Archaeologists in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) recently unearthed a tomb that dates back more than 2000 years, the official Rodong Sinmun daily announced Friday. The tomb, discovered in South Phyongan province, had remained intact, the report said. A wooden coffin and dozens of bronze and iron wares had been unearthed from the 1.5-meter-deep tomb, it continued. The discovery showed that the smelting and founding techniques of ancient Korea had reached a sophisticated level at that time, the newspaper concluded. [...]

Archaeologists uncovered ancient findings dating back to the Greek era during excavations at Sheikh Saad site in Daraa, southern Syria. The excavations unearthed a residential place consisting of four rooms, a warehouse and an ancient drainage channel with some parts covered by flagstones. ''15 small-sized coins, which were not identified for being oxidized, were also discovered, and cleaning is underway to define the era that they belong to,'' Director of Daraa Ruins Department Hussein Mashhadawi said. He added that the archaeological mission also discovered nice-shaped and skillfully-made earthenware pieces at the same site. Two coins belonging to the Roman era that date back to 1255 C.E., and another one dating back to the same era were also discovered at Tal al-Ashari site, Mashhadawi said. [...]

Austrian archaeologists have found a Babylonian seal in Egypt that confirms contact between the Babylonians and the Hyksos during the second millennium B.C. Irene Forstner-Müller, the head of the Austrian Archaeological Institute’s (ÖAI) branch office in Cairo, said today (Thurs) the find had occurred at the site of the ancient town of Avaris near what is today the city of Tell el-Dab’a in the eastern Nile delta. The Hyksos conquered Egypt and reigned there from 1640 to 1530 B.C. She said a recently-discovered cuneiform tablet had led archaeologists to suspect there had been contact between the Babylonians and the Hyksos. Forstner-Müller added that Manfred Bietak had begun archaeological research on the period of Hyksos dominance at the remains of a Hyksos palace at Avaris in 1966. [...]

A street repaving project in the southern colonial Mexican city of Oaxaca has turned up 10 skeletons and the foundations of a 15th-century convent. Archaeologists have long suspected that the street ran over part of the Convent of San Pablo. Many church properties in Mexico were broken up or built over in the 1860s. Archaeologist Enrique Fernandez said Wednesday that researchers monitoring the repaving project found the 10 skeletal remains beneath what had once probably been chapels. Fernandez said the remains from the early 1600s may belong to lay workers who wanted to be buried in the convent floors. The site will probably be paved over again once research is finished. [...]

Dated to the early 1200s, the 40 dead Scotch pines were found scattered among living trees in what was once a dense forest that supplied wood for medieval boats and churches. The trees appear to have died from natural causes after living out their several-hundred-year life spans. But somehow the dead trees "survived"—they apparently have never rotted. The mummified trees are different from petrified wood, a kind of fossil created when wood is replaced with minerals over thousands of years. The find astounded researchers, since most dead trees decay as they are eaten by tiny organisms, said research leader Terje Thun, a biologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. [...]

Swedish archaeologists are marveling over a collection of 9,000 year old artifacts recently uncovered at an excavation site central Sweden. Parts of a bow, a paddle, and the wooden shaft of an axe are among the discoveries recently unearthed from the Stone Age settlement Kanaljorden outside of Motala, according to local media reports. “Totally unbelievable,” project leader Fredrik Hallgren with the Stiftelsen Kulturmiljövård Mälardalen (‘Cultural Preservation Society of Mälardalen’) told the local newspaper Motala & Vadstena Tidning. All of the artifacts except for the axe blade are made of wood. The objects have been preserved for thousands of years because a layer of peat covered the mud in which they were found. The discovery is unique for central Sweden, and the bow is the first of its kind ever discovered in Sweden. [...]

Forensic experts on Wednesday began exhuming a mass unmarked grave that could hold the remains of the acclaimed poet Federico Garcia Lorca, in a milestone in Spain's drive to address the legacy of its 1936-39 civil war. Working under a tent-like structure, the team started preliminary work staking out and cleaning surface soil at the site in southern Spain in preparation for digging in earnest, said Sara Gil, an archaeologist who is a member of the team. "The excavation work has begun. I cannot say anything else," Gil told reporters. Maribel Brenes, president of a local association of relatives of war-time missing, said the exhumation will get under way in earnest later in the week. It is not clear if the writer's remains will ever be identified, however, because his family opposes the exhumation. The goal of the digging is to find and identify the remains of several men who, like Garcia Lorca, were executed in the opening days of the civil war and are believed to be buried along with him in the same grave. [...]

Archaeological digs turn up exciting artefacts – jewellery, utensils and buildings that our ancestors left behind as clues to how they lived and died thousands of years ago. But as well as the man-made items, there’s another vast bank of information to be plundered: the record that nature left behind. If you look closely, pollen, charcoal and preserved wood found at or near excavation sites can tell us how humans understood and interacted with their environment, particularly with the woodlands on which many relied for building materials and fuel.“They really knew their trees,” says archaeologist Ellen OCarroll, who is looking at woodland use in the Midlands going as far back as the Stone Age. “Trees were part of their life and folklore and history, and they were used to make artefacts. It’s hard for us now to appreciate just how important they were.” To find out more about how humans used the woodlands around them, ocarroll is doing a PhD on the environmental context of 86 archaeological excavations along the N6 route between Kinnegad and Athlone. [...]

Police have arrested four persons in Kakarbhitta with stolen idols of Buddha while they were being smuggled to India. A police team led by inspector Lalgovinda Shrestha arrested Dava Lama Gurung of Garma-7, Solukhumbu, Mukti Manav Moktan of Lakhanpur-7, Ramechhap, Karnadhwaj Limbu of Phakumba-6, Taplejung, and Devi Prasad Acharya of Duwagadhi-4, Jhapa from Assam Hotel in Kakarbhitta with the idols. The metal idols will be sent to the Department of Archaeology for investigation. [...]

