SWITZERLAND
November/December 2017
SWITZERLAND: A Late Bronze Age traveler hiking high in the Bernese Alps 3,500 years ago seems to have dropped a cereal box, which was eventually buried in the ice. Analysis of the wooden container identified lipids and preserved proteins associated with wheat and rye or barley. Seldom do the biomarkers of plants survive in ancient storage vessels, so, with this new discovery, researchers are hoping to gather valuable information about the early use, cultivation, and spread of cereals in Europe. —Jason Urbanus
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Viking cod exports, Bronze Age cereal box, Commodore Perry’s Revenge, Easter Island ecology, and Zanzibar’s colonial past
A face from the past
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