Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew, and this is 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!

Four ingots of Sardinian lead have surprisingly shown up in a Bronze Age Cypriot shipwreck.  Stone tools found in Spain suggest that the local Neandertal population was replaced by other Neandertals from the north.  Skeletal remains from an early medieval site in Scotland bear witness to a surprising movement of people within Scotland.  And a funerary bundle from the northern Peruvian coast remarkably contains the body of an ancient surgeon.

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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 27th through April 2nd, 2022.

Our first story this week brings us to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, where researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel have discovered that lead ingots found at the site of an ancient shipwreck point to previously unknown trade activities by the ancient Cypriots. 

As reported in Smithsonian Magazine, four oblong blocks of lead, called ingots, were first found in the 1980s near the modern Israeli city of Caesarea, an important port city in ancient times.  They were manufactured during the Bronze Age about 3,200 years ago and bear Cypro-Minoan inscriptions that link the shipwreck to Cyprus. 

However, the ingots were recently reassessed using isotopic analysis, a method of identifying the chemical elements within both organic and inorganic compounds.  The team, led by archaeologist and study co-author Naama Yahalom-Mack, found that the specific lead materials pointed to origins on the Italian island of Sardinia, much farther west than known Cypriot trade routes.  

Many of these shipping routes linked Cyprus to Egypt, the Levant, Anatolia, and the Aegean Sea.  For the lead to be connected to Sardinia, more than 1,550 miles away from Cyprus, is a remarkable discovery. 

Because ancient Cyprus was known to be a large producer of copper, it’s now suspected that the Cypriots not only produced the metal for other nations, but also may have traded the metal for other minerals such as bronze and lead—like the four found at the shipwreck site. 

This finding indicates that Cyprus may have had a much more dynamic trade presence in the Bronze Age than previously thought.  Though it’s possible that one-off traders brought the lead to Cyprus, the scale of the trade suggests a more sophisticated and long-term effort.

The intended recipient of the shipwrecked lead is unknown, but the team working on this study thinks it’s possible that the Canaanites of ancient Israel may have been involved.

The findings from the study were published in the February 2022 edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports. 

Our second story this week takes us to the Iberian Peninsula, where a new study analyzed Neanderthal stone tools found in the region that have revealed periods of habitation and extinction patterns of various Neandertal groups over millennia. 

As reported by Phys.org, the team of researchers led by Joseba Rios-Garaizar of the Archaeological Museum in Bilbao, Spain, published their work indicating that Neandertal populations on the Iberian Peninsula experienced multiple instances of local extinction and replacement before modern Homo sapiens ever arrived in the area.

The study looked at the distribution of a tool complex known as the Châtelperronian [SHAT-el-per-OH-nee-an], a proposed tool industry of the Upper Paleolithic, the existence of which continues to be debated.  It is thought to be unique to certain populations of Neandertals in France and the Iberian Peninsula.

The researchers examined the remains of over 5,000 Châtelperronian tools from a site in the northern Iberian Peninsula, dating back to around 45,500 years ago.  By comparing this site with other nearby Neandertal tool sites, they have determined that the purported Châtelperronian tool system that they were examining does not overlap in time with older Neandertal technologies in this region.  

This suggests that Châtelperronian tools were not developed from earlier Iberian technology, but rather originated somewhere else before being brought to the region.  The study also determined that these tools seem to have appeared earlier than the first tools in the region made by modern humans. 

Such evidence suggests that the older Iberian Neandertal populations disappeared, resulting in their unique tool styles also disappearing with them.  It appears that they were later replaced by different Neandertal groups that used the Châtelperronian style of tools, likely migrating from what is now France, and that these populations were in turn later replaced by populations of Homo sapiens.  

The research team has hypothesized that these patterns of local Neandertal extinction and replacement will be an important area of future research, due to the potentially significant role such patterns may have played in the larger decline and ultimate extinction of Neandertals.

The study was published on March 30, 2022, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. 

Our third story this week takes us just northwest of Edinburgh, Scotland, where researchers studying the remains of fourteen individuals found at the site of an ancient Roman bathhouse have reconstructed the face of one of the adult skeletons. 

