Page 28 - AT

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 24 december 2019
Scientists claim to find ancient seawall off Israeli coast

HAHOTRIM BEACH, Is- relied on farming, animal
rael (AP) — An interna- husbandry and exploitation
tional team of research- of the land and sea. During
ers says it has discovered the excavations, they also
a 7,000-year-old-seawall found early examples of ol-
along Israel's Mediterra- ive oil extraction.
nean coast, providing evi- At first, researchers con-
dence that coastal com- sidered the possibility that
munities protected them- the wall was built for other
selves against rising waters reasons like agriculture or
even in ancient times. protection from attackers.
The scientists believe the But Galili said that during
more than 100-meter-long this period, enemies would
(110-yard-long) structure have come from land and
acted as a fortification not the sea. He also said
against surging waters and there was no sign that the
storms. The study, published wall extended around the
Wednesday in the Public Li- village to defend against
brary of Science One jour- land invasions. He conclud-
nal, said the Neolithic era ed the wall "has no other
village, called Tel Hreiz, was function possible" except
abandoned and eventu- to protect against the ele-
ally swallowed by the sea. ments.
"Here we have an exam- Researchers say the sea-
ple, a practical example of wall itself — found about
a process that is still going This photo provided by Ehud Galili shows what researchers say is 7,000-year-old-seawall along 120 meters (130 yards) off
on. We can see a whole Israel's Mediterranean coast. the coast — is the only
community which are now Associated Press structure of its kind found in
under the sea," said Ehud Israel's coastal region, mak-
Galili, lead researcher and lithic period than they are tervention," Benjamin said. the coast in 2012 and 2015 ing it a "unique example" of
archaeologist from Israel's today, the causes were Still, similar to contempo- moved these sediments, the human response to the
Haifa University. much different, accord- rary coastal communities, the structure was uncov- threat of shrinking coast-
The researchers believe the ing to co-author Jonathan Benjamin said the villagers ered. Archaeologists have lines in the Neolithic period.
structure was built by villag- Benjamin from Flinders Uni- of Tel Hreiz had to make also dug up pottery, animal Roland Gehrels, a physi-
ers out of riverbed boulders versity in Australia. "the very human decision" and human remains that, cal geographer at Britain's
found several kilometers "There's a big difference to stay or go as the coast- based on carbon dating, University of York who spe-
(miles) away. The site lies between climate change line receded. The ancient are believed to be from the cializes in sea-level studies
just south of the northern Is- and prehistory which was settlement was first ex- same settlement. and was not involved in this
raeli port city of Haifa. naturally occurring, and cli- posed in the mid 1960s and The community, Galili said, study, called the discovery
While seas were rising at a mate change now, which is re-covered by thick sands. was an "early Mediterra- a "fascinating find." He said,
faster rate during the Neo- due to this huge human in- After winter storms along nean fishing village" which q

Scientists narrow age estimate

for fossils of human ancestor

NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists bining 52 age estimates for chon said. Still, it evidently
say they have finally calcu- the analysis. The project existed longer on Earth
lated the age of the young- took 13 years to complete. than any other species on
est known remains of Homo "I don't see any way to date our "Homo" branch of the
erectus, which is generally this site more thoroughly," evolutionary tree.
considered an ancestor of said paleoanthropologist Susan Anton, a New York
our species. Russell Ciochon of the Uni- University anthropologist
The fossilized skull frag- versity of Iowa, an author of who did not participate in
ments and other bones the study. the work, called the dating
were uncovered on the H. erectus arose in Africa effort "heroic." But she said
In this 2019 photo provided by the University of Iowa, Professor
Russell Ciochon holds a cast of a Homo erectus skull at his lab Indonesian island of Java about 2 million years ago she considered the report-
in Iowa City. in the 1930s. Determining and spread widely there ed age range to be too
Associated Press their age has been a scien- and in Asia, and possibly narrow. She said she pre-
tific challenge, and a wide into Europe. It reached ferred a span of less than
range has been proposed Java more than 1.5 million 550,000 years old to more
by numerous studies. years ago, and the new than 100,000 years old.
In a report released dates suggest it died out That's roughly what she
Wednesday by the journal at least 35,000 years before and co-authors proposed
Nature, scientists conclude the arrival there of our own in a paper published in
the remains are between species, Homo sapiens. 2011. The younger end of
108,000 and 117,000 years H. erectus may have been the range in that paper
old. Researchers used five doomed on Java by cli- was as recent as 120,000
dating techniques on sedi- mate change that turned years, which she said is vir-
ments and fossil animal its open woodland environ- tually the same as the new
bones from the area, com- ment into rain forest, Cio- result. q