A TEAM of Australian archaeologists has unearthed a 5000-year-old necropolis with 20 well-preserved tombs in a poor neighbourhood of Helwan, just outside Cairo, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said today.
The statement quoted Christian Kohler, head of the Australian mission, as saying a newly discovered limestone relief, which was found within the necropolis, was one of many in Helwan representing early uses of hieroglyphic text.
Web site alert: The Petrie Museum website has just been relaunched:
- Arabic translation of the top pages
- all 80,000 objects online with images (one of the largest illustrated
online museum catalogues available)
- improved catalogue search facilities, with browse option for
non-specialist users
- direct access to Digital Egypt for Universities: a 3000 page learning and
teaching resource based on the collection
- downloadable resources for teachers and students
- online opinion polls on topical issues
Antiquities market update Archaeologist's Partnership With Maya Villagers Pays Off in Looters' Conviction
For nearly two decades, Vanderbilt University archaeologist Arthur Demarest has explored the rainforests of Guatemala for clues to the ancient Mayas. Along the way, he has formed an alliance with the descendants of that once-powerful civilization to not only uncover but also preserve their proud heritage. That partnership paid off earlier this month with the conviction and sentencing of a gang of looters.
In what Guatemalan officials say may be the first time such an operation has been exposed, three gang leaders were convicted and sentenced to three years in prison after a dramatic midnight verdict in a Guatemalan court June 3.
Fort story I Archaeologists find ancient fort
Part of an artillery fort built in 1627 has been discovered near to the docks in Hull.
The South Battery once formed part of the city's defences but it has not been seen since it was demolished around 1855.
Archaeologists working next to the old Central Dry Dock in Humber Street have uncovered the remains of three of the Battery's gun positions.
Fort story II Archaeologists search for secrets of Fort Toulouse (Brief faux registration involved)
Archaeologists are trying to uncover the secrets of a fort within a fort within a fort this month at the Fort Toulouse National Historic Site about 15 miles north of Montgomery.
In 1717, French marines built a small wooden fort on the banks of the Coosa River. They had to build a second one in 1749 because the river washed away all but the southwest quadrant of the first one.
Barely 50 years later, Andrew Jackson, the president-to-be who made a name for himself defeating the Creek Indians in central Alabama, built yet a third fort practically on top of the second French fort and what remained of its smaller predecessor.
Ancient remains found at bypass site
VITAL clues into how we lived thousands of years ago have been unearthed on a bypass site.
Among the items uncovered along the A142 between Newmarket and Fordham include skeletons from the Bronze Age and Iron Age, along with a body from Roman times.
Flints and pottery, buried since the Neolithic period around 4,500 years ago, have also been discovered, and will now be cleaned and carefully examined to help experts learn more about the history of East Anglia's ancestors.
“It is very exciting. We have found an awful lot of archaeology in general at the Fordham bypass site,” said Richard Mortimer, project officer at Cambridgeshire County Council's archaeology field unit.
News from. . . .Nidderdale?
Historic henges new warning
A QUARRY firm has been warned it has a fight on its hands over plans to extend its operations next to an ancient site of national importance.
Campaigners this week pledged to step up their fight to protect the unique triple henge complex at Thornborough, near Bedale, after it was revealed that quarry operators had submitted a planning application to extract more sand and gravel nearby.
National campaign group, Heritage Action has formed a small sub-group to look at the issues surrounding the neolithic site and to support local action group, the Friends of Thornborough, in their fight against further quarrying.
"The head is in the mail." Five Mummified Skulls Found in Peru Mail
Peruvian customs agents opening suspicious packages found five ancient skulls from a pre-Inca culture that someone tried to mail to California, authorities said Friday.
The mummified skulls, estimated to be as old as 2,700 years, turned up during inspections June 5 and 6. Customs agents put the five packages through an X-ray machine because they emitted a disagreeable odor.
Shipping claims outside the boxes said they contained gifts; inside, fake government certificates claimed the skulls were on authorized loan for anthropological study and cultural exhibition.
Not about a big boat with animals Forgotten Ark. Civil War Graves Uncovered
For 138 years, a shallow, unmarked trench held the bodies of six Confederate soldiers cut down in one of the more futile battles of the Civil War. Then, a road building project cut through the ground above them.
The field where the Battle of Helena was fought July 4, 1863, is part of the city now, and as urban sprawl encroaches on battlegrounds nationwide, it becomes more and more likely that additional forgotten graves will be uncovered.
The six men buried in Helena, who remain "Known Only to God," as their headstone now reads, have since been given a more dignified burial site than the one inadvertently unearthed by a bulldozer in 2002.