The French government has agreed to relinquish five wall-painting fragments that Egyptian antiquities officials say were looted from a tomb in Luxor. Yesterday, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told the press that Egypt would no longer cooperate with the Louvre Museum until the murals were returned.   There’s more information on the dispute and a photograph of the tomb at CBS News.

Iran adds that it is ready to cut all ties with the British Museum if the Cyrus Cylinder is not loaned to the National Museum of Iran. “We are currently monitoring the political situation in Iran, but we hope that we’ll be able to honor that commitment as soon as possible,” said Hannah Boulton, head of press at the British Museum.

  Analysis of carbon isotopes in the soil where the Ardipithecus ramidus fossils were found, and the teeth of other animals that lived at about the same time in the same area, indicate that the 4.4 million-year-old hominid lived in a wooded landscape. “Multiple lines of evidence now suggest that they were beginning to leave the trees before they left the forest,” said Stanley Ambrose of the University of Illinois.   

In Ireland, a man digging up some potatoes for dinner uncovered a 6,000-year-old ax head.  

See photographs of the excavation of “Mini-Stonehenge” and a sketch of what it may have looked like at National Geographic News.  

Rhesus macaque mothers and infants share similar behaviors with human mothers and infants. Scientists think that smiling, exaggerated gestures, kissing, and mutual gazes could have originated with a common ancestor some 25 million years ago.  

Hikers in Ohio will travel the same route between Chillicothe and Newark as the Hopewell people did nearly 2,000 years ago. A “Great Hopewell Road” may have connected the two ceremonial sites with a straight line.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, October 8, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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