A defendant in the illegal artifacts-trafficking sting in Utah is challenging the audiovisual evidence against him, following the death of the federal government’s prime witness and undercover operative.

Canadians mark the Battle of Stoney Creek from the War of 1812 as a pivotal moment in their country’s history. As the 200-year anniversary approaches, many want the scattered remains of the soldiers reburied with honors. “It’s quite an issue. It’s amazing that we haven’t been able to actually see the finalization of these men who gave their lives during the Battle of Stoney Creek,” said Susan Ramsay, curator of the Battlefield House Museum.  

Members of Ute, Goshute, Paiute, and Shoshone tribes are concerned that the Utah Transit Authority is proceeding with construction work on state lands containing significant archaeological sites.   

Spring thaw has begun in Columbus, Ohio, revealing a winter’s worth of accumulated garbage. “We think of the archaeological record as being very distant in the past. We are actively creating a record for the future,” commented Victor D. Thompson of Ohio State University.  

Scientists want to return to Vero Beach, Florida, to look for human and animal bones from the Ice Age. In 1915, fossilized bones from five different individuals were unearthed. Recently, a bone etched with an image of a mammoth was found.  

Al-Ahram wraps up the discovery of a colossal head of Amenhotep III in Luxor and the tomb of Queen Behenu in Saqqara.

 Sri Lanka has opened a new maritime archaeology museum in an historic Dutch building in Galle Fort. A previous museum was destroyed by the tsunami of 2004.

A few more facts have become available on the apparent suicide of federal informant, Ted Gardiner. Gardiner assisted authorities who were investigating the illegal trafficking of American Indian artifacts in Utah.  How will Gardiner’s death affect the prosecution of the remaining cases?  

Egypt has received some 25,000 prehistoric artifacts from the University of London. The objects will be housed in a new museum.  

A silver pendant that was one of 200 items reported stolen from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, has been returned by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The pendant was being offered for sale by an antiques dealer in Seattle.   

Here’s a photograph of some of the Hellenistic coins bearing images of Alexander the Great that were discovered in Syria.  

There’s more on the stone tools found in India above and beneath a 74,000-year-old layer of volcanic ash deposited by the Toba eruption in Indonesia. “We, therefore, infer that modern humans were in India before Toba, that is, before 74,000 years ago, which would be much earlier than anyone had suspected,” said Michael Petraglia of Oxford University. Petraglia adds that he tools on top of the ash suggest that the people who survived the eruption were the same population, using the same kinds of tools.  

A German tourist is in hot water after breaking into a protected Maori rock art site in New Zealand and posting pictures of herself doing it online.   Her apology follows.