Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew with 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!

A wooden-framed saddle found in Mongolia appears to show that this revolutionary technology developed in Mongolia.  A newly excavated bakery in Pompeii makes very evident the cruelty inflicted there on both animals and slaves.  A recent archaeological survey has revealed a huge complex of newly found rock art in the Mesa Verde area.  And a rare curse tablet has emerged from a medieval latrine in Germany.

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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 December 10th through the 16th, 2023.

Our first story this week comes from Mongolia.  The earliest example of a wooden-framed saddle gives insight into the origins of modern horse-riding gear.  

As reported by the University of Colorado at Boulder, an international team completed their analysis of the carved birchwood saddle and associated artifacts from the Urd Ulaan [Ulahn] Cave in western Mongolia.  In 2015, police caught thieves looting a cave in the rugged Altai Mountains region. The saddle was part of the loot.

Archaeologists from the National Museum of Mongolia excavated the cave and documented the burial where looters stole the saddle.  They found a wooden coffin holding human remains, remains of a horse, and other artifacts.  DNA testing confirmed that the burial was a man, and the horse was domesticated.

One of the museum excavators, Jamsranjav (JAMZ-răn-jaav) Bayarsaikhan (Bai-yar-see-KAHN), helped describe the finds in a 2018 paper.  

The new analysis tells a riveting story.  Radiocarbon dating places the saddle’s manufacture between AD 267 and 535.  This makes it the earliest modern wooden-framed saddle ever found.  

Decorated in red and black paint, the saddle was made from about six pieces of birch wood held together with wooden nails.  Birch was and is common in the region and suggests the saddle was locally made.   The two leather straps attached to the saddle probably led to stirrups. 

A rigid, supportive saddle with stirrups allowed riders far greater control of the horse and what they could do while riding.  Compared to bareback riding or a bridle, the saddle and stirrups freed the rider to use weapons while riding.  This could even happen at great speed while executing rapid turns.  

Having controlled upper body movement while riding was essential for horse-mounted warfare.  These nomadic warriors changed the world.  They swept into China, Europe and the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages.

This saddle suggests the change started in Mongolia rather than China.  Frame saddles and stirrups in China date back to the 5th and 6th century AD.   The analysis of the Mongolian saddle shows a date that is as early, if not earlier.

This suggests that Mongolians might have been either the developers of the new technologies, or among the very first adopters.

According to University of Colorado archaeologist William Taylor, one of the study authors, Mongolia’s role in horse riding history is well known, but its part in developing the saddle and stirrup technology has been underappreciated.  This is partly because of the region’s low population and rugged geography, making archaeological research difficult.  

The new study appears in the journal Antiquity. 

Next we go to Pompeii, where excavators have found a bakery that shows how awful life could be for Roman laborers and animals. 

As reported by Smithsonian Magazine, the bakery workers were clearly enslaved people. They toiled alongside donkeys to grind the grain for bread in a cramped, dark space.  The only light came from a few small, barred windows set high in the walls.

According to Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, the details show that the owner of the mill treated the workers as prisoners.  The donkeys pushed a grindstone. The workers added grain, monitored the process, and collected the flour.  

Researchers found indentations in the floor. They think they were used to coordinate the workers’ and animals’ movements.  The space was so small that two donkeys could not pass at the same time.  They always had to synchronize their movements.

Written accounts of the bleak conditions inside ancient mills and bakeries are well known. The second-century author, Apuleius [A-poo-LAY-us], said workers had skins striped with livid welts, foreheads branded with the mark of their ownership, and feet chained together.

According to Apuleius, the workers in such places were sallow and malnourished.  They suffered eye damage from the scorching heat, smoke, and flour-filled air. 

The donkeys were treated miserably, too.  They were blindfolded and forced to walk around in circles for hours.  Their hooves were malformed from the repetitive circling.  According to Apuleius, their hides were scarred from whipping, blotched by scabs and lesions, and hollowed by starvation.

