Ohio man's fossil find in Kentucky stumps experts

Ohio man's fossil find in Kentucky stumps experts - The 150-pound fossil recovered last year in northern Kentucky is more than 6 feet long and 3 feet wide. To the untrained eye, it looks like a bunch of rocks or a concrete blob. Experts are trying to determine whether it was an animal, mineral or a form of plant life from a time when the Cincinnati region was underwater.

Scientists at a Geological Society of America meeting viewed it Tuesday at the Dayton Convention Center in Ohio.

This April 20, 2012, photo, shows a fossil at Caster Library on the campus in Cincinnati. Experts in the U.S. are trying to figure out what the 450 million-year-old fossil dubbed "Godzillus" used to be. The 150-pound fossil recovered last year in Kentucky by amateur paleontologist Ron Fine is more than 6 feet long. (AP Photo/The Cincinnati Enquirer, Gary Landers) MANDATORY CREDIT; NO SALES

"We are looking for people who might have an idea of what it is," said Ben Dattilo, an assistant professor of geology at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Scientists say the fossil is 450 million years old. University of Cincinnati geologist Carl Brett said it's the largest fossil ever extracted from that era in the Cincinnati region.

"This is the ultimate cold case," said Ron Fine, the Dayton, Ohio, amateur paleontologist who spotted the fossil on a hillside last year and gave it its name.

"Like Godzilla, it's a primordial beast that found its way to the modern era," Fine said. Now 43, he's been collecting fossils since age 4, and said he saw part of this one on a hillside off Kentucky 17 nearly a year ago.

"Most fossils around here are small, the size of your thumbnail or your thumb," he said. "This thing's huge."

He said it could be an early form of seaweed or kelp.

"This one has us stumped," said David Meyer, another UC geology professor. Fine shared his find last September at a meeting of the Dry Dredgers, a group of amateur geologists.

Meyer, who wrote a book called "A Sea Without Fish" about the era, said the fossil has intricate patterns that remind him of "goose flesh. Some of its surface also looks like scales. But this thing is not boney. It is not a fish."

He guesses it could have been something like a sponge.

"Cincinnati was covered by a sea, 100 to 200 feet deep," Meyer said. "Primitive shellfish lived in it. But no fish." ( Associated Press )

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Scientists dig for Ice Age fossils in Los Angeles

Scientists dig for Ice Age fossils in Los Angeles - With a dental pick in hand, Karin Rice delicately scraped off a clump of asphalt from a pelvic bone belonging to a horse that roamed Los Angeles tens of thousands of years ago.

Like many unsuspecting creatures of the last Ice Age, the horse probably stopped to take a sip of spring water only to be ensnared _ and later preserved _ in a pool of sticky asphalt that seeped from underground crude oil deposits.

Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits chief curator Dr. John Harris, left, and lead excavator Carrie Howard, look at fossil deposits at Box 14 of Project 23 at La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. – AP Photo

‘‘You’re opening up this ancient world and getting to look back in time,’’ Rice said during a recent dig at the La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of Los Angeles.

For the past three years, scientists have been sifting through a significant trove of bones and a nearly intact mammoth skeleton discovered in 2006 during the construction of an underground garage next to the tar pits.

It’s been slow going. To make room for the parking structure, researchers at the George C. Page Museum built wooden crates to house the cache and trucked them to the tar pits complex where excavators use power and hand tools to break up the soil.

Careful to avoid the mistakes of early diggers who only prized large mammals bones and little else, a small army of museum employees and volunteers painstakingly chisels away seven days a week, recovering not only animal bones, but also saving the dirt for later inspection for microfossils.

So far, scientists have unearthed five of the 23 boxed deposits, removing some 16,000 fossil bones. Among the finds: partial skulls and lower jaws of half a dozen saber-toothed kittens, several ribs and skull of a camel, and assorted remains of a giant jaguar, ground sloth and baby mammoths.

While visitors are wowed by the larger fossils, scientists are equally interested in finding bits of plants, insects, rodents and microscopic organisms that can reveal a great deal about the past environment, said Page Museum chief curator John Harris.

‘‘We’re still trying to piece everything together,’’ he said.

Harris estimated it will take five years to sort through the crates. The museum has placed a priority on getting the above-ground excavation done, so it temporarily halted work on Pit 91 where scientists have been pulling out bones since 1969.

The tar pits located 7 miles west of downtown Los Angeles are a paleontological gold mine. Asphalt bubbled upward through cracks and fissures over the millennia, trapping Ice Age beasts that later starved to death. Once a large mammal was bogged down, predators would approach, followed by scavengers and insects, which would also get stuck.

Before this latest dig, more than a million bones have been recovered from the sticky ponds.

In the new work being carried out just north of Pit 91, researchers hopscotch between two tarp-covered crates, which have been divided into grids to help pinpoint the exact position of fossils.

Digging in the larger box one recent morning as a group of schoolchildren peered through a fence, chief excavator Carrie Howard and colleague Rice scraped away dirt from a deposit containing a hodgepodge of specimens including horse, saber-toothed cat and dire wolf.

Unlike the underground excavations, the bones in the crates are encased in hard dirt as a result of sitting out in the sun for two years.

To get around the problem, Rice uses a dry cleaning solution to soften the asphalt mixture. Others improvise by using heat lamps.

Once fossils are extracted _ a process that can take months _ they are shipped to the museum lab where they are cleaned, identified and, in some cases, put on display. The current project is expected to double the museum’s Ice Age collection.

As excavators toiled outside, lab workers continued their examination of the skull of Zed, the Columbian mammoth skeleton that was found nearly complete.Later in the week, the museum plans to open up another crate for study. ( Associated Press )

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DNA scans reveal 5,300-year-old 'Iceman' had brown eyes, relatives in Sardinia - and the first known case of Lyme disease

DNA scans reveal 5,300-year-old 'Iceman' had brown eyes, relatives in Sardinia - and the first known case of Lyme disease - The 5,300-year-old 'ice mummy' known as Otzi suffered from the world's first-known case of Lyme disease, a bacterial parasite spread by ticks, according to new DNA analysis.

Otzi, who was 46 at the time of his death and measured 5ft2, also had brown eyes, had relatives in Sardinia, and was lactose intolerant. Otzi was also predisposed to heart disease.

The new research focused on the DNA in the nuclei of Otzi's cells, and could yield further insights into the famous 'ice mummy's life.

