The Secret of the Women from the Golden Horse - Novinky.cz

Tajemství ženy od Zlatého koně

Under what circumstances the skull was in 50.Years in Koněprusy Caves found?

Jaroslav Brůžek: It was a random discovery.When they blasted a rock once in a nearby quarry, a hole appeared in it, and curious quarry employees crawled into it.

People sometimes believe that the cave was once inhabited, but it is not true, because she was not even accessible.The woman had to get into her from the surface of the ground, some chimney that was then connected to the inner spaces but then closed.But if she fell there, someone put her there, or only her skeletal remains got there, we don't know.

Vědci zrekonstruovali nejstarší genom moderních lidí. Z lebky ženy z Koněpruských jeskyníVěda a školy

Petr Velemínský: Archaeological research in Konpruské caves began quite randomly in 1950 and lasted three years.In addition to fractions of this skull, parts of three ribs and five vertebrae were later found.Because the bones were scattered and it was not a classic funeral, scientists first thought they were more individuals.

Anthropologist Emanuel Vlcek then believed that the skull is older thirty thousand years, that the finding falls into the period from which we have very few remains in Europe.After the research it was published several times, but no longer paying too much attention.It was also conditioned by the fact that archaeologist František Prošek died in 1958.

When did the scientists become interested in the skull?

PV: Interest in the finding has renewed at 90.The years of the last century, thanks to the archaeologist Jiří Svoboda of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, which at that time also cooperated with Emanuel Vlček.The first radiocarbon dating took place at that time.

But the result showed that the skull is old "only" thirteen thousand years.This was, of course, unpleasant surprise, especially for Emanuel Vlček, because it was not confirmed what he hoped and what he was convinced of.

The skull is generally preserved only from less than half, this also applies to the facial part, which is essential for reconstruction.

Despite the younger dating, however, it was still the oldest finding of the remains of man in Bohemia.At the beginning of the third millennium, several publications were published for this research, which was closed by this chapter and the interest in the finding again fell a little.

What brought you to him?

PV: Before 2010, we started preparing new exhibitions at the National Museum, part of which will be devoted to the development of man.We agreed with Jaroslav Brůžek to pay attention to this finding.

And because we wanted a "live" model of a person to be created according to the skull, it was first necessary to dominate its missing part.

The skull is generally preserved only from less than half, this also applies to the facial part, which is essential for reconstruction.

Based on the average metric data of individuals from the outer paleolithic, it was dominated by the then student of Anthropology Rebeka Rouzililová.Of course, there is not much of the skeletal remains of that time, but thanks to earlier research and database can work with and based.

Subsequently, Rebeka Rouzilová also compared the preserved part of the skull morphological with findings that are younger and older than thirty thousand years.And came to the same conclusion as Emanuel Vlcek that she should be older.

On the basis of this work, we have addressed the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Jena, namely its director Johanes Krause to try to isolate DNA from the bones and to date the genetic method.

There is no workplace in the Czech Republic that could do it?

JB: There are only a few such workplaces in the world, they can be counted on the fingers of one hand.It is a very specialized research that is demanding on equipment and finance.

To get an idea with the readers: When I and I took a sample from the bone with Petr Velemínský in Jena, we were clothing in several special overalls, which must then be destroyed.

Collection must be done in a different laboratory than in the one where the sample is then analyzed.A special environment, vacuum, UV lamps and the like must also be provided there.And all this just to avoid the sample not to contaminate our current DNA, which is flying around us everywhere.

Všechny varianty viru hepatitidy B pocházejí z linie, která trápila už pralidi v AmericeVěda a školy

PV: Of course, we have worked with a number of Czech geneticists before.They have knowledge but do not have the necessary equipment, so they can only provide a partial part within the chain of all necessary research activities.But they are able to cooperate with such more equipped international workplaces - and they also do that.

In addition, the research of our skull Golden Horse cooperated with seven people, and so many experts here in the Czech Republic.I mean, of course, those who are devoted to genetic research of past populations, not contemporary genetics.

