A new section of the Inca Trail has been found in Cusco, Peru, that connected the Chakiqocha part of the trail to the Qantupata archaeological site. The section is nearly three miles long, and was built with a retaining wall, drainage channels, and a paved platform. Some of this section of the trail has been damaged by landslides and the growth of vegetation.

Members of the Arab community in Timbuktu have formed an armed group to protect the tombs of ancient Muslim saints from members of Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith). Ansar Dine has claimed responsibility for the destruction of historic sites that its members say are forbidden by Islam.

A hoard of gold coins has been uncovered in Arsuf, Israel. The 1,000-year-old coins had been stored in a ceramic jar and hidden beneath a tile floor in a Crusader castle, where England’s King Richard I was victorious over the Muslim leader Saladin. The castle was later destroyed after a Muslim siege in 1265. “It is a rare find. We don’t have a lot of gold that had been circulated by the Crusaders,” said Oren Tal of Tel Aviv University.

X-ray imaging technology is being used to examine hoards of Roman coins found in England. Thousands of high-resolution images are assembled into 3D images of the coins before they are excavated and cleaned. “Excavating and cleaning just a single coin can take hours or even days, but this technology gives us the opportunity to examine and identify them quickly and without the need for conservation treatment at this stage. It also has potential for examining many other archaeological objects,” said Graeme Earl of the University of Southampton.

A fourth-century Christian tomb with multi-colored murals depicting the resurrection of Lazarus on two walls has been discovered in Bulgaria, at the necropolis of Philippopolis. The other two walls are decorated with Christian symbols. The burial was discovered during work on the infrastructure of the city of Plovdiv.

A series of dams planned along the Nile River in Sudan  will put the country’s archaeological heritage at risk. Members of the Sudanese ministry for antiquities met with archaeologists from around the world at the British Museum, where they talked with the Dams Implementation Unit and made plans for rescue excavations. Within the next three to six years, as the dams are built, archaeologists will create maps, excavate sites, and remove important examples of rock art.

Archaeologists have unearthed stone tools estimated to be 63,000 years old  at the inland site of Shi’bat Dihya in Yemen. “The Arabian Peninsula is routinely considered as the corridor where migrating East African populations would have passed during a single or multiple dispersal events,” wrote the excavation team, led by Anne Delgnes of the Université Bordeaux in the Journal of Human Evolution. Yet, these tools may have been made by earlier migrants from Africa who settled and adapted to desert life. They could even have been crafted by Neanderthals.

A 3,500-year-old cemetery  has been uncovered in southwest Iran. Archaeologists estimate that some 500 people had been buried in the cemetery. They have excavated 20 graves, which yielded pottery, coins, jewelry, and weapons. Seventy of the graves were destroyed during a construction project.

A new federal transportation funding law changes the Transportation Enhancements Program, which had supported some 200 archaeological research projects between 1992 and 2011. The new Transportation Alternatives program  cuts the total funding available by a third, and it will require archaeological projects to be “related to transportation projects,” in order to be eligible for funding.

Here’s a list of articles and slideshows about the discovery of the site where Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto  met the people of the village of Potano in 1539, including one about how archaeologist Ashley White kept the historic village safe. He found the village on his family’s property in central Florida, and he constructed a “faux dig” to distract potential looters from the actual De Soto encampment. “I don’t know if people have a personal passion or they just want to sell the items on eBay or both,” he said.

Reports from Timbuktu  indicate that seven of the city’s 16 mausolea of ancient Muslim saints have now been destroyed by the Islamists controlling northern Mali. The members of Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) have also destroyed the sacred door of the fifteenth-century Sidi Yahya mosque. “They say they will destroy everything,” said an unnamed witness. There are more pictures  of Timbuktu’s historic structures and artifacts at BBC News.