A 2,300-year-old tomb in western Guatemala is being called the grave of “the ruler who bridged the gaps between Olmec and Mayan cultures and initiated the slow transition to Mayan rule,” according to archaeologist Miguel Orrego. Although his remains have disintegrated, the man known as K’utz Chman was buried with a jade pendant carved in the shape of a vulture’s head, a symbol of power and wealth. It is thought that K’utz Chman introduced pyramid building and the carving of sculptures of the royal family to his people. “The richness of the artifacts tells us he was an important and powerful religious leader,” added archaeologist Christa Schieber.

Since the fall of communism in Bulgaria, squads of looters  equipped with metal detectors, bulldozers, tractors, and heavy vehicles have been destroying archaeological sites that could be excavated and developed to bring tourist money into the country. In particular, the Roman city of Ratiaria is located next to one of the poorest villages in Europe. “Such a site could have been North West Bulgaria’s ‘Pompeii,’ bringing wealth to a poor region in need of such tourism. Without quick efficient action this opportunity may sadly be missed,” said Jamie Burrows of Nottingham University. Such Roman artifacts, coins, and gold and silver from Thracian tombs are highly prized. They are smuggled out of the country by organized crime groups to be sold abroad.

Yesterday, American customs officials returned more than 4,000 artifacts to Mexico that had been seized in raids in several states, after a total of 11 separate investigations. The artifacts had all been looted and smuggled out of Mexico. Pots, statues, hatchets and other tools, sandals, beads, and an Aztec whistle were among the artifacts recovered. “The teamwork and cooperation that exists between Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and our Mexican law enforcement counterparts, as well as with U.S. federal, local and state law enforcement agencies made it possible for us to secure these cultural artifacts and to ensure that they are returned to the government of Mexico. HSI will remain committed to combating the looting and trafficking of Mexico’s cultural treasures,” said Janice Ayala, HSI assistant director.

In southern Iraq, police arrested two people accused of smuggling artifacts and recovered a collection of ancient statues and coins that span several time periods. “Interior Ministry forces in coordination with the Iraqi army seized 64 archaeological pieces as well as 114 bronze coins  in a district of al-Fajir,” a police source revealed.

A torso fashioned from pottery  has been found in Spain’s Can Sadurní cave. The figurine, which retains its neck and part of an arm, has been dated to 6,500 years ago, making it the oldest found on the Iberian Peninsula. Archaeologists think the figurine depicts a male person, and it may have hung from a strap. More fragments of the figurine may be uncovered. The cave is also known for evidence of the production and consumption of beer during the Neolithic period.

Historical documents indicate that the Otomí inhabitants of Xaltocan, which is located in central Mexico, abandoned their homes in the mid-fifteenth century following a military defeat, and were then replaced by the Aztecs. Archaeological evidence from the site, however, suggests that the Otomí were assimilated into the new population. A new study of mitochondrial DNA, taken from a small sample of human remains at the site, proposes that the people living at the site before the conquest were biologically different from those living there after the conquest, but perhaps they were not a completely new group of people. “Our results show that the Otomí inhabitants of the sampled houses were not maternally related to the Aztec-era inhabitants of those houses, but we need to study biparentally inherited genetic markers and other households at Xaltocan before we can say whether the original Otomí population was completely replaced or not,” said Jaime Mata-Miguez of the University of Texas at Austin.

A large Hindu temple  dating to the fourteenth century was found on the island of Bali during a construction project. Pottery and stone plates were also uncovered. “This discovery is the largest stone temple found in Bali,” said Wayan Suantika of the Denpasar Archaeology Agency.

Achim Bayer, an expert in Buddhism at South Korea’s Dongguk University, has responded to a request from scientists for cultural information about a Buddha statue in a private collection that was in the news last month. They had analyzed the composition of the statue and found that it was carved from a meteorite  from the Siberia-Mongolia border. Bayer says that statue is probably a twentieth-century reproduction. He notes that the clothing and grooming of the supposed deity does not resemble historic Tibetan and Mongolian fashions.

In 1066, some 10,000 soldiers are thought to have been killed during the Battle of Hastings, when the invading William the Conqueror defeated England’s King Harold. But no human remains or artifacts have ever been found in the area tradition holds as the location of the epic battle. Historian John Grehan thinks the fighting took place about a mile away, on a steep hill similar to the hill mentioned in historic documents. There’s also a ditch at the base of this hill, known as Caldbec Hill, where he thinks the fallen may have been buried in a mass grave. “The evidence pointing towards Caldbec Hill as the scene of the battle is, at present, circumstantial, but it is still more than exists for the current Battle Abbey site,” he said. Grehan is calling for an archaeological investigation of the ditch.