A sword recently found in an ancient drainage channel under Jerusalem (we reported two days ago) has been linked to the fall of Herod’s Temple (also known as the Second Jewish Temple) in 70 AD. The Lebanon Daily Star quotes the Israel Antiquities Authority as saying that the drainage channel “served as a hiding refuge for the residents of Jerusalem from the Romans during the destruction of the Second Temple.” A rare gold bell was also found in the channel. Read more at the Lebanon Daily Star and the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Pergamonmuseum in Berlin is currently exhibiting statues found in Tell-Halaf that had been forgotten, left in a warehouse, damaged by bombs in World War II, and now restored and exhibited to the public. Hurry! The exhibition “The Tell-Halaf Adventure” is only open until 14 August 2011.

The excavation of an ancient drainage tunnel beneath Jerusalem has yielded a sword, oil lamps, pots and coins abandoned during a war here 2,000 years ago, archaeologists said Monday, suggesting the finds were debris from a pivotal episode in the city’s history when rebels hid from Roman soldiers crushing a Jewish revolt. Read the full story on Yahoo News.

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.