He’s 130, with three eyes and two girlfriends: meet New Zealand’s beloved tuatara Henry

The unique reptile endemic to New Zealand is the sole survivor of an ancient species that once walked the earth with dinosaurs

the Guardian

But while the tuatara – New Zealand’s largest reptile – may look like a lizard, it is not one. Rather, it is the sole survivor of an ancient Sphenodontia species that walked the Earth with dinosaurs 225m years ago.

‘Amazing’ Viking-age treasure travelled half the world to Scotland, analysis finds

Lidded vessel is star object in rich Galloway Hoard and came from silver mine in what is now Iran

the Guardian

It is a star object of the Galloway Hoard, the richest collection of Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland, buried in AD900 and unearthed in a field in Scotland. Now a lidded silver vessel has been identified as being of west Asian origin, transported halfway around the world more than 1,000 years ago.

An unmanned mission to the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean where the ship lies has revealed a long-sought two-foot-tall bronze statue showing the goddess Diana that stood atop the fireplace mantel in the first class lounge. Based on an original in the Louvre’s collection, the sculpture is often referred to as the Diana of Versailles.

ALT

The Roman siege of Jewish rebels in Masada, one of the founding myths of modern Israel, may have been far quicker and more efficient and brutal than it has been traditionally represented as, according to new archaeological research.

Based on the material objects, the wider cemetery is associated with the Przeworsk culture, an Iron Age people that inhabited what is now central and southern Poland from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD.

Archaeologists investigating a megalithic monument in the Burabay district of the Akmola region of Kazakhstan have revealed that the monument may have been closely linked to gold mining activities in the region in the 2nd millennium BC and may possibly have been a place of worship for miners.

Archaeologists in Kazakhstan have discovered 10 centuries-old burial mounds, known as kurgans, dating to the Middle Ages. Found in the Ulytau region of central Kazakhstan, three of the kurgans are what archaeologists call "mustached kurgans" or "mustache kurgans" Zhanbolat Utubaev, an archaeologist at the Margulan Institute of Archaeology who led the team that discovered the kurgans, told Live Science in an email. These are burial mounds with ridges of stone going across them, Utubaev said.

An additional 20 intact human burials and the disturbed remains of many more have been discovered by archaeologists excavating a monastery in Cookham. The burials are in addition to the human remains of 50 individuals found in 2023, supporting the theory that the ill and dying received care at the monastery.

Archaeologists excavating at Horvat Ashun, near Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, Isreal, have discovered a rare collection of silver coins dating to the Hasmonean period between 135 and 126 BC.

Archaeologists have discovered a trove of ancient silver coins "hidden in a hole in the wall" on a Mediterranean island near Sicily, possibly during a pirate attack more than 2,000 years ago.

During excavations in the Silifke castle located on lies on a hill in the town with the same name in the province of Mersin in south Türkiye, a mysterious burial tablet believed to belong to the Byzantine period and believed to protect from evil was unearthed.

The plot has thickened on the mystery of the altar stone of Stonehenge, weeks after geologists sensationally revealed that the huge neolithic rock had been transported hundreds of miles to Wiltshire from the very north of Scotland.

Lothal is best known for its well-preserved brick dock and its warehouse, though the hypothesis that this structure served as a dockyard has been the subject of debate in the archaeological literature. This may now change as a new study by the Indian Institute of Technology-Gandhinagar (IITGn) has found fresh evidence that can confirm the dockyard’s existence.

A “remarkable” Pictish ring thought to be more than 1,000 years old has been unearthed by an amateur archaeologist on a dig at the Burghead Fort in Moray, Scotland.

ALT

The grave, which is thought to date to the first half of the fourth century, holds the remains of a man who died at around age 60. It was found in May during excavations ahead of the construction of new homes in the center of the village of Gerstetten, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of the city of Stuttgart in southwest Germany

A 5,000-year-old skeleton has been unearthed in eastern Slovakia by researchers from the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Sciences. The skeleton belonged to a young man of the Indo-European Pit Grave culture who died between the ages of 16 and 18. The grave was found in the center of a burial mound with a 72-foot diameter, surrounded by a channel measuring more than 12 feet wide.

Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been excavating a burial ground associated with the Finnic Muromians.

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed five gold coins dating to the time of the emperor Justinian the Great (ruled from A.D. 527 to 565). Although it is not unusual to discover coins during excavations, these ones were located on the floor of a 10th-century house — suggesting the dwelling's medieval occupants may have kept the coins as a kind of heirloom or artifact.

