A genetic study has concluded that wild asses in Northeast Africa are the ancestors of modern donkeys, indicating that the first domesticated donkeys traveled out of Africa with their human companions. Donkeys are important because they mark the human shift from agrarian society to a more trade-oriented society, explains Albano Beja-Pereira of Université Joseph Fourier.

An amendment to a bill before the Israeli parliament proposes to privatize the country’s national parks, including many archaeological sites. More than 150 archaeologists have signed a petition against the move. “We demand that the government not change the laws… and instead strengthens academic freedom and heritage without sectarian preference,” it reads.

Tunnel construction in London has uncovered the bones of prehistoric animals that may have been butchered by people.

Police divers recovered a 200-year-old cannon from the Detroit River and turned it over to the Detroit Historical Society.

A floor mosaic has been unearthed in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. The site was once the location of the northern gate of the Roman settlement, Augusta Traiana.

Plots of irrigated farmland have been found in Loulan, China, along the route of the ancient Silk Road. The city vanished in the third century A.D.

Archaeologists gathered in Greece to discuss Byzantine-era fortresses in the Peloponnese.

The Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck site seems to have escaped serious damage from Hurricane Irene. This fall, scientists will excavate the foremast and gallery areas of the sunken vessel.

Here’s an update on the joint investigation of Irish immigrants conducted by students at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and Queen’s University, Belfast. The focus is on Hugh Cummiskey, who came to Lowell from Northern Ireland in 1822. “It’s an unfolding story,” explained Frank Talty of the Center for Irish Partnerships.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has admitted that the politician’s discovery of two Greek amphorae on a dive trip last August was staged. It wasn’t mentioned here, but maybe you saw the original story.