In Beirut, protesters are demanding the resignation of Lebanon’s current Culture Minister, Gaby Layyoun, who allowed an archaeological site to be destroyed so that a skyscraper could be built. Under the previous culture minister, the site was said to be a Phoenician port and received the protection offered by law. “There is a conviction that there is no Phoenician port in Minet al-Hosn,” Layyoun told reporters.

An excavation at the Profen site, which is located near Leipzig, Germany, has uncovered a grave containing more than 100 dog teeth arranged in a pattern resembling the outer flap of a modern handbag. “Over the years the leather or fabric disappeared, and all that’s left is the teeth,” said Susanne Friederich of the Sachsen-Anhalt State Archaeology and Preservation Office. Dog teeth and mussel shells were used as decoration used by Stone Age peoples in Europe, but this is the first time archaeologists have uncovered direct evidence of such a bag.

It had been thought that hunter-gatherers remained in isolated groups, but a new genetic study of skeletons from the Mesolithic period suggests that bands of hunter-gatherers across Europe were highly mobile and had contact with each other. Archaeological evidence, such as red deer teeth used as ornaments, could also indicate cultural similarities between Mesolithic peoples. Scientists caution, however, that the sample set of Mesolithic skeletons that was tested is small, and further research is necessary.

Australopithecus sediba ate bark, leaves, fruit, and wood, according to a new study of teeth from two individuals. Dental wear, carbon isotopes, and plant fragments in dental tartar were all examined. “We’ve for the first time been able to put together three quite different methods for reconstructing diet and gotten one cohesive picture of the diet of this ancient species and that picture is really quite different from what we’ve seen in other hominins,” said Amanda Henry of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Liepzig.

The Bureau of Land Management conducted an undercover investigation in the Four Corners region that ended in 2009 with the arrest of two dozen people, most of whom were charged with illegal artifact trafficking. Most of those arrests resulted in guilty pleas and probation, but one man, Dr. James Redd, committed suicide the day after his arrest by more than 100 federal agents. U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart wrote that “the overwhelming show of force alleged was a serious intrusion into Dr. Redd’s privacy, and it is not clear to the court that a governmental interest justified its use.” Other claims made by Redd’s estate have been dismissed.

An Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Cambridgeshire, England, has yielded the skeleton of a woman who had been buried with a cow. At first it was thought that the animal might have been a horse. “Male warriors might be buried with horses, but a woman and a cow is new to us,” said archaeology student Jake Nuttall. One of the team leaders, Duncan Sayer of the University of Central Lancashire, adds that cows are a valuable source of food and not the usual sacrificial animal. “The cow burial is unique in Europe which makes this an incredibly exciting and important find,” he said. The fifth-century woman had also been buried with jewelry and a keychain set.

Iraq’s culture ministry has stopped cooperating with U.S. archaeological teams, stating that the American government still has possession of an historic Jewish archive and 72,000 antiquities removed from the country following the 2003 invasion. “They moved the archives in 2003; the agreement that was signed at that time between Iraq and the American side was to bring them back in 2005 after restoring them, but we are now in 2012,” said Tourism and Archaeology Minister Liwaa Smaisim. U.S. embassy spokesman Michael McClellen replied that the material will be returned to Iraq when conservation, preservation, and digitization for an exhibit have been completed.

A Neolithic farming site has been uncovered on the eastern coast of South Korea. Archaeologist Cho Mi-soon found pottery and traces of a house at the site that could date back 5,600 years, making it the oldest-known farming site in East Asia. The second oldest site is also located in South Korea.

Archaeologists in Canterbury, New Zealand, have investigated a home thought to have belonged to John Robert Godley. The foundations of the house were located underneath a building that had to be torn down due to earthquake damage. Godley, who was born in Dublin, led the founding of a colony in 1850 and is considered to be the founder of Canterbury. “It’s especially cool because so many people are leaving Christchurch at the moment and this is a reminder of the original people that came here and the hardships they faced and the hardships we’re facing at the moment,” said archaeologist Stacey Ward.

Conflict in Syria has prevented Robert Mason of the Royal Ontario Museum from returning to the stone circles, alignments, and possible tombs he discovered near the monastery of Deir Mar Musa. The monastery was built from a Roman watchtower, and Mason was looking for additional towers when he spotted the unusual stone structures. “These enigmatic arrangements are not especially imposing, they are not megaliths or anything like that, but they are very intriguing and clearly deliberately aligned,” he said. Stone tools in the area date from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago.