Newsdesk Archive

Agra - Authorities in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state have launched an urgent investigation after historians reported that one of the minarets of the Taj Mahal is tilting dangerously, an official said. A committee of experts is investigating whether the drying out of the nearby Yamuna River could have affected the 17th-century white mausoleum's foundations, the state government official said on Wednesday. They are to report back within a week, said the official, who declined to be identified. The Taj Mahal, with four slender minarets, was built by heartbroken Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his second wife, Empress Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth. It sits on the banks of the Yamuna river.

An excavtation mission under Minnesota University in the US which is conducting excacavations in Wadi Qum Heleeg in Sharqeya desert unearthed 132 engravings dating back to pre-historic ages. Dr. Zahi Hawas, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said yesterday that the mission found out drawings of cattle as well as pictures of a flock tied to persons, noting that the there was breeding up of livestock in pre-historic eras in this area.

Constance, Germany - Archaeologists believe Lake Constance is a huge ships' graveyard for historical vessels dating back to ancient times. Martin Mainberger of the regional office for the preservation of historical monuments said Tuesday 50 shipwrecks have already been identified in Lake Ueberling, a northern arm of Lake Constance. Underwater archaeologists from Europe and the United States are currently meeting at Constance in southern Germany as part of an international conference on underwater archaeology in Zurich.

Archaeologists have discovered the oldest clay "fireplaces" made by humans at a dig in southern Greece. The hearths are between 34,000 and 23,000 years old and were almost certainly used for cooking by prehistoric inhabitants of the area. Researchers found remnants of wood ash and phytoliths - a type of plant cell - in these hearths and lab tests show the clay was burnt.

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of the first early settlers in Aberdeenshire during an 11-day excavation near Kintore. A Mesolithic, or Middle Stone-Age site, dating back around 8,000 years, was unearthed on the outskirts of the village. Kintore has already revealed historically valuable finds, including Roman bread ovens, a timber circle thought to date back 6,000 years, and evidence of a roundhouse. Experts now hope their latest discovery will help them piece together a history of the area - something which, at the moment, does not exist.

Investigations in Lalibela, Ethiopia, are revealing that Africa's most important historical Christian site is much older than previously thought. Up until now, scholars have regarded the spectacular complex of 11 rock-cut churches as dating from around A.D. 1200, but new survey work carried out by a British archaeologist suggests that three of the churches may have originally been "built" half a millennium earlier as fortifications or other structures in the waning days of the Axumite Empire. "The discovery will completely change the way historians perceive the origins of Africa's most famous indigenous Christian site," says David Phillipson, professor of African archaeology at Cambridge University. His research, to be fully published next year, suggests that two of the churches, those of Merkurios (a local Ethiopian saint) and the archangel Gabriel, were initially carved out of the rock as some sort of elite palace or fortress complex. A third structure created in that same early period later became the church of Danagel (the Virgin Martyrs). The Merkurios and Gabriel structures were built in highly defensible positions and may well have been the core of a fortified complex created during the politically unstable period that saw the disintegration of the Axumite Empire in the mid-seventh century A.D. At its peak in the third to sixth centuries A.D., that empire controlled much of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and at times Yemen and even part of the Nile Valley.

Excavations carried out this fall at an ancient synagogue in Albania have uncovered additional sections of the impressive structure. The excavations, now in their second season, are being conducted under the auspices of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Albanian Academy of Sciences. The synagogue, which dates from the 5th or 6th century C.E., is located in the city of Saranda, a coastal city in Albania, opposite the Greek island of Corfu. The synagogue underwent various periods of use, including its conversion into a church at its last stage, prior to being abandoned. Initial excavations at the site were conducted some 20 years ago when Albania was under tight Communist rule. At that time that the building was identified as a church.

ATHENS, Greece A Greek fisherman has made the catch of the day -- or maybe the century. He snagged a 24-hundred-year-old bronze statue a few days ago, near the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos The Greek Culture Ministry says it's missing a head, an arm and a leg, but it's still quite a find. Experts think the statue is of a young athlete -- given the fact that it is naked, its stance indicates movement, and that there's a great deal of anatomical detail. It is about four-feet-eight-inches tall and weighs nearly 155 pounds.

Everything in a museum has historic importance and deserves potent protection. If you have been to the Uganda museum, it may not have impressed you but it still stores all our pieces of ancient memories. However some of the most important and controversial items are missing. But what are they? In whose custody are they and why? One of the most important yet missing items from the museum is the Luzira head. It is one of the terracotta figures (fired clay object) made before 1600AD. It is Uganda's most important item of pre-colonial art, found while digging the foundation trenches of Luzira prison in 1929.

Archaeologists have discovered a cache of artifacts near South Padre Island they say could be up to 5,000 years old, potentially providing new clues about early peoples of the Texas coast. The items, found in a protective clay dune about 6 feet underground, appear to be part of a fishing camp for a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers, archaeologist Robert Ricklis said. They include fragments of shell tools, chipped flint projectile points, and a fish earbone, or otolith, that can be analyzed for information about the bay environment of the time. Ricklis said the find was significant because so little is known about the ancient Rio Grande Valley. Most early manmade items would have been eroded by sand and sea air, or washed out by the ever-changing course of the waterways of the Rio Grande basin near the Mexican border.

In the past 30 years archaeologists worldwide have visited the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Washington County. The general public can now see what's involved in the archaeological dig that has proved the existence of early humans dating back 16,000 years. "The site was opened last year for the first time to the public," said David Scofield, director of Meadowcroft Museum of Rural Life. "We are now in the process of getting an architect to create a design for a permanent roof over the excavation. This will permanently protect the site and be more public-friendly." Archaeologist James M. Adovasio and his crew began excavating the rockshelter located 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh in 1973. After uncovering 20,000 human artifacts and nearly 2 million animal and plant remains, Adovasio was able to disprove through the use of radiocarbon testing the widely held belief that the first humans on the North American continent crossed over from Asia at the Bering Strait and settled near Clovis, N.M., about 12,000 B.C.

