Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization announced that it has cut ties with the British Museum over the Cyrus Cylinder. The British Museum had promised to loan the cylinder, said to be the world’s earliest charter of human rights, to the National Museum in Tehran, but delayed sending it when political protests erupted last December. A second delay occurred when inscriptions similar to those on the cylinder were discovered on pieces of cuneiform tablet in the British Museum’s collections. 

A Maori canoe was spotted sticking out of the sand on a New Zealand beach. “It’s difficult to date the waka because it may have been created from a tree many hundreds of years old, and there is no surrounding material that we can date,” said historian Robert Brassey.  

A wall covered with Maya glyphs has been discovered in Mexico’s Tonina Archaeological Zone, in Chiapas. A stucco portrait of K’inich B’aaknal Chaahk, a military officer, his sarcophagus, and a throne have been uncovered in the structure known as El Palacio as well.  

The residents of Colchester, England, have less than a month to raise enough money to save the only chariot racing circus in Britain. The land where some of the track is buried is slated to be developed as apartments and private gardens. “The fabulous Roman walls of Colchester are falling down. The circus is only the beginning of saving our whole fantastic Roman heritage,” said Wendy Bailey of the group, Destination Colchester.  

Two hundred archaeological workers on Istanbul’s Marmaray tunnel project are on strike, protesting low pay and unhealthy working conditions. The workers are employed by the Deniz Polat Construction Company.   

The 1,800-year-old Gara Church in Bodrum, Turkey, will be restored as part of a tourist site. Its mosaic floor features dolphins and a swordfish, and is thought to have been imported from Egypt. “The building will not last long considering its current situation; it should immediately be repaired,” wrote Emine Tok of Ege University.   

Descendants of suspected pirate Edward Salter are coming forward in North Carolina.  

Thieves are stripping California’s historic mining sites of their metal objects. “With the price of metals having gone up, this has led to an increase in people simply carrying artifacts away,” said Calaveras County Supervisor Steve Wilensky.  

A 1957 Plymouth Belvedere that was buried in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 50 years ago, has been undergoing a treatment administered by New Jersey businessman Dwight Foster, who sells a rust removal chemical. “This was a promotion stunt for me. It’s the most famous rust bucket in the world,” he said.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Monday, February 8, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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