Ancient Secrets
The Anthropology and Archaeology of Pueblo Secret Societies
John Ware
American Antiquity, forthcoming
Abstract:
The Eastern, or Rio Grande, Pueblos have always been more resistant to anthropological study than their Western Pueblo neighbors, a fact usually attributed to the impacts of Euro-American colonialism in New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley. There are, however, internal structural differences between the Eastern and Western Pueblos that bear on the question of secrecy and resistance and that long predate the colonial period. All Pueblos have secret societies. In the Western Pueblos, these societies are embedded in and controlled by matrilineal descent groups (lineages and clans). In the east, kin-based organizations had declined by the late precolonial period (AD 1300-1600), and political power shifted to secret societies that control their community's ceremonial calendar and virtually all governmental functions. The secrecy that surrounds these institutions strongly resists observations by -- and questions from -- both outsiders and uninitiated insiders. This article explores the origins of these differences and proposes that the Chaco Phenomenon (circa AD 900-1100) was a critical hinge point in the ritual and political divergence of East and West.
Trade and the End of Antiquity
Johannes Boehm & Thomas Chaney
NBER Working Paper, April 2026
Abstract:
What was the role of trade, and how did economic activity evolve at the End of Antiquity, when political power shifts away from the Mediterranean towards northern Europe and the Middle East? To answer those questions, we assemble a database of hundreds of thousands of ancient coins from the fourth to the tenth century, estimate a dynamic model of trade and money where coins gradually diffuse along trade routes, and recover granular regional trade and real consumption time series. Our estimates suggest that: Mediterranean trade was disrupted by the newly formed border between Islam and Christianity; economic activity shifts away from the Mediterranean starting in the fifth century; real consumption peaks in the Middle East in the eighth century; and by the end of the ninth century, Atlantic regions from Islamic Spain to Frankish northwestern Europe have become the wealthiest regions of the ancient western world.
Economic dynamics of the Early Roman Empire: Insights from lead pollution, coinage, weather, and war
Luigi Oddo, Silvio Traverso & Koenraad Verboven
Explorations in Economic History, July 2026
Abstract:
This study examines the relationship between anthropogenic lead pollution recorded in Greenland ice cores and economic dynamics during the Pax Romana (27 BC-180 AD), a period of relative political, institutional and technological stability in the Early Roman Empire. Our findings reveal that approximately one-fourth of the annual variability in lead pollution during this period can be explained by summer temperatures, silver coin output, and warfare -- three factors plausibly linked to fluctuations of the Empire's economy. Using annual time-series analysis, we integrate high-resolution paleoclimatic, paleoenvironmental, and cliometric data to investigate short-run economic dynamics in an ancient society. Specifically, our results suggest that warmer summers, which likely boosted agricultural yields, were positively associated with increased economic activity. In contrast, higher production of silver coins and periods of warfare were associated with lower levels of lead emissions, suggesting that these factors were associated with periods of weaker aggregate economic activity. Our analysis also provides formal statistical support for the hypothesis that historical lead pollution levels contain valuable information about economic activity in ancient Europe, thereby corroborating a highly debated claim in the literature.
An inverse correlation between structural linguistic and human genetic diversity
Anna Graff et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 5 May 2026
Abstract:
Linguistic structures show uneven global distributions, but it remains unknown to what extent such distributions are driven by human population history at a global scale. Here, we track population history through population genetics and show that, adjusting for geography, phylogeny, and environment, genetic diversity (in terms of local homozygosity modeled across individuals) is inversely correlated with linguistic diversity (in terms of local entropy of structural features modeled across languages). This inverse correlation arises from the parallel impact of isolation vs. contact on both genomic and structural linguistic diversity: Isolation leads to low genetic diversity and promotes structural linguistic diversification, while contact and migration yield higher genetic diversity and promote linguistic homogenization. The extent of the correlation varies across world regions and aspects of language, but its overall global robustness highlights how hotspots of linguistic diversity can serve as a compelling example of the flexibility of human language, since they have been less affected by the increase of contact and migration that occurred over recent millennia and homogenized linguistic structures.
Holocene Nile dynamics shaped the physical and cultural landscape of ancient Nubia
Jan Peeters et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 5 May 2026
Abstract:
The Nile River played a central role in ancient civilizations of Northeast Africa, yet its response to Holocene climate change and its impact on societies along its course remain poorly understood. Here we show how climatic and environmental changes over the past 12,500 y shaped the riverine landscape below the Nile's Fourth Cataract and affected the Nubian empire of Kush in northern Sudan. Using 26 sediment cores dated by optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon, with additional chronological constraints from pottery typology, we reconstruct the evolution of the Nile near Napata, the major urban center of ancient Kush at Jebel Barkal (near present-day Karima). Napata, renowned for its pyramids, temples, and palaces, flourished from about 1070 BCE to 350 CE and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Our results reveal that the Early-Middle Holocene Nile deeply incised its valley, followed by widespread floodplain buildup around 4,000 y ago as rainfall and river flow patterns changed. During the Late Holocene, the Nile River near Jebel Barkal remained remarkably stable, due to its narrow valley with constrained outflow and enhanced sediment deposition from upstream energy dissipation at the cataract. This long-term stability promoted fertile floodplain development and, together with the sacred prominence of Jebel Barkal, fostered enduring settlement and ritual activity. These findings demonstrate how hydroclimatic change, geomorphic stability, and cultural adaptation were intertwined in shaping the environmental foundation of ancient Nubia.