Roman-style wall paintings have been uncovered at the fortress of Herodium, thought to be the home and burial place of King Herod, the Jewish proxy ruler under Roman occupation during the first century B.C. “There has been no other discovery of this type of painting in the Middle East, as far as we know, until now,” said site surveyor Rachel Chachy-Laureys. She thinks that the work was done by artisans imported from Rome.   Herodium lies deep within the West Bank, in Area C, which is under Israeli administrative and security control. Palestinians also claim the land.    A photograph of one of the frescoes is available at National Geographic News, where it is shown with a plug for an upcoming television program.

Some 100 fragments of human bones have been recovered from the Mas de la Pila, site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Spanish Civil War.   

A metal detector hobbyist in Nottinghamshire, England, was looking for bits of metal from a World War II plane crash when he stumbled upon an Iron Age torc made of electrum. “This wasn’t in a grave, wasn’t on a hilltop – it opens up a whole new chapter of the history of this area,”said JD Hill, head of the British Museum’s Iron Age department. The torc will go on display at a local museum.  

Scientists are close to completing a map of mammoth DNA taken from balls of hair found frozen in Siberia. This type of research will help illustrate the evolutionary differences between mammoths and elephants, and eventually, humans and chimps.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, November 20, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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