Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew.  Get ready for another weekly batch of top news stories that appeared on Archaeologica!  Send us feedback on The Archaeology Channel Facebook page or post a message on our social networking site, ArchaeoSeek!

Excavators in the city of Tauste, Spain, have uncovered more than 400 Islamic-Period graves, offering substantial support to the new interpretation of Tauste as a large Islamic town.  Researchers in the ancient Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala have found several elaborate hydrological systems.  Authorities in Greece have stopped a sophisticated ring of antiquities traffickers.  And an amazing new set of rock art paintings, including extinct Ice Age animals, has emerged, deep within the Amazon of Colombia.

The Audio News Team would like to thank our friends for helping us continue this show without a break since we started more than 19 years ago.  If you’re not already a supporting member, please go to archaeologychannel.org and click on the Donate button.  Especially now, we can use all the help we can get!

For the intrepid travelers out there, we welcome you to register now for one of our upcoming 2021 tours!  Please contact us soon about that, and see about all our upcoming tours at archaeologychannel.org/tours.  You won’t have to stay home forever!

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 for the week of November 29th to December 5th, 2020.

We’re leading off the news this week with the discovery of over 400 sets of human remains from a necropolis located in the Spanish city of Tauste, each one found interred according to Islamic burial customs, with the body lying on its right side and facing southeast, toward Mecca.

The discovery adds to existing physical evidence that an extended period of Islamic occupation took place in the region long suspected by residents but lacking published research. 

Eva Gimenez, an archaeologist currently excavating the area with the firm Paleoymás Archaeology, stated in an interview published on CNN.com that the tombs were discovered in an 8th-century burial site near Zaragoza in Aragon, in the northeastern part of Spain.

The signs of Islamic occupation of the region remain today in the local architecture.  The Tower of Saint Mary, a fixture of the main Christian church in the town, is the remnant of a mosque that once stood on the same site. 

According to researchers from the University of the Basque Country, boundaries on the Iberian Peninsula shifted constantly between 711 and 1492 as the Christian north and the Islamic south vied for sovereign authority.

DNA studies and carbon dating place the remains found in the necropolis to a time between the 8th and 11th centuries, corresponding with the approximately four centuries of Islamic control of the region.

The research is part of continuing efforts by the El Patiaz Cultural Association, with guidance from Miriam Pina Pardos, director of the Anthropological Observatory of the Islamic Necropolis of Tauste.  

The first dig of the site in 2010 revealed a five-acre necropolis spread over at least two levels.  Some 44 skeletons were uncovered during smaller excavations in the years following, and this year more than 400 tombs have been found after local authorities ordered an extensive excavation of the area.

The discovery of this cemetery’s contents represents a major shift in historical considerations of Tauste, with new evidence that a stable Islamic population was established here and reached demographic levels and cultural advancements which had previously been unsupported by scientific research.

Further information about Islamic Period discoveries in Tauste is available in two videos posted on The Archaeology Channel website at archaeologychannel.org.  Just Google Tauste, T-A-U-S-T-E.  These videos reflect several years of collaboration between us and the El Patiaz Cultural Association in Tauste.

Researchers have discovered several elaborate hydrology systems created by ancient Maya people at Tikal in Guatemala.  The Maya used these to preserve potable water for drinking and irrigating crops during extended periods of drought.

Over the previous two centuries, many of the archaeological studies at Maya sites focused on above-ground temples, tombs and other architectural remnants easily visible to the human eye. In the earliest projects, the intent to obtain relics of significant historical value for display in museums.  

As reported at DiscoverMagazine.com, this project aims to focus on what cannot be easily seen.  Lead author Kenneth Tankersley, an archaeological geologist at the University of Cincinnati, is trying to overcome the inherent bias found in previous archaeological studies by examining the engineering methods used to supply fresh water.

While the exact population numbers at Tikal remain unclear, estimations suggest that as many as 100,000 individuals lived across some 130 square kilometers during its peak occupation from AD 682 to 909.

Using LiDAR and other modern survey techniques to penetrate the thick vegetation which currently covers this area in modern-day Guatemala, the study examines previously unknown subterranean features, including tiered agricultural fields, excavated reservoirs and dammed-up sink holes.

The authors believe the underground structures and evidence of repeated excavation indicate the development of highly specialized systems for water conservancy and storage.

Excavations at one reservoir revealed the presence of zeolite, a mineral that is known to filter contaminants from water allowed to pass through it. 

Tankersley believes the zeolite was harvested from a deposit of volcanic tuff located some 30 kilometers away and periodically brought back to the reservoir and re-packed the filter to improve the water’s quality.  

