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The past can teach us about the present—and how our world developed.Almost every day the fields of archaeology and paleontology make new

discoveries that amaze and inform us about human or dinosaur life long ago.Modern science, hard work and plain good luck are unlocking ancient

secrets about dinosaurs, shipwrecks, wars, ruins, mummies and more. Every discovery about these Lost Worlds adds to the knowledge we have

about the past. And each adds a chapter to the school and history books students will use in the future.

Best of all, each is a great story, full of mystery, excitement and adventure. That’s why this special student supplement has its subtitle “Adventures in

Archaeology.”It was designed to teach you a lot about the past—but also to entertain. As you read, you’ll discover that archaeology is more than the history

of humans, animals and the Earth. It’s also an adventure—the adventure of life!

Standards for successThe stories and activities in “Lost Worlds” are designed to support the

following national and state standards for learning:• Students will be familiar with the character of scientific knowledge and how

it is achieved.• Students will understand the process of scientific inquiry.• Students will explain how fossils provide evidence about the nature

of ancient life.• Students will describe how scientific theory traces possible evolutionary

relationships among present and past life forms.• Students will explain how rocks and fossils are used to understand the

history of the Earth, including dinosaurs and early humans.• Students will be aware of the biological, cultural and social explanations

for why human beings have important traits in common yet differ from one another.

• Students will be familiar with how groups, cultural beliefs and social settingsinfluence human behavior

• Students will understand that historical accounts are subject to changebased on newly uncovered records and interpretations.

• Students will generate scientific questions about the world based on observations.

What could they learn about us?

Archaeologists learn about ancient civilizations by carefullyunearthing sites and items people used. What could archaeologistsof the future learn about your neighborhood if they dug it up 500years from now? In the spaces below, list 10 items they might find.As a class discuss what each would reveal about our world and theway we live.

Item 1: ______________________________________________________

Item 2: ______________________________________________________

Item 3: ______________________________________________________

Item 4: ______________________________________________________

Item 5: ______________________________________________________

Item 6: ______________________________________________________

Item 7: ______________________________________________________

Item 8: ______________________________________________________

Item 9: ______________________________________________________

Item 10: ____________________________________________________

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When it comes to ancient life, Egypt is theDisney World of attractions.

It has the pyramids, it has the Sphinx and ithas the tombs of all those pharaohs.

Now it has another archaeological wonder—the sunken city of Herakleion.

Actually, Egypt has had Herakleion for near-ly 2,500 years. It just didn’t know where the citywas exactly for the last 1,200.

Herakleion, like the lost continent ofAtlantis, vanished suddenly. It sank into theMediterranean Sea during an earthquake in800 A.D., and for many years no one knewexactly where the ruins lay. The only accountswere contained in old Greek legends.

Then in the year 2000, an international teamof archaeologists announced they had foundHerakleion off the northern coast of Egypt.

What a find it was!Experts gushed that Herakleion could be the

richest underwater site ever.

Port of pharaohsHerakleion was founded around 500 B.C.

at the mouth of the famous Nile River. It was animportant seaport in the time of the pharaohsand at one time was Egypt’s largest harbor. It was also known as a city of splendor, wealthand power.

Herakleion commanded the attention of the entire region before Alexander the Greatconquered the area in 331 B.C. and foundedthe capital city of Alexandria.

The name Herakleion actually comes fromthe Greeks, not the Egyptians. It is based on the name of the Greek hero Heracles, morewidely known by his Latin name, Hercules.

Riches and historyFrench archaeologist Franck Goddio, who

has spent years exploring sunken sites aroundAlexandria, found Herakleion under about 30 feet of water almost four miles off theEgyptian coast.

The artifacts they have brought to the surface have been nothing short of spectacular.

They have recovered two elaborately carved

tablets, one of which is among the largest everfound. They have found giant statues, one ofthe god of the Nile flood and others of apharaoh and his queen. They have uncoveredshrines, homes, sunken boats and jewels.

Hieroglyphic picture writing on one of the

tablets confirmed the city’s name and noted that

the stone was set where the Nile met the sea by

order of Pharaoh Nektanebo I in 380 B.C.

Discovery of ancient Herakleiongives Egypt a new attraction

Diggin’ the newspaperArchaeology–the study of ancient human cultures–often reveals statues and symbols that were importantto early people. What statues and symbols from todaymight be uncovered in your area 1,000 years from now?

Make a list of those you see in photos in the newspaper.Then write a paragraph offering “conclusions” that afuture archaeologist might make about them. Whichmight be the most difficult to figure out?

Underwater exploration of Herakleion has revealed treasureslike this statue of Hapi, the Nile River flood god.

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The great thing about dinosaurs is thatpeople are always digging up new things

about them.Just when we think we know everything,

a fresh discovery changes our thinkingabout how these ancient creatures lived,and what they were like.

In the spring of 2001, scientistsannounced a discovery that had thedinosaur world buzzing: A fossil found inChina showed the clearest evidence yetthat some dinosaurs had feathers.

This fossil, of a duck-like creature aboutthree feet long, supports the belief thatdinosaurs were the ancestors of today’sbirds. Even more important, the type and body shape of the fossil indicates that feathers may have developed first tokeep dinosaurs warm, not to give them theability to fly.

