What could be the ancient Indian Ocean trade hub of Muziris has been unearthed at Pattanam, in southwestern India. Archaeologists have found a 2,000-year-old brick wharf; a wooden canoe; pottery from Italy, Egypt, and Mesopotamia; spices; and rice.

Debbie Argue, a PhD student from the Australian National University, compared the bone fragments of the “hobbits,” or Homo floresiensis, with those from other hominids. She concluded that hobbits branched off the Homo family tree very early, some two million years ago. “This means that something very, very primitive came out of Africa,” she said.   

What was it about the caves of Spain’s Sierra de Atapuerca that made them so attractive to human ancestors for more than one million years?  

Two crates out of 64 that were packed with Buddhist artifacts from Mongolia’s Khamaryn monastery were recovered from their hiding place in the Gobi Desert over the weekend. The monastery and many of its treasures were destroyed by the Mongolian army in the 1930s.  

The grave of a princess has been excavated in Bulgaria’s medieval capital, Veliko Turnovo.   

Six small vases were found along with the 4,500-year-old skeleton on a beach south of Rome last week. The skeleton’s feet are missing.  

Was haggis actually invented by the Scots?

Scientists from the University of Padua have found the Roman trade center of Altinum, considered to be the predecessor of Venice, north of the modern city. They have also determined that the Grand Canal flowed through Altinum and connected it with the lagoon.

The 5,000-year-old skeleton of a man thought to have been killed in battle was found in an eroded grave at a beach south of Rome. “We will check the area to see whether this tomb is isolated and the warrior was buried here because this was the battlefield where he died,” said Carabinieri Raffaele Mancino.  

A 1,400-year-old walled city and its castle have been unearthed in south-central Turkey. Its palaces, mosques, baths, and military structures are from the early Islamic period.  

An inscribed, 2,000-year-old vessel has been found near a ritual bath site just outside of Jerusalem’s Old City.   

The Greek Orthodox Church was successful in demanding that a dramatized scene of Byzantine-era Christian priests destroying parts of the Parthenon be removed from a 13-minute film shown at the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. The accompanying narration was left intact.  

New York Times blogger Tom Kuntz thinks about the campfire storytelling potential of “screaming mummies,” based upon an article by ARCHAEOLOGY’s Mark Rose.    And here’s the original.