Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew.  Away we go again with 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!

Core drilling by archaeologists in the Nile Delta suggests that a decline in marshlands after 6000 years ago contributed to the development of the Egyptian nation-state.  Construction of new student housing at the University of Cambridge in England has uncovered an early Saxon Period cemetery with intriguing clues about life and culture after the Roman army withdrew.  A new summary of the ancient Chachapoya in northern Peru highlights the unique character of this civilization.  And a new analysis of what people ate during the Bronze Age in western Switzerland reveals some interesting changes in diet that could relate to changes in climate..

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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 Archaeologica for the week of January 31st through February 6th, 2021.         

Our first story this week comes from Egypt, where new research is examining the role of environmental change in the formation of ancient Egypt. 

Around 5,000 years ago, ancient Egypt emerged as a nation state, alongside the rise of other primary states like Mesopotamia, China, the Indus Valley, and others.  

For years, archaeologists and anthropologists have tried to explain humanity’s shift from smaller communities into large civilizations.  Most explanations emphasize the role of social factors, but less often has research considered how the changing environment may have influenced the establishment of early civilizations like ancient Egypt. 

As reported by the website, The Conversation, a team of researchers recognized this oversight and sought to examine the role of the environment in human change by drilling lots of boreholes, or cores, in the Nile Delta.

For every meter you drill down into the silts of the Nile Delta, you uncover about a thousand years of geologic history.    

Now, researchers are beginning to understand the correlation between changes in the Nile Delta’s physical landscape and the changing social structures of this region—or how environmental factors may have fueled changes in these structures.  

As post-glacial sea levels stabilized, river dynamics in the Delta began to change.  What was once a complex network of smaller streams and tributaries expanded into broad floodplains, reducing the prevalence of swampy, marshland landscapes. 

To determine how changing landscapes may have impacted human social structures, researchers look to food.  Those early marshlands, especially before 4000 BC, were rich with food resources like fish, wildlife, and plants.  And while this environment provided for abundant wild food, it was a poor landscape for farming. 

But as the marshland environment began to change, the old methods of acquiring wild food became less reliable and the land became more suitable for farming.  The archaeological record suggests that, in response, people between 4000 and 3000 BC became more dependent on agriculture.  

The Nile Delta’s newfound agricultural potential could have given smaller proto-kingdoms in the area an edge over competing groups.  Agricultural surplus may have fostered economic conditions that helped to facilitate a unified “state” structure, beginning around 3100 BC with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, that became the ancient Egyptian civilization we know today. 

So, it seems that the natural landscape changes in the Nile Delta may have prompted not just farming, but also the rise of the first nation-state—reinforcing geography’s role in shaping history. 

Our next story takes us once again to Cambridge, England, where graves found under demolished student halls provide insights into life in an early post-Roman settlement.

As reported by The Guardian, the graves were accidentally discovered during a construction project to build new student housing.  King’s College uncovered over sixty graves in total, comprising an early medieval cemetery with extremely well preserved remains thanks to highly alkaline soil. 

Archaeologists also uncovered a number of artifacts, such as jewelry, swords and short blades, ceramics, and glass vessels.  Most date from the early Anglo-Saxon period, between AD 410 and 660, although evidence of earlier Iron Age structures and Roman earthworks also have been found.

According to Ecclesiastical [ec-CLEE-zee-as-tical] History, written in the eighth century by the English Benedictine monk Bede [BEE-da], Romans withdrew their military forces from England during the fifth century and abandoned Cambridge.  Now, this new discovery gives us a clearer picture of life in post-Roman settlements.

Some findings raise questions about the continued influence of Roman culture after the Roman period.  In one grave, a body was buried with a late-Roman bottle in the shape of a wine barrel.  Another body buried in the late-Roman style suggests that the burial ground continued to be used after the Romans’ departure from the area around AD 410.

In addition to examining potential social influences of the Romans,  researchers also hope to determine whether anyone in the cemetery died of the Justinianic [Just-in-i-AN-ic] Plague,  a pandemic that raged across Europe around AD 540. 

