A team of German scientists from the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine rejects the recent Egyptian conclusion that Tutankhamun died of malaria after a fall. Instead, they think the boy king suffered from the genetic blood disorder known as sickle cell disease, which could account for the lesions on his foot bones.

Tomb raiding is rampant in China—in May, four men were sentenced to death for using explosives and heavy machinery to loot a dozen tombs. Yet, plundered antiquities “have become a new currency of bribery,” according to one collector. He alleges in this USA Today article that the “best antiques” are all either shipped to foreign countries or are given to “corrupt high-ranking officials in China.”  

A Neolithic tomb on the Channel Island of Guernsey has yielded 4,500-year-old pottery and flints, in addition to a highly polished greenstone ax head. “So far the results have been quite spectacular,” said project leader George Nash.  

In Vermont, 16 projectile points estimated to be 7,000 years old were excavated from land slated for development. “I feel that if these historic preservation people want to preserve these artifacts, they should put them in a museum and leave me alone,” said the landowner.  

Danish archaeologists say they have located Harald Bluetooth’s 1,000-year-old royal palace near a complex of burial mounds and runic stones in southern Jutland. The Jellinge site is revered as the cradle of the Danish kingdom. 

The steamship L.R. Doty, which sank carrying a load of corn during a terrible storm in 1898, has been found at the bottom of Lake Michigan. “Her hull is really clean. No dings, no dinks. She was a very new ship and we can see that in her wreck,” said Great Lakes maritime historian Brendon Baillod.  

Reuters has posted ten photographs of artifacts that have made headlines this month, including recently unearthed terracotta warriors from the tomb of China’s first emperor in Xi’an.  

Enjoy these photographs of the Lewis Chessmen, a total of 93 medieval ivory game pieces discovered on Scotland’s Isle of Lewis, although they were probably crafted in Norway.  

A Roman military road has been found in southeastern Serbia. “This road was one of the main roads of the Roman Empire. [It] was built in the mid-first century and was used for several more centuries, most likely until the seventh century,” explained archaeologist Miroslav Lazic.  

The Roman Colosseum’s subterranean passageways are set to open to tourists this summer. The passages kept gladiators and caged animals out of the view of spectators until they were sent into the arena. “It would have been very crowded, very hot, probably very dark and there would have been a terrible smell,” said architect Barbara Nazzaro.  

Discovery News blogger Zahra Hirji supports the idea that the small-brained and small-bodied Homo floresiensis could have evolved from Homo erectus on the Indonesian island of Flores. “Instead of viewing it as a step backwards, archaeologists should view it as a laudable display of evolutionary adaptation. Gandalf bestowed the burden of the One Ring on Frodo, a hobbit. Why? Because men were too easily corrupted by its power; they would certainly destroy themselves lusting after it. Like Homo floresiensis surviving on Flores, hobbits—and not men—were simply better suited to the task,” she writes.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, June 24, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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