Improved estimates of the mutation rates of DNA are aligning the genetic timeline with archaeological evidence. The new slower genetic clock would push the exodus of modern humans out of Africa back to 120,000 years ago, and into agreement with the dates of archaeological sites in the Middle East. It could also, however, complicate the fossil evidence for the earliest human ancestors. “My strong view right now is that the true value of the human mutation rate is an open question,” commented evolutionary geneticist David Reich of Harvard University.

Some 40 percent of a large mosaic floor from a Roman-era bath complex has been unearthed in southern Turkey. In 2002, Nick Rauh of Perdue University noticed that mosaic tiles were turning up in a plowed farmer’s field located near the ancient city of Antiochia ad Cragum, but excavations did not begin until last year by a team from the University of Nebraska and the local museum. The 1,600-square-foot floor is decorated with geometric designs on a white background, and it abuts a 25-foot-long pool flanked by porticos. These photographs show the excavation of the mosaic and the edge of the pool.

There’s more information on the two headless statues that were unearthed recently in Aphrodisias. The Roman-era statues had been recycled into building materials in the early medieval period. The older statue, which dates to ca. 200 A.D., was probably a depiction of a local public speaker. The second statue represents a high-ranking imperial officer. Here are some photographs of the excavation in progress.

While awaiting the results of a DNA comparison between a skeleton uncovered in Leicester, England, and a descendant of Richard III’s sister, members of the Richard III Foundation, Inc., are making a case to bury the remains of the last Yorkist king in York Minster. Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, and was buried in a nearby monastery, but his gravesite was eventually lost. “We are potentially dealing with the remains of an anointed king of England so it is important that we approach this decision in a dignified manner. However the final decision sits with the Royal Household,” writes Lynda Pidgeon of the Richard III Society.

A team of scientists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History entered a 1,500-year-old tomb located within the XX Temple at the Maya site of Palenque for the first time. Because the temple is unstable, the chamber had only been viewed with a tiny video camera. This first room does not contain a sarcophagus, but it is decorated with murals. “The important part about the funerary sites of this epoch, the Early Classical period (400-550 AD), is the paintings; we are before one of the few examples of murals discovered in the funerary context of Palenque, which is why this work is so important,” commented archaeologist Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz.

At an open-cast brown coal mine in Schöningen, Germany, archaeologists from the University of Tübingen have found eight spear heads that may have been crafted by homo heidelbergensis some 300,000 years ago. The artifacts are being touted as the world’s oldest weapons. The bones of a water buffalo, an aurochs, elephants, rhinoceroses, horses, and lions have also been excavated, along with traces of amphibians, reptiles, shells, insects, and plant remains.

Some researchers now think that Ice Age Europeans were creating ceramic works of art more often than previously thought. A collection of 36 fragments of fired clay has been recovered from the Vela Spila cave on an island off the coast of Croatia. Those pieces are estimated to between 15,000 and 17,500 years old. One of the fragments depicts the torso and foreleg of an animal. “It was overlooked because no one expected to find ceramics in the Paleolithic,” said Rebecca Farbstein of the University of Cambridge. The Venus of Dolni Vestonice, found in the Czech Republic, is about 30,000 years old. Olga Soffer of the University of Illinois adds that many unfired clay artworks may not have survived over time.

Nancy O’Malley of the University of Kentucky wants to figure out what really happened in 1778, when Shawnee warriors and French Canadians hired by the British laid siege to Fort Boonesborough for nine days. “You have this huge force against this very limited number of people who are holed up in a pretty rickety fort,” she said. And yet the attackers gave up and left. O’Malley will examine the remains of the fort and the conflicting accounts of the siege survivors. “There were just so many things about the siege that were very strange, and so many funny stories, that after a while you wonder what to believe,” she added.