1 00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:04,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you missed in history class from how 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:12,920 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Oh, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:18,320 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy Wilson. Today. It is Part two of Unearthed, 4 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:21,280 Speaker 1: and it is our annual roundup of stuff that literally 5 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:25,280 Speaker 1: and figuratively got unearthed this year. Part one of our 6 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:28,479 Speaker 1: annual roundup included three big subjects and they were Egypt, 7 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:32,960 Speaker 1: past podcast updates, and shipwrecks. And so today is a 8 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,520 Speaker 1: lot more of a hodgepodge. One note that I would 9 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:41,879 Speaker 1: like to give before we started, I originally had multiple 10 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:44,200 Speaker 1: stories in here that we're about people armed with metal 11 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:47,560 Speaker 1: detectors who found whole hordes of Viking coins. This happened 12 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:50,120 Speaker 1: on both sides of the North Sea. It happened a 13 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: bunch of different times. I realized that they all sounded 14 00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:59,840 Speaker 1: exactly the same, and this podcast episode was becoming very long. 15 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:02,160 Speaker 1: So what I basically want to do is just shout 16 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: out to all the amateur archaeologists because the same theme 17 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:08,600 Speaker 1: came up again and again that they all called in 18 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:12,000 Speaker 1: the pros the minute they realized that they had something significant, 19 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:15,280 Speaker 1: which is awesome. Uh. It means that there are now 20 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 1: a lot of uh really old coins that are in 21 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: museums now for everybody to be able to learn from 22 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: and be educated on. This was also true of the 23 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: folks who found a couple of Bronze age axes using 24 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,760 Speaker 1: a metal detector. They contacted the authorities, and the find 25 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: ultimately wound up doubling the number of discovered axes from 26 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: that particular time period to a total of ten. So 27 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:45,479 Speaker 1: big applause, Yeah, big applies to the folks who go, hey, 28 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:50,040 Speaker 1: this coin looks valuable. Maybe I should contact someone who 29 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: can do this a little more thoroughly than I can 30 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: with my limited experience and knowledge. Indiana jets to be 31 00:01:55,400 --> 00:02:01,160 Speaker 1: proud those things belong to museums. Uh oh, we're going 32 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 1: to start out with this one. As you know, Tracy, 33 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:06,480 Speaker 1: when she puts these together, she groups them into similar 34 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:10,320 Speaker 1: like groupings as much as possible. And this one is 35 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:12,720 Speaker 1: going to start with things that are not remotely safe 36 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 1: to leave lying around. So in January, news broke that 37 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: National Park Service employees had found a Winchester Model eighteen 38 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 1: seventy three repeating rifle leaning up against the juniper tree. 39 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 1: The rifle was manufactured and shipped in eighteen eighty two, 40 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:31,240 Speaker 1: but otherwise we don't know who bought it when it 41 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:33,799 Speaker 1: was left by the tree, or why. At the time 42 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:36,119 Speaker 1: it was made, though it was a very popular firearm 43 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 1: and was nicknamed the Gun that Won the West. It 44 00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:42,840 Speaker 1: does appear that it was there against the tree for 45 00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:46,079 Speaker 1: quite some time because the wooden stock had cracked due 46 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: to exposure to the elements, the barrel itself had gotten rusted. 47 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 1: The whole thing had kind of faded and weathered enough 48 00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:55,720 Speaker 1: that it's kind of surprising that anyone thought against the tree. 49 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 1: A couple of the pictures like, you gotta know it's 50 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:02,360 Speaker 1: there to reel eyes. There is a gun against the tree, 51 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 1: and the National Park Service staff passed that find along 52 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:11,840 Speaker 1: to conservators. Also in the realm of things that you 53 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:15,480 Speaker 1: just should not leave lying out, archaeologists have been bringing 54 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:17,919 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff up from the wreckage of Blackbeards 55 00:03:17,919 --> 00:03:20,240 Speaker 1: ship the Queen Ann's Revenge. A lot of them are 56 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:25,080 Speaker 1: medical implements. A lot of the medical implements look extremely scary. 57 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:28,960 Speaker 1: One of these is a urethral syringe, and this was 58 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:33,840 Speaker 1: used to inject mercury into the urethra the whole at 59 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: the end of the penis probably as a treatment treatment 60 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: for syphilis, and it looks as terrifying, as you might 61 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,040 Speaker 1: imagine based on the words that just came out of 62 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,320 Speaker 1: my mouth. That will make you tense up, whether you 63 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: have a penis or not. That is attention making terror uh. 64 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 1: But then moving on to the category of books, letters, 65 00:03:55,160 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 1: and art. Uh. When Mount Vesuvius erupted, the town's herculaneum 66 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,160 Speaker 1: and Pompeii were buried. All of the graffiti, the bodies 67 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:07,040 Speaker 1: and artifacts that were there were preserved by the volcanic ash, 68 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: and that is common knowledge at this point. But another 69 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:14,400 Speaker 1: thing preserved and left largely untouched until now was the library. 