U.S. says it will protect Iraqi antiquities, repair museum Tuesday, April 15, 2003 at 09:00 JST WASHINGTON � Criticized for not preventing the pillage of Iraqi antiquities, the United States vowed Monday to take a "leading role" in protecting artifacts and repair damage to the National Museum of Iraq which was looted last week. In addition, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington was working with the United Nations, the European Union and Interpol to prevent stolen objects from leaving Iraq and warned thieves that they would face prosecution. "This kind of looting causes irretrievable loss to the understanding of history and to the efforts of Iraqi and international scholars to study and gain new insight into our past," Powell said in a statement. Separately, the president of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), Maxwell Anderson, urged museums and collectors to spurn any offer to acquire Iraqi artifacts. Anderson "called on museums and collectors around the world not to acquire antiquities stolen from the Baghdad Museum, and urged that information leading to the recovery of artifacts be passed on to appropriate authorities," the AAMD said in a statement. Earlier, Powell told reporters that the United States was deeply concerned by the looting of the national museum Baghdad, which he called "one of the great museums in the world." Powell said Washington would work with others "not only secure the facility, but to recover that which has been taken and also to participate in restoring that which has been broken." Deputy State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said U.S. officials had been in contact with the international police agency Interpol to locate and return stolen objects before they turned up in the thriving global black market for such items. Powell said he had spoken Monday with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, about possible ways to protect Iraq's cultural heritage. And, he said U.S. officials had been in touch with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to explore steps that could be taken. UNESCO's chief, Koichiro Matsuura, on Saturday called on U.S. and British authorities to immediately protect Iraq's cultural heritage by monitoring and guarding archeological sites and cultural institutions. Iraq's national museum fell victim to looters on Friday in the lawless atmosphere that engulfed Baghdad after the arrival there of U.S. troops on Wednesday. Pottery artifacts and statues were broken and overturned, while administrative offices were wrecked, according to witnesses. Iraq, among the earliest cradles of civilization and home to the remains of such ancient Mesopotamian cities as Babylon, Ur and Nineveh, has one of the richest archaeological heritages in the world. Shortly after the war began on March 20, a group of 18 prominent archaeologists appealed for the U.S.-led coalition to spare Iraq's priceless antiquities. "The extraordinary significance of the monuments, museums and archeological sites of Iraq � ancient Mesopotamia � imposes an obligation on all peoples and governments to protect them," they said in March 21 open letter published in Science magazine. They also called on the international community to take a post-war role in assisting in the protection of antiquities from looting and themselves pledged to help Iraqi Department of Antiquities do its job. Some of the signatories were among a team of scholars to have worked with the Pentagon and the State Department before the war to identify some 4,000 sites that should be protected. Despite these efforts, they expressed deep concern that the fall of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would erode the control of cultural watchdogs in the country and spur looting, particularly at the museums in Baghdad and Mosul. (Wire reports) http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=256726

Thanks, Cheryl! I was just looking for articles to post when yours showed up on my monitor. Looting museums is about the lowest manking can go, and you can bet there will be buyers out there!!! It makes me sick! Looking for archer burial pictures... see next post.

For Archer Burial in the UK... http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/amesbury/excavation_images.html

Thanks for the link to the archer photos, Marcia. This seems to be a really important find. The news about the Iraqi artifacts is too depressing. You're right about there being buyers. The one article above notes that some items have already shown up for sale on the international market. I saw one museum offical interviewed on television; he was just despondent. He said that not only was it the loss of Iraq's cultural heritage, it was a loss to the world's cultural heritage. Everyone has lost something of great importance. It was a very sad interview.

Looters ransack Iraq's National Library By Charles J. Hanley April 15, 2003 | BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Looters and arsonists ransacked and gutted Iraq's National Library, leaving a smoldering shell Tuesday of precious books turned to ash and a nation's intellectual legacy gone up in smoke. They also looted and burned Iraq's principal Islamic library nearby, home to priceless old Qurans; last week, thieves swept through the National Museum and stole or smashed treasures that chronicled this region's role as the "cradle of civilization." "Our national heritage is lost," an angry high school teacher, Haithem Aziz, said as he stood outside the National Library's blackened hulk. "The modern Mongols, the new Mongols did that. The Americans did that. Their agents did that," he said as an explosion boomed in the distance as the war winds down. The Mongols, led by Genghis Khan's grandson Hulegu, sacked Baghdad in the 13th century. Today, the rumors on the lips of almost all Baghdadis is that the looting that has torn this city apart is led by U.S.-inspired Kuwaitis or other non-Iraqis bent on stripping the city of everything of value. But outside the gutted Islamic library on the grounds of the Religious Affairs Ministry, the lone looter scampering away was undeniably Iraqi, a grizzled man named Mohamed Salman. "It was left there, so why leave it?" he asked a reporter as he clung to a thick, red-covered book, a catalog of the library's religious collection. The scene inside was total devastation. In much of the library, not a recognizable book or manuscript could be seen among the dark ash. The destruction has drawn condemnation worldwide, with many criticizing U.S.-led coalition forces for failing to prevent or stop the looting, sometimes carried out by whole Iraqi families. On Tuesday, U.S. officials acknowledged they were surprised by the rampage and said troops were too occupied by combat to intervene when they first reached Baghdad. "I don't think anyone anticipated that the riches of Iraq would be looted by the people of Iraq," U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said at a U.S. Central Command briefing in Qatar. The United Nation's cultural agency and the British Museum announced Tuesday they will send in teams to help restore ransacked museums and artifacts. Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, called on customs officials, police, art dealers and neighboring countries to block the trading of stolen antiquities. Among the National Museum's treasures were the tablets with Hammurabi's Code _ one of mankind's earliest codes of law. It could not be immediately determined whether the tablets were at the museum when war broke out. Thieves smashed or pried open row upon row of glass cases at the museum and pilfered or destroyed their contents. Missing were the four millennia-old copper head of an Akkadian king, golden bowls and colossal statues, ancient manuscripts and bejeweled lyres. The looting and burning _ the museum in the northern city of Mosul also was pillaged _ has dealt a terrible blow to a society that prides itself on its universities, literature and educated elite. "I can't express the sorrow I feel. This is not real liberation," said an artist in a wing of the National Library that had been looted but not burned. The thin, bearded, 41-year-old man, who would not give his name, was going through old bound newspapers and tearing out pages whose artistic drawings appealed to him. "I came yesterday to see the chaos, and when I saw it, I decided to take what I could," he said. The three-story, tan brick National Library building, dating to 1977, housed all books published in Iraq, including copies of all doctoral theses. It preserved rare old books on Baghdad and the region, historically important books on Arabic linguistics, and antique manuscripts in Arabic that teacher Aziz said were gradually being transformed into printed versions. "They had manuscripts from the Ottoman and Abbasid periods," Aziz said, referring to dynasties dating back a millennium. "All of them were precious, famous. I feel such grief." No library officials could be located to detail the loss. Haroun Mohammed, an Iraqi writer based in London, told The Associated Press some old manuscripts had been transferred from the library to a Manuscript House across the Tigris River. Except for wooden card catalog drawers and a carved-wood service counter which somehow escaped the flames, nothing was left in the National Library's main wing but its charred walls and ceilings, and mounds of ash. The floor on the ground level was still warm from the flames. Long rolls of microfilm littered the courtyard. "This was the best library in Iraq," said music student Raad Muzahim, 27, standing among piles of paper in the periodical room. "I remember coming as a student. They were hospitable, letting students do their research, write their papers. Armored vehicles were positioned on the nearby street, manned by U.S. Marines. They did nothing to stop Tuesday's continuing trickle of looters. http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2003/04/15/iraq_library/

