Marcelo O. Magnasco of Rockefeller University in New York, and Constantino Baikouzis of the Astronomical Observatory in La Plata, Argentina, scoured The Odyssey for astronomical clues to come up with the date of April 16, 1178 B.C. for Odysseus’ homecoming. “It still does not prove the historicity of the return of Odysseus. It only proves that Homer knew about certain astronomical phenomena that happened much before his time,” Magnasco said.

The Sukhumi Institute, a Cold War nuclear lab in the former Soviet region of Abkhazia, once housed 250 German scientists. Vladimir Kunitsky is the current deputy director of the institute, and he would like to preserve its crumbling buildings as a sanatorium where patients could receive radioactive treatments.  

Historical archaeologist Kathleen Gilmore was awarded the Texas Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation. Gilmore, who specializes in Texas missions, also discovered Fort St. Louis, built by French explorer La Salle. “She is one of the pioneers of historical archaeology in the country,” said Jim Bruseth, director of the archaeology division at the Texas Historical Commission.  

In Bangladesh, an employee of the department of archaeology reportedly sold 15 pieces of gold found by workers. He had told them he would turn the gold over to the museum.  

George Bey told USA Today columnist Dan Vergano about his work on the story of the Maya collapse in this interview.  

Easter Island is experiencing a boom in tourism. “More tourism, more deterioration. More visitors, more loss,” said archaeologist Susana Nahoe, former liaison between Chile’s National Tourism Service and the island’s scientists.  

According to this article, London mayor Boris Johnson had a cigar case belonging to former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz. The new mayor was a TV personality in 2003, and he took the case from Aziz’s ransacked villa. The Metropolitan Police force considers the red leather object a piece of Iraqi cultural property. 

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, June 24, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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