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CHINE – Shaanxi - Skull extracted from a 2,200-year-old tomb in China represents a newly identified—and already extinct—gibbon, Junzi imperialis, paleontologists report today (June 21) in Science. Its human companion in the crypt is thought to be Lady Xia, the grandmother of China’s first emperor Qin Shihuang. “I don’t doubt for a second that it’s a new species, and probably a new genus,” Thomas Geissmann, a gibbon expert at the University of Zurich who was not involved in the study, tells Science. “We can assume that this vast area of central China [once] had many other species.” Lady Xia’s tomb, discovered in 2004, held a menagerie of remains—leopard, lynx, black bear, crane, and other animals that were buried with her. Several years ago, Samuel Turvey of the Zoological Society of London, was visiting Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology in China when he encountered the gibbon skull. Not allowed to extract DNA from the remains, Turvey and colleagues instead built a 3-D scan of the bones and compared it to data from other gibbon genera. Junzi’s distinctive molars and other cranial features set it apart from other known gibbons. “It’s clearly a weird specimen,” John Fleagle, a primate anatomist at Stony Brook University who did not participate in the study, tells National Geographic.
https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/54906/title/Bones-in-Ancient-Tomb-Are-of-Newly-Discovered-Ape-Genus/
SUEDE – - A report states that the practice of large-scale whaling may be several centuries older than previously thought. Andreas Hennius of Uppsala University and his colleagues examined board-game pieces dating to the Iron Age in museum collections in Sweden, and found that most of them were made of whalebone dating to the mid-sixth century A.D. The large supply and standardized forms of the game pieces suggest the scale of production was beyond the whalebone supply available from the carcasses of beached whales. Analysis of the game pieces with ZooMS, or Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometer, showed they had all been made from the bones of the North Atlantic right whale, or Eubalaena glacialis, which swam slowly and close to shore, and floated after it was killed because it had so much blubber. In Norway, archaeologists have uncovered evidence of large boathouses and features for processing blubber that also date to the sixth century. The researchers think the game pieces may have been crafted in Norway and transported to Sweden.
https://www.newhistorian.com/revealed-the-secrets-of-pre-viking-whaling/8732/
USA – Manassas - Scientists in Virginia have unearthed the amputated limbs of wounded Union soldiers in a pit of human bones. The discovery at Manassas National Battlefield Park in Manassas, VA, is believed to be the first known “limb pit” from a Civil War battlefield, according to NPR. The National Park Service runs the site and to date experts have found 11 limbs - 10 leg bones and one arm. Some of the many bones found include sawed-off femurs and limbs with bullet holes. Scientists also found complete remains of two soldiers who were likely killed during battle. Brandon Bies, an archaeologist and Civil War expert described what likely happened to the soldiers during the Battle of Second Manassas (Second Battle of Bull Run) in 1862 where Union forces were defeated by the Confederate soldiers.
VIDEO = http://www.kcbd.com/story/38466937/archaeologists-uncover-limb-pit-of-civil-war-dead
KAZAKHSTAN – Akkainar - Archeological values have been discovered in the village of Akkainar in the East Kazakhstan region in the time of water pipe construction, said Ruana Nurmoldina, head of department of interior policy, culture and development of languages. "An interesting and valuable discovery was found by workers in the time of water pipe construction in the village of Akkainar in Katon-Karagaisk district of Eastern Kazakhstan," she said. In her words, the workers have found a skull, a bronze cooking pot and other iron items from saks epoch. The water pipe construction has been suspended. Archeologists will start working on the scene in the near future.
https://www.kaztag.kz/en/news/archeological-valued-discovered-in-east-kazakhstan-region-in-time-of-water-pipe-construction