September/October 2021 Issue

SINGAPORE: Two shipwrecks dating to the period when Singapore was a key stop on the trade route connecting the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea were discovered in the waters near the outlying island of Pedra Branca. The older of the 2 ships sank in the 14th century. The other has been identified as Shah Munchah, an Indian-built ship that wrecked in 1796. It carried a huge cargo of Chinese ceramics and blue-and-white Yuan Dynasty porcelain destined for Great Britain.

JAPAN: A man who was buried more than 3,000 years ago at the Tsukumo shell mound site appears to be the earliest known shark attack victim. Ever since his skeleton was discovered more than a century ago, researchers have been perplexed by the man’s cause of death, which presumably resulted from his 790 unusual wounds. New analysis has shown that his injuries were likely inflicted by the teeth of either a tiger or great white shark during an attack that also left him without his left hand and right leg.

TURKEY: Çatalhöyük is considered one of the world’s earliest proto-urban settlements. At its peak, from 7100 to 5700 B.C., its 8,000 inhabitants lived in densely packed one-room houses without doors or windows, which were entered through small openings in their roofs. A new experimental archaeology project has helped researchers determine that when fires were burning in these houses’ ovens, the lack of ventilation would have exposed residents to dangerous levels of air pollution. This likely caused respiratory illnesses and other ailments.