Online edition of the origina Siret study on Iberian Metal Ages

Belgian archaeologist Louis Siret (also known as Luis Siret y Cels) was a pioneer of archaeology in Spain and the discoverer of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age civilizations of Los Millares and El Argar in SE Iberia.

His original book Les premiers ages du metal dans le sud-est de l'Espagne (The early Metal Ages in the Southeast of Spain) has now been made available online, after restoration, by the Junta de Andalucía (Andalusian autonomous government). It can be accessed online at Archive.org in several formats including scanned facsimile. It is only available in French though.

Thanks to Pileta de Prehistoria.

Judge accepts denounce against Julio Núñez and provincial government in the Iruña-Veleia archaeological destruction case

In a hopeful twist in the Iruña-Veleia scandal, Instruction Judge no. 1 of Vitoria-Gasteiz has accepted the denounce against the new site director Julio Núñez (left, "at work") and the provincial government of Araba for the alleged destruction of patrimony, as evidenced by photos, videos and testimonies previously discussed in this blog.

In the denounce it is requested that the Director Plan for the Vasco-Roman site of Iruña-Veleia is paralyzed urgently on light of it not being even respected at all by chief archaeologist Núñez. It is also requested that judicial police and independent experts survey piles of disposed soil with embedded archaeologically remains.

Source: Noticias de Alava[es]


Update: a comic by Zaldieroa (Crazy Horse). It's not really new (May) but it is funny anyhow:

 

1st panel:

In the Ivory Tower of Irati (a large forest in the Pyrenees)

2nd panel

Goblin: My Lord, here there are the latest reports on Veleia.

Lord: Still with that issue around?

Goblin: Yes, my Lord.

3rd panel

Lord: But... tell me... has the ergative been found in Veleia?
Goblin: Not, my Lord, there is no trace of any ergative.
Lord: Then they are false, 'leñe'!! That is not genuine Basque!

Note: the Lord is described in previous cartoons, as Euskal Taliban Jatorra (the purebred Basque Taliban), the goblin is called Yoda. The "Taliban" is depicted often as a linguistic purist of the worst kind.

Hoabinhian neolithic site

Issue #36 of Stone Pages' bulletin, Archaeo News, has arrived to my mailbox with at least one item worth mentioning

New Neolithic (Hoabinhian) site found in North Vietnam

The cave, known as Tham Choong, (Na Hang district, Tuyen Quang province) is dated to 8000-7000 years ago. The tools belong to the Hoabinhian culture, which lasted from some 34,000 years ago to c. 2000 BCE, spanning through Paleolithic and Neolithic.

The thousand or so stone tools recovered served for cutting, chopping and grinding. Bone tools were also found, including a sharply pointed one that archaeologists believe was used for stitching the bark clothes they probably used.

Source: Vietnam News.

Other news

Check the newsletter for other news, such as digs in North America (Utah, already mentioned here from another source, Wyoming, Wisconsin) and Britain (Bronze Age cremation cemetery at projected commercial center near Inverness, Scotland, Bronze Age person from the Isle of Man died violently, trekking path projected between Avebury and Stonehenge, etc.) 

There's also a mention on Timothy Taylor's hypothesis on the baby sling being a decisive invention in human evolution (I'm a bit skeptic but who knows?)

More importantly maybe, Paola and Diego mention that they are heading again to Sardinia, accompanied by archaeologist George Nash, with the intention of persuading the authorities to open the badly sealed and spectacular Tomba della Scacchiera (image below), a Megalithic site that has serious conservation risks and also has a strong touristic potential (already mentioned at Leherensuge).

Neolithic seal found near Izmir, Turkey

A seal (stamp) dating from 6200 BCE, roughly when most of Europe (except the Balcans) was still in the Epipaleolithic, and older than those from Mesopotamia as far as I can tell, has been unearthed at Yesilova Höyuk in West Turkey, in the Izmir metropolitan area.

The seal is shaped like a bull but the marking is a radial figure (8 radii, maybe representing the Sun or a star) and is speculated it belonged to an administrator of some sort.

The site of Yelisova Höyuk looks interesting because not much was known until recently of the Neolithic of West Turkey, the missing link between West Asian and Balcanic Neolithic. However the oldest dates for this site so far are whole millenium more recent than those from Thessaly, Greece, so this particular site does not look like going to inform directly about the ultimate origins of Balcanic, and hence European, Neolithic.