Iraq �liberated� as arsonists burn the library of Korans By Robert Fisk So Monday was the burning of books. First came the looters, then the arsonists. It was the final chapter in the sacking of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives ... a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents, including the old royal archives of Iraq ... were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the library of Korans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze. I saw the looters. One of them cursed me when I tried to reclaim a book of Islamic law from a boy of no more than 10. Amid the ashes of Iraqi history, I found a file blowing in the wind outside: pages of handwritten letters between the court of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who started the Arab revolt against the Turks for Lawrence of Arabia, and the Ottoman rulers of Baghdad. And the Americans did nothing. All over the filthy yard they blew, letters of recommendation to the courts of Arabia, demands for ammunition for troops, reports on the theft of camels and attacks on pilgrims, all in delicate hand-written Arabic script. I was holding in my hands the last Baghdad vestiges of Iraq�s written history. But for Iraq, this is Year Zero; with the destruction of the antiquities in the Museum of Archaeology on Saturday and the burning of the National Archives and then the Koranic library, the cultural identity of Iraq is being erased. Why? Who set these fires? For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed? When I caught sight of the Koranic library burning � flames 100 feet high were bursting from the windows � I raced to the offices of the occupying power, the US Marines� Civil Affairs Bureau. An officer shouted to a colleague that �this guy says some biblical [sic] library is on fire�. I gave the map location, the precise name � in Arabic and English. I said the smoke could be seen from three miles away and it would take only five minutes to drive there. Half an hour later, there wasn�t an American at the scene � and the flames were shooting 200 feet into the air. There was a time when the Arabs said that their books were written in Cairo, printed in Beirut and read in Baghdad. Now they burn libraries in Baghdad. In the National Archives were not just the Ottoman records of the Caliphate, but even the dark years of the country�s modern history, handwritten accounts of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, with personal photographs and military diaries, and microfiche copies of Arabic newspapers going back to the early 1900s. But the older files and archives were on the upper floors of the library where petrol must have been used to set fire so expertly to the building. The heat was such that the marble flooring had buckled upwards and the concrete stairs that I climbed had been cracked. The papers on the floor were almost too hot to touch, bore no print or writing, and crumbled into ash the moment I picked them up. Again, standing in this shroud of blue smoke and embers, I asked the same question: why? So, as an all-too-painful reflection on what this means, let me quote from the shreds of paper that I found on the road outside, blowing in the wind, written by long-dead men who wrote to the Sublime Porte in Istanbul or to the Court of Sharif of Mecca with expressions of loyalty and who signed themselves �your slave�. There was a request to protect a camel convoy of tea, rice and sugar, signed by Husni Attiya al-Hijazi (recommending Abdul Ghani-Naim and Ahmed Kindi as honest merchants), a request for perfume and advice from Jaber al-Ayashi of the royal court of Sharif Hussein to Baghdad to warn of robbers in the desert. �This is just to give you our advice for which you will be highly rewarded,� Ayashi says. �If you don�t take our advice, then we have warned you.� A touch of Saddam there, I thought. The date was 1912. Some of the documents list the cost of bullets, military horses and artillery for Ottoman armies in Baghdad and Arabia, others record the opening of the first telephone exchange in the Hejaz � soon to be Saudi Arabia � while one recounts, from the village of Azrak in modern-day Jordan, the theft of clothes from a camel train by Ali bin Kassem, who attacked his interrogators �with a knife and tried to stab them but was restrained and later bought off�. There is a 19th-century letter of recommendation for a merchant, Yahyia Messoudi, �a man of the highest morals, of good conduct and who works with the [Ottoman] government.� This, in other words, was the tapestry of Arab history � all that is left of it, which fell into The Independent�s hands as the mass of documents crackled in the immense heat of the ruins. King Faisal of the Hejaz, the ruler of Mecca, whose staff are the authors of many of the letters I saved, was later deposed by the Saudis. His son Faisel became king of Iraq � Winston Churchill gave him Baghdad after the French threw him out of Damascus � and his brother Abdullah became the first king of Jordan, the father of King Hussein and the grandfather of the present-day Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah II. For almost a thousand years, Baghdad was the cultural capital of the Arab world, the most literate population in the Middle East. Genghis Khan�s grandson burnt the city in the 13th century and, so it was said, the Tigris river ran black with the ink of books. On Monday, the black ashes of thousands of ancient documents filled the skies of Iraq. Why? http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_16-4-2003_pg4_20

Inquiry demanded over US failure to stop library looting By Andrew Gumbel 16 April 2003 The burning of Iraq's National Library is a "devastating loss" and is the equivalent of losing the British Library, international academics said. The US military's failure to prevent the calamity must be investigated to prevent it happening again, they added. After the looting and burning at government ministries and the ransacking of Iraq's main archaeological museum, the burning of the library, with its thousands of rare printed books and hand-written archives, marks a further erasure of Iraq's past, obliterating large chunks of Middle Eastern history and destroying many unique documents. Geoffrey Roper, head of the Islamic Bibliography Unit at Cambridge University, said: "If people's personal possessions are lost they can be replaced, but these things can never be replaced. "The archive contained a lot of early Arabic printed books, which are very scarce and very fragile, a lot of which have survived in just one or two editions. We've also lost material from the library of the Ministry of Religious Endowments, which contained rare early legal and literary materials, priceless Korans, calligraphy and illumination � the kind of thing that appeared in international exhibitions in the past," he said. Some of Iraq's most valuable collections may yet be safe, because they were stored separately at the Saddam Library. If those too had been looted, Dr Roper said, it would mean "a whole nation's collections had been wiped out". Andreas Riedlmayer, an Islamic art and architecture specialist from Harvard who has also studied the destruction of the National Library in Sarajevo during the Bosnian conflict, said he believed some of the destruction was quite deliberate. Although mob rule played a part, he believed some archives � especially in ministries and police stations � were deliberately destroyed to eradicate the evidence of Saddam Hussein's repressive rule. In the case of libraries and museums, he believed many of the most precious treasures had been taken intact for sale on the international art market, and the rest destroyed to create confusion about what was missing. "One must not oversimplify it. There was no one clear motive," Dr Riedlmayer said. "But this was certainly opportunistic on the part of people who held positions of power. At the National Museum, the vault doors were opened undamaged, which means someone had a key and deliberately let the mob in." He said: "One speculation is that people with access stole selected valuable objects and then left the place open, hoping everything would be attributed to the mob rather than to them." Dr Riedlmayer described the failure of American troops to prevent the looting as "totally discreditable", saying they had violated a whole series of international conventions on the rules of war. He said an investigation was essential, not so much to assign blame as to make sure everyone understood what had gone wrong. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=397629

Thanks for keeping us current on the ancient destruction of the world's earliest civilization. We ALL are victims of this horror. I was stunned that someone set fire to the library and burned up the second oldest extant copy of the Q'ran. One day maybe they will see the error of their ways - way too late.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_771607.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology Standing stone is found to rival Stonehenge Archaeologists working at the ancient Avebury stone circle have uncovered what could be one of the largest standing stones in the country. Experts at English Heritage and the National Trust say the stone could weigh in at 100 tons, rivalling the largest megaliths at its fellow site in Wiltshire, Stonehenge. The surprise discovery was made during work at the 4,500 year-old stone circle to straighten two stones known as the Cove, which have begun to lean over the last 300 years and experts feared might collapse. The team from the Universities of Wales, Leicester and Southampton found the stone was buried much deeper beneath the ground than previously thought. They found that one of the stones, which stands at 14ft high above the ground, exists at least 7ft below the surface and could possibly go down to 10ft. Amanda Chadburn, Inspector of Ancient Monuments at English Heritage, which is the guardian of the stones, said: "We were amazed when we discovered that the stone went so much deeper than we expected. "Ground penetrating radar and probing had suggested it existed to only about one-and-a-half to three feet below the surface. It is absolutely enormous and could weigh as much as the trilithon at Stonehenge." Although it was originally planned to bring both stones at the Cove to an upright position, the investigations show that only the other stone - which is 16ft high above ground and predicted to exist to 4ft below ground, requires straightening. The biggest stone will now be left, as it is considered safe. Rob Mimmack, property manager at Avebury for the National Trust, which owns the monument, said: "The stone is being fixed in the ground with lime concrete. "Within two to three weeks we will be taking down the scaffolding and people will have access to the stones again for the first time since 1997 when they were fenced off for safety reasons."

totally off the subject but in the right topic, methinks, what happened to Discovery Civilization Channel???? i happen to go into my channel guide and the thing is gone and now they have Discovery Times. what is up with that?

