Genetic tests indicate that a 2,000-year-old skeleton unearthed in eastern Mongolia was a man of European or western Asian descent. “We don’t know if this 60- to 70-year-old man reached Mongolia on his own or if his family had already lived there for many generations,” said DNA analyst Charles Brenner.   

Scientists will open the grave of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. They want to know if he died of bladder problems or kidney stones, as some believe, or if he had been poisoned. Brahe was buried in Praque’s Tyn Cathedral.   

Officials in the Crimea who turned over an ancient barrow to farmers will face criminal charges.  

A building labeled the world’s oldest Christian monastery has been restored in Zaafarana, Egypt. St. Anthony’s Monastery is 1,600 years old. “The announcement we are making today shows to the world how we are keen to restore the monuments of our past, whether Coptic, Jewish, or Muslim,” said archaeologist Zahi Hawass.  

The last speaker of Bo, one of the world’s oldest languages, has died. Boa Sr was 85 years old and lived on India’s Andaman Islands. Bo is estimated to have been 70,000 years old. “It is generally believed that all Andamanese languages might be the last representatives of those languages which go back to pre-Neolithic times,” said linguist Anvita Abbi.  

Here’s more information on the renovation of the Avenue of Sphinxes and the plans to open it to tourists next month.

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

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