Unearthed! in Autumn 2025, Part 2

Summary

Stuff You Missed in History Class — "Unearthed! in Autumn 2025, Part 2"

Release Date: October 15, 2025
Hosts: Tracy V. Wilson & Holly Frey

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Holly and Tracy continue their tradition of sharing fascinating archaeological discoveries from the last several months in their "Unearthed!" series. This Part 2 installment covers a variety of categories—animals, swords, art, shoes, exhumations, and an overflowing haul of shipwrecks. The hosts explore finds both spectacular and strange, blending expert explanations, amusing anecdotes, and memorable quotes throughout.

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Key Segments & Findings

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"Potpourri" Finds (02:52–08:41)

• Ancient Iron Scale & Greek Weights (Turkey)

  • Archaeologists discovered a 1,600-year-old balance-style scale with a complete set of iron weights shaped like five Greek letters.
  • Multiple scales with Greek letters found in the area; this is the first with a full set.
  • “Things were sold by weight that you might not expect… like, kittens.” —Tracy (03:54)

• Cave Lion Tibia Knife — Neanderthal Multi-tool (Belgium)

  • 130,000-year-old multifunctional tool made from a cave lion bone, possibly by Neanderthals.
  • Described as a "Swiss army knife," though the hosts debate the terminology.
  • “I wonder why they didn’t just call it a multi-tool.” —Holly (04:43)

• Aboriginal Finger Grooves in Wari Brook Cave (Australia)

  • Impressions from fingers left in glittering limestone caves, linked to healing rituals by Gunaikurnai elders.
  • Over 950 grooves, in areas sparkling with luminescent crystals.
  • “They look sort of like if you were sitting at the beach and kind of dragging your fingers through the sand…” —Tracy (07:28)
  • Culturally significant, reflecting transmission of spiritual knowledge.

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Animals & Unusual Artifacts (08:41–11:10)

• Romans Adorning Themselves with Fossils

  • Discovery of a trilobite fossil from the Paleozoic era, repurposed as Roman jewelry.

• Bearded Vultures as Accumulators (Spain)

  • Nests with remains from human activity: baskets, ochre-decorated sheep leather, a 650-year-old grass sandal, other footwear, and an undated crossbow bolt.
  • Raises questions about vultures’ role in preserving archaeological material.

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Swords and Accidental Archaeology (11:10–12:58)

• Roman Cavalry Swords (Gloucestershire, UK)

  • Metal detectorist finds two damaged Roman swords, sparking a larger dig that reveals a villa and a person buried with an iron arm band (possibly 3,000 years old).

• Medieval Sword Discovery (Warsaw, Poland)

  • Fisherman finds almost-intact sword in a riverbank; temporarily preserved in wet T-shirts until expert advice received.
  • “The fact that it was wrapped in wet T-shirts cracked me up.” —Tracy (12:58)

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Art Discoveries (17:20–19:29)

• Porcelain Treasures in UK Thrift Stores

  • Two valuable 19th-century Chinese porcelain pieces with dragon motifs spotted in charity shops, now headed to auction.

• 12,000-Year-Old Rock Engravings (Arabian Desert)

  • Life-sized animal depictions served as practical water source markers; evidence of concurrent human activities at these sites.

• 3,000–4,000-Year-Old Mural (Peru)

  • A large, three-dimensional polychrome mural with fish and plants; possibly ritualistic, marking a sacred water/fertility space.

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Shoe Finds and Footwear Mysteries (19:29–22:46)

• Giant Roman Shoes (Magna Roman Fort, UK)

  • Vindolanda Trust unearths unexpectedly large Roman shoes—including one at 32.6 cm (EU 48–49).
  • Debates on whether they belonged to very tall soldiers, were used with thick padding/bandages, or other purposes.

• Medieval Shoes in Oslo (Norway)

  • Over 200 hand-stitched leather shoes found, ranging from worn, patched everyday shoes to ornate examples.

• Roman Hobnail Workshop (Germany)

  • Discovery of over 100 new iron hobnails, used to make military footwear.

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Historic Exhumations & Cold Cases (22:46–26:52)

• Potential Exhumation of Sir Thomas More’s Skull (Canterbury, England)

  • Church proposes to conserve More’s skull for the 500th anniversary of his execution; pending ecclesiastical court approval.

• Exhumations Following the Volhynia Massacre (Ukraine/Poland)

  • Ongoing cooperation and requests for additional exhumations by new Polish President, emphasizing historical remembrance.

• Oldest Oregon Unidentified Case — Oak Grove Jane Doe

  • Recent exhumation after her 1946 remains had disappeared for decades.

• Railroad Death Mystery Identified (North Dakota)

  • 1970’s “Unknown Male” identified as William Howard Tate, traced via denture markings; plans for new grave marker.

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Shipwrecks Galore (31:25–41:25)

• Mahogany Canoe after Hurricane Ian (Florida, USA)

  • Unusual mahogany-wood canoe—possible Spanish or Caribbean origin, unlike others in Florida collections.

• Golden Age Pirate Ship Found (Madagascar)

  • Wreck of the Nossa Senhora de Cabo, plundered by pirate Olivier Levasseur in 1721, with a trove of goods and religious items.

• Fox River Steamship Wreck (Wisconsin, USA)

  • Underwater archaeologists locate the LW Crane, confirming identity through location and structure.

