Belgian archaeologists recently uncovered a mudbrick structure on a hill at Thebes (modern Luxor) that is actually the base of a pyramid erected for a top minister of 19th Dynasty pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 B.C. Bricks from it are stamped with a rectangular hieroglyphic inscription,“Osiris, the vizier of Upper and Lower Egypt, Khay.” The minister, Khay, who is buried in a tomb beneath the pyramid, can be seen in the structure’s capstone, which pays respect to Re-Horakhty, a combination of the sun god Re and sky god Horus. The pyramid would have measured 40 feet along each side, stood roughly 50 feet tall, and overlooked Ramesses II’s funerary temple.

Multiple waves of settlements helped keep the pyramid hidden. Laurent Bavay, an archaeologist at the Université libre de Bruxelles, notes that parts of the monument were used to construct Coptic hermitages atop the site more than 1,300 years ago. Then, in the nineteeenth century, Egyptians arrived at the Theban necropolis to hunt for antiquities they could sell to Europeans. “They literally settled on the tombs to plunder them, systematically,” he explains. The exact location of Khay’s tomb is under one of the remaining local residences, to which the archaeologists do not currently have access.

Over the past three years, archaeologists working at an ancient necropolis outside the city of Suizhou in southern China’s Sichuan Province have excavated 65 tombs. But according to excavation director Huang Fengchun of the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, tomb 18 in particular is “quite special.” The shape of the tomb resembles the ancient form of the Chinese character “Ya,” which means “second” or “inferior.” The quality of the grave goods found in the tomb, including numerous precious bronze vessels, indicates it likely belonged to a state official of the eastern Zhou Dynasty (770–256 B.C.). But exactly what or whom he was second or inferior to is unknown. Perhaps the answer lies in a 66th tomb.

Thousands of years ago, the steep geologic folds of the Danube Gorges region, in present-day Romania and Serbia, were lushly forested and filled with game. The Danube River itself teemed with fish. It was an ideal home for the foragers who had lived there for millennia.

But around 6200 B.C., foreigners began appearing. They came from the south and east, and hailed from farming communities, says anthropologist T. Douglas Price of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Price recently analyzed strontium isotopes in 153 sets of human teeth from ancient burials in the Gorges. Strontium, which is present in the environment and becomes a permanent part of our tooth enamel in childhood, leaves a distinctive signature that lets scientists pinpoint an individual’s place of origin.

The technique allowed Price and Dušan Borić, of Cardiff University, to document an influx of farmers into the area, including a number of women, who may have married into foraging groups. The work helps settle a decades-old debate about whether farming was brought to Europe by colonizers or diffused from community to community. “In Southeastern Europe,” Price says, “the colonization model is what’s going on.”