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.

Ancient Egyptians sometimes added medicinal herbs and tree resin to their wine, according to the analysis of residues on pottery dating to 3150 B.C. by Patrick E. McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Written records indicate that the Egyptians also added herbs to beer and other liquids.

Rock art at Uluru and rock faces in Kakadu National Park, Australia, have been defaced with graffiti.

Jeremy DeSilva of Worcester State College compared the fossilized ankle bones of early humans to those of modern wild chimpanzees, and concluded that early humans couldn’t have climbed trees in the same way that chimps do.   

Some officials in northern Vietnam say that the 700-year-old Rong Temple, which was demolished in January, was not as dilapidated as they had been led to believe. “It is unbelievable. They demolished the temple right after holding a ceremony to receive the Historical Heritage certificate,” said one anonymous official. Others say that the structure that was torn down had been built only 30 years ago.   This second article on the Rong Temple offers more information on Ly Chieu Hoang, Vietnam’s only queen, who ruled from 1224 to 1225.  

A village inhabited by Tequesta Indians between 800 and 1200 A.D. is being excavated along the banks of the New River, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Archaeologists have found deer, fish, and shark remains; oyster shells; pottery; and a cache of ax heads made from conch shells.  

Greece has donated a replica of the Peplos Kore, a marble statue of a young woman wearing a simple garment, to China. It will be housed in the Museum of Chinese Women and Children, now under construction, in a hall dedicated to donated statues.