The Archaeology Show · Archaeology Podcast Network

Treasures, Seated Skeletons, and Egyptian Receipts - Ep 325

March 23, 2026·31 min·2 clips

Five human skeletons were buried upright at the Josephine Baker School in Dijon.

1. The Archaeology Show episode 325 covers a 5,000-year-old dolmen in Málaga, France, seated skeletons in Dijon, and Egyptian sherds from Athrabis. 2. Chris and Rachel host the episode and frame each news item with comments about excavation context, media coverage, and archaeological terminology. 3. The episode asks what these three discoveries reveal about burial practice, trade, and everyday writing across Spain, France, and Egypt. 4. The Málaga tomb is a 5,000-year-old stone-built dolmen in southern Iberia, reported as 12.8 meters long and unusually well preserved. 5. The tomb contains large upright stones called orthostats, multiple internal compartments, and a mound of sand and small stones covering the entrance slabs. 6. Excavators say the site helps reconstruct lifestyle, beliefs, and funerary practices from the third millennium BCE. 7. The grave goods include ivory, amber, seashells, flint arrowheads, large blades, and an exceptionally well-preserved halberd. 8. The hosts connect the seashells to long-distance trade because the burial is inland rather than on the coast. 9. They also note that the structure may have served as a collective burial site, not an individual tomb. 10. The Dijon excavation at the Josephine Baker School uncovered five human skeletons buried upright in a seated position. 11. The bodies were placed at the bottom of pits with their backs against the eastern wall, facing west, and hands near the pelvis or femurs. 12. Researchers think the seated burials may date to the second Iron Age because of a blackstone armband dated to roughly 300 to 200 BCE. 13. At least five of the individuals show unhealed trauma, including cuts on the humerus and a blunt-force injury to one skull. 14. The same site also produced a children’s necropolis from the Gallo-Roman period with about 20 infants who likely died before age one. 15. The hosts point out that later planting pits, ditches, agriculture, and erosion damaged parts of the necropolis. 16. They compare the Dijon burials with 13 seated Gauls found in 2024 and note that seated burials are rare across the Mesolithic to proto-historic periods. 17. The Athrabis segment shifts to a joint project by the University of Tübingen and Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. 18. The team identified more than 43,000 inscribed pottery sherds, over 130 horoscope texts, and occupation spanning more than 1,000 years at a major religious and urban center. 19. The episode has a conversational news-roundup style, with Chris and Rachel trading interpretation, terminology checks, and side comments about source quality. 20. Listeners interested in archaeology news, burial practice, and material culture will get the most from this episode, while people wanting a single focused case study may skip it.

As heard by us

Three archaeology headlines, each stranger and more revealing than the last.

The Archaeology Show moves through three archaeology headlines at a brisk pace, from a 5,000-year-old stone-built dolmen in Malaga to seated burials with unhealed injuries and ancient Egyptian quote-unquote post-it notes.

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You want quick-hit archaeology that still lets the evidence do the talking today.

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