April 3rd News

Unlike yesterday, the stories today come from around Europe and the Classical world.

New stories as of 9:20 AM:

Ancient Minoan Civilization Built By Anatolians, Study Finds
Earth Times
Athens - The southern Mediterranean Minoan civilisation was built by people from Anatolia, reports said Thursday - disputing an earlier theory that the Minoan's forefathers had come from Africa. The study, which was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini, drew its conclusions from DNA analysis of 193 men from Crete and another 171 from former Neolithic colonies in central and northern Greece...
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/196476,ancient-minoan-civilisation-built-by-anatolians-study-finds.html

Dig Turns Up Surprises And Questions From Ancient Greece
Huliq
A little more than 100 years ago, two teams from the Greek Archaeological Service investigated the site of Mt. Lykaion, thought to be the birthplace of the god Zeus. Archaeologists found pottery, clay figures and animal bones at an altar of the Greek god, and were able to uncover remains of numerous buildings, including the hippodrome—a stadium for horses and chariot teams—an athletic stadium and bathhouse...
http://www.huliq.com/55822/dig-turns-surprises-and-questions-ancient-greece

Nanotechnology Brings Ancient Sarcophagus To Life
Nanowerk.com
(Nanowerk News) It was long believed that the statues and relief's of Greek and Roman antiquity were left in their natural state and unpainted, unlike contemporary works from other advanced civilizations like the Egyptians. Archaeologists have known for some time that this popular misconception of Western art was largely a renaissance creation. Classical marble carvings would have been painted originally, although it is rare for any of the polychromy to have survived to the present day. In most cases the colouring has been completely weathered and worn away over the centuries...
http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=5177.php

Stonehenge Visited By Archaeologists
Canada Free Press
Located about 8 miles north of Salisbury, in the English county of Wiltshire, one of the most famous prehistoric sites exists. Stonehenge has been the subject of so much study, and so little in the way of answers, that it is really an archaeologists dream; maybe they will be the ones to solve the mystery of why, how and who!
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2485

Rare Stonehenge Dig Aims To Pinpoint Origin
National Geographic News
Some of the United Kingdom's most storied soil was disturbed Monday for the first time in more than four decades as archaeologists worked to solve the enduring riddle of Stonehenge: When and why was the prehistoric monument built?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080402-AP-britain-sto.html

Medieval Calculator Up For Grabs
Nature News
The fate of a fourteenth-century pocket calculator is hanging in the balance between museum ownership and private sale...
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080402/full/news.2008.730.html

Assyrian Rulers Were Movers And Shakers
redOrbit
Dr. Oded Lipschits, from Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology, directs Ramat Rachel, an archaeological dig two miles from the Old City of Jerusalem. Until now archaeologists believed the site was a palace of an ancient Judean king, probably King Hezekiah, who built it around 700 BCE...
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1323691/assyrian_rulers_were_movers_and_shakers/

After 1,500 Years As A Ruin, Gladiators' Stadium To Be Restored
The Independent
It still bears its thrilling ancient name, and the antique ruins on the Palatine Hill, the heart of ancient Rome and home of the Caesars, still gaze down upon it. But now it takes a feat of the imagination to see Circus Maximus as it must have been in its pomp...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/after-1500-years-as-a-ruin-gladiators-stadium-to-be-restored-804002.html