Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew.  In a moment, you’ll hear our latest batch of 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 silver amulet from a third-century grave near Frankfurt is surprisingly early evidence for Christianity north of the Alps.  Examination of forty skeletons from a deep limestone shaft  in Britain reveals surprisingly horrible mass violence over 4000 years ago.  After a long search, researchers have located the site of Alexander the Great’s first major victory over the Persians.  And a genetic study of old bones solidly supports the interpretation that syphilis as we know it began in the Americas, not Europe.

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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 December 15th through the 21st, 2024.

We begin the week in Frankfurt, Germany, where archaeologists uncovered an 1,800-year-old silver amulet that represents the oldest known evidence of Christianity’s spread north of the Alps.  Found in what was once the Roman city of Nida at an archaeological site outside Frankfurt, the amulet was still with the man who wore it, resting near his chin.  Popular Mechanics reports that the object contains 18 lines of Latin text on 1.37 inches of silver foil.  

The amulet could be enough to revise the known history of Christianity in the Roman Empire.  Now called The Frankfurt Inscription, it dates from AD 230 to 270.  All other reliable evidence of Christianity’s spread north of the Alps is at least 50 years younger, dating from the 4th century AD.  According to Ina [EE-nuh] Hartwig, Frankfurt’s head of culture and science, the discovery affects many areas of research, including archaeology, religious studies, philology, and anthropology.  

The Archaeological Museum Frankfurt worked on restoring the inscription using microscopic examinations and X-rays.  In 2024, researchers at the Leibniz center for Archaeology in Mainz had a breakthrough when they examined the artifact using state-of-the-art computer tomography.  After 1,800 years in the ground, the rolled silver sheet had become crumpled and pressed.  According to Ivan Calandra, laboratory manager for imaging procedures, computer tomography allowed them to scan at a high resolution and create a 3D model.  Piece by piece, the scan slowly revealed the words on the silver.

The next challenge was interpreting the 18 lines of the inscription.  While most amulets were written in Greek or Hebrew at this time, the entire text of The Frankfurt Inscription is written in Latin.  Some edges were lost because of damage, and some words are open to interpretation.

Experts from different disciplines, including the history of theology, worked together on the long, painstaking process of deciphering the text.  The most current translation includes the phrases, “Holy, holy, holy!”;  ”In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!”; and ”The Lord of the World.”

Our next story takes us to England, where archaeologists uncovered the remains of nearly 40 people who died violent deaths over 4,000 years ago.  The analysis of the remains, as described by livescience.com revealed scalping, tongue removal, decapitation, defleshing, evisceration, and cannibalism.

According to Rick Schulting, an archaeologist at The University of Oxford, the find is a sobering reminder that people in prehistory were capable of committing atrocities that could compete with modern barbarities.

Schulting and his colleagues published a detailed study of the skeletons in the December 16 edition of the journal Antiquity.  They report that in the 1970s, archaeologists found more than 3,000 bone fragments in a 66-foot-deep natural limestone shaft at the Charterhouse Warren site in southwest England.  The subjects ranged in age from newborns to adults.  Radiocarbon dating indicates that they died during the Early Bronze Age, at least four millennia ago.  The discovery of at least 37 bodies in one place suggests the massacre of a large segment of the community.

The research team determined that at least 30 percent of the skulls were fractured around the time of death.  This implies that many or possibly all of the people suffered a violent demise.  The research team found that about 20 percent of the bones had cut marks that revealed the different types of horror inflicted on the victims.  Cut marks on the frontal lobes of some skulls suggest scalping; long, slicing marks on the lower jaws of others indicate  tongue removal.  Cannibalism is also indicated.

The reason for the mass murder isn’t clear.  Researchers suggest that the level of violence indicates that the actions were retaliatory—perhaps in response to a past violent event or the  violation of a serious social taboo.  This indicates that the violence wasn’t meaningless, but an intensely political act.

