Road workers in eastern China uncovered the mummy of a woman who had been buried during the Ming Dynasty. Her wooden tomb was filled with brown liquid.

Pieces of an inscription unearthed at Pompeii in 1813 and separated at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples have been reunited. The inscription was part the tomb of a married couple known as the “Tomb of the Marble Door.”  

Were changes in Neanderthal technology brought about by modern human influence, or did Neanderthals create new kinds of tools on their own? This article in Scienceline examines the evidence from southern Italy and France’s Grotte du Renne.  

Those holes you see in the stone while hiking in Arizona’s Tortolita Mountains are morteros, meal-grinding holes made by the Hohokam 1,000 years ago. “Bedrock mortars really are worthy of wonderment. They lead us to speculate about how people used them and how they related to social practices,” said Allen Dart of the Old Pueblo Archaeology Center.  

Zahi Hawass has posted his reasons for his resignation as Egypt’s Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs on his website, DrHawass.com.  Ahram Online reports that hundreds of protesters gathered at heritage sites in Egypt, asking Zahi Hawass to remain at his government post. “Hawass is the only person that could do something positive for archaeology, through his ability to hold responsibility and his network connections,” said Ali El-Asfar, head of the Giza Plateau.  

Construction crews take extra precautions when working on the streets of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. “We are aware of the high potential to find artifacts in the Gettysburg area and keep the footprint of our projects as small as possible,” said PennDOT spokesperson Michael Crochunis.  

The British Museum has revealed a collection of ivory figures from Nimrud that were excavated by archaeologist Max Mallowan, Agatha Christie’s second husband. The famed mystery writer is said to have cleaned the artifacts with her face cream.

Thin stone points complete with barbs have been discovered at three different sites on California’s Channel Islands, along with the bones of marine mammals and birds. Scientists say the various points are between 12,200 and 11,400 years old, and support the idea that early seafaring people may have followed a “kelp highway” from Japan, across the Bering Strait to Alaska, and then down the coast of North America.  

Zahi Hawass has told The New York Times that he is leaving his post as Egypt’s minister of antiquities in Essam Sharaf’s new government because he can no longer protect those antiquities. “If the government will ask me again, I will not accept this job,” he said.  

Archaeologists think they have uncovered the ruins of Valongo wharf, Rio’s infamous slave port and market, in the city’s harbor area. An estimated three million Africans were sold into Brazilian slavery between 1550 and 1888.