about the fragmentary calendar in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

She added: “My research reveals this text is an important precursor to the Hebrew calendar used by Jews across the world today.

“However, its method of functioning has been relatively unexplored.

“So it is gratifying that that my research has been recognised by the Sean W. Dever Memorial prize.”

She was supervised by Professor George J. Brooke, at the University’s School of Arts, Histories and Cultures.

Commenting on the Dever prize, Professor Carol Meyers of Duke University, North Carolina, in America, said: “The judges thought highly of Helen’s meticulous scholarship and careful presentation of the data in her discussion of the zodiac and its role in Jewish calendars.”

Notes for editors

The Akkadian omen texts date back about 3,000 years and were still being copied in cuneiform on clay tablets up until the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Qumran scroll is the only known version in Aramaic, and the only known version that has survived from antiquity that isn't written in cuneiform on clay tablets.

The title of her thesis is: “4QZodiac Calendar and Brontologion and its Implications for the Aramaic Astronomical Book of Enoch and a Medieval Calendar Text.” is currently being prepared for publication.

The article: A Jewish Zodiac Calendar at Qumran is available on eScholar at

Dr Jacobus is available for interview

For media enquires contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

West Runton Elephant helps unlock the past

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:00:00 +0100

Researchers from the Universities of York and 91ֱ�� have successfully extracted protein from the bones of a 600,000 year old mammoth, paving the way for the identification of ancient fossils.

Using an ultra-high resolution mass spectrometer, bio-archaeologists were able to produce a near complete collagen sequence for the West Runton Elephant, a Steppe Mammoth skeleton which was discovered in cliffs in Norfolk in 1990. The remarkable 85 per cent complete skeleton – the most complete example of its species ever found in the world – is preserved by Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service in Norwich.

Bio-archaeologist Professor Matthew Collins, from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “The time depth is absolutely remarkable. Until several years ago we did not believe we would find any collagen in a skeleton of this age, even if it was as well-preserved as the West Runton Elephant.

“We believe protein lasts in a useful form ten times as long as DNA which is normally only useful in discoveries of up to 100,000 years old in Northern Europe. The implications are that we can use collagen sequencing to look at very old extinct animals. It also means we can look through old sites and identify remains from tiny fragments of bone.”

Dr Mike Buckley, from the Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Manchester, said: “What is truly fascinating is that this fundamentally important protein, which is one of the most abundant proteins in most (vertebrate) animals, is an ideal target for obtaining long lost genetic information."

The collagen sequencing was carried out at the Centre for Excellence in Mass Spectrometry at the University of York and is arguably the oldest protein ever sequenced; short peptides (chains of amino acids) have controversially been reported from dinosaur fossils.

The research formed part of a study into the sequencing of mammoths and mastodons, which is published in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. The West Runton Elephant was compared with other mammoths, modern elephants and mastodons. Despite the age of the fossil, sufficient peptides were obtained to identify the West Runton skeleton as elephantid, and there was sufficient sequence variation to discriminate elephantid and mammutid collagen.

Nigel Larkin, co-author and Research Associate with Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service, said: “The West Runton Elephant is unusual in that it is a nearly complete skeleton. At the time this animal was alive, before the Ice Ages, spotted hyenas much larger than those in Africa today were scavenging most carcases and devouring the bones as well as meat. That means most fossils found from this time period are individual bones or fragments of bone, making them difficult to identify. In the future, collagen sequencing might help us to determine the species represented by even smallest scraps of bone.

“Therefore this research has important implications for bones and bone fragments in all archaeological and palaeontological collections in museums and archaeology units around the world, not just those of Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service in Norwich.”

Ends

Notes for editors

The full article of Mammoth and Mastodon collagen sequences; survival and utility is available at
Collagen is a naturally occurring protein. Sequencing involves looking at the order of the amino acids within the protein with the differences in sequences allowing scientists to identify different species.
Further information and images of the West Runton Elephant are available at or

For further information contact:

Caron Lett
Press Officer
University of York

Tel: 01904 322029
Email: caron.lett@york.ac.uk

Or Aeron Haworth
Media Relations
Faculty of Life Sciences
The University of Manchester

Tel: 0161 275 8383
Email: aeron.haworth@manchester.ac.uk

University to develop unique X-ray imaging and coherence facility

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The University of Manchester has joined forces with Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility, to produce a world-class imaging facility.

This will allow researchers in a wide range of fields to create high-quality 3D images of samples including engineering components, biomaterials, fossils, organic materials and energy devices such as fuel cells.

Due for completion in 2012, the X-ray Imaging and Coherence beamline at Diamond, I13, is designed for a broad range of scientific users from biomedicine, materials science, geophysics, astrophysics and archaeology.

