Fossilized human remains thought to be 10,000 years old have been found in New South Wales, Australia.

A 12,000-year-old iron oxide mine in Chile represents the oldest-known mining operation in the Americas. Diego Salazar of the Universidad de Chile says the Huentelauquen people used the iron oxide as a pigment for painting stone and bone tools, and probably also for self decoration.

A team of researchers will look for traces of Guglielmo Marconi’s first transatlantic wireless station at Derrygimlagh, Ireland, along with the landing site of British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown after their first Atlantic crossing. “From 1907 until 1922, Ireland was a major player in the development of transatlantic wireless communications, and the coincidental association of the Clifden Marconi station with the Alcock and Brown landing makes the sensitive habitat at Derrygimlagh unique,” said engineer and industrial archaeology researcher Shane Joyce.

In Oklahoma, a group of archaeologists is ready to assist police in the recovery of murder victims.

Did walking upright give early humans an advantage in a fight? Biologist David Carrier of the University of Utah found that men hit harder when they stand on two legs than they do on all fours. “Early in human evolution, an enhanced capacity to strike downward on an opponent may have given tall males a greater capacity to compete for mates and to defend their resources and offspring,” he added.

Blackbeard’s pirate ship Queen Anne’s Revenge is featured in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Archaeologists will attempt to retrieve an anchor from a wreck site off North Carolina’s coast that is thought to be the very ship.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, May 19, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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