A new species of cattle (Bos buiaensis) has been discovered at a site in Eritrea that also contains early human remains. “This means that the humans have been eating Bos since the beginnings of the genus Homo,” said paleontologist Bienvenido Martinez-Navarro of the Universitat Rovira I Virgili in Spain.

Santa Lucia de Acuera was a remote Franciscan mission near Florida’s Ocklawaha River. Excavators have uncovered the footprint of a large building that was probably its church, in addition to pottery, beads, animal bones, and arrowheads. “Unlike the other Timucua, who were Catholicized, these people were not. They stayed true to their traditional ways,” said Willet Boyer III of the University of Florida.  

Underwater oxy-tools were used to cut open a safe on board the wreck of the infamous SS Keilawarra. The iron steamship sank in 1886 off the coast of New South Wales, Australia, when it was rammed by another vessel.  The New South Wales Heritage website has an excellent article on the collision and the sinking of the SS Keilawarra.  

British tour companies are taking their clients to Peru, but not flood-damaged Machu Picchu. This article has a spectacular picture of the Vilcanota River during the floods.   

A shipwreck buried in the mud of a harbor in Durban, South Africa, has been identified as the SS Karin. The steam ship sank in 1927 while carrying a load of sugar and diesel. “What I gathered, she was loaded badly and was top-heavy and listing,” said maritime archaeologist Vanessa Maitland.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, February 9, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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