Welcome to our show, everybody!  I’m Rick Pettigrew. 

Our stories from this past week of Archaeologica are about a new study pushing back the age of horse domestication, a Neanderthal tooth showing signs of dental drilling, the aggressive reaction to a study that challenged the accepted antiquity of the Monte Verde site, and recent excavation that revealed the immense size of a circular tomb in Macedonia.  We’ll get to those in a few seconds.

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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 May 10th through the 16th, 2026.

Our first story this week focuses on a study arguing that humans began riding and managing horses across the Eurasian steppes much earlier than previously believed.  Greek Reporter notes that the research challenges recent claims that horse domestication began only around 2200 BC.  Instead, authors of the new study argue that horseback riding may have started around 3500 BC, centuries before the rise of chariots.  They describe horse domestication as a gradual, long process that developed across different regions.

Archaeologist David Anthony, a professor at Hartwick College and a research associate at Harvard University, led the research team alongside Volker Heyd, a professor of archaeology at the University of Helsinki.  The team reviewed evidence from archaeology, ancient DNA, horse teeth, residue analysis, and human remains.

Much of the evidence comes from Botai settlements in present-day Kazakhstan, dated between 3500 and 3100 BC.  At these sites, horses made up nearly all identified animal remains recovered by archaeologists.  The team found evidence that people likely corralled, milked, butchered, and possibly rode, these horses.  They identified wear marks on horse teeth that may have been caused by rope bits used during riding.  Some Botai horses also carried coat-color genes associated with domesticated horses.

The paper also examined horses linked to the Yamnaya [yahm-NAH-yah] culture, whose people lived in grasslands in parts of present-day Ukraine and southern Russia from 3200 to 2600 BC.  The team identified horse milk proteins in the teeth of Yamnaya individuals.  Furthermore, human remains from Yamnaya graves in southeastern Europe showed physical changes associated with habitual horseback riding.  The authors argue that horses connected to Yamnaya communities belonged to a population that later became the primary ancestors of modern domesticated horses.  Horseback riding likely helped Yamnaya groups manage herds and move across large areas of grassland.

The authors suggest that horses first served practical roles connected to transport and livestock management long before mounted warfare became widespread around 1200 BC.  The study appeared in the journal Science Advances.

Our second story this week highlights research suggesting that Neanderthals may have carried out a form of dental treatment around 59,000 years ago.  As reported by Cosmos magazine, a damaged molar came to light in Chagyrskaya [chah-gir-SKYE-ah] Cave in the Altai Mountains of Russia.  Neanderthals occupied the site from 70,000 to 49,000 years ago.

Anthropologist Alisa Zubova, a senior researcher at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, led the research team.  The group included investigators from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk [noh-voh-see-BEERSK] and the University of Arizona.  The team examined the molar and found evidence that someone intentionally drilled the tooth to treat a painful cavity.

The tooth belonged to an adult Neanderthal and showed severe wear alongside a deep hole reaching the center.  Rounded edges and microscopic grooves inside the cavity suggested deliberate drilling rather than natural damage or normal tooth wear.  The team used microscopes, CT scans, and experiments on modern human teeth to study the damage.  They created similar holes using small jasper tools, showing that Neanderthals could have used similar stone points to drill the tooth.

The team also found grooves suggesting that the Neanderthals used toothpicks.  These findings indicate that Neanderthals used different methods to reduce pain and remove food trapped around infected teeth.  The research team concluded that severe dental decay caused the cavity.  CT scans showed large areas of tooth damage linked to severe decay.

Experiments showed that drilling into the tooth could have taken less than an hour, although the process was likely painful.  The researchers believe that the treatment helped reduce pressure and infection inside the tooth.  The study authors argue that the ability to identify the source of pain and intentionally remove damaged tissue points to complex planning and manual skill.  The findings appear to be the earliest known example of dental drilling, even much earlier than known cases of dental care among modern humans.  The study appeared in the journal PLOS One.

Next, we look at a growing scientific dispute over the age of the Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile.  More than 30 researchers have now published responses criticizing a recent study that questioned whether humans occupied the site 14,500 years ago.

