1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,239 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. It's time 4 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 1: for Unearthed Poray. I know this is a lot of 5 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:23,279 Speaker 1: people's favorite time of the year. If you are new 6 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:25,680 Speaker 1: to the show. This is when we talk about things 7 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:29,040 Speaker 1: that have been unearthed, either literally or figuratively over the 8 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:34,200 Speaker 1: past year. I am not exaggerating. I had one thousand 9 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:38,720 Speaker 1: and twenty pins on the unearthed board for eighteen. People 10 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: were very busy with the digging and the discovering. Yeah, 11 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:46,159 Speaker 1: and I mean some of them are repeats. In a 12 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:49,200 Speaker 1: couple of cases the exact same link that got pinned 13 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 1: more than once, but other times different people reporting the 14 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: same Fine, because you and I did a lot more 15 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 1: travel away from the office this year, and so what 16 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:01,560 Speaker 1: would happen is I would come back and not remember 17 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:04,320 Speaker 1: whether I had seen that story the week before we 18 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:08,040 Speaker 1: went away. Um, so there were a little more duplicates 19 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:10,960 Speaker 1: than in past years. But just by comparison, seen had 20 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:17,199 Speaker 1: a six five pins and had one thousand twenty. So 21 00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:19,760 Speaker 1: we started a new tradition this July and that we 22 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:23,000 Speaker 1: did it a straight up two part Unearthed in July 23 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 1: that covered roughly the six first six months of the year, 24 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:28,360 Speaker 1: and so today we will be talking about the things 25 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:32,200 Speaker 1: that were unearthed and roughly July of this year or later, 26 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:34,720 Speaker 1: or at least that's when we heard about it. And 27 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:38,280 Speaker 1: with a thousand and twenty pins. Obviously, we're not talking 28 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:42,319 Speaker 1: about every single thing that has been unearthed the entire year. 29 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:45,120 Speaker 1: This is a sampling of things that seemed interesting or 30 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:53,360 Speaker 1: particularly relevant. We are not talking about any coin hordes, because, 31 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: as I noted last time we did this, there's just 32 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:58,400 Speaker 1: I started making a list of all the coin hordes 33 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:00,720 Speaker 1: just as a separate document, and there were so many 34 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: I just stopped. Uh. So this time today's episode, we 35 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:08,360 Speaker 1: have a few big headlines that came out immediately after 36 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:11,280 Speaker 1: we did this in July, and a bunch of things 37 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:14,240 Speaker 1: that are related in some way to human migration patterns. 38 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:16,840 Speaker 1: We also have some mummies and some mass graves and 39 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,639 Speaker 1: some human sacrifices. I think this is the first time 40 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:23,600 Speaker 1: we've really talked about human sacrifice on Unearthed. Those human 41 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:26,600 Speaker 1: sacrifices are coming in after the second ad break if 42 00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:29,960 Speaker 1: you want an advanced warning of that. And then next time. 43 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:32,799 Speaker 1: In part two, we will have some of everyone's favorite 44 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 1: bits with the Edibles and the Potables and the shipwrecks 45 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:40,360 Speaker 1: and the exhumations and repatriations. So kicking off with the 46 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:43,680 Speaker 1: stuff that popped up right after we recorded our July episodes. 47 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:47,480 Speaker 1: While preparing for new construction. In July, a team from 48 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:51,640 Speaker 1: egypt Ministry of Antiquities found a very large, creepy black 49 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 1: sarcophagus in Alexandria, Egypt. The sarcophagus was mostly encased in mortar, 50 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:01,040 Speaker 1: and the team also found a large alabaster head nearby. 51 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 1: It wasn't immediately clear whose remains the sarcophagus might contain 52 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: or who that head might have been meant to represent. 53 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:12,160 Speaker 1: This led to seemingly the entire internet wondering whether some 54 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: kind of curse was about to be unleashed on humanity, 55 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:18,600 Speaker 1: because it did seem like something out of a you know, 56 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: mummy style horror movie. A more reasonable speculation about it 57 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:26,239 Speaker 1: was that maybe this was the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great, 58 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:29,799 Speaker 1: and the sarcophagus was estimated to be more than two 59 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:33,240 Speaker 1: thousand years old. It was about the right age to 60 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:37,440 Speaker 1: have been buried sometime after Alexander's death and his resting 61 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 1: place is of course an ongoing history mystery. Yeah, everybody 62 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: is kind of hoping they'll magically find that piece of 63 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: the puzzle, so of course one would maybe be hopeful 64 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,600 Speaker 1: that this would be it. The sarcophagus, which is the 65 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:54,200 Speaker 1: largest ever found in Alexandria, was opened later in July. 66 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:58,520 Speaker 1: In the words of Mustafa Waziri, Secretary General the Supreme 67 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:02,080 Speaker 1: Council of Antiquities, quote, we've opened it, and thank god, 68 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: the world has not fallen into darkness. I'm glad that 69 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: at least he seemed to have a sense of humor 70 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 1: about all the speculation about whether we were all about 71 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:13,600 Speaker 1: to be cursed. And right away they learned that the 72 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:16,680 Speaker 1: sarcophagus and the mortar around it that was not watertight. 73 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,159 Speaker 1: It had filled up with some revolting lee stinky liquid 74 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:23,880 Speaker 1: sewage at some point, and it also contained three skeletons. 75 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 1: At this point, at least as of what I was 76 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:29,880 Speaker 1: able to find before recording, it is not clear whose 77 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:32,840 Speaker 1: skeletons they were. One hypothesis is that they were the 78 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:35,359 Speaker 1: bodies of some soldiers, or maybe that it was a 79 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 1: family burial. The whole thing was sent to the Alexandria 80 00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:43,679 Speaker 1: National Museum for further study. It was not Alexander the Great. 81 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:46,159 Speaker 1: He he would not have been plunked into a sarcophagus 82 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: with two other bodies. I will confess that I have enjoyed, 83 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:52,679 Speaker 1: in the intervening months all of the memes and jokes 84 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:56,000 Speaker 1: online about drinking sarcophagus juice. It's been the best. Oh yeah, 85 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:01,320 Speaker 1: I'm gonna make a sarcophagus jewe cocktail and I will 86 00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:05,760 Speaker 1: become immortal. After we recorded our July episodes, another thing 87 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 1: happened right after A team of investigators announced that they 88 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 1: had identified the vanished hijacker known as d B. Cooper. 