Different times of day they run programs from their other Discovdery Channels such as Discovery International (or is that History International?!) Try another time and it will be back to normal. These teases are usually only an hour long.

Historic Thebes comes to light Thebes, Athens�s powerful neighbor in antiquity, remained something of a mystery in later centuries, known more as the setting for the myths centered on Oedipus and for the role described by historians. But this is set to change soon with the announcement by Prof. Vassilis Aravantinos on 22 years of excavations around the Boeotian capital. In a speech titled �New evidence of unknown Thebes in historical times,� Aravantinos yesterday described finds that included 20,000 movable objects (such as figurines, inscriptions, gravestones and clay vessels), the contents of 1,200 unplundered graves � some of which date back to the Archaic era (1000-700 BC) � and the head of a kouros (youth) dating from 510 to 500 BC which, uniquely, wore a cap aimed at protecting the statue from bird droppings. No photos were available yesterday of the unpublished finds, most of which came from rescue digs at construction sites ranging from homes to major public works. �They fill in a puzzle, providing a portrait of Thebes in historical times,� Aravantinos said. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100016_15/05/2003_29632

Six more bodies found near 'King of Stonehenge' site Archaeologists have discovered six more bodies near the grave of the so-called King of Stonehenge. The remains of four adults and two children were found at a site in Amesbury, Wiltshire. It is about half-a-mile from that of the Amesbury Archer, the Bronze Age man who was buried with the earliest gold found in Britain. It is thought he might have had a major role in creating Stonehenge. Tests showed he was born in the Alps region in central Europe. The latest bones discovered are some 4,500 years old - the same age as the Archer, said Salisbury-based Wessex Archaeology - which excavated the site during the digging of a trench this month. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_783642.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

Archaeologists unearth Britain's first cave pictures Robin McKie, science editor Sunday June 15, 2003 The Observer Archaeologists have discovered 12,000-year-old engravings carved by ancient Britons in a cave in Creswell Crags, Derbyshire. The depiction of the animals - which include a pair of birds - is the first example of prehistoric cave art in Britain. The discovery - by Paul Bahn and Paul Pettitt, with Spanish colleague Sergio Ripoll - is set to trigger considerable scientific excitement, for it fills a major gap in the country's archeological record. 'If this is verified, it represents a wonderful discovery,' said Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum, London. 'There are fine examples of cave art in Spain and France but none has been found here - until now.' More and photo... http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,977904,00.html

Ancient tools found at Carrow Road The ancient flint tools could be 12,000 years old A cluster of rare flint tools unearthed at Norwich City's football ground could date back 12,000. Archaeologists have found flint artefacts on the site of a new stand at the club's Carrow Road ground. Experts believe the tools could be from the Upper Palaeolithic era. Lots more and photo... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/norfolk/2994828.stm

Permanent home plan for Seahenge A home for the ancient timber circle is planned in King's Lynn Proposals to put the ancient Seahenge timber circle on display in Norfolk have been put forward. The circle, discovered five years ago and at present being conserved at Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire, could form the centrepiece of the redeveloped Lynn Museum in King's Lynn. The plan would give Seahenge, discovered off the coast of Norfolk at Holme-next-the-Sea near Hunstanton in 1998, a permanent home. Seahenge sat unnoticed and undisturbed off the coast for almost 4,000 years. great photo and more info... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/norfolk/3011098.stm

to keep this site available for children, I post the following briefly: Mother Stonehenge by Josie Glausiusz Anthony Perks, an endocrinologist and professor of gynecology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, sees a symbolic meaning in Stonehenge that other researchers have overlooked: MUCH more http://www.discover.com/July_03/breakstone.html

Eight thousand years of history beneath Terminal 5 Archaeologists say the largest single dig in the UK has provided an insight into 8,000 years of history. A team of 80 archaeologists working at the 250-acre site of the new Terminal 5 building at Heathrow Airport unearthed 80,000 objects, some dating back to 6,000BC. These included 18,000 pieces of pottery, 40,000 pieces of flint and the only wooden bowl found dating to the Middle Bronze Age (1,500BC to 1,100BC). The experts, who spent more than 15 months on the excavation, were able to piece together how communities living on the site and the landscape itself have changed over the last 8,000 years. Framework Archaeology, formed especially to tackle the project, found evidence that people were creating field boundaries from around 2,000BC - 500 years earlier than previously thought. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_800431.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

I was unhappy when they leveled a hillfort to build that airport. This above article makes me even more unhappy!

Stuffed dormice a Roman favourite Roman bowl The remnants of a Roman hare stew Archaeologists in Northamptonshire are unearthing the recipe secrets of the Romans. Excavations in the county have shown the dish of the day 2,000 years ago was freshly-grilled hare and stuffed dormice. The excavations are at Whitehall Villa, Nether Heyford, just yards from the Grand Union Canal, are revealing the secrets of Northamptonshire's Roman Heritage, including their unusual diet. Archaeologist Martin Weaver said a burned bowl found at the site contained the remnants of hare stew. "They also ate dormice - stuffed - and oysters. They loved their oysters," he said. Lots more ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/northamptonshire/3080263.stm

Mystery capsule reveals 2,000-year-old Roman ointment A Roman capsule unearthed at an archaeological dig in central London has been opened to reveal a pot of 2,000-year-old cream. More on the next beauty secret fad... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_803956.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

Rare Iron Age cremation found in Dorset Prehistory News Archaeologists working at Britain's biggest excavation site near Wareham are celebrating a rare discovery of national importance and a first for Dorset. A student from Bournemouth University uncovered a 20cm pot which turned out to be evidence of the first Iron Age cremation ever found in Dorset. The pot filled with human remains was found intact at Bestwall Quarry - where archaeologist have unearthed a wealth of finds, including 30 Roman kilns. Archaeologist Lilian Ladle said: "We've found three Roman cremations and a number of Bronze Age cremations but during the late Iron Age in Dorset bodies would be put out to rot or buried. more plus some really "curious" links... http://www.stonehenge.uklinux.net/article.php?sid=2146411016

Ancient stone circle found on remote island An ancient stone circle which has lain buried for more than 3,000 years has been found on a remote Scottish island. The circle is the latest to have been discovered at a site widely considered as second in importance to Stonehenge. Experts said the new circle was very exciting, as it had been built not into soft ground but propped up on a rocky outcrop. They have also located the quarry where the rocks came from, a rare discovery in archaeological terms. The circle, called Na Dromannan, has been found overlooking the standing stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_813926.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

Ancient Celtic spoon is 2,000-year-old A 2,000-year-old spoon, used for scooping out shellfish, has been discovered at the site of a Celtic village. The tiny, copper alloy metal Romano British spoon, the handle of which is missing, was found by workmen at the Chysauster site, which is just three miles from Mounts Bay, near Penzance, Cornwall. A similar spoon was found during recent excavations in Newquay, north Cornwall. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_810465.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

how cool! marcia, you're just gonna have to take your archaeologist and visit scottland and all those magical places!!

That would be fantastic! What is even more incredible is just by weeding your garden you can find treasure (be sure you report it to the proper authorities if you do find anything!!!) which makes weeding interesting for the first time in my particular life...! I rather fancy that Celtic seafood spoon, too. Hmm. I wonder if they made complete sets so I might still find one?! The stone circle is a minor miracle. Aubrey Burl has done exhaustive work on stone circles of the British Isles (I have at least 3 of his books on the subject) and he did not find this one?! I am impressed. I want to find pictures, next. If I do, so will you!

