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

High-tech analysis of residues in an ancient Egyptian mug reveal a complex mixture of exotic and even distasteful substances.  A circular structure uncovered at the Mexican Maya site of El Tigre is a valuable clue to the Maya identity of the site.  A shipwreck with a huge cargo of ceramics illustrates the prosperity of China’s Maritime Silk Road in the fourteenth century.  And a mass burial in a Spanish rockshelter is evidence that serious warfare surprisingly existed in the late Neolithic.

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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 October 29th through November 4th, 2023.

We begin this week in the state of Florida, where a new study has revealed that an ancient Egyptian mug in the collection of the Tampa Museum of Art was used to hold psychotropic drugs as well as human blood and other bodily fluids.

As reported by Artnet News in a story based on a study published by Research Square, the mug, acquired by the museum in 1984, dates to the Ptolemaic-Roman period, stretching from the third century BC to the third century AD. 

The mug is in the shape of the ancient Egyptian god Bes, part dwarf and part cat.  The study's authors say the deity was one of the most fascinating and wildly popular in ancient Egyptian religion, with a following that stretched from the 16th century BC to around AD 400.  By the time this vessel was created, Bes had transformed from his early image as a demon god to a guardian being who provided protection from danger and averted harm. 

Although scholars have long speculated that vessels in the shape of Bes may have been used to hold perfume, holy water, wine or beer, residue from their contents has rarely been studied.  As reported in Research Square, the authors of this study analyzed the proteins and metabolites in residue found in the Tampa mug using genetic techniques and infrared microspectroscopy. 

Their analysis not only revealed residues of psychotropic substances including Syrian rue and blue water lily, but also evidence of human blood, body fluids such as oral or vaginal mucus, and traces of breast milk.  It also showed indications of licorice, fruit yeast water (most likely from grapes), royal jelly, and sesame seeds.

The unique concoctions were probably used in cult rituals.

The study's authors say that no other ancient Mediterranean religion was as complex as the cult of Bes.  For three and a half millennia, its followers were guided by sacred texts that prescribed a mix of religious, medical, magical, and herbalist practices. 

Our next story takes us to Mexico, where a circular structure recently discovered in the jungle may be linked to the cult of a Maya serpent deity.

As reported by Newsweek, archaeologists with the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH, uncovered the ancient structure at the archaeological site of El Tigre, Campeche [kam-PAY-chay] state, on the Yucatan Peninsula.  

The structure comprises two levels.  Archaeologists say it likely supported a flat-roofed temple dedicated to Kukulcan [coo cool CAN], a serpent deity equivalent to the wind god Quetzalcoatl [ket-zol-koh-waa-tl] in Aztec mythology.

The structure dates to between AD 1000 and 1200 and corresponds to a time when the ancient Maya settlement maintained strong ties with other regions of Mesoamerica such as central Mexico, Oaxaca and the Gulf Coast.

According to Diego Prieto, general director of INAH, the date of the structure is important because it broadens our knowledge of the late occupation of El Tigre and this Maya zone's links with other regions of Mesoamerica.

The El Tigre site has a long history of occupation dating back more than 2,000 years.  It corresponds to a settlement called Itzamkanac [eet SAM cah nack], which is detailed in an important historical document of the region called the Paxbolon [PACKS boh lon] Maldonado Papers.  Itzamkanac had temples dedicated to the four main deities of the Postclassic period Maya, one of whom was Kukulcan. 

The discovery of a circular structure that potentially represents the remains of a temple dedicated to Kukulcan suggests that El Tigre is indeed the city of Itzamkanac described in historical sources.

The structure was uncovered along with thousands of other ancient Maya artifacts and structures during work on the Maya Train project—one of the largest and most controversial projects in Mexico’s history. Scheduled to open next month, this thousand-mile-long railway will traverse Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the heart of the ancient Maya civilization. 

While the Maya Train project aims to bring tourists from the region’s popular beach resorts to lesser-known—and poorer—inland locations, critics worry about damage to or destruction of historic Maya sites. They have also raised environmental concerns.

Next we travel to China, where a recovered merchant vessel that sank more than 700 years ago recently came to light.  Retrieved in an archaeological salvage project, the ship contained thousands of Longquan [long TSCHWAN] Celadon porcelains.

