Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew.  Thanks for joining us for the latest batch of 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!

A metallurgical study of the iron in a dagger found in the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun confirms once more that the iron came to earth in a meteorite.  A human cranium from a Spanish Neolithic tomb more than 5000 years old shows evidence of the world’s oldest known ear surgery.  Archaeologists in London have come across the largest and most spectacular Roman mosaic found there in the past 50 years.  And a study of the world’s oldest pair of trousers, found in far western China and made 3000 years ago, reveals remarkably complex weaving technology.

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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 February 20th through the 26th, 2022. 

We begin this week with a new study of a dagger found in the tomb of King Tut that has long presented a puzzle due to its iron blade.

As reported by the science website phys.org, when archaeologists opened King Tut’s tomb in 1922 and found the iron dagger, they suspected it was fashioned from meteorite metal.  This is because Egypt at the time of Tutankhamun was still in the Bronze Age.  People had not yet learned how to heat iron ore to the high temperatures needed for smelting.  For centuries, however, people had made implements from iron found in meteorites when discovered.   

A combined team of researchers from Japan and Egypt has now carried out a detailed metallurgical study of the dagger blade. 

Their work follows up a 2016 study that confirmed the iron was from a meteorite.  The new work used non-destructive x-ray and microscopic analysis to uncover more details.  The materials show that the meteorite contained the usual metals such as iron, manganese and nickel, but also had other elements mixed in, including sulfur, zinc and chlorine.

The surface of the metal blade shows a cross-hatch pattern, known as the Widmanstätten pattern, that has been seen before in other natural objects.  This pattern, also known as a Thomson structure, is a metallurgical formation caused by long nickel-iron crystals in the metal and is characteristic of octahedrites, the largest known type of iron meteorite. 

The blade itself could not reveal where the meteorite originally landed, but an accompanying study of the Amarna Letters tablets provides a clue.  The Amarna Letters were written during the century before Tutankhamun’s death, mostly comprising correspondence between the government of Egypt and its representatives in Canaan and other kingdoms of southwest Asia.  In one passage, an iron dagger is mentioned, given to Tutankhamun’s grandfather by the King of Mitanni, located in what is now northern Syria and southeastern Turkey.  This reference to what is quite likely the same dagger suggests that the meteorite fell in the northern reaches of the Euphrates valley. 

The research has been published in the journal, Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

Next we go to Spain, where a team of researchers from the University of Valladolid [vai -ah - dough -LEED] along with the Spanish National Research Council in Italy have found the earliest evidence of ear surgery.  As reported by the science website phys.org, the group examined a skull found in 2018 at the Dolmen of El Pendónis [pen-DOUGH-nees] site, near Burgos, Spain.  The site was used as a funerary chamber from 3800 to 3000 BC.

The skull shows evidence of a type of cranial surgery meant to cure an ear ailment.  The new research found evidence that the patient, a woman between the ages of 35 and 50, survived the surgery for some time.  Evidence of bone regrowth in the holes that had been bored through her skull shows the healing process.  With a radiocarbon date placing the skull at 5,300 years ago, it is the earliest-known example of ear surgery.

The procedure that was carried out is known today as a mastoidectomy and is done to clean out the area behind the ear when it has become infected.  Failure to correct the problem can lead to deafness in some cases, or progressive infections leading to more serious problems, including death.  

The woman who underwent the procedure required it on both ears.  She was probably experiencing considerable pain, enough to be willing to undergo what must have been an incredibly painful surgery.  The researchers also found evidence of enlarged auditory canals, likely the result of the surgical procedure.

In the same tomb as the surgical patient, the researchers discovered a flint tool that showed evidence of having been reheated several times.  This could have been from use as a cauterizing tool in surgery.

The complete study is published in the journal, Scientific Reports.

Next we go to London, where archaeologists have uncovered the largest Roman mosaic found in the city in more than half a century.

The mosaic has two panels featuring large colorful flowers, geometric patterns and elaborate motifs in a style unique to the capital.  It is thought to have once decorated the floor of a Roman dining room.

The Museum of London Archaeology uncovered the mosaic during excavations for new construction.

According to the site supervisor, Antonietta Lerz, it’s a very rare find, especially because it’s intact, with little disturbance from later occupations.

Of the mosaic’s two panels, the larger one measures almost 10 feet long.  Its large, symmetrical flowers surrounded by bands of intertwining strand or rope were popular motifs in imperial Roman mosaics.  Additional geometric elements include a pattern known as Solomon's knot, made of two interlaced loops.

