November 2nd News

It's a relatively slow day, but the stories are interesting. They range from Egypt to Rome to Germany, and from ancient to Medieval times.

New stories as of 6:30 AM:

Library Garners Famous Egyptologist's Collection
The Stanford Daily
Students interested in ancient Egyptian artifacts and temples now have a treasure trove of material to explore at Green Library...
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/11/2/libraryGarnersFamousEgyptologistsCollection

Heavy Rains Destroy Rome's Ancient Wall
Pravada.ru
A 6-meter (20-foot) section of Rome's ancient Aurelian wall collapsed into a pile of bricks because of heavy rains, no victims were reported. Italy’s officials are drawing up restoration plans...
http://newsfromrussia.com/news/world/02-11-2007/100098-aurelian_wall-0

Part Of Ancient Wall Ringing Rome Collapses After Heavy Rain
PR-Inside
ROME (AP) - Italian officials were drawing up restoration plans Friday for a 6-meter (20-foot) section of Rome's ancient Aurelian wall that collapsed into a pile of bricks after days of heavy rain. No one was hurt in the incident...
http://www.pr-inside.com/part-of-ancient-wall-ringing-rome-r280114.htm

Video: Medieval Church Rolls 7 Miles
National Geographic News
November 1, 2007—A flatbed trailer hauled a medieval church to its new home in eastern Germany. The technically ambitious move has cleared the original site for mining...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071101-church-video-ap.html

November 1 News

It's a new month so let's see what the stories are. Some are going to carry over from last month, such as the Princeton Museum agreement, but there are a number of new stories as well.

New stories as of 11:01 AM:

Princeton University Art Museum And Italy Sign Agreement Over Antiquities
Media Newswire
(Media-Newswire.com) - The Princeton University Art Museum and Italian cultural authorities on Oct. 30 signed an agreement that resolves the ownership of 15 works of art in the museum's collection. The signing took place in Rome...
http://media-newswire.com/release_1056887.html

Etruscan Treasures To Return Home: Italy Signs Deal With Princeton University For Looted Art Pieces
Tandem - Online Magazine
This past Tuesday Italy signed a deal with Princeton University for the return of looted artifacts — its latest coup in a battle against antiquities smuggling...
http://www.corrieretandem.com/viewstory.php?storyid=7817

Rosy Discoloration By Another Name
Spectroscopy Now
Italian researchers have used Raman spectroscopy and genetic fingerprinting to determine whether the red pigments produced by the bacterium Rubrobacter radiotolerans, so-called bacterioruberin carotenoids, are the same pigments responsible for colour changes in ancient frescoes in ancient paintings from the Crypt of the Original Sin, in Matera, Italy...
http://www.spectroscopynow.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?id=17397&type=Feature&chId=6&page=1

Prehistoric Treasures Lost Forever
The Media Line
The scene was straight out of an archaeologist's nightmare. Along the Jordan River, archaeological remains lay in heaps with no chance of ever being dated. The story behind hundreds of stone tools and animal bones was lost, along with whatever mystery slumbered beneath the soil...
http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=19435

Building Of Iraqi Police Barracks Threatens World Heritage Site
The Guardian
The construction of a large police barracks close to the Great Mosque of Samarra and its famed spiral minaret is imperilling another of Iraq's precious historical sites, Unesco and senior archaeologists have warned...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2202869,00.html

World Heritage Site Threatened In Iraq
Artinfo
SAMARRA, Iraq—The construction of a training center and barracks for police is threatening the Great Mosque of Samarra, a precious Iraqi historical site added to Unesco’s list of endangered world heritage sites this summer, reports the Guardian...
http://www.artinfo.com/articles/story/25980/world_heritage_site_threatened_in_iraq

Samarra Mosque At Risk From New Police Barracks
The Art Newspaper
LONDON. Barracks which will eventually house over 1,500 Iraqi policemen are under construction at Samarra, close to one of Iraq’s most famous monuments, the Great Mosque of Caliph Al-Mutawakkil with its celebrated 52-metre-high spiral minaret...
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=6352

What's Cooking In Medieval Italy?
Spectroscopy Now
The church of Sant'Antimo in the small town of Piombino in western Tuscany has had a chequered life. Built in the 13th Century, it served the local community for several hundred years until it was converted into a hospital in the 19th Century. Later, in 1994, it was abandoned before plans were submitted to convert the building into residential and commercial space. However, when restoration work began in 2003, it yielded up a surprise, with the discovery of a stash of ceramic vessels buried in a vault of the apse...
http://www.spectroscopynow.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?id=17456&type=Feature&chId=4&page=1

2,000 Year Old Jewelry At Scatness
The Shetland News
A LARGE piece of bronze jewellery found in the wall of a collapsed Iron Age house provides further evidence of the importance of the ancient Scatness settlement in Shetland, it was claimed last night (Wednesday)...
http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/news_11_2007/2,000%20year%20old%20jewellery%20at%20Scatness.htm

October 31 News

Happy Halloween. There's a range of new and old stories today.

