Ancient Turkish Temple

A temple from the dark age of 1200-900bc has been unearthed in Turkey.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090429-dark-ages-temple.html

Ugly Unique Bowl

Another article about the recent discovery and restoration of a millefiori bowl. The pictures are better here but the bowl does not appear to be very good looking.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090429/sc_nm/us_britain_roman_find;_ylt=AkbAP8cWQizsUWV6JBOQYtkhANEA

Another Artifact from the Summer Palace

A seal has turned up at auction in France the seal from the Emperors collection was taken after the sacking of the palace during the opium wars.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hYLejNHjf6GyZ1BfW1zLxFH685Wg

1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic

With the recent Mexican flu pandemic upon us here is a look at the pandemic which circled the world at the end of the first world war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

Common Ancestors

A new DNA study finds that native American populations descend from a common ancestral source

http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9101

A Millefiori Bowl

A unique millefiori bowl has been reassembled from the disintegrated fragments which it turned to upon discovery in a Romans burial chamber in London.

http://www.wharf.co.uk/2009/04/rare-roman-bowl-on-display-at.html

Where's Dr. Gachet?

Painted by Vincent Van Gogh in June of 1890 it is one of the pieces that comes from the doctors own collection. The painting broke a record a 100 years later when it sold in 1990 for $82 million.

It was purchased by a Japanese businessman who promptly showed that he had already gone insane. He threatened to have the painting cremated along with his body when he died.

Spokesperson for the nut said he loved the painting and always wished to have it with him. Unfortunately he died 6 years later and the painting has not been seen since.

In the late 1990's the Metropolitan museum of art in New York put together a show on Dr. Gachet's collection with the hopes that this portrait would be the shows centerpiece.

Perhaps the show was an attempt to "smoke out" the painting from its hiding place.

They were unable to locate it.

Vandal Damage to Ancient Paintings

A man who made his living off showing the cave paintings has spray painted over them in revenge for loosing his job. Jerk!

http://www.ansamed.info/en/top/ME13.WAM10256.html

Medieval Coins

Two bowls of 12th to 13th century coins have been found in Macedonia.

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/6469/2/

Parking Lot Marker

A church in Sweden has been using a 1000 year old ruin stone as a marker for their parking lot.

http://politicom.moldova.org/news/church-lot-rock-actually-ancient-runestone-198713-eng.html

Syrian Mosaic

A mosaic found in Syria is referred to as a painting in this article, thank goodness there is a picture.

http://www.sana.sy/eng/35/2009/04/22/222745.htm

The Lure of Gold

The trick of being a tourist is not to be scammed as so happens when visiting any country in the world. The article is on fake exhibits in a museum in Peru

http://www.freep.com/article/20090426/FEATURES07/904260341/1032/Museum+authenticity+issue+forged+in+Peru+s+golden+history

Vedic Education

A 1000 year old inscription has been found during restoration work in Velachery

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Velachery+was+a+flourishing+Vedic+town&artid=M8Xzp62V0pk=&SectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&MainSectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&SEO=Archaeological+Survey+of+India&SectionName=rSY|6QYp3kQ=

Champlain's Man

In June of 1604 ce Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Dugua founded the first french settlement in the new world on a small island in middle of the powerful river St. Croix.

That winter the river froze into a powerful ice flow trapping the 79 colonists and one by one they began to die so that when the colony was abandoned the following spring 35 of the colonists were dead.

In Champlain's memoirs of 1613 he recalls how they had done autopsies to see why the colonists died, these autopsies were some of the earliest conducted in the new world.

Excavations at the St. Croix island graveyard in 1969 by Utica University showed that the inhabitants of Champlain's settlement had died from scurvy.

One of the more interesting discoveries was the body of one of the settlers who appears to be "African" by descent, if so these remains will be the oldest of their kind in the new world.

In 2003 the decision was made to return the human remains back to the graves they had come out of, this being possible because of the excavation photos.

To the shock of those present they discovered a skull which had been sawed open, the representatives realized that they had found one of the settlers which Champlain had autopsied in the winter of 1613.

This is the oldest documented autopsy to which the actual remains have been found in the new world.