This would show that some dinosaurswere warm-blooded rather than cold-blooded like today’s lizards and reptiles.Warm-blooded animals need to maintaina steady body temperature; they can’tadapt to the temperature of their sur-

roundings as cold-blooded creatures can.Mark Norell of New York’s American Museum

of Natural History, said the new fossil find offers“strong evidence that these body coverings wereoriginally insulation for warm-blooded dinosaursand were only later [adapted] for flight.”

Farmers’ discoveryThe discovery of this important fossil, reported

in the journal Nature, was made by farmers in

a stony, fossil-rich region in northeastern China. After inspection by a team of Chinese and U.S.

fossil experts, the dinosaur was identified as a dro-maeosaur, a small relative of the fast and viciousvelociraptors featured in the film Jurassic Park.

Dromaeosaurs were two-legged, meat-eatingdinosaurs of a type known as advanced theropods.

Advanced theropods go back 235 millionyears, scientists believe. So it is likely they devel-oped feathers before the first bird, which appearedabout 145 million years ago.

“This is the specimen we have been waitingfor,” said Norell, who was co-leader of theresearch team that analyzed the fossil.

Signs of feathersThe fossil of the dromaeosaur was found in

petrified mud in an area where many dinosaurremains were preserved under ash given off bynearby volcanoes.

The creature appears to have been young, scientists say, because its head seems overly largefor its body. It shows evidence of feathers or fuzzall over its body, except for its lower legs.Particularly interesting, scientists say, are the shortfore-limbs, which resemble the wings of birds.

On the backs of the fore-limbs are “herring-bone” patterns that look like modern bird feathers. These limbs are too small to supportflight, however, leading both the Chinese andAmerican researchers to conclude that the job ofthe feathers was warmth.

Some bird experts still believe that birds evolvedfrom some still-undiscovered reptile. But most fossil experts are now convinced that the linkbetween dinosaurs and birds has been proven.

At least until the next discovery.

Diggin’ the newspaperScience makes news in different ways. Look through thenewspaper today for stories about science discoveriesor developments. Write a sentence stating how one

discovery will help further scientific research. Writeanother stating how this discovery could help the livesof people, animals or habitats.

Feathers in a fossil connectancient dinosaurs and today’s birds

Mark Norell is chairman of paleontology at theAmerican Museum ofNatural History, where the new “feathered” fossilwas displayed. The field ofpaleontology studies fossils.

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In the United States, the most popular petsare cats. Americans keep more than 66 millioncats as pets, according to a Reader’s Digest mag-azine survey, putting felines well ahead of dogs,which come in second at more than 58 million.

But who were the first cat lovers?For years, scientists believed that the ancient

Egyptians were the first to keep cats as pets —4,500 years ago.

But a discovery in April 2004 in the MiddleEastern country of Cyprus is turning that idea onits head.

In the grave of a wealthy Cypriot, archaeol-ogists found the skeleton of a kitten buried lessthan two feet from its owner — 9,500 yearsago.

That makes this kitten the world’s first pet catby more than 5,000 years!

Cyprus is an island republic in the easternMediterranean Sea, off the coast of the Mideastnation of Turkey. The Middle East has long been considered one of the world’s “cradles ofcivilization” where human settlements began.

The burial of the 8-month-old kitten with itsowner indicated the animal was special to theperson who had died, said the French archaeolo-gists who made the discovery.

It offers the earliest evidence yet “for thetaming of cats,” archaeologist Jean-Denis Vignenoted in the journal Science.

Jewelry, polished stones, axes and tools foundin the grave indicated the person was wealthy orhad a special position in the local community.

“The joint burial could also imply a strongassociation between … a human and a cat,”Vigne’s team wrote.

Farming connectionsThe kitten found in the Cyprus

grave was not the kind of domestic catpeople keep as pets today. It was a species called Felis silvestris, a wild cat quite a bit larger than modern house cats.

The species supports scientists’ beliefthat the first cats became tame as a result of human farming. As ancient farmers began to store the grains they grew, thegrains attracted mice and other rodents.Wild cats followed the mice to farms or villages and eventually became part of thehuman community.

Clay statues found in the Middle East indicate a connection between cats and agriculture that may go back even furtherthan the Cyprus grave.

Dogs as petsThe new discovery gives cats a much

longer history as pets than they had before.But they still take second place to dogs in the number of years since they were firstdomesticated by humans.

Scientists who have studied animals and genetics have found evidence that petdogs date back at least 14,000 years. Theseearly dogs were actually wolves that choseto live with humans who hunted or lived in settlements.

Wolves and dogs share a common genetic history.

Some of the tame wolves were used forwork, while others may have provided compan-ionship as “man’s best friend.”

New discovery gives cats a longer history as pets

Diggin’ the newspaper1.The discovery of the grave containing a cat in Cyprus shows

how science can be used to help us understand animals, thenatural world or the past. Find a story in the newspaper thatis about science. What are scientists doing in the story? Howis their study important to humans?

