Oxford Brookes find pre-historic “big society”

University Stories

Oxford Brookes University archaeologist Dr Sam Smith has made an important discovery in Jordon that suggest that some of the earliest buildings created by man might not have been simple dwellings, but community centres.

The findings suggest that 12,000 years ago our ancestors began to give up their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles and engaged in communal activities.  Previously, experts thought that people lived together in smaller family groups.

At 22 meters by 19 the building is very large for the Neolithic period.   The building also has an exceptionally large central area with a long meter-deep bench decorated by waves marked into the mud walls.   There is also a second tier of seating in some parts of the building which would have been ideal for social gatherings.  

‘The sheer scale of the site was truly amazing and the smooth and decorated mud plaster of the bench was very beautiful and well preserved. It highlights the importance of social processes and shows that corporate endeavour, even ideas like the ‘big society’ were issues which our ancestors were wrestling with 12,000 years ago,’ Dr Sam Smith of Oxford Brookes University and Co-author of the research paper, said.

The central area also contains a series of stone mortars set into plaster platforms on the floor, which may have been used to grind wild plants. Two other, smaller structures in nearby buildings are thought to have been storehouses for cereals and other food resources.

Many unusually decorated objects and carvings were found at the site, including human heads and wild animals.  The team also discovered that these people cultivated wild plants such as wild barley, pistachio, and fig trees, whilst hunting or herding wild goats, cattle, and gazelle.

‘What we learned through these excavations is that this stage of human development is far more complex than we had thought,” Dr. Smith said.

The findings were outlined by Dr Smith this week at the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that 12,000 years ago Neolithic man may have displayed more community spirit than archeologists had previously thought.

Killer worms threatened by Muc5ac

University Stories

University of Manchester scientists have discovered why some people are naturally protected against parasitic worms living in the guts of a billion people worldwide.  

Whipworm

Parasitic worms, like the hookworm, and the spiral threadworm, are a major threat to humans worldwide, but they also affect other animals, including our pets and livestock.   

“These parasitic worms live in the gut, which is protected by a thick layer of mucus.  The mucus barrier is not just slime, but a complex mixture of salts, water and large ‘sugar-coated’ proteins called mucins that give mucus its gel–like properties,” says Dr David Thornton, from the University’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Matrix Research.

Experimenting on mice with worms (whipworm Trichuris muris),  that are similar to those living off humans ( Trichuris trichiura), scientists made the breakthrough by discovering that mice without Muc5ac in the mucus in their intestines couldn’t get rid of the worms.  

 “We previously found that mice that were able to expel this whipworm from the gut made more mucus. Importantly, the mucus from these mice contained the mucin, Muc5ac. This mucin is rarely present in the gut, but when it is, it alters the physical properties of the mucus gel,” Dr. Thornton said.

Professor Richard Grencis, from the Faculty of Life Sciences, and Co-leading the project, said:  “For this new research, we asked how important Muc5ac is during worm infection by using mice lacking the gene for Muc5ac. We found that mice genetically incapable of producing Muc5ac were unable to expel the worms.”   

The infected mice, despite having a strong immune response against the worms suffered long-term infections.   The importance of Muc5ac found in the guts of mice able to reject worms of is that “it is ‘toxic’ for the worms and damages their health,” Professor Grencis said. 

The University of Manchester discovery of Muc5ac's  importantance in the expelling of parasitic worms, was reiterated by Dr Sumaira Hasnain, the lead experimentalist on the project who said:  “For the first time, we have discovered that a single component of the mucus barrier, the Muc5ac mucin, is essential for worm expulsion. Our research may help to identify who is and who isn’t susceptible to parasitic worms and it may eventually lead to new treatments for people with chronic worm infections.”

The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine and featured in Nature’s ‘research highlights’