89 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:16,560 Speaker 1: The man they named is Robert rack Straw, and this 90 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:20,440 Speaker 1: announcement came after the team deciphered a purportedly coated memo 91 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:24,800 Speaker 1: allegedly sent by Cooper several months after the hijacking. I 92 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,640 Speaker 1: like that we have a purportedly and an allegedly in 93 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,680 Speaker 1: that same sentence. Uh. And this made a bunch of 94 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:35,320 Speaker 1: huge headlines. However, Robert rack Straw is not a new 95 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:38,360 Speaker 1: name in connection to the dB Cooper hijacking at all. 96 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: The FBI looked into him and cleared him of suspicion 97 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: back in nineteen seventy six, and then in twenties sixteen, 98 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:49,760 Speaker 1: the FBI announced that it had quote redirected resources allocated 99 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:53,680 Speaker 1: to the dB Cooper case to focus on other investigative priorities, 100 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 1: not exactly declaring the case clothes, but basically say we're 101 00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:01,080 Speaker 1: not working on this anymore. And this whole announcement that 102 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:03,800 Speaker 1: came out this year did not prompt the FBI to 103 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:08,000 Speaker 1: change that decision, so it made a lot of headlines 104 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:12,919 Speaker 1: didn't really correlate to an actual case closed situation. The 105 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:15,960 Speaker 1: team of investigators is led by Thomas Colbert, who is 106 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,440 Speaker 1: an author and a filmmaker, and it includes about forty people, 107 00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:23,400 Speaker 1: including former members of the FBI, and the team's contention 108 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:26,360 Speaker 1: is that the FBI is covering the whole thing up. 109 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,040 Speaker 1: Our last bit of news that broke in July, right 110 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:32,480 Speaker 1: after we did those episodes was that the US Justice 111 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:36,000 Speaker 1: Department was reopening the case in the nine murder of 112 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:40,800 Speaker 1: Emmett Till. Reportedly, the investigators started asking questions about the 113 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:45,040 Speaker 1: publication of the Blood of Emmett Till we mentioned that 114 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:47,760 Speaker 1: book and our episode on this whole case called The 115 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:51,800 Speaker 1: Motherhood of Mamie Till mobili and one piece of information 116 00:06:51,839 --> 00:06:54,960 Speaker 1: that was revealed in that book was that Caroline Dunham 117 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:58,359 Speaker 1: admitted to the author that she had lied when she 118 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 1: described her encounter with a Till in a store in 119 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:06,120 Speaker 1: Mississippi back in In particular, she said at that time 120 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:08,840 Speaker 1: that he had grabbed her and had made advances toward her, 121 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: which he did not do, and this lie directly led 122 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:16,440 Speaker 1: to his being murdered. Some of the responses to this 123 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:20,280 Speaker 1: news uh tended to be cynical. The Blood of Emmett 124 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:22,160 Speaker 1: Till had been out for more than a year and 125 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:25,320 Speaker 1: a half when words spread that the case was being reopened. 126 00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:28,920 Speaker 1: Members of the Till family had asked the Justice Department 127 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:31,360 Speaker 1: to reopen the case back when the book came out. 128 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: So this led to some questions about the timing of 129 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:36,480 Speaker 1: the announcement and whether it was made more for the 130 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 1: sake of appearances or for the sake of actually seeking justice. Yeah, 131 00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 1: there was definitely a lot of we really hope any 132 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:47,320 Speaker 1: people who were still alive might be brought to justice 133 00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:51,280 Speaker 1: in this, but why why now? In terms of making 134 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:53,640 Speaker 1: this announcement like it, It came off to people as 135 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:57,040 Speaker 1: being more about trying to make the department look good 136 00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:00,960 Speaker 1: than actually trying to seek resolution in a case. We 137 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:05,360 Speaker 1: also have several episode updates um based on either prior 138 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:09,080 Speaker 1: full on episodes of the show or prior installments of Unearthed. 139 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:12,400 Speaker 1: Back in March of we did an episode called King 140 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: Joseph and Egypt's First Pyramid, and during some ongoing restoration 141 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 1: work at that pyramid cruise this year found a statue 142 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:23,400 Speaker 1: of Osiris was probably hidden there by a priest back 143 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: in antiquity. During Unearthed in July earlier this year, we 144 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:29,440 Speaker 1: talked about ongoing efforts to find the monastery where the 145 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:33,240 Speaker 1: Book of Deer was created. A possible development on that front, 146 00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:36,480 Speaker 1: archaeologists have found a medieval game board in the area 147 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:39,839 Speaker 1: where they have been looking. It's an etched stone disc 148 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: that dates back to the seventh and eighth centuries, and 149 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:45,560 Speaker 1: it's connected to various games that were popular at the time. 150 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,840 Speaker 1: That's between two hundred and three hundred years older than 151 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:52,720 Speaker 1: when the monastery was relocated and its original location was lost, 152 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:55,760 Speaker 1: but it does show that there was some human activity 153 00:08:55,840 --> 00:08:59,840 Speaker 1: at the site that's being excavated and unearthed and seen. 154 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:02,679 Speaker 1: We talked a lot about the Maya, including research into 155 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:07,200 Speaker 1: the civilizations extensive road networks and what caused the society 156 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:11,400 Speaker 1: to collapse. This year has another big Maya discovery that's 157 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:14,760 Speaker 1: building on some previous research, and basically, this new research 158 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 1: suggests that the Maya civilization was much, much bigger, much 159 00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:23,040 Speaker 1: more populous, and much more complex than we previously thought. 160 00:09:23,559 --> 00:09:26,440 Speaker 1: This came from a large scale lidar study to look 161 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:29,760 Speaker 1: for evidence of Maya society in dense areas of jungle 162 00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:33,560 Speaker 1: that wouldn't otherwise be easy to explore or study, and 163 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:37,200 Speaker 1: this research shows that the Maya civilization was huge and 164 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:41,280 Speaker 1: could have supported as many as eleven million people. During 165 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:43,880 Speaker 1: this work, the team found evidence of more than sixty 166 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:49,559 Speaker 1: thousand previously unknown Maya structures. Way back in two thousand nine, 167 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:52,880 Speaker 1: previous hosts of this podcast, Katie and Sarah, did an 168 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: episode called Why did Anchor Fall in which they talked 169 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:59,840 Speaker 1: about all the various hypotheses for why the once thriving 170 00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:04,079 Speaker 1: evil city and what's now Cambodia was abandoned. One of 171 00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:07,040 Speaker 1: these hypotheses was that there was a problem with the 172 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:11,240 Speaker 1: water system. Anchor Watt's water infrastructure was really complex and 173 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:15,160 Speaker 1: also completely critical to its survival, but by the fourteen hundreds, 174 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:18,760 Speaker 1: it was starting to deteriorate. According to research published in 175 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:23,040 Speaker 1: Science Advances in October, this deterioration may have been a 176 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:26,960 Speaker 1: major contributor in the city's being abandoned. The team used 177 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:30,120 Speaker 1: computer modeling to simulate how weather would have affected what 178 00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:34,440 Speaker 1: was happening inside the city's water system. The city experienced 179 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:38,560 Speaker 1: several decades of relatively dry weather followed by intense monsoons. 