July 3, 2017 • 32 mins
It's time for another mid-year edition of Unearthed! The show covers new research and information about the Lions of Tsavo, human taxidermy, a photo of Harriet Tubman, and H.H. Holmes, among others. And of course, there's fresh Ötzi news!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how
Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. Time listeners
will know this. They will actually know it more than once.
(00:23):
It's become a tradition for us to do a couple
of episodes at the end of every year recapping all
the various stuff that's been literally or figuratively unearthed over
the past year, because there are unearthed episodes that have
become listener favorites. And this started with prior hosts highlighting
a few cool discoveries, and then it grew into a
pair of episodes, and then last year, in the early spring,
(00:47):
it became clear that we had way too many discoveries
to possibly do justice too, even if we only picked
the very, very very best ones of them. So we
pulled our listeners uh ask what we should do about
this conundrum, and overwhelmingly you all said you wanted an
unearthed episode in July. So now that is a tradition
(01:08):
as well, And today we are going to talk about
some of the biggest unearthy headlines from the year so far,
most of them touched in some way on a past episode,
because I know there's are the ones that a lot
of folks have asked about so far this year. And
then also we hope there will be more big headlines
between now in December for us to talk about. I
(01:30):
think it's a safe bit. It seems to be the case,
although disproportionately what we're going to talk about all this
news broken April, like does there's a lot of April
in this l line. Way back in we did a
two part podcast on the Lions of Tsavo, a pair
of man eating lions that terrorized the crew building the
(01:52):
Uganda railroad in and it is not typical for lions
to develop a taste for people, but that seemed to
be what had happened there. So there's been a lot
of speculation into why exactly these two did, killing and
eating a hundred and thirty five people according to legend,
but closer to thirty based on more reasonable estimates and
available evidence. During that episode, we talked about one theory
(02:16):
that the lions were having problems with their teeth and
that dental pain was what drove them to behave in
such an unusual way. In April, researchers from Vanderbilt University
published a study in Nature Scientific Reports titled Dietary behavior
of man eating Lions as Revealed by dential microware textures.
(02:37):
This team worked with the Field Museum of Natural History,
which is where the lions taxider made remains are housed,
to do a microscopic analysis of their teeth. Their research
examined both Savo lions and a third man eater from Zambia,
the Mcfuli lion, which is also in the Field collection.
Those are taxi or made by the way they were
(02:57):
pursuing the theory that all three lions were driven to
a typical feeding behavior by a shortage of food. If
their teeth had wear patterns similar to scavenging hyenas, it
would suggest that they were eating whatever they could find
and eating as much of the carcass as possible because
they were desperate. Instead, though their teeth looked more like
the teeth of lions that are housed in zoos, which
(03:20):
are usually fed meat off the bone rather than whole
carcasses containing bones to chew around and through, their teeth
didn't look like they had been chewing on any bones
at all, which uh raises a question in the account
of the Tsavo lions because witness testimony included that they
were terrified by the sound of the horrible, horrible crunching. Uh,
(03:42):
seems a little in question at this point whether there
would have been horrible bone crunching. Yeah. Well, I think
we should point out that in the man who wrote
the primary account of the primary English language account anyway
of the lions of Tsavo, he also mentions that he
can hear them purring from inside his tent when they
are nearby, and that is not a thing they do.
(04:03):
So there were there was some embellishment. Researchers already knew
that at least one of the lions of Tsavo had
severe dental disease while the other had injuries to its
teeth and jaw, and the research revealed that the Mcfui
lion from Zambia had structural damage to its job, meaning
it probably had painful teeth as well. So this research
suggests that tooth pain might have had something to do
(04:25):
with triggering all three lions man eating behavior, and that
all three were eating only the soft parts of the bodies,
not the bones. A lot of the articles that were
circulating about this in April including a lot of the
ones that listeners sent our way made it sound as
there this was a brand new discovery, like the mystery
had finally been solved. But this is more like another
(04:49):
additional check in the more likely column of things that
we already suspected. Yeah. There, Because that was such a
unique and terrible situation when those lanes killed too many people.
There have long been a lot of historians, animal behaviorists, etcetera,
(05:10):
both theorizing and doing research in it. So any research
that comes up at this point tends to build on
all of that and or confirm or deny some of
those theories. Yeah, we keep We kept getting tweets and
stuff with links to articles, and I kept thinking, didn't
we talk about that that? Speaking of taxidermy and novemb
(05:32):
we did a podcast on the Vera Brothers, which was
one of those shows that we thought was going to
be kind of lighthearted, but then it went down a
very dark path. Jules Verreau and his brothers were naturalists
who collected and preserved specimens that are still in museum
collections today. They're also the namesake of the verro sofaca,
which is an adorable primate for Madagascar and was in
(05:53):
fact what led Holly to want to do the episode. However,
then we learned that they also dug up the body
of a recently buried human being in Botswana. They stole it,
they preserved it, and they tried to make it into
a museum piece. All of that was horrifying, gross and racist.
And in that episode we also talked about a diorama
that they created in eighteen sixty seven, then known as
(06:15):
Arab Courier attacked by Lions, and it's basically what it
says on the tin, a taxidermy display of a courier
writing a dromedary being attacked by lions. It's kind of you.
You get exactly what we tell you. We're giving you.
This taxidermy peace is part of the collection at the
Carnegie Museum of Natural History. In our episode, we talked
(06:37):
about rumors that the courier in this piece was a
real human being, and at that time those rumors had
been dismissed, although it was suspected or even known that
the head was known to contain some real human teeth.
But in late six the diorama was removed from its
display for restoration and a CT scan on the head
(07:00):
of the mannequin. We're using mannequin in the air quotes
because it revealed that it was not a mannequin at all,
It was an entire human skull. As often happened in
our Unearthed episodes, what happened in late did not become
widely known enough for us to hear about it until
this year. The restored and reinterpreted diorama, now known as
(07:22):
Lion Attacking a Drama Diary instead of Arab Courier Attacked
by Lions, was returned to display on January, at which
point the contains a real human skull part made a
lot of headlines because it contains actually human remains. The
Carnegie Museum considered what its next step should be, and
(07:42):
at this point though, it's not really possible to repatriat
the skull because there is no paper trail to pinpoint
exactly where it came from. And as we know, based
on what happened in Botswana, the bros we're not above
stealing things, uh, lying about it, Yes, a lot of
problems they I would not expect us to ever discover
(08:04):
the magical document that reveals to whom that skull once belonged.
