From sexy frescoes emerging from the ashes to hidden cities surfacing due to Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scans, archaeologists continue to make discoveries that transform our understanding of the past and how best to preserve it for the future. This year especially, archaeologists stood by their work and spoke out about threats to Lebanon’s cultural heritage and a video of Israeli soldiers handling antiquities in Gaza, to name a few instances of researchers refusing to stay complacent in the face of repressive regimes. Just as we have covered everything from ancient dye to the earliest evidence of tea in the past, we present a few of the archaeological stories and ancient finds that came to light in a rather dark year.
Oldest Known Church in Armenia
In October, Rhea Nayyar reported on a team of German and Armenian archaeological researchers that excavated the remains of “what’s said to be the oldest known Christian church in Armenia” found in the ancient city of Artaxata, dated to the 4th century CE by the project leads. The co-director, Achim Lichtenberger, called it “sensational evidence for early Christianity in Armenia.” Between this and the newly scanned early Christian silver amulet found in Germany, our understanding of early Christian religion within the late Roman Empire and beyond is still evolving. The Artaxata church was also uncovered in the wake of reports of the Azerbaijani military’s destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
8,600-Year-Old Bread in Turkey
In March, Stephanie Wong and I covered the curious claim that the earliest bread had been discovered at the ancient Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in southern Turkey, which, naturally gave rise to a wealth of bread puns. The remains of unbaked, leavened bread dating to around 6600 BCE were published, but we upset Turkish archaeologists and bakers by questioning the Turkish state’s assertion that the remnants constituted “the world’s oldest bread.” As we wrote, “researchers working in Jordan found that the invention of bread likely predated agriculture by about 4,000 years” in 2018. This was due to the discovery of flatbread (unleavened bread made from wild grains) at the Natufian hunter-gatherer site of Shubayqa in the Black Desert. The Jordanian finds call into question Çatalhöyük’s unfounded first-place bread title. We also learned something about the nature of these discoveries themselves: When government-sponsored press releases note an archaeological finding as “the first” or “the oldest,” there is often a slice of nationalism on the side.
Cats for the Win
Museums and archaeologists finally learned that cats are where it’s at in 2024 — and we hope this trend extends into 2025. In July, Maya Pontone reported that China’s Shanghai Museum in the People’s Square announced that owners could bring their cats to a series of events organized around a new Egyptian antiquities exhibition. Then, the Cats: Predators to Pets show opened at the Field Museum in Chicago in November. Mental Floss also published an incredible essay on “a feral cat colony numbering in the dozens [that] wreaked havoc on the British Museum following World War II.” This cat-astrophe lives rent-free in the litter box of my mind.
The “Lion of Venice” Has Roots in China
In another feline story published in September, I discussed a study addressing whether the famed “lion of Venice” actually came from China. The new research, led by scholars from the University of Padua and the International Association of Mediterranean and Eastern Studies, found that the winged leonine artwork’s lead isotopes revealed that a major part of the statue was made of bronze from 8th-century China. The findings point to the global nature of trade during the Middle Ages and the impressive reach of arts from China’s Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). But they also revealed the increasing importance of isotopic analysis within art history and archaeology.
Giza Restoration Canceled
First, there was the news of an ill-conceived “restoration” project at Giza revealed in a January Facebook video posted by then-Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziry. Elaine Velie covered this in early February. Before the month’s end, the outcry halted the project.
Black Archaeologists Transform the Ocean
I look forward to Lakshmi Rivera Amin’s Required Reading column every week to keep on top of things, and loved her remark in August that “several Black artists, archaeologists, and divers are transforming the ocean by approaching it as a graveyard, a site of the Middle Passage, and a possible space for healing,” by linking to an amazing story on Black divers in Atmos by Omnia Saed.
Repatriating and Protecting Cultural Heritage
Archaeology as a field sprouted from violent regimes, which often deployed scholars as agents of colonialism and erasure. This year, small but important steps were taken in pressuring institutions to repatriate cultural heritage, including remains held in museums. In September, Rhea Nayyar reported that the “National Park Service awarded a little over $3 million in grants to 13 Native American tribes and 21 American institutions to facilitate the repatriation of ancestral remains and cultural objects currently held in collections and archives across the country.” Maya Pontone also reported on the American Natural History Museum’s repatriation of the remains of 124 Native people in July. These returns are long overdue, as is the fact that the only UNESCO site in Ohio, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, will reopen on January 1 for the first time in close to a century. In August, UNESCO also added a monastery in central Gaza to its World Heritage List and List of World Heritage in Danger.
Psychedelic Cocktail in Ancient Egypt
Just this month, Rhea Nayyar covered “traces of psychotropic plant matter, human bodily fluids, honey, wheat, yeast, and licorice” that researchers found in a vessel bearing the likeness of Bes, the deity of childbirth and music. Ancient Egyptians appear to have enjoyed some mind-bending trips. And how could we forget that in February, Elaine Velie reported that archaeologists found evidence of a hallucinogenic poisonous plant in Ancient Rome? The more researchers begin to study the microscopic residue left on things like ceramics, the more we find out that people in the ancient world enjoyed a number of psychoactive drugs.
Ancient Maya City in Mexico
A number of previously unknown Maya cities were uncovered using airborne LiDAR technology originally undertaken as “part of a forest-monitoring survey measuring carbon emissions,” Maya Pontone reported in October. The research recovered 6,674 “completely unstudied structures in the state of Campeche” in southern Mexico. The advent of new archaeological technology has meant huge leaps in the field, both on the ground and from space.
Pompeii Is Still Saucy
We covered PBS’s new docuseries Pompeii: The New Dig, which addressed everything from a newfound fullery to the stunning Egyptian blue room. Archaeologists also found an Ancient Roman reed matmaker’s workshop covered over in the eruption of 79 CE. And while it’s no secret that Pompeians loved erotica and ran numerous brothels, the discovery of a satyr copulating with a nymph, as Isa Farfan wrote in October, did cause some pearl-clutching. Some things never change.