New stories as of 6:38 AM:

Stanford Acquires a 'World-Class' Egyptology Library
Stanford News Service
Stanford has acquired the library of one of the foremost Egyptologists of the 20th century...
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/october31/erichsen-103107.html

Team Id's Ancient Cargo From DNA
Physorg
For the first time, researchers have identified DNA from inside ceramic containers in an ancient shipwreck on the seafloor, making it possible to determine what the ship's cargo was even though there was no visible trace of it...
http://www.physorg.com/news112978421.html

Princeton Museum, Rome Sign Repatriation Deal Over Looted Artifacts
CBC.ca
Cultural officials in Rome and representatives of the Princeton University Art Museum have signed a deal to return artifacts Italy claims were looted from its shores...
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/10/30/italy-looted-princeton.html

Princeton University Art Museum And Italy Sign Agreement Over Antiquities
Princeton University
The Princeton University Art Museum and Italian cultural authorities on Oct. 30 signed an agreement that resolves the ownership of 15 works of art in the museum's collection. The signing took place in Rome...
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S19/37/62Q26/index.xml?section=topstories

Rome, Princeton Sign Deal Over Disputed Artifacts
AHN
Rome, Italy (AHN) - A deal has been signed in Rome by the Italian Culture Ministry and the Princeton University Art Museum to return eight disputed artifacts to Italy, it was announced Tuesday...
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008997270

Italy, Princeton Sign Antiquities Deal
Associated Press
ROME (AP) — The Italian Culture Ministry and the Princeton University Art Museum signed a deal Tuesday for the return of eight disputed antiquities to Italy — Rome's latest coup in its efforts to recover treasures it says were looted from the country...
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5is_bcmuTOwPCXlYk6aWb_ugCT9RgD8SJKGHO0

The Riddle Of Silbury, Unsolved After 4,300 Years
Times Online
How? Who? Why? From Agatha Christie to Dan Brown, all the best thriller writers know the value of leaving these questions dangling until the last page. But at least we discover the answers in the end. If mankind endures ten million years we may never discover the who and why of the most tantalising enigma in the British landscape...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/richard_morrison/article2771879.ece

Red Lady Skeleton 29000 Years Old
The Press Association
The oldest known buried human remains in Britain date back 29,000 years, scientists have announced...
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwsnsqiygpqd_sWFmnshMYwX5TLQ

Age Of Earliest Human Burial In Britain Pinpointed
Physorg
The oldest known buried remains in Britain are 29,000 years old, archaeologists have found – 4,000 years older than previously thought. The findings show that ceremonial burials were taking place in western Europe much earlier than researchers had believed...
http://www.physorg.com/news112978558.html

October 29th News

The big find for the weekend was the Roman tombstone in Scotland.

New stories as of 6:34 AM:

Princeton Agrees To Return Eight Art Objects To Italy But Will Keep Seven Others
The Chronicle Of Higher Education
Princeton University has reached an agreement with the government of Italy over 15 works of art in the university's possession whose ownership Italy disputed.
http://chronicle.com/subscribe/login?url=/daily/2007/10/533n.htm
The site requires a subscription and an online pass to read the full article.

Palace At Silchester May Have Been A Sop To Loyalty
Times Online
Archaeology consists of putting together fragments of the past: a bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle with only a tenth of the pieces and no picture. The solution to just such a puzzle in the Roman city of Calleva Atrebatum at Silchester has been proposed, based on scattered pieces of carved stone that may document a palace of Nero's time...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article2758605.ece

Princeton To Return Disputed Art To Italy
The New York Times
ROME, Oct. 26 — Princeton University announced on Friday that its art museum had reached an agreement to return eight ancient works to Italy that the Italian government says were looted and illicitly exported...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/arts/design/27prin.html?ref=design

Roman Tombstone Found At Inveresk
BBC News
The first Roman tombstone found in Scotland for 170 years has been unearthed at Carberry, near Inveresk...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7066539.stm

Amateur's Roman Tombstone Find Is First In Scotland For 170 Years
The Herald
The first Roman tombstone to be found in Scotland for more than 170 years has been uncovered by an amateur archaeologist...
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/other/display.var.1791961.0.0.php

Homework Project Digs Up Roman Relic
The Scotsman
IT HAD lain undiscovered and untouched for almost 2,000 years and could have been lost forever if not for the persistence of an amateur archaeologist and his camera phone...
http://heritage.scotsman.com/news.cfm?id=1718052007

First Roman Tombstone Discovered In Scotland For 170 Years
Monsters & Critics
The first Roman tomb to be found in Scotland for 170 years has been uncovered in Inveresk...
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/uk/news/article_1369479.php/First_Roman_tomb_discovered_in_Scotland_for_170_years