Excavations have revealed complete and partial burials in the area, along with bone pits containing multiple bundled burials, likely the result of mass executions carried out in a short period.

Hundreds of artworks by mainly Black Brazilian artists are returning home

Pieces from sculptures to costumes are donated to Bahia after being in US and Canada’s museums for 30 years

the Guardian

Amid a global movement to return artworks to their countries of origin, about 750 pieces by predominantly Black Brazilian artists are coming home after being exhibited in museums across the United States and Canada. The sculptures, paintings, prints, religious objects, festival costumes, toys and poetry booklets have been outside Brazil for more than 30 years and are now being donated to a museum in the country’s Blackest state, Bahia.

A group of predominantly French researchers and scientists have published an open letter in Le Monde expressing concern that France’s cultural institutions were enabling “sinicization,” or the assimilation of non-Chinese groups into Chinese culture. They allege that Musée du quai Branly and the Musée Guimet have acquiesced to use language that “reflects Beijing’s wishes regarding the rewriting of history and the planned erasure of non-Han people.”

More than 250 items previously belonging to Marilyn Monroe will be exhibited in the UK for the first time. Marilyn - The Exhibition will come to London in October, with the actor's love letters, satin robes and make-up on display to the public.

An art exhibition inspired by love letters between two gay World War Two soldiers opens on Friday evening.

The new London Museum has been handed an extra $65 million to help get its construction to the finish line. The institution has now eclipsed its original budget of $445 million from 2019, with the projected final bill standing at $575 million.

Visitors to Dorset Museum will be able to wander through its galleries naked at the evening event on 17 September. The ticket price includes a glass of wine, changing facilities and a locker for clothes, according to organiser British Naturism.

ALT

Human Remains Trafficked to New York as Art Have Been Returned to Pacific Island of Vanuatu by the FBI

Human remains that were trafficked to New York as art have been returned to Pacific Island of Vanuatu by the FBI.

ARTnews.com

After an eight-year investigation by the FBI, human remains that were trafficked to New York as art have finally been repatriated on the Pacific island of Vanuatu. The Vanuatu Cultural Center, the island’s national museum, received a crate last week—escorted by US intelligence and security agents—containing the skull of a man from an Indigenous Malakula hill tribe.

Earlier this month, the National Park Service (NPS) awarded just over $3 million in grants to 13 Native American tribes and 21 American institutions to facilitate the repatriation of ancestral remains and cultural objects currently held in collections and archives across the country. This marks the first round of funding since the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) adopted major updates to its original 1990 legislation in mid-January, clarifying and streamlining repatriation processes that have been stalled for the past three decades.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has repatriated a necklace to Turkey after scholars told museum staff that elements of the artifact were likely looted from an ancient tomb illegally excavated in the 1970s.

National Museum of Sudan Reportedly Looted amid Civil War

Sudan’s museums have faced repeated assault since the internal power struggle erupted into civil war last year.

ARTnews.com

The National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum has reportedly been looted by members of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) amid an ongoing civil war in the country. On Sunday, the SBC, Sudan’s national broadcaster, reported that the museum was targeted by “a large-scale looting and smuggling operation” and that some pieces from its collection had been trafficked outside the nation’s southern border.

Late last month, over $134,000 worth of historic firearms were stolen from the Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum, leading the Australian museum to close for the “foreseeable future.”

Iraqi heritage advocates have roundly criticized restoration work on the Zumurrud Khatun Mosque and Mausoleum in central Baghdad.

Archaeologists, Indigenous communities forced into difficult choices about which historical sites to save

A copper-mining project in Afghanistan finally got off the ground last month after a delay of over 16 years, but critics worry that a lack of independent supervision could lead to widespread pollution and the destruction of historical ruins and relics uncovered at the Mes Aynak site.

At Alto Barranco in the Tarapacá region, an area in the far north of Chile, the most persistent damage comes from motorcycles and 4×4 vehicles, whose tire tracks are erasing the geoglyphs.

ALT

Gladiator rebellions and bread strikes: ancient Rome’s labor unions revealed

In her new book Strike, Sarah Bond explains how Roman workers banded together – much like labor organizing today

the Guardian

Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire by Sarah Bond, an associate professor in the classics at the University of Iowa, reveals how groups of workers in ancient Rome organized and collectively resisted in favor of demands, and often faced political opposition and legislation to undermine their efforts by Roman leaders.

