British Tourist Finds Lost Underwater City

A British holidaymaker has uncovered what is believed to be a lost, ancient temple while snorkelling in the Mediterranean.
Michael Le Quesne, 16, was swimming off a popular beach in Montenegro with his parents and his ten-year-old sister Teodora when he spotted an odd looking 'stone' at a depth of around two metres.
It turned out to be a large, submerged building which may have been the centrepiece of an important Greek or Roman trading post, swallowed up by the sea during a massive earthquake.
A British team of experts led by Dr Lucy Blue, presenter of BBC Two show Oceans, is to investigate the significant find in this largely unexplored corner of south east Europe.
Dr Blue said that if the discovery is confirmed to be an underwater temple it would “put Montenegro on the map”.
She added: “Montenegro is largely an undiscovered underwater world.”
The discovery was made while Charles and Vera Le Quesne and their two children, from Princes Risborough, Bucks, was on a trip to their holiday home in the tiny Balkan country last month.
The family has been holidaying in Montenegro since 1994, but had never visited Maljevik, a small bay of sand and shingle, sheltered by pines, near the city of Bar.
Once his son reported the find, Mr Le Quesne, a professional archaeologist, fetched a snorkel and dived down to investigate. He discovered fluted columns, 90cm in diameter, on plinths, which appeared to form part of an ancient Greek or Roman temple, basilica or major public building, similar to those at other archaeological sites around the Mediterranean.
On a clear day, the columns are visible from the surface of the water, but it appears that the remains, which include ancient pottery, have stayed untouched for thousands of years.
Michael said: “When I first swam out, I thought they were just rocks, as most people would, but then I noticed that they were cylindrical and knew that they couldn’t be natural, so I called my dad over.
“I’ve been dragged around a lot of ancient ruins, so if it hadn’t been for that I wouldn’t have looked twice.”
The potential size of the structure and the discovery of other architectural remains nearby suggest the ‘temple’ could have formed part of a large Greek or Roman settlement, dating back as far as the 2nd century BC.
No historical records exist of a major settlement on the site, although the Montenegrin coast is dotted with ancient ruins yet to be documented.
The discovery has been described as “something that could rouse curiosity in the world of science” by Mladen Zagarčanin, the curator of the museum in Bar and archaeologist, who inspected the site the following day.
Work on site later this month as Mr Le Quesne returns to Montenegro as part of a team working for the University of Southampton’s Department of Maritime Archaeology.
Dr Blue and Professor David Peacock, both of the department, will join Mr Le Quesne to explore the underwater settlement next spring.
Mr Le Quesne, an archaeology expert and author on the subject, said: “If it is a monumental building it is not going to be part of a small hamlet, but it is not a missing Atlantis, as we would already know about it. It remains a bit of a mystery.”
“The area was an important, ancient trading route, so it may have been a port.
“There are ancient shipwrecks all along this coast which, unfortunately, are being damaged and looted and which need protecting.”
In recent years, Montenegro’s rich, unexplored ancient history has lured organised crime gangs, which have flourished in the region since the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Valuable Roman and Greek pottery from shipwrecks is being plundered and sold to collectors in western Europe, it is believed.
So far, 2009 has proved an exciting year for underwater archaeology in Montenegro, which is promoting its stunning coastline as a tourism hot spot while building a reputation as a cut-price version of Monaco thanks to a relaxed tax regime.
Before the discovery of the ancient temple, a local team working alongside American experts discovered the remains of two Roman cargo ships at the bottom of Kotor Bay, one of Montenegro most popular tourist attractions.---telegraph.co.uk

British Researchers Unlock the Mystery of Ancient Town

Archaeologists from Britain's University of Nottingham and Greece's Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Ministry of Culture are using digital equipment to unlock the mystery behind the ancient Greek town of Pavlopetri, thought to be the oldest submerged town in the world. Discovered and mapped by researchers of the Institute of Oceanography at Cambridge University in 1968, no other work has since been conducted at the site. This project could fuel underwater archaeology in the future.

The ruins of Pavlopetri, which lie in three to four metres of water just off the coast of Laconia in the Peloponnese, date from at least 2 800 BC. Buildings are still intact, and streets, courtyards, and chamber tombs exist as well. Experts believe the ruins belong to the Mycenaean period (circa 1680-1180 BC).

Dr Jon Henderson from the Underwater Archaeology Research Centre (UARC) at the University of Nottingham is the first archaeologist in 40 years to obtain special permission from the Greek Government to examine the submerged town. This project will help shed light on how the town was developed, when it was occupied, what it was used for, and why it disappeared under the sea.

'This site is of rare international archaeological importance. It is imperative that the fragile remains of this town are accurately recorded and preserved before they are lost forever,' explained Dr Henderson. 'A fundamental aim is to raise awareness of the importance of the site and ensure that it is ethically managed and presented to the public in a way which is sustainable and of benefit to both the development of tourism and the local community.'

The submerged buildings, courtyards, streets, tombs and graves are located close to an area frequented by tourists and campers. The researchers assert that both tourism and industry are having a negative impact on the ruins; tourists looking for souvenirs can be found snorkelling in the area, and boats cause damage as their anchors are dragged along the seabed.

Dr Henderson and his team, working together with Mr Elias Spondylis of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, are using equipment initially developed for the military and offshore oilfield market. Experts believe the equipment could transform underwater archaeological survey and recording.

The researchers will perform a millimetre-accurate digital underwater survey of the area using an acoustic scanner developed by a North American offshore engineering company. The equipment is able to generate photo-realistic, three-dimensional (3D) surveys of seabed features and underwater structures to sub-millimetre accuracy very quickly.

'The ability to survey submerged structures, from shipwrecks to sunken cities, quickly, accurately and more importantly, cost effectively, is a major obstacle to the future development of underwater archaeology,' Dr Henderson pointed out. 'I believe we now have a technique which effectively solves this problem.'

Dr Nicholas Flemming, the man who discovered the site in 1967, is on board. His team from Cambridge surveyed the area with hand tapes in 1968. Dr Chrysanthi Gallou of the University of Nottingham is currently carrying out a systematic assessment of the finds recovered back then.---europa.eu

Boy Finds Old Shekel Coin in Temple Mount Dirt in Jerusalem

A rare half shekel coin, first minted in 66 or 67 C.E., was discovered by 14 year-old Omri Ya'ari as volunteers sifted through mounds of dirt from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The coin is the first one found to originate from the Temple Mount.

For the fourth year, archaeologists and volunteers have been sifting through dirt dug by the Waqf, the Muslim authority in charge of the Temple Mount compound, in an unauthorized project in 1999. The dig caused extensive and irreversible archaeological damage to the ancient layers of the mountain. The Waqf transported the dug up dirt in trucks to another location, where it was taken to Emek Tzurim. 40,000 volunteers have so far participated in the sifting project, in search of archaeological artifacts, under the guidance of Dr. Gabriel Barkay and Yitzhak Zweig. The project is sponsored by Bar Ilan University and funded by the Ir David Foundation with the assistance of the National Parks Authority.

The half shekel coin was first minted during the Great Revolt against the Romans. The face of the coin is decorated with a branch of three pomegranates and ancient Hebrew letters reading "holy Jerusalem." On the flip side, the letters say "half shekel".

The coin that was found in the sifting project, though it was well preserved, showed some damage from a fire. Experts believe it was the same fire that destroyed the Second Temple in 70 C.E.

Dr. Gabriel Barkay explained that "the half shekel coin was used to pay the temple taxes... The coins were apparently minted at Temple Mount itself by the Temple authorities."

The half shekel tax is mentioned in the book of Exodus (Portion Ki Tisa), commanding every Jew to contribute half a shekel to the Temple every year for the purpose of purchasing public sacrifices.

Dr. Barkay added that "this is the first time a coin minted at the Temple Mount itself has been found, and therein lies its immense importance, because similar coins have been found in the past in the Jerusalem area and in the Old City's Jewish quarter, as well as Masada, but they are extremely rare in Jerusalem."

So far, some 3,500 ancient coins have been discovered in the Temple Mount dirt sifting, ranging from earliest minting of coins during the Persian era all the way up to the Ottoman era.