Source for the seal discovery story: Hürriyet - Daily News (found at Archaeology in Europe).

Much more detailed information on the site overall at the dig's site.

Pottery from layer III

Yet another international linguist takes a stand in favor of Gil in the Iruña-Veleia affaire

In this case it is Roslyn M. Frank, professor emeritus of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa and a scholar who has dedicated some good time to deal with Basque language, visiting this little corner of Europe very often since 1974 and authoring several books on Basque theme, mostly on linguistics.

Roslyn M. Frank (linguist)

In her latest visit, these days, Frank offered two interviews with Noticias de Alava (local newspaper in Spanish language):

In one of them she states her astonishment and that of the European scientific community because of the lack of analytics on the controversial pot shards with inscriptions (mostly in Basque and Vulgar Latin).

Two weeks ago I was at a congress in Germany in which there were a lot of scientists from everywhere in Europe, among them several archaeologists. When I told them about Iruña-Veleia, the first thing they asked was: 'Which were the results of analytics?' And I had to reply that they were never made. They could not understand. And asked once and again: 'But why were they not made?' And I did not know what to answer.

She compares the Kafkian circumstances surrounding Iruña-Veleia with a paternity demand in which the alleged father is the one demanding a paternity test after being declared guilty without any evidence.

It is impossible to talk of scientific consensus in this case. The data provided by the [official] report are very weak because of 359 pages most do not even have bibliographic references.

She is outraged by the procedure executed by the new director, Julio Núñez, which she considers an attack against the patrimony. A position held by this blog and SOS Iruña-Veleia, among others.

For linguists, she argues that the philological reconstruction of proto-Basque (the main argument held against the Lurmen archaeological team led by Eliseo Gil) cannot ever disprove any archaeological finding:

... the word 'proto' always means a reconstruction, which is hypothetical, because the appearance of new data often changes the nature of the reconstruction.

In other words, the academic inquisition of the Philology department of the Basque Country University has, consciously and mischievously, put the cart before the horses in this case.

In the other interview, she says that she hopes the best but expects little for Iruña-Veleia, at least while Núñez is in charge. Her denounce of his destructive methods contrasts with the support for the period in which the site was under the direction of Eliseo Gil and Idoia Filloy, when the site attracted as many as 35,000 visitors (2008).

In both interviews she lists a number of other important supporters of the original methods and findings, some of whom have already been mentioned here: Juan Mari Elexpuru (linguist), Hector Iglesias (linguist), Emilio Illarregi (archaeologist), Luis Silgo Gauche (archaeologist) and Edward Cecil Harris (archaeologist).

Found at Iruña-Veleia, Gezurra Ala Egia?[eu], where a paper by Roslyn Frank on the graphological analysis used to smear Eliseo Gil is also linked (click on 'descargar', PDF in Spanish). This document, which concludes with a request for the provincial government be stripped from its role as custodian of the original graffiti in benefit of the right of defense, is part of the procedures of the trial against Eliseo Gil. In this procedure it has also been ordered an official analytic by police as the provincial government has refused to do so.

For background and further information on this most sad scandal, see the category Iruña-Veleia in this blog.

Indian Megalithic wares and other Archaeonews

Stone Pages' weekly newsletter Archaeonews has arrived again at my mailbox bringing some interesting informations:


Tamil Nadu Iron Age findings

Sengalur village (Puddukotari district, Tamil Nadu, India) hosts some 300 Iron Age burials of Megalithic style, described as stone circles with or without cairn packing, stone circle with cist burial of different types, cist burial with an extension in the front, urn burials, urn burials with capstone, menhir and rectangular shaped structure.

They are being excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), reaching also to the nearby villages of Sittanavasal, Melapatti and Nathakadu, producing a large catalog of material culture from that period, that includes terracotta figurines, beads made of glass, semi-precious stones and terracotta, broken bangles (glass bracelets) and potsherds inscribed with graffiti.

Source: The Hindu


Other news

The newsletter also includes other archaeological news such as:

• Looting seems to have destroyed more than half of ancestor stones at Cross Rivers State (Nigeria). More at The Sun.
• Teotihuacan dwellers used the bones of their relatives for buttons and other quotidian objects. More at National Geographic.
• Most ancient known house of Britain found at Scarborough, dated to 8500 years ago (Epipaleolithic). More at BBC and many other news sites.
  

Archaeology manual

João Pedro Tereso mentions at Arqueociências this seemingly important archaeological manual of the Museum of London Archaeological Services, which is freely available in PDF format.