During the past two months, 17 Wittenberg University students in a history class taught by professors Tom Taylor and Darlene Brooks Hedstrom have conducted an archaeological dig at the Gammon House _ an Underground Railroad site in this western Ohio city. In true Indiana Jones style, the students have set up camp inside the historic house, carefully removing layers of dirt underneath the rotted floorboards. The students hope to uncover artifacts and clues to the life of the Gammon family, which reportedly hid slaves seeking freedom before and during the Civil War.

Michelangelo's David, the towering sculpture acclaimed for its depiction of male physical perfection, has a "hole" in the back, two anatomy professors announced at a recent conference in Florence. Computer measurements of David's body taken by professors Massimo Gulisano and colleague Pietro Bernabei of Florence University show a hollow instead of a muscle on the right side of the back, between the spine and the shoulder blade.

The 3,600 year old Sky Disk of Nebra -- the world's oldest image of the cosmos -- is the centerpiece of the biggest Bronze Age show of Europe, in the eastern German town of Halle. It caused a world-wide sensation when it was brought to the attention of the German public in 2002, having been discovered in the state of Saxony-Anhalt two years earlier. Now the Sky Disc of Nebra -- a bronze disc with gold-leaf appliques representing the sun, moon, stars and a ship -- is back in the limelight, at the opening of a blockbuster show entitled "The Forged Sky: The Wide World in the Heart of Europe 3,600 Years Ago."

Bucharest - Construction workers for the American firm Bechtel found neolithic ruins which are more than 6 000 years old while building a highway in Romania, archaeologists said on Thursday. "It is a surprising discovery of great importance for the region," Ion Stanciu, who heads a team of archaeologists, told AFP. He said the ruins consisted of a funeral stone, the remains of several houses from the bronze age, and pieces of pottery. "We are going to suggest to officials from Bechtel to consider building a museum to house these exceptional discoveries," Stanciu said. "We expect to find more ruins, perhaps the remains of Roman fortifications," he said.

Plans are afoot to dismantle and relocate the Temple of Khnum at Esna. Jill Kamil suggests a fitting location There are sadly few archaeological opportunities to demonstrate the inherent continuity of Egyptian culture. The divisions with which we are all familiar have been created by historians, who have grouped the nation's past into four distinct periods: Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman, early Christian (Coptic), and Islamic. Each of these periods has not only its own scholars, but also its own separate museums that emphasise the differences and special characteristics of each era. It is not surprising therefore that the general public has come to accept this fragmented rendition of history. And the archaeological record does not help, as there are only a few surviving examples of how these different cultures merged -- as when a Christian or Islamic building is erected within an Ancient Egyptian temple. There are still fewer places where Pharaonic and Christian monuments exist in close enough proximity to one another to illustrate this historical reality.

More than 600 Egyptian antiquities flew back to Egypt from the UK on Thursday, four years after they were stolen and smuggled out. Wadia Hanna from Egypt's prosecutor-general's office said the items were stolen before being shipped to London via Switzerland.

HUTCHINSON ISLAND, Fla. - (KRT) - Hurricanes kill, injure and destroy, but they also can create, freshen and reveal. Directly striking this popular barrier island, Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne exposed - then partially destroyed - fresh evidence of the area's earliest inhabitants, according to scientists now working quickly to collect new archaeological treasures along the Treasure Coast.

Sirpur (Chhattisgarh), Oct. 14 : Archaeologists have unearthed a 1,500-year-old ancient floor during excavation at an ancient temple in Chhattisgarh. The discovery of the basement floor at the 6th century Laxman temple in Sirpur has pushed back the temple's history by about 150 years. The Laxman temple at Sirpur, located on the banks of the holy Mahanadi river and about 80 km from Raipur, is a major tourist destination. Archaeologists said the ancient floor was discovered after they started renovations to the temple's foundation to drain out water logging. They feared that the seepage could lead to cracks in the ancient temple. Excavations revealed that the basement floor, believed to be six feet deep, was actually eight feet deep.

The paradox of the Maltese archipelago--five islands lying in the Mediterranean 60 miles south of Sicily--is how so much cultural heritage came to be packed into such a small area. This nation's vast heritage has been recognized for centuries. En route to Egypt at the behest of King Louis XVI of France, Charles Sonninni stopped at the islands in 1777 and made the following observation, "Before the island of Malta became the domain of the Brotherhood of St. John of Jerusalem, it had passed successively into the hands of several potentates. From the Carthaginians down to the Arabs it underwent a frequent change of masters; the vestiges of antiquity in it are accordingly not few." Sonnini wrote also that he saw in a library "a petrified bone of great size," which he took to be from a quadruped. When Napoleon's fleet ousted the Knights of St. John in 1798, Vivant Denon, one of the scholars accompanying the French expedition to Egypt, visited the library and noted "an etruscan vase found at Gozo, of the greatest beauty, both with respect to the earth and the painting. I likewise inspected a very large glass vase, a lamp also found at Gozo, and a kind of votive disk in stone, with a bas relief, representing, on one of the sides, a sphinx, with a paw placed on the head of a ram. The style of this latter object sufficiently denotes its antiquity."

A 17th century vessel under Lake Michigan, considered by some the Holy Grail of Great Lakes shipwrecks, may have been found, but its ownership is mired in a storm of a court battle. Field Museum archeologists are analyzing the find, but were tight-lipped Monday.

A 17th century vessel under Lake Michigan, considered by some the Holy Grail of Great Lakes shipwrecks, may have been found, but its ownership is mired in a storm of a court battle. Field Museum archeologists are analyzing the find, but were tight-lipped Monday. "We do have a research interest in this ship,'' confirmed Field spokesman Greg Borzo. The museum has been consulting with Steven Libert, who discovered what may be Le Griffon at the entrance of Wisconsin's Green Bay, and with Michigan state officials, who are reportedly trying to gain control of the ship.

VIENNA (AFP) - A 3,000-year-old wooden staircase has been found at Hallstatt in northern Austria, immaculately preserved in a Bronze Age salt mine, Vienna's Natural History Museum said. "We have found a wooden staircase which dates from the 13th century B.C. It is the oldest wooden staircase discovered to date in Europe, maybe even in the world," Hans Reschreiter, the director of excavations at the museum, told AFP.

