Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew with a heads-up on the latest batch of top news stories that came out this past week on Archaeologica.  Send us feedback on The Archaeology Channel Facebook page or post a message on our social networking site, ArchaeoSeek!

Archaeologists in western Norway have come upon the surprising traces of an ancient wooden Viking temple.  A pair of unique clay figurines have turned up in a 5000-year-old grave in western Siberia.  Italian researchers have identified intact human brain and nerve cells preserved by the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  And a remote island in the Bering Sea stands out as inhospitable to human colonization.

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And now, here’s Laura Pettigrew with the Audio News from Archaeologica.  We hope you find this to be a valuable part of your day.

Welcome to the Audio News from Archaeologica!  I’m Laura Pettigrew and these are the headlines in archaeological and historical news from Audio News from October 4th to the 10th, 2020.

Archaeologists in Norway have discovered the remains of an elaborate wooden structure used for ritual ceremonies and sacrificial offerings around 1,200 years ago.  The structure, used by a cult of ancient Norse people, has similar layout and dimensions as structures found in Sweden and Denmark, but is the first evidence of its kind in Norway. 

While none of the original beams and walls of the structure remain intact, the post holes allow the research team, led by Søren Diinhoff of the University Museum in Bergen, to recreate the impressive and distinctive structure as it once stood. 

The site, located in the western seaside village of Ørsta, revealed a concentration of cooking pits, likely used for the preparation of large ceremonial feasts.  Scientists believe that some of the bones found here show evidence of animal sacrifice.

The area also reveals much older agricultural activity, dating as far back as 2,500 years ago, seen in two traditional longhouses that would have held a family and their livestock. 

The newer and more complex structure, called a “god house,” is believed to be from the 6th century, when Viking culture stratified along economic and familial lines. 

The foundation imprint of the temple measures approximately 14 meters long by 8 meters wide, and researchers estimate may have reached 12 meters high at its central tower. 

Part of the find’s uniqueness, first reported by LiveScience, is in the design style.  It is thought to be based after early Christian basilicas Vikings would have seen in their travels through southern Europe.  This specific technique is found only in sacred structures throughout Scandinavia. 

Researchers believe that ancient Norse people would have made sacrifices to figurines of deities carved out of wood and housed inside these structures.

These structures would have held ceremonies for important dates on the Norse religious calendar, such as the midwinter and midsummer solstices, and would have replaced the primarily outdoor spaces used before. 

Around the 11th century, old Norse religious practices and other pagan belief systems were suppressed as Norwegian kings forced Christianity upon the Vikings.  In some cases, traditional ceremonial sites were burned down or destroyed to promote worship at Christian churches. 

Researchers noted that no evidence suggests that this structure suffered that fate, but hope further study will allow them to fully understand this “god house” at Ørsta, its use, and its fate. 

In Siberia, 5,000 year old figurines made of clay, along with a bone mask, were found interred with ancient human remains in an ongoing excavation site in western Siberia.  Unlike other findings in the area, these carvings are not identifiably male or female. 

The research is being conducted by the Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in the Novosibirsk region of western Siberia where several other Bronze Age artifacts have been discovered across multiple work sites.

Items dated between 4,000-5,000 years ago have been found throughout the region over the last several decades, including a clay rattle in the shape of an animal and other artistic images represented by carvings in stone and bone.

The Siberian Times is reporting that the figurines recently discovered are a previously unseen part of the complex burial rituals practiced by ancient Odino people.  

In what is described as a typical Odinov burial, a woman was laid to rest directly on top of a man, facing downward so that the bodies would be face-to-face.  Both bodies were wrapped together within a birch bark cocoon that was set on fire prior to burial.  These two sets of remains were found directly atop another set, a facet of tiered burials common to the region. 

One of the clay figurines was found with its head broken off and turned backwards and then placed on the woman’s shoulder. Such ritual placement had not been noted previously, and researchers inferred that the couple, or perhaps just the woman, must have had significant cultural impact to include such unique figures.

This figurine would have fit in the palm of an adult’s hand and is roughly 15 centimeters long with a groove running down one side.  The image of a face is etched onto the detached head, with wide eyes, a nose and mouth, as well as a stripe researchers believe represents a facial tattoo.