And, all I find in my garden is weeds... Man finds Roman tablet in garden Experts are studying a gold Roman tablet engraved with magic symbols found by a man tending his garden. The tablet, a thin plate covered in Greek writing asking a god for protection and magic symbols, was found in Dereham, Norfolk, and handed to museum staff in Norwich. A spokesman for Norfolk County Council said the tablet, which is about an inch square and thought to date back to the second century AD, had been passed to the British Museum where it was being valued by experts. Officials have not released who found the coin or exactly where or when. But the council spokesman added: "Museum staff think it could be a very important find." http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_820277.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology It is thought to be the fourth tablet of its kind found in Britain.

More about the Neanderthals: Potholers uncover 35,000-year-old human jawbone Scientists believe a 35,000-year-old jawbone may be the oldest relic of modern human ancestors discovered in Europe. The fossil was found by potholers in a cave once used by hibernating bears in Romania's Carpathian Mountains. Experts dated it to between 34,000 and 36,000 years ago - a period during which early modern humans co-existed with the last of the Neanderthals. Other bones from the same cave - a skull fragment, a facial skeleton and a partial brain case - are still undergoing analysis, but thought to be the same age. Professor Erik Trinkaus, from Washington University in St Louis, USA, said: "The jawbone is the oldest directly dated modern human fossil. "Taken together, the material is the first that securely documents what modern humans looked like when they spread into Europe. Although we call them 'modern humans', they were not fully modern in the sense that we think of living people." Prof Trinkaus and his team found that most of the specimens' anatomical characteristics were similar to those from other early modern human fossils found in Africa, the Middle East, and later in Europe. But certain features, such as the unusual molar teeth size and proportions, indicated a more primitive origin - and a possible link with Neanderthals. Scientists disagree on whether or not early modern humans and Neanderthals ever bred. The Neanderthals, which populated Europe millions of years before early modern humans, had more primitive features and were less advanced tool users. Many scientists are convinced the two were separate species incapable of having offspring. But others view the Neanderthals as a sub-species of Home sapiens, and believe interbreeding was possible. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_821928.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

900-year-old ship found beneath rice field A sailing vessel that experts believe sank off the coast of southern India 900 years ago has been found buried in a rice field. The ship is made of local Indian wood but the craftsmanship is not, leading experts to suggest it was made by ancient Chinese, Japanese, Egyptians or Arabs. The government of southern Kerala state has excavated the 22-metre long, five-metre wide ship, after it was found in a rice field in Thaikal, a coastal village. After centuries of land buildup, it was 50 metres deep in the inland field when workers tilling the field two years ago noticed some of its wooden planks protruding. More... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_831662.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

Trying to catch up in here too. My new email is marshallsmyth@lycos.com

Hi Marshall! Marcia, please send me an email (mswolf68@hotmail.com). My alternate address for you isn't working!!!

None of my emailshas been working. My son and wife called me to see if I was alive since my email at all addresses they knew came back to them. I have no idea why. I've been "enjoying" Kentucky's finest flu and finally getting to see some snow. The snow I like. Yay! Marshall is back!

Please send me an email Marci so I can get reconnected via this cumbersome means.

Did so. Cumbersome? What other means would you prefer to use?

Ancient sun disc declared a treasure A court has declared a priceless 4,000-year-old Welsh gold sun-disc as treasure. Experts say the Copper Age or early Bronze Age artefact, no bigger than a milk bottle top, is one of the most exciting finds in years. The National Museums & Galleries of Wales will now try to buy it for the nation. Freelance archaeologist Simon Timberlake found it at Cwmystwyth Mines, near Aberystwyth, in a burial plot at the site of a Roman and medieval lead-smelter last year. It proved to be one of the earliest kinds of metal object ever created in Britain and Ireland and the first of its kind discovered in Wales. Mr Timberlake, a member of the Early Mines Research Group, said: "This discovery was made quite by chance, whilst we were investigating a Roman and medieval lead-smelting site about 500 metres away from the early mine." An inquest in Aberystwyth has declared the disc to be treasure after hearing experts detail its importance. It's price will now be assessed by the independent Treasure Valuation Committee. A spokesman for the NMGW said: "This is a priceless find in archaeological terms. It is only the third known piece of goldwork from this period." Adam Gwilt, curator at the NMGW, added: "Gold sun-discs are one of the very earliest kinds of metal objects ever to have been made and used in Britain and Ireland. "The first of its kind from Wales, this fragile sheet disc seems to have been used as an item of adornment on a few special occasions, here upon the death of an individual. "It is tempting to see this person as connected in some way with very early mining on Copa Hill over 4,000 years ago, perhaps one of a group of travelling prospectors or a person of some standing who lived nearby." http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_841449.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

Buried megaliths discovered at stone circle site Archaeologists have discovered an arc of buried megaliths that once formed part of the great stone circle at Avebury in Wiltshire. The National Trust says the existence of these enormous stones, originally constructed more than 4,500 years ago, has remained a puzzle for the last 300 years. Visitors to Avebury will see most of the standing megaliths in the western half of the stone circle. The famous map of Avebury drawn up by William Stukely in the 1720s showed that many of the stones in the south east and north east quadrants of the circle were missing. Now, the first ever geophysics survey of these areas of Avebury, carried out by the National Trust, has revealed that at least 15 of the megaliths lie buried in the circle itself. The massive stones show up very clearly as computer images and the National Trust has been able to identify their sizes, the direction in which they are lying and where they fit in the circle. Martin Papworth, the National Trust's archaeologist for Wessex said: "This is a truly exciting find and completes the circle of Avebury. "These stones were erected over 4,500 years ago and the world of archaeology suspected that most of these stones had been demolished and lost forever. "We know that many of the Avebury stones still standing up to three hundred years ago were broken up for building stone in the 17th and 18th century. "Until now, no-one had realised that some of these stones had survived intact and that they actually lay buried in the earth, next to their original locations." Now, although the National Trust said it has no plans to raise the stones that have been so well protected by the earth for around 700 years, it is considering using ground probing radar to create three dimensional images of each of the buried stones and raise them as computer images. Story filed: 15:25 Tuesday 2nd December 2003 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_843553.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

I hope they excavate them and restore them to the stone circle. Avebury is my favorite place on earth!

Iron Age chariot found near the M1 An Iron Age chariot from about 500 BC has been discovered by engineers working on the new A1 motorway in West Yorkshire. More and picture... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_843692.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

Early man's carvings found in Germany Small figurines believed to be carved from mammoth ivory more than 30,000 years ago have been discovered in a cave in southern Germany. Among the earliest undisputed artworks ever found, they are providing new clues into the migration and religious beliefs of early humans. The figurines depict a water bird, what appears to be a horse's head and a lion-man. The one-inch lion-man is similar to a near one-foot-long figurine previously found in a nearby valley, which had been cited as evidence of shamanism - the belief that spirits can be influenced by priests known as shamans. Birds, especially water birds, are known to be favourite shamanistic symbols, which means "advocates of the shamanistic hypothesis are going to be very happy about these finds," said study author Nicholas Conard. more...http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_848047.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

Fabulous finds as Saxon king's tomb is unearthed The tomb of an East Saxon king containing a fabulous collection of artefacts has been unearthed. The burial chamber, believed to date from the early 7th century, has been described by experts as the richest Anglo-Saxon find since the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk - one of Britain's most important archaeological locations. The site in Prittlewell, Southend, Essex was filled with everything a King might need in the afterlife, from his sword and shield to copper bowls, glass vessels and treasures imported from the farthest corners of the then known world. The remains of the nobleman's body have dissolved in the acidic soil, but two gold foil crosses were found which suggest he was a newly-converted Christian. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_862828.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

I've been looking for photos of the finds of the Saxon burial mentioned above. I'll post them when I find them. I've seen Sutton Hoo in the British Museum and it is worth the effort to get to them.