The French team excavating at Kharga Oasis have made an archaeological discovery 8 kilometers from Al-Monira village. The team unearthed a Greco- Roman cemetery embracing tombs carved in a sandstone hill. The tombs which are irregularly clustered mostly comprise a small burial room 1.5 meters high and a burial well from 1 to 2 meters deep. The facade of the tombs is made of white limestone jambs fixed with mortar. Inside the tombs, the team found limestone and wooden sarcophagi in addition to a collection of sarcophagi made of sun-dried brick coated with gypsum.

Danebury, one of Iron Age Britain's most significant, impressive hillforts, was built and occupied during the First Millennium BC. In 1969, Professor Barry Cunliffe began an unprecedented 20-year-long excavation of Danebury, which he discusses in this film. Professor Miranda Green, a renowned specialist in prehistoric beliefs, discusses the religious significance of the many finds and burials from the site. Stunning computer-generated graphics help bring the remarkable story of Danebury Hillfort and its Iron Age builders to life.

A DEVELOPMENT which archaeologists claim could destroy thousands of years of Welsh history was given the go- ahead because a letter went missing. Monmouth Archaeological Society is dismayed an extension to a business on Monmouth's Monnow Street is taking place without, they allege, proper precautions to protect the town's heritage. They claim permission was granted for the property to be modified without an archaeological evaluation first taking place and that no requirement was made for the developers to have an expert on site. Previous excavations on Monnow Street have found some of the earliest evidence in Wales of Norman and Roman society. The damp conditions have preserved timber and artifacts which have vanished elsewhere in the world.

Mexico City - A team of international archaeologists have set sail from Mexico to seek a sunken city that has been dubbed the "Mayan Atlantis", press reports said on Monday. Quoted by the Mexican newspaper Milenio, team leader Paulina Zelintzky, a Russian archaeologist, said sonar equipment had given indications there could be ancient structures on the ocean floor between Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and Cuba. According to Milenio, resonances showed geometric images similar to pyramids and round structures. The archaeologists will search the area using a mini-submarine known as "Deep Worker".

SANTIAGO MATATLAN, Mexico - (KRT) - The ancestors on the hill left no written record. Until a team of Chicago archaeologists came, nobody really thought much about them. And, strangely, some of the urns they left behind showed supernatural figures with two left hands. Nevertheless, this small village hopes a connection with the 6th century Zapotec community on the nearby hilltop will help preserve their 21st century future, or at least keep some of the teenagers from leaving for Los Angeles. With the help of a team from Chicago's Field Museum, a group of energetic young men is trying to set up a small community museum to exhibit the ancient Zapotec artifacts dug up by the archaeologists.

KABUL, Afghanistan: Persian and Hellenistic strata uncovered in Bagram (ancient Kapissa) were bulldozed into the ground and destroyed. The Great Buddha from the Bamiyan Valley was dynamited. Everywhere the Taliban destroyed anything that told a story about Afghanistan's cultural and historical heritage, predating their particularly sectarian version of "history."

The still waters of Lake Bosumtwi impose a sense of deep calm on those who visit the sub-Saharan African nation of Ghana. But the silence, punctuated by occasional frogs' croaks and bird calls, belies a violent origin. "A million years ago, this was the site of an enormous catastrophe," explains Christian Koeberl, a geologist from Vienna University, Austria.

London. British Museum (BM) director Neil MacGregor has decided that there is one small group of objects within his care that no one, not even he, should be allowed to see. These are tabots, which are regarded by Ethiopian Christians as representing the original Ark of the Covenant, the wooden chest which once housed the Ten Commandments. The Ark was placed in the Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon in the 10th century BC, and the Ethiopian Orthodox church believes that it was later taken to Aksum, in the north of the country. Tabots are wooden tablets which must be hidden from view, and should only be seen by the senior clergy. It is highly sacrilegious for them to be viewed by other believers, let alone non-believers. There are 11 tabots at the BM, 10 of which are part of a much larger group of Ethiopian objects which were seized at the battle of Maqdala (Magdala) in 1868, which led to the suicide of Emperor Tewodros (Theodorus). Thousands of his treasures were looted, many of which ended up in museums in the UK.

Scientists have started drilling holes into the ground around the Peking Man site near Beijing in hopes of finding more relics from the ancient representative of the human race. The project, jointly conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Electricite de France, aims to drill nine holes of up to 30 metres in depth, the Xinhua news agency reported. The scientists hope the effort will result in evidence of early human activity in the area, as suggested by previous preliminary investigations, according to the agency. The discovery of the 500,000-year-old Peking Man was one of the most decisive steps in the scientific quest to trace man's prehistoric development from the apes.

GOLIAD - A significant historical find was made at Presidio La Bahia over the weekend during a public archaeological dig. Volunteers and members of several archaeological groups found what appears to be the "setting trench" for the original location of the palisades stockade wall at the fort.

BROWNSVILLE, Ohio -- Little-known Flint Ridge may be the most important historical site in Ohio, but it's a place that's unfamiliar to most people. Flint Ridge State Memorial in southeast Licking County marks the site where ancient Indians quarried brightly colored flint, starting 11,000 or more years ago. The Indians needed razor-sharp flint for tools, weapons, ceremonial objects and jewelry, and Flint Ridge offered high-quality stone in a rainbow of colors: pink, gray, white, black and copper.

IT IS one of the most beautiful but well-trodden parts of Scotland. Few people thought the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond had any more secrets to yield. But a team of researchers called in to carry out a routine historical dig have uncovered an archeological gold mine. Under planning rules, the 300-acre site at Midross, on the western side of the loch, scheduled to be a new championship golf course, had to be checked for historical significance. The team of archeologists from Glasgow University found evidence of civilisation dating back almost 5,000 years,

MONTREAL - Imagine an ocean on the Prairies and mountains higher than the Himalayas in Ontario. That's part of the picture unveiled by Lithoprobe, a 20-year examination of Canada's ancient geological history. Named for the probe of the lithosphere (the earth's outer shell) the project used 20-tonne trucks dubbed "dancing elephants" to generate some of its data. Since 1984, more than 800 university, government and industry scientists have been examining the movements of ancient continents, oceans and islands, piecing together the evidence to draw a map of Canada's origins.

