Oyster shells excavated from an abandoned seventeenth-century well in Jamestown, Virginia, reveal that the English settlers who lived there endured a long-lasting drought. “It was interesting trying to figure out what was happening in the colony at a time when 70 to 80 percent of the colonists were dying,” said geochemist Howard Spero of the University of California, Davis.

A tiny clay figurine of a woman’s torso was unearthed at Japan’s Aidanikumahara archaeological site. It is thought to be 13,000 years old.  

Here’s more information on the 2,400-year-old Etruscan house unearthed in Italy. “The building was part of the ancient town of Vetulonia and is much older than other sections of the town uncovered so far,” said Vetulonia Archaeological Museum Director Simona Rafanelli.  

Are the 100,000-year-old dates for the Neanderthal flint tools discovered in Kent, England, accurate?  

A modern work of art that was mistaken for an Iron Age sculpture and put in a museum has been returned to its original home in a park near Turkey’ Lake Van.  

In 1983, some 80 people enjoyed lunch in a garden south of Paris, and then buried the decorated tables, plates, glasses, and leftover food in a trench. Now, archaeologist Jean-Paul Demoule is digging them up. “What will these remains tell us about the way artists lived in the 1980s, what will they say about our society?” he said.

Rock art specialists are trying to determine if a red ochre painting depicts the emu or the genyornis, which died out 40,000 years ago. If the bird is a genyornis, “it would … more than double the potential age of painted rock art in Australia,” said scientist Robert Gunn.  “We need to excavate the site next year to date the antiquity of the surface. It is a long-term project,” added archaeologist Bruno David.

Two ancient flint hand tools unearthed in England suggest that Neanderthals were living there 100,000 years ago, or 40,000 years earlier than previously thought. “We know that Neanderthals inhabited Northern France at this time, but this new evidence suggests that as soon as sea levels dropped, and a ‘land bridge’ appeared across the English Channel, they made the journey by foot to Kent,” explained Francis Wenban-Smith of the University of Southampton.  

In northern Kenya, researchers have uncovered two-million-year-old tools that could indicate that early humans ate a very broad diet, including aquatic foods such as crocodiles, turtles, and fish. “This find is important because fish in particular has been associated with brain development and it is after this period that we see smaller-brained hominin species evolving into larger-brained Homo species — Homo erectus — the first hominin to leave Africa,” said Andy Herries from the University of New South Wales.  

Sticky rice may have been the secret ingredient to the mortar used in China 1,500 years ago. When mixed with slaked lime, sticky rice soup produced super strong mortar, according to the American Chemical Society.  

The tomb of a 19^th Dynasty official named Ptahmes has been rediscovered in Saqqara. Several grave markers, painted sculptures, shabti figurines, amulets, and pottery had been left behind with the tomb was opened in 1885.  

Scientists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History will try to identify the skeletal remains honored as the heroes of the country’s Independence War with Spain in the early nineteenth century. The bones will be returned to the Angel of Independence monument in August 2011.  

A man walking his dog in Derry, Ireland, found a 7,000-year-old ax head in a plowed field. Local archaeologist Ian Leitch thinks the ax might have been dropped by someone out hunting who lived at a Mesolithic site in the area.  

Dholavira, located in Gujarat, India, is one of the five largest Harrapan sites in all of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Here’s an overview of the excavation of the ancient city, complete with photographs of features and artifacts.  

Preservationists say that a planned bypass in Slane, County Meath, Ireland, is too close to ancient monuments like Newgrange. But others say the new road is essential. “The amount of traffic and lorries is just ruining the village and there have been so many deaths and accidents the sooner we get it the better,” said local Joanne Macken.  

In Scotland, volunteers cleaned up a mess left behind by archaeologists. They were amused to find twentieth-century artifacts such as crockery, pots and pans, shovels, and a hot water bottle.