WSC Social Studies Archaeology

Richard III death and findingRichard III was a British monarch who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field, a battle that was the grand finale of the War of the Roses. Richard was the last Yorkist king, and he lost in the battle to Henry VII of Tudor. His body was not found, died around the age of 32, he was buried at Greyfriars Church, a 13th century holy church in the city of Leicester. Today, people thought the church was destroyed by Henry VII, until 2012 a team of archeologists, led by Philippa Langley. They found the location of the church by comparing old and new maps, and coming to the conclusion that the church was located at a parking lot. They dug there, and found a body – they DNA tested it, and confirmed those were Richard III's. Richard III's look was a little weird, even Shakespeare described him as a "poisonous bunch backed toad", but with today's tech archeologists found out he had a form of scoliosis, when the spine curves on the side. King Richard III's remains were re-interred at Leicester Cathedral in March 2015.

Ancient Buddhist temple in Pakistan foundItalian and Pakistani archeologists led by Luca Maria Olivieri in partnership with the International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies found in Pakistan a roughly 2000 year old Buddhist temple, which is the oldest in the Gandhara region. This region was a trade crossroads between Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The archaeologists found in the temple treasures and buddhist symbols. In the temple you could see the rooms and their usage, like a stupa for monks, a stupa for relics etc.

Fastest human in history foundArcheologists found in New South Wales (a region in Australia) aboriginal footprints from 20,000 years ago. They stepped on wetlands that are now dry, so you can see their big footprints on the dry dunes. It now belongs to the Mingo National Park. They found 700 footprints, 400 of them grouped in a set of 23 tracks, and these belonged to several groups who crossed the wetlands – families, hunters. On a group of 5 aboriginal hunters, Steve Webb, with Bond University found that one of them was running at 37 km/h on mud, which is close to Usain Bolt's 37.6 km/h without running on mud, or Donovan Bailey who once reached the speed of 43.6 km/h. Nevertheless, he is a good competitor for the fastest man in history.

Found how Pompeii people lived Pompeii was an ancient Roman city in Italy that had a thriving culture, which was near Mount Vesuvius, a volcano (nice place to settle in). It erupted. The city was buried in mountains of volcanic ashes, until it was found in 1748, being to this day one of the most famous archeological sites in the world. With today's X-raying people's decomposed bodies, we found what the city looked like, and with CGI technology, we can see how the streets once looked (probably). With 3D mapping tech, Professor Eric Poehler from the University of Massachusetts put together a grid of transportation in Pompeii. With the organic trash in the city we found out the people ate seafood and pork – even fed pigs different stuff to make their bodies taste different. Hopefully in a few years or decades we could see the living city from our phones and computers, digitally with all the people.

Rosetta Stone An ancient Egyptian stone with inscriptions in several languages and scripts that helped the 19th century world understand the lost hieroglyphic writing of ancient Egypt. It was found in Rosetta, Rasheed, Egypt, by a Frenchman named Bouchard/ Boussard in 1799, but after the French surrender of Egypt it was passed to the British Museum in London (1801- ). The writings themselves were made by the priests of Memphis, the capital city of ancient Egypt, explaining about Ptolemy V Epiphanes' reign, and because she was Egyptian and Greek, it was written in these two  languages, in three writing systems: hieroglyphics (which we didn't know), demonic script (hieroglyphics but in words, looks like Arabic), and the Greek alphabet. It was written in a large kind of broken basalt stone, and the minerals helped the text remain.

Dead Sea Scrolls Dead sea scrolls are a lot, but a lot of pieces of a scroll from 2000 years ago of the Hebrew bible (Jewish bible/ old testament), and also a few apocryphal texts, such as the book of Judith. A few pieces of the scrolls were first found in 1947 in a few caves near the dead sea by Bedouins, which is a group of Arab tribes living in Israel’s desert. These scrolls are one of the biggest finds of archeology so far. Yigael Yadin, an Israeli archeologist, found tens of thousands of these scroll pieces on the shores of the dead sea in 1947. These scrolls are known to be the oldest written source for the Jewish bible. During the 50's, people could barely match the scroll parts, but with today's x-rays we can see what is really written there.. It described the life of Jews with Christians in the 1st century too. The text remained because it was written on a special paper, papyrus, and also special papers with rich leather and copper materials, making the text visible.

BorobudurBorobudur is the most massive Buddhist monument, and is located in Java, Indonesia. It used to house holy relics, and symbolized the mandala, a symbol of the universe, combining the square as earth and the circle as heaven. Borobudur was constructed in the 8th-9th century, under the Shailendra dynasty, as it was buried under volcanic ash (like Pompeii), until it was discovered by governor Thomas Stamford Raffles in 1814, when England conquered the world, including southeast Asia. Some Dutch restored it two times in the 20th century. You can find Buddhist symbols and writings of Buddha's life and previous lives. The world's largest Buddhist monument and a priceless ancient center for pilgrimage and education in Mahayana Buddhism.

Terracotta ArmyThis so-called "army" is a life -sized figure found in the tomb of the first Qin emperor, Qin Shi Huang, near Xi'an, China. The figures guarded the outer wall of the tomb from Qin's former adversaries. The tomb was found in 1974 by Chinese farmers. Then the archeologists found the terracotta army in a scale of 8,000 human sized clay soldiers. The figures had real swords, bows, and other Chinese weapons. The clay and the lack of oxygen might have saved the terracotta army from not being a part of history anymore.

**Lucy (fossil)**Lucy is a nickname for a hominin skeleton found by Donald Johnson in Hadar, an Anthropological site in Ethiopia, 1974 (just when the terracotta army was discovered), and is dated to 3.2 million years ago. The specimen is classified as Australopithecus Afarensis. It  has long arms, short legs, apelike chest and jaw, and a small brain, therefore it was a primal version of the human, yet a greater version of a monkey. Lucy got her name in the party Donald had a few days later to celebrate the finding, and after a lot of drinking there was the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", and so no one remembers who gave her the name Lucy, but someone probably did. The real Lucy is stored in a specially constructed safe in the Paleoanthropology Laboratories of the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. The rest of the stuff regarding "how did they find out Lucy is an Australopithecus Afarensis" was determined by X rays of the skull and DNA testing.

**Sue (fossil)**Sue is the most complete and best-preserved skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus rex. The fossil is 67 million years old. Also among the largest T Rex skeletons. It was found in 1990, on South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux reservation on a cattle ranch owned by Maurice Williams. That's what also sparked the love for dinosaurs at the time. It was found by Peter Larson with archaeologist and paleontologist, Susan Hendrickson; hence the fossil is called Sue. Till 2000's there was a battle between Larson and Williams on who owns the fossil, and it came to the US supreme court in 1993. In the end Williams won the case and she owned it with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Williams took it to an auction. Chicago's Field Museum of Natural history won the fossil itself, with Walt Disney that won a replica, and McDonalds that won 2 replicas, for 8,362,500$. After death, she was covered with water and mud, therefore she was preserved for a long time. Just like the fastest man's footprints. Sue is unusually old for a dinosaur.