2. Pets are very important to people. Turn to the Pets sectionin the Classified Ads of the newspaper and see if you canfind the following: A pet with a weird breed name, a petthat does not have fur, a pet that eats live food, a pet thatcould live indoors all the time, the most expensive pet youcould buy, the least expensive pet.

Cats come in all shapes and sizes and give people everything from therapy tocompanionship.

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Almost daily, the science of archaeologymakes new discoveries that help us understandhow people lived long ago.

In the fall of 2003, discoveries on oppositesides of the world gave scientists new informa-tion about societies in areas where ancient civi-lizations developed.

In South America, researchers in the AmazonRiver basin of Brazil discovered evidence ofbridges, roads, moats and settlements that showearly people there had a far more advancedlifestyle than previously thought.

And in Southeast Asia, excavation in theVietnamese capital of Hanoi uncovered jewelry,swords, dragon statues and other artifacts that

show how ancient royalty lived. The discoveries in Brazil are changing the

way archaeologists think about civilizations inCentral and South America.

Ruins of the Aztecs, Incas and Mayas havebeen widely studied, and earlier discoveries inthe Caral region of Peru have shown that citiesin the “New World” were as old as the pyramidcultures of Egypt.

Until 2003, however, the tribes in theAmazon River basin were thought to have livedsimple lives of hunting and agriculture.

The discoveries in Brazil show that they builttightly connected river communities long beforeEuropeans came to North and South America.

While they did rely on hunting and planting,they developed “complex and sophisticated”towns linked to each other by roads and bridges,scientists working on the project said.

Lost materials Building materials are the reason we know so

little about the people who lived in the AmazonRiver basin more than 500 years ago.

Instead of stone that would survive as ruins,Amazon people built small towns from woodand plant materials that rotted away over time.

Yet these communities show the people hadskills in engineering, planning and architecture.The roads were positioned to form an organizedgrid throughout the region, and builders had the ability to move large amounts of dirt to con-struct them.

Royal livingIn Vietnam, a construction project led to the

discovery of more than two million artifacts dat-ing back more than 1,500 years. Workers for anew National Assembly building in Hanoi unex-pectedly dug up a site where royal families livedfor generations.

The site’s artifacts showed how the highestnobility lived in a fort city once called ThangLong, which means “ascending dragon.”

Thang Long’s founder was said to have seena dragon rising into the clouds when he movedhis people there.

Experts say the site may be one of the richestin Southeast Asia, with layers and layers of itemsfrom ancient times. So important was the dis-covery, that Vietnamese officials halted construc-tion on the National Assembly while archaeolo-gists searched the site.The new Assembly nowmay be built at the edge of the city instead.

How good an archaeologist would you be? Countthe letters of the alphabet until you get to the letter that begins your first name (A=1, B=2, etc.).Turn to that page number in the newspaper. Study

what you find on the page in stories, photos andads. Then write a paragraph summarizing what youcould learn about life in your city from the clues on that page.

Diggin’ the newspaper

Discoveries on 2 sides of world give new look at ancient peoples

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Artifacts discovered in Vietnaminclude manywith dragonsymbols thatconnect withthe site’s history.

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The world today has some amazing animals.But the world of the past had creatures thatwere even more amazing.

Consider the “SuperCroc.”Scientists say that a recently discovered skull

of this ancient crocodile shows it may have beenone of the fiercest creatures of the dinosaur era.

The discovery in Africa’s Sahara Desert also isgiving important new details about one of theoldest species on Earth.

We now know that “SuperCroc” weighedalmost 18,000 pounds, or nine TONS. It was 40feet long, or the length of a school bus. Its jawsalone measured nearly six feet, and it had amouth with 100 teeth as long as kitchen knives.

It could swallow a 12-foot fish in a singlegulp, and probably exploded out of the water to snatch land dinosaurs that weighed up to two tons.

‘Flesh emperor’“SuperCroc’s” scientific name is as fierce as

its body: Sarcosuchus imperator, the “fleshcrocodile emperor.”

It is from a species that has been around for230 million years in one form or another, whichmakes crocodiles older than the first dinosaurs.

Sarcosuchus (SARK-oh-SOOK-us) imperatorlived about 110 million years ago in what is nowthe desert of Saharan Africa. In that time, thearea featured rolling hills and forests and hugerivers 300 to 700 feet wide.

The discovery of the Sarcosuchus skull—announced in an article in the journal Science onits Science Express website—allowed scientiststo describe the size and habits of this ancientgiant for the first time.

French geologists had first discovered parts

of “SuperCroc” in the 1960s. It was not until 2000 that a team led by dinosaur hunterPaul Sereno of the University of Chicago foundthe skull.

‘Built for ambush’Sarcosuchus, Sereno said in several inter-

views, “was built for ambush.” It was “like atorpedo of muscle.”

Sereno’s team learned this by gathering fos-sils of ribs, spines, limbs, tails and foot-wide

back plates called scutes. Most important, theyfound a complete skull.

The huge size of the head showed this crea-ture was twice as big as the largest moderncrocodiles, and 20 times as heavy. Placement ofnostrils and eyes on the upper part of the skullconfirmed that the beast could cruise the river asmodern crocodiles do in search of prey.

When all the pieces were put together,Sereno had created the most complete pictureever of ancient, powerful crocodiles.