Just like cathedrals are for Catholics, synagogues are proud monuments of Jewish history, our legacy in architecture passed through generations. But what should be done with old synagogues where no Jews longer live, the living conditions—inhabited by non-Jews—are poor, and money is being spent to rebuild synagogues that are never used? This problem sprang up recently in Cairo, where the famed Ben Maimon synagogue in the old Jews’ Quarter, which is no longer inhabited by Jews, is under rehabilitation to restore its former glory. The synagogue is named for the great Jewish thinker and doctor Maimonides. Dr. Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Antiquities—the man wearing the Indiana Jones-style hat in Egyptian documentaries, talking about tomb finds and mummies—maintains, “Jewish sites are an important part of our heritage.” But whose heritage does the synagogue belong to—that of the Egyptians or Jews of today, or the Egyptian Jews of yesterday? Under clear modern law, the synagogue is on Egyptian land. [...]

Middle Euphrates valley is one of the richest archaeological sites in Syria, well-known for its archaeological findings reflecting the different historical ages and the thousand years of architectural progress passed over the area. The region has become the destination of foreign travellers and amateur archaeologists since the 18th century, said Yasser Shuhan Director of Antiquities and Museums in Deir Ezzor. French, German and American archaeological missions have long started to arrive in the region to survey archaeological sites and to draw maps and charts of the region. Excavation missions working at the site uncovered thousands of archaeological findings of great historical, scientific and artistic significance that is exhibited at the most famous museums worldwide. The painting of Zimri-Lim, King of Mari that was found on the southern hallway in the 106 courtyard of the Royal Palace is showcased at Louvre Museum. [...]

Recent demolition of pieces of National Monuments at National Museum Benin as well as lingering inadequate funding of various art/culture institutions by successive governments are glaring proofs of the unsettling disconnect between society and the invaluable place of archaeology. But, in a candid manner, archaeologists have been told that the sources of many drawbacks they face are closer to home. Speaking at an ongoing international seminar in Jos, Plateau State, Dr. Ogban Ogban-Iyam of the Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria said the fortunes of archaeologists will continue to dwindle until these professionals realized the need to be captains of their ship. In his keynote address, titled “Politics and Archaeology: The relationship, the dynamics and implication for African Archaeologists,” delivered at the opening of a five-day brainstorm by members of the West African Archaeological Association (WAAA), Ogban-Iyam submitted: “Archaeology is still a largely misunderstood subject in West Africa” and that “the poor image of Archaeology reflects a wide communication gap.” [...]

Lake County officials say human remains were found in Big Arm last week and have been taken to the state crime lab in Missoula for identification and to determine the cause of death. Sheriff's Lt. Mike Sergeant says the remains were found last Thursday. Experts from the state crime lab and the University of Montana archaeology department helped process the scene. [...]

The Syrian-Japanese Archaeological Expedition uncovered 13 individual graves during their work at the private burial chamber number 129 located near the Northern defensive wall of the ancient city of Palmyra. The graves were used to bury children that apparently were less than two years old when they died. Some of the graves are simple holes in the grounds containing a coffin, in addition to two graves consisting of medium-sized clay jars containing skeletons of children that are estimated to have been only a few months old when they died. These graves date back to the third century AD, during the heyday of the Palmyrene kingdom. This discovery was made as the Syrian-Japanese Archaeological Expedition concluded work at the site. [...]

Egyptian authorities say New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has agreed to return an ancient Pharoanic relic to its homeland. According to Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, the red granite shrine piece was purchased from a New York antiquities collector last October to be returned. The piece belongs to the naos honoring the 12th Dynasty King Amenemhat I, who ruled 4,000 years ago, which is now in the Ptah temple of Karnak in Luxor, Artdaily reported. Head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, referred to the act as a "great deed," saying that it was the first time a museum bought an item only to return it.[...]

Vermont has been named one of the best-rated places in the world, and No. 1 in the United States, for stewardship and authenticity by the National Geographic Society. The sixth annual "Survey of Destination Stewardship," conducted by National Geographic Society's Center for Sustainable Destinations, ranked Vermont fifth in the world and first in the United States. The rankings are published in the November/December issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine. The society surveyed 437 panelists in sustainable tourism and destination quality, who looked at six criteria including environmental and ecological quality, social and cultural integrity, condition of historic buildings and archaeological sites, aesthetic appeal, quality of tourism management and outlook for the future. [...]

The fall 2009 Evolutionary Studies seminar series continues this Friday, October 30, at 4:00 PM in LH-2. BU paleoanthropologist Rolf Quam will present "Recent Discoveries in the Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain". A site in this mountain range known as the Sima de los Huesos (the "Pit of the Bones") is rich with Homo heidelbergensis fossils, providing many clues to early human evolution. The seminar will be followed by food and continued discussion. [...]

When Philippa Baker-Rabe says a historical archaeology class changed her life, she's not exaggerating. "I took it on a whim my sophomore year and ended up loving it," recalled Baker-Rabe. "It was an 8 a.m. class, but it ended up being my favorite. I realized this is what I want to do forever." Taught by assistant professor of anthropology J. Cameron Monroe, the class opened a door that led Baker-Rabe to West Africa, where she spent seven weeks this past summer as part of UCSC's first undergraduate archaeological expedition to Benin. Under Monroe's leadership, Baker-Rabe and seven other undergraduates spent nearly two months unearthing beads, bits of pottery, and other artifacts that yield clues to the everyday lives of Africans during the 18th and 19th centuries. [...]