70 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:18,960 Speaker 1: Herculaneums library, buried in the year seventy nine, was unearthed 71 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:23,920 Speaker 1: by archaeologists in seventeen fifty two. So the trouble was 72 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: that until very recently it was basically impossible to try 73 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:30,040 Speaker 1: to read any of the scrolls that were buried along 74 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:33,719 Speaker 1: with the rest of the town's was so impossible that 75 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:37,520 Speaker 1: in the eighties researchers decided to stop trying and leave 76 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,960 Speaker 1: it for future generations because basically all of the efforts 77 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:44,359 Speaker 1: that they had made up until that point destroyed the 78 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:48,960 Speaker 1: scrolls without actually being able to read anything on them. However, 79 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:52,760 Speaker 1: it is later now and the future generation is officially 80 00:04:52,839 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: this one, and the method that's used is called X 81 00:04:56,640 --> 00:05:00,200 Speaker 1: ray phase contrast tomography. It's also a brief it it 82 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:04,520 Speaker 1: as XPCT, and basically, this technique looks at the tiny, 83 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:08,000 Speaker 1: tiny difference between the thickness of plain papyrus in the 84 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:11,120 Speaker 1: thickness of papyrus with ink on top of it, and 85 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:14,520 Speaker 1: using this, researchers were able to piece together writing from 86 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:17,920 Speaker 1: an unrolled fragment and hope that the same methods will 87 00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 1: be able to have a look at the entire library. 88 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:24,279 Speaker 1: They published their initial findings in the journal Nature Communications, 89 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:30,520 Speaker 1: the much much easier to read category. Crews are placing 90 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:34,000 Speaker 1: blackboards at Emerson High School in Oklahoma City found an 91 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,479 Speaker 1: entire other set of blackboards, still with writing and lessons 92 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:40,520 Speaker 1: on them under the ones they were taking down. These 93 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:43,159 Speaker 1: old chalkboards have been covered over with new ones, but 94 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:47,600 Speaker 1: not erased beforehand in nineteen seventeen. They include drawings and 95 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:52,040 Speaker 1: multiplication wheel, musical notes, and writing. It seems like maybe 96 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:54,839 Speaker 1: they might have been covered up around Thanksgiving time, because 97 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:58,920 Speaker 1: all of the lessons include stuff about Thanksgiving, and that 98 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:02,680 Speaker 1: particular story actually made the rounds twice this year, once 99 00:06:02,680 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: when the Washington Post picked up the story from local 100 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,120 Speaker 1: news and again when another website we will not name 101 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:11,520 Speaker 1: republished them all again uncredited and so they were brand new. 102 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:17,440 Speaker 1: Do not do that. It is plagiarism. So uh. In 103 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:21,600 Speaker 1: a sadder note that people have asked us to talk 104 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:23,640 Speaker 1: about on the show as a whole episode, and I 105 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:26,200 Speaker 1: have not really figured out how we might handle that. 106 00:06:26,960 --> 00:06:30,480 Speaker 1: Bank employees stumbled across a note and other papers from 107 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:33,960 Speaker 1: Baroness Mary bet Sarah, who died along with Crown Prince 108 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:38,279 Speaker 1: Rudolph of Austria in January eight nine. At the time 109 00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: of their deaths, she was seventeen and he was thirty, 110 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:43,480 Speaker 1: And although their deaths have always been described as a 111 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:47,919 Speaker 1: murder suicide, her notes, which had been deposited in the 112 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:52,480 Speaker 1: bank in n and we're previously believed to have been destroyed, 113 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:57,840 Speaker 1: are essentially suicide notes. So any non clarity about whether 114 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:03,360 Speaker 1: she was a willing participant in this whole death basically 115 00:07:04,279 --> 00:07:09,320 Speaker 1: obliterated with these notes. So moving on to our next discovery. 116 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:13,320 Speaker 1: While cleaning out their house, the family members of Victor Rothschild, 117 00:07:13,400 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 1: who worked with m I five's counter sabotage unit, found 118 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:20,160 Speaker 1: a number of drawings he commissioned from artist Lawrence Fish 119 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:25,240 Speaker 1: depicting German booby trap bombs from World War Two. Rothschild's 120 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:28,000 Speaker 1: idea was to basically put together a manual for people 121 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:31,400 Speaker 1: needing to diffuse a number of innocuous looking items that 122 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:36,200 Speaker 1: could really contain explosives. There are twenty five different drawings 123 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:40,720 Speaker 1: documenting everything from an exploding chocolate bar which was purportedly 124 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:43,320 Speaker 1: part of a plot to kill Winston Churchill, and an 125 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: exploding motor oil can. And the family was hoping that 126 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,080 Speaker 1: a museum or an archive would take these drawings because 127 00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: they're an interesting part of spy history, but we don't 128 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:56,040 Speaker 1: have any word yet on whether anyone has taken them 129 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:58,640 Speaker 1: up on this offer, and it has come to fruition 130 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:02,840 Speaker 1: that they've become part of a museum collection. Next, we 131 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:04,680 Speaker 1: have the fine that was the most exciting to me 132 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:08,240 Speaker 1: of all fines this entire year. It is a missing 133 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:13,640 Speaker 1: and newly found piece of the epic of Gilgamesh. Written 134 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:16,360 Speaker 1: in these notes in all capital letters. That's how excited 135 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:21,400 Speaker 1: I am Tracy has some Gilgamesh excitement. Basically, a museum 136 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:24,760 Speaker 1: in Iraq bought a collection of clay tablets from a 137 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: smuggler inn. And this may seem shady, but it is 138 00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:30,960 Speaker 1: actually a tactic that museums in the region have been 139 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:34,280 Speaker 1: using to try to reclaim artifacts that have previously been looted. 140 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:38,800 Speaker 1: Farouk al Rawie and Andrew George at the University of 141 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 1: London works together to translate the text on this one 142 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:45,000 Speaker 1: cuneiform tablet that was found in the batch, and it 143 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:49,080 Speaker 1: contains twenty previously unknown lines of the epic of Gilgamesh, 144 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:51,000 Speaker 1: in which Gilgamesh and Inky do you go to the 145 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:55,959 Speaker 1: Cedar forest to fight an ogre? Tracy is so excited 146 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:59,719 Speaker 1: over this one, which is grand. A paper outlining these 147 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:02,720 Speaker 1: fine things was published in teen but it did not 148 00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:05,160 Speaker 1: actually make headlines until this year. It was kind of 149 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:07,880 Speaker 1: the quiet discovery of last year. Yeah, this is the 150 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:10,800 Speaker 1: only one that is a thing that like, we should 151 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:13,880 Speaker 1: have heard about last year, but we didn't until suddenly 152 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:17,839 Speaker 1: this year people were doing news reports on it. Uh 153 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:23,520 Speaker 1: much more recently than very recently. This year, the contents 154 00:09:23,559 --> 00:09:27,040 Speaker 1: of a trunk full of never delivered correspondence were unearthed 155 00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:29,959 Speaker 1: in the Netherlands, and all of this correspondence dates back 156 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 1: to between sixteen eighty and seventeen oh six. The trunk 157 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:36,080 Speaker 1: itself is leather and lined in Linen, and it was 158 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,720 Speaker 1: given to a museum in the Hague in nine But 159 00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:44,320 Speaker 1: these letters were never opened and they're only just now 160 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:48,079 Speaker 1: being analyzed by an international team of experts and academics. 