The oldest wooden structure ever uncovered on London’s Thames River has been dated to 7,000 years ago. Erosion on the river bank exposed the timbers last February. “The find is very interesting, because in the Mesolithic period the people were nomadic hunter-gatherers, living in temporary camps – not at all given to building substantial structures like this,” said archaeologist Gustave Milne.  

Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt’s antiquities department, is concerned that the Egyptian obelisk in New York City’s Central Park has been out in the elements for more than 100 years without any special care. “If the Central Park Conservancy and the City of New York cannot properly care for this obelisk, I will take the necessary steps to bring this precious artifact home and save it from ruin,” he wrote.  

Evidence of life in San Francisco during the Gold Rush has been found beneath 12 feet of earthquake rubble and sand, including “fancy serving platters,” and “many, many liquor bottles.”  

Here’s a quick wrap-up of archaeological discoveries in Turkey during the past year from a travel website.  

Discovery News has posted a photograph of “Soapman,” an eighteenth-century Philadelphian whose body fats turned to soap when exposed to water.

Former prosecutor Paolo Giorgio Ferri spoke to Il Giornale dell’Arte about his efforts to crack down on the illegal excavation of antiquities in Italy. “Italian legislation is extremely lenient: it is easier to end up in prison for stealing a pair of jeans than it is to go to jail for stealing an ancient vase,” he said.

Marion True, former antiquities curator at the Getty Museum, also spoke to The Art Newspaper about her trial in Italy for antiquities trafficking. The statute of limitations for all crimes she was accused of committing expired, ending her five-year-long trial without a judgement.  

The Cyrus Cylinder will remain on display in Iran for three more months.  

Excavation of a well-preserved Zapotec grave at the site of Mitla in Mexico supports the hypothesis that thighbones were removed by later generations and used, perhaps, as scepters.  

Geneticists at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA will make another attempt to extract DNA from an 18,000-year-old H. floresiensis tooth. Success could solve the dispute over the classification of the Hobbits.  

There have been plenty of “media-mangled science stories” in recent months. Brian Switek of Wired reviews the coverage of the Hobbits and carrion-eating storks that lived on the Indonesian island of Flores.  

Roman legionary quarters built at the beginning of the first century A.D. have been unearthed in the Crimea. Polish archaeologists suspect that the fort is nearby.  

Mass graves discovered at a psychiatric hospital in Austria may hold the remains of 220 victims of the Nazis. “We know that murder was actively carried out at other psychiatric institutions, by overdosing patients, neglect or undernourishment,” said historian Oliver Seifert.