The Jewish "Argentinian Egyptologist who saved hundreds of Nubian treasures" in the 60's

Middle East Eye:

Rosenvasser’s parents were originally from a village in what is now Ukraine. But in 1891 they had to flee anti-Jewish pogroms and ended up putting down roots in a small Jewish colony in inland Argentina, where they were allocated a 180-hectare plot of land to farm.

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In 1933, Rosenvasser had a stroke of luck when a small fragment of an undeciphered papyrus found in a museum in Argentina came into his hands. Thanks to what he had been able to learn about hieroglyphs, he discovered that it was part of the tale of Sinuhe, considered one of the finest works of ancient Egyptian literature.

This finding earned Rosenvasser the respect of international Egyptologists and ultimately the opportunity to travel to Nubia, where he was given the task of saving the Aksha temple, built by Ramesses II

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“There in the dunes, we talked about the heart. My father would clean the stones with his paintbrush while I told him about my love affairs”

"PhD student finds lost city in Mexico jungle by accident"

BBC:

“I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a laser survey done by a Mexican organisation for environmental monitoring,” explains Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane university in the US.

It was a Lidar survey, a remote sensing technique which fires thousands of laser pulses from a plane and maps objects below using the time the signal takes to return.

But when Mr Auld-Thomas processed the data with methods used by archaeologists, he saw what others had missed - a huge ancient city which may have been home to 30-50,000 people at its peak from 750 to 850 AD.

Guardian:

the team’s findings show just how many undiscovered treasures the area could yet yield.

“We didn’t just find rural areas and smaller settlements,” he said. “We also found a large city with pyramids right next to the area’s only highway, near a town where people have been actively farming among the ruins for years. The government never knew about it, the scientific community never knew about it. That really puts an exclamation point behind the statement that no, we have not found everything, and yes, there’s a lot more to be discovered.”

"Scientists found a Stone Age megastructure submerged in the Baltic Sea"

Ars:

Further investigation led to the conclusion that this was a manmade megastructure built some 11,000 years ago to channel reindeer herds as a hunting strategy. Dubbed the "Blinkerwall," it's quite possibly the oldest such megastructure yet discovered, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences—although precisely dating these kinds of archaeological structures is notoriously challenging.

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A similar submerged stone-walled drive lane, known as "Drop 45," is located in Lake Huron in the US; divers found various lithic artifacts around the drive lane, usually in circular spots that could have served as hunting blinds. 

3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire

The 3d reconstruction.

Wikipedia on the city:

The city was connected to the mainland by bridges and causeways leading to the north, south, and west. The causeways were interrupted by bridges that allowed canoes and other water traffic to pass freely. The bridges could be pulled away, if necessary, to protect the city. The city was interlaced with a series of canals, so that all sections of the city could be visited either on foot or via canoe

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The city was divided into four zones, or camps; each camp was divided into 20 districts ; and each calpulli, or 'big house', was crossed by streets or tlaxilcalli. There were three main streets that crossed the city, each leading to one of the three causeways to the mainland of Tepeyac, Iztapalapa, and Tlacopan. [An expert] reported that they were wide enough for ten horses. Surrounding the raised causeways were artificial floating gardens with canal waterways and gardens of plants, shrubs, and trees. The calpullis were divided by channels used for transportation, with wood bridges that were removed at night.

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In the center of the city were the public buildings, temples, and palaces. Inside a walled square, 500 meters (1,600 ft) to a side, was the ceremonial center. There were about 45 public buildings, including: the Templo Mayor, which was dedicated to the Aztec patron deity Huitzilopochtli and the Rain God Tlaloc; the temple of Quetzalcoatl; the tlachtli (ball game court) with the tzompantli or rack of skulls; the Sun Temple, which was dedicated to Tonatiuh; the Eagle's House, which was associated with warriors and the ancient power of rulers; the platforms for the gladiatorial sacrifice; and some minor temples.

