Pottery bits found in a cave in southern China date to about 18,000 years ago, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Elisabetta Boaretto of Bar Ilan University. The discovery “supports the proposal made in the past that pottery making by foragers began in south China,” she said.

A fresco from Pompeii was seized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from a Manhattan auction house. The panel was one of six reported stolen from the excavation office in Pompeii 12 years ago.  

An American tourist has returned a stone taken from an archaeological excavation in Jerusalem’s Old City 12 years ago. The artifact will be returned to the site, and the Israel Antiquities Authority Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery has decided not to press charges.  

Three nineteenth-century industrial kilns in Indiana were protected during the construction of the Ohio River Bridges Project, but are now in danger of destruction by a new subdivision called Lime Kiln Ridge.

An ancient skeleton was uncovered by construction workers near Cannery Row, in Monterey, California.   

American Indian remains were also discovered by workers in Devils Lake, North Dakota. 

Workers in Knoxville, Tennessee, unearthed a missing piece to a 1904 monument to fallen firefighters. The statue was damaged in 1943 by a drunk driver.  

Scientists in Egypt will use DNA samples and x-rays to try to determine Tutankhamun’s parentage.  

Time constraints and indecision could keep the World War I soldiers who are being exhumed from a mass grave in Fromelles, France, from being identified with DNA testing. “What’s the rush? They’ve waited 93 years,” said a relative of the dead.  

The 5,000-year-old city of Caral in Peru will be considered for the UNESCO World Heritage List.  And here are some tips for visiting the World Heritage site of Chan Chan, another ancient city in Peru.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, June 2, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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