Episode 56 - The Nazca Lines & Archaeology News

In this week's Archaeology Porn, we visit the Nazca Lines in Peru, a series of hundreds of geoglyphs that likely constitute the largest archaeology site on the planet. We document how and when they were made, and by whom as well as how they survived until today, awaiting our visit!

In this week's Archaeology News, we cover 3 exciting stories:

1) West African DNA confirmed in Early Medieval England - Ancient DNA study from two cemeteries - one in Kent and the other in Dorset - confirm that people of African descent lived 1,500 years ago in England. I covered both of these sites in my own dissertation, so I love this story!

2) Middle-Class Khipu - Khipus are an ancient accounting and record-keeping device known from the Incan Empire. However, it pre and post-dates the empire, and some new scientific studies reveal it may not have been the elite item we thought it was, suggesting a wider-spread educational attainment in the Andean world.

3) Palace in Sardis, Turkey - New excavations at Sardis suggest monumental architecture there pre-dates Greek Antiquity, suggesting conventional wisdom that the Lydian kingdom was an offshoot of Greek culture might not be exactly correct.

Links & Resources 

• Ancient genomes reveal cosmopolitan ancestry and maternal kinship patterns at post-Roman Worth Matravers, Dorset: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/ancient-genomes-reveal-cosmopolitan-ancestry-and-maternal-kinship-patterns-at-postroman-worth-matravers-dorset/9C48D0B3B23DB598ECA0576344025AF8
• West African ancestry in seventh-century England: two individuals from Kent and Dorset: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/west-african-ancestry-in-seventhcentury-england-two-individuals-from-kent-and-dorset/F00D6E3182A79B643ADC8994F2EA5818

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