‘SuperCroc’ skull reveals amazing size of creature built to ambush

Diggin’ the newspaperSarcosuchus imperator lived at the top of the food chain110 million years ago. But it had one rival: the Spinosaurspecies that was the dino-villain in the movie JurassicPark III. Search the newspaper for examples of modern

rivals in news, sports, business or entertainment. Writea paragraph outlining an idea for a movie based on oneof these rivalries. Pick stars for your movie from ads intoday’s paper and give it an eye-catching title.

The jaws of the‘SuperCroc’

Sarcosuchusimperator dwarf

the jaws of thebiggest croco-

diles today.

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Just when you think scientists know every-thing they can know about the world’s past,something new is discovered. This time, the discovery was made in a frozen area of Russiacalled Siberia.

An enormous woolly mammoth buried for20,000 years in the ice was recovered whole andflown to a sub-freezing laboratory for study.

And that is just the beginning of this amaz-ing story.

Scientists say the body is so well preservedthat they might use cloning to bring the woollymammoth species back to life. An ancestor ofelephants, the woolly mammoth has beenextinct for 10,000 years!

‘Half-mammoths’Scientists also might try to recover genetic

material from this frozen male mammoth tobreed new “half-mammoths” with modern-day

female elephants as the mothers. These very ideas—unthinkable just a few

years ago—are causing a great deal of debate inthe scientific community.

But this is real life, not the movies!The animal now being studied in an ice-cave

laboratory is called the Jarkov Mammoth. It gotits name from the Siberian family who stumbledacross it while herding reindeer.

It it is 11 feet high and weighs about 8 tons.Its features and flesh were so well preserved thatscientists were able to pat its fur. When theyscraped off the last pieces of ice, they could evensmell what it smelled like.

“It was like walking into the stall at the zoowhere the elephants sleep,” said one of the scientists on the expedition, which was fundedby the Discovery TV Channel and the Frenchmagazine Paris Match.

Cloning candidate?The presence of actual flesh means scientists

will be able to recover the genetic material calledDNA. DNA contains nature’s codes that deter-mine how a living thing will look, grow, or act.

If used for cloning it can create an exact copyof a living thing. Only in the last few years hascloning been used successfully to create twins ofadult animals like sheep and cows.

Using cloning to re-create an extinct animalhas some risks. For one thing, the world’s cli-mate is far different than it was when woollymammoths lived. They may not be able to resistmodern diseases. Most of all, while scientistsnow know exactly what the mammoths lookedlike, they have no idea how they would act.

Great woolly discovery causingscience excitement and controversy

Genetics may be used to attempt to clone the woollymammoth found in Siberia. Genetics is the scientificstudy of what makes living things the way they are.Look through the newspaper for photos or names of animals (don’t forget the sports page). Pick one and

write out five features of the animal that interest you.Why do you thnk the animal developed these reatures?If you could change features through genetics, wouldyou do it? Write reasons why or why not. Finish byrepeating the activity for a human in the news.

Diggin’ the newspaper

Scientist Bernard Buigues is dwarfed by the great curved tusks of the woolly mammoth that was recovered in Siberia.

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In all of ancient times, one of the great mys-teries was the behavior of the Oracle at Delphi.

The oracle was said to have the power to seethe future, and for more than 12 centuries lead-ing citizens of Greece visited the oracle to getguidance.

The power to predict, according to theancients, came from magical gases breathed bythe oracle in the Temple of Apollo, who was theGreek god of prophecy.

For years historians doubted that gases—or“vapors” as they were called—could haveaffected the behavior of the oracle. It was just amyth, they said, like so many other tales ofancient life.

‘X’ fileToday, however, modern science has turned

that thinking upside down.A team representing four fields of science has

found that there probably were vapors in theTemple of Apollo, and they probably did affecthow the oracle behaved.

A geologist, an archaeologist, a chemist anda toxicologist from the United States have pro-duced detailed evidence that shows an unusualfeature of the land beneath the temple couldhave released gases that could have made theoracle act “magically.”

They found, when it came to Delphi, that “Xmarked the spot.”

The breakthrough discovery came as a resultof a traffic improvement more than 20 years ago.But conclusive results were published only in2001 and 2002.

It all started when geologist Jelle Zeilinga deBoer was hired by the Greek government to findout whether land around Delphi would be all

right for building nuclear power plants.At a spot where the road had been

widened for tourist buses, he saw a breakin the rock—what geologists call a “fault.”

He started tracing the fault and foundit led right under the Temple of Apollo.

In 1998 he and archaeologist John Halerevisited Delphi and discovered anotherfault. When they traced it, they wereastounded. The faults crossed in an X pattern—right under the temple!

The oracle at Delphi was not just one person, but a series of women who servedover the years. Before they gave their advice,they would go down into a room in thebasement of the temple to breathe sweet-smelling vapors. The vapors were said tomake them talk magically, or deliriously,while offering predictions.

But what were those vapors?Chemist Jeffrey Chandler joined de Boer

and Hale and found traces of methane and ethane chemicals in dry springs nearDelphi. Then he hit the jackpot: He testedwater in an active spring and found thechemical ethylene.

