Archaeologists dropped a tiny camera into a Maya tomb hidden inside a pyramid at Palenque. The tomb was discovered in 1999, but it is inaccessible. “The characteristics of the funeral site show that the bones could belong to a sacred ruler from Palenque, probably one of the founders of a dynasty,” said Martha Cuevas of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History. Here’s more background information on the tomb.

A team from the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman has found Otzi’s stomach closer to where his lungs should be. A sample of its contents revealed that he ate a meal of ibex meat about two hours before his death.

The rock art within Lascaux Cave has been attacked by mold and fungus since 1963. Scientists are now trying to keep their interventions to a minimum. “We are using compresses against it but not surgery,” said Muriel Mauriac, curator of the cave.

Students from the University of West Florida are looking for the Spanish church at the Mission San Joseph De Escambe, established in 1757.

Archaeologists from the University of Maryland are excavating three mid-nineteenth-century homes of Irish immigrants on Lemmon Street in Baltimore. They have uncovered children’s toys and slates, dinner plates, and buttons. “The children had at least some leisure or play time – even in an era when children from the working class were viewed as part of the family’s economic structure and put out to work at an extremely young age,” explained Stephen Brighton.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, June 24, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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