Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Note: Either our network connection or Blogger's end is being uppity today so it takes about 30 minutes of watching the browser grind away at a post, so we will probably not do any more updates today.

Unless something really REALLY cool happens.

UPDATE: Okay, we lied about not posting. All Web services seem to be functioning nominally. Here's a couple more items.

Biblical Archaeology update II Archeologist unearths biblical controversy

Canadian archeologist Russell Adams's interest is in Bronze Age and Iron Age copper production. He never intended to walk into archeology's vicious debate over the historical accuracy of the Old Testament -- a conflict likened by one historian to a pack of feral canines at each other's throats.

Yet by coincidence, Prof. Adams of Hamilton's McMaster University says, he and an international team of colleagues fit into place a significant piece of the puzzle of human history in the Middle East -- unearthing information that points to the existence of the Bible's vilified Kingdom of Edom at precisely the time the Bible says it existed, and contradicting widespread academic belief that it did not come into being until 200 years later.


Seems like a pretty good article, neatly putting everything in archaeological and political context.

Now there's an informative headline Scientists Find Ancient Remains in Mexico

Scientists on Tuesday announced the discovery of the remains of 10 people, one dating back to 1,300 B.C., providing evidence of prehispanic cultures in Mexico City's sprawling Chapultepec Park.

The scientists said at a news conference that they uncovered eight bodies last year near the park's Chapultepec Castle. Two other bodies were discovered in separate places, one in 2000 and the other a few weeks ago, in the park's forest. It was unclear how they died.

Archaeologist Guadalupe Espinosa said the discoveries were part of a project sponsored by the National Museum of History/Chapultepec Castle that has been investigating prehispanic cultures in the park.


That's the whole thing.

7,000-year-old Village found in Ningbo

The Ningbo Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology announced this month that, after a 4-month excavation of 725 square meters, they have confirmed the discovery of a 7,000-year-old village of the early Hemudu culture.

The site is at Fujiashan in the Jiangbei District of Ningbo City, in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

According to a specialist from the institute, the site is one of the largest-scale, highest-yield and best-preserved sites in the province after the Hemudu site itself.

The relics excavated showed it to be a Neolithic site in the early stage of Hemudu culture, which involved cultivation, fishing, hunting and gathering.


Antiquities Market update Antiquities smugglers behind bars

POLICE seized several illegally excavated ancients works of art and arrested five Greeks suspected of trafficking in antiquities, authorities said on January 17.

During an undercover operation in northern Greece, in which officers posed as buyers, police confiscated nine artifacts, including two small brass statues depicting the Greek gods Apollo and Aphrodite and a clay statue of Athena, the ancient goddess of wisdom, dating from the fourth century BC.


Short article, but hey, one win for the good guys.