7/03-8/03 The Birth OF War .-W><r^ Where did this mysterious face arti xonte^from? To find out, history detective Elyse' experts in archaeology, geology and America's indigenous peoples. A WALK ON THE BEACH THE INVESTIGATION BEGINS Foryears, Betsy Coiie has walked along the beach That started a chain reaction, eventually bringing near her home in the small town of Mantoloking, the artifact to the attention of the producers of the New Jersey, looking for seashells or bits of new PBS series "History Detectives." The series polished glass left behind by the waves. follows four detectives-a sociologist, a historian of Usually that's all she finds. But one afternoon, architecture, and two appraisers-as they search for not long after the nor'easter of 1992 brought history behind what may seem to be ordinary objects. near-record-size waves crashing onto beaches all Elyse Luray, a professional appraiser, took along the Jersey shore, a round stone the color of charge of the investigation, consulting with baked clay caught her eye. experts on the geology and indigenous cultures of "It looked a little unusual," Colie says. North America at each step along the way. "Definitely not your everyday stone on the beach!" John Kraft was one of the experts. As an So she slipped it into her pocket, took it home, and archaeologist who specializes in the Lenape, the placed it on her windowsill with the rest of native people of New Jersey, he knew better than her collection. anyone whether the face was a local product. "When I first saw a picture of it, it intrigued A STARTLING DISCOVERY me," says Kraft. "I thought, possibly it could be Only later did she make a startling discovery. On Lenape." But only a closer look, using more sophis- one side of the stone were two eyes, a nose and ticated techniques, would be able to identify the mouth-the makings of a face. Who had made it, artifact definitively. and how had it ended up on the Jersey shore? Petrographic analysis, for example. By examining Her first attempt to find out didn't go well. A a paper-thin section of rock or clay under a micro- friend took it to a museum in Newark, but no one scope, geologists can identify a mineral "finger- seemed interested. print" that can then be used to trace a rock back She could have given up then, and the rock would to its source. have remained an artifact without a history-just an Would petrographic analysis tie the artifact unusual piece of beach debris to decorate her window. to New Jersey, or to somewhere much further But instead she mentioned it to a local historian, away? Would Luray find that it was the product Kent Mountford, who offered to take it to experts of an ancient American civilization, or just a at the Smithsonian Institution. modern trinket? To find out the surprising answer, tune in J uly 14 at 8 PM ET/PT PBS for the debut of ''History Detectives" on PBS. o A NEW SERIES ON PBS ^A tory Detectives MONDAY JULY 14 at 8PM, PBS ' Keyword: PBS fItM.»ll !i! siorycietectives AOL > Be more 'MiiJfM£^M/em THE AMONG ALL GINS, VODKAS, RUMS AND TEQUILAS- SAN FRANCISCO WORLD SPIRITS COMPETITION 2000 & 2001 imported JULY/AUGUST 2003 VOLUME 112 NUMBER 6 FEATURES 36 THE CHOCOLATE TREE Growing cacao in the torest ROBERT A. RICE AND RUSSELL GREENBERG COVER STORY 28 THE BIRTH OF WAR An archaeological survey concludes that warfare has not always been part of the human condition. R. BRIAN FERGUSON COVER Spearhead from the Aegean island of Amorgos, Early Cycladic II, 2700-2300 B.C. STORY BEGINS ON PAGE 28 44 SUMMER FLINGS Firefly courtship, sex, and de.ith I'isil our II('/i site iii SARA LEWIS AND JAMES E. LLOYD www.nhmag.com > DEPARTMENTS I 6 THE NATURAL MOMENT TurfWar Photograph by Coiistaiiiiiios Petrinos 8 EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK 10 CONTRIBUTORS 12 LETTERS 16 SAMPLINGS is Sicplhin Rcebs 20 NATURALIST AT LARGE V Earth, Wind, and Fire Scott C. Pedersen I 26 BIOMECHANICS Extreme Forestry' Adam Summers 50 THIS LAND Valley High Roben H. Mohkiibrock 52 REVIEW The iVlismeasure of Science Michael Ruse 58 BOOKSHELF Mad Cows, Butterflies, Oxygen Laurence A. Marschall 62 nature.net Robert Anderson 64 OUT THERE Hiz\\ Hot. and Hidden Charles Liu 66 THE SKY IN JULY AND AUGUST joe Rao 68 AT THE MUSEUM 72 ENDPAPER On Hostile Ground Oliver L. Gilbert PICTURE CREDITS: Page 14 ¥low well do you really kno^vyour relatives? Explore the mysteries of our living w^orld with BBC Video. Aft- WALKING WITH CAVEHEN Available at amazon.COITI or wherever DVDs & Videos are sold ""^^^ and you're done." VIDEO :: mc and BBC Vidcft and Iheit loeoi ate IrJidcniark'. o1 rtw BrilHh Biuituilinf CupoftliM- Ml RqtbK Ruennd THE NATURAL MOMENT