Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew with our weekly review of the latest 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!

Archaeologists in China have identified some 2000-year-old ruins as the site of an ancient think tank for scholars and intellectuals from across the country.  Hard data from the Klamath Mountains of northwestern California confirm that Native American controlled-burning practices in past centuries limited the forest’s biomass, unlike modern fire prevention policies.  A Roman site in rural England is a real puzzle for archaeologists.  Mexican archaeologists in Mexico City have come across a ritual offering of starfish and other remains within the structure of the Templo Mayor, the central feature of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán.

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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 March 13th through the 19th, 2022. 

We begin this week in eastern China, where archaeologists discovered the 2,000-year-old ruins of Jixia [ji - SHYAW] Academy, a renowned intellectual institution where philosophers and scholars from across China pursued solutions to end the perpetual conflict during the Warring States era.

As reported by the South Morning China Post, the historical record and literature attest to Jixia’s existence, but its location and ruins had not been found.  However, after a five-year search, archaeologists in Shandong province discovered the ruins of the institute and used carbon dating to confirm the site as Jixia.

The Warring States era was a period in China that lasted from 475 to 221 BC.  It was characterized by warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and vassal states declaring independence from the ruling Zhou [joh] dynasty.  The Zhou emperors were effectively demoted to figureheads by the time of the Warring States period, and rulers of the warring states held power within their borders.  

According to Paul Goldin, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Jixia was introduced during the reign of King Xuan [ shu – AHN ] of Qi [ Chi ], who ruled from 319 to 301 BC, and it operated for about 150 years.  Jixia was an institution of higher education with multiple roles, acting as a research institute, university and gathering place for intellectuals. 

However, Goldin suggests Jixia is more comparable to modern day think tanks instead of academies or universities with systematic processes for teaching students and granting degrees. 

According to Wicky Tse, an associate professor of history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the sponsorship of the ruling Qi court allowed the Jixia Academy to offer favorable conditions to the intellectuals who joined them.  Unrelenting warfare incentivized innovation in both intellectual and political spheres. New ideas could lead to victory and, eventually, the establishment of a stable political order.

Archaeologists investigating the site are hopeful they will uncover artifacts, such as bamboo manuscripts, that can give insight into how Jixia operated and how the intellectuals gathered there, lived and worked.

Our second story this week brings us to northern California, where a new study has combined scientific data with Indigenous oral histories and ecological knowledge to show how cultural burning practices of the Native American people shaped the region's forests for at least a millennium prior to European colonization.

According to the study’s lead author, Clarke Knight from the University of California, Berkeley, Indigenous tribes of the Klamath Mountains, such as the Karuk and Yurok peoples, intentionally set fires to successfully manage landscapes, enhance habitats, produce food and basketry materials, clear trails, reduce pests and support ceremonial practices. 

According to Knight, the research challenges the notion that forests were left to grow without human interference prior to European colonization.  Knight emphasizes that the region’s forests have been actively managed for thousands of years.

As reported by Science Daily, the study found that the forest biomass in the region used to be approximately half of what it is today, and that burning by the tribes played a significant role in maintaining the forest’s structure and biodiversity.  The influence on forest conditions by Native peoples and their stewardship kept these forests at a stable, lower level of biomass for at least a millennium.

According to Bill Tripp, director of natural resources and environmental policy for the Karuk, cultural burning is often guided by a detailed knowledge of the environmental conditions that are most favorable to burning and the effects of the fire.

Research shows that fire suppression policies in the Klamath Mountains have led to the forest becoming dense and overgrown.  As a result, the composition of the forest has shifted from fire resistant hardwoods, like oak, to more fire sensitive softwoods, like Douglas-fir. 

To estimate the changes in forest biomass in the region over the past 3,000 years, the team collected sediment cores and counted the number of tree pollen grains at each sedimentary level of the core samples.  

Charcoal counts in the cores revealed how often fires once burned in the same area.  With the assistance of carbon dating, this data was used to estimate forest biomass at different times in the past.

The research team collaborated with the tribes to collect the sediment samples from their land and integrate their oral histories and traditional ecological knowledge. 

According to study co-author Frank Lake, a research ecologist for the U.S. Forest Service and a Karuk descendant, the integrated ethnographic information helped explain both geographic and temporal patterns in the palaeoecological and fire history records.

The findings highlight the essential role of active forest management plays, especially as climate change brings warmer and drier weather. 

This study was first published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Our next story takes us to Kent in southeastern England, where archaeologists working on the excavation of a Roman site at Grange Farm discovered 15 kilograms of litharge, a byproduct associated with the extraction of silver from other metals.