161 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:50,160 Speaker 1: And one of the things that they're doing that I 162 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:52,920 Speaker 1: thought was really cool is to use non invasive imaging 163 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:57,040 Speaker 1: to look inside uh the sealed envelopes without damaging them, 164 00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: and then also to look inside the letters where the 165 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:03,360 Speaker 1: paper of the letter themselves has been folded in an 166 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:07,520 Speaker 1: intricate way to make the envelope and the letters themselves 167 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:09,840 Speaker 1: are an assortment of things that just never made it 168 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:13,199 Speaker 1: to their recipients because those people moved, or they refused 169 00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 1: to accept them, or they refused to pay because at 170 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,360 Speaker 1: the time the recipient was the one who paid for postage. 171 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:22,120 Speaker 1: One theory is that the couple who collected them all 172 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:24,959 Speaker 1: did so in the hope of turning a profit once 173 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:29,719 Speaker 1: these pieces of correspondents were claimed and paid for. In February, 174 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:33,480 Speaker 1: the University of Cambridge and the Fifth Willion Museum announced 175 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:37,000 Speaker 1: that they had found compelling evidence that two bronze statues 176 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:40,000 Speaker 1: were the work of Michelangelo. Now lots and lots and 177 00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:43,559 Speaker 1: lots of Michelangelo's work survives to this day, but until 178 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:46,640 Speaker 1: this particular discovery, the art world thought that all of 179 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:50,160 Speaker 1: his bronze work had been lost. And it's a pair 180 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:54,480 Speaker 1: of statues. It's two naked men riding panthers, and they 181 00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:58,679 Speaker 1: were first attributed to Michelangelo in the nineteenth century. However, 182 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:01,680 Speaker 1: because there was no clear evidence linking them to michel Angelo, 183 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:05,280 Speaker 1: and because the statues themselves aren't signed in any way, 184 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:10,040 Speaker 1: a lot of academics dismissed that association. And now there 185 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:13,000 Speaker 1: is actually a link. One of his students had copied 186 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:16,679 Speaker 1: many of Michelangelo's sketches, and one of those is very 187 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:20,480 Speaker 1: similar to these two bronze statues. The idea here is 188 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:24,280 Speaker 1: that Michelangelo actually sketched his idea out before making the statue, 189 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:29,200 Speaker 1: and that his student copied that sketch. The last of 190 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:34,800 Speaker 1: our our Letters, books and art category photographer Louis Vain 191 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:39,560 Speaker 1: photographed Beirut, Lebanon and the Roman ruins of Palmyra, Syria 192 00:11:39,679 --> 00:11:44,240 Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty four. So the photographs themselves are exceptionally 193 00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:47,360 Speaker 1: well preserved, and in October this year, the Getty Research 194 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:51,360 Speaker 1: Institute announced that they had acquired them. What's really notable 195 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:53,400 Speaker 1: about them, besides the fact that they are very old 196 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 1: photographs that are preserved extremely well, is that a lot 197 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:59,240 Speaker 1: of the locations that are in the photographs have since 198 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:03,320 Speaker 1: that time been damaged or destroyed through wars and other conflicts. 199 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: This includes temples and Palmyra that were destroyed by Isis 200 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,720 Speaker 1: earlier this year. So these particular photographs, in addition to 201 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:13,800 Speaker 1: the very existence that they're old photographs that have been 202 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: preserved well, are also documenting uh sites of national heritage 203 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:22,840 Speaker 1: that have since been lost. We're going to get to 204 00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:26,760 Speaker 1: the fascinating but a little bit grim topic of mass 205 00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:29,880 Speaker 1: graves in the moment, but first we are gonna pause 206 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:32,360 Speaker 1: for a word from a sponsor. So on to some 207 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:36,840 Speaker 1: mass graves. A crew working on a supermarket renovation in 208 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:39,960 Speaker 1: Paris found hundreds of bodies in what appeared to me 209 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:43,560 Speaker 1: a mass grave. The spot where the supermarket SIT's used 210 00:12:43,559 --> 00:12:46,240 Speaker 1: to be Trinity Hospital, which was founded in twelve or two, 211 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:48,719 Speaker 1: and it opened a cemetery there about a hundred and 212 00:12:48,800 --> 00:12:52,880 Speaker 1: fifty years later during the Black Death. Archaeologists working at 213 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:56,319 Speaker 1: the site have found eight different burial pits, very methodically 214 00:12:56,360 --> 00:13:00,880 Speaker 1: buried in rows. They're both male and female bodies covering 215 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:04,040 Speaker 1: a wide range of ages without any clear indications of 216 00:13:04,040 --> 00:13:07,680 Speaker 1: injuries or diseases, leading the team to suspect that there 217 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:11,120 Speaker 1: was some kind of epidemic. Although the most logical assumption 218 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:13,120 Speaker 1: might be that the bodies were from the Black Death, 219 00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:17,160 Speaker 1: isotopic testing has not yet been done to determine their ages. 220 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:22,720 Speaker 1: Another thousand bodies were found buried under what's now old 221 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 1: Divinity School at St. John's College. Although the site was 222 00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 1: really discovered three years ago, the findings were only announced 223 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,720 Speaker 1: this year. About four hundred of these skeletons were complete 224 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,760 Speaker 1: and perfectly preserved, with the rest of the remains more fragmented, 225 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:43,760 Speaker 1: like individual bones, disarticulated skeletons, Things like that the burials 226 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:47,520 Speaker 1: from the thirteenth to the fifteen centuries belonged to the 227 00:13:47,559 --> 00:13:50,960 Speaker 1: hospital of St. John the Evangelist who which was for 228 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:55,240 Speaker 1: the care of quote poor scholars and other wretched persons. 