From the Trenches	Volume 62 Number 2, March/April 2009

News and Notes from the World of Archaeology

Fire in the Lab Penn Museum's plan to cut research draws criticism. Off the Grid Québec's île aux Basques is a favorite site of William Moss, chief archaeologist for the City of Québec. Pompeii Before the Ash Television Finding Treasure and Losing History Books Editor's Picks World Roundup Recent discoveries around the globe

Photo Find: Family Ties Together forever. DNA results prove that four bodies buried 4,600 years ago, some 120 miles southwest of Berlin, were mother, father, and two sons--the oldest confirmed nuclear family. Thought to be from the Corded Ware Culture, the family was found near other group graves. While their arrangement--limbs linked or touching, with the children facing the parents--suggests care was taken in their burial, the manner of death was another story. Skull damage, and broken fingers and wrists--defensive injuries--mean they met a violent end. The burial suggests that other people from their community, not present at the time of some attack, returned and interred the family together. —Samir S. Patel Courtesy Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt (State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt), photo by Juraj Lipták

© 2009 by the Archaeological Institute of America
archive.archaeology.org/0903/trenches/

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