A circular plaza has been uncovered by Peruvian and German archaeologists at Sechin Bajo, 229 miles north of Lima. The plaza is estimated to be 5,500 years old, making it older than the citadel of Caral, and one of the oldest structures in the Americas.

Lisa Lucero of the University of Illinois thinks that the different building materials in the six Maya temples at Yalbac indicate that they were built by royals and non-royals alike between 550 and 850 A.D. “Maya scholars have basically assumed that rulers built all the temples,” she said.  

Scientists entered the fifth-century tomb of Japanese Empress Jingu for the first time. The Imperial tombs have been closed to researchers and the public.  

The Magerius Mosaic was discovered in Tunisia in 1966. This article in Current Archaeology recounts British scholar David Bomgardner’s recent interpretation of the mosaic’s images.  

A Bronze Age water whistle was uncovered by Italian archaeologists at the site of Pyrgos/Mavrorachi, on Cyprus. The small object depicts a donkey loaded with two panniers and a child.  

Photographs taken at President Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration on March 4, 1865, had been mislabeled and misfiled at the Library of Congress. When the photographs were posted online, a researcher recognized the error.  

A Swedish Viking woman who had been buried in the Russian region of Pskov was reportedly provided with a blue silk dress and ornaments for the afterlife. “Now we can say the pre-Christian dress code was very rich. When Christianity came, the dress was more like that of nuns. There was a big difference,” said Annika Larsson of Uppsala University.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, February 26, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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