Powerful gasBreathing ethylene would have an

effect not unlike “huffing” spray painttoday, toxicologist Henry Spiller said. If ethylenewas in the ground, it could easily have seeped tothe surface through the faults under the temple.

The gas, which is also used as anesthesia,would certainly have affected the oracle’s behavior.

Which means the ancient mystery of Delphiwas not a myth at all.

Modern science solves ancientmystery of Oracle at Delphi

Diggin’ the newspaperAncient Greeks visited the Oracle at Delphi to hear predictions about the future. What the oracle told themwould influence everything from the crops they wouldplant to whether they would travel. Where do people

today get predictions about future events? As a class,use the newspaper and other resources to find examplesof modern predictions. List them on the chalkboard anddiscuss which are likely to be the most accurate.

Modern science has proved that two geological faultscrossed under the Temple of Apollo where the oraclespoke at Delphi.

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Say the words “lost worlds,” and peo-ple immediately think of buried cities in

Egypt or the Middle East.Scientists long have thought that human

civilization began in those places.But a stunning discovery in South America

is changing what experts think about whereand when people became “civilized.”

The mysterious “pyramid culture” ofCaral in Peru has proved that the first citiesin the New World were just as old as thoseof the Old World.

Caral, in fact, was built nearly 5,000years ago, according to the newest evi-dence. That would make it the same age asthe great pyramids of Egypt. And it was builtby a society just as advanced.

Caral had elaborate systems of streets,neighborhoods and homes. It had amphithe-aters for religious ceremonies. And it had an

irrigation system that diverted water from theSupe River to turn dry areas into farmland.

Caral, many experts now agree, was thecradle of civilization in the Americas.

Getting the proofArchaeologists who study ancient

ruins had wondered for years how old Caral was.But it wasn’t until April 2001 that they got proof.

Three scientists used a process called carbondating to test plant material taken from the Caralruins. Carbon is an element found in all livingthings that breaks down very slowly over time.The super-sensitive equipment for carbon dating

measures how much the carbon has brokendown to determine its age.

What the scientists found astounded theworld. Caral was not just old—it was one of theoldest cities ever!

“This is a project that comes along once in ageneration,” said Jonathan Haas of Chicago’sField Museum of Natural History, one of thethree scientists who dated the material.“[It] offers opportunities rarely glimpsed in ...archaeology.”

Mysterious placeLocated 14 miles inland from the Pacific

Ocean, Caral is a mysterious place that wasburied for years by desert sands. But that is onereason it is so important.

Unlike other ancient cities, the Caral site wasnot built on again and again. For some reason,residents abandoned it, allowing nature to coverand protect the ruins.

Recent digging by Ruth Shady Solis and herstudents at Peru’s San Marcos University hasrevealed a very advanced society.

The central zone of the 200-acre site featuressix pyramids around a huge public plaza. Stairs,rooms, courtyards and other structures on thepyramids offer signs of government activities.

Flutes made of condor bones near fire altarsgive evidence of religion. And sea shells showthere was trade with the coast.

Taken all together, the artifacts show that thepeople of Caral were truly amazing achievers.

Caral’s pyramid mounds (r.)and irrigation canals are many centuries older than the famous cities of theMayas, Incas and Aztecs.

‘Pyramid culture’ in Peru addsnew chapter to history of cities

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Diggin’ the newspaperThe way the city of Caral was laid out and built wasimportant to the way people in ancient Peru lived. Thedesign of modern cities is important to the way people

live today. Find a photo of a city scene in the newspa-per. Write out three ways that the layout of the placeserves human needs.

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For people who live on ocean coasts, hurri-canes are a great threat for causing damage andsoil erosion.

For fossil lovers, however, a hurricane hasproved to be a great helper.

When Hurricane Isabel hit Maryland inSeptember 2003, the surge of high water on theSt. Mary’s River uncovered the fossil skull of awhale that dates back eight million years!

What’s more, the complete, five-and-one-half-foot skull could fill in gaps in what scientistsknow about Atlantic Ocean whales.

The fossil, which was discovered by a pair ofamateur fossil hunters, is that of an ancientbaleen whale, the species that eats by gulpingwater and forcing it back out through plates inits mouth to trap food.

The discovery is significant because “thisbaleen whale occurs at a time in the geologicrecord when an archaic group of baleen whales… are dwindling in numbers [and] beingreplaced by the modern families of baleenwhales,” said Stephen Godfrey of Maryland’sCalvert Marine Museum.

Modern baleen whales include humpbackwhales and gray whales.

Godfrey says more research will be needed todetermine if the whale fossil is related to themodern baleens or is an extinct species.

In the meantime, the fossil went on displayas a “work in progress” in the paleontologygallery of the Calvert Marine Museum, locatedin Solomons on the western shore ofChesapeake Bay, southeast of Washington, D.C.

Visitors to the museum got a chance towatch scientists pick at the fossil with tools likedentist probes in an effort to remove sand andsilt and unlock its mysteries.

A chance discoveryJeff DiMeglio and Sarah Gulick were looking

for ancient shark’s teeth when they went out onthe St. Mary’s River six days after HurricaneIsabel.

