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Human skull discovered in woods
2007-01-11 13:00:02
Police and forensic archaeologists are examining a human skull which was found in woodland in Buckinghamshire.It was discovered on Sunday morning by a man walking his dog in Wendover Wood s, Aylesbury Vale.The area has been cordoned off and Thames Valley Police officers are searching the site.Det Sgt Pete Foy said officers and other specialists were trying to determine the nature and origin of the bone, which could take several weeks.Read the rest of this article...
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History sleuth's odyssey to Homer's island
2007-01-11 13:00:02
An amateur historian produced evidence yesterday to back his claim to have found the island homeland of Home r's legendary Greek king, Odysseus.Scholars have argued for centuries over the whereabouts of Ithaca, the lost kingdom of the hero of the Trojan war. But Robert Bittlestone, a management consultant from Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, and two professors of classics and geology have suggested the location is not the Greek island of Ithaki, but Paliki ? a peninsula of Kefalonia.The bands on this rock off Kefalonia may not be the result of falling sea-levels and sun but of seismic activity which filled in the channel to Paliki If true, it would be the greatest classical discovery since Heinrich Schliemann found the site of Troy in Turkey in the 1870s, and would establish Odysseus as a figure from history as opposed to a figment of Homer's imagination.In Homer's epic poem, it takes Odysseus 10 years to return home after the war.Read the rest of this article...
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Tower of London drafted for design danger list
2007-01-11 13:00:02
The sheer number of skyscrapers due to share space alongside the Tower of London has raised the possibility that the building should join the list of endangered World Heritage Sites.The proposal, reportedly tabled yesterday by Unesco, would mean the capital?s most famous fortress would become the only building in the developed world on the endangered list.Government officials have until the end of the month to explain to the UN agency?s World Heritage Committee why the Tower should not be listed, The Independent reported.According to the paper, officials from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are likely to say that the correct planning procedures were followed for developments to the nearby area.Read the rest of this article...
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2006 IN REVIEW: Bulgaria's year of discoveries: What lies be
2007-01-11 13:00:02
Bulgaria's population has increased by three since 2005, two men and one woman. In August, archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology discovered two additional tombs on Cape Kaliakra, during a site excavation. The tombs are thought to be from the country's early Christian period (seventh-eighth century CE) according to the uncoverers, and from the same family, but buried at different times.Instead of trying to privatise the national rails of iron, the country can put on public display a mediaeval sword. The weapon was found at the site of the two tombs and is particularly prized because such weapons are rarely found.Six point three more inches of gold and platinum have now been added to the country's miles of wealth. The dagger, found in August in an ancient Thracian complex near the village of Dabene, central Bulgaria, is believed to be 5000 years old.Read the rest of this article...
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New Viking treasures found
2007-01-11 13:00:02
Archaeologists have made a major discovery in Western Norway, unearthing well-preserved Viking graves from the 9th century full of riches.The Viking treasures were found at Frøyland in Rogaland County. Local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reported Monday that items recovered from the graves indicate they belonged to wealthy Vikings of the time.In one of the graves, belonging to a woman, archaeologists found jewellery, many pearls, glass beads, scissors, a knife and other household utensils."The size, quality and design of the jewellery is highly unusual," said archaeologist Olle Hemdorff. "She took with her many things."Read the rest of this article...
More About: King , Sure , Treasure , Treasures

