Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew, and you’re about to hear our 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 genetic study in eastern Spain clearly registers the effect of the expulsion of people of North African descent in the early 17th century.  Excavators in the mountaintop citadel of Kuelap, Peru, came upon a tomb that they think may reflect a closing ritual performed when the site was abandoned.  Construction workers off the coast of Java recovered two Homo erectus skull fragments when they sucked up sediment from the sea floor.  And archaeologists in southern Israel uncovered two ebony figurines with African features in two early Christian graves.

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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 May 18th through the 24th, 2025. 

We begin this week in eastern Spain, where researchers are exploring historical patterns of gene flow and population structure.  

One goal of the study was to gain a better understanding of how North Africa influenced the peninsula from Roman times to early modern times.  As reported by Phys.org, the research  revealed that political events and cultural shifts affected the population of the Spanish Mediterranean coast and uncovered a major ethnic cleansing episode that greatly impacted the country.  

A team of researchers from the University of Huddersfield's Archaeogenetics Research Group led by Ph.D. researcher Gonzalo Oteo-García collaborated with archaeologists in Spain and geneticists at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, University of Dublin, on the project.  DNA results showed that gene flow from North Africa into Iberia was ongoing in the centuries prior to the Islamic period.  North African ancestry was already present in genomes from the 4th to the 8th century AD, before consolidation happened during the Islamic period.  

Evidence of North African ancestry continues to be seen in a Christian cemetery in Valencia until the 17th century, when North African ancestry greatly declined.  This timing coincides with an ethnic cleansing called the Expulsion of the Moriscos at the beginning of the 17th century, when Muslims were forced to convert to Christianity.  

This ethnic cleansing episode happened on a massive scale.  Approximately 300,000 people were forced to leave Spain and relocate to North Africa.  Afterward, hardly any evidence of North African ancestry remained in eastern Spain.  Many people in this population who left before the Expulsion moved to South America, and the ancestry there today reflects this.  

The team collaborated with museums in the Valencia region in gathering the bones needed to conduct the genomic analysis.  According to Dr. Oteo-García, the team started the research simply to learn more about the genetic makeup of the medieval population of eastern Iberia.  As they began to uncover genetic evidence linking political upheavals and cultural shifts to the displacement of local populations who had inhabited this land for centuries—along with evidence of the medieval slave trade—they realized the historical significance of their findings.

In view of the sensitive nature of the topic, the team found it exciting and sobering

to uncover this evidence.  They hope that their study will contribute to future archaeological and genetic studies that further interpret the complexities of these results. 

The findings are published in the journal Genome Biology.

Our second story takes us to northeastern Peru, where Greek Reporter reveals that archaeologists from the Ministry of Culture have uncovered an ancient tomb in the northernmost section of Kuélap [KWAY-lap].  

Set 3,000 miles above sea level in the Andes mountains of the Amazonas region, Kuélap is the largest and most significant monument in northeastern Peru.  The excavation focused for the first time on six circular structures and a courtyard at the northernmost part of the site,  where archaeologists uncovered a chulpa [CHOOL-pah], a type of tomb or stone tower commonly seen in the Andean highlands.  

They also found human remains and finely crafted ceremonial objects inside the tomb.  This  included a polished stone axe and a slate pendant engraved with geometric designs, along with stone fragments and traces of metal.  

Archaeologists suggest that these objects were part of a closing ritual, giving them a more complete understanding of funerary and domestic rituals and social relationships of the people in the northern part of Kuélap. 

The Chachapoya culture built Kuelap in the sixth century AD.  These people and their spiritual practices were complex and rich.  According to the archaeologists, the burial evidence shows a community that was structured and adhered to formal burial practices and ceremonial customs.  

The city covers nearly 15 acres and includes impressive stonework, with massive stone walls enclosing the entire perimeter of the city.  Some researchers believe that the walls served as protection against lowland invaders.  Others think they served a ceremonial or symbolic purpose.  The site was abandoned in AD 1570, just after the invasion of the Spanish.  

