Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew, back again to tell you about 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!

Excavators in Ireland have recovered the first-ever intact Roman pot.  A dental study of boar molars has clarified the process of pig domestication in China.  Archaeologists in Veracruz, Mexico, have uncovered traces of some of the earliest Spanish buildings there.  And computer simulation has pointed out migration pathways that Neanderthals could have used to expand eastward into Siberia.

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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 June 8th through the 14th, 2025.

We begin this week in Ireland, where archaeologists working in northern Dublin have stumbled upon an artifact with an unexpected origin point: Rome. 

As reported by Heritage Daily, excavators made the discovery at Drumanagh [druh-MAH-nuh], which is the site of an Iron Age promontory fort.  Archaeologists have conducted annual visits to the site over the past five years, recovering a wide variety of imported goods.

This season, excavators have discovered bone combs, gaming pieces, glass beads, and dice made from antlers.  Among the finds from previous years were spelt bread, jewelry, olive oil, ceramic vessels, and glassware.

According to Christine Baker, heritage officer and archaeologist from the Fingal County Council who coordinates the annual digs, this year’s team discovered five or six different types of Roman artifacts, including the neck of an amphora.  They also unearthed an intact pot — the first of its kind ever discovered in Ireland.

This fort was likely a major post for trade and commercial activity between the Romans and the local population, considering that the land—known as Hibernia at the time—never became part of the expansive Roman Empire. 

Considered to be a nationally important artifact, the pot will be housed at the National Museum of Ireland.  Included in the process of cleaning and preparing the item for conservation will be an examination of any soil on the pot for traces of organic material. 

Our next story takes us to southern China, where a study of 8,000-year-old pig molars is illuminating the story of the domestication of wild boars in the region.

As reported by Cosmos Magazine, this analysis is the first to demonstrate that pigs were eating cooked foods and waste from ancient human homes.

Led by Jiajing Wang, assistant professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College, the research team analyzed teeth from 32 ancient pigs to discover what they had eaten throughout their lifetimes.  These samples were recovered from two sites inhabited during the early Neolithic period in the Lower Yangtze River region.

Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identified 240 microfossil starch granules found on the molars.  Based on these remains, the pigs had either been directly fed rice and yams that were cooked by humans or had scavenged them from human settlements.  Researchers also collected unidentified tubers, acorns and wild grasses.  These plants had previously occurred in human settlements from that time period. 

These molars revealed another indication of a close relationship between these pigs and their local human populations: eggs of parasites that grow in the human digestive system.  This is likely a result of the pigs eating human waste, a habit they’re known for, or drinking water or eating food on ground contaminated by human feces. 

These findings allowed the research team to sketch out the likely story of the domestication of wild boars.

According to Wang, the boars found at the site were likely drawn to human settlements as groups established themselves and began to cultivate their own food.  For those boars who were more friendly and less afraid of humans, these communities provided an opportunity for easy access to food.

As these boars lived more closely alongside humans and enjoyed human waste, their need to maintain robust physiques would have decreased.  Over time, this led to their brains becoming approximately one-third smaller, as well as reductions in the overall size of their bodies.

While domestication studies typically focus on analyzing the skeletal shape of ancient animals, that method may lead researchers to incomplete conclusions, because shifts in body size likely happened well after the beginning of the domestication process.  As demonstrated by this study, conducting dental studies is one avenue for archaeologists to gain a clearer understanding of the whole picture.

We now head to southern Mexico, where an excavation led by the Veracruz City Council and the National Institute of Anthropology and History has uncovered remains dating back more than 500 years to the beginning of the city’s urban development.

As reported by Heritage Daily, the salvage project took place in conjunction with construction work along the Independencia and Cinco de Mayo avenues. 

The region surrounding Veracruz has been inhabited for centuries, beginning with various Mesoamerican cultures.  It fell to the Aztecs during the reign of Moctezuma the Second, the last Aztec emperor.

When the Spanish arrived in 1519, they established the settlement of Playa Villa Rica near present-day Veracruz.  The inhabitants of this base and staging post for the Spanish Conquest moved within the next six years to an area now known as La Antigua.

According to representatives from the Institute, their work has revealed the heart of the initial settlement at La Antigua.  Also discovered were sizable architectural remains near the Temple of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Notably, the team unearthed the remains of a colonial barracks and prison.  Layers of fractured cattle bones identified at the site served to stabilize the ground during construction of the building. 

Additionally, the team recovered everyday objects dating from the 16th to the 21st centuries, including fragments of glass, bones and ceramics. 

The artifacts recovered from this excavation are currently held at the Institute’s local Center in Veracruz, where they have been cleaned and categorized into databases.  Their analysis will help archaeologists and residents gain a better understanding of the city’s rich history. 

Finally, we end our week with an improved look at the migration patterns of Neanderthals—courtesy of a computer simulation.

As reported by Phys.org, scholars have recently concluded that Neanderthals underwent a second major migration from Eastern Europe to Central and Eastern Eurasia.  The exact routes they took, however, have been challenging to pinpoint, given the limited number of known archaeological sites that connect the two regions. 

Utilizing the New York University’s Greene Supercomputer Cluster, two scholars have laid out a map of potential paths that these populations may have taken.  These journeys likely occurred during two ancient periods characterized by warmer temperatures, which in turn provided better conditions for movement: one that began approximately 125,000 years ago and the other around 60,000 years ago.

The research team, comprising associate professor Radu Iovita and then-doctoral student Emily Coco, built the simulation by reconstructing ancient rivers, glacial barriers, terrain elevation, and estimated temperatures, all factors that individuals would take into account when traveling.  While this approach has been applied to models of human and animal movement, this is the first time it has been used with Neanderthals. 

Using an agent-based least-cost path model, the supercomputer sketched a number of routes that the populations may have taken, bringing them northward through the Ural Mountains and southern Siberia.  Migrating 3,250 kilometers in less than 2,000 years, these populations likely used river valleys as natural highways to cross the region at a surprisingly fast pace. 

As detailed in the study findings, which appear in the journal PLOS One, these paths would have led the Neanderthals into regions inhabited by Denisovans.  This proposed interaction with other ancient humans aligns with existing evidence of interbreeding between the two species. 

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!