An additional important archaeological discovery in the sifting project was another well preserved coin, minted between 175 and 163 B.C.E. by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, against whom the Hasmoneans revolted. This revolt brought about the re-dedication of the Temple after Antiochus seized the Temple's treasures and conducted idol worship in it. The coin depicts a portrait of Antiochus the Seleucid King.---.haaretz.com

Archeologists Study the Treasures of Wealthy Roman Citizens

The archaeological work around Portus tells us more about how the Romans lived and how important the port was. The Roman empire marched on its stomach and even after the huge artificial harbour of Portus was built – when the volume of freight had become too much for the original harbour at Ostia – ships would still have had to queue to get to the wharves and unload.
They carried basic foodstuffs such as grain, wine, oil and olives, the ubiquitous sauce made of rotted fish which was the ketchup of its day, and luxuries including exotic fruits and spices.
Although thousands of workers would have lived in the port, they might well have seen noble visitors pass by. Emperors kept a close eye on Portus, staying in a palace by the water: if the grain supply failed, there would be riots in Rome.
Luxuries coveted by Rome's increasingly wealthy citizens streamed through the port. Shipwrecks have revealed the scale of the trade: marble to face new imperial buildings, lead and bronze ingots, unguents and fragrances, silks and dyes, Baltic amber, linen and cotton from Egypt and India, gold, silver and gems, marble and bronze statues stripped from temples in Greece.
Other ships bore living cargo: exotic animals from Africa and India and slaves, all destined for rich households – or to provide one bloody afternoon's entertainment in the amphitheatre. - guardian.co.uk

Archaeology as Part of Human History

Archaeology, like many academic words, comes from Greek and means, more or less, ‘the study of old things’. So, it is really a part of the study of history. However, most historians use paper evidence, such as letters, documents, paintings and photographs, but archaeologists learn from the objects left behind by humans of long ago. Normally, these are the hard materials that don’t decompose or disappear very quickly - things like human bones and skeletons, objects made from stone and metal, and ceramics
Sometimes, archaeologists and historians work together. Take, for example, the study of the Romans, who dominated the Mediterranean area and much of Europe two thousand years ago. We know a lot about them from their writings, and some of their most famous writers are still quoted in English. We also know a lot about them from what they made, from their coins to their buildings. Archaeologists have worked on Roman remains as far apart as Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England and Leptis Magna in Libya.
Of course, for much of human history, there are no written documents at all. Who were the first humans, and where did they come from? This is a job for the archaeologists, who have found and dated the bones and objects left behind. From this evidence, they believe that humans first appeared in Africa and began moving to other parts of the world about 80,000 years ago. The movement of our ancestors across the planet has been mapped from their remains — humans went to Australia about 70,000 years ago, but have been in South America for just 15,000 years. The evidence of archaeology has helped to show the shared origin and history of us all.
It is very unusual to find anything more than the hard evidence of history — normally, the bacteria in the air eat away at soft organic material like bodies, clothes and things made of wood. Occasionally, things are different.
A mind-boggling discovery
In 1984, two men made an amazing discovery while working in a bog called Lindow Moss, near Manchester, in the north of England. A bog is a very wet area of earth, with a lot of plants growing in it. It can be like a very big and very thick vegetable soup — walk in the wrong place and you can sink and disappear forever. After hundreds of years, the dead plants can compress together and make ‘peat’, which is like soil, but is so rich in energy that it can be burned on a fire, like coal.
The men were cutting the peat when one of them saw something sticking out - a human foot. Naturally, the men called the police, who then found the rest of the body. Was it a case of murder? Possibly — but it was a death that occured nearly 2,000 years ago. The two men had found a body from the time of the Roman invasion of Celtic Britain. Despite being so old, this body had skin, muscles, hair and internal organs — the scientists who examined him were able to look inside the man’s stomach and find the food that he had eaten for his last meal.
Why was this man so well preserved? It was because he was in a very watery environment, safe from the bacteria that need oxygen to live. Also, the water in the bog was very acidic. The acid preserved the man’s skin in the way that animal skin is preserved for leather coats and shoes.
How did he die?
Understandably, archaeologists and other scientists wanted to know more about the person that they called Lindow Man. His hands and fingernails suggested that he hadn’t done heavy manual work in his life — he could have been a rich man or a priest. They found that he hadn’t died by accident. The forensic examination revealed that he had been hit on the head three times and his throat had been cut with a knife. Then a rope was tightened around his neck. As if that wasn’t enough, he was then thrown into the bog.
So, Lindow Man was killed using three different methods, when just one would have been sufficient. The archaeologists believe that he was sacrificed to three different Celtic gods, called Taranis, Esus and Teutates. Each god required a different form of death, for example, a sacrifice to Teutates required drowning, which is why he was found in the bog. Nobody can tell the complete story of Lindow Man. The Romans said that the Celts made sacrifices every May to make sure that there was enough food that year. Was he a typical ‘routine’ sacrificial victim?
An archaeologist called Anne Ross has suggested that Lindow Man was a special case. Why would an important man be sacrificed to three gods? Perhaps it was in response to the Roman invasion of Britain, which started in the year 43 AD, close to the time that Lindow Man died. He might have been killed to gain the help of the gods against the Romans. It didn’t work. The Romans stayed in Britain for 400 years and Lindow Man stayed in his bog for 2,000.
Lindow Man’s home is now the British Museum in London (although he is currently on long-term loan to a museum in Manchester). Whereas the bodies of the Egyptian kings and queens were intentionally preserved, Lindow Man is with us by accident. Whatever his origins, it is a fascinating experience to see him face to face. I recommend it.
Vocabulary
Five words/phrases from the text:
* decompose: to break down gradually by bacteria or fungi
* sink: to go down below the surface
* compress: to push something into less space
* preserved: kept from being changed or destroyed
* drowning: dying in water because you can’t breathe
Exercise one
Vocabulary gap fill. Now use the five words/phrases to fill the gaps in the sentences below:
The remains of a 2,000-year-old man were found near Manchester in the 1980s. The man may have died by ………[1] when his fellow Celts made his body ………[2] into a bog. The skin and internal organs of the man didn’t ………[3], because dead vegetation combined with the mud to ………[4] and form peat which ………[5] the body
Exercise two
Comprehension: true or false. Decide whether these sentences are TRUE or FALSE according to the text:
1. Which language does the word archaeology come from?
2. How many years have humans been in Australia?
3. What was Lindow Man’s ethnic group?
4. How many years has Lindow Man been buried?
5. What is the name of the museum that has the remains of Lindow Man?
Answers
Vocabulary
1. drowning; 2. sink;
3. decompose;
4. compress;
5. preserved
Comprehension
1. Greek; 2. 70,000;
3. Celtic; 4. 2,000;
5. British

Archaeologists Unearth Jurassic Nest in Tamil Nadu

Geologists in Tamil Nadu have stumbled upon a Jurassic treasure trove buried in the sands of a river bed. Sheer luck led them to hundreds of fossilized dinosaur eggs, perhaps 65 million years old, underneath a stream in a tiny village in Ariyalur district.

Researchers from the Salem-based Periyar University found clusters of eggs of what they believe to be the most aggressive Carnosaur and the docile, leaf-eating Sauropod at Sendurai village.

While Carnosaurs were large predatory dinasaurs, Sauropods were long-necked, herbivores which grew to enormous heights and sizes.

That dinosaurs once roamed the area was known from the fossils found there on earlier expeditions. But this is the first time that hundreds of nests embedded with hundreds of clusters of dinosaur eggs have been unearthed in the district.

Located on the highway between Chennai and Tiruchi, the Ariyalur and the neighbouring Perambalur geological sites nestle in the northern plains of the Cauvery river. The place is a veritable museum of ancient organisms, dating back to 140 million years. Ever since a British couple -- the Wines -- collected 32 boxes of "strange stone objects" in 1843, the Ariyalur region has drawn geologists from across the world for its rich fossil presence and diversity.

Scientists have found the tiniest marine algae or the nano fossils besides the rare shell-like bivalve, gastropoda, telecypoda and brachiopoda in the geological sites spread across 950sqkm in Ariyalur and Perambalur districts.

"We found clusters and clusters of spherical eggs of dinosaurs. And each cluster contained eight eggs," says Dr M U Ramkumar, geology lecturer of the Periyar University. Each egg was about 13 to 20 cm in diameter and they were lying in sandy nests which were of the size of 1.25 metres.

In the 1860s, a British geologist first recorded the presence of bone remains of dinosaurs in Ariyalur. Over a century and a half later, the egg of a dinosaur was found in a cement factory of the state-owned Tamil Nadu Cements Ltd in 1990s. But officials realized that it was a dinosaur egg only 10 years later.

