Egyptian customs police seized ancient and Islamic artifacts from a 50-year-old Sudanese man at the High Dam Port in Aswan. The authorities still have to determine if the objects are genuine.

New dates for Homo sapiens fossils indicate that modern humans occupied Europe between 42,000 and 44,000 years ago, a few thousand years earlier than previously thought.

A combination of factors led to the extinction of Ice Age animals, according to a large-scale study led by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen. Overhunting by humans alone was not responsible for their demise.

Low tide at Seal Cove on Mount Desert Island, Maine, reveals the wooden hull of a schooner, but its location doesn’t fit either of the two shipwrecks recorded in the area. An archaeologist and some volunteers measured and sketched the unknown ship this past August.

BBC News offers photographs of World War I artifacts unearthed from trenches in northern France.  This video explains the tunnel excavation project conducted by British and French archaeologists.

When a metal detector enthusiast in southern England found a Bronze Age spearhead, she contacted the archaeological authorities. They unearthed more than 100 bronze items estimated to be 2,700 years old. “You could count on two hands the number of Bronze Age hoards which have been recorded professionally by archaeologists in this way,” said Adrian Green, director of the Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum.

Funding for the excavation of the Queen Anne’s Revenge off the coast of North Carolina is running low. “We’ll do our darndest to find money and keep working,” said state archaeologist Steve Claggett.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, November 3, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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