The wreck of the MV City of Rayville, the first American ship sunk during World War II, has been found off the southeastern coast of Australia. The merchant vessel was carrying a load of lead, wool, and copper when in hit a German mine in 1940.

Earlier this week, Robert Deutsch testified for the first time at his three-year trial in Jerusalem for faking and selling antiquities. His co-defendant, Oded Golan, is charged with faking the so-called James ossuary and an inscribed stone said to have been in the First Temple. Last fall, the judge in the case advised the prosecution to consider dropping the charges for a lack of evidence.   

A collector has turned over a twelfth-century statue of Ganesha, believed to be the only one of its kind in Indonesia, to the Mpu Purwa Historical Object Preservation Center. The god is depicted riding a mouse and is adorned with lavish decorations.  

China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage has listed the country’s top ten archaeological discoveries of 2008. The winners include 5,500-year-old man-made cave houses, a Bronze-Age graveyard, and a shopping district.  

University of Delaware graduate student Lauren McMullen has written about her internship at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, where she helped prepare Egyptian artifacts for exhibition.  

Did the “Rx” symbol for prescription medicine evolve from the Udjat Eye of ancient Egypt?   

More images from the CT scan of the bust of Nefertiti are available today.  

As Nefertiti’s “makeover” reveals, ancient Egyptians were obsessed with youth and beauty. Be sure to watch the video from New York 1.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, April 1, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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