But in a split verdict, the U.S. District Court jury found the men not guilty of unlawful excavation of archaeological resources.
The men's lawyers said they are optimistic the judge will throw out the convictions because the jury didn't follow the judge's instructions on interpreting the law.
John Ligon, 40, Reno, and Carrol Mizell, 44, Van Nuys, Calif., admitted they took three boulders with petroglyphs from Forest Service land near a Reno neighborhood last summer.
But they insisted they didn't know they were breaking the law, partly because there were no signs marking the site with the rock etchings of an archer and bighorn sheep that Forest Service officials believe are at least 1,000 years old.
We are guessing the one conviction will be thrown out. We are also divided on whether or not it was a just decision. Theoretically, we see no excuse for not knowing these things were archaeological and that it would be against the law to move them. On the other hand, given the way the law had to be applied, as in this paragraph:
The judge had told the jurors a guilty verdict on the charge of violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act would require proof the art is more than 100 years old, worth more than $500 and that the men knew or "should have reasonably been expected to know" the petroglyphs were archaeological resources of value.
we doubt whether there was sufficient evidence presented (or the correct evidence) to actually get a conviction, specifically on the value of the pieces.
And one of these days when we implement a comments section, we will be able to invite commentary.
News courtesy of EEF.
Romancing the Stone
This month, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts unveils a
blockbuster acquisition--an ancient Egyptian sculpture that
could be the single finest statue ever made." With a history
of the artefact (which was nicknamed "The Nobleman")
Picture at:
http://www.mfa.org/artemis/fullrecord.asp?oid=402795&did=200
Some dogs re-creations of others?
Ancient Egyptian tombs are adorned with drawings and sculptures of sleek,
slender-necked canines with pointy ears and long snouts. Many dog lovers
have long thought that two breeds alive today -- the Ibizan hound and the
Pharaoh hound -- were direct descendants of these regal companions of the
pharaohs. New research, however, concludes something very different.
New archaeological findings may re-shape Sudanese history
About the [not so] "recent discovery of seven statues in Kerma, northern
Sudan, which represented monarchs during the ancient Nubian Kingdom...
[incl.] Taharqa, Tanoutamon, Senkamanisken, Anlamani and Aspelta.
Online Books! Abusir. Archaeological season of 2003 - 2004" by the Czech Institute of
Egyptology, Charles University, Prague, 10 pp. - pdf-file: 1.7 MB [Submitted by Michael Tilgner]
I have posted a free 210 page book of Egyptian texts
(Title: Isle of Fire) in hieroglyphs, transliteration and translation,
in pdf format. It contains a number of classic works in full, as
well as selections from the pyramid, coffin and book of the
dead texts.
[Next seven items submitted by Michael Tilgner]
Janet Richards, "Time and Memory in Ancient Egyptian Cemeteries", in:
Expedition, vol. 44, no. 3 (Winter 2003), pp. 16-24 - pdf-file: 780 KB
URL: http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/Zine/articles/winter_03/Egypt%20Cem.pdf
George Foucart, "Dreams and Sleep (Egyptian)", in: James Hastings (ed.),
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. V, New York, 1914, pp. 34-37
URL: http://www.dabar.org/Religion/Hastings/JH-ERE-dreamsandsleepegypt.htm
* David A. Scott, Lynn Swartz Dodd, "Examination, conservation and analysis
of a gilded Egyptian bronze Osiris", in: Journal of Cultural Heritage, vol.
3, pp. 333-345 (2002)
"A heavily corroded Egyptian bronze figurine of the god Osiris was examined
and shown to have been originally gilt with gold leaf and inlaid with blue
glass. Detailed formal comparison between this Osiris figure and the known
corpus of bronze and stone sculpture leads to the inference that the
statuette dates to the time between the Third Intermediate Period and the
fourth century BC, with a greater probability of originating from the Third
Intermediate Period through to the 26th Dynasty, or even possibly as late as
the fourth century on the basis of stylistic similarities. ..." - pdf-file:
835 KB
URL: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~swartz/osiris.pdf
Andreas Effland, Ein Tempel wird übersetzt - Das Edfu-Projekt, in: Kemet,
vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 54-56 (1997) [abbreviated online version]
"Ziel dieses Projektes ist es, eine Übersetzung aller Edfu-Texte unter
Berücksichtigung aller internen Parallelen, der gesamten relevanten
Sekundärliteratur und der Dekorationssystematik zu erarbeiten. Ausführliche
analytische Indizes zu verschiedenen Sachbereichen, die auch Vertretern von
Nachbardisziplinen einen raschen Zugriff auf das reiche Textmaterial
ermöglichen sollen, sowie eine Grammatik des Ptolemäischen, der
Hieroglyphenschrift des Edfu-Tempels, sind die zusätzlichen Ziele."
URL: http://www.effland.de/Tempel.html
Homepage of the Edfu-Projekt:
URL: http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/Edfu-Projekt/Edfu.html
G. Maspero, "Le chien dans l'ancienne Égypte", in: La Nature. Revue des
sciences et leurs applications aux arts et à l'industrie, vol. 19, sem. 2,
pp. 53-55 (1891) [BA 13062] - beginning at:
URL: http://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?4KY28.37/0057/100/534/0/0
Michael V. Fox, "Out of Egypt: An Essay on Jan Assmann's Moses the
Egyptian", in: Critical Review of Books in Religion, vol. 11, pp. 83-96
(1998) - pdf-file: 1.3 MB
URL: http://palimpsest.lss.wisc.edu/~mfox/assmann.pdf
Jean-Marc Drouin, Analogies et contrastes entre l'expédition d'Egypte et
le voyage d'Humboldt et Bonpland, in: História, Ciências, Saúde -
Manguinhos, vol. VIII (supplément), pp. 839-861 (2001)
"Alexandre de Humbodlt et Aimé Bonpland avaient prévu de se joindre aux
savants de l'expédition française en Egypte. Ayant dû renoncer à ce projet
et ayant obtenu l'autorisation du gouvernement espagnol, il réalisèrent leur
voyage en Amérique Latine. La quasi-simultanéité des deux expéditions invite
à une comparaison. ..."
URL: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/hcsm/v8s0/a03v08s0.pdf
End of EEF postings