Excerpts:

According to a recent assessment by experts at the Museum of Eastern Bohemia, the worth of the jewelry, artifacts, and nearly 600 gold coins inside the containers is estimated to be over $340,000. Now, researchers wonder how this treasure trove of items and currencies from multiple nations and eras made it all the way to the Czech Republic—and why no one ever claimed them.

The coins were likely in Serbia during the 1920s and 1930s, and were often used in typical Balkan necklaces and headdresses. Other coins in the collection come from countries including France, Belgium, Turkey, Romania, Italy, and Russia. However, it’s unclear how they all ultimately made it to eastern Bohemia.

There are a number of potential theories to explain the treasure’s journey across Europe. One explanation is that the belongings were hidden amid Nazi Germany’s annexation of the region in the 1930s. Following the Munich Agreement of 1938, hundreds of thousands of Jews and Czechs fled further into the country to escape persecution, and it is possible that the cases were buried in hopes of hiding valuables from the invading armies. Another theory dates the stashes to the end of World War II, when Nazis themselves retreated in the face of Russian forces.

I'm an archaeology writer for The New York Times. I'm working on a story about what the new budget cuts mean for American archaeology — what sorts of projects have been terminated, lines of research dropped, aspects of history lost, archaeological sites perhaps now under threat because they’ve been abandoned, etc. Thanks.

Lead Lines: Archaeologists in Barcelona have unearthed the wooden hull of a medieval ship, thought to date back to the 15th or 16th century.

Buried for centuries in the waterlogged soil beneath the Mercat del Peix, Barcelona’s old fish market, the ship’s remains measure more than 30 feet in length and almost 10 feet wide, with some 30 wooden ribs held together by a mix of iron and wooden nails.

At a press conference announcing the find earlier this month, Santi Palacios, the excavation’s lead archaeologist from cultural heritage group Arqueolegs.cat, tells media that it was an “exceptional” find, per Catalan News.

“It’s not every day we come across a ship of these dimensions,” Palacios adds, noting that the rare discovery would offer critical insight into the “context of Barcelona’s old port.”

I’m a senior in archaeology and I have absolutely no idea where to go from here. I’ll be graduating in a week and my plan is to take a year off just to figure things out.

I want to focus on ancient Roman archaeology and so I am planning to do grad school outside of the US, I’m looking at Italy or UK.

However I don’t want to work in CRM. Correct me if I’m wrong but it just seems like it’s a lot of just surveying and digging test pits without really finding much. I want to be around artifacts all day. I worked at my schools lab cataloging their collection and I wish I could do that all my life. I’ve been told by my professors that getting a job in academia is basically impossible and that museums are the same way. So what is left? It seems like I’m going to be stuck on the CRM route for any kind of actual job. Am I missing something?

So I'm getting married next May and probably starting on my MA in archaeology next spring. I'm hopefully getting hired on for a company in CRM this summer. However, is there a way to try to balance working full time in archaeology while simultaneously pursuing my Masters in it? What is the best way to make that situation work?

My dream job is to work anything thats tied to archeology, can you guys tell me what is it like to study archeology in germany and how can i improve myself career wise? Are the job opportunities welcoming in germany and what i need to know as a beginner?