Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew.  Stick around to get the skinny on 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 fully uncovered the surprisingly large Temple of Poseidon in Greece, revealing a bronze plaque.  Excavation results from a remote New Zealand island identified what is probably the southernmost extent of prehistoric Polynesian settlement. LiDAR does it again, revealing an intensively used landscape and a large city in the southwestern Yucatan Peninsula.  And a 4000-year-old oasis settlement in northwestern Saudi Arabia sheds light on urban evolution in that previously unknown area of the Middle East.

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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 27th through November 2nd, 2024.

We begin this week in the western Peloponnese in Greece, where archaeologists have uncovered the entirety of the Temple of Poseidon near Samikon, an important religious site that holds an inscribed tablet. 

As reported by The Jerusalem Post, researchers have searched for the temple for over 100 years.  An international team of Austrian, Greek and German researchers affiliated with the Austrian Archaeological Institute and the Department of Antiquities of Elis discovered the temple in 2021. The site likely dates to the sixth century BC. 

The archaic double temple is 28 meters long and close to 9.5 meters wide, which is larger than previous assumptions.  It features two large interior rooms with central pillars and forecourts with two columns each.  The temple was likely abandoned around 300 BC when the roof was removed and left inside the building. 

This year, one of the major finds is the bronze plaque that likely embellished the temple wall.  Detailed examination of the plaque with X-rays revealed traces of inscriptions on one side, hinting at possible messages or dedications. 

However, much of the text remains difficult to interpret due to the fragile condition of the artifact.  Conservators have undertaken careful restoration work to stabilize the plaque.  This restoration aims to prevent further degradation and enable researchers to learn more about the site.  

Researchers also uncovered fragments of a marble container called a perirrhanterion, a water basin made specially for ritual washing.  The team has almost fully restored and reconstructed the basin.  They also discovered a double-walled barrier that likely protected the temple from flooding and showed the boundaries of Poseidon’s district. 

The sanctuary served as a vital center for religious and ethnic identity in ancient Triphylian communities in the western Peloponnese. 

According to Birgitta Eder, the head of the Austrian Archaeological Institute's branch of the Academy of Sciences in Athens, the temple played a significant role in religious life. The site’s location, at a secure place near the sea that had been used for centuries, also suggests that it was important for communication. 

Next, we go to the southwest Pacific region, where researchers have discovered new evidence regarding the southernmost habitation of Polynesians in the prehistoric period.  This disputes previous notions that they reached continental Antarctica.  

As reported by Phys dot org, the team of international archaeologists and paleoecologists investigated the archaeological site at Sandy Bay on Enderby Island.  Enderby is the northernmost island from the Auckland Islands, around 500 kilometers south of Stewart Island, the southernmost of New Zealand’s main islands.

Atholl Anderson and Gerard O’Regan first excavated Sandy Bay in 1998.  They discovered Polynesian middens, or rubbish heaps, and ovens within eroded sand dunes.  These finds provide the earliest evidence of pre-European Polynesian activity on the island. 

In 2020, researchers excavated Sandy Bay again, uncovering new bone and charcoal for radiocarbon dating.  Using a Bayesian analysis of those dates, they mapped an occupation timeline beginning around AD 1250 to 1320.  This period aligns with the settlement dates for New Zealand and other East Polynesian islands.  The dating shows that occupation continued intermittently for roughly 100 years.  Pollen analysis from areas near the site showed no prehistoric impact on local vegetation, suggesting limited human activity. 

Global cooling during the Little Ice Age likely led to a retreat north to Stewart Island, and the Auckland Islands remained uninhabited until 1806.  The study challenges the proposal that Polynesians reached Antarctica, highlighting challenges like extreme cold, caloric needs and perilous oceanic waters.

According to Professor Atholl Anderson from the Ngai Tahu [Nai TAH-who] Research Center at the University of Canterbury, Enderby Island marks the southernmost boundary of prehistoric Polynesian habitation, showcasing both their navigation skills and the limits to further southern exploration.

