Inscribed copper plates and bronze statues dating to the eleventh or twelfth century A.D. were unearthed from a Hindu temple in Tamil Nadu, a state on the southern tip of India. R. Nagaswamy, former director of the state department of archaeology, called them a “fantastic discovery and the find of the century.”

Al-Ahram Weekly offers entertaining details from a recent press conference at Taposiris Magna with Zahi Hawass and Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez. “I believe that it is impossible that Cleopatra was buried in her palace [now underwater in Alexandria’s harbor] because of Egypt’s political situation. It was not only the end of the Ptolemaic era but the end of Egypt as a free country,” explained Martinez.  

Residences for the living, complete with guinea pig pens, artwork, and human remains, have been uncovered atop a Moche pyramid in Peru. South of the pyramid, archaeologists found a large number of copper artifacts. “The power of these elites could very much have been grounded in control of copper production,” said Edward Swenson of the University of Toronto.  

A new block-sized skyscraper in downtown Pittsburgh has been decorated with artifacts retrieved from its site, which was once home to nineteenth century businesses such as banks, a boarding house, a tea room, and a seed store.  

The skeleton of a fourteenth-century knight who’d been buried in Stirling Castle, Scotland, has been identified as Sir John de Stricheley, an Englishman. He was probably killed by a Scottish arrow.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, May 21, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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