On a sultry afternoon on September 12 this year, Ramkumar and his research students went to Ariyalur to scour the rocks and sediments as part of a study funded by Indian and German scientific institutions. As they paused by a stream on a grazing land at Sendurai, they found spherical-shaped fossils peeping out of the sand beds. "We got really excited. As I have seen a dinosaur egg, I was sure these were dinosaur eggs," said Ramkumar.

A quick digging revealed clusters of eggs beneath seven layers of sand spread over two sqkm. The eggs may not have hatched due to the Deccan volcanic eruptions or seasonal flooding, surmise the team. "We suspect the extinction of dinosaurs was triggered by the Deccan volcano. Volcanic ashes cap the eggs," said one researcher.

"This is a very significant finding as never before have we found so many dinosaur eggs in the country. Besides the spherical size of the eggs covered with sand and volcanic ash provide significant insight into the possible reasons for extinction of the species," says Dr Jyotsana Rai, senior scientist, Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany in Lucknow. Her team will collect samples of these eggs to determine its exact age.
Because a similar discovery in Jabalpur led to a plunder of the fossilized treasure, the researchers have requested the Ariyalur district administration to cordon off the site. Samples of the eggs will travel to Germany for further research. The vicinity of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh is considered the richest dinosaur field in the country.---timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Archaeologists Found the Palace of Japan's Warrior Queen

Archaeologists believe they have discovered the palace of Japan's "Boadicea" – the warrior Queen Himiko.
The building covering nearly 300 square metres was located close to the city of Sakurai and the former Japanese capital of Nara, 300 miles south-west of Tokyo.
Built on stilts, the structure was found beside three other aligned buildings, leading archaeologists to believe it is the site of Himiko's Yamatai palace.
"A building cluster that is placed in such a well-planned manner is unprecedented in Japan at that period in time," Hironobu Ishino, director of the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Archaeology, told Kyodo News.
The discovery coincided with celebrations today to mark the 20th anniversary of the enthronement of the present emperor.
Queen Himiko is a popular character in Japanese history. She was apparently able to wield great power in the Yamatai Kingdom from around the end of the second century. Legends handed down from the time describe her as "being skilled with magic".
Japanese revere her as a heroic Boadicea-type figure who unified the kingdom after years of fighting with rival tribes, before her death around 248AD.
The precise location of Yamatai has been one of the most bitterly disputed issues in Japanese archaeology, with some claiming the kingdom was in present-day Kyushu. The latest finding supports the claim of central Japan to the queen's lands.
The researchers' conclusions on the palace are supported by a huge traditional keyhole-shape tomb which is nearby and may be the last resting place of the third-century relative of Emperor Akihito.
Excavation of the tomb could settle that debate once and for all, although the Imperial Household Agency appear to have ruled that out.
Security in Tokyo has been stepped up ahead of official celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the emperor's accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, the longest royal dynasty in the world.
Akihito took over the throne after the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito, in 1989.
Ceremonies are to be held at the Royal National Theatre and 30,000 people are expected to attend a public ceremony later in the day.
More than 16,000 police have been mobilised to provide security and demonstrations by extreme left-wing groups opposed to the imperial system are planned just outside the grounds of the palace in central Tokyo. Clashes with nationalist groups are expected.---telegraph.co.uk

Archaeologists Find New Egyptian Pyramid

Archaeologists have discovered a five meters tall subsidiary pyramid of queen Sesheshet at Saqqara necropolis in Egypt.
Queen Sesheshet was the mother of King Teti I, the founder of the Sixth Dynasty.
According to a report in Al-Ahram Weekly, the discovery of the new pyramid not only brings the number of pyramids discovered in Egypt to 118, but it enriches archaeologists” knowledge of the Sixth Dynasty and its royal family members.
Sesheshet’’s pyramid, found seven metres beneath the sands of the Saqqara necropolis, is five metres in height, although originally it reached about 14 metres. The base is square and the sides of the pyramid slope at an angle of 51 degrees.
The entire monument was originally cased in fine white limestone from Tura, of which some remnants were also unearthed.
Ushabti (model servant) figurines dating from the third Intermediate Period were also found in the area, along with a New Kingdom chapel decorated with a scene of offerings being made to Osiris.
Also found were a group of Late Period coffins, a wooden statue of the god Anubis, amulets, and a symbolic vessel in the shape of a cartouche containing the remains of a green substance.
These objects will be transported to the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square where they will be restored and put on display.
According to Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), who led the excavation team, the finds show that the entire area of the Old Kingdom cemetery of Teti was reused from the New Kingdom through to the Roman Period.
Culture Minister Farouk Hosni described it as “a great discovery” and said he wished that within the next couple of weeks, excavators could find more of the funerary complex of the queen.
“Sesheshet’’s pyramid is the third subsidiary pyramid to be discovered within Teti’’s cemetery,” Hawass said.
He added that earlier excavations at the site had revealed the pyramid of King Teti’’s two wives, Khuit and Iput.
“This might be the most complete subsidiary pyramid ever found at Saqqara,” he said.
The archaeologists found that a shaft had been created in Sesheshet’’s pyramid to allow access to her burial chamber, so they do not expect to find Sesheshet’’s mummy when they reach the burial chamber within the coming two weeks.
However, they anticipate finding inscriptions about the queen, whose name, according to Hawass, was only known from being mentioned in a medical papyrus.---thaindian.com

Archaeologists Discovering Forgotten Ancient Monuments at Lizard Peninsula

Budding archaeologists are discovering previously uncovered and forgotten monuments and buildings around the Lizard Peninsula.
The Lizard Ancient Sites Network has already discovered a settlement of prehistoric round houses near Kynance Cove and the spectacular rampart of an iron age cliff castle at Chynall's point has been unearthed for the first time in many years.
It consists of local enthusiasts and is currently seeking new members.
To get involved call Cheryl Straffon on 01736 787186 or turn up at the next event, which meets at the Traboe Cross car park at Goonhilly Downs this Monday at noon.
More details are in today's Packet.---falmouthpacket.co.uk

Archaeologists Discover Rare Gold Coins in Jerusalem

Some Israeli archaeologists are having a particularly happy Hanukkah, thanks in part to a British volunteer who took time off from her job to work on a dig. The Israel Antiquities Authority reported a thrilling find - the discovery of 264 ancient gold coins in Jerusalem National Park.
The coins were minted during the early 7th century.

"This is one of the largest and most impressive coin hoards ever discovered in Jerusalem -- certainly the largest and most important of its period," said Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets, who are directing the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Researchers discovered the coins at the beginning of the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which started at sunset on Sunday.
One of the customs of the holiday is to give "gelt," or coins, to children, and the archaeologists are referring to the find as "Hanukkah money."

Nadine Ross, a British archaeological volunteer, happened onto the coins during the dig just below the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.

"To be honest, I just thought, 'Thank God I didn't throw it in the rubbish bucket,' " said Ross, who had taken four weeks off from her engineering job in England to work at the site. "I was just glad I sort of spotted it before I disturbed it too much."

The 1,400-year-old coins were found in the Giv'ati car park in the City of David in the walls around Jerusalem National Park, a site that has yielded other finds, including a well-preserved gold earring with pearls and precious stones.

They were in a collapsed building that dates back to the 7th century, the end of the Byzantine period. The coins bear a likeness of Heraclius, who was the Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641.
The authority said that while different coins had been minted during this emperor's reign, the coins found at the site represent "one well-known type."

In that style, the emperor is clad with military garb and is holding a cross in his right hand. On the other side is the sign of the cross.

Authorities said the excavation of the building where the hoard was discovered is in its early stages. They are attempting to learn about the building and its owner and the circumstances of its destruction.

"Since no pottery vessel was discovered adjacent to the hoard, we can assume that it was concealed inside a hidden niche in one of the walls of the building. It seems that with its collapse, the coins piled up there among the building debris," Ben-Ami and Tchekhanovets said.
The find is a a golden moment for Ross, who said "it is a pity that I can't take it home with me. But there you go."--cnn.com

Antique Furniture - Best Treasure

Antique furniture has a major advantage over other antique items like porcelain and painting: It can be used in everyday life and isn't just for appreciation.
What's more, no matter how trendily your home is decorated, a few pieces of antique furniture will inject it with unexpected radiance.
Panjiayuan, Beijing's most renowned antique market, is always swarming with tourists and is definitely not the right place to go.
Gaobeidian Antique Furniture Street
Located in Gaobeidian, on the outskirts of Chaoyang district, this street has been home to antique furniture businesses for more than two decades. It is now lined with more than 150 furniture shops and workshops.
Despite having narrow fronts, many shops are attached to warehouses, where antique furniture is available in many forms, from jewelry cases, chairs and couches, to beds, altar tables and niches for Buddhist statues.
The only pity is that some pieces are smothered in dust and are not displayed in an orderly way.
Many of shop owners come from the south, including Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces, so they sell southern-style furniture featuring delicate woodcarving and elegant shapes.
One shop owner, Chen from Jiangxi, has run a business there for years. Like other businessmen in the street, the three-story building is not only his shop but also his home, in which the family lives on the top floor and the rest is used for business.
"We open the shop everyday and stay late if customers come around at night," he explains.
According to Chen, his best sellers are second-class items costing around 1,000 yuan ($140), or small items for 200 yuan ($28). They are mainly made in ordinary wood, for example China fir and camphorwood.
Shopkeepers can usually tell the item's geographical origins and rough age but if they can't, you have to use your own judgment.
Gaobeidian's prices tend to be lower than those in Panjiayuan but you can often bargain 20 per cent off from the listed price. What's more, the further you go into the street, the cheaper the prices get.
One thing should be pointed out. Once the item is yours, especially if it is a woodcarving, you will need to clean it yourself. It's a painstaking job but it's great fun to see how the antique gradually reveals its original beauty.
The street also has some imitation antique furniture shops, offering more options for buyers.
One thing the street lacks, though, is a place to eat, drink or take a rest. I even find it difficult to buy a bottle of water.
Lujiaying Antique Market
While some collectors hardly ever visit Panjiayuan, it's different with the ever-popular Lujiaying.
Located in the southeastern outskirts, the market is known among insiders as the "Hebei warehouse".
In the 1980s, many Hebei natives gathered here to repair antique or old furniture before reselling it. As time passed by, it developed into one of the country's top distribution centers of antique furniture, much of it from Hebei, Shandong and Shanxi provinces.
Unlike Gaobeidian, Lujiaying Antique Market (LAM) mainly conducts wholesale business. It attracts not only city distributors, but also film and TV drama production units. The film Red Cliff, for instance, bought several set items here.
The price in LAM is even lower than Gaobeidian's but wandering around it will tax your stamina.
Although most shops have more than 100-sq-m floor area, some are still not big enough to display all their furniture so that much is piled up or left outside.
Summer is definitely not the right time to visit LAM - the warehouse has no air conditioning and is hot and stuffy.
Having said that, though, a beautiful woodcarving or jewelry case more than makes up for it.
Putiange Antique Furniture
Putiange is a well-known antique shop among expatriates living in Houshayu, northeastern Beijing in Shunyi district, but will soon be on the move to Yangzhen, a 40-minute drive from the city.
Its 6,000-sq-m warehouse is an eye-opening experience for antique furniture lovers. There seems to be an infinite variety on offer. What's more, each piece is clean and has a fine sheen.
"I don't think antique furniture should be covered with dust and spider's web to prove its age," says the owner, Liu Haihong. "The main attraction of a piece of antique furniture is its style and 'Bao Jiang' (literally, treated with TLC and still looking great after all these years)."
According to Liu, the furniture is collected from around China, for example Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Fujian and Shanghai. About 80 percent of her clients are foreigners.
Putiange features folk articles, such as kang tables (a kind of small short-legged table for use on a heatable bed), bookshelves and cabinets.
Putiange in Houshayu, Shunyi district, has many antique furniture pieces such as bamboo beds (left) and camphorwood cupboards (right).
"I believe they are all interesting pieces of artwork", says Liu.
"Even though they were from an ordinary farmer's home rather than from an official's family, the sizes and styles all followed certain roles, and every detail was tended to. They are the fruit of one person's painstaking work and worth collecting."
Tips:
1. You can get to Gaobeidian by metro line 2 and it should be no more than a 15-minute walk from Gaobeidian station. Besides, it is very difficult to get a taxi back, so some friendly shopkeepers will give you a lift to the nearest main road to catch one.
2. Autumn is the best time to visit Lujiaying. There is no cash machine around, so you'd better take some cash just in case you find something really interesting. The cheapest way to get there is to take metro line 10 to Jingsong station, then a taxi to Lujiaying.
3. As a beginner, it's better not to pay more than 1,000 yuan for one item. If you really like it, just take a photo and show it to some experts to see if it's worth the price.
4. Ask the owners how to clean and maintain the furniture after you buy it.--sina.com

Ancient Treasures Found in Western Turkey

Archeological treasures including a Greek amphitheatre have been unearthed in the ancient city of Laodicea, which is being excavated in western Turkey. Local businesses have been working with regional leaders in the western province of Denizli on the project, the first of its kind in Turkey.

"Something has taken place here that is unseen in the rest of the country," Celal Simsek, head of the excavation team, told the Anatolia news agency.

"The industrialists and businessmen of Denizli contributed to the Laodicea excavations in 2003-2004. This is the finest example of taking care of an ancient city."

Laodicea, originally called Diospolis, or the City of Zeus, was built by Antiochus II Theos, in 261-253 BC, in honour of his wife Laodice.

Local authorities in Denizli are in charge of the excavation of the ancient Greek city.

"For the past year and a half, we have been responsible for the excavation site," said local mayor Nihat Zeybekci.

While the university conducts the excavations, the municipality provides protection, security, and finance under supervision by the culture ministry.

Simsek is also head of the archaeology department at Denizli Pamukkale University.

He has been working at the ancient site for seven years and said he loved the place as if it were his own child.

"There was nothing here when we started working," said Simsek.

He said he and his team had unearthed a street, a city door and its towers, a monumental fountain, a temple, theatres, and the biggest coliseums in ancient Anatolia or Asia Minor, where the modern Turkish Republic is located.

Simsek said they had created a "living park of archaeology" in one of the longest excavations in Turkey.

Businessmen from Denizli Chamber of Industry also provides funding for the excavation team.--adnkronos.com

Ancient Roman Coins Once Again Found in the UK

This is yet another story from the UK, where a metal detector hobbyist stumbled upon a treasure of a lifetime. Keith Bennett was using his metal detector on a Stratford farm owner’s field when his metal detector suddenly alerted him of a strong signal. This strong signal turned out to be over 1,400 Roman coins (or Denarii as they were called back in the day) dating back between 2006 BC to 195 BC! The coins have already been deemed “authentic treasure” which is good in case someone was trying to play a big practical joke on Mr. Bennett.
Apparently, the silver Roman coins were stashed in a large pot (4 feet deep) that was broken on the top half. It seems that the pot had been struck when the field was being plowed, causing a few coins to be scattered around the pot. Since this was a rather large collection of coins, it is possible that they could be tied to a wealthy land owner back in Emperor Augustus (or perhaps earlier) reign.
Even though this treasure is expected to bring in tens and thousands of pounds, and Mr. Bennett supposedly allowed to keep half; I can only imagine the sensation of coming across such a historic find. As you can imagine he was quite stunned as you can reflect from his words:
“I just had an incredible feeling of history and going back in time. I felt a sense of connection with the person who buried these coins all those years ago. I wondered who they were and why they didn’t come back for it. It was brilliant – an experience everyone should have.”
Congratulations Mr. Bennett on such a stellar find, we hope that you find much more to come in your days of treasure hunting! Below are photographs of the Roman coins, check them out to get a feel for how old they are.--treasurehunting.com

370000 Dollar Ring Lost, Reward for Treasure Hunters

A man by the name of Robert Gismondi was eating at a Daytona Beach restaurant when he accidentally dropped his $370k Ring off the pier. He said he was reaching into his pocket to answer his phone when he pulled his hand out the ring slipped off, and made a splash in the water below. Gismondi is offering a reward in the THOUSANDS for finding his ring. You might have to contend with his insurance agency, but I would act quick as they are probably slow to act.
Ok, so for you treasure hunter divers out there lets go over some clues to help you find that treasure:
-Location is: Main Street Pier in Daytona Beach
-Band is said to be white gold.
-Diamond is large orange color.
-Pier worker was told where it dropped. (With a little questioning and detective work you may want to find out where on the pier it fell at to narrow your search)
As I see it the ring could either be washed out with the current, or more likely buried in the sand around the pier. Either way I would wait for calm weather as diving under piers is extremely dangerous and the water will be more clear to help find the ring. So what are you waiting for!?

