Italy unearths 2,000-year-old temple of 'virgin' Roman goddess

[Sify]  About 2,000-year-old temple the Romans dedicated to Diana, the goddess of virgins and wild animals, has been discovered in a national park in Italy. More...

Relics from King Richard II's tomb discovered

[Reuters] Among hundreds of diaries and notebooks left in boxes not opened for years were contents from the coffin of the ill-fated monarch and sketches of his skull and bones.  More...

Temple of Venus and Roma opens in Rome after 26-year restoration

[Telegraph UK]  The massive Temple of Venus and Roma, in the heart of the Roman Forum and a stone's throw from the Colosseum, was designed and commissioned by the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD.  More...

Neanderthals 'Lived Fast, Died Young' Compared with Humans

[Live Science]   Taking longer to mature may have given humans an evolutionary edge over Neanderthals by giving their brains and social skills more time to develop. Now dental records of early human fossils show how that developmental delay crept in over time.  More...

Digger finds Neolithic tomb complex

[NEARA]  Archaeologists on Orkney are investigating what is thought to be a 5,000-year-old tomb complex. It appears to contain a central passageway and multiple chambers excavated from rock.  More...

DNA Analyses from Central European Early Neolithic Farmers Reveal Their Near Eastern Affinities

[Bio Scholar]  Based on the information gained, it is now possible to reconstruct the settlement processes that have been so influential for early European history.  More...

Robot Probes Ancient Mexican Pyramid In Search Of Tombs

[NDTTV]  Tourists can climb up and down but it's been about 18 hundred years since anyone has gone inside the mysterious Sun and Moon pyramids of the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico. Now, for the first time, technology is entering...in the form of this robot.  More...

Ancient giraffe-sized creature pole-vaulted into sky

[MSNBC]  Giraffe-sized pterosaurs may have pole-vaulted with their arms to launch themselves, just as vampire bats do, scientists now suggest.   More...

Ancient Roman landscape unearthed near London

[CNN]  Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Roman landscape beneath a park in west London, with a Roman road, evidence of a settlement, and unusual burials among the finds.  More...

World's oldest Copper Age settlement found

[Yahoo News]  A 'sensational' discovery of 75-century-old copper tools in Serbia is compelling scientists to reconsider existing theories about where and when man began using metal.  More...-

Ancient Tablets Reveal Mathematical Achievements of Ancient Babylonian Culture

[Art Daily]  An illuminating exhibition of thirteen ancient Babylonian tablets, along with supplemental documentary material, opens at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) on November 12, 2010. Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics reveals the highly sophisticated mathematical practice and education that flourished in Babylonia—present-day Iraq—more than 1,000 years before the time of the Greek sages Thales and Pythagoras, with whom mathematics is traditionally said to have begun.  More...

Aboriginal astronomers observed and recorded a supernova impostor event: research

[Archaeology Daily News]  New research by Macquarie University astronomers Duane Hamacher and David Frew supports the assertion that Aboriginal Australians were active observers of the night sky and incorporated significant astronomical events into their oral traditions.  More...

Tropical Forest Diversity Increased During Ancient Global Warming Event

[Art Daily]  Carlos Jaramillo, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and colleagues report in the journal Science that nearly 60 million years ago rainforests prospered at temperatures that were 3–5 degrees higher and at atmospheric carbon dioxide levels 2.5 times today’s levels.  More...

Chinese mine in Afghanistan threatens ancient find

[AP]  It was another day on the rocky hillside, as archaeologists and laborers dug out statues of Buddha and excavated a sprawling 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery.  More...

Oldest tool-use claim challenged

[BBC]  The idea that human ancestors were using stone tools about 3.4 million years ago has been challenged by a Spanish-led team of researchers.  More...

Egypt archaeologists find new sphinx-lined road in Luxor

{Daily Mail]  Egypt's ever-growing treasure trove of ancient wonders has been further bolstered by the discovery of hundreds of ancient sphinxes.  More...