Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew to hand off our 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!

Magnetic signatures in fired bricks have let to the precise dating of the famous Babylonian Ishtar Gate.  An enigmatic copper-alloy Roman dodecahedron has turned up in a field in England.  Hunter-gatherer burial sites high in the Peruvian Andes show that even hunters at this time relied largely on plant foods rather than meat.   And careful analysis of data from the royal tombs of Macedon has led to strong conclusions about just who is buried there, and it’s not Alexander the Great.

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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 21st through the 27th, 2024.

We begin this week in the ancient Mesopotamian capital of Babylon, where archaeologists have used archaeomagnetism to reveal a more precise date for the construction of the Ishtar Gate.  

As reported by the news site Haaretz, archaeomagnetism is a technique that uses materials like fired clay or stone to determine a date for the moment when they were last heated.  The technique can be used when radiocarbon dating or other techniques are not feasible. 

Archaeomagnetism relies on the fact that ancient artifacts like bricks and pottery contain small amounts of iron oxide, ferromagnetic dust, and other particles.  High heat, such as from baking in a kiln, or exposure to a major fire, makes these particles move into alignment like microscopic compass needles. 

After the materials cool, the particles stay magnetized in relation to the direction and intensity of the magnetic field at the time.  In essence, this provides a time stamp of the magnetic field from two thousand years ago.

In ancient Mesopotamia, most mud bricks were sun-dried, without reaching the temperatures needed to cause this magnetic effect.  The bricks in the Ishtar Gate, however, were different.  Assyrian and Babylonian kings wanted it to last, so they ordered fired bricks for this project.  This also allowed the ancient kings to stamp their names and other important information into the bricks.  

From the bricks and other records, archaeologists know that Nebuchadnezzar [neh-buh-kud-NEH-zr] the Second built the Ishtar Gate.  He ruled from 605 to 562 BC and is infamous in Jewish history for invading Jerusalem and destroying the First Temple in 586 BC.  

Some have suggested that the Ishtar Gate may have been built to celebrate the conquest of Jerusalem.  The gate shows three distinct phases of construction, but it’s still not clear exactly when in Nebuchadnezzar’s lifetime the gate was built.  

With this in mind, researchers took samples from a number of the bricks that are in the Pergamon Museum.  The samples represent all three phases of construction.  Archaeomagnetic readings on these bricks, compared to the magnetic dates from across the Levant, indicate that the gate was most likely built around 569 BC.  This places the construction of the gate toward the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, and well after the conquest of Jerusalem.   

According to Professor Erez Ben-Yosef, from Tel Aviv University, who carried out the study with colleagues, electromagnetic dating has enormous practical applications, but because it also destroys the sample tested, many museum directors are hesitant to use it.  The samples can be very small, however—a one to two millimeter chunk.  Ben-Yosef’s team has already received invitations from other institutions to sample their ancient artifacts.

Our second story takes us to the country town of Norton Disney, England, where amateur archaeologists unearthed an enigmatic Roman artifact known as a dodecahedron.  Many examples of these artifacts have been found, but so far no one is certain what they were for.  

A dodecahedron is a solid shape with twelve surfaces.  Each face has five edges, giving it a  pentagon shape.  Thus, the object has 20 corners or vertices altogether, and 30 edges. 

As reported by Arkeonews, a volunteer with the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group uncovered the small metal mystery.  The new dodecahedron is a well-crafted item, hollow, made of copper alloy, and measuring about 2 inches across.   It lacks any significant markings and was not associated with any feature or other artifacts that narrow down its purpose.  However, it came from a pit that also held Roman pottery from the fourth century. 

Including the Norton Disney example, only 33 of these objects have been uncovered from Roman Britain.  In the entire Roman world, 133 examples exist, all in the northwest Roman provinces.   No references to such objects have ever been found in Roman writings.  

The Norton Disney dodecahedron is in particularly good condition, and is the first one ever found in the Midlands.  It’s carefully and precisely crafted, suggesting a particular use for which a well made tool or decoration was needed.  

The relative scarcity of the dodecahedron finds indicates that it was not an everyday object or implement, like a standard tool or ornament.  The known dodecahedrons are all small, but not a standard size.  None show any wear from use.  The most widely accepted hypothesis is that they were part of a religious ritual, but no evidence confirms this, or identifies which cult or god they might have served.     