10000 Ancient Roman Coin Aged 1700 Discovered in Near Shrewsbury

What a lucky day for a guy who just started a hobby of metal detecting for a month. UK Dailymail reported that Nick Davies found this amazing haul of 10,000 Roman coins on his first ever treasure hunt. The stunning collection of coins, most of which were found inside the broken brown pot, was uncovered by Nick during a search of land in the Shrewsbury area - just a month after he took up the hobby of metal detecting. Experts say the coins have spent an estimated 1,700 years underground.

The silver and bronze 'nummi' coins, dating from between 240AD and 320AD, were discovered in a farmer's field near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, last month. His amazing find is one of the largest collections of Roman coins ever discovered in Shropshire. And the haul could be put on display at Shrewsbury's new £10million heritage centre, it was revealed today. It is also the biggest collection of Roman coins to be found in Britain this year. Nick, from Ford, Shropshire, said he never expected to find anything on his first treasure hunt - especially anything of any value.

He recalled the discovery and described it as 'fantastically exciting'.

Nick said: "The top of the pot had been broken in the ground and a large number of the coins spread in the area. All of these were recovered during the excavation with the help of a metal detector." "This added at least another 300 coins to the total - it's fantastically exciting. I never expected to find such treasure on my first outing with the detector."

The coins have now been sent to the British Museum for detailed examination, before a report is sent to the coroner.Experts are expected to spend several months cleaning and separating the coins, which have fused together. They will also give them further identification before sending them to the coroner. A treasure trove inquest is then expected to take place next year. Peter Reavill, finds liaison officer from the Portable Antiquities Scheme, records archaeological finds made by the public in England and Wales, He said the coins were probably payment to a farmer or community at the end of a harvest.

Speaking to the Shropshire Star, Mr Reavill said the coins appear to date from the period 320AD to 340AD, late in the reign of Constantine I.

Mr Reavill said: “There seems to be a minimum of 10,000 coins, the majority of which are corroded together in the pot.

“The coins are all bronze, and some of them have been silver washed. They are known as nummi and were common during the 4th century AD.

“The top of the pot had been broken in the ground and a large number of the coins spread in the area. All of these were recovered during the excavation with the help of a metal detector. This added at least another 300 coins to the total.

“It is likely that the hoard represents a person or communities wealth, possibly as a payment for a harvest. Why it was not collected by the owner is a mystery, but one that we can share and enjoy 1,700 years after the fact.”

However, Mr Reavill declined to put a figure on either the value of the coins or the pot until the findings of the inquest are known, but he described the discovery as a 'large and important' find.

Mr Reavill said the exact location of the find could not be revealed for security reasons.-www.dailymail.co.uk

2000yo Iron Age Materials Should Return to Anglesey

Ancient artefacts, more than 2,000 years old, should be brought back to Anglesey (Wales) claims an island politician. A large hoard of Iron Age materials were discovered in Llyn Cerrig Bach, Llanfair-yn-Neubwll, in 1942. The items are currently kept in Cardiff, but local councillor Gwilym O Jones believes the treasure troves should brought back and displayed at Llangefni's Oriel Môn. And the council agrees, explaining they are currently in talks on that very subject.

Cllr Jones said: "I understand why the treasures were taken down to the National Museum in Cardiff. At the time there was nowhere secure enough on Anglesey to keep them. But that has changed in recent years. I feel that now is the time to campaign to bring the treasures back. I'm not talking about bringing them back permanently, but I feel they should here for part of the year, say through the summer months. I think many people would be interested in seeing them."

Anglesey County Council's head of museums, archives and culture, Pat West, said: "We have a good working relationship with the National Museum and are in negotiations with them about holding a short term exhibition of the artefact found at Llyn Cerrig Bach. "As yet we have no set date for an exhibition but it would be in the next two to three years."

Chariots, weapons, tools and decorated metalwork items were cast from a causeway or island into Llyn Cerrig Bach between 300 BCE and 100 CE. They were discovered in 1942 by William Roberts as the airfield was being extended to accommodate the US air force bomber, The Flying Fortress. The site was investigated by Sir Cyril Fox, the then keeper of archaeology at the National Museum of Wales in 1946.-www.theonlinemail.co.uk

Austrian Archaeologists Discovered Babylonian Seal in Egypt

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.

She said ÖAI would open a museum at the Avaris site that the Egyptian government and sponsors would fund to make the seal and other objects accessible to tourists.

Forstner-Müller added Avaris would remain ÖAI’s main project site in Egypt but that ÖAI and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) were working together at a site at Philae/Aswan and ÖAI and Berlin’s Humboldt University were working together at another in Luxor/Asasif.

Ephesos, Turkey, remained the site of ÖAI’s so-called "flagship" project since it had been important historically from the Copper Age to the time of the Ottoman Empire, she said.--- ustriantimes.at

2000-year-old American Indian Masterpieces Can Be Observed in Cleveland in 2010

"Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection", a major traveling exhibition, developed by the Fenimore Art Museum, making its debut at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) in March 2010, explores Native North American art from the Eastern Woodlands to the Northwest through more than 140 masterpieces spanning 2,000 years. The exhibition provides visitors with a broad understanding and appreciation of the aesthetic accomplishments and cultural heritage of this country’s first peoples. "Art of the American Indians" opens at CMA on March 7, 2010 and runs through May 30 before traveling to Minneapolis , Indianapolis and San Francisco.

The objects in the exhibition are drawn from 'The Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of Native North American Art', which was carefully assembled over the past two decades by Eugene V. Thaw, one of the art world’s most distinguished connoisseurs and collectors of art. This is the first time this collection is being treated as an exhibition and several key objects will only be seen at the Cleveland venue.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to see an extraordinary range of Native North American works of the highest quality, each piece a paragon of creativity and artistic excellence,” said Sue Bergh, associate curator of Pre-Columbian and Native North American art, CMA. “In Gene Thaw’s own words, ‘Indian material culture stands rightfully with ancient art masterpieces of Asia and Europe as their equivalent.’ We are delighted to offer visitors this opportunity to more deeply examine this fascinating dimension of the American experience and history.”

The works in "Art of the American Indians" are organized by geographic regions, moving from the ancient ivories and ingenious modern masks of the Arctic to the astonishingly beautiful and dramatic arts of the Pacific Northwest , which form one of the pillars of the Thaw Collection. The basketry of Native weavers appears in a section devoted to California and the adjacent Great Basin , home of Louisa Keyser (also known as Dat So La Lee), a renowned Washoe basket weaver and one of the most celebrated Native artists. Beacon Lights, Keyser’s most famous creation, will be a centerpiece of the exhibition.

The abstract art of the culturally complex Southwest will be shown in both its ancient and modern manifestations. From the Plains come outstanding examples of the colorful beaded, feathered, and painted works for which the region is most famous. Finally are the Eastern Woodlands, including the Great Lakes , and their visually quieter and more contemplative arts, which are another of the collection’s great strengths.

The majority of the 120 piece collection dates to the 19th-century, but archaeological and contemporary works also are included to demonstrate the continued vitality of Native North American cultures. Twenty CMA objects will also appear at the Cleveland venue.

Exhibition highlights include:
• Shaman's Mask, Tlingit people, Northwest Coast – A magnificently malevolent mask that directly manifests a powerful spirit being who helped a shaman intermediate between the worlds of matter and spirit: an octopus, signaled by sucker disks on the cheeks and the peaked, beak-like mouth.

• Crane Mask, Yup'ik people, Arctic – This mask, one of the finest that survives, is part of a nearly identical female-male pair that danced together. Each crane strains forward and flutters its wings protectively around a figure on its breast, one a sick shaman and the other perhaps a helper coming to the shaman’s aid. (Cleveland only.)

• Painted Drum, Pawnee people, Plains – Throwing lightning from its beak, a thunderbird dives from black clouds into a threatening yellow sky as a flock of swallows, the storm’s harbingers, scatters like wind-blown leaves. Beneath, in a small center of calm, a man offers a pipe upward. (Cleveland only.)

• Basket, Louisa Keyser (Dat So La Lee), Washoe – A national treasure made by one of the most legendary basket-makers in North America. (Cleveland only.)

