A first-century wall mosaic depicting Apollo has been discovered in a tunnel built to help support Trajan’s Baths in Rome.

Modern humans may have outnumbered Neandertals ten to one, according to a new study of archaeological sites in southwestern France. “These data imply that numerical supremacy alone must have been a powerful if not overwhelming factor” in the demise of the Neandertals, write Paul Mellars and Jennifer French of the University of Cambridge in Science.

Could this be the world’s first-known protractor? This object was retrieved 100 years ago from the tomb of the Egyptian architect Kha, who died around 1400 B.C.

The Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History has found hundreds of artifacts in an area of New York City’s Central Park this week. Two-thirds of the residents in this short-lived, early nineteenth-century community were African American. “The vast array of materials that we uncovered really gives us a true sense of a strong, stable community,” said Cynthia R. Copeland of New York University.

Live Science has more information on the engraved image of a reindeer that is being called Britain’s oldest rock art.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, July 29, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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