Parts of the first plane taken to Antarctica have been found by an Australian team of researchers. The damaged aircraft was taken to Antarctica during a 1911 to 1914 expedition led by polar explorer Douglas Mawson, who intended to use it to tow gear on the ice.  This article has a photo of the recovered parts of the 100-year-old plane.    And you can see those parts in situ at Discovery News.

Here’s a discussion of other technological developments from 100 years ago.  

In a new translation of a 3,700-year-old Babylonian, cuneiform clay tablet, “Noah’s Ark” is described as a round, bitumen-covered reed vessel. “The ark didn’t have to go anywhere, it just had to float, and the instructions are for a type of craft which they knew very well. It’s still sometimes used in Iran and Iraq today,” said Irving Finkel of the British Museum.  

Intrepid archaeological travelers are venturing into Iraqi Kurdistan, which has been “relatively untouched by the war and insurgency,” according to Lonely Planet travel guide author César G. Soriano.   

In Egypt, a 2,500-year-old tomb has been unearthed at Saqqara. It had been looted in the fifth century A.D.   There’s a bit more information on the tomb in The Sydney Morning Herald.   

Ground-penetrating radar has detected what could be a grain mill owned by Revolutionary War leader George Rogers Clark, in Clarksville, Indiana. Two American Indian villages also sit on the land, located near the Ohio River.  

The skeleton of a horse, still wearing Western tack, has been found in a state park in northern California. Archaeologist Breck Parkman thinks the remains date to the 1970s, and he is trying to figure out what happened. “It’s a really interesting mystery,” he said.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, January 4, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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