Now and museums are I mean not not a d
percent of the time, but it's increasingly becoming more thoughtful
about what to do when it's discovered that they have
human remains that need to be repatriated. And this is
just a case where like the skull, no one really
(08:24):
knows where it came from. And now, speaking of human remains,
and at least one previous Unearthed episode, we have talked
about mass burials uncovered on the University of Mississippi Medical
Center campus. At least a thousand bodies were found in
an area that was being prepped for an expanded parking facility.
(08:47):
These and other bodies previously discovered on campus probably date
back to the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum, which opened there
in eighteen fifty five. At that time, the expansion plans
were put on hold because the estimated cost to exhume
the bodies and bury them elsewhere was three thousand dollars
per body, or three million dollars total. In May of
(09:10):
this year, though, the university announced a possible plan for
these and other bodies that are still buried on campus
an estimated seven thousand of them total, for the cost
of about four hundred thousand dollars a year over eight years,
the university could theoretically preserve the remains and construct a
memorial complete with a visitors center and a laboratory. This
(09:34):
still seems somewhat tentative, with the university looking for an
approach that is respectful as well as offering opportunity for
scholarship and being something that they can actually afford. Yeah,
it's it would be, based on all of the releases
about it they have come out so far, something that
would combine an opportunity for scholarship on the history of
(09:55):
this asylum and the people who died there, while also
trying to be considerate and compassionate about the fact that
these are human remains a lot of cases, not ones
that can be identified or returned to families. At this point,
we are going to take a completely different direction and
a moment after a quick sponsor break, after which we
(10:18):
will continue with some more things way on. Back in
January of previous podcast hosts Sarah and Deblina did a
two part podcast called HH Holmes and the Mysteries of
Murder Castle, which immediately became a listener favorite. H. H.
Holmes was a pseudonym for Herman Webster Mudget, who terrorized
(10:42):
the World's Fair. He's commonly called America's first serial killer,
subject of the book Devil in the White City, generally
famous scary serial killer. Man also made an appearance in
the TV show Timeless, also made an appearance in America
and Horror Story. Also making a forthcoming appearance in a
(11:04):
major motion picture, Theoretical About has been announced. Yeah, that's
the one episode that I I wish I could have
done another host had not already done it, because I
love that crazy business. Holmes was hanged and purportedly buried
in Holy Cross Cemetery in Pennsylvania in but there have
always been rumors that he evaded execution and that he
(11:26):
faked his own death and that someone else had been
hanged or at least buried in his place. But news
broke once again in April that at Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Court issued an exhumation order. On March ninth, we posted
about this on our Facebook page and a lot of
people were asking why anyone would even bother with that
at that at this point, and it's that the exhumation
(11:47):
request was made by two of Mudget's great grandchildren. They
want to prove their DNA evidence whether it really is
him and put all of this speculation to rest. The
anthropology to Admit at the University of Pennsylvania was named
as providing the DNA analysis that would be required. This
(12:08):
exhumation proved to be a challenge Mudget's specifications for his burial,
where that his coffin be buried twice as deep as
normal and encased in cement, specifically to keep anyone from
digging him up. So, as of right now, no results
of this exhumation have been released, but the Delaware County
Court gave a hundred and twenty day limit for the
(12:29):
returning of the remains to their resting place. So this
means that we might get to talk about H. H.
Holmes again in our year end Unearthed episodes if at
that point we know conclusively whether that is his body
or not. Yeah, uh, knowing what a famed figure H. H.
Holmes has become. The court order specified quote no commercial
(12:50):
spectacle or carnival atmosphere shall be created, either by this
event or any other incident pertaining to the remains. So yeah,
don't don't go through a party and Philadelphia, please do
not rush Philadelphia and try to be on hand when
things go down, because they don't want it and they
will send you away. So moving on. In June of
(13:16):
we did a two part podcast on Harriet Tubman and
which we talked about her work with the Underground Railroad,
her time as a spy during the Civil War, and
her dedication to helping people who were less fortunate than
she was for pretty much the entire rest of her life.
In February, Swan Galleries announced that it would be auctioning
off a newly discovered photo of Harriet Tubman, one of
(13:39):
just a handful of photographs known to exist. The photo
came from an album belonging to Emily Howland, a friend
of Tubman's and a fellow abolitionist. In this photo, Tubman
is estimated to be in her early forties, meaning that
it would have been taken not long after the end
of the Civil War, when she was living in Aumburn,
New York. This is much younger than most of the
(14:00):
other noon pictures of her. On March thirty one, we
already get an update about this thing we had flack.
It was announced that the photograph, along with forty three others,
were acquired by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American
History and Culture, and the Library of Congress. They had
to work together basically to cover the asking price in
(14:23):
the auction. The Smithsonian and the Library of Congress together
paid a hundred and sixty one thousand dollars, which included
an auctioneer fee of thirty two thousand, five hundred dollars
for the album. The museum announced that it would first
see to the care and the conservation of the album
and then digitize the photos in it so that other
(14:43):
people would be able to see them. The Harriet Tubman
Home in Auburn had also launched a fundraising effort hashtag
bring Harrie at Home, raising twenty seven thousand dollars and
anticipating an auction price of twenty to thirty thousand dollars.
From an outsider's perspective, this see was to have caused
a bit of a conflict between the Smithsonian and the
Harriet Tubman Home, with the Harriet Tubman Home disappointed not
(15:06):
to be a part of the Smithsonian's purchase, but relieved
that the album will be part of the Smithsonian collection
and will be cared for. Yeah, the the amount that
they raised like that wasn't their estimate the twenty thirty
thousand dollars. It was the estimate of what people thought
this was going to go for an auction, So the
amount that they raised would have been enough had that
(15:26):
been what it actually went for, but instead the going
price was so much higher. Um, So I get the
impression that there are some hurt feeling her feelings about
not having been part of it, which are totally understandable. Yeah,
although it makes me wonder, like between thirty thousand dollars
and what was the number, A hundred and sixty one. Yeah,
(15:49):
there's a lot of space. So there was bidding of
other entities that are even part of either of these two. Yeah, yeah,
and the and in the end there were statements that
were like, the really most important thing is that this
is in the Smithsonian's collection and not like in the
hands of a private collector where nobody can ever see
any of these pictures, um, which are not just of
the one of Harriet tub and they're also historically important
(16:10):
ones in there as well. Uh, as seems to be
the case in almost every Unearthed episode that we do.