. "Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection". is organized by the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown , N.Y. The Cleveland Museum of Art is generously funded by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this exhibition with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.---www.artdaily.org

1910 Soda and Beer Bottles Discovered at Construction Sites

Two construction sites less than a mile apart in Auburn have yielded historical finds.
Digging up the Placer County Courthouse parking lot, a construction crew discovered a two-foot- deep hole that recently yielded several dirt-encrusted bottles dating back to 1852.
Last week, a sharp-eyed backhoe operator saw glass glinting in the light of a mound of dirt at the city’s Central Square Streetscape project. That yielded a sizable stash of soda and beer bottles buried around 1910.
Cliff Kennedy, a Penryn historical artifact expert, is now working with the county Museums Division to research the past of the newly found collection of bottles. They’ll shed more light on both Auburn’s Gold Rush days and, with the Central Square find, the A.W. Kenison bottling business.
“Auburn is the endurance capital but it’s also a city of bottles,” Kennedy said.
The Kenison plant, located next to the now-long-gone Auburn Opera House on Central Square, was at the center of the bottle business from the 1890s well into the 1910s. A.W. Kenison, who also served as opera house manager, died at age 49 in 1904. The business continued on, selling soda as well as beer to parched foothills throats through about 1916.
The courthouse bottles were found in a hole that was once at the bottom of a privy. The first permanent courthouse was built over it in 1853, replacing several houses that were located on the knoll. They sat undisturbed until workers resurfacing the front courthouse parking lot discovered them.
The half-dozen bottles from the courthouse are made in Philadelphia. They were shipped empty around Cape Horn to California, where they were filled with soda or beer either in Sacramento or San Francisco. From there, they made their way to the gold fields.
The privy hole also yielded a broken clay pipe, a lock plate for a trunk, a serrated beam for a scale, a spice bottle base and a chamber pot remnant.
“This stuff is exciting because it dates from Auburn’s infancy,” Kennedy said.
Herb Yue, a bottle collector whose family roots in Auburn date back to the late Gold Rush period, said a good specimen of a bottle like the ones from the county courthouse recently sold for $56.
Bottle finds – particularly from digs in dirt that once made a privy – happen every few years in Auburn. This time, the city and county are the ones that have taken possession of a notable discovery. Melanie Barton, museums administrator, said the city may display theirs at the Civic Center and the county is also looking at some way to share the find. The city collection numbers about 20 bottles.
Yue said that the historic locations where they were found adds to their historical value.
“It’s neat to hang onto a piece of history that a gold miner probably held in his hand,” Yue said. “If they could talk, you know, what stories they could tell.”

Was the Nazi Gold Really Discovered?

At the start of World War II, Germany was in a deep financial depression. Its currency was worth nothing. In order to fund its war effort, the Nazi regime routinely looted gold from occupied countries. During the course of the war, the regime stole at least $400 million in gold from occupied nations and at least $140 million in gold from individuals, particularly those imprisoned in concentration camps. They were meticulous, raiding Jewish homes, safety deposit boxes and even removing gold dental fillings from people's teeth.
Most of the stolen gold was stored in Germany's Reichsbank, the bank of the Third Reich. But after a 1945 bombing raid, the Nazis moved the gold to a safer location. Much of it was taken to a potassium mine about 200 miles from Berlin. When Germany was overtaken and the Allied forces took over, laborers from this mine told American soldiers that they had watched as Nazi troops moved gold and art into hidden caves within the mine. At the end of the war, hundreds of millions in gold and silver bars, paper currency and art was recovered at the mine. However, not all of the loot was found, and there could be millions more in stolen gold that's left in and around Germany.
A recent discovery has renewed world interest in the quest. Have treasure hunters really discovered the famed Nazi gold stash? Some say they have. Some even say they've found the Amber Room.

The Hunt for Nazi Treasure
The legendary Reichsbank treasure is said to be worth millions of dollars. In 2000, German treasure hunters believed they'd found the hiding place (deep in the German Alps) where the rest of the gold was stashed. But the harshness of the terrain made it impossible for them to find the buried loot, and they eventually gave up.
But in February 2008, the search took on new life when treasure hunters converged on the German hamlet Deutschkatharinenberg. The mayor of a nearby town called Deutschneudorf, Heinz-Peter Haustein, has been looking for the gold there for a decade. When a man named Christian Hanisch turned up, the search became something of a frenzy. He seemed to have evidence that confirmed what Haustein believed: the gold was in Deutschkatharinenberg.
Hanisch's father was in the German air force during WWII, and Hanisch had apparently found an old journal of his father's that indicated the location of the missing gold. He joined forces with Haustein, and they gathered a full treasure-hunting team to go looking for the man-made mountain cavern that supposedly holds the loot. They claim they've not only found the gold, but also the legendary Amber Room.
The Amber Room was a chamber in the U.S.S.R.'s Catherine Palace, near St. Petersburg. The room's walls were covered in amber-colored, solid gold paneling. The panels were stolen by the Nazis during the war, and were last seen in an art exhibition in Germany in 1945. After that, they disappeared. A few of the panels have since been recovered, but most have never been found.
Haustein's team claims to have found pieces of the Amber Room. They say they've confirmed with an electromagnetic metal detector that the gold lies somewhere beneath the surface of the East German mountainside, probably about 60 feet (20 meters) down. They estimate a find of about 2 tons of gold, and they believe this discovery includes the Amber Room. They seem to be basing this belief on the idea that if there's that much gold down there, it must include the gold from the Amber Room, which is a significant piece of the Nazi treasure.
But the dig has so far been unsuccessful and the hunters can't seem to find the cavern. As of late February 2008, they have retained the services of a geophysicist to help them figure out exactly where to dig.
Even with the help of a geophysicist, Haustein's team doesn't expect to get into the chamber any time soon. They believe the stash might be booby-trapped, and they want explosives engineers to check out the situation before they dig any further.
In the midst of all this treasure hunting, the question arises: If they find Nazi gold, do they get to keep it? When wartime loot is recovered, to whom do the spoils go?

The Legal Side of Recovered Treasure
Many experts don't believe the Amber Room is buried in Deutschkatharinenberg. Some think the panels were lost at sea, or destroyed by Allied bombs in the final days of the war. Nonetheless, if the cultural treasure does turn up, it's unclear who will have ownership rights. Haustein says the Amber Room panels would belong to Russia, but that any other gold -- the non cultural-artifact type -- would legally belong to Germany
Others might disagree. Counties have been making an effort to return stolen gold (or its monetary equivalent) to the individuals and nations from whom it was taken. This effort was meager at first, but it picked up toward the end of the twentieth century when the world took a renewed interest in restitution. Forty-two countries showed up at the London Conference on Nazi Gold in 1997 to form a joint effort to uncover stolen gold and return it to its rightful owners. Ten countries still lay claim to more than $60 million in lost gold (about 5.5 metric tons). At the conference, many of those countries agreed to relinquish their claims on some of this gold and contribute it instead to various humanitarian groups, especially those benefiting Holocaust survivors, from whom the Nazi regime appropriated bank accounts, gold and everything else of value.
It's fairly clear, at least, where the Amber Room gold will end up if it's ever found. The Geneva Conventions outlaws the wartime looting or destruction of cultural artifacts and requires that anything of cultural significance be returned after the war if it's taken. So it's likely the Amber Room would be returned to Russia.
However, the treasure hunters in Deutschkatharinenberg have more pressing issues to deal with. As of Feb. 28, 2008, Haustein has reportedly kicked Hanisch out of Deutschneudorf. The two treasure hunters argued about where to dig and whether to suspend the search until scientists and engineers arrived to assess the situation. Hanisch now says he does not believe the treasure hunters have found the Amber Room at all. He says it's just plain-old gold.

UNESCO Teams Up With TripAdvisor to Protect World Heritage Sites

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has teamed up with TripAdvisor, the largest global online travel community, to mobilize support to preserve natural and cultural sites inscribed on its World Heritage List.
“Because of TripAdvisor’s excellent reach to their member community, we can, together, raise awareness of World Heritage as well as receive member feedback about sites,” said Francesco Bandarin, Director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre.
“This certainly helps us flag site issues and provides useful information on how World Heritage travellers engage with the sites and their communities. We are looking forward to partnering with TripAdvisor on this initiative,” he added in a news release announcing the two-year initiative.
TripAdvisor founder and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Kaufer pledged to donate up to $1.5 million over the next two years to help UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre monitor the conservation of the 890 natural and cultural sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.
The Centre also provides technical and administrative support for States that have ratified the 1972 World Heritage Convention, enabling them to translate its provisions into action.
“We’re calling on the world’s largest travel community to help preserve the places around the world that we all love,” said Mr. Kaufer.
“In support of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, we will give not only dollars but also the collective wisdom and support of TripAdvisor’s millions of travellers, and their trusted insights. We’re eager to build global awareness about World Heritage sites, and about sustainable and responsible travel.”
More than 25 million online visitors use its TripAdvisor’s websites every month to find and share travel information.---www.un.org

Strange Ways Different People Discovered Treasures

Some people take out loans or apply to get grant money, others stumble upon money. Treasures can be found in the strangest of places, in the oddest of ways. Here are some of the unlikely but true stories of discovered treasures:

1) From my cold, dead, and lucky hands
A retired man in Connecticut named Donald Peters (79) bought two lottery tickets at a 7-Eleven, just hours before dying of a heart attack. A few weeks after his death, his wife Charlotte (78) was going through his things, and came across the tickets. Charlotte brought them to the shop, only to find out that she just won $10 million! According to the Peters’ son, Brian, their father would certainly have appreciated the irony of the event. “He’d be very mad, he just passed away and she won a lot of money.”

