A Roman road made of marble has been unearthed in Thessaloniki, its surface marked with ruts from carts. Beneath it, archaeologists found a road built by the Greeks some 2,300 years ago. “We have found roads on top of each other, revealing the city’s history over the centuries. The ancient road, and side roads perpendicular to it appear to closely follow modern roads in the city today,” said archaeologist Viki Tzanakouli.

Kevin McBride, director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center and the University of Connecticut’s Field School in Battlefield Archaeology, is tracing the three-mile path of retreat taken by British troops and their American Indian allies in 1637 after they attacked a Pequot Indian fort. While heading for their ships on the Thames River, the soldiers encountered retaliation from the Pequot and they may have burned a second village. Students wielding metal detectors and digging test pits have found musket balls, gun parts, arrow points, gun flints, tools, and buttons so far. “We’ve learned more about the Pequot War and the colonists in the past four years than in the previous 25. The archaeology and the historic narrative coming together begin to tell you the story,” said McBride.

Rome’s “Lupa Capitolina,” the sculpture of a legendary she-wolf suckling the twins Romulus and Remus, has long been lauded as an ancient symbol of the Eternal City. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the wolf, thought to be the oldest part of the bronze statue, was actually crafted in the Middle Ages. “The new thesis is that it is a medieval copy of an original Etruscan work,” explained Umberto Broccoli, superintendent of culture for Rome’s city council.

Constructing a bow and arrow takes no less than ten tools, 22 raw materials, three kinds of multi-component binding materials, and five production phases, according to a study by Miriam Haidle of Heidelberg Academy and the University of Tübingen, and Marlize Lombard of the University of Johannesburg. The construction of bows and arrows is thought to have begun some 64,000 years ago in what is now South Africa.

Road construction at King’s Lynn in eastern England has uncovered an intact collared burial pot dating from the Bronze Age. Archaeologists expect that the pot contains cremated human remains. “The inside of it is being excavated in a laboratory, as it was full of soil. This soil is being taken out slowly to work out if it was all from one deposition or whether it contained more than one individual’s remains,” said Ken Hamilton, the senior historic environment officer for the Norfolk County Council.

Archaeologists continue to ponder the remains of a huge structure discovered in southeast Wales. The three giant timber beams, which were supported by a mound of burnt rock that may have been used to heat water, sat alongside one another at the edge of an ancient lake. At first, archaeologists thought the structure was a large house. Others have suggested the beams supported a platform. “One other thing that is striking, that might be relevant, is that the timbers seem to be lined up with the middle of the lake,” said Steve Clarke of the Monmouth Archaeological Society. He thinks the beams may have been part of a causeway to an artificial island in the lake. Scientists are waiting for dates on the burnt mound for a maximum age for the structure.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, June 26, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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