An engraved marble block stolen from the ancient Assyrian capital of Nimrud has been returned to Iraq from Syria.

Here’s another article on the wooden coffins discovered near the necropolis of Abydos in southern Egypt. The coffins came from a complex of 13 tombs dating to the Old Kingdom, or 3000 B.C.  

Trash from Naples is being dumped on the unexcavated portion of Pompeii, and a state of emergency has been declared in order to get more funding for the site’s faded frescoes and crumbling buildings. “To call the situation intolerable doesn’t go far enough,” said Culture Minister Sandro Bondi.  

New excavations are planned for the tunnel beneath the Pyramid of the Sun outside Mexico City. “We think it had a ritual purpose. Offerings were placed at the very end of the tunnel as part of the pyramid’s construction process,” said archaeologist Alejandro Sarabia. Teotihuacan was abandoned around 700 A.D.  

UNESCO voted yesterday to add Preah Vihear temple to the World Heritage list. In 1962, the International Court of Justice ruled that the 900-year-old Hindu temple, situated near the Cambodian-Thai border, belongs to Cambodia. Thailand’s opposition party has used the nomination of the temple as a political tool to attempt to undermine the current government.   This article lists more sites that made the cut, and has information about the Preah Vihear temple itself.   Three sites, one each from Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, and China, have also been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.   

More information of the “first Parisians,” hunter-gatherers who camped along the Seine, is available at National Geographic News.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, July 8, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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