News Round Up

From its inception to the present day, Tantra has challenged religious, cultural and political norms around the world. A philosophy that emerged in India around the sixth century, Tantra has been linked to successive waves of revolutionary thought,…

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN—Søren Faurby of the University of Gothenburg and his colleagues suggest that hominins started triggering the extinctions of other creatures about four million years ago, according to a BBC News report. Faurby and his team compared…

GDAŃSK, POLAND—Science in Poland reports that the isotope and genetic analysis of samples collected from the remains of four men uncovered in an eleventh-century A.D. cemetery in northwestern Poland indicates they came from Scandinavia. The men, who…

RIDGEFIELD, CONNECTICUT—According to a News Times report, the remains of a fourth possible Revolutionary War soldier have been uncovered on private property near the site of the Battle of Ridgefield, which took place in April 1777. State…

The Greek hero Odysseus spent 10 long years striving to return home after the Trojan War. The stories of how he tricked the one-eyed Cyclops, evaded the flesh-eating Laestrygonians, and resisted the lure of the sirens as he struggled to reach Ithaca…

LONDON, ENGLAND—The Guardian reports that a sculpture stolen from the National Museum of Afghanistan some 30 years ago has been identified at a London auction house and will go on display at the British Museum before it is returned to Kabul. Members…

VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA—ABC News Australia reports that bush fires in the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape in southwestern Victoria have revealed additional stone-lined channels and pools built by the Gunditjmara people as part of an aquaculture system for…

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO—Reuters reports that German officials have handed over clay artifacts to members of Mexico’s foreign ministry. Alejandro Bautista of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said a German woman who had had…

KYOTO, JAPAN—According to a report in The Asahi Shimbun, a sake brewery thought to date to the fifteenth century A.D. has been discovered on the grounds of the Tenryuji Temple, which is located in the south-central region of Japan’s main island of…

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI—According to a statement released by Washington University in St. Louis, a study of the wear and tear caused by food particles on tooth enamel suggests human ancestors may have eaten more hard plant foods than previously thought…

CHESTER, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that a section of Chester’s historic defensive wall collapsed after earth was removed from its base by developers planning to build luxury apartments. The city was founded in northwest England as a Roman fort in the…

ARTASHAT, ARMENIA—Asbarez reports that a team of Armenian and German archaeologists led by Pavel Avetisyan of Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences uncovered the foundations of an aqueduct dating to the early second century A.D. The 20 bases…

This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of one of the most spectacular finds of recent years. Divided into three sections, the first conveys the thrill, through text and photographs, that the local community felt at the discovery of the…

PERTHSHIRE, SCOTLAND—BBC News reports that archaeologists, students, and volunteers from the Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust recovered a padlock at a Pictish homestead site in central Scotland. The stone and timber structure where the lock was…

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON—KIRO Radio reports that archaeologist Cassie Manetas of the Washington State Department of Transportation and her colleagues uncovered traces of an early Seattle neighborhood that had been built on piers near the city’s current…

KURDISTAN, IRAQ—The Assyrian International News Agency reports that archaeologists led by Daniele Morandi Bonacossi of Italy’s University of Udine and Hasan Ahmed Qasim of the Duhok Directorate of Antiquities have uncovered ten large engraved panels…

PARIS, FRANCE—Live Science reports that researchers led by Marcela Sepúlveda of Sorbonne University examined the seven- and one-half-foot-tall wooden statue known as the Pachacamac idol, which was unearthed in 1938 within the Painted Temple at…

This book presents the first ever national survey of all 2,847 fragments of glass vessels known in England dating from the 7th to 11th centuries. Beyond simply recording these fragments, Rose Broadley quantifies and compares different vessel types…

MUNICH, GERMANY—A magnetometer survey in Djerba, an island off the coast of Tunisia, has mapped the site of the ancient commercial center of Meninx, according to a statement released by Ludwig Maximilian University. The city was founded in the…

BOULDER, COLORADO—According to a report in The Guardian, a new study of shell tools recovered in 1949 from a coastal cave in central Italy suggests that some of them were made from shells retrieved directly from the seabed, and not collected on the…