A gold earring inlaid with pearls and emeralds was discovered during the excavation of a Byzantine building in Jerusalem. The Israel Antiquities Authority says the “astonishingly well-preserved” jewelry was crafted sometime between the first century B.C. and the beginning of the fourth century A.D.

Using 450-year-old transcripts of the Inquisition trials of Maya heretics, archaeologist Guillermo de Anda and his team think they have found a series of sacred caves linked to the Maya road to Xibalba, described in the Popol Vuh. “It was the place of fear, the place of cold, the place of danger, of the abyss,” he said.  

Why did Maya society collapse? This article in USA Today recounts environmental archaeologist Kitty Emery’s study of food remains from garbage pits at Dos Pilas and Cancuen, and Lori Wright’s analysis of human bones found in the same areas.  

Peru is reportedly planning to sue Yale University for thousands of Inca artifacts from Machu Picchu. The two parties have been unable to reach an agreement over how many of the objects excavated by Hiram Bingham in the early twentieth century should be repatriated.   The Yale Daily News also has an article on the possible lawsuit.  

Here’s some more information on the discovery of fragments of a 62-foot-long “sleeping Buddha” statue at Bamiyan. “It was a happy moment for all of us when the first signs appeared. Our years-long efforts had somehow paid off,” said Afghan archaeologist Anwar Khan Fayez. Fayez and others on the team led by Zemaryalai Tarzi have been searching for a colossal reclining Buddha, mentioned in an account written by a seventh-century Chinese traveler.  

Archaeologists have uncovered 8,000-year-old cremation urns at the site of the Marmaray Project in Istanbul. These are the first such urns to be found in Neolithic-era Anatolia.  

Plans to rebuild the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, have been announced by the Selçuk Artemis Culture, Arts, and Education Foundation, and the University of Vienna.  

Divers have been looting documented artifacts from the Long Jetty and Bathers Bay sites in Western Australia.  

Construction workers failed to follow the approved burial plan while building an oceanfront home over a Hawaiian cemetery on the island of Kauai. The project has been in the news, and the source of protests, vigils, and lawsuits.  

Researchers from the University of Connecticut will look for battlefield sites from the Pequot War, which took place from 1636 to 1638 in southern New England. “The English wanted to eliminate the powerful Pequot,” said anthropologist Kevin McBride.

Three tractor-trailers packed full of looted antiquities will be returned to Italy by two art dealers from Switzerland, once the hub of the artifact trade. “The market has moved on to Germany, which has far looser laws,” said Swiss archaeologist Guido Lassau.

The minerals in a stalagmite from a cave in China are telling scientists about the cycle of monsoons for a period of more than 1,810 years. Dry periods in history coincide with the decline of the Tang, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, and even the Maya. Wet periods probably contributed to greater crop production, increases in population, and stability.   A photograph of a cross section of the stalagmite is available from BBC News.  

Cobblestones and pottery dating to the seventeenth century have been unearthed in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  

Excavations by 750 archaeologists in a suburb of Istanbul have revealed 32 ships, Neolithic skeletons, coins, amphorae, a woman’s shoe, and a basket of cherries, among thousands of artifacts. Known as the Marmaray Project, the area was once a Byzantine port of Constantinople on the Marmaris Sea, but it will become an underwater railway that will link the European and Asian sides of the city.  

The National Park Service conducted a prescribed burn at Hopewell Culture National Historic Park in Chillicothe, Ohio. The fire restores native grasses and reduces the growth of woody plants and trees, which can harm the archaeological site.  

The phenomenon of celebrity rose with the publication of obituaries in seventeenth-century British magazines and newspapers, according to Elizabeth Barry of the University of Warwick.