Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew, to hand off another 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 DNA study initiated by the Picuris tribe of New Mexico shows a clear genetic linkage between the tribe and the ancient people of Chaco Canyon.  Close inspection of the Luxor Obelisk in Paris reveals an inscription declaring the divine right of the pharaoh Ramses the Second.  Sites and artifacts found on the Isle of Skye in Scotland reveal that hunter-gatherers arrived there as early as 11,500 years ago.  And artistic depictions from ancient Egypt appear to include the Milky Way Galaxy as one of many ways to represent the sky goddess Nut.

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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 Audio News April 27th through May 3rd, 2025.

Our first story this week takes us to the Northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico, where a genetic study combines oral tradition, archaeology and ethnography to reconstruct the ancestry of an indigenous tribe. 

As reported by Phys.org, the sovereign nation of Picuris [PEE-coor-EES] Pueblo, a federally recognized tribe, has long been linked to Chaco Canyon through cultural and narrative traditions.  In its heyday, this region was the nucleus of Pueblo culture and society.  

Known for its multi-story homes and ceremonial structures, its people formed an extensive political and social network of more than 200 communities that spanned an area larger than modern England.  Today, it is designated as a National Historical Park and UNESCO World Heritage site and managed by the US National Park Service.

According to Picuris Lieutenant Governor Craig Quanchello, stories of the group’s presence in the region have been passed down since time immemorial, but those narrative traditions were often overlooked and erased.

Given their increasing concerns about oil and gas drilling in Chaco Canyon, the leadership felt that pairing genetic evidence with their oral histories could help assert their role in determining the region's history. 

They contacted the Centre for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen, beginning a collaboration whose findings were published in Nature.  

Geneticists compared the genomes of 13 current members of Picuris Pueblo against 16 ancient individuals who lived between AD 1300 and 1500 around the Chaco Canyon region.  Their analysis confirmed the continuity between these two groups and indicated that the present-day Picuris are the most similar group to be tested against the ancestral Puebloans so far.  

Given the lack of paleogenetic study for the more than two dozen other federally recognized Tribes that have a relationship with Chaco Canyon, these findings are not meant to challenge or negate their connection to the region. 

According to Picuris Governor and study co-author Wayne Yazza, the choice to begin working with scientists to investigate their history wasn’t easy, especially in light of the long history of archaeologists and geneticists claiming and studying tribal artifacts and remains without consent or input from those groups.

The Picuris Pueblo Tribal Council provided ethical oversight throughout the study and participated in crafting the research agreement and description of its key findings. They also retained the right to redirect the research at any time, and publication of results continues to be the sole decision of Picuris leadership.

The team hopes that the design of their collaboration can be a model and catalyst for future studies, policy and decisions that impact Tribal sovereignty and community identity.

Next, we head to Paris, where an Egyptologist provides an interesting interpretation of a newly-deciphered inscription on the famed Luxor Obelisk.

As reported by Live Science, the monument was constructed nearly 3,300 years ago at the behest of Ramesses the Second during the beginning of his reign.  Gifted to France in 1830 by the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the ruling power in Egypt at the time, the obelisk sits in the famed Place de la Concorde today.

While the obelisk was being restored in 2021, Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier, an Egyptologist at the Catholic University of Paris, was given permission to scale the scaffolding around the monument to study it in greater detail. 

According to Olette-Pelletier, the inscription declares that the pharaoh had been chosen by the gods, was of divine essence, and was thus entitled to rule Egypt.  The inscription would have been legible only to those with a high level of literacy and could be read by certain people under specific circumstances. 

The obelisk originally sat facing the Nile River, giving those traveling by boat a good view of its engravings.  The Opet festival, held annually to celebrate the god Amun, would have been one such opportunity for the nobility to enter Luxor on the Nile.  These messages would have greeted them as they arrived, reinforcing the pharaoh’s political power and setting the tone for their time in the city. 

As the study has not been published yet, other scholars urge caution regarding that conclusion. According to Filip Taterka, an Egyptology professor at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures at the Polish Academy of Sciences, the inscription may have been too far away to be legible to those traveling on the Nile. 

Olette-Pelletier is preparing to publish his findings in the journal Nilotic and Mediterranean Egypt. 

We now head to northwestern Scotland, where a discovery on the Isle of Skye points to the existence of one of the region's earliest known human populations. 

As described in their findings, reported in a University of Glasgow news release and published in the Journal of Quaternary Science, Karen Hardy, a professor of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Glasgow, and Martin Wildgoose, a local archaeologist, located and studied a collection of stone tools and circular stone structures.  Their team also comprised archaeologists and scientists from universities in the UK and Australia. 

The tools dated to the Late Upper Paleolithic, around 11,500 to 11,000 years ago during a cold period that saw significant shifts in the climate and environment. 

The research team reconstructed the local landscape and shifting sea levels during this period to trace the story of the region’s people groups.  Much of western Scotland would have been covered by ice at the time.  

According to Professor Hardy, groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers would have likely followed animal herds as they traveled northwards, leaving their origin points in northern Europe behind.  Making their way across Doggerland, a swath of land now covered by the North Sea, they would have encountered dramatic floods and shifts in the landscape as they journeyed across Scotland. 

The settlement sites chosen by Late Upper Palaeolithic inhabitants on Skye were likely strategic, offering easy access to coastal and riverine resources, including naturally occurring, highly valued materials such as ochre.  Although few sites preserve evidence today, the deliberate selection of South Cuidrach—despite its distance from raw material sources—suggests these communities were well acquainted with the island’s landscape. 

The research team recovered tools fashioned from stone sourced locally, and the absence of non-local lithic materials further supports the presence of a stable, self-sufficient population confined to Skye.  Additionally, the substantial intertidal remains at Sconser indicate a relatively large community or long-term occupation.

These sites are now the largest concentration of evidence of these pioneering human populations anywhere in Scotland.  They indicate how early humans during this era traveled much further north than archaeologists had previously thought. 

Finally, we revisit ancient Egyptian artistic history to take a closer look at its depictions of the night sky.

As reported by Phys.org, Dr. Or Graur, Associate Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Portsmouth, focused his research on one element of the cosmos in particular: the Milky Way Galaxy.  He published his findings in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. 

Dr. Graur reviewed 125 depictions of the goddess Nut [NOOT] on 555 coffins and burial elements dating back nearly 5,000 years. 

She is shown stretching across the sky, sometimes adorned with stars and solar disks.  Arched over her brother, the earth god Geb, Nut is part of the solar cycle and protects the earth from flooding.

One particular depiction of the goddess caught Dr. Graur’s eye.  On a coffin dating back approximately 3,000 years, a distinct, winding black curve runs across Nut’s body from her feet to her fingertips.  Batches of stars, an equal amount above and below the curve, are also painted on her body. 

According to Dr. Graur, this could represent the Milky Way, particularly, the dark band of dust that cuts through its dark band of diffused light.  Although he found that similar curves were painted on Nut in four tombs within the Valley of the Kings, he did not find this undulating band among her other depictions.  

Based on these trends, he posits that the Egyptians did not view Nut and the Milky Way as one and the same.  The Milky Way, together with the sun and the stars, were among the celestial phenomena that were associated with her role as the sky. 

This project, with a study he published in 2024 that looked at Egyptian depictions of the night sky, is part of Dr. Graur’s current work to catalog and analyze the mythology of galaxies across cultures, including the spiritual beings connected to the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni peoples. 

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!