Italian police have claimed that the lost tomb of Caligula had been discovered south of Rome by looters, who were caught while trying to smuggle a large statue out of the country. However, Mary Beard of the University of Cambridge warns that “the details are pretty murky,” and that it “is almost inconceivable that this assassinated symbol of imperial monstrosity would have been given a grand monument.”

Cracks in the 1,250-year-old Kailasanathar Temple in southern India have been repaired with “granite stitching,” which employs stainless steel rods and epoxy. “The inserted rod starts at one side of the crack and ends at the other side of the crack, holding both sides together. This is actually like stitching seen in cloth,” said researcher Anu Padma. New plaster will be applied to cracks in the temple’s huge dome.  

It has long been thought that Neanderthals’ big noses were an adaptation to living in cold climates, but perhaps the prominent feature just evolved that way randomly. A new study of Neanderthal skulls has shown that their sinuses were comparable in scale to those of modern humans. “The $64,000 question is what sinuses do – that is, what is their biological function. Scientists have been arguing over that for hundreds of years,” said paleoanthropologist Todd Rae of Roehampton University in London.  

An underwater survey of Sagami Bay in central Japan revealed four large stones thought to have been quarried for Edo Castle in 1606. The stones may have fallen off of one of the 3,000 ships that carried stones for the project, or they may have washed out to sea from a storage point on the coastline.  

Pakistan’s prehistoric rock shelters are being damaged by unregulated construction work.  

Greek police arrested a man in Thessaloniki when they discovered antiquities hidden in his café.  

In France, the remains of another World War I soldier from Australia have been recovered from a drainage ditch at the Somme.  

Moten Ravn of the Viking Ship Museum in Denmark suggests that a survey of the world’s bog bodies might help scholars make sense out of them. “The reason that people were given their final resting place in the bog was not because of any one single tradition or one single ritual,” he said.  

Japanese scientists plan to clone a mammoth from cells preserved in a Russian laboratory.  

Charred barley grains found at the Iron Age settlement of Eberdingen-Hochdorf in southwestern Germany are leftovers from a Celtic beer-making operation, according to Hans-Peter Stika of University of Hohenheim.  

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities wants to close the tomb of Tutankhamun, and two others, by the end of the year, stating that the stream of visitors is causing too much damage to the ancient structures. A replica of Tut’s tomb will be built with cutting-edge technology.  

Dangerous loose boulders and a broken gate at Hasankeyf, Turkey, will be fixed so that the site can be opened to tourists in the spring, despite plans to flood the ancient city when the Ilisu Dam is completed.  

Are you thinking about traveling to Chichen Itza? The Sydney Morning Herald has some tips.  

And The Telegraph can help you plan a trip to see China’s archaeological wonders.  

Karl Kern owns an aircraft company, and he was part of the expedition that looked for Amelia Earhart on Nikumaroro Island. He spoke to The Arizona Republic about his adventure.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, January 18, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

Comments posted here do not represent the views or policies of the Archaeological Institute of America.