The intact tomb of a member of a powerful Egyptian family, dating to the nineteenth century B.C., has been discovered by the Spanish Archaeological Mission at Qubbet el-Hawa, across the Nile from Aswan. The burial’s outer coffin is severely damaged, most likely by termites, but the inner coffin is in fine condition. Made of Lebanese cedar, it bears the name of the deceased—Shemai—as well as those of his mother and father. Both Shemai’s father, Khema, and his eldest brother, Sarenput II, served as regional governors during Egypt’s 12th Dynasty.

The tomb also contains six wooden models representing scenes of daily life and wooden boats thought to have been involved in the funerary trip of the deceased. “This kind of discovery is uncommon in Egyptian archaeology today,” says Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano of the University of Jaén. “We have been able to record and document the whole funerary structure.”

Archaeologists and conservators from Jamestown Rediscovery have begun to analyze a tombstone that has lain within iterations of the church at Jamestown for centuries. They believe the stone, which features the silhouette of a knight, belongs to Sir George Yeardley, a three-time colonial governor of Virginia, who died in 1627. Originally found in 1901 by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, the tombstone was broken into multiple pieces and is missing original monumental brasses that could definitively identify the deceased. However, the claim that it is Yeardley is bolstered by evidence from the will of a relative, Adam Thorowgood, which dates to 1680. Hayden Bassett, assistant curator, says that Thorowgood’s will states that he would like to have a tombstone of marble set forth with the coat of arms of Sir George Yeardley and himself, with the same inscription as on the broken tomb. “We believe that might be a reference to this particular tomb,” adds Bassett. According to Mary Anna Richardson, staff archaeologist, and William Kelso, director of research and interpretation, efforts to analyze Yeardley’s tombstone will be followed by an archaeological survey of the church’s chancel, slated for fall 2017, in the hope of uncovering Yeardley’s actual remains. An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of the first representative assembly meeting in Virginia, which began in 1619 under Yeardley’s governorship, is planned for 2019.

The people of the Paleolithic Magdalenian period in Spain and France created great works of figurative art such as the Lascaux cave paintings, which realistically depict a rich variety of wildlife. But scholars have long believed that around 14,000 years ago, that dramatic artistic tradition came to a sudden end. People of the succeeding Azilian period were thought to have completely stopped making animal figures, and instead focused their creative energies on etching and painting abstract designs on pebbles. But the recent discovery of 45 engraved stone tablets along with Early Azilian tools at a rock shelter in Brittany has shown that, in fact, some Azilian people carried on the artistic tradition of their Magdalenian ancestors.

University of Nice archaeologist Nicolas Naudinot led the team that unearthed the engravings and says they resemble elaborate Magdalenian depictions of horses and a kind of wild cattle known as an aurochs. One bull is even shown with rays emanating from its head, the only such example of a “shining” animal known in prehistoric European art. Naudinot says the rays were added some time after the original head was carved, because the bull’s horns were reengraved over the lines. “The prehistoric people wanted the rays to be in the background,” says Naudinot, who speculates they could be a rendering of the sun, or perhaps they were simply symbolic abstractions, similar to the ones later Azilian people would carve on pebbles.