Archaeologists found a wooden structure in Zambia that's estimated to be 476,000 years old

CNN:

The wooden structure has no real parallel in the archaeological record, according to the study.

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Researchers aren’t certain which species of ancient human made the structure and wooden tools, but it is highly unlikely to have been our own. The earliest known Homo sapiens fossils date from around 300,000 years ago

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the complexity of the structure suggests the people who made it were cognitively sophisticated and were able to make and execute a complex plan — something that likely required the use of language.

An energy company in Peru employs its own archaeologists because they discover ancient tombs so often while digging

Reuters:

Energy company workers in Peru discovered a dozen centuries-old tombs from pre-Inca cultures during the construction of a gas pipeline

AP:

the company’s excavation work to expand its system of gas lines over the last 19 years has produced more than 1,900 archaeological finds of various kinds, including mummies, pottery and textiles

Around a dozen masked individuals stormed the stage at the at the LA Times Festival of Books to disrupt an archaeologist's talk

LAT:

Critics have accused Hansen of wanting to develop the area to increase archaeological tourism in a way that would harm the local population, many of whom are Indigenous.

Hansen, whose proposals have won support from a number of Maya leaders, has said that his proposals are environmentally sustainable, would provide jobs for Indigenous communities and would mitigate the influence of what he called the “mafias” operating in the region.

The LAT had a long, vivid article about the area and the archaeologist last month, headlined, "Jaguars, narcos, illegal loggers: One man’s battle to save a jungle and Maya ruins":

For four decades Hansen and a group of more than 40 archaeologists and specialists have worked at El Mirador to preserve the enormous cultural wealth of the Maya empire, which dominated a region that encompasses swaths of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador.

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In 1983, while traveling in a small plane from Las Flores, Hansen, his wife, Jody, and his daughter Micalena crashed in the middle of the jungle. Everyone got out alive, but the episode brought home that, while the region’s perils are constantly close by, help is very far away.

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Their work here has pulled Hansen and his team into a fierce debate over how best to sustainably preserve the biosphere around the site, as well as the impoverished communities that live off the jungle’s bounty.

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“I am not leading any imperialist invasion,” he said. “We are simply trying to suggest that there is a viable, superior economic alternative for the impoverished communities through controlled, restricted eco-tourism, as opposed to poaching, looting, logging, oil drilling and money laundering by corrupt forces that do not want the conservation and protection of this area.”

*Previously: A Rogue Taliban Governor Has Been Digging Beneath the Ruins of the Bamiyan Buddhas, Chasing a Rumor of Buried Treasure

"Archaeologists Discover 2,000 Mummified Ram Skulls in Temple of Ramses II"

NatGeo:

The large number of skulls was “surprising even for Egyptologists”

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Architectural feats were a substantial part of Ramses II’s legacy: His funerary temple known as the Ramesseum and the numerous statues of him around Egypt were some of his most notable achievements. In popular culture, Ramses II has often been named as the biblical pharaoh whom the prophet Moses confronted on behalf of the Hebrew people. 

*Previously: Mummy parade in Egypt as specimens are transferred to their new home

"A Rogue Taliban Governor Has Been Digging Beneath the Ruins of the Bamiyan Buddhas, Chasing a Rumor of Buried Treasure"

Artnet:

“According to the rumor, there was possibly a princess that was buried in Bamiyan with all of her jewelry, but it has not been confirmed by any archaeologist,” [an Afghan art historian] said. “For sure, the rumor is not true, and we have no idea who put this idea of buried treasure in the mind of the governor

4,000-year old coffin found in a golf course pond in England

Guardian:

Inside are the remains of a man, who was buried with an axe.

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Once the coffin was exposed there was a race to prevent its rapid deterioration. Fortunately, there were archaeologists in the area. 

