Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew delivering another batch of fascinating 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!

Serious mercury pollution at seven ancient Maya cities is interpreted as residue from painting with cinnabar.  Debris found with ancient artificial islands known as crannogs in the British Isles suggests that the elite used them for feasting, among other things.  A sarcophagus found in Egypt shows inscriptions identifying it as the resting place for an important official under powerful pharaoh Ramses the Second. And a 15th-century warship investigated in the Baltic represents new and advanced technology brought from the Mediterranean to the Baltic by a powerful Danish king.

The Audio News Team would like to thank our friends for helping us continue this show without a break since we started more than 21 years ago!  If you’re not already a supporting member, please go to archaeologychannel.org and click on the Donate button.  We can still use all the help we can get!

Thanks to you also for supporting our subscription platform, Heritage Broadcasting Service, available at heritagetac.org.  We now have 238 titles you can binge upon on Roku.  Please help us spread the word!  Again, that link is heritagetac.org.

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 September 25th through October 1st, 2022.

We begin this week in Mesoamerica, where toxic levels of mercury have been found in soil across seven Maya city sites. 

Even after centuries, the concentrations still pose a threat.  Levels are so high in some areas, researchers are being advised to wear protective gear.

The new data come from a US, UK, and Australian team, who reviewed soil data collected from ten Classic Period Maya sites and their surrounding areas, which included environmental measurements of mercury levels.  Seven of the sites have at least one area with mercury concentrations at or above modern benchmarks for toxic levels.

The Classic Period of Maya civilization lasted from AD 250 to 900 and is known for their large stone cities and monuments, many of them originally painted with bright colors, including red. 

According to Duncan Cook, lead author and a geoarchaeologist at Australian Catholic University, mercury pollution in the environment is usually a contemporary urban and industrial problem.  The discovery of mercury in buried sediments at ancient Maya cities was challenging to explain. 

The team reexamined records from previous research, and found that sealed vessels of mercury had been excavated from several Maya ritual caches or elite burials, as well as countless objects decorated with mercury-based paint. 

As reported by Discover Magazine and ScienceAlert.com, the Maya used powdered cinnabar, a mercury compound, as their primary red paint for decorating patios, floors, walls, and ceramics.  Rainfall and other weathering washed traces of this mercury-based paint into soil and water, thus adding it to archaeological deposits.

In its pure form, mercury is a shiny gray metal that has the lowest melting point of all metals, so that it remains liquid at room temperature -- thus its historic name of “quicksilver.”  Many societies have valued this thick liquid throughout history.  

Cinnabar is a widely found compound of mercury and sulfur, which forms naturally near hot springs and in volcanic regions.  The soft, easily ground lumps of bright scarlet or deep brick red have been used for red paint around the world.  

However, for the Maya, cinnabar was not just decoration. 

According to co-author and University of Cincinnati geoarchaeologist Nicholas Dunning, for the Maya, objects could contain ch'ulel, or “soul-force,” which resided in blood.  The brilliant red of cinnabar was thought to hold this sacred substance. 

Archaeological studies suggest that cinnabar was being mined and traded in Central America as far back as the second millennium BC, during Olmec times.  By the time the Maya began building cities, cinnabar use was common.  

The question now is whether exposure to the toxic metal affected the Maya’s health.  Chronic mercury poisoning damages the central nervous system, kidneys and liver, and the effects are seen in tremors and mental disorders, impaired vision and hearing, paralysis, and metabolic disorders.

One of the last rulers of the Maya city of Tikal, a king called Dark Sun, was notably obese, a potential clue to chronic mercury poisoning. 

Further research is needed to investigate how the liberal use of mercury sulfide affected Maya health. 

The new study appears in Frontiers in Environmental Science.

Our next story this week brings us to the British Isles, where a new study shows that ancient elites likely held festivals on artificially made islands known as crannogs. 

Hundreds of crannogs were created in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, between 4,000 BC and the 16th century AD, by building up available natural material in lakes and estuarine waters to create the islands.   Typically they assembled stone, timber or peat to build the artificial island, often with a diameter of nearly 100 feet.  However, the aquatic location of crannogs makes them difficult for archaeologists to excavate.

As reported by LiveScience.com, the Norwegian and English team found ancient DNA known as sedimentary ancient DNA or ‘sedaDNA,’ that is very useful environmental and biochemical data found in materials.  The integrated analysis showed that the crannogs were important places used as high-status homes, which were stocked with ample resources. 

The interdisciplinary team led by Professor Antony Brown, from UiT Arctic University of Norway, took samples from lake sediments at crannog sites.  The team also found pollen from  bracken plants used for bedding, as well as other botanical clues suggesting that craft activities took place on the islands.

At one of the crannogs, bone fragments indicate huge amounts of butchering, most likely for feasts and entertaining.  This supports previous research that suggests crannogs were compounds used by the elite, perhaps for ceremonial occasions.