I believe it may be an important reference for the record.

Some curiosities of the MP-UP transition in Europe: the Lincombian and a wooden spear point

I just want to mention that I have discovered today a couple of probably important elements I was unaware of earlier in regard to the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe.


The Lincombian culture

The first one is dealt with in detail by Millán Mozota at his blog (in Spanish but all reference papers are in English) and is the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ) culture. This techno-culture shares the general evolution towards characteristic Upper Paleolithic blade technology but is however quite different from others we know in the typological aspect, styling a distinctive double-faced retouch.

Extension and typical LRJ point (Semal 2009)

This culture is most probably the work of Homo neanderthalensis, as it was found along with Neanderthal remains in the cave of Spy in Belgium (however in flagrant case of bad archaeology where the archaeological context was totally destroyed and not documented). These remains have been recently carbon-dated and display a date of c. 36,000 years BP (very roughly c. 45,000 years ago after calibration), suggesting that both are related.


Wooden spear from Slovenia

The other item I stumbled upon today is the existence of a unique spear point made of yew wood. This point was discovered in 2009 at the Ljubljana Marshes near Sinja Gorica in Slovenia and is said to have Szeletian affinities (source: Ljubljana Municipality).


You tell me if this is not fascinating. There has been for long speculation on the existence of such wooden tools and weapons (for instance in SE Asia where bamboo might have been a material of choice) but so far no direct evidence.

The spear is believed to date to 38-45,000 years ago, though I am not aware that it has been dated by any method.

Archaeologist Idoia Filloy against the destruction of Iruña-Veleia

J. M. Elexpuru published yesterday night an article of Idoia Filloy, co-director of the previous archaeological team, Lurmen, where she denounces the atrocity that is being perpetrated against which is possibly the most important Vasco-Roman site.

The article is in Spanish and it is too long for me to translate integrally but I will provide here some of the most important passages:

Parcel 98 [see map] is where work has begun, planned to affect 17,000 m². In this area, thanks to air photography carried by us, it is known the existence of a dense network of structures, clearly visible from air, thanks to the shadows that differential vegetation growth projects, which trace a whole urban network under the soil. Also, in 2006, our team -under the direction of Eliseo Gil and myself- carried 13 stratigraphic probes that showed the existence in this parcel of a most rich archaeological patrimony of Roman and pre-Roman age. We could assess how, under a layer of agricultural disturbance of some 30 cm. on average, intact Roman archaeological remains appeared, with strata and structures to which abundant materials were associated. (...)

However Núñez' Director Plan contemplates the mechanical elimination with heavy machinery of 50 cm. of earth potency in 14,000 m² of the site, estimating a removal of some 7000 m³ of soil. The Plan itself admits the risks of such an actuation, because of the possibility of affection to layers of archaeological interest (...)

But the worst has happened when field work has begun, that is when the mechanical elimination of soil was started. And that is because not only the planned 50 cm. have been removed but in many cases more than 1 m. has been excavated with heavy machinery. (...) We can see clearly in the photographs how the mechanical excavation has not just affected structures but that has eliminated vast archaeological layers, what has caused the irreparable loss of most important archaeological information, fundamental for the reconstruction of the historical sequence of the site, as well as of associated materials. There is even a zone where a Roman pavement at a depth of more than 1 m. has been exposed, and I ask: where are occupation archaeological layers, the collapse remains or whatever it had on top? (...)

The feeling one gets is that the goal is to reach the archaeological structures (at whatever depth they were) as if the objective was to offer in the shortest possible term a wide zone with visible constructions. (...)

I must remind that this zone is one of the areas where the so-called exceptional graffiti were found, both on the surface as in three of the stratigraphic probes, what means that the mechanical excavation of the area would cause the destruction of evidence for a possible future judicial investigation.

One of the many controversial exceptional graffiti, in this shard, found in parcel 98, we can read NEU ('I' or 'me' in Basque)

Therefore it is my opinion as experienced archaeologist (...) that a flagrant destruction of the patrimony of Iruña-Veleia is being carried. And in a few days more the level of affection would be even greater if nobody intervenes. I believe that excavating as is being done here means destroying severely and permanently the underlying patrimony.

Hence this text is an express denounce of what, in my opinion, is a grave attack against our Patrimony and I request to the responsible public institutions to act accordingly and not to tolerate something like this.

Additionally, to the judicial denounce presented by SOS Iruña-Veleia association we have added now our own.

