An international team of archeologists, led by Ignacio Clemente, a researcher with the Spanish National Research Council, has discovered and documented an assemblage of fish seines and traps in the Dubna Basin near Moscow that are dated to be more than 7,500 years old. They say that the equipment, among the oldest found in Europe, displays a surprisingly advanced technical complexity. The finds illuminate the role of fishing among European settlements of the early Holocene (about 10,000 years ago), particularly where people did not practice agriculture until just before the advent of the Iron Age.

Says Clemente: "Until now, it was thought that the Mesolithic groups had seasonal as opposed to permanent settlements. According to the results obtained during the excavations, in both Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, the human group that lived in the Dubna river basin, near Moscow, carried out productive activities during the entire year".

According to the research team, the Neolithic and Mesolithic inhabitants of the region, known asZamostje 2, hunted during summer and winter, fished during spring and early summer, and harvested wild berries near the end of the summer and throughout the fall. But Clemente and colleagues suggest that the fishing commanded a salient place in their survival and prosperity. Says Clemente: "We think that the fishing played a vital role in the economy of these societies, because it was a versatile product, easy to preserve, dry and smoke, as well as store for later consumption."

Three years of work have uncovered a variety of artifacts at the site, including everyday objects such as spoons, plates, working tools, hunting weapons, all made from flint and other stones, bones and shafts. Finds included well-preserved organic items of wood, tree leaves, fossil feces and fish remains. Said Clemente, "it is really unusual to find sites with so much preserved organic remains. The ichthyological remains that we have found give us an idea of the protein percentage provided by fish in the diet of the prehistoric population. Furthermore, these remains will help us to conduct a survey from the point of view of species classification, catch amount and size, and fishing season among others. These details are essential to be able to asses the role played by fishing in the economy of these human groups".

But the stars of the show were the fishing implements. As one researcher added: "The documented fishing equipment shows a highly developed technology, aimed for the practice of several fishing techniques. We can highlight the finding of two large wooden fishing traps (a kind of interwoven basket with pine rods used for fishing), very well-preserved, dating back from 7,500 years ago. This represents one of the oldest dates in this area and, no doubt, among the best-preserved since they still maintain some joining ropes, manufactured with vegetable fibers".

The Zamostje 2 site was first discovered during the 1980s, when workers were constructing a channel through the Dubna river (Oka-Volga basin). The site features four different horizons, two representing the Mesolithic period (between 7,900 and 7,100 years ago) and two representing the Neolithic period (between 6,800 and 5,500 years ago). Explains one researcher: "These levels are found under a subsoil layer with groundwaters and a subsequent peat bog level, which has allowed an excellent preservation of the archeological materials, even those of organic origin".....

The evidence of sex, politics and beer-drinking comes from a newly translated tablet, dating back more than 3,500 years, which reveals a series of riddles.

The text is fragmentary in parts and appears to have been written by an inexperienced hand, possibly a student. The researchers aren't sure where the tablet originates, though they suspect its scribe lived in the southern part of Mesopotamia, near the Persian Gulf.

The translation, by Nathan Wasserman, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology, and Michael Streck, a professor with the Altorientalisches Institut at Universität Leipzig, is detailed in the most recent edition of the journal Iraq.

Rare riddles

The text was written in Akkadian, using cuneiform script. It was a language commonly used by the Babylonians, along with other ancient kingdoms in the Middle East.

"This is a relatively rare genre — we don't have many riddles," Wasserman told LiveScience in an interview, referring to riddles written in the Akkadian language.

Unfortunately, researchers are not certain where the tablet is presently located. In 1976, it was housed in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. At that time, a scholar named J.J. van Dijk published a copy of the Akkadian inscription, which the researchers used for their translation.

Since 1976, Iraq has been through three wars and, during the 2003 invasion, the museum was pillaged. "We tried to figure out where the tablet is now, [but] I don't know," Wasserman said. He added that the tablet is small and not very impressive-looking, something that a looter may take a pass on, "I very much hope that it is still there," Wasserman said. [10 Battles for the Control of Iraq]

Political humor

Some of the decoded riddles are crude and sexual, while others are complex and metaphorical. One of them reveals what appears to be a bit of political humor, albeit with a dark, violent twist.

