Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Ancient Chinese Coin in Africa

An expedition has unearthed a 600-year-old Chinese "Yongle Tongbao" coin on the Kenyan coastal island of Manda dating from Emperor Yongle's reign from 1403 to 1425 A.D., providing evidence of overseas trade between China and East Africa decades before European exploration began.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Ancient Heart Disease

Modern CT scans of a variety of mummies from Egypt, Peru, the southwestern United States and the Aleutian Islands revealed about a third suffered from calcification of carotid arteries, demonstrating that age-related heart disease may have been common in ancient peoples even without the modern diet and lifestyle often cited as a contributing factor.