The Burial of the Future: Alkaline Hydrolisis
	Since the Stone Age, there have been two main methods of disposing of human corpses: burial or cremation. African tribes leave human corpses out for hyenas to eat; others leave the body to decompose in trees or on rocks. However, the future could add another option to the list: alkaline hydrolysis. Our bodies would be dissolved in lye and turned into a brownish, coffee-colored syrupy residue, in what is clearly a very environmentally frien ... [read more >>]
	14 May 2008, 16:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Human Sacrifice at the Tombs of Mysterious Columbian Civilizations
	Back in January, construction workers stumbled in the Usme district (southeast of Bogotá, Colombia) upon an ancient burial site made of about one thousand tombs belonging to two mysterious civilizations. The site spans over an area of 12 acres (5 hectares) and could host victims of human sacrifice. "The possible victim is a young woman who seems to have been buried alive. Her mouth is open as if in terror, and her hands s ... [read more >>]
	13 May 2008, 02:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Sacred Dogs of the Ancient Native Americans
	The tombs of ancient Native Americans in the modern southwestern US have been found to contain hundreds of dog remains. A new study, recently presented at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archeology in Vancouver, Canada, and representing the first results of an investigation on dog burial places encountered in the area points to the mystical role these animals had for those people. "Throughout the region, dogs have b ... [read more >>]
	29 April 2008, 02:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Largest Pharaoh Tomb Is Larger than Previously Thought
	It has already been known as the largest pharaoh tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Now it appears that the tomb of Seti I, who ruled Egypt between 1313-1292 BC, is larger than originally believed. In 1817, Giovanni Battista Belzoni measured the tomb as being 328 ft (107 m) long. The new research shows its real length to be 446 ft (136 m). "[This is] the largest tomb and this is longest tunnel that's ever found in any ... [read more >>]
	21 April 2008, 02:59GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Largest Early Treasure of the Swedish Vikings
	Those Vikings were like working bees. A Viking treasure made of 472 ancient silver coins was found near Sweden's main international airport, Arlanda, Stockholm, last week, showing that Vikings used foreign currency much earlier than previously believed. The 1,150-year-old treasure comprises ... [read more >>]
	11 April 2008, 03:57GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Time of the Megaliths
	On the European plains, mysterious giant stones are found, forming alleys, circles or giant tables called "dolmens". They are the first monuments built by the mankind. A granite forest of dolmens and menhirs covers the Menec Field, near Carnac (French Brittany). In total, there are abou ... [read more >>]
	31 March 2008, 16:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Historical Mystery: Alexander the Great's Tomb
	He was one of the greatest military leaders of the Antiquity: he defeated the Persian Empire and created the largest empire of the ancient world in 13 years only. Alexander the Great had a tomb matching his personality in the city he founded at the mouth of the Nile River in 331 BC: Alexandria. For almost 600 years, his tomb was a pilgrimage place for people coming from all over the world. At the beginning of the 4th century AD, its to ... [read more >>]
	24 March 2008, 09:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Egyptian Pyramids: How They Appeared and How They Were Built
	When the Greeks saw the odd tombs of the pharaohs for the first time, they observed they had the shape of cookies made of flour and sesame, called "piramys". Hence the name "pyramids", even if the Egyptians always called them "mer". The shape of the pyramids was the result of an architectonic concept that evolved in the same time with the Egyptian religious ideology. The origin of the pyramids was in the g ... [read more >>]
	21 March 2008, 17:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Carnac: The Most Expensive Megalithic Fields
	On the southern part of the French Brittany, near the town of Carnac (Karnag) and the village of Locmariaquer, very close to the Gulf of Morbihan, the most expensive Neolithic (New Stone Age) menhirs in the world are to be found. "Menhir" comes from the Celtic words "maen" (stone) and "hir" (long). These constructions were built 6,000 to 4,500 years ago, a time when European life experienced dramatic chang ... [read more >>]
	10 March 2008, 09:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Amazing Coffins of Ghana
	A burial in Ghana is by no means an ordinary one. That's because each coffin is a small art work, reflecting the fantasy of the local craftsmen. The local habit forces the family to spend a lot with the "throne" (coffin) so that to commemorate and tell the life story of the deceased person. Craftsmen around Accra, the capital of Ghana, specialized in making wooden imaginative coffins for this purpose. The coffins u ... [read more >>]
