Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew, with a summary of our four 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 lead pipe in Rome points to the location of Emperor Caligula’s garden.  A Hittite royal seal in Anatolia carries a warning for anyone who would break it.  A cave site in Kenya offers the first good evidence for the introduction of cultivated plants.  And excavators in coastal Peru report the  discovery of an unusually old temple and theater.

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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 July 7th through the 13th, 2024. 

In our first story this week, construction workers in the Piazza Pia [pee-AWTS-a PEE-ah] in Rome have excavated the ruins of a garden that likely belonged to Emperor Caligula.

As reported by Live Science, the garden ruins sit on the banks of the Tiber just east of Vatican City.  The walls are made from travertine marble.  Such a carefully planned, beautifully built garden, replete with plantings, fountains and art, was typical of the Roman elite, who escaped the heat of summer in their cool shade.

In the ruins, archaeologists found slabs of Roman pottery along with terracotta mythological figures that would once have decorated the rooftops.  They also found a lead water pipe engraved with the phrase “Cai [KAH-ee] Cæsaris Augusti Germanici.”   Researchers believe this inscription alludes to Emperor Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known by his nickname, Caligula. 

Caligula came to power in AD 37, following the reign of the Roman emperor, Tiberius.  Only four years later, however, his unpopularity and instability were so extreme, members of his own Praetorian Guard assassinated him.  Caligula, whose nickname means “little boot,” after his childhood amongst the military on the front lines in Germany, grew up to be a ruthless tyrant, feared by the people and the Senate. 

Researchers have recovered other pieces of archaeological evidence that support the notion that Caligula owned these gardens.

The first piece of evidence is from an historical text, “On the Embassy to Gaius.”  In this document, the Egyptian philosopher Philo [FYE-lo] of Alexandria chronicles how Caligula met with a representative of the Jews of Alexandria in a large garden alongside the Tiber. 

This was a period of religious conflict between the Greeks and Jews of Alexandria, and the Jewish delegation came to Caligula requesting a grant of religious autonomy.  The emperor rejected the request, however, and sided with the Greeks.

According to the archaeologist supervising the work, Alessio De Cristofaro from the Special Superintendency for Archaeology, Fine Art and Landscape, the location of the newly found garden is another key piece of evidence.  The Piazza Pia, where it is located, is near the Horti Agrippinae [HOR-tee a-grip-PEEN-ay], a pleasure garden owned by Caligula’s mother, Agrippina the Elder. 

A final clue is the lead water pipe that was found.  It closely resembles one found in the early 1900s, stamped with the name “Julia Augusta.”  She was the second wife of emperor Augustus, and the grandmother of Germanicus, who was Caligula’s father.  Researchers believe that  the garden, typical for Romans at the time, may have passed down through the family, ending up as the property of Caligula. 

Next, we head to the ruins of Büklükale [boo-CLUE-kahl-ay], near Ankara [AANG-kah-ruh], the capital of Turkey, where researchers have unburied a seal belonging to the royal family of the Hittite Empire.  The seal has a cuneiform inscription with a dire warning: “Whoever breaks this will die.”

As reported by Arkeonews, Büklükale was an important Hittite city that dates to the second half of the second millennium BC.  The ruins sit in the city of Kırıkkale [kuh-RIH-kal-ay], alongside the Kızılırmak [kih-ZHIL-ir-mahck] River, the longest river in Turkey.  Previous archaeological excavations have revealed that the city played an active role in trade and controlled important crossroads. 

According to Associate Professor Dr. Kimiyoshi Matsumura from the Japanese Anatolian Archaeology Institute, who’s led excavations of the city for 14 years, the seal came to light last year. 

The seal bears cuneiform writing showing the author was either the Great King Tabarana, or Tavananna, the sovereign queen. 

This type of seal was generally stamped on contracts.  Such seals indicated the penalties that would occur if the contract were broken.  However, Hittite laws usually penalized with fines or compensation.  As this seal warns about the death penalty, researchers believe this demonstrates how important the contract was. 

The seal also shows that the royal family sent something to Büklükale from Hattusa [hah-TOO-sah], the Hittite capitol, signaling the importance of the city and how it held relationships with important leaders. 