Its two branch lines – called the ‘imaging’ and ‘coherence’ branches – will provide tools for non-destructive examination of internal features ranging from the micro (a few thousandths of a millimetre) to the nano (a few millionths of a millimetre) length scale.

Diamond has entered into a seven-year collaboration with The University of Manchester to develop the imaging branch line, working together to discover, explore and exploit new science using synchrotron light.

Professor Phil Withers is leading the X-ray Imaging at the University and is a longstanding synchrotron user. He said: “The late Professor Alan Gilbert [the inaugural President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester] visited Diamond and was struck by the world-class standard of the facility, and he was keen for 91ֱ�� to be directly involved.

“With our own dedicated imaging suite at 91ֱ��, the Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility, which was officially opened in June last year, 91ֱ�� was looking to expand its imaging capabilities and the partnership with Diamond provided the perfect opportunity.”

The 3D X-ray tomography that will be performed on I13 has many applications. It can be used to characterise the internal structure of porous materials such as trabecular bone or metal foams, or to determine the size and shape of cracks and other defects inside components such as aircraft parts, where unexpected failures could have catastrophic results.

The funding from 91ֱ�� includes capital, staff and operational costs towards the I13 imaging branch beamline in return for substantial dedicated access.

The staff financed through this collaboration will accelerate the completion of the I13 imaging branch and ensure its operation for the next seven years. The effort is further supported by a team from The University of Manchester, situated on site to drive forward the research.

The experimental hutches for I13 are currently under construction but the optics hutches are already receiving X-rays from the synchrotron ready for testing. Following the inaugural board meeting Prof. Colin Bailey, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at The University of Manchester, ran the first test sample on the beamline with great success.

He said: “The partnership with Diamond will allow the leading academics at The University of Manchester to push the boundaries of science using synchrotron light.

“The facilities at Diamond complement our current imaging facilities at 91ֱ��, including our new Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility. I look forward to the exciting, world-leading scientific discoveries that will result from this partnership with Diamond.”

Chief Executive of Diamond, Prof. Gerd Materlik, says, “This is great news for Diamond and the I13 beamline. In the current economic climate, creating a new model of interaction with one of our university partners, and financial support such as this, is extremely important in terms of fully exploiting our facilities.

I13 is part of the second phase of construction at Diamond which is due to be complete in 2012. Funding for Phase III, the design and construction of a further ten beamlines, was announced by the government in October this year and will bring the total number of experimental stations to 32 when complete in 2017, enhancing the capabilities of the Diamond synchrotron science facility.

Notes for editors

For high-res images visit ftp://ftpanon.diamond.ac.uk/I13Diamond91ֱ�� Please use Internet Explorer
For further information and images, please contact:
•    Sarah Boundy, PR Officer, Diamond Light Source sarah.boundy@diamond.ac.uk
T: 01235 778639; M: 07920 296957
•    Silvana Westbury, PR Manager, Diamond Light Source silvana.westbury@diamond.ac.uk
T: 01235 778238; M: 07841 432780
•    Daniel Cochlin, Media Relations Officer, University of Manchester daniel.cochlin@manchester.ac.uk T: 0161 275 8387

Scientists suggest that cancer is man-made

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 01:00:00 +0100

Cancer is a modern, man-made disease caused by environmental factors such as pollution and diet, a study review by University of Manchester scientists has strongly suggested.

Their study of remains and literature from ancient Egypt and Greece and earlier periods – carried out at 91ֱ��’s and published in Nature Reviews Cancer – includes the first histological diagnosis of cancer in an Egyptian mummy.

Finding only one case of the disease in the investigation of hundreds of Egyptian mummies, with few references to cancer in literary evidence, proves that cancer was extremely rare in antiquity. The disease rate has risen massively since the Industrial Revolution, in particular childhood cancer – proving that the rise is not simply due to people living longer.

, at the Faculty of Life Sciences, said: “In industrialised societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. But in ancient times, it was extremely rare. There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle.”

She added: “The important thing about our study is that it gives a historical perspective to this disease. We can make very clear statements on the cancer rates in societies because we have a full overview. We have looked at millennia, not one hundred years, and have masses of data.”

Egyptian mummys

The data includes the first ever histological diagnosis of cancer in an Egyptian mummy by Professor Michael Zimmerman, a visiting Professor at the KNH Centre, who is based at the Villanova University in the US. He diagnosed rectal cancer in an unnamed mummy, an ‘ordinary’ person who had lived in the Dakhleh Oasis during the Ptolemaic period (200-400 CE).

Professor Zimmerman said: “In an ancient society lacking surgical intervention, evidence of cancer should remain in all cases. The virtual absence of malignancies in mummies must be interpreted as indicating their rarity in antiquity, indicating that cancer causing factors are limited to societies affected by modern industrialization”.

