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Ancient Persian earthenware sparks debate in Iran By Christian Oliver REUTERS 4:58 a.m. April 21, 2004 TEHRAN – Artefact 90920 is wending its way from the British Museum to Tehran, where it has fired debate between those who see it as a national icon and others who say it represents all that is worst about Iran's pre-Islamic past. The controversial relic is an unassuming 23-centimetre-long (9-inch) cylinder of baked clay covered in densely packed lines of Babylonian cuneiform script. It is generally agreed to be the world's first human rights charter – but Islamic conservatives say it is redolent of...

Scholars who believe the Kensington Runestone is a 19th-century prank — and not concrete evidence that Norsemen beat Columbus to America by 100-plus years — say they have found the smoking gun to prove it. The latest in the century-old Minnesota controversy came in documents written in 1885 by an 18-year-old Swedish tailor named Edward Larsson. He sometimes wrote in runes — an ancient Scandinavian language that differs from the English alphabet. But Larsson's runes were not the usual runes used over the centuries. The scholars contend that parts of his documents seem to be written in a secret runic...

Surprising Discoveries in Silla's Royal Tomb No. 98 (including Greco-Roman artifacts) King Nae-Mool(birth/death: unknown/402 AD) and his queen's royal tomb in Dae-Roong-Won, Kyong-ju, S. Korea was excavated in 1973-75 to yield some truly unexpected findings later. Many artifacts were quite different from those known to be produced in Korea or China. Exotic designs and materials abound. Further research established that these artifacts originated from Central Asia, Black Sea, Caucasus, Persia and Eastern Mediterranean. This is quite far away from the South Eastern tip of Korean Peninsula, where this ancient Kingdom, Silla, located. The last of 5 short videos below shows...

Mar 11, 2004 Cyprus takes legal action to recover stolen treasures By Staff Reporter CYPRUS has filed a civil suit in a German court to retrieve antiquities stolen after the Turkish invasion and retrieved by the Bavarian authorities, which have withheld them since, the Legal Service said yesterday. Following the occupation of northern Cyprus by Turkish troops, looters stripped the region’s churches, removing an estimated 15, 000 to 20,000 icons, several dozen major frescoes and mosaics dating from the sixth to the fifteenth century as well as thousands of chalices, wooden carvings, crucifixes and Bibles. Effort to retrieve the stolen...

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 26, 20047,400-year-old jar gives clue to phoenix-worshipping history A 7,400-year-old pottery jar stamped with the design of two flying phoenixes has been excavated recently in central China's Hunan Province, helping archaeologists unveil the secret of the "birth" of the sacred bird. The two phoenixes have the typical characteristics of the legendary phoenix, which has a crest on its head, a long beak, a long neck and a long beautiful feathered tail. The phoenix and the dragon are the most worshipped legendary creatures in China since ancient times. The discovery showed that ancient Chinese...

A scrawled, amorous message from a certain Billy Clinton, 15, was a highlight of an exhibition of love letters that opened on Wednesday in the German port city of Hamburg. "Dear Debbie, you will always be my best girl," declared the 1961 note on pink paper from the man later to become US president. It will be displayed till September 5 in the Communications Museum, run by a foundation spun off from the former German ministry of posts and telecommunications. Curators applied a broad definition to the term communication, with displayed items including a mobile-phone text message, a German teenage...

Experts hail rare find of medieval logboat Well-preserved remains may reveal secrets of ancient environment A thousand years ago it split asunder and could no longer be used to work the marshy waterways of East Yorkshire.Alexandra Wood But rather than let it go to waste forever, workers built part of the medieval logboat into the side of the trackway over the soft ground – and there it remained until a few days ago. Archaeologists discovered the stern of a boat, made out of a single hollowed oak trunk, while construction work was being carried out at Welham Bridge on the...

'THE PASSION' UNLEASHEDRelics of crucifixion coming to U.S. cities Washington, St. Louis to see pieces of cross and other artifacts Posted: March 19, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Venerated relics of Christ's Passion – from pieces of the cross, to replicas of the nails believed to have been used 2000 years ago to crucify Jesus – will be put on rare public display next month during Easter. The relics will be shown at the Cathedral in St. Louis on Palm Sunday, April 4, and at the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., from April 4-18. "As the recent success...

Last Updated: Thursday, 11 March, 2004, 11:45 GMT Roman treasure found in pond dig The coins are thought to date from the 4th century A man unearthed a priceless hoard of 20,000 Roman coins as he dug a new fishpond in his back garden. Experts say the money may date from the 4th Century and could be the biggest find of its kind in Britain. The coins were crammed into a ceramic pot which broke up as it was dug out of the ground at Thornbury, Gloucestershire. Now a coroner must decide if Ken Allen, who made the discovery, can...

Look What They Found In Old Wild WestMore than two years ago, archaeologists made an astounding find when they were digging in the dirt about 20 miles southeast of Reno, Nevada: The remnants of an Old West saloon that was open for business from 1864 to 1875. But this wasn't just any old saloon. It was the Boston Saloon of Virginia City, and it was owned by William A. G. Brown, a free black man from Massachusetts who catered to the community's small population of African-Americans, as well as the white people in the town. This is the first known...

