Yahoo! News - Peru Finds Pre-Inca Ruins Beneath Lake Titicaca

Peruvian divers have found pre-Inca stairways, ramps and walls beneath the waters of Lake Titicaca, but experts said on Wednesday the discoveries were not the remains of a legendary lost city.

"The remains were found at a depth of between 6.5 and 26 feet on the eastern side of the lake. ... They are built with interlocking stones," oceanic engineer and expedition member Gustavo Villavicencio told Reuters.
Lake Titicaca, a sweeping expanse of brilliant blue water high in the Andes at an altitude of 12,540 feet, is shared by Peru and Bolivia. The world's highest navigable lake, it attracts flocks of visitors a year to see its floating reed islands, Aymara-speaking Indians and Inca ruins.

The NYTimes has an interesting article about Troy today.

Jerusalem Artifact Could Be Earliest Relating to Existence of Jesus

An inscription in stone, found in or near Jerusalem and written in a language and script of 2,000 years ago, bears the words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
This could well be the earliest artifact ever found relating to the existence of Jesus, a French scholar has concluded in an analysis of the inscription being published this week in the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review.
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If the inscription is authentic and indeed refers to Jesus of Nazareth, it would be the earliest known documentation of Jesus outside the Bible. The magazine, which announced the find today, is promoting it as "the first-ever archaeological discovery to corroborate biblical references to Jesus."

The Washington Post titles the article In Cuban Depths, Atlantis or Anomaly? They clearly know what sells and add in some talk about Atlantis to make the headline credible.

But failing the Atlantis angle, this story could turn out very interesting.

If you've followed the debate about Robert Schoch's dating of the pyramids in Giza, he claims it could be quite a bit older than mainstream Egyptologists do. (I won't even go into the books of his friends, because some of that stuff, well, let's just say it is very good at selling books.) Along those lines, the dating mentioned here will probably be tough for many in the mainstream to swallow.

I like the tone and manner the Cuban geologist, Manuel Iturralde, took. He said "It's strange, it's weird; we've never seen something like this before, and we don't have an explanation for it." I wish more scientists would be prudent and take that approach rather than hanging on to the "best theory" there is to explain it.

Another excerpt from the article:

"He also said that if the symmetrical stones are determined to be the ruins of buildings, it could have taken 50,000 years or more for tectonic shifting to carry them so deep into the ocean. "

Archaeology reports on "Egypt's new archaeology czar" Zawi Hawass. Whatever they're calling him, he's been on the scene for a long time. He's been on Fox a few times in a hyped-up reality-series type specials trying to look like Indiana Jones and trying to make the science of archaeology look more adventurous rather than scientific.

Egypt has many wonders to unveil and I hope we get to see more soon, but without the Fox "realitization" of it.

What a quandary

"It must seem to those in Bloomsbury that the British Museum is under siege. Greek pressure for the return of the Parthenon sculptures is stepping up in advance of the 2004 Olympic Games, and in a February interview, Greece's Minister of Culture, Evangelos Venizelos, told ARCHAEOLOGY that the request for the marbles' return was not part of a broad campaign, but linked to the integrity of the Parthenon, building and sculptures. Still, the British Museum and its supporters fear that sending the sculptures back to Greece would set a bad precedent."

Museums are wonderful places preserving history. Except when they are fake. (And there is an awful lot more of this going on that you might think. I know someone who works for a big name in the industry. She tells me that there are a lot more fakes than you would think at the most presitigious places. She told me a story of someone who tried to document all the fakes at a major museum. When the people with the power found out, they canned him. He can't get a job anywhere. Troublemaker.)

Anyways, the thing is about these museums, as wonderful as they are, they are full of stolen merchandise. That is a fact. And I think requests like those of the Greeks are more than fair and should be granted. I'd love to see what the Vatican has hiding in its coffers. I know this is a touchy issue and most of the stealing was done long before any of the participants were born, but all of the Parthenon still around belongs in the Parthenon. Not in London.

Ancient, Giant Images Found Carved Into Peru Desert

Too bad there were no pictures.

The economist has an interesting article about what they call the first computer in history. It's truly amazing how much technology was out there in Ancient History. Nick Thorpe wrote a couple of great books about this (look at my links list). One of my favorites is the ancient batteries. Another is looking at seals from the Ancient Near East. Spend some time at the Morgan Library in Midtown NYC or the Met to see some examples. The early writing at the Met is particularly amazing.

While this face

which is supposed to be a realistic rendering of King Tut's Face, is interesting, the casual reader might attribute more to this reconstruction than is appropriate. The key quote here is:
"Robin Richards, a facial rebuilding expert from University College London, scanned the features of people of the same age, sex, build and ethnic group as Tutankhamen to create an approximation of skin type, which was wrapped onto the 3D digital skull. "