Oetzi the iceman, whose 5,000-year-old remains were found in the Alps 21 years ago, might have died of a heart attack had he lived longer and was allergic to milk products, according to a new DNA scan

A reconstruction of Oetzi the Icemann in Bozen, Italy. Oetzi was lactose intolerant and had relatives from Sardinia, according to a new DNA scan

The ancient natural mummy was believed to have died 5,300 years ago when he was hit by an arrow during a hunting trip, or possibly in an accident.

The new analysis found genetic material from the Lyme disease parasite while investigating Otzi's own DNA.

Albert Zink of the University of Bozen said that the new analysis also showed that Otzi has relatives. Earlier analysis of his mitochondrial DNA, passed down through the maternal line, found no living relatives.

''His ancestors came from Europe originally from the East and spread over most or part of Europe,' says Zink. 'His original population was somehow replaced by other populations, but they remained quite stable in remote areas like Sardinia and Corsica.'

The 5,300-year-old mummy known as 'Oetzi'

New DNA evidence has revealed that Oetzi had the world's first-known case of Lyme disease

Cold facts: He was found frozen - and still is... he's kept at a steady -6C

He was unearthed in September 1991 by a couple of German tourists trekking through the Oetz Valley, after which he was named.

He was about 46 years old when he met his death.

The iceman has been crucial to our understanding of how prehistoric people lived, what they wore and even what they ate.

Oetzi the iceman's true identity has been shrouded in myth and mystery - a faceless corpse that has embodied a bygone era of humankind

Researchers examining the contents of his stomach worked out that his final meal consisted of venison and ibex meat.

Archaeologists believe Oetzi, who was carrying a bow, a quiver of arrows and a copper axe, may have been a hunter or warrior killed in a skirmish with a rival tribe.

Researchers say he was about 159cm tall (5ft 2.5in), 46 years old, arthritic and infested with whipworm, an intestinal parasite.

His perfectly preserved body is stored in his own specially designed cold storage chamber at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy at a constant temperature of -6°C. Visitors can view the mummy through a small window.

Alongside his remains is a new Oetzi model created using 3D images of the corpse and forensic technology by two Dutch artists – Alfons and Adrie Kennis. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - DNA scans reveal 5,300-year-old 'Iceman' had brown eyes, relatives in Sardinia - and the first known case of Lyme disease

The Italian mummies preserved in mercury for almost 200 years

The Italian mummies preserved in mercury for almost 200 years - These remarkable Italian mummies have been preserved almost perfectly 200 years ago for medical demonstrations.

Giovan Battista Rini stripped away the skin to show the muscles, airways and blood vessels inside the heads.

Academics have now discovered the specimens were injected with arsenic and mercury - or dipped in chemical baths to preserve them for research.

Preserved: This skull had the skin stripped away and has been injected with chemicals to keep it fresh for more than 200 years

Eerie: Two of the sets of remains are believed to be the bodies of outlaws - while the rest are thought to have been donated by patients in a local hospital in Italy for medical research

Although mummification is associated with Ancient Egypt, it was carried out through the centuries for the benefit of researchers and medical students.

The specimens have false hair and teeth and their eye caps have been added artificially. However, they are otherwise remarkably well looked after.

The small collection is kept at the Desenzano Hospital near Verona - and they are the remains of at least five people.

The researchers wrote in the Clinical Anatomy journal that the collection is in 'an extremely good state of preservation'.

It consists of five heads with necks, two torsos and one heart.

Scanner: CT scans and X-rays were carried out on the remains by the researchers to ascertain how they were preserved

Mummified remains: The practice is normally associated with Ancient Egypt but has been carried out for the benefit of medical demonstrations. This skull is believed to date from the early 19th century

Two of the people who had their bodies frozen in time were outlaws while the others are thought to have been donated by local hospitals.

The researchers carried out CT scans and x-rays on the specimens to see how they were preserved and discovered techniques broadly conformed with those used at the time.

The remains were submerged in chemical baths before being injected with mercury and other chemicals, the National Geographic magazine reported.

Study: Researchers have now discovered the specimens were injected with arsenic and mercury - or dipped in chemical baths to preserve them for demonstrations

In the 19th century arsenic, lime, silicon dioxide and sulphur were commonly used to preserve bodies.

The exact method and substances used by Giovan Battista Rini are unknown, but the authors believe he used arsenic and mercury among other chemicals.

Although it is not known exactly when the mummifications were carried out, it was in the first half of the 19th century as Giovan Battista Rini lived from 1795 to 1856.

They found that the surfaces of all of the mummified remains were particularly thick because of the chemicals used. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - The Italian mummies preserved in mercury for almost 200 years

2,000-year-old Roman cavalry helmet sheds new light on conquest of Britain after experts piece 1,000 fragments back together

2,000-year-old Roman cavalry helmet sheds new light on conquest of Britain after experts piece 1,000 fragments back together - Historians have pieced together a 2,000-year-old Roman cavalry helmet 10 years after its discovery in an Iron Age shrine and say it sheds new light on the conquering of Britain.

The helmet and its cheek pieces have been painstakingly restored from 1,000 small fragments over three years by experts at the British Museum.

Constructed of sheet iron, the helmet, once decorated with gold leaf, is the only one to have been found in Britain with its silver gilt plating intact and is also one of the earliest ever found in Britain.

Unique: The 2,000 year old silver gilt Roman helmet which was unearthed in a Leicestershire field and painstakingly pieced back together

Metals conservation expert Marilyn Hockey began unearthing the fragments out of a 'big lump of soil' at the British Museum three years ago.

She said: 'Working our way down this enormous lump of clay, we discovered at the bottom some amazing finds ... the emperor cheek piece told us it was something really special.

'To get something straight out of the soil like this is like gold. You can find out so much from it.'

The helmet features several scenes of Roman military victory, including the bust of a woman flanked by lions and a Roman emperor on horseback with the goddess Victory flying behind while a cowering figure, possibly a native Briton, is being trampled under his horse’s hooves.

Painstaking: It took experts at the British Museum three years to piece together the 1,000 small fragments of the helmet

An artist's impression of what the complete 'Hallaton helmet' might have looked like, created by the British Museum

It is believed to have been buried in the years around the emperor Claudius’s invasion of Britain in AD43.

Experts claim there is a 'distinct possibility' that it belonged to a Briton serving in the Roman cavalry before the conquest of Britain.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN BRITAIN

The first extensive Roman campaigns in Britain started with the armies of Julius Caesar in 55 and in 54 BC, which were largely repelled by the native Celts.

It wasn't until AD43 that Britain was successfully invaded by the armies of Roman emperor Claudius.

He conquered the southern half of Britain, and made it part of the Roman Empire.

