Heritage News of the Week
Discoveries!
Archaeologists found a Roman military camp in Slovakia with unusual burials of soldiers who likely fought in Marcus Aurelius' Marcomannic Wa
Remains of the 18.2-acre (7.4 hectare) camp were found near the town of Šurany in southwestern Slovakia, according to a statement from MH Invest, which excavated the area along with the Institute of Archaeology at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Possible WWII RAF crash site identified in forests near Świnoujście
A chance discovery by a berry picker in a forest near the Baltic city of Świnoujście has led archaeologists to what could be one of the area’s most significant WWII aviation finds in recent years.
2,500-year-old necropolis discovered under Italian pasta factory
Archeologists conducting preventative excavations have discovered a well-preserved, 2,500-year-old necropolis.
Decorated wild-boar tusk found in Russia may have been medieval warrior's good-luck charm
The unusual finding, a large tusk mounted with an engraved metal cap, dates to between the mid-12th and early 13th century.
British vial of smallpox scabs triggered the devastating 1789 outbreak among Indigenous Australians, study finds
It's long been debated what started the 1789 smallpox outbreak that devastated the Indigenous population in Australia. Now, a new study has the likely answer: It was brought in 1788 by the "First Fleet" of British ships to settle Australia.
Rare Hellenistic ritual complex revealed at Gradište
Archaeologists excavating the ancient site of Gradište near Mlado Nagoričane in North Macedonia have uncovered what they believe was a ritual dining complex associated with a sacred precinct.
'Exciting' finds uncovered near medieval church
Archaeologists digging in a village in Surrey to try to find a lost Saxon settlement say some of their discoveries are "really exciting".
New Kingdom tombs discovered at Saqqara provide new evidence of connections with Near East
An Egyptian archaeological mission has uncovered three rock-cut tombs dating to the New Kingdom at the Bubasteion necropolis in Saqqara, adding to a growing list of discoveries at one of Egypt’s most important archaeological sites.
Ancient Thames site may be Britain's first hospital
A team from the University of Reading has found evidence of a cemetery at Cookham, Berkshire, largely housing the bodies of those with terminal illnesses and serious injuries that dates to two centuries earlier.
Medieval bridge discovered beneath Chester Castle
Archaeologists from the University of Chester have made an unexpected discovery beneath Chester Castle, uncovering the remains of an 800-year-old bridge.
Archaeologists discovered the remains of one of the largest Christian monasteries ever
Generations of monks once lived in this monastic complex, and by the fifth century, it was also a hub of Coptic art and culture.
New study reveals how Cypriot goldsmiths united four ancient cultures
A cache of 3,400-year-old gold ornaments found in Cyprus is providing new evidence of how closely connected the ancient Mediterranean had become during the Late Bronze Age.
Byzantine gold objects help archaeologists uncover past of ship wrecked off Croatia
A Byzantine-era ship discovered more than a decade ago on the seabed off Croatia's southern coast was probably carrying a high-ranking person and his entourage, judging by the gold jewellery found in the wreckage.
Heatwave reveals lost archaeological sites across Wales
Experts said these dry conditions have brought to light a range of hidden archaeological remains, including Roman buildings and practice trenches from World War One.
Archaeologists uncover new funerary complex at Egypt’s Quesna necropolis
Archaeologists working at the Quesna necropolis in Egypt’s Monufia Governorate have uncovered a previously unknown funerary complex containing human burials, hundreds of faience figurines, protective amulets, and imported pottery, providing new evidence for burial practices and long-distance trade during the Late Roman and Byzantine periods.
New Roman military camp discovery reveals scale of Cantabrian Wars siege
Archaeologists have uncovered a previously unknown Roman military camp near the Iron Age hill fort of La Loma in northern Spain, providing fresh evidence that one of the decisive sieges of the Cantabrian Wars involved a far larger Roman force than previously believed.
Sacrificed Inca children died very differently than we thought, study finds
A new look at three children who died in the Inca human sacrifice ceremony known as Capacocha reveals their last few months and moments.
Rare Assyrian stele unearthed near Sun Gate of Nineveh
A joint Iraqi-American archaeological team has uncovered a monumental Late Assyrian stele near the ancient Sun Gate of Nineveh.
Mural discovered at Urartian fortress in Armenia
A fragment of a polychrome mural has been found at the Erebuni archaeological site, a fortress founded in the eighth century B.C. in the Kingdom of Urartu.
Roman Republican silver hoard highlights early links beyond the border
Archaeologists have uncovered the first definitively documented hoard of Roman Republic silver denarii in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, a discovery that is expected to provide new insights into contacts between the Roman Republic and the societies beyond its frontiers.