BAGHDAD -- The empty galleries are covered with dust. Broken statues are still lying on the floor and damaged showcases still bear witness to the vandalism that took place here. In fact, if it weren't for minor, hardly visible repair work, a visitor could not tell that over a year has gone by since the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad was looted. Just a few years ago, this museum was considered to be among the biggest and most important in the world. Sumerian jewelry, Babylonian steles, Assyrians reliefs, Abbasid walls covered with calligraphy and many other beautiful objects used to be on display here, in 32 galleries, testifying for 55 thousand years of history and civilization that existed in Iraq. From villages to cities and entire empires, from the cuneiform alphabet to mathematical theories ... it was all on display here: the story of the evolution of mankind. Then came the war and with it the horrifying looting of this bastion of history. Ever since that black day in April 2003, things have not been the same behind the sealed doors of this building.

BEAUFORT, N.C. -- Underwater archaeologists have found another cannon from the wreckage of what they believe was the flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard. Historical records indicate Blackbeard had 40 guns on the French frigate he captured in 1717 and renamed Queen Anne's Revenge. Since 1996, when the wreckage of the ship was discovered in Beaufort Inlet, divers have found 22 at the site. "We're pretty positive that we have cannon number 23," said project archaeologist Chris Southerly.

IRBIL (Yonhap) _ In its first reconstruction project in Iraq, the South Korean troops that began operations here last month are working with cultural experts to restore one of the oldest castles in the world, troop officials said Friday. The castle in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, which was built centuries ago and is now home to squatters, is being reconstructed by the South Korean troop unit, Zaitun (which means ``olive¡¯¡¯ in Arabic), officials said. About 2,800 troops went to the Kurdish-controlled city for reconstruction work in late September. Combined with 660 troops that have been operating in Iraq since April 2003, South Korea has the third-largest military presence in the war-torn nation after the United States and Britain.

THE discovery of two large limestone coffins dating back 3,000 years could indicate that the ancient Greeks may have been more technologically advanced than previously thought, an archaeologist said today. Each of the coffins, also known as a sarcophagus, was found in Ancient Corinth and dates back to 900 to 875 BC - a period known as the early Geometric period. The name derives from the art of the period, mostly found on pots, with its characteristically linear designs and dots and lines forming zigzags and angles. Guy Sanders, in charge of the digs carried out by the American School of Classical Studies, said the enormous weight of each coffin - 3.33 tonnes and 1.8 tonnes - suggests the ancient Corinthians must have used a mechanical system to lower the sarcophagi into graves instead of sheer muscle power.

The burial of the woman and her child took place in the Bronze Age, between 1,500 and 1,000 years Bc. In ancient times, female death rates were particularly high and generally related to problems in maternity, such as complications during pregnancy, childbirth or the period of breast-feeding. However, in most cases this link has only been established from indirect data, such paleodemographic data and ethnographic references, or based on the poor health conditions normally attributed to ancient human groups. There also exists direct archaeological evidence of the high rate of female mortality in the child-rearing period. However, it has not always been possible to establish the cause of death in females and whether or not there was any relation to obstetric complications. Despite this, a number of cases of female skeletons with the foetus in the uterus have been described, as well as some cases where signs of obstetric complications have been diagnosed. These archaeological cases are extremely rare, are not well documented in the specialist literature and are not well known among the scientific community.

AN ARCHAEOLOGIST from the University of Liverpool is uncovering the secrets of one of the world's oldest civilisations. Dr Alan Greaves is looking at the people of the lost society of Ionia, which was in ancient Greece, now within the borders of Turkey. He has been carrying out excavations in Turkey for the past decade and his findings have revealed new insights into the lives of the Ionian land workers. Previous studies have focused on Ionia's structures and literary texts, but little has been revealed about the day-to-day experiences of the Ionian people.

In a bid to recognize varied residential and cultural strata, Iranian and German archeologists have started their 5th season of excavations in the ancient industrial city of Erisman, in central Iran, which used to house several metal workshops, Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency reported.

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Archaeologists have unearthed the site of Genghis Khan's palace and believe the long-sought grave of the 13th century Mongolian warrior is somewhere nearby, the head of the excavation team says. A Japanese and Mongolian research team found the complex on a grassy steppe 150 miles east of the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, said Shinpei Kato, professor emeritus at Tokyo's Kokugakuin University.

Based on recent excavations in northwestern Iran, archaeological now believe that eye makeup has been used Iran since about 4500 B.C. Other archaeological discoveries at Haft-Tappeh in Khuzestan Province indicate that women used to wear lipstick, rouge, and eye makeup in 2000 B.C. in Iran.

BEIJING, (AFP) - China has employed state-of-the-art technology to determine how much is left of the Great Wall and which parts belong to which province. The remote sensor technology will enable the State Administration of Cultural Heritage to chart every inch of the 2,500 kilometers (1,560 miles) that still remains of the wall, the China Daily said. "Many of the truly ancient parts are scattered among the mountains, awaiting discovery and recording by scientists," the paper said.

DNA pioneer Professor Maurice Wilkins has died. Nobel Laureate Wilkins, 87, played an important role in the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, the molecule that carries our "life code". He was awarded the prize in 1962 with Francis Crick and James Watson; their co-discoverer was Rosalind Franklin.

Surgeons were carrying out complicated skull operations in medieval times, the remains of a body found at an archaeological dig show. A skull belonging to a 40-year-old peasant man, who lived between 960 and 1100AD, is the firmest evidence yet of cranial surgery, say its discoverers.

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - Bulgarian archaeologists have unearthed ancient gold treasure buried in a vast Thracian tomb, part of a series of discoveries made this summer, the excavations' leader said Tuesday. "This is the largest Thracian tomb ever discovered on Bulgarian territory, and in it we've found 73 artifacts, 20 of them made of gold,'' said Georgi Kitov, the team leader. According to Kitov, the stone-built tomb of three chambers dates back to the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 4th century B.C. The Thracians lived in what is now Bulgaria between 4,000 B.C. and the 8th century A.D., when they were assimilated by the invading Slavs. "A golden wreath, golden horse trappings and sword decorations were among the most impressive objects of the treasure,'' Kitov added.

