https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beneath-the-lost-world--7271284enHistoryCopyright Maya Collinshttps://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/ff4edd14a6de62b91e0a8dc3997a39ad.jpghttps://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beneath-the-lost-world--7271284Tue, 13 Oct 2026 05:22:33 +0000Maya CollinsMaya Collinsfeeds@spreaker.comCivilizations rise, cities disappear, languages fall silent, and entire chapters of human history become buried beneath forests, deserts, oceans, and modern streets.Beneath the Lost World is a documentary podcast exploring lost cities, ancient...false4c0cf028-6960-542f-96f2-2dd3834e1ec2episodichttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-seven-thousand-year-old-brewing-tradition-hidden-inside-broken-pottery--75662943The liquid disappeared long ago. But microscopic starch grains, yeast, and mold remained trapped inside ancient pottery. Their damage patterns suggest that people at the Xiying shell midden were fermenting a drink made primarily from rice, along with millet, tubers, seeds, and other plants, using an early form of qu fermentation.
The discovery reveals more than an ancient drink. It may preserve the movement of knowledge between coastal communities long before writing recorded who taught whom.
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/75662943Tue, 13 Oct 2026 05:20:02 +0000Maya CollinsSeven thousand years ago, people living on Pingtan Island off the southeastern coast of China gathered shellfish, worked with plants, made pottery, and drank something archaeologists can no longer pour into a glass. The liquid disappeared long ago....The liquid disappeared long ago. But microscopic starch grains, yeast, and mold remained trapped inside ancient pottery. Their damage patterns suggest that people at the Xiying shell midden were fermenting a drink made primarily from rice, along with millet, tubers, seeds, and other plants, using an early form of qu fermentation.
The discovery reveals more than an ancient drink. It may preserve the movement of knowledge between coastal communities long before writing recorded who taught whom.
]]>783alcohol,analysis,ancient,archaeology,beer,china,coastal,fermentation,food,fujian,island,monascus,neolithic,pingtan,podcast,pottery,qu,residue,rice,xiyingfalsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/someone-erased-this-hittite-name-3000-years-ago-archaeologists-read-it-anyway--75660160Someone in antiquity had deliberately ground away the hieroglyphic inscription at the center of the seal, apparently trying to erase the identity, position, or authority of the person who once carried it. But enough microscopic traces survived for specialists to recover the writing.
The mystery is no longer whether the name was erased.
It is why someone wanted it forgotten.
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/75660160Fri, 09 Oct 2026 05:55:02 +0000Maya CollinsAt an ancient settlement in central Anatolia, archaeologists uncovered a small stone seal. Its decoration survived almost perfectly. The owner's name did not. Someone in antiquity had deliberately ground away the hieroglyphic inscription at the center...Someone in antiquity had deliberately ground away the hieroglyphic inscription at the center of the seal, apparently trying to erase the identity, position, or authority of the person who once carried it. But enough microscopic traces survived for specialists to recover the writing.
The mystery is no longer whether the name was erased.
It is why someone wanted it forgotten.
]]>836age,anatolia,anatolian,ancient,archaeological,archaeology,bronze,discovery,god,hieroglyphs,hittite,hittites,höyük,inscriptions,memory,seals,storm,turkey,uşaklı,zippalandafalsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-neolithic-bones-that-reveal-three-different-kinds-of-cannibalism--75144516A new study has now directly dated and reanalyzed nearly one thousand human remains from Malalmuerzo, Carigüela, and Majolicas Caves. The evidence confirms that people were consumed at all three sites, but the reasons may have been very different. One episode may have followed collective violence. Another occurred repeatedly across generations. At the third cave, red cinnabar on human bones points toward a possible funerary or ritual context.
The difficult question is no longer whether cannibalism occurred.
It is what eating another human being meant.
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/75144516Sun, 20 Sep 2026 11:20:02 +0000Maya CollinsInside three caves in southern Spain, archaeologists recovered the fragmented remains of men, women, and children who lived thousands of years ago. Their bones were cut, broken, boiled, bitten, and in some cases deliberately reshaped. A new study has...A new study has now directly dated and reanalyzed nearly one thousand human remains from Malalmuerzo, Carigüela, and Majolicas Caves. The evidence confirms that people were consumed at all three sites, but the reasons may have been very different. One episode may have followed collective violence. Another occurred repeatedly across generations. At the third cave, red cinnabar on human bones points toward a possible funerary or ritual context.
The difficult question is no longer whether cannibalism occurred.
It is what eating another human being meant.
]]>1184archaeology,cannibalism,carigüela,cave,cups,europe,granada,human,majolicas,malalmuerzo,marks,neolithic,prehistoric,remains,ritual,skull,spain,taphonomy,tooth,violencefalsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-5000-year-old-city-built-where-the-ground-would-not-hold--75087091New geoarchaeological research is revealing how Liangzhu's builders solved that problem. They selected different sediments for different layers, constructed artificial mounds, modified waterways, and used standardized blocks of clay wrapped in grass to create structures capable of surviving saturated ground. The engineering also reveals something less visible: the organization of thousands of workers and a society capable of reshaping an entire landscape.
