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Coins minted in Yemen in the late 1600s now serve to track the movements of British pirates in the American colonies.  Sixth-century floods in Italy apparently prompted reports of saintly miracles involving flooding.  A Roman site in Bulgaria has yielded 14 different colors of fine marble, apparently to honor Emperor Constantine the First. And a new study of mummified birds in northern Chile shows that parrots and macaws were traded from the Amazon for hundreds of years.

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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 March 28th through April 3rd, 2021.

We begin our week’s coverage with evidence found in New England left behind on the escape route of murderous English pirate, Captain Henry Every, and his crew, who in the late 1600s became the some of the world's most-wanted criminals after plundering a ship carrying Muslim pilgrims from Mecca to India on the Red Sea.  

As reported by AP News.com, a handful of rare Arabian coins unearthed from several states across the region over the past two decades add to the evidence of the pirates’ movements through this region while evading prosecution by the British monarchy. 

In September of 1695 the pirate ship, Fancy, commanded by Captain Every, overtook and captured the Ganj-i-Sawai from the fleet of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.  It is estimated that tens of millions of dollars’ worth of precious metals and gemstones were onboard, along with worshipers returning from religious pilgrimage.

Historical accounts indicate the pirates raped and murdered the passengers aboard the Indian ship, and then absconded with its treasures before sailing for the Bahamas to avoid punishment for their heinous criminal acts. 

Evidence collected indicates that some of these pirates then traveled to the American colonies, using the plunder along the way for bribery towards safe passage and in obtaining false identifications.

In 2014, amateur metal detectorist Jim Bailey found an intact 17th-century Arabian coin in Middletown, Rhode Island.  Further analysis indicated the coin was minted in Yemen in 1693, decades before any documented trading between the regions.  More than a dozen similar coins have now been identified.

Captain Every was able to remain at large by posing as another slave trader.  Obscure records show a ship called the Sea Flower arrived in 1696 with nearly four dozen slaves on board at Newport, Rhode Island, which later became a major hub of the North American slave trade in the 18th century.

According to Connecticut state archaeologist Sarah Sportman, it seems likely that some of Captain Every's crew were able to settle in New England and integrate with local populations.

Since the initial discovery, other detectorists have unearthed another fifteen Arabian coins from the same era: ten found in Massachusetts, three in Rhode Island and two in Connecticut.  

Another coin turned up in North Carolina, where written records show some of Captain Every’s men first came ashore.  While the coins provide evidence of the crew and their leader’s presence in the region, Every’s last known whereabouts still remains a mystery.

A team combining research on ancient religious texts with analysis of a stalagmite from an Italian cave proposes that increases in rain and flooding caused by climate change led to the simultaneous emergence of beliefs that certain saints held divine powers over water.

A new international and interdisciplinary study led jointly by researchers from the University of Pisa and the University of Warsaw links paleoclimate data, showing increased rain in northern and central Italy, to historical accounts of people’s lives.

As reported in a publication by the Max Planck Institute, the researchers found that in the 6th century AD, this region experienced increased moisture levels from a long-lasting negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation, which inundated northern and central Italy with moist air.  

To obtain climate data from the past, the researchers examined a stalagmite from the Renella Cave in northern Tuscany.  Like rings of a tree, layers of minerals deposited over centuries provided a record of datable wet and dry periods for analysis.  

Because these Atlantic waters have a higher concentration of lighter oxygen isotopes than typical precipitation in northern Italy, this weather pattern left noticeable markers in the layers of the stalagmite.  From this analysis it appears that at least parts of Italy had become a land of torrential rains.

The authors then turned to historical records looking for similarities.  Using the Cult of Saints in Antiquity Database, researchers compared sixth-century Italian writings against late-antique and early-medieval hagiographic texts. 

Study co-author Robert Wiśniewski, of the University of Warsaw, emphasizes that, while literary accounts shouldn't necessarily be taken at face value, they do reflect the worldview of the period, and offer clues into how extraordinary weather phenomena were interpreted.  For example, the known literature from times before and after this period contains very few instances or descriptions of large scale flooding.

However, sixth-century accounts from the Italian Peninsula contain multiple stories about so-called “water miracles” in which saints brought down violent rains, diverted rivers or somehow relieved flooding.  In Dialogues on the Miracles of the Italian Fathers, attributed to Pope Gregory the Great, these types of events make up nearly twenty percent of all references to miracles.