180 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:42,760 Speaker 1: According to the simulation, this led to a combination of erosion, 181 00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:47,760 Speaker 1: accumulating sediment, and water flowing unevenly through the system, and 182 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:51,000 Speaker 1: this probably would have led to the system's total breakdown. 183 00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:55,200 Speaker 1: We have talked about the antikitherin mechanism and a previous episode, 184 00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:58,560 Speaker 1: and then in subsequent editions of Unearthed, we've talked about 185 00:10:58,559 --> 00:11:01,360 Speaker 1: other stuff that was found at or near the same 186 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:05,880 Speaker 1: shipwreck where the mechanism was found. This November, words started 187 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:08,480 Speaker 1: to spread that a missing piece of the device had 188 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:11,960 Speaker 1: been found on the sea floor near that shipwreck, but 189 00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:15,840 Speaker 1: Smithsonian magazine raised some doubts about that idea, noting that 190 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:18,800 Speaker 1: the piece wasn't really finally worked enough to be an 191 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:21,400 Speaker 1: actual part of the machine, although it could have been 192 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:23,960 Speaker 1: some kind of a decorative element. I feel like the 193 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,880 Speaker 1: anti kisser. A mechanism is the gift that just keeps giving. 194 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:31,360 Speaker 1: It is it comes up everything. Ship wreck, Yeah, the 195 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 1: shipwreck that it came out of too. Yeah. It's a 196 00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:35,760 Speaker 1: fascinating thing. So I think a lot of people are 197 00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:37,880 Speaker 1: into it, which is part of why it always makes headlines. 198 00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:40,560 Speaker 1: We were going to talk about some other stuff that 199 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:43,000 Speaker 1: was on earth this year after we first pause for 200 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:53,400 Speaker 1: a little sponsor break. Next up, we have a few 201 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:57,760 Speaker 1: things that are in one way or another large. So 202 00:11:57,800 --> 00:12:00,960 Speaker 1: the first one, a five year excavation of the Roman 203 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:06,120 Speaker 1: fort Bindo Landa started in April, with excavation period ending 204 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:08,760 Speaker 1: in September, and a lot of what's been discovered so 205 00:12:08,800 --> 00:12:12,040 Speaker 1: far as what you would expect if you excavate a fort. 206 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:15,960 Speaker 1: There are building foundations and defensive ditches and roads, and 207 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:19,400 Speaker 1: pottery and pipes and animal bones. Some of the less 208 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:24,160 Speaker 1: typical discoveries. A small bronze hand was unearthed in April. 209 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:27,520 Speaker 1: It is very lifelike and the size of a child's hand. 210 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,880 Speaker 1: It's about ten centimeters it's not quite four inches long, 211 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:35,480 Speaker 1: and it's very detailed and lifelike, with fingernails and creases 212 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:38,959 Speaker 1: around the joints. The palm side of the hand also 213 00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:41,800 Speaker 1: has a hole that was used for some kind of attachment. 214 00:12:42,559 --> 00:12:45,080 Speaker 1: It may have been connected to the mystery cult of 215 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:48,440 Speaker 1: the god Jupiter Dola Keynas, who is usually shown with 216 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:51,480 Speaker 1: an upraised arm and a thunderbolt in his hand, and 217 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:55,400 Speaker 1: now that hand is on display in the Vindolanda Museum. 218 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:58,560 Speaker 1: Some other finds from this huge fort are game pieces, 219 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:02,880 Speaker 1: an ink tablet with legible inc a well preserved basket 220 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:07,760 Speaker 1: containing three keys, and four hippo sandals, which are horse 221 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:11,360 Speaker 1: shoes that look almost like boats with a very long 222 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:19,880 Speaker 1: and curved extension on one end. For hippos, they weren't 223 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:24,920 Speaker 1: really shoeing hippos. Uh a cemetery discovered in Kenya is 224 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:28,440 Speaker 1: both the oldest and the largest ever found in Eastern Africa. 225 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:31,880 Speaker 1: An international team published their findings on it in the 226 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:35,560 Speaker 1: proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this year. The 227 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:38,560 Speaker 1: site is home to at least five hundred burials, along 228 00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:43,360 Speaker 1: with stones, pillars, cairns, and a lot of ornaments. The 229 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:48,240 Speaker 1: cemetery also includes some very large monuments, and one commonly 230 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:51,800 Speaker 1: held belief about societies that build big monuments is that 231 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:56,440 Speaker 1: these societies are socially stratified but the pastoralists who built 232 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:59,800 Speaker 1: this cemetery about five thousand years ago are believed not 233 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:03,600 Speaker 1: who have had a stratified social structure at all. And 234 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:07,800 Speaker 1: there are also other African monuments that are similarly believed 235 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:11,280 Speaker 1: to have been built by really egalitarian societies. So this 236 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:14,440 Speaker 1: discovery and Kenya is adding to the evidence that there 237 00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:17,480 Speaker 1: might not be just a hard and fast connection between 238 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:23,280 Speaker 1: ancient societies building big monuments by nature also being socially 239 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:27,360 Speaker 1: very stratified. Last year, doctor unn shift Deal, which I 240 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:30,720 Speaker 1: hope I'm pronouncing correctly, was conducting a survey of caves 241 00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:33,440 Speaker 1: in western Galilee to try to find places that people 242 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:35,920 Speaker 1: had used as shelter at some point in the past. 243 00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:39,440 Speaker 1: The survey was also aided by the Israel Nature and 244 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:42,640 Speaker 1: Parks Authority. While he was there, he found a cave 245 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:46,280 Speaker 1: containing pottery vessels very high up on a sheer cliff. 