explorator 12.13

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explorator 12.13                                   July 19, 2009
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Thanks to Arthur Shippee, Dave Sowdon,Donna Hurst, 'Duke Jason',
Edward Rockstein, Hernan Astudillo,John McMahon, Joseph Lauer,
Mata Kimasitayo, Mike Ruggeri, Nancy Hurley, Peter Ramsden,
Richard C. Griffiths, Kurt Theis,Bob Heuman, Rick Pettigrew,
and Ross W. Sargent for headses upses this week (as always
hoping I have left no one out).

... a bit of catching up in this issue ...
===============================================================
EARLY HUMANS
===============================================================
Latest study suggests there weren't that many Neanderthals and
they were 'poised' for extinction:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,533223,00.html
http://www.livescience.com/culture/090716-neanderthal-population.html

Figuring out what homo heidelbergensis ate:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090714103526.htm
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AFRICA
===============================================================
The Archaeology Channel has an audio interview with Fred Wendorf:

http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/audio/wendorfint.html

===============================================================
ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
===============================================================
200,000 years b.p. flint tools from the Syrian desert:

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1489195.php/200000-year-old
_flint_tools_found_in_Syrian_desert_

Not sure if we've mentioned this Egyptian fortress find at Tell Dafna:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31913753/ns/technology_and_science-science/
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/14/egypt-fortress-city.html
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20090715/981/tsc-archaeologists-unearth-largest-fortr.html

... or the impending dig in Sidon:

http://www.littleabout.com/news/23094,excavation-lebanon-aims-uncover-ancient-ruins.html

Latest from the Dakhleh Oasis:

http://www.livescience.com/history/090715-amheida-excavation.html

Interview (in French) with Jean Yoyotte (see Obituaries):

http://www.histoire.presse.fr/content/homepage/article?idH09

cf:

http://lexnews.free.fr/histoire.htm#yoyotte

Feature on the Herodium:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132453

Feature on Adam Zertal's thoughts on the 'feet' at Bidat al-Shaab:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo00766

Rethinking Arabian snake cults:

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090716/NATIONAL/707159822/-1/NEWS

By the rivers of Babylon ...:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid46443825291&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFu
ll

Road widening has damaged a Parthian site in Iran's Khuzestan
Province:

http://www.cais-soas.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&idT:a-larg
e-parthian-site-in-khuzestan-province-seriously-damaged-a-partly-destroyed&catid=1

More on that most recent Second Temple quarry discovery:

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new2074
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid46443730536&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFu
ll
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31761755/ns/technology_and_science-science/

More on damage to Babylon:

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Node±&Id01328
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ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME (AND CLASSICS)
===============================================================
A shrine to Jupiter Dolichenus has been found near Vindolanda:

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/ancient_shrine_found_at_hadrian_s_wall_fort_1_583823?ref
errerPath=/1.50001

Some major finds at Laodicea:

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/CultureAndMedia/?id=3.0.3538600291

A Roman ring from North Lincolnshire:

http://www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk/news/1-800-year-old-ring/article-1156994-detail/article.
html

Nice video on some Roman items found years ago in private digs
in Brampton:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8150191.stm

Repairs to Colchester's Roman wall are to be completed soon:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/essex/8157187.stm

Feature on the ongoing digs at Pompeii:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2009-07-15-pompeii_N.htm

Digging will resume at Nikopolis ad Istrum:

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id5680

Latest 'evidence' for the Roman origins of the Arthur legend:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/ancient-lance-pierces-hole-in-king-arthur-legend,8
92613.shtml

Review of Francine Segan, *The Philosopher's Kitchen*:

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090715/LIVING/707159982

Mary Beard reviews Frank McLynn, *Marcus Aurelius*:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n14/bear01_.html

More on high tech approaches to the Michigan Papyri:

http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-72253.html
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?idr27
http://www.physorg.com/news166200717.html

More on that Etruscan 'cosmetic case':

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/a-2000-year-old-cream-belonging-to-an-aristocra
t-discovered_100216985.html
http://www.andhranews.net/Technology/2009/July/12-year-cream-16818.asp
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31855795/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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EUROPE AND THE UK (+ Ireland)
===============================================================
Turns out those dismembered/decapitated skeletons from Dorset
are Saxon, not Roman:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/dorset/8145252.stm

