Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Clap her in irons! Temple tempest
TOURISTS: HANDS OFF THE ANTIQUITIES!


A B.C. schoolgirl's hands-on contact with ancient Greece has guardians of Toronto's historic sites reviewing their security defences. Madeleine Gierc, freed from an Athens prison yesterday, learned the hard way that handling a 13-cm-square piece of marble -- even for a Kodak moment -- is a no-no at the Parthenon.

The 16-year-old was arrested on Sunday while posing for a snapshot at the 2,500-year-old temple at the Acropolis.

Guards reacted as fast as Hermes, the messenger of the Greek gods, when they saw her with the shard.


Note to famous directors: Do NOT make a movie about this place Kernave: Lithuania’s ‘Troy’ to celebrate UNESCO heritage site listing

Few countries are so fortunate as to have an archaeological treasure trove preserving 10 millennia of human settlement. A discovery so impressive that it bears comparison to the Greek city of Troy, which had been consigned to myth until late nineteenth-century archaeologists dug up a hill in Turkey proving its existence, and showing that a stack of eight cities had been built on top.

In the 1970s, Lithuanian archaeologists began following up rumours of a magnificent ancient city, stumbling across a site about 35 km from Vilnius unscathed by war and industrial development, which many now call Lithuania’s first capital – Kernave.


Homo hobittus update Fresh Scandal Over Old Bones

Inside Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, the bones of the hobbit rested undisturbed for 18,000 years.

But no longer.

In what is being called a true case of scientific skullduggery, the remains of the newly discovered human species have suffered irreparable damage since entering the care of paleontologists.


Seems to have a lot more detail on what sort of damage the bones sustained, Smeagol Jacob's response, and other tidbits.

Davids Island preservation

The Army Corps of Engineers expects to agree with New Rochelle and state officials by June on how to spare historically significant buildings of a former military post on Davids Island while tearing down the rest.

As presented last night by Nancy Brighton, lead archaeologist in the corps' New York office, the preservation plan would reach a final draft by May and would be signed in June by the corps, the city, New York state Historic Preservation Office and other interested organizations and agencies.

By June or July, the Army hopes to begin demolishing buildings on the island that are believed to be free of asbestos and determined to have no historic value because they are too far deteriorated to help a visitor understand the history of the long-abandoned Fort Slocum. Some of the items listed as buildings are ruins crumbled beyond recognition.