• "Ghost Ship" FJ King (Lake Michigan, USA)

  • Three-masted schooner lost in 1886 finally located after years of fruitless searching.

• Antikythera Shipwreck Final Excavation (Greece)

  • Ship’s hull excavated for first time; technique findings confirm hull-first construction; new artifacts like a clay mortar and statue fragment recovered.

• The 'Earl of Chatham' Shipwreck Confirmed (Orkney, Scotland)

  • Dendrochronology matches timbers to specific region and period; crew survived 1788 sinking.

• WWII Japanese Destroyer Teruzuki (Solomon Islands)

  • First photographs of wreck, with several other historic Guadalcanal campaign wrecks surveyed.

• HMS Northumberland (Kent, England)

  • Well-preserved 17th-century ship being thoroughly surveyed; connects back to Samuel Pepys’ naval reforms.

• Colonial Waterfront & La Fortuna Privateer (North Carolina, USA)

  • Multiple colonial-era wrecks identified at Brunswick Town Fort Anderson; site threatened by climate-driven erosion.

• Artifacts from HMHS Britannic (Aegean Sea)

  • Sister ship to Titanic; first successful recovery of ship’s bell and navigation light, now under conservation.

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Haunted Histories & Creepy Objects (41:25–42:44)

• Gravoir Hairdressing Tool (Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland)

  • 13th-century tool carved from red deer antler, possibly depicting Saint Donna.
  • “It’s reported to be haunted… one of the reported ghosts is nicknamed Carlos and he’s often reported in the gift shop carrying his head.” —Holly (42:16)

• Castle Ghost Lore

  • Tied to ghost stories of the castle, including the mysterious Lady Mary said to haunt the bedrooms.

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Listener Mail: How Did Historic Letters Survive? (46:24–48:17)

• Letter Copying Practices
  • Tracy explains how drafts, copying clerks, and early carbon-copy methods all preserved outgoing correspondence before e-mail and photocopiers.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Things were sold by weight you might not expect… like, kittens.” —Tracy (03:54)
• “I wonder why they didn’t just call it a multi-tool.” —Holly (04:43)
• “The fact that it was wrapped in wet T-shirts cracked me up.” —Tracy (12:58)
• “And now we’re going to move on to a couple of things about animals.” —Holly (08:41)
• “Let’s give it a whirl, hey.” —Holly, about the accidental shipwreck find (35:52)
• “It’s reported to be haunted… one of the reported ghosts is nicknamed Carlos and he’s often reported in the gift shop carrying his head.” —Holly (42:16)
• “Lies and deception! Tracy has a black cat agenda.” —Holly, teasing about listener mail selection (47:34)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 02:52 Potpourri Finds
• 08:41 Notable Animal-Related Archaeology
• 11:10 Swords and Accidental Archaeology
• 17:20 Art Discoveries
• 19:29 Shoe Finds & Footwear Mysteries
• 22:46 Historic Exhumations & Cold Cases
• 31:25 Shipwreck Bonanza
• 41:25 Haunted Histories & Creepy Objects
• 46:24 Listener Mail: Letter Copying

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Tone & Style

Holly and Tracy maintain their signature blend of informational depth, genuine curiosity, and warm, lightly irreverent banter. They present scholarly details accessibly, often inserting playful asides and speculation, especially regarding the practical mysteries behind ancient objects.

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Conclusion

This episode is densely packed with discoveries from all corners of the globe and eras of history, emphasizing the diversity and interconnectedness of human experience through the lens of archaeology. The focus on shipwrecks offers a sense of scale, while quirky finds (giant shoes! wet T-shirt sword rescue! ancient glitter caves!) provide humor and humanity. The episode ends with thoughtful reflection on how we preserve history’s everyday records, answering listener questions and sharing tales of beloved cats—proving that history is alive not only in the ground but in our daily lives.

Transcript

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Ed Helms]

Hey, it's Ed Helms, host of Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new Snafu. Every single episode.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

32 lost nuclear weapons. You're like, wait, stop.

[Holly Frey]

What?

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, it's gonna be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of fabulous guests. Paul Scheer, Angela and Jenna. Nick Kroll, Jordan Klepper. Listen to season four of SNAFU with Ed Helms on the iHeartRadio app app podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Johnny Knoxville]

Hello, America's sweetheart. Johnny Knoxville here. I want to tell you about my new true crime podcast, Crimeless Hillbilly Heist. From Smartless Media, Campside Media and big money players. It's a wild tale about a gang of high functioning nitwits who somehow pulled off America's third largest cash heist.

[Ed Helms]

Kind of like Robin Hood, except for.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The part where he steals from the rich and gives to the poor.

[Holly Frey]

I'm not that generous.

[Johnny Knoxville]

It's a damn near inspiring true story for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon, then just totally muffed up the landing.

[Ed Helms]

They stole $17 million and had not bought a ticket to help him escape.

[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

So we're sitting like, oh, God, what do we do?

[Holly Frey]

What do we do?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That was dumb. People, do not follow my example.

[Johnny Knoxville]

Listen to Crimeless Hillbilly Heist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

Two rich young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream. A nature reserve and a spectacular new home.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But.

[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

But little by little, they lose it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

They actually lose it.

[Holly Frey]

They sort of went nuts until one.

[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

Night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jonathan Goldstein]

I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of Heavyweight.

[Holly Frey]

And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke.

[Jonathan Goldstein]

A man who robbed a bank when he was 14 years and a centenarian rediscovers a love lost 80 years ago.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

How can 101-year-old woman fall in love again?

