Robert D’Anjou and his team from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have found that coprostanol, a by-product of the human digestion of cholesterol, can be found and measured in core samples taken from lake sediments. In the past, scientists have measured the presence of charcoal and pollen from cultivated plants in lake sediments in their efforts to determine the presence and size of human populations, but this new technique could prove to be much more accurate. As an example, the team members tested for coprostanol in sediment cores taken from a Norwegian island in the Arctic Circle. “We can define the natural background variability over the 7,000-year record and when we see the peak in human fecal sterols, you see a dramatic increase in the frequency of fires in the area, associated with slash-and-burn type agriculture,” said D’Anjou.

Restoration and cleaning of Rome’s Colosseum will begin in the next few months, funded with private money. In the meantime, a concrete and metal barrier will be erected around the monument in order to protect tourists from any potential falling debris.

At the site of a middle school in Savannah, Georgia, archaeologists are working to locate the individual graves in a colonial-era cemetery. So far, the graves of 17 adults and 17 children have been found. Death records could provide researchers with some clues as to who was buried in the cemetery. The graves will be left intact.

More than 1,000 silver coins from Denmark and Sweden  have been found in a field in southern Sweden. Archaeologists think the coins were buried by wealthy farmers during the Scanian War of the mid-seventeenth century. Some 70 similar treasure troves have been found in the area, along with fired ammunition. “This shows that there have been soldiers fighting here. Several of the bullets are flattened and you can clearly see they have been fired and have made contact,” said archaeologist Kennet Stark.

When the ceilings of limestone caves collapse on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, they create holes that can fill with rainwater or extend into the water table. Some of the flooded caves contain the submerged archaeological traces of Stone Age people who lived in the once-dry environment. A new 3D film shot with a modified camera will show the dangerous exploration of cenotes  by German scientists. “The documentation of these caves is fundamental research. It enables us to take stock of things before we can ask further questions about individual objects,” said team leader Florian Huber of the University of Kiel. Answers to questions about when people first came to the Americas could also be found in the caves. The film will premiere next year.

Archaeologists from the University of Manchester digging in western Cyprus say that a 3,500-year-old domed kiln they unearthed near Paphos was used to dry malt and make beer during the Bronze Age. They also found grinding tools and mortars that may have been used to break down the grain, along with a hearth, cooking pots, and jugs that may have contained other ingredients such as yeast and flavorings. “Beer was commonly drunk because it is more nutritious than bread and less likely to contain harmful pathogens than drinking water which can make you ill,” explained archaeologist Lindy Crewe.

A fleet of nineteenth-century ships and an ancient harbor  have been found off the coast of northern Israel, near the site of Akko. The shipwrecks, which had been uncovered by a storm, may have been used in an Ottoman attempt to capture Akko in 1831. These ships and the structure of the Hellenistic port were discovered while testing a sub-bottom profiler for a project in deeper waters. The scientists were delighted by the discovery, however, because they think they might find rare Hellenistic ships buried in the port’s sediments. “We’ve got fragmentary historic records for this area in the Hellenistic period, and now we’ve found a very important feature from the ancient harbor. Ancient shipwrecks are another piece of the puzzle that will help us rewrite the story of this region at a critical time in Mediterranean history,” said Bridget Buxton of the Israel Coast Exploration Project.

The Drumclay Crannog  is an artificial island built in a lake in Northern Ireland’s County Fermanagh. Excavation of the crannog has uncovered homes that probably belonged to a noble family between 600 and 1600 A.D. “What has been found has the potential not only to be internationally important but ultimately to lead to a reassessment of life in Ulster in early Christian and medieval times,” said Environment Minister Alex Attwood. Combs, carved from antler and bone, suggest that the crannog residents had contact with northern Europe, where such items are known to have been made. Archaeologists have also found medieval artifacts such as chess-like gaming pieces; iron, bronze, and bone ornaments; parts of log boats; leather shoes; knives; dress pins; and wooden bowls. Here are some photographs  of features and artifacts from the site.

In 1769, Spanish soldiers, sailors, and missionaries built a fortress that became known as the San Diego Royal Presidio, where they interacted with Native American groups living in California at the time. “This site needs to be studied and interpreted and brought to the attention of the world as a World Heritage site,” said archaeologist Paul Chace. “For the first 60 years of operation, everyone had to live inside the walls of the fort made from adobe bricks. But after the Mexican Revolution, which freed Mexico from the rule of Spain, the Presidio was not funded and it fell into disrepair….By 1835, the Presidio was totally abandoned,” he said. City officials argue that the analysis of artifacts and oral histories already in their possession has to be completed first. “I don’t think anyone has a price-tag on what such a project would cost,” added Myra Herrmann of the city’s development services department.