The news outlet Xinhua [SHIN wa] reported that the ship dates from the Yuan [you AHN ] Dynasty between AD 1271 and 1368.  It was found at the intersection of the eastern and southern routes of the ancient Maritime Silk Road near the Shenbeiyu [SHEN bay oo] islet in the city of Zhangzhou [zhawn-ZHOH], known as a shipwreck-prone area due to its reefs and complex sea conditions. 

The archaeological salvage project was a joint project of the National Center of Archaeology, the Zhangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, and the Fujian [foo-dzhi-AWN] Provincial Research Institute of Archaeology.  The vessel’s unveiling—and the trove of over 20,000 items retrieved—shed light on the historical prosperity of the Maritime Silk Road during the Yuan Dynasty.

Longquan Celadon porcelains are renowned in China for their striking colors, especially shades of jade green and light blue.  Chen Has, deputy head of the underwater archaeology center of the Fujian Provincial Research Institute of Archaeology, said the sunken ship contains the largest number of Longquan porcelains found on a ship to date.  

Among the retrieved pieces are bowls, plates, cups, and incense burners.  Some are engraved with characters such as “Yong,” “Bao” and “Nian,” meaning “use,” “treasure” and “year,” respectively.  

Some of the found plates were surprising in their size, reaching a diameter of 35 centimeters and a height of 4.3 centimeters.  Plates this large were rarely seen in China.  Liu Miao [leeoo meow ], an associate professor at Xiamen [SHYAH-men ] University, said the plates were designed as porcelain exports to suit overseas dining customs.  

Researchers noticed a high similarity between the plates on the sunken ship, porcelains found at an ancient port in the city of Wenzhou [WEN joh ] in Zhejiang [zhe ZHYAHNG] Province, and other porcelains excavated in Southeast Asia.  Consequently, experts assume the vessel was a civil merchant ship setting off from Wenzhou to Southeast Asia.

For the first time, the salvage project team was able to use underwater photographic stitching to get a panoramic high-definition three-dimensional image of the wreck site in low visibility underwater conditions.

The salvage project is a milestone in China’s underwater archaeological history.  The discovery has provided a glimpse of the booming trade in Longquan Celadon porcelains as well as the prosperity of the Maritime Silk Road.

Finally, skeletal remains from a mass burial site in Spain have revealed that large-scale warfare in Europe may have occurred much earlier than previously thought.

As reported by Newsweek, researchers re-analyzed human bones originally excavated from the San Juan ante Portam Latinam rock shelter in northern Spain.  The remains date back around 5,000 years to the late Neolithic period. 

The new analysis revealed that many whose skeletons were excavated from the site may have been casualties of Europe's earliest period of warfare.  Excavators found 52 flint arrowheads, 64 blades, two polished stone axes, and other artifacts along with the haphazardly buried bodies. 

The re-examination of the remains focused on identifying new evidence of violence to the bones. Researchers found that the damage was varied and reoccurring.  Some individuals showed both healed and unhealed injuries that suggested repeated exposure to violence. Others displayed evidence of arrowhead injuries and cranial traumas, indicating they were involved in varied types of combat.  

Signs of malnourishment, anemia and other conditions observed in the remains suggest these people experienced social unrest and grueling lives,

Study co-author Teresa Fernandez-Crespo notes that prior to this discovery, the earliest known large-scale conflict was the Bronze Age battle of Tollense in Germany, a single event that may have involved up to 4,000 individuals.

The Bronze Age lasted from about 4,000 to 2,800 years ago in Europe.  Thus, the 5,000-year-old remains re-analyzed for this study can be firmly dated to the Neolithic Period which lasted from 7,000 to around 5,000 years ago.

Previous research had suggested that conflicts during this period consisted of short raids lasting no more than a few days and involving small groups of up to 30 individuals.  Researchers thus assumed Neolithic societies lacked the logistical  abilities to support larger-scale conflicts.  The results of this latest study have challenged that view.

According to Fernandez-Crespo, in the context of the study, large-scale warfare means a conflict that involved many individuals, was organized, sustained or persisted in time—at least for months—and had wider impacts on communities in the region where it occurred. 

The cause of the warfare is unclear, but the study’s authors propose that it could have been a regional inter-group conflict, perhaps driven by resource competition and social complexity.  They concluded that warfare in the Neolithic was much more sophisticated, organized and able to impact the general population than previously thought.  This suggests the existence of a greater social-economic hierarchy than heretofore assumed.

The results of the study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

That wraps up the news for this week!

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I’m Laura Kennedy and I’ll see you next week!