Welcome back, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew. 

Our stories from this past week of Archaeologica are about graves that push back the earliest habitation of Argentina’s Atlantic coast, genetic research in southern Germany that argues against large-scale Germanic migration at the end of the Roman Empire, direct evidence identifying the earliest known bread wheat in the country of Georgia, and excavations in Mosul, Iraq, revealing traces of two temporally separated battles at the main gate of the ancient Assyrian capital.  We’ll get to those in a few seconds.

Thanks to everyone for supporting our subscription platform, Heritage Broadcasting Service, available at heritagetac.org.  We have hundreds of titles you can binge upon, including our recent video series about searching for the lost aircraft of Amelia Earhart.  Please help us spread the word!  Again, that link is heritagetac.org.

Our tour program, TAC Tours, will continue in October 2026 with our tour of key sites in Turkey, including Göbekli Tepe and other sites at the root of human civilization.  Registration is still open for that!  The link to our tour program is at archaeologychannel.org/tours.

Send us feedback on The Archaeology Channel Facebook page or post a message on our social networking site, ArchaeoSeek!

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 April 26th through May 2nd, 2026.  

Our first story of the week takes us to the windswept coast of Patagonia, where a groundbreaking discovery is reshaping our understanding of human migration in South America.  According to a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, researchers have identified the earliest human burial site along the Atlantic coast of the continent. 

The story began in October 2020 in the small coastal village of Camarones.  Construction workers accidentally unearthed two sets of human skeletal remains while digging a residential foundation.  The discovery initially triggered a police investigation.  However, local researchers soon stepped in to lead the recovery and complete a detailed bioanthropological analysis.

The team determined that the bones belonged to two young individuals: a child who died at eight to nine years old, and a teenager around fourteen years old.  Radiocarbon dating placed the remains at roughly 10,800 to 9,900 years before the present.  This find pushes human occupation in the area back significantly, as previous studies had dated regional sites only to a time between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago.

Rising sea levels over the last 12,000 years have drowned many early hunter-gatherer sites, fueling long-standing academic debates regarding how early humans moved through South America.  Traditional models assumed that the Atlantic coast was settled much later than the Pacific coast.  These new Camarones remains provide the first physical evidence that established coastal communities lived and buried their dead along the Atlantic route during the early Holocene epoch.

The study’s authors, writing for Phys.org, found no evidence of physical trauma or dental disease on the bones.  While the exact causes of death remain unknown, the older individual displayed a rare dental trait known as a talon cusp.  This burial also held valuable artifacts, including red ocher and 50 bird-bone beads that likely formed a necklace.

Carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses revealed that both individuals regularly consumed seafood, confirming that they were permanent coastal residents rather than temporary travelers.  The team plans to conduct further studies on the remains as the village expands.

Our next story takes us to Germany, where an interdisciplinary genetic research project is challenging long-held beliefs about the massive migrations that followed the fall of the Roman Empire.  As reported by Phys.org, a team of approximately 60 researchers has found evidence that these movements were likely far smaller and more gradual than previously imagined.

Professor Dr. Joachim Burger, an anthropologist and population geneticist at the Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, led the international group.  The project, which appeared in the journal Nature, combined expertise from population genetics, bioinformatics, history, and archaeology to analyze the genomes of 258 individuals buried in southern Germany between AD 400 and 700.

The researchers focused on specimens from "row grave cemeteries" in present-day Bavaria and Hesse.  By comparing these samples with nearly 2,900 ancient and modern genomes, the team identified individuals with northern European ancestry living along the Roman frontier well before the Empire’s ultimate collapse.  While 19th-century historians often pictured a unified Germanic identity surging across borders in a singular wave, these genomic data suggest a different reality.

Dr. Jens Blöcher, a population geneticist at Johannes Gutenberg University and a lead author of the study, explains that these northern peoples had actually migrated long before the Roman administrative structure failed.  Once there, they largely adopted Roman customs.  The data further show that these groups often lived separately, perhaps as farm workers, and primarily married within their own circles.

