A 3,000-year-old oak barrel full of butter was discovered in a bog in County Kildare. “It’s a national treasure, you can’t be going hacking bits of it off for your toast!” joked Carol Smith, a conservator at the National Museum of Ireland.

The market for American Indian artifacts is reportedly “cloaked in a fog of fear and uncertainty,” after the federal crackdown on looting and trafficking in the Four Corners region.   

Meanwhile, a 78-year-old dealer and his wife in Durango, Colorado, are surrendering their personal collection of artifacts to federal authorities. He has been indicted on charges of trafficking, theft, and grave desecration.  

American Indians and English settlers clashed at New Hampshire’s Oyster River Plantation in 1694. Archaeologists and volunteers are excavating the Field-Bickford garrison, where Thomas Bickford survived the battle.  

Poor ventilation and tourist traffic will destroy the pharaonic tombs in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, according to Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. “The levels of humidity and fungus are increasing because of the breath of visitors and this means that the tombs could disappear between 150 and 500 years,” he said. Plans are underway to build exact replicas of the tombs for tourists.  

Egypt’s director of scientific research for the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Tarek el Awady, spoke with reporters after his examination of an Egyptian mummy housed in a museum in Hyderabad, India. He has made recommendations to care for the mummy, and found that it is 2,000 years younger than had been thought.  

Australia’s Defense Personnel Minister Greg Combet defends the work done at the mass graves of World War I soldiers in Fromelles, France. “On all available advice the government has received, whether it is from my department, the Fromelles Management Board, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, or independent experts overseeing the project, that the project is being conducted in a very professional and dignified manner,” he told parliament.  

Evidence of a 1,600-year-old port has been found in the ancient city of Bathonea, near Istanbul. Archaeologists began their search when local people claimed that they saw a “minaret” in the lake. The “minaret” is actually one of the three most important lighthouses in the ancient world.  

Explore Istanbul’s Italian influences in the Galata and Pera neighborhoods.  

The fossilized bones of extinct animals, and stone artifacts, have been found in an underwater cave off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Scientists from Indiana University estimate that their finds are between 4,000 and 10,000 years old. “We’re looking at some of the earliest extinctions of animals when man came into the Caribbean,” said Charlie Beeker of IU’s Office of Underwater Science.  

So, did humans cause the extinction of the pygmy hippo in Cyprus 12,000 years ago?

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, August 19, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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