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Explorator 24.27


 

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explorator 24.27 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?October 24, 2021
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You can read explorator online at:

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?


Thanks to Arthur Shippee, Dave Sowdon, Edward Rockstein, Kurt Theis,
John McMahon, Barnea Selavan, Joseph Lauer, Mike Ruggeri, Hernan Astudillo,
Richard Campbell, Barbara Saylor Rodgers, Bob Heuman, David Critchley,
Richard Miller, Kris Curry, Rick Heli, Richard C. Griffiths, Frank MacKay, Patrick Swan,
Don Buck, mata kimasitayo, and Ross W. Sargent for headses upses this week
(as always hoping I have left no one out).

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EARLY HOMINIDS
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Over 800 Neanderthal stone tools from the Bawa Yawan shelter site and environs in western iran:



Pondering why homo erectus left Africa:





Short feature on Neanderthal use of tar:



More on the 'pre-human' footprints on Crete:





More on the Neanderthal items found at Princess Diana's childhood home:





More on evidence of 120 000 years bp clothing from a Moroccan cave:


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AFRICA
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Tracking how humans modified the landscape of Madagascar over the past 1000 years:







cf:

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ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
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A mummy found a couple of years ago turns out to be 1000 years older than initially thought, with implications for when the practice of mummification began:



Byzantine-era amphora from the Andraos Palace site at Luxor:



A 'mentally unstable' man attacked a ram/sphinx statue in Tahrir Square:




More on the three large stone ram heads found near the Avenue of the Sphinxes:






More on Egypt's plans to investigate alleged Pharaonic artifacts in Afghanistan:



Plenty of folks were on hand for the sun alignment at Abu Simbel:




Feature on daily life in ancient Egypt:



Review of Edward Dolnick, *The Writing of the Gods*:



Officials have ruled out digging wells in Cyrus' Tomb:



I think we mentioned these 11 000 years bp heads and 'phallic pillars' from Karahantepe (Turkey):




A late Neolithic relief from Tas Tepeler featuring a frontal portrait of a man apparently holding his phallus:



A Hasmonean-era silver coin hoard from Modiin-Maccabim-Reut:



Latest find from the City of David (from ten years ago?) is an amethyst seal stone depicting a plant of some sort (it varies by publication):









A mosaic from what some think is the 1500 years bp Church of the Apostles in what some people think is the site of Bethsaida:






A diver found a 900 years bp (likely Crusader) sword off the Carmel coast of Israel:



























... and an overviewish thing on recent items found in Israeli waters:



From the same era comes first evidence of a possible Crusader camp in Galilee:








... and a ballista ball with an Arabic inscription from a Crusader Castle at Arsuf:



More on the 'wine factory' excavated at Tel Yavne:




Feature on some purple-dyed wool found at Timna earlier this year:



Feature on seven 'lesser known' archaeological sites in Israel:



Feature on a broken pot handle found by the Temple Mount Sifting Project:



A 4500 years bp incense burner from Muscat (Oman):



In case you missed the identification of the oldest known drawing of a ghost (on a 3500 years bp cuneiform tablet in the British Museum):








Folks are apparently questioning the motives behind Russian restoration of Syrian sites:


-----
This Week in the Ancient Near East Podcast:



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ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME (AND CLASSICS)
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Evidence of a prehistoric habitation layer at Ioannina:



Latest finds from the Cycladic site of Therasia:



Latest (Hellenistic?) finds from Alexandria Troas:



Probably a crime story (more to come, I suspect) but Israeli police found a 2300 years bp Greek coin of some sort:




Not sure why this hasn't hit mainstream sources ... a major (15 kg!) 1st/2nd century Roman silver coin hoard from Augsburg:





A 1900 years bp pot depicting a phallus-drawn chariot from a building site in Kelvedon (did we mention this a while ago?):



Overviewish thing (almost touristy) on recent finds from Stratonikeia:



Remains of a 1600 years bp church from the site of Priene:




A 6th century coin hoard from Phanagoria:



The excavation season at Dascylium has come to an end:



