May/June 2015 Issue

BELIZE: The Great Blue Hole, a limestone sinkhole 40 miles offshore, is widely recognized as one of the world’s great scuba destinations. The sediment in and around it also provides information about past climate. The concentration of titanium and the ratio of titanium to aluminum rise and fall with rainfall, so by analyzing sediment cores, earth scientists have determined that there were severe droughts between A.D. 800 and 900, and again between 1000 and 1100. The two periods correspond with the declines of the Terminal Classic Maya cities and Chichén Itzá, respectively.

SPAIN: In a deep deposit at El Mirador Cave—spanning the Early Neolithic to the Bronze Age (7,200 to 3,100 years ago)—archaeologists have found evidence of human consumption of dogs, wild cats, badgers, and foxes. The carnivore bones appear to have been butchered, broken, cooked, and gnawed by humans. Consumption of dog meat appears sporadically but repeatedly, while bones of the other carnivore species are less frequent. Researchers suspect they might have been accidentally hunted, but also may have provided extra protein in times of scarcity.—Samir S. Patel

FRANCE: Using a novel method—radiocarbon dating of trapped iron carbide flakes—metallographers and archaeologists have confirmed that metal reinforcements used in Gothic cathedrals were not later additions, but rather were part of the initial construction process. Samples taken from cathedrals in Bourges and Beauvais reveal that metal tie-rods and chains were incorporated either during the initial design phase or as builders were working, the latter suggesting that cathedral building sites were like laboratories for new building techniques.—Samir S. Patel