The geological mysteries known as the "Great Uncomformities"

There's one in Scotland and one at the Grand Canyon. A new report offers an explanation for the one in the Grand Canyon:

Think of the red bluffs and cliffs of the Grand Canyon as Earth's history textbook, explained Barra Peak, lead author of the new study and a graduate student in geological sciences at CU Boulder. If you scale down the canyon's rock faces, you can jump back almost 2 billion years into the planet's past. But that textbook is also missing pages: In some areas, more than 1 billion years' worth of rocks have disappeared from the Grand Canyon without a trace.

Badly drawn NBA logos; Cat Thor costume; Disney's animatronic dolphin

Kinda crappily drawn #NBA logos pic.twitter.com/MkSTDvRaBE

— Dana (@greatdane92) October 19, 2020

REDRAW pic.twitter.com/fcQ5o5Ax9L

— ᴀᴜɢᴜ𝖘ᴛ ᴅєᴍᴀʀᴇᴀ with a cowboy hat (@augustdemarea) October 18, 2020

I think the web version has been reformatted in such a way the jokes doesn't work. I reordered the panels and believe this is how it's supposed to be read. pic.twitter.com/JMBo37D9Ty

— Matthew Murray 🦇 (@MidniteLibrary) October 18, 2020

You Brutal Beauty — Hyatt Regency, San Francisco pic.twitter.com/3486B6heNY

— This Brutal House (@BrutalHouse) October 18, 2020

This is very cool. The remains of a 1,000-year-old house were discovered during the development of a Lidl in Dublin, Ireland. So they've preserved it and shoppers can check it out via a glass floor. pic.twitter.com/6icyflM6vq

— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) October 18, 2020

もこもこお布団で目がギンギンになっちゃってるムーミン可愛い… pic.twitter.com/VIxkM75VcN

— nnpana (@nnpanaki) October 19, 2020

EPCOT nerds: I had no idea idea they once tested an animatronic dolphin at The Living Seas back in '99. This seems extremely good? Sadly, "ultimately it was determined that aquatic figures would be impractical for a daily theme park operation." Video: https://t.co/hMpbwSXr0T pic.twitter.com/SOpENykyUq

— Cabel (@cabel) October 19, 2020

The Golgo 13 sleep mask is very good. pic.twitter.com/rygdhfLche

— Macabresky (@MinovskyArticle) October 19, 2020

Cat-Thor costume is coming along nicely. Verily, it shall be ready for Halloween! @ryanqnorth @EricaFails @whoisrico @derek_charm @unbeatablesg pic.twitter.com/DRvyIUSfYt

— Walt & Amy Lindberg (@WaltAndAmy) October 19, 2020

What possessed me to think using one of these sandpaper sharpeners was a good idea? pic.twitter.com/PMQJksZ4dE

— Dave Stokes is Staying Out of Melee Range (@davestokes) October 20, 2020

Transparent animated mask; Shogun of Harlem; Rediscovered mosaic

CHA2アニメ化

ビジュアル出てんのに”前が見えてます。”
透けてる。薄らだけど。

この凄さ。まだ、みんなに伝わってない。 pic.twitter.com/OAfKRyVu58

— CHA2 (@CHA2trico) May 29, 2020

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rahzzah (@rahzzah) on May 27, 2020 at 9:02am PDT

Newly discovered just outside of Verona, what could be this year's biggest discovery - an almost entirely intact Roman mosaic villa floor! pic.twitter.com/tZwy0yfvNL

— Myko Clelland (@DapperHistorian) May 26, 2020

Archaeologists have found the bones of "almost too many" mammoths to excavate at an airport under construction just north of Mexico City

ABC:

[They were found] near human-built ’traps’ where more than a dozen mammoths were found last year.

Both discoveries reveal how appealing the area — once a shallow lake — was for the mammoths, and how erroneous was the classic vision of groups of fur-clad hunters with spears chasing mammoths across a plain. Humans may have been smarter — and mammoths clumsier — than people had previously thought.