The Romans introduced paved roads to Britain - replacing old tracks and paths.

In AD122, the Romans built Hadrian's wall, 73 miles long across northern England, to regulate the movement of trade near the rebellious northern territories.

They also introduced Roman baths and running water to many cities, towns, and villages around the Britain. Trade and industry flourished.

In AD216, for greater control, the Romans divided the land into two provinces. southern Britain was known as Britannia Superior and the north, Britannia Inferior.

In AD388, soldiers stationed in Britain began to be recalled to Rome to combat the numerous attacks on it by various barbarian tribes.

In AD410, Britain, which was under attack from Picts and Saxons, asked Rome for help.

Emperor Honorius told them that they must 'look to their own defences'.

This ended Roman rule in Britain, and heralded the Anglo-Saxon era.

They say it changes our understanding of the relationship between Romans and Britons and what the country was like just before the invasion.

It is thought that the helmet may have been buried as a gift to the gods at what was a local shrine on the Briton’s return to the East Midlands.

The helmet was unearthed in Hallaton, Leicestershire, after a metal-detecting enthusiast came across buried coins with his second-hand £260 metal detector.

Retired design and technology teacher, Ken Wallace, 71, called in experts who went on to discover an impressive collection of artefacts.

More than 5,000 coins, ingots and the helmet’s ear guard were among the treasures discovered, along with the remains of a feast of suckling pigs.

Coins from both the British Iron Age and the Roman Empire were found together for the first time.

Mr Wallace and the landowner of the site were paid £300,000 to be split between them for the find.

Mr Wallace said: 'When this ear guard came to the surface we knew it was going to be a Roman cavalry helmet - but what it would look like was anybody’s guess.

'It’s amazing, I never thought I would see it like that. I thought I’d get to see a computer-generated impression. I’ve been extremely lucky.'

Leicestershire County Council has now bought the helmet to go on display at Harborough Museum, just nine miles from where it was buried 2,000 years ago.

Head of research at the British Museum, Jeremy Hill, said his 'mouth dropped' when he saw the object pieced back together.

Precious find: Ken Wallace at the British Museum with the helmet he unearthed. He said he considers himself very lucky to have been able to see it reconstructed

He said that the helmet had helped 'change our understanding of what Britain was like just before the Roman conquest'.

He said: 'Every book on the Roman conquest of Britain is going to have a picture of that helmet in it now.

'Just as we were starting to rethink the importance of the East Midlands in the context of the Roman Empire, it says "bang, you’ve got to rethink it", the same with the relationship between Romans and Britons.'

The helmet may also have been a diplomatic gift to a pro-Roman population, or a spoil of war taken during a raid on a Roman camp or during battle. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - 2,000-year-old Roman cavalry helmet sheds new light on conquest of Britain after experts piece 1,000 fragments back together

Original offering found at Teotihuacan pyramid

Original offering found at Teotihuacan pyramid — Archaeologists announced Tuesday that they dug to the very core of Mexico's tallest pyramid and found what may be the original ceremonial offering placed on the site of the Pyramid of the Sun before construction began.

The offerings found at the base of the pyramid in the Teotihuacan ruin site just north of Mexico City include a green serpentine stone mask so delicately carved and detailed that archaeologists believe it may have been a portrait.

The find also includes 11 ceremonial clay pots dedicated to a rain god similar to Tlaloc, who was still worshipped in the area 1,500 years later, according to a statement by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH.

The offerings, including bones of an eagle fed rabbits as well as feline and canine animals that haven't yet been identified, were laid on a sort of rubble base where the temple was erected about A.D. 50.

MEXICO CITY- NOVEMBER 15: A general view of the site of the ancient Sun Pyramid at the Teotihuacan Citadel outside of Mexico City during the Gran Premio Gigante-Telmex, round 19 of the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) Fed Ex Championship Series on November 15, 2002 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images)

"We know that it was deposited as part of a consecration ritual for the construction of the Pyramid of the Sun," said INAH archaeologist Enrique Perez Cortes.

Experts followed an old tunnel dug through the pyramid by researchers in the 1930s that narrowly missed the center, and then dug small extensions and exploratory shafts off it.

What they found points to the earliest days of the still largely mysterious Teotihuacan culture.

The remains of three structures that predate the pyramid were found buried at the base. Archaeologists have known that the ceremonial significance of the site, perhaps as a "link" to the underworld, predates the pyramids.

They also found seven burials, some of them infant remains.

Susan Gillespie, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida who was not involved in the project, called the find "exciting and important, although I would not say it was unexpected" given that dedicatory offerings were commonly placed in MesoAmerican pyramids.

"It is exciting that what looks like the original foundation dedicatory cache for what was to become the largest (in height) pyramid in Mexico (and one of the largest in the world) has finally been found, after much concerted efforts looking for it," Gillespie wrote in an email.

She said the find gives a better picture of the continuity of religious practices during Teotihuacan's long history. Some of the same themes found in the offering are repeated in ancient murals painted on the city's walls centuries later.

George Cowgill, an anthropologist at Arizona State University, called the find "pretty important" and suggested the Tlaloc offerings may thicken the debate about whether the pyramid was linked to the sun, the underworld or Tlaloc, who was also considered a war god.

"The discovery of seven humans suggests that they were probably sacrificial victims, along with several species of fierce animals," Cowgill wrote.

The city was founded nearly 2,500 years ago and came to have a dominant influence in architecture, trade and cultural in large swaths of ancient Mexico. But the identity of its rulers remains a mystery, and the city was abandoned by the time the Aztecs arrived in the area in the 1300s and gave it the name Teotihuacan, which means "the place where men become gods." ( Associated Press )

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Will the Great Pyramid's Secret Doors Be Opened?

Will the Great Pyramid's Secret Doors Be Opened? - Will the mystery over the Great Pyramid's secret doors be solved in 2012?

I dare say yes. After almost two decades of failed attempts, chances are now strong that researchers will reveal next year what lies behind the secret doors at the heart of Egypt's most magnificent pyramid.

New revelations on the enduring mystery were already expected this year, following a robot exploration of the 4,500-year-old pharaonic mausoleum.

The Great Pyramids of Egypt

But unrest in Egypt froze the project at its most promising stage, after it produced the first ever images behind one of the Great Pyramid's mysterious doors.

Now the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), once led by the controversial yet charismatic Zahi Hawass, is slowly returning to granting permits for excavations and archaeological research.

"As with other missions, we have had to resubmit our application to be allowed to continue. We are currently waiting for the various committees to formalize the approval," project mission manager Shaun Whitehead, of the exploration company Scoutek UK, told Discovery News.

