ATHENS, Greece – For thousands of years the Acropolis has withstood earthquakes, weathered storms and endured temperature extremes, from scorching summers to winter snow. Now scientists are drawing on the latest technology to install a system that will record just how much nature is affecting the 2,500-year-old site.

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Dalheim Dig discovery

Following previous archaelogical discoveries at the Dalheim dig another artefact has been discovered.

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AP/Karori Sanctuary: An adult tuatara basking on a tree stump at the Karori Sanctuary near Wellington, New Zealand.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A rare reptile with lineage dating back to the dinosaur age has been found nesting on the New Zealand mainland for the first time in about 200 years, officials said Friday.

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LONDON (Reuters) – "Otzi," Italy's prehistoric iceman, probably does not have any modern day descendants, according to a study published Thursday.

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By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

The Phoenicians, enigmatic people from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, stamped their mark on maritime history, and now research has revealed that they also left a lasting genetic imprint. Scientists reported Thursday that as many as 1 in 17 men living today on the coasts of North Africa and southern Europe may have a Phoenician direct male-line ancestor.

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Archaeologists in Israel said Thursday they had unearthed the oldest Hebrew text ever found, while excavating a fortress city overlooking a valley where the Bible says David slew Goliath.

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Inca nobility at Machu Picchu relied on special, permanent servants from the far corners of the empire to manage the royal estate, according to a new study of human skeletons found buried at the site.

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A forensic archaeologist has raised fresh questions over why no remains were found in the grave of an English cardinal in line to become a saint. It comes just days before artefacts owned by Cardinal John Henry Newman go on display ahead of his possible beatification.

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ScienceDaily: Cast away on a desert island, surviving on what nature alone can provide, praying for rescue but fearing the sight of a boat on the horizon. These are the imaginative creations of Daniel Defoe in his famous novel Robinson Crusoe. Yet the story is believed to be based on the real-life experience of sailor Alexander Selkirk, marooned in 1704 on a small tropical island in the Pacific for more than four years, and now archaeological evidence has been found to support contemporary records of his existence on the island.

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Ewen Callaway

Museum recreation of a Neanderthal (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

The Neanderthal's huge nose is a fluke of evolution, not some grand adaptation, research suggests.

The Neanderthal nose has been a matter of befuddlement for anthropologists, who point out that modern cold-adapted humans have narrow noses to moisten and warm air as it enters the lung, and reduce water and heat loss during exhalation.

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By David Derbyshire

In a discovery straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, archaeologists believe they have uncovered one of the lost mines of King Solomon. The vast copper mine lies in an arid valley in modern-day Jordan and was created in the 10th century BC - around the time Solomon is believed to have ruled over the ancient Hebrews.

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Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
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During reconstruction of the Han Dynasty’s Xian Gate in Changan City, Shaanxi Province, the entrance to a 4-meter deep tunnel was found. The tunnel, buried for nearly 2,000 years, is intact and is filled with mud. An archaeologist said that the tunnel might have been built as an escape route for the emperors.

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But Cambridge University has launched a campaign to recast them as "new men" with an interest in grooming, fashion and poetry. Academics claim that the old stereotype is damaging, and want teenagers to be more appreciative of the Vikings' social and cultural impact on Britain.

They say that the Norse explorers, far from being obsessed with fighting and drinking, were a largely-peaceful race who were even criticised for being too hygienic.

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BY SUMATHI REDDY AND NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON

Using cutting edge technology, Egyptologist Bob Brier of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University delved into the only standing wonder of the ancient world, the Great Pyramid, and uncovered the mystery behind cracks in the massive Egyptian structure, unearthing a new room along the way.

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By Manny Mogato

Reuters: When Philippine police confiscated 22 bags of broken pottery from antiquity smugglers near an area where Muslim rebels operated, little did they know that they may have uncovered the remnants of a long-lost tribe.

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ATHENS (Reuters) - Archaeologists in northern Greece have unearthed the ruins of a Neolithic house, a rare find that offers valuable information about everyday life 6,000 years ago, the Greek culture ministry said Friday.

