A 2,000-year-old, well-preserved timber road has been found in eastern England. Archaeologists think that the road was built by an Iceni tribe before the arrival of the Romans. “This particular track way is very interesting to us because we have tools… which may actually tie in with some of the tool marks and methods of construction we are turning up in the investigation,” said John Davies of the Norwich Castle Museum.

Peru’s Ica Valley, located near the southern coast, is now a barren desert. But bioarchaeologist David Beresford-Jones of the University of Cambridge examined plant remains left in ancient middens, and he concluded that the area was once a fertile floodplain. “The farmers inadvertently crossed an ecological threshold and the changes became irreversible,” he explained.

A three-year excavation will reveal more about the lives of the enslaved people who lived at Montpelier, James Madison’s Virginia home, between 1810 and 1830. “We hope that this archaeology, combined with historical research and other efforts, will let us do a better job of telling the larger, human story of the enslaved community here,” said Matthew Reeves, director of archaeology at Montpelier.

More than 3,000 bronze coins dated between 264 and 241 B.C. were discovered off the coast of the small Sicilian island of Pantelleria. “Since all coins feature the same iconography, we believe that the money served for an institutional payment,” said Leonardo Abelli, director of the excavation.

Here’s a photograph of the Hercules statue unearthed in northern Israel.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, August 16, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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