229 00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:59,200 Speaker 1: That was a description I did not have the heart 230 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:03,040 Speaker 1: to leave out that the scholars were poor and that 231 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:06,840 Speaker 1: there were other wretched persons as well. So in what 232 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:09,960 Speaker 1: feels a little bit like our rerun from last year, 233 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:12,160 Speaker 1: in which we talked about a whole lot of things 234 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,439 Speaker 1: that were unearthed thanks to Crossrail. A mass grave was 235 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:18,120 Speaker 1: found in central London during an excavation work at a 236 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:22,320 Speaker 1: crossrail station. This grave contains thirty suspected victims of the 237 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:25,440 Speaker 1: Great Plague, and the area being excavated was already known 238 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:29,040 Speaker 1: to be a burial site from the bed Lumb burial ground. However, 239 00:14:29,320 --> 00:14:31,760 Speaker 1: most of what had been excavated at this site before 240 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:35,680 Speaker 1: this point uh These were individual burial sites from the 241 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:39,160 Speaker 1: sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, not a mass burial with all 242 00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:45,040 Speaker 1: of the bodies in one pit. In September, archaeologists confirmed 243 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:48,359 Speaker 1: that the burials in two mass graves at Durham University 244 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:52,120 Speaker 1: in northeast England are Scottish prisoners who died in sixteen 245 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:56,160 Speaker 1: fifty after Oliver Cromwell won the Battle of Dunbar. The 246 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,160 Speaker 1: ones whose sex could be determined were all male, and 247 00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:02,040 Speaker 1: none seemed to have died from battle wounds. They all 248 00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:04,960 Speaker 1: seemed to have died instead as a consequence of disease 249 00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:08,320 Speaker 1: and being held in poor conditions after the battle had concluded. 250 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:12,600 Speaker 1: They also did some really extensive study on the skeletons themselves, 251 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:17,320 Speaker 1: including isotopic studies that were used to determine where they 252 00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:19,720 Speaker 1: were from Scotland. These are the studies where they look 253 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:22,680 Speaker 1: at the isotopes that are in your body as indicative 254 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:25,720 Speaker 1: of what kind of food you ate and where you like, 255 00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:29,080 Speaker 1: what your environment was like. They basically figured out that 256 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:31,200 Speaker 1: all of these bodies had been recruited from a very 257 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:36,200 Speaker 1: wide area of Scotland, which supports what was already previously suspected, 258 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:40,560 Speaker 1: and glean from written records about how officers and the 259 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:45,120 Speaker 1: men that they commanded were recruited from all over. And 260 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:48,280 Speaker 1: next we move on to the surprising fines category. So 261 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:52,360 Speaker 1: we will start in the Netherlands where at d Rents Museum, 262 00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:55,560 Speaker 1: researchers ran a CT scan on a statue of a 263 00:15:55,560 --> 00:16:00,000 Speaker 1: Buddha and inside that statue they found the one thousand 264 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:03,280 Speaker 1: a year old mummy of a monk sitting in lotus position. 265 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:06,840 Speaker 1: Based on characters on the roll of cloth in which 266 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:10,040 Speaker 1: the mummy is sitting, researchers believe it to be Li Kwon, 267 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:13,840 Speaker 1: a member of the Chinese Meditation school and the Double 268 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:19,120 Speaker 1: Take Department. Archaeologists in Gloucestershire found a Roman headstone belonging 269 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:23,960 Speaker 1: to a twenty seven year old woman named Boudica or Bodica, 270 00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:26,440 Speaker 1: which led to a whole lot of no not that 271 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:30,200 Speaker 1: Boudica on our Facebook page. What caught the team's eye 272 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:35,720 Speaker 1: was not the name's similarity to the infamous warrior woman Boudica, 273 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:39,680 Speaker 1: but the fact that this stone was an excellent condition 274 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:43,400 Speaker 1: and also appears to have actually belonged to the skeleton 275 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:47,160 Speaker 1: that was found under it, which is just extremely rare 276 00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:49,680 Speaker 1: and finds from that long ago, Like they find some 277 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:52,480 Speaker 1: stones and they find some bodies, but they don't often 278 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:55,640 Speaker 1: find that from that long ago, a stone and a 279 00:16:55,680 --> 00:17:00,280 Speaker 1: body that actually go together. Moving on to Ireland, a 280 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:04,320 Speaker 1: large beech tree blew over there uh and in its 281 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:09,480 Speaker 1: roots system was entangled a medieval skeleton, So the skeleton's 282 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:11,960 Speaker 1: lower leg bones stayed in the ground. The force of 283 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:15,280 Speaker 1: the tree falling over effectively ripped this skeleton in half. 284 00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:19,240 Speaker 1: Radio Carbon dating and other analysis suggests that this is 285 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:23,080 Speaker 1: a late teens early twenties male who was actually stabbed 286 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:28,479 Speaker 1: to death. Everything else about it's unclear. We we know 287 00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:31,040 Speaker 1: that there was a church and a graveyard that were nearby, 288 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:33,439 Speaker 1: but it's not clear whether this person was buried in 289 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:36,600 Speaker 1: that church's graveyard or whether it was separate. We also 290 00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:38,680 Speaker 1: don't know if these stab wounds were from a fight, 291 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:42,600 Speaker 1: or from a battle, or some other interesting third option. 