Volunteers wanted for dig in England

Keen historians are being invited to help a team of Exeter University archaeologists uncover secrets of an ancient Bronze Age site. The team have worked at the site, in Stokenham, near Kingsbridge (South Devon, England), for two years and they will reopen it again from July 2 to 24. Last year's excavation unearthed a number of finds including Bronze Age pottery. Project director Penny Cunningham said that anyone who wanted to help would not need any particular skills. "They will be asked to sort or wash finds like pottery and will help analyse them," she said.

The team will work from 9am to 5pm every day except Fridays. Anyone who wants to lend should just turn up. There are open days on the weekends of July 7 and 8, 14 and 15 and 21 and 22. Children of all ages are welcome to participate in the junior archaeologist workshop days on July 7, 14 and 21 from 10am to 3pm. For more information contact Dr Williams, Department of Archaeology, Laver, University of Exeter, EX4 4QE, or h.m.r.williams@exeter.ac.uk, or call 01392 262491.

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The Southeast Asian Archaeology newsblog

The Southeast Asian Archaeology newsblog was started in May 2006 to keep track of the archaeology news in the region. Archaeology is a relatively young discipline in Southeast Asia today, and also one of the field’s most excitng frontiers. Even as many questions remain unanswered, it is becoming more and more apparent how diverse - yet closely interconnected - the region is. SEAArch initially began as a personal effort to learn more about the archaeology of Southeast Asia by keeping track of news, but has since expanded to cover podcasts, links and books as well.

You can find the blog at:

http://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/...

or in our sidebar under "Archaeological Weblogs"

Viking Longship to Sail Across North Sea

ROSKILDE, Denmark (AP) - On the skipper's command, deckhands haul in tarred ropes to lower the flax sail. Oars splash into the water. The crew, grimacing with strain, pull with steady strokes sending the sleek Viking longship gliding through the fjord.

A thousands years ago, the curved-prow warship might have spewed out hordes of bloodthirsty Norsemen ready to pillage and burn.

This time, the spoils are adventure rather than plunder.

The Sea Stallion of Glendalough is billed as the world's biggest and most ambitious Viking ship reconstruction, modeled after a warship excavated in 1962 from the Roskilde fjord after being buried in the seabed for nearly 950 years.

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Creationist museum brings dinosaurs on board Noah’s Ark

A vegetarian Tyrannosaurus rex frolicked alongside human beings only a few thousand years ago in the Garden of Eden until Eve decided to munch on that apple, according to the Creation Museum, which opens in Kentucky today.

The $27 million (£14 million) exhibition is funded by evangelical Christians, who apparently believe that by reclaiming dinosaurs and fossils for their literal biblical interpretation of natural history, teenagers are less likely to look at internet pornography or get pregnant out of wedlock.

This sprawling 50-acre (20hectare) site is the latest effort to counter the evolutionary science taught in state schools that Answers in Genesis, the religious group behind the museum, claims has chipped away at the nation’s moral fabric.

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Graveyard claimed to be Armenian belongs to Romans

Yusuf Halaçoğlu, president of the Turkish Historical Society (TTK), has announced that a graveyard in Mardin’s Nusaybin district that had been claimed by the Armenians in fact dates to the Roman period.

During a press conference Halaçoğlu said they had appealed to foreign scientists to come and assist with the opening of the graveyard. David Gaunt, a scientist from Switzerland, was the only one to express interest.

Gaunt accepted the offer on condition that the research be conducted without intervention from the Turkish administration. Gaunt began studies with the TTK president and delegation on April 24. However Gaunt soon realized that the photographs of the graveyard he had seen were different from the graveyard in Nusaybin and thus decided to return home without taking any soil or bone samples from the grave.

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Road plan fears for Dales heritage

PLANS to build a stone track across scenic Yorkshire Dales moorland are being delayed because of fears they could endanger a unique archaeological site.

Multi-millionaire Michael Cannon – one of Britain's richest men – wants to build the two-mile road on a grouse moor he owns in Upper Wensleydale.

He is also seeking permission to re-open a disused moorland quarry and extract 5,000 tonnes of limestone from which the track would be constructed.

But archaeologists are concerned the plan could jeopardise the remains of a historic opencast coalmining site.

