Ninety human bones that could be the remains of Irish immigrants, who died and disappeared while constructing tracks for the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in Chester County, Pennsylvania, have been discovered by archaeologists from Immaculata University and the Duffy’s Cut Project. Historians began looking for traces of the 57 men and their camp seven years ago.

Archaeologists are sifting through the mud trapped between the double hull of a 550-year-old merchant ship unearthed in Newport, Wales, in 2002. They hope to learn what the ship carried. “It’s not going too far to say that our ship is the medieval equivalent of a space probe,” said Charles Ferris, who is also a city councilor.  

A Neolithic roundhouse sitting in a larger enclosure has been found in a quarry near Edinburgh. Flint and a fireplace were also unearthed. “It dates from around the time of early farming but very little is known of that era in Scotland and that’s why it’s so significant,” said Donna Maguire of Glasgow University’s Archaeological Research Division.  

A human skull was found in the medieval moat walls of Ireland’s Kilkenny Castle. “It seems almost certain that a body was deliberately put down there when the moat was being built,” said archaeologist Patrick Neary.  

A large Byzantine bathhouse has been uncovered in southern Israel.  

Three British commercial salvagers accused of stealing from a shipwreck in Spanish waters have pled guilty in order to avoid a prison sentence. The men had a contract with the Spanish government to recover tin ingots from a nineteenth-century Dutch ship, but the government claimed they were looking for gold and diamonds from another wreck. “It was clear that the authorities were determined to make an example of us despite a complete lack of anything other than circumstantial evidence,” said one of the men, Peter Devlin.  

A Han State royal cemetery from China’s late Warring States Period (475 to 221 B.C.) has been discovered in Henan province.  

Here’s some more information on the quest to recreate Hatshepsut’s perfume from residues on the bottom of a 3,500-year-old filigree container bearing her name. “I was looking for the perfume residue, because I had one good hint – the form of the bottle is a well-known perfume bottle, which was originally closed,” said Michael Hoveler-Muller of the Bonn University Egyptian Museum.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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