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explorator 9.31-32 December 3, 2006
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n.b. 2 -- thanks to all who sent along good wishes last week ...
================================================================
================================================================
Thanks to Arthur Shippee, Bill Kennedy, Ben Henry, Dan Kiernan,
Dave Sowdon, Croman mac Nessa, Diana Wright, David Critchley,
Donna Hurst, Dorothy King, 'Duke Jason', Edward Rockstein,
John McMahon, John McChesney-Young, Hernan Astudillo,
Jim Lockmiller, Joan Griffith, Joseph Lauer, Kate Brown,
Ales Bukovsky, Mata Kimasitayo, Michael Oberndorf,
Mike Ruggeri, Richard C. Griffiths, Ross W Sargent,
Rochelle Altman, Rick Pettigrew, Bob Heuman, Susan Jaslow,
Toke Lindegaard Knudsen, Tony Jackson, W. Richard Frahm,
and Yonatan Nadelman for headses upses this week (as always
hoping I have left no one out).
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EARLY HUMANS
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A 70 000 b.p. religious artifact/evidence of ritual:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061130081347.htm
http://tinyurl.com/yz4ys4 (Digital Journal)
http://tinyurl.com/ygxpxe (Canada.com)
http://www.apollon.uio.no/vis/art/2006_4/Artikler/python_english
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061130_python.htm
http://tinyurl.com/ycsbnd (Live Science via Yahoo)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15970442/
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AFRICA
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Nice feature on petroglyphs in South Africa:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061122/lf_nm/safrica_rock_dc_1

On the treasures of Timbuktu:

http://www.smithsonianmagazine.org/issues/2006/december/timbuktu.php
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ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
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Did the Egyptians use concrete when building the pyramids? (didn't
someone else suggest this a while back?):

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/science/30cnd-pyramid.html
http://tinyurl.com/vbwom (KC Star)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2480751,00.html

Relocating an Egyptian village to protect tombs:

http://in.news.yahoo.com/061203/43/69y2c.html
http://tinyurl.com/yyey34 (WPost)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6202342.stm

They're talking (again) about sending a little robot up a shaft
of the Great Pyramid:

http://tinyurl.com/ym69tl (AFP via Yahoo)
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20852379-1702,00.html
http://english.people.com.cn/200612/01/eng20061201_327276.html
http://tinyurl.com/yka2vo (IOL)

Not sure why, but the Tut-died-from-a-broken-leg story is making
the rounds again:

http://tinyurl.com/ydno8j (Seattle Times)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10412891
http://in.news.yahoo.com/061128/139/69siu.html

Brief item on a pharaonic cemetery near Luxor (but it doesn't really
sound like a cemetery):

http://tinyurl.com/wr78u (SIS)

A sort of overviewish thing on what has been found at Tel Megiddo:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=789534

Italian troops working on a road in Lebanon came across some
artifacts:

http://tinyurl.com/ynxzux (Daily Star)

A pile of sites from Anatolia:

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=59897

On peaches at Masada:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/794492.html

More on Qumran latrines:

http://tinyurl.com/yaeqbq (Sun)

Latest video at the Archaeology Channel is about mummy preparation:

http://www.archaeologychannel.org/

On the web: The Open Scrolls Project:

http://www.openscrolls.org/

Egyptology News Blog:

http://egyptology.blogspot.com/

Egyptology Blog:

http://www.egyptologyblog.co.uk/

Iraq War and Archaeology:

http://www.archaeos.org/iwa/

Paleojudaica:

http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/

Archaeologist at Large:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/ArchaeologyinEgypt/
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ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME (AND CLASSICS)
================================================================
There might be some sort of record set here ... an amazing mass
of coverage over 'solving' what the Antikythera mechanism was
used for:

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061127/full/444534a.html
http://tinyurl.com/ymkkjm (NG)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6191462.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/science/30computecnd.html (JNW)
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061202/fob6.asp
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061129151439.htm
http://www.biosmagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=4640
http://tinyurl.com/y9x8u8 (CNN
http://www.sys-con.com/read/307495.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061129/sc_afp/sciencehistory_061129202046
http://tinyurl.com/yylnwa (NPR)
http://tinyurl.com/y255xr (Live Science via Yahoo)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/cu-moa112806.php
http://www.physorg.com/news84029305.html
http://tinyurl.com/ymkobq (SciAm)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15953550/site/3000001/

... all AP versions:
http://tinyurl.com/tude2 (AP via AOL)
http://www.unison.ie/stories.php3?ca=27&si=1732604
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650211968,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15984363/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061201/ap_on_sc/greece_ancient_computer_5

... satis superque, I think.

