Greek treasures easy prey for antiquities traffickers

Authorities in 2005 have so far retrieved 253 ancient objects, two icons and 12 extremely valuable ecclesiastical items.

The net profits that come from the international trade in antiquities are akin to those of human and narcotics trafficking.

Organized crime networks legalize revenues from illegal activities by purchasing antiquities, while professional dealers in illegal antiquities arm themselves with cutting-edge technology to locate artifacts buried deep in the ground. On the Internet, meanwhile, an endless number of sites hold non-stop “auctions” of items that can date as far back as the sixth century BC.

Shipwrecks

At the same time, unprotected from the greedy hands of antiquities traffickers, tens of thousands of priceless ancient objects are lying on the Greek seabed, there for the taking. It is estimated that there are over 12,000 shipwrecks around the country and, according to officers of the Department of Antiquities Trafficking, the majority of them are easy prey for antiquities smugglers from all over Europe and the United States.

Kathimerini

Archeologists Seek BGN 200,000 to Resume Thracian Works

Archeologists digging in the excavations of ancient Thracian tombs in Bulgaria will need some BGN 200,000 to carry out their work this year.

Dr Georgi Kitov is determined to continue the hard work of previous summer when his team unearthed numerous sensational findings dating nearly five centuries before Christ.

The TEMP expedition of Kitov will resume July 5 its work in the Valley of Thracian Kings. They will extend digging and research of the Goljamata Kosmatka excavations site, Kitov has said as quoted by Bulgarian News Agency.

It has revealed one of richest Thracian tombs known from the times of Antiquity.

Prominent archeologist Georgi Kitov, whose findings brought him the fame of Bulgaria's Indiana Jones, will present his latest book "The Land of Bulgaria. Cradle of Thracian Culture" on June 30 in Sofia.

Novinite

Pompei: scavi portano alla luce nuovi reperti

POMPEI (Napoli) - Nuovi reperti scoperti a Pompei nel corso di alcuni scavi. Sono stati portati alla luce un ampio cortile colonnato, tre templi, un Foro e case private risalenti a fasi precedenti all'Eta' romana. Un gruppo di trenta archeologi, proveniente da universita' australiane, americane, inglesi, canadesi e italiane e' al lavoro per una prima campagna di scavo della durata di cinque settimane.

Corriere della Sera

Puzzling over the very British pastime of shovelling old trash

Time Team Special Channel 4, 9.00pm

'Well, it's a late Bronze Age socketed hammer," said Man with Beard. Damn. I could have sworn he was going to dismiss the mucky object as an old rock of no significance whatever. You could have knocked me over with a hammer.

There are moments when I question my ability to go on watching Time Team. Doubts generally set in with early shots of Tony Robinson shouting at us from a helicopter. The archaeology is under the ground, so why is he up in the air? Perhaps he's seeking to illustrate the fact that there's a lot of water in the Lincolnshire fens and that the River Witham is, in fact, a river, but the chopper seems extravagant. For the remainder of the hour, we hear no more about it.

We hear a lot more from Robinson, since he is an "associate producer", whatever that means, and this is his show. That his expertise as an archaeologist is no greater than yours or mine does not appear to matter. That he does not even get his hands dirty in a muddy hole is not commented upon by the people slaving away around him. Robinson's job is to act as a Blue Peter presenter for grown-ups and get excited over bits of stuff that were clearly regarded as junk 3000 years ago.

I wouldn't say that Time Team is a load of old rubbish, exactly, but it does seem to depend heavily on things people have thrown away. Granted, if fabulous treasures were easy to come by we would all have some. Granted, too, that discovering how people lived in that misty era commonly known as "yon time" matters more to archaeologists than the shiny objects that impress the rest of us. But the fact remains that if you've seen one post-hole you may have seen them all.

The Herald

THE BIG DIG

The biggest archaeological dig in Exeter for a generation gets under way today to investigate the secrets held on a site to be covered by the Princesshay redevelopment. Historians are preparing to rewrite chapters of the city's past in the expectation that the dig could challenge accepted information about Exeter's history.

