Maya commoners of their Classic Period --  "illiterate farmers, builders and servants" -- preserved their history by burying their old possesions in the floors of newly built homes. 

The entire Parker library, a collection of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts at Corpus Christi College of Cambridge University, has been made accessible online. Librarian Suzanne Paul narrates a video tour of the collection's highlights.

Long thought to be artistic images of hunters and animals, the engravings on the famous Iron Age Pictish Stones are now believed to be the written language of the Pictish people, an ancient language recognized by the Venerable Bede.

Ancient gladitorial artifacts, preserved at Pompeii, will share display space with modern reconstructions of plumed helmets and silk tunics for a new exhibit at Rome's Colosseum entitled Gladiatores now through October 2, 2010.

This summer, twenty students from the University of Regensburg in Germany are foregoing their usual pizza and computers in favor of Roman gladiator training.

The discovery of an early medieval church and graves dating to the 5th-12th centuries, has temporarily stopped construction of a subway line in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Walkers along Hadrian's Wall are being urged to respect the ancient structure and help to protect it.

In the village of Maaloula, Syria, the ancient language Aramaic is still spoken but endangered.

At Tell Zeidan in Syria, a few hours' drive from Aleppo, archaeologists believe they will find rich discoveries about the culture that flourished there before the first cities appeared further south. 

Officials from the Colchester (England) Archaeological Trust report that they have reached their goal of raising UK£200,000to buy and preserve the only Roman chariot-racing circus ever found in Britain.

Bruno Heller, creator of the hit TV series Rome, has announced plans for a feature-length film.

Recent analysis of a Roman burial in the city of York show that the remains belonged to a "high status" woman of African origin. Dubbed the "Ivory Bangle Lady," the woman was buried in the late 4th century along with "items including jet and elephant ivory bracelets, earrings, beads and a blue glass jug." (photos)

A new study of the landscape around Stonehenge seems to suggest that Stonehenge was once surrounded by two low, concentric hedges. The media have dubbed the foliage "Stonehedge."

A PDF with complete instructions for construction of an SCA tent version of an Iron Age Celtic roundhouse is available to download online.

The Madaba Map, a mosaic depicting 6th-7th century Jerusalem, shows Cardo Street in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. Now, the Byzantine-era street has been discovered by archaeologists.

In a recent lecture entitled "Risk and Humanities," Cambridge classicist Mary Beard explored "the images of gambling and associated brawls that appear on the walls of bars in Pompeii."

Experts at the Panum Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark have shown the world the face of the 2000-year-old Auning Woman, found in 1886 in a northeastern Jutland bog.

Archaeologists working on excavations in the chancel of the Church of Sant Feliu Girona in Catalonia, Spain, have discovered the remains of a 6th or 7th century tombs, as well as an ancient Roman temple.

Scraps of packing material in the cover of a medieval book have been identified as pieces of the 4th century Gregorian Code, a Roman law book, long believed to have been lost.

British father and son filmmaking team Ted and Michael O'Neill believe they have found the source of the Aqua Traiana, the 2nd century aqueduct, constructed by the Emperor Trajan, 30-40km northwest of Rome. (photos)

VCAW-IMI (Visual Culture of the Ancient World & International Museum Institute at USC) will present a lecture series dealing with the ancient world in March and April 2010. The lectures will take place at USC and at the Getty Villa.

Archaeologists from Orkney College are looking for the original 6th century monastery built by the Irish monk St. Columba on the island of Iona, off Mull in the Scottish Hebrides.

Recent archaeological finds in the town of Sleaford, England prove that the town "was a very large and important settlement in the Roman period." Among the discoveries were the skeleton of a 4th century woman.

In a review for The Telegraph, Philip Hoare looks at Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination, a book by University of California, Berkeley professor Karin Sanders.

The discovery of a Roman grave in Weston-super-Mare, England last year has given experts insight into the life of 2nd-4th century Roman inhabitants of Britain. This particular man, aged between 36 and 45,  lived a life "defined by disease and hard labour."

Nearly everyone celebrates Valentine's Day, but many are not familiar with the origins, some rather dark, of the holiday for lovers. Ngonidzashe Dzimiri of the Sunday Standard offers a history.

Devotees of Joan of Arc were disppointed recently to learn that relices of Joan of Arc, overseen by the Archbishop of Tours in Chinon, France, are not only fake, but actually the "bones of a human and a cat tracing back to ancient Egypt."

Equos Designs' proprietor makes Iron Age Celtic jewelry designs in fine silver. They have horses and stags and wolves, suns and moons.

Two experts from the University of Mainz in Germany are using the latest computer technology to try to decypher the "invisible" inscription on a 3th century Roman altar. The stone was discovered in the River Tyne in 1672, but has never been legible. (video)

A recent study of pig and cattle bones found near Stonehenge has led researchers to believe that it was the site of huge winter solstice feasts. Experts believe animals were herded to the site and then slaughtered to feed celebrants.