As reported by Live Science, Monte Verde is one of the most important archaeological sites connected to the early peoples of the Americas.  Archaeologist Tom Dillehay, a professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University, has worked at the site for decades.  He previously uncovered preserved wood, stone tools, hearths, edible plant remains, animal bones, and a human footprint.  Radiocarbon dating placed the main occupation layer, known as Monte Verde Two, at around 14,500 years old.  The site became one of the best-known examples of a pre-Clovis settlement in the Americas, helping challenge earlier proposals that Clovis people were the continent’s first human population around 13,000 years ago.

Earlier this year, archaeologist Todd Surovell, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wyoming, and his colleagues published a study in the journal Science.  They argued that Monte Verde may actually be much younger, dating from roughly 4200 to 8200 years ago.  The team based its conclusions on soil samples and a volcanic ash layer found near the site.

The study immediately drew criticism from archaeologists, geoarchaeologists, and genetic researchers.  Three separate scientific commentaries published in Science now challenge Surovell’s conclusions.  One commentary led by Dillehay argues that the volcanic ash layer identified in the recent study does not exist beneath the Monte Verde Two occupation layer.  The researchers argued that Surovell’s team collected samples from geological deposits outside the main archaeological area.

Another response led by geoarchaeologist Michael Waters, a professor of anthropology at Texas A and M University, argues that the recent study provided no evidence that wood, charcoal, or bones had washed into the site from older deposits upstream.  Waters and his co-authors described parts of the study as speculative and argued that its geological interpretation does not match previous research at Monte Verde.

A third commentary led by archaeologist David Meltzer, a professor of prehistory at Southern Methodist University, argued that genetic evidence also supports human occupation in the Americas before 13,000 years ago.  These researchers noted that studies of ancient and modern Indigenous American populations support the idea that humans reached the Americas before Clovis culture developed.  Many sites in the Americas now have what are regarded as trustworthy radiocarbon ages significantly earlier than the Clovis horizon, including the Paisley Caves in Oregon at 14,300 years ago and the Cooper’s Ferry site in Idaho at 16,000 years ago.

The debate over Monte Verde is important because the site helped reshape ideas on when humans first reached the Americas.  Surovell and his colleagues plan to publish a formal response to the criticisms.

Our final story this week reports on new restoration work at the Kasta Tomb in Amphipolis [am-FIH-poh-liss] in northern Greece.  Heritage Daily reports that Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni recently visited the site as restoration teams continued work around the massive burial mound.  Archaeologists believe that the monument dates to the final decades of the 4th century BC, during the years following the death of Alexander the Great.

Workers have now uncovered the entire marble wall surrounding the mound.  The enclosure measures nearly 500 meters in circumference, larger than archaeologists originally believed.  The tomb stands near the ancient city of Amphipolis in Macedonia, northern Greece.  Parts of the southern enclosure wall have already been rebuilt using original marble blocks recovered during earlier excavations.  Archaeologists added only limited replacement material where additional structural support was necessary.

Engineers have also reshaped sections of the hill to restore the mound’s original shape.  Teams installed drainage systems and underground water channels designed to reduce erosion and rain damage over time.  Inside the monument, restoration teams removed earlier steel supports and temporary reinforcement structures that had blocked parts of the burial chambers during earlier stabilization work.  Researchers can now view the interior chambers again.

Conservators recently repaired the stone arch above the burial chamber.  Teams are now preparing to reinstall the large marble door that once sealed the chamber in antiquity.  Conservators are also preparing to restore the sphinx sculptures discovered near the entrance to the tomb.

Archaeologists also identified evidence showing that parts of the marble enclosure were dismantled during the Roman period, between 168 BC and AD 395.  Researchers found traces of ramps and marks left by efforts to remove heavy stone blocks centuries after the monument was built.  Specialists identified remains of a mudbrick retaining wall on one side of the mound.  Researchers believe that this structure reflects later attempts to stabilize the hillside.

According to Greece’s Ministry of Culture, the mound exceeds 140 meters in diameter, placing it among the largest burial mounds discovered in Macedonia.  Although researchers still do not know who was buried there, the scale and luxury of the monument suggest that a powerful member of Macedonian society was buried in the tomb during the Hellenistic period, from 323 to 168 BC.

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!