Interview: Italy's Antiquities Prosecutor Fiorilli

Italy's antiquities prosecutor, Maurizio Fiorilli, has become the darling of the media in the past year helping to persuade the American public, and particularly the art world, to rethink the ethics of holding onto Italy's cultural patrimony with words like: "Until now we have dreamed, we have slept. Now it is time to wake up." Words meant to be heard back home in Italy, perhaps, but shot around the world via the Los Angeles Times.

An antiquities movement, a wave was created, essentially, and a signing of repatriation agreements with major US museums followed. It came at a time when people, as an escape from senseless US wars they did not vote for, suddenly took interest in an antiquities conspiracy trial in Rome. Visuals of ancient art in the media -- images of the humans we once were -- became huge with meaning.

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Top 10 Discoveries of 2006

How do you know it's been an extraordinary year in archaeology? When the discovery of the earliest Maya writing and a 2,500-year-old sarcophagus decorated with scenes from the Iliad don't crack ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 list:

1. Valley of the Kings Tomb

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Boat provides historical insight

A Bronze Age logboat which had lain unseen in the River Tay for 3,000 years is being studied by archaeologists.

It is hoped the find will yield important new information about how human ancestors lived.

Although the boat, made from the trunk of a single oak, was found five years ago, it was only lifted out of the Tay during the summer.

Repairs carried out on the 30ft vessel have already given experts an insight into Bronze Age technology.

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Medieval watercourse unearthed

Workmen preparing the site of new public toilets have unearthed a 600-year-old sandstone watercourse, believed to have been an important feature of the Shrewsbury Abbey grounds in medieval times.

The find was made as contractors broke the ground for the new loos being built in Abbey Foregate.

Construction is due to start in the new year, and archaeologists were hired by Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council to keep a watching eye on the development.

The existence of a redundant Victorian culvert was known and had been recorded some years ago, and a pair of brick tunnels were duly unearthed.

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Sutton amateur archaeologists close in on their ultimate goal

THE lives of the bronze age people who settled, worked and traded in East Cambridgeshire are shrouded in mystery.

But a dedicated band of volunteers in Sutton is throwing light on this integral part of our past, and look set to make real advances in our archaeological understanding of East Cambridgeshire in the new year.

IAN RAY reports on a project that shows how a community-organised venture has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of local pre-history.

FOR more than three years now, a group of volunteers, who have named themselves the Sutton Archaeological Group, have worked steadily to excavate a Bronze Age barrow at the village's gravel pits.

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A Roman statue worth $ 15 million found in an olive depot

A statue belonging to the Roman era was found in an olive depot located in Gemlik, Bursa.

Police have raided an olive depot after being notified about an illegal historical artifact trade. A statue of two women holding a globe in their hands is assumed to belong the Roman era was captured.
Police said the owners of the depot was trying to sell the statue for $ 15 million to some foreign buyers.

According to an information obtained from Bursa Police Department, Gemlik police was notified about two illegal traders; 46 year old Kemal K. and his friend Ismail A. Security teams have detected 6 different addresses for the suspects and raided all 6 addresses concurrently on Wednesday.

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Plan to move Viking ships meets opposition

The University of Oslo has decided to move three grand Viking ships, probably by truck and barge, to a new museum across town, despite dire warnings that the thousand-year-old oak vessels could fall apart en route.

A retired curator of the current Viking Ship Museum said that the fragile ships, two of which are nearly 24 meters, or 80 feet, long, were almost equal in archaeological importance to the Pyramids.

"Even if I have to live till I am 100, I will go on fighting this move," the former curator, Arne Emil Christensen, who is 70, said in an interview. "The best way to stop it is still through diplomacy, but, if necessary, I will be in front of the ships, chained to the floor."

The university board of directors voted this month to move the sleek- hulled vessels, over the objections of Christensen and several other scholars, including the former director of the British Museum, David Wilson, and the director of the Center for Maritime Archaeology in Denmark, Ole Crumlin- Pedersen. The board wants to transport the ships from a remote Oslo peninsula where they have been housed for more than 75 years to a large, multifaceted museum in the center of the capital.

