Agents Raid Jerusalem Souvenir Store

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) agents confiscated bronze arrowheads, 2,000-year-old coins, perfume vessels, and other ancient artifacts during the raid of a souvenir store in an upscale Jerusalem mall that was lacking a proper license. The Times of Israel reports that earlier this year, the IAA mandated licensed dealers of antiquities use a digitized inventory system and upload detailed descriptions of their items for sale into an IAA database. According to the IAA, the new system should prevent licensed dealers from “laundering” artifacts acquired illegally and manipulating inventories. Eitan Klein, deputy head of the IAA's theft prevention unit, said that before the new regulations were implemented “it was abundantly clear that in order to supply the merchandise antiquities sites in Israel and around the world were being plundered and history was sold to the highest bidder.

Who Was Buried in Egypt’s KV55?

LUXOR, EGYPT—Funded with a grant from the American Research Center in Egypt Endowment Fund, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities will begin the second phase of a study to identify a sarcophagus found in tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings in 1906. The results of the first phase of the study suggested that a box of 500 gold sheets, found in a storage room at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, may belong to the KV55 sarcophagus. Ahram Online reports that the remains of a skull and a note written in French were found along with the box. Elham Salah, head of the ministry’s Museums Department, says the note is dated to the time of the discovery of tomb KV55, and it states that the gold sheets were discovered with a sarcophagus.

Family Burial Plot Unearthed in Indiana Roadway

AMITY, INDIANA—The remains of two women, a man, and four children have been recovered from a family plot in the middle of a road in rural central Indiana. The Associated Press reports that a team of archaeologists from the University of Indianapolis were investigating the area ahead of the expansion of the road when they found the graves. All but one of them were thought to have been moved in the early 1900s when the road was constructed. Nancy Kerlin Barnett’s grandson is said to have defended her 1831 grave with a shotgun. “As it stands right now, it looks at least in the immediate area by where we feel like where the Nancy Kerlin Barnett grave was, nothing was removed,” said archaeologist Christopher Schmidt. The road remains closed while the investigation continues. For more on archaeology in the Midwest.

Rare Skara Brae Figurine Rediscovered in Scotland

STROMNESS, SCOTLAND—According to a report in The Orcadian, a figurine unearthed on the largest of the Orkney Islands in the 1860s has been rediscovered in a box at Stromness Museum. Dubbed the “Skara Brae Buddo,” the figurine had been packed away among artifacts from Skaill House, a historic manor overlooking the Neolithic site of Skara Brae, since the 1930s. The 5,000-year-old figurine, carved from a piece of whalebone, was originally found in the remains of a house in the Neolithic village. Modern scholars only knew of the sculpture, which has eyes and a mouth cut in its face and a navel in its body, from a sketch in the nineteenth-century notebooks kept by antiquarian George Petrie. Researchers think the holes in the carving may have been used to suspend it.

SS Coast Trader Identified in Canadian Waters

VANCOUVER, CANADA—A team of researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Vancouver Maritime Museum, and Ocean Exploration Trust has confirmed that a well-preserved shipwreck in the Strait of Juan de Fuca is the SS Coast Trader, a World War II–era merchant marine vessel. The 324-foot supply ship exploded and sank off the coast of Vancouver Island in June 1942. At the time, reports indicated that an “internal explosion” caused the ship to sink. The survey, reported in The Lookout, revealed that the ship had been struck with a torpedo. “This finding brings an important part of [the Second World War] right to our doorstep and proves the fears of a full-scale attack were very real and the [Japanese] submarines were right here operating on Canada’s west coast,” said Ken Burton, executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum. The 56 people on board the freighter were rescued by the Royal Canadian Navy after 40 hours at sea. One of the sailors eventually died from injuries and exposure.

