🧐 Ancient Beat #136: Technological leaps, tar factories, and unusual acoustics

Happy Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Days, folks! And welcome to issue #136 of Ancient Beat.

It’s Black Friday. Here’s 25% off of Ancient Beat’s premium tier, which includes all the latest discoveries (usually an additional 20+) plus a handful of interesting videos and articles each week.

And here’s the latest ancient news. 👇

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🗞 Ancient News: Top 5

• Archaeologists Identify a Technological Milestone in Human Evolution — At the Barranc de la Boella site in Catalonia, Spain, archaeologists have uncovered evidence of early hominins' advanced toolmaking skills dating back between 900,000 and 780,000 years. This site is the oldest Acheulean location in Europe, and it indicates an evolutionary milestone where ancient humans made the first leaps to large Mode 2 (Acheulian) tools from the earlier Mode 1 (Olduvaian) technologies. The findings suggest that these hominins engaged in meticulous planning and resource management, selecting materials based on size and purpose, and conducting initial stone working off-site for later transport.

• 65,000-Year-Old Neanderthal ‘Tar Factory’ Found in Gibraltar Cave — Archaeologists have uncovered a 65,000-year-old tar-making site in Vanguard Cave, part of Gibraltar's Gorham’s Cave complex. This discovery reveals that Neanderthals engineered a combustion structure, or hearth, to produce tar from resinous plants like rockrose. The tar served as an adhesive, allowing them to attach stone tools to wooden handles — an innovation predating similar techniques by Homo sapiens by over 20,000 years. The hearth, a round pit approximately 8.7 inches wide and 3.5 inches deep, featured vertical walls and two short trenches, suggesting sophisticated control over airflow and temperature for low-oxygen tar production. Experimental archaeology confirmed that heating rockrose leaves in a sealed, low-oxygen environment at about 300°F produced tar, highlighting Neanderthals' advanced engineering and cooperative skills.

• Early Mesoamericans Trapped Fish Far Earlier Than Previously Thought — Archaeologists have uncovered a large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facility in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, Belize. Dated to the Late Archaic period (circa 2000–1900 BCE), these structures predate similar Amazonian examples by over a millennium. The network of canals and ponds was designed to channel annual floodwaters into areas for fish trapping, potentially sustaining up to 15,000 people year-round. Sediment analysis revealed a dominance of tropical forest vegetation and an absence of domesticated crop pollen, indicating a reliance on aquatic resources over agriculture during this period.

• Archaeologists Discover a Ptolemaic Temple Pylon in Sohag — A Ptolemaic temple pylon was discovered on the western side of the main temple at Athribis in Sohag, Egypt. The pylon measures approximately 167 feet in length, with two 79-foot-wide towers flanking an entrance gate. Based on the towers' angle, the original height is estimated at 59 feet, comparable to the Luxor Temple pylon. Hieroglyphic inscriptions depict the pharaoh receiving the lioness goddess Repyt and the child-god Kolanthes. Cartouches suggest the pylon dates to the reign of Ptolemy VIII (170–116 BCE), who may have founded the temple.

  

  Image credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

• Acoustic Properties of Rock Sites May Have Inspired Prehistoric Art — Recent research in Finland examined 37 rock painting sites dating from 5000 to 1500 BCE, revealing that the smooth, vertical rock surfaces not only display images of elks, humans, and boats but also act as effective sound reflectors. These surfaces produce distinct single-repeat echoes, creating auditory “mirror images” that seem to emanate from behind the rock walls. This phenomenon suggests that prehistoric hunter-gatherers might have perceived the painted figures as 'speaking' back, potentially influencing the selection of these sites for artistic expression. The study highlights the significant role that acoustic properties may have played in the cultural practices of ancient societies.

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Until next time, thanks for joining me!

-James
Twitter: @jamesofthedrum

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🗞 Ancient News: Deep Dive