David Martin lost his life earlier this month when his pleasure craft struck a Civil War-era vessel that lies just beneath the surface of the Navidad River in Texas. The Confederacy sank the ironclad steamship in order to hinder Union boats on the river. The Mary Summers, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is currently unmarked. 

Here’s an update on the crisis caused by heavy rain and mudslides at Machu Picchu from The Dominion Post, in New Zealand.  

A lawyer representing several defendants in the federal artifact sting case in Utah is seeking records from the government’s informant. “Generally a cooperating witness has a strong incentive, motive or bias to become a cooperator. It generally doesn’t happen as a moral revelation. It’s more often based on self-interest,” he said.  

Mitochondrial DNA tests were conducted on the bones of a male skeleton discovered in southern Italy. The results indicate that he was of East Asian ancestry. “How this particular individual ended up down in Vagnari is an intriguing story and that’s what makes this find very exciting,” said Jodi Barta of McMaster University.    

A controversial new study published in The William and Mary Quarterly suggests that the heart-shaped design discovered on a coffin at New York City’s African Burial Ground is not an African funereal symbol as has been thought. University at Buffalo historian Erik R. Seeman says that there is no evidence that the sankofa symbol was in use in Africa before 1817. He adds that Anglo-American coffin lids from the eighteenth century were commonly decorated with hearts made from an outline of tacks. “No one knows for sure,” replied the National Park Service.  

University of Alabama archaeologist Robert Clouse has reportedly changed his opinion and told the Oxford city council that erosion and other natural forces probably created a stone mound that he previously stated had been built 1,000 years ago. The mound was in the news last year when the city of Oxford started to remove the hill supporting the mound as part of a profitable construction project.  

In the 1840s, Charles Fellows shipped ornate tombs from the Lycian site of Xanthos to the British Museum. This article in the Turkish newspaper, Today’s Zaman, describes Xanthos and Fellows’ exploits.  

Wild chimpanzees living in the Tai forest of West Africa’s Ivory Coast will adopt young orphaned chimps in need of care. “I don’t know of any other cases of unrelated orphans being adopted,” said Christophe Boesch of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. It had been thought that such altruistic behavior is unique to humans. 

 A huge head sculpted by the Maya out of stucco has been discovered at Chilonche in Guatemala. The head dates from the early Classic period, making the site older than previously thought.

Heavy rains in Peru have blocked train tracks and stranded people at Machu Picchu. Helicopters are being used to rescue them.  

Several artifacts were stolen from the “Antiquities Theft in Israel” exhibition at the Ashdod Museum.  

Italian police have shut down an illegal dig in Puglia and recovered more than 100 artifacts. No arrests have been made, however.  

Two British amateur archaeologists think they may have discovered the source of the subterranean Aqua Traiana, 35 miles north of Rome. The water level has dropped recently, making exploration of the area possible for the first time.  

The Guardian has a story on the British Museum, Iran, and the spat over the Cyrus Cylinder.