In western Alaska, archaeologists have excavated tools, grass baskets and rope, cuttings of human hair, and fur artifacts from the floors of homes that had been preserved in permafrost. The homes were part of a village that was occupied between 1350 and 1650 A.D. by the ancestors of the Yup’ik Eskimos. Scientists from Scotland’s University of Aberdeen will analyze the hair to learn about the diets of these people, and possibly, how they adapted to climate change. “If we can better understand how these people sustained themselves during what we know was a significant time of climatic change–we could learn important lessons about how these coastal communities have coped with climate change in the past,” said archaeologist Kate Britton.

Archaeologists working in the Canadian Arctic have discovered human remains that may represent members of the 1845 Franklin Expedition. “They did find a human tooth, and some bone, and a toothbrush,” said Marc-Andre Bernier of Parks Canada. His crew is continuing the search for Franklin’s ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, which were lost. Bad weather has hampered this year’s expedition.

A square room that opened up to a paved area is being called a Roman pub by archaeologists. The pub, or wine bar, was located in a settlement outside Stracathro, a Roman fort in Scotland. The fort was the last in a line of forts along the Roman frontier, built 50 years before the construction of Hadrian’s Wall. “We hadn’t expected to find a pub. It shows the Romans and the local population got on better than we thought,” said Birgitta Hoffmann, director of The Roman Gask Project.

While renovating his home in Guatemala, Lucas Asicona Ramírez uncovered Maya paintings on the plaster walls. The images depict people wearing traditional Maya and Spanish clothing. National Geographic Daily News has posted photographs of the rare murals and of the daily lives of the people who live in the village where they were found.

The people who erected Stonehenge may have made their living as herders, according to a new study of food remains from sites across England conducted by archaeobotanists Chris Stevens of Wessex Archaeology and Dorian Fuller of University College London. Cool, dry conditions in England 5,300 years ago may have made raising cattle, sheep, and pigs more successful than planting the Mediterranean crops that had been introduced during a milder, wetter period. “Part of the reason why pastoralists built monuments such as Stonehenge lies in the importance of periodic large gatherings for dispersed, mobile groups,” said Fuller. Stevens and Fuller think that cultivating plants then returned to prominence during the Bronze Age.

In the ongoing search for the grave of Richard III, archaeologists have unearthed paving stones that may mark the spot of an early seventeenth-century garden. The garden belonged to Robert Herrick, a mayor of Leicester, who built a mansion and the garden on the site of the Grey Friars monastery. A visitor to his home noted that garden contained a stone pillar that was inscribed, “Here lies the body of Richard III sometime King of England.” “The discovery of Herrick’s garden is a major step forward and I’m incredibly excited,” commented Philippa Langley, a member of the Richard III Society.

Archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History have unearthed a small, 1,200-year-old Maya theater that they think was used as a political tool by the elite. Located in the North Acropolis at the site of Plan de Ayutla, it was surrounded by other buildings. “It’s different from all the other theaters that have already been studied. These theaters were usually located in plazas and were built to entertain the crowds,” explained Martos López.

There’s more information on a stacked Lambayeque tomb that was unearthed in Peru at National Geographic Daily News. Beneath the burial of a seated priestess and eight others, archaeologists discovered a “basement tomb” that was built below the current water table. A second elite individual, accompanied by three more bodies, was found in the waterlogged burial, along with piles of shells and wave-embossed gold ear spools. “The amount of information of this funerary complex is very important, because it changes [what we know of] the political and religious structures of the Andean region,” said Carlos Wester La Torre of the Brüning National Archaeological Museum.

Anthropologist Sharon DeWitte of the University of South Carolina is studying skeletons at the Museum of London. She is looking for signs of the Black Death, a disease that killed nearly half of the London population between 1347 and 1351, and comparing them to the remains of people who lived before and after the plague struck. “Knowing how strongly these diseases can actually shape human biology can give us tools to work with in the future to understand disease and how it might affect us,” she said.

A lost Colonial-era cemetery was found in Brunswick, Georgia, after a middle school building was torn down. “What could be more important than a Colonial cemetery? We have nothing else, not a building or anything, that relates to that period,” said archaeologist Fred Cook. He expects to find 50 to 100 graves within the boundaries of the cemetery. Once they are mapped, the land will be covered with grass and a historical marker will be put in place.