A Finnish tourist faces prison and a $19,000 fine if convicted of breaking off the earlobe of a Moai on Easter Island. A Rapanui woman witnessed the crime and identified the 26-year-old man.

A second-century Roman roundhouse was unearthed during a sewer project in western England. A second dwelling may be nearby. “Finds like this are very rare in Lancashire, and especially rare in this area,” said archaeological consultant Alison Plummer.  

Austrian, German, and Swiss export credit agencies may withdraw their funding of Turkey’s controversial Ilisu Dam project, after savvy protesters in Ankara played on “European fears of uncontrolled immigration.” The dam would inundate the archaeological site of Hasankeyf and displace 55,000 residents.  

Human bones found in a cave in Columbia, Tennessee, may be at least 1,000 years old, according to an unnamed archaeologist.  

Some 600 sets of human remains excavated in Buffalo, West Virginia, and kept at Ohio State University for more than 40 years, will be returned for reburial. The bones had never been linked to a specific American Indian group.  

The New York Times has picked up the story on the high-status burial of ten donkeys in Abydos. The donkeys’ bones, which date to 3000 B.C., show signs of arthritis from carrying heavy loads. “It’s the first definite evidence for their use as transport animals,” said Fiona Marshall of Washington University in St. Louis.  

A site in southwest Washington may soon be excavated to help solve a twentieth-century mystery. Children playing near their home found a parachute much like the one used by D. B. Cooper, who hijacked a plane in 1971. He had jumped from the plane and was never found.  

A New York man previously arrested for stealing artifacts and selling them on eBay has been arrested again.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, March 26, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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