A tomb containing the mummy of a warrior was opened in Dra Abul Naga, a cemetery in Luxor. Five arrows made of reeds and feathers were found near the wooden coffin. Two bows and three staffs had been placed within the coffin.

Here’s another article on the new excavations at the fortified city of Sisupalgarh, in India’s state of Orissa. Some archaeologists claim that as many as 25,000 people lived there in the fifth century B.C. The Archaeological Survey of India may ask the state government for control over the site, since much of it is on private land and is endangered by the growth of the nearby city of Bhubaneswar. 

A transcript purportedly recording a conversation between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby about assassinating John F. Kennedy was found in a safe at the Dallas County district attorney’s office. “It’s hilarious. It’s like a bad B movie,” said Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum, near where the president was shot. Indeed, experts think the document belonged to deceased Ruby prosecutor Henry Wade, who was working on a movie script titled Countdown in Dallas.

Christopher Columbus carried an astronomical almanac, and was able to use its prediction of a lunar eclipse on February 29, 1504, to coerce the inhabitants of Jamaica to supply his crew with food.   A similar eclipse is due to occur on the night of February 20-21. For more information, see Sky and Telescope.com. 

A team of archaeologists and historians has found the entrance to the underground British headquarters in Ypres, Belgium, from World War I that was discovered last year. The network of tunnels once held tens of thousands of men, but now they are filled with water. “The preservation of this place is absolutely exquisite,” commented historian Peter Barton.  

A rare leaf-shaped candlestick was left behind by thieves who broke into an archaeological excavation in Auckland, New Zealand. 

A missing page from a fifth-century Christian text has been found in the Deir al-Surian monastery in Egypt.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, February 18, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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