It is famed as a critical moment in code-breaking history. Using a piece of basalt carved with runes and words, scholars broke the secret of hieroglyphs, the written 'language' of the ancient Egyptians. A baffling, opaque language had been made comprehensible, and the secrets of one of the world's greatest civilisations revealed - thanks to the Rosetta Stone and the analytic prowess of 18th and 19th century European scholars. But now the supremacy of Western thinking has been challenged by a London researcher who claims that hieroglyphs had been decoded hundreds of years earlier - by an Arabic alchemist, Abu Bakr Ahmad Ibn Wahshiyah.

It is famed as a critical moment in code-breaking history. Using a piece of basalt carved with runes and words, scholars broke the secret of hieroglyphs, the written 'language' of the ancient Egyptians. A baffling, opaque language had been made comprehensible, and the secrets of one of the world's greatest civilisations revealed - thanks to the Rosetta Stone and the analytic prowess of 18th and 19th century European scholars. But now the supremacy of Western thinking has been challenged by a London researcher who claims that hieroglyphs had been decoded hundreds of years earlier - by an Arabic alchemist, Abu Bakr Ahmad Ibn Wahshiyah.

Dozens of coins from the tenth Roman Legion, uncovered during the last excavation season at the Herodian palace in Ramat Hanadiv, offer some insight on the demise of the glamorous palace. Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld, a Hebrew University archeologist who has been managing the excavations at the site since the 1980s, says that it is possible to learn from the presence of the coins that that the palace was abandoned during the Great Rebellion that started in 66 CE not far away from there, in Caesarea.

A document condemning Dante Alighieri - one of Italy's greatest poets - to exile from his native Florence is being made available to the public for the first time. The Florence State Archive has printed 2,000 facsimile copies of the XIV century manuscript detailing the charges and sentence against Dante - the author of the Divine Comedy - and will give them to universities and libraries. The copies closely match the original - down to the original binding - but with the addition of explanatory notes.

Dr. Randall Price of San Marcos is a co-pastor at Grace Bible Church, so on weeks that he preaches, like any other pastor, he prepares a sermon that will retell a piece of the biblical past. But this particular pastor does a lot more than narrate history. In fact, he creates it. Price - arch- aeologist, theologian, pastor, professor, father and husband - has just returned from an excavation in Israel, and as he begins to tell of his latest discovery, you realize you're speaking to more than just an inspiring preacher, but a man at the forefront of theological discoveries.

A rare Middle Eastern incantation bowl - which is buried underneath houses to ward off evil spirits - has been handed in to Scotland Yard for return to the region. A London art dealer, whom police refused to identify, brought in the item, which he had purchased in Jordan some years ago. It may have come from Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Syria or Israel, where it was common to place bowls upside down in the foundations of new homes.

Beer is nearly as old as civilization itself. It's mentioned in Sumerian texts from more than 5,000 years ago. Starting in the 1950s, scientists have debated the notion that beer, not bread, was actually the impetus for the development of agriculture. Nearly every culture around the world has invented its own local concoction. Historically, brewing was a home-based operation, as part of the preparation of meals. From South America to the Middle East, beer production grew in scale with the rise of organized societies, scientists theorize, and later became primarily a function of the state. Beer was given to laborers or soldiers, incorporated into religious ceremonies, and drunk by politicians at state functions.

ATHENS, Greece -- A scientific dig has uncovered four pomegranates believed to be 2,500 years old preserved inside a woven basket nestled in a bronze vessel, a Greek archaeologist said Friday. The fruits were found at an archaeological dig in the area of Ancient Corinth, about 63 miles west of Athens. "They were preserved because the vessel was closed very well. The oxidization of the bronze functioned protectively, so no microorganisms developed and destroyed them," Panayiota Kasimi, the archaeologist in charge of the dig, told The Associated Press.

Scientists believe they have pinpointed the origin of a low frequency "hum" that emanates from the Earth. The noise - which can be picked up in the two and seven mHz (millihertz) range - occurs far below the threshold of human hearing, US researchers said. A University of California team propose the hum is a product of storm energy being converted into other forms in the Pacific and Southern Oceans.

As Egyptologists from around the world gathered in Grenoble, Nevine El-Aref was there to follow the controversies and delight in a world which combines the love of erudition with a passion for the past -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The International Congress of Egyptologists (ICE), which is held every four years in a different country, returned to Grenoble, the capital of the French Alps, early this September for the second time since the second congress was held there in 1979. Click to view caption Workers unveiling Karnak Cachet in 1934; god Amun's musician; the magistrate of Thebe's Supreme Council; the divine servant of Amun at Luxor. The week-long congress was held at the ALEXPO conference hall, where the aura of Ancient Egypt was everywhere apparent. The halls and corridors were buzzing with almost 2,000 Egyptologists from around the world exchanging recent archaeological discoveries, studies and theories. The schedule was tight and covered a wide variety of subjects, but the studious atmosphere was disrupted from the beginning by a notable lack of organisation. One could not help but compare this shambolic congress, held in a modern European city, with its excellently managed predecessor which was held in March 2000 at the foot of Giza's Great Pyramid.

Zagreb - An ornament for horses dating back to the 1st century A.D. has been found during excavations of a Roman Empire-era military camp near the southern Croatian city of Drnis, local media reports said on Friday. Croatian Minister for Culture Bozo Biskupic said the ornament - a small, crescent-shaped object fashioned from bronze and designed to be worn on the animal's head - was a "European archaeological sensation" because it was the biggest such item found and very well-preserved.

Scientists studying the deepest picture of the Universe, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, have been left with a big poser: where are all the stars?

BRIMFIELD - About a hundred people crammed into the Hitchcock Free Academy with the same question in mind: history or hoax? The discovery of several carved stone heads along Central Massachusetts riverbanks has many people, including an archaeologist from Worcester, wondering. "Nine years ago, when the first one showed up, most people thought it was a hoax," said Alan F. Smith, a Worcester archaeologist, at a recent presentation offered by the academy and the Opacum Land Trust. "But since, then a lot more have turned up. We've heard about a lot of them."