As reported by Phys.org, this is the largest amount ever found at a Roman site in Britain and surpasses the amount that archaeologists would normally expect to find on a rural settlement such as Grange Farm.  

This suggests that the silver was refined there on an industrial scale.  However, the excavation team did not find any signs of infrastructure that could have supported an operation the size required to produce the amount of litharge discovered.

The excavation and subsequent research, led by a team from Pre-Construct Archaeology in collaboration with archaeologists from Newcastle University, revealed a common style of Roman building.  The rectangular structure would have typically been used both as a dwelling and workshop. 

Although archaeologists found evidence of small-scale metalworking at one end of this building, the evidence did not suggest that it could be the source of the large amount of litharge discovered.

The team encountered another mystery when they uncovered a stone mausoleum. Such buildings are usually found at affluent Roman villas, not near buildings such as the one unearthed at the Grange Farm. 

The ruins of the mausoleum date to the late third or early fourth century.  Inside, archaeologists found the body of an elderly woman in a lead-lined coffin.  Isotopic analysis of the woman’s teeth indicated she was likely local, and radiocarbon dating indicated she was buried around the same time the mausoleum was built. 

According to Dr. James Gerrard, a Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology at Newcastle University, it wasn't unheard of for people to be buried in lead caskets in Roman Britain, but it wasn't a widespread practice.  The discovery was also strange because the team did not find any evidence that the woman was buried with any personal items or valuables as was typical at the time.

Few clues as to the identity of the woman have come to light.  She apparently was someone with significant status in the community, as her burial arrangements would have required substantial resources.

Gerrard and the team continue to investigate the discoveries at Grange Farm.  Silver and gold were crucial to the economy of the late Roman Empire, and their production was heavily controlled by the state.  Why silver was being refined in such huge quantities in a small rural settlement like Grange Farm is not known.

Archaeologists propose that the work was possibly being carried out illegally, out of the Roman Empire's sight, sometime between in the third or fourth centuries.  By the fifth and sixth centuries, Grange Farm appears to have fallen out of use as a permanently occupied settlement. 

According to Gerrard, excavators were surprised at the discovery of several early Anglo-Saxon items, including two spear heads and an ornate brooch.  Spears were usually used as part of Anglo-Saxon burial practices.  However, no evidence suggests that Grange Farm was being used either as a settlement or burial site at that time.

Along with mysteries surrounding the litharge and the mausoleum, the team of archaeologists also found 453 Roman coins, more than 20,000 fragments of pottery and 8,000 animal bones.

Our final story takes us to Mexico City, where archaeologists have unearthed over 160 starfish placed as ritual offerings at the Templo Mayor site in the former Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán [ te-NOHTCH-teet-LAHN ]. 

According to archaeologists, the starfish and other offerings were in a part of the temple connected to the god of war, Huitzilopochtli [HWEET-see-loh-POCH-tlee ].  The god of war shared the Templo Mayor with Tlaloc [TLAH-lohk], the god of rain and fertile crops.  

The oldest part of the temple dates to around AD 1325, when a group of people called the Mexica migrated into the area surrounding what is now Mexico City in central Mexico.  At the site, the Mexica built the city of Tenochtitlán, from where they ruled the Aztec Empire.

As reported by Heritage Daily, the excavators of the site, the National Institute of Anthropology and History, confirmed that the 164 starfish came to light in a circular structure from the sixth construction stage of the Templo Mayor. 

This places the deposit around the year 1500, a period of transition between the reigns of Ahuizotl [ah – hwee – TZOHT-l] and Moctezuma the second.  Only one more layer would be added before the temple’s destruction in the early sixteenth century after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. 

When Ahuizotl took the throne in 1486, he concentrated on two major projects -- renovating the capital, including the Templo Mayor, and expanding the borders of the empire.  His efforts nearly doubled the size of the Aztec Empire, extending Aztec power west to the Pacific coast of Mexico and southeast to Guatemala. 

The items left in the temple came from the farthest eastern and western edges of the Aztec Empire, places that Ahuizotl had only recently conquered.  

The starfish are of the Nidorellia armata species, also known as the chocolate chip star, and are commonly found along the Pacific coast from the Gulf of California to northwest Peru. 

According to archaeologist Báez Pérez, many Mesoamerican peoples believed that the origin of the world was linked to the sea.  Therefore, marine organisms were treated as relics. 

For Tenochtitlán, the nearest source of chocolate chip starfish would have been nearly 300 kilometers away from the Aztec capital.  Chunks of coral found in the same deposit of offerings came from about the same distance away in opposite direction—the western end of the Gulf of Mexico.

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!