Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew, and here are 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!

Archaeologists in Albania are exploring what has turned out to be the oldest known Neolithic lakeside settlement in Europe, complete with houses on stilts and a major palisade wall.  Excavators at the huge Maya site of Caracol in Belize have come upon the tomb of the city’s founding ruler.  A huge DNA study has documented the rise and spread of pathogenic disease in the European Neolithic.   And a new analysis shows that a key ancestral heritage site in New Zealand is under threat from the sea.

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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 period from July 6th through the 19th, 2025.

Our first story this week takes us to eastern Albania and the oldest lake in Europe: Lake Ohrid.  Known as “The Pearl of the Balkans,” it is more than a million years old and straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern Albania.

As reported by Reuters, a team of archaeologists from Albania and Switzerland has been working nearly ten feet underwater to retrieve evidence of the oldest lakeside village in Europe—and solve the mystery of why it was barricaded by some 100,000 spiked planks.

Their discovery of wooden stilts that supported houses indicates that an organized hunting and farming community of 200 to 500 people lived there up to eight thousand years ago.  The find, confirmed by radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology, the measurement of annual growth rings in trees, predates other European Neolithic lakeside settlements by five hundred years.

Other items found at the site include seeds, plants, bones of domesticated and wild animals, copper objects, and ceramics with detailed carvings.  According to Albert Hafner from the University of Bern, an expert in European Neolithic lake dwellings, while settlements like this are known in both Alpine and Mediterranean regions, the Ohrid Lake setting is half a millennium older.  Since this site is underwater, organic material here is well preserved, allowing researchers to learn what the people ate and planted.  

The team's findings indicate that people who lived on the lake helped spread agriculture and livestock practices across Europe.  According to Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi, the way they lived, ate, hunted, fished, and designed their settlement shows that they were an intelligent culture for the time.

During the underwater excavations, which required divers to penetrate dense reed beds, the team found the defensive structures that contained thousands of spikes driven into the lake's bottom, forming barricades.  Further investigation will be needed to find the reason for such a massive fortification.

After six years of work and the retrieval of over a thousand wood samples, only about one percent of the site has been excavated.  Archaeologists think it could take decades to fully explore the area, believed to cover around six hectares.

Next, we go to western Belize, where excavators working at the ancient city of Caracol [care uh COAL] have located the first identifiable Maya ruler's tomb at the site.  

As reported by Phys.org, the tomb, which had been sealed for nearly two millennia, held the remains of Te K'ab Chaak [tay cob CHOCK], the first ruler of the city and the founder of its royal dynasty.  

Now in ruins long swallowed by the rainforest, Caracol was once a major political player in Maya history, dominating the southern part of the Yucatan Peninsula from AD 560 through 680.  It was abandoned with the collapse of the Maya civilization in this region by AD 900.  At its peak, the city had a population of over 100,000 people.  Today, the city’s remains are the largest Maya archaeological site in Belize.

A team of archaeologists from the University of Houston, currently led by Diane Z. Chase and her husband, Dr. Arlen F. Chase, have conducted excavations at Caracol for more than 40 years. 

They discovered the ruler's remains at the base of a royal family shrine along with pottery vessels, carved tubular beads, jadeite jewelry, and a mosaic jadeite death mask found in dozens of pieces.  The scene on one pottery vessel depicts a Maya ruler holding a spear and receiving offerings from deities.  Another shows the Maya god of traders, surrounded by offerings.  Other images on pots include bound captives, and two have handles shaped to represent the head of the coatimundi [coh-ah-tee MOON-dee].

Aspects of the burial may shed light on a long-held question: was a new political order introduced to the Maya area by Mexicans from Teotihuacan around the mid-300s?  Located some 1,200 kilometers from Caracol, in the highlands of central Mexico, this major city conducted trade and had major influence throughout Central America. 

Investigations at Caracol's Northeast Acropolis show that Te K'ab Chaak's tomb was the first of three major burials dating to about AD 350, a time of early contact with Teotihuacan.

According to Dr. Arlen Chase, the connections between the two regions formed at the highest levels of society, indicating that the first kings of various Maya cities—including Te K-ab Chaak—took part in formal diplomatic relationships with Teotihuacan, 

Te K’ab Chaak’s tomb, bearing a combination of Maya and Teotihuacan symbols, demonstrates that the New World was not simply made up of isolated kingdoms.  It was home to a network of ancient cities connected by ambition, religion and drive. 

