Stylish Romans in Britan

Some wonderful new Roman finds including a bath.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/7481869.stm

Chinese Burial

A burial in British Columbia speaks to the valuable efforts made by Chinese Immigrants is recognized.

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2008/06/27/5999916-sun.html

Yesterday's Beirut

As everywhere development is claiming a large part of Beirut's monuments.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gc7XFjCxcez9pvjLRpjjvnlXe-wg

The Oldest Mummies in the World

Eight more remarkably preserved Chinchorro mummies have been found in Chile.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14704621

What's Your Poison?

Medieval bones from a number of cemeteries have shown mercury poisoning to the bones. Particularly interesting are the bones of monks which show this kind of poisoning may have come from preparing inks or medicines.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/06/27/poison-monks-mercury.html

Stolen Artifacts

Someone jimmied a case and walked away with 1000 year old bone artifacts.

http:/Save Now/www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article644333.ece

Finding a Gold Chalice

Divers off Florida's keys have found a two handled gold chalice from a sunken Spanish galleon.

http://wbztv.com/watercooler/lighterside/Chalice.gold.treasure.2.756665.html

Lying in an Odd Place

A short article with interesting picture.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/14651408.html

Jawbone Artifact

I loved this story about the most interesting of monuments and the inter-nationality of being weird. My hats off to these weirdos.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7473986.stm

Homer's Eclipse

Scientists have given a date to the eclipse in Homer's odyssey.

http://www.livescience.com/history/080623-homeric-eclipse.html

Iraq's Museum

The disaster that has become the Baghdad museum is revealed in this interview from the fine people at the Archaeology channel.

http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/vidint/georgeint.html

Microbe Love

Microbial infestations are eating away at Angkor Vat.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/24/healthscience/24micr.php

Erecting the Axum Obelisk

The first phase in the re erection of the Axum obelisk is complete and the first block has been placed.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/444

The 700 000 Year Old Settlement?

Though I have a ton of doubts I still find the possibility of the question fascinating.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=June2008&file=Local_News2008062322518.xml

Say What?

This is one of those stories.

http://www.payvand.com/news/08/jun/1201.html

The Cyrus Cylinder

This Mesopotamian cylinder is considered the oldest human rights document in the world.

The cylinder has been in the British museum for more than a century and now will go on tour in Iran where it was found and created.

http://www.radiojavan.com/news/2008/06/18/Cyrus-Cylinder-Returning-To-Iran

Greece Unable to Look After its History

Greece like many historically rich countries around the world can not possibly protect all its monuments and yet they become more militaristic in their battle against the antiquities trade.

As a result the heritage of Greece, Egypt and Turkey just to name a few will suffer more destruction than needed.

The great Gaston Maspero of the Egyptian antiquities service knew this well and as a result encouraged a large amount of finds onto the world antiquities market.

If you think Greece is embaraced now give it a few years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/23/greece.heritage

Down By the Sea

Excavations at Oslo's waterfront is bringing up a number of shipwrecks perhaps being used in the building of a pier.

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article2490292.ece

Scythian Mummy

A 2300 year old Scythian mummy has been autopsied with results showing the man had severe bone disease.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/213903,ancient-mummy-opened-scythian-cavalier-had-bone-disease.html

Altai Princess gets new tomb:

http://thearchaeologicalreview.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-tomb-for-altai-princess.html

The Bactrian Gold

Afghanistan's collection of gold ornaments known as the Bactrian hoard are being put on display.

The article is short with many fine pictures.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Culture_Cauldron/Afghan_treasures_from_war-ravaged_Museum/articleshow/3150379.cms

How not to Remove an 8 Ton Boulder

An Ohio historian is in deep doo today for removing a devious "relic" from the Ohio river.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080620/NEWS01/806200429/1008/NEWS01

New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/us/20rock.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

A Smart Salad

The contents of 2400 year old amphora found on an ancient shipwreck have been tested and found to be herb seasoned olive oil.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/06/20/dna-salad-dressing.html

More Disgraceful Behavior from the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum

Years ago the officials in Waco Texas wanted to make some money so they cleared some land of a cemetery that was occupying the land since the 1850's.

Sadly those officials did not want to put to much effort in doing the job properly so they simply had the grave markers removed and left the residents where they were except now without their identities.

Up went the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum.

A few years back the Hall of fame decided to expand and up came the unwanted corpses with cable lines in some places placed right on top of human remains.

