Happy New Year, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew, celebrating the New Year by bringing you the top news stories that appeared this past week on Archaeologica!  Send us feedback on The Archaeology Channel Facebook page or post a message on our social networking site, ArchaeoSeek!

Head lice from mummies in the high Andes of Argentina are revealing the long-distance origins of people who lived 2000 years ago.  A Chinese tomb from 900 years ago has some unusual wall murals.  A CT scan has revealed the physical details of a perfectly mummified Egyptian pharaoh.  And a clay tablet from a huge and very old city in eastern Iran demonstrates some fascinating long-distant connections.

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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 December 26th, 2021, through January 1st, 2022.

Our first story this week brings us to the Andes Mountains in Argentina, where a team of biologists has identified high-quality human DNA preserved in the glue of lice eggs still affixed to the hair of two mummies.  

As reported by Smithsonian Magazine, the team led by Dr. Alejandra Perotti, an Associate Professor in Invertebrate Biology at the University of Reading [REDDing], England, examined the hair of two mummies about two thousand years old.  The mummies were found in the Calingasta Caves of the high Andes Mountains, in what is today the San Juan province in west-central Argentina.  The region is cold and arid, lending itself to the exceptional preservation of the mummified remains of these people, members of what is known as the Ansilta [an-SIL-ta] culture.  The preservation also works on parasites, such as the eggs laid by head lice in human hair. 

Body lice and the related head lice are parasites that have evolved along with their primate hosts, including humans, and moved with us around the globe.   These tiny pests have often revealed new information about ancestral peoples and their movements.

The team suspected that human DNA might still remain in the sheath of cement that the louse produces to glue each egg to a strand of a person’s hair.  The analysis used a dye that binds to DNA, along with special imaging techniques, to reveal that the nuclei of human cells were still trapped and preserved in some of this glue.  

Most notably, the team’s approach allowed the scientists to study this DNA without destructive techniques that often damage human remains.  This avoids the ethical and cultural concerns that arise from destructive tests on mummies. 

After isolating the DNA within the lice glue sample, they inserted a tube and extracted that DNA for sequencing. 

The genomes from the skin cells show genetic links to ancient individuals who lived in Amazonia 2000 years ago, suggesting that the forebears of the ancient Ansilta moved up into the mountains from the rainforests of southern Venezuela and Colombia.  

The study adds to our understanding of prehistoric population movements in South America, which is limited because of the history of eradication and deportation of indigenous groups during the colonial period.

Our next story takes us to China’s Shanxi [SHAN-shee] Province, where a newly found tomb from the Jin Dynasty, from AD 1115 to 1234, has murals illuminating family prayer practices of people in the region.  

As reported by Xinhuanet.com, the tomb was discovered in Nihe Village, in the mountainous Shanxi Province of northern China.  The tomb held the remains of four people, and would have been used by a family.  

On the main wall of the tomb, where the arched tomb gate leads into the chamber, is a set of murals with themes not previously seen. 

According to Zhang Zhaohui, of the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, tomb murals from this dynasty typically depict filial piety and feasts.  Earlier this year, fourteen family tombs from the same period came to light in a village near Houma City.  Their tomb murals depict characters associated with good luck.  One also contained a brick carving depicting the couple who were buried within, on chairs with a square table on each side, on which a plate of peach fruits or pastry is placed.  

However, the new tomb discovered is quite different from those in terms of the images in its murals.  The new paintings feature a variety of relatively unusual images, including a starry sky, a child riding a crane, and a lion playing with a silk ball, as well as a dog and a deer.  These are symbols of good fortune and auspiciousness.

Analysis is continuing to understand the full meaning of these unique images and their associated family prayers.  This new discovery, along with previous tomb mural finds, helps enrich our understanding of the beliefs of people living under the Jin Dynasty, which is also known as the Jurchen Jin Dynasty.  The Jurchen Jin Dynasty was the last ruling dynasty before the Mongol conquest of China under Genghis Khan, starting in AD 1211.  

For our third story this week, we go to Egypt, where scientists have used three-dimensional computer tomography scanning methods to digitally “unwrap” the mummy of Pharaoh Amenhotep the First. 

As reported by EureakAlert.org, researchers have avoided opening Amenhotep’s mummy, so as to preserve its pristine state.  The reign of Amenhotep the First is commonly dated from 1525 to 1504 BC.  He was the son of Ahmose [ah-MOH-seh] the First, the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty and Egypt’s New Kingdom, often seen as the golden age of ancient Egypt.  Under Amenhotep the First and his successors, the country was prosperous, militarily successful, and the pharaoh was worshiped as a god after death, along with his mother, Ahmose-Nefertari. 