2) Money down the crapper
In January of 2009, an Arizona plumber named Mike Roberts, found a 7-carat diamond, worth $70,000. It seems the ring had been flushed down the toilet at the “Black Bear Diner” in Phoenix.

3) Contract killer
Apparently, bathrooms can be pretty useful spots to hide your money, as contractor Bob Kitts from Cleveland, Ohio discovered. Kitts found $182,000 of Depression-era money hidden in a bathroom wall. He told the homeowner about the money; arguments broke out quickly on how to repartition the findings. This led to a legal battle between the homeowner and the contractor, and eventually between the found money’s family descendants who had been traced back from the return address on the envelope the money was found in. The contractor would have done well to keep his mouth shut.

4) A Hole: Lotta Gold
Jeff Bidelman, a Johnstown Rare Collectibles owner, was helping a family clean out the house their relative had abandoned over twenty years ago. As he was dragging a bag of old coins downstairs, he noticed a hole in an upstairs wall. When the first floor got torn down, a mounting pile of gold coins worth about $200,000 was found. Apparently, they had been thrown down the hole Bidelman had noticed earlier.

5) Old Money
Full-time plumber and part-time fossil hunter, Greg Riecke, was on one of his expeditions near the Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District in Perris, California, when he discovered a nearly intact Mastodon tusk (one of the rarest fossils on the planet), dating anywhere from 16,000 to 2 million years old!

6) Tired of poverty
Three Mount Comfort state highway workers found $100,000 in an abandoned tire as they were picking up litter. Unfortunately, drug-sniffing dogs found the scent of drugs on the bills. Their lucky find had to be turned in to the Indiana state police.---www.cosmoloan.com

Rare Anchor of a Pirate Ship Shown in Greenville

A rare piece of North Carolina's early history was pulled from the Beaufort Inlet this week and displayed in Greenville.
An anchor believed to be from Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, was taken from the water by researchers with the QAR Project, a state-funded research expedition that will eventually bring up 700,000 individual artifacts.
The anchor was displayed at the QAR Conservation Lab on the East Carolina University West Research Campus on Thursday afternoon.
Historians say that the infamous pirate and his ship ran aground in 1718 in Beaufort Inlet. The wreckage, which was first found in 1996, is located about a mile from Fort Macon in 25 feet of water.
As more artifacts are recovered researchers are more and more confident that the wreckage is what remains of Blackbeard's ship.
“This is the oldest shipwreck we have worked on in North Carolina,” Mark Wilde-Ramsing, QAR project manager, said. “It is associated with Blackbeard and every artifact is important for understanding what was going on at the time.”
The 160-pound anchor is one of the largest pieces recovered from the ship so far, but researchers will eventually bring up very large pieces, including cannons weighing about one ton each, Wilde-Ramsing said.
The five-pronged anchor was not the primary anchor for the Queen Anne's Revenge, it would have been too small. The Queen Anne's Revenge was a 100-foot ship that could carry 200 people.
Wilde-Ramsing said the anchor was probably for a smaller vessel that was associated with Blackbeard's flagship.
Researchers brought up the anchor because it had broken loose from the ground and they worried that is could be lost if not recovered now.
Years of dredging in the inlet exposed the wreckage and loosed many items that are at risk of being washed away. The wreckage was previously covered with sand for hundreds of years, Wilde-Ramsing said.
He said it will be more than seven years before all of the items associated with the ship are brought out of the water.
It will take about six months to get the anchor cleaned and then it will be placed in a special bath for two years before it can be displayed in a museum. Most of the items from the shipwreck will wind up at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, Wilde-Ramsing said.
“Archeologists work with real things and to literally have items that were used 300 years ago is a great find for the public,” Wilde-Ramsing said. “I'm really proud that North Carolina has this wreck and is doing such a good job recovering it.”---www.reflector.com

Workers in India Discover 13th Century Silver Coins

Indian laborers recently accidentally found 62 silver coins which appeared to be from 13th century Delhi Sultanate period in the northern Uttar Pradesh state, the private Indo-Asian News Service said Thursday.
A group of 50 labourers digging a drain in Bareilly district, 250 kilometers from the state capital of Lucknow, came across the silver coins Tuesday, the report quoted a local official as saying.
The laborers did not reveal their finding and distributed the coins among themselves. However, some of the laborers were not satisfied with their share and told the authorities about the coins, said the report.
Authorities have taken over the coins and put them in a treasury. The area from where the coins were recovered has been cordoned off and no one is allowed to enter it, said the report.
The coins bear Arabic inscriptions and are dated equivalent to the period 1218-1229. A team of the Archeological Survey of India officials from Lucknow has been called to study the coins.
A great part of India was controlled by Delhi Sultanate Muslim rulers from 1206 to 1526.---news.xinhuanet.com

UK Archaeologists Dig Out Roman Amphitheatre

British archaeologists have unearthed a Roman amphitheatre overlooked by previous excavations at a site to the north of the Tiber that once served as the maritime gateway to imperial Rome.
During their three-year dig close to Rome's Fiumicino airport, the researchers also found a shipping canal, luxuriously decorated rooms and a colonnaded garden, suggesting the port was a regular way station for Roman emperors.
Portus, ancient Rome's Mediterranean harbour, now lies two miles inland because of sedimentation. But it was once a basin a little over a mile wide serving 350-tonne vessels unloading grain, silk and wild animals.
The £1m dig, led by the University of Southampton, assisted by Cambridge University and the British School at Rome, focused on the remains of a palace built between the port's main basin and a hexagonal inner harbour where goods were unloaded into 300-metre-long warehouses supported by 15-metre brick arches before being transferred by canal to the Tiber for transport to Rome.
While researchers had uncovered warehouses previously, the presence of a theatre was only hinted at by the archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani during an 1860 excavation, the last big dig at the site.
This time, the British team, aided by the archaeology superintendent of Ostia, brought in magnetic sensors, ground radar and metal probes. "The current passes between the probes and we can see the resistance from buried remains," said Graeme Earl, one of the team leaders. The careful search disclosed the curved walls of the amphitheatre, dated by the project's director, Professor Simon Keay, to the 3rd century AD. "Its design, using luxurious materials and substantial colonnades, suggests it was used by a high-status official, possibly even the emperor himself … it could have been games or gladiatorial combat, wild beast baiting or the staging of mock sea battles. But we really do not know."
The ground scans revealed a garden, cisterns, a 250-metre by 60-metre room attached to the palace and a 90-metre-wide canal linked to nearby Ostia. Keay also found a head – using the more low-tech method of almost tripping over it. "The bulldozer was clearing topsoil and I saw to my horror a human face looking at me. It is one of the most spectacular finds to date," he said. The exquisite sculpture, which could depict Ulysses, "was the property of someone with a lot of culture and disposable income", said Keay.
The luxury fittings extend to fine blue and white marble in a lavatory. "There was probably running water beneath the marble toilets to prevent smells," said Rose Ferraby, an archaeologist. Holes in the front panel of the loo seat let users clean themselves with a brush, she added.
Built by Claudius in AD46, Portus was expanded by Trajan in the second century. The importance of grain shipments getting through to Rome became clear in AD62 when a storm sank 200 ships in the main harbour, prompting bread shortages and riots. "By that time Rome had long outgrown Italy's ability to feed it and the city owed its existence to the port," said Keay. "That makes Portus one of the most important archaeological sites in the world."---www.guardian.co.uk

