Archaeologists may have found world’s oldest known paraplegic

September 30th, 2009 LONDON - A team of archaeologists in Rome has claimed to have found the remains of a legendary revolving dining room built by Emperor Nero to impress his guests. According to a report in The Guardian, digging on the Palatine Hill, archaeologists stumbled on the remnants of a circular room, 16 metres (53ft) in diameter, which they believe formed part of Nero's palace, built in the first century AD.

September 18th, 2009 VIENNA - Archaeologists have unearthed three Roman military camp sites archaeologists in Burgenland, Austria, which they say will rewrite the history of the Romans in the country. According to Weiner Zeitung, Stefan Groh, the leader of the Austrian Archeological Institute (OAI) team that discovered the sites, said that the three camp sites near Strebersdorf in Burgenland's Lutzmannsburg municipality were along the old amber road, the main Roman trading road in the region.

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 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 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of archaeologists has unearthed London's oldest timber structure, which through radiocarbon dating has been proven to be nearly 6,000 years old, predating Stonehenge by more than 500 years. The structure was discovered by archaeologists from Archaeology South-East (part of the Institute of Archaeology at UCL).

August 4th, 2009 SOFIA - A team of archaeologists has discovered the tomb of a Bulgarian princess in the northern Bulgarian town of Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria's medieval capital. According to a report in The Sofia Echo, archaeologists Nikolai Ovcharov and Hitko Vachev have excavated on August 2 what has been described as the grave of a Bulgarian princess, buried in the courtyard of the St St Peter and Pavel church in Veliko Tarnovo.

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 29th, 2009 LONDON - Vatican archaeologists have uncovered what they say is the oldest known portrait of St Paul. According to a report in The Times, the portrait, which was found two weeks ago but has been made public only after restoration, shows St Paul with a high domed forehead, deep-set eyes and a long pointed beard, confirming the image familiar from later depictions.

June 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The ruins of the oldest human settlement in the Aegean Islands found so far have been unearthed in archaeological excavations by a team of Greek, Italian and American archaeologists on the island of Limnos. The Aegean Islands are a group of islands in the Aegean Sea, with mainland Greece to the west and north and Turkey to the east.

June 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Archaeologists have unearthed more than two tonnes of ancient coins dating back to as early as the Tang Dynasty (618-907) on a playground of a primary school in Shaanxi Province, northwest China. According to Zhao Aiguo, director of the cultural relics protection and tourism bureau in Liquan County, Shaanxi, the coins were found when workers were excavating the grounds for construction of another building.

June 4th, 2009 SEOUL - Archaeologists have found a 1,400-year-old artifact with the Taegeuk pattern in South Korea, the oldest of its kind in Korean history, along with 31 wooden tablets and a pair of wood carvings. According to a report in The Korea Times, the artifacts were excavated from the Bogam-ri tombs at Naju, South Jeolla Province last year and since then had gone through preservation treatment.

June 4th, 2009 Mammoth skeleton unearthed in SerbiaBELGRADE, Serbia — A well-preserved skeleton of a mammoth that is believed to be about 1 million years old has been unearthed in eastern Serbia, archaeologists said Thursday. The discovery was made during excavation two days ago at an open-pit coal mine near Kostolac power plant, said Miomir Korac, from Serbia's Archaeology Institute.