Arkansas: Archeology Day at Petit Jean State Park is March 17

From Russellville Today: Archeology Day at Petit Jean State Park is March 17 Arkansas Archeology Month 2012, cosponsored by the Arkansas Archeological Survey and the Arkansas Archeological Society, is celebrated in March with a variety of programs, exhibits, activities and tours at parks, museums, universities, libraries and elsewhere. This year’s theme is Archeology of Communities.

The rich archeological heritage of Petit Jean State Park and the surrounding area will be explored on Saturday, March 17 with a variety of free programs for park visitors. In the morning, tours of the park’s primary archeology site, Rock House Cave, will be offered, which will include the viewing of ancient Native American rock art. Afternoon programming will include “Art and Community at Carden Bottoms”, a 2:00 pm presentation in the Rec Hall by Leslie Walker of the University of Arkansas Anthropology Department. Walker will discuss recent research near Petit Jean Mountain in which houses and trash pits have been unearthed, with resulting artifacts that can help us explore the role that art plays in everyday life, community, spirituality and social interaction. Visitors will also be given a rare opportunity to view Native American stone tool artifacts from Petit Jean State Park’s collection.

The event’s programs will conclude in the Rec Hall at 7:00 pm with “The Rock Art of Petit Jean State Park”, a presentation by Park Interpreter B.T. Jones. This talk will explore the possible history and meanings of the Native American art which adorns the cliffs and bluff shelters of the park.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the park at petitjean@arkansas.com or by phone at (501) 727-5441.

Aussie expert on races will examine skulls

From the Times of India: Aussie expert on races will examine skulls HUBLI: The state archeology department (SAD) is seeking the opinion of a physio-anthropologist working in Australia on the mysterious skulls, found in Annigeri in August 2010. There have been conflicting reports regarding the history of the skulls. While a C-14 carbon dating test by Beta Anyalitic Inc, Miami, USA, claims that the skulls are 180 years old, the Bhubaneswar Lab test says they are about 638 years old.

The SAD has now decided to take the opinion of prof Raghavan of physio-anthropology department of Australia, who is an expert in the studies of Asian race.Speaking to TOI, R Gopal, director of the state archaeology department said, ''Raghavan is expected to visit Chennai next month. We will give him the C-14 carbon dating test reports and get the preliminary report from him. Then he may visit Annigeri to give his final opinion, he said.Around 600 skulls were discovered in Annigeri. The department of forensic odontology, in association with the department of oral pathology and oral and maxillofacial surgery, SDM, Dharwad, which examined 31 skulls said two skulls belonged to children and the rest of them belonged to men and women aged between 40 and 50 years.

India: Officials use tech to hunt treasure

From the Deccan Chronicle: Officials use tech to hunt treasure The state archaeology department along with central agencies have intensified their efforts to discover the treasure suspected to be buried on a hillock beneath the Vidyaranya School. Geophysical experts found several anomalies at the spot indicated while conducting resistivity and magnetic tests, but decided to go ahead anyway.

Coal India manager D. Sitarama Raju, who led the team that claims to have seen evidence of the treasure’s location, said, “Our team consists of more than seven persons, some of whom actually saw the gate of the trove by climbing down into the cave. Initially these workers were shy of coming forward, but now they have come forward and shown the exact spot where they got into the tunnel. It is covered with earth. They are ready to dig and unearth it. However, as NMDC officials are carrying out scientific tests, we have left it to them.”

Mr Raju explained how he got involved in the treasure hunt. “I sneaked into the school pretending to be a parent when a scribe from a vernacular daily informed me of the find. The scribe, Tirupati, was informed by the workers who saw it three years ago. I saw it a year ago. There is a concrete door,” he says. The state archaeology department on Wednesday wrote to the National Remote Sensing Agency at Balanagar to provide satellite pictures of the spot. It also approached the State Archives for old photographs and the Survey of India for topographical sheets and maps.

Discovering the Jerusalem from the time of Jesus

From the Jerusalem Post: Discovering the Jerusalem from the time of Jesus
What did Jerusalem look like in Jesus' days? For most of Christian history, this question remained shrouded in mystery.

When the Temple and city were destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D., the ruins remained buried for nearly two millennia - even after the Jewish People began to return to the Land of Israel at the end of the nineteenth century. During the war of Independence (1948), the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was largely destroyed by the Jordanians and it remained off limits to Jews for 19 years, until Israel retook the Old City during the Six Day War (1967).

After the Six Day War, during the renovation of the Jewish Quarter (1967-82), the ancient site was uncovered, revealing spectacular finds: a luxurious Second Temple period residential quarter in the Upper City of Jerusalem. Because of its grandeur and opulence, it was renamed the Herodian Quarter, also known today as the Wohl Museum of Archeology.