More on the latest find of a victim of Vesuvius at Herculaneum:






More on the hundreds of 1800 years bp painted rock-cut tombs from Blaundus:





More on Boudicca being acquitted of atrocities in a mock trial:



More on box seats at the Pergamon theater:



More on the source for the marble for a statue from Delos:



Funding for work at the Greek theatre in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento:



A restored grape harvest mosaic is going on display in Hatay:




Anti-flood efforts on the Acropolis apparently are working:



Some folks have recreated garum and are selling it:



There's a new Asterix comic out set in Sarmatia with Amazons and Griffins:



Interesting feature on polychromy on the 4th century BCE statue of the 'Lady of Baza':



Feature on Isabella Caneva's work in Turkey:



Feature on Paul Touyz's work on satyrs in Greek drama:



Feature on Kelly P. Dugan's work:



Review of Pat Barker's Trojan War reimaginings:



Review of Aaron Poochigian's translation of Aristophanes:



Review of James Porter, *Homer: The Very Idea*:



Feature on Euripides' Trojan Women:



Feature on the connection between magic and scents in the ancient world:



Feature on Plato's Republic and C.S. Lewis:



Pondering the connections between philosophy and public relations:



Feature on Roman sites/life in Wales:



Feature on romantic 'red flags' in the Iliad:



Feature on witches in Latin literature:



Feature on a 7th century Corinthian shipwreck found off the coast of Italy a couple years ago:



Feature on Pytheas:



Feature on the Roman bath at York:



Feature on a rethink of a Roman lead figurine being a warrior, not a slave:



Feature on the connection between Greek philosophy and climate change:




Feature on eight powerful women of ancient Rome:



Feature on depictions of phalluses all over the ancient Roman world:



Feature on 'the greek foot':



Feature on the various claims regarding the location of Alexander's tomb:



Feature on the Caryatids:



Feature on daily life in ancient Greece:



Feature on gladiators:



Folks might be interested in the 'trojan asteroids' near Jupiter:



Latest feature on Classics and Race:



Latest Parthenon Report piece advocating for the return of the Marbles:



Latest Pasts Imperfect newsletter:


-----
Roman Archaeology Blog:



Rogueclassicism:


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EUROPE AND THE UK (+ Ireland)
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A Bronze Age roundhouse from a possible development site near Camborne:



"Several" 1000 years bp burials fount during work at a church in Bruges:



What we're learning from the 500 years bp wreck of the Gribshunden:



Study of the effects of medieval roads on landscape transformation in Germany:



Another medieval hoard from Zawichost-Trojcy:



Six 18th century (or earlier) burials beneath a Cork pub:






A 17th century New England shilling turns up in a collection kept in a 'sweet tin':



A 'weapons collection' found in the cellars of a long-ago demolished building in Poland:



A 'good luck farthing' was found under the mast of the HMS Victory:



A dig at a 19th century 'summer house' at Attingham will resume shortly:



More on that pair of 1500 years bp burials from Bavaria (with a focus on an ivory comb find):






Restoration of Parliament has revealed what might be the world's oldest municipal gas lighting system still in use:



Pondering witch hunts in early modern Britain:



Feature on a very interesting Gallic vase found at Autun last year:



Feature on the Vikings in Scotland:



Feature/reconstruction of Warden Abbey:



The Chester House Estate has (finally) opened to the public:



Funding for Jane Austen's house:


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Archaeology in Europe News:



Medievalists.net:



Viking Archaeology Blog:



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ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC
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I think we mentioned these four 1900 years bp burials from Hunan:



Interesting 1300 years bp 'cold case' from China:



China is listing the top 100 finds of the past century:






More on Xi's promotion of Chinese archaeology:



An 11th century yoni from Viet Nam's Quang Ngai province:



Heavy rains have damaged a number of pagodas in Bagan (Myanmar):



Speculation that Sumatran fishing crews may have located the fabled site of Srivijaya:




Concerns for the Prohm Kel temple at Angkor Wat:



... while work has started on restoring Angkor Wat's eastern entrance:



A study of 'female craniometrics' is supporting a 'two layer model of human dispersal in Eastern Eurasia 16 000 - 5300 years bp:

cf:

More on human adaptation to rainforest living in southeast Asia:



A fish symbol was found on a ring well at Keeladi:



Plans for an excavation at Korkai:





Calls for a dig at Porpanaikottai:



Whether there will be an eighth phase of excavations at Keeladi is uncertain:



Plans for restoration of the Nandana Fort in Pak:



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AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
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Feature on Alexandrina Grant and the 'convict strain':

?
?
?More on pioneering women archaeologists in the Pacific:
?


Latest from the investigations into Rio Tinto's site destructions:


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NORTH AMERICA
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Feature/overviewish thing on the Gault site in Texas:



Tree ring analysis and C14 suggests that Vikings were in North America exactly 1000 years bp:























More on 12 000 years bp evidence of tobacco use in Utah:



More on the transcontinental railroad workers' residence and other structures from Terrace, Utah:




More on Craft brewing in the Pacific Northwest:



Feature on assorted Mi-kmaq finds in PEI over the past decade:



The Moravian Church settlement in Bethlehem, PA is seeking Heritage Status:



Kamloops has hired an archaeologist:



Bone fragments from under a parking lot in Guelph, Ontario:



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CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
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1000 years bp burials of 29 people who were apparently 'offerings' associated with the construction of a Wari temple in northern Peru:




Plenty of Mayan sites and artifacts found along a train construction route in Mexico:









Not sure if we mentioned this 'scaled down' version of the Teotihuacan's Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Guatemala:



Feature on Inca mummies:



-----
Mike Ruggeri's Ancient Americas Breaking News:



Mike Ruggeri's Ancient Americas lecture channels on Youtube:



Ancient MesoAmerica News:


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OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
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Pondering race and skeletons:



A stoneware dish, previously thought to be Korean, at the British Museum is now identified as Northern Song dynasty Ru ware:








Israel's National Library has given the public access to the notebooks of 'Mr Shushani':



A study suggests that gold 'went out of fashion' for a while from 1500-800 BCE:



Pondering what drove the invention of assorted military technologies:





Using AI to reconstruct some Klimt paintings:



Feature on Constantinople becoming Istanbul:



Feature on queer royals and aristocrats throught the ages:



Feature on the restoration of a Bernini chapel in Rome:



A lost sculpture by William Edmondson was rediscovered:



Feature on Rubens:



Feature on prehistoric religion:



Feature on ghost stories:



Feature on the origins of vampire stories:



Feature on assorted grotesque faces in various locations in Coventry:



Feature on 'male collectors':



Feature on the Reign of Terror:



Feature on gospels that didn't make it into the Bible:



Feature on mermaids:



Feature on cities built on top of cemeteries:



Feature on the Liberty Cap:



Feature on alchemy:



... and an alchemical cipher:



On a possible Scottish 'cop' in 15th century Bologna:



Feature on Lovett Fort-Whiteman:



Feature on Stephen Crane:



Review of Graeber and Wengrow, *The Dawn of Everything*:





.... and a feature by the authors of the book:



Some King George revisionism:



Feature on the history of New York Times book reviews:



On Switzerland's 'Chimney Sweep Mafia':



What Henry Louis Gates Jr is up to:



Review of Kevin Birmingham, *The Sinner and the Saint*:



More on John Dee's Aztec obsidian mirror:



Ohio messed up license plates honouring the Wright Brothers:



A 'charred and blackened' nut cake from WWII was found in a German town:



Volcanic eruptions in Japan revealed some WWII warships:




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CURRENT EVENTS:
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New York City is removing a statue of Jefferson from City Hall:



Feature on the search for burials of Indigenous children in Canada:



Ben Gurion University has closed its Bible studies department:



Comparing Covid-19 to other epidemics:



Mary Beard's views on statue toppling were in the news this week:






... but they didn't get it right:



Review of Alex von Tunzelmann's *Fallen Idols*:


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ANIMAL AND PLANT DOMESTICATIONS
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Study suggests the 'modern' horse was domesticate around 2200 years BCE in the Caucasus region:













cf:
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MUSEUM MATTERS
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Sanhedrin Trail:



Nebra Sky Disk:







Poussin:




Live Forever, Welcome to the Underworld:



Galloway Hoard:



Syrian Antiquities:



Rubens:



The Stories we Wear:



The Cleveland MoA helped to reassemle a broken Cambodian Krishna statue:




A Herefordshire museum is fundraising to get the hoard found there back from the BM:



Controversy arising from plans for a museum at the Alamo:



Chania is getting a new archaeological museum:



How museums are using technology:



Feature on the Pavilion in Ticonderoga:



On a haunted history museum in Saratoga Springs:



Feature on the Hispanic Society's museum:



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AUCTIONS AND SALES RELATED
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Big bucks for some Picassos:




Not sure if we mentioned this Nazi-looted Van Gogh:



A microscope Charles Darwin gave to his son is coming to auction:



Big bucks for the Luzzatto High Holiday Mahzor:



High expectations for portraits of Ottoman sultans:



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ON THE DNA FRONT
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Ancient DNA researchers are setting ethical guidelines for their work:




DNA suggests mammoths and other megafauna lived on longer than previously thought:






More on DNA from Arabia revealing human migration out of Africa:



More on HepB DNA and human migration:




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CLIMATE MATTERS
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Climate change is causing concerns for shipwrecks in the New York area:



Using driftwood to track 500 years of Arctic warming:



Blaming the extinction of woolly mammoths on climate change:


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TOURISTY THINGS
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Doncaster:



Istria:



Pakistan's PM was highlighting the nation's Buddhist tourism potential:



Some English estates near London:



St Kilda:



Agrafa:



Chicago's African American Heritage Water Trail:


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TV/DOCUMENTARY HYPISH THINGS
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More commentary on 'The Last Duel':


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CRIME BEAT
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Vandalism at two Pembrokshire archaeological sites:



A smuggling attempt at Bengaluru airport was foiled:



Items looted from Syria were spotted in the office of a Lebanese official:




INTERPOL says cultural property crime has risen during the pandemic:




A Spanish court has thrown out a lawsuit against Odyssey Marine which began a decade ago:




Mehrdad Sadigh pleaded guilty to make a pile of forgeries:



Interesting feature on how a Kim Kardashian photo revealed a stolen Egyptian sarcophagus:


----------
conflict antiquities:



anonymous swiss collector:



Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues:



Looting Matters:



Illicit Cultural Property:



SAFE:



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REPATRIATION AND RECOVERY
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The Denver Art Museum ?is returning four items connected to Douglas Latchford to Cambodia:






... while Cambodia says the Met has "dozens" of its looted antiquities:



Canada will be returning a stone knife found beneath Parliament to the Algonquin people:




A Berlin museum 'returned' and then bought back a Nazi-looted ?Pissaro painting:



Cambridge will be the first UK institution to return a Benin Bronze:




Cambridge will also be returning things to Uganda, we are told:



Apparently plenty of Benin Bronzes are to be returned this month:



Scottish museums are 'more likely' than English to repatriate culturally-significant items:



France returned some angel sculptures which were stolen back in 1989 to Italy:



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NUMISMATICA
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Feature on the 'tribute penny':



Feature (reviewish) of depictions of music on ancient coins:



Latest e-Sylum:



... and the one which should appear later today:


------------------------

Coin Week:



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OBITUARIES
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Thomas Parker:




Alban Forcione:



Jack Dunitz:



Joe Schork:



Norman Rice:



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AUDIO/VIDEO NEWS
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Audio News from Archaeologica:



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GENERAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS BLOGS
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Archaeology Magazine News Page:



About.com Archaeology:



Archaeology Briefs:



Atlas Obscura:



Heritage Daily:



Sapiens Archaeology:



Taygete Atlantis excavations blogs aggregator:


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PODCASTS/VODCASTS
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Archaeosoup:



Archaeology Podcast Network:


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