March/April 2014 Issue

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: In late 2010, at a construction site on New Britain Island, archaeologists uncovered a cache of sophisticated obsidian tools dating to between 3,000 and 6,000 years ago. Upon analysis, scientists found that at least five of the tools were thin, fragile, and unused—suggesting a ritual or decorative purpose—and appear to have a distinctly phallic shape. There are few archaeological sites from this period in Papuan history, and the discovery suggests an early, previously unrecognized trade in ritual objects before the emergence of the Lapita culture across the South Pacific. —Samir S. Patel

PHILIPPINES: Skeletal remains dating to more than 9,000 years ago tell of a previously undocumented burial ritual involving disarticulation, defleshing, crushing, and then burning. The fragmentary bones bearing signs of this complex activity were buried in a shallow pit outside the mouth of Ille Cave. Five other sets of remains found there bear similar marks. Clearly, it was an elaborate process, but much is still unknown about the culture that engaged in it. —Samir S. Patel

CHINA: Countless words have been written about how the Egyptians moved the large stone blocks of the pyramids into place, but less attention has been paid to how the Chinese moved the massive blocks of the Forbidden City in Beijing in the 15th and 16th centuries. A new analysis of historical records and mechanical tests shows that stone could have been moved 40 miles, from quarry to the Forbidden City, on ice roads lubricated with water. Just 46 men would have been needed to move a 123-ton block. —Samir S. Patel