Latest news with #Latvia
Gizmodo
2 hours ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
This Prehistoric Trick Shows How Ice Age People Harvested Teeth for Jewelry
When piecing together the cultural practices of ancient humans, traditional archaeologists rely on clues from artifacts such as tools, bones, and pottery. Experimental archaeologists, however, go a step further—recreating past behaviors to experience how people once lived. That's precisely what a team of researchers recently did to investigate how Stone Age communities in northeastern Europe extracted animal teeth to produce accessories. Led by Aija Macāne, a visiting scholar in the Department of Cultures at the University of Helsinki, the archaeologists personally tested seven different extraction methods to determine which were most effective and efficient. Their findings, published June 20 in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, offer new insights into the lives of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. 'Our experiments show that tooth extraction was a deliberate, time-sensitive process embedded in daily life, especially cooking practices,' Macāne said in a university statement. 'This challenges the assumption that teeth used for ornaments were simply scavenged or easily available.' According to the researchers, animal teeth were among the most common materials used to make jewelry, accessories, and other personal adornments during the Stone Age, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. Experts know this thanks to sites like Zvejnieki, a burial ground in northern Latvia where hunter-gatherers laid people to rest for about five millennia—from 7,500 to 2,600 BCE. More than 2,000 animal teeth have been excavated from the graves at Zvejnieki, making it a prime location to study how ancient humans interacted with these materials. Archaeologists have extensively studied animal tooth pendants from this site, investigating which species they came from, how they were used, where they were placed inside graves, and how they were made. Far fewer studies, however, have looked into the process of extracting teeth and the physical traces this leaves behind, the researchers note. To fill that knowledge gap, Macāne and her colleagues got their hands dirty—literally. The team carried out a series of experiments to test seven different prehistoric methods for extracting teeth: cutting, percussion (or striking), air drying, soaking, direct heat, and two cooking techniques. They chose these techniques based on previous archaeological and ethnographic research. 'While other methods could be tested, we argue that these seven are the most likely given the technologies available at this time,' the researchers state in their report. Over the course of one year, they experienced what it was like to be Stone Age humans in need of some toothy bling. The researchers conducted their experiments at the Īdeņa Experimental Centre in eastern Latvia, which allowed them to source the necessary raw materials from licensed local hunters. In total, they used seven skulls or mandibles from Eurasian elk, two from wild boar, and two from roe deer. Of all the methods they tested, the two cooking techniques proved most effective. Boiling a mandible in a ceramic pot not only poached the meat, but caused soft tissues to detach from the bone, making it easy to manually extract the teeth. Placing entire skulls inside an earth oven—a dug-out pit used to trap heat and, in this case, steam food—had the same effect. Both methods allowed for high extraction rates without damaging the teeth, with the added bonus of making a meal and rendering the rest of the bones suitable for tool-making. These findings suggest that tooth extraction may have been integrated into broader cultural practices, merging food preparation, the making of personal adornments, and funerary rituals. As for the other techniques, soaking proved successful, but did not offer additional benefits. Cutting or striking the teeth to remove them also worked, but that often cause damage. The last two methods—air drying and applying direct heat—did not yield successful results. 'While this study focused principally on the tooth pendant assemblage from the Zvejnieki cemetery, our results have broader implications for understanding tooth extraction and pendant production across prehistory,' the researchers state. 'By examining techniques used for tooth extraction, we have gained valuable insights into human behavior and cultural practices during the Stone Age.' Still, questions remain. The researchers hope their study will inspire other archaeologists to look for physical traces of the extraction process on animal teeth artifacts. They also emphasize the importance of investigating teeth from other species, including humans and dogs. Such work, they argue, would shed 'a critical light on the complexity and significance of these practices.'
