Most experts agree that the earliest examples of farming and animal domestication lie in the aptly named Fertile Crescent, in present day Iraq.  But still many questions have lingered over the years, especially with regard to remnants of farming or animal domestication that have not survived to the present day.  What kind of tools did they use to farm the earliest crops? How did they transport these crops to neighboring communities? Now a new archaeological discovery in the mountains of Turkmenistan has finally given us more answers than questions, and has shed light on some of earliest farming communities in western Asia.

The finds center around the discovery of several model-sized carts at the archaeological site of Altyndepe, a Bronze Age settlement near the city of Ashgabat in southern Turkmenistan. These tiny carts may have been used in ritual ceremonies, or may have simply been the toys of young children.  But the most interesting aspect of these carts is that they depict camels as the main beasts of burden. Archaeologists are always interested in artifacts that reveal clues about daily life from ancient civilizations, and these camel-pulled carts are a comparative jack-pot.

An article about the carts recently appeared on the Discovery News website. They were documented by Lyubov Kircho of the Institute for the History of Material Culture at the Russian Academy of Sciences and are described (in Russian) in the journal Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia. An English version will be published in the Proceedings of the 19th International Conference of the European Association of South Asian Archaeologists.

Archaeologists have discovered cattle-pulled carts from the region, dating to about 6,000 years ago. These carts were originally used for transporting necessities like grain, but later carried other items like alabaster and the prized stone lapis lazuli from hundreds of miles away. Trade networks with neighboring communities began to spring up, and by 3,500 BC one of the first dedicated ‘highways’ for vehicles ran between Altyndepe and nearby towns in present-day Iran and Afghanistan.

But by 3,000 BC, the climate was becoming more arid and the people of Altyndepe could not longer trust their cattle-pulled carts to make the long journeys. Archaeologists already suspected that the communities must have switched to camels, which were better able to handle the drier climate. Now these model carts show that their suspicions were correct; camel-pulled carts were the standard for this region, and were such an integral part of daily life that miniature versions were created as children’s toys.

The presence of these carts – combined with previous ideas on the sharing of ideas and culture throughout this part of western Asia – also have implications for the genetic history of the region. It is well documented that about 10% of modern Europeans contain a genetic signature of the early agriculturalists who arrived from the Near East beginning about 9,000 years ago, bringing their farming techniques and DNA with them. Scientists now believe that while some of these Near Eastern farmers did travel west into the heart of Europe, others headed into the plateaus and foothills east of the Caspian Sea. Like their western counterparts, these farmers brought their farming tools and techniques to the indigenous people of southern Turkmenistan. And like their western counterparts, they probably brought their genes. In fact, some genetic studies have examined the genetic make-up of modern day residents of Turkmenistan, and have found that many of these people also bear the genetic signatures of the early farmers of the Fertile Crescent.

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There has been plenty of research in both genetics and archaeology recently trying to figure out how the New World was colonized. Was it by boat or via the frozen wasteland of the Bering Strait? Was it a fast trip down to South America, or did these first inhabitants take a more leisurely stroll? And when did all this happen anyway?

As each new study is published we are learning vital information on the peopling of the Americas. Ideas and theories continue to be retooled as new evidence comes to light.

This will certainly be the case with regards to a paper in the May 2008 issue of PLoS Genetics. In this article, researchers from Oxford and Cornell Universities report on a new computer model they have developed to trace prehistoric human migrations across the globe.

Using genetic information from various populations alive today, the authors estimated how those groups may be related to one another. Then they used those relationships to piece together the prehistoric movements of early humans.

As expected, their analysis showed a single migration out of Africa that eventually populated Eurasia and the Americas. However, the results for the Peopling of the Americas were more surprising.

The conventional wisdom states that the first inhabitants of the Americas came from Asia in a single wave more than 10,000 years ago. But when the authors compared the genetic data of two Native American groups (one in Colombia and one in the American Southwest) to groups in East Asia, what they found supported a two-wave migration.

The Colombian sample of Native Americans was actually more closely related to the East Asian sample than it was to the American Southwest sample. That suggests the two populations come from independent sources – and that there were at least two separate migrations of humans into the New World. Clearly, one of these migrations would have come from East Asia and made its way into South America. However, the data suggest a separate migration, probably from a different part of Asia or Siberia, came at a different time, and this time only made it to North America. This conclusion is significant, as it contradicts current theories on the topic, which argue a more constant flow of migrants from an original source somewhere in Asia.

There are still plenty of questions regarding this research, especially with regard to how it compares to the archaeological record and to previous genetic studies. The answers to these questions can only come with additional research, which, thankfully, is always forthcoming on the peopling of the Americas.

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A study in last month’s American Journal of Human Genetics argued for an ancient and fast migration of prehistoric humans across the Bering Strait and down the Pacific Coast based on a genetic analysis of present-day Native Americans. That study was provocative because it significantly pushed back the arrival date of humans to the New World, to 18,000 years ago from the previous estimate of 13,000 years.

Now, results from a new study in this week’s Science further bolster that theory, this time using the prevalence of preserved seaweed as an indicator.

Anthropologists at Vanderbilt University have excavated a South American archaeological site known as Monte Verde II. Located in southern Chile, Monte Verde II is midway between the Pacific Coast and the Andes mountains. It dates to approximately 14,600 years ago, making it one of the oldest archaeological sites in the New World. The age of Monte Verde II, combined with its extreme southern location, lend additional support to the hypothesis of an early arrival of humans into South America.

And the sheer abundance of preserved seaweed in various huts at Monte Verde II lends additional support for the initial migration occurring down the Pacific Coast, rather than further inland. Seaweed is an incredibly fragile material, and does not preserve well. However, remains of seaweed are found all over Monte Verde II. The authors think the seaweed was probably used extensively both as food and for medicinal purposes, something that still goes on in present-day coastal communities.

The presence of some foods from inland areas indicates that the inhabitants of Monte Verde also traveled inland at some point during the year, or else mingled with other communities that did so.

So how do these findings help us to understand the earliest inhabitants of the Americas? Most importantly, this study supports the idea that the first Americans traveled down the length of the Americas via the Pacific Coast. But it also shows that there does seem to be some relationship between coastal communities, such as Monte Verde, and those groups that were more inland.

In fact, the authors of this study use this possible relationship to propose a slight variation on the theme of a coastal migration route, saying that the first inhabitants may have taken a slower journey down the coast, spreading out in the interior along the way. Although this hypothesis is in need of additional support, it is clear that the debate on the peopling of the Americas is far from over.

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