The charred remains of bees have been found within a honeycomb from the hives at Tel Rehov, Israel. Scientists say the bees had been imported from Turkey. “Local bees are notoriously difficult to handle,” states this article from Wired.

More than 100 intact religious objects were uncovered in a rock hollow in northern Israel. The artifacts are 3,500 years old, and some of them resemble vessels produced in Cyprus and Mycenae. “It is quite possible that these artifacts were used in the cultic area and in the temple and they accumulated, and when they ran out of space or they became old, a pit was made to bury them,” explained Yossi Garfinkel of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was not involved in the excavation.

A man in New Mexico dug up an ancient human skull in his yard. 

FBI Director Robert Mueller visited Utah and told reporters that law enforcement acted appropriately during last year’s American Indian artifacts-trafficking sting operation. 

A teacher in Massachusetts discovered a document dated April 1792 in her fourth-grade classroom. No one knows how the yellowed paper ended up there.  

Seven or eight archaeological sites have been identified on land bought by Thomas Jefferson on behalf of “his adopted son,” William Short. Jefferson instructed Short in a letter to get slaves to work the land, but Short, who was an abolitionist, suggested white tenant farmers. “We know much more about the extremes of the populations, the most impoverished and the most privileged, and we know very little about the middle. By looking at tenants and overseers and small farmers, not only are we going to fill the gap in knowledge but we will put the two ends of the spectrum in better perspective,” said Alison Bell of Washington & Lee University.  

There’s more on the Roman gladiator cemetery indentified in York at National Public Radio.  

And here’s more information on the Nottingham Caves Survey, which is mapping the tunnels and caves beneath the city of Nottingham, England, with a 3D laser scanner. The sandstone caves were used as tanneries, breweries, and prisons.

Forensic testing of more than 80 Roman-era skeletons unearthed in York, England, indicates that that the athletic young men with well-developed right arms had been gladiators. Some of the bodies had been decapitated and had received hammer blows to the head. One of the bones also showed evidence of a bite from a large carnivore, such as a lion, tiger, or bear. “We don’t have any other potential gladiator cemeteries with this level of preservation anywhere else in the world,” said Michael Wysocki of the University of Central Lancashire.

A secret U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement warehouse in Queens, New York, holds more than 2,500 artifacts as potential evidence in smuggling and forgery cases. Customs agents work to stop the thieves and identify the objects. “The goal for all of us is not to keep it here forever. The idea is to give it back,” said James McAndrew, senior special agent in charge of cultural property.  

A Buddhist study center has been found in a small village in the state of Bihar in northwestern India.  

Enjoy this tourist’s introduction to Petra.  

The Hawaii-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command continues to search for soldiers listed as missing in action and to recover their remains. This article is an account of the search for a missing Marine in Vietnam’s Quang Tri province.  

Here’s a photograph of a colossal statue of Djehuty, the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom, being unearthed from the sands of Luxor. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, thinks that additional statues will be found lining a path leading to a temple. There’s also more information on the rediscovery of the tomb of the 19^th Dynasty mayor of Memphis.