New Haven, Conn. -- In this week's issue of Nature, a Yale mathematician presents models showing that the most recent person who was a direct ancestor of all humans currently alive may have lived just a few thousand years ago. "While we may not all be 'brothers,' the models suggest we are all hundredth cousins or so," said Joseph T. Chang, professor in the Department of Statistics at Yale University and senior author on the paper. Chang established the basis of this research in a previous publication with an intentionally simplified model that ignored such complexities as geography and migration. Those precise mathematical results showed that in a world obeying the simplified assumptions, the most recent common ancestor would have lived less than 1,000 years ago. He also introduced the "identical ancestors point," the most recent time -- less than 2,000 years ago in the simplified model -- when each person was an ancestor to all or ancestor to none of the people alive today.

A SYRIAN archaeological team has uncovered two firestone axes dating back 35,000 to 40,000 years and some 6000 BC stone arrowheads. Mission head Bassam Jamous said he had to dig one metre deep into al-Wadi's cave in western Syria to find the two 8cm almond-shaped axes, used "by ancient Syrians to hunt their prey". In a telephone interview, Mr Jamous said the arrowheads used for river and land hunting were about 11 centimetres long. Bone needles used to sew leather, dating back to 6000 BC, were also among the finds, he said. Parts of clay jars for storing liquids and wine, dating back to 5000 to 3000 BC, were also unearthed.

Arlington, VA--Early humans lived in northern China about 1.66 million years ago, according to research reported in the journal Nature this week. The finding suggests humans--characterized by their making and use of stone tools--inhabited upper Asia almost 340,000 years before previous estimates placed them there, surviving in a pretty hostile environment. The research team, including Richard Potts of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, reports the results of excavating four layers of sediments at Majuangou in north China. All the layers contained indisputable stone tools apparently made by early humans, known to researchers as "hominins." The top layer, located at about 43.3-45.0 meters deep in the Earth's soil, contains the oldest known record of hominin stone tools, dating back to 1.32 million years ago. But the fourth and deepest layer, in which Potts and his team also found stone tools, is about 340,000 years older than that.

U.S. and Israeli researchers claim to have discovered proof that the Five Books of Moses were in existence during the First Temple period. The findings are based on new laboratory techniques used to date two small silver amulets, inscribed in ancient Hebrew and discovered in a burial cave in Jerusalem in 1979. Published last week in a scientific journal in the United States, the results were reported extensively in The New York Times yesterday. The amulets contain the text of the Priestly Benediction, which appear in Chapter 6 of Numbers, and are still recited today in synagogue prayer by descendants of the Jewish priestly clan.

The giant Toutatis asteroid passed by the Earth on Wednesday at distance of less than 1.6 million km. This is roughly four times the distance from the Earth to the Moon and closer than this 4.6km-wide rock has come to us since at least the 12th century. The timing of closest approach was 1335GMT. Toutatis is one of the best studied asteroids in the Solar System.

The European research facility which helped shape our understanding of the fundamentals of matter and invented the world wide web is exactly 50 years old. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), based at Geneva in Switzerland, is the world's largest lab dedicated to particle physics. It has a massive underground complex in which matter - atoms and their parts - can be smashed together at high speed.

There is something missing from the ornate church in one of Norfolk's most picture-perfect villages. Twelve stone apostles and one stone Jesus Christ were stripped from it during Henry VIII's Reformation, so folklore goes, before being thrown into the nearby harbour in a bout of religious fervour. Now the residents of Cley, in North Norfolk, want them back. But instead of relying on divine inspiration, the very traditional village is turning towards rather hi-tech methods to sniff them out. Yesterday, as Channel 4 filmed scenes for a film on one side of St Margaret's Church, renowned sculptor Colin Miller outlined how villagers plan to rescue the statues from the deep.

Tehran, Sept 26, IRNA -- Some traces of ancient architecture, pottery and a dozen other monuments and relics have been discovered by Iranian archaeologists at the ancient site of Narges Tappeh near an airport currently under construction in Gorgan, capital of Golestan province. According to the daily Tehran Times, some of the relics date back to 5,000 BC. The discovery was made during an archaeological test excavation to determine if construction of the airport would damage the ancient site.

The scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep have formally applied for a licence to clone human embryos to find a cure for motor neurone disease. If granted, Professor Ian Wilmut's team at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute would clone cells from MND patients to see how the illness develops in an embryo.

South Mountain is peppered with ancient markings from the area's indigenous residents of yore, and a large number of those markings are on a parcel of Ahwatukee Foothills private property that could be developed. What is referred to as the "28th Place Site," an 18-acre piece of land near Kyrene Akimel A-Al Middle School, has 89 recorded petroglyphs, or rock artworks. The oldest petroglyphs on the site are believed to date to the ancient Hohokam era, which lasted from A.D. 700 to 1450.

AGRA, India (Reuters) -- One of the world's most famous monuments, India's Taj Mahal, is celebrating its 350th birthday with a cultural extravaganza that hopes to pay a fitting tribute to the historic symbol of love. The celebrations, to be held at a famous Mughal fort near the white marble mausoleum in northern India, start with a release of pigeons and a kite-flying contest before moving to a classical music concert at sunset with the Taj as the backdrop.

State archaeologists have discovered a Native American campground near Palmerdale in north Jefferson County along the route of the proposed northern beltline. The site dates from 8000 BC to AD 1000 and is about 600 feet long and 180 feet wide, said Alabama Department of Transportation archaeologist Bill Turner.

Archaeologists have discovered ancient remains and buildings in some of the most inaccessible areas in the country, it emerged today. Members of the Severe Terrain Archaeological Campaign (Stac) have been using climbing equipment to explore sea stacks in Lewis and Shetland. Since forming in 2003, the Stac team has visited nine stacks and found buildings from the Iron Age and Bronze age, as well as pottery dating back to the Neolithic period. The archaeologists are now planning to return to some of the stacks to excavate them before erosion causes the settlements to be swallowed up by the sea, and lost forever.