Research on the contents of the chamber continues, including the reconstruction of the jadeite death mask and DNA and stable isotope analysis of the skeletal material.  The Chases will present results of the 2025 Caracol field season at a conference on Maya–Teotihuacan interaction in August 2025.

Our next stop is Copenhagen, where archaeologists are examining ancient DNA from hundreds of human pathogens, dating from the Early Stone Age to as recently as 200 years ago.  Among the study's conclusions are that increased cohabitation with domesticated animals—along with large-scale migrations—played a key role in the spread of novel infectious diseases.  

As reported by Phys.org, researchers analyzed the bones and teeth of over 1,300 prehistoric individuals who lived across Eurasia, some as long ago as 37,000 years.  This gave the scientists unique insight into the development of diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites.  

Their findings, which appeared in the journal Nature, reveal that the earliest known evidence of animal-to-human disease transfer dates to some 6,500 years ago, when the transition to farming and animal husbandry opened the door to a new era of disease.  The significant increase in such cross-species transfers around 5,000 years ago coincides with a migration to northwestern Europe from the Pontic Steppe, which extends from Eastern Europe to Central Asia.  

Among the many remarkable findings in the study is the world's oldest genetic trace of the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, identified in a 5,500-year-old sample.  The plague is estimated to have killed between a quarter and a half of Europe's population during the Middle Ages.

Researchers found traces of many other diseases, including malaria, leprosy, hepatitis B, and diphtheria, ranging from 1,400 to 11,100 years old.

According to Professor Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen and the University of Cambridge, leader of the research team, these diseases didn't only cause illness—they may have contributed to population collapse, migration and genetic adaptation. 

Building on this study’s findings, researchers can now trace the mutations in the genomes of these pathogens to gain insight into disease development and vaccine efficacy. 

Our final destination is the South Coast of Aotearoa [AH-oh-tay-uh-RO-uh], New Zealand, where a new study is considering the implications of sea level rise on one of the country’s oldest and most significant archaeological sites. 

As reported by Cosmos Magazine, Te Pokohiwi o Kupe [tay POE-koe-HEE-whee oh KOO-pay]—also known as Wairau [WHY-rahw] Bar—is a five-mile-long gravel bar located on the Cloudy Bay coastline.  The site dates to the 1300s and is home to the earliest known graves in the country, some belonging to first-generation Polynesian settlers.  Also located in the area are taonga [tah-OHN-gah], treasured objects with cultural and historical significance, and wahi tapu [WAH-hee TAH-poo], which are sacred sites. 

Trustees from the Te Rūnanga a Rangitāne o Wairau [TAY roo-NAHN-gah ah RON-gee-TAH-nay oh WHY-rahw] Trust partnered with scientists with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, sharing their findings in the MAI Journal [MY journal].  This publication spotlights scholarly examinations of indigenous knowledge and development within the context of Aotearoa, New Zealand. 

Combining local knowledge with LiDAR-derived topographic data, the team mapped the area's exposure to present and future coastal inundation from spring tides and storm wave events.  Simulations of a one-in-a-hundred year storm wave put around 20% of the land at risk of flooding. 

Given the projected 1-meter rise in sea level over the next 50 to 100 years, the amount of heritage land in jeopardy is as high as 75%.  The site’s highest point is just 5 meters above the average sea levels today. 

In addition to the immediate dangers of coastal erosion, infrastructure damage, resource pressures, human displacement, and biodiversity loss, these changes pose a real threat to archaeological and cultural heritage.

According to the authors, their results imply that heritage land on the northwest portion of Te Pokohiwi ō Kupe is already susceptible to inundation by significant storm waves—a risk that will grow as the sea level continues to rise.  The area is also at risk of tsunamis, as demonstrated in previous studies.  They urge further research, especially those that incorporate the potential impact of earthquakes.

The integrated, place-based approach of this research supports dialogue about adaptation and rescue options for protecting sacred sites through a combination of locally led and nationally supported interventions.

In the face of growing ecological threats, the concern is not only for what may be physically lost, but for preserving what remains, and ensuring that the connection to the land continues even as the landscape changes.  

That wraps up the news for this week!

For more stories and daily news updates, visit Archaeologica on the World Wide Web at archaeologica.org, where all the news is history! Also, be sure to check out our subscription platform, Heritage Broadcasting Service, at heritagetac.org!

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