Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew.  Stay tuned for the 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!

Lines in the dried mud from 22,000 years ago show that people in New Mexico were already using the travois to move their gear around.  A new DNA study offers hard data to show that the Huns who famously sacked ancient Rome did indeed have a connection to an ancient empire in Mongolia, but their origins are much more complicated.  A brain turned to glass during the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius has been controversial, but a new study confirms it’s a brain and offers an explanation.  And a summary of what is known about Göbekli Tepe emphasizes that it’s very early and built by hunter-gatherers, not farmers, who actually lived there and built monumental structures.

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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 February 23rd through March 1st, 2025.

We begin this week in White Sands National Park, New Mexico, where researchers from Bournemouth University in the UK have uncovered evidence of an ancient transport device dating back 22,000 years.

As reported by Phys.org, fossilized drag-marks preserved in dried mud suggest that early inhabitants of North America used a travois.  This is a broadly used term that references any form of vehicle made from one or more wooden poles and supports a load.  It’s the modern-day equivalent of a shopping cart or wheelbarrow without wheels.  This site contains some of the oldest known human footprints in the Americas, estimated at 22,000 years old. This dating, however, remains controversial.

According to the research team, the travois marks cut through large footprints while smaller footprints track on the sides of the travois.  This pattern indicates that an adult pulled the travois while a child or children followed alongside.  The team suggests that the travois may have been used to transport gear or possessions of some kind across this prehistoric wetland. 

To confirm their initial hypothesis, researchers conducted experiments on the southeast coast of England in Dorset and on the eastern coast of the US in Maine.  They recreated the travois marks on mudflats in these locations.  Their tests resulted in markings similar to the fossilized tracks uncovered in New Mexico.  They also worked closely with Indigenous collaborators, who interpret the markings in a similar way.

The evidence challenges traditional archaeology, which primarily focuses on stone tools.  Unlike tools, footprints and drag-marks offer a direct and humanizing connection to the past, revealing how people moved, worked and traveled long before written history.  

The travois is one of many recent discoveries at White Sands National Park, a site that has reshaped the timeline of early human activity in the Americas.  The evidence suggests that ancient North Americans developed transport technologies far earlier than previously thought.  Ancient versions of carts were most likely made with wood, so the evidence rotted away.  

The study helps fill out the story of the prehistoric people who lived in this region at the end of the last ice age.  It also suggests that the need to transport possessions is universal and shows more evidence of problem solving in prehistoric people.

This study appeared in the journal Quaternary Science Advances.

For our next story, we turn to Hungary, where researchers analyzing ancient DNA from fifth and sixth-century European Huns in comparison to earlier people in Central Asia and Mongolia have shed new light on their origins.  

As reported by LiveScience, the research suggests that, rather than being a single, unified group, the Huns were genetically diverse, with only limited direct connections to the earlier Xiongnu (shyang-NU) Empire of Mongolia.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology relied on Identity by Descent, or IBD, a method that looks at common inherited DNA segments shared by multiple people.  They examined the genomes from three data sets of hundreds of individuals buried between the Xiongnu period of Mongolia in 209 BC and the sixth century AD in the Carpathian Basin of Hungary.

Their research suggests that the Huns, who arrived in Eastern Europe in the late fourth century, were not a single, unified people but rather a mix of different populations from across the Eurasian steppe.

According to archaeogeneticist and lead author Guido Gnecchi-Ruscone, the study identified nearly one hundred individuals who shared genetic connections throughout the Central Asian steppe over four centuries.  While a handful of Hun-period individuals could be traced back to Xiongnu elites, most had a broader and more varied ancestry, pointing to a history of separate migratory patterns and intermixing among this group.

Archaeologists also found key evidence in the form of an elongated skull from the first half of the fifth century.  This trait is linked to the Xiongnu aristocracy.  The skull belonged to a Hun woman between 35 and 50 years in age.  According to Gnecchi-Ruscone, her genetic profile connects to Xiongnu high-status individuals.  This fact suggests that skull modification was a continued cultural practice as populations mixed.

The findings contradict the longstanding belief that the Huns were simply a continuation of the Xiongnu.  Instead, they appear to have been a diverse group, drawing from multiple origins rather than stemming from a single migration.

While previous studies suggest that elite marriage alliances played a key role in Xiongnu society, the social structures of the Huns remain less understood.  Researchers need more data, beyond genetic links, to explore how this society functioned.