[Jonathan Goldstein]

Listen to heavyweight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Frey]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and Welco to the podcast. I'm Tracy V Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. It is time for part two of our latest installment of Unearthed. This one has some animals and some swords and some art and some shoes and so many shipwrecks. It is another just bumper crop of shipwrecks. And to kick things off as usual, we're starting with the finds that I liked but didn't have. A category, category four, which I call the potpourri.

[Holly Frey]

Uh, so here we go. Archaeologists in Turkey have found an iron scale and a set of weights that are about 1600 years old. The scale is a balance style scale, so it has hooks on one side for the weights and hooks on the other side to hold a pan to contain the items to be weighed. The weights are also made of iron and they're in the shape of five Greek letters. The area where the weights were found is full of shops that date back to the Hellenistic period. And most items sold there would have been sold by weight.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, according to the article that I read about this, things were sold by weight that you might not expect to be sold by weight like M4A kittens. So these weights were in multiples of a standard unit of weight, that being the litra. They ranged from half a litra up to 5 litres. Other scales have been found in the area that are also labeled with their weights using some kind of Greek letters. So it's possible that these letters represent represented some kind of mnemonic system to remember which weight was which, if they know what it stands for. I did not find what they stand for. This is the first time that a scale has been found in the area that still had what appears to be a complete set of weights.

[Holly Frey]

Next, a knife made from the tibia of a cave lion has been found in Scladina cave in belgium. It's roughly 130,000 years old and it was probably used by Neanderthals. Although it does not have parts that fold open and shut. It is being described as a Swiss army knife, since it's one utensil that's believed to have had multiple distinct functions. I wonder why they didn't just call it a multi tool. It shows evidence of being reshaped and repurposed after being broken. And it's also the earliest known multifunctional tool to be made from a cave lion bone.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I think why not call it a multi tool? Traces back to some of what we talked about in part one of like, trying to write things in a way that's the most accessible to a general audience. I imagine a multi tool is also having things that fold in and out. You do, but that's just me.

[Holly Frey]

Yeah. Oh, I think of the flat. Like, sometimes they come in the shape of, like, a credit card and they have all of the edges that you need to do all the stuff. Or sometimes, like, there are unique ones that are, like, pop culture Y and they're shaped like an X wing or whatever.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, sure. Yeah. I think I'm thinking that because I always. When I used to have a Leatherman in my. Oh, yeah.

[Holly Frey]

They marketed as multi tools.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, it was marketed as a multi tool. And multi tool. I can't say words. Anyway, back to the finds next. A team of researchers led by the Gunai Kurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation has documented impressions from fingers that were left in the walls and ceilings caves in the mountains of Australia. The Gunaikranai elders refer to this cave as Wari Brook. The cave is made of limestone, and it's been shaped and weathered by water over millions of years. And its surfaces have a really malleable, spongy texture. Its deeper parts do not receive any natural light. And it is also home to bacteria that produce luminescent crystals. So if somebody brings in a light source like a fire or a torch or something like that, these crystals sparkle and glitter.

[Holly Frey]

That sounds dreamy. Archaeologists haven't found evidence of fires built on the floor of this cave, but they have found fragments of charcoal and ash that suggest people navigating their way through with fire sticks. The finger impressions on the walls likely would have been made as people walked. There are multiple sets of grooves, including sets that seem to have been made by a child, and sets that, based on their size and how high up they are, were probably made by adults. Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

They look sort of like if you were sitting at the beach and kind of dragging your fingers through the sand, sort of like that. There are 950 sets of finger grooves in the cave, and they are only in the areas of the cave where the walls glitter because of these luminescent crystals. Based on this research and Gunai Kurenai accounts recorded by ethnographer Alfred HOWITT in the 19th century, as well as conversations with Gurnai Kurenai knowledge keepers today. This is connected to powerful healers within their community. The cave's crystals were part of healing rituals, and knowledge of those rituals was passed down from parent to child. There's no evidence of, like, daily life going on at the cave. So this was probably a place that had a ceremonial use by healers, rather than being a place that people lived in or visited day to day. So these finger grooves that are left in the surface of the cave are a record both of a physical act, of leaving marks in the cave, and also this spiritual and cultural knowledge that stretches back for centuries.

[Holly Frey]

And now we're going to move on to a couple of things about animals. According to research published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, ancient Romans may have used fossils of extinct arthropods as adornments. The trilobite fossil in question dates back to the Paleozoic era, but it was found at an archaeological site dating back to between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. It has clear signs of having been modified to be worn as something like a pendant or a bracelet. This is only the 11th trilobite ever found in an archaeological context, and the first known to have been intentionally collected and used during Roman times.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And next. Research published in the journal Ecology in September has looked at bearded vultures as accumulators of historical remains. This was based on bearded vulture nests in southern Spain that were analyzed between 2008 and 2014. And since these vultures are cliff nesting, doing this research required people to rappel down the cliffs to see what was in these nests. This vulture species is extinct in Spain today, so the nests were not actively being used and had not been for probably roughly a century. Researchers found lots of stuff that you would expect a bird to use to build a nest, including pieces of cloth and string, and also lots of stuff that you would expect to be in a bird nest, like, eg, eggshells and bone and other debris from the animals that the birds eat.