The excavation is part of the Kuélap Archaeological Research Program, a larger research effort  focused on archaeological investigation and conservation  that covers sixteen areas and more than 24,000 square meters of Kuélap.  Its ultimate goal is to protect and preserve one of Peru’s most important and enigmatic landmarks.  

Our third story turns to Southeast Asia, where a construction project off the coast of Java in Indonesia vacuumed up a cache of over 6,000 animal fossils.  Two skull fragments from an extinct human ancestor were part of the seafloor recovery— the first opportunity scientists have had to study fossils from submerged parts of the Indonesian archipelago.

As reported by LiveScience, the bones are part of a previously unidentified Homo erectus population in Southeast Asia that may have interacted with humans.  Known as drowned Sundaland, these lands used to be wide open plains about 140,000 years ago.  The rivers  interspersed with the plains were teeming with fish, turtles, river sharks, and other marine life, as well as hippos.  Land animals like elephants and water buffalo occupied the land.  

The presence of Homo erectus in this area confirms that ancient human ancestors were taking advantage of what used to be a fertile hunting ground, now a stretch of water that separates the islands of Java and Madura.  The researchers found cut marks on some of the fossils which confirmed that the Madura Strait hominins were hunting turtles and large game.  According to Harold Berguis, study lead author and researcher studying Home erectus at Leiden University in the Netherlands, the Madura Strait hominins could have developed these hunting techniques on their own, but it’s  possible that they learned this strategy through a cultural exchange.  

Homo erectus is a key part of human history, because it was the first species to develop human-like proportions and possibly the first to leave Africa.  The fossil evidence suggests that the species continued to live on the island of Java until 117,000 to 108,000 years ago, when it  eventually went extinct.  Modern humans arrived in Southeast Asia about 77,000 years ago.  

The human story is complicated, especially in Southeast Asia.  According to Berguis, a more modern population replaced Homo erectus about 350,000 years ago on what is now the Asian mainland.  It included the Denisovans and the Neanderthals.  

Within the 6,372 fossils recovered, the research team has identified 36 different species.  Based on its thickness, one of the Homo erectus skull fragments belonged to an adolescent.  The cause of death could not be determined.  In addition to the hominin skull fragments, the team also recovered the fossils of Komodo dragons.

The study is published in Quaternary Environments and Humans.

We end this week in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, where archaeologists have uncovered five tiny figurines buried in a necropolis at the Tel Malhata archaeological site.  

As reported by the Smithsonian Magazine, the site contains hundreds of graves and grave goods, including bronze jewelry, alabaster jars, and the five carved figurines, two of them made of ebony.  Three of the graves belonged to two women and a child who died in the sixth or seventh century AD.  

Bone figurines were commonly used in domestic rituals and burials in this region, but figurines made from ebony are rare.  The two of these recovered depict a man and woman with typical African features.  

According to Noé D. Michael, archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority and the University of Cologne in Germany, the Tel Malhata site was in a prime location during the sixth and seventh centuries AD.  It was along a major trade route that merchants from southern Arabia, India, and Africa traveled through on a regular basis.  Asia, and Egypt had an established trade route with the Horn of Africa starting in the 4th century AD.

The grave goods are evidence of this.  Ebony was a valuable import.  Researchers from Tel Aviv University tested the dark wood and confirmed that it originated from Sri Lanka or India.  It’s also confirmed that the grave that contained the figurines held the body of a woman who died between the ages of 20 and 30 and the body of a child who died between the ages of 6 and 8.  Although researchers were unable to extract DNA from the bones to run a test, the tombs were close together and contained the same burial gift—a good indication that the bodies in the tombs were a mother and her child.  

While bone figurines like those uncovered at the site were routinely used in burials and domestic rituals, the ebony figurines were likely personal items that carried great significance and tradition,  passed down from generation to generation.  All five figurines had a hole at the top, so they could be worn around the neck.

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!

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I’m Laura Kennedy and I’ll see you next week!