More figurines and objects carved during the late Stone Age have been discovered at Zaraysk, southeast of Moscow. The new artifacts include two human figures assumed to be female, a small bone engraved with a cross-hatch pattern, a mammoth rib inscribed with three mammoths, and a cone-shaped object. “These finds are incredibly rare, and they offer a unique picture into human Upper Paleolithic life,” commented anthropologist Jeffrey Brantingham of UCLA.

Dental plaque scraped from 39 teeth recovered in northern Peru shows that people ate cultivated crops such as squash and beans, peanuts, and a local fruit called pacay earlier than previously thought. The teeth are estimated to be between 6,000 and 8,000 years old.  

The discovery of a mummy and 25 ceremonial objects at Machu Picchu was announced yesterday. Today, you can see a video of the excavation at National Geographic News.  

There’s also video featuring the Roman city of Viminacium, in modern-day Serbia.  

A new study indicates that Otzi the Iceman had six different kinds of mosses in his gut, along with unleavened bread and meat. The mosses were probably used to wrap food, and could have been ingested with drinking water. He may have also used moss to dress his wounds.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, December 2, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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