[Holly Frey]

They also found 226 anthropogenic remains. Those are remains related to human activity, many of which were also probably part of the nest building process. This included pieces of baskets and leather, including pieces of sheep leather decorated with ochre. There was also a sandal made of grasses and twigs that's probably about 650 years old, along with multiple other similar, similar pieces of footwear that have not yet been dated.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Researchers also found an as yet undated crossbow bolt. And it's not really clear whether the vultures picked that up somewhere like it was a stick and used it to build the nest, or whether it was in an animal that they brought to the nest to scavenge on, like someone else shot it. And then the vultures were like, this is ours.

[Holly Frey]

And now we've got a couple of swords. Up next. First, a metal detectorist in Gloucestershire found two Roman cavalry swords in a field. The swords had been damaged by farming equipment and it's likely that they would have been destroyed within the next few years if no one had found them before then. This find led to a larger archaeological excavation, which has unearthed signs of an entire Roman villa built on what had previously been an Iron Age settlement. Other discoveries at the site include Roman roof tiles and other building materials, as well as the remains of a person who died as long as 3,000 years ago and was buried wearing an iron band around their upper arm.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And in other sword news, a fisherman was walking along the banks of the Vistula river in Warsaw, Poland and spotted something rusty sticking out of the bank. This turned out to be an almost entirely intact medieval sword, missing only the tip.

[Holly Frey]

The process of finding and retrieving this sword sounds like something out of a comedy fresh from the bank. It had leeches, snails and freshwater shrimp on it. The man who found it recognized that it could be important and hid it so that he could go call a metal detectorist friend to ask for advice. The friend told him that since the sword had been in the river, it should be kept wet, which the fisherman did by wrapping the sword in wet T shirts and then leaving it in his car overnight before taking it to the Warsaw Conservator of Monuments in the morning. We are absolutely not advising people to do this with random archaeological finds. This is just how it played out in this particular case. The sword is now in the Metal Conservation Workshop of the State Archaeological Museum for Cleaning and Conservation.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, I don't think taking it there right away like taking it to a conservator immediately. I don't think that was an option like they need to do something with it overnight. But the fact that it was wrapped in wet T shirts cracked me up. We are going to take a quick sponsor break and then move on to some art time.

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[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

In the new podcast Hell in Heaven, two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to see start over. But one will end up dead, the other tried for murder not once. People went wild, not twice, stunned, but three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive, and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble and our couple retreat from reality.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

They lose it. They actually lose it.

[Holly Frey]

They sort of went nuts.

[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ed Helms]

Hey, it's Ed Helms, and welcome back to Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new Snafu Every single episode.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

32 lost nuclear weapons. You're like, wait, stop.

[Holly Frey]

What?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Ernie Shackleton sounds like a solid 70s.

[Ed Helms]

Basketball player who still wore knee pads.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yes.

[Ed Helms]

It's gonna be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of guests. The great Paul Scheer made me feel good. I'm like, oh, wow. Angela and Jenna, I am so psyched you're here.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

What was that like for you to soft launch into the show?

[Ed Helms]

Sorry, Jenna. I'll be asking the questions today.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I forgot whose podcast we were doing.

[Ed Helms]

Nick Kroll. I hope this story is good enough to get you to toss that sandwich. So let's see how it goes. Listen to season four of SNAFU with Ed Helms on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jonathan Goldstein]

I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of Heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

How can 101-year-old woman fall in love again?

[Jonathan Goldstein]

And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old.

[Holly Frey]

And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke. And he got down. And I remember feeling kind of a surge of like, okay, this is power.

[Jonathan Goldstein]

Plus, my old friend Gregor and his brother try to solve my problems through hypnotism.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We could give you a whole brand new thing where you're, like, super charming.

[Ed Helms]

All the time, being more able to look people in the eye, not always.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hide behind a microphone.

[Jonathan Goldstein]

Listen to heavyweight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay, time for art first, pieces found at two different charity thrift shops in the UK have turned out to be valuable pieces of Chinese porcelain. The first was found at a charity shop in Dorset and it is a blue plate depicting dragons that are chasing pearls based on some identifying marks that dates back to between 1821 and 1850. The other was found in Surrey. It is a blue and white bottle or maybe a vase. It is similarly decorated with dragons, this time clouds rather than pearls, and it also dates back to sometime in the 19th century. Both of these were recognized as potentially valuable and they were both taken to the same auction house, which is Woolley and Wallace, and that plans to auction them off in November.

[Holly Frey]

Researchers working in the Arabian Desert have concluded monumental rock engravings there served a practical purpose, using detailed life size depictions of animals like camels, gazelles and aurochs to mark locations of seasonal water sources and access routes to get to them. These engravings were made roughly 12,000 years ago and they're highly weathered and eroded, so many of them are barely perceptible today. Researchers also found evidence of other human activity at the sites, including projectile points and beads made from stone and shells.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And lastly, archaeologists have found a mural that is between 3,000 and 4,000 years old in Peru. This is a three dimensional mural depicting fish and plants that are painted blue, yellow and black and it's also double sided, so designs are visible on both sides of the mural. It's also very large, measuring about 16ft wide and six and a half feet tall. There is speculation that this mural had some kind of ritual purpose and that it might have marked a sacred space that could have been used for observances and practices that were related to water or fertility.

