Personal items that once belonged to convicts in Tasmania have been discovered under the floorboards of the Penitentiary Chapel in Hobart.

Shane McLeod of the University of Western Australia re-examined 14 Norse burials in eastern England, and he concluded that there were more women among the Viking invaders than had been thought. “These results, six female Norse migrants and seven male, should caution against assuming that the great majority of Norse migrants were male,” he wrote in a study published in Early Medieval Europe.

Remnants of burned oak have been unearthed at the construction site of a grocery store in Scotland. Radiocarbon dates indicate the wood may have been burned during the Mesolithic period as a heat source. “The lack of any other Mesolithic dating on the site suggests that there was no settlement in the area, and that instead the hearth represents a temporary rest stop,” according to a report published by the Highland Council’s Historic Environment Record.

A man caught in the 2009 federal artifact trafficking sting in Utah has been sentenced to two years probation.

A large-scale excavation in Seattle could yield information about the city’s nineteenth- and early twentieth-century residents. “Visually, it’s not the most compelling material,” said project manager Steve Denton.

University of Wyoming students are sharpening their digging skills at the Vore Buffalo Jump, which was used by five different American Indian groups between 1500 and 1800. “In those 300 years, they killed 10,000 to 20,000 bison. They are stacked up like a giant layer cake,” said archaeologist Charles Reher.

Meanwhile, children attending day camp at Appalachian State University learned that an archaeologist’s most important tool is a pencil.

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

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