Several prehistoric sites in Greece reveal that our human ancestors hunted hippos and elephants between 280,000 and 700,000 years ago. The oldest site pushes back the earliest known hominin presence in the region by up to 250,000 years.
It’s not clear which ancient hominin (a term that includes humans and our ancestors) used the site, but researchers suspect it was archaic Homo sapiens.
Sitting about 124 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of Athens, the Megalopolis Basin in Arcadia hosts one of the largest lignite mines in Greece. Although archaeologists have known for decades that the site harbored ancient fossils, little targeted excavation had been carried out. Recently, though, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens launched a five-year excavation to better understand the context of the Megalopolis sites.
Mining activity revealed five new sites in the basin, which “exposed the fossil-bearing sediments to a much greater depth, thus revealing older remains,” Katerina Harvati, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany and co-project lead, told Live Science in an email.
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The most recent site, Choremi 7, dating to around 280,000 years ago, yielded stone tools as well as deer bones with evidence of cut marks. Tripotamos 4, at 400,000 years old, had a large concentration of stone tools and evidence of new methods of stone working compared to older sites. These sites are important for understanding the technological development of the Lower Paleolithic period (3.3 million to 300,000 years ago), according to a statement from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sport.
At a site called Marathousa 2 dating to 450,000 years ago, the researchers discovered evidence that ancient human relatives were killing and presumably eating hippopotamuses, as part of a hippo skeleton had stone tool cut marks on it. A nearby site, Marathousa 1, shows evidence of elephant butchering.
An ancient deer skull, as found at Kyparissia site 4. (Image credit: Copyright YPPOA (Greek Culture Ministry))
“The cut marked hippopotamus bones from Marathousa 2, which were also found together with a lithic artifact, are the only such findings from the Middle Pleistocene of southeast Europe,” Harvati said. The team found that megafaunal exploitation was likely common during this time period.
A surface survey showing the artificial levels of the Megalopolis lignite mine in Greece. (Image credit: Copyright YPPOA (Greek Culture Ministry))
About 230 feet (70 meters) below the surface, the team discovered the site of Kyparissia 4. Dating to 700,000 years ago, it is the oldest archaeological site from the Lower Palaeolithic era in Greece. The researchers found numerous stone tools as well as remains of extinct species of giant deer, hippo, rhino, elephant and macaque. When glaciers covered much of Europe during a major ice age between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago, this region would have been ice-free.
The sites Kyparissia 3 and 4 in the stratigraphic sequence of the lignites. (Image credit: Copyright YPPOA (Greek Culture Ministry))
“Our research reconstructing the paleoenvironment of the basin has indicated that it would have functioned as a refugium during Ice Age conditions,” Harvati said, “allowing animal and plant populations — but also hominin groups — to survive during harsh glacial times when they would have disappeared from more northern parts of the European continent.”RELATED STORIES—150-year-old mystery of strange half-circles from Paleolithic site in France finally solved
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The “outstanding and highly unusual preservation conditions” in the Megalopolis basin mean that the team is recovering not only stone tools and fossils but also remains of small animals, wood, plant remains and even insects, according to Harvati. The basin has provided evidence that spans almost the entire middle Pleistocene, an important discovery considering southeastern Europe is relatively unexplored for this time period.
“The Megalopolis basin therefore provides a crucial piece of the puzzle of human evolution in Europe,” Harvati said.
CHICAGO — There is no stopping Cal Raleigh at the moment.
Raleigh has a major-league-leading 31 homers after he helped the Seattle Mariners take two of three against the Chicago Cubs over the weekend. The switch-hitter went deep four times and drove in six runs in the series.
“Just trying to have good at-bats, really,” Raleigh said. “Trying to stay consistent. Really just trying to home in on my approach and not worry too much about what the pitcher is trying to do to me.”
Raleigh had two hits, walked twice and scored three runs in Seattle’s 14-6 victory Sunday. He is batting .327 (37-for-113) with 16 homers and 34 RBIs in his past 29 games.
Raleigh was the designated hitter for the series finale after being behind the plate Saturday. He hammered the first pitch of his at-bat against Colin Rea — a 93.8 mph fastball — for a two-run shot in the top of the first on a hot afternoon at Wrigley Field. The massive drive to center had an exit velocity of 105 mph.
The DH walked in the third and singled and scored in the fifth. After popping out softly for the final out of the sixth, he walked again in the eighth and scored on Randy Arozarena‘s two-run double.
“Thirty-one home runs, he just continues to march through history here,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “It’s fun to watch. … He’s a smart player, so later in the game, not getting too anxious, not trying to out of the zone, not trying to get away from his identity as a hitter and who he is. Just staying right where he needs to stay.”
The 28-year-old Raleigh, who agreed to a $105 million, six-year contract with Seattle in March, is the first switch-hitter to mash at least 30 homers before the All-Star break. He needs four more homers to match Ken Griffey Jr. for the most before the break in Mariners history.
