Ze mystery, it is solv-ed."

Archaeologists figure out mystery of Stonehenge bluestones

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have solved one of the greatest mysteries of Stonehenge - the exact spot from where its huge stones were quarried.

A team has pinpointed the precise place in Wales from where the bluestones were removed in about 2500 BC.

It found the small crag-edged enclosure at one of the highest points of the 1,008ft high Carn Menyn mountain in Pembrokeshire's Preseli Hills.

Underwater archaeology update Archaeological wonders are under the sea

- The recent discovery of the remains of a shipwrecked 4th century BC vessel, nicknamed Kythnos I after the Greek island near which it was found, is the latest testimony of the archaeological riches still submerged in Greek waters.

It also demonstrates the technological advances that underwater archaeology has made in this country in recent years.

Greece has no shortage of skilled archaeologists. But when it comes to underwater research, it is only recently that the Greek ministry of culture has begun mixing academic knowledge with hi-tech wizardry.

Soon-to-be-underwater archaeology update Ancient Thermal City to Be Flooded in Turkey

The world's oldest known ancient thermal city, Allianoi, stands to be flooded when the Yortanli Dam begins operation this November. Located in the very centre of the planned dam lake, it will be submerged under some 17 metres of water. If no solution is found, Turkey may lose a significant historical site.

To help save the 1,800-year-old city, environmentalists and other volunteers have formed the Allianoi Initiative Group, with the slogan "Don't Let Allianoi Be Flooded".

"A 2,000-year history is being sacrificed for a 50 to 60-year-old project. We don't say that the dam should not be constructed, but the project should be modified in a way that will prevent Allianoi from being ruined," says the group's spokesman, Arif Ali Cangi.

Even if it does eventually go under, it could work as a useful test site for studying the effects of sumberging a site under water. Everybody seems to think every site will be 'destroyed' when they are submerged, but there's not a whole lot of data available to say one way or the other.

Treasure! Arrchaeologists unearth part of 3, 500 year-old gold mask

Archaeologists in Southern Bulgaria, exploring what they believe to be the tomb of Orpheus, discovered fragments of a golden mask dating from the Trojan War, state TV reported.

The expedition found the gold in a 3, 500 year-old temple that has survived untouched by treasure hunters.
Archaeological team leader Nikolay Ovcharov said the mask was older than a 690-gram (24.3-ounce) Thracian gold mask that was unearthed a year ago in central Bulgaria.
The Thracians were Bronze Age peopl, who lived in the Balkans between 4000 B.C. and the seventh century A.D.
Ovcharov said the golden fragments were discovered in a perfectly preserved cultural layer from the 15 c. - 11 c. B.C. near the village of Tatul, next to the Bulgarian-Greek border.
He said the find could be linked the Ancient Greek Mycenae culture.

That's the whole thing.

Time for the weekly news from the EEF

Press report: "Scanning for answers to mummy's mysteries"
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_346052.html
"Scientists hope to find out more about the 2,300-year-old mummy after CT scans are performed on her [Pesed] tonight at College Fields MRI in Neshannock, Lawrence County. A forensic sculptor will use the scans
to construct a three-dimensional model of Pesed's skull." [Website section at Westminster dedicated to Pesed (see menu on the left):
http://www.westminster.edu/about/mummy/mummy_overview.cfm

[Submitted by Nigel J. Hetherington (nigel_hetherington@hotmail.com) and Albert Prince (albert.prince1@btinternet.com)]
Press report: "Egypt unveils grand museum design"
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A3322BF3-1F5C-45B2-9DDD-E7C0F0227150.
"Egypt has unveiled the design of a giant museum that will house King Tut's mummy and treasures along with tens of thousands of other artefacts."
Another report: "Design for New Egyptian Museum Unveiled"
http://snipurl.com/fse3
And one with graphics:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8322921/