The team studied both mummified remains and literary evidence for ancient Egypt but only literary evidence for ancient Greece as there are no remains for this period, as well as medical studies of human and animal remains from earlier periods, going back to the age of the dinosaurs.

Evidence of cancer in animal fossils, non-human primates and early humans is scarce – a few dozen, mostly disputed, examples in animal fossils, although a metastatic cancer of unknown primary origin has been reported in an Edmontosaurus fossil while another study lists a number of possible neoplasms in fossil remains. Various malignancies have been reported in non-human primates but do not include many of the cancers most commonly identified in modern adult humans.

It has been suggested that the short life span of individuals in antiquity precluded the development of cancer. Although this statistical construct is true, individuals in ancient Egypt and Greece did live long enough to develop such diseases as atherosclerosis, Paget's disease of bone, and osteoporosis, and, in modern populations, bone tumours primarily affect the young.

Another explanation for the lack of tumours in ancient remains is that tumours might not be well preserved. Dr. Zimmerman has performed experimental studies indicating that mummification preserves the features of malignancy and that tumours should actually be better preserved than normal tissues. In spite of this finding, hundreds of mummies from all areas of the world have been examined and there are still only two publications showing microscopic confirmation of cancer. Radiological surveys of mummies from the Cairo Museum and museums in Europe have also failed to reveal evidence of cancer.

As the team moved through the ages, it was not until the 17^th Century that they found descriptions of operations for breast and other cancers and the first reports in scientific literature of distinctive tumours have only occurred in the past 200 years, such as scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps in 1775, nasal cancer in snuff users in 1761 and Hodgkin’s disease in 1832.

The fathers of pharmacology

Professor David – who was invited to present her paper to UK Cancer Czar Professor Mike Richards and other oncologists at this year’s UK Association of Cancer Registries and National Cancer Intelligence Network conference – said: “Where there are cases of cancer in ancient Egyptian remains, we are not sure what caused them. They did heat their homes with fires, which gave off smoke, and temples burned incense, but sometimes illnesses are just thrown up.”

She added: “The ancient Egyptian data offers both physical and literary evidence, giving a unique opportunity to look at the diseases they had and the treatments they tried. They were the fathers of pharmacology so some treatments did work

“They were very inventive and some treatments thought of as magical were genuine therapeutic remedies. For example, celery was used to treat rheumatism back then and is being investigated today. Their surgery and the binding of fractures were excellent because they knew their anatomy: there was no taboo on working with human bodies because of mummification. They were very hands on and it gave them a different mindset to working with bodies than the Greeks, who had to come to Alexandria to study medicine.”

She concluded: “Yet again extensive ancient Egyptian data, along with other data from across the millennia, has given modern society a clear message – cancer is man-made and something that we can and should address.”

A copy of the paper ‘Cancer: an old disease, a new disease or something in between?’ doi:10.1038/nrc2914 is available at

Major exhibition China: Journey to the East opening at 91ֱ�� Museum

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:00:00 +0100

3,000 years of Chinese history and culture are explored in this major touring exhibition China: Journey to the East from the British Museum.

Exploring themes of play, technology, belief and festivals, food and drink, and language and writing, it will open at The 91ֱ�� Museum on 25 September 2010.

China has been a major influence on many parts of the world through trade and the movement of peoples. Chinese Diaspora communities form a vital part of the history of many other countries, including Britain. 91ֱ�� has its own thriving Chinese community and the city is home to the first true Imperial Chinese arch erected in Europe.

From the world's earliest porcelain to shadow puppets and wei qi (Chinese Chess). From picnics and coca cola to afterlife jam tarts and a pillow wishing everlasting peace, China: Journey to the East combines fantastic objects from the British Museum with stories from one of the world's fastest growing economies. Complementing the displays will be photos and mementoes of modern day Wuhan, 91ֱ��’s sister city in China.

Commenting about the exhibition, Curator of Living Cultures Stephen Welsh said,

‘China: Journey to the East presented us with the perfect opportunity to explore links with our colleagues at Wuhan Municipal Museum. It’s easy to see why the cities are sisters as they are both right in the centre of their respective countries, have a long industrial tradition and an umbrella is absolutely essential when you’re out and about. We all hope that the cultural bonds between the two cities will grow and flourish over years to come.’

During the exhibition, the Chinese Moon Festival and Chinese New Year will be celebrated with special events marking their importance in the Chinese calendar. A programme of talks organised in partnership with the Confucius Institute also compliment the exhibition. This will be the last opportunity to see this unique touring exhibition before it returns to the British Museum in June 2011.

China: Journey to the East is a British Museum Tour supported by BP, a CHINA NOW legacy project. It will be on display at The 91ֱ�� Museum from 25 September 2010 to 26 June 2011.