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Mammoth bones have always been so numerous in the area that the Aztecs, who ruled the Mexico Valley between 1325 and 1521, recorded having found the enormous bones; Sánchez Nava said the Aztecs interpreted them as proof of legends that giants had once populated the valley.

"A team of rail workers have discovered what is believed to be a medieval shrine from the 14th century"

Metro:

Engineers were fixing a landslip near Guildford in Surrey when they found the small cave. Archaeologists believe it may be linked to the ruins of the Chapel of St Catherine, which are located on a nearby hill.

"Archaeologists explore a rural field in Kansas, and a lost city emerges"

LAT:

Locals have long scoured fields and river banks for arrowheads and bits of pottery, amassing huge collections. Then there were those murky tales of a sprawling city on the Great Plains and a chief who drank from a goblet of gold.

A few years ago, Donald Blakeslee, an anthropologist and archaeology professor at Wichita State University, began piecing things together. And what he’s found has spurred a rethinking of traditional views on the early settlement of the Midwest, while potentially filling a major gap in American history.

Using freshly translated documents written by the Spanish conquistadors more than 400 years ago and an array of high-tech equipment, Blakeslee located what he believes to be the lost city of Etzanoa, home to perhaps 20,000 people between 1450 and 1700.

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Conquistadors are often associated with Mexico, but a thirst for gold drove them into the Midwest as well.

Francisco Vazquez de Coronado came to central Kansas in 1541 chasing stories of a fabulously wealthy nobleman who napped beneath trees festooned with tinkling gold bells.

"The unprecedented spell of hot, dry weather across Wales has provided perfect conditions for archaeological aerial photography"

CBHC:

As the drought has persisted across Wales, scores of long-buried archaeological sites have been revealed once again as ‘cropmarks’, or patterns of growth in ripening crops and parched grasslands.

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Toby will be surveying right across north and south Wales in a light aircraft to permanently record these discoveries for the National Monuments Record of Wales, before thunderstorms and rain wash away the markings until the next dry summer.

"Laser Scans Reveal Maya 'Megalopolis' Below Guatemalan Jungle"

NatGeo:

researchers have identified the ruins of more than 60,000 houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other human-made features that have been hidden for centuries under the jungles of northern Guatemala.

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“We’ve had this western conceit that complex civilizations can’t flourish in the tropics, that the tropics are where civilizations go to die,” said Canuto, who conducts archaeological research at a Guatemalan site known as La Corona. “But with the new LiDAR-based evidence from Central America and [Cambodia’s] Angkor Wat, we now have to consider that complex societies may have formed in the tropics and made their way outward from there.”

"An Ancient City Emerges in a Remote Rain Forest"

NY:

Most of the important archaeological sites in Central America were “discovered” by archaeologists who, in fact, didn’t discover them at all but were led to the ruins by local people. I’ve known several Maya archaeologists who routinely started fieldwork in a new area by heading into a dive bar and hoisting beers with the locals while listening to various bullshitters spin tales about ruins they’d seen in the jungle; once in a while, a story would turn out to be true. But, because these sites were long known to local people, they had invariably been disturbed, if not badly looted.

The revelation of an ancient city in a valley in the Mosquitia mountains, of Honduras, one of the last scientifically unexplored regions on Earth, was a different story.

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There were five of us, along with three British ex-S.A.S. jungle-warfare specialists, whose job was to keep us alive for the next nine days.

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But they were vulnerable to European diseases, especially smallpox and measles, which burned far ahead of actual European contact, triggering large population collapses. Anthropologists have documented that, between 1518 and 1550, almost ninety per cent of the native people of Honduras died of disease.

"Explorers find disease-cursed City of the Monkey God and nearly lose their faces to flesh-eating parasite"

"months after leaving the jungle, he noticed a bug bite that simply wouldn’t go away. And so did half his team members. Eventually, the National Institutes of Health diagnosed them with Leishmaniasis — a rare parasitic disease"