Figure 1. Sorted sample from El Mirón (a site in northern Spain) containing bone, wood, charcoal, a tooth, stone, and other material. The sample is labeled V 7/8 113-114, for the unit and depth that was excavated, and “D” for the type of sample it is.
by Matt Michalski
In the sample shown above, there are fragments of animal bone, charred pieces of organic material, an animal tooth, and bits of chert, a type of rock used to make stone tools. All this material was collected from a site in northern Spain called El Mirón. Archaeologists use material like this, typically sifted and sorted from soil samples, to help understand the lives of the people who left it behind. Sometimes scientists from other fields, like geology, are invited to collect soil at archaeological sites as well. Even these samples are saved for future researchers, who may have new questions or may be able to utilize new technologies and methods to study the material. The samples in the above photo are an example of this.
The archaeological site of El Mirón is a cave settlement located in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain. It is known for its walls of prehistoric rock art. Discovered more than 120 years ago by amateur archaeologists Hermilio Alcalde del Río and Lorenzo Sierra, archaeological excavation didn’t truly begin in the cave until the 1990s, when Lawrence Guy Straus and Manuel R. González Morales began their excavations. Since then, studies have determined that hunter-gatherers lived there from about 45,000 years ago until the Bronze Age, which was about 4,000 years ago (Straus and Morales 2014). During the Bronze Age, the people living there learned to farm as well as hunt. Analysis of soil samples collected at the site showed that there were large quantities of emmer wheat being grown (Peña-Chocarro et al. 2005). Wheat is interesting to archaeologists because of the vast changes that occurred in the plant itself during the transition from a wild plant to a domesticated one: changes such as the size of the grain and the plants’ ability to release the grain easily. Archaeologists also find it interesting that specific species were originally found only in certain areas of the world. Emmer wheat is thought to have originated in the Middle East. Knowing where certain species were grown can show how far people traveled and who they traded with. For instance, this shows that the people living at El Mirón at that time had contact with people from the Middle East in some way through trade. Much of this information was found through samples such as those in Figures 1 through 4.
The University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology has been working on a project to rehouse a large collection of uncataloged geological samples that were collected by a former curator named William Farrand. These samples were collected from archaeological sites that have provided evidence of the behavior and social structure of early human ancestors, El Mirón being one of these sites. In addition to being a curator at the Museum of Anthropology, William Farrand was a professor of geology at the University of Michigan for many years and helped develop a field of study known as geoarchaeology. He traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East collecting geologic samples in order to study how archaeological sites were formed and how they were filled with sediments over the years since they were lived in. Materials like those in the pictures above and from many other sites, having sat unseen for more than 30 years, are now available for renewed analysis, thanks to rehousing projects such as this.
Another way Dr. Farrand’s soil samples can help us understand archaeological sites is through macrobotanical remains. Macrobotanical remains are the carbonized bits of plants that typically show up as burnt seeds and wood charcoal. The emmer wheat seeds mentioned above are an example of this. Recently, a researcher from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Chantel White, visited the Museum to analyze some of the samples from Dr. Farrand’s collection. The samples were from some famous archaeological sites such as Kebara and Qafzeh in Israel. Both sites were along a travel path for early human ancestors. Dr. White is an archaeobotanist (someone who studies plant remains from archaeological sites), and many of the samples she analyzed had evidence of seeds and wood in them. The soil samples collected by Dr. Farrand more than 30 years ago will provide Dr. White and others with an opportunity to study these sites in more detail, without having to return to the sites themselves to collect new samples. Dr. White hopes to determine what types of foods were eaten and what types of plants may have been used in everyday life by our human ancestors.
Soil samples can contain animal bones, flakes from the process of creating stone tools, plant remains from these ancient sites, and many other lines of evidence to examine. In addition to El Mirón, materials from Kebara Cave, Tabun Cave, Qafzeh, and other sites in Dr. Farrand’s collection (including Sefunim Cave, Ksar Aqil, Franchthi Cave, Yarimburgaz, Yabrud, Abri Pataud, and many other sites) have helped us defined the movements, behavior, and interactions of our earliest ancestors. The samples from Dr. Farrand’s collection are a good example of why museums save material like this and why it is important to spend the time and energy maintaining or rehousing samples when needed. Renewed access to this material will help scientists understand how our early ancestors interacted with the world around them and how they interacted with each other in a world that was much more difficult to survive in than today. Their behavior and actions can also help us understand ourselves much better in such a radically changing world.
Peña-Chocarro, L., et al. 2005. The oldest agriculture in northern Atlantic Spain: new evidence from El Mirón Cave (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria). Journal of Archaeological Science 32(4):579-587. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2004.12.001
Straus, L.G., and M.R.G. Morales. 2014. El Miron Cave: Geography and Culture. In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by C. Smith. Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2247
Figure 2. The rehoused material from El Mirón sitting neatly on a museum drawer.
Figure 3. Sample from El Mirón with pebbles, bone, and possible charcoal.
Figure 4. Bags of soil samples after being rehoused. These samples originate from the archaeological site of Tabun Cave and show several different sizes that have been sorted from the originally collected sample.