After seven years of research, a team of 25 archaeologists will start combing the Princesshay site, which is inside the city's Roman walls.

The Exeter Archaeology team will be hunting for artefacts and ruins from Saxon, Roman, medieval and Civil War periods.

They will also search for evidence of a Dominican friary known to have been established after the Norman invasion and which survived until Bedford Circus was created in the 16th century Reformation period.

The project will last until March, 2006.

This is Exeter

Revealed: our friends the Romans did not invade Britain after all

Astonishing new archaeological finds reveal they were already our countrymen 50 years before Claudius spun his way into the history books. Steve Bloomfield reports

The history of Britain will have to be rewritten. The AD43 Roman invasion never happened - and was simply a piece of sophisticated political spin by a weak Emperor Claudius.

A series of astonishing archaeological findings of Roman military equipment, to be revealed this week, will prove that the Romans had already arrived decades earlier - and that they had been welcomed with open arms by ancient Britons.

The discovery of swords, helmets and armour in Chichester, Sussex, dates back to a period between the late first century BC and the early first century AD- almost 50 years before the supposed invasion. Archaeologists who have studied the finds believe it will turn conventional Roman history taught in schools on its head. "It is like discovering that the Second World War started in 1938," said Dr David Rudkin, a Roman expert leading the work.

The Independent

Major excavation at Roman forts

Three weeks of digging to excavate what could be the largest Roman garrison fort in Wales start on Monday.

The site, which dates from the first century AD, was first found at Dinefwr Park, near Llandeilo, in 2003.

Experts said the south Wales discovery could rewrite our understanding of the Roman conquest in the area.

Recent surveys confirmed the site, which is invisible from the surface, is much larger than first thought and is made up of two overlapping forts.

BBC News

IS STONEHENGE TUNNEL PROJECT TURNING INTO THE NEXT BATH SPA FIASCO?

The controversial tunnel under Stonehenge was dubbed "the new Bath Spa" by campaigners yesterday after the cost of the project soared to £223million. The Department for Transport (DfT) said the previous figure of £193million had ignored the cost of buying and preparing the land for the tunnel, designed to hide the A303, which passes near the ancient Wiltshire monument.

Stonehenge campaigners said the project was looking more and more like the disastrously overpriced Bath Spa and Millennium Dome projects.

The cost of the mile-long tunnel was originally put at £183million in 2002, but Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman yesterday said "some further increase in costs is now anticipated".

The "Save Stonehenge" group said delays and price increases could lead Ministers to abandon plans for the road altogether.

Western Daily Press

See also Save Stonehenge!

Archaeological wonders are under the sea

Athens - The recent discovery of the remains of a shipwrecked 4th century BC vessel, nicknamed Kythnos I after the Greek island near which it was found, is the latest testimony of the archaeological riches still submerged in Greek waters.

It also demonstrates the technological advances that underwater archaeology has made in this country in recent years.

Greece has no shortage of skilled archaeologists. But when it comes to underwater research, it is only recently that the Greek ministry of culture has begun mixing academic knowledge with hi-tech wizardry.

Collaboration with the national centre for maritime research (Elkethe), and increased state funding from 2000 onwards, have enabled the culture ministry to open a broad - and still potentially untapped - archaeology frontier under the waves.

IOL Science

Ancient Thermal City to Be Flooded in Turkey

Archeologists, environmentalists and international NGOs are joining together to try to find a way to save an 1,800-year-old archeological site, due to be flooded this November by the waters from a new dam.

The world's oldest known ancient thermal city, Allianoi, stands to be flooded when the Yortanli Dam begins operation this November. Located in the very centre of the planned dam lake, it will be submerged under some 17 metres of water. If no solution is found, Turkey may lose a significant historical site.

To help save the 1,800-year-old city, environmentalists and other volunteers have formed the Allianoi Initiative Group, with the slogan "Don't Let Allianoi Be Flooded".

