The tomb of the fabled general Cao Cao may have been unearthed in China’s central Henan Province. The ruthless ruler died in 220 A.D.

“The Maya of Palenque had water pressure technology by 750 A.D. at the very latest and most likely much earlier,” according to archaeologist Kirk French of Penn State University. French and his team discovered a buried, spring-fed conduit on a steep slope that abruptly narrows at one end. The resulting water pressure could have driven a fountain shooting water 20 feet high.  

A team of Greek underwater archaeologists claims to have discovered the giant doors to Cleopatra’s mausoleum off the coast of Alexandria. “We believe it was part of the complex surrounding Cleopatra’s palace,” said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.  

In St. Augustine, Florida, archaeologists have found a whisk known as a molinillo, which suggests that drinkable chocolate was served in North America as early as the 1500s. The wooden tool was discovered in a well, along with oyster and clam shells and animal bones.  

Three different types of forges were uncovered at what could be an early industrial site in Norway. “These are rare and exciting results, and unique in a Scandinavian context,” said Preben Ronne of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Museum of Natural History.  

A large, seventh-century Buddha statue has been unearthed in the Indian state of Kargil, near the border with Pakistan.   Buddhist artifacts in Pakistan still face the threat of destruction from the Taliban.  

Conservators working on the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley have developed new ways of preserving metal artifacts. “The Hunley showed what happens to metal in the long term, and we’re using what we’re learning from the Hunley and applying it to modern metals,” said Michael Drews of the Clemson Conservation Center.  

Energy development is expected to go ahead in Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon, with an agreement to protect American Indian rock art.  

Did people begin farming 9,000 years ago in order to brew alcoholic beverages? “Consuming high energy sugar and alcohol was a fabulous solution for surviving in a hostile environment with few natural resources,” said Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He found traces of mead made from fruit, honey, and rice on clay shards from China’s Yellow River Valley.   

The Turkish government may ask Italy to return the bones of St. Nicholas, which were disinterred from the town of Demre during the Middle Ages by Italian sailors, and reburied in Bari.  

German officials say the bust of Nefertiti was acquired legally in 1913, and that it is too fragile to be transported anyway, in response to the request that it be returned to Egypt.  

Collectors of Nazi memorabilia probably commissioned the theft of the sign that hangs over the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, according to police.   The Polish Culture Ministry will help pay for more security at Auschwitz.   

The 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals in Atlanta will get the case of the so-called Black Swan, a shipwreck that had been carrying a fortune in gold and silver coins. The government of Spain says that the ship is the wreck of a naval vessel and their property.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, December 28, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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