So here we are today with those officials still stirring the pot of responsibility and hoping for miracles.

I suggest the corpses and grave markers should be moved to those officials own backyards!

http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=211870

The Disappearing Chalk Man

This fertility figure of a man was first mentioned in 1694 and couples like to dance around him in an effort to aid in their fertility.

Unfortunately the sheep in this part of England are busy doing other things, God only knows what?

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23496853-details/Wet+weather+turns+Cerne+Abbas+chalk+giant+into+the+invisible+man/article.do

Vanishing People

The people of Canada's first Nations are often treated as an afterthought in Canadian history. While this year the government of British Columbia is celebrating the 150 years since the white devil took the land of the first peoples.

It does not even slightly occur to the government of British Columbia that many of its supposed citizens have had family here for 10 000-20 000 years before that and I do not see any celebration for these people.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/tri_city_maple_ridge/mapleridgenews/news/An_ancient_harvest_in_Maple_Ridge.html

Ancient Sun Temple

Jewelry has been found at an ancient sun temple in Bulgaria. I didn't even know Bulgaria got sun!

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=94294

Revoking Dante's Exile

Florence has an empty tomb they want to fill a hole in the heart of this Italian city whom sent famous poet Dante into exile more than 700 years ago.

Florence city council believes they should revoke that exile in an clear effort not to rehabilitate Dante but to rehabilitate themselves.

Can anyone say "publicity stunt"!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7461459.stm

Chimp Love

Sure their cute when their laughing and being lovable but not so cute when their screaming and throwing their feces at you.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080617/ap_on_sc/sci_there_there_now;_ylt=AnMJICK_IlYm8RdmljhKY.tvieAA

Being Fake

An author is claiming the Stone of destiny is a medieval fake. Sadly for the last 700+ years Kings and Queens of Scotland and England have had their Coronations over it.

I guess on one hand that is potentially ironic if not ultimately sacrilegious.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/2136221/Stone-of-Destiny-is-fake%2C-claims-Alex-Salmond.html

A Return to Peru

It makes me wonder about the point when a few artifacts are returned to Peru some of which were found in collections in the United states and yet the Peabody has thousands of stolen Peruvian artifacts that remain in that museum and yes very much stolen and nobody does anything.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080617-peruartifacts-video-ap.html

Pride of the Lake

A British warship dated to the revolutionary war has been found at the bottom of lake Ontario. This article has 5 nice pictures of the find.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/photogalleries/shipwreck-photos/index.html

Six Bishops Found

The remains of six Bishops excavated from their graves 50 years ago have now been carbon dated and given names of six Bishops who lived and died more than 600 years ago.

http://uktv.co.uk/history/item/aid/597422

The Methuselah Tree

A date palm tree planted from a 2000 year old seed excavated at the fortress stronghold of Masada has sprouted and is growing. The fortress is famous for its ancient Jewish inhabitants holding out against the Roman's.

The tree is named after the oldest person in the bible.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080612/sc_livescience/extincttreefromchriststimerisesfromthedead;_ylt=AoSJapUG76LIe2nh3kAUKmCyvtEF

A Return to Home

Dozens of sets of human remains have been returned to Vancouver island from where they had been collected and sold to museums.

http://news.aol.ca/article/bc-tseycum-remains-returned/256855/

In the Time of a Scottish King

A Scottish gold coin has recently been found at an excavation in Newfoundland, Canada at a settlement founded in Ca. 1621 however the coin is dated to ca. 1601.

http://www.thetelegram.com/index.cfm?sid=143931&sc=79

Oldest Church?

The recent discovery of a cave beneath the ruins of a church in Jordan as the oldest Christian church now is attracting doubt in the mind of some experts.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080613-old-church.html

Lord Rama's Bridge

I really hope that this canal never happens though the economics are on the side of development. It is not hard to see the potential ecological disaster.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4124232.ece

Montezuma's Palace

Today we have a video of the excavation in the heart of Mexico city.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25100456/

National Geographic:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080611-ruins-video-ap.html

Experiments in Technology

It is not logical that the first arrow made will be the best, it is true of all technology that only trial and error make the perfect arrow.

The two arrows on the bottom and right were found in British Columbia and are of nice work.