“I think a lot of people don’t watch to pitch to him, and then if you do and fall behind, he hits a lot of homers, obviously,” Seattle pitcher Logan Gilbert said. “He can beat you in a lot of different ways, and it seems like he’s doing it every game, too.”
“I was so sweaty. My socks were wet. Everything had just slipped straight out,” he said.
Chisholm doubled twice, including a go-ahead, two-run drive off the right-center-field wall in the eighth inning, then slid into catcher Gary Sánchez for the final run as New York put the shoe on the other foot, so to speak. The AL East-leading Yankees won their second straight after losing seven of eight in a game that will be remembered for Chisholm’s size 10½ Jordan 1 spikes.
Shoeless Joe supposedly was given his nickname on June 6, 1908, playing semipro ball for the independent Greenville Spinners against the Anderson Electricians. New cleats had caused blisters, and he took them off and hit a long home run in the seventh inning.
Jackson won a World Series title with the Chicago White Sox in 1917, then was among eight players on the so-called “Black Sox” who were banned for life after they were accused of intentionally losing the 1919 Series to Cincinnati in exchange for money from gamblers. He finished with a .356 average in 13 major league seasons.
Asked whether he should be called Shoeless Jazz, Chisholm responded: “Wow. Is that how Shoeless Joe got his name? He ran out of his shoe?” When told Jackson earned the nickname in the 1910s, Chisholm quipped: “Oh, so he wasn’t wearing shoes.”
“I saw a lot of firsts,” Yankees captain Aaron Judge said. “11:30 game to a guy losing both his shoes. I’ve seen one cleat kind of running but not both like that. That was awesome.”
Chisholm is hitting .350 (21-for-60) with 11 RBIs since returning from a strained right oblique that caused him to miss 28 games. He raised his average to .242.
“That’s what I live for. That’s how I grew up playing baseball in high school, little league,” he said. “I don’t feel like it’s no need to change.”
New York trailed 2-0 when Chisholm hit a two-out double off Dean Kremer and headed for home on DJ LeMahieu‘s single to left.
“They say he’s the best shoe tier. I didn’t understand it until he actually did. It took me like a minute to take off my shoes just now.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr. on asking rookie Jasson Domínguez to tie his laces after putting on fresh socks and his spikes
Chisholm’s left shoe popped off between third and home. Seeing rookie catcher Maverick Handley move to his left for Colton Cowser‘s throw up the third-base line, Chisholm tried to veer to avoid contact. He caught the catcher with his right arm as Cowser was spun to the ground and the ball popped out of his mitt. Chisholm fell past the plate as the right shoe was jarred off and from his knees slapped a hand across the plate.
“He had dirt all over his face when I walked out there to get him. Looked like glitter on his face,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We were all kind of screaming.”
After he reached the dugout, Chisholm stretched out with his stockinged feet on the bench. He put on a fresh pair of socks and then his spikes, and Chisholm asked rookie Jasson Domínguez to tie the laces.
“They say he’s the best shoe tier,” Chisholm recalled in the postgame clubhouse. “I didn’t understand it until he actually did. It took me like a minute to take off my shoes just now.”
Baltimore led 2-1 in the eighth when Ben Rice singled leading off against Bryan Baker for his third hit. Giancarlo Stanton singled to put runners at the corners, and Paul Goldschmidt pinch ran for his fellow former MVP — the first pinch-running appearance of Goldschmidt’s big league career, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Baker fell behind 3-0 in the count and left a belt-high fastball over the plate. Chisholm drove it 384 feet off the middle of the wall.
“I wasn’t going to swing if it wasn’t a fastball,” he said.
Goldschmidt, 37, slid in just ahead of Sánchez’s tag. Chisholm was a minor leaguer in Arizona’s system when Goldschmidt starred for the Diamondbacks.
“He was the guy that everybody really watched doing baserunning,” Chisholm said. “Even when I got to Miami, he was still the blueprint of how to run the bases.”
Goldschmidt took pride in his baserunning.
“It’s something that wasn’t secondary behind hitting and defense,” he said.
Chisholm took third on the throw and LeMahieu followed with a chopper to shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who threw home. Chisholm slid headfirst and was at first called out by umpire Jansen Visconti, who didn’t realize Sánchez dropped the ball as he applied the tag.
His first run, however, was the one that will live on in replays for the flying footwear.
“Go out there. Keep playing like that,” Stanton had told him. “You don’t need them.”
Alvarez, however, has struggled at the plate this season, hitting .236 with three home runs and 11 RBIs in 35 games. He has an OPS of .652 with 38 strikeouts.
Alvarez, 23, was baseball’s No. 1 prospect in 2022 and hit 25 home runs as a rookie in 2023. In parts of four seasons with the Mets since debuting in 2022, Alvarez is a .223 hitter with 40 homers and 122 RBIs in 263 games.
Senger, 28, made his major league debut this season with the Mets, appearing in 13 games and hitting .179 in 28 at-bats.
The Mets (46-31) enter Sunday night’s game against the Phillies (46-31) tied for first place in the National League East standings.