It's been 10 years since Inuit helped guide researchers to the wreck of the HMS Erebus, one of the ships from the 1845 Franklin expedition, and the mayor of the community that was pivotal to the search says identifying those sites has been a good thing for his community.

Inarguably Britain's most famous male monarch, the silhouette of Henry VIII alone is instantly recognisable, from the celebrated portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger. Vast in stature and covered in jewels, Henry stares out at the viewer with his piercing brown eyes. The man behind those eyes however, who discarded two wives and ordered the execution of two others, has been harder to decipher – although books, film and TV have certainly tried.

ALT

Maria Sibylla Merian’s beautiful and disturbing illustrations, which shaped how we look at the natural world, will be on show at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum

ALT

The man who oversaw the creation of thousands of forged artworks in Thunder Bay, Ont., falsely attributed to Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau faces a five-year penitentiary sentence.

The painting was recovered during a routine house call for the auction house, reportedly discovered with no surface damage and in remarkable condition considering its age. It was noted to have an established family provenance as well.

Officials in Rome are mulling whether to limit access to the Trevi fountain, as the city grapples with the impact that overtourism is having on the late baroque masterpiece.

The wreck of the Titanic is showing clear signs of decay on the sea floor at its resting place miles below the surface. What will its final fate be?

A handbag made from alligator skin and tiny vials of perfume that still release a potent scent are just some of the precious artefacts recovered from the world’s most famous shipwreck - the Titanic.

The Black divers excavating slave shipwrecks: ‘I’m telling my ancestors: I’m with you’

Members of Diving With a Purpose search out and investigate the vessels’ remains, bringing history to light and memorializing lost lives

the Guardian

Diving With a Purpose, led by diving veterans in their 70s and 80s, mentors young divers of color in underwater archaeology. The organization focuses on protecting submerged heritage sites, particularly shipwrecks related to the Atlantic slave trade. Since 2005, DWP has helped uncover 20 such sites, including the São José Paquete África, a Portuguese slave ship that sank off the coast of South Africa in 1794, killing more than 200 captured Africans on board. By finding the remains of these ships – many lost at sea on their way to the Americas – the divers shed light on the most horrific trade in human history. Confronting a warming ocean, DWP’s mission has evolved from preservation to include conservation. Its efforts now include nurturing coral growth; teams have planted more than 2,000 elkhorn corals in bleached, overheated waters.

Banquet room with preserved frescoes unearthed among Pompeii ruins

‘Black room’ with frescoes inspired by Trojan war described as one of most striking discoveries ever made at site in southern Italy

the Guardian

A banquet room replete with well preserved frescoes depicting characters inspired by the Trojan war has been unearthed among the ruins of Pompeii in what has been described as one of the most striking discoveries ever made at the southern Italy archaeological site.

Metallurgical analysis of early medieval coins has revealed the answer: the power brokers of the time were melting down their stockpiles of Byzantine silver treasures, in a type of early medieval quantitative easing that kickstarted the economy of England and established a monetary system that would last for a millennium.

Recent excavations on the Rte de Beaucaire have revealed cremation pyres and secondary burials from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD. Buried with the deceased are numerous high status grave goods, including strigils (a tool for the cleansing of the body before bathing), ornate glass vases, ceramics, a glass paste cup, lamps, and fragments of funerary monuments and amphorae.

A paper published in the Quaternary Science Reviews on Wednesday details the finding of 82 pottery pieces from a single dig site on a Great Barrier Reef island, dates them at between 3,000 and 2,000 years old and determines that the pots were most likely made by Aboriginal people using locally sourced clay and temper. The pieces are the oldest securely dated pottery discovered in Australia and weave Indigenous Australians into an ocean-going network of people in Papua New Guinea, the Torres Strait and Pacific Islands who formed a “community of cultures across the Coral Sea”, the paper finds. Fragments of pottery have also been found on the Torres Strait.

The object is a small bronze fitting measuring no more than 3 centimetres in diameter and depicts the face of Alexander the Great

The tomb, designated as M1033, was discovered in the Dahekou cemetery, Yicheng County. Over 600 burials and 20 chariot-and-horse pits have been discovered during the excavation of the Western Zhou Dynasty’s Dahekou Cemetery in Yicheng County, Shanxi Province, since 2007.

