Yesterday at Sagalassos in Turkey, archaeologists uncovered the colossal portrait head of the Roman empress Faustina, wife of the emperor Antoninus Pius, who ruled from A.D. 138 to 161.

Scholars and soldiers continue to monitor archaeological sites in Iraq. In June, a team of archaeologists visited eight sites with the British Army. “I was reasonably encouraged by what I saw at the limited number of sites,” said Elizabeth Stone of Stony Brook University in New York. This article on the scholars’ tour of Iraq emphasizes the damage done by military activity and neglect, and the looting that is taking place out of sight of coalition bases. “The lack of resources for the Iraqi Department of Antiquities means they simply haven’t been able to inspect the sites or do conservation or restoration work,” said Paul Collins of the British Museum.

A skull found in the attic of a house in Tooele, Utah, has been radio carbon dated to between 1620 and 1800. State archaeologist Ron Rood thinks that the skull was probably taken from a cave. “It is a very unique and interesting specimen in the fact that it still had teeth and hair attached. Most skeletons don’t,” he said.

The bones of a carefully buried calf were uncovered in St. Augustine, Florida, while city archaeologist Carl Halbirt was looking for the Rosario Line, an earthen defensive wall that surrounded the city in the eighteenth century. “It doesn’t want to be found,” he said.

The construction of a private residence on the North Shore of Kauai, on a lot where at least 30 ancient Hawaiian burials have been identified, is still on hold. The builder, who has been camping out at the site with the protesters, claims that the locations of the burials in the treatment plan do not align on the ground with the burials marked on the building plans.

Here’s another article explaining what scientists have learned from the mapping of Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, August 13, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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