"Once we're allowed to continue, I have no doubt that we can complete our work in 2012," he added.

Built for the pharaoh Cheops, also known as Khufu, the Great Pyramid is the last remaining wonder of the ancient world.

The monument is the largest of a family of three pyramids on the Giza plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, and has long been rumored to have hidden passageways leading to secret chambers.

Archaeologists have long puzzled over the purpose of four narrow shafts deep inside the pyramid since they were first discovered in 1872.

These strange, dark hieroglyphs were found on the floor of a hidden chamber in Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza, according to a mathematical analysis of the 4,500-year-old pyramid.

Two shafts, extend from the upper, or "Kings Chamber" exit into open air. But the lower two, one on the south side and one on the north side in the so-called "Queen's Chamber" disappear within the structures, deepening the pyramid mystery.

Widely believed to be ritual passageways for the dead pharaoh's soul to reach the afterlife, these 8-inch-square shafts remained unexplored until 1993, when German engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink sent a robot through the southern shaft.

After a steady climb of 213 feet from the heart of the pyramid, the robot came to a stop in front of a mysterious limestone slab adorned with two copper pins.

Nine years later, the southern shaft was explored on live television. As the world held its breath, a tomb-raiding robot pushed a camera through a hole drilled in the copper pinned door -- only to reveal what appeared to be another door.

The following day, the robot was sent through the northern shaft. After crawling for 213 feet and navigating several sharp bends, the robot came to an abrupt halt in front of another limestone slab.

As with the Gantenbrink door, the stone was adorned with two copper pins.

The current Djedi project, a joint international-Egyptian mission named after the magician whom Khufu consulted when planning the layout of his pyramid, has gone further than anyone has ever been before in the pyramid.

The project began with a exploration of the southern shaft, which ends at the so called "Gantenbrink's door."

A robot, designed by Rob Richardson at the University of Leeds, was able to climb inside the walls of the shaft while carrying a "micro snake" camera that can see around corners.

Unlike previous expeditions, in which camera images were only taken looking straight ahead, the bendy camera was small enough to fit through a small hole in a stone door at the end of the tunnel.

This gave researchers a clear view into the chamber beyond -- one that had not been seen by human eyes since the construction of the pyramid. Images of 4,500-year-old hieroglyphs written in red paint began to appear.

According to some scholars, the markings are hieratic numerical signs that record the length of the shaft. The theory has not been confirmed by the researchers.

"Our strategy is to keep an open mind and only draw conclusions when we have completed our work," Whitehead said.

The Djedi team was also able to scrutinize the two puzzling copper pins embedded in the door to the chamber.

Images showed that the back of the pins curve on themselves, possibly suggesting an ornamental purpose.

Equipped with a unique range of tools which also included a miniature "beetle" robot that can fit through a 0.74-inch diameter hole, a coring drill, and a miniaturized ultrasonic device that can tap on walls and listen to the response to help determine the thickness of the stone, the Djedi team was ready to continue the pyramid's exploration last August. But the political turn of events in Egypt halted the project.

Whitehead is confident that the robot will reveal much more once the team is allowed to resume their research.

"The plan is the same as it always was. We will completely survey the shafts leading from the Queens Chamber and look beyond the first and second blocking stones in at least one shaft," Whitehead said.

"Even if we do not look further beyond the blocking stones, accurately mapping the shafts will be a fantastic result and will provide significant clues to determine the purpose of these unique archaeological features," he concluded. ( foxnews.com )

READ MORE - Will the Great Pyramid's Secret Doors Be Opened?

Archaeologists by chance

Archaeologists by chance - The experience of a group of foreigners through Harrat’s lava fields - A desert trip in Saudi Arabia can always lead to unexpected surprises. Despite the identification of numerous Neolithic sites amidst the regions surrounding the Red Sea and the desert valleys of Saudi Arabia, thousands of these settlements still remain unexplored, and visitors can easily bump into them.

Tempted by the country’s archaeological treasures and animated by the spirit of adventure and the desire to break away from the daily routine, a group of foreigners living in Jeddah recently went on a two-day trip in the area of Harrat, a large lava field of 20,000 sq km that extends for 300 km south of the holy city of Madinah. Just like the lava flow plains of Jordan and Syria, this huge volcanic area, and particularly the town of Khaybar in the north of Madinah, is well known for offering a profusion of ancient stone rings, tools, lava caves and also human and animal bones that may be traced back to the Neolithic period (8,500 to 5,500 B.C.).

Disseminated throughout Saudi Arabia's arid country, including the Arabian Gulf Coast and the shorelines of the an-Nafud and the Rub al-Khali deserts, mysterious circular stone formation, settlements and tools are particularly easy to find around volcanic areas. "Millennia ago, when climatic conditions were more favorable and there was somewhat more water, the basaltic lava eroded into good soil resulting in enough vegetation to support life," writes an amateur from Germany using the pseudonym KenGrok to sign his article "Roughly 3,400 Neolithic sites in Saudi Arabia and East Africa."

KenGrok's article synthesizes the evolution of researches up to now, contains useful links and pictures and represents a valid updated reading for whoever wishes to get a rapid idea on the subject. Particularly interesting are his links to an archeology report regarding Jordan and Syria and the pictures of Khaybar taken by Abdullah Al-Saeed, another amateur who lives in Saudi Arabia. As for KenGrok's work, his main effort consisted in trying to classify the shapes of ancient stone structures into basic categories: Stone circles, stone circles with triangles, triangles, mounds, needles, lines, bars, enclosures, irregulars and kites.

Various theories regarding the function of these stone formations started to spread during the last century, including the hypothesis that they could represent ancient grave sites or signposts to point the way to freshwater or caravan routes. To date, no definitive explanation has been given, and this quotation from an article of the Sydney Morning Herald published in 1977 still remains valid: “The rings are formed by stone walls that are 30 to 60 centimeters tall and range in diameter from five meters to more than 100 meters. No legends cast light on their origins or purpose and theories are myriad.”

What seems plausible today to various experts is that the big stone structures, which look like kites, were most probably used to hunt and gather animals, particularly gazelles.

Keeping themselves at 380 km from Jeddah, the group that ventured towards Harrat camped in the south of Madinah at the foot of Volcano Halat Kamisah whose lavas should be at least five million years old as those in the rest of the area. “The beautiful contrasts that black Halat Kamisah creates at sunset and dawn against the yellowish nuances of the desert, and a red hill vaguely resembling Australia’s Eyers Rock were worth bearing a windy and cold night,” said Mariapia Negro, the group’s official photographer.

