The 2,000-year-old skulls of 45 men were discovered in a burial pit in Dorset, England. Torso and leg bones were found in separate sections of the pit. “At the moment we don’t fully understand how or why the remains have come to be deposited in the pit but it seems highly likely that some kind of catastrophic event such as war, disease, or execution has occurred,” said David Score, project manager for Oxford Archaeology.

Federal officials announced in a press conference yesterday the arrest of 23 people for looting American Indian artifacts in the Four Corners region. “[We] will track you down and will bring you to justice if you violate these laws,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.  There’s more information in this article from the Associated Press.   “Nothing has deterred these people. They continue to do it. They belong in prison. They have no respect for the humanity of the American Indian people,” Forrest Cuch, director of Utah’s Division of Indian Affairs, told a reporter in this third story on the arrests.   

Twenty unexploded bombs were uncovered in Oklahoma, in an area that was a training range for pilots during World War II. “There is really no way of knowing if the ordinance will explode or not. Let the experts handle it,” said Clarke County Sheriff Todd Kemp.  

The British Museum continues to refuse to loan the Parthenon Marbles to the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, which is scheduled to open on June 20, unless Greece will acknowledge the sculptures as the property of the British Museum.  “Accepting this is tantamount to legitimizing the snatching of the marbles and the carving up of the monument 207 years ago,” said Greek Culture Minister Antonis Samaras.  Newsweek has also weighed in on the Parthenon Marbles.  

More than 1,500 artifacts confiscated at London’s Heathrow Airport have arrived in Kabul. “Every day we get reports that illegal excavation is taking place here or there,” said Afghanistan’s Deputy Culture Minister Ghulam Nabi Farahi.    View photographs of Buddhist artifacts from Bamiyan, Afghanistan, at National Geographic News.  

Chris Sloane, editor of National Geographic Magazine, writes about the 13,000-year-old bone said to be etched with the oldest artwork in the Western Hemisphere in his blog. “Let’s hope, hope, hope it is true,” he said.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, June 11, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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