A longhouse whose foundations were made from entire tree trunks has been discovered in Monmouth, Wales. The structure, which had been placed on top of stones that had been heated and doused with water, perhaps as a type of sauna, sat next to a lake that silted up long ago. “We think it could be from the Bronze Age (about 4,000 years ago), but some of the experts we’ve brought in to see it think it could be early Neolithic,” said archaeologist Steve Clarke. Radio-carbon dates on the foundations are expected later this month.

Fragments of a gargoyle’s head and foliage fashioned from stucco tumbled from Rome’s historic Trevi Fountain over the weekend. City officials blame uncharacteristically heavy snows this past winter. Critics of the current government blame budget cuts and a lack of daily maintenance for the country’s monuments. “Rome is not Glasgow, and buildings were built accordingly,” explained Umberto Broccoli, Rome’s cultural heritage superintendent.

The Association of Greek Archaeologists has undertaken a campaign to publicize the impact that budget cuts have had on the country’s ancient monuments, claiming that museums are understaffed, archaeological sites are under-protected, and government archaeologists have been forced into early retirement. Erosion and development are therefore gaining an upper hand. “There’s so much out there, and so much work to be done,” said Pavlos Geroulanos, Greece’s recently ousted culture and tourism minister.

The Luxor Criminal Court  has sentenced in absentia six people to life in prison and five people to ten years in prison for the armed robbery of an antiquities storage area in Luxor on March 19, 2011. The group is accused of wounding three guards, smashing the doors of the German-owned storage facility, and stealing two ancient statues.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, June 13, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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