Did the influx of silver from the New World cause inflation in Spain between 1520 and 1650? Archaeometrist Anne-Marie DeSaulty of the University of Lyon used mass spectrometry to measure the ratios of metal isotopes in a variety of old coins. She’s concluded that that the New World silver probably wasn’t minted into coins until much later.

A robot sent into shafts in the Great Pyramid transmitted images of hieroglyphs written in red paint. “We believe that if these hieroglyphs could be deciphered they could help Egyptologists work out why these mysterious shafts were built,” said engineer Rob Richardson of the University of Leeds.

The skeletons of five people were found underneath the Royal Chapel at Scotland’s Stirling Castle. Forensic tests show that one of the individuals was a woman who was killed with a war hammer sometime during the Scottish Wars of Independence. “It is extraordinary to find a group of individuals from the 1300s who are all exhibiting terrible wounds from death in battle. But then to find a woman among the group allows us to speculate on matters that otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to imagine,” said Peter Yeoman of Historic Scotland.

Construction work in central England revealed a medieval village consisting of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses.  Archaeologists also found a bronze lion head that is thought to have been worn as a hat badge.

More than 300 gold coins have been unearthed in Albany, Australia, on private land. Archaeologists and the Albany Historical Society are dismayed, however, because the landowner will not allow anyone to see the coins. “It’s a great tragedy. Albany was the first site of European settlement and the principal port of the colony of western Australia until 1900,” said marine archaeologist Adam Wolfe.

Archaeologists from Iraq’s Antiquities Department will conduct rescue excavations in the country’s southern provinces. “The dispatch of these excavation teams is of paramount importance because they will be involved in salvage digs in order to save antiquities in mounds threatened with flooding,” said Abdulzahara al-Talaqani.

Engineer Hod Lipson of Cornell University is using 3-D scanning and printing technology to create exact replicas of cuneiform tablets. “This will make tablet collections accessible to more scholars and students the world over,” he said.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, May 27, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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