Instead, they looked up and saw the front endof a fossil whale sticking out of the riverbank.

The whale’s jaw bones were clearly visible,and scientists from the Calvert later found a neckbone, ribs, a shoulder blade and some vertebrae.

At an estimated 18 feet in length, the whalewas not large, certainly not compared to the100-foot length of today’s blue whales.

But it was a rare find in an area where waters

were too shallow to have attracted many whaleseight million years ago. In that age, shallowwaters covered all of what is now land betweentoday’s ocean edge and the area whereWashington, D.C., is located.

A cast and a copter Removing the whale fossil proved difficult

and time-consuming. Tons of thick mud had tobe dislodged with picks, shovels and evenscrewdrivers.

Then a Navy search-and-rescue team volun-teered a helicopter to swoop in and carry thefossil to a safe site on land.

Discovery of whale skull sheds light on ancient America

Diggin’ the newspaperThe study of fossils can tell a lot about how the Earthhas changed. Where ancient animals lived and how theydied reveals what conditions were like back then. As aclass, discuss what animals can tell us about conditions

on the Earth today. What changes are going on now?With the newspaper as a resource, make a predictionabout changes you think will happen for wildlife andthe Earth in the next 50 years.

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The eight-mil-lion-year-oldwhale skullwas dug outby hand, andflown to safetyby a Navy helicopter.

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Egypt’s Valley of the Kings is one of the bestplaces in the world to find clues about life inancient times.

The tomb of King Tutankhamen — King Tut— was found there, packed with gold and priceless jewels. The tomb of the powerfulpharaoh Ramses II is there also, a monument to his 66 years on the throne during anadvanced Egyptian civilization that existed near-ly 3,500 years ago.

In May 1995, archaeologists announced theyhad found another ancient wonder in the areaalong the Nile River: a multilevel tomb of 67rooms believed to be the burial site for at least50 of Ramses II’s 52 sons. The tomb was thelargest ever found in the Valley of the Kings.

Saved from pavementThe tomb’s discovery was an accident.

Egypt’s government wanted to expand a park-

ing lot for tourists. Archaeologists were checkingthe site to make sure the project wouldn’t dam-age anything important when they found thetomb’s entrance. It had been buried by debrisdeposited over many years by the nearby Nile.

The tomb actually had been “discovered” at least twice before. In 1820, an English traveler made his way into the front chambers,but could not recognize the site’s importancebecause of all the river junk that clogged the rooms. Years later, the man who found King Tut’s famous tomb also looked inside the front chambers of this one, but thought thesite was not important.

So the credit for finding the tomb of RamsesII’s sons goes to Kent R. Weeks, an Egyptologistfrom the American University in Cairo who spentmore than 10 years working in the Valley of theKings.

Weeks took the time to remove the dirt anddebris that had discouraged previous explorers.He uncovered a door into a mysterious hallway.At the far end of the hall stood a giant statue of Osiris, god of the underworld. Opening ontothe main hallway, he found about 20 rooms.Another 30 or 40 rooms were located on hallways branching left and right.

Putting pieces togetherRamses II was one of the most powerful

rulers in ancient times. He loved to build monuments to show his power. This tomboffered a great many clues about how ancientEgyptians lived.

The walls were covered with writings neverseen before, and the rooms contained thousandsof artifacts: pottery, jewelry, furniture, bonesfrom religious ceremonies, even pieces of mummified human bodies. Each of these is onepiece of the puzzle that is ancient human history.

Pharoahs used their homes and buildings as a way to tellthe world about themselves. What do our homes tell theworld about ourselves? Look through real estate adver-tisements for homes in today’s newspaper. What kinds

of homes are advertised? Pick one and write a descrip-tion of what this home would “say” about the owner tosomeone who saw the house? Discuss the choices madeby different members of your class.

Diggin’ the newspaper

Tomb for Egyptian pharaoh’s sons is the largest ever found

This cutaway illustration shows what the underground tomb wouldlook like if it were completely exposed.

Statue of OsirisChapels for Sons

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For treasure seekers and scientists, thesearch for ancient worlds is a game of Lost and Found.

In the summer of 2000, in a weird twist, thegame became a case of Found and Lost.

In the nation of Turkey, an amazing city fromthe ancient Roman Empire was uncovered.Found under the town of Belkis, it containedsome of the best mosaic floor decorations ever.But as soon as scientists realized the vast wealthof these treasures, they faced losing many ofthem forever.

The problem was that a new lake was beingcreated over the site by a dam on the EuphratesRiver. Every day the water rose another threefeet. By fall, as many as half the mosaics, statuesand other artifacts were buried again—underwater.

The Turkish government said the countryneeded the electricity the dam would produce,and refused to stop the flooding, even for a little while.

So scientific teams raced against time to digup as many of the mosaics and statues as theycould before they vanished again.

Great detailMosaics (mo-ZAY-iks) are a type of artwork

in which colored pieces of stone or glass are setinto a kind of cement to create pictures.

These Roman mosaics, plus many statues,were found in palaces and villas of the ancientcity of Zeugma.

Zeugma was a wealthy city on the easternedge of the Roman Empire, which was centeredin Rome, Italy. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Zeugmawas a base for the Roman army, a center oftrade and home to about 70,000 people.

