24 ARCHAEOLOGY • July/August 2019
WORLD ROUNDUP BY JASON URBANUS
FLORIDA: Artifacts from
a 19th-century African-
American community were
exposed when Hurricane
Michael uprooted dozens
of trees at the site of a fort
located on the Apalachicola
River. The fort was originally
built by the British during
the War of 1812, and became
a place of refuge for thou-
sands of freed and escaped
slaves who joined the British
side. Shortly after the war’s
end, the U.S. Navy attacked
the fort, blowing up a muni-
tions cache inside and killing
hundreds of people.PERU: An archaeology student
walking through the site of
Castillo de Huarmey fell into a hole, ac-
cidentally discovering the tomb of a Wari metallurgist dating to
around a.d. 800. The craftsman, who was approximately 20 years
old when he died, was buried in a sitting position with his hands
placed around a fabric bundle containing what appears to be an
assortment of his favorite tools of the trade. The collection includes
bronze knives, an ax, a saw, and bone-handled chisels.MEXICO: After a villager noti-
fied authorities about a cave
hidden beneath the Maya site
of Chichen Itza, archaeolo-
gists crawled hundreds of feet
through passages that were
only 16 inches high in places. In the cave, they encoun-
tered hundreds of undisturbed ritual artifacts, including
incense burners depicting the rain god Tlaloc. The region
experienced a severe drought toward the end of the first
millennium a.d., which may have compelled the Maya to
descend into the cave and entreat the gods for rain.CONNECTICUT: Coins,
wampum beads, and
other colonial-era objects
found near the Webb-
Deane-Stevens Museum
in Wethersfield may be
associated with the earliest
settlers of Connecticut’s
oldest English town. Archaeologists hope that these objects,
along with the remains of a 17th-century wooden palisade,
will provide vital information on one of the most infamous
events in the state’s history—a 1637 raid by Pequot Indians
that killed several colonists and helped fuel the deadly
conflict known as the Pequot War.ENGLAND: During the 3rd millennium
b.c., Neolithic Britons held annual
celebrations at sacred monuments
such as Stonehenge. New research
reveals that people from all over the
island attended these BYOP—Bring Your Own Pig—feasts.
Isotope analysis of porcine bones from several henge sites in
southwestern England indicates that the pigs eaten there were
not raised locally. Not only did festivalgoers travel from as far
away as Scotland, northeastern England, and western Wales,
they transported their own pigs with them.