We have a Nutzi update. Hello, let's see good to
see you again, Uh, let's see. The ice Man was
a subject of a January four episode by previous hosts
of the show, and since then it does seem like
there has been a new discovery about him in almost
(16:33):
every Unearthed episode that we do. So we have you
got another update. A number of theories have circulated about
how Etsy died, many of them speculating that he came
to some kind of violent end. There's plenty of evidence
for this, particularly an arrow wound in his shoulder and
some evidence of head wounds. However, in April, research presented
in New Orleans at the annual meeting of the American
(16:55):
Association of Physical Anthropologists suggested otherwise. Based on X rays
and CT studies of the site of that arrow wound,
anthropologist Frank Rudy of the University of Zurich argues that
it was a shallow injury that wouldn't have involved a
lot of blood loss or tissue damage. Then he argues
that those head wounds look more like Utsy tripped and
(17:17):
fell and hit his head on something, and not that
he was clubbed or bludgeoned to death. So the new
and sort of boring hypothesis is in fact that he
simply froze to death not as exciting as a violent end,
and that was always on the table of options. But
at least according to this researcher, the more violent and
(17:38):
maybe exciting stories are not as likely. Uh. The Lost
Colony of Roanoke has been the subject of a two
thousand eight episode and update both by prior hosts of
the show and for folks not up on your North
Carolina or early colonial history. The gist of the story
is that colonists arrived done Roanoke Island in the summer
(18:01):
of seven. John White left the colony to return to
England for supplies, and when he got back three years later,
the colony was deserted, with the word croato and carved
into a post as the only clue as to what
had happened. In Unearthed, in we talked about two different
teams reporting two different sets of findings about two different
(18:24):
theories as to what happened. One team, looking for clues
on the North Carolina mainland, was following evidence from a
map conducting an excavation at a spot known as Site X,
and the other was excavating near Cape Creek on Hatteras
Island and found a number of sixteenth century English artifacts.
In April. Once again, April Smithsonian Magazine reported a setback
(18:48):
in the trail that had led at least some archaeologists
to focus their search on Hatteras Island. In archaeologists had
found a ring that was engraved with a lion. A
jeweler had determined that the ring was made of gold,
and an expert in heraldry linked the lion image to
the Kendle family, who had been involved in the voyages
(19:10):
to rowan Oake in the first place. However, this year
a lab at East Carolina University tested the ring using
an X ray fluorescence device and determined that it is
not made of gold at all. It's actually made of brass,
and rather than an heirloom belonging to the Kendall family,
it actually seems more likely to be a mass produced
piece that would have been used as trade goods with
(19:31):
the indigenous population of the island. So there continues to
be a lot of debate about this particular ring and
what it might mean, and for the last twenty years,
some archaeologists really thought this whole Kindle connection was already
a stretch. Others argue that it's brass composition doesn't change
much about its importance, and archaeological work on potter As
(19:55):
Island is still ongoing. This is one of the very
law long enduring mysteries of the colonization of North America,
so I am sure people will be continuing to look
for the answer until I find it. And also those
fires stoked once again by American Horror Story. I did
(20:22):
not see this entire season of American Horror Story. I did, Yeah,
I thought it was really interesting. I know a lot
of people didn't like the shift in how it played out,
but I thought it was quite fun and it was
really I will basically show up to um the reading
of a seed packet if Kathy Bates does it with
(20:43):
bliss in my heart, so I don't care what she does.
I'm watching it um. Before we move on to our
next thing, we were first going to pause and have
a little break for a sponsor word, during which I
will think about Kathy Bates reading seed packets. Sounds great.
(21:04):
Katie and Sarah's passed episode on pom Pay's destruction following
the eruption of Mount Vesuvious dates back to two thousand
and nine. We have an update. In May, it was
announced that a pair of bodies that were buried and
preserved in that eruption have always been described as the
two maidens are in fact men, and this discovery says
(21:28):
as much about assumptions as it does about the bodies themselves.
The assumption that the two bodies were women was largely
based on their shape and posture. The interpretation has generally
been that they were embracing one another out of protection
or fear, but after cat scans and DNA analysis, researchers
have concluded that they are at least in terms of
(21:51):
their like their chromosomes and their mitochondrial DNA, they're both male,
not related by blood, and about eighteen to twenty years old,
and this has led to a bunch a bunch ubiquitous
almost headlines that the two men may have been gay lovers,
which is weird because they were not described as possibly
(22:12):
lesbians when people thought they were both women. So at
least according to what seems like every headline about this,
as two men, they are possibly or probably gay, but
as two women, they were just gal pals con comforting
one another as the volcano buried them. Definitely, nobody has
(22:33):
speculated that maybe they were bisexual. It is all made
up at this point. Well, right, so my big thing
is like, no one can embrace unless it's sexy like that,
well particularly men like maybe very scared they're about to
(22:54):
die by horrible means. I would embrace almost anybody nearby
whether I found them a trap, but we're not. Obviously,
have found the news coverage of this discovery really irritating
because like it's been framed as a way as though
(23:16):
that is scandalous. It only seems like it says more
about what our expectations are about how men should behave
with one another than anything relating to history at all. It. Yeah,
there's there's like this weird overlay that it must have
sexual context that is not supported in any way. It's weird,
(23:41):
Like I said, it's weird. On a happier note, however,
this episode is coming out right around July four. We
know that a lot of people will spend that day
in recreational activities involving cookouts and drinks. So here are
some unearthed libations that seemed like us to a little
bit more fun way to cap off this episode. Um
(24:05):
in Norway, during the Viking Age, we have learned people
brewed beer using stones, and this knowledge comes from archaeological
research at twenty four different farm sites in central Norway,
all of them having the same fire cracked stones, and
all of them having local lore that they were brewing stones.
