A Thracian chariot was reportedly unearthed in a burial mound near the Bulgarian village of Karanovo.

A 6,500-year-old Neolithic farming settlement has been found in central Greece during digging for a gas line. “We can’t provide an estimate yet on the settlement’s size, but it doesn’t seem to be very big,” said archaeologist Giorgos Toufexis. 

DNA taken from bones thought to have belonged to Nicolaus Copernicus has been matched to DNA taken from hairs found in a book owned by the astronomer. “In our opinion, our work led us to the discovery of Copernicus’s remains but a grain of doubt remained,” said Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski.    Here’s a little more background information on Copernicus.  

An international team of scientists excavating in Sibudu Cave in South Africa have found 70,000-year-old shell beads and other artifacts that could mark the leap to complex human thought.   

Businessman Farhad Hakimzadeh will be sentenced today after pleading guilty to 14 charges of theft of pages from rare, historic books in the British Library in London and the Bodleian Library in Oxford. “The violation of the collections transcends mere monetary loss. His victims are the researchers of the future who will not be able to consult this material,” said Kristian Jensen, Head of British and Early Printed Collections at the British Library.  

U.S. forces are guarding a 1,400-year-old monastery overlooking the city of Mosul. Violence has prevented restoration and excavation, but military chaplains have used the monastery to try to educate the soldiers. “It’s a break for the soldiers and gives Iraq, the people, a human face. It helps them understand the history of the country in which they’re fighting,” said Capt. Geoffrey Bailey.  

What happens when archaeologists decide to bury a time capsule? Students and staff at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University “did it as a ritual,” according to graduate student Krysta Ryzewki.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, November 21, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

Comments posted here do not represent the views or policies of the Archaeological Institute of America.