Here’s more information on the villa said to be Vespasian’s summer residence. “We found no inscription that says it belonged to the emperor, but the location, dating, size, and quality of the building leave little doubt about its owner,” said lead archaeologist Filippo Coarelli.

What could be the world’s earliest map was discovered engraved on a stone in a cave in northern Spain in 1993. “The landscape depicted corresponds exactly to the surrounding geography. Whoever made it sought to capture in stone the flow of the watercourses, the mountains outside the cave, and the animals found in the area,” said Pilar Utrilla of the University of Zaragoza.  

Researchers noticed that a 9,000-year-old human arm bone in the collection of England’s Torquay Museum was marked with tool cuts. The bone was found in Kents Cavern in the nineteenth century. “Some archaeologists have interpreted these marks as evidence of cannibalism, but ritual burial practice or dismemberment for transportation has not been ruled out,” said a museum spokesperson.  

In Switzerland, archaeologists have found a gibbet, where the remains of executed criminals were displayed, and the remains of at least 20 people. “We knew that there was a gallows once, because there are still some maps of the 1800s which show them. But we were not sure if any remains would really be still there,” said archaeologist Armond Baeriswil.  

A US Air Force amphibious aircraft that sank in the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1942 has been found by Parks Canada divers. “This plane is a testament to the collaboration between Canada and the US during the Second World War,” said Quebec region Minister Christian Paradis. The remains of five people trapped in the aircraft when it crashed in bad weather may be recovered.  

The Archaeological Conservancy will purchase the site of the Royal Blockhouse, a British Army outpost built across the Hudson River from Fort Edward. Two other eighteenth-century military sites near the fort will also change hands in order to protect them. All three sites have been looted in the past.  

The excavation of an Assyrian acropolis in southeastern Turkey has yielded a letter written in cuneiform on a clay tablet. In the letter, the Assyrian city treasurer of Tushan says he lacks the necessary equipment and manpower to defend the city from foreign invaders, led by the Babylonians.  

Turkey plans to go ahead with the Ilisu Dam project, which would flood the ancient city of Hasankeyf and displace its villagers, despite the loss of its European creditors.  

A Druid protester known as King Arthur Pendragon is calling for human remains disinterred from Stonehenge to be reburied there. “You wouldn’t dig up your grandmother, so what’s the difference?” he asks.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, August 7, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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