Austrian archaeologists found a Babylonian seal near the ancient town of Avaris, in Egypt. Irene Forstner-M üller of the Austrian Archaeological Institute says the seal confirms contact between the Babylonians and the Hyksos, who ruled Egypt between 1640 and 1530 B.C.  

During the Revolutionary War, British troops razed the West Parish Meeting House in Connecticut, using a tactic called “desolation warfare.” Today, nothing of the building is left on the surface of the ground, but archaeologists have unearthed shards of glass and pottery.   

Here’s more information on the eighteenth-century tombstone found beneath New York City’s Washington Square Park.  

An historic cemetery in St. Augustine, Florida, may also hold remains of Yellow Fever victims.  

National Geographic News has picked up the story on the witch bottle discovered near a former pub in England.  

Prehistoric human remains uncovered during construction work on private land in Nebraska have been turned over to the Santee Sioux tribe for reburial.  

Marine archaeologist Robert Grenier talks about his search for the Erebus and Terror, the two ships used by Sir John Franklin during his 1845 expedition to the Canadian Arctic.  

Macedonia continues to battle the plunder of its archaeological heritage. Many artifacts are reportedly smuggled across the border into Greece.  

Bulgaria has a new Cultural Heritage Act that collectors say is too restrictive, and archaeologists say is too lax. 

   A mass grave that may hold the remains of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca is being exhumed at the request of relatives of the other men who may be buried there. “This country had an appalling civil war. There are 130,000 people out there still in common graves, ditches, fields, and gullies,” said historian Ian Gibson, whose research helped locate the excavation site.

Stone Age artifacts made of wood have been discovered in a peat-covered burial in some mud in central Sweden. 

Halloween traditions are explained at Live Science, but there’s even more “uncanny” information at ARCHAEOLOGY.  

PhD candidate Ellen OCarroll is investigating tree use by the Irish. “Trees were part of their life and folklore and history, and they were used to make artifacts. It’s hard for us now to appreciate just how important they were,” she said.  

Students from the University of California, Santa Cruz, are investigating pre-colonial West Africa and the roots of the international slave trade in Benin. “It was a tense and terrifying time for people,” said anthropologist Cameron Monroe.  

Four people were arrested in Nepal for trying to smuggle statues of Buddha into India.