The Witches Bottle

Every once in a while another witches bottle turns up containing things like nails and urine meant to ward off witches. The bottle are usually buried in doorways too keep out the broom riding menace from taking hold of the house.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091029-halloween-pictures-witch-bottle.html

Amelia's Exit

More than 70 years later Amelia Earhart's disappearance on July 2, 1937 remains one of the great unanswered questions of the 20th century.

The aviatrix was just shy of her 40th birthday when she went missing in the middle of the Pacific ocean on an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Amelia was a distinguished flyer with many records behind her including being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic ocean.

Her disappearance brought world wide media attention and a multi-million dollar search which found nothing except signs that someone had recently been on Gardner island which had been uninhabited for forty years.

Most popular theory is Amelia's plane ran out of gas ditching in the ocean shy of her destination of Howland island. In 2002 and again in 2006 two deep sea sonar expeditions went searching for Amelia's Lockheed L-10E Electra spending $4.5 million and finding nothing.

Other theories range from Amelia living in the United State's, a claim denied for years by the woman believed by some to have been Amelia, however DNA tests proved the woman in question was not Amelia Earhart. Some believe Amelia was captured by the Japanese and held in an internment camp where she died.

There is always also the possibility that Amelia crashed near Gardener island and may have lived there for a couple of months succumbing to starvation, thirst or injury before the British came to colonize the island in 1938.

Bones found on the island at this time were deemed to be male and sent to Fiji where they have never been seen again however a drawing of the skeleton indicates that the bones had belonged to a European woman. Should the drawing be accurate only one European woman was missing in the middle of the Pacific ocean at that time.

Amelia Earhart lived the life of a feminist icon known around the world including great acclamations yet her tragic disappearance has transformed her into one of the great legendary people of the 20th century.

Residents of a Convent

Workers doing street work around Mexico city have found a number of skeletons in an area believed to have been a 15th century convent. The human remains may have been buried in the floor of the convent placed beneath chapels.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1093945&lang=eng_news

Ritual Death at Ur

Archaeologists studying skulls found in the royal graves of Ur in the 1920's have yielded a new less than idyllic death.

The discoverer of the skulls Sir Leonard Woolley believed they belonged to palace attendants who had been walked into the grave where the drank poison and died peacefully.

CT scans recently however have showed that instead the attendants had a spike driven into their skulls. Studies also showed that an early form of mummification may have taken place which included baking the courtiers before burial.

When the deep burial pits were originally found they contained large groups of sacrifice victims with warriors with their armour and female attendant dressed lavishly with gold and jewels. These accoutrement's have left scholars to believe in a peaceful death for these courtiers.

This idea has withstood mainly because the burials, including skulls have been flattened by the pressure of the earth above the burials and today a new less gentler view awakes us to the ancient royal court at Ur.

Fingerprints to a Clue

A gentleman who spent less than $20 000 on a painting of a young woman a couple of years ago may now be holding a lost work by the great Leonardo Davinci.

There has been a suggestion of this for the last couple of years but now a fingerprint on the painting matches a print taken from Leonardo's "St. Jerome" hanging in the Vatican collection.

If confirmed it will be the first discovery of a lost Davinci painting in more than a century. Until now the lovely painting of a young woman called "Profile of the Bella Principessa" was believed to be by a 19th century German artist.

The rectangle and arrow show where the fingerprint was found though the person who left the print on both remains unknown many would like it to be Davinci's himself they may actually belong to one of the artists important clients who handled both works.

Should in the end the painting reach auction as an accepted work by Leonardo Davinci the painting may sell for as much as $150 million.


Photo: Lumiere Technology

Searching for the Labyrinth

This article deals with the mythical labyrinth and possible contenders as the site.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/architecture/has-the-original-labyrinth-been-found-1803638.html

Scholars Gold

From the University of Chicago comes work on Aramaic texts found in Iran and dating to 500bc these texts are part of the Persepolis Fortification Archive at that university.

The texts are currently being photographed with the latest technologies which will allow scholars to study the tablets from many different angles and in all their subtleties.

Fascinating work that will no doubt bring great rewards for years to come.

http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=1732

Persepolis Fortification Archive:

http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/pfa/

Persepolis Fortification Archive Project:

http://persepolistablets.blogspot.com/2009/04/ancient-persian-archive-digitized-with.html

Visiting the Dead

People visiting the Czech republic might wish to visit various bone churches and mummies.

http://www.praguepost.com/tempo/2514-skeletal-shrines.html

Beneath Lod Mosaic

A number of good pictures of this beautiful mosaic floor which the artists sandal and footprints have been found underneath.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133840

Tombs of Malta

Two 5000 year old rock cut tombs have been discovered in Malta complete with skeletons.

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2009/10/11/t15.html

Replica Shroud

A recent recreation of the famous shroud of Turin by scientists using techniques and materials from the fourteenth century has lead to controversy. The cloth has long been considered by devotees to be the burial shroud of Christ.

Unfortunately the last time that scientists were given access to the shroud in 1988 the protocol used was changed at the last minute, from a number of different samples taken from separate parts of the shroud to one sample from a very heavily handled corner.

The results of the 1988 carbon 14 tests from the one sample showed the sample to date no earlier than medieval times which supports many people who believe the shroud is a medieval work of art while others believe the last results were contaminated from the many people who held that corner over the centuries.

The shroud is an impressive artifact being fourteen feet in length containing the image of a man who looks like what many people think Christ looked like and many millions of other men also.

The shroud first appears in 1360 only about 1300 years after Christ's death which is a problem and the carbon dating only strengthens this date as date of its actual creation. Still with the 1988 protocol deviated the proof is and will continue to be questionable until correct scientific examination settles the issue once and for all.

40 000 Years Later

Here is an article on a 40 000 year old woolly mammoth well preserved in the Siberian ice.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/biology_evolution/article6860975.ece

Collectors Korner

The recent roundup of people in the four corners region of the United states who were dealing in artifacts including Anasazi pots and burial goods including bones sound very large in its scale which might have started out innocently with children collecting arrowheads off the ground to being purveyor to large quantities of grave goods.

The recent arrests have been seen by the community as being harsh treatment of old men two of whom have committed suicide over this while truck loads of artifacts have been seized by police.

http://www.buffalonews.com/260/story/816407.html

Mini Coloseum

This is an article from discovery on the rediscovery of a roman theater.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/10/02/mini-colosseum.html

Dracula's Cellar

Okay I admit it my Halloween decorations are up so I guess the house of Dracula is not far off!

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/279966

Abolitionist Sailor

An interesting burial of a potential late 18th century abolitionist.

http://www.physorg.com/news173707797.html

Nero's Head

A fragment of a marble head is undergoing studies to see if it is the head of Nero as a boy if so it will be of one of three known of this hated emperor.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/people/Whatever-happened-to-all-the.5697170.jp

The Ripper

A video and a series of articles from the archives of the Times on the notorious "Jack the ripper" murders.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/system/topicRoot/The_Jack_the_Ripper_murders/