The team’s research highlights the complex nature of ancient nomadic groups and reveals how people moved and mixed across vast distances.  The study deepens our understanding of how cultures and populations evolved on the Eurasian steppe.

This study appeared in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Our third story takes us to Italy, where researchers have revisited the mysterious glassified remains of a man's brain, thought to have been vitrified by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

As reported by Live Science, a new study presents fresh evidence supporting the vitrification hypothesis.  High temperatures such as those that Pompeii experienced are expected to burn and destroy soft tissue, and not lead to quenching, but this case is an exception.  

According to Guido Giordano, a volcanologist at Roma Tre University and the study’s lead author, the volcanic flows that buried Herculaneum likely came after a superheated ash cloud.  

The team estimates that this initial cloud exceeded 950 degrees Fahrenheit before rapidly dissipating.  This process exposed the brain to both extreme heat and a sudden cooling, which could explain its glass-like state.

The researchers point to charcoal fragments found near the remains, which show signs of repeated high-temperature exposure.  Similar ash clouds have been documented in modern eruptions, including Japan’s Mount Unzen in 1991 and Guatemala’s Fuego volcano in 2018.

The man's body first came to light in the 1960s.  A young man about 20 years old, was lying in his bed inside the Collegium Augustalium.   It’s likely that he was the guardian of the Collegium, a public building dedicated to the worship of Emperor Augustus, located on the city’s main street.

In 2020, a study first proposed that his brain had turned to glass due to extreme heat, but some scientists remained skeptical.  They argued that the temperatures involved were unlikely to cause such a transformation, and that the specimen was something other than a brain.  The new study, however, shows evidence of brain tissue, including traces of brain cells.

Some researchers believe further investigation is needed before drawing firm conclusions.

If confirmed, the discovery would be a rare example of human brain vitrification, offering new insights into the extreme conditions of Vesuvius’ eruption and its devastating effects on those caught in its path.

This study appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.

Our last story takes us to Turkey, where a summary of existing research emphasizes that archaeologists at Göbekli Tepe are convinced that the site was a domestic settlement with year-round houses rather than just a seasonal ceremonial site. 

The site was once thought to be solely a ceremonial center.  However, the living quarters unearthed in recent years indicate that people lived there and formed communities.  This realization has reshaped our understanding of early human settlements. 

As reported by Greek Reporter, excavations have revealed tools, grinding stones and wild plant and animal remains.  Archaeologists claim this evidence shows that Göbekli Tepe was not only for worshippers, but also a place for domestic life even earlier than the first farmers.  The presence of ancient living quarters shows that early humans began forming semi-permanent communities much earlier than previously believed and even before they began domesticating plants and animals.  Thus, the complex society represented by Göbekli Tepe amazingly was the work of hunter-gatherers, not farmers.

Located near the Turkish-Syrian border, Göbekli Tepe dates back at least 12,000 years, predating Stonehenge by more than 6,000 years.  The site is famous for its massive T-shaped stone pillars, some 18 feet high, with intricate carvings of animals and abstract symbols.  Until recent years, scholars thought hunter-gatherers built this area and communed there for ritual purposes only.  This was surprising enough, but more excavation revealed still more, including houses that indicate long-term habitation.

According to Dr. Martin Sweatman, archaeologist from the University of Edinburgh, Göbekli Tepe had additional functions beyond religious ceremonies.  He has proposed that the site could have served as an early form of a calendar, because its builders watched the stars and may have used the massive stone structures to track celestial movements.

Other hypotheses suggest Göbekli Tepe may have been a burial site, while some even speculate a connection to the biblical Garden of Eden.  Though widely debated, these interpretations highlight the site’s many unanswered questions.

Despite decades of research, only about 10% of Göbekli Tepe has been excavated, and archaeologists estimate that fully uncovering the site could take another 150 years.  According to Dr. Mehmet Önal of Harran University, at least 15 more stone enclosures remain buried, including one that could date back as far as 15,000 years.

The ongoing discoveries at Göbekli Tepe continue to reshape ideas about early civilizations.  Instead of small, nomadic and disparate communities, it now appears that some early human hunter-gatherer societies created large and complex domestic and social settlements.  This began a path to civilization even before the first farmers.

As research progresses, Göbekli Tepe may push back the timeline of civilization by at least 1,000 years, forcing archaeologists to rethink how and when humans first began to settle down, worship together and build complex structures.

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!