Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Audio News from Archaeologica!  I'm Laura Kennedy.  Rick Pettigrew is away on our tour of Iran, I’ll be telling you about four of the best stories posted online this past week on our archaeology news website, Archaeologica.org!  Here are the headlines in archaeological and historical news from March 23rd through the 29th, 2025.

This week’s first story takes us to the archaeological site of Basur Höyük [bah-SHUR hoh-YOO-k] in today’s southeastern Turkey, where a new study of Bronze Age Mesopotamian tombs indicates that the society of that time and place was more egalitarian than previously thought.  The study also indicates that age was an important factor in social status. 

As reported by Live Science, the site dates from 3100 to 2800 BC, and holds several stone tombs replete with skeletons and grave goods.  Researchers previously believed that these elaborate tombs signified the emergence of a hierarchical state characterized by royal burials and retainer sacrifices. 

The team genetically analyzed nine skeletons from one of the tombs.  Skeleton fusion and dentition analysis identified them primarily as adolescents between  12 and 16 years.  The analysis also revealed that the deceased were primarily female and not biologically related, suggesting that they were brought together primarily for ritual purposes. 

Previous conjectures about these tombs assumed that early Bronze Age societies exhibited large state structures ruled by kings.  New archaeological evidence, however, suggests that these Mesopotamian societies alternated between king-led rule and more collectivist, egalitarian governance.  

According to David Wengrow, a professor of comparative archaeology at University College London and the lead author for this study, the burials at Basur Höyük may represent an age-based funerary tradition tied to a broader social group, rather than to a strictly hierarchical society.  The researchers suggest that these adolescents belonged to an “age set”, a concept indicated in some egalitarian societies, where status is influenced by life stage, gender and specific skills. 

The ritual for this possible “age set” could indicate cult initiation, or inter-group violence. The deceased came from a larger ritual group, whose majority survived into adulthood. 

The researchers emphasize the need to study possible “age sets” in early Bronze Age societies, rather than to presume rigid social hierarchies.  The burials at Basur Höyük also highlight the role of adolescence in social organization, an often-overlooked aspect of ancient societies.  Future isotope analysis may help determine the origins of those buried, providing further insight into their backgrounds.  Preliminary findings already indicate that many of the adolescents were not originally from the local area.

The study was published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 

Our second story turns to Warner Valley, Oregon in the United States, where a new study analyzed tiny starch granules from stone crevices to confirm Indigenous use of geophytes.  This research provides valuable insights into traditional lifeways. 

Indigenous communities, especially those of the northern Great Basin, integrated geophyte gathering and preparation into their cultural practices and identities.  Geophytes are resilient plants with underground organs, such as roots and tubers.  Despite their significance as a food source for hunter-gatherers, evidence of geophyte use in the archaeological record remains scarce.

However, recent studies have demonstrated geophyte use by Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene hunter-gatherers in western North America, including by identification of a native potato in Utah from as early as 10,900 years ago.

As reported by Phys dot org, researchers from the Utah’s Natural History Museum utilized innovative techniques to extract plant remnants from fissures in bedrock metates.  A metate is a depression in bedrock where people used stone tools, called manos, to grind and pulverize food.  Researchers hypothesized that this grinding may have pushed food granules deep into the bedrock.  In Southern Oregon, metates are associated with petroglyph panels and culturally significant plants, including geophytes. 

The team recovered starch granules, the tiny structures that store carbohydrates in plants. Researchers extracted these granules, too small to be seen with the naked eye, from surfaces of pottery, basketry, and ground stone.  These granules, sometimes preserved for millennia within cracks in stone crevices, help identify plant taxa processed by ancient populations.

The archaeologists compared residue on the metate’s surface to ancient residue in the crevices.  They used electric toothbrushes to extract materials from the surfaces, then used defloccant, a detergent-like substance, to draw out granules from the crevices. 

The study analyzed a total of 644 granules from 43 surfaces.  Despite many granules remaining unidentified due to damage, researchers found samples of biscuit root and other plants from the carrot family.  There was also potential evidence of wild rye.  All of these plants are still important today for local Indigenous groups.  

According to archaeobotanist Stefania Wilks, a University of Utah graduate student and research assistant, this new method of recovering starch granules helps researchers studying plants in human diets, as some plant parts, such as roots, are typically not well-preserved over time.  

This study was published in the journal American Antiquity. 

