A bronze artifact resembling a broken buckle wrapped with a bit of leather has been unearthed at a 1,000-year-old Eskimo dwelling in Alaska’s Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. Archaeologists from the University of Colorado at Boulder think the bronze part of the artifact was probably produced in East Asia and reached Alaska through trade from the steppe region of southern Siberia. “The object appears to be older than the house we were excavating by at least a few hundred years,” said team leader John Hoffecker.

Archaeologist Diane Hanson talked to the Anchorage Daily News about the challenges she faces while excavating on the far-flung Aleutian Islands.

Archaeologists think that the interior of the Iron Age broch, or circular tower built of huge rocks, in Assynt, Scotland, remained unchanged from the time it was built until it collapsed in 1,000 A.D.

CNN has more information on the theft of Libya’s “Benghazi Treasure” last spring, and the problem of looting across the country throughout the civil war. “Throughout the conflict, locals did an enormous amount to keep their heritage safe, standing guard at sites and museums. They put themselves at risk and if it hadn’t been for them, it would have been a lot worse,” said Paul Bennett of The Society for Libyan Studies.

The state of New Jersey will develop the colonial-era industrial site located next to the State House in Trenton. “It appears that the site actually has quite the promising future in store as a preserved, displayed and interpreted, historic property,” said archaeologist Richard Hunter.

The remains of a third eighteenth-century log fort have been found in Illinois, near the Fort de Chartres State Historic Site. The outline of the fort can be seen in an aerial photograph taken in 1928. “We have the direct descendants of some of the people whose buildings we are digging up helping us dig,” said Robert Mazrim of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, November 14, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

Comments posted here do not represent the views or policies of the Archaeological Institute of America.