Rich traders competed to show off their

wealth in the villas where they lived by decorat-ing them with mosaics and statues.

In about the year 300 A.D., Zeugma wasoverrun by an invading army, burned in a huge fire and destroyed by an earthquake. Forcenturies, it lay under layers and layers of dirt.

A dam for progressWhen the dam was being built, villagers

whose farms were to be flooded tried to dig uptheir valuable pistachio nut trees to move them.

As they dug, they turned up hundreds of building stones.

Archaeologists discovered two large villasand more than 12 beautiful mosaics. Shortlyafterward, they uncovered a sensational 5-footstatue of Mars, the Roman god of war.

Since the site was on a hill, scientists wereable to save about half the mosaics. Worldwidepublicity raised more than $5 million to preservethem and to make the unflooded area at thesite a historic park.

In weird twist, lost Roman citywas found — and then lost again

Diggin’ the newspaperUncovering ruins of the past can help explain how a country developed. Find a story about a foreign country in the newspaper. Read it quickly. Then writethree things you might discover about the country by

digging up a lost city there. Finish by writing how the artifacts of this country would be different fromwhat you would find in the U.S.

This statue of Mars, the Roman god of war, was one of the prizes found with mosaics at Zeugma in Turkey.

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One of the first things we learn in school isthe alphabet. The letters stand for the soundswe make when speaking words. And they arethe building blocks for writing words.

Where and when did we get the alphabet?Scientists say the earliest alphabets were

invented in the ancient civilizations of theMiddle East.

And a discovery just made west of the NileRiver in Egypt may prove that alphabets weredeveloped two to three centuries earlier than scientists had previously believed.

The discovery—of carvings on stone buriedin a road traveled by soldiers and traders—may

prove that the first alphabets were used 3,900years ago, between 1900 and 1800 B.C.

Just as important, other findings at the siteindicate that this early alphabet was the work ofeveryday people, not the special scribes who did much of the writing for kings and religiousleaders in ancient times.

Gulch of TerrorThe discovery of this early alphabet was

made by Egyptologist John Coleman Darnell, of Yale University, and his wife Deborah, a graduate student working on a Ph.D. degree in Egyptology. They made the discovery

while surveying travel routes in the desertbeyond the famous pharoahs’ tombs in theValley of the Kings.

The writing, in the form of graffiti, appearedon walls of limestone in an area called the Gulchof Terror.

The Darnells told the New York Times theybelieved the early alphabet was the writing ofSemite people living and working in Egypt.

Before this discovery, the oldest evidence ofan alphabet dated to 1600 B.C. and was said tobe the work of Semitic-speaking people in theSinai Peninsula of Egypt and farther north in theSyria-Palestine region of the Mideast.

Major inventionThe invention of the alphabet is considered a

huge leap in the history of human development. It is on the same level as the invention of the

printing press, which made written works avail-able to large numbers of people.

The alphabet just discovered seems to havegrown out of Egyptian hieroglyphics (HI-er-o-GLIFF-iks), a complicated form of picture-writ-ing. Hieroglyphics contained an enormous num-ber of symbols, and only scribes trained for alifetime could master them all.

An alphabet uses fewer than 30 symbols andcould be learned in a matter of days.

Scientists feel the newly discovered writingwas a rough “short-hand” system invented by soldiers, traders and merchants to replacehieroglyphics.

Egyptian-influenced Semitic writing waspassed to Greeks as early as 1300-1200 B.C. TheGreeks then developed the simplified writingsystem that eventually became the alphabet weuse today.

The word “alphabet” comes from theGreeks, in fact. It is a combination of the firsttwo Greek letters: alpha and beta.

Carvings found in Egypt may showthat letters were invented earlier

Diggin’ the newspaperWhat would life be like if we did not have an alphabet? How well could you communicate with picture-writing? As a class, discuss what sorts of diffi-culties this would cause. Then pick a headline from the

front page or lead sports page of today’s newspaper andre-write it using picture-writing. Share your picture-headlines and see if classmates can match them to thereal headlines.

The earlyalphabet was a shortenedform ofEgyptianhieroglyphics.The shape at left mayhave been an early “H.”

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Underwater shipwrecks are a great way to study the past because waterpreserves things that sink. Find a body of water in the photos or stories intoday’s newspaper. Think like a historian and write a prediction statingwhat you might learn about the past if you could explore what is hiddenbeneath the surface. Then write out a plan for exploring the site. Finish bydrawing a picture of something you might find.

Diggin’ the newspaper

In all the U.S. Civil War, one of the most dra-matic battles was the showdown between thewarships called the Monitor and the Virginia.

On March 9, 1862, these two ships faced off in the first U.S. battle between iron-coveredvessels.

It changed sea warfare forever. The Virginia—which had been known as

the Merrimack before being captured by theConfederate navy—was battering the woodenUnion fleet at Hampton Roads, on the Virginiacoast.

Deadly firepowerThen the ironclad Monitor arrived. This

mighty Union ship, with deadly firepower from arevolving gun turret, took on the Virginia head-to-head and fought the Confederates to a draw.

