The Maya of Tikal used a water delivery system of old quarries and waterproofed reservoirs, canals, and sluices that held collected rainwater during the wet season and distributed it during Guatemala’s four-month-long dry season. “The people were able to use their land and water resources in a sustainable manner for as long as 1,500 years without significant interruption,” said Vernon Scarborough of the University of Cincinnati. A primitive filtration system did not completely clean the water, however. Boiling the water or using it to make alcohol was required to make it safe to drink.

Human bones have been recovered from a crypt buried beneath the Convent of Saint Ursula in Florence. Scientists think they may be the remains of Lisa Gheradini, believed to be the model for Leonardo De Vinci’s Mona Lisa. She became a nun after her husband’s death and lived at the convent until her death in 1542. DNA from the bones will be compared to DNA from other graves in the area, where Lisa’s children had been buried.

The construction of a new bridge across the Mississippi River has prompted the excavation of 1,200 dwellings and 70 deep pits in a residential area of Greater Cahokia in East St. Louis, Illinois. Most of the ancient mounds in the city were destroyed during development in the nineteenth century and then buried under a deep layer of fill. This dig offers a rare chance to learn more about Cahokia and its population. “There will be perhaps an impact on our understanding of how Cahokia functioned through time and how it related to not only that site (East St. Louis), but also the mounds in St. Louis and other sites in this sort of suburban area,” said Bill Iseminger, Cahokia Mounds Assistant Site Director.

A team of forensic dogs has been hired by local tribal people to search the desert near Ocotillo, California, for ancient cremated human remains because a wind-turbine project is scheduled to be built over some 12,000 acres that could contain hundreds of cremation sites. There are no plans to excavate the potential sites found by the dogs, which are trained to sit down when they smell old bones and dried teeth. The chief executive officer for the developer, Pattern Energy, said that the company has “reserved judgment on the results because we are not aware of research that supports canine searches as a reliable and proven method for identifying ancient cremation sites.”

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, July 18, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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