- 01.11.2015 to 08.11.2015 Study season of faunal collection from Korman 9 in the Museum of Archaeology, Kiev
Project zooarchaeologist Pía Spry-Marqués spent one week studying the faunal remains of Korman 9 in the Museum of Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology (National Ukrainian Academy of Sciences), in Kiev.
The NEMO-ADAP team excavated the site of Korman 9 in 2012 and 2013. The fieldwork resulted in a large faunal collection with a high degree of fragmentation. The dominating animals are horse and reindeer.
- 18.10.2015 New soil micromorphology slides (produced in the Charles McBurney Laboratory for Geoarchaeology) are ready and on their way to geoarchaeologist Carolina Mallol (University La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands).
- 14.09.2015 to 27.09.2015 Fieldwork Korolevo II, Transcarpathia, Ukraine
A small NEMO-ADAP team excavated in two trenches at the site Korolevo II in the Tisza valley, transcarpathian region of Ukraine. Earlier this year (July) we removed backdoor and located old excavation boundaries in preparation of this fieldwork.
Korolevo II: One of our two excavation trenches with Upper Palaeolithic
artefacts during a rainy morning break.
Korolevo II: Artefact cluster during excavation.
- 24.08.2015 to 26.08.2015 Project members Paul Haesaerts and Larissa Kulakovska presented preliminary project results in two podium presentations at the international soil sciences meeting in Ternopil, Ukraine.
- 25.07.2015 to 16.08.2015 Fieldwork Neporotovo 7, Ukraine
The NEMO-ADAP team conducted excavations and survey in the Middle Dniestr valley between 25 July and 16 August 2015. Our fieldwork included extended excavations at Neporotovo 7, section cleaning and sampling at Molodova V (reservoir lake shore) and a brief survey of loess exposures between the sites of Korman 9 and Molodova I.
Neporotovo 7 directly on the Dniestr River reservoir lake. Excavation trenches and sections are visible.
Excavations at Neporotovo 7, which has been discovered by NEMO-ADAP personnel in 2012 and excavated since, focused on MIS 4 and MIS 3 deposits as well as on the Middle Pleistocene part of the sequence. We continued to excavate our trench 1/2, which now comprises of an excavated surface of more than 50m2 and includes three archaeological horizons including Upper and Middle Palaeolithic ones. Additionally, we explored the Middle Pleistocene part of the sequence.
One focus of the work of the NEMO-ADAP team was to collect environmental data to provide an environmental/climatic context for the archaeology at the site. This involved a detailed description and analysis of the exposed sections by project geologists Paul Haesaerts and Stephane Pirson. Sampling included samples for soil micromorphology to describe site formation processes and environmental conditions, magnetic susceptibility and pollen analyses.
Neporotovo 7: excavation of an archaeological horizon close to the waterline of the reservoir lake. In this area the water activity is eroding an archaeological horizon.
Neporotovo 7: Geologist Stephane Pirson is documenting a section in the Middle Pleistocene deposits of the site.
Large bone from the Middle Pleistocene deposits of Neporotovo 7 during preparation/restoration.
- 04.07.2015 to 15.07.2015 Fieldwork Korolevo II, Transcarpathia, Ukraine
A small NEMO-ADAP team removed backdoor of recent industrial quarrying activity and started excavating test pits at the site of Korolevo II in the Tisza valley, transcarpathian region of Ukraine. The goal was to locate old excavation areas and to prepare for further fieldwork in September 2015.
Korolevo II: Removal of industrial quarrying debris with the help of a caterpillar.
Korolevo II: excavation of test pits to relocate old excavation
trenches and archaeological horizons.
- 24.03.2015 to 29.03.2015 Study season of lithic artefacts, Museum of Archaeology, Kiev
A small team including Giuseppina Mutri (University of Cambridge), Elinor Croxall (Leiden University, NL), Vitaly Usik and Larissa Koulakovska (both Museum of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences, Kiev) and Philip R Nigst (University of Cambridge) studied the lithic collections from the Middle Palaeolithic site Neporotovo 7 and the Upper Palaeolithic site Korman 9.
The Museum of Archaeology is located in the basement of the Natural History Museum in central Kiev.
- 23.03.2015 NEMO-ADAP Project Workshop I, Museum of Archaeology, Kiev
'New research on the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic of the Middle Dniestr, Ukraine'
The NEMO-ADAP Project Workshop I 'New research on the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic of the Middle Dniestr, Ukraine', organised by Larissa Kulakovska and Philip R Nigst, was held on Monday, 23 March 2015, in the Museum of Archaeology, Kiev, Ukraine. About 25 scientists from various institutions in Ukraine, including the National Academy of Sciences, the University of Kiev and the University of Chernivtsi, and from the Universities of Cambridge (UK) and Leiden (NL) attended the workshop.
