An international team of scientists has studied the DNA of modern American Indian groups and has found genetic evidence that they are all descended from a single ancestral population. In addition, that population was isolated from the rest of Asia for thousands of years before moving into the New World. “While earlier studies have already supported this conclusion, what’s different about our work is that it provides the first solid data that simply cannot be reconciled with multiple ancestral populations,” said Kari Britt Schroeder of the University of California, Davis.

Africans, however, have more genetic variation than anyone else on Earth. “Given the fact that modern humans arose in Africa, they have had time to accumulate dramatic changes,” said Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania.  

A CT scan revealed a mummified puppy inside a bundle at the feet of an Egyptian human mummy. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology have dubbed them “Hapi-Puppy” and “Hapi-Men,” respectively.  

A pit at the former site of England’s Worcester Royal Infirmary contained some 200 pieces of cut human and animal bones. Archaeologist Simon Sworn says the bones bear marks of amputations and human dissection, which became legal in the early nineteenth century.   

Two villages surrounded by palisades were discovered at a construction site at Georgia’s Macon County Airport. “We had no idea there were palisaded villages in 1100 A.D.,” said archaeologist Tasha Benyshek.  

English Heritage has recreated the Tudor garden at Kenilworth Castle that was planted in 1575 by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, to woo and impress Queen Elizabeth I. She refused him.  

Pot hunters have targeted the military base at Quantico, according to this article at Military.com. “We are developing procedures and forms to monitor archaeological sites for instances such as relic hunting or looting,” said Sue Goodfellow, a cultural resources specialist for Headquarters Marine Corps.  

The Myers Museum at England’s Eton College has returned more than 450 artifacts to Egypt that had been taken out of the country between 1972 and 1988.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, May 1, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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