The study is published in the journal Archaeology in Oceania. 

Our third story takes us to the central Maya Lowlands in Mexico, where archaeologists using LiDAR technology discovered evidence of more than 6,500 pre-Hispanic structures in Campeche [Kam-PAY-chay], in the southwestern Yucatan Peninsula.

As reported by Heritage Daily, LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses pulsed laser light to measure distances to the Earth's surface.  Variations in the return times and wavelengths of the laser can be used to generate a three-dimensional digital map of the landscape.

A team of researchers from Tulane University, the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History and the University of Houston conducted the study.  They used previously existing LiDAR data from an ecological study.  The team tested whether the perceived settlement densities for the central Maya Lowlands had been overestimated. 

Researchers surveyed an area of 50 square miles and found a densely populated region.  One of the most exciting findings is a previously undiscovered large city with two hubs, named “Valeriana” by the researchers. 

The larger of Valeriana's hubs shows a typical Classic Maya city structure.  It has multiple plazas connected by a causeway, pyramids, reservoirs, and a ballcourt.  It also likely has an E-Group, a collection of concentrated buildings that hints at a founding date before AD 150. 

The analysis of the survey data also indicates that other areas exhibit less population density, characterized by more scattered residences and less investment in grand architecture or water storage.  This shows the diversity of settlement patterns, as some areas are significantly urbanized, and others remain less developed. 

With 6,764 structures in the dataset, the overall settlement density is 55.3 structures per square kilometer.  This number is more than reported densities in Belize or Guatemala.  The research team employed kernel density estimation on the LiDAR data, a method that allowed for an accurate depiction of density gradients across the surveyed landscape.  They verified that cities were widespread throughout the Lowlands, matching previous settlement density proposals. 

According to Professor Marcello Canuto from Tulane University, LiDAR reveals that the lowland Maya developed a complex network of towns and communities.  Some regions are densely populated with extensive agricultural fields, while others consist of smaller, more dispersed settlements. The LiDAR data make it clear how extensively the ancient Maya developed their environment to sustain a sophisticated, enduring society.

This study was published in the journal Antiquity. 

Our final story this week comes from Saudi Arabia, where archaeologists uncovered a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age settlement at the Khaybar Oasis. 

As reported by Arkeonews, the site is known as Al-Natah.  The Khaybar Longue Durée [lawng dyoor-AY] Archaeological Project uncovered the site during their exploration of the Khaybar Oasis, a fertile area surrounded by desert in northwestern Arabia. 

The team determined that the 2.6-hectare Bronze Age town was built somewhere between 2400 and 2000 BC.  The town remained occupied until at least 1500 BC, possibly until 1300 BC. The dense fortified settlement housed around 500 residents.  An ancient 14.5-kilometer wall encircled a central district, residential areas and a necropolis.

The settlement's fortifications were likely intended to protect access and agricultural resources.  The town capitalized on the oasis’s natural water sources and fertile land to sustain a stable food supply.

Large-scale cereal production and animal husbandry thrived in the walled oasis, with archaeological evidence like grinding stones and pottery indicating the storage and processing of local agricultural goods for both trade and domestic use.  Furthermore, the uniformity of pottery and simple craftsmanship suggests an egalitarian society, where locally made goods supported daily life and facilitated the site’s integration into regional trade networks.

Abundant archaeological discoveries in regions such as the Levant and Mesopotamia have played a crucial role in enhancing our understanding of early urbanization, a pivotal period in human history.  However, studying urbanization in northern Arabia is challenging, as there are relatively few preserved sites.  This study provides the first comprehensive assessment of third and second millennium BC settlement across a wide area in northwestern Arabia. 

The fortified city shows a transitional stage specific to northwest Arabia between nomadism and complex cities found throughout the Middle East. 

The study is published in the online journal, PLOS One.

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!