In today's episode, we are going to delve into the Etruscan society. Whenever you hear about Antiquity, it's all GREECE, GREECE, GREECE, ROME, ROME, ROME. Well what if I told you before Rome was a powerhouse, the Italian peninsula and indeed the western Mediterranean was dominated by the Etruscan civilisation. Though their language has not been fully decoded, the archaeology they left behind tells us a lot of their story. Let's get a deep look into this lost culture, which survives in traces today - you just don't know it yet.

In today's archaeology news, we examine some recent archaeological discoveries involving ancient coins which have given important clues to deciphering the past. We'll cover three stories:

1) Coins confirm the identity of the San Jose, the lost Spanish treasure galleon
2) An Anglo-Saxon coin gives insight into early Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England
3) Viking silver hoard reveals early Medieval globalization

Links & Resources

• The cobs in the archaeological context of the San José
  Galleon shipwreck: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/cobs-in-the-archaeological-context-of-the-san-jose-galleon-shipwreck/66532DCA302A8C08A1EBFE4AC7E4E6C1
• New report on a Viking-era farm, graves and unique silver treasure in Täby: https://arkeologerna.com/bloggar/undefined/pm-ny-rapport-om-en-vikingatida-gard-gravar-och-unik-silverskatt-i-taby/
• One of a kind 7th Century gold coin found in field: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yg85nd5r9o

Related Episodes

• The Best of Viking Archaeology - Myths, Legends, and Navigation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV0JKcA-EIE
• Archaeology News Edition #1: Multi-Billion Treasure Ship, Drone Discoveries & Ancient Carpenter!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTI-xvXaZz8

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In this week's episode of Archaeology Porn, we explore the Derveni Krater, an ancient Greek - or more accurately, Macedonian - drinking vessel, which would have been the center of a symposium...basically a raging keg party to our ancient ancestors. However, contrary to its sheen, this krater is actually made of Bronze, not gold. However, its incredible imagery, with inlaid metals and reliefs depicting Dionysus and other characters - both familiar and mysterious - more than make up for this! It likely belonged to a member of the Macedonian court, meaning they would have likely have lived just after Alexander the Great's life. It was discovered in a tomb just outside the ancient city of Thessaloniki.

Next, we move onto Archaeology News, we explore recent archaeological excavations at Jamestown, site of the first English colony in North America. When researchers came across the original 1608 church at Jamestown, they discovered human remains. A mixture of bone analysis, DNA analysis, and historical research revealed the identities of the bodies and a scandalous paternity mystery involving the leading aristocratic family in those early colonial days...

Links & Resources

• Historical and archaeogenomic identification of high-status Englishmen at Jamestown, Virginia: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/historical-and-archaeogenomic-identification-of-highstatus-englishmen-at-jamestown-virginia/E04D83E224FA5C15B5CC08D0703FE9B0

Related Episodes

• Secrets Of Slavery: Archaeological Finds At Mount Vernon & Charleston | Into The Dust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjoHJTEFBdo
• Y Chromosome - How A Single Chromosome Reveals Our Past! (Archaeology): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkmZcWyIeDQ

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In this week's episode of Archaeology Crime, Jason takes you through the looting of the Iraq Museum in the wake of the US-led invasion of 2003. As Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime was crumbling, international antiquities traffickers were already at work selecting their targets from among the Iraq Museum's many treasures. Though many of the looters were just normal Iraqis looking to make a buck or simply attack a symbol of the hated regime, professionals were definitely involved, and they knew what they were doing. Through hard work and determination by the Iraqis, Americans, and others, many of the cultural treasures have been recovered, but much is left to be done.

Next, we move onto Archaeology News. This week, we have 3 exciting stories:

1) The police are called in to resolve a Neanderthal archaeology mystery, identifying the world's oldest fingerprints
2) Ancient canal system discovered in Iraq, near the world's oldest city
3) Ancient population discovered in Colombia

Links & Resources

• A 6000-year-long genomic transect from the Bogotá Altiplano reveals multiple genetic shifts in the demographic history of Colombia: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads6284
• Identifying the preserved network of irrigation canals in the Eridu region, southern Mesopotamia: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/identifying-the-preserved-network-of-irrigation-canals-in-the-eridu-region-southern-mesopotamia/2B2BE82BACA8A2BEFCB4C43A140419C5

Related Episodes

• Easter Island Wine Mystery & Ancient Bear Bone Discovery! Archaeology News Edition 8 | Into The Dust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH3RBgywOEM
• The Best of Neanderthal Archaeology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogu-JmwLjgU

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Episode Summary

In this episode, Jason finishes his list of the (now Top 15) most Underrated Archaeological Sites. We visit:

1) Merv, Turkmenistan
2) Çatalhöyük, Turkey
3) Sanxingdui, Sichuan, China
4) Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
5) Hegra, Saudi Arabia

Then, we do a rundown of recent archaeology news. The stories featured are:

1) Ancient footprint patterns and drag marks in New Mexico's White Sands National Park which suggest the oldest transportation technology ever found and a means of transporting little kids
2) The discovery beneath Lake Bolsena of some prehistoric artefacts related to a Bronze Age site. The official story is that these were votive offerings, but they sound like childrens' toys to me! One clay figurine still bore the fingerprints of the person who made it!
3) A Pharaonic tomb founds in Abydos - remarkably the second royal tomb found this year alone! However, was the other one found a few months ago really the first to be discovered since King Tut...?