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Archaeologists have found a carved sandstone fragment believed to be part of a medieval church in Ross-shire.

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ATHENS, Greece - A 6,000 year-old set of household gear, including crockery and two wood-fired ovens, has been found in the buried ruins of a prehistoric farmhouse in northern Greece, officials said Thursday.

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The artifacts were part of a dagger buried with a warrior chief, near Stonehenge, nearly 4,000 years ago. Archeologists said they were known as 'the work of the gods'.

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The Turkish capital, which has been the cradle of a variety of civilizations, is watching as a significant archeological dig takes place at Augustus Temple in the Ulus area. The temple stands next to the Hacıbayram Mosque. The dig aims to clean up the areas dug in the temple in the 1930s and bring a wealth of new history to light.

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A strange pigeon-sized dinosaur that roamed the planet more than 150 million years ago was the oldest known relative of birds, say scientists.

The new species 'Epidexipteryx hui' had large teeth that could rip prey apart and a strange anatomy including long, ribbon-like tail feathers - suggesting the plumage was purely ornamental rather than for flight.

An artist's impression of an Epidexipteryx. The creature may have used its tail feathers to attract a mate or scare off rivals

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ScienceDaily— Within the scope of an international rescue excavation project, a team of four archaeologists specialized in Middle Eastern affairs headed by Dr. Dirk Wicke (Institute of Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies) have unearthed parts of a Neo-Assyrian governor's palace dating back to the 9th to 7th century BCE in a two-month excavation program amongst the ruins on Ziyaret Tepe. The discoveries were extraordinary.

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The bony crests that straddled the heads of some duck-billed dinosaurs may have been used to produce deep, haunting bellows, according to new research.

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THE sun glancing sideways on a stone slab led to archaeologists working on St Kilda, the National Trust for Scotland’s dual World Heritage Site, making a fascinating discovery.

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A fracture of a spindle with a runic inscription was discovered in an archeological excavation near the Althingi parliament building in Reykjavík last week. It is believed to date back to the 11th century and may be the oldest runic inscription in Iceland.

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Winston Seiler: This dinosaur footprint, including three toes and a heel, is thought to have been made by an upright-walking meat-eater.

More than 1,000 dinosaur footprints along with tail-drag marks have been discovered along the Arizona-Utah border. The incredibly rare concentration of beastly tracks likely belonged to at least four different species of dinosaurs, ranging from youngsters to adults.

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Jonathan Leake, Science Editor Read the rest on The Times.

Research suggests Hunley crew might have suffocated

By BRUCE SMITH - The Associated Press

CHARLESTON— It’s long been a mystery why the H.L. Hunley never returned after becoming the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship in 1864, but new research announced Friday may lend credence to one of the theories.

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A dig has turned up the tomb of a nobleman who led Rome's legions in the second century A.D.

ROME, Italy (AP) -- Workers renovating a rugby stadium have uncovered a vast complex of tombs beneath Rome that mimic the houses, blocks and streets of a real city, according to officials, who have unveiled a series of new finds.

ScienceDaily— According to legend, Genghis Khan lies buried somewhere beneath the dusty steppe of Northeastern Mongolia, entombed in a spot so secretive that anyone who made the mistake of encountering his funeral procession was executed on the spot.

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Archaeologists working at Hampton Court Palace have uncovered the earliest foundations ever found at King Henry VIII's famous royal residence.

The significant 13th century building remains predate any other finds made at the palace by nearly 200 years.

Archaeologists working at Hampton Court Palace have unearthed the earliest surviving building ever discovered at the historic site

The unexpected discoveries were made during excavations as part of a project to recreate Henry VIII's Tudor 16th century courtyards.

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The Second Kushite Kingdom controlled the whole Nile valley from Khartoum to the Mediterranean from 720BC to 660BC. Now archaeologists have discovered that a region of northern Sudan once considered a forgotten backwater once actually "a real power-base".