Archaeologists believe it is the oldest record of erotic graffiti ever found, with inscriptions and etchings documenting an ongoing sexual relationship between two men in Ancient Greece.

A new paper, published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, draws on ancient Egyptian sources such as the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, and the Book of Nut, and compared them alongside simulations of the nights sky. According to the study authors, Nut was a symbolic representation of the Milky Way, as during winter, the galaxy is illuminated in Nut’s outstretched arms, whereas in summer, it followed her backbone across the heavens.

The murder of sacrificial victims by "incaprettamento" — tying their neck to their legs bent behind their back, so that they effectively strangled themselves — seems to have been a tradition across much of Neolithic Europe, with a new study identifying more than a dozen such murders over more than 2,000 years.

Archaeologists from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) unearthed an unusual, prehistoric monument in the shape of a horseshoe during excavations in Marliens, a commune located about 200 miles southeast of Paris.

Hunter-gatherers in what is now Patagonia, Argentina, kept foxes as pets before the arrival of European dogs about 500 years ago, a new study suggests. In some cases, the ancient people were so closely bonded with their pet foxes that they were even buried with them.

In a stunning archaeological find, the name “Shiraz” was identified on a clay sealing from the Sassanid era written in Pahlavi script.

Researchers from the Sywell Aviation Museum have announced the rediscovery of a preserved WW2 air raid shelter in Kettering, England.

Military personnel on Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico discovered artifacts, hearths and charcoal dating to the Archaic period that pinpoint the site of an early encampment.

A recent excavation near Beersheba in southern Israel uncovered an ivory vessel crafted of elephant tusks dating to the Chalcolithic period (around 4,000 BC). The find is the first Chalcolithic ivory vessel discovered in Israel.

The discovery of a lynx buried with four dogs at an early-medieval settlement in Hungary is confounding archaeologists, as these wild cats are rarely found in archaeological digs.

Excavations at Phanigiri, a Buddhist complex dedicated to Gautama Buddha, recently uncovered an earthen pot containing 3,730 lead coins with a depiction of the elephant symbol on one side and the Ujjain symbol on the reverse.

Members of the Blackfoot Confederacy have an ancient lineage that goes back 18,000 years, meaning that Indigenous peoples living in the Great Plains of Montana and southern Alberta today can trace their origins to ice age predecessors, a new DNA study reveals.

Throughout April and May of 2024, Wessex Archaeology is conducting a series of excavations to uncover and preserve the foundations of the circular towers of the castle’s gatehouse, and explore the destruction deposits from the razing of the original motte and bailey castle by John D’Eyvill in the 13th century.

Archaeologists have discovered a first-of-its-kind medical prosthesis in Poland: a nearly 300-year-old device that helped a man with cleft palate live more comfortably with this condition.

In the Steinacher area (Canton of Aargau) on the Limmat there was a Roman settlement that was significantly larger than long assumed. Before the remains are destroyed for housing development, the cantonal archeology department carries out large-scale excavations.

Excavations in the area of ​​the northern bypass of Krakow have revealed the remains of earthen structures related to the network of military units being established around the city, whose task was to turn Krakow into a modern border fortress.

The site, known as Anchor Church Field and situated near Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire, is thought to have hosted ceremonial and sacred activities on and off from the time the henge was erected in the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (2900 to 1600 B.C.) until the 15th century.

Several Top Museums in UK Admit Hundreds of Items Were Lost, Stolen or Destroyed

The reports from the Imperial War Museum, Natural History Museum and others came from Freedom of Information requests.

ARTnews.com

Several museums in the UK have admitted that hundreds of items from their collections have been lost, stolen, or destroyed over the past five years, highlighting a sector-wide issue after the British Museum thefts scandal last year. Institutions including the Imperial War Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, and the Natural History Museum reported a variety of missing historic items. The information was released in response to Freedom of Information requests filed by The Independent, which first reported the news earlier this week.

One of the world’s leading experts in recovering stolen art says the government should force museums to improve their security arrangements after it was reported that there are items missing from several UK institutions.

In a world of QR code menus and takeout meals, it's easy to forget that menus — both the physical objects and the dishes they list — for centuries played an important symbolic role. The "A World of Menus" exhibit that opened in Rome last week at the Garum Library and Museum of Cuisine lays out some 400 menus from major private and public collections.

A staircase used by weary medieval monks when they had to file down from bed to their church services in the middle of the night has been rebuilt in some of the most atmospheric monastic ruins in England.

