The military standoff continues at Preah Vihear temple, recently listed as a World Heritage site, after eight hours of talks between Cambodia and Thailand. The eleventh-century temple sits in Cambodia, on land near the Thai border. “The concrete work has to wait. But we both agree to avoid confrontation and violence,” said Cambodian defense minister Tea Banh.

A bump of earth on Buckton Moor in Lancashire, England, has turned out to be a 900-year-old castle. “It’s been an object of curiosity for a very long time – perhaps going all the way back to a reference in a 1359 survey carried out by Edward, the Black Prince, who had just acquired the lands. Then it was described as a ruined castle,” said Mike Nevell of Manchester University.

In November, archaeologists will begin to remove 600 pieces of timber that made up a boat, left in an underground chamber, next to the Great Pyramid of Giza. They will then try to reassemble the 4,500-year-old vessel.

Divers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have begun their survey of German U-boats sunk off the coast of North Carolina. “Never has a detailed archaeological survey been done. This is step one. We’re not digging, and we’re not touching the site,” said David Alberg, superintendent of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

Australian PhD candidate David Thomas has been unable to travel to war-torn Afghanistan, so he used satellite images from Google Earth to search for ancient sites. So far, he’s spotted 450 potential targets for further study.

Some of the Acadians fleeing the British Commodore John Byron between 1755 and 1763 ended up in the village of La Petite-Rochelle, which Quebec archaeologist Michel Goudreau has found. “These are the people who did get away, and they’re why we still have an Acadian population in northern New Brunswick,” he said.

Here’s another article on the Civil War artifacts discovered at Harding House in Tennessee, with a little more information on the Battle of Stones River.

Hundreds of rock mounds in North Smithfield, Rhode Island, are the subject of a lawsuit filed by the town. The town and Narragansett Indians think that the mounds are ancient, while a developer argues that they were left by recent farmers or loggers. “The land was in use by Native Americans and it contained these mounds. Whether they’re burial or ceremonial, I think they go back at least a couple of thousands of years,” said the town’s archaeologist, Frederick Meli.

A large Roman bath has been unearthed in southern Serbia, in the town of Prokuplje.

Eating, drinking, and loitering have been banned at Rome’s tourist hotspots this summer. City officials say that misbehaving visitors will “irreparably damage the preservation of historical and art areas and monuments and the possibility to enjoy them.”

And, masses of tourists continue to flock to the Angkor temple complex in Cambodia.

Traveling to Easter Island, “The Navel of the World,” is still popular, too.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, July 21, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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