292 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,320 Speaker 1: Not a lot known about this skeleton unearthed by a 293 00:17:46,359 --> 00:17:49,520 Speaker 1: falling tree. Uh. And now we are shifting gears to 294 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:53,960 Speaker 1: the food and drink department of unearthed, which always sounds interesting, 295 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:58,520 Speaker 1: but sometimes it's a little um, a little tummy churning. However, 296 00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:01,400 Speaker 1: h an excave aation at a building site in Tel 297 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,560 Speaker 1: Aviv this year uncovered pottery used to make beer in 298 00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:09,000 Speaker 1: Egypt approximately five thousand years ago. So this beer would 299 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,240 Speaker 1: have been barley in water that had been left to 300 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:16,600 Speaker 1: ferment in the sun, with fruit concentrates added. A hundred 301 00:18:16,640 --> 00:18:19,480 Speaker 1: and sixty eight intact bottles of champagne were found in 302 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:23,960 Speaker 1: a shipwreck off the coast of Finland. And but this 303 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:27,520 Speaker 1: year UH is the year that researchers actually published their 304 00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:30,919 Speaker 1: findings on this wreck in the proceedings of the National 305 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:35,760 Speaker 1: Academy of Sciences. And also someone chose too on purpose 306 00:18:36,119 --> 00:18:39,639 Speaker 1: drink some of it. It was described as being extremely sweet, 307 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:43,640 Speaker 1: with notes of smoke, leather, and tobacco. Apparently, the very 308 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:45,960 Speaker 1: cold temperatures of the sea, plus the fact that there 309 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,679 Speaker 1: was water on both sides of the cork kept it 310 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:51,960 Speaker 1: off from the grading two too badly, although it was 311 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:56,399 Speaker 1: not really effervescent anymore. And we have two stories about 312 00:18:56,440 --> 00:19:01,080 Speaker 1: evidence of ancient people butchering some very very large animals 313 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:04,200 Speaker 1: for uses food. The first is that an excavator and 314 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,639 Speaker 1: a team of University of Michigan paleontologists joined forces to 315 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:11,640 Speaker 1: examine a mammoth unearthed in a field southwest of an Arbor, Michigan. 316 00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:16,160 Speaker 1: So mammoth finds are reasonably common, although it's a lot 317 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:19,199 Speaker 1: more common to find mathodons in that part of the world. 318 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:23,360 Speaker 1: This one, in particular, though, shows clear evidence of humans 319 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:28,040 Speaker 1: having butchered the mammoth for its meat. The mammoth itself 320 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:32,240 Speaker 1: lived roughly eleven thousand, seven hundred to fifteen thousand years ago, 321 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,560 Speaker 1: although conclusive dating has not been done as of when 322 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:40,239 Speaker 1: this finding was written up, and the team believed that 323 00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:44,239 Speaker 1: humans places placed the mammoth's carcass in a pond and 324 00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:46,800 Speaker 1: weighed it down with boulders as a way to preserve it. 325 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:51,000 Speaker 1: To confirm this, researchers will further examine the mammoth. They're 326 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,240 Speaker 1: going to investigate its bones to see if they have 327 00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,480 Speaker 1: evidence of the cuts that would have come along with butchering. 328 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:02,000 Speaker 1: And a somewhat similar but much older five and stone tools, 329 00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:04,520 Speaker 1: and the remains of a straight test elephant, all of 330 00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:07,200 Speaker 1: them dating back between three hundred thousand and six hundred 331 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,600 Speaker 1: thousand years were unearthed at a site in Greece. The 332 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,680 Speaker 1: evidence suggests that this was a butchering site for elephants, 333 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:16,199 Speaker 1: and that's based on the remains of the elephants and 334 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:19,439 Speaker 1: the tools, as well as the types of cut marks 335 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:22,040 Speaker 1: on the bones that the mammoth researchers are going to 336 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:24,919 Speaker 1: be looking for themselves. That does not sound yummy to 337 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:30,080 Speaker 1: me me either, but you never know. None of the 338 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:32,840 Speaker 1: food sound yummy to me. This year. It seems like 339 00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:35,560 Speaker 1: we've had some unearthing where that said, Oh, that seems 340 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:39,800 Speaker 1: like it could be interesting. No, this ancient extremely sweet, smoky, 341 00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:44,720 Speaker 1: leathery champagne and uh, butchered elephant does not sound particularly 342 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:51,040 Speaker 1: delicious to me. Sounds interesting to me, sweet smoky champagne 343 00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:53,919 Speaker 1: sounds fascinating to me. Actually. Well, And there was a 344 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:58,160 Speaker 1: um a researcher who did not elect to drink any 345 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,040 Speaker 1: of it, but he did get some of it squirted 346 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:01,960 Speaker 1: into the palm of his hand from a little pipe 347 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:04,040 Speaker 1: it and he said the smell of it stuck with 348 00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:09,879 Speaker 1: him for hours, which I couldn't tell whether he was 349 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:13,720 Speaker 1: okay with that or not. Uh, but we're gonna take 350 00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:15,640 Speaker 1: a brief break and then we were going to get 351 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:18,679 Speaker 1: back to the world of unearthing with some really old things, 352 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:23,280 Speaker 1: oldest known things that were unearthed this year. Now back 353 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:28,160 Speaker 1: to our story, so uh, jumping in to a little 354 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 1: bit of ancient astronomy. The oldest known recording of a 355 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:35,879 Speaker 1: solar eclipse was discovered in Ireland. A carving on a 356 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,280 Speaker 1: rock cairn outside of Kills is reported to depict an 357 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:45,359 Speaker 1: eclipse that took place on November b c E. This 358 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:48,720 Speaker 1: recording is on three stones, depicting what the eclipse looked 359 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:52,479 Speaker 1: like from that location in a much grizzlier note. The 360 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:56,760 Speaker 1: oldest documented decapitation in the America's was discovered in Brazil 361 00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:00,280 Speaker 1: this year. An international team working in east central Zil 362 00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:02,560 Speaker 1: found a nine thousand year old set of remains that 363 00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,760 Speaker 1: included a skull, six neck, vertebrae, and hands, and the 364 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:10,480 Speaker 1: skull that the head had been removed like the head 365 00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:13,120 Speaker 1: and upber neck really had been removed from the rest 366 00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:17,640 Speaker 1: of the body by pulling and rotating the very careful 367 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:21,480 Speaker 1: arrangement of the head and hands, combined with mass spectroscopy 368 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:25,080 Speaker 1: analysis of the bones themselves, led the team to conclude 369 00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:27,399 Speaker 1: that this was a ritual enacted on a member of 370 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:31,920 Speaker 1: the community, not a punishment on an outsider, and this 371 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,439 Speaker 1: is about six thousand years before the previously known oldest decapitation. 