The remains of 42,000-year-old tuna and sharks have been found on East Timor, an island north of Australia. Susan O’Connor of Australian National University in Canberra says the fast-swimming, deep water fish “certainly suggest that people had advanced maritime skills,” in order to catch them. She also uncovered a 23,000-year-old fishhook made from a mollusk shell. Her team claims this hook is the earliest evidence of line fishing.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History announced the discovery at the site of Comalcalco of a brick bearing a fragmentary reference to the end of one era and the beginning of another in the Maya Long Count calendar. “Some have proposed it as another reference to 2012, but I remain rather unconvinced,” said David Stuart of the University of Texas at Austin.

Sheep wool, dog hair, and mountain goat hair have been identified in some of the blankets and robes woven by people living on the Pacific Coast of North America before the arrival of Europeans. “Dogs have a long history of interaction with humans, from companionship to guarding and hunting; but raising dogs for fiber production was a unique cultural adaptation in the Pacific Northwest,” said Caroline Solazzo of the University of York.

A report in the current Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice notes looting in 18 states has been perpetrated by methamphetamine addicts. “Archaeological fieldwork has become an increasingly dangerous occupation around the world,” it states.

In Ireland, the skeleton of a young man whose skull had been pierced by an iron arrowhead was found in a shallow grave, near an underground passage dating to the ninth century.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, November 25, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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