Forty-two artifacts that had been lent to the Guimet Museum in Paris by the government of Bangladesh despite public opposition have been returned. Scholars in Bangladesh were concerned that the ancient objects would never come home.

Six Elamite bas-reliefs in Iran’s Khuzestan Province have been damaged by the iron covers installed to protect them from rain.  

Rasho Rashev, director of the National Archaeological Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, was one of eight people killed in a fire on the Sofia-Kardam train line. Rumors in his home town of Shumen suggest that Rashev was assassinated by looters.  

The Honouliuli internment camp site held 300 Hawaii residents in 1943. Archaeologists and concerned citizens want to list the camp on the National Historic Register. If you watch the video version of the story, you’ll see artifacts from the camp.   This article on the camp features interviews with people who were imprisoned there. “Not so nostalgic. No buildings and only bushes. The place was an Army camp, right now all bushes,” said Harry Urata, now 89 years old.   

In New Hampshire, realtors could be required to tell potential buyers if any Native American artifacts have ever been found on a piece of property, and that if any artifacts do turn up in future digging, a state archaeologist must examine the site.  

This report from Iraq says that 213 Iraqi archaeological sites have been looted since 2003.  

Greek Culture Minister Michalis Liapis says that Ancient Olympia is ready for the torch-lighting ceremony that will kick off the Beijing Games later this month. The area around Olympia was heavily damaged during forest fires last summer.  

Here’s another article on the new bust of Johann Sebastian Bach made with computer modeling techniques and a copper replica of Bach’s skull made in 1894. An earlier version of this story implied that Bach’s actual skull was used.  

An entry fee will once again be charged at the Roman Forum, beginning March 10.  

The body of Padre Pio, a Capuchin friar who died in 1968, was exhumed by the Catholic Church for display later this year.

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

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