Negro and her husband, Daniele Marin, lived in Jeddah long enough to establish good knowledge about Saudi Arabia’s most interesting and uncommon itineraries. After following them through impervious desert routes, a Neolithic site, at about 50 km from the volcano lava domes, awaited those who were brave enough to walk under the heavy sun through a desert of stones. “We were able to see four different stone structures and found few stones that resemble ancient tools,” said Marin.

Searching for a petrol station close to a Bedouin camp on their way back to Jeddah, the group noticed some dead wolves hanging upside down by a string. “It seems that Bedouins use this technique to scare and discourage wolves from hunting their animals,” explained Marin. ( arabnews.com )

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Smile from 2m years ago: Revealed, the face of the 'missing link' between ape and man

Smile from 2m years ago: Revealed, the face of the 'missing link' between ape and man - Paleo-artist bases painting on the well-preserved skeleton of a boy - Karabo is probably our earliest ancestor

A curious smile playing on his face, the eyes and mouth are unmistakably human while the cheekbones and jutting brow say wild animal.

Meet Karabo, probably our earliest ancestor and the ‘missing link’ between man and ape – ‘seen’ for the first time thanks to this incredible portrait.

Created by paleo-artist John Gurche, it is based on the remarkably well-preserved skeleton of a boy aged around 13, found in a cave in South Africa.

Link to our past: The portrait of Karabo is a 'forensic reconstruction' of the teenage male

Human-like: Skeletal hand of the female found with Karabo (left). The skull of Australopithecus sediba (right) - the animal stood 4ft 4in and lived nearly two million years ago

Karabo – which means ‘the answer’ and is somewhat more catchy than his official name of Australopithecus sediba – stood 4ft 4in and lived nearly two million years ago.

When he was discovered in 2008, the greatest shock for researchers was his human-like hand.

Lee Berger, professor of evolutionary biology at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, said: ‘We’ve never seen that before.

‘It really is undeniable when you lay it in your hand that it’s not a chimp. It looks like a hand capable of making tools. He shares more with humans than anything else ever discovered but is still so primitive and that’s exciting.’

Perfectly preserved: Karabo's skull was discovered in South Africa in 2008

Just like us: Karabo and his species walked upright on two legs. Their small teeth may indicate they had found ways to process food using implements or even by cooking

The first bone fragment of Karabo was found by Professor Berger’s nine-year-old son near his father’s dig site.

The portrait was released as the skeleton – and the incomplete skeleton of a woman in her 30s found with him, possibly his mother – went on display at the Natural History Museum in London.

Professor Berger said the picture was a ‘forensic reconstruction’ of how the boy would have looked, made possible because his skull was found intact.

He said: ‘That is probably him. Normally with early human fossils, they are in such lousy condition, but here the anatomy is pretty much fixed. I think it’s the most accurate that’s ever been done.

‘It’s a more human-like nose than we have seen before, he’s just wrinkling it because he’s smiling, chimps can’t smile.’

The only guesswork involved the pattern of hair loss and the precise skin tone.

But even these mysteries could soon be solved as Professor Berger’s team believe they have found on Karabo a sample of the protein keratin, which could lead to an analysis of his DNA.

Karabo and his species walked upright on two legs. Their small teeth may indicate they had found ways to process food using implements or even by cooking.

Studies in September hailed him as the best candidate for being a direct ancestor of homo erectus, the earliest modern human. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Smile from 2m years ago: Revealed, the face of the 'missing link' between ape and man

Did Neanderthal man die out because he was too smart for his own good?

Did Neanderthal man die out because he was too smart for his own good? - We like to think our superior brainpower led to their demise.

But it seems the real reason the Neanderthals died out may be because they were too clever for their own good.

Researchers say that rather than being outwitted by the superior intellect of modern man, our caveman cousins were every bit as sophisticated.

Smart move: Early humans used to breed with Neanderthals (pictured) because they were clever, say experts

Their brains and charms led to them being sought as mates by our ancestors, who, due to simple numbers, soon began to rule the roost.

Arizona State University academics came up with the theory after running data about life in Europe and Asia during the last Ice Age through a computer program.

Neanderthals and modern humans lived alongside each other for thousands of years during that time, before the former became extinct 30,000 years ago.

The study suggests that as the two peoples roamed further in the search for food, the Neanderthals were slowly absorbed by the more numerous modern humans, until they disappeared as a recognisable population.

The interbreeding meant that their own line died out, said Professor Julien Riel-Salvatore, of the University of Colorado, adding: ‘In many ways they were simply victims of their own success.’

Neanderthal woman: Their line faded out because of interbreeding with modern humans

Professor Michael Barton, of Arizona State University, the lead author of the study, said: ‘We designed theoretical and methodological frameworks that incorporated feedback across three evolutionary systems: biological, cultural and environmental.

‘One scientifically interesting result of this research, which studied culturally and environmentally driven changes in land-use behaviours, is that it shows how Neanderthals could have disappeared not because they were somehow less fit than all other hominins who existed during the last glaciation, but because they were as behaviourally sophisticated as modern humans.’

Prof Riel Salvatore, who co-authored the research, added: ‘It's been long believed that Neanderthals were outcompeted by fitter modern humans and they could not adapt.

Researchers said this could only have happened if Neanderthals were as ‘behaviourally sophisticated’ as modern humans.

Modern humans probably saw the Neanderthals as possible mates. As a result, over time, the Neanderthals died out.

The theory, published in the journal Human Ecology, fits in with research which found inter-breeding meant up to 4 per cent of the DNA of people living in some parts of the world comes from the stocky cavemen.

‘We are changing the main narrative. Neanderthals were just as adaptable and in many ways, simply victims of their own success.’

The team used archeological data to track behavioural changes in Western Eurasia and found that human mobility increased over time, probably in response to environmental change.

Prof Riel-Salvatore said: ‘Neanderthals had proven that they could roll with the punches and when they met the more numerous modern humans, they adapted again.

‘But modern humans probably saw the Neanderthals as possible mates. As a result, over time, the Neanderthals died out as a physically recognisable population.’

Prof Barton added: ‘We tested the modelling results against the empirical archaeological record and found that there is evidence that Neanderthals, and moderns, did adapt their behaviours in the way in which we modelled.

‘Moreover, the modelling predicts the kind of low-level genetic admixture of Neanderthal genes that are being found in the newest genetic studies just now being published.

‘In other words, successful behavioural adaptations to severe environmental conditions made Neanderthals, and other non-moderns about whom we know little, vulnerable to biological extinction, but at the same time, ensured they made a genetic contribution to modern populations.’

