A stalagmite in Belize’s Yok Balum Cave has yielded a 2,000-year-long record of rainfall patterns. Douglas Kennett of Penn State University and his colleagues compared the information they extracted from the stalagmite with historical records kept by the Classic Maya. They found that the Classic Maya civilization rose during a rainy period, and declined with a time of drought. “It looks like the Maya got lulled by a uniquely rainy period in the early Classic period into thinking that water would always be there,” he said. Severe drought pushed the remaining Maya from southern Belize between 1020 and 1100 A.D. Scientists are now investigating the possibility that this climate information could be applied to other parts of the Maya world.

The ancient city of Karkemish  sits on the border between Syria and Turkey. Turkey has cleared many of the mines planted on its borders since the 1950s, including its portion of this archaeological zone. Archaeologists and their students have returned to Karkemish, but they stick to approved paths while excavating, and when the site opens to tourists in late 2014, they will also be required to stay on the safe and narrow. The strategic city may be best known as the place where British archaeologist C.L. Woolley and his assistant, T. E. Lawrence, worked in the early twentieth century. Lawrence eventually became known as the legendary “Lawrence of Arabia.”

BR Mani and KN Dikshit, both of the Archaeological Survey of India, claim that new dates from excavations in India and Pakistan suggest that Indian civilization began 2,000 years earlier than previously thought. “On the basis of radio-metric dates from Bhirrana (Haryana), the cultural remains of the pre-early Harappan horizon go back to 7380 to 6201 B.C.,” they announced at the International Conference on Harappan Archaeology.

The Lapita began traveling across the Pacific some 5,000 years ago. New dates obtained from their coral files excavated from the oldest-known settlement on the Tongan island of Tongatapu suggest that these first Polynesian settlers arrived there between 2,830 and 2,846 years ago. Such precise dates came from a new technique that measures levels of radioactive uranium. This new measurement technique could provide archaeologists with a more accurate way to trace Lapita migration routes. “We can look at this progression across the Pacific in ways we couldn’t before,” said David Burley of Simon Fraser University.

Tiny stone blades discovered in South Africa’s Pinnacle Point Cave could indicate that early Homo sapiens had “modern minds” and created a complex technology more than 70,000 years ago. The 27 microliths were found in different layers of sand and soil of the cave spanning 11,000 years, further suggesting that the complex process of producing the blades had been transmitted across generations. “We think they almost certainly had complex language,” explained Curtis Marean of Arizona State University. The blades probably would have been affixed to wooden shafts for use as arrows or spears.

In northern Bulgaria’s Sveshtari tomb, archaeologists have unearthed a hoard of gold artifacts  stored in a wooden box. The objects include bracelets, a ring, horse fittings, and a headpiece decorated with lions and other animals. Gold threads in the remains of the box suggest that the items had been wrapped in gold-woven cloth. The Thracian tomb dates to the end of the fourth century or the beginning of the third century B.C. Archaeologist Diana Gergova of Bulgaria’s National Archaeology Institute suspects that they will find additional burials near the hoard site.

While investigating a well carved from limestone some 8,500 years ago, archaeologists in Israel’s Jezreel Valley recovered flint and stone tools, and two skeletons, one of a woman around the age of 19, the other of an older man. “The impressive well was connected to an ancient farming settlement, and it seems the inhabitants used it for their subsistence and living. After these unknown individuals fell into the well, it was no longer used, for the simple reason that the water was contaminated,” said excavation director Yotam Tepper.

Cat lovers have told Rome’s archaeology officials that they will not abandon the stray cats that live at the unauthorized shelter at the Republic-era archaeological site of Largo Argentina. “The cats of Rome  are by definition as ancient as the marble capitals they lounge on. We have to find a solution that balances the care of Rome’s historical archaeological heritage with a historical, social practice that has its own tradition,” reasoned Umberto Broccoli, Rome’s superintendent for culture.