246 00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:50,160 Speaker 1: This year, the team went back to that cave to 247 00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:53,680 Speaker 1: excavate the find, and what they found was pottery that 248 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:56,240 Speaker 1: was roughly two thousand years old, most of it very 249 00:14:56,280 --> 00:15:02,240 Speaker 1: surprisingly intact. This included two very large jars called m foray, 250 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:05,520 Speaker 1: along with other storage jars, cooking pot, a bowl, and 251 00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:07,840 Speaker 1: a number of broken pottery pieces. And when I say 252 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:11,280 Speaker 1: that these were large, there are photos of the team 253 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:14,520 Speaker 1: crouching down in the cave and these jars look almost 254 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 1: as big as they are. All of this was, of course, 255 00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:20,160 Speaker 1: very fragile, and removing it from the site required the 256 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:23,760 Speaker 1: team to very carefully wrap each vessel lifted up out 257 00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:26,400 Speaker 1: of the cave and then lower it down a sheer 258 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:29,960 Speaker 1: thirty meter cliff with ropes. Based on what they found, 259 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:33,720 Speaker 1: it seems likely that roughly two thousand years ago, someone 260 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:36,560 Speaker 1: intended to stay in the cave for quite a while. 261 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:39,600 Speaker 1: Based on how hard the cave was to find and 262 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:42,480 Speaker 1: to get to, they concluded that it was probably someone 263 00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:46,040 Speaker 1: who was fleeing violence. We have a few things related 264 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:52,920 Speaker 1: to mummies next, hooray. Yes, Archaeologists and Egypt have found 265 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:57,000 Speaker 1: a mummification workshop at the Sakara and Acropolis of Memphis, 266 00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:58,920 Speaker 1: and this contains a lot of what you would expect 267 00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:04,040 Speaker 1: from a mummification workshop. There are mummies, coffins, tools, measuring cups, bowls, 268 00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:07,760 Speaker 1: and other vessels. But the team is most excited about 269 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:11,920 Speaker 1: two fines in particular. One those vessels have the potential 270 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:15,360 Speaker 1: to provide all kinds of information about the oils that 271 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:19,320 Speaker 1: were used in the embalming process too. They also found 272 00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:22,960 Speaker 1: a gilded silver mummy mask. These are very rare, and 273 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:25,360 Speaker 1: this is the first mask like this made of precious 274 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:29,200 Speaker 1: metals that's been discovered since nineteen thirty nine. It likely 275 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:31,960 Speaker 1: belonged to a priest. On a similar note to that 276 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:36,000 Speaker 1: previous fine, there are other researchers who used chemical analysis 277 00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:38,880 Speaker 1: of a mummy from a museum and turin to confirm 278 00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:43,720 Speaker 1: the basic recipe for Egyptian embalming so plant oil, a 279 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:46,840 Speaker 1: balsam type extract, a plant based gum, and a pine 280 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:50,600 Speaker 1: like resin. They had come to the same conclusion about 281 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:53,960 Speaker 1: the basic recipe before by studying the residues on the 282 00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:57,520 Speaker 1: textiles that were used to wrap mummies, but this is 283 00:16:57,520 --> 00:16:59,480 Speaker 1: the first time that they had used samples from a 284 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:03,120 Speaker 1: body itself rather than samples of the textiles around it. 285 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:07,120 Speaker 1: So these findings also confirmed that people in what's now 286 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,320 Speaker 1: Egypt were embalming bodies at least as far back as 287 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:14,640 Speaker 1: four thousand BC. That's about fifteen hundred years earlier than 288 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:21,480 Speaker 1: previously believed, which outdates are previous episode on Mummification YEP. 289 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:25,280 Speaker 1: This mummy in particular was previously believed to have been 290 00:17:25,359 --> 00:17:28,840 Speaker 1: naturally mummified by being left in a hot, dry desert 291 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:32,640 Speaker 1: environment and not intentionally mummified. Now we're going to move 292 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:36,320 Speaker 1: on to some research this year about human migration being 293 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:41,760 Speaker 1: either older or more complex than was typically believed. Starting off, 294 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:45,480 Speaker 1: for about the last century, scientists have disagreed on exactly 295 00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:50,760 Speaker 1: how humanity first populated Southeast Asia. Under one theory, hunter 296 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:54,560 Speaker 1: gatherers arrived in the area and later developed agriculture, and 297 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:57,480 Speaker 1: they did this on their own without contact with parts 298 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:01,280 Speaker 1: of East Asia where agriculture had already developed. And then 299 00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:05,080 Speaker 1: under the other theory, these hunter gatherers arrived in the area, 300 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:08,199 Speaker 1: but then they were later replaced by rice farmers who 301 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:12,360 Speaker 1: had migrated from the eastern part of Asia, bringing agriculture 302 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:15,240 Speaker 1: with them. So the second scenario was called the two 303 00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:19,680 Speaker 1: layer model. Using DNA from eight thousand year old skeletons, 304 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:24,680 Speaker 1: scientists now believe that the answer is neither of those exactly. Instead, 305 00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:29,800 Speaker 1: at least four different populations contributed to today's Southeast Asian populations. 306 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:33,439 Speaker 1: In the words of Dr Fernando Rasimo, assistant professor at 307 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:36,679 Speaker 1: the Center for GeoGenetics in the Natural History Museum of 308 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:40,120 Speaker 1: the University of Copenhagen. This is a far more complex 309 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:44,960 Speaker 1: model than previously thought. I love how simple and direct 310 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:47,480 Speaker 1: that statement is, like, yeah, there's a lot more moving 311 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:51,800 Speaker 1: parts here people yet and that that continues to be 312 00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:55,000 Speaker 1: the case. And in all of these really ancient tools 313 00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:58,600 Speaker 1: that were discovered in China suggests that humans migrated there 314 00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:02,800 Speaker 1: from Africa earlier than previously thought. A team found tools 315 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:05,920 Speaker 1: and bone fragments that are about two point twelve million 316 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: years old, and that's about two d seventy thousand years 317 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:14,120 Speaker 1: older than the previous oldest evidence of humanity outside of Africa. 318 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:17,040 Speaker 1: That previous evidence is a set of skeletal remains from 319 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:20,200 Speaker 1: what's now Georgia that is not the Georgia in North 320 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 1: America obviously, which are one point eight five million years old. 321 00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:28,200 Speaker 1: Other research this year suggests that we might also need 322 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:32,800 Speaker 1: to revise how we understand the evolution of humanity within Africa. 