Apparently there has also been a chariot burial mostly intact discovered. This is rare for the UK.

Would that be a Celtic chariot burial?

Interesting question. The ones in China are listed as Bronze Age. The one in West Yorkshire is listed as Iron Age, and since the Celts were the inventors of iron working, and they were the main population in Britain during the Iron Age, I surmised it was a Celtic burial. This site has lots of photos http://www.oxfordarch.co.uk/pages/chariot_burial.htm

Excitement over Viking find Viking experts are anticipating one of the most important archaeological excavations in Britain following the discovery of what may turn out to be the site of a 9th century boat burial. It follows the uncovering of a range of artefacts by amateur metal detector enthusiasts including boat building nails. The discovery among a hoard of 9th century artefacts has raised hopes it could signal the site of a Viking boat burial - which would make it the first to be found in England. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_866983.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

Ancient remains could be oldest pet cat NewScientist.com news service People tamed cats as pets at least 9500 years ago, say researchers who have unearthed the grave of a prehistoric tabby in Cyprus. The Stone Age moggy appears to have been carefully placed alongside a human corpse, along with offerings including jewellery and stone tools. Until now, historians thought the ancient Egyptians first domesticated cats about 4000 years ago. But evidence suggests cats were culturally important outside Egypt long before that. Stone and clay figurines of cats up to 10,000 years old have turned up in Syria, Turkey and Israel. And archaeologists have found cat bones more than 9000 years old on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which has no native feline species. "The first discovery of cat bones on Cyprus showed that human beings brought cats from the mainland to the islands, but we could not decide if these cats were wild or tame," says Jean-Denis Vigne of the French research organisation CNRS and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Now Vigne and his colleagues have discovered the remains of a Neolithic cat at the ancient village of Shillourokambos in Cyprus, and the manner of its burial suggests the animal was a pet. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994867

Ancient jewellery found in African cave Shell beads point to Stone Age sophistication. Diamonds are a girl's best friend, but shell necklaces were all the rage in the Stone Age. So say archaeologists who have unearthed what may be the oldest jewellery ever discovered. The 75,000-year-old beads were found in the Blombos Cave on the southern tip of South Africa. A team led by Christopher Henshilwood of the University of Bergen, Norway found over 40 pea-sized shells with bored holes and worn areas showing that they had been strung on a necklace, bracelet or clothes. The beads predate jewellery excavated from sites in Europe and Africa by at least 30,000 years, they report in Science. http://www.nature.com/nsu/040412/040412-9.html

Cheryl, you need to find the jpg url to post a photo rather than a shtml or html url. I've done it more often than I'd like to admit. I'll go search for your posted url anyway. Thanks for posting this. Cats, it seems have been around far longer than the Egyptians' mummified creatures!

'Shell beads' could be world's oldest necklace Scientists excavating a cave in South Africa believe they have found the world's oldest necklace. Perforated shells found at Blombos Cave appear to have been strung as beads about 75,000 years ago, according to research published in American journal Science. Archaeologists conducting the dig on the coast of the Indian Ocean said the beads provided some of the earliest evidence of our ancestors' modern behaviour. A total of 41 shells, from a tiny river-dwelling mollusc scavenger, were discovered in a layer of sediment deposited during the Middle Stone Age - making them 30,000 years older than any previously identified personal ornaments. The shells, which were found in clusters of up to 17 beads, all contained holes and had marks in similar positions. The research stated they appeared to have been selected for size and deliberately perforated after being found in rivers 20km from the site. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_923093.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

It seems we have been decorating ourselves for more then just millennia!

Pompeii find shows secrets of the Samnites By Bruce Johnston The discovery in Pompeii of a pre-Roman temple is being hailed as evidence that the city was sophisticated and thriving 300 years before Vesuvius erupted. The temple is said to be of Mephitis, a female deity worshipped by the Samnites, a mysterious ancient people who preceded the Romans in Pompeii. The temple complex includes a sanctuary where it is thought girls from good families worked briefly in "sacred prostitution" as a rite of passage to full womanhood. The Samnites were previously thought of as mountain warriors, whose settlements thrived due to a military pact with Rome, but archaeologists say the finds suggest instead that theirs was an advanced society in its own right. The discovery is the result of a three-year joint project by the University of London and the University of Basilicata in Italy. It is said to have come as a "complete surprise". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/05/wpom05.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/05/ixworld.html

interesting find, cheryl!

Intreresting indeed. Now I have to find the source of my notices because they got eaten by my old computer's breakage. Ah here it is! In the rarified air of WAG thinking comes the following: Ananova: Atlantis 'found in Spain' A German scientist thinks he may have discovered Atlantis - in Spain. Dr Rainer Kuehne says satellite images of southern Spain reveal features on the ground that match Plato's descriptions of the fabled city. He thinks descriptions of Atlantis as an 'island' simply refer to parts of Spain that were destroyed by a flood between 800 and 500 BC. The photos of the Marisma de Hinojos salt marsh near Cadiz show two rectangular structures in the mud and parts of concentric rings that may once have surrounded them More... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_980335.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

Excavations show Maya culture 'ahead of its time' Elaborate ritual objects have been uncovered in the ancient ruins of a city in Guatemala. The findings at the 2,000-year-old site suggest the Maya civilisation was more advanced than previously thought, reports BBC News Online. The city, Cival, thrived in what is generally considered the 'pre-classic' period - but it bore the hallmarks of the more advanced 'classic' period. The excavations, supported by the National Geographic Society, have unearthed two monumental carved masks, 120 pieces of polished jade, a ceremonial centre that spanned 800m (2,600ft) and an inscribed stone slab dating to 300 BC. more... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_948671.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.archaeology

Small relatives may add layer to human history By Lee Bowman Scripps Howard News Service - Detailing "a new and surprising twig" on the human family tree, scientists report Thursday they've discovered the remains of a clan of tiny human relatives, standing about 30 inches tall, that lived on an isolated island in eastern Indonesia as recently as 18,000 years ago. Bones from seven individuals of the new species have been recovered from a 130-foot-deep cave called Liang Bua on the island of Flores, a tropical island already renowned for being home to many animal species found nowhere else in the world. Dubbed Homo Floresiensis, or Flores Man, by the team of Australian and Indonesian researchers who found them, the diminutive humans seem to have had the island to themselves for at least 100,000 years before they became extinct, possibly victims of a volcanic eruption around 12,000 years ago or perhaps done in by the arrival of modern humans. Evidence from the cave shows Flores Man walked upright, made stone tools, built fires and worked together to hunt large game, yet sported a grapefruit-sized brain about a quarter the size of the brains of modern humans. Its brain capacity and stature are more in line with a pre-human species that lived in Africa more than 3 million years ago, but other features, like large eye sockets and small front teeth, put the creature in the more modern Homo family. Archaeological evidence shows modern humans have been living practically next door in New Guinea for at least 50,000 years, but scientists also know that full-sized archaic humans, Homo erectus, continued to live along the Solo River in nearby Java until at least 50,000 years ago. Peter Brown, a professor of archaeology and paleontology at the University of New England in Australia and lead author of one of two papers describing Flores Man published in the journal Nature, says the discovery suggests that the human family has been a lot more varied and adaptable than has been recognized. "People of this body size were supposed to be extinct three million years ago. Yet we missed them by so little in time. This begs the question of what else are we going to find?" said Brown. Already, he and his colleagues plan to look for signs of similar clans in other caves around the region. But other anthropologists who reviewed the papers before they were published are so puzzled by the jumble of features, some more ape-like than human, that they think it's wrong to include the creatures in the recent human family tree at all. The existence of Flores Man, along with recent evidence that clusters of Neanderthals survived in Europe until about 30,000 years ago, suggests the human family album is becoming more crowded. For most of the roughly 160,000 years that modern humans have been around, our species "seems to have shared the planet with other bipedal and cultural beings - our global dominance may be far more recent than we thought," observe British evolutionary experts Marta Mirazon Lahr and Robert Foley, in a Nature analysis of the research. "The Flores fossils add a new and surprising twig to the hominin (human) family tree," they said. Brown and his colleagues believe that Flores Man evolved from larger archaic humans who may have reached the island on bamboo rafts from other islands as far back as 800,000 years ago, based on the age of stone tools found elsewhere on Flores. Flores, a former Portuguese colony, even today is off the beaten path. The last time the island made news was in 1992 when a series of tsunamis struck the north shore, wiping out several villages and killing more than 1,700 people. The scientists argue that the small size of the species came about over time because natural selection favored dwarfing on an island where the selection of animals for food was limited to birds, reptiles and one large mammal. Such adaptations are common among many animals on islands, including Flores, which featured a miniature elephant, the Stegodon, that Flores Man hunted and cooked, charred bones found in the cave confirm. While modern humans are known to have been in the area for tens of thousands of years before Flores Man disappeared, there's no evidence of interaction. Bones from deer, pigs and porcupine were also found in the soil of the cave - but only in layers above where the dwarf human skeletons were found - suggesting that the new species arrived with modern humans. Lying just below those bones on the cave floor is a thin layer of material laid down 12,000 years ago by volcanic eruption that marked the demise of both the Stegodons and Flores Man. http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=WEEFOLK-10-27-04&cat=II

