A 4-foot section of a mammoth tusk has been uncovered in a gravel pit in Skagit County.
Belfast Gravel owner Earl Curry realized he had uncovered something special Feb. 28 and was trying to be careful, but a piece of the water-logged fossil broke off as he tried to move it.
Curry called in Western Washington University researcher George Mustoe who is drying the tusk slowly so it doesn't fall apart.
Triva from this story: The Washington state fossil is the Columbia mammoth. Further, the state gem is silicified (petrified) wood (Silicified wood is a gem???). Other exciting official Washington State symbols can be found here.
This week's news from the EEF
The al-Ahram column of Dr Hawass is this time dedicated to Bruce Ludwig, "the new Lord Carnarvon":
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/785/hr2.htm
More reports on KV63:
-- The KV63 dig diary confirms the 28th jar, which at the time
of our interview was yet marked as uncertain:
http://www.kv-63.com/pages/1/index.htm
-- The jar is also confirmed in an interview with Roxanne Wilson,
by Mark Rose for Archaeology Magazine March/April 2006:
http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/wilson/index.html
-- Interview with Dr Zahi Hawass about the tomb:
http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6468
"Much of the speculation could end on March 10, when the tomb
is officially opened and the contents of the seven sarcophagi inside
are examined and photographed by Hawass, Schaden and their staffs."
-- Interview with Dr Otto Schaden:
http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6469
"We had decided that we would not just do the tops of the huts,
we would check underneath. What I didn't want was for someone
to come by 10 or 20 years later and say, "Boy, were they stupid
for missing this!"
-- Dr Szafranski's opinion on the tomb:
http://snipurl.com/nd65
The Leiden Excavations in the New Kingdom necropolis
at Saqqara has put up Week 5 (February 25- March 2, 2006)
of its dig dairy:
http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/saqqara/Introduction/2006/DiggingDiary2006.html
[Eds. This looks interesting for those non-Dynastic people out there]
Shannon R. McPherron, Deborah Olszewski, Harold A. Dibble,
Jennifer Smith, Abydos Survey for Prehistoric Sites. Preliminary
Report of the 2002-2003 Season. Prepared for the Supreme
Council for Antiquities. iii, 31 pp. With contributions by Dawn
Landua-McCormick and Isabelle Couchoud - pdf-file (2.9 MB)
http://pech.museum.upenn.edu/osa/pdfs/asps_2002_report.pdf
"The Abydos Survey for Paleolithic Sites (ASPS) is a long-term
effort to investigate the distribution and character of Paleolithic
occurrences in the high desert adjacent to Abydos, Egypt ...
The 2002/03 season consisted of 18 field days in the high desert.
During this time 60 sites were identified ... In addition to the
survey for Paleolithic occurrences, a preliminary investigation
of historic period sites was also undertaken. This work resulted
in the identification of monastic and Roman period sites, quarry
sites, and potential burial sites ..."
Website of this project:
http://www.oldstoneage.com/abydos/
Kimberly Williams, Alexandria and the Sea: Maritime Origins
and Underwater Explorations. (2004). Free e-book; in PDF
(seperate files; total is 12 MB):
http://www.hccfl.edu/facultyinfo/kwilliams/
"This is the story of the rise, fall, and rediscovery of Alexandria."
Introduction and TOC (166kB):
http://www.hccfl.edu/facultyinfo/kwilliams/files/ascontents.pdf
Digitizied book from the Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA)
-- Karl Baedeker, Egypt. Handbook for Travellers. pt. 1. Lower Egypt, with
the Fayum and the peninsula of Sinai, 2nd ed., K. Baedeker, Leipsic / Dulau
and Co., London, 1885. xiv, 538 pp., 16 maps, 30 plans, 7 views, and 76
vignettes. - html-file (3.2 MB!)
http://timea.rice.edu/texts/BaeEg2/BaeEg2.html
"The present volume is the second of a series of HANDBOOKS FOR THE
EAST now in course of preparation, and designed, like the Editor's European
handbooks, for the guidance of travellers ... Owing to its distance from the
homes of most travellers, and to the expense involved in exploring it, Egypt
will never be overrun by tourists to the same extent as Switzerland or
Italy; but it is now reached without difficulty by one of the numerous
Mediterranean steamboat lines, and increased facilities are afforded to
travellers by the recent construction of railways (p. 11) within the country
itself, while its unrivalled attractions abundantly reward the enterprising
traveller and supply him with a subject of life-long interest."
End of EEF news