Why covet ancient chariots...
2007-01-05 12:57:01
ITALY Conservationists are campaigning for the return of a unique Etruscan ?golden chariot? which is due to form the centrepiece of a new exhibition this Spring at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.The chariot, found in 1902 by a farmer at Monteleone near Spoleto in Umbria, and sold to the Met the next year, dates back to the 6th century BC. It is the star attraction in a collection of antiquities to go on show at the $155 million (£80million) Leon Levy and Shelby White Court at the museum.Villagers in Monteleone (population 651), say that it was exported illegally. The campaign comes as Italy is stepping up its battle to regain a number of allegedly looted antiquities from institutions including the Met and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.The farmer who found the chariot sold it ? for two cows, according to some accounts ? to dealers who allegedly smuggled it to New York. Read the rest of this article...
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Sword finder takes his cut of £125,000
2007-01-05 12:57:01
The finder of the remains of an exceptional 7th-century gold sword in a Lincolnshire field is £125,000 richer after they were acquired by the British Museum.He is expected to share his good fortune with the owner of the field, near Market Rasen, where he made the discovery using a metal detector.The sword?s pommel, decorated with large garnets that would have been transported along trade routes from Asia, and its hilt fittings were made by Anglo-Saxon craftsmen. Read the rest of this article...
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Area's unique Christian heritage to be marked
2007-01-05 12:57:01
A SERIES of events celebrating the area's unique Chris t ian heritage are being planned under the banner of The Golden Age of Northumbria.It is hoped the two-year programme of events will help put Berwick Borough back on the map and could be an important step towards eventual World Heritage Status.The idea is being put together by the heritage and culture sector board of the Berwick Borough Local Strategic Partnership (BBLSP) which has made a funding application for £50,000 to the Heritage Lottery Fund.Derek Sharman, a member of the heritage and culture sector board, said: "This part of north Northumberland was the cradle of English Christianity after Irish Celtic monks like Aidan and Cuthbert arrived in the 7th century.Read the rest of this article...
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FYROM treasures looted
2007-01-05 12:57:01
Deep in the south of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the looters move in broad daylight, trying to unearth historic treasures from a region that has become a paradise for plunderers. The brazen diggers in Isar Marvinci, a village of around 900 inhabitants some 170 kilometers (105 miles) from the capital Skopje, scour an ancient settlement in the hope of finding artifacts dating as far back as the Bronze Age.?What to do with them, take them or leave them? If you leave them, the next digger or visitor will take them,? says one digger who refuses to reveal his identify. The raiders act with little fear of punishment despite knowing that what they are doing is illegal in FYROM, an impoverished Balkan country that doesn?t have the resources to protect its historic heritage. ?Police come and go, and there is no local force,? says another.The role of the diggers is the first link in a smuggling chain that usually sees the items end up on display in the West?s major shopping cent...
More About: Sure , Loot , Treasure , Treasures

Enthusiast?s historic find in field
2007-01-05 12:57:01
A STONE hand axe dating back to 3500 BC has been found in a field near Martyr Worthy.The object was found by metal detectorist and archaeology enthusiast Jeremy de Montfalcon, of Hulse Road, Southampton.The axe has been verified as authentic by Laura McLean, of the Portable Antiquities Scheme based the Hyde Hist oric Resources Centre.Read the rest of this article...
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Tattoos: The Ancient and Mysterious History
2007-01-05 12:57:01
Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos for thousands of years. These permanent designs?sometimes plain, sometimes elaborate, always personal?have served as amulets, status symbols, declarations of love, signs of religious beliefs, adornments and even forms of punishment. Joann Fletcher, research fellow in the department of archaeology at the University of York in Britain, describes the history of tattoos and their cultural significance to people around the world, from the famous " Iceman," a 5,200-year-old frozen mummy, to today?s Maori.Read the rest of this article...
More About: History , Story , Tattoo , Mysterious , Stor

CU-Boulder tracks movements of ancient Central Americans usi
2007-01-05 12:57:01
Satellite imagery meshed with video-game technology is allowing University of Colorado at Boulder and NASA researchers to virtually "fly" along footpaths used by Cent ral America ns 2,000 years ago on spiritual pilgrimages to ancestral cemeteries.The effort has allowed researchers to trace the movements of ancient people in the Arenal region of present-day Costa Rica, who used single-file paths to navigate rugged terrain between small villages and cemeteries over the centuries, said CU-Boulder Professor Payson Sheets. The repeated use of the footpaths caused erosion resulting in narrow trenches in the landscape up to 10 feet deep.The evidence now indicates people re-used the same processional routes for more than 1,000 years, returning to them despite periodic abandonment of villages caused by recurring violent eruptions of the nearby Arenal Volcano, he said. Sheets gave a presentation on the subject at the 2nd International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology held in Rome fr...
More About: Men , American , Tracks

