Powhatan’s Seat of Power to be Preserved

GLOUCESTER, VIRGINIA—Fifty-seven acres of private land in Virginia thought to be the site of Werowocomoco, home to the great leader Powhatan and his daughter Pocahontas, will be preserved. Powhatan ruled a population of 15,000 to 20,000 people in the early seventeenth century, when Jamestown was founded some 15 miles away. Landowner Lynn Ripley found arrowheads, spear tips, pipe stems, pottery shards, and pieces of copper while walking her dog. Using the writings of Captain John Smith and historic maps, archaeologists have concluded that she discovered Werowocomoco, and to date, only about two percent of the site has been investigated. “I want people to understand there was a real civilization, a complex cultural community that existed prior to European colonization,” added Ashley Atkins, a doctoral candidate at the College of William & Mary. 

Egyptian Archaeologist Exposes Looting

ABU SIR AL MALAQ, EGYPT—Egyptian archaeologist Monica Hanna documents looting in her country and brings it to the attention of government officials and the media. She noticed that foreign archaeologists were reluctant to report theft and damage to the sites where they worked because they were afraid of losing work permits from the Egyptian government, and that antiquities inspectors were often ignored when they reported looting. In addition to assisting others with monitoring archaeological sites, Hanna is part of the effort to develop a website that will allow anyone to report problems anonymously. Yet, some people have responded to her crusade with threats. “That means she is doing her job well. She is scaring some of the syndicate people who live around and feed off of the antiquities,” commented Salima Ikram, Hanna’s former teacher at American University.

“Libraries in Exile” Aims to Preserve Timbuktu’s Manuscripts

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON--When faced with a military crisis in Mali, librarians and archivists rescued more than 300,000 historic manuscripts from Timbuktu. The books and records were placed in metal boxes, but they are now showing signs of moisture damage. The crowd-funding campaign “Libraries in Exile” is raising funds for equipment and personnel to preserve Timbuktu’s libraries. “The purpose of this campaign is to fund the preservation effort required to store the manuscripts in an archival, moisture-resistant manner during their exile from Timbuktu. If physical harm from the current packing situation continues and if mold and mildew spread in the corpus due to increased humidity, the damage will be devastating,” reads a statement from the campaign.

Murals Saved in 1,500-Year-Old Tomb

SHUOZHOU CITY, CHINA—The 1,500-year-old domed tomb of a military commander of the Northern Qi dynasty and his wife has been rescued in northern China. The tomb was looted before archaeologists arrived on the scene, so most of the grave goods and the two bodies are gone. Its plastered walls are covered with murals, including images of guards with swords, horses, musicians, and the couple enjoying a banquet. “The domed ceiling is painted uniformly in dark gray color to signify the infinite space of the sky. The Silver River (representing the Milky Way) flows across the sky from the southwest to the northeast, and inside the river a fine fish-scale patterns representing waves in the water,” according to archaeologist Liu Yan, who reported the discovery in Chinese Archaeology. Archaeologists also found painted blue lines and gauze fabric placed by looters who were preparing to detach the paintings from the surface of the walls.

Smuggling Stopped at the Post Office

LIMA, PERU—Archaeologist Gladiz Collatupa and art historian Sonia Rojas work with customs officers in a post office in Lima, where they examine packages for looted archaeological artifacts and other cultural items. So far they have rescued books from the National Library, a nineteenth-century oil painting, coins, fossils, and historic documents. Sometimes they identify looted pre-Columbian cloth that had been used to decorate reproductions of ancient dolls.  “You never know what you’re going to find. Every box could contain a surprise,” said Rojas. The seized items are handed over to the National Museum.

Subway Contractor Reportedly Destroys Ancient Tombs

GUANGZHOU, CHINA—Construction workers building a subway system in the Menggang district of Guangzhou have reportedly destroyed a number of ancient tombs on Da Gong Mountain. “Yesterday we were still conducting archaeological excavations, but all five tombs were gone this morning,” an unnamed archaeologist told a reporter from the South China Morning Post. The tombs ranged in age from 2,200 to more than 3,000 years old. Zhang Qianglu of the Guangzhou Archaeology Research Center said that the side of the mountain is covered with historically significant tombs. More than a dozen of them are thought to have been destroyed to date by the subway project.

Angkor City Mapped in Cambodia

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—The city of Mahendraparvata has been mapped on Phnom Kulen Mountain, located to the north of the Angkor Wat Complex in Cambodia, by archaeologists using airborne laser technology carried by a helicopter. Some 36 buildings had previously been recorded on the jungle-covered mountain, but it wasn’t known how they fit together. More than two dozen temples, and traces of canals, dykes, and roads laid out in regular city blocks have now been mapped. “We see from the imagery that the landscape was completely devoid of vegetation. One theory we are looking at is that the severe environmental impact of deforestation and the dependence on water management led to the demise of the civilization,” said Damian Evans of the University of Sydney.

Leprosy Through the Ages

TÜBINGEN, GERMANY—A team of scientists has compared samples of the bacterium that causes leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae, taken from five medieval skeletons from Europe with samples from 11 modern strains. The DNA was so well preserved that the scientists were able to determine that a type of the disease found in Europe 1,000 years ago is the same as what is found in the Middle East now. Johannes Krause of the University of Tübingen says this suggests that the disease was spread by European armies during the Crusades. The disease carried to the New World by European explorers is also similar to the one found in the Americas today. The oldest known case of leprosy in the world has been identified in a 4,000-year-old skeleton from India. 

Gasometre Found in Canada’s First Industrial Neighborhood

MONTREAL, QUEBEC—Construction workers uncovered the brick foundations of a gas reservoir or “gasometre” that stored fuel in the late nineteenth century. The cylindrical container, owned by The New City Gas Works, lit Canada’s first industrial neighborhood. Coal was brought into the city by barges traveling on the Lachine Canal, which was then heated and transformed into gas that was stored in the gas-holder and then piped into homes and street lights, reducing the risk of fire posed by oil lamps and candles. “We will be able to create a 3-D image of the whole structure as it was when it was first built,” said archaeologist Bernard Hébert.

New HD Scans of Tut's Tomb

MADRID, SPAIN—Egyptologists will be able to view high-resolution images of the tomb of Tutankhamun with a new navigator prepared for Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities by the Factum Foundation, which is dedicated to using digital recording for the preservation and exhibition of artifacts. Such detailed images can protect ancient works of art from exposure to too many people. The scientists will be able to examine the entire tomb and monitor its condition remotely, using a web browser, and they will be able to leave notes for other researchers on what they’ve seen.