Well, let’s get the Tut news out of the way first…

The LA Times covers the basic information thoroughly, if not terribly critically (not many people are doing that, by the way). So, he died of broken leg and malaria; we have some relatives identified with DNA.

In the Times Online, Tutankhamun is said to be “the product of an incestuous relationship that may have led to a weakened constitution and his early death…a sickly teenager with a club foot who probably died of complications related to malaria.” A university parasitologist is quoted disagreeing about the malaria bit.

The “incestuous” label matches with a Tut family tree on the Discovery website, which indicates the mummies claimed to be his father and mother were blood relations.

I have some questions about the results and our new issue’s cover story, “Warrior Tut,” by W. Raymond Johnson suggests Tut was actually fairly active.

Meanwhile…

Students at a college in the UK are digging up their school’s grounds—again. In the past, they’ve turned up Roman, Bronze Age, Neolithic, English Civil War artifacts.

This story brings back memories of doing highway archaeology surveys… The setting? Delaware’s Route 9. The weather? “We started with rain and are ending with snow.”

An 800-year-old copper workshop has been found near Monk’s Mound in Illinois.

Restoring the Everglades—hooray! Just watch out for those historic and ancient sites, okay?

Kaibab National Forest is the place to be during March, which is Arizona’s official Archaeology Month. Free archaeology programs there will include hikes to the Keyhole Sink Petroglyph site and lectures each Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Finally… Saudi historian and archaeologist Ahmad Al-Zuwailaei discusses keeping the past (interpretation and even basic preservation) away from ideologues and partisans.

This entry was posted by Archaeology Magazine on Tuesday, February 16, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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