Centuries before farming, hunter-gatherers introduced fish to the Norwegian mountains
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of 7000-year-old fish traps in the mountains of southern Norway, indicating fish were intentionally introduced to upland lakes by Mesolithic hunter-fisher-gatherers and showing how human management of nature was not limited to agricultural societies.
Gaulish settlement excavation reveals rare statue and ritual sword
Archaeologists have uncovered a remarkably well-preserved Iron Age rural settlement in central France, complete with a rare limestone statue, a ritualistically damaged sword and evidence of specialised horse butchery.
1,200-year-old infant burial found near famous Temple of Artemis in Turkey contains twins — one with an unusual extra rib
The two infants buried in the same Byzantine-era grave may have been twins who died around the time of birth.
Two indigenous communities that survived the Spanish conquest discovered in Mexico
Archaeologists in Mexico have identified two Indigenous settlements that remained inhabited after the Spanish conquest, shedding new light on the survival of native communities during the early colonial period.
Revolutionary War cannon fragment recovered from Lake Champlain
Archaeologists have recovered the final known fragment of a Revolutionary War cannon from the bottom of Lake Champlain, bringing to a close a decades-long search and helping complete the archaeological record of America’s earliest naval battle.
Study finds ancient communities in Brazil’s Cerrado thrived on maize-based polyculture
Large precolonial communities in Brazil’s Cerrado sustained sizeable settlements through diversified maize farming rather than intensive monoculture or hunting and gathering alone.
Ancient water management system proposed near Egypt’s Red Pyramid
Two massive structures near Egypt’s Red Pyramid may be the remains of ancient dams rather than stone transport ramps, according to a new study that proposes the monuments formed part of an extensive water management system more than 4,500 years ago.
Church reshapes Spain's history: did Moors and Christians ever live in peace?
The Cerro de la Virgen site in Calasparra, in south-eastern Spain, shows that a Christian community kept up its liturgical life until the 9th century. Archaeologists say the find points to a more harmonious coexistence between Christians and Muslims than once assumed.
Ancient Calakmul mural is the earliest evidence of Maya calendar writing
Archaeologists studying a pre-Hispanic mural at the ancient Maya city of Calakmul have identified what is believed to be the site’s earliest evidence of calendrical writing, a discovery that places the Mexican archaeological centre alongside some of the most significant Late Preclassic Maya cities known for early writing traditions.
Puteoli – The Roman city that sank beneath the sea
Beneath the waters of the Bay of Naples, archaeologists are uncovering the remains of what was once the Roman Empire’s most important commercial gateway.
2,000-year-old game boards identified in China
Two Liubo game boards carved into square bricks have been found in two Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 220) tombs in Xi’an, an ancient capital city in central China.
Museums
A two-hour congressional hearing was held over allegations that the Smithsonian has failed in its duty to preserve and present the nation’s
“Dr. Hartig, are you America first? Do you love America?” So asked Representative Tim Burchett of Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, during a two-hour congressional hearing Tuesday over allegations that the institution has failed in its duty to preserve and present the nation’s story.
Trump orders warnings placed at ‘inaccurate’ Smithsonian History Museum
President Trump on Friday ordered warning signs and exhibits installed outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to alert the public that the museum does not, in his view, accurately reflect American history.
Opinion: This White House doesn’t understand how to love America. The Smithsonian does
A report attacking the National Museum of American History would prefer Americans feel a shallow patriotic crush than truly love this country.
Trump whitewashes George Washington’s slavery history in new display
Following a legal battle between the city of Philadelphia and the Trump administration, federal officials replaced exhibits describing the history of slavery in the United States at a Pennsylvania historical park.
Louvre's Apollo Gallery reopens with no jewellery on display after heist
Visitors can once again examine the Apollo Gallery's richly decorated 17th-century interior, one of the Louvre's most celebrated historic spaces. But jewels will instead be exhibited elsewhere in the Paris museum in a more secure location.
V&A Museum’s head of academic programs quits citing ‘racist’ behavior of staff, newly revealed letter shows
The accusations by Yuko Kikuchi came in a January 26 letter addressed to V&A director Tristram Hunt, as well as trustees of the V&A’s research committee. In that letter, Kikuchi wrote that the museum “likely” has “a culture of systemic racism” and she further described her letter as “an act of whistleblowing” as she felt that issues raised by her students would not be addressed without her taking action.
Mummies, museums and the fight over ancient Egypt
A spectacular new institution and a project to sequence the genomes of mummies are fuelling debate over the future of Egyptology.
