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explorator 6.51                                  April 18, 2004
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Editor's note: Most urls should be active for at least eight
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Thanks to Arthur Shippee,  Bill Kennedy, Dave Sowdon, Donna Hurst,
Hernan Astudillo, Gene Barkley, John Hill, John McMahon, Ling
Ouyang, Louis A. Okin, Michael Oberndorf, Richard C. Griffiths,
Rick A. Riedlinger, Robert W.M. Greaves, Bob Heuman, Sally
Winchester, Steve Rankin, Tony Jackson, Mike Ruggeri, W. Richard
Frahm, and Yonatan Nadelman for headses upses this week (as always
hoping I have left no one out).

Have you visited our blog yet (best visited after you've read
through Explorator ... you get the stuff I missed)?

http://www.atrium-media.com/rogueclassicism/

If you're using an (ahem) old or clunky browser, try accessing
it via Bloglines:

http://www.bloglines.com/preview?siteid=21809

editor's note: folks who are reluctant to register to some
of these online sources should visit http://bugmenot.com/ and
type in the url of the newspaper in question. They will provide
you (usually) with a useable user name and password. For the
record, though, I've never had any problems with any of the
sites used in Explorator ...
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================================================================
AFRICA, EUROPE, AND ASIA
================================================================
Okay ... I'm officially confused; two weeks ago we reported on
the find from Tanzania of beads which seem to be from the African
Middle Neolithic and which were being billed as the oldest
evidence of 'symbolic thought'; here's a representative example:

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994839

... this week, my mailbox has been filled with reports of a
discovery in Blombos Cave (South Africa ... interestingly, a site
also mentioned in the piece mentioned above) of the oldest known
jewellery, dated to 75,000 b.p.:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-04/nsf-sbf041304.php
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4750741/
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994892
http://www.nature.com/nsu/040412/040412-9.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3629559.stm
http://tinyurl.com/2e3x6 (AP via Yahoo)
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_923093.html
http://tinyurl.com/yup6r (Scientific American)
http://tinyurl.com/2x2c9 (News.com)
http://tinyurl.com/yw83d (Newsday)
http://tinyurl.com/23jyx (National Geographic)
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,295471,00.html
(in German, but with good photos)

Those 13 000 b.p. cave paintings discovered in Nottinghamshire
last year are now believed to be part of the (continental)
Magdalenian culture:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1192072,00.html

National Geographic has an item on ancient Egyptian poetry:

http://tinyurl.com/32cdr

A 2500 b.p. Greek (?) lion head piece has been reunited with its
other half:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/3620019.stm
http://tinyurl.com/3ex26 (Telegraph)

A warrior burial site might lead to the discovery of a druid
holy site:

http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=428762004

As often, road construction in Israel has revealed an
archaeological site, this time a Byzantine-era Christian
community:

http://tinyurl.com/2ff4l (New York Times)
http://www.iht.com/articles/514283.html

More tests on Temple Mount:

http://tinyurl.com/2r4tr (Jerusalem Post)

Archaeologists have discovered a 6 000 b.p. village in China's
Henan province:

http://www.keralanext.com/news/?id=33173

Chinese archaeologists have come up with a top ten list of
discoveries in the past year:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/14/content_1418548.htm

A nice piece on the Batu Hitam shipwreck:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=511213
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THE AMERICAS
================================================================
A major dig (it appears) is about to begin in Port Angeles (WA):

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4714764/

A schooner which sank in 1786 in Lake Huron will soon be
excavated:

http://tinyurl.com/2tury (National Post)

A man renovating his home in Portland, Oregon came across the
skull of a aboriginal American dating to ca. 1600:

http://tinyurl.com/yuzkk (AP via Yahoo)

The oldest mound/intentionally-built platform in Mesoamerica may
have been found in Mexico (wow ... I haven't seen the word
'mesoamerica' in ages):

http://www.news.wisc.edu/releases/9644.html

Dennis Jenkins gave a talk on early Oregon this week:

http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2004/04/12/news/news01.txt

Was Sacagawea's illness a miscarriage?:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4705219/

They've reconstructed the faces of some of the crew of the
Hunley:

http://tinyurl.com/2jr6j (Washington Post)
http://tinyurl.com/3f4md (National Geographic ... photos galore)

... and there are related stories on the crew's reburial:

http://tinyurl.com/2qxwt (CNN)
http://tinyurl.com/3gs37 (Times Dispatch)
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/8457425.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2b39x (Washington Post)
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/South/04/17/hunley.reut/
http://tinyurl.com/3by9y (National Geographic)

There was another burial of Civil War remains as well:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3966361,00.html

Trying to preserve Civil War battle sites:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2653-2004Apr10.html

... and another legacy of the Civil War:

http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/summaries/reader/0,1854,570316,00.html

Native American archaeologists are involved in the recovery of
ancestral remains which were revealed during construction of
a water treatment plant near Seattle:

http://tinyurl.com/2uxl4 (Seattle Times)

