Blood-stained obsidian and flint blades from the top of a Maya pyramid at El Mirador may mark a final battle between its ruling family and invaders from Teotihuacan, according to Richard Hansen of Idaho State University. He says that crude graffiti was also left by the Teotihuacan warriors.

New dates for stone tools from Spain suggest that human ancestors fashioned double-edged hand axes 900,000 years ago. It had been thought that the oldest tools in Europe were made between 500,000 and 200,000 years ago.  

Relics of medieval Christian saints have been uncovered at two churches in Bulgaria.  

A cemetery dating to the late nineteenth century was discovered in Suffolk, Virginia, during a construction project. “It’s very likely that they may have been part of the working class tenants who lived in the area or tenants who worked on the farm in the late 19^th, early 20^th century,” said Tom Higgins of the James River Institute for Archaeology.  

An Australian Army Recovery Team has determined that skeletons and World War II-era artifacts found in Papua New Guinea belonged to Indian soldiers held as prisoners of war by Japanese forces. Certain items from sewing kits found at the site were used exclusively by the Indian Army.  

Last year, a special police unit was established in Sri Lanka to protect its archaeological sites. The department has recorded more than 350 incidents of damage and theft, and has collected fines from the offenders.   

Learn about Istanbul’s Greek heritage at Today’s Zaman.  

Archaeologists will continue to work for a few more weeks at the Links of Noltland, where they have already uncovered the earliest representation of a human face and body ever found in Scotland, and a Neolithic farm house constructed with a line of cattle skulls in one of its walls.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, September 3, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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