Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew.  Stay tuned for 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 spectacular ancient shipwreck in the Aegean gives up a huge cargo of 10,000 ceramic plates.  A landmark study combining linguistic and genetic data reveals that two distinct Indo-European language groups resulted from recognizably different migration sources.  A magnetometer survey of an abandoned Assyrian capital surprisingly displays evidence of huge constructions never before suspected.  And genetic analysis of the individuals buried in a famous tomb in northern Peru shows that two of them were sacrificial victims.

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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 22nd through the 28th, 2024.

Our first story this week takes us to western Turkey, where archaeologists have located an exceptionally preserved merchant shipwreck just off the coast of Ayvalik [EYE-va-LIK].  Believed to have sunk during a storm in the late fifth century AD while transporting its massive load of plates, dishes and bowls across the Aegean Sea, it lay untouched for more than a millennium.

As reported by Arkeo News, the site of the wreck is located in open waters at a depth of just forty-three meters.  The research team from Dokuz Eylul [DOE-kuz eye-LUL] University utilized photogrammetric studies to unearth an estimated collection of ten thousand ceramic plates, all untouched and preserved in their original state.  Unprecedented in both scope and importance, it is the largest plate wreck ever found in the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

Nilhan Kizildag [NEEL-han KIZZE- dag], Associate Professor at the university’s Institute of Marine Sciences and Technology and Deputy Director of their Underwater Research Center, led the team that initially identified the shipwreck.  They employed sonar and domestically designed underwater robotic vehicles to pinpoint its location. 

The wreck, estimated to be about 15 meters long and 9 meters wide, was located in an area not accessible to divers.  The pile largely consisted of intertwined dishes, clustered in groups of about fifteen to twenty each.  The ship also carried a small number of amphorae storage vessels that maritime archaeologists would normally expect to be the dominant cargo on early Mediterranean trading vessels.  

Researchers knew that ceramics made in Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and Cypress were often shipped to Anatolia, Greece and Italy.  Until the discovery of this wreck, however, no clear evidence of trade between these regions had ever been found underwater.  

According to Harun Ozdas, director of the Underwater Research Center, their preliminary analyses indicate that this ship may have originated in North Africa or Cyprus, sinking in the northern Aegean after encountering a storm.  The quantity, quality and variety of the artifacts found in the wreck have provided researchers with a wealth of information. 

In a landmark study linking genes with language, a multidisciplinary team of 91 researchers is tracing how a Bronze Age genetic diversion shaped the development of two very distinct parts of the Indo-European language family.  Famed Danish geneticist Eske Willerslev, who will be our Keynote Speaker for TAC Festival 2025, is a co-author for this study.

As reported by Phys.org, linguists have believed that the Indo-European language groups currently dominant in much of Europe and western Asia —including the Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, Celtic, and Hellenic language families—developed after Early Bronze Age peoples migrated across the Pontic Steppe region.  However, the relationships among these movement patterns, the groups who migrated and linguistic diversification have long been debated.

Although researchers have used linguistic models to map European migration and conducted prior genetic studies to confirm steppe ancestry across Europe, these methods could not determine whether distinct Indo-European groups received input from the same sources or different ones.  To arrive at solid conclusions about these issues, archaeologists, linguists and geneticists needed time-specific genetic information from multiple regions of Europe. 

The research team sequenced ancient genomes from 314 people buried in Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Moldova, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon, combining with previously published ancient genomes to produce 2,403 samples.  They compared steppe ancestry sources using identity-by-descent admixture modeling.  To assess mobility within populations and trace their geographic origins, they conducted strontium isotope analyses of the bones and teeth of 224 of the individuals.

Their findings indicate that the arrival of steppe ancestry in Spain, France, and Italy was mediated by Bell Beaker populations of Western Europe, likely contributing to the emergence of the language group comprising the Italic and Celtic languages.  In contrast, Armenian and Greek populations acquired steppe ancestry directly from Yamnaya groups of Eastern Europe.  The results are consistent with today's Italo-Celtic and Graeco-Armenian linguistic models.  

Although the genetic picture wasn’t clear-cut for some of the samples analyzed, showing a mixed heritage with roots in multiple cultures, this combination of genetics, archaeology and linguistics is bringing us closer to understanding the diversification of Indo-European languages.