We May Not Be the Only Humans on Earth A 3ft tall 'hobbit' discovered on a remote Indonesian island has raised the extraordinary possibility that our human species might not be alone on Earth. The female creature has been identified as a completely new member of the human race. But, although she lived 18,000 years ago, scientists believe her relatives survived for thousands more years on the island of Flores. And experts have not ruled out the possibility of her descendants, or other unknown human species, still hiding in the impenetrable forests and cave systems of South-East Asia. Mythical tales abound in the region of a race of little people that dwell on the islands of Indonesia. Dutch explorers who colonised Flores 100 years ago were told colourful stories of a human-like creature local inhabitants called 'ebu gogo'. The tales described how they could be heard 'murmuring' to one another, and how, parrot-fashion, they repeated back words spoken to them. Dr Henry Gee, senior editor of scientific journal Nature, said scientists who made the discovery were now having to think again about these stories' source. 'Until they found this creature they would have dismissed them as tales of hobbits and leprechauns, but no longer,' he told a news conference last night. from http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=98344 How about them' hobbits?

cool!

Strange world of island species Robin McKie on a discovery that sheds light on our distant past - and possibly our present Sunday October 31, 2004 The Observer On one island visited by Sinbad during his travels, he found a giant bird with the wingspan of a whale, while Odysseus, according to Homer, discovered an island race of one-eyed giants who ate humans. Great stories, but tame stuff compared with reality. On the island of Flores in the Malay Archipelago, scientists have found remains of a race of three-foot high humans who hunted pony-sized elephants and rats as big as dogs and who battled dragons with saliva laced with deadly bacteria. When it comes to the fantastic, you can never beat science. Certainly, the furore that surrounded last week's reports that fossil-hunters have discovered the bones of a new human species, Homo floresiensis , is scarcely surprising. This little hominid lived a mere 18,000 years ago, it transpires (and so must have shared Flores with Homo sapiens for millennia), made some nifty stone tools and butchered mini-elephants (called stegadons) with alacrity. As Cambridge anthropologist Robert Foley says: 'Discoveries don't get better than this.' from http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1340260,00.html

that's way cool!

The 30 inches tall mad us wonder about that. three feet is what most anthropologists are reporting. Oddly enough that news happened just before we attended the Meeting of the Kentucky Academny of Science in Murry, KY last weekend. The item was added to two papers presented to the archaeology section. It is not all that common to have living news in archaeology!!!

Imagine a race of people 30 inches tall? That smacks of the Tennessee "Pygmies" that Don has been writing about. In fact, his paper was about just those people.

Tennesee pygmies? Is there more information you can share on them here, Marcia?

do tell marcia!! (hi cheryl)

Hi Wolfie! Yes, please do tell us about the Tennesee pygmies.

The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Empire NASA Science News for November 15, 2004 NASA scientists are using space satellites to unravel one of the great mysteries of the ancient world. The long-lost secrets they're discovering could help modern people in Central America avoid the fate of the Maya. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/15nov_maya.htm?list89800

/ New theory on Stonehenge mystery A fresh theory on how Stonehenge was built has been tested out by a group of experts and enthusiasts. Gordon Pipes, of the Stonehengineers group of scientists and archaeologists, has suggested that levers may have been used to move the giant stones. They have tested his "stone-rowing" theory which involves a 45-tonne stone being levered on a track of logs. "It's akin to rowing a boat, weights can be picked up with levers using body mass and balance," said Mr Pipes. Mr Pipes, from Derby, combined his interest in prehistory and his skills as a carpenter to test his idea. The method is said to require little effort and be just as efficient whether uphill, downhill or on level ground. Many theories have been put forward for the engineering of Stonehenge, including the belief that the stones were dragged or rolled into place. Mr Pipes is planning more experiments on Salisbury Plain next summer in an effort to prove his suggestion. They will involve attempts to move two blocks, weighing 10 tonnes and 40 tonnes, half a mile in a day. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4064817.stm

There will never be a shortage of opionions on Stonehenge. I heard that every age gets the one it deserves. Ours seems to hover between New Age and Space Age.

Did you read the article about the great wall of China? It seems like the thing that made the mortar used in building was rice flour.

Ooops, mean the thing that made the motar so strong was rice flour

I heard that but immediately forgot it. I'll go chase it down on Google and report. Thanks for reminding me, Lucie!

On The Antiquity Of Pots: New Method Developed For Dating Archaeological Pottery The contents of ancient pottery could help archaeologists resolve some longstanding disputes in the world of antiquities, thanks to scientists at Britain's University of Bristol. The researchers have developed the first direct method for dating pottery by examining animal fats preserved inside the ceramic walls. Archaeologists have long dated sites by the visual appearance of pottery fragments found around the site. The new analytical technique will allow archaeologists to more accurately determine the age of pottery and, by extension, the age of associated artifacts and sites. The research builds on recent work that has shed light on the types and uses of commodities contained within the vessels. The findings will appear in the Sept. 30 edition of Analytical Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. more... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/09/030930055244.htm