‘There was absolutely no chance of being a kid’: new exhibition explores how war shapes children’s lives
Childhood in War examines what life looks like when play, education and family life is disrupted by hostilities.
Tactile Iron Age burials 3D-printed for museum
Scale replicas of 2,000-year-old skeletons unearthed in Dorset have been 3D-printed for members of the public to view and handle.
Construction resumes on McMurray Métis Cultural Centre after nearly four-year delay
After nearly four years of paused construction and financial problems, a Métis cultural centre in Fort McMurray, Alta. is restarting major construction in the fall.
Protesters decry Chinatown Museum’s acceptance of “jail money” at town hall
Leaders of New York’s Museum of Chinese failed to persuade protesters that a $35 million grant from the city was not tied to the construction of a borough jail.
London’s new House of Secrets Museum reveals lost stories of wartime spies
The intriguingly named House of Secrets will be the latest museum to open in London on July 21, when it takes over Trent Park, a palatial country house in the northern suburb of Enfield.
Gruel and graft: museum asks if you could survive a Victorian workhouse
The revamped Ripon attraction reopens as a more immersive experience telling ‘national story’ of poverty and welfare.
After Dark did an episode on the Victorian workhouse that started with asking, 'would you survive', and I got 30 seconds in and was like, no. No I would not.
Oldest natural history museum completes redisplay
The 166-year-old Oxford University Museum of Natural History, on Parks Road, has completed the final phrase of its historic redisplay initiative, called "Life, as we know it", with more than 3,000 objects installed.
Pompeii unveils reconstructed frescoed banquet hall ceiling, as restoration continues
Pompeii Archaeological Park said on Friday that it had used an innovative technique to reconstruct the ceiling, which is believed to have belonged to a banquet hall on the upper floor of a house with an adjoining bakery.
Ecuador’s national museum picks new design for $100m home following pushback to original selection and resignations
After criticism on social media, the government scrapped the original selection of a design by Estudio Campo Baeza and Maoda, opting for a proposal led by the Japanese firm Sanaa.
Repatriation
A French museum hopes its "Wanted" poster campaign featuring looted paintings will raise awareness about hundreds of artworks plundered duri
Have you seen a middle-aged man sporting an 18th-century, white, powdered wig, a nobleman’s fine clothes, and a gentle, open smile? If so, you may have come upon a certain Charles-Nicolas Cochin the Younger, a French engraver, designer, and art critic, who worked for King Louis XV and lived from 1715 to 1790. The fact that he is long dead does not preclude him from effectively being a wanted man in France today. Or more accurately, a painting of him by the celebrated French artist Jean Siméon Chardin is actively being sought after, after it was plundered from the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans during the German invasion of the city during World War II.
South Korean museum returns two Qing Dynasty lion sculptures to China
On July 23, the Kansong Art Museum in Seoul hosted a ceremony to mark the return of two Qing Dynasty stone lion sculptures to China.
FBI returns looted cultural artifacts to Indonesia
The returned items, from Indonesia’s Papua region, are part of the cultural heritage of the Dani and Asmat tribes and Lake Sentani communities. They were repatriated through cooperation between the FBI and the ministry after provenance research established that they had been smuggled out of Indonesia.
Italy returns pre-Columbian archaeological artifacts, fossils to Mexico
Italy returned to Mexico a collection of 27 pre-Columbian archaeological artifacts and fossils recovered during separate investigations into the illicit trafficking of cultural property.
Heritage at risk
Sebastia in the occupied West Bank and five Lebanese castles get emergency listing despite Israeli objections.
UNESCO has added sites in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon to the list of endangered World Heritage sites, despite Israeli objections. A committee vote on Friday at a UNESCO meeting in Busan, South Korea, placed six locations on both the main World Heritage list and the endangered list at once, under an emergency procedure, citing the toll of the ongoing conflicts in the region.
Trump-backed federal council aims to reduce protections of historic sites
On Friday, the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, most of whose members were appointed by President Trump or include leaders of Trump-controlled agencies, sent an internal draft proposal to eliminate federal regulations requiring public and state input before construction begins on historic sites.
'Irreplaceable' petroglyphs in Gabriola park vandalized
What appears to convey the message “I love Jesus” is scratched on a rock that features two small, face-like petroglyphs.
Thieves snatch 2,500-year-old Celtic gold torque from French museum in broad daylight
The thieves allegedly entered the Musée du Pays Châtillonnais – Trésor de Vix in Châtillon-sur-Seine, Burgundy, around 10:30 a.m. on July 24 by paying the admission fee, acting as regular visitors to the museum. The thieves smashed the display case holding the gold collar, called a torque, before fleeing the museum through the main entrance.