The grey arrow on the left (found in Texas) is not something I would want to face the enemy or a wild animal with, very wonky.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080610/sc_livescience/howearlyexperimentersdevelopedthebowarrow

The Graves of High Park

An article about a public park in Canada which is believed to hold native burials. I myself would expect that most parks in the world will have some degree of prehistoric remains.

http://www.insidetoronto.ca/News/Villager/article/49830

Horses and Chariot Found

In Northern Greece a grave has been opened revealing a large number of horse skeletons and a rare chariot from the 1rst or 2nd century BC.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0%2C21985%2C23851106-23109%2C00.html

Who wants to Visit Yemen?

I think a jail in Yemen must be one of the worst places to be though I had never thought of Yemen as even a place I would want to visit.

http://www.yobserver.com/local-news/10014411.html

Welcome to the Iron Age

A large number of Iron age homes have been excavated in the United Kingdom.

http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2008/06/11/iron-age-home-unearthed-in-northumberland-61634-21054442/

A Room to Meditate

A dark room in Montezuma's palace which the King used to meditate may have been found in the heart of Mexico city.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/10/news/Mexico-Aztec-Palace.php

Living in Peru

Here is another great short video from the people at the archaeology channel.

http://www.archaeologychannel.org/

American's Arrive Early

Footprints found in hardened volcanic ash date the arrival of people to the America's 25 000 years earlier than thought.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080606-ancient-footprints.html

Stolen Petroglyph

There are Few clues as to whom stole a large petroglyph from the Kaibab national forest in Arizona, United states.

http://www.kpho.com/news/16562837/detail.html

Artifacts for the Poor

This is about the articles found in the recent find of a poor peoples cemetery being excavated ahead of a subway line in Rome.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080609/sc_nm/italy_tombs_dc_2;_ylt=AkPLpSLvLRLvnHWVqBDidPFFeQoB

Oldest Christian Church?

The Cave found under a church in Jordan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7446812.stm

Wreaths Found in Greece

This article has two good pictures of the grave and the wreaths.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iXsNLIuRTKsvjjFNQlcTTWSsxkXgD914PSC80

The Neverending Cemetery

The fine people digging up Rome have found yet another cemetery.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1423939/archaeologists_discover_ancient_romanera_tombs/

Canada Returns Human Remains

Canadian museums are handing over human remains dug up in the 19th and 20th centuries when that was the fad.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=2d2a5ab2-7dda-418f-b2a5-83cee9fc4b4d

Battle Royal

This is the ongoing battle between the shifty people of the marine explorer Odyssey and the Spanish government who have filed suit claiming the people of the Odyssey stole Spanish property and Spain wants the half million coins the Odyssey excavated and smuggled into the United states.

This fight will go on for years, hopefully!

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/06/08/spain.treasure/

Church's catacombs

Recent discovery of catacombs beneath one of Jordan's oldest Christian church's.

http://www.pr-inside.com/ancient-catacomb-found-under-one-of-r632629.htm

Unique Statue From Yemen

The Statue dug up illegally 5 years ago is unique to the culture of Yemen and has been removed from the country illegally.

http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1162&p=front&a=1

Mesopotamian Gold Cup

This 2500 year old gold cup lay in a box under a bed for many years and now is up at auction.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/7437348.stm

New Pictish Stones

A grave digger found the latest stone in the course of his work. The stone was apparently visible in the year 1769 as someone scratched that date on it.

http://www.shetlandtoday.co.uk/Shetlandtimes/content_details.asp?ContentID=27731

Looting

Holes have been dug into the Kincaid burial mounds in an attempt to steal artifacts the authorities have issued a $2000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprits.

http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2008/06/06/front_page/24697433.txt

Gold Wreaths Found in Greece

A surprising find in a Greek tomb of a young lady laid to rest with four gold wreaths as well as other gold jewelry. The jewelry found in a cemetery believed until this to be for the poor.

http://www.ana.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=6509179&maindocimg=6508632&service=96

Terracotta Near Miss

Thankfully only seven of the famous warriors suffered minor damage, the article has some good pictures.

http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20080604/102210.shtml

Medieval Metropolis

The City of Dunwich has fallen into the sea and is now being explored.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4069386.ece

Cave Life

This article on excavations carried out in the protective environs of Greek caves ancient people took shelter in.

http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=13288&m=A11&aa=1&eidos=S

Human Sacrifice in Peru

This article on human skeletons missing heads and probably sacrificed.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080604-human-sacrifice.html

Titanic Found During Cold War

This very interesting article tells of Bob Ballards search for the wreck of the famous liner and two U.S. submarines.