Further reading:

• Articles on Iruña-Veleia at Leherensuge
• SOS Iruña-Veleia (mostly in Spanish but with many informative photos)
• Veleia.com (Lurmen's site on Iruña-Veleia)
  

Send emails of protest to: dfa@alava.net (Provincial Government) and patrimoniohaa@alava.net (Provincial Direction of Historical-Artistic and Archaeological Patrimony).

Update (Jul 20): I have been suggested to send protests also to the Basque Government - Direction of Patrimony. No direct email available but there is a suggestion box of the Department of Culture HERE.

And more "archaelogical" vandalism at Veleia

SOS Iruña-Veleia is doing a prime job documenting the atrocity that "archaeologist" and "educator" Julio Núñez is doing at Iruña-Veleia, with new photos each workday. These here belong to July 16 and are part of a larger group of images.



As you can see in these photos of Prof. Núñez at work (notice how he has achieved his likely goal of digging in perfectly clean white clothes!) the layer removed must be of at least 1 meter, twice the size he authorized himself to do and three to five times the agricultural layer on top.


The average height of Basque males is like 175 cm., hence the mechanical excavation must have get rid of 125 to 150 cm according to the image above, unless that guy is a Pygmy.

Archaelogy is, we know, a destructive procedure, hence the importance of keeping the best possible record and being very methodical, even of leaving sectors untouched for future excavations to implement presumably more advanced techniques. In this case, huge amounts of potentially (and most likely) informative material have just been dumped.

I can only understand this as cultural genocide: destroying the archaeological legacy of Basques and all Europeans.

Images of the destruction at Iruña-Veleia

A member of SOS Iruña-Veleia, just stopped by Leherensuge (see comments in previous post) to comment that the destruction is terrible:

I was there yesterday and it is horrendous what they are doing. They remove the earth with a big excavator - not just removing the top layer affected by agriculture - till the appearance of Roman structures, up to more than one meter deep. I could clearly distinguish the destruction of structures and otherwise archaeological layers.

He also mentioned that there are now many photos at their site documenting the archaeological atrocity perpetrated by Prof. Núñez.




Above just a couple of examples of how not to do an archaeological dig... unless your intention is merely to destroy everything, to erase the archaeological evidence in that site.

The excavator has dug much deeper than the 50 cm allowed by the director (even if the agricultural layer is just 20-30 cm deep), removing a lot of potentially informative material, destroying the stratigraphy and even in some cases reaching to the base rock, that is: destroying the whole stratigraphic sequence.

This has no name. This is a crime against history for mere particular (and I suspect ideological) interests.

I am not sure of what can we do but I imagine that a good idea is to send emails of protest to the Provincial Government of Araba (Álava) in charge of the site and the dig expressing your outrage in the hope that they react to public pressure and forbid these "methods" altogether.

Relevant email addresses are:

Provincial Government (Arabako Foru Aldundia - Diputación Foral de Álava):

dfa@alava.net

Museums - Service of Historical-Artistic and Archaeological Patrimony

patrimoniohaa@alava.net

Reckless destruction at Iruña-Veleia Vasco-Roman site

J.M. Elexpuru denounces that excavator activities have been authorized and have already began in the most important Vasco-Roman site of Iruña-Veleia. I translate directly from Basque:

S.O.S. The destruction has begun!!!

Today at afternoon, thanks to the information of a person who passed by the site, we have got to know that the destruction has begun: some workers with an excavator were laboring at the south of the archaeological site, around the main gate. From the probes made by Lurmen*, we know that this area is also very rich in archaeological remains. But according to the approved Directive Plan, the new director general, Núñez, has allowed himself to dig with machines up to 50 cm, without taking in consideration that at the depth of just 20-30 cm there is also a wealth of archaeological material, as found by Lurmen in the probes of 2005 and 2006. The destruction has begun, we are at the gates of a new edition of what happened at Gaztelu Plaza in Pamplona, Navarre**.

Notes:

* Lurmen is the company in charge of the dig up to 2006, when they were forced by rumors to prematurely announce the finding of a host of Roman era impressive findings, including many of the oldest Basque texts known to date. This triggered a witch hunt by a camarilla of well-connected linguists, led by Joseba Lakarra, who saw their theories in danger, resulting in the removal of Lurmen and its competent team from the dig, which was given to one of the few archaeologists who supported the witch-hunt. To date the archaeologists in charge of Lurmen have been acquitted of any charges but not yet rehabilitated in spite of growing academic support.