In the days when Jesus came up to Jerusalem every year to celebrate the Jewish festivals, the wealthy aristocratic and priestly families lived in the magnificent houses of the Herodian Quarter. It is easy to see why this area, built on a hillside overlooking the nearby Temple Mount, would have been particularly attractive to priests who ministered in the Temple every day.

Today, this is the largest and most important site from Second Temple times that can still be seen in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter. Perhaps even some of the priests and Sadducees whom the Gospels recall as disputing with Jesus, lived in these houses.

Descending three meters below the present ground level, we go back 2,000 years in time, to the upper city of Jerusalem in the Herodian period.

The archeological remains of the cellars of six luxurious homes - probably then two stories in height - provide a vivid picture of the inhabitants' wealth. Numerous storage rooms, reservoirs, bathhouses and ritual baths, ovens, colorful mosaics, frescoes, elegant household items and other decorative adornments led archaeologists to conclude that the residents enjoyed a very high standard of living.

One unique find is the seven-branched menorah (candelabra) carved on one of the walls. This is the oldest explicit depiction of the menorah, and it was probably carved by a person who had actually seen the original menorah, still at use at that time in the Temple.

Throughout the museum there are displays of terra cotta tableware, imported amphorae for wine and delicate flasks. The presence of several ritual baths and many stone vessels are an indication that the residents were priests who strictly adhered to the Jewish laws of ritual purity, because stone vessels were not subjected to ritual impurity.

Comparative pictures in the museum show how the site developed over the years, with illustrations of the Jewish Quarter in the 1940s (before it was destroyed in the War of Independence), during the excavations in the 1970s, and the rebuilt Jewish Quarter in the 1990s.

On the eastern side of the site, we arrive at a row of columns that belonged to a "peristyle" - a colonnade surrounding an open court - which formed part of an especially fine mansion. The Peristyle Building testifies to the wealth of the neighborhood and to how the inhabitants designed their homes meticulously in the Greco-Roman style that was popular in those times. From here the residents would have had a splendid view of the Temple esplanade where Jesus spent much of his time when he was in Jerusalem.

A little further down, there is a beautiful mosaic floor found in the reception hall of another elegant Jewish residence. Then, we come to the "palatial mansion", the largest and most splendid of the houses uncovered on the site, probably inhabited by one of the families of the High Priest.

As one nears the end of the tour, a burnt room provides a glimpse of the tragic and violent end of the neighborhood and its inhabitants: The charred wooden beams that collapsed from the ceiling and the burnt mosaic stones testify to the great fire that raged in the city and to the destruction wrought by the Romans -the last moments of Jerusalem in its glory.

The Wohl Museum is situated just off the main square in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Guided tours and private tours are available, as well as MP3 recorded tours. For reservations, call 02-626-5922 or visit http://www.jewish-quarter.org.il/

Treasure hunt gathers steam

From IBN.com: Treasure hunt gathers steam
HYDERABAD: There was a sense of anticipation in the air at the Vidyaranya High School as was an ample dose of cynicism. On Sunday, as a team of over 10 workers set about excavating the foothill Naubat Pahad (Birla Mandir Hill) in the school compound, a debate of sorts was on among archeological officials and P Anuradha Reddy, INTACH Hyderabad convenor and one of the descendants of the Wanaparthi Samsthan. “Is there a treasure hidden here? It is like asking whether God exists,” Anuradha Reddy said in a lighter vien. But Prof P Chenna Reddy, Director of Archeology and State Treasure Trove Officer, appeared confident.

“We want to dig up to 20 ft initially. We are confident of finding treasures here,” he said, adding that he hoped to finish the work by Tuesday morning when the school reopens. Anuradha, who is also the niece of the last ruler of Wanaparthi Raja Rameshwar Rao-III, reminisced that she had grown up at the very site where the excavation is going on now. It was her family home at the time, she recalled and asserted that no construction had taken place at this site as far as she knew.

“There was no construction here and so, the question of a bunker or a tunnel doesn’t arise. It is hard to believe that somebody has been through a tunnel under the hill to a bunker full of treasure!,” she commented. She also sounded skeptical about the information that two workers working in the nearby hotel had seen the tunnel and an almirah too three years ago.

“If somebody had found it three years ago, why have they approached the archeology department now all of a sudden?” she wondered and posed a pertinent question. “If someone is claiming to have seen a tunnel on the other side, why is the archeology department digging up dirt in the school compound?” Prof Chenna Reddy, on his part, remained tight-lipped and carefully weighed in his words.

He did confirm that they had received petitions from nine prominent citizens about a hidden treasure near the Birla Mandir Hill but refused to divulge their names. The workers first dug up at one place and later, stopped and started afresh at another place. They stopped there too and waited for a crane which was brought later in the afternoon. They then went ahead with the excavation but didn’t stumble upon any hidden treasure till late in the evening.