People were living in Cheddar Gorge (Somerset) some 14,700 years
b.p.:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8151524.stm

... and Silchester was a thriving city a century before the
Romans arrived:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jul/16/silchester-dig-british-city
http://u.tv/News/Silchester-dig-reveals-how-ancient-Britons-built-a-thriving-city/5dc988e4
-1dcd-4207-8864-67f118514aeb
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/8151385.stm

A Neolithic structure from the Isle of Man:

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Prehistoric-dwelling-unearthed-at-Isle.5452740.jp

Feature on Gristhorpe Man:

http://www.scarborougheveningnews.co.uk/news/Gristhorpe-Man-slowly-gives-up.5441651.jp?art
iclepage=1

Oetzi's tattoos were soot-based:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/17/iceman-tattoos.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17469-worlds-oldest-tattoos-were-made-of-soot.html

Brief item on a Neolithic house find in Bulgaria:

http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_English/News/1807B12.htm

Remains of a medieval monastery from Bulgaria too:

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20090718/981/tsc-archaeologists-discover-13th-century.html

They're looking for the tomb of Suleiman I in Hungary:

http://www.caboodle.hu/nc/news/news_archive/single_page/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]g37

Picnickers at Culloden Battlefield are apparently causing offence:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8150288.stm

Praising British archaeology:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/17/in-praise-of-british-archaeology

Review of Christopher Kelly, *The End of Empire*:

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/entertainment/books_literature/article/BEND19_20090715-18
1212/280110/
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ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC
===============================================================
They're beginning to find more terracotta warriors at X'ian:

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Tech+and+Science/Story/STIStory_404811.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/17/content_11723792.htm

Some Qing Dynasty "cheat sheets" have been found:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5834418/Ancient-Chinese-cheat-sheets-
discovered.html

A 3rd century B.C. megalithic burial site near Truvannamalai (Tamil
Nadu):

http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/17/stories/2009071751690300.htm

Nice Astronomy Picture of the Day of an eclipse (etc.) over the
Great Wall:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090718.html
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NORTH AMERICA
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A 3000 years b.p. campsite from Lisbon (Conn.):

http://www.courant.com/news/local/statewire/hc-ap-ct-fea-lisbonartifacjul12,0,6852979.stor
y
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/x488834511/Rare-Indian-artifacts-found-on-Lisbon-prope
rty

Interesting finds at Fort Lipantitlan:

http://www.kiiitv.com/news/local/50976812.html

An Irish immigrant village is being excavated in Maryland:

http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Irish-immigrant-village-unearthed-in-Maryland-50635617.h
tml
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bal-md.co.dig13jul13,0,2786177.
story

The Archaeology Channel has an audio interview with Fred Wendorf:

http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/audio/wendorfint.html

Skepticism about the DNA results from those Paisley Cave coprolites:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/325/5937/148-c

cf:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/325/5937/148-b

Slavery records from the Virgin Islands:

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20090717/CB.Virgin.Islands.Slavery.Records/

More on the Chimney Rock site:

http://durangoherald.com/sections/Features/Outdoors/2009/07/10/Intact_archaeological_site_
offers_some_timely_lessons/
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CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
===============================================================
Mexico has done a survey of underwater sites in Banco Chincorro:

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId39313&CategoryId091

Some video coverage of that 'mass sacrifice' of women from Peru
mentioned last month:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31891125#31891125
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1049287/Peru-mummies-%27were-human-sacrifices

cf.:

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/602611.html (Spanish)

A 16th century shipwreck off the coast of Santa Catarina:

http://www.agencia.fapesp.br/materia/10754/noticias/nau-do-seculo-16-e-descoberta.htm
(Portuguese)

... and an 18th century one off the Dominican:

http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_idB708911063

Tools and some ceramics from Sinaloa:

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new2112

A Chimu burial in the citadel of Chan Chan (Peru):

http://www.andina.com.pe/Ingles/Noticia.aspx?idˆnCvOZoO5c
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/277468,remains-of-sacrificed-woman-found-in-indige
nous-citadel-in-peru.html
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id1&art_id=nw20090714193424725C28668
3

Not sure if we've mentioned this Inca Road find before:

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new1999

More hype for the impending (hopefully) discovery of an Aztec
king's tomb in Mexico's Templio Mayor:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090713-aztec-king-tomb.html

More on Zapotec uses for thighbones:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090715-zapotec-thighbones-femurs.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/fm-fmc070809.php

More on Maize and the rise of Andean civilizations:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/science/2009/07/08/maize-may-have-fueled-ancient-andean-civ
ilization.html
===============================================================
OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
===============================================================
What it's like on an underwater dig:

http://www.thewesterlysun.com/articles/2009/07/16//news/local/doc4a5c7cbed2eab060274792.tx
t

Latest ship reconstruction ... a bireme sailing from Izmir to
Marseilles:

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/12048006.asp

Raman spectroscopy could be useful:

http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/55788/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lxluxsJhlU

Testing the efficacy of cannon balls v. warships:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090715101505.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090715/sc_livescience/cannonballsreallycouldsinkship
sstudyfinds

Suggestion that the Vinland Map is not a forgery:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE56G58320090717
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090717/sc_nm/us_science_map_america_2

Pondering a Titian timpano:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/jul/11/titian-portraits-women-exhibition-love

... and a mystery about a Matisse:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/arts/design/17vogel.html

Pre-landing ideas about the moon:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/movies/19strau.html

A "rubbish remover" doing his job came across a barrell full of
Mexican artifacts:

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/07/19/2009-07-19_trash_worth_16g_rubbish_guy_finds_a
_little_treasure_trove.html

Some 10 000 years b.p. seeds from the Arctic apparently weren't
that old after all:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8142000/8142037.stm

A library closes because of the Internet (?):

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/at-92nd-street-y-even-homer-must-bow-to-wirel
ess-internet/

Dunno if any Explorator readers will be interested to know that
Spinal Tap visited Stonehenge (no drummers were harmed):

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/07/12/spinaltap-stonehenge-visit.html

Review of Margaret MacMillan, *Dangerous Games*:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Kennedy-t.html

Review of Richard Holmes, *The Age of Wonder*:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Benfey-t.html

Review of Collin Ellard, *You Are Here*:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/books/review/Lehrer-t.html

Review of assorted historical novels:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/books/review/Benfey-t.html

More on the claim that Galileo discovered Neptune:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/10/vatican_galileo_cryptogram_neptune_discovery/
===============================================================
TOURISTY THINGS
===============================================================
Rhodes:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-writing-competition/5849295/Just-back-acropolis-n
ow.html

Albania:

http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1342

Syria:

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLQ65906120090717

Haarlem:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/travel/19dayout.html

Some English pubs:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/travel/19pubs.html

Ohio Trail:

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/living/tourism/48067157.html
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DIG BLOGS
===============================================================
[please send in suggestions! current digs only please!]

New this week:

Signal Hill (Newfoundland):

http://signalhillarchaeology.wordpress.com/

Ongoing:

Dhiban (Jordan):

http://dhiban.wordpress.com/

Whitehall Roman Villa:

http://www.whitehallvilla.co.uk/

Mount Lykaion:

http://mountlykaion.wordpress.com/

Roman Binchester:

http://binchester.blogspot.com/

Gabii Project:

http://lapisgabinus.blogspot.com/

Tel Kabri:

http://digkabri.wordpress.com/2009-dig-blog/

Pyla-Koutsopetria (three blogs in one! twitter too!):

http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/wcaraher/PKAPBlogAggregator.html

Grand Pre:

http://grandpre2009.wordpress.com/

Norton Community Archaeological Group:

http://nortoncommarch.wordpress.com/

Tel Dan:

http://teldan.wordpress.com/

Hopkins in Egypt Today:

http://www.jhu.edu/egypttoday/index.html
===============================================================
CRIME BEAT
===============================================================
A Rome court has upheld the conviction of Giacomo Medici:

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/07/15/italian_art_dealers_looting_co
nviction_upheld/
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/07/dealer-in-looted-antiquities-loses-
appeal-has-links-to-embattled-exgetty-curator.html
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ieF6zwJhG7nYx0bFa6CN2UH2soNQD99F07CO0
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/conviction-for-dealer-of-stolen-antiquities-i
s-upheld/

A Florida couple has returned some mosaic pieces they took from
Caesarea National Park:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132460
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo01159