** The "emergency" dig at Gaztelu Plaza (or Plaza del Castillo) in Pamplona's old city center, where most important Roman era (and probably older) remains, including baths, were found when an underground parking lot was being built, was another archaeological scandal of mismanagement and cruel disinterest in unveiling Basque history. The park had no urgency whatsoever but was built anyhow at the expense of science and patrimony, stuff on which our institutional politicians seem to have no interest - or even a quite clear interest in hiding and deforming.

For further info, see category Iruña-Veleia in this blog. Also at SOS Veleia (in Basque, English and Spanish).

More Paleolithic rock art found deep in La Peña de Cándamo (Asturias)

The generally quite informative Spanish archaeology blog Pileta de Prehistoria reports that archaeologists have found more rock art in a deep hidden gallery of La Peña de Cándamo cave in Asturias (often mentioned as La Peña but sometimes as Cándamo too), which is Patrimony of Humankind since 2008.

The new findings include some 200 artworks, including dot marks and other abstract symbols, hand and finger applications and a large headless horse.


While the cave was reopened in 1994 after a period of closure, the new gallery will only be available to "visit" online because it is not easy to access at all.

More info: Cándamo Town Hall - Cave[es].

Some Archaeo News

The compilation of archaeological news by the team of the reference site Stone Pages strikes with a new update, some of whose snippets I found of some significance:

• Çatalhöyuk team to announce new findings this summer (more at Hürriyet)
  
• Guernsey's only gallery grave (passage dolmen) dug by archaeologists (more at BBC)
• Possible indications of Neolithic at Andrah Pradesh discovered by freelance archaeologist (more at The Hindu - not a very clear story)
• Neanderthals and Sapiens probably diverged long ago because of teeth morphology (more at Science Daily).
  

I already mentioned this last story earlier in relation to the latest Neanderthal Genome controversial molecular clock guesstimates, which caused palaeoanthropologist Aida Gómez, of the Atapuerca team, pointing to her older works on the matter saying: no way, it's more like one million years. It seems that the story is still bouncing around, now in English.

Chalcolithic dugout canoe found in Ireland

Not many boats survive the hardships of time for so long, so this is worth a remark here.

Fishermen from Drogheda found the canoe at the Boyne river in Ireland, not far from the famous site of Newgrange.


The canoe is 3 meters long and 61 cm wide with a hook at one of the extremes, what may mean it was used as vehicle for a single individual or as cargo transporter, the hook serving maybe to tie a rope for it to be towed.

It is believed to date from c. 5000 years ago (Chalcolithic period in pan-European chronology), though research is still ongoing.

Source: Independent (found via Archeology in Europe).

Odd chalcolithic burial in Atapuerca

The archaeological site of Atapuerca, Burgos province, Spain (Basque territory in the Middle Ages at least) is most famous for its Neanderthal and H. antecessor remains but there is much more to it.

The Cueva del Mirador in particular has provided some data on Late Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age, including about ten burials. But one of them, reported only now, is very unusual because the young woman (c. 15 y.o.) was buried in fetal position, which is something unheard of in Iberia (or elsewhere in Europe out of the Balcano-Danubian Neolithic area) before the arrival of the Bell Beaker subculture (phenomenon). The normal burial position elsewhere was in extended form, often accompanied with ochre, a practice that has its roots in the Paleolithic.

The woman was buried apart from the other tombs, suggesting some sort of special status.


The source of this news item, the blog of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology - Social Ecology (IPHES - Catalan with automatic translator to other languages) hints that the remains are dated c. 4500 years ago, several centuries before the arrival of Bell Beaker or even its inception in Central Europe. Also there's no mention of anything else that reminds of Bell Beaker. The recovered burial goods mentioned are pottery (no type specified), mollusk shells (Dentalium sp.) and remnants of what might be a belt or collar.

The presence of mollusks strongly suggest some sort of connection with the Bay of Biscay coastal areas and they might have had an ornamental or medicinal use (Dentalium was considered an excellent source of alkali in pre-modern medicine).

I am thinking that it is very possible that the young lady belonged to some group of travelers (refugees, traders, pilgrims, diplomats...?) from the Danubian cultural area area, which at this date reached as far south as the Garonne at some moments (reconquered by the bowmen's Artenac culture soon after). This would explain the separate burial and the distinctive characteristics of it. The geographical situation of Atapuerca, the main pass between the Duero and Ebro basins and a key connection between Atlantic Iberia and mainland Europe does suggest it.

