One of the most riveting detective stories of the last century supposedly ended in 1998, when the Russian government declared that bones excavated from a Siberian mass grave seven years earlier indeed belonged to the Romanovs, Russia's last royal family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
A new study, however, is reopening the book.
A team led by Alec Knight, a senior scientist in the Stanford lab of anthropological sciences Assistant Professor Joanna Mountain, argues that previous DNA analyses of the purported Romanov remains - nine skeletons unearthed near Ekaterinburg in central Russia - are invalid. Knight and his colleagues base their claim on molecular and forensic inconsistencies they see in the original genetic tests, as well as their independent DNA analysis of the preserved finger of the late Grand Duchess Elisabeth - sister of Tsarina Alexandra, one of the 1918 victims - which failed to match the tsarina's own DNA. The Stanford team's findings are reported in the January/February issue of the Annals of Human Biology.
America's Lost Colony: Can New Dig Solve Mystery?
More than four centuries ago, English colonists hoped to carve out a new life—and substantial profits—in the wild and strange land of North America. One group of colonists gave up and returned to England. A second colony, in what is now North Carolina, vanished in the 1580s and became immortalized in history as the "Lost Colony."
Today the prosperous little town of Manteo, North Carolina, surrounds the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, a national park protecting the place where the English tried to establish their first American colony—before Plymouth, before even Jamestown.
Archaeologists know that the colonists spent some time at this spot on the north end of Roanoke Island, but they don't know much more about those unlucky settlers.
Love among the ruinsDig unearths ancient love affair
A Roman tale of love and romance that took place in Kent in about 200 AD has been unearthed during an excavation.
Archaeologists working at the site in Canterbury uncovered the secret of the romance in a grave just as they were about to pack up their equipment.
The grave contained a woman's skull as well as the only complete marble plaque ever found in the area.
The team said the plaque would have been put beside the woman by her husband as a gesture of eternal love.
Archaeological discovery of unknown pharaonic king inscription
The American archaeological expedition working in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) in Al-Kharga Oasis discovered a rocky inscription north of the oasis including a royal name dating back to pre-dynastic era (32nd century B.C).
The SCA Secretary-General Dr Zahi Hawass said that the name was unknown and the rocky inscription discovery came during the survey actions by the archaeological teamwork in Al-Kharga oasis region.
Treasure!Fresh Bronze Age treasure find
An "exceptional" hoard of buried treasure has been found in Wrexham just two years after another major find of Bronze Age treasure there.
The 14 pieces of priceless gold and bronze jewellery and pottery, dating back more than 3,000 years, were found by three metal detector enthusiasts in the last few weeks.
Archaeologists are excited about the latest discovery in the area which is also home to the 4,000 year-old gold Mold cape, thought to have belonged to a nobleman and found in 1833.
Israeli scientist dazzles with archaeology
Forty-five minutes south of Jerusalem, Israeli archaeologist Asher Afriat was among a group digging for artifacts 10 years ago with a group of North American tourists as assistants, when they stumbled across six clay pieces with Aramaic writing on them.
Called an ostracon, the clay pieces bore an inscription that was basically a marriage contract, quite similar to the one used by Jews to this day called a ketuba.
But the kicker is that the ostrocan discovered at this site, which is 2,180 years old, was from the time of the Edomites, who were not Jewish. The discovery may shed light on the origins of the present-day Jewish marriage contract, Afriat said.
Archaeologists seek older 'Lucy' fossil
Ethiopian woman: could archaeologists be about to unearth her early ancestors? (Image: U.S. Dept of Treasury)
Archaeologists studying human origins in eastern Ethiopia said a wealth of new finds meant they could hope to discover even older and more complete specimens than the famous fossil "Lucy".
The scientists excavating fossils in Ethiopia's eastern region of Somali for the past two years said they had unearthed 1000 specimens including stone tools, fauna remains and elephant tusks.
They also uncovered 400 fauna and primate remains in Galile, a village 360 kilometres east of the capital Addis Ababa.
Technically, these would be paleoanthropologists, not archaeologists.
And finally, a way cool site with laser scans of Stonehenge: StonehengeLaserScan.org.
A link to a story describing the research behind this site is at British Archaeology:
Laser technology might not be the first thing that pops into one's mind when thinking about archaeology. However, an increasing number of archaeologists are adopting lasers as efficient measuring devices. It is still early days, but already one process known as 'laser scanning' enables the recording of sensitive objects from our past more accurately than ever before, without physical contact. The results are high-resolution, digital 3-dimensional (3D) models for analysis, interpretation and display.
Last summer, late evening passers-by at Stonehenge might have seen a group of people carrying a strange array of futuristic-looking boxes, cables and computer equipment towards the monument. One onlooker peering through the fence, perhaps noticing the number of long-haired archaeologists, asked if the Stonehenge festival rock band Hawkwind would be playing amongst the stones.
It was in fact the beginning of a project to look at the ancient carvings, run jointly by Wessex Archaeology and Archaeoptics. It is the most hi-tech investigation ever conducted at Stonehenge.
These are the sorts of images one gets:
Laser scanning is going to revolutionize imaging in archaeology, period. More work needs to be done to determine its accuracy vis a vis hand drawing.