Liangzhu was not built despite the water. Increasingly, it appears to have been engineered around it.
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/75087091Sat, 12 Sep 2026 10:52:07 +0000Maya CollinsMore than five thousand years ago, people in the lower Yangtze region of China began constructing one of East Asia's earliest great urban centers. There was one major problem. Much of the landscape was wet, unstable, and crossed by water. New...New geoarchaeological research is revealing how Liangzhu's builders solved that problem. They selected different sediments for different layers, constructed artificial mounds, modified waterways, and used standardized blocks of clay wrapped in grass to create structures capable of surviving saturated ground. The engineering also reveals something less visible: the organization of thousands of workers and a society capable of reshaping an entire landscape.
Liangzhu was not built despite the water. Increasingly, it appears to have been engineered around it.
]]>1120ancient,archaeological,archaeology,china,cities,civilization,clay,culture,delta,discoveries,documentary,engineering,grass,hydraulic,liangzhu,management,neolithic,water,wrapped,yangtzefalsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-wall-egypt-built-before-the-pharaohs--75019196Only part of that wall had been excavated. Then researchers used ground penetrating radar to follow its buried foundation without digging. What they found extended the structure farther into the landscape and suggested something unexpected. The wall may have protected more than political power. It may also have defended the settlement from the Nile itself.
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/75019196Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:49:32 +0000Maya CollinsMore than five thousand years ago, long before the pyramids of Giza, people at Hierakonpolis built an enormous wooden palisade around one of the most important ceremonial and administrative centers in Upper Egypt. Only part of that wall had been...Only part of that wall had been excavated. Then researchers used ground penetrating radar to follow its buried foundation without digging. What they found extended the structure farther into the landscape and suggested something unexpected. The wall may have protected more than political power. It may also have defended the settlement from the Nile itself.
]]>940ancient,archaeological,archaeology,cities,discovery,early,egypt,egyptian,engineering,gpr,ground,hierakonpolis,nile,penetrating,predynastic,prehistoric,radar,settlements,the,whatfalsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-country-beneath-the-north-sea--74177694Archaeologists call this drowned world Doggerland. Now, sedimentary ancient DNA recovered from beneath the seabed is revealing something unexpected: parts of this landscape supported temperate forests far earlier than scientists thought, and portions of the lost land may have survived beneath human feet much longer than older reconstructions suggested.
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74177694Mon, 17 Aug 2026 05:22:57 +0000Maya CollinsBetween Britain and continental Europe lies the North Sea. But for thousands of years after the last Ice Age, much of that water did not exist. Rivers crossed a broad landscape of wetlands, woodland, grassland, and coast where prehistoric people could...Archaeologists call this drowned world Doggerland. Now, sedimentary ancient DNA recovered from beneath the seabed is revealing something unexpected: parts of this landscape supported temperate forests far earlier than scientists thought, and portions of the lost land may have survived beneath human feet much longer than older reconstructions suggested.
]]>897age,ancient,archaeology,dna,doggerland,environment,europe,human,landscapes,lost,mesolithic,migration,north,prehistoric,sea,sedimentary,stone,submerged,underwaterfalsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/when-the-sahara-was-green-who-lived-there--74174122In twenty twenty five, researchers obtained genome wide ancient DNA from two naturally mummified women buried there roughly seven thousand years ago. The results revealed a previously unknown North African ancestry and challenged a simple idea about how herding spread across the Sahara.
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74174122Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:20:37 +0000Maya CollinsToday, the central Sahara is one of the driest places on Earth. But thousands of years ago, lakes, rivers, grasslands, and human communities spread across a very different landscape. At Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya, archaeologists...In twenty twenty five, researchers obtained genome wide ancient DNA from two naturally mummified women buried there roughly seven thousand years ago. The results revealed a previously unknown North African ancestry and challenged a simple idea about how herding spread across the Sahara.
]]>685africa,ancient,archaeogenetics,archaeology,dna,green,history,human,landscapes,lost,migration,north,origins,pastoralism,prehistoric,sahara,takarkorifalsefullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-maya-city-hiding-beside-a-highway--74172984This episode follows the discovery of Valeriana and asks a larger question. How many Maya cities may still be hidden beneath the forest, not because they were forgotten by everyone, but because modern archaeology has never mapped the landscape in enough detail? The answer is changing how researchers understand Maya urbanism itself.
]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74172984Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:00:21 +0000Maya CollinsFor years, a stretch of forest in Campeche, Mexico, looked almost empty on archaeological maps. Then researchers reexamined laser mapping data originally collected for environmental monitoring and found something extraordinary: a major Maya urban...This episode follows the discovery of Valeriana and asks a larger question. How many Maya cities may still be hidden beneath the forest, not because they were forgotten by everyone, but because modern archaeology has never mapped the landscape in enough detail? The answer is changing how researchers understand Maya urbanism itself.
]]>684ancient,archaeological,archaeology,buried,campeche,cities,civilization,civilizations,discoveries,history,lidar,lost,lowlands,maya,mexico,podcast,remote,sensing,valerianafalsefull