from the Museum of Natural History website On a balmy June morning in 1874, several thousand people gathered in Manhattan Square, an undeveloped tract of New York City's Central Park between 81st and 77th Streets, to see President Ulysses S. Grant lay the cornerstone for the permanent home of the American Museum of Natural History. After an elaborate ceremony, Grant spread mortar over a copper box that contained newspapers, magazines, books, coins, and currency. Then the stone was lowered into place, and he struck it three times with a silver trowel from Tiffany's. The ceremony ended when Albert S. Bickmore, the Museum's founder, repeated the blows for good luck. Once again, a container of cultural relics and recorded knowledge is being installed on the Museum's grounds, to be opened in the year 3000. This "Times Capsule" (winner of a competition by the New York Times) is on display in the exhibition "Capturing Time: The New York Times Capsule." The practice of leaving time capsules with messages for people in the future has existed in some sense for thousands of years. The Sumerians buried texts addressed to future rulers in the foundations of palaces and temples, according to anthropologist Robert Ascher, of Cornell University. But the present custom--deliberately burying sealed vessels filled with artifacts that reflect particular aspects of a culture and setting a specific date for their retrieval by others--evolved in the United States. One of the earliest examples of such a vessel was the Century Safe, sealed for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia by a Civil War widow, Mrs. Charles Deihm. In 1976, during Bicentennial celebrations, President Gerald Ford opened the safe, which contained autographs and photographs of officials and other mementos of the bygone era. But Thornwell Jacobs, president of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, raised the concept to a new level in 1936. Inspired by the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen a decade earlier, which revealed vivid details of life in ancient Egypt, Jacobs outlined a plan to preserve a record of life from ancient times to the middle of the twentieth century in what he called the Crypt of Civilization. By 1940 he had sealed, in a heavily reinforced former underground swimming pool, an encyclopedic record of human civilization--from Lincoln Logs to 640,000 pages on microfilm from classics such as the Bible, the Koran, the Iliad, and Dante's Inferno---to be opened in the year 8113. The idea caught the attention of the Westinghouse Company, which was planning a promotional event for the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. During the fair, company officials buried what they called the Capsule of Cupaloy--a seven-and-a-half-foot copper-alloy cylinder with an inner heat-sealed glass tube--in New York's Flushing Meadows, saying it was not to be unearthed for 5,000 years. It was then that the expression "time capsule" was coined by G. Edward Pendray, the company publicist also responsible for creating the word "Laundromat." Since then, time capsules have proliferated. Some have even gone into space, like the twelve-inch, gold-plated copper records incised with sounds and images from Earth (encased in aluminum and equipped with a playing needle and instructions written in symbols) and affixed to NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 before their 1977 launches. Both spacecraft will eventually bounce out of our solar system to drift in a remote region of the Milky Way Galaxy, where they will probably remain for hundreds of millions of years--long after the Sun "will have reduced Earth to a charred cinder," as the late astronomer Carl Sagan, director of the project, put it. The discs may thus serve as a cosmic calling card to extraterrestrials and perhaps also as a memorial to humankind. Now, at the new millennium, the International Time Capsule Society (ITCS) estimates that more than 10,000 capsules have been sealed and countless others have been buried secretly in backyards by private individuals. "Hundreds more have been planned to celebrate the year 2000," says Paul Hudson, a historian at Oglethorpe University and an ITCS founder. The contents of the container will be on display in Gallery 77 until the Times Capsule is sealed and installed. Enclosures range from the biological, such as hair samples that will provide a human DNA profile, to the cultural--a compendium of "lost practices" with entries on such by-then-extinct behaviors as "smoking," "reproductive sex" "embarrassment," and "reading the New York Times." "It's a kind of instant archaeology that is especially popular with Americans," says Hudson. Ascher adds that if the trend continues at the same rate, "future Earthlings may infer that we were obsessed with explaining ourselves, just as we sometimes believe that the Maya were obsessed with time, and the Egyptians with death."

http://www.timecapsule2k.com/ It's a roll yer own time capsule. Get it and set up to release in the year 3000. From the site: "Preservation - The Easy Way Replacing the air in your Time Capsule 2000 Since oxygen is the deteriorating element, we believe the simplest and most effective method of preservation is to remove the air and replace it with an inert gas, after which the contents will remain as they were when placed in the time capsule. Simply place all items inside your time capsule, screw the lid onto the time capsule, coating the screws with any silicon gel and placing the gasket between the lid and the flange, and then take the capsule to a local bottled gas supplier who will replace the air. Argon or nitrogen are the most commonly used oxygen-free gases and typically come in a gas bottle with a low-pressure hose and a hand operated push valve. The valve end is placed into a tube, which is then inserted into your time capsule through one of the two screw holes. The gas distributor will calculate the volume of gas needed from the size of your time capsule. Since the gas in heavier than air it will push the air out of the other screw holes, and will prevent the air from returning to the time capsule while the screws are replaced. "

So, what would you include in your time capsule for the year Y3K?

good question....my daughter made a mini one over the holidays (school project) but i don't know what she put in there.

we can't open it until 2010. she'll be 17.

That's fun. Where did you put it? Underground?

no, it was wrapped in giftwrap and stored with all the christmas stuff. she barely remembered putting it together.

What a great idea. My son told me too late that he wanted all those icky Christmas decorations he remembered from childhood. Oops. Guess I joined the ranks of moms who throw good stuff away. Those of you aho haven't, please set aside a few of the most memorable ones for 10 years hence. You'd be glad you did. Keeping out the Oxygen and humidity is most of the battle in preservation. This looks like such a great idea.

That's one way to cut down on clutter. Bury it all as a time capsule.

*laugh* we'll all have landfills in our backyards!!!

You laugh !! I know that is what I had to clean out of my house in Hawaii. Not worth digging up again and NOT worth burying unless it is to get rid of it. I seem to know lots of folks with landfills in their backyards !!

I'm going to get a schoolbus. Fill it up with Apple //s, Macs and IBM PCs and bury it to open in 2050. You think I'm kidding don't you?

Terry, Have we ever doubted you?! I know by now there must be millions of outdated computers out there not worth recycling for their parts. Go for it. I can remember my first computer with NO memory. Zero! We had to load each program from tape into the "computer" to use it - Each time we wanted to use it !! But it beat manual typewriters. In my time capsule I'd put something indicative of every decade I'ved lived. You'd be surprised how much stuff would be in there !

I sure don't want all these computers in my garage anymore.

http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/video/ephemera_56kW.html Archeology TV. The striking images in Ephemera were achieved using a data projector to physically project filmed interviews onto the building fabric of West Kennet long barrow, part of the ancient Avebury complex in Wiltshire, UK. The result was a unique tactile fusion between Neolithic stone and modern digital technology. West Kennet was selected because it sits, guardian-like, opposite Silbury Hill � the site of a live televised excavation by the BBC in 1968 as part of the hugely popular series, Chronicle. Upon the illuminated stone, the three interviewees � all regular TV archaeology protagonists � discuss archaeology�s portrayal on British TV beginning with the BBC excavation and moving onto the 90s surge in popularity of TV archaeology that Channel 4�s Time Team initiated. Time Team has made archaeology popular unlike any TV series before or since. As well as a new series of episodes each year, the program has generated many specials, live events transmitted over the course of a weekend and national-scale projects such as last year�s Big Dig and this year�s forthcoming Big Roman Dig. The three participants are: Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology magazine. Mike regularly appears in documentaries about Stonehenge and Avebury, most notably Secrets of the Dead: Murder at Stonehenge. His news-stand magazine includes a column, written by students on the MA in Archaeology for Screen Media course, which reviews UK TV archaeology. Julian Richards, TV and radio broadcaster. Julian is probably best known as the presenter of BBC 2�s Meet the Ancestors and Blood of the Vikings as well as radio series including BBC Radio 4�s Mapping the Town. Meet the Ancestors pioneered the use of the then new lightweight mini-DV cameras to create a far more mobile TV-production experience on a restricted budget, but one that reflected that sense of �mucking-in� that working on an archaeological dig is about. Julian�s website is http://www.archaemedia.net/tv.asp. Francis Pryor, President, Council for British Archaeology http://www.britarch.ac.uk/. Francis regularly appears on Channel 4�s Time Team as well as writing and presenting his own series including Britain AD. As the film begins to probe archaeology�s portrayal a little deeper, and asks whether the reconstructions featured in these programs genuinely advance our understanding of the past, Francis Pryor cites the reconstruction of Seahenge that he was directly involved with for the Time Team Seahenge special. From this, the current and future state of TV archaeology is discussed which, at the time of filming, was represented by new series such as BBC 2�s Hidden Treasure and Channel 4�s Extreme Archaeology, both faster-paced, visually slicker programs with snappy music and younger participants but thinner on content and long-term viewer appeal. Curiously, both those series have not returned to UK screens and are unlikely to do so, at least in their previous incarnations. Ephemera is somewhere between a talking head documentary and a video installation. The concept behind the video projections was to place the importance back upon the archaeology by literally making the interviewees elements within the archaeological context, rather than following the normal pattern of having the archaeology serve as cutaways that mask over edits in the more dominating interview. The technique of fusing different technologies to create news ways of engaging viewers is one that the film-maker intends to develop for his future work.

