News Round Up

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA—Live Science reports that a new survey conducted in central Laos by a team of archaeologists from Laos and Australia revealed an additional 137 stone jars at 15 new sites in the rugged terrain surrounding the Plain of Jars. The…

MUNICH, GERMANY—New Scientist reports that Egyptians living some 3,500 years ago may have eaten watermelons similar to those we enjoy today. Botanists Susanne Renner of the University of Munich and Guillaume Chomicki of the University of Oxford…

BENTLEY, AUSTRALIA—Live Science reports that a carved piece of canary-yellow glass worn as pectoral ornament by Egypt’s King Tutankhamun was likely formed by ground-based shock waves initiated by a meteorite impact some 29 million years ago. Aaron…

OTTAWA, CANADA—According to a CBC News report, archaeologists are excavating a nineteenth-century military complex on Parliament Hill, which is now home to the Parliament of Canada. Archaeologist Stephen Jarrett said soldiers in the Royal Sappers…

CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ENGLAND—The Hunts Post reports that archaeologists working ahead of road construction in eastern England uncovered a coin at a Roman farmstead site depicting Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus wearing a radiate crown. The coin is only the…

NIKOLSKOYE, RUSSIA—A farmer who discovered a kurgan on his property in southwestern Russia alerted archaeologist Georgiy Stukalov of the Astrakhan State Museum and his team, according to a Live Science report. Their excavation revealed that the…

PERTH, AUSTRALIA—Mirage News reports that an image of an early nineteenth-century British naval ship has been found scratched into a boulder on an island in the Dampier Archipelago, off the coast of Western Australia. Peter Veth of the University of…

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—According to a Cosmos Magazine report, scientists have recovered DNA from pieces of birch bark chewed into sticky pitch by toolmaking hunters and fishers some 10,000 years ago. Archaeologists Per Persson and Mikael Manninen of the…

ORCA Archaeology, University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute, Historic Environment Scotland and the Scotland’s Urban Past team have organised five Building Recording Days in historic Kirkwall and Stromness. These are community…

Fantastical, nightmarish, sublime… There are many ways to describe the art of Sidney Sime, but now thanks to a Lottery grant the little known Surrey gallery holding his works is hoping to introduce him to a wider audience In a small gallery appended…

Equine art genius George Stubbs was quite the anatomist and went to great lengths to capture both animal and human anatomy, as this exhibition in Newmarket reveals The prowess of George Stubbs (1724-1806) as a painter of horses is well known but his…

Equine art genius George Stubbs was quite the anatomist and went to great lengths to capture both animal and human anatomy, as this exhibition in Newmarket reveals The prowess of George Stubbs (1724-1806) as a painter of horses is well known but his…

An exhibition charting Victoria and Albert’s love of chronicling their reign through watercolours makes its royal progress to Newcastle this summer Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had an enthusiasm for watercolour paintings and formed a collection…

The Royal Society of Sculptors in London launches an exhibition exploring sculpture and drawing as part of their mission to welcome the public through their doors “One of the things about sculptors,” says Royal Society of Sculptors Director Caroline…

LONDON, ENGLAND—According to a Science News report, Neanderthals and modern humans split from a common ancestor more than 800,000 years ago, or significantly earlier than previously thought. Paleoanthropologist Aida Gómez-Robles of University…

SARASOTA, FLORIDA—The Herald Tribune reports that a Native American burial ground located off Florida’s Manasota Key is about 8,000 years old, or some 1,000 years older than previously thought. Ryan Duggins of the Bureau of Archaeological Research…

LESBOS, GREECE—According to The Greek Reporter, a temple dedicated to Nemesis, a goddess who enacted retribution against those guilty of foolish pride, was discovered in an entrance to the ancient theater in Mytilene, a port city on the Greek island…

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA—A team of researchers led by Marco Romano of the University of the Witwatersrand used laser scans, sediment analysis, geochemistry, archaeobotany, and 3-D modeling to analyze 180 footprints discovered in northern Italy’s…

AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS—Live Science reports that Eric Poehler of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, independent researcher Juliana van Roggen, and Benjamin Crowther of the University of Texas at Austin suggest iron droplets, spatters, and…

AARHUS, DENMARK—Live Science reports that the remains of 15 people were found in a 5,000-year-old multiple burial during construction of a sewerage system in southern Poland. Niels Nørkjær Johannsen of Aarhus University said the people had been…