The bone mask placed over the statuette’s head was carved from a horse’s vertebra and depicts what archaeologists believe is a bear’s muzzle. 

The second figurine features a depression through the torso of the body, which contained traces of bronze plate and an unidentified organic material. 

Researchers hope further investigation into the burial and its artifacts will help them better understand how these unique figurines fit into the larger Odinov culture. 

A team of researchers in Italy studying the AD 79 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius has made a remarkable discovery: intact brain cells within the skull of one of the many victims. 

As reported in PLOS One, the interdisciplinary team was revisiting artifacts and human remains found during the 1960s excavation at Herculaneum, near present day Naples in southern Italy.

Unlike Pompeii, where victims of the eruption had almost no time to react, the inhabitants of Herculaneum would have felt an earthquake and seen plumes of ash and lava before they beared down on the city. 

Here, the remains of many residents were found in boathouses, trapped while trying to flee by ship before succumbing to a toxic cloud of heat and gas.

In 2018, Pier Paolo Petrone, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Naples Federico the Second, was working near some of these skeletal remains from Herculaneum when he noticed glassy residue within a skull cavity.  

Further investigation revealed that this shiny appearance was a result of vitrification of brain tissues upon exposure to extremely high temperatures followed by rapid cooling.

The victim, believed to be approximately 25 years of age, was originally found lying face down on a charred wooden bed frame within the College of the Augustales.  The bed frame itself provided evidence that the temperature exceeded 500 degrees Celsius, which would have vaporized soft tissue and literally turned the proteins of his brain into glass.

Researchers used an electron microscope to identify individual brain cells, which were perfectly preserved as a result of the process.  The team also obtained intact nerve cells from the spinal cord.

Additional analysis revealed the presence of several proteins found in brain tissue, along with fatty acids found in sebum and hair.  None of these substances had previously been identified in materials surrounding the site, opening the possibilities for new areas of research.

The team noted that such pristine examples of the vitrification of human tissue are virtually unheard of and allow for detailed study to unlock clues about conditions immediately following the eruption.

The team, with members from Naples, Milan and Rome, includes archaeologists, vulcanologists, biologists, mathematicians, and neurogenetics.  Together, they hope to better understand temperature and cooling rates after the eruption, which could help predict the effects of future Vesuvius eruptions on the 3 million inhabitants of the Naples area. 

St. Matthew Island is situated in a part of the Bering Sea characterized by constant winds and fierce winter storms.  Located halfway between the Siberian and Alaskan coasts, the 357 square kilometer island is arguably one of the most remote places in the United States, with a 24-hour journey to the nearest human settlement 

In an essay published in Hakai Magazine, author Sarah Gilman explains that conditions there are so extreme that the island has virtually no record of successful habitation, and the little human history on the island is marked with continuous misfortune.

The Unangan, or Aleut, people who lived south of St. Matthew, as well as the Yup’ik people of Sivuqaq Island to the north, have oral histories of sea expeditions being blown off course, stranding voyagers on what may have been this island, to wait out storms while fending off polar bears.  

Only one prehistoric home’s remnants have ever been discovered here, a depression in the ground where a shelter once stood some 400 years ago.  The feature has no known hearth, and few other found artifacts, meaning humans only resided here for a short period of time, potentially one of these lost expeditions. 

The island, christened by a Russian naval lieutenant in 1776, is still referred to as “The Bear Island” by hunters and whalers in the area.  American naturalist Henry Elliot made a written record of his 1874 visit, noting that hundreds of polar bears still inhabited the island at that time.  However, overhunting later forced them from the island. 

In 1916, the Arctic power schooner Great Bear ran aground on St. Matthew Island in dense fog.  The crew remained stranded here for 18 days until help arrived, narrowly avoiding disaster as their food supplies dwindled.

During the Second World War, United States servicemen were stationed on the island’s southwestern coast, where they reported conditions including eight-meter snow drifts, ten day blizzards and an unrelenting fog. 

When WWII ended, the troops soon left, leaving behind their shelter and some supplies, evident now by a cache of rusting diesel drums and a faint service road. 

Because the island has never had known long-term inhabitants, native vegetation has overgrown most traces of human activity.  Today, the island has very few visitors, mainly researchers counting migratory birds along its rocky shores. 

That wraps up the news for this week! 

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I'm Laura Pettigrew and I'll see you next week!