Brightly colored tiles have been uncovered during excavations in advance of restoration of England’s Bath Abbey. The site has been home to religious buildings for more than 1,000 years. The current church, which was completed in the seventeenth century, was constructed above the remains of a Norman-era cathedral that had fallen into disrepair by the late 1400s. The tiles once formed a portion of that cathedral’s floor. “In situ medieval tile floors like this are incredibly rare,” explains project director Cai Mason of Wessex Archaeology. “The only reason this one survived is that the Norman cathedral was knocked down and essentially buried during construction of the current building, saving the original flooring.” The tiles have now been covered by a protective layer before new floors are installed.

In the coastal Konkan region of India’s western state of Maharashtra, around 1,000 petroglyphs have been discovered spread out over dozens of different sites. Nearly all of them are found on hilltops. In a few cases, local people were aware of the designs, but most were previously unknown—and many were hidden beneath a layer of earth. The carvings depict a wide range of subjects, including elephants, monkeys, peacocks, sharks, and alligators, as well as human figures and geometric patterns. According to Tejas Garge, director of the Maharashtra state archaeology department, the drawings were probably created between 12,000 and 5,000 years ago. Little is known of their creators, however, as no associated settlement sites have been found. Given that the carvings don’t depict domesticated animals and agricultural activities, says Garge, the people who made them were likely hunter-gatherers.

The Vikings are renowned for having traveled great distances from their homeland in Scandinavia. A new study suggests that many residents of Sigtuna, a major Viking town in eastern Sweden, were themselves immigrants from afar. Researchers from Stockholm University sequenced the genomes and analyzed strontium isotopes from the remains of 16 people buried in Sigtuna between the tenth and twelfth centuries. Isotope analysis showed that eight of the 16 individuals had grown up in or near the town, and eight had grown up elsewhere. Of those who moved to the town, four had genetic features suggesting they had come from other parts of Scandinavia, while four appeared to have arrived from farther away, most likely Eastern Europe. Two of those who had grown up locally had unusual genetic profiles for the area, suggesting that they were second-generation immigrants. “We knew that Sigtuna had a lot of contact with other regions,” says researcher Maja Krzewinska, “but we didn’t know to what degree and we didn’t know whether the foreigners actually lived and stayed in Sigtuna. Now we can prove it.”