Turin Polytechnic University physics professor Amelia Carolina Sparavigna says she can see not just agricultural works but also birds, snakes, and other animals in enhanced satellite imagery of the terrain around Lake Titicaca. She thinks they are ancient geoglyphs, but anthropologist Clark Erickson of the University of Pennsylvania told Discovery News that “what appears to be ‘a bird wing’ in one image, is a modern plowed field with stacks of drying barley or wheat.”

A multimillion-dollar dam sponsored by Turkish State Hydraulic Works threatens to flood the remains of Allianoi, an ancient Roman spa town. Despite protests by archaeologists, environmentalists, and the EU, the project is set to move ahead. This article has a nice slide show of the site’s extensive ruins.

Chemical analysis of teeth shows that a 14- or 15-year-old boy buried near Stonehenge 3,550 years ago came from the Mediterranean coastal region. His necklace of 90 amber beads, however, was from northern Europe. Archaeologists are now piecing together the links between long-distance travel, exotic goods, and the social elite of the time.

A high-school teacher in Ohio, working with Charles Klaus of the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, recently ran a mock dig in which students who learned excavation techniques during a summer archaeology program taught their fellows the basics of fieldwork.

George Washington University has just established the GW Capitol Archaeological Institute. Headed by Eric Cline, it will try to take advantage of the areas “unparalleled” resources. “This is our opportunity to advance archaeological research initiatives and facilitate a global community of academics, politicians, diplomats, and business leaders,” says Cline.

Riot police in Athens used tear gas to break up protesters occupying the Acropolis, which remained closed today. The protesters say they’ll be back tomorrow.

The trial of four Blanding, Utah, residents on charges of violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and theft of artifacts from public or Indian tribal property has been rescheduled for February 8.

In Rome, former J. Paul Getty Museum antiquities curator Marion True has been released after an Italian court ruled that the statute of limitations had expired on a 2002 acquisition for which she was being held.

The auction of artifacts from a shipwreck in Indonesian waters flopped because there were no bidders. There is now talk that the collection—271,000 artifacts including jewelry, Persian glassware, and imperial porcelain from the late 10th century—may be divided by museums in China and Indonesia.

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