Egyptian Mummy's Hairstyle Makes a Comeback

MONTREAL, CANADA—CT scans of the mummy of a young woman in McGill University’s Redpath Museum have allowed researchers to recreate a hairstyle that was popular in Roman-ruled Egypt, nearly 2,000 years ago. “The mummy's hair is readily appreciable,” wrote the team in a recently published paper, “with longer strands at the middle of the scalp drawn back into twists or plaits that were then wound into a tutulus, or chignon at the vertex (crown) of the head.” The researchers also studied two other Egyptian mummies from the museum, one of an older woman who lived at the same time as the well-coiffed mummy, and the other of a young man who lived a few centuries earlier. Both had severe dental problems.

Plan to Rebury Famous Gladiator's Tomb on Hold

ROME, ITALY—Last month, Italy’s cash-poor ministry of culture announced plans to rebury the mausoleum of Marcus Nonius Macrinus, the Roman general who inspired Russell Crowe’s character in Gladiator. Discovered in 2008, the tomb seemed destined to become a tourist destination, but with no money available to conserve the ruins, the government deemed reburial the best option to preserve the site. Since the announcement, though, the public reaction has led Italian officials to reconsider that course of action. Among the many protesting the reburial was Russell Crowe himself, who told La Repubblica that, “Of all the great nations of the world, Italy in particular should be a leader in promoting the importance of exploring and conserving the ancient past.”

Marker Used to Measure the Earth Uncovered in Italy

FRATTOCCHIE, ITALY—After a long archival search and a radar survey, cartographer Tullio Aebischer has uncovered a marble slab in the outskirts of Rome that helped nineteenth-century scientists determine the shape of the earth. Dubbed Benchmark B and left by pioneering astrophysicist Father Angelo Secchi, the slab has a metal plate with a hole in the center. It is identical to a second slab, Benchmark A, discovered in Rome in 1999. By measuring the precise distance between the two benchmarks, which both lie on the ancient Roman Appian Way, Secchi obtained data that resolved a century-long scientific dispute.

Elaborate Petroglyphs Discovered In Mexico

TEPIC, MEXICO—At a site in the mountains of western Mexico known as “The Ledge of the Souls,” archaeologist Mauricio Garduño recently discovered a complex panel of pictographs dating between 850 and 1350 A.D. Carved in the pictorial tradition of the Aztlan culture, the panels are divided into two styles. “In the eastern half we found designs related to fertility-fecundity: rain clouds, sectioned snail shells, and feminine vulvae; in the western half, we found cranium profiles whose front point to the east, precisely towards the sunrise.” Garduño thinks some of the panels may have played an astronomical role in the Aztlan annual ritual cycle.

Where Vikings Brewed Beer

CARDIFF, WALES—At the Experimental Archaeology Conference earlier this month, archaeologists Merryn and Graham Dineley asserted that features of Viking settlements previously believed to be bathhouses might actually have been used to brew beer. Their hypothesis is based on the excavation of a stone structure dating back nine centuries at Cubbie Roo’s Castle on the Scottish archipelago of Orkney that, according to their interpretation, included what could be a mash oven and several drains. Further, the stone constructions are often located right next to what are known to be the Viking ceremonial drinking halls.

San Diego State University’s Hidden Art Student Murals

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA—Nine years ago, Seth Mallios, an archaeology professor at San Diego State University, discovered two murals done by students of the university back in the 1930s on the walls of Hardy Tower, one of the campus’ oldest buildings. One of the murals was a six-foot depiction of several characters from the Lewis Carroll classic Alice in Wonderland.” Mallios is on the hunt for other paintings in the building on a campus, which, he says, is in the grips of “mural fever.”

Oxford Park Holds Treasures Dating Back 9,000 Years

DIDCOT, ENGLAND—Bronze Age arrowheads, a structure that was once a Roman villa, and 9,000-year-old flints have been uncovered during a two-and-a-half-year dig at the Great Western Park, just a few miles south of Oxford, England. “There might have been one or two finds from the Mesolithic period in the past but they have not been scientifically dated in such a significant way before—these were working flints used around campfires about 9,000 years ago,” said Rob Masefield, the excavation leader. The site, which is being excavated in preparation for the construction of more than 3,000 homes, also offered up a Neolithic bowl and a burial mound dating back to the Bronze Age.

