Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew.  Stay tuned for four fascinating 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!

Excavators in Egypt have uncovered a cemetery from the Hellenistic and Roman periods with tombs cut out of the natural rock floors.  Investigation of a huge oasis in northwestern Saudi Arabia revealed a massive Bronze Age rampart around it.  The latest LiDAR survey in the Amazon forest has exposed a huge complex of ancient cities.  And excavation of a Medieval grave in Sweden brought to light a very tall man with a very long sword.

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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 January 7th through the 13th, 2024.

Our first story this week comes from the historic city of Al Bahnasa [all bawn ASS uh] in Egypt, where a groundbreaking discovery has uncovered Ptolemaic and Roman era tombs dug directly into the rock.  As reported by Arkeonews, their contents included mummies, coffins, golden masks, and terracotta statues.  

Spanish archaeologists Dr. Mayte [MAI -tay] Mascorro and Dr. Esther Pons Melado from the University of Barcelona and the Ancient Near East Institute led the excavations.  They were supervised by Dr. Mustafa Waziri, the Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Set in Egypt's Minya governorate, Al Bahnasa was once the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus [awk see RINK us].  It was reestablished as a Hellenistic town after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC.  It became a prosperous regional capital and the third-largest city in Egypt.  After the country was Christianized, the city became famous for its many churches and monasteries.

The tombs, set  in the eastern part of Al Bahnasa's Upper Cemetery, were directly hewn into the natural rock below the ground — a new burial approach at that time.  The funerary architecture consisted of stone walls closed with brick doors leading to large chambers.

Dating to the Ptolemaic Period of 305 to 330 BC and the Roman period of 30 BC to AD 641, the tombs shed light on unique burial practices and artistic expressions of both periods.

Among the most remarkable finds were terracotta figurines of the floral-crowned goddess Isis-Aphrodite.  Her first-time appearance in Al Bahnasa indicates there is still much to learn about the funeral rituals of various periods in the city's history.

The archaeologists also discovered mummies, some of which were wearing gilded and colored funeral masks.  Golden tongues found in the mouths of two of the mummies reflected a known practice during the city's Roman era: an effort to preserve the deceased's ability to speak.

The team also discovered parts of a ruined structure adorned with intricate drawings of plants and animals, papyrus fragments inside a clay seal, and mummies wrapped in colorful bandages. 

According to Dr. Waziri, the discovery sheds new light on the rich history of the region.  Future campaigns will continue to work at the site to uncover more secrets.

Next we head east across the Red Sea to northwestern Saudi Arabia, where archaeologists have discovered the remains of massive fortifications surrounding one of the world's longest oases, the Khaybar.  As reported by Arkeonews, the structure is believed to be four thousand years old, with radiocarbon dating placing its construction between 2250 and 1950 BC.

Using intricate digital models created by cross-referencing field surveys and remote sensing data, a team of scientists from the French National Center for Scientific Research and the Royal Commission for Al-'Ula has estimated the fortification's impressive original dimensions.  It measures about nine miles long, over sixteen feet high and up to nearly eight feet thick, enclosing more than 2,700 acres.  Less than half of the original length exists today.  Researchers have identified the remains of over seventy bastions intended for defensive fire set in the walls.

Fed by sources of freshwater such as underground rivers and high water tables, oases can become sanctuaries for plant and animal life.  Human-built aquifers and channels can help make them suitable for long-term settlement.

Studies confirm that the Khaybar Oasis was an ancient agricultural center, part of a network of walled oases in the region.  Examination of its architectural features and layout will offer invaluable insights into why the fortification, which the project study describes as "a monumental defensive belt," was created.  It will also shed light on the social structure, military strategies,  and economic activities of  the Bronze Age people who lived within its walls and their interactions with people outside them.

A dedicated group of archaeologists and researchers is overseeing the excavation as well as the meticulous mapping, documentation and analysis of the structures.  The goal is to ensure the preservation and accurate interpretation of the fortifications.