Another lead author, Dr. Leonardo Vallini, suggests that this social separation likely resulted from Roman administrative practices.  The government frequently settled new arrivals on specific lands under strict conditions, including marriage restrictions, to better manage and integrate them.  Rather than a massive invasion, Professor Dr. Steffen Patzold, a medieval historian at the University of Tübingen, describes these events as localized relocations of small groups, families, and individuals.  Patzold, along with his Tübingen colleagues, Professor Dr. Mischa Meier and Professor Dr. Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner, helped initiate the project to clarify this pivotal era of European history.

Next, we travel to Georgia in the South Caucasus, where new research has pinpointed the birthplace of one of the world’s most essential food sources.  As reported by ConnectSci, a comprehensive study combining genetic data and archaeological remains reveals that the cultivation of Triticum aestivum, the primary wheat used for bread, began approximately 8,000 years ago.  This agricultural breakthrough occurred among Pre-Pottery Neolithic farmers in the Caucasus region.

Researchers identified critical evidence of these ancient grains at the sites of Gadachrili Gora [Gah-dah-CHREE-lee GOH-rah] and Shulaveris Gora.  These locations once hosted the Neolithic Shulaveri–Shomutepe culture.  The team found direct archaeological proof in the form of a Neolithic mudbrick that bears the distinct impression of a wheat spike.  According to the study's authors, while humans first interacted with wild wheats like Einkorn in the Fertile Crescent about 12,000 years ago, bread wheat required a more complex evolution.

This modern staple emerged between 7000 and 6500 BC through a specific hybridization process.  Ancient farmers crossed domesticated, free-threshing wheat with a wild goatgrass known as Aegilops tauschii [EE-ji-lops TOH-shee-eye].  The result was a grain that now accounts for 95 percent of all wheat consumed globally.  Its dominance stems from its high yields and its free-threshing nature, which makes it significantly easier to harvest than its wild ancestors.

The ancient inhabitants of the Caucasus were sophisticated agriculturalists who grew much more than just wheat.  Their farms produced barley, oats, millet, lentils, beans, grapes, and melons.  They also practiced advanced animal husbandry, raising pigs, goats, sheep, cows, and dogs.  Furthermore, these early farmers were among the first in human history to engage in the art of winemaking.  This research clarifies how a regional innovation in the Caucasus eventually became a cornerstone of global food security.

Our final story takes us to the ancient city of Nineveh [NIH-nu-vuh] in modern-day Mosul, Iraq, where a recent investigation of the Shamash [SHAH-mash] Gate has revealed the scars of ancient and modern warfare.  As related by the Greek Reporter, this study, published in the academic journal IRAQ by Cambridge University Press, details the findings from one of the Neo-Assyrian Empire’s most significant fortifications.

Nineveh served as the imperial capital until its violent destruction in 612 BC.  King Sennacherib [seh-NAH-krib] commissioned the construction of the Shamash Gate during his reign from 705 to 681 BC.  As a major eastern entrance from the city of Erbil [ehr-BEEL], the gate was vital for trade and defense, leading directly to the city’s royal and religious heart.  Named after the Akkadian sun god, the structure has survived millennia only to face new threats.

The site provides a haunting parallel between two conflicts separated by centuries: the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC and the 2017 liberation of Mosul from ISIS.  During the recent conflict, ISIS used the ancient gate as a defensive fortress.  A 2021 3D laser scan revealed extensive tunnels dug beneath the foundations, which severely destabilized the structure.  In 2022, the United Nations Development Program stabilized these tunnels with sandbags to allow researchers to safely enter the central passageway.

Inside, archaeologists discovered grim evidence of the city’s final days in the late 7th century BC.  They unearthed bronze and iron arrowheads, pottery, and the remains of a child and two adults.  The presence of ash, charcoal, scattered bones, and broken stones confirms a catastrophic fire and a violent battle, almost certainly the final siege of 612 BC.

The team also recovered 196 fragments of a massive stone stela [STEH-la] dating to the reign of King Ashurbanipal [a-shoor-BAN-ih-pahl].  Carved on both sides with cuneiform writing, the stela depicts a royal figure and describes Assyrian military movements in Egypt.  Researchers believe invaders smashed the monument during the city's fall.  Today, the restoration of the Shamash Gate serves as a powerful symbol of Mosul’s cultural recovery and its resilience after years of modern destruction.

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!