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EXCAVATING TELEVISION

Location: Worldwide Length: 10 min.

In this personal-voice and very witty short film by University of Southern California student Amy Ramsey, the archaeologist/filmmaker explores what the public knows, and often misconstrues, about her field of study. She interviews people and finds out that they often have inaccurate perceptions about archaeology. She concludes that the media are largely responsible for misleading people about archaeology and urges her audience to be a bit skeptical about archaeology stories they see and hear through media sources.

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Shattered clues for solving Greek island's riddle

Unlike its larger, postcard-perfect neighbors in the Aegean Sea, Keros is a tiny rocky dump inhabited by a single goatherd.

But the barren islet was of major importance to the mysterious Cycladic people, a sophisticated pre-Greek civilization with no written language that flourished 4,500 years ago and produced strikingly modern-looking artwork.

A few miles from the resorts of Mykonos and Santorini, Keros is a repository of art from the seafaring culture whose flat-faced marble statues inspired the work of 20th century masters Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore.

Indeed, more than half of all documented Cycladic figurines in museums and collections worldwide were found on Keros. Now, excavations by a Greek-British archaeology team have unearthed a cache of prehistoric statues -- all deliberately broken -- that they hope will help solve the Keros riddle.

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Plan to move Viking ships raises dire predictions

The University of Oslo has decided to move three grand Viking ships, probably by truck and barge, to a new museum across town despite dire claims that the thousand-year-old oak vessels could fall apart en route.

A retired curator of Oslo's current Viking Ship Museum said the delicately preserved ships, two of which are nearly 80 feet long, were almost equal in archaeological importance to the pyramids.

"Even if I have to live till I am 100, I will go on fighting this move," the former curator, Arne Emil Christensen, 70, said in an interview. "The best way to stop it is still through diplomacy, but, if necessary, I will be in front of the ships, chained to the floor."

The university's board of directors voted, 8-3, this month to move the sleek-hulled vessels over the objections of Christensen and several other Viking Age scholars, including the former director of the British Museum, David Wilson, and the director of Denmark's Center for Maritime Archaeology, Ole Crumlin-Pedersen. The board wants to transport the popular ships from a remote Oslo peninsula where they have been housed for more than 75 years to a large, multifaceted museum in the center of the capital.

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Huge wind farm may threat Hebridean archaeology

The company behind the UK's largest onshore wind farm project, proposed for the Hebridean island of Lewis (Outer Hebrides, Scotland), has unveiled revised plans for the scheme. The reworked proposal comprises 181 wind turbines compared with the 234 which were originally planned. While the overall number of turbines has been reduced, the impact on the archaeology of Lewis may be catastrophic.

The real problem is not just that the archaeology of Lewis is practically unknown, but the whole of the interior of the island is covered by raised peat bog that can be several metres thick. This was formed since the Bronze age (Callanish before it was excavated was a few stones sticking up through over a metre of bog). So there is likely to be a whole buried prehistoric landscape below the peat, but it is very difficult to detect. Numerous stone circles, burial mounds and cemeteries, settlements and houses, burnt mounds, fields and field boundaries can all be expected. This could be potentially one of the best preserved prehistoric landscapes in the world.

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Avebury tourist office to close in 2007

Kennet District Council is to close its tourist office at its World Heritage site at Avebury (Wiltshire, England). Despite the ancient stone circle attracting huge numbers of visitors every year the council wants its tourist office to close in October. Members of the community development executive were given a report at their November meeting outlining options for the future of Avebury Tourist Information Centre. They agreed to close the TIC, which is based in the Chapel, with effect from October 31, 2007 subject to the satisfactory resolution of legal and staffing issues. The process of negotiation and consultation has now started.

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Rome's ancient treasures inspire a new generation

ROME: Of all the old sayings about the Eternal City at least one remains simply true — dig a deep hole almost anywhere here, and you'll unearth an archaeological artifact, or two.

Yet a wave of public and private building projects is suddenly focusing unusual attention on Rome's rich subterranean world as one treasure after another emerges at a steady clip.

