Browsing by Author "Gidna, Agness"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Charting a landmark-driven path forward for population genetics and ancient DNA research in Africa
    (Elsevier, 2024) Sawchuk, Elizabeth A.; Sirak, Kendra A.; Manthi, Fredrick K.; Ndiema, Emmanuel K.; Ogola, Christine A.; Prendergast, Mary E.; Reich, David; Aluvaala, Eva; Ayodo, George; Badji, Lamine; Bird, Nancy; Black, Wendy; Fregel, Rosa; Gachihi, Njeri; Gibbon, Victoria E.; Gidna, Agness; Goldstein, Steven T.; Hamad, Reem; Hassan, Hisham Y.; Hayes, Vanessa M.; Hellenthal, Garrett; Kebede, Solomon; Kurewa, Abdikadir; Kusimba, Chapurukha; Kyazike, Elizabeth; Lane, Paul J.; MacEachern, Scott; Massilani, Diyendo; Mbua, Emma; Morris, Alan G.; Mutinda, Christina; M’Mbogori, Freda Nkirote; Reynolds, Austin W.; Tishkoff, Sarah; Vilar, Miguel; Yimer, Getnet; Anthropology
    Population history-focused DNA and ancient DNA (aDNA) research in Africa has dramatically increased in the past decade, enabling increasingly fine-scale investigations into the continent’s past. However, while international interest in human genomics research in Africa grows, major structural barriers limit the ability of African scholars to lead and engage in such research and impede local communities from partnering with researchers and benefitting from research outcomes. Because conversations about research on African people and their past are often held outside Africa and exclude African voices, an important step for African DNA and aDNA research is moving these conversations to the continent. In May 2023 we held the DNAirobi workshop in Nairobi, Kenya and here we synthesize what emerged most prominently in our discussions. We propose an ideal vision for population history-focused DNA and aDNA research in Africa in ten years’ time and acknowledge that to realize this future, we need to chart a path connecting a series of “landmarks” that represent points of consensus in our discussions. These include effective communication across multiple audiences, reframed relationships and capacity building, and action toward structural changes that support science and beyond. We concluded there is no single path to creating an equitable and self-sustaining research ecosystem, but rather many possible routes linking these landmarks. Here we share our diverse perspectives as geneticists, anthropologists, archaeologists, museum curators, and educators to articulate challenges and opportunities for African DNA and aDNA research and share an initial map toward a more inclusive and equitable future.
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    The Dorothy Garrod Site: a new Middle Stone Age locality in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
    (Springer Nature, 2022) Maíllo-Fernández, José Manuel; Marín, Juan; Martín-Perea, David Manuel; Uribelarrea, David; Solano-Megías, Irene; Asiaín, Raquel; Baquedano, Enrique; Domínguez-Rodrigo, Manuel; Gidna, Agness; Medialdea, Alicia; Steven, Hekima Mwamakimbula; Chilonzi, Daniel Haruni; Arteaga, Carlos; Mabulla, Audax; Anthropology
    Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) is a key site for the study of human evolution as well as the origin of modern humans and the Middle Stone Age (MSA). In this study, we present a new MSA location named Dorothy Garrod Site (DGS), found in the main branch of Olduvai Gorge. The site has only one archaeological level, located stratigraphically in the Upper Ndutu. Although it has not yet been possible to radiometrically date it, it has yielded numerous archaeological remains with a functional association between the faunal remains and the lithic industry. The fauna identified includes Alcelaphini, Hippotragini, and Equidae, some of which present percussion marks and evidence of burning. The lithic industry involved knapping using discoid methods. The retouched blanks are denticulates and retouched flakes with, up to now, a total absence of points. DGS is therefore a new site that will aid our understanding of modern human occupations in northern Tanzania in a period for which there is a dearth of properly contextualised archaeological evidence.
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    Neo-taphonomic analysis of the Misiam leopard lair from Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania): understanding leopard–hyena interactions in open settings
    (The Royal Society, 2022) Domínguez-Rodrigo, Manuel; Organista, Elia; Baquedano, Enrique; Cifuentes-Alcobendas, Gabriel; Pizarro-Monzo, Marcos; Vegara-Riquelme, Marina; Gidna, Agness; Uribelarrea, David; Martín-Perea, David; Anthropology
    Misiam is a modern wildebeest-dominated accumulation situated in a steep ravine covered with dense vegetation at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania). It is interpreted here as a leopard lair to which carcasses have been transported for several years. Felid-specific bone damage patterns, felid-typical skeletal part profiles, taxonomic specialization and the physical presence of leopards observed by the authors show that leopards at Misiam can be specialized medium-sized carcass accumulators. Hyenas also intervened at intervals in the modification of the retrieved faunal assemblage. This makes Misiam a carnivore palimpsest. Here, we additionally show that leopards only transport and accumulate carcasses on occasions, that they can seem highly specialized despite being dietary generalists, and that such a behaviour may be prompted by seasonal competition or during the breeding season or both. Misiam is the first open-air leopard lair with a dense bone accumulation reported. There, leopards engaged in intensive accumulation of carcasses during the wet season, when the southern Serengeti short-grass plains undergo the effect of the famous wildebeest migration and this migratory species reaches the gorge. The ecological importance of this behaviour and its relevance as a proxy for reconstructing prehistoric carnivore behaviours are discussed.
