What’s being called the world’s oldest family has been uncovered in a Stone Age cemetery in Germany. DNA testing has revealed that the 4,600-year-old skeletons of a man, woman, and two children, who had died violent deaths and were buried together, were a family. Others buried in the cemetery had also died violent deaths, leading scientists to conclude that the victims died in a sudden, fierce raid.

Scholars now say the Tudor warship Mary Rose was sunk by a French cannonball during the Battle of the Solent, and not by poor seamanship. “It would have been embarrassing enough for Henry VIII that the ship sunk in front of him, but it is not unreasonable that if he discovered what had happened he would not have wanted to have it credited to the French,” said Dominic Fontana, who led the research into the tides, winds, and ship positions on the day of the battle.  

A copy of the Bixby Letter, thought to have been written by Abraham Lincoln to a grieving mother during the Civil War, has turned up at the Dallas Historical Society archives. “The letter was so popular that it was published in newspapers and people copied it and sent it to relatives,” said curator Alan Olson. Experts have been asked to determine if the document is an original government copy.  

Conservators at the Canadian Museum of Civilization are repairing an ancient Egyptian coffin smashed during a student protest in 1969 at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montreal.  

Bones and tools made from stones imported from South Dakota and perhaps Montana were unearthed in 1988 at a 7,000-year-old bison kill site in Minnesota. Archaeologists from the State Historic Preservation Office want to return and dig some more, and analyze the artifacts recovered 20 years ago.  

In Spain, a pair of 2,300-year-old earrings was discovered at the necropolis at Coimbra del Barranco Ancho. They are said to bear a grape design.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, November 17, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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