LINKED EVENTS:

Life in China

Tuesday 21 Sep 2010, 12.45-1.30pm

Book on 0161 275 2648, free, adults and older children

Part of a series of talks by The Confucius Institute at The University of Manchester. At each talk you can learn two Chinese characters and one useful phrase or sentence. Part of our exhibition.
In this talk Lee Davies, from the Confucius Institute, will share his experiences of China, having taught English to young people at Nanjing No. 9 Middle School in China for a year after graduating with a linguistics degree from the University of Durham in 2005. Lee Davies will talk about his first impressions of Nanjing, as a major international city with Starbucks and KFC, yet as a place where he had a lot to get used to, from squat toilets to the constant sound of honking horns. The biggest thing he had to get used to though was the Chinese language. Lee will briefly cover the main issues for foreigners learning Chinese: new words, grammar, pronunciation, tones, different Romanisations of Chinese and Hanzi and the intrinsic link between Chinese language and Chinese culture.

Big Saturday: Chinese Moon Festival

Saturday 25 September 2010, 11am-4pm

Most activities are free and drop-in. Some activities may need to be booked on the day and may cost up to £1.50. All ages

Celebrate Chinese Moon Festival with hands-on activities, experts and object handling at the Museum and The Whitworth Art Gallery. Part of our exhibition.

Chinese tea ceremony

Wednesday 6 October 2010, 2.30-4pm

Drop-in, free, adults and older children

Take part in a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. The art of serving and drinking tea plays a major role in Chinese culture. The Chinese tea ceremony is quite different from English or Japanese tea ceremony. Come and experience Chinese tea ceremony! Also you could taste different Chinese tea. There are three parts to the event: tea introduction, tea ceremony and tea taste. Part of our exhibition.

Chinese history

Tuesday 19 October 2010, 12.45-1.30pm

Book on 0161 275 2648, free, adults and older children

Part of our series of talks by The Confucius Institute. At each talk you can learn
two Chinese characters and one useful phrase or sentence. Part of our exhibition.

October half term: Chinese technology

Monday 25-Friday 29 October 2010, 11am-4pm

Drop-in, free, all ages

Craft activities based on a Chinese technology theme, as on display in our exhibition - see some silk moths and have a go at paper weaving and printing.

Chinese archery and technology

Wednesday 27 October, 1-3pm
Drop-in, free, all ages

The 91ֱ�� Museum has an extensive collection of archery. Find out about the role of archery in China with an opportunity to get up close to some museum objects.

Archaeology of China Day School

Saturday 13 November 2010

Chinese movies

Tuesday 16 November 2010, 12.45-1.30pm

Ideas Café: China and globalisation

Monday 6 December 2010, 6-8pm

Chinese economy

Tuesday 14 December 2010, 12.45-1.30pm

Chinese paper craft

Monday 20-Thursday 23 December & Monday 27-Friday 31 December 2010, 11am-4pm

February half term: Year of the Rabbit

Monday 21-Friday 25 February 2011, 11am-4pm

Big Saturday: Journey to the West

Saturday 11 June 2011, 11am-4pm

Further details of the above events are to follow in listings information.

More talks will be scheduled for 2011.

Notes for editors

The British Museum

CHINA: JOURNEY TO THE EAST is supported by BP, a CHINA NOW legacy project. Further support is provided through the DCMS/DCFS National/Regional Education Partnerships Programme 2008-9.

The tour is organised through the British Museum’s Partnership UK scheme.

This is the second in a series of British Museum travelling exhibitions, working with UK partners to offer students, teachers and families around the country the chance to encounter real objects from the major civilisations in world history. (Visit to find out about Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes, the first touring exhibition in this series.)

Schools’ programme

A free CHINA: JOURNEY TO THE EAST exhibition teacher’s pack is available for use with your visit. Download this special resource at

British Museum websites written for Key Stage 2 & 3 teachers which contain background information and activity ideas can be found at and

BP is the British Museum’s most longstanding corporate sponsor, supporting the Museum on an annual basis since 1998. BP has recently supported the Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings exhibition and will be supporting Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead which opens at the British Museum on November 4^th 2010.

Confucius Institute

The Confucius Institute at the University of Manchester belongs to a network of over 300 Confucius Institutes across the world, with an aim to promote Chinese language and culture and the understanding of China. The Institute was established in 2006 and has worked extensively with local schools and cultural organisations. Our activities range from language taster, cultural workshop, language classes, teacher training to public talk, screening of Chinese films, literary events, exhibitions, etc. The Institute takes pride in serving the local community by bringing contemporary China closer to 91ֱ�� and the North West

The 91ֱ�� Museum

As a university museum, The 91ֱ�� Museum uses its international collection of human and natural history for enjoyment and inspiration. Working with people from all backgrounds, the Museum provokes debate and reflection about the past, present and future of the earth and its inhabitants.

