Ireland’s Lia Fail Standing Stone, also known as the “Stone of Destiny,”  has been vandalized. The 5,500-year-old monument, which sits on the Hill of Tara, was hit with a hammer, causing damage in a total of 11 places on all four granite faces. None of the fragments were found. Tradition holds that the High Kings of Ireland were crowned at the stone.

Pamela Jane Smith of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at England’s Cambridge University has brought pioneering archaeologist Dorothy Garrod into the spotlight. Garrod became the first female at the university in 1939, when she was unanimously elected the Disney Professor of Archaeology. At the time, women were not admitted to the university, so she was referred to as a man in all correspondence. “Her work was groundbreaking from the beginning,” said Smith.

Excavations at the prehistoric mound known as Rach Nui in southern Vietnam have uncovered a 3,500-year-old pit latrine containing human and dog feces. Remnants of betel nut and foxtail millet have been found, indicating that the people grew crops, in addition to fish and animal bones. “A detailed analysis of these will provide a wealth of information on both the diet of humans and dogs at Rach Nui but also the types of parasites each had to contend with,” said Marc Oxenham of Australian National University.

Researchers are attempting to keep  a bronze rostrum with a wooden core  from disintegrating. The ram, discovered in the Mediterranean Sea in 2008, once sat on the prow of an ancient warship. Chemical analysis of the wood has shown it is pine waterproofed with pine tar, and that sulfur in the wood could become extremely corrosive sulfuric acid. “The sulfur diffused into the wood and actually preserved it against degradation during burial in the seabed. However, the same sulfur causes the sulfuric acid threat after the wooden object is removed from the sea and kept in a museum, in air,” explained Patrick Rank of Stanford University. The rostrum is stored under water.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, June 14, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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