He added: ‘The kind of modelling we did in this research is very new in paleoanthropology, as is the continental scope of the archaeological analysis we used to test the model results.

‘However, such computational modelling can refine our understanding of long-term human impact on the environment that can help inform land-use decisions for our future. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Did Neanderthal man die out because he was too smart for his own good?

Fossil Teeth Put Humans in Europe Earlier Than Thought

Fossil Teeth Put Humans in Europe Earlier Than Thought - The fossils seemed hardly worth a second look. The one from England was only a piece of jawbone with three teeth, and the other, from southern Italy, was nothing more than two infant teeth. But scientists went ahead, re-examining them with refined techniques, and found that one specimen’s age had previously been significantly underestimated and that the other’s dating and identity had been misinterpreted.

They had in fact discovered the oldest known skeletal remains of anatomically modern humans in the whole of Europe, two international research teams reported Wednesday.

The scientists who made the discovery and others who study human origins say they expect the findings to reignite debate over the relative capabilities of the immigrant modern humans and the indigenous Neanderthals, their closest hominid relatives; the extent of their interactions; and perhaps the reasons behind the Neanderthal extinction. The findings have already prompted speculation that the Homo sapiens migrations into Europe may have come in at least two separate waves, rather than just one.

In tests conducted at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit in England, the baby teeth from Italy were dated at 43,000 to 45,000 years old. Other analysis showed the teeth to be those of a modern human, not a Neanderthal, as previously thought when the fossil was unearthed in 1964 from the Grotta del Cavallo.

Similar tests at Oxford established that the age of the jawbone, from Kents Cavern near Torquay, Devon, had been significantly underestimated, by about 7,000 years, probably because of contamination when it was originally dated in 1989. The age is now set at 41,500 to 44,200 years old, making this the oldest known modern human fossil from northwestern Europe.

One of the infant teeth (a deciduous left upper first molar) whose age had been underestimated. The white bar is 1 centimeter in length.

These dates are remarkable on several counts, scientists said. The earliest reliably dated European modern human specimen, up to now, came from the Pestera cu Oase site in Romania, a long way east from the English coast. The Romanian fossil’s age is estimated at 37,800 to 42,000 years old. No stone tools or other artifacts were found with it.

And in the absence of early fossils, archaeologists had not been sure who made some of the stone tools they were uncovering, the arriving humans or the Neanderthals. It had been generally assumed that modern humans probably entered Europe at least as early as 45,000 years ago, based on changing patterns of artifacts that soon followed.

The two papers describing the new research were published Wednesday by the journal Nature. The lead author of the jawbone report was Thomas Higham of the University of Oxford. The principal author of the report on the baby teeth from Cavallo was Stefano Benazzi of the University of Vienna.

Not only does the jawbone indicate “the wide and rapid dispersal of the earliest moderns across Europe” during the last ice age, more than 40,000 years ago, Dr. Higham’s team wrote, it was also found in cave layers associated with a technology that archaeologists call the Aurignacian culture. The scientists said this “fills a key gap” between the earliest human skeletal remains and the earliest dated stone and bone Aurignacian tools and weapons.

Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis and an author of the Higham paper, said the artifacts associated with the Kents Cavern fossil confirm “what researchers have long suspected, that the human newcomers spread the Aurignacian culture.”

In a statement issued by Oxford, Dr. Higham also pointed out that the earlier dates for these fossils meant “that early humans must have coexisted with Neanderthals in this part of the world, something which a number of researchers have doubted.”

The confirmed early appearance of modern humans in Europe gave them more time for contacts with Neanderthals before the latter’s extinction about 30,000 years ago. Although recent genetic research shows some evidence of interbreeding between the species, there was uncertainty as to how much contact the two had in Europe, as opposed to earlier interactions in western Asia. It is still not clear how widespread was the Neanderthal population in their final millenniums; after a steady decline, the last of them seemed to disappear in their cul-de-sac of a refuge in southern Iberia.

Determining the age for any samples more than 40,000 years old was no sure thing. At that age, levels of remaining radiocarbon are low, and contamination can be a serious problem. As an alternative, Katerina Douka of Oxford, a member of the team examining the Italian specimen, focused on the dating of marine shell beads found in the same archaeological levels as the teeth, a technique that has proven successful at other sites in Europe.

When the teeth had been classified as Neanderthal, it was assumed that artifacts in the Cavallo site — bone tools and ornaments in a style known as the Uluzzian culture — were also considered Neanderthal creations. Now archaeologists suspect that they should be attributed to modern humans.

Ian Tattersall, a paleoanthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York who was not involved in the research, said, “The tendency right now is to downplay associating Neanderthals with any cultural developments after humans got to Europe.”

Chris Stringer and Tim Compton, both of the Natural History Museum, London, and members of the Higham group, obtained radiocarbon dates of animal bones found close to the jawbone in Kents Cavern and used a statistical modeling method to calculate the age of the human fossil. They further used CT scans to produce 3-D models of the worn teeth and thus confirm that the fossil was indeed from a human, not a Neanderthal.

“Everybody is going to wish some of that evidence was better,” Dr. Tattersall said. “It is pretty slender, but I have no reason to dispute it.”

Dr. Stringer elaborated in an e-mail on some possible implications of the two discoveries. Perhaps some of the “transitional cultures” that preceded the Aurignacian, he said, were introduced by “multiple early waves of modern humans coming into Europe.” For example, the Kents Cavern fossil might represent an early dispersal through Central Europe that crossed into Britain on a land bridge where the North Sea is now. The Cavallo remains might represent a possibly even earlier migration along the Soouthern European coasts.

Richard G. Klein, an archaeologist at Stanford University, said he was “really impressed” by the new findings. Hearing of Dr. Stringer’s idea, Dr. Klein joined in the spirit of conjecture, noting that Homo sapiens was on the move at that time, venturing as far as Australia by about 45,000 years ago. ( nytimes.com )

READ MORE - Fossil Teeth Put Humans in Europe Earlier Than Thought

Archaeologists unearth Viking boat burial in Scottish Highlands

Archaeologists unearth Viking boat burial in Scottish Highlands -- British archaeologists have discovered the 1,000-year-old boat burial of a Viking warrior in the Scottish Highlands.

The man was laid to rest inside his boat, surrounded by valuable items including an ornately-decorated sword, a shield, a spear and an ax -- all of which suggest he was of high status.

Experts say the find -- the first fully intact grave of its kind on the UK mainland -- may be part of one of the country's most significant Viking sites.

