French archaeologist Jacques Reinhold has reportedly discovered the oldest evidence of human sacrifice in Africa, at the Sudanese village of El Kadada.  The article helpfully points out that the tomb containing the remains of a man and three sacrificial victims is 5,500 years old, while the archaeologist’s wife is 66.

Peru’s Congress has passed legislation that will ease the restrictions on commercial development near archaeological sites. Will President Alan Garcia sign the measure, which has been widely protested within the country, into law?   

The Taj Mahal is receiving another mud-pack cleansing treatment to dislodge pollution particles from its white marble surfaces. The mud pack will removed after a few days and then the marble will be rinsed with distilled water.

Excavations outside of old Jerusalem in the City of David have expanded into the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. Doron Spielman, international director of development for the Elad Foundation, which is funding the digs, said that “We do not deny we have a Zionist dream – to reveal the ancient city beneath the ground and create a thriving Jewish neighborhood above ground.”

Peru’s former first lady, Eliane Karp de Toledo, has given a copy of a memorandum of understanding between Yale University and Peru to the Yale Daily News. Karp de Toledo calls previously undisclosed terms detailed in the memo “a bad deal for Peru.”

A seventeenth-century village inhabited by Japanese merchants has been found near the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

Deforestation and increased water use at Siem Reap, the boom town near Angkor Wat, are destabilizing the ancient city. “There’s just so much building going on without any concern about the long term. Things are moving so fast in Siem Reap today that it’s going to chew itself up very quickly and become unsustainable,” said Mitch Hendrickson of the University of Sydney and the Greater Angkor Project. 

Two friends out rabbit hunting on federal land in Cody, Wyoming, discovered a 1,000-year-old human skull. “Once we saw the molars, we stopped and knew exactly what to do,” said Jud Seiver, one of the men. 

Archaeologists working at the Old Mission in Santa Barbara, California, have uncovered a large village where Spanish missionaries transplanted 2,000 Chumash Indians into 300 homes. “They lived near a sea port and were efficient at farming. They were very successful. For that reason, it was just a very large village,” said Tina Foss, director of the Mission Museum.