This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: IANS/AKI
January 26, 2010
Italian police have sealed off an illegal archaeological dig and recovered 108 stolen artefacts dating back more than 2,000 years.
The artefacts were excavated from tombs dating to the Daunian era, which preceded the Roman empire, in the southern region of Puglia.
The pieces were expected to be trafficked on the illegal antiquities market.
Several sites were sealed off by police near the town of Rodi Garganico, in the province of Foggia on the Adriatic coas
Source: Reuters
January 25, 2010
Archeologists have discovered a huge Mayan sculptured head in Guatemala that suggests a little-known site in the jungle-covered Peten region may once have been a significant city.
The stucco sculpture, which is 10 feet wide and 11.5 feet tall, was buried for centuries at the Chilonche ruins, close to the border with Belize.
The recent discovery of the head, which dates from the early Classic period between 300 to 600 AD, means the site is much older than previously thou
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 26, 2010
The communists who took over after World War II imposed a wall of silence on a century of Jewish life here, but this has steadily crumbled since the regime's collapse in 1989.
Today, cultural festivals, cemetery restoration programmes across Poland, school Jewish history classes, national commemorations and burgeoning academic research are reclaiming the past.
The communists who took over after World War II imposed a wall of silence on a century of Jewish life here, bu
Source: WPCVA.com
January 22, 2010
The Civil War preservation trust has raised $65,000 and has used that money to recently purchase the Appomattox Station Battlefield property.
The purchase of 47 acres of property will secure the preservation of the land where once Civil War skirmishes took place in April 1865.
The Appomattox Station Battlefield land is located on the Jamerson Trucking Property.
Preserving the property is a key step in telling the full story of the final days of the Civil Wa
Source: MSNBC
January 26, 2010
When you visit the National Archives in D.C. after Feb. 23, it will still be OK to bring your still cameras, cell phone cameras and video cameras. Just don't use them.
Starting Feb. 24, visitors will be banned from taking photographs or video in the Archives main exhibit hall where the original Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights are displayed.
Source: Polskie Radio (Poland)
January 26, 2010
A biography of Witold Pilecki, one of the unsung heroes of World War Two, has been published in Italy.
Entitled A Volunteer, it was written by Marco Patricelli, a lecturer in modern history at the University in Chieti. The ANSA Agency stresses in its review of the book that Pilecki’s war-time exploits and his tragic post-war plight remain virtually unknown in the West.
In 1940 Witold Pilecki allowed himself to be arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz, where h
Source: AP
January 22, 2010
A Van Gogh painting at the center of a dispute between Yale University and a man who believes the artwork was stolen from his family during the Russian Revolution is worth $120 million to $150 million, the man's attorney told The Associated Press on Friday.
The evaluation is the first public estimate of the painting's value, and the lawyer, Allan Gerson, said it comes from a top auction firm.
Gerson represents Pierre Konowaloff, the purported great-grandson of industria
Source: National Parks Traveler
January 26, 2010
Ever wonder what lies beneath the water of those big man-made lakes in the West? Before the Yellowtail Dam was completed on the Bighorn River in Montana, an expedition took a last look at the river and canyon. A member of that group will share historic film footage and stories at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area on January 28.
The Bighorn River carved an impressive canyon through the high desert of northern Wyoming and Southern Montana, and the names of local features such as
Source: BBC News
January 26, 2010
Peru's authorities have begun the airlift rescue of some of nearly 2,000 tourists stranded by heavy rains near its top attraction, Machu Picchu.
The government declared an emergency in the area on Monday and has evacuated 20 tourists from the village of Machu Picchu Pueblo near the famous ruins.
Days of heavy rains triggered up to 40 landslides, one of which blocked the railway between Machu Picchu and Cuzco.
Two people are reported to have died when a mudslide d
Source: Artdaily.org
January 26, 2010
In a difficult and risky mission, a committee formed by the persons responsible of the European and American museums worked together to save Spanish Works of art during that country’s Civil War.
Works of art from the Prado Museum, the Academy of Fine Arts in San Fernando, the Escorial, the Royal Palace, National Library and those owned by the Church as well as those from prívate collections, started a journey that took them through different Spanish cities and ended up in Geneva, w
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 26, 2010
Sir Michael said he had considered resigning on the eve of the invasion in March 2003 in protest at the decision to join the US-led attack.
He described how he was sidelined after he made clear his objections to military action.
His evidence intensifies the pressure on Tony Blair, who is due to give evidence to the Iraq Inquiry on Friday.
Sir Michael rejected the Government's argument that United Nations Security Council resolution 1441 - passed in Novem
Source: Seattle Times
January 22, 2010
They were mavericks of their day, taking to the skies when the nation was at war and most women were at home caring for families. At a ceremony this spring, 11 Washington women will join the 200-some surviving Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) in receiving Congressional Gold Medals for service during World War II.
Sixteen more medals will be given to local WASPs posthumously.
Congressional Gold Medals have been awarded nearly 150 times since the nation was born in 1
Source: Washington Post
January 24, 2010
The neat lines and red rectangular sketches look like any typical architectural design. But the handwritten initials H.H. - belonging to the infamous Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler - indicate what the drawings represent: wooden barracks, gas chambers and crematoria.
Just ahead of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Israel's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem is displaying the blueprints of the notorious camp in Nazi-occupied Poland that has become a symbol of the Nazi ge
Source: Reuters
January 21, 2010
Giant marsupials, reptiles and flightless birds that once roamed Australia became extinct about 40,000 years ago, later than had been thought and some 5,000 years after humans arrived, a new study suggests.
Controversy has long surrounded when such creatures became extinct in Australia. New equipment that can date teeth and bones has solved the puzzle, Australian researchers said in the latest issue of the journal Science.
They analyzed surrounding sediments and found t
Source: AP
January 22, 2010
Some U.S. military veterans are finding work helping sort through a massive government archaeological collection that has been neglected for decades.
The collection dates to the 1930s, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started building dozens of locks, dams and reservoirs, and the ground beneath them was excavated for archaeological treasures.
It's part of the corps' effort to find American Indian cultural items and return them to tribes or their descendants -- some
Source: News Antique
January 24, 2010
The collection of important and many one-of-a-kind American documents tracing the country's westward movement, assembled by a colorful historian, will be offered in a public auction in New York City.
Described as a collection people have waited for decades to come on the market, a colorful author and historian's extensive multi-million dollar archive of important American manuscripts, maps, letters, early photographs, books and documents tracing America's journey to the Wild West wi
Source: BBC
January 25, 2010
A historian says he has uncovered evidence of Africans being present at Stirling Castle as early as the 1540s.
John Harrison found references to morys - or moors - in the "Bread Book", a record of who received loaves from the royal kitchens in 1549.
The book may be the first clear record of Africans at Stirling Castle's Royal Palace, Mr Harrison said.
The research is part of Historic Scotland's £12m restoration of the palace to its mid-16th Cent
Source: BBC
January 25, 2010
An intricate horse head is the latest item from the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard to be put on public display.
The solid gold ornament - about two inches tall - is laced with a filigree gold design and very nearly intact.
It is the latest treasure to emerge from the 1,500-piece Staffordshire Hoard, the largest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found.
It goes on display at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent between 13 February and 7 March
Source: The Capital (Annapolis)
January 22, 2010
A construction crew working on a parking lot between West and Northwest streets in downtown Annapolis has unearthed pieces of pottery, china, bottles and bones that date to about 1760....
The artifacts were found buried in a long-abandoned privy behind the house at 26 West St. The construction crew alerted city officials as soon as the brick outline of the privy became visible Wednesday.
Thomas W. Bodor - a consulting archaeologist retained by the Historic Preservation
Source: WKRG News
January 21, 2010
A Jacksonville State University professor says an ancient American Indian site Oxford city officials agreed not to disturb has been destroyed, but he does not know by whom.
City officials say they have done nothing to harm the site.
JSU professor of archaeology and anthropology Harry Holstein said the site at the historic Davis Farm property in Oxford contained remnants of an American Indian village and the 3-foot-high base of a once 30-foot-high temple mound, which he