The team also found that the cost of supplying the crannogs with resources meant that they were linked to dramatic environmental changes in the local area.  Pollen and plant sedaDNA indicate that crannog construction was associated with deforestation, likely to provide materials as well as to clear farmland.  Meanwhile, waste from the inhabitants polluted the lake ecosystems around the crannogs, as early as the Iron Age.

The new research appears in the journal Antiquity.

For our third story we go to Egypt, where archaeologists working in Saqqara, the ancient necropolis south of Cairo, have uncovered a 3,200 year old sarcophagus made from pink granite.  The coffin belonged to Ptah-M-Wia, a high-ranking official who held multiple administrative titles during the reign of Ramses the Second. 

As reported by Smithsonian Magazine, Ptah-M-Wia’s mummy was gone by the time archaeologists from Cairo University discovered his empty sarcophagus.  The coffin’s lid was broken, suggesting grave robbers removed the remains, probably in antiquity.  However, traces of resin in the sarcophagus prove that it once contained a mummified body.

According to Mustafa Waziri, the director of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, hieroglyphs inscribed on the sarcophagus indicate that Ptah-M-Wia was, in his words, a “royal secretary, chief overseer of cattle and head of the treasury” at Ramses’ funerary temple in Thebes.  Also quoting from Waziri, the official was also in charge of “divine offerings to all the gods of Upper and Lower Egypt.”

The discovery reveals the significance of Ptah-M-Wia’s relationship with Ramses, who ruled from roughly 1279 to 1213 BC.  Ptah-M-Wia’s tomb is in a section of Saqqara that houses the burials of many prominent New Kingdom officials like him.

The sarcophagus is the latest in a number of new discoveries at Saqqara.  In May, archaeologists unearthed 250 sarcophagi and 150 bronze statues.  In 2020, over 100 intact wooden coffins with hieroglyphs and well preserved mummies inside came to light.  The ongoing excavation also revealed carved statues, mummified cats and numerous works of art.

Located about twenty miles southwest of Cairo, Saqqara served as a burial ground for more than 3,000 years for the ancient Egyptian capital city of Memphis.  

Ramses, who had the second-longest reign in Egyptian history, is regarded as one of the New Kingdom’s most powerful pharaohs.  During his nearly seven decades in power, Ramses oversaw numerous building programs, expanding Egypt’s cities, temples and monuments.  He led Egypt through times of war, famously defeating the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh in 1275 BC.

According to Emily Teeter, an Egyptologist and associate of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, the findings help piece together the enormous bureaucracy that existed in the ancient New Kingdom.

Ramses left official records of his reign, but these are validated and further fleshed out by the large quantity of material remaining from people who worked for the administration, including construction builders, priests, craftsmen, and officials such as his royal treasurer, Ptah-M-Wia. 

Our final story this week comes from southeast Sweden, where a new underwater investigation of a fifteenth century royal warship revealed cannons, handguns and crossbows, and recorded new details on the superstructure of the ship.

As reported by Live Science.com, the new discoveries on the wreck of the Gribshunden — a flagship of King Hans of Denmark that sank in 1495— show the vessel sailed as a formidable ship of war armed with dozens of guns and packed with soldiers.

According to Brendan Foley, a maritime archaeologist at Lund University in Sweden who is leading the latest excavations, the 115-foot-long wooden ship was one of the first vessels designed to carry early cannon artillery. 

The builders used a new shipbuilding technique known as carvel planking, a method imported to the Baltic from the Mediterranean.  The technique involves joining each plank of the hull edge-to-edge on a wooden frame instead of overlapping them. 

This let them make the Gribshunden both larger and stronger than ships with overlapping planks, allowing it to carry more artillery, in heavier areas.  The ship was armed with up to ninety small cannons, which would have been accompanied by armored soldiers firing handguns and crossbows from the ship's upper deck. 

According to Foley, the tall superstructures built at each end of the ship, known as the forecastle [FOHK-sl] and sterncastle, were also unique in design, showing that King Hans had a ship that let him dominate naval battles like no other in Scandinavia at the time.

Hans ruled Denmark from 1481 onward, winning the crown of Norway in 1483, and bringing Sweden under his rule in 1497.  He sailed on the Gribshunden throughout his realm, often surrounded by a large royal fleet. 

In 1495, the Gribshunden was leaving with Hans and his court for negotiations in southeast Sweden, when the ship mysteriously sank.  History records a fire that broke out while the ship was anchored in a port town.  The king was onshore at the time, but it is believed many of the approximately 150 men onboard perished.

The new research suggests that many of the ship's guns were salvaged soon after the sinking. However, no sign of fire was apparent, so the ship likely sank quickly after becoming damaged in the hull below the waterline.  The vessel was one of the first to carry gunpowder, and researchers theorize the stores of the highly combustible substance had exploded.  

Fritz Jürgens, a maritime archaeologist at Kiel University, noted that the Gribshunden is the oldest carvel-built ship ever found in the Baltic.  Local divers rediscovered the wreck of the Gribshunden beneath about thirty-three feet of water near the town of Ronneby in the 1970s, and she was formally identified in 2013.  

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!