Getting Babylon ready for visitors after the rule of Saddam Hussein and years of war is a top priority for the Iraqi State Ministry for Tourism and Antiquities. “If you took a picture here, the guards would come down from the hill and beat you, smash your camera, and sometimes take you away,” guide Ghanum Duleme said of the Saddam days.

British archaeologists have high hopes for New Place, Shakespeare’s last home. “This is the most exciting think I have ever worked on. To be able to learn more about a single person, who most people can still relate to, is frankly thrilling,” said Kevin Coll, who is leading the dig.  

Teen-aged friends out for a hike in Ohio stumbled across human remains, and called the police. The bones are probably more than 150 years old.   

Construction crews in Guam unearthed what could be the remains of five Japanese soldiers killed during World War II. A hob-nailed boot found with the bones helped osteologist Cherie Walth make the preliminary identification.  

A team of researchers wants to know if an American whaling ship reached Australia before Captain Cook arrived in 1770.  

There’s a new sound and light show at the Egyptian pyramids.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, December 2, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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