HHT has a partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to advocate for and support the preservation of member sites that are publicly owned and located on park land. HHT’s online Dutch Heritage Trail, launched in 2021, includes 11 locations that range from the Alice Austen House on Staten Island—expanded from a 1690 one-room Dutch farmhouse—to later structures like the Dutch colonial-style Dyckman Farmhouse in Manhattan, which was built in 1784. Although they can stand out as curious relics (the white-clapboard Dyckman Farmhouse looms over Broadway from its elevated perch nestled between apartment buildings), Horsford emphasises that they are not like objects behind glass.

Indigenous Artifacts Should Be Returned to Indigenous People

It’s time to start learning about Native history from museums and cultural centers that are run by Native nations.

TIME

In January 2024, the American Museum of Natural History in New York closed its Hall of the Great Plains and Hall of Eastern Woodlands, and visitors to the Field Museum in Chicago and other museums across the country are seeing covered display cases and signs explaining that these exhibits “have been covered in consideration of ongoing legal and ethical reviews.” These closures are overdue corrections by museums that have long misrepresented and misused Indigenous history. But more than a subtraction, they are a sign of an important shift in where and how Americans learn Native American history.

The glory days of shipwreck exploration on the Great Lakes are here, but the window is closing fast | CBC News

A combination of technology and environmental change has created ideal conditions for those scouring the Great Lakes for lost shipwrecks.

CBC

Explorers say the pace of new discoveries has quickened, thanks to new technologies, climate change, invasive species and a surge in public interest.

Christie’s has withdrawn four ancient Greek vases from Tuesday’s auction after a leading archaeologist discovered that each of them was linked to a convicted antiquities dealer.

Why the World of Typewriter Collectors Splits Down the Middle When These Machines Come Up for Sale

In this new hobby, I found so many stories.

Slate Magazine

You don’t have to be a connoisseur of antique office machinery to identify the Urania as a Nazi-era typewriter; it has that particular aesthetic. The shine from chrome-ringed, glass-topped keys accents its stern profile. From the keyboard, the high-gloss curves accelerate smoothly upward toward the basket of typebars. The position of every knob, lever, and button has been well thought-out and positioned most logically, and engineered to maximize utility. It has the contours of a Darth Vader helmet, and shines just as black. This machine just looks Nazi, and unapologetically so. But how are we to appreciate these machines of both menace and beauty? Are they simply inanimate tools for writing, and nothing more? Or are they relics of the most odious regime in human history—cursed forever to be symbols of the Third Reich where they were birthed? And if such objects were born with some kind of original sin, is there any hope for redeeming them?

The story of the film’s discovery has already caused excitement online. Film-maker Gary Huggins inadvertently snapped up a slice of lost silent film history at an auction in a car park in Omaha, Nebraska, that was selling old stock from a distribution company called Modern Sound Pictures. Hoping to bid on a copy of the 1926 comedy Eve’s Leaves that he had spotted on top of a pile, Huggins was informed that he could only buy the whole pallet of movies, not individual cans. The upside? The lot was his for only $20.

A killer himself, Caravaggio died at 38 – desperate, disfigured and on the run from the Knights of St John. His greatest works – with which he bargained for his life – cast light on one of art’s darkest mysteries

The hyenas of Harar: how a city fell in love with its bone-crunching carnivores

In an ancient walled city in eastern Ethiopia, the animals are fed in return for cleaning up the streets and keeping spirits at bay

the Guardian

The hyenas gather as night settles. The bolder animals come early and lounge around, undisturbed by the loud blare of mosques calling people to prayer. By the time Abbas Yusuf arrives, dozens lurk in the semi-darkness, pacing over shards of splintered bone and broken glass.

Archaeologists unearth ‘most shocking example of Roman slavery’ at Pompeii

Cramped bakery with barred windows believed to be where enslaved people were forced to work

the Guardian

A bakery where enslaved people were imprisoned and exploited to produce bread has been discovered in the ruins of Pompeii in what has been described as the most shocking example of slavery in the ancient Roman city.

Collyweston Palace, home of Henry VII’s mother, uncovered despite ‘no money, no expertise, no plans’

According to an announcement by the Pomeranian Provincial Conservator of Monuments, archaeologists have discovered five Bronze Age axes in Starogard Forest District, located in Kociewie, Poland.

