Three chunks of mortar fell off Rome’s Colosseum early yesterday morning, although the monument is open today as usual.

Irina Bokova, the director-general of UNESCO, spoke to Hydro International about the potential sale of artifacts salvaged from a 1,000-year-old ship off the coast of northern Java. “We encourage the Indonesian government to make every effort to ensure that thorough scientific examination of the site is carried out and the artifacts are presented in museums,” she said.  

In Iraq, local officials and antiquities officials are at odds over what to do with the restoration of ancient Babylon. “We are trying our best to attract investments in order to build restaurants and other attractions,” said Mansour al-Manae, a member of the provincial council. Archaeologists, on the other hand, favor “slow and meticulous work.”  

Scientists from the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch have attempted to begin conservation of iron artifacts, such as anchors and a cannon, from the ship believed to be the Queen Anne’s Revenge while they are still underwater. “It’s fairly experimental and if nothing else, it will help to stop the artifacts from continuing to corrode,” said project director Mark Wilde Ramsing.  

A pair of American Indian gloves stolen from a display case at Western Michigan University has been recovered.  

Two medieval skeletons were unearthed in Gloucester, England, by work crews. “The minute we go below half a meter we have an archaeologist watching us,” said Nigel Edgeworth, the project manager.  

Christel Schneider of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology reports that bonobos have been filmed shaking their heads from side to side to prevent others from doing something they did not want them to do. Bonobos are known to use a wider range of head gestures than chimpanzees, although there has been anecdotal evidence that chimps also shake their heads to signal “no.”

The first stone to be found bearing an Indus inscription has been unearthed at the Harappan site of Dholavira in Gujarat, India. The script has previously been found on seals, terracotta tablets and pots, metal ornaments, and even inlaid on a large piece of wood. “The inscription must have run longer, but the stone was broken into pieces,” said R.S. Bisht, who has retired from the Archaeological Survey of India.

Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany says that between one and four percent of genes in people from Europe and Asia can be traced back to Neanderthals. His research team suggests in Science that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred when they met in the Middle East.  You can also listen to this story on National Public Radio.  And, there’s more information about what Neanderthals were like in this article by Chris Stringer, Research Leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum, for the Times of London.   

The graves of 11 Koreans forced to build an airfield for the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II have been exhumed near the northern tip of Hokkaido. “The findings show how the burials were crude and conducted in a way that completely tramples human dignity,” said Hirofumi Kato of Hokkaido University. In all, an estimated 700,000 to 800,000 Koreans were forced to labor in Japan between 1939 and 1945.  

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) has offered to recover an American fighter plane that was revealed by shifting sands off the coast of Wales in 2007. There are amazing photographs of the P38 Lightning in this article. “We are working closely with the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation at Texas A&M University to develop a recovery and conservation plan that will enable the Maid of Harlech to be truly conserved,” said Ric Gillespie of TIGHAR.  

Here’s another report on the excavations at Taposiris Magna Temple near Alexandria, Egypt. This one comes from Al-Ahram Weekly.