News for June 1

An interesting start to the month. New discoveries left, right and center. But, the information on the Book of Kells is absolutely fascinating.

New stories as of 9:15 PM:

Overseeing The Scrolls: Question For Risa Levitt Kohn
Voice of San Diego.org
Decades ago, when a group of Arabian nomads known as the Bedouins entered a cave and found pots and jars of pottery, they broke them to see what treasure they contained. Finding nothing except for some parchment with writing on it in the last jar, they left the cave and carried the parchment with them, eventually turning it over to an antiquities dealer in Bethlehem...
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/06/02/news/01kohn060207.txt
Interesting, and in a different format from most articles: question-and-answer interview format.

New stories as of 5:30 PM:

Archaeologists Dig Out Ancient Port
NDTV.com
Archaeologists in Kerala have discovered a 2000-year-old port settlement probably dating back to the first BC to third AD, in Pattanam about 50 km from the modern day port city of Kochi...
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070014111
While this article isn't really from the region specialized in in this journal, it does have a strong connection to it.

Salad Dressing-Like Mixture Restores Art
Discovery News
June 1, 2007 — A salad dressing-like mixture of water, a bit of oil and a sugar-like molecule can safely clean ancient frescoes, according to a new nanotechnology research...
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/06/01/potion_arc.html?category=archaeology&guid=20070601091500

Who Built The Pyramids
Al-Ahram Weekly
We may soon have an answer to the age- old question of who were the Pyramid builders and how the whole enterprise of pyramid-building was planned and controlled...
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/847/he1.htm

A Search For The Lost City
Al-Ahram Weekly
Mark Lehner, director of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project (GPMP), realised that the excavation of the vast ancient settlement site at Giza offered him "an opportunity to give back to Egypt something in return for all the years I have enjoyed excavating here."...
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/847/he2.htm

Oldest Wooden Anchor Excavated
50Connect.co.uk
An anchor dating back to the 7th century BC, has been uncovered by archaeologists off the Turkish coast...
http://50connect.co.uk/index.asp?main=http%3A//50connect.co.uk/50c/articlepages/genealogy_index.asp%3Fsc%3Dhist%26aID%3D16018

Fathers of the Zodiac Tracked Down
News @ Nature.com
Using modern techniques — and some rocks — a US astronomer has traced the origin of a set of ancient clay tablets to a precise date and place. The tablets show constellations thought to be precursors of the present-day zodiac...
http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070528/full/070528-11.html

New stories as of 9:35 AM:

Roman Temple Found Under President's House
Monsters & Critics
ROME, Italy (UPI) -- An Italian archaeologist says he believes that the presidential palace in Rome is sitting on top of a temple to the Roman god Quirinus...
http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1311961.php/Roman_temple_found_under_president%60s_house

Coastal Erosion May Wash Away Key Sites, Experts Claim
Shetland Today
THOUSANDS of archaeological sites around the Scottish mainland and the Northern Isles are at risk of being washed away by the sea, according to experts...
http://www.shetlandtoday.co.uk/Shetlandtimes/content_details.asp?ContentID=22456

Finding of Jewish Graves Complicate Construction Plan in Plzen
Prague Daily Monitor
Plzen, West Bohemia, May 31 (CTK) - Another archaeological find, children's graves, has unexpectedly complicated the planned construction of a parking house on the site of an old Jewish cemetery in Plzen, Czech Television (CT) reported today...
http://launch.praguemonitor.com/en/97/czech_national_news/7500/

Book of Kells Undergoes Careful Examination
UKTV
Experts are carrying out an extensive laser examination of the 1,200-year-old Book of Kells to uncover its secrets...
http://uktv.co.uk/index.cfm/uktv/History.news/aid/588939

"Black Book of Carmarthen" On Exhibit
ic Wales
IT LOOKS very old inside its protective security case and can only be handled by people wearing silk gloves...
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_headline=--8216-black-book-of-carmarthen--8217--on-exhibit&method=full&objectid=19222362&siteid=50082-name_page.html

Irish Classic Is Still A Hit (In Calfskin, Not Paperback)
The New York Times
DUBLIN, May 27 — For a manuscript written 1,200 years ago and revered as a wonder of the Western world practically ever since, little is known about the Book of Kells and its splendidly illustrated Gospels in Latin. But the book may be about to surrender a few of its many secrets...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/world/europe/28kells.html?em&ex=1180497600&en=423b92066a44b840&ei=5087%0A
Yes, I know this article is a couple of days older than the others, but I missed it until today. Unlike the other article on the topic today, this one contains two fine illustrations of the Book of Kells. It also has more information about the book and it's history.