372 00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:41,320 Speaker 1: An ancient shard of pottery was discovered to contain the 373 00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:45,120 Speaker 1: oldest known alphabet premier this year, so the pottery itself 374 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:47,399 Speaker 1: dates all the way back to the fifteenth century v C. 375 00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:52,679 Speaker 1: The text on it is about thirty years old. Although 376 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:55,480 Speaker 1: this pottery shard itself has been known for a while, 377 00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:58,680 Speaker 1: the script on it was only deciphered this year thanks 378 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:02,760 Speaker 1: to Dutch egypt College Ben Herring, who figured out that 379 00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:06,880 Speaker 1: this was the alphabet and words and not someone's grocery 380 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:11,520 Speaker 1: list or something. The oldest named smoking pipe was found 381 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:15,800 Speaker 1: in Jamestown in September. Named smoking pipes were a thing 382 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:19,159 Speaker 1: during the colonization of Jamestown, and the pipes themselves are 383 00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:22,679 Speaker 1: the oldest known examples of print in the North American colonies. 384 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:26,240 Speaker 1: Most of the names are those of important English figures, 385 00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:31,280 Speaker 1: including Sir Walter Raleigh and prominent Jamestown colonists. This newly 386 00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:34,760 Speaker 1: discovered oldest pipe carries the name William Faldo, who was 387 00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:38,399 Speaker 1: a Swiss inventor in the Virginia Company. Has been a 388 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 1: lot of time down a rabbit hole of trying to 389 00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:42,720 Speaker 1: figure out why people were into having these pipes with 390 00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:47,040 Speaker 1: names on, Like, was it sort of like the equivalent 391 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:50,040 Speaker 1: of wearing your football jersey or having a pint glass 392 00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:52,000 Speaker 1: that had your favorite brewery on them. I don't know. 393 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:55,439 Speaker 1: It just seems to be a thing that the colonists like. 394 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,040 Speaker 1: We are going to move on to category the last 395 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:05,000 Speaker 1: category for our unearth this year, and it is another 396 00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:12,440 Speaker 1: listener favorite, exhumations. So Chilean poet Pablo Naruta was exhumed 397 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:15,879 Speaker 1: in to try to determine if he had been poisoned. 398 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 1: We're talking about it today because in May of this year, 399 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,600 Speaker 1: Chile's Naruta Foundation issued a demand that it be reburied 400 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:26,920 Speaker 1: immediately because it had not been. I had real trouble 401 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,879 Speaker 1: pinning down whether he has in fact been reinterred since 402 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:34,240 Speaker 1: this demand was issued. I could not find the answer. 403 00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:37,520 Speaker 1: But in November, so just last month, according to the 404 00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:41,560 Speaker 1: Associated Press, the Chilean government conceded that in spite of 405 00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:44,760 Speaker 1: the fact that previous testing found no evidence of poison, 406 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 1: he may actually have been murdered. So the judge presiding 407 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,560 Speaker 1: over the case has asked for another round of tests 408 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,080 Speaker 1: to look for substances that were not included in the 409 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,760 Speaker 1: prior round, suggesting that maybe he still has not been reinterred. 410 00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: In all this time, authorities pushed for an exhumation of 411 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:05,080 Speaker 1: a famous Australian cold case and an episode request we 412 00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:08,480 Speaker 1: often get known as the Summerton Man. This year, his 413 00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:11,639 Speaker 1: body was found in and he was determined to have 414 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:15,600 Speaker 1: died of poisoning, but he was never identified. And adding 415 00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:17,960 Speaker 1: to this mystery was the fact that a piece of paper, 416 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:21,680 Speaker 1: apparently in code, was found in his pocket. A lot 417 00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:23,720 Speaker 1: of people wonder if this was some sort of spy 418 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:28,159 Speaker 1: assassination based on that combination of unknown identity and weird 419 00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:30,960 Speaker 1: scrap of code in his pocket. I think he talked 420 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:33,200 Speaker 1: about researching that one time. Am I am I making 421 00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:36,560 Speaker 1: that up? You are not making that up? Did you 422 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:39,399 Speaker 1: find it? It was a nebulous well of not a 423 00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:42,800 Speaker 1: lot of information. Uh No, I don't think I got 424 00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:45,560 Speaker 1: that far. I think I've some other shiny object popped 425 00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:47,800 Speaker 1: into my field of vision and I followed another path. 426 00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:51,960 Speaker 1: So in the list for sure. Maybe in the future 427 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:53,640 Speaker 1: we'll talk about him. Maybe in the future we will 428 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:56,879 Speaker 1: have more episode or more information if they do in 429 00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:02,080 Speaker 1: fact exhume him. Officials exhuming the body of serial killer 430 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,399 Speaker 1: John Wayne Gacy's victims wound up getting a break in 431 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:09,919 Speaker 1: a completely unrelated case during this process. This whole exhumation 432 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:13,080 Speaker 1: effort was started by County Sheriff Tom Dart to try 433 00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:18,640 Speaker 1: to match unidentified victims of John Wayne Gacy with DNA 434 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:22,800 Speaker 1: evidence provided by family members who were looking for their 435 00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:26,720 Speaker 1: missing loved ones. So the DNA being matched came from 436 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:30,199 Speaker 1: relatives of young men who had vanished in the nineteen seventies. 