Associated Press
a day ago
- Sport
- Associated Press
Belarus qualifying for European soccer event forces UEFA to find third co-host nation
NYON, Switzerland (AP) — UEFA changed the hosting plan for its 2026 European Championship for indoor soccer on Friday because Russia's military ally Belarus has qualified for the finals tournament. Co-hosts Latvia and Lithuania 'prohibit the organization of matches involving Belarusian teams on their domestic territories,' said UEFA, which added Slovenia as a third host for the 16-team futsal event. Slovenia, the home nation of UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, will now organize more than half of the four-yearly tournament that opens on Jan. 20 and includes Ukraine. UEFA said Belarus will be drawn to play in one of the two groups moved to Slovenia's capital Ljubljana, which also will stage two quarterfinals, both semifinals and the final. One group will be played in each of Riga, Latvia's capital, and Kaunas in Lithuania. 'Each city will also host one quarterfinal, reaffirming their central roles in the tournament,' UEFA said, giving no details of how Ukraine will be separated from Belarus in the draw. Russian teams have been banned from international competitions by UEFA and FIFA since the full military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. UEFA's move in 2023 to reintegrate Russian under-17s teams was stopped by a backlash from Ukraine and other member federations. National and club teams from Belarus have continued to play, though must host 'home' games in neutral countries with no fans in the stadium. Belarus will start qualifying for the men's 2026 World Cup in September in a group with Denmark, Scotland and Greece. Belarus is playing home games in Hungary. The previous futsal Euros played in the Netherlands saw one of the last soccer matches between teams from Russia and Ukraine, in the quarterfinals on Feb. 4, 2022. Russia won 3-2. ___ AP soccer:
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Cutting down forests to feed Drax incurs a huge carbon cost
Dale Vince is right that paying the Drax power station billions of pounds to burn forests is not a coherent climate strategy (Ancient trees are shipped to the UK, then burned – using billions in 'green' subsidies. Stop this madness now, 21 June) . Labour has already said these subsidies should not continue beyond 2031 – a welcome and necessary step. Cutting down forests in Estonia, Latvia, the US and Canada is destructive to biodiversity. What's more, it makes no climate sense – for forests to recover their role as lungs that absorb carbon dioxide takes decades. Biomass, of the type Drax uses, incurs a huge carbon cost. Relying on millions of tonnes of imported wood to keep the lights on is dangerous. A strategy for energy security means investing in real, homegrown renewables – wind, solar, tidal and restoring nature to capture SobelLabour and Co-operative MP for Leeds Central and Headingley We have to remember that using Drax to burn freshly grown wood is better than burning coal and not planting any trees at all (as we merrily did last century). Drax is a stepping stone to a low carbon future and should be switched off once the alternatives are in place. I am saddened to hear that Canada is using virgin forest to supply Drax. This should be stopped by its government. There are other stepping stones that should be given consideration: 'blue options' as opposed to 'grey' or 'green' options. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is likely to be a better blue option than biomass, because the CO2 is removed immediately and not recycled into the atmosphere. However biomass is cheaper. All options need to be kept on the table, partly to avoid having all our eggs in one basket and partly to make sure we come as close as possible to a speedy, low-cost transition that we can afford. Tom BlandfordFordingbridge, Hampshire Creative accounting has always been the refuge of scoundrels. That the UK government wants to continue to book nonexistent emissions reductions through large-scale wood burning that annihilates ancient forests and use ever more taxpayer money to subsidise the scam is not only shameful, but also alarming to anyone hoping for real action on climate. At the Bonn climate negotiation meetings I recently attended, it transpired that Brazil seems intent on a big push for the bioeconomy at the upcoming COP op30 in the Amazon. It's obvious that, cloaked in platitudes about small-scale social bioeconomy measures with merit, industrial scale forest biomass energy will charge through this gateway. Burning up the biosphere as climate action is the Orwellian prospect we all Putt Former member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly At the moment, the issue of burning trees in power stations like Drax must surely be vastly overshadowed by the seasonal 'accidental' loss of established woodland by the annual return of highly energetic and polluting fires in Canada, Russia and Europe. Having their likely origin in changing weather (and therefore also climate) patterns, resulting in prolonged droughts and rising temperatures, accompanied by natural and anthropogenic ignition sources, these events are likely to be irreversible, without a dramatic universal reduction in CO2 emissions, as well as in the release of CH4 (methane, with its dramatically higher environmental damage potential) from melting permafrosts in Arctic, sub-Arctic and alpine environments, and from animal CarmichaelSafenwil, Switzerland Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
‘US strikes on Iran made Europe and NATO safer': Latvian defense minister
This year's NATO summit is centered on ramping up military spending and Latvia is leading by example. Situated on NATO's eastern flank, Latvia has become the first alliance member to upgrade its forward presence into the NATO Multinational Brigade Latvia. From the summit, Latvia's Defense Minister Andris Spruds joins Al Arabiya English and Counterpoints to discuss the frontline challenges and strategic priorities shaping NATO's future.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
British Man Is Charged in Attempted Mock Wedding With 9-Year-Old at Disneyland Paris
A convicted sex offender from Britain has been detained in France after he was accused of attempting to stage a mock wedding with a 9-year-old girl at Disneyland Paris that involved scores of unwitting paid actors. The event was held early on Saturday, before the amusement park opened to the public, but was quickly cut short when staff at the park realized that the 'bride' was a minor. Jean-Baptiste Bladier, a prosecutor in Meaux, a French city just northeast of Disneyland Paris, said in a statement that the police were called to the scene and determined that the wedding was 'a fictitious ceremony intended to be filmed privately' with fake guests. The episode has raised questions about how a registered sex offender was able to book a private event involving a minor at one of the world's most prominent theme parks. The main suspect, a 39-year-old British citizen, used a stolen Latvian identity and fake documents to book the event, the police said. Mr. Bladier did not name the man but said he was 'professionally made-up to show a face totally different from his own.' Mr. Bladier said the man had been charged with fraud, identity theft and money laundering. He was also named as an assisted witness — a step short of being formally charged — in an investigation into the potential corruption of a minor. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
