From Iraq and back, via 9/11
A group of 4,000-year-old clay tablets that survived looting, confiscation by U.S. customs officials, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks is shedding light on what everyday life was like in ancient Iraq as an agricultural official.
The Role of Speculation in Science
And yet speculation is an essential part of science. So how does it fit in? Two recent publications, both about the misty depths of canine and human history, suggest some answers.
Uffizi to open 10 new rooms
The Uffizi Gallery will shortly open ten new spaces, dedicated to 16th-century painters, mainly from Tuscany, from Andrea del Sarto to Bronzino and Raffaello. There will also be a gallery with Hellenistic sculptures.
Excavation at Kourion
A team of archaeologists from a Texas theological seminary and the University of Cyprus is hoping to reveal the ordinary domestic lives of Cyprus’ early Christians in a new dig at Kourion (Curium) which was destroyed by a series of earthquakes around 365 AD.
Ancient sealing offers first mention of Bethlehem
A newly discovered clay fragment is the first evidence outside the Bible that Bethlehem existed as a city at the time of the First Temple in Jerusalem, archaeologists say
Waiting for tourists
On the road to Egypt's Djoser step pyramid at Saqqara there's not a trace of a tourist anywhere, and a handful of trinket and souvenir salesmen sit on a metal railing hoping for a lucky break.
The skeleton that inspired Sylvia Plath
Sarcophagus containing bones of Roman woman and rodents that chewed her ankle go on show at Cambridge museum.
70 suspects, 16,344 artefacts
Italian police on Friday said they were investigating 70 people for trading thousands of looted archaeological artefacts including ancient coins and vases on Internet auction site eBay.
Curses against Senator and… animal doctor
Αt a time when black magic was relatively common, two curses involving snakes were cast, one targeting a senator and the other an animal doctor, says a Spanish researcher who has just deciphered the 1,600-year-old curses.
Megiddo dig unearths cache of buried Canaanite treasure
Archaeologists believe the stash of jewelery and beads made of semi-precious stone and gold dates from around 1100 B.C.E.
Female names in an unknown language
A researcher from Cambridge believes to have discovered evidence for a previously unknown ancient language in a list of female names inscribed on a 2800 year old cuneiform tablet.
Symbolism and social exchange leads to Homo Sapiens expansion
The disappearance of Neanderthals still remains a mystery, but paleoanthropologists are increasingly understanding what allowed their evolutionary cousins, Homo sapiens, to conquer the planet.
The red stone miracle
An Israeli archaeologist says he has found the site of a Sixth Century miracle documented by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea.
The how and where of Roman age glassmaking
An EU-funded interdisciplinary study has contributed a deeper understanding of glass production in Italy in the Roman age.
Byzantine settlement in Lefokastron
A Byzantine settlement was excavated in Lefokastron (Pelion) by the 7th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities.
Ancient tombs from Phoenician period discovered in Larnaca
Ancient tombs from the Phoenician period (hailing between the 6th and 4th century BC) were discovered in the Faneromeni district in Larnaca during work on the town’s sewage system.
Necropolis at Struma Motorway
Archaeologists working along the route of Bulgaria’s Struma Motorway, which when completed will lead from capital city Sofia to the Greek border, have found a necropolis estimated to date back about 2800 years.
Professional thieves target Chinese artifacts
The Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University saw the loss of eighteen ancient Chinese artifacts on Friday night in a daring heist police believe was pulled off by professional thieves. The heist was strongly reminiscent of a similar theft of Chinese artifacts that took place just two weeks earlier at Durham University.
Oldest red blood cells found in 5300 year old mummy
Scientists have located traces of blood on the wounds of Ötzi and were able to recover red cells.
Closed due to drilling
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has unexpectedly closed around a quarter of its Egyptian wing, and removed some of the most fragile objects from galleries that remain open as a precaution against intense vibrations caused by drilling.
POCA 2012
The 12th Postgraduate Cypriot Archaeology meeting will be held in Erlangen (Germany), in November. Proposals accepted until Juli 31st, 2012.
Migration brought agriculture To Europe
This week’s edition of Science presents the genetic findings of a Swedish-Danish research team, which show that agriculture spread to Northern Europe via migration from Southern Europe.
Water cistern revealed under mosque
A 264 year-old water cistern has been discovered during the restoration of Istanbul’s Nuruosmaniye Mosque
Hathor Temple gets facelift
Following year of exhaustive restoration work, the Hathor temple on Egypt's island of Philae will reopen to public next month