According to Dr. Matsumura, researchers have also excavated Hurrian tablets from Büklükale.  This indicates that the city held religious ceremonies that would have been performed by the Hittite royal family.  These ceremonies further demonstrate the importance of Büklükale to the Hittite Empire. 

The current year’s dig uncovered another terracotta seal with markings, but this one is in pieces, and will need further research to decipher. 

Our third story turns to the cave site of Kakapel in Kenya, where archaeologists have uncovered ancient plant remains that help interpret early farming in east Africa. 

As reported by Phys dot Org, archaeologists have long suspected that eastern tropical Africa was an important region for the development of farming and the distinctive blend of crops that came to characterize African agriculture.  However, researchers have uncovered virtually no ancient plant remains in the region.  Consequently, not much is known about the origins of farming in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. 

Now, a huge assemblage of plant remains has come to light in Kakapel Rockshelter, in the Lake Victoria Basin.  The material has been undergoing research by an international team from Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Pittsburgh, the National Museums of Kenya, and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology.

The Kakapel Rockshelter sequence shows occupation across a 9,000-year span.  Many diverse communities used the site over that period.  Their plant remains show evidence of diverse and flexible farming strategies that gradually introduced various crops.

The scientists used flotation techniques to separate plant remains from other debris within a hearth, followed by direct radiocarbon dating on carbonized seeds. 

The radiocarbon dates show that the cowpea, or black-eyed pea, was introduced here around 2,300 years ago, at the same time domesticated cattle were arriving.  The cowpea is the earliest recorded domesticated crop in east Africa.  Archaeologists believe it came to the area with Bantu-speaking farmers from west-central Africa. 

The radiocarbon dating also indicated that sorghum and finger millet arrived at least 1,000 years ago. 

Many of the plant remains could not be identified.  One reason for this is that no good reference collection of east African plants is yet available.  However, researchers identified one plant as a field pea. 

Previously, archaeologists did not consider peas to be part of east African agriculture.  Its existence here poses a mystery.  The pea might have originated in Egypt and traveled up the Nile.  It also may have originated in Ethiopia as the Abyssinian pea. 

According to a study co-author, Assistant Professor Natalie Mueller from the University of Washington, this new study shows how African farming constantly changed as migration led to the adoption and desertion of various crops.  East Africa is also the place of origin for hunting and gathering but what plants people were gathering remains undocumented. 

The research continues in identifying the plants, especially the wild plants that existed before agriculture.  This study may have implications for many other fields, such as linguistics, plant science, domestication studies, and African history. 

The study results appeared in the open-access journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Our final story this week comes from the coast of Peru, near the town of Zaña [ZAHN-ya], where researchers have found the ruins of an ancient temple and theater built by a mysterious culture. 

As reported by Phys dot Org, the ruins are part of the archaeological site La Otra Banda, Cerro Las Animas.  The local government asked a team of researchers led by Luis Muro Ynoñán from the Field Museum in Chicago to study the site before looters destroyed it. 

Researchers don’t know much about the civilization that created the site, not even its name.  The only clues are the artifacts and structures left behind. 

The team discovered part of a temple six feet under the surface.  They also found a small theater with a stage and backstage area.  The theater may have been used for ritual performances. 

The researchers found panels of mud plaster alongside one of the theater’s staircases carved with designs of an anthropomorphic, bird-like creature with reptilian features. 

Similar creatures have turned up in Peru dating to the Initial Period around 4,000 years ago.  

Despite its name, the Initial Period is not the first period of human habitation in Peru.  However, this period marks the first evidence of institutionalized religion in Peru. 

The avian creature resembles a known creature from the Chavín [shah-VEEN] region created 500 years later.  The new site could help explain the creation of the Chavín figure. 

According to Ynoñán, this discovery reveals more about the origins of religion in Peru.  Not much is known about how people in the Andes developed their complex belief systems.  

In the region, these complex religious systems were societally important.  Religion served to grant political authority and power. 

Ynoñán’s team also discovered several large painted murals and collected paint samples.  For future research, they intend to analyze the chemical makeup of the pigments to reveal where they originated.  They will also be able to carbon date the pigment to confirm the age of the site. 

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!