Italian president Giorgio Napolitano handed over a chunk of the Parthenon Marbles removed from Greece by Lord Elgin in the nineteenth century. The fragment had been in a museum in Sicily. “This gesture is especially appreciated,” said Greek president Karolos Papoulias.

A multinational team of archaeologists has been racing to salvage the sixteenth-century shipwreck discovered at a diamond mine off the coast of Namibia. The site is surrounded by a massive wall of sand to hold back the sea, but only until October 10. The ship was carrying copper, tin, ivory, gold and silver coins, and cannons and cannonballs, and is thought to have been a merchant crown ship of Portugal.  

Scientists are analyzing the composition of kangaroo fossils in order to try to trace ancient Aboriginal settlement, migration, and fire stick farming, a traditional Australian practice of burning wooded areas to force lizards out of hiding. Kangaroos and emus then eat the grasses that grow on the cleared land. This change in diet could show up in their fossils. “It’s completely untested. It might not work. But if it does, that’d be cool,” said Doug Bird of Stanford University.  

The Iraqi city of Samarra has been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  

A photograph of the Riace Bronzes taken just after they were pulled from the sea in 1972 has once again prompted speculation by amateur sleuth Giuseppe Bragho. He says that a third statue, two shields, and a lance were spotted by the scuba diver who reported his discovery.  

A seventeenth-century Basque whaling station in Iceland includes a building for melting whale blubber, a barrel workshop, and a bunkhouse for the hunters.  

Police in Macedonia raided the homes of two suspected antiquities smugglers, and confiscated coins, terracotta figurines, jewelry, and amphora thought to have been stolen from the site of Isar.  

Here’s some more information on the pre-Columbian artifacts repatriated to Ecuador yesterday. The looted objects were recovered in Miami two years ago.

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

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