Zahi Hawass has been appointed Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities by embattled President Mubarak. “I am happy to announce that today everything is safe,” he told reporters.

There’s also a summary of recent events in Egypt at National Geographic Daily News.  

Experts try to assess the damage to Egyptian artifacts at Discovery News. “So far it’s only speculation,” explained Margaret Maitland of the University of Oxford.  

A “henge-like” monument has been discovered near Stonehenge by a team of English and Austrian scientists. “People have tended to think that as Stonehenge reached its peak it was the paramount monument, existing in splendid isolation. This discovery is completely new and extremely important in how we understand Stonehenge and its landscape,” said Vince Gaffney of the University of Birmingham.  

Some 200 volunteers are helping archaeologists learn about a cliff-side Roman villa in Kent, England, before it erodes into the sea.  

High-tech tools are also being used to investigate archaeological sites threatened by climate change and erosion in the Canadian Arctic.  

A poll conducted by The Salt Lake Tribune shows that nearly two-thirds of Utah’s residents think the federal artifact raids in 2009 were justified. “Ancient artifacts are more for the public to view in a museum instead of selling them for a profit,” said one respondent.  

Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Günay announced that the Laodicea Church, an early center of Christianity, has been found in western Turkey.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, February 1, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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