The severe drought in Texas has caused a drop in the level of the water in Lake Whitney, exposing five archaeological sites dating back 8,000 years. More than 30 people have been caught digging illegally.

Human footprints estimated to have been made between 4,500 and 25,000 years ago have reportedly been found in northern Mexico.

In Gloucestershire, England, National Trust researchers have uncovered the footprint of a square building on a spot where a nineteenth-century map places a round one. “There was a circular building shown on the 1838 map called a ‘temple folly’ but what we’ve got is a square building, which is a bit odd,” said archaeologist Jim Gunter.

In southern Australia, students from Flinders University are looking for signs of a school that once stood in Mary MacKillop Memorial Park in the 1860s. “We’ve found slate, which was used in that time to write on and could be associated with the school,” said archaeologist Cherrie Deleiuen.

Kentucky is one of two states in the U.S. that do not have a welcoming museum of natural history—its exhibit space was shut down in 2008 due to budget cuts. “There are archaeological sites all over the state, and a lot of people don’t know that. It’s a shame that people don’t realize that,” said George Crothers of the University of Kentucky Museum of Anthropology.

Wired offers an explanation of the equation used in carbon-14 dating.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, September 29, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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