JB: But the intention to make genetic analysis was not the initial.Our original and main goal was for visitors to the National Museum to see the oldest finding of modern man in the territory of Bohemia in human form, ie the reconstructed form of the prehistoric woman.

Finally, genetic research has shown that the skull is older than Emanuel Vlček and his colleagues that he was about 45-47 thousand years old.So what was the problem with the previous, radiocarbon method?

JB: Radiocarbon method was not bad.But the skull was preserved according to the period's customs by clot from beef bones.

The principle of this method is that the bones are mined by collagen, which is then used for analysis and dating.And unfortunately, collagen from the clichery was mixed in the samples, so that the sample was significantly "rejuvenated".

Kosti byly v době nálezu ve špatném stavu, silně navlhlé, a tak byla konzervace klihem velice razantní.

This is one of the reasons why dating with the help of radioactive carbon did not give clear results, always a little different.

PV: It wouldn't happen to us today because we have synthetic material, but at that time it was used all over the world by clotting.

Those gentlemen then did it all well, even as far as possible even great.However, the bones were in poor condition at the time of the finding, strongly damp, and so the preservation made very vigorously.

They submerged them.After years, it has now turned out that they were impregnated really thoroughly, through the.

So a similar surprise could theoretically expect you in other findings?

PV: Basically yes, at that time other findings were similar, which today represents the limit for other analyzes.But science is still going ahead and in the future it may not be an obstacle.

JB: The same problems recently had Belgian colleagues with Neanderthal teeth from the Spy Cave.They also found that they interfere with the pitch of a preservative, and eventually it turned out that the teeth are much older than they thought so far.

Výzkum v Býčí skále objasnil unikátní způsob dávného pohřbíváníVěda a školy

Obviously we will have to admit that some findings that we already have in time can be much older.Not all but some yes.

Do you guess what will be re -evaluated?

JB: For example, we thought so far that Neanderthals were extinct about twenty -five thousand years ago, but thanks to the findings of Belgian colleagues it turns out that it could have been ten thousand years earlier.

So it is the first swallow so far, it has been published only after our article about the golden horse and scientists are only beginning to deal.

Does this mean that the dating of many prehistoric bone remains now begins to reconsider?

JB: Perhaps no.If there were older findings massively reviewing, it would be bad.

Each collection is invasive, damages the bones, and in our interest it is to retain future generations of scientists in the best possible condition.After all, where genetics will be in a hundred years and what will be able to find out...

Starý bílý neandertálec z německého muzea zmizí. Ztmavne, a bude zase v pořádkuVěda a školy

PV: We can expect some findings to be re -evaluated, but it won't be right now, it will go slowly.After all, only our research, including with morphological analysis and skull, lasted a total of about five years.

The golden horse is now the oldest, genetically determined remnant of modern man in Europe.Where do the others come from?

JB: Findings where genetic analysis have been done is not more than ten.And when we sort them into two groups that divide the last icy era, those dating from the period before her are terribly few.

Until this year, when we published the results of our golden horse research, it was the oldest genetically determined finding a male thigh bone from Usť-Ishim in the western part of Siberia.Then there are several findings from Romania and Bulgaria that are approximately as old as the golden horse.

What did your research results tell you?

JB: We have very little information from this time and consist of a mosaic to understand how we evolved and how individual human populations have been disappeared into today's form.

Until recently, we believed that a modern man came to Europe only once from Africa, but the genetic research of this skull proved that it has been several times, in more migration waves.The woman from the golden horse has no genetic relations to the people who live in the world today.Her line disappeared.

We also learned that the ancestors of the woman from the Golden Horse mixed with Neanderthals who, on the other hand, came from the West, from Europe.We used to believe that this mixing occurred in the front East, where both populations met during their migration, but now we know that they mixed much more often and on a much larger area.

Previously there was a opinion that people evolved gradually, but today we are sure that the development was mosaic.On Earth, several species of people who mixed each other in one territory at a certain period of time in one territory.