As the first X-Prize flights go ahead, BBC News Online asks SpaceShipOne's Burt Rutan to explain his motivation and vision. Rutan was drawn to the dark side of the Moon One might think that a man who dreams of opening up space to the holidaymaking public would have had his imagination fired as a boy by science fiction novels. But Burt Rutan, 61, has only ever read one sci-fi book: Carl Sagan's Contact.

Land surrounding the Petrified Forest National Park is rich with ancient artifacts and fossils, but these irreplaceable treasures are threatened by looters, squatters and future development, say park officials, local landowners and others supporting legislation to expand the park's boundaries.

The ancient sanctuary unearthed on Friday in Bulgaria is probably one of the oldest temples in the world. In the words of Georgi Kitov, head of the archeological expedition, the temple dates back to the beginning of 5th century BC. Kitov also explained that on Saturday his expedition dug a corridor, which proved that the sanctuary has been set on fire. The archaeologists think that the corridor would take them to the inner part of the temple. The Thracian sanctuary was found in the same mound where the bronze head depicting a Thracian king, near the Shipka Peak, was revealed and where the excavations of the TEMP 2004 expedition had earlier unearthed the sensational gold mask.

MYSTIC, Conn. -- The Mashantucket Pequot tribe says workers building a house in Mystic have unearthed the remains of some 17th-century Pequots. Tribal members, including archaeologist Kevin McBride, were digging through piles of gravel Friday afternoon and depositing any possible artifacts into a bin for safe keeping. The tribe is keeping the site's whereabouts secret, fearing vandalism.

Al Goodyear is holding his breath in anticipation. Within days, the affable archaeologist expects to read the results of lab tests indicating that stone tools he recently found in South Carolina are 25,000 years old - or older. Such results would be explosive. They would imply that humans lived on this continent before the last ice age, far earlier than previously believed. Even if the dates came in younger than 25,000 years old, researchers say, the find would add to the mounting body of evidence that humans trod North and South America at least 2,000 years before the earliest-known inhabitants, known as the Clovis culture.

In July 2001 a unique inscribed tablet of stone mysteriously appeared in Israel. It was an archaeological marvel that seemed to solve one of the Bible's great riddles. Tested by some of Israel's top scientists, it revealed that in the heart of Jerusalem, 3,000 years ago, one of the legends of the ancient world had really existed - the magnificent temple of Solomon. But that was just the beginning, for there was another mystery hidden within the stone - one that would have shattering consequences around the world.

Management of a famous Taoist mountain in east China's Jiangxi Province has offered to pay 400,000 yuan (US$48,000) to anyone who can give a convincing explanation of how tombs were built on its steep cliffs more than 2,600 years ago. The cliff tombs, containing more than 200 ancient wooden coffins, are one of the three geological and cultural legacies of Longhu Mountain, or Tiger and Dragon Mountain, in Yingtan city of the central-eastern province. The other two wonders are its wide variety of landforms and rich Taoism culture.

A MAJOR archaeological rescue dig revealing the largest stone bridge in Roman Britain is nearing its end. Experts working on the summer excavation on the River Tyne, in Corbridge, have uncovered the most completely preserved construction of its type in the country. The dig, carried out by archaeologists from Tyne and Wear Museums, revealed huge stone blocks, up to a ton in weight, and carved masonry, showing the scale and decoration of the bridge. Backed by a £300,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and commissioned by English Heritage, the excavation has enabled locals to get involved and help in the project.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The big crane scooped out a soggy helping of muck from the bottom of Lynnhaven Inlet, then dumped it onto a barge. Nothing. Just sand. Then another scoop. More sand. It looked like a typical dredging operation Wednesday morning - an unremarkable start for an intriguing effort. The goal is to raise the remains of a mysterious shipwreck, perhaps 250 years old. Slowly, the scoops started to change. A hunk of wood came up. Then a ballast stone. By Thursday morning, the gunky debris took up one-third of the 100-foot barge. The mystery was slowly revealing itself. Keith B. Lockwood scrambled over the piles, happily pulling out artifacts.

A long lost pillar from Coventry's Benedictine Priory Cathedral - demolished on the orders of King Henry Vlll - has been uncovered after 460 years. The precise location of the Norman pillar, or pier, had been guessed at by archaeologists working on excavations ahead of the multi-million pound Phoenix Initiative. But city conservation chief George Demidowicz was resigned to the fact there was no way of ever seeing more of the remains of the great support structures because they lay beneath the foundations of the eighteenth century buildings in Priory Row. He said: "I knew where the eighth pier in Coventry's Benedictine Cathedral had to be but never suspected I would be able to see it because of the listed Georgian houses built on top.

Top north-east visitor attraction will recreate a Bronze Age funeral this weekend, cremating the body of a pig in a bizarre but significant Scottish Archaeology Month experiment. Saturday will see staff at the Archaeolink prehistory park at Oyne teaming up with colleagues from the National Museums of Scotland to stage an inferno investigation. The 11am-5pm event will see the experts create an ancient cremation pyre, then set it ablaze to find the effect of heat on objects from clothing and jewellery to offerings.

DIGGING up clues to the past has unearthed a medieval mystery in the latest excavation to take place within Bamburgh Castle. For two weeks the Bamburgh Research Project has been excavating the medieval Chapel of St Peter and has turned up an intriguing find. Along with the expected Anglo Saxon pottery pieces, the archaeologists also found a diagonal wall which strangely cut the 7th century chapel in two. Phil Wood, a project director, said: "It has always been known from books that one end of the chapel is medieval and the rest was built up like a folly in the late 18th or early 19th century. "So we presumed there would be medieval walls under some of the other walls but what we have found is a wall that chops the chapel in half.

A DANISH archaeology expedition has called for the restoration of the A'ali burial mounds to make them one of the Kingdom's major historical tourism attractions. The expedition, which arrived yesterday headed by Moesgard Museum curator Dr Flemming Hojlund, is making preparations for further excavation work at the A'ali burial mounds in co-operation with the Information Ministry. "The burial mounds have been excavated before but there is still much history that still remains to be learnt," Dr Hojlund told the GDN. A'ali village features the oldest and largest burial mounds in Bahrain, referred to as the Royal Tombs, dating back to the third century BC and measuring up to 15 metres in height and 25 metres in diameter.

