EIIR to CIIIR: Royals Reveal Charles's New Cypher

Queen Elizabeth II's cypher was EIIR CARL RECINE POOL/AFP
Queen Elizabeth II's cypher was EIIR CARL RECINE POOL/AFP
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EIIR to CIIIR: Royals Reveal Charles's New Cypher

Queen Elizabeth II's cypher was EIIR CARL RECINE POOL/AFP
Queen Elizabeth II's cypher was EIIR CARL RECINE POOL/AFP

Buckingham Palace on Monday revealed King Charles III's new royal cypher -- the monogram of his initials that will feature on government buildings, state documents and new post boxes.

His late mother Queen Elizabeth II's cypher was EIIR, standing for Elizabeth II Regina (queen in Latin), AFP said.

Charles's will be CIIIR for Charles III Rex (king in Latin), with the C intertwined with the R, the III within the R, and the crown above both letters.

A Scottish version of the cypher features the Scottish Crown.

The cypher was designed by The College of Arms, which was founded in 1484 and whose job is to create and maintain official registers of coats of arms and pedigrees.

The Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace will frank the first items of mail with "CIIIR" on Tuesday, after the end of royal mourning for the queen, who died on September 8, aged 96.

The palace mailroom handles some 200,000 items every year, from invitations to events, responses to public letters and cards, and state business.

The new cypher will be used throughout the Royal Household and by government departments.

The accession of Charles, 73, to the throne has already seen an immediate change in the national anthem, from "God Save the Queen" to "God Save the King".

Senior lawyers have become "king's counsel" (KC) instead of "queen's counsel" (QC) for the first time since the death of the late queen's father, king George VI, in 1952.

Other changes -- from the king's head on bank notes and coins to the wording inside passports -- will gradually be brought in both in Britain and the 14 other countries where he is also head of state.



Rare Mummy Reveals Women’s Important Role in Oldest Center of Civilization in the Americas


The 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral (Peru’s culture ministry)
The 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral (Peru’s culture ministry)
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Rare Mummy Reveals Women’s Important Role in Oldest Center of Civilization in the Americas


The 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral (Peru’s culture ministry)
The 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral (Peru’s culture ministry)

Archaeologists in Peru announced they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, in an area which for decades was used as a garbage dump.

The new discovery revealed the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas, researchers said.

“What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archaeologist David Palomino told AFP, according to CBS News.

The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for over 30 years until becoming an archaeological site in the 1990s.

Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000 years BC, contained skin, part of the nails and hair, and was wrapped in a shroud made of several layers of fabric and a mantle of macaw feathers. Macaws are colorful birds that belong to the parrot family.

The woman's funerary trousseau, which was presented to reporters at the culture ministry, included a toucan's beak, a stone bowl and a straw basket.

“This is an exceptional burial due to the preservation of skin, hair, and nails, a rare condition in this area, where usually only skeletal remains are recovered,” Peru's culture ministry said in a statement.

Preliminary analyses indicate that the remains found in December belong to a woman between 20 and 35 years old who was about five feet tall, and wearing a headdress - made with bundles of twisted threads - that represented her elevated social status.

Palomino told reporters the find showed that while “it was generally thought that rulers were men, or that they had more prominent roles in society” women had “played a very important role in the Caral civilization.”

Caral society developed between 3000 and 1800 BC, around the same time as other great cultures in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.

The city is situated in the fertile Supe valley, around 115 miles north of Lima and 12 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

It was declared a UN World Heritage Site in 2009.