New Scientist - USA (2021-07-17)

(Antfer) #1

10 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021


Ecology Archaeology

Adam Vaughan James Urquhart

NEARLY a third of the world’s
oceans and land should be
protected by 2030 to stem
extinctions and ensure humanity
lives in harmony with nature. That is
the suggestion in a proposed United
Nations plan for 195 countries to
tackle the destruction of nature.
The measure is one of 21 targets
in the first draft of the Global
Biodiversity Framework. Others
include reforming planning systems
to protect species, ending farming
subsidies that are driving wildlife
losses, and boosting conservation
funding by at least $200 billion a
year. Overall funding today is about
$100 billion a year.
“Despite ongoing efforts,
biodiversity is deteriorating
worldwide and this decline is
projected to continue or worsen
under business-as-usual scenarios,”
says the draft, which negotiators
will need to finalise in time for a
major UN biodiversity summit in
China in October.
The plan, roughly the nature
equivalent of the Paris Agreement
on climate change, ultimately aims
to halt or reverse extinction rates.
Its new global biodiversity targets
are the first that governments will
set for beyond 2020. However, none
of the world’s previous biodiversity
goals were met by a 2020 deadline.
One of the key new targets is to
protect 30 per cent of the world’s
land and oceans by 2030, for
example as national parks, up
from 16.64 per cent of land and
7.74 per cent of oceans today.
Neville Ash at the UN
Environment Programme says the
draft is “fairly comprehensive” on
its ultimate aims, but he says many
of the 21 targets will need to be
met much earlier than 2030.
The initial proposals will almost
certainly change between now and
October. Line-by-line negotiations
by government officials are due to
begin on 23 August. ❚

Earth needs more
nature reserves to
avert extinctions

SOME late Stone Age Europeans
may have carried make-up inside
miniature bottles that they wore
around their necks or waists
more than 6000 years ago.
Researchers have found traces
of ingredients known to be used
in cosmetic formulations by
later civilisations inside small
bottles unearthed in Slovenia,
dating to between 4350 and
4100 BC.
The discovery suggests that
lead-based cosmetics were
possibly used in Europe more
than 2000 years earlier than
previously thought, and more
than 1000 years before the
earliest evidence of their use
from ancient Egyptian and
Mesopotamian cultures.
In 2014, Bine Kramberger at
the Institute for the Protection
of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia
found a miniature ceramic
bottle at an ancient site once
occupied by people of the
Lasinja culture in around
4350 BC. More than 100
similar bottles have been
found across 30 sites in central
and south-eastern Europe.
Their purpose was unknown,
but it is thought that some
might have been children’s
toys due to their shapes,
resembling animal or
human heads.
Curiously, most of them
have holes in their tiny handles
or rims that archaeologists
think people threaded string
through, enabling them to be
worn around the neck or waist.
But Kramberger’s find was
different because it contained
a solid white substance. “It
was clear that it hid valuable
information because in such

old archaeological sites, we
rarely find vessels that still
retain remnants of their
former content,” he says.
Long and thin stone tools
were found near the bottle,
which could have been used
to extract the substance within.
“Miniature vessels were, for
far too long, considered to be
children-related, and there is no
denial that some probably have
been,” says Bisserka Gaydarska
at Durham University in the

UK. “But I know that there was
a much more diverse use of
small vessels, and medicinal
and cosmetic containers is as
good as any.”
Now, Kramberger and his
colleagues have analysed the
substance in the bottle he found
and examined 13 others from
the same period.
The mystery material
contained a white lead mineral
called cerussite, while different
lead minerals were identified
in two other bottles (Journal of
Archaeological Science: Reports,
doi.org/gmzv). The findings
match the dates of the earliest

known use of lead in the region
around 6400 years ago.
The three lead-containing
bottles also had fatty molecules
called lipids that came from
beeswax inside. A possible
plant oil was also detected in
one of them, while another
had traces of an animal fat.
The bottles’ contents
could have been pigments for
painting, says Kramberger. But
he says it is more likely that they
were cosmetics, possibly for
medicinal purposes, because
they contained common
ingredients for such products
known from later cultures.
Around 3100 BC,
Mesopotamians ground
lead-containing minerals,
including galena and cerussite,
into powders to use as grey
or white pigments in early
cosmetics. Ancient Egyptians
also used these and copper ores
for their distinctive green and
black eye make-up, which they
used for religious purposes.
But their make-up may have
protected their eyes from the
sun and prevented illnesses, too.
Ancient Egyptian physicians
also prescribed lead-containing
treatments for eye conditions.
Cerussite powder was popular
among the ancient Greeks and
Romans for skin whitening and
remedies, despite its known
toxicity. European societies
used it until the 19th century
to achieve a pale complexion
associated with wealth, youth
and beauty, aware that there was
a risk of poisoning, skin damage,
hair loss and rotten teeth.
Gaydarska says the new study
supports what archaeologists
have long thought – “that
the abilities and cultures of
Neolithic people were far more
sophisticated than they are
often given credit for”.  ❚

Europeans may have worn


make-up in the Stone Age


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News


An ancient pot found
in Slovenia that may
have held make-up

30
Number of sites in Europe where a
type of small bottle has been found
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