They might work throughout the night too since Chenna Reddy wants to wind it up by Tuesday morning. According to officials, the soil dug up from the spot did not match the soil on the hill which means that contrary to what Anuradha says, some construction work might have taken place there at some time or the other.

“The dug out soil is ‘fresh filled’?, I do not understand,” Anuradha replied when asked about this.

According to her, the archeology department has informed her that some workers who were doing some construction work at the nearby Amritha Castle had found steps leading to an underground tunnel and when they got into it, they found an iron gate with possible treasures. In the past, there have been some treasure hunts in the city notably near the Home Science College in Saifabad and the Mint Compound, but no treasure was found. Anuradha Reddy said those were bunkers built by the Nizam to safeguard his people and wealth during the second World War. The bunkers were well constructed and some even had a/c rooms.

Biblical Archaeology, Jan/Feb 2012, Vol 38 No 1

This magazine features articles written by archaeologists trying to prove that the events in the Bible were real (and that such events also prove the existence of God.) As an atheist, I believe that the folks mentioned in the Bible might be real, but that that proves nothing. After all, Mohammed was real, but do Christians really believe Allah spoke to him? Similarly, Joseph Smith was real, but does anyone except Mormons actually believe he was stone cold sober when an angel spoke to him out of a burning bush? What's fascinating - to most atheists interested in religious history - is how religion has always been used to control and influence the behavior of the masses.

Table of Contents
Departments
-First Person: In praise of published excavation reports
-Queries and comments
-Strata:
--How ancient Jews dated years
--The Magi Gifts-Tribute or TReatment
--Philip's Tomb Discovered-But not where it expected
--Reminder: $5,000 in prizes or ASOR/SBL Papers
-Just For Fun
--How many
--The Bible in the News
--What is It?
--In their own words
--In History
--Exhibit Watch
--Cartoon Caption Contest
-Biblical Views: The Many Faces of the good Samaritan - Most wrong
-Archarological Views: Digging a Hole and Telling a Tale
-Reviews
-Authors
-Worldwide

Features
-Join a dig, see the world
-Layers of Ancient Jerusaleum
-Inn of the Good Samaritan becomes a museum
-When Did Ancient Israel Begin

Tovsta Mohyla site is grown over with weeds…

From the Kiev Weekly Digest: Tovsta Mohyla site is grown over with weeds… Dnipropetrovsk civic activists intend to demand that the authorities erect a monument to outstanding Ukrainian archeologist Borys Mozolevsky in the city. His expedition made a fantastic find when excavating Tovsta Mohyla mound four decades ago, this find being the Scythian gold pectoral which had brought great fame to Ukraine worldwide. “The Ukrainian scholar is commonly compared to British Egyptologist Howard Carter who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Two-thirds of the exhibits in the State Museum of Historical Treasures are Mozolevsky’s finds. We want to get the monument to him erected at some street in the center of Dnipropetrovsk. After all, this outstanding person made most of his finds in Dnipropetrovsk region,” head of the Orthodox Christian Brotherhood NGO Andrii Tuiakov said at the press conference. The activists are alarmed by the fact that the memorial sign at the site of Mozolevsky’s expedition base camp disappeared without warning at the end of 2011.

Director of Nikopol Local History Museum Oleksandr Kushniruk clarified the memorial sign issue in his commentaries for The Day. It turns out that the sign had to be removed due to the sad circumstances of our commercialized epoch. “We have moved the sign, a five-ton granite stele to Nikopol. The thing is, the tourist center that had served as Mozolevsky’s expedition base camp for years has been privatized, and they are reconstructing the site. Therefore, we decided to remove the memorial sign for the sake of preservation and re-install it outside our museum. It will stand there side-by-side with the stone figures that were collected by the archeologists,” the director explained. Director of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Center for Cultural Heritage Protection Lidia Holubchyk thinks that the situation with Mozolevsky’s memorial sign should not be overdramatized. “The sign did not have the status of historical monument.

The law prescribes that such status may be assigned only to historical event sites and highly artistic works. The sign in question is just a granite slab with text on it that Mozolevsky’s admirers erected at the campsite of expeditions that belonged to the Institute of Archeology of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’s Academy of Sciences,” she said. According to Holubchyk, the trailer camp existed at the Ordzhonikidze ore mining and processing concern’s tourist center’s premises for many years. The archeologists lived there during Mozolevsky’s tenure as well as under Polin’s leadership later on. “However,” Holubchyk said, “we had come to the point when the need for land certificate arose, because the campsite had been allocated to the archeologists informally.

Therefore, we had to address the issue of transferring the memorial sign and stone figures which the archeologists had kept in the camp since Mozolevsky’s time.” The exact destination of these relics was not immediately clear, as there were proposals to remove them to Yavornytsky Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum as well as to the Nikopol Local History Museum. The latter’s management offered to “re-home” the memorial sign and Scythian stone figures. “The granite block has been moved by crane and will be installed in Nikopol as soon as the weather warms up,” Holubchyk said. She added that the Nikopol museum staff members are very careful with monuments of national culture.