"A Viking boat burial is an incredible discovery," said project co-director and archaeologist Dr Hannah Cobb, from the University of Manchester.

"But in addition to that, the artifacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain."

Archaeologists from several universities have spent the past six years carrying out digs at a number sites on the remote Ardnamurchan Peninsula, on Scotland's west coast.

It's the find of a lifetime, the sort of thing I dreamed of excavating as a boy.

Dr Oliver Harris, archaeologist

They are aiming to trace the whole history of the area, from the first traces of human habitation 6,000 years ago to the present.

Previous excavations nearby have uncovered a Neolithic tomb, a Bronze Age monument, and a 19th century site linked to the Highland Clearances.

But Dr Oliver Harris of the University of Leicester, one of the project's leaders, said the boat burial was "the best of the bunch."

"It's absolutely fantastic -- the find of a lifetime," he told CNN. "It is very rich, very old, the sort of thing I dreamed of excavating as a boy."

Other grave goods found with the Viking included a knife, flints, a bronze ring pin from Ireland, a whetstone from Norway, and items of pottery from the Hebrides.

The team also excavated hundreds of metal rivets, which would have held together the Viking's boat -- the wood of which had rotted away over the centuries.

Harris said the objects gave tantalizing clues to the identity of the man buried at Ardnamurchan.

"Of course, we will never know his name, or anything like that, but we can tell he was an important figure, a man of very high status, and somebody with international connections, links to lots of different places, but also to the local area," he said.

The archaeologist said he and the rest of the team planned to return to the site again next summer to carry out further investigations.

"This was just one burial, but it is part of a much larger story," he said. "There are many more questions to answer. We want to find out if there are others, or if people were living in settlements nearby, so we will be back there next year." ( cnn.com )

READ MORE - Archaeologists unearth Viking boat burial in Scottish Highlands

Evolution in reverse: insects recover lost 'wings'

Evolution in reverse: insects recover lost 'wings' – The extravagant headgear of small bugs called treehoppers are in fact wing-like appendages that grew back 200 million years after evolution had supposedly cast them aside, according to a study published Thursday in Nature.

That's probably shocking news if you are an entomologist, and challenges some very basic ideas about what makes an insect an insect, the researchers said.

The thorax of all insects is by definition divided into three segments, each with a pair of legs.

In most orders, there are also two pairs of wings, one on the middle segment of the thorax and another at the rear.

Other orders such as flies and mosquitoes have only one set of wings, at the rear, and a few -- most ants, for example -- have no wings at all.

But no insects today have functional flappers in the first segment next to the head.

Their forebear, however, did.

"Primitive insects 350 million years ago had wings on all of their body segments," said Benjamin Prud'homme, a researcher at the Development Biology Institute of Marseille-Luminy in France and lead author of the study.

Two cicadas sit on leaf at forest preserve - Two cicadas sit on a leaf at a forest preserve in Willow Springs, Illinois. The extravagant headgear of small cicada-like bugs called treehoppers are in fact wing-like appendages that grew back 200 million years after evolution had supposedly cast them aside, according to a study published Thursday in Nature

"We don't know if they were all for flight, but we do know -- from fossil records -- that these wing-like structures were present on each and every body segment."

Over the next 100 million years, he explained, wings on the first segment of the thorax and the abdomen dropped away entirely.

But then, some 50 million years ago, something strange happened to the cicada-like treehoppers: they once again sprouted wing-like structures from the top of the first segment of the thorax.

Some of these wildly divergent extrusions resemble thorns, others look like antlers, and still others like aggressive ants or animal droppings, creating one of Nature's most exotic menageries.

Experts had long assumed that these so-called "helmets" were armour-like expansions of the insects' exoskeletons.

But by carefully observing the treehopper's development into adulthood, Prud'homme and colleagues showed that this headgear began as a pair of buds -- attached at the sides, and articulated like wings -- that fused together as they grew.

Evolution is usually described as linear, but these modified wings suggested the process had come full circle.

"This is the only known example of a modern insect that has grown a third pair of wings," Prud'homme said by phone. "It is a modification of the basic body plan of insects."

Just how this happened remains a mystery. For 200 million years, certain genes prevented wing-like structures from emerging on this part of any insect's anatomy.

The researchers speculated that these genes had lost their inhibiting capacity, but experiments on other insect species demonstrated that their repressive powers remain intact.

However it happened, the evolutionary process found a way to put the renewed appendages to use, the researchers speculate.

"This extra pair of wings was not needed for flight, but nor did it prevent it," Prud'homme said. "So it became raw material for evolution to play with."

Many of the helmets appear to serve as camouflage, helping the insects to avoid predators.

The study shows "how development abilities can be lost or silenced over millions of years, only to be redeployed to contribute to the evolution of a complex and beautiful appendage," commented Armin Moczek, a professor at Indiana University, also writing in Nature. ( Agence France Presse.)

READ MORE - Evolution in reverse: insects recover lost 'wings'

Tiny teeth of 55-million-year-old primate found

Tiny teeth of 55-million-year-old primate found. Find may stretch timeline for primates in Asia back nearly 10 million years . The teensy teeth of a squirrel-sized primate discovered in an Indian open-pit coal mine suggest it chomped on insects galore in the lush rainforest where the animal lived nearly 55 million years ago, researchers say.

"You could fit all four of [the teeth] onto the end of a pencil, the blunt end of a pencil," said researcher Richard Kay, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University.

Blythe Williams / Richard Kay

A single upper tooth from a new genus of primate discovered in an Indian mine. Four of these teeth could fit onto the blunt end of a pencil.

The four teeth from Anthrasimias gujaratensis could stretch the timeline for primates (the group that includes lemurs, monkeys, apes and humans) in Asia back nearly 10 million years and could represent the oldest known Asian remains of anthropoids (also called simians or "higher" primates, a subset that basically excludes lemurs, lorises and tarsiers). For instance, unlike lemurs, anthropoids sport both eyes directly on the front of the face, giving total overlap of the two fields of vision.

Previous fossil evidence shows primates were living in North America, Europe and Asia at least 55 million years ago. But the researchers say that until now, the fossil record of anthropoids in Asia extended back only 45 million years.

"Anthrasimias may also be the oldest anthropoid in the world," the researchers write this week in the journal for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The "may" reflects the fact that some scientists think slightly older fossils found in a Moroccan limestone deposit also could have been from an anthropoid, Kay said.

The new finding does not confirm with certainty the presence of Anthrasimias, a primitive anthropoid, in Asia, said Erik Seiffert, a vertebrate paleontologist at Stony Brook University in New York, who was not involved in the current study.

