Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew, back again 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 research suggests that an exploding asteroid destroyed an ancient Middle Eastern city in an event that might have inspired the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  This edition brings you huge news of 23,000-year-old human footprints discovered in North America.  The return of the ancient Maya to a region devastated by a volcanic explosion in El Salvador apparently happened much quicker than anyone thought.  And the fate of Afghanistan’s archaeological sites is now in doubt following the return of the Taliban.

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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 September 19th through the 25th, 2021.

We begin this week in Jordan, where an interdisciplinary research project has published evidence that impact from a space rock demolished a Bronze Age city here 3,600 years ago.

As reported by online archaeology news site, The Conversation, the Middle Eastern city now called Tall el-Hammam held about 8,000 people when the event occurred. 

This fireball from the heavens exploded just five kilometers above the earth’s surface, instantly killing every living thing in or surrounding the city.  Some believe that this may be the origin story for the biblical description of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

An actual explosion would have vaporized minerals from the soil and deposited toxic levels of Dead Sea salt water across the valley.  Without agriculture, no humans occupied the valley until rainfall eventually restored its growing capacity some six centuries later. 

Scientists inferred how all of this happened after 15 years of painstaking excavations, and through the ongoing analyses from researchers in the United States, Canada and the Czech Republic. 

Their report came out last week in the journal, Scientific Reports, combining the work of archaeologists, geologists, mineralogists, paleobotanists, sedimentologists, cosmic-impact experts, and medical doctors.

The group used the Online Impact Calculator to model scenarios that fit the evidence.

Originally designed by impact experts, this calculator allows researchers to estimate the details of a past cosmic impact event based on more recent and better-known impact events, as well as information from nuclear detonations.

At the site, archaeologists could see a dark, 1.3-meter-thick jumbled layer of charcoal, ash, melted bricks, and pottery.  This dark band is referred to as the destruction layer, and it contains several notable anomalies.

Among these are finely fractured sand grains, called shocked quartz, which form only under at least 725,000 pounds per square inch of pressure.  Tiny balls of vaporized iron and sand, called spherules, which only form at over 2,900 degrees, also were present.

This evidence shows that temperatures in the city rose to levels higher than those resulting from volcanoes, human warfare or forest fires.  Combined with the evidence of intense pressure, the only natural process left to explain the record is a cosmic impact.

It appears that the culprit here was a relatively small asteroid, similar in size to the one that knocked down eighty million trees in remote Tunguska, Russia, in 1908.

These same types of physical evidence are associated with sites such as the Chicxulub [CHICK-soo-loob]crater, which is believed to have been created by the impact of a huge asteroid that triggered events leading to mass extinctions around 66 million years ago. 

Next, we go to the White Sands National Park in New Mexico, where analyses of fossilized tracks are providing evidence about the historical movements of humans into North America far earlier than traditionally believed. 

As reported by the US Geological Survey, the new scientific research conducted at White Sands has uncovered the oldest known human footprints in North America.  The discovery reveals evidence of human occupation in the Tularosa Basin beginning at least 23,000 years ago, thousands of years earlier than the widely accepted previous estimate of 15,000 years.. 

According to Park Superintendent, Marie Sauter, the discoveries underscore the fact that the popular recreation destination is also a wonderful scientific laboratory, having supported both groundbreaking and fundamental research.

The fossilized human footprints were buried in multiple layers of sediment on a large playa, or dry ancient lakebed.  Layers of seeds from plants that grew abundantly around the lake during its existence were embedded in, under and above the layers containing these footprints.

Radiocarbon dating and analysis of the seeds by the USGS established their unexpectedly early age.  Their findings are now detailed in an article published in the journal, Science.  

White Sands National Park is the world’s largest gypsum dune field, with at least 23,000 years of archaeology, and uniquely adapted flora and fauna. 

According to USGS Acting Rocky Mountain Regional Director, Allison Shipp, White Sands National Park contains the world’s largest known collection of fossilized Pleistocene-aged footprints in the world.

Since 2014, this distinctive geological location has been recognized as what is referred to as a mega track site.  This designates that, in addition to human footprints, tracks from Columbian mammoths, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, and other ice age animals have been discovered here.   

Scientists from White Sands National Park, the National Park Service, USGS, Bournemouth University, University of Arizona, and Cornell University, in connection with the park’s Native American partners, collaborated and consulted on the new research. 

