A U.S. Air Force training jet that disappeared in 1955 has been located in the Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles, an aircraft archaeologist says. Volunteer searchers were looking for a World War II fighter when they came upon the wreckage of a Lockheed T-33A flown by Lt. Richard Martin Theiler and Lt. Paul Dale Smith, CNN reported Wednesday. Aircraft archaeologist Pat Macha says the discovery came after a computer expert in Texas spotted something on a high-definition U.S. Geological Survey image of the Santa Monica Bay ocean floor. Macha says he suspected that "what looked like a few little pixtels" could be the World War II fighter of Women's Air Force Service pilot Gertrude V. "Tommy" Tompkins Silver that was presumed lost at sea in 1944. Of the 38 WASP pilots who died in World War II, [...]

The Department of Antiquities of the Ministry of Communications and Works announces the completion of the archaeological excavations at the Neolithic site of Choirokoitia. Excavations were carried out in July and August by the National Centre of Scientific Research of France under the direction of Dr A. Le Brun. Research undertaken in 2005 on the north side of the hill where the site is installed was completed. The aim of this research was to determine the outline of the walls, which constituted the successive boundaries of the settlement. The results obtained have, in many points, profoundly altered our view of the site of Choirokoitia and, more widely, our knowledge concerning the recent phase of the Neolithic Aceramic period of Cyprus. Research of previous years has shown that the expansion of the built area on the south side occurred simultaneously with the abandonment of the north side. Therefore, the history of the settlement needed to be reconsidered: it must be interpreted as a rearrangement of the built environment rather than the expansion of the village. [...]

This year’s archaeological campaign contested the idea that we had until now concerning the way in which the site was inserted in the space.

Kellie, a seventh-grader, then moved the bucket of dirt a few feet to an archaeology tool called a screen, which others were holding. "Screen!" — the students yelled who were shaking the tool that caught the dumped dirt as a cloud of dust formed. The screen is just that — a wooden rectangle with screening in the center that allows archaeologists to find artifacts after most of the dirt passes through. Tuesday was Archaeology Day at the charter school east of Visalia. Steven Ptomey, a park interpreter at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park was the main speaker. He has a background of 20 years in archaeology. Ptomey gave students information about the archeological tools they would be using and information about the different jobs at an archaeological site. Under Ptomey's guidance, students had a chance to try their skills in an area designated for the dig by the school. Each student played a different role. An area in front of the school was preset into squares which students had a corresponding map for. "You're going to want to dig in 10 centimeter levels in most cases," Ptomey said. "Let's say I find a golden monkey, I am going to have to map that before I touch it." [...]

If you think archaeology is a closed subject, as fixed as the Bird Mound that hovers above Bayou Macon, talk awhile with "Butch." Aubra L. "Butch" Lee, vice president of Earth Search Inc. of New Orleans, is combing the Catahoula Parish earth these days for ancient artifacts near Jonesville, site of Mound No. 5. That's the Great Mound, built by the Troyville-Coles Creek people some 14 centuries ago. Once an imposing 82 feet high, the mound was knocked down in the 1930s for state bridge construction, its soil scattered on riverbanks near where the Little, Black and Ouachita rivers flow. Now, through a contract with Lee's company, the Department of Transportation and Development is working not to further destroy that part of Louisiana's ancient heritage, but to reclaim and preserve it. [...]

State historic preservation officials are expected to visit Mona Terrace today after construction crews working on the reconstruction of Delaware Avenue on Tuesday unearthed what appear to be several wooden caskets. The discovery brought work at the site, part of a much-heralded $14.9 million federal stimulus project, to a halt while an archaeologist working for the city examined the find. It was not immediately clear how many caskets were unearthed -- and as of Tuesday night, no skeletal remains had yet been found, said city archaeologist Michael Warner. Warner said the work crews noticed the discoloration, including the telltale blackish color of deteriorated wood, and stopped work immediately. "They did a good job of stopping when they did because they're on top of it instead of halfway through it," Warner said, stressing that the investigation is only in its earliest stages. [...]

[...] How did you get interested in archaeology? "It all started when I was in Anthropology 101 and the professor asked if would anyone would be interested in volunteering for an archaeology dig (in Israel) and I said yes, thinking of Indiana Jones. When I got there it was a shock as they gave us a pick axe and we started digging. I found out I would rather dig through history with a pen." Do you still go on digs? "Yes. I love the discovery, the fact that you are touching something that hasn't been touched for 2,000 years and everything you find has a story behind it." Where do you get your ideas from? "It really is always a moment of inspiration. For "Nefertiti", it started with a visit to her bust in Berlin and I just I wanted to know her story. It was a similar story for "Cleopatra's Daughter". I was doing an underwater dive to see the lost city of Alexandria and you see over 10,000 artefacts down there. As soon as I came up I had to know more about Cleopatra and as soon as I discovered what her daughter had lived through, I had to tell her story." [...]

