A complex of more than 50 tombs ranging in age from 2,000 to 800 years old was uncovered during a construction project in the eastern Anhui province of China. Some of the tombs, which were all made of brick, had been looted, but others remained intact and contained bronze mirrors, gold and silver garments, and pottery.

A second-century comb made of deer antler is said to be inscribed with the oldest engravings of runes ever discovered in central Germany. Sven Ostritz of the Saxony-Anhalt Heritage and Archaeology Management Office says that the ancient letters spell out the word “comb.”

A farmer in southwestern Scotland had to stop working when the blades of his plow got stuck in a huge, flat, stone slab, revealing a Bronze Age cist tomb containing a skeleton. Jock McMaster alerted archaeologists, who found two more cists in the area, although they were empty. “There was obviously a lot of activity here in ancient times as we have the standing stones and the Wren’s Egg stone nearby,” McMaster said.

Lawmakers marked the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic yesterday by proposing legislation that would protect the wreck site as hallowed ground. The RMS Titanic Maritime Memorial Preservation Act, sponsored by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, would impose financial penalties of up to $250,000 per day and five years in prison on any American who disturbs the site without permission, or brings looted Titanicartifacts into the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would be given authority to enforce the rules of exploration and salvage operations.

Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigate the globe. This summer, a team led by Ric Gillespie of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), will travel by research vessel to the Phoenix Islands in Kiribati, where they hope to find the wreckage of Earhart’s plane using a newly enhanced picture taken in 1937 as a guide. On previous trips to Nikumarro Island, Gilllespie has found circumstantial evidence, including bones, bits of makeup containers, and food remains at a campsite. He has also heard an eyewitness account from someone who saw wreckage as a child.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, April 13, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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