Studies of Otzi, everybody’s favorite 5,300-year-old Iceman, continue to produce new theories. Found back in 1991, he was first a lost shepherd, then a murder victim. Now, Rome University’s Alessandro Vanzetti claims the Iceman died nearer sea level and months later was carried to a high mountain pass (10,500 feet) and ceremonially buried.

Meanwhile, Anne Stone of Arizona State University has tried to dampen expectations from the recent successful sequencing of the Iceman’s DNA. She notes, “It is a sample of one. For us to really say something about that period, you need a sample of 25 to 50 individuals.”

Mexican and German archaeologists working at the Maya site of Uxul have found two immense reservoirs capable of holding as much water as 10 Olympic-size pools.

Using ground-penetrating radar, archaeologists have found a British-built Revolutionary War fort in Ebenezer, Georgia, during a study aimed at documenting old cemeteries in the area.

An archaeologist says plans to build homes on a medieval site in Teesdale, England, should be refused because of insufficient research on the tract’s history and too little information about the project’s impact.

An “army of volunteers” is helping archaeologists excavate on the grounds of the Abbey in Kilwinning, Scotland.

Loooting continues in Iraq. “This is an Iraqi problem. The Iraqi people and the Iraqi government should take the first steps and start protecting their cultural heritage,” says Donny George Youkhanna, former Iraqi National Museum director.

Trouble in Onancock, on the eastern shore of Virginia. Workers at a construction site for a wastewater treatment plant allege the project manager pressured them to keep quiet when they turned up human remains last year. Some are now coming forward with bones they kept. No definitive word on the age of the bones.

Here’s a brief overview of Tell Brak in Syria, but no real news.

This entry was posted by Archaeology Magazine on Friday, August 27, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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