Join Ben and Laurie this week for another voyage into the past. We discuss the oldest Eurasian balls, how to reconstruct the Mediaeval gut microbiome, and how the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon warlord has shaken up our understanding of post-Roman Britain. Enjoy! Links Ancient Leather Balls https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201012103140.htm Gut Microbiome https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201005005927.htm https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0576 Anglo-Saxon Warlord https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201005005929.htm

In a different format for this episode, Laurie and Ben are joined by Nik Hochstein Cox. Nik is an archaeological adventurer who’s discussing his latest research at the forgotten WW2 Japanese fortress on the island of Kolombangara in the Solomon islands. Enjoy!  If you want to find out more about Nik's research at Kolombangara check out his site - https://forgottenfortress.com/

This week Laurie and Ben chat through discoveries from the Mediterranean shedding new light on dog domestication, the latest genetic research into the Viking world, and the mysterious bronze age battle of Tollense valley, the largest prehistoric battle in northern Europe. Enjoy! Links Dog Domestication https://www.archaeology.org/news/9021-200911-italy-paleolithic-dogs http://jacksonvillefreepress.com/but-what-is-that-in-human-years-20000-year-old-remains-of-a-dog-may-be-the-worlds-oldest-pet/ Viking Genetics https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200916113544.htm http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2020/september/viking-dna.html Battle of Tollense Valley https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/slaughter-bridge-uncovering-colossal-bronze-age-battle https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2019/10/puzzling-artifact-found-tollense-europe-oldest-battlefield/

Join Laurie and Ben this week as they talk through new discoveries that shed light on how the Bronze Age people of Britain commemorated their dead, new research into the origins of human lactase persistence and the mysterious case of Walrus remains buried with 3 human skulls in a victorian graveyard, enjoy! Links Bronze Age Burial Practices https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/sep/01/bronze-age-britons-keepsakes-parts-dead-relatives-archaeologists Lactase Persistence https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31187-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982220311878%3Fshowall%3Dtrue https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/12031_ENG_HTML.php Walrus https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p08qbzsm/the-walrus-found-in-a-human-grave

Join Laurie and Ben this week as they talk through, the 3D reconstruction of the now destroyed,Temple of Bel, through tourist pictures and AI. 15,000 year old art found in Jersey, and the Storegga Slide - the mesolithic tsunami that devastated the UK and Norway.  Temple of Bel https://phys.org/news/2020-08-ancient-temple-virtual-exploration.html https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34111092 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/palmyra2/ancientpalmyra/a/temple-of-bel-palmyra Paleolithic Art in Jersey https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/aug/19/engraved-stones-found-on-jersey-an-art-form-of-15000-years-ago Storegga Slide https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/10/7/270/htm https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/tsunami-britain-atlantis-6200-bc-archaeology-a9622591.html https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/43/2/111/131755/Moss-growth-patterns-and-timing-of-human-exposure?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Join Laurie and Ben this week where they’re talking through evidence of the world's oldest bed, complete with insect repellents, the latest research into a sunken WW1 german U-boat containing war secrets, and genetic research suggesting Neanderthals might have been more sensitive to pain. Enjoy! Links To Stories 200,000 Year Old Bed https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/369/6505/863.full.pdf German U-Boat Secrets https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/ww1-german-submarine-uc47-navy-flamborough-head-yorkshire-north-sea-archaeology-history-a9655336.html https://www.archaeology.org/news/8906-200806-submarine-north-sea Neanderthal Pain https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0960-9822%2820%2930861-7 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200723115900.htm

Join Laurie and Ben this week to discover the source of the stones from Stonehenge, new revelations in how early humans reached the Americas and the world's first underwater museum in Greece. Enjoy! Links Stonehenge https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53580339 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/29/archaeologists-discover-source-stonehenge-giant-sarsen-stones https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/building-stonehenge/#:~:text=The%20sarsen%20stones%20are%20a,exact%20origin%20remained%20a%20mystery. Peopling of the Americas https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02137-3 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2509-0 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/archaeology-discovery-americas-us-human-story-prehistory-a9632161.html Underwater Museum https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/02/parthenon-of-shipwrecks-greece-opens-its-first-underwater-museum

Join Laurie and Ben this week to talk through new research revealing how close high status neolithic families really were, how a eruption in Alaska could have impacted the end of the Roman Republic and the story of a 20th century fraud.  See links to all the stories below https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01655-4?fbclid=IwAR21KB4L349UcLf1B5enMeZMW3rlsmGRU5--1LVYJiy7k_oq7W5CAbphPWI https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/dna-ancient-irish-tomb-reveals-incest-and-elite-class-ruled-early-farmers https://www.pnas.org/content/117/27/15443 https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/alaskan-mega-eruption-may-have-helped-end-roman-republic https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2016/august/piltdown-man-charles-dawson-likely-fraudster.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvIT5BRCqARIsAAwwD-SFvDyhWaezQezut2PBibdO4ZPJrPWQjMQLWUg0rGOnWW22Y8AT5jAaAqx8EALw_wcB

In this weeks episode Laurie and Ben talk through the Spanish archaeologist jailed for faking groundbreaking artefacts, the latest discoveries at Stonehenge, and one of the greatest hoaxes of all time...the Cardiff Giant. Enjoy! See the links to the stories below  https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/12/europe/spain-archeologist-sentenced-intl-scli/index.html https://news.artnet.com/art-world/spanish-archaeologists-fake-discoveries-1885953 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53132567#:~:text=A%20ring%20of%20large%20shafts,more%20than%204%2C500%20years%20ago. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cardiff-giant-was-just-big-hoax-180965274/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant

This week, Ben and Laurie discuss new revelations on the domestication of Santa’s preferred transport, the lucky discovery of the oldest 3D art ever found in Asia, and ancient aboriginal stories accurately passed down and over 400 generations - Enjoy! See the links below https://www.archaeology.org/news/8798-200615-arctic-reindeer-domestication https://www.folio.ca/reindeer-were-domesticated-much-earlier-than-previously-thought-new-study-suggests/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-sea-rise-tale-told-accurately-for-10-000-years/ https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/aboriginal-tale-ancient-volcano-oldest-story-ever-told#:~:text=Is%20an%20Aboriginal%20tale%20of%20an,the%20oldest%20story%20ever%20told%3F&text=Long%20ago%2C%20four%20giant%20beings,lava%20the%20volcano%20spat%20out.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200610152006.htm https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0233370