Ear Bones Suggest Prehistoric Aquatics
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
March 23, 2007 - Determining the daily activities of prehistoric people is
difficult without written records, but scientists have figured out a way to
identify individuals who often engaged in intense water-related activities,
such as diving, surfing and fishing.
The clue is in their ears.
According to a paper accepted for publication in the American Journal of
Physical Anthropology, abnormal ear canal bone masses, called auditory
exostoses, can be linked to aquatic activities. Like a sort of skeletal
tattoo, the masses mark the remains of some early individuals.
"Auditory exostoses can develop when the ear is exposed to cold water (below
around 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit) and/or to warmer water chilled by the action
of cold atmospheric temperature and/or strong winds," explained Sabine
Eggers, who worked on the study with Célia Boyadjian and Maria Okumura.
Eggers, a researcher in the Biological Anthropology Laboratory in the
Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Säo
Paulo, Brazil, said that the "external region of the ear canal responds to
chill with increased blood flow and inflammation."
Bone tissue then produces new cells and, over time, this can lead to bony
outgrowths that may be helpful for scientific study, but can cause hearing
loss in the subject.
The researchers analyzed 676 skeletons dating from 5,000 years ago to more
recent times from 27 coastal and inland native Brazilian groups. As
predicted, few inlanders possessed the bone masses, but many coastal groups
had them. Skeletons from only one region, the southern part of the state of
Santa Catarina, presented differences between the sexes, suggesting that
women usually, but not always, went out on the water as men did.
Other clues hint at what the coastal dwellers did above and under water.
"They certainly fished habitually, since fish was their main source of
protein," said Boyadjian. "We know that from the fish remains scattered
throughout the sites, and the chemical analysis (stable isotopes) from the
human bones."
Mollusk shells from shellfish that they could only obtain by diving indicate
they frequently swam underwater, while hooks and weights suggest they fished
from shore and boats too.
They probably surfed as well.
"One could imagine that kids would use any piece of wood they found to play
in the waves, just as kids and adults do today with their boards," Okumura
said.
The study confirms earlier speculation about exostoses, which have been
identified in ancient skeletal remains from Yugoslavia, the Canary Islands,
Middle Europe, other parts of South America and even Imperial Rome.
Paleoanthropologist Georgio Manzi of La Sapienza University in Rome and
colleagues studied the Roman skeletons, which dated from the first to the
third centuries. The scientists established "close links between the
occurrence of auditory exostoses and prolonged cold water exposure,
generally due to the practice of aquatic sports, or to working activities
involving water contact or diving."
In many of the Roman cases, it appeared that frequent thermal bathing led to
the ear canal bone masses, since men would often warm up in saunas and hot
baths before plunging in icy pools. Roman women, who usually skipped the
freezing cold water routine, had far fewer exostoses.
Eggers thinks Eskimos warded off the problem because they often wore hoods,
a fact that should be taken note of today by water sports fanatics.
She said, "Although the use of a hood or earplugs has not been proven to
completely prevent the development of auditory exostoses, wearing this
equipment can help individuals who have intense contact with water to avoid
the development of this anomaly."
Discovery Channel :: News - Archaeology :: Ear Bones Suggest Prehistoric Aquatics
DDeden: I read in a historical novel by James Michener, Alaska, that traditionally Eskimos generally didn't swim or dive much due to the coldness of the water, does anyone know more about this? I know that among the natives of Tierra del Fuego at the coldest southern tip of South America, the women would dive for molluscs even when there was ice on the water. Yikes, that's cold! I guess they coated themselves with thick grease. The Aleut people of Alaskan islands did coat with grease, both for cold water swimming and to protect against mosquitos and biting black flies. If anyone knows about ancient diving, snorkeling and surfing methods, I'd be interested to hear about them.
A link to a different related condition: see nystagmus
http://forums.deeperblue.net/general-freediving/70448-diving-sickness.html#post635114
At my blog site, info on mammal ear-bones derived from reptilian jawbone type:
THE-ARC: Struck dumb
(Also see Dive-Song, Aqua-Arid Ancestors, and Aqua-photic Respiratory Cycle at THE-ARC site for more theory on ancient diving.)
the-arc » Aqua-Arid Ancestors
the-arc » Aqua-photic
the-arc » Dive Song
[For research purposes only, see cautions]
DDeden
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
March 23, 2007 - Determining the daily activities of prehistoric people is
difficult without written records, but scientists have figured out a way to
identify individuals who often engaged in intense water-related activities,
such as diving, surfing and fishing.