According to Anna Osterfoltz, a bioarchaeologist at Mississippi State University, violence on this scale often served a social function.  When performed in public, it was important for group cohesion and the negotiation of social relationships.  LiveScience reports that a possible clue can be found in the teeth of two children, in which researchers identified Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the plague.  Knowing that at least two people were suffering from the plague could indicate that the attackers were reacting out of fear.  

The process of trying to understand this violent moment in British prehistory is ongoing.

Our third story takes us to northwestern Turkey, where archaeologists have located the site of Alexander the Great’s first victory over the Persian Empire.

The Jerusalem Post reports that this was Alexander’s most important action.  After winning the Battle of Granicus, he proceeded to conquer Western Anatolia and eventually Asia as far as India.  This battle not only changed the course of his life, but the course of world history.

According to Prof.  Dr.  Rehan K rpe [RAY hawn KER puh], a faculty member in the Department of History at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart [chuh NAH cah lay ON suh keez mart] University, the team pinpointed the battlefield's location after 20 years of research.  It lies approximately 100 kilometers east of Çanakkale, which is on the banks of the Granicus River in the Biga Plain.  The team used ancient texts to help them interpret where Alexander and his men fought, noting details like nearby villages and exact locations on the plain.

Part of the two decades of research included surface surveys in the Biga district and the surrounding area.  In the last three years, the momentum greatly increased.  A vital breakthrough was made when Körpe and his team identified the exact route Alexander took to reach the battlefield.

Starting from the Özbek [OOZ beck] village plain near Çanakkale, Alexander moved eastward to Umurbey, Lapseki [oo MUR bay LAP ski].  He then crossed the mountains, descended into the Biga Plain, and ended the journey at the Granicus River.  In May of 334 BC, Alexander fought the first of three major battles on the Granicus battlefield and gained a firm footing in enemy territory.  This victory left Asia Minor wide open to the young Macedonian’s further invasions and subsequent victories.

Plans are now underway to promote the Granicus battlefield as a tourist destination.  The route Alexander and his men took, now known as the Alexander the Great Cultural Route, will be a part of the attraction.

Our final story takes us to Leipzig, Germany, where researchers have uncovered evidence that syphilis originated in the Americas and not in Europe.  A documented but unknown epidemic there in 1495 is now interpreted as the first historical account of syphilis.

As noted by Phys.org, the origin of syphilis has long been debated.  Many communicable diseases started in Europe and spread through the Americas during the early colonial period.  Syphilis is one of the few communicable diseases that took the opposite journey, starting in the Americas and spreading through Europe.

A study led by Kirsten Bos [Boze], group leader for molecular paleopathology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, and Johannes Krause, director of the Institute's  Department of Archaeogenetics, examined archaeological bone from several countries in the Americas.  The researchers focused on obvious lesion patterns that are similar to syphilis in the bone from deep time periods.

According to Casey Kirkpatrick, a postdoctoral researcher and paleopathologist who contributed to the study, it's impossible to understand the origin of the disease just by studying the bones.  Bone pathology can’t tell if the disease started in the Americas or if it originated in Asia deep in the past and was then brought by ancient migrants to the Americas.

Using state-of-the-art techniques, the team recovered and studied five ancient genomes of the syphilis disease family from Mexico, Peru and Argentina.  They determined the relationships between these extinct forms and the modern strains that affect global health today.

The latest ancient genome data show that the Americas were a hub for ancient diversity within this disease group before Columbus arrived.  Syphilis, yaws, and bejel [BEDJ- uhl] are the modern result of pathogens that used to circulate in the Americas.  The introduction of syphilis to Europe in the 15th century is also consistent with the data.  An epidemic of syphilis seems to have occurred around AD 1500--a likely factor in the intense spread of syphilis in 16th century Europe.  Human trafficking networks and European expansions through Asia and the Americas would have facilitated the spread of the disease.  

Syphilis may have started in the Americas, but Europeans were responsible for spreading it around the world.

Some researchers claim to have identified syphilis-like bone lesions in Europe before 1492.  Researchers will continue to study these earlier forms, aided by ancient DNA.

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!