From the Trenches	Volume 60 Number 4, July/August 2007

News and Notes from the World of Archaeology

Desert Solitaire The U.S. Department of Defense is distributing decks of playing cards with archaeological messages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Herod's Tomb Discovered? Israeli archaeologists say they have discovered the tomb of King Herod the Great. Museums    The Met's New Temple Books    God's Gold    A New Human    Editor's Picks Trowel Tales The history of archaeologist Kathleen Deagan's trusty trowel It's Good to be the (King) Thanks to advances in translating Maya hieroglyphs, the names of royals such as Water Sun Shark and Bird Jaguar are an endless source of amusement for us tamely monikered modern-day folks. Below are the results of our online poll, which gave readers the chance to vote for their favorite Maya royal name. Sadly, staff favorites Knot-Eye Jaguar, Turtle Tooth, and Curl Snout wound up at the bottom of the list. (Frankly, we were a little surprised that the lamely named 18 Rabbit was runner-up.) And the winner is... Smoking Squirrel - 24% The Rest of the Royals: 18 Rabbit - 15% Lady Six Sky - 13% Moon Skull - 12% Dark Sun - 11% Smoke Monkey - 10% Knot-Eye Jaguar - 9% Turtle Tooth - 4% Curl Snout - 2%

World Roundup Recent discoveries around the globe Web Watch Where to go for the lowdown on ancient writing: www.ancientscripts.com Created by a software engineer who moonlights as an amateur linguist, this site not only covers ancient writing systems—complete with illustrations, translations, and maps—but also offers games and downloadable fonts based on ancient scripts. www.historyworld.net A search for "writing" at HistoryWorld turns up pages devoted to everything from cuneiform to the "talking leaves" of the Cherokee. www.ancient-egypt.org/language The Ancient Egypt Site is brimming with information on writing and literature from the Early Dynastic period up to Greek and Roman times. Its most useful feature is a handy list of heiroglyphs. www.harappa.com/script An excellent compendium with links to all the information in cyberspace related to the undeciphered Indus Valley script, this site also features interviews with preeminent linguists and a "dictionary" that offers possible intepretations of the enigmatic signs. --Amélie Walker Magic Fluteball The only Neolithic flutist on the planet studies a 6,000-year-old spherical flute found in Macedonia. Destination Francis McManamon, National Park Service chief archaeologist, on his favorite site in the U.S. park system The Face That Launched an International Incident Egyptian authorities would like to borrow Queen Nefertiti's bust from Berlin's Egyptian Museum.

© 2007 by the Archaeological Institute of America archive.archaeology.org/0707/trenches/