323 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,040 Speaker 1: The widely held origin story has been that one population 324 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:39,840 Speaker 1: of humans developed together in Africa before migrating to other 325 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:42,960 Speaker 1: parts of the world, but research at the University of 326 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:45,800 Speaker 1: Oxford and the Max Plank Institute for the Science of 327 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:50,200 Speaker 1: Human History suggests that it was more complicated than that. Instead, 328 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:53,560 Speaker 1: They suggest that there were multiple populations in many parts 329 00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:57,600 Speaker 1: of Africa, evolving independently of one another and sometimes making 330 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:02,440 Speaker 1: connections to each other. The three start to combine to archaeology, anthropology, 331 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:06,040 Speaker 1: and human genetics with the added layer of data about 332 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:10,080 Speaker 1: Africa's climate and habitats over the last three hundred thousand years, 333 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: and it's that climate and habitat data that has changed 334 00:20:14,119 --> 00:20:17,760 Speaker 1: the picture of what may have happened. Basically, parts of 335 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:21,600 Speaker 1: Africa have been hospitable to human habitation at different times, 336 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:25,159 Speaker 1: so these various populations were isolated at some points, but 337 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:27,560 Speaker 1: then they were able to reach and interact with each 338 00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:30,359 Speaker 1: other at other points. So it wasn't just one hospitable 339 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:35,560 Speaker 1: place where humanity was evolving as a species. It was several, 340 00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:41,600 Speaker 1: sometimes isolated from each other, but sometimes connected places. On 341 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,680 Speaker 1: a similar note, several studies came out this year connected 342 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:47,920 Speaker 1: to the idea that migration to North America was more 343 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:51,879 Speaker 1: complicated than people walked across the Bearing land Bridge from Asia. 344 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:55,879 Speaker 1: The studies didn't suggest that humans didn't use that land bridge, 345 00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:59,840 Speaker 1: but that there were probably other arrival pathways as well. Yeah, 346 00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:03,080 Speaker 1: I I feel like that's sort of the high school 347 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:10,000 Speaker 1: level explanation. Sure, um, and and there's there's increasing evidence 348 00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:12,440 Speaker 1: that as as true of all these other things, that 349 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:15,240 Speaker 1: was more complicated in that than that. So as just 350 00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:19,879 Speaker 1: one example, a team examining projectile points in Texas found 351 00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:23,440 Speaker 1: some examples that appear to predate the Clovis people, suggesting 352 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:26,199 Speaker 1: that there was an earlier migration to North America than 353 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,440 Speaker 1: is commonly thought. There's also been research this year into 354 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:33,600 Speaker 1: whether migrations within the America's were more complex than previously thought. 355 00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:37,920 Speaker 1: This includes, among other things, DNA analysis of forty nine 356 00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:41,400 Speaker 1: individuals who lived in various parts of Central and South America. 357 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:45,920 Speaker 1: This particular research suggested that all forty nine were descended 358 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:48,800 Speaker 1: from people who crossed the Bearing Land Bridge at about 359 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:52,080 Speaker 1: the same time more than fifteen thousand years ago. But 360 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:55,239 Speaker 1: from there the migration into South America came in at 361 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:58,480 Speaker 1: least three different waves. We're going to pause for another 362 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:02,040 Speaker 1: quick sponsor break, but where we get into, uh the 363 00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:07,000 Speaker 1: morma cob and kind of gory part of today's episode. 364 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:20,720 Speaker 1: Over the years, Unearthed has covered numerous mass graves, many 365 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,320 Speaker 1: of them associated with warfare or other strife, and this 366 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:28,680 Speaker 1: year archaeologists found a bone pit near Manassas, Virginia that's 367 00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:32,359 Speaker 1: associated with the US Civil War, but for the most part, 368 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:36,119 Speaker 1: it does not contain the bodies of fallen soldiers. It 369 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:40,000 Speaker 1: contains the bones from amputated limbs. I feel like this 370 00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:45,520 Speaker 1: is the start of a great alternate history fiction novel, okay, 371 00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:49,800 Speaker 1: and I'm ready for it. Yeah, well, this is as 372 00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:53,320 Speaker 1: as I work on this every year. Um, I have 373 00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:56,200 Speaker 1: sort of the working document where I am doing the 374 00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:59,080 Speaker 1: actual episode outlining, and then I have this other document 375 00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:01,200 Speaker 1: where I'm putting stuff that like, Okay, maybe we'll talk 376 00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:04,800 Speaker 1: about that, but not quite sure. And this particular story 377 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,920 Speaker 1: was one where I started reading the article and was like, WHOA, 378 00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:12,680 Speaker 1: we're definitely talking about. So the team believes that this 379 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:15,720 Speaker 1: is from a field hospital established at the First Battle 380 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,200 Speaker 1: of bull Run also known as the First Battle of Manassas. 381 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:22,800 Speaker 1: They discovered a pit that contained two sets of complete 382 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:26,520 Speaker 1: remains along with eleven limbs, and they can learn so 383 00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:29,520 Speaker 1: much from these limbs, including the types of injuries that 384 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:33,320 Speaker 1: would lead battlefield surgeons to do an amputation and how 385 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:37,280 Speaker 1: that amputation was performed. This also traces back to learning 386 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:39,840 Speaker 1: more about the types of injuries that the firearms and 387 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:43,080 Speaker 1: other weaponry of the time could cause. And then there's 388 00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:46,719 Speaker 1: more general information about the soldiers themselves, where they were, 389 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,640 Speaker 1: what they ate and things like that. On a kind 390 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:53,240 Speaker 1: of similar note of a whole bunch of remains that 391 00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:57,240 Speaker 1: are not whole bodies. Uh, an excavation in Melbourne, Australia 392 00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:59,960 Speaker 1: has turned up some opium pipes and a jet eerie 393 00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:04,119 Speaker 1: and more than a thousand human teeth, which was another 394 00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:07,400 Speaker 1: one that made me go, WHOA. We're definitely talking about that. 395 00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:11,600 Speaker 1: Many of these teeth have cavities in them, and it's 396 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,840 Speaker 1: not surprising because the area was home to several dentistry 397 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:17,560 Speaker 1: practices around the turn of the twentieth century. A lot 398 00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:20,080 Speaker 1: of these teeth were found in the plumbing, suggesting that 399 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:22,440 Speaker 1: when the dentists pulled the teeth, they were washing them 400 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:26,320 Speaker 1: down the drain. I don't know why I love that, 401 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:29,680 Speaker 1: but I do. I'm sorry, I know it's so dark, 402 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:34,520 Speaker 1: so I just picture like a little shop of horror 403 00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:37,600 Speaker 1: style dentists who just yankes a tooth and cavalierly tosses 404 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:41,879 Speaker 1: it in the sink or something. Okay, So next were 405 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:45,119 Speaker 1: moving on to another slightly grim but fascinating subject of 406 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:50,119 Speaker 1: human sacrifices. Our unearthed sources this year reported at least 407 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: four discoveries of human sacrifices on three different continents. Back 408 00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:59,760 Speaker 1: in archaeologists discovered a five thousand year old Mesopotamian tomb 409 00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:04,080 Speaker 1: at the bosser Hoyuk archaeological site in what's now Turkey. 410 00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:06,479 Speaker 1: In June of this year, a team published a paper 411 00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:09,800 Speaker 1: in the journal Antiquity detailing what they found, and here's 412 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,879 Speaker 1: a sample quote. Osteological analysis and study of the grave 413 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:17,520 Speaker 1: goods have identified some of the dead as human sacrifices. 