Obit John Rowe, authority on Peruvian archaeology, dies at 85
ohn Howland Rowe, a University of California, Berkeley, professor emeritus of anthropology and an authority on Peruvian archaeology, died Saturday, May 1, in a Berkeley nursing home due to complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 85.
The classically trained Rowe, who once said he had wanted to be an archaeologist since the age of 3, used an interdisciplinary approach - borrowing from the fields of archaeology, history, ethnography, art, linguistics and intellectual history - in his empirical investigations of the Peruvian Andes and his development of new archaeological theory.
"Loblolly"???? Archaeologists seek ancient civilizations on Army post
Deep in the loblolly pine forest of this Army training base, small teams of archaeologists are digging up dirt and sifting buckets of soil to glean information about America's early peoples.
"The research potential here is great because it is such a large tract of land," said Deborah Keene, a University of South Carolina archaeologist overseeing digs at sites across Fort Jackson's 52,300 acres on the eastern edge of Columbia.
"We can look at populations over time - from the earliest humans in the area right up to the historical period," she said.
Under contract with the U.S. Army, researchers from the university's Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology are investigating some 660 sites that could be significant enough for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Eureka! (sorry) Archaeologists discover alma mater of Archimedes
A Polish-Egyptian team has unearthed the site of the fabled University of Alexandria, home of Archimedes, Euclid and a host of other scholars from the era when Alexandria dominated the Mediterranean.
The team has found 13 lecture halls, or auditoriums, that could have accommodated as many as 5,000 students, according to archeologist Zahi Hawass, President of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The classrooms are on the eastern edge of a large public square in the the Late Antique section of modern Alexandria and are adjacent to a previously discovered theater that is now believed to be part of the university complex, Hawass said.
If you get to Egypt, go to Alexandria. It's a beautiful city (relatively speaking) and far more comfortable than Cairo or Luxor as far as creature comforts go. There aren't a great deal of pharaonic monuments to see, but the Med and the various Greco-Roman antiquities are very interesting.
ASU archaeologists shine
When officials of the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology unveil their newest room of discoveries from one of the great pyramids of Teotihuacan on Wednesday, it will be a time of toasts for ASU archaeologists.
That's because Arizona State University professors have been involved in almost all the major findings during the past 40 years at the once-great Native American city, the largest metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere in the early centuries after Christ's death.
Last week, ASU archaeologist Ben Nelson was given a sneak preview of the exhibit, which was under wraps deep in the bowels of the Mexico City museum. A day later, he was still wide-eyed at the wonder of it all.
Antiquities Market update Seized: an entire museum of illicit antiquities
Spanish police raided a winery in Aguilar de la Frontera near Cordoba in southern Spain on 21 March and seized over 5,000 archaeological artefacts which were on display in a clandestine museum in the cellars of the building.
Initial police suspicions that the antiquities collection in the Bodegas Toro Albalá was unauthorised were confirmed by the Culture Ministry of the Regional Government of Andalusia, and the raid followed a three-month investigation dubbed “Operación Toro.”
The objects, which filled several rooms, were carefully arranged in glass cabinets and bookcases, and organised into chronological order with labels and other documentation. Details of where the objects were found were not provided.
Jade Bear-Dragons Corroborate Yellow Emperor Legend
For centuries Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor), legendary ruler and ancestor, lived only in the hearts and minds of the Chinese people and in the words of legends written down in antiquity. But in recent years, intriguing new clues have been emerging from the Neolithic Hongshan Culture. Over 5,000 years ago this was to be found in today's Liaoning Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Hongshan is world-famous for its many jade artifacts. Among these, it is the so-called bear-dragons unearthed in recent years that have provided the first hard archaeological evidence to add credence to the much-told story of Huangdi.
More shipwrecksAncient shipwreck in Thai Gulf a precious find
Traces of a 400-year-old junk, or a traditional Chinese sailing ship, discovered by archaeologists in the Gulf of Thailand, could prove to be an important archaeological find, reports Xinhua.
An underwater archaeological team has unearthed Thai Sangkhalok and Chinese pottery buried 140 feet under the seabed, pointing to sea trade routes in the region.
Erb-prem Wacharangkura, head of the underwater archaeological team from the Department of Fine Arts, was quoted by the Thai news agency as saying Friday that the junk sank around 400 years ago some 40 nautical miles from the shoreline.
The findings have led archaeologists to speculate that the junk traded in pottery and other goods between Southeast Asia and China during Thailand's Ayutthaya period.
Bad blood flows as Medicis go digging up their past
When your family history is history, the family does not always get along.
Take the Medici, one of Italy's most celebrated clans. Known for writing cheques to Michelangelo, the Medici have of late been airing some dirty laundry as a handful of their descendants fall into a spat.
Why are the descendants of this famous Renaissance dynasty sniping at one another in acid aristocratic jabs? Scientists in Florence are planning to exhume the remains of 49 Medici corpses this month for a wide-ranging forensic study. One branch of the family was invited to take part, but a second branch was not.
Underwater islands add to the mystery of Orkney
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have re-discovered a lost chapter in Orkney's history which will develop the understanding of mysterious ancient monuments found across Scotland.
Underwater researchers are examining small, artificial islands in Orkney's inland waters, which have lain undiscovered for generations.
Crannogs were fortified places of refuge which are found throughout Scotland in lochs and other waters, but are a class of ancient monument not usually associated with Orkney.
It really doesn't take much. . .Wooden pipe find excites Irish archaeologists
Archaeologists are dancing with delight after discovering a set of musical pipes believed to have been used 4,000 years ago by prehistoric man in Ireland, making them the world's oldest wooden instruments.
Archaeologists discovered the six wooden pipes, which are not joined, during excavations of a housing development site near the coastal town of Greystones, south of Dublin.
"It is brilliant, absolutely fantastic," Bernice Molloy, site director for archaeological consultancy firm Margaret Gowen said.
"It is an amazing find. They had been preserved because they were in the lower part of the site which was damper," Ms Molloy said.
Experts have been able to play a series of notes, including E flat, A flat and F natural, on the yew wood pipes.