So the stones themselves were not news, but the fact
(24:27):
that they were used this way as long ago as
they were pretty new knowledge. Basically, in the days before
iron pots, people made beer not by heating the cooking vessel,
but by heating a stone in the fire, and then
they would drop that stone into what they were trying
to brew, which would rapidly heat the water but also
cause the stone to crack. In addition to Norway, this
(24:48):
same practice was apparently used in England, Finland and the
Baltics before the development of iron cookwer And now I
will think of the story stone soup in a completely
different way. That's a great point. I hadn't even thought
it's actually stone homebrew well, and there are there are
apparently some specialty brewers where you can get stone brewed beer,
(25:12):
which is really fascinating to me. Uh More on the
drinking habits of Vikings, new research is also suggesting that
they were brewing wine in Denmark, or at least that
there were grapes that were grown in Denmark during the
Viking era that can conceivably have been used for making wine.
We found evidence of the grapes. So far this year,
(25:35):
we have not found evidence of wine making itself, but
the discovery that grapes are being grown in Denmark that
long ago is actually notable. Previously, it was believed that
grapes didn't exist in Denmark until later on in the
Middle Ages. If the Danish Vikings were making wine, it
was probably because they had discovered the beverage in Roman
(25:56):
territory and grew to like it. I'm imagining Vikings being
like this was good. Let's figure out how to make
this out. The will the rocks work? Maybe I know
way less about how to make wine versus how to
make beer. Uh and a more modern story. In March,
(26:20):
Israeli archaeologist announced that they had uncovered hundreds and hundreds
of liquor bottles left behind by British troops during World
War One. Based on the number and the variety of bottles,
which were not just liquor bottles, they included gin, beer
and wine bottles, among other things, the conclusion is that
they probably came from an officer's mess not from the
(26:44):
supply for enlisted men, and there is talk currently about
putting those bottles in a museum. I've seen pictures of them.
I have not found a picture of them that we
can actually use on our website, so we'll there will
be links in the sources where you can see them.
But it's it does look like quite a lot of bottles.
It could be a whole museum just of World War one,
(27:06):
World War one. Who yep. And last, but not least,
students at the Stanford Archaeology Center have made beer based
on a five thousand year old Chinese beer recipe, and
they did so as part of a course called Archaeology
of Food Production, Consumption and Ritual which was taught by
(27:29):
Lee Lieu, Professor of Chinese Archaeology. The recipe itself was
reconstructed based on residue from the inside of pottery vessels,
and it was published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences last year. It is probably the same
Chinese beer discovery that we actually talked about in Unearthed.
In Yeah, we talked about a surprising discovery that there
(27:51):
was barley in China earlier than we believed and used
in beer making. Um. The student work is really interesting.
It's going to be content new to use a sort
of a reverse engineering look at how the Chinese were
brewing beer that long ago. UM. I'm not sure how
(28:11):
much sampling of the beer there may be, because part
of the description and the making of it talked about
like opening it and they're being kind of a moldy substance,
which sounds yucky to me, even as a person who
has on more than one occasion brewed beer in my
home and I know that it can make gross looking
appearances that are not actually dangerous or bad for you. Um.
(28:35):
I'm still fascinated by the whole thing and kind of
tickled that college students are recreating five thousand year old
Chinese beer. So that's that's unearthed. In the first half
of UH, I had a moment where I was like,
understand them a shocking amount of the time. Do you
have a listener mail from the first half of I
(28:59):
have listener? My all. That's related to our recent podcast
on a net Kellerman. It is a point that I
thought about making an episode and then didn't, so I'm
glad somebody wrote in about it. This is from Gabrielle.
Gabrielle says, hey ladies, I just listened to your podcast
on a Net Kellerman and I had to write in.
I'm a high school world history, sociology and gender studies
teacher as well as a swim coach. I swam competitively
(29:22):
for fifteen years, from summer league teams to the collegiate level. Currently,
in addition to coaching two teams, I'm also manager of
a pool. Needless to say, I have worn a lot
of bathing suits. However, I completely took my one piece
suits for granted. Your podcast combined my passion for history
and swimming as well as gender equality, and Net was
incredibly brave to wear what made her comfortable while swimming.
(29:44):
Despite how scandalous it seemed to the rest of society,
she broke down barriers in the sport of swimming, and
I am grateful for her contributions. After listening to the podcast,
I searched for pictures of a Net and her bathing suits.
I immediately began to think about the transformation of competitive
him suits in the past decades. Below, I've attached a
picture of the Australian Olympic team about a hundred years
(30:06):
after Australian a net transformed the one piece. Surprisingly, the
two suits are pretty similar. Both have full leg coverage
and sometimes even sleeves. This coverage is not for modesty,
as a nets was, but for speed. Today, however, men
and women cannot compete in a bathing suit that comes
past the knees because they have been found to be
(30:26):
too fast and buoyant. Swimmers who compete in open water
swimming can wear full wet suits, on the other hand,
so uh. She talks about the absurdity of men's swimming
the English channel David, which is something that we talked
about in the episode. Gabrielle goes on to say I
(30:47):
loved hearing about the transformation of swimwear and women in
sports and leisure. This was a topic I completely overlooked.
To someone surrounded by history and swimming, it would seem
as if I would know more, I would know everything
about the sport. After this podcast, I am itching to
know more. Thank you for your entertaining. Thank you for
entertaining and educating me on my commune. Keep up the
awesome work, Thanks Gabrielle. And then yes, many pictures of
(31:12):
um swimmers, especially competitive Olympic swimmers in the last few
years do resemble pretty well, uh net Kellerman's swimsuit with
the more coverage and part to try to make them
faster in the water. Um. So thank you so much
Gabrielle for writing in about that. If you would like
to write to us about this or any other podcast
(31:32):
Where History podcast at how stuff works dot com. We're
also on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash miss in
History and on Twitter at miss in History. Are Tumbler
is missing History dot tumbler dot com. We're on Pantherst
at pantherest dot com slash miss in History. Our instagram
is missing History. One day, I'm going to memorize a
shorter way to say all that. You can come to
our parent company's website, which is how stuff Works dot
(31:54):
com to find out all kinds of information about archaeology
and the past anything else your heart does wres you
come to our website, which is missed in History dot
com to find show notes for every episode Holly and
I have ever done together. We will have the links
to where we found out about all these unearthed things.