According to Dr. David Neal, former archaeologist with English Heritage and a leading expert in Roman mosaics, the design was the work of the Acanthus Group, a team of mosaicists working in ancient London, who are recognized by the unique local style they developed.

While the larger mosaic panel dates to the late 2nd to early 3rd century AD, traces of an earlier mosaic underneath it show that the room was refurbished over the years.

As reported by the BBC, the room would have contained dining couches, where people reclined to eat.  It was probably part of a mansio [MAN-see-o], a hostel or waystation for state couriers and officials traveling to and from London. 

The mansio lay on the outskirts of Roman Londinium, an area on the north bank of the Thames roughly corresponding to the modern City of London.  Romans began settling here soon after the first conquest of Britain by the emperor Claudius, in AD 43, and Londinium was founded between AD 48 and 50.  By AD 72, the lower building of the new site was constructed, probably as a private residence.  Between AD 120 and 160, the mansio was built, and around AD 175 to 225, the Acanthus artists were hired to install the larger mosaic.  The buildings all fell out of use some time in the 300s AD, and in 410 Roman rule in Britain ended.

Archaeologists have also found coins, pottery, shoes, lucky charms and an amber gladiator amulet in the dig.  The mosaics will be removed for more detailed conservation work and study.  Future plans for their display are being determined. 

For our final story, we go to far western China, where the ancient remains of early trousers illustrate innovation and cross-cultural contact in ancient central Asia.   

Burials from the Tarim Basin’s Yanghai graveyard show that early peoples here pioneered pants-making between roughly 3,200 and 3,000 years ago.  They deftly combined weaving techniques and decorative patterns learned from societies across Eurasia to make durable trousers that might be considered stylish even today.  

Now, an international team of archaeologists, fashion designers, geoscientists, chemists, and conservators has studied one pair, the oldest known trousers ever found, to pin down the details of their construction and painstakingly create a modern replica.  

As reported by Science News online, the results weave a tale of how textile innovation fanned out across Asia. 

According to archaeologist and project director Mayke Wagner of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, eastern central Asia was a crossroads and incubator of innovation in many specialties.  This single garment shows a diversity of textile techniques and patterns from different local origins, traditions and times.

The trousers were found on the naturally mummified body of a man discovered during excavations conducted by Chinese archaeologists since the early 1970s at the Yanghai Cemetery.  Researchers call him Turpan Man after the nearby Chinese city.

Turpan Man’s trousers are special not just because they are older by at least several centuries than any other examples, but because they are also made with a sophisticated cut for comfort and wear.  The two leg pieces that gradually widen at the top are connected by a crotch piece that widens and bunches in the middle to allow extensive movement of the legs, as would be needed by a horse rider.  No traces of cutting appeared on the fabric, so Wagner’s team suspects that the garment was woven to fit its wearer.

Other archaeological finds show that this style of pants spread across Eurasia within a few hundred years, around the same time period when mounted armies became common.

Close examination of Turpan Man’s trousers revealed a combination of three weaving techniques.  A re-created version of the find — fashioned by an expert weaver from the yarn of sheep similar to those whose wool was used by ancient Yanghai weavers — confirmed that observation.

Turpan Man’s trousers tell a story of how ancient herding groups carried their cultural practices and knowledge across Asia.

For instance, the interlocking pattern decorating the ancient horseman’s pants at the knees appears on bronze vessels found in what is now China from around the same time, roughly 3,300 years ago.  The nearly simultaneous adoption of this geometric form in central and east Asia coincides with the arrival in these regions of herders from west Eurasian grasslands.

Similarly, a stepped pyramid pattern woven into the Yanghai pants appears on pottery from Central Asia’s Petrovka culture, which dates between 3,900 and 3,750 years ago.  The same pattern resembles architectural designs that are more than 4,000 years old from western and southwestern Asian and Middle Eastern societies, including Mesopotamian stepped pyramids. 

By around 2,000 years ago, herders’ migration paths formed part of a trade and travel network running from China to Europe that became known as the Silk Road.  Cultural mixing and mingling intensified as thousands of local routes throughout Eurasia formed a massive network.

Turpan Man’s riding pants show that even in the Silk Road’s early stages, migrating herders carried new ideas and practices to distant communities.

The research report appears in the March 2022 publication of Archaeological Research in Asia.

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!