The Archaeology Channel - Audio News from Archaeologica

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Piles of human bones unearthed in Aztec burial; ancient food transport ship found buried off Italian coast; Native Americans drank caffeinated "black drink"; and ancient Egyptian custom of cutting off enemies’ hands verified.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Public sees Basque history uncovered in new Idaho excavation; Turkish sculptures reveal early empires of 1000 BC; traces of chocolate found on northern Maya dishes; and Egyptian First Dynasty funeral boat is oldest ever found.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Hittite lion statues perplex researchers; Northern Ireland bog site in danger of destruction; first evidence of Ice Age ceramic figures in southeastern Europe found in Croatia; and Wisconsin prehistoric village explored during highway construction.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Charred olive pit is clue to complexity of Iron Age England; new Maya temple stood out with giant red masks of the sun; Chinese tomb illustrates era of the Three Warring Kingdoms; and Hellenistic harbor found on Israeli seacoast.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: De Soto’s route through Florida found on archaeologist’s land; Germany may be home to earliest Viking town in historical record; first humans in Americas apparently were not Clovis; and research in North Sea reveals long-lost world.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Chinese find makes pottery much older than first farmers; Islamic extremists in Mali attack an ancient shrine; new finds add to information on Wari culture of Peru; and Pakistani province races to save Mohenjo-daro from decay.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Downtown Phoenix construction site reveals ancient artifacts; Palestinian village caught between World Heritage site and Israeli defense plan; news flash! new evidence shows Mayans did not think world would end in 2012!; and oldest European neolithic bow found in Spain.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Medieval Uzbek site sees looting by both locals and officials; rare pocket sundial found at Jamestown; oldest pearl found in Arabian cemetery; and Alaskan lake sediment core data show ice-free travel was possible by 17,000 years ago.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Dutch explorers created early postal system on Madagascar beach; racial tension existed in early Annapolis; Welsh building could be older than the pyramids; and 100 more soldiers march in China’s terracotta army.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Early Scottish settlement shows sophisticated strategies to cool food, heat homes; Israeli hoard of coins and jewelry dates to Bar Kokhba revolts; early statue of Buddha found in Afghanistan; and Shakespeare’s first theatre found.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Ancient Roman shipwreck challenges theories that ancient mariners stuck to coastlines; Mexican altar representing rain dates back 2500 years; social inequality is more ancient than we think; and looters damage burial mounds in Illinois;

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Scottish graveyard find is ancient Christian "cursing stone"; Israeli jewelry cache is 3000 years old; early tomb at Pachacamac holds 80 burials; and at 42,000 years, bone flutes from German cave mark dawn of instrumental music.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Cyprus is home to dogs, cats and oldest farming village in the Mediterranean; earliest wall art discovered on French limestone; 900 year-old-pot discovered on middle school field trip; and ancient Mesoamericans were big time sports fans.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Oldest known Mayan astronomical tables discovered, casting further doubt on 2012 end of the world predictions; burial rituals shed light on history of people who once inhabited Cambodian mountains; exhumed skulls from Spain dating to the Middle Ages display marks of trepanation; and ancient language of first “barbarians” discovered amid ruins of 2800-year old Middle Eastern palace.

News items read by Laura Pettigrew include: Students on practice dig find real, and really unexpected, Roman temple; new clue hints Roanoke’s Lost Colony may be under a golf course; isotope analysis suggests mass burial in Oxford is grave of Viking raiders; and Egyptian style chairs gave early Northern chieftains a lift.