Free Republic

Were 18th-century pirates literate? What sort of books did they keep on board ship? ... During conservation work on artifacts recovered from the wreckage of Queen Anne's Revenge -- the flagship of the pirate Blackbeard -- 16 tiny fragments of paper were discovered in a mass of wet sludge removed from the chamber for a breech-loading cannon. The largest fragment was only about the size of a quarter. Paper is an extremely rare material to find on shipwrecks, especially one 300 years old, because it usually disintegrates quickly under water... As the work progressed another discovery was made -- that...

Muslims Dig Under Temple Mount, Don't Want Jews Digging Nearby By Julie Stahl CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief February 16, 2007 Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Amid an ongoing storm over an Israeli archeological excavation near Jerusalem's Temple Mount, a top Islamic official declared Thursday that all digging in the city should be stopped - but an Israeli archeologist pointed out that the biggest excavation in the entire area has been carried out by Muslims, unauthorized, underneath the Mount itself. Reacting to an Israeli dig near the Temple Mount, Islamic and Arab leaders have accused Israel of carrying out work that would endanger...