Jessica Esther Saraceni

DURHAM, ENGLAND—According to a statement released by Durham University, 15,800-year-old engravings depicting fish caught in traps or nets have been identified among the more than 400 engraved plaquettes of schist, a type of metamorphic rock, from Gönnersdorf, a Paleolithic campsite located on the banks of the Rhine River in Germany. Researchers from Durham University and Germany’s MONREPOS Archaeological Research Center and Museum for Human Behavioral Evolution examined the plaquettes with reflectance transformation imaging (RTI), a new imaging technology, which revealed details of the fish mingled with grid-like patterns. The discovery is expected to shed light on Paleolithic diets and symbols and the social practices of these hunter-gatherers. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE. To read about a 9,000-year-old burial with ritual objects uncovered in Germany, go to “ The Shaman’s Secrets.”

MAGELANG, INDONESIA— Artnet News reports that Satoshi Tanaka of Ritsumeikan University, Jiao Pan of the University of Science and Technology Beijing, and their colleagues developed a neural network that they used to create a detailed, digital 3-D model of an eighth- to ninth-century relief at Indonesia’s Borobudur Temple. Located on the temple’s ground level, the sculptural panel was photographed 134 years ago before it was covered with reinforcement walls. The nineteenth-century black-and-white photograph shows a group of people set against a backdrop of trees and buildings. Artificial intelligence was able to identify “soft edges” in the photograph and thereby recreate the sculpture’s curves and textures. “Through computer visualization and virtual reality, our research now allows virtual exploration of these unseen treasures,” Tanaka said. Read the original scholarly article about this research in MM ’24: Proceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on Multimedia. To read about ancient stone monuments across the Indonesian archipelago, go to “ Java’s Megalithic Mountain.”

DURHAM, ENGLAND—According to a CNN report, the site of the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah has been discovered in Iraq using historical accounts and declassified images taken by American spy satellites in the 1970s. William Deadman of Durham University and his colleagues were using the materials to map archaeological sites in the Middle East when they decided to search for the lost battlefield. Fought in

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA—According to a statement released by Louisiana State University (LSU), an early Maya […]

HAMMAR, SWEDEN— Newsweek reports that a Neolithic ceremonial site estimated to be between 5,000 and 5,500 years old has been discovered in southern Sweden. The large causewayed enclosure is thought to have been used as a ritual gathering place by people of the Funnel Beaker culture, based upon intact pottery, flint and horn tools, worked bone, and a fishing hook uncovered at the earthworks. Researchers led by Magnus Artursson of National Historical Museums’ The Archaeologists said that the site consists of rows of elongated pits dug in a semicircle on the edge of a wetland. Some of the pits were lined with stones. “These are unique for the Neolithic period in this country,” Artursson explained. “The finds suggest feasts with ritual butchering and deposition of offerings both in the wetland and in the open pits of the enclosure,” he added. The Funnel Beaker people are known to have constructed megalithic structures, and to have made the transition from hunting and gathering to a mix of hunting, fishing, and foraging while also growing wheat and barley and raising cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. To read about sword hilts protruding from the soil at a Viking cemetery in Sweden, go to “ Standing Swords.”

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—More than 100 perforated soft limestone pebbles uncovered at the early village site of Nahal Ein-Gev II, which is located near the Sea of Galilee, may have been used as spindle whorls to produce yarn or cord some 12,000 years ago, according to a Haaretz

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND—The slow pattern of modern human growth may have begun some 1.8 million years ago, before human ancestors evolved large brains, according to a report in Science Magazine

KARABÜK, TURKEY— Hürriyet Daily News reports that an amulet bearing the image of the biblical figure Solomon has been unearthed at the site of Hadrianopolis by Ersin Çelikbaş of Karabük University and his colleagues. Two baths, two churches, a defensive structure, rock-cut tombs, a theater, and other monumental buildings have been uncovered in the ancient city, which is located near the Black Sea. The pendant has been dated to the fifth century

TAMPA, FLORIDA—According to a statement released by the University of South Florida, Davide Tanasi and […]

NEW YORK, NEW YORK—According to a statement released by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office