After five years of arguments over the so-called hobbits, the University of New England paleoanthropologist who formally described the tiny new hominin species from the Indonesian island of Flores is facing another wave of controversy. This time, Peter Brown could raise the ire of some of the scientists who supported him in an academic debate that degenerated into an international scandal. Brown, who initially placed the species in the human genus Homo and named it Homo floresiensis, is considering stripping the hobbits of their human status. More remains have been found, and the species is now represented by six to nine individuals, depending on how the partial skeletons are put together. The skeletons range in age from 17,000 to 95,000 years. And a big body of research, including Brown's own, since the publication of the first papers on the find has forced a rethink of his initial classification. In a paper accepted for publication in an upcoming special Homo floresiensis edition of the Journal of Human Evolution, Brown and colleague Tomoko Maeda, also of UNE, say the hobbits' lineage left Africa "possibly before the evolution of the genus Homo". (The root of the human family tree stretches back about two million  years to Homo habilis, or Handy Man, in Africa.) Brown says assigning the Flores hominin to a different genus would worry some scholars. "They will think it somehow marginalises Homo floresiensis; that it's a clear statement that it is not a member of our genus, and it's extinct, so we don't have to worry about it any more," he says. "That's nonsense, because it's part of the broader evolutionary story of our species."  [...]

Archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled what they think are the remains of Roman emperor Nero's extravagant banquet hall, a circular space that rotated day and night to imitate the Earth's movement and impress his guests. The room, part of Nero's Golden Palace, a sprawling residence built in the first century A.D., is thought to have been built to entertain government officials and VIPs, said lead archaeologist Francoise Villedieu. The emperor, known for his lavish and depraved lifestyle, ruled from 37 A.D. to 68 A.D. The dig so far has turned up the foundations of the room, the rotating mechanism underneath and part of an attached space believed to be the kitchens, she said. "This cannot be compared to anything that we know of in ancient Roman architecture," Villedieu told reporters during a tour of the cordoned-off dig. She said the location of the discovery atop the Palatine Hill, the rotating structure and references to it in ancient biographies of Nero make the attribution to the emperor most likely. The partially excavated site is part of the sumptuous residence, also known by its Latin name Domus Aurea, which rose over the ruins of a fire that destroyed much of Rome in A.D. 64. The purported main dining room, with a diameter of over 50 feet (16 meters), rested upon a 13-foot (4-meter) wide pillar and four spherical mechanisms that, likely powered by a constant flow of water, rotated the structure. The discovery was made during routine maintenance of the fragile Palatine area, officials said. Latin biographer and historian Suetonius, who chronicled his times and wrote the biographies of 12 Roman rulers, refers to a main dining room that revolved "day and night, in time with the sky." Angelo Bottini, the state's top official for archaeology in Rome, said the ceiling of the rotating room might have been the one mentioned by Suetonius, who wrote of ivory panels sliding back and forth to shower flowers and perfumes on the guests below. [...]

The University of Evansville will wrap up Indiana Archaeology Month this Wednesday with the grand opening of its new Archaeology Wet Lab. UE, which is one of only 17 colleges in America with a Department of Archaeology, will open the new lab in the lower level of Hyde Hall. The event will begin at 3:30 p.m. and run until 5:30 p.m., with a ribbon cutting at 4:00 p.m. The afternoon also will include tours and displays of the University’s Tin City Excavation Project, located on the north side of Krannert Hall. The event is free, and open to the public. “As a department, we’re extremely excited to open the new Archaeology Wet Lab, and to have the opportunity to show the public all of the things we’re doing here at UE,” said Jennie Ebeling, chair of UE’s Department of Archaeology. “By creating this lab space, we will be able to offer our students an even greater learning experience, from giving them a space in which to wash and catalog their finds to offering them more hands-on educational opportunities right here on the UE campus.” The second part of the program will include tours and demonstrations of the Tin City Excavation project, undertaken each year by students in the Archaeological Field Methods course, taught by UE Assistant Professor of Archaeology Alan Kaiser. The project allows students to practice their field techniques by excavating pieces of the “Tin City” – student housing built to accommodate the rush of students after World War II and the Korean War, many of whom were taking advantage of the G.I. Bill. The 13 residential units were used until 1961, when dwindling numbers of veterans coupled with the University’s need for space to build Krannert Hall, Moore Hall, and Neu Chapel led to the structures being razed. [...]

A number of ancient Roman statues might lie beneath the turquoise waters of the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri in southern Italy, according to an underwater survey of the sea cave. Dating to the 1st century A.D., the cave was used as a swimming pool by the Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C. - 37 A.D.), and the statues are probably depictions of sea gods. "A preliminary underwater investigation has revealed several statue bases which might possibly hint to sculptures lying nearby," Rosalba Giugni, president of the environmentalist association, Marevivo, told Discovery News. [...]