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People of the Forest: the Arc of Appalachia’s 2013 Summer Lecture Series at Serpent Mound

People of the Forest The Arc of Appalachia ’s 2013 Indigenous Legacies Summer Lecture Series Exploring Eastern America’s Cultural Roots Three Archaeological Lectures on Ohio Valley’s Mound-builders Sunday July 14, Saturday August 3, Saturday...Show More Summary

Oil

DID JAPANESE FISHERMEN DISCOVER AMERICA 5,000 YEARS AGO?

The possibility that various European, African, or Asian cultures might have “discovered” the Americas centuries or even millennia before Columbus is a wildly popular idea. Numerous books, magazines, and television programs have been devoted to the topic. Show More Summary

Syria breaking up

After more than two years of conflict, Syria is in danger of breaking up into several smaller units (Ben Hubbard, 'Syria Begins to Break Apart Under Pressure From War', New York Times May 16, 2013).The black flag of jihad flies over much of northern Syria. Show More Summary

American Dug up Dealers....

US dugup dealers Kumar and Sons of 2543 Gold Course Lane North, Scruton, Wisconsin have some objects from Syria in their online catalogue. They got them from "Dell Boy" Trotter who would not reveal his sources, but they came wrapped in pages ripped from last month's Lebanese newspapers. Show More Summary

What can you expect? A Respectable Business Would....

. Recently, respectable second hand car dealer Kumar and Sons of Gasworks Lane, Clapham, had some problems with the law. A car they'd received from "Dell Boy" Trotter who'd got it from "Diamond Dick" Staggers turned out, like the one they'd got from the two of them the month previously, to have been stolen the week before. Show More Summary

Due diligence and collecting histories

Collecting histories are important. They indicate the routes through the antiquities market. And the collecting histories for objects that have been returned to Italy as a result of the Medici Conspiracy are fascinating. So if, say,Show More Summary

Pompeii Streets Photo Essay

Anyone who has been a reader of these pages for very long knows I have a thing about ancient roads. I can't really explain it, except to say that it interests me that in certain places, a public thoroughfare is built and rebuilt and rebuilt, but remains in the same geographical location for hundreds of years. Show More Summary

Spambots, You Gotta Luv 'em

The admin of Heritage Action have been trawling through their spam folders for some real gems: 'Spam, or Light Entertainment?' It seems it's not just antiquity collectors who are "challenged by formal education" as Minister Lammy famously remarked about PAS "partners".

Doing the Right Thing

Mark V. Vlasic and Tess Davis have a hard-hitting op-ed piece in the New York Times ("When Museums Do The Right Thing", May 17, 2013 ) "Stones and bones rarely make the front page, and even less frequently in the same month, but this has been no ordinary month. Show More Summary

On their Way: Smuggled Syrian antiquities recovered in Lebanon

.According to the Lebanese newspaper, the Daily Star ('Smuggled Syrian antiquities recovered in Lebanon', 16 May 2013) the Lebanese security authorities have recovered Byzantine and Roman-era artifacts smuggled into the country from Syria. Show More Summary

THE ADENA PIPE -- JUST ANOTHER “STATE THING”?

The Adena Pipe is now Ohio ’s State Artifact. So what? As a friend of mine implied in a comment to my announcement on Facebook, is it just another meaningless exercise in naming “State Things”? I don’t hink so. And I don’t think youShow More Summary

Friday Varia and Quick Hits

I’m off traveling in the Bakken Oil Patch today avoiding my usual frenzy of activity immediately before I head to Cyprus for my field season. I’m hoping that we have lovely weather and see new and interesting way that people have adapted to live and work in the oil patch. Since I’m off having adventures, […]

Learn by Doing: Work Placements at Wessex Archaeology

Wessex Archaeology continues to support Operation Nightingale by offering two keen soldiers work placements. Angus Forshaw, Community Archaeology Trainee with WA, wrote about these work placements for the blog: Steve sieving environmental...Show More Summary

Farming and junk

Finally at least downloaded the paper I linked to earlier. Haven’t read it yet, but here’s the cite and abstract: Coevolution of farming and private property during the early Holocene Samuel Bowles and Jung-Kyoo Choi PNAS 2013 ; published ahead of print May 13, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1212149110 The advent of farming around 12 millennia ago was a cultural as well [...]

"Convincing provenance" and the London market

Readers of LM will know that I keep emphasising the need for properly documented "collecting histories". It now appears that Egyptian antiquities, with what were termed "convincing provenances", had to be withdrawn from a sale at Christie's (London) earlier this month (Georgina Adam, "Apples - only $41.6m a bowl", Financial Times May 10, 2013). Show More Summary

The British ‘Atlantis’ is mapped in detail

A professor of physical geography has put together the most detailed map yet of the sunken medieval town of Dunwich using underwater acoustic imagining. The port town, often referred to as "the British Atlantis," was a hub of activity up until its collapse in the 1400s. Show More Summary

Bid to save Pictish cave art from coastal erosion

Archaeologists are hoping to save ancient cave drawings from coastal erosion. Since the 5th century humans have been painting the walls of Wemyss Caves, creating a rich record of Scottish history over the past 1500 years. One of theShow More Summary

Scandalous Construction in Bulgarian Black Sea Archaeology Site Halted

Photos of the illegal construction started circulating Bulgarian social networks on Saturday. Municipal authorities have ordered a temporary stop of work on a construction site in the area of a protected archaeology site along Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. Show More Summary

Prehistoric ear bones could lead to evolutionary answers

Tiny ear bones (from left) the incus, stapes, and malleus could provide big clues to human evolution. Credit: Texas A&M The tiniest bones in the human body – the bones of the middle ear – could provide huge clues about our evolutionShow More Summary