Turf War Photograph by Constantinos Petrinos \ 's|Psi^^, ,m' ^ J^'..:,^' THE NATURAL MOMENT EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK See preceding pages Tracks of War After the disastrous looting of archaeological artifacts in Iraq, reported by our correspondent David Keys in our June Staking out the boundaries of issue, any positive news sounds virtually miraculous. So it your spread can be a heedless was a relief to learn that many of the antiquities that had been on act: In a Gary Larson cartoon a public display in Baghdad's National Museum had been hidden man points out a chirping sparrow away by museum staff members before the war, sometimes in their to his son—einphasizing that own homes. Yet though some of the signature artifacts are safe. territorial behavior occurs only Keys stiU puts the number of stolen items in the thousands. Outside among "lower" animals—while he the Iraqi capital, where there are HteraUy thousands of ancient sites, stands amid a maze of picket fences security remains patchy, and widespread looting, driven by the black in suburbia. But the male man- market in antiquities, is continuing as we go to press. darin fish (Synchiropus splendidus) is For a broad perspective on warfare in this time of war. Natural anything but heedless about assert- History asked the anthropologist R. Brian Ferguson to describe his ing its property rights. Every ongoing survey of the evidence for conflict at prehistoric archaeo- evening for about fifteen minutes logical sites around the world (see "The Birth of War," page 28). In the largest males—a whopping a sense, his findings so far are encouraging: no unequivocal evi- two inches long—among them dence of warfare appears at any site before sometime between the two fish pictured, fight their 12,000 and 10,000 years ago—suggesting that war is by no means ongoing turf wars. an inevitable feature of the human condition. Yet if warfare is a "re- Alone by day, the psychedeli- cent" invention, its present near-universal reach makes it one of the caUy patterned mandarins graze most "successful" inventions ever made. on minute crustaceans—cope- pods—^in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, Seldom has scientific nomenclature been so aptly applied as in the hardly bothering to notice one botanical name for the genus of the cacao tree: Theobroma, another. But when the Sun begins "food of the gods" (see "The Chocolate Tree," by Robert A. Rice to set, the focus turns to sex, and and Russell Greenberg, page 36). As an unrepentant chocoholic, the large alpha males conspicu- I've accumulated enough T-shirts on chocolate themes to have a de- ously secure a two- or three- cent collection of the genre. My favorite is the "Will Rogers" ver- square-foot plot of coral rubble sion: on the front it says, "I never met a piece of chocolate I didn't for courting. Some nights, a like," and on the back it has a large hole made by the bite of what harem of females joins a successful must have been a partly literate (but very confused) dog. male that leads them one by one You won't find that shirt in the gift shop for the "Chocolate" ex- to the surface to spawn. hibition, which just opened in New York City at the American Photographer Constantinos Museum of Natural History. But you will see plenty of other offer- Petrinos found a meeting site ings—and a lot of botanical and cultural artifacts on display as well. for mandarins in the Lembeh Strait, off the northern tip of the island of Sulawesi, Indone- Readers who don't want to miss a single one of Neil deGrasse Tyson's sia. He watched the alpha males columns should not panic over this month's table of contents. Neil is seen here erect their spiky dorsal taking a much-deserved vacation this month; his column "Universe" fins—a characteristic display of wiU return in the next (September) issue oi Natural History. dominance—and was astonished —Peter Brown when the mandarin on the left sank its teeth into its rival's neck. "They swirled for a few seconds," Naiiiral Hislory (ISSN 0028-0712) is published monchly, cxccpc for combined issuw in July/Augiist and December/January, by Natural History Magazine. Inc.. at ihe American Museum of Natural Histor>v Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024. E-mail: [email protected]. Natural History Petrinos reported, "until the loser Magazine. Inc., is .lolely responsible for editorial content and publishing practices. Subscriptions: S30.00 a year; for Can.ida and all other countries: S40.00 a year. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and ,it addition.il mailing offices, Copyright ® 2003 by Natural Hiitory Magazine, Inc.