For now, however, Tovsta Mohyla, the site of the golden pectoral find, is grown over with shrubs, trees, and weeds.

Museum exhibit features lives, work of noted archaeologists from North Newton

From Bethel News: Museum exhibit features lives, work of noted archaeologists from North Newton
NORTH NEWTON, KAN. – The next special exhibition at Kauffman Museum on the Bethel College campus will celebrate two eminent archeologists who grew up in North Newton.

Emil W. Haury (1904-92), nicknamed “the dean of Southwest archeology,” and Waldo R. Wedel (1908-96), “the father of Great Plains archeology,” both traced their interest in prehistory to boyhood experiences along Sand Creek in North Newton – experiences that led them to lifelong careers as professional archeologists with international reputations.

Kauffman Museum will celebrate the two men’s archeological legacies with a special exhibition entitled “In the fields of time: The impact of two Kansas boys on American archeology,” beginning Sunday, Feb. 26.

That afternoon, Timothy Weston will present the first of three lectures centered around Haury and Wedel, as part of the museum’s periodic Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum series. His topic is “Waldo Wedel’s Kansas Sites, Then and Now.”

The program begins at 3:30 p.m. in the museum auditorium and is free and open to the public.

Weston is the historic preservation archeologist in the Cultural Resources Division of the Kansas Historical Society. “One could speak for a very long time about Waldo Wedel’s career,” he said, “but the approach I will choose is to focus on some of the Kansas archeological sites at which he worked, as they were in his time and as they are now.

“I will also address his legacy in Kansas archeology,” Weston continued, “not only in professional contributions that are foundational to current archeology, but also in a long-standing history of good relations between professional archeologists, landowners, avocational archeologists and the general public.”

Waldo R. Wedel grew up as a Bethel campus kid. His father, P.J. Wedel taught physical sciences and served as college registrar. Waldo spent two years at Bethel College before transferring to the University of Arizona where he completed his bachelor’s degree in archeology.

But Wedel returned to the Great Plains to study for his master’s degree at the University of Nebraska and for employment in 1936 after his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was their first anthropologist to complete a dissertation on archeology.

Before the 1930s little professional archeological work had been done in Kansas. Although not much was known about the ancient peoples of the prairie, Wedel was determined to survey the archeology of his native Kansas.

In 1937, Wedel excavated an old Kansa village site along the Missouri River bluffs above Kansas City. Although his work led him to other states, he continued the survey in Riley, Scott, Lane, Rice and Cowley counties. Between 1940 and 1967, Wedel studied five village sites in Rice and McPherson counties, focusing on the remains of what local historians called “council circles.” Wedel proposed that these structure-ditch complexes were unique to the Great Plains and that their orientation suggested a function of recording the solstice sunrise.

Wedel is well known for leading salvage archeology in the Missouri River Basin and for defining the Great Bend Aspect people of central Kansas. He spent his career with the Smithsonian Institution, guiding research and collections.

“In the fields of time” will be on display Feb. 26 through May 20 at Kauffman Museum. The additional Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum programs will focus on Emil Haury and on the 2009 Sand Creek Archeology Survey.

On Sunday, March 11, Raymond H. Thompson, director emeritus of the Arizona State Museum, will speak on “Remembering Emil Haury: The Man and His Legacy.” Prior to Thompson’s lecture, the Mud Creek Chapter of the Kansas Anthropological Association will host an artifact identification workshop during which avocational and professional archeologists will provide assistance in identifying and dating Native American artifacts or early historical items that visitors bring.

On Sunday, April 15, David T. Hughes from Wichita State University will present “Sand Creek: Prehistoric Archaeology, Small Towns and Big Effects.”

The Feb. 26 program with Timothy Weston serves as the grand opening of the new special exhibition. “In the fields of time” and the Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum lectures are supported by a grant from the Kansas Humanities Council, a nonprofit cultural organization promoting understanding of the history, traditions and ideas that shape our lives and build community.

Regular Kauffman Museum hours are 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, and 1:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission to the museum, which also includes admission to the special exhibit “In the Fields of Time,” as well as the permanent exhibits “Of Land and People,” “Mirror of the Martyrs” and “Mennonite Immigrant Furniture,” is $4 for adults, $2 for children ages 6-16, and free to Kauffman Museum members and children under 6. For more information, call the museum at 316-283-1612 or visit its website, www.bethelks.edu/kauffman/.

Bulgarian Archeology 2011 Exhibit Launched in Sofia

From Novinite: Bulgarian Archeology 2011 Exhibit Launched in Sofia The fifth edition of the exhibit Bulgarian Archeology 2011 dedicated to the last year archeology season in the country was opened at the National Archeology Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BAS.