Our third story takes us to Peru, where recent findings have provided greater insight to the Chachapoya [cha-cha-PO-ya] people, also known as the Cloud Warriors.  This new summary of what is known about the Chachapoya comes to us from a new article in the online magazine, History Today.

Six hundred years before the rise of the Incas, around AD 800, Chachapoya culture flourished in Peru’s northern highlands.  In this mountainous region full of waterfalls and deep canyons, their society of loosely-unified small kingdoms, called cacicazgos [ca-seek-AZ-gos], grew and established themselves as a central trading point between the Andes and the Amazon. 

At its peak, the Chachapoya numbered more than 500,000 and were known for producing powerful shamans and great warriors.  The society thrived there until the Incan invasion of the 1470s. 

Because the Chachapoya had no written language, archaeological digs at the culture’s funerary sites along the limestone cliffs of Peru’s cloud forests play a critical role in uncovering elements of Chachapoya history.

Among the isolated rockface cliffs lie stone tombs, called chullpas [CHUL-pas].  These tombs contain sarcophagi bearing human-like faces, and mausoleums modeled to appear like cottages, decorated with rust-red imagery.  Burial patterns suggest a society largely void of hierarchies, with few status symbols to be found amongst the ruins. 

Three thousand meters above the Utcubamba [oot-koo-BAM-ba] river valley, the ruins of Kuélap [ku-EH-lap] contain some of the most important surviving artifacts of the Chachapoya civilization.  This urban, political, and spiritual site is at least 700 years older than the citadel of Machu Picchu, boasting 20-meter-high walls and exhibiting stone masonry rivaling that of the Incas.  

The Chachapoya’s unique, circular limestone dwellings differ from those of other South American civilizations, decorated with simple rhomboid friezes and serpentine sculptures.  So far, 420 buildings in Kuélap have been identified and mapped.  Human remains also have been found at the monumental site, and the research continues to uncover more. 

Other Chachapoya sites in the area, such as the ruins of Gran Pajatén [pa-ha-TEN], 300 kilometers south of Kuélap or La Penitenciaría [pen-eh-ten-she -ah-RI-a] de la Meseta, also contain mysteries yet to be unveiled.  These sites may hold the keys to more revelations about the Cloud Warriors as time goes on.

And we should mention that the Chachapoyas and their remarkable cliffside tombs are featured in the production, “The Chachapoyas: Living with the Dead,” featured on our new streaming service, Heritage Broadcasting Service, at heritageTAC.org.

Our final story this week brings us to western Switzerland, where the first isotopic analyses on human, animal and plant remains are offering clues to how Bronze Age people adapted to the challenges of their time. 

As reported in Eurekalert!, the online outlet of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, researchers from the University of Geneva and Spain’s Pompeu Fabra University have collaborated to conduct isotopic analyses on human, animal and plant remains in western Switzerland.

Today, archaeological resources for studying the Bronze Age are limited due to the increased use of cremation in funerary practices during that period—resulting in less bone matter for study.  But this Swiss site is relatively rich in samples.  Forty-one human skeletons, twenty-two animal skeletons, and thirty plant samples from sites in western Switzerland and France, with ages spanning the beginning to the end of the Bronze Age, or from about 2200 to 800 BC, were studied.

Scientists found food proteins on the ancient teeth that suggested the diet of people living there was mainly terrestrial animals and plants, rather than fish, despite the many lakes and rivers of the region. 

In the plant samples, scientists saw a shift from the earlier barley and wheat, grown until around 1500 BC, to millet grain introduced from Asia between 1300 and 800 BC.  Analysis of the plants also found an increase in soil fertilization, affirming the use of manure as a means to boost crop production. 

These findings confirm that Europe had become more arid at this time.  Agricultural methods had to adjust to this environmental reality, and trade increased between different cultures.  According to the researchers in this study, it was this context that brought the faster-growing and more drought-resistant millet to the region, possibly increasing food security among Late Bronze Age people and fueling population growth.

The study not only tells us more about changes in diet during the Bronze Age, but also uncovers a rich history of intercultural trade as well.  Sites like this one affirm that there is still much opportunity to learn more about this crucial point in human history.  

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!