Farmer John Hourie discovered what appears to be a Neolithic chambered tomb while plowing his fields on one of the Orkney Islands.

When a reclusive Florida man died, his home had to be emptied by the sales manager of the development. She found more than 140 ancient pots, many of which bear signs of looting. The FBI is on the case to identify and return the artifacts to their countries of origin.  

A slate tablet covered with sketches has been found in a well thought to have been dug by Captain John Smith in the early years of James Fort, Virginia.  

The story of the incised 13,000-year-old bone found by a Florida fossil hunter has been picked up by the local press. “It is one of the most spectacular finds in American archaeology in recent history,” commented Steven Holen of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  

A human skull was unearthed from what may be an American Indian burial site in Oakland, California. “What we’ve done is cover the hole, and we’re having an archaeologist from the Ohlone tribe coming out to take a look at it. The coroner is not going to touch it until then,” said police sergeant Rachael Van Sloten.  

Buddhist artifacts dating to the fifth century A.D. indicate that the religion arrived in the state of West Bengal, India, 200 years earlier than previously thought. “There is a high possibility that the region housed a flourishing Buddhist center in early times. The entire picture will become clear once the excavation is completed,” said Amal Roy of the state’s Directorate of Archaeology and Museums.  

Excavations in Scotland at Preston House, the eighteenth-century home of Jacobite Lord Grange and socialite Lady Grange, continue this week. This article has more information on what happened to Lady Grange after she was kidnapped by her husband.  

Work has also progressed in South Carolina, at the site of Mars Bluff, a Confederate naval yard between 1862 and 1865. Two cannons from the CSS Pee Dee will be raised from the Pee Dee River.  

Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania could apply to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, but it is threatened by human visitors and grazing livestock. “Its state is not different from the early years of its discovery. The situation is pathetic in that there is little protection of the archaeological relics,” said Fidelis Masao of the University of Dar es Salaam.   Meanwhile, the government of Tanzania wants the protective covering removed from the 3.6-million-year-old Laetoli footprints. “The president tasked a team of experts to exhume them for the sake of tourism and studies on human evolution,” said an official.  

Plan a summer road trip to the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and see a 16,000-year-old campsite in Pennsylvania, now surrounded by a $3 million structure. “It’s amazing thinking about how long people have been in this valley. And it’s amazing that until now, a tar paper-and-plywood building sheltered the oldest habitation in North America,” said Isaac Wiegmann, a naturalist at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Musuem of Rural Life.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, June 8, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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