Ancient walls, figures, and artifacts were damaged by trenches and concrete pylons for a new archaeological museum within Majapahit Park in Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia. The government went ahead with the construction despite warnings against digging in the capital of a thirteenth-century Hindu empire.

A mural discovered last week in a Song Dynasty (960 to 1279 A.D.) tomb in northwestern China depicts the practice of traditional Chinese medicine. Two other murals in the tomb show an opera and the Buddhist state of nirvana.  

Fifty-seven-year-old Li Kai is working to keep Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 A.D.) music alive in China. “I realized that this ancient music was going to disappear as no one was playing it, so I set up this group,” he said.  

University of Central Arkansas art historian Reinaldo Morales, Jr., announced his discovery of rock art at Machu Picchu at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Atlanta.  

A book stolen from a Southern college library by a Union solider during the Civil War has been returned by Mike Dau, who lives in Illinois. “I had been meaning to take it back for years. I got tired of talking about it and decided it belonged in the hands of the rightful owner,” he said.  

Scientists from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain have calculated the level of genetic inbreeding among the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. “In order to keep their heritage in their own hands, the Spanish Habsburgs began to intermarry more and more frequently among themselves,” they say in the Public Library of Science ONE. The line died out with Charles II, described as “physically disabled, mentally retarded, and disfigured.”  

In Egypt, archaeologists are looking for the tombs of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. Three potential sites, identified during a radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna, will be excavated.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, April 15, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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