Joseph's Tomb Vandalised

Israeli authorities found the tomb vandalised earlier this week.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710774653&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

1609-2009

An image has been created to show what the island of Manhatten looked like when discovered by Henry Hudson in 1609.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/photogalleries/mannahatta-manhattan-island-before-nyc/index.html

Turtle Rock

Turtle rock turns out to be natural and not man made according to the so called experts.

http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/middletown-news/expert-says-turtle-boulder-is-just-a-rock-88478.html

Fakes and Finds

This article is from Archaeology magazine on the trade in antiquities and the forging of them and selling them on ebay.

http://www.archaeology.org/0905/etc/insider.html

A Trip to the Farm

Here is another excellent post from Geoff Carter's Theoretical Structural Archaeology, the post deals with the development of a homestead.

http://structuralarchaeology.blogspot.com/

Urbanization Revealed

Archaeologists have discovered fresh evidence of a fort on the Indian sub continent.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=84953

China Town Rediscovered

The lovely town of San Jose has rediscovered its lost Chinatown.

http://kliv.com/Archaeologists-uncover-clues-to-San-Jose-s-200-yea/4259012

Everything is Bigger

Archaeologists have found the place where Mexican soldiers surrendered and Texas won its independence.

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/southwest/view/2009_04_16_Experts:_Spot_of_Mexican_surrender_in_Texas_found/srvc%3Dhome&position%3Drecent

Looking Pretty

Artifacts including perfume bottles and a silver ring have been found in the Tekrit region of Iraq.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/23/Archaeological-artifacts-found-in-Iraq/UPI-13111240510472/

Indus Script

This interesting article is about undeciphered images believed to be script whether the script was ever a spoken language remains unknown. This article has nice pictures of the script.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/indusscript.html

Treasures from the Black Archaeologist

This article is on the Thracian culture and Bulgarian attitudes towards its history.

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=a926

Goodbye to Catherine of Aragon

The Pope does not want a copy of the divorce papers submitted by Henry VIII that will be given to Englans Prince of Wales to be as an official gift of the Pope.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6135103.ece

T-Rex Lives 165 Million Years Ago

The predecessor of T-Rex has been found in China.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8010292.stm

The Dud

A world war II unexploded bomb has been found lodged into a Victorian wall

http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Archaeologists-discover-bomb-beauty-spot-wall/article-922541-detail/article.html

World Digital Library

This is a terrific new site well worth spending time looking at important events in world history.

http://www.wdl.org/en/

Stolen Art in Cleveland?

The Cleveland Museum of Art will be returning 14 objects of questionable provenance back to Italy in return for long term loans of artifacts from the Italians.

http://blog.cleveland.com/entertainment/2009/04/cleveland_museum_of_art_will_r.html

Macedonian History

In Eastern Macedonia archaeologists are discovering artifacts from the era of Alexander the great and his father Philip II.

http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1167

Cheating Disney

This is a remarkable video and article on the originality of those loved Disney films.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6140334.ece

Marsh Arabs in Peril

This video is about the drought which is affecting the lives of Iraq's marsh people in the cradle of civilization.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090421-iraq-marshes-video-ap.html

The Great Emancipator

The great emancipator was a brilliant spectacle of humanity and some also believe was dying of cancer at the time of his death.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_re_us/lincoln_s_dna;_ylt=Alp62MMZDYJElmYgsktVRUVvieAA

Lyuba the Baby Mammoth

The video on the autopsy of this 40 000 year old body of a baby mammoth found a couple of years ago and beautifully preserved is excellent.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090420-baby-mammoth-photo.html

Holocaust Rememberance Day

A ceremony has been held to commemorate Holocaust remembrance day which remembers the six million Jews who died in the second world war.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710739641&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Wall Envy

The great wall of China is 180 miles longer than previously thought.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/20/great-wall-china-discovery

The Beautiful Burial

Germanic graves have been found in Kranj.

http://www.sta.si/en/foto.php?nid=1383210

The Discriminated Dead

Call me a sceptic but when these people say a "remote chance" do they not really mean that they do not care they have already made their decision.

http://www.weekendpost.co.za/article.aspx?id=412314

Five Four Three Two One

A digital survey is being done on a theatre in Cyprus.

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=45214&cat_id=1

The 5000 Year Old Flute?

