Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew with our weekly delivery 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!

Brine factories on the Belizean coast apparently once supplied salt to Classic Period Maya cities in the interior.  Wallowing bison in Saskatchewan have uncovered bison-related petroglyphs.  

Just in time for the holiday season, archaeologists in Israel have announced the identification of a Hellenistic fortress that connects closely to the Hanukkah tradition.  And DNA analysis has made possible a wide-scale study of the Justinianic Plague, which turns out to have had a huge impact well outside the Byzantine Empire.

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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 November 21st through the 27th, 2021.

Our first story this week takes us to the coastline of Belize, where remnants of pole and thatch buildings once serving as Maya salt factories have been preserved for centuries in the oxygen-poor sediments underwater.

As reported by Science Daily, travel and access restrictions related to the pandemic have resulted in new research on Maya salt harvesting, production and final distribution.

The new analysis was part of a study funded by the National Science Foundation, and is detailed in an article published recently in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica.

Ancient Maya people boiled down a briny mix of fresh and saltwater in clay pots over wood fires to obtain a sufficient supply of salt for their dietary needs.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut-downs took place in March 2020, Louisiana State University professor Heather McKillop and her team excavated the remnants of several salt factories from the naturally occurring salt flats and estuary systems found along the Yucatan coast.

This includes the submerged Maya site known as Ek Way Nal, home to the largest of the Paynes Creek Salt Works.  This was a series of collection areas established in a saltwater lagoon system specifically to harvest the mineral from the brackish water.

Unable to travel to Belize during the pandemic, Professor McKillop requested additional analysis on samples stored at the University’s Archaeology lab from previous underwater field work at Ek Way Nal.  Among the items stored in the lab were hundreds of wood samples preserved in water, pottery sherds and site maps from exploratory dives.  Radiocarbon dating analysis was performed on wood samples from individual posts taken from each of the building's remains.

McKillop collaborated with Cory Sills, who is an LSU alum and an associate professor at University of Texas, Tyler.  In the article, the authors describe finding evidence of construction that followed a three-phase sequence that came to an end in the Terminal Classic period (AD 800-900), when many inland Maya cities collapsed.  The findings included a combination of the salt kitchens themselves, at least one principal residence and an outdoor area where fish were salted and dried. 

With this evidence of mass production, the authors conclude that the refined salt was transported to inland Maya cities.  Excess production output would have been crucial to the health of residents of inland and mountain regions, which often lack the natural sources of dietary salt found closer to the coastlines.

The research offers exciting potential interpretations of the lives of daily and seasonal salt workers, as well as the organization of production and distribution of this important mineral.

Next, we go to North America, where a herd of roaming bison in Canada’s Wanuskewin Heritage Park have uncovered petroglyphs as well as the original carving tool used to create them around one thousand years ago.

As reported by Cosmos Magazine, the heritage park is situated on the ancestral lands of the Dakota First Nation and Northern Plains Indigenous Peoples, adjacent to the South Saskatchewan River.

After being absent there  for more than 150 years, Saskatchewan bison were reintroduced to the park following their near-extinction in the 1970s due to overhunting.

Normal bison activity includes wallowing, or rolling around in the grass, to create dust pits to deter biting flies, help shed fur, or to leave behind a scent during mating season.  By repeatedly wallowing in one area, the bisons’ activity recently uncovered an embedded boulder that turned out to contain a petroglyph, revealing the presence and practices of the ancient peoples who once inhabited this land.  Upon further inspection, archaeologists found a stone implement that was used to carve the drawing.

The discovered knife was found to be in the direct trajectory of a bison jump, a rocky formation that indigenous peoples used to hunt bison by driving the herd off a cliff.

Dr Earnie Walker is a co-founder of the park, and serves as its chief archaeologist.  After the bison had made the initial discovery, he and his research team uncovered three more petroglyphs in the area.  Each glyph is of different shape and size.  One of them bears the scratched marks of a ribstone, which is found in Hoofprint tradition rock art—characterized by animal prints and fertility—and is associated with bison hunts.

The lines on the boulder mimicked the ribs of a bison.  In the middle of the boulder is a small figure with a triangular shaped head with horns, an oblong body, and a tail.

The collection of petroglyphs is estimated to be between 300 and 1,800 years old.  Based on other historic events in the region with more conclusive dating, these examples of rock art are most likely to be somewhere around one thousand years old.

Migratory bison-hunting people in pre-contact history followed herds and were thought to be constantly relocating, leaving little to the archaeological record.  The campsites and rock art coming to light here are tangible and rare evidence of the pre-contact cultures of native peoples on the Northern Plains.