They discovered a ruined pyramid containing fine gold jewellery dating from about 700BC on a remote un-navigable 100-mile stretch of the Nile known as the Fourth Cataract, plus pottery from as far away as Turkey.

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The remains of a Viking home have been discovered in York by archaeologists.

York Archaeological Trust archaeologists have exposed what they believe to be a timber-lined cellar of a two-storey house, during excavations at the site of the new Hungate development, which is being built near Stonebow.

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by Richard Owen, in Rome Read the rest on the Times Online.

After building a career and religious following on the apparent remains of Jesus’ brother James, an antiques dealer is in court, accused of forging the most important artifact in the history of Christianity.

The controversy surrounds an “ossuary,” a stone box containing the bones of the dead, that Israeli antiques collector Oded Golan claimed once housed the remains of the Bible's Apostle James, according to TIME. The “James Ossuary,” inscribed with the inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,” was held to be proof of Jesus’ existence.

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A Roman tombstone unearthed in Lancaster has gone on permanent display at the city's museum.

The tombstone, dating to around 100AD, was discovered in 2005. It was found during an excavation in Aldcliffe Road by the Greater Manchester Archaeology Unit, which is based at the University of Manchester.

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Italian archaeologists have discovered the tomb of the ancient Roman hero said to have inspired the character played by Russell Crowe in the film "Gladiator."

Daniela Rossi, an archaeologist based in Rome, said the discovery of the monumental marble tomb of Marcus Nonius Macrinus, including a large inscription bearing his name, was "an exceptional find."

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ScienceDaily — A study of old Frisian compensation tariffs, a sort of bodily injury list, reveals just how strongly honour and body were linked to each other in the ideology of medieval Frisians. The research has given rise to a model of honour that can be used in many other cultures and eras.

This is the first study into the old Frisian culture of honour and, moreover, via a text genre that has received little attention to date: the compensation tariffs. Old Frisian compensation tariffs, which can best be compared to bodily injury lists, are lists of wounds to the human body and summaries of insults and material damage with the associated monetary compensation. A punch: 4 pence...

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ScienceDaily— While paleontologists may scour remote, exotic places in search of prehistoric specimens, Tufts researchers have found what they believe to be the world's oldest whole-body fossil impression of a flying insect in a wooded field behind a strip mall in North Attleboro, Mass.

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AP: LONDON — Two ancient Egyptian skulls unearthed in a yard in England have been returned to their native country. And the mystery of how they got from the hot sands of Egypt to the rainy north of England has been solved, investigators said Tuesday.

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A mosaic unearthed in Şanlıurfa features an ancient Amazonian queen from the early Byzantine period.

Excavation work in southeastern Şanlıurfa province has led to the discovery of a Roman palace (A.D. fifth to sixth century) and floor mosaics.

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ScienceDaily: Reproduction pressures and rising fertility explain why women suffered a more rapid decline in dental health than did men as humans transitioned from hunter-and-gatherers to farmers and more sedentary pursuits, says a University of Oregon anthropologist.

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by Kate Ravilious

Archaeologist Jacqui Wood holds a fragment of a cauldron unearthed from a buried spring-fed pool near her home. This and other artifacts she has found point to a long history of ritual and witchcraft. (Manuel Cohen)

Over the centuries, many in the British Isles have appealed to witches in times of need--to cure a toothache, concoct a love potion, or curse a neighbor. Witchcraft, the rituals of a number of pagan belief systems, was thought to offer control of the world through rites and incantations. Common as it has been over the past several centuries, the practice is secretive and there are few written records. It tends to be passed down through families and never revealed to outsiders. But archaeologist Jacqui Wood has unearthed evidence of more than 40 witchy rituals beneath her own front yard, bringing to light an unknown branch of witchcraft possibly still practiced today.

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Schwerin, Germany - Archaeologists have discovered the bones of at least 50 prehistoric people killed in an armed attack in Germany around 1300 BC. The signs of battle from around 1300 BC were found near Demmin, north of Berlin. They are the first proof of any war north of the Alps during the Bronze Age, said state archaeologist Detlef Jantzen on Thursday.