This revolutionary find dramatically extends the range for the coexistence of humans and Pleistocene megafauna, confirming that humans were present in North America well before major glacial advances at the height of the last ice age closed land migration routes from Asia.  

Our third story takes us to the site of another colossal prehistoric blast, this time from the former Ilopango volcano, now a caldera in what is now the country of El Salvador, in Central America. 

As reported by the science website, Phys.org, the research focused on an area around what was once the site of San Andrés in the Zapotitán Valley.

Prior research has shown that in AD 539, the volcano erupted in an event now known as the Tierra Blanca Joven eruption.  This event is believed to be the single largest volcanic eruption on Earth over the past 7,000 years.

The blast was so powerful that it covered a 35-kilometer area around the volcano in waist-high ash, leaving behind a deep gash, or caldera, that eventually became a lake.

The eruption severely impacted Maya civilization here, sending it into a noted period of decline.  The loss of nearby settlements and fields along with subsequent cooler temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere contributed to their challenges.

Due to lack of evidence, historians have debated for years about how soon the Maya returned to the area, with many suggesting it likely took hundreds of years.  

However, according to University of Colorado at Boulder archaeologist Akira Ichikawa, new evidence shows that Maya returned to occupy parts of Central America affected by the event much sooner than previously believed. 

The new research appears in the journal, Antiquity.

In this new research, Ichikawa describes evidence of the Maya people returning to a site seventy kilometers west of the volcano. 

After the Maya had returned, they built a new pyramid, using volcanic ash and dirt in its construction.

Between 2015 to 2019 Ichikawa collected and analyzed soil samples to learn more about what went on in the areas around the eruption site.  Of particular interest were samples collected from the Campana structure, a pyramid resting atop a large platform.  

He found that work on the structure appears to have begun sometime between 30 to 80 years after the eruption.

The data suggests that the Maya people relocated to the area quickly, quite possibly soon enough that some inhabitants would have also been survivors of the blast.  

Ichikawa believes the people who returned here erected this pyramid in a religious or ceremonial offering after experiencing the life-altering eruption event and its aftermath.

We end this week in Afghanistan, where scholars fear the Taliban’s most recent ascension to political relevance may endanger some of the region’s archaeological treasures. 

As reported by the website, LiveScience.com, the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan’s government may threaten the integrity of archaeological heritage sites, even if the fundamentalist Islamic group decides not to loot or intentionally destroy them. 

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, for example, many Buddhist artifacts were destroyed.  This included the two massive sixth-century statues known as the "Buddhas of Bamiyan” which were purposely destroyed with explosives.  

Gil Stein, a professor at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute who leads the Afghan Heritage Mapping Partnership, has been using satellite imagery to map and monitor thousands of archaeological sites across Afghanistan.

Along with his team, Stein estimates that to date they have mapped out the location of around 25,000 archaeological sites.

While looting is a long-running problem at sites in Afghanistan, Stein noted that, so far, he had found no evidence that the Taliban had been encouraging or supporting it.

One site that could be threatened by the Taliban is Mes Aynak, once a Buddhist city which flourished here around 1,600 years ago.

Located along the iconic Silk Road, Mes Aynak was a center for both trade and worship, and numerous Buddhist monasteries and other artifacts are buried there.

The future of Mes Aynak looks particularly bleak, as sources report that heavy equipment used for excavation and conservation on site is already gone, replaced by an increasingly visible Taliban presence.  This site has also been threatened by mining planned by Chinese firms to exploit a huge copper deposit beneath the archaeological traces there.

According to Khair Muhammad Khairzada, an archaeologist who led excavations at Mes Aynak, all archaeological sites in Afghanistan are at risk.  Local provincial departments are now closed, and Khairzada was himself forced to flee to France to escape the Taliban.

Plans to hold an international exhibition of artifacts discovered at Mes Aynak and other Afghan sites in 2022 are not on hold, but the Taliban captured Kabul before any artifacts could be transported to France for display. 

The northern areas of Afghanistan, which the Taliban has only recently taken over, are believed to hold far more archaeological sites than the southern areas.

However, even if leadership in Kabul decides to support their protection, there is no guarantee that Taliban groups in other parts of the country will follow suit. 

Only time will tell if the Taliban refrain from destroying additional archaeological sites nationwide, and to what extent physical access and detailed information will be available.

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!