Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew, with 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!

Excavators in Berlin, Germany, surprisingly recovered a Japanese samurai sword, whose origin has them guessing.  A frozen mummy child found decades ago in the Chilean Andes turns out unexpectedly to have suffered a violent sacrificial death.  A Bronze Age cemetery in Norway uniquely includes only the remains of children.  And after many years of analysis, the remains of a US pilot from World War Two now have a real identity and are buried back in his home town.

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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 August 25th through the 31st, 2024.

We begin this week in Berlin, Germany, where researchers have uncovered a 17th century Japanese samurai sword.  The team unexpectedly recovered the weapon from the debris of a site destroyed during World War II. 

As reported by Live Science, a team from the Berlin State Office for Monuments found the sword, known as a wakizashi [WAH-kee-ZAH-shee], in 2022.  The researchers found the sword during excavations of Molkenmarkt, the oldest square in the city.  The square had been bombed heavily during the war, leaving the original building cellars full of debris.  The site was later paved over in the 1960s. 

Archaeologists excavating the cellars recovered many war-related items discarded at the end of the war, including bridles, harnesses and stirrups.  The sword was the most unusual find.

The sword was originally thought to be a military parade saber.  After taking a closer look at its design, the archaeological team determined it to be from Japan’s Edo period, which lasted from AD 1603 to 1868.

Although the sword was heavily corroded and damaged by heat, its carved and painted decorations are still legible.  Daikoku, one of seven Japanese gods of luck, is etched into the metal ring on the sword’s handle.  The guard is illustrated with chrysanthemum flowers. 

A samurai would have carried a wakizashi as a secondary weapon, useful for combat at close-range or in a small space where a katana, a longer sword, would have been impractical.  

X-ray analysis of the weapon revealed that the handle was not original and that the blade was initially longer.  According to the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the Berlin State Museum, the sword’s blade may date to as far back as the 16th century.

The researchers posit that the sword may have been brought by Japanese diplomats during a trip to Germany in the nineteenth century.  Even with that, how the sword got to its current location remains a mystery. 

Next, we head to the Chilean Andes where a new analysis of a 500 year old frozen mummy has challenged our understanding of Inca ritual sacrifices.  Researchers discovered the eight year old boy, known as the Cerro El Plomo Mummy, in 1954.

As reported by the Independent, he was found hugging his knees in a seated position.  He died around AD 1460 during a sacrificial ceremony known as Qhapaq hucha [KHA-pak HOO-cha].  Inca nobles, priests and officials were likely in attendance. 

According to Chile’s National Museum of Natural History, marks on his feet indicate that he walked for several months from south-central Peru to Cerro El Plomo prior to death.  The journey is more than 1,250 miles. 

He also seemed to have ingested a considerable amount of food, which still remains undigested in his stomach.

The boy died in a rectangular chamber with a frozen floor.  Alongside him were items for a funerary offering.  Among the ceremonial objects were two cameloid-shaped figurines, one made with shells and another with a gold and silver alloy. 

Archaeologists initially believed his death was caused by a combination of fatigue from his long journey, the high altitude and a narcotic substance given to him to sleep on the frozen floor.  The room would have induced deadly hypothermia and suffocation.  However, this new study indicates that this peaceful death likely did not occur.  

CT X-ray scans of the mummy’s head indicate a blunt-force trauma to the frontal bone of the skull.  The impact was likely the result of an object striking from right to left as the child stood, bowing his head. 

Genetic study revealed his ancestry to be from ancient populations in northern Chile and the southern highlands of Peru.  His exact heritage has not yet been identified.

Archaeologists believe that sacrifices of this kind may have been a means for the Inca to ensure that the best of their people joined their deities in the afterlife.  These findings of a violent death challenge the prior notions on the nature of Inca child sacrifices to the Sun god, particularly those during the harvest month. 

Our next story takes us to southeastern Norway, where an archaeological team from the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History has located an unusual millennia-old burial site.

As reported by Newsweek, the team discovered 40 circular stone formations in the municipality of Fredrisktad.  Each formation holds cremated remains in its center.  Most of the burial features contain the remains of children. 

According to Hege Damlien [HAY-guh DAHM-lee-en], leader of the excavation and professor at the University of Oslo, this site is the only known cemetery of its kind in Norway and Scandinavia.  Similar burial grounds largely contain adult remains.  

The bones in the formations are largely burned and very fragmented.  Bone analysis revealed that a significant portion of the skull fragments found belonged to children who had died as infants.  Other skulls came from children who had died between 3 and 6 years of age. 

The burials likely connected to a farming community.  Researchers have already discovered several settlements located near the site. 

Archaeologists used radiocarbon dating to place the graves between 1300 BC and AD 200.  Most of the burials date between 800 and 400 BC, during the Late Bronze and Early Iron ages in Scandinavia.  This period had a high child mortality rate. 

The Late Bronze Age marked a cultural shift in the region.  The area initially followed the practices of the Nordic Bronze Age culture.  However, the introduction of bronze and the practice of cremation likely signals the influence of the Urnfield culture of Central Europe.  The design, layout and goods from graves of this period were more modest, indicating that the community as a whole was valued over any one individual.  The use of cremation graves would continue into the Early Iron Age.

According to Damlien, the mystery of why this community buried its children together at this specific place is yet to be solved.

Finally, we make our way to Italy near Caltagrione [KAHL-ta-gree-OH-nay], Sicily, where a missing US Air Force pilot has been identified after more than eighty years.  The undertaking was a collaboration between the Cranfield Forensic Institute in the UK and the American Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency, or the DPAA.

As reported by Heritage Daily, Second Lieutenant Allan W. Knepper was declared missing in action in 1943 after his single-seater plane, a P-38 Lightning, was shot down.  His squadron took off from a base in Tunisia and was charged with attacking Axis forces to assist the US Army’s beach landings in Sicily.  They came under heavy fire as they neared their target.

According to contemporary reports, he did not deploy a parachute and was believed to have died upon impact.

The location of the crash would be lost to history for the next eight decades.  This changed when researchers from the DPAA found a German report in the US National Archives describing the crash of two P-38 planes..

Based on that document, archaeologists were able to identify the site of the Lieutenant’s crash.  The team conducted a thorough investigation and excavation of the site, yielding evidence connected to Knepper that would aid in his identification.  

Everything recovered from the crash site was meticulously recorded before being handed over to Italian police.  The items were then taken to the US Embassy and the DPAA lab to begin the process of DNA analysis and identification.  Eight years after the on-site recovery process began, the DPAA confirmed that Lieutenant Knepper had officially been identified.

The authorities have returned his remains to his hometown of Lewiston, Idaho, for burial.  Now that his body has been identified, a rosette has been etched next to his name on the Tablets of the Missing at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery. 

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

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