Thieves beware: museum curators are after you
2007-01-05 12:57:01
Faced with the prospect of dissolution, the Art and Antiques Unit of the Metropolitan Police has come up with a new idea?to recruit curators and art historians as special constables. The scheme, dubbed Art Beat, is set to start in April. This is the first time the police has attempted to recruit such specialist volunteers.Detective Sergeant Vernon Rapley told The Art Newspaper that the scheme was devised after the Art squad was told by the Metropolitan Police Authority that it could be disbanded if it did not become 50% self-financing by 2008.Art Beat Special Constables are being recruited from museums such as the Victoria & Albert and the British Muse um , universities, insurance companies and other cultural organisations. After four weeks training in police procedure as well as specialist art squad techniques, volunteers will be sponsored by their employers to work as Special Constables for 200 hours a year or one day a fortnight. They will be uniformed and will have full police pow...
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Archaeologist is acknowledged with an MBE
2007-01-05 12:57:01
County archaeologist Dr Keith Ray?s services to local government have been acknowledged with an MBE in the New Years Honours list.In what he describes as ?a big canvas?, Dr Ray set up the Herefordshire County Archaeology Department in 1998, and some fascinating results have been revealed as a result of various studies spearheaded by him and his team mainly in the three valleys of Rivers Arrow, Frome and Lugg.Read the rest of this article...
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£94m Acropolis museum reveals ancient treasures
2007-01-05 12:57:01
Like many treasures from antiquity, they were chance finds, but a fabulous hoard of more than 50,000 pieces unearthed during excavations in Athens has also provided a window on to the ancient civilisation of Greece. The treasure trove, discovered during excavations to build the New Acropolis Muse um in the capital, includes relics ranging from a near perfectly preserved marble bust of Aristotle to cooking utensils, children's games and figurines of little known deities."Thanks to the New Acropolis Museum we were able to conduct the biggest ever dig within the walls of Athens' ancient city," archaeologist, Stamatia Eleftheratou, said. "The excavation yielded artefacts that told us a lot about people's habits, the way they worshipped and their day to day lives."Some of the treasures, such as an ornate statuette of the eastern deity Zeus Heliopolites, are unique - providing evidence of a cult of a god hitherto unknown - and extraordinarily well preserved.Read the rest of this article...
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Kids bone up on the hippos of Yorkshire
2007-01-05 12:57:01
THE ancient remains of a special Armley family are to have a special place in the new Leeds Museum.Children, from Raynville Primary School, Bramley, and Burley St Matthias, Burley Park, are preparing exhibition material for the display of local HIPPOPOTAMUS bones.They are working with geography students from Leeds University, as part of a project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.The skeletons of the four hippos, which were discovered in Armley in 1852, are set to become a centrepiece attraction at the new Leeds Museum on Millennium Square, due to open in 2008.The bones, which are believed to be 120,000 years old, will form part of an environmental timeline of Leeds tracing back from the present day.Read the rest of this article...
More About: Kids , Hire , York , Yorkshire , Bone

Scientists May Have Found Medici Murder
2007-01-05 12:57:01
Undated photo released Wednesday Jan. 3, 2007 by Prof. Donatella Lippi of the University of Florence, shows materials, viscera (remains of human liver) and two crucifixes, found in the Santa Maria Bonistallo church crypt, in Poggio a Caiano near Florence, central Italy. Scientist s in Italy believe they have uncovered a 400-year-old murder. Historians have long suspected that Francesco de' Medici , Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife Bianca Cappello did not die of malaria but were poisoned -- probably by Francesco's brother, Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, who was vying for the title -- but that theory was never proven. Now, forensic and toxicology experts at the University of Florence believe they have found evidence of murder, according to their study, which was published in the British Medical Journal on Dec. 21. (AP Photo/University of Florence)(AP) -- Scientists in Italy believe they have uncovered a murder - 400 years after it is thought to have taken place. Historians...
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The Getty's troubled goddess
2007-01-05 12:57:01
Liberated from its shipping crates, the ancient statue drew a crowd of employees when it arrived in December 1987 at the J. Paul Getty Museum's antiquities conservation lab.The 7 1/2 -foot figure had a placid marble face and delicately carved limestone gown. It was thought to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Some who came to see it believed that the sculpture would become the greatest piece in the museum's antiquities collection.One man, however, saw trouble.Luis Monreal, director of the Getty Conservation Institute, saw signs that the object had been looted. There was dirt in the folds of the gown, and the torso had what appeared to be new fractures, suggesting that the statue had been recently unearthed and broken apart for easy smuggling.Read the rest of this article...
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Mayo Clinic collaboration mining of ancient herbal text lead
2007-01-05 12:57:01
A unique Mayo Clinic collaboration has revived the healing wisdom of Pacific Island cultures by testing a therapeutic plant extract described in a 17th century Dutch herbal text for its anti-bacterial properties. Early results show that extracts from the Atun tree effectively control bacteria that can cause diarrhea, as claimed by naturalist Georg Eberhard Rumpf, circa 1650. He documented his traditional healing methods in the book Ambonese Herbal.Read the rest of this article...
More About: Borat , Mining , Mini , Labor , Text

Stonehenge: a new view from a medieval artist
2007-01-02 12:55:02
Stonehenge has been in the news twice recently. Both a new view and a new interpretation of the monument have been announced. The new view is a tiny medieval drawing, only a couple of inches across, noticed in a scala mundi or ?world ladder?, a chart of universal chronology from the Creation onwards. The document was in the municipal library of Douai, in northern France, probably taken there from
More About: Artist , Stone , View , Stonehenge , Medieval

Treasure emerges from the mud of history
2007-01-02 12:55:02
To the untutored eye, it looks like a lump of mud, but experts say that an 8th-century psalter found in an Irish peat bog is exceptionally significant. Even though the vellum pages of the early Book of Psalms are a crumpled mass, they are likening it to the Book of Kells, one of the world?s most beautiful illuminated manuscripts. As the find is thought to date from the late 8th century, the
More About: History , Story , Stor , Hist , Sure

