Mummification is among the best-known religious practices of the ancient Egyptians, yet apart from a few textual descriptions and tomb paintings, very little is known about the facilities where this process took place. That changed when archaeologists discovered a unique series of rooms dating to the Saite-Persian period of the mid-first millennium B.C. “The whole complex could be looked upon as a funeral home of sorts that provided the service of mummification along with burial compartments and equipment,” says Ramadan Hussein of the University of Tübingen. The facility includes a subterranean chamber at the bottom of a 40-foot-deep shaft that was used by embalmers. There, they laid bodies out on a rock-cut bed, drained them of fluids, and prepared them for burial. Hussein’s team also found ceramic vessels labeled with substances’ names and instructions for how each should be used in the mummification process. Just feet from the embalmer’s room, the team located a 100-foot-deep shaft that contained six different tombs holding 59 mummies.

One of the greatest archaeological discoveries in Greece over the past 50 years was made at Pylos by University of Cincinnati archaeologists Jack Davis and Sharon Stocker. The grave of the “Griffin Warrior” held the remains of a powerful man who died around 1450 B.C. and was buried alongside 1,500 precious objects, including silver cups, bronze weapons, ivory combs, and gold rings. “The more we study the assemblage, the more amazed we are by how rare and exotic this unique group of artifacts is,” say Davis and Stocker. The most exquisite artifact is one of the smallest: a 1.4-inch-long carved almond-shaped agate sealstone depicting three warriors. Davis and Stocker believe the gem was made on Crete. “Our understanding of the closeness of the relationship between Pylos and the Minoans of Crete has grown,” they say. “As we look more closely at certain artifacts, particularly the sealstones, we realize that they were likely produced by Minoan craftsmen and display typical Minoan iconography. Other artifacts in the grave, however, are very mainland in their appearance.” To read more about the Griffin Warrior's grave, go to “World of the Griffin Warrior.”

Although Pompeii has been almost constantly excavated since the mid-eighteenth century, around one-third of the city still remains buried beneath 20 feet of volcanic debris from the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Archaeologists do not often get a chance to work in the unexcavated areas. However, when a large section of volcanic debris in a neighborhood known as Regio V began to collapse, authorities had no choice but to remove more than a quarter acre of material, revealing long-hidden parts of the Roman city. Streets, houses, and workshops were exposed for the first time in almost 2,000 years. Vibrantly colored frescoes, still bright and radiant, look as if they have just been painted. Archaeologists also retrieved a number of bodies of people who were not fortunate enough to escape the deadly eruption, including 11 found huddled together in one room of a newly explored house. Excavations continue… To read more about recent excavations of Pompeii, go to “Digging Deeper into Pompeii’s Past.”