There was a pile of Archimedes Palimpsest coverage too:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/arts/27greek.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/29/features/greektext.php

A 1600 b.p. Roman sarcophagus from London:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6196972.stm
http://tinyurl.com/y92ake (CNN)
http://tinyurl.com/y6wxpo (USA Today)
http://tinyurl.com/yyx2b9 (ABC)
http://tinyurl.com/wgjvm (Reuters via Yahoo)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,233659,00.html
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1781972006

And, of course, there was that She-Wolf story:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/11/22/shewolf_arc.html

Interesting curse tablet from Leicester:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061130081359.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/uol-uol112806.php
http://tinyurl.com/yfxuph (LA Times)
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006550819,00.html

A Roman necropolis near Latakia:

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20061128-111943-6710r

Excavating Kenchreai:

http://www.themacweekly.com/articles/20061119/news/10898

Evidence of Amathus' Ptolemaic past:

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=29260&cat_id=1

Norwegians in the Legions?:

http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6838

Harry Mount's making the rounds talking about Amo, Amas, Amat and
all that:

http://tinyurl.com/yao8hs (Guardian)
http://tinyurl.com/vmh8q (Daily Mail)

Why seminarians need Latin:

http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=1106-gallagher

Robert Harris was drawing parallels between Rome and the USA:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6523758

A display of recently-found items from Rome:

http://tinyurl.com/y2utl5 (AFP via Yahoo)

Latin in the Bronx:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/education/29education.html

On the web: nice NOVA item on some Hellenistic papyri (featuring
Robert Macfarlane):

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3318/04.html

Another Aeneid-reading athlete:

http://tinyurl.com/yfcatl (Courier Journal)

More on that garum shipwreck:

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/1124shipwreck1124.html
http://tinyurl.com/yebjzp (NG)

More on Fagles' Aeneid translation:

http://tinyurl.com/yzzax9 (Herald Tribune)

Recent reviews from BMCR:

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/recent.html

Recent reviews from Scholia:

http://www.classics.und.ac.za/reviews/2006.htm

Visit our blog:

http://www.atrium-media.com/rogueclassicism

Mediterranean Archaeology:

http://medarch.blogspot.com/
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EUROPE AND THE UK (+ Ireland)
================================================================
More coverage of Stonehenge as an ancient Lourdes:

http://tinyurl.com/yzrmqa (Telegraph)
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/11/29/10085841.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1961314,00.html

Claims of the earliest evidence of Christianity in the UK from
a burial (that can't be right, can it?) from 1400 years ago:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2029264.ece

Vandal burial in Slovakia:

http://mujweb.atlas.cz/veda/archaeology/Tatry_find.htm
http://tinyurl.com/yzamx5 (Slovak (?), with photos)
http://www.sme.sk/c/2994753/germansky-tutanchamon-pod-tatrami.html
(ditto)

Archaeology in Europe Blog:

http://www.archaeology.eu.com/weblog/index.html
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ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC
================================================================
New Zealand Archaeology eNews:

http://www.nzarchaeology.org/netsubnews.htm
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NORTH AMERICA
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Housing development on Long Island ... ca 1000 b.p. skull found:

http://wcbstv.com/local/local_story_335113810.html
http://tinyurl.com/y7sln8 (CTV)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061201/ap_on_sc/indian_skull_1

An interesting article on Desert Archaic Indians:

http://www.desertusa.com/ind1/ind_new/ind3.html

Nice item on some burials from Jamestown:

http://tinyurl.com/ydu3tc (RedOrbit)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061122/ap_on_sc/jamestown_remains_3
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/20/jamestown.remains.ap/index.html

Excavating Fort Selkirk:

http://www.whitehorsestar.com/auth.php?r=45074
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CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
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A 'trove' of pre-incan tombs from Peru:

http://tinyurl.com/yxebqk (USA Today)
http://tinyurl.com/ybade7 (AP via Yahoo)
http://tinyurl.com/ydvv2a (ABC)
http://tinyurl.com/yh2de9 (IHT)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6172530.stm
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OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
================================================================
An avalanche on Mount Etna some 8000 years b.p. appears to
have triggered a massive tsunami:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061128083754.htm
http://www.sys-con.com/read/307495.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-12/01/content_5419215.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15971504/
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061128-113115-5955r

And also on the natural disaster front ... an 18th century Icelandic
volcano eruption has been linked to famine in Egypt:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061121232204.htm
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10649&feedId=online-news_rss20

One of the alchemists' secrets appears to have been cracked:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/ucl-2ct112006.php