Our next stop is northern Iraq, where an extensive magnetic survey of Khorsabad [CORE-suh-bad], an ancient capital of Assyria, has revealed the remains of unsuspected but impressive structures.

As reported by Arkeo News, the site was established around 713 B.C. when reigning King Sargon the Second set out to found a new capital city.  Naming it Dur-Sharrukin, or “Fortress of Sargon,” he began construction at a sprawling site at the foot of Mount Musri [MUZ-ree].  Sargon died only a few years into the work at Khorsabad.  His son and successor, King Sennacherib [suh NACK uh rib], decided to establish his capital in Nineveh [NIN uh vuh], where he was already acting as regent.  His father’s grand project would lie unfinished and largely forgotten for the next 2,500 years.  

The city would not be rediscovered until the pioneering excavations conducted in 1843 by the French vice-consul in Mosul—a finding that would mark the beginning of Mesopotamian and Near Eastern archaeology.  Excavators recovered Neo-Assyrian artwork and cultural artifacts in the remains of Sargon’s palace, but found no other buildings in the city, suggesting that the palace was the only structure built within the mile-plus-square city walls.

Following the end of the Islamic State’s two-year occupation of Khorsabad in 2017, the city's French Archaeological Mission launched a project to evaluate above-ground damage and conduct the first geophysical survey of buried remains at the site.  

Archaeologists began to map the city in 2022.  Led by Jörg Fassbinder, geophysicist at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, the team used a magnetometer to look deep underground, detecting buried structures by walking more than 13 miles each day in long, straight lines to detail subtle changes in the Earth’s magnetic field.  They examined more than 2 million square feet during the week-long survey, covering only a fraction of the total area of the site. 

The resulting data revealed buildings as deep as six to ten feet below ground, part of a vibrant urban landscape that surprisingly extended well beyond the palace walls.  Among the discoveries, all accomplished without any excavation, were the city’s water gate, what may be palace gardens, and five huge buildings, including a 127-room villa that is twice the size of the US White House.  These and other discoveries indicate that Khorsabad was—if only for a short time—a thriving city.

Our final stop is Peru’s northern coast, where genetic analysis of six people buried in a well known Moche [MOW-chay] tomb has revealed that two of them were strangled as human sacrifices to their gods.  One, an adolescent boy, was sacrificed upon his father's death.  The other, a teenage girl, was sacrificed when her aunt died.  Both were strangled with plant fiber ropes.

As reported by Live Science, the sacrificial victims were interred around AD 500 in a tomb below a pyramid-like, painted structure.  Known as the Huaca Cao Viejo [HWA-cuh COW vee-AY-ho], it first came to light at the El Brujo [BROO-ho] Archaeological Complex in 2005.  While archaeologists had long assumed that elite Moche burial groups consisted of family members, this study is the first to support that idea via scientific analysis.

Researchers dated the skeletons with radiocarbon analysis, discovering that five of them were buried around the same time.  By sequencing the genomes of everyone in the tomb, the team was able to infer biological relatedness and create a family tree spanning at least four generations.  

Genomic analysis revealed that the famous Señora de Cao, the only adult woman in the burial group, was related to the adolescent girl sacrificed to her; they were likely aunt and niece.  One of the Señora's brothers was the father of the sacrificed boy.

According to study co-author Lars Fehren-Schmitz, an archaeogeneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, most of what is known about Moche human sacrifices involves very public and gruesome rituals.  Until now, no evidence has pointed to the sacrifice of close or adolescent relatives.  

Other Moche burials also point to sacrifice by strangulation.  This form of ritual killing may have been viewed as more private and dignified, reserved for those of higher societal, religious or spiritual status.

The Moche culture prospered along the north coast of Peru from AD 300 to 950.  This discovery underscores the central role of kinship in their society, not only in transmitting status and authority, but in ceremonial practices as well.  By linking the living and the deceased through familial sacrifices, the Moche reinforced their connections to their ancestors and the divine.  

The El Brujo Archaeological Complex is among the sites we will visit in our tour of northern Peru in October 2025.

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!