The 91ֱ�� Museum is home to one of the largest and most important collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts in the United Kingdom. The Vivarium houses a wide variety of live animals including frogs, toads, snakes and other reptiles and amphibians. One of the star attractions in the Museum is the T.rex, displayed in the pre-historic gallery alongside rare examples of fossils dating back to the Ice Age.

The 91ֱ�� Museum was Highly Commended in the Large Visitor Attraction category of the 91ֱ�� Tourism Awards 2008

The 91ֱ�� Museum,

The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, 91ֱ��, M13 9PL.

T: (0)161 275 2634 F: (0)161 275 2676
Open: Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm, Sunday, Monday and Bank Holidays 11am – 4pm with FREE ENTRY

Creativetourist.com is an online magazine, a series of city guides and a collaborative project that has been put together by 91ֱ�� Museums Consortium, a group of nine museums and galleries - Cornerhouse, Imperial War Museum North, The Lowry, 91ֱ�� Art Gallery, The 91ֱ�� Museum, Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI), People’s History Museum, Urbis and The Whitworth Art Gallery - in 91ֱ��. These venues have a dual vision: the desire to stage intelligent, thought-provoking and international exhibitions and events and to celebrate the city in which they live, work and play. Creativetourist.com, with its mix of exclusive features, interviews, arts news and city guides, allows readers to discover more about what’s happening in the city, uncover its outstanding cultural programme and collections, and perhaps come to be as passionate about 91ֱ�� as its inhabitants.

Stone Age remains are Britain's earliest house

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:00:00 +0100

Archaeologists working on Stone Age remains at a site in North Yorkshire say it contains Britain's earliest surviving house.

The team from the Universities of Manchester and York reveal today that the home dates to at least 8,500 BC - when Britain was part of continental Europe.

The research has been made possible by a grant from , early excavation funding from the British Academy, and from English Heritage who are about to schedule the site as a National Monument . The Vale of Pickering Research Trust has also provided support for the excavation works.

The research team unearthed the 3.5 metres circular structure next to an ancient lake at Star Carr, near Scarborough, a site comparable in archaeological importance to Stonehenge.

The team are currently excavating a large wooden platform next to the lake, made of timbers which have been split and hewn. The platform is the earliest evidence of carpentry in Europe.

A large tree trunk has also been uncovered by the team. Despite being 11,000 years old it is well preserved with its bark still intact.

The house predates what was previously Britain's oldest known dwelling at Howick, Northumberland, by at least 500 years.

and Barry Taylor from The University of Manchester with Dr Nicky Milner from the University of York have been working at Star Carr since 2004.

The house, which was first excavated by the team two years ago, had post holes around a central hollow which would have been filled with organic matter such as reeds, and possibly a fireplace.

Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts, said: “This exciting discovery marries world-class research with the lives of our ancestors. It brings out the similarities and differences between modern life and the ancient past in a fascinating way, and will change our perceptions for ever. I congratulate the research team and look forward to their future discoveries.”

The site was inhabited by hunter gatherers from just after the last ice age, for a period of between 200 and 500 years.

According to the team, they migrated from an area now under the North Sea, hunting animals including deer, wild boar, elk and enormous wild cattle known as auroch.

Though they did not cultivate the land, the inhabitants did burn part of the landscape to encourage animals to eat shoots and they also kept domesticated dogs.

Dr Milner said: "This is a sensational discovery and tells us so much about the people who lived at this time.

"From this excavation, we gain a vivid picture of how these people lived. For example, it looks like the house may have been rebuilt at various stages.

“It is also likely there was more than one house and lots of people lived here.

“The platform is made of hewn and split timbers; the earliest evidence of this type of carpentry in Europe. And the artefacts of antler, particularly the antler head-dresses, are intriguing as they suggest ritual activities.”

Dr Conneller said: "This changes our ideas of the lives of the first settlers to move back into Britain after the end of the last Ice Age.

"We used to think they moved around a lot and left little evidence. Now we know they built large structures and were very attached to particular places in the landscape."

Barry Taylor added: "The ancient lake is a hugely important archaeological landscape many miles across.

“To an inexperienced eye, the area looks unremarkable - just a series of little rises in the landscape.

"But using special techniques I have been able to reconstruct the landscape as it was then.

"The peaty nature of the landscape has enabled the preservation of many treasures including the paddle of a boat, the tips of arrows and red deer skull tops which were worn as masks.

"But the peat is drying out, so it's a race against time to continue the work before the archaeological finds decay."

English Heritage recently entered into a management agreement with the farmers who own the land at Star Carr to help protect the archaeological remains.