Today we have an archives that every episode that we
(32:15):
have ever done all kinds of cool stuff so you
can do all that and a whole lot more at
how stuff works dot com or missed in History dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
how stuff works dot com.
Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how
Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. Time listeners
will know this. They will actually know it more than once.
(00:23):
It's become a tradition for us to do a couple
of episodes at the end of every year recapping all
the various stuff that's been literally or figuratively unearthed over
the past year, because there are unearthed episodes that have
become listener favorites. And this started with prior hosts highlighting
a few cool discoveries, and then it grew into a
pair of episodes, and then last year, in the early spring,
(00:47):
it became clear that we had way too many discoveries
to possibly do justice too, even if we only picked
the very, very very best ones of them. So we
pulled our listeners uh ask what we should do about
this conundrum, and overwhelmingly you all said you wanted an
unearthed episode in July. So now that is a tradition
(01:08):
as well, And today we are going to talk about
some of the biggest unearthy headlines from the year so far,
most of them touched in some way on a past episode,
because I know there's are the ones that a lot
of folks have asked about so far this year. And
then also we hope there will be more big headlines
between now in December for us to talk about. I
(01:30):
think it's a safe bit. It seems to be the case,
although disproportionately what we're going to talk about all this
news broken April, like does there's a lot of April
in this l line. Way back in we did a
two part podcast on the Lions of Tsavo, a pair
of man eating lions that terrorized the crew building the
(01:52):
Uganda railroad in and it is not typical for lions
to develop a taste for people, but that seemed to
be what had happened there. So there's been a lot
of speculation into why exactly these two did, killing and
eating a hundred and thirty five people according to legend,
but closer to thirty based on more reasonable estimates and
available evidence. During that episode, we talked about one theory
(02:16):
that the lions were having problems with their teeth and
that dental pain was what drove them to behave in
such an unusual way. In April, researchers from Vanderbilt University
published a study in Nature Scientific Reports titled Dietary behavior
of man eating Lions as Revealed by dential microware textures.
(02:37):
This team worked with the Field Museum of Natural History,
which is where the lions taxider made remains are housed,
to do a microscopic analysis of their teeth. Their research
examined both Savo lions and a third man eater from Zambia,
the Mcfuli lion, which is also in the Field collection.
Those are taxi or made by the way they were
(02:57):
pursuing the theory that all three lions were driven to
a typical feeding behavior by a shortage of food. If
their teeth had wear patterns similar to scavenging hyenas, it
would suggest that they were eating whatever they could find
and eating as much of the carcass as possible because
they were desperate. Instead, though their teeth looked more like
the teeth of lions that are housed in zoos, which
(03:20):
are usually fed meat off the bone rather than whole
carcasses containing bones to chew around and through, their teeth
didn't look like they had been chewing on any bones
at all, which uh raises a question in the account
of the Tsavo lions because witness testimony included that they
were terrified by the sound of the horrible, horrible crunching. Uh,
(03:42):
seems a little in question at this point whether there
would have been horrible bone crunching. Yeah. Well, I think
we should point out that in the man who wrote
the primary account of the primary English language account anyway
of the lions of Tsavo, he also mentions that he
can hear them purring from inside his tent when they
are nearby, and that is not a thing they do.
(04:03):
So there were there was some embellishment. Researchers already knew
that at least one of the lions of Tsavo had
severe dental disease while the other had injuries to its
teeth and jaw, and the research revealed that the Mcfui
lion from Zambia had structural damage to its job, meaning
it probably had painful teeth as well. So this research
suggests that tooth pain might have had something to do
(04:25):
with triggering all three lions man eating behavior, and that
all three were eating only the soft parts of the bodies,
not the bones. A lot of the articles that were
circulating about this in April including a lot of the
ones that listeners sent our way made it sound as
there this was a brand new discovery, like the mystery
had finally been solved. But this is more like another
(04:49):
additional check in the more likely column of things that
we already suspected. Yeah. There, Because that was such a
unique and terrible situation when those lanes killed too many people.
There have long been a lot of historians, animal behaviorists, etcetera,
(05:10):
both theorizing and doing research in it. So any research
that comes up at this point tends to build on
all of that and or confirm or deny some of
those theories. Yeah, we keep We kept getting tweets and
stuff with links to articles, and I kept thinking, didn't
we talk about that that? Speaking of taxidermy and novemb
(05:32):
we did a podcast on the Vera Brothers, which was
one of those shows that we thought was going to
be kind of lighthearted, but then it went down a
very dark path. Jules Verreau and his brothers were naturalists
who collected and preserved specimens that are still in museum
collections today. They're also the namesake of the verro sofaca,
which is an adorable primate for Madagascar and was in
(05:53):
fact what led Holly to want to do the episode. However,
then we learned that they also dug up the body
of a recently buried human being in Botswana. They stole it,
they preserved it, and they tried to make it into
a museum piece. All of that was horrifying, gross and racist.
And in that episode we also talked about a diorama
that they created in eighteen sixty seven, then known as
(06:15):
Arab Courier attacked by Lions, and it's basically what it
says on the tin, a taxidermy display of a courier
writing a dromedary being attacked by lions. It's kind of you.
You get exactly what we tell you. We're giving you.
This taxidermy peace is part of the collection at the
Carnegie Museum of Natural History. In our episode, we talked
(06:37):
about rumors that the courier in this piece was a
real human being, and at that time those rumors had
been dismissed, although it was suspected or even known that
the head was known to contain some real human teeth.
But in late six the diorama was removed from its
display for restoration and a CT scan on the head
(07:00):
of the mannequin. We're using mannequin in the air quotes
because it revealed that it was not a mannequin at all,
It was an entire human skull. As often happened in
our Unearthed episodes, what happened in late did not become
widely known enough for us to hear about it until
this year. The restored and reinterpreted diorama, now known as
(07:22):
Lion Attacking a Drama Diary instead of Arab Courier Attacked
by Lions, was returned to display on January, at which
point the contains a real human skull part made a
lot of headlines because it contains actually human remains. The
Carnegie Museum considered what its next step should be, and
(07:42):
at this point though, it's not really possible to repatriat
the skull because there is no paper trail to pinpoint
exactly where it came from. And as we know, based
on what happened in Botswana, the bros we're not above
stealing things, uh, lying about it, Yes, a lot of
problems they I would not expect us to ever discover
(08:04):
the magical document that reveals to whom that skull once belonged.