At the Columbia University, Excavations at Amheida website (Dakhleh Oasis Project site no. 33/390-L9-1), the Director's Report 2005 has appeared:
http://snipurl.com/frf6

"Walt Whitman and His Interest in Ancient Egypt"
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/features/2005/whitman/egypt

Kanwal Qadri, The Delta after the Pharaohs. The Archaeological Evidence, C-paper in archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History. Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2004. 34 pp. - pdf-file: 850 KB
http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/ark/education/CD/Cuppsats/CHT04/Quadri.pdf
"The paper gives a general overview of the archaeology and history of the Nile Delta, with a focus on what the records tell us about this region's heyday in post-Pharaonic times. It also deals with the problems and
priorities of modern day archaeology in the Nile Delta, since ancient sites in this region are under constant pressure from a growing population, agricultural exploitation, and rising water levels."

Online version of: Joanna Pininska, Hemdan Rabbie Attia, Use of geomechanical research in the conservation of stone monuments (Maadi Town Temple, Fayoum, Egypt), in: Geological Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 1-12
(2003) - pdf-file: 1.8 MB
http://www.pgi.gov.pl/pdf/gq_47_1_p1.pdf
"... In 1997 samples of the building material were collected on site and in
1998 laboratory studies of those samples were carried out in the Department
of Geomechanics at the Warsaw University ... Both applied methods showed the
salt solutions to be the main deterioration factor affecting the stone
elements and the anisotropy and various properties of the mortar and of the
bedded limestone as the main factors destabilising the construction of the
Temple as a whole. Degradation occurs gradually due to the internal and
external inhomogeneous field of deformation caused by climatic changes, with
cyclic strengthening due to salt incrustation and subsequent softening after
water saturation and temperature changes."

Katja Mueller, Statistical Applications for the Graeco-Roman Fayum - Three Case Studies -, 10 pp. - pdf-file: 0.9 MB - ["Please do not cite this section or use the data/ figures of this section without permission."]
http://snipurl.com/frfa
"The KU Leuven Fayum Project gathered a large amount of socio-economic data
from papyri. This information was added to an existing database, which can
be queried online: Prosopographia Ptolemaica Online. Such databases are an
important tool for statistic analysis. Within the scope of the KUL Fayum
Project this data was used for several statistical advances. Three of such
advances are briefly introduced here."

Online version of: Roger Blench, The history and spread of donkeys in Africa, in: Paul Starkey, Denis Fielding (eds.), Donkeys, people and development. A resource book of the Animal Traction Network for Eastern and
Southern Africa (ATNESA), ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Wageningen, The Netherlands, 2000, pp. 22-30 - pdf-file: 240 KB ["This version of the paper has been specially prepared for the
ATNESA website. It may not be identical to the paper appearing in the resource book."]
http://www.atnesa.org/donkeys/donkeys-blench-history.pdf
"The domestication and historical development of the donkey are traced
through archaeological and linguistic associations. The donkey is indigenous
to the African continent and its wild progenitor is usually considered to be
the Nubian wild ass ... Records of domestic asses begin in Egypt in the
fourth millennium BC ..."

Dig Diary: Brooklyn Museum Excavations at the Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut"
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/features/2005/mut/
"Since 1976, the Brooklyn Museum has been carrying out archaeological work
at the Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut (pronounced 'Moot') at South
Karnak, an important religious site for almost two thousand years ... 'Dig
Diary' invites you to follow the work of the 2005 expedition in weekly photo
journals covering every aspect of our team's activity." - Includes links to
background information about this project.
[Eds. We need more of these Entries From the Field type things. Admittedly, when one is out in the field, never mind the possible logistical problems of obtaining Web access, one is also heavily involved in doing as much work as possible; but much of the lay public would probably be interested in the daily routine of what goes on out in the field. (Okay, maybe not everything. . . .) People invariably forget much of what goes on by the time they get back, and it would probably humanize the work more.]

End of EEF news