A collection of flint tools unearthed in Norfolk, England, is about 80,000 years older than the earliest known date for humans in Britain. “These early humans endured a difficult climate surrounded by harsh coniferous woodlands. We really didn’t think that early humans could cope with those kinds of environments,” said Nicholas Ashton of the British Museum.  National Public Radio has more on the story.

Here’s a photograph of one of the two Old Kingdom tombs of royal scribes unearthed in Saqqara. “The colors of the false door are fresh as if it was painted yesterday,” said archaeologist Abdel-Hakim Karar.  

And photographs of the “tunnel to nowhere” uncovered in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings have been posted at National Geographic Daily News.  

A treasure hunter in southwestern England alerted archaeologists when he realized he hadn’t found just a few third-century Roman coins, but tens of thousands of them. “Because Mr. Crisp resisted the temptation to dig up the coins it has allowed archaeologists from Somerset County Council to carefully excavate the pot and its contents,” said Anna Booth of Somerset Council.  

Two more people have been sentenced on felony charges arising from the federal artifacts-trafficking sting in Utah.  

Has the Aboriginal rock art of Australia’s Burrup Peninsula been damaged by heavy industry in the area?  

The matter of Edward Low and the carved sandstone block he discovered in West Virginia as a child has still not been resolved. Low says he loaned the American Indian artifact to the Ohio Historical Society in 1971; officials at the historical society claim he donated it to their museum. Low would like the artifact to end up in a West Virginia museum.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, July 8, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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