One of the largest slave graveyards in the world is being excavated on the island of St. Helena, in preparation for airport construction. Many of the 10,000 people buried here had been found dead in slave ships by British Royal Navy patrols between 1840 and 1874.  

Excavation of a village at the site of a runway extension at North Carolina’s Macon County Airport has been completed. Graves have been left in place, and fill will cover them in order to protect them from construction. “A lot of people don’t want Lear jets landing on their grandparents’ graves. We want protection in place. It is a compromise we worked for,” said Russ Townsend, tribal historic preservation officer for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.   

The bone chemistry of the Maya king K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’ indicates that he did not grow up Copán, where he ruled. “These findings reinforce the notion that the Copán state was founded as part of a colonial expansion,” said Robert Sharer of the University of Pennsylvania.   

A skeleton was uncovered in the basement of a home in Warwick, Rhode Island.  

The Israel Antiquities Authority reports that a new analysis of artifacts from a fortress along the Incense Road shows that it was ruled by the Hasmoneans. The Incense Road connected the Nabataean city of Petra with Gaza, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea. “We are talking about a revolutionary discovery that will redraw the maps of the region which describe that era and greatly increase the territory governed by the Hasmoneans into the heart of the Negev Highlands as we know it,” said archaeologist Tali Erickson-Gini.  

Cortisol has been found in the hair of ancient Peruvians, indicating that they suffered from stress, too. Many of the individuals showed periods of high stress during their lives, and right before death.  

Have you ever wondered about Hungary’s long history of Egyptology? Al-Ahram Weekly celebrates 102 years of Hungarian excavations in Egypt with this article.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, December 10, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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