Fossilized human remains thought to be 10,000 years old have been found in New South Wales, Australia.

A 12,000-year-old iron oxide mine in Chile represents the oldest-known mining operation in the Americas. Diego Salazar of the Universidad de Chile says the Huentelauquen people used the iron oxide as a pigment for painting stone and bone tools, and probably also for self decoration.

A team of researchers will look for traces of Guglielmo Marconi’s first transatlantic wireless station at Derrygimlagh, Ireland, along with the landing site of British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown after their first Atlantic crossing. “From 1907 until 1922, Ireland was a major player in the development of transatlantic wireless communications, and the coincidental association of the Clifden Marconi station with the Alcock and Brown landing makes the sensitive habitat at Derrygimlagh unique,” said engineer and industrial archaeology researcher Shane Joyce.

In Oklahoma, a group of archaeologists is ready to assist police in the recovery of murder victims.

Did walking upright give early humans an advantage in a fight? Biologist David Carrier of the University of Utah found that men hit harder when they stand on two legs than they do on all fours. “Early in human evolution, an enhanced capacity to strike downward on an opponent may have given tall males a greater capacity to compete for mates and to defend their resources and offspring,” he added.

Blackbeard’s pirate ship Queen Anne’s Revenge is featured in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Archaeologists will attempt to retrieve an anchor from a wreck site off North Carolina’s coast that is thought to be the very ship.

An American tour guide has been arrested in Israel on suspicion of illegally selling artifacts to members of his tour group.

Some historic buildings in the path of the rising Mississippi River may have been spared by the diversion of water through the Morganza Spillway. Flooding and silt from the spillway could damage rural archaeological sites, however.

More than 30,000 rock carvings will be flooded by the reservoir of Pakistan’s Diamer-Basha Dam. The region was once the junction of three ancient trade routes. “We have to respect the decision to build the dam, but it is very sad for us to lose one of the most rich and diverse rock art provinces of the world,” said Harald Hauptmann of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

The archaeological museum in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv says it will sue Bulgaria’s Culture Ministry over the rights to the Thracian gold known as the Panagyurishte treasure. “The Plovdiv archaeological museum has the title deeds for this treasure. We have a document proving rightful ownership dating from the time of discovery. We are the only ones who possess a document proving that the treasure belongs to a certain institution,” said Kostadin Kisyov, director of the museum.

A team of researchers is investigating the Maya port site of Visa Alegre at the remote northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. “Maya trade was far-ranging between the Veracruz coast of modern Mexico and the Gulf of Honduras, with each port a link in a chain connecting people and ideas. Yet there is still much to learn about the extensive history and importance of the maritime Maya and how they adapted to life by the sea,” said Dominique Rissolo of the Waitt Institute in California.

Excavation of Urridakot in Iceland has revealed the site to be 500 years older than previously thought.

Three Bronze Age burial mounds in Dorset, England, will be excavated because they are being lost to erosion.

Ahmose-Meryet-Amon, an Egyptian princess who died 3,500 years ago, has been named the oldest person known to have had clogged arteries. Cardiologist Adel Allam of Al Azhar University says that wealthy Egyptians would have eaten plenty of meat and fats, vegetables and fruits, and salt.