First Photo of Emperor Family Poses Mystery02/28/2004 12:59 Photo: photographer Levitsky took the picture of the wife and daughter of Emperor Alexander II in 1869. That was one of the first photos taken in Russia One of the first photos taken in Russia at the rise of photography recently found in Vologda Today one can see pictures of the president everywhere, even on toothpicks. However, people in last centuries cherished pictures of the emperor family like the apple of the eye. This fact is confirmed with a find made by collector Gennady Belinsky from the Russian city of Vologda. Gennady...

Tuscan 'Excalibur' Mystery to be Unearthed By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News The Sword in The Stone March 1, 2004 — Archaeological digging might soon unveil the mystery surrounding a sword buried in a Gothic abbey in Tuscany, Italian researchers announced. Known as the "sword in the stone," the Tuscan "Excalibur" is said to have been plunged into a rock in 1180 by Galgano Guidotti, a medieval knight who renounced war and worldly goods to become a hermit. Built in Galgano's memory, the evocative Gothic abbey at Montesiepi, near the city of Siena, still preserves the sword in a little chapel....

'Silver scrolls' are oldest O.T. scripture, archaeologist says Feb 27, 2004 By Gary D. Myers Significant scrollGabriel Barkay, in silhouette, shows a picture of how one of the silver scrolls looked shortly after it was removed from the tomb at Ketef Hinnom. Scholars determined that the scrolls were inscribed with the ‘priestly blessing’ found in Numbers 6:24-26. Photo by Gary D. Myers NEW ORLEANS (BP)--While excavating a burial tomb near Jerusalem in 1979, Gabriel Barkay uncovered the oldest known copy of Old Testament scripture. The priestly blessing, recorded in Numbers 6:24-26, was discovered on two small silver scrolls dated to...

Rare coin find stuns historians A man with a metal detector has unearthed a Roman bronze coin so rare it bears the face of a mystery emperor who "ruled" Britain for a matter of days. Brian Malin, from Oxfordshire, found it in a field in the county. It bears the face of Emperor Domitianus and is only the second coin ever found which bears the image of the self-proclaimed ruler of Britain and France in 271AD. A similar coin was found in France 100 years ago but until now its uniqueness had meant both Emperor Domitianus and the coin were...

Early makeup kit may confirm biblical story Excavation: Israeli archaeologists find 2,500- year-old accessories, which likely belonged to Jews who returned from exile in Babylon. Associated Press February 23, 2004 JERUSALEM -- Israeli archaeologists excavating caves near the Dead Sea discovered jewelry, a makeup kit and a small mirror -- 2,500-year-old fashion accessories for women. The trove apparently belonged to Jews who returned from exile in Babylon in the 6th century B.C., said Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. "This find is very rare. Both for the richness of the find and for that period,...

Rare artifacts from the Shivat Zion ("Return of Zion") era, after the destruction of the First Temple, were discovered last week in a cave in the Ein Gedi region. The discovery of the items, dating back to the sixth century B.C.E., was announced Thursday by the Nature and National Parks Protection Authority. For the past three years the Archaeology Institute at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) and the Cave Research Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have been conducting an archaeological survey of the cliffs of the Judean Desert. BIU's Prof. Hanan Eshel is in charge of the project. A week...

10:43am (UK)Fabulous Finds as Saxon King's Tomb Is Unearthed By Tony Jones, PA News The tomb of an East Saxon king containing a fabulous collection of artefacts has been unearthed, it was announced today. The burial chamber, believed to date from the early 7th century, has been described by experts as the richest Anglo-Saxon find since the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk – one of Britain’s most important archaeological locations. The site in Prittlewell, Southend, Essex was filled with everything a King might need in the afterlife, from his sword and shield to copper bowls, glass vessels and treasures...

<p>Necklace made of grizzly-bear claws had been misplaced with other items in Peabody Museum.</p> <p>Dec. 17 began like any other work day for Kara Gniewek, a curatorial assistant at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Sliding on her white laboratory coat and snapping on latex gloves, she dove into her ongoing, three-year-old assignment - cataloging thousands of artifacts from the South Pacific in a large, musty storage room.</p>

Incan Counting System Decoded? By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Learn how to add 9+7 on the yupana abacus. Jan. 29, 2004 ? The Inca invented a powerful counting system that could be used to make complex calculations without the tiniest mistake, according to an Italian engineer who claims to have cracked the mathematics of this still mysterious ancient population. Begun in the Andean highlands in about 1200, the Inca ruled the largest empire on Earth by the time their last emperor, Atahualpa, was garroted by Spanish conquistadors in 1533. Long been considered the only major Bronze Age civilization without a...

From funerary masks to portraits Clockwise from left: The Ancient Egyptian funerary mask; A sculpted portrait placed on a coffin; A painted portrait like that of the boy dated back to Roman times; A woman wearing jewellery. These were removed from their mummy wrappings The so-called Fayoum portraits, more than 1,000 of them, are the largest body of ancient portable paintings to have survived. They are portraits, painted mostly on wood, of men, women and children, young and old, believed to have been painted in their lifetime, sometimes framed and displayed in the homes, and later sawn to fit just...