Odds and ends
The bid to have the D-Day landing beaches listed as UNESCO World Heritage site has entered a decisive phase, with a decision due between 24
The bid to have the D-Day landing beaches listed as UNESCO World Heritage site has entered a decisive phase, with a decision due between 24 and 27 July. Beyond its symbolic value, the status could boost tourism while helping to protect this endangered heritage.
On the public historians reminding us how easy it is to repeat the mistakes of the past
Jim Downs considers the important work of Heather Cox Richardson, Jill Lepore, Kevin Kruse, and more.
Treasure as trinkets: Zendaya’s earrings renew debate on ownership of ancient artefacts
Jewellery made from BC Iran worn at Odyssey photocall throws spotlight on the trade of rare archeological finds.
‘The Odyssey’: What academics are saying about Christopher Nolan’s epic
Fresh from a Thursday night showing of Christopher Nolan‘s “The Odyssey,” a group of 17 spent the evening doing what scholars have done with Homer’s epic for nearly 3,000 years: arguing about it.
A Homerist reacts to Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey”
“This is a tale of a man affected by trauma, but without any sense that it changed him at all.”
Homer was the Homer of the Zulus
The right-wing backlash to The Odyssey is about portraying civilization as a whites-only project.
Why stone-faced fascists keep getting antiquity wrong
Online bigotry masquerading as a love of history in the fever swamps of Elon Musk’s X.
This extremely cool recreation of Mycenaean armour
I just really love Mycenaean armour, you guys
Inside the wild world of Roman romance novels
Emma Southon on the emergence of popular fiction in the ancient world.
Cultural jobs on the rise as EU signs first-ever culture declaration
The EU has signed its first declaration on culture, as new data shows the number of employees in the cultural sector is rising. Which EU countries have the most and the least cultural jobs?
Is Italy’s famed ancient ‘Warrior of Capestrano’ a Mussolini-backed fake?
Is Italy’s famous 6th-century BCE statue known as the “Warrior of Capestrano” a Mussolini-backed forgery? Recently granted permission to test the mysterious statue, held in Abruzzo’s National Archaeology Museum in Chieti, central Italy, may have the answers.
Titanic item offers 'priceless snapshot' of ship life
A letter written by a passenger on the Titanic just days before the ship sank is expected to sell for up to £35,000 at auction.
Glasgow's colonial history marked by new city trail
A slavery and colonial trail has been launched in Glasgow, marking the city's role in the transatlantic slave trade. Glasgow City Council says the new walk will give both residents and visitors to the city a better understanding of its past and colonial legacy.
Why Americans can’t seem to quit Little House on the Prairie
Pioneer nostalgia has tended to spike when conservatives are in power, which is no coincidence. When the cities are called dangerous, the enterprising are still told to make their own way in the wide open spaces. To go west. But as Dr. Paula Read wondered in a recent op-ed for Teen Vogue, “Is there anything new to be said that hasn’t been covered in the original nine books or the first TV adaptation?”
Aristides de Sousa Mendes: the man who braved 'consequences' to save thousands from Nazis
On Sunday 19 July, Portugal marked 141 years since the birth of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the diplomat who saved over 30,000 from Nazi persecution in WWII. A museum there is dedicated to his life and legacy.
'A distinct Canadian character': The 1920s paintings that changed how the world saw Canada
The Group of Seven was Canada's first internationally recognised national art movement, and they helped create a distinct, modern Canadian identity in the 1920s. As the official Group of Seven Day is celebrated in Canada, what is their legacy – and are their ideas in harmony or conflict with the so-called "Indian Group of Seven", founded later in the 1970s?
The campaigner who gave shirt factory women a voice
Sarah Doherty was only a teenager when she first walked through the doors of a Londonderry shirt factory and into a world of work built largely on the labour of women. Over the next five decades, Doherty would dedicate herself to improving pay and conditions for the women who helped power one of Ireland's most important industries.
'Hidden time-capsule of UK biodiversity' unlocked
More than 10,000 dried and pressed specimens held at the Royal Agricultural University herbarium in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, are being photographed and digitally catalogued to make them more accessible to researchers.
Fossils are shaped by people. Does that matter?
Preparing a fossil is often more of an art than a science. The results have implications for research and copyrights.
Dinosaur skull remains found in campground belong to T. rex 'great-uncle,' Alberta study shows
The remains of a dinosaur skull found in British Columbia campground belonged to a tyrannosaur that was lighter and faster than its more famous relative, the T. rex, say the authors of a new study.