Treasure Hunt in England Might Rewrite History

An amateur treasure hunter prowling English farmland with a metal detector stumbled upon the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure ever discovered, a massive collection of gold and silver crosses, sword decorations and other items, British archaeologists reported Thursday.
One expert said the treasure would revolutionize understanding of the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people who ruled England from the fifth century until the Norman conquest in 1066. Another said the find would rank among Britain's best-known historic treasures.
"This is just a fantastic find completely out of the blue," Roger Bland, who managed the cache's excavation, said in a statement. "It will make us rethink the Dark Ages."
Leslie Webster, the former curator of Anglo-Saxon archeology at the British Museum, said the amount of gold uncovered — about 11 pounds (5 kilograms) — suggested that early medieval England was a far wealthier place than previously believed.
She also said the crosses and other religious artifacts mixed in with the mainly military items might shed new light on the relationship between Christianity and warfare among the Anglo-Saxons.
The seventh-century hoard found by 55-year-old Terry Herbert in western England, consists of about 1,500 pieces of gold and silver, mostly weapons and other military artifacts, some inlaid with precious stones. Experts say the finely crafted pieces could have belonged to Anglo-Saxon royalty.
Herbert, from the town of Burntwood, found the gold on a friend's farm on July 5 and spent the next five days scouring the field for the rest of the hoard.
Herbert recovered the first items before professional archaelogists took over the excavation.
"Imagine you're at home and somebody keeps putting money through your letterbox, that was what it was like," Herbert said. "I was going to bed and in my sleep I was seeing gold items."
The hoard was officially declared treasure by a coroner, which means it will now be valued by a committee of experts and offered up for sale to a museum. Proceeds would be split 50-50 between Herbert and his farmer friend, who has not been identified. The find's exact location is being kept secret to deter looters.
Bland said he could not give a precise figure for the worth of the hoard, but he said the treasure hunter could be in line for a "seven-figure sum."
Herbert said the experience had been "more fun than winning the lottery," adding that one expert likened his discovery to finding Tutankhamen's tomb.
"I just flushed all over when he said that. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up," Herbert said.
The hoard is in storage at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Some of the items are due to go on display starting Friday.---pravda.ru

Treasure Discovered in Anglo-Saxon Cemetery

A GROUP of 58 items from a ploughed-out Anglo-Saxon cemetery were among the finds unearthed by Isle of Wight metal-detecting enthusiasts.

The majority of the artefacts were declared treasure by Island coroner, John Matthews.
He heard they came from the same West Wight Saxon graves where silver and gold jewellery was first discovered by metal-detecting enthusiast Stewart Thompson in 2004.

Mr Matthews also ruled as treasure this Anglo-Saxon silver hooked tag, pictured, dating back to the ninth or tenth century, found by Robert Fry while metal-detecting in May.---www.iwcp.co.uk

The Lost Ancient Treasures of Albania

Just 20 years ago, when communism was starting to crumble across Eastern Europe, the idea of isolated, totalitarian Albania embracing Western project management would have been fanciful.
But it has happened - at Butrint, a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Just 5km (three miles) from the vibrant Greek holiday island of Corfu, Butrint preserves the tranquil, classical atmosphere beloved of 19th Century tourists such as Lord Byron.
Ancient ruins are lapped by water and shrouded by foliage. Massive Hellenistic walls share the site with precise Roman structures, Byzantine mosaics and two Venetian castles. The local ferry is still a raft, the views are sublime and the sunsets magical.
How has Albania managed to safeguard Butrint, when so much of its recent history has been turbulent, with communist dictatorship giving way to freewheeling capitalism?
The answer lies in partnership between local, national and international bodies, and the careful nurturing of systems new to the country.
The creation of a national park, and modern legislation to control it, led to a protected zone, which is now backed by international bodies including the World Bank.
A UK-based charity, the Butrint Foundation, is working with Albanian officials to develop the heritage site in a way that is sustainable and attractive to tourists. Archaeology, conservation and museum management are all areas where Albania is benefiting from Western expertise.
Pioneering project
Diana Ndrenika, director of Albanian heritage, says the national park "is not only a story of success in its own right, but it has set the pace within the Albanian context of how such a resource should be run".
She says it has had a big impact on other sites in Albania and has become "the model, the standard to which everyone working in this sector refers".
The site occupies a low wooded hill, with vistas of the Ionian Sea to one side and the expanse of Lake Butrint to the other.
Its mythical foundation was by refugee Trojans, with archaeology indicating that Butrint has been occupied since at least the 8th Century BC.
It was a local tribal centre by the 4th Century BC, part of the Kingdom of Pyrrhus, the inveterate enemy of the Romans. Then it was a Roman colony founded by Emperor Augustus a few years after his great victory over Anthony and Cleopatra, which occurred at Actium, only a few miles to the south.
Butrint's later history was turbulent, amid power struggles between Byzantium and its Western enemies - Normans led by Robert Guiscard, Angevin French under their dour King Charles of Anjou, scheming Venetian politicians and the banner of Islam borne by the victorious Ottoman Empire. Since 1912 it has been part of independent Albania.
Continuing challenges
The collapse of communism in 1992 caused much damage. Then civil unrest in 1997 led to looting of the museum at Butrint, though many artefacts have now been returned thanks to international co-operation.
The breakdown of old organisational structures has inevitably brought problems as well as opportunities for Albania, impacting on Butrint. Development pressure, often illegal, remains an issue.
There remains much to do at the site itself. Car parking, given rising visitor numbers, is inadequate, toilet facilities need considerable improvement, conservation of both the natural and historic environment is an ongoing challenge, and rising water levels threaten mosaics and walls. But investment in the local community should help tackle these issues.
International donations are paying for the training of young Albanian professionals. Some are already working in other parts of the country. The projects include an archaeological training school at Butrint, run by Albanian archaeologists for both domestic and foreign students.---news.bbc.co.uk

Shipwreck from the Civil War Era Found, Again

Like a toy surprise in a box of Cracker Jacks - er, slightly water-logged Cracker Jacks, that is - a Civil War era shipwreck turned up among Hurricane Ike debris.
The discovery, thought to be previously uncharted, was made by crews last week scanning the bays around Galveston to chart debris.
While the find came as a kind of fun surprise to the contractors doing the work, State Marine Archeologist Steve Hoyt was pleased - but not terribly surprised.
"There have been nearly 2,000 ship wrecks (in Texas coastal waters), with a lot of those concentrated around the Galveston area," Hoyt said.
A surprising amount of Texas history is underwater.
With many immigrants arriving here by ship, along with the goods and supplies they needed for frontier life, traveling by water was common.
The bays of the Galveston area were particularly busy.
"Much of the history of Texas is maritime history," Hoyt said.
Hoyt added it's possible the shipwreck had been buried in mud and Ike's surge might have uncovered it. Or, it could just be that it had simply been overlooked until now.
The post-Ike sonar operation is likely the most extensive ever undertaken in the Galveston Bay area.
In the past, smaller areas have been surveyed for different projects, such as pipelines, to ensure that the work won't disturb any significant sites, Hoyt said.
"This is the first time I know there's been such widespread coverage," he added.
When the Texas Historic Commission finds out about a "new" historic ship wreck site, personnel begin to comb through a database of thousands of shipwrecks known to have occurred in the region.
"Most wrecks in the database, we don't know where they are - we only know of them through historic records," he said.
Hoyt wouldn't say what ships he thought the sonar scanners' find might be.
"We're looking at several," he said. "It wouldn't be appropriate to say till we have a better idea."
The next step for the Texas Historic Commission is to assess the site.
"We will get a crew together and try to dive on it," Hoyt said, adding that weather would play a role in scheduling the dive.
Diving in the bay will be challenging.
"Visibility is not good - it can be quite dangerous," he said. "You do get the occasional day when diving conditions are nice and you can get several feet of visibility."
Otherwise, divers will assess the site by "Braille work," Hoyt said, meaning they'll literally have to feel for it.
The wreck, thought to be from the Civil War era, could yield a treasure trove of historic artifacts.
An iron-hulled ship would withstand the long immersion better than one of wood, but even a wood ship would contain many iron or ceramic parts and fixtures that could have survived.
Door hinges, drawer pulls, engines, anchors, mast and rigging paraphernalia are typical items to be found.
"It's amazing how much can still be left on a large ship," Hoyt said, adding that even a small, wooden hull ship yielded more than 1 million artifacts.
The sonar crews will soon begin work in Sabine Lake.
Hoyt said there's no telling what might be found there.
"At Sabine Pass there were a number of wrecks, but once you get into the lake, there were fewer," he said.
The location of the wreck is undisclosed, in accordance with Texas administrative code. Hoyt said this is to protect the historic sites from plunder.---www.beaumontenterprise.com