Latest twist in the Utah antiquities case:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-artifacts-threat14-2009jul14,0,387247
0.story

... while sites in Canada near the US border are apparently at
a higher risk for looting:

http://www.canada.com/Historical+sites+near+border+risk+looting/1788679/story.html

Tombaroli in Albania:

http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1339
===============================================================
NUMISMATICA
===============================================================
A major coin hoard found near Warwickshire has been declared
treasure:

http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2009/07/17/metal-detector-unearths-a
-pot-of-roman-coins-65233-24173954/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200126/Treasure-trove-silver-Roman-coins-worth-th
ousands-buried-field.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/roman-silver-haul-declared-treasure-trov
e-1749387.html

A machine-made Oban (among other items) is coming to auction:

http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleIdi94

The earliest Roman coin ever found in Britain:

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/news/090718-roman

Early Medieval Coin Finds:

http://www-cm.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/emc/

Roman Provincial Coinage online:

http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/

High tech tools to clean a huge hoard of Roman coins found over
20 years ago in Libya:

http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-07-14_114383620.html

Review of *Greek and Roman Coins from the du Chastel Collection*:

http://digitalhn.blogspot.com/2009/07/greek-and-roman-coins-from-du-chastel.html
===============================================================
EXHIBITIONS, AUCTIONS, AND MUSEUM-RELATED
===============================================================
An Antiquity of Imagination:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/19/portraits-marble-venetian-renaissance-scul
ptors/

Italian Renaissance Drawings:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/jul/15/british-museum-renaissance-drawings-exh
ibition

Carvers and Collectors:

http://www.huliq.com/13/83463/getty-center-exhibits-carvers-and-collectors

Japanese Mandalas:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/arts/design/17mandalas.html

Chinese Ceramics at the BM:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/arts/18iht-melik18.html

Yixing Pottery:

http://media-newswire.com/release_1094602.html

Dutch New York:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/nyregion/19artwe.html

Interesting exhibition of Lord Carnarvon/Tut-related stuff:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31946548/ns/technology_and_science-science/

A copy of the Magna Carta has returned to Lincoln for a new
exhibition:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lincolnshire/8157469.stm

Reviewish sort of thing of Ford's Theater Museum:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/arts/design/15museum.html

The National Portrait Gallery is battling with Wikipedia:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8156268.stm

More on the "furor" over the DSS exhibition in Toronto:

http://www.forward.com/articles/109593/
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid46443820292&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FSh
owFull
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/bait+switch/1779030/story.html

cf. this OpEd piece:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fiskrsquos-world-you-wont-fi
nd-any-lessons-in-unity-in-the-dead-sea-scrolls-1741943.html

Recent changes at the Met:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/arts/design/10vogel.html

More players in the London antiques fair game:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/arts/design/17antiques.html

Gothic items coming to auction:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/arts/design/10antiques.html

Results of Old Master auctions:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/arts/11iht-melik11.html

Review of Michael Gross, *Rogues' Gallery*:

http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id79104
===============================================================
PERFORMANCES AND THEATRE-RELATED
===============================================================
The Europeans:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/theater/reviews/10europeans.html

This seems to be the category for this NPR piece on Church Music:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId‰775986

... and this feature on Josquin des Prez:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId6422142

... and some Bastille Day music:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId6488903
===============================================================
ON THE WEB
===============================================================
Images from the History of Medicine:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/ihm/

Medieval Dictionaries:

http://actuhistoire.blogspot.com/2009/06/dictionnaires-medievaux.html

Digitized Maps:

http://portal.digmap.eu/

... the above were pointed to by the Actualites de L'histoire blog:

http://actuhistoire.blogspot.com/
===============================================================
OBITUARIES
===============================================================
Kenneth M. Stampp:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-kenneth-stampp19-2009jul19,0,5409766.story
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/arts/15stampp.html

Jean Yoyotte:

http://www.ouest-france.fr/ofdernmin_-L-egyptologue-francais-mondialement-connu-Jean-Yoyot
te-est-decede_-1000319_actu.Htm

Martin Hengel:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/5811664/Professor-Martin-He
ngel.html
===============================================================
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by direct posting or snagging from a usenet group or some other
email source) without my express written permission. I think it
is only right that I be made aware of public fora which are
making use of content gathered in Explorator. Thanks!
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