Could these bits of flint be 200,000-year-old knives? The tiny tools, made from parts of larger knives, were unearthed around a fire pit in a cave near Tel Aviv. Charred animal bones were also found. Ran Barkai of Tel Aviv University adds that materials that have long been thought to be waste at archaeological sites might actually be tools.

Communal feasts may predate agriculture, according to a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Archaeologists from Hebrew University say that the 12,000-year-old tortoise shells and cattle bones that had been butchered, roasted, and placed in and near the grave of a shaman in northern Israel were part of a symbolic meal.  

The team mapping the wreckage of the Titanic has been forced to return to Newfoundland until Hurricane Danielle has passed.  

A drought in England has revealed outlines of many previously unknown archaeological sites. “It’s hard to remember a better year,” said Dave MacLeod of English Heritage.  

The copy of the Magna Carta housed at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., is getting a new display case that will be filled with argon. The inert gas will displace any oxygen and moisture to help preserve the medieval parchment. The old case had been filled with helium.  

A new mitochondrial DNA study of European cave bears suggests that they may have been driven to extinction by humans. The bears’ genetic diversity began to decline 50,000 years ago, which is much earlier than previously thought and at the same time humans expanded into their territories. “As humans became more effective at using caves, the number of places where cave bears could hibernate, which was essential to reproduction and everything else they did, started to decrease,” said anthropologist Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis.  

Two 5,000-year-old villages have been found in China’s Inner Mongolia region. Archaeologists have excavated homes, tombs, earthenware, and animal bones. Artifacts made of jade were also found at one of the sites.  

Bulgarian customs officers retrieved four ancient artifacts hidden in the luggage of someone traveling from Turkey to Germany.  

Parks Canada archaeologists failed to discover the lost ships of the Franklin Expedition this summer.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, August 31, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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