437 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,719 Speaker 1: Dr Willow Wertheimer was one of the people who had 438 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,399 Speaker 1: a missing male loved one she was looking for. She 439 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:40,440 Speaker 1: submitted her DNA. It was uh not found to be 440 00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:42,840 Speaker 1: related to the body of a John Wayne Gacy victim 441 00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,560 Speaker 1: who had been unidentified, but to the body of a 442 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,320 Speaker 1: man who had been shot to death in San Francisco 443 00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:52,320 Speaker 1: thirty six years ago. And this whole project, though we 444 00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:56,240 Speaker 1: should note, did identify one of Gaycey's victims within weeks, 445 00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:01,320 Speaker 1: as well as identifying other unidentified remains as well. Also 446 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:05,920 Speaker 1: in the realm of exhumations, people are asking for that uh, 447 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:09,680 Speaker 1: to my knowledge, have not happened yet. There's Little Nellie 448 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:13,720 Speaker 1: who is known as the patron Saint of Cork sometimes 449 00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:18,720 Speaker 1: the unofficial patron Saint of Cork. She died of probably tuberculosis, 450 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,840 Speaker 1: in and she was exhumed at that point a year 451 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:24,280 Speaker 1: after she died so that her body could be moved 452 00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:27,919 Speaker 1: to convent grounds. When she was exhumed, her body was 453 00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:31,879 Speaker 1: found to be basically intact. So this fact, plus the 454 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:35,080 Speaker 1: fact that she had been described as just extremely devout 455 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,720 Speaker 1: and holy during her very brief life, led to her 456 00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:43,760 Speaker 1: developing a posthumous following. People started making pilgrimages to her 457 00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:48,080 Speaker 1: grave site. However, the convent where she had been buried 458 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:50,600 Speaker 1: was destroyed by a fire in two thousand and three, 459 00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:53,080 Speaker 1: and now a bank owns that property and has been 460 00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:56,560 Speaker 1: understandably reluctant to just allow people to come to her 461 00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:00,159 Speaker 1: grave site and pray for security reasons. The bish up 462 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,320 Speaker 1: of Court and Ross has moved for her to be 463 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,959 Speaker 1: exhumed so that she can be reburied yet again in 464 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,800 Speaker 1: a place where people could visit her and pray to her. 465 00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,760 Speaker 1: That request was from back in August, and I have 466 00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:15,159 Speaker 1: no word yet about whether that exhumation would actually happen, 467 00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:18,359 Speaker 1: but I was very fascinated by the story of Little 468 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:22,360 Speaker 1: Nellie and how she became this sort of unofficial patron 469 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:26,639 Speaker 1: saint based on her brief and apparently very devout life 470 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,399 Speaker 1: and in this year's biggest exhamation news and also to 471 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:35,520 Speaker 1: close things off, another past podcast is definitely that of 472 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:39,160 Speaker 1: the family of Czar Nicholas the Second. At this point, 473 00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:43,240 Speaker 1: historians overwhelmingly believed that Zar Nicholas, his wife, and all 474 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:47,240 Speaker 1: of their children were all killed by a Bolshevik firing squad. However, 475 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:50,920 Speaker 1: Russia has been trying to determine conclusively that all the 476 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:53,600 Speaker 1: remains are genuine so that they can be interred together 477 00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:58,320 Speaker 1: in St. Petersburg. There has been extensive testing on these 478 00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:01,160 Speaker 1: remains believed to be the roman Offs as well already, 479 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:05,200 Speaker 1: but this time they sort of increased the pattern. They 480 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:09,080 Speaker 1: also exhumed Alexander the Third, who was Nicholas the Second father, 481 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:13,800 Speaker 1: to compare his DNA to the ported the purported remains 482 00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,280 Speaker 1: of the roman Off children Alexei and Maria. The reason 483 00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:19,960 Speaker 1: there were doubts about whether these two bodies in particular 484 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,880 Speaker 1: were genuine is because their remains were found separately from 485 00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:25,920 Speaker 1: the rest of the family. And also the reason there's 486 00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:27,880 Speaker 1: been some doubt about the identity of the bodies of 487 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,000 Speaker 1: the rest of the family is that they also were 488 00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:34,600 Speaker 1: not excavated for years after they were originally found. Russia 489 00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,440 Speaker 1: announced in November the DNA tests have confirmed that the 490 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,240 Speaker 1: remains are genuine. I think that might be the one 491 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:45,440 Speaker 1: conclusive answer of all the questions that were being raised 492 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:49,160 Speaker 1: in this year's Unearthed episodes. That's a lot of stuff 493 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:50,960 Speaker 1: that we on Earth. I'm sure there are things that 494 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:52,760 Speaker 1: people were hoping we would talk about that we have 495 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:55,320 Speaker 1: not talked about. They may be things that are on 496 00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,600 Speaker 1: our pinboard of all of our unearthed and stuff. In 497 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,040 Speaker 1: January we will start another pen board for Unearthed and TwixT. 498 00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,360 Speaker 1: It literally starts the minute a new year rolls around. 499 00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:10,640 Speaker 1: I feel like this was a really busy year. Yeah. 500 00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:16,040 Speaker 1: I do not recall having nearly this many findings that 501 00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:19,560 Speaker 1: were related to past stuff in the archive before, and 502 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:21,760 Speaker 1: I don't know how much of that is because now 503 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:23,600 Speaker 1: that you and I have worked on the podcast for 504 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:25,760 Speaker 1: a few years, were a lot more familiar with all 505 00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:28,920 Speaker 1: of the things that past hosts have worked on. Although 506 00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:32,520 Speaker 1: I still perpetually stumble across stuff I had no idea 507 00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:36,880 Speaker 1: was in there um or or if it really isn't. 508 00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:38,960 Speaker 1: This year just saw a lot of discoveries that were 509 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:41,320 Speaker 1: coincidentally related to stuff we've talked about on the show. 510 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,560 Speaker 1: In any case, do you want to wrap up with 511 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:46,800 Speaker 1: a little bit of mail from one of our great listeners. 