Skeleton with East Asian Ancestry Found in Ancient Roman Cemetery

First-century AD skeleton in a Roman cemetery had East Asian ancestry on one side.

Neat stuff, and a good reminder that talk about "recent" globalism is somewhat overblown and buzzworded. Cool discovery by a former colleague of mine.

John Smith's Universal Translator: Slate May Have Traces of early English-American Communication and Specially Designed Contact Alphabet

National Geographic has details on a potentially striking artifact, a slate from Jamestown with traces of inscriptions. The extraordinary suggestion is that there may be traces of a 1585 English-created alphabet designed to communicate with Algonquin-speakers.

Pipil document found at Brown University

My colleague Kathryn Sampeck has recently written a short piece about her rediscovery of a "lost" seventeenth-century Pipil Nahua historical document in Brown University's John Carter Brown library. Includes image of the document.