ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT news reports that a temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphrodite was discovered at the underwater site of the city of Thonis-Heracleion in Abu Qir Bay by a team of Egyptian and French archaeologists from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology. Mostafa Waziri of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said that the temple has been dated to the fifth century B.C. Artifacts made of bronze and ceramic were found within the temple, he added. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and rising sea levels are thought to have caused much of the city of Thonis-Heracleion to sink in the second century B.C

CÓRDOBA, SPAIN—According to a statement released by the Public Library of Science, researchers from the University of Bern and the University of Córdoba examined human remains found in the Cueva de los Marmoles, which is located in southern Spain. The remains came from at least 12 individuals, and have been dated from the fifth to second millennium B.C. Some of the bones had been broken and scraped, perhaps to remove tissue and extract marrow. Other bones, including a tibia that may have been used as a tool and a cranium that might have been used as a cup, were also identified. Similarly worked bones have been found at other cave sites in the southern Iberian Peninsula, the researchers explained. The bones may have been unearthed and modified for use for symbolic purposes, they added. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE.

VALLETTVALLETTA, MALTA—The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Irving R. Newman have been recovered by maritime archaeologist Timmy Gambin of the University of Malta and his colleagues from the underwater wreckage of a B-24 Liberator bomber that crashed near Malta in May 1943, according to a Live Science report. The plane, which had been based in Libya, was hit by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing raid over Italy’s southern tip. Newman was also wounded. The aircraft then headed toward Malta, where there was an emergency landing site for Allied aircraft, but it lost power on the way. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency researchers, who confirmed the identity of the remains, said that the bomber’s nine other crew members survived the crash and were rescuedA, MALTA—The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Irving R. Newman have been recovered by maritime archaeologist Timmy Gambin of the University of Malta and his colleagues from the underwater wreckage of a B-24 Liberator bomber that crashed near Malta in May 1943, according to a Live Science report. The plane, which had been based in Libya, was hit by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing raid over Italy’s southern tip. Newman was also wounded. The aircraft then headed toward Malta, where there was an emergency landing site for Allied aircraft, but it lost power on the way. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency researchers, who confirmed the identity of the remains, said that the bomber’s nine other crew members survived the crash and were rescued

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—According to an i24 News report, Itamar Taxel of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Nitzan Amitai-Preiss of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem analyzed a collection of 400-year-old artifacts unearthed near the Red Sea in the 1990s. The site where the objects were discovered was situated near the Darb al-Hajj Road, which ran from Cairo, through the Sinai Peninsula, and into the Arabian Peninsula and the pilgrimage city of Mecca. This road was in use from about the seventh century A.D. into the nineteenth century. The artifacts include fragments of clay rattles, possible miniature votive incense altars, a figurine of a woman or goddess with raised hands, an animal figurine, and colored quartz pebbles. Taxel and Amitai-Preiss suggest that these objects originated in Egypt and were used by pilgrims to ward off the evil eye and heal diseases on their journey. This is the first time that such a large assemblage of ritual objects of this kind has been found, and it is even more unique at a temporary site and not a permanent settlement, the researchers explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World..”

VALENCIA, SPAIN—According to a statement released by the University of Southampton, more than 100 Paleolithic paintings and engravings have been discovered in a cave on the eastern Iberian coastline by researchers from the University of Zaragoza, the University of Alicante, and the University of Southampton. Hinds, horses, aurochs, and deer are among the 19 confirmed animal images, thought to be at least 24,000 years old. “Animals and signs were depicted simply by dragging the fingers and palms covered with clay on the walls,” said team member Aitor Ruiz-Redondo. Then the images dried slowly in the humid environment, preventing the clay from falling off the cave walls. “Although Spain is the country with [the] largest number of Paleolithic cave art sites, most of them are concentrated in northern Spain,” he explained. “Eastern Iberia is an area where few of these sites have been documented so far.” It is also unusual, Ruiz-Redondo added, for clay to have been used to create cave paintings, but this technique was the main one employed in Cueva Dones. The researchers will continue to survey and document the site. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity.

LONDON, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Around 2,000 artefacts including gold jewellery and gems had been stolen from the British Museum over a long period of time, but recovery efforts were already under way, the museum’s chair George Osborne said on Saturday.

The museum, one of London’s most popular attractions whose treasures include the Rosetta Stone, an ancient Egyptian relic inscribed with hieroglyphs and other texts, said last week a member of staff had been dismissed after items dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD had been taken from a storeroom.

GENEVA (18 August 2023) – On the occasion of the International Day to commemorate victims of acts of violence based on religion or belief, a group of UN experts* issued the following joint statement: 

“In 2019, 22 August was designated by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, deploring the widespread violations suffered by individuals – including migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and persons belonging to minorities – who are targeted on the basis of religion or belief.

Back in 1981, it had taken some two decades for the international community to finally adopt the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. That Declaration acknowledged the great suffering brought about by the disregard and infringement of human rights including of freedom of religion or belief. It noted that for those that profess religion or belief, this constitutes one of the fundamental elements of their conception of life and therefore also of their freedoms.

LAHAINA, MAUI—Time Magazine reports that Kimberly Flook of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation and her colleagues estimate that at least four museums and thousands of artifacts have been lost in the recent wildfires. Among the objects believed to be lost is an original flag of the Hawaiian kingdom, last flown on August 12, 1898, when it was replaced with the American flag. Hawaiian feather work, furniture, photographs, and objects made of kapa, a fabric made of fibers from trees and shrubs, are also likely to be gone. The destroyed or damaged museums include the Wo Hing Museum & Cookhouse, a social hall for Chinese immigrants who built tunnels and irrigations systems; the Baldwin Home, which was the oldest standing residence on the island; and the Old Lahaina prison, which dates to the whaling era of the mid-nineteenth century. “We’ve lost physical pieces of history,” Flook said. “We have not lost our history, our culture. And we won’t.” 

COLOGNE, GERMANY—According to a Live Science report, M. Dores Cruz of the University of Cologne and her colleagues have found early evidence for the practice of plantation slavery at Praia Melão, the recently identified site of a sixteenth-century sugar mill on the northeastern coast of the island of São Tomé. The Portuguese inhabited the island, which is located off the coast of West Africa in the Gulf of Guinea, in the late fifteenth century. They soon found, however, that migrants to the previously uninhabited island endured high rates of malaria. Convicts, Jewish children, and enslaved Africans were soon forced to work there, harvesting and processing sugar cane, and building and maintaining the sugar mills. Praia Melão includes a large stone two-story building with a clay roof. Its lower floor served as a sugar boiling room, while domestic quarters were placed on the upper floor. Fragments of cone-shaped sugar molds similar to those found at Portuguese sugar mills in Madeira have also been recovered at the site. By 1530, plantations on São Tomé were so profitable that additional sugar mills were constructed, but the Portuguese eventually moved much of their sugar production to Brazil in the early seventeenth century. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY—According to a Live Science report, a badly damaged marble figure of Pan, the ancient Greek god of the wilds, woods, fields, shepherds, and flocks, has been discovered at the site of St. Polyeuctus, an early Christian church in what was the city of Constantinople. The statue’s surviving head, torso, and an arm measure less than one foot long and show Pan playing a reed pipe. The sculpture was likely transferred to the site with backfill from another location in the city in the 1960s after an archaeological investigation, explained Mahir Polat of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. He added that the figure is thought to have been sculpted during the Roman period and brought to Constantinople between the fourth and sixth centuries A.D. as an historical work of art for display in a public place or a palace. To read about an ancient bronze mask of Pan found in Israel, go to “Mask Metamorphosis.”