This photo is of the iceberg that had a smear of red on it and was found in the Titanic debris field. Some believe it is the iceberg which sank the ship

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080602-titanic-secret.html

Vancouver's Ancestors Returned

Human remains that are stored at the New York based American museum of natural history are to be returned to the people of the First nations on Vancouver Island.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080603.BCNATIVES03/TPStory/National

What wont You Find

No shortage of artifacts here!

http://www.stourbridgenews.co.uk/news/stourbnewsworcs/display.var.2313298.0.roman_remains_found_buried_at_infirmary_site.php

Earlier Discovery

Five decades before Hiram Bingham another man was collecting objects at Machu Picchu.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4045261.ece

Destroying Archaeology

An ancient cemetery is to be destroyed to make way for a supermarket and fake copy cemetery.

Huh!

http://www.theolivepress.es/2008/06/02/stonehenge-of-sevilla-to-become-a-burial-site/

Killing the Love Rival

Scientists are studying 7000 year old skeletons which all bear damage to the left side of their skulls and are all men and children indicating that the women were captured.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wear/7432306.stm

Daughters of the Aristocracy

Researchers at the University of Manchester have been studying the power of women in ancient Greece. Using the skeletons of a brother and sister found in grave circle "B" at Mycenae.

The researchers seem to have started with the idea that Greek women of the era held no power unless they were influential on their husbands, very Victorian. I find this bias to be only the first hole the researchers needed to dig themselves out of.

Through world history the sons as well as the daughters of the aristocracy have held power over their ruling families and there are plenty of favorite or more powerful daughters in all cultures including Greece.

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=3696

Mayan Fires

People are starting fires in the rain forest which are endangering Mayan ruins

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080530/sc_nm/guatemala_maya_dc;_ylt=AjhX5iC9ezrFwLWGOC_txughANEA

German Looted Machu Picchu First

Peruvian records now show that a German businessman was exploring the historic Inca monument 40 years before Hiram Bingham "found" the famous citadel.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/who-found-machu-picchu-838255.html

Achaemenid Inscription Destroyed

That recently found inscription found on a coral encrusted rock has been chisseled off and destroyed. No doubt the inscription was destroyed by one of the road workers.

http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2008/June2008/01-06.htm

British Museum Brings Back it's Crystal Skull

Even the British museum now gets in on the recent craze that are these forgeries

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aoa/r/rock_crystal_skull.aspx

Axum Obelisk

I could have sworn this monument had already been erected but I guess I am just losing it. The Obelisk was returned by the Italian government after it was struck by lightning and damaged oh and around the same time Italy began to fight to retrieve its own stolen monuments from around the world.

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=7853

DNA explodes Greek Myth

The science of DNA has opened still one more door to give answers that only create more questions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/01/genetics.sciencenews?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Mercury in Medieval Remains

The chosen subjects contained large part of population victims of leprosy and syphilis.

http://www.spectroscopynow.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?id=18699&type=Feature&chId=4&page=1

Dating Through Solar Eclipses

What a remarkable science we have of course men have been masters of astronomy probably long before we had writing but with todays computers the ages unfold.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/05/dayintech_0528

Nasa:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Leaning Tower Still Leaning

With all the money they spend stopping it from falling over that the money might be better spent to straighten the monument.

Face it we all want to see it fall over hopefully demolishing nearby monuments and thats why they keep it leaning.

It's a gamble!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7423957.stm

Islamic History Violated

Here we go with another of those disappointing stories about archaeology in Israel. It seems that a number of early Islamic skeletons have been removed by someone unknown from an Israeli archaeological dig in Jerusalem.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/988803.html

Fooling the Experts

The recent auction house scandal over high quality antique furnishings that are forgeries meant to deceive.

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/interiors/article4039918.ece

All That Glitters

A Shipwreck find of a gold toothpick/ earwax spoon may be as much as 385 years old

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/05/20/ear-wax-spoon.html

Stonehenge a Royal Cemetery

Evidence seems to point to the henge as being an ancient cemetery.

http://www.shef.ac.uk/mediacentre/2008/1024.html

Pagan Tombs Restored

A very interesting video with good images of the tomb in question beneath the Vatican.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080528-valeri-video-ap.html