DIGITAL MAPS HELP IDENTIFY HISTORIC SITES
2007-01-02 12:55:02
Anxious householders are not the only people keeping a close eye on the crumbling Holderness coast. For archaeologists are currently poring over 12,000 aerial photographs trying to identify historic sites on the brink of being lost forever to the North Sea. Funded by English Heritage, the project is examining 85 miles of vulnerable coastline from Whitby to Donna Nook in North-East
More About: Site , Sites , Help , Historic , Maps

ARCHAEOLOGIST FEARS TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR COASTLINE
2007-01-02 12:55:02
Humber Archaeology team member John Buglass has been examining the Cleethorpes sites for the survey. He believes it could be as little as five years before the sea permanently covers them.He said: "The boat is built of wood and has wooden trenails, with a little iron used, for fastenings. This could indicate the boat is from the early to mid-19th Century. "She may - and I stress may - have been
More About: Running , Time , Fear , Line , Fears

Reunited at last! This is David, the brother I lost just 1,0
2007-01-02 12:55:02
Gene study is throwing a new light on our nation's history - and our personal ancestry, reports science editor Robin McKie A scientific revolution is taking place in the study of our ancient past. Once the preserve of academics who analysed prehistoric stones and crumbling parchment, the subject has been transformed by the study of our genes by scientists who are using the blood of the living to
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Viking longships' last voyage strikes fear into the heart of
2007-01-02 12:55:02
A ROW has broken out in Norway over a decision to move three ancient Viking ships, which may not survive the journey. The University of Oslo has decided to move three longships, probably by lorry and barge, to a new museum, despite dire warnings that the thousand-year-old oak vessels could fall apart en route. A retired curator of Oslo's current Viking Ship Museum has said that the delicately
More About: Hear , Last , Heart , Ships , Fear

Interview: Italy's Antiquities Prosecutor Fiorilli
2006-12-29 18:52:02
Italy's antiquities prosecutor, Maurizio Fiorilli, has become the darling of the media in the past year helping to persuade the American public, and particularly the art world, to rethink the ethics of holding onto Italy's cultural patrimony with words like: "Until now we have dreamed, we have slept. Now it is time to wake up." Words meant to be heard back home in Italy, perhaps, but shot around the world via the Los Angeles Times.An antiquities movement, a wave was created, essentially, and a signing of repatriation agreements with major US museums followed. It came at a time when people, as an escape from senseless US wars they did not vote for, suddenly took interest in an antiquities conspiracy trial in Rome. Visuals of ancient art in the media -- images of the humans we once were -- became huge with meaning. Read the rest of this article...
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Top 10 Discoveries of 2006
2006-12-29 18:52:02
How do you know it's been an extraordinary year in archaeology? When the discovery of the earliest Maya writing and a 2,500-year-old sarcophagus decorated with scenes from the Iliad don't crack ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 list:1. Valley of the Kings TombRead the rest of this article...
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Boat provides historical insight
2006-12-29 18:52:02
A Bronze Age logboat which had lain unseen in the River Tay for 3,000 years is being studied by archaeologists.It is hoped the find will yield important new information about how human ancestors lived.Although the boat, made from the trunk of a single oak, was found five years ago, it was only lifted out of the Tay during the summer.Repairs carried out on the 30ft vessel have already given experts an insight into Bronze Age technology.Read the rest of this article...
More About: Insight , Historical , Historic , Boat , Stor

A Roman statue worth $ 15 million found in an olive depot
2006-12-29 06:52:01
A statue belonging to the Roma n era was found in an olive depot located in Gemlik, Bursa.Police have raided an olive depot after being notified about an illegal historical artifact trade. A statue of two women holding a globe in their hands is assumed to belong the Roman era was captured.Police said the owners of the depot was trying to sell the statue for $ 15 million to some foreign buyers.According to an information obtained from Bursa Police Department, Gemlik police was notified about two illegal traders; 46 year old Kemal K. and his friend Ismail A. Security teams have detected 6 different addresses for the suspects and raided all 6 addresses concurrently on Wednesday.Read the rest of this article...
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Sutton amateur archaeologists close in on their ultimate goa
2006-12-29 06:52:01
THE lives of the bronze age people who settled, worked and traded in East Cambridgeshire are shrouded in mystery.But a dedicated band of volunteers in Sutton is throwing light on this integral part of our past, and look set to make real advances in our archaeological understanding of East Cambridgeshire in the new year.IAN RAY reports on a project that shows how a community-organised venture has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of local pre-history.FOR more than three years now, a group of volunteers, who have named themselves the Sutton Archaeological Group, have worked steadily to excavate a Bronze Age barrow at the village's gravel pits.Read the rest of this article...
More About: Goa , Close , Mate , Ultimate , Amateur