Engineering student David Knowles of Cambridge University won a prize for the supportive frame he designed for a mummy case undergoing conservation at the Fitzwilliam Museum. The mummy case, which was made of layers of plaster, linen, and glue, had been damaged by humidity sometime since it was discovered in the late nineteenth century. Knowles also created internal supports for the stabilized case using LEGO bricks, making the design light and easily adjustable.

John Chuchiak IV of Missouri State University has translated documents that record the opening of a trial that took place in sixteenth-century Mexico City. Pedro Ruiz Calderón, a Catholic priest, was prosecuted for practicing black magic. “He really typifies all the major types of learned magic, from summoning and conjuring demons, to exorcising demons to the powers of cloaking himself, making himself invisible. He could hypnotize people, too; it’s one of the earliest, I think, descriptions of hypnotism, mesmerizing people,” he said. Calderón was eventually sent back to Spain.

Chinese scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) measured “Peking Man” fossil skulls unearthed at Zhoukoudian Locality 1. They found that although the basic shape of the skulls remained stable over some 300,000 years, the skulls did increase in size. “The Homo erectuscrania from Zhoukoudian may represent an isolated population, and as a result, lacked evidence of gene flow from outside populations,” said Xing Song of the IVPP.

A lion’s head carved from stone has been found in a cave in the mountains of southern Bulgaria. It dates to the second or first century B.C., and may have been connected to a Thracian fertility rite. The sculpture was spotted by some German ornithologists who were studying local birds.

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

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