Please see here for more information and a programme.
Participants of the NEMO-ADAP Project Workshop I listening to Larissa Kulakovska's presentation on the Middle Palaeolithic site Neporotovo 7.
- 18.03.2015 NEMO-ADAP Project Workshop I upcoming soon: Monday, 23 March 2015
The NEMO-ADAP Project Workshop I 'New research on the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic of the Middle Dniestr, Ukraine', organised by Larissa Kulakovska and Philip R Nigst, will be held on Monday, 23 March 2015, in the Museum of Archaeology, Kiev, Ukraine.
Museum of Archaeology (in the Natural History Museum), Kiev.
Please see here for more information and a programme.
- 15.03.2015 to 17.03.2015 Early Upper Palaeolithic Landscapes Workshop 2
More than 25 researchers - including doctoral students, early career scientists as well as established scholars - discussed for three days new approaches to human uses of landscapes and constraints thereof during the MIS 3. Topics included among others the following themes:
* mobility and interactions,
* energetics, resource economies and landscapes,
* population dynamics across space and time,
* the creation of space and place.
More information can be found here.
- 12.03.2015 NEMO-ADAP Project Workshop I Programme Available to Download
A PDF copy of the programme is available to download here.
- 09.03.2015 First Announcement of NEMO-ADAP Project Workshop I
New research on the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic of the Middle Dniestr, Ukraine
23 March 2015
Museum of Archaeology, Kiev, Ukraine
Please see here for more information.
- 08.03.2015 Upcoming WORKSHOP in the framework of the NEMO-ADAP Project
Early Upper Palaeolithic Landscapes Workshop 2
15 to 17 March 2015
Cambridge, UK
Please see here for more information.
- 06.11.2014 Oldest modern human genome from Europe published.
An international team of researchers, including Dr Philip Nigst, Division of Archaeology (University of Cambridge), recovered DNA from a fossil of one of the earliest known Europeans.
Seguin-Orlando et al. 2014, Genomic structure in Europeans dating back at least 36,200 years. Science, 6 November 2014, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa0114.
The researchers recovered and sequenced the complete genome of a man who was buried about 37,000 years ago at the site of Kostenki 14 (also known as Markina Gora) in western Russia. The study provides unique insights into the history of the continent. The genome shows that once modern humans had dispersed out of Africa and into Eurasia, they separated at least before 37,000-years ago into at least three populations, whose descendants would develop the unique features that reflect the core of the diversity of non-African modern humans.
Since then, despite major climatic fluctuations, one of these groups - Palaeolithic Europeans - persisted as a population, ebbing and flowing by moments of contraction and expansion, but persisting intertwined until the arrival of farmers from the Middle East in the last 8,000 years, with whom they mixed extensively. The Kostenki and other ancient genomes show that for 30,000-years there was a single meta-population in Europe, consisting of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer groups that split up, mixed, dispersed and changed. Only when farmers from the Near East arrived approximately 8,000 years ago, did the structure of the European population change significantly.
The study also shows that, as with all living Eurasians, the Kostenki 14 man's genome included a small percentage of Neanderthal genes. While this confirms earlier findings, the current study revealed that the Kostenki 14 individual had a slightly higher percentage of Neanderthal genes than ever observed before. Further, the genetic fragments that this individual inherited from a Neanderthal ancestor are larger, i.e. not yet broken by the thousands of recombination events that have occurred since. This allowed the team of scientists to estimate the time of human-Neanderthal admixture to 54,000 years ago.
Original publication in Science
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/11/05/science.aaa0114.abstract
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa0114
Link to news section on the webpage of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Map of the Kostenki 14 burial (redrawn after R. Klein).
- 19.09.2014 Project member Philip R Nigst presented a podium presentation at the annual meeting of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE) in Florence, Italy, on our survey and excavation work in the Middle Dneistr valley, especially on the Middle Palaeolithic site Neporotovo 7.
Link to the abstract.
The ESHE meeting 2014 was held in the marvellous city of Florence, Italy.
- 01.09. to 07.09.2014 Project members Philip R Nigst, Paul Haesaerts and Larissa Koulakovska presented five podium presentations in five sessions of the XVII UISPP congress in Burgos, Spain, on our work including the Neanderthal settlement of the Middle Dniestr valley (Ukraine), the Aurignacian occupation in Transcarpathian Ukraine, the chronostratigraphy of Kostenki 14 and the chronostratigraphy and palaeoenvironmemt of the Gravettian in eastern Europe. Link to abstract book.