512 00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:50,560 Speaker 1: I do. It's from Jessica, and Jessica says, Dear Tracy 513 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:52,720 Speaker 1: and Holly, thank you for doing this stuff you missed 514 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,200 Speaker 1: in history class podcast. I discovered it about a year 515 00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:58,320 Speaker 1: ago while living in Oxford, and it has made walking 516 00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,680 Speaker 1: around much more interesting. While a graduate student in archaeology, 517 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:04,000 Speaker 1: I focused primarily on the Bronze Age in the Near 518 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:07,520 Speaker 1: East hints, I always enjoyed learning about things more recent 519 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:09,880 Speaker 1: and in other regions. I've been looking for a good 520 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,560 Speaker 1: reason to write you, and it finally came. My current 521 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:15,600 Speaker 1: university had a graduate student symposium a few weeks ago, 522 00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:18,160 Speaker 1: and one of the art history presentations made me think 523 00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:22,080 Speaker 1: of your podcast on redlining. While the presentation was more 524 00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:26,880 Speaker 1: generally about photography and associated racial stereotypes of pre nineteen 525 00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:31,160 Speaker 1: o six earthquake San Francisco Chinatown. It included a fascinating 526 00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:35,520 Speaker 1: map of Chinatown before the earthquake, which she attached. The 527 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:39,160 Speaker 1: map demonstrated some of the same qualities as redlining and 528 00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:41,400 Speaker 1: was used to try to convince the city council not 529 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:45,040 Speaker 1: to rebuild Chinatown after the earthquake. The map shows old 530 00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:48,640 Speaker 1: Chinatown to essentially be a den of iniquity. The pink, yellow, green, 531 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:53,000 Speaker 1: and blue squares represent buildings containing Chinese gambling houses, opium dens, 532 00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:57,040 Speaker 1: Chinese prostitution, and white prostitution, respectively. I found it interesting 533 00:31:57,080 --> 00:32:01,320 Speaker 1: that Chinese and white prostitution were listed separate, Lee, indicating 534 00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:04,840 Speaker 1: that those are perceived differently. I hope you also find 535 00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:08,000 Speaker 1: this interesting. I'm sure as common as I'm sure it's common. 536 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:10,720 Speaker 1: I will now suggest a topic for the podcast, and 537 00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:14,680 Speaker 1: she suggests this history of archaeology or history of museums, 538 00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:18,320 Speaker 1: both of which sound very large, especially when visiting museums. 539 00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:21,440 Speaker 1: I find myself conflicted. I enjoy what was collected by 540 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,360 Speaker 1: old European antiquarians, but I don't like the fact that 541 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:27,240 Speaker 1: they essentially spole material cultural history. I hope you both 542 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:31,200 Speaker 1: have good holidays. Sincerely, Jessica, thank you, so much, Jessica. 543 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,040 Speaker 1: I wanted to read this for two reasons. One as 544 00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:38,240 Speaker 1: I am definitely interested anytime somebody sends me a new 545 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 1: example we had not previously seen about the types of 546 00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:47,080 Speaker 1: of efforts that we talked about in our Redlining podcasts. 547 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:51,200 Speaker 1: The other is that we have um. One of the 548 00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:52,840 Speaker 1: one of the other pin boards that I have that 549 00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:55,840 Speaker 1: I used to try to corral things has to do 550 00:32:55,920 --> 00:33:00,280 Speaker 1: with repatriations, which is when um one nation and who 551 00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,600 Speaker 1: has been having holding something in a museum or another 552 00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:06,960 Speaker 1: collection repatriates it back to its country of origin. I 553 00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:08,760 Speaker 1: didn't have as many of these that I found this 554 00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:11,680 Speaker 1: year that we're interested to talk about, so we didn't 555 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:13,680 Speaker 1: have a section on that in today's podcast. But I 556 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:18,960 Speaker 1: definitely understand that conflict. Uh We earlier this year had 557 00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:21,960 Speaker 1: an interview with folks from the Pbody Museum at Harvard 558 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:26,360 Speaker 1: talking about the search for the Harvard Indian School. I 559 00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:30,200 Speaker 1: got to go to the Pbody Museum earlier this year, 560 00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:34,760 Speaker 1: and at several points in the museum there are signs 561 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:37,760 Speaker 1: explaining how the museum has been working to try to 562 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:42,000 Speaker 1: contact the especially indigenous cultures that some of the artifacts 563 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:45,720 Speaker 1: came from, and returning those cultures returning those artifacts to 564 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,760 Speaker 1: their home cultures where it's appropriate and desired. Um. So 565 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:51,680 Speaker 1: there are several places within the museum that you see 566 00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:55,040 Speaker 1: these little signs that say, this artifact that previously was 567 00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:57,720 Speaker 1: on display here has been returned to these people for 568 00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:02,400 Speaker 1: from this place, based on this which I wound up 569 00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:04,400 Speaker 1: sort of going on a treasure hunt through the museum 570 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,680 Speaker 1: and reading all of these signs as part of what 571 00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:11,520 Speaker 1: I was looking at. So thank you so much Jessica 572 00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:14,080 Speaker 1: for writing to us. If you would like to write 573 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:16,919 Speaker 1: to us about this or any other podcast, were history 574 00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:19,040 Speaker 1: podcasts at how stuff works dot com. We're also on 575 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:21,480 Speaker 1: Facebook at facebook dot com slash miss in history and 576 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,120 Speaker 1: on Twitter at miss in History. Our tumbler is miss 577 00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:25,880 Speaker 1: the Hisstory dot tumbler dot com and are also on 578 00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:28,960 Speaker 1: Pinterest at Pentriess dot com slash miss in history. If 579 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:30,960 Speaker 1: you would like to learn more about what we have 580 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:34,080 Speaker 1: talked about today, you can come to our parent company website, 581 00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:35,560 Speaker 1: which is how stuff Works dot com and put the 582 00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:37,640 Speaker 1: word serial killers in the search bar. You will find 583 00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:40,399 Speaker 1: an article about how serial killers work. We only talked 584 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:42,080 Speaker 1: about one of those and on Earth Things that that 585 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:46,719 Speaker 1: is a pretty old favorite of people's morbid curiosity. I 586 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:50,160 Speaker 1: think you can also come to our website, which is 587 00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,680 Speaker 1: miss in history dot com and find show notes for 588 00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:54,719 Speaker 1: all the episodes. Holly and I have worked on an 589 00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:57,959 Speaker 1: archive of every episode ever, so you can do all 590 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,399 Speaker 1: these wonderful things and a whole lot more. How stuff 591 00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:07,040 Speaker 1: works dot com or missing history dot com for more 592 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:09,359 Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, because it how 593 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:14,279 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Mmmmmm