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TEHRAN, Oct. 12 (MNA) -- A brick bearing bas-relief of a winged man was unearthed at the Rabat Tepe during the third season of excavations, which has begun at the 3000-year-old site in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province since early October.

The brick, which dates back to the Mannaean period, measures 70x45 centimeter, said Reza Heidari, director of the team working on the site, the Persian service of CHN reported on Sunday.

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POZZUOLI, Italy, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- The Roman stadium where Emperor Antoninus Pius staged Rome's version of the Olympic Games will be open this weekend for the first time in almost 500 years.

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By Matthias Schulz

What happened to the prehistoric village on Lake Mondsee in the Austrian Alps? One geologist has found evidence that a vast rock slide may have set off a tsunami that buried the lakeside settlement. He's hoping to find funding -- and mummies.

The fall of Pompeii began with a small cloud of smoke drifting out of Mt. Vesuvius. Within a few days, though, the affluent Roman city lay coated in a meter-thick shroud of ash. Even more devastating were the effects of a giant meteorite that crashed into the Gulf of Mexico 65 million years ago, bringing an end to the age of the dinosaurs.

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This toy hedgehog, found in a child's grave at Stonehenge, is proof of what we have always known - children have always loved to play.

The chalk figurine was probably a favourite possession of the three year old, and placed next to the child when they died in the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age, around 3,000 years ago.

Archaeologists who discovered the grave, where the child was laying on his or her side, believe the toy - perhaps placed there by a doting father - is the earliest known depiction of a hedgehog in British history.

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However, one of the most significant discoveries in a generation has thrown up new evidence to provide a clearer picture of how far the city sprawled during the Viking era.

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Southern exodus. A trail of stone tools and fossil bones suggests that early humans left Africa 1.8 million years ago. Some headed north to Dmanisi, Georgia; others may have taken a southern route into China and Java, Indonesia. Credit: NASA/TerraMetrics/Human Origins Program, Smithsonian

By Ann Gibbons
ScienceNOW Daily News

Over a million years ago, a band of early humans left their stone tools and two front teeth near a stream in southwest China. For decades, the precise age of the fossils has remained a mystery, leaving open a central question in paleontology: How quickly did our human ancestors reach China after leaving Africa? Now, thanks to advanced dating techniques, scientists may finally have the answer.

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By Andrew Levy

The tide was finally beginning to turn on the Nazis after years of war when Reg Wilson went on a bombing raid in early 1944.

The Halifax bomber - nicknamed Old Flo by her eight-man crew - had just dropped her bombs over Berlin and was heading for home when she was hit by anti-aircraft fire.

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—Photograph by Erin Fitzgerald, copyright 2008, courtesy of Project Exploration

This newly found South American dinosaur may have had flesh-ripping teeth, but it had the lungs of a bird, scientists announced Monday.

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A team of Bulgarian archaeologists discovered Wednesday unique mosaics from Byzantine times during excavation works in the town of Kyustendil. Photo by Darik News

A team of Bulgarian archaeologists discovered Wednesday unique mosaics from Byzantine times during excavation works in the town of Kyustendil.

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Temple of Poseidon

Greek temples honored specific gods and goddesses, and now new research suggests that even the dirt under such buildings held spiritual significance.

The discovery could help explain why writers like Homer and Plato wrote of "divine soil" and soil that can affect a person's soul. It may also explain how the ancients selected locations for their sacred buildings.

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By TOM VOGT
The (Vancouver) Columbian

Earliest Op-Art?

An egalitarian Neolithic Eden filled with unique, geometric art flourished some 7,000 years ago in Eastern Europe, according to hundreds of artifacts on display at the Vatican.

Running until the end of October at the Palazzo della Cancelleria in the Vatican, the exhibition, "Cucuteni-Trypillia: A Great Civilization of Old Europe," introduces a mysterious Neolithic people who are now believed to have forged Europe's first civilization.

Read the rest on Discovery.

Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

A new remote sensing technology has peeled away layers of mud and rock near Peru's Cahuachi desert to reveal an ancient adobe pyramid, Italian researchers announced on Friday at a satellite imagery conference in Rome.