[Holly Frey]

We really didn't have a whole lot of art finds to talk about this time, so now we're going to move on to some clothing. Specifically one of the best articles of clothing, shoes. And that means those vulture nests that we talked about a little while ago actually could have gone here as well. The Vindolanda Trust has been excavating Magna Roman Fort and during that five year project they've unearthed 32 shoes. And some of those shoes are unexpectedly large. One of the first big shoes to be unearthed was the equivalent to about a 13 or 14 men's shoe in UK sizes. That correlates to about a 14 or 15 in the US and a 48 or 49 in the EU. More big shoes followed, with a total so far of eight shoes that measure 30cm or more and one shoe that measures 32.6cm and is the largest shoe the Trust has found. The vast majority of shoes found at Vindolanda are not nearly this big.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There are, of course, unanswered questions about these shoes, like, were they worn by soldiers whose feet were comparatively a lot bigger, meaning they also probably would have been a lot taller than most of the people in the area? Or were these shoes that were meant to be worn with a lot of socks or padding in the winter time to try to stay warm? Or were they shoes that were worn while people were recovering from injuries and their feet were swollen or bandaged? We don't really know.

[Holly Frey]

Maybe one day. Next, archaeologists in Oslo have found more than 200 leather shoes dating back to the Middle Ages. These shoes are made from hand stitched leather, and while some of them are very simple and practical, others are intricately decorated. They include shoes for adults and children, as well as some boots.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When I first started reading about all these shoes, I thought, did a shoemaker live here? Like, was this a shoe shop? But these are shoes that were very worn. Some of them have holes or they've been repeatedly patched and repaired. These shoes are really scattered across a whole area that's being excavated in advance of construction of a new school. And it's possible that this large deposit of shoes and other everyday items came from a rubbish heap whose contents were carried into the area during flooding. Archaeologists have also found a lot of other goods in the area, like bags and scabbards. Rubbish heaps can be an amazing source of archaeological knowledge. The idea that this is like the remnants of a rubbish heap that got washed away in floodwaters is very interesting to me.

[Holly Frey]

And the last one is just sort of shoe. Adjacent, archaeologists in Germany have found a workshop that was dedicated to producing the iron nails that were used to make shoes for the Roman military. These hob nails were used in the soles of the shoes to provide traction and durability, since the nails would fall off through normal wear and tear. The nails were used to both make new shoes and to repair old ones. This find included a cache of more than 100 nails in New condition, suggesting that they had been freshly made there.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Moving on, we have some historically relevant exhumations this time around. First, the governing council of St Dunstan's Church in Canterbury, England, has announced a proposal to exhume the skull of Sir Thomas Moore, who was beheaded in 1535, after being accused of treason for refusing to accept King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. The Catholic Church views More as a martyr, and he was venerated as a saint.

[Holly Frey]

In 1935, after More's execution, his body was buried in an unmarked grave in a chapel at the Tower of London. But his head was boiled and tarred and placed on a spike on London Bridge as a warning to others. Moore's daughter later convinced a guard to release the skull to her, and it was eventually entombed in the family vault at St Dunstan's the church has said.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That it would like to conserve and preserve the skull ahead of the 500th anniversary of More's beheading, which is in 2035. And we don't know yet for sure whether this will happen. There's an ecclesiastical court that has to give its permission before an exhumation can go ahead. So we might have an update on this at some point in the future.

[Holly Frey]

Last time we talked about cooperation between Ukraine and Poland to allow the exhumation and relocation of Polish victims of the 1945 Volun massacre, which was perpetrated by the Ukrainian insurgent army while the area was occupied by Nazi Germany in July. Poland declared July 11 to be a national day of remembrance for victims of the massacre. And during an address on that day, Polish President elect Karel Nurochi was urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to allow these exhumations to continue and asked Ukraine to authorize exhumations at additional sites. Nawaki has since taken office as president of Poland, and a number of commentators have remarked that his background as a historian plays a part on how he will lead Poland's interactions with Ukraine.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And lastly, we have two exhumations that are related to attempts to solve two different cold cases. Authorities in Oregon have exhumed the remains of someone known as Oak Grove Jane Doe, whose dismembered body was found in the Willamette river south of Portland over a period of months in 1946. Her remains disappeared from law enforcement custody in the 1950s, and the case was eventually closed without identifying her or her murderer. The case was reopened in 2004, but officials didn't have much to go on until they learned that she may have been buried at Oregon City's Mountain View Cemetery. In addition to the unsolved crime, this is Oregon's oldest unidentified person case. This exhumation just happened in late September, so the results of it are still to come.

[Holly Frey]

And the other was another homicide victim whose body was found near railroad tracks outside Page, North Dakota in October of 1970. Authorities believe that he had been assaulted and robbed and then had either been thrown from or fallen from the train and had been dead for about six weeks when his body was found. No suspect was ever named in the killing, and the body was buried at St. James Cemetery with a marker that simply said Unknown male.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

A lot of these types of cases in recent years have involved DNA research and investigative genetic genealogy, but in this case, the skeletal remains included a denture plate that read Tate WH along with a number. Investigators were able to trace that to a World War II enlistment record for a William Howard Tate, and they ultimately declared this identity to be conclusively confirmed.

[Holly Frey]

Authorities announced that they would be working with Cass County Veteran Services to have a new headstone made with the man's real name. It is not clear from news reporting whether he has living next of kin.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, that was my first thought right.

[Holly Frey]

Where what does his family think?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, and I was not able to figure out for sure whether they know or whether he does or does not. We will take one more sponsor break and then we will have so many shipwrecks.

