Most Romans Ate Plenty of Millet

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA—Wealthy Romans may have enjoyed lavish banquets, but most Imperial Romans survived on a diet of millet, according to an analysis of anonymous skeletons buried in two of the city’s cemeteries—one just outside the city walls, and another farther away. Levels of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in their bones indicate that people who lived closer to the city had access to a more varied diet than those who lived outside the city limits. “We kind of think that it’s been studied and studied to death over the last 2,000 years, but there are thousands of skeletons in Rome that nobody has studied. … This can give us information about average people in Rome we don’t know about from historical records,” said Kristina Killgrove of the University of West Florida.

Launch Scheduled for Experimental Boat

CORNWALL, ENGLAND—A team of researchers led by Robert Van de Noort of the University of Exeter has built a sewn-plank boat using only Bronze Age tools. A 4,000-year-old boat found on the east coast of northern England served as the model for the project. “The boat has already given us a few surprises along the way, so the launch really is a leap into the unknown,” said Van de Noort. Be sure to watch the time-lapse video of the construction process. The launch is scheduled for next week.

The Female Form in Ice Age Art

LONDON, ENGLAND—In a presentation at the recent European Palaeolithic Conference, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser and Olaf Jöris, both of the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Center in Neuwied, Germany, suggested that female figurines were first carved 35,000 years ago in the “Willendorf style” as celebration of the female form and the “overall idea of femaleness.” The individual figurines share general characteristics, but differ from each other in size, shape, and decoration. Then 16,000 years ago, female figurines and engravings became more standardized. These Gönnersdorf-style images were more schematic and stylized. Gaudzinski-Windheuser and Jöris think the simpler figures were used to create a “communal identity” among Europe’s growing populations.

Warrior King’s Heart Analyzed

GARCHES, FRANCE—Philippe Charlier of Raymond Poincaré University Hospital and his team have analyzed a small sample of the powdered remains of Richard the Lionhearted. The iconic English king died in France in 1199 from a crossbow wound. His entrails were placed in a coffin, which stayed in Châlus, where he died. His body was sent to an abbey in Anjou, and his heart was sent to Notre Dame Cathedral in Rouen, where it was discovered in 1838 in a lead box. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the king’s heart had been embalmed for the journey with myrtle and mint. Pollen from poplar and bellflower, in bloom at the time of his death, was also identified. Calcium, found during elemental analysis, indicates that lime was used as a preservative, in addition to creosote and frankincense, which were identified with mass spectrometry. “It proves that embalming of Christians did happen,” commented Stephen Buckley of the University of York.

Seven Leather Shoes Found in Walls of an Egyptian Temple

LUXOR, EGYPT—Seven 2,000-year-old shoes that had been stored in a jar and hidden in the walls of a temple built for Pharaoh Amenhotep II have been discovered by an Italian team of archaeologists. Two child-sized pairs of shoes had been tied together and placed within one larger adult shoe. The remaining pair of shoes shows signs of having been worn by an adult with a limp. André Veldmeijer of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo thinks the shoes were probably expensive and may have been imported, since sandals were the footwear of choice in Egypt’s dry climate. In addition, the single shoe had been reinforced with a device thought to have originated in Europe during the medieval period. Called a “rand,” it reinforced the stitching and helped make the shoe water resistant. “These shoes were highly prized commodities,” he said.

Rare Floor Uncovered at Historic Home

NIPOMO, CALIFORNIA—Archaeologist John Foster has uncovered a rare floor surface at the Dana Adobe, home of Boston sea captain William G. Dana and his wife, Maria Josepha Carrillo, the founders of the town of Nipomo. Their home, built in 1837, served as a mail and stage coach stop on the north-south route through California. The floor was made of a mixture of adobe, sand, and water that formed a hard, smooth surface. It was eventually covered with a wooden floor that protected it through the years. “It probably makes the Dana Adobe unique in the country if not the larger region,” Foster said. If the funding becomes available, researchers would like to study the floor—it may yield pollen and hair for DNA testing.