Archaeologists found the bakery earlier this year in the Regio Nine area of Pompeii.  Previous discoveries in this section include a fresco featuring a pizza-like flatbread and an electoral campaign inscription.

This latest find underscores the importance of a new exhibition at the site, called “The Other Pompeii: Ordinary Lives in the Shadow of Vesuvius.”  The show is dedicated to those often left out of the history books, such as enslaved individuals.  These people were the majority of the population.  Their labor shaped not only the economy, but also the culture and social fabric of Roman civilization.

Our third story takes us to the American Southwest.  Archaeologists from Jagiellonian [yahg-yell-OH-nee-an] University in Kraków (Krahk-ow) have discovered remarkably extensive new astronomical carvings and paintings associated with the Pueblo culture of Mesa Verde.

As reported by Heritage Daily, the petroglyphs are in the Castle Rock Pueblo settlement complex.  This is located on the Mesa Verde plateau on the border between Colorado and Utah. 

Previous research in the area has identified Pueblo petroglyphs from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries AD, as well as fifteenth to seventeenth century AD rock panels featuring hunting scenes, associated with the Ute tribe.

The Pueblos were an early Native American civilization that emerged around AD 700, mainly in New Mexico and Arizona.   Farther north, they produced spectacular cliff dwellings and art in the Four Corners area, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet.

Pueblo culture was one of the most advanced societies of North America. The people constructed multistory masonry houses, rock art, intricately ornamented jewelry, and ceramics decorated with painted motifs.

Archaeologists followed up on reports from the local community about petroglyphs in remote and rugged parts of Sand Canyon, Graveyard Canyon and Rock Creek Canyon at the Castle Rock Pueblo settlement complex.  The team found the petroglyphs on rock panels that stretch over two and a half miles around the plateau. 

Some rock panels have carvings of spirals up to three feet across. 

According to Professor Radosław (RAH doh slav) Palonka (Pah LOHN kah) from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, the Pueblo people used spirals these to determine the summer and winter solstices and to track spring and autumn equinoxes.

Archaeologists also discovered painted depictions of warriors and shamans [SHAY-mans].  These date from the third century AD during the Basketmaker period.

This changes prior thoughts about this area.  New findings suggest that more people lived here in the thirteenth century than previously thought.  The petroglyph panels appear to reflect an extremely complex set of religious practices, carried out at least partly outdoors.

We end the week in Germany, where archaeologists have uncovered a devil curse.  It’s written out on a rolled-up fifteenth century tablet found in Rostock, a historic city in northeastern Germany.

As reported by Heritage Daily, the discovery came about during construction works for a town hall extension in Rostock.  Excavations of a medieval latrine revealed an inconspicuous piece of rolled up lead.

The words “sathanas taleke belzebuk hinrik berith” became legible, invoking the devil by his name of Beelzebub.  The curse was against a woman named Taleke and a man called Hinrik, an early version of the name Heinrich.

The text is written in Blackletter, also known as Gothic minuscule, or Textura.  This text was used throughout Western Europe from the twelfth century until the seventeenth century.

Curse tablets were common from the Greco-Roman period through the Middle Ages.  Other curses have survived on thin sheets of lead that were then rolled up, just like the Rostock curse.  The curses begged the gods, spirits, or the deceased to carry out various actions on a person or object, or to exert influence over whomever, or whatever, was being targeted.

According to the Rostock City Hall announcement, the find is very rare, especially in containing an incantation to Beelzebub, another name for the Devil or Satan.   The word Berith in the curse refers to Baʿal Berith, which the Rabbinic tradition also equates with Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies.

The motive for the curse is unclear.  Common intentions included severing a relationship, payback for unrequited love, acts of jealousy, or wanting to bring misfortune on the named individuals.

Historical records indicate that a fourteenth century, double-gabled house occupied the site.  Excavations also uncovered the remains of cellars and foundations dated to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  Other findings include traces of a former waterway and a fifteenth century lusterware blue bowl from Valencia, Spain. 

That wraps up the news for this week!