Global economic problems stifling construction have hit contract archaeologists, the ones who work in advance of building projects. Roland Smith of Wessex Archaeology says their firm has laid off 60 diggers.

Statues of Amenhotep III and Hatshepsut were uncovered by Egyptian archaeologists at Luxor.

Chinese archaeologists have excavated an Eastern Zhou period tomb in Luoyang, Henan province, that held remains of two horses and two chariots.

A follow up on the lawsuit just filed by descendants of Geronimo against the Yale society Skull and Bones.

This review of The Lost City of Z, a book about the explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett who disappeared in the Amazon in 1925, is probably correctly filed under “entertainment.” Fawcett was looking for “a legendary city he called Z, a glittering oasis of civilization supposedly sequestered deep in the jungle.” The book’s author camped in the Amazon and met an “American archaeologist who lives, Kurtz-like, with a tribe of Indians deep in the jungle.”

The story of two Chinese bronzes taken from the imperial Summer Palace outside Beijing nearly 150 years ago took an odd twist. Chinese is seeking to stop Christie’s from auctioning them next week on behalf of Pierre Berge, the partner of the late Yves Saint Laurent. Berge has now stated that “I am ready to give these Chinese heads to China if they are ready to recognize human rights.”

University of West Florida Archaeology Institute graduate students and faculty members showed King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain artifacts excavated from one of Don Tristan de Luna’s ships that sank in Pensacola Bay in 1559. UWF Maritime Studies Program director John Bratten hopes the royal visit encourages students and faculty exchange programs with Spain.

This entry was posted by Archaeology Magazine on Friday, February 20, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

Comments posted here do not represent the views or policies of the Archaeological Institute of America.