Discovery of ancient sword stud might rewrite Welsh history

October 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Beardless warriors had been discovered among China's terracotta army, providing evidence of the youthful ages of some soldiers when the army was created more than 2,000 years ago. "Some warriors have no beards, but for ancient Chinese, facial hair was part of the culture, so those warriors could be considered to represent soldiers under 17 years old," said Yuan Zhongyi, honorary curator of the Museum of the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang, in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

October 14th, 2009 LONDON - A team of archaeologists has discovered the remains of a Parthian city in the North Khorasan Province of Iran. The discovery and identification of the remains of the city, dating back to Parthian dynasty (248 BCE- 224 CE), has been announced by Mohsen Lashgari, the director of provincial Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation.

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 9th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have found a handful of ancient human skulls, dating back to about 1.8 million years ago, at an archaeological site two hours from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, which throws into doubt that Africa was not the sole cradle of humankind. According to a report in The Independent, the skulls, jawbones and fragments of limb bones suggest that our ancient human ancestors migrated out of Africa far earlier than previously thought and spent a long evolutionary interlude in Eurasia - before moving back into Africa to complete the story of man.

September 7th, 2009 LONDON - A team of archaeologists has solved the ancient mystery of why the odd-looking statues on the Easter Island statues wear red hats. Up to one thousand years ago, the islanders started putting giant red hats on the statues.

August 28th, 2009 SEOUL - Archaeologists have unearthed the largest "ondol" heating system, dating back to the 10th century from the Balhae Kingdom, in a nearly intact state in Russia's Maritime Province, confirming the kingdom to have been a Korean settlement. Ondol, literally meaning "warm stone", is an under-floor heating system where flues carry hot gases below the living space.

August 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Recent archaeological discoveries from far-flung corners of China are forcing scientists to reconsider the origins of ancient Chinese civilization. A group of articles by Science news writer Andrew Lawler have explored how, over several millennia, China evolved from a much wider array of peoples and cultures than once imagined.

August 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Italian archaeologists have found the summer villa of Roman Emperor Vespasian in the Sabine hill country northeast of Rome. Titus Flavius Vespasianus is known for rebuilding the Roman Empire following the tumultuous reign of Emporer Nero.

August 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Archaeologists have discovered remains of prehispanic domestic architecture and an offering of ceramic and marine elements at Jonuta Archaeological Zone, in Tabasco, Mexico, a discovery that confirms partial use of bricks in ancient Maya settlements at Tabasco plain near 850 AD. According to a report in www.artdaily.org, the exploration that lead to the finding was conducted by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) as part of the first field season of Jonuta Archaeological Project 2009.

July 22nd, 2009 SEOUL - Remnants that are believed to be from Korea's ancient Goguryeo Kingdom (37 BC-668) have been discovered for the first time in the far eastern part of Russia, from the excavation site of Kraskino fortress near the Posiet Bay close to Tumen River. While records in various old documents show that some parts of Russia's far eastern region including the Primorsky Territory had been under Goguryeo rule, there has never been an archeological discovery proving it.

July 12th, 2009 BEIRUT - The Directorate-General of Antiquities, Lebanon, has said that it plans to resume excavation at the Freres' archaeological site in the old city of Sidon in collaboration with a delegation of the British museum, in order to uncover more ancient ruins.arlier excavation procedures at the site led to the discovery of several of the city's underground layers, which dated back to 1,000-4,000 B.C. Claude Doumit Serhal, the head of the British museum delegation, told The Daily Star that archaeological teams would also conduct excavation works at the neighboring site of Sandaqli in order to conduct comparative research among the two sites' layers.

June 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Archaeologists have unearthed a hoard of ancient Roman treasures, including a marble head of the Roman emperor Titus, during an excavation outside the southern Italian city of Naples. The long-term digging effort in Rione Terra, a cliff in the port town of Pozzuoli, has yielded remains of 12 ancient statues, columns and fragments bearing inscriptions from what appear to be monuments from the Republican and Imperial periods of ancient Roman history.

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.

April 21st, 2009 New ancient Egypt temples discovered in SinaiCAIRO — Archaeologists exploring an old military road in the Sinai have unearthed four new temples amidst the 3,000-year-old remains of an ancient fortified city that could have been used to impress foreign delegations visiting Egypt, antiquities authorities announced Tuesday. Among the discoveries was the largest mud brick temple found in the Sinai with an area of 70 by 80 meters (77 by 87 yards) and fortified with mud walls 3 meters (10 feet) thick, said Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

April 10th, 2009 LONDON - Welsh singer Duffy is 'stone cold single' and pleading with writers of a gossip column to help her find a man. 'I'm stone cold single at the moment and it's not much fun, I can tell you.