After nine years of excavations, Russian archaeologists say they have found the capital of the Khazar kingdom, just north of the Caspian Sea. The Khazars adopted Judaism as a state religion between the eighth and tenth centuries, and built a city of huts surrounded by a triangular fortress made of bricks.

A lead seal bearing an image of St. Basil of Caesarea on one side and a Greek inscription on the reverse has been found in Veliki Novgorod. Archaeologists think it belonged to Prince Vladimir Monomakh, who ruled Kiev in the twelfth century.  

Italy’s new government has allocated just 0.28 percent of its budget to the culture ministry. “Certainly there’s a lot of rhetoric about our cultural heritage, but when it comes to giving money to the ministry or to something else, politicians tend to choose the something else,” said Stefano De Caro, director general for archaeology at the culture ministry.  

Wreckage from a nineteenth-century wooden merchant ship washed ashore on Jekyll Island, Georgia. “We think (tropical storm) Fay stirred it up. It’s very exciting,” said John Hunter, director of the Jekyll Island Museum.  

The re-erected Axum Obelisk was unveiled today in Ethiopia. “While we rejoice at the return of the obelisk from Italy, the challenge now for the government is to re-erect those [other six] fallen obelisks,” said British historian Richard Pankhurst.   A video featuring the project and today’s celebration is posted at BBC News.  

Here’s a photograph of one of the bronze mirrors stolen from the Dunhuang Municipal Museum in northwestern China.  

People living in Rome’s former colonies are less likely to have a gene variant that offers some protection from the HIV virus. Could Roman invaders have introduced a disease that killed off people with the gene variant?  Or are there other possible answers?  

A virtual replica of an epigonion, a Greek harp-like instrument, has been created by the members of the Ancient Instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application, or ASTRA.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, September 4, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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