Ep. 272: Let’s Talk About ‘The Prince’ Who Was Mauled To Death 27,000 Yrs Ago + Superkilonovas Are A Thing. And One May Have Popped Off Twice

Hey, welcome back to Well That's Interesting. The Sounds Like a Lot is going on here, edition. Today is episode 272. Let's talk about the prince who was mauled to death 27,000 years ago and super killin'

are a thing. And one may have popped off twice. My friends, I owe you an apology. If you're a long time listener of the show, then you know, after staggering holes and parasites inside the human body, another favorite topic to cover is a damn good ancient burial. It has been a long minute since you and

I dusted off some old bones and pondered what the hell happened here. Our last anthropological escapade took place back in November of last year. During episode 258, these smoked human remains are the oldest known mummies so far, and knife breaks off in man's chest, and he didn't notice for eight years.

Yeah, not only did we learn that yes, a kitchen knife can remain inside the body without causing significant injury, but yeah, the preneolithic peoples throughout southern China and southeast Asia practiced a method of mummification. began 14,000 years ago and continued up until 4,000 years ago. For 10,000 years, that method

involved months of meticulous doting on a recently deceased loved one over an open fire. If you haven't had a listen, you should. I of course went over that process in more detail and we took a gander at the results thanks to photos provided by researchers who made the discovery. Let's just say those results were sculptural masterpieces.

Prior to 258, there was episode 229 and 231, way the fuck back in March and April of last year, where we talked about a 9,000 year old shaman burial ground found under a German spa garden and a curious case of cannibalism from 18,000 years ago, when five women, three men and several children were practically shredded to bits.

Now finally, today, in the first half of the show, we are revisiting a grave that stopped even the most seasoned archaeologists in their tracks. One specific grave belonging to a young man researchers have dubbed Il Principe or The Prince.

And that title was given thanks to the king-tut level of goods found around and on his person. We will meet the original team that found the boy. We will run down a partial list of what he was buried with, which is still enormous.

After peeling away all those luxurious goods, we will look at and run through his list of injuries, which happens to be a lot longer. We will meet the modern team, who use modern medical tools to diagnose the cause of death, and we will meet the people the boy belonged to all to try and understand why he ended

up this way. Then after the break. Girl, you know we can't go more than a week or two without talking about space, thanks to the avalanche of research being pumped from cutting-edge telescopes around the world.

And all that research has a common theme running throughout it. The universe is fucking weird. It is wild. And if you thought it was hard to comprehend before, oh Jesus strap the hell in.

Case in point, Killa Novas. Now I have never heard of them up until five minutes ago, and I'm assuming you haven't either. Long, long billions of years long story short, a kilonova is a type of cataclysmic explosion

that occurs when a pair of dueling neutron stars orbiting one another finally end their deathly dance and smash together. Only one kilonova has been confirmed to date, and we will get to it, including a refresher into how neutron stars form.

That will be our tasty intro to a brand new type of explosion, super kilonovas. Back on August 18th, 2025, the twin detectors of LIGO in Louisiana and Washington, as well as Virgo in Italy, picked up a brand spanking new gravitational wave rippling through space thanks to what appeared to be a merger between two objects.

The light created at first burned red, and then a few days later burned blue. This colorful evidence made most astronomers from around the world convinced that the gravitational wave was from no merger but a classic supernova. Most, but not all.

We will make the team who put their hands on their hips and said y'all. Supernova from distant galaxies are generally not expected to generate enough gravitational waves to be detected by LIGO and Virgo, whereas kilonova are, so we're pretty sure kilonova was at play here somehow.

We just have to prove it. You will run through the colossal set of data the team poured through and we will stand before a new theory that will blow your mind, literally. What if this event was a combination of a supernova and a kilonova, creating a superkilonova?

Needless to say, that's a first. We will get to it all. But in the meantime, hi, I'm Jill Chacha, and if this is your first time listening, welcome to the flock, my booming business goose.

To begin, I'm going to need you to get in the habit of keeping your carabiners and headlamps within reaching distance because yet again, you and I will be scaling a cave. Now, I see that horrified look on your face and rightfully so. It wasn't caves where we gazed upon things like the world's largest spider web, but

where we are. And when we are right now, there are zero spiders. There are a lot of bodies, however. So please, join me, will you?

Snug as a bug in a rug in our time machine as I dial it way the fuck back to the year 1942 and as we land within an archaeological site located in Finale Lugure. And for my fellow geographically challenged Americans who were like, hey, that kind of sounds Italian, you're right.

We are in Italy. But where exactly? Please imagine the boot. Thank you.

very top left corner and extend the coast just a little bit more to the left. Perfect. Consider this newly created line the Riviera of Italy as it overlooks the Gulf of Genoa, a sea of bright blue waters lapping against white sand beaches.

The Finale Laguere is located in the far southwest, right by a steep limestone mountain that in more modern times is easily overlooked by the town's lively commercial district, a boardwalk lined with palm trees and restaurants with open-air dining rooms.

But in the early 1940s, it was that mountain