The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has agreed to return eight objects to the T’akdeintaan Clan, Snail House, in Hoonah, Alaska. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee decided that the objects belong to the clan, which will pursue the return of 42 additional artifacts. 

NPR has more on the museum’s scramble to fill exhibits for “Secrets of the Silk Road,” since the Chinese government pulled its artifacts and mummies from the show.  

Legislation that requires human remains uncovered in archaeological excavations to be reburied within two years continues to make news in the UK. “If steps are not taken to rectify this situation we shall see a significant reduction in the scope and scale of archaeological and historical research, fields in which Britain is an acknowledged world leader,” said Diana Friendship-Taylor of the British Archaeological Trust.  

More than 50 sets of human remains buried 1,000 years ago have been unearthed in Kanab, Utah, as part of a dam construction project. Some 30 pit houses and 100 more features have also been found.  

Elke Rogersdotter of Sweden’s University of Gothenburg thinks that the importance of play in human cultures gets overlooked by archaeologists. “The reason that play and game-related artifacts often end up ignored or being reinterpreted at archaeological excavations is probably down to scientific thinking’s incongruity with the irrational phenomenon of games and play,” she said.  

Researchers from Stanford University want to know how conch shells were used by the Inca in the resonant chambers at Chavín de Huántar in Peru. “They are rarely used trivially. People don’t play them for entertainment. They’re ceremonial – shiny, noisy, highly labor intensive things,” said anthropologist John Rick.  

The New York Times has more information on the damage sustained by the Preah Vihear temple during the recent border clash between Thai and Cambodian troops.

Four days of fighting on the Thailand-Cambodia border has left at least five people dead and the ancient Preah Vihear temple  reportedly damaged. The two countries have disputed ownership of the temple, which was declared a World Heritage site in 2008, for many years. An International Court of Justice put the temple inside Cambodia in 1962.

Homo sapiens were probably better runners than Neanderthals, according to a comparison of their heels to those of modern-day distance runners. Neanderthals would have had the advantage in walking long distances and jumping.  

A leaf-shaped petroglyph has been spotted in the U.S. Virgin Islands National Park. “It’s the type that’s seen in Venezuela or St. Lucia,” said park archaeologist Ken Wild.  

The foundations of the Lacy Hotel have been found in Kennesaw, Georgia, by archaeology student Melissa Scharffenberg. During the Civil War, Union spies stole a locomotive known as “The General” while its crew ate lunch in the hotel, which was eventually burned to the ground by William T. Sherman.  

Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology have been working hard to create substitute exhibits for “Secrets of the Silk Road,” since China pulled its artifacts and mummies from the show. They’ve even fabricated mummies. “If they hadn’t told me, I probably would have thought they were real,” said one ninth grader.  

There’s more on the discovery of a red fox skull in a Natufian grave in a 16,500-year-old cemetery in Jordan at Live Science. “The fox was treated in a special way from any other animals at the site. We think that this represents a significant social relationship, something that clearly goes far beyond the domestication of animals as livestock,” said Lisa Maher of the University of Cambridge.