Friday, August 20, 2004

Olympics update Olympics Construction Projects Push Athens Archaeologists to Balance Very, Very Old with New

Bringing Athens' transportation up to speed ahead of the summer games proved more difficult than what most modern cities usually endure, as massive construction projects turned into excavation sites. The city's archaeologists came up with a compromise keeping the very, very old along with the new.

For many Olympic visitors in the city of Athens, the metro is not just a way of getting somewhere, it's the destination.


Archaeologists discover unique items in Sarmat burial moulds in Orenburg region

Archaeologists have found household appliances and weapons of the Sarmat epoch (4th century BC) in the area of the Filippovsky burial mounds in the Orenburg region, a source in the Orenburg regional administration's culture department told Interfax.

The archaeologists found bronze items, including a boiler with animal-style handles, a brazier, mirrors and cosmetic vessels, Central Asian ceramic dishes, quivers, daggers and cuirass fragments. The origin of some finds is still unknown, the source said.

The expedition led by Doctor of History Leonid Yablonsky from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Archaeology Institute, also found medieval tombs in one of the mounds, the source said.


That's the whole thing.

More stiffs Archaeologists find skeletal treasure

The unearthing of 44 skeletons at a public works project in an Oslo park has helped locate a 13th century monastery site in Norway.

The skeletons were dug up from a depth of only about 16 inches at the Medieval park site where a concert was held during the weekend, the Aftenposten reported Wednesday.

A project to improve drainage around the old Olav's Church led to the discovery.

Archeologists say the skeletons belonged to a Dominican monastery located in the area from 1240 until the Reformation in 1537.


More here, with pictures!


"Here, take one, we've got plenty."

Underwater archaeology update A&M center to concentrate on shipwrecks

Texas A&M University plans to create a research center that officials hope will further anchor the school’s reputation as one of the world’s leading institutions in finding and excavating shipwrecks.

The Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation could attract state, federal and international funding for A&M researchers studying historical underwater wrecks throughout the world.

The center, which would be located in A&M’s anthropology department, also could develop technology that would allow researchers to explore deeper parts of the ocean, said David Carlson, head of the department.


City may seek Indian burial search

If Duluth wants the site of a proposed Rice Lake Road housing development searched for possible human burials, it likely will have to foot the bill itself.

The city's American Indian Commission this week passed a motion asking Mayor Herb Bergson to request that the state archaeologist search the tax-forfeit property for possible burial sites.

Bergson said he would probably make the request.

"We need to respect the interests of the Native Americans," he said Tuesday.

State archaeologist Mark Dudzik, however, said Wednesday it's unlikely that his two-person office would undertake a search.


So essentially the city wants the State archaeologist to do the survey, but they can't because they can't afford to. Ergo, the city must hire a contract archaeology firm. That's the way it usually works.

Another lost city, found Prehistoric Desert Town Found in Western Sahara

The remains of a prehistoric town believed to date back 15,000 years and belong to an ancient Berber civilization have been discovered in Western Sahara, Moroccan state media said on Thursday.

A team of Moroccan scientists stumbled across the sand-covered ruins of the town Arghilas deep in the desert of the Morocco-administered territory.

The remains of a place of worship, houses and a necropolis, as well as columns and rock engravings depicting animals, were found at the site near the town of Aousserd in northeastern Western Sahara.


This seems awfully early to us for something of this size and complexity.

Antiquities Market update Stolen Relic From Temple Is Returning to Egypt

A stolen Egyptian relief from 380-280 B.C. that was spotted in a Christie's auction house catalog has been seized by the United States government and is to return to Cairo today, federal agents announced yesterday.

The granite relief, valued at $5,000, was taken from the Temple of Behbeit el-Hagar in Gharbia in 1990, the government said.

It was featured on Christie's Web site as Lot No. 294, to be auctioned in an antiquities sale on June 12, 2002. The suggested bid for the relief, along with several other objects, was $7,000 to $9,000, according to an affidavit in support of a seizure warrant filed by the government in Federal District Court in Manhattan last October.




"I luff gooooooold"

Thracian gold mask

Archaeologists have unearthed a 25-century-old Thracian grave in which they found a gold death mask weighing half a kilogramme, a 15 gr ring and body parts believed to belong the Thracian king Teres, father of Sitalkes, who lived in the middle of the 5th century B.C.


That's the whole thing. Way cool mask.