"A 2,000-year history is being sacrificed for a 50 to 60-year-old project. We don't say that the dam should not be constructed, but the project should be modified in a way that will prevent Allianoi from being ruined," says the group's spokesman, Arif Ali Cangi.

Southeast European Times

FLAG FEN LATEST - CAMPAIGNERS SAY DON'T CREATE A NEW THORNBOROUGH

A visitor centre was established at Flag Fen in 2002, but experts are concerned a proposed developed will put people off. Courtesy Toby Fox.

A heritage campaigner has warned that Flag Fen could become the next Thornborough if plans to plans to build a waste processing plant near the famous Bronze Age site succeed.

Since the 1960s the area around the Neolithic henge complex at Thornborough in Yorkshire has been quarried and for some time local organisations have campaigned to have it stopped.

Chair of one such organisation, Time Watch, George Chaplin told the 24 Hour Museum that a vast waste processing plant at Flag Fen could affect the site in the same way as quarrying has affected Thornborough.

"We at Time Watch are very concerned that Flag Fen could be turned into another Thornborough," he said. "Sites like Flag Fen, which are already established as being extremely important, have been invested in," he added, "and because of the investment we’ve already made what we should avoid at all costs is ruining that."

24 Hour Museum News

See also 24 Hour Museum News 17.6.05

Anglo Saxon find 'worth £100,000'

A metal-detecting fan who unearthed a rare seventh-century sword hilt could have earned £100,000 as a result.
Christopher Baker's find, in a field 10 miles from Lincoln, was described by British Museum experts as exceptional.

The hilt, part of a six-piece find, is thought to have belonged to an high-ranking Anglo-Saxon warrior.

The Lincs coroner has now declared the find treasure trove. The British Museum is expected to keep pieces and pay Mr Baker up to £100,000 in compensation.

Split proceeds

The six pieces will be valued by the British Museum, which is expected to decide to keep them and pay compensation to Mr Baker.

BBC News

EVIDENCE FOR ROMAN ROAD IS UNEARTHED

NEW evidence that appears to confirm the existence of another Roman road in Tynedale has rekindled the fires of controversy.

Historians and archaeologists have long argued about whether the Romans ever built a road heading due west from Corbridge on the south side of the River Tyne.

The perceived wisdom is that they wouldn’t have bothered – not when they had built another one, the Stanegate, going west on the north bank.

However, the Environment Agency has just unearthed an interesting stone structure while reinforcing Corbridge’s flood defences.

And it is thought to provide the first concrete piece of evidence that there was, after all, a road on the south bank.

Archaeologists from Tyne and Wear Museums believe the stone structure at Dilston Haugh was a length of retaining wall for a ramp that led to a long-gone Roman bridge over the River Tyne.

They say the find is of national significance, not least because stone Roman bridges are incredibly rare in Britain.

Hexham Courant

Archaeologists start digging for Hun settlements in Russia

LIPETSK, June 22 (RIA Novosti) - Major archaeological excavation work has started in the Lipetsk region's Zadonsk and Khlevnoye districts (Central Russia), where Hun settlements used to be in ancient times.

"Four archaeological expeditions, involving a hundred people each, have started excavation work on the banks of the Don and the Voronezh rivers on the sites of former settlements of the Huns," Mikhail Ryazantsev, an archaeologist at the State Department for Cultural Heritage Protection, told RIA Novosti.

The Huns were nomadic tribes between the second and fourth centuries A.D.

Experts of Lipetsk's Arkheolog scientific and social organization and Lipetsk State Educational University arranged the expeditions. Schoolchildren and students will assist the archaeologists.

Excavation work has been going on in this region since 1995. Archaeologists have found bone artifacts dating back seven thousand years and bone-carving workshops from the Iron Age. A Scythian settlement, the furthest north ever found, and a Slav settlement dating back to the fifth century A.D. were also discovered. Moreover, the digs revealed archeological objects from the Bronze Age and the resting-place of a Hun maiden. Ryazantsev said only several tombs like this had been discovered in Europe.

