Mike Waters of Texas A&M University claims that some of the stone tools and flakes he has unearthed in central Texas, along Buttermilk Creek, are up to 15,500 years old. “They would leave the site and come back, and each time leave behind evidence of their activities. They slowly but surely built up these deposits. Dating them shows they range from 15,500 years ago, then just keep going until the Clovis material,” he explained. Other scientists are concerned that creek flooding and rain could have mixed the sediment layers at the site. 

This report in The Telegraph Kolkata states that 1.5 million-year-old tools have been found on India’s southeastern coast, at the site of Attirampakkam. The tools resemble those discovered in western Asia and Africa, and are thought to have been made by Homo erectus. 

Trench diggers in southern Peru discovered what turned out to be 37 pre-Inca tombs containing ceramics, depictions of boats, wooden harpoons, and copper fishing hooks. 

Intense x-ray beams from sources known as synchrotrons can be used by archaeologists to learn more about artifacts. 

What causes a human brain to be preserved? 

An old well filled with nineteenth-century garbage has been uncovered during tunnel construction in Auckland, New Zealand. A 124-year-old hotel was moved from the site for the project. 

Here are new photographs from Allianoi, a 1,800-year-old Roman spa complex in Turkey that is being engulfed by waters from the Yortanli Dam. “Allianoi is as significant at the Roman baths at Baden Baden in Germany, Bath in England, and some big baths in Italy, but it was the only one that was very well preserved. We couldn’t make the government understand this significance,” said Ahmet Yaras, who was head archaeologist at Allianoi. 

In Scotland, green-glazed pottery has been unearthed near the site of the Battle of Bannockburn. Archaeologists think Robert the Bruce may have set up his army camp here in 1314.

A chambered tomb containing burials from the Byzantine era has been unearthed in Syria. Archaeologist Ali al-Qatlabi said that 15 soldiers with worn-out leather shoes had been buried in the tomb, along with pottery, lamps, metal and glass bracelets, rings, copper coins, stone beads, and perfume bottles. 

Many residents of the modern Turkish village of Hasankeyf continue to protest against the opening of the Ilisu Dam, which would flood the the village and the nearby ancient site of Hasankeyf. “If the dam is constructed we will lose everything – our homes, this history and even the graves of those we have lost will go under the water,” said Semra Argun, whose family owns the only motel in town. 

A group of volunteers known as the Rutherglen Heritage Group is trying to track down their burgh’s original boundary stones with the help of the West of Scotland Archaeology Service. At one time, there were more than 300 stones, but at the last count, in the 1980s, there were only 57. “One of the major risks to small monuments is that people do not realize what they are, or how important they are to the history of the burgh, and so the stones are often removed during building development or landscaping,” said a spokesman. 

The balustrade on the tomb of American president William Henry Harrison, located in North Bend, Ohio, has been vandalized. “The breaks were clean, and it seems that putting things back into place with mortar is all that will be required,” said George Kane, director of historic sites and facilities for the Ohio Historical Society.