March/April 2025 Issue

A rare high-ranking member of the famed Terracotta Army was unearthed in the mausoleum of China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi (reigned 221–210 b.c.). Qin’s tomb is protected by thousands of life-size clay soldiers—his army for the afterlife. The recently uncovered figure depicts a top military officer, one of only 10 such figures identified among the 2,000 statues that have been excavated, and the first of such rank to be uncovered in 30 years. The officer’s elevated status is recognizable based on his posture, unique headdress, and colorful scale armor.

During restoration of frescoes in the 15th-century Old Monastery of Taxiarches in Aigialeia, workers uncovered the only known portrait of the final Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos. The emperor wears a purple robe embellished with a double-headed eagle, the insignia of the imperial family. Scholars believe that Constantine personally sat for the artist shortly before he died in the 1453 battle in which Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, ending the Byzantine Empire.

Burrfishes are rarely eaten because they can be lethal to humans. Curiously, massive amounts of burrfish remains were found at Mound Key, capital of the Indigenous Calusa people prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century. The Calusa were masters at manipulating their marine environment, but archaeologists don’t know why they harvested this deadly species. They speculate that the Calusa may have used burrfish toxins for medicinal or religious purposes or employed the spines as tattooing needles or spear tips.