Archaeology News: July 21, 2011

Ahead of Their Time: Neandertals and the First Grandparents

Today people routinely live long enough to become grandparents. But analyses of fossil teeth conducted by Caspari and her colleagues indicate that this is a relatively recent development.

For most of human evolution, our ancestors mostly lived fast and died young. Reaching grandparent age, they show, did not become common until the Upper Paleolithic, and it may explain the sudden and dramatic shift in behaviors between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.

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Daily TWiP – Get acquainted with the history of the lollipop on National Lollipop Day

Archaeologists have discovered that people in ancient China, Egypt and the Middle East ate sticky candies made from fruit, nuts and honey, and that sticks were inserted so people could enjoy them without the indignity of sticky hands. We wonder how the archaeologists figured this out – perhaps they uncovered records from an ancient dental office.

Digital Archaeologists Excavate Chips, Not Dirt

Rather than pick and trowel, digital archaeology tools are successive acid baths, which strip away one layer after another of a chip, revealing the guts of the microprocessors that launched the personal computing revolution.

From anthropologists come new amateur archaeologists

Using shovels, square sifting boxes and their hands, University of Minnesota anthropology students slowly dug through the dirt on the banks of Spring Lake outside of Hastings, Minn.

The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: Mythica

I remember when Microsoft first announced Mythica, because I thought "This is gonna be cool." Vikings, Norse mythology, gods made flesh, and a big-name studio funding limitless adventures. In the pre-World of Warcraft era, the field was wide open for a company to come up and rival Sony Online Entertainment for the crown, so why not this one? But... cold water, skittish toes, and another MMO kicked the bucket before it saw the light of its first day.

Tomb of a lord of the Lambayeque

Archaeologist Carlos Wester of the Bruning Museum in Lambayeque, and his team have unearthed the tomb of a lord of the Lambayeque culture at the temple complex of Chotuna Chornancap, Peru. Copper machetes and human offerings suggest that he had been an executioner.

The Pearl Harbor Skull

A skull has been found at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Jeff Fong of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific thinks it may belong to one of the 55 Japanese pilots who died during the attack on December 7, 1941.

Theater at Hieropolis

The stage at the ancient theater at Hieropolis in Turkey will be restored.

Richard Engel visits ancient city of Cyrene

NBC reporter Richard Engel visits Libya and the ancient city of Cyrene in this Today Show video.