I've BEEN in West Kennet Long Barrow! I do wish we had the archaeology channel. I would seldom watch anything else!

Remains at Louisville, KY building site may be of ancient Indians Archaeologists have found what they believe are the 5,000-year-old remains of two American Indians at a southern Jefferson County site planned for development. Bone fragments were unearthed last week during an archaeological survey of a 55-acre site near Interstate 65 and Outer Loop slated for a Wal-Mart, restaurants and condominiums. Spear tips and burned rock were found several years earlier at the site, officials said. The remains, accompanied by trash pits, charcoal, carbonized seeds and tools, suggest a camp used by nomadic hunters who might have gathered medicinal herbs and food in the wetland area around 3000 B.C., said David Pollack, a Kentucky Heritage Council archaeologist and site-protection manager. more... http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050420/NEWS01/504200431/1008/NEWS01

did you go out to the site, marcia?

Not yet. It is fairly near where I live so I suggest there will be trips there with great regularily - though mostly to see Walmart and not the dig. I'll tell you what we discover if allowed to get near the place. This is not uncommon. There was a sizeable population around the river valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, as well as the Tennessee and Kentucky rivers. Lively trade brought gulf shells into their lives. I think we are just beginning to scratch the surface of what is really here.

I think that the site which is now downtown Pittsburgh, the confluence of the the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, to form the Ohio River, was considered a place of power by ancient Americans.

That is almost as bad as the fate of the huge mound levelled to make room for the city of St Louis, Missouri. With all that land out there, they had to level the largest mount in North America?!! Welcome back, Cheryl. I was concerned about you!!! I missed you, too !!

What Lies Beneath in Pompeii Going Deep Yields New Perspective on Ancient Roman City By Daniel Williams Washington Post Foreign Service POMPEII, Italy -- For Pompeii's 2 million yearly visitors, the overwhelming attraction is the captivating view of daily life in the Roman Empire evoked by the city's temples, taverns, houses and public baths, and by its ever-popular brothels with their erotic frescoes. This summer, visitors might be forgiven for failing to notice a series of newly dug trenches at the southwest exit to the city. The site looks like an example of below-street plumbing in mid-repair, yet it provides a tiny glimpse of a fact obscured by Pompeii's better-known association with the imperial era: A non-Roman civilization thrived here for three centuries, with its own temples, houses, taverns, baths and saucy sexual practices. Last month, a team of archaeologists from Italy's Basilicata University uncovered the remains of a structure built by the Samnites, a mountain warrior people who conquered, inhabited, built up and ruled Pompeii before Roman chariots wheeled into town. The diggers were looking for something else -- remains of Pompeii's harbor. Instead, they found a pre-Roman temple wall, clay offerings to the Samnite goddess of love, and a basin and terracotta pipes indicating the site of a ritual bath. The Basilicata researchers were digging below Pompeii's surface because the focus of excavations had changed. For the past 250 years, most excavation has concentrated on the Roman city that was suspended in ash and stone by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Until the 1990s, local officials believed constant discoveries from the Roman era were needed to keep Pompeii in the news and to preserve its spot as Italy's most popular tourist attraction. But current administrators say this approach has become counterproductive, pointing out that they can barely afford to maintain the scores of monuments already exposed along Pompeii's lava-stone streets. As a result, only 34 acres out of Pompeii's excavated 115 acres are open to visitors, half the expanse on view 50 years ago. The damage resulting from these years of neglect is readily visible in the dead city. Tourists pick up small pieces of marble for souvenirs, plastic water bottles lie at the feet of Roman columns and stray dogs roam the streets. Thieves frequently raid the sites. During the past 30 years, more than 600 items, from frescoes to bricks, have been pilfered from Pompeii. One of the worst thefts occurred in 1977, when someone hacked 14 frescoes from a villa known as the House of the Gladiators. And in January, thieves cut two frescoes from the House of the Chaste Lovers. (Pompeii houses are usually named after prominent paintings, sculptures or other artifacts.) Administrators suspect that some guards participated in past looting, while local criminal gangs have tried to bid on restoration projects. In any case, Pompeii's archaeological superintendent, Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, in office for a decade, decreed an end to the expansion of digs outward. He says digging down not only allows him to spend money on preserving the already exposed parts of Pompeii, but also is scientifically rewarding. "By searching vertically, one uncovers the full history of the city. The surface Roman part is only part of the story," Guzzo said in a recent interview. "Going deep doesn't cost so much. It won't include restoration or opening more area to tourism or hiring more guards." Subterranean Pompeii may not contain the luxurious villas and elegant sculptures found on the surface, but for archaeologists trained to perceive a universe in a clay shard, it is no less exciting. "Pompeii is a city which, unluckily for it but fortunately for us, is best known for being destroyed. In everyone's mind, it is frozen at the moment of destruction, when it was a Roman city," said Emmanuele Curti, the chief archaeologist on the latest dig. "But Pompeii was a city long before that, and it's good to remind the world of that." In short, it's time the Samnites got their due. "They were traditionally considered unimportant, but that's because they lost out to the Romans, and the Romans got to write history," Curti said. The Samnites were a tribal people who occupied much of southern central Italy and expanded to the Pompeii area around the 6th century B.C. Beginning in 343 B.C., they fought three wars with Rome, which had not yet become the peninsula's sole power. Taking advantage of a moment when the Samnites were busy fighting the Greeks, the Romans invaded their territory. The Romans tried to set up colonies near Naples, but the Samnites struck back. At one point, Samnite troops trapped a Roman army in a mountain pass and forced it to surrender. The humiliated Roman Senate eventually orchestrated a counterattack. Preparations for renewed war included construction of the Appian Way, a road that runs south from Rome toward Naples. The Romans also adopted the checkerboard offensive troop formation used by the Samnites. Historians consider the flexible formation a major military advance for the future rulers of the Western world. For the third war, the Samnites allied with Gauls and Etruscans. To Rome, this was truly an axis of evil; all were venerable foes. But the Samnites were defeated quickly, their allies later. Pompeii fell in 290 B.C. Still, the Romans were interested in peace, not occupation. They signed an alliance that permitted the Samnites to effectively rule themselves and maintain autonomy for 200 years. That long peace ended early in the 1st century B.C., when the Samnites, along with other subjugated peoples, rebelled. You're either with us or against us, the Romans decided. They not only conquered Samnite cities, including Pompeii, but established military colonies inside Samnite territory, forced Latin on the people and killed anyone who resisted. The victorious general, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, built a temple to Venus in Pompeii. Until last month, it was thought the temple stood on unimportant ground in the ancient city. It turns out that it was built on top of the Samnites' temple to Mephitis, their own love goddess. Archaeologists say they expect to find the center of the temple beneath the toppled columns of the Roman Temple of Venus. The bath and amulets indicate the Samnite practice of ritual prostitution, in which young women, rich and poor alike, submitted to sex as a rite of passage, said Curti, the archaeologist. "To our post-Victorian minds, the practice seems strange. But we can't look at this society through our eyes," he observed. "Probably, the practice became professional at some point. This was, after all, a port city." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19216-2004Jul27.html

Fascinating History! Beneath a level of 'civilisation' there are probably many others waiting to be exposed. In the few antiquities I have come across I wonder about the stories they could tell. Mike r-c-i

We have lived on our own rubbish heaps for thousands of years. The most fertile places archaeologically are either privies or middens both dealing with trash and waste from our having lived there. Considering the trash accumulated in my former home in Hawaii, we are still not more civilized than when we crawled out of caves all of those millennia ago. Now if we want to entertain future diggers, we need to begin flushing broken dishes and jewelry and other household goodies ?!

*laugh* at least people like the AM can use their metal detectors and find things besides bottle caps and nails!

I'm trying to cut back on trash and on stuff in general and get down to the more essential items I need to make a living and enjoy life.