Layers of the Past Rest Underneath London Bridge Station

LONDON, ENGLAND—The reconstruction of London Bridge Station is providing archaeologists with the opportunity to examine the Roman, medieval, and eighteenth-century remains beneath it. “Some of the radiocarbon dates we’re getting from some of the deep pieces of wood are going back to the Bronze Age, so clearly it’s been an area of activity for many thousands of years,” said archaeologist Chris Place. The site was the eastern edge of the Roman settlement, where the remains of “substantial” buildings have been uncovered. A ditch from the medieval period could help researchers determine the size of the settlement at that time. Artifacts from later taverns include cribbage boards, tankards, pewter spoons, and clay tobacco pipes.

Fish & Wildlife Officers Break Up Alleged Looting Ring

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA—While investigating reports of looting on state lands, officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission arrested 13 people and broke up an operation said to have plundered an estimated $2 million-worth of Paleo-Indian artifacts. “This is not a family or a hiker out there who finds an arrowhead. We did not target those kinds of people. We were targeting the main dealers and looters who are driving this market,” said FWC Major Curtis Brown. The stolen artifacts were sold at trade shows, online, and on the black market. Those artifacts that were recovered as a result of the investigation will be handed over to the Florida Department of State.

New Dates for the Settlement of Tinian Island

SAIPAN, NORTHERN MARIANAS—Evidence for the human occupation of Tinian Island 3,500 years ago has been uncovered by a team of Australian archaeologists. These early Micronesians originated in China, and then traveled to Taiwan and the Philippines. Archaeologists are debating whether or not they stopped at islands such as Palau or Yapp on the long journey from the Philippines to the Marianas because researchers have not found the characteristic red-coated pottery and houses built on stilts there. “The sites being excavated in the Marianas Islands are a little bit older than those to the south of the equator, in the Lapita region of Melanesia. They appear to be 100 or 200 years older. So this now looks like the first movement of these people from the Philippines, reaching the Marianas Islands across a very large area of sea,” said Peter Bellwood of Australian National University.

Eleven Pre-Inca Tombs Discovered Near Lima

LIMA, PERU—Eleven intact tombs have been unearthed in Peru’s National Sports Village. The tombs were built by the Lima and Yschma cultures: the site was an administration center for the Lima culture between 200 and 700 A.D., while the Yschma lived there between 1100 and 1400 A.D. The mummies, which were resting on beds of woven reeds, had been tied with braided rattan and covered with cloth. Ceramics, seeds and agricultural tools, and leaves from fruit trees have also been found in the burials. “What we can see is what has been saved from centuries of reductions, looting and, in general, urban expansion that has been reducing and eliminating the great majority of the tombs that were there in the three valleys in the current Lima Metropolitan area,” announced Deputy Culture Minister Rafael Varon.

Maids’ Cemetery Uncovered in Western Xi’an

XI’AN, CHINA—A cemetery where maids of the imperial palace were buried during the Tang Dynasty (619–907 A.D.) has been found. “There are two types of maids according to the epitaphs. Five of them died of old age, and the rest were ‘Wanggongni’—maids who became nuns because the emperor they served died before them,” explained Liu Daiyun of the Shaanxi Archaeology Research Institute. The women had been buried with lacquer, bronze, and stone items; animal figures; and bronze waistbands.

The Evolution of Language and Genes

READING, ENGLAND—Evolutionary theorist Mark Pagel of the University of Reading, geneticist Eric Altschuler of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and linguist Andreea S. Calude of the Santa Fe Institute and the University of Reading, applied techniques used by genetic researchers to the text of Homer’s Iliad to see if they could deduce when it was written. By choosing 173 concepts from the Iliad that are thought to appear in every language and culture, they were able to trace how those words changed from the language of the Hittites, through Homeric Greek, to modern Greek. “Languages behave just extraordinarily like genes. It is directly analogous,” said Pagel. The “linguistic mutations” suggest that the epic tale of the Trojan War was written down in the eighth century B.C., a date that fits with the work of traditional classicists.