Flint Tools From Spain May Be One Million Years Old

BARCELONA, SPAIN—An excavation led by scientists from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleo-Ecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) in the La Mina area at Barranc de la Boella has uncovered 50 flint tools estimated to be between 800,000 and one million years old. Well-preserved remains of deer, horses, cattle, rhinoceros, and hyenas were also found, in addition to hyena coprolites. IPHES researcher Josep Vallverdú told the Catalan News Agency that the site “contains the oldest files on human evolution in Catalonia and on the Iberian Peninsula." Plans are being made for the continued excavation of the site, which is located in the Francolí River Basin.

Belgium Returns Marble Head to Italy

ROME, ITALY—Reuters reports that the Cinquantenaire Museum in Brussels has repatriated a sculpture of Rome’s first emperor that it purchased in 1975 from an antiquities dealer in Zurich. Art historians say the veiled head resembles another in the town of Nepi's museum, and was probably part of a statue of a young man wearing a toga. Now known as the “Augusto di Nepi,” the sculpture is thought to depict the young Octavius before he became emperor of Rome around 27 B.C. “After more than 40 years of exile in Europe, he’s finally home. Welcome back Augustus,” said Nepi mayor Pietro Soldatelli.

Roman Silver Hoard Discovered in Scotland

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND—Researchers led by Gordon Noble of the University of Aberdeen returned to a farmer’s field in northeastern Scotland where a hand pin, chain, and spiral bangle all made of silver in the fourth or fifth centuries A.D. had been found more than 170 years ago. According to a report in Live Science, on the second day of the investigation, the team, which had the assistance of metal detectorists, found three Roman silver coins, a silver strap end, a piece of a silver bracelet, and pieces of hack silver. Over a period of 18 months, they gathered a total of 100 artifacts, now known as the Gaulcross Hoard. The pieces are thought to have been high-status objects imported from the Roman world. The research team suggests that the items in the hoard had been collect by non-Romans, such as the Picts, through looting, trade, bribes, or as military pay. Noble adds that the chunks of silver may even have served as currency.

Solar Boat Timbers Removed from Giza Plateau Pit

CAIRO, EGYPT—Conservators are restoring a second solar boat discovered in 1954 in a pit beside the Great Pyramid of Khufu. The first boat was found dismantled but arranged to resemble a boat, and was reconstructed. A Japanese-Egyptian team began the restoration of the second boat in 2009. So far, they say they have documented and removed 700 of the 1,200 pieces of the boat from the pit’s 13 levels. Eissa Zidan, supervisor of the restoration work, told Ahram Online that the solar boats each had two shrines—one for the pharaoh at the rear of the boat, and one for the captain, at the front of the boat. Timbers removed from the pit recently may be the floors to the captain’s shrine. “This is a great step forward in the conservation of Khufu’s second boat,” Zidan said.

An Update From Cambodia’s Lidar Campaign

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA—According to a report in The Guardian, analysis of data collected last year with lidar (light detection and ranging) technology over a 734-square-mile area reveals the extent of multiple cities, iron smelting sites, and a system of waterways that surrounded Angkor Wat and other medieval temple complexes built by the Khmer Empire. The results of the study, led by Australian archaeologist Damian Evans of the École Française d’Extrême-Orient and the Cambodian Archaeological Lidar Initiative, suggest that Mahendraparvata, discovered in 2012 beneath Mount Kulen, was larger than had been previously thought. Evans’ team also discovered a city surrounding the archaeological site of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay. In addition, the researchers expect that the lidar information will help them understand what has been thought of as the collapse of Angkor. “There’s an idea that somehow the Thais invaded and everyone fled down south—that didn’t happen, there are no cities [revealed by the aerial survey] that they fled to. It calls into question the whole notion of an Angkorian collapse,” Evans said.

Ship Sheds of Ancient Naval Bases Found in Greece

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK—Haaretz reports that the Zea Harbor Project mapped the remains of ancient Greek naval bases in Mounichia Harbor and Zea Harbor between 2001 and 2012. The team of archaeologists, working on land and under water, has found massive fortifications and a total of 15 structures that were used to house ships when they were pulled ashore. “It is an enticing thought that some of the Athenian triremes that fought against the Persians at Salamis in 480 B.C. were most probably housed in these ship-sheds,” said project director Bjørn Lovén of the Danish Institute at Athens. The foundations for the sheds measured more than four feet wide and stood more than 160 feet long and 20 feet talla.