This is likely the earliest evidence of this type of filtration, and is thought to have originated from observing the composition of nearby aquifers known for their high purity water resources.

Similar filtration systems utilizing zeolite have been found at the remains of the nearby ancient Maya city of Caracol, indicating this technology was perhaps widely shared throughout the region.

However, some of Tankersley's earlier research in the former watering hole at Tikal showed evidence of a harmful pathogen referred to as cyanobacteria, as well as other toxins, suggesting a possibility that polluted drinking water contributed to people eventually abandoning the city and the extensive water collection systems once developed here.

Greek authorities have broken up a sophisticated ring of traffickers specializing in smuggling looted antiquities out of their country.  These criminals had been preparing artifacts for sale at auction in other nations by forging authenticity documents and records of origin.  

In some cases, auction houses worked with these smugglers, paying them for exclusive access to the highly valued items for a hefty commission upon final sale.

After several years of investigation and observation, the Greek police managed to uncover a network of illegal dealers of ancient artifacts and bring to light the laundering of antiquities to auction houses in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, and Bulgaria.

As reported by The Greek City Times, the investigation centered on the 2015 discovery of a rare coin imprinted with an image of an eagle with a hare in its talons on the one side, accompanied by a representation of the winged goddess, Victory, on its reverse.  

This coin, found illegally by German poachers who dubbed their find Olympia, was later sold on the black market for 8,000 euros to a Greek merchant known to associates as “The Grandfather.”  

The coin was subsequently sold at auction in Germany for 34,000 euros, a sum that resulted in significant distress to the original poachers, who now believed they were underpaid for their find.

Determined to obtain additional artifacts for resale, the group recruited new members to search for additional items of value in the same area.  

However, by then their movements were being tracked by the National Intelligence Service of Greece, who were able to use phone surveillance to gain critical information about their location and movements.

This allowed them to intercept many items of historical value before they were shipped out of the country.  The recovered cache included over 2,000 coins and 125 other antiquities. 

The indictment of “The Grandfather” marks an important victory for Greek authorities in their efforts to maintain the integrity of the historical record in the region.  

According to authorities, this individual has a long criminal history of negotiating stolen artifacts dating into the 1970s, but has never been successfully prosecuted despite evidence of schemes for profit.

Other ongoing investigations are aimed at potential fines or penalties for the auction houses that were identified as co-conspirators in the movement of stolen goods.

An extensive collection of prehistoric rock art dating more than 12,000 years old has turned up in a remote section of rain forest in the Colombian Amazon, depicting now-extinct ice age megafauna as well as cultural practices and images of the terrain at the time of their creation.

The images include fish, turtles, lizards and birds, as well as people dancing and holding hands, among other scenes. One figure wears a mask resembling a bird with a beak. 

The discovery is the work of a joint team of British and Colombian researchers funded by the European Research Council and led by José Iriarte, a professor of archaeology at Exeter University and a leading expert on Amazonian and pre-Columbian history.

The territory where the paintings have been discovered was unreachable until recent years due to a decades-long civil war, and still involves careful negotiations to enter safely.  After gaining permission to enter the area, the researchers then faced a four-hour trek through hazardous jungle, avoiding caimans and snakes.  

Their study was originally published by the scientific journal Quaternary International, and was excerpted online at The Guardian.com.

The rock art sites are in the Serranía de la Lindosa, where along with the nearby Chiribiquete national park, other rock art had previously been found.  Three specific rockshelters were identified as primary locations for further research and potential excavation.  

Cerro Azul contains one of the largest sets of rock paintings in the region, with a total of 12 panels and thousands of individual pictographs depicting humans, animals, plants, handprints, and geometric shapes.

As reported in the original research article, eleven AMS radiocarbon dates were obtained from preceramic layers at Cerro Azul rockshelter, marking the start of occupation in the Late Pleistocene, around 12,000 years ago, and subsequent activity into the Middle and Late Holocene periods.

Cerro Montoya, located some 467 meters downslope, contains a series of shelters with faded paintings.   Limoncillos [lee-mohn-SEE-yohs], located 4 km to the north, also contains faded rock art.

Of particular interest to the research team were the images of what appear to be mastodon, paleolama and ice age horses, indicating that the impressions were made at a time when the variety of plants and animals which thrived was very different than what exists here today.

That wraps up the news for this week! 

For more stories and daily news updates, visit Archaeologica on the World Wide Web at www.archaeologica.org, where all the news is history!

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