Nicola Masini and Rosa Lasaponara of Italy's National Research Council (CNR) discovered the pyramid by analyzing images from the satellite Quickbird, which they used to penetrate the Peruvian soil.

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The oldest-known tracks of a creature apparently using legs have been discovered in rock dated to 570 million years ago in what was once a shallow sea in Nevada.

Scientists think land beasts evolved from ancient creatures that left the sea and evolved lungs and legs.

If the new finding is real — the discoverer says it will fuel skepticism — it pushes the advent of walking back 30 million years earlier than any previous solid finding.

The aquatic creature left its "footprints" as two parallel rows of small dots, each about 2 millimeters in diameter.

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The time capsule labyrinth lies deep below the Normandy city of Caen, which was all but destroyed by British guns around D-Day, June 6th 1944.

Largely undisturbed since, the makeshift bunkers still contain numerous reminders of a terrified population whose only thought at the time was survival.

They include packed suitcases, tins of syrup, decaying maps and official passes, and even lady's make-up bags including nail varnish and lipstick.

Read the rest on the Telegraph.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MERIDA, Yucatan — Placido Domingo's concert at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza tonight is being billed as "the world's greatest tenor at one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World," a claim few lovers of opera or history would dispute.

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At the cinema, they swoop through the air and circle ominously overhead with their razor-sharp bills.

But in fact, the flying dinosaurs which feature in King Kong and Jurassic Park would have struggled to get off the ground, researchers believe.

After analysing the flight of 28 birds, scientists from Tokyo University say the pterodactyl, which weighed a quarter of a ton, would not have been able to flap its wings fast enough to stay in the air - and could only glide relatively short distances from clifftops.

Myth? Many believed that pterodactyls were the largest animals to ever have flown, but an expert now says they were simply too heavy.

Read the rest on the DailyMail.

Archeologist Roger Wilson pulls out the clay amphora from its 1,500 year hiding place - photo courtesy of Roger Wilson

By Lorraine Chan

UBC archaeologists have dug up a mystery worthy of Indiana Jones, one that includes a tomb, skeletons and burial rites with both Christian and pagan elements.

This summer, Prof. Roger Wilson led excavations at Kaukana, an ancient Roman village located near Punta Secca, a small town in the south-eastern province of Ragusa in Sicily.

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A Mycenaean warrior who died in western Greece over 3,000 years ago was the proud owner of a rare gold-wired sword imported from the Italian peninsula, a senior archaeologist said on Thursday.

"This is a very rare discovery, particularly because of the gold wire wrapped around the hilt," archaeologist Maria Gatsi told AFP.

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AP: CAPLEN, Texas — A paleontologist whose beachfront home in Texas was destroyed during Hurricane Ike has found a football-size tooth in the debris.

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by Maev Kennedy

Rewriting history … Richborough Roman fort near Sandwich in Kent. Photograph: Hugo Philpott/PA

The best view of a newly discovered archaeological site in Kent is from the trains thundering past a few feet away. Passengers heading towards the Ramsgate ferry ports glance incuriously out at what was a jungle of brambles and nettles a few weeks ago, not realising that they are seeing almost 2,000 years of history rewritten.

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ATHENS, Greece – Greek archaeologists have discovered two Roman-era sculptures built into a sunken ancient harbor wall on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos.

A Culture Ministry statement says the stone torso of a man in armor and the head of a bearded man were found during an underwater survey in September at Mandraki, on western Kythnos.

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By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
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A hoard of items from the homes of 17th century sailors and pirates has been discovered.

An archaeological dig in the Narrow Street area of Ratcliff, near Limehouse, has found the remains of the homes of sea captains - and pottery, coins, jars, glassware, water containers, coral and cannonballs from around the world.

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BURSA - The "Derecik Basilica" discovered in north-western province of Bursa's Orhaneli town in the year 2000 has been claimed as one of the world's earliest churches that was constructed after Christianity was accepted as an official religion by the Roman Empire.

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