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Hügelgrab aus der Urnenfelderzeit

Rund eine Woche dauerte eine archäologische Ausgrabung im Vorfeld einer Baumaßnahme in Wehrheim, Hochtaunuskreis, die vom Verein Archäologie im Gleiberger Land e.V. durchgeführt wurde.

Auf dem Nachbargrundstück wurde vor einigen Jahren bereits der Teil eines Gräberfeldes aus der späten Urnenfelderzeit (11./10. Jahrhundert v.Chr.) ausgegraben. Die damaligen Erkenntnisse konnten nun durch die neue Kampagne erweitert werden: es fand sich ein weiteres Grab, das von einem Kreisgraben mit 13,5 m Durchmesser umgeben war.

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Archaeology at Newcastle University

We have added a link to the Archaeology at Newcastle University web site which has details of courses, staff, research interests, etc.

You go directly to the site here

or find the link in the sidebar under “Archaeological Academic Links”

TARA - Work Halted along Controversial Stretch of Motorway

Today in the Tara Skryne Valley a number of environmental activists prevented machinery from exiting construction depots along a controversial stretch of the proposed M3 motorway. The protesters maintain that no work should be ongoing along the route until directions are issued by Minister Roche regarding the new national monument at Lismullen. Two weeks ago a massive henge, 80mts in diameter, was discovered along the route through the Valley. Indications are that the henge was a ceremonial site connected to the Hill of Tara. No work took place along the contested stretch before lunchtime today.

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After the fire, heritage chiefs dare to hope that a treasure can be rebuilt

Investigators were last night combing through the blackened shell of the Cutty Sark to establish the scale of the damage caused by the fire that ripped through the historic 19th-century tea clipper in the early hours of yesterday.

As trustees waited to find out whether the ship could be restored, police said they believed the blaze could have been started deliberately. Firefighters were called at 4.46am and were on the scene within four minutes. By 6.20, they had brought the fire under control.

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Police launch Cutty Sark arson investigation

An appeal for help to save the Cutty Sark, one of the world's most important maritime treasures, was issued last night after the historic vessel was ravaged by a suspected arson attack that caused £10 million damage.

The Cutty Sark after the fire. It is thought that the iron hull of the vessel may have buckled in the heat

The charity in charge of restoring the tea clipper said it feared its insurance would not cover the full cost of repairing the ship to its original standards and appealed for donations to meet the shortfall.

The fire, which ripped through the vessel's 19th century hull as it sat in dry dock in Greenwich, east London, early yesterday, also left those involved in conservation work on the vessel emotionally devastated.

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A tale of two clippers

It could be fortuitous that the Clyde-built Cutty Sark went up in flames the week before The Carrick, the world's only other surviving tea clipper, is due to be consigned to oblivion. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of these two ships to Britain's maritime heritage. Like thoroughbred race horses, they were built for speed at a time when fortunes were to be made from reaching London with the first tea of the season out of Shanghai. Under full sail, they were not only a beautiful sight but for a brief period they were able to outpace the new generation of steamships. We will never see their like again and it would be tragic if 2007 saw the demise of them both.

In recent years their fortunes have contrasted sharply. While Cutty Sark embarked last year on a £25m renovation project, The Carrick has continued to deteriorate at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, after a £5m rescue plan failed to attract sufficient backing. It is a vivid illustration of the extent to which the estate agent's catchphrase, "Location, location, location", applies to British industrial and maritime heritage. It is almost inconceivable that The Carrick would have suffered this fate in the Solent or on the Thames. Scotland's preoccupation with fine art at the expense of its own industrial heritage is such that it would be easier to raise £5m for a Turner painting of The Carrick than the ship herself.

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Archaeological find could shed light on Orkney's past

Archaeologists have discovered what appears to be a subterranean Iron Age structure, known as a souterrain, in an Orkney field.

The find was made when the field was being seeded for barley. At first it was believed to be a Bronze Age cist burial, as others have previously been uncovered nearby, but subsequent examination has revealed it to be an Iron Age souterrain or earth-house.