The discovery of the Khaybar Oasis fortifications should spark further exploration of the region, leading to major advances in understanding the prehistoric, pre-Islamic and Islamic past of the northwestern Arabian Peninsula.

Our third story takes us deep into Equador’s Upano Valley, where researchers using laser technology have captured evidence of an extensive civilization hidden under the dense rainforest canopy.  

As reported by livescience.com, the complex network of pre-Hispanic structures and roadways is the earliest and largest example of an agricultural civilization ever recorded in South America’s dense rainforest.  The Upano sites were occupied from around 500 BC to somewhere between AD 300 and 600.

Airborne Light Detection and Ranging—or, LIDAR—technology uses specially equipped planes which beam infrared laser pulses into the forest and measure their return path, revealing topographic features otherwise invisible under the trees.  This technology is revolutionizing archaeological research in the Amazon, where dense forests make it difficult to gain a complete picture of the region.

Excavations first began in the Upano Valley three decades ago under the direction of Stéphen Rostain, an archaeologist at France’s national research agency.  Focusing on two large settlements, Sangay and Kilamope, his team found many mounds organized around central plazas, as well as artifacts such as painted pottery and jugs holding remains of the traditional maize beer, chicha.  

However, Rostain did not get a complete overview of the region until he gained funding for a LIDAR survey.  That changed everything.  

The LIDAR data revealed five large settlements and ten smaller ones across 300 square kilometers in the Upano Valley.  The sites contained more than 6,000 rectangular earthen platforms, plaza structures and mounds.  The cities were interspersed with agricultural fields and surrounded by hillside terraces where crops such as corn, manioc and sweet potato would have been planted.  

The cities were interconnected via an extensive network of roadways and footpaths.  

Although we tend to think of the word “urbanism” in a modern context, Fernando Mejía [may –HEE-ya], co-author of the study and an archaeologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, says that’s what this 2,500-year-old civilization exemplifies.

The network of roads connecting the Upano sites suggests they all existed at the same time.  The details of the cultures that lived—and thrived—there are just now coming into view.  

We end this week in Sweden, where archaeologists excavating a Franciscan friary in the coastal city of Halmstad have found the burial site of an unusually tall man with a longsword.  

As reported by livescience.com, the sword, inlaid with what appear to be Christian crosses, is well preserved despite being made of iron and susceptible to rust.  Slight damage to the hilt likely resulted from 1930s road work when the friary was first discovered.  The sword was the only object found in the forty-nine graves examined so far during the ongoing reconstruction of Lilla Torg, an historic square at the center of the city.  

The man stood about six feet, three inches tall, nearly a foot taller than the average Swedish man at the turn of the sixteenth century.  Archaeologists speculate he may have been a wealthy nobleman who supported the ill-fated Kalmar Union, roughly dating from 1397 to 1523, when a single king ruled Sweden, Denmark and Norway .

Because the man's grave and those of two more people were found where the friary church once stood, archaeologists think all three were members of a local noble family.  The discovery of swords in medieval graves is very rare, and people buried with them likely belonged to the upper ranks of society.  Experts wonder if the man could have been a powerful member of the high nobility of the Kalmar Union who may have owned property in both Sweden and Denmark.  DNA analysis will investigate whether the three were related.

The Kalmar Union was in part an effort to counter the influence of northern Germany's powerful Hanseatic League of towns and merchants, which dominated trade in the Baltic and North seas at the time.  However, the Kalmar Union was riven by factional fighting, culminating in 1520 with the "Stockholm Bloodbath," in which its leader, King Christian the Second, executed almost a hundred of his enemies.  The event eroded sympathy for the union in Sweden.

The friary was active from 1494 until it was destroyed in 1531 during the Protestant Reformation.

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 growing subscription platform, Heritage Broadcasting Service, at heritagetac.org!

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