Italy’s government has opened Pompeii to private ventures after cutting its restoration funding from $75 million to $15 million. There has been a 20 percent drop in tourism revenues at the open-air museum, but many blame the garbage crisis in nearby Naples for the decline.

Byzantine mosaics have been uncovered in the town of Kyustendil, Bulgaria. “The names of the home’s owners are written on the mosaics and it is the first time when such artifacts have been discovered in Bulgaria,” said archaeologist Rumen Spasov.  

Graffiti is plaguing ancient monuments in Athens. “Graffiti is vandalism, it’s an element of conflict, and sometimes things that are nice are also ruined in the process,” said a 28-year-old “street artist.”  

The Giza Plateau has been “modernized” with a fence, closed-circuit TV cameras, infrared motion sensors, X-ray machines, and metal detectors. How is the new plan to make visiting the Pyramids easier for tourists working?    

A copper ax, furnace, and pots containing traces of melted copper uncovered at the Plocnik site push back the Copper Age in Serbia by hundreds of years, according to archaeologist Julka Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic.  

The member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet in Myanmar to compose a memorandum of understanding to crack down on the illegal trade in antiquities. “If our antiques make their way to their countries through illegal channels they will return them to us, and when we find their antiques we will give them back,” said U San Win, director general of the Department of Archaeology at Myanmar’s National Museum and Library.

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

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