A reporter from Newsweek spoke with archaeologist Amira Edan al-Dahab at the Iraq Museum.

South Africa has donated $8 million to save the ancient libraries of Timbuktu. “It is often thought that there was not writing in Africa but the manuscripts prove otherwise. Before and during our colonization there was writing,” said Mohamed Gallah Dicko, director-general of the Ahmed Baba Institute. 

Here’s more information on the discovery of 5,000-year-old pottery fragments at the altar to Zeus on Greece’s Mount Lykaion. The pottery “suggests that the tradition of devotion to some divinity on that spot is very ancient,” and “very likely predates the introduction of Zeus in the Greek world,” said David Gilman Romano of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Turkish archaeologists from Ankara University will travel to Yemen to assess castles, fortresses, mosques, forts, and bath houses built by the Ottomans. 

If you’re going to be in West Yorkshire, England, this weekend, swing by the town of Castleford for a free Roman hairdo. The town sits on the Roman settlement and military fort known as Lagentium or Legioleum.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, February 5, 2008. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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