Next, we head to Israel, where archaeologists have discovered an ancient Hellenistic fortress destroyed by Jewish forces in 112 BC. 

Each year, Jews around the world celebrate Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights.  According to the Talmud, the annual tradition dates to the Maccabean [MACK-uh-BEE-an] Revolt, which took place between 167 and 160 BC.

Hellenistic forces had ruled much of the Middle East since the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC.  The Hanukkah holiday celebrates the Jewish peoples’ rebellion against the occupying Seleucid (sell-YOU-sid] Empire, and the eventual recapture of the Temple of Jerusalem.

Ahead of the holiday, which began on November 28th this year and will last until December 6th, archaeologists have unveiled a small fortress destroyed by the nephew of that rebellion’s leader, Judah Maccabee.  As reported by the Jerusalem Post, a dig in the Lachish [lah-KHEESH] Forest about forty miles southwest of Jerusalem has uncovered the remnants of a structure that originally had stone walls measuring nearly ten feet thick.  

Researchers with the Israel Antiquities Authority have discovered charred wooden beams, weapons, pottery, and coins here.  Archaeologists discovered many of these artifacts under a twenty-inch-deep layer of debris, as they removed thousands of stones that fell when the fortress was attacked.

It appears that the building was part of a fortified line of defense erected by the Hellenistic army, most likely to protect the nearby city of Maresha from a potential offensive by the rulers of Judea.

No human remains were discovered during the dig.  This indicates that the fort most likely was evacuated prior to being ransacked.

The fortress first came to light a few years ago, during an informal land survey.  

Based on the historic record and dates from the recovered coins, the building’s destruction can be dated to around 112 BC.

Archaeologists are continuing the excavation in hopes of finding more evidence amidst the stones.  After the formal excavation is completed, the building will undergo conservation and safety modifications before eventually being opened to the public. 

The discoveries from the excavations in the Lachish region demonstrate the long human presence in the area, and also provide direct evidence to support the original story of Hanukkah.

We end this week in Europe, where a new study based on ancient texts and recent genetic discoveries suggests that bubonic plague may have reached England before the first recorded case from the Mediterranean. 

The Justinianic Plague is the first known outbreak of bubonic plague in west Eurasian history, and struck the Mediterranean world at a pivotal moment when the Byzantine Emperor Justinian was attempting to restore Roman imperial power.

As reported by the University of Cambridge’s research website, historians have argued for decades about just how lethal this disease truly was, its social and economic impacts, and the routes by which it ultimately traveled around the planet.

Until the early 2000s, the identification of the Justinianic Plague as “bubonic,” which refers to inflamed lymph nodes, relied solely upon ancient texts, which described the appearance of buboes, or painful swellings in the groins or armpits of victims caused by bacteria transmitted from flea bites. 

Rapid advances in genomics have enabled archaeologists and genetic scientists to discover traces of the ancient DNA of this bacterium, called Yersinia pestis, in Early Medieval skeletal remains.  Such finds have now been made in Germany, Spain, France, and England.

Professor Peter Sarris is a University of Cambridge historian, and a Fellow at Trinity College.  He recently published a study on this research in the academic journal Past & Present.  In the study, Sarris argues that the flurry of significant Byzantine legislation made between AD 542 and 545 reveals a series of crisis-driven measures being taken by public officials.

Faced with plague-induced depopulation, authorities of the Byzantine Empire attempted bold financial initiatives to limit the economic damages inflicted by the plague.  They issued a series of light-weight gold coins, the first such reduction in the gold currency since its introduction in the 4th century.

In March 542, Emperor Justinian the Great attempted to pass legislation aimed to prop up the banking sector of the imperial economy.  Then, in 544, the emperor imposed price and wage controls, as workers tried to take advantage of labor shortages.

The study suggests that the plague may have reached the Mediterranean via the Red Sea, and reached England perhaps via the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia, spreading from there onto other parts of the continent.  The study also emphasizes that, despite being called the “Justinianic Plague,” it was never a purely or even primarily a Byzantine phenomenon.

Perhaps most striking about the governmental response to the plague in the Byzantine world is how carefully targeted it was, despite the frightening and novel circumstances that authorities were facing. 

This research is particularly relevant during the current and ongoing pandemic, as nations and institutions worldwide once again grapple with profound shifts in personal and economic priorities.

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!  Also, be sure to check out our new subscription platform, Heritage Broadcasting Service, at heritagetac.org!

I’m Laura Pettigrew and I’ll see you next week!