News Round Up

MADURAI, INDIA—According to a report in The Hindu, two terracotta pipelines placed one on top of the other have been uncovered at Keeladi, an archaeological site located on the banks of the Vaigai River in southern India’s state of Tamil Nadu. Brick…

Nara was the capital of Japan from AD 710–784. Situated in the west-central part of the country, Nara was the eastern terminus of the Silks Roads that brought Buddhism to Japan, transforming indigenous society.  The great Buddhist temples and Shinto…

These 12 quite disparate papers cover mining/quarrying of flint, chert, and other fine-grained silicic rocks within the British Isles (and Norway), although French flint-mining is necessarily discussed. More basic rocks, notably the Preseli Hills…

OLD ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND—The Evening Express reports that 115 human bone fragments recovered from a private garden in northeastern Scotland by archaeologist Alison Cameron may have been buried by medical student Alexander Creyk and his roommates, who…

TSUKUBA, JAPAN—Scientists led by Yasuyuki Mitsuma of the University of Tsukuba have found evidence of solar magnetic storms that took place sometime between 679 and 655 B.C. in radioisotope data collected from ancient trees and records kept on…

TSUKUBA, JAPAN—Scientists led by Yasuyuki Mitsuma of the University of Tsukuba have found evidence of solar magnetic storms that took place sometime between 679 and 655 B.C. in radioisotope data collected from ancient trees and records kept on…

DUNDEE, SCOTLAND—Analysis of the so-called Rosemarkie Man’s genome, conducted by Katharina Dulias of the University of York and Ceiridwen J. Edwards of the University of Huddersfield, suggests he was related to other Iron Age people whose remains…

OSLO, NORWAY—Life in Norway reports that massive timbers and stone foundations from Oslo’s medieval waterfront have been uncovered at the head of the Oslo fjord. Scientists including Håvard Hegdal of the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage…

The British Museum Membercast is a monthly podcast made available to ‘all studious and curious persons’. Comedian, podcaster and super-fan Iszi Lawrence (The Z List Dead List) presents snippets from exclusive Members’ lectures at the Museum,…

Built in 1071, Oxford Castle was an imposing fortification with one of the largest mottes in the country. Largely abandoned by the late 16th century – though it was briefly refortified in the Civil War – the castle ultimately evolved into a prison…

MARAWAH ISLAND, UAE—An 8,000-year-old pearl has been unearthed during excavations near the capital of the United Arab Emirates, which also revealed the earliest architecture ever recorded in the country, according to a BBC News report.…

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA—Archaeologists have definitively identified the ruins of an ancient city in the mountains of northwestern Cambodia as Mahendraparvata, a short-lived capital of the early Khmer Empire from the late eighth to early ninth centuries…

ATHENS, GREECE—Artnet News reports that marine archaeologists have recovered a range of items from the wreck of Mentor, off the coast of the Greek island of Kythera. The ship was carrying 17 boxes filled with Greek antiquities collected by Thomas…

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON—Evan Eichler of the University of Washington and his colleagues have identified two large pieces of ancient hominin DNA in people now living in Melanesia, according to a New Scientist report. All modern humans have 23 pairs of…

A large and significant Bronze Age hoard is heading to the Museum of London Docklands for its first public display since its discovery in Havering A total of 453 bronze objects dating between c.900 and c.800 BC were uncovered in the Havering Hoard.…

Sailing to a remote maritime sanctuary brings Richard Hodges to Europe’s earliest central place As the ferry slipped through the still-sleeping grey sea heading northwards, I raced to the aft windows to get a last look at Dhaskalio, albeit in…

Terse, heightened prose relates a set of nested journeys: a Beaker chief to his death and hinted excarnation, his daughter with his body to death-rites at Woodhenge, and the poet’s pilgrimage from his Cotswold heimat to Holme-next-the-Sea on the…

ATHENS, GREECE—Agence France-Presse reports that evidence for the presence of Neanderthals dating back as early as 200,000 years ago has been found in a quarry on the Greek island of Naxos by an international team of scientists led by Tristan Carter…

SADOWLE, POLAND—Twenty-three grave pits containing human and animal bones, pottery vessels, flint axes, and wild boar fangs have been discovered in a Neolithic cemetery in south-central Poland, according to a Science in Poland report. Wojciech…

ODENSE, DENMARK—Chemist Kaare Lund Rasmussen of the University of Southern Denmark and an international team of researchers analyzed paint samples taken from a column capital in the ancient Egyptian palace of King Apries, who ruled from 589 to 570 B…