The exhibit includes the most significant sites and finds from all over the country for 2011.

332 items are on display, coming from a total of 305 researched sites and include all periods – from the early Paleolithic to the late Renaissance.

Some of the most interesting objects include the coin treasure of the Urvich Fortress of Tsar Ivan Alexander and from excavations in Sozopol, the Neolithic treasure near Yabalkovo, Haskovo, the settlement mound "Yunatsite" near Pazardjik, the find in the region of Svishtov with gold ornaments and jewelry and bronze tools, and the gold mining pit "Ada Tepe" near Krumovgrad.

Burial grounds and mounds from the Sliven region, the necropolis from Roman times near Borisovo, Elhovo, exhibits from excavations in downtown Sofia, medieval frescoes of the church "St. Peter and Paul" in Veliko Tarnovo from the first half of 15th century are also presented along with results from the ongoing digs at the ancient Bulgarian capitals of Veliko Tarnovo, Pliska and Preslav.

The archeologists at the press conference for the opening reminded that in 2011 they have studied the 420-km-long route of the future Nabucco gas pipeline where they have found 130 archeological sites from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, and are waiting for financing to continue.

They reiterated complaints of difficulties in their work, created by the Road Infrastructure Agency, pointing out they cannot change the location of the finds, just let the authorities know what sites they have discovered in a certain area.

Student archeologists help restore Chase museum after fires in 2011

Kamloops, BC, Canada
From Kamloops Daily News: Student archeologists help restore Chase museum after fires in 2011
The slow and steady process of cleaning soot-covered artefacts from the Chase museum fires begins in earnest this weekend with the help of 15 Simon Fraser University students.

The Daily News reported last month that Barbara Winter, a professor with SFU’s Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, and a group of her students would spend a weekend helping museum staff and volunteers however they could.

Winters and her students arrive in the Interior on Friday and will work Saturday and Sunday under the guidance of museum archivist Theresa Scott, she said Monday.

“The students are very, very keen,” said Scott. “They’ve said things like ‘It is my duty to help.’ It’s quite remarkable.”

With restoration of the archives almost complete, the students will be tasked with cleaning artefacts. Scott said a conservator from the Kelowna museum will be on site to instruct the students on the proper ways of cleaning the stone, glass, wood and textile items.

“I know that you use a variety of things such as sponges, soap and stuff. I don’t know what you use on individual items,” she said.

After the students leave, the hope is Scott and her staff will be proficient enough to teach volunteers how to continue the work, she said.

The restoration is going very well. Scott said Chase can get a little sleepy during the winter months, so there’s been no shortage of people wanting to help.

Winter offered her students’ services as soon as she learned of the fires last summer. The museum was severely damaged during two separate blazes last July.

Arson is believed to be behind both fires. Anyone with information is asked to contact Chase RCMP at 250-679-3221 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

The Chase museum is housed in an old church on Shuswap Avenue. Among the artefacts in the museum are archeological materials held in trust for the Little Shuswap Indian Band and archival files

National World War II Museum expansion enters Delord Sarpy House turf

From Nola.com: National World War II Museum expansion enters Delord Sarpy House turf Reminders of New Orleans' distant and not-so-distant past have been unearthed during excavations for the newest addition to the National World War II Museum complex in the Warehouse District. On the site where the Campaigns Pavilion will rise, archaeologists are carefully digging around the foundation of the Delord Sarpy House, which was erected about two centuries ago near Camp Street and what is now called Andrew Higgins Drive.

The plantation-style house, a two-story structure with a hipped roof, square columns, dormer windows and wide, shady galleries, became the city's oldest building on the Uptown side of Canal Street. It stood until 1957, when, despite a campaign to save it, the house was demolished to make way for an exit ramp of the bridge now known as the Crescent City Connection.

During the past two weeks, a team from Earth Search Inc., a Bywater-based archaeological and historic-preservation company, has filled hundreds of bags with such items as bottles, seeds, a small porcelain doll, a set of dentures, a glass basket and a size-6 woman's shoe with a sunburst cut into the black leather, said Mike Godzinski, an archaeologist with the firm.

The Earth Search crew, armed with shovels, whisk brooms and other tools, was there because federal law requires such work for a project in a historic district that gets federal money, said Bob Farnsworth, the museum's senior vice president for capital projects.

"It's a great thing," he said. "We've certainly embraced it."

Working with a $145,000 contract, Earth Search has done similar digs for all the museum buildings, and artifacts that its professionals have found are on display. After the items from this undertaking are cleaned and cataloged, everything will be returned the museum so a representative sampling can join the exhibit, Farnsworth said.

On Friday morning, as traffic whizzed behind him, Godzinski stood in the middle of the dig area, next to a rectangular hole walled with bricks that had been the Delord Sarpy House's privy. Dorion Ray, an archaeological field technician, was at the bottom of that pit, carefully digging through the muck and handing up what he found.

