A team of French archaeologists has unearthed an 11,000-year-old farming village on the island of Cyprus. The evidence, including bones and burned seeds, suggests that the Early Neolithic farmers came from the Middle East soon after the rise of agriculture, bringing plants, dogs, and cats with them. They supplemented their diets with wild boar that they hunted on the island. The excavation has also revealed a communal building made of mud brick that was surrounded by smaller houses, stone tools, shell jewelry, and green stone beads.

Reports from Iran tell of the excavation of an Achaemenid residential area in North Khorasan Province. The site, which flourished from the Iron Age until the Islamic era, occupies the Riba Mound and had been damaged by the construction of three brick kilns.

On the cliffs of Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, Nancy Beavan of the University of Otago is investigating the burials of an unnamed culture. The burials consist of log coffins and jars of human bones dating to between 1395 and 1650 A.D. that were left on dangerous ledges. She thinks the bones were placed on the ledges using systems of ropes and bamboo baskets after the bodies had been exposed and the bones de-fleshed.

Archaeology officials in Sri Lanka plan to strengthen security measures at archaeological sites; increase the penalties for those who damage, steal, or possess artifacts; and promote public awareness of the country’s archaeological treasures as part of archaeology week, which begins next month.

Four men were fined and sentenced to probation in Tennessee for violating the Archaeological Resource Protection Act. They had each taken artifacts from land belonging to the Tennessee Valley Authority. “TVA employs a team of investigators who aggressively pursue ARPA violations. We work to protect our region’s cultural history from thieves and others who want to profit from those resources,” said David Jolley, TVA vice president of Security and Emergency Management.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, May 16, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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