Archaeology and History Tidbits
These are some interesting things! For example, the bones of D’Artagnan, one of the heroes featured in the book The Three Musketeers, may have been found. This is cool!

Although the book is a novel (more about the book and it’s writer(s) here) , D’Artagnan was a real person, and he died via a musket shot to the throat while conquering Masstricht during the Franco-Dutch War. It’s believed that he was buried in Masstricht in a church near the French camp. And, lo and behold, an archaeological dig (after a hole appeared under tiles in the church) has found his possible remains, underneath where the altar table used to sit. DNA testing and other work will confirm the find, eventually.

All for one, and one for all!!! The three musketeers and D’Artagnan! Image from www.completefrance.com

Yeesh
I was hoping 2026 would be better than 2025, but, the first week of January 2026 makes it clear that at least with world-wide happenings, that was just wishful thinking. I'm not a Madero fan, but I'm also not a fan of kidnapping another country's leader. And the heightened threats against... Greenland? Good grief! Stay the hell away from Greenland. No invading, no seizing, no 'buying'. Stay away!

So, I'm presenting some interesting things that have to do with archaeology and not with world politics. At least, modern world politics.

Fire!
Evidence has been found in England that Neanderthals were making and using fires some 400,000 years ago. This is like 350,000 years older than the next oldest evidence of human fire making. Here's a very good BBC presentation/article about the finds.

Finally, Roman Stuff!

A few weeks ago, I did a couple of open threads with information and discussion about 'woke' archaeology. I really appreciated the thoughtful discussion and comments those invoked and wanted to expand on my point, and blather on a bit about a tiny part of archaeology, because I wuvs archaeology!

Sex and Gender in Archaeology, Part II -

A few weeks ago I wrote a little bit about 'woke' archaeology. This week I want to discuss a couple of examples of the re-examination of archaeological remains (basically skeletons in burials) and how that re-examination has changed the sex assigned by archaeologists of the individual studied, and perhaps our overall view of the individual's society. Theory and 'facts' can change in Archaeology, and any other discipline, as science and knowledge changes (see this article, linked by Peachcreek in a comment on my open thread on woke archaeology, for a good summary of all this).

Woke Hits Archaeology:

There seems to be a trend in archaeology and anthropology right now arguing that we should refuse to study and assign gender/sex to excavated corpses and skeletons.