When sixteen mummies with surviving heart and blood tissue from the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo were given CT scans, nine of them were found to have hardening of the arteries. “We were struck by the similar appearance of vascular calcification in the mummies and our present-day patients,” said Dr. Michael Miyamoto of the University of California at San Diego.

Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez continues her search for the tomb of Cleopatra. She thinks that she will find it at Ptolemy’s Temple, near Alexandria.  

Canadian mathematician Bryan Wells examined the incised marks on pots and tablets from Harappa. He concluded that the symbols may have been used by workers as time cards. “It is possible that wages were paid with grains dispersed from a centralized storage facility or in the case of incised tablets, material for construction projects and other short term projects,” he wrote in an article for Antiquity.  

Victorian-era railroad tracks were uncovered beside the Thames and Severn Canal in Gloucestershire, England. Coal was probably transported by barge along the canal, then loaded and carried along the rails to a nearby factory.  

The stray dogs of Pompeii will be given permanent homes, according to Marcello Fiori, Pompeii’s emergency commissioner. They will be sheltered by volunteers outside of the city’s walls until adoptive families can be found.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, November 18, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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