Colonel Matthew Bogdanos discusses his experience of the illegal trade in antiquities and its link to terrorist activities in Iraq. “The reason I stress the terrorism aspect is that for many people, if I talk about the importance of cultural heritage, that’s just white noise to them. If that argument doesn’t resonate, then telling them they fund terrorism will,” he writes.

Two life-size sculptures representing captured Maya warriors have been uncovered at the site of Tonina in southern Chiapas, Mexico. Some scholars think the warriors had been captured from Copan in a war over the control of the Usumacinta River.

The 8,000-year-old burial of a dog has been discovered in a shell mound in Portugal.

Construction of an underground pipeline from southern Chad through Cameroon has revealed a range of archaeological sites, including some that are 100,000 years old. “When I started to work in Cameroon almost 40 years ago, people had the idea that Cameroonians were not from here. In fact, archaeology proves that the present different groups have been living in the same place for thousands of years,” said anthropologist Pierre de Maree.

An international team of excavators is converging on Gath, the ancient Philistine city in southern Israel.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, July 8, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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