Dr Allan Rutherford of Historic Scotland said: “Preliminary investigations by staff from Orkney College Archaeology Department have shown this to be a souterrain, rather than a cist burial as was initially thought. This example seems to conform to the Orkney form, with a long narrow passage and an oval chamber at the inner end. Structures like this are believed to be have been used essentially as storage cellars and were usually associated with above-ground houses, although it is now that they may have had wider uses, particularly ritual.

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'History itself has been lost'

Two hours after a fire ripped through the hull of the Cutty Sark, the smell of burning timber lingered on the morning air as fire crews continued to soak the boat's decks and hull using pressure hoses.

The blaze was brought under control quickly.

Emergency services received a call at 0446 BST from a member of the public who said the Cutty Sark was ablaze.

The 138-year-old tea clipper lies just yards from the Thames in the heart of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site.

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Roman Woman Had Golden Smile

The earliest known dental prosthesis from ancient Rome may not have been very functional, but it gave its wealthy wearer a million dollar smile.

The gleaming grin resulted from multi-karat gold wire, which was used to string together "artificial teeth," according to the team of Italian researchers who analyzed the ancient bridgework.

They found the object, which dates from the 1st to the 2nd century A.D., in the mouth of an unidentified woman who was buried in an elaborate mausoleum within a Roman necropolis.

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Roman remains threaten metro

A planned hi-tech driverless underground railway line set to bring desperately needed transport links to the historic heart of Rome has run into a minefield of Roman remains.

Planners aim to send the new C line under the city centre at a depth of 30 metres, well beneath the archaeological treasures that litter Rome. Stations will also be built deep underground, but even the simple task of digging entrances and exits is proving a headache and could mean the scrapping of the Largo Torre Argentina stop, which serves crowded tourist sights such as the Pantheon.

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Getty Moves Closer to Returning an Ancient Statue to Italy

The J. Paul Getty Museum inched a step closer to relinquishing ownership of one of its most prized artifacts, a 2,400-year-old statue of a goddess claimed by Italy, at a conference of international experts to discuss the artifact this week, its director said.

The Getty has not reached a formal conclusion based on the conference, which was convened at the museum on Wednesday and was closed to the public. But museum officials and some of the experts who attended said their discussions buttressed what the museum says are its own suspicions that the statue, acquired by the Getty in 1988, might have been illegally excavated in southern Italy.

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Herodes - geschickter Diplomat und Friedensfürst

Es ist zwar Zufall, dass just wenige Tage nach der Entdeckung des vermutlichen Grabes von Herodes eine Publikation zu selbigem und seinen Beziehungen zum römisches Reich erscheint, doch wird diese mit Sicherheit das Bild dieses Königs präzisieren.

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Die Antike kopiert

Die Antike und was man dafür hielt, prägte entscheidend die Epoche des Klassizismus. Die Antikenbegeisterung jener Zeit ließ Keramikmanufakturen entstehen, die sich auf die Nachahmung antiker Vasen spezialisierten und einen internationalen Markt bedienten. In der Sonderausstellung "Keramische Meisterwerke des Klassizismus aus Neapel" präsentiert das Antikenmuseum der Universität Leipzig eine Auswahl solcher klassizistischer Vasen aus der Sammlung der Familie von Boch und den Beständen der Stiftung Saarländischer Kulturbesitz.

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Excavations to start in July in Ancient City of Zeugma

Archaeological excavations will start on July 15th in the ancient city of Zeugma. Associate Prof. Kutalmis Gorkay of the Ankara University Department of Archaeology, who leads the excavations in the ancient city, said on Thursday that a 60-member team including 4 foreigners would participate in this year's excavations between July 15 and October 20.

During this year's excavations, Danae and Dionysos temples will be renovated, along with excavations in the Agora, he said, with findings to be displayed in the Gaziantep Archaeology Museum. "So far, we could unearth only 10 percent of the artifacts. The remaining 90 percent has still been under earth," he said in an interview with the Anatolia news agency. Gorkay said they aimed at making the ancient site an "archaeo-park."

Zeugma, an ancient city of Commagene, was unearthed in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep. The ancient city was originally founded as a Greek settlement by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, in 300 B.C. King Seleucus almost certainly named the city Seleucia after himself. The population in the city was approximately 80,000.

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