Residents of Kathmandu say that the authorities have turned a blind eye to the plunder of the Hindu Pashupatinath Temple area, which is a World Heritage Site. “Thefts are on the rise. As a result, the beauty of these temples has been diminished,” said Badri Puri, an 82-year-old watchman at Bishworup Temple.

Greg Stemm, chief executive of the American salvage company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, says he is “shocked and surprised by the degree of damage we found in the [English] Channel,” especially in the area where the wreck of the HMS Victory was found. The report on the damage done by commercial fishing was produced by Sean Kingsley of Wreck Watch International. A Google search for “Wreck Watch International” only produces references to Odyssey Marine Exploration projects. Sean Kingsley is more widely known for his search for first-century treasures from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

The media blitz continues with the 47-million-year-old fossil now known as “Ida.”   This article from the Associated Press offers a different opinion about how the fossil fits into the evolutionary tree. “I actually don’t think it’s terribly close to the common ancestral line of monkeys, apes, and people. I would say it’s about as far away as you can get from that line and still be a primate,” said K. Christopher Beard of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.   National Geographic News has an x-ray of the creature’s skeleton.   The article from the Associated Foreign Press has a few more details about the story behind the discovery of the fossil, and Reuters mentions that “Ida” was linked to humans because of the shape of the talus bone in her ankle.   

A 3,000-year-old jar handle bearing the name of an ancient king, “Menachem,” in Hebrew script was uncovered on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives. “It’s important because it shows that they actually used the name Menachem during that period. It’s not just from the Bible, but it’s also in the archaeological record,” said Ron Beeri of the Israel Antiquities Authority.  

Admission to Greece’s new Acropolis Museum will only cost one euro for the first six months.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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