Shell beads were found in 82,000-year-old layers in a limestone cave in eastern Morocco. Now archaeologists have found more beads in even earlier layers of the cave. Similar shell beads have also been found in South Africa. “These new finds are exciting because they show that bead manufacturing probably arose independently in different cultures and confirms a long suspected pattern that humans with modern symbolic behavior were present from a very early stage at both ends of the continent, probably as early as 110,000 years ago,” said Nick Barton from the University of Oxford.

Israeli authorities have recovered a second-century A.D. document written in Hebrew from two men who tried to sell it at a Jerusalem hotel. The men were arrested and face prison time if convicted of looting and trafficking.  

For the past 500 years, Romans have pasted satirical political comments on six “talking” statues around the city.  Plans are now afoot to restore four of them, and to prohibit further postings. “Our goal is to make people respect Rome’s huge artistic patrimony,” said Viviana Di Capua, president of a resident’s association in Rome’s historic center. Where will Romans paste their criticisms of this project?  

The Kybele is a replica of a Phoenician-style bireme that will leave Turkey and sail for southern France. “It’s the most precise replica of the boats from that era possible. It was built from what was found during digs,” said archaeologist and boat captain Osman Erkurt.  

Using a 40,000-year-old partial skull and jawbone discovered in Romania, forensic artist Richard Neave reconstructed the face of the man or woman called the first modern European. The model will be used in a BBC television show.

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

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