Skulls and bones representing 80 individuals and textiles woven from plant fibers have been discovered in caves near Machu Picchu. The site, called Salapunku, has been badly damaged by looters. “Finding organic material in the mountains is significant because it’s so scarce. The humidity from rain decomposes individuals and textiles,” said archaeologist Francisco Huarcaya.

Judge Kathleen Watanabe has ruled that Hawaii’s state archaeologist broke the law after 30 sets of human remains were discovered on a beach-front construction site in Kauai. The State Historic Preservation Division must now consult with the interested parties, as required by law, and create a revised burial treatment plan.   

The bones of 600 American Indians unearthed 50 years ago in West Virginia have been sent to the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex Research Facility in Moundsville. The remains had been stored at Ohio State University. “Our goal is to have them reburied. They’ve been studied enough and have been floating around for 40-some years,” said Putnam County administrator Brian Donat.  

Sir Mark Sykes died of the Spanish flu in 1919 and was buried in a lead coffin. Researchers will exhume his body in an attempt to retrieve DNA from the virus that killed him. More than 50 million people died of the flu at the end of World War I.  

Locals and vacationers have volunteered to re-chalk the Cerne Abbas Giant. Wet weather in Dorset, England, has led to the growth of algae, lichen, and grass in his trenches.  

The site where the first Europeans set up camp in 1829 in West Australia is threatened by a planned road and railway. “What we would lose is the only window of the first few months of European settlement,” said Shane Burke of the University of Notre Dame.  

The foundation of George Washington’s boyhood home has been reburied. “We left all the archaeological elements of the house in place for the next generation,” explained Dave Maraca, director of archaeology for the George Washington Foundation.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, September 16, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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