As reported by the website IFL Science, the skeletal remains of nine adults and five children were first discovered at a former Roman fort in Cramond, Scotland, in 1975.  The remains came to light beneath a bathhouse and are somewhat cheekily referred to as “bog bodies.”   This is not because they were found in the wetlands, as is typical of bog body discoveries, but rather because they were found in a toilet which is often colloquially called a “bog” in Britain.

Archaeologists initially assumed that these remains dated from the 14th century AD and were perhaps victims of the Black Death.  However, upon further radiocarbon dating in a recent study, researchers found that they were 800 years older, dating to the 6th century AD.  This is a little-understood period in British history, and these remains give more insights into human activity in this region at the time. 

The researchers conducted isotopic analysis of the skeletons’ teeth, leading to unique insights into these individuals’ diets and geographic origins.  The findings were astonishing.  While six of the individuals’ teeth featured traits that indicated they were born and raised in the local area where the remains were found, additional analysis suggested that at least one of the females came from the west coast, and one of the males from the Southern Highlands or Loch Lomond.  

The findings point to a potential pattern of migration in early medieval Scotland, where movement was perhaps more common than previously believed.   

Due to the lack of roads, as well as stark political divides during that period, it’s been thought that early people typically stayed in the area where they were born.  However, the analysis of these remains shows that it might not be all too unusual to be buried in a place far from one’s place of origin. 

Dr. Orsolya Czére, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Aberdeen and lead author of the study, noted that previous studies have suggested that those buried at this site were of high social status, possibly even nobility.  The new research paints a picture of well-connected individuals whose lives brought them hundreds of miles across the region. 

The migration very likely led to cultural and genetic exchanges, but also probably tumultuous social clashes.  The remains make it clear that they died violently, with both a woman and young child deposited in the Roman toilet exhibiting evidence of heavy blows to the skull before death. 

The team conducting the study reconstructed the face of one of the skeletons—a wanderer who came from many miles away.  The reconstruction features a face with a squat forehead, almond-shaped brown eyes, a nose with a strong bridge, and a relatively small and terse mouth.  

Ultimately, it’s a face that you might not be surprised to see on the streets of Edinburgh today, as one of the early Brits to live, travel, and die in this region. 

The study was shared in the recent journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

Our final story this week brings us to Peru, where a recently excavated funerary bundle was found to contain the remains of a person who served as a surgeon in the Sican [SICK-an] Culture period.

As reported by Heritage Daily, the funerary bundle came to light at Huaca (HWAK-ah) Las Ventanas, an archaeological site that is part of a larger system of sites spread across the Pomac Forest in the Lambayeque {lahm -ba- YAY-kay] region of Peru.  

The bundle was first excavated between 2010 and 2011, but work on the project paused for over a decade due to the threat of flooding from the La Leche [LAY-chay] River that was poised to potentially destroy the Huaca site. 

The bundle is believed to be a remnant of the Sican, or Lambayeque, culture.  The Sican people inhabited what is now the north coast of Peru between about AD 750 and 1375, and the culture is divided into three major periods—the Early, Middle, and Late Sican periods.   The culture was active after the collapse of the Moche [MOH-chay] culture—although some debate whether the two are separate cultures at all. 

The bundle was finally fully excavated in 2021, revealing an individual from the Middle Sican period around AD 900 to 1050.  Based on the items within the bundle, researchers believe that it likely belonged to a surgeon.

Items retrieved from the bundle included a golden mask pigmented with cinnabar, a large bronze chest piece, and a garment with copper plates.  The researchers also found a type of pottery vessel called a huaco, commonly found at burial sites, that featured two spouts and a depiction of Huaco Rey, or King Huaco—a stylized head with a rotund body. 

The bundle included gilt copper bowls and a type of ceremonial knife called a tumi, often used to cut the throat of sacrificial victims.  The bundle also included a set of awls, needles, and other knives of many different sizes.  Several of the knives featured a cutting edge on one side and a blunt edge on the other side, and several had wooden handles. 

The research project was spearheaded by Sican National Museum Director Carlos Elera and his team of researchers at the museum, with financial support from the National Geographic Fund. 

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!