The world’s oldest operating irrigation system, located in Dujiangyan, China, has survived last week’s earthquake. The system¸ built in 256 B.C., diverts the flow of the Minjiang River with bamboo-framed islands.

Specialists in Iraqi archaeology will meet in Berlin next month to discuss the damage done to Babylon by U.S. and Polish troops. Vibrations from helicopters and heavy armored vehicles shook the ancient buildings that had already been harmed by Saddam Hussein’s restoration projects.   

In England, the foundations of a thirteenth-century tower were uncovered at Oxford Castle, built by the Normans in the 1070s.  

Space archaeology is rewriting the history of Cambodia, Iraq, Easter Island, Egypt, and Guatemala, according to this article from Popular Science. Be sure to view the slide show.  

The forward ballast pump has been removed from the Hunley, the Confederate submarine discovered in 1995 off the coast of Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. Scientists will begin to scrape the concretion off the sub’s hull.  

“He makes archaeology seem fun, and if he makes archaeologists seem sexy, we’re all grateful,” Geoff Emberling of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago quips in this article on the heroic character of Indiana Jones.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, May 23, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

Comments posted here do not represent the views or policies of the Archaeological Institute of America.