Friday, July 29, 2011

Bronze Age holy site studied in Italy - UPI.com

Bronze Age holy site studied in Italy - UPI.com
Mount Cimino near Viterbo in Lazio seems to have an Etruscan religious site dating to 1000 BCE. Cool. Small picture of the dig accompanies the article.

The U.S. and Greece Agree to Ban Imports of Most Antiquities, Despite Concerns Raised by Debt Crisis - ARTINFO.com

The U.S. and Greece Agree to Ban Imports of Most Antiquities, Despite Concerns Raised by Debt Crisis - ARTINFO.com
Hmm. Seems like grandstanding to me, if the Greek government can't actually protect ancient sites from looting or prevent smuggling from going on.

Xanthos excavations turned over to Turkish archaeologists - Hurriyet Daily News

Xanthos excavations turned over to Turkish archaeologists - Hurriyet Daily News
Some politics here..."due to the slow progress under the guidance of French teams." Also some sniping about the British stealing stuff in the 19th century. Actually, the article has some good background on the city of Xanthos and its ancient history. Note that, since this was (at one time) a Greek city in what is now Turkey, the comments section turns into racist sniping between Greeks, Turks, and (why not?) Macedonians.
[Once again, I would like to make it perfectly clear to the world that I take no position on the status of modern Macedonia.] Doesn't anyone want to speak up for the Hittites? Or Lycians? No Lycian nationalist movement out there?

Bit By Bit, Afghanistan Rebuilds Buddhist Statues : NPR

Bit By Bit, Afghanistan Rebuilds Buddhist Statues : NPR
Hey, I thought they weren't going to rebuild them. Guess I haven't been keeping up. Kind of a tough call.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Times Higher Education - Reading Aristotle can roll back the tide of relativism

Times Higher Education - Reading Aristotle can roll back the tide of relativism
Good grief, people. Stop politicizing Classics. Reading everything can roll back the tide of relativism (NOT that there's anything wrong with the tide of relativism), as long as you actually read Everything.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Stage at Hieropolis to go under restoration - Hurriyet Daily News

Stage at Hieropolis to go under restoration - Hurriyet Daily News
As reported earlier, Turkish tourism authorities are going to restore (rebuild?) some classical sites, the better to impress money-bearing tourists. Here, a theater of the 2nd? century CE will have its stage and tunnels rebuilt, perhaps so productions of Plautus can be staged there? Probably not. This theater looks to be in nice condition already; not sure it needs any "upgrade."

BBC News - Weary Herakles bust to be returned by US to Turkey

BBC News - Weary Herakles bust to be returned by US to Turkey
Boston MFA will return the top half of a statue (not really a bust--just a broken-off full-length guy) to Turkey, which claims to have the bottom half of the same statue from Antalya.
Aren't there lots of examples of this type of Herakles statue from antiquity? Are we sure this top goes with this bottom?

World Blog - Libya's ancient Greek ruins open for visitors

World Blog - Libya's ancient Greek ruins open for visitors
There is a video clip from Richard Engel's appearance on the Today Show, with footage of the classical ruins at Cyrene. (He is NBC's senior foreign correspondent--it's weird to see him in a studio rather than a war zone.) He assures us that Cyrene, which is on the far eastern side of Libya, in territory controlled by the "rebels," is safe and accessible. OK, if you're a seasoned international reporter, but still not ready for tourists. It is very depressing to see these places deserted, when they really need to be taken care of.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

All Non-Africans Part Neanderthal, Genetics Confirm : Discovery News

All Non-Africans Part Neanderthal, Genetics Confirm : Discovery News
Well, this looks conclusive, for the moment. Somebody in your family...way back...probably did it with a Neanderthal, unless all your ancestors from the dawn of time have been from Africa. Not really sure what this means, but it's kind of cool to have the DNA evidence.
Next question: After interbreeding with them, did we kill them off? Or did we let Mother Nature do it for us?

Monday, July 18, 2011

God's Wife Edited Out of the Bible -- Almost : Discovery News

God's Wife Edited Out of the Bible -- Almost : Discovery News
Edgy stuff for the nearly-mainstream media: coverage of a scholar in Britain who is popularizing the information about Asherah (Astarte/Ishtar/"Sacred Tree") and her role in a sacred pair along with Yahweh. You always knew He was up to something.
People will say, "It's bad enough that real women are edited out of history, but female deities, too?" Oh, those patriarchal monotheists and their red pencils!
Wonder if we'll see this scholar's documentary on Discovery Channel anytime soon.

Israel: Diggers unearth the Bible's bad guys - Story - Environment/Sci - 3 News

Israel: Diggers unearth the Bible's bad guys - Story - Environment/Sci - 3 News
And while on the New Zealand news site...news of a dig at the Philistine city of Gath. More evidence emerges of the possible Aegean origins of the Philistines. They ate lentils similar to those eaten in Greece. Goliath's name is Indo-European, not Semitic. And--most horrifying to their Hebrew neighbors--they ate dogs and pigs!
I just like the name "Gath."

Egypt's iconic antiquities chief fired - Story - World - 3 News

Egypt's iconic antiquities chief fired - Story - World - 3 News
More drama in the saga of Zahi Hawass. I guess this stage was inevitable. But the dust has not settled yet, I suspect.
No real reason to get this from a New Zealand news site, but there it is.

