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IRAN: The necropolis in Shahr-i-Sokhta (“Burnt City”) in
southeastern Iran contains burials of as many as 37,000
humans—and at least one rhesus macaque. The animal was
likely kept as the pet of a wealthy family. When it died more
than 4,500 years ago, it was interred in the cemetery in the
same style as a human infant. The monkey species, which
was seen as a symbol of wealth, power, and prestige, is not native to Iran and may
have been imported from the Indus Valley.LEBANON: Between the 11th
and 13th centuries, hundreds
of thousands of Europeans
ventured to the Near East in
a campaign to reconquer the
Holy Land. A new study sug-
gests that the Crusader army
may have been more diverse than originally thought. DNA
sequencing of 9 soldiers who were buried together in a mass
grave near Sidon in the 13th century revealed, to the research-
ers’ surprise, that 3 were European, 4 were Near Eastern, and 2
had a mixture of European and Near Eastern ancestry.ISRAEL: A difficult-
to-read inscrip-
tion on a Roman
mile marker in
the Golan Heights
has finally been
deciphered. The
inscription was found to bear the name
and titles of the Roman emperor Maxi-
minus Thrax, who ruled from a.d. 235 to- Among several distance markers
that have been located along the Roman
road outside ancient Hippos, this is the
only one with any writing. Since the road
was built long before the 3rd century
a.d., it must have undergone substantial
renovations during the emperor’s reign.
CHINA:
One of
the most
remark-
able
aspects
of the
Terra-
cotta Army is the pristine
state of the soldiers’ bronze
weapons after 2,000 years
underground. Because
trace amounts of chromium
have been detected on
the blades, scientists have
long presumed that ancient
Chinese craftsmen invented
a type of anti-rust coating.
However, researchers have
learned that the chromium
is actually contamination
from lacquer applied to
the weapons’ handles and
shafts, and is not responsible
for the metal’s preservation.
It is now thought that the
chemical composition of
the surrounding soil helped
prevent corrosion.FRANCE: Around 120,000
years ago, for a group of
Neanderthals living in south-
eastern France, drastic times
called for drastic measures.
During a period of rapid
warming, food became scarce, and, on at least one occasion,
they were forced to eat their own. New insight into the Moula-
Guercy Cave, where the dismembered and butchered remains
of 6 individuals were found, suggests that, in the sudden ab-
sence of large mammals such as mammoth and reindeer, the
meat-reliant Neanderthals were driven to cannibalism.