Oyster shells excavated from an abandoned seventeenth-century well in Jamestown, Virginia, reveal that the English settlers who lived there endured a long-lasting drought. “It was interesting trying to figure out what was happening in the colony at a time when 70 to 80 percent of the colonists were dying,” said geochemist Howard Spero of the University of California, Davis.

A tiny clay figurine of a woman’s torso was unearthed at Japan’s Aidanikumahara archaeological site. It is thought to be 13,000 years old.  

Here’s more information on the 2,400-year-old Etruscan house unearthed in Italy. “The building was part of the ancient town of Vetulonia and is much older than other sections of the town uncovered so far,” said Vetulonia Archaeological Museum Director Simona Rafanelli.  

Are the 100,000-year-old dates for the Neanderthal flint tools discovered in Kent, England, accurate?  

A modern work of art that was mistaken for an Iron Age sculpture and put in a museum has been returned to its original home in a park near Turkey’ Lake Van.  

In 1983, some 80 people enjoyed lunch in a garden south of Paris, and then buried the decorated tables, plates, glasses, and leftover food in a trench. Now, archaeologist Jean-Paul Demoule is digging them up. “What will these remains tell us about the way artists lived in the 1980s, what will they say about our society?” he said.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, June 2, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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