July/August 2019 Issue

CHINA: One of the most remarkable aspects of the Terracotta Army is the pristine state of the soldiers’ bronze weapons after 2,000 years underground. Because trace amounts of chromium have been detected on the blades, scientists have long presumed that ancient Chinese craftsmen invented a type of anti-rust coating. However, researchers have learned that the chromium is actually contamination from lacquer applied to the weapons’ handles and shafts, and is not responsible for the metal’s preservation. It is now thought that the chemical composition of the surrounding soil helped prevent corrosion.

IRAN: The necropolis in Shahr-i-Sokhta (“Burnt City”) in southeastern Iran contains burials of as many as 37,000 humans—and at least one rhesus macaque. The animal was likely kept as the pet of a wealthy family. When it died more than 4,500 years ago, it was interred in the cemetery in the same style as a human infant. The monkey species, which was seen as a symbol of wealth, power, and prestige, is not native to Iran and may have been imported from the Indus Valley.

LEBANON: Between the 11th and 13th centuries, hundreds of thousands of Europeans ventured to the Near East in a campaign to reconquer the Holy Land. A new study suggests that the Crusader army may have been more diverse than originally thought. DNA sequencing of 9 soldiers who were buried together in a mass grave near Sidon in the 13th century revealed, to the researchers’ surprise, that 3 were European, 4 were Near Eastern, and 2 had a mixture of European and Near Eastern ancestry.