A wooden frame saddle with iron stirrups that was stunningly preserved in an ancient tomb in Mongolia may be the oldest of its kind. The innovative saddle could give archaeologists clues to the origins of medieval mounted warfare.

According to a study, published in the scientific journal “Antiquity”, the fortress is a complex system of defensive structures around an ancient settlement, dating from 8,000 years ago.

Archaeologists have discovered two temples, one buried atop the other, in the ancient megacity of Girsu in Iraq. One temple is linked to Hercules and Alexander the Great.

A well-preserved tomb dating back more than 2,000 years was recently discovered in China. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in a statement Wednesday that more than 600 relics were unearthed.

Archaeologists who helped with the restoration work of the Split City Museum, one of the most important and visited museums in Croatia, located inside the Dominik Papalic palace, made a sensational discovery. Large Roman baths and mosaics were found under the building during the reconstruction of the ground floor and the installation of a lift in the Split City Museum.

Ancient baboon mummies show signs of poor diet and lack of sunlight during captivity.

A grandmother from Poland has unearthed a rare axe made of flint. She found the prehistoric tool in a field in Biłgoraj over 50 years ago and was immediately struck by the unusual-looking stone, deciding to keep it as a curiosity.

Despite the Roman Empire's extensive military and cultural influence on the nearby Balkan peninsula, a DNA analysis of individuals who lived in the region between 1 and 1000 CE found no genetic evidence of Iron Age Italian ancestry. Instead, a new study has revealed successive waves of migrations from Western Anatolia, central and northern Europe, and the Pontic-Kazakh Steppe during the Empire's reign.

Until recently, archaeologists have mostly relied on what they can see at the sites of ancient ruins to unlock the secrets of the past. But lately, new methods have started to allow researchers to use other senses to explore these sites in different ways. One such method is "psychoacoustics," which studies how sounds are perceived by humans. In a study published in the journal Open Archaeology, Pamela Jordan from the University of Amsterdam used this technique to gain greater insight into how an ancient Greek sanctuary may have been used by ancient visitors. Recording how sounds interact among different structures can provide an idea of what they were designed for, and what activities could have taken place in the terrain surrounding them.

Top 10 archaeological discoveries of 2023

The field of archaeology has been continuously evolving in 2023, making significant strides in uncovering new historical findings, preservin

HeritageDaily - Archaeology News

Tribes in Maine Spent Decades Fighting to Rebury Ancestral Remains. Harvard Resisted Them at Nearly Every Turn.

The university’s Peabody Museum exploited loopholes to prevent repatriation to the Wabanaki people while still staying in compliance with NA

ProPublica

The university’s Peabody Museum exploited loopholes to prevent repatriation to the Wabanaki people while still staying in compliance with NAGPRA. The tribes didn’t give up.

The Biden administration has revised the rules that institutions and government agencies must follow to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act — a law long hampered by limited funding and the unwillingness of many museums to relinquish Indigenous remains and burial items.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond has announced it has repatriated 44 ancient artifacts deriving from Italy, Egypt, and Turkey, following an inquiry led by New York State and federal officials overseeing legal claims related to cultural property ownership.

The Netherlands returned six artefacts including a cannon, a ceremonial sword and two guns taken from Sri Lanka more than 250 years ago on Tuesday, as part of efforts by the former colonial power to redress historical wrongs, officials said.

The Federal Office of Culture has handed over the marble sculpture of the head of a young woman to the Libyan Embassy in Bern. The restitution took place within the framework of the law on the international transfer of cultural property.

Four antiquities, valued at more than $1 million, were recently returned to Nepal by the Manhattan District Attorney‘s Office, the office announced in a statement Monday.

War in Ukraine sees destruction of cultural heritage not witnessed since WW2

The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 has resulted in a significant loss of human lives and the national and intern

HeritageDaily - Archaeology News

Many historic buildings have suffered damage at the hands of the Russian military, including the UNESCO-listed Children’s (Youth) Regional Library (former Vasyl Tarnovsky Museum of Ukrainian Antiquities), the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum, the Church of the Ascension, and the 11th-century church, citadel and graveyard at Oster. Collections from museums in occupied areas such as Kherson, Melitopol, and Mariupol have been confiscated and sent to Russia, and in some instances, Russian soldiers have looted artefacts to keep or sell.

