john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Mailbag: Bernini's Fontana delle Api

Fri, 2011-05-27 02:59 -- John Hawks

Re: "Death and the anthropologist"

Fountain of Bees
An additional Bernini fountain can be found near the Piazza Barberini, right at the foot of the uphill Via Vittorio Veneto. Entitled Fontana delle Api (Fountain of the Bees), this small fountain was built in 1644 as a tribute to Pope Urban VIII Barberini. The fountain features large bees, symbol of the Barberini family, and a clam-like structure, on which appears the name of Urban VIII and a Latin message stating the fountain's water is for use of the public and their animals. http://www.aviewoncities.com/rome/piazzabarberini.htm

Love your travelogue - always nice to see a place one knows through the eyes of someone else.

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Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.