According to Richard Parker, secretary of the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group, the new copper dodecahedron was unearthed about 35 miles southeast of Sheffield.  Analysis of the metal alloy showed that it is 75% copper, 7% tin, and 18% lead. 

The artifact is currently on display in the National Civil War Centre Newark, Museum.

Our third story takes us to the Peruvian Andes, where analysis of two burial sites has provided new insights into hunter-gatherer diets.  

As reported by The Guardian, the remains are from 6,500 to 9,000 years ago, and come from two sites, Wilamaya Patjxa [WIL-a-MY-a PAHT-ja] and Soro Mik’aya Patjxa [SOH-ro mik-EYE-ah PAHT-ja], about a mile apart in the high Andes.  

According to Jennifer Chen, a doctoral student from Penn State University, past research assumed a diet primarily of meat.  Her new research, however, determined that these earlier high altitude hunter-gatherers lived on a diet made up more of plants like wild potatoes, with meat playing a much smaller role than previously believed.

The new research looked at the combination of nitrogen and carbon in the bones taken from these burial sites, and examined burnt plant remains in the sites and wear on dental remains, to determine what the hunter-gatherers were eating.  Among the telling details was a pattern of dental wear on the upper incisors of some individuals, which showed that tubers were the most common food source.  

The analysis showed that the early human diets in this upland Peruvian site comprised about 80% plant matter and only 20% meat.  The analysis also showed that large mammals like deer or llamas provided most of the meat in the diet, with lower amounts of small mammals, birds, or fish.

According to Randy Haas, an archaeologist at the University of Wyoming and senior author of the paper, the archaeological record is biased toward an appearance of meat-eating, because stone tools and butchered animal bones have a much higher likelihood of being preserved than plant remains.  This, combined with the biases of mostly male archaeologists from western cultures, may have continued the “macho caveman” stereotype of early human society.  This bias may have influenced the research on early humans in other parts of the world as well.  

We end the week at Vergina [vr-GEE-nah]in northern Greece, where a set of well-preserved royal tombs from the fourth century BC has long been thought to memorialize the family of Alexander the Great.  Scholars knew that the remains in these tombs belonged to Alexander’s family, but for nearly fifty years they have debated which relative was in which tomb.  Now a new review of the evidence confirms that the tombs, which were excavated in the 1970s, contain the remains of Alexander’s father, stepmother, half-siblings, and son.  They also contain armor and other belongings of Alexander himself.

As reported by Arkeonews, the team of researchers from Greece, Spain, and the US used macrophotography, radiographs, and anatomical dissection to examine skeletons found in what are called the Royal Tombs 1, 2 and 3.  They also reviewed previous research and  compared all the information with historical records on Alexander, his father, Philip of Macedon, and their extended family. 

The researchers have concluded that Tomb 1 contains the remains of King Philip the Second of Macedon, Alexander’s father.  Philip the second was known to have a limp.  This is consistent with the knee fusion found in the male skeleton found in Tomb 1. 

Most sources agree that the bodyguard of Philip the Second assassinated him a few days after his wife, named Cleopatra, gave birth.  Tomb 1held the remains of a woman and a baby who was only a few days old.  This is consistent with Philip the Second being assassinated in 336 BC, probably by Olympias, Philip’s first wife and mother to Alexander the Great.  Olympias also would have killed Cleopatra along with Cleopatra’s newborn, paving the way for Alexander to take over the throne.  

Tomb 2 belonged to Alexander’s half-brother, King Arrhidaeus, and Adea Eurydice [you-RID-ih-chee], his wife.  Skeletal evidence on the woman’s remains indicates extensive horseback riding, and Adea Euridice had the nickname “warrior woman.”   Arrhidaeus, who was mentally ill and weak, ruled after Alexander the Great, and never took part in battle.  Thus, the armor found in Tomb II, including a helmet and a shield, is thought to have belonged to Alexander himself.

Tomb 3 has long been thought to contain the remains of Alexander the Fourth, the teenage son of Alexander the Great.  The new study found no evidence to dispute this belief. 

The research appears in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports.

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!