Two teams of scientists are using RNA to study ancient crops and the process of plant domestication. RNA molecules are active within a cell, and can indicate which genes are turned on and off. They are also notoriously unstable. “With ancient DNA you can see what an ancient organism might have looked like. With ancient RNA we can see what it actually looked like,” said molecular biologist Sarah Fordyce of the University of Copenhagen.

An ancient ceremony conducted by the Zoque people of Mexico has influenced the evolution of fish swimming in the sulfur cave known as Cueva del Azufre. The Zoque stun the fish with a toxin each spring in order to catch them for food. Scientists have shown that fish exposed to the ritual are more resistant to the toxin than fish that live elsewhere. “What is most exciting to me is that we were really able to find these connections between the natural world and culture,” said Michael Tobler of Oklahoma State University.  

High levels of lead in the bones of samurai-class children who lived in Japan 400 years ago may have been caused by their mothers’ lead-based white face powder. The children that survived into adulthood probably suffered from severe intellectual impairment, according to the study conducted by Tamiji Nakashima of the University of Occupational and Environmental Heath.  

Archaeologists are racing to collect fragile artifacts from the melting ice in northern Europe’s mountains before they deteriorate.  

Skeletal remains linked to the modern Huron-Wendat people are being kept in basements at the University of Toronto, and the Huron-Wendat want them repatriated. The bones were excavated in the 1950s and early 1970s from land owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust. The modern Huron-Wendat group, however, is based in Quebec. “Heritage is a provincial responsibility and not [a] federal [one]. The fact that the Huron-Wendat live in Quebec has slowed us down quite a bit,” said Susan Pfeiffer of the University of Toronto.  

Caddo pots, bowls, and bottles recovered by the Army Corps of Engineers were packed and ready to be handed over to the Caddo tribe when they were stolen from Southern Arkansas University four years ago. Archaeologist Jamie Brandon hopes that the well-documented pottery will be recovered soon.  

The face of a girl who died of typhoid fever in fifth-century B.C. Athens has been reconstructed. Her intact skull and teeth were unearthed at the Keramikos site in 1995 during subway construction.  

Construction of a castle using medieval-period building techniques continues in France, despite the lack of funding.  

Edward Low, 77, has died before his lawsuit against the Ohio Historical Society reached court. Low discovered a 2,400-year-old carved piece of sandstone from the Early Woodland Adena culture as a child, and claimed that he loaned it to the society for research and display. The Ohio Historical Society says it was a gift, but can provide no documentation to prove it. It has been said in the past that Low wanted to donate the artifact to a museum near his boyhood home.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, September 14, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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