Now and museums are I mean not not a d
percent of the time, but it's increasingly becoming more thoughtful
about what to do when it's discovered that they have
human remains that need to be repatriated. And this is
just a case where like the skull, no one really
(08:24):
knows where it came from. And now, speaking of human remains,
and at least one previous Unearthed episode, we have talked
about mass burials uncovered on the University of Mississippi Medical
Center campus. At least a thousand bodies were found in
an area that was being prepped for an expanded parking facility.
(08:47):
These and other bodies previously discovered on campus probably date
back to the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum, which opened there
in eighteen fifty five. At that time, the expansion plans
were put on hold because the estimated cost to exhume
the bodies and bury them elsewhere was three thousand dollars
per body, or three million dollars total. In May of
(09:10):
this year, though, the university announced a possible plan for
these and other bodies that are still buried on campus
an estimated seven thousand of them total, for the cost
of about four hundred thousand dollars a year over eight years,
the university could theoretically preserve the remains and construct a
memorial complete with a visitors center and a laboratory. This
(09:34):
still seems somewhat tentative, with the university looking for an
approach that is respectful as well as offering opportunity for
scholarship and being something that they can actually afford. Yeah,
it's it would be, based on all of the releases
about it they have come out so far, something that
would combine an opportunity for scholarship on the history of
(09:55):
this asylum and the people who died there, while also
trying to be considerate and compassionate about the fact that
these are human remains a lot of cases, not ones
that can be identified or returned to families. At this point,
we are going to take a completely different direction and
a moment after a quick sponsor break, after which we
(10:18):
will continue with some more things way on. Back in
January of previous podcast hosts Sarah and Deblina did a
two part podcast called HH Holmes and the Mysteries of
Murder Castle, which immediately became a listener favorite. H. H.
Holmes was a pseudonym for Herman Webster Mudget, who terrorized
(10:42):
the World's Fair. He's commonly called America's first serial killer,
subject of the book Devil in the White City, generally
famous scary serial killer. Man also made an appearance in
the TV show Timeless, also made an appearance in America
and Horror Story. Also making a forthcoming appearance in a
(11:04):
major motion picture, Theoretical About has been announced. Yeah, that's
the one episode that I I wish I could have
done another host had not already done it, because I
love that crazy business. Holmes was hanged and purportedly buried
in Holy Cross Cemetery in Pennsylvania in but there have
always been rumors that he evaded execution and that he
(11:26):
faked his own death and that someone else had been
hanged or at least buried in his place. But news
broke once again in April that at Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Court issued an exhumation order. On March ninth, we posted
about this on our Facebook page and a lot of
people were asking why anyone would even bother with that
at that at this point, and it's that the exhumation
(11:47):
request was made by two of Mudget's great grandchildren. They
want to prove their DNA evidence whether it really is
him and put all of this speculation to rest. The
anthropology to Admit at the University of Pennsylvania was named
as providing the DNA analysis that would be required. This
(12:08):
exhumation proved to be a challenge Mudget's specifications for his burial,
where that his coffin be buried twice as deep as
normal and encased in cement, specifically to keep anyone from
digging him up. So, as of right now, no results
of this exhumation have been released, but the Delaware County
Court gave a hundred and twenty day limit for the
(12:29):
returning of the remains to their resting place. So this
means that we might get to talk about H. H.
Holmes again in our year end Unearthed episodes if at
that point we know conclusively whether that is his body
or not. Yeah, uh, knowing what a famed figure H. H.
Holmes has become. The court order specified quote no commercial
(12:50):
spectacle or carnival atmosphere shall be created, either by this
event or any other incident pertaining to the remains. So yeah,
don't don't go through a party and Philadelphia, please do
not rush Philadelphia and try to be on hand when
things go down, because they don't want it and they
will send you away. So moving on. In June of
(13:16):
we did a two part podcast on Harriet Tubman and
which we talked about her work with the Underground Railroad,
her time as a spy during the Civil War, and
her dedication to helping people who were less fortunate than
she was for pretty much the entire rest of her life.
In February, Swan Galleries announced that it would be auctioning
off a newly discovered photo of Harriet Tubman, one of
(13:39):
just a handful of photographs known to exist. The photo
came from an album belonging to Emily Howland, a friend
of Tubman's and a fellow abolitionist. In this photo, Tubman
is estimated to be in her early forties, meaning that
it would have been taken not long after the end
of the Civil War, when she was living in Aumburn,
New York. This is much younger than most of the
(14:00):
other noon pictures of her. On March thirty one, we
already get an update about this thing we had flack.
It was announced that the photograph, along with forty three others,
were acquired by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American
History and Culture, and the Library of Congress. They had
to work together basically to cover the asking price in
(14:23):
the auction. The Smithsonian and the Library of Congress together
paid a hundred and sixty one thousand dollars, which included
an auctioneer fee of thirty two thousand, five hundred dollars
for the album. The museum announced that it would first
see to the care and the conservation of the album
and then digitize the photos in it so that other
(14:43):
people would be able to see them. The Harriet Tubman
Home in Auburn had also launched a fundraising effort hashtag
bring Harrie at Home, raising twenty seven thousand dollars and
anticipating an auction price of twenty to thirty thousand dollars.
From an outsider's perspective, this see was to have caused
a bit of a conflict between the Smithsonian and the
Harriet Tubman Home, with the Harriet Tubman Home disappointed not
(15:06):
to be a part of the Smithsonian's purchase, but relieved
that the album will be part of the Smithsonian collection
and will be cared for. Yeah, the the amount that
they raised like that wasn't their estimate the twenty thirty
thousand dollars. It was the estimate of what people thought
this was going to go for an auction, So the
amount that they raised would have been enough had that
(15:26):
been what it actually went for, but instead the going
price was so much higher. Um, So I get the
impression that there are some hurt feeling her feelings about
not having been part of it, which are totally understandable. Yeah,
although it makes me wonder, like between thirty thousand dollars
and what was the number, A hundred and sixty one. Yeah,
(15:49):
there's a lot of space. So there was bidding of
other entities that are even part of either of these two. Yeah, yeah,
and the and in the end there were statements that
were like, the really most important thing is that this
is in the Smithsonian's collection and not like in the
hands of a private collector where nobody can ever see
any of these pictures, um, which are not just of
the one of Harriet tub and they're also historically important
(16:10):
ones in there as well. Uh, as seems to be
the case in almost every Unearthed episode that we do.
