Scientists from the University of Padua have found the Roman trade center of Altinum, considered to be the predecessor of Venice, north of the modern city. They have also determined that the Grand Canal flowed through Altinum and connected it with the lagoon.

The 5,000-year-old skeleton of a man thought to have been killed in battle was found in an eroded grave at a beach south of Rome. “We will check the area to see whether this tomb is isolated and the warrior was buried here because this was the battlefield where he died,” said Carabinieri Raffaele Mancino.  

A 1,400-year-old walled city and its castle have been unearthed in south-central Turkey. Its palaces, mosques, baths, and military structures are from the early Islamic period.  

An inscribed, 2,000-year-old vessel has been found near a ritual bath site just outside of Jerusalem’s Old City.   

The Greek Orthodox Church was successful in demanding that a dramatized scene of Byzantine-era Christian priests destroying parts of the Parthenon be removed from a 13-minute film shown at the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. The accompanying narration was left intact.  

New York Times blogger Tom Kuntz thinks about the campfire storytelling potential of “screaming mummies,” based upon an article by ARCHAEOLOGY’s Mark Rose.    And here’s the original.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, July 31, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

Comments posted here do not represent the views or policies of the Archaeological Institute of America.