Keith Emerick, English Heritage Inspector of Ancient Monuments, explained:

“We are grateful to the landowners for entering into this far reaching agreement.

“Star Carr is internationally important, but the precious remains are very fragile.

“A new excavation currently underway will tell us more about their state of preservation and will help us decide whether a larger scale dig is necessary to recover information before it is lost for ever.”

Notes for editors

Drs Nicky Milner, Chantal Conneller and Barry Taylor are available for comment

An artist’s impression is available.

For media enquires contact:
Mike Addelman
Media Relations
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

or

David Garner
Senior Press Officer
University of York
01904 432153
07795 315029

Outsiders blamed for Easter Island’s historic demise

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 01:00:00 +0100

An archaeologist studying a remote Pacific island, world famous for its strange stone statues, says outsiders - and not its ancestors - should be blamed for its historic demise hundreds of years ago.

from The University of Manchester says her research backs a growing body of opinion which casts new light on the people living on the island of Rapa Nui, named ‘Easter Island’ by its discoverers in 1722.

“Easter Islanders’ ancestors have been unfairly accused by Westerners of being primitive and warlike, for toppling statues - or moai - and for over-exploiting the island’s natural resources,” she said.

But the art which adorns Easter Island’s landscape, volcanoes and statues, body tattoos and carved wooden figurines, when examined together, show a different picture of what the islanders were like, according to Dr Croucher.

“The carved designs - including birds, sea creatures, canoes and human figures - mimic natural features already visible in the landscape and show their complex relationship to the natural environment,” she said.

“They were a people who saw themselves as connected to the landscape, which they carved and marked as they did their own bodies and the moai statues.

“These people must have had a sophisticated and successful culture – until the Westerners arrived - and it is time we recognise that.

“Early expedition accounts repeatedly show the islanders produced a trading surplus – they were successful and self sufficient.

“It must have been quite a place to live: I imagine the sounds of the carvers dominating the soundscape as they worked on the rock.”

Dr Croucher, whose research is funded by , added: “There is a growing body of opinion which says history has been unkind to the Easter Islanders - and my research confirms and underlines that.

“Rather than a story of self-inflicted deprivation, I agree with the view that substantial blame has to rest with Western contact, ever since Easter Island’s first sighting by Jacob Roggeveen in 1722.

“Visitors brought disease, pests and slavery, resulting in the tragic demise of the local population and culture.

“There is little archaeological evidence to support the history of internal warfare and collapse before contact with the outside world.”

Easter Island’s 19th Century history is a sad one: slave raids in 1862 reduced the Island’s population A few islanders survived slavery and were returned home, bringing with them small pox and other diseases.

The missionaries converted the remaining population to Christianity, encouraging them to abandon their traditional beliefs.

Even then, several hundred inhabitants were driven off the island to work on sugar plantations in Tahiti. By 1877, a population of just 110 people was recorded.

The academic, based at The School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, said: “Explorer Thor Heyerdahl famously asserted that it was South Americans who built the moai.

“However, rather than relying on the arrival of a South American fleet of carvers and sculptors, it is clear the moai, rock art and tattooing are very much part of the same tradition, which has Polynesian roots.

“The statues and rock art, although difficult to date with certainty, are the result of a population which flourished on the island until outside contact set the tragic course for the Island’s demise.”

Easter Island discovery sends archaeologists back to drawing board

Wed, 12 May 2010 01:00:00 +0100

Archaeologists have disproved the fifty-year-old theory underpinning our understanding of how the famous stone statues were moved around Easter Island.

Fieldwork led by researchers at University College London and The University of Manchester, has shown the remote Pacific island’s ancient road system was primarily ceremonial and not solely built for transportation of the figures.

A complex network of roads up to 800-years-old crisscross the Island between the hat and statue quarries and the coastal areas.

Laying alongside the roads are dozens of the statues- or moai.

The find will create controversy among the many archaeologists who have dedicated years to finding out exactly how the moai were moved, ever since Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl first published his theory in 1958.

Heyerdahl and subsequent researchers believed that statues he found lying on their backs and faces near the roads were abandoned during transportation by the ancient Polynesians.

But his theory has been completely rejected by the team led by 91ֱ��’s Dr Colin Richards and UCL’s Dr Sue Hamilton.

Instead, their discovery of stone platforms associated with each fallen moai - using specialist ‘geophysical survey’ equipment – finally confirms a little known 1914 theory of British archaeologist Katherine Routledge that the routes were primarily ceremonial avenues.

The statues, say the 91ֱ�� and UCL team just back from the island, merely toppled from the platforms with the passage of time.

“The truth of the matter is, we will never know how the statues were moved,” said Dr Richards.

