Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew to pass along the top news stories that appeared on Archaeologica this past week!  Send us feedback on The Archaeology Channel Facebook page or post a message on our social networking site, ArchaeoSeek!

A group of cavers in England have come across a mine shaft that was sealed 200 years ago and contains some intriguing features.  A new study of the Maya city of Mayapan in the Yucatan details the socioeconomic effects of drought, which brought that city down shortly before the Spanish arrived. A new examination of sea gardens in North America and Australia confirms that people intensively cultivated and harvested oysters and clams up to 10,000 years ago, using techniques that could be emulated today.  And an anonymous donor surprisingly delivered a bag full of stunning Viking jewelry to a Norwegian museum.

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And now, here’s Laura Kennedy 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 Kennedy, and these are the headlines in archaeological and historical news for the week of July 17th through the 23rd, 2022.

Our first story this week takes us to Cheshire, England, where a local group of cavers has discovered an entirely undisturbed 200-year-old mine. 

As reported by Smithsonian Magazine, the Derbyshire [DAR-bee-sher] Caving Club discovered the mine near the small town of Alderley Edge, which has been occupied since the Mesolithic period.  Evidence of copper mining in the Bronze Age has been found also to the south of the town. 

The mine in question was used to extract cobalt and was completely sealed off from oxygen over the centuries, untouched by trespassers, vandals, or litter often found at similar historic sites.  Caving club member Ed Coghlan noted that the mine appeared to be a perfect time capsule into the period, giving insight into what mining was like over 200 years ago in this region. 

One interesting find in the mine was a bit of graffiti left in candle soot on the ground by one of the miners reading, “W.S. 20th August 1810.”  Experts aren’t sure yet what the initials W.S. might mean, but it’s possible they relate to a name of one of the men who used to work in the mine. 

Another interesting discovery in the mine was that of a bowl surrounded by a rock wall.  The purpose of the bowl is unclear, but it’s possible that it was left there as some superstitious gesture.  Others suggest that it is simply some remnant of a prank by one of the miners. 

The number of tools left behind at the site suggest that the mine was potentially abandoned with limited notice, probably because imported cobalt became cheaper than that locally mined material. 

To preserve the mine and its contents, the entrance will soon be sealed once again.  However, experts have first made a 3D scan, allowing anyone to explore the site online.  The scan is provided by The National Trust and is currently available on YouTube.  

Our next story this week takes us to the Yucatán region of Mexico, where new research points to the role of climate change in the 15th-century fall of a powerful Maya city. 

As reported by ScienceDaily.com, anthropologist and UC Santa Barbara professor Douglas Kennett’s recent study in the journal Nature Communications suggests that drought played a significant role in the turmoil that preceded the fall of the city of Mayapan. 

Mayapan was the political and cultural capital of the Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula during the Late Post-Classic period from the 1220s until the mid-1400s. 

Kennett and his team examined archaeological and historical data from Mayapan— including isotope records, radiocarbon data, and DNA sequences from human remains, in order to trace the period of unrest spanning approximately AD 1400 and 1450.

The researchers believe that an extended period of drought contributed to ongoing civil conflict, political rivalries, and population decline that ultimately led to the city’s collapse and abandonment.  

Maya people at the time relied heavily on rain-fed maize agriculture.  The interdisciplinary research found not only a lack of rain during an extended drought, but also an absence of centralized, long-term grain storage, as well as minimal investments in irrigation.

Sociopolitical conflict among elite families also contributed to the turmoil, and the true decline of the city was cemented in 1441 when the influential Xiu (she-OO) family led a revolt that killed almost all members of the ruling ComCom family.  The revolt left the city burned and in shambles.

Researchers argue that drought played an important role in fueling these social and political instabilities, weakening the integrity of Mayapan's governmental institutions and ultimately disturbing the social order.  

At the same time, as populations in Mayapan fragmented, social reorganization that resulted from this turmoil allowed the Maya to remain quite resilient for a century more prior to Spanish arrival in Yucatán.

The study illustrates the importance of cross-discipline research and collaboration in order to better understand the full context of ancient sites and societies.  The study also serves as somewhat of a warning, as well, for what modern societies might expect in the face of a rapidly changing climate and political conflict.   

Our next story this week explores the role of so-called “sea gardens” used by a variety of Indigenous groups in North America, New Zealand and Australia to cultivate and harvest marine life for food. 