"I think that the fossils provide a few tantalizing clues that are consistent with an early presence of primitive anthropoid primates in Asia," Seiffert told LiveScience. "But I think that to have real confidence in the conclusions we need more material from the skeleton of this animal Anthrasimias, so from its cranium limbs and hands and feet."

The researchers used microscopic marine plankton fossils of a known age in nearby rock layers to calculate when the teeth were still connected to an animal that was alive and chomping. In order to reconstruct Anthrasimias' diet, the team also compared the teeth with those from today's primates, including dwarf lemurs, tarsiers and lorises.

The teeth's size and shape suggest the primate weighed about 2.6 ounces (75 grams) with a petite build similar to that of dwarf lemurs.

"What we can say from the teeth is that these animals were also probably largely or significantly insectivorous," Kay said. "They ate a lot of insects in their diet."

The new research was funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Duke University and National Science Foundation. ( livescience.com )

READ MORE - Tiny teeth of 55-million-year-old primate found

A Case in Antiquities for ‘Finders Keepers’

A Case in Antiquities for ‘Finders Keepers’. Zahi Hawass regards the Rosetta Stone, like so much else, as stolen property languishing in exile. “We own that stone,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking as the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Viktor Koen

The British Museum does not agree — at least not yet. But never underestimate Dr. Hawass when it comes to this sort of custody dispute. He has prevailed so often in getting pieces returned to what he calls their “motherland” that museum curators are scrambling to appease him.

Last month, after Dr. Hawass suspended the Louvre’s excavation in Egypt, the museum promptly returned the ancient fresco fragments he sought. Then the Metropolitan Museum of Art made a pre-emptive display of its “appreciation” and “deep respect” by buying a piece of a shrine from a private collector so that it could be donated to Egypt.

Now an official from the Neues Museum in Berlin is headed to Egypt to discuss Dr. Hawass’s demand for its star attraction, a bust of Nefertiti.

These gestures may make immediate pragmatic sense for museum curators worried about getting excavation permits and avoiding legal problems. But is this trend ultimately good for archaeology?

Scientists and curators have generally supported the laws passed in recent decades giving countries ownership of ancient “cultural property” discovered within their borders. But these laws rest on a couple of highly debatable assumptions: that artifacts should remain in whatever country they were found, and that the best way to protect archaeological sites is to restrict the international trade in antiquities.

In some cases, it makes aesthetic or archaeological sense to keep artifacts grouped together where they were found, but it can also be risky to leave everything in one place, particularly if the country is in turmoil or can’t afford to excavate or guard all its treasures. After the Metropolitan Museum was pressured to hand over a collection called the Lydian Hoard, one of the most valuable pieces was stolen several years ago from its new home in Turkey.

Restricting the export of artifacts hasn’t ended their theft and looting any more than the war on drugs has ended narcotics smuggling. Instead, the restrictions promote the black market and discourage the kind of open research that would benefit everyone except criminals.

Legitimate dealers, museums and private collectors have a financial incentive to pay for expert excavation and analysis of artifacts, because that kind of documentation makes the objects more valuable. A nation could maintain a public registry of discoveries and require collectors to give scholars access to the artifacts, but that can be accomplished without making everything the property of the national government.

The timing of Dr. Hawass’s current offensive, as my colleague Michael Kimmelman reported, makes it look like retribution against the Westerners who helped prevent an Egyptian from becoming the leader of Unesco, the United Nation’s cultural agency. But whatever the particular motivation, there is no doubt that the cultural-property laws have turned archeological discoveries into political weapons.

In his book “Who Owns Antiquity?”, James Cuno argues that scholars have betrayed their principles by acquiescing to politicians who have exploited antiquities to legitimize themselves and their governments. Saddam Hussein was the most blatant, turning Iraqi archeology museums into propaganda for himself as the modern Nebuchadnezzar, but other leaders have been just as cynical in using antiquities to bolster their claims of sovereignty.

Dr. Cuno advocates the revival of partage, the traditional system in which archeologists digging in foreign countries would give some of their discoveries to the host country and take others home. That way both sides benefit, and both sides have incentives to recover antiquities before looters beat them to it. (To debate this idea, go to nytimes.com/tierneylab.)

Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities/European Pressphoto Agency

HISTORIC A temple artifact the Metropolitan Museum of Art returned to Egypt.

As the director of the Art Institute of Chicago, Dr. Cuno has his own obvious motives for acquiring foreign antiquities, and he makes no apology for wanting to display Middle Eastern statues to Midwesterners.

“It is in the nature of our species to connect and exchange,” Dr. Cuno writes. “And the result is a common culture in which we all have a stake. It is not, and can never be, the property of one modern nation or another.”

Some of the most culturally protectionist nations today, like Egypt, Italy and Turkey, are trying to hoard treasures that couldn’t have been created without the inspiration provided by imported works of art. (Imagine the Renaissance without the influence of “looted” Greek antiquities.) And the current political rulers of those countries often have little in common culturally with the creators of the artifacts they claim to own.

Dr. Hawass may consider the Rosetta Stone to be the property of his government agency, but the modern state of Egypt didn’t even exist when it was discovered in 1799 (much less when it was inscribed in 196 B.C., during the Hellenistic era). The land was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and the local historians were most interested in studying their Islamic heritage.

The inscribed stone fragment, which had been used as construction material at a fort, didn’t acquire any significance until it was noticed by Napoleon’s soldiers and examined by the scholars on the expedition.

Herbert Knosowski/Associated Press

A bust of Nefertiti that Egypt wants from a Berlin museum.

When the French lost the war, they made a copy of the inscriptions before surrendering the stone to the English victors, who returned it to the British Museum. Eventually, two scholars, working separately in Britain and in France, deciphered the hieroglyphics.

This all happened, of course, long before today’s nationalistic retention laws and the United Nations’ Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. But what if the Rosetta Stone were unearthed in modern times?

Were the Rosetta Stone to appear on the art market without the proper export permits and documented provenance, Dr. Cuno says, a museum curator who acquired it would risk international censure and possible criminal charges. Scholars would shun it because policies at the leading archeological journals would forbid the publication of its text.

“Not being acquired or published, the Rosetta Stone would be a mere curiosity,” Dr. Cuno writes. “Egyptology as we know it would not exist, and modern Egyptians would not know to claim it as theirs.”

The Supreme Council of Antiquities wouldn’t even know what it was missing. ( nytimes.com )

READ MORE - A Case in Antiquities for ‘Finders Keepers’