Lead Sling Bullets May Have “Whistled” During Battle

DUMFRIESSHIRE, SCOTLAND—Cast-lead sling bullets recently unearthed in southwestern Scotland are thought to have been used by Roman auxiliary troops during an attack of a fort on Burnswark Hill some 1,800 years ago. Such sling bullets range in size from an acorn to a lemon. About 20 percent of the sling bullets recovered from the site had been drilled with a small hole. Similar sling bullets have been found at ancient battle sites in Greece, and at first, researchers thought the small holes might have contained poison. Now archaeologist John Reid of the Trimontium Trust thinks the projectiles with holes might have produced a whistling sound intended to terrify opponents, since his brother pointed out that lead weights used for casting fishing lines can produce a whistle in flight. “We think it was an all-out assault on the hilltop, to demonstrate to the natives what would happen to them if they resisted,” Reid said in a Live Science report. His team thinks the small bullets, shot in groups of three or four from a pouch attached to two long cords, were used for close-range fighting.

East Africa’s Vegetation Changes Detected in Marine Sediments

NEW YORK, NEW YORK—Climate change and the appearance of grasslands coincided with the evolution of the first hominins, according to a study led by Kevin Uno of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. He and his team collected sediment cores dating back 24 million years from the bottom of the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean. Analysis of the chemicals in the sediments suggests that plants that grew in East Africa, where the first hominins are thought to have evolved, blew out to sea and sank. More than ten million years ago, those plants came from dense forests. Chemicals linked to grasses slowly began to appear in later layers of sediment. “This now gives us a timeline for the development of those grasses, and tells us they were part of our evolution from the very beginning,” Uno said in a UPI report.

Scientists Unearth Macaque “Tools” in Thailand

OXFORD, ENGLAND—The wild macaques of coastal Thailand have been using stones as tools for generations, according to a UPI report. Scientists led by Michael Haslam of the University of Oxford observed the monkeys searching for good stones and using them to process oysters, snails, nuts, and crabs. When particular stones worked well, the monkeys placed them near the boulders where they preferred to eat. The researchers then examined the marks on the stones and excavated the area to look for similar ones. They found identical marks on stones in a layer with oyster shells that were carbon-dated to between ten and 50 years ago. “As we build up a fuller picture of their evolutionary history, we will start to identify the similarities and differences in human behavior and that of other primates,” Haslam explained.

Researchers Decipher Antikythera Mechanism Text

ATHENS, GREECE—Using X-ray scanning equipment and imaging technology, an international team of scientists has read most of the explanatory text engraved in tiny letters on the known surviving fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism. Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University said that the text does not instruct the reader on the use of the device, but is more like a descriptive label. The artifact, recovered from a first-century B.C. shipwreck off the coast of a Greek island in the early years of the twentieth century, is made up of bronze gears and plates, and was probably encased in wood and operated with a hand crank. It is thought to have functioned as an astronomical instrument to  track the position of the sun, the phases of the moon, the positions of the planets, and the timing of eclipses. “It’s like a textbook of astronomy as it was understood then, which connected the movements of the sky and the planets with the lives of the ancient Greeks and their environment,” Alexander Jones of New York University said in an Associated Press report. Investigators have returned to the shipwreck to look for more pieces of the device.

