Jars holding the 2,900-year-old cremated remains of Phoenicians have been unearthed at Tyre, in southern Lebanon. “The big jars are like individual tombs. The smaller jars are left empty, but symbolically represent that a soul is stored in them,” said archaeologist Ali Badawi.

Can the damage done to ancient Babylon be repaired? Looters, Saddam Hussein’s construction projects, and occupation by American and Polish troops have all taken their toll, according to UNESCO, the World Monuments Fund, and Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.  

Tombs dating to China’s Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11 century to 771 B.C.) have yielded more than 1,100 characters inscribed on oracle bones.  

What exactly have archaeologists discovered at the site planned for the new Sugar House Casino in Philadelphia? A local historian thinks the eighteenth-century foundation of the famed Bachelor’s Hall has been uncovered, but archaeologists working for the casino say the foundation was built at least 100 years later.  

Construction crews in Denver, Colorado, turned up the burial place of the city’s founders, which was an Arapahoe burial ground before that. The area is now known as Cheesman Park.  

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, will begin construction of its African Burying Ground memorial project.  

You’ll soon be able to visit a 3D re-creation of Rome as it stood 320 A.D. on Google Earth. This virtual Rome was based upon the Plastico di Roma Antica, a model crafted between 1933 and 1974 and housed in the Museum of Roman Civilization.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, November 12, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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