Each month on the APN Discord channel the management of the APN will get together and discuss an article or two from recent archaeology and scientific journal publications. You can join live and free on the Discord and see our shining faces! We thought we’d use this show to present the audio from that first recording. We’re aiming for the first Monday of every month. Let us know what you think!

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2526391-ancient-teeth-hint-at-links-between-denisovans-and-homo-erectus/

Apple News: https://apple.news/AzsyzHT5XQyGJc7jweQl4mg

Chris Webster

chris@archaeologypodcastnetwork.com

Rachel Roden

rachel@unraveleddesigns.com

RachelUnraveled (Instagram)

APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com

APN Discord: https://discord.com/invite/CWBhb2T2ed

APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet

APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet

APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet

APN Shop

Motion

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week we cover three archaeology stories in the news recently. First, ancient and unusual rock art in the Caucuses. Then we head over to Spain where researchers have excavated several graves at a monastery, including the queen who founded it. And finally, Natianal Geographic's June cover story is all about a long lost Incan city that may (or may not!) have been identified in Peru.

• Scientists Found ‘Messages from the Dead’ on the Walls of an Ancient Tomb
• Skeletal remains of Queen Elisenda, one of the most powerful rulers in medieval Europe, unearthed in Barcelona — along with several others who bore unexplained stab wounds
• The Search for the Inca’s Lost Citadel

Chris Webster

• chris@archaeologypodcastnetwork.com

Rachel Roden

• rachel@unraveleddesigns.com
• RachelUnraveled (Instagram)

• APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
• APN Discord: https://discord.com/invite/CWBhb2T2ed
• APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
• APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
• APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
• APN Shop

• Motion

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In episode 330 of The Archeology Show, we discuss the latest controversy over the site of Monte Verde in southern Chile, long considered a cornerstone pre-Clovis site dated to about 14,500 BP. We summarize a March 2026 study led by Todd Surovell arguing the key occupation layer is much younger (about 8,200–4,200 years ago) based on geological and stratigraphic analyses, including an 11,000-year-old tephra layer allegedly beneath deposits, claims of redeposited older wood from erosion and flooding, and luminescence dating of nearby sediments. We then review strong criticism, including scathing critiques from about 30 researchers including Tom Dillehay (author of the original work), disputing sampling locations, assumptions about redeposition, and whether the tephra identification is correct. It seems like both sides raise points but more collaborative research is needed before rewriting interpretations of early human peopling of the Americas.

When did humans arrive in the Americas? A new study reignites the debate

A mid-Holocene age for Monte Verde challenges the timeline of human colonization of South America (Not open access)

ScienceAdviser: New dating of ancient Chilean site reopens old wounds

Study suggests younger age for Chile's important Monte Verde archaeological site

'Speculation' and 'egregious failure': 30 researchers publish scathing critiques of study that questioned date of early human occupation of Monte Verde in Chile

Chris Webster

• chris@archaeologypodcastnetwork.com

Rachel Roden

• rachel@unraveleddesigns.com
• RachelUnraveled (Instagram)

• APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
• APN Discord: https://discord.com/invite/CWBhb2T2ed
• APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
• APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
• APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
• APN Shop

• Motion

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.