One piece was a bottle, with a piece of newspaper wadded up inside. Other finds included a glass syringe, a baseball bat and a small jar of Jewsbury & Brown toothpaste, which was described on the top as an "Oriental toothpaste for cleansing, beautifying and preserving the teeth and gums."

"This place is chock full of stuff," Godzinski said. "The preservation's been pretty excellent."

As he walked around the site, Godzinski pointed out the remains of the cooking chimney and the stepped brick foundation for the cistern that provided water for the house.

The bricks were stepped, he said, so they could bear the weight of all that water.

The Earth Search team expects to be on the site two more weeks, Godzinski said. Construction of the $35 million building is scheduled to begin March 1 and end late next year, Farnsworth said.

The goal of the Earth Search team's work, he said, is to get a representative sampling of what's underground without doing what Godzinski calls "redundant digging."

"It's tough to decide" when to stop, Godzinski said. "and it's tough not to take all of it."

The house, whose borders are indicated by flagstones, is named for the man who built it: Delord Sarpy, one of five brothers who came to the United States from France.

When the area that would become New Orleans' Central Business District was subdivided, Sarpy bought a tract and built a house facing the Mississippi River, with a long allée of oaks leading up to the entrance.

The street that ran alongside, now known as Andrew Higgins Drive, was named Delord Street.

The house was built on a grand scale, but it must have been an anomaly in an area that became increasingly crowded as the land was sold, houses were built and the character of the neighborhood changed from rural to residential to retail, Godzinski said.

No one is sure when it was last occupied. In 1938, the WPA guide to New Orleans recommended it to visitors but said the house had been boarded up for years.

In the mid-1950s, when plans for a bridge across the Mississippi River were being made, the Louisiana Landmarks Society and architects Samuel Wilson Jr. and Richard Koch became concerned about the building's fate because it was in the path of a down ramp from the span. Moving the house was out of the question because of its age, structural engineers said.

Wilson suggested moving the ramp so the house could be spared, but that idea went nowhere.

"If there had been more awareness of the importance of historic buildings, not only to our cultural heritage but to our economy, the building probably would have been saved because the ramp could have been changed to allow the building to stand," said Patricia Gay, the Preservation Resource Center's executive director.

The house came down in 1957. Two of its mantels are in the Pitot House, the Louisiana Landmarks Society's headquarters, on Bayou St. John.

Former advocate general inspects Naya Qila land

From the Times of India: Former advocate general inspects Naya Qila land HYDERABAD: As directed by the high court, former advocate general D V Sitaram Murthy, inspected the area around Mustafa Khan Mosque in Naya Qila on Saturday to determine whether it contains ancient graves.

The area had come under dispute as the Hyderabad Golf Association plans to develop a golf course there while the members of the civil society and the State Wakf Board claim that it should not be touched owing to the presence of an old graveyard.

The Saturday inspection followed two other surveys of the site that have been contested by the warring groups. The wakf board has contended that Muslim graves are there on the 28 acres of land around the Mosque but the Archeology Survey of India has reportedly said it found no signs of the graves.

The senior lawyer carried out the inspection in the presence of the district collector Hyderabad, ASI officials, HGA members and some representatives of the civil society. The advocate visited the sites that were being claimed by wakf as containing graves and also other areas. He however, kept his observations to himself giving indication that he would be submitting his report to the high court by February 13.

Monitoring panel identifies encroachments in Walled City

From the Times of India: Monitoring panel identifies encroachments in Walled City JAIPUR: The nine-member monitoring committee constituted by the high court to suggest ways to restore and conserve the Walled City's heritage, inspected the old city areas on Saturday.

The team, headed by Jaipur divisional commissioner Madhukar Gupta, included archeology and architecture experts as well as police officers and lawyers.

The committee was primarily constituted to keep the historical wall around the old Jaipur city free from encroachments. A petition pending before the high court alleges that the wall was being encroached upon through illegal constructions made on shops situated along it.

The team visited areas around the Ajmeri Gate, Sanganeri Gate, Ghat Gate, Galta Gate, RAC Lines and Zorawar Singh Gate. According to sources, the team checked some of the nearly 2,800 encroachments identified by a private group engaged for the purposes by the district administration. "We have to undertake more visits of these areas before submitting our report to the high court," said advocate Vimal Chaudhary, a member of the team.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Kumar Mishra and Justice Mahesh Bhagwati ordered for constitution of the committee on December 22, 2010, while hearing the petition moved by one Brij Mohan Jangid.

Te state government had issued a notification on September 16, 1968 and declared the old city's boundary wall a public monument. To protect it against being defaced, the government also banned construction around the wall. Subsequently, the Rajasthan High Court passed an order in 1995 and prohibited construction on the nearby shop-rooftops to preserve the 10-feet wide wall's heritage look.

