The Old Kingdom queen’s chamber was badly damaged except for two inner walls covered with spells meant to help her travel to the afterlife, he said in a statement...."Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Arts/Mar/16/Rare-pink-granite-sarcophagus-uncovered-in

"...Two deep-frozen settlements, Qeqertasussuk and Qajaa, were among the traces that some of the very first immigrants to western Greenland, 4,500 years ago, left behind at Disko Bay.

A reconstructed Saqqaq culture drum, shown here by Martin Appelt, an archaeologist at the National Museum of Denmark, and Natuk Lund Olsen, an ethnologist at the Greenland National Museum and Archives. (Photo: Greenland National Museum and Archives)

Unlike settlements elsewhere in the world, where only stone objects have survived thousands of years hidden in the soil, the deep-frozen remains in the Disko Bay area have also preserved perishable materials such as wood and bones, hair, feathers and skins.Archaeological excavations at Qeqertasussuk and Qajaa in the 1980s brought countless otherwise unknown tools and objects to light – including harpoons and lances, tools with shafts, kitchen items, even parts of skin clothing.

Finds like this have gradually helped archaeologists draw a detailed picture of the people of the Saqqaq culture – the first inhabitants of western Greenland.Now an extra dimension has been added because of the two pieces of frozen wood found among so many other wooden items from the two settlements that are now kept at museums in Nuuk and Qasigiannguit. Archaeologists recognised the two pieces of frozen wood as parts of drums – used in drum songs and dances, which express the soul of the Inuit culture. Until Greenland was Christianised, the drum was the indispensable tool of the angakoq – the Inuit shaman – at séances...." http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/04/2012/inuit-drum-history-longer-than-realised

Do intelligent dinosaurs really rule alien worlds?

It sounds like the ultimate science fiction storyline: What if the dinosaurs weren't wiped out by an asteroid impact 65 million years ago?  Perhaps they'd still be alive today, in an advanced evolutionary state, developing their space program and their own asteroid impact mitigation strategies. Sadly for us, this would have probably meant that mammals wouldn't have gotten a foothold and the fledgling human race would have become glorified dino-chum. ANALYSIS: Asteroid Family Not Guilty of Dinosaur Killing In new research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the rather outlandish prospect of alien -- not terrestrial -- dinosaur life is explored by Ronald Breslow. And these dino-aliens ("Dinolians"?) didn't have the misfortune of being smacked by an asteroid and/or get snuffed out by a volcanic eruption.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/12/do-intelligent-dinosaurs-really-rule-alien-worlds/#ixzz1s1mj2kwT

Skull confirms older origin for 'living fossil' fish

Mummified Kitten Bred to be Egyptian Offering

Two thousand years ago, an Egyptian purchased a mummified kitten from a breeder, to offer as a sacrifice to the goddess Bastet, new research suggests. Between about 332 B.C. and 30 B.C. in Egypt, cats were bred near temples specifically to be mummified and used as offerings. The cat mummy came from the Egyptian Collection of the National Archeological Museum in Parma, Italy. It was bought by the museum in the 18th century from a collector. Because of how the museum acquired it, there's no documentation about where the mummy came from. The cat mummies from this period are common, especially kittens. "Kittens, aged 2 to 4 months old, were sacrificed in huge numbers, because they were more suitable for mummification," the authors write in the paper, published in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/13/mummified-kitten-served-as-egyptian-offering/#ixzz1s3IdNjLw

The tomb complex was discovered accidentally on a construction site. It contains over 50 brick tombs from the Eastern Han, Tang and Song dynasties.

Experts identified the type of people who were buried there.Zhao Lanhui, deputy researcher of the Bengbu Cultural Relics Institute, said, "lying south to north would perhaps be people of four generations. Due to its size, we know the tombs come from the Song Dynasty. It's small with a simple style.

The tombs hold a unique character that were built in an animal shape."Though some tombs have been plundered over the years, precious relics have emerged, such as bronze mirrors, gold and silver garments, along with pottery boxes.Many people buried here were considered common people, until the discovery of a special, delicate and well-preserved mirror.

Zhou Chongwen, archaeologist, said, "It's a relatively large bronze mirror, which means the owner held social status."An archeological study is continuing on into its history and the people who lived here.It's generating much interest in local heritage and cultural identity...." http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/anhui/travel/2012-04/13/content_15044247.htm