Archaeologists find oldest human settlement of Aegean Islands

September 21st, 2009 DOHA - Archaeologists have found ninth century settlements in northwest Qatar, which remained untouched for centuries under the sands of Murwab. According to a report in The Peninsula, a team of archaeologists is excavating the 1.6 km long and 0.5 km wide site, which is a remarkable village of 220 houses, two forts and two mosques.

September 17th, 2009 DUBLIN - Archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old arrowhead in the Burren, in Ireland, which is evidence of what could be the oldest habitation site in the region. According to a report in The Irish Times, Graham Hull, director of the dig, said that the team of archaeologists "were whooping and jumping up and down at the discovery of a stone arrowhead".

September 3rd, 2009 SOFIA - A team of archaeologists has discovered the relics of a medieval saint at the fortress of Perperikon in the Rhodoppe Mountains in Bulgaria. According to Sofia News Agency, the remains of human bones were found inside one of two bronze crosses as the archaeologists were excavating two churches.

August 28th, 2009 STOCKHOLM - Swedish archaeologists have announced the find of a 7th century burial ship, the oldest of its kind to be discovered in Scandinavia. According to a report in The Local, the ship, thought to be from the Vendel era (550-793) of Swedish prehistory, was found in Sunnerby on the island of Kallandso in Lake Vanern in central Sweden.

August 21st, 2009 EDINBURGH - Archaeologists have uncovered a 5,000-year-old figurine on the Orkney island of Westray in Scotland, which is the country's earliest representation of a human face and body. According to a report in The Scotsman, the face and its lozenge-shaped body - measuring just 3.5cm by 3cm - were carved on the Orkney island of Westray between 4,500 and 5,000 years ago.

August 18th, 2009 LONDON - Archaeologists have found London's oldest known timber structure, which dating back to 5,700 years, could be the city's earliest "boardwalk". According to a report by BBC News, the structure was found in an ancient peat bog next to the Belmarsh prison in Plumstead, a suburb of East London near the banks of the River Thames.

August 13th, 2009 PRAGUE - Archaeologists have uncovered a unique 1000-year-old mark engraved into an oak tree near Celakovice in Prague, Czech Republic, which is probably the oldest preserved sign of this kind in the world. According to a report in the Prague Monitor, the real meaning of the 10-cm star-shaped mark on the oak trunk is not certain.

August 5th, 2009 BUDAPEST - Archaeologists of Debrecen's Deri Museum in East Hungary have discovered 4,000-year-old remains of a settlement during earth works connected to a local sewage treatment project. A team of 35-40 archaeologists are working in an area of two hectares, and have now identified the traces of three phases of the settlement: one in the early Bronze Age between 2700-2500 BC, the Sarmatian period around the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD as well as the youngest phase in the 8th and 9th centuries, leader of the excavations Krisztian Szilagyi told MTI.

July 27th, 2009 CANBERRA - Archaeologists have uncovered the ancient remains of a young man in northern Vietnam who could be the oldest known paraplegic in the world. According to a report in The Canberra Times, the discovery has astounded researchers, showing the long-term survival of a man with a severe disability in a community where almost 50 per cent of people died before they turned five.

July 16th, 2009 LONDON - Archaeologists from Berkshire, UK, have discovered evidence of an Iron Age town underneath the remains of a Roman settlement in north Hampshire, which they say could be Britain's earliest Iron Age towns with a planned layout. According to a report by BBC News, the discovery was made by the University of Reading's Archaeology Department, which has been excavating at the Silchester Roman site, Calleva Atrebatum, since 1997.

July 14th, 2009 BUDAPEST - An international team of archaeologists has started excavations near Szigetvar, South Hungary, to find the tomb of Suleiman I, the Lawgiver. Suleiman (1494-1566), also called as the Magnificent, was the longest reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, one of the most prominent monarchs of 16th-century Europe, presiding over the golden age of the empire.

July 10th, 2009 GENEVA - Archaeologists from Geneva University in Switzerland have discovered what they claim is Africa's oldest ceramic, dated at around 9,400BC, in eastern Mali. "It's a tiny, ornate fragment that was made with great skill and the use of fire," said ethno-archaeologist Anne Mayor in Bamako, the Malian capital.

June 24th, 2009 SOFIA - A team of archaeologists has uncovered an intact Thracian settlement close to the southeast town of Nova Zagora in Bulgaria. According to a report in novinite.com, the team comprised of Konstantin Gospodinov and Veselin Ignatov from the city of Burgas, who hope that their finding would be the first Thracian settlement to be uncovered in its entirety.

June 16th, 2009 SOFIA - Archaeologists have discovered a previously unknown settlement from the Roman Era in the Mentesheto area near the town of Varna on Bulgaria's northern Black Sea coast. According to a report in BalkanTravellers.com, the discovery was made by archaeologists Aleksadar Michev and Teodor Rokov, who were exploring a stone structure reminiscent of a 'dolmen' - a typical Thracian tomb from the Early Iron Age.

April 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The ruins of a village dating back to the fall of the Roman empire, during the Dark Ages, have been found at an excavation site in Salzburg in Austria. According to a report in the Austrian Times, workers found the remains of the village which is thought to date back to the 5th to 7th centuries at a 6,000-square-metre site for construction of a home for pensioners at Anif-Niederalm in the Flachgau region.