🧐 Ancient Beat #126: Board games, puberty, and delicious bog butter

Hey friends, let’s get right into it this week. Welcome to issue #126 of Ancient Beat — here’s the latest ancient news. 👇

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🗞 Ancient News: Top 5

• Rare Skeletons Up To 30,000 Years Old Reveal When Ancient Humans Went Through Puberty — A study of 13 adolescent skeletons from Europe, dating back 10,000 to 30,000 years, reveals that ancient humans started puberty at around 13 to 16 years old, similar to modern hunter-gatherers. Maturity was typically reached between 16 and 21 years old, indicating longer adolescent periods for some. Puberty timing appears to follow a consistent genetic blueprint over time. Menarche, or the first menstruation, occurred around 16 to 17 years old, later than modern averages.

• 16,000-Year-Old Skeleton, Crystals, And Stone Tools Discovered In Malaysian Caves — Archaeologists have uncovered 16 ancient skeletons in the limestone caves of Malaysia's Nenggiri Valley, some dating back 14,000 to 16,000 years. Most of the skeletons were found in crouched positions, indicating pre-Neolithic burial practices, but one Neolithic skeleton, buried around 6,000 years ago, was found in an extended position. The team also recovered over 71,000 prehistoric artifacts, including stone tools, pottery, ornaments, and crystals. The cave sites will soon be flooded to create a hydroelectric reservoir. Grave goods such as hematite, crystals, and stone bracelets suggest complex burial traditions. These finds are linked to the Hoabinhian culture, a hunter-gatherer society in Southeast Asia.

• A New Theory On The Oldest Known Bronze Age Board Game: The Surprising Discovery Of Hounds And Jackals — New findings suggest that the Bronze Age game Hounds and Jackals, or Fifty-Eight Holes, may have originated in Asia rather than Egypt. A game board discovered in Gobustan, Azerbaijan, dating to the Middle Bronze Age, closely resembles the Egyptian versions but may predate them. This challenges the assumption that the game first appeared in Egypt during the reign of Mentuhotep II (2064–1952 BCE). Archaeologists have found more than 60 examples of the game across Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, and now Azerbaijan, indicating its widespread popularity. The game likely played a social role in ancient cultures, used for entertainment, strategy, and fostering social connections.

  

• Giant Slab of Bog Butter Recovered in Ireland — A large, well-preserved slab of "bog butter," weighing over 50 pounds, was found in a peat bog in County Meath, Ireland. Dating back to at least 1000 BCE, this unusual discovery provides insights into ancient food preservation methods. Bog butter, typically made from animal fat, was buried in bogs to preserve it in the cool, anaerobic conditions. The unique properties of the peat allowed for excellent preservation. While the precise reasons for burying butter are debated, it may have been used as a form of long-term storage, or even as an offering. This find joins several other similar discoveries from Irish bogs, offering a fascinating glimpse into early food practices in the region. Yum.

• South African Rock Art Possibly Inspired by Long-Extinct Species, Suggests Research — In the Karoo Basin of South Africa, a mysterious rock art panel depicts a tusked animal that does not match any known species in the region, potentially representing a long-extinct dicynodont. This figure, found in the Horned Serpent panel, which was painted by the San people between 1821 and 1835, could reflect an artistic interpretation of dicynodont fossils that were common in the area. These pre-dinosaur creatures are thought to have inspired the artwork and myths of the region about giant creatures from the past. The depiction predates Western scientific recognition by at least a decade, suggesting that the San had integrated paleontological elements into their culture and art long before formal scientific descriptions.

Image credit: Julien Benoit, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

That’s it for the free Top 5! If you’re a free subscriber, sign up for the paid plan for another 16 discoveries and 7 recommended pieces of content covering submerged temples, revolts, chopsticks, and oracle bones.

Until next time, thanks for joining me!

-James
Twitter: @jamesofthedrum

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🗞 Ancient News: Deep Dive