A flute found more than 20 years ago and identified as being more than 2000 years old may actually be 5000 years old.

http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20090416/101611.shtml

Statues at the The Getty Villa

The Getty museum has been loaned two statues from the Naples Archaeological museum which the Getty will restore and display for two years before they are returned.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/04/most-of-the-recent-traffic-in-antiquities-between-the-j-paul-getty-museum-and-italy-has-been-one-way--from-los-angeles-to-it.html

Bronze Age Bracelet

A farmer in Ireland found a gold bronze age bracelet while ploughing his field. Here we have a picture of the bracelet including the farmers adorable children.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/3000-yearold-bracelet-found-in-tyrone-field-14269840.html

I Told You I Was sick

A 1000 year old mural has been found in China depicting doctors at work.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/15/content_11189837.htm

From the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age

A Toronto Excavation has shown that the transition from the bronze age to the iron age may not have been as brutal as previously thought.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090415162649.htm

Inbreeding Royals

Interbreeding probably was responsible for the end of the Habsburg dynasty leaving the dynasties last ruler Charles II ill and infertile.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090415/sc_livescience/inbreedingdownfallofadynasty

Seeing Whats Not There

Apparently someone seeking attention sees Leonardo Davinci in a stained glass window.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/14/da-vinci-portrait.html

The Place that Will Never House the Elgin Marbles

Here is a look at the new Acropolis museum in Athens unfortunately without a picture of the museum. What a rip!

http://www.contractmagazine.com/contract/content_display/news/e3i15e445736daf50e4f47bcce39ff48c35

A Growing Farce

A Vietnamese temple was destroyed right after a ceremony to receive a heritage certificate even though the temple apparently did not need to be destroyed.

http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=48007

Covering the Lines

Here is an article on the preservation of the Nazca lines from flooding.

http://www.livinginperu.com/news/8749

Those Damn Demons

Here we have an article of the use of human skulls in Jewish ceremonies.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078227.html

Stealing Mona

Here an article on the theft of the famous painting though I must admit Mona does very little for me.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article6067646.ece

Gods Word

The Bible is Gods word only if you believe otherwise it is only the word of right wing zealots.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/ibru_center/article01/indexn2_html?pdate=120409&ptitle=Historical%20Evidence%20For%20The%20Bible

Along the New River

Florida's Tequesta Indians lived a thousand years ago along Fort Lauderdale's New river and left remains being excavated before a city park is completed.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/fort_lauderdale/sfl-new-river-indian-dig-b041109sbapr11%2C0%2C7865173.story

Ireland's WoodHenge

Scientists have found an enormous henge made of wood in Ireland in the Hill of Tara dating back thousands of years.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/wood-you-believe-it-stonehenge-find-at-tara-1706040.html

The Work of Giants

Legend has it that it was built some 7000 years ago by giants.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/holiday_type/history_and_travel/article6067375.ece

Restoring the Mosques

Yemen is to restore five mosques in the city of Zabid as to maintain Zabid as a world historic site.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news180706.htm

Holocaust Art

Sixteenth century paintings have been returned to the heirs of Jewish art dealers who's property was seized during the holocaust by the Nazi's.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7994511.stm

Worlds First Planned City

Professor Ahmad Hasan Dani one of the great archaeologists has died. Professor Dani excavated at Moenjodaro the site referred to as the worlds first planned city.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/digging-up-the-worlds-first-planned-city-20090410-a2sl.html

Old Scotland

Recently a set of 14 000 year old tools was found.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/10/scotland-tools.html

Kitty Breath

Early Christians probably ate allot of fish mainly because it was cheap.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6073834.ece

Dying in Han

This exhibition is on life and death in ancient China especially life and death of the elite.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/arts/design/10tomb.html

The Bodies at Alum Creek

Human remains have been found in four out of five caskets found near a damn enlarged in the 1970's.

http://www.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/engineer_remains_found_in_caskets_at_alum_creek/14672/

The Lord of Ucupe

A 1500 burial of a Moche ruler has been found in Peru containing a number of golden crowns and diadems.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090410-peru-tomb.html?source=rss

Bead World

Some 70 000 17th century beads from all over the world have been uncovered on an island in Florida.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090409134802.htm

Darwin's Egg

An egg collected by Charles Darwin has recently bee found the egg is slightly damaged because he was less than delicate with it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7992911.stm

Maya Images

Mayan pottery was no different from most of Mayan art in that it express' a message of the Mayan culture.

http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v55/n28/maya.html

Seven Skeletons

Some seven skeletons and additional skulls have been found all are believed to be Franciscan friars.

