the Botai culture in prehistoric Kazakhstan may have been the first to domesticate horses, during the 4th millennium BC. March: At a conference in Rome, scientists report that a new analysis of frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi reveals that they were covered in cow's milk. The milk was used as a binder for the paint. The fragments were analyzed as part of a restoration project, after a 1997 earthquake caused part of the vault to collapse. Mark S. Anderson – Marothodi: the historical archaeology of an African capital (Atikkam). Ann Garrison Darrin and Beth Laura O'Leary – Handbook of space engineering, archaeology and heritage. Vincent Gaffney, Simon Fitch and David Smith – Europe’s Lost World: the Rediscovery of Doggerland (Council for British Archaeology). Deaths 23 February - Alan Vince, British archaeologist (b. 1952) 16 August - Mualla Eyüboğlu, Turkish restoration architect (b. 1919) References Archaeology Archaeology by year Archaeology, 2009 In