This historic sea battle, the most famous ofthe Civil War, got renewed attention in the sum-mer of 2002 when the Monitor’s amazing turretwas raised from the ocean floor.

Less than a year after its battle with theVirginia, the Monitor sank in a fierce New Year’sEve storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, inan area known as the “Graveyard of theAtlantic.”

The Monitor landed upside down on its turret in 240 feet of water and has been sittingthere ever since.

The exact site where the Monitor went downwas a mystery until 1973, when a team of scientists found its wreckage 16 miles out in theocean off Cape Hatteras.

Because of the importance of the Monitor inhistory, the wreck site was designated as the

nation’s first marine sanctuary in 1975.Since then, the Monitor’s steam

engine, propeller and anchor have beenrecovered. These artifacts are beingrestored and displayed by the Mariners’Museum in Newport News, Virginia, chosenby the federal government to be the officialhome of Monitor materials.

Recovery of the 120-ton turret was a challenge for the museum, the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration andthe U.S. Navy. Because the Monitor landedupside down, the wreck’s hull and a heavyband of armor had to be moved with cablesand a crane to get the turret out.

Then divers had to break up the cement-like coating that encrusts shipwrecks to freethe turret and its two 11-inch cannons.

Finally, the turret and cannons had to becarefully packed in a lifting frame and hoistedto the surface.

Tricky currentsThe job was made more difficult by unpre-

dictable ocean currents caused by the warmGulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current,which meet in the area.

Once on the surface, the turret was taken to the Mariners’ Museum for restoration.

“The Monitor’s extraordinary revolving turret… represent[s] America’s first remarkable stepstoward the iron age at sea,” said John B.Hightower, president of the Mariners’ Museum.“Few ever thought that the original, long-lostgun turret would ever be located, much lessrecovered and placed on public view.”

Amazing piece of history raised from the ocean’s floor

The Union warship Monitor (foreground) went down in astorm just nine months after its famous battle with theConfederate Virginia (Merrimack).

CreditsThe Newspaper in Education Supplement “LostWorlds–Adventures in Archaeology” was createdby Hollister Kids for syndication to newspapersnationally. Copyright ©2002. All Rights Reserved.The graphic designer was Sierra Scaduto.The writer was Peter Landry.The Hollister Kids website is www.hollisterkids.com

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If you could have any present you wanted,what would it be?

CDs? DVDs? New sneakers or clothes?How about $150 million in gold coins?That’s what a Florida company may be

getting from a shipwreck it discovered 100miles off the coast of Georgia.

Odyssey Marine Exploration announced inlate 2003 that recovery efforts had begunbringing up the first of some 30,000 gold andsilver coins that had been buried in the oceanfor 138 years.

The coins were from the S.S. Republic,which sank in a hurricane while bringingmoney and supplies from New York to NewOrleans after the Civil War.

Forty-two of the 59 passengers made it tolifeboats after the 1865 wreck, but the moneyintended to help New Orleans recover from theWar Between the States went to the bottom.

The 20,000-30,000 gold and silver coinswere valued at $400,000 at the time of thewreck, according to newspaper accounts.

Today the treasure of rare $20 and $10 goldpieces could be worth $150 million or more.

“The condition and diversity of the coins wehave recovered … exceeded our expectations,”said Greg Stemm, co-founder of the Odysseycompany. “… While the majority of the coinsare gold, finding the silver coins was a … sur-prise.”

As an added bonus, artifacts ranging fromthe ship’s bell to pickle jars “are providing anamazing glimpse of the historical time capsulerepresented by this site,” Stemm said.

Long searchThe name Odyssey comes from the

20-year journey of the hero Odysseusin Greek mythology.

Finding the Republic took almost aslong as that ancient trip. Stemm and his team searched for more than 16years before they located the 210-footsteamer in July 2003.

Using sonar imaging and robots,Odyssey came across a ghostly wreck1,700 feet down in the Atlantic Ocean.

Cameras from a small robot con-firmed the identity of the wreck from let-tering on the ship’s bell, and laterremote-control vacuums began suckingaway sand from areas where the treas-ure could lie.

At first, just a few coins appeared.Then, Stemm said, searchers “cameupon a cascade of gold.”

Big moneyIf the wreck of the Republic really does

yield treasure worth $150 million, itwould be one of history’s richest shipwreckrecoveries. And since the wreck is far out at sea, in international waters, OdysseyMarine will not have to share profits with state

governments.In 2004, Odyssey began work on

another wreck that may be far, far richer, but profits from it must be shared with theBritish government.

The HMS Sussex sank in 1694 off the Rock

of Gibraltar at the mouth of the MediterraneanSea. The 157-foot British warship was carryinggold for a war against France—nine tons of it.

That treasure today would be worth $4 billion.

Discovery from 1865 promises to yield a bonanza in gold coins

Diggin’ the newspaperTo explore shipwrecks, the company that found the S.S.Republic uses a high-tech, remote-control vehicle calledZeus. In the newspaper, find another high-tech tool that

is making new work or discoveries possible. Write asummary of how the tool is making a difference nowand how it could in the future.

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The Odyssey Marine Exploration company features photos and stories about the S.S.Republic on its website, http://shipwreck.net.

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