Two stone artifacts unearthed at the ancient rock quarry known as the Topper site in South Carolina may be a new type of tool. Albert Goodyear of the University of South Carolina thinks the knives or projectile points could have been crafted during the Early Archaic period, 11,000 years ago.

Stone tools with cutting edges said to be 100,000 years old were uncovered during the construction of a swimming pool in Pretoria, South Africa. Francis Thackeray, director of the Transvaal Museum, said that a stone brought in from another area was also found.  

Additional 3,000-year-old palace buildings have been discovered at the Jinsha Ruins in China’s Sichuan province.  

More than 100 artifacts have been returned to Peru from private collections Germany and the United States.  

“The Neanderthal Flint Workers,” a mural completed in 1926 by artist Charles Knight, will be reinstalled at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.   

Excavations at the English colony now known as Fort Raleigh National Historic Site have revealed two shallow pits containing artifacts and some post holes that may represent a structure built away from the earthwork. The artifacts include 14 copper plates that could have been strung together in a necklace, and white and blue Venetian glass beads.  

Cooking pits that could indicate a Neolithic settlement turned up in a quarry in Wales. “We are hoping to find more evidence of occupation, possibly including the remains of timber houses,” said Nigel Jones from Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust.   

The Anglo Saxon city of Lundenwic, now London’s Covent Garden district, is at least 100 years older than previously thought. The new information comes from a cemetery discovered underneath the London Transport Museum. Scholars think that the Germanic tribes established an industrial trading center on the north bank of the Thames River.  

A 1951 acetate disk of “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and bit of “In the Mood” are thought to be the oldest-known recordings of computer-generated music. The music was played by a Ferranti Mark 1, the first commercially available, general purpose computer, housed at the University of Manchester.  

Viking re-enactors camped out at Swedish Day in Geneva, Illinois, and braved a storm that hit at 4:00 in the morning. “Our tent moved a couple of feet overnight, but everything was pretty much OK,” Viking re-enactor F.L. Watkins told the reporter.  

The Kamehameha Investment Corporation, Inc., has restored Hapaialii Heiau, a stone platform surrounded by water at high tide on the island of Hawai’i. The original temple was constructed between 1411 and 1465.  

Are you still thinking about Indiana Jones? So are Nathan T. Elkins of Saving Antiquities for Everyone, and K. Kris Hirst of About.com.  

For the most part, these are the same photos of the HMS Ontario that were posted yesterday, but they have better captions, thanks to National Geographic News.  

Chimpanzees have been shown to give hugs and kisses to chimps that were victims of aggression. The empathetic action reduces the signs of stress in the recipient.  

Yesterday, Scotland’s “Stone of Destiny” was compared to the Loch Ness monster. Today, it’s the mande barung, or forest man, who lives in the thick jungles of India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya. Believer Dipu Marak says he has seen the 10-foot-tall, 600-pound, Bigfoot-like creature.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, June 18, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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