In Serbia, a jaw holding three teeth is thought to be 250,000 years old, and the earliest evidence of humans in the area. “We were looking for Neanderthals, but this is much better,” said Mirjana Roksandic of Winnipeg University.

Several painted wooden coffins and statues of their owners have been discovered near Saqqara, Egypt. “These coffins were found in the tombs of senior officials of the 18^th and 19^th dynasties,” Zahi Hawass, director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters.  

Hawass also addressed the looting of Cairo’s historic mosques. The Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Ministry of Awqaf [endowments] have been bickering over who’s responsible for their security. “Securing and preserving Egypt’s Islamic monuments is not only the responsibility of the ministries of culture, awqaf, interior, the SCA, and the relevant governorate. It is the responsibility of all Egyptians who want to protect their heritage and their history,” he said.  

Pakistan’s ancient Hindu temple at Katas Raj has been stripped of all of its carvings but one. “The smugglers are powerful people, equipped with all kinds of modern tools, including stone cutters, diggers, and metal detectors….Now they have their eyes on this sculpture, which is evident by the fact that it has been chipped from all sides. I will not be surprised if it is plucked out soon,” said Javed Akram Kumar, chief of the Katas Raj Parbandh Committee.  

DNA analysis of samples taken from 56 individuals unearthed in Denmark suggests that ancient populations were much more genetically diverse than modern Danes. “At all the sites we have investigated in Denmark we have found rare [genetic] types and types that are not common or present in Europe today,” said Linea Melchior of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.  

Florida’s state historic officials want to rewrite treasure salvaging rules, requiring a certified archaeologist on site at all times, and banning the search of shipwrecks that could hold human remains. “Every shipwreck has the potential for human remains. That means no one ever gets permits ever again,” complained salver John Brandon.   

Archaeologists working at the 5,000-year-old Souskiou-Laona settlement in Cyprus think they have found a jewelry workshop, where cruciform figurines and large pendants were made from local minerals.

Paris was occupied in 7600 B.C., or 3,000 years earlier than previously believed, according to new excavations on the southwestern edge of the city. Archaeologists say the site was used to process flint pebbles that washed up on the banks of the Seine River.

Bulgarian archaeologist Georgi Kitov spoke about his work at Drumeva, a Thracian tumulus surrounded by a stone wall, which was named for the mayor of the nearby town of Staro Selo. Six intact graves dating to the Roman period have been found.  

A medieval maltings, where barley was heat soaked for beer-making, was discovered on the grounds of a modern brewery in Bury, England. “I imagine beer has changed for the better, though the process is largely the same. Their beers would have been quite malty, heavier,” said head brewer John Bexon.  

A 5,000-year-old skull, stone cairns, flint tools, pottery, and traces of a Neolithic house were uncovered at Isle of Man Airport.   

A stone entrance has been discovered to the Black Spout enclosure in Scotland. Its heavily built walls once surrounded a timber building. “The feature of these walls is really a status symbol to show the importance of these buildings in that they would have been very visible in the landscape,” said archaeologist David Strachan.  

Field school students from the University of Southern Mississippi are working at Moran, an early French settlement in Biloxi. “It was a Jamestown,” said their professor, Marie Danforth.   

Two pins made of deer bone and a fossilized bone pendant were stolen from the Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. The artifacts are more than 1,000 years old.   

A seventeenth-century courthouse is being excavated in Charles County, Maryland.  

Here’s part two in the tale of London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, and former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz’s cigar case. Johnson picked up the case from Aziz’s villa in 2003. “As it happens, I also have in my possession a letter from the lawyers of Tariq Aziz, informing me that Mr. Aziz wishes me to regard the cigar case as a gift,” Johnson told reporters.