Five fragments of a wall painting from Luxor’s Valley of the Kings will by returned to Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak during a luncheon with France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy. The Louvre Museum in Paris purchased the stolen artifacts in good faith in 2000 and 2003.

The Archaeological Institute of America, ARCHAEOLOGY’s parent organization, has affirmed its support “for the ongoing work of the Republic of Italy to protect its cultural patrimony and share the benefits of this rich heritage with the people of the United States.”  

Russia continues to insist that a skull fragment and jaw bone in the Federal Security Service (FSB) archives are all that remains of Adolf Hitler.  

In a project funded by the Council of British Archaeology, a team of homeless people will assist with the excavation of “Turbo Island,” in Bristol. “Places that matter to homeless people and those who have a marginalized existence in society are significant in their own right,” said archaeologist Rachael Kiddey.

 One of the largest slave graveyards in the world is being excavated on the island of St. Helena, in preparation for airport construction. Many of the 10,000 people buried here had been found dead in slave ships by British Royal Navy patrols between 1840 and 1874.  

Excavation of a village at the site of a runway extension at North Carolina’s Macon County Airport has been completed. Graves have been left in place, and fill will cover them in order to protect them from construction. “A lot of people don’t want Lear jets landing on their grandparents’ graves. We want protection in place. It is a compromise we worked for,” said Russ Townsend, tribal historic preservation officer for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.   

The bone chemistry of the Maya king K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’ indicates that he did not grow up Copán, where he ruled. “These findings reinforce the notion that the Copán state was founded as part of a colonial expansion,” said Robert Sharer of the University of Pennsylvania.   

A skeleton was uncovered in the basement of a home in Warwick, Rhode Island.  

The Israel Antiquities Authority reports that a new analysis of artifacts from a fortress along the Incense Road shows that it was ruled by the Hasmoneans. The Incense Road connected the Nabataean city of Petra with Gaza, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea. “We are talking about a revolutionary discovery that will redraw the maps of the region which describe that era and greatly increase the territory governed by the Hasmoneans into the heart of the Negev Highlands as we know it,” said archaeologist Tali Erickson-Gini.  

Cortisol has been found in the hair of ancient Peruvians, indicating that they suffered from stress, too. Many of the individuals showed periods of high stress during their lives, and right before death.  

Have you ever wondered about Hungary’s long history of Egyptology? Al-Ahram Weekly celebrates 102 years of Hungarian excavations in Egypt with this article.