Construction of a new boardwalk at Florida’s Turtle Mound is giving archaeologists a rare chance to study the 35-foot-tall, two-acre, oyster-shell pile. “It is one of the most significant archaeological sites in this country,” said Margo Schwadron of the Park Service’s Southeast Archaeological Center.

Independent archaeologists spoke to National Geographic News about what they saw within the key-hole-shaped tomb of Japanese Empress Jingu.  

Forensic anthropologist Andi Simmons is investigating the tales she heard as a child about Belle Gunness, a Norwegian immigrant woman who may have killed more than 30 people on her farm in northern Indiana in the early twentieth century. “When you look at the numbers, she should be a household name,” Simmons said.  

German archivists are painstakingly reassembling bags of shredded papers from Stasi secret police offices across East Germany. Now a new computer system may help them complete the task. “It’s the biggest puzzle in the world,” said engineer Bertram Nickolay.  

Microfossils of plant material were discovered in the dental plaque of Neanderthal teeth from Iraq. “The finding suggests that characterizing Neanderthals as obligate meat-eaters may be wrong, but there is still a lot more work to be done on this issue,” said Amanda Henry of The George Washington University.  

Were sunflowers domesticated in the Northeastern U.S., in Mexico, or in both places?  

Archaeologists uncovered a homemade mortar shell dating to 1948 at Jerusalem’s Western Wall plaza. Police removed the weapon and detonated it.  

A nine-year-old boy called in the professionals when he and his grandfather spotted some silver coins in a ploughed field in southern Sweden. They helped the archaeologists unearth more than 7,000 silver coins from Denmark and England dating to 1300 A.D.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, April 29, 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.