Friday, November 05, 2004

Following news courtesy of the EEF.

A tomb, from the Ptolemaic Era, containing six complete mummies and two limestone sarcophagi has been unearthed in the Al-Deir area in the Kharga Oasis:
http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html11/o311024m.htm

Reginald Magee. "Arterial disease in antiquity", Medical Journal of Australia 1998; 169: 663-666. Online in HTML.
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/xmas98/magee/magee.html: Aortic calcification in Egyptian mummies and a description of aneurysm in the Papyrus Ebers.

Online version of: G. Maspero, Le Musée de Boulaq et le Musée de Gizéh, in: La Nature. Revue des sciences et leurs applications aux arts et à l'industrie, vol. 18, sem. 2, pp. 199-202 (1890) - beginning at:
URL: http://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/sresrech.cgi?4KY28.35/0203

Online version of: Jean François Champollion, Systèmes des Égyptiens sur l'immortalité de l'âme et sur les récompenses et les peines de l'autre vie, in: Annales de philosophie chrétienne, vol. 5, pp. 261-266 (1832) - "Extraits des lettres écrites par M. Champollion, pendant son voyage en Egypte."
URL: http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?Destination=Gallica&O=NUMM-204474

Updated web pages on fieldwork at Kom Firin in the Western Delta: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/aes/excavations/firin1.html

End of EEF news.

Archaeology station of remote monitoring launched in Yunnan

China will launch its 11th provincial archaeology station of remote monitoring in southwestern Yunnan province to support the research and protection of the area's natural heritage.

The station has been jointly established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education, and State Cultural Relics Bureau.

Established in 2001, archaeology laboratories for remote monitoring have also been placed in cities and provinces such as Tianjin, Shaanxi, Sichuan, where are rich in historical culture and natural heritage.


That's the whole thing.

Scientific treasure hunters

REAL archaeology bears about as much resemblance to an Indiana Jones movie as real spying bears to James Bond. Excavation—at least if it is to be meaningfully different from grave robbing—is a matter of painstaking trowel work, not gung-ho gold-grabbing. But there is still a glimmer of the grave robber in many archaeologists, and the search for a juicy royal tomb can stimulate more than just rational, scientific instincts.


We admit that this paragraph is highly accurate. Ed.

Few tombs would be juicier than that of Lars Porsena, an Etruscan king who ruled in central Italy around 500BC. Porsena's tomb has been sought for centuries in the rubble under the Tuscan city of Chiusi, which is believed by most authorities to stand on the site of Porsena's capital, Clusium. No sign of it, however, has ever been found. And that, according to Giuseppe Centauro, of the University of Florence, is because everybody is looking in the wrong place.


More bodies in Texas More graves found under county parking lot

t least 30 graves have been discovered after construction workers digging a trench unearthed the city's first cemetery.

"I didn't think there would be this many," archaeologist John Keller said in Thursday editions of The Brownsville Herald.

The Cameron County-owned lot was dug up Sept. 24 by construction workers building a trench for utility lines. Initially, up to four graves were thought to be have been disturbed.


Myanmar Begins Retrieving Cultural Treasures Buried Under Riverbeds

Myanmar plans to next year begin retrieving cultural treasures that have been buried under riverbeds for centuries, a local cultural journal reported Wednesday.

Foreign experts will train people from Myanmar's archaeology and water resources departments in underwater archaeology skills next year, and the hunt should start soon after, Flower News said.