Why was the Maya site of Kiuic, in the Puuc region of the Yucatán, abandoned so quickly around A.D. 880? Archaeologists have found walls laid out with corner stones but never built; a half-finished plaza, one side stuccoed and completed, the other composed only of rough stones; and pots and grinding stones left neatly in homes.

A National Park Service excavation at L’Hermitage plantation near Frederick, Maryland, has found remnants of two cabins that housed enslaved workers.

Residents of Cheadle, England, have been invited to watch The Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit excavate the remains of Cheadle Hall, an 18th-century building on Cheadle Green, in September.

There are many reports online about the excavation of a Roman industrial estate, perhaps used by the Ninth Hispanic legion, in North Yorkshire. Now, study has revealed fibers in the rust on a nail from a Roman sandal found at the site, apparently confirming suspicions that Romans wore socks with their sandals. Earlier evidence for this came in the text of a letter found at Vindolanda, a fort on Hadrian’s Wall, itemizing contents of a “care” package sent to someone on the front, including underpants, socks, and sandals.

Preliminary study of human remains found at a dig at SCI-Laurel Highlands (a minimum security prison in Pennsylvania) last springs shows they represent 21 individuals. The site had been the location of a poor house in the later 1800s and then a mental hospital.

Excavators of Utah’s North Creek Shelter have identified a dietary shift from meat to mush 10,000 years ago. At that time, grinding stones appeared for the first time, evidence seeds were being ground into flour. Before mush-consumption began, the diet included duck, beaver, turkey, sheep, and deer.

This entry was posted by Archaeology Magazine on Thursday, August 26, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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