The clue is in their ears.
According to a paper accepted for publication in the American Journal of
Physical Anthropology, abnormal ear canal bone masses, called auditory
exostoses, can be linked to aquatic activities. Like a sort of skeletal
tattoo, the masses mark the remains of some early individuals.
"Auditory exostoses can develop when the ear is exposed to cold water (below
around 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit) and/or to warmer water chilled by the action
of cold atmospheric temperature and/or strong winds," explained Sabine
Eggers, who worked on the study with Célia Boyadjian and Maria Okumura.
Eggers, a researcher in the Biological Anthropology Laboratory in the
Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Säo
Paulo, Brazil, said that the "external region of the ear canal responds to
chill with increased blood flow and inflammation."
Bone tissue then produces new cells and, over time, this can lead to bony
outgrowths that may be helpful for scientific study, but can cause hearing
loss in the subject.
The researchers analyzed 676 skeletons dating from 5,000 years ago to more
recent times from 27 coastal and inland native Brazilian groups. As
predicted, few inlanders possessed the bone masses, but many coastal groups
had them. Skeletons from only one region, the southern part of the state of
Santa Catarina, presented differences between the sexes, suggesting that
women usually, but not always, went out on the water as men did.
Other clues hint at what the coastal dwellers did above and under water.
"They certainly fished habitually, since fish was their main source of
protein," said Boyadjian. "We know that from the fish remains scattered
throughout the sites, and the chemical analysis (stable isotopes) from the
human bones."
Mollusk shells from shellfish that they could only obtain by diving indicate
they frequently swam underwater, while hooks and weights suggest they fished
from shore and boats too.
They probably surfed as well.
"One could imagine that kids would use any piece of wood they found to play
in the waves, just as kids and adults do today with their boards," Okumura
said.
The study confirms earlier speculation about exostoses, which have been
identified in ancient skeletal remains from Yugoslavia, the Canary Islands,
Middle Europe, other parts of South America and even Imperial Rome.
Paleoanthropologist Georgio Manzi of La Sapienza University in Rome and
colleagues studied the Roman skeletons, which dated from the first to the
third centuries. The scientists established "close links between the
occurrence of auditory exostoses and prolonged cold water exposure,
generally due to the practice of aquatic sports, or to working activities
involving water contact or diving."
In many of the Roman cases, it appeared that frequent thermal bathing led to
the ear canal bone masses, since men would often warm up in saunas and hot
baths before plunging in icy pools. Roman women, who usually skipped the
freezing cold water routine, had far fewer exostoses.
Eggers thinks Eskimos warded off the problem because they often wore hoods,
a fact that should be taken note of today by water sports fanatics.
She said, "Although the use of a hood or earplugs has not been proven to
completely prevent the development of auditory exostoses, wearing this
equipment can help individuals who have intense contact with water to avoid
the development of this anomaly."
Discovery Channel :: News - Archaeology :: Ear Bones Suggest Prehistoric Aquatics
DDeden: I read in a historical novel by James Michener, Alaska, that traditionally Eskimos generally didn't swim or dive much due to the coldness of the water, does anyone know more about this? I know that among the natives of Tierra del Fuego at the coldest southern tip of South America, the women would dive for molluscs even when there was ice on the water. Yikes, that's cold! I guess they coated themselves with thick grease. The Aleut people of Alaskan islands did coat with grease, both for cold water swimming and to protect against mosquitos and biting black flies. If anyone knows about ancient diving, snorkeling and surfing methods, I'd be interested to hear about them.
A link to a different related condition: see nystagmus
http://forums.deeperblue.net/general-freediving/70448-diving-sickness.html#post635114
At my blog site, info on mammal ear-bones derived from reptilian jawbone type:
THE-ARC: Struck dumb
(Also see Dive-Song, Aqua-Arid Ancestors, and Aqua-photic Respiratory Cycle at THE-ARC site for more theory on ancient diving.)
the-arc » Aqua-Arid Ancestors
the-arc » Aqua-photic
the-arc » Dive Song
[For research purposes only, see cautions]
DDeden