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[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

In the new podcast Hell in Heaven, two young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead, the other tried for murder not once. People went wild, not twice, stunned, but three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble and our couple retreat from reality they lose it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

They actually lose it.

[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

They sort of went nuts until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ed Helms]

Hey, it's Ed Helms, and welcome back to Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new snafu. Every single episode.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

32 lost nuclear weapons. You're like, wait, stop.

[Holly Frey]

What?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Ernie Shackleton sounds like a solid 70s.

[Ed Helms]

Basketball player who still wore knee pads.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yes.

[Ed Helms]

It's gonna be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of guests. The great Paul Scheer made me feel good. I'm like, oh, wow, Angela and Jenna, I am so psyched you're here.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

What was that like for you to soft launch into the show?

[Ed Helms]

Sorry, Jenna, I'll be asking the question.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I forgot whose podcast we were doing.

[Ed Helms]

Nick Kroll. I hope this story is good enough to get you to toss that sandwich. So let's see how it goes. Listen to season four of SNAFU with Ed Helms on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jonathan Goldstein]

I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of Heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

How can 101-year-old woman fall in love again?

[Jonathan Goldstein]

And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old.

[Holly Frey]

And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke. And he got down. And I remember feeling kind of a surge of like, okay, this is power.

[Jonathan Goldstein]

Plus, my old friend Gregor and his brother tried to solve my problems through hypnotism.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We could give you a whole brand new thing where you're, like, super charming all the time, being more able to.

[Ed Helms]

Look people in the eye, not always.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hide behind a microphone.

[Jonathan Goldstein]

Listen to heavyweight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay, we have so many shipwrecks, it's pretty much the whole rest of the episode. First, conservation has been completed on a canoe that was unearthed in Florida during Hurricane Ian in 20. I thought this was a canoe that we had talked about in a 2022 installment of Unearthed, but it looks like not. This canoe had probably been in a riverbed before being dislodged by the hurricane, and it wound up in somebody's yard.

[Holly Frey]

Ancient canoes are fairly frequent finds in Florida. Canoes and log boats were a primary means of transport going back to prehistory. There are more than 450 of them that have been preserved by the Florida Division of Historical Resour. But this one is unusual because it's made of mahogany. Some types of mahogany do grow in southern Florida, but this is the first mahogany canoe to be found there. It also may be the first canoe found in Florida to originate from somewhere else, possibly the Caribbean. The canoe has not been conclusively dated yet, but it looks like it was worked with iron tools, meaning it may have been crafted by the Spanish sometime in the 16th century.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Next, researchers from the center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation say that a shipwreck they've been studying off the coast of Madagascar dates back to the golden age of piracy. It's believed to be the Nassa Senora de Cabo, or Our lady of the Cape, which is a Portuguese ship that was attacked by pirate olivier Levasseur in 1721. Levasseur, also called the Buzzard, captured the ship near the island of La Reunion and then took it toward Madagascar, where the pirates unloaded a lot of what was aboard before scuttling the ship.

[Holly Frey]

There was still a lot of cargo, though. When the Nassa Sonara de Cabo sank, it was traveling from India and carrying goods that had been made there, as well as gold ingots, pearls, and other valuable objects. Thousands of objects have been brought up from the wreck and include religious objects that are important, that are believed to have been made in Goa, which was a Portuguese colony on the western coast of India. There are also coins with Arabic writing and pieces of porcelain.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Underwater archaeologists in Wisconsin were looking for the wreck of a steamer called the Berlin City, which sank in 1870, and they were hoping to resurvey another wreck that had been mapped back in 2016. Unlike a lot of the Wisconsin shipwrecks we have talked about on the show, this project did not take place in the Great Lakes. It was in the Fox river near Oshkosh.

[Holly Frey]

Instead, they found something different, what they believed to be the wreck of the LW Crane, which caught fire, burned to the water level, and sank in 1880. This was a sidewheel steamer that had carried cargo. In addition to the physical resemblance between the wreckage and historical documents about the LW Crane, the wreck is directly opposite to where historical accounts describe the ship sinking.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So while that was not in the Great Lakes, we do also have a Lake Michigan shipwreck to talk about. The F.J. king, which searchers had been looking for for so long that people had started calling it a ghost ship. The FJ King was a Three masted cargo schooner that was carrying ore to Chicago when it sank in a gale in 1886. The crew tried to pump water out of the struggling ship for several hours until the order was given for them to evacuate. The crew did evacuate, they survived and then they were picked up by another.

[Holly Frey]

Schooner like a lot of our sank in a storm in the dark Shipwreck stories. Efforts to find the FJ King were hampered by unclear descriptions and contradictory information about exactly where the sinking happened. The captain William Griffin reported that they were about five miles offshore, while a lighthouse keeper later reported seeing the masts extending above the water much closer to land. It was finally found through side scan sonar just a couple of hours into an effort that sounds like it was undertaken without much hope of success.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, quotes from people that were on it were sort of like, yeah, we didn't think we'd find anything, but we thought why not? And then two hours later, there it is.

[Holly Frey]

Let's give it a whirl, hey.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This summer was the final season of a five year international project at the site of the Antikythera shipwreck in Greece. We have an episode of the show about the Antikythera device, which is an analog computer dating back to about the first century bce. And other finds from the wreck have come up in prior installments of Unearthed. This summer's work at the wreck included excavation of a part of the ship's hull for the first time. This was carried out with specially designed machinery and a support structure. Bringing up that piece of the hull has helped to confirm the way the researchers believe this ship was originally built, which was by building the exterior first, followed by the interior structures. Other finds in this last season of the project include a clay mortar that was probably used for preparing food or medicines for the crew, as well as part of a statue and just an assortment of amphorae.

