A 35,000-year-old bone flute crafted from griffon vulture bone has been unearthed in Germany’s Hohle Fels cave.  “It is unambiguously the oldest instrument in the world,” Nicholas Conard of the University of Tuebingen told the Associated Press.    He talks about the flute and the Venus figurine found in the same cave on National Public Radio.  

There’s more information about what could be the world’s earliest well. Dated to 10,000 years old, the well was unearthed in Cyprus. Neolithic artifacts and skeleton were found in it.  

The face of Meresamun, an Egyptian priestess-musician who lived around 800 B.C., has been recreated by two artists, one who made traditional pencil sketches, and one who used the latest imaging technology. Both artists started with images from CT scans of her skull.   Learn more about Meresamun, and a video clip of Josh Harker’s digital reconstruction, right here at ARCHAEOLOGY.  

Are you yearning to know more about Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s antiquities chief? The San Francisco Examiner has a short profile of the archaeologist and his mission.  

Weather conditions and worms are eating away at chalk carvings in a cave in Royston, England.  Scientists are trying to figure out how to protect them, just as historians are trying to figure out when the carvings were made and what they could mean.  

Two suspects arrested in Utah on charges of looting public lands and trafficking in artifacts may have been involved in a fraud scheme, according to a search warrant unsealed in U.S. District Court yesterday.   

The Zhoukoudian Caves, home to China’s Peking Man, will be shored up against further collapse.

Here’s a little more information on the Roman artifacts that were uncovered in Rione Terra, in southern Italy. There’s also a photograph of a marble head of Emperor Titus.

Facedown burial appears to have been a widespread practice intended to shame the dead, according to a review of the research on more than 200 grave sites from around the world by Caroline Arcini of Sweden’s National Heritage Board.  

A well that is at least 9,000 years old was unearthed in southwestern Cyprus. Neolithic beads and pendants have been found in it, as well as the poorly preserved skeleton of a young woman.  

A CT scan of a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy at the Brooklyn Museum has revealed that “Lady Hor,” as the mummy is called, was a man. “Because the coffin was beardless, we’ve assumed since 1937 that she was a woman. I never even thought twice about it,” said Edward Bleiberg, curator of Egyptian art.  

Vancouver archaeologist Andrew Mason says that the Canadian government doesn’t always track the plunder of First Nations artifacts. “We really don’t have a sense of how big the market is or how big the problem is,” he said.  

Ann Gibbons writes about the recent decision to pay Erika Simon a $250,000 finder’s fee for Otzi the Iceman in Science. Heather Pringle also covered the topic for ARCHAEOLOGY.  

Lynn Swartz Dodd of the University of Southern California will travel with her students to Chicago with bronze artifacts from Egypt. The artifacts will be x-rayed at the Argonne National Laboratory’s Advanced Photon Source, in order to learn more about their makeup and structure. “This was a cutting-edge application of metal technology in the ancient world. These figurines are the earliest tin bronzes,” Dodd said.   

Signs of a round house that could date to 1500 B.C. were found in Cornwall, England, during the construction of a sewage treatment plant. “We have excavated between 20 to 30 of these sites so it’s giving us a chance to flesh out the pattern of settlement in lowland Cornwall,” said archaeologist Andy Jones.