“Ever since Heyerdahl, archeologists have come up with all manner of theories – based on an underlying assumption that the roads were used for transportation of the moai, from the quarry at the volcanic cone Rano Raraku.

”What we do now know is that the roads had a ceremonial function to underline their religious and cultural importance.

“They lead – from different parts of the island – to the Rano Raraku volcano where the Moai were quarried.

“Volcano cones were considered as points of entry to the underworld and mythical origin land Hawaiki.

“Hence, Rano Ranaku was not just a quarry but a sacred centre of the island.”

The previous excavation found that the roads are concave in shape –making it difficult to move heavy objects along them

And as the roads approach Rano Raraku, the statues become more frequent – which the team say, indicated an increasing grades of holiness.

“All the evidence strongly shows that these roads were ceremonial - which backs the work of Katherine Routledge from almost 100 years ago, “ said Dr Sue Hamilton.

“It all makes sense: the moai face the people walking towards the volcano.

“The statues are more frequent the closer they are to the volcano – which has to be way of signifying the increasing levels of importance.”

She added: “What is shocking is that Heyerdahl actually found some evidence to suggest there were indeed platforms.

“But like many other archaeologists, he was so swayed by his cast iron belief that the roads were for transportation – he completely ignored them.”

Notes for editors

Routledge and her husband arrived at Easter Island in 1914, to publish her findings in a popular travel book, The Mystery of Easter Island in 1919.

Geophysical surveys are used to create subsurface maps by passing electrical currents below the ground and measuring its resistance.

High quality images are available.

Drs Hamilton and Richards are available for comment

For media enquires contact:
Mike Addelman
Media Relations Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881 567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Stonehenge team wins project of the year

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The team which discovered the site of a second stone circle, 500 years older than the nearby Stonehenge has won a prestigious archaeology award.

The sensational discovery of a 5000 year-old “Blue Stonehenge” was made by a team led by archaeologists from 91ֱ��, Sheffield and Bristol Universities on the West bank of the River Avon last year.

The Stonehenge Riverside Project – as they are known - won the Research Project of the Year award at the Current Archaeology awards held at the British Museum.

The Stonehenge Riverside Project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Royal Archaeological Institute.

The award was given following an online vote by readers of Britain’s biggest archaeology magazine.

The new circle was 10m in diameter and was surrounded by a henge – a ditch with an external bank.

However, the stones were at some point removed, leaving behind nine uncovered holes. The team believe they were probably part of a circle of 25 standing stones.

The outer henge around the stones was built around 2,400 BC, but distinctive chisel-shaped arrowheads found in the stone circle indicate that the stones were put up as much as 500 years earlier.

When the newly discovered circle’s stones were removed by Neolithic tribes, they may, according to the team, have been dragged to Stonehenge, to be incorporated within its major rebuilding around 2500 BC.

Archaeologists know that after this date, Stonehenge consisted of about 80 Welsh stones and 83 local, sarsen stones. Some of the bluestones that once stood at the riverside probably now stand within the centre of Stonehenge.

Professor Julian Thomas, from The University of Manchester and a co-director of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, said: “We are delighted to win this award - and it’s a tribute to the team who have done such a great job.

“We are still coming to terms with this truly sensational discovery: it’s amazing the circle of bluestones were dragged from the Welsh Preseli mountains, 150 miles away around 5,000 years ago.

“It adds weight to the theory that the River Avon linked a ‘domain of the living’ – marked by timber circles and houses upstream at the Neolithic village of ‘Durrington Walls’ – with a ‘domain of the dead’ marked by Stonehenge and this new stone circle.

“The Stonehenge Riverside Project also discovered a Late Neolithic settlement outside the enormous henge at Durrington Walls, upriver from Stonehenge, and a series of contemporary timber buildings and other structures in and around Durrington which may have been ceremonial in character.”

Notes for editors

The Stonehenge Riverside Project is run by a consortium of university teams. It is directed by Prof. Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University, with co-directors Dr Josh Pollard (Bristol University), Prof. Julian Thomas (The University of Manchester), Dr Kate Welham (Bournemouth University) and Dr Colin Richards (The University of Manchester). The 2009 excavation was funded by the National Geographic Society, Google, the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Society of Northern Antiquaries.

Most of the circle remains preserved for future research and the 2009 excavation has been filled back in.

For media enquires contact:

Mike Addelman
Media Relations
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Food of the Gods is a killer

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Rich ritual offerings blocked ancient Egyptian priests’ arteries

The splendid banquets offered to ancient Egyptian gods may have been delicious and bountiful but they were also a killer, blocking the arteries of the high priests who made the offerings in the temples then took them home to their families.

For the first time a team of scientists at The University of Manchester have combined a new translation of hieroglyphic inscriptions on Egyptian temple walls that give details of the food offered daily to the gods with computed tomography of the mummified remains of priests to assess their atherosclerosis.