We now head to South Korea, where the worst wildfires in the country’s history have severely damaged many historic sites over the past week, including the Gounsa [GOH-oon-sa] temple complex. 

As reported by Smithsonian Magazine, the fires have ravaged 88,000 acres in southeastern South Korea, and their expansion does not yet appear to be slowing.  At least 27 people have died, and at least 37,000 people have fled their homes. 

According to prime minister and acting president Han Duck-soo, the damage is quickly mounting.  The fires have ravaged at least 18 cultural heritage sites, further energizing urgent efforts to contain them. 

The fires’ damages to the 1,300-year-old Gounsa temple complex in Ujseong [you-EE-say-ohng] County are some of the most devastating.  Its rich history dates from AD 681, during the Silla [SI-luh] dynasty, as that dynasty propagated Buddhism across the Korean Peninsula.  No structures remain from that dynasty, yet Gounsa was an active Buddhist site, packed with buildings, statues and other artifacts from centuries past. 

While parts of the Gounsa temple have burned in the past, the recent fires caused unprecedented destruction.  The Korea Heritage Service reported that 20 of the complex’s 30 buildings were largely destroyed.  Two of these buildings were especially valued.  Gaunru was a stream-side pavilion built in 1668, and Yeonsujeon Hall stored royal genealogical records.  

According to Doryun, a senior monk who lived at the temple, 20 monks and workers were excavated without injury.  While the site is heavily damaged, the main temple building survived.  

The fires also threaten the Hahoe [ha-whey] Folk Village, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Andong, known for its historic mud-walled houses and thatched roofs, of Confucian cultural provenance.  The village dates back six centuries to the time of the Joseon [CHUH-sohn] dynasty.  Authorities evacuated residents and took measures to protect the village assets, which include a tree, traditionally home to the goddess Samsin.  The fires jeopardized another UNESCO site from the Joseon era, that of the Byeongsanseowon [byung-san suh-won] Confucian Academy. 

The government has organized extensive efforts to protect over 1,500 relics from endangered historic sites in the region.  Currently, some of the strongest blazes still burn.

Finally, we’re at Ewell [YOOL], Surrey, UK, where researchers analyzed a faunal assemblage from a Romano-British ritual shaft on the Nescot site, one of the largest assemblages of dog remains ever found dating from the time of ancient Roman Britain. 

Dr. Ellen Green conducted the study, published in the International Journal of Paleopathology.  In 2015, Pre-Construct Archaeology excavated the Nescot College Former Animal Husbandry Centre in Ewell, uncovering Roman-era quarry pits.  One pit, an oval shaft 4 meters deep, dating to the late first and early second centuries AD, stood out for its ritual deposits.  

As reported by Phys dot org, dogs were important for the ancient Romans, used for hunting, herding and companionship.  Dogs were also associated with religious and ritual functions, symbolizing gods and concepts such as the underworld, fertility, healing, and protection. 

Researchers have discovered dog remains at over 80 percent of Romano-British era sites, but the remains typically constitute only 2 to 4 percent of their faunal remains.  The Nescot shaft is unique for its collection of at least 5,436 dog bones out of 10,747 animal bones total, an unusually high proportion. 

The shaft exhibits three phases of use.  The first two phases appear to show ritual deposition, holding most of the faunal and human remains, coins, metalwork, pottery shards and gaming tokens.  The third phase evinced only animal bones and pottery fragments. 

Green found remains of at least 140 dogs among the bones.  Several dogs’ remains evinced chondrodysplasia, disproportionally short limbs, resembling those of modern breeds such as the corgi.  From their remains, the dogs appear to have been well-cared-for, the few pathologies observed attributable mostly to old age.  

However, the Nescot dogs exhibited a relatively high number of scapular lesions.  It’s likely that these lesions resulted from inbreeding, not from strenuous activity.  Lack of cut marks on the dogs’ bones suggests that they were not butchered.  Green’s analysis indicated that the dogs at the ritual sites led healthy lives, and were carefully selected per cultural criteria, in contrast with dogs from urban areas, more likely unhealthy or stray.  

Exact shaft uses are unconfirmed, but the smaller faunal assemblage in the third phase indicates that it transitioned then from sacred ritual deposits to mundane waste disposal.  That phase’s bones also display cut marks, suggesting that they were treated as food waste rather than as ritual sacrifices.  All such deposits ceased by the early second century.

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!