Global lockdowns and political strife made it a tough year for archaeologists, at least in terms of getting out there on excavation sites.
So while archaeologists spent less time out digging, 2021 was still a good year in archaeology.We take a look at some of the biggest advancements in archaeology from this year. We spoke to the Trowelblazers, a group of four female archaeologists of different specialties dedicated to highlighting the historic and integral role of women in the “digging sciences.”
They told us what they thought were some of the most important developments in their field in 2021.
She chose to highlight a paper published last April in the journal Scientific Reports about the discovery of 100,000-year-old Neanderthal footprints on a coastal area of the Spanish Iberian peninsula.
While these aren’t the first Neanderthal footprints to be discovered, they are very special.
“This is especially nice, because it’s a group – mixed age, including children, some of which are quite young. They seem to be sort of foraging around on the edge of a lagoon,” Wragg Sykes said.The diversity in age is key here and actually helps to challenge a common assumption that Neanderthals foraged in solitude, with the adults peeling off from the group to find food for the children.
The discovery instead gives support to the theory that hunting and gathering might have been a family affair, involving a collaborative and intergenerational effort.
Adorably, the paper also noted that some of the footprints which belonged to children were “grouped in a chaotic arrangement,” as if they were playing.“That’s an angle on the Neanderthal life that we don’t often get to see,” Wragg Sykes said, adding that the discovery helps give a sense of humanity to this not-so-distant human relative.
Dr. Brenna Hasset is a biological archaeologist who describes her specialty as fascinating and exciting, while also a bit macabre.
“My job is essentially digging up dead people. So I study the lives of people in the past, to try and understand how they lived, how they died.”This year, Hasset was most excited by a paper published in the journal Antiquity about a 3,700-year-old grave site found in Spain. One tomb at the site held the remains of a man and a woman, in addition to a number of personal belongings.
The excavators found that the woman’s remains were adorned with a number of precious objects, such as bracelets, necklaces, and a silver diadem, or crown.
Hasset notes that a lot can be learned about someone’s role in society by the things they’re buried with. The presence of such precious objects suggests that the woman held a high social status and perhaps even political power.
“We always think of these societies being run by sort of manly men, and their pointy objects to enforce power,” Hasset said. “When we see these women with these exceptional artifacts, are we actually seeing signs of a type of women’s power?”