Monumental Structure Found at Petra with Satellite Images

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA—Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Christopher Tuttle, executive director of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, spotted a monumental structure at Petra, a 2,500-year-old Nabatean city in southern Jordan, using high-resolution satellite imagery and pictures taken with aerial drones. National Geographic reports that the structure consists of a building measuring roughly 28 feet square, centered on a rectangular, paved platform, surrounded by a larger, 184-by-161-foot, platform. The building faced a row of columns and a staircase to the east. Pottery recovered from the site dates to the mid-second century B.C. Parcak and Tuttle say that the platform’s design is unique in the ancient city, and may have been used for ceremonial purposes in the early days of the settlement. “I’ve worked in Petra for 20 years, and I knew that something was there, but it’s certainly legitimate to call this a discovery,” Tuttle said.

5,000-Year-Old Livestock Pen Examined in Spain

BARCELONA, SPAIN—A rock shelter in the Sierra de Cantabria mountains in northern Spain was repeatedly used as an animal pen some 5,000 years ago, according to a study conducted by scientists from the University of Barcelona, the University of the Basque Country, and the Spanish National Research Council. Analysis of charcoal, pollen, seeds, and other plant remains recovered during the investigation indicate that Copper Age herders held their goats and/or sheep in the rock shelter intermittently, probably to take advantage of hazelnut and acorn trees that grew in the area. “We also know thanks to the microscopic study of the sediments that every now and again they used to burn the debris that had built up, probably to clean up the space that had been occupied,” archaeologist Ana Polo-Diaz of the University of the Basque Country said in a UPI report.

New Flores Fossils May Be Hobbit Ancestors

WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA—Six teeth and a jawbone fragment thought to belong to ancestors of Homo floresiensis, the hominin often referred to as the "hobbit," have been discovered at a site called Mata Menge on the Indonesian island of Flores. The fossils represent at least one adult and two children of small stature who lived 600,000 years earlier than Homo floresiensis. Gert van den Bergh of the University of Wollongong and colleagues argue that this ancient human relative descended from Homo erectus individuals who arrived on the island and shrank over a period of about 300,000 years, perhaps because they were challenged by few predators and thus did not have a need for a big brain. “But what is clear is that they made stone tools, so they weren’t stupid,” van den Bergh said in an ABC News report. He recovered the fossils from an ancient riverbed that had been covered and preserved by a volcanic mudflow. His team will continue to look for additional fossils, such as wrist bones and skulls, for more information on possible Homo floresiensis ancestors.

Revolutionary War Encampment Identified in Connecticut

REDDING, CONNECTICUT—Archaeologists Beth Morrison and Laurie Weinstein of Western Connecticut State University and their students surveyed a possible Revolutionary War–era encampment in Redding, Connecticut, and concluded that the site was likely home to 1,000 to 1,500 Connecticut soldiers during the winter of 1779. Known as the Middle Encampment, the site was under the command of General Samuel Holden Parsons. Twelve collapsed fireplaces and other piles of rocks are thought to mark the locations of cabins and other outbuildings. A layer of burned animal bone at the site is similar to debris found at nearby Putnam Park, where soldiers from New Hampshire and Canada camped under the command of Major General Israel Putnam over the same winter. The investigators also recovered military buttons, shoe buckles, and musket balls. “We’re happy to say that every single [site] we put a hole into came up with a period-specific artifact,” Morrison said in a report by The Redding Pilot. The site of a third Revolutionary War encampment in the region has been lost to development. The Middle Encampment has been named a state archaeological preserve.

Tracking Paleocoastal People in California’s Channel Islands

EUGENE, OREGON—Western Digs reports that archaeologist Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon and his team predicted where they would find stone artifacts left behind by early seafaring people on Santa Cruz Island by analyzing the attributes of known Paleocoastal sites in the Channel Islands. They looked for areas with natural shelter, access to rocks and fresh water, and a view of the coastline. “We added overlook sites later as our surveys revealed that they, too, were important,” Erlandson said. In fact, two of the new sites were discovered on high bluffs overlooking the ocean. Erlandson thinks the ancient mariners valued the commanding views for spotting seals and sea lions, and maybe even other people. One of the sites has been carbon-dated to about 8,500 years ago with cast-off mussel shells. The types of tools at the other two sites suggest that they may be 11,000 or 12,000 years old.