Pileta de Prehistoria

13-03-08

La Diputación abrirá mañana la cueva virtual de Santimamiñe - R - F
Foto: équido pintado en negro.

Indian DNA links to 6 'founding mothers' - R

Cave paintings lie in neglect - R

Ver Fotos: 2008/marzo

La Diputación abrirá mañana la cueva virtual de Santimamiñe

IÑAKI LUZARRAGA

La Diputación pondrá en marcha este fin de semana el programa de visitas virtuales en Santimamiñe, que en un principio estaba previsto para el pasado mes de enero. La inauguración oficial, sin embargo, tendrá lugar mañana a partir de las 11.00 horas. El proyecto, que cuenta con un presupuesto de 210.00 euros, está encaminado a difundir los valores artísticos y geológicos del lugar sin dañar el patrimonio del yacimiento.

Los visitantes sólo podrán acceder al vestíbulo de la cavidad, que permanece cerrada al público desde noviembre de 2006, para observar las excavaciones que se desarrollan, desde una plataforma giratoria. A continuación, se dirigirán a la ermita adyacente, cedida por el Obispado, que se utilizará como centro de interpretación. En este lugar se ha habilitado una pantalla estereoscópica para visualizar las imágenes.

Las entradas

La incursión virtual incluirá «un paseo desde la escalinata de acceso a la cueva hasta alcanzar la sala de pinturas y grabados magdalenienses», explicaron fuentes del Departamento de Cultura. El Ejecutivo foral aprobó a principios de año el precio de las entradas, que en el caso de los adultos será de cinco euros.

Los grupos formados por un mínimo de diez personas y un máximo de veinte deberán abonar tres euros por cada uno de sus miembros. Los pases para jóvenes de hasta 26 años, jubilados mayores de 65 años y colectivos de escolares costarán dos euros. Los menores de seis años entrarán gratis.

«Estamos estudiando la posibilidad de realizar, además, una jornada de puertas abiertas para los vecinos de la zona», señalaron fuentes de la Diputación. Desde su descubrimiento en 1916, el yacimiento arqueológico de Santimamiñe soportó la visita de un millón de personas, aproximadamente. El acto de inauguración de mañana contará con la presencia,entre otros, del diputado general de Vizcaya, José Luis Bilbao, y la diputada de Cultura, Josune Ariztondo.

Indian DNA links to 6 'founding mothers'

By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer

NEW YORK - Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests.

Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said.

The finding does not mean that only these six women gave rise to the migrants who crossed into North America from Asia in the initial populating of the continent, said study co-author Ugo Perego.

The women lived between 18,000 and 21,000 years ago, though not necessarily at exactly the same time, he said.

The work was published this week by the journal PLoS One. Perego is from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City and the University of Pavia in Italy.

The work confirms previous indications of the six maternal lineages, he said. But an expert unconnected with the study said the findings left some questions unanswered.

Perego and his colleagues traced the history of a particular kind of DNA that represents just a tiny fraction of the human genetic material, and reflects only a piece of a person's ancestry.

This DNA is found in the mitochondria, the power plants of cells. Unlike the DNA found in the nucleus, mitochondrial DNA is passed along only by the mother. So it follows a lineage that connects a person to his or her mother, then the mother's mother, and so on.

The researchers created a "family tree" that traces the different mitochondrial DNA lineages found in today's Native Americans. By noting mutations in each branch and applying a formula for how often such mutations arise, they calculated how old each branch was. That indicated when each branch arose in a single woman.

The six "founding mothers" apparently did not live in Asia because the DNA signatures they left behind aren't found there, Perego said. They probably lived in Beringia, the now-submerged land bridge that stetched to North America, he said.

Connie Mulligan of the University of Florida, an anthropolgist who studies the colonization of the Americas but didn't participate in the new work, said it's not surprising to trace the mitochondrial DNA to six women. "It's an OK number to start with right now," but further work may change it slightly, she said.

That finding doesn't answer the bigger questions of where those women lived, or of how many people left Beringia to colonize the Americas, she said Thursday.

The estimate for when the women lived is open to question because it's not clear whether the researchers properly accounted for differing mutation rates in mitochondrial DNA, she said. Further work could change the estimate, "possibly dramatically," she said.
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On the Net:
www.plosone.org
(This version CORRECTS explanation of mitochondrial DNA))

Cave paintings lie in neglect

Isco (Hazaribagh), March 12: Around 46km from here is the village of Barkagaon, where lies the Isco cave known for rock paintings over a thousand years old.

Jesuit Father Tony Hperbert, an associate with a local NGO, discovered the rock paintings in 1991.

Environmentalist Bullu Imam visited the area after he learnt about it from Herbert. He, in turn, informed the Bihar Archaeology Department that confirmed the antiquity of the paintings.

Megalithic explorer Subhasis Das, who is working in and around the district to ensure the safety of the ancient structure, said it was a matter of concern that, so far, no effort was made to preserve the rock paintings.

“I visit the site regularly to study the place and in the past two years, the rate of chipping has increased,” he said.

According to sources, Erwin Neumayer of Vienna and S.B. Otta, the head of pre-historical department of the Archaeological Survey of India, Nagpur, studied the cave paintings between 1993 and 1995.

Both the authorities dated the rock art to the Meso-chalcolithic period (9,000-5,000 BC).

Sources said several microlithis and polished stone axe-heads were found under painted shelters with evidence of Palaeolithic habitation.

While narrating a popular story, a villager Harimangal Munda, said: “Near the caves there is a small river called Marwatari. Here there is a wedding mandap called marwa. A king got married in the marwa (cave) and thus arose the name Marwatari.”

Das said: “It is shameful that officials have failed to take care of ancient rock art despite being aware of it.”