It is well known that the famed bust of Nefertiti, housed at Berlin’s Neues Museum, was discovered a century ago by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt. What is not well known is that his expedition to Egypt was financed by Jewish philanthropist and archaeology enthusiast James Simon. The story of his role in the discovery of the bust was erased when Adolf Hitler’s Nazis came to power in 1933. According to a new documentary about Simon’s life, he donated the bust to Berlin’s museums and he reportedly advocated for its return to Egypt when the Egyptian government requested it.

The gradual decline of Sumerian civilization and its language may have been the result of a 200-year-long drought, according to geologist Matt Konfirst of the Byrd Polar Research Center. “As we go into the 4,200-year-ago climate anomaly, we actually see that estimated rainfall decreases substantially in this region and the number of sites that are populated at this time period reduce substantially,” he said. Eventually, nomads sacked the Sumerian capital city of Ur.

Two lion statues  from a temple in the ancient city of Nuzi, located in Iraq, are part of a project at Harvard University’s Semitic Museum. One of the statues is intact–3-D scans of it will help scholars and technicians re-create its mirror image from the few fragments of ceramic that have been found of the second statue. “It’s important to devote out time and attention to objects we have in our collection and to apply the latest techniques, techniques not dreamed of when [the artifacts] were dug up,” said Joseph Greene, assistant director of the museum. There were probably four lion statues in the temple, two standing and two crouching, when the Assyrians destroyed the city and looted the temple.

Two American ships  from the War of 1812 sit on the cold, dark bottom of Lake Ontario. Researchers recently made new, detailed maps of the Hamilton and the Scourge, which were merchant ships called into service by the Navy. The survey and photographs show that the ships remain in excellent condition. “They were in a remarkably good state of preservation. They are basically an archaeologist’s dream,” said Jonathan Moore of Parks Canada.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, December 5, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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