New dates for a mastodon bone pierced by a projectile point confirm that it is 13,800 years old. The bone, discovered in the 1970s in Washington State, contradicts the “Clovis-first model,” which suggests that humans first crossed into the Americas from Siberia some 13,000 years ago. “Humans clearly had a role in these extinctions and by the time the Clovis technology turns up at 13,000 years ago – that’s the end. They finished them off,” said Michael Waters of Texas A&M University.  There’s more information, and Waters talks about his research, in this interview at NPR.

Stone and shell tools estimated to be between 8,000 and 11,000 years old have been found in northern Mexico, at the site of El Coyote. The artifacts support the idea that people traveled by boat southward along the coasts.

The 1,500-year-old skeletal remains of a man and woman who had been buried together have been unearthed in Modena, Italy, at a site containing 11 tombs. They were positioned holding hands. “We believe they were originally buried with their faces staring into each other. The position of the man’s vertebrae suggests that his head rolled after death,” perhaps due to the flooding of the necropolis, explained Donato Labate, director of the excavation.

The ancient citadel of Herat has been restored and reopened in Afghanistan, along with a new museum. “I’ve been here many times, but it was crumbling. This is impressive,” said Nancy Hatch Dupree, founder and director of the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University.

Students at Michigan State University dug up their campus and found graffiti and pipes from the 1800s. “So students were breaking the rules a little bit,” said graduate student Katy Meyers. The students also uncovered some arrowheads and a prehistoric fire pit.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, October 21, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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