414 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,879 Speaker 1: This was indeed a retainer burial, reflecting the emergence of 415 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:26,720 Speaker 1: stratified society at a time of instability and crisis. The 416 00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:30,800 Speaker 1: tomb itself contained two children about twelve years old, surrounded 417 00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:35,199 Speaker 1: by hundreds of bronze spearheads, and then just outside the 418 00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:38,359 Speaker 1: tomb itself were the remains of eight other people, which 419 00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:41,800 Speaker 1: the team concluded to have been human sacrifices. These were 420 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:45,639 Speaker 1: the retainer sacrifices, or people killed so they could accompany 421 00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:49,600 Speaker 1: the deceased into the afterlife. Of the eight sets of remains, 422 00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:52,119 Speaker 1: the team determined the ages of six of them, and 423 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,679 Speaker 1: they were between eleven and twenty years old when they 424 00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:58,440 Speaker 1: were killed. It seems as though the two twelve year 425 00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:01,560 Speaker 1: old children had a high social status, but it wasn't 426 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:04,439 Speaker 1: clear to the team whether they were also sacrificed, in 427 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:08,640 Speaker 1: part because the condition of the tomb wasn't all that great. Yeah, 428 00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:11,240 Speaker 1: it's not clear whether they were two children who died 429 00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:15,280 Speaker 1: of other causes and the retainer sacrifices were to accompany them, 430 00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:17,359 Speaker 1: or if it was all part of a much bigger 431 00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:21,800 Speaker 1: ritual that involves sacrificing to high status children and their retainers. 432 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:27,000 Speaker 1: Archaeologists sat a Neolithic henge in Germany have found seven 433 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,280 Speaker 1: sets of human remains buried with ritual items that suggests 434 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:34,240 Speaker 1: that they also were human sacrifices. The team also found 435 00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:37,080 Speaker 1: body parts and the remains of children and adolescence. And 436 00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:39,679 Speaker 1: this is another find that was published in the journal 437 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:44,520 Speaker 1: Antiquity and yet another publication in that same journal. A 438 00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:48,120 Speaker 1: team of archaeologists in China have been excavating a massive 439 00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,719 Speaker 1: step pyramid that dates back about four thousand, three hundred years. 440 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:54,399 Speaker 1: The pyramid was at the heart of a city that 441 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:57,639 Speaker 1: existed for about five hundred years, and the team has 442 00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:01,840 Speaker 1: found evidence of human sacrifice in new recites around the city. 443 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:06,560 Speaker 1: This includes six pits containing human heads near one rampart gate, 444 00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:11,560 Speaker 1: and there were multiple excavations of child sacrifices in Central 445 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:15,480 Speaker 1: and South America. Excavators in Mexico found a child sacrifice 446 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:17,760 Speaker 1: at the foot of an Aztec temple and what's now 447 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:20,760 Speaker 1: Mexico City. This is probably a boy of eight or 448 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,280 Speaker 1: ten years old placed in a pit under a floor 449 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,480 Speaker 1: of the temple. An excavation in northern Peru has revealed 450 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:30,560 Speaker 1: what maybe the world's largest child sacrifice at a burial 451 00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:34,920 Speaker 1: site belonging to the Chimu Empire. Art an archaeology professor 452 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,560 Speaker 1: who was involved in this fine described it as quote, 453 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:41,040 Speaker 1: they were possibly offering the gods the most important thing 454 00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:43,719 Speaker 1: they had as a society, and the most important thing 455 00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:47,480 Speaker 1: is children, because they represent the future, moving on from 456 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:53,000 Speaker 1: human sacrifice to burning things. A forest fire in southern Alberta, 457 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:57,400 Speaker 1: Canada uncovered a massive number of artifacts from the Blackfoot tribe. 458 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:01,720 Speaker 1: In particular, officials at Waterton Lakes National Park said that 459 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,760 Speaker 1: without the vegetation that was previously there, they had a 460 00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:07,600 Speaker 1: once in a lifetime opportunity to study as many as 461 00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:10,800 Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty Blackfoot camps, some of which date 462 00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:14,000 Speaker 1: as far back as seventeen hundred, but they had to 463 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,160 Speaker 1: do it all very quickly since vegetation covered everything back 464 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:20,639 Speaker 1: up as it regrew. One of the archaeologists on the 465 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,240 Speaker 1: team is Kevin black Plume, who has talked about the 466 00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:26,800 Speaker 1: project as an opportunity to bring more awareness of indigenous 467 00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:30,960 Speaker 1: history and August, a fire outside of Berlin set off 468 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:35,080 Speaker 1: unexploded World War Two ammunition that is still buried all 469 00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:38,200 Speaker 1: around the forests in the area. On top of that 470 00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:42,719 Speaker 1: being terrifying on its own, it hampered the firefighting effort. 471 00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:46,520 Speaker 1: Nobody knows where all of this ammunition is buried, so 472 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,959 Speaker 1: firefighters had to just sort of steer clear of areas 473 00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 1: where it seemed likely that there might be buried ammunition. 474 00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:58,400 Speaker 1: That is a terrifying prospect. The National Museum in Rio 475 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:02,200 Speaker 1: was destroyed by fire in September, and as a consequence, 476 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:05,840 Speaker 1: its collection of more than twenty million artifacts was also destroyed. 477 00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:09,040 Speaker 1: The two hundred year old museum had struggled in recent 478 00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:11,680 Speaker 1: years and had fallen into disrepair, and in the months 479 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:14,720 Speaker 1: leading up to the fire, museum officials had criticized the 480 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: government for failing to allocate enough money to maintain and 481 00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:21,640 Speaker 1: improve it. In a tragic irony. The museum had just 482 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:25,880 Speaker 1: secured funding for an improvement project that included fire prevention 483 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:29,320 Speaker 1: not long before the fire fighting. The fire was also 484 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,640 Speaker 1: made more difficult because two of the hydrants near the 485 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,640 Speaker 1: museum were dry when firefighters tried to use them, so 486 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:38,000 Speaker 1: they had to bring in water from a nearby lake. 487 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:43,160 Speaker 1: The National Museum was Brazil's oldest historical and scientific museum 488 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:47,480 Speaker 1: and is also described as the nation's most important museum. 489 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,520 Speaker 1: A lot of the collections that are now destroyed related 490 00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:54,400 Speaker 1: to science and the natural world, so things like minerals, fossils, 491 00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:58,440 Speaker 1: and meteorites, but many of the collections also related to history. 