In 1922, partial excavation of a Roman villa in Negrar di Valpolicella near Verona revealed several rooms containing brightly colored wall paintings and mosaic floors. Although photographs of the dig survive, the rooms were reburied and their precise location was eventually forgotten. Nearly a century later, archaeologists led by Gianni de Zuccato of the Superintendency of Fine Arts and Landscape of Verona, Rovigo, and Vicenza have rediscovered the geometric-patterned mosaics in a vineyard. The mosaics’ similarity to others found in the region has prompted scholars to date them to anywhere from the mid-third to the fifth century A.D. However, de Zuccato and his team have found clear evidence that parts of the villa were occupied even after the end of the Roman Empire. “We found a fireplace made of a pair of large recycled tiles that destroyed the mosaic below,” de Zuccato says. “These later inhabitants even buried their dead inside the villa.”

Using remote sensing, archaeologists have identified a series of massive Neolithic pits two miles northeast of Stonehenge that were once part of Britain’s largest sacred prehistoric complex. “Stonehenge has been studied by archaeologists and antiquaries for several hundred years,” says University of Bradford archaeologist Vincent Gaffney. “One might have expected nothing of this scale could be left to find.”

The team identified evidence for 20 huge shafts, each measuring around 33 feet in diameter and 16 feet deep when they were created 4,500 years ago. By plotting the shafts’ locations on a broader map of the region, the researchers realized that they formed a huge circle 1.2 miles in diameter around the site of Durrington Walls. The shafts may have originally demarcated the sacred henge site’s boundary, guiding pilgrims toward the ritual space or warning others not to enter it. “Identifying these pits has added enormously to our understanding of the Stonehenge landscape overall,” says Gaffney. “Durrington Walls was the largest of Britain’s henges, and this discovery adds not just to the size but to the complexity of the life story of that monument.”

In the heart of the mountains of southeast Iran’s province of Sistan and Baluchestan, archaeologists have identified a history of continuous occupation dating from prehistory to the present day. The remote region is known for its nearly impassable mountains and arid deserts—as well as its populations of leopards and black bears. Thus far, researchers have identified 12 ancient sites and recovered samples of pottery that will help date them. “In the future we want to work with ethnographers to look at what the similarities are between today’s societies in the region and those of the prehistoric period,” says Hossein Vahedi of Shahrekord University. Of particular note, he says, is the persistence of circular architecture, which first appeared in the prehistoric period and is still used by the region’s seminomadic inhabitants.