We have a Nutzi update. Hello, let's see good to
see you again, Uh, let's see. The ice Man was
a subject of a January four episode by previous hosts
of the show, and since then it does seem like
there has been a new discovery about him in almost
(16:33):
every Unearthed episode that we do. So we have you
got another update. A number of theories have circulated about
how Etsy died, many of them speculating that he came
to some kind of violent end. There's plenty of evidence
for this, particularly an arrow wound in his shoulder and
some evidence of head wounds. However, in April, research presented
in New Orleans at the annual meeting of the American
(16:55):
Association of Physical Anthropologists suggested otherwise. Based on X rays
and CT studies of the site of that arrow wound,
anthropologist Frank Rudy of the University of Zurich argues that
it was a shallow injury that wouldn't have involved a
lot of blood loss or tissue damage. Then he argues
that those head wounds look more like Utsy tripped and
(17:17):
fell and hit his head on something, and not that
he was clubbed or bludgeoned to death. So the new
and sort of boring hypothesis is in fact that he
simply froze to death not as exciting as a violent end,
and that was always on the table of options. But
at least according to this researcher, the more violent and
(17:38):
maybe exciting stories are not as likely. Uh. The Lost
Colony of Roanoke has been the subject of a two
thousand eight episode and update both by prior hosts of
the show and for folks not up on your North
Carolina or early colonial history. The gist of the story
is that colonists arrived done Roanoke Island in the summer
(18:01):
of seven. John White left the colony to return to
England for supplies, and when he got back three years later,
the colony was deserted, with the word croato and carved
into a post as the only clue as to what
had happened. In Unearthed, in we talked about two different
teams reporting two different sets of findings about two different
(18:24):
theories as to what happened. One team, looking for clues
on the North Carolina mainland, was following evidence from a
map conducting an excavation at a spot known as Site X,
and the other was excavating near Cape Creek on Hatteras
Island and found a number of sixteenth century English artifacts.
In April. Once again, April Smithsonian Magazine reported a setback
(18:48):
in the trail that had led at least some archaeologists
to focus their search on Hatteras Island. In archaeologists had
found a ring that was engraved with a lion. A
jeweler had determined that the ring was made of gold,
and an expert in heraldry linked the lion image to
the Kendle family, who had been involved in the voyages
(19:10):
to rowan Oake in the first place. However, this year
a lab at East Carolina University tested the ring using
an X ray fluorescence device and determined that it is
not made of gold at all. It's actually made of brass,
and rather than an heirloom belonging to the Kendall family,
it actually seems more likely to be a mass produced
piece that would have been used as trade goods with
(19:31):
the indigenous population of the island. So there continues to
be a lot of debate about this particular ring and
what it might mean, and for the last twenty years,
some archaeologists really thought this whole Kindle connection was already
a stretch. Others argue that it's brass composition doesn't change
much about its importance, and archaeological work on potter As
(19:55):
Island is still ongoing. This is one of the very
law long enduring mysteries of the colonization of North America,
so I am sure people will be continuing to look
for the answer until I find it. And also those
fires stoked once again by American Horror Story. I did
(20:22):
not see this entire season of American Horror Story. I did, Yeah,
I thought it was really interesting. I know a lot
of people didn't like the shift in how it played out,
but I thought it was quite fun and it was
really I will basically show up to um the reading
of a seed packet if Kathy Bates does it with
(20:43):
bliss in my heart, so I don't care what she does.
I'm watching it um. Before we move on to our
next thing, we were first going to pause and have
a little break for a sponsor word, during which I
will think about Kathy Bates reading seed packets. Sounds great.
(21:04):
Katie and Sarah's passed episode on pom Pay's destruction following
the eruption of Mount Vesuvious dates back to two thousand
and nine. We have an update. In May, it was
announced that a pair of bodies that were buried and
preserved in that eruption have always been described as the
two maidens are in fact men, and this discovery says
(21:28):
as much about assumptions as it does about the bodies themselves.
The assumption that the two bodies were women was largely
based on their shape and posture. The interpretation has generally
been that they were embracing one another out of protection
or fear, but after cat scans and DNA analysis, researchers
have concluded that they are at least in terms of
(21:51):
their like their chromosomes and their mitochondrial DNA, they're both male,
not related by blood, and about eighteen to twenty years old,
and this has led to a bunch a bunch ubiquitous
almost headlines that the two men may have been gay lovers,
which is weird because they were not described as possibly
(22:12):
lesbians when people thought they were both women. So at
least according to what seems like every headline about this,
as two men, they are possibly or probably gay, but
as two women, they were just gal pals con comforting
one another as the volcano buried them. Definitely, nobody has
(22:33):
speculated that maybe they were bisexual. It is all made
up at this point. Well, right, so my big thing
is like, no one can embrace unless it's sexy like that,
well particularly men like maybe very scared they're about to
(22:54):
die by horrible means. I would embrace almost anybody nearby
whether I found them a trap, but we're not. Obviously,
have found the news coverage of this discovery really irritating
because like it's been framed as a way as though
(23:16):
that is scandalous. It only seems like it says more
about what our expectations are about how men should behave
with one another than anything relating to history at all. It. Yeah,
there's there's like this weird overlay that it must have
sexual context that is not supported in any way. It's weird,
(23:41):
Like I said, it's weird. On a happier note, however,
this episode is coming out right around July four. We
know that a lot of people will spend that day
in recreational activities involving cookouts and drinks. So here are
some unearthed libations that seemed like us to a little
bit more fun way to cap off this episode. Um
(24:05):
in Norway, during the Viking Age, we have learned people
brewed beer using stones, and this knowledge comes from archaeological
research at twenty four different farm sites in central Norway,
all of them having the same fire cracked stones, and
all of them having local lore that they were brewing stones.