492 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:01,600 Speaker 1: There was, for example, eight twelve thousand year old skeleton 493 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:05,000 Speaker 1: known as Lucilla, which was the oldest skeleton ever found 494 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:09,000 Speaker 1: in the America's That collection also included art, tools and 495 00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:12,640 Speaker 1: other artifacts from Brazil's native people's and a seven hundred 496 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:17,280 Speaker 1: piece Egyptian collection including five mummies. In addition to all 497 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:20,160 Speaker 1: of that, the museum itself was an important part of 498 00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:24,040 Speaker 1: Brazil's national identity. So from so many different angles, this 499 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:28,239 Speaker 1: is just a colossal and irreplaceable loss. Okay, moving on 500 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:30,640 Speaker 1: from things to get me very choked up and sad 501 00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:33,640 Speaker 1: is something that makes me very happy, and that's uh 502 00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:37,800 Speaker 1: textiles and clothing. So the widespread assumption has been that 503 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:41,560 Speaker 1: ancient Arctic people's learned how to spin yarn from the Vikings, 504 00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:44,560 Speaker 1: and this was an assumption because the whale and seal 505 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,600 Speaker 1: oils used in the yarn made it nearly impossible to 506 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:52,600 Speaker 1: conclusively date the fibers themselves. However, now researchers have figured 507 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,320 Speaker 1: out how to basically shampoo the oils out of the 508 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:59,480 Speaker 1: yarn without damaging the fibers themselves, and what they discovered 509 00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:01,800 Speaker 1: is that there's a lot of yarn that dates back 510 00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:05,560 Speaker 1: to between five hundred and a thousand years before Vikings 511 00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:09,440 Speaker 1: ever arrived in the area. So the ancestors to the 512 00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:12,120 Speaker 1: Inuit who were living in the area basically knew about 513 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:15,440 Speaker 1: spinning yarn before Vikings ever got there, and might have 514 00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:19,800 Speaker 1: actually taught the Vikings something about it. A team from 515 00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:23,120 Speaker 1: the University of Cambridge has discovered that in Britain, Europe 516 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,240 Speaker 1: and parts of Western Asia, spinning was not the first 517 00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:31,200 Speaker 1: method for making thread. Splicing was. In spinning, a fluffy 518 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:33,840 Speaker 1: mass of fibers is drawn out into a thread using 519 00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:36,760 Speaker 1: something like a spindle or staff or much later a 520 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:41,880 Speaker 1: spinning wheel lookout sleeping beauty. Splicing, however, takes a lot longer. 521 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:46,480 Speaker 1: Individual fibers of plant material are spliced together end to end, 522 00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,560 Speaker 1: and splicing usually involves plant materials like flax or nettle. 523 00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:55,960 Speaker 1: Archaeologists working along the Thames found a medieval skeleton very 524 00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:03,840 Speaker 1: recently with its boots still on. The team speculated that 525 00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:06,400 Speaker 1: this person might have fallen in and drowned based on 526 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:09,000 Speaker 1: the position of the remains, and the boots are made 527 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:12,480 Speaker 1: of leather. Probably they were waiters. Logically, this may have 528 00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:14,440 Speaker 1: been a person who worked along the river in some 529 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:20,040 Speaker 1: way and sadly drowned, with the boots surviving all this time. Yeah, 530 00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:23,600 Speaker 1: a lot of the headlines around it were like skeleton 531 00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:27,040 Speaker 1: found wearing thigh high boots, which conjures a different image 532 00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:31,400 Speaker 1: than waiters. Yes, but I understand it also probably garnered 533 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:35,280 Speaker 1: far more clicks than waiters would have. Last up, we 534 00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:39,680 Speaker 1: have some discoveries about animals. First, the general assumption about 535 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,240 Speaker 1: domesticated dogs in North America is that they were domesticated 536 00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:46,880 Speaker 1: from wolves, but research published in the journal Science in 537 00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:51,520 Speaker 1: July suggests otherwise that about nine thousand years ago, dogs 538 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:55,719 Speaker 1: accompanied humans who migrated to North America from Siberia, and 539 00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:59,719 Speaker 1: then the dogs accompanied people all across the continent. However, 540 00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:03,280 Speaker 1: it doesn't appear that dogs living in North America today 541 00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:07,480 Speaker 1: are descended from these ancient Siberian dogs. Instead, it seems 542 00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:11,120 Speaker 1: as though nearly all of those dogs died after European 543 00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:14,080 Speaker 1: contact with North America. In the words of University of 544 00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:17,520 Speaker 1: Illinois anthropology professor Ripon Mali, who was one of the 545 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,440 Speaker 1: authors of the study, quote, it is known how indigenous 546 00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:23,960 Speaker 1: peoples of the America's suffered from the genocidal practices of 547 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,840 Speaker 1: European colonists after contact. What we found is that the 548 00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:32,240 Speaker 1: dogs of indigenous people's experienced and even more devastating history 549 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:34,960 Speaker 1: and a near total loss, possibly as a result of 550 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:40,440 Speaker 1: forced cultural changes and disease. Archaeological excavations in the American 551 00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:45,040 Speaker 1: Southwest have previously unearthed bones of scarlet macaus dating back 552 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,640 Speaker 1: roughly a thousand years, but scarlet macaus are not native 553 00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:51,800 Speaker 1: to this part of North America. They're from Mexico and 554 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:56,000 Speaker 1: Central and South America. That doesn't necessarily seem that far 555 00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:59,280 Speaker 1: away by today's travel methods, but in reality, more than 556 00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:02,520 Speaker 1: twelve hundred miles or about two thousand kilometers separate the 557 00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:07,680 Speaker 1: two regions, which also have completely different ecosystems. So we 558 00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,799 Speaker 1: do know that people of what's now the American Southwest 559 00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:14,359 Speaker 1: traded with the peoples of Mexico and farther south. But 560 00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:18,000 Speaker 1: the archaeological studies that have happened in the Chaco Canyon 561 00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:21,120 Speaker 1: in particular have uncovered a whole lot of a cause, 562 00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:24,680 Speaker 1: leading to questions of whether these were individually brought back 563 00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:28,560 Speaker 1: with traders a lot of them over time, or whether 564 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:32,080 Speaker 1: they were bred there. According to research published in August, 565 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:36,960 Speaker 1: the answer maybe that ancestral Puebloans were intentionally breeding the birds. 