Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities learned that more than 120 artifacts ranging in age from the Neolithic to the Greco-Roman eras were up for auction in Australia. The sale was canceled and the objects were handed over to the Egyptian Embassy.

The artwork found in two medieval Christian churches in central Sudan recorded information about European pilgrims and the lives of several saints.

A CT scan of an Egyptian child’s Roman-era mummy at the University of Illinois failed to provide scientists with enough information to determine the cause of death or its sex. The child’s teeth indicate that he or she died at about eight and one-half years of age.

The Guardian has more information on the new, earlier dates for the arrival of modern humans in northwestern Europe. “For many years, people thought Europe was a bit of a backwater, a Neanderthal stronghold almost, but the dating we’ve done suggests that is not so clear cut,” said Tom Higham of Oxford Univeristy.

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.