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.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, January 26, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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