A new calibration curve will extend radiocarbon calibration and improve earlier parts of the curve. “It is significant because this agreed calibration curve now extends over the entire normal range of radiocarbon dating, up to 50,000 years before today,” said Ron Reimer of the Queen’s School of Geography, Archaeology, and Palaeoecology.

Flat-footed walking is energy efficient, according to a new study by David Carrier of the University of Utah. “Our ancestors were hunter gatherers, so anything that improved walking would make a lot of sense to hang on to,” he explained.  

Renovations to a golf course on Bald Head Island, North Carolina, revealed human bones dating to the 1800s. The island was known for pirate activity, and a Civil War camp had been located there, before it became a vacation resort. 

A survey by English Heritage revealed shallow hedge banks surrounding Stonehenge. Did a thorny hedge surround the stone circle 3,600 years ago? “To date nobody has really considered the vegetation around the stones,” said archaeologist David Field.  

A North Carolina power company plans to build a tie-in station a half mile away from a mound known as Kituwah, which Cherokee tradition holds was the site of their sacred flame and the tribe’s ancestral home. “We’re continuing to work, as well as continuing to have conversations with the Cherokees to better understand the sensitivities of the site and ways to mitigate the impact,” said spokesperson Jason Walls.   

Permission has been granted for an endoscope to be used to look inside the tomb of sixteenth-century Englishman Fulke Greville. Some claim that Greville authored works attributed to Shakespeare, and that he was buried with those original manuscripts and other writings.  

Two men were arrested in northern Florida and charged with excavation of artifacts on state lands. They showed officers the 50 shallow holes they had dug.  

Al-Ahram has more information on the renovations underway at the Avenue of Sphinxes in Luxor, Egypt.  

Heavy rains in Greece have exposed eight tombs dating between the end of the fourth century B.C. and the beginning of the third century B.C.

 DNA tests conducted on four 4,000-year-old human hairs discovered in Greenland have linked the man who grew them to modern-day Arctic residents of Siberia. “We have an increasingly powerful forensic tool with which to ‘reconstruct’ extinct humans and the demographics of populations,” according to David Lambert and Leon Huynen of Griffith University in Australia.   Live Science has more information on the frozen hair. (The original article appears in the February 11 issue of Nature.)    Or, you can listen to the story on National Public Radio.

Don’t miss ARCHAEOLOGY’s report on the possibility of cloning Neanderthals.  

An Italian court has reportedly ordered the confiscation of the Greek bronze statue known as “Victorious Youth” from the J. Paul Getty Museum’s Villa in Malibu, California. The Getty bought the statue in 1977.  

Felony charges have been brought against a man who removed a large petroglyph from the Spring Mountains National Recreational Area near Pahrump, Nevada.  

A seventh-century village has been uncovered in Saudi Arabia.  

The Economist examines the impact of the recent flooding on Peru’s tourism industry.  

Residents of Bulgaria will have to register their metal detectors with the government.  

Researchers will study the impact of misinterpretations of ancient Maya culture on modern Maya communities. “It’s worrying that they’re giving another meaning to our vision, as Mayans, of ourselves,” said Jose Huchim of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.