They have found that the priests would offer the gods sumptuous meals of beef, wild fowl, bread, fruit, vegetables, cake, wine and beer at the temple three times a day, then take them back home to their families. They also found their mummified remains showed high levels of atheromatous plaques and vascular calcification; that is, blocked arteries.

Author Professor Rosalie David, of the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology in the Faculty of Life Sciences, said: “There couldn’t be a more evocative message: live like a God and you will pay with your health.

“It also shows that blocked arteries caused by rich diets are not just a modern malaise – the problem goes back to ancient civilisations.”

Co-author Professor Tony Heagerty, of the Cardiovascular Research Group at the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, added: “There is unequivocal evidence to show that atherosclerosis is a disease of ancient times, induced by diet, and that the epidemic of atherosclerosis which began in the 20th century is nothing more than history revisiting us.”

Fittingly, Professors David and Heagerty started working on the study – published in The Lancet today (26^th February) – after sitting next to each other at a Professorial dinner and talking about diet and health through the ages.

They first undertook a new translation of hieroglyphic inscriptions on Egyptian temple walls to reveal the menu of food offered to the gods, how the rituals were performed and how the priests took the food away afterwards to share with their families.

The meals consisted mainly of beef, wild fowl, bread, fruit, vegetables, cake, wine, and beer. Many of these items are laden with saturated fat. For example goose, which was commonly consumed, provides 63% energy from fat, with 20% saturated. In addition the bread that was eaten differed from that consumed today, often being enriched with fat, milk, and eggs, while the cakes were typically made with animal fat or oil. Salt intake was likely to have been high, because it was often used as a preservative, and alcohol, known to increase triglyceride levels, was a common feature of the diet with an intake probably exceeding today’s recommendations. Such rich fare was markedly different to the more frugal, mainly vegetarian diet that most Egyptians ate.

Professor David said: “The priests functioned as a powerful bureaucracy in ancient Egypt: at certain historical periods it was customary for a man to combine a career as a lawyer, doctor, scribe, or teacher with part-time priesthood. The temple itself was never a place of congregational worship and accommodated and protected the resident god whose spirit was believed to reside in the cult statue in the sanctuary. The main function of the priests known as ‘servants of the god’ was to perform regular rituals designed to ensure the wellbeing and comfort of the god who was believed to reciprocate by providing benefits for Egypt, its King, and the population at large.

“The most important duty of the priest was his three times daily performance of this temple ritual during which the priests, while acting on behalf of the King who could not be present in every temple, cleansed, dressed, and fed the god’s statue in the temple sanctuary. At the conclusion of the service, the priests removed the consecrated food from the altar and as part of their regular payment, it was divided up among the senior temple personnel who took it home to feed their families.

“We have been able to show how temple inscriptions, which recorded daily rituals, can be combined with the paleopathological investigation of mummies to provide additional evidence about the priests and their diet. Additionally, some inscriptions even indicate that sometimes unscrupulous priests took the divine rations from the temple without first offering them to the gods.

“Inscriptions on coffins associated with individual mummies provide the owner’s names and titles and this information can be used to associate the diseases discovered in these mummies with specific social groups, in this case the priests and their families.”

The 91ֱ�� team also looked at computed tomography assessments of atherosclerosis in a selection of 22 mummies of Egyptians with high social status. In 16 of these where the hearts or arteries could be identified, nine mummies showed evidence of vascular calcification. Although arteriosclerosis has been clearly identified in mummies, it seems to have been fairly uncommon in ancient Egypt. They believe this reflects the different diets eaten by most Egyptians and the affluent elite, as well as the low life expectancy of 40–50 years even among the more affluent members of society.

Professor Heagerty said: “The vast bibliography associated with the examination of Egyptian mummies provides overwhelming evidence that atheroma was seen in a variety of vascular beds.

“Also there is clear evidence of vascular calcification, which has been increasingly linked as an adverse prognostic finding associated with accelerated atherosclerosis and an increased incidence of coronary artery disease. The presence of vascular calcification would suggest that these findings are true ante-mortem effects rather than those produced by the mummification agents such as natron.

“The explanation for these frequent pathological findings almost certainly resides in a diet rich in saturated fat that was confined to the elite, while most of the population remained vegetarian.”

Notes for editors

‘The art of medicine: Artherosclerosis and diet in ancient Egypt’ (The Lancet) is available.

For a copy of the essay or an interview with Professor Rosalie David or Professor Tony Heagerty contact Media Relations Officers Mikaela Sitford on 0161 275 2111 or Mikaela.Sitford@manchester.ac.uk or Aeron Haworth on 0161 275 8383 or Aeron. Haworth@manchester.ac.uk.