Time offers an update on the excavations at Afghanistan’s ancient Buddhist temple complex known as Mes Aynak. The site will eventually be destroyed when a Chinese mining company begins to extract copper from the land. The article also discusses the link between the black market in antiquities and terrorism.

At the ancient city of Metropolis in western Turkey, Serdar Aybeck of Trakya University has unearthed a second-century B.C. Roman bath decorated with mosaics and sculptures.

An early Roman cemetery has been discovered in Cirencester, which is located in England’s Cotswold Hills. Two bracelets made of glass beads, jet beads, shale, and copper alloy were also found.

Luxury goods have been uncovered at a fortified settlement at the Pictish site of Rhynie. “This means that what we thought was a backwater in this part of Britain may well be much more significant and that Rhynie can take its place as an important force in the power politics of early medieval Scotland,” explained Gordon Noble of Aberdeen University.

In 1941, archaeologist Glenn A. Black of Indiana University excavated the grave of two infants at Angel Mounds. He speculated that the babies were conjoined twins. But recent DNA analysis of the infants’ bones shows that they were not even maternal siblings.

Discovery News has assembled seven photographs of Stone Age cave paintings. The captions summarize recent research into what can be known about early artists.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, November 17, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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