Many of the Maya pyramids in Mexico could have been built to create “raindrop” music to honor the gods. The sounds of footsteps on the pyramids’ steps and platforms begin to sound like raindrops falling into a bucket of water as pilgrims reach the top of the structures. “Most if not all Maya pyramids were conceived as sacred mountains, which were the places where the clouds gathered and created rain,” explained Francisco Estrada-Belli of Boston University.

The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced that a Jewish ritual bath has been unearthed near the Temple Mount.  

Here’s a photograph of the couple unearthed near a moat at the ancient city of Troy. Pottery found near the skeletons suggests that the two may have died at the time of the Trojan War.  

The bones of a body that probably belong to a skull discovered last month have been uncovered in Wasilla, Alaska. Historians think the young man may have died during the 1918 flu epidemic. No other graves have been found.  

Archaeologists are assisting with the effort to move a Civil War-era cemetery out of the path of a turnpike exit in Rochester, New Hampshire. “I can’t think of any more respectful way to treat these people,” said archaeologist Kathleen Wheeler.  

A much larger cemetery dating to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has been exposed in the pathway of a new tram in Edinburgh, Scotland.  

Archaeologists have uncovered what is thought to be the oldest-known site in Sri Lanka.   

The Dutch are returning a cannon and a carriage to the island of St. Maarten. “St. Maarten is more than ready to finally receive these long-awaited historical objects,” said archaeologist Jay Haviser.  

More information about the excavation of royal burials in Syria’s ancient city of Qatna can be found at Science Daily.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, September 23, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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