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1159670?UserKey=

Ancient Adornments

These lovely gold artifacts are dated to around 2000 bc and were found in a safe in a pharmacy in Ireland.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0408/1224244212823.html

Searching for Genghis

Here are remarkable objects found in the capital of the famous Mongol leader.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Genghis-Khans-Treasures.html#

Han Tomb

Here we have a series of photos on recent discoveries in a tomb in China.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/08/content_11147941.htm

Searching for Queen Ketevan

Bones are to undergo DNA testing to see if they are the remains of the famous Queen who was imprisoned and put to death by a savage ruler for not relinquishing her faith in Christianity.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Goa/Mystery-over-Georgian-queens-relics-at-Old-Goa-continues-/articleshow/4371818.cms

Preserving the World

This is an article on the preservation of the worlds most important artifacts.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Preserving-the-Worlds-Most-Important-Artifacts.html?c=y&page=1

Shame on Yale

Those thieves at Yale university and the Peabody museum continue to hold Peruvian artifacts that they promised to return almost 100 years ago.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/28530

Boycott Yale and its museums and send messages to its faculty about these thefts:

http://www.yale.edu/index.html

Left in Ruins

Archaeological sites in India are falling into ruin through neglect and a lack of restoration.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=83242

Fragments

The Getty museum will return a piece of a fresco to Italy the museum acquired in 1996 after seeing a photo of another fragment being returned by a private collector which clearly came from the same fresco as the Getty piece.

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/31035/getty-to-return-ancient-fresco-to-italy/

The Shroud of Turin

There is some evidence that the shroud was hidden by the Knights Templar between 1204 and 1351 a.d..

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/06/turin-shroud-templars.html

Italy's Earthquake History

Italy has two major fault lines running through it so it is a wonder that so many archaeological sites are in such great condition.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6044077.ece

Lost Cities

Here we have some beautiful pictures of ancient cities or so called lost cities.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/ancient/photo/petra-jordan.html

Pre-Obama land

This site in North Carolina may well be the oldest English site in the America's.

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/04/nc-site-could-be-old-english-settlement

The Woman Who Ruled Men

Here we have a small plaque perhaps depicting a female ruler and there a destroyed ancient city and over in Egypt two letters from a female ruler of the mid 14th century bc who's city was in danger of being destroyed.

http://www.physorg.com/news158237703.html

History Found and Lost

A drying up lake is revealing archaeological sites and graves in ancient Iraq which are being looted.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKTRE5353XO20090406?sp=true

Pits and Pots

An ancient Hungarian town is complete with dog sacrifices buried in pits and pots.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090406-dogs-buried-hungary.html

In the Jordan Valley

Archaeologist have discovered a number of foot shaped enclosures used for human habitation.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090406102600.htm

Schindler's list

An old copy of the famous list has recently been found in the collection of a library.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=588&art_id=nw20090406142221194C927660

and here:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/06/schindler-list.html

Travel for the Rich

The only way in the future to protect sensitive archaeological sites may well be to divide sites according to importance and those that are more fragile than others. These more important and fragile sites may be only available to those wealthier tourists while the less wealthy will have to settle for the less important destinations.

In Egypt you only enter the tomb of Queen Nefertari in the valley of queens if you have the entrance fee of $3000 per person.

http://www.canada.com/Travel/story.html?id=920477

The Baths of Caracalla

The recent earthquake has caused damage to the historic baths and many other Italian archaeological sites.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5114636/LAquila-earthquake-damaged-ancient-baths-in-Rome.html

Western Wall

Israeli authorities are doing restoration work on the western wall to make sure the wall is strong.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1076534.html

Lost Mayan City

Archaeologists are uncovering a Mayan city on the Yucatan peninsula.

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=331237&CategoryId=14091

Dark and Scratchy Man

This unattractive painting is potentially a self portrait of Leonardo Davinci.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090403-davinci-portrait-video-ap.html

Beautiful Babylon

Archaeologists have found Babylonian objects thousands of years old

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=4&Article_id=100630

Ancient Butrint

The archaeological site of Butrint is a must see when visiting nearby Corfu.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7978443.stm

Oldest Stone Blades

Found in Africa these stone blades are some 500 000 years old.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/402/2

Grave Jewellry

A grave of a woman in the Philippines has yielded a gold necklace.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20090402-197526/Rare-gold-jewelry-finds-in-Boljoon-town

The Reopening of UR

Next month the American military will be handing back the biblical site of Ur and the site will soon be open to the public.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gyQFG3mejbeejKJYY8wOBELgIu5A

April Fools

Happy fools make the most of today but you really have to watch those people the rest of the year, they never stop so beware!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/photogalleries/april-fools-day-hoaxes/index.html

Lies and Hallucinations

After three years the trial of antiquities collectors in Israel is back on.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238423655087&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull