Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew, and you’ll shortly hear about 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 new DNA study reported in a Spanish TV documentary appears to show that Christopher Columbus was not an Italian from Genoa, but a Spaniard with Jewish ancestry.  A burial chamber in Petra, found by ground-penetrating radar beneath a building featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, holds at least 12 Nabatean skeletons.  Newly uncovered painted murals at a Moche site on the northern coast of Peru offer supporting evidence that women held powerful positions in Moche society.  And a Viking cemetery in Denmark has given up 50 unusually well preserved skeletons, along with grave goods.

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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 October 13th through the 19th, 2024.

Our first story takes us to Pozuelo de Alarcón, home of Spain’s national public television network RTVE, where a new documentary is challenging long-held beliefs around Christopher Colombus’ ethnic origin.  The explorer was long thought to be a Christian from Genoa, Italy.

As reported by NPR, the documentary follows José Antonio Lorente, a forensic medical expert at the University of Granada, as he explores various hypotheses regarding Columbus’ heritage—a topic he’s studied for more than 22 years.  He meets with Catalan architect Francesc Albardaner, author of a book proposing that Columbus was a Sephardic Jew born into a family of silk weavers from Valencia.

The documentary also seeks to settle a centuries-old dispute over the true resting place of the sailor's remains, with candidates including mausoleums in Seville and Santo Domingo.  Using DNA from Columbus's son and brother, Lorente definitively identified the bones that have been interred in the Cathedral of Seville since 1899 as his true remains.

The film presents historical evidence supporting the idea of Columbus's Jewish descent.  Most persuasive is the fact that Genoa had expelled its entire Jewish population in the 12th century, leaving virtually no Jews there during Columbus’ time.  The explorer may well have had to hide his Sephardic origins to avoid persecution or death.

Views on Columbus and his role in history still differ on both sides of the Atlantic.  On October 12th, Spain celebrated a national holiday marking the date of the explorer’s arrival in the Americas.  For many of those in Latin America, U.S. based Latinos, and Indigenous Americas, however, his arrival is remembered as the beginning of a cruel history of extermination and subjugation.

The contentious relationship between Spain and its former colonies continues to reverberate through international diplomacy today, with Mexico’s first woman president choosing not to invite the Spanish king to her inauguration just last month.

The study that is the basis for the documentary has yet to be published, and the release of the study results in a TV documentary has rankled some scientists.

Next, we travel to Petra, the World Heritage Site in southern Jordan known for the elaborate structures its inhabitants hand-carved into the pink sandstone of a desert canyon.  Here, archaeologists have discovered an intact tomb beneath one of the city’s most notable monuments: the Treasury, or Al-Khazneh in Arabic, which has been interpreted as a mausoleum and crypt.  The Treasury is thought to have been built in the early first century AD during the reign of Nabatean king Aretas the Fourth Philopatris, whose daughter was married to and then divorced the man known in the New Testament as King Herod.  The burial chamber contained at least twelve human skeletons and artifacts estimated to be at least 2,000 years old.

As reported by CNN, the expedition was led by Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman, executive director of the American Center of Research.  The team was originally tasked with assessing the site’s condition in preparation for work to divert and better control seasonal flooding.  A brief report of their study appeared in the American Center of Research Newsletter.

During their study, they sought to confirm that the two tombs found under one side of the monument during a 2003 excavation were not its only secret underground chambers.  Using ground penetrating radar to examine the other side, they found striking similarities and indications of a void, and got permission to conduct an excavation.

When they accessed the burial chamber, they found a surprise.  Unlike many tombs in Petra, this was an intact burial with complete skeletal remains and grave goods of bronze, iron and ceramics. 

The artifacts were very well preserved.  According to Dr. Creasman, the human remains did not fare as well.  While intact, the skeletons were delicate, and some were even found with mold.  Petra’s humid conditions and recurring floods, in addition to the porous sandstone around the tomb which has held in moisture, likely encouraged the mold.

The discovery may be the largest collection of human remains found in one place within Petra.  It not only definitively dates the construction of the Treasury, but offers rare insight into the lives of the Nabataeans, ancient Arabian nomads whose desert kingdom thrived from the fourth century BC to AD 106, when the Romans took over.  

Researchers hope to learn more about these people by dating the skeletons and artifacts, as well as analyzing DNA extracted from the remains to determine if the tomb’s occupants are related.  Other studies could help the team assess their diets and activities as well.

Given that they were buried in such a prime location at the main entrance to the city, the tomb’s inhabitants were very likely important in their day.  Learning more about who they were and how they lived will further illuminate the Treasury’s full story.

Our next destination is the northern coast of Peru, where archaeologists have unearthed an elaborately decorated throne room that may have been used by a female ruler more than 1,300 years ago.  

As reported by Art News, and based on a press release from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the room came to light in the ancient site of Pañamarca.  This was the southernmost political and cultural center of the Moche [MO-chay] culture, an indigenous civilization that flourished centuries before the Inca built Machu Picchu.

Peruvian and US archaeologists, art historians, and conservators began their joint research project, the Archaeological Landscapes of Pañamarca, in 2018.  It was during the 2024 field session that they discovered the adobe throne.  A throne room for a queen has never been located at this site—or anywhere else in ancient Peru.

In the tradition of the colorful wall paintings Pañamarca is known for, the throne room was covered in illustrations involving a powerful woman.  She’s depicted receiving a line of visitors in one painting; in another, she’s seated on a throne.  According to project archaeologist José Antonio Ochatoma Cabrera, the room has no bare surfaces at all—everything is painted and finely decorated with mythological scenes and characters.  Other principals involved in the work include Dr. Michele Koons, Director of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science; Jessica Ortiz Zevallos, Director of the Archaeological Landscapes project; and Dr. Lisa Trever, Associate Professor of Pre-Columbian Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.

The woman in the paintings appears to be connected to the sea, the crescent moon and craftsmanship.  One of the newly uncovered murals shows a workshop full of women spinning and weaving, along with a line of men carrying both textiles and the female leader’s crown and braids.  

During the same field session, the research team discovered another room overlooking the site’s main square.  Dubbed the “Hall of the Braided Serpents,” its pillars are decorated with paintings of snakes intertwined with human legs—a motif not previously seen in Moche art.  

Although scholars aren't sure whether the woman in the murals was mythical or real, the room was, evidently, frequently used.  The back of the throne, now eroded, was embedded with greenstone beads, fine threads and human hair, suggesting it had been occupied by a real person.

Conservation goes hand-in-hand with the archaeological work at Pañamarca.  The site is being excavated, stabilized and studied by a highly skilled team of specialists.  Their documentation process combines pencil and watercolor illustration with state-of-the art three-dimensional digital recordings to recreate the painted architecture.

Like previous finds in the region, these chambers support the idea that Moche culture was not male-dominated.  Since the civilization left no written records and many sites were later looted, discoveries like this are critical to making trustworthy interpretations.

Pañamarca is one of the sites featured in our tour of northern Peru scheduled for October 2025.

We end this week in central Denmark, where a landmark discovery of some fifty exceptionally well-preserved skeletons is offering valuable clues about life during the Viking era.  

As reported by Newsweek, the burial ground, which spans more than 21,000 square feet, holds the remains of men, women and children, as well as five cremation graves.  Surveyors found it last year during a routine inspection ahead of powerline work. 

Favorable soil conditions, including chalk and high water levels, helped to preserve the bones over the centuries.  According to archaeologist Michael Borre Lundø, who led the six-month dig, a team would normally be lucky to find a few teeth in the graves, let alone scores of complete, exceptionally preserved skeletons.

Experts from Museum Odense, supervisors of the excavation, predict that DNA analysis of the bones—a first for Viking remains—could help them reconstruct detailed life histories, including migration patterns and social structures.  The results could reveal where these people came from and whether the same families were buried here across multiple generations. 

The dig also unearthed brooches [BROH-chez], necklace beads and knives.  The designs of the brooches suggest the burials took place between AD 850 and 900.  Archaeologists say many of the artifacts came from far beyond Denmark’s borders, reflecting the extensive Viking trade routes during the 10th century.

Although the Viking Age is known for large-scale raids and trade across Europe and beyond, the museum team believes these skeletons likely belonged to a normal Norse settlement, probably a farming community.  

Several of the graves appear to have belonged to high-status individuals.  One held a noblewoman who was buried in a wagon.  Her grave goods included a glass bead necklace, an iron key, a knife with a handle wrapped in silver thread, and a small shard of glass that may have served as an amulet.  At the foot of her grave was a finely decorated wooden chest whose contents have yet to be explored.

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!