Welsh Archaeologists Mobilize Search for Sites After Blizzard

WALES—The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales is using the occasion of a fresh snowfall to undertake an effort to find previously unidentified archaeological sites using aerial photography. Man-made features become easier to find from above thanks to the sun being lower in the sky in winter and because the snow, according to the Commission’s “evens out” the colors on the ground. The effort succeeded in picking out an unrecorded housing structure in central Wales, amongst other discoveries both at well known sites and in areas waiting to be explored.

Pristine War of 1812 Battlefield Yields Its Secrets

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND—In 1814, the British had already burned Washington, D.C., and were planning a siege of Baltimore when American militiamen attacked a British raiding party at Caulk’s Field. State archaeologist Julie Schablitsky is investigating the War of 1812 battle site with cadaver-sniffing dogs and volunteers bearing metal detectors. So far, three potential burial sites have been found, and the locations of brass buttons, munitions, and coins indicate that the battle had spread over a wider area than had been previously thought. “We never developed it, so the potential was always there. We never let anyone out there with metal detectors because we wanted to do it properly. Now it is and we couldn’t be happier,” said Richard van Stolk, one of the land owners.

Sweet Potato Genome Aids Study of Polynesian Sailors

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE—Genetic analysis of modern sweet potatoes and samples of sweet potatoes preserved by the first European explorers in Polynesia supports archaeological and linguistic evidence that there was prehistoric contact between Polynesians and South Americans. Sweet potatoes were domesticated some 8,000 years ago in Peru, where Polynesian sailors may have encountered them on a voyage and then taken them home. The oldest carbonized sweet potatoes found in the Pacific are some 1,500 years old, and the word for “sweet potato” in many Polynesian languages resembles the Quechua word for the food. Sweet potatoes were also later carried to the Pacific by Spanish and Portuguese traders. “It’s the combination of all different kinds of proof” for Polynesian contact that is convincing, said Caroline Roullier of France’s Center of Evolutionary and Functional Ecology.

1,200-Year-Old Traces of Chocolate Found in Utah

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA—According to archaeologist Dorothy Washburn of the University of Pennsylvania and her husband chemist William Washburn, traces of theobromine and caffeine have been found in 1,200-year-old bowls from an archaeological site near Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. These are the oldest-known ingredients of chocolate to be found in North America, and their presence indicates that people living in the northern Southwest had access to cacao beans from Mesoamerica. It had been thought that the two regions had little interaction with each other at this time. And while in Mesoamerica chocolate was processed into a drink sipped by the elite, Utah’s chocolate eaters were “ordinary people” who lived in a village of subterranean pit houses. Washburn and other researchers now want to know how important cacao was to these people and how often they ate it.

Loom Weights Discovered in Ancient Cattle Town

ÇANAKKALE, TURKEY—Loom weights made of pottery have been uncovered in Turkey’s ancient city of Assoss. “Some of them are round and some of them are cubic. People used even broken ceramic pieces in this period by making a hole in the center of them. There are seals, names, or descriptions on some of these weights. They date back to 2,500 years ago,” said Nurettin Arslan of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. The weights were found near the city’s theater, and may have come from a small weaver’s shop.

Large Celtic Grave Excavated in Germany

BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY—Archaeologists have been painstakingly excavating the 2,600-year-old grave of a Celtic woman and child that was discovered in 2010 and removed from the ground in a large block. The burial chamber had been fitted with oak beams that were preserved by water from a nearby stream. Artifacts recovered so far from the tomb include gold and amber jewelry and objects made of bronze and jet, in addition to organic materials. “We call her a princess, but we actually know very little about the social organization of the time because we don’t have any written sources,” explained Nicole Ebinger-Rist, director of the project. She hopes to identify the woman as the research progresses.