Monday, January 03, 2005
Forgers 'tried to rewrite biblical history'
Hundreds of biblical artefacts in museums all over the world could be fakes, it has emerged after Israeli investigators uncovered what they claim is a sophisticated forgery ring.
Four men have been charged with the faking of some of the most important biblical discoveries in recent years.
Guardian
Professor Martin Robertson (Obituary)
Charles Martin Robertson, scholar of classical art and archaeology: born Cambridge 11 September 1911; Assistant Keeper, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum 1936-48; Yates Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology, London University 1948-61; Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art, Oxford University 1961-78 (Emeritus); FBA 1967; married 1942 Cecil Rice (died 1984; four sons, two daughters), 1988 Louise Berge (née Holstein); died Cambridge 26 December 2004.
Independant
Heritage Malta holds public meeting
Heritage Malta is holding a public meeting on its plan of action for Gozo's cultural resources.
The meeting, being held on Friday at 4 p.m. at the Sentinella base in the heart of the Citadel, Victoria, will be addressed by Minister Giovanna Debono and Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech.
Heritage Malta will outline its plans and projects for the forthcoming years, including the upgrading of all sites and the introduction of interpretation provisions, particularly at Ggantija Temples, which is the most visited site in the Maltese Islands, with around 170,000 visitors last year.
Charles Fredrick von Brochtorff's book, The Archaeological Drawings, published by Midsea Books and Heritage Malta will also be launched.
Times of Malta
Drawing up a strategy for the future of our cultural heritage
An important step to establish a sustainable and coherent policy for the protection of our cultural heritage will be taken when a document dealing with all the discussions and reports by the various stakeholders will be tabled in Parliament at the end of 2006. Recently, at the National Forum on Cultural Heritage, a number of speakers presented their reports on various entities that were created through the 2002 Cultural Heritage Act. Gerald Fenech reports on the presentations delivered. Dr Anthony Pace – State of the Heritage Report The Superintendent of Cultural Heritage began his presentation by giving the main reasons for the publication of the State of the Heritage Report that is also being published in its entirety on the organisations’ website.
Malta Independent
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Arrow head is a rare pointer to the past
which is more than 3,000 years old, has been found in North West Essex and donated to Saffron Walden Museum.
It was spotted by Essex Finds liaison officer Caroline McDonald while recording finds by local metal detector users and her identification was later confirmed by the British Museum.
The arrowhead dates from the Middle Bronze Age, between 1275 and 1140 BC.
Cambridge News
Toys that make a noise go back to the Bronze Age
Parents who are irritated tomorrow by noisy toys may console themselves: children have been making a racket since the Bronze Age. Archaeologists believe they have identified one of the earliest toys after re-examining pieces of bone found in excavations all over Europe. The toggle-shaped bones, some up to 4,000 years old, had mystified scientists for years until they were compared recently to a simple toy found in remote parts of Britain until the start of the 20th century.
The Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust discovered that the ancient bones were identical to a toy known in Shetland and Orkney as a "snorie bane", or snoring bone. The perforated bones would be threaded with cord or animal sinew and spun. Catherine Smith, 47, a bone expert, said identical bones had been found at digs in the northern isles, and in Germany, Spain and throughout Scandinavia. She added: "Traditional toys like the snorie bane would only have survived in the most isolated places. We know that children used to queue to get the bones whenever a pig was killed in Orkney and Shetland even after the turn of the 20th century.
Stone Pages
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Women warriors from Amazon fought for Britain's Roman army
THE remains of two Amazon warriors serving with the Roman army in Britain have been discovered in a cemetery that has astonished archaeologists.
Women soldiers were previously unknown in the Roman army in Britain and the find at Brougham in Cumbria will force a reappraisal of their role in 3rd-century society.
The women are thought to have come from the Danube region of Eastern Europe, which was where the Ancient Greeks said the fearsome Amazon warriors could be found.
Times Online
Road 'threatens seat of kings'
Plans to build a motorway close to one of Ireland's most historic sites have been attacked by campaigners as "a crime against humanity".
The Hill of Tara and its ancient burial site in County Meath is Ireland's equivalent of the Valley of the Dead in Egypt, campaigners have said.
Environmentalists and historians have called for the proposed M3 motorway to be stopped.
BBC News
Unearthing Mysteries, Creswell Crags Cave Art
The latest edition of Unearthing Mysteries on BBC Radio 4 features Creswell Cave Art. It describes the findings of palaeolithic rock art in the Derbyshire caves. There is also a description of the art and how it was found along with some pictures on their web site.
The programme describes how archaeologists decided to search for cave art, how they discovered it, and what exactly is depicted in the cave. There is some discussion of aspects of the site such as whether and how colour was used and the relationship of the art to other European art.
Megalithic Portal
Archaeologists say they may have found site of Jesus' first miracle
CANA, Israel Archaeologists believe they may have found the site of Jesus' first miracle.
Israeli archaeologist Yardena Alexander says she's found pieces of large stone jars of the type the Bible says Jesus used when he turned water into wine at a Jewish wedding feast.
