Turkish authorities have arrested five people out of the ten who were detained in a raid near the town of Milas. They are accused of digging two tunnels to reach a buried tomb containing a 2,800-year-old sarcophagus and frescoes. “This is not an ordinary treasure hunt. It is very organized and it is obvious that they received economic and scientific help,” said Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay.

Vibrations caused by heavy construction vehicles have damaged the 10,000-year-old city of Hasankeyf, located in southeastern Turkey. Last month, a man was killed when a rock fell from a cracked tower. The city is expected to be flooded with the construction of the Ilisu Dam is completed.  

Hundreds of olive pits found at a 2,300-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Cyprus indicate that they were probably a staple of the crew’s diet.  

Excavations at Old College, Edinburgh University, could yield the remains of Lord Darnley, Mary Queen of Scots’ second husband. Lord Darnley’s lodgings at the university were destroyed by an explosion in 1567, and he and his valet were found strangled in the garden. The murder was never solved, and the grounds have been heavily disturbed over the years.  

CNN has picked up the story of the reliquary discovered on an island in the Black Sea that has been making headlines in Bulgaria. The stone box is said to hold some bones of John the Baptist. Archaeologist Kazimir Popkonstantinov says that the bones and the reliquary will be tested for their age, and whether the bones belonged to a man or a woman. “As far as I know there is no database with DNA profiles of the saints. Here, I believe, the science stops,” he quipped.  

Ernest Shackleton’s crate of Scotch whisky that was recovered from the Antarctic ice in 2006 has been thawed out in New Zealand. Master blenders will try to re-create the blend, but the historic beverages will be preserved and returned to the explorer’s hut.  

In this picture, Jaromir Malek of Oxford University holds an original glass negative from Howard Carter’s archive of photographs and notes on King Tut’s tomb. Malek has made Carter’s records available online to all. “We hope that this will help bring the knowledge and love of ancient Egypt to everybody. It really belongs to the world,” he said.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, August 13, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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