So the stones themselves were not news, but the fact
(24:27):
that they were used this way as long ago as
they were pretty new knowledge. Basically, in the days before
iron pots, people made beer not by heating the cooking vessel,
but by heating a stone in the fire, and then
they would drop that stone into what they were trying
to brew, which would rapidly heat the water but also
cause the stone to crack. In addition to Norway, this
(24:48):
same practice was apparently used in England, Finland and the
Baltics before the development of iron cookwer And now I
will think of the story stone soup in a completely
different way. That's a great point. I hadn't even thought
it's actually stone homebrew well, and there are there are
apparently some specialty brewers where you can get stone brewed beer,
(25:12):
which is really fascinating to me. Uh More on the
drinking habits of Vikings, new research is also suggesting that
they were brewing wine in Denmark, or at least that
there were grapes that were grown in Denmark during the
Viking era that can conceivably have been used for making wine.
We found evidence of the grapes. So far this year,
(25:35):
we have not found evidence of wine making itself, but
the discovery that grapes are being grown in Denmark that
long ago is actually notable. Previously, it was believed that
grapes didn't exist in Denmark until later on in the
Middle Ages. If the Danish Vikings were making wine, it
was probably because they had discovered the beverage in Roman
(25:56):
territory and grew to like it. I'm imagining Vikings being
like this was good. Let's figure out how to make
this out. The will the rocks work? Maybe I know
way less about how to make wine versus how to
make beer. Uh and a more modern story. In March,
(26:20):
Israeli archaeologist announced that they had uncovered hundreds and hundreds
of liquor bottles left behind by British troops during World
War One. Based on the number and the variety of bottles,
which were not just liquor bottles, they included gin, beer
and wine bottles, among other things, the conclusion is that
they probably came from an officer's mess not from the
(26:44):
supply for enlisted men, and there is talk currently about
putting those bottles in a museum. I've seen pictures of them.
I have not found a picture of them that we
can actually use on our website, so we'll there will
be links in the sources where you can see them.
But it's it does look like quite a lot of bottles.
It could be a whole museum just of World War one,
(27:06):
World War one. Who yep. And last, but not least,
students at the Stanford Archaeology Center have made beer based
on a five thousand year old Chinese beer recipe, and
they did so as part of a course called Archaeology
of Food Production, Consumption and Ritual which was taught by
(27:29):
Lee Lieu, Professor of Chinese Archaeology. The recipe itself was
reconstructed based on residue from the inside of pottery vessels,
and it was published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences last year. It is probably the same
Chinese beer discovery that we actually talked about in Unearthed.
In Yeah, we talked about a surprising discovery that there
(27:51):
was barley in China earlier than we believed and used
in beer making. Um. The student work is really interesting.
It's going to be content new to use a sort
of a reverse engineering look at how the Chinese were
brewing beer that long ago. UM. I'm not sure how
(28:11):
much sampling of the beer there may be, because part
of the description and the making of it talked about
like opening it and they're being kind of a moldy substance,
which sounds yucky to me, even as a person who
has on more than one occasion brewed beer in my
home and I know that it can make gross looking
appearances that are not actually dangerous or bad for you. Um.
(28:35):
I'm still fascinated by the whole thing and kind of
tickled that college students are recreating five thousand year old
Chinese beer. So that's that's unearthed. In the first half
of UH, I had a moment where I was like,
understand them a shocking amount of the time. Do you
have a listener mail from the first half of I
(28:59):
have listener? My all. That's related to our recent podcast
on a net Kellerman. It is a point that I
thought about making an episode and then didn't, so I'm
glad somebody wrote in about it. This is from Gabrielle.
Gabrielle says, hey ladies, I just listened to your podcast
on a Net Kellerman and I had to write in.
I'm a high school world history, sociology and gender studies
teacher as well as a swim coach. I swam competitively
(29:22):
for fifteen years, from summer league teams to the collegiate level. Currently,
in addition to coaching two teams, I'm also manager of
a pool. Needless to say, I have worn a lot
of bathing suits. However, I completely took my one piece
suits for granted. Your podcast combined my passion for history
and swimming as well as gender equality, and Net was
incredibly brave to wear what made her comfortable while swimming.
(29:44):
Despite how scandalous it seemed to the rest of society,
she broke down barriers in the sport of swimming, and
I am grateful for her contributions. After listening to the podcast,
I searched for pictures of a Net and her bathing suits.
I immediately began to think about the transformation of competitive
him suits in the past decades. Below, I've attached a
picture of the Australian Olympic team about a hundred years
(30:06):
after Australian a net transformed the one piece. Surprisingly, the
two suits are pretty similar. Both have full leg coverage
and sometimes even sleeves. This coverage is not for modesty,
as a nets was, but for speed. Today, however, men
and women cannot compete in a bathing suit that comes
past the knees because they have been found to be
(30:26):
too fast and buoyant. Swimmers who compete in open water
swimming can wear full wet suits, on the other hand,
so uh. She talks about the absurdity of men's swimming
the English channel David, which is something that we talked
about in the episode. Gabrielle goes on to say I
(30:47):
loved hearing about the transformation of swimwear and women in
sports and leisure. This was a topic I completely overlooked.
To someone surrounded by history and swimming, it would seem
as if I would know more, I would know everything
about the sport. After this podcast, I am itching to
know more. Thank you for your entertaining. Thank you for
entertaining and educating me on my commune. Keep up the
awesome work, Thanks Gabrielle. And then yes, many pictures of
(31:12):
um swimmers, especially competitive Olympic swimmers in the last few
years do resemble pretty well, uh net Kellerman's swimsuit with
the more coverage and part to try to make them
faster in the water. Um. So thank you so much
Gabrielle for writing in about that. If you would like
to write to us about this or any other podcast
(31:32):
Where History podcast at how stuff works dot com. We're
also on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash miss in
History and on Twitter at miss in History. Are Tumbler
is missing History dot tumbler dot com. We're on Pantherst
at pantherest dot com slash miss in History. Our instagram
is missing History. One day, I'm going to memorize a
shorter way to say all that. You can come to
our parent company's website, which is how stuff Works dot
(31:54):
com to find out all kinds of information about archaeology
and the past anything else your heart does wres you
come to our website, which is missed in History dot
com to find show notes for every episode Holly and
I have ever done together. We will have the links
to where we found out about all these unearthed things.
Today we have an archives that every episode that we
(32:15):
have ever done all kinds of cool stuff so you
can do all that and a whole lot more at
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