The shards were found during a salvage dig in modern-day Cana (KAY'-nuh), between Nazareth and Capernaum (kuh-PER'-nuhm), and date to the Roman period, when Jesus walked in Galilee.
WTNH
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Archaeologists strike gold in secret spot
Eleven small, golden reliefs have been unearthed at an archaeological dig somewhere in eastern Norway. Officials won't say where, because they think more of the 1,400-year-old gold objects will be found at the site.
Professor Heid Gjøstein Resi with one of the small gold reliefs found in eastern Norway.
The most intact object found in October depicts a couple, maybe the mythological figures Frøy and Gerd.
Aftenposten
See also Gullgubber for pictures of the finds.
Ancient moorland view scratches the surface of history
A CARVED stone dating back 4,000 years to the early Bronze Age could be an early example of decorative landscape art. The relic, unique to England, was uncovered when a forest fire consumed a large swath of heather moorland on the North Yorkshire Moors.
Archaeologists, who found the metre-wide slab of sandstone half buried in the ash, believe that its distinctive markings could depict a mountainscape with fields and a house in the foreground
Times
Armouries invest in Roman sword
A 2,000-year-old Roman sword has been bought to go on display in Leeds - for more than £56,000.
The "best-preserved" weapon of its type in the UK was bought by the Royal Armouries museum at auction this week.
It was discovered 30-years ago by an amateur archaeologist in Germany and restored by a collector in Switzerland before being sold.
BBC News
Rare carving unearthed after moorland fire
A bold pattern of zigzags which may be the world's first known attempt at landscape painting, has been found in the aftermath of a devastating moorland fire.
The crude carving by an unknown bronze-age artist is one of more than 2,400 historically important artefacts revealed by the scorching last year of a swath of the North York Moors, where until now only 30 scheduled ancient monuments have been designated.
"It turns out to be an astonishing archaeological landscape," said Nick Redfern, regional inspector of ancient monuments for English Heritage, who was left open-mouthed when the hidden treasures of Fylingdale Top were revealed, near the Anglo-American Star Wars defence base.
Guardian
Out of the flames, a work of art from 4,000 years ago
Archaeologists believe a 4,000-year-old stone carving found among the remnants of a devastating moorland blaze could be the world's earliest work of landscape art.
Inscriptions on the yard-wide sandstone panel are thought to depict fields and a house with a mountain or seascape in the background.
The sandstone panel is thought to depict fields and a house
It was discovered last summer after a four-day peat fire exposed a huge chunk of subsoil on Fylingdales Moor, North Yorks.
Telegraph
Moorland treasures rise from the ashes
A HUGE fire last year devastated part of the sensitive landscape of the North York Moors National Park.
But it also offered archaeologists an unprecedented opportunity to view thousands of previously hidden artefacts and earthworks spanning 4,000 years of human life on the moors.
The most exciting discovery was a unique piece of carved sandstone more than 4,000 years old which archaeologists believe may be some kind of map.
They say it has international significance as, unlike other rock art from the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age, the lines of carving are angular rather than curved, similar to designs more often found on pottery.
Yorkshire Today
Solstice illumination at passage tomb
Clear skies will benefit the twenty people who were selected from thousands of applicants to see the annual illumination of Newgrange by the solstice sunrise.
UTV Newsroom
Mystery of the Moors
It was an ecological disaster which devastated one of the worlds's rarest landscapes, but the fire which ravaged the North York Moors last year has had an unexpected twist. Nick Morrison reports.
AT first, it seemed to be a largely abstract, although highly unusual, pattern. A series of diamond shapes surrounding a main feature resembling an hourglass, with a number of wavy lines to one side. It was only when the image was rotated to sit on its end that a light went on inside Neil Redfern's head.
The diamonds turned into fields, the hourglass into a house, with the additional line on one side representing a door. The triangles now at the top were mountains, the wavy lines perhaps the sea, or birds in the sky.
This is the North East
UNIQUE ROCK CARVING FOUND AMONGST ARCHAEOLOGY AFTER MOORS FIRE
Archaeologists are pondering one of the most intriguing archaeological discoveries for some years after a fire revealed a unique carved stone thought to be 4,000 years old.
The find came to light after a blaze in 2003 at Fylingdales near Whitby consumed two and a half square kilometres of heather moorland - before being brought under control by hundreds of fire fighters and a water-dumping helicopter.
However, in the fire’s aftermath archaeologists were astonished to find a vast array of archaeological remains – uncovered by the intensity of the blaze, which burnt away much of the peat.
25 Hour Museum
Carved Imagine May Be Ancient Map
An image on a carved stone thought to date back more than 4,000 years may depict an ancient map, it was revealed today.
English Heritage archaeologists said the relic, which is unique in England and considered internationally significant, may show a map or landscape drawing – thought to be a first for rock art.
The stone was uncovered after a wildfire devastated two and a half square kilometres of heather moorland on the North York Moors at Fylingdales, near Whitby, in September last year.
The Scotsman
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