He gouged out the eye:

It is not the fate of a dead man.

He cut the throat: A dead man (-Who is it?)

The answer is a governor.

"This riddle describes the power of a governor namely to act as a judge who punishes orsentences to death," write Streck and Wasserman in the journal article.

Wasserman has seen examples in other Akkadian texts of people criticizing their leaders. "We have some interesting traces of political criticism, and might say even say political anger," he said. "It could be a kind of political humor expressed in this governor riddle."

While the governor riddle reflects a sort of gallows' humor, others are much lighter.

In(?) your mouth and your teeth (or: your urine)

constantly stared at you

the measuring vessel of your lord (-What is it?)

The answer, it appears, is beer.

Crude and lewd

Politics and beer were not the only things the scribe commented on. Two of the riddles, now in a fragmentary state, are sexual, crude and difficult to understand.

One of them, whose translation is uncertain, reads:

The deflowered (girl) did not become pregnant

The undeflowered (girl) became pregnant (-What is it?)

The answer, strangely enough, appears to be "auxiliary forces," a group of soldiers that tend not to be reliable.

Wasserman said that the meaning of this riddle eludes him. "I don't understand what is really going on," he said, adding that auxiliary forces are often below-average soldiers, "and they are not really trustworthy, sometimes they run away in the middle of the battle."

Another riddle, this one even more fragmentary and whose translation is uncertain, is also very crude.

... of your mother

is by the one who has intercourse (with her) (-What/who is it?)

The researchers aren't sure of the riddle's solution since the answer has been lost.

Ancient metaphor

One of the riddles appears to rely on metaphor to get its point across.

The tower is high

it is high, but nonetheless has no shade (- What is it?)

The answer is sunlight.

"You have to think about the riddle like the 'Lord of the Rings' or 'The Hobbit'; it is metaphor," Wasserman said. Imagine you are outside and see a beam of light going from sky to Earth. [Science Fact or Fantasy? 20 Imaginary Worlds]

"It looks like a tower, but it gives no shade, of course, because it's light itself,” Wasserman said. "The answer is the proof for its own validity."

The last riddle relies on logic:

(Note the translation of the first line is uncertain)

Like a fish in a fish pond

Like troops before the king (-What is it?)

The answer is a broken bow.......

Known as the Altai region, it is located at the four corners of what is today China, Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. Says Schurr, it "is a key area because it's a place that people have been coming and going for thousands and thousands of years. Our goal in working in this area was to better define what those founding lineages or sister lineages are to Native American populations."  

The team analyzed the genetics of individuals living in Russia's Altai Republic for markers in both mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA. Mitochondrial DNA traces the maternal, or female line of descent, whereas Y chromosome DNA traces the paternal, or male, descent. They compared the samples to those that had previously been collected from individuals in southern Siberia, East Asia, Central Asia, Mongolia, and a number of different Native American groups.

After analyzing the Y chromosome DNA, the researchers found a unique mutation common to both the Native Americans and southern Altaians in a lineage dubbed as "Q".

They found similar results when analyzing the mitochondrial DNA.  "We find forms of haplogroups C and D in southern Altaians and D in northern Altaians that look like some of the founder types that arose in North America, although the northern Altaians appeared more distantly related to Native Americans" says Schurr. 

Determining how long ago the mutations took place, the researchers concluded that the southern Altaian lineage diverged genetically from the Native American lineage about 13,000 to 14,000 years ago. This correlates with current theories that support the migration of peoples into the Americas from Siberia between roughly 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.

The large and diverse nature of the database ensured a relatively high degree of confidence among the researchers about the validity and precision of the findings. Says Schurr, "at this level of resolution we can see the connections more clearly".

In addition to Schurr and Doctoral Student Matthew Dulik, the research was conducted by Sergey Zhadanov, Ayken Askapuli, Lydia Gau, Omer Gokcumen and Samara Rubinstein of Penn's Department of Anthropology.