Za trility do Ománu. Záhadu rozplétá český archeologVěda a školy

PV: Thanks to this mixing with Neanderthals, the Skull from the Golden Horse was eventually genetically dated because it contained the sequence of Neanderthal DNA of a certain length.

What is the individual chronologically younger, more precisely more distant since the mixing of his ancestors with Neanderthals, the shorter sections in his DNA shorter.By the way, the current European has about 2-3 % of Neanderthal DNA.

JB: Interestingly, it is also interesting that findings from Bulgaria are approximately as old as the golden horse, but genetically differ and have a link with today's people from the Far East.

This means that during the forty thousand years these people moved from Bulgaria to Asia, but what happened to them during that time we don't know.Have disappeared somewhere.

So the woman from the Golden Horse came from people who lived here before this division into the European and Asian populations.

Mayové postavili mohutnou pyramidu, aby je ochránila před dalším výbuchem sopkyVěda a školy

Does he know, or at least know, science something about why the population of women died out of the golden horse?

PV: Of course there are different theories around it.One of them says that a volcano exploded somewhere around forty years BC somewhere at Naples, which could affect the climate in Europe for several decades.

This event could also contribute to the extinction of Neanderthals.But the theory also records the fact that findings from the period of 40-35 thousand years are very few, almost no.

The reconstruction of the woman from the Golden Horse was created for the National Museum by French sculptor ilisabeth dyynès.I will ask, like genetic research: Why did you not turn to the Czech creators?

PV: She will be similar to the answer.There are not many sculptors in the world who cooperate with paleoanthropologists and who intensively engage in the creation of models of our predecessors.

The preparation of new exhibitions of the National Museum was decided before 2008.When we were at the 2010 Congress in the US, we met with Élisabeth dyynès there.Belongs to one of the few who are devoted to human hyperrealistic reconstruction.

In the Czech Republic, no one was doing such models at all.Later it changed, in the Moravian Museum is created by sculptor Ondřej Bílek and anthropologist Eva Vaníčková.But they started sometime in 2016 and we have been awarded the contract long before.

We will also need nine or ten models for new exhibitions, which is quite a big work that is able to fulfill only a larger established studio.

Sochařka tedy vychází z podobných pravidel, jaká platí pro soudní medicínu.

JB: During my life, I have seen a number of different attempts to bring people in the past that they have been afraid of, how they were failed.

However, ilisabeth dyynès has its works in a number of world's best museums, so its work is already well proven.When you come to her studio, Albert Einstein sits there, whom you would like to shake your hand.

Does it also work with some software in creating a model?

JB: Reconstruction of the form according to skeletal remains began with sculptural school, its founder is Professor Gerasimov, academic sculptor and anthropologist.It's a matter of 50.the years of the last century, but still used.

Different programs have been developed with the development of computer technology, but they are mostly used on a commercial basis and are mainly used to identify court specialists.We do not use none because we do not have it.But there's no reason to get it.It is not the essence of our research.

The reconstruction of the form is a by -product of our studio and is especially important for museums that try to approach the public as much as possible.

Velkou pyramidu prý stavělo jen pár tisíc lidíHistorie

But as far as I know, Élisabeth Daynès cooperates with one forensic anthropologist from Paris and he suggested software for court medical expertise.So he has basic information from him and applies soft tissues according to a pattern known from anatomy studies.

But you know how one can turn when you lose weight or, on the contrary.You do not recognize such circumstances from the bones or from the bottom, so you have to use any average values anyway.

Vypíchnutí očí, rozčtvrcení, uvaření zaživa. Těžký život penězokazůHistorie

PV: Based on cooperation with anthropologists, the sculptor is based on similar rules that apply to judicial medicine, of course only within what is possible today.

For example, it used to belong to the hair color in the field of artistic imagination, but today genetics can tell us exactly.It was thanks to our genetic research that we found that a woman from a golden horse had dark skin, hair and eyes, was darker than the Sicilians.

Of course, the sculptor will use these new knowledge and adjust the model according to them.

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