Archaeologist Ehud Netzer, age 76, was critically injured in a fall at Herodion, where he has worked for 30 years. Three years ago, he uncovered King Herod’s grave.

A tomb has been found in Kuelap fortress, built by the Chachapoyas culture in northern Peru. Inca-style ceramics that may have been imported from Cuzco were also found. “This tomb has an unusual dimension and was sealed by a thick stuffing. As we were cleaning, we ran into materials that we had never found before in other structures of Kuelap,” said director Alfredo Narvaez.  

Paleontologists have discovered fossilized bones from three African anthropoids, the ancestors of monkeys, apes, and humans, in central Libya. “This extraordinary new fossil site in Libya shows us that in the middle Eocene, 39 million years ago, there was a surprising diversity of anthropoids living in Africa, whereas few if any anthropoids are known from Africa before this time,” said Christopher Beard of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. He thinks the animals may have first evolved in Asia, and then migrated to Africa.  

The Global Heritage Fund has released a list of 12 cultural sites in danger of disappearing. National Geographic Daily News has a photograph of each one and brief descriptions of the problems, including erosion, war, neglect, unregulated tourism, and urban sprawl.  

Utah’s state archaeologist Kevin Jones has examined the two skulls mailed to Brigham Young University. He thinks that they are ancient American Indian remains, perhaps from the Fremont or Anasazi cultures. “That’s all we know right now,” he added.  

In a joint project between scientists from France and Tunisia, the remains of a young man discovered in a sepulcher at Carthage Byrsa have undergone dermoplastic reconstruction. “The distance that separates the centuries has been erased, the bones are given flesh and the eyes light up anew in a young man who lived right here six centuries before our own era,” enthused the French ambassador Pierre Menat.  

A cache of jewelry was found in Estonia by a local resident with a metal detector. He called an archaeologist to the scene.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, October 28, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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