Caligula Statue Unveiled in Italy : Discovery News

Caligula Statue Unveiled in Italy : Discovery News
More smugglers!! These, too, got caught. They were smuggling a big hunk of marble out of Italy, and, once again, our heroes, Alert Cops, took notice. Where'd you get that big rock, they asked. Nemi, said the smugglers. Let's go look at Nemi for more pieces: check it out! Big hunk of marble seems to have been an over-life-sized statue of Emperor Gaius Caesar, wearing the booties (caligae) that gave him his more commonly-known nickname. OK, admittedly, the "colossal statue" now consists only of a leg, with boot, and a togate lap, sitting on a nicely carved throne with fringed stone pillow. Very regal, uh, imperial, though.
Click on the link in the article to see video (no audio) of the hunk being unloaded from a truck, cleaned off, and put on display in the museum in Nemi where Bootsie's wonderful Party Boats USED TO BE displayed, until Certain People (that means you, Hitler!) burned them. (The article recaps that sad episode at the end.)

Bones in a Broch

Iron Age Roundhouse in Scotland, with human burial
Now in Scotland, there isn't/wasn't a lot of wood, so Iron Agers had to build their roundhouses out of stone, not wattle-and-daub. Guess there was a wattle shortage, too. Anyway, a stone roundhouse is called a "broch," which you probably have to be Scots to pronounce. This one at Caithness turns out to contain some human remains, but they may have been put there long after the broch was built, because it was considered a sacred space even centuries after it fell into disuse.

Stolen Petroglyph Returned Home in Nevada

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/cacc1291bcb34c50ac37b56ec2ab0c71/NV--Stolen-Petroglyph-Returns/
More people behaving badly with antiquities: a Nevada real estate agent stole a petroglyph from the desert (picture of some bighorn sheep) and used it to decorate his front yard. An alert sherrif's deputy was there to serve some unrelated papers and said, "Hmm, that thing probably isn't legal." Too bad the article gives no background on the petroglyph's actual origins, just the deputy's speculation that the thang is "well over a hundred years old." Good guess.

Feds bust group trying to smuggle Ancient Egyptian mummy coffins

Feds bust group trying to smuggle Ancient Egyptian mummy coffins
I saw this story in some other news outlets, but this one is written in the inimitable style of the NY Daily News, with cracks about the "curse of the mummy."
It's not just mummies and coffins, but an international ring of smugglers dealing in Egyptian antiquities, apparently active since 2005 or something.

Shabbat boundary rock w... JPost - Arts & Culture - Entertainment

Shabbat boundary rock w... JPost - Arts & Culture - Entertainment
I don't normally get around to reading the "Jerusalem Post," but it stands to reason that it would have some good articles about recent archaeological discoveries in the region.
You can't "work" on the Sabbath, right? And travel constitutes work. But how far can you walk before it's "travel"? Well, of course, there's a rule for that. And in the city of Jerusalem, there were markers that denoted the limits of Sabbath walking-around-which-is-not-technically-travel.
The discovery consists of a rock with the word "Shabbat" inscribed in Hebrew; the best date is between 1st and 7th centuries CE. Not too precise, but perhaps further discoveries of similar stones will narrow it down.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

How a Roman Ship Carried Live Fish: Photos : Discovery News

How a Roman Ship Carried Live Fish: Photos : Discovery News
How did all those exotic fish get transported to Rome without spoiling? Live tank on board ships, if we are to believe the interpretation of this Roman shipwreck. Gratias Max to M. Leeper for alerting us to this story.

Pyramid Hieroglyphs Likely Engineering Numbers : Discovery News

Pyramid Hieroglyphs Likely Engineering Numbers : Discovery News
New markings found inside the pyramid are interpreted as marks or measurements made by the builders. A link within this article takes you to an earlier article detailing the robot's exploration of the pyramid's tiny passageways and the use of the "bendy camera" to see around corners. ZH is apparently not lying low any more.

Iceman Had Bad Teeth : Discovery News

Iceman Had Bad Teeth : Discovery News
New analysis reveals that Oezti had bad teeth--cavities, periodontal disease, bone loss--although none of his teeth had fallen out. Blame falls on the sugars in his high-carb diet. Apparently the Neolithic Revolution was bad news for our dental health.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Leaning Tower of Pisa Stands Tall: Photos : Discovery News

Leaning Tower of Pisa Stands Tall: Photos : Discovery News
A nice picture essay on the LTP, now newly cleaned and restored. A project in the 1990s managed to straighten it up by 17 inches and make it stable for, supposedly, the next 300 years. It does look nice and white again (hover mouse over pictures to get captions). Like your teeth, the marble on the tower was damaged by the crookedness--pressure, stress, sun exposure.

Iraq's Ancient Ur Site in Danger : Discovery News

Iraq's Ancient Ur Site in Danger : Discovery News
Nothing much in the way of excavation has been done here since Woolley dug in the 1930s, for God's sake. Not much conservation, and what was done wasn't too great. There was also a nice article about Ur in Archaeology magazine a few months back, by an American soldier who was stationed near there; his report was also very depressing.
Good grief, people; this place is one of the earliest great human monuments on the planet. It has survived over 5000 years of weather, war, and usage. Stuff it has seen makes our current squabbles seem quite trivial.

Gladiator Chews Out Ref From Grave : Discovery News

Gladiator Chews Out Ref From Grave : Discovery News
Mala vocatio! Bad call by a gladiatorial ref. This gladiator's epitaph tells how he knocked down his opponent and presumably should have been given the victory then, but a corrupt official let the opponent get back up and continue the fight. I hate when that happens.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Speakers for Passages exhibit in OKC

Speakers for Passages exhibit
The Passages exhibit on the history of the Bible and its texts is at the OKC Museum of Art. There are some visiting scholars who will be speaking in connection with the exhibit. This is the schedule. Note especially Dirk Obbink on papyri Sept. 13.