In Bulgaria, archaeologists have uncovered a temple dedicated to Demeter and her daughter Persephone near the Black Sea town of Sozopol. A church and fortress wall had been built near the site during the Byzantine period.

Road workers in southwestern Turkey unearthed a 2,000-year-old tomb made up of two rooms. “We found many ceramic, porcelain plates and water jugs,” said Kutahya Museum director Metin Turktuzun.

The Society for Commercial Archaeology has added the Boots Motel in Carthage, Missouri, to its list of most endangered roadside places. “The Boots Motel is an iconic motel on Route 66. Many people have photographed it, visited it, a number of people have written about it so it’s assumed this higher status in the consciousness of roadies on Route 66,” said Ron Hart of the Route 66 Chamber of Commerce. The motel is currently being used as low-rent housing.

A developer is interested in building a large grocery store complex in Oxford, Alabama, at the site where a nineteenth-century home once stood, and American Indian artifacts have been found. “That whole area was once a village – people have picked up arrowheads there, but I don’t know of anything more substantial,” commented Stayce Hathorn of the Alabama Historical Commission.

Early Hawaiian farmers developed earthen windbreaks to protect their crops that were later adopted by the ruling class, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “In this part of Hawaii, the trade winds blow all the time, so the berms are there to protect the crops from the winds,” said Julie Field of Ohio State University.

Hawaii’s first Polynesian settlers brought pigs and rats that wiped out a species of land crab.

Scottish archaeologists will survey a circular earthen mound near Stirling Castle. Local legends link the mound, which is often called the King’s Knot, to King Arthur’s round table. “This is a fabulous opportunity to discover more about a site that has fascinated people down the centuries, and it’s all the more exciting because we really don’t know what – if anything – it will reveal,” said Richard Jones of Glasgow University.

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

Comments posted here do not represent the views or policies of the Archaeological Institute of America.