Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew to hand off 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!

New excavations in southernmost India are pushing back the date of the first cities there.  Images on a bronze key in England suggest surprisingly that the Romans brought lions to ancient Britain.  Melting ice in Mongolia is revealing perishable artifacts that give rare insight into the lives of people there long ago.  And in Peru, the failure of a rope bridge dating back to the Incas has brought communities together to repair their ancient heritage.

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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 August 8th through the 14th, 2021.

Our first story this week takes us to southern India, where a warrior’s dagger and other finds reveal new details about the ancient Vaigai Valley civilization. 

The dagger comes from a burial urn holding skeletal remains, and measures 16 inches long.  Though its steel blade was broken in half, the dagger’s wooden handle was well preserved.

As reported in The Smithsonian Magazine, the burial was from a site being excavated in the village of Konthagai (kon-TA-guy) in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

According to R. Sivanandam, of the Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology, the dagger is a warrior’s weapon, and dates to the Sangam period, which we now know lasted from the sixth century BC to the third century AD.

Together with previous years’ excavations in and around the village of Keeladi, the new discoveries reveal more about what is now being called the Keeladi Civilization, a well developed, urbanized, and literate culture along the banks of the Vaigai Valley in India’s southernmost state.  The early literature from the Sangam Period had previously been known to have started around 400 to 200 BC.  But radiocarbon dating from the Keeladi culture cities pushes the date for the culture, and its literature, back to 600 BC.   

The archaeological discoveries of Keeladi culture cities, complete with inscriptions in the period’s Tamil-Brahmi script, give new understanding that goes well beyond its literature, which has long been handed down and appreciated.  

At the new site of Konthagai, archaeologists have uncovered 25 burial urns since the dig began this past February, and scientists are currently conducting DNA tests on remains discovered in the area.  Finds also include houses made of brick, board games, pottery inscribed with people’s names, and abundant evidence of industrial manufactures as well as external trade.  Artifacts of iron, copper and gold as well as gems and shells show high levels of wealth and craftsmanship.  

Carbon dating on artifacts at the site showed that some of the materials date to as early as 580 BC.  Many bones from domesticated animals show that agricultural activity was intensive.  

Around 500 BC, this agricultural wealth led to the first urban centers here in south India.  Today this is known as the Indian subcontinent’s second urbanization.  The first urbanization was the Indus valley civilization in the north by around 2000 BC.   It was thought that the next center of urban development was the Central Ganges Plain, which then spread to the south.  The Vagai Valley finds, however, are as old as those in the Central Ganges Plain, flourishing by 600 BC.  This shows that the second urbanization period began in the south as well as farther north. 

As yet, few links are seen directly connecting the Keeladi culture cities to those that arose in the Indus far to the north, and a thousand years earlier.  The new digs are crucial to mapping out this timeline and understanding how early Indian civilizations spread from one region to another, or arose independently, yet with interconnections.

For our next story, we go to England, where a newly discovered artifact has decorations suggesting that the Romans brought lions and other beasts to Britain as part of their famed public executions in gladiator rings. 

As reported by the Daily Mail, the artifact is a small, decorated handle from a key that was discovered at a site in the city center of Leicester [LES-ter].  The site has yielded other evidence of the Roman presence, such as an ornate mosaic floor.  The decorated key is made of bronze, approximately four and a half inches long, and weighs around 300 grams, or ten and a half ounces.  The handle shows an unarmed man fighting a lion, with four other men who appear to be naked cowering in fear. 

According to Dr. John Pearce, a senior lecturer of archaeology at King’s College London, this is the first evidence that Romans imported wild animals as part of their public killings of captive Britons.  Transporting lions would have been logistically complex, and a difficult feat for the time.  Even as late as the 19th century, when animal hunters and zookeepers had access to faster ships as well as railroads, nearly two-thirds of animals died in transit.  It is highly likely that the number of animal deaths during the Roman period was at least that, and likely higher. 

Although the Romans’ transportation of lions from places like Mesopotamia and North Africa to Rome is well known, until now the practice was not thought to have extended to Britain.  If the key, which was made in Roman Britain, shows a scene from a local arena, this would be the first confirmation of bringing lions all the way to Britain, on the edge of the Roman world.

Our third story brings us to Mongolia, where melting ice is exposing artifacts that make possible new discoveries about the past.  

The recovery work involves a team of archaeologists from U.S. universities, the National Museum of Mongolia, and other partner agencies.  

As reported by TheConversation.com, archaeologist Isaac Hart of the University of Utah is helping to lead the charge in uncovering objects long preserved in glaciers along Mongolia’s grassy steppes.  Because of the geographic isolation of many communities high on the mountains, reports of new finds are quite rare.  The team is working with local groups to identify some of these recently discovered pieces. 

One artifact found on a western Mongolian mountaintop was a finely woven piece of animal-hair rope bridle, discovered lying atop a patch of rock left exposed by the vanished ice.  The artifact was so well preserved that Mongolian guides were able to recognize the traditional technique used to create it.  Radiocarbon dating, however, traced the material back to more than 1,500 years ago, showing the time depth of the craft traditions that came down from ancestral Mongolian cultures.

The piece of rope bridle was scanned using electron microscopy, which revealed it was made of camel hair.  Another artifact scan found collagen from deer tissue, used to glue an arrowhead to its shaft.

Rare clues like this give greater insight into the daily lives of the herders of the ancient past.  

Sometimes, the discoveries challenge long-held assumptions about these communities as well.  For example, while it’s long been thought that these groups were almost exclusively pastoral, hunting objects found in the retreating ice suggest they also hunted big game for more than three millennia.  The finds bring new insight on the role of hunting in subsistence for pastoral societies in the Altai Mountains. 

Because of the rapid ice melt resulting from climate change, researchers worry about having the resources and time needed to recover items emerging from the ice before they are damaged or lost.  The brutal weather conditions of these high places will most certainly degrade any unretrieved items rather quickly,  once exposed.  At present, it is impossible to know just how many archaeological and ecological materials might never be found before they are destroyed by the elements. 

The resulting effects of climate change also pose a threat to nearby communities as well as plant and animal life.  Ice loss, for example, continues to have negative effects on the health of domestic reindeer.  The full effects of the changing climate patterns significantly challenge the viability of many plants and animals living in this region. 

Our final story this week brings us to Peru, where rope bridges originally made by the Incas continue to deteriorate. 

As reported by Sapiens.org, the bridges show the impressive technological expertise of the Incas, who used a construction of twisted branches to connect people across rivers and gorges.  The practice of creating such bridges precedes the Incas, dating as far back as the Wari culture which was active between AD 600 and 1000.  For centuries, people both within the region as well as visiting outsiders have been awestruck by the beauty of these structures, with many early travelers describing them. 

Sadly, today, many of the ancient bridges are falling into disrepair.  This past spring, the most famous bridge called Queshuachaca [KAYS-wa-CHA-ca], near the former Inca capital of Cuzco, collapsed from lack of maintenance.  It’s thought that only a few of these bridges remain across the entire region, and many of those are likely to suffer the same fate without intervention. 

More and more, local communities in Peru have been coming together to repair and restore the deteriorating bridges.  Even in communities with sometimes competing groups, bridge rebuilding has become a unifying activity. 

In ancient times and up to now, individuals in the community have been identified as the caretakers of these ancient bridges.  Among the Incas, these people were called chakakamayuq [cha-ka-KA-my-yuke].  The role of these people in ancient times and today is to inform the community when a bridge needed attention.  The community then responds by collecting the necessary materials to restore the hanging bridge, gathering together and making a community activity of the effort.  In all, the task takes approximately 5 days. 

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!