• James Matthews shipwreck, a slave ship sunk of the coast of Australia in 1841, has been mapped using 3D modelling

• Rare 1,500-year-old Odin amulet found in Denmark on the Island of Lolland

• Lost Greek city dating back 2,500 years discovered by archaeologists: 'The fact that nobody has ever explored the hill before is a mystery'

• Let's celebrate US archaeology's best kept secret - it's a law that protects historical and archaeological sites

• Florida Archaeologists Race Against Rising Tides to Record What They Can. A sea-level rise of 1 meter, about 39 inches, will affect about 2,900 archaeological sites & another meter will raise the count to almost 4,000.

• Violence may have forced out Montezuma Castle residents: New evidence reveals violent final days at the 900-year-old limestone cliff dwellings in Arizona

• Jordan lead codices not modern forgeries

• Human blood, organs, and a surprising virus detected in ancient pottery

• How the ancient Maya brought sharks to the jungle

• North America’s oldest mummy returned to US tribe after genome sequencing: The 10,600-year-old ‘Spirit Cave Mummy’ from Nevada has been returned to the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe for reburial after a legal battle with the US government, who opposed repatriation

• Virus found in child mummy suggests recent rise of deadly smallpox

• Development of new techniques makes it possible to date Australian Aboriginal rock art

• Look Into the Eyes of a Neolithic Man in This Reconstruction

• China's terracotta warriors to return to UK for first time in nearly a decade

The location and general design of Sanadamaru, the fortification built and manned by the men of Sanada Nobushige (popularly known as Sanada Yukimura) at the Siege of Osaka in 1614 has been quite conclusively settled. The fortification is the site of a famous engagement that gave the Shogunate forces enough of a headache it was specifically ordered to be demolished as part of the peace treaty. Coincidentally (or not) just in time for the climax of this year's drama.

Based on new map found in the Hiroshima city archives and local topography, archaeologists used radar and examined aerial photographs and determined the fortification's outlines and location.

Previous theories made Sanadamaru a barbican, gatehouse, or bastion, a roughly semi-circle fortification protruding out of and connected to Osaka castle's outer walls. Now we know it is actually its own complete fort outside of but supporting Osaka's southern walls, connected to Osaka by only a bridge, if at all.

Hello, fellow Reading Group people! (RGers?)

Inspired by a recent spate of articles about the relationship between Capitalism and (modern) slavery, the first pick will be this 2014 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Sven Beckert.

Harvard professor Sven Beckert (Empire of Cotton: A Global History, 2014) is part of a wave of eminent historians who, in recent years, have written new takes on the evolution of modern Capitalism. Together with authors like Edward Baptist (The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, 2014), Beckert has tried to push the thesis that slavery (and other forms of unfree labor) are not anti-thetical to Capitalism; they're an organic part of it.

Underlying this debate is the question of what even is Capitalism. Is it Marx' 'Mode of Production'? Is it a market economy with limited to non-existing government intervention, along the lines of Libertarian analyses?

We look forward to discussing it with you next week, Wednesday the 21st, while also letting you know what we'll be discussing the following week. See you then!