"We're walking on the world's largest untapped underground museum," said Maria Antonietta Tomei, a government official responsible for coordinating archaeological digs in Rome.

During the last week, reports surfaced that 800 coins from the fourth and fifth centuries B.C. had been unearthed during the reconstruction of a movie theater near the Trevi Fountain.

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Heathrow: Iron Age roundhouse (photo)

Terminal 5, Heathrow, has been one of the biggest construction projects in the world. Excavations by Framework Archaeology, in advance of the construction works, have uncovered almost 9,000 years of history.

The land the new Terminal is being built on was previously a sewage sludge works. The divisions on this photograph mark the drying beds of the sludge works.

Archaeologists have excavated the ditch around an Iron Age roundhouse, which was dug to drain the water running off the roof.

Yet another excellent photo from Wessex Archaeology!

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Wooden bowl from a Bronze Age waterhole (Photo)

Terminal 5, Heathrow, has been one of the biggest construction projects in the world. Excavations by Framework Archaeology, in advance of the construction works, have uncovered almost 9,000 years of history.

It is rare for wooden objects to survive from the Bronze Age (c.2400-700 BC). This wooden bowl survived because it was kept damp, in a waterhole.

An excellent photo from Wessex Archaeology.

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Stonehenge ceremonies start early

Some had turned up in flowing robes while others were wearing lovingly-crafted winter solstice wreaths decorated with berries and ivy.

The problem for the assorted pagans, druids and pantheists who arrived at Stonehenge yesterday morning to celebrate the winter solstice was that they had arrived a day early.

Around 60 people had gathered at the stone circle, cloaked in frost and fog, to celebrate what they believed was the winter solstice. The staff who guard the precious monument in Wiltshire explained they were 24 hours early.

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4800-Year-Old Artificial Eyeball (Photos)

Archaeologists in Burnt City announced unprecedented discovery of an artificial eyeball, dated to 4800 years ago, in this historic site.

Announcing this news, director of Burnt City archaeology excavation team, Mansur Sajadi, said that this eyeball belongs to a sturdy woman who was between 25 to 30 years of age at the time of death. Skeletal remains of the woman were found in grave number 6705 of Burnt City's cemetery.

Regarding the material used to make this artificial eyeball, Sajadi said: "The material this artificial eyeball is made of has not yet been determined and will be assessed through later testing. However, at first glance it seems natural tar mixed with animal fat has been used in making it."

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Researchers identify a 'heartbeat' in Earth's climate

A few years ago, an international team of researchers went to the middle of the Pacific Ocean and drilled down five kilometers below sea level in an effort to uncover secrets about the earth's climate history. They exceeded their expectations and have published their findings in the Dec. 22 edition of the journal Science.

The researchers' drilling produced pristine samples of marine microfossils, otherwise known as foraminifera. Analysis of the carbonate shells of these microfossils, which are between 23 million to 34 million years-old, has revealed that the Earth's climate and the formation and recession of glaciation events in the Earth's history have corresponded with variations in the earth's natural orbital patterns and carbon cycles.

The researchers were particularly interested in these microfossils because they came from the Oligocene epoch, a time in Earth's history known for falling temperatures.

"The continuity and length of the data series we gathered and analyzed allowed for unprecedented insights into the complex interactions between external climate forcing, the global carbon cycle and ice sheet oscillations," said Dr. Jens Herrle, co-author of the paper and a micropaleontology professor at the University of Alberta.

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HYMS researchers focus on human evolution

A Hull York Medical School (HYMS) researcher has played a key role in a study which has cast important new light on Neanderthals.

Dr Markus Bastir was part of an Anglo-Spanish team which studied 43,000-year-old Neanderthal remains at El Sidrón in Spain, revealing significant physical differences between those from northern and southern Europe.

Dr Bastir, who was based in the functional morphology and evolution research unit of HYMS (fme) for the last two years, analysed the mandibles of Neanderthals discovered at El Sidrón. The analysis revealed north–south variations, with southern European Neanderthals showing broader faces with increased lower facial heights. The research findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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Newgrange: Photos of the winter solstice 2006

Photos by Michael Fox.

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