An extravagant villa decorated with ornate mosaic floors has been found northeast of Rome, by a team led by Filippo Coarelli of the University of Perugia. He thinks it may have been Vespasian’s summer residence.

Federal authorities are still following new leads and investigating more suspects in Utah after charging 25 people in an artifact black market sting.    

San Juan County Sheriff Mike Lacy, whose brother was arrested for allegedly trafficking in Indian artifacts in the sting, is reportedly investigating the federal agents and may consider filing charges against them for use of “excessive force.”  

Alan Chalmers of the Digital Laboratory at the University of Warwick is working with archaeologists and computer scientists to create virtual reconstructions of archaeological sites that take appropriate lighting into account.   

Investigations continue at Nikumaroro Island, where Tighar, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, thinks Amelia Earhart and her navigator may have been stranded and eventually died on their attempt to fly around the world 72 years ago.  

A seventeenth-century shipwreck, thought to be a Dutch trader, was spotted scuba divers off the coast of Sweden. The ship has a lion figurine on its rudder, and has been nicknamed “The Lion Wreck.”

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, August 6, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

Comments posted here do not represent the views or policies of the Archaeological Institute of America.