Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Audio News from Archaeologica! I'm Laura Kennedy.  Rick Pettigrew is on assignment on our tour of megalithic sites in Ireland, so I’ll be telling you about four of the best stories posted online this past week by our partner, Archaeologica.org! Here are the headlines in archaeological and historical news from September 11th through the 17th, 2022. 

Our first story this week brings us to Syria, where the preserved dung of ancient animals challenges our timeline for when humans first domesticated animals. 

According to the study, excavations in the 1970s at the archaeological site Abu Hureyra—a prehistoric archaeological site in the Upper Euphrates valley in Syria—revealed human habitation there dating to around 13,000 years ago. 

Though the site is difficult to access due to ongoing conflicts related to the Syrian Civil War, the research team -- University of Connecticut anthropologist Alexia Smith and colleagues -- examined carefully stored samples from earlier excavations at the site.

As reported by ScienceAlert.com, the team focused on dung samples used as fuel by ancient hunter-gatherers in the region.  During the earlier Epipaleolithic, the dung samples showed limited levels of interaction between these humans and animals. 

However, samples from the later Epipaleolithic showed a spike in dung distribution near fire pits, suggesting a major spike in humans-animals interactions, allowing the early humans to collect more dung for fuel. 

The fire pits’ dung samples concentration suggest that some animals were actually kept at the site by the early humans.  

This finding is significant because the prevailing hypothesis has been that humans first tended early crops, and only later domesticated animals.  The newly discovered dung distribution challenges this hypothesis.  Ancient peoples may have domesticated animals at least 2,000 years earlier than previously believed. 

Researchers believe that the kept animals may have provided meat when the main prey – gazelles -- were scarce. This may have enabled the hunter-gathers to occupy the site year-round.  The dung distribution findings also coincide in time growing populations of wild sheep and aurochs in the area. 

The researchers have insufficient evidence to determine the animal species kept at the site, but it’s very likely that these herbivores were gazelles or sheep. 

The study is published in the scientific journal Plos One.

Our second story this week brings us to the British Isles, where examination of a 650-year-old map reinforces evidence of the factual existence of islands storied in Welsh myth. 

As reported by LiveScience.com, researchers studying the Gough map—held at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford—discovered two islands on the map in what is now known as Cardigan Bay in Wales. 

The two islands were part of a realm known in Welsh mythology as Cantre'r Gwaelod. According to legend, it was eroded by the ocean over the centuries. 

Cantre'r Gwaelod was storied as a land area once located west of present-day Wales, but now sunken in Cardigan Bay.  Some hypotheses suggest that this tract of land extended from Bardsey Island to Cardigan or as far south as Ramsey Island.  Stories about this land date back at least 9,000 years. 

The researchers, co-led by Simon Haslett and David Willis, hold that the map strengthens evidence that these islands may have, in fact, actually still existed as late as the 14th century.  

The researchers also investigated other early sources mentioning Cantre'r Gwaelod.  They found thereby that the ancient writer Ptolemy of Roman Egypt described the coastline of Cardigan Bay as further west than its current location.  Thus, they hold, the Welsh shoreline may have eroded substantially over millennia.  This view also aligns with common legend suggesting that the mythical land may have extended 20 miles west of the present coast. 

While many scholars are supportive of these conjectures, others remain skeptical pending further research, and want evidence beyond the Gough Map before considering any concurrence. 

The study was published in the journal Atlantic Geoscience. 

Our third story brings us to Gaza, Palestine, where a farmer and his son uncovered an expansive Byzantine-era mosaic while planting an olive tree. 

As reported by CBS News, the farmer—who refused to be identified before the official announcement—was preparing to plant a new olive tree in the area of Bureij, in the central Gaza Strip, when his shovel hit something hard.  Calling his son to join him, the pair excavated one of the most impressive mosaics ever found in Gaza. 

Archaeologists acknowledged the significance of this mosaic, which features bright colors and 17 images of animals and birds.  The quality of the work, as well as its complexity, show that its creator was a highly skilled artisan.  Researchers have dated the mosaic to between the 5th and 7th centuries. 

The discovery has also highlighted issues regarding protection of antiquities in a violent conflict zone.  The mosaic was found only a half mile from the Israeli border.  Gaza’s collection of sites is threatened both by a lack of awareness and resources, as well as by ongoing conflict between the Israeli State and Hamas.

Hamas, the fundamentalist party governing the Gaza strip, runs its own department of antiquities.  Hamas described the mosaic as "a big archaeological discovery", but refused any further comment.

Hamas has previously destroyed large parts of a site containing the remains 4,500-year-old Bronze Age remains to build new housing in a region of demographic stress, where compressed populations suffer under tight border enforcement and encroachment.  A report earlier this year also spoke to the threat Israeli bombings pose to archaeological treasures in Gaza. 

Archaeologists hope that further efforts will be made to preserve such cultural treasures in the future, and that a professional team can soon access the site to properly excavate, restore, and protect the mosaic.

Our final story takes us to the North Atlantic, where cloth samples from medieval archaeological sites point to the substantial economic power of Viking-era women. 

Per Scientific American, a team led by Michèle Hayeur Smith, an anthropological archaeologist with Brown University, is deepening our understanding of women’s roles and influence during that period, in part by examining ancient cloth samples from archaeological sites and museums.

According to Hayeur Smith, women’s textile production was as critical as traditionally male-led tasks -- hunting, house building, and warfare.  Through their textile work, women built the basis of the North Atlantic economy, and helped people survive harsh local climates there.

Coarse wool fabrics known as wadmal (VAD-mal) were used as a money-like medium of exchange throughout Scandinavia.  Women created these fabrics, thus quite literally producing “money” for their local economies, particularly in Iceland and Norway, between the 11th and 17th centuries. 

While prior scholars were aware of wadmal, it is Hayeur Smith’s work that first connected women’s production of  it to the economic prosperity of Viking Age communities. 

She conducted not only textile analysis, but also examinations of legal texts from the period, to confirm the material specifications for wadmal that met requirements for its being an official currency.  Fabric units satisfying these legal specifications were stipulated as equivalents for specific weights of silver. 

Hayeur Smith confirmed that many wadmal samples from Iceland conformed exactly to the legal specifications for monetization of fabric units, demonstrating women’s crucial role in the economy, including in its money-supply.  

It is also considered likely that Viking women led efforts, or collaborated with male leaders, to determine legal specifications for monetizing wadmal, implying a key role for women in economic decision-making in Viking Age communities. 

This view is reinforced by snippets from Norse mythology, in which female characters’ weaving skills sometimes served as metaphors for mythical strength and power. 

Hayeur Smith continues to research Viking Age textiles, assessing other conclusions that might be drawn about social structures based on women’s production of this critical resource. 

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 Kennedy and I’ll see you next week!