Amenhotep’s mummy is described as perfectly wrapped, decorated with flower garlands, and its face and neck covered by an exquisite lifelike mask inset with colorful stones. 

The last time the mummy was opened was in the eleventh century BC, around four centuries after the pharaoh’s initial burial. 

Restoring and re-burying royal mummies was common practice by priests in the Twenty-First Dynasty, from 1069 to 945 BC, to repair damage done by grave robbers.  In ransacking the mummy of Amenhotep the First for amulets of gold and gems, the grave robbers had torn loose his head and left arm, and left other holes and damage.  The Twenty-First Dynasty priests patched and rewrapped him, and placed his mummy into a cache with other New Kingdom royalty at Deir [day-EAR] el Bahari, which was not rediscovered until 1881.    The original tomb of Amenhotep the First has not yet been found.

The new computer process of digitally unwrapping the mummy allowed researchers to reveal it in very thin layers, from the mask to the bandages, and down to the mummy itself.  The technique allowed scientists to study the well-preserved pharaoh in more detail than ever before. 

The unwrapping revealed that Amenhotep was around 35 years old at the time of death, based on the fusion of his bones and wear to the teeth.  He was approximately five foot six inches tall, had relatively healthy teeth, and was circumcised.  Researchers described him as having similar features to his father, with a narrow chin, small narrow nose, curly hair, and a slight overbite.  No cause of death was apparent from the analysis.

Underneath the wrappings, the mummy still wore 30 amulets and a golden girdle with gold beads.  His right arm, still in the original wrappings, was laid across his chest, the first example known of this familiar later style for mummies, with the arms crossed on the chest.

Over 40 royal mummies of the New Kingdom have been studied since 2005 as part of the Egyptian Antiquity Ministry Project.  Twenty-two royal mummies, including that of Amenhotep the First, were transferred in April 2021 to a new museum in Cairo for further study and eventual display.

The research demonstrates the potential of CT imaging in examining mummies, including those from civilizations other than Egypt.   The complete results of the new study are available online in the open-access journal, Frontiers in Medicine.

Our final story this week takes us to the so-called Burnt City, in far eastern Iran near the Afghan border, where archaeologists have unearthed an Elamite [EE-lam-ite] clay tablet used in the ancient past for accounting. 

As reported by the Tehran Times, the tablet is the first of its kind found in over 50 years and measures eleven by seven centimeters.  It was found in what was once a residential area in the Burnt City, called Shahr-e Sukhteh [SHAHR-AY-SOOK-tay] in Persian.  The city is a UNESCO World Heritage site and an early Bronze Age urban settlement associated with the Helmand Culture of eastern Iran and western Afghanistan.  Helmand Culture people built cities with temples and palaces, and other evidence of complex social structure. 

Shahr-e Sukhteh was occupied in four successive periods between 3200 and 2350 BC.  Each of the first three periods ended with the city being burnt down.  After the fourth, the city was abandoned, for reasons as yet unknown

Artifacts and architecture from several of the city’s periods suggest that its culture may have arisen independently from cultures to the west, such as Elam [EE-lam] in southwestern Iran, and at times had stronger ties with lands to the east, in modern Pakistan and northwest India, than with the well-known Mesopotamian cultures to the west.  Thus, the site is critically important for understanding whether early cultures arose independently to the east of Mesopotamia and Elam, and what kinds of connections they formed to the less well-known areas of South Asia, such as the Indus Valley.    

The newly discovered clay tablet seems to depict the types and quantity of shipped goods, as well as some symbols that are still unfamiliar to researchers.  Such symbols indicate a history of trade, particularly with western areas of the Iranian plateau. 

It adds to the body of other findings at this site. Additional artifacts include a kiln, used either as a pottery oven or for metal smelting, as well as animal and human figurines, featuring various designs from cows to humans in the form of sitting women and standing men.  

According to senior Iranian archaeologist Seyyed-Mansour Seyyed-Sajjadi [saw-jhaw-DEE], researchers have even found the skeleton of a captive monkey, probably from India. 

Up to now, little evidence has shown that the inhabitants of the Burnt City interacted with other cultures.  However, these new findings suggest significant commercial connections well beyond the region, notably to the Elamite culture farther west.  Other artifacts at the site originate not only from western Iran, but from as far as central Asia and modern day India. 

So far, only around four or five percent of the Burnt City site has been excavated.  We still have much to learn about this mysterious place, but these findings indicate that there is much more to come as excavations continue. 

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!