At the core of Mexico’s Pyramid of the Sun, archaeologists have found what could be the original foundation dedicatory cache, in addition to seven human burials. The cache contained a green serpentine stone mask, ceremonial pots, and the bones of an eagle and other animals.

The Tehran Times reports that ancient coins smuggled out of Iran are being sold across the Afghanistan border. Excavation in the historic Sistan-Baluchestan Province stopped in 2008 due to a lack of funding, leaving the sites vulnerable to plundering and vandalism.

Flood waters from Tropical Storm Irene damaged New York’s Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, and revealed two stone foundations associated with an eighteenth-century fort. A Mohawk Iroquois village stood nearby.

A second batch of artifacts and human remains will be returned to Peru by Yale University this week. The items will be taken to Machu Picchu’s Casa Concha Museum.

Archaeologists are using ground-penetrating radar to survey the ancient city of Isos, located in southern Turkey. Excavations at the site have uncovered ruins of baths and mosaics depicting Artemis.

Brett Dufur, a former mayor of Rocheport, Missouri, made it his mission to find ten boxes of artifacts that were lost after an excavation 29 years ago. The objects had not been processed, and therefore were not registered in any databases. “The town has burned to the ground several times, so we’re literally like a historic town with amnesia, because we’ve lost so much of our past,” he said.

Archaeologist Tony Pollard of Glasgow University plans to excavate battlefields of the Falklands War, which took place in 1982. “One of the worries will be that we will be over there to look for controversy, but it is certainly not on my agenda,” he said.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, December 14, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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