[Holly Frey]

Moving on. Last year a schoolboy in Scotland found the wreckage of a ship on the island of Sande Orkney after a storm and that wreck has now been identified as a 500 ton whaling ship known as the Earl of Chatham, which was wrecked in March of 1788. The Earl of Chatham had previously operated as the Royal Navy ship HMS Hind during the American Revolutionary War before being decommissioned and sold.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This conclusion came from examination of the tree rings in the timbers used to build the ship, which suggested that they had been cut down in southern or southwestern England in the mid 18th century. This ship was en route from the River Thames to the Arctic on a whaling voyage when it was wrecked this island is basically on the way. All of the crew survived the wrecking underwater.

[Holly Frey]

Archaeologists working near the Solomon Islands have found the wreck of a Japanese destroyer from World War II called the Teruzuki. The wreckage was first spotted using a remotely operated vehicle and at first they didn't know what it was. So two other remote vehicles were deployed from the Ocean Exploration Trust's Nautilus. To get a better look. They captured images of the ship, including its upward pointing gun turrets. The Terazuki was built specifically for anti aircraft work. American torpedoes sank the Terazuki on December 12, 1942, and although most of the crew were successfully evacuated, nine people died when it sank.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This expedition went well beyond the Terazuki, surveying 13 vessels that sank in the area during the Guadalcanal campaign. The Terazuki was one of four wrecks that were photographed for the first time during this work, another of them being the bow of the USS New Orleans. Other ships included the USS Vincennes, the USS Astoria, the USS Quincy, the USS Northampton, the USS Laffey, the USS De Haven, the USS Preston, the HMAS Camera, the USS Walkie, and another Japanese destroyer called the Udachi. A sunken landing barge was surveyed as well. This sounds like a lot. So many ships went down in this area during World War II that it's known as Iron Bottom Sound. And research has been going on there for decades. This is sort of a continuing research, bringing in new and more advanced equipment than has been used before.

[Holly Frey]

Underwater archaeologists are working off the coast of Kent in England to study the wreck of the HMS Northumberland, which was built in 1679 at a time when past podcast subject Samuel Pepys was reforming and expanding the English Navy. It later sank in a massive weather disaster known as the Great Storm of 1703. This ship has been buried in the sand for centuries and its hull is very well preserved. So efforts are underway to thoroughly survey and study it before it is damaged or reburied. We will very likely have finds from this work at some point in the future.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Archaeologists and students from East Carolina University's Maritime Studies program have been working at Brunswick Town Fort Anderson State Historic Site, and have found waterfront features dating back to colonial times, as well as four different shipwrecks. One is believed to be La Fortuna, which was a Spanish privateer that was destroyed near the end of King George's War in September of 1748. This ID still needs to be confirmed, but the wreckage is not far from where a diver found a cannon believed to be from La Fortuna back in the 1980s. All of these finds are at risk due to erosion from nearby dredging operations, sea level rise, and larger and more frequent storms due to climate change.

[Holly Frey]

And lastly, artifacts have been recovered from the wreckage of the HMHS Britannic for the first time. The Britannic was of course a sister ship to the RMS Titanic and was serving as a hospital ship during World War I when it struck a mine and sank in the aegean Sea in 1916. An 11 member dive team brought up a number of objects, including the ship's bell and a navigation light. These objects are undergoing conservation in Athens, Greece.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Since it's October, I looked for something creepy or ghostly as a final thing for this episode. Sometimes we luck out and we have like a whole collection of ghosts or witch bottles or something seasonally fun. Didn't really have that this time, so I went with something more ghost adjacent Archaeologists at Eileen Dunnan Castle in Scotland have found a hair styling tool called a gravoir dating back to the 13th century. This is made from red deer antler and it's shaped to a point at one end and carved with the likeness of a hooded figure holding a book on the other end. It's not clear who this depicts, but it could be Celtic Missionary Saint Donna. This tool was used to part the hair and to help in creating elaborate hairstyles.

[Holly Frey]