	25 February 2008, 09:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Oldest Human Sacrifice: 5,500 Years Old!
	Many human civilizations are known to have made human sacrifices. Aztecs are perhaps the most famous for their cruel carnages, when hundreds to thousands of victims were killed and their still beating hearts were pulled out of their chests and offered to the gods. In fact, most pre-Columbian civilizations made human sacrifices, including Maya, Inca (which sacrificed only children in a less bloody way) and Araucans. Two thousands ... [read more >>]
	19 February 2008, 05:22GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The First Dog Mummies Ever Found in Egypt!
	In the heaven of the tomb raiders, an American-Russian team has managed to find 4 ancient tombs with well-preserved mummies, ornate painted coffins, and mummified dogs. The necropolis of Deir el-Banat is located in the oasis El Faiyum, 50 mi (80 km) southwest of Cairo, a place also famous for the discoveries of the oldest elephant fossils, some 50 million years old. Given the intensity of looting in the area, this was a surprise. The cemet ... [read more >>]
	31 January 2008, 02:55GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Trees Linked to Graveyards
	Since ancient times, people associated the idea of the immortality of the soul, rooted in Plato's teachings, with evergreen plants. With a right trunk, arched branches and fusiform treetop, the cypress tree is generally recognized as the funerary tree in the Mediterranean area. In antiquity, this tree, always green and with a large lifespan was dedicated to god Pluto, lord of Hell. Its funerary symbolism comes from the classic myth of ... [read more >>]
	14 November 2007, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Tutankhamon's Face Exposed to the Public
	Those fascinated by the ancient Egypt have been waiting for this moment for 85 years, since the discovery of the famous mummy of the 19-year-old "Boy Pharaoh" by Howard Carter: as from yesterday the public can see the 3,000-year-old face of Tutankhamon in his tomb in the famous Valley of the Kings. The mummy has a shriveled leathery black face and body and it is exposed in a climate-controlled glass box, but only the face and ... [read more >>]
	05 November 2007, 02:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Over 50 Headless Skeletons Found on the Cannibals' Island
	Traveling 100 years ago in the Vanuatu islands would have meant you were going to lose your head. And you body inside the stomachs of the locals, as they were still practicing cannibalism in certain areas. Now, over 50 headless skeletons have been discovered in one of the oldest cemeteries of the Pacific islands, belonging to a complex society of seafarers, the Lapita people. They are believed by some to be the ancestors of the Polynes ... [read more >>]
	01 November 2007, 07:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

An Over 2,000-Year-Old Etruscan Tomb Found Intact
	They are still perhaps the most mysterious civilization of the ancient Europe. Could a newly found tomb solve a part of the puzzle? Archaeologists have found an over 2,000-year-old Etruscan tomb perfectly preserved in Tuscany, with a treasure trove of artifacts and the urns keeping the remains of about 30 people. The tomb was discovered in the Tuscan town of Civitella Paganico and probably dates from the 1st - 3rd centuries B.C., whe ... [read more >>]
	14 August 2007, 05:30GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Archaeologists Discovered an Aztec Emperor!
	This could be one of the most important discoveries of all Aztec archaeology: ground-penetrating radars have found underground chambers that could be the tomb of Emperor Ahuizotl, who ruled the Aztecs when Columbus reached the New World. This find is the first of its type and would offer a great opportunity to envisage the Aztec civilization at its highest point. Ahuizotl conquered territories as far as Guatemala and was the last Aztec ... [read more >>]
