Excavators with the Israel Antiquities Authority discovered a plaster-lined, rock-hewn reservoir dating to the First Temple period in Jerusalem’s Old City. It had been thought that people had relied on spring water at that time. “Presumable the large water reservoir, which is situated near the Temple Mount, was used for the everyday activities of the Temple Mount itself and also by the pilgrims who went up to the Temple and required water for bathing and drinking,” said Tvika Tsuk of the Nature and Parks Authority.

Scholars led by Paul Schubert of the University of Geneva have translated a poem discovered in the nineteenth century among the papyri at Oxyrhynchus. The poem, written in Greek, deifies Nero’s wife Poppaea Sabina, who is portrayed as a loving spouse as she ascends to the heavenly bodies. Schubert thinks the poem may represent a lost genre of poetry written for members of the imperial family. It is also possible that the piece was part of a longer astrological poem, or it may have been composed to honor the deceased wife of an Egyptian official.

Many of the ancient manuscripts at the sixth-century Sacred and Imperial Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount of Sinai are being photographed and digitized by a team led by Michael Toth, a former policy director at the National Reconnaissance Office. He is working to recover more than 100 texts that had been scraped away so that the parchment pages could be reused 1,200 years ago.

Migaloo, a black Labrador cross, broke the world record for the oldest bone found by a dog when she discovered a 600-year-old bone buried more than six feet underground. As a trained archaeology dog, her sense of smell will help archaeologists continue to find ancient graves in Australia. “We’ve never heard of fossil dogs, nobody ever thought there would be any scent left on these old bones, nobody thought it could be done,” said Keryn Walshe of the South Australian Museum.

Archaeologist Richard Buckley announced that the Franciscan friary known as the Grey Friars has been identified in Leicester, England. “It is remarkable that the third trench has now made us certain that we have located the friary church – not only a huge step forward in the search for the remains of Richard III, but also important new evidence for one of Leicester’s major religious buildings, lost for over 400 years,” he said. His team will now try to locate the church’s high altar and choir area, where the defeated king was reportedly buried in 1485.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, September 6, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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