Is the demand for entertaining science programs interfering with “the slow, rigorous nature of the scientific process?” Nature investigates this question, using the recent article by media-savvy palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand as an example.

A task force of Alpine mountain climbers, archaeologists, and anthropologists has been assembled to rescue the artifacts that appear as the glaciers recede. Oetzi the Iceman is the most famous discovery, but recent finds include the bodies of Austro-Hungarian soldiers killed in 1918.  

Anthropologist Robert McCarthy of Florida Atlantic University thinks he has replicated how a Neanderthal would say an “e” sound. Follow the link at the bottom of this article to hear the computer-generated utterance.  

A cave on the Philippine island of Mindanao that once held bones and anthropomorphic burial jars is now being guarded by soldiers of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. When scientists from the National Museum arrived, they found that the bones had been stolen and the pots were broken.  

Fabrics from a fifth-century Maya tomb in Copán have been analyzed by Margaret Ordoñez of the University of Rhode Island. “What was most amazing was that there were as many as 25 layers of fabrics on an offertory platform and covering pottery in the tomb, and they all had a different fabric structure, color, and yarn size, so it’s likely that the tomb was reopened–perhaps several times–and additional layers of textiles were laid there years after her death,” she said.   

Renovations have begun at the synagogue within Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, visited by nearly 200,000 people last year. The prison opened in 1829 and closed in 1971; the synagogue was added in the 1920s.

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

Comments posted here do not represent the views or policies of the Archaeological Institute of America.