In Iraq, local officials are rushing to prepare ancient monuments for tourists. “In Saddam’s time we dealt with officials who had a primary school education. They didn’t even know who Nebuchadnezzar or Hammurabi was. Now in some of these provinces we suffer from the same problem,” said Qais Hussein Rashid, chairman of the national board of antiquities. 

 A few foreigners have been allowed to excavate in China and collaborate with Chinese scholars since the reforms of the late 1980s. “China is a huge country that has a very long history and even longer prehistory all of which can be approached by archaeology. There is an infinite amount of work to be done,” said Rowan Flad of Harvard University.  

Construction workers uncovered a cave containing mammal bones and stone tools beneath a Buddhist temple in southern China.  

Here’s more information on Tell Heboua, the Egyptian mud-brick garrison at the ancient city of Tharu in the Sinai. “This city was used to protect Egypt and as a gate to the Delta. It was a post of control. If you wanted to cross the Nile, you asked for permission before you crossed the bridge,” said archaeologist Abdul Maqsoud.   

The Philippine Information Agency retells the story of the 1991 discovery of anthropomorphic burial jars in a cave in Mindanao. The jars date between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D.  

The Associated Press tracked down the woman who returned a slab of terra cotta that she and her husband took from Rome 25 years ago. “I was Googling online, trying to figure out if it was a crime first of all. I saw a line about stone robbers and went, ‘Oh my gosh,'” she said.  

Do you think the bust of Nefertiti could be a fake?

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, May 8, 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.