Eileen Donan Castle is on a tiny island where three lochs come together and it's reported to be haunted. One of the reported ghosts is of a Spanish soldier who was stationed at the castle during the Jacobite rising of 1719 and he died when English forces attacked the castle. This ghost is nicknamed Carlos and he's often reported in the gift shop carrying his head. Another is known as Lady Mary and she is described as haunting the bedrooms.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I tried to get more information about who Lady Mary is and I was even like googling Mary along with the names of people who have lived in this castle. I don't know, but Lady Mary haunts the bedroom. Apparently that is the end of part two of our Unearthed. I'm sure we'll talk about things related to it on Friday and in the meantime, I do have listener mail. The listener mail is from Julia. Julia said hi Holly and Tracy. I was driving home late one night and listening to the Anna Maria von Sherman star of Utrecht episode and it was mentioned a few times that her letters were shared and published. In my experience of writing letters as a child pre Internet, once the letter was in the envelope you never saw it again. Was it standard practice to make copies of letters before you sent them and or of the letters you received. Can you please explain how personal correspondence became public documentation? My poor brain can't comprehend how this happened in an age before carbon paper photocopiers or scent folders. Attached is my pet tax of our cat, Naya. She technically belongs to my daughter, but has picked me as her favorite person. She loves to sleep in her beanbag and loudly ask for treats every morning as soon as I wake up, sometimes even before I'm awake. Thanks for bringing so much history information into our lives in such an interesting way, Julia. Thank you so much, Julia, for this email. So, yes, people did. A lot of people kept some kind of copy of their correspondence. And in the age of handwritten letters, a lot of times people would like write out their draft letter and kind of perfect what they wanted to say. And so that copy would have like cross outs or rewritten bits or little notations of things to add. And then they would write out the neat copy to actually be sent. And a lot of people kept that note copy for their own records. And it might not be completely identical to the final copy that was sent out, but it was pretty close. People who wrote a lot for business often had a copying clerk whose job was to copy the correspondence. And like, they sort of would keep the copy of all of the outgoing mail for the business that they were working for. Eventually different methods were made to create what was basically a carbon copy using some kind of carbon paper. There were various innovations around this, Some of them fairly like earlier than a person might think. Unfortunately, when I was thinking about this, I did not go look up specific dates, but there were various ways, like inks that could be used that you lay a piece of paper down and it lifted up a copy. Sort of might not be a very great copy, but eventually sheets of carbon paper that could go between the pages that you could keep a copy of. Or like a book that had carbon paper in it that was sort of. Its purpose was to capture your copy of your outgoing mail. Some people who were historically notable the recipients of their mail would also keep it because they knew that it might be valuable one day. And so when later on it became there was a want or need to publish somebody's letters, there would be an effort to like, bring these copies together. Some of the collections of letters that we have today are that have sort of come from like multiple different people donating the letters that they have come into possession of to the same academic institution or library or archive or something like that. And then an editor goes through and like pairs up all of the different ones. So there were lots of different ways that a person could be keeping a copy of their correspondence. Before there was just a sent item folder in your email that kept all of it. I sent more, you know, handwritten letters and things when I was a younger person before the development of email. That was something I never personally did.

[Holly Frey]

Me either.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And I don't if I had been living in, you know, the 19th or 18th or 17th century, I might have been raised differently to keep a copy of all of my stuff. So, yeah, there were lots of ways. Not necessarily everyone did this, but there were a lot of different ways that people kept a copy of their outgoing correspondence. We have more black cat pictures. I did not on purpose pick two different lister males with black cats.

[Holly Frey]

Lies and deception. Tracy has a black cat agenda.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I love that so much. Yes, we have talked about how my black cats are the sweetest things. One of them has figured out how to press a button. After not caring about buttons for a very long time, we gave them a button that says Treat. Onyx loves the treat button. What Treat has come to actually mean, because we cannot give her nearly as many treats as she demands. She really just wants to chase a piece of her regular kibble that has been thrown across the room and pounce on it and eat it.

[Holly Frey]

My black cat is just a barfly. Yeah, she just cries outside the door to our little home bar until somebody lets her in there and goes and sits in there and pets her. Yeah, that's her favorite room in the house.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

For a good couple of years after getting these cats, you and I were able to record podcasts without really special measures needing to be taken to contain them. But at some point, Onyx decided she really hated closed doors that have people on the other side of them. And so she would sit outside of the door to this office and she would reach up and pound on the doorknob with her paw and yell so loud. Anyway, I love these pictures that Julia sent and I love all kitty cats. They're all great. They bring mine bring me so much joy. Hope everyone's cats are bringing them joy. If you would like to send us a note about this or any other podcast, we're at history [e-mail] you can subscribe to our show on the iheartradio app and anywhere else you'd like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Ed Helms]

Hey, it's Ed Helms, host of Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new Snafu.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And every single episode, 32 Lost Nuclear Weapons, you're like, wait, stop.

[Holly Frey]

What?

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, it's gonna be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of fabulous guests. Paul Scheer, Angela and Jenna, Nick Kroll, Jordan Klepper. Listen to season four of SNAFU with Ed Helms on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Johnny Knoxville]

Hello, America's sweetheart. Johnny Knoxville here. I want to tell you about my new true crime podcast, Crimeless Hillbilly Heist. From Smartless Media, Campside media and big money players. It's a wild tale about a gang of high functioning nitwits who somehow pulled off America's third largest cash heist.

[Ed Helms]

Kind of like Robin Hood, except for.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The part where he steals from the rich and gives to the poor.

[Holly Frey]

I'm not that generous.

[Johnny Knoxville]

It's a damn near inspiring true story for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon, then just totally muffed up the landing.

[Ed Helms]

They stole $17 million and had not bought a ticket to help him escape.

[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

So we're sitting like, oh, God, what do we do?

[Holly Frey]

What do we do?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That was dumb. People. Do not follow my example.

[Johnny Knoxville]

Listen to Crimeless Hillbilly Heist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature reserve and a spectacular new home. But little by little, they lose it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

They actually lose it.

[Holly Frey]

They sort of went nuts until one.

[Narrator for Hell in Heaven]

Night, everything spins out of control. Listen to hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jonathan Goldstein]

I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of Heavyweight.

[Holly Frey]

And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke.

[Jonathan Goldstein]

A man who robbed a bank when he was 14 years old and a centenarian rediscovers a love lost 80 years ago.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

How can a 11 year old woman fall in love again?

[Jonathan Goldstein]

Listen to heavyweight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is an iHeart podcast.