A battlefield strewn with hundreds of Roman artifacts has been uncovered in northern Germany, suggesting that the Romans were fighting there in the third century A.D., much later than previously thought.

If an explosives factory is built on Australia’s Burrup Peninsula, it could destroy a 10,000-year-old carving of a human face that is said to be the world’s oldest. More than 170 images have already been moved to make way for an energy plant.  

Neanderthals living in Syria used bitumen to haft handles to their stone tools as early as 70,000 years ago, according to Eric Boëda of the University of Paris, Nanterre. “The surprising thing, to me, is that we do not find more such evidence for hafting by Neanderthals,” commented archaeologist John Shea of Stony Brook University.  

In 1991, the largest-known statue of Ramses II was discovered during the construction of a new post office in the Egyptian town of Sohag. Archaeologists will now excavate the statue.  

A ring-sized Swiss watch has reportedly been found in the soil around a Ming dynasty coffin. Archaeologists had thought that the 400-year-old tomb was undisturbed.  

An early nineteenth-century schooner has been found sitting upright on the bottom of Lake Ontario. Two explorers were using side-scan sonar to map the lake when they made the discovery.  

Online editor Mark Rose spoke with Alan Boyle from MSNBC about ARCHAEOLOGY’s list of top 10 finds of 2008.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, December 16, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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