A nine-ton granite temple pylon from Cleopatra’s palace complex has been lifted from Alexandria’s harbor.  

A 4,000-year-old lentil discovered in Turkey has germinated. “Barley, lentil, wheat, all of these originated in Anatolia,” said Nükhet Bingöl of Dumlupinar University.  

Two blocks of butter were found in early twentieth-century British explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s hut in Antarctica. “It’s quite amazing how strong the smell is after nearly 100 years. I’m not sure I’d want it on my toast,” said Lizzie Meek of the Antarctic Heritage Trust.  

Scientists have detected levels of lead that are “off the scale” in a 160-year-old soup can thought to have been left behind in the Canadian Arctic by rescue teams sent to search for the crew of the Franklin Expedition. The rescuers and the Franklin Expedition were provisioned by the same supplier. It is thought that lead poisoning from the food supplies, or from pipes in the ships’ fresh water systems, may have had a debilitating effect on the explorers.    

A Gospel of Mark housed at the University of Chicago has been shown to be a late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century forgery of a Byzantine manuscript. Known as the Archaic Mark, the university will keep the fake as a teaching tool.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, December 17, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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