Turkish officials have requested the return of several mosaics in a letter to Ohio’s Bowling Green State University. The university purchased the mosaics from a New York art dealer in 1965, and raised a red flag when recent research didn’t add up with the information provided by the seller. (The mosaics are thought to have been looted from the ancient city of Zeugma.) “The attitude of Bowling Green State University will set an example for other universities and art institutions in America which possess cultural properties illegally exported from our country,” wrote Abdullah Kocapinar of Turkey’s General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Archaeologist William Kelso will become an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire in a ceremony to be held at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Kelso’s investigations led to the discovery of the original 1607 fort at Jamestown. “Since 1893, Preservation Virginia has served as steward of 22 acres at Jamestown. Only when Bill became the association’s director of archaeology was a thorough investigation considered,” said Elizabeth Kostelney, director of Preservation Virginia.

A Spanish shipwreck has been found in the Philippines, near the north-central coast of Panay Island, by a team of divers from the National Museum and the Philippine Coast Guard. The ship rests beneath 110 feet of water.

A team of archaeologists will be looking for traces of a seventeenth-century Spanish mission at a popular park on St. Simons Island, Georgia. “What we’re hoping to find initially are artifacts that date to the period, such as a kind of Native American pottery called San Marcos pottery, a Spanish olive jar or other European ware that we see at missions. That will give us a clue that the site was occupied during that time,” said Keith Ashley of the University of North Florida.

Blogger Peter Smith writes about experimental efforts to recreate Roman fish sauce.  Once you have made some fish sauce, you can put it into this kimchi  recipe. Versions of kimchi, or pickled cabbage, have been made in Korea for 3,000 years.

The current site of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in northern Georgia’s Cherokee County had been occupied by American Indians during four different periods, beginning as early as 2,000 years ago. The site was eventually taken over by Europeans in the 1830s. “They would come in, hunt and farm the land until it wore out and then would abandon it. And then, years later, another band would come in and start over again. You know it’s a good spot; people keep coming back,” said Billy Hasty, whose family sold the land to developers.

Skeletal remains uncovered in an Iowa cemetery are not those of a man missing since 1968. The coffin hardware and other artifacts indicate that remains had been buried between 1850 and the early 1900s.

Here are photographs of the two completed reconstructed faces that were made from two unidentified skulls recovered from the wreck of the USS Monitor.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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