Overview of Stuff You Missed in History Class: “Unearthed! In July 2026, Part 1”
This installment of Unearthed is a rapid-fire roundup of recent archaeology, bioarchaeology, and historical research updates tied to earlier episodes from the show. Tracy and Holly revisit ongoing discoveries about ancient disease, battlefields, monuments, migration, cuisine, and accidental finds, with a strong emphasis on how new science keeps reshaping older history stories.
Major History and Archaeology Updates
Ancient disease and migration
- Scarlet fever / strep history: Researchers reconstructed a nearly complete ancient genome of Streptococcus pyogenes from a tooth in Bolivia, dated to 1283–1383 CE.
- This suggests a pathogenic form of group A strep was present in South America before European colonization.
- Chickens in Korea: New evidence places domesticated chickens in Korea about 2,000 years ago.
- This supports the idea that chickens moved through Korea en route to Japan, though the exact route still needs more study.
Battlefields, monuments, and public history
- Culloden Battlefield: Archaeologists found an unexploded mortar shell at Culloden, likely fired by government forces.
- It’s the first intact piece of government ordnance found there.
- It was safely cleaned and is planned for display at the visitor center.
- Bunker Hill Monument dig: A recent excavation found:
- The ditch from the original redoubt
- Musket balls, gun flints, and weapon parts
- Later occupation debris like teacups, tobacco pipes, and a wig curler
- Earlier/later unrelated material, including a Victorian doll fragment and prehistoric Native American stone flakes
- President’s House site in Philadelphia: The hosts note shifting legal decisions around interpretive exhibits tied to Hercules Posey and slavery at the site.
- As of the latest update, the exhibits were reportedly replaced overnight on July 14, 2026.
- Birthright citizenship: They note the Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling in Trump v. CASA, which upheld birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present.
Stonehenge and related sites
- Altar Stone origin: New work combining mineral analysis and ice-sheet modeling reinforces that the Stonehenge Altar Stone was not carried there by glaciers all the way from Scotland.
- The evidence instead points to deliberate human transport, likely in stages by land and water.
- Pre-Stonehenge monument: Archaeologists found a 5,000-year-old wooden monument in Bulford, near Stonehenge, aligned with the solstices.
- It’s being described as a possible prototype for later stone monuments.
Solar activity and climate records
- Researchers in Japan used carbon-14 analysis of buried trees plus medieval records to identify evidence of a major solar event around winter 1200–spring 1201.
- The work helps detect historical solar proton events that are less extreme than the famous “Miyake events.”
Franklin’s Lost Expedition
- DNA analysis has identified additional members of the expedition.
- One confirmed identity is Henry Peglar (transcript garbles as “Pegler” at times).
- The identification was aided by comparing DNA with that of possible living descendants.
- This has now brought the total identified expedition members to six.
Animal and Bioarchaeology Finds
Dingoes in Australia
- A dingo burial in New South Wales was excavated after erosion exposed it.
- The male dingo:
- Lived to around 4–7 years old
- Had healed injuries, suggesting it was cared for
- Was buried around 916–963 CE
- Nearby, a unique feeding midden was repeatedly visited over centuries, with river mussel shells placed there as part of a continuing ritual.
- The research highlights the deep relationship between First Nations communities and dingoes.
Dogs in Tiwanaku society
- Two canine mummies from Tiwanaku sites in the Andes were confirmed to be dogs, not foxes.
- Isotope evidence shows they ate the same foods as local humans and lived where they were buried.
- The dogs appear to have been ordinary household animals, not elite status symbols.
Crested geese in 17th-century Europe
- Four goose skulls from Brandenburg, Germany show unusual holes matching the skull structure of crested geese.
- This is the earliest known evidence of crested geese in Europe.
- The geese likely had short, unhealthy lives because the crest mutation can also cause blindness, deafness, and mobility issues.
Ötzi the Iceman’s microbiome
- Researchers identified yeasts on Ötzi’s remains and tried to distinguish:
- Yeasts present at death
- Yeasts that colonized the body later
- Some yeast strains were adapted to extreme cold, and some may have survived because of the phenol used during conservation.
- In a striking follow-up, scientists also managed to make sourdough bread using some of Ötzi’s yeast.
Edibles and Potables
Ancient food and drink discoveries
- Kitchens knives from Hadrianopolis: A set of 5th- or 6th-century knives was reconstructed from fragments and looked surprisingly like a modern kitchen knife set.
- Illicit whiskey still in Scotland: Archaeologists found evidence of a 19th-century illegal distilling operation, likely tax evasion.
- Bell Beaker vessels in Poland: Residues suggest some vessels were used to ferment beer or grog about 4,500 years ago.
- Potato genetics in the Andes: High potato consumption in the Andes over thousands of years may have shaped genetic adaptations for starch digestion.
- Freeze-dried Inca potatoes (chunyo): Archaeologists found roughly 500-year-old chunyo, the traditional freeze-dried potato.
- Roman bread: A charred lump found in Switzerland turned out to be 2,000-year-old bread, preserved by carbonization.
- Ancient wine grapes in Chianti: Seeds from a well show a grape lineage that persisted from the Etruscan era into Roman times.
Accidental Finds
Finds made by kids, hikers, and passersby
- Trojan coin in Berlin: A 13-year-old found a tiny coin in a field; it turned out to be a Trojan coin from 281–261 BCE.
- It may be the first ancient Greek artifact found in Berlin.
- Bronze Age axe head in England: A man walking his dog in the Forest of Dean found a Palsdave axe head dating to around 1400–1275 BCE.
- Gold scabbard fitting in Norway: A hiker found a rare decorative fitting likely from the 6th century, one of fewer than 20 known in northern Europe.
- Iron sword in Norway: A first grader on a field trip picked up a sword fragment that turned out to be a Merovingian-era or early Viking Age sword.
- 11th-century sword in Poland: A fisherman found a sword in the Varta River when water levels dropped.
A villa under a school
- High school students occupying their school in Rome during a COVID-related protest discovered an opening that led to an ancient Roman villa beneath the building.
- The villa:
- Dates to the 2nd century CE
- Was partially uncovered in 1895 but later forgotten
- Includes a remarkably well-preserved mosaic
Listener Mail and Closing Notes
- A listener wrote in with:
- A recommendation for The Polite Tourist, about the rise of house tours and the commercialization of sightseeing in the 18th century
- Photos of two very different orange cats
- A suggestion for an episode on the history of hotels
- The hosts responded warmly and noted that the hotel idea is intriguing.
Main Takeaways
- New scientific methods continue to revise what we know about ancient disease, animal domestication, and migration.
- Many discoveries in this episode show history is often layered, with prehistoric, Roman, medieval, and modern evidence coexisting in the same place.
- Several updates also highlight the tension between preservation, public interpretation, and legal/political conflict at historic sites.