The sleeping Buddha of Bamiyan has reportedly been found, according to an announcement made by Mohammad Zia Afshar, an adviser in Afghanistan’s information and culture ministry. The badly damaged statue is approximately 62 feet long.

Four skeletons have been discovered in underwater caves along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, including one woman’s skeleton dated to 13,600 years old. “We believe these finds are the oldest yet to be found in the Americas and may influence our theories of how the first people arrived,” said Arturo Gonzáles, director of the Desert Museum in Saltillo, Mexico.  

This article takes the national problem of looting, and focuses on what’s being done in the state of Georgia. “There’s a whole subculture that does this almost professionally, crazed collectors and criminals,” said Rick Kanaski, a regional archaeologist and historic preservation officer for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.  

The Vanishing Treasures program of the National Park Service cares for archaeological sites damaged by weather, vandalism, and pests. “What we’re really doing is prolonging their survival as long as we can, so people can see and learn from them,” said Jerry Rogers, former regional director for the Park Service.  

This month marks the founding of the British New Smyrna settlement in Florida 240 years ago. Most of the colonists were from the island of Minorca. “I don’t think it was anything like they envisioned. Mosquitoes were as thick as a blanket. There were rattlesnakes. They were probably just one step above a slave,” said New Smyrna Beach resident Richard Newell, who has traced his roots back to those colonists.  

In northern Iran, burials of young people and children found in a 1,500-year-old cemetery are said to be adorned with arranged nails that were not part of their coffins. Other artifacts from the graves included silver spoons and bracelets and beads.  

This article on the phallic figurines and cemetery unearthed at Kfar HaHoresh offers more information on its unusual burials. “This is not a regular site,” said Avi Gopher of Tel Aviv University.  

A surprise visitor made an appearance behind St. Peter’s Church in Minshull Vernon, in Cheshire, England, where more than 40 volunteers gathered to uncover a portion of a Roman road.

Pigeons have taken roost in the eyes and ears of the Sphinx, where they are pecking away at the calcium-rich stone and leaving behind acidic droppings. This article outlines the history of conservation efforts, and calls for action to protect the monument from this new feathered threat.

The jaw of a mouse may help scientists identify the origin of a Bronze Age shipwreck carrying an international cargo. The molars from the Mus musculus domesticus resemble those of modern house mice in Syria.  

More information on the Neolithic artifacts revealed by the melting Schnidejoch glacier in the Swiss Alps is now available from the Associated Foreign Press. There are also photographs of the 6,000-year-old piece of leather and the birch-bark quiver that were found. “We know now that the discoveries on Schnidejoch are the oldest of this kind ever made in the Alps. For us, the site itself is the most important find because we have this correlation between climate change and archaeological objects,” said archaeologist Albert Hafner.  

A 25-foot long piece of the keel and stern of a nineteenth-century ship washed ashore in Ocean City, Maryland. The wreck’s wood is in good condition, and had probably been buried under the sea floor. “There is no way of knowing where it came from or where the rest of it is. It could have been unearthed by a storm or some dredging activity and drifted down the coast,” said state maritime archaeologist Susan Langley.  

Judge Kathleen Watanabe will have to decide whether or not to halt the construction of an ocean-front house on a lot where 30 ancient Hawaiian burials have been found. “The biggest problem is the law does not go far enough to protect these burials. Perhaps the best thing that will come out of this case will be some changes in the law,” she said.

British researcher William Battersby thinks that the lead poisoning suffered by the crews of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror may have been caused by water systems constructed with lead pipes.   

The three intact Wari mummies discovered in Lima’s Huaca Pucllana ruins last month were X-rayed.