As reported in Hakai Magazine, the recent study published in the journal Nature Communications outlines how Indigenous communities, from British Columbia, to the U.S. Atlantic Coast, to New Zealand and Australia, have cultivated sea life for thousands of years.

Building on a landmark 2004 study, archeologist Torben Rick from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History examined Indigenous oyster fisheries in North America and Australia, cross-comparing the data with sea level histories and historical catch records. 

Researchers looked at sites across both continents.  This included a pile of 20 million oyster shells hidden by greenery on Florida’s Gulf Coast, stone seawalls in British Columbia, and waste piles of shells in Eastern Australia.  They also looked to modern fishing practices by Indigenous groups, such as the Swinomish in Washington State who are currently building a new sea garden informed by ancient practices. 

Indigenous groups around the world participated in oyster gardening on a massive scale, and the practice blended into other aspects of daily life for these peoples.  For example, Indigenous groups in what is today the American Southeast built massive monuments out of oyster shells, sometimes reaching more than 30 meters high. 

Such sites sometimes took billions of oyster shells, and held deep significance, including use for human burial, feasting, and other ceremonies and rituals.

Indigenous “sea gardens” date back many thousands of years.  The most recent study relied on both archaeological and ethnohistorical records, identifying changes in the natural world like glacial melt from over 11,000 years ago as well as the stabilization of sea levels thousands of years later.  Such conditions created an abundance of estuaries and resulted in a massive uptick in intensive oyster harvesting by Indigenous communities for 5,000 to 10,000 years.

The work contributes to our understanding of the value of Indigenous approaches to marine stewardship and harvesting practices.  For example, the Quandamooka Aboriginal people of Moreton Bay in Australia have methods that expand the seasonal availability of oysters using ancestral techniques. 

On natural high points on the shallow seabed, these people construct artificial reefs using old oyster shells, and restock depleted reefs with young farmed oysters to ensure sustainable harvests throughout the year. 

Although oyster farming and cultivation likely happened, it’s been difficult to identify in the archaeological record, suggesting that ancient Indigenous peoples had powerful ecological knowledge that fueled more sustainable oyster harvesting and maintaining an ecological balance.

In the wake of unprecedented overfishing in the 19th century as well as today, societies can take many lessons from such practices in order to create more sustainable methods for harvesting marine resources. 

Our final story this week brings us to Norway, where the Museum of Archaeology at the  University of Stavanger recently received a haul of Viking Age jewelry sourced from an online auction. 

As reported by the site ScienceNorway, the person who brought the jewelry to the museum has chosen to remain anonymous, so the exact origin of these artifacts is unknown.

Archaeologist Kristine Sørgaard at the museum shared that she literally received these items on a platter— after being called to reception, she was given a tin platter with a plastic bag on it.

The contents of the bag included two oval brooches [BRO-chez], an equal-armed brooch, two bracelets, and a large necklace including a variety of more than 50 beads.  Sørgaard noted that most of the contents were quite typical of the Viking period. 

Both the oval brooches and the bracelets would have been mass-produced in Scandinavia during the Viking Age, and archaeologists have often found comparable molds in the ruins of craft shops in Viking Age towns and women’s graves.  This corresponds to a period in which wearing jewelry became more widespread, likely correlating with increased wealth stemming from Viking raids. 

Meanwhile, the Museum found that some of the beads in the haul were not made in Scandinavia, instead originating from southern Europe and the Middle East, pointing to Viking trade patterns.  One of the mosaic beads helps date the find to around AD 850, or the early Viking Age.

The shinier beads in the collection were not made of gold or silver, suggesting the original owner was at some social level below the most powerful in society, perhaps a wealthy farm owner or crafts producer. 

Common practice during the time was for a certain design of bead to be made for around 10 to 30 years before craftspeople moved on to a new style.  This particular collection of diverse beads points to a collection amassed over a long period of time and through significant financial investment as well.  Alternatively, if the collection of jewelry originated in a graveyard, the older beads might have come from an older grave in the same area, and then they were combined by whoever discovered them. 

Because the jewelry’s provenance is unknown, it’s not possible to place the haul in its full historical context.  In such cases, it’s often been years between the time when the artifacts were actually discovered and when they were given to archaeologists. 

According to Norwegian law, finds that are believed to stem from before 1537 are supposed to be reported and delivered to a relevant office of cultural heritage conservation.

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 Kennedy and I’ll see you next week!