	07 August 2007, 05:37GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Tomb of a Trojan War Hero Found!
	The civilization of the mighty ancient Greek warriors, called Mycenaean, that destroyed Troy disappeared 3,000 years ago. But now roadworks in southern Greece have dug out a rare Mycenaean grave thought to be much older than 3 millennia and containing important burial offerings including a gold chalice, announced the Greek Culture Ministry on Monday. "It appeared to be the grave of a local military official and was the first time a ... [read more >>]
	19 July 2007, 04:57GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Mysterious Pyramid Found under the Terracotta Army Tomb
	In 1974, Chinese farmers digging for a well accidentally made the biggest archaeological discovery ever in China: the tomb of the emperor Qinshihuang, of the Qin dynasty, which in 221 BC, unified China for the first time after extremely bloody wars. The western name of the country, China (Chinese people call themselves Han) comes from Qin dynasty. The tomb was defended for over 2,000 years by 8,000 life-size terracotta warrio ... [read more >>]
	03 July 2007, 02:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Ancient Gold on the Nile
	Ancient people said that Egypt was a gift of the Nile. But besides the richness of life, the Nile River came with the richness that human kind has always been greedy for: gold. Archaeologists have found evidence of large-scale gold extraction in the ancient Nubian kingdom of Kush, placed along the Nile. The finding is part of a race aimed at saving as many antiquities as possible before a dam would flood about 2,500 ancient archaeologi ... [read more >>]
	19 June 2007, 05:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Buried Alive: Human Sacrifices in Ancient China
	Human sacrifices have been made in almost any human civilization. China is no exception. Chinese archaeologists have unearthed two human skeletons from a tomb in Fengyang, China. The tomb dates from the Qin dynasty period (221 to 206 B.C.). This dynasty is the first to have unified China and this is where the western name of China (Chinese people call themselves Han) comes from. The tomb contained nine people thought to have been burie ... [read more >>]
	18 June 2007, 04:53GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Mass Child Sacrifice Made by the Aztecs' Predecessors
	The sanguinary side of the ancient Mexican civilizations did not spare even the children. 24 skeletons belonging to children murdered in an ancient mass sacrifice have been accidentally discovered in a tomb at a construction site in Mexico near the town of Tula, 50 miles (80 km) north of Mexico City. Here was the site of the ancient capital of the Toltecs, one of the most advanced Mexican civilizations, which predated the Aztecs, and t ... [read more >>]
	14 June 2007, 05:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Head Hunters Replaced Real Heads with Ceramic Heads
	Being light-headed was brought to the extremes by ancient Peruvians. A decapitated skeleton discovered in a tomb of Nasca, the ancient civilization that bloomed in southern Peru from A.D. 1 till 750, offers more explanations about this civilization of head hunters. People belonging to this civilization are famous for being the authors of the giant "Nasca lines" in the earth that depict figures only visible from the sky and ... [read more >>]
	07 June 2007, 02:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

White People in a 1,500 Years Old Chinese Tomb
	China is the symbolic country for the Mongoloid race. But when Chinese researchers made a DNA analysis on the remains of a man found in a 1,400-year-old Chinese tomb, they found his genes were of an European. A white man. The man's (named Yu Hong) tomb was found in Taiyuan (central China) and is the easternmost spot where the ancient European racial type has been found. "The [genetic group] to which Yu Hong belongs is the fir ... [read more >>]
	25 May 2007, 15:51GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Tomb of the King of the Magi Found Near Jerusalem
	The tomb of King Herod the Great, who ruled Israel when Jesus was born, the legendary builder of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, has just been discovered by an Israeli archaeologist. The Hebrew University announced this late Monday. The tomb is located in a site named Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Negev Desert and it can be seen from the southern part of Jerusalem. "Herod built a palace on the hill, and resea ... [read more >>]
	09 May 2007, 02:24GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Ancient Gold Treasure Found on Ulysses' Island
	A surprising discovery has been made in the Greek island of Kefaloniá, located in the Ionian Sea, between Greece and Italy. Archaeologists have dug a Roman-era theater and tomb, containing gold jewelry, pottery, and bronze offerings. This the first finding of this type on an island in the Ionian Sea and it points out a previously unknown route between the two ancient cultures. British archaeologists have recently proven that Ith ... [read more >>]
	10 April 2007, 05:03GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Head-Squashing for Keeping Power
	Ancient Peruvians may have been a sophisticated society, possessing advanced astronomical knowledge, but like many pre-Columbian societies, such as Maya and Aztec, their power was based on the tactic of scaring their neighbors, by using cruel rites. New archaeological finds suggest that aristocrats dismembered their less well-off neighbors as a scare tactic. Recent diggings discovered several deformed corpses at the burial ... [read more >>]
	29 March 2007, 03:32GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb Cheats and Gameplay Hints (Xbox)
	Indy returns for a heart-stopping new adventure in Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb! It's 1930s China, and Indiana Jones has been hired to recover one of the most powerful artifacts known to man before it falls into hostile hands. Join Indy in an epic, globe-spanning race th ... [read more >>]
	19 March 2007, 07:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia