Global warming may have begun thousands of years ago with the slash-and-burn techniques of early farmers, according to researchers from the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. “We are proposing that much smaller earlier populations used much more land per person, and may have more greatly affected climate than current models reflect,” said ecologist Erle Ellis.

In New York, state historic preservation and museum officials are battling shipwreck hunters who want to raise an unidentified vessel from the bottom of Lake Erie and display it at Buffalo harbor in a giant water tank. They say the salvage company has damaged the ship and improperly handled the human remains on board.  

Belgian archaeologist Johan Vandewalle reportedly thinks that the excavation of the remains of 300 Australian and British soldiers from mass graves in Fromelles, France, is a “nightmare.” “It seems bizarre that so much time, effort, care and money could be invested in the project to date only to downgrade requirements at the final, critical stage,” he said.   Richard Wright, a senior forensic adviser to Oxford Archaeology, responds to the accusations.  

This article describes the role of the Stone River in Tennessee’s history, beginning 10,000 years ago.  

And a 2,000-year-old village has been unearthed near the Nolichucky River in East Tennessee.  

Greg Miller, a U.S. Navy Reserve captain, and officials from Libya’s Department of Archaeology and Antiquities, are restoring the “Old Protestant Cemetery” in Tripoli. Five U.S. sailors were buried there in 1804. The men died when their ship, the Intrepid, exploded during a raid of Tripoli Harbor.  

A dredging crew cleaning PCBs from the Hudson River accidentally tore out part of the riverbank that contained two wooden beams that had been part of the waterfront bastion of Fort Edward. The fort was built in 1755 at the start of the French and Indian War, and was then used again during the Revolutionary War.  

Visit Roanoke, North Carolina, America’s ‘Lost Colony,’ with Voice of America.  

Cup and ring rock art was discovered in Scotland by an amateur archaeologist.  

Here’s a wrap-up of England’s prehistoric rock art.  

An archaeologist from English Heritage discovered some early eighteenth-century wallpaper inside the Epworth Old Rectory in Lincolnshire. The home may be refurbished to resemble what it looked like when John Wesley, a founder of Methodist Christianity, lived there.  

A large, third-century A.D. building has been found in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park.

Evidence that humans heated stones as a step in tool making at least 72,000 years ago has been found on the southeastern tip of Africa, according to a study published in Science. “The most noticeable thing about heat-treated stone is that it has a luster or a gloss to it that’s fairly distinctive,” said Kyle Brown of the University of Cape Town and Arizona State University.   National Public Radio offers more information and photographs of the “hot rocks.”   BBC News explains how it was done.

Did Hadrian’s Wall begin as a temporary wood structure? Archaeologist Geoff Carter of Hexham, England, believes the line of post holes along the current stone wall indicates that a wood wall and ditch protected the Romans from marauding Scots during construction.  

A Neolithic “cathedral” has been unearthed on the Brodgar Peninsula in Orkney. The enormous Neolithic building held stone art and furniture, and was surrounded by a paved passageway. “It all forms part of this huge, interconnected ritual landscape,” said Nick Card of the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology.  

British explorer Andrew Collins claims to have discovered a system of caves beneath the Pyramids of Giza. “We explored the caves before the air became too thin to continue. They are highly dangerous, with unseen pits and hollows, colonies of bats and venomous spiders,” he said.  

Eighteenth-century artifacts, including a brass religious medal, pottery, tile, and glass, in addition to a mill stone for grinding corn, were unearthed at California’s San Gabriel Mission.  

The remains of 2,000 German civilians discovered in a mass grave in what is now Poland will be reburied today. Thousands died in 1945 during the Russian army’s offensive in what was then the German province of East Prussia.   

The foundations of a seventeenth-century theater have been uncovered in Dublin. The Smock Alley Theater will be rebuilt on the site.