A bronze head of a Thracian ruler was discovered by Bulgarian archeologists near the city of Shipka. The great discovery was unearthed Tuesday evening by the team of the archaeologist Georgi Kitov. At first it was reported that the head might be of a bronze Zeus statue, but that information was later refuted. The bronze head is the second major finding of the TEMP 2004 expedition. It was found under a stone in highland mound near the city of Shipka, just a few meters away from the place where another Thracian treasure was unearthed in August.

Mummy hair has revealed the first direct evidence of alcohol consumption in ancient populations, according to new forensic research. The study, still in its preliminary stage, examined hair samples from spontaneously mummified remains discovered in one of the most arid regions of the world, the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru. The research was presented at the 5th World Congress on Mummy Studies in Turin, Italy, this month.

On a quiet strip of Loyalhanna Creek in Westmoreland County, long before millionaires built weekend retreats nearby, American Indians knelt to chip spear points from stones. They gathered freshwater mussels in the shallows and roasted elk in fire pits. For 8,000 years, Indians fished, hunted, cooked and sewed. They lived and died here. Within the past 400 years they vanished altogether, leaving behind little but broken pots, stone tools and ashes. Today, the spot where their village stood is nondescript, another field of wildflowers.

A ring worn by worshippers faithful to an ancient Celtic god during the Roman occupation of Lincolnshire has been found. The second century finger ring is just the latest of around 20 silver rings found over the past year with the letters TOT inscribed in them. It is thought that the letters represent the Celtic war god Toutatis and might have been worn to show membership of a tribal cult dedicated to him. Toutatis is often invoked by characters in the French cartoon series Asterix - where tribesmen battle oppressive Roman forces.

The one-day conference organized last week by the Ephorate of Marine Antiquities, in cooperation with the Hellenic Center of Marine Research, proved to be extremely challenging as well as interesting, as it discussed the use of new technologies in marine archaeological research. Among the guests, including mostly scientists and representatives from a variety of international foundations and institutions, was Dr Robert Ballard, the scientist who investigated the sinking of the Titanic. The acclaimed scientist had an interesting suggestion to make to Greek authorities: that there be a long-term program, with the cooperation of archaeologists and oceanographers, to explore the ancient trade routes of the Aegean, especially those around Crete.

Thanh Hoa, Sept. 22 (VNA) - A giant ancient ink slab, which can be mistaken for a royal wash-basin, has been found in central Thanh Hoa province. The slab, the largest seen so far, is carved out a single monolithic ash-grey stone in the shape of a peach and is 51cm high and 95cm wide in diameter at its widest point. On the surface are three peach-shaped hollows with a big one in the centre, 33 cm deep, and two smaller holes, each of which has a diameter of 18 cm and an inside depth of 10cm. There is no decoration on the stone slab, which has a three-legged pedestal. Archaeologist Pham Tan in Thanh Hoa province said this slab dated back to the Le Trung Hung dynasty (the 16th-17th centuries) and would have been used as a symbol at big examinations held in Van Lai-Thien Truong capital during the fighting between the Le and Mac dynasties.

Bulgarian archaeologists unearthed on Tuesday a new treasure - a bronze head believed to be that of Zeus. BTA news agency sited archaeologist Georgi Kitov, head of the TEMP 2004 expedition, as saying that the bronze head was disclosed Tuesday evening. The head was found under a stone in highland mound near the city of Shipka, just a few meters away from the place where another Thracian treasure was found. A gold mask, weighting half a kilo and made of pure gold, alongside a ring, were discovered in August by Kitov's team. The unique mask is believed to have belonged to the first recorded Odrissi triber's ruler Teres.

The world's oceans are now so saturated with noise that whales and other marine mammals are dying, biologists say. The UK's Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society is launching a campaign, Oceans of Noise, to tackle what it says is the increasing problem of noise pollution. It says key sources of undersea noise are the search for oil and gas, and the use of low-frequency military sonars.

Scientists hope that "playing" a tiny guitar string, the smallest ever created, will help unravel some of the secrets of the molecular world. The string, developed at Cornell University, US, is only 10 atoms across, a million times smaller than a normal guitar string. It is made from a carbon nanotube, formed from a sheet of carbon one atom thick and rolled into a cylinder.

NASIRIYA, Iraq: In the southern Iraq desert, the standing structures of ancient archaeological cities dot the horizon - majestic monuments to times long gone. Untouched for thousands of years, historic temples, palaces, tombs and entire dead cities are the sole witness of the passing of time. Properly excavated, these cities could reveal valuable knowledge on the development of the human race and resolve the big mysteries of history. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen. The Sumerian cities have been destroyed, ravaged by the incessant looting that started with the American invasion of Iraq. Once considered historical treasures, today crater-filled landscapes compete for space with hills of shredded pottery and broken bricks.

DILMUN was located on the crossroads of the trading routes between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia. Based on Mesopotamian inscriptions and successive archaeological excavations, it was a major link between these early civilisations. According to Mesopotamian records, particularly the Gilgamesh epic, Dilmun was regarded as a Holy Land and played a significant role in the history of the ancient world. Archaeology veteran Geoffrey Bibby, who was co-head of the Moesgaard Museum expedition from Denmark, started activities in Bahrain on December 4, 1953. However, following a almost a year of surveying, excavation work by the team only started in 1954.

Incan pilgrims smashed and burned their own temple, and a tower containing a golden statue of a king, rather than letting them fall into Spanish hands, says an Australian archaeologist. Ian Farrington from Canberra's Australian National University is excavating the temple site in Peru with Professor Julinho Zapata from the National University de San Antonio Abad del Cusco. The site, called Pambokancha, is 30 kilometres from the Incan capital of Cusco. The site had religious significance, and local villagers still use the hill behind it to celebrate the festival of Santa Barbara on 4 December, the same date used from Incan times.