Researchers have deciphered the complete DNA of five Canaanite skeletons. By comparing these five Canaanite genomes with those of other ancient and modern populations, the scientists identified the Canaanites’ ancestors and discovered their descendants were modern Lebanese people.
The results, reported July 27 in the American Journal of Human Genetics, give new insight into the origins and fate of a people whose story has largely been told through the secondhand accounts of its contemporaries.
"The Canaanites emerged in the Levant, a region east of the Mediterranean Sea, 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. This cultural group, which established extensive trade networks and colonies across the Mediterranean region, left behind few written records, perhaps because they wrote on papyrus rather than clay. So most knowledge of the Canaanites comes from ancient Egyptian, Hebrew and Greek documents."
"But, doubt surrounds some of those accounts. For one thing, Greek historians thought the Canaanites originated near the Persian Gulf, whereas archaeological records suggest they arose from farming communities that settled the Levant up to 10,000 years ago. For another, the Old Testament makes reference to the destruction of Canaanite communities, but some of their cities, such as Sidon in Lebanon, appear to have been continually inhabited through the present day."
"Researchers reconstructed the genomes of the 3,700-year-old remains of five Canaanites unearthed in Sidon. Comparisons of these genomes with those of other ancient Eurasian peoples indicate that Canaanite ancestry was split roughly 50-50 between the early farmers who settled the Levant and immigrants of Iranian descent who arrived later, between 6,600 and 3,550 years ago."
“You’d need a lot of migration for roughly half of the population to be replaced by the incoming Iranian-related populations,” says Iosif Lazaridis, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the study. “This must have been some important event in the history of the Near East.” One possibility is the spread of the Akkadian Empire, which controlled a region spanning from the Levant to Iran between 4,400 and 4,200 years ago. That connection may have presented the opportunity for interbreeding between these far-flung populations."
"The researchers also determined that modern Lebanese people can attribute about 93 percent of their ancestry to the Canaanites. The other 7 percent comes from Eurasians who probably arrived in the Levant 3,700 to 2,200 years ago. Study coauthor Chris Tyler-Smith, was surprised by how much Canaanite heritage dominated modern Lebanese DNA. He says he expected to see a more mixed gene pool because so many populations have crossed through the Levant in the last few thousand years."
"This study alone may not paint the complete picture of the Canaanite lineage, says Aaron Burke, an archaeologist at UCLA, because the researchers examined the genomes of only five Canaanites."
"However, the study’s Canaanite genetic data do provide “a snapshot of history in the area,” Lazaridis said. Identifying which populations crop up in the Canaanite lineage — and when — can help trace the historical movements of people throughout the Near East. With DNA analyses of enough ancient people, Lazaridis says, “I think it will be possible to reconstruct the whole timeline of what happened in Lebanon and other parts of the world.”
No lamentations; looking forward to more data!
Steph
The more regularly people report doing word puzzles such as crosswords, the better their brain function in later life, a large-scale and robust online trial, published today, has found.

Researchers at the University of Exeter Medical School and Kings College, London, analyzed data from more than 17,000 healthy people aged 50 and over, submitted in an online trial. In research presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2017, the team asked participants how frequently they played word puzzles such as crosswords.
"The study, one of the largest of its kind, used tests from the CogTrackTM and PROTECT online cognitive test systems to assess core aspects of brain function. They found that the more regularly participants engaged with word puzzles, the better they performed on tasks assessing attention, reasoning and memory."
"From their results, researchers calculate that people who engage in word puzzles have brain function equivalent to ten years younger than their age, on tests of grammatical reasoning speed and short term memory accuracy."
Keith Wesnes, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "We found direct relationships between the frequency of word puzzle use and the speed and accuracy of performance on nine cognitive tasks assessing a range of aspects of function including attention, reasoning and memory. Performance was consistently better in those who reported engaging in puzzles, and generally improved incrementally with the frequency of puzzle use. For example, on test measures of grammatical reasoning speed and short-term memory accuracy, performing word puzzles was associated with an age-related reduction of around 10 years. We now need to follow up this very exciting association in a clinical trial, to establish whether engaging in puzzles results in improvement in brain function."

"The study used participants in the PROTECT online platform, run by the University of Exeter and Kings College London. Currently, more than 22,000 healthy people aged between 50 and 96 are registered in the study, which is planning further expansion. The online platform enables researchers to conduct and manage large-scale studies without the need for laboratory visits. PROTECT is a 10 year study with participants being followed up annually to enable a better understanding of cognitive trajectories in this age range.
Clive Ballard, Professor of Age-Related Diseases at the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "We know that many of the factors involved in dementia are preventable. It is essential that we find out what lifestyle factors really make a difference to helping people maintain healthy brains to stop the soaring rise of the disease. We can't yet say that crosswords give you a sharper brain -- the next step is to assess whether encouraging people to start playing word games regularly could actually improve their brain function."
"This new research does reveal a link between word puzzles, like crosswords, and memory and thinking skills, but we can't say definitively that regular 'puzzling' improves these skills. To be able to say for sure, the crucial next step is to test if there are benefits in people who take up word puzzles."
Looks like Will Shortz took up a good profession. No puzzle there.
What do you think, cruciverbalists all?
{I see a few holes in the study, but every good crossword puzzle needs a few holes/black squares, eh?}
Steph
Ancient Roman concrete is still standing strong after thousands of years and, not only does it resist damage, but the salt water actually makes it stronger. X-ray examinations may have found the key to the concrete's amazing longevity, which could help improve modern concrete recipes. Dissolving phillipsite in pumice, as seen in this Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) image, is believed to be part of the secret:
Note that modern sea walls last only a few years in salt water where these Roman sea walls have lasted thousands of years.
Although the complete recipe has been lost over the years, studies of samples have shown that volcanic ash, lime, and seawater are the main ingredients. "But, according to an article published in American Mineralogist the real magic seems to happen when those ingredients interact with the environment – specifically the saltwater incessantly pounding on the surface."
Al-tobermorite is part of the cementing matrix, key to its strength. Modern "Portland cement" relies more heavily on heating the elements, exacting an environmental toll.
Huzzah for the ancient Romans. . .and for seawater! Has this idea been cemented in your brain?
Steph
Pink Martini and Rufus Wainwright at Red Rocks, July 6, 2017:
