The New York Times has an interesting piece on the discovery of a trove of artifacts from the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg.
I really enjoyed this article on the development of dendrochronology and bristlecone pines the oldest living things on the planet.
A team of Turkish, Australian, and New Zealand archaeologists has just completed its third field season of a survey of the World War I Gallipoli Battlefield.
In California, most elementary school curriculums include reading a famous children's novel Island of the Blue Dolphins. It is based on the true story of a young Indian woman who was stranded on San Nicolas Island off the California coast, and who lived there alone for 18 years. The real woman, Juana Maria, lived at the Santa Barbara Mission after her rescue and is buried in the cemetery there. I've seen the commemorative plaque placed there about her. San Nicolas Island is a Navy facility now, and after many years of searching, Navy archaeologists believe they have found the cave where Juana Maria lived.
Archaeologists excavating at a rockshelter in South Africa have discovered microliths, rather sophisticated stone artifacts made from heat-treated material, at the surprisingly old age of 71,000 BP.
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Re: the Gallipoli dig, I've always liked this quote from Turkey's first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk:
"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives, you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country; therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace; after having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well."
How encouraging to see these former adversaries cooperating on the archaeology.
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