Welcome back, everybody!  This is Rick Pettigrew to hand off four fascinating news stories in today’s show 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 China have found what appears to be China’s first city.  A new study suggests that the Bering Land Bridge emerged from the ocean in the last Ice Age much later than previously estimated.  Argentinian archaeologists working in the Southern Cone have found that now-extinct megafauna were a very big part of human diets, so humans may have contributed significantly to their demise.  And archaeologists in southernmost Turkey have figured out how two Bronze Age cities adapted to two periods of severe drought.

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And now, here’s Zayne Clayton 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 Zayne Clayton, in for Laura Kennedy, and these are the headlines in archaeological and historical news for the week of September 28th through October 4th, 2025.

We begin this week in eastern China, where archaeologists have identified the nation’s oldest known prehistoric city.  Located near the lower Yangtze River, this 6,000 year old site provides a window into early city planning, social stratification and defense strategies. 

As detailed by Greek Reporter, archaeologists have excavated about 16,000 square meters of the Doushan [DOO-shahn] city site, which spans approximately 250,000 square meters in total.  Excavation teams have so far discovered evidence of the Neolithic Majiabang [MAH-jee-ya-BONG] culture and the Songze [SONG-ja] culture. 

Excavators have unearthed a moat at the site, which they say not only helped guard the city from invaders, but also shielded and preserved a collection of everyday objects that its inhabitants left behind.  According to Zhou Runken [JOE roon-KEN], head of the excavation team and deputy director of the Jiangsu [jong-SOO] Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the city likely had two layers of fortifications. 

Archaeologists also recovered red sandy ware pottery, including bowls, cooking pots and tripods.  This distinct type of pottery was a trademark of the Majiabang culture. 

The team used radiocarbon analysis of charcoal and plant seeds from the moat and determined them to be around 6,000 years old, which has helped researchers identify the city as part of the earliest phases of Chinese civilization. 

Archaeologists additionally found more than 140 tombs from the Songze era.  Researchers at the site claim that the variation in the number of goods in each grave, from jade axes to large jars, are indicators of a social and economic hierarchy.

Archaeologists believe that the site will be pivotal for future research into the progression from small agrarian communities to structured urban societies, as well as the origins of Chinese civilization. 

Next, we head to the Bering Strait, where an interdisciplinary group of scientists has narrowed the period of time in which humans could have migrated overland from Asia to the Americas. 

As reported by Live Science, the research team believes that the Land Bridge, which connected present-day Alaska with Siberia, would have been available for overland travel at a much later point during the most recent ice age than current estimates propose. 

Previous studies had calculated the global sea level to be about 425 feet lower than present levels during the last glacial maximum.  These calculations led scientists to estimate that the land bridge would have been exposed initially around 70,000 years ago.

Researchers now believe that this projection for the global average sea level may not be fully accurate.  The team claims that the high latitude of the Bering Strait means that the Land Bridge would have been closer to where ice sheets were forming as the cooler climate set in.  The huge weight of these sheets would have pushed the land surface down and consequently raised the effective sea level in the Bering Strait.

In a 2023 study, researchers noted that sediment usually found in the Pacific Ocean had moved into the Arctic Ocean between 46,000 and 35,700 years ago, which indicates that the Land Bridge would have still been covered by water at the time.  These revelations suggest that the Land Bridge was actually submerged tens of thousands of years later than previously thought. 

The research team conducted genetic analyses of ancient fossils found in both Eurasia and the Americas.  After running their results through computer models of migration patterns, they found evidence of animal crossings consistent with the window proposed by the sediment study. 

While the land route to the Americas may not have been open until 40,000 to 35,000 years ago at the earliest, the team noted that ancient humans may have made the journey via boat, in a similar fashion as the original migrations to Australia and New Guinea. 

The team’s research came out in the journal Quaternary Science Advances.

Our third story takes us to the southernmost part of the Americas, where archaeologists have found new evidence of the relationship between Ice Age humans and the megafauna that lived among them.

As reported by Phys.org, a team of Argentinian archaeologists surveyed 20 sites across Uruguay, Chile and Argentina and found that extinct species of megafauna, such as giant sloths and giant armadillos, were an important food source for the early humans in the region more than 11,600 years ago.

Archaeologists previously held that climate change was the primary cause of the extinction of these Ice Age megafauna.  They thought that humans were focused on hunting smaller prey at the time, including deer as well as guanacos [gwan-AH-cohz], a member of the camel family.   

The research team located a significant number of remains belonging to these extinct megafauna at the sites they studied.  At 15 out of the 20 locations, megafauna remains made up more than 80 percent of the bones the team recovered.

The team also used a prey-ranking model to gauge which animals would have been the best energy sources.  They claim that since the megafauna provided the most advantageous ratio of energy spent to energy gained, the region’s hunter-gatherers may have specifically sought them out.

The team also noted that the variety in human diets increased after the megafauna were gone.  These patterns suggest that the now-extinct animals were not just an occasional food source for the humans, but a staple in their diets.  

According to the research team, human hunting may have been a more significant factor in the extinction of megafauna than previously thought. 

Their study appeared in the journal Science Advances.

We end our week in southern Turkey, where archaeologists are studying the effects of significant climate events on the Bronze Age kingdom of Mukish [moo-KISH]. 

As detailed by Greek Reporter, a team of researchers conducted analysis on significant climate shifts that occurred 4,200 and 3,200 years ago.  Both of these periods saw long-running droughts and cooler conditions that impacted regions from the Indus Valley to the Mediterranean. 

The team examined artifacts from two ancient sites in the Amuq Valley of southernmost Turkey, close to Syria.  According to archaeologists, the two cities shared a common economic system, but were affected by the changing climate in different ways. 

The research team used stable isotope analysis to examine cereal grains recovered from the sites.  Their analyses showed evidence of water stress, which indicates the direct impact of climate instability.  They also discovered a transition to more drought-resistant barley at both sites.

The climate event that took place 4,200 years ago was a global drought that lasted for almost 300 years.  Archaeologists say that while the two Mukish cities survived, other nearby civilizations fell into decline or total collapse.   

The drought that took place 3,200 years ago caused famines and supply shortages in a number of regions, including Egypt, Anatolia, and the Levant.  In the Amuq Valley, the research team found that these cities responded to droughts by adapting their agricultural practices and thereby avoided societal collapse. 

The team’s study can be found in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 

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 Zayne Clayton, and I’ll be back next week!