The Things I Like

A team of scientists has sequenced the complete genome of an ancient strain of the Hepatitis B virus (HBV), shedding new light on a pervasive, complex and deadly pathogen that today kills nearly one million people every year. The mummified remains of a small child buried in the Basilica of Saint Domenico Maggiore  in Naples, Italy. Previous analysis of the …Continue reading →

An archaeologist from The Australian National University (ANU) is set to redefine what we know about elderly people in cultures throughout history, and dispel the myth that most people didn’t live much past 40 prior to modern medicine. A new method for determining the age-of-death for skeletal remains based on how worn the teeth are  [Credit: Australian National University]Christine Cave, …Continue reading →

Using satellite imaging and drone reconnaissance, archaeologists from Washington University in St. Louis have discovered an ancient irrigation system that allowed a farming community in arid northwestern China to raise livestock and cultivate crops in one of the world’s driest desert climates. Aerial view of an ancient irrigation system discovered in the foothills of Xinjiang, China  [Credit: Archaeological Research in …Continue reading →

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities is set to recover from the US three fragments from three different mummies that had been stolen and smuggled out of Egypt in the early 20th century. Credit: Ministry of AntiquityShaaban Abdel-Gawad, supervisor-general of the ministry’s Repatriation Department, told Ahram Online that the fragments were seized in Manhattan when their owner tried to sell them. …Continue reading →

Researchers in London have developed scanning techniques that show what is written on the papyrus that mummy cases are made from. Light of different frequencies can bring out writing that is obscured by the paste and plaster  that holds mummy cases together [Credit: BBC News]These are the decorated boxes into which the wrapped body of the deceased was placed before …Continue reading →

A team of archaeologists have discovered remains belonging to an 18th century Dutch warship and a 19th century British steamboat as well as an old lighthouse at three separate sites, on the seabed off the coast of the small seaport town of Sisal in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Credit: INAH TV/YouTubeSisal is a peaceful beach destination and was an …Continue reading →