This Week in Archaeology: Gold-Decorated Shoes, Prehistoric Wildcats, and a 1,700-Year-Old Roman Woman

For decades, researchers assumed European wildcats never made it to Ireland. The island’s isolation and lack of land bridges seemed to rule it out. But 39 bones from a single animal found in Glencurran Cave just rewrote that story. Dating to 3600 BCE, this wildcat confirms the species lived in prehistoric Ireland more than 5,500 years ago.

What changed? Ancient DNA analysis revealed it wasn’t a domestic cat or a later arrival, it was a true European wildcat with genetics closer to Italian and Spanish populations than Scottish ones. The find settles a debate that’s lingered for years and opens new questions about when these animals first arrived and why they eventually disappeared.

This and more archaeological finds from this week: ⬇️

Medieval Elite Footwear Found in Czech Town Square

Archaeologists completing a multi-year excavation in Třebíč, a Moravian town 60 kilometers west of Brno, have documented the settlement’s 12th-century origins. The project recently earned the Patrimonium pro futuro award from the National Heritage Institute. Among the finds is a shoe upper decorated with pure gold motifs. “This is really unique,” said archaeologist Aleš Hoch, head of research. “We know only a few pieces from Wrocław in Poland; otherwise they’re not well known in Europe. But if you look at period books and illuminations, such ornate footwear was worn only by the elite.”

Dark ceramic fragments help date layers to the beginning of the 13th century, when the pottery was fashionable for only thirty to forty years. Until the 1220s, Třebíč likely belonged to Znojmo, suggesting the settlement housed someone managing the area. Beneath one square, researchers uncovered early medieval wooden buildings including a bakery, blacksmith’s workshop, timber-processing area, millet-drying facility, and probably a stable. Regional archaeologist Milan Vokáč is tracing where residents obtained materials like graphite, clay, and stone. The gilded shoe remains in specialized storage while cataloging continues for several more months.

5,500-Year-Old Wildcat Bones Confirm Species in Prehistoric Ireland

Researchers identified European wildcat remains from Glencurran Cave in the Burren, County Clare, dating to roughly 3600 BCE. The discovery, led by Dr. Marion Dowd of Atlantic Technological University, provides the earliest direct evidence that wildcats roamed prehistoric Ireland. A total of 39 bones from a single adult animal showed no signs of butchery or burning, indicating natural death. Zooarchaeologist Margaret McCarthy identified the bones as wildcat, and radiocarbon dating at Queen’s University Belfast confirmed their Neolithic age.

Ancient DNA work at the University of Rome Tor Vergata revealed the animal belonged to a lineage of European wildcats distinct from domestic and Near Eastern cats. The specimen was male and genetically closer to wildcats from Italy and Spain than to the modern Scottish population. Many questions remain about whether wildcats arrived during the Mesolithic or with farming communities, their distribution, and when they disappeared. Researchers emphasize that combining radiocarbon dating with ancient DNA analysis is necessary to differentiate true prehistoric wildcats from later domestic cats.

Wolves Under Possible Human Control on Isolated Baltic Island

Two wolf specimens excavated from Stora Förvar cave on the small island of Stora Karlsö in the Baltic Sea, dating between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago, show signs of possible human control. The island is 2.5 square kilometers with no endemic terrestrial mammals. Genome-wide data show both canids have ancestry indistinguishable from Eurasian wolves with no shared ancestry with domestic dogs.

Their heterozygosity is lower than 72 other ancient wolf genomes and comparable to dogs instead. Stable isotope data reveals a diet rich in marine protein, consistent with human groups who used the island for seal-hunting, fowling, and fishing. One specimen’s humerus measures 40.5 millimeters, at the lower end of wolf variability. One individual had heterozygosity lower than any other ancient wolf in a worldwide dataset and shows pathological lesions that would have reduced mobility for a prolonged period.

The diet indicates high proportions of low trophic level marine protein like fish, suggesting dependency on humans since wolves rarely acquire such foods independently. The combination of geographic isolation, anthropogenic context, marine diet, small size, and reduced heterozygosity suggests prehistoric human control, though other scenarios remain possible.

Ancient Maya Mosaic Game Board Embedded in Palace Floor

Archaeologists excavating the ancient Mayan city of Naachtun in Guatemala found a patolli gameboard made from approximately 478 small red and orange ceramic pieces, carefully inlaid as mosaic within the floor’s mortar. The board dates to the Early Classic period, around the fifth century AD, according to findings published in Latin American Antiquity. Most patolli boards found across the Maya region were etched or painted on existing surfaces, but this discovery was integrated into construction from the beginning.

The structure was likely part of an elite family’s home or a small local administrative hub. The rectangular board measured 80 by 110 centimeters, larger than most boards which ranged between 40 and 70 centimeters a side. Based on recovered ceramics, researchers placed its origin at no earlier than 400 to 550 AD. Mesoamerican peoples including the Toltecs, Aztecs, and Maya played patolli as early as 200 BCE, and studies suggest the games served multiple purposes including entertainment, strengthening community bonds, and supporting spiritual practices.

Bronze Age Craft Complex and Four-Meter Oven Discovered in Cyprus

Archaeologists working north of Paphos uncovered remains of a Bronze Age settlement at Kissonerga-Skalia, active from roughly 2500 BC until abandonment around 1600 BC. The 2025 excavation season, directed by Dr. Lindy Crewe of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, clarified the site’s role in early craft production. Near the end of the Middle Bronze Age, inhabitants dismantled older buildings and pushed debris downslope to create a level platform of at least 1,200 square meters. Builders erected massive walls over a meter thick, defining roofed rooms and open courtyards with hardened mud or plaster floors. Installations for heating, grinding, processing materials, and storage vessels indicate craft-related activity rather than residential use.

The settlement was deserted early in the Late Cypriot period. Excavators previously found a domed oven about 1.5 meters across in a plaster-floored courtyard. This season, they identified a second oven measuring roughly four meters in diameter, built as a hard-fired, concave mud plaster structure surrounded by low mud walls but open to the sky. Material inside contained discarded ground-stone tools, plaster pieces, pottery fragments, and animal bones. The feature had fallen out of use before final abandonment and was sealed beneath a new floor. Wet-sieved soil samples yielded charred wheat and terebinth, hinting that foods combining these ingredients may have been prepared there.

Sealed Roman Sarcophagus Holds Young Woman from 1,700 Years Ago

Budapest History Museum archaeologists discovered a limestone sarcophagus during excavation in Óbuda, a district that once formed part of Aquincum, a Roman settlement on the Danube frontier. The coffin was found with its stone lid secured by metal clamps and molten lead. “The peculiarity of the finding is that it was a hermetically sealed sarcophagus. It was not disturbed previously, so it was intact,” said lead archaeologist Gabriella Fényes. Inside lay a complete skeleton surrounded by two intact glass vessels, bronze figures, and 140 coins. A bone hair pin, amber jewelry, and traces of gold-threaded fabric, along with skeleton size, indicate a young woman. “The deceased was buried very carefully by her relatives. They must have really loved who they buried here,” Fényes said.

The coffin lay among ruins of abandoned houses in a quarter vacated in the 3rd century and repurposed as a burial ground. Nearby, researchers uncovered a Roman aqueduct and eight simpler graves. “This probably means that the deceased was well-to-do or of a higher social status,” said Gergely Kostyál, Roman-period specialist and coleader. “It is truly rare to find a sarcophagus like this, untouched and never used before, because in the fourth century it was common to reuse earlier sarcophagi.” Excavators removed 4 centimeters of mud from inside that may contain additional jewelry. Anthropologists will examine the remains to reveal more about her age, health, and origins.