Archaeologists have returned to a mass grave in Denmark that dates to the Iron Age. The site has already yielded the bones of 200 individuals thought to have been local soldiers who were killed and thrown into the peat bog. “It was the time when the Roman Empire had its greatest expansion to the north. This conflict could have been a consequence of the Roman expansion, its effect on the Germanic world,” said Mads Kahler Holst of Aarhus University. DNA recovered from the teeth and bones will be analyzed.

A Roman cemetery has been removed from a development site in Norfolk, England. The skeletons date to the third and fourth centuries, and are thought to be the remains of residents of a farming village, although its location is not known. In one of the 85 burials, the person had been decapitated, and the head placed by the feet. The only jewelry uncovered at the cemetery was an iron finger ring. “Analysis and research by a human bones specialist will no doubt shed more light on these and the other burials, said archaeologist Chris Birks.

When retired engineer Howard Murphy discovered a hoard of coins in a field in Shropshire, England, he called in archaeologist Peter Reavill, who excavated the pot and its contents in a block and sent it off to the British Museum. “We were able to recover the pot without any significant damage,” said Reavill. The silver and gold coins are more than 300 years old, and had been put in a leather bag, then placed in a locally made pot. “Coin hoards from the Civil War are relatively common with several known for each county in Britain; so many hoards show the upheaval and underlying worry of the general population,” he added.

A hand surgeon from Rhode Island has pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to his attempt to sell a silver tetradrachm at a coin auction earlier this year. Although the coin turned out to be a fake, Dr. Arnold-Peter Weiss was secretly recorded saying, “I know this is a fresh coin. This was dug up a few years ago,” according to the complaint against him. Two other coins in his possession were also fakes. Dr. Weiss will have to forfeit his interest in another 23 coins, perform 70 hours of community service, and write an article about the threat to archaeology produced by the illegal trade in ancient coins.

Police have recovered The Codex Calixtinus, which was stolen last year from Spain’s Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The twelfth-century guide for pilgrims was recovered from the garage of a man who’d been fired from his caretaker job at the cathedral.

It has been 50 years since the end of the French rule of Algeria. When they left, French officials carried away historical artifacts and an estimated 50,000 manuscripts and maps. Abdelmadjid Chikhi, director of Algeria’s national archives, said that France offered Algeria access to copies of the items if Algeria abandons its claim to them. “We’re not going to give up our right. We’re not going to give up our property. … I’m not going to sign away our national heritage,” he replied.

British archaeologists have found remnants of buildings at Woodchester Mansion that aren’t marked on any of the existing maps. They think the structures may have been used for storage during World War II, when Canadian and American forces were stationed on the property. “We’d love someone to come forward who remembers this site as it was in the 1950s and 60s who can remember these buildings,” said archaeologist Jim Gunter. The Victorian mansion in the Cotswolds was abandoned, unfinished, in 1873.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, July 5, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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