Heritage - Archaeology News

‘Everywhere they dig’: looters hunt antiquities in Albania

July 12, 2022

Shards of ceramics litter the fields of an ancient city in southeastern Albania, where looters have raided the area’s highlands in search of antiquities to sell to international traffickers. Experts say illicit treasure hunters operate with near impunity in Albania [Credit: Gent Shkullaku/AFP] Illicit treasure hunters operate with near impunity in the country, stirring outrage…

Albania, Archaeology, Europe, Heritage, Southern Europe

Race to save undersea Stone Age cave art masterpieces

May 30, 2022

To reach the only place in the world where cave paintings of prehistoric marine life have been found, archaeologists have to dive to the bottom of the Mediterranean off southern France. Cosquer Cave lies under the sea in a landscape of limestone near Marseilles [Credit: © Luc Vanrell] Then they have to negotiate a 137-meter…

Archaeology, Climate Change, Europe, France, Heritage, Ticker, Western Europe

Climate change reveals unique artifacts in melting ice patches

May 19, 2022

One day more than 3000 years ago, someone lost a shoe at the place we today call Langfonne in the Jotunheimen mountains. The shoe is 28 cm long, which roughly corresponds to a modern size 36 or 37. The owner probably considered the shoe to be lost for good, but on 17 September 2007 it…

Archaeology, Climate Change, Europe, Heritage, Northern Europe, Norway

Outrage as 2,200-year-old shipwreck looted off French Riviera

April 28, 2022

The sunken wreck of an ancient trading ship that lay undiscovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean for more than 2,000 years has been damaged and looted since being discovered by archaeologists, French authorities said Wednesday. Some amphorae were taken away by the looters [Credit: © P. Soubias CCJ/CNRS] The ship, named Fort Royal 1,…

Archaeology, Europe, France, Heritage, Ticker, Underwater Archaeology, Western Europe

The race to preserve the oven bricks of the Tudor warship the Mary Rose

April 7, 2022

After hundreds of years submerged in sea water, marine archaeological objects are complex materials due to degradation and inclusion of foreign compounds from the surrounding environment. When excavated and exposed to air these can transform to damaging products which can destroy material, and therefore historical loss. The Mary Rose, King Henry VIII’s favorite warship was…

Archaeology, England, Europe, Heritage, UK, Western Europe

Italy asks for the return of the Doryphoros of Stabiae from the Museum of Minneapolis

February 22, 2022

Stolen in the 1970s during clandestine excavations, sold twice by traffickers in antiquities for 3 billion lire and still on display in a museum in the United States. As of yesterday, the Torre Annunziata public prosecutor’s office asked the American authorities to issue a formal letter of request in order to return the Doryphoros of…

Archaeology, Europe, Heritage, Italy, Southern Europe, USA

Chile’s National Museum of Natural History to return Easter Island ‘head’

February 21, 2022

Chile’s National Museum of Natural History said Monday it will return to Easter Island an enormous stone statue taken from the Rapa Nui people and brought to the mainland 150 years ago. The Moai Tau will be returned to Easter Island a century-and-a-half after it was taken from there by the Chilean navy [Credit: AFP] The…

Archaeology, Chile, Easter Island, Heritage

African Heritage Sites threatened by coastal flooding and erosion as sea-level rise accelerates

February 10, 2022

Heritage of Outstanding and Universal Value located along the African coast is at risk from climate change. A global team of climate risk and heritage experts, where Dr Nicholas Simpson from the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) was one of the leading contributors, have provided the first comprehensive assessment…

Africa, Algeria, Archaeology, Cameroon, Climate Change, Egypt, Heritage, Libya, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia

Climate change threatens Hadrian’s Wall treasures in England

February 8, 2022

Nineteen hundred years after it was built to keep out barbarian hordes, archaeologists at Hadrian’s Wall in northern England are facing a new enemy — climate change, which threatens its vast treasure trove of Roman artefacts. Hadrian’s Wall marked the boundary between Roman Britannia and unconquered Caledonia in 122 AD [Credit: Reuters] Thousands of soldiers…

Archaeology, Climate Change, England, Europe, Heritage, Scotland, UK, Western Europe

Roman mosaic found under street of Hvar in Croatia

February 7, 2022

In the centre of Stari Grad (Old Town) on the island of Hvar, after 98 years, a Roman era mosaic dating back to the 2nd century has been re-excavated. The mosaic, located in Sridnja Kola (Middle Street) in the very centre of Stari Grad, which has been under UNESCO protection since 2008, was first opened…

Archaeology, Croatia, Europe, Heritage, Southern Europe