Most of Ireland’s prehistoric gold may have come from the Mourne Mountains, located in the southeast of Northern Ireland. Scientists examined more than 400 gold artifacts, and compared the results of x-ray fluorescence spectrometry with gold collected around the country.  

In Jerusalem, an Ottoman-era aqueduct that once brought water to the reservoir known as the Sultan’s Pool and to the Temple Mount has been uncovered.   

A large field of cultivated manioc planted by Maya farmers in about 600 A.D. has been discovered in El Salvador by archaeologist Payson Sheets. The village of Ceren was destroyed by a volcano and now lies buried under 17 feet of ash. “This is the first time we have been able to see how ancient Maya grew and harvested manioc,” said Sheets.  

A pre-Inca tomb has been found in Peru’s Machu Picchu Archaeological Park.  

Archaeology students in Maryland are digging in Zekiah Swamp, where they have discovered the site of a 1674 courthouse, and what could be traces of a summer house built by Charles Calvert. They are looking for Zekiah Fort, built to house Piscataway Indians who were English allies.  

Fence construction at a school in St. Augustine, Florida, has revealed a school that operated between 1786 and 1820. The Boys’ School, as it was called, was financed by the Spanish government.  

The skull of a young man who was an African American soldier in the U.S. Army in 1866 has been reunited with a skeleton exhumed from the Fort Craig cemetery in New Mexico. His skull was discovered in the home of a retired airline pilot.  

Information from search-warrant affidavits in the federal crackdown on artifact trafficking in the West has been released.  

Archaeologists in Missouri are concerned that the high school students excavating the St. Ferdinand shrine, which is listed on the National Historic Register, are not being supervised by a qualified instructor. “We’re not mean people, trying to keep people from having fun. We just want to channel the fun in a way that’s not being destructive,” said Mark Raab, acting president of the Missouri Association of Professional Archaeologists.  

Erika Simon, who discovered Oetzi the Iceman 18 years ago with her husband, has agreed to a financial settlement. Helmut Simon died in 2004.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, June 17, 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.