Subway construction in the Greek city of Thessaloniki has uncovered some 1,000 graves dating between the first century B.C. and the fifth century A.D.  

In 2003, donkey skeletons were discovered in a burial complex belonging to one of Egypt’s first pharaohs. Now scientists say the animals’ joint damage represents the first clear evidence of the domestication of the wild ass.  

Here’s another article on the 28 Paleolithic hand-axes recovered from the North Sea. “Up until now, it has been believed that the northwest European peninsula was devoid of human activity at that time,” said Mark Dunkley, an archaeologist with English Heritage.  

A smuggler’s tunnel and a curtain wall from the medieval Bridgwater Castle were revealed during sewer repairs in Somerset County, England.  

In County Durham, England, archaeologist Percival Turnbull spotted a 700-year-old grave-cover stone in the wall of the Blacksmiths Arms while he was smoking outside. “I’ve run the pub for ten years and walked past the stone many hundreds of times without noticing it. Nobody would ever have known about it, but for the smoking ban,” said landlord Billy Nettleton.

Archaeologist Jacqui Woods says that she has found evidence of seventeenth-century pagan rituals at a community of five houses in Corwall, England, including pits lined with the pelts of swans.  Magpies, eggs, quartz pebbles, human hair, leaves, and other items were then left in the so-called feather pits.  

A large Roman building dating between the second and fourth centuries A.D. is being investigated in Bedford Purlieus, a woodland nature preserve in Cambridgeshire, England.  BBC News has more background information on the villa. 

The House of Augustus on Rome’s Palatine Hill opened to visitors yesterday.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, March 11, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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