At least 25 small skeletons thought to belong to insular dwarfs living between 900 and 2,800 years ago have been discovered on the Pacific islands of Palau. Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand and his colleagues say the remains are similar to those dubbed Homo floresiensis from Indonesia, with small heads and some features that are considered primitive from modern Homo sapiens.   Watch Lee Berger visit the cave where he found the little bones in this video from National Geographic News.   There’s also an article explaining the discovery. 

 In Iran, archaeologists think they have found an Elamite temple dedicated to the “Father of the Weak.”  

The skeletal remains of a young woman whose skull bears evidence of trepanation have been found in northern Greece, according to this story from the AFP. Click on the National Geographic link to the left of the article to see a photograph of the bones in question. The two articles differ in opinion on whether or not the woman survived the wound.  

In Egypt, three smugglers were arrested with four looted mummies and small statues.  

This press release from Wessex Archaeology offers photographs and more information about the 28 Paleolithic handaxes dredged from the North Sea.  

The Axum Obelisk will be re-erected in Ethiopia in September. The obelisk spent more than 70 years in Italy after it was taken by Mussolini’s invading army in 1937.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, March 12, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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