Radiocarbon dating of seeds, baskets, textiles, and plant stems and fruit held in museums in the United States and Europe have established dates for the ruling dynasties of ancient Egypt, according to Christopher Ramsey of Oxford University. “I think scholars and scientists will be glad to hear that our small team of researchers has independently corroborated a century of scholarship in just three years,” he said.

The United States has returned the sarcophagus of Empress Wu Huifei, who ruled between A.D. 699 and 737, during China’s Tang Dynasty. The sarcophagus had been sold to an American businessman for $1 million. “If looters cannot send the items to buyers in the United States or other foreign countries, they are less likely to risk raiding an archaeological site,” said Li Boqian of Peking University.  

Two new building complexes attached to a tower have been discovered at the site of Idalion, in Cyprus. Storage vessels, pieces of a bronze shield, and other metal weapons were found inside the buildings.  

The analysis of strontium and oxygen isotopes in some medieval teeth allowed scientists to identify the remains of Queen Eadgyth. This technique has led to some other interesting insights into how people in the past traveled over long distances.  Historian Michael Wood offers more information about Eadgyth’s life.  

Neolithic flints and pottery shards have been unearthed in Norfolk, England, in addition to traces of organized farming from the Middle Bronze Age.  

Book dealer Raymond Scott is now on trial for the theft of a valuable Shakespeare first edition stolen from Durham University in 1998. When he asked staff members at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., to authenticate the volume, they contacted the authorities. The folio had been “damaged, brutalized, and mutilated” in an attempt to disguise it.  

The ancient Roman town of Ulpia Serdica has been located beneath modern-day Sofia, Bulgaria. “It’ll be a perfectly preserved underground museum,” said Deputy Culture Minister Todor Chobanov.

Seven Angkor-era sculptures intercepted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were returned to Cambodia on the hospital ship USNS Mercy. The U.S. and Cambodia signed an agreement to protect Cambodia’s cultural heritage in 2003.

A federal magistrate has recommended that the rights to a historic shipwreck in Lake Erie be considered to be owned by the state of New York. A group called Northeast Research, LLC, wanted to raise the wreck and display it in a cold water tank. “The presumption should be, unless there’s a compelling reason to move it, we leave it in place,” said Art Cohn of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.  

Archaeologists will extend their search for the cremated remains of the Aztec emperor Ahuizotl, who died in 1502. In 2007, they uncovered a stone slab carved and painted with the image of the goddess Tlaltecuhtli near the Templo Mayor pyramid. Beneath the stone, they have found shells, gold earrings and collars, and wooden daggers. “These are offerings that we have never seen before, and obviously they give us very good indications that at some point we can find a royal tomb,” said Leonardo Lopez Lujan. A royal Aztec tomb has never been found.  

Airport scanners can be used to take a low-cost peek at ancient mummies, according to German and Swiss scientists who have tested the idea. The images aren’t as clear as high-tech medical scans, but it is possible to see major anatomical features and objects hidden in bandaging.  

The female skeleton discovered in a lead coffin in Magdesburg Cathedral, Germany, is indeed Queen Eadgyth. “Medieval bones were moved frequently, and often mixed up, so it required some exceptional science to prove that they are indeed those of Eadgyth,” said Harald Meller of the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology, Saxony-Anhalt.  

There’s more information on the lion bones bearing cut marks made by Homo heidelbergensis at National Geographic Daily News. Scholars aren’t sure if the Neanderthal ancestors killed the big cat, or if H. heidelbergenis took advantage of a kill made by another animal. “It is simply too risky an undertaking to have engaged a healthy adult cave lion,” said Ruth Blasco of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. The bones were uncovered at the Gran Dolina site in Spain.