566 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:40,640 Speaker 1: They examined the bones of fourteen different macaus found it 567 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:44,480 Speaker 1: five different archaeological sites, and they found that all of 568 00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:48,440 Speaker 1: them came from the same mitochondrial hapla group one that 569 00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:51,840 Speaker 1: is comparatively rare in the wild. So it's still not 570 00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:55,360 Speaker 1: clear exactly where the first macause in the area came from, 571 00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:58,200 Speaker 1: but it does seem like they were intentionally bred once 572 00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:02,000 Speaker 1: they got there. I really love the idea of ancestral 573 00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:09,319 Speaker 1: bablow in macab readers. Yes, I'm imagining a very very 574 00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:13,600 Speaker 1: noisy society at that point, Yes, with lots of very 575 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:19,600 Speaker 1: beautiful plumage. Yes, speaking of mitochondrial haplo groups. In late November, 576 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 1: a paper was published in the Proceedings of the National 577 00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:24,680 Speaker 1: Academy of Sciences of the United States of America that 578 00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:28,880 Speaker 1: challenges the idea that mitochondrial DNA is passed down only 579 00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:33,680 Speaker 1: through eggs, which is how mitochondrial DNA has long been 580 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:38,360 Speaker 1: understood to work. This paper detailed three unrelated families in 581 00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:42,719 Speaker 1: which mitochondria from sperm was also passed down through the generations. 582 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:46,680 Speaker 1: This was previously thought to be completely impossible. This paper 583 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:48,840 Speaker 1: had only been out in the world for a couple 584 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:51,080 Speaker 1: of weeks when we recorded this episode, so it is 585 00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:54,160 Speaker 1: early to say what this discovery means for the world 586 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:57,080 Speaker 1: of genetics. But it was also two major an announcement 587 00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,919 Speaker 1: to just skip over. I saw a lot of scientists 588 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,880 Speaker 1: pontificating on Twitter along the lines of what do you 589 00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:07,720 Speaker 1: do when part of the underpinning of your entire field 590 00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:12,879 Speaker 1: is possibly not accurate? So that seems like a good 591 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:15,239 Speaker 1: place to pause for today. Indeed, do you have a 592 00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:17,600 Speaker 1: little bit of listener mail to take us out? I 593 00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:20,480 Speaker 1: sure do. This is from Chelsea, and Chelsea says hello, 594 00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:24,240 Speaker 1: I absolutely loved your latest episode, six Impossible Episodes, Deja 595 00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,719 Speaker 1: Vu in the US and Canada. I loved it. I 596 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:29,840 Speaker 1: was so excited when I read the title. I'm happy 597 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:32,040 Speaker 1: to report that I did know all this Canadian history, 598 00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:34,120 Speaker 1: which made me a bit smug until we got to 599 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:37,839 Speaker 1: the Laura si Chord section and then realized something. It 600 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,440 Speaker 1: wasn't in history class that I learned all about these 601 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:44,839 Speaker 1: stories of Canadian history. It was actually TV, more specifically 602 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:48,040 Speaker 1: Heritage Minutes. As you both spoke about Laura si Cord, 603 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:50,560 Speaker 1: the images of the Heritage minute on her was playing 604 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:53,560 Speaker 1: in my head. Every one of my twenties to thirty 605 00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:57,680 Speaker 1: something generation knows certain Canadian history because of these Heritage Minutes. 606 00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:01,040 Speaker 1: They've even spawned a gag herod age minutes like how 607 00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:04,640 Speaker 1: Canada got its name. It's pretty hilarious and probably apocryphal. 608 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:08,799 Speaker 1: Pierce Brosnan even appeared in one about Gray Owl. I'm 609 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:10,920 Speaker 1: not saying that TV should be the base of education, 610 00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:13,400 Speaker 1: but it clearly supplemented mine. It's sort of like a 611 00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:15,799 Speaker 1: mini version of your podcast, and you can learn so 612 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:18,400 Speaker 1: much or at the very least spark further interest in 613 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:20,719 Speaker 1: a topic. I wanted to say two things about the 614 00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:24,560 Speaker 1: Japanese Internment. First, the book Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto is 615 00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:28,160 Speaker 1: an amazing family history of this time. His paternal grandparents 616 00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:30,600 Speaker 1: were part of the Japanese Internment, and his maternal grandfather 617 00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:34,320 Speaker 1: was a pw in Asia at the hands of the Japanese. Second, 618 00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:36,840 Speaker 1: my mother was born soon after World War Two, and 619 00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:39,760 Speaker 1: she never learned about the Japanese Internment in school, perhaps 620 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:42,600 Speaker 1: because we're on the other side of Canada in Montreal, 621 00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:46,520 Speaker 1: or for a more racist attempt to rewriting history by Canadians. 622 00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:49,759 Speaker 1: In fact, she knew that Americans had done this, but 623 00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:52,320 Speaker 1: not Canadians. She was disgusted that she never learned this 624 00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:54,359 Speaker 1: in school and only learned it when I was learning 625 00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:57,000 Speaker 1: it in high school. I really enjoy your podcast, and 626 00:37:57,040 --> 00:37:59,359 Speaker 1: everything you do is always interesting and entertaining. Thank you 627 00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:02,000 Speaker 1: so much for reading life into Forgotten History. Here's a 628 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:05,920 Speaker 1: link to the Heritage Minutes to enjoy. Sincerely, Chelsea. Thanks 629 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,319 Speaker 1: so much, Chelsea. I watched that Heritage Minutes while I 630 00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:12,280 Speaker 1: was working on that particular episode. I think I didn't 631 00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:14,600 Speaker 1: listen in the show notes because it was sort of 632 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:18,560 Speaker 1: reiterating information I had already found in other places. Um, 633 00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:22,480 Speaker 1: but I definitely enjoyed watching that as I was briefing 634 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:24,880 Speaker 1: myself on the story of Laurasie Cords. So thank you 635 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:27,400 Speaker 1: so much, Chelsea. If you would like to write to 636 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:30,400 Speaker 1: us about this or any other podcast, where History podcast 637 00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:33,120 Speaker 1: at how stuff Works dot com. We're also all over 638 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,520 Speaker 1: social media at miss in History. That is where you'll 639 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:37,440 Speaker 1: find our Facebook and our Twitter, and our pinterest in 640 00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:40,279 Speaker 1: our Instagram. You can come to our website, which is 641 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:42,600 Speaker 1: missed in history dot com, where you will find show 642 00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:44,560 Speaker 1: notes for all of the episodes that Holly and I 643 00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:48,960 Speaker 1: have worked on together, including the extensively long list of 644 00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:52,319 Speaker 1: sources for these unearthed episodes, where you can read the 645 00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:55,839 Speaker 1: original articles if you can find them because it's very, 646 00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,800 Speaker 1: very very long, uh. And you can also find a 647 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:02,800 Speaker 1: searchable archive of every episode ever. And you can subscribe 648 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:05,479 Speaker 1: to our show on Apple podcast, the I Heart Radio app, 649 00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:12,880 Speaker 1: and wherever else you get a podcast. For more on 650 00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:15,680 Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works 651 00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:22,040 Speaker 1: dot com.