What will happen to the thousands of artifacts confiscated by federal officials from accused looters in the Southwest? “Ultimately the people will benefit. Collections will be curated and made available to the public for research and exhibitions,” said Emily Palus, national curator for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Navy archaeologists are looking for funding to excavate an 1812 warship from the muddy marshlands of Maryland’s upper Patuxent River. “Not only did an army of invasion lay their boots on American soil, they burned our capital, and this fleet was trying to stop it. Here we have the presumed flagship 16 miles from the White House, in shallow water. In terms of historical value, this is extremely significant,” commented marine archaeologist Donald G. Shomette.  

Here’s more information on the three intact Aphrodite figurines found at the Greco-Roman city of Hippos, in Israel.  

Artifacts from the 1960s are telling archaeologists about life in a commune north of San Francisco.  

A private group that wants to search for Sir John Franklin’s lost ships in the Canadian Arctic apparently tried to work without an archaeological permit from the government. “The main reasons [for the denial of the permit] included inadequate experience, especially in respect to Arctic marine-based archaeology, and insufficient community and Inuit consultation,” said Julie Ross, an archaeologist with the Nunavut government.  

A drain at a medieval monastery in Scotland has yielded pottery, gaming pieces, a complete chamber pot, and music scratched into pieces of slate. “What’s unusual is that it hasn’t been messed with. This is a loo that hasn’t been flushed for 500 years,” said Steven Driscoll of Glasgow University.   

Two human feet, one from an adult and one from a child, were discovered in an attic in the Dublin area last December. The feet look as if they came from bog bodies.  

Excavations at Kents Cavern, the oldest human dwelling in Britain, have unearthed teeth and bones from late Ice Age mammals, as well as a sagaie, a spearpoint made from reindeer antler.  

Archaeologists explain how the use of ground-penetrating radar has transformed archaeology in an article for The Columbus Dispatch.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, September 14, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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