A sobering new report, released yesterday by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture, details the devastating impact two months of Israeli bombardment have had on the cultural sector of Gaza. The report is well worth reading in full, but here is an overview of the cultural losses suffered since October 7: 28 Creative Professionals killed by Israeli bombing. 9 Publishing Houses and Libraries damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombing. 21 Cultural Centers damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombing. 20 Historical Sites (churches, mosques, museums, and archaeological sites) damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombing.

Peek Inside Egypt's Newly Renovated Imhotep Museum

Imhotel Museum, one of Egypt's most important archaeological venues, has reopened with displays of ancient treasures.

Artnet News

The newly renovated Imhotep Museum in the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Saqqara in Giza has opened its doors to the public after 21 months. Across six halls, it boasts around 300 unique and precious archaeological artifacts, including bronze and wooden statues, painted masks, large alabaster vessels, stelae, and the world’s oldest royal mummy.

The Museu de l’Art Prohibit, a new museum in Barcelona, seeks to inform viewers about censored art all around the world, using the word loosely to describe everything from social pressure to government restriction.

Actress Olivia Coleman and artist Molly Crabapple are among the more than 1,300 visual artists, writers, and actors who have signed an open letter that accuses Western cultural institutions of “silencing and stigmatizing” Palestinian voices and perspectives. The signatories say this includes “targeting and threatening the livelihoods of artists and arts workers who express solidarity with Palestinians, as well as canceling performances, screenings, talks, exhibitions and book launches.”

Unesco: Italian opera singing gets cultural heritage status

The four-centuries-old art mixing costume, drama and music joins other global customs and traditions.

bbc.com

Unesco, the UN culture agency, announced it was including the four-centuries-old art, mixing costume, drama and music, under its category of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

In the past 50 years, about 25% of the fort and settlement has been excavated. Another 150 years will be needed to excavate the rest, but much of the archaeology that makes Vindolanda so unique will be gone long before then.

In October, a group of archaeologists dropped a bombshell study that claimed a structure in Java, Indonesia is a “multi-layered prehistoric pyramid” dating back “thousands of years B.C.E.”—predating Egypt’s oldest pyramid. Close scrutiny by other experts, however, is calling that research into question.

While the interior still bears scars from the fire, the roof and spire are set to be complete when millions of Olympic fans descend on Paris for the Summer Games opening July 26.

After selling nearly 200 million books about the past, the Pillars of the Earth author has a singular perspective on the historical themes that repeat – and what this means about modern times.

Young tyrannosaur found with baby dinosaurs in its stomach | CBC News

Scientists have made a rare and extraordinary fossil find in Alberta: a young tyrannosaur, with remains of baby dinosaurs in its stomach.

CBC

Scientists have made a rare and extraordinary fossil find in Alberta — a young tyrannosaur with the remains of two baby dinosaurs inside its stomach.

GIF by nerdboiii666-blog

Noise Is All around Us—and It’s Affecting You More than You Think | The Walrus

During the pandemic, our noise levels dropped and the world changed. Should we fight for more quiet?

The Walrus

We now know so much more about the impacts of the omnipresent noise we have introduced in every corner of our planet. The noise is everywhere. It’s hurting us and every human and animal around us. Bates calls that brief, quarantine-spurred lull in the incessant hum of humanity the “anthropause.” It was a lesson in humility and, maybe, a lesson in ethics.

How foxes are domesticating themselves

A new study on urban foxes could shed light on how widely domesticated animals began their relationship with humans

Salon

The researchers found that there were major differences in skull shape between rural and urban foxes, with the latter "having a noticeably shortened wider snout with a reduced maxillary region relative to rural foxes." Urban foxes also tended to have wider snout tips and, in terms of their brains, "the braincase appeared to be smaller in the urban habitat." This does not necessarily mean that urban foxes are dumber than rural foxes, however; as the authors explain, "it could possibly reflect changes in biomechanical forces on the skull." Notably, the same pattern has been observed among dogs as compared to their wild coevals, the wolf: scientists note that dogs' brains are about 30% smaller relative to wolves' brains. 

As Kevin Parsons, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Glasgow, told the BBC in a video, "What's really fascinating here is that the foxes are doing this to themselves. This is the result of foxes that have decided to live near people, showing these traits that make them look more like domesticated animals." He speculated that urban foxes may have smaller braincases because, while their rural counterparts need advanced intelligence to track down prey which is trying to escape, urban foxes tend to scavenge and therefore deal with food sources that are more likely to be stationary.