The biggest archaeological discoveries in 2021

Among all the countless discoveries that have been made in the fields of archeology and anthropology this year, the editorial staff of Futura has selected a dozen of those that have marked our readers as well as the scientific world. This selection crosses several eras in order to remind you of the fascinating discoveries that marked this year 2021.

The oldest known shark attack

Shark attacks on humans are rare but impressive. About 3,000 years ago in Japan, a man fishing was attacked probably by a tiger shark or by a great White shark. His skeleton has 790 lesions characteristic ofa shark attack and the man lost his left hand and right leg in the attack. Injuries to the lower part suggest damage to the arteries, which means that the man died quickly.

Who are the mummies of Tarim?

The natural mummification of hundreds of people (around -2,000 BC to 200 AD) in the Uyghur region of Xinjiang (China) made it possible to detect European rather than Asian morphological features. Those people were buried in boat-shaped coffins covered with the skin of cattle, themselves located by oars or erected poles. Analysis DNA revealed that this Tarim population was genetically isolated from its neighbors and that it was a subset of an Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) population of Pleistocene.

Exorcism instructions

How to get rid of a ghost when it stays in the between-worlds and refuses to go into the afterlife? Instructions for resolving this situation are engraved on a Babylonian tablet dating from 3,500 years ago, to back of a engraving representing a ghost. The writings indicate that an incantation must be uttered at sunrise and that the ritual requires the presence of vases filled with beer, a censer containing juniper and figurines of a man and a woman.

A rare kind of soldier

A Finnish tomb dating from medieval times (1050 to 1300 AD) was believed, since 1968, to contain the remains of a woman soldier with imposing build. From offerings characteristic of both the male and female genders at the time had however been arranged with the individual. DNA analysis this year revealed that this soldier actually had three sex chromosomes (XXY) and that he had syndrome by Klinefelter. According to the study authors, a dissociation between chromosomal sex and gender may have already existed at this time.

Submerged offerings

The city of Heraklion was engulfed as a result of a earthquake in the bay of Aboukir in II^e century AD The remains of this Egyptian city continue to be discovered and this year a dive has found wicker baskets dating from the IV^e century BC containing intact Doum fruits. The room they were in was likely a sealed burial room, which would have jealously guarded its submerged treasures for over 2,000 years.

Neanderthal and Denisova blood groups

L’blood group analysis of a Denisovan and three Neanderthals dating from 100,000 to 40,000 years ago was performed this year. Neanderthal had, like modern man, the ABO system and not only O as previously estimated. Associations ofalleles also support the hypothesis of the African origin of Neanderthals and Denisova. Certain alleles in the Neanderthals studied are also associated with a vulnerability of fetus and newborns to diseases, which could explain the high infant mortality in H. neanderthalensis.

The oldest strain of plague in humans

Analysis genomics carried out on the bones and teeth of a hunter-gatherer who lived 5,000 years ago revealed the presence of a strain of the bacteria Yersinia pestis responsible for plague. Unlike the bacterium responsible for the black plague, this early strain could not be transmitted by fleas and was less contagious and less virulent. This strain of plague is the oldest known to date in humans.

“Dragon Man”, our closest cousin?

the skull of Harbin, originally from China, dates to at least 146,000 years ago and may have housed a brain similar in size to modern humans. The skull, however, belongs to a new species human, Homo longi, due to different morphological characteristics from those ofH. sapiens and D’H. neanderthalensis, such as the size and shape of the eye sockets as well as the size of the browbones and teeth. This species is nicknamed Dragon Man and, according to the reconstructions phylogenetics performed this year, it could be thatH. longi either the closest cousin ofH. sapiens and thus replaces H. neanderthalensis at this position.

A pregnant mummy

Hor-Djehuty is a mummy dating from the I^er century BC and originally from present-day Luxor, Egypt. The tomography X-ray examination made it possible to examine the embalmed individual without damaging him. Archaeologists were able to identify a woman aged 20 to 30, seven months pregnant, making it oldest pregnant mummy studied. The fetus was not mummified, probably because it was not born and therefore could not access eternal life.

Saudi Arabia: at the crossroads of Paleolithic migrations

Archaeological remains dating from 400,000 years ago have been discovered in Saudi Arabia, a country in which these resources have long been underestimated. Different cut stone tools seem to indicate that several waves of human occupation in this region in the Paleolithic, which date from around 400, 300, 200, 100 and 55 thousand years ago. These archaeological sites are located at the level of sediment lacustrine, which is consistent with places of human occupation.