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    Reassessing the role of carnivores in the formation of FLK North 3 (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania): A pilot taphonomic analysis using Artificial Intelligence tools
    (Elsevier, 2023) Vegara-Riquelme, Marina; Gidna, Agness; Uribelarrea del Val, David; Baquedano, Enrique; Domínguez-Rodrigo, Manuel; Anthropology
    FLK North (FLK N) (Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) is one of the best examples of a palimpsest where felids, hyenids and hominins made use of the same space without or with minimal interaction between hominins and the other two carnivores. Felids have been interpreted as the main accumulators and carcass consumers followed by frequent hyenid intervention. The presence of hominins at this site has been documented through the discovery of stone tools. Here, we test previous taphonomic interpretations of this site through the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools (computer vision applied to bidimensional images of tooth pits) to taxonomically discriminate carnivore-made tooth marks. The bones we analyzed constitute a small sample, being a preliminary study of bone surface modifications (BSM) through the application of AI to a sample of the FLK N archaeofaunal assemblage (mostly to Level 3 fossils), pending access to the larger excavated collections. The results obtained in the present study show that the marks analyzed have been generated both by hyenids and felids. The slight predominance of hyena tooth marks is expected, since the bone sample used is dominated by long limb bones, and hyenas are the most likely agent causing long bone breakage, although felids also break bones of carcasses smaller than 150 kg as documented in the site. Felid impact, in at least three cases, is documented with tooth marks imprinted by felids and hyenas occurring on the same specimens. Felid-hyenid interaction is, thus, documented though the deep learning methods applied. The limited number of specimens where both agents are documented suggest that both hyenids and felids were independently breaking a substantial part of the bones at FLK N. This preliminarily modifies previous interpretations that attributed most long bone fragmentation exclusively to hyenas.
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    A taphonomic analysis of PTK (Bed I, Olduvai Gorge) and its bearing on the interpretation of the dietary and eco-spatial behaviors of early humans
    (Elsevier, 2023) Organista, Elia; Moclán, Abel; Aramendi, Julia; Cobo-Sánchez, Lucía; Egeland, Charles P.; Uribelarrea, David; Martín-Perea, David; Vegara-Riquelme, Marina; Hernández-Vivanco, Lucía; Gidna, Agness; Mabula, Audax; Baquedano, Enrique; Domínguez-Rodrigo, Manuel; Anthropology
    Here, we present a thorough taphonomic analysis of the 1.84 million-year-old site of Phillip Tobias Korongo (PTK), Bed I, Olduvai Gorge. PTK is one of the new archaeological sites documented on the FLK Zinj paleolandscape, in which FLK 22 level was deposited and covered by Tuff IC. Therefore, PTK is pene-contemporary with these sites: FLK Zinj, DS, AMK and AGS. The occurrence of these sites within a thin clay unit of ∼20 cm, occupying not only the same vertically discrete stratigraphic unit, but also the same paleosurface, with an exceptional preservation of the archaeological record in its primary depositional locus, constitutes a unique opportunity to explore early hominin behavioral diversity at the most limited geochronological scale possible. The Olduvai Bed I sites have been the core of behavioral modelling for the past half a century, and the newly discovered sites, excavated with 21st century technology, will increase significantly our understanding of early human adaptive patterns. Here, we present PTK as another assemblage where faunal resources were acquired by hominins prior to any carnivore, and where stone-tool assisted bulk defleshing was carried out. The abundance of juvenile individuals extends our understanding, as in Kanjera (Kenya), about the hunting skills of early Homo sensu lato. The increasing number of sites, where bulk defleshing of small and medium-sized carcasses took place is underscoring the importance of meat in the diets of some of the early hominins, and their patterned use of the space for food processing and consumption. The patterning emerging has a profound importance for the evolution of some of the features that have traditionally been used to identify the behavior of the genus Homo.