A seventeenth-century letter retrieved from a crumbled church in northern Peru records a number system from an extinct language, according to Jeffrey Quilter of Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. “I think a lot of people don’t realize how many languages were spoken in pre-contact times,” he said.

Construction work in Albania reportedly often destroys archaeological sites, but this time a public building project has been halted to save a sixth-century tomb. “We have seen so many times that old tiles, stones and parts of ancient statues come out when excavators dig the foundations of new buildings,” said a passerby.  

Neanderthals “were far more resourceful than we have given them credit for,” said Julien Riel-Salvatore of the University of Colorado. He has been examining Neanderthal sites in Italy, and thinks that the hominids learned how to adapt and make better tools independently of modern humans.  

Here’s a profile of Mayanist Arthur Demarest of Vanderbilt University and his work in Guatemala.  

The remains of two U.S. servicemen who died during World War II on the remote Pacific atoll of Tarawa have been recovered. Scientists of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command will now work to identify the men. “Any time we can come back with even just one, that’s a good thing,” said spokesman Army Maj. Ramon Osorio.  

NASA satellite data and ground-penetrating radar are used at archaeological sites to save time and money. “GPR and other geophysical techniques allow us to collect data on parts of the site we might otherwise not be able to investigate,” commented Philip Mink II of the University of Kentucky.  

Irish archaeologists have been experimenting with ancient beer recipes and traditions, including those made by the invading Vikings.  

A resident of Ireland’s Errislannan peninsula has been trapping fish in a series of weirs and dams that may date to the Mesolithic period. The National Museum of Ireland has asked him to construct a trap for its folk-life collection.  

In England, newly restored Anglo-Saxon artifacts from the Staffordshire Hoard have gone on display at the Potteries Museum in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.  

Did a steering error cause the RMS Titanic to hit the iceberg? Louise Patten, the granddaughter of the only senior office to survive the disaster, claims that the mistake was covered up in order to avoid lawsuits and the end of the White Star Line.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, September 23, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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