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ALSO OF INTEREST
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'Lucy' will be visiting the U.S. in 2006:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4732563/
http://tinyurl.com/39xgt (IOL)

On the DNA front, the split between the Scots and the English
appears to date rather earlier (i.e. 10 000 b.p.) than previously
thought:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3618613.stm

Meanwhile, the ethical (and legal) implications of performing
DNA tests on long dead historical figures was the subject of a
news item last week:

http://tinyurl.com/28xno (Times Dispatch)

A metal detectorist in the UK is mounting an exhibition of all
his finds:

http://tinyurl.com/255mn (Manchester Online)

... while an exhibition of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls and
other Biblical-related stuff has led to a pile of lawsuits etc.
in Akron:

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/community/8454190.htm?1c

It apparently took humans 1000 years to get that domestication-
of-plants-thing down right:

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1084276.htm

A mini-interview with Ashraf Okasha (the SCA's representative
accompanying the 'Quest for Immortality' exhibit):

http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/arts/apr04/222021.asp

A few weeks ago we had a brief item on the demands of locals that
that Siberian 'Ice Maiden' be reburied because they blamed her
for all sorts of misfortunes ... here's some better coverage of
both the maiden and the controversy:

http://tinyurl.com/2cxbw (Telegraph)

A somewhat confusing article on a study of bones in Italy which
concludes (I think) that Columbus did bring syphilis back with
him and that lead poisoning did not contribute to the decline of
the Roman Empire:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040412/syphilis.html

Interesting piece(s) on the quartz hydration dating technique:

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/human-04i.html
http://today.uci.edu/news/release_detail.asp?key=1123
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040412-110010-2963r.htm

The latest look at the Shroud of Turin casts some doubts on its
inauthenticity (does that make sense?):

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4750663/
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040405/turin.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3621931.stm
cf: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3624753.stm

Some guy has built a copy of an ancient Indonesian vessel and
is retracing an ancient trade route to Africa with it:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20040408.S01

The New Yorker has a lengthy article on the history of jokes:

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/?040419crbo_books

A very interesting item on a scholar's efforts to identify/
authenticate a seven-inch tall figure of a 'barbarian':

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/8410499.htm

On the newly-refurbished Brooklyn Museum:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/12/arts/design/12BROO.html

A piece on the trend towards having professors emeriti stick
around on campus:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/business/retirement/13TEDE.html

Interesting piece on the history of inter-racial marriage:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/17/arts/17TANK.html

Pre-Olympic touristy things on Athens (must have been a junket
this week):

http://tinyurl.com/2dcge (LA Times)
http://tinyurl.com/35ew3 (Newsday)

An upcoming auction has spawned a nice piece on portrait
miniatures:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/arts/design/16ANTI.html

They're going to build what appears to be a major archaeological
park in Hungary:

http://www.bbj.hu/user/article.asp?ArticleID=191960

A Canadian researcher is compiling the works of Florence
Nightingale:

http://www3.cjad.com/content/cjad_news/article.asp?id=w041119A

Ballard's heading back to the Titanic:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4750301/
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-04/uori-ebt041504.php
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Return-to-Titanic.html

A number of historic monuments in Scotland are going to be
stripped of their protected status (this might be 'crime beat'
material):

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=411962004

More evidence against the authenticity of the Kensington Rune
Stone:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/168635_prank12.html

Another piece on the James Ossuary:

http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2004/apr/prof2_040412.html

Another take on the James Ossuary:

http://www.journalnet.com/articles/2004/04/11/opinion/opinion07.txt
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MAGAZINES AND JOURNALS
================================================================
Archaeology Odyssey (May/June 2004):

http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_AO/indexAO.html
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ON THE WEB
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Since Pontius Pilate is so much 'in the news', a site dealing
with coins produced during his tenure as procurator might be
of interest:

http://www.numismalink.com/fontanille1.html
(this essay seems to exist on multiple websites)

Napoleonic Medals:

http://www.napoleonicmedals.org/

Medicina Antiqua:

http://www.medicinaantiqua.org.uk/

The Crowds project at Stanford:

http://shl.stanford.edu/Crowds/index.htm

The San Diego Historical Society's website is rather well done:

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/
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NEW ONLINE BOOKS
================================================================
W. Scott-Elliot, *The Lost Lemuria*:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/tll/index.htm
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CRIME BEAT
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The plundering of sites in Iraq continues:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2871896a12,00.html

... and items are still missing:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1191006,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3621617.stm

... but there's good news as well:

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/8451775.htm?1c

Museums are doing their bit to clamp down on illicit trade of
antiquities from Latin America:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16313-2004Apr15.html

... and they're clamping down in Vietnam as well:

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=23285

A Scottish priest has launched a 'crusade' to have piles of looted
African artifacts returned:

http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=411712004

... while police in Paris recovered more than 5000 prehistoric
artifacts looted from the desert of Niger:

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=34000

Grave Robbers have destroyed an ancient Peruvian mural at the
Huaca Bandera site:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3970926,00.html
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BOOK REVIEWS
================================================================
Conn Iggulden, *Emperor: The Death of Kings* (historical fiction
set in Rome):

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/books/040418/caesar.shtml

Stephen Smith, *Underground London: Travels Beneath the City
Streets*:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,6121,1193440,00.html

The New York Times has a reviewish sort of thing on Open Court
Publishing's "Popular Culture and Philosophy" series:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/books/13PHIL.html
================================================================
PERFORMANCES
================================================================
Antigone Falun Gong:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/8454592.htm

Trojan Women:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0415/kornhaber.php

Oedipus at Colonus:

http://tinyurl.com/259er
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EXHIBITIONS
================================================================
Living Legacies: The Arts of the Americas:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/arts/design/16GLUE.html
(includes slide show)

Petra: Lost City of Stone:

http://tinyurl.com/2oqzj

Ritual Objects and Early Buddhist Art:

http://tinyurl.com/25peb (Press release ... images available)
================================================================
CLASSICIST'S CORNER
================================================================
The New York Times had a lengthy piece on Robert Fagles this
week:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/nyregion/13profile.html

... then he showed up in the Record-Journal:

http://www.record-journal.com/articles/2004/04/14/news/news05.txt

Nice defense of Classics in the Spectator (note the announcement
of a Latin prose contest at the end):

http://tinyurl.com/2onog

Latin is making a comeback in Georgia:

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=36003

Portland Vase redux:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040412/cleopatra.html

Dido apparently knew about the isoperimetric problem:

http://tinyurl.com/39ptn (The Hook ... scroll down)

Rome and the U.S. ... a list of comparison points:

http://tinyurl.com/3h2kf (Up and Coming)

Phrases from ancient myths which have made it into modern
parlance:

http://tinyurl.com/3yqk7 (Dallas News)

Peter Struck received one of UPenn's Lindback Awards:

http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v50/n29/lindback.html

And UArizona's David Soren also received an award:

http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/97/132/01_5.html

Interesting that they will be performing the Prometheus Bound in
Iran:

http://www.mehrnews.com/wfNewsDetails_en.aspx?NewsID=70002&;t=Cultural

A movie about Boudicca is in the works:

http://tinyurl.com/2r9c7 (MediaDrome)

Reviews of Spartacus on the USA Network (generally bad):

http://u.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,216~24311~2090966,00.html
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNews/view.bg?articleid=537
http://tinyurl.com/2yhar (SD Union Tribune)
http://tinyurl.com/29o4z (Boston Globe)
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Apr/04162004/friday/157644.asp
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/184038p-159642c.html
http://ancienthistory.about.com/b/a/079567.htm

"Gladiator style" fight clubs in the Czech Republic are raising
the ire, apparently, of the EU:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=427732004

Akropolis News in Classical Greek:
http://www.akwn.net/

Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini
[best accessed via rogueclassicism on Sundays]

Radio Bremen's Der Monatsrückblick - auf Latein
http://www.radiobremen.de/online/latein/

Weather in Latin:
http://latin.wunderground.com/
================================================================
REPEATS
================================================================
Ancient kitties:

http://www.cp.org/english/online/full/science/040408/g040824A.html

Santa Maria Antiqua Open:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2510766

Rock Art in Colorado:

http://bcn.boulder.co.us/campuspress/messages/1765.html
================================================================
OTHER SOURCES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS
================================================================
About.com Ancient History (blog):
http://ancienthistory.about.com/

About.com Archaeology (blog):
http://archaeology.about.com/mbody.htm

Archaeologica:
http://www.archaeologica.org/NewsPage.htm

Archaeology in Europe (blog):

http://archaeology.eu.com/weblog/

Archaeology Magazine's Newsbriefs:
http://www.archaeology.org/magazine.php?page=0305/newsbriefs/index

Bible and Interpretation Breaking News:
http://www.bibleinterp.com/news.htm

CBA Newsfeed:
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/newsfeed/index.html

CBA Archaeoblog:
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/archaeoblog/

Classics in Contemporary Culture (blog):
http://www.people.memphis.edu/~mhooker/ccc.html

Cronaca (blog):
http://www.cronaca.com/

Francis Deblauwe's 'Iraq War and Archaeology' site:
http://cctr.umkc.edu/user/fdeblauwe/iraq.html

Maritime Underwater Archaeological News:
http://www.munarchaeology.com/munarchaeology/news/main.htm

Megalithic Portal
http://www.megalithic.co.uk

Michael Ruggeri's Ancient America and Mesoamerica News:
http://community-2.webtv.net/Topiltzin-2091/AncientAmericaand

Mirabilis.ca (blog):
http://www.mirabilis.ca

Paleojudaica (blog):
http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com

Phluzein (blog):
http://www.binref.com/phluzein/

Stone Pages Archaeo News:
http://www.stonepages.com/news/

Texas A&M Anthropology News Site:
http://www.tamu.edu/anthropology/news.html

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9:12:15 AM