Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew with our reveal of the latest 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 Turkey have unearthed the remains of an entire gladiatorial arena dating back to AD 200.  Researchers in Maryland have located the childhood home of Black American abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who helped many of her family and friends escape slavery via the Underground Railroad .  A new study of human land use over the past 12,000 years shows that indigenous stewardship was sustainable and productive until modern disruptions took place. And high-tech analysis of a human ancestor living more than 3 million years ago reveals an anatomy adapted to upright walking as well as living in the trees..

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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 for the week of April 18th through the 24th, 2021.

Our first story this week comes from Turkey, where a Roman-era gladiator arena has come to light. 

The arena was discovered by Mehmet Umut Tuncer [toon-JER], the Aydın Culture and Tourism provincial director in partnership with project survey leader Sedat Akkurnaz, an archaeologist at Adnan Menderes University in Turkey as well as their teams.  It is located near the coasts in southwestern Anatolia. 

The arena held up to 20,000 spectators who watched wild animal and gladiator fights.  The 1,800-year-old arena contains a large amphitheater, including underground areas.  It is part of the ancient city of Mastaura, a developed and thriving city at the time of its construction. 

As reported in Life Science.com, the discovery of this arena is the first known example of such an amphitheater in Anatolia, and likely was a major attraction to the city.  The arena was built around AD 200, during the Severan dynasty which ruled from AD 193 to 235. 

After clearing shrubs, trees and rubble, archaeologists have begun digital scans of the arena, to gain a clearer picture of what remains.  They have found that the underground structures of the arena are well preserved, while those above ground show signs of long-term wear. 

The arena’s walls stand 82 feet tall, while the arena itself measures 131 feet by 98 feet and likely saw both gladiator battles and wild animal fights.  Researchers suggest that even though it is smaller than the Colosseum in Rome, its battles were likely just as bloody. 

Next we go to Dorchester County Maryland, where researchers have discovered the historic home site of Ben Ross, the father of Black American abolitionist, Harriet Tubman, who helped many of her family and friends escape slavery via the Underground Railroad 

The home site, originally reported by TV station WMAR in Baltimore, is in eastern Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay in what is now part of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. 

The cabin site is part of a 2,600-acre property, purchased for $6 million by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2020 to become part of the wildlife refuge. 

The property holds ten acres left to Ben Ross in the 1800s by Anthony Thompson.  Ross received the land when he was freed from slavery due to Thompson’s death in 1836. 

A team of archaeologists from the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration began searching for evidence linked to Ben Ross in November 2020. 

The team, led by Chief Archaeologist Dr. Julie Schablitsky, has since found numerous artifacts dating to the 1800s, including nails, bricks, glass, dish fragments, and buttons, as well as evidence of a cabin. 

According to Dr. Schablitsky, the cabin holds significant historical significance.  In her words, “The importance of discovering Ben Ross’ cabin here is the connection to Harriet Tubman.  She would’ve spent time here as a child, but also she would’ve come back and been living here with her father in her teenage years, working alongside him.”

The newly located homesite will be the centerpiece of the historic Thompson farm, where Ross and his family were enslaved.  Additionally, it will be added to the 125-mile Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, a scenic driving tour of sites related to Harriet Tubman’s legacy. 

Our third story keeps us in Maryland, where researchers at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, along with researchers from 10 other institutions, have published a study showing that human societies have reshaped ecology across the earth for at least 12,000 years.  This word comes to us from Eurekalert.org.

The research, originally published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed that human destruction is not the main cause of the current biodiversity crisis, but rather human appropriation, colonization and intensified land use are no longer managed sustainably. 

The data support the argument that empowering and assisting the environmental stewardship of indigenous peoples and local communities is essential in fighting the current biodiversity and environmental crisis. 

Dr. Erle Ellis is Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland and lead author of the study.  In his words, "Our work shows that most areas depicted as 'untouched,' 'wild,' and 'natural' are actually areas with long histories of human inhabitation and use. . . .  Societies used their landscapes in ways that sustained most of their native biodiversity and even increased their biodiversity, productivity, and resilience."

The team includes geographers, archaeologists, anthropologists, ecologists, and conservation scientists from around the world.  The team examined global patterns of land use and population over 12,000 years to see how they compared with modern patterns of high biodiversity inside areas of high conservation priority.

Their findings suggest that even 12,000 years ago, nearly three-quarters of earth's land was inhabited, used and shaped by people, debunking the idea that humans themselves are the reason for climate change, and showing that with indigenous land management practices we can live more sustainably.  

Indigenous and traditional communities clearly sustained the vast majority of earth’s biodiversity for millennia, something we today can use as we see heightened need for long-term, sustainable solutions to environmental problems. 

The authors argue that their data suggest that, over time, moving from a model that sees land as untouched to one supporting traditional, indigenous, land use practices can help us return to sustained biodiversity.

Darren J. Ranco, a member of the Penobscot Indian Nation and Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maine, notes that Indigenous people currently exercise some level of management of about 5% of the world's lands, upon which 80% of the world's biodiversity exists.  Even so, Indigenous people have been shut out from management, access and habitation of protected lands in places such as the U.S. National Parks

This research represents a new form of collaboration across archaeology, global-change science, conservation, and scholars of Indigenous knowledge.  With these new findings, the authors hope  that humans can exist sustainably on earth for millennia, and urge empowerment of indigenous people and the increased use of traditional practices and communities in order to promote sustainable biodiversity.

We end this week at the University of Southern California, where researchers have conducted high-tech analysis on “Little Foot,” an almost complete fossil skeleton of an early human ancestor, Australopithecus.  This story comes to us from ScienceDaily.com.

With a focus on the shoulder assembly, researchers have gained great insight into this early branch of the human tree, thanks to what this fossil reveals. 

Analysis of Little Foot finds a meeting of human-like and ape-like characteristics, with the lower body showing human-like traits of upright walking.  However, the shoulder components are clearly ape-like, supporting arms well suited for climbing and navigating through branches and trees. 

This new analysis shows us how human ancestors may have used their arms more than 3 million years ago.  This new finding was published originally in the Journal of Human Evolution as part of a collection of studies done on different parts of the Little Foot skeleton. 

Little Foot is a near-complete skeleton of an individual, most likely an older female, that stood about 4 feet tall and lived 3.67 million years ago.  The remains came to light in a cave in South Africa in the 1990s, and archaeologists have spent years analyzing and excavating this rare find. 

The team from USC focused on the shoulder components, due to their age and intactness.  The shoulder bones provide deep insight into how an animal moves, showing when human ancestors left the trees and moved to the open savannah. 

Their research and comparisons to other hominins, apes and humans showed that Little Foot had shoulders adapted to living in trees, as shown by a pectoral girdle, the structure that the arms attach to, that was especially suited to hanging from branches and swinging.  This suggests that the structural similarities in the shoulder between humans and apes are much more recent than previously proposed. 

The painstaking documentation and excavation of the fossils allowed researchers to gain a remarkably clear image, providing clear and plentiful insight into our human ancestors. 

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!