In keeping with the spirit of the notification, which was issued under Section-3 (4) of the Rajasthan Monuments, Archeological Sites and Antiquities Act, 1961, the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (then a municipal council) framed building by-laws banning all kinds of constructions within 15-feet of the wall and its seven gates.

The mysteries surrounding the tomb of St. Paul

Rome Reports: The mysteries surrounding the tomb of St. Paul ebruary 5, 2012. (Romereports.com) Symbols of art, archeology and of course religion are all part of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Most recently there's been more attention on the tomb of St. Paul...and whether or not he's actually buried in it. The story goes back centuries of course, but just a few years ago, a new phase began. Fr. Prof Scott Brodeur S.I Pontifical Gregorian University “Archeologists found remains of human beings in there, through their scientific tests,they were able to determine that it went back to the first century.” Archeologists drilled a small hole into the sarcophagus. Through a series of carbon 14 tests, the sample revealed traces of elegant purple linen, laminated with pure gold. Most importantly, they also found tiny bone fragments. For years, St. Paul's original burial site was said to be the Basilica. But, eventually his remains were moved. Fr. Prof Scott Brodeur S.I Pontifical Gregorian University “His remains remained in that place for approximately two centuries, until the middle of the 3rd century, there was a great persecution. So the Christians of that time, took his body. What remained of it, the bones, and transferred it to another sacred place. Once the persecution was over, they moved it back to the original place of burial.” Vatican officials also said a slab of marble with the words “Paul Apostle Martyr” was found. So, to learn more about his life before and after his death, the Pontifical Gregorian University organized a forum to introduce a book which translates precisely to “Paul Apostle Martyr,” which deals with the history, art and archeology surrounding St. Paul. Card. Francesco Monterisi St. Paul Basilica, Archpriest “He's truly the symbol for those who try and deepen their Christian beliefs in modern society.” Over the centuries, people came to venerate his tomb. As a way to honor him, they would leave coins as a symbol of their pilgrimage. Fr. Prof Scott Brodeur S.I Pontifical Gregorian University “So there was great concern, that this was of St. Paul, this was the place and that is the very place we still venerate in the Basilica.” Eventually in 2009, Benedict XVI said the analysis “seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that these are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul.” Fr. Prof Scott Brodeur S.I Pontifical Gregorian University “So yes, I think it's highly probable that the human remains that we have found in that sarcophagus are that of the Apostle of Paul.” Since the newest discovery, it's now more accessible for pilgrims to enter below the Basilica and pray directly before the tomb of St. Paul.

University of Michigan professor uses lost objects to tell stories of illegal border crossings

