Former Italian culture minister Francesco Rutelli has called for a Rome prosecutor to block an antiquities auction at Bonhams. One of the items slated for sale is an Apulian vase once owned by disgraced dealer Robin Symes. “Auction houses should be extremely careful about what they’re selling and be clear about their origins,” commented Graeme Barker, director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge.

A hedgehog figurine was reportedly found in a child’s 3,000-year-old grave at Stonehenge. “Representational art from this period is very rare and so far as I’m aware, if the identification is correct, it’s the only known prehistoric depiction of a hedgehog from Britain,” said Joshua Pollard of the Stonehenge Riverside Project.  

The skeletal remains of at least 50 people were found in a German peat bog. Signs of violence on the bones indicate that they may have been killed during a raid on their village in 1300 B.C.  

A second man has been indicted by the state of Kentucky for stealing a registered Kentucky historic artifact. A dive team made up of Ohio residents removed the 8-ton Indian Head Rock from the Ohio River in 2007.   Here’s some background on the case.  

Businessman Semir Osmanagic continues to dig up Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in search of pyramids, “despite ridicule.” University of Sarajevo archaeologist Enver Imamovic likens Osmanagic’s project to “letting me…perform surgery.”

Recent headlines proclaimed Stonehenge a healing center built in 2300 B.C., but a second excavation conducted by the Stonehenge Riverside Project claims that Stonehenge was mainly a burial site built in 3000 B.C.   “Stonehenge was always about death and ancestors and burial and not healing,” said Mike Pitts, one of the authors of the new study, and editor of British Archaeology.

Scientists are trying to track down the volcanic ash used by Maya potters at El Pilar in the Late Classic period, between 600 and 900 A.D.  

The composition of soil samples taken from classical Greek temples reinforces the idea that the sanctuaries were built on sites that had long been significant to their cults. For example, temples dedicated to Demeter and Dionysus were built on fertile soils used for farming. “Religious sites precede temple construction by many centuries,” said geologist Gregory Retallack.  

The city of Waco, Texas, is suing American Archaeological Group for missing human bones during its survey at the Texas Ranger Museum. Michael Bradle, president of AAG, says the city misrepresented the project.  

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