Four days of fighting on the Thailand-Cambodia border has left at least five people dead and the ancient Preah Vihear temple  reportedly damaged. The two countries have disputed ownership of the temple, which was declared a World Heritage site in 2008, for many years. An International Court of Justice put the temple inside Cambodia in 1962.

Homo sapiens were probably better runners than Neanderthals, according to a comparison of their heels to those of modern-day distance runners. Neanderthals would have had the advantage in walking long distances and jumping.  

A leaf-shaped petroglyph has been spotted in the U.S. Virgin Islands National Park. “It’s the type that’s seen in Venezuela or St. Lucia,” said park archaeologist Ken Wild.  

The foundations of the Lacy Hotel have been found in Kennesaw, Georgia, by archaeology student Melissa Scharffenberg. During the Civil War, Union spies stole a locomotive known as “The General” while its crew ate lunch in the hotel, which was eventually burned to the ground by William T. Sherman.  

Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology have been working hard to create substitute exhibits for “Secrets of the Silk Road,” since China pulled its artifacts and mummies from the show. They’ve even fabricated mummies. “If they hadn’t told me, I probably would have thought they were real,” said one ninth grader.  

There’s more on the discovery of a red fox skull in a Natufian grave in a 16,500-year-old cemetery in Jordan at Live Science. “The fox was treated in a special way from any other animals at the site. We think that this represents a significant social relationship, something that clearly goes far beyond the domestication of animals as livestock,” said Lisa Maher of the University of Cambridge.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, February 7, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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