Well, at least the author of this piece specifies that the immigrants are illegal. Illegal immigration is a hot-button topic, the more so because anyone who wants to stop it is tagged as a racist against "immigration" - conveniently forgetting that what they want stopped is "illegal" immigration. University of Michigan professor uses lost objects to tell stories of illegal border crossings A University of Michigan professor is amassing an anthropological and archeological treasure chest of remnants found in the American Southwest in an effort to tell little-known stories about illegal immigration and those who cross the U.S.-Mexico border, the Detroit Free Press writes Since beginning his Undocumented Migration Project in 2008, professor Jason De Leon and his students have collected roughly 10,000 worn shoes, socks, backpacks, parts of birth certificates, water bottles and other belongings dropped by migrant workers while crossing the desert. He also combines the artifacts with interviews with people who have made the crossing to illustrate the realities faced by people who sneak into the United States. He’s found, for instance, that white water bottles cause problems for people trying to hide from Border Patrol agents because the white reflects searchlights. But darker-colored jugs heat up too much in the desert sun and are dead giveaways for infrared surveillance technology. De Leon has family members who were migrant workers, he studied archeology in school and wrote his dissertation about ancient stone tools. He says his goal is to show the realities of what it’s like to cross the border and illustrate how the process is “politically gray.” From the Detroit Free Press: U-M professor studies migration through items left in Arizona, Mexico desert The toe and heel of the boot are scuffed and a bit dusty. The sole has a few holes, and a small sock is tucked inside. It now belongs to University of Michigan professor Jason De Leon. The boot was one of the first items he plucked out of the Sonora Desert in Arizona when he started the Undocumented Migration Project in 2008 to put his archaeological and anthropological training to use studying migrant workers who illegally cross the border into the U.S. He still has questions about that boot: How old was the child who wore it? Why did it get left behind? Did a parent have to carry the child the rest of the way? How do you explain to your child why you're walking across the desert? The boot sits on De Leon's desk in his Ann Arbor lab -- one of about 10,000 items he and his students have collected on summer visits. They go into the desert in Arizona and Mexico, looking for spots where migrants have dropped belongings. Some of the fields of artifacts are huge, piles of backpacks big enough to cover a football field. "Anything that's big enough to pick up, I'll pick up," De Leon said. He went to school to study archaeology -- his dissertation is on ancient stone tools -- and has family members who were migrant workers, so he developed an interest in that topic as well. A dinner conversation with a colleague prompted him to act on his interest. He bought a plane ticket to Arizona and ended up standing in the desert, where he picked up the boot. He went back there in June 2009 and began harvesting what he could find. "I really want to shine a light on the process of border crossing," he said. "It's very difficult to directly observe and too often people who write about it either glorify those who are coming across or are very negative about them. The goal for me is to show it's politically gray." De Leon's collection is stashed in boxes all over his lab. They sit everywhere -- full of shoes, Gatorade bottles, parts of birth certificates, diaper bags, buttons, family pictures and food packages. He uses the items he finds to help illustrate the realities of what goes on in the desert. He combines that with interviews of those who have made the crossing to get rarely told stories. For example, he came across large white water bottles in the beginning of his travels. But they caused problems for people trying to hide from Border Patrol agents because the white reflected the searchlights. So those trying to cross the border started wrapping the bottles in dark garbage bags, which De Leon also has in his collection. Companies then started making dark plastic water jugs. But they heat up tremendously, becoming almost undrinkable and creating a major heat signature for Border Patrol agents using infrared to track down people sneaking across, De Leon found. His research has caused a few run-ins with the Border Patrol -- helicopters have swooped down to investigate his group, and armed agents once raided a house where he and his team were staying, suspecting they were drug dealers. But he's still collecting. Some of the items pull at De Leon's heartstrings -- like a small tennis shoe with the words "I love you" and "I'm going to miss your kisses" written on it. But De Leon doesn't want to paint a one-sided picture. That's why his collection also contains homemade backpacks that drug mules use to tote bales of marijuana across the border and special slippers made for drug mules to wear to minimize footprints. De Leon also knows the desert is a rough place -- his team has found bloodied gauze and interviewed migrants who have been raped and abused. By piecing the artifacts and interviews together, De Leon is chronicling border crossing. "This just isn't trash," he said. "These are artifacts. This is history."

Archaeological and geographical expedition «Kyzyl-Kuragino»

http://www.rgo.ru/ From the Russian Geographical Society: Archaeological and geographical expedition «Kyzyl-Kuragino» n 2006, the Russian Federation Government approved an investment project to build a railroad Kuragino-Kyzyl which should connect the capital of the Tyva Republic with Kuragino transport node (the Krasnoyarsk region). This project is listed as one of the priority projects in the Russian Federation Transport Strategy until 2020, and it is vital for the social and economic development of Tuva. Before the railway construction, scientists have studied the area and detected more than 80 archeological monuments and objects (burial mounds, sites, petroglyphs) in various parts of the territory. All these objects belong to different times, from the late Stone Age up to the ethnographic epoch, and are of a great scientific interest. Some of them are situated right on the construction site. The necessity to adequately study the archeological monuments in the construction area, to carry out rescue excavations and to organize a complex research of the historic region was obvious. As a result, in 2011, the Russian Geographic Society provided a grant to launch an archeological and geographical expedition and to equip a camp called “The Kings’ Valley”. The expedition is intended for at least 4 seasons – from 2011 to 2014. The first season works were carried out by the large Russian research and educational centres – Archeology and Ethnography Institute of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg Institute for the History of Material Culture attached to the Russian Academy of Science and Tuva Institute for Humanities Research. In 2012, the expedition will be enlarged. The archeological works will be carried out in two territories – Krasnoyarsk and Tuva. The intended amount of work is about 20-22 sites per year (which makes 60-66 sites in the following years). “Students from different countries! Unearth the secrets of the Kings’ Valley!” – said the President of the Russian Geographical Society and the Minister for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Management Sergei Shoigu. According to his decision, in 2012 the expedition will be receiving the status of an international scientific and educational project. It will enable young people from different countries with certain interest in history, archeology, geography, and culture, to undergo additional and practical training in their professions and communicate with like-minded people. For this purpose, the Russian Geographical Society has announced the international competition for young people who would like to participate in the second field season of the expedition in 2012. According to the main requirements, the candidates should have no medical contra-indications, be interested in the expedition work and be ready to work in the field. The applications can be submitted by students, young scientists and teachers through the international cooperation departments of their universities. After completing the season works, all the participants will receive a set of papers confirming that they have undergone the practical field training and participated in the excavations. Such factors as the presence of highly professional scientific members, success of the excavations in 2011, variety of outstanding historical heritage of the region, interesting cultural programme based on different forms of intercultural communication – all of the above makes us hope that “The Kings’ Valley 2012” will become one of the most impressive international projects of the Russian Geographical Society conducted in cooperation with its partners, colleagues and friends from different countries.