This week at Forbes: Philip II, Julius Caesar, Roman teeth, Anglo-Saxon leprosy, and the origins of Alaskans

Rather than put up a post every time one of my pieces comes out at Forbes, I have decided to collect them at all the end of the week.  Here's what was on offer from May 11 through May 15:

• Alexander the Great's Father Found in Tomb with Foreign Princess.  Building on a previous post from last October when a press conference summarized new findings, I wrote this after reading the newly published article by Antikas and Wynn-Antikas. Awesomely, over 200,000 people have read it.

• How Native Alaskans Spurred Archaeologists to Research Their Origins.  The lead author of this article, Jenny Raff, contacted me about covering it.  I was intrigued by the community involvement in this DNA study and eagerly agreed.  We worked on the piece for about a week to put together something that touched on all aspects of the project and mentioned all the major players.

• Rotten Roman Baby Teeth Blamed on Honey, Porridge.  I saw this article a few weeks ago and was going to write it up for PbO, but it seemed like it might be interesting enough for Forbes.  Laura Bonsall and colleagues found evidence of early childhood caries in a Romano-British skeleton.  This disease is not well known archaeologically.

• Earliest Case of Leprosy in Britain Reveals Scandinavian Origins of the Disease.  When a press release came out mentioning awesome bioarchaeologist Sonia Zakrzewski, I knew I'd have to cover it. Even better, the team involved found the earliest DNA evidence of leprosy in England.  Way cool.

• Julius Caesar's Health Debate Reignited: Stroke or Epilepsy? This was covered last month by some news outlets, but one of the coauthors of the new study, Francesco Galassi, contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in writing about it.  I got some more information from him, and I got amazing Roman historian Barry Strauss to comment on it as well.

What's can you expect next week?  I'm working on pieces on Roman dentistry, Bolivian death rituals, and the origins of obesity.  And I'm thinking the week after that, I might do some technology-related posts, with perhaps 3D printing in bioarchaeology/forensics and archaeo-gaming.

As always, if you have ideas for a piece or want me to feature your latest stuff, don't hesitate to email me!

Posted in: Bioarchaeology, Forbes