Links & Resources:

The ichnology of White Sands (New Mexico): Linear traces and human footprints, evidence of transport technology?: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666033425000103

Related Episodes

• Top 10 Most Underrated Archaeological Sites in the World (Part I): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtNIVekY4ws
• Top 10 Most Underrated Archaeological Sites in the World (Part II): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtNIVekY4ws

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Episode Summary

In this episode, Jason continues taking you to some seriously underrated sites where you can nevertheless make some amazing archaeological discoveries. We cover sites in South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania:

1) Timgad, Algeria

2) Caral, Peru

3) Meroë, Sudan

4) Plain of Jars, Laos

5) Nan Madol, Micronesia

Next, Archaeology News delves into the intriguing findings from North Africa, particularly the Maghreb region. It highlights the genetic distinctions between Eastern and Western Maghreb populations through ancient DNA analysis and old-fashioned archaeology, revealing a successful hunter-gatherer lifestyle that persisted in the East. The next story then shifts to the Phoenician settlements in the Western Maghreb, uncovering evidence of earlier civilizations that thrived before the Phoenicians arrived, challenging previous historical narratives that the area was unpopulated at the outset of Antiquity.

Links & Resources

• High continuity of forager ancestry in the Neolithic period of the eastern Maghreb: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08699-4
• Rethinking late prehistoric Mediterranean Africa: architecture, farming and materiality at Kach Kouch, Morocco: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/rethinking-late-prehistoric-mediterranean-africa-architecture-farming-and-materiality-at-kach-kouch-morocco/62D5077593941A815BA6B1C14E9185BB

Related Episodes

• Top 10 Most Underrated Archaeological Sites in the World (Part I): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtNIVekY4ws
• Archaeology Smackdown Over Supposed Indo-European Ethnolinguistic Homeland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRSfsER_MH4

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Episode Summary

In this episode, Jason takes you on a tour of top 10 most underrated archaeological sites in the world, or at least that he knows about! Because there is so much to get to, it’s broken down into two parts, with this first segment focusing on North America and Europe. The sites to be featured are:

1) Herculaneum, Italy

2) Carnac, France

3) Skara Brae, Scotland

4) Poverty Point, Louisiana, USA

5) Cahokia Mounds, Illinois, USA

And for today’s Archaeology News, we focus on a epic archaeology smackdown that recently occurred over an ancient DNA (aDNA) study. The paper, led by some renowned Harvard scholars, claimed (with evidence!) to have found an “ethnolinguistic” homeland for Indo-European language speakers. The problem? Language is not detectable archaeologically, plus some bad folks have glommed on to similar theories. We’ll go through the whole argument step-by-step.

Timestamps

1:09: Herculaneum

2:27: Alignements de Carnac

4:14: Skara Brae

5:50: Poverty Point

8:17: Cahokia Mounds

10:26: Archaeology News – The aDNA Smackdown

Links & Resources

• The genetic origin of the Indo-Europeans: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08531-5
• A genomic history of the North Pontic Region from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08372-2#:~:text=Genome%2Dwide%20studies%20of%20ancient,%2Dgatherers3%20(EHGs)%20in

Related Episodes

• Mysteries Of The Carnac Standing Stones In France: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xu517cshWE

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An update from your host...

The episode begins with the gripping tale of Giacomo Medici, one of history’s most infamous antiquities traffickers. Known as the kingpin of looted artifacts, Medici masterminded a vast smuggling network involving tomb raiders, Swiss Freeport warehouses, and high-profile museums. Host Jason Cohen unravels how these looted treasures, like the famed Euphronios Krater, were laundered through polished auction houses and ended up in major institutions such as the Met. Despite his attempts to escape justice, Medici's empire came crashing down, leading to the return of hundreds of artifacts to their rightful home. It's a story of greed, intrigue, and the long road to justice.

Next, we take a wild detour to Herculaneum, where a young man caught in Mount Vesuvius' eruption provides one of the most bizarre archaeological discoveries. His brain appears to have been "vitrified," essentially turned into glass by a combination of superheated ash and rapid cooling. The podcast dives into the highly specific conditions required to create this one-in-a-billion phenomenon and the debate it sparked among scientists.

Finally, Jason explores a potential contender for the world’s oldest 3D map. Deep within a cave in France, researchers identified carvings and features that resemble a topographical map of the surrounding area, complete with rivers and valleys. The theory is that this Paleolithic creation, dating at least 12,000 years, might have served practical purposes like hunting coordination or even ritualistic meanings tied to fertility and life.

Timestamps

00:14: Unveiling Giacomo Medici: The Antiquities Trafficker

06:12: The Downfall of a Trafficking Kingpin

10:14: Ripple Effects: Justice and Repatriation of Artifacts

12:29: Brains of GLASS? An vitrified brain in ancient Herculaneum

17:39: Ladyparts in an ancient cave help to form the world's oldest 3D map?

Links & Resources

• Unique formation of organic glass from a human brain in the Vesuvius eruption of 79 CE: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-88894-5
• Palaeolithic Map Engraved For Staging Water Flows In A Paris Basin Shelter: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ojoa.12316

Related Episodes

• Archaeology News: Mysteriously Preserved Human Brains Unearthed - A New Archaeological Discovery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjpdbQ4kkzI
• The Oldest European Map Discovery: Story Of Saint Belec Slab - Bronze Age 3D Map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUu5YmHFGaQ

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