Archaeology Magazine Archive

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Archaeology Magazine News Archive
2008-2012


Visit www.archaeology.org/news for the latest archaeological headlines!

Tuesday, January 27
January 27, 2009

The trial of former Getty Museum curator Marion True and antiquities dealer Robert Hecht has resumed in Rome.

A second dock has been uncovered by Egyptian archaeologists at the Karnak temple complex. “In light of the importance of the Karnak temples, which represent the primary home of the god Amun-Ra, the ancient Egyptians built this secondary dock to use when visiting the temples during the dry season,” said lead archaeologist Mansour Boraik.   

Greece will help Iraq restore and conserve its damaged archaeological sites and museums. “We have great need of such assistance,” said Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. The two countries will also build a monument to Alexander the Great near Mosul.  

In Turkey, a forensic expert has reconstructed a face for a skull discovered at the site of Metropolis.   

Japan has given $3.5 million to build a museum of Thracian culture in Bulgaria. “The idea of the exposition is to show Bulgaria’s treasures and to promote them in such a way that more and more Japanese prefer Bulgaria as a tourist destination,” said archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov.  

CNN offers more information and a photograph of the head of a marble figurine unearthed in Jerusalem.

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Monday, January 26
January 26, 2009

The head of a second- or third-century A.D. marble figurine was unearthed in Jerusalem. The head is carved from pale yellow marble, sports a beard and short hair, and probably portrayed an athlete.

Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day. Historian Robert Jan Van Pelt, and former Polish Foreign Minister and Auschwitz inmate Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, offer reasons for and against the preservation of Nazi concentration camps.  

Anthropologist Meridith F. Small, human nature columnist for Live Science, wonders why people bothered to migrate to the Americas 15,000 years ago.   

Seattle’s Pacific Science Center faces a $500,000 loss, after spending $2.25 million on an exhibition featuring the Australopithecus afarensis fossils known as Lucy. “It’s a powerful story of evolution and culture and history … but we’re not getting the attendance we need for an exhibit of this scale,” said museum president Bryce Seidl.   

Liu Fengjun of Shandong University says that inscriptions on recently discovered bones are 1,000 years older than the previously oldest-known Chinese characters. The inscriptions on the Changle bones, carved by the Dongyi people of the Longshan culture, are estimated to be about 5,000 years old.  

David Gilman Romano and his team will soon publish a paper on the first three years of their project at the so-called birthplace of Zeus, Mount Lykaion. Burnt animal bones, petrified lightning, and a bronze male hand holding a silver lightning bolt have been found at the high-altitude site. Jennifer Viegas does a fine job writing archaeology news articles like this one for the Discovery News website, part of the Discovery Channel.  

USA Today columnist Dan Vergano discusses the new Discovery Channel show, Treasure Quest, which features embattled salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration. Vergano includes quotes from Zach Zorich’s editorial on the show in ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine; its parent organization the Archaeological Institute of America and the call to ratify the Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage; and James Delgado, head of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.   

James Delgado consulted with scientists from around the world to try to identify two anchors found by Vietnamese fishermen. The anchors may belong to sunken warships from the Bach Dang Battle, when Mongolian Yuan ships attacked Vietnam in the thirteenth century. “I am waiting to find out if my anchors are from Chinese or Vietnamese ships, transport ships or warships. I want to preserve them in a museum, because if I sell them to foreigners, I think they will be lost to our nation forever,” said restaurant owner Quach Van Dich.   

Civil War wrecks in Charleston Harbor will be mapped by the University of South Carolina Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology, with a grant from the National Park Service.   

An ancient Hohokam canal system has been discovered in Mesa, Colorado, during the construction of a water amusement park. “The soil in them is different than the other soil around them – more porous and moist – still conducting water, if you will,” said Jerry B. Howard, curator of anthropology at the Arizona Museum of Natural History.  

Five men have been indicted in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, for looting American Indian artifacts.   

Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to meet next month to resolve their border dispute. Both countries deployed troops to their shared border, near the Preah Vihear temple, when the temple was awarded World Heritage status by the United Nations.

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