The excavation will last until mid-August.

RIA Novosti Society

Sleuths join ancient dig

MERSEYSIDE and Cheshire police have joined diggers at an archaeological site to learn how to identify burial plots and handle skeletons.

Teams of crime scene investigators have helped retrieve scores of skeletons at the remains of a medieval chapel where a 5,000-year-old wooden ritual circle similar to Stonehenge has been discovered.

The unique partnership - the brainchild of Bernard Roberts, Head of Forensic Investigations at Cheshire Police - is designed to give the CSIs hands-on experience.

Techniques picked up during courses run for them specially at the dig at Poulton near Chester will help the police experts in locating and then preserving buried bodies in murder investigations.

IC Chester

Underwater archaeology expedition in River Arade

PORTIMÃO’S RIO ARADE estuary is the location for an underwater archaeological campaign entitled ‘Missão ProArade 2005’, taking place now until July 31. Its objective is to conclude the excavation, registry, dismantlement and the total recuperation of the wooden hull of the so called Arade 1 boat that was located in 2001.

An agreement between the Instituto Português de Arqueologia (IPA), the Centro Nacional de Arqueologia Náutica e Subaquática (CNANS) and the Portimão Câmara/Museu Municipal de Portimão (MMP) has been signed to support the team’s work.

The history

Back in the 1970s, following some dredging of the River Arade, two wooden boats were found and named Arade 1 and Arade 2, which archaeologists believe are the most significant findings from the Portimão river. The Arade 1 is thought to date back to the first half of the 15th century/first half of the 16th century and is one of the oldest vessels ever to be found in Portuguese waters. For this reason, it is of great importance to Iberian naval archaeology.

The Resident

A rich Greek archaeology frontier lying underwater

ATHENS - The recent discovery of the remains of a shipwrecked 4th-century BC vessel, nicknamed Kythnos I after the Greek island near which it was found, is the latest testimony of the archaeological riches still submerged in Greek waters.

It also demonstrates the technological advances that underwater archaeology has made in this country in recent years.

Greece has no shortage of skilled archaeologists. But when it comes to underwater research, it is only recently that the Greek ministry of culture has begun mixing academic knowledge with hi-tech wizardry.

Collaboration with the national centre for maritime research (Elkethe), and increased state funding from 2000 onwards, have enabled the culture ministry to open a broad - and still potentially untapped - archaeology frontier under the waves.

Khaleej Times

Iron Age settlement found at farm

Archaeologists have uncovered an Iron Age settlement near Cheltenham.
The dig, at Deans Farm, Bishops Cleeve, has revealed two round houses, two burial sites and a large number of animal bones.

Experts from Birmingham believe it was the site of a farming community in 500 BC which continued through Roman occupation and beyond.

The area, said to be the size of four football pitches, will eventually become a new housing estate.

Team leader Kevin Coles said: "Effectively, we've got a prehistoric settlement site, starting off from the mid Iron Age progressing through to the invasion of the Romans, 43 AD.

BBC News

Italy rediscovers Greek heritage

A world-class archaeological exhibition opened this week in Calabria, in the toe of Italy.

Its subject is Magna Graecia, or Greater Greece - the name given to parts of southern Italy colonised by the ancient Greeks 2,500 years ago.

The migrations of modern Europe are nothing new.

But for the ancient Greeks, southern Italy was their America.

Long before the Roman empire flourished, they sailed west in search of new lands.

BBC News

35-Century-Old Gold Unearthed in Bulgaria

A ritual gold plastic was discovered by a team of Bulgarian archaeologists, it was announced.

The team, headed by Nikolay Ovcharov discovered the semi-sphere gold artifact during excavation near the village of Tatul.

The 23-carat gold dates back to 15-14th century BC, archeologists revealed.

The unique founding could be a part of a ritual leather mask or a fragment of a chest decoration.

The archeologists launched Tatul expedition a week ago. According to scientific theories this is the place where the mythical musician Orpheus was buried.

Novinite