Burgos, XVII UISPP conference: View from the Museo de la Evolución Humana (left) to the city centre of Burgos.
- July/August 2014 Fieldwork in the Middle Dniestr valley, Ukraine
Members of the NEMO-ADAP project team including Philip R Nigst, Larissa Koulakovska and Vitaly Usik conducted three weeks of fieldwork in the Middle Dniestr valley. We excavated three trenches at the Middle Palaeolithic site Neporotovo 7, which our team discovered during survey in 2012 and excavated test trenches in 2013. We excavated three trenches and documented the sections. Samples for OSL and radiocarbon dating, pollen and soil micro morphology analysis were collected.
View of the site Neporotovo 7 from the Dniestr reservoir lake.
Using the project's total station to document the exact position of lithic artefacts at Neporotovo 7 in August 2014.
The two main trenches of our 2014 excavations at Neporotovo 7.
- June to September 2014 Exhibition in the Museum of Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Science, Kiev, on Palaeolithic art in the Republic of Ukraine with objects excavated during NEMO-ADAP activities displayed.
Temporary exhibition in Museum of Archaeology - Map showing site locations with Palaeolithic art and some of the showcases with art and personal ornaments (beads, etc.).
Bone points.
Personal ornaments including an amber bead (1) and a carnivore tooth pendant (5) from Korman 9.
Bone and antler tools including Nr 7 discovered during NEMO-ADAP survey and directly radiocarbon dated.
Temporary exhibition in Museum of Archaeology - Map showing site locations with Palaeolithic art and some of the showcases with art and personal ornaments (beads, etc.).
- September 2013 Fieldwork at Neporotovo 7, Ukraine
The NEMO-ADAP project team worked at Neporotovo 7 in September 2013. The goal of this second 2013 fieldwork campaign in the Middle Dniestr valley was to explore the lower levels of Neporotovo 7 while the water level of the Dniestr reservoir lake is lower than in July and August.
- 19.09. to 21.09.2013 Project members Philip R Nigst and Paul Haesaerts presented one podium and one poster presentation at the annual meeting of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE) in Vienna, Austria, on the new chronology of the Steletskian at Kostenki 1 and 12 and on our survey and excavation work in the Middle Dneistr valley.
Link to the abstracts.
- 13.09.2013 Report about NEMO-ADAP project team's work in the Dneistr valley in Ukrainian online journal
І знову зацікавлює палеоліт Дністра (interested once again in the Palaeolithic of the Dniester), Сокирянщина.
Available in PDF here.
- late August and early September 2013 Fieldwork in Transcarpathian Ukraine
In late August and early September a small team around Vitaly Usik excavated at the two sites of Beregovo I and Korolevo II. Both excavation projects focus on the Early Upper Palaeolithic of the Upper Tisza valley. Esp Beregovo I is known for its large collection of Aurignacian lithic artefacts.
Using the the project's total station at Beregovo I.
Loading the car after work at the site Beregovo I.
- July and August 2013 Fieldwork in the Middle Dniestr valley, Ukraine
Our team including Philip R Nigst, Larissa Koulakovska, Vitaly Usik, Paul Haesaerts, Stéphane Pirson, Pía Spry-Marqués and Olesia Kononenko conducted a five week fieldwork season in the Middle Dniestr valley. Our fieldwork focused on the sites of Korman 9 and Neporotovo 7. Korman 9 is an Upper Palaeolithic site, dating to the Late Glacial, and Neporotovo 7 a Middle Palaeolithic site.
At Korman 9 the team excavated three archaeological horizons in two trenches and collected numerous lithic, faunal, charcoal as well as soil micromorphology and pollen samples. Among other things, we documented a combustion structure (see photo below) with a rather complex depositional history. To disentangle to formation processes of this combustion structure our team collected numerous soil micro morphology samples, studied the micro-stratigraphy and conducted fabric analysis of all elongated lithic and faunal remains.
- June to September 2013 Exhibition in the Museum of Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Science, Kiev, on the NEMO-ADAP project activities since 2012.
Larissa Koulakovska in the temporary exhibition area of the Museum of Archaeology before the official opening of the temporary exhibition on NEMO-ADAP project fieldwork.
Photos of various fieldwork sites of the NEMO-ADAP project and explanations in Ukrainian and English.
Showcase in the temporary exhibition area of the Museum of Archaeology displaying lithic artefacts of various fieldwork seasons since 2012.
Showcase in the temporary exhibition area of the Museum of Archaeology displaying large faunal remains and maps of NEMO-ADAP project fieldwork.
All photographs ©NEMO-ADAP Project unless otherwise stated.