The reason for this, according to the authors, was the changes in climate that manifested itself in increased rainfall and flooding across the region at the time.

Scholars increasingly acknowledge that climatic phenomena can be facilitators of social and cultural change.   By combining both natural and sociological data, it becomes possible to better understand the overlapping experience of a period, and to better reflect on how societies may handle the effects of climate changes in the future.

Ulpia Oescus [ES-kus] was one of only three cities located in today’s Bulgaria to have enjoyed the status of a Roman colony, and at its peak during the 4th century AD it supported a population of approximately one hundred thousand people.  Today, the distant region containing the former metropolis is mostly depopulated, and while the site had been prone to looting, it is still home to some well preserved Roman streets and ruins.

According to a recent report from ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com, fourteen colors of marble thought to have been used primarily for decoration have been identified from the remnants of public buildings at the site in northern Bulgaria, now referred to as the Ulpia Oescus Archaeological Preserve.

The Roman city was built directly on top of the remains of a Roman military encampment dating to AD 10, and took several hundred years to complete.  It served as the administrative capital for the region, and is located near the confluence of the Iskar and Danube rivers.

The marble was discovered during 2020 as part of ongoing archaeological excavations of the Aula, or Great Hall, part of a building complex including public baths, or thermae.  The digs were carried out by a team including Gergana Kabakchieva and Silva Sabkova, from the Bulgarian National Institute and Museum of Archaeology, and Sonya Lazarova and Tinka Krasteva, from the Pleven Regional Museum of History.

Researchers believe that the room where the marble once would have shown its intact brilliance was built to welcome Emperor Constantine the Great for the dedication of a monumental bridge spanning the Danube River in AD 328.  

At the time, this bridge was the largest river crossing ever constructed, and represented both an important engineering accomplishment by, and expansion of, the Roman Empire.

The quality of marble found suggests that the room was immaculately decorated, with carved columns of striped calcite and wall encasings made of red jasper, an opaque variety of quartz typically reserved for imperial residences, temples and other places where emperors or dignitaries would be honored.  

Many of the recovered pieces are only colorful fragments, yet still display fine craftsmanship and impeccable fluting.  The researchers also discovered that the grand hall was heated by circulating warm air through brick columns built beneath the floor. 

Samples of some of the most striking marble, as well as other artifacts and sculptures previously found at the site, were recently put on display at the Bulgarian National Institute and Museum in Sofia.

Scientific testing of mummified birds found in the Atacama Desert in South America reveal that, between AD 1100 and 1450, religious rituals and trade brought parrots and macaws to communities at elevations well outside the birds’ native habitats.

According to Science Daily.com, researchers from an international and interdisciplinary team have found the birds’ feathers at human burials and other archaeological sites.  The team visited various collections around northern Chile for nearly three years, looking at a wide range of what types of ancient remains had already been found.

The researchers studied twenty-seven sets of remains from scarlet macaws and Amazon parrots, collected from five oasis sites across the Atacama.  Their results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to José M. Capriles, an assistant professor of anthropology at Penn State, it would have been extremely difficult to transport live birds across the huge steppes, through the cold weather and difficult terrain of the Andes, to the Atacama.  

Capriles also noted that the historical importance and use of macaw feathers for pre-Columbian societies was both widespread and ubiquitous.

Zooarchaeological analysis, isotopic dietary reconstruction, radiocarbon dating, and DNA testing helped to catalog scarlet macaws and at least five other parrot species that were transported from the Amazon Basin, over three hundred miles away.  

The team mapped the distinct natural habitation ranges of scarlet macaws, blue and yellow macaws, and the various parrots, trying to determine how they might have traveled to the Atacama.

Most of the bird remains examined were dated between AD 1000 and 1460, towards the end of the Tiwanaku Empire and before the Inca came to control the region, a period of both warfare and great commerce marked by frequent llama caravans passing through.

The researchers found that the parrots were eating the same diet as the people who owned them, which included foods enriched by nitrogen from maize which had been fertilized with manure.

According to Capriles, at least some of these birds did not live happy lives.  They were transported and kept in captivity solely to produce the feathers used in ceremonial and ritual practices.

Perhaps even more unusual than the importation and use of the birds was their preservation after death.  Many were found mummified with their mouths open and tongues sticking out, while others had their wings spread wide in permanent flight.  Additionally, several were found wrapped in protective animal skin bags or wrapped within decorative textiles.

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!