Pulled from the sea more than two decades ago, archaeologists are still pulling treasure from the submerged confines of an ancient Chinese merchant ship. According to media reports, more than 200 porcelain artifacts were recently discovered from Nanhai One, a Song Dynasty vessel (960-1279) that sunk more than 800 years ago. In a 40-day trial excavation, which ended in September, archaeologists uncovered the artifacts, helping to confirm that the ship was indeed a merchant vessel. During the excavation, archaeologists also found that parts of the ships cabin and deck had been well-preserved. The vessel was originally found in 1987 off…
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Attribution: Tom Blackwell Yorkshire Britain As well as an outstanding view, walkers on Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire, are treated with an ancient enigma. The Swastika Stone, situated at the Northern edge of the moor has many people pondering its existence. This unusual carving is made up of four spiral arms, one of which has a further appendage. There is a cup in the loop of each arm, and one in the outer ring of each arm. With the cup in the centre of the design, the cups themselves form a 5×5 cross figure. The cups in the swastika align north-south…
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Exciting times in Botswana. Giant hand axes are among a stash of Stone Age tools discovered there that could tell us more about how the ancestors of modern humans hunted, coped with climate change and migrated through Africa. Oxford University researchers have uncovered an incredible collection of artefacts including four hand axes, thought to be the worlds largest stone tools in the dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert. Their latest finds throw light on how early humans adapted to climate change during the Middle and Late Stone Age, that is, 150,000 to 10,000 years ago. Researchers say…
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The infamous excesses of Emperor Nero have made a spectacular comeback yesterday, as archaeologists unveiled his legendary rotating banquet hall. Experts excavating in the Domus Aurea (Golden Palace, literally ‘Golden House’) on Rome’s Palatine Hill have found what they claim to be the remnants of a platform and mechanism described by the ancient historian Suetonius, in his opus The Twelve Caesars. The incredible discovery was made during routine maintenance work at the Palace, which is now located beneath theBaths of Trajan. “This cannot be compared to anything that we know of in ancient Roman architecture,” says head archaeologist FrancoiseVilledieu. An…
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While Turkey has managed to reclaim some major historical artifacts smuggled from Turkey to the US and the UK, it is still unable to implement effective measures against the smuggling of new ones. According to the “Cultural and Natural Assets Smuggling Report” prepared by the Culture and Tourism Ministry based on figures provided by the KOM – the Anti-smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau of the police department – Turkey sees higher statistics related to the smuggling of historical artefacts every year; in 2008, when authorities seized 42,073 historical artefacts and detained 4,077 suspects in 1,576 operations. In 2003 security authorities…
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Canada probably isnt the first place you think of when it comes to Latin. The countrys rather chilly climate doesnt exactly inspire images of the Mediterranean. By the time the language arrived in the country, in the 16th century, Latin was a long dead language. There is no evidence that any ancient Roman ever set foot in this land. Nevertheless, according to this article written by the Globe and Mails Ingrid Peritz, Latin is becoming an increasingly popular subject in the countrys post-secondary institutions. Peritz’s article reports that, in general, enrolment in Latin classes has been rising in recent years.…
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This week the ‘Achievements and Problems of Modern Egyptology’ conference takes place in Moscow, Russia. The colloquium – organized by the Centre for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences – is the first international Egyptological conference ever held in Russia, organized by the Centre for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is organized to celebrate the centenary of acquiring the Egyptian collection of the famous Russian Egyptologist Vladimir Golenischev by the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and spans all ranges of Egyptology but also has a clear focus on new methods and technologies in…
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The recession isnt being kind to the ancient world. Two leading publishers of history titles have just gone bust, and there are fears that more will follow. Italian publishers White Star have become the latest victim, following British publisher Thalamus into receivership last month. White Star, which opened in 1984, was one of Italys leading publishing house and one of Italian publishings star exporters. Its extensive multi-lingual catalogue features more than 600 titles ranging from archaeology, art and nature to technology, photography, ethnology, mountaineering and marine biology. Its impressive archaeology and civilisations collections alone carry something from every corner of…
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To say that archaeologist Sarah Milledge Nelson has had a productive career would be a gross understatement. The University of Denver archaeologist has held the John Evans professorship. A position that every faculty member, at her university, competes for, but only one person gets each year. She wrote the book on Korean archaeology – literally – and has written or co-written somewhere in the neighbourhood of a dozen books, as well as numerous articles. She’s done fieldwork throughout Korea and extensive work at Niuheliang, a Neolithic site in China. She even pens works of historical fiction. Right now she’s working on…
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The Museo delle Antichit Egizie (Museo Egizio) in Turin is currently undergoing a makeover that is set to change the layout and design of the venue that is home to the biggest collection of Egyptian artefacts outside Egypt. In an interview yesterday, Alain Elkann, president of the Fondazione Museo delle Antichit Egizie, gave Quotidiano Arte a idea of what we can expect to see at the new-look museum. A Trip up the Nile One of the innovations is that visitors can expect to be taken through a reconstruction of a Nile environment by an escalator linking the four floors of…