Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew, ready to deliver 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!

Researchers in the UK successfully documented the first complete genome of an ancient Egyptian who lived more than 4500 years ago.  Peruvian archaeologists announced the discovery of a 3500 year old city with trade links from the coast to the Amazon rain forest.  Excavators in China report their remarkable discovery of wooden tools 300,000 years old.  And a site in Germany has surprisingly  yielded evidence of bone boiling and fat extraction by Neanderthals.

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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 29th through July 5th, 2025. 

Our first story this week comes from the city of Liverpool in the UK, where a team of researchers has analyzed the oldest Egyptian genome sequence and discovered unprecedented genetic links to populations in North Africa and Mesopotamia.

As reported by Phys.org, researchers from the Francis Crick Institute and Liverpool John Moores University have extracted and sequenced a complete set of DNA from the remains of a man who lived in ancient Egypt over 4,500 years ago.  Their analysis provides the first genetic evidence to corroborate claims of population intermixtures in Egypt during that period.  As Egypt’s hot climate discourages DNA preservation, archaeologists had previously hypothesized about population movement based only on the presence of various cross-cultural artifacts.

The skeleton was originally found in 1902 encased in a ceramic pot inside a tomb in Nuwayrat, over 150 miles south of Cairo.  The man lived and died sometime between 4800 and 4500 years ago, at the overlap between the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods, before mummification was standard.  His burial belongs to a type that was reserved for the higher classes.

His skeleton hints that he likely sat for long periods of time while also extending his arms.  Researchers suggest that he may have been a potter, especially given the evidence of arthritis in only his right foot.  Although his high-class burial is puzzling considering his profession, the team proposes that he may have been talented enough to increase his social rank. 

The DNA extracted from one of his teeth revealed ancestral ties to ancient populations from both North Africa and Mesopotamia.  Mesopotamia, in modern-day Iraq, contributed to about 20 percent of his ancestry.  Researchers know that he likely grew up in Egypt because of chemical evidence in his teeth reflecting his diet and environment. 

Because their work remains the oldest genomic sequencing of an ancient Egyptian, the team hopes that they can gather more individual genomes.  Further research will help them better define the picture of migration and cross-population exchange during the period. 

Their study is published in NATURE. 

Next we go to Peru, where archaeologists have revealed a 3,500-year-old city that once thrived as an important trading center for cultures across the Amazon, Andes, and the South American Pacific coast.

As reported by Reuters [ROY-ters], researchers have published new aerial drone footage of the ancient city center of Peñico [pen-YEE-ko], 600 meters above sea level.  Peñico lies in the northern Barranca province, about eighty miles north of Lima.  Archaeologists claim that the city, which was founded between 1800 and 1500 BC, was a key trading post for the region, especially given its strategic location.  The city could interact with inhabitants of the coast, the highlands and the Amazon jungle. 

The city is constructed on a hillside terrace.  It contains a large circular structure, as well as stone and mud buildings.  Peñico holds eighteen structures in total, which includes both domestic residences and buildings used for ceremonial purposes.  

One notable find was the walls of a central plaza, which are decorated with sculptural reliefs and illustrations of the pututu, a type of conch shell trumpet.  The team also discovered a trove of artifacts including clay figurines of humans and animals, ceremonial items and necklaces made from beads and seashells.

According to archaeologist Marco Machacuay [ma-cha-KWA-ee] from the Ministry of Culture, Peñico is important because of its relationship to the Caral [cah-RAL] culture, the oldest civilization in the Americas.  Unlike counterparts in India, China, Sumeria, and Egypt, the Caral civilization developed in isolation.  Researchers believe that Peñico developed after Caral declined as a result of climate change.  The location of the city is near the area where the Caral civilization arose roughly 5,000 years ago.  

The team has been investigating the site for eight years.  Their research should help them better understand the movement of people throughout the region during the period.

Our third story turns to Yunnan province in southwestern China, where archaeologists have unearthed 300,000-year-old wooden tools that remarkably demonstrate the craftsmanship and cognitive skills of Paleolithic humans.

As reported by Live Science, the team excavated thirty-five wooden tools from what used to be an ancient lake in Gantanqing [gahn-tahn-CHING].  The tools were buried in anaerobic clay, where the lack of oxygen preserved their integrity.  The clay also kept evidence of scraping and polishing on the surface of the tools, as well as the remains of plants and soil.  The tools include picks, tools for cutting roots, and sticks made of pine and hardwood that were used for digging. 

The new tools, dating to the early Paleolithic era, are the oldest wooden tools ever found in East Asia.  They are significantly different from wooden artifacts discovered at other archaeological sites.  Hunting tools, made of stone, are nearly always more commonly found in archaeological sites.  These rarely preserved wooden tools give evidence of a much wider set of activities.

The team used infrared luminescence and electron spin resonance to date the artifacts to the time between 250,000 and 361,000 years ago.  Electron spin resonance dates material using electrons trapped inside crystal defects due to natural radiation. 

The team states that these tools reveal the incredible planning and ingenuity of the hominins who used them.  The tools would have been employed to harvest underground tubers, rhizomes or corms at the ancient lakeshore.  This implies that hominins were aware of which foods were safe to eat as well as where and how to find them.  While researchers cannot identify the specific plant remains on the tools, they know that early humans at Gantanqing ate berries, pine nuts, hazelnuts, kiwi fruit, and aquatic tubers. 

According to study lead author Bo Li, a professor at the University of Wollongong Australia, this new study challenges assumptions that East Asian hominins were less technologically advanced than hominins throughout west Eurasia and Africa.  The study also helps expand the story of Paleolithic human adaptation, as the site shows plant-based strategies rather than hunting strategies. 

The team published their study in the journal Science. 

We end this week in central Germany, where archaeologists have found evidence of what they call a Neanderthal fat factory that shows how these early human relatives intentionally maximized the nutritional value of their food sources.

As reported by Live Science, researchers have analyzed 2,000 bone fragments from the Neumark-Nord archaeological site.  They determined that Neanderthals around 125,000 years ago crushed and boiled bones to extract fat from the parts most rich in nutrients.

This innovative process may have saved Neanderthals from a condition called rabbit starvation, which is when the body becomes too reliant on protein and lacks the necessary fats and carbohydrates to survive.  Given their carnivorous diets, Neanderthals would have been at high risk of developing this condition, also known as protein poisoning.

Archaeologists unearthed bone fragments from 172 animals, including deer, cattle and horses.  They also found anvils and hammerstones, which Neanderthals would have used to crush the bones.  Their analysis shows that Neanderthals broke the bones to collect the marrow, and then boiled them to harvest the fat.  They would eat both marrow and fat to maximize their nutritional benefit.

This process is a demonstration of resource intensification, which means getting more utility out of materials.  According to the researchers, this kind of resource intensification previously was known to have occurred only 28,000 years ago, almost 100,000 years after these Neanderthals.

The Neanderthals likely developed this process in response to periods of starvation.  Fat has more than twice the caloric density of protein and carbohydrates, so extracting it was likely a product of necessity rather than idle creativity. 

According to study co-author Wil Roebroeks, a professor emeritus at Leiden [LAI-dn] University, this process of fragmentation uses a lot of time and labor, which shows that this was intentional.  The bone fragments also suggest that Neanderthals used forms of food storage.

Archaeologists hope that the study will lead to more knowledge about the adaptation patterns of these archaic humans.  The results suggest that Neanderthals may be more similar to historical foragers than previously thought.   

The researchers published their study in the journal Science.

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!