See also: Pileta de Prehistoria entry[es] and visual description of El Mirador Cave (PDF)[es].

Paleolithic rock art discovered in Romania

Stone Pages' Archaeonews reports in this issue, among other interesting archaeological news, that mural art has been found in Coliboaia cave, at Bihor County, northwest Romania, by local speleologists.

The findings have been confirmed by an specialist team, lead by Jean Clottes, dating them provisionally between 23,000 and 35,000 years ago, in the Aurignacian or Gravettian periods.

The art depicts several animals in black paint, including a bison, a horse, a possible feline, two bear heads and two rhinoceroses. There are several engravings as well

Head of rhinoceros (from Bradshaw Foundation)

As far as I know, it is the easternmost case of Paleolithic mural art in Europe.

Sources: Bradshaw Foundation (includes two more images), PHYSORG

North Iberian Neolithic seeds

Found at Arqueocienciências, a Portuguese archaeology blog.

It refers to a poster (quasi-paper, in English) presented to the last conference of the IWGP by Inés López, Pablo Arias and Roberto Ontañón detailing the carpological findings in two Neolithic caves of Northern Spain, Los Gitanos (Cantabria, near the Basque border) and Aranga (Asturias, near the Cantabrian border).


Synthesis of findings:


Aranga cave (Asturias):

The Mesolithic period (stratigraphic units 4 and 3) is dated to between c. 7500-7000 cal BCE and includes mainly hazelnut (Corylus avellana) remnants but also a few instances of barley (Hordeum vulgare) and another undescribed cereal, as well and Sorbus sp. (rowan).

The Late Neolithic period (unit D) is dated c. 3350-2600 cal BCE and contained mostly barley, as well as some instances of hazelnut and one acorn (Quercus sp.)

In addition to these, it is reported in the text the presence of wild apples. Apple seeds have also been recovered in a Basque cave (Aizpea, Zapata 2002).


Los Gitanos cave (Cantabria):

Neolithic (units A4, A3 and A2) is dated to c. 5000-2600 cal BCE and included only a few instances of hazelnut and acorn, plus a single instance of Brassica sp. (genus including mustard and cabbage)

Chalcolithic (unit A1) is dated more precisely to c. 3600-3100 BCE and is still dominated by hazelnuts and acorns but already showing some instances of cereal (wheat, oat and an undetermined cereal), as well as one instance of Rumex sp. (sorrel or dock)

The authors are unsure on whether the Brassica and Rumex instances were collected for food or arrived as part of some weeding activity.



The consumption of acorn bread was reported for Northern Iberia as very common in Roman times.

It is noticeable that not a single instance of pulse was found.

Oldest "pampooty" shoe found in Armenia

Archaeologists working at Areni-1 cave in Armenia have found one of the earliest known shoes and the first one of a kind that was common in parts of Europe until recently. This type of rustic shoe made of a single piece of leather tied with leather strings (or cords) above the foot is known as pampooties in Ireland and as abarka in the Basque Country.



The shoe, dated to 3627–3377 cal. BC, in the Chalcolithic Age, is roughly contemporary with other oldest findings of shoes across the World: the footwear of Ötzi, made of two different leather pieces, a slip-on shoe from the USA and a sandal found in Palestine. However footwear is known to have been used since much eralier, with anatomical evidence strongly suggesting a Middle Paleolithic origin. Because of the perishable nature of the materials used, no older shoes are directly known to us though.

Ron Pinhasi et al. First Direct Evidence of Chalcolithic Footwear from the Near Eastern Highlands. PLoS ONE 2010. Open access.

See also the article at the PLoS ONE blog, EveryOne.

Above: modern pampooties. From A brief history of World Costume, which has an interesting, albeit old, article on prehistoric clothing and footwear, including a reconstruction of Ötzi's footwear, similar to low boots.

Archaeology versus some bad Genetics

I just stumbled upon a somewhat old but very interesting article on why population genetics has gone mad and leaned towards Neolithic replacement against all archaeological evidence. Why? Because they never cared at all about the archaeological evidence, not even about the genetic evidence that contradicted their own conclusions: they have been acting ideological all this time. Sadly enough.

Mark Pluciennik, Clash of Cultures? Archaeology and Genetics. Documenta Praehistorica 2006. Freely available PDF.

Worth a read, really.