Palaeoanthropologist Russell L. Ciochon of the University of Iowa has taken a team to the Solo River at Ngandong in Java, Indonesia, to learn more about the 14 Homo erectus fossils discovered there in the early 1930s. Could these individuals have been alive at the last part of the Ice Age?

Parks Canada officials announced that they have found the HMS Investigator, which was abandoned in 1853 during the search for Sir John Franklin and his lost expedition.  

DNA taken from the hip bone of Oetzi the Iceman has been mapped by a team of scientists. “We now have access to the complete genetic profile of this world-famous mummy,” said a statement released by the European Academy in Bolzano, Italy.  “We are dealing here with old DNA which in addition is heavily fragmented,” adds Albert Zink of the EURAC Institute for Mummies.  

The Italian government is still looking for private sponsors to help pay for the restoration of Rome’s Colosseum. “If all goes to plan, by 2013 the Colosseum will have been cleaned from top to bottom but even more important, it will be fully accessible to visitors,” said Francesco Giro, undersecretary for Italy’s heritage ministry.  

Archaeological sites in the marshes of Grand Bay, Mississippi, were damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and could be further damaged by oil from the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Archaeologists are rushing to learn what they can. “Oil will contaminate the material in the middens, leaving them unfit for scientific investigation,” said Ed Jackson of the University of Southern Mississippi.  

A human skeleton was found in Ocala National Forest, located in northeastern Florida.  

European funds have paid for an early-warning system at Rhodiapolis in southern Turkey. “Because of this project, smoke and forest fires will be detected early. When floods and fires advance, this system will accelerate the decision making process,” said Enis Cetin of Bilkent University.  

English teenagers found a searchlight emplacement from 1940 while doing a survey for school. The searchlight was intended to help the Royal Artillery protect munitions factories in Birmingham and Coventry from German aircraft.

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

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