Putting a face on Jack the Ripper:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15826443/

A history of poisoning:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6569885

Interesting reviewish thing about Descartes:

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/content/articles/061120crbo_books

A 15th century drawing of Stonehenge:

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1957926,00.html

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Lives of the Week:

http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/lotw/

Arts and Letters Daily:

http://aldaily.com/
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TOURISTY THINGS
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Ephesus:

http://tinyurl.com/y9oe9v (CNN)

Buddhist Monasteries in S. Korea:

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/travel/26journeys.html
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GENERAL MAGAZINES AND JOURNALS
================================================================
About.com Archaeology:

http://archaeology.about.com/

Archaeoblog:

http://archaeoblog.blogspot.com/

Archaeology Briefs:

http://archaeologybriefs.blogspot.com/
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CRIME BEAT
================================================================
Looting sites in Arizona:

http://tinyurl.com/yf9hty (Star Tribune)

On illegal artifacts and funding terrorism:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2007472.ece
http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20061123-123211-8809r.htm

Greece is now going after Marion True too:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061121/en_nm/greece_antiquities_getty_dc_1
http://tinyurl.com/ycgghq (LA Times)
http://tinyurl.com/ynz7hm (Reuters)
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1725812006

... I think this is related to the above:

http://www.artinfo.com/News/Article.aspx?a=24270&c=90
http://tinyurl.com/ygoud4 (IHT)

... as might be this follow up to that Schinoussa story from a
while back:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2468627,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/yc5zf5 (Kathimerini)

Trying to beat the illegal diggers to artifacts in Lorestan:

http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6840

Big bust in Bulgaria:

http://english.people.com.cn/200611/23/eng20061123_324298.html

Tomb robbing in Israel and Palestine:

http://tinyurl.com/ymv5zb (Chronicle)

Another guy stealing valuable books from libraries and selling
them:

http://tinyurl.com/ydt3y9 (UPI)

Suzan Mazur had a very interesting interview with the author of
the Medici Conspiracy:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0611/S00363.htm

Some guy was arrested for trying to sell a lock of Ramses II's
hair:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6195646.stm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15959040/

... and I couldn't resist including this one ... Lara Croft is
in trouble:

http://tinyurl.com/yevpa7 (Forbes)

================================================================
NUMISMATICA
================================================================
Hobbyblog:

http://hobbyblog.blogspot.com/

Ancient Coin Collecting:

http://ancientcoincollecting.blogspot.com/

Ancient Coins:

http://classicalcoins.blogspot.com/
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EXHIBITIONS, AUCTIONS, AND MUSEUM-RELATED
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Afghanistan: Rediscovered Treasures:

http://tinyurl.com/uzcgc (AFP via Yahoo)

Daily Magic in Ancient Egypt:

http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=18373

Whiney coverage of that Sassanid exhibition at the Louvre:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/01/opinion/melik2.php

Strange series of events in the Getty-Italy thing these past couple
of weeks ... first, the Getty said it would return 26 artifacts:

http://www.kfmb.com/story.php?id=71078
http://tinyurl.com/ycl5op (AP via Yahoo)
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=ak92lRHyi.Oo
http://www.artinfo.com/News/Article.aspx?a=24275&c=90

... then there was some sort of impasse because of some of the
items (or maybe early journalistic spin made this into something
more dramatic?):

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/22/news/getty.php
http://english.people.com.cn/200611/27/eng20061127_325510.html
http://tinyurl.com/ymf6wc (WPost)
http://tinyurl.com/ylkd7q (Globe)
http://www.nysun.com/article/44053
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1739902006
http://tinyurl.com/yjvmrk (Bloomberg)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2007486.ece

... which moved Michael Brand to write an op-ed piece:

http://tinyurl.com/ynhpg6 (Peninsula Times)
http://tinyurl.com/ybh4bc (LA Times)

What the Boston MFA got for its returns to Italy:

http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=18347
http://tinyurl.com/yfnoxp (IHT)

Another report on Berlin's Museum Island:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/arts/design/27bode.html

A pile of items from a shipwreck near Java will be coming to
auction:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6162804.stm
================================================================
DON'T EAT THAT ELMER (A.K.A. CVM GRANO SALIS)
================================================================
A topical piece from the Onion:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/55531
================================================================
PODCASTS
================================================================
The Book and the Spade:

http://www.radioscribe.com/bknspade.htm

Stone Pages Archaeology News:

http://news.stonepages.com/

Archaeologica Audio News:

http://www.archaeologychannel.org/AudioNews.asp
================================================================
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