Naturenews has published a very interesting article on the state of current research into what modern human DNA owes to the Neanderthals and the extinct Siberian Denisova non-homo-sapiens population. According to DNA research, there has not only been interbreeding with Neanderthals, but also with Denisovans. Read the full story on the naturenews website.

Archaeologists leading the University of Toronto’s Tayinat Archeological Project in southeastern Turkey have unearthed the remains of a monumental gate complex adorned with stone sculptures, including a magnificently carved lion. The gate complex provided access to the citadel of Kunulua, capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 950-725 BCE) and is reminiscent of the citadel gate excavated by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley in 1911 at the royal Hittite city of Carchemish. Read the full story on the University of Toronto website.

A Canadian team of the Royal Ontario Museum has unearthed a previously undiscovered building at Meroe in modern-day Sudan. It has been radiocarbon-dated to 900 BC, which predates the previously-known time span of the Meroe civilization by 100 years. Read the entire article at Live Science.

A treasure trove of Roman coins near Exeter (Devon) suggests that the Romans controlled more of south-western Britain than previously thought. Sam Moorhead, of the British Museum, said: ‘It is the beginning of a process that promises to transform our understanding of the Roman invasion and occupation of Devon.’ Read the full story on the Daily Mail website.

A recent study of two Bronze Age cemeteries in Austria has shown that over a 600-year time period the elderly had become leaders of society. While in the earlier period, old men were not buried any differently from young men, over time the older men were given status symbols into their graves, such as bronze axes, which is indicative of a leading role in society. Read the whole story at Live Science.

Excavations underneath downtown Rome have revealed a mosaic depicting Apollo and the Muses from the times of Trajan. It has been hailed as an “exceptional archaeological discovery” by Umberto Broccoli, superintendent for the city’s cultural heritage. See an image gallery with descriptions on the Discovery News website.

The School of Archaeology of Oxford University has just announced a new five-year project looking at the history of the English landscape from the middle Bronze Age to the Norman period. The results will be publicly available on a website to be called ‘A Portal to the Past’. The Portal to the Past website is expected to go live in 2014. Read the full Portal to the Past press release on the Oxford University website.

Recent research shows that an ancient city at the site of Tell Qarqur in Syria surprisingly expanded during a severe drought period in around 2200 BC. During this period, several civilizations of the Ancient Near East declined or collapsed, including the Akkadian Empire and the Old Kingdom of Egypt. During the same period, Tell Quarqur grew in size, which recent research attributes to the particular nature of the Orontes river, at which the site is located. Read the full story on Live Science.

The Guardian reports that a Cambridge University study has revealed that Neanderthals died out due to the invasion of homo sapiens into Europe. The humans coming from Africa were 10x more numerous, causing the indigenous Neanderthal population to be marginalized and pushed into harsher habitats, where they could no longer survive. Paul Mellars, emeritus professor at Cambridge University and head of this research states: “The Neanderthals seem to have retreated initially into more marginal and less attractive regions of the continent and eventually, within a space of at most a hundred thousand years, for their populations to have declined to extinction.” Read the entire article on The Guardian website.

The Ancient Lives Project of Oxford University is looking for volunteers to help transcribe thousands of ancient Greek papyrus pages, found in Egypt. Not only are famous works such as Homer and Plato among the papyri, but also letters, receipts, and other common documents. It’s rather easy to help: You point on a part of the image and klick the appropriate Greek letter on the screen. Have a look and help this project!