Brad Pitt? Orlando who? When it comes to “Troy,” these Hollywood stars may be pretty, but they’re pretty much rookies compared to University of Cincinnati archaeologist Brian Rose. He was at Troy for 15 years, leading digs that unearthed ancient gold jewelry, statuary and even an elaborately stylized coffin. Last fall, Rose’s phone started ringing. National Geographic, the BBC, USA Today, the History Channel and others were calling, wanting to hear the truth about Troy.
Yes, it’s been gritty labor done in isolation amidst dry dust and heat as high as 120 degrees while excavating at Troy (in Turkey). But now it’s grit to glamour for Rose as a new movie on Troy – starring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom – is set for release on May 14.
His phone began ringing last autumn, he says. First, came the broadcasters – National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel and the History Channel, along with the BBC. Now, magazines and newspapers are calling and e-mailing too.
This line will be familiar to many archys:"Yes, it’s been gritty labor done in isolation amidst dry dust and heat as high as 120 degrees while excavating at . . .[insert site here]".
More on the Trojan war at Archaeology Magazine.
Archaeologist will investigate bones found beneath street
An archaeologist will today study bones unearthed under a central Queenstown street during earthworks on Monday.
Queenstown Lakes District Council parks and open space director Paul Wilson said a digger looking for a water connection on Brecon St uncovered what appeared to be a metal sheet and bones, possibly skeletal, adjacent to the Queenstown Cemetery.
The contractor stopped work immediately, secured the site and notified the council. The bones were not removed and site has since been left undisturbed.
Update: Bones found to be animal remains.
Oh well.
It took a long time for Canada to recognize Boyd Wettlaufer, "the Father of Saskatchewan Archaeology"
During his storied archaeology career, Boyd Wettlaufer found many interesting artifacts - but he never chanced across debris from an alien spacecraft.
Wettlaufer, now nearly 90 and living in Langford, collected countless arrowheads, identified a Plains culture 5,500 years old, and found ancient Peigan clothing remnants atop a "burial" rock. He even picked up an 11-inch meteorite. Yet never did he find a trace of little green men.
Shedding light on Romans in Sussex
Artefacts dating back to 900BC could be dug up when archaeologists start exploring farmland in East Sussex.
Up to 15 people will excavate a small plot of land in Eastbourne in September looking for evidence of Roman or medieval occupation.
Permission has been given by the farmer landowner to hand-dig the two-trench site off King's Drive, near Eastbourne District General Hospital.
The excavation, expected to last three weeks, could uncover more evidence of Eastbourne's history.
Reconstruction in Cambodia Spirit Reset in Stone
At the magical temple of Ta Prohm, 200-year-old trees grow from the ruins, their roots embracing the ancient stone walls like giant snakes. Archeologists from India are trying to preserve the trees — and the temple's romantic spirit — for as long as possible.
Down the road, at the magnificent, sprawling temple of Angkor Wat, a Japanese-led crew grafts newly quarried sandstone onto broken 12th century blocks in a state-of-the-art effort to save the building known as the northern library.
Nearby, 300,000 stone blocks of the dismantled Bapuon temple are spread across 25 acres of grassy fields. The building plans were destroyed by war, but a French-led archeological team is reconstructing the ancient pyramid, stone by stone.
Angkor Wat is where Tomb Raider was filmed. Go see/rent it if you haven't already.
Yuk yuk Archaeologists have a field day with sites linked to Grant
Items such as hairbrushes, marbles and remnants of furniture would add to knowledge of the Grants' personal life.
For four days this month, an archaeologist with the National Park Service found traces of foundations, cisterns and perhaps a privy at two sites connected with President Ulysses S. Grant in south St. Louis County.
Those remnants eventually may prove to be the original sites of two homes associated with Grant.
National Park Service employees say the finds in South County probably warrant a full-scale dig.
"They were good days at the sites," said Steven L. DeVore, National Park Service archaeologist on the study. "We are never quite sure what is going to show up. Everything we did at the sites is based on changes in the various physical properties of the earth. In some cases, these changes are extremely subtle."
Arrow Shaft Not Captain Cook Bone
DNA testing has shot down theories that an arrow held by an Australian museum was made out of a bone from British explorer Captain James Cook’s leg, finding that the remains probably are not even human.
The Sydney-based Australian Museum announced the findings of DNA tests on the arrow’s shaft today, the 234th anniversary of the day Cook stepped ashore in what is now southern Sydney.
It is now believed the bone-like material, which is about six inches long and is attached to a metal arrow head, could be antler or possibly bone from a sea mammal.
Computer helps map ancient Rome
Progress has been made in piecing together the Forma Urbis Romae, a map of Rome carved into stone slabs about AD 210 but later broken into fragments.
Measuring 18m by 14m, it was originally hung in the Templum Pacis, one of the ancient city's major public landmarks.
The map was remarkably accurate but researchers looking for new sites to excavate in Rome had only managed to fit back together a few of the pieces.
A Stanford University computer program is now being used to aid restoration.
Not Brillo Ancient Persian scratch pads going back to Iran from U. of C.
Common workers received rations of a quart and a half of barley per day, plus half a quart of beer or wine. New mothers got more, while members of the royal family got much more than they could possibly devour on their own.
These small details on the daily goings-on in the Persian empire 2,500 years ago are carved on clay tablets that have been at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute since 1937, on loan from Iran.
Though many of the tablets have been studied intensely, the U. of C. hasn't been able to return to Iran to give back the tablets since the Iranian revolution in 1979 essentially shut that nation's borders to Americans.